#im having a lot of fun but the difficulty doesnt feel too bad its more just. annoying. again. for the backtracking. and coin flip save

[syrupspinner]

i just completed Hypnospace Outlaw

i sincerely love how much the sci-fi genre is just explaining how much sci-fi stuff would suck if it was real

the reason you play hypnospace outlaw is the aesthetic and presentation, just so were all on the same page. the reason this game got your attention is because its a passionate parody of web 1.0, and it does an excellent job of that. i can tell this game was made with a deep nostalgia for what made the past special without being blinded from its flaws (like the viruses and general difficulty to navigate).

the only problem is that im 24

well i shouldnt say thats a problem. just because i dont have nostalgia for what theyre throwing back to doesnt mean the game doesnt stand on its own. i didnt grow up with a ps1 or n64 but i still enjoy that specific form of lowpoly modeling, for example. its just unfortunate that i cant have the same hit of nostalgia that people slightly older than me can, yknow? i wish i could enjoy this game as much as them

again, the game was still very enjoyable. the puzzles start out very grounded, introducing you the the world and how it functions very effectively, before ramping it up with more abstract mechanics and compounding techniques needed to find more results. the only problem i found myself stuck on in an unfun way was figuring out how to decrypt sandwich files. its one of those puzzles that make you feel silly for not getting it earlier, but in my defence... who the hell would program something that esoteric

as an aside, i saw people discussing what genre games like this would be. by "games like this" i mean hypnospace outlaw, outer wilds, rain world, animal well, that kinda thing. i dont think applying one genre is effective, but instead its about how they combine the genres of exploration and puzzle. instead of having all the tools to solve a puzzle when youre presented with it, you have to leave and seek out the solution elsewhere. notably, if the game isnt build to accommodate/encourage this, itd be pretty unfun. these games and their open-ended design manage to skillfully mesh both genres together: the exploration is the puzzle

so yeah, i really enjoyed the game! there arent a lot of games where its just fun to explore the world as its presented, and HO does a fantastic job of that even without considering the puzzle design. i love just reading about the characters and their lives in hypnospace. this games greatest strength is just how charming it is, theres really nothing that matches it in that regard

i also found it really inspiring. i love how much personality all the characters fit into their webpages. maybe someday ill move this blog to neocities just so i can evoke something half as impact

oh no this was all a secret advertisement for neocities wasnt it! well, it worked, im not even mad (yes i know about the page builder)

anyway! the game is worth it for the vibes alone, and the puzzles are a really solid foundation that everything is built on. totally worth buying! the only thing is if youre going for completion, please use a guide to find all the pages, some are hidden way too well. totally worth it, though. if you know what the "thanked" achievement is named after, you know it makes it worth it. also, buzz was hilarious, i love pranks on the player

now im going to spoil the ending, stop reading this is you want to not be spoiled about the ending, because im about to spoil it now. after sasuke

oh my GOD dylan merchant is such a schmuck. maybe ive just lost too much sympathy for venture capitalist techbros, but i cannot spare any positive regard for this guy. like, okay, i get hes the bad guy, but outlaw 1.0 tries sooo hard to make you feel bad for him it wraps back around to being infuriating. the thing is that i have no idea if this is intentional? like, was a guy who let a teenager go to jail and think about how his prank killed 5 innocent people plus his crush apologizing decades later (*after* being caught) with an unfinished video game supposed to be a sincere tug of the heartstrings? "sorry i killed zane before he could stop being an annoying twerp" "sorry i killed rodney, his family smelled like walmart" "sorry i killed mavis, i think that was her name. i got nothing else to say about her" "anyway thanks for playing the 'final' version of the game that killed everyone. you have successfully absolved me of my sins and sent me to heaven. remember to subscribe and hit that bell icon" DUDE how emotionally shallow and self aggrandizing do you have to be you are a child murderer my guy

[rottytops]

squid thoughts after finalfest...

readmore bc i dont think anyone cares or even knows who runs this blog anymore but anyways

squids huh...........i have such a weird and intimate relationship with splatoon, i was SO into it when s1 came out i literally wouldnt shut up about it, i was on fucking. SQUIDBOARDS everyday pre-release sucking up all the info i could on splats, and i played it to absolute death too. at the end of s1 for final fest i was in a really weird housing situation bc i was leaving college and my like 2 month lease at my apartment i couldnt afford was running out, but i dont think i had a tv or something? so i had to use the apartment's like...public office room to play that final fest at like 2AM (i was team marie of course)

then splat 2 happened and i think splatoon was like, my entire life for several years no joke. i fell into a big splatoon community, got really into making splatoon art and OCs, had tons of splat friends, it was kind of a whirlwind. splatoon was the launching pad i used to get into freelancing commissions which is really funny in retrospect because i could not and still cannot figure out how to draw the inkling mask to save my life.

those were really really fun days and i still consider 2 the peak of my interest in the series as well as my favorite splat game + idol group, the good days in my splat fanbse didnt last forever though since my mental health and the difficulties of freelancing ate me alive in a way that im only just now recovering from, but that doesnt tarnish the memory or anyhting, the friends i made during s2's run are some of the closest ive ever had and im still with them even today, so i guess in a way splatoon 2 affected my life in a way only comparable to like...the disgaea series which is REALLY SAYING SOMETHING

but that brings me to 3 which is definitely when i fell off of the splat boat and wanted to move on. to be honest a lot of drama happened post 2's end that made me not wanna look at splat 3 at all but of course i caved and bough it anddddddd barely even played it, lol...i missed a ton of the catalog battle pass things and didnt feel the need to play that much, i didnt even get side order until like 2 months ago... it makes me sad to think that something so important to me is just not quite for me anymore, even if i love it dearly, part of that i think is just ive accepted im REALLY BAD AT SHOOTERS no matter what. a million hours in 1 and 2 and my aim is still super bad, i was able to get all X rank in S2 but in S3 i can barely land my shots or use my brella and had to swap to the 52 gal...its embarassing! i think id get really into a splatoon RPG or something, so maybe they just need to make a splatoon spinoff for me to get absurdly hooked to it but for now im pretty content closing a book on playing the games

but man, final fest made me realize how much splatoon has done for me over the years, i think ill always adore the world and its characters, even if i dont keep up with the games very much. im a little miffed team past won beecase even if i love the squid sisters, i reaaaally dont wanna see them doing more idol stuff. let those bitches retire!!! theyre like 30 now and still doing the same songs and outfits they wore nearly 10 years ago!! aauuhg, though i guess me caring so much about virtual squid idols shows how much the series still means to me...

i dont have any closing thoughts and i dont think anyone read this far either but it does feel very nice to word vomit on my blog which i. do not do. anymore. for some reason..

i love splatoon a lot i think, maybe i should just draw squids without playing the games...i think ill do that...

[cosmicsolipsism]

dark deity is clearly a labor of love and i definitely recommend it to fans of GBA FE

the story is less engaging than i might have hoped, but the characters are mostly varied and charming. a lot of effort was clearly put in to varying the maps and map objectives, and I’m a big fan of the class system. Mixing and matching skills from the two different tiers led me to creating an equal number of fucking demigods demigods and accidental ruined units lol. i really appreciated the number of options you’re given for how each unit can turn out without the whole system just becoming soup the way it is in fe awakening and three houses.

the weapon upgrade system is a little less fun for me if only because the way the inventory menu works is tedious and unintuitive. the game does have a fair bit of indie jank, most notably in how slow the menus feel, and a few bugs, but nothing too bad. and out of the battle preparation screen, the battle portion of the game doesnt feel as janky.

the sprite art is pure nostalgia--in my opinion, it’s every bit as gorgeous as the gba fe sprite art, and maybe more so because of the greater detail. i actually left battle animations on the whole way through because i just couldn’t get enough

i had a lot of fun with it and definitely feel like i got my money’s worth. at 28 chapters, it’s a satisfying length without wearing out its welcome. i played on the middle difficulty, so i can’t speak to how it holds up on easy or hard, but i thought the challenge level was satisfying as well--a bit on the easy side, but i never got bored or regretted not playing on hard. i REALLY like the mortal wounds system and if there was one element from this that i’d like to see fire emblem take inspiration from, it would be that. characters don’t permanently die, but if their hp reaches 0 in battle, they lose a small amount (between 1-3, ime) from a random stat. stat boosters are easily purchased from the shop so you can recoup those lost stats, but money is finite and you’ll want to be spending most of it on weapon upgrades. lose the same unit too many times and they won’t be in fighting shape anymore. i think it’s a really great middle ground between “classic” and “casual” modes.

i think that’s everything i have to say! like i said, i absolutely recommend this game to srpg fans and fans of gba-era fire emblem in particular

[lady-snow-flower]

22-24 for all of them

Favorite thing/part about sex—intimacy, role-playing, etc. Ber: the intimacy definitely. though he can get kinky, honestly his favourite position is just missionary because he wants to look into simba's eyes~ ew~ Hades: the release, definitely lol. He also likes the power dynamics in it-- likes to dominate, likes the high lol. Merida: similar to Hades, they would mostly love to dominate and probably wanna be praised lolol Nemo: Nemo loves fun, goofy sex. He likes to be silly and laugh with his partner the most. But also: compliment him during sex, thank u Pip: N/A this is private information Jun: N/A this is private information Amity: N/A she is exploring Snow: Snow's best sex she's ever had was with Estella and that was in part because...they had a lot of it and got to explore a lot of different things together. She also loves power dynamics. She loves roleplay. I think her favourite part was just the trust between partners to like-- be silly or be dangerous or to be vulnerable and so rip that Estella ripped that trust away and why she's had difficulty since!!! Penny: N/A she is exploring <3 Karen: They are all about new new new! They think it's a great way to get to know someone, learn their kinks and their likes/dislikes lol. Remy: Intimacy much like Berlioz, he wants things to be slooow and steamy~ and all about connection Least favorite thing/part about sex—cleanup, setup, etc

Ber: setup probably that would bore him to tears. he is very into spontaneous sex, loves sex where he shouldnt have sex Hades: answered Merida: emotions <3 keep that shit to yourself Nemo: clean-up he is veeery lazy and will moan and groan about taking a shower and wiping off etc (which sucks bc he loves~ messy sex. big fan of lube in this house) Pip: as a demisexual person most of sex honestly grosses pip out unless he is totally in love with you. in the future i do hc that he actually does not prefer anal. he'll do it when he's in the mood but is way more into other forms of sex. Jun: this is a stressful question for jun we can't answer that due to his anxieties Amity: n/a exploring Snow: for snow, sex is a ritual. if it's good sex, all parts of it are fun: the set-up is sexy, the foreplay is sexy, the clean-up and aftercare is sexy. She romanticizes every step idk what to tell u i guess if she feels like her partner isn't into it as much and she's putting in all the effort then she'd not like aspects of it lol Penny: n/a exploring Karen: actually is like snow, tho less sentimental lmfao, they're just like, bad part about sex??? its sex??? i like sex!!! Remy: also clean-up bc he's a bit of a neat freak so even tho he loooooves sex he'd probably get persnickety about the after.

. A song they would fuck/get fucked to

Ber: 3WW by alt-j... wow alt-j throwback Hades: uhhhh... he'd never think to turn on music. i guess if they dont want the kids to hear he's cranking up the classical music channel FLMAOOO Merida: also would never think to turn on music sorry Nemo: would fuck himself to robbie's music and send it to robbie. probs would do like, bazzi or justin bieber otherwise fsalkf;aslkfj Pip: too many to name. ariana grande on repeat. Jun: this is so embarrassing he doesnt want to answer any of these. like water by wendy Amity: it'll be taylor swift muna boygenius etc Snow: entirely depends on the mood and the plot ok like is this a bridgerton roleplay. is snow tied up in satin and gagged? these are very different soundtrack choices Penny: it'll be taylor swift maude latour caroline polachek etc Karen: macarena by blitzers. also just the macarena. you know the one. thrwo in some cha cha slide too why not Remy: soft and tender by november ultra

Share a sample line of dirty-talk

this sdlkafja;lskdjfasdlkfjad;lkfajsdf;lkajlkdajlkjal i refuse to do this one im sorry. the cringe is 2 much for me.

[thegeminisage]

pspsps ms liz, hi, I've been here multiple times (mostly about games) and I saw you have Deathloop, or at least have it installed (sorry if its weird to look at the games you have installed on your desktop, i was curious) and its currently on sale on steam and i love a good timeloop. I played Prey a bit ago (holy shit the ending threw me for a loop WOW) and enjoyed it, I have a friend who raves about Dishonored and they haven't steered me wrong with games so far, so I have good feelings about Arkane games.

I wanted to ask your opinion on Deathloop before i spend $30 on it 💀💀

um anyways, have a good day!!! please also give your kitties pets for me, they're all adorable

HI BESTIE, dw i am petting ALL of the cats and also it's definitely not weird to look at my desktop since im the one who posted pics of it, although there are some games on there i havent played yet (i tend to take the ones im finished with OFF the desktop but deathloop earned it place). rip start again and night in the woods i swear i am going to get to you soon

so yeah AS you guessed the short answer is YES IT IS WORTH IT!!! doubly so if you can get it on steam. the long answer is:

i have played basically All of the games from arkane and deathloop feels more like dishonored than prey, but that isn't a bad thing!! (if you haven't played the dishonored series and you wind up liking deathloop i'd highly recommend it.) gameplaywise everything feels really polished and fun...when i played i was letting my buddy watch me do the story, so i wound up replaying missions i'd already done in my spare time bc i just couldn't keep my hands off of it. i found ways to do levels i didn't think were possible. there's a lot of freedom in it

the abilities in deathloop imho are what make it resemble DH more than prey, but i think the abilities system is more fun than in prey because in prey when you get the alien abilities it makes the enemies more hostile and i didn't care for that. these are simplified but really fun, i always had a hard time choosing which ones to equip because they're all really good (though admittedly i never played with the one that lets you fling stuff everywhere bc i didn't care). the weapons and trinket system you use for your upgrades comes with a bit of a learning curve (the tutorial section was horrifically annoyingly long) but once you learn the ropes it's a very smooth, fun, satisfying way to work. i havent tried the new update they just released for the 1yr anniversary but it looks amazing too!

the aesthetic and music and the characters are wildly funky and extremely, outrageously fun - the banter you get as you proceed through the levels is very entertaining. it feels like much more of an adventure than prey because it doesnt have that sense of isolation and the characters CUSS. the bosses are the perfect combination of challenging and scary and weird without being TOO hard (with the exception of fia, who has the dubious honor of being one of the most stressful controller-against-the-wall challenges i've ever played, taking me almost twenty tries to complete - come back after you do that one and tell me how many years you aged). i played deathloop before the update that added difficulty levels and i'm not a pro gamer by any means, so anyone should be able to complete it. it's really satisfying to go back to a level you once struggled on with better weapons and abilities and breeze right through it!

that said, there are a couple of cons - the biggest one for me was that my PC had a liiiiittle bit of trouble running it without framerate skips and it took me a long time to get those eliminated. the second biggest one is i think it needed another 6 months or so of dev time, especially in regards to the story. VERY minor story spoilers in the form of: my opinion, but!!! like i said, i haven't played the free update - apparently there's a new, secret ending - but the one we got felt a little bewildering and and anticlimactic. i kept waiting for it all to mean something and it kind of...only meant a little, really?? there's one major twist but instead of making me go "oh COOL" it made me go "oh bad :/" and it was definitely kind of a blueballed feeling bc the rest of the game had my expectations SO astronomically high. to finally finishing the thing was a bit of a letdown

THAT SAID, in spite of its flaws it's one of the most fun times i've ever had playing a first person shooter-ish game. i just wish there was more to do. even replaying some of the levels in my downtime i still only racked up slightly less than 50 hours. but i'm sure on replays/if i were to 100% things/if i tried multiplayer (i havent so far bc crossplatform play costs $$$ and i heard it was a bit lacking anyways) i could get more, which i might go back and try someday, because it's SO FUN. trust me if they gave me 200 hours of content in that game i would play all 200 of them

anyway, can't rec it highly enough, the steam price has apparently dropped to like $24 bucks so you will NEVER find it any cheaper. if you truly do hate it you can return it if you've played less than 4 hours so WHY NOT give it a try. i really hope you enjoy it cuz i sure did!!!

[absintheancandle]

takes your gacha game sexymen and doesnt even realize theyre sexymen until its too late. like unironically i dont interact with fandom that much so i kinda just went 👀 and then i go on tumblr and go. ah. so they’re sexymen. that would make sense. not negatively tho. i still like em :)

yeah though heres some characterization ideas for my own personal use or somethin. au where i ignore how the games work and also they all survived and met up later for whatever reason. like a post-game au. or maybe no-game au? i havent thought aboutt it much yet.

these aren’t really supposed to be redesigns and moreso just. like. afterwards???? change up their looks a little to different amounts :)

more info under the cut + joseph’s design too that didnt really fit with the main post

okay sorry i don’t have much information that’s coherent but heres a lot of messy info dumping hehe i do personally think that aesol and andrew probably end up owning and working at a funeral home-type thing together. someone else has probably had this idea but i wouldn’t know. i think it’s cute either way.   aesol and edgars relationship is they’d fight each other in an alleyway at midnight and then go out and get 1900s mcdonalds afterwards.   luca actively collects people around him for fun i think. luca and edgar DO love each other but i honestly think edgar has difficulty properly attaching to people and having his feelings towards others actually consistent.   luca’s changed a lot mostly off of vibes. like i think he would’ve went yknow what this prison shirt actually kinda fucks. and just ends up looking like a guy that doesn’t 100% belong in his era but he literally has the same clothes that would be available at the time? not sure what to say there. ALSO i made his braces look a bit more like braces i think. looking at vintage leg braces is very fun :)!   andrew’s is mostly the same except more pink-based because it fits better i think?? instead of a purple flower he just gets to have flower patterning on his coat. also his coat is actually worn open now   aesol’s outfit is honestly inspired by his trickster costume only because like. jackets worn as capes FUCK like all hell dude come ON don’t even lie about that. also more flower patterning bc hehe yellow roses :) andrew and him are supposed to somewhat match edgar and victor have barely changed but i like the small changes i made :)   ALSO JOSEPH IS THERE . i didnt put him on the lineup bc the art style didn’t match 100% and made it look weird but here:  

giving joseph more updated clothing too? i might end up changing it more later on but. im obsessed with the idea of people from The Past getting accustomed to “modern day” (even if that modern day is. 1900). THINKS ABOUT HOW DELIGHTED HE’D BE TO SEE 1900S-MODERN CAMERA TECHNOLOGY. take your local 1830s weirdly tall debatably immortal man with no social skills clothes shopping! this will not go bad.

au where your guys weren’t in their proper dedicated games, all survived, and also decided to steal a hunter along the way. he is mildly disgruntled and upset about it but one (1) guy showed him a little bit of kindness (sat next to him and said nothing) and he went. i am following you now, actually. and aesols like. okay. sure i guess. everyone else is like WHY . WHERE DID YOU FIND HIM WAIT. WHY IS HE HERE   WH.    WHY

i don’t think it’d be like a “ohhh redemption he’s a soft guy now” because honestly like except for victor and somewhat luca, all these people are incredibly fucked up. why would He become more ~nice~ or whatever. theyre all just like “okay dont trap ME in a photograph and we’ll be fine.” and he’s like. fucking whatever. killjoy. what if you LIKED being in the photograph, huh? what then? bitch. except said in fancy 1830s words. mm also im making them all lgbt. bites you

(edit: apparently you cannot click to see a bigger version of this image. I DONT KNOW WHY?? i’ll probably post it individually later) victor: transmasc, gay, asexual (sex favourable) luca: polyam, omniro/sexual (masc-leaning) andrew: polyam, bi(?), aceflux, greyromantic. however i think these might change im not 100% sure on them mostly because like. he’s got issues that results in him just. Not Knowing Much. simply never thought about it aesol: polyam, nonbinary, transmasc, bi, asexual (sex neutral). edgar: transmasc, gay joseph is transmasc but i think it’s in a way where he simply never thought about it. like hes from the 1830s or something like. there was no Trans there was just simply going yknow what. actually. call me something else or i will Kill you because i have a sickass sword and am also part of nobility. like him and his twin are both trans and it was literally just like “you can’t do that, what about your image as nobility!” “okay but what about this sword i could stab you with.” also he’s definitely mlm but what kind? guess we’ll never know. that’s okay. he has a sword also giving andrew elhers danlos syndrome. he uses his shovel as a mobility aid sometimes without really realizing that’s what it is. he just leans on it a lot bc it makes him hurt less. they’re all mentally ill in different ways and some physically disabled and i love it!!

[gingerweed-man]

Just finished Two Realms, apparently 100% it. I have many words to say. Here's a review.

First, is this game worth buying? Oh absolutely. It may be a mobile game but once the difficulty starts actually showing up, it is a lot more in common with an actual puzzle game and boi it gets real good and fun. Fucking loved the puzzles!

When thet fucking work. Because, dear god, this game couldve used a few more months. Do you want an example? Because I got plenty. As a matter a fact, here's a few!

Here, my character had theur individual body parts replaced by the tail, which was a sticker.

Here, a Dreamer, which are characters you're supposed to free from cages and lead to that lil stage area, was somehow detached completely from his cage but still trapped. In the second pic, notice the STAGE CONDITIONS CHANGED. Also, the Dreamer somehow escaped that little stage and is currently walking on bramble, which should kill him. Think this is wild?

IM PLAYING AS THE STAGE. EACH INDIVIDUAL PART OF MY BODY HAS BEEN REPLACED BY THE LEVEL SCREEN. AND YES, THEY SCROLL AND MOVE TOO.

Those glitches arent even the worst. They're hardly bothersome, honestly. Hell, one of them helped me. But there are some other more annoying bugs. Like sometimes, the game just super lags! It's very unstable, if it wasnt already clear. Also, sometimes your character spawns backwards which doesnt really change anything, but also changes the throwing physics. Which makes several levels unbeatable. Still, that's better than just... not spawning. Which is a thing that happens. Admittedly, that only ever happens very very rarely. With around 20ish hours, I only ever encountered that twice, and all it took was exiting the level and restarting.

Not really all that bad, because the levels are really quick to join in and the dialogue even changes so you get to experience a bit more unique content. Unless it happens during a story mission. If you have to restart one that had a cutscene before it, get ready to see that cutscene again if you have to exit. It just so happens that most of the levels where I got a glitch that had me have to exit the level- was the final set of 5. Meaning I not only had to restart all of those levels, I had to rewatch the cutscene. FOUR TIMES.

That said, they were actually fun af and I didnt really mind replaying them. It feels really good to replay stages and slowly master your route. And boy, there's a lot of ways to beat these levels. Most levels give you a set of Toys (enemies and obstacles) to use. These are random, making each runthrough unique and giving you tons of options for how to beat each level. Its honestly fun to replay stages you've beaten with a different set of toys to see what you get and hiw much chaos you can cause.

Unfortunately, it's not fun to play through stages for higher scores. It really isnt. For the first half of the game, you're gonna rely heavily on the missile launcher toy. It gives a max of 400-600 points every time it shoots, making it the best source of points in game, until you unlock the Wind Doot, which can easily get you the 2000-2500 points you need to get 3 stars on each stage with one blow, if you line up enough toys in it's path. The bomb baki is also busted. Having just one of these is a pretty good source of points, but if you ever have more than one and you trigger multiple simultaneously- I managed to get over 11000 points in seconds. They are ridiculous. Honestly, I wish there was a level editor I could just to see how much I can break the point system. Once you get to a point where you dont have to rely on missile boy for points, going for 3 stars on each stage can be super fun!

But even this comes with a caveat. You know how you get random set of toys per stage? Yeah, you can a set that is impossible to beat the stage with. This is pretty much exclusive to stages where you have to catch enemies by throwing them into a large wooden cage. You cant throw Wind Doots & the pufferfish, meaning you have to slap them into the cages. Some stage layouts make this impossible, forcing you to exit and restart the stage with a new set of toys. Thankfully, all story based stages do give you set toys, completely avoiding this.

The story isnt all that great, at furst. It really hits a bit iber halfway and crescendos right at the climax, working perfectly. I would describe the plot more, but the entire plot is a spoiler for the entire series, making plot detailing especially difficult. Lets just say, apart from tiny character moments (like just letting Click continue to exist in the town) which are moreso just not to my tastes (I will fistfight Click with any and no excuse). It was a bit rough at first, but thats oddly a running theme in this franchise. Once the plot swings at you, YOU FEEL IT. This is, at it's core, a game about loss, survivor's guilt, and people searching for answers for why things happen. And how guilt can corrupt and ruin lives. Its a game about learning to accept reality and seeing that, no matter what happens, no matter how you feel. Things can get better. Things will get better. Sometimea, all you need is someone to talk to, someone to help push the darkness out of your mind. How you are never alone. And about how much I want to put Click in a headlock. I honestly, really needed this. Especially now.

I highly, highly recommend playing through Drawn To Life: Two Realms. Despite it's many, many, many glitches, it's a sheer joy to play, to mess around with, and the story is absolutely wonderful to experience. The villain could be better, being very generic. I do love his design, Im just hoping to see more to fully flesh out his character. Do I recommend completing this game? Dear god, fuck no. I do not at all recommend completing this game, I actively recommend the opposite. Theres 54 side stages. Thats plenty of content. There's definitely enough game if you want to, but the plot is the real star and provides you some of the best stages in the game. Id say, play through some of the story stages then decide if you want to play through as many side stages as you can.

Do I want to give this game a number rating? Yes. Do I think I can? No. There's way too many unavoidable bugs to give it an 7 or above, the actual fun I had doesnt deserve anything below an 8. I can say, I do nit think it's the best game in the franchise, but it's nit the worst and it is a VERY good game. Buy it, play it, and beat it.

[slightly-gay-pogohammer]

ok here’s the post of Me answering to your hot takes!! i got a grand total of 15 asks so!!!! time to have fun

pokèmon hot takes by my lovely followers lets go gang

anon: Pokemon went way fucking downhill post gen 5 and hasn't even come close to it since

@the-fifteen​: Last good pokemon games were Diamond/Pearl/Platinum - Black/White. Beyond that point quality went down. Also Pokemon Ranger are the best spin-offs

hardly an unpopular opinion, half of the community agrees with you and personally? i don't. i do think the games should focus a lot more of their difficulty since more often than not it holds your hand a little too much and i personally didnt like kalos at all if not for the elite four and lysandre, but i REALLY enjoyed oras, sumo and swsh so. bad take OPs. also tho i never played ranger but i heard that a lot of ppl really likes it, so once again hardly an unpopular opinion

anon: my unpopular Pokémon opinion is that I do not care about stats and strats I am here for cute Pokémon ONLY. if Pokémon ain't cute than they ain't in the party

@pisceancryptid​: idk if im late for this but my Pokemon Opinion is that minmaxing has ruined pokemon for me i used to just go with the one i liked most and didnt care about IVs and natures and stuff much but now i do and i hate it, can i go back to how i used to be instead of feeling bad that im using a sub-par 'mon

anon how does it feel to be right idk fams i dont care about competitive, give me the cute pokes. and with cute i also mean grimmsnarl

as for piscean, tbh don’t feel bad for it!!! just jump in the game without caring for it, who cares! my teams have never been balanced in the slightest and never really have me big issues in the games, play the game as you want!!!

@dizzymosquito​: Most of the 'rival' characters you have in the games have been completely milk toast/unmemorable/melodramatic or otherwise boring as dirt. Gary (OG Red/Blue rival) is the only one to really make any impact in his own right.

tbh on one side, i HEAVILY disagree. some WERE boring (coughs at trevor tierno hugh calem/serena and brendan/may) or criminally underused (coughs at trace, gladion and shauna), but i personally really enjoy the rival characters and i think they have very good plots, too! some are there just to be your friend, like berry and hau, but most of them feel like they have something to prove! wally overcoming his health and fears warmed my heart and so seeing cheren, bianca, bede and marnie finding their place; klara and havery are HILARIOUS,and i could spend an entire week talking about how much hop and silver made me cry. heck, silver is one of my all-time favorite characters in the entire series!! BUUUUUUUUT on the other side, i agree that green feels like the only character i could call a rival. silver is an antagonist for half of the game, klara and avery are obviously seen as a joke, and everyone else doesnt really feel like someone i have to defeat. green, on the other hand, feels GOOD kicking down!!!!

anon: Stunfisk is annoying

not an unpopular opinion, youre right but go back to hot take school

anon: Seeing people be creepy/weird about gardevoir is the most annoying fucking thing and it makes me so mad. i wish people on the internet knew how to be normal rather than obsess over something when it shows the slightest feminine quality in its design and honestly as much as I like it i wish it didn't exist so I didn't have to deal with liking it with the knowledge that people are Like That about it.

you're right and you should say it, and this is one of the main reasons most of my gardevoir characters/gardevoir i GIVE to my cahracters are male. but also i found much more mewtwo porn than gardevoir's so. yeah.

anon: Chairman Rose isn't Satan, no; he's a "villain" who only fights you because of a scheduling error and he's otherwise actually a really big sweetheart we promise pleasesupportyourlocalmegacorporation. SwSh thinks hypercapitalism is fun and cool right down to letting you ship off your Pokémon to work in the gig economy

hey real quick did we play the same game op i do agree Rose Isn't Satan, he's more of a morally grey character in my book, but you're REALLY reaching when it comes to your second point. i know swsh's plot isn't exactly the best written one but the hypercapitalism felt really criticized to me? idk, like!! bede and hop get HEAVILY fucked up in their hope to be under the spotlight/follow the steps of someone in power, Capitalist Icon Rose gets demonized by his choices (btw he wasnt the villain bc he rescheduled, he was because he felt like THE ENERGY FOR THE REGION WASN'T LASTING TOO LONG AND WAS WILLING TO RISK THE APOCALYPSE TO GET MORE OF IT!!!!THAT'S CAPITALISM 101), and its heavily implied that some gym leaders really don't vibe with their workplace, mostly piers (who the game heavily sides with), nessa and lowkey melony and gordie also with the "you send pokemon to gain money so thats bad", fam. do you also not sell nuggets and rare bones? it was barely about the economy and more like “here’s an easy way to gain EXP for the pokemon you dont use in-game but you use in raids and stuff” idk if you needed straws you couldve just asked instead of reaching that much

anon: I think that, while some animations are iffy in sword and shield, a lot of them are really fun/funny. The idea that Meltan and Spiritomb HAVE to follow directly behind you is nitpicky and takes away from the fact that these are pokemon who are not very mobile whatsoever (also it's really funny!!!!! Whatever happened to laughing at pokemon being slightly inept!!!)

tbh the Pokèmon Walking Behind You thing is hilarious. with drednaw being one of my aces its hilarious seeing the poor guy taking one step every 10 of mine?? idk its really super funny and GOD I CANT IMAGINE SPIRITOMB,,

anon: I don't find leon attractive or charming.... Like At All

wrong, ignorant and wrong

@haematophiliac​: THE ONLY REASON GEN 1 IS SO LOVED ABOVE THE REST IS CAUSE GEN 1 WAS NEW AND ORIGINAL AT THE TIME.

YOURE RIGHT AND YOU SHOULD SAY IT LOUDER!!!!! gen 1 is overrated and didn't age well, no matter how many times you remake it, don't change my mind you CAN'T

anon: Raihan is overrated

...fellas is it ok to say i dont like raihan at all asndmg,, NOW DONT GET ME WRONG i asw a LOT of interpretations from the rpc that are Very Good and honestly makes me like the character, but everytime i get back to the game i remember that i really cant stand this guy

@vampirefantasy​: i didn't play gold/silver as a kid so the hype for those games are lost on me. sapphire holds a lot more weight bc of that. also the starters in g/s don't appeal to me very much

tbh this comes from someone who started with gen 2 so they hold a special place in my heart, but i do agree that silver is VERY good and underrated imo??? thats mostly due alpha sapphire being the first game i played properly after leaving pokèmon behind for a long while, so hoenn is very important to me as for the starters in gsc, well,,, theyre the only starters that REALLY makes me think when it comes to choose them bc i love them all equally, so i disagree with that :°>

anon: While I think gigantamaxing is interesting, it annoys me knowing that in 1 or 2 more pokemon generations, it's undoubtedly going to be phased out of the game/lore entirely because pokemon can never let something stay in the game

 youre so right!!!!!!!!!! so right like this comes from someone who personally didnt care much for megaevos, but it’s kinda sad gamefreak goes “heres a new thing!!!! forget about it for the next game tho!” it happened with triple battles, it happened with megaevolutions, it happened with z-moves and its of course going to happen with gigantamax. i get its meant to make each region special, but it kinda sucks :c

anon: my hot take is I still play Pokémon go. I am the king of my town's gyms they are almost all mine

hottest take: pokeGo is better now than when it first game out. give me your code OP

[veeranger]

ok here are my thoughts on SPV3.2′s rendition of Halo CE’s first level: The Pillar of Autumn, which i played last night. 

please keep in mind these are my subjective opinions based on my single playthrough of the level on normal difficulty, and that i have nothing but respect for the obviously large amount of effort put into this mod by its creators. 

first of all its great that this level skips the camera orientation shit even on normal difficulty, thank god. 

so basically the level plays out exactly the same as it did in the original game with the exception of the weapons behaving differently, until you get to that one staircase room that was a nightmare on legendary in the original game. its clever actually because the enemies are positioned on the same side as you but above so you run up the stairs and turn around to find yourself face to face with....a brute! not an elite but a brute in the halo 2 style. 

with the brute comes their signature brute shot, brute plasma rifle, a new brute plasma pistol, and a new weapon called the shredder, a brute version of the needler that lacks the projectile tracking of its sister weapon but has a much higher projectile speed making it very fun to use and extremely deadly to unshielded foes including the brutes, who all lack energy shields like the halo 2 and halo reach variants, which makes sense. gameplay wise they’re much less of damage sponges than they were in halo 2 however i did notice that theyre markedly less aggressive again compared to their halo 2 iteration. i have yet to see a brute do its signature charge, but im going to chalk this up to engine limitations and not developer oversight, for all i know these brutes are probably just reskinned elites with no shields. brute chieftains are also missing alongside their iconic gravity hammers, though i assume this is engine limitations preventing something like that from existing. 

 now all this said i am sorely missing the spiker as the brute’s signature weapon because way too many of these bastards are carrying brute shots which can make encounters a bit frustrating at times, while paradoxically making other encounters far too easy due to the weapon’s ability to one shot weaker enemies and carry much more ammo than its halo 2/3 counterparts. it also makes vehicle segments suck sometimes because there are 2-4 brutes with these things knocking your warthog around but thats for the next level.

anyway back to the level, it quickly takes a turn into uncharted territory with a major detour that has you going through large storage areas and a lot more hallways before you finally end up back on track in the original level. i dont hate this per say and it certainly spices the familiar levels up but i can’t say i love how long these new areas are. i think i spent at least 30 minutes on this level and most of that was the new areas. now this isnt bad per say and the areas were not explicitly poorly designed, though i wasnt the biggest fan to be honest, its more so that the level becomes a slog after a while with no end in sight. i also think this addition muddles the intended game design of a tight corridor shooter than blossoms out into a massive open sandbox in the second level but that is not relevant really so i will not actually put stock into that opinion. 

after getting through the new stuff you just drop back into the original level and the rest of it plays out basically the same as it would otherwise, new sandbox notwithstanding. if this level and the second level are showing me any kind of pattern, its that i can expect every level to just suddenly branch into new content before eventually falling back on the original level path and playing out like that. more on this in other level reviews i’m sure. 

all said it was not the best level ive ever played and it dragged on too much but i wouldnt say it was all bad. i had fun more or less and i will say the level ran together pretty organically even with the new additions. oh yeah theres a few extremely minor environmental manipulations you can do like turning gravity down in some areas giving you moon physics and turning on auto turrets in some battles. nothing major but still cool. 

i dont think i want to speak on weapons yet because i havent gotten to use everything yet but i dont like this mod’s assault rifle. it added the smg from halo 2/3 (which i also dont like in this mod) so now the ar is the 32 round variant with a severely nerfed rate of fire which doesnt feel very good to me. the smg has way too much kick to fill the roll of the original ce assault rifle so i feel a little lost without a reliable spray and pray gun, but i suppose comparing and contrasting to the original game is a bit pointless considering this mod really wants to be a totally different experience. still i dont like the ar and im not crazy about the smg. 

i will speak on grenades though, there are two new ones, a clusterbomb which is self explanatory and a gravity bomb, which pulls enemies into it and then weakly explodes, killing weaker enemies and usually dropping elite shields. interesting additions to the sandbox but i feel like the clusterbombs make frags redundant.  

this mod has armor abilities now like halo reach, taking the place of your flashlight when equipped. i assume this has to be this way otherwise i would want to berate them for making me kill my flashlight for sprint or VISOR, which is basically just the detective vision mode from odst but in a really displeasing color pallet. now im nitpicking but yknow. the game is still very dark in a lot of places thanks to this mod still using halo ce’s original lighting engine or just respecting the fact that it was like that for a fucking reason unlike anniversary edition, so losing the flashlight is a real pain sometimes. 

oh also this mod changed the HUD, now your shields and health are where the should be, in the top middle of the screen like in every halo game starting with 3.  

anyway i think thats all i have to say about level 1, not a massively successful first impression but it was not bad and i did not hate it. pretty so-so for me. the next level i’ll have more positives to talk about i think

[sea-salted-wolverine]

Okay so last week was a shitkicker and was literally so bad I spent the better part of the week trying to delude myself into thinking it was a good day. Like, we're talking, "the sun is shining and I'm here to see it so today is a good day" and "I'm having a bad day- fuck me I am not haveing a bad day- I'm having a good day- I'm not having a bad day". Denial is a powerful tool for mental health, apply judiciously. I get that everyone on earth is kinda having a shitty year but it feels like things just kinda escalated in my little corner

The 7th had a huge snow storm that brought traffic to a stand still. No one could leave the house and university class was online anyway. Batshit customer demanded to pick up her gear anyway. I drove in because I was the only person with keys to the shop that could get to the building. It took me a solid 2 hours going 15mph on the highway. The snow in the parking lot was up past the fenders of my truck. Crazy lady gets 10 out of 18 of her survival suits back but the other 8 still have holes in them because our only repair tech is also the only one who answers the phone or runs the computer or handles customers or cleans or disinfects anything or stores gear. I'll give you one guess who that person is.

Did you guess me? Good for you. Fun fact this was not the case in October.

Crazy lady swans off through the snowed in parking lot and because she cant find the exit, blasts straight through the ditch and onto the road.

I say fuck it and leave. I've been at work for 2 hours. I have made 24 dollars for my trouble. It takes me another hour to get home.

The 8th is Saturday and I'm supposed to be at work. No one can drive. There was another 10 8nches of snow last night. I say fuck work and go to dig out the plow truck. The canopy over the plow truck collapses as I walk out to clear the snow of it.

I do not scream.

My partner and I get the truck running and go plow people out of their driveways and then go do the shop.

We come back home and the heater doesn't work. We just spent most of last week frantically trying to limp the thing along because no heat at -20°F is in a word fucking unpleasant. At least now its 40 degrees warmer because if the snowstorm. We take it apart again. The house smells like diesel. The house smells like exhaust. The house is not cold because the wood stove can keep up at 20 above zero but it won't keep us through the winter.

There is no saving the oil heater. We need a new one.

Its 730 and neither of us have eaten. I start rice in the pressure cooker so I can throw a tasty bite on top and call it dinner and that dies too. Explosively.

Dinner is half cooked rice and microwaved curry.

Sunday is spent finding a way to stretch our increasingly thin budget to buy a new heater. Between us we actually have 2275$ and we will still cover the mortgage. Somehow. All our Christmas gifts will be hand made this year. The next thing that breaks will stay broken.

Monday, power outages due to snow storm. No wifi, no zoom meetings. Another 8 inches of snow. This is now more snow than my city gets for the full year.

My boss calls sobbing. The dog died. Joey, an 11 year old, 130lb mastiff with a tumor the size of a football on his liver has been her constant companion for at least 8 years. The pandemic has confused the bejesus out of him because while he loves the lock down and going out to play every hour or so he doesnt really like the concept of strangers in masks. Hes a guard dog and doesnt understand that men in masks coming into the shop are not here to kill mom they're wearing masks so they don't kill mom.

Mondays the shop is closed anyway and I spend it installing the new heater. It doesn't quite fit in the space the old heater came out of but its warm.

Tuesday, I go to work, everyone cancels class, I once again gently explain to a regular that eugenics is bad. I would like to curse him out. I cant. He drops a grand on scuba gear and leaves, talking about how great his trip to Mexico will be.

I do not scream.

A friend calls to ask how I'm doing. Not great. Yea, her niether. She asks if I want to go out to the backcountry with her over the weekend. I explain that my leg physically does not move and I'm downing copious amounts of advil to remain upright. The doctor sent me in for an MRI but has not yet called back. Plus I'm supposed to go to Valdez for the weekend and actually go diving. That I can do with limited use of my leg.

She says yikes, take it easy, take care of yourself, I love you.

I say, yikes, I'm tired of taking it easy, I wanna play, I love you too.

Hit me up if your plans open up and we can do something gentle on your leg. She says.

God yes. The cold woods away from people sounds like paradise. I dont even care that it will cause me rending physical pain to get there. I need a break.

Its Wednesday. I go to school. I get pulled over. Miraculously I dont get a ticket. I'm white female and conventionaly attractive, maybe not so miraculous. I rolled through a stop sign but I'm pretty sure I couldn't afford a ticket.

I get a text in class. One of the instructors who works with the dive shop has tested positive for covid. I haven't seen the man in 2 months. I needed a spare instructor but he was nowhere to be found. But hey, evidently that's a good thing.

I go to work. I vacillate between doing the job a 4 people and having nothing to do.

I go to the grocery store because I misjudged my last monthly grocery run and even though I'm increasing my exposure I'm out of cheese and tea damnit.

The store is packed. Pandemic who?

My partner and I haven't had a date nite in a while and this week has been shitty. I want a nice dinner. I pick up a couple boxes of the carton sushi which isnt terrible and is about as nice as I can justify on the new budget. I grab a gallon of milk and a few other things. I forgot my wallet in the truck and the cashier is chill and sets my stuff aside while I grab it.

I pay and take my stuff home and realize I left one of my bags at the store. No cheese or tea for me.

Thursday. 10am my phone goes off with an emergency alert. The govoner has grown a spine in light of recent elections and is instituting a voluntary lock down. My state has 500 new cases a day. That might not sound like a lot but theres only 300,000 people in Alaska and we've got poor medical infrastructure.

Unfortunately Alaska is full of Alaskans and nobody can tell us what to do. Nothing changes. 7pm rolls around and I'm teaching scuba classes in the pool.

I load a few hundred pounds of scuba gear into the back of my truck. In a wet wetsuit. In the snow. In a fabric facemask. 6 feet apart. In the pool.

I dont get paid for pool time.

Over the summer we had 6 dive masters including me, all big burly dudes, much better suited to picking things up. Its November and I'm the only one.

The kids I'm teaching are going to Hawaii. They're 10 and 13 and so wildly excited about breathing underwater its beautiful to watch. And they're traveling to an island. In a pandemic.

Friday.

Unload scuba gear so it doesnt get stolen out of the back of my truck while I'm at class. Were doing a make up lab today. Hey of the five student in my class only one of us has covid so theres that.

My boss calls an let's me know that shes left for Valdez without me. If I'd like to make an 8 hour drive by myself in a snowstorm I'm welcome to follow.

I'm in class till an hour before shop closing. I'm not driving across town so I can run on the open sign for half an hour.

The shop stays closed on Friday.

Saturday.

I explained to everyone we had business with that the shop would be closed over the weekend and Friday. I planned on being in Valdez. Hell I canceled plans to be in Valdez.

I open the shop and immediately field calls about why we werent open. I start to explain about the Valdez trip and logistical difficulties and then I realize that shes not mad about that. The woman was here before I opened early this morning. We have never been open that early. The hours are on the door.

A regular comes in. Hes also confused as to why I'm here.

Sunday finds me curled up in bed, reluctant to leave. Getting out of bed has not played out well for me recently.

A friend comes over to chat with my partner about specialist rifle parts. This isnt that wierd, he works at a gun shop and they've been discussing upgrading my partners current rifle set up.

He is wearing a full Scottish kilt. Red tartan. Looks very lovely.

I make zucchini bread and my proportions are a little off because I have too much zucchini so it's a little over moist but it's good. I'm recovering from an asskicker of a week and next week will be better.

Monday morning:

Baby brother has covid

Dads getting the results of his rapid test tonight.

Mom isnt getting tested because she says she doesnt have symptoms but that's not the fucking point mom.

So, I'm not going home for thanksgiving. I'm not diving in Valdez. I'm not skiing backcountry.

I'm not sick. I'm not flat broke yet. I dont have a ticket. I have a job. I have people who care about me. Im managing my physical and mental health as best I can. Im just fucking exhausted.

[gaybullies]

stan has autism guys

– his special interest is clearly birds. like fi you’re into something enough  that it becomes part of your identity, that’ a special interest. 

– a lot of the things people interpret as ocd are actually autism things!! some of them are ALSO autism things though. this isnt to say stan doesnt have ocd too im very sure he also has ocd but.

– he likes rules and prefers to think logically

– he has a really weird sense of humour

– he doesnt consider the box at all. not true for all autistic people, obviously, some people are well aware of the box and in turn have more difficulties due to trying to function within the confines of it, which is never a fun time for an indivdual thats not neurotypical. but to not be aware of the box in the first place can be part ofthat whole missing social cues thing (more true of book stan and miniseries stan but still)  

– echolalia! he sings paul anka during the laundry mat date. probable this isnt actually echolalia but im considering everything okay. even if its not echolalia, it could be a form of auditory stimming. singing randomly without a care as to what those around him might be thinking of it is indicative of that he doesnt know, and he doesnt care,, which is yknow a form of that whole. missing social cues thing. or at least, missing allistic social cues. being socially unaware– like unaware how you’ll come off if you are weird is part of that. although the whole missing social cues thing can present itself in multiple different ways, and most autistic people are actually more socially conscious and socially aware due to that they miss social cues and are scared of messing up or being seen as bad/outcasted due to it!

– ties in with the logic thing, but rule oriented. when things break the rules it confuses and upsets him. while i do think most of his denial about pennywise and insistence for him not being real is because hes psychic and he knew, he also.. is psychic and knew he was also real. him being real is not empirically possible, as he puts it, and thus it confuses and upsets him that he is real. it also confuses and upsets him that hes both real AND not real. he schrodingers real!! and he HATES that baecause its impossible to be bot hreal and not real! - speaking of. he says shit like “thats not empirically possible” in the 5th fucking grade. well actually hes in fourth but hes supposed to be in fifth and thats all that REALLY matters there. but also that still matters because people who get held back a year, ive noticed still will tend to act like that very same year regardless of their age. its not just age, its environment, that affects how their personalities mgiht change. but saying more “adult” words is very typical of autistic children

– “smallest adult until he smiled” again, autistic children will tend to just seem like tiny adults, especially if its rule oriented and routine oriented. but at the same tiem, can have very intense facial expressions that will make them look even yunger than they actually are becasue fohow intense they are.

– also hes routine oriented. bath at 7 every night with a beer and a cigarette. exactly 7. no earlier or later. i distinctly remember reading something along the lines of “even though he was generally more laid back now, stan was still very particular about some things.“ (also i might have the time wrong im not sure. but i know theres a specific time he cleans himself and patty noted it was too early for him to be taking a bath when he did in the book and that this was somehting he was very particular about)

– also that thing  with the birds? where he holds out his comfort object ( A book about birds, comfort object often relates to the special interest) and he says the list of names of the birds?? thats literally a coping mechanism that can be pretty helpful to autistic people with a special interest, especially if theyre also rule oriented. like its given BY THERAPISTS because modern studies have shown its helpful and STAN THE MAN figured it out all on his own IN THE FIFTIES before autism was EVEN STARTING TO BE RESEARCHED. 

– hes SENSETIVE BABEY. hes super sensetive!!!! this is!!! an autism thing!! he feels things more strongly and perhaps feels more things than most others. autism.

in conclusion stanley uris is also autistic and not JUST ocd please pay attention to that.

[syrupspinner]

i just defeated Ben and Ed

dead game, am i right?

ill come out and say that, for better or worse, the most notable thing about this game is how much it shows its age.

so, indie games have always been innately countercultural in my opinion. people make indie games because theyre inspired to do something the AAA industry lacks, and a lot of the indie games that pop off into popularity do so because they offer something that mainstream gaming cant. in the current zeitgeist, we can see that best by comparing the innate simplicity and modest of indie games compared to sony's big 10-years-in-the-oven blockbuster. thats not to say indie games dont have work put into them, id never say that the year after pizza tower and sea of stars game out, but those are video games for gamers, not cinematic experiences for the general public

all this is to paint a picture of the mid-aughts, where gamers were freaking the fuck out about their hobby being made casual. the industry didnt want to cater to the same closed circle of hardcore dedication forever, and wanted to follow the wii's success by making gaming something everyone can enjoy. in other words, less call of duty, more wii sports. also unignorable is super meat boy hitting the shelves in 2010. i bought a copy from walmart as a kid (a physical disc that made me download steam to play it) and was shocked by the difficulty and the humour trying way too hard to be offensive. woah, an aborted fetus is the bad guy, youre just like the kid in my class whos mean to girls for attention. either way, it was a runaway success, and set the standard for indies to be rude & tough even if they werent directly inspired

so, ben and ed happens. an unflinchingly difficult platformer that has a meanspirited and gross edge to it. and yeah, this sure reads like someone wanted to make a difficult game all right. it's not I Am Bread levels of fuck-you-just-because, but it still feels like it cares more about being hard than being fair

like, the penultimate level has buzzsaws swinging back and forth across a pit of acid that the platforms dunk you into sometimes. add some laser sharks and we have an avgn bit. but it doesnt feel like ive been given a fun challenge here, just something hard for the sake of saying "look at me i did a tough thing" to all my friends. it doesnt feel intrinsically rewarding to overcome, because the difficulty is cheap

also, in the very same level, you can press tab and ragdoll under everything for like... two minutes straight. thats not hard, dude.

my final conclusion is that this game feels like its chasing trends from the time and doesnt hold up as a result. maybe itd feel less like that if the game didnt have the same "look at me im so dark and yucky" vibe that every newgrounds game had? like, the premise of kidnapping a zombie and making them play wipeout is already bleak enough, you dont have to make the antagonist jontron with acne and litter the game with ads for meat-flavoured dentists or whatever the fuck.

to close this off, i think this whole thing can be summarized by saying if you know about this game in the current year, at least if youre anything like me, you probably know about markiplier losing his shit

whats at the end? ...a facebook link, to a page trying to kickstart an ARG that fizzled out due to lack of interest and seemed to just be a roundabout reference to a creepypasta from almost 15 years ago.

alright

[howlitecritical]

New character arcs and new back story because canon sucks again

Main 4 cast with notes on characters that need notes for changes to make sense  Garnet: yesyesyesyesyeysyes everything good about this show. There’s not enough garnet centric things where she’s just herself and not about ruby and sapphire. More information on Garnet. Shes stoicly funny and just murders people with words sometimes. show her being rose’s top tactician. turning the tides of the war that were never in the crystal gem’s favor. maybe theres a fun earth thing shes into. Her room is the heart of the temple for a reason now. Its a balance between pearl and amethyst. The bubbles are organized, but she has her own side space with things she does as hobbies. She has a collection of antique books that she likes to read lava side and she often meditates to see corrupted gems and a future in which the CGs encounter them. maybe she even draws them out to combine ruby’s need to Do with sapphire's need to Know. Fusion is still very important to her, but not she has plot relevant interests that make sense with her character. Her character arc involves her being the first of her kind. shes something completely new! just like steven is. and for that not to bind them together is silly. She wants the best for steven and he makes her want to be an even better leader now that rose is gone and shes the only one left. she makes him think about his actions and slows down his hyper activity when he or amethyst are trying to do something reckless. From him she learns that it’s okay to let her guard down more. Homeworld might come back, but it’s not all on her shoulders. the CGs are a family and they’ll protect everyone together. Garnet in jailbreak is the first time we know shes a fusion and before that we get more about her character not just from environment around her, but her reactions to things. Maybe she feels like she needs to be in control because shes afraid that without rose, homeworld is more a danger than ever.

Amethyst: I like most of her progression actually!!! a few things I’d mess with is when she’s unnecessary hurtful to people she loves, like greg, when she shape shifted into rose, and peridot when she all but threw her stuff into the ocean. these things need to be gotten rid of, or addressed by the narrative. I’d also like to see her hanging around Vidalia wayyyyy sooner or to have a reason why they dont. As for reasons, maybe Amethyst did or said something hurtful toward her, lashing out at her for whatever reason that made their friendship strained. while a decade is a long time for a human, for a gem its nothing. so while she feels bad, Am’ isnt going to apologize herself!!! she didnt do anything wrong!!! and maybe Vidalia is the first person steven convinces her to apologize to. Steven teaches her compassion and is, in return, the gem he can relate to the best. He goes to her first with gem issues and she acts like an older sibling, trying to teach him or cover up mistakes so pearl and garnet dont find out. I think i’d like a progression of Am’ refusing to apologize to Vidalia, realizing that she was wrong and apologizing to greg, but he breaks down and can’t move past that, rendering their friendship difficult and strained as a “sometimes apologizing isnt enough and you have to change your behavior“ and then the third beat with peridot either not happening at all, where she doesnt throw someone’s comfort items into the ocean which, i think steven shouldve realized and stopped her from doing anyway, BUT if you just NEED that mistake on her part, i feel like this could be a “sometimes, you dont know how bad you hurt someone and you should apologize when you find out“ with peridot being hurt and not talking to her and amethyst has to do a big gesture to show shes sorry. I also feel like that fleshes out amedot as a ship and while i dont care about who peridot ends up with, i care about story and the way im going to make this story go, lapis will be in that fun moral grey area and i want more options in terms of story telling and of fan choice. Also!!! explore the possibility of her being deep cut and thats why shes a runt. she only looks smaller but has all these strengths because of it!!! it fits in really well and bismuth or peridot maybe because she was made for kindergardening, could tell her about it and watch her get excited because shes not ”wrong“ she never came out “wrong“ shes just different and thats okay!

Pearl: Was white diamond’s pearl, first of all! that makes every interaction more interesting, because no only did she defect from homeworld, but she defected from the Queen of homeworld and everything it stood for basically. We learn more about how homeworld operates and what places in society each gem fits from pearl, because while she doesn’t believe it herself, she isn’t kept from talking about diamonds now and what one she served. in this funky fresh au, she is sent by white to make sure the new diamond they’re cultivating from earth comes out properly (aka where the fuck did russia go) and getting her equipped with all of the technology she would need to properly rule. this is where she first meets a quartz soldier. at first she’s taken aback by the quartz’s forwardness, no one had ever talked to her like... an equal before. shes not sure if shes allowed to speak, though, she knows theyre waiting for a response. Their first interactions always begin with her requesting permission to speak. They have to wait a few more years for pink to emerge and while they’re there they slowly become friends as the life is leeched out of the area. we could have a snapshots of them waiting for together, rose getting bored and convincing pearl to come do things with her, slowly breaking her out of her shell. Pearl’s difficulty and character arc comes from not just rose and getting over her feelings, which is perfectly fine, but doesnt need to be her only trait, but finding out who she is now, not just after rose, but with humanity as a whole. with the war well and truly over. she wants to learn about what rose thought was so important to fight for, to die for, and because of that, we get her partaking in human activities that arent eating or drinking, because she still dislikes them. While Garnet reads and collects books, i think pearl being really into her weapons collection is a good idea to flesh her out more. Where did she get her swords from? Well thats a mystery. She mentions someone she cared about a long time ago made them for her and thus we get some fun bismuth foreshadowing.

Rose:  And rose..... god... we could of had it all by adele plays in the background anytime i think about her. Here we have a very beautiful fat woman. Shes framed as elegant and regal by the show time and time again and i LOVED that. however after the pink diamond reveal, I have such mixed feelings about her. No more diamond bullshit. Shes the first gem that popped out. Technically she’s too early and she goes to stand guard around the birthplace of her diamond. That is where she and pearl first meet. Pearl is the first gem she ever talks to and while she innately knows stuff about home world, shes pick up a lot from the humans that live nearby. theyve shown her kindness and given her furs to wear and in turn she helped them heal their wounded by crying on them. (yes she still has healing powers sue me) she loves the humans and takes to befriending them before pearl shows up. The two of them get close and after pink diamond pops out, rose realizes what the creation of gems truly means for the world around her. They’re killing what was here before them. This isn’t creation. It’s an invasion. Being the only quartz out so far, shes forced into the role of commander for pink. Her favored soldier. And the more she does what she was “made for” the more she hates it and the more she hates the diamond authority. she convinces pink that some humans are worth keeping. As a curiosity, my diamond. they could prove useful to terraforming other planets or moons to accept life and in time, gem cultivation.  She gets poofed while trying to save someone from the group of people she first made friends with. Maybe pink shatters whoever poofed her for not following her orders because of course Rose wouldnt defy her. rose is Loyal, unlike the rest of you lack luster garbage. Rose comes back with her iconic dress and shes here and queer and shes fucking Done with this shit. she hears about the shattering on her behalf and she goes to pink and asks why and she feels sick to her stomach because star, my diamond, she isnt Worth it. she isnt worth the cost of someone else’s whole Life!!! Oh rose... you’ve always been soft hearted. in this time, Pearl is quietly there. waiting to be called back by white as pink pearl has just been sent to take her place. And this is it. This is the moment rose decides to rebel. according to homeworld, her life should be no more than any other quartz. her life shouldnt be traded for that of others. So why? Why did pink do this? Do the gems in her court mean nothing to her? This is the first time a gem has ever summoned two weapons. A Sword and Shield. A knight turning on her master. She tried to attack pink. to poof her. to send a message right here and now that gems are all equal. that a lowly rose quartz is strong enough to take on a diamond! She fails, but only partly. she manages to strike a blow, but pink stays in tact long enough to strike on of her own, sending rose retreating into her gem. This is when pearl has to make a choice. No matter what she’d be shattered. Pink’s wrath when she reforms, white’s when she finds out about what happened. This is a death sentence. But if its a death sentence, its one she’ll choose for herself. she takes rose’s shield and uses the face of it to shatter pink herself, scooping up rose’s gem and getting as far away as fast as she can. This is the start of a war.

Steven: Oh boi. So i love steven, but theres moments where hes just... not good and the story doesnt stop him from doing that. So if were gonna say hes a kid with emotion based powers, we know hes soft and sweet and excitable. sometimes he pushes people too far because hes trying to do what he thinks is best. I want him to wrestle with the fact that his mom, this person everyone says is good, killed someone. she did something so horrible and she never killed anyone again, but she still did it once. I’d like him to get bits and pieces of his mothers memories and so we get to see the world and flashback things that happened in real time. Maybe he tries to talk to pearl about it, but she still wont instead of cant. He feels like an outcast and everyone would rather his mom be there, but they have him instead. basically a lot of his earlier character arc stuff before garnet and pearl talk to him about how homeworld was. They dont think hes old enough to hear about war, but it seems war is coming back and hes unprepared to face it without learning more. he facilitates more interactions with the townies and now its not just a war of gems against gems, they have humans on their side too and they’ll win!  

[e8luhs]

btw got this ask on my classpecting blog (which is basically super dead because i rarely ever have the time/energy to get around to posting on it) but since its cb related and were on a spree here, i wanted to put some info here because well... you know me :3c

yes i made the base of the characters personalities with their classpects in mind. obviously they still developed past that point (quite a few of the characters ended up completely different from how they were when i originally wrote them (rivian, crylus, vergas) because of the original writing being more based around classpects)

also ill write some real quick classpect descriptions for all of them under the cut since i dont want this post to get too long. i dont really want to say exactly why the puzzle pieces fit together because i think its fun to hear about other peoples opinions and also show w/o telling but i also really love classpecting and just some baselines doesnt really count as spoilers i dont think

rivian: witch of void, typically witches are quite a bit more fun and optimistic and generally just all around more Expressive than rivian is but like... youll understand when we get to it. witches are also just Incredibly Stubborn and i think thats quite a rivian thing.

witches have their aspects permeate throughout their life, and manipulate their aspects actively; they bend their aspects to their will, either by going totally against the notions and boundaries of their aspect or by simply modifying it to suit their needs. they thrive in environments where theyre able to go along with their own organized chaos and sense of structure. 

void is about secrets, irrelevance, the enigmatic the mysterious et cetera. i think void is also about hidden interpersonal knowledge. its working on the sidelines and in the background. void players always seem to do the hard work, but are in someone/something elses shadow.

lyreni: sylph of time, honestly lyreni is still basically The Definition Of A Sylph. shes caring, very aware of her surroundings, acts according to what she deems is important, shes patient shes exacting... but she can be a bit meddle-y and pedantic and pushy due to her own anxieties.

sylphs analyze and heal their aspect. they find where people and where their session is lacking in it and essentially poke and prod and go about whichever way they possibly can to fix the lack of their aspect. theyre very opinionated about their aspect and what it means to them and what it should mean to others, and therefore sylphs need to learn to wield these ideas and use them to help others.

time is about time itself and the flow of it, death, progression, etc. not only that, but its about order and structure, singleminded focus, all of which selfimposed. time is more like a chain of events that needs to be kept in order than it is about inevitable events that are out of your control.

kapreo: rogue of rage, i usually say rogues follow two different archetypes (1. they either start with an abundance of their aspect and need to find a comfortable balance, or 2. they start with a percieved lack of their aspect and need to accept it into their life. either way, once both of them grow into those second stages they then redistribute their aspect to others). kapreo is a v2 rogue. rogues also as a whole are very friendly and generous, passionate, determined. though on the other hand, rogues can sometimes have the tendency to isolate themselves from others when they face stress and other struggles.

although both types of rogues have different types of deeprooted insecurity when it comes to their aspect, v2 rogues in particular lack in confidence comes from the fact that they could never handle their own aspect. therefore, they might have difficulties ever allowing themselves indulge in their aspect even when worse comes to worse. as stated above v2 rogues need to learn to accept that their aspect CAN be a part of who they are, and that they CAN handle it.

rage is about skepticality, defiance, boundaries, intense feelings, adrenaline, its putting your foot down and not taking anymore bullshit. its about putting yourself first. rage is also just a very like... sensory aspect. its the burning feeling in your chest that you get when youre in those states of passionate, unrestricted emotion.

sebran: knight of space, You Know Why Lets Be Real Do I Even Have To Say It. knights are boundlessly loyal, committed, reliable and nuturing people, however obviously they have a tendency towards the Emotional Constipation and are constantly concerned with their own sense of usefulness and competence.

knights essentially have to unlearn their obsessive facades and sort of... perfectionism when it comes to the way they come off and the way they interact with their aspect so that they can exploit and wield their aspect. basically knights have to put the metaphorical shield down and take out their sword instead. their facades usually tend to reflect their opposite aspect due to their insecurity with their actual aspect. 

space is about creation, lack of bounds, infinite possibilities, the universe, isolation, loneliness. making something out of nothing. everything is at the universes whims, its unable to be contained. theres kind of a lack of any sort of structure or stability when it comes to space.

crylus: prince of doom, now hold your fucking horses before you say anything okay i know a lot of the times princes make everyone go “Oh god oh fuck” but i can promise you that crylus is a GOOD prince. princes can be incredibly capable and confident, goal oriented, helpful players. on the other hand though YES they can be a bit impulsive, arrogant. princes also tend to be a bit hypercritical as they hold people to high standards but they hold themselves to even higher ones (see dirk) a lot of the time.

princes ghost their opposite aspect and either just straight up destroy or destroy WITH their ACTUAL aspect, as they have strong internal brewing anger and hatred for their aspect and what it stands for. for the most part, princes need to learn how to channel this energy towards only flushing out the genuinely NEGATIVE parts of their aspect, as destruction sometimes isnt inherently a bad thing. in fact, sometimes tearing things down to make new ones is necessary and part of the process. but princes are REALLY high risk/high reward.

doom is about order thats outside of your control. its pre-established rules, guidelines, fate and futility and inevitability. similar to the death card in tarot though, even if doom is about the unavoidable end of a cycle, its also about the beginning of a new one.

vergas: bard of blood, i think its pretty easy to understand Why. originally he was going to be a bard of light which youll still see some remnants of that when his land comes up. bards are faithful in their beliefs and can be very committed to those ideas... but due to that faith they can be at their best just kind of annoying and stubborn to at their worst, antagonistic, unaccomodating, and dogmatic. 

its kind of hard to explain, but bards ghost their opposite while destroying THROUGH their aspect. i usually say that to mean that bards use their own aspect as a sort of vessel of destruction. theyre also incredibly unpredictable players, as if their convictions ever waver theyre likely to go totally off the shits. i usually call that their Bardly Revelation aka when a bards world views and ideas about their aspect are finally challenged. a bards challenge then is to figure out how to take these challenges in stride and become open to new perspectives rather than letting it consume them whole. (hint: a lot of bards have a very hard time doing this. you can kind of figure what im getting at here).

blood is about bonds, strength, unity, responsibility, society, norms. i relate blood also to expectations, and relationships but more like… in the sense of working together as a team. commitment.

hopefully thats vague but informative enough for you to get why i picked their classpects out. as always im really excited to get deeper into the story and actually really Show like Why they fit rather than just give some overly wordy explanations

[endwalkr]

this is an ask based thingy but im really in the mood to infodump so im just gonna answer them all under the cut !

Favorite video game?

starting off with the absolute hardest question huh? i can’t possibly name ONE favorite game of mine because i adore my favorites for many different reasons. my overall favorite video game is ffxv or botw. ffxv because it has brought me so much joy for such a long time, and because i have such a connection with the characters. botw because i was actually in the fandom when it first got announced in 2016 so i got to be there when the hype was at an all time high– and finally being able to play the game after waiting for so long was an unforgettable experience. i have more favorite games but ill talk more about them in the ‘’special place in ur heart’’ question.

First console you owned?

my first console wasn’t a console. my friend and i used to play on her nintendo dsi all the time and at one point tiny little me reeeally wanted one of my own so i saved up and got one in [redacted] when i was 7. my first actual console was a wii though, we got that around the same time.

A game that holds a special place in your heart?

ffxv and botw mean the absolute world to me, but super mario galaxy and skyward sword are very important to me too. skyward sword is the game that got me into zelda which got me into anime which got me into final fantasy etc etc etc.  super mario galaxy was the first non-mini game collection and more adventure story-ish game i played. i was so proud when i beat it for the first time and mario was my first ever ‘’fandom’’ :’) 

Favorite video game character?

bro. i cant pick just one so i’ll choose one per game : prompto, ryuji and link. they were all my comfort characters at some point and i projected like crazy onto them. this doesnt mean that i wouldnt absolutely die for noct or zelda. 

Least favorite video game character?

i dont think theres anyone i distinctly dislike? i always talk about hating ardyn but that’s because he’s just a salty bitch. as a character i think he’s a great villain and i rly love him. i honestly always end up liking everyone somehow, maybe there is someone i just forgot about but i cant remember at all. 

Favorite genre?

adventure games, or action rpgs. 

Video game character you’ve had a crush on?

every character ever, but i distinctly remember the moment i fell in love with prompto sjghfkshd i was watching a playthrough of xv in december 2016 because i didnt have a ps4, and the guy got to the scene in galdin quay where the bros learn insomnia fell. i had watched about 6 hours of the game by that time and wasn’t particularly interested in the characters but not uninterested enough to drop it. i hadnt even gotten a good look at the characters faces yet, so when the camera zoomed in on prompto when he said ‘’might not be save for us here!’’ i noticed he had freckles. oh god. oh fuck. oh my god hes fucking cute. oh my god better watch 30 hours of this game now

First video game you remember playing?

wayyy before i got my own gaming systems, my then-best friend had a gamecube in her attic. i was around 5 or 6 at the time. whenever i was over at her house and we didnt know what to do, she’d sometimes propose to play ‘’mario kart’’. important is that we are dutch, and i was a literal child. i thought mario KART meant it was a fucking card game, so i always declined whenever she asked. on one fateful day, i finally gave in and was pleasantly surprised it was in fact not a card game, but a viddy game. so we played mario kart double dash. (…i had never played a video game in my life besides browser flash games and was Very Very bad)

Age you started gaming?

so i played my first video game that i didnt own when i was about 5 or 6. then i got my first supply of games at age 7/8, but i dont really consider that time to be when i started ‘’gaming’’. i’d say that was when i started mario galaxy, so i’ve been playing video games for real (ie. story adventure games with boss battles) for about 6 years now.

Hardest video game you’ve played?

this is gonna sound stupid, but the witcher 3. there’s like 7 difficulties and i played on the EASIEST and still had a hard time, i just couldnt get used to the combat. i had the same problem with assassin’s creed syndicate, but after about 10 hours i actually knew what i was doing, and ive played the witcher longer than that and still am clueless. this is kind of an unpopular opinion but i dont particularly like that game

Video game you’ve spent the most time on?

i guess i am what you’d call a casual gamer; i really like video games but during a normal school week i only game for like 2-6 hours. most of the time i dont play for like 2 weeks if im busy. gaming has kind of taken over my life not because i play so much but because i get so emotionally invested lol i’m currently on summer break and even now im not playing a lot because of exhaustion and executive dysfunction. this derailed slightly but the game i’ve played the most despite my casual gamer status is …. … …. ffxv. surprise, right? the runner up is botw, but xv wins by a landslide. 630+ hours. botw is 350. my main save in ffxv is almost 200 hours i think. damn. i really managed to keep myself entertained with that game… (………i was thinking recently, since the loading screens in xv are so long, how much of this total amount was spent watching screens. i imagine it’s several hours, especially if you fast travel a lot.)

Most embarrassing gaming moment?

many moments in my gaming experience are embarrassing, but a more recent one: i was in xv’s postgame, beating some dungeons on my new save file. i had just finished daurell caverns and hadn’t saved in about 2 hours. (uh oh) i was driving around in the regalia type d and got to the big cliff near lestallum, and remembered someone made a gif of jumping in there so i wanted to try it too. i imagined the game would just put me back on the road, like it does when you crash into something. except it didnt. i got a game over. where was my last save? 2 hours back all the way in hammerhead. yippee.

Scariest video game you’ve played?

i never play horror games, cuz for me games are supposed to be relaxing experiences. no hate towards horror games of course, they just stress me out. the only time ive played horror is when friday the 13th was for free on ps+, and my friends really wanted to play it. (theyre kinda addicted to it now. huh) they had already gotten over the initial fear of having jason chase you, but i was still terrified. i can play the game without getting scared now tho. the horror sound effects just rly freaked me out at first jhsdkghsd

Most memorable gaming moment?

playing breath of the wild for the first time, or beating it for the first time. both experiences were filled to the brim with excitement and nostalgia. seeing botw as a blank slate, a world for you to explore, having no idea where you’re going… that was pretty incredible. now i know every nook and cranny of the map, so i wish i could play it for the first time again. i was so incredibly immersed. beating it was insane. i cried for 30 minutes and the end wasnt even sad, i was just so amazed at the fact that i was really here, playing breath of the wild, it was really real. the fucking main theme in the background (which i cannot for the life of me listen to without crying) didnt help with my emotions sgkdjh

Video game character you wish you could meet in real life?

…………..its prompto again. maybe 2017 me …. was .. kind of a kinnie

PC, Xbox, Playstation, or Nintendo?

i dont care about console wars at all, but i think hardware-wise, pc is the best, because if you have a good pc you can basically do anything. i however do not, so i just play on consoles. ive never particularly liked xbox, so i only play ps4 and nintendo. not the switch though. its kinda petty, but my best friend and i really dont like the switch djghks

Gaming company you’re most loyal to?

none. i used to call myself a nintendo nerd (oh my god…. i m. gonna die) in like 2015 but since the switch came out and since i got a ps4 they kinda lost me. i still like their game series of course, but as a company i don’t care for them. the only reason i see square enix as one of ‘’my’’ gaming companies is because ffxv took up like 70% of my gaming experience, but besides final fantasy i don’t really love them too much either.

If you could only play one video game for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

atm i’m really into ffxiv because theres just so much to do, but that’s just a new, possibly temporary interest. if i had to choose, i’d say botw. maybe i’d say ffxv, but i feel like running around doing nothing in that game isnt very fun, because the world is sorta empty after completing every quest and getting to level 120. in botw, just fucking around on your horse is still really relaxing and nice. 

Do you use strategy guides?

yup. in certain games i try to avoid them but i usually end up stuck or in need of advice. i couldn’t have gotten so many p5 trophies if not for the internet lol

How often do you use cheats?

never, simply because the games i play often do not have cheats. unless im playing the sims and are in need of a motherlode, i dont use them.

Competitive or single player?

single player. im bad at video games and like to do stuff at my own pace. online multiplayer can be fun every now and then in games like mario kart 8 or splatoon, and i also like teamwork stuff like ffxiv or comrades. but ultimately, i prefer playing on my own.

Video game character you want to/have cosplayed?

have never cosplayed, dont have plans to either, but it would be fun to cosplay link. omg. i just remembered i have that fucking chocomoogle shirt… sorry link im gonna slap on some sasuke hair, black jeans and ugly sneakers 

Ever go to a video game convention?

i have not, i have however gone to three (3) video game concerts which is basically the same thing. 

Hardest boss fight you’ve been in?

the hardest bosses for me are usually the ones with a gimmick. you have to use a certain item or tactic to beat them or something. other hard fights for me are when you fight someone with a similar skill set. (in ffxv, this happens twice, once with the iggy-noct sparring match and once against ardyn. somehow, the final boss was easier than getting the prince to eat vegetables.) i don’t know an actual example of THE hardest boss fight ive been in though. at the time, the first bowser battle in mario galaxy was the hardest thing in the universe and i got stuck for like a month. currently, i’m having trouble with the riku-ansem fight in kh1. 

Video game you wish you could burn from your memory?

the zelda cdi games? no, i dont really know. i dont hate a game so much that i’d want to forget about it altogether, but i dont exactly love ocarina of time that much. it hasnt aged well and playing it on the gamecube for the first time in 2015 wasnt a good idea. im sure it was revolutionary at the time, but i cant handle the outdated controls gsdgksjs 

Favorite gaming series?

see, i love ffxv itself more than the entirety of the zelda series, but i dont love ff as a SERIES more than the zelda games. so if were talking series, zelda for sure. i fucking love those games and they mean a lot to me. 

Do you skip tutorials, or find them useful?

i often skip them because i cant pay attention, but then find that i need them anyway. so i usually do skim through them. 

Best online gaming experience?

one really good one happened a few days ago in ffxiv, some guy and i exchanged emotes for like 30 minutes and it ended with us becoming friends on psn :’) ppl dont usually emote back at me in that game so this was really wholesome and nice gjshksdj 

Worst online gaming experience?

i dont really have a worst? theyre more annoying. think try harders in gta online killing you 15 times in a row because they want to show you how good they are or something. magically, online gaming hasnt been too hard on me (mainly because i dont game online that much)

Why do you game?

it brings me joy. it’s a fun way of relaxing, while being stimulated at the same time. games have meant a great deal to me the past 6 years and i wouldnt want to lose them for the world.

[solunova]

hey uh ib is... como se dice... a Fuck. like as someone who is still trying to recover psychologically after graduating and getting my diploma. like i was Smart Good At School and hung out with Smart Good At School and we were all dying the entire time. you may have some issues but like. shit's fucked man

(Another Anonymous said: Hey don’t stress yourself too much with ib stuff, they suck now and are so freaking stressful but they are definitely steps that will help you down the road (coming from someone who definitely credits all the ia and shit I had to write to helping me rewrite a 10 page college paper 3 days before it’s due and get an a on it) these things have their place in you academic journey (also don’t stress the ioc’s too much you have that knowledge in your brain you can do it!))

i guess before i start: thank you two. person 1 for validation in my pain and 2 for encouragement that ill be okay and that it isnt all for naught. i appreciate both of yall! 

but its my birthday at 1:40 am and im fucking SAD cause im up trying to write my entire bio ia due friday after some Complications came up so this is gonna be a mostly negative retrospective of my last two years and the circumstances that ive lived in due to the ib

i refuse to put this under a cut yall scroll past word walls anyways

so heres my hot and absolutely original take: i recognize that ib is extremely beneficial in certain regards. i know from everyone who took it telling me that its good for college experience and all that kind of stuff, both on a knowledge/content level and on, as person 2 describes, an “i cant get off my ass to write this paper in time” level and being able to compensate for that. i agree with that! I am extremely grateful for an increased class difficulty, especially in the fields where i knew what was happening already and spent classes bored until ib. and like! ib english is the first goddamn time ive EVER talked about the evils of imperialism and colonialism in an academic setting. that shit is vital to our future and yet no normal class talks about it!!! its terrible! and ib history is the first time ive ever enjoyed a history class and gotten even a margin of a good feeling out of it. like there are some really good parts of ib that ive written every damn college entry essay ive gotten on. i Know.

but like okay lets start with the fact that going into this that they (as in all ib teachers) were like “oh itll break you out of procrastination! itll teach you to constantly be studying!!! its what you need for college!!!!!” when it has done all of jack and shit to help us achieve that. its just kind of put us in the lions den and let us scramble at the walls for a foothold to get out or at least survive, maimed and depraved. if it sees us stopping to catch our breath, it shoots at our feet. the ibo extorts our misery to feed their mirth

lets also acknowledge that dumb fucks who take full ib, or even worse, those taking pseudo full ib (ie all classes but no diploma cause their extended essay busted and they gave up ie me) mostly take it due to extreme pressure, be it from their schools, their family, or their own psyche, saying they arent good enough if they dont take the highest offered classes, or even more that if they arent doing well in those classes its a product of their own shortcomings and then spend most of the rest of the time in ib degrading themselves because no matter how much time they put in they cant be the best and all that fun stuff. ib kids are put on a sort of pedestal by the school but then left on their own. 

i, of course, see this as a much greater academic institution integrated mindset that needs to be addressed and challenged, but to force it on kids who have to not only go through with it for the next four years, but also because its targeted at these kids that are higher achieving “gifted and talented” fucking whatever, most likely the rest of their lives?

its straight up psychologically damaging to give such a rigorous course load and no help for the effects and self esteem issues from it, no help for the people who dont know how to give up and instead run themselves in the fucking dirt and strain themselves to the edges of their goddamn sanity, spending what little time is left in their adolescence treating themselves like shit

idealistically, ib is wonderful. i think it carries out some of its best traits (integrating global thinking, allowing a more freeform discussion of many things, etc), but i also recognize how absolutely full of shit it is in many corners (regarding encouraging service, intellectual honesty, whatever else), one, and that a lot of people are just.. not up to the task. they may have the ability intellectually, but not mentally. i firmly believe that anyone can do anything if they set their minds to it but i have become the victim of my own philosophy because that came at the expense of my well-being.

and the fact that when i tried to tell my coordinator this she a) did not let me just NOT do the ee despite how strained i was(which i didnt end up doing, lick my whole dick mrs kurtz) and stole my summer from me because between being depressed as hell at gsp i was a nervous wreck about what they could do to me or how i was going to accomplish anything that i needed to, and that i havent had a proper break from school in three straight years, that im still running on empty essentially and b) that when i told the other ib coordinator, 4 months later, theres not a souls chance in hell that i was gonna fucking do it, that she lectured me and made me cry in class about how “you cant see the forest for the trees” “thisll help you later in life” “youre throwing away jobs” all that fun stuff like

its evil

the lack of care that often goes into it

the extreme magnitude of work that, sure, is feasibly possible for a 16-18 year old to do, but here theyre expected to

the fact that the classes fall in a time where gpa is so absolutely vital to colleges and scholarships (and given that its these ib kids’ personality and intellectual dispositions, even more so - both in esteem and necessity)

the fact that so many of the classes and so much of the coursework is empty, ultimately

its kind of a bad system

not even to MENTION the egotistical complexes, both inwardly as addressed and outwardly as in being the most godawful kind of people that manifests in these people that think theyre gods gift to the world cause they took ib and “if you spend time bitching about ib you deserve to fail because that was time you could have spent working” like you sound like the worst kind of person and i dont fucking care. theres a girl in my classes who is so upset every time someone doesnt listen to her because she thinks everything she has to say is the goddamn gospel and ib really attracts these kinds of people and its the WORST