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nyasiaaaaa · 3 years

Text

The Little things

Pairing: Din Djarin x Fem reader

Word count: 8k

Warnings: established relationship, shooting, angst, Smut (18+), spanking, Dom/Sub, oral sex ( m and f receiving) P in V, fingering ( f receiving), spitting, use of good girl ( once), breeding kink if you squint, Fluff, helmet-less Din ( he only wears it when he’s outside), tw eating

A/N: First time writing smut and first time writing for a Pedro character. For @its--fandom--darling 1k follower celebration!!! Thank you @absurdthirst for all your help. Thank you @aripariii for looking over this.

 You throw your head back in frustration as you contemplate giving up feeding the kid. You had been trying to feed him vegetables for the past week. Every time you wanted to feed him some smashed peas with a spoon, he would use the force to push it into your mouth. You lift your head as you take a deep breath, ready to try again when Din walks in and throws jerky on the table for the kid. You look at Din in disbelief before getting up to clean the mess while you let the kid eat.

“I’ll be back in a few; this shouldn’t take long,” Din announced as he stood in place, scanning the room for his blaster.

“You missing something,” you asked, hopping on one of the crates looking over at him with a mischievous smile

“Give it,” he grumbled out, walking up to you holding his hand out

“Give what,” you questioned as you tilted your head. “Give this,” you smiled, pulling out his blaster.

Din tried to reach for it as you pulled back “nope, let’s make a deal.”

“I don’t have time for games, cyar’ika,” he replied trying to convince you to give it up.

“Then let’s not play any. I’ll give you your blaster if you quit giving the kid what he wants when I’m trying to give him a balanced diet, ok.”

“Ok,” he agrees to take the blaster from your hand.

“Also, you don’t have to rush back for lunch; just make sure you are here for dinner” he gave you a nod in response as he fished, packing up his things.

You pick the kid up and dust him over, carrying him over to Din so he could say bye. Din looked down at his son and ruffled his head before looking at you. He bent down, placing his cold beskar helmet against your head. He didn’t need to say anything you already knew and vise versa. Din straightened up and walked towards the ramp before typing in buttons and letting it down.

As Din was walking away, he stopped to remind you for the millionth time, “cyar’ika, don’t leave the ship, this is one of the most dangerous plants and-“

“I know you’ve told me all this before. I won’t leave me. The kid and I are going to chill here and watch cartoons or something,” you told him, interrupting his repetitive speech.

He stood there hesitantly, debating in his head before choosing to just walk down the ramp and away. You guys never did that stop and turn around things you’ve seen in movies; there was no need to. He was always going to come back; he had promised you.

As soon as the Din was far away enough, you closed the ramp and started getting ready to leave. Dins birthday is coming up, and you’re trying to make him a chocolate cake. In one of your late-night pillow talks, you asked Din what he remembers from his childhood before the Mandalorian, he replies that he doesn’t remember a lot. What he does remember is how every year, for his birthday, his mom would make him a chocolate cake. It was the best thing he has ever eaten in his life, well, the second-best thing he adds a few seconds later.

Since then, you have been collecting all the ingredients you need to make the cake over the next couple of weeks. You have everything but cocoa powder, the most crucial ingredient. You’ve looked everywhere, every plant, every website you couldn’t find it anywhere else but this plant.

You don’t want to go against what Din has asked you, especially because you said you wouldn’t. Still, you just wanted to do something special for him, for his birthday, because he deserved it. After all, he had done for you, you wanted to do something for him even if others might consider it a little thing you knew it would mean a lot to Din.

For example a few months ago, you tried to make sure Din started enjoying his meals more and eating meals more frequently. You did this by eating together like a clan Breakfast, Lunch, and dinner. You and Din sit next to each other at the small table you had built together, the kid in his high chair. Din had to adjust to it but never complained. He even started to look forward to it, rushing back to the ship sometimes after a bounty to make it in time for lunch or dinner.

You smiled, thinking fondly of the memories you’ve created with your clan over the past months as you started getting ready to leave. As you’re finishing up and was about to leave, you activate the droid; you have to watch the kid. This droid you had found in a past mission but never had a reason to fix it until now. You had been working on it the ship during flight and while Din was away on hunts.

When Din had asked you about the droid, you said you were programming the IG-11 to help clean around the ship. Din had been uncertain because of its killing background but ended up letting it go. You had lied though, you had kept the Droids programming and just added few changes to it. The changes were that when you left, its mission was to protect the child and take care of all its needs. It was to kill anyone or thing that came onto the ship unless it was you, Din, or the kid.

The little white lie was never a problem either because you only activated the droid when you and Din were out to watch the kid, and you always made sure to come back to the ship before Din to deactivate it, plus Din never questioned why he’d never seen the droid in “action.”

You set out to the local market nearby, where you were hoping to find the last ingredient so you could make the cake. Since you started a little late today and this is one of the most dangerous plants in the galaxy, you walked a bit faster than usual. The quicker you walked, the more excited you got. You were about to be done getting all the supplies to make the cake, just in time, because Dins birthday was in a couple of weeks. As you neared the market, you prayed to Maker that the thing you’re risking your life over was going to be here. You were incredibly proud of yourself for keeping this a secret from Din without him suspecting a thing.

***********

Din had tracked his bounty to a bar nearby; as he neared the bar, he could hear the noise of people inside. As soon as he stepped foot into the bar, it went silent, some people shaking in fear, others puffing their chest out and rising onto the balls of their feet slightly. Din looked around the bar; it wasn’t a bad bar. It just wasn’t the nicest.

The same color brown wood was throughout, green bar stools, plastic lawns chairs, mice having a party in every corner. Also, the floor was sticky; he could feel it with every step he took, he would have to use a little more effort than usual to lift his foot up, and you could hear it in every step. Din hadn’t spotted his bounty during his initial scan of the room, so he turned to the bartender to ask if he had seen the bounty. The bartender wasted no time and pointed to the backroom as he kept his head down. Din reaches the backroom and sees a smaller room same design and layout as the front with four men playing poker and three bodyguards. Dins usually not a man of words, but he doesn’t really feel like fighting today, so he tells them, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. The choice is yours.”

One guard rushes towards Din and tries to grab him, but Din is quicker; he pulls a blaster and shoots a bodyguard in the chest. He starts getting attacked by two of the bodyguards but takes them out with ease. After the last bodyguard fell to the floor, he heard footsteps pounding against the floor, then pressure is applied to his back, one of the poker players had jumped on him. Din falls backward, crushing the person underneath him; he then quickly rolls over, props himself on one knee, and pulls his blaster to shoot the guy. Din then whips his gun around to the other side of the room to find two people standing there shaking with their hands up, neither of them his bounty. Din snaps his head in the direction of the door he came in as he hears the bell ring that’s placed above the door. He pushes himself off the ground and starts chasing after the man.

*************

You had to go to three different vendors in the market, but you finally found the cocoa powder you were looking for, the lady dared to charge you three times its worth, but you didn’t care anything for Din. You had to wander deep into the market to find the cocoa, so on your way out, you were doing a slight jog. You had hoped you were making good time and would make it back in time, but you had no way of knowing for sure.

***************

Din is chasing after the guy, and he’s so close the guy knows this too. The bounty suddenly stops in the middle of a crowd; he pulls out a blaster and waves it. Sounds of shock and fear echoed threw out the public. Din steps forward to get the guy he needs alive; the man suddenly looks around frantically, pulls the closest person to him, and puts a gun to their head. It was you. The bounty had put the gun to your head. Din’s mind blanks. He has no other thoughts besides getting to you; he doesn’t care if the bounty is for him brought in cold. The bounty had touched what’s his.

Din quickly pulls his blaster ready to fire when suddenly you pull forward, folding over as you push down on your toes; you then spring up, moving your head back to strike the man’s head. The man then stumbles backward from the sudden impact. Din is quick to act as he runs towards the man and then shoots the man in his arm, the man falls to the ground, and Din proceeds to lift the man up and place him in handcuffs.

Din turns towards you to scan your body as he looks for any injuries. His beskar covered face then looks up towards you as he asks, “hurt,” and you proceed to shake your head no. Before you can ask if he’s hurt, he grabs your arm and pushes you in front of him, signaling to walk. You do walk as he follows, dragging the bounty behind him.

The journey back to the ship was quiet, too quiet even the bounty tried to speak on the tensions, “struggle in paradise, eh.”

Din pressed his finger into his wound for that one.

You’d been so distracted by the event that happened you had forgotten about the droid, but it was too late. Din had already typed in the code, and the ramp was coming down.

This was the first time, the one time Din wasn’t the faster person in the room; by the time Din pulled his blaster out, it was too late. It all happened in a blink of an eye. The bounty was dead. The droid shot him.

You were nervous, it’s not like you were in desperate need of the credits, but the money could have help, and you know Din just went through a lot to get him.

“The child is safe, would you li-“IG-11 started before Din shot him. You were about to complain, but then you remember the situation you were in.

You stood in silence for a couple of minutes before deciding to look at Din only to find him staring at you. You turned your head away so quick that pain in your neck started to arise. “Din I-I-I’m so so sorry this is all my fault, I’ll take the blame, ok. Just tell Greef Karga, ok. Can he be brought in dead? I mean, it’s not a big deal, y-y-you’ve done it before. Greef Karga will s-still a-a-a-accept it right …. RIGHT!”

Din didn’t utter a word as he dragged the body onto the ship; he put the body into carbon freeze and closed the ramp. Then he just stood there. He didn’t move an inch. The tension in the air was so thick, you could even breathe properly. You knew this was your time to leave him alone. Earlier, you had noticed that the kid wasn’t in IG-11s arms, so you were planning on looking for him, assuming that he had been put to sleep because this was around his nap time.

“Ok, so I see that you need alone time; I’m just going to find the kid and take care of him,” you said as you turned to go look for him.

You didn’t even get to do a complete 180 before Din grabbed onto your wrist and twisted it, pulling your body closer to him. You could hear the hard deep breaths he was taking as he stared right into your soul.

“Why,” he whispered out, hurt invoice.

“I-I-I,” you tried to speak, your eyes moving back and forth as you tried to find his.

“Why would you be so stupid? I told you not to leave, I told you this place was dangerous. You didn’t listen, why can’t you ever just listen.” He snapped at you, saying every word with a tremble. He let you go and started to walk away from dragging his feet across the floor.

“I’m sorry,” you choked out, your eyes watering up, tears threatening to fall.

Your words had made him stop dead in his tracks. “Are you” he questions as he walks towards you. Each step he took towards you, you took one back till your back hit the wall. You were nervous but weren’t afraid, you knew Din would never hurt you, but you still didn’t like to be around him when he got like this.

“WHAT WAS SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU RISKED YOUR LIFE FOR? DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND THAT YOU COULD HAVE DIED TODAY? DO YOU EVEN CARE?”

You did understand how sideways things could have gone, and you were trying to tell him that, but the words kept getting caught in your throat. So you ended up just slowly shaking your head in agreement.

“Are you sure cause you don’t seem like it? What about that FUCKING droid? You lied to me; why would you do that? You already know how I feel about them, so why would you do that. And to leave THE KID with it. I hope whatever you got was worth it. Just do what I brought you here for and watch the child,” he growled out as he walked away towards the cockpit so he could set our next coordinates.

You stood there for a second shook but started to move to find the kid after the ship took off. He was in your old room, which you and Din turned into a toddler’s room after you moved into his. You picked the kid up and sat down in a rocking chair. You hugged the kid close to you as tears fell down your cheek. You were angry. Din had no right to talk to you like that. You messed up, you understand that, but to yell at you like he did have. Plus, you had risked your life for something for him. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t know it; he should know you better than to just assume that you would have intentionally risked your life for something stupid.

***********

Din sat in his chair in the cockpit, feeling the weight of guilt immediately; the weight of his beskar couldn’t even compare to how heavy this felt. He felt awful; he regretted every word that came out of his mouth. He was just so angry; he had almost lost the only person he has ever cared about since his parents besides the kid. That was no excuse; he has had his fair share of screw-ups, the number of times he has almost gotten killed was too many to try to count on both hands.

He took his helmet off and put his hands in his head. He was stressed after all the events that happened today, but he was most worried about what had just happened in the bay. He deliberated on going down there and apologizing to you but ultimately decided to give you your space and apologize later today.

Din was going to apologize, he swore on Maker, but later that day, when he found you so he could apologize, you were sleeping in your old room. He was tempted to move you to the room you shared but then decide against it knowing you had fallen asleep in your old room for a reason. He slept in the cockpit that night; it didn’t feel right without you next to him. It’s funny Din spent most of his life alone; now he doesn’t even know how to sleep alone.

The next day Din did honestly try to apologize to you, but every time he entered the same room as you were in, you got up and left. Din understood that you probably need space after the fourth time stepping into the same room as you and you walking out. Din decided that you probably needed one more day.

The next day came, and you still were leaving every room he came into. He was sad; he missed the family dinners and lunches, he couldn’t wait any longer, he decided to apologize to you as soon as possible.

Din stepped into the kitchen area around lunchtime; he knew you were cooking something that requires your full attention, so he knew you wouldn’t step away.

“I’m-I’m sorry, I should have never yelled at you like that. I was angry because the bounty tried to run and then held you at gunpoint, he was touching what was mine, and I-I-I took it out on you. I should have never taken it out on you; I’m sure whatever you went out for was well worth it. I’m sorry, cyar’ika, ni kar’tayl gar darasuum.”

Din waited there for something, anything, you didn’t say a single word. You instead finished up your cooking, turned the stove off, and proceeded to fix you and the child a plate before heading off to the cockpit to eat.

Din stood there in shock; this is not how things usually go after an argument. Din stood there for a few minutes as he contemplated what to do next. Maybe he had said it wrong, he thought; Din hadn’t apologized a lot in his life, he could count how many times on one hand, and all those times he had been with you. All those times, you had also accepted it, so Din shook his head of the thought that he had said it wrong. He decided to give you another day to think about accepting his apology.

***********

A day turned into two, then three, next things Din knew, three weeks had passed. It had been complete silence for three whole weeks. Din was dying inside. He barely ate or slept; he missed you, everything about you, even things that seemed stupid. He missed the way your hair smelled, he missed the warmth of your body as he slept next to you, he missed your smile. Din has never been before addicted to something, but he will bet this is what it feels like to go through withdrawal.

He craved you mentally and physically; he had started waking up this past week on the verge of a nut. He always had the same dream to, he would apologize and you would accept. Then he would worship your body like never before, discovering new things about you, what turns you on and how flexible you really are. Each and every time right before he would nut, right when you give him permission to cum inside, he wakes up, every time like clockwork.

*************

It was around lunchtime, and Din sat in the kitchen debating his next move. He needed you. He missed the way you guys used to be as a clan; just him and the kid alone wasn’t the same. He looked up and saw you putting the kid in a high chair and turning to the fridge, taking stuff out to make sandwiches. He laid back, watching you move around the kitchen. You had one of his shirts on with some shorts that you couldn’t see unless you reached up to get something that made your shirt rise.

He watched as you bent over getting something out of the fridge, his dick twitched in his pants. He had been so deprived of you that anything you did got him hard; he grunted as he started to palm himself over his pants.

You had heard Din behind you, you smiled to yourself, you knew he was dying inside, you’d heard it every morning when he was rubbing one out. You honestly had stopped being mad like a week and a half ago. You just wanted to see how long Din could stay away from you; you really wanted to see how long till you had Din Djarin on his knees.

You finished cooking and made some food for the kid and you, but instead of going up to the cockpit like you usually do, you ate in the kitchen. You decided to stand up to eat, leaning over the counter, back facing Din. You moaned with every bite you took, doing a little happy dance.

You had unknowingly confirmed to Din that you were no longer upset and were playing. He had suspected it but wasn’t sure; you would do things like get changed with the door open or take a shower with the door open. He saw those things and thought that you were ready to talk, but when he tried, you walked away. He had assumed that you weren’t ready and wasn’t doing those things on purpose. He knew now, though, that you were playing some type of game, a game he was about to end.

You had finished eating and looked up to find the kid sleep in his chair. You took the kid and put him in his room so he could sleep in peace. You came back to the kitchen to clean up; you felt Din’s eyes on you everywhere you went. You walked over to the crates to put some things from the kitchen up, passing Din as you went. You had felt him before you saw him, his back pressed up against you. You could feel the heat radiating off his clothed body as he pressed up against you. You leaned in for a second before realizing what you were doing. You turned around, trying to leave, but Din stood in your way. You had no other choice but to look up at him and go along with whatever he was trying to do.

“What do you want, Din,” you asked

“I was going to say I was sorry.”

“Well, apology not accepted,” you said quickly, cutting him off before he said another word.

“See cyar’ika keyword, was, “he replied looking at you with his brown eyes

“So what do you want now, Din,” you asked as you walked backward, eventually running out of space as your back hit the wall. You swallowed the lump in your throat and asked him again what he wanted.

He didn’t reply; instead, he reached up and took a finger drawing it from your collar bone to your chest; you shivered as he stared circling your covered nipple before pinching it.

“You,” he said

“What”

“You had asked me what I wanted now, and my answer is you,” he replied.

You were about to question it when he brought his finger up to your lips to quiet you before bringing his hand down and up your shirt to play with your breast. He made a low groan in his throat when he realized that you weren’t wearing your band wrap.

“At first, I was mad that you had put yourself in danger. Then I was a little sad when you started dodging me; it really hurt when you didn’t respond to my apology,” he chuckled. You could hear the smirk in his voice. He lifted up your shirt up over your head. He placed his hands back on your breast and then pinched one of your nipples, making your head fall back as you moaned out loud.

“Then you started playing games with me, messing my head all up. To blame you for playing this game would be wrong of me,” he said as he left you boobs, and his hand traveled up to wrap around your throat. Your body leaned into his touch, your hand reaching out to wrap around his wrist that was at your throat.

His hand squeezed your throat tighter at your silent request as he pushed you back, bringing his head down to bite along your collars before mumbling against your skin, “I realized that it’s not your fault, I should have taught you better, and I will” he said and then quickly pulled away and grabbed a chair to sit down.

“What,” you asked, eyes popping out head. You were confused, but it was too late; Din had already pulled you over his lap. He had pulled down your shorts; he was excited to see that you were wearing a thong, so he left your underwear in place.

“Din, what are you doing?” you questioned as you shifted around on his lap, trying to get a better look at him.

“If you’re going to act like a little brat, then I’m going to treat you like a little brat,” he said as he processed to take his gloves off.

“I will give you an equal amount of slaps on each cheek, and you will count each one out, ok, and safe word is cake, ok, “He asked as he messaged each cheek.

You shook your head as consent, “I need to hear a yes cyar’ika,” he said, giving you a little tap on your right cheek.

You yelped, surprised by the slight sting that followed that slap, and wondered how on Tatooine you were going to endure more, mainly because you and Din have never done something like this before. A slap or two while he hit it from behind, was the closest thing that had ever happened.

“Yes,” you were excited, you’d never seen this side of Din; you might even start messing with Din more often.

Din was smiling; he always loved to try new things with you. He continued to run over each cheek for a few more seconds before he raised his hand and landed the first smack on your right cheek.

“One” You choked out as he rubbed the cheek he just slapped.

It was hard, and it stung, but there was something about it that turned you on.

Din lifted up his hand before smack the left cheek “two,” you tried to suppress your moan. You were kinda embraced at the fact you were getting turned on from this.

When Dins hand landed on your right cheek again for the second time, you moaned loudly as you said the number three. Din smiled at that; he was happy you were enjoying this new thing. Din continued to tear your ass up, each slap hurting more than the last. You were getting wetter with each one to the point where your wetness started to drip down your leg, your underwear no longer keeping it in as it was soaked.

You were preparing to feel a sting on your left cheek for the last slap. Instead, Din pushed you off his lap and set you onto the floor. You laid there confused as he spread your legs open and took your thong off. He got on the side of you and leaned down to kiss you. Your lips captured his in a passionate kiss. You were distracted as Din slipped his tongue into your mouth, so you didn’t see it coming. He had raised his hand and slapped your pussy. You throw your head back as you moan, tears streaming down your face from the intensity of the sudden, overwhelming rush of pleasure.

You shot up before going back down as you raised your hip as he started to rub circles on your clit. He reached down, placing kisses along your neck up and down your neck to your collarbone and back up. He took your ear lobe and brought it into his mouth, pulling on it before letting it go.

These slow circles on your clit were killing you, “Please,” you whimpered as you reached down, placing your hand on top of him, encouraging him to go faster.

He slapped your hand aways, stopping because of you. He rubbed his nose up and down on your ear before asking.

“are you going to be a good girl for me?”

You shook your head up and down, unable to speak as he started playing with your clit again. You didn’t realize that this game you were playing had affected you too till now. You were so desperate; you would do anything he asked just so you could cum on him because of him.

He took his hand away from cunt and brought it up to your lips. You looked Din in the eyes as you took two of his fingers into his mouth and sucked on them. You closed your eyes as you moaned, tasting yourself on his fingers. You weaved your tongue around his fingers before you hollow your cheeks, making a popping sound when he pulled them out.

He ran his finger down your body before shoving two fingers inside of you. You moved your hips down to meet the thrust of his hand. Your legs threaten to close as the pleasure builds, nonsense mumbling falling from your lips.

“More,” you begged

“Faster,” you cried as he gave in to both of your demands.

Suddenly he stopped, and your whines of complaint soon turned into a moan as he pressed his tongue against your clit. He shifted so he could wrap his hands around your thighs as he dove in. It was still the best thing he has ever tasted, he thought to himself. Your back arches as he bites softly on your clit before he sucks on it, and he pushes two fingers into you. You reached down your finger through Din’s hair, causing him to moan into you to moan as you clench around him. Din loves feeling the way your body reacts to him, the way you gripped his fingers, his tongue, his dick.

You were close. You can feel it, and so could Din, so he quickened his pace.

“I’m- I’m. “You tried to speak be couldn’t

“I know,” he said, moving his thumb to circle your clit

You were so close, you could feel it in your stomach. You were about to cum when Din pulled his fingers out and started to lick them clean.

You let a puff of air out as you lose your high. You prop yourself on your elbows as you looked at him, throwing your hands up asking why.

“I just wanted you to see how it feels to work so hard for something only to have it taken from you at the last minute.” He said, standing up but never breaking eye contact with you. You choked on your spit when you realized what he was referring to.

You tried to stand up, but he placed a hand on your shoulder, pushing you back down into your knees. You cocked your head to the side, and he just reached down and took your hand, placing it on top of his pants.

You looked up at him licking your lips before unbuttoning his pants and pulling down his zipper; you pushed his pants down along with his boxers down. You spit into your hand before wrapping your hand around his dick as much as you could. You stroked him before sticking your tongue out and licking the tip, then running your tongue up and down his shaft.

He grabbed you by your hair, yanking you back to look up at him. “Don’t play with me,” he said before taking his hand and wrapping it around your jaw to keep it open as he spits in it.

He let you go, and you stroked him a few times before taking him into your mouth. You moaned around him at the taste of him; this caused Din to lose his balance for a second, making him grab onto a crate to balance himself.

You swirled your tongue around his head before going back and forth, taking more of him in each time, you pulled back off of him, but strings of spit still connecting you to him. You purse your lips as you spit into your hand, reaching down to massage his balls before taking him back into your mouth, making sure to lick the pre-cum as you did.

He reached behind your head to grab your hair as he thrust into your mouth, you gag on his dick, but he keeps going knowing that you will tap against his leg if it gets to be too much. Din grabbed on to your head with both hands as he continued to fuck your face; you could feel him inching down your throat with each thrust. He was about to nut; you could feel it as his balls started to tighten. He griped your hair tighter, signaling for you to look at him. “Where,” he asked, slowing down so you could choose.

He let go of your hair as you pulled back, sticking your tongue out. He smiled down out at you before taping his tip against your tongue a few times as he started to stroke his dick. He quickens his paces and grabs onto your head, pulling it tight, so he won’t miss his target. Din grunted as if he was in pain as he painted your face with white streaks. He rubs his dick smearing the last bit on your tongue. You swallowed the bit in your mouth before feeling around your face the rest and swooping it into your mouth. You licked your lips, smiling up at him when you were all done.

He bent down and swiped his thumb across your cheek, getting the little you had left behind into your mouth. You sucked on it for a second before he pulled it out. He grabbed onto your hand, helping you up as his hands cradled your face, and he pressed his lips to yours; he moaned into your mouth at the taste of him. He reaches down to grab your ass before smacking up light and kneading it as you wrap your arms around his neck.

He pulls back, breaking the kiss as he taps your side, signaling for you to jump up so he could carry you. You jump into his arms, and he takes you into the room you shared and lay you against the cot. You lay there waiting for him as he finishes getting undressed.

He got onto the cot and got between your legs; he stroked himself a few times before lining it up with you. He looked up to meet your eyes looking for consent, and you nodded your head, giving it to him. He slowly pushed into you feeling your walls stretch around him before tightening. Your head falls back as your eyes rolled into the back of your head. You grab onto the sheets, bunching them into your hands as you feel yourself being starched to your limit. You take your legs and wrap them around Din’s waist. You cross your ankles as you try to push him into you to make him go faster. He stops suddenly, he’s not even all the way in, and he stops. You’re starting to regret trying to make him go faster, you can’t see much, but you can see him smiling. You know that smile, nothing good is about to come out of that smile.

Din pulls all the way out before slamming back into you completely. You didn’t even make a sound because the air is knocked out of you; your back arches as you try to catch your breath. As soon as you caught your breath, he steals it as he leans down for a kiss capturing your lips roughly.

As he continuously pounds into you ruthfully, he takes one of your legs wrapped around his waist and pushes it to your chest to get a better angle to go deeper. You cry out with every thrust, your voice bouncing off the walls, echoing in the room.

“Mine, This body, theses tits, this tight as pussy, it’s all mine,” he told you as he takes one of your nipples into his mouth.

“It’s yours; every part of me is yours,” you agreed as you wrapped your arms around his neck, bringing him in closers.

You were close, especially after being denied earlier; you need release. Din quicken his paces as he felt you clench tightly around him.

“I-I-I’m close,” you screamed out.

“Cum for me, riduur,” he whispers in your ear.

The name he calls you pushes you over the edge; you clamp down on his dick as you cum. That doesn’t slow him down as he continues for a few strokes riding out you high before pulling out, flipping you onto your stomach, and pushing back into you without warning or rest. You back arch into his thrust as he makes your legs go apart, spreading you wider. He pops onto one knee, driving into you mercilessly as he reaches down to press your face into the mat.

As he’s thrusting into you, you feel one of his fingers circle around your unstretched hole; you guys had been saving that experience, maybe for this moment. “Can I please? I’ll only put a finger in,” he begged you you nodding your head under his hand. He acknowledges the movement as he pulls out, reaching down swooping up some of your wetness before plunging back into you. He teases the hole before slowly pushing his thumb in, causing you to arch your back even more and let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding. “ f-f-fuck, Din” you stutter out when he got fully in.

Din quickens his pace in you as he sets a steady pace with his thumb. This was new to you, so being stretched like this, you were close to began for more; you wanted to know how it would feel to be pushed to your limit in both holes. You decided against it as you feel Din reach under you to toy with your clit, you chocked on your spit as you tried to catch your breath, all this pleasure was becoming too much for you to handle, you couldn’t even seem to catch your breath.

The pressure builds up in your stomach once again as you feel your peak near. You let sob into the mattress as you feel yourself clench around Din like never before as you cum. Your back arching to the point of pain, which only adds to your pleasure. You feel Din slow down; at first, you are confused about what he’s doing, but then you realized he’s watching how well you take him. He’s looking at how your pussy quivers around him with every stroke. He then speeds up for a second, loving the sound of skin slapping and the gushing sound your pussy makes as your wetness flows out of you staining your sheets.

Din chuckles before pulling you up by your hair, pressing your back to his chest, as he starts to thrust into you. Your body naturally arching into him as he reaches up and cups your right breast, moving his other hand down as he rubs vicious circles on your clit. Your tried body slumping against him as he takes you from behind. He knows you’re tired even if the grip you have on his dick says; otherwise, he stills know. He leans down into your ear, telling you, “you have one more in you, I know do.”

You reach up to take his hand from your breast to wrap it around your throat; you gave his hand an extra squeeze encouraging him. You get that familiar feeling in your stomach as he continues to pound into you with one hand wrapped around your throat and the other one rubbing circles on your clit. You whimper as you try to tell Din you close, but your body is too tired to even conjure up the words. Din understood you though, he was close, not far behind you. He knew that the feeling of you coming around him would do him.

You throw your head back against Din’s shoulders as you felt yourself unravel on him. Din places a hand on the wall as he losing his balance the feeling of your tighten around him as you milk him dry, he continues to pump into you, riding out of yours. Din pulls out, turning you onto your back, laying you down before opening your legs and settling himself between them. He pulled back for a second because you had winced in pain, his dick had rubbed against your extremely sensitive mound; he pulled back, readjusting his self before laying back down. He played comfortably in your arms, his head in the crook of your neck as he rubbed circles in your side while you laid there with your arms wrapped him.

Din lifts his head up and leans down to capture your lips in a sloppy but passionate kiss that held a lot of emotion behind it. You pull away, and he pushes his head into the crook of your neck, and you reach up and run your fingers through his loose curly.

“I’m sorry about everything I said, it was wrong, and I was out of line.” He said but face still in your shoulder

“It’s ok. I should have been more careful when I went out; I didn’t even bring a blaster with me,” you replied as you continued to massage his scalp.

“What did you get from the market.”

“It’s a surprise.”

“I hate surprises. Do you not remember the droid.” He asked

“Hey, at least we know it effective,” you said laughing, but Din wasn’t

“Too soon,” you asked, but you knew it wasn’t as you felt Din smile against your skin. You guys fell asleep just like, you holding him in your arms.

********

The next day went by so smoothly; you guys were back to the daily routine like nothing happened. Din was excited to get back to the meal sharing, he didn’t say it, but he didn’t have to. You guys had eaten breakfast together but had your lunches separate because you each had your own projects to do. Which is what you told Din, but you had actually needed the rest of the day to set up everything for his birthday dinner and make the cake.

You weren’t even sure if Din knew today was his birthday, but even if that’s true, it will make for a better surprise.

Din was coming down soon; he just had to set new coordinates. You guys needed to come out of hyperspace to get gas before continuing on your journey to the next plant where the next bounty is at, which is two days away.

During one of your trips to the market, you found a pretty little black dress; you were so excited to wear it for his birthday. You don’t even remember the last time you were in a dress, and you knew Din had never seen you with one, so it would be like icing on top of the cake.

You heard footsteps above you move, and you were quick to act as you turned around, lit the candles on the cake, and flipped the light switch.

You heard Din slide down the step and walked towards you; your back was still turned to him, and it was dark, but something was illuminating your face; he just didn’t know what. He reached over to the wall next to him and flipped the light switch on. He turns and sees the kid in his high chair next to you.

“cyar’ika,” He asked, stepping closer to you.

You then turn around slowly, not wanting to make the candles go out. As soon as Din sees your face, he gives you a small smile, but it drops when he sees what’s in your hand. You were nervous for a second, thinking that you had crossed a line or something. Then you saw a single tear roll down Din’s face; you had never seen the man cry. You had been with him for close to a year and never have seen this.

You set the cake down and quickly went over to him, embracing him in a hug. He hugged you back so tightly as if he was going to lose you.

“Ni kar’tayl gar darasuum, ner Ridder,” he said, but you only recognized one of the words used.

You reached up and wiped his tears and took his hand and led him over to the cake, Din looked at you before bending down to give you a quick kiss, and he straight up, closing his eyes for a second before bending down and blowing out his candles. You clapped your hands in enjoyment and excitement and reached over to pull in your face for a quick kiss. You heard a slight noise, and you pulled back and turned to see the kid clapping also.

You laughed at that before reaching over and grabbing a knife so Din could cut his cake. Din happily took the knife from you as he cut himself a pretty big piece of cake; he took a fork and a huge bite. Din moaned as he took his first bite, slowly chewing on the chocolate fudge cake with chocolate frosting. His tongue dashes out to lick up any residue that he might have left on his lips.

“I might have to change my mind. This might be the best thing I have ever tasted,” Din said, bringing down the fork for another bite.

You faked gasped, “what does that make me second.”

“You know what? I think I need a refresher, especially with you in that little black dress,” I said, licking his lip, and he wrapped an arm around your waist.

“Later, the kid and I are hungry; it’s time to eat,” you said as you shoved him off of you.

He wrapped his arms around you from behind and kissed you on the neck before saying, “no, seriously, this is the best thing anyone could have given me. I have a question though, is this what you went out to get” he asked, you hummed in response.

“As much as I love my gift, and I really do, please do risk your life over something like this. All I need is you and the kid, and I’m happy, ok.” He said

“Ok”

Cyar’ika - darling

Ridder - wife/partner

Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum - I love you.

ner Ridder - my wife/ partner

#mando #mando x you #pedro pascal #star wars #smut #din djarin #din dijarin x reader #pedro pascal x reader #the mandalorian #the mandolorian x reader #din djarin x you #nsft text

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botwstoriesandsuch · 4 years

Text

Kip v Age of Calamity

For someone who writes tough shit on Age of Calamity, you sure don’t see me writing a better story. So maybe I should stop complaining and be satisfied with what was given to me.

...or...

...maybe we can dedicated a few hours of my time to spite an ask.

Even though the entire argument of “why are you mad if you can’t write a story yourself” is inherently flawed and pointless considering that’s the equivalent of telling me I should chug spoiled milk because I’ve never milked a cow, I’ll fucking step up to the plate here, I’ll put my money where my mouth is.

So here is Part 1 of your residential Kip approved rewrite of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Or as I like to call it:

Ok so before I get into it, a couple things I wanna establish. First, I know I just said I’m doing this out of spite, but I’m actually also doing this for fun. I really enjoy and am passionate about the writing process, so if you were looking for an angry rant about how terrible everyone’s opinions are about everything, this isn’t that. I don’t think that I am a better writer than anyone, or than the professionals that made this game, or that I am somehow superior to Nintendo. I am someone with the benefit of hindsight, I don’t have the constraints of producers and mandated directives and executives rubbing their hands in the story to make it more marketable or dumbed down or any of the other chaos that goes into crafting a videogame. So while obviously I think the people involved in this could have done a much better job, this isn’t a bash to say, “look how easy it is to make a story” because there’s a ton of unseen drama that goes into development that I have the luxury of avoiding, and it’s a miracle that any games are coherent and enjoyable in the first place. I’m just a lil Kip doing a fun lil exercise.

This little series is also not going to be a fanfic. I’m going to be telling the story chronologically as if you were playing for yourself, but it’s going to be from my omniscient perspective because 1) I need to relate the story to the gameplay 2) That would take way too much time to actually make this into a fanfiction as it already takes a hell of a lot of time to even plan out the beats of this rewrite and 3) This is less going to be a telling of a story, and more of a fun little exploration on the Three Act Structure and The Hero’s Journey. In fact, I am going to try and keep the given story of Age of Calamity as intact as possible.

The general ending is going to be the same, the characters used are going to remain roughly unchanged, (there will be no new characters, or removal of characters) and characters that live or die and where they end up are going to be mostly the same with how the original game is written. I know, I know, we all would love to see the Champions die brutally or to get us that sweet sweet Link angst or to have a game with multiple endings. And even though I personally would change some of those premises in Age of Calamity, I’m going to strive to keep it all as intact as possible, just to prove wrong the misconception that the story was only bad because of the writer’s choices for the general arc. I am a firm believer that biggest weaknesses of this game are in its methods of conveying its story, a problem in the storytelling process, and not (necessarily/only) the story product itself.

If you want to use any of the ideas that I present, go for it! I release them into the public domain, I have no plans whatsoever to write a fanfic for this myself, in fact I already have my own separate Pre-Botw fic story that I am pouring myself into, so I give the people full permission to take these ideas off of me.

Alrighty! With all that out of the way, let’s get into:

HERE IS THE VERSION IN A GOOGLE DOC FORM BECAUSE TUMBLR HATES YOU MOBILE PEEPS

Spoilers! Obviously. I’m going to act on the assumption that you know the full story of Age of Calamity to save myself some time, capiche?

Ok so we start out the game roughly the same, with eggbot being chased and forced to time travel into a portal. But, there is going to be some important differences in details.

We have the part of the scene where Zelda awakens her powers, and at the same time, something else in Hyrule Castle glows with the same aura. However, this glow is not coming from the Princess’ Tower, but instead, the camera pulls back from the fields of Fort Hateno, sweeps over Hyrule (where you can see the Guardians and the sense of destruction and all that) and the camera eventually flies over Castle Town, then within the Castle, weaving through the halls, until the camera stop and focuses on the entrance of a destroyed room, slowly creeping in. It’s a room that’s been demolished, stone rubble from Guardian blasts ruin the floor and cave in from the ceiling, there’s a small fire in the corners of the room, and from the props that you can make out, it seems to look like some study or office of some sort. The room is small, but domed and circular, signifying that it’s of a bit more importance than you might think . The desks and books and all buried beneath this collapsed stone brick. But as the camera focuses on that pile of rocks, from within that rubble, you see that same glowing aura that Zelda has, glowing brighter and brighter until finally out pops, eggbot.

Now, you can have that same sequence within the game where he runs around all cute, the outter wall of the room is broken so eggbot can look outside and see the Calamity’s destruction. Then that cut to Zelda saying “I want to save...everyone,” and this is important because I need the fade in between Zelda’s line and the fade back to eggbot to wordlessly imply that he is hearing these words, something that’s already done pretty well in the original cutscene. Anyhow, then the Guardian Stalker pops from behind, prepares to shoot, and eggbot can escape into its little time portal, and then the malice follows or whatever.

However, I’m not gonna immediately cut to the title, but instead, we have the music build to eggbot’s little jump in a pretty climactic way. But then the music still lingers slightly, and rests in suspense, camera is still looking out the window where eggbot jumped. It pulls back, turning back into this room that eggbot emerged from. Music is still relatively silent. Then, from the corner, you see some of the fire suddenly catch onto something. Flattened between the rocky rubble, just a few feet where eggbot emerged, is a purple cloak, trimmed with gold, flapping just slightly in the wind. [Said flapping being what causes it to catch] The fire catches, burning through the cloak, and underneath it, is a fallen copy of the Sheikah tapestry of 10k years ago. Camera zooms into that art of the Calamity, music suspends, merge to title card, then the music hits that climax and BOOM, “Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.” Main Theme plays. Let the opening title roll.

Now the reason I changed this slightly is because 1) I wanted to earlier set up some of the plot points that I have planned for this (some of which you might already guess or maybe not who knows *wink wink*) and 2) I think that the original opening could have been much stronger with its hook. Yes, the element of mystery is established with eggbot’s existence and that element of time travel, but then the opening immediately goes into saying “This is the tale of champions, a diminutive Guardian who traveled backwards through time, and the Great Calamity they faced.” So...you just dampened that hook you established two seconds ago because you explained it all. Sure, it doesn’t completely ruin it, but I think the impact would be much stronger if that text wasn’t there at all, and the music and hype of the tapestry moving and coming alive is all there was. I’d much rather that element of time travel just be explained through the cinematography itself, because you can already understand that perfectly with that scene where you see the portal lead into birds flying around a beautiful Hyrule Castle.

Also, the music in this game is fantastic! So letting moments that really let you soak it in, I think would be very beneficial. So now this scene serves as a much more effective hook before we get into the actual plot. The mystery of eggbot’s identity is heightened and left a bit more unexplained, you have this mysterious circular room that you’ve never seen before, and the set up of details that will eventually serve later revelations in the plot, cough cough.

Then you hit Chapter 1, Link gameplay, eggbot and the tower, that’s all the same. I got no changes for the story there, it’s a great introduction. However! I know my strength here is writing and I am by no means a game developer or designer, but I need, I absolutely need to add one aspect to the gameplay.

Near the end of the first stage, where there are those three moblins at the end, I want to add something that I’m going to call, a gambit. The game already introduced you to the special meter and “press a to use special attack” thing, but I want Impa and Link to use a gambit to defeat this last horde of moblins. Essentially, you press A to use your special attack, BUT, if another character is in proximity, the attack is even more powerful. Every pair of characters has a special little attack, that does tons of damage, and during said sequence, there are voiced lines, or at the very very least text boxes that comment on it. And with this gambit, while a regular solo special attack still does a lot of damage, I’m gonna nerf it slightly to encourage players to use this gambit feature.

Now, why did I add this? Because I need to better connect this gameplay to the story on more than an external “lets defeat this and go from point A to point B” type of way. I need something in the gameplay to better serve to the game’s main theme of “teamwork makes the dreamwork” and all that. The CURRENT gameplay, although absolutely fun and fantastic, just doesn’t do this. I need just one element to serve this theme while ALSO having the dual purpose of serving as character interaction. The current structure of Age of Calamity works where the sidequests and battle serve as your character interaction, development, and banter, while the cutscenes serve the main story beats, and important plot revelations. The cutscenes just aren’t crafted to support the weight of these dozens of characters while also giving them all interesting interactions, and that’s fine! So I’m just adding this feature to the gameplay, because being able to customize different lines for different characters for different stages that are voiced will go a long way into making the character development seem more fleshed out. And this gambit feature doesn’t necessarily change the way you play the game drastically, as you can still have four character slots and have them split up to take on the battlefield, but now you can split them off into groups of 2. And also, because I’m not completely blind to game design, the damage percentage boost of these gambit attacks will not increase as much, just slightly lower, than the damage boost of a solo attack when you level up. So what I mean is, when your character is weaker level, you are forced to rely on others in order to defeat your enemies, but, with the way the leveling up percents work, your characters can still reach a point where they can defeat big bosses all on their own without gambits. THAT way, when certain events happen in later chapters, when your character is all leveled up, (and maybe they awaken a sacred power or two) it feels all the more powerful when you can go off on your own. You can feel how your character has grown in strength because you can contrast it with your teamwork gameplay of earlier levels. AND it still highlights the importance of that theme of companionship, because you would never have gotten to this level of strength had you not relied on your friends.

OK, so the stage 1 ends with a gambit attack, Impa compliments Link’s fighting style or something that shows her admiration or respect for him. And then stage 2 for the Road to the Royal Lab is the same, but gambit dialogue for that stage is Impa complimenting Link, Impa being protective of Zelda, and since this is Zelda’s first playable area, Zelda’s gambit lines can be about kinda brushing Link aside like “I want to capable to hold my own in battle but thank you” to Link (cause I never really got that same “I don’t really like you” vibe that is established in botw for this game) and then to Impa Zelda’s gambit lines can be like “is this thrill what you always feel when battling?” and Impa is like “yeah isn’t it great we should do it more often!” and then you can allude to that with a sidequest for Zelda’s training or something. I just want to better connect sidequest stories with this stuff. And also, gambits are obviously optional so that’s why this is all just banter and character development and not actually plot points, and I’m going to stick with just one-on-one dialogue, although it should be theoretically possible to have gambit boosts of three and four, but I feel that would be too much as I don’t want to ruin the gameplay balance and encourage you to keep all four character slots close together, because splitting them up is an important part of the game. Anyhow!

So Chapter 1 is done, my changes being almost purely in the gameplay because this is the start of the story and the character set up is important. Chapter 1 to Chapter 2 is basically the establishment of the ordinary world, and in the Three Act Structure it’s basically Act 1. Act 1 is all about set up. I need to really focus this chapter on both introducing the player to the mechanics of the game, having them connect to the characters and the characters connect to each other through the gameplay, and I need to establish this tone so that when I rip it away, and change the tone during the threshold, it feels more meaningful and suspenseful.

As you can see from the diagrams, Act 1 has something called the Inciting Incident. The Inciting Incident is going to be the Yiga attack in Chapter 2, where our heroes first experience the true dangers of their journey, and there is no turning back. BUT I’m getting ahead of myself.

Chapter 2 is also exactly the same. I would literally change nothing about the Champion’s sections (other than my addition of gambit interaction of course) because they’re all pretty great. For the record, yes, evil egg is still a thing, and yes, Zelda and the gang can still discover those pictures of the Calamity in eggbot, yes you beat up Revali, and the Divine Beast sequences are the same. I just really need that gambit dialogue to help establish character relations. Revali quips at Link, Mipha protects him, Daruk is his buddy [I thought a cool gambit attack for Link and Daruk to better show that they are old friends could be them both chewing down on some rocks, before striking an enemy simultaneously. Because they never eat rocks together and I just want this ok] Kohga is the same, Sooga is the same, BUT, for that scene when you first meet Astor in the Yiga base, I need two things to happen. 1) The camera reveal for Astor starts at his cloak, which is intact and NOT tattered like how his design is in game. It’s a deep purple with gold trim, the camera pans up to the back of Astor’s head. Now 2) When the camera moves to look at Astors face, I need him to be standing in front of and staring solemnly at the evil eggbot. He’s frowning, and his eyes suggest something like he’s deep in thought of something in the distant past. That’s how the scene starts, and in the background is Kohga recounting the events of his failure to beat Urbosa and the gang. Then, Kohga can say something funny to annoy him, Astor’s face changes to your classic villain disgust. Then, he can get a bit pissed and go on his little rant about how pathetic the Yiga are and how the Calamity is trapped within the evil eggbot and how he will use his powers to end the Kingdom of Hyrule. Then he can take his little astrolabe and be all “My harbinger, show me the future!” and all that. IMPORTANT LINE CHANGE, Astor’s motivation here is not “The future, as it will and must be. I will not allow anyone to alter its course.” Instead, I need to tweak it slightly to be, “The future, as it was fated to always be. The pathetic stories and legends of children and false kings cannot waver this course. I will not allow it, for my sake…” camera pans to the broken evil guardian, Astor’s voice lowers just slightly. “...and yours.” The slightest, almost silent bits of the harmonies (not the melody) of the Hwaoc Main Theme play before fully fading back to Astor’s theme. And the final shot of that scene is Astor, looking down at the heap of Sheikah tech, with a neutral expression, but then looking back up at the malice stars, and the future visions of the Calamity. He just ever so slightly smiles.

[Also I JUST realized that the harbinger is actually slightly above Astor, because it’s supposed to show that the power dynamic is really Calamity Ganon is in control, so ignore the “looking down” parts I talked about, and just think in the broad direction of Astor looks at the guardian, and then looks further up at the ceiling with the Calamity and the future and then he smiles]

For that scene, I also need to remove any characterization where Astor is laughing and being joyous at the impending destruction, I only need that smile at the end. There is no villainous cartoon laughter, at least, not yet. Also the part where Sooga calls Astor a fool for thinking he can control the Calamity is GREAT I need that, that absolutely needs to stay in.

And then Chapter 2 closes off with that Yiga ambush. That’s the inciting incident, so I need the tone at the end to be slightly different. Instead of ending on that cute little thing where eggbot points angrily at Link, (like that part can still EXIST in there BUT) I need it to end on a more serious note.

Referring back to the Hero’s Journey, the Call to Adventure is the parts of each of the Champion’s recruitment. They each have their initial reasons for joining the fight, whether to protect their people, to feel validated for their skill, to get closer to the ones they love etc etc that’s all established in their respective stages.

This Yiga stage, however, serves as the official barrier between Act 1 and Act 2, the threshold between the known world and the unknown world, where the heroes prepare to seek out the obstacle that stands in the way of their goal. It’s important that this threshold establishes a sense of urgency, because that better gets you invested in the stakes, and helps the story's momentum to move forward. IT shows that the journey and adventure that these characters want/need to take is outside the safety of their home/known world.

In the original game, the threshold ends with that cute scene of eggbot and Zelda and Link and the Zelink vibes. That’s not bad, but it’s also not good. The momentum towards the later confrontation in Korok forest needs to feel more important, because this is a major turning point in the story. SO, I am going to add one more scene at the end. It’s just after the ambush, after the fires have died down, and Zelda (and in the back the Champions) discussing the events with the King. I want King Rhoam to a few things. First, I need him to kinda berate the Champions for falling for the Yiga’s “splitting them up trick” and leaving his daughter vulnerable. This 1) establishes doubt within the party, which makes for better uncertainty for the future and later internal conflict. This was supposed to be the dream team but the King is already kinda telling them off. 2) This also still characterizes the King as someone who cares for his daughter’s safety. That care for his daughters safety is layered in the subtext of him saying something like “Your priority must be to protect the only person capable of sealing the Calamity. You were so concerned with victory and glory in battle that you forgot that the fate of this kingdom lies on my daughter’s survival.” and blah blah blah. The King can also congratulate Link for keeping Zelda safe, and this is GREAT because that can add further to Zelda’s slight resentment for him, as he’s getting the approval from the King that she has yet to receive. But like overall the King is like “don’t leave my daughter alone cause she almost got killed if it weren’t for Link wtf.” and then that can also be a further excuse to hurry to korok forest to find the wielder of the sword so that they can better protect “not just the Princess, but the entire world,” something something fancy kingly dialogue.

Also when the Champions leave THIS can also be the time where Zelda gives that Sheikah device thingy to Rhoam and also where he sees eggbot. I know that happens a bit later, but for pacing purposes and for the sake of the story changes that I made, it better serves to place it here. That interaction itself can stay mostly the same as it is in the game.

So now, the threshold ends with a bit more tension. The Champion squad is powerful, but also has flaws in how they were split up by the Yiga, (cough cough I wonder if that serves the themes of the game in some way cough cough) and it’s not just “smooth sailing” into the search for the Master Sword, and the stakes are a bit rocky as we finally enter into the story’s Act 2.

= = = = =

And that’s Part 1 of my rewrite. Not really a lot, cause again this is mainly character set up, and establishing stuff, but personally I think it’s already a bit stronger than how Age of Calamity did it. Stay tuned for Part 2 either tonight or tomorrow, mwahaha.

Predict the future if you can...

#yes that is a allude to Nando v Movies #hwaoc spoilers #Hwaoc: The Kip Cut #honestly not TOO much rewritten for the First Act because the First Act is actually one of the strongest and best written parts of the game #hwaoc #age of calamity #hw age of calamity #hyrule warriors age of calamity

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by-any-other-games · 3 years

Text

so first thing i have to say about far cry (check out the other posts later)

i wanna talk about the best part of the game:

fishing

yeah i doubt its the most popular opinion but i will die on this hill. the fishing is the best part of the game

i grew up in buttfuck nowhere, so i have spent a lot of time being nearby wilderness things, and have experienced most wilderness things. that being said; i hate fishing, its boring and i cant be in the water, which is far better than being near it

far cry fishing is def unrealistic, but its sharp, consistent and believable, that i feel i could feasibly go fly fishing with no experience

and i gotta give the sound design so so much credit for that, the sound of the line tightening as the fish pulls, its such a subtle informational cue that doesnt use the bog standard fishing bar (im sorry stardew valley)

and the best sound i think in the whole experience is the fish sound, its such a wet sound!?! i dont understand how sounds get wet, but some games just nail that. its such a fun reward to the more mechanical, stretching sound of the fishing itself.

what really sets this as the best part of the game to me though, is the incredible contrast which it has from the rest of the game. everything from the story and sidequests are covered in guns, cars and explosions like they were sprinkles.

now im not saying thats a bad thing, the game does it really well, and its a fun time. and sure you can hunt, or enjoy the wilderness, stuff like that, but hunting means guns, exploring means using your fancy exploration equipment like your parachute and wingsuit and grappling hook, and it gets sorta action-y

but fishing has none. no pew, no bang, no zoom or vroom. its just you, some floppy bois, and the amazing natural setting of the game.

being able to go from freeing encampments in a blaze of glory, using john wick like gun-fu with your pistol and throwing knives, to then head out back with your trusty fishing rod and just, hang out. its impeccable, its kinda the thing that just cause 4 was lacking for me.

all too often i would start to get overstimulated with the constant blockbuster nonsense, and even with the non-explosion-y side quests, like wingsuit and parachute challenges, those still stunk (not in like, a bad way) of action movie stuff

im telling you

fishing

this also leads to a really fun thing:

i like fishing -> i wanna stop things that keep me from doing so

if im vibing by the riverside, and then some cultist on a jetski comes and scares off the fishies,

i get fuckin bothered by that.

so the only choice is to whip out the action movie bullshit and take your revenge

it creates player driven goals from what otherwise would just be a random enemy patrol. instead of 'oh dang, a dude' it turns into "SIDEQUEST: Protect the Fishies"

i think next im gonna talk about the gun stuff in the game, check out the tag for this little series #farcrywiththeo

hidden story to keep the post shorter

my first time trying out the fishing, i figured, "eh how bad can it be" and bought the intro fishing rod from a dude near a stream (im astonished they dont give it to you by default tbh) and gave it a few casts

i obvs fell in love w it, and hung out there for a good bit

the issue: the generic npcs in this game are... not great

so the dude i bought it from spent the entire time mumbling stuff like

im gonna catch me a big un'

nice piece of land we got up here, shame its bein' shot to hell

this lake is nice this time of year

on repeat

so i did what any person trying to protect their fishing time would do

ganked him

and then it was silent, and it was wonderful

#farcrywiththeo #cw guns #far cry series #far cry deputy #far cry memes #far cry games #far cry #far cry 5 #far cry fishing #fishing #stardew valley #just cause 4 #video games #game analysis #analysis #sound design #game design #theosthoughts

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cruddyborderlandstheories · 4 years

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so i’d really like to finish my guardian takedown lore analysis, but honestly the game isn’t really fun to play at the moment anymore (even with the health debuffs they added) so I think im going to be taking a break for now because I’m just not having fun anymore.

this game has a lotta mechanical problems i think need to be addressed so im gonna summarize it as bullet points below. I’ll play the new dlc when it drops, but idk if i’ll be on more than that (grinding, end-game stuff) until they make some serious changes. I’ve been playing (near) daily since launch, followed the patch/hotfix notes every single week, and my patience has finally, FINALLY run dry, especially with that really disappointing Phase 1 Patch and then the hotfix this week not adding anything else. What is the balancing team doing??? 😩

tl;dr: FIX THE VAULT HUNTERS!!!!

anyway. That’s all I needed to get outta my system. I might log on to this blog every now and again to post some random shit that pops into my head (probably with regards to my AU), but I’m not going to be actively playing and posting for the time being. Goodbye (for now), and here’s hoping the new DLC is good!!

guardian takedown only problems:

there’s a lot of waiting around, and sometimes it’s not explicitly stated that you’re waiting for something, so you’ll be lost on what to do next (not sure if that’s a dialogue glitch or not)

the crystal charge insta-death is bull. just. what the hell. at least make it so you just have to start over. killing ur players for failing a “puzzle” that they then have to fight all the way back to is so infuriating.

dying because you fell off a platforming puzzle is also bull.

i remember playing the first DMC on my playstation in middle school and having a conniption over the part in the observatory(? it’s been a hot minute since I played DMC 1) with the disappearing/invisible platforms. I h a t e jumping puzzles. why are they in a section of the game where death is semi-permanent and a detriment to your teammates. i tried the takedown 2x with friends and both times one friend didn’t make the first big jump to the temple and had to wait for our inevitable deaths. that’s so unfair to them.

there’s absolutely no reason for a boss to have 12 fuckin immunity phases. 4 per health bar with 3 health bars? Who the fuck designed this? *pumps shotgun* i just wanna talk.

i appreciate a tasteful immunity phase every now and again (the ones in the Valkyrie fight are actually p reasonable), but christ. that is overkill. I don’t mind the main boss fight, since u can end those early through certain actions, but jesus. the mid-boss fight is annoying as hell. you spend more time running from the immunity phases and finding the damn boss than u do actually shooting it.

drop rates are crap, which I guess should be expected given what happened with the Maliwan Takedown and the handful of months it took for them to fix that, but also you think they’d have learned.

in the maliwan takedown there’s a sense of progression thru the facility after you kill each area’s batch of enemies, but in this one it’s... dampened by the crystal charging sequences. you kill all the enemies in an area, press a button, and now you have to kill 3x that number of enemies in the same area, expect you’re just standing there motionless. It’s not fun.

the crystal charging stuff is just not fun in general. standing in a square is not entertaining. it’s worse that it was clearly designed for 3+ players when a majority of people play/grind solo

i gotta admit the boss fights just aren’t as fun as the Maliwan Takedown fights overall. I felt like a real badass fighting Wotan for the first time, but the main boss for this Takedown is kind of a bitch. Wotan’s fight is chaos, there’s so much shit happening at once and you don’t really have time to process everything and I love it. This one is p meh...

This would be fine and I’d 100% not care that much if there weren’t all these OTHER problems

General Issues with the Game

There’s no endgame stuff to play outside of the takedowns.

I assume they’re working on the first raid given some stuff I found in the Guardian Takedown files, but I really wish they’d keep the seasonal events/areas. They give us the option to disable/enable them while they’re ‘active’, just give us the ability to do it whenever we want.

when i hop on i either run through Athenas (my favorite map), or farm a boss or two. I have all the loot i really need from the maliwan takedown/elsewhere, and the guardian takedown just... isn’t fun atm, so i have nothing to do.

I’ve reset my playthru multiple times to play the main story at m10, but u can only play it (and the dlc) so many times

Mayhem levels and modifiers are a hot m e s s

a majority of the modifiers just aren’t fun to play with

they incorporated like 2-3 fun modifiers (from the community), then added a bunch that straight-up aren’t. I’m fine with the game being more difficult, but at least give us modifiers that make it more entertaining to play at a higher level instead of more annoying. I like the ones that have trade-offs or add new ‘enemies’, but I hate the ones that just straight up reduce your damage output.

a majority of the weapons with the mayhem 10 anointment (scaling) do not work on mayhem 10 (we’ll go more in-depth with this later)

Player Characters (Vault Hunters!!!) are also a hot mess and a lot of problems plaguing them haven’t been fixed SINCE LAUNCH

theyre literally the basis of the game and its balance. why havent you guys fixed them yet. stop adding new content until they’re fixed. no new skill trees until the base 3 trees work ON EVERY CHARACTER.

seriously. Why is amara p much limited to using Phasegrasp. Why does Iron Bear not matter to Moze except to proc anointments. MAKE ALL ACTION SKILLS EQUAL AND HAVE HEFT.

i wrote an essay here about it bc i feel that strongly about this

SERIOUSLY FIXING UR VAULT HUNTERS WILL MAKE BALANCING SO MUCH EASIER PLEASE IM BEGGING YOU THEY ARE THE BASE OF UR BALANCING WOES

ZANE IS STILL UNUSABLE WITHOUT THE SEEIN’ DEAD CLASS MOD!!!!!!!!!!!

MOZE IS SCREWED BC HER DAMAGE IS TOO RELIANT ON ASE ANOINTMENTS!!

AMARA DOESN’T HAVE A FUCKING MELEE BUILD AS THE ADVERTISED MELEE CHARACTER???

FL4K’S HEADCOUNT SKILL IS S T I L L BROKEN EVER SINCE THE RELEASE OF THE MALIWAN TAKEDOWN

ARE YOU GUYS LISTENING TO THE COMMUNITY *PLEASEEEEEEE*

BUFF AND FIX THE GODDAMN VAULT HUNTERS

Anointments were a mistake. Damage end-game is wayyyy too reliant on them

anoints should have a maximum of, like, a 20% damage bonus. the damage necessary to kill enemies *should be coming from the VHs themselves*. i don’t care if you have to revamp every single Vault Hunter’s skill trees and buff them all by 9000%. THEY DESERVE IT AT THIS POINT

at the moment in m10 there really isn’t much build diversity *even between Vault Hunters*. We’re all using the same 5 guns (OPQ System. Kaoson. idk. fuckin brainstormer? is that still a thing? jesus fuck) with the same 3 anointments (100% on ASE, cryo while SNTL, and 300% while 90%).

you want to diversify builds like you said during the gameplay reveal???? you want our choice in Vault Hunter to actually fuckin matter???? FIX THEM!!!! THEY SHOULD BE ABLE TO DEAL DAMAGE WITHOUT STUPID POWERFUL LEGENDARIES AND ANOINTMENTS!!!

Anoints also shouldn’t be common. At all. They should be, like, Pearl rarity. To let that happen, their damage needs to be tuned way the fuck down (again, 20ish % bonus MAX) and ALL ANOINTS NEED TO BE USEFUL IN SOME WAY

NOBODY IS GOING TO USE THE AIRBORNE OR SLIDING ANOINTMENTS JUST REMOVE THEM ALREADY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

obviously these changes can’t happen because they fucked up and buckled down with everything being anointed in m10, but still

imagine a world where the VHs actually did damage on their own without anointments and the damage buff from them was just an incentive to grind for the 100% perfect weapon and NOT A REQUIREMENT TO DEAL DAMAGE

>:(

A majority of gear is borderline worthless at M10

I’m fine with the difficulty of M10, i should let it be known. The enemy health isn’t really the problem IF ALL GUNS ACTED THE SAME AS THE OPQ SYSTEM

ffs.

you know, if you fixed ur vault hunters so they all did damage with just purple weapons (abt the same damage as legendaries w/o special effects) and removed the anointment requirement from late-game play, balancing your guns would be sooo much easier. you know. just saying.

right now only 10% (im being generous) of guns in the game are viable. 90% are worthless. We need AT LEAST 60-70% viable at M10. WHERE IS MY BUILD DIVERSITY. WHY ARE ALL LEGENDARIES NOW JUST “HEY THIS GUN IS STRONGER THAN THE LAST 4 WE RELEASED. HAVE FUN”

how to fix this problem? do as above: BUFF YOUR PLAYER CHARACTERS. MAKE ANOINTMENTS LESS STRONG.

then, at least the 10% already strong weapons would be stupid strong and OP as fuck, BUT AT LEAST WE COULD HAVE BUILD VARIETY!!! I don’t care if other people are dummy strong one-shotting everything in sight. I don’t! so long as they don’t play with me, I couldn’t care less!!! I want to be able to play with the unique, interesting legendaries. instead of the OPQ System. which, by the way, I dislike compared to the normal Q-System. let me use the frozen heart shield and the infiltrator mod. I don’t wanna be chained to the Seein’ Dead anymore :(

honestly at this point im starting to think removing slag was a mistake bc then at least we could use guns that aren’t solely damage-based guns. you know how fucked up you’ve got me that im thinking maybe slag wouldn’t be so bad this time around??? YOU GOT ME FUCKED UP B A D.

FIX THE GAME

IM TAKING A BREAK

MAYBE I’LL BE LESS UPSET WHEN I COME BACK FOR THE DLC BUT HOT. DIGGITY. SHIT.

#borderlands #bl3 #whelp #i needed to get that out #still frustrated...#just... fix the game #please #its so disheartening to see this STILL going on #like i know bl2 had the same problems #with the balancing #remember when they nerfed zer0 and buffed salvador?#but like christ at least they were messing with the vault hunters #now they're trying to brush their problems under the rug and it's really sad to watch #you would think they'd have learned from bl2

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fuse2dx · 4 years

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December ‘20

Bugsnax

Bugsnax is an odd little title, landing somewhere between Pokémon Snap and Ape Escape. There’s a bit less of a frantic pace though, instead telling a tale of a remote island where the titular part-animal, part-snack race roam about, with a series of characters each having their own relationship to them that... typically involves eating them. The disappearance of one key villager has been the catalyst to everything heading into a state of confusion though, and as the new person in town, it becomes your job to pull everything back together, all while trying to piece together a better understanding of just what Bugsnax are in the first place.

The game’s main cast are loud, colourful, and full of personality, with some decent queer representation going on too. It’s regularly quite charming, but the story runs parallel to a pretty simple gameplay loop of going out to a new area, meeting an estranged villager, getting a new tool that allows you to catch some new ‘snax in service of a given task for said villager, that inevitably fuels their return to the village. While catching a good chunk of the 100-strong Bugsnax portfolio follows a fairly repeatable mould of trap-setting and capture, some require some slightly more creative thinking, and final smattering lean more on good fortune as you try and juggle a few different elements in a way that sets up the perfect snaring.

I’ve seen some talk of folks who found the last sections of the game a little out of character, but having gone through all of the side missions before heading for the finish line, nothing came as too much of a surprise for myself. As a PS5 launch game it might lack the flair and experimentation that one might expect, but in better handling one’s expectations and seeing ‘just’ a game with extraordinary timing, it’s a pleasant and sufficiently entertaining romp - just nothing particularly out of the ordinary.

Demon’s Souls

I was in two minds coming into this. I’ve played the opening few hours of Demon’s Souls about 5 times now, with each attempt before this one stalling at different points for a variety of petty and frustrating reasons. So this, a fresh chance to try again, newly polished and smoothed out, with active servers, and a revitalised community? Excellent! Yet on the other hand, how much of the magic is Bluepoint likely to have been able to recreate? Even as a shot-for-shot remake, what if they had diluted the experience?

While I can’t speak with any particular authority here, very little seems to have changed outside of the visual overhaul. Some areas might be a bit easier to navigate owing to their new lick of paint, but enemies still pose the same threat, and everything is still where it should be, as are the obtuse, woefully under-discussed karmic swings that underpin its tendency system. Let’s not pull punches; it’s most notably a mean platform to build a game upon that makes suffering players suffer more, and is likely not one that you’ll even be aware of it before near irreversible damage is already done. From have undoubtably done similar concepts much better since, and while I might bemoan it, there’s also something to be said for allowing it to still exist just as it did at the series’ outset. It’s likely a wise choice on Bluepoint’s part to have left it untouched, albeit a slightly cruel one.

While the lack of a single, interconnected world was not yet on the cards for this particular Souls outing, there’s still plenty of great level design, with each of the game’s archstones providing a theme that’s adhered to brilliantly. A few exceptions aside, boss battles are typically less about flexing combat chops too, proving more of a challenge in solving how to approach them in the first place. In doing so, it creates some truly memorable moments alongside those that are purely frantic and rewarding thereafter. The same can be said for the game at large too; while its punishment of new players might be its most infamous quality, it does do a remarkable job in having you learn its every inch, and how best to deal with everything it cares to throw at you. While the chase of 1:1 replication might mean some of its jankiness remains, its visual overhaul and silky smooth frame rate certainly do a good job in helping you overlook it all and in embracing the still best-in-class world building. One of the years’ best, and by far the most compelling reason to date for next-gen ownership.

Grindstone

Grindstone was front and centre right as the doors opened on Apple Arcade, and it’s a pretty easy to see why it’d be pegged for such honours. It’s bright, colourful, charming, and very easy to pick up. Some of Capy’s other noteworthy titles might fall more into the realm of the arthouse, but this is them at full power, exhibiting that ultimate strength of knowing just how to capture any given audience. Most of the game is spent planning out your turn, and it looks great even in this calm stillness - but as you unleash the mighty Jorj on each of his rampages, there is a satisfying spring into action that gives the same kind of satisfactory twang you might get from an elastic band, or a coiled slinky about to bound down a flight of stairs.

Within a few short stages almost all of the base mechanics are laid bare, with each turn asking you to plot a course through colour-matched enemies, and landing you far enough away from any enraged enemies that’d seek to do you harm. Chain for long enough and you’ll spawn a grindstone that’ll let you switch colours mid-combo, and building up enough hits can then allow you to expend that strength on monsters with higher health pools. The range of enemy types grows as you progress, as does the array of new tools you can build that allow you new ways of dealing with them all, but ultimately the balance that needs addressing is knowing just when to walk away. There’s typically three goals to each level - opening the exit being just the first of these - and while in some cases you might have a handle on things when the exit does open up, it’s often not the case, and hanging around too long carries the risk of losing all of your progress on the stage if you lose a clear path to your escape.

Some of its later mechanics and the level arrangements can be quite taxing, and while never completely unfair, it can definitely... grind... on your patience. For something that could easily be taken as a casual little puzzle game, it’s quite lengthy too - the path unbroken leads you through a whopping 180 stages, but without extensive draining of resources from each of these, you’ll likely need to try some of the side dungeons to help make your way to the end too. Very likely more than your bargained for then, and yet still plenty compelling to boot.

Necrobarista

Some neatly constructed character models and a snappy trailer might attempt to tell you otherwise, but let us be clear with one another that Necrobarista is very much a visual novel. A shock to the system this may be, but anyone reading this likely knows by now this is far from a bad thing around these parts, so let us look a little closer.

It’s quite a melancholic thing, set in a less than conventional, somewhat Purgatorial coffee shop, where the newly departed stop in for a brief spell and a brew before taking the next step into the great unknown. While there’s a setup here for lots of stories to be told, it really draws in on a small cast of characters who look after the shop, and how a few key visitors change the world built up around them. Between each of the game’s chapters there’s the opportunity to unlock new side stories dependent on which of the phrases you chose to identify with from the chapter just gone, and although short, these do some good work fleshing out some characters and breaking up the main tale. As the title would suggest, the particulars of coffee do come up as a point of conversation, but there’s no drink-making side shows here - just a lot of talking, scheming about how to cheat death, and the more chin-scratching topic of a more accepting approach to this great inevitability.

It’s fairly short - comfortably under 10 hours - but crucially gets plenty of character development from each of its cast given the tight focus. Rather than the still portraits that you might come to expect of the genre, characters are given a real depth with 3D models that convey just as much as their words, which also helps this effort. Perhaps most crucially, and whether it’s in spite of all of the death, or instead because of it, there’s plenty of quite thoughtful and heartfelt sentiment hidden inside it. Comes recommended.

Tangle Tower

I picked this up for Switch based on a recommendation, not knowing that I’d unknowingly be closing out an Apple Arcade hat trick for the month. So yes, it’s another more story-driven game, not too heavy on the input requirements, but instead good for getting you thinking.

It’s immediately very easy on the eye, with each and every character drawn in large format and animated with buckets of quirk and charm that runneth over. Every single one is brilliantly voiced too, with varying degrees of charisma, bluster, dry wit, and numerous other characteristics that shine through in brilliant harmony with the art. It’s a murder mystery, see, and while you’re putting together what everyone says has happened, looking out for who’s fancying who and the like, you’re also doing so with the critical expectation that at least one person is likely spinning you some tall tales. Luckily you’ll find clues that help you get closer to the truth and help deconstruct some of these falsehoods, whether they’re in plain sight or hidden behind one of many puzzles. These are exemplary in just how well-pitched they come, each being self-contained and just tricky enough to have you pause to really think about them, but without ever being too irksome or troubling to stop you enjoying yourself. Once you do start to get to the point of unmasking some secrets, there’s also a neat little interface the game rolls out for you to drop in and then verify these revelations; pairing numerous characters, items and statements to help demonstrate to it that you’re keeping up with it all, and things are clear enough to move on. There’s subtle little prods in the right direction just when they seem to be needed, further cementing the game’s solid grasp of when it’s best to say something, and when it can let you just stumble about and get on with it.

It’s a fantastic little game. I lost a day or so to this, and had a wonderful time doing so. I hope that it’s not too far away that I forget all of the details, so that I might do it all over again.

#bugsnax #demons souls #grindstone #necrobarista #tangle tower

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abmaries · 4 years

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I finally finished The Last of Us part II and here are my thoughts/review.

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD.

I'll talk about the good before getting to the bad.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics and sound design were brilliant. No matter what you think about this game, you can't deny that the game looks and sounds great. The team did an amazing job creating these environments. One of my favorite segments was the TV Station. That area had me tense and on my toes while I was walking around. This was the first segment of the game that had me really tense. I always felt like I was being watched. This is where Naughty Dog excels at. Every place or area feels alive making you stop to take in the beauty or horror.

Gameplay

Gameplay was mostly the same but elevated in some areas. Crawling around in prone or swinging from ropes are a welcome addition. Wished we could've gotten the rope wall run mechanic that we got in Uncharted 4 though. I don't think that the jumping mechanic shouldn't be so hyped up because these days, it's the most basic thing now.

Acting

The acting was wonderful as always. The actors worked hard and put in their best work and it showed.

Story and Characters

Now here we go. The story is where the flaws are shown in this game. I'll try organize my thoughts for this because boy we had some structure and pacing issues.

The Beginning

I wasn't really feeling the recap that we got in the beginning. I get why it's there but if we're playing, we already know the story. I kinda wished that we had a better or even a longer moment with Joel and Ellie. Seeing how the first game was about them, then at least the game should have started with just the two of them. Or even start with Abby's flashback in the Firefly hospital and then cut to Joel and Ellie.

Joel's Death

I always knew that Joel was going to die. Ever since that first trailer they showed us, I knew. I don't mind Joel dying but I have issues with the way he died. He deserved to go down fighting. At least taking one of Addy's people out or something before getting tortured and hit in the head with a golf club. I get it, with the past five years, Joel could have gained more compassion but I still don't think that would override his survival instincts. He should at least got a bad feeling being surrounded by Abby and her friends. He still goes out on patrols and I'm sure that they also ran into raiders at some point. My point is, that something inside him should have told him that something is up. His death was just used to shock the audience and nothing more. The fact that they basically breezed through it to get to the main plot says so. He's killed and then we're rushed out to Seattle. Oh my god, really? His death should have settled more and not just done cut and dry. Hell, they have concept art showing them wrapping Joel up with Ellie standing over him. They should have showed that in game. He's a beloved character, at least give him a proper death. I know he wasn't a good person in the past and I'm glad to see that there were consequences to his actions but I felt like this should have been executed better.

I think that his death would had more of an impact if his death didn't happen so soon in game and that we had some more Ellie and Joel interaction before hand or at least a better build up. His death as a beloved character was lack luster and disrespectful.

The First Half

The first half was really great in my opinion. It was good to see Ellie slowly unravel as she follows this obsession for vengeance. I know people are pointing out that how can she suddenly feel guilt now after killing so many soldiers as the player. My view on this is that killing for survival and beating/torturing someone is completely different. That makes it personal. You are actively prolonging that person's suffering. That kind of killing will always be different. Her killing Mel and then suddenly realizing that she was pregnant and freaking out about it makes sense. She killed an unborn baby, that was innocent. Of course that could mess someone up. It's good to see that she's starting to have regrets with her actions.

I didn't like the whole Dina is pregnant storyline. I felt like this is were the dynamic falls apart. A strength of the first game were the relationships and having Ellie alone most of the time weakens the narrative. In the first game, you always had a constant pair. First it was Joel and Tess and then Joel and Ellie. The main protagonist was never alone. It would have been great to have that constant with Ellie and Dina. The first parts with them working together and getting along were great, I wished we got more of that. The two bond slowly growing stronger and maybe Dina slowly convince Ellie that this isn't worth it. I just wished that we got more of those moments. Instead, it got a backseat to the whole revenge is bad plot.

The Ellie and Joel flashbacks were lovely and probably the best moments in the game. I really wished that we had more moments with the present Ellie and Joel.

Abby/Second Half

I'm going to say this now and I will get hate for it, but I honestly didn't give a shit about Abby and the writing and pacing are to blame.

I respect and understand why Abby killed Joel. It's the consequences of Joel's actions. But if you really wanted anyone to sympathize with her, then you had to work pretty hard but they didn't.

What really hurt Abby's narrative is the sudden switch to her POV right before what we thought was the big fight or climax we were working towards. I like the POV switch but it was done at the wrong time and dragged on too long. They basically sling shot you back to the beginning of the game and now you have to upgrade your character and weapons all over again. It turned me off from her and her story. Her segment was too long. I don't know who thought putting all of Abby's scenes in the back half was a good move, but they clearly don't understand structure or has completely lost their minds. It makes the story feel unorganized and takes the player out of the story. It made me not care about her or her friends. I was focused on getting to the stupid cliffhanger they left me on. Reminds me of this stupid move in Once Upon a Time in season 5. We finally find out that Emma made Hook into another Dark One and he's about to do something to her. Suddenly the next episode is about Merida from Brave and it pissed me off. Bad structure and horrible organization.

I did not sympathize with her at all. If anyone, I sympathized with Owen more because he showed regret and a little depth. That was another issue with Abby. She wasn't showing any conflicting feelings or emotion for what she did. It made her feel inhuman. Girl was so chill. Even Ellie showed some emotion for what she did during her killing spree but Abby just didn't care.

As much as I love Lev and Yara, I feel like they take away from the story and was used to manipulate the audience to feel something for Abby. It felt like a different game. It should have been a DLC where you follow Lev and Yara. I also notice that they tried doing the Joel and Ellie dynamic with Abby and Lev and that just put a bad taste in my mouth. You can see some parallels, especially in the end with Abby carrying Lev in her arms. It's like they're trying to show us that this is the new Ellie and Joel. Uhhh no.

It also felt like Abby got the better treatment than Ellie. Yes Abby had her friends killed but she got Lev in the end where Ellie got no one. It felt like they beat us over the head that Abby is such a good person. We get it, you don't have to shove it down our throats. It comes off as forced or manipulative. Perfect example, you have us kill dogs as Ellie while you play with them as Abby. Hell, they force you to play with Alice near the end. Then you have Abby going on this long quest to help these random kids. All of this added with the 10+ hour run with her didn't help.

What could have helped me care was if they somehow intermingle her storyline with Ellie's a bit. For example in the hospital section let Abby discover Nora's body after Ellie left. Another could one could be when Ellie sees the Scars for the first time, let Abby's event be seen from a far. My point is, let their stories relate to each other. Abby's 10 hour adventure felt so disjointed from the game that it felt like it's own game. Don't let us wait so long to see Abby. Have their moments almost run along each other. Cut to Abby when we need a lull from Ellie and so on. And my god, give these two some dialogue. Two big protagonists but they don't speak to each other.

I love pov switching and it was a brave choice but it wasn't executed properly which in turn, messed up the pacing.

Before I get to the ending, I need to talk about characters and death. You introduced us to this big cast of characters and did nothing with them. You treated them like cannon fodder. The only characters on Abby's side that we got in depth with was Owen and the others were meh. I need to talk about Mel and how stupid and unrealistic her character is. You have the clearly far along pregnant woman sent out in the dangerous combat field. It's ridiculous. No military organization like that would send her out. Also we see her running and slamming her stomach on things. Really Naughty Dog? They should have switched Mel and Nora's roles. That would have made more sense.

Now the deaths were handled so poorly. In the first game, everyone's death had a moment. Tess, Sam, Henry, Marlene and even David. This game, the character deaths happened only for a second and they were never mentioned again. In the first game, you have characters bring up the dead characters more than once. The deaths were handled with care and meant something to the characters and plot but in this game they were treated like trash.

Ending

I honestly think that the game in its last hour or so, wasn't necessarily and dragged on for too long. In my opinion the game should have ended in Seattle and the last fight or the climax should have been in the theater. The point of revenge being a horrible cycle and it brings harm to your loved ones were already pointed out. We didn't need anymore. Abby broke the cycle by not killing Dina and leaving Ellie alive. Ellie clearly learned the lesson there too in almost losing the woman she loves because of her actions. They could have done a nice little wrap up with Ellie and Addy going their separate ways, each not fully getting what they wanted and each losing someone/something close to them.

The Farm

As much as I loved the farm, it felt too dream like and happy endingish. It wasn't needed. It felt added on to just give us another thing for Ellie to lose. Tommy coming back to show where Abby is was just used as a plot device to move an already dead plot forward. In my opinion Tommy should have been dead. No way, he could survive that wound plus the trip back. That was too unrealistic. Felt like the pussed out on his death.

Santa Barbara

Jesus Christ this was really not needed. Just like the farm, this was just used to padded the run time and give us another and unnecessary fight between Abby and Ellie. The rattlers were another fraction that I could not care for. I loved how brutal the final fight between Abby and Ellie was but sadly way beyond this point, I just didn't care. Just like the last hour of this game, the ending of the fight was lack luster and anticlimactic. You put us, the player, through all of this and you couldn't let us kill Abby or even give us a choice to kill or not. Killing Abby isn't the point, I get it but you dragged me on for another unnecessary hour or two just for nothing. No satisfaction for the player. Which showed us how pointless this was and the story should have ended in Seattle or in that theater.

Ellie going back to the farm and seeing Dina gone and her losing her fingers were a bit too excessive. It's like the writers think that the audience is stupid and never seen a revenge plot before. We fucking get it that nothing good comes from revenge. We get it. It was too over the top that it almost felt too unrealistic. When the game ended and I felt relieved in the wrongest way because this game was supposed to end long time ago.

Over all the game had wonderful graphics and sound design and was fun to play with great acting but it falls short on its structure, pacing and characters as it beats you over the head with an overused story of revenge. If structured differently and cut some things then maybe this game would have been better.

#the last of us part 2 #the last of us 2 #tlou2 #tlous2 spoilers

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ledenews · 4 years

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Sam Amico - Finally on Top, Writing What He Loves

Sam Amico is a self-professed basketball junkie whose lengthy career in sports journalism now finds the Akron, Ohio native covering the NBA for Sports Illustrated. Yes, that Sports Illustrated. The one most young men and woman growing up in the 1980s and 1990s waited patiently by the mailbox for, only to quickly tear threw the pages and digest the stories within. While magazines and subscriptions aren’t what they used to be, SI is still one of the biggest players in the sports media game, especially for those gifted with the ability to tell a tale via the written word and not relying solely on hot takes and video footage. It’s fitting, as Amico grew up near an NBA city during a time when the Showtime Lakers and the Boston Celtics dominated the scene. There was Larry and Magic, Kareem and Robert. The Bad Boys in Detroit came into their own and a man named Michael took the league, and the world, by storm. The young Amico didn’t have a chance.

Played the Game

He grew into a 5-foot-9 sweet-shooting guard at nearby Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in nearby Cuyahoga Falls. He parlayed that success into a two-year stint playing for Northeastern Christian Academy across the street from Villanova in Pennsylvania. While there, he set the school record for most 3-pointers in a game, a mark he’s quick to point out lasted all of there seasons. The school later combined with Ohio Valley College in Parkersburg, W.Va. to become Ohio Valley University. Amico’s old coach, Bill McGee, stayed on board to coach. Amico, meanwhile, turned his attention to his own career. Originally wanting to get into coaching, he quickly realized that he could utilize his best assets, a great sense of humor and even better gift of written gab and combine that with his love of basketball. He quickly said hello to the world of journalism which initially took him out west to Wyoming and a one-man show at a paper in Rawlins, Utah.

The Report

He still feels his proudest moment came two years later, when he wrote a 14-part series on the history of the Wyoming state basketball tournament while working at a paper in Casper. Additional stops including the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Observer-Reporter in Washington, among others, eventually landed Amico at the Sports Editor at The Intelligencer in Wheeling. Amico experienced success with both the readers and staff. It’s here he began his well-circulated Amico Report, a free newsletter at the time dealing with all things NBA. It was that digital newsletter that eventually catapulted Amico to his current path. He's also a published author, with his first book, "A Basketball Summer" hitting the shelves in 2002, later followed by three more: "Dribbles of Champions," "The Ultimate Basketball Trivia Book," and 'Three-Ball: The History of Basketball's Three Point Shot." He later lost his job in Wheeling due to an incident he takes full responsibility for and worked his way back north to the Cleveland Area, eventually catching on with Fox Sports and Fox Sports Ohio. It was there Amico experienced a renewal not only in his professional life, but also his personal one. Lessons were learned, but Amico found happiness again with a second marriage, as and his new wife brought together their blended family and eventually added a third son to the mix soon after. The Amicos now live in Medina, Ohio. Naturally, basketball is still a big part of their lives.

What got you into sports journalism in the first place? You did seem to gravitate to basketball more so than other sports. Was that just an extension of your playing days and your love for basketball as a whole?

It was indeed my love of basketball that led to my career choice. I never set out to become a writer. At first, I wanted to be a coach. I envisioned myself coaching high school basketball while teaching health or typing or some other fairly mundane course. But I also loved to write. I did it in my free time, just as a hobby. My best friend is several years older and became a sports television anchor, and I'd sometimes tag along with him to work. I was fascinated that you could make a career out of this. I loved basketball and writing always came easiest for me in terms of schoolwork. My roommate in college would stay up all night sweating over his essay for English class and bring back a C-minus. I'd crank something out in an hour, maybe less, and always aced it. (As an aside, he got considerably better grades in every other subject.) So, about my junior year of college, it finally dawned on me—why not put together my passion for basketball with the one thing I seemed to do moderately well? When I figured it out, writing about basketball as a career became my mission.

A billboard advertising the Amico Report for Fox Sports, a report that started as a free newsletter Sam Amico sent out during his days at The Intelligencer in Wheeling.

You eventually became an editor at multiple places. But neither was in a basketball-heavy community in terms of the pro game. Did you have a sense deep down that you’d need to get closer to home, or to a major market, to get to where you wanted to be? Was leaving the Wheeling paper a blessing in disguise in that respect?

To be honest, when I took my first newspaper job in a tiny little Wyoming town, I had no clue what I was doing. I showed up for the first day of work and was immediately told to interview the high school swimming coach. I didn't know anything about swimming, had no idea what to ask. I could barely swim myself. That was the start of a long journey of covering things I had very little knowledge of. In Rawlins, I was a one-man staff. I shot my own photos, wrote 3-5 stories a day, designed my own pages, came up with all the headlines and at times, even helped deliver the paper. Little did I know, it would be great practice for running my own website close to 20 years later. But all the while, yes, I dreamed of getting to an NBA market to cover the NBA. I wasn't obsessed with it, but it was always in the back of my mind, pushing me to work harder and get better. I never had a sense that it would actually happen. My goal once I started writing a lot was to just to do the best job I could and let the chips fall where they may. Eventually, when I landed in Wheeling, I decided to start an NBA email newsletter as a hobby on the side. Writing an email cost nothing and receiving it cost nothing. So, I made nothing. But if I remember correctly, we eventually started running it in the sports section, too. That little newsletter is the very reason I am where I am today, in my 12th year covering the NBA on a full-time basis. I will always be grateful for my time in Wheeling and I look back fondly on it today. Ownership, management, the editors and my co-workers allowed me the freedom to write what I wanted and tackle some interesting topics. It was there that I developed a strong work ethic, and it is one I still try to carry into my assignments today. I learned in Wheeling that there was no place for excuses—just do the job. When I lost my job there, deservedly so, it reminded me about the value of integrity. It was an important reminder and lesson I have not forgotten.

You’d previously written “Basketball Summer” and also kept people up to date with League knowledge via the Amico Report. But once covering the NBA was your full-time job, what was it like being that involved, especially given the Cavaliers were your hometown team? As a journalist, you remain impartial, but growing up a fan, was it difficult to keep the two sides of you separate at first?

Actually, while I grew up outside of Akron, I liked the Cavaliers but never considered myself a huge fan by any stretch. Sadly, I lived and died with the Browns, a lost cause of a franchise that remains near and dear to my heart today. I just happened to like the NBA as a total product, growing up in what I still consider the golden era of Magic, Michael and Larry. By the time I finally became a full-time NBA writer covering my "hometown" team, I had learned how to be impartial. That's one of about 200 reasons why it was a good thing I didn't get the job straight out of college. I had so much to learn about journalism. I had to spend time in the minors before getting to the big leagues. But I also realize that I am sort of an extension of the fans. I didn't celebrate in print when the Cavs won the title in 2016, for instance, but I did write with more enthusiasm and the stories were just more positive by nature. It's always easier to write about a winner. Quite honestly, though, it makes no difference to me. I try to cover the Cavs and NBA with as much fairness and passion as I did when I first got the job. The success and failures of the local team honestly have no bearing on how I approach the job, or even my enjoyment of the job. Sometimes, it's even better when they're bad. When LeBron James is in town, so are about 100 other reporters. When he's not, I'm generally one of about five or six full-time people covering the team.

Sami Amico sits courtside in Cleveland, offering analysis during a Cavaliers game. While still doing some on-air work, his TV time has lessened some since makine the move from FSN to Sports Illustrated.

You wrote for both Fox Sports and Fox Sports Ohio, and on occasion got to do some on-air analysis and interviews. How did that differ from what you were used to and did your public profile blow up further from that? What was the experience like for your sons and wife to see dad on television, talking basketball? Could you foresee a career path that leads to commentary either courtside or in-studio on a full-time basis?

I've been doing television since 2010, less now than most years, but still some. It's quite a bit different because unlike writing, you don't have time to sit down and assemble a thought. The lights come on and you just ... GO. You also don't have a delete key, so whatever you say is out there for forever, especially now in the day of social media. The first time I did it, I was terrified. The second time, I was also terrified. The third time, I didn't even think about it. It just felt natural. My best buddy in TV gave me some good advice: "Look two places, either at the person you're talking to or at the camera. Sit up. Smile. And for the love of Pete, put your hands on the desk and not below it." That was a start. I have also done some stand-up reporting for TV, in which I look at nothing but the camera, hold the mic with one hand and still have no idea what to do with the other. As for my public profile, yes, it did go up a notch locally. The biggest differences I noticed were that total strangers occasionally began asking me for selfies at Cavs games (as opposed to just yelling that I'm a hack), and mostly, the players and coaches and front-office types began calling me by my first name before I had even introduced myself. Earned or not, there's a level respect that you're granted with simply being on TV. That said, it's always been my least favorite part of the job. You have to worry about your hair, about your tie, about how you dress and about not doing natural things like sneezing or yawning. But they ask me to do it and promise a check, so I shut up and make the best of it. It's never been what I set out to do, though. My family thought it was cool at first, but those days are long gone. Unless I take them to the studio, they don't watch. Sometimes even then I'll look over at them during a commercial break and they're staring at their phones. The good news is I have a toddler who is fairly animated when I come on the screen. I figure I have another three or four years before he too finds that part of my job to be old news.

The Amico family, prior to the birth of the third son, is an image of a blended family that can find success in coming together.

Finally, like most kids into sports, you probably grew up reading Sports Illustrated. It was the go-to for sports reporting and feature stories. Working for them now, does the image you might have had in your head match the reality and how has the Amico Report morphed into Amico News in terms of content and readership?

Well, let's put it this way -- when I call a potential source for a story and say I'm from Sports Illustrated, they almost always give me a lot of time, say more interesting things, and are overall just more polite. Between the time I worked for FOX and SI, I launched my own NBA website. Fortunately, my time at FOX provided an audience, and enough of those readers followed me to AmicoHoops to turn it into a full-time job. I actually started to earn more on the website than I did at FOX. Problem was, when you factor in TV work, I was putting in 12-14 hours a day on the website during the season, and that included weekends. It's always nice to run your own thing and be your own boss. I did it for four years with a surprising degree of success. But Sports Illustrated made the decision easy for me. They basically wanted me to move what I had been doing on my site and put their brand behind it. I can also say I have never had more readers. That's not because of anything I'm doing or because I've suddenly reinvented the wheel. It's because everyone knows the name "Sports Illustrated." Overall, I really like their modern direction. They have moved away from the longform pieces (though plenty still remain in the magazine), and have assigned or are in the process off assigning a writer to every team in the country -- NFL, NBA, MLB, the NCAA power conference programs, and even NHL I believe. Readership has increased significantly for SI across all platforms. Not long ago, I started to suspect the brand was dying, but it feels like it's become a player again. My role is actually to cover the entire NBA, while also focusing on the Cavs, much like I did for FOX before they pivoted to video-only in 2015. It's a great role and one I've been comfortable in for at least a decade now. Mostly, I feel very blessed to be where I am in my career and am extremely grateful for each step along the way -- from Wyoming to West Virginia to back where I grew up. Read the full article

#Basketball #NBA #SportsIllustrated #UpperOhioValley #wheeling

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oswaldsirius · 5 years

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Collection Events

It was requested so here it is! Collection event info bomb coming your way!

These events run differently than Story Events, the big difference being they use main story routes instead of their own, separate stories. There’s a few areas to focus on here, but the main one is on Lucky Times.

First thing’s first. Collection events are all about just that, collecting. The item here is ‘hearts’ and what you do is trade them, 10 at a time, for a variety of things in the event. It will give you 10 right off the bat to give you a basic idea of how it works and to get you that first item. They’ll range from stories, to in game items, to Avatar attire. There will be a list of all of them that you can check right away as soon as the event starts. As for getting hearts, there’s four ways to earn them during the event; login, reading a main story, duels, and buying them. Here’s a quick break down of how many they give and how you get them.

Login will give you 2, basically once in the morning and again in the evening. Provided you, you know, login. Main story parts will get you 5 hearts when you read all five chapters of one part. You only get them for finishing parts, so being halfway through one won’t do anything for you.

Story Checks (Intimacy and Avatar) will add another 3 hearts when you complete them. For Avatar checks, it doesn’t matter if you choose the premium or normal attire; it’s 3 hearts no matter what.

Route completions will get you 15 hearts. If you can’t tell, reading the story is where you really earn hearts in this event.

Duels will earn you 2 for every five duels you do, win or draw. I’m pretty sure it keeps track below where your stamina bar is on the duel screen how many more you have to do before you get hearts. So again, do them before bed because at some point they’ll make another five and there’s two more hearts for you!

There’s two ways to buy them from the item shop, with 90 crystals or 2000 Lin. You’re limited to 10 a day if you’re buying with Lin, but the ones bought with crystals are unlimited. But if you’re trying to play for free or are a new player without a lot of Lin, these are more for situations where you need a little boost to get whatever you’re aiming for.

Just like Story Events, you want to look at Lucky Times and bonuses here, but the catch here is as soon as a Collection Event starts, we’re all in it. There’s no choosing to enter because it’s not a separate story, it’s using what you play daily with to earn those hearts.

Lucky Times

There’s three types in these events, Story, Duels, and both together at once, and you earn double hearts in all of them.

Story Lucky Times. These are the Big Deal in these events. You already earn more hearts just reading the story; you earn even more when it’s Lucky Time. All of them are doubled, so now you’re looking at 10 for finishing a part, 6 for clearing a check, and a whopping 30 if you finish a route.

You want to push through your Intimacy Checks on these Lucky Times. The best practice here is to just not do them if they happen the day before a Lucky Time. Let’s say the first Lucky Time is on Monday, but your Check is on Sunday. Read the story part like normal, but when you get to the end, just don’t go through the check. Tap the home button to get out of it and just wait for the next day. Your daily tickets will refill to play the next part but first it’ll ask you to get through the check. Bam. 16 hearts because it’ll count not only the check, but also finishing that part as being done during Lucky Time! You’ll usually see this with the first Intimacy Check on a collection event and new route. They’ll line up pretty much like what I just described so you just have to wait until Lucky Time starts in your time zone to finish that check and then keep reading for another 10 hearts. So a little bit of patience with your checks and you’ve got 26 hearts in one sitting.

Another thing about routes and Intimacy Checks. If you aren’t going to have time to get a route near an ending, get it to an Intimacy Check and stop. You can bounce into the route on Lucky Time and earn 16 hearts for that day. Yes, you won’t advance in whatever new story has dropped if you don’t have extra tickets, but you’ll get the extra hearts. You have to choose for yourself which one you’d rather have.

This is also where you want to use any chapter tickets you’ve been sitting on. And you should be sitting on them. There’s not much point in using them outside of collection events/new routes because they don’t really get you anything beyond getting an end faster. Saving them for Collection Event Lucky Times is the best thing to do. The event itself will give them as rewards as you turn in hearts, but not very many so be careful with this. If you don’t have 5 to use, keep them for the next time. It’s that whole being half way through a part not getting you anything. If you play it smart and play for a while, you can chain these together to get a lot of points in one go but again, it takes patience and hoarding of items.

Duel Lucky Times. These ones aren’t bad but you’re only looking at an increase from 2 to 4 hearts earned. It’s tempting to use Tea and Cake sets here, but it’s not worth it in the long run. Those tea sets are of much greater use in Story Events so just hang onto them for now and do your duels like normal.

Both Story and Duel Lucky Times are exactly what it says on the tin. Double hearts for however you earn them! This doesn’t happen very often and usually near the end of the event for that little last push you might need to get some extra ones.

Bonuses

So there’s three different ways to earn items in this event, Early Clears, Ranking, and the actual item chain itself.

Early Clears are the timed ones. Certain amount of hearts in a certain amount of time. Usually the first Lucky Time will fall before the first Early Clear is up so they do give you a chance to get it easily enough if you’re playing smart. There’s usually two or three, with the first being a card and a story to go with it. The other two could be attire or a background. Depends on the event but all three are achievable without dropping a lot of money if you plan out your Lucky Times.

Ranking bonuses are a little tighter on this one. I’m pretty sure Collection Events see a top 200 for the first tier instead of 300 like Story Events. It makes it a little more competitive and harder to get into. If you’re just starting out and playing free, I wouldn’t aim for here just yet. You’re not going to be completely set up to get here unless you drop a lot of money. Which I’m seeing more and more people do instead of just playing the way the event is designed. But to each their own.

The item chain is the list of things you get for turning in your hearts. Stories, attire, items, Lin and crystals all show up here! You aren’t competing with anyone for these items and just earn them on your own as you play. It’s a good habit to look through and see who’s stories they’re giving, because it’s usually only 5-7 guys included in the event, and where they sit. Ray and Sirius will almost always be the last two stories because they’re the most popular characters in Japan so they make players work for them. Unreleased guys cycle through on whether they get a story or not and they’re usually the first stories you get. The other released guys are peppered through the list in various places. You will see a lot of repeat of some characters because of their popularity in Japan which I know a lot of English players don’t like because the popularity here doesn’t exactly echo what it is there but we can’t do anything about it since all the stories are already made and just being translated.

Items

Chapter Tickets. I can’t stress it enough, these are like pure gold for this event. You want to use them on Lucky Times to boost and get you as many hearts as you can get. They are a little harder to come by since the game doesn’t give them to you on the login cycle, but you can still get them. Like I mentioned before, you get 5 for finishing a route. The Secret Tea Party will also give you 1. The event itself will give you 1 or 2 as you turn in hearts. Or you can buy them from the item shop for 100 crystals. Consider doing this if you have say, 4 because it’ll be a good way to round you out and get you through another part.

Hearts in the shop are also a good thing in a pinch. Say you’re only one or two away from getting that next 10 to turn in. If you’ve got the Lin, use it to buy them and get over that line. But just make sure you’ll have enough Lin to get through an Avatar check if you’re only getting the normal attire. It would suck to get stuck on a check because you spent too much Lin on hearts in the shop. The ones you earn through reading the story are worth so much more because you don’t have to pay to get them and you get more for your money. So use these as a last resort.

Unless you have a lot of Lin. If you have more than enough, or are playing a route you already have the attire items for, spend the Lin, get 10 hearts a day. But this is really more for people who’ve been playing for a while and have amassed a lot of Lin that just sits there normally.

Types of Collection Events

So far we’ve seen two, one where it’s the normal one like what I’ve described up above and another called a Touch Event.

This one runs essentially the same but this time when you turn in hearts, you get to tap a guy of your choice and you get different lines from them with every heart you tap! Two of them will be voiced lines and the rest are just text on the screen.

There’s three stages for each guy, meaning you have to turn in 30 hearts in order to ‘complete’ him. In the Touch Event we had before, after you finish all three stages, you got a chibi of that guy. Once you complete all three stages, you pick another guy and get new lines and a new chibi!

Fun fact, they don’t restrict how many chibis you can get of one guy. So if you want more than one of your best boy, just go back to him and complete another three stages. They’ll keep giving them if you have the hearts to trade.

When they did this one, however, there were extra bonuses for touching all of the guys and for getting all of the guys to all three stages of completion. Since we’ve only seen this event once, I don’t know if they’re all like that but it’s something to keep in mind. Just make sure you read all the notes about an event and the bonuses so you know what you need to do to get them!

I think that about sums up everything I have to say about how to get through Collection Events. So far we’ve only really seen these events paired with route drops, but there will come a time when they aren’t paired up. There’s a lot of them in the Japanese version of the app and there’s only so many routes. At some point, it’ll get harder to earn hearts unless you’re still playing routes even if you’ve done them before.

When Kyle’s route drops, if there’s more questions feel free to shoot them my way or even before then. I’m happy to share what the last year has taught me. Collection events are a little easier to save money on because all you have to do is play the game like you have been, but just a little smarter!

#ikemen revolution #ikerev #collection events #hope this helps anyone that needs it!#and good luck on whatever event they drop with Kyle!#fixed the formatting!#tips and tricks

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tuanyiems · 6 years

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The Space Between Your Fingers 05

Mark Tuan x OC Genre: Fluff, slice of life Words: 2.2k [Masterlist] [Series Masterlist] - [RECAP] “I’m not the worst player!” he complained. All the guys looked at him knowingly. He smiled bashfully before pointing at Ahnmi. “Noona is!” Jackson put an arm around Ahnmi. “You’ll have to prove that by beating her in a game.” “Loser has to…” Youngjae paused thoughtfully. “Do aegyo!” Jackson declared, laughing heartily as both Bambam and Ahnmi looked distressed. Ahnmi had a sick feeling in her stomach that today was going to be a lot longer than she was anticipating. - Ch. 5: Ginger Ale Ahnmi looked back down at her outfit. Despite her love for Bambam, she wasn’t sure if a crop top was the most appropriate thing to wear for soccer. Seeing her expression, Jinyoung bent down and proceeded to zip up her black sweater. He gave her a pat on the head. “Problem solved.” Yugyeom smiled while watching this gesture. “Jinyoung hyung is our mom.” Ahnmi grinned at Jinyoung, mouthing a “thank you” in response.

The seven guys and Ahnmi left Mark’s house and began heading down to the local soccer field that was two blocks away. Youngjae took to Ahnmi’s side while Mark walked slightly behind them. He couldn’t stop looking at his name on her back. He couldn’t explain it but it made him really pleased. Ahnmi counted the six guys in front of her. Turning her head, she checked to make sure Mark was still there. She smiled at him and gestured slightly for him to walk closer. Mark smiled at this. It hadn’t been very long but already he felt like Ahnmi had always been a part of their group. He quickened his pace, taking the other side beside Ahnmi. “So we heard from Yugyeom about your asthma and anemia,” Youngjae commented. Ahnmi shrugged her shoulders, sighing inwardly. She knew they were going to find out eventually, but she really didn’t like others knowing about it. People would always act too careful around her afterwards. “But I have your inhaler just in case,” Youngjae added. He patted his pants pocket. “Don’t hesitate to ask me for it.” Ahnmi nodded her head though she was pretty sure she didn’t need it. She was very good at pacing herself. She knew when to stop before the wheezing got too bad. She sighed, wishing Yugyeom hadn’t told the guys about it. She wanted them to be her friends, not her guardians. “Do you like dogs, Ahnmi?” Youngjae asked, changing the subject. She grinned and nodded. “You should come meet Coco one day!” Youngjae said with excitement. “She’s our puppy.” He took out his phone and began showing Ahnmi photos of Coco with him and Mark. Ahnmi looked on with equal enthusiasm as Youngjae told little anecdotes with each picture. Her heart was already warming up to Coco even though she just seen her. She was a sucker for animals, especially cute puppies. “We take turns taking care of her,” Mark added. “I’ll call you over the next time Coco stays at my house.” Ahnmi nodded with excitement, clapping her hands. Mark and Youngjae smiled in amusement at Ahnmi’s gestures. Perhaps taking away her ability to talk was a good thing. It certainly made her more expressive. “You can come over my house any time too,” Youngjae offered. “You know where I live. It’s not far.” Ahnmi put her hands to her cheeks, suddenly fantasizing of meeting Coco. She had always wanted a pet dog but her father was allergic so she never had the chance. Ahnmi nodded her head vigorously when she was out of her trance. “Then it’s a date!” Youngjae declared. Mark glanced at him in surprise. His eyes widened at the realization, though Ahnmi was oblivious, dreaming only of Coco. “An Ahnmi and Coco play date.” Mark smiled at the flustered Youngjae before he jogged up to the other guys as they reached the soccer field. Youngjae, his ears still pink, pointed out the field to Ahnmi, glad that she hadn’t paid attention to his last words. Jaebum clapped his hands for attention as they all stood together in the middle of the field. “Let’s have the leaders pick their teammates.” Jackson immediately shot Ahnmi suggestive winks. She giggled at his silliness, making him smile more. “How are we gonna decide who picks first?” Bambam gave a mischievous look. “Rock-paper-scissors?” “No!” Yugyeom yelled loudly. “Just let Ahnmi go, ladies first.” Bambam frowned. “That’s not fair!” “If you’re really a better player than you’ll win regardless,” Jinyoung reasoned. Bambam made a disgusted face before finally relenting. Ahnmi giggled, but gestured for Bambam to go first. He shook his head. “No, I’m a gentleman. You pick first.” Ahnmi paused before nodding her head. She looked around at the guys around her, smiling again at Jackson’s constant winking. She tapped her chin pensively, building up the anticipation from the guys. Finally, she broke out into a smile. “Buddy,” she mouthed, pointing to Youngjae. “YES!” Youngjae cheered with triumph, laughing loudly into Jackson’s crestfallen face. He jumped towards Ahnmi, putting his arm around her shoulders. “Good choice, my buddy!” “Wow, over family?” Yugyeom muttered, feigning offense. Ahnmi smiled apologetically at her cousin. “Bro come here! I’m your real family!” Bambam declared, bringing Yugyeom over to his side. Yugyeom stuck his tongue out at Ahnmi playfully. One by one the two picked out their players. Youngjae, Jinyoung, and Jackson were on Ahnmi’s team while Yugyeom, Jaebum, and Mark stood beside Bambam. “You’re going down!” Mark declared, staring Ahnmi down. She giggled in response, playfully making a fist at him. Mark and Jinyoung separated to the opposite goal posts and as the soccer game began, Ahnmi could see the boys’ eyes changing to a competitive glow. Yugyeom and Bambam were especially pumped to win against their hyungs. Ahnmi watched as the guys ran around enthusiastically, despite the never ending switch of the ball, back and forth between teams. When was the last time she had played a game amongst friends? Perhaps first or second grade? Before her health began acting up and her dad got super protective of his only daughter, Ahnmi used to go running in the fields with Yugyeom right behind her all the time. Ten years later, and now she was chasing behind Yugyeom and his long legs. But she was glad that only their height difference had grown apart and not their actual relationship. Feeling the spring air against her face as she ran, Ahnmi felt a sudden renewed optimism. Everything was going to be okay, right? Ahnmi turned her heads to Jackson and Youngjae and smiled wide at her teammates. “Fighting!” she shouted. “Hey!” Mark yelled at her. “No talking!” Ahnmi laughed and pretended to zip her lips. Yugyeom smiled to himself, glad to see his cousin laughing so brightly. It reminded him of their childhood years when he used to look up to his cousin like she was a ray of sunshine. Only a few weeks had passed since she moved back but he was already starting to see her returning to her usual self. Enjoying the excitement on her face that he missed so much, Yugyeom couldn’t help but let the ball “accidentally” go towards Ahnmi. “Yah, Yugyeom!” Bambam yelled in shock. “What was that?” Ahnmi shuffled in surprise as she got hold of the ball. She paused as she neared the goalie post, taking a deep breath. She looked up to see Mark smiling at her encouragingly. He nodded his head for her to kick the ball towards him. Ahnmi smiled shyly. Was he allowed to cheer for his opponent like that? “Kick it Ahnmi! You got this!” Jackson whooped happily as he held onto Bambam, practically strangling the younger boy in his arms. Ahnmi smiled, nodding her head before finally kicking the ball. Mark suddenly bent down to tie his shoes, just in time for the soccer ball to fly over his head and enter the goalie net. Jackson let go of Bambam and ran for Ahnmi, Youngjae and Jinyoung, pulling them all into a tight group hug. “All of you guys are plotting against me!” Bambam complained, falling down onto the grass with his whole body. Yugyeom and Mark laughed together, giving each other high fives while Jaebum walked over to Bambam, trying to console him. Ahnmi took a step away from her team and walked over to Bambam, offering her hand to help him up off the ground. She turned back to the other guys and looked at them sternly, crossing her arms together to make an X. Mark laughed at the gesture. “What was that, Ahnmi? Use your words!” She pouted at his teasing, stressing her crossed arms. She looked to Yugyeom for help. “Okay, okay guys. Let’s play seriously now,” Yugyeom translated, bringing the teams back into the game. With another clap from Jaebum, the guys went back to their designated areas and the game began again. They all played, laughing and running, joking amongst each other and teasing Bambam until the sun began to set. Ahnmi huffed in exhaustion, plopping herself down onto the soft field. She smelled like grass and she couldn’t have been happier. Youngjae sat down next to her quietly while the other guys continued to joke around. “Everything okay? Need your inhaler?” he asked. Ahnmi smiled tiredly, shaking her head. “You can speak when it’s just us. Mark won’t notice.” Ahnmi glanced over at Mark who was busy dragging Bambam by the legs with Jackson. She smiled. “Yeah, he looks pretty busy.” “I was kinda hoping we would lose,” Youngjae sighed, leaning down on the ground, propped up on his elbows. Ahnmi, sitting cross-legged, turned her body away from the guys, facing Youngjae with her head resting in her hands while her arms were propped on her knees. “You wanted to lose?” “I’m tired of Bambam’s aegyo.” Youngjae explained. His eyes creased into half-moons as he smiled her way. “I want to see your aegyo.” Ahnmi blushed slightly then shook her head. Looking at his disappointed face, Ahnmi relented. Pressing her fingers into a heart shape, Ahnmi winked at Youngjae. “Do you like Messi?” “AHHHHhhhhhhhh~!!!” Youngjae yelled with excitement as he rolled around in the grass, unable to contain his happy heart. Ahnmi turned red, flustered at his loud response. “Yah, what are you two doing?” Jaebum yelled from the across the field. “Were you talking Ahnmi?!” Mark yelled as well. All the guys turned their attention to the two red faces across the field. “Are you guys flirting?” Bambam asked suggestively, causing the other guys to Oooh and Ahh with excitement and disapproval (mostly from Yugyeom). Youngjae sat back up, regaining his composure. “It’s a secret.” This caused even more excitement from the guys as they danced around the two, shouting. Jackson tugged on Youngjae’s arm insistently, wanting in on the secret. Jaebum clapped his hands together once more. “Okay, we should head back now.” “We still need to prepare dinner too,” Jinyoung added. Mark smiled at the thought of dinner. “Yeah, I need to shower,” Bambam commented, following Jaebum and Jinyoung back to Mark’s house. Yugyeom sniffed Bambam and flinched. “Yeah you do man.” All the guys proceeded to follow Jaebum and Jinyoung, leaving Mark and Ahnmi lingering behind. He offered her his hand to help her up. She took it gratefully, her legs feeling like jello after the most exercise she’s had in the last ten years. “I’m so hungry,” Mark said out of the blue. Ahnmi nodded her head. He laughed, remembering she couldn’t speak still. He gave her a pat on the head. “Did you have fun today?” Ahnmi nodded her head again. She turned her head, watching the sunset glow settle into light shades of rose and lavender. The six guys’ silhouettes before them jumped around animatedly. Ahnmi had always dreamt of this moment, going home after sunset, being surrounded by laughter and friends, smelling like spring. Mark felt Ahnmi tugging on his shirt suddenly. He turned to where she was pointing with surprise and then laughed when he realized what she was pointing at—a vending machine. Ahnmi rushed to the vending machine with excitement. She had never felt so thrilled to see a box of soda cans before. She looked up at Mark in anticipation as he thoughtfully looked at his options. “Hmm, I don’t know what I want…” he muttered, enjoying the look of agony on her face. He tapped at his chin, staring closely at each soda can. Ahnmi pointed to a can of cola insistently. “Hmm, not really feeling cola…I wonder what I should get.” Ahnmi proceeded to point to a can of strawberry pop. He shook his head again, still tapping at his chin. He snuck a glance at Ahnmi who was now slumped down in a squatting position. He laughed. “Alright alright, I’ll stop teasing you.” he finally relented, glad to see Ahnmi’s excitement back. “Pick whatever soda you think suits me.” Ahnmi looked at the vending machine carefully before finally purchasing a can of ginger ale. She handed him the drink and smiled with relief. “It’s not the loudest…but it’s a classic. Indispensable.” Mark felt a warmth inside himself as he listened to her explanation. He took a swig of the cold, bubbly drink as the two went back to walking home. “I didn’t know you wanted to talk so much,” Mark commented. Ahnmi blushed, nodding her head in agreement. “That’s good. Quiet isn’t bad, but talk when you want to talk too.” Mark reassured her. He patted her on the head again. “I’ll listen.” Ahnmi looked up, smiling gratefully at him. “Thanks. You…and all of the guys have been so helpful…and kind…” Mark looked at Ahnmi as she paused thoughtfully, her eyes glistening. For a second he thought she was going to cry but the tears never left her eyes. She looked at him with a bright smile. “I think this is the happiest I’ve ever been.” - Thanks for reading! This series updates every Friday and Saturday 8PM EST.

#got7 scenarios #got7creators #got7 reactions #got7 imagines #got7 fanfic #mark tuan fluff #writing #fanfiction #series #the space between your fingers #ch 5

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programaticallydelicious · 5 years

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What’s the opposite of a hardcore game?

So I’m sure you can think of a couple of “hardcore” games off the top of your head. Dark Souls and Bloodborne are probably near the top for a lot of you. What defines those is an argument for someone else, and has been made a multitude of times.

I’m here to talk about their opposite. A lot of people, when asked what the opposite of a “hardcore” game is, would immediately jump to “Casual”. Something like Bejeweled, or Angry Birds. That...isn’t exactly correct. Casual games are targeted at people who can’t sink a great deal of time into a game in one sitting, A few minutes here, a few there, maybe an entire hour sometime. And with how the “casual” market is mixing in paid mechanics on mobile, there’s an argument to be had for them being an entirely different form of hardcore.

But I digress.

What is the opposite of a “hardcore” game? Is it an easy game? Maybe, maybe not. Is it a simple one? Not necessarily. Is it forgiving? Potentially. The opposite of a hardcore game is one that gives the reins to the player, and lets them control their own experience. I, personally, have never been one for hardcore games in the way the term gets bandied about. I don’t like games punishing me for my poor reaction time and variable coordination.

I like games that let me choose how to proceed. And to give a good idea of what I mean, I’m going to go through my steam library (not all 800+ games of it, just the ones with at least 60hrs of playtime), and explain exactly what they did that ensured they weren’t hardcore.

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (751 hrs)

Unsurprising, and easy to explain. Bethesda games, in general, give the player as much control as possible. Want to do the main quest? Have at it, nothing can stop you and if something does, just pull up the console and nuke it to death with the kill or disable commands. Don’t like something? Modding can fix it. Want something you don’t or can’t have? Modding can fix it. Want to shoot something? You can! Stab them? Sure! Want to pretend quests don’t exist and live as a hermit in the woods? I’ve done it!

I think you get the picture.

2. Fallout 4 (663 hrs)

Do you need to ask? Look above, I explained it there. Also, the VATS system is actually surprisingly cool to play with, and I really, really enjoy waltzing around overleveled in tricked out power armor as everything the bad guys throw at me winds up just plinking off and maybe killing them for me.

3. EVE Online (500 hrs (logged on Steam, at any rate))

This can’t be right, can it? The MMO known mostly for having a learning curve so steep it‘s a cliff with an overhang? Not hardcore? I’ve gotta be high!

No, it isn’t hardcore. EVE gives the player a fantastic amount of control over their experience. You can pick what skills to learn, what kinds of ships to fly, whether to produce, raid, lead, gather, trade, or mission run. Personally, I racked up most of these hours about ten years ago when I was doing a lot of asteroid mining on a second screen while working on stuff in college. It was slow, relaxing, and impressively predictable overall.

4. Starbound (214 hrs)

I have a love-hate relationship with this one. I racked up most of that playtime in the early beta, when the mechanics were wonky and unbalanced and the playstyle was still being worked on. I can’t enjoy this game anymore, because all I want to do is find a pretty planet and build a base I like on it. But the prettiest planets are pretty good at killing you, and the best materials to build with are rare, in places good at killing you, or incredibly expensive. I could build safely on a barren world, but...it’s a barren world.

5. Terraria (166 hrs)

I love this game, I really do. But I can’t play it with other people. I like having a safe home, and while you can make safe homes in hardcore mode, they’re a pain in the butt to design properly and the allowances you need to make to keep things out are less than appealing to me. Meaning I end up running two worlds with my character as a raider, and that gets...tedious after a while.

I once built an entire village for all of the NPCs in the game (there were fewer at the time), only to watch them die over and over because someone went to hell and killed the wall of flesh.

6. Space Engineers (143 hrs)

Do I really need to explain this one? I made a bunch of voxel spaceships, in space. Was fun, and neat, but last time I poked my head in it was still lacking in things to do long-term. Too much control, not enough content, basically.

7. NieR:Automata™ (126 hrs)

This can’t be right, can it? After all, it’s a twitchy action-RPG with a philosophical bent that feels like the illegitimate bastard lovechild that Nietzsche and Goethe abandoned in the dark forest at midnight on a new moon. (In short, it’s that impossible thing known as an object made purely of edge)

But it is. The game has a massive variety of potential play-styles and difficulties, from “all but literally does everything for you” to, well, bullet hell. And the chip system lets you suit all sorts of preferences (the taunt/crit build is OP as all hell, but I ran with a berserker build that boosted speed and healed me on damaging or killing enemies). The game is as punishing as you allow it to be, and Platinum Games did a fantastic job of that.

8. Subnautica (110 hrs)

I’ve beaten this one multiple times. It actually gives you a lot of control in terms of where and how to build, and how you go about progressing. But the truly great bit of control the game gives you is that it never forces you to progress. You move through it exactly as far as you want to, and it does a great job of getting you to want to.

Sadly, it has two things that really break that. Two enemies, specifically. Warpers, and crabsquids. Warpers can be avoided, are localized, and can become a non-issue by progressing far enough.

Crabsquids are seething gelatinous bundles of undiluted killjoy who prevent me from safely building in my favorite biomes.

9. Stardew Valley (94 hrs)

I really think this one is self explanatory. If it isn’t, it will be as soon as you play it.

10. ARK: Survival Evolved (93 hrs)

This game doesn’t belong on this list. Too much of the time listed was spent fighting the mechanics/trying to get things to work, as opposed to playing the game. It’s neither hardcore nor its opposite.

11. Plague Inc: Evolved (63 hrs)

My favorite thing to do in this game is running the neurax worm. The Christmas scenario in particular is great. This game is an RTS with short playtimes, immediate feedback on choices, and fantastic levels of replayability. Combine that with their scenario editor, difficulty settings, and the huge variety of things you can play as, it makes it as my favorite non-RPG on Steam.

Some non-Steam mentions that are self-explanatory: Pokémon, The Legend of Zelda: BotW (I enjoy the other games too, but they don’t qualify for this), Age of Empires II (I abused the shit out of a bug in the scenario editor), Pharaoh/Caesar III, and the number one timesink of any game I’ve ever played: Minecraft.

In summary: The opposite of a hardcore game is one that gives the player enough leeway to make their own decisions. Not necessarily by giving them multiple choices or paths, but allowing them to proceed at their own pace, potentially with their own choices of mechanics and/or difficulty. And most importantly, it doesn’t punish the player for those choices.

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breadknight-likes-things · 6 years

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Spyro Reignited Trilogy Review: How To Re-Train Your Dragon

It’s 1999, i’m 7 and i’m at my friend CJ’s house, we’re passing the controller back and forth as we play the hottest new game two Playstation owning kids could want: Spyro 2 Riptos Rage. It’s 2018, I’ve just come home from a grueling day of college classes but I’ve got it, I’ve got the hottest new game a Playstation 4 owning adult could want: Spyro 2 Riptos Rage. The more times change the more they stay exactly the same, and thankfully in the case of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy that ends up being a good thing.

The Good:

The Fulfillment of an Imagination: Looking back on the visuals in the original three Spyro games can be a rough time, in fact I’d say that entire generation of video games has aged incredibly poorly in the visuals department. Spyro Reignited Trilogy however, uses the same imagination that developers asked people to tap into back in the day to create absolute wonderlands of spectacle and color that 5th gen consoles couldn’t even dream of producing. Levels that were once unclear and painted with broad ideas and concepts are now all incredibly distinct.

For instance, in Spyro 2 the level Hurricos was always presented as this odd clifftop society, the closest thing it came to the title, obviously named as such to be close to the word “Hurricane”, was the fact it was raining. Today though, Hurricos is a small island, locked in the middle of an endless storm and surrounded on all sides by whipping waves, with the grass being violently blown in the rain and the science loving people living their suddenly making sense for choosing this chaotic place as one in which to do research on the wind! Every level in the trilogy has a loving amount of detail put into it, if there was something you always imagined being a part of the Spyro games but was never really there, well I have news for you, chances are it’s there right now waiting for you to see it.

The updated world designs extend beautifully to the mid level homeworlds, which all feel ripped straight out of an animated movie you get to play!

Spyro’s Just A Little Airborne, He’s Still Good!: Last year when the Crash Bandicoot remakes came out, there was a fervor of questions raised about the originals in relation to the remakes. Were these games always this hard or was I just really patient as a kid? Has the “Sonics Ass” game franchise always been this linear? I didn’t find myself asking any of those questions about Spyro. The Spyro games gameplay were always very simple, it’s all about finding a way to glide to that far off platform or hunting down that last gem you missed in a level.

In this way Spyro has aged leaps and bounds better than Crash before it, because the mechanics were just the right kind of simple and laid back for the time that they’ve translated incredibly well to our modern era. I was almost never stressed out playing these games again, and while you could argue they’re maybe too easy in retrospect I’d say that relaxing pace and lack of roadblocks is a feature we all always loved, even if we didn’t realize it at the time.

An Adventure Reborn: All three of the original Spyro games are present in this collection and if you have a favorite character or moment in any of those I feel I can guarantee you that it’s here and it’s been redone in loving detail. Spyro the Dragon has unique models for every dragon in the game, a far cry from the repeating six or seven we saw on the PS1. Spyro 2 lovingly re-designs all the supporting cast, from Hunter the Cheetah no longer looking like a Muppet and Elora still looking exactly like a Faun you dork.

The cast of Spyro 3 gets the same treatment, with all the new playable characters sporting looks that are clearly updated but evoke the same classic feeling they gave off in the original release(Except, unfortunately, Sheila who comes across as massively over designed). The Homeworlds in Spyro 2 still exude a sense of peace, The Gnorcs still moon you for some reason in Spyro The Dragon and even the Skateboarding mini games in Spyro 3 have aged about a hundred times better than you’d imagine. It’s the small details that really decide whether or not a remake team got the spirit of a game right, and i’m glad to say all of those are here in the Reignited Trilogy.

The remade Autumn Plains absolutely took my breath away, it’s always been one of my all time favorite environments in a game and with it’s new level of detail it’s going to keep that place for a long time.

Copeland Plays The Hits: I’ll readily admit that I was worried for the music in this game, Stewart Copeland of the police turned in incredible soundtracks for the original three games. Not only am I happy to say his tracks are here and undisturbed if you want them that way, but the remastered versions of them are incredible as well. They all feel just like you’d want them to in these updated versions of the games that were all so driven by their tunes, with new wrinkles like a soft thump tone being added into the peaceful tracks of the Spyro 2 home world and new instrumentation adding a layer of depth to some of the first games more simplified tracks. Honestly as it stands, it’s the choice given to you the player to listen to the new stuff, or just go back to the originals you love that puts this game over the top in regards to the music.

The Bad:

Well, for one, Jack here looks like someone used voodoo to bring a Funko Pop to life, does that count as bad?

Supercharged Past That QA Huh?: Much like the Crash remakes last year, it’s not only clear these games were made on a very tight time frame, but that they were made sequentially and their quality decreases the further you get into the series. Now to be fair, I encountered nothing game breaking, but I did notice that bugs, visual quality and other smaller details tended to fall by the wayside the further you get into the series. Where the original Spyro seems to have got the most attention, Spyro 3(Ironically, much like it’s original release) had a fair amount of bugs waiting to rear their weird looking heads. During the skateboard races, for example, the enemy A.I would sometimes just seem to switch off. Only to reactivate at random intervals and jerk back into place, suddenly shutting down any lead you may have gained due to their non action, even if you were still playing properly while they were freaking out.

Where levels in Spyro one and two mostly escaped this, you could see the beginnings of a reliance on re-used assets and quick production in Spyro 3. Like Crash before it, the third game in the franchise seemed to get the least amount of attention, which is a bummer because that one has always been my second favorite. The game was delayed once, last minute even, and I’m very glad it did, because despite what I’ve written here the game never stops functioning or is ever unplayable, if anything these bugs are just minor annoyances, but i’d have definitely hated to see what a version of Spyro 3 even more rushed out the door would have looked like.

Didn’t stop me from platinum-ing the thing!

Spyro Reignited Trilogy, despite a couple nagging issues, is a damn near perfect way to bring back our favorite purple dragon’s original three adventures. The games not only look great with their fresh coat of paint, but have aged beautifully in both gameplay and general tone. I’d heavily recommend The Reignited Trilogy, not just to Spyro fans, but to anyone yearning to feel like that 7 year old kid again. Holding that dualshock and completely enraptured by the 10 or so polygons making up that little purple on the TV in front of you. Welcome back Spyro, I hope we can look forward those wonderful words showing back up the future “An Adventure Begins”.

#video games #ps4 #Spyro the Dragon #Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage #spyro 2 gateway to glimmer #spyro year of the dragon #spyro 3 #classic spyro #ps1 classic #classic games #2018 games #goty #spyro reignited trilogy #game reviews #video game review #sony #sony playstation #xbox one #excellent game

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jake-richmond · 6 years

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Thoughts on the Anthem demo:

Since I had to take a day off anyway I decided to try out Anthem. Its a 3rd person adventure shooter by Bioware. I had gotten excited about it last year because it looks a lot like both The Division (game play wise) and Destiny (world design wise), both of which I loved. I spent the day playing the demo with my brother Nick and our friend Gabe (who I also played The Division and Monster Hunter World with). They both seemed to like it quite a bit, but I had very mixed feelings...

Good: Anthem takes place in what appears to be a very large open world. Its interesting looking, with lots of space to explore. I love exploring science fiction spaces, and flying around checking out caves and weird alien architecture was fun.

Bad: There's not a ton of stuff in the world. Its hard to tell since this is just a demo, but Anthem's neat world seems to be mostly empty. Theres not a lot of reason to stop and look around. Even the neat features like the ruins of small communities, giant alien structures, huge waterfalls, etc, are mostly just decorative. There doesn't seem to be much to do. There are a scattering of enemies, but not much reason to stop and shoot them.

- Good: Anthem has a setting kind of similar to Destiny, as far as I can tell. You're the last humans in the last human stronghold, trying to protect your way of life and keep your society and technology alive in a very hostile world. Thats not super original, but destiny had a visual style that I liked a lot,and Anthem's visual style, especially for its hub city and its NPC inhabitants seems to be a direct copy. Which is just fine with me!

- Bad: There's no character creation,and you never see your character. The game asks you to select a masculine or feminine voice, and then starts you off in the hub city with no other customization. Anthem is a multiplayer game, but like Monster Hunter World and The Division your hub is an instanced area available just to you, so no other players will ever see you there. While in the hub you're stuck in first person mode, so you never get to see what you look like. This is incredibly frustrating to me.It immediately killed my immersion. Instead of feeling like i was an inhabitant of this interesting world I felt like I was just me playing a video game. In Destiny, monster Hunter World and The Division I felt like I was directly involved in those worlds through my character. Here it felt more like i was going on a theme park ride. Weirdly, as soon as you put on your futuristic Iron Man style armor suit and leave the hub city the rest of the game is played in 3rd person. So you can see your armor, and so can everyone else. And while you can customize your armor a fair amount, this feels less like having a unique character and more like having a fancy cell phone case.

Good: You can fly. Anthem is a big place, and the main way you get around is by flying in your Iron Man style armor. And the terrain of the game really encourages that. You'll fly through underground tunnels, over vast waterfalls, in and out of ravines. Theres a lot of chaotic vertical terrain to explore by flying. Bad: Unfortunately flying sucks. once you're actually in the air the flying controls are okay. They're a little clunky,a nd don't feel super responsive, but they're okay. Unfortunately, getting in the air is awkward. You can't just take off like superman. you need to actually be in the air before you can activate your jets, which means jumping up and taking off, or falling off something and taking off. Its the "taking off" action thats the problem. Hitting the button sends you into a kind of twist animation that sends your thrusting forward toward wherever your camera is pointing. The action can be disorienting, especially since your character isn't always facing the direction your camera is pointing. As a result, you often start your flight going slightly the wrong way, or even crashing into a wall or object (which can send you falling back down to the ground, sometimes hundreds of feet). The move gets easier to do with practice, but after hours it still felt awkward to me.

The bigger problem is that you can only fly for about 10 seconds at a time. Flying is both the main way you get around the game and one of the game's main mechanics. You're meant to be flying and hovering in battle often. But flying has a resource gauge (a heat gauge) and it only takes about 10 seconds to overheat. Which means flights tend to be short and stressful, and using flying to explore the world, or even just enjoying flying for its own sake, is really limited. You can extend your fly time by cooling down your engines by flying through waterfalls or skimming rivers, but that mostly requires hugging the ground, and that kind of defeats the point?

Good: Missions are fun. Missions in Destiny and The Division tended to be short and mostly revolved around going to a place and killing a guy or flipping a switch.The 3 missions in Anthem are all more involved than that, and while none of them are super complicated all involve multiple locations, lots of different enemies and a boss fight. For this type of game they're satisfying. The game also has some public events in its freeplay exploration mode which seem fun. In one I was blowing up supply tents in an enemy camp while waves of enemies tried to take me down. In another i was collection alien tech while a giant monster chased me through a swamp. I wouldn't say these were more compelling than Destiny or The Divvisin's public events (and nowhere near as fun as coming across a random monster in Monster Hunter World), but they were enjoyable and I can see myself stopping to participate in them over and over. The demo's one Strike/Dungeon was also pretty enjoyable.

Bad: Missions do a very bad job of actually telling you the mission mechanics. Each of the three missions and dungeon had a puzzle mechanic, but I missed the explanation for all of them. Partially this was because the game just says "collect the thing", but doesn't tell you what the thing looks like or where it is. It took me forever to figure out the tiny glowing ball (hidden amidst the explosions, power effects, glowing plants, acid baths, strobe lights, exploding insects, grenade blasts, etc) was the item we were supposed to collect.In another puzzle I totally missed that there was a puzzle at all, and thought the game had just glitched and wasn't opening a door. My second time through the dungeon, after having nick explain the puzzle mechanic to me, I watched the poor random 4th player who had joined our party run around the puzzle room in confusion looking for the item, because he didnt realize that the very unobtrusive and hard to notice pouch that had appeared on his character WAS the item. unfortunately all we could do was watch, since he didn't have a microphone connected.

Good: In addition to being able to equip 2 guns, each of the 4 types of armored suits has a selection of built in options hat allow you to attack, defend or support other players. These can be swapped out or upgraded too, which gives you some fun choices. I started out with two different throwing weapon attacks, but eventually upgraded to a mine launcher and an acid spray. There seems to be lots of options. Lots of guns too.

Bad: However, gun play sucks. Maybe its just because I've played Destiny for so long, but gun play in Anthem is stiff ad unresponsive. The guns are also just not very fun to use. Theres several types of guns, but they all kind of feel the same and none of them seem very effective. Thankfully you don't have to rely on just your guns, since the suit abilities are much more powerful. But shooting is a BIG part of the game, an the guns and gun play are just lackluster. The guns themselves may get more interesting as the game goes on, but I'm not sure gun play will at all.

So I'm undecided on the game. This is just a demo, and the game itself could end up being a lot better. But I was pretty excited about this game, and now a lot of my enthusiasm has died. In fact, more than anything its just made me want to go back to playing Monster Hunter World. I'll wait for the game to be released and see what people have to say before I decide for sure.

#Anthem demo #anthem #anthem review

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casualarsonist · 6 years

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Monster Hunter World review (PS4)

My first interaction with the Monster Hunter series was way back in 2000-and-something as I watched a mate of mine play Monster Hunter Tri briefly on his Nintendo Wii. I’m not going to lie - I wasn’t that impressed. Not that I watched for long enough to get more than the most brief impression about the game, as his girlfriend turned it off on him before he managed to save because there were ‘guests’, and the entire room uttered a collective gasp of disgust. In any case, while I didn’t feel motivated to buy, I was intrigued by the series’ rather unique premise, and was always tangentially aware of its existence and the zeitgeist surrounding it. So along came Monster Hunter World this year, and along with it came lashings of praise from every angle. Having no experience with the series, I had no context for the compliments it was getting, but I knew more or less immediately that at some point I was going to play this entry, and given the post-release hype, I had no doubt in my mind that I was going to enjoy it. And then I bought it on PS4...

The first thing that struck me as odd when I started the game was the ad for PSN membership that popped up when it tried to log me in online. After having subscribed for a month in order to play Titanfall 2, and then being robbed by sneaky recurring payments that I wasn’t being notified about for another 6 months after that, I refused to buy a PSN subscription ever again. So loading up a brand new game, and having it immediately stop itself to advertise Playstation subscriptions to me felt grotesque. Next came the first cutscene, which I enjoyed right up until the characters started talking and I realised that the lipsyncing hadn’t been localised, meaning that the game looked like a poorly-dubbed Japanese film. Then came the loading screens, and as I sat in front of my console for two minutes and thirty seconds waiting for the first level to load, the incredulity in me rose. And then I entered the opening hub level. And the game ran somewhere around 25 frames per second. And at that point I tried to get a refund, but it turns out that you can’t refund PS4 games after you’ve downloaded them, meaning they could be broken as shit and you’re stuck with the product anyway because fuck you. And I genuinely thought Monster Hunter World on the PS4 was broken, because it ran almost as bad as Mass Effect Andromeda - one of the worst game I’ve ever played. So, barely 10 minutes into my first time playing, I turned off the console in disgust and walked away. So after I researched Sony’s refund policy and discovered that it was utter dogshit, I realised that I was stuck with the game and I sat back down and gave it another go. And...well, it’s okay. Just okay.

I fully accept that this is my first foray into an established series with established mechanics. I hate it when games I enjoy dumb themselves down for a mainstream audience (*cough* Fallout *cough*), so I don’t criticise the game for taking some time to get used to. However, there are some real quality of life issues here that simply shouldn’t exist in this day and age.

First of all - it looks like shit. Not it terms of its design, but in terms of the quality of the visuals. Poor frame-rate aside, the graphics are heavily washed-out, which is a big disappointment given the lush forests and crystal clear waters of the first area. I don’t know whether the colour palette could be balanced better on PC, but there’s a flatness to everything on the PS4 that leaves the beautiful, evocative locales feeling drab and lifeless. This is purely a stylistic choice, and I cannot understand why they would go the trouble of crafting such a vivid landscape, only to broadcast it through what feels like a white filter. Turning the brightness all the way down helps, but there’s no reason why this should be a problem in the first place.

Secondly, Dark Souls and Bloodborn exist, and a number of copycat games like Nioh have proven that there’s no excuse for a game to be clunky in order to be difficult. Difficulty should exist in the gameplay balance, not in dated control systems, and this is a big stumbling block for Monster Hunter World. The larger monsters all have certain weak points that can be broken or severed in order to weaken them. The problem is that attacking these weakpoints is easier said than done when the lock-on system barely works, and the directional controls feel like the nine-point directional system of a PS1 game. Attacks cannot be stopped once they’ve started, meaning that you need to master your timing in order to be an effective combatant, but they also cannot be rotated once you’ve initiated them in a particular direction, so if pointing your character in the right direction is a chore, your attacks will often fall slightly to the left or right of where you intend for them to go. Coupled with the fact that the creatures move at speed, this means that finesse goes out the window and much of your initial combat experiences will involve getting as close to the target as possible simply so you can’t miss. Now don’t get me wrong - there is a sense of skill-building and personal improvement once you start to get used to this system, but it does feel extremely dated in a way that doesn’t inspire nostalgia. If a retro first-person-shooter had no mouse look, you’d be up in arms. So too does this feel like less of a design choice and more of a glaring failure to adapt to modern conveniences.

The last big issue is that the game isn’t marketed as a multiplayer game, instead being sold as a single player drop-in-drop-out experience. Which is true, to a point, yet every time you load it up it freezes to connect to the Playstation Network, and then advertises a PSN membership to you if you don’t already have one. Once you’re playing, the game will constantly remind you that other people are playing online, even going so far as to tell you who is joining your ‘session’ - a session that you aren’t in if you don’t have a PSN subscription. And to top it all off, you can’t simply select a mission and then expect it to start straight away: instead you have to wait while the game ‘prepares’ the mission as if you were in multiplayer lobby, even if you’re playing offline. This can take up to a minute or more, and makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. So even if the game detects that you have no PSN account it will still connect to the internet, then force you into either hosting or loading an online game, then tell you all of the people who are joining a session that you’re not playing in, and then put you in a mission lobby when you’re not waiting for anyone to join. It’s the cherry atop a cake baked ten years ago and marketed as a 2018 release. It's absurd. It’s as if the game was created by people who couldn’t fathom a world in which players wouldn’t play alone, and yet the game is, largely, played and sold as a single-player experience - just like all its predecessors. The greatest effect of having other people join in is that your experience bonus is split between you all instead of going solely to you, and that’s not a bonus, but a deficit.

These issues make me wonder how the game has come to be critically acclaimed at all, at least in terms of this particular version. I hear the PS4 Pro version can run at 1080p60, and I assume the PC version can as well, although I’ve heard there are some connectivity issues with the PC servers, but my immediate impressions of the standard PS4 version are near appalling. Spiderman runs flawlessly as you swing across the entire city of New York - I didn’t see a single frame drop in my entire playthrough, and yet the detailed but limited-scope environs of Monster Hunter World bring the console to its knees. This, more than anything, speaks to the decline of the console’s relevance as modern graphics capabilities increase. One of the important selling points of the consoles was the fact that you could count on them to run stably, even if their games were technologically inferior to their PC counterparts. If they look worse AND play worse, then what’s the point of owning a console at all? If you have to upgrade to a mid-generation PS Pro now every few years just to be able to ensure your games are going to work, then why not just buy a new graphics card for your PC for the same price, not have to subscribe to the fucking scam that is the Playstation Network, AND have a better quality experience while you do it? Aside from the exclusives, the Playstation 4 is redundant, in my opinion. I can’t think of a single reason to invest in the next console generation, because you know that whatever machine you buy is just going to be obsolete in a few years’ time anyway.

I’m sure that, all the gameplay quibbles aside, Monster Hunter World is perfectly fine to play on a more powerful machine, but I still cannot see why it has garnered such praise. It’s still a niche game, and it’s okay for what it is, but it’s not at all the force to be reckoned with the reviews make it sound like. It’s stuck in the past mechanically, and has the bare minimum of localisation, and while it is fun after you pass a certain teething point, I find that the ultimate experience is defined not what it is, but what it is not. My rating here is for the PS4 version, so take that as you will, but as it is, the PS Store really needs a proper refund policy.

6/10

#monster hunter world #ps4 #capcom #video game #review #nintendo #action #rpg #fighting

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wildflowerrambles · 7 years

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Hush Hush

Author’s Note: Here it is -- the first part to a series! I’m excited but also kind of nervous. I’m not sure how regularly I’ll update this, but I’m hoping to stay pretty on top of it. Also, I gave the female character a name because it made writing purposes easier. But feel free to imagine yourself (the reader) as her if you’d like! As usual, feel free to let me know what you think! Enjoy!

Pairing: Billy Hargrove x Beth Henderson (Billy x Reader) Word Count: 1,723 Warnings: None for this chapter

Summary: Billy has never really noticed cheerleader Beth before until she steals his parking spot one morning. She knows all about Billy though, more than he even realizes. But what happens when Billy finds out Beth has a few deep, dark secrets of her own? You’ll have to read to find out.

Chapter 1: Pep Rally

January. The beginning of basketball season.

For the students at Hawkins High, this was one of the most exciting times of the school year. Considering their football team wasn’t all that great, they looked forward to some action on the court.

After all that had happened before Christmas break, especially for a particular group of kids, it was exceptionally thrilling.

It was Tuesday morning. The first pep rally of the semester and the first home game of the season.

Beth scrambled to grab her cheer bag from the back seat of her car when she heard the sound of another vehicle tearing through the parking lot.

Billy huffed, stomping on his brakes. “You took my freakin’ parking spot,” he yelled out the window. He watched as the girl threw a bag over her shoulder before slamming her car door. She was dressed casually in high waisted jeans and a patterned sweater, her red Chucks pacing the pavement frantically.

She continued walking as she spoke, “If that’s the case, then you’re running later than I am. Good luck.”

“Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor sounded through the gymnasium as the basketball team lined up to the side. Beth bounced into place at the end of one of the two lines the squad had made for the boys to run through, shaking her pom poms together with enthusiasm.

“Everybody better get on their feet!” The student body president, Dave, spoke over the loud speaker, encouraging the crowd to get up and cheer. Beth spotted Nancy sitting along the front sideline with Jonathan who was snapping photos for the school paper, no doubt. Skimming the crowd, she also spotted a familiar red head with her group of friends. She smiled. It was one of the rare occasions that the middle schoolers were excused from class to attend.

“Please join me in welcoming our ‘84-’85,” he paused for dramatic effect, “Hawkins Tigers!”

The crowd began to cheer, stomping their feet and clapping their hands. The band began playing in the background as the basketball team made their way through a sea of pom poms. Once the last player came through, the girls made their way to the sideline and fell into formation to dance along with the band.

“Now before I introduce you to this hardworking groups of guys behind me, I believe our equally hardworking cheerleading squad has prepared something for everyone.” Dave looked in Beth’s direction, signaling for them to get ready. She motioned for the girls to get into position before skipping over to Dave.

“Most of you don’t see the time and effort these girls put in throughout the week. They’re always practicing, always preparing. And I would know because,” he tossed his arm around Beth’s shoulder, shaking his head, “this young lady is always forgetting her key to the gym and has to come borrow mine.” The crowd chuckled in unison, “Ladies and gents, our lovely cheer captain, Beth Henderson.”

Billy hadn’t been paying a whole lot of attention up to this point, chatting with his pal Tommy who sat next to him in the chairs designated for the team. The sudden name drop and mention of cheerleaders caused him to redirect his attention to the court. He rose an eyebrow and froze, realizing that this lovely captain was the same girl who’d taken his parking space earlier that morning.

Beth placed both pom poms in one hand and took the microphone in the other. “Thank you for continually coming to my rescue with a key, Dave. I will probably need it again,” she turned, directing her attention to the bleachers, “We have a wonderful group of young ladies this year, and I can’t wait for you to see what we’ve been working on. Competitions begin in February, so if you’re interested in coming to those, flyers will go out next week. Also, Meet the Tigers is this Friday night. Come say hello and get to know these ladies that are about to perform. And, as always, come show this great group of guys how much you support them.”

She turned the microphone back over to Dave before bouncing off to join the rest of the girls, front and center.

“Without further ado, give it up for your Hawkins Tigers cheerleaders!”

The well-known guitar riff of “Life in the Fast Lane” by The Eagles blasted through the speakers. This further peaked the interest of a mullet-headed boy. Beth and the rest of the squad had their backs to the players. That familiar sound sent a shiver up her spine and she smiled to herself. She loved performing.

As the third riff played and the drums kicked in, she popped her leg to the side and threw her head over the corresponding shoulder toward the boys. The first pair of eyes hers locked with were none other than Billy Hargrove’s. She saw the blonde boy rest his elbows against his knees, folding his hands together to provide a place for this chin to rest; he cast a devilish grin her way.

He was a hard-headed man, he was brutally handsome And she was terminally pretty She held him up and he held her for ransom In the heart of the cold, cold city

The rest of the girls repeated the move in a ripple, rocking their hips side to side. They turned, taking a few sassy steps forward as they ruffled their hair. They split in half, Beth straddling the middle of the group, mirroring their dance moves as the verse continued.

He had a nasty reputation as a cruel dude They said he was ruthless, they said he was crude They had one thing in common: they were good in bed She’d say, “Faster, faster. The lights are turning red.”

Beth laughed to herself, thinking of how fitting the lyrics were to the dirty blonde whose eyes were on her every move. She threw her upper body forward, grabbing a set of pom poms in front of her that were put there before the routine started. The girls rolled their bodies upright again, whipping their hair as their pom poms followed the length of their legs.

Life in the fast lane, surely make you lose your mind Life in the fast lane

Billy slowly sat back straight in his chair, clapping along with the crowd. He licked his lips before turning his attention to the coach who had gotten up to speak.

“Thank you ladies,” Dave said, “And now a word from our coach.”

“These guys have put in lots of work on and off the court to prepare for tonight and for the rest of the season. I won’t draw this out any longer than necessary, but I do hope you’ll come out and support them.” Coach was usually a pretty blunt man. He believed in getting straight to the point, which served his career choice well. “Our first captain for the night is Mr. Steve Harrington.”

Steve stood up and made his way to center court, his signature quiff bouncing with each step he took.

“Steve has served as a captain the past few seasons and done a great job, so I expect nothing less out of him this year. And our second captain, Mr. Billy Hargrove, is a newcomer this year who has proven himself time and time again during practice. We are looking forward to seeing how he continues to contribute to this team this season.”

Once the pep rally had concluded, Billy snuck away from the team to catch his sister before she left.

“Hey Max,” he said just loud enough to get her attention. She whirled around and paused in her tracks. “Make sure you have your chores done before 5. You’re going with me.”

“But I was-”

“No!” Billy shut his eyes, taking a deep breath as he realized his tone has gotten snappy. He spoke again, calmer this time, “Dad and Susan aren’t going to be back until late which means that I’m still responsible for you. You can see if some of your friends can come so you’ll have someone to hang out with,” he motioned to the group behind her. Max nodded after a moment before turning to rejoin her friends.

Beth bent down to open her locker. She shoved her cheer bag inside, still sporting her uniform with the rest of the squad. From her peripherals, a pair of boots stopped next to her. One foot came to cross in front of the other.

“Cheer captain, huh?”

“I see you either found a parking spot or made yourself one,” Beth stood, making eye contact with the bad boy leaning against the lockers.

“I’m B-”

“Billy Hargrove,” she finished, slamming the locker door with her foot, “I know who you are.”

Billy made a face to signal that he was pleasantly surprised. He folded his arms across his chest as Beth flipped through the books in her arms.

“How have I never noticed such a stunning young lady before?”

“Probably because I haven’t paraded around in a short skirt before today.”

“Which you look very good in, by the way.”

Beth half rolled her eyes, “We have Government together.”

Billy nodded to himself. That explained a lot considering he rarely went to that class. He pushed himself off the lockers to follow her as she made her way down the hall.

“So I was thinking,” he spoke low near her ear, “Meet the Tigers is Friday and wouldn’t it be good if the captain of the basketball team and the captain of the cheerleading squad showed up together? Y’know, for publicity.”

“As intrigued as I am with your sudden concern for the public,” Beth began, “I’m more of a solo kind of girl. And if I’m not mistaken, aren’t there two captains? So really, I have options.”

Billy huffed. She watched as the last group of middle schoolers made their way out of the building.

“It was good to see Will and everybody here today. And your sister. I’m sure they enjoyed it,” she said, turning her head to look at the boy next to her. His face fell flat.

“How do you know Max?”

Beth halted at the intersection of two hallways. “Dustin is my cousin. I dropped her off a few times after AV Club meetings.”

Billy’s stance relaxed. He nodded a single time and waited a few moments before speaking again.

“Well if you change your mind about Friday, you know where to find me.” He flashed an infamous smile. With a roll of her eyes, Beth shook her head. She couldn’t help but grin a little though. Rounding the corner of the hall, she yelled over her shoulder, “See you in Government!”

“No, you won’t!” Billy fired back.

#billy hargrove x oc #billy hargrove x reader #billy hargrove imagine #stranger things imagine #billy hargrove #hush hush #chapter 1 #chapter 1: pep rally #wildflowerrambles

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