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marina-the-witch · 4 months

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Elden Ring Boss Ranking

Hi everyone!

With Elden Ring being my most replayed and almost most played game over all, I think my opinions on the bosses have definitely solidified enough for me to rank them individually. I will do so in this post.

Seeing as I can only attach 30 images and Elden Ring has a plethora of mini-bosses, I'll only be ranking bosses that reward you with achievements for beating them and ones necessary for story progression. Seeing as Godskin Noble and Duo fall under those criteria, I'll also include the Apostle as I would feel weird leaving it out.

Additionally, I won't be ranking the illusion/nerfed version of bosses and instead just lump them in with the real deal. This applies to Margit, Sewer Mohg, Siofra Ancestor Spirit, Godfrey and Carian Knight Loretta.

Remember that these are only my opinions and you're allowed to agree or disagree however much you want.

Bosses will also be put into a bit of a tiering system through colors. Blue means a boss is almost if not entirely perfect in my opinion and is one of Fromsoft's greatest to date. Purple means I do really enjoy a boss but have a handful of gripes with it that drag it down. Pink means i don't feel strongly about a boss one way or the other, either due to them not really being particularly noteworthy or having both really good and really bad aspects. Green means I don't really enjoy a boss but they have enough redeeming qualities for me to still like them a little bit. Orange means I do genuinely dislike a boss but can't bring myself to hate them. Red means they should be nuked from orbit.

With all that said, let's begin.

#1: God-Devouring Serpent/Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy

Rykard and Radahn fluctuate as my number 1 fairly consistently. While I definitely think Radahn has a better fight, I find the comparison a bit unfair seeing as Rykard is designed to be a gimmick fight. Unlike his predecessors like Storm Lord and Yhorm however, Rykard actually manages to stay challenging despite the game granting you the weapon specifically designed to kill him right away. What really makes Rykard so special for me is everything else. He is by far the most disgusting entity fromsoftware has ever produced in my opinion and I could go on about how much I love his design, lore and presentation for hours. I love everything about this fight, from the insanely memorable voice acting and reveal in phase 2, to the demonic rollercoaster of a theme and the symbolism of the chandeliers in his arena, with this grotesque monstrosity still framing itself a noble king. With a spectacular legacy dungeon to boot, Rykard, for me at least, is easily my favorite boss in Elden Ring.

#2: Starscourge Radahn

While I prefer his siblings in almost every other regard, Radahn for me is easily the most fun boss in the entire game and very consistently switches places with Rykard in my overall ranking like I said. With an immaculate battle theme that really emphasises the spectacle of taking down this fierce demigod, Radahn is a challenging and thrilling fight. While far from the hardest fight in Elden Ring, he can still throw me for a loop, especially as I tend to fight him without summons and a purposefully unupgraded weapon. His attacks are imposing and beautiful to look at while never feeling unfair and no boss better captures the feeling of giving a noble warrior a heroic end.

#3: Mohg, Lord of Blood/Mohg, the Omen

Far more controversial than my previous 2 picks, I can definitely understand why people don't really gel with Mohg. Even I used to not really like him, with Mohg the Omen actually making me almost cry out of frustration the very first time I fought him, as I had not yet gotten used to Elden Ring's delayed attack patterns. However, after fighting the real deal at the end of the game and being perfectly trained to evade his wide sweeps, I knew this boss was something special. Mohg is a thrilling, challenging fight, with an absolutely stunning battle theme that I would confidently call my favorite piece of music in Elden Ring and I could not be happier they made the last minute decision of adding him to the main boss line-up.

#4: Morgott, the Omen King/Margit, the Fell Omen

Much like his brother, Morgott is also an extremely thrilling and exciting fight. What makes him a little inferior to me, is that he's not quite as challenging as I think he should be and a few of his longer combos can feel a bit tacky and excessive. While I definitely see a lot of praise for Morgott as a character, I sometimes feel as though his fight and especially theme aren't really talked about enough though. Morgott is a perfect capper for the midgame of Elden Ring, just like how Margit is a perfect beginning, providing an extremely challenging but learnable fight that prepares the player for what's ahead. He, much like Radahn, is a boss worth nerfing myself for.

#5: Malenia,Blade of Miquella/Goddess of Rot

I feel like my placement of Malenia would be controversial no matter what. Understandably, seeing as she is maybe the single hardest boss in Fromsoftware's catalogue, Malenia is quite divisive and it even took me a couple attempts to finally start liking her. But this latest attempt, where I finally managed to best her without summons, was the one. While I do think Malenia can be really unfair at times, I can't deny that the duel with this master swordstress is a one-of-a-kind encounter. With an absolutely gorgeous theme, Malenia has wormed her way into my heart, despite all the trouble I've gone through while fighting her. My only, and obvious, gripe is that I feel as though her heal-on-hit-ability is a bit excessive and could have been substitued with a larger health pool, as I often found myself having a hard time hitting her when she was only a few hits away from death, when a simple mistake quickly undid a lot of my progress.

#6: Dragonlord Placidusax

Every Souls game needs it secret dragon, and more often then not, these fights end up being some of my favorites in the game and Placidusax is no exception. While I do prefer Midir overall, Placidusax is nothing if not a jaw-dropping spectacle with moves like the thundercloud form and lightning stake nuke. While not particularly hard, Placidusax manages to be fun and challenging regardless due to his robust defenses and high damage output. The only issue I've encountered is that the fight can drag on for a bit, and especially when her health is low, he will start teleporting all over the place, which can be a little annoying. Regardless, Placidusax is an absolute marvel of a boss and fits right in in a game so in love with making its fights cinematic spectacles without the use of cutscenes.

#7: Radagon of the Golden Order

For the purposes of this list, I'll be ranking Radagon and Elden Beast separately, as my opinions on them differ quite a bit. Radagon is an excellent final boss in my opinion, perfectly making use of the core fundamentals of every bosse's kit with a mix of heavy physical hits and ranged incantations. Him being quite challenging is a huge positive for me to, as I often feel as though the final bosses of souls games end up being needlessly easy and almost pathetic for narrative purposes. Additionally, genuinely no final bosse's theme, in any game I've played, has encapsulated the feeling of finality more than his, to the point of literally being called "The Final Battle." Radagon can be a bit unfair at times, but he is the perfect conclusion to your journey as Elden Lord.

#8: Godfrey, First Elden Lord/Hoarah Loux/Lord's Apparition

Godfrey is so effortlessly awesome. With a well telegraphed moveset, kickass presentation in the form of his cutscene and a gorgeous piece of music to accompany his fight, he is one of the most memorable encounters in the game and definitely the most popular boss overall for a good reason. However, I find myself having quite a hard time with him fairly consistently for some reason, which, while not his fault, does obviously impact my enjoyment of his fight overall. That's not too say I dislike it though, as I feel Godfrey's moveset is extremely satisfying to dodge and counter. Hoarah Loux on the other hand.... I don't know really. The fight against Hoarah Loux is too stressful for me to enjoy it long term and I mostly just try to reduce his health as much as I can before this phase triggers. That's not to say it's bad, I just don't enjoy the amount of grabbing going on as a result of Hoarah's very limited moveset. Overall, it doesn't stop me from loving Godfrey though, as Hoarah Loux rarely last very long anyway, and can be quite fun in small doses.

#9: Godrick the Grafted

Godrick is a really entertaining fight. His cutscenes, voice acting and presentation are on point and his mechanics definitely fit for the first shardbearer you'll be fighting on most playthroughs. I, however, often find myself struggling with dodging his moveset and often feel as though my victory is more a result of his fairly weak attack power and health pool. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy Godrick though, as I definitely do. Not only is he a fantastic first boss but I also find it quite fun from a narrative perspective that he's nowhere near as challenging as his.... great uncle? who's guarding his castle. I can't confidently rank him higher unfortunately, since Convergence and Godefroy have taught me that a tanky, high damage Godrick can be quite the piece of work.

#10: Beast Clergyman/Maliketh, the Black Blade

Oh boy, Maliketh. Quite the story with this one. I actually only properly started Elden Ring quite a long while after most of my friends had already beaten it and as such they were all EXTREMELY excited to see my reaction to this guy, especially seeing as his cutscene is a blatant reference to not only my favorite boss in bloodborne, but any game I've ever played, Ludwig. However, their expecations were met with harsh disappointment as Maliketh frustrated me to the point of actual tears and I had to resort to a cheese strategy using the Redmane Flames Ash of War. After giving the game a try or two more though, I've warmed up to Maliketh quite a bit. I do think he can be a little annoying with how mobile he is and don't really like how his fight will often just end up with him stalling and only surviving as long as he does due to you not being able to hit him, especially regarding his tiny health pool. Additionally, I also find Beast Clergyman quite annoying and wish the threshhold for phase 2 was moved up to 90 or 80% max rather than the 70 to 50% it's at currently. However, overall, I do still enjoy Maliketh and think his lore and presentation make up for my many gripes with his fight.

#11: Lichdragon Fortissax

The other major dragon fight of Elden Ring, Fortissax, doesn't hit quite as hard as Placidusax for me unfortunately. Undeniably awesome with his presentation and placed in a real scary arena, Fortissax ends up being quite overwhelming with his combination of deathblight clouds and red lightning. The latter definitely drags the fight down for me quite a bit, as I much prefer Placi's 4 timed strikes with much greater range and damage over Fortissax's constant shower of them. However, while I do have many gripes with this fight, I can't deny the concept of a death-riddled dragon protecting his former best friend is one of the coolest presented by Elden Ring and, lightning aside, Fortissax does show that the ancient dragons are actually really good, whereas every other encounter with them ends up being quite messy due to elevations really messing up their movesets in my eyes.

#12: Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree/Loretta, Carian Knight

In my opinion the MOST underrated boss in the game. Loretta is awesome, with a gorgeous armor set and a super fun take on the already pretty enjoyable Tree Sentinel moveset. Her greatbow spell drops are some of my favorites in the game to boot. Unfortunately, she does blend in a bit with all the other horse bosses (I blame the five-hundred Night's Cavalry) and ends up never being very challenging, but on paper, her moveset is well telegraphed and fun to dodge. My only gripe is that the Carian Phalanx and Glintstone Stars she begins casting when you move away can be a little bit annoying, but overall, Loretta is easily the best miniboss in the game in my opinion.

#13: Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella

Another boss that I don't really feel gets a good amount of appreciation is the Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella. Ignoring the one in the Lake of Rot, Dragonkin Soldiers are just really cool to me, both in lore and design, as well as their fight. Not only do you fight this one in what might be my favorite arena in the game visually, it also has a surprising and unique phase transition not seen in any of the other soldiers, with the Nokstella soldier sprouting wings and beginning to cast frozen lightning, which is one of the coolest magic concepts Elden Ring provides in my opinion. My only wish is that the second phase would trigger a lot sooner, as the boss is not very hard and often ends up dying before it gets time to shine.

#14: Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon

While I would agree Rennala is the best sorceror fight Fromsoft has provided thus far, I would not say that's a very difficult title to claim, nor is Rennala anything to write home about. Her first phase is quite simple but it is kind of fun to mow down rows upon rows of the juvenile scholars with a big weapon every now and then. Her second phase is fairly alright too, with Rennala not dishing out a ludicrous amount of damage and having a nice variety of sorceries to cast. A bit like Placidusax, I do sometimes find the fight drags on a bit as she stalls and relies on her summons rather than actually fighting you, but considering how easy she is, it's really no big deal. Of course I can't not mention her gorgeous arena, as it immediately made me think back to Bloodborne's Moonside lake, and anything that reminds me of Bloodborne gets a plus in my book.

#15: Commander Niall

Out of the 2 commander bosses, Niall is definitely the more standout one. Banished Knights suck and I hate them, so I'll try to look at Niall on his own, and I gotta say, I quite like him. His hitboxes can feel a bit over the top but that aside I think he's genuinely a really fun fight, and definitely the hardest miniboss the game has to offer in my opinion. His weapon, while absurd, is quite cool and definitely worth a try for those who want to focus on physical stats but still have the benefits of lightning damage, especially seeing as it scales with dexterity anyway. Niall definitely feels like a good pick to be guarding the last thing you need to enter the Haligtree.

#16: Magmawyrm Makar

While I often find myself annoyed with the other Magma Wyrms and their tendency to do little else besides their magma charge, Makar is quite a fun little miniboss in my opinion. The ruin-strewn precipice is a fairly cool little side area and Makar is a very good capper for it and an even better guardian for the Altus Plateau. His reveal is quite funny, but overall, I can't really say much about this boss, as his fight is just okay across the board. Nothing particularly annoying nor amazing to note, really.

#17: Regal Ancestor Spirit/Ancestor Spirit

The Ancestor Spirits are, in my opinion, mostly noteworthy for their gorgeous music and presentation, but their fights end up being quite lacklustre unfortunately due to a fairly limited movepool. They're not hard at all, with the Regal Spirit's only "challenge" coming from the hard to dodge roll it attains after absorbing a boar's soul and the health regen move it pulls out every now and then. Much like Makar, I can't really say I love, nor hate these two, but the Regal Spirit's aformentioned health regen does make it a bit more bothersome than Makar on occasion. Overall, their beautiful design and music do make them worth experiencing even despite their medicore fight.

#18: Godskin Noble

I found myself actually quite enjoying the Godskin Noble as of late, to the point I'd actually say they're a little overhated. The thrusting attacks feel nice to dodge but even better to block and counter but obviously it's far from perfect. Obviously his roll has gained infamy ever since the game came out and understandably so, but other moves such as its powerful thrust can also be a bit tough to work with. Other than that, Godskin Noble is a perfect example of a boss that is so perfectly alright that i don't have much else to praise it for nor complain about.

#19: Elden Beast

While also being kind of undeserving of all the hatred it receives, Elden Beast is very far from being a fun boss in my opinion. For starters, it is WAY too tanky, with half of its fight feeling like a sisyphean effort of slapping its chest until something finally happens. Additionally, its moveset feels very limited, especially for a final boss. Lastly, and most importantly, it does really bother me that in order to even be able to fight this extremely tanky boss, you have to beat another fairly difficult one beforehand every time, so it becomes a kind of unbearable endurance run in hopes of having enough ressources left to beat this fairly underwhelming boss. Its one redeeming feature comes in form of its truly breathtaking design, but otherwise, I can't say I'm a big fan.

#20: Astel, Naturalborn of the Void

Astel used to be in my Top 5 but he quickly fell out of favor after the Honeymoon phase of "Wow, they added a Bloodborne Great One to the end of my favorite character's quest line" wore off. Astel is, for lack of a better word, annoying. His wide range and tendency to fly above a lot of moves with his thin gangly body make him bothersome to approach and a lot of his attacks, such as waves of darkness, meteorite shower and the gravity ring just feel bad to dodge or get hit by. Astel is another boss whose main merit comes from presentation and design, but unfortunately, his fight is quite weak with very few redeeming qualities in my opinion.

#21: Godskin Apostle

This may be a bit of a hot take, but I've found myself struggling with Godskin Apostle a lot more than Noble, to the point I like it a fair bit less. His twinblade combos can be quite a hassle and he feels much more prolific with his usage of blackflame than the Noble. His blackflame tornado and weapon helicopter are also pretty annoying. Overall, I don't really enjoy the Godskin Apostle's fight, but it feels like more of a personal struggle than the boss actually being bad, hence its ranking.

#22: Mimic Tear

I really don't have much to say about this boss. It's hard to consistently judge as how fun or annoying it is entirely depends on how you approach it. Overall though, I do like the concept and it can be quite funny. Due to its inconsistency and me not really caring for NPC invaders in general though, I'll just put it as the cut-off point for bosses I just genuinely dislike.

#23: Godskin Duo

Godskin Duo isn't good, but it's not as bad as people say either in my opinion. Being made up of two pretty average bosses and especially after the balance patch to duo bosses, the Duo ends up just being a kind of whatever fight that can be a bit annoying sometimes. I really don't have much to say other than that. Guess I will use this spot to say how much I love the Godskin theme though.

#24: Draconic Tree Sentinel

I don't like this guy he looks like burnt chicken and waffles. I don't really have much to say about this guy either. His AoEs and Hitboxes can be real weird and annoying and I hate the horse fireball spam you will be subjected to if you even dare try to heal. He's just kind of a necessary evil, not really worth complaining about.

#25: Fire Giant

By far my least favorite remembrance boss, Fire Giant is everything people say is wrong with fromsoft's plethora of giant bosses. Not only do you just spend the entire time slapping its ankles, Fire Giant also has an absurdly massive health pool, and a boss that wastes your time will always annoy me more than one that gets you with cheap bullshit. While having a fantastic and underrated theme and really cool lore, I really don't enjoy fighting Fire Giant at all due to his large health pool and wide range AoEs.

#26: Elemer of the Briar

I can't stand this guy and I can't stand that there's like 8 of him. I really don't see where this "Elemer is the most underrated boss" idea came from, because I personally think Elmo deserves every bit of hate he gets. My girlfriend put it perfectly when she said "Elemer has a punish for you existing", because it really does feel like he can counter everything you do, no matter if you're healing, jumping, casting or attacking. While it's cool that his sleek sword is the reward for fighting him, I really don't enjoy the battle with Elemer at all.

#27: Leonine Misbegotten

Genuinely how do you make Gael, Dark Souls' greatest boss in my opinion, so fucking unbearable. With a non stop barrage of overly staggering sword swings, Leonine Misbegotten is without fail an insanely annoying fight for me. Its arena is really cool but that is about the only positive I can give it. I already don't like Castle Morne, nor the Grafted Blade and Leonine Misbegotten really doesn't help either of their cases.

#28: Valiant Gargoyles

Like I said before, Godskin Duo isn't as bad as actually say. Valiant Gargoyles, on the other hand, might somehow be worse, despite nobody being able to stand them anyway. I really don't have anything of note to add to the conversation about this god awful fight and writing about these bosses I hate is already draining enough, so I'll just move on.

#29: Red Wolf of Radagon

While I do think from a game design perspective, Valiant Gargoyles and Gideon are worse, Red Wolf frustrates me more than anything else. Not only is it a cheap attempt at making Dark Souls fans rejoice by reusing scrapped content from 3 that's obviously reminiscent of one of the most memorable fights in the first game, Red Wolf is also just really annoying, with its overy long combos and tendency to avoid attacks by jumping around aimlessly. The only saving grace is it's tiny health pool, but that still requires you hit it to begin with, which, unfortunately, isn't always a given. Red Wolf just pisses me off in a way I can't really properly describe but at least it's over quick most of the time.

#30: Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-Knowing

Not only is Gideon a massive cunt, his boss fight also sucks. Being everything wrong with both NPC invaders and sorceror bosses, Gideon is one unbearable spam sandwich of spells that more than likely will kill you in 2 shots. Gideon has genuinely no redeeming qualities that affect his fight and there is a very good reason everyone uses his admittedly pretty cool monologue to instantly bumrush him the second they pass the fog gate. Gideon's fight really is a huge letdown considering how much of a despicable cunt he is, but I suppose there wasn't really a better way to do it. Regardless, I hate fighting Gideon. It's cheap, annoying, unfair and rewards you with a subpar weapon. If he wasn't mandatory nobody would be fighting this guy.

#elden ring #elden ring bosses #ranking #fromsoftware #fromsoft games

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rathologic · 2 years

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it's frustrating because aglaya is already villainized by nearly all the characters in patho2 (yulia as the slight exception), and the point of this is that you, the player character, are asked to approach this fellow person trapped in an impossible situation with grace instead. the Haruspex, a character who is fundamentally about extending his love to everyone in the game (as described by the devs!) has the ability to extend love, platonic or not, to her! logical! so seeing people talk about how much they hate her IN PATHO2 is like extremely jarring.

aglaya never does anything to harm the player in p2 (boring choice, but that's not my point); the closest thing would be that she causes fan favorite badgrief to have a lasting personal crisis. but a lot of the violent hatred towards her instead seems to stem from her flirting with you...? and it's always visceral want to see her dead kind of hatred. sorry people can't handle a woman in a position of authority speaking somewhat impolitely to them but the "flirting" part does really bug me so I'll get into that

the single major change p2 implemented to aglaya's story was that the Haruspex can meaningfully be on her side by agreeing to her request to leave the town together. it's weird to see that disparaged by fans for her using the imagery of romantic attachment, while the player's never forced to use the same imagery in return. the escape's not "you instantly fall in love with each other and run away" it's about a way of reacting to the fate imposed on both of you by the narrative: pathologic 2 simply describes fate through the lens of romance, re: nara and the brides, re: "a fate like a good wife, emshen... your wife" (re: the option to call aglaya your wife on the train).

& there's a fascinating meta aspect to the fact she can tell the haruspex as the player has the ability to make this choice, to be the only person in the world who Could not villainize her, and maybe even help her under an extremely short time limit. her expressing attraction to the haruspex (through a reflection, even) is for once not a weird misogyny thing but a reasonable way of parsing her feelings and needs into something that you might listen to! it fits within the societal framework expected in the game, and adds a discussion of romantic love to p2's dissection of the ideal of love in general; "discussion" meaning it is given to the player to see how you feel about it, and remains open-ended.

then she doesn't even make it and replaying you Know she'll never even make it which lends all the more meaning to choosing to flee with her. since patho2 is a game at its core about symbolic choices representing love + what it means to the player to choose to undergo challenges for no extrinsic rewards! her whole quest is a microcosm of key themes of patho2 (aka: "udurgh"), and potentially, a moment of respite and genuine friendship during one of its most stressful phases. if someone felt strung along by it I have great news for them about the final impact of every other quest in the game

and furthermore the connections she sees between herself and the haruspex are genuinely there. they're both trapped in the game they both will cease to exist after it and meaning is derived, both for the player and for her ("touch me with your words"), from choosing to fight the inevitable however briefly instead of just submitting to death - and love being the only driving force that can motivate that choice. how did you miss the point about love when it's the only point the game ever makes.

#p2 spoilers #aglaya lilich #pathologic #you see the antidote to mean and pointless complaint posting is... detailed and meaningful complaint posting instead. well enjoy #pathologic 2 #only sort of due to my point being you're not forced into it! but it may as well go in my tag ->#aglayartemy

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thefirstknife · 11 months

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To take a break from this week's awfulness, I wanted to tag in on Calus in LF. As you deftly laid out, it's perfect for his character & his relationships with the Witness & Caiatl. It shows him as vain & pathetic. But that's precisely why it fails *as a game villain*. He needs to be scary & powerful for our final battle, but it was just sad to me. A sad little man, unloved & desperate. Compared to Sav, Oryx etc it's a big emotional difference. What do you think from the angle of *game* villain?

Oh that's an interesting question, no worries!

Honestly, it really depends on what type of a villain people expect or prefer. I can see why some would prefer a villain to not be this way or at least if they didn't know all the details. I personally really love villains like this; villains who have put themselves into a path that led them to being just sad, abandoned, lonely and desperate people, despite being given options and a way out, multiple times. But their refusal to accept change is what ultimately led them to their fate.

Calus fits this really well! There's definitely a tragedy to him and his life as a whole. This doesn't really bring the same sort of joy over his defeat as it would be to defeat someone who is villainous in a different way so I can understand why people would feel off for killing him. But personally I believe that Lightfall's whole theme fits this with Calus. He was a sad little man, who rejected everything to overcome his problems and grief and instead chose the simpler path, unlike us; we worked through our grief and took the more difficult way but ultimately more rewarding. It's the primary dichotomy between the way of Light and the way of Darkness. The Witness is also important to consider here because the Witness looks for these types of people in particular for manipulation. A sad little man like Calus was overjoyed to meet the Witness, ages ago. The Witness played with that aspect of him and promised him everything he wanted; most of all, to be important and to be seen.

And in truth, he simply wasn't. He was being used, as all who side with the Witness are. With the whole setup of loss at the end of Lightfall, yeah; his defeat didn't feel as triumphant as it would've been if he'd been different. I believe that was intended. It definitely gave me more of a sense of relief that we put him to rest, rather than triumph. The Witness does that to people. You're kinda glad that you're putting those irreversibly manipulated by it out of their misery. It's also reflected with Caiatl who was basically just tired of it all and just wanted to know if it's done.

I'd even say that Oryx was a similarly tragic figure, though not exactly in the same way. Oryx was also manipulated and he struggled with his doubts all of his life. And when he finally came to attack us, he was literally just a father struck with grief over losing his child. He was more of an imminent threat to the solar system of course, so there was more triumph in defeating him. His story was also much more obscure overall (given how D1 did lore). To a lot of people, Oryx was just a scary monster that arrived to kill everyone. But once you know the background (and especially now with the full scope of it and the role of the Witness in shaping the Hive into who they are), I believe that he is also one of those villains that are ultimately just tragic people. I know Oryx is like that to me.

So yeah, I think this is a really interesting perspective to consider. I still think that this does work for villains, it's just not something that everyone equally enjoys. An expectation for villains is that we should feel good for ending them. But Destiny in general has given us many questions about that over the years; Uldren is a perfect example. He was also painted as a villain, but even back then (and especially now with Crow post-Haunted), I genuinely felt like crap for what we did to him. And that was kinda baked into Forsaken as well; our revenge rampage was never meant to be heroic. There was no real glory or justice in it.

This is definitely something that not everyone will perceive the same way and that not everyone will equally enjoy, especially when considering what the expectations are going into it.

#destiny 2 #calus #oryx #uldren #long post #ask

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gemsofgreece · 1 year

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This may be a question someone has already asked, but what are your thoughts on the landscapes in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, if you have played it?

I have answered a similar question but not this one! I have actually not played the game but because of the previous ask and the aesthetics and the frequent greece representation discussions here, I am somewhat acquainted with it.

AC Odyssey is actually quite accurate, with some pros and cons. One thing we can all agree upon is that the developers worked their asses off to create a beautiful world, genuinely inspired by or representing Greece. While watching it, I can also tell they wanted to show some little known facts about Greek geomorphology. In order to achieve this, they overdid a bit in some aspects and they deviated from other, more known characteristics, which they perhaps incorrectly ditched as stereotypes . In short, some elements are accurate, some are idealised and some are overlooked or undersold:

+ By watching relevant videos on YouTube, navigating your character does feel like exploring the Greek landscape. Many of the locations , although digital and fantastical, feel very oddly familiar.

+ The developers emphasized most on a little known fact about the country; it is very rugged, mountainous and rocky. This thing where your character goes up, down, up, down, up, down, up and again down and then up an irregular hill, well that's the genuine painful but also very rewarding experience of walking in the Greek countryside.

+ They nailed it with the vegetation, if they took inspiration from South Greece. This combo of sparse forest with low vegetation, sometimes interrupted by rocky terrain was beautifully done.

+ Some criticise it a bit for adding architectural elements of different ancient eras but I actually like this. It is a game, it blends elements beautifully and they are still Greek, so what's the problem... Although it surely could do with less wood and more stone in its place.

+ The light is beautiful in this game. They knowingly played with it as Greece promotes this as one of its attractions: the whole Greek sun, Land of Light etc. But, yeah, the way light is used in this game often reminds me of beautiful sunlit or sunset views in the country.

+/- It is beautiful but of course idealised how in AC Odyssey apparently all seasons co-exist in Greece. It's an eternal spring with spots of vibrant autumn and there's always winter in the mountains. Summer ironically got the short end, you can perhaps see it in the occasional brownish low vegetation at best. It is however a nice change from everyone thinking Greece is a tropical country. It's a temperate country, it's just that it doesn't experience the seasons all at once lol And of course if someone wants to visit the Greek countryside in its most AC-like time, they have to come to Greece in spring, ideally April and May, and not in July and August like most tourists. Someone might say "thanks Captain Obvious" to this but I have received plenty comments under photos wondering why the grassland wasn't flowery like in the image when they went in August so I feel like I have to say this.

(-) It is wonderful when you're navigating your character but I watched a video with the game's map in the eagle's eye view and I realised that the AC Odyssey Greece is a tad repetitive and less diverse. Essentially it's a bunch of islands that are VERY rugged with a snowcapped mountain and a few bays. While, again, this is part of what Greece looks like, the country is actually way more diverse.

(-) Namely, the rugged emphasis was overdone after a while. If Greece is over 80% rugged and mountainous, which is the official estimation, AC Greece is like 101%. Greece has flatter islands, wider valleys and smoother hills as well. Again, what AC shows is very accurate but overexaggerated. I already talked about how good the vegetation is. However, it resembles the south mainland. Some islands have less vegetation. Northern and central mainland as well as many islands have actually quite denser vegetation than the one depicted in the game. Again, the game is accurate but way less diverse.

(-) The map is not accurate. There’s just Athens, right? And then islands after islands, which all have mainland characteristics. But they clearly weren’t going for accuracy there.

(-) The biggest foul IMO was surprisingly the beaches. AC Odyssey did the Greek beaches no justice at all. The most accurate thing about them is that AC coastline is very indented with bays and coves. That's accurate. However, I was disappointed by the repetition again as well as the sea colour which I found nice but much plainer than that of the actual Greek waters. It was always a little turqoise in the first couple meters and then a regular blue. Greek waters can be turqoise for much longer distances or have a striking azul or sapphire or darker blue colour, all of which were greatly missed in the game. I missed the famous - if stereotype-y - blue and white aesthetic of the country. Of course the houses are modern so they couldn't be in the game but the blue&white also feature in the sea / waves and sky / clouds so...

Ignore the town but this type of blue is greatly missed in a game about Greece IMO.

Also some beaches looked way too tropical. Greece has a few subtropical beaches but the AC ones didn't look very accurate. Sometimes I thought it was a small bay in a Caribbean island. This is quite odd coming from the guys who worked so hard on other less known facts about the country's geomorphology.

(-) Elysium might be stunning but it is not Greek looking. Unfortunately, the Niagara falls are in Canada. The rock formations however, as well as several others in the game, seem to be inspired by Meteora.

So below I did some comparisons between AC Odyssey and real Greece. Keep in mind that these are just similar-looking images I managed to find on google. I do not know where the developers actually based their inspiration.

South Pindus

Ancient Olympia

Meteora

Mt Pelion

Cape Sounion

Dimitsana

Lake Plastira

Kerkyra (Corfu) island

Vikos gorge

Kalavryta

I found many other familiar looking locations but they were too generic i.e a small stream, a hill, a farm, and I got a little lost with all this searching because there are many places that could look like that. Lol I just realised I didn't use even one AC beach - AC beaches get rekt

Anyway, in short, I believe AC Odyssey does a very solid and hard work in its Greece portrayal - all my complaints are basically nitpicking that doesn't bother me (save for the beaches). Of course there is also the gamification and colour filters that create all these otherwordly vibes but those are to be expected from a game of course.

#greece #assassin's creed #ac odyssey #assassin's creed odyssey #video games #landscape #greece representation #mainland #greek islands #ask #long post #tw long #tw long post #mrcloudyfun

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probablygoat · 1 year

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Some Random 3:47 AM Thoughts

I've been playing and replaying Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy a ton recently. It's fun, genuinely. I enjoy its physics, its movement, the authentic feeling of improvement, and above all, I enjoy its philosophy and the things it has to say about the media we consume.

For a long time, I've gently prodded at my own means of media-related consumption. I love to branch out and have new experiences, but something that always gets in the way of me doing that (and probably always will) is the inevitable retread of an already-lived experience. Replaying favorite games, rewatching favorite movies and TV shows, listening to favorite albums and artists ad-nauseum until it's reached levels of proverbial insanity.

There's a personal sense of comfort that comes with the engagement of familiar settings and ideas, but I think there's more to it than that.

There's a quote from Getting Over It that I think about a lot since I first heard it: "For years now, people have been predicting that games would soon be made out of prefabricated objects, bought in a store and assembled into a world. And for the most part that hasn't happened, because the objects in the store are trash. I don't mean that they look bad or that they're badly made, although a lot of them are -- I mean that they're trash in the way that food becomes trash as soon as you put it in a sink. Things are made to be consumed and used in a certain context, and once the moment is gone, they transform into garbage."

Initially, this postulation read to me as something highly negative—pessimistic even. But the more I spin this idea in my mind, the more sense it makes, and the more I can relate it to my personal habits.

I massively enjoy replaying video games. But not all video games; certain ones that appeal to those fundamental aspects of myself that scream for and want and desire unforgettable experiences. Those experiences, for me, come in all forms: challenge, narrative, mechanics, depth, character, mood, ideas, atmosphere, variety, or a combination of these things or more.

"When games were new, they wanted a lot from you. Daunting you, taunting you, resetting and delaying you. Players played stoically. Now everyone's turned off by that. They want to burn through it quickly, a quick fix for the fickle, some tricks for the clicks of the feckless."

I've come to really appreciate video games that are built with this sort of replayability in mind. Games that dare you to improve after each playthrough, games that encourage you to keep coming back for an increasingly rewarding experience. Said experience can even change drastically, depending on the game. It can change for better or for worse, but through that encouragement they've made an active effort to avoid becoming trash.

I don't actually like using the word "trash" to describe media, but for the sake of categorizing my thoughts, I will. It doesn't mean that they look bad or that they're badly made, it means that they're trash in the same way food becomes trash as soon as you put it in the sink. If an experience you've had is amazing—and I mean honestly, truly amazing—then why only experience it once? I would even argue that the lack of a recurrent experience, in a lot of cases, narrowly misses the full and complete picture of what a lot of things have to offer.

If that call to action is ignored, it becomes trash. Disposable and light—like a wad of paper being thrown across the room. A thing that you did, and will likely not do again.

Of course, like any philosophy, I don't genuinely believe this can hold 100% true in every case. It's different for everyone. But I do think it opens up an interesting discussion. How much do you truly value each new experience you consume? Do you have the drive and the time to appreciate its every crevice, pore, wrinkle, crack, high, and low? It can be video games, music, TV shows, movies, anything. Chances are it comes down to either personal preference or circumstance, and that's definitely okay. Some don't have time, some don't have the patience, some just want to get their money's worth, others simply don't care one way or another. And that's perfectly fine, because this sort of cultural waste is inherently recyclable.

What I mean by this is: something may become trash to someone out there. It may even become trash to an incredibly large amount of people. But human beings, as a collective, love to preserve. We don't exactly have a 100% success rate with all of our preservation efforts, but the effort is always there nonetheless. A video game that very few play or talk about anymore could come coupled with pages of important resources for those who wish to experience it retroactively. To that person, in that exact moment, they likely don't see trash. They see a new experience. And under the right circumstances, this new experience could blossom into something special. It could lead to inspiration—new ideas being created and subsequently introduced into the world.

An experience like this can stem from just about anything. So, if you can, take the time to replay, re-listen, rewatch, whatever it is you do. You might be surprised how different a second experience can be from the first.

#goat thought

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azerothtravel · 1 month

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Dragonflight Post-Mortem

As this expansion comes to a close, it's once again time to ramble about the experience. And lemme tell ya, your mileage may vary, but this was a top 3 expansion for me. They did everything right. No oppressive and unpleasant system, great zones, a solid story with a satisfying ending. Anything you want to do at endgame has rarely been better, from raiding to pvp to alts. More secrets to discover, more transmogs to collect, more random fun things to do than basically ever before.

I think this may be my most played expansion, actually. I've traditionally played Gormorash with an alt or 2 in rotation (Most often Tinzul, Tinovan or Fiazko), but spurred in part by the new crafting system, I was logging into 7 characters every week, and my usual altaholic tendencies made it more than that a lot of the time.

Dragonriding/Dynamic flight/Skyriding/whatever it's called is a welcome addition, and the customizable mounts are cool. I look forward to more of that.

DF was fun to play alts through. Shadowlands felt like an oppressive slog after awhile, but I never got tired of these zones. Great scenery, storylines and music kept it fun over and over.

I was surprised and impressed by this expac being full of stories about empathy and forgiveness and acceptance. There were a lot of genuinely touching moments in this. Who could have possibly imagined Kalecgos eating soup could be an emotional moment? The wrap for the night elf story begun way back in Legion was pretty cool. I liked Merithra stepping up in her Mom's place, and Ebonhorn becoming the Black Aspect. All the smaller stories, too, like Baine overcoming his prejudice against centaur, they just did some great stuff this time.

At the same time, this expac felt fun. The endless gloom of Legion, BfA and Shadowlands replaced with the sense of adventure that characterized vanilla and Mists. Some of the funniest material they've ever done (Azmurloth alone...). I enjoyed the tone.

The Incarnates were genuinely cool new villains, and (Especially if you read War of the Scaleborn) the storyline between Alexstrasza and Vyranoth was done really well. Blizzard has a very uneven history with retcons (Don't get me started on Legion), but these guys slotted into the history pretty easily, and drove some interesting story beats. I'm glad Iridikron escaped to keep being a problem in the next one, he's a good villain.

I felt like they got War Mode down to a science this time. World PvP has never been more fun (or more rewarding).

My biggest complaint about Dragonflight is the new crafting system. Obviously more interesting than the old one, it still had its problems. The endless frustration of "I want to make thing C. To make thing C, you first have to make thing B, and to make that, you have to make thing A, and guess what, that recipe comes from Draconic Message In A Bottle, so you'll never get it" was maddening. Every profession seeming to desperately need a single herb was really annoying. Alchemy has felt like an afterthought for several expansions, but never more than here. The only profession without work orders? Come on.

But there was just so much stuff, such a variety of stuff. The wide variety of public events. The Zsekara Vaults. Sniffseeking. Little Scales Daycare. Unlocking old Scholomance. The various dragon racing cups. The game has just never felt like there was more to do. It seems like War Within will only improve things, content wise. But beating the story stuff in DF will be a tall order. We'll see how it goes.

#wow #world of warcraft #dragonflight

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captainsspnanon · 10 months

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C3E78 - reaction

No Liam! Sad times :( This is the second time he’s missed a game (my mom just watched the C2 episode where Marisha jaegered Caleb, she’s on such a great parallel watching as she bounces back and forth between the two campaigns)

I was very surprised by Fearne’s very physical reaction continuing after the end of last episode, but then I wonder if a part of it is above table. Not anger from Ashley, but her going ‘oh this is the first time I’ve actually been at the table during one of these moments, I’mma take it for all it’s worth!’. I mean, she wasn’t there when Scanlan left, she wasn’t there when Molly died, she wasn’t there when Fjord was going through his big power adjustments, so a part of me thinks that maybe a small part of Fearne’s reaction may be Ashley just reveling in being there for the moment.

Did NOT call the Delilah resurgence, nor did I even consider that Laudna could view this as a betrayal, but I’m loving it! I’m really happy that Marisha is leaning into the Delilah aspect more and more and Matt meeting it perfectly with voices, wisdom saves, etc.

CONSEQUENCES! Holy shit, con down 2 permanently???? Pretty sure a greater restoration won’t fix this! I am FASCINATED. There HAD to have been an outside conversation about this – I feel like it’s completely flipped from how it left off at the end of last episode? I mean, Narrator!Matt was saying how Ashton was now “unprecedented”, Taliesin was talking about high risk high reward, and Ashton’s physical body was certainly being described as a combination of earth and fire. But now here, their eyes are back to normal, their arm is now just a bigger mismatched earth arm, the gold veins are back to normal, and the shard got REJECTED. I just can’t imagine Matt choosing to do this without having some sort of conversation beforehand, even though I know he’s played with Taliesin for years even before CR. I wonder if it came from Taliesin though, if he could have wanted Ashton to fail for this…. I can think of so many different conversations above table, but this is just a full 180 from end of last episode, and honestly a harsh punishment from Matt. I’m all for it, and I’m so excited to continue this, but I would be VERY surprised if Matt did this on his own without any above table talk.

The vision that Ashton talks about seeing themselves with their family, and seeing that they were bad, and everything being their fault makes me think that Taliesin may have chosen the outcome of the shard being rejected, though of course it’s all pure speculation.

(Side note, can we talk about how Ashley is absolutely gorgeous and Taliesin’s hair is fucking phenomenal??? I like the Caduceus swirls a lot more than I liked the Percy geometric. Okay I’m done being distracted)

I was trying to figure out why I was enjoying this episode more than a lot of C3, and I realized that it’s because this is very reminiscent of the M9 relationships. It’s been a long time since we’ve had real interparty conflict with the Hells, whereas that was M9’s bread and butter. I’m hoping this isn’t something that’s just fixed by next episode, because I am THRIVING. I know that C3 has mostly been about external conflict (the solstice), but the PCs have all been….well...almost ‘shallowly’ connected? I don’t feel like that’s the right word, because there WERE true relationships between the group, but I just feel like the internal conflict is always so great at deepening the relationships.

(I’m actually doing this write up AS I watch, rather that after I watch the full episode as I’ve been doing for most of C3)

I am genuinely surprised about how everyone is being very aggressive towards Ashton. I didn’t expect FCG to lash out as hard as they are, and Imogen is cutting NO slack. Again, missing Liam at this moment as I would really love to see where Orym would fall on this, but a tiny part of me is a bit glad, as I don’t know if the conversation would have gone the way it’s going if he was there. And while I didn’t expect it, I am LOVING it. Sam is thriving! And honestly? Big growth moment for FCG here too, even a dozen episodes back I’m not sure they would have reacted this way.

LOL Ashley’s face when FCG asks Ashton how they could hurt Fearne because she’s so wonderful.

God the Fearne and Chetney dynamic is SO GOOD. He scolded her, gave her advice, tried to boost her confidence, maybe was a little offended that she was going for Ashton instead of him, helped her redirect her anger towards a more constructive destructive outlet…. Travis is SUCH a good player, y’all. And Ashley!! UGH I am so glad we get her for so long. *chefs kiss*

Fearne and Laudna/Delilah just off on their own, and holy shit I did not expect that harshness from Chetney, though I suppose I really should have. He’s always been incredibly pragmatic, and we’ve never seen how he would react with a betrayal of trust before.

This...this is both a new and an old perception of Laudna, or rather, it’s bringing new context to the woman who still plays with dolls and assumes they come alive at night. I really REALLY hope we get to see more in this vein, this is FASCINATING.

Alright, a lot of this is now post-watching rather than mid-watch. I really strongly speculate that Taliesin talked to Matt about having Ashton not fuse with the shard. All his RP this episode really feels like he planned to have the backlash and guilt ahead of time. I wonder if he felt that this would be the best way for Ashton to move forwards? Of course, definitely still can be wrong here and this could all be in the moment, but it just feels too off for Matt to have done it without some sort of discussion.

I can’t even begin to sum up how I feel about the feywild trip. It’s needed, I’m excited, I want to know what’s going on with Birdie, what’s going on with Fearne!

#critical role #cr spoilers #bells hells

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thedragonboosterzine · 2 years

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Letter from Rob Travalino to DB Fans- 2022

Hey y’all! So we managed to get in touch with Rob recently, and he was extremely kind to write a note to us! We’ll be updating the zine with this section soon-ish, but thought you might enjoy reading it here first! Enjoy :)

-Li / @paynnincorporated

(Also hehe, there might be more news to come! Rob’s kindly taken some fan questions from the organising team! We’ll share answers when we get them.)

----

Dragon Booster remains one of my favorite life moments, and there have been so many since the show. It was a fantastic journey to be sure, and it often seemed the dragon was in control from the beginning, and the show was meant to be.

Our Canadian partner Alliance Atlantis (Ken Faier and Jennifer Bennett) came on board the very first time they saw the presentation. They learned about the show because Kidscreen Editor Jocelyn Christie loved it so much that she did a feature about it and put us on the magazine cover. We sold the show to CBC (Martin Markle) and Disney (Gary Marsh) with just one meeting.

We already knew Ace Fipke from another company called Mainframe, and NerdCorps in Vancouver was actually custom-built just for Dragon Booster. Our original sales video/animation test was made in a rented apartment that we filled with computer workstations, passionate artists, and animators. That apartment crew became the seeds of NerdCorps Entertainment.

Then, even more, amazing things happened:

Everybody found something different to love about the show and message, which was so rewarding. My co-creator Kevin Mowrer and I lived in the world for years. It began with a feature film prequel idea that takes place years before the series and focuses on Tannis Bllayrr. The world took years to plan and create. It was meant to function as a real place, and we'd hoped to make it into a sprawling online game.

I carefully scripted the show and story for you, the fans, and was thinking about what the story and each detail might mean and hopefully inspire. I wanted Dragon Booster to reflect the world and finding our place in it. Kevin Mowrer shared this vision and carefully put story, emotional content, and personality into every but of art and design he did. The NerdCorps crew picked up the vibe and expanded from there, taking the look and feel of the show and world to even new levels. As a result, the show itself is full of cool double and hidden meanings about culture and our world. Like Mortis might suggest, like Dragon City, and each of us, it all depends on how deep we're willing to look.

Obviously, I'm still a fan myself, and sometimes I look back, and wonder, wow, was I really part of all that? That for me is the best aspect of the creative process, when the community comes together, and when the characters and world take on lives of their own and begin to guide everybody together.

All of you are part of this world now, you have lived in and helped build it. You are part of a long chain of crews, dragon powers, Dragon Priests, and approaches to life that, like the history of Dragon City, have led here. It's a fantastic honor that you continue to explore and expand the history and world of Dragon Booster.

While much of the show still holds up today, one of the things I'm most happy about is the basic message that we can all be superheroes as long as we realize that true superpowers only work for moments, and that they only come out when we're genuinely balanced with ourselves and those around us. I'm super honored how the show has kept so many fans for so long.

Thank you and of course, thanks Beau!

Release the Dragon!

Rob Travalino

#Dragon Booster #dragon booster fanzine #dragon booster zine #updates

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waywardsalt · 1 year

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my grievances with botw

Breath of the Wild is... undeniably a fantastic game, but it is very genuinely not the kind of game I like, and since I started playing it I’ve been enjoying it less and less so... I have a pair of problems with it that I’d figure I’d go into, as well as some stuff that, while weak in botw, were executed better in past loz games.

(small shoutout to @zeldanamikaze for encouraging this and having some points that i agree with and had some examples that i hadn’t thought about much initially)

Again, Breath of the Wild is an objectively impressive game, and I’m not trying to sit here and convince you that it’s a bad game. I’m just trying to point out things that detracted from my enjoyment of it, especially compared to my enjoyment of other Zelda games.

Before I get into the big stuff, I’ll just shoot off some quick little things that I think could’ve been improved:

- The dungeons generally felt like glorified shrines, and while they had cool mechanics and ways to access them, they were short and more or less pretty simple and all have similar visual and musical identities.

- Side quests and their rewards didn’t feel worth doing half of the time. I barely remember any notable ones off the top of my head and the longer ones just gave mostly generic rewards, which I suppose makes sense considering the limited amount of truly unique items in botw.

- Seeing the same enemies over and over again made the combat feel more like a chore than something to really engage with, not to mention that there is hardly any difficulty scaling beyond just making the enemies more durable.

- The story is fine, but in my experience, even seeing people go into more detail about the meanings of events, I never really cared for the events or the characters presented, since you don’t actually have to directly interact with any of that to play the game. Hell, you don’t even need to interact with the story at all to beat it, so the focus certainly doesn’t feel like it’s on the story.

- It would be a lie to call the soundtrack bad, but it’s sparse usage makes it hard to truly appreciate and the fact that most of it is meant to be more atmospheric generally makes them a bit less interesting to listen to on their own, though I will admit there are some fantastic tracks in botw, usually being some of the boss themes.

- While the Sheikah slate runes are cool, they feel very bland after a while, especially compared to the varied items seen in previous games. They’re good tools for an open world, but not much fun otherwise (the bombs were good though, since they had a variety of uses).

And that’s the quick stuff- again, mostly courtesy of @zeldanamikaze, since these are the examples I’ve seen her mention.

I have two big points that kind of encapsulate why I dislike this game and still adore the older games, that being: the minigames and the items and their relationships to dungeons.

Breath of the Wild is a very different game than what came past it, and I am very aware that it is a vast departure from those other games for a reason. However, this leads me to view it not only simply as a game not up my alley, but also as kind of inferior in some aspect to those previous Zelda games. Breath of the World is first and foremost an open world game, seemingly putting a focus on gameplay enjoyment above all else (not to imply that the ‘else’ is bad because of this, but I do think that the ‘else’ suffers in comparison to other Zelda titles.)

It may also be worth mentioning that the other Zelda games I have played is the following: LoZ NES, Link’s Awakening (Original and Remake), Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Phantom Hourlgass, Skyward Sword, A Link Between Worlds, and Triforce Heroes. I have also played both hyrule warriors games as well as loz 2, wind waker, and minish cap, none of the latter 3 i have finished or currently have access to.

1: The Minigames

Minigames are common in Zelda games, so of course botw has a few scattered around it’s world. Botw’s minigames are very different than the minigames seen in past Zelda games, mostly due in part to the limited array of items and unique gameplay gimmicks available in botw. Botw’s minigames usually focus on different forms of archery, gliding, or rune usage: all things integral to normal gameplay. At best you get rupees or cosmetic items from most minigames.

Botw’s minigames are just slightly altered situations of normal gameplay. The bowling is just using stasis except this time the game has a special little arena for it. Pretty much all of the archery games are either just counting how many deer you can kill or if you can just hit some targets on horseback. There’s one race I can think of and one gliding activity I can think of.

This makes sense, considering that there are a handful of other non-minigame activities to engage in, but these minigames feel... hollow. None of the minigames feature gameplay exclusive to those minigames or feature gameplay only used in certain parts of the game. They all make use of readily available mechanics in botw, so they’re like tests of skill- but otherwise not really any worth giving a second-thought unless you want to see how good of a glider or archer you are or grab some extra rupees.

But they aren’t very... worth it or generally fun within the context of botw. It’s just another way to do something that is available to you pretty much all game. They don’t feel unique, they just feel like a task.

Previous Zelda games (obviously) have archery minigames and allow you to use archery when you get the bow and from that point onward. And yet the archery minigames are made unique from the rest of the archery in the game; ocarina of time’s archery minigame is simply just shooting at targets, but the possible rewards and the simple fact that not often are you going to be continuously shooting arrows at enemies make it a bit of a novel experience within oot. The minigames in past zelda games take advantage of the items and area-specific mechanics: they usually include item-exclusive mechanics like bombchu games, or take advantage of more specific mechanics, like the minecarts in skyward sword, the masks in majora’s mask, or being able to control gongoron in phantom hourglass.

They also gave genuine rewards- empty bottles, quest items, ship parts, new masks, heart containers or pieces, kinds of stuff that are hard to get and very valuable. They’re worth doing for reasons outside of just a little activity. The minigames in other Zelda games do really enhance the experience by taking advantage of situational mechanics or giving a unique usage for some items.

You can probably get every item in botw without playing all of the minigames. They have little actual purpose. But in other zelda games, they have a purpose in the greater game and provide novel experiences within the game.

2: Items and their relationships with the dungeons

Obviously, compared to past games, botw’s ‘dungeons’ kind of sucked. They’re fine in a vacuum, with interesting gimmicks and the like, but they’re really little more than glorified shrines with four different-but-similar bosses at the end.

In my opinion, one of reasons why the divine beasts just... fell flat compared to other zelda dungeons is the lack of unique items in general. The runes in botw are cool and useful but you get them at the start of the game and never get anything new. You are give every tool you need to beat all of the dungeons the moment you finish the tutorial.

Older zelda games’ dungeons being tied to their respective items is a big part- to me- of what makes those dungeons so good.

Obviously, the theming, musical themes, and larger layouts and more varied puzzles make them objectively better experiences, but the way they interact with item acquisition makes the whole thing even better.

Even in a link between worlds, where you can get every item whenever you want from Ravio, each dungeon is still tied to one of those items, and one of those items is needed to successfully complete that dungeon.

The dungeons in past Zelda games are practically complex tutorials on how you can use your new items. They are where those items shine and they are designed so that those items are used to their fullest potential within. And then you must then use that item to defeat that dungeon’s boss, and you usually have no chance of beating that boss if you don’t make use of the dungeon’s associated item. It’s like a final test for the item, seeing if you know how it works enough to complete the dungeon and use it against a boss’s weaknesses.

The most recent example, and probably one of the best, is needing to use the whip to tear off koloktos’ arms in the ancient cistern, but the classic scenario of the bombs for king dodongo works well enough, and the bosses of majora’s mask requiring you to understand how the transformation masks work. There are definitely some bosses that require no use of dungeon items (moldorm in the tower of hera, either ghirahim fights), but the item’s usage is still showcased prominently in their dungeons.

Outside of the dungeons, too, the progressive acquisition of items makes more areas and secrets available to you, giving a much more palpable sense of progression through those games’ worlds.

In botw, you get every tool the moment you are released into the rest of hyrule, so while figuring out what to do with those tools can be fun, the sense of progression is dampened by having every item from the start and nothing you gain beyond that being needed for anything aside from a nice little ability to make things easier.

I’m not really too sure exactly why I never found botw fun the way everyone else does, but I think lackluster minigames and the general lack of items that aid a sense of progression are parts of it.

#loz #legend of zelda #botw #salty talks #i feel like im swinging at a hornets nest by suggesting that this game isn't perfect #cuz everywhere you look this game is praised incessantly while its like. i think its fine at best tbh #because it's really not to my tastes #i highly prefer the experience that the other loz games provide and botw dropped off for me while i still enjoy those games #like. open world games arent really my thing and a game packed to the gills with just as much shit as possible is a major turn off for me #this was going to have three points but playing totk exhausted me mentally and i dont really care any more. i dont find these games fun #the tutorial islands felt tedious after a bit and like. idk. good game but i have yet to find myself actually having fun with it #it kinda feels like its fun in concept but the fact that it doesnt necessarily feel got to play to me and progress is slow and based on #like. slow exploration? its fine but its not something i actually enjoy. its not teh difficulty bc i like elden ring and hades n stuff #like. i have more fun with ph than totk. idk. playing totk was like. entertaining? but it kinda ust felt hollow to me #granted i just like. unlocked the first tower and did some shrines but like. idk. good game. i don't think i actually like it too much #i really think these two points kind of maybe explain why these games just fail to click with me #things in older zelda games have specific purposes and can be more situational than pretty much anything in botw/totk so far #it feels. better. to find an item that fits a specific purpose in older loz games. they're more gimmicky.#i feel that open world games (similar to botw/totk) are dragged down by the sheer freedom they allow to me at least #there's too much to do and you're allowed to do whatever so it all feels kind of. standard theres not much purpose to it #the tedium of botw/totk is much more grating than the tedium i experience in skyward sword's lanayru desert #because you HAVE to go through and figure out lanayru desert to continue the story get new items find new dungeons #botw/totk you kinda just get some items and maybe a lackluster quest or some fucking environment thing #long post #idk. im not too far into totk while writing this but rn in a weird way it and botw feel empty to me in a way i cant express #i enjoyed botw at first but after beating it and all it just felt kinda boring and unsatisfying to replay

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raazberry · 2 years

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(obm rant ahead it's long)

kinda really pisses me off when people dismiss the demand for good writing in dating sims by simply saying "it's a dating sim what do you expect." (and yes this is about a stupid take i saw about obey me specifically on twitter how did you guess.)

like, maybe this is a me thing but if a game is heavily driven by gacha then i am even more obligated to be critical of it. and if i'm going to be investing that much time (and money) into it, i think i deserve Something out of it???

i've complained about this on here so many times but it's genuinely so hard to actually keep progressing in the story (normal mode at least), especially if you're a new player - unless you whale a whole lot, or get extremely unbelievably lucky. and when you get past like, lesson 20 i think? the struggle just seems... meaningless.

why am i waiting four whole days just to level up one card by ONE level, just so that i can get past this one really annoying dance battle, only for the next story to be just... plain bad? and then i have to do it all over again?

like okay, maybe the story does get better in fucking season 3 which is like twenty more chapters away (btw from what i've heard, it kind of just doesn't get better) but as a new player it is just so hard to keep that level of commitment especially if all you're rewarded with is horrible writing and negative character development.

i've played free dating sims with better played out plots and stories than this and it just pisses me off so much because the general "idea" of obey me is SO good and so fun! and the characters you meet are genuinely interesting. although some jokes were objectively cringe i can live with that (i am playing a dating sim, after all...) like spoilers for lesson 16 and above i guess but in my opinion the execution of the whole belphie hating humans and quite literally killing MC was done in a pretty nice way! as well as the backstory cards regarding the brothers (and everyone else other than the MC) and their relationships with each other! for example anytime i think about satan and lucifer's strained relationship i get a little bit emotional - and yes of course sometimes satan's almost childish annoyance towards him can be pretty funny, it's almost always treated as a running gag (even after they "sort it out") - to the point where it's one of satan's defining characteristics (the other is his love for cats and books). and that's it! that's all there is to his presence in the main story for the most part.

the events are somehow even more annoying - (those i can actually play without being frustrated about my level) and the stories always try so hard to squeeze every single dateable character in one scenario. and this ends with all of them feeling like caricatures of themselves and i hate it! so much! because again - these are genuinely really fun characters and they have so much potential! even if the devs want to make MC your typical harem protagonist, they can still do it well but they just aren't and it makes me so mad 😭😭😭

"well raaz stop playing the game then!" i did do that actually for a good amount of time and i came back because solomon birth (fire emoji), also anniversary. but also i feel like the players kinda deserve better. especially given the gacha aspect.

although i do think that the anime and music are genuinely pretty good - it's just kinda frustrating that they're not improving their main product first.

"what was the point of saying all of this?" there was no point at all. im just annoyed that i actually spent time and money on this game. though i will say that i do love the fan creations and people kinda treating the characters like their OCs and giving them the plot and development they deserve.

"this is a really long post why do you complain so much?" at this point im just criticising myself for no reason but also idk! i play a couple of gacha games other than obey me and i've honestly realised that it's the worst and shittiest way to monetise your game. and gacha games deserve at LEAST twice the amount of critical analysis because it could literally be the reason for someone's fucking gambling addiction. idk

good night it is almost three am and i have a road trip to be on tomorrow

#sorry i will calm down #also i'm a huge hypocrite because i'm still gonna log in tomorrow and try to upgrade my cards and stuff but #well. yeah #long post #zzz #obey me #obey me shall we date #i will attempt to be positive from now on Good Fucking Night

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humunanunga · 2 years

Text

I’m transcribing what I said on Discord here because I still have a lot of Feelings about this, as That Bitch who fully and unapologetically loves the fourth season the most:

Her: So... why does Atemu want to leave...? Like, genuinely curious as to why he needs to leave, or wants to leave. It is a classic case of I want to move on?

Me: It definitely feels more like something he’s supposed to do more than wants to do. I really think the way it was meant to go was that defeating Zorc and closing off his realm was supposed to incapacitate the Millennium Items from being used to invoke shadow games ever again (and judging by DSoD, it was only a partial success as long as the Items themselves were still intact). It definitely feels like one more kingly duty expected of him overruling his personal desires, hence why there are several postcanon fix-it fics/comics. Everyone understands that the final arc is dubcanon. Some would argue that the fourth season is also dubcanon, since it’s not manga-canon and doesn’t comply with Pegasus being killed off back in the Duelist Kingdom finale, but I stand by the Orichalcos arc.

Her: Yeah cuz like otherwise I didn’t see a reason for him to leave. He was happy, everyone was happy.

Me: The reason was cuz KT was forced to keep fucking producing through a stress ulcer he coulda died from and the subsequent physical recovery and he just needed to wrap it up already to give himself a fucking break!

Like, the fourth season was Technically Filler cuz it doesn’t comply with manga canon in which Pegasus was killed off back in the Duelist Kingdom finale, but each of the musketeers were designed to foil the excaliboys. Rafael was being strangled by what he was told was a destiny he had no right to resist. That would’ve been the perfect build-up to Atemu getting his own autonomy back-- It’d even fit in with his contrast against Seto! It’d put them on more even ground-- Seto could’ve been wrong about the past having no current importance, and Atemu could’ve been wrong about the future being a destiny he had to answer.

Atemu was still trapped in a fragile blood-money vessel that only Yugi could summon him from, Yugi who couldn’t live forever, but being set free from it could’ve been his price for winning the Memory World game, which was supposed to be the final and ultimate shadow game, the one Zorc was going to use to enter their world from the Shadow Realm. Perhaps he wouldn’t get a whole new body, but even just being able to reside with Yugi without the Puzzle, they would’ve been able to pass on together whenever Yugi’s time came!

Yugi didn’t need Atemu anymore, but he still wanted Atemu, and Atemu still wanted to be with Yugi even if he also wanted his memories and identity back, they just-- both of them respected each other enough to help each other get what they wanted, even at their own expense, and they both felt like they didn’t have the right to impose on the other, but they both wanted the same fucking thing! Staying together could’ve been a matter of moving on from the worry that they were only together out of necessity...

Fuck, Horakhty could’ve rewarded Atemu that freedom! Yugi’s implied to be a reincarnation of whatever was left of Atemu that wasn’t sealed away, and I was just reading that to pass on to Duat, all aspects of the soul-- Ba, Jb, Ka, Ren, Shut, they all need to be brought back together to pass on, they coulda stayed together!

#yugioh #yugioh duel monsters #orichalcos #memory world #horakhty the creator of light #atemu #mutou yugi #tldr #musings

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thatwritergirlsblog · 2 years

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I posted 132 times in 2022

48 posts created (36%)

84 posts reblogged (64%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@thatwritergirlsblog

@world-of-fire-and-flight

@hobocats-fun-pile

@rainbowpitofdoom

@ryns-ramblings

I tagged 105 of my posts in 2022

Only 20% of my posts had no tags

#writeblr - 68 posts

#writing - 56 posts

#writers - 51 posts

#writer - 44 posts

#write - 42 posts

#amwriting - 29 posts

#writerblr - 25 posts

#fantasy - 25 posts

#writing community - 23 posts

#fantasy romance - 20 posts

Longest Tag: 57 characters

#the pacing of this show is genuinely starting to annoy me

My Top Posts in 2022:

The most accurate writer tiktok

96 notes - Posted February 4, 2022

Do you want to read a book with:

Primary and secondary characters from various cultures and ethnicities

Complex and brave women

Asexual, bisexual, demisexual and homosexual characters

Close male friendships

A sapphic love story between two women of color

Respectful anxiety and PTSD representation, and

A badass non-verbal character

That also has:

Spicy romance

Epic battles

Rebellion against the rich and powerful

Family secrets

Mind control, and

Long-lost magic?

Then, my book might be for you...

174 notes - Posted June 7, 2022

Why I chose to self-publish

Indie presses, traditional publishing, self-publishing... There are many ways to get your book out there. Here's why I opted to self-publish:

1. Freedom to write what you want

Editors, agents and publishing houses have very specific things that they're looking for. The traditional market is very particular, so if your book doesn't suit that, you won't be able to sell your book to publishers. The traditional market also tends to go through trends, and if your book doesn't fit the current trend... good luck.

The market for self-published books is much wider and you have complete freedom to write whichever genre and whatever story you like. There's also no censorship of subject matter.

2. Complete creative control

I have control over every aspect of my book. No one else decides.

I have the final say on edits, cover design, distribution, marketing, pricing, publication date etc.

I've been dreaming of publishing a book all my life. I'd rather not give someone else the power to screw it up.

3. Career control

I don't just want to publish one book. I want to build a career as an author.

The great thing about self-publishing is that no one else controls your career or your next step. You can plan out where you want your career to go, and you're free to follow those steps. You can also adjust easily when necessary.

I want to write different genres over many years, and now I know that I can do that.

4. Better royalties

With traditional publishing, you're lucky if you get a royalty rate higher than 10%. For a book you wrote!

I'm not about that life. Yes, you have to spend money to self-publish well. You have to take the risks. But the reward is so much higher. I'm talking 40% royalties on print books and up to 70% royalties on ebooks.

You may think that you're more likely to earn money from publishing traditionally, because you'd reach more readers. But that isn't necessarily true. It's really only the BIG authors that get substantial marketing from their publishers.

So, if you're gonna have to do most of the work anyway, why not get paid more?

5. Industry trends

Although this movement is slow, it's important to note that the self-publishing industry is growing whilst the traditional publishing industry is shrinking.

You might not notice it for the next few years, but as someone who wants to play the long game, this is an important factor.

Self-published books are selling better and better, and the services available to indie authors will continue to improve as the industry grows. It's an upward trajectory that I'd like to be on.

So, yeah, these are the main reasons I decided to self-publish my work, but every author should follow the path that works for them (except vanity presses - do not go down that road).

Reblog if you found this post useful. Comment with your own thoughts on publishing routes. Follow me for similar content.

640 notes - Posted January 20, 2022

Tips for Writing a Plot Twist

My debut novel "To Wear A Crown" has plot twists galore, and I received great feedback on them. So, I thought I'd share some tips on how to do plot twists right.

1. They shouldn't come out of nowhere

This is a common misconception - that good plot twists are the ones that come from nowhere and no one can see coming.

Yes, surprise/shock is a big element to plot twists. It shouldn't be obvious. But it shouldn't be completely out of left field either.

What I mean by this, is that you should use foreshadowing. Litter tiny breadcrumbs throughout your novel. The goal is this: if someone reads the book for the second time, they should go, "How did I not see this coming?".

Subtle foreshadowing is the way to get that result.

Plot twists without any prior set-up is often unsatisfying and out of character.

2. Pick your moments

You cannot have plot twists happening left and right every five seconds. The emotion from a plot twist reveal should be intense, and your readers need time to come down after each one.

Pick the right moments in your novel when the tension is high and the foreshadowing has built up. And then after the reveal, give the reader time to breathe before you hit them with another plot twist.

Trust me, this will have a much greater impact.

3. Focus on the characters' emotions

The plot twist needs to be experienced by your characters. The way to get maximum impact out of a plot twist is to focus on the emotions of the characters as it is revealed.

If your POV character had no idea about the plot twist and the reader is finding out with them, the character's shock and betrayal should characterise the scene.

If your POV character was the one keeping secrets and the rest of the cast finds out, show their emotions through body language and dialogue. And let your POV character experience that, and feel guilt etc at it.

Authentic character emotion = reader emotion

4. Use red herrings

That foreshadowing I talked about in the first tip can serve another purpose... making the reader think they know what the twist is going to be.

You put breadcrumbs throughout the story that could be interpreted as foreshadowing Character A as the murderer. But then, it's actually Character B.

Once again, I would recommend for the goal to be for a second-time reader to see those breadcrumbs and go, "Ah I see what the author did here. This was actually pointing to B when I thought it was A."

Play with reader expectations.

5. Avoid cliché plot twist

Unless you're going to subvert a cliche or make fun of it, I would recommend staying away from cliché plot twists, like: It was actually his evil twin all along; The bad guy is the protagonist's father etc.

These will have your readers rolling their eyes, and the impact will be lost.

Reblog if you found these tips useful. Comment with your own advice. Follow me for similar content.

766 notes - Posted February 8, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Abortion in South Africa is legal on request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and under certain conditions afterwards. Abortion is provided free at government hospitals and a tele-medical or 'pills by post' service is provided by Marie Stopes South Africa and Abortion Clinic Johannesburg.

In South Africa, a woman of any age can get an abortion on request with no reasons given if she is less than 12 weeks pregnant. If she is between 13 and 20 weeks pregnant, she can get the abortion if (a) her own physical or mental health is at stake, (b) the baby will have severe mental or physical abnormalities, (c) she is pregnant because of incest, (d) she is pregnant because of rape, or (e) she is of the personal opinion that her economic or social situation is sufficient reason for the termination of pregnancy. If she is more than 20 weeks pregnant, she can get the abortion only if her or the fetus' life is in danger or there are likely to be serious birth defects.

A woman under the age of 18 will be advised to consult her parents, but she can decide not to inform or consult them if she so chooses. A woman who is married or in a life-partner relationship will be advised to consult her partner, but she can decide not to inform or consult him/her. An exception is that if the woman is severely mentally ill or has been unconscious for a long time, where consent of a life-partner, parent or legal guardian is required.

The Constitution does not explicitly mention abortion, but two sections of the Bill of Rights mention reproductive rights. Section 12(2)(a) states that, "Everyone has the right to bodily and psychological integrity, which includes the right ... to make decisions concerning reproduction," while section 27(1)(a) states "Everyone has the right to have access to ... health care services, including reproductive health care." In the case of Christian Lawyers Association v Minister of Health an anti-abortion organisation challenged the validity of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act on the basis that it violated the right to life in section 11 of the Bill of Rights; the Transvaal Provincial Division of the High Court dismissed their argument, ruling that constitutional rights only apply to born people and not to fetuses.

Health workers are under no obligation to perform or take active part in an abortion if they do not wish to; however, they are obligated by law to assist if it is required to save the life of the patient, even if the emergency is related to an abortion. A health worker who is approached by a woman for an abortion may decline if they choose to do so, but are obligated by law to inform the woman of her rights and refer her to another health worker or facility where she can get the abortion.

1,012 notes - Posted June 29, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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bimbinis · 2 years

Note

Genuinely curious why you hate new Vegas

BOY WHERE TO START

There is entirely way too much I have to say about this fucking game because unfortunately I have in fact played it, for multiple hours, way after I'd already decided I didn't like it, so much that I actually think trying to explain all of it I think I might actually have to go beyond the fabled mobile post character limit, but for starters a thing that exponentially increases the amount I hate it is that I listened to/believed the hype and expected the game to be not just good but according to FNV fans (particularly Hbomberguy who was the guy who convinced me to spend my own real human money on this shit with his video about it) that it was going to be the best game of all time. It's not. It's far, really far from it.

I don't even think it's the worst game of all time. I think it's shit, like, unambiguously, but there are games that are both worse on a technical aspect and even less enjoyable than FNV is. But FNV couldn't have the decency of just being bad, it also had to carry an insufferably, inexplicably smug essence to it, like it really believes itself to actually be one of the greatest games of all time. So a lot of the unpleasantness of playing this shit game comes not from its own inherent shittiness but from how that shittiness looks when compared to not only what they promised but what they honest to God believe they achieved.

Let's start with the choices and morality system. I think this is a good point to illustrate what I'm talking about bc it's the thing most hyped about it. FNV fans seemingly love the game because it "let's you do anything", and while I could go into a very long tangent about what "can do anything" means in a context like this I'll just trust everyone to understand that what this means is never going to be "literally anything at all" but rather "you can navigate situations the game delineated for you in multiple ways that correspond to what most people would reasonably consider doing in a situation like that".

Having established that, FNV doesn't have that. Or rather, at the very least, it doesn't have that anywhere that matters. The game is railroaded to hell regardless of what anyone says. Take the start of the game. From the first city, you can go to multiple directions. Sounds good right? Except in every one of them aside from the next point in the main storyline you're almost certainly gonna die. Surely you could be super good at the game, or just minmax the shit out of your build (usually the same thing) so sure, you "can do anything you want (but terms and conditions may apply)".

Once you start the storyline itself, you realize most of your choices are either quite meaningless or are stupid choices people would only pick to see what happens. And, maybe that's just my personal belief that isn't gonna be self evident to everyone but I think that it should be self evident that a game about important MORAL choices where half the choices you make are basically just for shits and giggles is a bad game about moral choices. What do you get from siding with the powder gangers? Morally they're the wrong choice, narratively they're not particularly interesting (although, no one else is either lol) and mechanically you only get a handful of quests with XP rewards. And in exchange you gain infamy with the entire first town of the fucking game. The only reason that choice is there is so they can say it's there.

Then you get to Primm (and you'll always get to Primm next) and you see Caesar's Legion (who up to this point you only heard negative things about) has burnt down an entire town and fucking crucified the people in there, and then the game forces you to interact with an unbearably cringy LARPer raving about sodomites or whatever. This, for your information, is what Hbomb described as being great at representing how good fascism is at dressing up its true intentions with pretty words, and what one of the lead designers of the game said was their attempt (that they seem unironically proud of) at showing how seductive the aesthetics of fascism can be which may make you lose sight of its most pernicious aspects. They say this, because they really think making Caesar just say the name Hegel means they wrote dialogue, seemingly forgetting that 1) no, it does not and 2) that is not even close to our first contact with Caesar and no, seeing a group of people that FUCKING CRUCIFIES PEOPLE FOR BEING SODOMITES DOES NOT MAKE THEM SEEM APPEALING TO JOIN. This is yet another choice that is obviously in the wrong but again, because it's there, they get to say that their choices game is meaningful or whatever because you can choose to be inequivocably evil.

The most ludicrous part of it is that FNV fans criticize the whole "your only actual choice is whether you want to be good or evil" when it's done in Fallout 3, because "Bethesda are evil and ruined our game series waaa" but when the golden boys at Obsidian do it it's "masterful, nuanced storytelling". What a joke.

This whole choices shit ties into mechanics (as I said, minmaxing is a way of maximizing your choices), so let's talk about the karma system: it's pointless and does nothing. Also it exposes the sham of the game being about making you come to your own conclusion of what's morally good and bad because the creators already tell you what they think you should do based on what makes you lose or gain karma so like. lol.

Moving on, character building is shit bc there's obviously only one right way of doing it ever: Charisma 1 Intelligence 10, and maxing out speech as early as possible because guess what: most of their "amazing nuanced storytelling" is locked behind a mindless fucking skill check so you don't have to actually, say, think about your words and what would be the correct thing to say to deescalate a situation or such, no, you just pick the option that has the number on it. Which is obviously the right choice that will give you the most mechanic, moral and narrative payoff.

Let me tell you a little story: when I played that shit arse fucking "free the prostitutes from the casino" quest (which, had the worst game mechanic of all time, waiting for an NPC to walk from one point to the other, a grand total of 3 fucking times) the game gave me a skill check at the end. If I could pass it, I walked out fine. If I couldn't, they killed the guy I was escorting out of town even though I could take them out and I failed the quest. All of that shit I did was for nothing and I get no storytelling rewards from trying to play the game the way I can and want to (killing guys that annoy me). I know FNV fans will be rabid about that shit because "well you do have other choices!" Yes I did. The one I picked was pumping myself full of drugs so I passed the strength check and making this stupid fucking check meaningless. I passed and I still didn't like it. Doesn't help that the quest itself was bad, and shows just how disgustingly chauvinistic this game is, which makes me all the more puzzled about why so many of the people who praise it are at least nominally leftists. Probably bc it's mostly in the form of American chauvinism (this game is disgustingly American) and American leftists are so fucking clueless about that lmao (we're not getting into that though this is already gonna be too long even without that)

As if the quest itself being bad wasn't enough and didn't have a stupid fucking ending like that, afterwards when you go to talk to that stupid fucking piece of shit disgusting jackass robot (that they shoved in that shit to railroad me into doing their shit main quest the way they wanted me to) to tell him about how you feel about their faction, your only option is to say you have no beef with them because you put in a different guy in charge of it who's exactly like the first guy. You walking in the casino afterwards and killing everyone inside makes no narrative difference either.

Another example: the quest where you help a bunch of ghouls build a rocketship to moon, the entire time I was doing that quest I thought I would get the option to tell them "hey this guy is obviously pulling your leg and this is a suicide mission" and then you get to the end and you just. Don't. Your only options are sending them to certain doom or letting the one human member sabotage their ship and kill them instantly instead of just eventually. It's not like it wouldn't be silly to also be able to just dissuade members of a cult all willy nilly like that, but the idea should have been at least acknowledged, so that the quest could have like, said anything about anything at all.

The only time I did a quest where I felt like my wish was actually fulfilled was the quest in Novac where a guy asks you to find out who sold his wife into slavery (who btw he himself killed because he "couldn't bear to see her like that or something" lol) and you find out it's the nice mayor old lady and the options you get to complete the quest are either tell him the true culprit or pin it or someone else, either way he kills the person you tell him did it. I didn't wanna do either so I killed him instead. I failed the quest and got his stupid fucking beret stuck in my inventory permanently but I hated him anyway so I was satisfied. I felt like that was an actually engaging moment of RP especially since I got away with it very easily lmao. If I DIDN'T hate him however that would be yet another moment where the game would have shat the bed

I haven't even started on the worldbuilding. It's laughably bad. Again, FNV fans will make fun of Fallout 3 for putting shit from the original game in without any thought into it just because it's an iconic recognizable thing even though FNV didn't mind continuing to use caps, that they intentionally make not make sense. There is a quest where you go to investigate someone "making counterfeit caps". What, pray tell, is a counterfeit cap? Every time I drink a sarsaparilla I add a cap to my inventory. Are you saying that those were all made before the bomb hit and I'm drinking centuries old soda? Or that there is a centralized government unit fabricating sarsaparillas with serialized official caps in the game where the whole plot is about multiple factions fighting to seize control of the land? How do people even take that seriously

And then you get into how the game looks. I'm not talking about the fact that it's visually ugly as sin, which it is, absolutely. I'm talking about the fact that it's been now (as well established) multiple generations of people who have been living here post war and these people have decided that fabricating printing presses to make their comically on-the-nose propaganda posters was a priority but they've never even considered making a single broom. None of the places look actually lived in. There's no names on them. People don't come in and out. There are no identifying items, decorations, anything that would make them even slightly stand out from each other. The house you can sleep and store items in in Goodsprings belongs to Easy Pete, and my girlfriend knew waay more about FNV than I did and she never even noticed that.

The outside world is not any better. Making a game in a desert true to the real life region sounds pretty cool until you start realizing that every single step of your entire map looks indistinguishable from one another. And I still don't think that's justifiable btw. An artist should know how to make shit stand out from one another.

This is just scratching the surface of all my beef with the game btw. As mentioned I didn't get into how Disgustingly American it is (and I use these words very specifically and very deliberately), but also, how annoying and unlikable almost all characters are, how uninspired and lame the dungeons are, how the UI is dogshit and also the Only criticisms FNV fans are ever willing to (begrudgingly) admit which are the bugs (which they either blame on Bethesda or "b-b-but they only had 18 months!" anyway) and the shit gunplay (which they'll argue is good actually bc it's an RPG and also FNV isn't a looter shooter it's a Real Serious Game so you shouldn't even want to shoot your gun anyway and also that's what VATS is for!).

Which also gets me into the point where I mention that the most annoying thing about New Vegas fans is that the way they maintain this self delusion that New Vegas is The Perfect Game is by claiming that anything good it does ever is completely Obsidian's merit but everything bad about it is Bethesda's fault. The FNV crew are all seasoned talented industry professionals which is how they managed to make such a masterpiece but they're also helpless idiot babies who are powerless to stop Bethesda's evil evil reign of terror that forced them to continue to use caps and also make them more incoherent. Essentially, I have more to say about it but I just shot this down sorta haphazardly and I think it's enough to make my point.

In conclusion, FNV is shit

#anon #answers #fnv hate tag

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