#it's probably just me but the controls in this game feel clunky

[mewkwota]

Someday I will finish Circle of the Moon

(I cannot read attack patterns)

[vaugarde]

yknow on second thought maybe i wont 100% EVERY kirby game i have bc ngl. i do not care for kdl2

[terramythos]

Anyway here's my breakdown of the ffxiv jobs, my opinions on playing each, and the tier rank of how good their story was

TANKS

WARRIOR - warrior is so fucking funny why did they make it able to solo heal itself and the entire party in 90% of the content in the game. Raw Intuition/Bloodwhetting is so broken in dungeons its hilarious. And then they have like 3 additional healing skills on top of that. And they kept buffing it throughout Endwalker. So it is currently the easiest to play, does the most damage (i think...?), and has the best healing of any of the Tank jobs. 2nd fave probably.

Story Tier: C, it's ok, Curious Gorge is a good name. i have like nothing to say about it it's a generic AF story

PALADIN - I used to hate PLD but I think the partial rework they got halfway through Endwalker helped it a lot. It's much less clunky now. Probably still my least favorite Tank though Hallowed Ground is fun and it's pretty close to Gunbreaker for me.

Story Tier: F, this is the worst class storyline in the entire game. It's so stupid. The writing is so bad the writers acknowledge it makes no sense at all and I'm like. Yeah, thanks, I am experiencing this shit. Perhaps write a story that makes sense next time instead of pointing that out.

DARK KNIGHT - Unfortunately this is my favorite Tank 🫡 which is rough since it has the worst survivability out of any of them. But I love how you use MP and the silly number of OGCDs. The Blackest Night is such a fun ability and it's a crime that it's not a baseline skill you get from the start. Why do they have so many DRs that only cover magic damage. I must ask.

Story Tier: S, there's a reason it's the most popular and well regarded class storyline. It's really good, also the only questline I know of that uses the quest log text as part of the narrative. Outside maybe a few of the very late Endwalker quests. And, well... same writer lmao

GUNBREAKER: I think GNB looks cool as fuck and I like that it has 2 DPS rotations. The Gnashing Fang combo is so fun. Superbolide memes are always fun. My main issue with it is a skill issue because I am just constantly misaligning its burst windows.

Story Tier: C. It has some interesting lore but I found it pretty forgettable as a story.

HEALERS

WHITE MAGE: I hated White Mage for a while but something clicked and now I totally get it. I find it fun in dungeons cause you get to Holy spam and stun lock everything. As uh. The healer. That's fun. Once you get Afflatus heals (and then Afflatus Misery) it clicks. It's fun maximizing damage and playing chicken with the tank's HP.

Story Tier: B, you get a lot of lore around the Padjal, and I think the Stormblood story where you find a padjal living in hiding with her mother is pretty good! Also it's not technically the job storyline but there's a WHM side quest to get a unicorn mount? i guess it's technically a CNJ quest but same diff. no one else gets that shit. so that's cool

SCHOLAR: probably my least favorite of the healers... it just feels super clunky. You can tell a bunch of different design philosophies went into it over the years and none of them mesh very well. They've made it so the Fairy Gauge controls literally one spell. Why have the gauge at all? It's also a huge missed opportunity that there's no tie in or interaction with the fae in Shadowbringers. I love the idea of a battle tactician healer but I think it needs a rework.

Story Tier: B+, I liked the characters and its the main way to get backstory and lore on what happened with Nym.

ASTROLOGIAN: While I think AST has a similar issue to SCH (lots of different design philosophies over the years) I find it way more fun to play. I like the card mechanic and how it interacts with the rest of the party. AST is basically the only job that has its own like. Minigame? As part of its rotation. And I know a lot of people don't like the RNG for it but personally I find it fun. I know AST is getting a redesign in Dawntrail so hope it's good.

Story Tier: C? I think? I'll be honest I don't remember it super well but I didn't find anything objectionable about it. And I like the tarot aesthetic and lore and how it's healing based on manipulating luck.

SAGE: I think SGE is tons of fun, I'm not sure if I like it or WHM more. I love all the skills SGE has for preventing damage and the gimmick where your DPS heals someone in the party. Visually the hi-tech laser shooting healer is a lot of fun. IT HAS A GAP CLOSER. The only thing i wish was it wasn't so MP negative and that it did more damage. It's a little sad its DPS output is so low compared to the other healers (even AST when you factor in how it buffs the party). Since SGE is supposed to be a healer that heals through damage it's silly its damage kinda sucks.

Story Tier: A, I loved this storyline. Both the Endwalker job stories are very self contained and interesting. While the twist is pretty obvious it's still an interesting exploration of uh. Scientific ethics. Yeah

PHYSICAL MELEE DPS

MONK: I've probably played MNK the least of the phys melee but I like the whole adaptable combo thing. Not much else to say since I have played it so little. Might bring it back out and try again. It DID have the funniest guide in the Balance discord for a while.

Story Tier: D. I think? I remember thinking it was dumb, lmao. Sorry.

DRAGOON: MAN I wished I liked DRG more. It looks so fucking cool and I like how it interacts with the dragon lore. But I find it very punishing to play. To do good damage you have to align so many different cooldowns... and snapshot your DOT correctly... and screwing one thing up just fucks your DPS output forever. Like AST I believe this is being reworked in Dawntrail so I hope it feels better to play.

Story Tier: C+. I think it starts strong since you get to meet Estinien pre-Heavensward and it melds nicely with that story. But I found it pretty directionless post-HW which is a shame.

NINJA: I remember finding this one fun. I like that there are different combos you do that have varied finishers depending on the situation. I am just... bad at remembering which combo to use to get which finisher, lol. So I haven't played it as much. NIN gets a lot of flavor other jobs don't get with their unique run and jump animations. And you get a Bunny of Shame on your head if you fuck up a combo, which is incredible.

Story Tier: A. The Rogue story is probably the most memorable of the basic class quests. Ninja just has great characters and a fun story. What is with that one guy. Karasu? If you know you know. I also like how the Rogue characters show up later in the Ninja story. That's fun.

SAMURAI: I had a similar experience to WHM here because I initially hated it then really came around once it clicked. SAM seems very complex, it has a ton of buttons and different combos. But it is actually quite intuitive once you figure out the general pattern. And it does INSANE damage. I think it's the highest DPS output in the game? I love building the combos and then doing a huge finisher for a bajillion damage. The guaranteed crits and constant OGCD weaves make me feel unstoppable. I think this is tied with RPR for me.

Story Tier: B+. I found the exiled samurai character and his journey toward redemption very compelling. I won't spoil beyond that. However it does fall apart a little in the second half. Still fun but not as good.

REAPER: I love RPR, the teleportation is a lot of fun, and I love finally unleashing the demon form and going ham on the enemy. The weapons are the coolest looking in the game. Every scythe design hits. I probably played this the most in Endwalker. My main critique is the Death's Design mechanic. I hate having to keep a stupid debuff on the target to do damage. It's like a dot but without the optimized snapshotting. If they want to keep this idea i think it would feel better to change it into something like SGE's Kardia where you apply it to one enemy to do increased damage to it without having to worry about reapplying it. not sure how they would balance this for aoe but that's not my job. But even with that caveat I still really enjoy the job.

Story Tier: A+. While it doesn't reach the highs of DRK's story it comes close. I love the badass old lady main character. Her hunting a voidsent that possessed her grandfather would be cool enough but making her a Garlean exile in hiding who grudgingly agrees to train you just adds an extra cool factor. I really enjoyed this story. As a bonus theres a lot of incidental dialogue in the post-6.0 Endwalker story if you completed the RPR story because it ties in a lot.

PHYSICAL RANGED DPS

BARD: It's a bit clunky, its got some outdated design elements, it has one of the lowest damage outputs in the game... and i LOVE IT. this was technically the first job I ever played? totally different character like 8 years ago. and i was so so bad. I think i am actually pretty good at current BRD. the animations look cool. i like that it's a class you really need to work for and optimize to eke out that last bit of damage. and boosting everyone else's damage by existing is kinda neat.

Story Tier: B. I'll be real I barely remember this but I do remember it was gay as fuck so immediately gets an extra tier for that.

MACHINIST: MCH is really funny right now because like. It's phys ranged, right. The design behind phys ranged is you have 100% uptime cause you can freely move around and not have to worry about cast timers or melee range or anything. So the trade off is that they do less damage than other classes. Endwalker MCH did not get the memo and does insane damage anyway. My controversial opinion is that it has similar burst DPS to RPR. No i will not elaborate. I'm also bad at doing good damage on MCH which is impressive since it is easy.

Story Tier: B+. Some Ishgard noble's gay son wants to build machines instead of killing dragons the good old fashioned way and has to prove himself to get taken seriously. A tale as old as time. See I haven't done this quest in like years but I still remember it. He is a memorable character. It's just not like. knockout wowza compared to the A tier stories.

DANCER: Dancer is the second easiest DPS job in the game behind SMN. So if i am sleepy it's the one I like playing. You play simon says. you do a lot of damage when you play simon says then do almost no fucking damage otherwise. I think it's the lowest direct damage in the game? for a dps i mean. You have high stakes sexual tension with a DPS of your choice via Dance Partner. I wish other DNC players knew how Dance Partner works. YOU CAN DANCE PARTNER ANOTHER DANCER. THE BUFF STACKS. BUT YOU CANNOT DANCE PARTNER THE SAME PLAYER AS ANOTHER DANCER. THOSE BUFFS DO NOT STACK. ok i'm good. anyway

Story Tier: C. there's some shit about negative emotions and purging them? in theory i think this has some interesting implications with Endwalker lore considering Dynamis and its role in the story. Very similar mechanically to what's going on with the DNC story. but i really don't think the writers made the connection so it's like pure speculation and not the actual story. It's meh. fine i guess. i did like all the flashy dancing sequences.

MAGICAL RANGED DPS

BLACK MAGE: I am so so so so so so so bad at BLM. i pull up the guide. i read the guide. it all makes perfect sense. i go into a dungeon or trial or something. somehow i always get like Zeromus or some shit. and i drop Enochian or something and everything goes to shit and i'm yelling and i'm not even like slide casting or teleporting or anything i just run around crying. then i remember i have like 10 more buttons i haven't been pressing and oh god the dot fell off. people play this? for fun? i admire it. apparently they do a ton of damage if you can play it. could not be me.

Story Tier: B? There's some voidsent and Thirteenth lore. all the black mage characters are Lalafell because it's funny i guess. OH YEAH it has like the one named male Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te NPC in the entire game and he's fun. look at this twink:

sorry i don't have anything to say about BLM i am bad at it

SUMMONER: easiest DPS job in the entire game. they redesigned it for Endwalker so it is practically a new job. i have no idea how it played before. but it is super streamlined. maybe too streamlined? it's another one to play if you want to turn your brain off. i like that at 90 you summon The Actual Primals instead of little representations of them. and i like the way your burst phase switches between Bahamut and Phoenix. it all looks very cool. they should add Leviathan as a summon in Dawntrail.

Story Tier: C.. i don't remember a single thing about this questline except you interact with Y'shtola's half sister. i think you go to Cartenau at some point. idk

RED MAGE: RDM is one of those jobs that looks really complicated when you start then you actually play it and it is just super super easy. that being said i think it's really fun. I like balancing the white and black magic gauges. Dualcast is a great gimmick and it feels cool to lob two big spells in a row at something. Dualcast Verraising a chain of dead players is so fucking funny. it's a shame that the existence of Verraise means RDM does shit damage to compensate for its utility. It and DNC just sit at the bottom with BRD barely scratching ahead of them. i think? i don't remember LOL

Story Tier: A, I really like the story and characters. I like that you have a middle-age world weary catboy (catman) as your mentor. and i like that he canonically trained Alisaie too and you chat a little about that. it's a fun story!

BLUE MAGE: what the fuck is a blue mage

Story Tier: ???

[piracytheorist]

So with that out of the way, I'll share some screenshots and my experience from the little I played from the Spy x Family game.

Note/reminder that I openly don't recommend buying the game for a computer, as the controls are clunky, and since that version is half-baked it's not worth your money, even if you plan on using a controller. Different case if you buy it for a console, though.

So the graphics are actually pretty cute, and I think they translate the feeling of the 2D characters into a 3D game environment pretty well! The music stands between an inspiration from the original anime soundtrack and typical day-in-the-life simulation game soundtrack, though mostly the latter. I wasn't impressed that much but it wasn't something that annoyed me. It's just a bit of a pity because they could definitely get some inspiration from the original soundtrack, but oh well.

Playing the game, Anya starts at Eden College, and you get a tutorial showing you how to move and interact with other characters and objects. First it instructs you to talk to Becky, then to Damian.

And as I saw that I was like "... Do I have to?" XD Luckily, he wasn't annoying that time, just distant.

Then Anya comes back home to tell her parents about her Diary project, and I had her explore the house a bit.

In the manga and anime there's this small separate space on the hall right by the entrance, and I actually just realized that, but in the game's version of the house that area doesn't exist.

From what I remember, in the game there is just a wall where the opening to this space is. Since this space is rarely used in the manga/anime and it would have taken memory space, I understand why they didn't add it. From the little I played Anya could only move around the main spaces, kitchen, dining/living area and hall, but those parts were pretty accurate.

And according to my post about the Forgers' kitchen, here it looks accurate to the anime, though with a two-door fridge instead.

I mostly took this because I found it funny how atrocious his posture was XD he's probably tired, the poor man.

One of the few minigames I tried was bowling. I like how each characters game traits actually fit their characters XD

Like, Yor is Strong™ but with the least dexterity, Anya is the luckiest but also the weakest, Loid is the most dexterous... and also the unluckiest. I'm telling you, I can find opportunities for angst like it's my job.

Anyway, that minigame was actually nice, it took me a bit to get the hang of the curveballs but I'm sure I could get better at it if I trained more. I played as Loid, too XD

I liked the characters' responses to their throws, either going like "This is hard" or "This is harder than it looks" (even Loid, lmao, with me controlling him he actually became bad at something) if they threw only a few pins. Funny thing is, when Loid was first about to throw his ball, he said something like "Child's play" but then because it was me controlling him he only threw a couple pins and was like "This is hard" 😂 Poor Yor said "Was this good?" a few times right after throwing her ball, then Anya did a strike, and Yor and I as Loid did a spare (when you throw the remaining pins on your second go). For each of those, the other characters cheered for the one doing the strike or spare, and that was cute. Funniest responses was when a throw wouldn't get a single pin, Anya did her "Shock" face, Yor looked embarrassed, and Loid cringed back with a drop of cold sweat on his face (I was the reason for that, sorry man XD) Loid ended up winning and even though he had missed a couple of throws, at the end he was once again like "Child's play" like, my MAN, stop embarrassing yourself and me.

Anyway. Back to the story. There were some cute moments of banter, I feel they captured the characters pretty accurately!

Then I could go into character customization and. Some interesting choices there.

"Just going to work". Yes. That work XD

And then this... item.

MAXIMUM CHARISMA

I'm still laughing about it XD

Then it was ooting time, and I actually really loved the loading screens!

They have a cute feel to them :)

One of the few pictures I took for Anya's album. Whatever is happening on that Spy Wars issue Anya was reading, it must be interesting!

Anya later mentioned she'd sleep with Agent Penguinman that night, and Bond did not like that XD

When I FINALLY managed to hit the required score for Yor's fruit chopping minigame, Anya looked very smug about it 😁

As I mentioned, it took me a lot of times to get the gist of when exactly to swing to cut the vegetables, and every time Yor missed a vegetable she would say something... but there were no subtitles for those lines XD judging by a few lines I've picked up from the anime, I think she was just saying things like "I missed" or an exclamation of disappointment, and one single "I'm sorry, Anya-san". I wanted to hug her!

Then it was back to school the next day.

I'm right there with ya, girl XD

Then Anya asked Yor to train her, and Yor started giving her some advice on how to throw punches... and then Loid slipped in and was like uhm wut O_o

This next part was a little weird, because Anya was supposed to be drawing (like she did in Episode 3 in the museum kids room) and Loid was going like "Oh this is Bondman and a princess, right? That part is a little graphic, though" but... she wasn't drawing? Loid was just standing in the kitchen and I approached him to talk to him and they just said lines similar to the scene I mentioned above from episode 3. It didn't seem like it fit, and only added it so they could have Anya do that expression, which, okay, fair enough XD

This was Anya's expression when she realized Loid had completely misjudged what she was drawing and her powers weren't at risk of being exposed XD

A quick Handler cameo!

That was the intro for a minigame of Twilight sneaking into an art gallery and having to swap paintings for forgeries. I just found her appearance quite cool!

... This, however, was the minigame that proved this game doesn't work well with a keyboard. Controlling the character AND the camera with keyboard buttons is very tricky, and while I could manage moving Anya around, I had a lot of trouble moving Twilight around while I was on a timer and I had to avoid the guards seeing him.

So yeah. It could have been fun but for a computer user it can be frustrating. I tried twice and failed to complete the minigame, and at that point I was tired; it was more stressful than satisfying that way, so I just quit the game, uninstalled it and had it refunded.

Anyway, as I said, it looks like a fun game, but one that can only be appreciated through a console that already includes controllers with joysticks. Computer users shouldn't have to need external controllers to enjoy a game for the computer, so I definitely don't recommend buying it for the PC, if nothing else, for the moral of it. They could have optimized it to move the camera with the mouse, which is how the grand majority of such games work, but they half-assed it and as such I don't think they deserve anyone's money, especially at the price it's at (50 euros for us to need an external controller? no thanks).

[sepublic]

Vapor for Brains

If we ever got a Metroid animated series, I'd love for it to be mostly episodic, with even individual episodes within each 'game' arc feeling self-contained, while still clearly contributing to the greater storyline.

In particular, I'd love for the Prime arc to have a humorous episode dedicated to the Space Pirate antics on Tallon IV, probably called something like "Vapor for Brains." It takes place before the Phazon Mines segment, or at least the battle with the Omega Pirate. It's like a workplace comedy/behind the scenes look at what the Space Pirates are up to, the incompetence of Science Team, etc., while Samus is going on her journey to destroy Phazon.

We get to see a glimpse of the outbreak on the Frigate Orpheon, that started off everything; Parasite Queen cameo, pirates frantic. Some try to flee through the escape pods, but there’s just one problem, as pointed out by @girlballs: Someone built a pipe over an escape pod shaft, rendering it unusable. And this may in fact be part of the reason some able-bodied pirates are still on the Orpheon when Samus arrives; They frustratedly decide they have no choice but to attempt to fight back the parasites as they wait for those on Tallon IV below to send reinforcements. But someone else beats them to the punch… And also just beats them.

There’s the obvious, iconic Morph Ball experiments; You see footage of a test subject in an isopod-like frame, Science Team gives them the clear to go. You hear a horrendous crunch as the subject disappears within a new shiny metal sphere. Science Team obliviously asks the subject what they think, and finally if they're okay. No response.

Just as a researcher is knocking on the morph ball prototype -which is still clearly massive compared to Samus'- you can see blood pouring out from below. The researcher notices and is perturbed, but in a sort of mild and apathetic way; Indifferent to the test subject's suffering and demise, but definitely displeased by the mess.

We also have science team's flippant insistence that Metroids can be tamed, as a way to compensate for Mother Brain no longer being around to control them; Leading to a montage of Space Pirates trying to get onto the Metroids' side, but failing. With two assistants dead, we get the iconic line by an unimpressed pirate, who was narrating the incident; Science team has vapor for brains.

Another scene, inspired by an observation made by @kosmonauttihai, involves Meta Ridley surveying the Phendrana region, while talking to a member of Science Team who is way too proud about the results of Project Metamorphosis; Ridley gripes that his cybernetics feel clunky and uncomfortable, but the researcher reassures him that it's all fine and good and will be worth it.

Ridley nods sagely; You seem like someone who knows what they're talking about, he reasons. The researcher confirms this gladly. At which point, Ridley goes for the incriminating question; Then tell me, I normally have four fingers; Why do my cybernetics only have three?

The researcher stammers, mouth agape, unable to answer as Ridley stares them dead in the eyes with a sadistic/sarcastic smile. After a second or two he straightens up, flexing his new wings as he declares he's going for a scan of the region, as well as to check on Thardus; He hopes that science team, in their brilliance, will figure out who made that 'creative decision'. Ridley flies off, and you see a callback to the scene from an earlier episode where Samus notices Ridley flying overhead in Phendrana.

Another scene involves some poor, excited, and delusional sod coming in with a massive tumor all over their face; An obvious Phazon mutation. Their commanders are horrified, demanding why they're being made to see this. The poor sod reads aloud that one in-game log about Space Pirates reporting 'beneficial mutations' to high command.

So you've seen one? High command asks. The poor sod insists that this tumor they can barely see around IS the beneficial mutation, desperately arguing that Actually, the added layers and skin from the tumor act as protection for their head, which is a vulnerable part of any creature's anatomy. So surely they qualify for the beneficial mutations, and thus receive better rations, right?

...Another scene, inspired by @nerdy-the-artist, has local pirates being tasked with increasing the Bombu patrols. They immediately gang up on newbie and give them the prestigious task of this; In order to 'guide' Bombus, you need to wield a high-energy coil for them to follow you with. It's important to turn this off before the Bombus reach you, because they will explode; Good luck.

There's a bit, leaning into more sympathetic and sad and not just dark humor, where a Space Pirate tries to keep their pet after the order comes out to dispose of all of them; It doesn't work out in the end. Or, maybe it does... The conclusion to this recurring storyline (maybe even the episode as a whole) is that the pet got into some Phazon and is now a horrific monstrosity. Congratulations, says high command. The pirate tries to go for a pet, relieved, only to get a hand bitten off.

There's also Metroid shenanigans; After the death of Mother Brain, we really see how hard it is to keep these things in line. I can't remember if it was Prime or Echoes that had the "Metroids are not pets/target practice and do not feed them" bit, but regardless. The Shadow Pirates find the Metroids completely unfazed by their camouflage, because they can sense energy signatures anyway.

There's also a bit about the SR388 specimen having disappeared; At first it seems a gag, but it's actually foreshadowing the revelation that Metroid Prime is the same Metroid found by the Space Pirates aboard the Marina, the Metroid that started it all. While hinting to the true origins of Metroid Prime, whom Samus and/or the Space Pirates speculate is the true source of Phazon, that it must've come from the mysterious SR388, and is a mutation/stage in an unforeseen lifecycle... Close, but not quite.

Another gag is Space Pirates trying Phazon recreationally, like a drug, after sneaking a bit away. The hallucination symptoms, which are played much more seriously in Corruption, are shown here; It's like the worst drug trip they've ever had. They go for it again anyway. We have a scene parodying Paranormal Activity and all those other ghost films; It's Space Pirates being terrorized by the Chozo ghosts. They are initially not believed, because of the aforementioned drug trip hallucinations.

Finally, my favorite gag by @coldgoldlazarus; High command is demanding the Beam Pirate Troopers be finished, but science team is struggling. Note that one of them, the researcher from the previous Meta Ridley scene, is nowhere to be seen. They're sweating, one of them says something outrageous like "Ridley's gonna eat our asses if we don't make this work!!!" in reference to his cannibalism; He does mention earlier that he'd really like to regenerate from his wounds ASAP, and get rid of this grating Meta frame. Another researcher adds helpfully, "We're gonna BE Ridley's ass if we don't make this work!"

At which point, one of them gets the bright idea to repurpose door technology as armor. They roll out the new Beam Pirate armor, which has Ridley and high command, as well as the subjects wielding the armor, skeptical. Science team promises, insists, that Yeah no TOTALLY this is what we promised. They all look like they have the same standard ammunition but trust us, that's an electrical burn from a Wave Beam, there's a difference between that and the Power Beam you just saw.

Ridley nodes sagely, and then demands one of the Ice Beam troopers shoot him; He's a sturdy guy, he can handle it. The trooper does this, and then turns to science team. This a reverse-engineered Ice Beam, despite it looking very different from Samus', correct? Science team nods. In pure Steamed Hams fashion: Yes, and you tell me this is an Ice Beam, despite the fact that I've been hit by one before, and it felt nothing like this, Ridley observes.

Science team stutters and doesn't know how to respond. Ridley/high command rolls their eyes and decides that Oh well, this door tech is at least an improvement in defensive technology. Short of what they demanded, but still; Which makes them wonder, why did it take so long for science team to consider this idea in general? Forget it.

Cut to the Beam Troopers nervously anticipating Samus, and they have a conversation to pass the time, and/or this happens after a disastrous run with the hunter. Someone becomes the Voice of Reason, inching back from the others the whole time: Why are we telegraphing which weakness we have? If our armor has a color corresponding to the beam that destroys it, wouldn't it be both cheaper and more practical to not display this feature? Likewise, shouldn't each patrol unit consist of multiple 'beam' types, and not just the one? The point is, they're doomed.

Throughout this whole rant, all of the other pirates have been silent; Finally, one of them dismissively, casually grunts, "Eh, shut up [Name]!" Samus shows up; They were indeed doomed.

Eventually we get a scene in which the Beam Trooper tech is finally figured out, they can actually shoot Ice, Wave, and Plasma beams for real this time. Maybe the lie from before actually did work out, so when a researcher excitedly contacts high command about figuring out the tech, high command asks: But didn't you already? Not wanting to admit the big scam, the researcher stammers, Um YEAH no I'm talking about a different beam! We figured out the... Spazer Beam.

Alright then, says high command. Can't wait to see a new unit of Spazer Troopers! The call is turned off and another researcher or the same one laments, AUGH you should've just said you were able to upgrade the pre-existing Beam Pirates, not that you discovered a new one! And considering the Spazer Beam's gimmick is its improved range, this is definitely something you can't gaslight high command on. Unless... They were to add an additional pair of cannons to a pre-existing one???

[papenniesandbentoboxes]

Spoiler-Free KEY Review

Alright. I finished KEY. I'm going to play it again with my sister and then probably do a more in depth review of it, but for now I've got a just-finished-it review, and we'll see how this one compares to my second review after a second playthrough.

Plot:

The plot wasn't too bad! A bit linear compared to other games but I did enjoy it. It wasn't as visual novel-y as MID but wasn't as interactive as some other games. But overall it was fun and entertaining!

Characters:

The characters were enjoyable. I liked having some characters there being only barely involved when others were SUPER involved, so we have a lot more range with suspects and suspicions. I definitely would have liked digging deeper into the characters, like in CUR and GTH and SAW and such. Although, I'll admit, in most of the other games we didn't get super deep backgrounds either. There weren't a lot of dialogue options, so maybe in the future we can get more dialogue and character deep dives! I want more substance!

The only part about the characters I actively didn't like was a certain character's hair (bro, that's some Assassin's Creed Caterina Sforza hair, Sims hair, idk but it wasn't good enough), and the random unimportant NPCs. The NPCs were a bit distracting and did take me out of the game if I paid too much attention to them, so that's my take on that. In the future, I want to random unimportant NPCs to be completely gone and I want to VEN sound design back. That was immersive without needing the actual people standing around.

Now the phone characters were almost useless, only there to push the plot forward with barely any fun shit. In the future, I NEED more interaction with them. Less texting, more actual conversations. And they don't even need to be strictly about the game, give me conversations like what we had with Savannah Woodham. Not just a phone call here or there for only the purpose of moving forward in the plot. I need weird phone calls where they're like "hello! what do you want!" and the only dialogue option is "bye!" so then you hang up. I also want to actually be able to call them, because if there isn't a plot reason for it, you can't call them. So. Yeah. Oversight from the game devs.

Controls:

This game I feel was not designed with point and click in mind. I feel like it was added as a second option while favoring the "modern" controls of free roam stuff. However, I enjoyed the free roam! Maybe this is because I play a lot of other video games that aren't point and click, but I ended up really liking it. Other than that, the controls CAN be a bit clunky to get used to, but that happens with every video game with new controls you don't know yet (when I started playing Red Dead Redemption 2 I punched my horse so many times because I couldn't get used to the controls and I felt so bad). I think they could definitely work on it more, but it is WAY better than Midnight in Salem. Way WAY better.

Music:

While not as iconic at the Kevin Manthei tracks I am in love with, I did like the music! It was pretty good, with some tracks standing above the others. I will say though that the track that plays in the tech store is my least favorite as it just sounds... meh. In every sense of the word.

Puzzles and Minigames:

Oh my god. OH MY GOD. There are actually puzzles!!!! After all, what, two puzzles in Midnight in Salem, we actually get REAL PUZZLES! They have some new puzzles, some recycled puzzles (THAT I WANT MORE OF), some pretty puzzles, some clunky but fine puzzles, and just a good variety of them. They also offer hints if you are struggling.

I think my favorite puzzle is... Well, I don't want to spoil it, but there are a few contending for the top place. (Although fuck math, all my homies hate math.)

As for the minigames, the coffee making is fun, although a bit daunting with the instructions. I recommend making your own notes aside from the in-game recipe books. The latte art can be irritating but eventually you get the hang of it. Not quite as bad as the SAW calligraphy but nowhere near the delight I got from the SPY cookies minigame.

Glitches and Issues:

I did catch a few typos and a few glitches, but they weren't the norm. Just look at the HeR site for what to look out for, and make sure your PC can handle the game. I didn't need to look out for that since I'm currently playing Red Dead Redemption 2 and my laptop is running that fine (on low graphics lol). Way less messed up than MID, worse than some of the other games, but hey, it's not like we've never had bugs in the games before (there have been a few times the games have crashed on me because of bugs). And this time we have autosaves to help out with that.

Overall Impression:

It's a solid game. I thoroughly enjoyed it. While the UI and controls are still similar to MID, the game itself is a step in the right direction where I want the Nancy Drew games to go. It isn't perfect, I don't think we'll ever get a perfect Nancy Drew game, but it's good enough for me.

I'm happy with it. I got to have the joy of a new Nancy Drew game, which is something I haven't had since Midnight in Salem, and we know how that went. I got to find new clues, see new places, meet new characters, complete puzzles that were both new and recycled, and enjoy a new mystery. It brought a smile to my face multiple times and made me squeal in delight when I solved something. I haven't had a good new Nancy Drew game experience since I played SEA when it came out.

So I'm happy. Is it my favorite? No. But do I think it's bad? Also no. I think it's somewhere in the middle for me, but that's okay. These games make me happy, and I hope we get more so they can continue my happiness in the future.

Tentative rating: 7/10

[thehandwixard]

um . could u give me the rain code pitch . i am still cursed with the dream specter and think i might need to play it to exorcise this

hi. so. this is going to be pretty long and slightly stream of consciousness, because i am always much worse about giving concise pitches than i think. i am also clicking my heels together in joy. its going to be very obvious that i love this game a lot... like. elevator pitch, i would give the game a solid, respectable 6/10 if ranking it purely in gameplay feel, overall execution, and the like. maybe edging closer to a 7 with its updates to performance since launch.

However, what is clear about raincode is that it as a 6 year long labor of love, and this endears me to it in the way that energy endears me to trigger happy havoc despite its flaws, its clunkiness, and its relative shortness. I would give it an easy 9/10 for the heights it strives for and the effort that went into the making of the world, the emotional resonance of the main characters, the story, the aesthetic. the psychic effects it has had on me, finally, cannot be measured. i need to find articles about gay bathouse culture for this game. thats not even a queer theme i think kodaka intentionally put in this game and trust me he puts stuff in intentionally, thats just one i keep thinking about. thats the headspace the game puts me in.

now,

THE (master detective archives/enigma archives) RAINCODE PITCH.

The danganronpa games, you know them. Kazutaka Kodaka, the writer of the games, you may or may not know that guy. I like his writing a lot since i got deeply into danganronpa in 2020. this is one of the only games i have preordered in years. He made a new game that's a 3-d mystery-adventure game. The soundtrack designer and character designer from those games are also here, and spitting. 

Raincode is a mystery-adventure game set in a unique world with what are described as “psycho-noir” aesthetics, referencing the heightened fantasy of the setting’s visuals compared to the (already electric) DR.

You play as Yuma Kokohead, an amnesiac trainee detective sent (along with several other, far higher ranking detectives) to the autonomous zone ‘Kanai Ward’ to investigate its never ending rain, its complete isolation, and the corporation that controls it: Amaterasu Corporation, its faction of ‘peacekeepers’, and its systematic refusal to let investigations be done inside or out.

The bulk of the game IS this detective work, even when you’re not working on a case. The city has several districts (with very clear class associations) that you are free to walk around in, and it uses cyberpunk aesthetics in a way that’s very pleasing to me. Kinda think splatsville but neon, its that design of.. an area thats still maybe a little too polished for a city but it has a genuine eye to how a city actually tends to look and the ways people use it and exist in it. there are quite a few incidental npcs, and i think they work well to make the city feel alive. One of my favorite aspects of the game is the goal to present a multinational setting, with stuff like signage in latin alphabets, cyrillic, kanji, and the character’s names.

I could go on about the design for a while and i have more notes about it later just. The World Is Really Cool. you know what the master detectives are? Theyre detectives sanctioned by the World Detective organization, given the title of master because of their innate psychic abilities that have been honed into forensic and investigative tools. The reason the trainee detective Yuma is an amnesiac is probably because he made a pact with a death god that links them “body and soul”, for purposes he can no longer remember and she is unable or unwilling to tell him. This pact, however, gives him his own edge in investigating. Obviously the game is centered around solving murders, though in a less personal way than in DR. Also like and unlike DR, the way you are guided into solving these murders is through a series of minigames (in a pocket dimension that is the mystery given form (called a mystery labyrinth where the psychedelic design starts to come out crazy hard)) which are. The minigames are fine, i do generally enjoy the non-stop debates from danganronpa more, but theyre well-designed and fun. The mysteries themselves are Bangers, i made it a goal for myself to at least try to solve all of the main ones by myself to test if they were good mysteries where u were given all possible information to piece together, and i never felt cheated when i didnt get it exactly right. Again, it misses some of the intense personal connection you get with some of the murders in dr with it not happening in a closed cast, but i think that the story of them is done very well. Smiles. 

And coming back to yuma, thats the other thing about this game. Danganronpa dealt heavily with exploring themes of student burnout, critiquing the justice system in specific areas like trial and (capital) punishment, etc with its characters, and where Raincode really shines in similar areas, but a little to the left. 

If danganronpa was essentially about teenagers who really didn't have much to gain from the system but useless power over other teenagers and the costs of punishing deviance from norms, raincode is grappling with power structures where adults do have a lot to gain from upholding them, especially through the politics of information. Misinformation, hiding information, even the collection and use of info. Like DR, it also has a lot of very interesting things to say about ‘giftedness’ and the way it can alienate people, though again with a strong eye in considering people without these gifts, and/or people who do not have “average” abilities and how they have to navigate this world. 

The themes are strong. I would argue the game is also edging into being about being disabled and the guilt of burdening or even just interacting others with characters like Yuma, Fubuki, and Pucci. Its really highly interesting and, thankfully Kodaka’s bottom-line touch is one of understanding. The duality of being othered by ability and othered by disability.

I think one of the things i like most about Raincode is its unflinching way it depicts the ebb and flow of our protagonists', Yuma and Shinigami’s, morals, goals, and convictions. It has a lot to say about what depending on other people means, the good and the bad of it, the ways you can be taken advantage of, and all of yuma’s relationships with the other characters showcase this heavily– how he feels about himself in relationship to them, what he wants them to feel about him, how they support him or use him. Its a game where, very plainly, you do not have all the information and are playing against sharks who will take every chance they get to puppet you around. 

and what helps, obviously, is that yuma and shinigami are delightful protagonists to follow. their dynamic is written with a lot of care and nuance and is also just. really funny.

I clear my throat. Addendum. Some things to note, about this game. We have some one piece type shit in here. What i mean by that is I respect komatsuzaki as a character designer but he makes a lot of weird choices in character design that i am unable to really understand the reason for at times. Kodaka is not getting off the hook for the writing of the characters of color, but its unclear how much.. Direct correlation kodaka’s writing and the designs have. Wont get too much into it.

The other thing i mean by that is. Transmisogyny but i put a huge “EXCEPT-” sign up. One of the best chapters of the game centers the transmisogynistic plot device of two male characters having to disguise themselves as girls to investigate a murder in a girl’s school. I am not a trans woman, but what i will say in my perspective being familiar with this trope in even recent stuff like mob psycho is that like. The characters generally can and will say edgy, really rude shit but i personally feel the game takes the stance that theres nothing wrong with crossdressing, yknow? And also the pervert character is explicitly trans-positive. That helps. Its a thing that looks bad head on and makes the pitch kind of hard because obviously its not something one expects to be any better than it looks.

Also the game is almost fully voice acted with only some incidental interaction dialogue not being voiced. The english voice actors do a fantastic job, and from what i understand many of the japanese voice actors have a lot of love for the game too (i can't speak on their performances lol)

(also theres a lot of extra material for the game in the form of dlc stories and collectable story interactions in the main game. these are difficult to know the correct time to experience them and are a bit clunky in that way but are very worth looking up when the time is right)

[northwest-cryptid]

I think there are (at least) 3 kinds of mech game nerds I'm aware of...

Now I need to prefix all of this by saying I'm not claiming any single one of these to be better than another; just different interests for different people.

There's the people who just like big mechs, and the clunkier the better; these people are not keen on even really making the mechs, they just want to pilot them. It's mostly about the aesthetic, it's about "hey cool big mech go brrrrrr" more than anything else.

This kind of individual tends to enjoy games like Bulk Slash or Love & Destroy for the PS1. The more elaborate sci fi games with colorful neon lights and cyberpunk cities.

Anything with those classic bulky mechs is gonna be right up their alley since they tend to have a lot of that weight to them. People want to feel like they're trying to maneuver a clunky mess of a bipedal tank because when you actually get it down and understand it, the feeling of actually getting it to do what you want it do becomes enjoyable. These sorts of people probably also enjoy games like Steel Battalion but only those who really enjoy the specifics of like, complex systems working to make something move. This is where I feel like it becomes less about the aesthetic of "oh boy big mech" and more about the aesthetic of "oh shit I'm gonna pilot that big mech"

The game is pretty infamous for having a whole controller set up that even included pedals, and a UI interface that was pretty damn immersive all things considered:

These players also tend to be your MechWarrior types, but there's a good bit of overflow between people who like MechWarrior and people who like games like Armored Core, which brings my to the second type of Mech nerd I am aware of...

The people who really want to make their own mech, like they don't just want to pilot mechs, they want to build something entirely their own. They want to not only feel like they can flawlessly pilot the mech in a way others can't, but specifically they want to pilot a mech that is unique and undeniably suited to whatever specific style they go for.

It's not enough to just know it goes fast, or that it's light weight; or that it's heavily armored. A lot of these players enjoy the specifics of paying attention to all the minor details, the internals are as interesting as the externals. Sure you can slap a really big cannon on this mech, but that's not nearly as interesting as all the finer details of WHY you can slap a giant cannon on this mech. Tell me all about the engine and the weight distribution and what that allows for you as it's pilot, that's the good stuff.

This:

Is as interesting to these players, as this:

Because the two go hand in hand, with the first allowing the second to really shine.

These people do have some overlap with the last, because those big clunky parts moving around mean a lot more when you know what they are and why they are there.

I think this is most noticeably seen in MechWarrior fans, who are fittingly somewhere in the middle,

Not just the look of the mech matters, it's statistics are important, because a really stylish mech doesn't mean much if it gets shot down immediately; reputation is as stylish as cosmetics, and this is one of the few times when I'd argue a good mech pilot blames their mech; you can't make a shit mech perform on par with something well built if you and your opponent are of equal skill.

And the last type of person branches off from the first but instead of leaning heavily into controlling a mech and what makes a mech tick, and caring about all the finer details, they more heavily lean into that first mention of "the bright neon lights and big clunky mechs fighting giant robots and aliens and shit." Basically you have the "oh fuck yea, mechs!" Category of people, people who literally do not care about the specifics of the mech, they don't care how it works, they don't care how it feels to move it around a map, they only care about how it looks because holy shit look at that thing it's a giant fucking mech. These people are going to enjoy basically all mech media, but specifically they're going to hone in on the bright, flashy, colorful, explosive stuff. We're talking about shit like Xenogears, yea; an RPG.

But look at those mechs man!

They're so clunky and crusty it's hard to know what's what just by looking at it.

You've got brightly colored pink mechs with swords, you've got karate mechs, you've got pirate mechs, good shit man you've got so many mechs!

Oh fuck dude you can't fight a giant dinosaur on foot that's stupid...

If only you had like, I don't know-

OH FUCK YEA A GIANT MECH SEE NOW I'M HYPE.

Yea it's like that.

And again that's not a bad thing!

I don't want people to look at this and go "oh okay so there's smart nerds who are valid and good and right because they care a lot about the media and the mechs and they play the right games and they enjoy it in a smart and sophisticated way; and then you have the bad nerds who just like the pretty colors and bright flashy lights and think everything needs to have mechs and oh boy mechs are so cool... I get it I understand, I will be one of the good mech fans!"

Like no that's not the take away, that's literally such a bad way of looking at it. There are so many different kinds of ways to enjoy this sort of media, these are just the two branching paths from "I enjoy mechs" to "I enjoy mechs because I love to know what makes them tick, and getting to fly a mech around in Armored Core or skirmish other players in MechWarrior is rewarding because the time I put into my mech paid off with my performing well." And "Oh shit oh boy big mech holy shit look at the big mech that's so cool! It's such a cool giant fucking mech! Holy shit I want to pilot that thing!" Respectively.

Like Xenoblade X? Skells? Fuck yea dude sign me up! Look at this shit!

Also yea the skells are named Dolls in the original Japanese version, I'm assuming they were renamed for American audiences because they wanted to make them sound "cooler" or whatever, and also because the joke of the "Skell-eton Crew" doesn't make sense in English if they're the uh "Doll-eton? Crew???" So yea that makes sense I guess.

Don't even get me started on CASTS from like PSO/PSO2 like they may be small mechs but they're still mechs!

Oh and speaking of PSO you also have the AIS

These are all fine mechs! Very snazzy I like them a lot!

I think I exist somewhere between the two extremes, I enjoy the vibe and aesthetic of big fuck-all mechs with over the top rockets and big ass wings and guns and swords and glowy bits and neon lights and the whole nine yards. But I also just as much enjoy piecing a mech together in Armored Core and really tuning it to my exact liking because it feels so personalized when I can sorta just go "wow this new engine is really making all the difference in my movement"

[onedismay]

Mass Effect Tag Game

Stole this thing from @messydiabolical. :)c Anyone is welcome to steal it from me as well!

-

I am a fan since: Forgot what year it was but I remember ME2 had already been out for a while before I bought ME1. But I caught up quickly and got to experience the release of the Arrival DLC in real time. :D

Favourite game of the series?: It's hard to pick between 1 and 2, but I'll say 2 because the concept of loyalty missions is MY JAM. Also ME2 is my favorite graphics-wise, it's got that high contrast I love so much. (hate the simplified skill trees though)

MShep or FShep?: Most of my Sheps are fSheps because the character creator for mSheps isn't versatile enough for me. :( Where's the long hair! Let me look impractical!

Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer?: I might slightly prefer Earthborn. I enjoy playing characters who've had a rough start in life and made some bad decisions, but grew up to become decent people anyway.

Biotics or Tech: Can't pick, I like variety!

Paragon or Renegade: peace for everybody in the galaxy :') But I reeeaally love the Renegade eyes so I do have some mean Sheps as well.

Favourite Class: I used to main the Infiltrator class but in my most recent run I really enjoyed the Adept. Hard to pick a favorite but I do know my favorite class is NOT the Sentinel, it always feels clunky to me somehow.

Favourite Companion: Tali or Javik. Kaidan and Thane are nearby too. Tali's character development feels very natural and wonderful to me on every playthrough and I always love to see it. Javik is a fave because he's haunted and completely alone and that combo always hooks me like, I MUST see to it that this sad man has at least one nice thing in his life.

Least favourite Companion: It's the writers' fault but Liara. It gets really old when the same companion treats you like her love interest in all 3 games no matter what. I haaaate forced hugs in roleplaying games, don't put me through that, it'll ruin the character for me.

My squad selection: In my most recent playthrough it was unsurprisingly Javik and Tali. But I also ran with Vega quite often in the early game and I kinda missed him in the end game, haha.

Favourite In-game romance: Kaidan, especially with mShep because I really enjoy a slow burn of several years. 🔥

Other pairings I like: I am motioning at my blog and presenting to you Tazzik and the Shadow Broker...... no i don't have anything else to offer at this time

Favourite NPC: I like all these shady-ass salarians like Anoleis and Jaroth and Maelon and Linron (yes) (no i'm not defending her, i just find mean characters interesting sometimes) and Chorban and probably others. Valern isn't all that shady but still a fave. Charn! And Balak, I always look forward to finding out how my Shepard reacts to him. Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib I always loved you and I knew you were the best admiral before ME3 ever happened

Favourite Antagonist: the Shadow Broker, I was so into the mystery in ME1 and man I was not disappointed when we got the reveal. I would have loved to learn more about his early life.

Favourite Mission: ME2's Suicide Mission because I lovvve how it's a culmination of all your previous actions. It felt really scary and chaotic on my first playthrough and like anything could happen. Now I know all the mechanics so nothing surprises me, but I still look forward to seeing every little detail play out.

Favourite Loyalty Mission: Tali. Also Mordin. And Samara, ugghhh I love Omega and I love playing bait uwu

Favourite DLC: Hmmm I love about half of LotSB very much but I might like Bring Down the Sky more as a whole? The mood is great, it's not super long, and nothing about it annoys me. :D I've only played the Leviathan DLC once so far so I'm not confident enough to call it a fave yet but I liked it a lot, too.

Control, Synthesis or Destroy: I just wanted an ending where we finally talk the Reapers down and they go "yeah u right actually, let's not fight anymore. :( handshake?". All this star child borderline magic stuff is kinda goofy to me. I've picked Destroy almost every time tho.

Favourite Weapon: Recently enjoyed the Blood Pack Executioner... Historically I've probably used the Widow the most. Also I LOVE the way the Revenant looks but I can't stand using it myself lmao. My hand hurts just thinking about it.

Favourite Place: nnnoooo there's so many good places. I adore the Shadow Broker's ship, first of all. Such a cool concept. Noveria for the snow and miserable people. Feels like home. I loved visiting the Migrant Fleet! But my absolute favorite place is probably Omega because it's so rough yet there's still a weird sense of community.

A quote I like: The first that came to mind is "I have a home." Idk, I don't really remember quotes unless they're repeated over and over and by that point I start hating them.

[sapphic-haymaker]

Fio Media Log #1: Gen 1 Armored Core Trilogy

Armored! Core!

I'm a mecha gal. I love my robots. but I especially love me some clunky "real robot" style mechs. I only got into Armored Core with 6, and i've decided to take a plunge into the first generation games with, admittedly, not too high of expectations.

And lemme tell ya. I was pretty blown away at how fun these are!

Visuals

Let me start off with the visuals, holy shit do I LOVE the visuals of these games. I grew up with the PS1 as my first console, playing Twisted Metal (Darkside main btw) is one of my earliest memories. I really adore the games that have come out recently emulating the PSX style (Psuedoregalia, Signalis, Ultrakill, etc.)

The blocky aesthetic lends itself well to mecha. A lot of the genre likes to build it's robots in simple, blocky shapes so Bandai can easily make model kits of them, and there's no shortage of obvious design inspiration among ACs

The first mission, which subtly informs you of a theme of the series, has you being paid to go murder some workers striking for better pay and benefits and some other stuff that probably could've been bought with the money they used to hire a 5 meter tall death robot but hey. not our department.

The pitch black background and illuminated bridge makes for some lovely moody atmosphere. A LOT of 1st gen is going to be same-y hallways and tunnels but when they go through the extra effort to make a place look like a place it ends up very nice.

The Controls

Hooooo boy. This was a STRUGGLE for me at first. See this lil game was released a month after Sony's dualshock controllers, the ones with actual analogue sticks and not just a d-pad, hit the market. Which means this highly technical game is going to make you control deliberately hard-to-pilot machines without any sticks! (and they wouldn't add support for them until 7 years later!!!)

I found the stock control scheme where Up/Down was moving forward back, Left/Right was Turn, L1/R1 was strafe, and L2/R2 was aim up/down COMPLETELY unhandlable. Brain could not parse it. But to my shock there was an option in the game settings to rebind the controls! Making all the d-pad buttons be movement and all the shoulder buttons camera controls made things click right away. But that's just for basics. As for advanced movement…. welllll.

Meet [13th Toll], the build I did most of the game on after spending a lot of time experimenting and testing.

You'll notice she's a quad leg type AC! that's because the quad leg type trades the ability to boost on the ground for the ability to have consistent fast movement, meaning you can move fast without actually being good at the game's movement. It was absolutely a crutch but the game never threw anything hard enough at me to stop using said crutch. The gatling gun arms just felt better than any gun in the game having a huge amount of damage and ammo… at the cost of absolutely financially ruining me. @ @

See. Every mission in Armored Core has a base pay, occasionally bonus pay or penalties, and then that pay is deducted by how many resources you used in the mission. Repair Cost is how much damage you took, and Ammo cost is how many bullets/shells/rockets/etc you chewed through. And let me tell you the Gatling Arms are strong but they cost so much money to fire that i ended up LOSING money on several missions due to operating costs.

Scrounging for cash is definitely part of the AC experience, it's not shy about it's anti-capitalist messages, going into enough debt due to failing missions or not performing well enough actually resets the game, having your character undergo experimental augmentation to make them better at paying off the debt presumably (this is kind of an easy mode. I never triggered it as I wanted to do all three games without it. Felt like it was the authentic experience)

The control scheme as noted is incredibly clunky, but in a way that feels befitting of a mech. In AC6 the combat and controls are incredibly streamlined and feel as good as it gets for the most part. But AC1 takes a real-robot approach and imposes some serious limits to how you can move and aim. It genuinely feels like you're fighting the controls trying to aim at a fast moving plane or an AC boosting past you. It's a unique feeling that leaves the player feeling less like an ultra powerful death robot and more a poor pilot desperately wishing something could turn faster than it physically can. I'm a big fan.

I blew through AC 1 all things considered, aside from that horrifically frustrating final mission. (platforming in a game with the worst camera controls ever took years off my life.)

It wasn't a cakewalk per say, but i never felt incredibly pressed to improve my skill or optimize my build all that much in the game. I pretty much did whatever. Very enjoyable experience all in all. Where I think things get interesting is the first expansion…

Project Phantasma

Released a few months after AC1, Project Phantasma is when the game REALLY made me focus in on what i wanted to do and made me sweat. For the most part it's missions are about on par with it's predecessor, with one exception: The Arena.

The Arena is as straightforward as it gets, 49 Enemy ACs, one on one, no distractions. Best Pilot wins. The first chunk of the arena is a joke, but then, out of nowhere, comes

RANK: 30 PILOT: Brutus A.C.: Back Stab

You see this fucker? This was my wall. This is where the real pain train starts and Gen 1 starts to stop pulling it's punches IMHO.

Brutus is an aerial ace. You'll find that MOST of the ACs in the Arena absolutely LOVE to be in the air. this particular asshole has a sniper rifle that will literally stunlock you for long periods of time, is incredibly accurate, and generally just makes your life hell.

Quad legs could not carry me to victory here, they genuinely just do not have the maneuverability to dodge the incoming hailstorm of sniper shots. I tried heavyweight ACs, thinking i could simply outlast him, Dead Wrong. Heavyweights were even more of failure. All that armor did was prolong the inevitable.

This is where I had to bite the bullet and start using regular legs. You move absolutely pitifully slow when not boosting, but boosting takes energy, energy conservation takes practice and skill. I used these next 30 Arena fights to learn how to move and shoot in these games and the experience was so satisfying and rewarding. I felt like I was just as quick as the AI and soaring through the sky right along with them by the end of it.

Meet [Phantom Lambda], she is as fast as I could make her, she is as light as i could make her, she carries a new weapon in the Phantasma expansion, the WG-RFM118 Rifle. Along with a magazine on the back slot, a "weapon" that does nothing but increase the ammo count of your other weapons. 300 shots was consistently enough to take out most Arena opponents aside from the thick armored heavyweight powerhouses.

My weapon choice was simple. It has an absolutely MASSIVE lock on reticle. So I could focus all of my brainpower on movement and avoiding enemy fire. I still had to do a fair amount of aiming, the enemy ACs in the Arena get blazing fast. but this strategy ended up getting me all the way through the game. And suddenly I only had one Gen 1 game left.

Story Tangent

Project Phantasma tried a lot harder to have a consistent storyline which was fine, if a bit clunky. There's a big bad rival mech named Stinger who ends up being pretty pathetic as you thrash him again and again. You get all your jobs from a woman named Sumika who is also a AC pilot, and let me say, I was pleasantly surprised to see a woman in old mecha media that isn't evil and/or dead.

Master of Arena

Master of Arena had a lot more time in the oven than Project Phantasma, releasing in 1999 while AC1 and PP were both 97', and let me tell ya. It feels like a FromSoft employee was watching my Phantasma run over my shoulder when I first booted up the game.

So first things first. My strategy is in goddamn shambles. Not only is my FCS (part that determines lock-on reticle) significantly nerfed, my entire loadout has been nerfed to the floor in the ammo department. Magazines would give 50% more ammo per magazine in PP, and my rifle had 200 shots base. Now Mags give 20% each, and the rifle now only has 160 shots. Meaning I've went from a maximum of 400 shots to a measly 224. Considering how many shots end up missing and enemy AC HP, this means the rifle that carried me is absolutely not an option anymore.

Meet [The Rook], my intent was to find a middle ground where I wasn't totally made of paper like I was in piloting [Lambda Phantom]. Focusing purely on optimized utility in her design, I wanted something mobile, durable, and I needed to fit a weapon that had decent range and some nice damage, I used the WG-AR1000,a mid-range machine gun and doubled up on mags. This gave me a whopping 1400 bullets to bullet hose the competition down.

While the story missions weren't any harder than AC1 and Phantasma, the Arena didn't have a slow ramp up like it did in last one. Right away i was thrown into a fight with a lightweight aerial AC raining pain down on me.

I ended up playing a lot more aggressively this time around due to the machine gun's much shorter range, meeting opponents up-close in mid-air as abusing the RFM118's long range to plink away at opponents wasn't an option anymore. This lead to a lot of problems against enemies with similar weapons like gatling arms, where we mostly just ended up DPS racing eachother, but i only have to win once, after all.

Overall I really enjoyed these games. I think the first one is a fun lil time and onboards you to the systems well enough, and if you're hungry for more the two expansions offer a nice challenge. I'm currently debating if i wanna do the EX Arena in Master of Arena or if i wanna jump straight into Armored Core 2.

I highly recommend you try these out if you've played AC6, it's systems and clunky control schemes are very neat lil relics of game design that feel completely lost in the modern era.

[spinningbuster98]

Let's finally talk about perhaps Super's most controversial aspect: its controls

It's become pretty common for fans, mostly newer ones, to denounce Super's controls as being clunky and outdated, especially when compared to the newer games' much more fluid and precise ones

And to be fair: they have a point

The original trilogy had very floaty physics and Samus just wasn't very nimble, sometimes feeling like a tank

Super's are certainly the best but they still feel unruly especially when platforming is involved: the game sometimes spams small platforms to jump on while there are enemies in a tight room or maybe there's lava or spikes and...it just feels awkward, the platforming in Super is just not very graceful or fun.

By contrast from Fusion onwards controls get much less floaty and way more precise and platforming actually gets much slicker and more fun! Hell in Dread the simple act of going through each room is such a joy because it all flows so well!

However....

What's peculiar about Super's controls is that they take advantage of their floatiness

This is the only game with a run button, which influences your momentum, much like in a 2D Mario game. When you combine this with the floaty, ergo higher than average, jump, you'll find that you can actually do some pretty insane stunts

A skilled enough player can do stuff like skip some platforming sections with the right timing, and it's this jump's floatiness that makes the wall jump work well in this game (as opposed to Zero Mission's, which feels far too restricted by comparison)

Indeed about 70% of this game's cool skips and techniques would not be possible without the combination of the run button and the floaty controls, both things that none of the future games have

I do criticize Super's controls as well on the occasion...but I can't say I'd take the game without them

People sometimes clamor for this game to be remade with Dread's controls, or even Zero Mission and such

No

Firstly there's no need: Super Metroid may not be perfect, like any game, but there's hardly anything here that requires a full blown remake. At most a remaster that just adds some quality of life stuff but that's it

Secondly: I love Dread's controls, their feel....for THAT game and what THAT game is going for

Giving Super Dread's controls would certainly make the game faster and easier to control....but it would take away all of the cool and creative stuff you can pull off so it would no longer be Super Metroid to me. Just like if you'd put Super's controls in Dread it would make that game really fucking awkward and the boss fights near unplayable because that game is designed for those specific controls in mind

Hell AM2R probably has the best mix of precision and floatiness you can probably get...and it still doesn't feel nearly as flexible or as "freeform" so to speak

On the topic of controls though I just wanna mention: the Shinespark

You mau have seen me abuse it every 5 second throughout this playthrough and that's because I love it. Much live the wall jump it can allow for some very cool skips and shortcuts and what I like about Super's version of it is that, being tied to the run button, you can initiate a Speedboost, and thus a Shinespark, pretty much anywhere you wish to so long as there's even a little bit of terrain to run on. By contrast in the GBA games, since there's no run button, you have to run quite a distance before you can speedboost, which limits the amount of places you can use it and your creativity with it. It's why I love Dread's version so much, because it perfectly recaptures Super's versatility and expands on it while also keeping the GBA games' ease of use

Speaking of which though...

I may like the Shinespark but controlling its direction in this game is uhhh...not the most intuitive thing ever

Shooting upwards is easy, as is doing it diagonally since you just use the shoulder buttons before jumping

But performing a horizontal shinespark? Especially while in mid air?

Yeahhh let's just say it requires a pretty unintuitive button combination that took me years to fully figure out. Future games will simplify it for the better in this regard

Ridley's lair is...actually really linear, basically just a straight line that loops around itself. And that's fine, the battle against Ridley being the best in the game pretty much by proxy...

...however getting out of this place is weirdly unintuitive

What you're supposed to do, as you can see, is to go through a fake wall in that one room which will lead you to the area's exit

Here's the problem: there's nothing indicating that that's a fake wall. Not even the X ray scanner reveals it as one, being the only exception in the game, which is very, VERY stupid

The first few times I played this I thought I could only go back the way I came, which forced me to take a long and risky lava bath but no there's the solution

I think in this one instance the game would have benefitted form a Fusion-like approach of preventing the player from backtracking the way they came from...

Nothing really to say about the Mother Brain battle that hasn't already been said a million times already, it's a fantastic storytelling moment

2 things though:

I wish it was more of an actual fight rather than a glorified interactive cutscene, even before the actual scripted part begins you can just stand in one spot and keep spamming missiles into the big, slow target

Moreover I...can't help but feel there's a bit of...tonal dissonance in the ending...?

"The mission was completed successfully!"

No...? It technically wasn't

Samus' mission was to rescue the baby and it died, she failed. Yeah she killed the Space Pirates which is a great thing of course, but that wasn't her primary objective here

Then you add the happy credits music and it...sorta feels like the game just forgot that the baby died.

Oh well! I guess Other M picked up the slack on that regard...

Also yeah of course I saved the animals. What do you take me for? A fucking psycho?

[corvidgames]

#16 Robocop: Rogue City

Robocop: Rogue City left me... conflicted, to say the least, in my opinions of the game. On one hand, it was a somewhat clean linear story with passable and well-implemented graphics for a game of its size and endeavours. On the other, it was an oft-buggy and confusing run through a plot that I really didn't find myself invested in the slightest.

The combat mechanics were alright, even if it controlled a little clunky, and enemy AI was almost laughable, but I can put that aside for the fact the game itself was incredibly expansive for the size of the studio that was producing it.

The soundtrack was good, with its low bass providing a thematic match to the thumping footsteps of walking around the city in search of justice to bestow. Certain areas of the game were significantly cleaner than others, as well.

The opening scenes were probably my favourite, the TV station hostage situation that you open into feels well-developed, and is perhaps the best show of the game's mechanics compared to later levels, despite the lack of abilities or EXP to spend on upgrades.

The final boss was a slow crawl that I really didn't enjoy, I have to admit, and I glitched it into walls by mistake so many times that I genuinely could not experience the true fight if I wanted to. On the few occasions it didn't clip halfway into a wall, it was a slow and trudging fight that lacked impact due to the lack of variety in its phases... It was just a bullet sponge that was slow-moving enough that any threat it dared pose was laughable.

I think fans of the Robocop films would still enjoy the references scattered throughout and perhaps I was just a little too critical here after I got tired about halfway through the game. My urge to 100% the game was about the only reason I didn't DNF this title, it just didn't click well with me, despite my best efforts to enjoy it.

Date of completion: 29/06/2025

Genre: Action RPG

Time to beat: 17hr

Level of completion: main story + all side content

Trophies/Gamerscore: Platinum 28/28

1-100 rating: 55%

Platform: PlayStation 5

[fyeahnix]

Some initial thoughts on Forbidden West I already posted to Twitter:

It might be all in my head since I played Horizon Zero Dawn like two and a half years ago, but Forbidden West feels like it controls better? Aloy doesn't feel as "floaty" as before? I also did just finish GoT so that might be messing with my perception a bit.

I like the changes to the Focus. HZD it felt a little clunky to use, if a very cool tool. This game it feels more streamlined. Eager to see if that's going to lend itself to the pacing of combat and stealth. Would be funny to attribute that to Aloy learning how to use it better.

GoT ruined me because the camera sensitivity in Forbidden West is making me feel like I've never played a game on controller ever in my life. Had to turn that shit all the way down and something about it still feels off. But I probably just need an adjustment period.

[garrandia]

second blasphemous suck ass

the only good additions that I can think of is that spikes no longer an insta kill, menu shows u % or damage/defense on items and that cool telepot behind u nothing personell kid dodge that u get uf u parry with rapier(too bad enemies and timings all fucked to do I constantly)

that's all

everything else is worse and I mean

lore what lore,bosses are not memorable and lack much of info about them, u see them at the begging cutsceme and that's all, the last boss is especially bad example,characters are info dumping u in their introduction, i need u to give me oils got me so off guard lol,item description is lacking,6 seeds of wax and however how many fevered kisses have the same description over all of them, magic is weak, the FUCKING I FRAMES ARE GONE SO WHEN U CAST U CAN BE HIT AND poof no spell, shield lady costs too much mana to cast,no control over what abilities u use so double jump/blood sand are always on, no areas where u have to use something akin to lung, no way to sequence break to have the abilities earlier, every boss after the first 3 is a rail road, most of the late game levels have fucking LOCK U IN UNTILL U DEFEAT ALL THE ENEMIES rooms that are super annoying and that bc otherwise u would be able to just dash and double jump over everything (air dash as it is now was a mistake)only 5 slots for rosary beads, no items to increase ur overall speed, NO IDLE POSE, LIKE 5 OR SOMETHING EXECUTION MOVES????some projectiles cat be destroyed some not and u just don't know,a FUCKTON OF DEAD ENDS JUST CAUSE??????.Game overall feels VERY claustrophobic even fucking Jondo is a sea shore in comparison. timing puzzles are meh, last area b4 the boss is the worst, like second half of the game is mostly corridors left right with dead ends and u no longer can just fall off from area to area sequence breaking everything.THE WALL PANELS ARE NOW SLIDING U DOWN guess we can't let the players stay on the walls 4 eva(this is one the biggest disappointments for me)Visuals are somehow bleaker?much more cartoonish definitely I dunno how to explain but the only striking design for me was the lady who updates ur viles.the menu is big and clunky,the cool singh for tears is gone now its and ugly quick event button,u don't really need stigmata mechanics the tears only would have been fine, big glowing fucking quest markers ffs what are we?skyrim???also overall not that many cutsscenes?(outside of buildings appeaernig I guess)that's probably good bc new artstyl of them is brrrhhhhhmmeee(I had the same opinion of the ending cutsene of WOE don't @ ant me but there attest it was followed by pixelart ending)this game does feel like it was made by the same ppl who made heavy, brutal,dark yet captivating and striking blasphemous 1

music is still fire tho....

[popculturebuffet]

Batmarch!: BTAS: See No Evil Review

Hello all you happy batpeople and welcome to batmarch! For the next few weeks expect some caped crusader content same bat whenever I get to it, same bat blog all through march! This fine theme month came about thanks to Kev having a bunch of bat-ideas, me wanting to cover the 89 film for it's anniversary, and it all swirling around till eventually it became a theme month. I want to give bat-credit where it's due after all.

To kick it off we've got a return to what's become a recurring guest on this blog: Batman: The Animated Series. Last time I covered it after the sad loss of Richard Moll, I talked about wanting to cover this episode and when the theme month came up.. well.. I couldn't resisist.

See No Evil is one of my faviorite episodes of Batman the Animated Series and a great showcase of just about everything that makes the series as good as it is: Letting sitcom stars try out something diffrent that shows off their dramatic chops? Check. Awesome animation. Check. A great unique premise masterfully staged in 20 some minutes yup. An intresting and hearbreaking villian? Yupppp. This is one of the most stacked episode sof the series and rewatch only made me find MORE to love about it. And if you haven't heard of this one... your in for a treat. I highly recommend going to watch it first as my review isn't a substitute for the full episode. It is worth a look under the cut to spotlight WHY this episode shines so much.

We open in a little girl's bedroom. Her name is Kimmy and she has a special friend. His name is Mojo

No not him. He didn't exist yet. No Mojo is an invisible man, and Kimmy is played by future star Elizabeth Moss... who sadly would not escape being stalked by invisible men in high tech suits as an adult, but would get at least another amazing story out of it. Or we would.

Mojo then finds out some news that while he tries his best to hide his reaction from Kimmy, clearly bothers him: Their moving soon and Mojo may not be able to find her.

Before he can give up the game, Mojo disappears when Kimmy, the girl in question,'s mom shows up: Elizabeth, played by the legendary Jean Smart of Designing Women and Hacks royalty. It's neat to see her in a dramatic roll like this, and despite growing up with Desining Women.. I NEVER knew this was her but i'm happy she's here. Elizabeth assumes Mojo is just imaginary.. even though a kicked can and movement in the earlier scene shows not so. Granted while Imaginary Friends are possible in the DCU, it's still at the early point where I get her not going to that: Most of batman's rogues are criminals with gimmicks and what few meta human foes he has are downplayed a bit here in their powers: Ivy isn't at full control plants levels yet, using more toxins and trained plants, Killer Croc just has a skin condition and Clayface.. well okay clayface still counts. But most every day people probably don't know every foes batman's fought and evne if they had don't assume this is one of those situations. I bring this up because after so many damn works where "oh well this can't be real even though superheroes exist" come up, it's refreshing to see one where that's.. actually entirely plausable and you don't feel like the characters an idiot for not knowing this. Most superheroes in this setting hadn't publicly debuted yet and those we know had by this time like Zantanna or Wildcat were either other street level heroes, or in zantanna's case protected by the veil of stage magic.

Mojo's next target is a jewlery exchange.. which has low security for anywhere, especially Gotham: Costumed Crime Captial of the World. I was going to gripe about this scene as Mojo's big plan for having an invisiblity suit.. is to just straight up rob people with it, stealing the jewelery as their brougth out of their cases and basically doing a smash and grab. But I realized something as I wrote this: Mojo being this clunky with his suit.. is deliberate. Mojo is, as we'll find out shortly, is a petty criminal. He dosen't have the need for theatrics Batman's normal rogues have, and he dosen't have the experince to pull off an elaborate heist. Of course he's going to see an invisiblity suit as more of a blunt tool to use rather than the very dangerous and versital one it is.

He's not entirely stupid, he knows how to use it as we see when Batman, who naturally was at the exchange as bruce either on rich person buisness, wayne corp buisness or "oh my god these idiots barely hired any security better be ready" buisness, fights him. Bruce is thrown off as even if he knows from Mojos's crimes t his opponent is cloaked that .. dosen't really help when your cowl dosen't have infared or anything. It just looks dope. And yes later cowls do but this one clearly isn't high tech to the gils like later entries, it's just dope as fuck. Batman does do the obvious when fighting an invisible opponent: Spill shit on them, in this case plot convience paint... but whoever built Mojo's suit thought of that or Mojo himself did as he has a setting to melt it off, a clever subversion of the usual tactics that gets batman a batassbeating. And that again shows Lloyd's style: even though we don't know exactly what he went away for, his style is all smash and grab: blunt force. He only beats the more experinceed combatant bruce in one on one. .because Bruce can't see him and dosen't hav etime to listen closely.. and even if he did it'd be too late. It's what makes "Some guy what got an invisible suit" work as a batman villian: Yes he's not as flashy and yes he has a simple gimmick.. but sometims all you need is a simple power. It's something I never thought about before but most of batman's clever gadgets.. are sight based. Even the gas bomb would only be mildly useful at figuring out WHERE he might be and with a full face mask, it woudln't do any actual damage, while Lloyd could pull down batman's gas mask and make him go sleepy bye. Batman.. isn't invincible and his stories are at their best when the writers remember that.

Mojo slinks back to his place and we get the shocking reveal that he's...

A guy who looks like a human ventriquist dummy? Did Slappy finally become human and end up fighting batman? Because i'd pay good money for that instalment of goosebumps, just saying.

No this.. objectively weird looking man is Lloyd Ventrix aka Kimmy's Dad. As a kid I found the idea of mojo creepy.. as an adult I find it deeply unerving. Part of this is having a passle of nieces and nephews, so the idea of an unstable man, let alone one the parent dosen't want seeing thier kids, sneaking to see them in a way their unaware of and that the kid impliclity trusts is fucking terrifyign. Part of it is just the idea of a person your trying to escape being able to find you and do whatever he pleases no matter how far you run is fucking horrifying. It's why the 2020 invisible man film is so good.. and so terrifying I haven't watched it since I saw it theatrically. It is a LOT on the nerves. It's also why both can coexist as this episode captalized on a different kind of fear: instead of an abusive ex, it's an abusive ex spouse who you are COMPELTELY unaware is contacting your kid till it's too late.

It's also what brilliantly creates the episodes tension: by the first commerical break WE know who this invisible man is to a point and what he wants, but not HOW he got invsible, or if Batman can solve the mystery of the how and who in time to get to Llloyd before he kidnaps Kimmie.

Before we move on i'd like to spotlight Lloyd's voice actor: While I always loved the performance here I didn't know the man behind the invsible man until this review.. and it was a nice reveal too: Michael Gross of Tremors and Family Ties fame. It's the latter that helps this role as in his scenes as "Mojo", Lloyd has that same kind warmth Gross had on Family Ties as Steven.. when he wasn't comically breaking down or reacting to his children's shenanigans. And that.. makes it ten times creepier coming from someone whose activley manipuating and stalking a child.

Not only that he transitions well to Lloyd in the rest of his life, wether it's his cockiness ast his power when fighting batman or his assuredness when trying to win back elizabeth, which we'll get to in a second. It's a brilliant performance that makes me wish he could've come back or they'd brought him back in another roll: Gross is just damn good portraying a man whose determined to get what he thinks he's owed no matter what it takes.. but can't understand WHY no one wants him around.

Case in point, that trying to win back his ex wife thing. He shows up at her work, and his defense to his wife understandably not wanting anything to do with him isn't "i'm changing as a person I just want a chance ot see my kid" or "I know I screwed up and you have every reason not to listen to me but hear me out" You know stuff that shows your contrite and genuinely reformed. Instead Lloyd shows he learned nothing from prison a his only response is "I got why you needed the restraining order when I was a bum but i'm bigger now". Yes really. Elizabeth tells him to shove it and stay way from his daughter then to just "disappear" unfortunately for her she's in a horror story and said something tragically ironic.

The good news is she's also in a batman story and thanks to plot convience turns out the inventor of the cloak of invsiblity pitched it to them last year, and he has his tech guy bring up the info on the man's assitant.

Batman decides rather than talk to said assitant, who could be the invisible man, to .. rifle thorugh the guys cabinets

Naturally when the man hears Batman bat rifling through his shit, he tries to throw a rack on him.. and batman's response to this entirely resonable reaction is

Gee your just.. so likeable bruce. Thankfully he does actually stop when the guy makes it clear he was here the last few days. And look jokes aside I get bruce dosen't know if this guy did it.. but there are more subtle ways to deal with this shit or someone understandably thinking your trying to rob them than the bat fist. There are better uses for the bat fist. And yes I meant that sexually, I will not be taking questions.

The Science Man explains that he's actually destroying all the fabric. Turns out while he was able to make it turn stuff invsible it's highly toxic. He was trying to correct that problem but coudln't, so he's destroying it. And i'm baffled why there was an entry on tv tropes saying "Well why can't he use it on cars" as we see it used. And to this I say this guy is picking up his old mentor's work, probably sunk a lot of money into remaking this and testing it, and has had some time to do so. If he COUDL salvage this project he would've.

Turns out Floyd was their old assitant though in a pompus way Science Man says he was "really more of an errand boy". Gee I can't imagine why he stole from you. Such a puzzler.

At any rate this slightly douchey science man has given Batman all he needs and he goes to talk to Elizabeth. To Bruce's credit his prorities are in order: he wants to save Lloyd from dying rather than get the jewels back.. I mean he will, he's the goddamn batman, but he'll save the guy who stole them first. Maybe punch him a bit.

Elizabeth connects the dots about the invsiblity suit and mojo.. but Lloyd's already one step ahead as during this scene he's been talking about taking kimmy to a special place

She does as he takes her to a drive in theater nearbye and plans to take her away but she dosen't want to get into a car with an invisible man. So he takes the mask off.. and credit to Kimmy she instantly realizes "Shit this wasn't my imaginary friend". I mean granted it probably wouldn't be BETTER if it was

Fun fact: I did not realize this was coming out the same week as this review. Dates are fun

Anyway, Kimmy realizes it's not just her imagination and won't run away with him, so he reveals himself as her father.. and her reaction is not what he expected

Yeah it turns out Elizabeth isn't stupid and it's something I love about the episode: Elizabeth didn't make that mistake you see in 87 percent of tv parents who don't trust their shady ex. She TOLD kimmy about him. She didn't hide it, she didn't try to keep ti as some dark secret so he can manipulate it later: She just told her in terms a kid would understand: her dad is a bad man and should not be trusted. Granted the fact he looks like if archie andrews became a vampire should tell her that but the point stands.

This is also the great tragedy of Lloyd Ventrix: he wants his family back.. but he can never understand WHY they don't want him back. Floyd could've worked his way back to his daughter by staying clean after prison, staying at his job, finding another if he didn't work for Errand Boy Man, which is a fair thing not to want. Am I saying it would've been remotely easy? No, our country isn't set up to help ex-cons and treats them like pariahs, like every former prisoner is lloyd when some genuinely want to change and others were victims of circumstance. But he could've had his daughter back or at least a CHANCE at it had he genuinely tried. Elizabeth is reasonable, while she wouldn't want him around the guy she'd at least give him a chance to see kimmy if it was shown he really changed.

That's the rub though: Lloyd dosen't WANT to change. He's a smash and grab guy and that's who he wants to be. It's in most things he does: He has an invsible suit.. yet uses it for smash and grabs and his fighting style when fighting the bat is hit him with a blunt insturment. or maybe it's more of an object. But i'ts blunt hard and blunt. He says he's not a two bit hood when talking to elizabeth.. but that's relaly ALL he is. He could've conquered the gotham mafia, conquered the city, or even gone the other way and became a hero himself, fighting to make the city better. He has all this power.. but he still thinks in terms of "how can I smash this thing in my way" "what can I grab". He's emotinally and creatively empty.. and thus he can't understand why Kimmy won't accept him just for being her dad.

As a production note, the only one I have for this episode Kimmy was SUPPOSED to be in the final chase scene for a bit, but standards and practices were like

Because a child's lost criminal father pretending to be her best friend and her being in danger every time he's in the room? That's fine. But oh no she can't have a car chase.

So Kimmy runs home to her mom and Batman and Llloyd begin tussling, with Lloyd turning the car invsible with him and a passerby assuming batman can fly now which.. is fair. I'm suprised he dosen't have a bat jet pack.. wait did he have a bat jet pack? Questions for later

Bruce takes another beating, begging lloyd to consider but it's clear he's drunk on his own power and we see while he's a blunt intersturment/object/whatever he is it's hard and blunt, he gets this suit means no matter where Elizabeth and Kimmy go they'll neve rbe safe. Thankfully for him Lloyd made the mistake of fighting batman on a water tower and Batman's able to douse him, shorting out the suit. It's a clever set up: While water is also a common invsiible man fighting tool, when explaning how it worse it runs on an electric currrent. It's probably why it has the dohicky to steam stuff off.. but LLoyd can't get rid of that much water and he's out

The ending is masterful as we get a repeat of the opening scene: Kimmy is once again talking to a special friend, telling him that their move is final and Lloyd will never find her again. The vistor exits.. but thankfully it was batman, and we get a nice echo of the first scene: this time instead of playing it off.. elizabeth's relieved. Kimmy lost an imaginary friend, lost a father.. but gained a batman.

See No Evil is excellent and highly underated: It's a tense tightly packed 20 minutes with a nice twist on the usual batman detective formula the show uses: we know WHO did it but it's all about HOW and if Batman can find out in time. Smart and Gross are fantastic in this and it results in a tense, eerie little tale packed with tension. It's 22 minutes of perfection and worth checking out if you have max.

Thanks for reading and i'll see you some bat time, same bat blog.

[alectoperdita]

do you still find posting your fics on social media stressful/anxious? ive been feeling this way for quite some time as an artist so i was wondering about your input as someone who wrote fics for a long time.

Yep. I still 1000% do. Whether it's posting the fic itself or on social media, I still feel anxious afterward. It's difficult to share something you may have spent a lot of time and love on, and wanting some validation of your effort is only human. So it can feel crushing if one of our fears is that people won't like it.

It can feel like rejection, even if only temporarily when your posting sits at 0 notes for the first hours. But once it's posted, it's out of our control. People will either see it or they won't. They'll either like it or they won't. They'll either comment on it or they won't. It can still be a tough pill to swallow.

Honestly, it's been getting harder the last year or so. Sometimes I think I should just not bother posting the link to tumblr. It's not like fics in general get all that much "engagement" on this platform.

As a result, I've had to strictly curate my social media experience. I've turned off all tumblr notifications. Because when that was turned on, I definitely knew that there was no activity on a given post because the app wasn't notifying me. Now it's just an unknown until the next time I check tumblr. Maybe there's some nice notes or tags when I do, but probably not.

It'll be what it'll be. My personal feelings not withstanding.

Another coping method of mine is to post during the work day. For me, the stressful feelings are most pronounced during the first day of sharing anything. That's the prime time for the self-doubt to creep in ("this is clunky, I should've edited more" or "this is not as interesting as I conceived"). Posting during the work day keeps me from ruminating and checking social media/my email. I distract myself with work. Then after work, I choose to do things that take me away from my computer or email for the rest of the night. I cook and play video games while listening to podcasts, or take that time to catch up on my dramas.

It gets easier the next day. Usually. Usually I ruminate less than I did the day before.

So in summary, I make a conscious effort to disconnect from social media and its mechanics of instant feedback/gratification. It works better sometimes than others. I still get in loops where I will jump into tumblr and refresh my activity tab.

Those are what work for me personally, though. I don't presume they would help you or even most people. Like I can imagine my methods sound like hell to someone with ADHD or extreme executive dysfunction.

Sorry this was rambly and personal. I don't want to offer advice without knowing your exact struggles. Making stuff isn't easy, and sharing the stuff can be just as hard or harder than the making. So I want to offer you all my sympathies and hugs.

If anyone else has figured out the secret of being chill about this shit, please share. But I suspect that'd require a major personality shift on my part. 😂