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white-tulips · 4 years

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I spent most of this morning continuing playing through the hikikomori route, more of my thoughts below!! (major spoilers ahead!!!!!)

if you haven’t but want to read my first post on my hikikomori playthrough, you can see it [here]!! it’s been a month since I last played any, aha...

I played for quite a few hours earlier but I don’t think I really progressed all that much aha. most of my time went towards grinding and wandering around and seeing little things. oh, and also playing through Orange Oasis. I never actually did that in my first run of the game. it was okay.

I really love how many little details and things to go back to that there are, but I’m still a little bitter at just. how long everything is. I talked about this a lot in my previous post, but it irritates me that the first 15-20 hours (give or take depending on how fast you’re able to blast through this game) is just. exactly the same as what you experience in the main route. especially since now my hikikomori save file is even longer than my main story file, and I think I still have a decent ways to go until I finish. I don’t actually know! I haven’t been spoiled for this route, thankfully, so I don’t really know how much is left. I have a vague idea of a couple areas I need to go to, but that’s about it.

ok, on to my thoughts!! this post is probably just going to be me rambling about tiny details I found interesting since I didn’t progress through much plot stuff, I think.

when I opened up my save file, I. completely forgot what I had been doing a month ago and what I wanted to do next, so I decided to go back to the Last Resort. I don’t know what compelled me to go, but there was a lot of fun stuff there so I’m glad that I did!

I had never tried to use Aubrey to go into the girls’ bathroom before? it was very cute, I liked it. I don’t know why, but as soon as I walked in it really reminded me of Basil. I think it’s all the flowers, photos hanging from the wall, and general soft cutesy vibe. I’m not really sure what to make of that, but it was just my general impression. hmmmm.

I have no words for this other than it just made me amused. go get your vacation, king.

also:

I didn’t know Hero had a confirmed age!! all this time I had been assuming he and Mari were 16 years old, so it’s nice to have something set in stone!

I have no words for these, either. seeing all of the Hero pictures just made me laugh out loud a little I loved it.

when I was standing in Jawsum’s office, I noticed that the elevator behind his desk was shaking. I went to examine it, and was surprised when this was where I ended up.

the black space elevator.

something I completely forgot to mention in my last hikikomori post was black space!! it had completely took me by surprise so I can’t believe I forgot to talk about it.

last time I played and went back to Last Resort, there was a completely black car on the highway and it had really freaked me out. as soon as I clicked on it, instead of giving me some kind of prompt Omori just got in and it drove off. I was so shocked because I wasn’t expecting it fhgjdfhgj. it ended up taking Omori back to one of the black space rooms, and I had no clue what to make of it. I wandered around for a little while, and ended up finding this... friend?

I’m... not sure! who are you......

anyways, so I got in the elevator and we’re back here, now with more spiders.

the spider wasn’t interactable. not sure whether to be upset or relieved.

aaaand then there was this guy in the treehouse. I want to know what these black space NPCs are!!! as soon as I tried to interact with it, the screen glitched out (intentionally) and then it was gone. one day I’ll know what it means.

oh, another thing I spent quite a bit of time doing at the Last Resort-

getting statues made of everyone!! RIP to all of my clams, but these are so cute.

cuuute.

I really liked the comment on Mari’s! it made me happy that it highlighted her playful side.

after I was done reexploring Last Resort, I wanted to go back to Sweetheart’s castle. I was walking through Pyrefly Forest, and I noticed one of the picnic blankets had a cooler open (signaling that you can see a new picnic cutscene) so I went to go sit down and have a picnic.

so, when I was going around earlier and doing some stuff, there were a few picnics that I think I had skipped for some reason so I was doing them and mindlessly skipping through the text for no reason other than it would bother be if I just left them. nothing about the conversations was different even though Basil is here now, so I didn’t think anything would be different for the one in Pyrefly Forest, but I was wrong!! I almost completely skipped through everything aha.

it started off the same, with Hero being scared of the spiders, and then Kel prompted Basil to say something positive to try and make him less scared.

it’s pretty insignificant, but I thought it was interesting that he said pretty much the exact same thing he says in the spider room in black space.

when I got to the castle, I went straight to the library. something about the pattern of going to black space, plus being able to go into the barn in Otherworld, just made me feel like there would be something there. and oh boy was I right. the entire place was crawling with Something.

very good.....

I wasn’t able to get screenshots of them, but there were a couple text popups that really stood out to me. my memory is so bad I can’t remember all of them even though it was only this morning,,, but I’m pretty sure one of them had a popup that was just “Liar.” and I was like HM....

it just really had me thinking....

in my previous post, I mentioned that I had a gut feeling that the Something in the barn was supposed to represent Basil, not Mari. this kind of added fuel to that thought!

the barn in Otherworld was only used in the main route in reference to Basil, with it literally showing Omori a vision of him, and also having Stranger walking into it. now, the library also has a lot of connection to Basil! after picking up one of the keys, it shows us another vision of him, and it’s also littered with egret orchids. I don’t think choosing to have all of these Somethings in both of these places is just a coincidence.

now, about the “Liar.” line. in any fight with Something, if there’s a text popup meant to be Something speaking, it’s always done like this-

with the “???:” to indicate character speech. but the “Liar.” popup was just a standalone line. and it instantly reminded me of this room in black space-

and this just kept making my brain whirl.

in this room, there were all of these popups with “Liar.” and then of course there was-

see here how there also weren’t indications of who was saying ‘liar”, but there was for Something? my idea for this room was always that it was Omori repeating it to himself. because we all know by now that Something is Mari, and her saying “I love you”, especially in this form, is nothing but pure torment. and I think here, we have Omori unwilling to believe it. there’s no way Mari could love him/Sunny. she has to be lying.

soooo then, this brings me back to the library. having the “Liar.” popup there, keeping in consideration that the Somethings there might represent Basil, what could that mean?? it could be in reference to Basil’s words “Everything is going to be okay” because clearly everything is not okay. if all of these Somethings are meant to be Basil, it could fit!!!

... so there’s my long winded theory. idk! I think it makes sense, but I could be wrong!! that’s just my first impressions right now, maybe my thoughts will change when I play more!

moving onto the piano room-

this was when I thought “ohhhh so that’s why the wall always felt hallow. it all makes sense now”

and then I spent the next 30 or so minutes fighting all of the Somethings

I LOVED this. this was the first time a fight was put on a time limit, and since Something was so much more powerful, it felt actually stressful. I was stressed! but I managed to make it with 2-3 turns left, and I didn’t die. I did die about 1 or 2 times to arachnophobia and thalassophobia though F. but it’s okay because I got an achievement and also Omori’s suffocate skill is really good.

anyways I did some more mindless walking around (I had to kill time waiting for all my statues to be built, you know!)

this made me really happy. Big Molio I love you you’re the mvp and you deserve the world.

... looking through my screenshots I wish I could forget this one-

,, do I need to even explain it.

I remember a while ago, I saw someone on twitter post this and iirc the caption was something like “isn’t it a bit morbid to have the jumprope there” and, at the time, I had never gone through Orange Oasis, so seeing that tweet I had the wind knocked out of me. I was just sitting there like “fuuuuuuuuck”. and then I went through Orange Oasis today, saw it again, went “fuuuuuuuuck” and then forgot I screenshot it. it’s just a lot.

okay who knows how I filled the rest of the 6 hours I played because I didn’t take many screenshots of the downtime and running around completing sidequests I never did. the last point of interest today was I had went back to Humphrey.

I didn’t do too much, but I did fight Mutantheart.

I adore her!!!! so cute!!! Mutantheart my beloved.

I lost to her once, because I was a bit confused, but once I caught on to the gimmick of her fight, it was actually pretty easy. rest in peace, queen, I love you...

and then, uh. Her-

I tried 3 times. I didn’t win... all of the characters are maxed leveled at 50, but this is so difficult... well, the first half of the fight I found to be pretty easy, actually. but once she switches into full power mode it’s over. I don’t know how I’m supposed to win. farewell my dream of completing the foe facts book, it was a nice goal while it was realistic.

and then I stopped for the day! I think I needed that month of not playing, because coming back into the game after a lot of my rage and burnout settled was probably best, and I had a lot of fun playing! hopefully it doesn’t take me another month to continue.

if you made it all the way through this post, thank you for reading! I hope you like my thoughts~

I’ll leave on this note-

king shit

#text #omori #omori spoilers

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suganovakawa · 4 years

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your jealous hcs are immaculate 😌 could I get sum the same headcannons for my short kings hinata and nishi 🥺

aBSOLUTELY I AM ON THIS

𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘'𝐑𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐇𝐘 !

karasuno boys fend off other teams as they try to flirt with you !

— check out my masterlist !!

these boys don’t take too kindly to other teams trying to flirt with you . . . and they’re not gonna deal with it for much longer ! >:)

a / n : jealous haikyuu boys . that’s it . that’s the tweet . :^)

— ask to be part of my gen taglist !

taglist : @yams046 @janellion @avylee

shoyo hinata

mans is gonna be going through an internal conflict of “ HEY THATS MY SO ” and “ wait am i being too possessive ? ”

literally all of his teammates have told him being wary of who tries flirting with you is NOT being overly possessive , but he still has his self doubts about it all

you’re still a manager-in-training during the summer camp , and you’ve basically been following kiyoko around ; every time you’re not , you’re usually with shoyo

all of hinata’s hesitation goes down the drain the moment lev basks in your presence

you two met through shoyo and kenma , during lunch — you found your boyfriend speaking to this really really really tall guy , and hinata quickly introduced the two of you before you could run away in fear

what he didn’t like , was how well you two got along afterward

during the week he’d catch lev striking up easy conversation with you when he wasn’t around ; whether it was about him , you , volleyball , nekoma , or karasuno

y’all got along well — way too well

it came to the point where tobio had to give the carrot top a whole pep talk about his jealousy ; shoyo began to be more distracted on the court , which earned karasuno more and more punishments

“ boke ! you need to do something about yourself ! we don’t stand a chance in winning if all you do on the court is gawk at how lev is better at striking conversation with y/n than you ! ”

“ but kageyamaaaaaa , what if i’m just reading too much into it ? ”

“ you’ll be reading the fine print on my sneakers if you don’t pull your crap together soon and be a man for y/n ”

and that was the end of that discussion ; hinata was gonna pull his crap together later tonight

after another camp day finished , he found you with lev . . . again

he was helping you with cleaning up any extra volleyballs — shoyo watched as you laughed at one of his short jokes , you punching the side of his arm lightly

the first year marched towards the two of you , and you smiled when you saw your boyfriend in view

“ shoyo ! did you know that lev — sh-shoyo ? ”

lev widened his eyes a bit as hinata wrapped an arm around your waist , blatantly pressing a kiss to your temple in front of the nekoma first year

ignoring his self embarrassment , shoyo flashed a small smirk in your direction , using his fingers to brush the hair out of your eyes

“ i missed you , y/n . do you need help with anything ? ”

“ aaaaaaand , that is my cue to go find yaku . see you around , y/n ! ”

you hid your flustered face in shoyo’s chest and blindly waved lev off , not fully grasping what in the world just happened

out of nowhere , you can feel and hear your boyfriend short circuit

“ oh my goD thank GOODNESS lev left already , i didn’t think i could do that for much longer ”

you look up at hinata , whose face was just as red as yours from his own actions

“ what was that for anyway , shoyo ? you’re never like . . . that ”

you blushed at the thought of shoyo being protective of you in front of lev , your stomach feeling fluttery with his arm around your waist

“ honestly , y/n ? i kinda . . . got jealous . that lev was getting most of your attention . kageyama was the one who told me to do this , but i got scared i was being too controlling of you by doing what i did ”

at what shoyo said , you couldn’t help but laugh and press a kiss to his nose

“ nonsense , shoyo . i know you’re not like that . and i’ll give you more attention , silly . you should’ve just asked . ”

he let loose of your hips and you began to walk out of the gym , but you faced him one more time before turning the corner , a foxy grin on your lips

“ but damn , shoyo . i’d love to see that side of you again , because that was really hot . ”

you were kidding when you said that , but he clearly didn’t get that part when he did the same exact thing the next day — and he was much more confident this time

yuu nishinoya

he will call anyone out if they even dare flirt with you

as an experienced flirter himself , yuu knows exactly what to look for when a male specimen interacts with you

and if he sees any red flags ? consider the interaction terminated

of course he isn’t possessive , he’ll lead you away from the specimen nicely instead of just dragging you away

but the specimen should def expect a death glare from the libero

exhibit A — koutarou bokuto

could the fukurodani player make it more obvious that he was completely and utterly smitten over you ?

somehow you were completely oblivious to his advances , brushing off as you just carried on tending to karasuno

but even still , bokuto wouldn’t give you a break . and yuu wasn’t going to deal with watching you unintentionally push his advances away for much longer

at first , tanaka wanted to help with busting koutarou

“ c’mon , noya ! let’s show that ace who y/n’s boyfriend is , eh ? don’t deal with his shit anymore ! ”

cue a manly cutscene

and an even manlier yuu nishinoya

“ no , my dear tanaka . i appreciate your support , soldier , but y/n is my s.o. , so i will take matters into my own hands . if i cannot do such a feat , i cannot call myself a man , and a worthy boyfriend . ”

cue ryu’s manly tears , and the two hugged on it

come dinner time , and yuu is finally going to stop bokuto from pursuing you

he sees you , and you see him — you try calling out to noya , but before you can finish , koutarou is already at your side , puppy dog eyes and all

“ y/n !!! you were great today ! ”

“ th-thank you bokuto , but i really didn’t do much today — ”

“ nonsense !! with the way you kept up with your team after every punishment , it’s so cool of you ! ”

“ HEY ! BIG GUY ! ”

nishinoya saw your eyes sparkle as he approached the two of you , an index finger waving in kou’s face

“ what’s your business with y/n , eh ? this one is off the market . by me ! so , go pursue someone else ! go , go ! shoo ! ”

omg did koutarou just go into emo mode

you were about to say something in an effort to cheer him up , when he saw another fukurodani player — akaashi , you remember — tapping him on the shoulder and crossing his arms

“ let’s go , bokuto-san . your dinner is going to get cold if you insist on being sad over at karasuno’s table . ”

you and noya watched as keiji dragged the third year back to his own team , and you turned to your boyfriend confusedly

" yuu ? was he trying to pursue me ? "

oh my god you really were oblivious

" yeah , babe ! you didn't see him giving you nothing but goo-goo eyes literally all day long ? "

" oh wow . . . i suppose didn't . " you smiled , " thanks for coming to my rescue , yuu . i can always count on you . "

he grinned and nodded his head , before kissing your cheek sweetly

" of course , baby . that's what i'm here for . "

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p5youllneverseeitcoming · 4 years

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Persona 5 Strikers/Scramble

So! I finished the story of Persona 5 Strikers and I wanted to share my thoughts as I have soooo much to say but cannot share with my friends due to spoilers :’) I am currently playing on a New Game+ as, ya girl wants the Platinum Trophy :o

I will talk about some of the things that I really liked here (Spoiler free don’t worry) AND include spoilery things under the cut so I won’t ruin the experience for anyone else!

The Plot

Obviously this takes place after the original Persona 5 story finishes and as opposed to a whole year, you just get 1 month with the Phantom Thieves. I really liked exploring all the cities you travel to and the character interactions were so cute!! I really like the two new characters introduced (Sophia and Zenkichi Hasegawa). Both of them fit the story so well and their interactions with the other Thieves are honestly so good and pure! Also?? Their outfits? Amazing T_T It was such a nice change seeing everyone in casual outfits as opposed to their school uniforms!

I also loved the fact that you could choose to play with characters that get introduced late game like Haru for example straight away. I for one, always have her in my party as soon as she’s available so having her for the whole game was like a dream come true haha. I’ll talk about Sophia and Zenkichi a bit more under the cut but I will say that it’s so fun to play as them! I personally prefer Sophia more as she has healing skills which are always really useful and she uses yo-yo’s for her weapons which are so fun to use. Zenkichi uses a great sword which is very Final Fantasy of him and I am loving it. I love their Phantom Thief outfits! Sophia looks super cute in her floofy coat and boots and Zenkichi just looks so cool! His hat is goals, I want one T_T

The anime cutscenes in the game are also... Omg... I just can’t help but fangirl over how everyone looks... ESPECIALLY SOPHIA OML, she’s so... Bby... And of course, the dialogue options you can choose are so funny, then again what else can you expect from a game that had the option to say “you jelly?” to Ryuji.

I won’t spoil the main plot but this game works similarly to Persona 5 in the sense of, you still go into dungeons but these ones are a lot shorter and when you leave the dungeon, the days don’t actually move forward, only specific story points advance the days. So essentially if you wished, you can stay and grind for as long as you like!

The Gameplay

I won’t lie, as expected from a hack-and-slash it gets quite chaotic at first if you don’t fully know what’s going on but you get used to it pretty quickly! The game gives you tutorials whenever anything new appears and you get the hang of it pretty well by the first dungeon. You still only have 4 characters in your party and Akira must always be present but here you can actually run around as the other party members when the battles are over! Also? Morgana gets comical sound effects when he does things like jumping and running and I was LIVING for it.

The other thing that changed is, obviously it’s not turn based so if you were like me and wore the SP restoring accessories to get 7SP back each turn, you’re in for a last surprise! In this game you actually use your items quite a lot as there isn’t a limit to how much you can use as you access them mid battle by pausing. Later on you get specific skills that restore your SP after each battle or by performing All Out Attacks and 1 More’s so honestly, SP isn’t really a problem for regular battles. I mainly found it running out quickly when I was fighting some of the optional bosses but I always had SP restoring items so it was all good hehe.

You still do things like All Out Attacks and 1 More’s in this game but you also do something called ‘Showtime’ which is very similar to the ones introduced in Royal only in Strikers it’s for one character, you basically build up the showtime gauge as you battle enemies and, once activated, you deal significant damage to stronger enemies like bosses as well as all of the enemies in the area. The All Out Attacks also have their own little animation with your party posing and just looking really good!

Yusuke being so extra is honestly such a mood omg... Also Mona T_T So smol.

Every party member has their own special quirks such as Ann and Makoto applying Fire and Nuclear affinity respectively to their regular weapons, Morgana turning into the Mona car and so on. I personally always had Haru and Yusuke in my party and kept switching between the other Thieves to see what I like best. Personally, I really like having Morgana or Sophia as they’re really good healers, Morgana obviously having the more powerful skills such as Mediaharan and Salvation.

Also... The menus... Omg... If you thought the Persona 5 menu was stylish then you will LOVE the Strikers menus. They’re so stylish! And I love that all the Phantom Thieves are there too, it’s so cute T_T

The only thing I don’t like is the game doesn’t pause when your controller dies so uh... I may or may not have died during a boss battle when I was like 2 hits away from winning and then just... Stopped moving letting the boss hit me with a killing combo :)

To be honest though the party that I had pretty much all the time was:

But as I said, I liked to change Morgana and Sophia around every now and then.

The Music

Omg the music. Atlus really just said: Hey what if we made Persona 5 music again but like... More epic?

The song that plays right as soon as you have control of Joker is SO. GOOD. I legit had to pause for like 5 mins just to jam out. I don’t think it will come as much of a surprise but in my opinion, Persona 5 definitely has one of the best video game soundtracks, I absolutely love all the songs!

I will discuss some of the dungeon themes in the spoilers but I absolutely love the soundtrack for this game. Every dungeon theme is so fitting for said dungeon, I genuinely listen to them all the time, especially when doing my research for my essays!

The battle music is really energetic as opposed to the jazzy feel from the original Persona 5 soundtrack but it’s very fitting for the actual battle as you often fly all around the area instead of standing in one spot. I will say, Last Surprise made an excellent comeback despite being an already amazing song which is just, amazing, incredible, fantastic...

Other things

Well, I can’t go into detail due to spoilers but they deadass put a JoJo reference as well as a character in the game :’) The moment I saw them I was fangirling so hard!!! Also? The villain designs in this game??? Amazing. Beautiful. Very creative!

The Phantom Thieves interacting with each other is also really cute! I ESPECIALLY liked the fact that Morgana and Ryuji got along a lot better! They still had small fights here and there but they pretty much apologised to one another straight away which I really liked! Also? Ryuji protecting his friends, especially the girls? Amazing. Wonderful. Cannot help but stan.

Well, that concludes the non-spoiler section which.... Is kinda long haha, Below the cut I will talk about the spoilery things so I advise looking at it AFTER you finish the game!

The Plot

The plot of this game is really fun if you ask me. You travel around Japan defeating Monarchs in Jails AND you get to experience the joys of summer vacation with your friends and your new Persona dad. I really like the fact that you don’t advance time when you leave the Jails because this gives you the chance to grind as much as you want before tackling harder fights like some of the optional bosses. The boss designs themselves were so good! Especially Alice?! My God? She’s beautiful?? Look at her!

Persona 5 Strikers said you can be horny on main... Just this once o_o. She literally steps on Joker in the Jail which o_o Ma’am... Plz but she ALSO steps on her manager in the real world.

I really liked all the bosses in this game because they felt so... Real? Obviously I don’t agree with them for brainwashing people into worshipping them, but I really like how the game gave them backstories that showed why they strayed away from the right path. The fact that the Thieves tell them that they understand their struggles because they themselves went through the same thing (Like Ann and Yusuke) honestly made me appreciate the story that much more. I really liked Haru’s little arc in Sapporo because not only did she help Mariko Hyodo and show her that despite mistakes you can always stand up and start again, but she also got to have more screentime, like that cute fountain scene she has with Akira! ALSO? The Hee-Horde?! I was laughing for a solid 5 minutes when I saw it! It was so cute how Haru, Sophia, Ryuji and Yusuke were so into it while Futaba was just there like: ????

I think my favourite Jail out of all of them will definitely have to be the Kyoto one, a.k.a. the Jail controlled by Zenkichi’s daughter, Akane. Despite how short it is, you can learn so much about her. The overall aesthetic of the jail shows her love to the Phantom Thieves and in the actual Jail theme you can hear fragments of ‘Life Will Change’ and ‘Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There’ which I think is absolutely amazing! The boss fight for this jail honestly took me 3 tries to beat as the first time, I died due to not fully getting how Shadow Joker worked, and the second time, I was about 2 hits from beating him but then... My controller died :’) By the time it turned back on I was already c-c-c-c-comboed to death so :’) This is also the jail where Zenkichi awakens to his Persona and honestly? I found the little segment where he has to sneak around in his usual everyday attire so cute, bless him, he really did adopt 7 teenagers, their cat and an AI daughter.

ALSO?! They deadass put Dio in this game? Like when I first saw Natsume’s shadow I was like: Hm looks kinda familiar...

BUT THEN?!

Needless to say I was fangirling pretty hard.

I liked Akira Konoe, very much vibing with his Power Ranger aesthetic however, I have to say, his boss fights was surprisingly... Easy? At least it felt easy to me which was kind of... Disappointing I suppose for him supposedly being “the final boss” HOWEVER, I very much liked how his calling card was delivered, and the fact that Zenkichi could finally get his revenge was very satisfying!

Now, let’s talk about the end game, mainly the Abyss Jail. I did NOT see it coming (haha) that it was Ichinose all along! As I’m currently replaying the game, the fact that she doesn’t want to look at Sophia despite specialising in AI technology should have been my first clue that something is not quite right here!

When she forces Sophia to attack the Thieves, it honestly broke my heart. The fact that she recognised Joker and Skull... And she threw herself off the ledge just so she can’t hurt them anymore... Yo, I love her so much T_T That’s why her awakening to her Persona (her true Persona) was such a satisfying scene! Her Persona (Pandora) has a really cool design, I especially like the fact that she represents the Hope Arcana (as there was hope left at the bottom of Pandora’s box) and that Pandora herself kept the box-y design from her original “Persona” Pithos. I found it quite funny that all the skills Pithos has ended with a “?”. Anyway, the scene where she tells Ichinose all the things she learnt, and that Ichinose herself has a heart despite believing that she doesn’t for so long was so touching. It showed that Sophia deeply cares for her, despite the fact that she literally said she’s the reason so many people are getting mind controlled by EMMA. The ending scene with the two of them laughing and holding hands... My heart T_T

Now then, let’s talk about EMMA.

I. Loved. The. Final. Boss. Fight.

The fact that the game makes you use ALL the characters for the final fight! As I usually switched out characters here and there, my reserve party members weren’t severely under-levelled which made the fight pretty okay! I had quite... Strange groups I would say as I had Makoto and Zenkichi being a team, Morgana, Ann and Ryuji being a team, and Akira, Haru, Yusuke and Sophia being the final team. The final boss itself, has an absolutely beautiful design. I especially loved the angel like wings because it really showed that EMMA saw herself as a saviour. The cutscene that plays after with all the Thieves dealing the final blows before watching all the desires fall around them was honestly so pretty... Man, this game series is just so aesthetic!

When the credits rolled and all the photos started appearing I couldn’t help but start crying. It really felt like you were actually there, living through all the memories and the fact that Sophia called the photo of all of them together “Treasure”... T_T

The Gameplay

I already pretty much said all I wanted for the gameplay in the non-spoiler section but I will say, the Showtimes and the Master Skills each character learns are so good! I love that once you master all of them you’re bascially unstoppable, I especially love Haru’s and Akira’s as it allows them to deal damage even if they’re a safe distance away from the enemy. The fact that you can learn Bond skills that restore SP with every All Out Attack and One More is honestly so helpful because it saves you going back and forth between the real world but then again, by this point you probably have way too many HP and SP restoring items!

I really liked that Zenkichi has no weaknesses and uses Almighty damage but I find the whole Fury/HP consumption combination a bit weird. After a while you get used to it and obviously you don’t have to activate fury at all but as I said before, I prefer playing as Sophia. Although, I will say that gun wise, I think Zenkichi’s are a lot more fun to use than Sophia’s blasters, but then again that’s just my personal opinion!

The Music

As I said, the music was so fitting for each Jail, I absolutely love it.

The first Jail, you honestly can’t help but bop your head to the beat. It really gives you the impression that you’re in some kind of twisted theme park which really fit the overall aesthetic of the Jail. I loved the vibrant neon colour scheme in such a dark looking place.

The Okinawa Jail... My God that theme was so good. I can’t really explain it but the song really made you feel like you were... Alone, like the place was truly abandoned and forgotten. As soon as the violin started playing I couldn’t help but just stop and listen to it. The overall jail was just so... Creepy. The Shadows there resemebled the shadows you would usually find in the previous Persona games, just this black mass slithering around. I think it was very fitting that they put the Reaper in this Jail.

As I mentioned before, the Kyoto Jail theme is my absolute favourite. The fact that it has elements of other Persona 5 songs due to Akane being a big Phantom Thieves fan was such a good choice! I love how when you take a closer look, you can see the Phantom Thieves logo on the lanterns and the fact that Shadow Akane herself made a Phantom Thief outfit for herself... Big mood. I loved how all the Thieves encouraged her to try and get along with her dad better AND that they taught Zenkichi how to cook just so he can make curry for her, especially when you remember just how much curry means to someone like Futaba.

I really liked the remix of Rivers in a Desert, then again what did I expect from a Persona game? The battle music is ALWAYS amazing. I really liked how this played when you fight Konoe as it parallels when you fight Shido in the original, supposedly the final fight, only to find out that there is something MUCH bigger than them.

Other things

This post is already way too long and if you read all of this... Thank you so much. Sadly, I cannot share this with any of my friends as it’s spoilers so I hope you guys don’t mind me sharing this here! I would love to see your opinion of this game!!!

Also? Yusuke and Akira are now canonically dating and I think that’s beautiful

And then that scene later on

Why do you think we came here with Yusuke, Morgana?

TL;DR: I love this game

#p5s #persona 5 #p5 #persona 5 strikers #persona 5 scramble #p5s spoilers #persona 5 scramble spoilers #persona 5 strikers spoilers

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kaialone · 4 years

Text

Spirit Tracks Translation Comparison: Zelda’s Body Taken

This will be a comparison of the original Japanese version and the US English localized version.

Specifically, this will cover the cutscenes in which Princess Zelda’s body ends up being stolen.

You can also watch these cutscenes for yourself in English and Japanese. If you want, you can check out the EU English version, too.

For the comparison, the usual points apply:

Bolded is the original Japanese text, for the reference.

Bolded and italicized is my translation.

Italicized is the official NOA translation.

A (number) indicates that I have a specific comment to make on that part in the translation notes.

As you read this, please keep in mind that with translations like these, it’s important not to focus on the exact literal wordings, since there is no single “correct answer” when it comes to translations.

Rather than that, consider the actual information that is being conveyed, in which way, and why.

Cirokuni = Alfonzo, Kimaroki = Cole, Dego = Byrne

After Link’s Train Derails:

Alfonzo:

姫さまあれを！

Your Highness, look over there!

Your Highness! Look over there!

Zelda:

…なんということでしょ一刻も早くあの塔に行かないと

...My goodness, we have to reach that tower as soon as possible.

What's happening to the Tower of Spirits?

Cole:

…困りますねぇ姫さまお忍びで散歩などされては…

...Now this just will not do, Your Highness. Going out for a little secret stroll like that...

Out for a leisurely stroll, Your Highness?

Tsk, tsk, tsk! You know that's not allowed!

Zelda:

大臣?

Minister?

Allowed by who? You, Chancellor Cole?

Cole:

ガキはおとなしく城で王様ごっこしてりゃいいんだよ!!

You brat should've just kept playing pretend-monarch at the castle like a good girl!!

Who else? Who do you think is really in charge?

Zelda, Link and Alfonzo:

…

Cole:

我が名はキマロキ…

長い間人間の振りをしていたので肩がこりましたよ

My name is Kimaroki...

Pretending to be human for so long has taken its toll on me. (1)

My goodness, pretending to be human is exhausting.

Who knew that chancellor was just another word...

for royal babysitter?!

Cole:

まあもう少し大臣でいるつもりだったのですが…

予定を早めました

Well, I had actually intended to keep being the minister for a while longer, but...

We ended up going ahead of schedule.

I had meant to keep up the ruse a bit longer.

Cole:

姫さまが悪いのですよ ? 余計なことをかぎ回るから

The fault is yours, Your Highness, is it not? You and your unnecessary meddling.

But you pushed me to this, Princess.

Cole:

しかもそんな小僧や機関士なんぞに手を借りてまで…

Moreover, you even went as far as to call a mere boy and an engineer to your aid...

Bringing in the boy and the engineer didn't help either.

Zelda:

あなたは… 一体?

What in the world... are you...? (2)

What are you talking about?

Cole:

おぞましき神の遺物…

The relic of that repugnant god...

I'm talking about your infernal meddling!

Cole:

忌まわしい結界が消えうせ今時は満ちた…

Now that this repulsive barrier is vanishing, the time is at hand...

But now that those vile tracks are disappearing,

the time is finally at hand!

Cole:

あと必要なのは…

All we need now is...

Cole:

あなたの… カラダ

Your... b o d y. (3)

A little help--hee hee--from you, Your Highness!

Alfonzo:

何者か知らねえが姫さまに仇なすってんなら…

I dunno who you are, but if you harm Her Highness in any way...

I don't know who these two are, Your Highness.

But with your permission...

Alfonzo:

このシロクニ容赦はしねえぜ？

I, Cirokuni, won't hold anything back against ya.

I'd be happy to teach them some manners.

Cole:

かっかっか… 人間ふぜいが

Ka ka ka... Typical human.

Nyee hee hee hee hee! How gallant! How brave!

How incredibly foolhardy!

Alfonzo:

なめんなよこちとら先々代から王家にお仕えしてんだ

Don't you underestimate me! My folks've been serving the royal family for generations, you know! (4)

Enough out of you!

My family has served the royal house for generations!

Cole:

!… ディーゴ様…

...! Master Dego...

Melodrama bores me.

Byrne, would you kindly dispose of this fool?

Byrne:

この男の言うとおりだ… かなり腕に覚えがあるようだな

It's like this man said... He certainly seems confident in his own strength.

This man speaks the truth, Cole.

His movements are not those of an amateur.

Byrne:

だが私の敵ではない…

But, he's no match for me...

But he is only human.

Alfonzo:

…なあんなって言っただろ？

...I told you not to underestimate me, didn't I?

I told you, I will defend the princess at any cost!

Byrne:

こちらも言ったはずだ我が敵ではないと

And I told you. You are no match for me.

And I told you. You're only human.

Cole:

キキキッさすがディーゴ様！お強に！イカス！

Keekeekee, I expected no less from you, Master Dego! Such strength! Tubular!

Nyee hee hee hee hee!

Oh, Byrne, you do know how to put on a show!

Byrne:

しょせんは人の技だ

あの程度で私の前に立つことはかなわぬ…

That's just the extent of human skill.

One can't hope to face me with something that meager...

It was hardly a fair fight, Cole.

Zelda:

あ… リンク…

Ah... Link...

Help me, Link!

Zelda:

こ来ないでください… それ以上近づかないで…

P-please stay away... Do not come any closer...

No! Don't come any closer!

Cole:

…まあ良いでしょう必要なのは王女の体…

...Ah well, that should be alright. We just need the body of the princess...

Good work, Byrne.

That takes care of the first step of our plan.

Cole:

さあディーゴ様参りましょうくっくっく…

Now, let us depart, Master Dego. Ku ku ku...

Nyee hee hee hee hee! Our work is done here.

Come now, Byrne!

Translation Notes:

What I adapted as “taken its toll on me” more literally translates to “made my shoulder stiff”, but from what I've seen, this is a generic phrase characters sometimes say when they’re exhausted? In any case, I adapted it the way I did because I thought it sounded a bit better. The English version likely did the same thing.

In this line by Zelda it’s not exactly clear if she is just supposed to be saying “What in the world are you...?” or if she means to say “What in the world are you talking about?” but doesn’t finish the line completely. The response from Cole makes the latter seem plausible though, which is probably why the English version went with that.

In Japanese, the word for body is 体/karada, but in this line here Cole drags it out for dramatic effect, saying it syllable by syllable as “ka ra da”, which goes along with the animation in this scene.

Alfonzo uses a somewhat informal word to refer to his family, so I translated it as “my folks” here, in case you were unsure what he meant.

Comparisons & Thoughts:

In this part, we are formally introduced to our main antagonists, as well as the central conflict of the game, which gives us a lot to go over.

Some of the changes to Cole in particular also become more apparent here, so I will start off with those.

A strange difference between versions is when and how we first learn Cole’s name.

In the English version, he was named right when he was introduced, but in Japanese it’s only at this point in the game right here that his name is revealed.

And the way he introduces himself with “My name is Kimaroki...” raises some questions. He’s using a rather dramatic way to say it in Japanese, too.

Since he was the minister, it seems unlikely that Zelda wasn’t aware of what his name was, so why would he need to say it like that?

Perhaps he was only introducing himself to Link and Alfonzo? But that's also kinda unlikely, since he doesn’t really address those two directly, he mostly speaks to Zelda.

Alternatively, this could imply he was actually working at the castle under a fake name, so this moment is him revealing his true name for the first time.

I think this would make the most sense from a story perspective, given how this dialogue flows.

But, we aren’t really given a clear indication of either option, so it’s also possible this was just a result of clunky writing.

Given this, I can understand why the English version changed it up so that Cole was already referred to by name at the castle.

Since it’s not really clear what, if anything, the Japanese version was trying to imply here, it's easier to go with something else that simplifies the issue.

As a fan, I am still interested in the potential implications of the Japanese version here, assuming it was intentional, but the change makes perfect sense from a localization perspective.

In the Japanese version, Cole says “You brat should’ve just kept playing pretend-monarch at the castle like a good girl!!”, when he reveals his true nature.

This calls back to what has been established back at the castle, namely Zelda being more of a figurehead ruler, with seemingly only Cole holding any real authority.

But it also shows us more about how Cole regards Zelda in this version. Whenever he addresses her, he scolds and berates her like one would a misbehaving child.

The English version does include these bits of information, with lines like “Who else? Who do you think is really in charge?“ and “Who knew that chancellor was just another word…for royal babysitter?!”

But I personally feel the Japanese version does it a bit better. It just feels slightly more natural, whereas the English version has Cole spell it out a bit too directly.

It’s not much of a difference right now, but the English version eventually drifts further from the Japanese version’s portrayal of how Cole talks to Zelda.

At this point, we also see more of how Cole’s general characterization has been tweaked in English.

Like I mentioned when he was first introduced, Cole has a formal and technically polite manner of speaking in the Japanese version, even if he is still condescending, of course.

But, that’s only half of it.

He actually has this character quirk where he flip-flops between that formal speaking style, and a very informal style, to the point of being almost crude sometimes.

And it’s not just him being insulting, he genuinely goes to talking more like a goon, no hint of class, not even ironic.

It’s different from the way Alfonzo switches up his speaking style, too. It’s a fairly normal thing to speak differently depending on the social context like Alfonzo does.

I’ve seen Cole’s flip-flopping being compared to the Happy Mask Salesman, who has some memorable outbursts in Majora’s Mask.

But with the Happy Mask Salesman, those are always caused by anger, whereas with Cole they don’t happen every time he’s angry, and can also happen when he’s delighted.

In any case, there is this clearly deliberate duality to Cole’s personality in the Japanese version.

In the English version, this aspect was dropped.

Here, Cole’s speaking style doesn’t really change, it’s always technically formal, but in a smug, more openly insulting manner.

It’s almost like a merging of Cole’s formal and informal sides from the Japanese version, slightly leaning more towards formal.

Compared to other characters, Cole’s lines will also see more rewrites from this point on, usually to make him seem more pompous, toning down how goony he can get during his informal moments.

Which characterization you prefer is up to you, of course, but it's arguably one of the bigger changes when it comes to the characters.

Though this change with Cole here is probably related to the next one I want to talk about.

Something that might have caught your eye is Cole referring to Byrne as “Master Dego” in Japanese.

Specifically, he uses the very respectful suffix 様/-sama when addressing him.

And yes, in the Japanese version, Byrne is presented to us as the leader of this scheme the two of them have going on, while Cole is his underling.

This is reflected by their interactions as well.

You could read them as equals, since Byrne doesn’t give out any orders, but Cole definitely addresses Byrne like one would a superior.

Of course, Cole doesn’t exactly come off as trustworthy, but still.

In English, this dynamic between them is completely turned around, so Cole is now implied to be directly in charge of this duo, with Byrne being an underling who does his bidding.

I’m guessing this is also part of the reason why Cole’s characterization was altered, or perhaps the other way around?

Since Cole is in charge now, he’s portrayed as less goofy, so to speak.

Most of Cole’s dialogue addressing Byrne in this cutscene has also been changed to reflect this change in their dynamic.

In Japanese, Cole acts subservient and flattering to Byrne, to an almost silly degree.

In English, Cole will flatter Byrne too, but in a way like a master would flatter an amusing servant of theirs.

I probably don’t need to go over each line between Cole and Byrne in detail.

But as a quick example, Cole’s reaction to Byrne actually stepping forward is completely different between the versions.

In Japanese, Cole says “…! Master Dego…”

Here, Cole is surprised about Byrne stepping forward like that, and seems a bit nervous, almost like he’s worried Byrne is getting impatient, or something similar.

If you pay attention, you’ll see his animation reflects the tone of this line, too.

But in English, he instead says “Melodrama bores me. Byrne, would you kindly dispose of this fool?”

In this version, Cole continues to be condescending, and dismissively summons Byrne to take care of the situation for him.

This also means that in the English version, Byrne presumably wouldn’t have acted on his own, while in the Japanese version he fought Alfonzo because he himself wanted to.

The latter is more consistent with how we see him act later.

It’s kinda interesting though that Byrne’s own dialogue remains mostly the same, despite these changes.

The way the dynamic between Byrne and Cole was changed between versions really does affect Cole more than it does Byrne. It’s really more how Cole plays off of him, and the implications of that, which are different.

There isn’t much of a direct difference to how Byrne treats Cole in Japanese compared to English. The implications are more those between the lines - Byrne working with a guy who acts more like a bootlicker to him in Japanese, while in English he works with a guy who treats him like a lackey.

One could speculate that the Japanese version of Byrne would have been too prideful to work with someone like the English version of Cole, but we have no way of knowing for sure.

Alright, so in my translation notes I already mentioned that during the line “Your… b o d y”, Cole is slowly dragging out the word 体/karada in Japanese, which goes along with how the camera zooms in on his face.

The English version adapted this with “A little help--hee hee--from you, Your Highness!“, which the last part is dragged out as “Your-High-ness”.

This is a clever adaptation, especially since you need to think outside the box a little here. A literal translation like mine wouldn’t work at all in-game.

Still, maybe they could have gone with something shorter like “your-bo-dy”?

Minor difference, but when Alfonzo steps forward, he directly talks to Cole and Byrne in the Japanese version, but in the English version he is talking about them to Zelda.

This could have been an oversight, or a deliberate change to give Zelda more authority in this part.

If it’s the latter, I’m not sure if it works, since it’s not like Zelda responds anyway, so it doesn’t feel any less like she’s being talked over.

I want to talk about the line “But, he’s no match for me“, because here we got a prominent example of the EU English version actually getting it wrong by being too literal.

In actual Japanese, Byrne says “だが私の敵ではない”/“Daga watashi no teki dewanai“, which literally translates to “But, he’s not my enemy”, and the EU version went with that.

However, that was a bad call on their part.

Because “He’s not my enemy” is a Japanese figure of speech which means “He’s no match for me”. As in, not being strong enough to even be considered an enemy.

Therefore it should not be translated literally like that.

The US English version adapts this line as “But he is only human”.

This makes use of information Byrne originally gives after the battle in Japanese: “That’s just the extent of human skill. One can’t hope to face me with something that meager…”

In turn, that bit is then streamlined in English as: “It was hardly a fair fight, Cole.“

I am impressed by the way they spread around the information they needed to convey in a manner that allowed them to use less text here.

But it also changes up the flow of this scene, as in the Japanese version, we don’t get the confirmation that Byrne is not human until after Alfonzo is beaten by him.

It’s an easy guess of course, but there is that initial bit of tension.

As Alfonzo and Byrne fight, Alfonzo’s dialogue is changed from “ …I told you not to underestimate me, didn’t I?“ to “I told you, I will defend the princess at any cost!”, kinda shifting the topic of this conversation, which was originally about pitting their strength against each other.

This is notable because Alfonzo has been built up for the audience as being one of the strongest people in the land.

And without confirmation that Byrne is not human, there is this illusion of hope that maybe Alfonzo can match his strength.

The power of regular humans compared to beings of demonic or divine nature is one of the themes of this story, so this fight is part of the audience’s more personal introduction to it.

I do think the English version does a good job of setting this theme up in its own right, it’s just done differently.

And lastly, Cole’s comment after Zelda’s spirit is expelled from her body and flies towards the castle differs between versions:

…Ah well, that should be alright. We just need the body of the princess…

Good work, Byrne.

That takes care of the first step of our plan.

In the Japanese version, Cole acknowledges the fact that he just saw Zelda’s spirit fly away, but brushes it off as being unimportant, openly dismissing Zelda as a possible threat at this point.

But in the English version, that part isn’t mentioned.

I feel this was probably an oversight due to lack of context.

In the actual cutscene, we see Cole watching very closely as Zelda’s spirit emerges and flies away, so his comment follows up on that animation in Japanese.

But translators are rarely able to see the visuals of what they are translating, as they are usually only given the text itself.

And if that was the case here, the translators would have only gotten to see what amounts to Cole saying something along the lines of “That’s alright, we just need the body of the princess”, without any additional context.

If we assume this is what happened, it makes sense that they adapted the line the way they did in the final version.

I don’t know how the translation process was handled in Spirit Tracks, but I do know that with many game translations, you will usually have a first translator doing a more literal, rough translation draft, and then a second translator who rewrites that raw translation into the final text.

And if that second translator is unable to check the Japanese version to clear up any potential confusion, you can end up with even more deviations from the original quite easily.

This is just some possible examples of how various factors can affect text translations in ways the translators themselves have little control over.

Overall, this batch of scenes is interesting when it comes to the localization.

They’re rather faithful for the most part, outside of general slight differences I mentioned previously, like Alfonzo’s speaking style. The dialogue is mostly the same, though.

The biggest difference is really Cole’s characterization and dialogue, particularly in regards to his interactions with other characters.

Especially the flipping of his dynamic with Byrne is a notable change to the story from a character perspective.

But this part is already pretty long, so I won’t dwell on it more than that for now. Feel free to check out the next one!

< Previous Part | Start | Next Part >

#legend of zelda #the legend of zelda #spirit tracks #tloz #the legend of zelda spirit tracks #legend of zelda translations #spirit tracks translations #my translations #spirit tracks comparisons

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theprotheanbacon · 6 years

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Damnit, Skyrim!

I told my friend this, but I thought it would also fit in with this blog, and since I’m already ranting all over the place like some rabid dog pissing all over its territory:

Fucking hell, Skyrim's gonna ruin my life. Like I was ABOLUTELY and COMPLETELY and TOTALLY obsessed with Mass Effect before. It used to be the one and only game I played. I stayed up all night playing and finishing it. I knew it inside-out. The exact spots every cutscene triggers. Even had that checklist to make triply sure I don’t miss a THING because every playthrough has to be perfect. EVERYTHING. All the works. It wasn’t even a game anymore. Same with Dragon Age to a lesser degree once Mass Effect let me down the first time. But never has ANY game made me rant so much about many things in such a short time of playing it in multiple places to multiple people than Skyrim has. And, I never even thought it was possible, and this might sound like total blasphemy to my fellow Garrus lovers, but I love Brynjolf more than I love Garrus. And EVERYBODY,

bros and sisters alike, LOVES Garrus. He's the literal universal bro! But Brynjolf!

Like. I haven't found a single person who hated Garrus. Maybe I’m not looking hard enough. Maybe I’m not looking at all. But within just a few minutes of viewing the Brynjolf tag, I've seen people blasting Brynjolf to space, but not Garrus. And you can’t even BE with Brynjolf in the vanilla game. SO WHY?? But (agreeing to my friend) yeah, I guess. Brynjolf IS love. Brynjolf IS life. And yeah, which is why I wish I had more people who talked to me who played games (referring to my friend saying he’s learning things about Skyrim from me that he’s never noticed before). Like, I never even knew I HAD a thing for Miraak until I saw all these people obsessing over him and at first I was like, "I don't get it." Then I kept seeing it enough, then soon it was a gradual, but quick descent into madness and eventually became, "ME TOO. I TOTALLY GET IT." AND I HAVEN'T EVEN PLAYED DRAGONBORN. WHAT IS THERE EVEN TO GET? Makes no sense, brooo! Ruin my life and drive me insane, I tell ya. Damnit, Tumblr!

#The Elder Scrolls #Skyrim #TESV #Brynjolf #Miraak #Garrus Vakarian #I love you guys though #Your memes and art and shitposts and everything are hilarious #Text Post #Rant

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heartofhryule · 6 years

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Breath of the Wild: Captured Memories - Chapter 6

First and foremost; SPOILER WARNINGS. If you have not played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, or completed the Captured Memories Quest and want to stay unspoilered for it, DO NOT READ. Keep Reading link provided for that reason. So I am writing these as I play through BotW for the first time - which means they probably won’t be ‘one-a-day’ consistent - I have finally gotten all of the memories, but not yet gone for the final fight at Hyrule Castle. #Soon. I will post them as I can though! Promise! I also plan to include links to the cutscene for you to watch at the bottom, if so desired - at least for the ones I can find. Any other warnings that become necessary, I will add for content as I go. For now, enjoy!

Hot hot hot! lol

I really like Daruk in all the cinematics. Optimistic, forthright, stalwart, devoted to his land and kingdom, and ever in support of the Hero - he's a solid dude, no pun intended. While EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THIS GAME is hard to write, this one was less hard just because Daruk is such a cool character. I predict Urbosa will be similar. I. Love. Her. #UrbosaIsBestChampion #SaltyBirdRivaliTakeNotes

One thing I try to do with the cinematics from the games, is not add too much if any dialog for Link - since of course in game he doesn't speak. If I continue with a scene after the cinematic ends in the game, that's one thing. When we get to the Silent Princess memory with the frog, trust me, there will be more. But there are times where at least when writing, its a little awkward that Link says literally nothing - so, while I don't want to add TOO much, so that you basically can watch the cinematic (links provided at the ends of chapters) and then read this for "a little bit more", I did add a line or two in a few chapters now, and I foresee this trend continuing. Nothing extreme, but I felt it needed acknowledgement.

Speaking of Rivali the Salty Bird... his chapter will be next. I swear to Hylia, I wanted to strangle that stupid parakeet. He's a badass... but so, so obnoxious. So, here we go! I'll try and have Salty Bird up as soon as I can, and thank you for staying tuned!

Chapter 6 - Daruk’s Mettle Hot. Hot hot hot. Volcanos were hot. Sure, his Flameproof armor bought in town, and his elixirs helped. But it was still hooooot. Things were looking more familiar nowadays. He didn’t remember faces or names, but things were feeling… familiar. Like he knew he’d been to Goron City before in more than just his memory of Zelda saying they would be heading there. He’d had a feeling he knew where the shop was, and had been right.

He felt as though it had already been a lifetime since he’d awakened in the Shrine of Resurrection feeling lost, drifting outside of time, detached, frustrated and alone.

But then, he’d never truly been alone.

Zelda’s voice had awakened him. Zelda’s voice spoke to him, to warn him of the Blood Moon each time it rose, or when he needed to know something very important. Her voice called his name in his dreams, and he had begun dreaming of her - from before. Snippets here and there. A white dress, a spring, her tears. Things that when he woke slipped through his fingers if her tried to grasp too hard, but it was enough to fuel him forward. Landmarks were familiar now - perhaps not why, but sometimes, it came to him.

Like looking at the carving of Daruk in the side of Death Mountain, he’d known it, and the memory had come rushing back.

***

They had been standing atop Vah Rudania, traversing the side of Death Mountain in the great, hot wind of the mostly quiet volcano.

“Yeah! I think I’m finally getting the hang of controlling this Divine Beast!” Daruk exclaimed proudly. It wasn’t a boast of vanity, but rather an honest statement of pride and hope from a Goron of integrity. Link knew that, he could feel it. He remembered Daruk, and that he liked him a great deal.

“I’ll tell you what… it sure is a blast piloting a toy like this around!” Link smirked incredulously at his friend and shook his head. A lumbering, enormous piece of ancient technology that they barely understood… and Daruk called it a toy. That was the Goron Champion in a nutshell.

“Let those other champions know,” the rock eater continued, “They’ll have to eat their gravel if they want to keep up with Daruk!” The Goron looked around them, drawing Link’s eye and smile to the scenery. “Speaking of which, can you believe this view?” Just look at all those delectable rocks sprinkled on those mountains… Mighty tasty.”

Link chuckled and cut his eyes to Daruk, knowing the Goron sometimes forgot other races didn’t eat rocks. He would have to take the Champion’s word for it. “It really is a great view, my friend.”

Sharing a few moments of companionable silence, Daruk was the next to speak. “I may not know a whole lot about the Calamity Ganon thing… but mark my words: I will protect this land of ours to the death.” Fist clenched with the vigor of his oath, Daruk grinned and raised his other hand saying, “Right, little guy?”

It happened too fast for Link to dodge or mitigate, and when Daruk slapped him on the back in friendship, it knocked the wind right out of the Hylian Knight. Link gasped and leaned forward, eyes bulging a little as he reached up to what would no doubt be a great bruise on his back by evening.

“Hey, by the way…. Congrats on becoming the princess’s appointed knight. That’s a really big deal! Protecting the King's daughter,” Daruk chuckled, “No pressure.” Still trying to catch his breath and recover from the Goron’s platonic affection, Link winced and nodded but looked to the sky.

“Seriously, though. The Princess is a strong personality - so strong she can’t quite see the range for the peaks,” the Goron Champion added with a scratch of his head. “Remember that, and you’ll be fine.”

No sooner had Daruk finished than a great rumbling started around them. “Huh?” Daruk said and turned his eyes to the mountain. Link thought at first in might have been Vah Rudania beneath them. But when the ancient, mechanical salamander had stopped and seemed to be as it ever was, he too looked to Death Mountain.

Daruk was frowning now. “What the-?”

As they watched, boulders came flying from over the peak of which they stood in the shadow. One, flew directly at them, like a meteor plummeting to the earth. With a great cry, Daruk spread his large arms, balled his hands into fists, and smashed his knuckles together. Just as the boulder would have struck him and also Link, a great angular barrier of red-orange light - like the fires of Death Mountain itself - appeared around them, deflecting the wayward and deadly debris.

“Alright, so what was I saying?” For a moment, Daruk seemed nervously dismissive until he saw the serious and concerned look on Link’s face. That had not been normal, and if Link understood that, Daruk had to know as well.

Turning back to the mountain, Daruk’s voice was a touch softer as he said, “That was a little strange…” They both observed their surroundings and the volcano about for a collection of heartbeats. When it seemed no other boulders were to become airborne, Daruk looked down to Link. “As far as I know, Death Mountain has been quiet for decades. But if the mountain is shivering enough to send down boulders that size, then--”

The Goron paused, and Link turned to raise an eyebrow at him. Daruk just kept his eyes on the volcano. “Nevermind. Forget I said anything.”

With a look of incredulity, Link crossed his arms. “Then what, Daruk? Do we need to leave the mountain, is there fiery death coming for us all and I need to get the princess out of here yesterday… what?”

Daruk was silent as the stones for a long, breathless moment as his blue eyes beheld his beloved mountain. “I don’t know, little buddy, I don’t know. And that, is what worries me.” The sense of foreboding Link felt at those words should have told him then, things were going to go wrong…

***

As the memory faded, Link scrubbed both hands over his face. Daruk; strong, honest, proud, brave Daruk. His friend. They couldn’t have known, not really. It was not as though a few wayward boulders screamed, “Run from the hills! Ganon is coming!”

But a part of him still felt like he should have known.

There was nothing for it now. Like Mipha, Daruk’s spirit was trapped inside the corrupted Vah Rudania. Yes, Link needed the Divine Beasts to aid in his assault on Hyrule Castle and Ganon. More to his immediate point, he wanted to free Daruk. It was the least he could do for his old friend. But, he was going to need help. All he had to do was find this Yunobo and get up the mountain.

Somehow, he had a feeling that was going to be much harder than it sounded.

---

Once again, Link found himself standing over the main control panel of a Divine Beast, knowing that once activated, he would not be coming back. The Fireblight Ganon had been trying, and he was hot, tired and covered in ash. But one thought had bounced around his mind the entire time he fought - he was fighting for a friend he had failed 100 years ago. The knight hoped that, like Mipha, perhaps he would get to see Daruk one last time.

As the Main Control came alight under his Shiekah Slate, the plant like structure of the ancient controls turned blue, Link heard a cheer from a familiar deep voice. “Great work, little guy!”

Turning, Link smiled to see Daruk, mostly intangible, but no less a present force than he had ever been in life. Arms out in victory and gratitude, he took a step forward. Link squared up to greet him, swallowing against the rise of emotion in his chest. “I owe you big for this. Because of you, my spirit is finally free. Can’t thank you enough!”

The Goron Champion scratched his head in the gesture Link had come to remember meant Daruk was nervous, confused, or apologetic. “I feel like I should apologize. I was doing all I could to protect Hyrule when that thing got the best of me. Sorry that me resting with the rubble caused such a mess.”

The knight nodded, and took a breath to assure his old friend that it wasn’t his fault, but Daruk continued. “The good news is, is that Rudania is now back under our control! That means that our century old Ganon beat-down plan can finally go into effect!” As the embers flickered in their ever ascending dance around them, Link had to drop his eyes at Daruk’s optimism. He felt responsible somehow, if not for the cause then at the very least for the resolution. He owed that to Daruk, and Mipha… and Zelda.

“I’m gonna take this thing down the mountain. I’ll have a better shot from there. And then, once you’ve made your way into Hyrule Castle,” Daruk clenched his fists in front of him, “We’re gonna light that thing up!” Slamming one fist in to the palm of the opposite hand, Link nodded, not trusting his voice.

“I wanna give you something. It’s a special power of mine called Daruk’s Protection. It’s no good to me now that I’m a spirit… but it might be useful for you.” Slapping his hands together, even in spirit Link felt the tremor in Vah Rudania from the great Goron’s strength. “Here it comes!”

Pooling energy grew between the Champion’s hands as he drew them apart, and when the red orb entered link this time, it was warm, and fire licked throughout his aura. He instantly knew how to summon the power. Planting his feet and punching his fists together in front of him, the angular-sphere encompassed him as he had seen it around Daruk over a century ago.

Looking up to Daruk with deep gratitude and sadness, knowing their time was drawing to a close, Link worked his hands as the tingle of magic faded. Daruk just smiled. “From this moment forward, the power of protection, from the depths of my soul, now lives in you.”

Link wanted to, felt he should say something, but the glow of golden energy around him heralded that Daruk was sending him to safety. Looking back to his friend, Daruk nodded. “Good luck, little guy. And… give my regards to the princess!” With one last flash of light, Link was gone.

Daruk’s Mettle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzrJlTjHjag Freeing Vah Rudania - https://youtu.be/IFvkz_oA-m8?t=335

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hearts-lover · 6 years

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My opinion about Kingdom hearts 3

This post contains Spoliar to the Kingdom Hearts 3, if you haven’t played or beaten the game, I recommended you just move on the next post. I also will be talking about the Character, the Game, and the Fandom(mostly about the people who dislike Kairi role in this game) in this post, so if anything I said offended you by any meaning, I’m sorry, but this is ‘Merica where I’m at, so I can’t feel bad about hurting someone feeling even if I just speak a specific group of them or dissing their favorite character. Wow, I haven’t upload a thing in my account for years and now today is the day. oh, as for Kingdom hearts 3; love it. but I do wanna speak my opinion about this So just to get this out of the way, Kingdom hearts 3 have a pacing problem, and I'm pretty sure everyone knows that but I really don’t have any issues with it, granted this is a very annoying issues because as a Kingdom hearts fan, we never had any issues with this kind of stuff, even the previous KH game like Kingdom hearts 0.2 and DDD, but as someone who watches anime being dub and that dub being out of pace is a very common thing and most of the times, the Series Dragon ball Super have suffered the same thing, people simply talking too fast and most of the time they get cut off, making their sentences seem like a waste of breaths, but in Kingdom hearts 3 The pace in there seem so slow until we move away from the Disney and Pixar worlds, the pacing seems okay in my opinion. well besides the “character bring back to life” pacing, but I’ll speak about that soon enough.

but, let talk about the worlds; Olympus - I really didn’t enjoy this world, but that doesn’t mean I hate it. I really like how Sora and the other interact with Herc and Hades and I like how you get to explore and literally goes up to heaven to help Herc and save Zeus. (though I am a bit disappointed that we wouldn’t able to meet the other gods, like Herc Mom)the reason why I didn’t enjoy these worlds it so Empty, even in Zeus home, where if you revisit Olympus and you enter the gate, the first area doesn’t have any heartless until you progress through the area, but that first area is so big, perfect to fight those groups of heartless again like when we first get to that area to help Herc.

Toy Box - One of my favorite world so far, as a fan of the Toy Story series, its really good to see Woody and Buzz interact with Sora and the other, and I like how Buzz choose to keep an eye on Sora, Donald, and Goofy, even though he can be stupid, like the fact he doesn’t believe he is in another world despite the fact he was able to shoot real Lazer, the fact there was no human ANYWHERE even the newest Toy story that was having their grand opening thus there should be Kids and Adults in there EVERYWHERE and the fact that the heartless appear as soon you couldn’t find the other toy or Andy. Idk I just feel like he did all this and be controlled by the darkness, just so Woody can roast Young Xehanort and Sora saying “heart are everywhere” for the 10th times lol

Kingdom Of Corona- My least favorite world, While I do enjoy the interaction between Sora and Rapunzel (make me surprise that nobody in the community ships them since she and Eugene never have like a romance development beside her and Sora. I also hate that when Rapunzel wanted you to swing with her into another area, you locked up into a slow walking and controlling Sora is so annoying, even the festival is confusing, even if I read the tutorial I still mess it all up until I realize that I have to button depend on what color of the circles, but even then when the dancer group up, how are they expect me to hit the Circles, let alone get a perfect in there if the beat doesn’t even sync (in my opinion that is) plus the world seems a bit too big for me, even with a map, maybe its because the tree and grass look the same thing, but eh.

Monstropolis - once again, one of my favorite world, Mike and Sully even Boo (despite they reuse her voice from the movie) is enjoyable to see and the interact make it seen like their one big family just trying to protect boo, and I wish we get more of that in the Kingdom Hearts series, for now, Sora Donald and Goofy, as well as Sora Riku and Kairi, will have to do. It's also cool to go through the monster factory and see some new stuff we haven’t seen before in the movie, I think that bits are pretty cool alone itself.

The Caribbean - My all times favorite world, as a fan of The Pirate of Caribbean this was a win for me, the Graphic, the world, even chasing the Black Pearl inside the Davy Jone Locker Kept me smiling throughout of the game. I thought the Crab collection is gonna be annoying, but I actually enjoy it, because it's everywhere, so you won’t be lost and worry about trying to find that last one crab. I am dissappointed about the water fight style, I know that we grow up in the previous game that we were able to use 3 combos in the beginning and the waterfight style shouldn’t be different, but I feel like they could’ve done more other than “Bubble, Swing, Swing, Whirlwind” combos

Arendelle - I really don’t understand why many people hate this world, I do understand that Sora doesn’t have NO purpose to be in there beside without realizing that when Sora Compare Elsa and Riku and realize Riku have been pushing him away just to keep him safe (where that is pretty cute.) and half the cutscene doesn’t help you what is going on what happened where its basically forces you to watch the movie, (similar what of Corona dealt with) to understand what is the relationship between Elsa and Anna, and why Elsa think that shes dangerous (Granted, Frozen is the 13th Grossed movie of all times so everyone with their mother must watch the movie, including Tangle) But other than that I enjoy the World, everytime when I see Sora run and able to see the snow actually move unlike what Halloween Town was able to do in KH2 when you get to see Santa, and able to find Olaf Body and his reaction to each body (and the fact that Sora literally grab a ball of poo) was great in my opinion. Also, you guys are very bold to expect “let it go” NOT to be in the game. that like Playing Kingdom hearts and know all of the character and story and expected Master Xehanort to NOT be the main antagonist.

San Fransokyo - Easily, one of the most boring world I had to go through. Sure you get to meet the Big Hero 6 and Sora making up the team names thus acting like a dumb puppy and the boss was interesting, but...that pretty much its. San Fransokyo wasn’t even that interesting until you beat the world, basically, the world is “talk to the person to progress” kind of thing, cause most of the time, once you finish what you had to do, and you have an option to save or buy some stuff, and that it. if you want to move on to the story, talk to Hiro, making me think that they rushed this world mostly than Arendelle and Corona, and when they say this world to be in the game? 2015? to be honest, what a waste of a world.

Now we have done with that, let talk about the Pro and Cons

Pros:

I really enjoy the interaction between Vexen and Demyx, even though it was a one-time thing (sadly) it's really good to see Nobodies from Kh2 talking to the Nobodies from CoM, Kinda remind me of Pinky and the Brain from The Animaniacs

Goofy is still Smarter than anyone in this Universe and I LOVE IT.

I’m glad that in Monstropolis, it takes place after the event of Monster Inc., so we can have more interact between Sully and Mike, I even like when sully say “its time to bring the scare out” I think that alone is a good line.

I have the same ps4 that was announced back on 2012 and I used it when I played KH3, thus I never had a Ps4 pro, but even then, the game feel and look beautiful and I couldn’t stop playing it.

I like the Gummiship section, I like how it gave you a choice if you should go and collect some items, but also give you a choice if you wanna annoyed them, then again, you do have to face the giant boss in that section, but you only get to face 3 of them and depend on how well you are, you’ll be leveling up like crazy at the end of the day, I mean the ship was able Lvl. 26 when I reach to the Keyblade Graveyard.

The magic is powerful and useful to use.

Sora’s Smile special. That's all.

CAPTAIN MOTHER FUCKING JACK SPARROW

Cons:

I didn’t enjoy the reaction command, sure the Keyblade Transformation is useful by itself, but when you have another command that you wanna use but if you hit Triangle before you hit R2 to switch, you’ll waste your finisher just like that. and it also doesn’t help if you just wanna get the treasure but wasted a useful command you been saving.

Master Yin sid alone. I hated him when he claimed Riku as a Keyblade Master, and I hated him just as much. because here a thing he has stated that Sora can’t go with Riku or Mickey until he has the power of awakening, where he didn’t use that until he follows Aqua to find Ventus, this man have the nerve to say that Sora isn’t ready despite the fact that he was able to save 10+ world when he was just 14, granted he did lose his power thank to Xehanort in the events of DDD, but in KH3, he was able to turn into his second form and play similar as his full power as KH2 (when you unlock all his abilities) summon a Pirate ship, A blaster, was able to do his first Keyblade transform after he finishes with Olympus. and Yin sid, have the nerve to say that he needs the power of awakening to support Riku and the King, and yet he was able to save Aqua WHILE NOT BEING A KEYBLADE MASTER AS RIKU AND MICKEY IS ONE and wake up Ventus to after seeing aqua getting hurt without even learning how to even use the power. and uses the same power he doesn’t know how to use to save his friends. Master Yin Sid is a horrible master and nothing will change my mind.

Donald being a bully, I never have seen Donald abuse Sora like this before, maybe it's having to do with Goofy being smarter than anyone in this universe, and I know that Donald personality was supposed to be annoying and him acting annoyed. But remember when Master Yin Sid and Pete stated that Sora was weaker than he was in the previous game, and how its really got into him, and remember Sora was able to save Aqua and Ventus without being a Keyblade master, since Yin Sid is basically saying that Riku was able to learn the Power of awakening thus that what make him Master, similar to Mickey. did you also remember Donald say “Sora needs work” and he says this AFTER he saves Aqua and Ventus, yeah, this Donald isn’t the Donald I know and love in the KH universe?

This game gives us a lot more question than an answer. Like why did Roxas came from the sky where his Vessel suppose to be with Ienzo, how did they able to create Xion if she was a Clone of Sora, why did the old princess heart move on and seek a new princess heart (plus does that mean Kairi isn’t a princess anymore), Shouldn’t Elsa heart be more stronger than a Princess heart since she's a queen. and some that I can’t even word it out.

The pacing, pretty sure you knew about that

The Final boss was...a little disappointed compared to the 1st 2 games of KH

Power level is bullsh*t (I'll be talking about that later)

Now I GOTTA speak my opinion about the Fandom reaction of the game and BOY there is a lot:

Regarding to Kairi:

I have seen a lot of people both Kairi fan and non-fan usually say about how Kairi character have been downgraded to be a typical Love-interest to Sora (despite the fact that has always been a thing in KH1 and KH2, there literally can’t be any more to hint to these two together) and how she basically basically the Damsel in distress, where I could say the same thing to these “would-be-master” No hates on Riku Mickey or Aqua, but lemme recap, Riku earned the title ”Keyblade Master” after he finished with his Mark of Mastery, after that and him learning more about Aqua, he contain and use an uniform where Yin sid say that it’ll help him when he faces the heartless in realm of darkness, and Mickey confirm that even the weakest heartless can be dangerous in the realm of darkness. and His keyblade was destroyed and mickey’s was badly damaged and wished Yin sid to upgrade the keyblade and make Riku a new one since he left the old one in the darkness, they return there only for mickey to be captured by the heartless, and Riku had to face Aqua and the heartless, (he even working together with his dark self), but even after all of that “HE STILL NEED SORA” I understand that Sora is basically a golden child and have been fighting heartless more time than Riku since he worked with the darkness in KH1, but that doesn’t mean he useless, he can fight, Both Sora and Riku have a Rival and it could be hint that they were using the wooden sword since they were kids, so they must’ve have SOME experience, and since this is the same dude who entitles a Keyblade master, and I know that some of you will say “but you just say that Mickey confirm that the hearless is stronger in the Realm of Darkness” and you’re would be right, if we didn’t have Yin sid and Sora.

Yin sid basically told Sora 2-3 times that He needs the power of Awaken in order to go and help Riku and Mickey, even when Sora/Ventus say that he’ll go and Save Aqua, what did master Yin sid say “You need the Power of awaken” but he didn’t need to, He just needs to follow his heart, and he did, and he found Aqua keyblade and use that to reach to Riku, only for him to use that power to Ventus. after he saves Aqua.

and Sora; remember what Yin sid said (where I won’t repeat myself) and remember Pete say that he is weaker than he remembers, HOW DID HE ABLE TO DEFEAT A KEYBLADE MASTER AFTER COMPLETE 7 WORLDS? Granted, there could be a development where he could be getting stronger in each world he completed, but Yin sid say that the Darkness has Stripped his power and even Pete called him weak, there is no way that he was able to catch up to Riku level where he never lose power in the first place AND able to defeat a Master Keyblader by himself with no help and with no “power of Awaken”

in fact I could even say that both Riku and Mickey is more than a Damsel than Kairi since They have to be Saved by Sora twice where Kairi was being used of being Sora motivation to fight at his fullest, and Master Xehanort stated that he needs 9 clashes between 13 darkness and 7 lights to in order to forge the X-Blade and with Kairi Death being the 9th, she was used to create the X-blade.

and the fact that no-one even comments about these make me REALLY consider for the fandom, but you know my opinion.

Overall, I think Kingdom hearts 3 is a great game with a lot of Nostalgia in it, but I feel like Nomura tried to hard to make KH3 look pretty other than answering story, where there has been other games where you can have an interesting story and Gameplay before KH3 even release.

Overall, Please play this game with a grand of salt (for the people who haven’t play KH3)

#Kingdom hearts 3 #kh3 spoilers #kairi #KH3 review

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kingddd17 · 8 years

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Something I wanted to get off my Chest.

This is something I really want to get off my chest and I don't know how else to start since I usually am not very good with introductions in general but I think I'll start with how I felt over the years and the events that transpired yesterday and a few days ago.

Over the 26 years of my life, I've always been the usual kid you see in the block but I think I'm just like any kid who really loves entertainment just as much as everyone else does. Over the course, I grew up loving sci fi and many various stories that really invigorated me to go on adventures together and meet new people. Like I was your stereotypical kid who loved Star Wars, Star Fox, Super Mario Bros and of course anything that was made by Nintendo.

However I really wanted to join within the communities that had a similiar interest as me. Just like any other kid who wanted to be a part of the community for anything. I've tried sticking with them but more and more as I grew older I found so much negativity within them. Instead of expressing how much I love this genre, games or make fan made content, all I ever got was hate, troll responses or just plain negative downvotes. Many of which of course made me really sad and felt like I will never contribute anything to any fan community. So i felt isolated.

Soon afterwards, I just went in the dark, rather than talk or discuss with anyone online, I just sat there just playing games all day, do the usual homework from school but at the same time, I felt kind of isolated. Even if I joined any school clubs I usually stick to it for one day and kind of leave. So even though I was glad I didn't have to deal with the amount of negativity, it also made me sad and lonely and I felt very isolated from many people who already have connections.

When I first saw Xenoblade X back in 2013, I thought ooh cool, mechs and regular on ground ARPG combat. Can't wait to try it. Little did I know this would change my life around.

When I finished beating the game for the first time, I loved it so much. The story, characters, the world of mira, the cutscenes and the amount of fun sidequests that were available. I didn't expect to fall in love with it so much. At first I thought man I should see what others think of it. Of course, to my big surprise it was a very mixed reaction from most people I noticed and it had tons of excessive bashing that I felt was unnecessary or it's one of those it doesn't cater to my specific niche case scene. It honestly made me feel sad and I thought I would never join back. However there was something I did that I never thought I would do to get people to notice me.

During my playthroughs, I did a lot of video recordings of moments that I loved from the game. I created a bunch of gifs, webm videos, commission artists for drawing Xenoblade X fan arts of my favourite characters and people started to notice this pink shirt meme mim that seems to circulate around. Although I had the usual it's that guy again, some of them took notice to me and I felt I wanted to meet these people. We quickly became friends and soon I started posting these to tumblr and I feel as cool as the game is, there aren't enough fan contents cause it's a niche series. I asked various sources and helps from my friends and I went on to compile stuff like the Party Member banters, making hacks, screenshots, emote gifs of characters that don't normally have emotes, cross interactions etc.

It of course felt great and I felt very satisfied with the amount of things I've contributed but at the same time, it still kind of felt lonely especially when I had to find work and I can't stick with doing these things all day. It wasn't until around Feb 17th 2017 when my birthday happened. So many art gifts kept pouring into my feed and I just could not believe it. I just have no words to express how happy I was. I was literally shedding tears at work while doing whatever task or projects my boss wanted me to do but of course I finished them all really early and he let me off early. Something that burst in me, I started crying.

I just don't know. It was such a wonderful feeling like I've accomplished something in my life. It felt like I helped bring a community together and as someone who loves art in general, it just blew my mind. All my friends that I got to know through discord, tumblr, twitter and now even the people from the Japanese Xenoblade X community. It was soooo overwhelming and I can't thank everyone enough!!! You guys are amazing!! I'm just an ordinary programmer just trying to make a living and I think all you guys together are one amazing people and the Xenoblade X community is such a wonderful community. And of course your love has also motivated to get back into drawing. Something I never thought I would attempt to do again after 15 or so years of not doing because I felt I would never improve but now I've been thinking positively about it.

So I would like to say once again thank you to the Xenoblade X community and for giving me back so much over the years. I really hope you've guys enjoyed the content that I've created and the amount of hours I've put into it to make them possible. I don’t want to name specifics as I feel that would be very bias but for those that I’ve DMed with on my personal time you know who you guys are. But I would love excessively say thank you to those and the community. You guys are the ones that motivated me to do all these things and I really mean it. So thank you! You guys as a whole are the most wonderful people I've ever known and I want to continue to supporting all of you as much as I can. I just.....

Thank you!!!

#Xenoblade X #Xenoblade Chronicles X #Christie #Cross #Personal #Thoughts

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that-sso-raven · 8 years

Photo

another fake questline. i came up with this idea a couple of weeks ago, when i was listening to detektivbyrån - monster a lot

its an origin story for the teleporting hens

will probably be in 2 parts because i think itll be. a little long

i’m not very good at coming up with names, so we’ll call the two main characters of this story A and B.

when at long last we have access to nova alexandria, it’s eerily empty. (i don’t remember much about nova alexandria from its brief mentions in the archeology quests, so im guessing this is going to be very inaccurate).

you find a live chicken, a bizarre spot of life in an otherwise lifeless place. it vanishes mysteriously in a puff of feathers when you approach it - and as you’re watching, rematerializes several feet away, closer to the entrance of the library. if you follow it in, it will be waiting for you by a bookshelf, staring intently at one of the volumes. when you pull out the book (a study on interdimensional theory), you find a folded note in its pages. it seems to be a series of scrawls, indicating a small puzzle - moving a vase, and then rearranging some books, and then pushing a bookshelf a little to the right. when you go ahead and carry out these actions, a panel slides open on the floor, and unravels a spiral staircase into the dark depths below.

you can turn and talk to the chicken again, but all it will offer you is a perplexed “cluck?” you decide to go down and see what’s going on; you descend the staircase, and the chicken follows. if you stop, the chicken stops. if you resume walking, it will go with you.

you walk for a while. once you reach the bottom of the staircase, you are pulled into a cutscene: the chicken rushes ahead of you, hops onto a desk, and yanks on a rope hanging from the ceiling. the room is immediately flooded with illumination from what looks like several lanterns. in the sudden light, you are pulled back into a memory.

but it’s not your memory.

you suppose you’re living it vicariously, in a vision granted to you by your moon powers.

you see someone sitting with your back to you at the desk in front of you. it’s a brief flash, and you can’t clearly discern much, but you think you see a chicken perched on the desk. the person is writing furiously in a journal; the desk is covered in all kinds of odd blueprints and calculations and alchemical ingredients.

there’s the sound (and accompanying dialogue box) of someone calling their name - “A?” - distant, upstairs - and the person stops, and turns to look over their shoulder. slowly, they close the book, sliding their quill between its pages to mark where they left off, and then open up a drawer to the right on the desk and place the book inside. they close the drawer, and then get up to answer. your vision ends.

when you return to yourself, you notice that the room is more or less in the same layout as it was in your vision. some things have been shifted around, and a few cobwebs have emerged, but apart from the details and the disarray not much has changed.

there aren’t any blueprints on the desk anymore: the desktop has been cleared off, save for a strange device (a stand with several joints that ends in a metal hoop) and a couple of neatly stacked, old-looking tomes. and your newly acquired chicken companion.

you open the drawer on the desk, to the right, and find the journal.

the quill-bookmark remains. on the page - still unwritten - there is a letter in stark black ink. it’s incomplete; it seems that for whatever reason, the person that was writing in it never had a chance to finish, or simply forgot to. the letter states that the person in question has left to go seek B in the “world where there were stars”, and advises the reader to not worry, or attempt to follow. going between worlds, they state, is a dangerous, unpredictable affair. the letter seems to be ambiguously addressed to some loved one; it’s signed “A”

there is an unfinished postscript that reads “P.S. thank you very much for t”

the rest of the journal before the message seems like nothing but blank pages. there is, however, a brief message on its inside cover that reads:

“This journal belongs to A.”

you decide to pocket it. it may contain more information about just what went on down here, if you can figure out how to make the invisible content of the first several pages not invisible.

you thumb through the books on the desk to get some more context, or in the very least to see if there are any more notes to open secret passageways. the books have titles such as “Searching for Star-place” and “Traversing Between Unaligned Worlds”, all by an author named B. the excerpts you choose to read refer to what B calls “starplace” (for lack of a better name), an alternate realm where time does not pass, or even, they say, exist.

B wanted to see this world.

finding nothing else of note in the books, you bring the journal back to Elizabeth to see if she knows anything about it. she expresses surprise that you’ve found something from A, an extremely famous magician/researcher. much of her work still circulates, & generates new conversations to this day. one day she disappeared without a trace - but that was a long, long, long time ago.

she says that she thinks the first few pages of the journal are in some kind of invisible ink - not your typical kind, either; A was crafty.

Elizabeth suspects that this particular ink she used can only be temporarily revealed by dousing the words with Aideen’s tears (the dew that gathers on the flowers in the forest, not the literal tears of the goddess). you gather some for her, and then the two of you sit down together and very carefully gloss over the first few pages with the tears. it doesn’t yield any results for the most part, but an image does emerge on the first page - a fleeting diagram, that fades as soon as the dew on the paper dries. Elizabeth gets separate piece of paper and a pencil ready, and then asks you to reapply Aideen’s tears to the page: before the image dissipates, she makes a quick but accurate sketch of it, for future convenience.

Elizabeth says she has no idea what that means, but it looks a little like a layout of a room.

she mentions that A’s gone through great pains to keep the contents of this journal a secret, though, and while she’s certainly curious, she warns you not to be too disappointed of your search leads nowhere. this piece of the puzzle seems more like A left it for herself as a self-reminder than it is an intentional clue for future adventurers, and it might be something that only A can understand.

in nova alexandria, you find a side-tower in the library that resembles the picture you have. there’s a rectangular rug on the floor, and you enter the room to the left. turning to your left as you enter the room, you find a curving section of wall; you fiddle with some stone bricks, and are able to get a hidden compartment to slide open, giving you access to three storage crates.

in the middle crate, you find A’s old diary. this one is written in regular ink. A’s entries are few and concise, but she writes at great length about B - that she thinks B is “very special”, and that she hopes B will succeed in her research around the starplace. after a time, she writes excitedly that B seems to have cracked it; there may be a few steps left before B can safely travel there, but A is so happy for her.

you realize that they were in love.

A talks, too, about the various antics of a chicken she found and rescued from a pack of dogs. she jokes that this chicken is now her best friend.

in a sudden tonal shift, the last entry eludes to the fact that something terrible has happened, that something in the research backfired on B, acted on her prematurely (several weeks before B was going to wrap up her final preparations) and B’s vanished. A doesn’t even know where. she has no idea what to do.

you also find, in the same crate, a large, flat, circular crystal. when you pick it up, you begin to have another flashback --

you see A at her desk. the crystal - now recognizable as a lens - glints in the light. it’s locked in the device on her desk, which is now a fully intact thing that looks just like a magnifying glass. her journal, blank-paged, is spread before her, but she reaches and adjusts the device so the lens is right over the page.

you return.

the chicken isn’t in the secret basement study anymore when you go back there. you lost track of that little guy.

you fit the lens into the device on the desk and tug the rope hanging from the ceiling to turn on the light. when you adjust the device just right, the light refracts through it and spills onto the pages of the journal, and the words begin to unravel into visibility right before your eyes.

you understand why this one is written in invisible ink. not only did A include her personal thoughts + accounts, she’s also put a great deal of research material and speculation on interdimensional traversal. this is something she considers far too risky for herself in its early stages, let alone someone who might stumble across it and try and use it for the wrong reason.

A reveals that her relationship with B was kept covert, but they spent a great deal of time together. A was so grateful to have her in her life. to have had. she doesn’t think she knows how to let go. she worries that B was searching for starplace as a final destination point - she knows that B went through a great deal of sadness in her life, and often spoke of starplace as a place that would be “without pain, without anything”. this is what A fears - that a prolonged existence there will swallow a person, and take away everything that makes B herself, and that, more permanently than death, B will cease to exist.

it’s been a year, and she’s looking for ways to contact starplace under the wild hope that maybe somehow the malfunctioning of the machine that B had been preparing for a portal might have brought her there. she knows that it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s all she can do.

A mentions her chicken a few times. she says that while humans or horses are large and consist of much more matter to transfer between realms, something as small as a chicken could probably pass through with much less effort, while she’s still developing the technology.

she knows that the portal-machine B tried to make was too fallible, and is therefore searching for something less variable, more directly managed by its user.

she wants to see if she can make a chicken that can teleport.

after about a year of working on the technology, A is beginning to feel helpless.

B could be anywhere, she says. even if she can send something through there’s a chance that it might go nowhere. B could be in starplace, or the realm of the ghosts, or pandoria. this is nothing more than blind hope.

but she finds that, under a certain alignment of the moon and stars that occurs once a year, the space between the worlds is the thinnest. if she can capture and distill the celestial light of that arrangement, and then imbue a host with it, the host might gain the ability to walk between worlds by bending reality around them.

she decides that this is a wild course of action that she’s almost certainly going to take.

A loves her chicken very much, and wouldn’t allow harm to come to it if she could prevent it. she anguishes for a while over an upcoming trial, but ultimately decides that her setup should be safe.

after a couple of mishap trials, where the chicken typically skips short distances but seems to be going nowhere, the chicken disappears for a day, and then returns.

A affixes a gadget to its leg that records the energies of its surroundings. in a few more trials she determines that the energy readings of the place that the chicken has been visiting are consistent with those of starplace (she also notices patterns of brief visits to other realms).

the journal ends, where A writes that she plans on writing a letter for the chicken to deliver to starplace. she has to know if B is in there, and if she’s ok.

(end of part 1)

#sso #star stable online #long post ?/

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jumpchain-drop · 4 years

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Chapter 3.7: 0.4 Years

Year 1, day 147: After all this pondering and just going in circles on the mobility problem, I decided to seek help from the wisest character I could recall from this series: Master Jiggywiggy.

First was the problem of getting into his temple. His disciple guarding the door was quite stubborn on the topic of me going in without a Jiggy. It seemed a bit like a chicken and egg scenario, but before I got lost in that cycle, I remembered someone that could help me.

“Why yes, I do have a spare Jiggy on me,” King Jingaling said. “A couple, in fact. But why do you want one?”

“I need to speak to Master Jiggywiggy, King Jingaling,” I said. “It’s really important. Call it a… crisis of faith.”

“I see… However, while I sympathize, understand that my first duty is to my subjects. The Jiggies I possess help me protect the Jinjos’ happiness and freedom. Asking I give one up, well, that would require a substantial amount of compensation.”

“Compensation, huh…”

Hoping it looked on the outside like it was thinking, I racked my brain for Jingaling’s cutscene from Banjo-Tooie, the one that definitely hadn’t happened yet. Right, he had given Banjo his Jiggy as an incentive to find the scattered Jinjos. At the current time, aside from the general imminent threat of greedy witches, the Jinjos were in no danger.

Then I thought of something.

“OK, this is going to seem a little hard to believe and I can’t prove it, but… I know parts of the future.”

“Really now?”

“And I’ve foreseen something tragic… Sometime, belong long, a massive digging machine will crash through the village and scatter most of your subjects. I say most, because it will run through the home of the Gray Jinjos, killing them all.”

He gasped. “You’re pulling my leg!”

“I would never lie about something as tragic as that!” Indeed I wouldn’t; so far, nothing the asshole voice had given me seemed to help me with lying. Or my aversion to social interaction, but mostly the lying.

The King started petting his pet much harder. “Ohhhh… Ohhhh dear… I can’t afford to take the chance… What should I do…?”

“If I may, your majesty,” I said, refocusing his attention on me. “I don’t think anything can really be done about the machine chasing everyone away, but… maybe the Gray Jinjos can be relocated until after the event so they aren’t caught in the crossfire.”

“Relocate…? Hmm, yes, that would do it… They’ll be reluctant to leave their home, but I should be able to persuade them. But where will they go then?”

“I’d be willing to look after them… for a Jiggy. Up front.”

So that’s how ten Gray Jinjos moved in with us. Terra is very cross with me.

Year 1, day 150: Yes, it took me this long. Terra was that cross with me.

I mean, the Jinjos were fine houseguests and Piddle and the children get along great and they apparently sleep standing up, but we just had honey to eat and getting enough to feed thirteen mouths was pretty dang expensive. Plans were made to expand the hut just so there was more walking room, if not a second hut altogether.

Once everything had settled enough, I went to the temple.

“You have entered the temple of the mighty Jiggywiggy,” the imposing figure spoke, instantly bringing back memories of my talk with Dialga. “What brings you to me, my child?”

I calmly and respectfully told him about the conundrum I was facing, my inability to understand.

“I am more than familiar with the ways by which others move,” he said when I finished. “It is the Way of the Mob.”

“Way of the Mob… great Jiggywiggy?”

“You are aware that we are in a video game, yes?”

I nodded.

“But at the same time, my child, we are not.”

I was quickly confused. It must have shown on my face, as he kept talking.

“I have my own contacts with those familiar with the nature of games. Games have abstraction and structure, so that its players receive a certain experience. That is the Way of the Player. That is the way that, we know, a certain bear and bird will soon walk.”

It was fascinating to listen to. Master Jiggywiggy’s voice was nowhere near Dialga’s boom, but it radiated wisdom.

“My child, do you know what abstraction is?”

“Uh… yes, it’s when a representation of something is simpler than the thing itself. Like how the sun is almost always represented by a yellow circle.”

“Correct. Games abstract everything to create the Way of the Player. But to those that walk the Way of the Mob, that layer of abstraction does not exist, and they see paths that a player cannot go.”

I think the realization was starting to come to me.

“You are living in the game, my child,” said Master Jiggywiggy. “You need to live in the world.”

He gestured, and the great Crystal Jiggy softly glowed. I felt something squirm; the Jiggy I was holding pulled out of my grasp and floated over to the other structure in the room.

“Step before the Golden Monolith,” he instructed.

I did as I was bid. I was possessed by a weird feeling, like being on the cusp of a breakthrough.

“Now… use the power of your Jiggy to open your mind… and bring together the bigger picture.”

You know, you wouldn’t expect the world of Banjo-Kazooie to be the place where you’d have a spiritual awakening. But that is the thinking of a player. Despite my perfect memory, I’m not sure what happened exactly – I know there was a literal element as I had to do one of his Jigsaw Challenges, but that’s the extent. I don’t even know what exactly the picture I assembled was of.

When I next remembered, the Jiggy fell into my claws – or rather, claw, as it had resized myself to fit in my palm. I looked around; the temple itself looked more vibrant, shining with the luster of gold.

“You now walk the Way of the Mob, my child,” Master Jiggywiggy said. “You are now of the world beneath the game.”

“T-Thank you greatly, mighty Jiggywiggy,” I said, bowing in reverence. “My family… I think they may also be on the Way of the Player. Maybe…?”

“With a single Jiggy shared between you all,” he answered, “it will have to be one at a time. A Jiggy possesses great power, but it is not infinite. Send one member of your family here with the Jiggy tomorrow, and then the days after that until that is all.”

“My deepest gratitude, Master.”

When I left the temple, the world outside was… breathtaking. The forest that bordered the clearing was actually a forest; I could actually move between the trees. The grass no longer resembled a few green polygons, but a field of blades. The path to Mayahem Temple was much wider and more open (I could see a bit more than the tip of Targitzan’s Temple over the crest of the hill), and the Jiggy Podium outside it was gone – not to mention being a bit further away from the temple. When I returned to the Plateau, the high mountains that surrounded most of the area were gone, or at least not nearly so high or steeply-sloped. There were passes where traversal would be much easier.

I hugged Terra when I returned. She hugged me back. No matter how mad we got, we still loved each other.

I’m still doing all the cleaning up after them.

#jumpchain #a man chooses #jumpchain a man chooses #story #layer 3 banjo-kazooie

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casualarsonist · 6 years

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Nostalgia Killer - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

I used to have a podcast, and this was a segment on it. I’m going to be extensively shitting on Uncharted 2, so this seems like the best banner under which to do that - at least this way you’ll know what you’re in for.

Before booting up Uncharted 2 (the remastered edition) I’d had delightful premonitions of what I was going to write here, largely based on my memories of my last two or three playthroughs of the game. I was keen to witness the visual upgrades of the PS4 version, of course, but I was also looking forward to talking about Among Thieves’ wholesale gameplay improvements over its predecessor, the improvements that solidified its place as one of the greatest adventure games in video game history. So I started the game up and worked my way through the iconic opening section as Nate wakes up in a crashed train dangling precariously over a cliff edge…and after I’d finished it I put the controller down and didn’t come back to it for six full months.

Something had changed. Not within the game itself - the remastered edition is exactly the same as the original, 1080p upgrade aside. And despite the accuracy of H. Bomberguy’s life-ruining video accusing the series of being completely devoid of freedom, offering little more than a collection of expensively animated tunnels that one is relentlessly forced down, it wasn’t this revelation that had shaken me either. No, something had changed in me - perhaps in my expectations, or in a misremembered idea of the game’s qualities, but this was not the enjoyable experience I recalled. Finishing Uncharted 2 this time around was a chore, and my nostalgic review became an article, and my rose-tinted memory darkened to a crimson scorn. Here I come kiddies, ready to shit on your memories again. This is Nostalgia Killer.

***

For the uninitiated, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is a 2008 third-person action-adventure game, and the second of Nathan Drake’s grand Playstation 3 adventures. To Naughty Dog’s credit, they worked hard to tighten up and polish a lot of the ideas and mechanics of the first game (reviewed here) with more enjoyable gunplay, more lifelike animation, and more varied and detailed environments. The narrative improvements are marked, and they’ve been particularly ambitious when it comes to the interactions between characters both in cutscenes and otherwise. But while the game succeeds in being a refinement in all these areas, there are still some serious growing pains evident in its design, especially ten years on from its release. I’ve said of Uncharted 4 that if you’ve played one Uncharted game, you’ve played them all, and it was here in Uncharted 2 where that adage begins, where all the familiar beats and tropes would be defined and repeated ad nauseam. Sadly, this isn’t a trend only visibly when viewing the series as a whole, but glaringly obvious within this game alone.

The story follows Drake as he’s dragged ‘back in’ to a life of roguish non-legal adventuring by a pair of shifty old colleagues - Harry Flynn and Chloe Frazer. Coaxed by the thrill of uncovering the location of Marco Polo’s lost fleet and the treasure it carried, Drake and Flynn infiltrate a Turkish museum to steal an artefact containing a map leading to their next location. Flynn double-crosses Drake in a stunning twist (sarcasm), and after serving three months in a Turkish prison, Drake is freed with the help of Chloe and his old friend Sully. Chloe reveals that she is a mole within the army of Serbian mercenary Zoran Lazarević - the man who hired Flynn, who subsequently hired Drake, to find the treasure. The two groups then cross paths back and forth for the next six hours as Drake invariably discovers the next clue to the location of the treasure, and the bad guys invariably show up immediately after to take it away from him.

And while I can understand what they’re trying to do with the format - that is, to make an interactive Indiana Jones film - it’s not long at all before the formula gets tired and very predictable, not the least because the first two acts are essentially one plot point repeated over and over again. See, the thing that Indiana Jones films had going for them was the fact that they’re only a couple of hours long, and one can pretty easily fill a couple of hours with exciting content, even if your bag of tricks is relative small. But when you scale the length of your film up to the equivalent of a quarter of a day whilst retaining the same limited bag of action movie cliches, soon you need to start repeating yourself - a tactic that offers diminishing returns when you’re relying not on depth of story or character to engage people, but on a short-lived dopamine rush inspired by seeing someone hanging off the edge of something precarious. Indiana Jones only fell of a bridge once, not once every ten minutes, and given the Uncharted series’ three types of gameplay (cover-based shooting, climbing, and ‘puzzles’), there simply aren’t enough ideas to sustain a six-hour run-time. Running and gunning - ON A TRAIN; running and gunning - UP A MOUNTAIN; running and gunning - IN A COLLAPSING BUILDING. It’s the same thing Call of Duty has done to death (running and gunning - IN THE FUTURE), and the reason why no-one buys those games for the single player any more. Change the location as many times as you want, but if the people and the situations in your story just repeat themselves again and again and again, you’re not building a game that someone can come back to repeatedly and get the same level of enjoyment out of.

But then again, perhaps that means that they’ve gotten it exactly right - the Transformers films aren’t made to be watched twenty times, they’re designed for maximum impact the first time around - and the first time round, Uncharted 2 is a blast. It’s also accessible, undemanding, and easy to pick up and play at pretty much any time. But much like the Transformers films, the bright lights and flashy colours are designed to distract you from the overwhelming emptiness at the game’s core. Who is this Serbian war criminal? Why do you care? Why is he seeking the Cintamani stone?Because ‘power’. How is it that his group keeps finding Drake at the exact point that he locates the next clue? Stop asking questions. And why do all these bad guys keep threatening to kill people and never actually do it? I said stop asking questions! And just how the fuck did he get hundreds of troops and weapons and vehicles and a fucking tank up to the peak of a forgotten, remote mountain buried deep in the Himala-AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Again, one can overlook this kind of narrative short-changing if you’re watching a dumb ninety minute film, but if you’re paying £50 on launch for a six-to-ten hour game, the sheen really starts to wear off when the boards you’re climbing up crumble from beneath you for the 400th time.

But hell, you say, this is just the Uncharted we know and love, right? Sure, it doesn’t have a lot going on, but what it does, it does really well. I imagine that just as many people will feel justified in loving the series for these reasons as much as I feel justified in complaining about them. But I can’t imagine anyone looking back fondly on that level with the tank that will one-shot kill you, or the bit in the mountain temple with the snipers and rocket launchers that will one-shot kill you, or when you’re on the train and have to fight the helicopter and the armoured shotgun troops that will one-shot kill you, or the final boss battle where you run around in circles so he doesn’t one-shot kill you. Because what you forget when you haven’t played the game for a while is that it’s filled with the most horrendous and incongruent difficulty spikes. Enemies take anywhere between one and a dozen hits to kill depending on when the game decides it’s going to change the rules, and while some times eliminating everyone you see will allow you to progress, other times hordes of belligerents will then suddenly spawn from nowhere just because. I’d say that it was dreadfully archaic design that comes from the days when monsters would literally wait in a closet until you stepped on a specific floor texture, except that even Doom kept its enemy health consistent.

I know that it’s ‘action movie logic’, but there’s something uniquely frustrating in Uncharted 2′s design when you’ve just spent fifteen minutes getting fucked over and over again by a handful of enemies, only to be blowing them away by the dozen five minutes later with the exact same weapon you’ve been using all along. Noticing the change just adds insult to injury, and all the while the game autosaves every minute because the developers know that if they made you restart from the beginning every time you died you’d throw your console into oncoming traffic

Which is a shame, because while it is indeed a far more polished release, Uncharted 2 still exhibits the same bad design habits that plague the first Uncharted game - design habits that I know Naughty Dog can leave, behind because I just replayed The Last Of Us, and that game is fucking superb. It still contains a lot of the cover-based shooting gameplay of Uncharted, but there’s something about the balance in difficulty, as well as the variation in weapons and enemy types that makes all the difference in the world - when the developers decide they need to change the pace they don’t change the rules of the game, instead they change the scenario, and this means that while each new set of circumstances might present a greater and greater challenge to the player, your skills at playing the game can improve to meet them as you become more acquainted with the game’s internal rulebook. You’re not coddled for hours before being thrown into an intentionally unwinnable battle, then coddled again, then punished, then coddled, etc, etc. The end result here is that Uncharted 2 often feels cheap in how it tries to challenge and thrill the player, and I can’t go and put myself back in the mindset of a person playing it for the first time in order to understand why it’s seen as something so perfect.

If you still love playing Uncharted 2, I’m not here to convince you that you’re wrong. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what the purpose of writing this article is at all, other than to document the fact that I went back and played one of the most lauded video games in history expecting to write the glowing follow-up review to the first game that I’d promised to do so long ago, and found that without the initial thrill, and contemporary comparisons to make, a lot of its lustre is stripped away. Uncharted 2 is fine, and it’s certainly a hugely influential work, but it’s actually pretty fucking annoying in retrospect. And the fact that you can forget that so easily is perhaps the game’s greatest achievement.

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