#lots of potential for maps and stuff!! and their music is really good

[formigoid]

I hope the roof flies off and we get blown out into space I always make such expensive mistakes

Wilson (Expensive Mistakes) - Fall Out Boy

[creation-help]

Hii! I've been on ur blog for a bit and all the writing advice is super duper helpful

I'm sort of having trouble with starting basically anything w writing right now. I'm a beginner, I feel like i really want to make something but at this point I'm sort of stumped 😭 I'm not sure how to come up with real ideas or how I should even start.

I want to get good at writing. I can draw but most of the time I don't really know what I want to cmake if that makes sense

Do you have advice for this? My apologies if you've already answered an ask like this before lol I don't mean to bother, I hope your having an amazing day <333

Hi! I understand this is a difficult situation but from the looks of It, I think your trouble is the mind jail you're in currently. We see it repeated on Tumblr often "Do it bad, do it imperfect, just do it", and I'd like to fully stand by that advice here when talking to you!

Struggles with starting

Really there's no easier way to say this, but you have to Just Start. However there are multiple ways to help you Just start!

- Have something to write with easily on hand at all times, you never know when the idea strikes! This can be phone or even a notepad!

- When the idea strikes GET IT. Pounce on it like a jaguar. Get itttt. If you don't feel like expanding on it, then leave it, but you need to start treating all possible ideas that you vibe with, as potential sprouts to grow! If you spend too much time second guessing or debating over if the idea is good enough or not, you Won't Write More. If the idea sucks, you don't have to commit! But don't let the ideas pass you by! If you get an idea catch it, write it down, find expansive questions to grow it with, get music, brainstorm, vibe, rest, repeat! You are always allowed to start and stop. You are the god of your writing.

- It is okay to suck. You don't have to be good to share, but you also don't even have to share if you don't want! You don't have to share anything to anyone!

Struggles with ideas

- Find inspiration. Where? Anywhere! Start new shows, new movies, read other people's writing, look at flowers on the sidewalk, ask your parents dumb Fandom questions, get into a new music genre. You don't have to follow through with everything but so long as you surround yourself with variety, you will be nurturing your creativity! Just get a steady flow of new stuff to enrich your brain. This is part of the soil your sprouts will need.

- Make mind maps, Google every little detail you can think of relating to your new idea when you have it (not so much you'd exhaust yourself tho!), interrogate yourself, ask people to ask you questions about your idea, go down pointless meanders and rabbitholes about the idea. Give it time to soak. Indulge it. Be a little pretentious over it even.

- Nothing is original anymore, and every different interpretation is valuable enough to exist. What you make is unique to yourself. These ideas all coexist

Struggles with skills

- I am going to say this very gently but firmly. You will get better by doing more. You will hone your skills by using them.

- There's loads of resources both online and irl to search from if you want to improve your writing! You can even try to imitate styles that you like and start moving from there. Kinda like how artists do Studies. You can also expand your vocabulary by searching up different words for things you already know, or words relating to the things you wanna write. It'll help lots! My personal recommendation for improving writing even a little bit is to be conscious of your word choices and make sure you don't overuse the same word too much, at least not in the same sentence. Unless that's the intended effect you're going for

As a closing statement I also wanna add that you should just take care of yourself in general. Sometimes your brain needs more enrichment to work better, or sometimes it just doesn't really give you much just because. Try not to get torn up over it and try again later.

Hope any of this helps! Be brave!

[ganondoodle]

totk is like a highly polished alpha build of a game to me

graphic- fantastic, i just love botws style of graphics, its the perfect blend of something more realistic but very stylized and timeless

visual design- great, i cant stand anything sonau (zonai), and ganondorfs concept art is better than final (and still involves lots of annyoing stereotypes) but overall still pretty solid

sound design- phenomenal, it really is, the underground, the rain on the parasail? unmatched, already loved botw but they really outdid themselves here

music- possibly best in the series to me, like ... theres so many fantastic tracks, in isolation i love so many of them so much ... which sucks bc being connected to such a lackluster rest sours them badly

mechanics- working but undercooked/unfit for the world, its impressive they got ultrahand working at all, but its still clunky/quickly frustrating and badly balanced also contributes to utterly destroying botws world design- this ability was simply not made for this world and is in the end both detrimental to it and itself, bc that mechanic could have truly shined in a game REALLY build around it (... if they could manage to balance it well and stop handing you the solution, it would be funyn if it werent so sad how many times the game literally doesnt even make you engage with its main gimmick bc it just hands you the prebuild thing) time reversal breaks every puzzle/challenge, also unbalanced, ceiling jump is the most harmless but i still think it lets you skip too much

writing- worst in the series, where would i even start with that, not a single character is written well/interestingly, most detrimentally the main characters, .. like all of them, zelda, ganondorf, rauru... and the "story", its barely even bare bones, its plain cardboard with an old divine right propaganda slogan written on, continuity in a direct sequel is non existant, there is no follow up on anything, why did they call it that when they dont seem to have any love for anything botw did given how much they trample over everything it established, i struggle to believe they actually thought this was good, theres has to have been trouble during development

world design/changes- a joke, ... i dont know how people dont feel scammed by how little was actually changed, no, a few rocks sprinkled througout are not meaningful changes, i was one of the people not worried about them reusing the world bc i loved this world and was sure theyd meaningfully change it- god how wrong i was; the sky and underground are both like the bare bones with textures and placeholder rewards/points of interest, they both do not matter at all and their potential is yet again utterly, painfully, wasted and only add more points of destruction to the map in case of the sky, and both add confusion about everything, not the good kind of intriguing confusion, the bad nothing makes sense confusion it really does seem like they put some quick changes into every main point of interest where most players would go to make them think they changed things when .. they only changed these parts, barely, either bc they knew everyone would skip around the world anyway so it wouldnt be worth it, or bc its ... unfinished

game design/structure- baffling (bad), connected to the point above, but it truly is beyond me why they repeated the exact same structure as botw while removing what made that work, why would you repeat every point of interest of the previous game, i know zelda games always have their regions and thats where stuff happens, but they REUSED THE SAME WORLD, you CANNOT repeat the exact same points in the same world, you just cant, its the same places, the same characters, the same structure (aka dungeons being less interesting/easier titans (divine beasts) with a paint job in structure), you basically erase the well integrated ancient tech civilization to replace it with another, not well integrated, more boring and overly pushed into your face, ancient tech civilization and make them the answer to everything that ever was (BORING), the same story structure (but worse, like the memory system but remove what made it work in botw)- AND THEN repeat the same points in the underground too? thats bonkers, literally baby bananas

dungeons/puzzles - worse than botw by FAR, as mentioned above, dungeons are less interesting titans with a paintjob (plus an extraordinarily awful cutscene, which is repeated like FIVE TIMES almost word for word), they serve no purpose but to act like they are totally real traditional dungeons when they are not, they are laughing at you, shrines are back with a paintjob with less interesting puzzles (if they even have one given how many just give you a spirit orb knock off) that can all be skipped, though the puzzles can often not even be called that (put log over gap WOOOAH puzzle) among many awful and unecessary tutorial ones (its not bad to have easy ones, but aside from the few ones that take all your stuff away -omg restrictions in MY freedom tm game??- which are the best ones, to have none be even a little challenging or not utterly skippable without even using glitches, its like they didnt even try to stop you from cheating, which is like being given a skip button with no strigns attached, doesnt even let you feel smart bc you dont have to try to cheat)

UI/controls- awful, you cant tell me this was tested by real people playing for longer than 10 minutes at once, how did the ghosty sage control scheme and arrow/weapon fusing get through this, HOW, its unbelievably tedious and detrimental to any fun (as im doing with my rewrite, a crafting system would have been so good here ..... like a proper simple crafting system, have the materials, craft your new arrow types in stacks etc) the ghost sages are not only utterly useless in combat, but clog your screen, play distracting animations as soon as you look at a slope, you constantly accidentally activate them or the wrong one bc its mapped to the main interact button!!! if you use them say goodbye to your framerate, fights are now spent chasing after some ghost guy whos actively running away from you, they do not invoke a feeling of 'connection' to my 'friends', they are invoking feelings of hatred and frustration

performance- ... passable (if you dont have the sages out .... well, it runs better than pokemon scarlet so i guess its fine, the lag when closing and opening the menu is rly annoying, especially combined with the finger and patience breaking menues and how often you need to open a game pasuing menue, but fights with a monster horde AND the sages out? yeah no its as bad as pokemon scarlet at its worst, not to mention the chaos of having five useless ghost scramble around you getting knocked around by enemies)

price- a scam, this game is not worth 70 bucks, its just not, if you get a used copy and dont spend more time in it than it takes for you to just go straight to the main points, or if you dont care about anything else but dicking around with a clunky building system ... then you can have some fun with it yeah ..... still not worth 70 money, theres probably better building games out there for less too

it jsut feels not done, not finished, its presentation and some parts are highly polished and their marketing for it is unlike anything i have ever seen, but its so .... unfinished, no amount of epic visuals is gonna let me not think of this game being half done at best, after what, 6 years of development no less? with most assets already being there and being reused unaltered??

(i am holding tightly onto the theory of it either having an extremely troubled development that is being hidden bc of their reputation, or some sort of neglect in order to focus on other more lucrative projects, this is just all too weird to me)

[jean-dieu]

Dragon age the Veilguard: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Don't expect too much there, I'm just writing my own subjective, non-organized, badly written critic of the game. Spoilers ahead, so be warned!

The Good is the good stuff, The Bad is the bad stuff that isn't too jarring or that doesn't threaten the whole setting so much so it's okay to just ignore them, and The Ugly is the bad stuff that DOES make me want to fucking die and explode.

The Good:

-It's beautiful. Not a fan of a lot of design choices but it's obviously well made. The landscapes are very pretty.

-The character creator. It's always funny to me when I see some dudebros complaining about it as if they're not purposefully making ugly characters. It has quite a lot of option, nice skin details, scars, tattoos and all.

-I really like the combat. I still think DAO is the superior system but I'm much more happy with a true action rpg than whatever Inquisition was trying to do.

-I'm going to be more objective there and say the maps are better than Inquisition. THAT BEING SAID I love the Hinterlands so I still prefer Inquisiton's bloated open world lmao.

-There's a lot of nice details all around! Neve's metallic prothesis walking sound, the decorations all around, tears in character's eyes, ect.

-Solas. Can't believe I'm saying it as I didn't like him much in DAI and I don't like Solavellan but DATV made me like him very much. He's much more morally grey and less uwu wet cat and I'm here for that. Excellent voice acting of course.

-Mythal. Again, I love whatever Solas and Mythal have going on. It's toxic, it's passionate, it's one sided, and Mythal is a very interesting character IMO.

-Felassan. Again, such a cool and compelling character.

-A lot of NPCs were very cool. Antoine who's singlehandly saving the French's reputation, Evka, The Viper, Strife, Viago, Teia, etc. They're cool and rather compelling.

-I did enjoy a lot of the companion's personal quests. Davrin and Bellara especially as they felt more in line with Dragon Age in general.

-For a game where the Bad Guys are Comically Evil... Johanna Hezenkoss fits the bill and yet she's a delight.

-There's really cool codex entries. Irelin's letter about mourning Arlathan for example. Antoine's letter to Evka should he ever be Called.

-Ghilahn'ain's design.

-I liked the living Blight! OK the darkspawns were ugly af but I still really enjoyed the idea.

-I actually liked the puzzles lmao? I'm sorry but I usually find puzzles fucking annoying in that type of game so I'd rather have something easy and fun than scratching my head in a rpg.

-I was glad to see Valta again!

The Bad: (vaguely in order of importance)

-Unpopular opinion but Assan and Manfred felt forced af. Yeah I got it, they're cute... Now can we go back on uh, the apocalypse.

-The music is boring. Fuck man Inquisition and Origins musics make me cry, but Veilguard's main them... Exists.

-I would prefer the companion to be stationary and being able to talk to them whenever want. They tried something but it didn't deliver.

-The fuck is Inky wearing.

-The fuck is Isabela wearing, but racist edition. Oh well. At least it's an easy fix with a mod.

-The companions have potential but they often lack something. I wish we got more than Lucanis liking coffee. Also, some characters concept from the art book felt so much more interesting. The only character I REALLY was interested in was Davrin because he feels very dragon age-y. A Dalish Grey Warden! That's interesting!

-The Lore seems alright and coherent with the serie so far, but it was just lore drops after lore drops, with no time for reactions, and your companions being sometimes waaaaay too chill about it.

-The overall sanitazing of the world while the grim stuff still somehow being there regarding Tevinter. It's very close to be in the Ugly category but because it's supposed to be there, I'm encline to believe it's still canon and not a retcon, and just a poor presentation. Where are the slaves? We see some of course, and some stuff were legitimately jarring... But because we're confined in docktowns, we don't get to see the ruling magisters and slavers. Docktowns almost seem... Nice. But it doesnt stop there. The Lords of Fortune not stealing artifacts because they respect cultures. The Crows being patriotic vigilantes. Lucanis being a mage killer but only for evil tevene magisters.

-I understand the impossibility to be Evil as you're recruited by Varric and he wouldn't have recruited the local serial killer that drowns kitties for fun. But... You should be able to be aggressive, stern, serious and all. You should be able to play a no-nonsense character who is authoritative and assertive while still following the plot.

-Again, I understand the companions being healthier than whatever DA2 crew had going on (love them tho) but it should have been more like Inquisition. People working together and forcing themselves to make it work for the sake of the world YET fighting and disagreeing on plenty of subjects. And Rook should be able to tell the companion to stfu sometimes. To tell Taash that they're an ass. To tell Emmerich you don't give a shit about his magic and that Manfred is fucking weird and shouldn't exist. To tell Bellara to stop whining.

-On the same note, the companions are all WAY too nice. One their own they're alright, but none of them have some true flaws/secrets/dark past/opposing convictions or whatever. Davrin and Lucanis are almost the only one who are arguing and fighting a bit but it's very tame. We never hear them arguing over politics, religion, or even ways of doing things (except for food lol. why is this game so much about food). If you take Inquisition for example, the companions are ALL working together in the face of a Ancient Evil threatening Thedas. Yet, they still argue about plenty of things. Solas and Iron Bull about the Qun. Vivienne and Solas about the existence of Circles. Varric and Cassandra's fighting is ruthless even when it's about nothing important. Try to show your pride as a Dalish to Sera and she won't take it well. Tell Cassandra that you don't give a shit about the Chantry and she'll disapprove. And still, these persons managed to work together. The excuse of "They put their differences aside because of the current threat" doesn't hold. The companions don't necessarily need DA2's level of animosity between them, but they don't need to all be best friends forever second one. Bellara could be suspicious of Neve for the sole reason of her being a Tevinter Mage. Lucanis too ("Mage Killer"!!!), but because he doesn't trust magic at all. Davrin and Bellara could argue about what it means to be Dalish to them, or argue about their faith!! EVERYONE Should be more worried about Lucanis being an abomination, damn it!

-I understand the Crows we see are not the one experiencing the worst of the organisation since they're highranking members but c'mon... It should be acknowledged at least.

-Some of the dialogues are fucking awful especially at the begining. They repeat themselves so much. The scene with "Nooo Rook you need to help us resolve our problems otherwise we will be too weak to fight the gods!! Rook, do my personal quests or I'll be too sad to fight!!". Harding's "Awkwaaaard". Bellara's quirky uwu manic pixie girl vibes at the begining.

The Ugly:

-Anything related to the elves. For a game centered on elven gods... We get so much yet nothing. Why are they all more or less cool about their "Gods" being real and evil? No one freaking out about having Elgarnan's vallaslin on their face? No crisis of faith? No elves joining them, really? Not a single one? No dalish celebrating their return before realizing the awful truth? No city elves or elven slaves fleeing to them because they have nothing to lose anyway? That's unrealistic. I can understand the Veil Jumpers already knowing the truth, it's more or less explained in the books anyway, but there's no way it's commonly accepted among all dalish clans. Speaking of dalish clans, were are they? And Briala ? Didn't she also control the Eluvian? What about city elves in general? And elven slaves? There's just nothing. The elven pantheon wasn't some myths for the Dalish. It was a religion. Their religion. Damn, imagine Christians learning Jesus is coming back BUT he's in fact very evil and is launching nuclear weapons everywhere? And their only reaction is "Oh no, we have to stop Jesus :(" ? I'm taking the christian example but you could say that about pretty much every religion.

-Where are Fen'harel agents? A few lines and one or two NPC mentioning Solas parting ways with them or even making the Veil Jumpers the ex-agents left behind would have been SO much more interesting than whatever they justified in the AMA. I can't believe they didn't even put A CODEX ENTRY explaining their absence in game. That's lazy af.

-No repercussion on the elves AT ALL? Seriously, realistically speaking, what is the future for the elves at the end of DATV? "Their" Gods almost destroyed the world, "Their" Gods killed countless, "Their" Gods created the Blight, "Their" Gods that many dalish still worshipped only a few years ago. What do you mean humans aren't going to declare open season on them? Like OF COURSE I don't want that to happen, and I'm hoping that idk, they'll found their own country in a reclaimed Arlathan, or that the instability in the south allows some of them to grab positions of power but don't tell me the humans aren't going to feel so fucking justify in their hatred, especially towards the Dalish who never converted to the Chantry. The fact that the endgame doesn't mention ANYTHING about it is jarring. Bioware ffs drop a book or whatever soon I need answers. I need hope. The game is treating the racism against Elves as... Some prejudices humans soooometimes have against them and not... centuries of systematic oppression, genocide, cultural erasure. The City Elf origins, Chevaliers killing Alienage elves for funsies, Celene burning down a whole Alienage, the genocide of dalish clans anyone? All of this is stuff that happened like... Between 8 and 20 years ago. It's not ancient history.

-Blighting Ferelden Beyond Repair, the Venatori Coup in Orlais and Kirkwall's evacuation was mean. Of cours the South is dealing with the blight and a shitload of problem but the "we lost Denerim. And Redcliff. And anything really. Idk if there's survivors. But if there is they'll starve anyway. xoxo the Inky." was just mean spirited I'm sorry. Same as above, Bioware. I fucking need hope for the South. Anything really. They could have stopped as "Yo there's a big Blight in the south and it sucks, Denerim is struggling and we lost villages and all" and that would have been FINE. No need to go scorched earth damnit.

-The lack of worldstate choices. C'mon. I understand not having a lot of them but a list of 6-10 easy questions would have been nice. Who's Divine? Who's ruling in the South? Who drank from the Well of Sorrow? It wouldn't have asked much work to just personalize a few sentences to adjust that. Also, saying they only kept 3 choices so they could really mean something... Liar. The only thing that really has an impact is did u date solas or not. Which fine, of course it matters! But all the other romances, the inquisition disbanded or not, stopping solas or not had NO IMPACT whatsoever.

-Where the fuck is Fenris. Idgaf Inquisition had Leliana when she could die in DAO, so bring Fenris in the Shadow Dragon. He needs to be there.

-The Antaam is such a fucking racist trope I can't believe they did it. Yeah, let make them growl like damn animals.

-Speaking of Qunari, even Taash is... Urgh. Why do you mean they sniff people. Also, their whole storyline on their gender identity was badly written. That scene with Isabela... No. That's not how you apologize. You misgender someone by mistake? Say sorry, correct yourself, move on. That's it.

-Dwarves had cool moments in the game but dang, we really, REALLY needed more of it. So many revelation about them, and while some of them were very well written, it doesn't have enough impact.

-The absence of reactions and dialogues related to your race is jarring. Can't believe I'm begging the game for racial slurs but here we are. EVERYONE in Origins commented on you playing an Elf. A non-human Inquisitor faced struggles as the Herald. Why is Qunari Rook able to roam freely in Minrathous without a SINGLE comment on their race? Same for the elves, to a lesser degree since at least they are not a rare occurence in Tevinter. Can't believe dwarves get so little reaction for all the big reveals. Can't believe elves barely get to react to ELVEN GODS destroying the world or Bellara's guilt about it.

-WHERE'S THE CHANTRY. WHERE. DAMN IT. Even if it's not the focus of the game, I'd expect to still see its influence. Man I'm almost wishing Harding was more of a Chantry Girl.

-Morrigan's whole storyline is an insult to her character.

[ohandcounting]

Stayed up all night getting to the ending of Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3. CRDM3 is like. Man. I still don't like match-3 games and backtracking for 100% can be annoying with how the map is currently slightly broken and the "proceed" screen being long. But everything else is so good.

Like the setting and writing alone carried me, someone who cares not for match-3'ing, through it. I got so invested in a man who had an existential crisis over not having a real middle-name that I was crying when he was by the end of game. This is a game where you throw paintings at a feathered dinosaur.

(big ramble)

I'm not a game dev myself, and I don't know if I ever will be involved with making one despite how much I love the medium. But the story made me think of all the stuff I know of that's failed, let alone the stuff I don't. That even when they do get released they get cannibalized by their monetization models.

Deathgarden (Asym by the DbD guys) came out in early access with bad ideas. Bad balancing. Bad everything. But a really fun core idea. So they reworked everything. Made a new release called Bloodharvest. Still had its problems, but they refined it to be fun. By the end of its life time they fixed it. I mean really, there were no more real "core" problems with its design or gameplay loop. Nothing that we could find before it was gone, at least. It was insanely fun too. The problem? That first super early alpha was so unpopular a lot of people didn't care to play it until it actually released.

This would of been fine. They could of just, kept working on it. Actually finished the game and released it. They had the formula down at that point, fixed most of the abuseable grievances. But their early-access game that people weren't playing because they were waiting for the full release didn't meet quotas or whatever. Their game got canned because people weren't playing it before it released. They had the money, they had the game, the only thing bringing them down was a false perception based on an alpha that doesn't exist anymore and people waiting for their game to release. It's all so

Dumb.

Suits not releasing a game because people weren't playing a game that hadn't released yet because a different game that people didn't like released for less than a month 2 years ago.

Video Games to me are like, THE culmination of all other mediums. Art, Music, Choreography, Set Design, Blocking, Sound Design, Stuntmen Motion Capture, Voice Acting, Regular Acting, Character Design, World Building, Lore, etc upon etc upon etc. All of it optional, al(most al)l of it interactive. There's so much potential here, in what will probably be the last "new" medium to be invented. (at least until smell-o-vision or full-dive VR happens, those might count as a new one.) I think about how much of it is lost so often for the dumbest reasons. How much of it is ignored or missed everyday by people who don't have the time to search outside of advertisements and people who can't afford to buy them.

It breaks my heart a little bit to think about, ya know? Maybe it's just because I've been sick for 3 days and it's like 6am now but...This one meant a lot to me.

Sorry for rambling.

Thanks CRDM3, thanks StrangeScaffold, and thanks Xalavier.

I'm glad this one got to release.

[mistfallengw2]

Done with the story, and boy howdy am I happy with this expansion~

So, let's get the easy ones out of the way: map design and music are just top notch, even more than usual. Lost count of the amount of times I got lost exploring, it's all just damn neat, and I'm not even done. Likewise, I got so many goosebumps due to the music, and now that I'm past spoilers, I'm due to sit down and properly listen to the full soundtrack. Also, sound design has always been awesome as well, and each time they move up a level.

Story was pretty damn good and DENSE with stuff for lore nerds to chew on. GW2 is back to doing what it does best, and the worldbuilding through dialogue and books has been a blessing this time around. So many of the interesting things "forgotten by the story" got addressed or aknowledged, and I kinda like that we've been out of the loop for a while even before the SotO stuff (we can't be everywhere, and that's a good thing) so that it can be done organically. The Tyrian Alliance have some of my fave dialogue (oh Dougal, hang in there buddy) and books, and MAN the hints at potential future expansions have me running up walls. Also all my homies hate Isgarren's floaty ass and I'm here for it (and for poor Frode who has to wrangle him). The investigative parts are such a pearl of writing, piecing together what happened in Gavril through texts found around the map before the bloodstone story step was SO satisfying, and in general I loved each build-up. I expected things from Waiting Sorrow, and while what I got wasn't what I expected, I love her already (you can whoop Isgarren's supposed ass, don't hold back dear). I've seen people complain about Poky being Braham 2.0, which is fair, but honestly I'm here for it and I really want the two of them to meet and be friend (even Alder thinks the same, come on!). Can't wait to dwelve in all the other collections and achievements I haven't done yet, what I got done so far has been quite fun.

Gameplay? Sure the spears are awesome, the warclaw is fun (gosh the chain-race mechanic in those story fights? Perfection.), but the events and hearts are the kind of small scale stuff that makes me adore GW2, because I like being useful to people in mundane yet meaningful ways and it makes every part of the world feel lived in. I love that they reused a ton of older minigames and event structure for the new maps, and I haven't been so "at home" in maps since Grothmar.

Speaking of homes, the Homestead... Haven't touched it much because I wanted to focus on finishing story before going away for a few days + F2 being bugged for me. Given what I've seen, I'm glad I stocked up on mats, but I'll keep doing that and leave the actual decorating to when I have a nebulous "enough". With the story done, I will not respond of the emotional damage I will soon suffer. Expect posts uncomprehensible keysmashes under screenshots, I can't promise more (might survive since emotes don't seem possible for the alts, and while sad I do know that could have slain me).

My only sore points have been mostly resolved or are known bugs, and I'm trying to make my peace with the warclaw's animation speed ruining an otherwise perfect mount.

Could ramble a lot more, but all in all? If this is what we get after the teething pains of SotO, I'm sold on all future expansions and more. (And I should probably get started with GW1, huh)

Now to think about my OCs... For sure this is a expansion all about Aurelia and Ellara with a side of Zehmik, but gotta see about the rest...

[bvannn]

Weekly Update January 3, 2024

I am endocrine sick again, I probably will be for another week. I took my medicine at the normal dose but I have a hunch that the dose needs to be adjusted and that’s why I feel like shit. Blood tests wont be done for another week and idk how much longer after it’ll take to get back to me. I was doing art decently pretty early on in the week but I’ve layed off the past 2 days and will likely continue to do that for a bit.

Music: I got another instrumental piece done I think, I might add samples if I can find good ones but I might not. I got a little drawing done up so I can animate a little loop for that in front of a piano roll animation probably, I just need to sit down and throw that together + a thumbnail. I have a cover sketched for a batch ‘album’ to get a bunch of my other instrumentals out (not quite all of them but still a lot), I just need to finish it and those can get throw out there. LF is done basically, I might go multi-export it to tweak the vocal volume, but otherwise it just needs visual. I am going to try to stick to my one-song-a-month plan, but instead of finishing another old idea I had a new one while I was delirious, and got some cute lyrics done and more outlined so it’ll be a new one this month. I don’t have a name decided yet, it’s a sad little ballad about birds. Also since I figured out how to install the IK bundle I bought I’ll maybe mess with that more. My grandmother is potentially getting a new computer so I might grab her old one’s hard drive so I can finagle some files around and install the rest of the stuff.

Comic: I feel like shit because I barely did anything for the comic. I looked over my thumbnails, didn’t like the one I had for page 16, redid it, did the sketch, started lining it and had to stop mid panel because I got sick. I’ll probably try to chip away at writing stuff while I’m sick, I had some ideas for the loose thread stuff I came up with years ago finally coming together yesterday at the grocery store, and might be able to actually get a tertiary comic concept together, but again it’s not as solid as O’Malley or Backstage right now so it won’t be a priority. It’ll just maybe be doodle fodder while I’m sick.

Uhhh epithet TTRPG right. I got a bunch of tokens done early in the week. And some more scriptwriting done on the tutorial video. I need to get maps done, that’s going to be the bottleneck for a while. If I feel well enough to boot up my computer today I have the assets to get the last of the stage 2 maps done, but I’d want to make some more decorations for them too. Stage 3 is a science lab building so shouldn’t be too hard to get a tile set for. Once I’m feeling better honestly I might try to crunch myself to get the rest done. Maybe.

The other small animation thing: I believe all the assets are done other than some credits text, which I might just use a text tool for honestly. Again I just need to sit down and animate, I’m just a bit blocked, burnt out, sick, whatever other excuse I have, it’ll get done when it gets done.

Next week I don’t really have a concrete plan. I think I’ll try some easy writing stuff for now (comic and lyrics for this month’s song), and I’ll try some pixel art stuff to ease myself back into map making. Some pixel art people over on Bluesky found me and seem to like me so I kinda want to give them more of what they like. Plus pixel art can be done while my hands are shaky from the whole sick thing. Once I’m better I’ll finish comic page 16 and get back to token making. Everything kinda depends on my health, but I’m doing what I can. Also make sure you drink plenty of milk everyone, or if you can’t, get plenty of whatever your calcium source may be.

[aeondeug]

anyway i spend a lot of time complaining about hollow knight despite liking the game. likely due to the reputation it has of being the best of its genre and i am simply a creature of complaint. so let's spend some time to actually talk about things i like about the game.

the game is, as i have said, very charming. the art style is cute and pleasing to the eye. while also still allowing for creepy things. and creepy is something i like a lot. the music and sound design of many areas is also very lovely. with crystal peaks and deepnest being favorites of mine. i really love greenpath and the city of tears too on these fronts.

the game's story and way of delivering said story to you is also nice. i like plot you have to track down and piece together. hollow knight also does very nice super metroid style environmental storytelling.

exploration is something of a sour spot with me i will admit. i think that out of the games to do this sort of exploration it is among the least frustrating to me. i do still get very stymied at times and highly annoyed at it. i do generally like wandering around and finding stuff though. i do kind of wish the stuff i found i was more consistently excited for though.

geo in particular gets a bit bland because like zelda, hollow knight suffers the issue of you running out of things to spend your geo on. there are things like the unbreakable charms which i still need to unlock access to, i suppose. but i have managed to buy my way through most everyone's stock for a good bit. leaving me with much of the game just picking up more geo and relics that are essentially another form of geo. i do think hollow knight manages this better than zelda though, by way of having frequent geo tolls in addition to the various stores. and said stores have shit you would actually want even if initially it may seem innocuous. the map pins for example help you with triangulating your position on the map so you can free up the notch for the wayward compass. i do think that these geo tolls do run the risk of frustrating players though if one dies a lot. i myself was very frustrated in my initial failed attempt at the game. sadly the only solution to said frustration was the constantly spend my geo whenever i had the chance and to simply not die. anyway while i do think that geo becomes a lackluster reward after a point, in general i feel like the game did very well with making the resource feel meaningful. i was generally happy to find geo rocks for a longer time than i am in something like most zelda games.

this tangent finished, overall i do like the exploration element of hollow knight a lot. and finding npcs like marissa or things like the blue lake are very fun. i don't quite appreciate them as much as some do, but these small areas have been nice for me to find. i do kind of wish it provided me rewards like castlevania's tons of weapons. but the act of finding the secrets and completing the platforming puzzles is satisfying.

hollow knight's combat is also nice. especially once you start using things like the spells you can get a lot of it. and the bosses and standard enemies do provide you fun ways of using your kit. like i really appreciate that the enraged guardian has an attack that has the perfect profile for shape of uun to be used to avoid it. and i like that lost kin and broken vessel provide you reason to actually use defender's crest, since they let you focus entirely on the boss itself and not add management. standard enemies also allow for interesting skip potential as a consequence of how the pogo works.

speaking of the skip potential, it's apparent to me that hollow knight would likely be a very good candidate for rando runs. and while i guess rando isn't technically the game itself so some may consider it cheating to add to a list of pluses the game has going for it, randos are important enough to me that i'm going to add it. since it's not just the metroidvania tools you get access to. it's also the way the world is set up to allow for skips. some of which i've seen other people do. some of which i thought of after getting into an area myself. this would also help fix the rewards not feeling worth it problem too since then that normal bunk reward could be anything. it could be the mantis claw. it could be your spirit spell. who knows! and even outside of rando, i do think that the sequence breaks could make the game interesting to return to. because i mean i can simply go places. not even necessarily with the idea of going fast but to simply see if i can get to them.

and as a final note, i will admit that several of my problems with the game are simply me things. i am not as big on floatier characters in the genre and exploration focus tends to not be my bag when compared to combat focus (and yes i will grant that hollow knight does have combat centric dlc content. however, that is different than say the way rooms are set up in a castlevania or in blasphemous). which resulted in hollow knight falling extremely flat for me the first time i played it. it did not live up to my expectations. however, taking that in mind and accepting that hollow knight will never be my perfect metroidvania i've come to like the game quite a bit. it's a good game and for the right sort of person it may even be a great one.

i still have more of the game to play. i still need to get the conditions for the other two non-godmaster endings. i am still torn on whether or not i will bother with the godmaster content. i'll likely unlock it and try it a bit and see how i feel about it.

[digadroit]

As the record for (probably) the first and so far only Star Wars post on this blog, I wanna kick things off strong by saying that I actually, genuinely really like the final trilogy of Star Wars movies.

BUT

I can also admit and agree that yeah, they’re absolutely far from perfect. There’s a lot of stuff that either didn’t make sense when put into context, stuff that was just straight up asspulls, and plenty of wasted opportunity and plots that fell directly on their face.

(This is where it gets a little rant-y)

While the writing and lore and been talked to hell and back thousands of times already, the only thing that actually gets me about these three movies is the potential that just wasn’t made proper use of.

While I think Rey is still a pretty good protagonist, it does suck seeing Finn get hyped up during the whole movie, only to get sidelined for the ending and next two films.

There was Snoke, who honestly could’ve been the main overarching villain for all 3 movies, but instead only lasted for 2 of them. I don’t really care that Palpatine got brought back again (still an asspull) but Snoke was just dropped potential.

Do you remember the Knights of Ren? I don’t, and frankly neither do a lot of people, so there’s that too.

Remember the bombshell reveal that the same company selling weapons to the FO was also supplying the Resistance and just full-on War Profiteering? “We could’ve done more with it, except we won’t!”

Do you also remember the boy from the end of episode 8? I do, but apparently the writers or whoever else just tossed it in as a “The Jedi aren’t gone forever” thing and not as an actual plot. And I get it, you couldn’t do some absurd timeskip between 8 to 9 for a single character to be reasonably ready to fight, because apparently you’re only allowed to do that once per franchise. But nearly every Star Wars media they’ve put out since doesn’t take place any-fucking-where near the Disney trilogy, which makes you wonder if that’s intentional or if they really just don’t wanna touch that with a 10-foot pole.

And then of course there’s stuff that didn’t make sense. The Death Star knife that had the map? Don’t ask how it predates the Death Star’s fall, because nobody knows I guess. Could they have totally just had a regular layout of the DS that they use to explore the wreckage? Probably. Hell, I can still barely wrap my head around how Rey was Palpatine’s grandaughter. I get that the dude looks wrinkly to all hell for reasons other than actual aging, but it still doesn’t change the fact that he’s old as FUCK. Even just having a clone of him doesn’t totally sell me on it, because then that means somewhere along the line somebody had sex with a human-sized raisin with a voice as smooth as scraping your knuckles against heavy grit sandpaper.

And I’m not even going to get into anything lore related because unlike 10-year old me, I’m no longer qualified to properly assess that (I still have that “Absolutely Everything You Need To Know” book and it pages literally haven’t seen sunlight in years.)

BUT

Regardless of its flaws (the oh-so-many of them in hindsight) I still love those last three movies.

Yeah, the writing really wasn’t always that great. But where it fell short in practice, it absolutely DOMINATED in concept. I could talk about all of the things it did wrong for a bit, but I could spend all fucking DAY talking about everything that was so incredibly awesome to me about it.

For one, the trailer for Episode 7 was like the single greatest piece of media I’d ever seen back when it came out. I was still super young then, so Star Wars felt like a relic to me, something that had come and gone for good. So if nothing else, I understood that Star Wars coming back was the most important thing ever. But between the music, the lines, the new designs, the fucking character returns, I just thought it was the best thing in the world.

If there’s one thing the First Order did right, it was their fucking designs, man. I remember when the FO Trooper design was revealed, it was my favorite thing ever for months. (And then when Sith Troopers came along in the 9th, that started all over again)

Kylo Ren may not have been anywhere near as much of a threat in the movies as Vader was, but I still thought he was such a cool character. (I still think about him just saying “no, fuck u” and stopping a bolt mid-air. Yeah it didn’t totally make sense, but it was still so fucking cool. And his lightsaber? Easily my favorite in the series.

Now even though I’d say that this was my favorite trilogy, none of these three films would qualify for the best movie in my opinion. That would go to the 3rd film, which I kinda hate myself for because everyone talks about the prequels and Clone Wars era like there’s no tomorrow, but even then I’d still have to say that it’s the best. Can’t beat the original trilogy though.

I can see and understand why a lot of people just don’t like them, but you couldn’t make me hate the 3rd trilogy. Is that a biased opinion? Likely so, but I still stand on it.

(Idk how to end this, so something something Justice for Finn)

[bahamutgames]

AFTERTHOUGHTS - ROUNDUP ROUND 18

February - March 2025

Alrighty! We're early into April right now, and I figured it'd be a good time to go ahead and write up my thoughts on what I played the last few months! I didn't play much in February cause I was distracted with Fantasian, but I ended up getting through a LOT during March! So without further ado, let's get into it!

You already know, these aren't reviews, just my thoughts, please play anything I talk about if it interests you!

Halo 2 (November 9, 2004) - Xbox

YAY HALO TIME YAY YAY!! Me and my sister have slowly started making our way through the co-op campaigns of the series, and while we started Halo 2 last year we only recently finally managed to beat it.

In my opinion, though I really enjoyed Halo 1, Halo 2 kind of knocks it out of the water. There's not a crazy reveal like with the flood or anything, you kind of already know what's up until the finale. But the overall quality is just so high in comparison to the first. Dual wielding rules, proper sound mixing, ACTUAL SUBTITLES! We finally could properly understand what was happening in this game! Also, getting to play as the Arbiter kicks ASS! I love games with opposing stories and my only complaint is that they don't really cross over in a satisfying way until the end. I would've loved a Master Chief vs Arbiter boss battle, but alas. It has a lot of the same praises as the first though, fun alien designs (I liked the introduction of the brutes and the weird bugs), beautiful set pieces (LOVED the last arbiter level on that beach), and a FANTASTIC ost. The ost in this one blows Halo 1 out of the water. I loved the licensed music, the Mjolnir mix obviously kicks ass. But particularly I REALLY liked the use of drums in this soundtrack, im not a music expert so idk how to describe it, but it has a tropical feel to it that I think is so unique for music in a sci-fi shooter. My favorite songs were Follow and Peril :) This game ruled, man. I can't wait to see where Halo 3 takes it.

I don't really have too many complaints off the top of my head. I think there's still some issues with getting lost on maps, I just think some sort of map or quest marker could really help. Though it's considerably easier to navigate than halo 1 was, but we still found ourselves getting stuck in some rooms with seemingly no way to go. There were also some odd visual bugs by the end of the game, but that's certainly the 360's fault and not the game. Some games just don't make the transition good, but you would expect them to iron out stuff on their flagship series. Uh... I think that's all I got... It's weird there's no run button?

The plot is getting juicer, the characters are thicker, the gameplay feels better, the score is goated. Halo 2 rules! Also... Gravemind... ahaha.... omg gravemind...

BIT.TRIP BEAT - FLUX (March 16, 2009 - February 25, 2011) - Switch

With the announcement they're sunsetting gold points on Nintendo Switch, I went through and claimed all the points I could (which were not a lot I didn't realize they expire lmao... cool) but I was able to grab a few games for free. Namely, the whole BIT.TRIP series. For free. So that's cool! Previously I had only played Runner, but never beat it. But I remembered when these games were coming out, and they felt like pretty big name indie titles I hadn't really tried. So I figured, why not?

I'll just give a basic run down on my thoughts for each:

Beat: Very fun, I liked playing motion control pong. That final boss is deviously brutal though. It's fun, but like, not fun enough for the time investment to get good at those frame perfect hits against it, yknow?

Core: Neat! Felt the most like a rhythm game. I don't really remember much about this one but it's cool.

Void: Potentially my favorite concept, playing as a void and eating blocks to become bigger and bigger and knowing when to compress yourself to make it through obstacles. But for some reason this one felt not great to play, I can't describe why. It felt, ice physics-y??? Kind of frustrating.

Runner: The most game like of the bunch and probably my favorite? It's where the music really starts to shine, this is the only one with songs that REALLY stick with me personally. It's fun, but one hit point can be pretty annoying when the levels get particularly long.

Fate: What probably should've been my favorite, seeing as how it's a shmup. But something about it just feels kind of tedious. I couldn't make it past the penultimate boss and just lost interest and decided to move on. I like the different bullet types, but honestly giving commander video a group of friends which include Super Meat Boy and a girl commander video. It feels corny in a way I'm not super vibing with.

Flux: Weirdly enough I barely remember anything about this one except it goes back to being really weird after Runner became kind of random (derogatory). It's cool that the gameplay ends where it begins though. Neat.

Overall BIT.TRIP is cool but my general consensus is that when the levels get really long, the gameplay feels kind of tedious. But I respect the hell out of it for being so weird. Neat stuff.

Spyro the Dragon (September 9, 1998) - Playstation

Would you believe me if I told you that I, the huge fan of dragons and platformers, have never played the dragon platformer before? It just kinda slipped by me. I don't think I had a copy of it as a kid, and if I did. Idk I just never really got into it. BUT ALL THAT CHANGED THIS YEAR!! And the verdict is?

Yeah it's cool. Spyro is a very fun game, it feels great to play even now, it looks wonderful and really bright and cheery, it's got nice environments, cute music, a fun premise, and a dragon as the main character! I like Spyro a lot I think it's very cool and unique that he's a quadraped when most platformer characters are bipedal. His powers are all simple but really fun, gliding in particular was really cool and I liked how big maps could get because of this ability. I didn't really hit many roadblocks while playing it, it's cute, I really like the high fantasy dragon aesthetic. I don't really know what else to say, there's not much to NOT like about it. It's simple, but effective!

But it's not perfect. Particularly, I think the bosses in this game suck. The first boss, I thought it was a regular enemy, I didn't even realize it was a boss cause there's no fanfare for beating it! Similarly the final boss just blows. I was not a fan of doing those races against Gnorc (awesome name btw). I didn't like super dashes, the game is obsessed with them but I didn't like them doing them. I didn't have to grind for the gems the whole game but going back and grinding for them to reach the final world was a drag. The last dragon in the racist level fucking sucked. Why do all platformers from this era have a racist level for no reason?

But regardless of that. This game was fun, and aside from that, has aged really well! I'm genuinely interested to see where it goes from here! I actually do already have Spyro 2 and 3 so I'll be sure to keep you all posted on when I play them!

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (November 6, 1997) - Playstation

But not just one PS1 platformer, BUT THAT SECOND PS1 PLATFORMER! I'm back in action with Crash Bandicoot once again after playing Crash 1 for the first time last year. And true to my word, I actually played it physically on my PS3, neat!

This game is a BIG step up from the first in my opinion. Feels nicer, looks better, has a lot more level types, I liked the plot, it introduces Coco (even though she's barely used she's cute so I like her), I like the music I like the aesthetic (there were some gorgeous levels this time around like a night time jungle level idr the name of). Overall it was just a very cool game that I again don't really have too much to say about. I liked the bosses, there was something about the hub area that I really liked. I like that we already are teaming up with Cortex in the second game, that's cool. Yeah it was neat!

My only real complaints are that the final boss kinda sucks. I couldn't beat it at all until I realized that I just had to never leave Cortex alone and suddenly it was the easiest fight ever, even though right before that there's a big boss against N. Gine who has a brand new mechanic and is a way crazier fight. Odd.

Yeah I feel like I had even less to say about this than Crash 1. It's a good game! I do think it's leagues better than the first. Crash is a cool guy, I'm interested to see how the original trilogy wraps up with Crash 3, and how I'll feel about it in comparison to Spyro when all is said and done.

One Strike (November 3, 2017) - Switch

Here's another game I got for free using my emergency Gold Points. I got it just cause it was so cheap and the concept of a 1-hit KO fighting game seemed novel if nothing else.

But to my surprise this game RULES! Like, seriously rules it kicks ASS! a 1-hit fighting game might sound a little basic and boring, but it's actually such a stressful and fun game and probably my favorite thing I've gotten with my gold points so far. Each character has a strike, a block, a back dash, and some unique gimmick to themselves. It's so simple but so effective. My favorite character was Oni, who is slow and has a special strike that's even slower, but can break through blocks. He rules. I also think Soujiro is interesting, and Kenji. But I barely remember what they do not cause MY BOY ONI IS ALL THAT MATTERS!

My only complaint is that, imo, and this is so mean. This game is kind of ugly looking. I know that's harsh and usually not something I'd pick on a game for but while there's nothing objectively wrong with the pixel art and the css art I just couldn't get into the style of the game at all. Aside from some of the environments, I just found the game to be really ugly looking. But, the sequel, which I am INSANELY interested in now. Has an INCREDIBLY strong and cool art style.

So yeah, this game was a shining success. I can't wait to play it with friends, and I will absolutely be trying the DLC characters and I will ABSOLUTELY be trying the sequel when I get the chance! Awesome stuff!

Be Brave, Barb (March 11, 2025) - Mobile

Another day, another Thomas K Young banger! This is actually the first game of his I played on phones aside from the Fowlst games. I apologize Young, I hope that the ad revenue helps fund you as much as buying the game does! I was a touch bit broke when I played this haha.

Be Brave Barb is a game where you play as a cactus who can walk on walls, and will always walk forward, you just make her jump. But the neat part is that the wall she stands on becomes her new standard of gravity. It's cool and remarkably tricky at times! But overall the game is cute, I love Barb's design, I really like the music with the weird little voices singing in some of the levels. The plot is cute, with Barb needing to find pages from her positive affirmations journal, they're meant to be silly but some of them were genuinely nice and I'm still thinking about even now. Overall it's just another fun game! Plain and simple.

My only issues are level length and bosses. Level length can be an issue for particularly long levels, since you have to wait for Barb to walk places on her own, dying in one hit really late into a long level can be a MASSIVE time sink. Overall the levels are pretty straight forward and very creative, but sometimes they can be confusing (or at least confused me) on how a jump will land from a certain angle and stuff like that. For the bosses, I felt like they were a little basic. I still feel like there's something more interesting you could do with the boss battles in this game, the final boss ended up being the best one imo.

BUT YEAH, this is another simple but fun adventure. I really do love everything this dev makes and I will always be there day 1 to play their stuff. AND NEXT TIME, I PROMISE I'LL HAVE BETTER MONEY TO BUY THE GAME PROPER!!

Neodori Forever (June 15, 2022) - Switch

Another game I got for free using gold points, I'm always up for a good car game. Even if I tend to be kind of bad at more arcadey ones. This one just looked really nice and I got it for free so who am I to complain?

And yeah! This is a very cool game! It looks GREAT, I think the low poly graphics are really put to good use here with saturated colors and nice environments. And levels that take place at night just look even prettier, it's great looking! It also has a really good sound track, a ton of cars you can unlock, and a lot of modes. You really get some bang for your buck here! I mainly stuck to Odyssey, which is the main story mode where you make your way through random levels and beat npcs in races. It's fun!

But for some reason I just never got used to the gameplay. Driving itself feels fine but drifting feels SO weird and specific to me. However, I'm almost certain this is a skill issue and not an issue with the game. Like there's something I just can't understand but I want to understand so bad cause I can tell this game kicks ass. Oh well, even with my struggles, I was still able to finish the Odyssey mode, so it's no big deal. My other main complaint is that npc drivers are fucking morons and only appear when I'm drifting on the wrong side of the road (their fault not mine) or on top of items I want to collect. Very annoying

But yeah regardless of my inability to play, this was a fun game, especially for free. Glad I stuck with it, cool stuff!

Astro's Playroom (November 12, 2020) - PS5

HOLY SHIT, GREEN PLAYING A PS5 GAME!?!?! If you can believe it, yeah! It's not mine, and I won't have access to it for very long most likely. But a family member got a PS5 which means for a short time, I have access to PS4/PS5! Neat! I don't have many games but the PS5 comes preinstalled with a free tech demo game, and I've wanted to play Astro Bot for a minute now so of course I was so excited to try this one out!

AND YEAH, IT RULES! I'm blown away this was a free game that came preinstalled on the console. I probably would've paid money for this game but thankfully I didn't have to cause that made the experience all the better. Astro's Playroom is a small 3D platformer where you jump around 4 worlds inspired by different aspects of your PS5 to get a better understanding of what roles each component play in the console. Your GPU has monkeys in it, for example. Really educational stuff! But in all seriousness, this is a REALLY fun and legit platformer, no nonsense here. It feels great, looks amazing (like seriously good looking), has a wonderful soundtrack, it's super cute and fun and bright I LOVE the bots. And I'm particularly impressed with how well it shows off what the controller can do, it's like Nintendo Land in that kind of way. You have to make use of every aspect of the PS5 controller to beat the game, from the touch pad to gyro to the microphone! I LOVED this! I also loved all the references to PS1 stuff, which I know only gets better in Astro Bot, but I didn't expect it in this one so it was a pleasant surprise. My favorites were the astrobots worshipping and fangirling over the Buster Blade, and the final boss. Which is a GENIUS final boss and a reference I didn't get at first (I was still pretty young when PS1 was new lol) but is SUCH a genius pull for a final boss to this game. Stuff like this, getting to look at all these peripherals, and pulling back really obscure random characters from tech demos or scrapped mascot designs almost makes me feel like Sony is the best as making goofy celebrations of their past.

My only real issues with it, while I did really like these sections. The scenes where you get into suits like the monkey, the frog, stuff like that. They're fun, but they're not more fun than Astro Bot and sometimes I felt like their sections lasted a little long, but I wouldn't want them removed! They're still fun! I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel for stuff to complain about lol. It's a free tech demo there's not much to complain about! I guess I do wish that there was maybe more stuff to read in the levels about how your PS5 works and where you are in the PS5. I know it's fictional and the PS5 doesn't ACTUALLY have this stuff inside, but it could be a fun more in depth learning opportunity. I'd LOVE to know more about how the console works beyond a gameplay level, yknow? Am I being a nerd?

Anyway, this game RULED! I can totally see myself 100% completing it, and I actually do also have Astro Bot proper, so when I get the chance I'm jumping RIGHT into that! This was such a fun experience and I cannot believe the Switch 2 will also have a tech demo that takes place inside the console. And you have to pay for it and it comparatively looks way less cool. But I guess it's have the teaching aspect be more of a focus. But I don't care, NERDS!!

Donkey Kong (June 14, 1994) - Gameboy

And last but not least, is DK 94! When this was announced to be coming to NSO, people FREAKED OUT! I saw just about everyone I follow popping of for this. And I thought "the... gameboy DK arcade game? Really?" And I knew it wasn't a straight up port of the original, but still. How could it possibly be THAT good that everyone's freaking out? So I had to give it a shot.

AND YEAH I GET IT! This is the BEST of the DK Arcade games, in my opinion (I haven't played Mario vs Donkey Kong). I'm seriously impressed with this game! Maybe I'm overreacting but it felt like a game made nowadays to feel like a gameboy game, but they massively overestimated what the GB was capable. But it's not that, it's a real GB game doing the work! The sprites look great and are readable, there are cutscenes that are fun and really well done, the music is AMAZING! The gameboy had NO BUSINESS putting out a song as good as "Showdown at the Tower". The levels are all fun, it feels snappy and smooth to play (it may be one of the best feeling platformers on the console??? Maybe?) And there's a ton of interesting stuff, I didn't know DK Jr was gonna be in it (I know he's on the cover be nice to me), I didn't expect the final boss at all which was really cool. This game totally whips ass! I'm blown away, y'all were right!

My only complaints are that some of the levels can feel a little samey, like there's nothing too crazy in some of them. And I'd almost prefer less levels in some worlds so they can really make them more unique. Some of the levels were also particularly confusing and sometimes felt too complicated or way too easy. I only had to look up solutions to one or two, but when I did I felt so stupid lmao. Also, it just occured to me they totally should've put in a level recreating the Game and Watch DK game! Nevermind 0/10 trash game.

No but seriously, this was a blast, I'm pleasantly surprised! I know Mario vs DK is supposed to be WAY less cool, but I may still give it a shot cause this game was so much fun and I remember when that one was coming out lol. Also, I NEED the next Smash Bros. to axe 75m and put a stage based on this in it. With a Showdown at the Tower remix, please!?

[veebs-hates-video-games]

I just realized all three games mentioned in the previous post (Tales of Berseria, Tales of Arise, and Star Ocean: The Divine Force) have music by the same person: Motoi Sakuraba. Go figure.

Anyway, Star Ocean: The Divine Force is an extremely ok game. I'm beginning to think Star Ocean in general aspires to be a B-tier JRPG series but doesn't always actually manage to pull that off. I haven't played all of them and have only finished two of them, but I just want one to actually live up to its own potential and be consistently good the whole way through. They really have some good stuff going on there, but something always manages to get in the way.

Both SO6 and SO2 (the only two I've finished all the way through) have the same problem where the first half or even 3/4 of the game is pretty consistently good-but-not-quite-great, and then the rest of it just isn't anywhere near as much fun, and by the end I just want it to be over. And for some reason the problems usually show up or become significantly worse around the time you move from whatever swords and sorcery planet you're stuck on into space, which is kind of funny because part of me wishes they had a better balance of those two things until I remember the space sections are worse.

This one was genuinely quite fun for most of the first three of four acts/chapters/whatever they call them. Like I said before the nyoom button is great and makes exploration and combat feel a lot faster and more fluid, and the characters grew on me more since then and are mostly what kept me going at the end. The doll-like character designs even mostly won me over eventually (except for everyone in the Lawrence family looking extremely goofy), although a few of the female character designs are a bit questionable (please let Chloe wear more than 2/3 of a skirt).

The story has its moments, and it's kind of amusing following following along with it and seeing how many things map one-to-one directly onto Star Trek, just with the names very slightly changed. The entire series feels like the adventures of the United Federation of Planets Pangalactic Federation trying and failing to uphold the Prime Directive Underdeveloped Planet Preservation Pact, and there's a bunch of other stuff in this one that has very obvious Star Trek counterparts that I'm not going to get into because spoilers. Star Trek did it better, but I at least enjoyed what they did with it here for the most part until the ending parts of the game/story.

And unfortunately it's that last act of the game that really dragged down my opinion of it in the end, just like with the really underdeveloped disc 2 of SO2. I did appreciate the fakeout ending, but some stuff dragged on longer than it had to, and the motivations of a lot of the main antagonists toward the end got kind of muddled or bland or boring or all of the above. Lots of handwaving and not a lot of satisfying payoff for much.

It didn't help that by then the gameplay kind of started to fall apart too. I realized by then how much the combat system was being carried by the nyoom button. The more stuff you have to fight that can't be effectively nyoomed the less fun it gets. Also the crafting/IC system somehow sucks noticeably more than in SO2R (where it was actually pretty good), so I didn't use it as much as I should've because it's just so much slower to use and hides so much information from you, and at some point even the best buyable gear will still result in all your fairly stupid AI party members getting one-shot by several of the bosses as they charge directly into something that's about to kill them.

What also doesn't help that is that a lot of the stronger attacks have such painfully long animations compared to the quicker ones you use earlier in the game, but if you don't want fights to take forever you need to use them because they're so much stronger. It just doesn't feel awesome switching from quick individual attacks to pushing a single button to do an entire combo that you're locked into for like five seconds, and then something knocks you out of it and you get to eat another five seconds slowly falling through the air and then getting up from the ground. Even like 40 hours in I was still tapping the dodge button trying to recover from knockback/knockdown attacks like you can do in better games.

It also might be the most heteronormative game I've played in a while. I don't think queer people exist in this universe, at least not in this game. Like not only is it never mentioned, but it's always universally assumed by everyone that everyone is attracted to the opposite gender and wants to get married and have an extremely normal life, which after a while started to really stand out and feel kind of weird. And it's also weird how many of the private actions between female characters end up being them talking about boys or astrology or girls be shopping, while the guys are fighting with each other over who's the strongest. There are rare exceptions like Albaird liking candy and fluffy animals, but they're pretty unusual.

And I actually like that the girls are allowed to be girly sometimes while still being just as competent as everyone else, like Nina and Chloe were two of my favorite characters. It's just kind of jarring how stark the gender divide is a lot of the time, even if Albaird is allowed to not always be a badass manly man and Malkya is allowed to be sometimes (also her design is...questionable).

Also it somehow decided I needed to see the Laeticia/Midas ending, which was the absolute lowest one on my list if I'd been allowed to choose. Please do not make the old man get flirty with the 18-year-old princess. It's weird and creepy. Also the internet claims that the game says he's 37 (which is still far too old), but that man looks like he's at least in his 50s. What's wrong with you? That was a terrible note to end on.

Anyway, in conclusion Star Ocean is still struggling to actually make a complete and consistent game that lets the genuinely good stuff they have going on shine without getting bogged down by some flubbed design decisions and iffy writing at times. I just want the whole thing to be as much fun as I was having when I said this on Discord:

More games should let you play as a princess in a scalemail dress with two swords and a jetpack who goes up to people like IT'S TIME TO DUEL and then pulls out a board game

[almostjollyprince]

100ish days of productivity: The beginning?

So, while I am claiming to go for the 100 days of productivity, I know for a fact that 100 straight days of productivity will burn me out. This'll be more like... 150 days with a mix of productivity and breaks. Remember to take breaks often!

Day 0/100 - Jan 1 2024 A day of planning. What are my goals? Why am I putting myself through this crap? Why on Tumblr? Am I sure I won't back out after Day 30?

To learn something new (music theory and music production). To improve and better myself (physical training and weight loss). To continue and finish what I've started and to make it the best that it can be (my various projects still being worked on).

Because if I don't hold myself accountable, who will? The wife probably won't. And because it'll be fun(?).

Why anywhere, really?

Not really, but I'm already here.

Day 1/100 - Jan 2 2024

First day of work of the new year. Why am I getting up so early? morning - arrived at the office. It's still dark out. I'm the first one of my group here, so I catch up on stuff from when I was on holiday. Prep the buddy schedule for everyone for the week. Grab the data I need for my quarterly evaluation. There's an interview today so I'll look over that individual's work history to prepare myself later. mid-morning - code with the juniors and help them out when they get stuck. They're a good crew to work with. Liveshared the code so that everyone's on the same page. Today's goal was to get some visuals to show when a button's pressed (we'll worry about functionality later). To avoid potential overlap, I containerized the dialog box into 3 separate components so that everyone had their own section to work on. Since we had a mock-up designed for how we wanted things to look, things go pretty smoothly. early afternoon - interview time. Let's see how they do. mid-afternoon - gave a progress report to the project lead. Visuals are maybe 60% done. We'll need to tweak things here and there and apply functionality but he's surprised we got a lot done on today. evening - study time. Bit of music theory, bit of certification study. I still need to finish the prep work for my D&D campaign that I run. That includes maps and a couple of puzzles. The concept's all there, I just need to mold it to my vision.

Do I wanna write these as status reports? I'll figure something out that best suits me as this progresses, but today is not that day.

[archer3-13]

in many ways i wanna say pokemon scarlet and violet are worth it solely for that last battle and story section with professor turo / sada. good build up, interesting fight, kickass music, and a nice ending bit of using a terra blast to kick your opponents ass.

on the otherhand the actual gameplay section leading up to the final battle is a dull hallway, and the process of getting to that final section [in overcoming the various paths of the game] feels undercooked by comparison.

its an arguable problem all open world games have in storytelling mind, but i do think there were ways it coulda been overcome so that the strong points of the endgame can shine throughout the entire game.

victory road feels the most obligatative of the paths, and considering its been in every mainline pokemon game i dont think you could cut it in good faith. what it did need was either more 'environmental exploration' elements present... or less.

more in the sense that well the gym challenges are more about interacting with the environment they dont push that concept hard enough in some cases.

or alternatively it should be less in the sense of streamlining the experience and leaving environmental exploration to the other paths well making the path about pokemon battles more about pokemon battles.

gyms in pokemon have always been this odd mix of obligation and actual excitement, self contained puzzles to avoid the main interactive mechanic of the pokemon game the battling. i think scarlet and violet really missed an opportunity to reinvent the concept of a gym in pokemon though by awkwardly hemming to tradition without the self contained gym environments to maximize the potential effectiveness of whatever puzzle [or challenge in this instance] they had in mind. especially since team star bases as self contained environment would have been much better suited to a puzzle challenge instead of the weird beatdown thing they did with team star bases.

SO! proposed solution here would be to 'divide the labour' so to speak. gyms instead of the ecliptic mess of minigames they are, are instead gonna be all modelled on larrys gym about exploring the immediate city of the gym to 'unlock' the gym battle itself. that way you can get a more natural understanding of the cities layouts through experience, the cities can be more intently designed to accommodate a gym challenge and battles can more easily serve as the centre piece attractions without having to share. all in all it can also just be more compact this way. titans are a let down because ya dont so much hunt them as ya do walk to their premarked locations. and i understand its going to be difficult for giant pokemon to hide, but it atleast would have been less of a let down if you had to more thoroughly explore the environment to drag them out of hiding. theres a lot of space in scarlet and violet that feels rather empty aside, and making ya have to more extensively track titan pokemon would help reduce that feeling of dead space. finally as noted the team star bases should have been more about infiltration and environmental puzzles then a straight up brawl. the poison star base for instance being ninja themed should have had a self contained stealth section, well for the fairy base ya have to draw the rich kid out through dirtying up his nice stuff or something.

finally area zero instead of being a hallway i think would have been better suited to being a kinda sprawling explorable environment that you map your way around to find all the research stations in. not a winding slide downwards but more of a bowl shape if that makes sense. that and maybe some unique megabosses guarding the stations that need all of your friends at once to take on [super titans or something, idk]

[five-rivers]

Beltane

Written for Ectober 2021 Day 1: Trick vs Treat. This is part of the Exhumed series.

.

Danny Fenton walked into the precinct. As often happened when he did this, all attention slowly turned to him. “Hi, Detective Patterson. Have you ever heard of Beltane?”

Patterson took a long swig of coffee through the plastic stir straw, because she felt the need to be at least a little drugged before dealing with whatever this was, and then said, “Is this the kind of thing the whole precinct needs to know about, or is it more specific to me?”

“Mm, not specific to you, but I’m not sure if everyone needs to know about it, yet.”

Despite only select members of the Amity Park police force knowing Danny Fenton had another identity, he’d become a sort of ‘ghost liaison’ for the precinct. Better him than the adult Fentons, who tended to break things even (especially) when they were being careful.

“Actually,” continued Danny, “you might have already noticed some things about it. I mean, it’s seasonal, and Mom and Dad were detecting ectoenergy and ghost activity spikes for events like this before they got the portal up and running. Although, the portal was supposed to stabilize and reduce those spikes… I guess reducing one isn’t bad?”

“Okay,” said Patterson. “I don’t really know what you’re talking about. Do you want me to go find Collins?”

“Oh, that might be a good idea.”

“Great,” said Patterson. She turned her head to shout across the room. “McGee. Go find Collins.”

“Still the new guy?” asked Danny, sympathetically.

“It isn’t like we’re a popular posting,” said Patterson, “and, thanks to the ghosts, we don’t really need new people.”

Danny nodded placidly. “I know. But it must be hard for him, don’t you think?”

.

McGee had done his job. He’d discovered the corruption in the Amity Park Police Department and plumbed its depths. The problem was that he could never, ever, report it. Even if they didn’t have a perfectly good cause for it all, what they were ‘hiding’ (and they were only barely doing that) was so ridiculous that McGee had thought he’d gone crazy at first.

Ghosts.

The whole of Amity Park was haunted. Just like it said in those touristy brochures at the front of the local diners.

He stuck his head into the break room. “Collins, Patterson and Fenton want you,” he said.

“In the normal room?” Collins asked, shoving a sugary monstrosity of a donut into his mouth.

“I have no idea. She didn’t say.”

“Normal room then. Great job, McGee.”

McGee rolled his eyes. Great job, he said. As if he’d done anything.

God. What would Halloween be like?

.

“So, it’s like, reverse Halloween?” asked Patterson.

“Well, not exactly,” said Danny. He patted Daisy, the department mascot slash corpse sniffing dog who had followed them into the small interview room, gently on the head. “Actually, there are more similarities than differences. Basically, like Halloween, we’re going to get a spike in ectoenergy. Maybe even some ectoplasmic storms. More portals. That kind of thing.” He shrugged. “Most holidays and seasonal divisions have them, you know.”

“So… we’re getting Halloween round two?” asked Collins.

“What do you bet that this is what gets McGee to snap?”

“He’s been here since December,” said Collins. “I think he’s too stubborn to leave.”

“Is he still spying?” asked Danny.

“No,” said Patterson, waving a hand. “He gave up on that, after a while. But there’s a new office bet about whether or not he’ll stay stay, or if he’ll decide to quit. We’re not allowed to join in because we know him too well.”

“Mm,” said Danny.

“I don’t actually know if I feel like I know him that well,” said Collins.

“Well,” said Danny, “it shouldn’t be as extreme as Halloween. Since, I mean, there aren’t as many religious holidays directly associated with death and stuff happening on or around May first. So. Yeah. But the thing is, there are some traditional, er, activities. Spirited activities.”

Collins suppressed a groan, and was glad that Captain Jones wasn’t available today. He and Danny could sling puns at each other for obscenely long periods of time.

“I’ve never noticed ghosts doing anything on May Day,” said Patterson.

“This is only the third year anyone’s even acknowledged that ghosts exist,” said Danny, “so I’m not really all that surprised. But the reason that I came to talk to you guys is that some of the ghosts want to do Beltane stuff. Like the fire blessings. Also, I’ve been told that some of the trees in town are secretly ghost trees, and if we don’t want to deal with another tree army, we need to do some stuff to appease them.”

“Secret ghost trees.”

“My source is very reliable,” said Danny. “Also, while I say ‘we don’t want to deal with it,’ I think we all know who’d be dealing with most of it.”

“You would,” said Patterson.

“Got it in one. Like, I can convince most of the ghosts to either do their Beltane stuff in the Ghost Zone, or somewhere out of the way. They’ll be disappointed, but I can do it. The ghost tree thing, though…”

“Can’t we just, I don’t know,” said Collins, “get rid of the ghost trees?”

“Well, they aren’t really evil ghost trees. Or even really ghost trees. They’re more… ghosts that live in trees?”

“What, like dryads?” asked Collins, raising his eyebrows.

“That’s what I said, but they’re different species, apparently.”

“Okay,” said Patterson, “so. Appeasing the trees. How many trees are we talking about here, and how are we going to appease them?”

.

“Okay, so, this is definitely a whole precinct kind of thing,” said Patterson.

“And possibly an ‘all civil servants’ type of thing,” added Collins. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Where are we going to get the funding for this?”

“Oh, don’t worry about money,” said Danny. “I’ll just blackmail Vlad, and if that doesn’t work, I can get Mom and Dad to pay for it.”

“What,” said Collins.

“I think this might be a bit beyond your parents’ budget,” said Patterson, “but knock yourself out as far as Masters goes.”

“Well, I guess if it is,” he allowed, dubiously, “I could get the cults to pitch in?”

.

“This is nice,” said Danny. The sky was a bit overcast, which was a shame, but the hundreds of bright flowers and cheerful music more than made up for that.

The May Day celebration was, in Danny’s opinion, a success. At least, this half of it was turning out to be. He’d have to wait and see how the Spirit Bonfires went tonight before he could really make a judgement.

He’d only had to blackmail Vlad a little, too. It turned out that the ‘ruthless businessman’ in Vlad was ludicrously easy to manipulate, and once Danny brought up how a celebration like this one could revitalize local businesses and bring in tourism, he’d caved.

Although, that might have been the threat of an angry tree army. Vlad had definitely come off worse for wear in the last one, on all fronts.

Then, publically putting the Phantom Stamp of Approval (and Necessity Given The Potential Angry Tree Army) on the event had gotten buy-in from his fans and (sigh) the cults. The cults were, in fact, very enthusiastic about their new Holy Day. Danny had made a map of all the places they’d set up booths, and was studiously avoiding them.

Sam and Tucker were doing a walkthrough of that area, now, to check for problems and unadorned thorn trees. They’d arranged to meet up soon.

So, Amity Park was decked out in ribbons and flowers. All of the schools had gotten Maypoles and the day off of classes. Several bands, both human and ghostly, were playing in different parts of town.

It was chaotic, but great.

Danny briefly cut into the street to dodge a pair of college-age men play-fighting with tree branches (a genuinely important tradition symbolizing the battle between winter and summer), then walked through a wall to avoid two ghosts doing the same thing.

Finally, he reached Madame Babazita’s table.

“Hi,” he said, “three readings, please.”

“Three?” she asked. “Just for you?”

“My friends should get here before mine’s done,” said Danny. Was he channeling some predictive powers? Maybe. Holidays did make his powers weird.

.

“I have no idea what your reading is saying,” said Madame Babazita, after fifteen full minutes. “The cards simply aren’t speaking to me today. Also,” she held up an Uno card, “I’m not sure how this even got here.”

“That’s okay,” said Danny, “I just wanted to make sure it was the same as last time.”

.

“Hey! Phantom!” called Ember across the crowd of ghosts that had gathered in the cemetery. Most of them were fire or nature themed. “You’re in for a treat!”

Danny, who had been examining the flowers left on his grave, looked up. “I am?”

Ember draped her arm around Danny’s shoulder. She’d been a lot more friendly with him since the corpse incident. “Sure are.” She stepped up onto the surface of his memorial, pulling him up behind her. Danny shook off a brief chill and looked around.

Ghosts were streaming into the cemetery from various directions, bringing armfuls of flowers with them. Danny could see two, huge bonfire piles of flowers growing near the cemetery gates.

“Are there going to be cows?” asked Danny, who was still fuzzy on the details of the ghostly side of the celebrations.

“I don’t know,” said Ember. “When I’ve seen this done in the GZ there are. Here? Who knows. Maybe we’ll just walk through.”

Danny nodded, unworried. Beltane sure was an interesting holiday.

The last armful of flowers was placed, and every flower in the cemetery caught on fire at once. Including the ones on Danny’s grave. Danny yelped, jumping into flight. As an ice core ghost, he vastly preferred cold to heat.

This went without saying, but fire was very hot.

Ember grabbed his foot, and he almost kicked her. “You knew that was going to happen,” he accused.

“Sure did, babypop,” said Ember, grinning. “Come on, don’t you want to pass through the bonfires?”

Danny eyed the very large bonfires on either side of the cemetery gates. They were lit up with sparks like fireworks, shifting like flowers blooming and withering and blooming again. They were beautiful and impressive, and Danny felt like melting just by looking at them.

“I don’t know…” He wanted to, but… melting…

“Well, if you want to go out the other way and be horribly unlucky for the next year…”

Danny narrowed his eyes. “Is that another trick?” he asked.

Ember’s grin grew wider, and she took off towards the gates. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Danny sighed and followed her.

.

“Unbelievable,” said McGee. “Absolutely unbelievable.” He gave the elderly cultist a boost into the wagon.

“I know, right?” said Patterson. “All this property damage and a low-key kidnapping,” she gestured to the hapless late night partier who had called the police when the cult got too insistent about their message, “and they didn’t even have the good drugs?” She shook her head. “Not that we ever arrest anyone just for drugs in this town.”

“I did not just hear you say that,” muttered McGee.

“We’ll make an Amity Parker out of you yet,” said Collins, heartily, slamming the back door of the wagon. He thumbed the button on his radio. “Any other disturbances?” he asked.

“No, you’re good to come back,” said the dispatcher.

“What I don’t get,” said McGee, leaning against a nearby wall in a moment of weakness, “is why we aren’t breaking up whatever cult thing is happening in the cemetery.” They’d seen it quite clearly on their way here.

“Because those are ghosts,” said Patterson.

McGee took a deep breath. “The ghosts are having some kind of ritual in the cemetery, and you aren’t worried.”

“Not really, no.”

“I hate it here,” said McGee.

“Do you, though?” asked Collins, sounding genuinely interested in the answer.

McGee opened his mouth to snap back that, yes, he did. But…

Hm. Huh.

Collins patted him on the back.

[tonoiho]

final thoughts on Sonic Frontiers (as a viewer and not a player)

ive got some stuff to say about the game since i finished watching playthroughs and i will try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible, but still going to tag it and add a read more.

i will not be sharing/posting any big spoilers for the game until after official release as ive stated before (albeit in a now-deleted post). regardless, any possible spoilers will always be tagged. same goes for fanart.

Admittedly before, I didn't have much hope for Frontiers despite my excitement, but recently as more and more info came out (and me looking for leaks oops), I was a lot less pessimistic.

It takes a LOT for something in the franchise to disappoint me, and I mean that. I'm more of a "accept something as it is" kinda guy when it comes to Sonic because for even the "bad" games, I just appreciate them for existing in the first place since they make me happy.

But unfortunately, as great as Frontiers was throughout the majority of the game, the ending was surprisingly underwhelming at best, disappointing at worst. It wasn't bad I guess and maybe that's just me being nice, but it was anticlimactic for sure. I will say, while many people find the true final boss to be boring or otherwise "lazy", I honestly thought it was interesting. It isn't the best final boss fight ever, but interesting. I'm hoping we learn more about them in the future.

There is a point on the 4th island where the stakes of the story are at their highest, only for it to be easily resolved within seconds in the most anticlimactic and cheesy (/neg) way. Which is unfortunate seeing this was something specific fans were looking forward to. The game from that point on kind of takes a turn. Again, it's not really bad, but it feels like stuff is missing from the game entirely and a ton of missed opportunities.

There is also a big complaint I keep seeing about the final islands just being extensions of Kronos, and to that I say I really don't mind. The 4th island is story driven strictly anyway, with no enemies, Cyberspace levels, or maps. I do tend to look forward to lore than gameplay regardless, so I understand people being upset by this, but I personally am not.

Despite all the negatives, the majority of the game was amazing from a viewer standpoint. I loved the character interactions and developments, and I can't even say "oh this character had the better development" because they all were great in my opinion, and I hope we get to see that in future games. There were plenty of moments between characters that got me emotional to the point of tearing up or entirely sobbing, but that could just be me.

Another thing I adored was the soundtrack. Some songs are definitely more memorable than others, but that's just kinda how soundtracks are. I enjoyed the vocal tracks and Cyberspace level themes a lot. Music is a big, important thing to me and I'm glad Frontiers did not disappoint on that at all.

Seeing as there are things that were very obviously left out or cut from the game for one reason or another, I hope they get expanded on in some form. It would be nice to get an IDW comic about Frontiers more extensive than the prequel honestly because there is so much potential.

I'd say up until the 4th island, the game is a 9/10. Anything after is a 7/10. Definitely get the game if you've been looking forward to it; I'd hope its flaws don't ruin the whole experience for you when most of the game is good, just don't expect the most spectacular ending.

And of course before I close this off, if you do still plan on playing it, there is a "true" final boss that is not indicated anywhere in or outside of the game at all. To get to that boss, you need to play on hard mode. Easy and normal mode gets you the cut/shortened ending.

Overall, if given the chance to play Frontiers, I will. I just don't see myself buying it for a while (mainly because I'm broke lmfao).

I hope this was helpful to someone, and I hope despite everything you still allow yourselves to have fun with Frontiers.