#not only is it cliched the joy of this trope is getting attached to the former villain

[crackdkettle]

One of my favorite television phenomena is when a show goes on long enough that an enemy from one of the early seasons ends up on the same side as the heroes in some capacity ranging from begrudging ally to beloved and trusted member of the gang.

[authoralexharvey]

INTERVIEW WITH A WRITEBLR — @broodparasitism

Who You Are:

Lottie || She/her

I’m Lottie, and I’m currently doing a master’s in creative writing. I mostly write things in between historical, literary and horror about postwar Britain, and other than writing I’m a bit of a music nerd!

What You Write:

What genres do you write in? What age ranges do you write for?

Historical Fiction, Horror, Paranormal, Psychological. Adult.

What genre would you write in for the rest of your life, if you could? What about that genre appeals to you?

Literary, if only for its room to be experimental and weird.

What genre/s will you not write unless you HAVE to? What about that genre turns you off?

Romance - I’m just not a romantic type of person!

Who is your target audience? Do you think anyone outside of that would get anything out of your works?

I don’t think too much about it, but I think other young queer/neurodivergent women would be the biggest readers of my work, particularly if they’re also British. But I hope that anyone from any demographic would be able to get something out of my work! It’s for anyone who wants to read it.

What kind of themes do you tend to focus on? What kinds of tropes? What about them appeals to you?

Motherhood is something that always creeps up in my work. Hedonism and moral masochism as contrasts is also very important to me! Feminism and class tensions tend to have a big presence in my work as well. It’s harder to say with tropes but if the central themes are there the tropes don’t matter too much to me. I couldn’t get into why they’re important to me without getting much too personal for writeblr, however.

What themes or tropes can you not stand? What about them turn you off?

Something entirely fluffy and comforting or something entirely cynical and hopeless, albeit the first is more annoying. I need some degree of light and darkness or the story feels too uncomplicated to me. For something very specific, I’m not keen on premises where every type of fantasy folklore is incorporated: there’s often too much that isn’t fleshed out enough. I also hate stories that use weight loss as shorthand for positive character development, because that’s plain old fatphobia. And stories without women. There’s no excuse for that.

What are you currently working on? How long have you been working on it?

I’m working on a manuscript for my MA so I prefer to keep vague on it, but it’s a small town horror about four people in the early 80s coming to terms with a recent death of someone they all had a wildly different relationship with and the way the town becomes increasingly haunted. I’m quite attached to it now. I began working on this at the end of August 2022!

Why do you write? What keeps you writing?

It simply brings me joy to do it. I want the stories in my head to exist on paper, because that’s such a rewarding feeling!

How long have you been writing? What do you think first drew you to it?

On and off since I was very young. I can’t remember what drew me to it: it was just something I knew I wanted to do for as long as I can remember (cliche, I know). I say that I began seriously writing in November 2013, when I started what would become my first completed draft of a manuscript.

Where do you get your inspiration from? Is that how you got your inspiration for your current project? If not, where did the inspiration come from?

I get my inspiration from my local area, and from researching history - and very often, music with connection to that. I think that the starting point of inspiration for my current project was the band Xiu Xiu, but what nonfiction I’ve read since then has fleshed it out into an actual narrative.

What work of yours are you most proud of? Why?

A short story called ‘Minutes’ that helped me get into my MA in the first place. I just struck gold with the plot, and it’s naturally one of my most “polished” pieces of writing. I would ideally like to do something else with it!

Have you published anything? Do you want to?

Not yet, but absolutely in the future.

What part of the publishing process most appeals to you? What part least appeals to you?

The publishing process doesn’t appeal to me at all - I’m not yet familiar with it. I am afraid of having to water down my work for “marketability”, however.

What part of the writing process most appeals to you? What part is least appealing?

It’s quite hard to say. I like the feeling of when an idea comes to you just as you’re typing. That’s always a godsend. The part least appealing…it can be quite intimidating when things are workshopped, definitely.

Do you have a writing process? Do you have an ideal setup? Do you write in pure chaos? Talk about your process a bit.

I don’t have much of a process. I have to be able to write almost anywhere and at any time of day in order to get things done.

Your Thoughts on Writeblr:

How long have you been a writeblr? What inspired you to join the community?

My currently blog is under a year old. I was peripherally involved from about 2018 to 2021, after which it became my primary tumblr community.

Shout out some of your favorite writeblrs. How did you find them and what made you want to follow them?

Some of my favourite are @queenslayerbee, @aninkwellofnectar , @ryns-ramblings, @dallonwrites! Tumblr either suggested I follow them or I found their blogs via discord.

What is your favorite part about writeblr?

I like a lot of the tag games - especially find the word.

What do you think writeblr could improve on? How do you think we can go about doing so?

In the nicest possible way, a lot of the writing advice is really, really bad. I am begging writeblr to realise not everyone needs to post writing advice and that is okay!

How do you contribute to the writeblr community? Do you think you could be doing more?

I could be doing more, but I have reservations about sharing my own work and I’m not qualified to be giving advice so all I can do now is help promote others.

What kinds of posts do you most like to interact with?

Posts that ask a question to the community as a whole about their creative processes, tag games and excerpts also.

What kind of posts do you most like to make?

I don’t know! There’s not a lot of writeblr posts I can make. I do like making silly little jokey posts about what I’m writing that only make sense of me, I suppose.

Finally, anywhere else online we may be able to find you?

I am on storygraph as @/fortunavhs, Instagram as @/absinthiumwriting and discord as malcontent#7884!

[mistynatweek]

In case you missed it, event date voting has closed and MistyNat Week will take place from October 1st to October 7th!

Additionally, theme suggestions are officially closed, and theme voting has begun! You can vote on your favorite MistyNat Week theme options by completing this poll. Theme voting will be open from now until August 23rd at 5pm ET (countdown here). Note: if we end up with a theme tie and need a run-off lightning round of voting, that will take place from August 24th to August 26th.

Below the cut is a list of the themes to choose from and descriptions, as well as additional information about this stage of the preparation process.

Voting is open to everyone. When you complete the poll, you will get the option to vote for your top three themes. This is to ensure that we choose a theme with strong interest across the board, however only one theme will win. As you choose your top choices, keep in mind that you are voting for theme, not prompt. This means we will need to break the winning theme down into 7 smaller prompts. Once our theme is chosen, we will open the ask and submission boxes for prompt suggestions, and any prompts fitting the chosen theme can be submitted.

Please note, you may not see your theme suggestion exactly as you sent it; some very similar suggestions or very specific suggestions have been combined or generalized to ensure that we will be able to create multiple prompt options in the next phase.

When voting, be sure to look at the options carefully as there are several prompts you may be thinking of that can fit multiple themes. So if there is one prompt you really, really want to see in the next phase, be strategic in your voting!

THEME OPTIONS

Alternative Universes; each prompt is a different type or genre of alternate universe (examples: role reversal AU, no crash AU, soulmate AU, fairytale AU, superhero AU, etc.)

Tropes & Cliches; each prompt is a different fandom trope or cliche (examples: bed sharing, trapped together, fake relationship, amnesia, truth serum, accidental marriage, etc.)

Supernatural; each prompt is a supernatural concept (examples: vampires, spells, curses, demons, ghosts, powers, etc.)

Halloween; each prompt relates to halloween (examples: trick-or-treat, candy, pumpkin, costume, horror movie, etc.)

Love Languages; each prompt is a different type of love language (the seven love languages are activity, appreciation, emotional, financial, intellectual, physical, and practical; alternately the five love languages are gift-giving, acts of service, physical touch, quality time, words of affirmation - in this case, we would take unofficial options in addition)

Color Emotion; each prompt is a different color with meanings attached as part of the prompt (examples: red = excitement/passion/bold, yellow = hope/friendship/joy, blue = trust/loyalty/dependability, etc. example images can be found here and here)

Horror; each prompt is a horror trope or element (examples: came back wrong, slated to die, final girl, hauntings, etc.)

Weather; each prompt is a different type of weather (examples: sunny day, storm, clear skies, rain, heat wave, etc.)

Food; each prompt relates to food (examples: breakfast, potluck, ice cream, cooking, dinner date, etc.)

Movie Genres; each prompt is a different movie genre (examples: action/adventure, romance, superhero, post-apocalyptic, horror, mystery, etc.)

Music; each prompt is a different genre of music (examples: rock, pop, grunge, showtunes, r&b, etc.)

Time; each prompt has to do with time (examples: time travel, historical setting, through-the-years, etc.)

You can vote for your favorite three themes here. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us here.

[starfighter10]

tlou2 opinion

So I really had to share my opinion(rant) on the last of us part 2 and boy I have a lot to say. I am gonna dwell deep into this one, so bear with me if you can and want to

 But before that I have to share the feelings I hold for tlou1.Back when I finished tlou1, I knew I experienced something truly magical. I was pleasantly surprised by the beautifully crafted story, the execution of the characters, the music, the gameplay , and the effort that went into shaping the journey of the game,the character arcs and bonds. You could see and experience the uniqueness and passion that went into the first project. This game immediately became a favourite of mine.

When tlou2 was announced, my expectations were skyhigh,was elated to continue Joel and Ellie's journey and how it unfolds. The bar set by the first one was exceptionally high and probably impossible to achieve, but I had trust and faith in naughty dog, thought they couldn't go wrong with this one. After experiencing tlou2 , I am speechless.... not in a good way. I have no words to express my disappointment,frustration and anger I feel right now. I don't even know where to begin.... the absolute mess of a plot, the original characters being blatantly ignored, retconned and disrespected in favour of new bland characters, the plotholes in the story, the false advertising and marketing, naughty dog's hubris, making a complete mockery of your fans who are paying money to play something but getting baited for something else. I am utterly heartbroken and angry.

The plot - the driving force of the game is over ambitious, lazy,sloppy and nihilistic. It felt forced. Naughty dog bit off more then they could chew with this one. Tlou2 could have gone several ways in terms of plot with the existing characters, yet we get the cliche revenge plotline with the character abandoning the quest altogether to realise revenge isn't the answer. This trope has been done several times before, with more finesse and better execution. The writers aim for the " Ellie breaks the cycle of the revenge" but it really fails to achieve this as she blatanly annihilates several characters,npcs along the way in quest of her revenge. The damage has been done practically speaking. According to naughty dog's logic , I should expect Nora's sister or a random npc's friend/relatives in tlou3 hunting down Ellie in their revenge quest. Also Abby's quest literally does nothing for me. This character was so poorly written, executed and shoved down our throats, I didn't have any sort of attachment or empathy for her. I simply don't care about this character.

The circumstances that lead to Joel's death was out of character as well. Since the trailer drop in 2016, I was prepared for his inevitable death. Thought he would probably go out like the badass he is, maybe sacrificing himself for Ellie/tommy. The Joel I know from tlou1, a hardened survivor who has fought tooth and nail to survive the past 20 years would NEVER end up in a situation like that. Joel was intensely alert, critical,clever and intuitive. The argument here may be that he has softened in Jackson, but I feel at this point this should be 2nd nature to him. Something that is automatic. Yet the writer's now want you to believe he is a dumbass who would trust a group of strangers, make small talk and introductions and end up in a situation like that. One of the bigger issues was the constant reinforcing that Joel wiped down the fireflies in cold blood and doomed humanity for death by robbing them of their cure for survival,Ellie believing the cure would have been a guaranteed sure shot success ..... WHY? This retcons the first one completely. The beauty of the tlou1 was it's moral ambiguity and uncertainty. We were constantly hinted that fireflies is a mess of a group whose agendas weren't clearly known, whose actions caused the sacrifice of many people for the sake of a slight possibility of a cure.They were power hungry and were cruel enough to send a 14 year old girl to her death with no remorse,consent or any proper investigation or medical research. Joel initially negotiates to find someone else, gets shut down immediately, gets his means of survival snatched and was practically marched to his death. He had no option but to wipe clean these people who planned on killing someone dear to him, for something that is uncertain or in vain. And yes this was a selfish decision on Joel's part, and that was the beauty of it. The moral ambiguity. He was right or wrong or both - open to your interpretation. BUT NOW NAUGHTY DOG WANTS TO TO ERASE ALL THAT DEVELOPMENT. The active reinforcement that Joel was a cold, ruthless murderer who killed fireflies and deprived humanity of its cure? Trying to erase the fact that he was surviving and trying to keep his dear ones safe in this cold, brutal and unforgiving postapocalyptic world. So that we sympathize with Abby and enjoy golfing the tf outa Joel?. Ellie seems like a different character in this one, but again this character is immediately pushed to a whirlwind of traumatic events right from the start of the game. I missed her spark of joy,humour and enthusiasm. The treatment of the main chatacter in her own game is utterly cruel and disappointing, and seemed unfair to me. By the end, Ellie is broken beyond repair. Though she thematically chooses to be the better person and gives up on her vengeance and hate, she still manages to be on the losing side as she ends up losing her father figure which was her closest bond, loses Dina and the kid , she doesn't have her community, her people, her fucking fingers as well. Why? So Ellie could suffer a little more and be unable to do most important thing that bonded her to Joel. Not to mention she loses her switchblade too, her mother's final memory. Surprised that ND spared her mother's letter . Feel her pain and despair. Why does Ellie get such a shitty,depressing, worthless, futile and a hopeless conclusion while Abby not only gets her revenge successfully, forms a close bond in Lev and gets to escape possibly to a fresh start. Ellie? Nah she gets to suffer alone. Her BIGGEST FEAR has become a reality by the end. The least they could do is let Ellie have some solace and calm, surrounded by her loved ones on that farm,her trying to recover from her trauma slowly but surely, it's what joel would have wished for. But no, she is left all alone, absolutely traumatized, all by herself with nothing to look forward to. Oh and tommy is whole new character in every scene. So keep your eyes peeled for various versions of tommy throughout. The character inconsistencies are ridiculous.

The gameplay, beautiful sceneries, and new characters like dina and jesse are few of the positives of game - leaning more towards Jesse. Dina felt perfect for Ellie and Jesse did manage to lighten up few of the moments. The space shuttle cutscene, the museum flashback sequence, ellie and joel's flashbacks were the only parts that remotely captures the magic and beauty of tlou1. I got emotional watching them. The space shuttle sequence hits you with the feels. Joel slaying a bloater with a machete was cinematic art. (Hot too)

Abby... the forced deuteragonist, is an utter failure of character execution. Her character was forced onto us, felt hasty and lacked real build up. She starts off on the wrong foot by killing one of the most popular characters. If ND really wanted this character to work, the only possible way would have been to play her point of view and backstory prior to her mercilessly killing and torturing a guy who just saved her life. What was ND thinking? That a few hours of her pov,forced out of the blue background story, her getting to play with dogs while ellie has no option but to attack the dogs, the abby-lev bond which is pretty much discount or the walmart version ellie and joel would be enough to side with her over ellie and joel???? The part where they force you to play as abby against ellie? It made me sick. I felt cheated and disgusted.

The false advertising to make us believe joel is alive and good? That this is an ellie and joel centric game?To tug at your heartstrings like this. A complete mockery of the fans who waited 7 years to see their favorite characters get horribly treated,retconned, disrespected and thrown under the bus in favour of new unlikable characters. Butchering the heart and soul of the last of us - Joel and Ellie's bond. The fact that these two don't even get a heart to heart before his death, that Joel dies uncertain of ellie's future, maybe thought he could not save Ellie in those final painful moments, that she had never forgiven him, Ellie never getting her closure with Joel, or really getting to tell him how much he meant to her.... all these thoughts legit made me shed tears. Broke my heart. This is how much ND wanted to honour and respect ellie and joel.

The game's conclusion is hollow, futile, worthless and depressing. And in my opinion, this is non canon. This is the only way I can cope with this unsastifying conclusion. It is immaturity I guess... but I will feel better about it.

Though I utterly despise tlou2, tlou1 will continue to remain one of my favorite pieces of work in fiction. JOEL FUCKING MILLER WILL ALWAYS BE THE BADDEST BITCH AND NOTHING WILL CHANGE THE LOVE I HAVE FOR HIM.

If someone actually read it all the way, thank you for your time and effort. Really needed to rant and let these negative emotions out.

[cerberus253]

Will you be doing Ice crew headcanons? They have interesting interactions with Drago. And oh my god, I just love your thoughts and presentation!

Gonna be honest here, I don’t have much on them headcanon wise, but of course I’ll tell you what I do have. Also, thank you! I’m not sure if what you mean by “thoughts and presentation“ is about how I type silly-like sometimes (I do it to try and convey feeling in a sense) and/or attach links to certain things (I do that because some things I say remind me of other things and I want to share it, which I have done in this answer), or just in general, but if it’s the former, thank God some people are enjoying my sense of humor XD

They see each other as family; as bros. They are the Three Musketeers, the Three Stooges (the Enforcers are more of the latter, but both groups are still dorks at their finest (for their ages))

Drago fits the Meme Lord, the Crew fits the jokesters

While yes they do argue, none of them would betray each other, not even for a million dollars. Okay, maybe they’d act like they’d betray each other for a million dollars, but they know each other enough to know the betrayal isn’t real and they’ll all share that one million

They watch out for one another, like bros. But if one gets what’s coming to him, then they’d be like *disappointed parent voice* “What did I tell you?“ Ya know, like bros

Honestly, they seem like the best dude friends if they like you enough. In addition, they’d all have to like you (or at least tolerate you) if ya want in.

Bros before hoes

Gamers, and probably huge Nintendo, SEGA, etc fans

Tony Hawk fanboys

Pretty cliche, but rap, rock, metal, and those related are most likely their favorite music

I honestly don’t think they’d be difficult to talk to. Like, as long as you’re cool, you don’t preach about being lawful good and stuff, and you don’t single one of them out (in the bad way), you’d be okay in their book. Pizza party’s at 7 PM this Saturday, dawg

I can see them being the festive type. Like, not the “It’s Christmas!“ “It’s November!!“ type, but the ‘would wear Santa hats on heists’ sort of types (”Yo, D-Man! We got you a Christmas hat!” *Drago sets it on fire*)

The Best hype men

Learned not to deal with demons just from their interaction(s) with Drago (”Fuck this shit; never again”)

Actually a fact, they do not want to take over the world. It seems to me they just want to be a nuisances to society for shits and giggles

If Drago was around them longer, they totes would have (eventually) introduced him to their pastimes, and Drago would never admit he enjoys it and them

They probably try to find genuine joy in life. Like, instead of complaining about the weather, they figure out what they could do and only do when it’s like how it is. Too much snow? No prob, let’s snow board! Raining heavily out? No big deal, let’s splash and soak people!

Strikemaster Ice

The one dude that would actively piss off Drago

Has trouble doing Math (which is usually a sign of AD(H)D. Just saying)

Rapper aesthetic

In comparison to the other two, not the smartest, but definitely the most creative and appreciative (probably also devises the heists)

Would adopt every dog on sight (ya know, if he could take care of it, seeing as how he’s a criminal always on the move)

Breaking the “little people are always angry because of their small stature“ trope, he got over it years ago

I want to make Vanilla Ice jokes so badly but I shouldn’t

MC Cobra

The dude that doesn’t want to but accidentally pisses off Drago a lot

Is from the South (I swear to God I could hear a slight Southern accent from him sometimes)

Could have gone to college

Is smart enough to excel in advanced engineering, along with DJ

Punk aesthetic

The “smart dumbass“ of the group. Meaning, he’s pretty intelligent, but he does/says stupid things

DJ Fist

The one dude that actively avoids getting Drago angry

Went to college, but dropped out

Is smart enough to excel in advanced engineering, along with Cobra

Would probably pick the other two up if they were getting into trouble

More of a fact, but DJ can talk, but chooses not to. The only people he actually verbally speaks to is Cobra and Ice

Thug aesthetic

Probably the smartest, definitely the most humble, of the group

[backtothestart02]

Top 10 Fav Westallen Fics

In honor of Fanfic Writers Appreciation Day, I thought I’d give y’all of what I consider to be my top 10 fav westallen fics I’ve read (in no particular order). Enjoy! And be sure to check them out and send these writers some love!

1. her own finite time by @gnimmish Synopsis: God damnit the world is a so dark lately, if she can pry some small spark of joy out of it in half an hour with her amnesiac fiancé doing something a little unwise on her apartment floor, then she's not turning down the opportunity. An extension of the scene in 3x21 when amnesiac!Barry rediscovers his powers, because he and Iris totally had sex right after that, guys. (o/s)

2. For Who Could Ever Learn by @just-truffles Synopsis: "He fell into despair, and lost all hope -- for who could ever learn to love a Beast?" (multi)

3. She Said No...? by withaflashoflove Synopsis: Wally decides he wants to ask Linda to marry him, and he goes to get Barry’s advice as to how. Quickly, he realizes Barry is having his own problems when it comes to proposals. (multi)

4. The Boy Next Door by withaflashoflove Synopsis: Westallen AU in which Barry and Iris are friends and live in the same apartment complex, across the hall from each other. (multi)

5. All of Me by @yeinethegray Synopsis: Iris worries that The Flash is some separate person that her boyfriend becomes when saving other people, so Barry decides to use an upcoming charity gala to show Iris just how much of the Flash she's entitled to. Lots of eye fucking, Iris and Linda in gorgeous dresses, and heated (public-ish) wall sex ensue. (o/s)

6. Not weird at all by iriswesttt Synopsis: Westallen friends-with-benefits high school AU (multi)

7. Pancakes and Destiny by @mosylufanfic Synopsis: One hungover morning, Iris decides she's way behind when it comes to kissing Barry Allen. Spoiler: she catches up. And then some. (o/s)

8. Trope Bingo by @theopensea Synopsis: A collection of one-shots prominently featuring cliched/overused plotlines because everybody loves the fake boyfriend trope and the stuck-in-a-closet trope and the oh-no-he's-hot trope, okay? (multi)

9. Tell Me, Iris (Did They Love You Like I Do?) by @dynamic-ideation Synopsis: Iris has never experienced an orgasm with her past lovers and asks Barry to help her out, no strings attached. (o/s)

10. Sandcastles by @toooldtoship Synopsis: Beach au where Barry makes a sandcastle and Iris comes to help. (multi)

BONUS:

Interruptions by @wanderer765 Synopsis: A pretty self explanatory fic based on an anonymous ask from tumblr. Barry and Iris' sexy times are interrupted. (multi)

5 Times Barry Made a Sex Joke in private, and once in public by yellow_sunrise Synopsis: Barry's kinda a pervert and Iris is really the only one who knows. (o/s)

*There are so many more westallen fics I love, but these are the ones I remember always wanting to go back and re-read (and a couple new ones that just really blew me away/entertained me).

[operationrainfall]

Title Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition Developer Stegosoft Games Publisher DANGEN Entertainment Release Date March 26th, 2020 Genre RPG Platform PC, Mobile, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One Age Rating E for Everyone 10+ – Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language Official Website

It’s kind of remarkable I didn’t play Ara Fell a lot sooner. After all, a friend gifted me the original game at least a couple years ago, where it quickly got lost in my massive Steam backlog. But then something wonderful happened – Stegosoft Games went and remastered the original game as Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition. That same friend suggested I review it for the oprainfall site, and I’m incredibly happy I finally listened. And while you could make the argument I would have enjoyed this whimsical adventure sooner, I’m glad I waited. Because Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition is just a much smoother, easier to access game with the same meaningful story intact.

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For all intents and purposes, Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition is the same game that was reviewed on the oprainfall site 4 years ago. However, there are some key differences. The battle system has been revamped, the user interface for menus is really easy to parse, and they even added new character classes and skills, apparently. They also upgraded the systems present in the game, such as crafting and enchanting, added difficulty modes, a handy autosave and more. While I wasn’t able to compare and contrast these changes much, not having played the original, I did find a few videos online, and I can say the UI has been wonderfully streamlined. Battle menus aren’t clunky, and it’s clear and obvious what your options are, and even in what order attacks will happen. And while I’m not usually a fan of crafting, here it’s very well implemented. All you need is to buy the recipe for an item, have enough of the requisite ingredients, then hold A to craft. You can craft single use items, as well as upgrade your equipment to provide better stats for your team. Enchanting is also very easy to do, and works pretty much identically. The key difference is you can attach up to 4 passive enchantments of your choice to character equipment, such as increased health, critical hit rate, the capacity to poison with regular attacks and much more. By contrast, crafted items have set properties.

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Steve was dead on when he said the game is one of the best RPG Maker games ever. I honestly didn’t even realize this was a RPG Maker title at first, since it has such polish and poise. Sure it looks like an old game, the same way Chrono Trigger looks like an old game. Meaning this looks totally authentic to a certain time period, and that’s not a complaint. Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition could easily have been a touchstone RPG from the 90s, chock full of heart, great gameplay and a really interesting story. Take it from a wannabe fantasy author, that last part is hard to do, especially in a genre full of cliches and overused tropes. And while the story isn’t the most complex, it also does a great job of introducing key elements organically and tying them together in a satisfying arc. The tale revolves around a floating continent, a mysterious relic, elves, vampires and one fierce young woman. I don’t want to ruin it by saying too much, but trust me that it’s a joy to experience, and the lore of the world of Ara Fell is really intriguing.

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A large reason I enjoyed the story of Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition so much is because of the characters that populate it. Lita LeCotta is the spunkiest, most deadpan little tomboy you could ever want. She’s delightfully snarky and full of personality, with hilarious one liners aplenty. What I especially love about Lita is that she fights against the mantle of hero, and just sees herself as someone that stumbled upon her destiny. But her strength of character, determination and desire to protect her loved ones makes her truly heroic. Or take Adrian, Lita’s childhood friend who has grown up in harsh circumstances, yet found the drive to become a knight. Sure he gets taken by the occasional schemer, but he’s always there to protect his friends, and he may even have some feelings for Lita. Then there’s Seri Kesu, a strong and beautiful sorceress with some serious hard edges. She’s a master of her craft, and her only weakness is one bad relationship that’s soured her to this day. Finally there’s Doren, a mysterious turban wearing bard that’s immensely passive aggressive, and who seems to have a surprising reservoir of knowledge of ancient times. It’s a great cast, and their interactions make the whole story a delight to experience. Even the villains set against them are complex and unexpected. All in all, the entire cast of Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition makes for a very compelling tale.

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None of that would matter if the game wasn’t fun to play, but I can say that Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition is a glorious retro RPG. I played on the normal difficulty, and found the combat easy to understand, yet challenging. It’s turn based, with an ATB showing the turn order. One unique aspect is the Injury system, where your character is weakened if they perish and are revived, and only fully recovers by healing at an Inn or other safe location. As the game progresses and your team fills out, the challenge scales accordingly, but I never found anything unbalanced. It’s really fun and hard to put down. You select attacks and engage the foe, and as you battle your Ultimate bar fills up. This allows characters to use super powerful attacks against the foe, but you can’t rely on these. Each character’s Ultimate takes a different amount of time to charge, and your entire team uses the same Ultimate bar. So once I use any Ultimate attack, the bar resets. Thankfully, you have a lot of control over how your team grows, and even can tweak how they fight. Every time you level up, you are allocated points to distribute to various stats, and the game clearly tells you what each corresponds to. I decided to focus on making Lita a speedy assassin, while I supercharged Seri’s spellcasting at the cost of her speed and defense. As you wander the world, you’ll find magical stones that an be used to augment your character’s abilities. At first all you can do is make them more powerful, but once you have fulfilled their class quests, your options blossom. You can pick from one of two advanced classes for each character, with pros and cons. Once that’s done, you can choose branching options for your abilities, such as Adrian’s Whirlwind attack healing your team, or Doren’s Holy Light affecting all foes. You can even tweak their Ultimate attacks, allowing for a lot of customization options. By the end of the game, I had a really powerful team that was capable of taking on any foe without worry.

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The combat is a lot of fun, but so is just exploring the world of Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition. Normally I don’t like getting lost in games, but this one was built to accommodate exploration and reward you for it. You’ll constantly come across natural resources you can harvest for use with crafting and enchanting. Lita will grab fish from the water, pluck leaves from various plants and mine ore from cavern walls. I just wandered and wandered, and probably spent a good extra 4-5 hours enjoying myself. It’s fun to jump across ravines, crawl through narrow tunnels and swim all around. The world of Ara Fell is a big one, and it’s truly beautiful. Since the entirety of the game takes place on a floating continent, you’ll see eerie sights like waterfalls descending hundreds of miles, or haunting ruins suspended in mid air. Yet, as much as I explored, I only got lost a handful of times in my 20+ hour playthrough. Once was late in the game when a group of damn faeries got me mixed up, and later I couldn’t find the class quest for Doren. Thankfully most activities are well signposted, and you can always check the pause screen for a reminder where you’re supposed to go for continuing the main quest. The only optional quests that were really flummoxing to locate were the various Bounties, of which I only managed to find half.

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Visually, this is a really attractive game. The portrait art for the characters does a great job of expressing their personality. Meanwhile, the overworld and sprite work is both faithful to the retro focus and eye catching. Pretty much all the enemies are distinct, with no color swapped nonsense. The game runs at a smooth clip most of time, and I only had very few moments of slowdown, and only while exploring. The music does its job. I wouldn’t say it was the best soundtrack ever, since it’s mostly low key, melodic and occasionally haunting. If you’re coming here for snazzy rock and roll tracks, don’t bother. But all the music and sound effects do their jobs well, if perhaps without much distinction.

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Honestly the biggest negative for me is that Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition ends at all. I really got lost in this wonderful RPG world, and was sad to see it end. I know I love a game when I even enjoy the puzzles in it. Thankfully there’s an epilogue after the credits roll, which does a decent job of tying up plot threads while still leaving room for a potential sequel. Suffice to say, I really hope Stegosoft Games has a sequel in the works, cause I desperately want to return to this fascinating world. If you love classic RPGs and want something you can get lost in for only $14.99, look no further. It’s easily one of my favorite RPGs of 2020 thus far.

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[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4.5″]

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REVIEW: Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition Title Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition