#playing xenoblade 3 has me thinking....

[mememan93]

Skyward sword aionios AU.......

[ruairy]

.

[tickleraptorss]

Fluttery Feelings (Mio/Eunie)

There is nothing Eunie loves more than making Mio smile. And it flusters poor Mio to no end.

A/N: oh my god i wrote a thing!!! hello all 3 mioeunie enjoyers. i love these two so much... please play xenoblade 3. this is like.... suuuuper self-indulgent <3

warnings: tickling and tooth-rotting fluff ❤️

There’s nothing quite like an afternoon of quiet, Mio thinks as she runs her fingers through Eunie’s hair, occasionally brushing over one of her soft wings. Eunie looks just about ready to fall asleep; her eyes are struggling to stay open, and the way she nestles against Mio’s chest and her relaxed sighs tell Mio everything she needs to know that her girlfriend is beyond happy.

“Hey… Don’t fall asleep on me,” Mio chuckles. “You won't be able to sleep tonight if you nap now.”

“Mmn,” Eunie groans. “You're makin’ it very hard not to, bein’ so comfy ‘n warm.”

Mio leans down and presses a kiss against Eunie’s forehead, “I’ll have to stop cuddlin’ you, then,” she teases.

“Nooo! You can't leave poor ol’ Eunie by her lonesome!” The High Entian whines, lifting Mio from where she lay on the couch into her arms, pressing their cheeks together. “She needs her cuddles!”

Mio rolls her eyes fondly, “she also needs to be able to sleep at night.” Eunie huffs, before laying back down on the couch, taking Mio with her so that the Gormotti is laying on top of her. “I think this’ll just make it harder to stay awake.”

“Shhhh…” Eunie presses a finger to Mio’s lips and, because the opportunity presents itself (and because Mio likes to cause mischief), she bites the tip of Eunie’s finger. Her girlfriend yelps, even though Mio’s bites are more like nibbles. “Hey! No bitin’!”

“I barely bit you,” Mio grins. She leans forward to kiss the tip of Eunie’s nose, then she presses another kiss to her cheek, and then another, and another. Eunie’s giggling now, squirming from Mio’s affectionate onslaught as the Gormotti kisses all over her face. She can't help but notice how Eunie’s laughter sounds different—it's light and bubbly, more akin to Sena’s giggles. Mio loves Eunie’s laugh, she always has, and the many different variations it has. From the hysterical cackles whenever Taion reacts to her teasing, to the soft little giggle-snorts when something really tickles her, Mio adores all of it.

“Mio!” Eunie cries, not out of protest, Mio knows. Still, she can't help but chuckle as she leans back to smirk at her girlfriend.

“What? I thought you wanted my affection?”

Eunie seems to take that as a challenge, apparently. Still giggling, she wraps her arms around Mio’s torso and rolls on top of her, subjecting her to the same barrage of kisses Mio had just given her. The Gormotti squeaks, caught in her own giggle fit as Eunie peppers kisses all over her face, eventually moving down to her neck, and Mio whines.

“Eunie-!” Mio squirms. She feels Eunie’s lips curl into a smirk against her neck. Uh oh…

“What’s up, love?” A wing brushes against Mio’s cheek—as much as she tries to reel back her reactions, she can't help but snicker at the ticklish sensation. “Aww, are my wings ticklin’ you?” Mio nods. “Good, ‘cause that's what I was goin’ for.”

Eunie nuzzles into the crook between Mio’s neck and shoulders, while her wings brush against the sides of her neck. Mio squeaks, twisting this way and that, but nothing reprieves her of the tickling. Pressed between the couch and her evil, evil girlfriend, the Gormotti can do nothing but giggle up a storm, and she knows Eunie loves it.

It’s a well-known fact, to anyone close to her, that Eunie takes advantage of anyone’s ticklishness whenever she can. Even the day Noah introduced Mio to Eunie, she remembers how the High Entian would tease and poke Noah whenever she thought Mio wasn't looking. Noah had warned her, when she and Eunie began dating, to not let Eunie find her weakness, but not without giving her a knowing smile.

Mio didn't know why at the time, but found out later, he was the one who told Eunie about her ticklishness in the first place! And oh, did he suffer for that. A bold move on his part, for someone as ticklish as he is.

With or without justice served, though, Mio was still subjected to Eunie’s playful teasing, and truthfully, she didn't mind it. Maybe she even liked it… but no one had to know that. Least of all Eunie. Titans forbid she found out that Mio actually enjoyed being tickled by her… she’d never hear the end of it!

So, she keeps up her facade, as best she can.

“Eunie!! Nohoho!” Mio giggles, trying to push Eunie off of her. Eunie only tightens her grip, and now she’s nibbling her neck and sparks alive it tickles. So. Bad. “N-nNOHO nihihibbling!! Not thehere-!”

“Not where? Here?” Eunie lifts her head to look at Mio, hair messy and cheeks flushed, and her eyes sparkle with fondness. She smiles, tracing her fingers over the spot she was just nibbling, wings twitching happily as she admires her work. “‘s funny how one little spot can be so ticklish,” she says, probably not meaning to tease, but Mio’s cheeks flush darker regardless.

“You’re one to talk,” Mio pouts. Eunie raises a brow.

“Sorry?” She isn't sorry, her tone speaks more of a challenge. Mio takes it.

“You’ve got plenty of sweet spots yourself! Don't act like you don't!”

“I’m not,” Eunie chuckles. “I’m well aware of my own ticklishness, thank you very much. I just don't melt into a puddle whenever I get tickled.”

“Unless you get teased,” Mio grins. Now Eunie’s pouting. “Isn't that right, my little dove?~”

Eunie’s face flushes in surprise, and for a moment, Mio thinks she has the upper hand. That is, until Eunie’s grabbing her wrists with one hand, hovering over her with a grin she’s come to recognize all too well.

“You’re just askin’ for it now, love,” The High Entian’s free hand hovers over Mio’s stomach, fingers wiggling in anticipation, and Mio averts her gaze, squeezing her eyes shut and biting her lip to stop the anticipatory giggles bubbling in her chest from escaping. “Aww, ain’t that cute? I haven't even touched you, yet you're all smiles and giggles already. It’s adorable how you try and hold back…”

Eunie’s index finger begins tracing shapes over Mio’s tummy. The Gormotti’s skin jumps underneath the touch, breaths uneven and staggering as she tries to stop herself from giggling. She makes the mistake of peeking at Eunie, who’s looking at her with a smile so wide, so pure, Mio swears she could've melted into the couch right there. A familiar rumble resonates from her chest before she can help herself, so enveloped in the feeling of butterflies fluttering in her stomach that she doesn't realize she’s-

“...Mio, are you purrin’?”

Mio’s eyes widen, realizing that, yes, she was purring, and that she’d totally given herself away. Eunie’s eyes soften as Mio tries to hide her blushing face in her shoulder, but really, she can't hide from her. Not when the purring gets louder the longer Eunie circles around her tummy.

“Oh, you looove this, don't you?~” Eunie coos, gently scribbling her fingers over Mio’s ribs. “You like it when I tickle you like this? All soft ‘n gentle? Yeah?” Unable to deny it, Mio just nods, and she swears Eunie swoons at that. “Ain’t that just the most precious thing~”

Mio can't reign back her reactions any longer, and the restrained snickers and flustered whimpers become bright, bubbly giggles. Eunie’s wiggling fingers are merely grazing her skin, yet somehow it tickles so much worse. Her girlfriend’s touch is so agonizingly gentle as her nails trace over the ticklish grooves of her ribs—Mio can't help but squeak at that—and the loving gaze that’s fixated upon her only makes Mio feel more sensitive, somehow.

“Your laugh is so cute…” Eunie swoons. “You’ve always had the best reactions. Your cheeks get all red ‘n you try and hide it, but tryin’ to hide leaves all your tickle spots unprotected. Not to mention your lil’ squeaks and squeals are, like, the cutest things ever.”

“Nooohoho… ‘s nohot!”

“Is too! Don't you go tryin’ to deny it!” As if to prove her point, Eunie’s fingers drift over to Mio’s right side. She slowly traces her nails up and down the Gormotti’s side, and despite how soft the touch is, Mio’s giggling up a storm. She tries twisting away, but Eunie’s got her thoroughly pinned. Her sides are especially ticklish, and of course, Eunie is all too familiar with that.

“EunieehehEE-! DoHOHON’T— s-stohOHAP!!” Mio squeals. Her girlfriend only snickers at her ticklish plight.

“‘Don’t stop?’ Wasn't plannin’ to~” The High Entia teases. She lets go of Mio’s wrists so she can use her left hand to claw Mio’s left side. The Gormotti lets out another squeal, twisting away from the digits attacking her from the left, but Eunie's one step ahead. As Mio twists away, nails begin scribbling at her right side, which causes her to squirm to the left, only to be met with more tickles. Eunie has her trapped in a cruel cycle, and she falls for her trick every single time.

“Tickle tiiickle~” Eunie coos, watching as Mio continues to wiggle underneath her. Her fingers drag down Mio’s sides, only to worm their way underneath the Gormotti’s shirt. The gentle scribbling of Eunie’s nails against her bare skin only makes Mio’s laughter jump up an octave.

“EuniehEHEHEEEE!!” She shrieks. “ThAHAT—AHAH! Th-thahat’s not fahAHAIR!!”

“Oh, you think this isn't fair?” Eunie raises a brow. A mischievous smile creeps its way across her features, slowing down her ministrations so Mio can breathe. “Wait ‘til you see what I’ve got planned!” She pauses the tickling, but her hands still have a firm grip on her girlfriend’s sides.

“Sparks…” Mio pants, face flushed down to her neck.

“You alright, love?” Eunie asks. She gently brushes Mio’s hair from her face.

Somehow, Eunie checking on her makes her face flush even more. The genuine love and kindness she shows for her only makes Mio feel even warmer.

“Yeah… ‘m good,” she manages through deep breaths.

“You never told me how much you like this,” says Eunie. “I mean, you’ve never purred like that before when I tickled you.”

“It's… Ah… The soft… T-Tickles…” Mio looks away, flustered beyond belief. “I, um, like… the—ehehem! Hehey!” Before she can finish speaking, Eunie’s nails are ever-so-softly tracing slow little circles on the sides of her bare belly. Before long, Mio begins to purr in between giggles, her squirming more restrained like she's trying to keep still. It’s unfair, Eunie thinks, that Mio is this cute.

“Juuust like this, eh?” Eunie coos, and when Mio nods, the High Entia swears her heart explodes. “Sparks, you're adorable.”

Mio herself feels seconds away from bursting at the seams. The way Eunie’s touching her, her mischievous smile, her nails merely ghosting along her skin and sparks she's moving to the sides! It makes the relentless fluttering in her stomach so much more intense, her face flushing darker than it probably ever has. She can't help but try to roll onto her side, it tickles so much.

And then she feels Eunie’s fingers scribbling on her lower back, and all hell breaks loose.

“NohO—NonononOHOHAHAHA—! EEEHEHEHAHA!!” Mio shrieks, her squirming increasing tenfold. It's a useless endeavour, though, because it seems this is exactly what Eunie was waiting for. She wraps her arms around Mio in a tight hug, buries her face in her girlfriend’s neck, and both hands snake under her shirt to tickle her back. As Mio arches her back on instinct, it only gives Eunie more access to her worst spot. “NohOT THEHE—AHAHAHAA! P-PleheHEHEASE!”

“Please what?” Eunie asks, giving a gentle kiss to Mio’s neck. “Please do… this?” She blows a raspberry against Mio’s neck, delighted at the squeal Mio lets out. Getting an idea, Eunie briefly stops tickling so she can scooch back a little, straddling Mio’s thighs. Her head hovers above Mio’s belly, wings twitching excitedly and Mio’s already giggling again! She brings her hands to Mio’s sides to keep her in place, and grins as the realization of Mio’s fate creeps across her girlfriend’s face.

Eunie's lips meet Mio’s stomach, and she starts blowing raspberries, and Mio screams.

The Gormotti absolutely loses it. For the next few torturous, wondrous minutes, the world is nothing but the tickling. Eunie's wings come forward to brush along her sides as she continues to blow raspberry after raspberry until Mio’s laughter’s gone silent. She taps Eunie's head twice, and hesitantly, she pulls away, removing her hands from Mio’s sides.

She watches as Mio catches her breath, face still completely flushed and smile still wide. Yawning, Eunie lays her head on Mio’s chest, feeling the rise and fall of her chest and the beating of her heart.

“Eunie,” Mio says. “It's still too late to take a nap.” She shoots a glance at her girlfriend, who just snuggles in closer, pretending to ignore her. Mio rolls her eyes, smiling fondly, before an idea pops into her head. One that’ll keep Eunie awake, and will let her get her revenge.

Her fingers graze the sides of Eunie’s ribs, before she claws at the ticklish crevices between the bones, and once again, the room is filled with laughter. And Mio's heart is full.

[eaglefairy]

Tonight we start xenoblade 3!!! It's truly one of my favorite games of all time, even to the point that it's never been hit by the transformative fandom itch for me. I'm so excited to introduce my roommate to it and re-experience it for myself.

She just told me that she's going to do a "try not to speak challenge" for the intro

She immediately recognized the Sword and Uraya on the title screen and I guess the no-speaking challenge hasn't started yet lol

WHAT THE HELL. ARE YOU KIDDING ME.

The first thing. The VERY FIRST THING she says during the opening war cutscene is "oh wow, so that was the Earth crashing into Alcamoth!"

And then it takes her like. several minutes to notice that Eunie has wings. And she thought Noah was a girl. The observational skills vary wildly

Roommate: "Why do I feel like this isn't a victory? I'm with Noah on this one, this is horrifying."

"You look a lot like Shulk, dude. I like that about you." (about Noah)

*Roommate sees the Kevesi Queen* "I do not trust you. The lighting makes you look so evil. Oh my god, I do not trust you. No one good has embryos in their throne room."

"Oh, Joran wasn't on the battlefield with us. That's not a good sign."

Hm, I don't think she recognizes that the Kevesi Queen resembles Melia at all. I'm just going to let that one lie for a while.

LMAO she just said "She looks like Lorithia" you are almost so close

"Noah, you're a flute player? So hot."

She loves the music which is like. yeah, of course. It's xenoblade 3.

Also "the nopon with the afro"; she hasn't even heard his voice yet, I just know she's going to love him more after that

"I've only know Noah for 5 minutes, but if anything happened to him I would kill everyone in the room and then myself"

Roommate: "How do I keep [the Flame Clock] full? By fighting enemies?" Me: "Killing Agnians." Roommate: "...that seems morally apprehensible."

AHAHAHAHA SHE FLINCHED. I glanced over to her at just the right moment when Riku started talking to see her actually, physically flinch when he spoke (and then we just cackled together for 30 seconds)

She keeps saying that it feels so dystopian and I'm just over here like "oh you've barely scratched the surface"

Lmao she's annoyed now by the enemies aggroing onto her. We turned it off for all of 2 so it's been a bit since she's had to do random encounters

When Mio's mask came off my roommate just gasped and then shouted "catgirl!"

Upon seeing Taion she just said "aww, he's so cute!"

She noticed Mio's flesh eater crystal but not her incredible resembl--scratch that! She did say it looks like Nia's gem (but I don't think she's put anything else together)

Calling it now though, that's what I'm going to end up spoiling on accident. Xenoblade 1 it was Shulk dying, xenoblade 2 it was Jin eating Lora's heart specifically, 3 is going to be Mio being Nia and Rex's daughter

"Oh what the fuck is that" -upon seeing DJ for the first time

lmaooooo she saw N from the back and immediately said "oh who is she?!" we are two-for-two on thinking Noah is a girl

"Eunie, can you get over there and heal this man before he dies? I think he has important plot information for us."

Vandham: says "Swordmarch" Roommate: [loud clapping]

Oh it's Mio and Noah's first duet and I'm almost tearing up...this game...

Roommate: "Oh no, now we're the sworn enemy. The sworn enemy was the egg but now we're the egg."

Also roommate: "The girl with the long hair [she means N] isn't wearing the mega evil armor, so I don't think she's evil but I don't quite know what her deal is."

Oh yeah she just has the plot down guys. Literally the only thing she hasn't predicted is Origin and that's just because there's no possible way she could know about that right now. Like listen she went into this BLIND! I told her absolutely nothing about the game except that I knew her favorite character would be the girl with the gun and the snark. Maybe I was just blinded by the elation of new xenoblade when I played it but I absolutely did not pick up the plot this fast.

She loves the whole gang but especially Taion, he's her favorite right now

Mio: "Three more months and I'll be gone from this world." Roommate: "Nah don't worry you won't be gone from this world" Chapter 5: looms on the horizon

Can confirm that she has made exactly no connection between the Kevesi Queen and Melia. This is hilarious and I can't wait to see how long it lasts

[mikubilliards]

Hey guys I’m back with another ridiculously long appreciation post! There will be massive spoilers for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in it, be warned. It’s still probably my favorite game of all time so please play it if you haven’t before you read this��or don’t…I can’t stop you…

Alright so

Miyabi Xenoblade Chronicles 3

She’s probably my favorite side character in this game, maybe even favorite character as a whole. Something about her is just so relatable to me and also just like, she’s genuinely so well written is actually insane.

In the flashbacks with Mio, she’s presented as just like an average person, maybe even a little below average when it comes to fighting and such. Mio is obviously upset that she’s paired with her cause unlike with Sena she isn’t just inferior at fighting in her own head. She’s actually not that great at it, but she tries her best to contribute either way. Immediately this clashes with Mio’s sense of having to be the best and deserving to be an elite soldier, not to be relegated to off seeing duty. She doesn’t initially put that much stock in the whole deal, and sees it as a waste of her talent.

But then there’s one scene, seeming about midway through their 10 year lives, where both of them are sending the soldiers who died off. Mio confronts Miyabi about her issues with the role, and Miyabi looks at her, and tells her that this is the most important role they could be playing. That they are helping their fellow soldiers find peace in the beyond. And that’s the greatest gift they could give. She wants her to know that even if they aren’t fighting the enemy, they are still serving their fellow soldiers and that’s something to be proud of. This conversation instills that same mindset in Mio, and even allows her to connect with Noah later on since he shares that mindset. It’s kinda crazy how little Noah and Miyabi interact given their similarities but that’s for a little later. This conversation is the start of Mio’s own journey towards discovering that fighting isn’t everything, and you can see it going back to some of the earlier scenes with her. You can almost see that conversation playing back in her mind during some of those early scenes at the end of chapter 1.

I don’t have nearly as much to say about Miyabi’s hero quest, mainly cause it’s not as much about her as it is about Y and the experiments that are going on. It gives more lore for Moebius and how they got the world to the position that it is now but not too much on Miyabi herself cause she’s mind controlled essentially for most of the quest. Not a knock against the game, especially considering this hero quest is part of the story so it makes sense that it’s more of a broader story than about one single character.

But that brings us to her ascension quest. What do you think her ascension quest, the way to further develop her character after all that we’ve seen from her previously, will do? Well, her feelings of insecurity regarding her own talents and abilities never really went away. She was able to suppress them through her own actions before, but now that the world has been turned upside down for her, shes struggling to find a new way to do what she wants, to serve people in a way that brings them something positive. Enter: the City’s cooking competition. A place where everyone can enter to compete and see who can make the best dish. Since she’s already hanging around in the city, she decides to compete, and even affirms her desire to Mio, who notes that it isn’t really like her to compete in these things. Manana enters too, she’s the resident chef after all, it would be a waste not to compete. So they go ahead and go look for ingredients to make something with. One of those ingredients is a special sauce produced by one of the families in the city. Apparently Miyabi had spent some time with that family, and so the lady who makes it is more than happy to lend her some free of charge.

And thus, the competition begins and everyone makes their dish! The whole competition is filled with fun moments, like Ghondor having to judge her mom’s dish and reluctantly admitting it tastes good, to the ever glorious Mr. Boomer line. Manana’s dish blows everyone away obviously, that’s her job as chef. But then we get to Miyabi’s dish. Compared to the stuff that the other chefs had made, it’s rather plain. It doesn’t look extravagant, use any ultra rare or bold flavors, or any of that. But every judge notices something that isn’t really present in the other dishes. It’s a dish with a certain feeling, that of hominess and warmth. If there’s anything that reflects her character, it’s that spirit of warmth she brings to everything, even her food. And thus, the competition ends and the victor is decided. And the winner is…

Manana.

Yeah, Manana. I mean of course she’d win. Given the new lore from the art book she’s probably been doing this for centuries. What hope did anyone else have against a cook that proficient, right? But yeah, Miyabi loses. Of course, she’s not too bummed about it considering who she was up against, but you can feel that twinge of sadness at losing either way. But that’s when the lady whom she borrowed the sauce from comes up to her. She had sampled the dish and wanted to express her appreciation and proudness that Miyabi’s dish was as good as it was. And that’s when it clicks. Her goal was never to be the best at anything, not since the beginning. She knew she wouldn’t be the best. Even so, she can still make a difference in people. She doesn’t have to be the best or win in order to make others happy. She just has to be herself. She, and everyone for that matter, has the ability to serve and better themselves and others, and people will appreciate it regardless of whether what she did was the best or not. Thats the message of her character, and that’s the message I hope people can take.

As for my own commentary, man it was just awesome rewatching that scene for this, there’s so many details that you don’t pick up on first viewing that you see later and are just like OOOOHHHH I GET IT!!!! Man I should really do another playthrough of the game, I don’t even know how much I’ll pick up on that I don’t see right now or didn’t when I first played. Maybe over the summer when I’ve got days off between work…

Anyways, thanks for reading and have a good day/night/ambiguous time!

[euniexenoblade]

Have you ever played Xenosaga or Xenogears, and if so what do you think of them? I just blitzed through all of the Xenoblade games and DLC (except X) in a month because my friend told me to and I loved them so much I went back to Xenosaga immediately because I needed

more.

Nope! To tell you the truth I've only played Xenoblade Chronicles 3 cuz @tamamita kept insisting I'd love it (he was right). The idea is to play 1 then 2 then X, cuz my gf's favorites are 2 and X. But I'm having such a hard time playing the first one, I don't like the main characters much and it's been dragging. I'll even tually go back to it but my ADHD has me on halo and vns rn.

[shinysamurott9]

I finished Xenoblade X again today and... wow.

OK so, I played Xenoblade X for the first time last year in a marathon of Xenoblade 1, X, and 2, and honestly, compared to 1 & 2, I didn't enjoy it as much. It was the only one I didn't really know much about going in. I felt like it had a lot of good parts, but I hadn't any idea what I was doing because the game has literally no tutorials and I ended up stumbling through the game when I wasn't able to use my Skell, so I just didn't have as much fun with it compared to the trilogy.

However, after finishing Xenogears and the Xenosaga Trilogy, I thought it would be a good idea to give X another shot as a nice way to bookend playing the Xeno series, specifically after watching some guides and learning how the combat actually works (Thanks Enel)

And, holy shit. Out of every game I've ever played, this and DMC 3 are the ones I'm most glad I gave a second chance. I genuinely could not stop thinking about this game after I started playing again. Before I stopped pretty much as soon as I beat the final boss, this time I went literally all the way and completed the entire Mira Survey. I'm just gonna take this chance to go in and incoherently go off about about all the stuff I have in my head about this beautiful mess of a game.

Ok so the combat. Overdrive, is a completely balanced mechanic that doesn't allow you to completely take the main game’s difficulty and snap it over your knee like a fucking twig. Except it is. Like, it is honestly comical just how trivial almost everything becomes with the right arts on your build. And if you throw really busted arts like Ghostwalker/Ghost Factory or Blossom Dance into the mix, literally nothing can stand up to you bar the literal endgame superbosses, and a big part of that is just because a lot of them, Telethia in particular, are in positions where you literally can't fight them on foot and realistically survive without a highly specialised build. But with that proper build, that probably takes a lot of grinding, you can still beat them fairly quickly, save for Levael The Terminus, because it's literally in the middle of the ocean. All because of this funny counter gear.

Going along with Overdrive, is the amount of customisation this game offers you. Almost every weapon type offers you at least a couple arts that work really well alongside Overdrive. The build I ended up with at the end was a Knife, Dual Gun combination, mainly because Smooth Recovery, is an amazing art for Overdrive, and Black Butterfly and Full Specs are great compliments for an Ether Build with Executioner as the main Damage Art. Yeah sure I ended up using Ghostwalker/Factory like most Endgame builds, but hey that shit is comically busted, and I absolutely love abusing stuff like that, intentional or otherwise. Plus I do enjoy the idea of my Cross, Coraline, using the arts of Irina and Elma, her immediate superior officers in BLADE. Which actually brings me to,

I was honestly surprised at how much thought I ended up putting into my Cross this time around, but it was fun. Not just deciding on a good look both when creating her and finding what gear she'd wear, but also thinking about how her character woukd respond to the situations and dialogue options presented throughout the game. It's to the point that Coraline's basically become my first OC, depending on how you count Milton the Mythrakid I guess, since he's an interpretation of a character we know exists but we haven't seen or heard about. Either way I definitelywant to do more with Coraline. Probably gonna draw her some more as time goes on to get a better feel for the design as well as drawing her skell too just because.

That actually brings me around to the story. I'll be the first to admit that overall X's story falls short compared to the trilogy andveven Gears and Saga but it still has a lot of solid stuff that really git me thinking, in addition to stuff I only picked up the second time around, something Xeno stories have been fantastic with since the beginning with Gears. Obviously spoilers ahead as I talk some notable stuff in the plot

This moment really stuck out for me after simmering on it for a while. Because this idea that memories and the continuation of a person's consciousness are what make them who they are would continue as a prominent thematic plot point in the following games. Xenoblade 2 emphasises it the most heavily with Blades losing their memories with each reawakening, thus they lose their "contuity of consciousness". It's quite literally the central source of conflict for Blades and is everywhere in the main story and side content with characters like Praxis, Theory and Vess. Xenoblade 3 has this too, albeit as a more subtle background element with the Agnian and Kevesi Soldiers effectively being reset upon death as they are reborn, however there are still cases where things slip through the cracks, most notably with Eunie and Ashera. Yet despite that, Monica asserts to Eunie that whatever her past life was, it wasn't her and she didn't make it, all because soldiers simply don't have that continuity of consciousness.

Thinking about it now X has plenty of thematic ideas that 2 & 3 would go on to pull from. Things like a cycle of death and rebirth, something that Blade and NLA are trying to achieve with finding the Lifehold Core. As Lao puts it, they're the lucky ones who can come back as many times as they want. Lao's arc is particularly well done all things considered. A moment early on that stuck out to me was when they were discussing how Lin got her spot on the Whale as a way to repay her parents who were crucial in getting the ship going in the first place. Lao, whether he shows it or not, would have some misgivings about that, and Elma seemingly picks up on that and is quick to point out Lin's own skill were crucial in her getting her spot and that it wasn't just pure nepotism. It's really interesting to see Elma pick up on Lao's misgivings so early. If we do ever get an X sequel, which I do think and hope we will sooner or later, I'll be very curious to see where Lao's character goes from here. Speaking of characters who I really want to learn more about,

Elma is a really interesting character honestly despite the many unanswered questions surrounding her, it just has me more intrigued to learn more about her. The question of what her species and planet are like is one i really want to see explored someday. Funnily enough, 2 actually gave us a breadcrumb of that. Elma has a line when receiving a Seafood pouch item, one of her favourite categories, where she expresses fascination with the concept. "Making meals out of marine lifeforms, fascinating" which I've always taken as her species just straight up not having a concept of seafood. Idk why, it's such a minor inconsequential detail that isn't even from X but I always found that super interesting. Her designs are also two of my favourites in the Xeno series, especially dince they double as subtle references to Kos-Mos and T-Elos. I think I lean a little more towards Alien Elma though, something about the crystal hair is really cool to me.

A few other Miscellaneous things I can think of:

The sidequests are fantastic. While many are a little tedious, they do a really good job of building the world and fleshing out the natures and cultures of the different alien species that come to inhabit NLA.

The Affinity Missions go hand in hand with this, they do a great job of fleshing out all the different party members all the while giving you an avenue to learn their unique abilities. Most of those party members are also really well developed abd mostly compelling characters. Even the most if the ones who seem like assholes at first, like Boze or HB, do get better as their affinity missions progress. They clearly knew it was a great concept as it came back in 2 & 3 with the Blade Quests and Hero + Ascension Quests.

The ost is fucking incredible, I've been adding X music to my personal playlist over the course of my playthrough because there's so much good stuff in it. It's honestly criminal how much you end up missing because the Overdrive and Flight themes override 90% of them.

Skells are incredibly cool and a brilliant way to bring in the concept of mech combat systems from the previous Xeno games.

Phew, I think that's everything I've had to say. I've called out many of this game's flaws in other places and most of that I do still stand by. The game is in desperate need of an actual tutorial and QoL improvements. The game's draw distance can be quite frustrating at times trying to find specific things or characters and getting certain materials can be a really annoying grind, (Neinail Materials), but if you can put up with that there is a hell of a game there. I don't know if I'd consider it better than the trilogy, just because it has more complete stories, but it's quite close.

Overall I'm so happy I gave X a second shot and now I'll definitely be there waiting for a port or sequel. It's easily the most underrated game I've ever played. I'm confident it'll happen at some point but either way I'l likely have more Xeno stuff to play in the meantime if whatever's next is Xenoblade 4.

My reaction to this game.

[blackknightax]

Research slows me down. I Don’t know any of the remaining franchises very well so i gotta look into them. We had Mother’s Day not to long ago so let’s do the mother franchise. So, Ness and Lucas represent this franchise and… I admit, to me, they’re just smash bros characters. I know there are several big people in the video game fandoms that LOVE this series, mostly Earthbound, or rather, Mother 2. I can name 3 but I’ll only mention 2, this being Youtube’s Stephen Georg, and the creator of Undertale Toby Fox. So people are VERY passionate about this franchise. Easily one of the most vocal fandoms I know of, not usually in a toxic way that I know of. But I’m not an RPG guy so i don’t go out of my way to play this franchise, it doesn’t help that only one of them released in the west for a very long time being Mother 2 which released as Earthbound. So that being said, let’s get to the topic at hand!

We are meant to choose, well, I am meant to choose another character from this franchise to add to smash. So, let’s do that. Automatically, I do not want a PSI user and i can scratch off characters like Kumatora and Paula, this is because most of Lucas and Ness’s moves, actually come from these girls. I’m gonna go off topic and say that I do not play Lucas or Ness, I don’t like using PK thunder to recover, I don’t like PK flash or PK freeze, I like PSI magnet in theory but never think to use it when I play them, I’ll be the one to admit, I don’t play them, because I am not good at them, not that I’m good at smash at all, but I’m Awful with these Mother Series characters, as both of them I just use PK fire spam and hope of the best. So all that to say, I want a non PSI character for this. For this purpose I’ve chosen…

Duster from Mother 3. I’ve chosen this character due primarily to how fundamentally different from Lucas and Ness he will be. I admit I almost chose Porky Minch but, much as I love Porky’s theme that was used in Brawl, I think playing as that, would be so strange. Also this character feels more interesting anyhow. In game Duster is a bit of thief character and he outright uses thieves tools as weapons in combat. Also apparently this character walks with a limp but he’s still one of the faster party members. So let’s make a move set, shall we?

For his Neutral B he will use the siren beetle, he will release it as a projectile rather than throw it. When hit by the siren Bettie, the enemy will be forced to turn around, like Mario’s cape swing but as a projectile.

For his Up B he will use smoke bomb, mostly because there isn’t a much better option. When using smoke bomb he will teleport a distance after disappearing. Think Shiek’s Up b since i can’t imagine it would work any differently.

For his Side B he will use wall staples. He will dash forward holding them, if he collides with an enemy he will place the staples on them causing a short stun for follow up attacks. If the collides with a wall while using this (like the side of the stage) he climb up till he reaches the ledge.

For his Down B he will use scary mask. He will put it on and do some kind of scary pose, causing a short flinch and reducing attack damage very briefly but also does massive shield damage.

All in all, I think Duster would a good character to use for this series, he would be a great character simply to be different from Ness or Lucas. I thought about wall staples as Up B but that felt strange. I don’t know much about Mother 3 and especially Duster as a character who all I’ve done is simply thinking about it from a gameplay perspective, and nothing else. I hope the next ones will be faster. I have most of my characters chosen. Just not Kingdom hearts or Xenoblade because, Xenoblade has been oddly difficult to research…

[controlvariable]

myth's game writeup of 2023

i waited until the new year to finish this in case i managed to beat a game during december. i did not. ANYWAY.

this will contain new games as well as games i only got around to in 2023. light on spoilers but be warned

Octopath Traveler II (2023)

as far as i remember, this was the first new game I played this year, and god did it deliver. I've been a fan of octopath since the first one came out on switch in 2018, counting it as my favorite game of all time, so to have a sequel after all this time was thrilling. it did almost everything octopath 1 did and better. new path actions, day/night system, branching stories, fucking boats?? incredible.

my biggest gripe has to be the new hidden classes. I started with throne so getting inventor 10 minutes after my chapter one did definitely fuck up the progression a little bit. I think I preferred ot1 hidden classes. while the dungeons were underwhelming, the boss battles really make you fight for these secret techniques, something absent in 3 out of the 4 hidden classes of octopath 2.

overall: 4/5 BP.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed (2023)

xenoblade 3 as the end of the klaus trilogy really didn't sit well with me, for reasons that don't belong on my review of its dlc, but future redeemed fixed nearly every problem i had with base xc3 — both story and gameplay wise. it ties every xenoblade game and even some of gears and saga into a neat little 40 hour bow, and is truly a love letter to the entire series. I can only think of one problem I still have with it. the fucking menu music.

where do i even fucking start with this one really. relatively speaking, I'm a new xenoblade fan, having started xc1 in march 2022 during a harrowing experience with adhd meds, and since then it had kinda consumed me. I finished it in about a week, went on to watch xenoblade 2 because I had heard the gameplay wasn't great, and got my hands on xenoblade 3 day of release.

overall: 5 dance apples.

Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023)

as someone who was not immune to the hype surrounding botw, I had high hopes for the sequel. hopes that were painfully, slowly, fed into a trash compactor over my playthrough. this is another game I got on release day, lining up outside gamestop in the heat, and lets not forget that it's the only first-party switch game with a price tag of seventy bucks.

the game plays like a tech demo. I have a lot of love in my heart for it. the story was better that botw, the world was more expansive than botw, but the problem here is that everything it does is directly compared to breath of the wild. it doesn't get enough time to shine, because we're in the exact same world as 6 years ago, but instead of pinkish black malice we have blackish pink gloom. i much prefer the runes to the zonai abilities, and the sense of wonder that permeated breath of the wild is replaced by a sense of nostalgia that just doesn't appeal to me much.

all of this isn't to say it's a bad game. I think it's a great game, honestly, but a great game that wasn't meant for me. I've seen the insane shit people do with ultrahand, but it just... isn't my style.

overall: 441/1000 korok seeds

Pikmin 4 (2023)

it's pikmin. i dont have much to say about it. it was a lot of fun, loved that part where i bulborbed all over those guys. im not a gameplay reviewer, at heart i mostly talk about story, and a game like pikmin doesn't have much for me to comment on. good fun. lived up to expectations. probably wouldn't replay.

overall: 7500 sparklium

Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood (2017)

oh, stormblood... the rage you still fill my veins with. I'm not going to spend too long on this one because I have better things to do with my life than shit on an expansion everyone already hates, but let me make it clear I actually do have reasons for disliking it.

having ala mhigo built up since the very start of a realm reborn, only to have half of the ala mhigo expansion take place halfway across the star, was very disappointing. the monotony of the three areas in gyr abania compared to the three far east areas was very disappointing. the treatment of the people of the steppe and honestly that entire segment in the main story quest was very disappointing. hien, as a character, in his entirety, was very disappointing.

I will say it had strong parts. the 61-70 quests for several jobs were the strongest in their entire story (see: dark knight). the dungeons started to get more interesting. it gave us the quest Child Labor, which is hilarious and I'll never be finishing it because I want it there forever.

overall: 1/3 WHM Lillies.

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers (2019)

ffxiv immediately got better the second 4.0 was over. even the patch quests instantly shot up in quality. it's not even funny. the lead up to shadowbringers was the most fun I had had with the game since a realm reborn, and all of the first was heartbreaking to go through even though I was spoiled on That Character's Identity.

the duty trust system (is that what it was called?) made dungeons much more fun. getting to go through hell with alphinaud alisaie and thancred made everything 10x better, even if it was a lot slower. the story, again, heartbreaking — ryne's arc in particular felt like being stabbed by thousands of little needles while trying to play. in the best way, of course. and amaurot... amaurot. getting to quote our favorite knight in there was my 8th umbral calamity.

shadowbringers also marks when a lot of your job's functionality is really unlocked, so doing the level 80 raid series was genuinely a ton of fun. and again the thousands of little needles. i cried at least 7 times during the main story.

overall: 85/100 kenki gauge.

Katana Zero (2019)

possibly my favorite game this year. the protagonist, zero (or as i like to call him, katana from zero,) ticked all the boxes for a character I'd be absolutely obsessed with. true enough, i fell in love. the fast-paced gameplay, the diegesis of gameplay elements which would typically go unquestioned, and the care that seeps through every dialogue choice all solidify katana zero as one of my favorite game experiences ever. I'll leave it at this, because I encourage everyone to at least give it a try.

overall: Yes, that should work.

Fire Emblem Engage (2023)

this is one of the few 2023 releases on this list that I didn't get on launch, because at the time I had relatively little interest in fire emblem as a series. then I made a lot of friends who enjoy it, and in october, bestie sen decided to buy it for me as an early birthday present. everyone say thank you sen.

considering this is my first fire emblem game, i have absolutely no deeper insight into how it matches up compared to the others, and plenty of people more eloquent than me have already talked about that. what I do know is that the gameplay was surprisingly fun as my first tactical rpg, and the story was passable. all the characters were appealing in one way or another, and I'm still mad I had to choose between marrying kagetsu or fogado. they're both my husbands at heart.

overall: I didn't internalize enough of this game to come up with a clever rating.

Fire Emblem Engage: Fell Xenologue (2023)

I was expecting the dlc to continue the main story, so I put it off until I had finished the base game. in hindsight, I regret it, because I'd love to have brought the winds and twins with me to fight their evil versions and alternate universe dad. the story was... alright. I really liked all the small battle interactions between fell characters and our party members which they would've known. I instantly recognized fogado in chapter 1 because I am in love with him by the way.

overall: i dont know. 1¾ dragonstones

with 2024 upon us, I'll probably be writing reviews for games as I play them. I'm trying to use tumblr more as a social platform instead of just reblogging. we'll see how that plays out. if you like any of these games (yes, even tears of the kingdom) please talk to me about them! that's all for now. look out for my mangled thoughts on SANABI and Nier: Automata next :)

[multicolour-ink]

#2 and #6 for soft asks ☺️

Soft Asks

2. What's your feel good movie?

Oooh that's a tough one! 🤭 I don't really have just one movie, but I will say that the older Disney movies tend to put me in a feel good mood ^^ Movies like Atlantis that I watched so much as a kid, or even ones that I finally got to watch this year like Treasure Planet, are some of the best!

I think it might be the 2D art styles. It's just nostalgic to me ^^

OH! And I can't forget the Mario Movie! 🤭 That movie and the hype up to it was one of the best feelings this year...And I still get happiness whenever I watch the scenes and experience so many emotions. I know it has flaws some I think that are a bit overblown imo but I waited over 20 years for a proper Mario Movie experience - of course this movie makes me feel so much ;_;

6. Say three nice things about yourself (three physical and three non-physical)

Oh you! Don't think I haven't seen you ask this to everyone 😊🤭

OK so this may get emotional because I have been struggling this year. But I'll do my best!

Physical

1. My glasses

I know that is a weird thing to say, but I generally see wearing glasses as part of my style and identity - and I enjoy the tropes in shows (usually in anime) where the character flashes their glasses in a sinister fashion. I am that character.

2. My style - or to be more specific, figuring out my style and finding pieces that make me feel stylish and confident ^^

3. My ears - they are dainty and don't stick out 🤭

Non Physical

1. I've always been told I'm good at my writing and literature skills

2. The fact that I go out of my way to learn so much about franchises I will likely never play (such as Xenoblade and Final Fantasy) because I'm too invested in the stories in whatever way.

3. The fact that I rarely write ideas down and instead have it all crammed in my head. I have no idea how it holds it all!

[agniratha]

// MAJOR SPOILERS FOR XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 3 AND XENOBLADE CHRONICLES X //

Origin and the Lifehold Core being functionally identical + Mira being INCREDIBLY FUCKING WEIRD pretty much points to it being the conceptual predecessor to Aionios. I mean, let's be real here: there's NO FUCKING WAY that planet existed prior to the attack on the White Whale.

Before XC3 I just chalked it up to Conduit/Zohar shenanigans which assumes the thing was on the ship in the first place. Which is a pretty enticing theory considering it's happened in Gears and Saga before.

But with XC3 pretty much confirming that you don't need some lousy god-brick to create a world in perpetual stasis when you've got the entirety of humanity's digitized consciousness having a collective freakout about their impending mortality to do the job for you, I think it gives us an idea of what they were going for with Mira.

I think the fact that everyone's still alive even though the database has been trashed pretty much confirms it for me because it means their souls are now infused in the metaphysical fabric of the planet or something clever sounding along those lines. And Lao popping back out of the ocean means some cycle of reincarnation is now at play here.

Hang on... maybe that dark knight guy walking up to Lao is supposed to be Mira's version of Moebius? AND MAYBE LAO'S ABOUT TO BECOME ONE OF THEM? It wouldn't be too farfetched considering he plays a similar role to Jin and N in the narrative.

But yeah, considering how much they had to cut back on what they wanted to with X's story, I guess it's not too surprising they'd end up reusing what they have in another project. BUT STILL. IT WOULD BE. REALLY GREAT. IF WE ACTUALLY. GOT A SEQUEL.

[theplagueunderyoursink]

So i've been playing xenoblade chronicles and... It's so fucking boring. Yeah, yeah, I can make Shulk shirtless, big deal. But the gameplay is just so BORING. they do all the base attacks on their own, and you just move around to use the right special attack at the right time. That is when you are fighting. There aren't any other pieces of gameplay other than fighting, changing armors, moving to the next ques and fight again. The main quest is always just given to you and you just follow it. And it's also always with a sense of impending doom too that you do the main quests, so you don't have time to think about exploring, doing side quests, socializing with other NPCs, trading, doing trials. The story is also kinda weak? Yeah, yeah, they killed your girlfriend so now you wanna kill all of them but wait your girlfriend is alive and the monado yada yada yada. After the first 3 cutscenes I already lost interest for the story. I recently restarted it and I am on chapter 7, last time I played I was in chapter 15. I never finished this game for how boring it is! Like, it's fine if you like it, but you can't tell me that it moves at an acceptable pace. Also the outfits. Why do women always need to have such abominably revealing outfits??? (I know it's to please the straight male player, but still...) Sharla always has her boobs out. Even if I really try to find a decent outfit, she has to have her boobs out on all of them. Same thing for Fiora's thighs. And I personally don't want to see that if that's not the main vibe of the game. I am all for sexualization in every piece of media, but only when it's either justified in the lore of the character, or when the game treats all characters the same. If you want to keep Sharla's boobs out you should always make sure that Reyn always has a crop top that shows his back muscles. If Fiora has to have such a short skirt then give Shulk a sweater so big that his shoulders and collarbone show.

I don't know, this game is not for me at all. That's what happens when you base all your curiosity on "huh the protagonist is really fucking cute".

[yeah-yeah-beebiss-1]

early impressions from the first 2 hours or so of pokemon scarlet: an ambitious, would-be phenomenal game held back by being released way too early

graphics are dogshit as expected, still looks like a late PS2 game

performance is rough - a lot of random frame drops and choppy animations, pop-in is somehow worse than PLA; there were several early cutscenes in the school classroom where all your schoolmates were moving at like 6fps that were extremely distracting

-koraidon’s jumping physics are super fucked up; in general the game has strong Bethesda energy with weird clipping and frame drops and general jank (for example, the only buildings you can enter are stores, and by “enter” i mean “the camera zooms in on the door until the whole screen is taken up by the door texture which is then used as a background for the shop UI”)

speedrunners are going to have a blast breaking this game wide open, which is to say the general quality control is very poor

pokemon variety is enormous, i nearly had a full PC box by the 2 hour mark just grabbing one of everything i saw

i can already tell that difficulty/level balancing is going to be a concern - exp share is always on and there are a lot of opportunities for experience, the only way you’ll be able to get through the game without being grotesquely overleveled for two of the three story paths is to box your whole team after completing one and starting over with low-level critters

overworld/catching mechanics don’t feel as polished as PLA’s; overworld catching is gone, there’s no reticule for aiming pokeballs to ambush wild pokemon, camera controls aren’t as flexible

you can set destination markers on the map, but they only show up on the minimap - playing this after finishing xenoblade 3 (which lets you see the markers in the world and even toggle guide paths) just makes me feel like it’s going to be a substantial learning curve for people not used to/fond of open-world games

terastallizing doesn’t feel like as much of a game breaker as dynamax or mega evolution

the gym leader implementation of terastallizing is boring as hell - rather than changing their ace to something that’ll counter whatever you brought to counter the gym type, they use it to change a pokemon that isn’t their gym type to match their gym type (the bug-type gym leader, for example, has a teddiursa that she terastallizes into bug type)

the soundtrack varies from respectable to absolutely amazing from what i’ve heard so far, the wild pokemon battle theme is dynamic based on area and the team star and tera raid battle themes go way harder than they have any right to - it’ll be interesting to see exactly how much influence toby fox had over the soundtrack, because some of these tracks definitely have his vibes all over them

in all fairness, i’m playing a leaked dump of a retail cartridge so there’s the possibility of a day-one patch fixing some of these issues, but the lack of polish runs so deep that i don’t think a single patch could address it

overall, i’m still having a decent time with the game because the pokemon formula is inherently pretty watertight and the exploration is pretty fun, but the game just feels blatantly unfinished so i couldn’t in good conscience recommend people drop $60 on it

i have a feeling there’s going to be more than a few instances of people getting buyer’s remorse and unloading their copies for cheap by early december, so i’d strongly recommend just waiting for that to happen so you can get it secondhand for $40-45

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Steamdeck OLED review/impressions

Thought I'd leave some points to my experience as I have been fiddling with it a couple of days now.

This is also, in some ways, a review of the Steam Deck as a system.

Screen

The Steamdeck has a screen which is pretty small by tablet standards today, but about the same size as the screen on the Nintendo Switch.

The OLED screen is nice and colourful. I no longer have my LCD to compare it to, but the extra few centimeters helps a lot.

I wouldn't recommend you upgrade just for the screen, however, as it is not that different from the LCD in terms of quality.

I have noticed no issues with my screen, I have seen lots of people report problems but I have identified no dead pixels or glare issues.

I am using a glossy screen with a glossy protector. I tried a matte screen protector, which helped significantly with glare, but it gave a glittery and grainy effect on the screen, so it had to be removed. The glossy protector did not affect image in any way. It was fiddly to apply all the protectors, but I got there in the end.

The good news is that the screen can go very bright, and if it is on high brightness then glare is never going to be an issue. So don't worry about which screen type you buy.

Battery

The Steamdeck has a pretty weak battery if you are running most PC games.

The LCD only lasted me an hour if I was playing Monster Hunter World or Balder's Gate 3, and if I played it to depletion, it would bug out on me. More on that shortly.

The OLED seems to have a much better battery. I have been doing a lot of low performance stuff, but I played L4D2 for over an hour earlier, and it only ate maybe 20% of the battery. I played some World today and it only ate another 20% in half an hour with a high performance game, so I think that this unit will do more comparably to the original Nintendo Switch. In all cases I had brightness maxed out.

On emulated games, if you're running gamecube or PS2, it is negligible, however if you run Wii U games it will eat a lot more power (understandably). The fastest drain for me so far was Xenoblade Chronicles X. The other Xenoblade Chronicles games can drain my Switch in an hour, so this isn't a surprise.

This was the main reason I upgraded. I don't mind having the original Switch with its poorer battery performance, but with the Steamdeck LCD it was so bad that the console was barely usable. This change may seem small, but it will make the Steamdeck much more usable for me. Especially as sometimes I am taking 6 hour flights on low voltage planes that struggle to charge my deck.

Performance

The Steamdeck can do most older games very well, but if you're aiming at something released in the past couple of years, it is going to struggle. It plays Monster Hunter Rise like a dream, and I swear that it runs Monster Hunter World better than it used to (the game was updated for deck), but Baldur's Gate 3 will look very ugly texture-wise. Then again, that game looks horrible on any computer that came out before 2021.

You will be playing most demanding games on the low to mid settings.

The irony is, while it looked horrendous, Baldur's Gate 3 performed better on deck than on my PC, and I believe this is because the game has high Memory costs. While my PC's processor and graphics card are superior, it only has 8gb of memory to the Steamdeck's 16gb.

I never played a game where the 8gb was an issue until Baldur's Gate 3. It only affected me if I was connected to lots of streams on Discord. I will compare again when I have my new mid range 32gb memory PC next week.

On the OLED, a game with low performance costs like Left 4 Dead 2 will happily push towards the 90 frames per second limit. Of course, you're going to struggle to get Monster Hunter World over 30fp unless the graphics are very low.

So the Steamdeck is about the equivalent of an entry level or mid range 2018 Gaming PC. It is outdated but it plays most of the classics well.

Controls

The steamdeck's control sticks are quite large, so they're not the best option for people with small hands like myself. However I reckon this makes the unit popular with its primary audience (adult men who struggle with the small controls of the Switch, which are perfect for me).

The haptic mouse pad is okay, but it is obviously no replacement for an actual mouse. It's slightly worse than a laptop trackpad, I think, but at least it continues to move a bit if you swipe it like a ballpoint mouse would, rather than only being "on" or "off". I report no issues with this item, it does everything you will need it to when controlling from desktop mode or with a pointer-based game.

The buttons are okay, I think the right hand buttons are too small and close to the joystick for comfort, and I think the back paddles are too large and the L5/R5 buttons are too low down. It's not exactly easy to click L5 with your baby finger if you have tiny hands like me. The xbox controller is a better option than the steamdeck base controls. It is unfortunate the console doesn't come with a stand like the Switch does, and you have to buy third party options.

What impresses me most is the gyroscopic controls built into the device. I thought playing a shooter like Left 4 Dead 2 would be impossible, but because of the gyroscope, my aiming is as good as any keyboard and mouse player! Just like when playing Breath of the Wild or Ocarina of Time 3D. Even though I can't control the joysticks very well. I don't need them for those fine little movements anymore.

I must add that the Gyro only works on its default settings if you are touching the centre of the right joystick, or the trackpad. I did not like this at all because I needed to move my thumb to press different buttons. Fortunately there was a community layout which enabled gyro at all times. I was able to change the sensitivity on the game's steam options. You may also be able to enable it or disable it permanently by messing around with your own settings.

Compatibility

The biggest obstacle to Steamdeck is the Linux operating system, which upon the console's release, had very little compatibility with most normal tools. Wii USB Helper, the Wii U emulation tool, was completely incompatible. And the reason most games need to be optimised for Deck isn't because of their actual performance costs, it's because they don't run well on Linux.

Originally when playing Devil May Cry 5, the game would crash for no reason, and playing Monster Hunter World, the textures would crash and you would be left surrounded by a glitched out void if the monster you were fighting did a move that the system didn't like.

I think that over the past year, with the popularity of Steamdeck, a lot of developers have taken to making their games run better on Linux. As for the above Wii USB helper tool, there is something called WiiUDownloader which does the same thing and is Linux compatible. So I have had a much better time.

Emulation

It was a huge pain in the ass setting everything up and troubleshooting, especially because of the closed-off technical lingo used in emulation circles. But Emudeck has been a great help in getting everything set up. It is all you need for Gamecube.

I have issues with emulation tools not searching the SD card where Emudeck is installed. They keep searching the "Home" directory for things like their BIOS. Either I need to manually write in the correct path, or it's impossible and I need to copy the bios onto the main Deck. I am not sure if this is an issue with steamdeck or the emulation tools themselves, but it was a pain.

The good news is when you finally have these games running, they play very well. I think some of them perform better on a dedicated gaming unit like the Steamdeck than they do on a Windows computer which has dozens of processes running at the same time.

Lots of work has been done with emulation tools since 2021 to give them maximum compatibility with Linux and Steamdeck, as they know this is the main portable platform for those tools now.

I have had plenty of success with PS2 games, Gamecube games, and Wii U games, once everything was set up to Steam ROM Manager and saved to Steam. You can use community controller layouts on Steam that make things way easier to set up than they would be on a Windows PC.

I haven't had any success with Yuzu, the Switch emulator. This isn't necessary for me but it just seems like it isn't finding the keys that Emudeck set up.

Docked mode

I have mostly experimented with this on my LCD prior to the latest update, but I have fiddled with it on the 3.5 update this Sunday.

I have a Toshiba LED Flatscreen TV from ten years ago. It has no issues with any consoles of any kind, though I've never tested it with a PC before.

It is 50/50 as to whether the Dock works. At first it wasn't reacting at all. Now it seems to be compatible on Gaming mode, this could be because I forced lower resolution for screen compatibility.

However, on Desktop mode, when I used the automatic settings, the screen was flickering black and turning off altogether. I searched online for a solution, but unfortunately nothing I saw was helping.

I saw that it was trying to run at 24hz 1080p. I couldn't change the framerate, but I lowered the resolution to 720p and it became locked at 60hz.

This seemed to fix the issue, but now the resolution is too small and there doesn't seem to be a way to force it to change without also lowering the framerate to unusable levels. Odd as I am pretty sure you can force Windows to a massive resolution and the text will just look very tiny on your screen.

I will attribute this to my TV being too old for a modern computer, and maybe it's just a 720p tv, as I have had no issues with the two LCD tvs that my dad owns. I'm not eager on the idea of replacing my TV just for the steamdeck, but if it has no issues in Gaming Mode, it's not going to be a priority anyway.

As for the controller connection, well, it was initially pain in the ass trying to get my xbox series x controller connected. For some reason the bluetooth wasn't doing the job. But after a firmware update on my controller, it went a lot smoother.

What I did not like was you couldn't wake Steamdeck from sleep with the controller.

I have heard this isn't a problem on the OLED, but I am sure a firmware update on the original Steamdeck could have solved the problem. And if not - Why? We have been using bluetooth controllers to wake consoles since 2006! I saw someone claim you can't wake a PC from sleep with a bluetooth controller, so I immediately tested it and... woke my PC from sleep. Why does the Steamdeck LCD have worse wireless functionality than the Nintendo Wii?

Overall

People ask on this sub if the console will replace their gaming PCs. In my case, no, as it has to be a very old gaming PC for the steamdeck to be more powerful.

Generally it hasn't replaced my Switch, either, as the Steamdeck's battery life is too limited for long sessions (or cafe gaming as I like to do), and it is a worse Multiplayer console than the Switch. Especially as I had to get the dock separately. The console's portability is limited by its great size, too. I have bought a special case that is smaller than the stock one, but it can only do so much.

However i have found the steamdeck to be useful when I am travelling with access to power outlets and want a gaming PC on the go when I am staying with my partner, or when I simply want to sit in a different room of the house and play Monster Hunter.

The OLED also has a nice screen that makes me choose to play some games on there instead of on my PC screen.

The gimmick of playing demanding Pc games on such a tiny console is fun, and the gyro functionality has opened a lot of options for me that I hadn't previously considered. Maybe it is time to return to DOOM.

I love my steamdeck. After I was happy with my OLED setup, I said goodbye to it and traded it in at CEX. I will transfer that love over to my OLED and even though it isn't immediately that useful, I will find a lot of use for it over the next year with my travelling.

[eaglefairy]

Back to xenoblade 3 and doing absolutely NO plot tonight! Woo!

My roommate is fully convinced that Z is Zanza in disguise and honestly I can't even blame her. I think I mentioned it before but I definitely thought the same thing when I played

Oh no she was like "wow the machina look pretty different in this game huh" and I had to like. restrain myself from going off about series fidelity right now because I would spoil something on accident. We'll wait until the end of the series for that one

WHOA I don't think I've ever heard this part of the Millick Meadows theme before but it's absolutely gorgeous. Reminds me of Grandeur from xenoblade 1

And we just met Gray! My roommate noted that he looks older and probably isn't Agnian or Kevesi but I don't think she has many opinions on him besides that

Upon seeing Teach: Roommate: "Why is he blue??" Me: "He's--" Roommate: "OH, he's Indoline!"

Roommate: "Not gonna lie, my first response is to not trust him because he's Indoline, but I don't want to be racist." "See, evil face! Evil face!"

Also hey wait what Alrestian race are the purplish Agnians supposed to be?? They don't ring a bell for me

Roommate: "I'm NOT racist, I'm just RIGHT!" (That's upon seeing Teach talk to the Consul. It sounds really bad out of context though)

Roommate: "I like that he's so confident that he's like 'I'm not just going to attack you, I'm going to attack you while I'm standing on the edge of a cliff.' That's pretty sick of him ngl"

Honestly seeing Teach's Hero Quest again after seeing his Ascension Quest is really interesting. He's projecting really hard onto the Ouroboros what with the whole "destructive pursuit of power" thing

Now that Teach isn't being super shady my roommate likes him a lot! Yay!

[deus-and-the-machina]

Maybe this was obvious but it really has just hit me recently that like. Every mainline xenoblade heroine and then some other characters are all just fucking kosmos.

like fiora? Robot girl housing some divine entity with an eye color change to accompany it.

Elma’s true form is just alien Kosmos pretty much to the point where some even theorized she was Kosmos’ next body.

Pyra and mythra? Artificially created beings (though them being initially ai is more of a revelation than a feature like kosmos being a robot is) who draw on the direct power of the Zohar/conduit, and pyras torso + weird short shorts resemble episode 1 kosmos’ design and Mythra’s shoulder armor diamonds are also similar to her design motifs.

Mio’s more of a callback to elly xenogears overall but even she can’t escape being kosmosified, namely in her ouroboros form which looks very kosmos-y. Heck you could probably argue M’s design is a bit kosmos-y too though it’s a bit more surface level “they both have light cool colored hair and armor”

But it doesn’t end there. You have Poppi QTpi (can’t find the pi symbol wailing) in canon is designed off the Aegis girls and I think out of canon utilizes aspects of Pyras beta design, meaning that she’s a kosmos twice removed. There’s also the superficial similarities of being a quirky robot girl though kosmos is only used comedically once in a while or in xenosaga freaks.

then A. A is the funniest example to me bc they fucking kosmosified the chaos-like (sentences that may not be in the Christian Bible but are definitely in A Bible that exists. hint hint play xenosaga) but vague appearance similarities aside A’s kosmos connections are more thematic. Defying your purpose and programming after developing empathy and going off at the end with an unsure but determined promise they’ll return again someday, it’s all very end of xenosaga 3. also kosmos herself is just in 2 along with t-elos. Meaning that counting the pneuma girls as separate, plus Poppi, xenoblade 2 has six fucking kosmos’ including kosmos herself.