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sfznyxio · 6 months

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-ˋˏ MASTERLIST ˎˊ

DISCLAIMER. all written works are protected under the copyright law. do not repost, translate, or plagiarize them in any shape or form. they are exclusive to this site and ao3 only. if found anywhere else, please let me know immediately. mature (nsfw) and suggestive works will be tagged as #♪ .nyxplicit.

ᯤ BLUE LOCK

𝄞༉‧₊˚. FLOW

racer au. various x f!reader. with your auto workshop at risk of closing down, your best friend kira ryosuke offers to introduce you to people who are definitely in need of your high quality services: underground street racers of blue lock, whose obsessions are winning the races. however, your arrival at the track makes them think otherwise.

𝄞༉‧₊˚. !STEAL

streamer au. various x gn!reader. !steal: a command set by your significant other who accidentally walks in during one of your streams. response: chat already forgot about their favorite strimmer (streamer). he has stolen the show.

ᯤ GENSHIN IMPACT

𝄞༉‧₊˚. GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL!

pokemon au. various x gn!reader. do you have what it takes to be a pokemon master? step right up! start your adventure to become the greatest pokemon master of all time!

𝄞༉‧₊˚. REMEDY

canon-compliant. various x gn!reader. you help patch up your significant other’s injuries.

𝄞༉‧₊˚. REQUIESCAT IN PACE

afterlife au. various x gn!reader. the dead deserve their happy endings.

𝄞༉‧₊˚. THE GHOST OF YOU

reincarnation au. various x gn!reader. you're alive, but in a different form. you're here, but out of reach. the curse called immortality is ruthless, whether to keep you on sight or spare the heartache. after all, it's not worth the time chasing after someone who isn't in this world anymore.

𝄞༉‧₊˚. THROUGH THICK AND THIN

immortal au. various x gn!reader. with your kin swept away by the cataclysm, you have no one to rely on other than your wits. the curse of being immortal has you start fresh in the modern world as a citizen of inazuma, living alongside humans and yokai. throughout your life in the moral realm, you’ve met many interesting people. out of all of them, one becomes your rock and a shoulder to cry on. out of the blue, you say whatever is in your heart. they’ll reach out for your hand to let you know they're listening.

𝄞༉‧₊˚. WITHIN THESE CASTLE WALLS

royal au. various x gn!reader. you are a mercenary who saved twin siblings from getting killed, who turn out to be rulers of the kingdom of celestia. as gratitude, they instate you as a member of the royal guard. now with the alarming increase of assassinations, you’re wary of everyone in the castle. who is your ally or enemy, or who will be the one to capture your heart?

ᯤ HAIKYUU

𝄞༉‧₊˚. WILDEST FANTASIES (M)

post-timeskip (2021). seijoh 4 x f!reader. you are irresistible and a source of temptation, especially in his imagination.

ᯤ HONKAI: STAR RAIL

𝄞༉‧₊˚. CHEMISTRY

celebrity au. various x gn!reader. fans are raving about the chemistry between you and their favorite actors who play as the love interest in your recent music video. they missed the message behind it: the two of you are actually together. now that the word’s out, the whole world won’t shut up.

𝄞༉‧₊˚. CIPHER

spy au + assassin au. ipc trio x gn!reader. codename “cipher”, you’re an enigmatic assassin who has a perfect track record of leaving no trace behind. until your current target is actually bait to lure you in by jade of the ten stonehearts, elite spies of the international peace corporation. now they can’t let you go, not when they’ve finally caught the inconvenience of their missions. and so you’re forced to cooperate to prevent the destruction of the nation.

𝄞༉‧₊˚. FOR EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON

modern au. various x gn!reader. everything happens for a reason. sometimes, in a way that is unexpected.

𝄞༉‧₊˚. HEADLINES

celebrity au. various x gn!reader. following the success of the recruitment process and their first concert, this odd combination of a band becomes busy these days. thus, they hired a manager to keep track of their schedules. and to an extent, deal with their shenanigans that may or may not feature on the news.

𝄞༉‧₊˚. I, THE SOVEREIGN

royal au + time travel au. various x f!reader. everyone says you’re the curse of your own legacy. dubbed “the worst ruler ever in history”, power is all you cared about. your selfishness leads to the downfall of your own kingdom, with you murdered at the hands of people you thought could be trusted. somehow the next day, you regress to the day you become the sole successor to the throne after the previous sovereign passed. can you prove your worth and show them you have what it takes to be the sovereign in this timeline?

𝄞༉‧₊˚. VIP (M)

casino au + modern au. various x f!reader. welcome to club reverie, where vips around the world seek adrenaline rush from entertainment. you’re a popular host among some of the most influential vips you served. this particular night will be the most pleasurable to ever date.

ᯤ WIND BREAKER

𝄞༉‧₊˚. I CHOOSE YOU!

pokemon au. various x gn!reader. new year, new you, new school. you’re determined to be the greatest trainer in history, and it starts at a pokemon academy. you hope to finish your studies free of drama, if you can ignore the noise of many battles within the student body to see who will come on top.

𝄞༉‧₊˚. LET’S GET THIS BREAD!

canon-compliant. various x gn!reader. you’re a new employee at saboten bakery. your regulars are quite interesting, a bunch of delinquent high school boys who fight with good intentions. this time, they didn’t come just for the bread; they came in hopes to impress the cute newbie at the counter.

𝄞༉‧₊˚. REBIRTH OF AEGIS

bodyguard au + rich kid au. various x f!reader. cracks on shields leave the protected vulnerable. the shield of the business world named aegis shatters when a certain scandal rises after the death of the family behind the company. you as their child and witness of their goodwill take the initiative of attesting their innocence. this case has a huge toll on your mental health, so your household staff hires bodyguards as safety measures, much to your annoyance. but who knew that they are the most helpful assistants to your mission?

ᯤ MISCELLANEOUS

𝄞༉‧₊˚. LIMBO (M)

arcane au. various x f!reader. a scion of a noble house, born and raised in the rich, utopian overworld, finds herself in an anarchy between her home and its oppressed underbelly - the underworld. assigned to investigate an artifact presumed stolen by thieves from the underworld, she becomes torn between her ideals and her morals as she encounters old friends and new enemies.

#sfznyxio #masterlist #blue lock #genshin impact #haikyuu #honkai: star rail #wind breaker

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gertlushgaming · 8 months

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Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Review (PlayStation 5)

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Review, Two larger-than-life heroes, Ichiban Kasuga and Kazuma Kiryu are brought together by the hand of fate, or perhaps something more sinister… Live it up in Japan and explore all that Hawaii has to offer in an RPG adventure so big it spans the Pacific.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Review Pros:

- Beautiful graphics. - 54.04GB download size. - Platinum trophy. - You can import your PlayStation 4 save. - Three voice languages - Japanese, English, and Chinese. - Game settings - battle speed (slow/normal), trigger effects, action prompts, auto camera, subtitle text size, subtitle text color, UI display, swap left and right stick. - Controller settings - Invert axis and sensitivity sliders along with camera speed. - HDR support. - Audio can be tweaked such as the angle of the speakers, and controller speaker on/off. - Can remap controls. - Action adventure gameplay. - During some cutscenes you skip/fat forward conversations and in text-based interactions you can have it auto-scroll. - Tutorial pop-ups as you play. - Colorblind support. - You can save and load when you want. - Cases and materials are hidden around the game world and contain random items and health. - Turn turn-based combat, you can use items, perform additional attacks, and time your blocks for a perfect guard. - Earn exp and level up to increase your stats. - The story is as mental, impactful, and memorable as ever. - Injects much-needed comedy relief in imaginative ways. - You can get a refresher on the story so far. - A massive 3D world with full 360-degree camera control. - The English Dub is really good. - Interactions and conversation choices affect - passion, confidence, charisma, kindness, intellect, and style. - Main story mission with many optional side missions and events to trigger. - Treasure hunts can be performed around town for random loot. - You earn exp and level up your character, your teammates, and your job level. - Weapons and gear affect your stats. - Thugs that Patrol the street come in different difficulties and change their appearance based on Kasuga's imagination. - Music - you can use your phone to create playlists or listen to the radio. Find new songs around and use steroids to play music loud. - If the the story has a significant change then you get warned and can choose when to proceed. - Hitting a guy into another guy to kill or damage both is very addictive. - Party chats can happen when roaming the streets, in a party chat everyone talks about something. - When fighting you can go near objects to use them as weapons. - Auto attack lets you watch the computer take over and control your party in combat. - Safes can be found and unlocked with any found keys to get loot. - Taxis act as fast travel points and you can call a taxi from your phone. - The camera is very detailed and if any of your party members are in the shot they start emoting and reacting. - Sujidex is an app that catalogs all the Sujimon you defeat and fills in their strengths, weaknesses, etc. (clearly a spin on Pokemon) - Click the left stick to play in first person otherwise, it's a third-person game. - ATM lets you deposit and withdraw cash instead of losing it when in battle. - Unlock hangouts to play mini-games, chat with friends, etc, and build your friendships. - Aloha Links is a social app in that greeting and meeting people makes friends and changes your personality. - Play how you want. - You see enemies in the street and they have an awareness bar to help you avoid or engage with them. - Play how you want. - Walk past taxi stops to add them to your map and unlock them to fast travel. - Miss Match is a dating app where you spend credits looking for love, you can edit your profile as and when you like and dating is a process rather than a straight match and date type thing. - Chatting in the dating app is its a mini-game where you have rhythm action and multiple choice sequences to try and date. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Review Cons: - New Game Plus is locked behind a paywall. - You have to turn on auto scroll every time. - It's still annoying that the game jumps between voiced and text-only conversations in one sequence. - Way too many items/cases to pick up. - It is slow in places as you go through lengthy introductions and side stories. - The game doesn't open up with any catchup story instead it's after the opening Prologue and is text-based. Related Post: Jett Rider Review (PlayStation 5) Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth: Official website. Developer: Ryu Ga Gotoku Publisher: SEGA Store Links - PlayStation Read the full article

#PlayStation4 #PlayStation5

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apple-pecan · 1 year

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Ratchet: Deadlocked (2005)

it is the mid 2000's. the extremely mature grand theft auto series is now is popular as pokemon. mascot platformers have fallen out of the public eye in favor of open world crime games and must be edged up to survive. and thus the fourth ratchet and clank game was made. while noticeably darker than the previous three, it doesnt get as serious as jak ii nor is it as pathetic and tryhard as shadow the hedgehog; the sense of humor is still intact, but clank's role in the game is not.

this is basically just a flat out third person shooter with minimal platformer elements; the series was headed in this direction for a while but it's pretty apparent here. the combat is really good, the best it's ever been even, but i miss being able to explore the worlds and meet weird wacky characters. in this you go to a planet, do one mandatory mission, then a bunch of optional missions and repeat until the game's over. apparently all the levels in this game are just multiplayer maps with boundaries set but i never played multiplayer so i cant confirm

there's still a plot of course and it's even more packed with pop culture and capitalism satire than ever before (after up your arsenal toned it down) but it's mostly just news headlines featuring the annoying announcers from the fictional televised bloodsport ratchet is forced into; cutscenes with the main characters interacting are reduced and that disappointed me.

in short the game is both better and worse than it's predecessors, im glad i played it but i might just go back to the original three instead if im hankering for a ratchet and clank game.

3/5

NOTE: i gave this game one point less than planned because the last line in the entire game is transphobic. the mid 2000's... how i DONT miss you o~o;;

#apple's media review #apple's media: games

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switchblufreviews · 2 years

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Two steps forward, one step back

Gamefreak first dipped its toes in the idea of an open world pokemon with sword and shield, before diving in with both feet for legends arceus. I’ve previously written about how this shift in arceus was largely positive, though the battle system in legends arceus couldn’t hold a candle to full fat pokemon. But finally! Here we have a mainline pokemon game with all of the battling bells and whistles that competitive players have come to know and love, yet for some reason game freak has left behind some of the best and most interesting ideas that they introduced in arceus. In this sense, we’ve gone two steps forward, but one step back. And in a lot of other senses, Gamefreak has failed to make the steps it needs to make.

Open World:

Committing to an open world with pokemon walking around in the overworld is a huge step forward. No longer does one have to carefully avoid patches of grass lest you be ambushed the millionth Pidgey or Rattata. No longer must you fight an army of Zubats any time you go into a cave or tunnel. You can simply walk around, enjoy watching these creatures in their natural habitat, and only interact with what you want a la carte.

This emphasis on open world exploration does not come without its drawbacks however. Interesting indoor areas like the power plant, the silph co, or SS anne are completely missing. There are also no puzzles, and very few caves. I was able to go through the entire story of the game only encountering one cave. Victory road in particular is a glaring omission.

There is not much else to do throughout your 10 to 15 hour romp through the main story besides catch and battle pokemon which brings me to two things that legends arceus did better in this regard: the first is the catching system. The ability to sneak up and throw pokeballs at pokemon without battling was the best part of arceus and it is a shame that it did not make a return for scarlet and violet. The second is that legends arceus had a lot of little side quests and missions to complete whereas this simply does not seem to exist in scarlet and violet as far as I can tell. Pokemon games have always been very sparse in the side quest department, but it is particularly noticeable here due to the open world nature of the game.

There is, actually, something like a side quest when it comes to catching the four legendaries in this game, and I have to say I hate it. In order to unlock the seal holding each of these ‘mons you need to find 8 stakes on the ground randomly peppered throughout the world map for each of them. I love a good side quest before gaining the right to catch a legendary, but making me mindlessly survey the entire map makes me want to just look up where they are. It simply is not fun.

As for the main story, you are given three paths: one where you battle eight gyms, one where you battle 8 team star members (this generation’s team rocket) and one where you battle a few giant pokemon.

The eight gyms all had a pre-gym mini game that was always too easy and boring. People always feel the need to remind you that pokemon is a game made for children, but nowhere is this more glaring than in these mini games. Also, you can't see the inside of each gym and they are not thematically or visually distinct in any way which is normally the best part of a new gym. Lastly, being able to zoom directly from one gym to the other with no events in between was less rewarding than organically reaching them as a milestone in your journey.

The team star battles were the lowest point of the main story. You get to their base, auto -battle a little bit and then just battle the boss who always uses the same pokemon at the end. Auto battles are exactly what they sound like - you toss your pokemon out and it battles without you doing anything. It’s a nice way to gain some exp or some crafting items, but it’s not fun - it can’t be fun because you’re not doing anything.

The titans were actually kind of interesting and fun, I just wish you were able to capture the titans during battle. You are able to come back and catch them later, but by the time I found that out I didn’t even bother to do so. This was probably the best part of the main story, but it really highlighted the need for voice acting. Those cutscenes were too static and bland without it. A solid performance by a good actor could’ve really elevated what turned out to be a pretty touching story.

Battling:

At least since generation 6, Gamefreak has been experimenting with different gameplay “gimmicks,” like mega evolutions, Z moves, and Dynamaxing to shake up the metagame. I am happy to say that this generation’s “tera” mechanic might be the most interesting yet.

“Teraztalization” gives you the ability to change any pokemon’s type to any type. So you can have a water type Arcanine that laughs in the face of hydro pumps, a water type Palafin that basically gets a free choice band without the drawbacks, or a ghost type Maushold that can’t be flinched with fake out. It is such a flexible mechanic because it can be used offensively, defensively, or for utility. And you can have custom tera types on all 400 pokemon in the national dex, unlike mega evolutions that were only for a select few.

The endgame consists of raid battles for rare pokemon with rare tera types. These battles range in difficulty with 7 star battles being the most difficult. These pokemon have 30 times their normal health, and can summon a shield that negates almost all of your damage unless you also terrastalize your pokemon. These raids are clearly balanced to be taken by four, and thus it is extremely difficult to solo them, and Gamefreak went out of their way to make the NPC’s that help you in offline mode completely useless. I wish that it would either scale difficulty based on the number of people like, say, monster hunter, or give me the ability to bring four ‘mons myself. Gamefreak clearly thinks this isn’t an issue because you can just hop online and play with randos, but there are millions of literal children playing this game, and fainting in these raid battles has harsh timer penalties. It is simply too difficult to beat some of these 7 star raids unless there are four people who know what they are doing and use a coordinated plan.

For how much I enjoy the battling in this game, a lot of it is soured by the high barriers to entry to be competitive. Gamefreak simply does not seem willing to relent on this point. There are at least seven things to work on for each pokemon that you want to try on your team: their Individual values, their effort values, their nature, ability, moveset, item, and tera type. They’ve made minor improvements to ameliorate the grind in some of these areas, but none of them go far enough, especially when you are seriously trying to test out several different teams for competitive play. In their mind, the solution seems to be to just try rental teams that other trainers have made. But the issue with this approach is that you can’t change any of the aforementioned parameters in those teams to suit your needs. You can’t even change out any of the pokemon. And even if I’ve gone through the hassle of grinding out those seven things for each of my six pokemon, tweaking simply is much more of a pain than it should be. Say I have a 6 IV modest Flutter mane with 252 EVs in speed and 252 in special attack, but I notice that I don’t quite need all that fire power and I’d rather invest in some bulk to survive a jolly 252 attack chien pao ice spinner with -96%roll at max. Now I need EV reducing berries which can only be obtained through mindlessly looking for shiny objects all over the map, or waiting for the specific berry you need to randomly appear at auction for exorbitant prices. There are a few other ways to get them, but they are just as tedious.

Or take EV training for just one more example. We have the ability to just chug vitamins to skip this part, but for no good reason Gamefreak decides to make vitamins prohibitively expensive. Grinding out the money for them takes just as long as simply grinding out the EV’s yourself the old school way. I understand not wanting everyone to have perfect ‘mons throughout their playthrough, but the post game should have a way to quickly alter pokemon for competitive testing.

You may have noticed that I used the word “grind” a lot in this review. Gamefreak did implement one way to skip over a lot of the tedium in their sandwich system. It is regrettable that they spent so much time on this because it is needlessly convoluted. There are hundreds of different sandwiches, ingredients and buffs where this could’ve been a lot more elegant if they either narrowed it down to like ten or twenty sandwiches, or simply did away with the needless tedium in the first place instead of making you go through this boring sandwich mini game.

My final gripe is with the Technical Machine system in this game. This is another needless step backward from previous games. In previous games, you’d find a move and be able to teach it to as many pokemon as your heart desires. Now they are consumable and craftable. So you have to grind every time you want to teach earthquake to a new ‘mon. I know why they did it - they want to give you something to do with all the pokemon drops, and a reason to keep battling pokemon, but it is just more busy work for someone who is trying to prep for the next VGC regional.

Performance:

Honestly, the broken graphics and performance are a slap in the face coming from the most profitable franchise the world has ever seen, but that is par for the course with Gamefreak at this point. With all the money in the world you’d think they’d invest in a second team to help them keep churning out games at a high pace, but with better quality the way other franchises like monster hunter and call of duty do. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on the graphics because you can see for yourself how bad they are, but I do want to nitpick a bit about the menus. I once tried to set up a picnic, but instead of just booting me off my ride pokemon and into the picnic, it told me I couldn’t initiate one while riding. After I got off it told me that there wasn’t enough space. Then I moved and it told me that the area was too slanted and the picnic would fall off the table if I did it there. Then I was too close to a person.

A similar issue happens with your legendary where you can’t seamlessly transition from using it in your party and as a ride pokemon, it’s one or the other. Again, needlessly convoluted.

Conclusion:

If I didn’t care about pokemon, I wouldn’t waste my time criticizing it so harshly. It is painful to see that pokemon still has so many glaring issues after two decades of releases and more money than God. The open world adds a lot to the game, but there were also a lot of great things that were lost in the transition to an open world, in particular the puzzles and indoor sections. There is an incredible gem of a game hiding somewhere deep in there, but it is rough, unpolished, and in some ways worse than other games that have come before.

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casesenergylife · 2 years

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Uncharted 3 length

Ĝomplete the game on “Hard” difficulty level for all chapters WITHOUT changing to lower difficulties at all for any chapter.

All other brands, logos, and/or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Everything is awesome! These are not usually tested by us (because there are so many), so please use them at your own risk. We have no achievements or trophies for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune yet.

To unlock a new video, go into the pause screen’s Bonuses menu & enter the Rewards menu and highlight “Concept Art – Bonus 1”, then enter the “L2, Right, Up, Square, Left, Triangle, R1, Down” cheat.

New Video, Concept Art & T-Shirt Cheat Codes: Pick a level and before you even move type in L1 and select it a few times over, you will receive Make five enemies drop their grenade by shooting them, Defeat 20 enemies with hand-to-hand combat, Defeat 50 enemies with hand-to-hand combat, Defeat 20 enemies by blind-firing while in cover (without aiming with L1/R1), Successfully counter all of a Brute�s damage-giving attacks, Complete one Cooperative Multiplayer game, Defeat ten enemies with grenades by aiming while hanging, Defeat 20 enemies with gunfire by aiming while hanging, Hit three enemies with fish in the market, Defeat five enemies in a row with headshots, Play in the swimming pool on the Cruise Ship, Defeat ten enemies with propane or acetylene tank explosions, Inspect almost every display case in the Cartagena Museum, Stand on the crocodile in the Secret Library, Defeat five Riot Shield enemies by running over their shield, Defeat 20 enemies by shooting from the hip (without aiming with L1/R1), Defeat 30 enemies in a row with your side arm, Complete one Competitive Multiplayer game, Kill 10 enemies with thrown-back grenades, Throw back a grenade and defeat two enemies at once, Defeat ten enemies using hand-to-hand combat on the back of the convoy trucks, Defeat ten enemies in a row, alternating hand-to-hand combat and gunplay, Defeat five enemies in a row using stealth attacks, Defeat 50 enemies in a row without auto-reloading, 20 times in a row, pick up ammo while rolling. If you have any unlockables please, Submit a cheat for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Top 25 Hottest Video Game Girls of All Time, Full list of GTA Online Missions, Payouts, and Rewards, Pokemon: LeafGreen Gameshark Codes (Pokemon LeafGreen - GBA), 's Top 10 Best Grand Theft Auto 5 Cheats, All Cheats to Spawn Vehicles in GTA 5 (Grand Theft Auto V - X360). Here we’ll list Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection cheat codes and unlockables with tips for Naughty Dog’s new action-adventure platformer game collection of Uncharted 1, 2 & 3. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and at Google+. This site is not affiliated in any way with Microsoft, Sony, Sega, Nintendo or any video game publishers.Privacy Policy | Terms of Service. Here’s how to unlock all Uncharted 4 codes and cheats. To activate Legacy Mode in multiplayer, reach Level 75. Have a question for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception? There are also 50 DLC trophies.

We have 18 questions and 20 answers for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. – Thanks for visiting! Created by: YuGiOhFm2002. Complete game walkthrough with videos to help you find all the 101 treasure locations for this cracking game. Here we will show you how to unlock all Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection codes with a cheats list that’s valid for the PS4 port. Can you provide the answers for fellow gamers questions, + Add Your Cheats and Codes / Ask a question.

Enter the appropriate section, highlight the above option, then enter the following code when prompted: Press L1, Right, Square, Down, Left, Triangle, R1, Up. For $25, you can get yourself an Uncharted 3 season pass and say “I’m in it for the long haul,” effectively nabbing you all the planned DLC at this point. Share: stLight.options() Tags: Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection.

Ğnter the “U R D L U L D R” cheat on the Emblem editing screen to unlock new Piggyback Logo Emblems.

are running a little low on the bang bang.

, Check out the Red Dead Redemption 2 gameplay reveal! Do this whenever you Earlier this month, we reported that Uncharted 3 was gating its online features behind an Online Pass. R1 L2 R2 up down left right up down left right. Super Cheats is an unofficial resource with submissions provided by members of the public. Please use our search box below to find your game for the latest Cheats, Hints, Secrets, Gameplay Videos and More.

#Uncharted 3 length

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nazariatakus · 2 years

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PGSHARP NOVA Atualização AUTO Mission BOT Melhorado Buddy Radar Nearby H...

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beesbeesbees · 2 years

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On scope

So in my last post I mentioned scope, which is a gamedev term to mean how big your game is and, more specifically, keeping it from getting out of control. Not putting too much work on your plate, basically.

This is especially important for an amateur developer who is just starting to get into game development. Like me!

I’ve heard this a lot, but this video I watched recently helps sum it up really well. In that video they mention the concept of a “minimum viable product”. Basically, if you cut away everything that isn’t necessary, what does that look like? And is it fun?

Another video I watched related it to drawing. When you’re drawing, you do a sketch to give you an idea of the final picture, work out anatomy issues, etc. The minimum viable product is the “sketch” of your game.

So what does my sketch look like?

Here’s my “Core Features” list, or what I believe is the simplest form of this game in a “complete state”. This is a little more indepth than the video’s proposed “minimum viable product” - the example given was Mario jumping on a map with pits. No enemies, no powerups. This is more like Mario jumping on a map with pits and enemies and the occasional platform or mushroom.

To simplify it further would probably be “you have a daughter, and you can raise or lower her stats through picking between three jobs, and you can reduce her stress by resting.”

What I found really helpful was to add questions to every item. What would these actually look like? This got me thinking about the actual implementation.

(To be very clear about point 4, this was written when I was envisioning it more as making homunculi, where you could potentially create bespoke assistants for the needs of folks in town. You can’t sell kids in my game.)

Anything that did NOT feel essential was moved to a separate list. Things like missions, randomization, talking to the girls, a New Game+ system, that sort of thing. Nice to have, but ultimately unnecessary.

That said, I also created this:

This is “Core QOL”. QOL stands for “quality of life”, meaning optional features that make a game smoother and easier to play - think of an autosave system, being able to auto-sort items in an inventory, etc. Features that, while technically unnecessary, I consider to be a priority.

For example, you don’t NEED to be able to give your daughters custom names. I could just make it so that your daughters’ names are randomized. Technically speaking, it’s an optional feature!

But there’s something really special about custom names, I think. Sentimentality is what separates these games from being just a series of bars you watch go up and down. You’re forming an emotional bond with a character that you’re taking a parental role over, and it helps you feel more invested in the gameplay.

It might seem a little silly, but here’s an example of that sentimentality in action: I always name my Pokemon. I feel a lot more connected to what’s going on when I’m rooting for “WIDE LOAD” instead of “Parasect”. Suddenly, it’s not just a soulless collection of pixels that attacks when I pick the option - it’s my baby boy, WIDE LOAD, who I risked life and limb to catch even if he was 20 levels above me at the time.

And I love him so, so much.

Getting back to my list, you can see there’s a lot of “you can view the stats whenever”. Let me give some examples.

In Princess Maker 2, doing an activity will increase some stats and decrease others (e.g. working on a farm, working in a kitchen). It will not tell you which ones beforehand - you have to try them out and see. Sometimes it’s easy to guess (Farming increases strength and constitution), sometimes it’s not (Cooking decreases combat skill??). It’s trial and error.

This means that you have to write down or memorize what does what, which can be frustrating. I don’t mind the first attempt at something not giving you the info, but it should “unlock” the info so that subsequent attempts tell you exactly what stats an activity raises and lowers.

Games like Cute Bite improve upon this by telling you what stats will be increased by a job or study activity, but they don’t tell you what stat is decreased by a given job. The omission seems to be intentional, probably to make the gameplay more interesting, but I still dislike it.

Perhaps the “oops I forgot that decreases Etiquette, oh no!” is compelling gameplay for your typical gamer, but as someone with memory issues and ADHD, it just means I have to take notes. It would be cool if the game did that for me instead of having to have Notepad open while I play it.

It’s not like I want the game to play itself, and you’ll have to write down certain things anyway, like “having x stat be 100 and y stat be 150 seems to be the requirement for this character to appear” - but these are such basic things you interact with so routinely that I don’t believe automating them is bad.

To bring it back to Pokemon, recent Pokemon games tell you if an attack is super effective or not very effective. I’ve been playing these games for over 20 years, but this made them a lot more accessible and fun to me. Some folks complained about this “dumbing the games down” - as if they aren’t made for children - but I personally don’t find “ugh, right, I forgot Steel resists Psychic for some reason” to enrich my experience.

Back to raising games. So not only do you have to keep in mind what stats are increased by what, you have to remember what stats your character has and what stats you were trying to improve. Cute Bite helpfully puts the stats page next to your activity list, but Princess Maker 2 requires you to back out of your calendar entirely to look at them.

So I very often end up in a spiral of “what was I improving again?”, backing out, looking at the stats, saying “oh right”, going to the jobs, trying to remember what I was doing, et cetera. The video game equivalent of “walking into a kitchen and trying to remember what the fuck you were there to do”.

This is why I list these things as Core QOL. Backing out to look at a separate menu should be something that happens as little as possible. You should be able to, ideally, look at all the information you need on one page, or with a click or two.

Bullet point #5 (a memory album of daughters gone by) is by far the least essential one, but comes back to sentimentality. Being able to look back at the first daughter you ever made, to see her face again and what her ending was. It also does have a practical purpose - if daughter #1 was a “failure” at achieving a certain goal you were looking for, being able to look at her stats would give you some idea of what to try for with daughter #2.

All of these have the potential to be cut, but that one is the most likely. That said, all of them would be ideal to have.

There’s still the list of various features I’d like to have but don’t consider essential, but, well, this post is long enough already. But I feel pretty good about having nailed down the things I’m most invested in developing, and I feel like by working outward from there, the most necessary features should become more obvious.

#ppposts #concept #scope

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hyrule-in-a-pokeball · 3 years

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I'm very excited for gen 9

Unlike Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Scarlet and Violet will be a true open world PL:A has very open spaces to play in, however its more akin to recent Monster Hunter games than it is to what everyone is comparing it to; Breath of the Wild. You have a central hub which you must return to time and time again, and you can't travel from one locale to another without going back to said hub. This is Monster Hunter's structure through n through.

GameFreak has been slowly dipping their toe into open world game design for a while now. We got the lackluster open world Wild Area in Vanilla Sword and Shield, followed by the significantly improved open worlds of the Isle of armor and Crown Tundra. While PLA wasn't a "true" open world, the areas we did have access to were massive, with each of them dwarfing the wild area, isle of armor, and crown tundra.

Potential non-linearity Now, there's nothing wrong with linearity in a game. Erase that concept from your mind. Even the grand-daddy of modern open world games, Grand Theft Auto, follows a linear story structure. In fact its pretty common in open world games. The draw of the open world is all the other things you can do before, during, and after the story missions. However, Pokemon has never really followed a "quest/mission" structure (outside of PLA, which is really an entirely different beast all together.) Its just been following a path from one town to the next, battling conveniently stronger trainers and gyms as you go, with areas beyond these gyms usually gated to the gym's completion to prevent you from wandering too far and getting your butt kicked by strong wild Pokemon and trainers. However, given that Scarlet and Violet will be a fully open world, there isn't going to be the usual pokemon structure of "follow path to the next gym." My hope is that, like breath of the wild's divine beasts, you can tackle the gyms in any order you feel like, (maybe even find them by accident!) and that maybe, as hinted at in anime material, gym leaders adjust their teams based on their challenger's number of badges. I really feel like giving us a big open world and then saying "Go here and do this first" would not work out too well.

New regional forms Regional forms have been a thing for 2 generations and 3 games now, breathing new life into older Pokemon by giving them new designs and typings. There's no reason to assume that they won't make a return in generation 9, with a brand new set of updated classics. Undoubtedly, some won't be great, but some will be objective improvements over the originals. Will your fave get a regional form? Will it be cool or lame? Who knows? Game Freak knows. But they're not tellin'.

A potential new eeveelution Pokemon recently broke its trend of adding a new eeveelution to every even-numbered generation in gen 8, with the fairy-type Sylveon being the latest addition to Team Eevee in generation 6 waaaay back in 2013. (Good lord that was 9 years ago...) So will we get a new Eeveelution in gen 9? Maybe two? And so; what type(s)? Its time, GameFreak.

The region itself While no name or even official map has been revealed, a partially obscured region map can be seen twice in the trailer, once in the live action segment and again in gameplay footage. Internet cartographers have thus been able to piece together that the region is based on the Iberian Peninsula, the majority of which is home to Spain and Portugal. This is exciting, as Spain is a region of the world we haven't seen pokemonified yet. We've seen Japan four and-a-half times (Gen 1, 2, 3, 4, PLA), America twice (Gen 5 and 7), the UK (gen 8) and France (gen 6) once respectively. While not every Pokemon in a new region is necessarily inspired by an actual animal or element of the region the game is based on, some of them undoubtedly are, and I'm excited to see them all

THE NUMBER Pokemon Legends: Arceus added some new region-exclusive evolutions, and brought the overall number of Pokemon up to 905. With the new starters revealed, the number has been officially brought to 908. However, factoring in that each of them will have two evolutions, along with it being EXTREMELY likely that there will be two mascot legendaries, we can safely say that, while unrevealed, the current number of Pokemon is a minimum of 919. While the offerings of new Pokemon have been sparce in recent generations (with no generation since 2010's gen 5 reaching triple digits, though admittedly, gen 8 came comfortably close), even if we don't hit triple digits for new Pokemon in generation 9, we will most definitely reach Pokemon #1000, and I personally hope GameFreak takes this opportunity to make it something REALLY cool. After all, 1000 is a huge milestone.

What do you think of the new generation of Pokemon? Who's your starter going to be? I'll be choosing Fuecoco, as his laid back personality matches my own. I hope he maintains it as he evolves.

#Pokemon #Pokemon scarlet #Pokemon violet

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planetchii · 3 years

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THE NICHIASA SHITPOSTING REPORT

TIME IS A MANMADE CONCEPT. ALSO KNOWN AS I THOUGHT I ALREADY DID THIS.

IN THIS EPISODE: AN AOZORA ELECTION DAY SPECIAL, A DISGRUNTLED SISTER TEACHES THE FAVORITE SISTER HOW TO FLY AND THE ZENKAIGER TENNIS GRAND PRE.

Tropical Rouge: It's the start of the general election season for the Aozora Middle School Student Council. And good news everyone, you can't be student council president of a middle school when you're going to be promoted to high school. That means that Asuka's ex is at the end of her term limit, and it's time for a new, fresh face to run the school. And Laura knows just the person to bring Aozora Middle School into the new golden age of rule.

That person is Laura.

I mean, what's a student council president then good practice for her rule as Grand Ocean's Next Top Queen? This should be easy. I mean who wouldn't be on board for changing the name of the Student Council President to "Queen", or having classes in the ocean or mandatory fish tails or something. Obviously, she is the best candidate. Forget that other candidate the disciplinary committee's Masami or good candidate Rika. Obviously, Laura is Sakuragawa Sensei approved.

Meanwhile, the girls are reminded that Asuka also has a backstory. Much to the surprise of absolutely three people, we're told that Asuka was once part of the Tennis club, and was doubles partners with her ex. Local bibliophile was quoted as saying, "I didn't think it was important." Seems Laura also agrees, as she wants to discuss her lofty goals, which causes her cabinet to have to revise her plans to something more doable.

Meanwhile, Chongire has some things to say about the current state of political affairs and demands an audience with the Presidental Candidate and her choices for cabinet positions. But it turns out that leaving the final speeches is an auto-disqualification. Saving the world does not matter in the political world. Honestly, it was unfair and some real fake news #stopthecount hours. Laura even told the assembly that she would be back. What's wrong with waiting like, 5 minutes? This was obviously a ploy to keep the smug fish from power. Oh well. At least she'll have the Grand Ocean.

Revice: After saving his sister Sakura and his "She's a girl, and a friend but not a girlfriend" girlfriend Ayaka, Ikki... still refuses to sign the contract to make him a magical girl employee of FENIX. This leads to his brother to rage quit the simulation and do something useful like his actual stamp collecting job.

Meanwhile, Sakura goes to look for her friend. After such a terrible ordeal, it's always best to check on your friends. But Ayaka's mom didn't know where she was. She felt no need to keep track of such people because she wasn't the favorite child. Only one of them was going to be her meal ticket to riches, and it wasn't going to be her non-idol daughter. But it's okay, because Ayaka found a new job, with new friends, and a new uniform and sparkly shoes. Hey, wait a minute...

Back at FENIX HQ, George is dealing with Daiji insisting that this time he can transform. THIS time he'll be successful and won't chicken out of putting the belt on, let alone stamping it. George promptly tells Daiji that his OS is woefully out of date and not even compatible. Meanwhile, while Daiji is being told he has to do a complete system overall to be software compatible, a concert is going on! Headlined by Ayaka's sister's idol group. Everyone's having a great time and dancing to the song. Everyone but Ayaka at least, who just wants her mom to look at her. When she still has no time for a non-idol daughter, Ayaka finally decides it's time for a Pokemon battle. Since Ayaka's mom doesn't have a Pokemon, Ikki and Vice transform to fight the Kong Pokemon in place of the mom. And with the encouragement of her new friend, the girl in the baseball cap that looks suspiciously like Angelina, Ayaka evolves her Pokemon using herself as an evolving stone. And the Kong Deadman's first mission: See if Ayaka's sister can fly. I'm sure if she believes, she can do it. This leads to Family Fight Round 2 between Ikki and Daiji because both are far too prideful and/or thinking of ways to make more money for the bathhouse.

Meanwhile, Daiji decides to offer an olive branch in the form of a new stamp, after both of them talked to their mom separately, who told both of them to knock it off.

The next day, Ayaka decides it's time for her sister to show off her night-long training for flying. And what do you know, her mom starts to actually talk to her. Ayaka will now get one (1) hour a week, uninterrupted with her mother without her sister. And with a patented Rider Kick (TM), Ayaka was separated from her leveled-up Kong Pokemon and Ikki wins the PokeBattle.

And finally, Ikki signs the contract. And Vice celebrates by watching someone Photoshop Ikki out of a family photo.

Zenkaiger: Yacchan and Magine go on a girls' day out to a nice cafe to have some fancy pastries without any wackiness involved. Such as a nice, calming day.

Meanwhile, Kaito is just trying to make some deliveries. Kaito is just trying to do his day job. Too bad boyfriend #2, Stacey, has decided that he hasn't had nearly enough alone time with Kaito and he will not be demoted in favor of the pirate. But Kaito is determined to make his mail rounds and tells him to meet up with Yatsune at Colorful. His not!grandma will be happy to fatten him up on more ice cream.

That's not good enough, and they will throw down now. At least Secchan told everyone what's happening between the two.

Left all alone with all the fancy baked goods, Yatsune waits. At least, until Tennis World shows up for the baked goods to turn everyone into tennis balls. The Tennis World is out of them you know. They can't play tennis if they have no balls. And people are abundant. But Yatsune comes to help! After helping the civilians escape, Yatsune bravely grabs her Geartlinger, and transforms into... wait, I'm being told she doesn't have a Geartlinger.

I'm now being told that she is being told that she does not have a Geartlinger. And now she's a tennis ball.

Coming to fight is Zox, because he's been home bored. While the group (and Stacey from his tsuntsun corner) is checking in with the newest tennis ball in the block, Vox is told by Tennis World that the only way to beat him is by tennis.

"So we will have a Tennis competition." -Vox, 2021

It turns out that Zox isn't just a manga otaku. He's a tennis otaku. And he picked up tennis because of his favorite manga, The Prince Pirate of Tennis. When Vox goes into a fandom, he goes in hard. And makes it his mission to make sure that the entire Zenkaiger group is at least not embarrassingly bad at tennis. Of course, when I say "Zox picked up tennis because of his manga" I of course mean, in that 10-minute discussion about the actual threat. But he's still better than the rest of the group.

At least Kaito is also slightly better than the rest of them. Also, good on Kaito for wearing his pride over his heart. Or at least I think that's his heart, I'm bad at anatomy.

We now enter into a cool, 90's montage which may or may not help with their backhand. So does Stacey, who turns out to be actually good at the tennis thing. Especially when all of his boyfriend's teammates are losing to rigged tennis. After Stacey puts on his best Prince Pirate of Tennis costume, he promptly shows how he is the 5-time Kikitopia champion of Rigged Tennis. Because the only thing Stacey loves more than tennis is hating on Tennis World. And Stacey promptly breaks the mask of the Tennis World and walks off. This gives the opening for the Zenkaiger and Twokaizer groups to finally beat the Tennis World, then beat the Dai Tennis World.

Zox even complements Stacey, which is met with a resounding "Fuck Off."

Back at Colorful, the two teams are given new celebratory towels and relay a story to Yatsune that "Satoshi" is pretty good at the tennis thing. Much to Yatsune's happiness, and Stacey's confusion somewhere else.

#precure #pretty cure #tropical rouge precure #tropical rouge pretty cure #kamen rider #kamen rider revice #zenkaiger #kikai sentai zenkaiger

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sazorak · 4 years

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Every Game I Played in 2020, Ranked

2020. Boy, what a garbo year huh? Didn't actually play that many games this year all-in-all. Happens! My backlog is getting pretty big, but I just find it hard to focus on games when I could be working on something. Or put off working on something, as it may happen to be at times.

My arbitrary decision from years ago to only attach a numbered ranking to same-year releases is getting increasingly silly, especially given my propensity to wait on playing games until I’m in the right mood, but whatever. That order matters than the dumb numerical numbering anyway.

2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019

Later Alligator – 2019 – Steam – ★★

The style of this game is very cute, and the jokes are funny enough. But… ok, look, I’m not one to be precious about what is or isn’t a game. But this really isn’t a game. It’s a series of disconnected, unrelated challenges clipped from Atari Free Mini Game Collection 100, wrapped in a very non-interactive adventure-game. It’s cute, it’s kind of sweet, but it’s dull. Dull dull dull. There’s a pointless, mandatory sliding block puzzle early on that infuriated me by its mere existence. Them giving the ability to skip it because “wow you’re bad at this huh”, which, while accurate, also just sold the whole point meaningless of the “““interactive experience”””.

Also: when a huge part of your game is WOW WE ANIMATED EVERYONE REALLY GOOD, text boxes that reveal word-by-word, far away from the animations that occur when said characters talk? Kind of stinks!

8. Carrion – 2020 – Steam – ★★

What Carrion does well— the whole “You’re controlling The Thing and just rippin’ people apart!” shtick— is really neat. They made that bootleg The Thing animate real-ass good.

The actual game as a whole though? Kind of garbage. Imagine a Metroidvania with zero actual exploration, where every opportunity you have to venture off the path instead results in immediate railroading with constant, utterly inexplicable one-way pipes. It’s not that it’s linear, it’s that it actively slaps you when you attempt to explore. It’s very frustrating! Add the fact that the tentacle-monster-shtick makes challenging to actually, y’know, move around and control all your bits… the only reason I finished the game was due to foreknowledge of its extreme brevity.

I think if the game were more open and less obsessed with constantly handing out upgrades, as well as having less of a focus on pure combat, I think I’d have enjoyed it more.

SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays – 2019 – Steam – ★★

It is well documented at this point that I am both an active Gundam fan, and as well as an on-again-off-again tactical RPG aficionado. A SD Gundam game appearing on Steam with a good English translation and localization is… exciting, to say the least. That said, I have never had much context for this game series beyond the basic facts that the combat tended to be pretty well animated CG, and that it’s vaguely similar to Super Robot Wars. Turns out… it’s really different from SRW? I dunno how the rest of the series fairs, but Cross Rays is weird as hell.

For one, there’s zero tutorialization at all. None. Almost all of what I’m going to explain here is me figuring stuff out by trial and error, or by reading junk online. Gundam is insanely popular, you’d think they’d be interested in explaining how it all works, but… nope. Even Super Robot Wars has multi-level introductory bits for new folks to show them the rope these days.

So: Cross Rays is a tactical RPG where you can playthrough the storyline of various Gundam AUs. You can play through them in any order. These playthroughs are fairly literal translations of the stories. You take control of the lead mecha from those series, fight enemy mobile suits that show up in SRW-like tactical RPG combat, until all reinforcements cease. Pretty straight forward. There are occasionally mission variants like “prevent enemies from reaching X” or “prevent enemies from destroying Y”, but even those can be just reduced to “kill everything very quickly please.”

But here’s the thing: while there is a story progression, the characters in the story itself actually have no character progression. These characters and mecha are actually considered guests, despite it being ostensibly their story. Instead, you are able to field “permanent” mecha and pilots of your own choosing, which do have progressions. There is no plot justification for this or anything like it. The game does not recognize that it’s weird that during Iron-Blooded Orphans intro where nobody knows what a Gundam even is, you can have 25 Gundams show up at once and just fire lasers at everything. That’s because this game is actually about repeatedly grinding the same set of missions over and over.

Pilots are recruited by completing certain in-mission requirements. Mecha are acquired by either by getting enough kills with the progression-less “guest” mecha, combining mecha you already have gashopon-style, completing certain quests, or by leveling up mecha and then “evolving them”. This is the actual core of the game.

SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays is basically Disgaea, it turns out? You’re grinding story missions at various difficulty levels in order to complete missions, try to recruit specific pilots, equip them with stats and levels to make them stronger, and then hitting mecha together in a sort of quasi-SMT fusion system until you get all the powerful mobile suits you desire.

The combat itself is kind of… bland? There’s a lot of systems, but they mostly seem in service of making an already easy game easier, or burning through tedium. There are four different difficulty modes, because there’s not actually that many different missions you can play through. The expectation is you’ll just work your way through every story beat while ramping the difficulty up over time to where the “guest” mecha would not be able to handle on their own. In fact, letting the story mecha act out the story beats is actually bad after a point, unless you’re still trying to get those lead mobile suits, or if you’re trying to complete some mission requirement in order to recruit Named Wing Grunt Pilot #246.

There is something to the notion of “I want to get N and N and N and N on a team, piloting weird but powerful mobile suits, and just solo every Gundam AU in a row,” but the whole premise seems kind of against purpose. Why bother recreating story beats at all, then? It’s not like the game even acknowledges any of that going on.

If the point is that I’m supposed to be, like in other grind-heavy tactical RPGs, breaking the systems to my own end in order to proceed… why not make the missions you play challenges focused towards that? The story progression literally only exists to facilitate the mission-based unlock conditions, which makes all the energy put into making them JUST LIKE THE ANIME really damn pointless.

I like tactical RPGs, I like breaking RPG systems so as to beat hard challenges (I beat all the insanely hard extra bosses in FFXII for crying out loud), I looooove Gundam. I should like this. But I don’t really have the “god, I NEED TO FILL THIS LIST” gene that some folks have… except as an excuse to continue to engage in gameplay I enjoy. The gameplay here seems in service of the collection, rather than the way around.

7. Pokemon Sword: The Isle of Armor – 2020 – ★★★

Pokemon’s first foray into actually doing DLC is… a mixed bag. As a positive, they’ve improved the Wild Area concept I liked from the main game, and even brought back buddy Pokemon walking behind you. That’s neat. On the other hand: the actual progression in it is completable in like an hour, it doesn’t scale with you, so you’re bound to be over leveled for it, and all the raid stuff, while still conceptually neat, is just as flawed as in the base game. And so, you’re just left with even more new Pokemon to RNG grind on to continue to catch-them-all. Nah, I’m good.

Astral Chain – 2019 – Switch – ★★★

Platinum knows how to make good character action games. They’ve made a bunch of them. Bayonetta, Nier: Automata, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. They also know how to make some kind of mediocre character action games. Transformers: Devastation, Wonderful 101, their various shovelware character action games like Korra. Astral Chain falls somewhere in the middle, I guess?

Astral Chain has all the production of their good games. It has some stylish, cool action. It has a neat core mechanical idea, in that it’s essentially a two-character action game where you control both characters at once. It has a lot of the old mechanics from some of their best games brought in; witch-time last second dodging from Bayonetta, Nier’s shooting-and-slashing combination, the Zandatsu mechanic from Metal Gear Rising, even Wonderful 101’s multi-unit shenanigans. The setting is different, and there’s some neat world flavor all in all.

But, of all games I’ve played over the past few years, Astral Chain made me more vividly angry than any other. It’s not that it’s too hard— far from it, really, I found its combat incredibly mashy. No, the problem is that it has so many shitty mechanics slathered on that it become a chore to get to the “good bits”.

Why would you put forced stealth sequences in your character action game, especially when your movement controls are not suited for it?

Why the HELL would you put platforming sections in your character action game, constantly, especially when your stupid ghost buddy can accidentally yank you off the edge, your auto-combos can just throw you off the edge, or literally anything can knock you off the edge and make you lose life?

Why would you put so many constant excuses into the world to force me use the digital sensor in the game, that also makes it miserable to walk around while using it?

WHO THE LIVING FUCK THINKS THESE SHITTY BOX BALANCING MINI-GAMES ARE FUN???

These games are supposed to encourage me to perfect everything, right? Why keep putting fucking fights you need to complete in order to get an S rank behind backtracking, or Legions I don’t have yet? That isn’t adding replayability, that’s just wasting my time. There are even in-level missions that have fail conditions that you never even know about. Surprise!!! A lot of them involve chasing after guys and catching them with your chain, which is really obnoxious to do!!!! SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The story is just Bad Evangelion, straight up. Every story beat from Evangelion is here, executed worse. They also make your character have a twin just so they can have a character who can talk and feel emotions, because your boring-ass protagonist is stuck being an emotionless audience cipher. Cool!!!

Tetris Effect – 2018 – Origin – ★★★

It’s drugs Tetris. I personally don’t use, or have synesthesia for that matter. I imagine this game is better if you do. It’s an enjoyable enough experience but it feels incredibly slight for what I was expecting from it, or even compared to something like Lumines, which has tons of replayability by way of its difficulty. Tetris just isn’t that hard, unless you’re forcing yourself to do weird shit to get points. I WILL NEVER LEARN HOW TO T-SPIN. Never.

Castlevania Anniversary Collection – 2019 – Steam – ★★★

Kind of an unremarkable Castlevania collection. Neat that it has an official translation of Kid Dracula in there, but also… look, I prefer Metroidvania Castlevanias, OK?

6. Spelunky 2 – 2020 – Steam – ★★★

I’m not entirely sure why this doesn’t click for me where Spelunky 1 did. More annoying intro levels? Too many fiddly requirements for different ending-progression? Gameplay additions that just make things more annoying? Spelunky 1 was hard, but there was a kind straight-forwardness to it, even with its weird secrets, that made it much easier to grok and continue banging your head against. I’m just not having as much fun with this. Difficulty should be challenging, not a hassle.

5. Stellaris: Federations – 2020 – Steam – ★★★

This is the year that Stellaris just broke for me.

Federations itself is a good DLC; it adds some really interesting mechanics tied to various types of multi-national unions (the titular federations, as well as the Space UN), as well as the addition of unique “origins” that allow you to further specialize your gameplay. The origins in particular are a great addition that allows more specialization and roleplay.

I’m just tired of the sheer amount of busywork Stellaris forces you to do. Every DLC adds more junk you need to keep an eye on, and the fact that the AI doesn’t even bother with it (compensating with copious economy boosts in order to keep up) makes the whole thing frustrating. It’s like playing fetch with yourself; you just get tired of chasing after your own ball after a point.

I have to wonder if they’re pivoting towards a notional Stellaris 2 at this point? Might not be a bad idea for them, though it is weird with all they talked up adding more origins when Federations came out.

4. GranBlue Fantasy Versus – 2020 – Steam – ★★★★

This is probably the fighting game I got most into over the past few years. There’s just this nice, almost Street Fighter-esque ease of execution to the controls, and that Arc Systems Works 3D-as-2D style continues to just do work. I don’t give a single shit about GranBlue Fantasy (frankly, I think I’d enjoy this game more if it wasn’t attached to a property) but the characters are fun enough to play and look at.

The big problem here is two things: no crossplay, and no rollback netcode. In the span of a month, this game became a total ghost town on PC, and it doesn’t sound like PS4 faired that much better.

Ring Fit Adventure – 2019 – Switch – ★★★★

I’ve fallen on-and-off this game all year. At its heart: it works, it’s a fun exercise game. I don’t think it really feels like a “game” (in the sense that I’m not really coming to it for riveting gameplay or anything) as much as just a guided exercise experience, but… that’s fine? The in-game story is kind of flat, but funny in the fact of it existing at all. Buff Nicol Bolas and all.

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – 2017 – Steam – ★★★★

XCOM2: War of the Chosen is a great answer to what XCOM2 struggled with. As I discussed back in 2016 (Jesus Christ), XCOM2 tried to push against player’s worst instincts by incentivizing them to keep being aggressive through a whole bunch of timers— which, kind of just weren’t fun given how much accidentally walking into an ambush could “ruin” dozens of hours of play. War of the Chosen dials that back in some intelligent ways, by instead making the encounter designs themselves, as well as much more grab-and-bail mission types, encourage players to push ahead instead. Smart!

The addition of the Chosen makes the game feel more alive, and they really do make missions harder— particularly early on. But they’ve somehow accidentally fell into the hole, where XCOM just… isn’t that hard? Early on it’s challenging, particularly with the resource restrictions and all. But they keep giving you more and more options (that aren’t especially meaningful choices) that make your team more and more powerful, without increasing the strength of the enemy as time goes on. By the five-hour mark, you basically know if you’re going to steam roll the game or not.

The amount of additional character and variety in the gameplay is great, I just wish it had a more challenging difficulty curve. Maybe make the meta-layer of when enemies show up more targeted to where players are at. If a player is doing well, ramp up the difficulty, if they’re struggling, pull it back a bit. I should always feel like I’m just barely keeping ahead with XCOM, not like I’m bored. And by the end of War of the Chosen, I was kind of getting bored, really. Oh well.

3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 2020 – Switch – ★★★★

This is probably the video game that I spent the most time with hours-wise this year. I’m not entirely sure why? It’s a nice evolution of New Leaf, in that the crafting, environment shaping, and general quality-of-life improvements made are quite nice. There’s clearly been some thought on how people play these games, and ways to make the experience less frustrating.

… and yet, they kept so much tedium in the game. Like yes, the schedule stretching is the point, I get it. As someone who for some reason decided not to play with the clock, I only just recently finished the fish, fossils, and insects for the museum. But there’s just so many weird, little things that just make it hard to keep coming back to it. It’s like… to what end? When I’ve unlocked everything, and basically seen the entirety of the item list at this point, and the holiday events all being the game meaningless collectathons…. Why? I’m not going to try completing the collection; the museum stuff is about my limit, really (and even the paintings I can probably pass on).

I guess even an idealized, digital representation of a quasi-domestic life has the spiritual emptiness of consumerism-for-consumerism sake. Thanks???

Hypnospace Outlaw – 2019 – Steam – ★★★★

I grew up on the internet of the early 00s. I had an AngelFire website, mostly consisting of shitty sprite webcomics and hosted Gundam pics. I remember when Google wasn’t really a thing and you would heavily rely on website compilation sites like the Anime Web Turnpike in order to find anything of value online. It was weird, it was wild. It was exciting!

The internet seemed so different back then. There was a ton of garbage online, but also, like… there was a sense of optimism to it. Folks were shitty, there was plenty of bad stuff online, but it felt so disconnected from the fabric of the physicality of real-life that it was at the same time a perfect escape.

I was young when I first got “online”, something like 12. I remember having this notion that the internet was going to be this great equalizer, that it had infinite potential to change how people behave and interact. Boy, huh.

Hypnospace Outlaw is essentially a splendid alternate universe GeoCities recreation, where you’re a volunteer moderator of a grouping of websites on HypnOS, an internet-analog you access while you are sleep. At the surface level, it’s mostly about poking around the weird alternate-historical version of the internet they created, full of kids feuding, bizarre historical divergences, and plenty of amazing bespoke weirdness. All of this is great; there’s an incredible amount of content that’s just great to poke at, listen to, and explore.

Below the surface, there’s also a rolling plotline about the ethics of this industry-owned platform, those who run it, and the way corporations handle new technology, new platforms, and emerging digital societies. There’s a late game turn that’s pretty damn affecting. And as someone who has moderator his share of internet forums in his time, trying to balance ‘do it for the community’ and what your ostensible ‘bosses’ require of you, it was kind of a weird throwback in more ways than one.

Minecraft – 2011 – PC – ★★★★★

Turns out, Minecraft is really as good still who knew??? Started playing a bunch more of it this year due to Giant Bomb deciding to do so, and yeah: still good!

2. Hades – 2020 – Steam – ★★★★★

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again— Supergiant makes damn good games. I’d been holding off on checking out Hades until its full release due to my tendency to burn out on games easily, and I’m glad I waited. Hades is a fantastic rogue-lite experience. The way it makes narrative progression part of the reiterative, randomized rogue-lite structure is just perfect.

It’s got all the usual Supergiant bullet points. Great characters, voice acting, narration, and music. In terms of gameplay, it’s probably their least ambitious game— playing something like a cousin to their original game, Bastion— but it’s also been polished to a mirror sheen. It just feels really damn good to play, over and over and over.

That being said, the second (final?) ending feels kind of…. Tacked on? It’s fine as a goal to go for while continuing to do the game’s relationship mechanics for additional story bits, but it ends up feeling kind of unfulfilling compared to the payoff of the first one.

1. Crusader Kings III – 2020 – Steam – ★★★★★

I never could get into Crusader Kings II. Despite my interest, the sheer mechanical heft and unintuitive interface made the game a wall that I just couldn’t get over. I’m sure if I’d dedicated myself I probably could have learned it, but… ehhhhhh.

Crusader Kings III, on the other hand, has a good tutorial, a cleaned-up UI, and a very helpful highlight and tooltip system that make it much easier to understand how to actually play the game through resources inside the game itself. And, as it turns out: I rather love this game.

I mean, conceptually it’s an easy sell, isn’t it? Historical politics is something I enjoy broadly. I liked Stellaris but wish it had more narrative, roleplaying elements. They outright say that “winning” isn’t really the point of the game. Instead, it’s more about emergent storytelling and playing with the different systems and seeing what you can do with it.

My current game has had me taking the Haesteinn dynasty from its Viking origins into England, forming a London-seated Northern Sea Empire that encompasses all of Britannia, Iceland, Holland, Norway, and Denmark. I am currently working on hegemonizing Norse religious control over enough Asatru holy sites to finally reform the religion, such that more unified feudalization can occur. To that end, my current ruler’s predecessor invaded West Francia and conquered the whole of its territory, substantially reducing the foothold of Catholicism in mainland Europe… which seems to have kicked the hornet’s nest, given the Crusade I’m going to need to contend with next time I boot up the game.

Of course, a complicating matter is that my current ruler— the Emperor of the North Sea, King of Ireland and the Danelaw, liege of the King of Denmark, was elected from the extended Haesteinn family via Thing, the Scandinavian council of his erstwhile vassals. Where the previous emperor, the one who manufactured the invasion of Francia, was quite religious and beloved for his adherence to the old ways, I discovered as I took over as his successor that he really, really is into just boning down across Europe. We’re talking constantly attempting to seduce neighboring Queens and Princesses. His vassals are not thrilled with this. They also don’t care for his propensity for torturing people to death, constantly.

I had no real say in this; attempting to stay on top of a dynasty is kind of like riding a bucking-bronco, so many things are only tenuously under your control that some weird shit can happen. This is especially true when you use the systems that make it easier to maintain the coherency of your domain. The Norse religion encouraging concubinage results in you having a lot of kids, which means there’s a lot of domain partition going on (someday, primogeniture, someday). Naturally, using Thing election reduces that, but also makes you sometimes end up having to play Emperor Stabbo-Fucko because they thought he was the best candidate at the time. Hell, I thought he was the best candidate at the time until I discovered just how many people he’d be laying with on the low. But you just have to roll with it.

The way the game forces you to play ball with character traits is great. Doing things that match with the character’s traits makes them lose stress. Doing things against their character increases stress. Too much stress can force you to make the character take up vices (which can make them suffer health or opinion maluses, as well as altering their aptitudes), or even die outright. And sometimes those vices and attitudes can be boons, given they open up opportunities for different character interactions.

Emperor Stab-and-Fuck-Kingdom is perhaps the most relaxed person alive, it turns out, because his sadism makes him really enjoy sacrificing infidels, which makes the gods happy. It also freaks the fuck out of all of his vassals, so they’re a good supplicant mix of both appreciative of my religious sentiments and also utterly terrified of my skull piles. Some especially brave vassals occasionally try to assassinate me, but my lovers keep jumping in front of the knife and saving my life mid-coitus. Iiiiiit happens! :D

The game can be incredibly fun to just watch, as it becomes emergently weird. Georgia right now is incredibly Jewish in game. I’m not sure how that happened; I guess someone made a random Jewish guy into a vassal, who somehow moved up enough in the world to make it a movement? The Byzantine princes elected a Coptic as Emperor, which over the course of the decade resulted in very accelerated balkanization as Byzantium just lost its shit. The Middle East and notional HRE haven’t really unified in a meaningful way, so I’m curious how things are going to go if/when the Mongols unify and roll-on in.

It’s one of those “Just one more thing” games that can completely devour time. I have more than a few times checked the clock mid-game to see that it’s 4AM and that I’ve totally ruined my sleep schedule in the process of play. Oooooops.

I highly recommend checking it out if you’re curious; the introductory, pre-release video series Paradox put out showing off the game does a pretty good job of showing the core gameplay loop and also how weird it can get.

#GAME OF THE YEAR #GOTY #nonfiction #thinkpiece #2020 #Crusader Kings 3 #Hades #SD Gundam #Animal Crossing

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