#she does most of the shrines and I do most of the dungeons and bosses

[carpisuns]

I’ve clocked 120 hours of totk play time in three weeks girl help

I haven’t even done much side stuff!! Just the main quests! google says you’re supposed to be able to do main quest in like 60 hours but I took twice as long 🫠 the curse of being…just not good at video games but still very invested…lol

[daisy-daze17]

An aspect of totk that I've come to realise really bothers me is its tendancy to take bits and pieces of elements from lots of places and slap them into a game. Don't get me wrong- im aware the zelda games constantly include Easter eggs and call backs to reference older titles, and Totk is jam-packed with it. You search the depths to find a bunch of classic armours and shit from like every single game, the paragliding fabrics, and so much more.

But this game ALSO has a lot of story related or basic game structure that is tied to other zelda games.

1. Wind temple for example is practically oozing with reminants of wind waker-- you're climbing up to this MAGIC BOAT with the RITO (a prominent species in ww) by controlling and managing your wind powers all to make it to a boss with a name and theme song screaming out the most iconic parts of ww (God bless colgeras theme music we will never forget the music).

2. Lots of people found that the main aesthetics and storyline of this game was similar to skyward sword: you wake up on an ancient sky island that is the biggest one in hyrule before finding your way to the surface and descending down to start a search for zelda. I remember it was so similar some even started questioning if totk takes place before ss?? (I do not have the brain capacity to discuss that rn lol). Ganondorf looks extremely reminant of demise with his hair, main sacrifice of the game centres zelda giving up her body for a long long time so she can fight the evil that will come in a long long time, etc,etc.

3. As we all know, this game is a sequel to botw (omg rlly?? Who would have guessed) and it definaltly shows by the amount of game structure taken from botw to put in here. The four tutorial area shrines, the memories, the four main dilemmas for each reason, and ya know, the whole entire map. Totk makes changes to this map but essentially, it is a better version of the map we got in botw. Now it's obvious that nintendo would do this, but sometimes it feels like... they didn't have to?? The main one for this is the memories. The thing is, breath centred around our hero losing his memories and exploring unknown lands to receive bits and pieces that tell him what life could have been like pre-disaster. Totk, however, centres around zelda being in the past and showing link episodes of heavy plot driven cutscenes with every geoglyph he finds. Botw are little fragments of info that you can pieces together in any order to imagine what the main story was. Totk shoves a bunch of plot down your throat in any order because they don't give a shit if your spoil the story for yourself. Both games are non-linear. See where I'm getting at? One set of memories strengthen the nonlinearity of the game and rewards you for finding them. One... doesn't. There have been countless arguments made about this glaring issue that discuss it further, but my main point here is that maybe we didn't have to follow botw's structure to a tea if it doesn't work out for us sometimes.

Zelda games constantly reinvent themselves. Notice how no matter what nintendo does, some people always complaining about a new addition to the series while others love it? Wind wakers cartoonish artsyle, skywards motion controls, major's masks 3 day cycle, botw's open world gameplay? It seems like tears of the kingdom doesn't do that. I'd argue that its main purpose is taking breath of the wild and fixing major complaints made about the game, most of them usually about how untraditional to zelda botw was. That's why this game feels like a weird combination of the two. Nintendo tried to marry open world zelda with elements of older zelda games. It tries to have an episodic plot with major twists and emotion... but forgets that I'm allowed to watch each episode in any order I want and can end up screwing myself over. It tries to have traditional looking dungeons... but doesn't have any linearity to it and gets rid of the mechanics these used in botw, so it ends up being short aesthetically pleasing 4-part puzzles. It tries to have a LINEAR STORY in a NON-LINEAR GAME by making us constantly on our toes about finding zelda and understanding why she's trying to scare the locals shitless by commiting felonies like attacking the zora king, telling the gorons to do drugs, and appearing and disappearing every 5 seconds... but again, it forgets that I can spoil myself and know what the fuck is going on WAY before I'm supposed to.

This is turning into a little hater rant but. What I'm saying is, totk is trying to mix little parts of every game to make all of us happy, but it ends up becoming a confusing soup of unoriginality and "what the fuck in going on with this story". Its trying to make a traditional zelda game in an open world format. The most insulting part is that it tries to honour past games with taking all of their ideas,but totk's main purpose clashes with what those games are about (especially wind waker and botw) which is reinventing yourself to fit with the new generation and not holding onto the past/not obsessing over games that you got really big for (cough cough ocarina of time cough cough).

Anyway it's late and this is literally my first time trying to write out a critique about something on tumblr, so if this makes no sense pls tell me haha :)

[raycatz]

I wish so much that I could fully enjoy totk but I am struggling so much. Idk why some of the decisions for the game are the way they are. I can't help but be critical given how important the series and botw are to me.

I feel like the game is struggling to have its own identity. I feel like some creature has wormed its way into botw's skin and is wearing it poorly.

(So far I've played through the Gerudo and Rito story quests. What I've written here though is mostly about the world and direction. I just need to get some of these thoughts out. There are spoilers.)

The three main criticisms people had with botw were the story, weapon durability, and dungeons- and man so far in totk these things have only been worse. (The boss fights are incredible though)

The framerate drops whenever I use ultrahand, and combined with my left joycon drifting it makes trying to use the new mechanic difficult to the point that I will avoid it to do something else.

Some of the game does feel like mashed up dlc ideas. I would have preferred them to be dlc even. If the Zelda devs wanted to tell this story or make a game with these mechanics I wish they would have made an entirely new game instead of using botw.

So far totk has no through-lines between itself and botw. No one has mentioned the Champions, only a single npc has talked about the Calamity, no one has mentioned Calamity Ganon or the divine beasts Link calmed, and only a few people recognize Link himself. The champion successors I've met haven't spoken of the Champions or their divine beasts which is strange given how they spoke of them in botw, and at most have only referred to Link having been there in the past as, "when you helped us" without any specifics as to what. I've done all the side quests in botw and to have the people I helped call Link a stranger is saddening. It's even more pronounced in Hateno. I bought a house there. I helped its people. And the house no longer has Link's name by the door and Hateno's people remark at how Link is a new face in town. Didn't I live there? Given how some of the kids have grown it's probably been around 4 years since botw. Where has Link been in that time for the people to forget him? In Kakariko Cottla says she can't talk to me because she isn't supposed to talk with strangers. We've played tag together. I cooked meals with her sister. It's sad. In botw we spent the whole time collecting Link's memories and growing attached to the land only to have the land forget us. I feel like it's a disgrace to all of the time and joy players put in and found in botw, and to botw's story- to have none of that matter.

What happened to the Divine Beasts and the Sheikah shrines and the slate? Further, some important npcs from botw are just gone without explanation.

If the events of botw are so irrelevant then why use the same world and characters? I understand it's a way to save time and resources but this game took 6 years to make past botw. I would have preferred a new world and princess/hero entirely so I could go into it as a fresh experience. Instead, it feels like what made botw important was swept away, and the map and characters are only being used as an empty husk, like setpieces. Majora's Mask being a sequel with reused assets worked because in Termina there was no reason for anyone to know Link, and him traveling to find Navi made sense, and the look-alike characters are different people. In botw, there is no reason for no one to recognize Link or his achievements. He is the Hero of Hyrule for that world and it's people. He freed the divine beasts and put an end to the multiple local disasters they were causing, yet none of that is acknowledged and it sticks out like a sore. (I'm really really hoping that Sidon talks about Mipha and the constant rain caused by Vah Ruta because how could he not? That's his sister! Yunobo saw Daruk's spirit in botw so I'm hoping he says something of the Champions. I'm really hoping.)

I enjoyed exploring botw's world because there were always koroks and shrines to collect. I could wander knowing there was something in store to find. The world never felt too big or empty for this reason, and the solitude made sense because of the Calamity. In totk the number of shrines and koroks has been greatly reduced (edit: there are more shrines and just as many koroks as in botw. It just seems I'm having difficulty finding them ashfsjdf.) I know the overworld already so there not being a reward for exploring gives me no incentive to. The lack of shrines and the cutscenes required to go through to use the towers is another hindrance on exploration and quests. I can't get spontaneously sidetracked because there's no nearby place to warp back to, and I know how far I'll have to walk to get there. Traveling can feel like a chore instead of something enjoyable. It feels like the overworld has been stripped.

The world wasn't made for the new mechanics either, and so the areas to use them in are all tacked on as monster camps or fallen ruins, instead of a natural part of the landscape.

The new map content, the Sky and Depths, would have been better being condensed. They don't fit within the scope of botw's map. The Sky Islands so far don't take up much space and are significantly less important than I hoped they would be. The Depths is a fun concept and I enjoy the restrictions it puts on players, with the soft cap and kinda rougelite aspect while you're in the early game, but it's way too big, very repetitive, and there's not much point to exploring once you know what it's about. Both the Sky and the Depths would have benefitted by being more carefully thought out, concise, areas and suffer from having to fit the scope of botw's map. The Depths has poes and zonite to collect, but these things come in such huge quantities and require even huger quantities of to be useful that it feels grindy. I need 3 zonite ore for one crystalized ore, 100 crystalized ore for one fuel charge. There are three charges in one canister, of 8. That's 7,200 zonite ore like wtf. How is this supposed to be achievable? So far I haven't needed to use the vehicles all that often so it's not particularly useful atm either. The amount of cross-trading currency collectibles is overbearing. For some time I had no idea what any of them were used for so I didn't know what the point was in collecting them. Bubulgems, zonite ore, large zonite ore, poes, crystalized charges, large crystalized charges- too many. Please condense some of them.

Gone are all the very cool weapon designs, replaced in favor of the new fuse mechanic and endlessly scrolling through materials to find the right thing to attach.

The memories and the story in that aspect are still passive. Even more so.

We're all familiar with the Zelda formula- totk now follows the botw formula. Plateau area, back and forth fetch quests to upgrade your abilities, four main story beat locations, memories, and then the open world for players to tackle freely. I'm really hoping there is more. There has to be because the Sky and Depths haven't been used in the main story beats so far. In botw you could go anywhere and have everything to do in a given location immediately assessable to play through, but in totk there are things locked by progression. However, it's awkward because you aren't told precisely what's locked or why. I'm like- I went through the effort to get here but there isn't anything for me to do. I know there's something here! But I can't do anything yet and idk why or what I'm missing! and instead of building anticipation it just makes me frustrated. I'm not sure if what I'm missing is locked to progression or if there is something I've truly just missed.

So I have a feeling of having missed something important story/mechanic-wise when exploring, and then on the other hand I have the feeling of being very clearly shoehorned towards certain goals. Nearly all of the npcs have dialogue that leads you towards something. I don't feel like botw was ever this in-your-face about goals. The Calamity happened 100 years ago so the people have had time to adjust, while the Upheaval is happening now. It makes sense that the Upheaval would be much more pressing, I just wish the npcs would chat about something other than "go here, do this" once in a while. Like, I found Bolson, and instead of being greeted as a familiar face or getting to see Bolson in character, he just told me to go somewhere for a quest related thing. So many of the familiar characters are missing the quirky characterizations they had in botw that made them them.

With being shoehorned towards certain locations: many, many of the npcs want me to clear out monsters at Lurelin. So I went to Lurelin. At that point I'd only completed the quest in Gerudo and five shrines, yet the monsters I faced in Lurelin (and widely across the overworld) were black level monsters, which I was and still am nowhere near prepared for. Totk is either meant to be more difficult than botw or there is an issue with balancing. I've touched maybe 25 shrines and have lit a good number of lightroots, but haven't completed many, so maybe that's a factor into the enemy leveling? I also think there's a way for me to get help that I haven't found yet. Regardless, the enemy scaling across the world feels like it happened too quickly and I don't enjoy the npcs pushing me towards things my character isn't ready for. I feel like there should be more checks in place for this that determine the npc dialogue to the player's progress.

I haven't even talked about the story.

I know I'm being very critical with the game, and I wish I could just enjoy it. I need to stop trying to find botw in this game. And I should take a step back for a while too. I'm just disappointed.

The music and boss battles have been incredible! I hope there's more structured boss battles outside of the main four + ganon. Heck I even hope there's a boss gauntlet with a cool reward.

Just- yeah. So far I am not enjoying the new Zelda formula when it comes to totk. Botw worked for botw. totk looks and is structured too much like botw to feel like its own thing, and yet trying to play it like botw is just upsetting because it isn't.

Totk is a good game, but it's a bad sequel.

I hope the Zelda team returns to the old format sometime, or at least pulls forward some of the ideas. I miss the concise dungeons that take multiple play sessions to get through. I miss the tricky puzzles that make me feel smart for solving. I miss combat being a puzzle requiring certain items or learning boss phases and patterns (rather than sticking materials to your bow and taking a "just deal damage" based approach. I want to be closer to it.) I miss the worlds that were puzzles in and of themselves like Minish Cap or the Oracle games. I miss seeing a clearly marked spot on the wall or a tree in the way and knowing that I'll pick up an item that will help me here later. I like that there were clear solutions. The clues in botw and totk for progression are not as clear. And the botw open-world format is too large for concise puzzles like this. I enjoyed the open-ended way to combat and puzzles in botw, but I feel there should be space for both. No more ways to fenagle the physics or smack your way through obstacles. I want to see linear progression and long-form puzzles return to Zelda games, at least for the next one.

I'm hoping there's some plot twist or turn in gameplay that I haven't reached in totk yet. We'll seeeeee

[claire-starsword]

Shining Force 2 Pre-release Coverage

Post on the first game here

Let’s continue our deep dive on old magazines. Again most of my info here are from the Beep! Megadrive magazine, but I did manage to find some footage from old Sega videos as well.

For context again, the game released in Japan on October 1993.

June 1993

Unlike the first game, which showed very few regions during pre release, this one is eager to show a bunch of new places, probably because it can’t generate hype about a unique battle system anymore. Bowie and a parade of peculiar placeholders take a good tour around the continent.

Save for the wall decoration and possibly the colors, it’s hard to judge on print, New Granseal’s castle is pretty much the final version. Same for Arc Valley's escher-like dungeon, as the magazine puts it.

Volcanon’s shrine is also here, and the magazine claims to have seen “a huge monster” on the top of the shrine, so Volcanon is likely already there as well. They wonder if it could be a boss but I think it’s just baseless speculation since it’s clearly not a battle scene, and little story was revealed at this point.

The monument looks wack, the shop signs are huge, and doors are different, but otherwise Hassan looks very close to the final version.

Bedoe is dark, that particular torch is also not in the final version, although there are torches in the town. Would be a pain in the ass to navigate, but might be just a test of the dark effect.

HQ already has the same vibe, but lots of different details, like different tables, cups and flowers vases on them, no stone walls, etc.

But enough of that, let’s stop pretending the Placeholder Force isn’t the wackiest and most amusing thing in these screenshots. What do we have there.

Bowie seems mostly complete, which makes sense as I’ll show in a second that his design was already announced. There are still a couple differences though, his clothes are blue instead of white and his cape has a golden line. His design might have been quickly revised at some point?

There’s a bunny girl NPC. Because of course the first thing these devs hopped to make was a bunny girl NPC. I’m actually more shocked that they did not keep her. Also I’m saying NPC with some certainty because as you can see comparing with Bowie, playable characters tend to have one less pixel between the eyes. So I don’t think she’s a scrapped character or anything.

Mae is here! Because of course it makes sense to use a character from the previous game as placeholder. As opposed to, you know, drawing a whole bunny girl. Her lower body was recolored to orange/yellow for some reason though.

There’s a wyvern sprite that does make it to the final game as an enemy. Curiously that shot of New Granseal shows more wyverns flying around as well. It makes no sense to use flying placeholders for the soldiers that should be there, so I wonder if there were supposed to be birds flying in the scenario or something, it would be neat.

There’s a cute little girl NPC with twintails who sadly didn’t make it. I don’t have anything to say about this.

Finally, true nerds like me fans of this blog will have certainly recognized the warrior sprite as an unused sprite from the first game:

From the side however, it was clearly edited, the helmet losing detail, getting shorter horns, and the whole guy getting shorter as well. My theory is that this guy was on the process of becoming this:

and maybe later Jaha, as this NPC is already very similar to him, and his design was already announced as well. In fact, that’s what we’ll talk about next. Besides these screenshots, there are four characters introduced in this article.

This kid is the protagonist!?

He is the protagonist who will represent you and travel through the world of Shining Force II. It seems he lives in the castle town of Granseal, but has no adventuring experience yet. From here on the both of you will have an exciting journey together!

The princess of Granseal!?

The princess of the country of Granseal, where the protagonist lives. She seems to be the main female character for Shining Force II. Her long hair and beautiful dress are nice. How will she get involved with the protagonist? We look forward to see it.

Jaha

“We’re the side characters!?“

Wielding a huge axe, he’s a bad influence for the protagonist, and a hobbit warrior. Just like the protagonist, he’s still in training and has no adventuring experience. Really bad at studying in school.

Slade

The greatest thief in Granseal. He shares the stolen treasures with poor people. Clearly a kind of Nezumi Kozo.

As the link above says, Nezumi Kozo (rat brat) is the nickname of a japanese thief who later became a kind of Robin Hood-esque folk hero as it was assumed he helped the poor as well with his crimes, and also apparently never hurt a victim. There’s an obvious inspiration here.

Producer Hiroyuki Takakashi doesn’t reveal much of the story at this point, only that it will be a different continent than the first game, and also have more events happening one after another unlike SF. He also says that there would be battles different than the army vs. army setting of SF. There are also talks of how certain details of the system and graphics were being reworked, and already talks of being able to choose between promotions, but it’s all very vague.

Later in this month, a demonstration of the game was presented at the Tokyo Toy Show. I couldn’t confirm it as there doesn’t seem to be a recording of it anywhere, but it’s likely a lot of the footage from here on is from that.

July 1993

Article opens up with an interview with the Takahashi brothers, but there’s not much to note. They mention being in the point of writing the game’s ending, and when asked about the presence of robots and such in the previous game, mention that while the Ancients are always a part of the Shining Series since SitD, this game would lean more into the fantasy vibes.

Also, up to this point, they had been working on both SF2 and Gaiden 2 at the same time. Gaiden 3 released in early July so from here on they’re free to focus on SF2. Or maybe not, because there’s already talks of a Gaiden 3 being planned. For better and for worse, these people could not stand still a second.

(To digress a bit, it’s also peculiar because the Final Conflict strategy guide mentions the game was originally planned for the Mega Drive. The Gaiden series was a Game Gear thing, so perhaps there was a whole different game being considered at this point which got shelved to make way for Final Conflict.)

Back to the topic, we get a few more screenshots with the Placeholder Force.

Most places seen like the final version, but this house/village in front of the ancient shrine was removed.

We then get pictures of what is likely a later build with more familiar characters being worked on.

The Caravan debuts, and we also finally get the first battle scenes.

Taros is already here as the most eye-catching part for the 90′s kids. I on the other hand am loving a lot more how the platform neatly informs you it is a test only. The UI also does not show the character’s class, even though it will in the final version.

And Luke is here! Except maybe not. His name onscreen says Nick. Obviously this could be an issue of them using the rename cheat, but that doesn’t happen for any other character in these pre release footages, and would be a bizarre move. It’s possibly a placeholder name derived from Sonic Co., (like Max is likely derived from Climax Entertainment, now you know). The interesting thing is that this sprite and its palettes in the final game don’t quite match Luke nor Skreech’s design, and Luke is also the only character to not get a sprite change upon promotion, so it’s easy to believe that was some delay or complication in finalizing these guys.

We also get a look at the Grans-Parmecia Shrine map, which is very much done as well. The monsters on the top however is frustrating me to no end because they look very familiar but I can’t remember where from. Anyway, definitely didn’t make it to this game at least.

We also get our first look at Sarah and Kazin, except Kazin is so cut off on this screen it’s not worth mentioning him now, there will be plenty of time to talk about Kazin later. Sarah on the other hand is easy to see, and she’s clearly not herself yet. Her outfit is what will become hers and Karna’s vicar outfit in the final version, but she also has a hat, which only the vicar battle sprite will have in the end.

It’s okay, she’s an important character so i’m sure they will sort this out in a timely manner. Anyway! We do see someone else there who is also from the starting gang and with a complete design. Chester’s design is indeed announced at this point, though with little character info. There’s also a small synopsis of the story by now, which is basically “Slade steals a treasure in the shrine and bad stuff begins to happen”. We then get a map of Parmecia.

I don’t think I’ve posted an official map of Parmecia before, so here it is for comparison. They do look pretty much the same already. Volcanon’s shrine is weirdly not marked in the map, but is mentioned in the text. Lemon and Creed’s names are mentioned as well.

August 1993

The article of this month explicitly mentions the Tokyo Toy Show so that’s nice for reference. While I couldn’t confirm it, by comparing the footage I also think this Sega video (the Shining Force part starts at the 6 minute mark) is from the same month, so I’ll be using footage from there as well.

The demo showed an early version of the jail cutscene with Slade. While the dialogue seems to be same as the final version, Sarah does not have her portrait nor her final sprite yet, and the other characters seem to be just following Bowie in line as opposed to having their own places in the cutscene. The old man NPC also has different colors, and there seems to be someone else in the room.

If you watch further in the footage you’ll see everyone keeps following Bowie, even hilariously clipping through walls at points. I’ve joked about it before but turns out I was right, they did put some good effort into coding the followers’ movement, because they might have intended to use it more, if not through the whole game.

Lemon’s sprite was not done at the time, and the event of the Galam army’s departure was likely simplified since the final version involves not only Lemon, but the king as well, who seems to have no placeholder here.

The Caravan scene is also shown, although using the dwarf village theme, and having Jaha instead of Peter. Given that it’s just one character as opposed to the big team you would have at this point, it’s possible he’s just standing in for Peter and not actually intended to be in the scene. The next one raises further questions though.

The Kraken scene is also shown, and the whole starting team is here. Slade’s text is very much in same vein as Oddler’s in the final version, warning everyone of the Kraken’s appearance, but it’s still different text, as Oddler speaks more politely, so this version was written for Slade himself, no placeholding.

It deeply hurts my heart to consider Slade was supposed to have a bigger role and got scrapped, though I feel I know why this happened. This series really likes to take its gameplay deaths seriously for some reason, and it would probably be too costly to constantly check which characters are alive and have alternate versions of a cutscene to adjust for that. That’s why the first game mostly has just Nova talking (though characters still show up for the ending at least). The Gaiden games go around this a bit more by reviving everyone at the start of every chapter and on endings, and also using characters who just joined the force in the cutscenes as they can’t have died already.

This game made Peter and Lemon, two immortal characters who carry most of the conversations from the moment they join alongside Astral. It also seems to delay some characters joining as playable characters for this reason. For example, Kazin is not playable through the path to Hawel’s house even though he’s following you, because he has to be alive for the cutscene there. Pretty much every instance of a character following you instead of joining the force seems to be because of this.

There are a few instances that show they might have considered other approaches though. There are numerous instances at the start of the game where characters revive automatically, since there’s a lot of dialogue with them. After the first battle, before the jail scene, upon leaving Grans Island, and during the one year timeskip. Of course, they all resurrect during the time Princess Elis is asleep in the ending as well. There’s also as far as I remember a single instance where you must have a particular character alive to progress, if Elric is dead he won’t open the passage to Creed’s mansion.

Of course, they might have felt that characters would have to be constantly revived for do more scenes with that, and it would ruin their game design, and it’s not intuitive to know that you must revive a particular someone to proceed, so they might just have scrapped this kind of plot. Still sucks given that it’s kind of a self imposed limitation, plenty of games just treat defeat in battle as different to death and let the characters take part in the story as needed. But alas, back on topic.

Plenty of other battle maps are shown, albeit with different enemies and different stats. A very minor detail is that the golem sprite has red eyes. In the final version they have green eyes except for Claude.

Sorcerer spells are in, although they don’t seem to be fully implemented yet, in the footage Kazin uses them through the attack command as opposed to an actual spell. Perhaps because of that it is also single target.

Speaking of Kazin, I did say we have to talk about him, now’s the time.

His sprite seems to be much like the final one, but blue. It is possible there are small differences though, because his staff, not in the final version, seems to use at least three colors besides black and white, when all final weapons in the game use only two. This is because the game loads the character and weapon colors into a single 16 color palette, so to have more colors in one you sacrifice colors of the other. Weapons in the first game did have three colors so this might be a leftover.

Small details for big nerds though, as I said the design is pretty much complete, including details like the bag and the feathers he carries around, which are less generic than I’d expect for a placeholder. Perhaps he already had a tentative design floating around.

More than that, the map sprite seen in all these pictures did make it to the final game. As his sorcerer sprite.

It looks nothing like the sorcerer design, so it’s easy to accept it was designed for something else. Let’s compare with the final mage sprite.

Hair changed to be spiky, but everything else is basically the same, including the green staff which matches his final artwork. It’s likely he had some concept art already around, though it wasn’t officially revealed so perhaps there was some intention of changing it. But it’s noticeable that he shows up in plenty of footage while nothing is seen of Sarah, who is not finalized either. He was at least further in the development.

The color thing is also interesting. Kazin does get to be blue as sorcerer, and also as wizard... in the map, and the game’s cover, a rare case of official illustration of a promotion. In battle however his sprite is brown. That palette, though? Is the last one set for the wizard sprite, even though he should be the first wizard. And the first palette for it? That’s right, blue. In the final version it is used for Chaz, who does have the exact same clothes but is the last wizard in the game. It would not surprise me if there was a swap at some point. And of course it makes sense to not use two blue palettes for the same sprite. The question is, why design the characters with the same colors then? I would love to get an answer.

September 1993

Signs of progress, every picture is this article is from a different build, since character classes now show up in the UI.

Sarah still does not have her map sprite.

Her battle sprite and finished design do finally show up in the next pages though, so they might have just not got to it at the time, even if it feels silly to me as map sprites are simpler, perhaps exactly because of that they weren’t top priority. Either way, it just feels wild to me when compared to how Chester and Jaha and even Kazin seem to have been done.

As for the actual point of the picture, that’s Bowie casting Freeze level 4. Normally I’d chalk this up to debugging shenanigans, as the first game and Gaiden I as well give the heroes extra spells in debug mode, but, that generally also comes with jacked stats including 99 MP. Bowie here is at max unpromoted level but his stats look normal.

For further consideration here’s another screenshot of him at level 4 knowing Egress and Blaze level 1. Everyone’s stats look normal so this looks like his actual intended progression. Also while drafting this post and having it blasted to oblivion because tumblr can’t save properly apparently, I realized this explains a bit of the wackiness when it comes to magic progression in this game. Did you know that the Kraken is weak to ice? Have fun trying to exploit that weakness. In the final game, you go a big stretch of the game without access to Freeze. If you promote Kazin to wizard and don’t pick Tyrin at Creed’s, you’re basically locked out of ice spells for most of the game, until you finally find Chaz. That always struck me as very weird, and I’m realizing now it might be because they might have stuck with magical Bowie here for a good time, and didn’t rebalance things when changing it.

Sarah debuts with a proper sprite for once.

Blue Kazin however remains undeterred. You might also notice his staff is switching colors weirdly during animation. I’ve had this problem on my first hacking attempts of the game due to not setting up proper Mega Drive colors, and it’s amusing me to no end that it happened to the actual devs as well. Though I don’t know that much on how animations are done so the problem might have a different origin as well. Anyway, fun.

We also get to see Kazin’s full spell list, and while mostly the same, he has the Attack spell instead of Desoul, much like Tao was the only wizard to have it in the first game. In the final version, only Frayja learns this spell, making this the only classic Shining Force game where it is a priest spell instead of a mage one, so it doesn’t surprise me at all that Kazin was meant to have it.

It’s also worth noting that in the final game, Kazin is the only character who learns Desoul. Either the spell wasn’t in (the article mentions every other wizard and priest spell except for it), or someone else was meant to learn it, or they hadn’t even planned that far ahead.

We get our first character bios in a long time.

Protagonist - Bowie

A boy who lives in the castle town of Granseal. He used to be a mischievous boy, but nowadays is well behaved (?) and studying hard as Astral’s pupil. He’s friends with Jaha and Chester, and they play together almost every day.

The thief Slade

The self proclaimed great thief of justice. But he’s not much of a bad guy, and shares his stolen treasures with poor people. He seems to main culprit behind the story’s beginning!?

Warrior Jaha

Bowie’s friend, and a hobbit who hates studying the most out of all of Astral’s pupils. Really strong in battle.

The knight Chester

Bowie’s friend, and another pupil of Astral’s, but while he’s a gallant centaur, his one flaw is that he’s not very assertive. He often comes up as just a yes-man to Bowie. Don’t you have friends like that too? Treat him well.

Priest Sarah

An elf girl and also Astral’s pupil. She’s helpful and likes taking care of others, being kind of a big sister to Bowie and the others. Pulling out that sisterly authority at times, she might be kind of annoying?

Sometimes I wonder if Sarah went through some kind of rewrite during development since none of her official descriptions bring up her being the actual mischievous kid who plans to sneak into the castle and is not even apologetic about it, but then I remember that this series is uhhhh, ah, erm, oof, hmmmm, about women, so yeah, I don’t think that’s what’s going on here.

Sage Astral

Currently retired, he has now taken Bowie and the other kids as pupils. He’s also a notable person who knows the king personally. At the story’s beginning, he berates these troublesome kids while also giving them a chance to go on the adventure.

Sheela

A mysterious and beautiful human girl. She used to train under Astral, but left for some reason. While she doesn’t have much relation with the story, we look forward to see just how will she and Bowie meet. She’s quite sexy!!

King Granseal

King of the country of Granseal at the south of Grans Island. Bowie and the others live in its castle town. Because the queen passed away too soon, he dotes a lot on Princess Elis. Ooh.

Princess Granseal

The princess of Granseal, she’s a happy girl loved by the king and her people. We’re quite curious to know how she’ll be connected to the heroes. Maybe in the end she’ll be a party member!?

OOF

Kiwi

A new character appears!

The green turtle Kiwi is the mascot-like character this time. Of course he can take part in battles, but he’s not very strong. But he seems to hide some special talent!? What exactly is still a secret for now. He’s kind of cute, maybe.

-The previous game had Yogurt, of famous sayings (?) like “do you like my helmet” and “I don’t get it”.

After the magazine, we get more Sega footage (starts around the 4:45 mark).

The intro seems pretty much done, except for a Gizmo attacking the king instead of Geshp. And it’s easy to think “oh it’s a placeholder”, but in the final version the king is really possessed by a Gizmo and Geshp doesn’t show up until much later, so I’m not sure? It’s not a very important change at least.

Sarah finally has her final sprite and portrait, so this is a different build. This does mean I can finally go bully the final graphics of this game a bit more.

Sarah’s final priest sprite is not based on her artwork, and is instead just a recolor of the vicar spritesheet, which as I mentioned, is from the placeholder sprite we’ve seen all this time. You can even notice some leftover grey shading that doesn’t quite fit with the blue. Compare it with Blue Kazin’s robes that I’ve posted earlier, which use only the two shades of blue in the palette.

This sprite was a massive rush job, is what I’m saying. A lot of map sprites in this game feel the same, learning how to edit graphics is both a blessing and a curse because you can’t unsee these things.

This footage shows up a lot of final battle sprites not seen until now, especially promotions, like Wolf Baron Gerhalt, Hero Bowie, and so on. I find it hilarious that it also brings up Kiwi when everywhere else they were trying to be coy about Kiwi’s promotion.

The weird thing though, is that the footage ends with the sorcerer spell display from the old builds. Did they not have footage of the final sorcerer graphics? Likely. Let’s bully the final graphics some more.

No fingers! Misplaced weapon! His ass was not designed in a sane and timely fashion!

So yes it is fully possible that the sorcerer sprite was not done even as the game was already like halfway through the door.

The funniest part? In this later build footage we only get a vague glimpse of Kazin.

I’m sorry the screenshot is horrible since it goes by fast, but that’s Blue Kazin.

Of course, most characters in the scene seem to be promoted, even special promotions like Brass Gunner Elric. At the same time May and Slade remain unpromoted. So is this Blue Kazin already repurposed as the sorcerer sprite? Or is the mage sprite still not done?

We might never know the truth, but the fact is that the pre release coverage ends here, and we didn’t get a single glimpse of his final artwork. In a sense he might have been a bigger mess than Sarah.

I have more to write but tumblr has already messed up this draft four to five times and I’m tired, so I’m splitting this into two posts even though i didn’t want it just to see if the problem is post size.

[thejokig23]

My brother forced me to borrow his copy of Tears of the Kingdom, here are some thoughts:

It is really frustrating doing the memories quest first and the game Not Acknowledging it Ever. Link please tell people "hey uhhh that's not Zelda. Zelda's the worm on a string that just popped up. Yeah."

While the weapon durability is still not my cup of tea, it is improved by letting you workshop new shit together. Probably just because I like Monster Hunter and I am predisposed to enjoying monster bits on sticks.

Armour sucks. I can go on, but the gist is that damage threshold systems do NOT work with games that revolve solely on vertical progression. That, and upgrading armour is SUCH a slog.

The hand abilities are so much better than the slate's runes. I find I'm much more creative with them and don't feel like I'm cheesing stuff.

The dungeons are kinda underwhelming. While visually they are an improvement over the four Shiekah robots, they are mechanically less interesting. Despite having last done the Divine Beasts maybe three years ago, I can remember distinct events from each one. However, I struggle to think of anything interesting to say about the four temple mere DAYS after completing them.

Shrines are better. They are overall shorter, more creative, and more free-form than in Breath of the Wild.

Aside from Queen Gibdo, the dungeon bosses were all easier than the regular enemies I was findibg right outside their doors. Queen Gibdo, on the other hand, was a bitch to fight. Overall, they felt like classic Zelda bosses put in a game that doesn't suit classic Zelda bosses, except Queen Gibdo who has shitty hitboxes and just feels Bad.

New enemies are very good. I like like likes, even if they have nothing in common with the old like likes. Gibdo are very unique, all the others are pretty cool. However, I do think every part of the map should have gotten something like the Gibdo, a unique monster with a particular weakness. Like, Dodongo in Eldin, or Wolfos in Hebra.

I feel mixed on the ending. On one hand, the fight with Ganondorf was great (aside from being piss easy). It felt the most like a true duel compared to other fights in the series, although I was winning hit trades against him at half the max hearts and half the max defense of my gear, which should NOT be happening, especially when the Lynel at the entrance would kill me in one hit.

On the other hand, something about Link getting their arm back and Zelda going back to being human just feels weak to me. It kinda lost some of the potency, and everything building up how Draconification was irreversible made it so when it was reversed, it just killed my interest in the world afterwards.

Champion abilities vs Sage abilities: Champions win. Tulin and Revali are comparable, but otherwise the Champions blow them out of the water. If they were better merged into your base toolkit, I'd get more use out of them. I'd probably copy what they did with Tulin and make their ability prompt be based on what you're currently doing: press A while pulling back an arrow to activate Riju's ability, press A when you're throwing something to pick up Yunobo, and hold A after a shield swing to get Sidon's bubble.

Mineru's mech mechanics should get built upon into their own game. I am 100% serious. As is, it's a fun gimmick on occasion but she does so little damage it isn't worth it once there are any enemies stronger than blue

Cooking is just as overpowered as it used to be, but the menu is bad and doesn't give you any way of knowing how many meals you can hold

[a-pale-azure-moon]

Random TotK Thoughts #5

Sheesh, it's been forever since I made mention of my progress. I'm bumping against the 200 hour mark and I am somehow still not bored. At all. I'm not done with the main story either, though I've found all the Dragon's Tears and done the four regional phenomena. I'm at 143 shrines completed, 83 lightroots found (finally making some progress in mapping the Depths), and 402 Koroks collected (no I am not aiming to find all of those, just what I need to get all the inventory upgrades).

I'll cover my thoughts on the Dragon's Tears in a different post, so this will be primarily about the Gerudo section and what happens when you complete the four regions.

-The Gerudo section started off a bit disappointing with the main obstacle being a sandstorm again, only worse than before. I did get pleasantly startled encountering Gibdos though, given that it's been awhile since their last appearance. Glad that I had a ton of fire fruits on hand!

-I'm relieved that Link no longer has to change clothes to enter Gerudo town, because that got annoying in a hurry when it was still required even after clearing the Divine Beast in BotW. I do miss having the disguise itself though, since he looked very cute in it, plus it was free heat protection even if its defensive stats sucked.

-Seeing the Gerudo hub as a ghost town was great for establishing the creepy atmosphere. And then finding the underground shelter was neat, if a bit predictable. I'm not saying I want the Gerudo to come to harm, but finding out everyone's fine chilling underground does undercut some of the spookiness of the zombie village above.

-Riju got a lot taller. Everyone in this game is taller than Link except for small children (and I think Robbie and Josha?), which is hilarious to me. Her ability is pretty cool, though really none of the other three come close to matching Tulin's utility.

-I really enjoyed the segments where you protect Kara Kara and then Gerudo Town from the Gibdo hoards. They fun and frantic but not in a way that felt overwhelming. I wish there was a way to repeat the town siege to see if choosing different groups to protect different gates made things easier or more challenging.

-I also liked finding and networking the various mirrors in the desert. It felt more in the vein of a classic Zelda puzzle, and then that shot of the Lightning Temple rising out of the sands was appropriately epic. I also liked that you confront the boss outside before she retreats to the temple. That was more interesting than the lame minibosses in the Goron and Zora sections, or hunting down random mooks in the Rito section.

-I'd heard stories that the Lightning Temple was the one most like a classic Zelda dungeon. I can see where people said that, but...eh, it's still definitely a BotW/TotK dungeon. Networking mirrors/manipulating light beams was a nice nostalgic callback, but I thought it was done better in previous games. (particularly the Ikana Canyon/Stone Tower area in Majora) The Temple certainly had a grand scale that I appreciated, but it seemed very empty, and once again it was just a matter of figuring out how to reach certain points so you could use the Sage's ability to activate a device. I finished this dungeon the fastest of the four.

-Queen Gibdo was a chaotic boss that was satisfying to beat but also very annoying, especially since I spent a good part of the fight chasing Riju down. It wasn't nearly as annoying as Mucktorok (thank god), but Colgera definitely sits as the best boss of the four regions, and the competition isn't even close.

-Why did we have to watch the same post-dungeon cutscene four times? There had to be a way to modify this part dependent on whether or not you've completed another region already. I've been craving some new insights or information about the Imprisoning War but each time I got bupkis.

-Overall, I give the whole Gerudo scenario a B+. I can't definitively say that I liked it better than the Zora section, but I liked it just as much.

-Naturally, I had to spend several hours running around hunting for shrines and farming for materials before I returned to Lookout Landing. The whole "evil Zelda" thing is the weakest part of this game's story; even if I hadn't already found all the Dragon's Tears at this point, I was never fooled into thinking this was the real Zelda. I suspect that no one else was either. I wish they'd cut out this thread entirely, or at least re-worked it so it was far less contrived.

-I like that they removed "Zelda" from the blood moon cutscene after this event. That's a nice detail.

-The best part of chasing fake Zelda was that I got to collect a bunch of monster parts quickly. I also found some great weapons scattered throughout the castle that I missed on the cursory pass I did much earlier on (I'm still carrying around the first Dusk Bow I found sometime after I finished the Wind Temple).

-I enjoyed the Phantom Ganon fight. It might've been more of a surprise if I hadn't already encountered him from the Grabby Hands, but at least this wasn't just a bland repeat of those encounters. Liked having all the Sages show up for a Power of Friendship moment too.

-I'm obsessed with the demonic horse Ganon was riding in the following cutscene. I desperately want to be able to tame and catch that beast because it looks amazing. I'd give it an ill-fitting name like Sugarcube and parade it all around Hyrule.

-I've just barely started the fifth Sage quest, in that I found the special clothes and cleared the storm from the sky islands. Since I'm invested in trying to clean up the remaining shrines and lightroots, it'll probably be awhile before I finish this quest. Even with Mario Wonder and the Mario RPG remake looming, I'm still enjoying TotK too much to want to rush to the end. Yes, even after 200 hours. It's going to easily overtake my BotW playtime at this rate, and that's assuming there really won't be any DLC.

[coolcattime]

helloooo! playing darkest dungeon and figuring out which characters traits work well with another is so fun. Like Bounty Hunter, Occultist, and Musketeer! Because they all can leave a mark on an enemy I can do extra damage the when its someone else’s turn. I also find myself preferring the Occultists heal because there’s more of a chance to heal more to a single player, but! Vestal does full party heals which can be good, I just don’t think I’ve figured out how to use it effectively because it’s chances are 1-3(?) so it doesn’t feel as effective to me in comparison. Strategy has been fun to figure out!

what are some of your got to hero’s or fav design/mechanic wise?

Hi! Super glad you’re having fun with the game! I really love the way the mechanics can be worked together to make really good parties, or like the way you can figure out a boss’ mechanics and plan a party around them.

Occultist vs Vestal in terms of healing is very much a game of luck vs consistency since the Occultist can always do higher numbers, but can also do nothing and bleed the person they’re meant to be healing. Overall, I tend to use the Vestal more, but that’s more due to preferring her other skills over the Occultists than disliking the gamble.

My favourite heroes are the Graverobber and the Shieldbreaker (though design wise I also have a real love for the Jester and Plaguedoctor). The Graverobber I like because she both has a blight skill, I typically find damage over time just good in general, and also her Pick to the Face ignores enemy armour which I just found so good. She doesn’t have quite as many movement skills in Darkest Dungeon 1 as in DD2, but she can move and isn’t too affected by position. Which I like since I design a lot of dancing parties (parties designed to move throughout combat rather than staying in a static position).

The Shieldbreaker, I just kinda love her. She’s one of the two paid DLC characters, but she fits so well into a lot of my builds, kinda because of what I said with the Graverobber, with focus on blighting and breaking through enemy armour, as well as being a character heavily focused on movement through ranks. But also, she can shield herself being able to gain a token called “Aegis” which completely blocks the next hit of damage. She’s in general quite powerful (both the DLC characters are I think designed to be more powerful but with a large drawback), but I like her drawback. Basically she has nightmare fights that can happen after you camp, like nighttime ambushes but the Shieldbreaker will gain 20 stress per round. But when you finish the fight you get a little journal page with her backstory, and also one of her trinkets (which makes her have by far the most backstory in the first game, and I kinda wonder if her nightmares are what inspired the hero shrines in DD2 since they really fleshed out the backstories in the second game).

Also I use the Antiquarian a lot, because she gives me money and I generally would rather have money than a full party of 4 good heroes.

[queenofthefullmoon]

An exhaustive list of Dark Souls 3 bosses I would or would not date

Iudex/Champion Gundyr

We’re starting off this list with a strong yes. Our boy Gundyr has had a hard, difficult life, and he deserves some good company. He’s tall, strong, and I trust him to protect us as we set a lovely camp site outside of the fire link shrine.

Vordt of the Boreal Valley

Vordt is big and he is feral which are truly the only two qualities I look for in a man. Together we’d be unstoppable. I mean, think about how easy it would be to go around with him: just climb on his back and let the rodeo begin, baby. This argument alone should be enough to convince you that Vordt is a suitable boyfriend, but here’s another one: if you get too hot in the summer, worry fucking not for your gigantic man can hold his equally gigantic hammer over you and cover you with snow like an italian man covering his pasta with parmesan.

Cursed Rotted Greatwood

Now while I’m certain it would be a perfect partner for some people, the Cursed Rotted Greatwood isn’t for me. For one, I am not fan of curses, or rot, or weird sticky balls, or strange orange acid, or pale white and slightly viscous hands bursting through a living tree. Secondly, I feel like the crowd of Hollows who group up around the tree would be a big impediment to our intimacy, and I’m not ready to be the mother of 20 Hollows.

Crystal Sage

No offense but you’d be an idiot for not wanting to date the Crystal Sage. All wrapped up in one package, you get a super competent sorcerer bf, who wears the coolest hat in the galaxy and an equally cool cape, and who overall looks like the upgraded version of a plague doctor. In addition to that he also has a pretty rapier so you can both engage in some sparring (which we all know is the most romantic couple activity).

Deacons of the Deep

Probably one of the worst options on the list, they’re all crusty, rotting men moaning around a biggass coffin. There are many technical questions. If I dated a deacon, would I have to date all of them? Can we go out on dates or are they obligated to stay next to the coffin at all times? Can I even date them at all?? Not that I would, because I have standards. The only pro to entering this relationship(s?) would be that I’d probably get one of their robes for free, but the cons are so numerous that I’d rather buy it myself.

Abyss Watchers

Let’s be real and honest even if it hurts. Would I date an Abyss Watcher? Yes. Maybe I’d even date two. However, would an Abyss Watcher date me? No, because they’re all in love with Artorias, and I can’t blame them for that.

Old Demon King

At first I considered dating the Old Demon King like a Russian Instagram model dates an old, rich American man: with a great deal of fake love but above all great patience in order to be the only person on the will. But then I thought about it more, and what does the Old Demon King have to offer, really? A big firework show that will leave him exhausted like the old creature he is, and maybe some pyromancies. Truly, it is not worth it, especially since I’d have to take residence where he lives, in a big old room filled with the corpses of his kin.

High Lord Wolnir

I’ve got nothing against Wolnir personally, but I have no interest in skeletons, nor in his army of skeleton children. As stated above I’m not ready to be a mother. I feel like if we got in an argument and he sighed, he would poison me with his awful breath and I would die a horrible death. Also, living on the brink of the Abyss doesn’t appeal to me that much. However I would like Wolnir to be a good friend I can talk jewelry with because let’s be honest, the man (skeleton?) is blinged the fuck out even in death and I respect that.

Yhorm the Giant

Yes, I would date Yhorm. He was nothing but a sweet, misunderstood giant who always tried to get people to trust him and he convinced me. I would put my life in his big hands. Think of the possibilities. Just like with Vordt he could carry you everywhere but in a less reckless way if you prefer proper manners. You’d never have to worry about not seeing anything at a concert. Also, may I add that waiting for you to show up while sitting on his biggass throne is an absolute power move? Yhorm is a Lord of Cinder, but above all, a Lord of this heart.

Pontiff Sulyvahn

Would I date him because of his appealing aesthetic? Yes. Would I date him for anything else? No. Sulyvahn is absolutely terrifying, completely unhinged in the most frightening way, which is that he doesn’t look bat shit crazy. I could be thinking that everything is going well in our relationship then suddenly he’d lock me in a dungeon then would feed me to his weird friend because I put a fork in the knife drawer. He could pretend to propose and give me a weird fucked up ring with his eye in it and the next thing I know I’d be running in a field on all fours. I don’t trust like that.

Aldritch, Devourer of Gods

I’m so sad about Aldritch because literally everything about him is completely unappealing, unacceptable, unnatural, unholy, abhorrent, but he has the delicate and beautiful face of Gwyndolin. While our lovely Gwyndolin looks gorgeous as ever it doesn’t make up for the fact that Aldritch devoured people and probably wouldn’t find love to be a good reason to not eat his partner. The only reason I can find to have a friendship (not even a romantic relationship) with him is if you really like experimenting with cooking and you really, really need someone to taste your inventions.

Dancer of the Boreal Valley

I feel attraction, which means that just like any other being who feels attraction, I would date the Dancer. She is beautiful, graceful, a bit feral, and would not hesitate to put a flaming knife to my throat, which is the description of my dream woman. Imagine walking the streets with her, trying to hold her hand while it dangles 3 feet above you and she insists on holding her sword, actually, so she might slay anyone who tries to approach you, which she communicates through icy breaths and murmurs. The date of a lifetime.

Oceiros, the Consumed King

Another awful choice on this list, Oceiros is RABID and also, as far as we know, still a married man. You really want to date a man that hasn’t even gone through his divorce but already looks like this? Me neither. I’m already not big on dragon fucking but the fact that he’s all viscous and has weird growths all over him is not helping. Also, he has children, and we know how I feel about that — although, given how he treats them, he probably won’t have kids very soon (too far?).

Ancient Wyvern

So I’ve stated that I’m not very big on dragon fucking. With that said, do I think the wyvern is sexy and beautiful? Absolutely so. You’re probably like « Blue you’re sending mixed signals, are you gonna date the lizard or not? » and to that I say, date? Perhaps not. I would however like to form a lifelong bond with this wonderful force of nature and fight by its side, live a long and fulfilling life travelling along with it, only to die at the same time atop the tallest mountain in the world, where our skeletons will be discovers hundreds of years in the future by brave explorers, who will confirm that the legendary songs that were written about us were in fact not just a myth.

Nameless King

You’ve just read what I said about the wyvern. I feel like the Nameless King really understands me and would respect me for that. We could bond over our love of dragons and other flying scaly beasts and perhaps share some chaste kisses while soaring the sky on our companions. It’s nice to date someone who loves pets as much as you. I feel like he would be a fun guy to hang around in general, maybe he’d let you braid his hair or try on his crown. He can arrange personalized fireworks shows for you with his lightning powers. I don’t think you’d ever be bored around him.  

Dragonslayer Armor

Dating an empty suit of armor has never bothered me (see: ds2 Ruin Sentinels), however I have beef with the dragonslayer armor. Is it a beautiful armor? Perhaps a bit worn off, but the reply remains affirmative. However, it is controlled by Pilgrim Butterflies, which basically means I’m dating one to multiple of these things in the shape of an armor, and I’ve gotta confess that I’m not down for that.

Lorian Older Prince and Lothric Younger Prince

Here comes the delicate moment where we have to make a choice without offending anyone. I personally, speaking for myself, in my own opinion, would rather date Lorian. Reason: he is big, strong, and a bit rabid, which I’ve made very clear is my type. I don’t dislike Lothric, but I feel like we’d be better off as best friends who have a really snarky group chat where we shit talk the entire kingdom. That’s pretty good because if I even just slightly disliked Lothric I’m pretty sure Lorian would sense it and would not hesitate to murder me on sight.

Champion’s Gravetender and Champion Greatwolf

Well the full name is just a formality here, I’m not completely insane so I don’t want to date this rabid wolf. I feel like the Champion’s Gravetender is just a normal dude who’s a bit in over his head and it’s not his fault but he just seems a bit boring compared to all my other options. Instead of a date I think he’d be more of an awkward flirt I had when I was bored and then I came to my senses but didn’t know how to disengage, but in the end it worked out because he was more interested in his work anyway.

Sister Friede and Father Ariandel

Again a choice has to be made and I will have to be predictable and say I’d date Elfriede. Just like Dancer she’s what the woman of my dreams is made of. She’s graceful and could easily take my life and I think it’s awfully sexy of her to be like that. I think I’d be accepted into the family pretty easily, which is important since Father Ariandel cares about Friede so much. I’d go visit him sometimes, play chess with him, bring him his flail, normal interactions with your girlfriend’s dad.

Soul of Cinder

I’m gonna be a tiny bit freaky here and say I’d date the Soul of Cinder. Dating it is just like opening a Kinder Surprise egg, you never know what you’re gonna get (sorry Americans for excluding you here). That makes life exciting and doesn’t let routine stall your relationship. Every day you can wake up with the question « What weapon will my darling walk around with today? The flaming sword, or the sorcery staff? » and be surprised by the answer. Truly ideal, but I understand it’s not for the faint of heart.

Demon Prince

I’m gonna go with a maaaaaaybeeeee? leaning towards no. I mean yes, the Demon Prince is a weird fleshy flaming demon, and that may be a bit gross, but I’ve gotta admit I admire his style, the drama of it all. The care he puts into his entrance, the attitude in his moves. If we don’t date I’d at least want to be friends so he can teach me his ways.

Darkeater Midir

I have very intense and contradictory feelings towards Midir. In one hand, holy shit, absolutely epic dragon, the spirit of companionship is growing in me. On the other hand, this beast is RABID and pretending I could tame him is foolish, and pretentious. I guess in the end the answer remains that I don’t date dragons, I just want to adopt them as my extremely exotic pets.

Halflight, Spear of the Church

Yeah I’d date Halflight, I know it’s the easy answer but look at him. I mean shit he’s walking around like a little thotty with his shirt open and you mean to tell me I’m not supposed to wanna date him because he looks pretty much like a regular dude? My boy Halflight WANTS me to date him or else he would not show up with his tiddies out to a sword fight, which as an activity already has enough erotic implications on its own.

Slave Knight Gael

I’m gonna say it unashamedly and I’ll say it again: I would date Gael. He’s been nothing but helpful and when he tries to attack you it’s to help his little lady that he’s adopted as his niece. We love a chaotic parental figure. Maybe he’s a tad bit old and dirty but there’s nothing a good bath can’t fix and I’m sure he’d appreciate having someone taking care of him for once. Again, he’s got that slightly unhinged quality to him that makes him delightful. When I walk around with my partner I want us to instill both fear and fascination in people which we would be able to accomplish perfectly well.

Dark Souls 1: Remastered date list // Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin date list

[only-by-the-stars]

the annotated Tome of the Wild

I don’t know how many people are interested in this sort of thing, but let’s go for it anyway! There are a lot, and I mean a LOT, of series references and cameos in this story, as well as tons of foreshadowing of various plot points, that may or not have gotten noticed, so I’ve been thinking about making a series of posts talking about it all for anyone curious. So here is part one, covering Chapter One: The Old Grist Mill.

(spoilers for the whole thing, obviously!)

- First up is the attire Link and Aryll are wearing. In the show, the protagonist, Wirt, is wearing a Halloween costume, though this isn’t immediately apparent that that’s the case. For Link’s costume, the choice was obvious: his Wind Waker clothing that you can get via amiibo in Breath of the Wild. Aryll, of course, is wearing the alternate pirate dress that you see her in when doing a second playthrough of WW.

- Then there’s the lengthy list of possible names Aryll tosses out for her frog. This is something that Greg, Wirt’s little brother, does at the beginning of the show, so I thought it’d be a fun way to sneak in a bunch of names that I wasn’t going to use otherwise.

Rauru: The Sage of Light in Ocarina of Time

Zauz: The blacksmith who forges the Phantom Sword in Phantom Hourglass

Snowpeak: For the Snowpeak Ruins, one of the best dungeons in Twilight Princess (and the series IMO)

Lorule: The “Dark World” of A Link Between Worlds

Vaati: The villain of Minish Cap (UNDERRATED GEM)

Swamp: Self-explanatory, there are multiple swamps in the series, like Misery Mire in Link to the Past and Goponga Swamp in Link’s Awakening

Lynel: The infamous, terrifying enemies we all know so well I hunt them for fun sometimes

Poe: Ghostly enemies that recur through the series (perhaps most memorably in TP)

Zonai: The mysterious long-lost race that built some very cool structures in BOTW

Ancient Columns: An area in BOTW where you find a memory and the Tena Ko’Sah shrine

Stealthfin: For the Stealthfin Trout in BOTW

Orca: The old swordsman on Outset Island

Ankle, Knuckle, David Jr.: Tingle’s brothers from WW

Guru-Guru: The Terminan version of the guy in the Windmill who teaches you the Song of Storms

Astor: The villain of Age of Calamity

Molduga: The sand-dwelling bosses in BOTW

Ook: A very hilarious and memorable mini-boss from TP

Tingle: The infamous Tingle, who of course Aryll thinks would be the worst name for her frog. Greg is cut off from saying what he thinks is the worst name, but I had to let Aryll speak for this little gag.

Phew, that was long. Moving on!

- “Rule one of the researcher's code is to never give up! That's what my teacher says, anyway.” Yes. Robbie is Aryll’s teacher, that is a line he says during the cutscene just before the “Relentless as a Waterfall” battle in Age of Calamity. As you might expect, Aryll finds him very amusing.

- Aryll stuck a piece of candy on a tiny black turtle that dripped an oily substance onto the forest floor as it crawled along. Dekuwood oil sighting! This is the very same turtle that gets swallowed by the dog that accosts them later, and the oil is what caused its transformation, just as it did in the show.

- “Why are we in the woods? How did we even get here? I don't... the last thing I remember is...” He screwed up his face in concentration. “Gah, why can't I remember? We were—” So Link goes into water and wakes up in a place he doesn’t know, with no memory of how he got there? Sound familiar?

- A shudder went through him and he resolved to ignore it, even as the sounds of ghostly laughter seemed to reach his ears from far off. And did the mists seem to be growing thicker? A reference to the Lost Woods from BOTW. Quite appropriate, given they’re lost in the forest.

- The mysterious woodsman is, of course, Rhoam. Who was also the first person that Link met in BOTW on the Great Plateau. He has a lantern there too, and carries around an ax, and is separated from his daughter. Just. Too easy.

- I’ll talk about this more in later posts, but, Midna in Beatrice’s role was one of the first and easiest choices I made when casting this thing. Also, notice how she takes off as soon as Rhoam shows up? This is a thing that happens in the series with the Woodsman and Beatrice, who have no prior connection, but Midna definitely knows this guy, and that reveal was held back for later via keeping that bit from the show.

- Also, in the show, the wood is called edelwood; here I chose dekuwood not just because of deku trees and whatnot in the series, but. well. Also to invoke the memory of the Deku Butler’s son in Majora’s Mask who became a victim of the Skull Kid and thus Link’s first mask.

- Link saying “Hey, listen” to Aryll is a callback to Navi’s infamous phrase from OOT.

- “Not in any way that would be beneficial to you.” Link will remember this later when the Beast is trying to get him and Midna to choose whose soul will be in the lantern.

- She leaned up on her toes and retrieved what looked like a compass. Compasses are, of course, a dungeon item in most of the games.

- The owl statue Aryll plays with, and subsequently breaks the beak of, is a reference to the owl statues in Link’s Awakening. Their eyes do indeed glow when you talk to them in the Switch remake, and in the dungeons you have to retrieve their broken-off beaks to converse with them.

- In the show, you don’t find about Wirt’s crush until much later, but I wanted to establish the plotline of Link’s love for Mipha and what he’s been doing about it right here at the beginning. His avoidance of her and what Aryll tells him about how its caused her so much pain is the beginning of his descent into despair near the end of the story. Not to mention that I hinted at the tape’s existence with Aryll’s reference to him making “that thing” for her.

- Aryll decides to call her frog “Blupee” after the glowing, rabbit-like spirit creatures in BOTW.

- “Sheikah smoke! Poof!”  A reference, of course, to how the Sheikah can appear or disappear in a puff of smoke.

- “He is the death of hope, a cunning calamity... he steals life, steals children... he, he...” A calamity, eh? Now where have we heard that phrase before? And Rhoam is, of course, alluding to his belief that the Beast is responsible for the disappearance of his daughter, Zelda.

- “Leave me now, young man... take your sister and go east.” In the show, the Woodsman tells Wirt to go north. But here, it’s east, because their next destination is Ikana, which is located in the eastern portion of Termina in MM.

- A half-moon the color of yellowed pages had risen in the sky by now, and by its light Link guided Aryll onto a path that he was reasonably sure led east. This bit of description is not just there to be pretty. I established a specific phase of the moon here so that I could go back and use the exact same description in later chapters, when more time had passed and it wouldn’t make any sense for there to actually be the same moon phase going on. This is a hint to the fact that everything in the Wild, takes place during the same night in Link’s world. This is something that you see visually in the show, but must be described in a fic.

and that’s it for chapter one! stay tuned for chapter two!

[yggdrasil-mith0s]

Another reason people probably didnt like Symphonia their first time but later loved it is because of the themes and undertones. Here is another essay that's going to be a very quick Symphonia walkthrough as a young child playing.

Here's a warning: I mention some stuff that happens in Symphonia. It will be mostly vague but there will be mention of death. There also might be some spoilers in here but nothing too serious, just some of the beginning story more than likely.

Let me begin by saying the box art looks pretty cool for the Gamecube but the front and back does look like a very, very young child's RPG. It seems like an RPG that was creates for super young children that havent hit there teens or are in the very first years of being a teen.

I'm about to give a quick walkthrough as if I am a very young kid playing Symphonia for the first time. This is to show why a lot of people had this as their first game in the series but didnt like it. Why a lot of people weren't the biggest fans until their second playthrough or when they gave it another chance and realized it is absolutely stunning. A top 10 game of all time across every platform created.

First off, there was a lot of adult themes and tones in Symphonia. Obviously, I dont mean nudity or sexually explicit material. I'm talking about the Desian Camps. The idea that millions of people are being captured, put to work, then put to death or letting them die. These type of adult themes.

The first time we played, we were young. We didnt get choked up or super sentimental about what was going on in video games. We didn't care so much about the parallels between real life and our video games. Usually, we just wanted something fun to play. I mentioned it earlier but the start of Symphonia looks super childish and like it's going to be a lighthearted adventure. You have a cast of kids (2 very young adults that added comedy and badassness). A majority of the beginning fights are snakes, birds, bunnies, and bears. The battle system is fun but also easy enough to get the hang of. You can honestly button mash with the occasional arte and not worry about combos . You didnt have to worry about combos at all, really, and just use artes when you wanted. Some of the artes were pretty cool looking and strong too which added more of a "wow, the combat system is cool. There's attacks and a bunch of power attacks you can use. You can also move around and dont have to wait like a turn base game." It's also possible to just button mash or use all your MP on Artes and really kick their ass.

Combining all of those elements together makes it seem more kid friendly than it really is. Playing through the start makes you feel like a 10 year old playing his first RPG with an age appropriate game since you control a bunch of kids. The fights are easy and usually bees or some weak animal. Nothing serious, really. The artes are cool and the more artes you learn, the cooler and more fun Lloyd gets. It's cool to play as Lloyd when you learn a new arte or two.

So far everything has been pretty lighthearted. This RPG is fun, the characters are pretty cool and can be funny. The dungeons aren't super confusing. It's just a fun game overall but nothing spectacular or crazy. Really the worst thing that has happened is "Desians bad. They destroy hometown over something stupid."

Marble's scene is the only real adult sad part in the game so far. They kill Marble in a way that you kind of don't get crushed by emotions. They let you down pretty easy and you get Marble's ring for Genis so now she is always with you. Her death isn't too bad because she was old and it was just one old woman in the game. It's sad but not devastating. Also the Ranch. They use them as slaves. But tbh it doesn't really hit you that they resemble real world stuff and you dont see the parallels like you should. You just kind of write it off as shitty and Desians are evil and the bad guys. Surely you save everyone from the ranches and that's the point of the game. Kill Desians and save everyone.

You get to the dessert oasis where Colette crashed through the wall. Cute and funny. Oh, Lloyd and Genis get captured by bad Desians but the wanted posters were bad so it made it funny. Eventually, You escaped the bad, bad Desians and are back with your friends, yay!!! You go to the fire shrine, finally see more menacing enemies but they still arent that bad, and start your first puzzle dungeon! It's short but a lot of fun with a boss fight. It was a little tough but fun!! You beat the shrine, yay!!!

The serious Angel (Remiel) comes down again and talks to Colette and the gang. He gives her wings! She is becoming an angel. At this point you are thinking, "How cool. Colette is becoming an angel!!! She has wings now and can probably fly wherever she wanted to go! This game is really fun. It's not bad at all. The weapons and equipment aren't difficult and it's fun buying or finding stuff better than what you have and equipping the new stuff. The skits can be funny too and I get to know the characters better with the skits. This game is really cool, actually." It's time to speed this post up, though. I'll be going faster and doing more short versions/storytelling.

We sail across seas and bow we are at Palmacosta!!! Here's where things get a little weird and stuff too. So Palmacosta is cool. We look through town, only to find imposters. That's right. These fools are pretending to be me and my gang. Im the one with a cool group and shit. People wanna be me so bad!!! Lol.

By the way. General Dorr is also the Mayor of Palmacosta.

Imposters are rude and we meet mayor who seems cool till he tells us he thought the imposters were us and gave them a book we need. So....little me is like

"YOU DID WHAT!?" .... so we leave. Lol

We go to mountain gate, cant pass yet, learn Palmacosta is under attack by ... you guessed it... Desians. ,

*little me has eyes stretch wide open* But I was just there!!!! Sucks, I know.

So we head back and make it to Palmacosta. Remember the girl we saved from extreme questioning and customers that were badgering the girl since she was the store clerk/owner. Of course not. I never mentioned it. I saved her back then at the start of Palmacosta. Naturally they chose Chocolate, in some weird, sick revenge way for me making them look weak when they verbally attacked her. So Chocolate is about to hang and be killed. Some stuff happens and Lloyd ends up using his sword to save Chocolate. Boom. He is a hero. He saved someone from hanging....

Wait.... hanging? In kids game? Damn that's a little intense for a kids game but I guess you do save her. Carry on.....

So let's speak to the Mayor. He was conveniently gone while that was happening but meh. Coincidence right? Yeah. Yeah.

Talking to the General/Mayor we decide to go rescue everyone who has been kidnapped from Palmacosta. By the way there's a ranch for most cities that Desian's manage. So there is a Palmacosta Ranch and a bunch of people from Palmacosta are now held prisoners in the Ranch. Boo! But I digress.

Off to Palmacosta ranch!!! We finally reach it and... oh look... General Dorr"s personal Aide/Assistant. What's this? He is a traitor!? You've got to be kidding me! I trusted that dude!!! Maybe that will teach little me to be careful about who I hang out with. A pretty good life lesson for little me and nothing too serious. I'll handle that later though, and rescue the prisoners in the Palmacosta Ranch.

We save Chocolate but she would almost rather die than be saved by you. So you save her but not without a fight and learning some shocking stuff that little me is like "WHAAAA!!!???!??? NO WAY NO WAY NO WAY!!!!!!!! she still lives cause of you and you fight the leader of the Ranch and win that battle!!!

So yay!!! You won the battle and beat Palmacosta Ranch! Good job little you! You did awesome!!! The game has been really great, with a pretty light tone for the most part. Everything is bright, the enemies arent that bad at all, nothing truly fucked up has ha---"we're going to blow up the Ranch with people still in it" -Raine.

That's right.... "YOU'RE GONNA WHAT!?!?"

So yeah, we blow up Palmacosta Ranch. Desians were probably still inside along with a janitor named Chet that everyone forgot about lol. So bye bye Ranch!!!

"That got dark really fast and Raine is pretty ruthless but most people escaped. I guess I can kind of forgive that. This game is definitely darker than I thought but it could be worse. Most people escaped anyways I am sure. So it's not that bad." -me.

Back to Palmacosta to confront the traitor General Dorr!! Here we are! General Dorr and his daughter are standing suspiciously in the basement of the government building in Palmacosta. I'm sure he knows that he has been found out. I know he tried to sabotage the Chosen's journey. He has no exc--- OH NO! They got his wife with the Demon Seed, too!! Now she is a monster! No wonder he is a traitor. He is trying to get a potion which is the cure to save his wife. I kind of get it but that's pretty messed up. He is basically being held hostage. This game just got a little darker.... but it could be worse, I suppo----WHAT!? HIS DAUGHTER IS A DEMON! DID SHE JUST SAY SHE KILLED HIS DAUGHTER A LONG TIM AGO AND HE WAS TOO STUPID TO NOTICE!?"

She really just called him stupid and is acting like he is the biggest idiot for not knowing she killed his daughter!!! This whole time she has pretended to be his daughter. That means she probably went to her school, played with her friends, talked to her dad and played with him. She probably told him she loved him which is so messed up. She also knew there was no potion but continued to watch him and be ready to kill him if he tried to snitch about his wife. This got dark really fucking fast wtf!!! She is a complete demon stranger in a girls body pretending she loves her daddy, plays with friends, and does child things but is a demon the whole time. "I love you daddy says the demon pretending to be your daughter. That's really sick and twisted. Sad thing is little me is like "well that's weird. How did no one notice at all she was acting odd?

Maybe she didn't have any friends and her dad is to distracted about the medicine for his wife, he doesn't notice.

That's absolutely crazy and completely dark. Woah. This game is way way darker than it lead me to believe when I was young. That was pretty much my first reaction/playthrough when I was little. Symphonia is dark as fuck.

I played a little bit further to the next ranch my first playthrough but quit when I found out they were killing people like it was nothing. I was really little then, too, btw. I quit because it got really dark and kind of weird and complicated to fully grasp everything going on and the parallels to the real world. I always played RPGs relating it to real life and such. I have done that since my first RPG so with Symphonia I had to quit. It was too dark and weird when I first played it.

Once I came back and beat Symphonia I thought it was Brilliant. It was absolutely amazing and worth so much more praise. I loved it and still do. Even the dark side of things.

Turns out I am not the only one who did this. Play through, reach a dark part or part where you realize how dark it is, and then quit. I'm glad I picked it back up, though. It's almost a perfect game!!!

So yeah... here's a playthrough of little me and Symphonia. I was too little to be playing games with dark themes even if they were short or small. I say this because I was stupid small and really let my imagination run wild when I played games and read. I often make things 20 times worse so I really shouldn't have played Symphonia till later.

Anyways it's amazing. Nearly perfect.

Enjoy your games, everyone. If you arent currently doing so, find a Tales game to pick up and start playing!!! Tales of Arise or some other Tales game will be here before you know it so practice up!!! Play a Tales game!!!

[spoadicdeviance]

"Skyward Sword holds your hand too much! I mean it explains everything to you. Fi can‘t ever shut up.”

Fi actually only “overexplains” before the first dungeon. After that, any advice she has is given to the player only if said player manually summons Fi for advice.

“Well, there’s still the fact that you have to spend so long in that tutorial filled prologue before the first dungeon.”

You mean the prologue where you can skip almost half of the tutorial segments, including the rescue of a remlit from a rooftop, and the sword combat tutorial? 

Also the time it takes for a player to get to the first time is, on average, about 50 minutes. I kind of remember other Zelda games like Twilight Princess taking much longer to get to its first dungeon.

“Well the fact it gives you any tutorial prompts without asking the player is a serious offense.”

What about Breath of the Wild? That games gives you a tutorial prompt for almost every action you do, even if it’s done after the your time in the Great Plateau. This also includes loading screens.

In fact wont most players spend around the exact same time (if not more)  doing Breath of the Wild’s Great Plateau as they did playing Skyward Sword’s pre-Skyview Temple sequence? Doing those mandatory tutorial shrines for the each of the runes and having the game teach you each of the game’s mechanics via textboxes, preventing the player from experiencing the real game until they complete all those shrines.

Also there’s the shrine at Kakariko Village that teaches you about combat regardless if you already learned it on your own.

“Aren‘t you going overboard with these examples?”

Don‘t you mean isn‘t Breath of the Wild going overboard with it’s tutorial prompts?

“Well Skyward Sword sometimes mark important locations in the overworld, preventing the player from exploring the land for himself/herself.”

Yeah, it’s not like other Zelda games (or any other game) marked important overworld locations on the map for the player.

And it’s not like the first game came with a map detailing important early game locations like the placing of the first four dungeons.

Knowing where to go does not ruin the fun of actually getting there. 

“But Skyward Sword has those beacons.”

Breath of the Wild had that as well. And just like the beacons in Skyward Sword, they are optional.

“But dowsing! Surely you think Nintendo went overboard with a mechanic that tells you where to go, right?”

I would, if it was forced on the player. Once you get a new dowsing target just hold the c button to go to the dowsing menu and highlight the eye symbol in order to turn off dowsing. Trust me, you can beat the game without dowsing. It’s not forced on you. It’s there for inexperienced/very young players.

By the way, why aren‘t you calling out Breath of the Wild for using the Sheikah Sensor? A feature that works the exact same way a dowsing does in Skyward Sword.

You can also upgrade it to allow the Sensor to search for almost any object in the game.

Considering that Breath of the Wild is an open world sandbox game, and focused on exploration, wouldn‘t the inclusion of such a feature be a more egregious offense compared to dowsing in Skyward Sword?

“Well Skyward Sword has other things that prevent players from figuring stuff out on their own. Like those markers over the heads of NPCs that give out quest related information.”

The quest markers in Breath of the Wild are placed directly on the NPCs that either give you quests or are needed to talk to in order to continue/complete the quest. It didn‘t take away anything in either game.

“Skyward Sword has NPCs that give away hints to puzzles without the player asking for it.”

Hints and solutions are two different things. Getting hints from NPCs is a standard of adventure games. Other Zelda games do that too. 

“Skyward Sword has that potion that can make you invincible.”

That’s only available at the tail end of the game. Plus you have to upgrade it with multiple rare insects and find the Potion Medal before you can get its full effect. A Link Between Worlds has a similar potion you can get before the halfway point and all you need are 10, easy to find, monster horns.

Also, Breath of the Wild has those recipes that fully restore Link’s health, with additional yellow hearts.

In fact, there is a spot in Breath of the Wild, right next to a fast travel spawn point, where you can farm for Hearty Durians which can be used to make the Hearty Simmered Fruit dish seen above.

There’s also the fact that in Breath of the Wild, you can pause the game and heal yourself as much as you want, even if you are about to be hit with a killing blow. Other Zelda games don‘t allow that. 

Give Skyward Sword some credit, you can‘t pause whenever you select an item, including potions. The game still plays and enemies will still attack you. Only now, while you select a potion, Link cannot attack, use his shield, or dodge. He can only walk around slowly as you search your inventory.

“Well the YouTube channel, Boss Keys, showed that some of Skyward Sword’s dungeons has those stones that explained too much.”

First of all, the stones never give anything away they just state what the challenge is, not how to solve it.

Also Boss Keys completely ignored the fact that other Zelda games used similar stones as well.

By the way, if you want to mention “giving to much information away” in dungeons, how about in Breath of the Wild, when you are in each of the Divine Beasts, you are directed to the guidance stone for the map, given the location of each terminal, and told how to navigate and control the Beast. Complete with the spirits of the original pilots of their respective Beast acting as a glorified tour guide. Where was everyone’s righteous fury then?

“Why are you so focused on calling out Breath of the Wild?”

Because everyone praises Breath of the Wild as “the savior of the Zelda franchise”. Claiming the game fixes the “issues” with Skyward Sword, despite the fact that those same “issues” are found in Breath of the Wild, as well as other Zelda games, including the NES titles.

It’s kind of weird that everyone who calls out Skyward Sword for “holding your hand” are mysteriously silent whenever similar moments/features are found in other Zelda games like A Link to the Past or Breath of the Wild. 

It’s almost like these so called “hand holding” features in Skyward Sword, as well as the other Zelda games, aren’t  as much as an offense (or as hand holding) as the game’s critics would have you believe and it’s like these critics are just fishing for excuses to justify their irrational disdain for a game that made them use motion controls.

But that can‘t be the case. I mean those critics wouldn’t have such blatant double standards when it comes to games they review, right? RIGHT?

[california-raccoon]

eye's on the sparrow

He just stares at her, like he’d been wishing for his mom but she appeared instead. This belief - in wishing, in divine intervention, in fate - is probably the reason why he chooses to believe in her. BLEACH / AU / ICHIRUKI • [PART 1/?]

A/N: It figures my first official attempt at fanfic is gonna be for this old ship in the wildest year 2020. Apologies in advance because I am no writer, but like a kid messing around in a kitchen, I hope you enjoy it anyway. Bone apple teeths, my dudes.

——————

I.

The first time she meets him, he’s by himself on the side of the road. He isn’t doing much of anything, just a lot of crying, same as that day his mother died. Rukia wasn’t there to see it happen, but she saw the officers and the cars all hovered around the scene in the aftermath, a pop of bright yellow about her height wailing like a siren. 

For all of her seven years of living, she is precocious enough to understand death and loss, but when she greets him weeks later, she has no kid gloves to treat him with, just her bare-knuckled fists knocking into his shoulders. He loses his balance among other things, face no longer crunched together in tears but spread wide with shock. 

“What’s wrong?” says she, without any hint of sympathy. The boy offers her nothing in response. His hand is on the pavement, catching himself.

He just stares at her, like he’d been wishing for his mom but she appeared instead. This belief - in wishing, in divine intervention, in fate - is probably the reason why he chooses to believe in her. He swallows his tears long enough to tell her “I lost my mom here,” with a glint of hope in his eyes as if she could find her for him.

“Was she pretty?” Is all Rukia asks, trying to imagine her, and the boy cracks a smile.

“The prettiest. She made the best blueberry pancakes for breakfast and held my hand while we walked. I was supposed to protect her… but,” The boy chokes, big drops forming on the sides of his eyes.

“Just… don’t forget her.”

The boy gulps at this, not really understanding but nodding anyway. Maybe it’s Rukia’s imagination of his mother now in her mind, as pretty and warm as the sunshine, smelling like pancakes and blueberries, that causes her to reflect. She squats down next to him with a frown on her face.

“You’re lucky, I don’t have a mother to remember.” Rukia says, “So whatever you do, don’t forget her.” 

He looks up at her then, eyes as big as saucers, and she helps him up to his feet. They say nothing else in the exchange, but he keeps looking at her, so she ruffles his hair to make him stop. She likes that she’s a little taller than him that she can do that; the other boys she knows are older and too tall for her fingers and fists to reach.

When she sees him the next day, he isn’t crying anymore but he talks. About little things, at first. A lot of stories about his mom, so he won’t forget. How she warmed the room with her presence, could peel apple skins in one long strip and loved reading books about funny English plays. As the days go on, it mixes with stories of things he’s learned in school, or his classmate in karate who he can never seem to beat. Rukia listens. They walk together down the road on his way home.

“Where do you live?” he asks one day, between showing her this new Pokemon card he’d traded Mizuiro during recess. It’s another rainy afternoon, but he’s okay, and they’re sharing his umbrella on the road home.

“Up that hill over there,” she says, pointing past the street they’re on. 

“That’s pretty far. You can take my umbrella with you; I live right here.” The boy exclaims, stopping right in front of a family clinic. There’s a chipper smile on his face as he hands her the umbrella to hold.

She doesn’t really know what to think, the gesture unusual to her, but she takes it with a small thanks before parting ways.

 -

II.

Ichigo is six the first time he invites a girl over to his house. He doesn’t really know her name, nor does he know much of anything about her, now that he thinks about it, but they somehow walk home together every day and he’s happy for the company of his new friend.

She doesn’t accept at first, but once she manages to sneak up to his window by climbing the adjacent tree, it’s as if she’s always been there. He shares his manga and his favorite snacks and teaches her how to play Pokemon among his growing collection of cards. She’ll stay over an hour after sunset, the pair of them reading and laughing until he has to head down for dinner, and she’ll leave the way she came. If his dad is wise to the situation, Ichigo doesn’t really know, but the man is all too happy to give him extra snacks to carry into his room whenever he asks.

On one weekend Ichigo finds himself packed in with his sisters in the car, dad behind the wheel with a list of things to buy and the promise of candy and ice cream at the end of the day if they behave. When they pass the hill, all he sees are lush forest greens and the Torii that pokes its head among the body of stairs. There are no houses, so he asks where they are.

“There are no houses there, son. Just the orphanage near the Shinto shrine.” His dad answers with unexpected gravity. 

Ichigo says nothing in response to this, but he looks up what an orphanage is later in the dictionary once they get home, remembers the girl with no mother and cries.

He notices it, seeing her again on his way home from karate. She usually comes up to meet him from the river, playing by herself. Her clothes are a little too big on her, waiting to grow into them like the hand-me-downs his sisters complain about.

He can’t really bring himself to say anything to her, though he really wants to. It’s on the tip of his tongue, to tell her that he knows, but he never gets the chance to because they’re home before he realizes it and the door bursts open just as soon as he gathers the courage to speak.

“Welcome home, Ichigo!” His dad surprises him outside their doors just as they’ve arrived. There’s a sly look on his eye that Ichigo is too young to decipher, but he feels as if some secret’s been found out when his dad turns to the person frozen in place next to him.

“And who is this young lady accompanying my son home today?” 

Ichigo’s mind is racing to respond but he can’t find a simple answer. Static bubbles out of him instead in stammers and incoherent half-words that only stop when she says her name.

“Rukia,” his dad repeats with gentlemanly charm. “Thank you for keeping an eye out for my son. Come in and stay for dinner.”

His dad figures out everything but he’s surprisingly lenient about it. She’s allowed to stay as she wishes, for snacks, for games, as long as she heads back before nightfall. The terms are fair, especially with the long summer days ahead of them, and sometimes his dad will leave work ahead of schedule so they can have earlier dinners with her as their guest.

It’s how most of Ichigo’s summer unfolds: him, his sisters, and Rukia eating dinners together, watching tv and playing video games. Her drawings of bears and rabbits mix with Yuzu and Karin’s on the refrigerator. The newness of having her over gives the family something to talk about, and they welcome her openly. The rest of the days are a haze of laughs and pixelated dungeons where they save princesses. 

“Why do you always play by the river?” Ichigo asks her one afternoon. The question stops her in her tracks, thrown off by the question. They’re on the way home, the usual babble of the river filling her sudden silence. She’d been talking to him about her strategy to defeat the boss at the Fire Temple. He’s a little guilty he wasn’t paying attention.

“My friend Renji was adopted a week before I met you,” she tells him. “We used to sneak out and play by the river all the time before he went away.”

“Will you go away too when you get adopted?” 

“I don’t know. Probably.” She shrugs, but her fingers are tightly wound like the first day they met.

Later that night after she leaves, Ichigo tugs on the bottom of his dads shirt as he’s putting away the last of the clean dishes and stares up at him.

“Can’t we adopt her?” He chokes out, vision wet and blurry as he says it because he already knows the answer.

His dad sighs, picking him up by his armpits, and suddenly he’s four years old again, crying on the kitchen counter. Ichigo is surprised to find himself tightly wound in his dads arms, a hug so warm and sincere he thinks he could choke if he doesn’t remember to breathe.

“Sorry, kiddo.” His dad ruffles his hair when they pull apart, and looking up at him, his eyes look wet too. 

The last of his summer is a countdown till it finally happens. It’s a normal sunny afternoon walking back from karate. He lingers over the view of the river before walking home alone for the first time in months. There’s a pit in his stomach that he ignores and he mostly sulks in his room the rest of the evening.

She shows up two days later with a big smile on her face that he’s never seen. He knows before she even says it.

Her smile is so big it eclipses the frown that threatens to show on his face because the more he listens to her, the happier he genuinely feels for her. A young couple from Tokyo, and the woman is warm and sunny just like any mother should be, she says. 

“The man isn’t as goofy as your dad, but he seems nice… I’m moving with them to Tokyo this week once the papers are signed.”

The mention of the move makes her nervous, the only other emotion she’s expressed in her retelling of the past two days. They spend the rest of the afternoon on his father’s computer looking up pictures of Tokyo, then find a map in the garage to see how far it is from Karakura.

On her last day, Ichigo and his dad go out to buy a small bouquet of flowers in congratulations, and they snap a photo together along with his sisters, who are hugging her in a fond embrace. 

“Write to me,” he says with a grin, hand stuffed in his pockets, suddenly feeling too cool for goodbyes. She ignores it completely and gives him a fierce hug.

“Of course.” She laughs at him, then punches him fondly on the shoulder for good measure. “Thanks, Ichigo.”

The words throw him off, the first time she’s ever called him by name, and he tries hers in kind. 

“See ya later, Rukia.”

They write to each other the way pen pals do, in a pattern of energetic bursts of conversation between the pauses of closing signatures that grow wider until their lives fill with classes, exams, friends and families. The letters stop coming at the end of the year.

[PART 2 → ]

[lavenderlight]

1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 40 >:)

Ahdgkhh okay here we go!!!

1: Which TES games have you played?

All 5 main series games, ESO, and Blades!

2: Favorite TES game?

Oblivion........ like the other games have traits I like more, but also cons. Like... if I had to pick a game to just play with only the Unofficial Patch, it’d be that one.

3: When and how you got into TES? I was at a game store with my brother and we saw Oblivion with all these award “amazing game” stickers on it on clearance. So picked it up. I wasn’t impressed right away (remember picking dark elf tho) so put it down. My bro played it and said “omg you have to get out of the tutorial dungeon that sucks but the rest of the game is so good!” So I made a bosmer and did and there rest is history. TES has been a special interest of mine and a big comfort series for a decade now!  4: Favorite race Bosmer! Dunmer are a close second though. Thanks Morrowind. 5: Favorite province Valenwood........... love it............ Cyrodiil too because I’m basic. 6: Favorite character Ahdjgh hard to pick because there are so many! Off the top of my head, Dagoth Ur/Voryn Dagoth, Indoril Nerevar (what a shock, I know), Serana Volkihar, Glarthir, The Adoring Fan (don’t @ me), The Jemane Brothers, Marcurio, really all the characters from ESO’s main quest and the ending side quests who help you 😭😭. 7. Favorite faction

Thieves’ Guild, minus Skyrim’s. Skyrim’s Thieves’ Guild was awful eww.

8: Which province you would like to live in

If the lore and history and stuff weren’t a thing, Summerset because it’s aesthetic and has nice beaches. Realistically, probs Cyrodiil because I’m basic and I like how it’s a melting pot of various races and cultures!

As much as I love Valenwood, wouldn’t be able to handle the Green Pact

9: Which deity/deities would you worship?

Dibella - because I like how she’s the divine for the arts, and actual true love and beauty in the world (feel like she’s the divine most likely to say gay rights and trans rights). That vibes with me.

Makes me sad that both in the games and in the fandom, she’s reduced to “ha ha slutty sex goddess”. 

10: Favorite Divine

Dibella because see above.

11: Favorite Daedric Prince

Oh boy... hajdg I love Daedra (except Molag Bal - eww)!!! So it’s hard to pick. Just rapid fire listing some favs: Sheogorath, Meridia, Azura, Barbas (does he count?), Hircine... 

12: Favorite enemy

Dagoth Ur

13: Favorite dungeon

Hmmm, I feel like I’m forgetting some, but I enjoyed Nocturnal’s trial dungeon in Skyrim because I like sneaking and it was all based on that.

14. You have awakened and you are a Cliff Racer. What do you do?

Hunt and kill anyone who dares to step outside Seyda Neen lol

15: What would you do if you contracted vampirism?

C u r e

16: What would you do if you contracted lycanthropy?

C u r e

17: Are there any characters you have crushes on?

Not rly because I’m ace.

 If so, who?

18: Favorite Great House

The Sixth House. The Tribe Unmourned. The-

Honestly all of them are whack and have... issues. When I played Morrowind, I didn’t join any of them lol. Telvanni is at least entertaining and very out there which makes them cool. So I guess them?

19: Favorite TES music

Ahaha... I sold my soul to Jeremy Soule... I have so so many... :’)

“The Road Most Travelled”, “Peaceful Waters”, “Stilt Sunrise”,  “Auri-El’s Ascension”, “Sunrise of Flutes”, “Harvest Dawn”, “All’s Well” “The Streets of Whiterun”, “Secunda” (this is one of my all time favourite video game songs!), “Sovngarde”, “One They Fear”

Then from ESO which has other composers too: “Northpoint Nocturne”, “Moth, Butterfly, and Torchbug”, and “Grazelands Dawn” (mostly because it’s a remix of “The Road Most Travelled” 🥺)

Oh, and this song from the Morrowind dlc because the remaster of “Nerevar Rising” from 2:54 onward. (which how could I forget “Nerevar Rising”? Ugh it gives me feels! The Oblivion and Skyrim main themes are very near and dear to me too)

Also really enjoyed this song from Clockwork City - captures the melancholy vibe and I like the clock noises in it.

20: In your opinion, what is the scariest thing in TES?

I can’t stand spiders so anytime anything having to do with them shows up... I play with mods that remove them and in ESO,  I have a list of dungeons and places to avoid. If I have to do one, I make someone go with me and kill them for me lol.

The Lighthouse Quest in Skyrim was also mega spooky. As for lore, soul trapping and the Soul Cairn really freaks me out! I can’t bring myself to use soul trapping because it bothers me :( I headcanon that when a soul gem runs out of charge, the soul is freed because it’s the only way I can sleep at nigh leave me alone lol 21: Favorite main quest Morrowind, hands down. I will infodump and discuss that game’s plot forever. 22: Favorite side quest

I really like the Daedric Shrine quests, they’re always fun. Also love the silly little short quests like in Morrowind when you have to help the guy get his pants back, or in ESO where you gotta find the lost dog in Valenwood and pet it.

Oblivion has loads of side quests I loved... the missing dunmer painter, Hackdirt, that quest with the ladies who are killing men, the Floating Bowl quest... the mystery at Chorrol Castle....

23: Most frustrating experience in a TES game

I get mad any time the sneaking mechanics in ESO don’t work like the main games. Because I always play an archer-thief lol.

That one fabricant machine puzzle in Tribunal.... oh man........ I had to look it up.

And also the final boss for Clockwork City was annoying. Don’t go to the Clockwork City!

24: Funniest experience in a TES game

Other than moments intended to be funny, I sometimes laugh whenever I miss a jump and end up dying from fall damage. It’s so ridiculous.

Dagoth Ur’s “What are you doing?!” when you first attack the Heart always gets a chuckle out of me too. He sounds so... upset and disappointed in you? Lol

25: Most badass moment in a TES game

The ending to ESO’s main quest was a rly big power fantasy moment for me.

Also more mundane, but I felt really cool and powerful when I got to the point in Morrowind where I could one shot kill cliff racers lol

26: Saddest experience in a TES game

The ESO side quest, “The Soul-Meld Mage” in Coldharbour. After that one, I had to step away for a bit.... man. It hurt my heart and I still feel so bad. That was a case in the game where I really felt impacted by how cruel and awful Molag Bal is. Like I *knew* but that quest played with my emotions and made it personal.

27: Favorite area/region

Valenwood from ESO. I spend all my time there, and sometimes go to Summerset or Vvardenfell lol.

28: Least favorite character

Vivec.

Also don’t like Maven-Black Briar. :I

29: In-game food item you want to eat the most

Sweetroll! 

Also this one recipe for a beef dish I found in Valenwood sounded good.  Maybe also the Sunrise Souffle mentioned in Skyrim?

30: If you could try skooma, would you?

No. Don’t do drugs, kids.

31: If you had the skills and resources to do a perfect cosplay of any TES character who would it be?

Probs Serana

32: Have you read any of the novels?

No, but I’ve been thinking about it!

33: Favorite class to play

Thief, or a thief-similar class like agent or rogue.

34: Which type of magic would you most like using?

Alteration seems the most useful for everyday life lol. But illusion would be fun.

35: Favorite weapon

I use bows all the time!

36: Favorite spell

Levitate from Morrowind - it’s so much fun to use!

37: Favorite artifact

Nerevar’s Moon-And-Star Ring. It’s cute lol and I like the lore behind it!

Also enjoy the Wabbajack because of how silly it is, and Dibella’s Brush of Truepaint.

38: You have awakened to find you’re in Tamriel. How do you react?

Because yeah I love TES but also the world of it is scary with gods and monsters constantly trying to kill you lol

39: Thoughts on ESO so far

I really enjoy the world and writing! But I’m still cranky over some moments where it’s an MMO and not a normal TES game :I

I also hate that we can’t have NPC companions.  You really gonna give me a clockwork nix-hound named Snuffler and not let me travel with him? For shame.

40: Character you’d most like to hang out with

Nerevar, because I’m very awkward and shy and bad at peopleing and I would hope he could teach me how to improve lol.

But to actually hang out and chill, Marcurio would be pretty fun lol

[tannertelford2]

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild released back in 2017, meaning that for nearly 3 years, I have heard it touted as the best Zelda game ever created. In fact, I’ve seen many players and critics alike call it the best videogame ever. Needless to say, I had some pretty high expectations when I finally picked it up for the Nintendo Switch back in early November. However, I had my fair share (and perhaps more than my fair share) of qualms with this seemingly seminal installment. The contrast between my experience and that of so many others inspired this review, in which I hope to clarify what I felt worked well and what fell short. With the sequel announced as in development last year, this review also functions as a list shortfalls I hope to see corrected.

 My first and main point of contest is that Breath of the Wild is so unlike any previous title that it hardly feels like a Zelda game at all. Heavy RPG elements, such as finite weapons, upgradable armor, and the need to find and prepare food to recover health (can’t I just break a jar for hearts?), were jolting but not irreconcilable. Even the ability to scale 99.9% of surfaces in the game wasn’t too foreign after the first hour of gameplay. The first major difference players encounter (though they may not realize it until later) is a complete lack of dungeons. Dungeons – the trademark, the pride and joy of Zelda – are completely gone. In their place, you find Shrines – short puzzles that usually consist of 1-4 rooms and which reward players with Spirit Orbs (tokens that can be exchanged for an increase in either the health or stamina meter). The shrines quickly become repetitive and burdensome; finding shrines, many of which are cleverly hidden (some of which are impossibly hidden) proves more fun than actually completing them, especially since they don’t progress in difficulty.

The Divine Beasts function as the game’s own unique version of standard temples, and while they are undeniably unique (the ability to control their movements to solve puzzles is quite ingenious), they lack the appeal of a true dungeon. There isn’t a single Beast players aren’t able to conquer (boss included) in under 35 minutes. When I enter a temple, I want it to take me at least an hour and cause a little stress induced hair-loss (just kidding on the last part). This new sequel needs more traditional dungeons and better bosses than the Scourge of Gannon foes that felt more like mini-bosses than anything. Even Hyrule Castle, which is one of the most in-depth, realistic versions of the castle we have seen – disappoints. It is not a true dungeon, and by the time I reached this point in the game, I simply followed the obvious path to Ganon rather than exploring the gorgeous structure; my spirit of adventure had been killed off long before then, by hours of aimless wandering in search of Shrines.

  I am by no means a completionist. In fact, I’m not sure if I’ve ever completed a game 100% other than Mario Party DS (if you’ve played that game, you get it). However, the lack of fulfillment left by the shrine system led me to seek out every shrine. All 120 of them. While I was able to find around 105 of them by myself, I had to resort to a walkthrough to find the others (I would have gotten an 88% on my own, so I’m fine with owning that B/B+). This was due in part to some expertly hidden shrines, but it was also due in part to the sheer size of the map. I knew the map would be big because that was one of its main praises. However, I didn’t comprehend just how massive the map could be. And if you ask me, it’s too big; there are too many “dead zones” where there is nothing to find/do other than maybe solve some repetitive Korok Seed puzzles. The stable system, in which you are able to catch, tame, and then register wild horses, may have remedied this issue for me, but only if it actually worked; if you are anywhere but a sea-level plain, your horse cannot hear your whistle. This required me to rely more on the Shrine travel system and bear through what I can only estimate as hundreds of slow loading screens. Navigating this giant map proves troublesome, but finding Shrines complicates matters even further; the Sheika Sensor, which essentially allows you to play “Hot and Cold” with hidden Shrines, doesn’t help much either. In my opinion, the upcoming sequel needs focus less on an expansive map and more on an enriched map.

 My next and related qualm is the lack of items that would typically come as rewards out of dungeons. The hook shot, boomerang, bomb bag, etc. are just as iconic as the dungeons themselves. This game “conveniently” compresses all potential items into the Sheika Slate and grants them to the player almost immediately. This removes any sense of progression or growth; it makes all puzzles and all areas of the map immediately accessible (again, something that others have praised but I found troublesome). One positive attribute of the Sheika Slate is that it does allow for more complicated puzzles. In a typical Zelda game, you find a new item, and all the puzzles in that dungeon are centered around that single item; afterward, the items are rarely necessary. Breath of the Wild does a much better job forcing players to use the Sheika Slate’s various functions to navigate the map and solve puzzles. Nevertheless, I missed the exhilarating rush of opening an item chest, the dramatic music in the background, and the ability to solve unique puzzles with new items.

 One of the points where Breath of the Wild succeeds is in its characters and character development. For the first time in Zelda history, we actually see Princess Zelda as a real, multifaceted character with an actual personality. She serves a greater purpose in the story than a captured damsel who simply supplies Link with the Bow of Light at the last minute (although she does this too). We see her struggles and successes, and this acts to solidify her as a more believable character. Even the Champions, through cutscenes and memory flashbacks, assume a deeper personality than the main characters of other games, and their unique relationships with Link are played upon nicely. As far as I can remember, Breath of the Wild is the first game to have fully voiced cutscenes rather than simple dialogue boxes. This works well, but only in some instances; Princess Zelda’s whiny, faux British accent is still like nails on a chalkboard. In any event, I was happy to see Link remain without a voice, as I feel this would deviate too far from tradition.

 Breath of the Wild’s ending, too, did not disappoint (at least at first). Ganon assumes his most menacing and intimidating form yet, and the cutscenes and score surrounding this initial fight are absolutely gorgeous. In the second phase of this final fight, Ganon takes on a different form, and the entire battle feels like a rehash of the boss fight from Twilight Princess – good but uninventive.

 In the end, Breath of the Wild kept me entertained for several months – but only because I let it entertain me for that long. The real heart of the story is made entirely optional, with the player given the opportunity to confront Ganon at any point. While the non-linear storyline and the ability to tackle the game’s events in any order isn’t exactly my cup of tea, neither is it the main downfall of this title. Perhaps too much innovation at once takes this game in new (and often wrong) directions. Newcomers to the series are unlikely to be moved by these design choices, but loyal fans will likely take issue with them.

[thegreatpikminzx789]

Etrian Odyssey Nexus - Overall Thoughts

Amidst all of the plotting and playing of Nexus, I never done a legit review of a game, so I figured I’d give it a try with the recent entry in the EO series, Etrian Odyssey Nexus.

The following will contain spoilers for the game, so if you have not played it, you have been warned.

The favorite thing I’ve recently played the thought with, ever since I touched EOIV was creating a party that felt attached to the world they lived in, and can develop more to the plot than being nameless members who merely want to clear Yggdrasil for fame or fortune. And with a grand total of nineteen classes, along with the pseudo-class of Vampires, and it’s a combination of characters you’d never thought would happen to meet up unless told through stories.

EOV sort of felt that way to me, but even the two remakes of the first two Etrian Odyssey games have a more balanced party that makes you feel attached to them than your own in some cases.

If you wanted to recreate the Hexer, there’s a way. If you wanted to use a few of EO3′s classes even if you have not played the original game, you can do so. You can even replicate the Hoplite class if you subclass the Protector with the Highlander! The amount of classes can make almost any class combinations possible, given you set things up correctly. Heck, the Vampire can even be of use against the Dinogator, given you know what you’re doing.

The fact that this game also has NPC’s that interact with you reminds me of EOIV greatly. Sure, only one really joins you for the first floor, and for the boss of that labyrinth if you allow her to, but there’s enough interaction that makes them feel more noteworthy, even if they merely travel beside you and give you small benefits.

The story is quite interesting as well- two sides (the Seafarers and the Maginians) wanting to find the ultimate treasure that supposedly grants ‘eternal prosperity’. Only to find out said eternal prosperity may not be all that it may seem. There were legitimate moments where I thought things were going to go wrong if I didn’t do something to stop it.

Apart from a few times I gotten a game over, I had an enjoyable playthrough of the main story, especially with my first attempt at defeating the final boss after things seemed to go badly.

Heck, even Makiri and the Forest Folk were such a cool thing to have in Lemuria. And hearing the Lost Shinjuku music in their village is giving me such major EOU flashbacks, I honestly wish we can have an EO game where Forest Folk can be an actual race that can be used for classes.

Now, with every good thing, there’s always a few things I hated. Not that I have to like everything, coming from a gamer/author’s perspective, but there were things that legit bugged me a bit.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Rob when he actually opened up more, but honestly, seeing him telling my characters to just end themselves was really making me want to just put down the game and despise him for all that he stands for. It just irks me whenever a character, or anyone really, tells another to end their life because things would be better for this particular person. That line will always bug me whenever I see him, but I persevered and enjoyed him for what he is.

Kvasir, Kvasir, Kvasir... Even with his hard to pronounce name, he turned out to be waaaaay different when I first met him. His voice is alright, but I really wish he didn’t have to have this creepy personality, and the fact that he admits a few times that he stripped his clothes and getting banned for being nude. I never hated a barkeeper before, but Kvasir takes the number one place in my characters to never mention list. If there was an option to head to a different barkeep/quest giver in game, I would’ve been MORE than content with Kirtida or Cass than listening to this lame excuse of a bartender!

Also the lack of EOV content, aside from two classes and a plethora of enemies and one boss from the game, kinda hurts me a bit, but there’s always DLC portraits to remedy the good old times of EOV. Hell, maybe even the only remaining Arken could’ve been a much more better fit for Lemuria’s Yggdrasil Tree resident, considering the almost out of nowhere reveal of the “Yggdrasil Girl” that was name dropped on ya in the credits, and only appears for the info-dump and True Jormungandr segment.

I know the Arken are considered aliens and are the most plot-confusing things ever since the revelation thrown at you after the Eternal Tyrant boss, but honestly, I find Arken to be more pleasing in terms of design, instead of having to look at a physical-almost-nude-representation of the Yggdrasil Tree itself. In fact, I don’t think it’s ever mentioned how the tree even MANAGED to make a physical form of it’s conscious. It’s just irritating to think of, and I had always wondered when she’ll physically appear whenever her voice clips played. Guess that’s another change to my Nexus series. Just change Arken to be the resident of the Yggdrasil Tree in Lemuria, and you’d have at least one character that isn’t stupid to try and explain what happened in the not-originating-from-EO3-dungeon, the Abyssal Shrine, instead of saving it all for the freaking 5th floor, like what EOV did in its sixth labyrinth. >_>

Hell, even the Abyssal Shrine IS a basic copy-paste of the Empyreal Bridge! No actual plot dump until you reach the final floor! Seriously, this dungeon could’ve been better. Even as someone who has not seen the original Abyssal Shrine, I would’ve loved to see it remodeled. Given the boss theme and the Abyssal Princess’ naming alone, that was such a missed opportunity...

Moving on... I knew Blót was going to be the antagonist the moment I connected the little bell with a class that appeared in EO1 and EO2. But the twin plot twist was something I certainly didn’t expect, and it’s a shame we only see him so much without the Hexer robes and he tries so hard to be so secretive that there’s barely any opportunities to know him or his twin brother that well (who I’m also assuming may be named Blót, considering the Hexer twin Blót dies to Jormungandr, while the Hero Blót gets thrown into the Abyssal Shrine).

Honestly, with this twin plot twist in mind, this certainly makes one idea for a saga of Yggdrasil’s Nexus to be a fun trip to write, given I am given time to do so. Blót is one of those characters that had a missed opportunity to be more explained, both in terms of his twin brother, and for the thought of reviving Jormungandr to begin with. The inner author within me is going to have a little fun with Blót, in hopes of explaining more than what the game tried to convey to its best. (Also missed an opportunity for a Hero/Hexer fight with Blót and his twin brother, like, come on, how can you play Towering Pair and NOT borrow the Ren/Thlatchga fight to make it more interesting?)

Also, Artelinde. Why was she here? I ignored her the first time I saw her and thought “Hey, that’s a nice character, I wonder who she is”. Having gotten around to playing EO2U sometime later in my life, I found myself questioning why she was even here. The game could’ve shed some light on what happened between EO2/EO2U to justify her being here, but it doesn’t... And it just begs why she had to be here other than representation for EO2.

Murdered tons of people all to protect a former guild member turned monster thanks to the Overlord? NOPE, no extending redemption arc/back story for you! You get relegated to being a martyr like character! Ugh... I really wanted to hear her struggles of redeeming herself for what she did, but I guess that idea never made it into the plot draft of Nexus... <_>

Things I disliked aside, the only thing I found myself being neutral on was Enrica.

Despite the massive flashbacks to Camilla from Fire Emblem If/Fates with her fan service boob appeal, I felt she really could’ve been different and not act like a child upon first meeting her. Heck, she’s even a freaking Farmer in-game, if her luck with finding items is any indication. How the heck does a character that has the coding of a Farmer LOOK like that, let alone have plot relevance? I was expecting a Sovereign at least because she mentions ‘becoming a queen’ once she goes back to her homeland, but nope. A freaking FARMER.

Sigh

I don’t hate her that much, she’s just one of those “meh, I can deal with this” type of character.

My overall thoughts are that there’s a strange balance of good and bad things I don’t like in this game. Sure, I wish there could’ve been more classes, some more things explained/justified, and an actual English dub to boot, but the need to get this out before the 3DS era of games come to a close is rather understandable. Even without Mystery Dungeon 2 being able to make it over to the West, this is a great dedication to the series Etrian Odyssey has made itself out to be, and I am personally glad to have bought the game and gotten myself into the series.

This is one game that sends off the EO series on a good note, and though I’ll miss mapping out the maps when the next installment arrives, I’ll be glad to see, make, and enjoy the story of the lore that goes into the Etrian Odyssey series.

[kinshula-art]

So, like a year late, I finally beat Breath of the WIld, have some of my thoughts.

Warning, a lot of salt. 

First off, I do not like this Zelda. Because let's be real, she’s waifu material and she has been since Skyward Sword. Her voice actress leaves much to be desired. Her design is, eh? (The white dress is hideous). Her narrative is incomplete, unsatisfying. Her main conflict was with her father over her role. She wanted to be a researcher, he wanted her to focus on praying. Turns out, by all accounts, her father was right. Because what defeated calamity Ganon was Zelda’s ‘knowledge’ of the Guardians but her innate power. Period. She didn’t gain confidence over the course of the memories-- she just befriended and warmed-up to Link. Ultimately, that is her character arc, accepting Link. She doesn’t like him, and then she does, and then she likes him enough to save him. Nevermind that the entire reason they lost in the first place was that she didn’t have her power, indirectly making this mess her fault. Her father, her kingdom, her best friends, her own convictions even?! That’s not enough to inspire her to use her power, but fucking Link is? God. There was a lot of potential in Zelda but I can’t help but feel the writers just squandered it. 

Second, the story and much of the worldbuilding doesn’t make sense. The Shiekah built 120 massive shrines 10,000 years ago for the possibility that a hero may one day use them to train him to defeat Calamity?! What?  The only reason there was a time skip was that Zelda didn’t have her powers, I don’t want the entire plot to be Zelda’s fault but that is literally there in the subtext even if the cast doesn’t blame her. Nevermind I have no clue what she was doing for 100 years or how she survived. I actually don’t know why there was a time skip, just gathering the guardians would net the same story and wouldn’t have such a massive plot hole. There is not a single character in this game who completes a satisfying arc. I mean, yeah, Urbosa is fun but lmao dude she and all the other champions are one-note personalities. Another thing, what have they done to Gano? Remember when he was a cool and dynamic villain, intimidating, to say the least? Often times with complex motivations? Why, yes, I am so terrified and engaged by the cloud of black evil goo. 

The gameplay was fun, I liked all the variety and the ways it challenged me. However, there were not enough enemies to keep me fully engaged for the entirety of my run. Horse mechanics were screwy and difficult but I liked gliding, shield surfing, the sand seals, etc. By far the most fun I had in a Legend of Zelda game. Even if the narrative annoyed me the gameplay kept me.  Once I learned how to defeat Lynels though the only challenge was not screwing-up. On that note, holy cow did the bosses suck, the same enemy four times and Calamity Ganon was a walk in the park. The Divine Beasts were fun, at least getting into them was, but they repeated the same aesthetic and structure, pretty much exactly, four times. Just a different gimmick to spice things up a little. 

After shrines and the main quest, there wasn’t much left to do in the world. Find Korok seeds, uninvolved side quests? Weapons don’t last so there’s very little reward in finding them. You will have more rupees, materials, food, etc. Then you will ever need by the mid-point of this game and it is trivial to get more. The only thing I ever bought was arrows. I found and completed all 120 shrines to say I could but there wasn’t much reward or satisfaction in it. 

Graphics and animation were gorgeous, landscapes, and the character models all looked good. Exploring was fun because of all the pretty sights and the sense of nature. Makes me wanna go hiking. The fun in this game is finding stuff, but once you’ve found it? You’ve lost the magic. I can’t imagine I’ll have a second playthrough. 

So in summary: The story and narrative were poorly constructed and less involving compared to many Zelda games; Flat Characters on a senseless story; BOTW Zelda is by far my least favourite Zelda; The gameplay was fun but the bosses and dungeons disappointing for a Legend of Zelda game. It was at least worth my money.