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no1ryomafan · 3 months

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now it’s time for no reason at 2 fucking am for me to give my opinions about every mega man series ✨ (again this is my opinion and also my time to expose how much of a fake fucking fan I am in some regards) imma go in chronological release order to my memory.

Classic: I don’t hate it but I’m the only person who doesn’t feel strongly about it. I just can’t get invested into not only the gameplay but any of the robot masters besides a select few-I’m sorry I just don’t see the appeal-I do like the significant characters like rock, roll, blues and bass obviously, and learning about what influenced mega man as a whole made me appreciate it a little more but I don’t advise it as the series people should get into or like they don’t need to play every single game cause it suffers the most from being samey. (Really just play 11, but I also say this as the only classic game I actually finished 💀) Liked the Archie comics though and wish it continued… Tempo was neat.

X: Mixed feelings galore oh booooy. X and Zero shaped me to be the person who I was for ALL the wrong reasons- I still ship XZero I’ll just never admit to it cause if it’s a overrated pair and the fans can be bad, I just love the most basic fucking yaoi pairs. I like a lot of the other characters like Vile, Axl, Iris-for little she gets-etc. Besides that the X series has been tainted for me cause MAN it has the worst fandom out of the series. I’m sorry X fans are so fucking vicious and I don’t know why, I sometimes wonder if you guys like your own series even if I get it’s super flawed. X discussion can get so annoyed at points especially with the crowd of “oh the games after X5 suck so I don’t count them as canon” (yes people like that fucking exist. Ignoring how X6 CHANGE THE SCOPE OF HOW MMZ1 CAME TO BE) X is definitely that series of “interesting ideas but bad execution” wish MHX got to continue cause the first game had potential to fix the story. Also I never beat a single game but I keep telling myself I’ll beat X1 or X4…

Legends: The only series I haven’t played whatsoever BUT I did watch the cutscenes so I’m up to speed on the lore. Really find the lore cool and the characters are charming, it’s just a series that’s hard to talk about cause it’s all “WHERES MEGA MAN LEGENDS 3” and man I get being salty about that sequel being canned and I wish it happened too but can we talk about the actual series… Also Roll Caskett best Roll don’t @ me.

Battle Network: Okay controversial time this is the Mega Man series I give the least fucks about and it’s gonna shock you when you guys see how I feel about Star Force. Idk why but this series just- doesn’t appeal to me. I want to give it a chance, before the LC even came out I got BN5DS but I didn’t like liberation missions so never got passed the first one, and I still never got the LC and heck is the only LC I didn’t get because I’m sorry no matter HOW much you tell me BN good the pricing is not worth it. I couldn’t be bothered to get into the anime or manga too. Idk just mega man but ai seems like a cool idea and I don’t mind it being a rpg it’s cool mega man changed what it was yet still retained its appeal but BN doesn’t do it for me. It might just be because of the designs and characterization honestly.

Zero: Another mixed bag but NOWHERE near as bad as MMX, and this one I did finish! I like a lot aspects of Zero the story telling and the refinements to the gameplay but the reason I can’t be super invested is when people consider it the best part of the franchise when all of the games have a glaring flaw. I love Z1, it’s unironically my favorite but it’s also the most flawed entry, Z2 is overhated but you can also tell this game was rushed, which it was, Z3 is considered the best and it’s good but I think it’s overhyped to shit-X4 has the same issue tbh-it makes good changes but it’s level design threw me off even if it’s more fixed than Z2 and *sigh* Z4 was a necessary ending narratively but I FUCKING HATE EVERYTHING ELSE ABOUT IT. (Don’t make me talk about Z4, very few things make me mad like that game- it only gets some points for making me cry at the ending even when I knew what was going to happen though) Also the fandom opinions about the story aspect of this game makes me not trust anyone LOL. Zero is better written here then mmx and Ciel doesn’t deserve hate don’t @ me! Anyways my favorite asshole here is Harpiua. Basic pick but I just wanna put him in a jar and shake him.

ZX: YIPPPPPIE- Sorry that was the sound of me getting excited about my favorite entry of the series. I love this game- so much it’s unreal. Everything about it I fucking adore. Art style, characters, music, gameplay, THE LORE even if it’s something they didn’t expand on enough I still love the setting of ZX. Biometals are such a cool concept that I can’t be mad at the idea of X and Zero being rocks unlike other people, there’s so much potential with them. I will always be sad ZXC never happened but the games we got are so replayable to me and I go on a monthly replay- yes I have a problem LOL. I don’t really have a favorite between them- I def get why people prefer the first game but advent isn’t that bad you guys just suck. Favorite character is hard I love everyone. (I’m kidding, it’s Prometheus. But I do like everyone)

Star Force: So remember how I said my opinions on this would confuse you about why I don’t care for BN? Yeah it’s because I’m the one mega man fan who isn’t a coward and also fucking ADORES this series LOL. I understand it’s a huge diversion from mega man and BN at least still uses some characters but I think star force not having AU characters is why I like it more- and also I’m biased for aliens LOL. Omega-Xis one of the best characters in this series and you guys fucking sleep on him, love the general cast too though. Star Force 1 is also a game that means a lot to me, the story touch me and made me cry like Z4. Honestly I’d like it more then ZX if it weren’t for the fact I don’t fuck with the gameplay too hard cause I never replayed it and story wise it really peaked at 1. I don’t think star force 2 is as bad as everyone saids but I get why people don’t like it, star force 3 has the X4/Z3 problem: good but still has plenty of flaws. There’s a lot of changes 3 made I didn’t like and while the story was decent there was some missed potential. The ending was really nice though but after how some aspects of 3 turned out I couldn’t give a shit if star force 4 happens, if I’m being honest it’s the one canceled game I’m glad didn’t happen cause I think it could’ve actually ruined the series. (Sorry I don’t fuck with the geo being bad plot, it sounded like ass) Also yes if you ask I DO own all the games physically cause I’m fucking insane lol.

So given like- 3 of series I really finished I can’t really rank them but I just wanted to yap and give my opinion. Maybe one day I’ll try battle network or beat a x game…

#meg text #mega man #I’m tagging this knowing damn well someone gonna get upset but idc #I would apologize for once being so blunt because I hate being mean #but this is mega man so I could care less LOL #but yes if you can’t tell I really am THE ds era mega man fan they were cooking #I really am a toku fan who’s never watched a toku besides the most obscure one possible (kikaider)#I won’t make tags too long here this post is already long #sorry for being autistic it’s gonna happen again

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grubhubgamingofficial · 2 years

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Pizza Tower: A Rant

Let me preface this with a warning. I am not good at Pizza Tower. I can only get A-Ranks, can’t keep a combo for the life of me, and I accidentally unlocked the Bad Bones outfit in Pizzascape. In boss fights, I usually end with 1 health, getting a D-Rank almost always. My highest rank is a B in The Noise fight, and that’s only because I kept trying to P-Rank him via Parry spam. That being said, this rant will also contain spoilers for the Final Boss, Boss 4, and the ending in general. Viewers beware, you’re in for a scare!

TL;DR, Pizza Tower is a love letter to the 90s and the Wario Land franchise, with an artstyle fitting of a 90s gross-out Platformer the likes of which are forgotten to time. It’s an amazing game, with heart and soul poured into each crevasse of its scuffed form. It’s easy to learn, but to master it takes skill. Little story, good music, and infinite potential.

Now, I won’t go into detail on every individual level, only some highlights, and the bosses. If I did the whole game, we’d be here forever. Also, each lobby, of course.

Layer 1 of the tower is the Tower Lobby, which boasts some slightly menacing music. This is the first leg of the journey, and already, it readies you for what’s to come.

The first level the average player does is John Gutter. The music is calm, the sounds of tinkling crystal and rushing wind only accentuated by the familiar beat of Pizza Time. As it goes on, the music becomes… well, music. But, unlike its main leitmotif, it’s… calm. The level is dotted with dead pillars, similar to Pillar John. You can break them without triggering Pizza Time, and even get an achievement for breaking them all. The background looks like an old vaporwave wallpaper, pillars with John’s face on them poking diagonally out of the background. Palm Trees on raised platforms dot the landscape.

Beyond this level, everything is somewhat forgettable, so we’ll move to the first boss. Pepperman. For a first boss, he’s still really good. His music has amazing rhythm, and the background tells all you need to know about our red friend. The walls are lined with works of himself, from a king to a knight. Everything he has is themed to himself. The only artwork not of him is promptly destroyed, being art of Peppino. Statues fall from above to crush you, poor drawings of Pepperman come from off-camera to knock you around, and knights who look like the great Pepper slide along the ground in Phase 2. The only thing he likes more than himself is art. His last two hits need you to make a statue, which he will begin critiquing. This is your chance to smack him.

After the lobby, put on your cowboy hat and saddle up, because it’s the Western District. Based on cowboys and indians. The first level I’ll talk about is Oregano Desert. You enter it, and you can already tell what it’s about. The music has the famous whistle instrument of western music, and the background is full of pizzas. Tribal piles of sentient cheese dance around totems for rain dances, and caricatures of Colonel Sanders in massive Cowboy hats dot the landscape. However, the desert isn’t real. One of the backgrounds shows a spotlight, shining down. None of the levels are outside, sans the final boss’ fight. All of them are in the tower, all simulated environments. However, even in environments can be environments. A UFO lies in the middle of the sands, crashed. Pillar John resides within.

Fun Farm is the other important level. It’s the calmest level, the music being more atmospheric than anything. A lush, green field awaits you. Cows stand, stacked atop one another. A UFO kidnaps a cow in the background. While walking through, a face from time long since passed will greet you in this level. Jumping from a well, Mort the Chicken from his own Playstation game, Mort the Chicken, will land upon your head. Mort is a… helpful(?) addition to the level, as he lets you move through easier. Oddly enough, this is one of the few places with a lore reason. Fun Farm was run by John E. Cheese, the grandfather of the boss of the Western District. Now, that boss owns this place. However, Peppino accidentally burns it down on his way out.

The boss of Layer 2 is The Vigilante. A cheese slime wearing a cowboy hat and wielding a revolver. He is an honorable duelist, though, and gives you a free gun. If you avoid it, he looks at the camera, as he has no time for shenanigans. His fight is chaotic. Vigilante will fire cheese bullets at you, throw dynamite, and even use an Uzi to rattle you to bits. But, hold through, you will see the most beautiful second phase ever. The world will be wreathed in shadow, the background your only way to see. The battle ends in a quick draw duel, ending in a glorious fashion, and moving into Layer 3. Vacation Resort.

The only level of note is GOLF. That’s right, GOLF. There’s a golfing minigame in this game. GOLF is a bizarre level concept. You’re thrown into a restaurant, and from there, you smack a ball of cheese through hoops in an attempt to get the lowest possible score. Known as a Primo Burg. Your enemies will be fellow golfers, demons, and pitchers. The music has the right amount of kick for a golfing mini-game. Fun fact, this level was a spoof for DOOM, the golf demon being clearly a Pinky demon from DOOM.

So, with not much on the GOLF, or Vacation Resort in general, let’s go to the boss. The Noise. The boss is a chaotic mess, taking the chaos of the Noid from old Domino’s commercials with the zaniness of the 90s, topped off with an MTV spin-off in the NTV cameras following him. Noise drops bombs, rides a pogo stick, and rides a skateboard. Furthermore, a Hot Air Balloon waits in the background, suddenly blowing towards you in Phase 2. The battle ends with Noise taking out a Minigun before being dragged off-screen by his girlfriend, Noisette.

Floor 4 is Slum, an industrial utopia. EVERY LEVEL IS UNIQUE. I cannot talk about them in their own lines, so I’ll do all here. The Pig City has the best music, and gives off the grimy vibe of a city. Corrupt pig cops cuff you around every corner, gangster pizzas slide around, and shrimp will try to shank you. Oh Shit! is the sewer level, and it’s gross-out to the nth degree. Blocks of feces help progression, and the whole level IS a sewer. Peppibot Factory pulls off its theme well, with the vibe of Kirby 64 in each note. The last level, Refrigerator-Refrigerador-Freezerator, is the most interesting in that it combines everything above. Music gives off major icy vibes, the landscape is a cold wasteland, and the last pick-up you get is even spicy to counterbalance it!

So, for the best world, there needs to be a good boss. Well, Boss 4 is the best. Fake. Peppino. Every good late 90s-early 2000s game had a faker. Sonic has Shadow, Link has Dark Link, Mario has Wario. Peppino’s worst foe is a clone of himself, whose music is even a warped form of the Pizza Time music. Fake Peppino can do everything normal Peppino can, but weirder, and with clones to boot. The background begins as Peppino’s Pizza 2, a clone of the original, supposedly better than the original. “Nothing Compares!” cries the cut-out on the wall. However, in Phase 2, hell breaks loose. Limbs break from the walls, the cut-out turns to gibberish, and the sign denoting it Peppino’s Pizza 2 begins recurring the name. Peppino. If this wasn’t enough, the final act of the fight has Fake Peppino morphed into a monstrosity, chasing you down through the darkened pipeways of the condemned building.

World 5 has the same issue as World 4, but to a lesser extent. Only 3 real levels, one of which I’ll skip over, but still the other 80% is talked about. But, I’ll split it up. This is Staff Only.

Don’t Make A Sound is a unique level. It’s a spoof of Five Nights at Freddy’s, with the REAL enemy being five animatronics based on the Toppins you’ve rescued all this time. There’s only four until the end, however, where a teleporting fifth one enters the fray. This mirrors FNAF, where there’s only four, with the fifth one being a teleporting menace. All four have unique attributes, too. Well, not Mushroom and Sausage, they follow the same thing. Cheese will jump onto the ceiling, and Tomato just plain floats at you. However, it’s still a dangerous level, full of panic due to being chased by the monsters. The music gets intense as they chase after Peppino, a voice laughing in the background. Until you get the Shotgun. That’s right, you get to go on a tear with a gun.

After DMAS is WAR! The only level with a time limit without a Pillar John to initiate Pizza Time. You get a Shotgun again, and have to run to the end gate while keeping the time from going too low. The level is chaotic, the music going from a Platformer to a Hotline Miami-esque murder spree soundtrack. It culminates with the seconds ticking down one by one, until you just barely miss the last one through the exit door.

The last boss is Pizza Face. You reach the apex of the tower, the skies a crimson red. Peppino’s Pizza looms in the background, reminding you of why you did this as the fight begins. As Pizza spits out enemies, you throw them up at him for a stun, punching him until you hit Phase 2. The music gives off the urgency of this, as he plans to destroy your way of life. Like hell you’re letting that happen. One by one, his Hit Points go away, until eventually, he opens up, to reveal a familiar face from cut-outs. Pizzahead comes from the machine, the music becoming way more chaotic in a zany way. Televisions of Pizzahead begin floating by in the background, swirls of purple in the sky. However, still Peppino’s Pizza remains. So, you fight on, knowing your goal. Each hit is satisfying, watching his smug grin be turned inside out. Eventually, you will reduce him to zero. He’ll fall over, before getting back up. Pizzahead reaches back down, pulling up the old bosses. Peppino, however, is DONE. It begins raining as he lets out an enraged scream, rushing Pepperman and unleashing a combo of devastating proportions on him. The music in this area is littered with almost every level’s leitmotifs, and with each boss down, Peppino’s anger mounts. The cinematics of this fight get to you, and you can FEEL each satisfying crunch of bone as Peppino lets his full rage loose. Each enemy stomped, each throw, each grab, each wall destroyed, all led to this. As you grind through Pepperman, Vigilante, Noise, and your own shadow, you reach Pizzahead. He doesn’t truly fight, taking this as a game, letting you get free hits. You finish the boss by taking him into the heavens, on a beatdown delivered hot and ready by the greatest pizza maker there ever was. The last blow is a piledriver, sending his head INTO the tower.

The tower shakes under Pizzahead’s defeat. Peppino’s shatters the last Pillar John, and the tower begins falling apart. So, you begin the TRUE last stage. Level 25, The Crumbling Tower of Pizza. You begin rushing to get out, grabbing every foe and friend along the way. Everything comes back, every foe trying to stop your descent. Everything follows you, the Pizza Time leitmotif coming back one more time to help your motivation on the way down. One by one, blocks crack, enemies fall, and eventually, you make it to the end, friends intact. The last level over, you celebrate your victory. Everything you’ve done up to that point was worth it.

Or was it? There’s two endings. If you’ve been paying attention in levels, you’d find Tower Secret Treasures. These help you obtain the secret ending. By finding Gerome, a Janitor of the tower, and having him unlock doors for you, grabbing all 19 treasures from the former levels, you unlock the secret ending. Peppino will lose the treasures, reviving John in a new state, living once more as a real man instead of a cracked pillar. Pillar John will send Pizzahead blasting off into the stratosphere with a hearty uppercut.

Finally, the game over, you can relax. Or can you? There’s so much to do. Achievements, P-Ranks, and so much more. Can you find the Mort Cube? Or Grandpa? Or even Noisette’s Cafe, deep in the tower? Really, the game never truly ends, instead, you can go on forever. Collect all the clothes, beat every mission, don’t kill Snotty upon first entering Slum! That secret ending is hard, too, so why not try to get it in general? Indeed, there’s a lot to do. Plus, Pizza Tower doesn’t end with the Tower. There’s also fangames, too. Like, say, Sugary Spire.

#pizza tower #the noise #peppino spaghetti #fake peppino #gerome #tw spoilers #mort the chicken #pepperman #rant post #oh my god pizza tower is so fucking good #buy it now:#19.99 #soundtrack is 9.99

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existentialmagazine · 4 months

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Review: Championing the RPG genre, ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ takes you on a magical adventure with unimaginable depth unlike any game ever before it

Baldur’s Gate 3 has taken the gaming industry by storm since its release last year, a creation by Larian Studios who are well known for their crafting of the game series Divinity: Original Sin, and now find themselves given Game of The Year across the board for Baldur’s Gate 3. With a gaming experience that has exceeded expectations and quite literally risen the bar for every RPG to come, we can’t understate the way it may impact gaming forever moving forwards.

If you’re unfamiliar with the series beforehand, Baldur’s Gate originated as part of BioWare, a studio renowned for working on narrative-heavy titles like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Though highly adored alongside their other games, Baldur’s Gate was later passed on after a long-standing dispute between Interplay and Atari, later trusting Larian with this much-loved franchise given their work on Divinity - and they certainly superseded the bar for what anyone could’ve expected them to create. With the original games set in the Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons campaign, Baldur’s Gate brings to life its world in ways that give the player an otherwise unseen amount of agency and exploration at all turns, bringing the role-playing freedoms to a new reality through a world you can truly see.

With past Baldur’s Gate games exploring the politics of the city of Baldur's Gate; the aftermath of the Time of Troubles and the machinations of a powerful and sinister mage known as Jon Irenicus, Baldur’s Gate 3 rather than continuing from their previous protagonist works instead as a standalone title in the series. With links back to the already established lore, historical events and distinct locations, this new offering delivers a tale that’s fresh and individual from its predecessors.

The story of Baldur’s Gate 3 is thrust onto you right from beginning, perhaps sounding a little complicated from the get-go, but paired with the game’s detailed narrative and visuals it’s made easy to keep up with for a beginner learning the ropes. Delivered both through a cut-scene and gameplay, you find yourself starting your story held captive by illithid (mind-flayer) creatures, with your character awaking on their unknown flying vessel and forced to allow a parasitic tadpole to be implanted inside of them. This tadpole is known as the first step in transforming into this illithid species, losing your identity and becoming one with the illithid masses that wish only to serve. Before you can truly let that sink in though, the ship swiftly comes crashing down while under attack from Githyanki warriors, allowing yourself and a handful of scattered soon-to-be companions the opportunity to escape.

This might sound like a lot to immediately take on, especially for those unfamiliar with the lore or even D&D as a whole (we’re right there with you), but Baldur’s Gate 3 never once felt overwhelming or too much. Cleverly stripped of your character’s memory, it’s always expected for you to ask questions, engaging with the world in a way that feels natural as the inquisitive player as well as your clueless character. The small snippets you do learn from these opening scenes only make you more curious too, left with just enough information to understand, but unable to quite put it down as you strive to know more. So many intricate world-building pieces only add to this, littered not just around the opening Nautiloid ship and subsequent character conversations, but through the entire game. The companions are the perfect complementary asset to that too, delivering back-stories of their own, snippets of the world’s history, and insights into each of the differing species you’ll uncover through your travels.

Left stranded and miles out from the city of Baldur’s Gate, yourself and yourself and your various soon-to-be allies find themselves trekking across the vast open lands of the wilderness in Act 1, attempting to unravel the complexities of your newfound situation and together attempting to change your seemingly guaranteed fate. You don’t quite begin as a team though. instead left searching far and wide across the padded-out landscapes to bring back these characters to your camp, and potentially also as one of the three selections for your travels. Some of the most popular you may meet are of course Astarion, the vampire-spawn rogue, Shadowheart, the Shar-worshipping Cleric, and Gale, the wizard of Waterdeep. With friendship and relationship approvals too, you’re able to grow closer to those you like best, learning more of their secrets, enjoying their individual dialogues depending on who you spend the most time with, and perhaps even become something more.

Each act also comes with an accompanying large map to explore, not quite mass open-world (as it’s nowhere near as big as a map like GTA or Horizon Zero Dawn), but there are no limitations on where you can go in the bounds of the Act. Whether you want to lock-pick your way into the hundreds of buildings; pick a fight with anybody and everybody; jump across sketchy chasms; explore underground basements and more, Baldur’s Gate 3 finds itself defining a new standard of open-world that’s significantly more built-up but at a semi-smaller scale - perhaps somewhat like a large, open ‘hub’. We can’t help but feel these limitations are everything that made Baldur’s Gate 3 quite so successful though, cutting out the empty open-areas that are often filler in larger open-worlds, the lifeless buildings and non-interactive NPCs, and instead giving you genuine, unmatched control within the boundaries of a still rather large area that’s not just surface level, either. Whether you’re overhearing random conversations; chatting with a solid portion of the locals; uncovering secrets; using knowledge found within notes to discover hidden details and more, there’s never been a game that ever felt so alive up until now.

Tying into the Dungeons & Dragons world, the combat is of course equally in-tune to the tabletop role-playing title. If D&D on the whole is new to you, it generally means creating your own character with a set-back story, picking a class to specialise in, deciding on numeric scores for your abilities (like strength or intelligence) and playing out a story through dice-rolls that decide your fate with a large group to accompany you. When translated into a game, Baldur’s Gate 3 includes these numerical values and classes, with some decisions and conversational options only being possible if you’re a certain class or roll above a certain score. This equally works within the combat, as the damage of your attacks are decided through dice rolls and other details, as well as certain spells and other options being limited to your character’s rest-state. If this all sounds a bit complicated, just take pleasure in knowing you don’t have to really care too much, as all you really need to do is roll a dice a few times or make an attack that the game will decide a value on your behalf for. The minor details are things you’ll pick up incredibly quickly, and even if turn-based combat sounds super boring or uninteresting to you, it’s genuinely more than worth allowing the time to explore. As someone who’s played a handful of turn-based games and hated them all, I expected that I’d love the story of Baldur’s Gate 3 but absolutely hate the fighting, and frankly I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s much easier to pick up the game’s strategies, mechanics and more while taking it slow, and I’d be surprised if most people didn’t grow to love it just as much.

Visually, Baldur’s Gate 3 mixes in gorgeous cut-scenes and close up conversations with a primary focus on a zoomed-out, third-person camera angle. Guiding your group by clicking where you’d like them to run to on PC (or simply using joysticks on controller), you can scroll in and out to zoom, as well as pan around the map to peek at things to explore. It’s almost like you’re watching from above, not top-down (though it is an option), but instead sat back from a distance and watching them wander through the differing wide-open scenes. Everything still looks rather realistic, tinted with a fantasy and more medieval edge, but wrapping everything in immensely well-thought out detail. Stunning lighting and shadows, particle effects, weather conditions and more sweep across the landscapes too, bringing this world even more to life. It really doesn’t convey quite the same when you’re watching it play out in images or videos online, as the experience of genuinely being within this world makes its art style feel incredibly fitting, rather than the distant sense it can evoke when watching through the lens of a creator’s footage. The musical score matches just as well with the vivid world-building, delivering a soundtrack that’s orchestral and oh so fitting for the older setting the game plays out through, delivering haunting pieces that’ll leave you with goosebumps through some of the more emotional scenes and adrenaline in the most epic of battles.

Though not all of your new friends will be human, one thing that Baldur’s Gate 3 does best is humanising all of those you will grow to love, allowing them not just loveable personality aspects but all-too-real flaws too. Karlach for example is quick-tempered, Astarion is cold and closed-off, Gale is power-hungry above all else, and that’s just the baseline of their personalities. That’s not to say this is any kind of criticism, in fact, what makes Baldur’s Gate 3 so wonderful is how recognisably real all of these people feel. While you learn more of their stories, their traumas, their mistakes, it’s impossible not to feel even more connected than you would if they’d began the perfect heroes.

For a game of this caliber, it’s pretty much impossible to find any real faults to share. Though we could nit-pick and say occasionally combat lagged a little, or a dice-roll didn’t seem to register and needed to be redone, there really wasn’t anything glaringly wrong aside from a handful of very easily forgettable bugs. There’s really never going to be a game that doesn’t have those either, and considering quite the extent of the moving parts Baldur’s Gate 3 has with so much to interact with and do, we’re surprised the only ones we found were so small. It’s also worth commending the Larian team for being so incredibly on it with bug fixes too, keeping people in the loop through social media when they’re working on fixes and swiftly implementing them too.

While we have the opportunity though, we thought we’d also address some of the criticisms online that seem to be widely misrepresenting the game as a whole. With many misconceptions about what Baldur’s Gate 3 truly is spread across social media, it seems to believe that Baldur’s Gate 3 is a title focused inherently on nudity and intimate relationships, as though those are the core features the game has to offer. While it’s without a doubt that a game of this nature isn’t for children, the true extent of sexuality explored in Baldur’s Gate 3 is likely to take up at most a mere few minutes of your over 100+ hour save file, and if you’re eager to avoid romance whatsoever you can disable nudity or reject any flirtatious comments from companions. To be diminished down by falsely claiming the game’s entire plot is purely based on romance and sex is disheartening, given it has so much more to offer.

After many, many hours and quite a few tears, we have to say that we now understand the reason that Baldur’s Gate 3 has been considered unanimously the Game of The Year for so many, and that’s because it’s what might be the best game made in the last decade. Though there are some incredible offerings out there nowadays, what makes Baldur’s Gate 3 so special is just how much depth there is packed into this one story. With easily over a hundred hours if not much longer to explore every hidden detail, we guarantee you won’t be able to put it down. There’s always just one more thing to explore, one more place to look at, one more conversation to have, one extra fight, and before you know it you’re a few hours deeper. Though we can’t say for a fact that an RPG will be everyone’s cup of tea in terms of gameplay, we can say wholeheartedly that if you’re even remotely on the fence, it’s worth checking out and experiencing - and don’t forget that Steam have an incredible policy that allows you to refund within the first 2 weeks and with under 2 hours worth of playtime, which we’d say is a solid amount of time to get to grips with how to play and if it’s your thing. As a player that couldn’t have been less interested in D&D, mythical worlds, or turn-based combat, I should’ve hated Baldur’s Gate 3, and yet this has become by far my favourite game of all time. We can’t prompt you enough to give it a chance.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is available to play on Microsoft Windows, Playstation and Xbox purchasable here. Existential was very kindly provided with a Steam code for this review.

Written by: Tatiana Whybrow

Photo Credits: Screenshotted on PC.

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startistdoodles · 3 years

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Top 5 legendary Pokémon trio you liked??🤭

OHHH interesting question!

As per usual with my rambly posts, I'll explain under the cut as to not take up a bunch of space 👌

5. Legendary Beasts (Raikou, Entei, Suicune)

I absolutely love the designs of these three, I think they’re so distinct and majestic. Although their capture method is a bit frustrating (as roaming legendaries tend to be) it always delights me when I’m just going through a random patch of grass and I can hear the distinct battle theme start playing. It’s such an adrenaline rush.

Of the three, Suicune might be my favorite. I love its blue and white coloration and the wind-like tails make it look very mystic. I also loved the role it played in the Celebi movie, I think that’s why I was drawn to it as a kid.

4. Lake Guardians (Mesprit, Uxie, Azelf)

Unlike most of the “mini” legendary trios, the lake guardians have an important role to play in their story. Their power is used to summon one (or both) of the deity Pokémon, and you have to rescue them. They also assist you in return for saving their lives. I love their designs and how each of them are based on a type of forest spirit (a sprite, a pixie and an elf/gnome). And not to mention...their battle theme? Is such a banger.

Of the three, I think I like Mesprit the most. Not just because it’s the one that most closely bonds with the player canonically, having been the guardian of the lake where they grew up, but I also remember fervently chasing after it when it was roaming and it was the first legendary I ever caught. It also sounds like it’s saying “owo” which is an added bonus.

3. Legendary Golems (Original) (Regirock, Registeel, Regice)

I’m gonna pretend for a moment that the Hoenn regis and the Galar regis are separate groups for this because I have stuff to say about the original trio. I love how the game doesn’t explicitly tell you about the hidden Regis, but you do get hints and bread crumbs laid out about these sealed chambers that need to be opened. I actually didn’t even know about their existence until I was reading the Emerald handbook and it said something about a secret passage underwater on one of the routes. It was such a thrill going to uncover this ancient tomb and deciphering braille to solve puzzles. It made me feel like an actual archeologist uncovering something huge and mysterious. And again with the battle themes...just listen to it. It’s incredible.

Of the original regis, I think Regirock might be my favorite? There’s not really a particular reason, I just think he’s neat and a big ol clunky boy. Ün ün ün,,

2. Tao Trio (Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem)

Black and White are my favorite main-series Pokémon games and these legendary dragons play a part in that. They’re designed so flawlessly, with Reshiram being very soft and fluffy while Zekrom is tougher and more sturdy-looking. And Kyurem is the frozen empty husk left behind. I love the fusion that Kyurem has with the other two, but it makes me curious why it can’t fuse with both simultaneously. These three were all once one being, but it seems they can’t all fuse together anymore. I’d be interested to know the lore behind that.

My favorite in this trio is Zekrom. I’m bias, I got White version and bonded with him. His body shape reminds me a lot of Palkia (another one of my faves) with the bipedal stature and the wings on the back. I just think an electric dragon is such an amazing idea and Zekrom does the concept flawlessly.

HONORABLE MENTION: Weather Trio (Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza)

I couldn’t pick between them and the number one spot so consider these three to be in the 1.5 position. I won’t ramble about them too long, but their designs are amazing (especially in their primal/mega forms) the lore within the story is so good, their powers are so iconic and their battle theme in ORAS is absolutely LEGENDARY PLEASE LISTEN TO IT-

Kyogre is my favorite of the three, but Rayquaza is a close second. I love its cry, its design (orcas are my favorite aquatic animal) its primal form is AMAZING and it would absolutely win in a fight with the other two with all the water and ice type moves it can learn. Kyogre is the mvp.

1. Creation Trio (Dialga, Palkia, Giratina)

This was probably the most expected on the list, lol. The creation trio has always been my favorite group of legendaries and their powers have fascinated me since i was but a wee 9 year old playing Pearl. The myths and legends around them are so fascinating and they’re the start of the Pokémon franchise actually giving a deeper amount of lore to their story. How the world began and the god-like Pokémon behind it. Not to mention the revelation of a world that is parallel to our own and keeps the balance between them in check. And the trio’s designs are unlike any other Pokémon we had seen at that point. Very otherworldly and embody their respective elements very well.

As for which one is my favorite...that’s a toss up. I love all of them, but I am a bit more partial to Palkia. I love its design, its robotic wings and the pearls in its shoulders are so unique. Its cry in the game and in the anime are both just so alien-like and one of my favorite cries in the whole series. And also its typing of Water/Dragon is SUPER good, it’s a real tank.

Anyways that’s about it! Thanks for the ask, this was fun to think about~

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tlbodine · 3 years

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The Horror Genius of Five Nights At Freddy’s

I’ve been playing FNAF: Help Wanted VR on my Oculus Quest lately (a birthday present to myself -- I know I’m late to that party!) and it’s reignited in me my old love of this series. I know Scott Cawthon’s politics aren’t great, but I don’t think there’s any malice in his heart beyond usual Christian conservative nonsense -- and I think he stepped down as graciously and magnanimously as possible when confronted about it. Time will judge Scott Cawthon’s politics, and that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I want to talk about what makes these games so damn special, from a horror, design, and marketing perspective. I think there’s really SO MUCH to be learned from studying these games and the wider influence they’ve had as intellectual property.

What Is FNAF?

In case you’ve somehow been living under a rock for the last seven years, Five Nights At Freddy’s (hereafter, FNAF) is a horror franchise spanning 17 games (10 main games + some spinoffs and troll games, we’ll get to that), 27 books, a movie deal, and a couple live-action attractions.

But before it exploded into that kind of tremendous IP, it started out as a single indie pont-and-click game created entirely by one dude, Scott Cawthon. Cawthon had developed other games in the past without much fame or success, including some Christian children’s entertainment. He was working as a cashier at Dollar General and making games in his spare time -- and most of those games got panned.

So he tried making something different.

After being criticized that the characters in one of his children’s games looked like soulless, creepy animatronics, Cawthon had his lightbulb moment and created a horror game centered on....creepy animatronics!

The rest, as they say, is history.

The Genius of FNAF’s Horror Elements

In the first FNAF game, you play as a night security guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a sort of ersatz Chuck-E-Cheese establishment. The animatronics are on free-roaming mode at night, but you don’t want to let them find you in your security room so you have to watch them move through the building on security camera monitors. If they get too close, you can slam your security room doors closed. But be careful, because this restaurant operates on a shoestring budget, and the power will go off if you keep the doors closed too long or flicker the lights too often. And once the lights go out, you’re helpless against the animatronics in the dark.

Guiding you through your gameplay is a fellow employee, Phone Guy, who calls you each night with some helpful advice. Phone Guy is voiced by Cawthon himself, and listening to his tapes gives you some hints of the game’s underlying story as well as telling you how to play. A few newspaper clippings and other bits of scrap material help to fill in more details of the story.

Over the next set of games, the story would be further developed, with each new game introducing new mechanics and variations on the theme -- in one, you don a mask to slip past the notice of animatronics; in another, you have to play sound cues to lure an animatronic away from you. By the fourth game, the setup was changed completely, now featuring a child with a flashlight hiding from the monsters outside his door -- nightmarish versions of the beloved child-friendly mascots. The mechanics change just enough between variations to keep things fresh while maintaining a consistent brand.

There are so many things these games do well from a storytelling and horror perspective:

Jump Scares: It’s easy to shrug these games off for relying heavily on jump scares, and they absolutely do have a lot of them. But they’re used strategically. In most games, the jump scares are a punishment (a controlled shock, if you will) -- if you play the game perfectly, you’ll never be jump-scared. This is an important design choice that a lot of other horror games don’t follow.

Atmospheric Dread: These games absolutely deliver horror and tension through every element of design -- some more than others, admittedly. But a combination of sound cues, the overall texture and aesthetic of the world, the “things move when you’re not looking at them” mechanic, all of it works together to create a feeling of unease and paranoia.

Paranoia: As in most survival horror games, you’re at a disadvantage. You can’t move or defend yourself, really -- all you can do is watch. And so watch you do. Except it’s a false sense of security, because flicking lights and checking cameras uses up precious resources, putting you at greater risk. So you have to balance your compulsive need to check, double-check, and make sure...with methodical resource conservation. The best way to survive these games is to remain calm and focused. It’s a brilliant design choice.

Visceral Horror: The monster design of the animatronics is absolutely delightful, and there’s a whole range of them to choose from. The sheer size and weight of the creatures, the way they move and position themselves, their grunginess, the deadness of their eyes, the quantity and prominence of their teeth. They are simultaneously adorable and horrifying.

Implicit Horror: One of the greatest strengths to FNAF as a franchise is that it never wears its story on its sleeve. Instead of outright telling you what’s going on, the story is delivered in bits and pieces that you have to put together yourself -- creating a puzzle for an engaged player to think about and theorize over and consider long after the game is done. But more than that, the nature of the horror itself is such that it becomes increasingly upsetting the more you think on it. The implications of what’s going on in the game world -- that there are decaying bodies tucked away inside mascots that continue to perform for children, that a man dressed in a costume is luring kids away into a private room to kill them, and so forth -- are the epitome of fridge horror.

The FNAF lore does admittedly start to become fairly ridiculous and convoluted as the franchise wears on. But even ret-conned material manages to be pretty interesting in its own right (and there is nothing in the world keeping you from playing the first four games, or even the first six, and pretending none of the rest exist).

Another thing I really appreciate about the FNAF franchise is that it’s quite funny, in a way that complements and underscores the horror rather than detracting from it. It’s something a lot of other properties utterly fail to do.

The Genius of Scott Cawthon’s Marketing

OK, so FNAF utilizes a multi-prong attack for creating horror and implements it well -- big deal. Why did it explode into a massive IP sensation when other indie horror games that are just as well-made barely made a blip on the radar?

Well! That’s where the real genius comes in. This game was built and marketed in a way to maximize its franchisability.

First, the story utilizes instantly identifiable, simple but effective character designs, and then generates more and more instantly identifiable unique characters with each iteration. Having a wealth of characters and clever, unique designs basically paves the way for merchandise and fan-works. (That they’re anthropomorphic animal designs also probably helped -- because that taps into the furry fandom as well without completely alienating non-furries).

Speaking of fan-work, Scott Cawthon has always been very supportive of fandom, only taking action when people would try to profit off knock-off games and that sort of thing -- basically bad-faith copies. But as far as I know he’s always been super chill with fan-created content, even going so far as to engage directly with the fandom. Which brings me to....

These games were practically designed for streaming, and he took care to deliver them into the hands of influential streamers. Because the games are heavy on jump-scares and scale in difficulty (even including extra-challenging modes after the core game is beaten) they are extremely fun to watch people play. They’re short enough to be easily finished over the duration of a long stream, and they’re episodic -- lending themselves perfectly to a YouTube Lets Play format. One Night = One Video, and now the streamer has weeks of content from your game (but viewers can jump in at any time without really missing much).

The games are kid-friendly but also genuinely frightening. Because the most disturbing parts of the game’s lore are hinted at rather than made explicit, younger players can easily engage with the game on a more basic surface level, and others can go as deep into the lore as they feel comfortable. There is no blood and gore and violence or even any explicitly stated death in the main game; all of the murder and death is portrayed obliquely by way of 8-bit mini games and tangential references. Making this game terrifying but accessible to youngsters, and then marketing it directly to younger viewers through popular streamers (and later, merchandising deals) is genius -- because it creates a very broad potential audience, and kids tend to spend 100% of their money (birthdays, allowances, etc.) and are most likely to tell their friends about this super scary game, etc. etc.

By creating a puzzle box of lore, and then interacting directly with the fandom -- dropping hints, trolling, essentially creating an ARG of his own lore through his website, in-game easter eggs, and tie-in materials -- Cawthon created a mystery for fandom to solve. And fans LOVE endlessly speculating over convoluted theories.

Cawthon released these games FAST. He dropped FNAF 2 within months of the first game’s release, and kept up a pace of 1-2 games a year ever since. This steady output ensured the games never dropped out of public consciousness -- and introducing new puzzle pieces for the lore-hungry fans to pore over helped keep the discussion going.

I think MatPat and The Game Theorists owe a tremendous amount of their own huge success to this game. I think Markiplier does, too, and other big streamers and YouTubers. It’s been fascinating watching the symbiotic relationship between these games and the people who make content about these games. Obviously that’s true for a lot of fandom -- but FNAF feels so special because it really did start so small. It’s a true rags-to-riches sleeper hit and luck absolutely played a role in its growth, but skill is a big part too.

Take-Aways For Creatives

I want to be very clear here: I do not think that every piece of media needs to be “IP,” franchisable, an extended universe, or a multimedia sensation. I think there is plenty to be said for creating art of all types, and sometimes that means a standalone story with a small audience.

But if you do want a chance at real break-out, run-away success and forging a media empire of your own, I think there are some take-aways to be learned from the success of FNAF:

Persistence. Scott Cawthon studied animation and game-design in the 1990s and released his first game in 2002. He released a bunch of stuff afterward. None of it stuck. It took 12 years to hit on the winning formula, and then another several years of incredibly hard work to push out more titles and stoke the fires before it really became a sensation. Wherever you’re at on your creative journey, don’t give up. You never know when your next thing will be The Thing that breaks you out.

If you want to sell a lot of something, you have to make it widely appealing to a bunch of people. This means keeping your concept simple to understand (”security guard wards off creepy killer animatronics at a pizza parlor”) and appealing to as wide a segment of the market as you can (ie, a horror story that appeals to both kids and adults). The more hyper-specific your audience, the harder it’s gonna be to find them and the fewer copies of your thing you’ll be selling.

Know your shit and put your best work out there. I think there’s an impulse to feel like “well, nobody reads this anyway, so why does it matter if it’s no good” (I certainly have fallen into that on multiple occasions) but that’s the wrong way to think about it. You never know when and where your break will come. Put your best work out there and keep on polishing your craft with better and better stuff because eventually one of those things you chuck out there is going to be The Thing.

Figure out where your target audience hangs out, and who influences them, and then get your thing in the hands of those influencers. Streaming and YouTube were the secret to FNAF’s success. Maybe yours will be BookTube, or Instagram, or a secret cabal of free librarians. I don’t know. But you should try your best to figure out who would like the thing that you’re making, and then figure out how to reach those people, and put all of your energy into that instead of shotgun-blasting your marketing all willy nilly.

You don’t have to put the whole story on the page. Audiences love puzzles. Fans love mysteries. You can actually leave a lot more unanswered than you think. There’s some value in keeping secrets and leaving things for others to fill in. Remember -- your art is only partly yours. The sandbox belongs to others to play in, too, and you have to let them do that.

If in doubt, appealing to furries never hurts.

Do I take all of this advice myself? Not by a long shot. But it’s definitely a lot to think about.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go beat The Curse of Dreadbear.

#horror analysis #writing advice #fnaf

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laur-rants · 4 years

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Schrodinger’s Game Theory: The Fate of Daud

Ever come up with a theory, and then halfway through creating it, the evidence changes and so you’re stuck with a lot of well-put-together ideas but nowhere to go with it?

Anyway, I did that with Daud. Lol.

I just rediscovered a whole ass rant in my drafts (which is now in the link above for private viewing and judgement PLS read it, if you’re missing some context to this post) that I clearly spent a lot of time and energy on, where I came to the conclusion that Daud in Death of the Outsider is actually a imposter/doppelganger, and it was because of the writing from the book contrasted the writing in DotO so poorly, that I came to believe this. I was like, VERY convinced prior to Billie’s book coming out that this was, in fact, a viable game theory. !00%. There was a chance that out there, somewhere, Daud was still stuck in his mind, and needed someone to come rescue him. Stranger things have happened to explain characters coming back from the dead in a video game, okay?

Somewhere along the line, though, it stopped being game theory and was more like, a fan idea. I had collected enough evidence to come to the conclusion that my theory wasn’t sound. That, and Billie’s book released, and there’s no way I could argue that. Instead, imposter!Daud moved to Fan Theory, something I could fictionally, write about, put into an AU.

But... Just because it’s probably not true in the scheme of the game doesn’t stop me from thinking about it, from wanting to talk and share those ideas with others. Even if, at the end of the day, they hold no water and it wouldn't matter because, well. If Billie’s book is to be considered post-DotO canon, then there’s no reason to believe my theory would hold weight. It wouldnt matter, because Daud well, he was left for dead either way. Nobody was coming to rescue him. I’m sure there’s plenty of questions people have in response to this, the most chief one being

“If its not Daud how is he in the Void talking to the Outsider and Billie at the end of DotO??”

And my usual response is: the end of Return of Daud saw Daud becoming trapped within his own mind, through a trap laid by witches from the very beginning of the book. That meant, even if his physical body was still, well, physical, he was trapped inside his mind.

I proposed that out of survival, well, a sliver of his mind would hole itself up in the Void, maybe even be stuck there (this is not so uncommon as it appears; think of what happened to Jessamine in the Heart). Once the spell on his mind and the Outsider were gone, the sliver could return back to his mind. And he’d still be alive.

From a gamer perspective, looking at the mechanics of the game, and everything else, it makes sense. I’m sure some people would say this theory would ‘cheapen Daud’s death’ and I would refute that by simply saying ‘all of DotO cheapened Daud’s death, and despite being a playable character in the franchise he dies unceremoniously off screen and we just take Billie’s word for his death to heart.’ Nothing cheapens a death faster in my head than ‘time to renege on this character’s entire past arch and have him die off-screen.’ His death was ruined far before they went into the Void. If anything, this would give Daud a change to explain himself.

But I digress. I actually did do a stupid amount of research on this. And what it all really boils down to is that there was bad writing involved in DotO when it came to timeline consistency and quality checkers not checking for that, + the book having been rewritten like, twice, to keep up with what Arkane was changing in DotO in real time.

That’s post marked 9/25/18. I’ve had this theory sitting around for a long time. I enjoyed it. I find it compelling. But ultimately, it was me trying to save Daud, in my mind. Would it be cool for the witches to have stolen Daud, replaced him with a dummy body Eyeless/Envisioned, given that dummy body his memories, and then, when it had outlived it’s usefulness of sending Billie astray, the magic broke and it perished? Hell yeah it would have been cool. and honestly, according to the books, it was a viable option! They could do all those things. You can’t tell me that

Billie can steal faces,

Emily can create copies and

They witches had access to a gemstone that can make prisoners of their own mind/see the thoughts of others,

and NOT immediately think that they’d try and replicate one of the strongest Marked to ever live. The one that TRAPPED DELILAH, no less. And because the witches messed with Daud’s dreams at the beginning of the book (it’s subtle, but its there, its like, you see it on the reread sort of thing), that’s the whole reason he thinks the Outsider is supposed to die, so of course the double would fervently believe the singular obsession that brought Daud into a trap in the first place...

I’m digressing again. Anyway.

What does this mean for Dear old Daud?

It means Daud canonically died, and it was shitty and poorly written and I’ll be salty about that until the day I die because some schmuck on twitter wrote one singular essay and Harvey Smith decided ‘you. you’re the one who needs to write this story’ and then we got Corvosider fanfic in a Dishonored game and I wanted to die. It doesn’t help that this writer was notoriously pretentious and shit-stirring in the fandom at-large BEFORE their hiring-- anyway, this isn’t a salt piece on that. I AM SALTY ABOUT IT, but I’m not the person to discuss it at length. Just know that that’s why some of the narrative decisions in DotO are so out of fucking whack, and we all have to deal with it.

MOVING ON....

There is still... a very slim chance. To save Daud.

Realistically speaking, this chance will never occur. It’s clear and obvious that Arkane has no plans on returning to the Dishonored universe, so despite all these loose ends that Arkane left and all these pieces that need to be picked up and all this lore that’s been reneged on, there’s really not much of a chance that we’ll see, say, Billie, return in a game that is specifically designed to save the timelines. Which, honestly, would be fucking baller. I want a game where I play as Billie, where the shattered timespace of Dunwall is saved by her capable hand, and Emily is free to rule for decades without having to fear that the Isles will fall into the Void like it’s Deimos falling into Hell in DOOM. We KNOW the timelines are saved because we KNOW that Emily has a long and Just (or unjust, if you went high chaos lol) Rule over the kingdom. That can’t happen if, just three years down the line, Billy is running all over the place trying to make sure time doesn’t break at the seams.

But that’s the thing, isn’t it? Because of how Daud meets Billie in RoD, we know that a Billie three years into the future (’YOUR future,’ she tells him) is trying to save his life. There are other timelines she’s saved already, for sure. Including saving Daud in the past, saving Corvo and Emily in the past, saving Granny Rags in the past -- basically, saving all the Marked from coming to an untimely end. And then, after all that, she goes back in time and tries to save Daud, tries to save him from being poisoned by witch magic and falling into a trap that is triggered when he touches her Future version of the Twin-bladed Knife. She goes through a sort of Groundhog Day scenario, where she confesses that she’s tried hundreds of times to save him, and she couldn’t save that Daud.

But why show us Billie failing to save Daud, if she was destined for failure? Because, eventually, she must succeed.

And therein lies Daud’s (potential) salvation. Is it realizing the other Daud is an imposter? Well... let’s think of it this way. Is the Billie who regained her arm and eye an ‘imposter’ where the ‘real’ Billie is in a timeline where she lost those body parts? Is the Aramis Stilton who went mad in the basement of his mansion the imposter? Or is it the one that Emily saved and was able to keep lucid? These people aren’t ‘imposters’ to their timelines, but they kind of are to the timelines that are saved. Which means DotO could be an entirely separate ‘timeline’, one that we manage to play through and see the ending of. But the ‘true timeline’ may never be known. But at least, we know it happens, and we have Billie to thank for that.

FIN.

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klug · 3 years

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ok im gonna pester you about puyo. i dont know anything about puyo! give me some info on a few of your faves! and where i would start to check out puyo and see what its all about!! >:3c

oh my god THIS IS LIKE SOMETHING I'VE BEEN WORKING ON ON THE SIDE... because people do like..write beginner's guides on how to get into the series but the Language Barrier is kind of fucking insane. I've been into it for a long time and even I'm not sure about everything, mostly because a lot of extra materials, esp. older stuff, isn't...actually translated

The TL;DR version of the series' history is that it started as a Japanese dungeon-crawler called"Madou Monogatari" (or Sorcery Saga in English) for like personal computers developed by Compile. Not many of these games are patched into English, but there are a few! Which you can find here. They're actually really fun and super retro so I do recommend checking out the patched stuff. So...since this was successful, the developers made an action-puzzle spin-off, akin to Tetris, of this dungeon crawler which...ended up far, far, far, surpassing the original series' popularity. That was Puyo Puyo.

After some financial mishandlings on Compile's end, the property got bought by SEGA and this is probably where most people recognize it because of the unique art style:

Anyway, it's a puzzle game franchise now with a pretty strong Japanese competitive scene (video is in Japanese but you can get an idea of the gameplay from this)

IMO...knowing where to start is...hard. I started with Puyo Fever, the fifth game in the series, when I was a kid because it was localized outside of Japan. I do recommend this if you want a feel for the series' humor? It's very short! Feels VERY much like a game you'd find in an arcade, right down to the cheesy voice acting.

That said, the actual "first game" in the series is, well, "Puyo Puyo" which was released in 1991. The current "competitive" meta is based on the sequel. And it's been largely unchanged since then.

I think the most beginner-friendly games are as follows:

- Puyo POP for GBA (has an English version)

- Puyo Puyo Fever (has an English version as mentioned above)

- Puyo Puyo Tetris 1 and 2* (these both have English versions and are multiplatform) *I recommend these with some caution, as the title implies these are crossovers between Puyo and Tetris and introduces a lot of characters exclusive to "Tetris" due to copyright. They're continuous with one another (and with the main series imo) but you can watch the story of Tetris 1 on YouTube and pick up Tetris 2 if the spirit moves you. These should all have ROMs available online, at least the first two.

I can't write too much in this post without getting EXTREMELYYYY long-winded and I've already failed at keeping this concise, but you can send me more questions about this LOL it's my favorite series considering that I (try) to help with translating the games with some amazing translators on this blog.

I'll close this off with my favorite characters:

Strange Klug who is my poor little fucking meow meow who is everything to me and I feel bad for her all the time (she's a guy in canon but she is a trans girl in my heart). She's a demon who was sealed in that book to the left of her because of a sick prank someone played on her. She is usually stuck in there, but can be unsealed under the right circumstances (usually by Klug,who is coming up, because of course) She's my...favorite villain. Embarrassingly. Unfortunately her lore has been shelved since her debut in 2015, so any appearances she's made since then are fanservice :"D.

Klug, who is my blog's accursed namesake (as well as my own, sometimes) he's a student who loves dark magic and well...unsealed a demon because he thought it'd bring him power. He's stupid, screechy, does anything to inflate his ego, and is probably one of my favorite characters to think about in the franchise.He hasn't really been relevant for a while and is mostly a background, supporting character, but I still like him lol

And then, not necessarily my favorite but she IS essentially the series mascot: Arle Nadja. She's a 16-year old mage who originated as a protagonist in Madou Monogatari. In those games she crawled through dungeons, fought monsters and devils, fought off Satan multiple times, and is generally just trying to chill with her BFF (bunny friend forever) Carbuncle and find something delicious to eat on their adventures.

She's probably one of my favorite fictional characters Just in General for just subverting a lot of RPG tropes like being a mage rather than a fighter, being a girl (this is a big one), and always managing to fight off her Baited Love Interests (also a big one. acearo Arle ftw) lol. She's toned down a LOT in her current iteration so she comes off as a bit bland, but she's still a fun straight man whenever she gets stuck with her friend group

#inquiries #omg. this ended up being so long.#i'm so sorry if you don't end up reading this but it's fun to talk about why i like the franchise HAHA #anyway. a beginner's guide to the series. maybe sometime. eventually. i'm wroking on organizing it #but there's so many versions of all the games #and it is insanely hard to organize #not to mention the light novels and audio damas #dramas*#so you can see that i have my work like. cut out for me #anyway check out precisemuseum for puyo translations! we're cool

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snowwhitelass · 3 years

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New Outlander Game Coming – Talking with the Game Designers

By: Erin Conrad, June 15, 2021

Gamers Corner, TV News

Outlander game, Sony, Starz Outlander, Variable Outcomes

Who wouldn’t want to dash around the Highlands with Jamie, trying to be his favorite, and rescuing him from trouble on the way? That definitely sounds like a fun time, even if all you can do is dream about it. Or IS that all you can do?

NO! Sometime this fall, a brand new board game will debut – Outlander The Series! Designed by the husband and wife team of Matthew and Ashley Killeen, the game will let you play with a bunch of your friends, meeting familiar faces along the way, and getting in and out of all kinds of scrapes. The game will be available for holiday shopping, so you can start to set up your Outlander game nights now. I had the opportunity to talk with Matthew and Ashley about the development of this new game, and learned some details.

From the game’s marketing information: “His fate is in your hands! Step through the stones of Craigh Na Dun and run through the Scottish Highlands with the handsome Jamie. The year is 1743, and the outlaw James Fraser is at your side as you navigate the thrills and dangers of the Highlands. Use your wit, reach the right locations, make the right friends, and gather the items you need, all while keeping Jamie out of the hands of the many who would do him wrong. The gallows await fair Jamie (or worse!) should you fail. Fulfill your destiny, and win his heart. Only then will victory be yours!”

Outlander is the Killeen’s first big franchise game. “From a business point of view, it’s something I always wanted to do,” Matthew said. “I enjoy games with an IP license attached, TV show or movie, and I have designed prototypes that might be good for Ghostbusters or Star Trek. I really wanted to get into that.” Ashley knew Matthew was interested in trying a licensed game, and said “I’ve been watching Outlander, you should make a game based on that.” Matthew hadn’t yet seen the show, so he said “you do it” – and she did.

Ashley didn’t get into the show until season three. “The first version (of the game) was based on the book, because I thought that might be the avenue to go. But it ended up being more layers to secure the book rights than TV. We heard back from Starz/Sony quickly, and the show and book were similar enough that I didn’t have to change too much from initial design. I swapped out characters and items that didn’t translate from one to another. Jamie still has same event encounters, the same enemies. It’s nice to look at both sides, to really put in all those little hidden tidbits from show. I’m hoping that fans of the show will enjoy all those subtle things that I’ve put in. But the other thing we wanted to make sure was that it was not dependent upon being familiar with the show, because the last thing you want is a game with Outlander masked on top of it that doesn’t play as anything on its own. And having a lot of friends who knew nothing about Outlander, how could I get them to the table?”

Matthew said, “One of philosophies for the board game stuff was that I’ve seen games that were maybe like a movie spin on top. Is this fun or exciting because of the game, or just because of the movie or tv show tie in? And one reason, the biggest reason why I got excited was when I first played it, I had never seen the show. I knew nothing about it. I had never seen the characters, and yet, I still enjoyed it. It was a good game.” Ashley added, “He has since seen the show.” Matthew continued, “That’s another thing that’s always bothered me. I feel like if a certain publisher or game designer makes something but doesn’t know the back story, that’s lazy. As soon as I found out we were going to do this, I watched the show. I know all my lore now. I was obviously able to play the game again once I knew the show and the lore, and it made the game play better.” “You understood my decisions,” said Ashley. “Exactly,” said Matthew. “Whether you know the show or not, it’s a good game.”

Ashley discussed their process: “I started December 2019. This past December, we were finally able to go forward. We got the contract from Sony in November. It was a long process! We got approvals for the design of the game, and access to the virtual library. We could figure out images that would go with the components we had.” Once they had that, Matthew figured out the graphic design for the game.

Was Sony/Starz helpful? Enthusiastic? Ashley said, “They were enthusiastic. They didn’t really have a board game. They had Destiny Dice, but that wasn’t the same thing.” (For my review of Destiny Dice, a game that came out a couple of years ago, click here.) I’ve had reservations about this previous game, so I asked how they overcame the failings of that one to make this new game. My concern with a platform like this is that the show is so big and layered – a group of women will come together over a glass of wine or three, and are they going to be able to figure it out easily enough to have a good time in an evening? Ashley feels that the new game will let us do that. “The idea behind this was that we wanted to bring everybody to the table – people whose board games lives consisted of Scrabble for their whole lives, and those who have played campaigning, like Mage Knights, epically, every week. We want to bring both those sets to the table. It should be intuitive enough once you’ve figured out the first turn order. It’s the repetition of that, it’s just your personal strategy that changes on what you choose to do, but the game play isn’t going to change on you as you go.”

She added, “But there’s enough in there that if you are an experienced board game player, you’re not sitting there bored waiting for the next thing to happen. That was our goal, as many people at the same table as possible enjoying it at the level they’re at. You can have the game player who knows nothing about Outlander, and you can have the Outlander fan who doesn’t play board games, and they will have a good evening. We also tried to be strategic about the length, because you don’t want to have just a tease of a game, because then you can’t be really invested and immersed in that world, but we also know, especially being parents now, you don’t have time to spend four hours on a game. That’s not going to happen any more. What’s a good length? If you can watch an episode of Outlander, you can play a round. So we wanted to find something that made sense. A lot of these pieces, once you apply a little logic to it, they fell together really nicely.”

This is the first “franchise” game the Killeens have designed. The fascination with board games started in 2004, and in 2011, Matthew began to design games as hobby. “I enjoyed playing, but in between then I was going to school and forgot about it. As school was winding down, I really got into it. I created an educational game called Witchful Thinking. We’re both teachers, and when doing practicum, the teacher (that he was working with) had kids doing games for math. but they were really boring, and the kids didn’t like it at all. I remembered I had a game that worked for this! I started looking at my business from a professional point of view, filling in gaps in the market. I wanted to bring people to a table they hadn’t been to yet. Witchful Thinking is a card game – witches brewing potions, teaching math – subtraction, addition, pre-algebra, and more advanced math. It was a great educational tool.” The company has more ideas – they have an upcoming Kickstarter for a game called Tennessee James, an Indiana Jones parody (learn more here). Matthew says that the company expects to bring out many more titles – “Between the two of us, we have a backlog of designs.”

When do they expect to have this out? Matthew said definitely for the Christmas season. “I am working with manufacturers right now, trying to iron out some of those details, but we’re going to be moving into manufacturing right now. It depends on how long it takes to do the mass production plus shipping, but I would estimate this would maybe in stores (or online retailers) by October. That’s probably a good estimate.”

Did they do a lot of testing? “We needed especially non-Outlander fans to play this game. The Outlander fans, it didn’t take a lot of convincing to get them to play,” said Matthew. “Even before there were pictures on the cards, they knew the board, they knew the characters. So even if you had a blank piece of paper that just said Murtagh on it, they know what it means. I wasn’t worried about the Outlander fans, and the game play is pretty intuitive, once you go through the steps. So once you’ve done a round, you can keep going around, no problem. So we were just like, ok, you don’t know what these names mean and where these places are, but you’ve got a bit of the information, are you on board? And so far the reaction has been, yes, I feel like I’m playing a game, even if they don’t know who Jamie is or anything like that.”

He continued, “The tall and short of it is that this that this has been play tested thoroughly. It’s not broken, and the most important part is that it’s fun.” Ashley added, “It’s a nice balance of cooperative, nobody wants Jamie to come to any harm, but you still want to be his favorite. So you can get a little catty, and that’s what makes the fun. You’ll be adding something a little stronger to your tea nights once you start playing that way.”

Matthew said, “One of my strategies for play testing is that I like to try different strategies each time and see what works and what doesn’t .Ashley laughed, “You played mean one time.” “Yeah, it’s my wife, I’ve got to play nice, right? But one time, I didn’t play nice, and I took a competitive edge, and it was awesome,” he said. So players, remember that!

“When I was working on Witchful Thinking, I was looking to put it into Walmart and Target. But they don’t want to talk to the independent company, they want to make sure they’re getting multiple products from the same distributors. So we want to make sure that the distributors that we get are also trying to get the game out there. I do have distribution in the US for Witchful Thinking, and they’re excited to take on this one.”

What was your favorite part of the game, as you play it, I asked? Ashley said, “I like the QuickSave. This is a component we have because Jamie is always going to move in a predictable pattern, and the three villains he’s trying to avoid – Black Jack Randall, the Redcoats and the Watch – those are all the Meeples that are going to be moving around. As you are collecting friends along the way, if you happen to be en route to an Encounter, you can use the special abilities from your friends. So maybe it’s Dougal who is going to be discarded, and that will be a Quicksave to put Jamie back in hiding, so the game’s not over, you haven’t captured him yet. I like that idea, the Quicksave. So you’re strategizing, not just for what’s going to give you a lot of Favor from Jamie to try to win his heart in the game, but where are these people going to help me if Jamie is in a pickle. Because he’s going to get himself in a lot of pickles.”

As he does on the show, I said! Ashley continued, “And as a designer, that’s a fun way for me to tie in the personality of the characters. There’s a reason why they have the values that they do. There was a little argument between us in the design phase, because I made Willie – Willie Mackenzie from the first season – he has this hidden kind of superpower that most of the time, he’s a bit weaker, but when the danger level’s up, he’s strong. Matt was criticizing that, ‘he’s a minor character, why is he so strong?’ But you haven’t been paying attention. Because when Jamie’s in Wentworth, it’s Willie who’s willing to go. So that’s his power, when things are toughest, he’s the one that can save the most. I was having fun finding those little nuggets, the lore, that fans love, and if you’re paying attention to how I’ve designed it, you’ll start seeing like why you get more Favor in some places, or more Wit, or why you have the saving abilities.”

The women playing will like seeing that, I agreed. “I think that we’ve got it so that your favorite characters, from S1 at least, this is just in the Highlands, you’re going to see them, I think they’ll do you proud,” Ashley says. “We’re still excited about it, even though it’s been a year and a half doing it, so I think that says something about it, that we can still be passionate about it, little choices like that, I think the game has life.” Ashley told me that she has ideas for additional Outlander games to follow each season, so this may go on for quite a while!

As their cute kids came into the room, I asked if game design was full time, or is this an extra job? Ashley said, “I’m a full time teacher, so I’m squeezing this in between the report card writing and the classroom stuff. With a bunch of changes with Covid, it’s made more sense for Matthew to stay home, so we decided to go all in, make this run for itself.” Matthew said, “I can speak from the graphic design standpoint – I didn’t design the gameplay, Ashley did that, but I offered suggestions here and there, it was her decision on things, and she made some great decisions. And between that, I did the playtesting and the graphic design in January and early February, I’ve put in hundreds of hours, not just with the graphic design, but also the business stuff too, figuring out social media posts, getting things approved by Sony, talking with the distributors. So this has been not just like a full time job, but overtime, I’ve put in some serious hours for this.”

Since this is the company’s first big license, I asked if is this something they want to continue. “Absolutely,” Matthew said. “And I knew that when I turned this into a hobby back in 2011. I enjoy making board games. I enjoying making movies, watching movies, reading books, all that stuff. I needed some sort of creative outlet. And this was it. I enjoy tabletop games, so I found a business that I’m passionate about. But I found over the years, since I am a small business, I had to learn everything. I can do the game design, I can do the graphic design, the IP stuff, social media, the PR, distribution. I have all those experiences, so if I can continue this, I’ll be very happy.”

Price point for the game should be $48.99 CA (US equivalent is about $40). And it will be available in the US, and more – Matthew says, “The territories we have with Sony are Canada, USA, UK, Australia and France. We’re a small family run company, but at the same time, this is a big license. So we want to do the fans proud, we want to do this IP proud, so we want to give the biggest reach that we can.” Ashley said, “We’re limited because we’re not the distributors, so once we put it in those hands, it’s really up to those stores that want to put it on their shelves. So until we know where they’re placing it, I can’t tell you ‘oh, pick it up here.’ ” Matthew agreed. “I have experience with all of that, so when I made Witchful Thinking and released that, I had a hard time getting distribution. So I went store to store, city to city, and I made those contacts myself. For me as a business owner, I’m not just one of those owners who throws money out and does it. I have experience in all these aspects. So when this game comes out, let’s say that distribution doesn’t have as far of a reach as possible, I’ll make it happen. With Covid especially, the online market is important.”

“From a business standpoint, we’re a new company,” Matthew said. “It seems that we’re very new to this but that’s not really the case. This game has been been in development for a long time, and between the two of us we have 20+ games in prototypes. So we definitely know how to make games, and make games fun. And the fact that we’re both teachers, I think makes it even better. Because as teachers, we have to know how to sell to an audience.” ” And explain the games,” Ashley added.

PRE-ORDER THE GAME RIGHT HERE! Three if by Space has the game available for pre-orders in our Collectibles shop!! Click here to go to the pre-order page!

#outlander board game #three if by space #sony #outlander starz #starz outlander #outlander game #scottish highlands #craigh na dun

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blackjack-15 · 3 years

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Ziplines, Blood Ties, and Colonavirus — Thoughts on: The Silent Spy (SPY)

Previous Metas: SCK/SCK2, STFD, MHM, TRT, FIN, SSH, DOG, CAR, DDI, SHA, CUR, CLK, TRN, DAN, CRE, ICE, CRY, VEN, HAU, RAN, WAC, TOT, SAW, CAP, ASH, TMB, DED, GTH

Hello and welcome to a Nancy Drew meta series! 30 metas, 30 Nancy Drew Games that I’m comfortable with doing meta about. Hot takes, cold takes, and just Takes will abound, but one thing’s for sure: they’ll all be longer than I mean them to be.

Each meta will have different distinct sections: an Introduction, an exploration of the Title, an explanation of the Mystery, a run-through of the Suspects. Then, I’ll tackle some of my favorite and least favorite things about the game, and finish it off with ideas on how to improve it.

If any game requires an extra section or two, they’ll be listed in the paragraph above, along with my list of previous metas.

These metas are not spoiler free, though I’ll list any games/media that they might spoil here: SPY; mentions of the “Nancy Games” (ASH-SPY); SAW; mention of National Treasure (2004).

The Intro:

It’s our penultimate meta, and this time, it’s personal.

In every way, The Silent Spy is the culmination of the Nancy Games. Ever since her trip back home in ASH, Nancy has been increasingly featured in the games, showing us more of her personality, her life, and her backstory — all in an effort to lead up to this story, where we actually delve into Nancy’s place in the world and what it means that she lives in it.

And the answer to that is a lot less wholly idealistic than the franchise would have given 20+ games ago.

I don’t mean to say that SPY is a cynical game — it’s honestly fairly neutral, edging on positive — but that SPY accepts the fundamental truth that all of the Nancy games have been leading up to: that Nancy, though talented, hardworking, and connected, is simply another fish when it comes to the sea of life. She’s not unique in any way that really matters – look at her foils in Alexei, in Jamila, in Deirdre, in Jessalyn — and yet she continues to work hard, to solve puzzles, and to right old wrongs.

At least for me, this is a hopeful message. The point of “Nancy Drew, Girl Detective” is not that no one could do what she does, it’s not that she’s the best, most experienced sleuth in the world, and it’s not that she’s the Last, Best Hope of those who call upon her for aid. The point behind her character is that she’s a relatively normal (if wealthy) girl who does what she can, and chooses to do it again and again.

There’s a wonderful part in the equally wonderful movie National Treasure when our heroes are reading a part of the Declaration — the part talking about the right of the citizens to throw off a despotic government like the British had become — and Ben (Nicholas Cage, actually in a good movie for once!) defines it in modern speech:

“If there’s something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action.”

In the beginning of the Nancy Drew games series, Nancy is merely an intuitive puzzle solver. She gets her cases through family connections, turns up at places where mysteries happen to occur, etc. etc. As time goes on and she practices, she eventually comes to the point where she’s being hired for bigger and bigger cases, more and more regularly — in short, she starts to live the truth of that quote. Nancy is, at her core, someone with the ability to take action against things that are Wrong. Throughout this series — and most especially, throughout the “Nancy” games (ASH-SPY), she becomes someone who recognizes her responsibility to take action.

And that’s what’s showcased here in SPY. Upon arriving and learning that she’s been led to Glasgow under false circumstances, Nancy is immediately and wholly over her head — but she’s still someone who has the ability to take action to right a wrong. When she’s working against Revenant, warning the scientist, or reading through secret memo after secret memo, she’s not doing it with the intent to Save the World; she’s finishing Kate Drew’s last task. Her loyalty isn’t to Glasgow, to Cathedral, to MI5, or any other player in this story — her loyalty is to her mother, and to the task Kate Drew died while trying to finish.

Which is, in my view, the best possible motivation in a game that’s all about family.

With that discussion behind us, I want to talk a little bit here about the other theme of this game — power. Revenant, as the terrorist group that they are, want to seize power; their goal is to run Glasgow (branching off from there into a wider sphere, of course) through seizing power during a (self-induced) state of emergency — aka, what’s referred to in-game as the Colony operation.

This is, of course, Politics 101 — whip people up into a frenzy, come in promising to Save Everyone, and entrench yourself in power that you can’t be moved from with any amount of ease. And while Revenant planned it for 2005, it would work even better in 2013, when social media and instant, 24-hour news cycles can keep the fear alive far more effectively than Revenant would have hoped for nearly a decade prior.

Both in 2005 and 2013, Revenant nearly succeeds, only to be foiled by a red-head out of her depth but who tries anyway (the difference between the two, of course, is that Kate was isolated and Nancy had backup). The most startling thing — and one of my favorite things about this game – is that it doesn’t end with Nancy ‘killing’ Revenant once and for all, or even stopping the Colony Operation once and for all. Nancy is, in every way, out of her depth here; she’s not used by either side as an agent, or even as an asset — she is, as Zoe reminds her, a tool, valuable for what she might know, not for her skills, not for who she is, or what she works for.

As the games from TOT on have worked hard to expand Nancy’s world and tie it together, SPY shows the benefit of having a wide-open world: that the world goes on, people live and die, and secretive organizations (ATAC, Revenant, Cathedral, MI5…) plot and scheme to remake the world in their image.

This, in my view, is also a great thing. The thing that Nancy Drew books (and a lot of the early games) get wrong is that Nancy fixes (or is party to fixing) all of the problems introduced. The piano-playing girl that Nancy meets ends up with a Grandmaster as a teacher; the inheritance goes to the Worthy Widow and Her Daughter; Nancy rescues her tied-up father AND solves his case for his client all in one brilliant masterstroke.

That’s not to say that every story should have all of its threads dangling by the end, but Nancy is simply a smart and resourceful girl, working (most of the time) with her own relatively meager resources. She shouldn’t be the answer to the world’s problems, and I think it’s lovely that, especially in the Nancy games, she really isn’t. Nancy is a helper, and that’s far more valuable than being an omniscient, all-powerful being who can magically fix everyone’s problems just by being there.

The last thing I want to talk about in this introduction is how good SPY is for Nancy’s own personal lore. There’s a lot of fuss every time SPY is brought up about how “Nancy’s mom actually died when she was three!!” which, honestly, tells me that the 60s re-writes (which, yes, if you’re pedantic, started in ’59) did more damage than I had previously thought.

The original Nancy Drew books were written in the 30s by various ghostwriters, and were a little different from the yellow-bound 60s rewrites that most people consider the “old Nancy Drew books”. 30s Nancy Drew was a little closer to our games-universe Nancy; brash, outspoken, punishingly independent, and incredibly capable. She’s also a bit violent and unruly, has graduated from school at 16, lost her mother at 10, and does as she pleases with the occasional call home to reassure Carson or (more often) to ask a question about the law.

Sadly, other than taking out a few racial and societal overtones that weren’t really acceptable after 30 years — mostly by taking out any non-white characters and including different forms of bias, note — the yellow rewrites weren’t an improvement to the stories or to Nancy’s character. Nancy becomes less bold, less independent, and far more focused on describing each meal in punishing amounts of detail. The words “kindly” and “sweetly” were increasingly added after “Nancy said”, she’s far more deferential to authority, and her mother instead passes when Nancy is 3, rather than 10.

In changing the form of the media to video games, rather than books, what would eventually become HER had a choice; they could align themselves with the newest Nancy Drew books — the Nancy Drew Files and Nancy Drew on Campus, both of which were known for being Hotter and Sexier (and, in the case of Campus, ridiculously stupid) — or choose what people called “the classics” — the yellow-spine 60s rewrites, as the once-famous blue books had been all but forgotten in the 90s. In the first (and still one of the last, honestly) brilliant move of the series, HER chose to mix and match the things that made for good game fodder from (nearly, given how much the Campus books suck) every written incarnation of Nancy.

And, to their credit, they chose an important fact from the 30s: Nancy’s mother died when she was 10, not when she was 3.

Losing a parent is a defining moment no matter when it happens, but the exact effect often changes based on (among other things) the age of the child. In order for Nancy to be the kind of person who is influenced by the mystery of her mother’s death, her mother had to have died when Nancy could remember — thus, 3 is right out, as Nancy might remember tiny bits and pieces of the events leading up to and right after, but nothing else.

By taking bits and pieces of contrasting (and often contradictory) lore and making their own out of it, HER (and I’m hat-tipping Cathy and Nik especially here, given Nancy’s characterization spike beginning around WAC/TOT) gives us a version of Nancy that’s similar to the sleuth we know and love from the books and movies (ignoring the 2007 disaster) and, occasionally, TV shows, while still keeping her mostly consistent and showing us a few new flashes that make this character stand out and win her place in the Drewniverse.

Now, with all of that said, let’s move on to this game in specific, shall we?

The Title:

The Silent Spy, as a title, is one that is wonderfully mysterious and really makes you want to know more — right up until the title drop within the game itself, at which point it shifts from quite alluring to desperately sad and foreboding.

After all, “the only silent spy is a dead spy.”

As the game really is about our resident Silent Spy — Kate Drew and her actions and legacy — this is really the only title that the game could have had, and it suits it down to the ground, both with its mystery and with its sadness.

In life, Kate Drew was silenced, and in death, she is obviously necessarily silent — but Nancy reads her words, remembers her speech, listens to her voice, and, of course, hears her song, whenever the world is quiet enough. And I think that’s a wonderful dichotomy for the title to introduce before the game has even properly begun.

The Mystery:

Summoned to Scotland by a mysterious message and guided by a photograph of her mother, Nancy arrives ready to retrace her mother’s steps — only to be thrown into a world of espionage, gadgets, untraceable phone calls, and deadly mishaps. Her luggage (and her best clue about her mother) having been stolen, the presence of an old family friend who refuses to talk, an evasive skiptracer, an excitable local, and a clever intelligence agent all work together to ensure that Nancy is off-balance the minute she arrives.

All, of course, is even less what it seems than Nancy is prepared for, and she spends to game gloriously off-balance trying to keep up with the larger forces pushing and pulling her. She needs to retrace her mother’s steps, escape from certain death, dig deep into the pasts and presents of the people she meets, and do some impressive sleuthing of her own to even make the change from tool to player — and even that might not be enough to keep her safe when the dastardly minds at Revenant come a-knocking…

As a mystery — or as a collection of intertwined mysteries, honestly — SPY succeeds at what a lot of other games tried (and ultimately failed, in one way or another), which is to link all the happenings in the game together under one cohesive plot that grows more and more horrifying the more you think about it. GTH has a fandom reputation for fridge horror, but SPY holds its own easily when you consider Kate’s fatal chase, Moira’s abduction and guilt, the threats that Ewan and Alec operate under, and the life that Zoe leads on the regular.

Every action that Nancy takes benefits someone — whether it be Cathedral, Revenant, herself, or an interested third (fourth?) party — without her really meaning to, and the game is great in including another question in every reveal.

The beauty of SPY’s mystery(s) is that it takes careful reading, paying attention, and honestly replaying in order to grasp the enormity of every action. No matter how many times you play or replay, there’s something new to find — a time-sensitive conversation, an implication in a note, a theory behind the presence of a clue or a piece of (what you previously thought to be) set dressing — it honestly is limitless, and it just helps to contribute to the feeling that this is a world that Nancy isn’t meant to truly be fully immersed in.

And speaking of people who are immersed in that world…

The Suspects:

We’ll begin, for organization’s sake, with our out-and-out (current) agents first, then tackle our other suspects, then our Nancy-related people, and finish off with — for the final time in this series, as this is the last “Nancy” game — Nancy herself.

A new, yet returning character, Bridget Shaw is one of the cover identities of Zoe Wolfe — aka Samantha Quick, who Nancy impersonated in VEN and who helped the Hardy Boys in Treasure on the Tracks.

Prior to SPY, I had money for a very long time that Samantha Quick would eventually come into the game, and I was absolutely delighted with her appearance in SPY — where else would she be so well situated? Zoe is snarky, disillusioned, cynical, and sometimes downright nihilistic, but she’s also someone who took up a job that, percentage-wise, no one wants to or is able to do, because she’s alone:

“I work in the field for two reasons: one, I don’t need any help. And two, because no one would miss me if I fell off the grid.”

I love watching the ND games subvert their own formula, and Zoe is a great example of the “helper”-type suspect who really isn’t like your traditional “helper” at all. She’s there to do a job, and if sticking with Nancy helps her to do it, then that’s what she does. But she’s not there to Right some Great Wrong for the warm fuzzies of it all, or even because it’s Just and Right. She’s there because it’s her job, and her job is to play the game.

“It’ll be brief, painful, and full of garbage…but that’s life, isn’t it? And that’s the metaphor I’m riding into the grave.”

Next is our (kind of) double operative and partial culprit, Ewan McLeod (real name Sean Kent Davis) is a clever operative of Cathedral who decided that he wasn’t valued or important anywhere near as much as he should have been, and reached out to Revenant to supply them with information. Summoning Nancy to Scotland, Ewan is easily able to gain a portion of her trust as the Watcher in the Wires and is her tie to the relative safety of Cathedral.

As a culprit, Ewan is — ultimately — pitiable. Not that he’s not an egotist with a victim complex a mile wide, but when you actually look at the situation he’s in, it’s hard not to feel bad for him, even though he did it to himself. Having contacted Revenant, he’s now attempting to hold a tiger by the tail, praying it can’t eat him — and his worst fears come true, as his loved ones are threatened (“trying to keep my friends and family alive”, remember) and he’s discarded and made a target by the terrorists that he tried to use to make himself important.

Given the rather chilling threats made by Revenant, I’m inclined to believe that when we find him tied up, he didn’t do it to himself. Nancy would have noticed if the knots were too loose to have been done by a third party, and we know Revenant told him several times that if he wasn’t useful, he’d be punished.

While Ewan makes terrible choices, he’s also a pawn being played by a larger force — like everyone else in the game — and that is at least worth pity, if not forgiveness.

Next up is our former Cathedral agent and all-around tough cookie Moira Chisholm. As one of the people responsible for the events that led to Kate’s death — though no one but Revenant is responsible for killing her, note — Moira lives with guilt, regret, and a powerful sense of loneliness that only the loss of everyone you hold dear can bring.

Moira’s guilty of nothing in the present-day calamity, and helps Nancy the very best she can in her own limited power, but is ultimately a character for whom the past looms larger than the present can match. She has her hobbies, but her house is filled with memories of days when people sat on her couch and broke her teacups, not of hours reading alone.

She’s an intensely tragic character, and an example of what happens when your need to know the “truth” can get in the way of doing right by those you love. Moira lost everything to her previous job for Cathedral (who is implied to have left her, an otherwise dangerous free agent, alive because they knew (correctly!) she would become stagnant and docile under the weight of her own guilt, ouch), and yet she risks life and limb to help Nancy —not because she thinks it’ll exculpate her, but because Moira, at her core, wants to help the world, no matter what it’s taken from her.

Our final suspect is Glasgow’s resident skiptracer and unwilling pawn Alec Fell, who, along with Moira, can be traced back to Kate Drew’s death. Originally, Alec investigated a mysterious car crash — the one that killed Kate Drew — and, when he didn’t stop after a warning, had his office ransacked and burned. In the few months before the game starts, he experiences another break-in and his sister is kidnapped, with a message informing him that if he wants to guarantee her safety, to comply with Revenant’s orders.

Unlike Ewan, when pushed into a corner, Alec does his best to raise a little hell while still trying to keep his sister safe. For everything that he does on Revenant’s orders, he also helps Nancy out, finds her suitcase, locates Moira, tells Nancy where the cards are, and does his best to push back in other, little ways.

Sure Alec is guilty of a few things — most notably the fake shooting scare in Nancy’s room — but he’s a very active character, riding the rails and searching for anyone who can help put an end to this situation. It’s not for nothing that he’s a fan favorite, both for this game for the series at large, and his excellent VA and charming dialogue only make up half of his appeal.

On our Nancy side, we’ve got a few returning characters and one (semi) new one, so let’s go through them before getting (for the last time!) to the girl detective herself.

Carson Drew, father and golf model extraordinaire, is here to ground (as in steady, not punish) Nancy as she goes through this mystery. As the other person besides Nancy who was most affected by Kate’s death, Carson is an invaluable source of Kate-related knowledge, but is concerned foremost with his daughter’s safety.

For my money, the most important thing we learn about Carson here is that, well…he married the wrong woman as much as Kate married the wrong man. It’s sort of simplistic to say that their story shows that, in some cases, love doesn’t conquer all, but it’s true all the same.

Carson was happy to jet off to Scotland on occasion to visit Moira and her husband, but being happy to take vacations is a very different thing from a life constantly shifting and changing. He’s a prosecutor, so he has a strong sense of justice, but also has a strong sense of stability — he chose a career with a set trajectory and clearly defined rules.

Kate Austin, however, was a journalist who occasionally consulted for a Spy Organization when life got a little too boring (it’s important to note that she wasn’t a straight-out spy like Moira — she was far too free-spirited for that). She had all of Nancy’s inquisitiveness but more people skills than Nancy will probably ever have, and made friends easily.

It’s easy to see how she would have been attracted to the All-American, hardworking, solidly intelligent, emotionally balanced man, just as it’s easy to see how the slightly flashy, clever, inquisitive, intuitive redhead would have attracted him.

If this is starting to feel like I’m describing two other characters here…well, longtime readers of this meta series already know what happens when I use a paragraph to describe characters without using their names.

Kate is important in the game in that we’re shown her differences from and —more enlightening — similarities to Nancy. Nancy’s actions in this game are reflections on what Kate did (and what she would have done) as much as they show how the daughter diverges from the mother. And while Nancy doesn’t have her mother’s people skills or ease of making friendships, what she does have is her mother’s – and I’m going to use this word purposely — flightiness.

At the end of the day, Carson couldn’t be with Kate when she flitted off around the world, and Ned can’t be with Nancy when she does the same.

(I also find it interesting that we deal in the games only with Carson’s side of the family, and never even have a mention of Nancy’s maternal grandparents. Yes, I know Kate could have been an only child and her parents could already be dead…but I do like the possibility that they blame Carson for Kate’s death (entirely undeservedly!) and thus cut off contact. But this meta is for, well, meta, not fanfic.)

Ned Nickerson plays an important role in SPY in that he tries to help Nancy the best he can, even to the point of breaking and entering in her house (though really, it’s just entering, since he has permission) to find a document for her.

Ned comes off brilliantly in this game, but it’s important to note that his big, impressive (yet charmingly understated) speech isn’t to Nancy, but to Carson. And it doesn’t sway Nancy, it sways Carson. Because, at the end of the day, Carson can relate to lots of the pieces that make Ned what he is, and the situation that Ned finds himself in.

He’s wonderful, as boyfriends go; he calls her, encourages her, offers oddly prescient hints…but he doesn’t go with her. It’d be easy enough to make that a point in the series that, though we don’t see it happen, Ned often accompanies Nancy on her escapades, but instead we’re told — often through contention — that the exact opposite is true.

Ned is solid, true, intelligent, emotionally balanced and kind, but above all, Ned is stable. He’s enrolled in college — in an honors frat — and plays sports, attends his classes faithfully, remembers important dates…the list goes on and on. These are all wonderful characteristics for a boyfriend, but he, like Carson with Kate, ultimately isn’t what Nancy needs out of a relationship — and she is certainly not, like Kate with Carson, what Ned needs out of a relationship.

At the end of the day, both would need to compromise — Ned would need to set off with her sometimes, and Nancy would need to stay close to home sometimes — in order to make the other happy. And, well…nothing we have in any of the games says that either one would do that in the long term. Sure, Nancy returns home after the fight in CAP for ASH…but is in Egypt the very next game — immediately followed by Colorado, Georgia, and Scotland.

And honestly, this is the basis on which I disagree with Ned/Nancy as a couple. It serves neither one and, as we see in quite a few games where they squabble, they can make each other worse.

And speaking of our resident sleuth, let’s talk about Nancy Drew before wrapping up this character section.

In SPY, Nancy is — as mentioned above — a tool, used by both sides to get what they want without caring how it personally affects her. The big thing we learn about Nancy in this — and one of my favorite characteristics about her — is that Nancy is pretty ruthless. To me, it makes sense that, to get the information she wants, Nancy does what a terrorist organization tells her to because 1) it’s not her home immediately at risk, and 2) most importantly, Nancy has done bad things in the name of a good end in pretty much every game.

Lying, stealing, breaking priceless artifacts, endangering others — none of these are really new to Nancy, and what SPY does is brings that to the forefront. Sure, you as the player have the option not to do what Revenant tells Nancy to do…but then you miss out on big parts of Kate’s characterization — and, more importantly, a big part of Nancy’s.

In an unprecedented move, I’m going to reference National Treasure again, and quote part of Ben’s speech before he steals the Declaration:

“[A toast] to high treason…here’s to men who did what was considered wrong, in order to do what they thought was right — what they knew was right.”

To me, that shows us why Nancy does what she does — in SPY, and in every other game where she lies, cheats, and steals her way to the truth. She does it because, at the end of the day, Nancy is a person who is ruthless in her pursuit of her goal. And that’s a valuable trait.

Especially when one is dealing with spies, terrorists, and shady government operatives.

The Favorite:

I love most of SPY, so I’ll stick here with the things that especially stick out to me.

As covered above, I love: what this game does for the lore of the ND world; ‘Samantha Quick’; the many motivations of our suspects, and the emotional resonance that this game has.

Beyond that, there are a lot of little things. I absolutely love that they got the relative of the guy who plays Carson to play Nancy when she was little — that’s adorable to me. I love the cookie-making minigame, the outfit swap for Bridget/Zoe, the voice work for all of our suspects and helpers, and the beautiful locations (especially the spy cabin, both exterior and interior).

My favorite moment in the game is a sad one, but I’m a mercurial kind of person, so you should have really expected that. It’s actually Moira’s log/diary/letter to Kate (it functions as all three) after Cathedral deactivates her as an agent. I love a lot about it — the sad, almost desperate feeling to the words, the pen color changing as the seasons do — but nothing is better done than Moira’s last entry:

“It’s winter. It doesn’t matter that it’s winter, does it?”

My favorite puzzle is probably the zip-lining one. Sure, it’s easy, and sure, the animation makes me a little motion-sick, but it’s just….zip lines are just cool. That’s all there is to it. It appeals to the spy-loving idiot in me, and I think big-woosh-go-fast is stupid cool.

I also have to give a hat-tip to Kate’s letter — turning a fandom meme into a heartwarming story? Nik, you mad genius — and Nancy’s letter to Kate at the end. Both are beautifully written and are the perfect centerpiece to their respective characters, and both always put a smile on my face (and, at times, a tear in my eye) when reading them.

The last thing I really do have to mention here is Logan’s quasi-reappearance. I mentioned this in my “Top 5 Surprising Moments” meta, but I love, love, love that Logan is a Cathedral operative, and that he reported on Nancy during SAW. Not only does this continue to open up Nancy’s world, but it also shows that there are consequences to Nancy’s actions. She’s in rare form as far as rudeness goes in SAW, and SPY weaponizes that against her, giving Cathedral (and Revenant) a way to weaponize her feelings about her mother’s death and her — to be frank — inability to let things lie as they are.

The Un-Favorite:

There are a few things that aren’t quite my favorite in SPY, so let’s run through those as well.

First, in the common refrain of “small visual distinctions are difficult for me personally”, I didn’t like that there wasn’t enough contrast between a plain (on the bottom half) cookie and the orange/purple jelly. The shadow on the screen makes it kind of difficult to tell them apart, especially if there’s sprinkles and/or frosting on top of it, and I found that mildly frustrating, even though I love the minigame itself.

The second thing I don’t like is the option to skip the dialogue. Yes, this is present in most of the newer games, and I don’t like it in them either, but it’s especially egregious in SPY and LIE. Both of these games really rely on hints given in the dialogue (and of course, in the written materials hidden around the game) in order to get a full, clear view of what’s going on. The option is great on repeat plays, but I really do wish that it was disabled if it was your first save file on the game.

The last annoying thing is the Jabberwocky puzzle — or rather, the percentage of the jabberwocky puzzle that the player actually has to do. The puzzle as it stands feels very confusing, and the “hints” you get are quite unintuitive.

The record tells you basically how to create the encrypted message — it’s the first letter from each green word, the second from each orange word, etc., arranged in the order they appear in the poem — but when you start the poem, Nancy has already basically completed this step, and it’s up to you to do the actual decoding just through process of elimination.

It’s a puzzle of letter deduction, like in TMB and the minigame in ASH — and these are normally my favorite puzzles! — but it’s cloaked in the disguise of an encryption puzzle, and for that, it’s incredibly irritating.

The Fix:

So how would I fix The Silent Spy?

The first thing I’d do, which you can probably guess based on the above section, is to fix how the Jabberwocky poem is presented. Even a bit of dialogue establishing what the player actually has to do versus what Nancy does for the player would be helpful in working through it without bothering making the encrypted message oneself, and would set the player up to actually know what they’re doing, versus the mass of confusion that comes with the puzzle.

The only other change I would make would to put in one more flashback — that of 10-year-old Nancy’s perspective shortly after Kate’s death, perhaps after the funeral. We spend a lot of time in flashback seeing Kate before her death, and I think it would add to just a little bit more of seeing Nancy’s relationship with her mother if we could see the Drew house with her recently gone.

(And perhaps, see or hear Hannah? Please?)

The Silent Spy is a game that I find, on the whole, to be one of the best that Nik penned, and certainly a fitting end to the series of “Nancy Games” that gives us a little more perspective on our teeth sleuth. There are as many moments of joy as of sorrow, but in the end the player is left with the feeling that Nancy’s world is a little better for knowing more about her mother, and that whatever else Kate did and was, she left behind a world (both in game and breaking the fourth wall) that was better — and had ways to become even better than that — than it was when she lived in it.

#nancy drew #nancy drew games #clue crew #the silent spy #nancy drew meta #SPY #video games #my meta #long post

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inventors-fair · 4 years

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Intersectional Property

That’s rare. I didn’t know that Krypto was a Hasbro property. We played that all the time in, like, 3rd-5th grade around here. There are quite a few games that I had no idea Hasbro owned, properties that Wizards of the Coast has under their belt, lots of things that you’d never think they’d own. And, well, some of them might be coming to Magic in Universes Beyond. What’s next? Easy-Bake Oven?

I have strong opinions about crossing IPs for profit. We can’t kid ourselves—that is the primary factor behind the Universes Beyond project. They want to make collectibles through their most valuable property so that both MTG players and [insert fanbase here] consumers will want them, glossing over the implications for Magic as an IP itself. We have our multiverse, we have our characters, and I’m whining about this despite having made a complete draftable My Little Pony set in high school.

But that set was a custom set. Nobody played it except for myself and my friend who introduced me to the game. Nobody bought it, nobody profited, and it was strictly an exercise in fun. Here at Inventor’s Fair, well, we’re in the same boat. I have strong reactions to Universes Beyond, and I’m not alone, but opinions are also strong on the other side of things.

Custom cards are basically fanfiction. There, I said it. It’s mechanical fanfiction, but fanfiction nonetheless. Do we get a little serious here? Sure. Do we also go a bit wild? Absolutely. It varies because it’s supposed to, because it’s about fun. We do have to talk about a card’s potential impact when necessary, but the cards that we make here are never going to be opened in a booster pack in the same way that “My Immortal” will never have its Dewey Decimal number. I think that’s part of the joy we have to maintain, as individuals and as a community.

This week: Design a card based on a non-Magic IP meaningful to you. You are designing for tabletop. The card will be legal in Commander, Legacy and Vintage.

Important note: Characters are the most common, but I’m interested to see events, locations, items, etc. Make your card stand out!

Here are some questions that’ll help hone you in to what I’m looking for in a winning card:

Does this card make sense in the Magic mechanical universe?

Flavor is going to be the most important factor. For the Walking Dead secret lair, the characters all had appropriate qualities based on their characters, and they had to make sense. Best example: Lucille, the bat (I...don’t watch the show so take this with a grain of salt) is an Equipment card. And that makes sense. It’s a weapon, someone else can pick it up, etc. Think about what you want to make and how you want to show it.

Is it an appropriate IP for the audience of Magic?

One of the ones we can expect is a set based on the Lord of the Rings franchise, as well as Dungeons and Dragons. High fantasy, heavy lore, etc. And then there are the Godzilla cards. Based on what? Big monsters, in the Big Monster set. Not quite fantasy but a well-known franchise with an established connection. Popular action anime like BNHA could be a great place to explore, too! But, well... Keep the obscenities and obscurities to a different forum, is all I’m asking.

Are the flavor and mechanics balanced to what Magic should be?

Basically that’s all we’re asking: make a good card. Rick’s inclusion in Legacy Humans lists is a sore spot for a lot of Magic players and for good reason. We do have to balance some of these cards based on reasonability. Emrakul is one thing. Making your god-eating anime villain a “20/20 hexproof indestructible can’t be countered ETB everyone in your zip code loses the game” isn’t what we’re aiming for here.

Here’s a Wiki list of Hasbro toys and games, and here’s a list of Wizards of the Coast products as well. If you’d like to start with something “”realistic”” for the company to make, that’s a good starting point. If you wanna skip that and go to things you love, well, that’s kind of the point of fanfic, innit?

A last important note: Based on past popularity, this week’s submissions will be limited. Don’t worry about getting your card in too late, but the inbox will be closed after ~50 submissions. This is something I gotta do for the sake of my mental health. We don’t usually even break 40 most weeks, but these ones tend to be attractive.

Be well, everyone. —@abelzumi

>> Inbox Link >> Discord Link >> Additional Links

#MTG #magic the gathering #custom magic card #contest #announcement #ip 2021 contest #inventor's fair

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papers4me · 3 years

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Authors’ Fear of Disappointing their Fans

Writing a story divided into “series“ whether it is for TV show, anime, novels, & manga can be challenging especially if the story gains an impressing following of fans. With the help of social media good stories get noticed & spread quickly, we noticed a number of authors hitting big from nobody to big names!

The more the story is well-written, the more it is respected by readers & viewers. ppl appreciate a fascinating, cleverly weaved plot with unique set of characters. Fans wait for the next installment, issue, season, & episode patiently. They excitedly share their views, criticism, theories, & reaction on different social media outlets.

Stories like Game of Thrones/ ASOIAF & Attack of Titans especially benefited from this. The fans eagerness to consume the story had caught the attention of producers & the two stories were turned into massive phenomena in TV history & anime. Both stories have a fascinating lore & huge cast that is bound to satisfy different tastes & preferences.

This happened while the stories were still on going & far from finished. Soon, watching them became a culture must that you can’t escape. The authors found themselves in the midst of unbelievable attention. An entire franchise is established from their story’s lore & characters.

Now, with every possible theory discussed & every character analyzed, the authors are loosing their grip on the plot & you can no longer produce a plot-twist that isnt predicted. To deliver a content equal in quality to the beginning, you need time, but the market is moving fast & soon the fans will turn to the next big thing & producers want to cash more!

More importantly, you’‘ve lost your grip on the characters. You can no longer deliver the blows that captured ppl’s attention, held their breath, shocked them & served the overall theme. Why? cuz the fans would want their faves “winning/ having big mark, happy after all the suffering that was the reason they got fans to begin with”.

spoilers for AOT & GOT below:

GOT producers having no source material found themselves in a dilemma. They can’t hurt any character for fear the fans will roar, so a huge cast ride unbelievable dangers & came out un hurt. defying all logic. No one of the beloved characters lost anything at the end! peace is achieved. Lots of fodder dead for drama & suspense but who cares. Wait! if we kill no one, then how is this the same show? Let’s kill the main character: daenerys !! that’s how we started AOT to begin with! killing a main character: Ned stark. Making her go mad & bad is amazing writing in theory, but the application is horrible, plus the fact that ONLY she lost while everything was solved quickly is bad. But hey, at least all the beloved side characters are happy & alive.

In AOT, Isiyama talked abt “betraying the fans” which is weird, but in the end, he chose to not disappoint the fans. He forgot that fans arent one person. They are different ppl with different tastes & sides. it is IMPOSSIBLE to satisfy all. He chose the same path as GOT. The beloved side characters went on an impossible journey & even died for one second for no reason but shock value, then returned back to life, un hurt & peace is achieved! they lived happily. But it wouldn't be AOT without major death, so, let’s kill the main character only. He turned mad & bad like daenerys. Can’t even visit his POV cuz he did an unforgivable deed, so let’s give a visit after death with short talk that explains.. not much.

Both Isiyama & OAT producers are capable writers who could’ve delivered better, but the fear of disappointing the fans has led to.. disappointing the fans more!

George R. R. Martin is now in a more difficult situation. He must deliver a story that satisfy the disappointed fans who are now convinced the creator of the source material would never disappoint! He saw the backlash, you think he himself won’t fear a similar one? Personally, I don’t think he will ever finish the books. Not cuz he can’t but cuz it is nearly impossible to reach a satisfying end after such rage. I think he’ll focus on other GOT related projects that aren’t yet tainted by fear or disappointment.

Fans are a powerful force that can open doors for wealth to authors, but if you are writing a series, you need to have its end set in stone early on to mach your plot & themes & never change it according to the current overall preference of fans. You’ll end up loosing respect.

I highly respect Isyama & Martin for creating such marvelous worlds, the time spent within is fascinating. Writing a satisfying end is the hardest part of writing a story. Isyama in particular has only written AOT, so, it is expected, I’ll cut him slack, plus publishers, advisors, producers are also involved in such things to keep the market/ merchandise alive post end.

Stories with fitting ending are rare, that’s what’s make them special. After all, preferences & tastes play a huge role. Also, authors are ppl with rights over heir creative product. They have a vision & if what they’ve written align with their own vision & not to just satisfy others, then that’s respectful, even if you hate the ending.

#ending #story-telling #critical look #authors #fans #attack on titan #game of thrones

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inkdemonapologist · 4 years

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What's going on with Wally Franks in your AU? I had trouble following the game, and the wiki seems to say that he quit the studio and retired without ever learning its darkest secrets, but I think you have him as one of the escapees (turned into a Boris?)

Okay I have a lot of rambling thoughts about the ending of the game if youre curious but I'll stick those at the end. As far as Escape AU goes:

Yes, Wally was a Boris clone! He did not fully get outta there; he's the murdered Boris at the very beginning of the game. Dying doesn't really seem to stick for ink creatures in the Studio, so he was able to come back -- but since he spent most of his time in the Studio [glados voice] really busy being dead, he doesn't have the years of trying to survive an inky hell that the others have; he just has that one really bad time where he was turned into a cartoon and murdered, and some weird and probably equally upsetting memories of briefly waking up from death. He never wandered the studio and was never sent to the puddles, so he has some real bad nightmares/insomnia now but is otherwise doing okay in his day-to-day life, and has no trouble speaking. He's probably able to hold down a job before too long!

Mostly Wally is there because I wanted Wally to be there, and I haven't fully sorted out the LORE for him in Escape AU (I don’t know if he never left or if he got lured back), but if you're interested in trying to sort out some of the canon associated:

So basically what I've gathered as someone who is obsessed with bendy and has watched all the cutscenes and all that but hasn't actually played the game and was real late to the fandom, TAKE WITH A GRAIN OF SALT:

- The game leaves things a bit ambiguous

- There were, in the original game, a lot of hints that the Boris you befriend in the Studio is Wally. (He’s sorta handy, kinda cowardly, likes food -- and we get an audiolog dedicated specifically to letting us know that Wally will straight up steal your cake off your desk; they’d be a good match!) There's several reasons it makes a kind of narrative sense and it was the prevailing theory before DCTL came out, but it was never confirmed one way or another.

- Two smaller things I’ve seen connecting Wally to Boris: the wrench you pull out of a Boris' chest, and the "Who's Laughing Now" written on the wall beside him being a really neat hint once you get to the audiolog where Wally complains that everyone is acting too serious for a cartoon studio and should crack a smile now and again. (this is most of why I went for the dead Boris as Wally)

- in Dreams Come To Life, Buddy is (spoilers) transformed into a Boris at the end, and it's commented on how perfect he is, implying he may be the "perfect Boris" you befriend in the game. The Boris in Boris and the Dark Survival is referred to outside the game as "Buddy Boris" and, since he has a safehouse, there's an implication that BatDS bridges the gap between DCTL and BatIM. The fact that Henry keeps affectionately referring to Boris as "buddy" becomes a fun retroactive “coincidence,” but also all the various implications that Wally sure would have made a good Boris now go nowhere. It ended up feeling like a retcon.

- in the end of the game you can see letters to Joey from Allison and Wally, implying they (and Tom) are alive and well and continued their lives after the Studio shut down, which is interesting since, uh, Allison and Tom are also now toons???

- there's a popular interpretation (called the Story Theory I think?) which I encountered in Adobe-Outdesign's analysis, that what this apparent contradiction means is that the "sketch dimension" (the cartoony world where most of the game takes place) is actually a story created by Joey using the Ink Machine, populated with alternate/fictional versions of the employees of the studio. So the Real Allison left, but in this story Joey’s writing, she didn’t. Henry-the-protagonist might not be the real Henry Stein; instead he's just one of Joey's characters, based on his IRL friend. Etcetera! So in real life, Wally retired, as his letter indicates. But those fictional versions are still real people, real consciouses, because the real ink machine that Joey really has hidden in his apartment is bringing Joey's story to life. I like the interpretation a lot as a take that fits the game well but also I have no idea where DCTL fits in this. IS DCTL PART OF JOEY'S STORY OR DID ALL OF THAT REALLY HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE??? IF THERE'S A LOOP IN DCTL (as slightly implied by Dot) ITS A STORY RIGHT??? WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THIS FRANCHISE

- the alternative interpretation to this is that somehow Allison and Tom (at least, if not others) got lured back to the Studio after she sent her letter -- after all, she's still keeping in touch. I tend to assume this is what’s going on in most fanfiction and AUs that have any possibility of escape, since you’d presumably want the employees to actually be themselves rather than Joey Drew's Weird Friendfiction brought to life. The impression I've gotten in this version is that sending them to the Bendy Dimension gives Joey control over the script there, so instead of creating people for his fictional retelling, he's forced his actual employees to play out this story, but I don't know that I've seen this fully spelled out

SO THATS, UH, SOME OF THE RELEVANT BACKGROUND INFO I THINK

Before running into the much more coherent Story Theory, my own attempts to make sense of the ending went in the exact opposite direction; that rather than Joey's apartment being a brief step out of the Story and into the Real World, that Joey's apartment is something of a dream, where Henry and Joey, of course, imagine the world that they know, even if they're not actually in it anymore.

I also REALLY liked the theories linking Joey to Bendy -- Bendy may have been created without a soul, but that doesn't mean one can't get, y'know, shoved in there... or that maybe a soul could be possibly stolen and absorbed by a creature who lacks one........ yknow..... it could happen. I like the idea that Ink Bendy's shifts in behaviour towards Henry reflect Joey's conflicted feelings towards his old friend (which is still there in the Story Theory version, it's just symbolic instead of literal).

So you defeat Beast Bendy and suddenly Joey is there, finally, in a place that looks like the real world but certainly doesn't feel real. The calendar in Joey's apartment cycles through the month of August but never moves past it, and I can't shake the idea that Joey could be just as trapped in the cycle as Henry, also never quite deviating from his own script, only briefly appearing in a memory of his own apartment when Henry releases his soul from the demon he created.

I don't know that this could ever shake out enough to be any sort of Actual Theory, but in my brain it's still kind of the background of Escape AU because it's a premise that makes it possible for the employees to actually be themselves. So, the cartoon studio is real, but the things that show up in Joey's apartment might be hit or miss as to whether they're a memory from Joey's real apartment, or if they're imagined wishful thinking on Joey's part.

#i know you have questions you always do #we all write on the walls #IM SORRY FOR SO MANY WORDS IM INCAPABLE OF BEING SUCCINCT #Escape AU #wally franks #i am not 100% sure i know what im talking about but that's okay

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silyabeeodess · 3 years

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FusionFall Headcanons: Ben Tennyson

(Due to the different reincarnations of Ben 10 and its multiverse, please note that I won’t be able to cover all of the lore. To keep things a little simpler and to match the version of the Ben 10 characters we got in the game, I’m going to follow a combination of information from the OG show and AF/UA.)

Highly respected as a seasoned hero with a certain amount of charisma, Ben fits right in as a leader of the Fusion Fighters despite his age. Early on, he was called to help bring in recruits through various campaigns, tasked by the Plumbers to help safeguard their tech, and take command of a large number of soldiers--even extending beyond where he’s stationed in the Offworld Plaza. Thankfully, there’s a number of other fighters who support him in carrying out these long-distant assignments; however, Ben still makes sure to keep those under his command updated on events, like the spaceport’s status during the missions “Hide and Go Eek” and “Nuclear Haste.” His early guide missions also show the amount of prep he puts soldiers through before letting them take on the hardest jobs, insisting that they get the necessary equipment in “Gear up” and “Bugs and Earplugs.”

Still, Ben isn’t without his flaws either. Rules and regulations don’t always work for him. He can be over-confident and extremely immature, putting him at odds with other experienced heroes. He doesn’t take failure well and doesn’t like it when recruits put themselves in severe situations--like sacrificing themselves to complete a mission--even with the security of the Resurrect ‘Ems. He sometimes refuses to listen to others even if his plans aren’t the smartest in the long-run. Ben means well, but his emotions can cloud his judgement.

Ben’s a little creeped out by Princess Morbucks. He might not know about her big crush on him, but he is aware that she sends him stuff like the picture of herself in the mission “Teen Dream” that was meant to be passed along through Grandpa Max. He’s got plenty of fans as it is due to his public status as a hero, but her behavior can sometimes mimic that of a sasaeng, tamed only by her own ego and the obsession not being as extreme. (In her mind, she’s the beautiful, rich, and powerful Princess: He should really be scrambling to be with her and, barring that he doesn’t break her heart, know she’d treat him well. She’ll wait for him. Meanwhile, she’s also still absorbed with other things she wants besides him.) Given how she threatens Max in that same mission though, she can hardly be called harmless either.

Much to the frustration of other Sumo Slammer Online players like Mandark and Bloo, Ben or “Omnitrixter” is really good at the game and tends to stay on top of its leaderboards. Clearly, his passion for the franchise won’t die anytime soon. He still sees the movies, plays the games, and collects all of the merch he can get his hands on--especially the trading cards. He was really disappointed to have to give one of the rarer ones away for the Nano Enhancement Project in “Spaceport Pickups (Part 1 of 2).”

Beyond gaming, he also enjoys hoverboarding in his off-time. If possible, he’ll have people pick up some food from Mr. Smoothy’s for him/the base on occasion. Not everyone agrees with Ben’s taste, but they’re fun days nevertheless.

The Omnitrix is truly one-of-a-kind and the creation of nanos--or even his fusion--can’t seem to match it. Rather than a nano of Ben simply spawn as a human with the power to transform, they mainly inherit the separate genetic codes of his many, independent aliens; still copying much of Ben’s personality, but their abilities and appearances restricted to those particular species. As such, Ben has the most nanos modeled after him out of anyone else. When these nanos are on the same team, they can often form a brotherly/twin-like connection with each other.

Those on the nano project were happy to experiment with this variety from a technically single source. There are all types of nanos based on Ben’s aliens in the field and more still in-development. However, one alien that scientists have been careful to avoid is Ghostfreak. Because Ectonurites can copy their consciousness through shared DNA, as Zs’Skayr did, they don’t want to risk a repeat of that case. Not only would Ben have to risk transforming into Ghostfreak--risking Zs’Skayr’s reawakening inside the Omnitrix--in order to get samples for those nanos in the first place, even with the combined influence of Ben or their IE Donors, Zs’Skayr might also try to come back through the small clones. On top of that, missions such as “A History of Planet Fusion (Part 1 of 4)” and “Nowhere to Go” confirmed that his species is working with Fuse, so it’s doubly concerning.

#fusionfall #headcanons #video games

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joekabox · 3 years

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Haven’t posted my thoughts on Magic: the Gathering in a hot minute, so how about I do that, given the buzz surrounding the new Innistrad set.

Honestly, the stuff we’ve been shown as upcoming has me really excited. Innistrad legit feels like a return to form for the plane, while still keeping the events of Eldritch Moon canon and a big lingering threat in the background, without having the eldritch themes overtake the classic feel of Innistrad this time.

Kamigawa seems like a fresh idea for the franchise, being the first real sci-fi adjacent setting we’ve really ever gotten, and the idea of seeing how a plane evolves in 2000 years has me invested, especially when there is promise to respect the canon of the plane, and that there are real Asian writers working on the set.

And the story, from what I understand, actually seems to be not half bad at the moment, which is always a great thing.

Now the bad.

For every cool thing that seems to happening in regards to lore and care given to sets and stuff, Wizards of the Coast has done nothing to curb the idea that all they care about is money, given how they are creating and distributing product, and I’m still not looking forward to Universes Beyond creeping into non-standard formats, which given I only ever play Commander, bothers me.

UB doesn’t bother me near as much as it did at announcement, but I think there is a fair and legitimate argument to be made about my following thoughts: I got invested in the game for the lore of Magic: the Gathering, for its characters, its settings, and its themes. I sit down at the table, and expect to see those things, because that is how the game was advertised to me when I got into it, and how it’s been for over 20 years and my entire time as a player. “You are a Planeswalker.” That is legit the sentence that sold me on the game, the idea that I could play as my own planeswalker, and for a bit, pretend I’m someone I’m not. While the game on its own is amazingly put together, the rules and gameplay are utterly dwarfed when it comes to my love of the flavor within the game. That is why I play.

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with crossing over with other franchises, I don’t personally feel like sitting down and experiencing that. That is not why I bought or play the game. When I put money into this game, I want the experience I paid for, which had been the same up until basically now. I want to be a planeswalker, within the setting sold to me at the start. There is nothing wrong with my opinion on this, just as there’s nothing wrong with people that want to play with those cards. Both ideas can exist in tandem.

I think a good analogy is, well, any other piece of media to exist. While there are absolutely people that bought Skyrim to mod in Thomas the Tank Engine, there are definitely people that didn’t, and they have the choice to play their way. If someone likes Iron Man but not Thor, they aren’t required to enjoy and watch the Avengers. The only difference is that Magic is a multiplayer game, so the opinion of my potential opponent matters as well as mine. If I legit just want to play a game for the game and ignore the lore, I don’t really care what cards they play with, but if I want to play for the reasons I got into the game in the first place, to feel like a planeswalker, if only for a moment, then I’m not going to disrespect my opponent by sitting down to a game I won’t enjoy and not being a fun opponent for them. There’s nothing wrong with that, and if I can’t find people to play with because of my feelings, that’s my problem, not theirs.

Really the only people I feel like blaming are Wizards of the Coast, not because they’ve ruined the game, not that at all, but because they once again seemed to care more about the money here. Something I’ve stated in the past is that, honestly, I like the potential from crossovers. Magic has the best rule set of any tcg I’ve played, and I want to see other properties use it, and how they can play with the themes and ideas the rules allow them to. My issue is that Universes Beyond feels like an afterthought, in a way. It feels like they were so preoccupied with the potential money they’d get from both brand holders and interested players that they didn’t think about how these mechanically unique cards would affect non-standard formats, and did nothing to prevent them or limit them within those formats. Or how players invested in the lore and “You are a Planeswalker” branding might feel, but I realize we’re a minority so that’s not the biggest deal.

I’ll go ahead and back Mark Rosewater up in his belief that making these cards silver border would have made the general fanbase treat them as lesser or even fake cards, because given how people I know personally have treated silver border cards in the past, I feel he’s absolutely right. However, I honestly don’t understand why it wasn’t possible to have a specific Universes Beyond format for things like Commander, that just says anything goes, and then Standard Commander (not sure if that name works, given the standard format), where Universes Beyond cards aren’t legal.

Anyway, Wizards of the Coast has yet to do anything to prove they aren’t capitalist, money hungry people, and my issues of poor representation, queer, racial, or otherwise within the game, while improving ever so slightly, are still not improved to a degree that feels more than peppered in to shut people up. So, while I’m interested in what’s coming out within the game, I still don’t feel super comfortable giving WotC much money. I’m interested in these things because the lore seems fun, which as I’ve hopefully made clear, is what I enjoy in the franchise. Let me openly support the things I do enjoy, in hopes I can see more of it going forward.

I might dust off my fanwalker to engage with the improving lore soon, but I still don’t plan on jumping headfirst into Magic for the reasons I’ve listed and others I’ve listed in the past.

#magic the gathering #wizards of the coast #wotc #mtg #venting #ranting #my opinions are my own #absolutely no judgement on those that disagree or feel differently #long post

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myhahnestopinion · 4 years

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THE AARONS 2020 - Best TV Episode

I had to cancel a lot of streaming services this year. They know what they did wrong. Here are the Aarons for Best TV Episode:

#10. “Take Your Choice” (Batwoman, Season 1, Episode 12)

Coming out of the Infinite Earths crossover, Batwoman is left with a personal Crisis of conscience: Kate Kane’s efforts to redeem the villainous Alice, her presumed-dead sister, are derailed by the arrival of an alternate-universe version of her, one who didn’t suffer the same traumatic events. Multiverse collapse means only one can live, compelling Kate to choose between fighting a righteous lost cause or taking the easier path back to normalcy, the kind of complex moral dilemma that heroes are forged in. The original Alice is seen as both abuser and victim within, torturing Kate over her own lingering trauma, while fearing a second, far-worse abandonment. This enhanced sibling conflict reinvigorated the season’s second half. It’s unfortunate that dynamic is now lost with the decision to replace, not recast, Batwoman going forward, but, well, a choice had to be made.

#9. “The One Where We’re Trapped on TV” (Legends of Tomorrow, Season 5, Episode 14)

With back-to-back shows on this list, it’s clear The CW’s sweeping interconnected universe is still going strong, but they’re not done conquering the airwaves yet. In their latest bit of meta-mischief, the crew behind the show Legends of Tomorrow flexed their creative freedom and trapped the on-screen crew of Legends of Tomorrow within various television parodies, including Friends, Downton Abbey, and Star Trek. Each is brought to life with expert lived-in details by long-term producer and first-time director Marc Guggenheim. The cast gamely tunes in to the needs of each as well, hamming it up with Shatner-impressions and droll sitcom style. It’s all held together by the show’s lovable mush; if you’re looking for unique, heartfelt television, the Legends are on it.

#8. “Zoey’s Extraordinary Glitch” (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, Season 1, Episode 8)

Despite her being the star of the show, Playlist kept skipping over Jane Levy for its big musical numbers, a consequence of its concept that Zoey is the one hearing other people’s thoughts expressed in song. That oversight was paused in the show’s eighth production, which gave her a show-stopping spotlight all her own. It wasn’t just Levy’s rendition of pop songs that were a hit, but how reality hit for the character after signing her heart out. The playful subversion of Playlist’s formula dialed cringe-comedy to the max, while shattering the limitations of its unusual premise. If the show keeps shuffling itself around like it did here, it won’t be played out anytime soon.

#7. “Sundown” (Lovecraft Country, Season 1, Episode 1)

The unknown is an alluring yet dangerous place. That’s the concept at the heart of infamous horror author H.P. Lovecraft’s work, and the principle carries over to J.J. Abrams and Jordan Peele’s inspired TV show. Atticus Freeman can’t resist that unknown when he receives a mysterious letter from his missing father, and sets off on a road trip beset by monsters to find him. The episode is a wicked homage to the petrifying creatures of Lovecraft lore, but its true horror lies in its subversion of those stories. Lovecraft, an unapologetic racist, founded his fears in that bigotry; Lovecraft Country centers people of color in its narrative, contending with those racist fears within monsters that walk among us. This balance of reverence and rejection is never better than in this first episode; “Sundown” is the highest point in the unearthly Lovecraft Country.

#6. “The Curse” (What We Do in the Shadows, Season 2, Episode 4)

STOP! If you are reading this, you have been cursed! You will be visited by Bloody Mary tonight if you do not forward The Aarons to ten other people.

...It was a familiar hoax to earlier adopters of the internet, a bit of viral villany that used the anonymous and unfathomable nature of the world wide web to spook even the most shrewd of children. To a clan of vampires though, incredulity is already out the window. That’s the clever catch of this episode, in which the long-undead crew scramble to get a crash-course in the technological age to avoid such a prophesied ghostly encounter. It’s a devilishly funny dance of dramatic irony… or is it? I can say with certainty that “The Curse” is a real one, so best get forwarding, readers.

#5. “Ego Death” (I May Destroy You, Season 1, Episode 12)

There was always an inevitability to I May Destroy You: a miniseries needs a denouement. That’s a greater dilemma when your subject is recovering in the wake of sexual assault, a situation that’s rarely cleanly resolved. “Ego Death,” the final installment in the resolutely honest show, doesn’t shy away from that difficulty. Creator and star Michaela Cola’s Arabella has a chance recognition of her assailant, and the episode runs through several possible reactions for her to that encounter. It’s as furious and yet funny as the show consistently was, while always holding firm to the promise of its title: assault need not define you, destruction is not inevitable.

#4. “Bagman” (Better Call Saul, Season 5, Episode 8)

Vince Gilligan built his empire on exploring what will make a person reach their breaking point; after five seasons of build up, he burdened Saul Goodman with as much as the man can bear. Taking cues from a classic episode of the original series, “4 Days Out,” Saul Goodman is stranded in the desert, forced to degradingly drink his own urine while lugging around duffle bags of cash, after a trepidatious handoff is ambushed by a rival drug cartel. Worse, he’s being chased by a surviving shooter. Gilligan loads the episode up with the distinctive visual flourish, attention to detail, and gripping tension that are the hallmarks of his work; when it comes to making standout television, Gilligan’s got it in the bag, man.

#3. “The Phantom Apprentice” (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Season 7, Episode 10)

There was a clear force pushing Disney to revive The Clone Wars after seven years off the air: bringing balance to the franchise. The last third of the season finally fulfilled the show’s destiny, running parallel to the events of Revenge of the Sith from the perspective of its original creation, Ahsoka Tano. The entire operatic arc rivaled the power of its cinematic counterparts, but my chosen one is its second part, in which Ahsoka and a revived Darth Maul duel above an under-siege Mandalore. The dazzling lightsaber fight was rendered using motion capture technology, providing viewers with another dizzying high ground from which to watch the fall of the Republic.

#2. “The View from Halfway Down” (BoJack Horseman, Season 6, Episode 15)

The long-standing question of viewers of BoJack was whether it would result in tragedy or recovery; in the end, the show had its horse and ate it too. The series finale, in which BoJack makes peace in his ruined friendships, could have easily grazed this list, but I gave the edge to the penultimate episode in the horse race. “The View from Halfway Down” is a fake out, a fever dream of finality as BoJack lays drowning in his pool, but it’s no half-measure. It’s a merciless manifestation of fears and regrets, forcing BoJack to confront all the darkness he’s been running from, with the haunting sensation that, this time, he might be in too deep. It’s a brutal piece of TV viewing, but the glass is halfway full: BoJack’s at his lowest point, but the episode is Bojack at its highest.

AND THE BEST TV EPISODE OF 2020 IS...

#1. “A Dark, Quiet Death” (Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet, Season 1, Episode 5)

Mythic Quest took an unexpected detour early on in its debut season, chronicling the personal and professional growth and decay of couple Doc and Bean, video game designers who originally occupied the current headquarters of the show’s regular cast. Guest stars Jake Johnson and Cristin Milioti give life to “Death,” charming viewers and each other from their meet-cute to their late-in-life reunion. It’s a surprisingly surefooted key stroke for a first season sitcom, developing the entire show’s central thesis on the strength of this standalone episode. Bean and Doc act as a cautionary tale for both the destructive power of ego and the corrosive nature of capitalism; a carved heart from the two adorns the office as an omen while the modern day characters lock horns with the same beasts. Now that’s a scrumptious bit of mythmaking.

NEXT UP: THE 2020 AARON FOR BEST TV PERFORMANCE!

#tv #TheAarons2020 #TheAarons #TheAaronsTV #best of 2020 #batwoman #legends of tomorrow #zoey's extraordinary playlist #lovecraft country #what we do in the shadows #i may destroy you #better call saul #star wars #the clone wars #bojack horseman #mythic quest

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