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cow-rants · 4 months

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Fair warning: this post is in regards to the recent Assassin’s Creed: Shadows trailer. I will talk about my thoughts and feelings regarding race. Thank you.

I’ve been a massive fan of Assassin’s creed (AC) since I first saw my uncle playing it at 7 or 8 years old. I’m a massive history buff and the idea of being able to experience the past through the eyes of an ancestor is such a brilliant idea. Not mention the concept of a secret war being fought through out the centuries is always fun. But as of late, I haven’t been really excited for a new entry. Odyssey was the last game I really played and it was alright, but I’m personally not a huge fan of the new RPG mechanics (although I do understand why they were implemented).

Valhalla looked interesting, but didn’t really feel like an AC game to me. So I put it on my “to play later” list. Mirage looked far better and I definitely do want to play it, but I honestly just haven’t felt a super big pull to pick it up. But when I saw that AC was finally going to Japan, I was ecstatic. I adore Japanese history in general and the Sengoku period is full of interesting conflicts and characters that would fit perfectly with the assassin’s and the templars.

Although they went with some pretty standard people to showcase, such as Oda Nobunaga, I still think they have a chance to do something really interesting story wise (of course, reserve all real judgement for the gameplay reveal. But I’m mainly just talking about the story). Especially with the portrayal of Yasuke. From what I could tell, it seems like his story will be one of disillusionment, possibly betrayal, and redemption. Certainly a story we’ve seen before, but it’s still interesting to see Yasuke in something as big as AC.

Before I get into the more unfortunate discourse regarding Yasuke, I absolutely have to talk about Naoe. See, what caught my eye about her was how she and my OWN AC OC have very similar stories. Well, I don’t know for sure. But they certainly share a similar experience, which is watching their families be butchered by Oda Nobunaga’s armies. It’s not much, but by the gods does it make me pretty happy. My OC’s name is Minori Kishimoto and she’s one of my favorites, so seeing a canon character with some similar traits is kind of exciting for me (okay, very exciting).

Anyhow, back to Yasuke. As soon as I saw the trailer, I knew I was going to see people saying something stupid. So I checked both the comments on the video and twitter. And I was certainly not mistaken. So so so many bad takes and ridiculous arguments that, honestly, only go to show either mild racism or straight up hatred toward African people. Not to mention the fact that they completely ignore Naoe as a protagonist. I guess she must be the greatest assassin of all time.

From what I understand, a lot of people are upset that for a Japan centered AC game, there is a black protagonist. Which, again, ignores Naoe entirely. The biggest argument I have heared against Yasuke being one of the protagonists is that he wasn’t actually a samurai. To which I say: False. Incorrect. Mistaken. Wrong. Factually incorrect.

The primary issue here is the fact that many people refer to him as a retainer. A title that he never officially held, as far as I’m aware, but even so that still makes him Samurai! Looking just at the facts of his life, he was respected by arguably the most powerful Daimyo of that time, earned his trust, received a pension, received a sword, and received property. So then the question becomes: what exactly makes a person a samurai at this time? Because I can tell you one thing, it isn’t noble blood.

A peasant man was once hired by Nobunaga to do a multitude of tasks, one of which was to hold his sandals. This man would soon prove himself to be capable of all of his tasks as well as in the art of war. He would become a powerful man and rise through the ranks until he held the rank of Taiko at the end of his life . That man was Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

If Hideyoshi’s story proves one thing, it’s that at this time anyone could rise to become a daimyo. So then, why wouldn’t Yasuke also be considered a samurai? We’re not even trying to claim he was a daimyo, just that he was a samurai. Retainer, bodyguard, slave, whatever. The fact is that the man was 10000% a samurai and was a respected one at that. To claim otherwise is to prove yourself ignorant in the history you claim to be proficient in, and incompetent at backing up your argument.

Not to mention that from a writing point of view, it’s a brilliant move. Yasuke was not super well recorded and thus is relatively unknown to others. Which makes him perfect for being a:

1. Fish out of water character

2. Real person, that can be treated written like a fictional one

All of this to say, I think that this newest Assassin’s Creed has a chance to become one of my personal favorites. As well as putting the series back on the map for many. But, with no gameplay and an already worrying pre-order package, I’m worried to say the least. Only time will tell, but I look forward to it.

#assassin's creed #assassin’s creed shadows #video games #ac yasuke #AC Naoe #rant post

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conniemb · 1 year

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The difference between "fanatics and gamers"

So basically I'm just gonna word vomit about this topic in regards to destiny because it's been on my mind a lot recently since I've came back to destiny and I've been watching a few vids on the whole discourse surrounding destiny and it's state as a game and feel like I've kinda come to a resolution in my mind about why a lot of this is happening and why some people feel differently about the game. PSA this post isn't supposed to be some big angry discussion trying to say people's concerns about the game is wrong or invalid I kinda jus wanna spew my thoughts out there but do feel free to comment your thoughts about it if you wanna discuss it!

So I start by differentiating between "fanatics" and "gamers" which probably seems like a cringey way to put it but it's the only kind of physical representation of both sides that I could think of. So fanatics are people I'd describe as being absorbed in every aspect of the game, lore, art comics, gameplay, characters etc the type of people who are out here writing fanfics and creating ocs where as gamers are people that are here solely for the game itself. They are playing a game for its mechanics and enjoyment and their involvement in the greater community doesn't span much further than that. They might be interested in the lore (obviously you'd have to enjoy the story to play the game in the first place) but they're not out here making their own content in regards to the game i.e reading/creating fanfics and ocs etc. Now after establishing what each side means from what I can tell the people most upset by the state of the game are the gamers while the ones defending the Devs and just having a good time within the game and it's universe are the fanatics.

So why are people mad?

Well both sides seem mad in the current situation of destiny. The gamers are upset that the contents running dry and the fanatics are getting upset about the gamers constant anger and bashing directed towards the game and the Devs. Like don't get me wrong I understand where people come from when they're annoyed about bugs, it makes the game harder to play and then there's the issue of content running dry and then the vaulting of older content (something that I find extremely upsetting). But I think the constant negative approach towards these issues isn't always healthy to the game, play wise and the actual players mental health wise. I recently watched Mr Fruits video on this talking about the video Datto made and I think the main message there is something that so many gamers need to keep in mind and it's that if your not having fun playing a game and you can't find anymore satisfaction from it play something else. If your playing a game for the content it's Devs are providing you and that content isn't as fulfilling and entertaining for you anymore then just play something else for a while. I think a lot of people have these really unrealistic expectations as to what the Devs can produce within the game and I think if you believe the Devs are seeing the discourse going on in the community and people voicing their issues with the game and are just deciding to sit back idly and do nothing about it then you're a fukin idiot. The people at Bungie are just that, people. People with limitations. There's probably an infinite amount of reasons as to why the issues that're there are there and these things will take a long ass time to fix. If they were easy to fix everyone and their nan would be making bestselling games. In terms of content running dry for people of course this is gonna happen. There's a limit on people's creativity and the amount of content a single group of people are able to produce. And with the amount of content already in the game it's gonna be extremely hard to make new content that's cohesive and makes sense in the greater universe of the game. So yeah it might've only taken you a couple tens of hours to complete the campaign content with your clan full of experienced players but that's not what it's there for in my opinion. The game isn't there to just be played it's there to be enjoyed fully and completely. This is content that the creators have poured months of their lives into thinking up and designing. If destiny was pumping out content at the rate some people seem to think it should come out the game would be a shit show. It would be riddled with plot holes, stuff that just doesn't make sense and would eventually fuck up the game even more gameplay wise. I'm sorry but I don't want this game to turn into some sci-fi Fortnite. I want the Devs to take their time making compelling content that's actually engaging.

Superiority of the fanatics

Please hear the sarcasm in that subtitle but the point of what I'm saying is the fanatics are the ones winning here and I think this is the fangroup that the games actually directed towards. Destiny is a storytellers game, that much is obvious from the games expansive lore and world building. Your given a platform to create your own character and create their story following the campaigns that the company themselves are providing which is something very reminiscent of ttrpgs like dnd or lancer. Obviously it's not got the same customisation as those games but the idea is there. The reason why a lot of fanatics aren't getting super upset about the "lack of content" in the game and it's bugs is because they understand that the content is fucking there but sometimes you gotta warp the content yourself a little to keep up that sense of enjoyment. People do this by writing fanfics, creating art, creating ocs etc. When Bungie aren't directly giving us content to play we are making our own content and sharing it with others because this is what destiny is for us it's not just a game it's a world we're experiencing and being a part of. And that's my point, destiny isn't a game for gameplay mechanics sake and if your playing it for that reason and getting upset then it should be obvious your playing the wrong game and maybe it's time to take a break and try something new. If your wanting a game that spoon feeds you content to keep you hooked then I don't think Destiny is the game for you it's never been that sort of game in my opinion. When I came back to destiny I was hyped to dive head first into lore books, video essays, blogs because I knew I had a lot to learn and create myself and that's what I expect from destiny and tbh it's what I'd think any newcomer to the game should expect. And in terms of bugs in the game obviously they're annoying but I feel like from having a greater respect for the Devs and the content they're making your in a mindset that makes it easier to digest that these things take time. For a company to be making all this content, world building, server mechanics, game mechanics and so much more it's gonna be rough to get to every single bug in the game. And tbh I've been playing the game again for almost a month now and I haven't actually experienced that many bugs in the game, no more than what I've seen in other games I've been playing but I want everyone to take that with a heavy pinch of salt because obviously everyone's experience within the game is different.

The issues of paywalls and vaulting content.

Now this. THIIIISS. I get it, I really do having to pay for seasonal content and constant dlcs is probably the most frustrating thing about modern gaming. But that's the thing it's not just a destiny issue this is a modern gaming worldwide issue. Fucking hell even Pokémon is drifting into the dlc hell hole and paywalls with many of their services. Like it's just apart of gaming now and it can be frustrating but it's something you kinda gotta accept and it's not something you're gonna really be able to avoid no matter what game you play that isn't an indie game. As for the vaulting of older content and the removal of game aspects as seasons progress this is probably the single most frustrating thing about the game right now for me especially as a returning player but I also see why destiny is doing it. The game is reaching a size which is becoming unmanageable and the removal of some content is a necessary evil to keep the game going in my opinion. And to Bungies credit they have announced they will be no longer vaulting dlc content going forwards since last year I believe. And look yeah you can't play the content anymore but it's still out there to enjoy in the form of lore and video essays and play through videos. It's not the same but it's something and I've been enjoying sifting through the content available to me. Again I feel this is where the difference in destiny fan comes in. Gamers aren't satisfied with just consuming content about the game which is a totally fair stance to have on the game but there's also a number of games out there that aren't doing this sort of stuff cus they dont have to and maybe those are the type of games that you should play.

The state of the game for new and returning players.

Now this is probably my biggest fukin gripe with the gamers side of the community because in my opinion the biggest thing that's damaging the experience for new and returning players isn't the games bugs, it isn't the games slow approach to releasing new content or the vaulting of content, it's the constant negativity being emitted by that side of the community in regards to the game and the Devs as well as their attitude towards people wanting to learn more about the game. When I decided I wanted to make a return to destiny I did what I'd say a lot of other people have done and taken to sites like Reddit to ask questions about the game so I'd have some idea of what to expect coming back in and the responses of got of people who are meant the be "fans" of the game were sickening. Id have to sift through maybe 15 responses telling me to delete the game, I'm an idiot for wanting to play it, the games at its worst state than ever, there's no point even trying, before I found even one post actually giving me the information I was asking for and giving me tips on how to get back into the game. The only thing that actually made me contemplate not getting back into destiny was the constant negativity being emitted by that side of the community during that time. Not the negative aspects of the game that're definitely there, it was just the sheer miserable energy I was receiving from these people. And that's the thing while yes the game really isn't at its best state for new or returning players there are still ways to make it work and I found those ways buried underneath all the bullshit negativity the others were spouting. This is what's hurting the games ratings in my opinion. The games not at its worst state it's ever been for new and returning players entirely because of what the Devs are doing, a huge chunk of that issue is the negativity coming from this side of the player base.

In conclusion.

If your not enjoying destiny at this moment in time then stop playing for a bit. Maybe consider that this game isn't for you. Voice your opinions and concerns in a respectful manner. And for new people wanting to get into destiny jump right in! If you wanna get the most out of the game then it's gonna take some effort ima he honest. It's gonna take more than just hopping on the game and playing. And if that's not your vibe then that's totally fair not every game is gonna be for every player. And take my advice if you do wanna learn more about the game and how to get into it please stay away from Reddit. Stick to Tumblr people are actually nice here and wanna educate you in a positive and reaffirming way that is healthy for the state of the game and it's community. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

#destiny 2 #destiny the game #vent post #bungie #new destiny player #kindergaurdian

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eulaliasims · 10 months

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Get to know you: Sims Style

Ty for the tag @executables-sims. ^^

What’s your favorite Sims death?

idk this time, whoops. I haven't had a sim die in my game except by old age for a while. 🤔

Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

Both? Is that an option? Both. Really, I like aspects of both and so I blend both in my game. Alpha hair and clay hair, maxis match objects and realistic objects, whatever, if it fits in my game I'll use it.

Do you cheat your sims weight?

I used the SimBlender to change some of the models fit states on my last download post; otherwise, no.

Do you move objects?

I move so many objects, baby 😎

Favorite Mod?

My enormous hacks folder makes this hard to answer, lol. I'll shout out Epi's Baby Personality mod, b/c finally I'm getting some sims with more than 0 to 1 nice points born in Middleground again.

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack?

It was Pets. Because I've always been an animal lover and it came out right after I started playing.

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing?

It's still LIV mode and I'll still die on this hill.

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

Made? Idk, I don't often make sims to play (I think I picked Jackie from Far Valley last time), so I'll show you my favorite born in-game sim!

is anyone surprised (if you're new here, that's Clara Blanch)

Have you made a simself?

Yeah, but she no longer exists in my sim bin and no one gets to see her.

Which is your favorite EA hair color?

Black? I guess? Idk, I don't really have a favorite hair color.

Favorite EA hair?

Hmm, I don't remember what I answered last time I did this one. I think the little half-up ponytail from Seasons.

Favorite life stage?

Is it a cop-out if I say everything besides the infant stage? (Does that one even count? They're basically potatoes.) Playing this hood for so long, I've come to enjoy playing sims through each of their life stages. Toddler and kid are cute; teen stage is fun because I get to explore their personality and interests more, and ofc there's budding romances for sims who are into that; adult stage, I get to build their lives and see what their own family turns out like; and elders in my game usually get to relax and savor things once they retire, and spend a lot of time with their family and friends and hobbies, which can be a nice change of pace.

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

insert both is good gif from @executables-sims's post here

Are you a CC creator?

Sometimes!

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad?

Yeah, though the concept of a sim squad is so funny to me for some reason.

Do you have any sims merch?

Nope

Do you have a YouTube for sims?

Nooooope. I like to watch some simmers, especially speedbuilds (shout out to @kayleigh-83 and @nervosims for their great speedbuild vids!), but no one would enjoy me flitting back and forth between seven different things at once, lmao

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing?

Play style or aesthetic style? They've both changed over time. Gameplay wise, I really only stick with Middleground and my rotational play now, whereas I used to start (and abandon) a lot of legacies, tried at least one BACC, just random sims that were fun to play. Aesthetically... hmm, you know, I'm not sure this has changed *that* much. Here's Clara circa 2011:

I use more matte skins now, and the style of clothing I download has probably changed the most, but I could absolutely recreate this pic without downloading anything new, including the CC stuff in the background.

Who’s your favorite CC creator?

Don't make me pick one!! If you're really interested, check my sims pinterest in my pinned post, I'm sure there's patterns there.

How long have you had Simblr?

*checks archive* ...Ten years next May, yikes!

What expansion/gamepack is your favorite?

Hmmm, I'm going to say Apartment Life this time. I've really been enjoying playing witches lately, and it added a lot of buy/build items I like. Or maybe Uni??? No, AL it is.

Tagging, uhhh, I'm a little late so sorry if you already did this and I missed it!: @isimchi, @tvickiesims, @episims, @anachronisims, @sushigal007

#meme

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viridiave · 11 months

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A little love post to HORROR JRPGs

Content Warning:

So I'm gonna be talking a lot about some pre-Undertale era RPG Maker Horror games, and this post is gonna contain both spoilers and the discussion of the following:

Blood and Gore

Psychological horror

Child abuse

Sexual assault

Suicide

Violence

Fictional minors being put into very messed up situations, because that's just the kinds of games these are

Other upsetting themes

Hetalia (because I can imagine that all of us have very complex feelings about this fucking franchise. It existing feels like it needs a warning)

This post is a nostalgia trip and exists purely because uh. I have literally no one else to talk to about these games, and please just click away if any of the above makes you uncomfortable in any way. Some of this stuff can't exactly be handwaved as just being products of their time.

I'll draw smthn real quick later just to make up for it I promise

I'm like days late to Halloween but I just wanted to write this after getting a bout of nostalgia lmao

I absolutely fucking love Horror JRPGs - the freeware ones, even though I haven't touched one in a LONG time. I'm talking about the pre-Undertale era freeware games by the way, and in the first place I don't think I can consider Undertale a horror game but that's a topic for another day. OneShot also doesn't count aksjak OneShot gives me existential dread and a nonzero amount of guilt sure, but never terror

But let's dial that back a bit.

To begin with. 'Vir, you're a fucking coward, you run upstairs when you see that someone on TV has a gun. You can't stand watching horror movies. How the FUCK did this happen'

Weirdly, you can thank Hetalia for that. Specifically, the freeware Hetalia fangames that used to circulate on DeviantArt - that shit led me down this rabbit hole. And I guess it made sense, most Hetalia fangames are a coin toss between a horror game and a fantasy JRPG with countries getting isekai'd. I also played the fuck out of those.

For a bit of background, I love video games, but neither me nor my family ever really had that much spending power to buy game consoles, so my selection was pretty limited. Before I turned 18, I remember that we owned a GameBoy, a GameBoy Advance, a PSP, and one of those Fun-Sized Nintendo consoles with built-in games. We never bought cartridges either. I got my first DS from my dad on my birthday when I turned 18, and that's all the consoles that my family has ever owned. Still kinda jealous of my friends who have Switches, but eh - one day.

I just played a lot of Harvest Moon growing up, that's been my object of interest in my elementary days. The most of a horror game that I've been exposed to was watching my friends play Five Nights At Freddy's back in 5th grade.

Then high school happened, and I got new friends and shit - and was introduced to both more conventional horror games and Hetalia. Which is. A really weird combination when I think about it now, but everyone who was alive and kicking around in the early 2010's would know what HetaOni is, and you can see how that slope led to me playing freeware horror games. I'll always be grateful to these games, seeing as I never had easy access to mainstream experiences growing up.

I think I played HetaOni exactly once, on my first laptop. I played most Hetalia fangames exactly once, but they all just stayed on my old hard drive. None of them really had anything interesting going on gameplay-wise, I mean it's RPGMaker and these were people who just really wanted to make Hetalia fangames, but I remember some of them just sticking with me. I'd play them while I was away on trips to my grandmother's house, then watch let's plays on YouTube when I wasn't otherwise occupied with schoolwork. Really when I say Let's Plays I only mean KyoKoon64's - and that's how I was actually introduced to horror JRPGs.

CLOÉ'S REQUIEM

There's been a couple of times where they played some of the more recognizable horror JRPGs on their channel, but the first one I REALLY saw a playthrough on was one called Cloé's Requiem. I don't know what exactly it was about this specific game that stuck with me, and at the time I didn't know that this had like. More warnings than you would usually find on a horror JRPG. Calling it now, please look up said warnings before you try ANYTHING with this game - I can't promise quality and nuance, but I can promise great moments. Those moments stuck with me to this day, SOMEHOW, even after encountering games with better story and gameplay experiences… it's about a cursed 12 year-old boy trying to free a cursed 13 year-old girl, never getting a shot at the normal life he wanted and playing the violin because he can't do much else.

I think this game changed my life. Not in like, any grand manner mind you - but I feel like it's the game that best represented this time of my life as a weird high school outsider who obsesses over games that nobody's ever heard about. I was introduced to a lot of things through this game, it's just this whole volley of firsts that I wouldn't trade for anything else. Baby's first horror game, first jumpscare I ever consented to, first taste of games containing disturbing themes of sexual assault and gore, first trips to Pixiv and NicoNicoDouga - just all the fucking firsts. I wouldn't call it a great game, but it IS important to me.

When I think about it now, it's a game about curses. Michel D'Alembert is a talented violinist at 12, and his alcoholic father milks the shit out of this talent because they're not exactly what you would call well-off. His twin brother Pierre is a pianist, is nowhere near as talented as his brother, and hides his misery over this situation under a big-little brother façade. Cloé Ardennes is a pianist too, she's wealthy, talented, and still plays with her stuffed animals. She is cursed with an insane father who rapes her, and a mother who hates her. Charlotte is a young maid with nothing and tries her best, only to be killed because she happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Unsurprisingly things fall apart for everybody very quickly.

Pierre's frustrations with his spoiled, lazy brother boiled over, and he curses Michel out in a heated moment. This drives Michel to murder their Charlotte by accident, and she becomes his curse - he runs out of the house, kills cats, and finds himself in the dilapidated mansion that Cloé inhabits. Cloé by this point is already dead, and so is her dad, her parents, and the maids. Cloé's father may be her curse but she is the curse of this mansion, and it transforms into something hostile until Michel comes along and saves her from the shadow of her father. Michel plays her a requiem, and resolves to go home to confront his crimes - and back to Pierre, who regrets everything he's done. Watching the sun rise with a disappearing Cloé in the True Ending will likely be the last peaceful moment he will ever have in his life.

That's like. Not everything that happens in this game, but this post is already so goddamn long and I still have a lot of other stuff I want to talk about. But the gist of it to me nowadays is that these children are cursed with loveless lives and the whims of the adults that have power over them. In the end, their lives are all ruined. Cloé and Charlotte are dead, and we have no idea what becomes of Michel and Pierre when word gets out that Michel killed a maid and assaulted several others in the house in a fit of emotional instability. In every other ending, Michel is killed and Cloé remains an evil spirit, so really this is the best that anyone ever gets out of this experience.

I remember watching a playthrough of Con Amore on YouTube, but I understood none of it because it was in Japanese, and the game itself was untranslated at the time. It follows the cats Noir and Blanc and basically serves as an addendum to the base game - honestly it made me feel sorry for Charlotte, who was nowhere near as psychotic as Michel thought she was. There's also light novels, but international shipping is expensive and I don't know Japanese so. I'll just never figure out what happens to everyone after the game ends I guess

One of these days, I'll buy the remake on Steam - which exists, and I can't say I recommend it if everything I just listed bothers you in any way. But I can't shake the attachment I feel towards this game no matter how many years it's been, nor how uncomfortable its themes are, so you know - maybe one day. I'll go back to it.

So - following that, I got pretty curious about the other games in this genre of freeware horror. Ib is the one that everyone knows the best, both Markiplier and Pewdiepie played it so you KNOW it gets press, but even in Japan this game was a hell of a hit. To me, it's a simple game that I can finish in an hour, but man what an hour it can be.

If you were to play this game right now after seeing how much press it gets (which I think you should, it's on the Switch now! Go get it!), you MIGHT be a little disappointed. It's nowhere near as gory or disturbing as Cloe's Requiem for one and you know - a bunch of blood and guts and ghosts on the walls does not a good horror game make, but make your choices accordingly. Nah - instead this game's staying power lies in its atmosphere. Like how many games can you say take place inside of an art gallery where most of the pieces try to fucking murder you? I mean there's probably a lot, but something about Ib's almost ambient sense of dread and exploration just kind of sticks in people's brains. Everything's a little scarier when the shapes are so close to being discernable but aren't, and I guess that's the appeal and horror behind Guertena's gallery.

Ib herself is a mute protagonist, pretty typical, but she's also NINE, and the game will let you know that no matter how unfazed she gets or how precocious she can be, she is a child all the same - and children break very easily. I personally love how the game barely has to say anything about how shaken she actually is about her situation, because it will show you how - she has nightmares that you can't escape, she sees herself getting hanged, Garry will need to shake her out of her shock when she sees a picture of her parents in the gallery that should not exist. She loses all of her will to live when she loses Garry to insanity. And speaking of Garry…

There's one standout room in this game and it's the Doll Room. 10/10 would NOT recommend it to anyone who suffers from anxiety because WOW I did not think the RPG Maker 2000 engine could ever have been capable of that. Nobody blames Garry if this room fucks him up. I mean come on the dude has to literally rip open the stomachs of dolls to find a paint ball. Those sound effects make it sound like the dolls are made of skin and flesh and all the while the giant fucking doll is creeping out of the goddamn painting while some of the most anxiety-inducing background noise is playing -

Yeah no I don't know why I ever said you'd be disappointed by this game. Or maybe you still would, this is a low-res game made in 2012. But my god does it TRY to scare you in the best ways it can.

One of the best moments in this game I think is the one where Mary and Ib are alone together, and the conversation gets increasingly unhinged with Mary asking Ib questions non-stop with no background noise other than their steps. At this point, they're separated from Garry, and they're trying to find a way back to each other. Garry meanwhile is slowly piecing together the truth about Mary and how dangerous it is for Ib to remain alone with her, all the while still trying to figure out how to get back to both of them.

The section after that is in the Sketchbook which honestly? The vibes of this place are impeccable. Somehow it's fitting that one of the tensest areas in a game about a fine arts gallery is the place made entirely out of childlike scribbles.

Overall, I'd say the experience is well worth an hour or two - I'd recommend it happily over Cloé's Requiem, if only so you can have a taste of what Horror JRPGs were like before Omori came along. Yes I know that Omori isn't Japanese but it's very much in the same vein as these games.

OTHER GAMES

Those were the safe two that planted my feet firmly into the Horror JRPG fandom, but there's a lot of other titles out there, so let's go - lightning round!

Ao Oni is the ubiquitous one, like chances are you've at least HEARD of it in passing at some point in your life. Like this shit made it to the big screen in Japan, that's how much of a deal it was. I've never played the original myself, but it's partly because its formula of stuck in a mansion with a horror that chases you around is present in pretty much every Horror JRPG after its release in 2007. If you want some classic fun with the big blue demon though then you can't go wrong with the freeware version.

Mad Father and The Witch's House are part of what I like to call the Big 3 of JRPGs starring preteen girls experiencing the Horrors™, mostly because back in the mid-2010's I couldn't go three posts without seeing them all together. Mad Father is the only other one of said Big 3 that I've touched, because I was too coward to touch The Witch's House and Ellen's whole deal remains a mystery to me to this day. I think Mad Father got a remake a couple of years ago, so you can check that out if you want, but keep in mind that these two games in particular might not stoke the same kind of magical staying power that Ib somehow retained years after its release, and I know those two rely on jumpscares a lot more than Ib does.

I'll eat my fedora right here by the way, because one of my cardinal sins of being a Horror JRPG fan is that I've never played Yume Nikki. As far as these freeware games go, this is probably one of the more avant-garde ones - it's artsy, atmospheric, and a game best experienced by getting lost in the strange environments it provides. Out of every game on this post, this is the one I'd describe as the most Earthbound-esque, with its horror lying mostly in the surrealist ambience of just… wandering around in Madotsuki's mind. The end is just as quiet as the beginning, but is no less chilling to watch happen. Then you fuck around a little bit on Youtube and you find out what's actually going on, and uh - yeah that checks out, cosmic horror sounds par for the course at this point.

Yume Nikki and OFF are two of the games I think of when I hear about Horror JRPGs being talked about alongside Undertale - and nope, I haven't played OFF either. That's my other Horror JRPG sin. I was a picky teenager, but I've grown now and wow I need to find a time to play these games in peace. OFF actually isn't even Japanese, it was developed by Mortis Ghost and released in French back in 2008, making both pretty old and already pretty weird in the library. The reason I bring up OFF is because it's one of the older examples I know of that also incorporate Earthbound's precision 4th-wall breaks, and that it's a game about judgment and interrogates the player (more you than the Batter you play as, serving more as a vehicle that the game uses to ask questions through) about the choices they make in the game. OneShot is probably the one game in this genre of indie RPG that I know so far that employs this metaphysical idea of the player existing in the game in any kind of charitable fashion (aside from again, Earthbound and to some extent Mother 3), so between it, OFF, and Undertale they're what I'd refer to as the Interface Screw-RPG Trio.

Some other titles that I like are between the same devs, even some that I haven't really played to completion. Cloé's Requiem for example was made by Buriki Clock, and they've made other titles like Fantasy Maiden's Off Hideout and Trauma Traum - the latter I can't play because it doesn't have an English translation rip. Miwashiba is another dev which I think people who have a taste for light lolita goth-pastel colors would like, because my god the character designs in both Alice Mare and LiEat are peak. Don't even get me started on the fashion of 1BitHeart because everything in that game has such an impeccable aesthetic. I think I saw something at one point about 1BitHeart that like. Might count as a shared joke between Xenoblade fans, but I'd be hard-pressed to give context because again… packed schedule, who dis?

Just to talk about Alice Mare a little more, I've actually played this one - it sports a heavily storybook-inspired cast with some unique tastes on the tales. Most of my actual experiences with Alice Mare were from the English Light Novel, which I do still have! I really recommend it to people who have a couple of hours to spare on some light, relatively bloodless horror. Most of these games have Light Novels, come to think of it - hell Ib even has whole audio dramas, one of which was fanmade in English, and from what I remember of it the voice acting for Mary was PEAK.

One last dev I want to talk about is Segawa. I've saved them for last because their brand of horror is reserved mainly for one game, but their other games Farethere City and Tower of Hanoi are no slouches either. I don't know much about Tower of Hanoi (or if it even has an English translation right now), but Farethere City is a pretty cute experience as far as pseudo-horror games go from what I've heard, which is probably good for us because their other standout game is anything but cute.

END ROLL

Ah, End Roll. The last of the Horror JRPGs I've played before school kicked me even harder in the shins and I had barely any time for it. Out of all the games I mentioned on this list, this is the one with the most staying power in my brain - and also the one that influenced me the most.

So, I don't talk a lot about my original works. Nobody asks, so I don't overshare. But some of the prevalent overarching themes of my personal mythos are those of guilt, self-love, and the burdens of love. All of these themes were lifted directly from End Roll - which is to say, End Roll actually only deals in guilt, my brain just ran buckwild with trying to wrap itself around the logistics behind InfoRuss. One of my main protagonists, Rosso, is a dead-ringer expy of Russell - the same goes for Blanco with the Informant. One of the only ways I can describe Rosso and Blanco's relationship is 'selfcest as a metaphor for the painful coexistence of self-love and self-loathing', and how this relationship reached this point was largely thanks to the Informant and his role in Russell's dream.

I don't really know why I've come to associate the idea of self-love with guilt, because that's like. Not what the game is trying to do. The game's express purpose is to tell you the story of a boy who comes to love his victims and self-destructs under the crushing guilt that he carries from killing them. By some weird hand, I've fixated on the Informant and his determination in seeing that mission of the game through - AND his secret boss fight. Actually, I should. Go ahead and describe the build-up to his secret boss fight

You can only access it if you've purchased the optional villa, and if I recall correctly you can only fight him on the last day of the dream. The locked shed next to the villa is revealed to be a library of some kind called the Graveyard of Books and like - sure enough, there's books of every kind just torn apart and scattered about everywhere. The reason for all of this is because of the Informant's jealousy. He is created specifically so he can provide Russell with the necessary information to complete the Happy Dream Experiment, and in this regard he thinks Russell doesn't need anyone other source of information than him. So he does away with the useless other books, except for the strategy guides because that's the only kind of book Russell likes - and thus, the only kind of book that the Informant likes. Notes are scattered in the hallway leading up into his boss room, with the last one sticking out in my mind to this day:

'He thinks he's the most important thing to you.'

Which. I don't know why that line is so important to me. Whether it be because it awakened something weird in me, or because I myself was dealing with my self-loathing in a VERY complicated manner at the time, that line has gone on to dictate the way that I write about my characters even to this day.

It's such a visceral depiction of self-inflicted brutality. Russell Seager is a 14 year-old serial killer who grew up loveless and abused, and has no shortage of things that make every waking moment of his life fucked up. He killed people - some who just happened to be wherever he was at the time, some willingly by his hand - could not feel guilt about any of it, and when he lost Yumi to his drunken father while his nymphomaniac mother watched he snapped and killed both his tormentors. He then turned himself in to the police, a teen on death row. Happy Dream is him discovering guilt through dream versions of the people he killed. Happy Dream is what allows him to manifest the newfound emotions he felt through interacting with the kinds of people that his victims COULD have been. The world he creates morphs into the self-inflicted hell that is his guilt.

Russell has no happy ending, his guilt won't allow him that. Everything around him becomes a reminder of the lives he's destroyed, and how much of a living hell his own life was. Through feeling happiness and love from these fabricated visages of the people he killed, he learned guilt. It's such a weird exercise in sympathy, knowing that you're playing as this remorseless kid going through rehabilitation through extreme means. It either doesn't work, and he's deemed a failure - or it does, and he commits suicide either by confessing his crimes to one of his victims and stabbing himself to death with a syringe, or he stays in the deteriorating dream, never to wake up again.

At some point it honestly just turns into misery porn, if you look at it from a certain angle - this game is set on having Russell die no matter what. I couldn't tell you what EXACTLY it is about this experience was so impactful that it would go on to influence the way I want to spend my life - that is, I want to make games exploring these kinds of themes. Guilt. Sins. If loveless lives can be redeemed and made better. By the time the last day in the game rolls around, it's just a matter of giving Russell closure over his miserable life and choosing for him what his last freedom is going to be.

I think one of the reasons I like thinking about the Informant with regards to Russell is the scene that happens if you choose to go through with the first True Ending. Russell never really much liked the Informant, and the feeling is mutual. Russell is cold to him, and the Informant takes every opportunity he can to rub all of Russell's sins in his face - and that's his job, he represents the fundamental, uncomfortable truths of Happy Dream. If Russell chooses not to leave the dream, he is resigned to its destruction and waits for the inevitable along with the other denizens of Nameless Town. But if Russell chooses to get out of the dream, the Informant returns to Russell in tears, happy that he can finally be back to being a part of him - to this game, it's the ultimate acceptance. Russell then goes on to confess his crimes and the reality of the dream to one of the citizens, and he wakes up when they kill him in tearful retribution by his request.

He grabs the syringe next to his bed, and stabs himself to death, unable to handle the guilt. That's how the game always ends for me. The Informant succeeded, Happy Dream succeeded - and Russell chose to die as person who could finally feel remorse.

It's a regretful story with themes that really shouldn't be replicated in any fashion in real life, but somehow I found it fascinating in the way it explores the facets of the self. It makes me want to ask more questions and explore that angle of self-reflection to the furthest extremes that I can conceivably reach, and I guess that's one of the many reasons why I respect it so much.

SO… WHAT NOW.

Nah, that's kind of it. Like, OF COURSE this isn't all I have to say about the games that I mentioned, but wow this post is so long and I was just pining for the days of a couple of years ago. These games were present for the most transformative years of my life, and uh - whether or not that was actually a good thing remains to be seen, but I'll always be grateful for their presence in the void that I call my gaming experiences.

Horror JRPGs will always have a special place in my heart for how they tell their stories. Nowadays, I've developed more of a taste for fantastical RPGs that prefer to hide their horror in the margins of the narrative, fridging the terror for when the player wants to step back a bit and think about the implications of certain events in the greater world. Undertale, OneShot, and the Octopath Traveler games all tick that box for me - and all of those games are ones I hold dear. Like I'll probably ramble about OneShot some other day, because that's the other game that really changed my life in a way I felt like I can never come back from - but there's just a lot of special things to be said about these neat little self-contained, 6-hour freeware games. For now I'll close this long-ass post out. Happy late Halloween I guess - the M&Ms in our fridge have never tasted better.

#rpg maker horror #rpg maker #horror rpg #ib rpg #cloe's requiem #end roll rpg #ao oni #mad father #the witch's house #OFF rpg #yume nikki #alice mare #farethere city #cw horror #seriously please read the content warnings

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im-just-kinda-here-k · 1 year

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tell me about stellaris in the most autistic way imaginable (i wanna learn by infodump and infodump only)

(Srry this took me so long to answer I wanted to answer once I got home and promptly forgot about it lmao)

So! Stellaris. The 4x game where you genocide in space or something.

I'll start from the top, you will be designing a space-faring empire to play as, staring with...

SPECIES/HOME SYSTEM: This is where your gonna decide what your founding species looks like and what traits they have, as well as what their home planet/star are named. Not to mention you can write a short biography on your empires pre-ftl history here! Role-play wise this will affect your game greatly, but in terms of gameplay its only a big deal early on as barring some exceptions you will like end up with quite the melting pot, and any individual species traits will be of little consequence. The next part will be much more influential, however.

GOVERNMENT: Now we get into the real meat of your empire. Who are they? What do they stand for? What makes them stand out? How do they decide on their leaders? Do they decide on their leaders? You can be militaristic xenophiles who will fight tooth and nail to protect the galaxies people, or a curious hive mind that wants to hoard as much knowledge as it can without coming to blows with its neighbors, and yes, space nazis. Here you can also decide the past of your species, they could be fairly normal, simply reaching out into the stars after a few decades of booming economy, or they could've never lived on a planet at all, being born on floating habitats in the void.

MISC: Just some other details, your first leaders name/gender, what your ships look like, what your advisor sounds like, that kinda stuff.

GAMEPLAY: I'm sorry but I have that committed to muscle memory I would have a stroke if I tried to explain it. Montu and other stellaris youtubers are the best for that.

MODS: For when you've spent 200$ on dlc but want 600$ worth instead. This can be anything from simple tweaks to complete overhauls of the gameplay. My favorite are "gigastructural engineering and more" which expand on the megastructure system (just really big things that make the economy go brrrrrr) and adds lots of post endgame content. (Wanna rearrange entire star systems into mobile weapons platforms and pit them against space cats that consume millions of galaxies to outlive entropy?)

Then there's stellaris evolved, which changes literally every aspect of the game in some way we would be here all day so just know it's amazing.

Alright we've been through a few paragraphs of this so I think it's time to talk about one of my own empires!

THE EMPIRE OF SILDORIA: A long time ago, humans sent out colony ships into a wormhole found at the edge of the solar system, most were destroyed, but one of the surviving ones wound up in a random part of the galaxy, and went a-looking for a new home. But they couldn't find one, supplies were dwindling and systems were failing, so they took a gamble and took up residence in the upper atmosphere of an unusually stable gas giant. It was still a brutal task, where people were worked to death out of necessity rather than greed, but they pulled it off. Floating cities dot the gas planet of sildoria, and after scrounging up enough materials, they have made their way onto the galactic stage. It did not come without cost, however, as the humans, or rather, sildorians, have been fundamental changed by their experiences. Their psyche is unbreakable on a biological level, and their bodies are quite tough as well. They are instinctively inclined to reduce waste, and have a reduced birthrate as a result of cramped conditions. The sildorian government is an interesting one, while it is extremely focused on material gain and expansion of industry, they make sure to take as good care of their people as they can. A sildorian laborer will be expected to give everything they can spare in the workplace, and in exchange they will want for nothing at home. In the future the sildorian empire is likely to take forays into robotics and cybernetics to maximize productivity and comfort. OK that's all I have to say :D

#stellaris #giga mega ultra infodum GO!!!

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legofrans · 9 months

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Fire emblem tier list based on my own personal enjoyment of the games. Don't ask what happened to the colors I'd like to know too. Tiers are ordered.

Obviously heavily biased towards my own tastes, but also to the expectations I had going into each game. This is in no way intended to indicate the actual quality of the games.

Short thoughts on my experience on all the games below. It adds up to a pretty long post.

Fates: I originally played it back in late 2016. Dumb as I was, I thought "oh hey if I just play revelation it'll kind of be like I get to experience both routes right?"

Well it turns out revelation sucks ass. I got to the final chapter but Soleil (I had an affinity for lesbians back then. Wondered why that was) got countered with a 3% crit, I ragequit, and I haven't touched any of the games since.

New years resolution is to play conquest. I've heard good things about it's gameplay so if I go in with 0 expectations for the story I think I'll be able to enjoy it.

Dark dragon and the blade of light, as well as Gaiden, have several problems that can be very neatly summarized: they're old. Not much here in terms of story to comment on.

. . . Engage. Let's start with the good: the gameplay is fantastic. One of the best in the series. Most games add some unique spin on the formula to make it their own, and for most it works out well. Engage takes that and goes above and beyond. Smashing weapons (forgot the term) is a fun addition. Engaging is also a really interesting strategic aspect. Skill management is really, really good. (although I wish weapon durability had also been a part of it.)

Problems start coming with the story. It's pretty much a stock standard Fe story. Evil dragon gets resurrected, we gotta stop him. This is considerably less interesting here than with Marth though. Marth was kind of a nobody (crown prince of a minor country but who is keeping track) while Alear is like. The Divine Dragon. Everyone knows them and loves them and is willing to bend over backwards or the nearest countertop for them. It just does not make for an interesting story for me.

There's also the Emblems! As said, fantastic gameplay addition. Story wise they first make no sense. Secondly, if you're going to put some of the most beloved characters from a franchise in a game, you should make sure they represent how they were in the game. Engage kinda falls flat here imo.

Then there's also the artstyle. I dont think Mika Pikazo is a good fit for fire emblem. It works for a few characters, but overall it leaves me wanting something else. Especially for the Emblems, I don't think I like how any of them look except like Roy and Camilla.

For most of the games in the series I can genuinely say that my critique comes from a love of the game. Im not sure I can say that in regards to Engage. It definitely comes from a love for the series as a whole, but I think engage is the only entry in the series which I actually dislike.

Shadow Dragon! Not too much to say here. It's Marth! You girls know Marth right?

The plot and gameplay are both very basic, and not much to write home about. Marth being s bit of an underdog makes him more interesting than Alear. The reclassing is interesting in concept, but I never really got into it.

New mystery of the emblem is kind of just more of the same, but with a larger cast and everything is happening again. It kind of works.

This entry and Shadow Dragon could kind of go either way, but ultimately the Gaiden chapters are enough of an interesting addition to put new mystery ahead.

Three houses was a pretty fun game! But I don't think it's a good fire emblem game. there's a lot I could say about the monastery and the class system, and the skill system and the grinding and the completely uncapped levels! I have a hard time considering it a mainline entry.

In short, around 70% of the game is either grinding or non-FE gameplay and I didn't enjoy that. What's more, I started with CF, and that route is straight up unfinished.

Three hopes isn't here because it's not a mainline entry but unironically enjoyed it more than Three houses.

Binding Blade! Good game. Good FE too. Pretty basic plot, but it's good enough. I'm not at all fond of the "true ending" stuff and also there's the hitrate issues for everything that's not swords. Roy as a protagonists is also one of the weaker ones in the series I think. Sorry man.

If I had played fe6 before 7 & 8 I'd probably have rated it higher. But all the GBA games are good, and everything that's C-tier and aboveis something I'd recommend.

Genealogy of the holy war is a very different fire emblem, but unlike 3H it is still distinctly Fire emblem. I didn't have much in terms of expectations going into this one. It has a lot of quirks, both good and bad.

The typical story formula has a very nice twist on it this time and keeps things interesting. Which is good since the story is one of the biggest draws, since the game offers a bit less in terms of challenge when compared to the other games in the series.

The gameplay quirks are very interesting, such as weapon kills, but because some units are extremely heavily favored in this game, it only ends up mattering for very few units or if you go out of your way to use other, worse units.

Shadows of Valentia is a game I really would've liked to put in high A-tier. It is probably the best remake of a game I've ever played.

But it's too faithful to the original. My problems with Gaiden were not just that the graphics actually hurt my eyes and that the menus were confusing and everything looked kind of weird. The maps. . . . also kind of suck.

There's too much weird terrain with too powerful bonuses. There's also too much open field. Enemy starting locations feel random. Many maps have one chokepoint to get through and that's all the features there is to it.

And then there's the story. One problem with having the script be about 300 times that of the original is that you can fit so much more misogyny in there. And they did.

Thats the negative stuff out of the way let's go to the positive. The class system rules. I'm a big fan of promotion bonuses going to a class base stat instead of adding flat numbers. The magic system with learned spells and HP cost is also really cool.

The weapon system is also great, with being able to promote certain weapons into other things with special features and skills. I like it! It's interesting! Items are kind of whatever though.

Radiant dawn is a mostly fantastic game with two very big problems and one major nitpick. The latter is that there's true ending bullshit again.

The problems are: the new support system. It's boring. Less opportunity for characterisation for everyone that's not a major player in the story.

The later chapters are also just a slog to get through. If you've been in the Fe fandom for a long time you've probably seen memes about RD enemy phases. It is like that.

Good things! The bonus XP system! It's fantastic. Being able to almost pick which stats you want a unit to grow in if you know what you're doing is great! Makes it so practically every unit can be good.

They did kind of screw over Laguz units though. And the Renning bullshit pisses me off so bad.

Blazing blade is a very good game and was many peoples first FE game. I don't have many thoughts on this. If Blazing blade was a dish it'd be bread dipped in olive oil. Simple. Fantastic. You don't need much more.

Awakening was also the introduction to fire emblem for a lot of people. According to some it saved the franchise, according to others it killed it.

Personally I had a lot of fun playing this. It has many well designed chapters, and a simple and fun skill and class system. Though, it has some issues in overleveling and access to grinding. The pair up mechanic is also somewhat of a double edged sword, which I really like. Do you want one stronger unit, or multiple strong ones? It's interesting! . . . . Until you get to A support or unlock dual guard+ at which point there's just one correct choice.

I really liked how silly the writing in awakening got. Very funny script, and a lot of memorable characters.

Mystery of the emblem turns 30 in a few days, and looks surprisingly good for its age. I started playing this a few months before three houses came out, and I had already played all the other games in the series ('cept fates) at that point. I had low expectations considering how bad DD/Gaiden felt to play, but mystery of the emblem feels almost good to play.

I don't miss weapon level being a stat like all the others. But I do miss the starshards (growth modifiers my beloved) and the very funny again staff.

S tier :)

Sacred stones was the first turn based strategy game I ever played and I've been hooked since. No, real chess does not count.

It has a really good tutorial, it's not that difficult of a game, and it has a very simple and easy to follow plot. It's definitely the best game to play if you want to get into fire emblem.

Chapters are well designed, the graphics are charming, and the characters are too.

Again, all the GBA games are very good. There's not too much to say here.

Path of Radiance features several of my favorite characters in the series. Titania, Ike, Soren, Lethe, Jill, "Eat rock" guy, Leanne, and Lucia.

This is probably the best the series ever got in terms of writing. It breaks of from the typical "oh no the evil dragon is being revived" formula and manages to have a plot that feels much more centered on the characters, which I love. The base conversations really help with that.

It's not just the story that's phenomenal the gameplay is also really good. The skill system is a bit limited, but the decisions feel all the more impactful because of it.

The class system has a pretty unique twist in that your units are promoted by leveling past level 20 this time around. The bonus XP system also helps a lot with that, although the Bonus XP system this time is just random stats, unlike in Radiant dawn.

While not the game I enjoyed the most, it's definitely the game I recommend the highest.

Thracia 776 is almost infamous in the fandom. Its known for being one of the hardest, if not the hardest game in the series. It has a lot of peculiarities, like capturing, leadership stars, movement stars, movement growths, magic and resistance being the same stat, stealing equipped weapons, forced dismounting, no Langes indoors, FUCC, Infinite duration statuses etc. . . Theres a lot going on.

But most of it is really good. And more importantly. Almost all of the bullshit goes both ways. Sleeping enemies sleep permanently. Enemies can capture your units, too.(which also has strategic value since it halves their stars) Your units have leadership stars. The fucking thief staff.

It also features one of my favorite mechanics, the crusader scrolls. It's essentially the same thing as the starshards but this time around they also help preventing crits. The modified growths together with thracias extremely low stat caps means effectively every unit can become very strong. Though there's still FUCC, movement stars, and skills to consider. All units are not created equal.

Thracia also has one of my favorite narratives. It is the smallest scale conflict (except Lyn mode) in the series and it makes for a very interesting change of pace. It's not a grand heroic adventure, but just about Leif trying to live to fight another day.

And that is also pretty well reflected in the gameplay. Thracia introduced both Escape and defense maps. It would've been a very different game if it had been all rout and seize maps.

All in all though, the game does at some points feature some actually unfair and unfun things too. Xavier's recruitment. 24x's warp tiles. Ch.4 if you don't know. Going into Thracia completely blind is a decision you'll have to make on your own. I tried doing that and had to hard reset upon hitting chapter 4. Then I opened a guide, and honestly, I don't regret it. But you should play the game if you haven't. It's good.

Also here's a tier list on how good of a game I think every game is, while trying to be impartial.

#fire emblem #long post #fire emblem path of radiance #fire emblem thracia 776 #fire emblem awakening #fire emblem mystery of the emblem #the rest dont need to be tagged i dont think.

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c7thetumbler · 19 days

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Quick Game Reviews: August 2024

Continuing on with August! A few days late because I was neck deep in the last game on here. It's very platformer heavy this month as well, but I was on a roll.

image from Steam page

Earth Defense Force 6 (Steam)

EDF! EDF!

EDF is a series that knows what it's about. Having played 4 and 5 on Steam as well, this is just more of that. The game boasts half as many more missions as 5 had, which is astonishing because 5 had 100 and that felt like way too many. I'm playing with friends and still haven't beaten it, but I hope to sometime soon.

The main difference I would say between this and 5 would be the plot. It's still the same tacky, B-movie plot with funny stilted dialogue and crazy scenarios, but they introduced a new element to it that lets it get even crazier but also makes me interested in what's going on past "How are we going to win". Gameplay wise, there's new weapons and enemies of course, and some of those new enemies require much more specific ways of dealing with them, but it still usually boils down to "Shoot them all really fast, and if they have a weak point shoot that." It's good, near-mindless fun and I appreciate that.

If you've played an EDF game before, this is more of the same and definitely best with a group of friends. If you haven't, keep that in mind and maybe wait for a sale.

Screenshot from my switch

New Pokémon Snap (Switch)

I didn't own Pokémon Snap on it's original release; I believe the first time I played it was on Wii VC, if not WiiU VC, so I had gotten far past 1st-gen hype that carried it a lot. It's a fun game, but it's pretty short and the lack of variety on each individual course wasn't doing it any favors. That's not to say I disliked it, but when this new one was announced I wasn't really in any hurry to try it out.

To it's credit, it's done a great job of adding features in a way that solves those issues with the original. You can level up each area as you get more points in it, which unlocks alternate routes and events in each one, and a number of them allow you to go at night which is a completely different experience as well. Your Pokedex also store 4 different rankings of pictures which have their own scoreboard, so you're encouraged to take pictures of the same Pokémon over and over again to get the best you can. I'll say this is a huge improvement, and worth the price of the game in terms of length at least, and that's without me going too far into the "post-game" content.

The game is a lot prettier than its current generation at the time, Gen 8, which is really funny given how poorly that game is run. It does a good job of showing you how expressive, interesting, and deep world that the Pokémon games have built but never have been able to explore upon fully due to the scope of those games and Gamefreak's... development practices. Pokémon's a franchise with a lot of incredibly unique gaming potential and side games like this do a great job of exploring that.

I did however find myself getting frustrated at some points. The Challenge system they have where NPC's give you tasks to try and get unique photos is very finnicky. I've often done pictures that I thought would fulfill their requirements, only for them to not even acknowledge it. I didn't complete a vast majority of them because of this; this kind of game benefits from not having to look things up online because the wonder and discovery is the point, but this could've used some work or an additional hint system for dumdums like me. Some of these challenges can also only be completed after unlocking levels and features and using them correctly, so it's especially frustrating to see the challenge pop up and attempt to do it several times only to discover that it's not possible until you hit level 3 and unlock the special glowy orb.

Overall though, this is Pokémon Snap but much larger and with a lot of great additions to the formula. If you enjoyed the gameplay of the original and want more, this will scratch that itch, but be prepared for some moments where you're confused on what to do next with little guidance.

Image from Steam page

Kitsune Tails (Steam)

I 100%'d this!

This is an adorable, very well done game. It's very much a love letter to SMB3 with some smaller SMW elements thrown in, and they're not only aware of that they've fully embraced it. I'd recommend it for anyone that just loved those classic Mario platformers, as it'll check all those boxes you know and love.

Kitsune Tails also features its own support for importing custom levels or even minigames based off of Lua and its own internal assets, complete with documentation and examples inside the local files for the game. That's something you don't see a lot, and even though I never made anything for it it was fun to mess around with. I will say that they will do themselves some favors if they find a way to make that work with Steam Workshop just inherently so players don't have to hunt around for files or join a discord with no anonymous accessibility (like forums used to do), but I won't count that against them because I have no idea how complicated that is. Update after I wrote this, Steam Workshop is now supported! That's the third time time they've updated the game with design changes and fixes that I was counting against it, which is very rad.

My only real complaints with it come in some more specific issues. A few levels could use some work design-wise; a few vertical levels really enjoy having enemies off-screen jump down to the next available platform to the player which is never fun, and there are some jumps and challenges that just don't feel right. Some enemies have clearly been designed to exploit difficult jumps and player behaviors. Monkeys that throw down diagonally at unforgiving intervals, and then drop down at an unavoidable rate. Ninja raccoons throw 3 projectiles very quickly as opposed to the traditional single projectile from piranha plants, ghosts perpetually chase you rather than being more manageable about directions your facing. It can lead to a lot of frustrating, repetitive fails that don't feel as fair as they could be, but ultimately with enough practice and patience nothing is insurmountable. Midway through my last run to get the hardest achievement they updated some of the problem jumps to be a bit easier which is appreciated, but these enemy issues don't feel addressable in the same way.

The story is adorable and lovely and genuine. Don't let "SMB3 but with fox girl lesbians," while true, color your perception of how the game presents itself or should play. This is a labor of love from a group of speedrunners, Mario fans, and the community that has kept that alive and evergreen.

Screenshot from my Switch

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (Switch)

I wanted to get a game I could chill with on the couch while listening to podcasts with a drink and my cat, so I picked this up again. I had played the original game on DS and remember liking it a lot, and I've played a number of Mystery Dungeon-esque games in various forms so I figured this would be a good fit. The amount of time between then and now of course (20ish years?) allowed me to forget most of the story beats and I'm not sure entirely of everything that changed, but I'll try and recollect as much as I can.

Visually the filter really works for it; the storybook aesthetic is a lot more interesting than just generic Pokémon cartoon looks, and they recreated everything in 3D very well. The inclusion of several Gen 4 Pokémon, something which at the time of the original release wasn't out yet, was fun to see again and made me nostalgic for when Gamefreak actually tried to do tie ins like that. In terms of changes, I wish they had kept in the Basic Attack that was in the base game, as without it PP management becomes a real chore. While it's cool to see some enemies Mega-evolve in the later dungeons as well, it's not really much of a feature because every Pokémon gets that stat bonus if the right conditions are met anyway.

So from my perspective, this is really just an HD port of the original game; if they added new Pokémon or dungeons to it then they're VERY late in the game and I never grinded enough to get to them. So now I have to jump back to my running bit with Switch remakes releasing at crazy prices. This is available for $59.99 digitally, full brand new Switch Game price, despite just being a rerelease of a GBA/DS game. That's criminal; something like this should release for $30 tops, and without any real new content to justify that price increase there's absolutely no reason it should be less. They really undercut my point here though because just after I picked this up, they released the GBA version of the game on NSO+, so like. Just play that. Or if you don't have NSO+, I'll fall back on my previous statement from last month that The value of these 20+ year old games is essentially free given that it's so easy to find them online, they've been iterated on so many times, and the original developers aren't getting a cent of that anyway. I'm not against remakes, but let's start being realistic about it: if pirating the original takes as much effort as buying it and gives you a near identical experience to the remake, then the remake wasn't needed.

Save your cash. If you want a great Pokémon Mystery Dungeon experience, Explorers of Sky for the DS is generally considered the best in series, and I'd like to see them actually make an effort to drastically improve on this side-series next time.

Image from Steam page

Penny's Big Breakaway (Steam)

I 100%'d this as well!

I was super-excited for this when it was first announced. It was developed by Christian Whitehead and the team behind Sonic Mania, which is hands-down the best 2D Sonic game even still, and they proved that they could figure out and distill the formula down to one the best it could be. So seeing them do a 3D platformer that looked like it would build off of 2D Sonic momentum mentality in a way that 3D Sonic never did was exciting.

I may have over-hyped it. That's not to say this is a bad game; far from it! I had a lot of fun with it and enjoyed a lot of the challenges it brought. It's movement is well crafted and a lot of thought clearly went into the different ways a player could move around the world. But the game is less "3D, momentum-Based Sonic" and more "Mario Odyssey with a Yo-yo instead of a cap." There are a few ways to quickly build or gain speed, but overall most of your movement is going to be rolling on your yo-yo until you get to precision platforming, and then you need to take it slower to do your normal jump, swing jump, double jump, forward dive, etc. to get where you need to go.

The game has a combo system that reminds me a lot of Pizza Tower's combo system mixed with a skateboarding game's points. You do combos by doing tricks (any movement that isn't just walking and a normal jump), and the game feels like you can carry a combo through the entire level if you play your moves very precisely. In my experience however, that's pretty close to impossible and it's a little unclear what specifically breaks your combo. Often times I'm left trying to ride my yo-yo back and forth to figure out how to land on ground without actually landing on ground, and it didn't feel great in those moments. When everything worked out though it felt really fun, and I could see how a mastery of the mechanics could really make everything feel good.

Aesthetically the game looks great. Very heavily stylized in a way that reminds me of Sonic 3D blast and well-selected palette's and themes to bring it all together. Character design is a little wacky, but it fits within it and it's a very well executed look overall; something a lot of indies struggle with so it's great to see that they were able to carry over that skillset from how well they handled Sonic Mania.

So in short, if Mario Odyssey-style movement in Mario 3D land type linear levels appeals to you, then this is a good pick-up! It will however take a little while to get used to the movement in order to properly understand how the game wants you to traverse it.

Image from Steam page

Haiku, the Robot (Steam)

I nearly 100%'d this game! There's an achievement for going through it without repairing yourself or getting chips that help with that (ie, only healing at checkpoints), and I ruined that pretty early. I might go back and do that someday though.

This game is the "prequel" to Rusty's Retirement, which I reviewed last post. It's more that Rusty's Retirement just uses the same characters and some of the aesthetics. But it caused me to be interested in it, and I had a good time with it! It's very much a Hollow-Knight inspired metroidvania, right down to the healing ability and "chips" working like badges. It doesn't hold your hand for exploring, but to the game's credit I never felt lost, which is a problem I had with Hollow Knight itself.

The aesthetic is post-apocalyptic, rusty metal underground entirely inhabited by robots under attack from a virus that causes them to attack each other. The color palette is very muted; You're going to see a lot of Oranges, greys, and browns to match the very rusty look. It works well for it and a few bosses make a point to throw in other accents, but I can see some people getting tired of it.

Gameplay wise it's pretty solid! Everything feels pretty good, some of the traversal abilities are fun to mess around with, there's a lot of build options without feeling like some are objectively better than the other. Honestly, it's just a really solid title. If you like Hollow Knight or tried it and were a bit put off by its difficulty, then this is a great pick-up or alternative.

Image from Steam page

Psychonauts 2 (Steam)

I also 100%'d this

I really, really liked Psychonauts when I first played it on steam over a decade ago. It had a few issues, but overall was a really fun and quirky 3D platformer at a time when those had fallen a bit out of favor. The story and visuals were wacky, it was funny, and had a lot of unique challenges. I did not back any Psychonauts 2 funding attempts though due to the things going around about double fine and Tim Schafer's inability to handle scope, so I was never expecting this to come out. When it did I bought it and it's been in my backlog ever since.

I do really want to like this game; the platforming is fun, the progression and exploration are like how I remember. But this game really seems like it doesn't want you to play it. It took half of my time with the game to start to feel like there's more gameplay than cutscenes. Over and Over again it'll remind you how incredibly linear it is as you get to a new obstacle, area, or just story beat and then just say "hey you need to stop right there and listen to the story." It feels like it inherently clashes with the collectathon genre it's a part of; you want time with yourself and the world to go and explore and find things, but you're not sure if you've fully explored an area before you're thrown out of it entirely and usually irreversibly for a long time.

The story itself is interesting. It too a while to get into due to its first half doing some poor setup of the previous game(s) that made me uninvested in the nuance it was trying to get me into. I shouldn't feel like I need to have played Rhombus of Ruin, the VR exclusive game that occurred between 1 and 2, to have an understanding of a lot of these characters, but I feel like I missed out on a lot having not played it. Eventually though it starts building it's own story with those building blocks, and that's when it gets really good.

After I unlocked the real hub world and done about 3-4 sub worlds related to it, it started to feel like what I remember. It'll still do cutscenes to contextualize the strange, psychedelic worlds and challenges you see, but then it will for the most part let you play in them without throwing you into a cutscene and then out of the level entirely again. As I approached the end the cutscenes interruption got a little more bare able as the story's various threads tied together into something that didn't feel like padding, but the rocky start is a big ask and I can see players who haven't even touched either of the original games not being able to get key elements.

Combat is still a little wonky. I find myself mostly sticking to ranged attacks and gimmick abilities that you need to counter with rather than using the melee abilities that much. The PSI abilities themselves really could've used an update in terms of how they're accessed; You can map them to any one of the 4 shoulder buttons, but you'll always want levitation and your hand abilities available because they're just incredibly useful in and out of combat. That leaves you constantly opening a poorly handled radial menu to swap between you fire, ranged attack, and more situational abilities they like to swap between frequently. Given the either contextual nature of the gimmick abilities vs the universal ones, it feels like they didn't need a swap menu at all and could've incorporated the movement ones more easily into a context-specific button. I'm only ever going to need to jump between thought bubbles when there are thought bubbles around, use clairvoyance when creatures are nearby, slow time when a platform nearby is moving too fast etc., and that would free up the remaining buttons for your way more present actions of jumping/rolling, grabbing things, and combat abilities. It would lower the amount of unaccounted for freedom in handling combat and traversing levels, granted, but the game doesn't feel like it has enough depth and isn't open enough for that to feel like a bad trade-off.

If you liked the original Psychonauts and don't mind your gameplay being interrupted, having to to go back to worlds way later to 100% them, and are interested more in story, this is for you. If you want a seamless 3D platforming collectathon experience, I'd stay clear.

Image from the Gamebanana page

Super Mario Eclipse (Super Mario Sunshine GC mod)

This one surprised me; I had heard of a number of great Sunshine hacks that expanded on the game a lot more, but this one combines elements of a lot of them into one to make basically the most definitive Super Mario Sunshine experience + features and worlds that really bring it together well.

For the basics, the game starts out introducing new movement options and changes from vanilla, which is great. The hover burst, basically a double jump that sacrifices the length of the hover for an added boost, and it makes the game play a lot better. The hover nozzle course shows off dive boosting so you can fly crazy distances, and the turbo nozzle no longer has a charge up and controls much easier. Yoshi has also been updated to hatch automatically without fruit, and in this state he can enter water without dying until he eats a fruit, in which case he changes back to normal behavior. It all adds to the controls Sunshine really struggles with, and while the base layer is still there they're vast improvements.

The game contains the entirety of the original Super Mario Sunshine, including the tedious blue coin hunt, but adds quite a few additional levels. The levels are now interconnected, with physical paths between them being separate mini-rooms that add a lot of character to the game and make the world feel cohesive. Delfino also has 4 new levels that tie directly into the game and link nicely as well, though you can clearly tell what is new content and what isn't just because of the way Level geometry works out. Still, it really brings the whole game together, and with additions such as not kicking you out when you get shines that don't require a reload and a pause-menu Shine/Blue coin counter you're not left struggling as much as the original Sunshine had you doing.

Once you beat Bowser, you unlock Daisy Cruiser and a bunch more levels that, while smaller than the Delfino levels, are still pretty fun in their own right. I would've liked it if they had kept with the tropical + interconnected themes with these levels personally, as I think the best one of these levels is Yoshi's Island which actually does, but still it's a great amount of new content. Daisy Cruiser and Peach Beach are brought in directly from double dash, so there's some scaling issues and problems with layout that could've used some work rather than a direct port, but again they're still pretty fun. There's 240 Shines in this game, with 420 Blue Coins, and even after that there's still a large chunk of game for the 100% completion bonus, so you'll be spending a LONG time with this if you really love sunshine.

If you've not revisited Sunshine in a long time or have the itch to pick it up again, this is definitely the best way to do it. Really rounds out what was otherwise a pretty incomplete feeling game into a cohesive world and fun experience.

#game reviews #earth defense force 6 #new pokemon snap #kitsune tails #pokemon mystery dungeon #penny's big breakaway #Haiku the robot #psychonauts 2 #super mario eclipse

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mdhwrites · 11 months

Text

Thoughts On Honkai Star Rail's First Three Arcs

This isn't going to be comprehensive and I won't talk about it from a gameplay perspective. Gameplay wise, I actually REALLY like Star Rail and wish it wasn't a free to play Gacha game as those elements are mostly what I feel hold it back. However, unlike most free to play games, let alone Gacha games, I find the writing of Star Rail actually pretty decent and even good much of the time. It's why I came back to it after taking like half a year plus off so I could see what new story they had for me. But like I said, this post at least won't be extensive. You can send me asks if you want my further thoughts on other parts. Also, just as a heads up, a lot of this is going off of kind of old memories of content I could literally only go through once. Oh, and final disclaimer: This isn't taking into account side content. Not only have I not done the Xianzhou's side quests yet, I only just got told I need to wait for more story, but reviewing that is a lot harder given the time lapse unfortunately. I could review specific companions but not overall side quest quality probably other than it being alright and the Xianshou have my favorite puzzles so far probably.

With that said:

1: Herta's Space Station and the Antimatter Legion

As a story, it's fine. As a tutorial it's... Bumpy to put it mildly. The biggest issue is a problem that will come back: Proper Noun Soup. You get a lot of information thrown at you and a lot of terms having to be clarified very quickly, made worse if you try to read the DOZENS of documents scattered around even the literal tutorial part of it. It makes sense for that information to be here, this is a research station and archive. There's a lot of info here. It does mean a lot is being thrown at once at the player though.

But as a tutorial, the most important element isn't actually so much if the story is innovative, it's not as it's just saving a station under attack, as much as it is about whether or not it hooks the player. And for that...

7/10 overall for the story here.

It's quick, the action is good, the stakes are high and aren't really undervalued or undersold and the boss battle is an incredibly satisfying conclusion. The enemy may be faceless but the face we get is both literally attractive and narratively tantalizing, giving a lot of interesting questions both about our character and our rival organization just by the act of us coming to consciousness. It's only real issue is trying to retain everything thrown at you and the time that has to be spent mostly explaining stuff to you in kind of awkward ways. It's far from bad though, especially since I use the whole scale so a five is a passing grade for me.

Jarilo-VI and the Eternal Freeze

9/10 overall for me. The biggest issues come down to two things. The first is the general pitch for the world: Final Fantasy 14 Heavensward but without the dragons and gods. That's both actually not a bad thing but also slightly bad for it. Removing dragons from anything is always going to be a bummer and you would think removing gods and cults would be a bad thing but it's not.

I'm actually being reductive even calling it a ripoff. The sort of classist story that it's telling is actually pretty normal fair for speculative fiction. By removing the extreme fantasy elements though, it focuses a lot more on the actual human stakes and the suffering that's being caused by the class divide. It's honestly a very human story with a well rounded cast of all sorts to give perspective and neat twists and turns. Nothing mind blowing but pivots that add charm to the archtype. Buuuuut it's still doing the archtype and so as a fan of fantasy, there's little new about it and what is new makes me chuckle like everyone having came from the same fucking orphanage. XD

And it playing it so by the numbers feeds into its second issue: It's. Fucking. LONG. It moves at a crawl due to its factions and the like, or that's how it feels to me. It had little to escalate to by being so human so it's kind of just buzzing along for at least half of it, which is the majority of the time you're in the slums. You're not making progress outside of turning some hearts and so you're just kind of twiddling your thumbs happily as you wait for when you finally get an option to jump back into the real action.

The climax is genuinely fantastic though and pays off that slow build with a grand crescendo as allies either come in now or have been helping you the entire way. Afterwards, you feel like you genuinely accomplished something and that things will be better. Honestly, I wonder what the production process for the worlds are because this COULD have been split in half probably and been more satisfying to do it.

Speaking of:

The Xianzhou Loufu and the Stellaron Crises

5/10

Like I said, I use the whole scale and I'll admit that this might be skewed due to me having spent so long away from the story right in the middle of it. Or, more like 3/4s which you would not be expecting when you got to the moment where the main story content used to cut off at.

Pacing is the big murderer here. Despite the fact that there is a ticking time bomb somewhere on this planet ship, you don't really feel like you're doing a lot. You're stuck in bureaucracy more than anything and it takes multiple dungeon areas for you to finally talk to any of the actual villains in the ship. Otherwise, it's almost literally twiddling your thumbs and waiting. Once things happen, they happen all at once. Not even with great payoffs but almost like they were just stomping out plot points that were in the way of the final boss and they didn't have the resources to finish the story properly so it could pay off wider elements.

Now, there was this element back on Jarilo but the situation was neither so immediate and the elements being introduced came back around. Much of what makes the Loufu's sky Venice have ANY flavor doesn't really lead to anything. It gestures towards it with the cult that eventually shows up but it's actually only briefly in the story and undercuts any interesting arguments it has by going "WE'RE PURE EVIL RACISTS WHO WANT IMMORTALITY BECAUSE IT MAKES US STRONG!" and suddenly they're not interesting in anyway... Only to then be replaced by a threat that is somehow even MORE one dimensional than 'evil cult'.

There's a real lack of personal stakes in it either. It has an interesting hook by going back to that pretty face who put a bomb in our chest back on Herta but they're more a cameo. Literally for her friend, Blade who gets one moment and then just pisses off because... *shrug* The statement he made about prices needing to be paid never amounts to much of anything besides that being the first cutscene of the entire arc. It doesn't make me excited for the end cutscene of this arc because we'll see where it goes.

BUUUUUT even if the main plot of the Loufu is a lot of wasted potential and kind of meh in general, it is dragged back to treading water by the B plot. This is the first one with a B plot away from your main group and the mystery it presents is actually neat. It shows a lot of good nobility for a pretty stoic character and a pretty interesting backstory that also doesn't have to weight the character down going forward. It's the one element I would say that really pays off with the Loufu.

That doesn't save it and it has a pretty laughable epilogue where a character who died with very little personality besides being good at their job is suddenly made out to be this charismatic saint who was friends with everyone and enriched the Loufu so much and I'm just sitting here going "SURE WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HAVE SEEN THAT EARLIER!"

Plus side, the gameplay lets me reanimate her corpse since she is a playable party member in the gacha which does make having her death be a big deal less of one.

Overall Thoughts on Star Rail's Writing:

If I am judging its writing quality just by whether or not the writing is good, without context, it actually ranks pretty darn high. Probably a 7/10 which is better than most MMOs, let alone free to play gacha games. That is the draw of Hoyo admittedly. A gacha game that's closer to at least AA quality, if not AAA.

But it being a Hoyoverse property also hurts it. A LOT. I played the first arc of Genshin Impact after all and while I think the plot is better here, there's very little distinguishing the two. That shouldn't happen though because one is fantasy... Star Rail is Scifi. If you look up pictures of the Loufu though and its characters, you would almost never guess that it's scifi. They have divination, they have alchemy, there's a sidequest where you bring someone's soul out of the soul containment part of the ship to put into a robot that's effectively a golem so you can communicate with the dead. The entire final part of the story is all about gods, reincarnation and magic and NOTHING else. Its boats are grown out seeds.

And that IS frustrating. Jarilo VI is also bad about this but they're at least a civilization who's development was pushed back. Them having a contemporary/fantasy style works better there, even if not perfectly. And I am a bigger fantasy fan than scifi but I came to this expecting a scifi game. If I'm lucky, I get a scifi aesthetic, MAYBE a little flavor... But often not even that.

It's why I pause on hard recommending Star Rail for its writing. It took the traveling wanderers excuse and so far hasn't done anything with it that having isolated islands wouldn't do just as well.

And while I may be Nameless, I would like the story to start forming its own identity.

======+++++======

For anyone curious btw: I have bought the first season pass when I completed it but have spent no money on the game otherwise. I don't have the money to spend on free to play games and in general I just don't. If I play consistently enough to clear a season pass though, I usually feel like the devs have earned a bit of money out of me in return.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#honkai star rail #jarilo vi #herta space station #Xianshou Loufu

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n7punk · 2 years

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total newbie to mass effect, where would you recommend I start? I think there are multiple games - is there one which is best to play or would you recommend all of them?

if it looks interesting to you, then i say go for it! its a fun series. The games are simply Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3 (I'll talk about ME:A at the end, its very different from the Mass Effect trilogy, which is what I've been posting about, and usually what people are talking about when they talk about mass effect).

my recommendation is to buy the legendary edition (all three games and all their dlc in one) and play through them from the start to get the full story, or do the same thing but start with mass effect 2 so you play just 2 & 3. if you have the legendary edition, you can also give the first game a try and jump ship after an hour or 10 if you aren't feeling it and give me2 a try instead.

you will be missing some context, but me2 does start with a graphic novel/comic that summarizes the events of mass effect 1, and of the games, me1 is the only "skippable" one. it also has a very different vibe - gameplay, story-wise, and just visually - from the other 2, so i don't think it's very indicative of the series. its from an era of gaming that is far from where we are now. each game in the trilogy is a little different, but me2 and me3 are way closer to each other than either of them are to me1.

me2's story is cool (super character-focused, mostly with new characters, so you're not missing much context for them), but my main criticism is that parts of it feel tedious and its combat leaves something to be desired. i think me3 is more well-rounded, but i really cant recommend, for both story and default world condition reasons, just playing me3 (for a little extra context, ive played through the entire witcher franchise and totally recommend ignoring the first 2 games and just playing witcher 3. game order/importance varies by series). i really like the story of me2, just to reiterate. idk, it's just juicy to me

i HIGHLY recommend the legendary edition regardless of what games you want to play, because it has the extra dlc content, is remastered, has bug fixes, and most importantly, all three games talk to each other easily for importing saves and custom shepard appearances between them, which is highly important in the franchise. if you havent played a bioware game before, your choices in mass effect 1 and 2 directly inform the world state (like which characters are even alive) in mass effect 2 & 3, and while you can import your saves from regular separate copies of 2 and 3, legendary edition builds all that in for you with a central launcher.

now in regards to the fourth mass effect game: Mass Effect: Andromeda is set in an entirely different galaxy than the original trilogy and came later. it has no reliance on the trilogy's story and is stand alone, though clearly intended to be the start of another series, even if that hasn't come to fruition. i think its fine, its fun, but it doesn't have the same story impact that the original trilogy had - then again, the first game of the trilogy doesn't have that impact either, so it's very possible it could grow into something great if they ever continue it (i think its been like 6 years tho, so dont hold your breath).

i would recommend mass effect 3 over andromeda, which means i recommend me2 and me3 over me:a since 2 is required for 3, but if you prefer games like DA:I, HZD, and Assassin's Creed (Origins through Valhalla), then maybe give ME:A a shot and if it peeks your interest, circle back around to the trilogy.

#ask #anon #have a lot more asks but ill answer them in the morning

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dracolunae · 2 years

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I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT SONIC lay it on me. sits head in hands attenative mode

I’ll just give you a general ramble of whatever I can think of but if you wanna know anything specific like lore or the different comic runs or stuff about the music lmk!!

Sonic is a franchise that I’ve found so fucking fascinating for a long time because it combines just so many fun things: a mostly non-human cast, intricate world building a continuity between games, interesting abilities, and a protagonist that is not only cool and fast and heroic but also a wildly fascinating personality!

My start into Sonic was, ironically, not any of the actual mainline games or anything because my ass was a DS kid with no consoles. It wasn’t even one of the mainline DS games! My start was Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games for the DS.No clue of any lore, all I knew was that this franchise had really interesting character designs and was really cool because YO IS THAT A ROBOT??? (I was also. Very into the transformers movies at the time so robots were fucking awesome).

Anyway, from there my brother and I shared a copy of Sonic Colours for the DS! Sonic Colours for the Wii is often regarded as one the better if not one of the best modern Sonic Games with unfortunately really bad writing but fear not! That’s where the DS version comes in! Entirely different gameplay wise since in that sense it’s a continuation of the earlier Rush games but the story is nearly identical to the Wii version except there’s more of it and the characters are significantly better written!

It’s pretty common to make jokes about people who play games for the plot but honestly the plot is really one of the main draws of Sonic for me! The Adventure era (Sonic Adventure, Adventure 2, Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog and kind of Sonic 06) had overarching story elements and would legitimately flash back to what happened in previous games, which at the time (1998-2006) was huge!

There’s also several runs of comics and manga as well as several tv shows that accompanied the franchise, most of which are entirely non-canon to the games but still add so much to the characters and in some ways the world.

The original 2 shows and Comic runs were Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (more commonly known as Sonic SatAM), the Sonic Archie comics and Sonic the Comic, published by Fleetway. The shows were both made simultaneously by the same people and a lot of elements from both (though mainly SatAM, the grittier of the 2) were adapted into the Archie Comics. Sonic the Comic (more often referred to as Fleetway) was the British run of Sonic Comics and while Archie went kinda wild with a lot of stuff, Fleetway did so in a way that was less insane and more just incredibly contradictory to the games, such as changing the way that Super Sonic worked (it splits Sonic into 2 different beings instead of just being like a Dragonball Super Saiyan inspired power up) and also entirely changing the design and origins of Chaos, the additional antagonist of Sonic Adventure.

Both Fleetway and Archie have been canceled, Fleetway quite a while ago and Archie in 2017, which has brought a new Comic into the scene, published by IDW! The staff is comprised almost entirely of former Archie Sonic staff, who were pulled over by head writer Ian Flynn, who took over this position for Archie in 2006 and was hired by IDW pretty immediately once they got the comic license for Sonic. These comics directly tie into what was at the time the most recent Sonic game, Sonic Forces, and are confirmed to be canon, unlike literally every other piece of extended media we’ve ever gotten!

The American Sonic comics are very dear to me because I used to read them a lot (in what is possibly the most annoying way one could possibly read them, YouTube videos panning through incredibly slow pans of each individual page or panel). And the staff post Ian Flynn takeover is fascinating to me because a decent chunk of it consists of Sonic fans that started out as fancomic artists, got recognised for their talent and then hired to work on the real deal! What kind of Dream job is that???? The amount of passion the current staff has for the world of Sonic is palpable and so refreshing. Ian Flynn also got to write the story for the most recent Sonic game, Sonic Frontiers and holy shit I love the way he respects the previous world building done by older games. It might come off a little awkward to some but I’m just glad they’re acknowledging their past

With all my love for the comics tho I gotta say the Archie comics are a wild fucking trip, especially when Ken Penders had free reign of the plot. I’m rereading the Archie comics and I skipped over the first 60 or so issues the first time I read them as a kid and wtf???? Why did I just read about a bee dying of an LSD overdose???? (Yes. This is a real plot point. It is relevant for one 3 issues side arc and never again)

#friendly visitors #my beloveds came to talk

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lutavero · 2 years

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Some other GOW: Ragnarök thoughts

I'm just... so conflicted? Sksksk no but truly

Like in 2018 too I loved the Freya quests so much! Her relationship with Kratos&Atreus, just her in general 💖 and I loved her quests in Ragnarök too! Like I'm so happy we got so much time to learn about her but after a while I just wanted my boy back to go adventures together once more 🙈

Like obv I know they didn't wanna make GOW 2018 2.0 and so it meant they have to change some things gameplay wise and I loved I got to play as Atreus! His gameplay style is just so goooood! Loved every sequence with him. But then I came here for my Dad of son simulator and now I feel both happy with what I got and kinda cheated.

Also, clown me should've known Sindri was gonna suffer after right at the start of the game we got so much time with him. 😭 So many scenes, getting so fleshed out. His relationship with Atreus???? 🥺🥺🥺💖💕💖💕💖 they were so adorable, this whole sibling/uncle-kid energy ... I loved this pair so much.

Also I saw others mentioning how Atres as companion got dumbed down and I do agree? Like why couldn't we get the first 2 or so knowledge stuff read by him or read one part of it and wait for Kratos to finish it or just truly participate in it? Or at least make him make a comment abt how Kratos finally did learn to read the runes? I do know it was done bc of the gameplay stuff, bc Atreus just wasn't with us when we ran into many of these but still it is just such a jarring change. Also, i think in 2018 most of the time they talked abt these interest/knowledge stuff when you discovered them and now Mimir just repeated the same 'what did you learn brother ' text and just why?

Also, getting back to companions getting a little dumbed down, why did Atreus and Freya by default, get clothes as only cosmetics? Why couldn't it still give me those little bonuses it did in 2018? I actually could've used those 'chance at finding more healing/rage stone' bonuses during the game many times 😅.

Anyway, I'm also incredible happy we got the possibly happiest ending?? Like I was so scared and sure someone from the main 3 would die and then we all survived?? 🥺💕💕💕💕 That final phase Odin boss fight was so epic, with that teamwork sequence and all. 💖💕💖💕🥺🥺

But then I did cry my eyes out during that goodbye tour sequence Atreus did. The moment Atreus started talking to Mimir and called him his other father I knew and the tears started 😭😭💕💖💖 and then the hug with Freya 😭😭😭😭💕💕💖💕💖💕💕 and then the Angrboda and Fenrir scene was so adorable. But then I felt a little miffed we didn't quite got a hug with Kratos there.

And then the Jötnar shrine scene... 😭💕😭💕😭💖😭💖😭💔💔💔💔😭😭 I am yet to watch that sequence without tearing up. Opening the shrines and then the goodbye... 🥺🥺😭🥺😭🥺😭🥺💕💔💕💖😝💖 i mean ofc I expected a separation bc with the very first gow:r summary talked about Kratos&Atreus dealing with letting go but it still made me bawl 😭😭🥺🥺

Gosh I just hope in the next game we will get a reunion or sth.

Anyway I loved this game so much expect the berserkers those can get fucked, I hate them ajdkdkalajkala

Time for the post-story stuff and platinum and then fighting the urge to start it again just randomly or waiting for the new game+ to be added bc this game is like 80% finished and I spent 44 hours on it 😅🙈

#god of war #god of war ragnarok spoilers #gow spoilers #gow ragnarok #personal lutavero #sorry if it all reads incoherent I did stay up like 1-2am to finish the main story #also many post game stuff is still yet to be discovered but now that my boy is gone I'm a little less excited #like I did the vanaheim and muspelheim farming with him lmao I am committed 😅

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thessalian · 2 years

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Thess vs Next Fest 2023, Pt 5

And again with the demos. Well, there were breaks between each of these for bath and dinner. Anyway, you know the drill.

Book of Hours: Do we just ... not have tutorials anymore? This game looks like it’s taking some cues from Disco Elysium, but the problem is that it’s not precisely straightforward about how any of it operates from a gameplay point of view. I have a journal. It wants me to read the journal and use it to unlock Wisdom. Except it’s not telling me how to read the journal and there’s a health meter literally counting down because I apparently turned up half-drowned and soaked. Seriously, Weather Factory, you could at least tell me how the fucking controls work. If you can’t do that in the demo, then I’m no longer interested. Even if it did look kind of cool. Maybe when it comes out and there’s a decent walkthrough.

I Am Future: It’s another one of those “build yourself a home with only what viable resources you can drag out of the world” games, but in this case it’s kind of post-apocalyptic rather than wilderness. I mean, it does actually call itself “cozy apocalypse survival” but for some reason, those things don’t really fit well together in my head. It’s cute, but not what I’d call better than the other games of its type. Worth a try if you like that sort of game but haven’t found one that calls to you yet. (Also more than a little annoyed that there’s no character creation menu. You’re basically stuck with big beefy red-haired dude, though there’s a limited outfit selection and you can get rid of the beard.)

Inkbound: This one’s ... interesting. Mechanics-wise, it’s basic - simple three-class setup with just a few basic but upgradable attacks, turn-based. What it’s about, though ... didn’t get far enough into the demo to get a good sense of the story, but basically you are an ink-person trying to save the Sea of Ink from horrible monsters. There’s more story to it than that, I’m pretty sure. The character customisation, insofar as you can take it with the three-class set-up, is like all of the rest of the graphics - cute in a bizarre kind of way. It’s definitely one for the midway point of the list, possibly higher once I get the hang of that sort of mechanic (which’ll probably involve me going back to Torchlight because there’s a similar feel in the class set-ups between the first Torchlight game and Inkbound). So kind of quirky, kind of neat, and my only real issue with it is that some of the voice acting was a little awkward

I’ve still got about five more to go and I plan to prod Steam’s demo collection for more before the Next Fest ends. It’s kind of nice going through all the new stuff that isn’t necessarily one of the big AAA titles I mostly find out about from Tumblr, Reddit, or the sides of buses. Like, they always say how much good indie stuff is out there right now and a lot of the ones I’ve been trying are at least trying for innovation, even in specific niches like colony sims.

For now, though, I need a break and something to sink my metaphorical teeth into, I think. Demos are really just hors d’oeuvres; something to whet the appetite. And since I can’t be gorging myself on those games because they’re not out yet, I do have actual full games. Plus ... if I’m honest, it’s nice to go back to my comfort zone when I’ve spent days bouncing through a variety of different UIs and unfamiliar mechanics. Especially when it’s half past eleven in the evening and I had a productive day.

#Thess plays video games #Thess vs Demos

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daz4i · 2 years

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my pitch for the persona 5 arena game. atlus hire me

this is very long so under a read more it goes

royal compliant, so the whole maruki thing did happen. all the phantom thieves have graduated by now (or at least the current second years did), so it's post strikers too as to not conflict with that timeline. having a hard time with school in his hometown and generally not being interested in a higher education, akira ends up not going to college. he's grown apart from his friends as they all progressed with their own lives, mostly sticking to texting in the group chat but nothing more.

he's having some crisis about things: a sense of no future, trauma from the interrogation room, grief over goro - but he can't talk about it with anyone or get professional help bc he's scared they'll use it against him. he ends up bottling things up, but as time goes on it becomes too much, to the point it manifests a new world - not quite the metaverse, no. more like... an arena 👀

to mix things with the previous games, it's time to make "akira is from inaba" canon, so the arena is based there, kind of rising from the ground and destroying half the town in the process. the p4 squad are the first to notice, naturally, but only some of them are still living there (I'd say probably kanji yukiko and chie). they call the shadow operatives first, and then the rest of the investigation team

"but how will the phantom thieves get there? shouldn't they be the main group in the story?" glad you asked! the shadow operatives actually have a new member, someone who has a lot of personal experience with shadows and personas, who also happens to have to stay hidden from the public and keep the fact they're alive from the people they know. y'all already know it's goro lmao. I'm a firm believer he lives after royal, and in the canon verse making him a shadow operative makes so much sense, esp if he's looking to hide himself from the public and the thieves

but he feels bad about hiding himself for so long - the years softened him a little, he actually believes in having teammates now that he's got some therapy - and i have now decided he knows akira is from inaba bc I'm sure it was brought up before, so he's worried he might be in danger. he calls akira, but gets no answer, so he tries the other thieves and asks them to get together and come to inaba (I'm guessing he catches like, one of them and gives them a rundown of what's up to pass to the rest of the team).

so now we've got all three groups in inaba, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. I'd say it's a bit like in p4u where all the residents are missing, but electronics still work here for story convenience.

anyway, while they're trying to explore the town, each of the thieves arriving separately, they get attacked... by... akira? this is where the gameplay begins. the thing that's attacking them, it's akira, or it looks and sounds like akira, but he's copying their attack style and methods - to the player it looks like the same animations and moves set.

we got a joker card here y'all, he's matching whoever he's fighting atm. personas wise I'd say he uses some of the velvet room ones, the one he uses in each battle depends on the other person's element so he just uses whichever persona specializes in that.

once the thieves beat this akira, he basically turns into black dust like a cognition would when destroyed. it's not actually him, but rather his anger at the unfairness of life and the repressed rage he has over growing apart from his friends manifesting into "him" attacking them. the fights are all one on one so for once he gets to have a fair fight, to not be at a disadvantage or have to think 3 steps ahead, just let loose and fight and express all of his bottled up emotions. he can only afford to let things out through cognitions in this world of his own creation

I'm guessing it's all subconscious for him. he's probably inside the arena, waiting, maybe not even realizing this isn't a dream. once the thieves reach him for the final boss battle (after, I'm hoping, more plot I'm too lazy to figure out now lol) i want it to be one long battle where you switch between the thieves in the order they joined the team, each of them having to beat the real akira in turns. i wanna say his health bar is just really large and you gotta whittle it down to a certain point to switch to the next phase/thief, where akira switches his persona to the same element of the thief he's fighting just like the regular battles, but does have his own unique moveset this time.

i don't have much else plot wise. i guess there needs to be some god involved and i nominate yhvh bc he def symbolizes unfairness in my eyes lmao. could be that he takes over akira or smth for the last phase/the whole story and is the reason why his health bar is huge OR that after the akira boss battle he rejoins the team and things switch back to his pov and he's the one who has to go beat that god himself, finally letting his feelings out on the being that caused his suffering

but that's all i have hehe. open to hear ideas on how to progress with that. i just want goro to interact with naoto and ken in the canon universe tbh. and for akira's trauma to be acknowledged and i think a post canon game like that is a great opportunity for that, especially when you consider royal's ending and how it only makes sense for him to be this fucked up in the future

i also think the idea that anyonee can become distorted and destructive as a result is a good one that helps highlight p5s's themes and brings an interesting twist on the base game and royal. the unfairness thing connects well to both maruki (who has no reason to be in this game, but the echos of his actions are surely felt) and goro (who should be the replacement protag imo, and this can serve as a mirror to him in a more raw and direct way)

tldr: hire me atlus

#long post #dan rambles #if you actually read this whole thing i am kissing you tenderly on the mouth and/or forehead #but also lmk what you thought/give your own take

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