#this is specifically about hack/slash back to school

[ghenry]

2023 YouTube channel recap!

It is now the end of the year, so now I'm looking back at the videos I managed to release in 2023! There weren't too many, but they were all challenging in unique ways. So let's take a look!

Hi-Fi Rush | As Basic As Things Can Get

So, this video is pretty polarizing. And I knew it would be! Hi-Fi Rush received endless praise when it was released in January 2023. Being fairly dabbled in both action platformers and hack-n-slash games, I had to see how it was for myself. And the water of mediocrity splashing at my face was cold enough to convince me I needed to vent about it in video form. I took this video as a lesson on exercising absolute honesty. I feel like I have been holding myself back with a lot of video projects because I was afraid of coming off too strong. But this time I didn't care. I let out my most raw, uncouth feelings about this game because I want to be more comfortable with my voice and assertiveness. In that sense, I think I succeeded. The split ratio would say otherwise, though.

The point of the video: Hi-Fi Rush took advantage of having this specific art style that not a lot of high-end companies really tackle, and that carried it throughout waves of praise, despite having middling game design and lack of confidence in what it actually succeeds in. It underplays its own strength--the hack-n-slash combat-- and pads the game out to a high degree suing boxy platforming with only character dialogue attempting to make it drag less. Games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta have similar structures where it showcases awkward platforming that isn't very fun to perform, but they both go elbow-deep with their pure combat (which takes up the majority of their campaigns) because the developers were confident in the hack-n-slash gameplay. Tango did not have that confidence, which is why the majority of the gameplay is boxy platforming that lacked any sense of urgency or challenge.

Also, the writing sucks complete ass and Chai is a terrible example of writing an unlikable protagonist. Nothing will ever convince me otherwise. I'm so sick of everyone trying to make their own Spider-Man.

I don't regret this video, even a little bit. I don't care how many people unsubscribed, if they're not here to take in my thoughts and feelings, what are they here for? Because that's all I'm doing and will continue to do with my channel.

Crime is Crime | The Silver Case Analysis

This was something I've wanted to do for years, but prioritized Travis Strikes Again as well as No More Heroes 3. Even so, The Silver Case was a daunting project. I'm not a professional writer, I never took any elective courses for it throughout my school career. I don't consider myself even remotely smart, never-mind 'an intellectual.' I'm not even that familiar with philosophy and such, so part of me was thinking "Do I even have the capacity to analyze this game?" literally every single second I was writing, capturing, and editing the video.

Regardless, in the end, I think I got a good grasp of the story and was able to dissect a lot of it in a satisfying manner.

The point of the video: Crime will always exist, but what's more interesting is the source of it. The motivation of an individual, a society, or even a corporation. The game also showcases a lot of elements and even narrative quirks that would be prevalent in Suda51's future directing gigs. I think he and his crew have some fine critiques on things like capitalism, police justice, and what it means to be a part of a controlled society. It doesn't give any answers in how you can change the worst parts of a society, but it isn't really meant to in any real way, it just isn't that simple.

Analyzing Henry Cooldown | The Devil In the Details

What started out as a little defense piece for Henry in No More Heroes 3 ended up much longer and more in-depth than I initially planned. While looking over his dialogue, appearance, and overall design, I realized there is so much more to this living plot-twist.

The point of the video: I think Henry represents the devil for Travis Touchdown. And this further accentuates what I've pontificated in my full analysis of NMH3, that Travis is stuck in this eternal form of hell. While Suda has never explained --and probably never will-- what he was trying to say with games like NMH, I like to think having Travis be cursed with eternal battle, eternal recognition, and eternal brand potency (like many video game icons) was something he was considering, at least by the time he was making NMH3.

And, sure, I've analyzed and described Henry to mean different things, but so what? He can be more than one thing. Nothing is certain, a lot of this will remain open for interpretation. That's art.

Grasshopper's Translator | James Mountain Interview

Earlier this year I got to have a nice, long chat with James Mountain, the main translator/interpreter of Grasshopper Manufacture! I wanted his input since he was the sole individual given the task to translate the entirety of The Silver Case from beginning to end. I ended up learning a lot about him as well as the process of such a dense job that is interpreting a visual novel completely by yourself. I also thought it'd make a good exercise if I ever want to release videos like this again. I had fun learning how to make audio visualizers as well as including visual context during our conversations.

The point of the video: There was a lot of debate (and bickering) in regards to the English interpretation of the game, and I figured who better to clarify their process of the whole thing than the interpreter himself? I had a lot of fun conducting this interview, and there were a lot of bits I didn't use for my analysis video, so I figured it would make a nice bonus for everyone!

That's everything from this year! I'm really proud of how all of these videos came out, and I'm itching to keep going, expressing myself to my best ability! But I think a little break is in order. Thank you so much if you have read up to here! Have a great rest of your holiday, and I'll catch you in 2024!

[kayayeteae]

Watching a vid about games that are worse than you remember and it really hits the nail on the head of games that I need to differentiate from what I viewed as good back then to what I view as good now.

Because I willingly went into Mario RPG (remake) knowing how well it would stands up to this day—and man, does it still do (given the few gameplay enhancements it had). but I just know there are games that I’d replay and think, this did not age well at all. And I can probably think of several games that can go into that criteria.

I often link my favorite games to nostalgia and the period in life that the narrative impacted me the most. It’s easy for me to say FFVII is one of my favorites as it introduced me to my favorite writing trope of the unreliable narrator. Tales of symphonia didn’t introduce me to the trope of betrayal, but impacted me the most given that kratos was one of my favorite characters. Both games also introduced me to a new mechanic of gameplay I often seek in this day and age (ATB for JRPGs and hack-and-slash in general). Metal gear solid introduced me to stealth gameplay and complex narratives that were definitely beyond my understanding at that age, but hey, I’m still a devout fan. When I think of my favorite games linked to nostalgia, I usually think of those games first. Would I be able to play those games again? Probably not because the voice acting for ToS and MGS are so bad it physically makes me recoil, but it was the 90s/00s so it can be forgiven.

But modern games? Games I played as an adult with a different perspective of this world? Judgement/judge eyes. Devil May cry 5. Lies of p. These are the games that blew my expectations out of the water. Judge eyes narrative was so engaging that it had me playing hours on end. The gameplay for Devil May cry and lies of P were so insanely polished that I itch to play them again.

But there are games I simply outgrew and never really see myself getting back into. Ace attorney. Assassins creed. Ace attorney is so oddly specific given that I played all the games that were released to a point in high school. AC was an infatuation I had with but got merely exhausted from. 2 will always have a special place in my heart tho. I’m sure those games are fine but I wouldn’t really revisit them again….maybe uncharted 2 can be added as well. Although I did play it in the Nathan Drake collection and I do declare it as my favorite, I feel like if I tried it again (especially after playing lost legacy and 4), I’d struggle to play it.

Idk where I’m getting at with this I just wanted to talk to a wall bc I don’t feel like talking to my family LMAO.

[yellowspiralbound]

Witcher School Headcannons

A collection of head canons about each Witcher school. 

Wolf School

Specialization: Curses

Wolf Witchers specialize in the breaking of curses. By the time of their descent from Kaer Morhen, all Wolf Witchers know cures for common curses such as lycanthropy. They are also well versed in discovering curses, their origins, and their possible cures. Many Wolf Witchers die at the hands of Cursed Ones during their first year on the Path as they try to cure instead of kill. Typically, those that return to the Path for a second time have discovered how to tell when Cursed Ones are lost causes. 

Specific/Distinct Mutations: N/A - The School of the Wolf still uses the same mutagens first used by the Order of Witchers before it split into the separate schools. 

Combat Tactics/Fighting Styles: All Witchers will develop their own fighting style with time, but most wolves have a tactic in common: exhaustion. Similar to their animal counterparts, which are endurance hunters and will follow their prey for miles, Wolf Witchers often rely on tiring their opponent out through the strategic use of oils, dodges, and Signs. 

Trial of the Medallion: Any Witcher to emerge from Kaer Morhen goes through the grueling Trial of the Mountain during which they ascend Troll’s Head Mountain without being killed by Old Speartip, the cyclops in the caverns, or by the trolls beyond the caverns. Then, the trainee would place their Withcher’s medallion in the Circle of Elements to activate it. (Canon)

Headquarters: Kaer Morhen in Kaedwan near the Gwenllech River. 

Fun Facts: 

Geralt and the others that died during the second round of mutations were the first attempts at a specially mutated Wolf Witcher. Vesemir was afraid Geralt would end up with the Madness common in Cat Witchers as a result, but it never materialized. 

Wolf Witchers are considered by most to be the most traditional of the Witcher schools and many of their teachings date back to the Order of Witchers. 

Wolf Witchers have a relatively good reputation with humans, as far as Witcher-human relationship goes because Wolf Witchers are reliable and fair with their prices. 

(rest of the schools below cut)

Cat School 

Specialization: Revenge 

It is commonly believed by other Witchers (and the Cats are quite content to let them believe this) that Cat Witchers will kill any human for any price. This is not, in fact, the full truth. Many consider the hardest part of hiring a Cat Witcher assassin to be convincing them that their victim truly deserves to die. It is, naturally, up to the individual Witcher to pass judgment and some Cat Witchers are more willing assassins than others. 

Specific/Distinct Mutations: 

Pheromone control (using their scent to manipulate others/situations)

Retractable claws between the fingernail and nail bed 

Fangs 

Whiskers

Flexible musculoskeletal system (a fancy way of saying their muscles/bones are different and allow for more flexibility and insane jumping height) 

The Madness. 

No Cat has all of them, but all Cats have the Madness to some level. The variation in mutations among Cats stems from the long history of experimentation on them. 

Combat Tactics/Combat Styles: Naturally, Cat Witchers prefer stealth. A typical Cat Witcher will hang in the shadows for as long as possible and, when they do emerge, they will attempt to make the kill as quick and as clean as possible. Cats tend to fight…surgically. Rather than the hack-and-slash method employed by Wolves, Cats prefer to strike areas that will cause immediate results. It’s not unusual for assassination victims to be found with slashed Achilles’ heels to prevent running. Part of Cat training involves learning the most effective places to slash on as many creatures as possible. 

Trial of the Medallion: The final Trial for a Cat Witcher is called the Trial of the Noose. The Trial of the Noose involves a complex aerial obstacle course of sorts. Trainees are expected to complete the course, which is in the shape of a noose, in a set amount of time. Before the day of the trial, bait is set for harpies nearby, which adds an extra layer to the challenge. 

Headquarters: Dyn Marv Caravan in…um…wherever they want it to be.

Fun Facts:

Although experiments were conducted to remove emotions from Cats, they failed. Cats have the same emotional capacity as other witchers...in theory. In truth, prolonged experimentation has caused most older Cats to have so much trauma that their emotional scope is narrower; younger Cats do not have this problem to the same extent

A Cat can only be contacted on assassination contracts through underworld networks; contacting one at all is considered part of the proof that the client really is desperate to have their victim disposed of

The women of the continent are often the most knowledgeable about when and where a Cat can be contacted for assassination 

There is a popular myth in some parts of the Continent that all Witchers have fangs. This myth was spread by a fanged Cat seeking to bolster his own image. His plan failed when he forgot to mention his name during gossip exchanges. 

Bear School

Specialization: Politics 

An unexpected side effect of Bear Witchers’ solitary natures is their involvement in Skelligen politics. Prior to the fall of the school, Bear Witchers served Skellige in an official capacity. Each clan had at least one Bear Witcher in their employment at all times. A clan’s Witcher would handle all contracts in that clan’s domain. They worked closely with Skelligen druids and enjoyed a hesitant respect from most Skelligens. Bear Witchers also acted as advisors to the clan leaders in a manner similar to sorceresses on the Continent. 

Specific/Distinct Mutations: 

Shapeshifting (may become a bear at will) 

“Steroid” blood (the more blood a Bear loses, the more powerful their attacks become)

Combat Tactics/Combat Styles: Bear Witchers rely on their own strength during battle. Like all Skelligens, they are not afraid of injury and often rely on said injuries to draw strength due to their blood mutations. Another common strategy among Bear Witchers is to keep their bear form in the reserves and break it out when they are almost defeated, often fatally stunning their enemy with their transformation. 

Trial of the Medallion: Called the Trial of Salt by Bear Witchers, this Trial of the Medallion is one of the most brutal faced by any school. In the Trial of Salt, Bear Witchers are expected to take on a swarm of aquatic monsters in the sea with a plethora of open wounds inflicted by their masters. The salt of the sea agitates the wounds and makes all movements painful. Bears that survive the Trial carry permanent scars. Many get intricate tattoos of the beasts they defeated over the scars.

Headquarters: Kaer Gelen on Ard Skellige, near Gedyneith ( non - canon; Canon headquarters is Haern Caduch in the Amell Mountain that separates Nilfgaard and the Northern Realms.)

Fun Facts:

Berserkers were created by Bear Witcher mages in an attempt to perfect the mutagens for the school. Since the mutagens supposedly failed completely, they were not sterilized which is why Berserkers are still found today. 

Bear Witchers only rarely returned to Kaer Gelen in the winter; most chose to stay with their clan and a few would winter with the druids in Gedyneith

Bear Witchers are often heavily tattooed in accordance with Skellige tradition. After a particularly difficult hunt that they wish to commemorate, a Bear can always be found adding ink to his skin. 

Viper School

Specialization: Assassination 

Much of the reputation held by Cat Witchers can be more accurately attributed to Viper Witchers. This misunderstanding is used to the Vipers’ advantages. It isn’t unusual for a Viper to don a Cat medallion before enacting an assassination. Vipers will kill anyone for the right price and pry information out of them first for an additional fee. 

Specific/Distinct Mutations: 

Black Blood (Viper blood is toxic to almost everything - think the black blood potion but all the time.)

Toxic saliva (different Vipers have different effects. For example, one witcher may have saliva that paralyzes, while another has saliva that intoxicates.)

Combat Tactics/Combat Styles: Due to their toxic blood, two main forms of combat have evolved within the vipers: ranged and close-combat fighters:

Close-Combat Vipers lean into their toxic blood. Close-combat Vipers will occasionally allow their foe to get hits on them to poison them or corrode their blades. They fight with two "fangs" tipped with poison. Fangs are typically silver/steel daggers but can be made of anything the Viper desires. Some notable alternatives include bone, actual fangs, glass, and stone.

Ranged Vipers adhere to the fact that while their blood is deadly, they're no good to anyone if they're dead. Instead, ranged Vipers use poisoned arrows to attack their foes. The arrows are poisoned with their own blood.

Trial of the Medallion: The Trial of Sacrifice is the final hurdle a Viper faces before receiving their Medallion. As Vipers often work behind enemy lines and kill those they laid with only a moment before, they can’t get too attached to anything. Ever. The Trial of Sacrifice ensures they are prepared for this. When a Viper trainee arrives, they are invited to select a pet. That pet is then their companion and best friend for the entirety of their Withcer training. During the Trial of Sacrifice, a Viper must look their pet in the eye and kill it. (Canon)

Headquarters: Gorthur Gvaed in the Tir Tochair mountains between the Korath Desert and Nilfgaard. Most inhabitants of the mountains are non-humans.

Fun Facts:

Due to the Trial of Sacrifice, Vipers struggle to form attachments to anyone or anything 

The Schools of the Cat and the Viper do not have good relations and the rivalry is overshadowed only by the one between the Wolves and Cats. 

Griffon School

Specialization: Magic, the Dead

Griffons specialize in the art of magic. While their magic is not as powerful as that of a sorcerer or sorceress, it is quite powerful. Griffons can make use of magic beyond the usual Signs. They specialize in a type of magic that is cast using not Elder but Common. Extremely talented Griffons may be able to cast telepathically. Their heavily enchanted Witcher Medallions allow them to fly for short periods of time as well. 

Griffons chose to inhabit a deeply haunted land. To combat this, they quickly adjusted magic to help them communicate with the dead. This magic is considered necromancy and is therefore frowned upon by almost everyone, but Witchers are already frowned upon so what’s one more rumor? 

Specific/Distinct Mutations:

Magic enhancers (the mutation that allows the use of Common instead of Elder in spell casting.)

Air sacs 

Light bones 

Combat Tactics/Combat Styles: Griffons are advantageous fighters. They make use of their surroundings in any way possible, whether that’s by knocking opponents off cliffs or taking advantage of flammable materials. Griffons are also well known for using gravity to their advantage. Some Griffons are known for lifting their foes a considerable distance into the air and dropping them. 

Trial of the Medallion: The Trial of the Egg is the final trial a Griffon Witcher must face. The trainee must locate a Griffon egg, steal it without the parents noticing and transport it to a secondary location. Griffons may choose to take the Trial of the Book instead. During the Trial of the Book, they must recite the Liber Tenebrarum. No trainee has ever selected the Trial of the Book. (Canon)

Headquarters: Kaer Saren in the Kestrel Mountains in the Kingdom of Kovir and Poviss. 

Fun Facts:

The Griffon and Crane schools work closely together due to the typically dual flying/swimming nature of aquatic beasts. 

Kaer Seren was standing for centuries before the Griffons took it over 

The library of Kaer Seren was one of the greatest in the world and contained many book on mutagens and Common magic 

Common magic was feared by mages because they would lose their power if the commoners could cast without Aretuza and Ban Ard. This led to considerable tension between the groups. 

Griffons do not have issues with killing dragons, unlike other Witcher schools. 

Crane School

Specialization: Aquatic creatures

Cranes specialize in societies that live underwater, such as the Vodyanoy, and the monsters that plague them like water elementals, sea serpents, and krakans. 

Specific/Distinct Mutations: 

Gills

Webbed fingers/toes

Second eyelid

Pressure resistance 

Combat Tactics/Combat Styles: Of course, Cranes use their underwater skills. Like Water Hags, they often use silt and sand to blind their opponents. If they’re fighting a creature from a boat, they wrap a thick silver rope around it and yank it upward, out of its element. If they are stalking an amphibious creature, they take a page out of a crocodile’s book and keep still and silent. 

Trial of the Medallion: The Trial of the Frog is the final trial for Crane trainees. The Trial of the Frog focuses on adaptability in combat, like how a Frog adapts to living on land. Similar to a triathlon,  the Trial of the Frog takes place in all three of the main fighting environments of Crane Witchers. Provided they survive, the trainees become full fledged Witchers.

Headquarters: Kaer Nhon in the Silk Islands (Headcannon; no cannon headquarters. Kaer Nhon does not exist at all, unlike Kaer Gelen which can be found in Skellige in Witcher III)

Fun Facts:

Cranes are considered good luck on ships and are often allowed to travel on them for free - a rare reaction to the presence of a Witcher 

The School of the Crane is the only predominantly female school 

Many sea shanties are written by or reference Crane Witchers 

Myths about sirens being desirable originated due to drunk soldiers spotting Cranes in the depths. 

Cranes are generally the most well-natured and amicable Witchers 

Crane Witchers typically face the least persecution from humans despite being the most inhuman Witchers. This is because Crane Witchers do not belong in the uncanny valley like other Witchers; they’re seen as fully inhuman to the point where they enjoy a status not unlike the status of dragons - some people still fear them, but they’re largely respected. 

Manticore School

Specialization: Defense

Specific/Distinct Mutations:

Bulky frames

Tough skin (even by witcher standards) 

Reinforced bones

Combat Tactics/Combat Styles: 

Manticores, unlike all other witchers, are a preventative measure, not a reactive one. While they will kill monsters already present, they focus more on keeping monsters out of human settlements. They achieve this in many ways: they focus on finding and eradicating nests, building walls lined with silver, and teaching the common man how to handle the common monster.

 Manticore fighting styles also reflect their defensive nature. Manticores typically use large shields as their primary weapons. These shields are usually jagged along at least one edge and feature a large spike in the center. This shield effectively protects the witcher, and damages their opponent in one swift move. In the hand not holding the shield, Manticores are equipped with a small "stinger." A stinger is typically a small knife tipped in poison or enchanted to burn the flesh of an opponent. 

Trial of the Medallion: Trial of the Sands is the name given to the Manticores’ final trial. The Trial consists of the trainee making their way form one fortress to the other while taking no injuries - not even one from a cactus spine. It is not uncommon for a Manticore trainee to attempt the Trial multiple times. Because of the nature of the Trial of the Sands, Manticores train for much longer than the Witchers of other schools. 

Headquarters: Behelt Nar & Bialsuf Alsarea are the twin fortresses of the Manticores. One fort is at each end of the Korath desert.

Fun Facts:

Manticore Witchers are also called Alqatil

Women can be Manticore Witchers 

Manticore Witchers are considered dragon protectors by the dragon worshipers of Zerrikania 

[zeldareyesblog]

Bayonetta 2: The Controversial Witch Trials

**This was a responsive essay that I had written back in February 24, 2020 and revised on March 1st, 2020 for “Introduction to Composition” college class. Yes, I got an A+ on this.** 

                            Bayonetta 2: The Controversial Witch Trials

           In Giuseppe Nelva’s article, “Bayonetta 2’s “Over-Sexualization” Complaint: A Perfect Example of What’s Wrong with Modern Reviews”, I  found the reviews of the game to be unfair because Bayonetta 2 was judged based on the amount of provocative imagery it contained rather than Platinum Games’ improvement from the first Bayonetta’s gameplay, mechanics, and creative execution. Nelva’s concerns were the same as mine because we believed that no videogame should be judged by the amount of controversial content it has. Instead, video games should be judged if the video game’s creators have exceeded beyond expectations to entertain the players.

Video game reviewers are needed to help companies like Platinum Games improve their work ethic, so that the next video game they make from that specific series would not feature the same issues again. However, we have big video game reviewers like Polygon, who has judged this video game based on its “blatant over-sexualization” rather than Bayonetta 2 game’s execution as quoted from article, “I won’t guess why the blatant over-sexualization is still there, often more intensely than before. But it causes an otherwise great game to require a much bigger mental compromise to enjoy.” Even though a 7.5 out 10 would not be considered an awful rating for Bayonetta 2, it deserved more than that and it also deserved a more objective review rather than a subjective review despite the obvious adult content mentioned by Polygon’s throughout most of the review. While Bayonetta 2 did include sexual themes and references throughout the franchise and characters as much as strong language and violence is concerned, should it be used to solely judge the merits of a videogame? What if the creators of Bayonetta 2 intentionally put the controversial content there to show how our virtuous boundaries could be broken under harsh circumstances, but can still become a strong, wise, and beautiful person against all odds?

           To be honest though, I did understand that when my mother and I bought this video game from GameStop just last year during the holiday semester break as my New Year’s Eve present when I was 19 years old, she and I were both already aware of the  content.  Such as female characters being portrayed in a sexualized manner with extremely exaggerated proportions displayed in tight-fitting suits while in combat. There were also female characters being stripped of those suits for a brief amount of time to summon “infernal demons” as an aid in combat for huger enemies until their wicked weaves covered their private parts, and the innuendos spoken while the female characters interact with male characters in advance. However, the reason my mother approved of me playing that game, regardless of the adult content, was because she took her time to educate me about such content prior to succeeding my first semester in college. Because of our mother-daughter conversations,  it was still pointless to judge the game based on its own provocative content and more on how it has executed itself as an entertainment medium as a result. Unlike most parents that I met who let my friends play M-rated video games before they completed their secondary education and reached the appropriate age, my mother never let me play any M-rated game until I completed my secondary education and when I reached the appropriate age of 17 years old or older according to the Entertainment Ratings Software Board (ESRB) guidelines because she believed that proper  education and parental guidance would develop a real sense of maturity and high tolerance on all adult content that I would be exposed to in the future and she was right about that.

           Furthermore, when I compared my now adult self to the friends that played a variety of M-rated videogames while they were underaged and still in middle school a very long time ago, I remembered that they were complete hyperactive chatterboxes to the point of aggravation, became more aggressive in their gaming habits and personalities, and even learned new curse words that I have never even heard before. When it came to sexually suggestive content in mature-rated video games, my old middle school friends did not seem to process that kind of content in a composed and civilized manner which resulted in them having some misogynistic and judgmental views of women, especially fictional video game women like Bayonetta who had self-confidence on and off the battlefield and remained fearless in her sexuality and beauty. Although, I did not blame M-rated video games alone because I knew that it was obviously the parents who enabled their underaged children to play those mature-rated video games since they were impatient and did not take the time to teach their kids about what kind of content they could be getting themselves into if they bought the game no matter how entertaining it was, and why they should not expose themselves to it until they are at the appropriate age anyways.

           Moving on, Nelva has mentioned in his article that “What should be reflected, first and foremost, in a review’s content and in its score is the game’s quality, and while several aspects of “quality” are subjective, there are also many that aren’t. Production values are an example: graphics, animation, audio, textures, effects; Those are objective aspects of a game’s value that should not be overlooked.” As somebody that has owned and played this video game series, in my perspective I think that Bayonetta 2 has exceeded expectations from the Bayonetta 1 when it came to smooth gameplay mechanics – being able to reduce the amount of constant button pressing to fully complete charging attacks. Not only that, but Platinum Games has provided extra abilities for players such as giving Bayonetta the ability to glide on higher platforms with her Madama Butterfly Wings after jumping upwards and a variety of random “hack and slash” combo attacks on all bosses and mini bosses that will leave the players in suspense on what Bayonetta would do next, and included online gameplay levels and offline quests that challenge the players’ skills after completion of the story mode. The graphics and textures of Bayonetta 2 were beautifully executed to even reach cinematic levels of gaming throughout cutscenes and gameplay with the camera angles strategically displayed on the entire environment, and used closeups appropriately on the characters to present details on their unusual cosmetic makeup, clothing designs, and accessories as the characters communicated with each other. As for audio, the music soundtrack provided a mysterious, foreboding, yet epic emotions that could keep all players on edge and interested in the story mode. Furthermore, the dialogue between the characters was uniquely portrayed and ranged from what strong, young women and men would realistically say or react if they had encountered any enemies based on their three-dimensional personalities.  If videogame players were tight on budget to own a headset, they could still experience the same amount of interactive and immersive fantasy-adventure gaming that Bayonetta 2 has provided as an entertainment product that would keep the players entertained for many years to come.

           That objective review I made would convince so many young adult audiences to play Bayonetta 2. Eventually, it would have gained plenty of new fans to move this game up the ranks from being stuck in the “under rated” games category to gain widespread popularity. Never had I put in my own opinion on Bayonetta 2’s provocative content, because I know that judging a game based on what kind of adult material it had was not my job as a reviewer and I already assumed that my audience knows better what kind of material they would get themselves into before buying the game to begin with.

          What amazed me now was how the world wanted to showcase diversity and promote less censorship in the entertainment industry. Although, once we get what we asked for there are a lot of negative people out there on the internet that make so-called entertainment reviews to talk about how the characters in a television show, movie, or videogame do not fit their own beliefs.  According to Nelva, “It saddens me that between the many calls for diversity we’ve seen lately, some actually fly in the face of diversity itself by implying that games that celebrate sexuality and beauty like Bayonetta 2 should not exist or are not worth playing and enjoying.” This quote was a reminder to me that I should not judge any video game based on the number of suggestive themes it contains, but if it exceeded my expectations on quality video game entertainment.

         Overall, I believed that Bayonetta 2 was a compelling video game that unfortunately received a bad reputation since huge video game reviewers like Polygon judged this video game based on the amount of provocative content it contained rather than the actual gameplay and creative execution itself. The creators behind Bayonetta 2 were considered artists because they told a narrative story and designed characters beyond our own imagination and made money from our fascination in this fantasy, action, and adventure game. Besides that, the purpose of video games was to provide another form of quality entertainment that all young adult audiences could enjoy at their own leisure time and Bayonetta 2 would have been one of those videogames if we had better reviewers that judged it based on gameplay and performance, instead of content.

  Works Cited

Nelva, Giuseppe. “Bayonetta 2's ‘Over-Sexualization’ Complaint: A Perfect Example of What's Wrong with Modern Reviews.” DualShockers, DualShockers, 17 Oct. 2014, www.dualshockers.com/bayonetta-2s-over-sexualization-complaint-a-perfect-example-of-whats-wrong-with-modern-reviews/.

[p5youllneverseeitcoming]

Persona 5 Strikers/Scramble

So! I finished the story of Persona 5 Strikers and I wanted to share my thoughts as I have soooo much to say but cannot share with my friends due to spoilers :’) I am currently playing on a New Game+ as, ya girl wants the Platinum Trophy :o

I will talk about some of the things that I really liked here (Spoiler free don’t worry) AND include spoilery things under the cut so I won’t ruin the experience for anyone else!

The Plot

Obviously this takes place after the original Persona 5 story finishes and as opposed to a whole year, you just get 1 month with the Phantom Thieves. I really liked exploring all the cities you travel to and the character interactions were so cute!! I really like the two new characters introduced (Sophia and Zenkichi Hasegawa). Both of them fit the story so well and their interactions with the other Thieves are honestly so good and pure! Also?? Their outfits? Amazing T_T It was such a nice change seeing everyone in casual outfits as opposed to their school uniforms!

I also loved the fact that you could choose to play with characters that get introduced late game like Haru for example straight away. I for one, always have her in my party as soon as she’s available so having her for the whole game was like a dream come true haha. I’ll talk about Sophia and Zenkichi a bit more under the cut but I will say that it’s so fun to play as them! I personally prefer Sophia more as she has healing skills which are always really useful and she uses yo-yo’s for her weapons which are so fun to use. Zenkichi uses a great sword which is very Final Fantasy of him and I am loving it. I love their Phantom Thief outfits! Sophia looks super cute in her floofy coat and boots and Zenkichi just looks so cool! His hat is goals, I want one T_T

The anime cutscenes in the game are also... Omg... I just can’t help but fangirl over how everyone looks... ESPECIALLY SOPHIA OML, she’s so... Bby... And of course, the dialogue options you can choose are so funny, then again what else can you expect from a game that had the option to say “you jelly?” to Ryuji.

I won’t spoil the main plot but this game works similarly to Persona 5 in the sense of, you still go into dungeons but these ones are a lot shorter and when you leave the dungeon, the days don’t actually move forward, only specific story points advance the days. So essentially if you wished, you can stay and grind for as long as you like!

The Gameplay

I won’t lie, as expected from a hack-and-slash it gets quite chaotic at first if you don’t fully know what’s going on but you get used to it pretty quickly! The game gives you tutorials whenever anything new appears and you get the hang of it pretty well by the first dungeon. You still only have 4 characters in your party and Akira must always be present but here you can actually run around as the other party members when the battles are over! Also? Morgana gets comical sound effects when he does things like jumping and running and I was LIVING for it.

The other thing that changed is, obviously it’s not turn based so if you were like me and wore the SP restoring accessories to get 7SP back each turn, you’re in for a last surprise! In this game you actually use your items quite a lot as there isn’t a limit to how much you can use as you access them mid battle by pausing. Later on you get specific skills that restore your SP after each battle or by performing All Out Attacks and 1 More’s so honestly, SP isn’t really a problem for regular battles. I mainly found it running out quickly when I was fighting some of the optional bosses but I always had SP restoring items so it was all good hehe.

You still do things like All Out Attacks and 1 More’s in this game but you also do something called ‘Showtime’ which is very similar to the ones introduced in Royal only in Strikers it’s for one character, you basically build up the showtime gauge as you battle enemies and, once activated, you deal significant damage to stronger enemies like bosses as well as all of the enemies in the area. The All Out Attacks also have their own little animation with your party posing and just looking really good!

Yusuke being so extra is honestly such a mood omg... Also Mona T_T So smol.

Every party member has their own special quirks such as Ann and Makoto applying Fire and Nuclear affinity respectively to their regular weapons, Morgana turning into the Mona car and so on. I personally always had Haru and Yusuke in my party and kept switching between the other Thieves to see what I like best. Personally, I really like having Morgana or Sophia as they’re really good healers, Morgana obviously having the more powerful skills such as Mediaharan and Salvation.

Also... The menus... Omg... If you thought the Persona 5 menu was stylish then you will LOVE the Strikers menus. They’re so stylish! And I love that all the Phantom Thieves are there too, it’s so cute T_T

The only thing I don’t like is the game doesn’t pause when your controller dies so uh... I may or may not have died during a boss battle when I was like 2 hits away from winning and then just... Stopped moving letting the boss hit me with a killing combo :)

To be honest though the party that I had pretty much all the time was:

But as I said, I liked to change Morgana and Sophia around every now and then.

The Music

Omg the music. Atlus really just said: Hey what if we made Persona 5 music again but like... More epic?

The song that plays right as soon as you have control of Joker is SO. GOOD. I legit had to pause for like 5 mins just to jam out. I don’t think it will come as much of a surprise but in my opinion, Persona 5 definitely has one of the best video game soundtracks, I absolutely love all the songs!

I will discuss some of the dungeon themes in the spoilers but I absolutely love the soundtrack for this game. Every dungeon theme is so fitting for said dungeon, I genuinely listen to them all the time, especially when doing my research for my essays!

The battle music is really energetic as opposed to the jazzy feel from the original Persona 5 soundtrack but it’s very fitting for the actual battle as you often fly all around the area instead of standing in one spot. I will say, Last Surprise made an excellent comeback despite being an already amazing song which is just, amazing, incredible, fantastic...

Other things

Well, I can’t go into detail due to spoilers but they deadass put a JoJo reference as well as a character in the game :’) The moment I saw them I was fangirling so hard!!! Also? The villain designs in this game??? Amazing. Beautiful. Very creative!

The Phantom Thieves interacting with each other is also really cute! I ESPECIALLY liked the fact that Morgana and Ryuji got along a lot better! They still had small fights here and there but they pretty much apologised to one another straight away which I really liked! Also? Ryuji protecting his friends, especially the girls? Amazing. Wonderful. Cannot help but stan.

Well, that concludes the non-spoiler section which.... Is kinda long haha, Below the cut I will talk about the spoilery things so I advise looking at it AFTER you finish the game!

The Plot

The plot of this game is really fun if you ask me. You travel around Japan defeating Monarchs in Jails AND you get to experience the joys of summer vacation with your friends and your new Persona dad. I really like the fact that you don’t advance time when you leave the Jails because this gives you the chance to grind as much as you want before tackling harder fights like some of the optional bosses. The boss designs themselves were so good! Especially Alice?! My God? She’s beautiful?? Look at her!

Persona 5 Strikers said you can be horny on main... Just this once o_o. She literally steps on Joker in the Jail which o_o Ma’am... Plz but she ALSO steps on her manager in the real world.

I really liked all the bosses in this game because they felt so... Real? Obviously I don’t agree with them for brainwashing people into worshipping them, but I really like how the game gave them backstories that showed why they strayed away from the right path. The fact that the Thieves tell them that they understand their struggles because they themselves went through the same thing (Like Ann and Yusuke) honestly made me appreciate the story that much more. I really liked Haru’s little arc in Sapporo because not only did she help Mariko Hyodo and show her that despite mistakes you can always stand up and start again, but she also got to have more screentime, like that cute fountain scene she has with Akira! ALSO? The Hee-Horde?! I was laughing for a solid 5 minutes when I saw it! It was so cute how Haru, Sophia, Ryuji and Yusuke were so into it while Futaba was just there like: ????

I think my favourite Jail out of all of them will definitely have to be the Kyoto one, a.k.a. the Jail controlled by Zenkichi’s daughter, Akane. Despite how short it is, you can learn so much about her. The overall aesthetic of the jail shows her love to the Phantom Thieves and in the actual Jail theme you can hear fragments of ‘Life Will Change’ and ‘Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There’ which I think is absolutely amazing! The boss fight for this jail honestly took me 3 tries to beat as the first time, I died due to not fully getting how Shadow Joker worked, and the second time, I was about 2 hits from beating him but then... My controller died :’) By the time it turned back on I was already c-c-c-c-comboed to death so :’) This is also the jail where Zenkichi awakens to his Persona and honestly? I found the little segment where he has to sneak around in his usual everyday attire so cute, bless him, he really did adopt 7 teenagers, their cat and an AI daughter.

ALSO?! They deadass put Dio in this game? Like when I first saw Natsume’s shadow I was like: Hm looks kinda familiar...

BUT THEN?!

Needless to say I was fangirling pretty hard.

I liked Akira Konoe, very much vibing with his Power Ranger aesthetic however, I have to say, his boss fights was surprisingly... Easy? At least it felt easy to me which was kind of... Disappointing I suppose for him supposedly being “the final boss” HOWEVER, I very much liked how his calling card was delivered, and the fact that Zenkichi could finally get his revenge was very satisfying! 

Now, let’s talk about the end game, mainly the Abyss Jail.  I did NOT see it coming (haha) that it was Ichinose all along! As I’m currently replaying the game, the fact that she doesn’t want to look at Sophia despite specialising in AI technology should have been my first clue that something is not quite right here! 

When she forces Sophia to attack the Thieves, it honestly broke my heart. The fact that she recognised Joker and Skull... And she threw herself off the ledge just so she can’t hurt them anymore... Yo, I love her so much T_T That’s why her awakening to her Persona (her true Persona) was such a satisfying scene! Her Persona (Pandora) has a really cool design, I especially like the fact that she represents the Hope Arcana (as there was hope left at the bottom of Pandora’s box) and that Pandora herself kept the box-y design from her original “Persona” Pithos. I found it quite funny that all the skills Pithos has ended with a “?”. Anyway, the scene where she tells Ichinose all the things she learnt, and that Ichinose herself has a heart despite believing that she doesn’t for so long was so touching. It showed that Sophia deeply cares for her, despite the fact that she literally said she’s the reason so many people are getting mind controlled by EMMA. The ending scene with the two of them laughing and holding hands... My heart T_T

Now then, let’s talk about EMMA.

I. Loved. The. Final. Boss. Fight.

The fact that the game makes you use ALL the characters for the final fight! As I usually switched out characters here and there, my reserve party members weren’t severely under-levelled which made the fight pretty okay! I had quite... Strange groups I would say as I had Makoto and Zenkichi being a team, Morgana, Ann and Ryuji being a team, and Akira, Haru, Yusuke and Sophia being the final team. The final boss itself, has an absolutely beautiful design. I especially loved the angel like wings because it really showed that EMMA saw herself as a saviour. The cutscene that plays after with all the Thieves dealing the final blows before watching all the desires fall around them was honestly so pretty... Man, this game series is just so aesthetic!

When the credits rolled and all the photos started appearing I couldn’t help but start crying. It really felt like you were actually there, living through all the memories and the fact that Sophia called the photo of all of them together “Treasure”... T_T

The Gameplay

I already pretty much said all I wanted for the gameplay in the non-spoiler section but I will say, the Showtimes and the Master Skills each character learns are so good! I love that once you master all of them you’re bascially unstoppable, I especially love Haru’s and Akira’s as it allows them to deal damage even if they’re a safe distance away from the enemy. The fact that you can learn Bond skills that restore SP with every All Out Attack and One More is honestly so helpful because it saves you going back and forth between the real world but then again, by this point you probably have way too many HP and SP restoring items!

I really liked that Zenkichi has no weaknesses and uses Almighty damage but I find the whole Fury/HP consumption combination a bit weird. After a while you get used to it and obviously you don’t have to activate fury at all but as I said before, I prefer playing as Sophia. Although, I will say that gun wise, I think Zenkichi’s are a lot more fun to use than Sophia’s blasters, but then again that’s just my personal opinion!

The Music

As I said, the music was so fitting for each Jail, I absolutely love it.

The first Jail, you honestly can’t help but bop your head to the beat. It really gives you the impression that you’re in some kind of twisted theme park which really fit the overall aesthetic of the Jail. I loved the vibrant neon colour scheme in such a dark looking place.

The Okinawa Jail... My God that theme was so good. I can’t really explain it but the song really made you feel like you were... Alone, like the place was truly abandoned and forgotten. As soon as the violin started playing I couldn’t help but just stop and listen to it. The overall jail was just so... Creepy. The Shadows there resemebled the shadows you would usually find in the previous Persona games, just this black mass slithering around. I think it was very fitting that they put the Reaper in this Jail. 

As I mentioned before, the Kyoto Jail theme is my absolute favourite. The fact that it has elements of other Persona 5 songs due to Akane being a big Phantom Thieves fan was such a good choice! I love how when you take a closer look, you can see the Phantom Thieves logo on the lanterns and the fact that Shadow Akane herself made a Phantom Thief outfit for herself... Big mood. I loved how all the Thieves encouraged her to try and get along with her dad better AND that they taught Zenkichi how to cook just so he can make curry for her, especially when you remember just how much curry means to someone like Futaba. 

I really liked the remix of Rivers in a Desert, then again what did I expect from a Persona game? The battle music is ALWAYS amazing. I really liked how this played when you fight Konoe as it parallels when you fight Shido in the original, supposedly the final fight, only to find out that there is something MUCH bigger than them.

Other things

This post is already way too long and if you read all of this... Thank you so much. Sadly, I cannot share this with any of my friends as it’s spoilers so I hope you guys don’t mind me sharing this here! I would love to see your opinion of this game!!!

Also? Yusuke and Akira are now canonically dating and I think that’s beautiful

And then that scene later on

Why do you think we came here with Yusuke, Morgana?

TL;DR: I love this game

[sazzafraz]

i’m probably truly never get back to crashing tide 

Taijutsu sucks. I want to die. Everything can eat my ass.

Moving from the Land of Song’s Sun Crane Style into the far more frenetic Moon-Walking Water one favoured by Lightning proved that I was a goddamn hack who should have kept up her yoga classes. Yes, the sharingan had made learning it easy but fuck if it wasn’t hard on the joints. The recall and fluidity of the motions was only as good as my personal understanding and flexibility. I was about 50-50 on both and positively dying. 

Not that the kid cared. “When can I learn those?”

“Thirteen.” I dropped low to stretch out my hip and then returned to practicing forcing chakra the opposite direction of my movements. It was sticky and sluggish but there was no way to get better other than to just keep going. “You can learn the lighter forms the hard way but until you start puberty the muscle mass necessary won’t be there.”

“I thought you didn’t fight.”

I did fight. Very close range or very long. I was a sitting duck otherwise. Dropping into a slightly messy Pigeon Pose I waved him forward. “You’re never going to have as much muscle mass as the Inuzuka or the Hyuuga. It may not seem like it but they build ‘em big. Just be glad you won’t have to fist fight a Senju.” Oh wait. He might have to fist fight a Senju. “And if you do, play dirty because they’re all muscle.”

“The Senju are dead.”

“The Senju have taken a long sabbatical from being decent contributing members of society. Follow me.” I stretched. Welcomed the sun. Threw in some warriors. Then went into the opening moves of Fire Over Air. In the manga learning the Great Fireball technique conveyed adulthood. In this splinter reality I learned that the Uchiha had spent six centuries or so developing specific fighting styles to fight every alignment. Mastering the opening sequences of those made you an adult. It made sense given what out bloodline could do and if it was complete it would go some way to explaining Itachi’s complete OP-ness. Fire Over Air I did every day because it forced me to use an element I was great at to control one I was abysmal with. 

Sasuke followed my physical position to a t. Legs in Warrior pose, hands switching between Bird and Tiger. The trick was to feel the moment where one nature became another and to force the power down smothering the emerging chakra. This was stop one of oh, about a thousand. 

I could feel the switch-dampen-switch happen between my hands. The tiny release of it was easy to control and not uncomfortable. Sasuke followed. I could almost feel his frustration with it. 

“Fire Over Air is one of the harder forms. We’ll try Fire Over Water in a second.”

“Fire Over what?”

“This form. It’s one of the Four Pillars of Suppression. Fire Over Air. Fire Over Water. Fire Over Earth. Fire Over Lightning. You start here with the basic release signs so you can learn how fire affects every release and over time you add steps. At the end you’re supposed to be like Uchiha Masaru, able to stop any technique with his will and a hand.” It also made using acquired jutsu easier. 

“Why are we standing like this.”

“Stand up straight and try again.”

He did. The second he went from Bird to Tiger a gust of air spun up and blasted his hands apart. “Why?”

“Grounding.” I changed my feet and dropped weight into them. “This position is used a lot in Earth and Air techniques -the really old school kind that’s more like dancing than brawling. The part of you that is Earth aligned automatically grounds the rest of you and disperses volatile energy.”

He frowned at his stinging hands. “I don’t have an Earth alignment.”

“Yeah you do.” I peacefully moved to Half Moon to do the fourth sequence of Fire Over Lightning. “Chakra exists as the physical manifestation of our spirit in space. It doesn’t follow logic very well. Hashirama, unhelpful genius that he sometimes was, invented a universal hand sign language that we use in Konoha. It gets rid of a lot of the hassle in remembering foot positions.” Move to Fire Over Earth in Crescent pose. “Before that there were variations in how each Clan and people performed any given jutsu. Our ancestors probably started this style to try and understand it.” Fire Over Water was a pain to transition to. All of it’s lower body movements were fierce and space consuming. I flowed down into one of it’s ending poses, a simple cross legged seat. 

“I don’t know any of this.”

He wouldn’t. “I got stationed with older kin a lot during the war. We traded secrets.” My mother taught me Fire over Lightning but it was the only one she ever learnt all the way through. I had the basic sets of all of them but like her I only learnt Fire Over Water all the way to the end.     

“So you’re going to teach me.”

“The basics. Most everyone only learnt the one.”

“I need to know all of them.”

I backtracked over the conversation, found the flaw and chastised myself. “It isn’t exactly like Great Uncle Masaru’s technique. For one he had Fuu Dog summons and god knows that scroll has been lost for awhile. It’s not a one shot.”

“Teach me.” He screwed up his little hand. “I need to know.”

Well. This is on me, then. “Fine. I can teach you the first five sequences of all of them and twenty four of Fire Over Lightning. I know all forty four of Fire Over Water but I will not show you more than the twenty ninth without the sharingan.”  

He blanched.

“Kid,” I said laughing. “We’ve had six hundred years to obsess. Cousin Sho needed about twenty days to let his thing for a Akimichi girl get all of us banned for life.”

A slash of white. A small grin. “That was funny.”

That was last year, I recalled. “Yeah. It was. If you’re betting on your brother knowing it, yeah, he probably does. It’s useful and we’re obsessive. If you think-”

“I just wanna know.” He replied in a much shyer, smaller voice.

I replayed the conversation again. 

“Okay.” Considering it through the prism of six hundred unbroken years of family. “Okay. But if I decide not to show you something it’s a medical decision. We’ve defanged a lot of these but they’re primarily analysis positions for fully trained shinobi with the sharingan. They’re combative, like you saw with the first move. You only work with higher levels of less stable energy as we go.”

Not that he’d ever know it but one of the main reasons, after the police and the eye stealing and the whole blood feud, that the Uchiha hated Tobirama was that he’d rendered large parts of the Pillar style obsolete by just mashing together new techniques faster than we could account for them. And then there was the Uzumaki clan throwing in some seals to just really fuck it all up. Certain strains of the sharingan -Madara’s, Itachi’s, Sasuke’s- had a hard on for sealing jutsu. Other’s -me, everyone else- got a horrible sense of vertigo if we tried to copy Uzumaki seals.

[cloudy-whales]

Do you have any headcanons about Odd? I headcanon him as trans

I do! Here are some of mine:

He is bi

Has a very specific hair and skin care routine that he learned from his dad and sisters

Kiwi is an emotional support animal, but Odd’s parents never got the French equivalent to the license for Kiwi so Odd just said “F this, i’m bringing my dog!” and did it anyways

Overall is really smart, academically and body language wise, but doesn’t really show it off and only utilizes it when it seems needed

His family is mad rich and lives in a gilded age mansion

You would never know this unless you go to his house, doesn’t like flaunting in that manner. Views his family as more C+ tier rich people when really they are in the A tier

I am basing this off of the fact that a lot of American private schools are really expensive (some can be almost the same as a community college tuition depending on what they offer) so I am guessing that sending your child to a foreign school would cost a lot + sending the older siblings as well. This is also assuming that the older siblings continued on for a college career as well. From his parents career paths (assuming that they are at the peak of their careers and can earn residuals from their previous work) and the ability to pay from Odd to fly back home for the holidays along with shipping his school stuff home once summer comes.

Prefers music with a faster BPM but don’t be fooled he will listen and tell you about anything. From ancient latin melodies, to an underground indie experimental band to something very specific like wizardcore rock or space acid disco

fav game genres are beat em’ ups, fighting games, JRPGS and high action hack and slashes

Non-gender conforming, however during the time of the show wasn’t really sure what was his situation so only expressed this through color choice. When he gets older he gains more confidence and expresses it more. 

I should really draw my headcanon older Lyoko Warriors.... time to add that to the list of fanart I want to draw ✎

[idiot-with-a-cat-pen]

Day 1: Semblances

So I literally just finished this because I’m an idiot, but anyway Winter is helping because Qrow and Clover are dumb, and this is a soulmate au.

I will now add a break because it might not be that long, but it’s long enough.

Clover stares at his wrist in anticipation, counting down the seconds in his mind. It’s 8:15 right now, and at 8:17, he’ll see the words appear. Just two more minutes, and he gets to know his soulmate’s Semblance.

“You know, staring at your arm for that long isn’t going to make his Semblance show up any faster,” Robyn drawls, flopping over the chair she’s been lounging in. “So you might as well have some cake.”

“First of all, I haven’t been staring for that long. Second of all, cake? Where did you find cake?”

Harriet appears in the doorway, staggering as she tries to balance a cake stand on one arm. Cursing, Robyn rushes to go help her and barely catches the cake before it hits the ground.

Clover blinks. “Lucky catch?”

“We’ll never know with you around, will we?” Ari sighs as she follows Harriet into the room, the tips of her braids covered in green globs of frosting and crumbs.

Raising an eyebrow, Clover asks, “I take it your baking skills aren’t as good as you thought?”

Ari crosses her arms. “I could have done it if Harriet hadn’t insisted on speed-decorating-”

“There’s a minute until his soulmate’s Semblance shows up,” Harriet says, mimicking Ari’s pose as Robyn carefully sets the cake down on the table. “We had to get it done fast, so I did.”

Clover takes the opportunity to look at his cake. It’s clearly been haphazardly cut in the shape of what he thinks is supposed to look like a four-leaf clover, and the green frosting seems to be sliding off. On top of the mess is a message that’s nearly impossible to read, but Clover’s seen enough bad handwriting to decipher the words Happy 17th, Clover!

“Haven’t you ever watched Cake Wars?” Ari demands. “You have to wait for the cake to cool unless you want the frosting to look like that.” She points at the frosting, which is still sliding down to the base of the cake.

Harriet waves her away and checks her Scroll. “It’s fine. Clover, thirty seconds.”

Clover stiffens and turns back to his wrist. His teammates sit down in the chairs around him, their eyes on the cake. Ari pulls out one of her swords and carefully cuts a huge slice. She barely manages to balance it long enough to put it on a plate, but she doesn’t hand him the cake. Not yet.

“Twenty-five,” Robyn says distractedly, her attention split between the cake, his wrist and her Scroll. She accepts the next piece of cake and starts eating while they wait for the seconds to tick by.

“Twenty,” Ari mutters through a mouthful of cake. She gags almost immediately. “Harriet, are you sure this recipe was a good one?”

“I got it off the description of a baking hacks video, don’t ask me.”

“Why would you trust a baking hacks video-”

Harriet swallows her bite of cake, clearly not finding a problem with its taste. She gestures with her plastic fork as she responds, “They said seven quick and easy hacks for baking, so I figured it was a good idea. Besides, I knew you would mess something up.”

“That frosting exploding was your fault, but whatever,” Ari replies, setting her plate down. She checks her watch. “Ten seconds, Clover.”

“Nine,” Harriet says, putting her cake to the side so she can perch on the armrest of Clover’s chair.

Robyn, still with her cake in her hands, jumps over to the other armrest. She and Harriet lean close to his wrist and wait.

“What if it’s the other wrist?” Ari asks as she balances on the top of the chair like a gargoyle.

“It won’t be,” Clover replies. The confidence he tries for doesn’t quite make it into his tone. He’s always felt like the words should be on his right wrist.

Ari pulls out her Scroll and positions the camera so she can take a picture of his wrist. “I’ll send it to Elm and she can get it filed for you,” she says.

“Thanks.”

“Three,” Harriet says, her voice almost a shout.

Robyn does shout. “TWO!”

“One,” Ari screeches even louder than Robyn.

“Zero,” Clover finishes as everyone’s Scrolls hit 8:17:07. The members ofTeam CHRY lean as close as they can to his wrist and wait.

Red letters start to appear, one by one. MI

“Mist,” Harriet suggests.

“Mirror,” Robyn says.

“Mirage,” Ari offers.

“Misfortune,” Clover says, getting weird looks from the others. It’s an odd guess, but the letters forming do nothing to prove him wrong.

MIS

“Damn it,” Ari and Robyn say at once. Harriet waits with bated breath, but she can’t even come close to matching Clover’s level of excitement.

This is it. Sure, he’s not exactly meeting his soulmate yet, but at least he’ll have a hint. For all he knows, he’s already met them and didn’t notice.

MISF

Harriet sighs in disappointment, but Clover has a feeling he’s right that sticks with him as the next six letters appear. When he reads the full word, he’s not surprised.

MISFORTUNE

Robyn wheezes, drops her cake and falls off the armrest. Ari loses her balance and crashes to the ground, while Harriet has to put a hand on the back of the chair to steady herself.

“Well, that’s ironic,” Ari says when she picks herself up.

“How did you guess that?” Robyn groans from the floor.

Clover shrugs. “Lucky guess?”

“Of course,” Harriet sighs. She stands up straighter. “Do you think he’s naturally unlucky, or does he just make everyone else unlucky?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care,” Robyn cackles. “Misfortune. They’re never going to be able to do epic Semblance combinations like that.”

“Yeah, like Matter Absorption could ever work with your Semblance.” Ari reaches for her cake before she thinks better of it and stops. “What if he’s just not a Huntsman?”

“Then he’d get Words instead, genius,” Harriet says. She turns to Clover. “Are you going to see if anyone in the school has misfortune?”

“Later,” Clover responds, his mind elsewhere. The rest of his team might find it funny that their Semblances are opposite, but he can’t help but think about Harriet’s question about the specifics of his soulmate’s Semblance. What if he affects the people around him? He’s always been glad that he’s able to help change the outcome of things for the better, but what if it’s the opposite for his soulmate? Would he be forced to stay distant to keep the people he loves safe? Looking around at his team, Clover can’t imagine the loneliness of staying away from everyone.

Gods, he hopes that’s not how his soulmate’s Semblance works.

-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-

The announcer- a teacher from Shade, he thinks- leans into the microphone and says over the cheers of the crowd, “Clover Ebi and Harriet Bree of Atlas versus Qrow and Raven Branwen of Beacon!”

Clover takes a second to thank the gods that his outfit doesn’t have sleeves as the parts of the arena click into place. A glance behind him tells him that they have an area of fire Dust and an area that looks like it was cut straight out of the desert. Combined with the sun’s heat, he can bet that their half will be unbearable. Then again, sunburn might be worse.

Behind the two members of Beacon’s team STRQ, a pirate ship rises along with a biome made of ice that glistens in Vacuo’s heat. Clover and Harriet send each other meaningful looks- they’re definitely going over to Qrow and Raven’s side.

“Three…”

Kingfisher snaps out to its full form while Fast Knuckles extends around Harriet’s arms and hands. Across from them, Raven pulls out a long red blade, while Qrow puts a hand on the handle behind his back.

“Two…”

Clover slides one foot in front of the other and raises Kingfisher. Harriet curls her fingers into fists. Raven brandishes her sword, but Qrow’s only movement is a slight shift forward.

“One…”

Glancing at Harriet, Clover tries to indicate with his eyes that she should fight Qrow. She nods, smirking confidently, and turns back to their opponents.

“Go!”

Harriet takes off in a burst of speed and punches at Qrow’s face, and to her evident surprise, he ducks it with speed rivaling hers. Her second punch strikes metal as he yanks out a huge sword to block it.

Clover doesn’t see any more of their fight as Raven shoots in front of him with her sword slashing down. He raises Kingfisher to block it, just barely catching the blade before it hits him. Clover tries to kick her, but she leaps away. He uses the opportunity to grapple over to the pirate ship, and she follows him.

Swinging around the ship, Clover’s acutely aware of how quickly Raven follows him. He manages to turn at the last second to kick her away, but her sword is so long that when she jerks her arm, it still makes contact with Clover’s hand. He loses his grip on Kingfisher and lands hard on the deck of the ship.

Raven moves the second she lands, returning to attack again while he’s disarmed. Hastily, Clover flicks his pin and amplifies his Semblance. He holds out a hand, and Kingfisher drops into it. He blocks her sword just in time.

Harriet’s shout of triumph reaches him when she finally lands a hit on Qrow and swings another punch at him. Raven spins and slashes her sword through thin air, opening up a red portal. Its twin appears under Qrow and drops him right next to Raven. With Harriet too far away to attack, they both focus on Clover.

Just my luck, Clover thinks. He doesn’t have time to flick his pin again as both of them spin and bring their swords down on him with so much strength that he almost collapses from holding them both back.

Qrow frowns, and Clover’s about to grin when his sword starts to change. Gears start to whir as Qrow’s massive sword curves, its handle extending. Clover doesn’t have time to process until Qrow angles the scythe downward and shoots him in the stomach.

Flying backward, Clover sees Harriet leap over the edge of the pirate ship and hit Raven in the face so hard that the deck collapses under her. As Raven falls, Harriet catches Qrow’s scythe and tries to throw him in after her, but he dodges her attack.

Clover staggers to his feet and casts Kingfisher towards Qrow’s scythe. He tries to yank the weapon away, but Qrow only raises an eyebrow and jerks his scythe so that Clover gets dragged closer.

After that, it’s a mess. Qrow manages to dodge Harriet’s punches and kicks her right into the path of Raven’s blade. Somehow, he and Qrow start fighting in the ice Dust area.

As Clover slides over the ice, it starts to crack. Panicked, he tries to use his Semblance before he realizes that he’s so low on Aura that it’ll probably break before the ice does. At least Qrow’s at roughly the same level of Aura- if he can just get one more good hit in, he can finish him.

The ice starts to crack even more under Clover’s feet, but he does his best to avoid it as Qrow closes in. The cracking follows him until Clover’s sure that this has to do with Qrow’s Semblance.

On cue, the announcer says, “It looks like Qrow Branwen’s using his Semblance- Misfortune!”

Clover hesitates with Kingfisher inches away from Qrow, but his opponent doesn’t. Qrow spins his scythe so fast that it catches Clover and throws him against the ice so hard that the entire area rumbles.

The buzzer blares across the arena and Clover sighs, watching his Aura tick down to 0% on the screen. He remembers why he hesitated in the first place and looks up, trying to see if anything is written on Qrow’s wrist.

Clover notices two things at once- that Qrow’s wrist is covered by a black band, and that a large chunk of ice is separating to fall on him. He tries to get to his feet, but he can barely stand up on the slippery, cracked ice. “Shit.”

Luckily, Qrow notices too. Eyes lighting with alarm, he doesn’t even hesitate to leap for Clover, throwing his scythe aside. The chunk falls as Qrow tackles him, making them both slide across the ice.

The ice chunk explodes into smaller bits that fly everywhere. Qrow sees them and positions himself over Clover so none of them hit him. By the time the ice has settled, the buzzer sounds twice- once for Qrow, whose aura is at 19%, and once for Harriet, who’s clearly been distracted enough for Raven to knock her off the ship.

Qrow sighs, his face so close to Clover’s that he can feel his breath shift his hair. The red-eyed boy pushes himself up, slight disappointment in his expression as he helps Clover to stand. “Sorry,” he rasps. “You okay?”

Clover just stares at him. Now that he thinks about it, Qrow’s kind of hot, and his face was just so close to his, and he’s still holding his hand, and he might be his soulmate- Clover nods mutely, unable to form a single word.

Looking relieved, Qrow turns back to Raven, who uses another portal to come over and high-five him. Harriet zips to Clover and gives him an I-know-what-you’re-thinking look.

When they leave the arena, Robyn and Ari are already there, standing at the exit with identical shit-eating grins. Clover gives them one alarmed look before Harriet runs over to join them.

“So,” Robyn begins.

“You lost,” Ari continues.

“To a guy whose Semblance is exactly what’s written on your wrist,” Harriet finishes. She practically bounces as she asks, “Are you going to go talk to him?”

Clover hesitates. “I couldn’t even talk to him the first time,” he finally says. “And I don’t think he likes us that much. Not to mention if I ask about his soulmate’s Semblance… that kind of implies that I think it’s me, doesn’t it?”

“Your choice,” Harriet shrugs. She turns to the exit. “Let’s go get ice cream and cry over our loss, okay?”

Ari shoots a glance up at the bright sun and back down at her long sleeves. “That is something I can get behind,” she agrees, following Harriet.

Robyn starts walking after them, but she pauses when she sees Clover stay still. “Are you coming?”

“In a sec. I’ll catch up,” he replies, and Robyn shrugs and walks away.

Clover turns around to where he can see Team STRQ celebrating. Qrow is talking to his teammate, who wears a long white cloak. Her back is to Clover, but Qrow’s isn’t. Staring just a little too long, Clover knows he’s bright red when Qrow looks up, smirks and raises an eyebrow.

He turns and hurries in the other direction, his entire brain screaming at him. Clover doesn’t know if Qrow’s still looking at him, but he doesn’t want to find out.

As he leaves the arena, he runs into Harriet, who seems to have seen the entire thing. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk to him?”

“I’m busy trying to banish that from my memory, thanks.”

“...Good luck with that.”

-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-

General Ironwood reads the report again. An unauthorized Manta has landed somewhere in Mantle, and now they’ve taken out their weapons. Great. At least there aren’t too many. If he sends the Ace Ops and maybe Winter, they should be able to-

His Scroll beeps. Ironwood looks down and clicks on the picture from one of the drones. It’s blurry, but he recognizes dark hair and a torn red cape. Qrow.

“Sir?” Winter speaks up from across his desk, reminding him that she’s there. “What do you want us to do?”

Something clicks in his brain, and Ironwood looks up as fast as he can. “Do you have Clover’s file?”

Winter nods and extends her Scroll, where Clover’s picture pops up on the screen. He scrolls down to the bottom part to a picture of Clover’s wrist. And the word written on.

MISFORTUNE.

“Oh, this’ll be hilarious,” Ironwood mutters. He looks up. “Just send the Ace Ops. Tell them to be stealthy.”

Winter follows his gaze to the picture of Clover’s wrist. “Oh.”

“How long do you think it’ll take for him to figure it out?” Ironwood smirks.

“Knowing both of them?” Winter shakes her head. “I’ll have to drop hints every day.”

“Something tells me that might not even do it,” Ironwood sighs.

Winter shrugs. “I’m doing it anyway.” She leaves the office.

-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-

Clover turns to Qrow. “Thanks for the call-out. That could have been bad.”

The Huntsman sighs, frowning. “I wouldn’t thank me,” he says, and Clover has the briefest flash of a fleeting memory, one about his Semblance. “My Semblance brings misfortune. Sometimes I can’t keep it under control.”

Thanking the gods that he’s learned to (somewhat) control his levels of gay panic, Clover says, “That so? Well, hey. Don’t beat yourself up about it.” He can tell that Qrow definitely has been beating himself up about it. So maybe his soulmate’s Semblance really does just affect others. Hardly daring to breathe, Clover manages to continue, “My Semblance is good fortune. Lucky you, huh?” He even winks, although that might be overkill.

This is it. If Qrow has his Semblance written on his wrist, he should react, right?

Qrow looks shocked, and although Clover can’t describe his next expression, it’s almost heartbreaking. The hope alone is enough to make him think that maybe, just maybe this is it.

He doesn’t say anything else, and Clover turns away, disappointment pooling in him. Of course. He shouldn’t have gotten his hopes up.

-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-

“You know,” Clover says, causing Qrow to look up from his Scroll. “General Ironwood admitted he sent the Ace Ops to arrest you all on purpose. Do you have any idea what that’s supposed to mean?”

“Maybe it’s because he remembers when I kicked your ass in the Vytal Festival.”

Clover gapes at him. “First of all, why do you remember that? Second, I would have won, I just got… distracted.”

Qrow raises an eyebrow. “Distracted? By what?”

“At this point, I don’t even remember,” Clover admits. “I tried very, very hard to forget what happened, and I think it worked.”

From the hallway, Harriet screams, “YOU WERE LITERALLY ON TOP OF HIM, THAT’S WHY.”

Both of them look up to see Harriet streak by the doorway, electricity crackling in her wake.  In the blink of an eye, she’s gone.

“...What?” Clover and Qrow ask at the same time. They both shrug and go back to their Scrolls.

After a few more minutes, Winter walks into the room. She pauses when she sees them together and starts backpedaling out. “I’ll just… leave you two to it.”

Qrow gives her a suspicious glare. “What do you want, Winter?”

“Oh, nothing,” Winter replies just a little too casually, but she returns to the room. Clover knows her well enough to know that she’s definitely up to something and that her plan is working perfectly.

“Did you want to stay?” Clover asks, watching her badly hidden smirk grow wider.

“Not really,” Winter grumbles, glowering at Qrow. He returns the look. “Just out of sheer curiosity,” she begins, her words sounding forced, “Have you two ever thought about finding your soulmates?”

“Obviously,” Clover says. “I’ve only met one person with my soulmate’s Semblance, and they know mine, so it can’t be them.”

“Same,” Qrow sighs. He holds his covered wrist out to Clover and pulls the band away. “You wouldn’t happen to know someone else with good fortune as their Semblance, would you?”

Clover blinks, staring down at the teal letters on his friend’s wrist. “Your soulmate’s Semblance is-”

Winter forcibly grabs his wrist and holds it out to Qrow, shifting her gloved hand so he can read the single word written on it. Qrow’s eyes widen.

Agonizingly slowly, Qrow looks up at him. “And your soulmate’s Semblance is-”

“Yes, yes, you’re soulmates, everyone else knew, you’re idiots, and you can thank me later,” Winter huffs, releasing Clover’s wrist and standing up again. She leaves without another word, the sound of her boots audible for a good minute as she walks away.

Clover looks back to Qrow. “Um. You wouldn’t happen to be looking for a romantic soulmate, would you?”

“I..” Qrow trails off, but the way he stares at Clover answers the question for him. Clover suddenly realizes just how close Qrow’s managed to get.

Oh.

All Clover can think of in that moment is how badly he wants to kiss Qrow.

So he does.

-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀-

Clover dials General Ironwood with shaking fingers, looking between Qrow and Tyrian and Robyn. The general picks up after a few rings.

“What is it?”

“Uh, sir?” Clover asks, taking a deep breath to calm himself. He feels a hand wrap around his and looks up to find Qrow holding his hand. Qrow gives him an encouraging nod, so Clover continues, “Are you sure that arresting them is a good idea? Especially-”

“I’m aware Qrow is your soulmate,” Ironwood interrupts. “But I need you to arrest him and bring him back immediately. If he cooperates, no harm will come to him.”

Clover resists glaring at the Scroll. He turns and addresses everyone else in the airship. “Right, guys, let’s get Tyrian to prison and then we’ll go down to Mantle.”

“What? Clover, I gave you an order.” Ironwood sighs louder than it should be possible to sigh. “Clover, please. This is for the good of Atlas. Arrest Qrow.”

“First of all,” Clover replies, letting his contempt shine through, “That’s bullshit.”

“Clover-”

“Second of all, no.”

“Clover-”

He hangs up.

----

uh I hope you liked it? It’s also on ao3 here?

[gayregis]

Hi, just wanted to ask, how did you get into the witcher franchise (did you read the books before you played the games or vice versa?). Love your blog, byeeee :)

ty for the ask!! i hope you dont mind if i go too in-depth because i was legit thinking about this earlier today... 

tldr: i played tw3 and liked it, then read the books

i got into the witcher because one of my favorite gaming youtubers was doing a playthrough of tw3 on youtube in around i think september 2017. i liked this specific gaming youtuber for being shit at games and not caring about it... but tw3 was a different game. it felt like the decisions mattered, that there was an actual story here, that when this youtuber made shitty decisions and didn’t really care about the characters involved, i got frustrated because this game seemed really good... so i picked up the game myself and played it though, it was magnificent. not to r/witcher “the witcher 3 is literally the best game created in this history of ever” but it was sincerely good... not only does it have a great story, characters, and graphics, but it is genuinely comfortable to play as a game, even if you’re not great at games (i like playing video games but i’m not good at them when it comes to combat, i literally just would prefer to hack and slash through). so, i played through tw3 and the fact that it made me cry multiple times i found to be really interesting... but it was still just a game to me, it wasn’t something i thought about when i have time to daydream headcanons. i had read i think the witcher (short story) halfway through playing, just to get a feel of what tw3 came from, but from that, i realized the books and the games were incredibly different entitities, and i decided to not read the books until i had finished the game, or at least until i had more free time on my hands (mind i was in high school and was a senior, and during this time was when i was submitting college applications... exceptionally stressful, and the reading/writing part of my brain was absolutely fried from essay writing and reviewing). i was particularly struck by geralt and ciri’s relationship and the isle of mists quests fucked me up pretty bad. 

then around later 2017, i was really enjoying tw3, and had finished tw3′s base game and hearts of stone, and was now making my way into blood & wine. i was just playing it like normal, then came the part when geralt met regis. at first i wasn’t too interested (i mean, i was, but in the story of blood & wine, not in the books) until the little journal text pop-up appeared on my screen. you know, the one about quests you just received, or characters you just met. it was going through the motions of saying i finished this quest, picked up this new one, i was all like fine, fine, okay, alright, and then it just fucking puts regis’ long-ass name on the screen taking up a good amount of my FOV and i am immediately like, what? what the fuck? who the fuck? that’s the name? of the guy we just met? that guy??? he didn’t seem like someone with a name like that? who the fuck IS this guy.

so i head over to the wiki page for regis. i thumb through the basic information, i’m pretty interested, this quest stuff to find ciri sounds interesting. i decide to give the witcher books another try, because i have more free time now and am way more invested as everyone here as characters. also, i want to find out more about yennefer, because she was being badmouthed by everyone i saw online, and i wanted to read more about her and see if she was really so bad (spoilers: she’s not at all, the internet is just misogynistic).

i don’t think that i’m going to actually really care about these books, i just want more flavor and explanation about how in hell a witcher met a vampire and these two somehow became friends. so, i don’t care about reading them in order. i go online and find fan translations of every book, i open baptism of fire and i just start reading the bit about the fish soup. i’m suddenly just laughing my ass off, really interested in who these other characters are, milva and cahir, and how dandelion seems to actually be the best friend to geralt that he was said to be in tw3. i also notice immediately that geralt... oh my god, geralt’s such a cranky bitch. i’m SHOCKED at how annoying geralt is. i realize that this is probably what geralt’s been like, this whole time, and tw3 just gave me a sterilized version of him. i’m trying to decide if i like this change or not, at first i HATED it... but then realized it actually gave him a character, where in tw3 he feels a little more... empty, waiting for the player to project a personality onto him.

so, i just read all of the hansa bits of baptism of fire, skipping over anything i don’t understand. i am saddened when i can’t find any more, so i move onto tower of the swallow. and then lady of the lake. “oh, so that’s why geralt was surprised to see regis in blood & wine...” feeling at a loss after reading stygga, i start at the beginning and make my way through the books chronologically, like they should be read. i soon realize that this series really isn’t about killing monsters at all, and i’m thrilled. i thought the series was just going to be about geralt killing things in a swamp and reporting back to whoever hired him, like in tw3... and i was wrong. this series is about personal connections! relationships! ... and fatherhood. [see read more for personal junk]

i can’t remember when i started disliking tw3. it must have been around the time that i finished the books (im using the word finished loosely... i still havent finished some scenes because theyre too violent to read and continue with my day in peace, and i also read tos/lotl by skipping around, so i never got the full experience of reading them as full novels).

i just distinctly remember returning to my tw3 new game+ save after rereading the fish soup scene, and thinking about how lonely the game felt... i just felt so dispairingly alone, this loneliness that i hadn’t felt while playing before, that i had to put the game down. i returned to the game again, but i had just reread edge of the world... and i felt so alone again. 

so reading the books ruined tw3 for me, not out of malicious intent, but just because i think i realized geralt isn’t meant to be the lone wolf. the novels center around him and his family and friends, and i just genuinely missed that when replaying tw3. plus, i began to realize a bunch of things, like ciri’s scar is supposed to be bigger, geralt’s supposed to wear his hair in a headband, yennefer’s hair is actually curly, dandelion’s supposed to actually be in the game. there were so many inconsistencies with the characters i had imagined while reading the books that eventually i just stopped playing tw3 (i already played it once, so nbd) and got really into the books. 

sometime later i saved up like $80 to buy the paperback versions of the books (UK versions including season of storms) because i knew i was in really deep lol and i wanted the official translations super badly, also we were doing an assignment in class that allowed us to do something with our favorite book, but we needed to have it in-person and not as an e-book, so it was the perfect excuse. much time spent on hansa headcanons later and... here we are today.

a read-more, because this is more personal. 

the witcher series picked me up at an eerily appropriate time. two things in it stood out to me: 1) geralt’s relationship with ciri 2) regis’s alcoholism. 

i distinctly remember an event where i started crying in front of my parents because my dad was being so absent in my life or maybe it was because they were arguing, something like this... and i remember referencing tw3 isle of mists quest actually by saying “i shouldn’t have to learn it (good parenting) from a video game” ... lol. it wasn’t an epic burn from a 17 yo, but it was just a painful remark made in anger. i still think back to it because of how first watching geralt hug ciri made me feel and how i was actually really bitter because i was jealous of ciri for about a week after completing the quest. then i kind of pushed it out of my mind and didn’t think so much about it, until the night i mentioned it.

in late march of 2018, something very bad happened in my family. that’s probably the best way to describe it. the situation ended in my parents finally separating. my mom and i were pretty afraid and lost after that. after i had collected my thoughts and everything and went back to as “normal” as i could, about a month later, when the creative part of my brain finally began to function again and wasn’t inhibited due to fear, i clung to the witcher more than i did before... and this time, actually particularly to regis, because guess who has a whole redemption arc relating to not being alcoholic and being a genuinely good person who speaks gently and heals the vulnerable?

[guerilla935]

Review: Code Vein

Code Vein is Hiroshi Yoshimuras’ vampire hack and slash action RPG epic developed and published by Bandai Namco on September 27th, 2019. I’ll try my best not to compare this game too heavily to a certain series of FROM Software games. Code Vein is a game that is both accessible to new players looking to casually play the game and rewarding to hardcore players looking to dive fully into everything the game has to offer. The game boasts one of the most robust character creators to appear in the anime style and the tightest combat that makes you feel like every kit and ability counts. But this also comes with a unique equipment system that has a steep learning curve.

Readjusting Difficulty

In certain other action RPG’s that feature high levels of difficulty you are allowed to connect online to play with friends for help in difficult areas that you have not cleared yet. This game is no different but the added layer of Code Vein being that you have a colorful cast of revenants that can follow you into the field. Suddenly, without sacrificing the difficulty of each levels design, the game is more accessible to an audience that has been turned off to this genre in the past by giving you an NPC to attract the attention of enemies and even revive you if you require it. Of course you can turn this option off and have a go of the game solo if you live for the traditional difficulty of these types of games. Each level presents a steady bump in challenge. As I was playing through the game as soon as I felt that I was getting a little too strong I would enter a place where I was completely destroyed and I got to grow my character again. Toward the very end there is an exponential difficulty spike compared to the steady climb of the rest of the game that I had to recruit a friend to help me with but in the end it proved to be manageable. It’s highly customizable but will most likely be known as too easy because the option to take the partner with you is on by default and it is very hard to convince yourself to turn off.

A Confusing Stat Boost

The most frustrating part of playing Code Vein is having to come up with the appropriate combination of gear that works together, gives you a decent edge in battle, and is in your preferred play style. When I wasn’t playing Code Vein I was desperately trying to come up with a way to maximize my strength in the game by looking up wikis and enlisting the knowledge of other players in the forums. This is made really difficult because the stats are given to you as letter scores similar to a grade in school. So you are left to find a blood code that you would like to use, then a blood veil that is within the weight requirements and gives you the right boost to the skills that are involved with that blood code. Then you have to choose a weapon that works with the combination of skills, blood code, and blood veil that you have chosen. If it’s not apparent the game gives an illusion that you can play it any way you’d like but if you want to effectively use any blood code you have to play by the rules. This becomes a huge mess when you want to play specifically with blood codes that give you powers based on magic abilities. For example it would be hard to run a build where you have a fireball skill, a poison debuff for your weapon, and an ice trap skill. You would not see a single enemy affected by any of those skills in your whole time playing the game if you built that way. The only effective way to use elements is to dedicate the entire build to one element so that the effect can stack and take affect. Until you reach the part of the game where you fight enemies that are resistant to that element then you might as well just save up to start a new build. I have never played a game before where I was presented with this many options but funneled into just a few very generic builds.

Revenent World

Code Vein has a very anime story that is full of very anime characters. The best that I can say about it is that it won’t be for everyone. Luckily enough thanks to a certain series of FROM Software games the fans of this genre can probably easily forgive the game for this. The character development that occurs is entirely optional, you will get a lot from the story though should you decide to do it. The characters are deep and you feel like each red story fragment is getting you closer to piecing together a larger plot. The way that these are viewed gets tiring after a while especially if you (like me) decide to collect and view every single one of them. The world built around this story has everything you expect when you hear the words “video game”. You get a swamp, desert, snowy mountain, city, castle, you get the idea. The scenery changes often enough that you most likely will never get bored of it. You return to city center quite a bit but that area is interesting enough to not be a chore to return to. I have two small complaints about the areas, the first being that the first half of the game features sprawling labyrinths that took me hours upon hours and entire afternoons to explore and learn. The second half of the game after a certain very revealing plot twist sees you travel through very good looking enemy filled linear hallways. They have their own twists and turns and feature many hidden areas but also provide no challenge in finding every item if that’s what you like to do. The second being that the chapel has very little difference to itself and it can be confusing to walk around and try to memorize layouts, this is especially apparent when they use the same environment pieces to make about 3 different areas while only changing small details like the lighting and shrubbery. The bosses of Code Vein were the highlight of the game, they shown brightest in the story, the game play, and the world building. Every boss puts up a fight and has interesting twists. My personal favorite type of boss is the boss that feels like you are locked in a duel where you trade back and forth blow for blow and despite three bosses off the top of my head that require incredible attention to overpower you feel toe to toe with ever major enemy in the game.

Verdict

Code Vein turned one of my least favorite types of games into my game of the year and that is thanks to the incredible difficulty scaling and sense of progression matching its interesting story and compelling characters. Even though I felt locked into my ways for most of the game I feel that in a new game plus I can experiment a lot more with the builds that didn’t seem as effective at first even though that’s no excuse to not make these play styles available when you earn them. Code Vein is an awesome anime romp through a beloved genre that follows a story you won’t soon forget, if you were to pick up one game you missed in 2019 I would fully recommend you pick this one up.

[ifeveristoday]

Almost 1000 words of Boomverse flashfic! Specifically about HELLMOUTH.

I don’t know how it’ll really go, so I extrapolated from the preview panels/summaries we’ve gotten so far about HELLMOUTH.

I wrote about Scoobies 2019 and disaster grumpy bats. 

“So what are we going to do?” Cordelia crosses her arms and glares at them all. “Just stay in the library and wait for the weird things to kill us?”

“Vampires,” Xander says loudly. “You can just say, vampires. Or demons.”

“Or hell beasts, oh my,” Rose says. She shrugs when everyone stares. “What? You were all thinking it.”

“I wasn’t, but that was funny,” Robin says. He scoots off the table and crosses over to the double doors. “Look, I know Mr. Giles and Ms. Calendar told us to stay put, but they’ve been gone for an hour now. I think we should look for them.”

Xander growls, his face shifting slightly before he shakes it in frustration. “You saw what’s out there. We don’t have enough firepower. Even with my…abilities, we can’t just take them on one by one.”

“But we’re not,” Robin says. “Strength in numbers, remember? And you being half-vamp and Witchy girl over there –“ he jerks his head toward an exhausted Willow, “we can take them out if we pool our strengths.”

“I’d feel better if we had weapons though,” Cordelia says. “Like, a nice heavy bat. Or twenty.”

“We do,” Willow mumbles, finally lifting her head. Her eyes are her natural color again, the irises their normal size. “There’s a weapons trunk in Giles’s office, and I’ve got the keys to the training room. There are more weapons there.”

“Then let’s get them,” Robin says. “We can split up in two cars – Cordelia can take Willow and Xander, and Rose can ride with me.”

“I’m not driving Harris,” Cordelia protests just as Willow looks at Rose. Rose averts her eyes and walks over to Robin. “I’m fine with riding with you.”

Xander rolls his eyes. “Get over it, Queen C. I’m not going to mess up your upholstery or whatever.” He grabs her by the arm and pulls her out of the room.

Willow lingers, her gaze wounded. “Rose?”

“I’m going with Robin,” Rose says. “You can ride with Cordelia.”

Willow flinches. “Okay,” she whispers.

She walks out, her head down.

“Ouch,” Robin says. “You two have a fight?”

“I don’t like being lied to,” Rose says shortly. “On top of the apparent apocalypse, I just found out my girlfriend has this whole other life she didn’t bother filling me in on. I thought we told each other everything.”

She fixes him with a look. “But Willow’s not the only one keeping secrets, is she?”

Robin rubs the back of his neck. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Let’s go.”

“Xander’s a half-vampire, Willow’s a witch,” Rose mutters. “You’re some secret spy – and Buffy has freaky strength, what’s next? Cordelia can fly?”

“I hear she only does that on Wednesdays.” Robin jokes. “And I’m not a spy.”

“Yeah, and that’s exactly what a spy would say,” Rose says. “Let’s just get weapons okay? I want to hit something.”

“We’ll get you a nice mace,” Robin says. “I’m hoping for a javelin, myself.”

  “I don’t like you,” Buffy says for the umpteenth time as they hack their way through the hellish undergrowth.

“Well, you’re not exactly my idea of a dream companion either,” Angel says tightly. He slashes at a sudden tentacle, the unseen creature screeching and skittering away. “I could have just left you in that tree.”

“I would have gotten down eventually,” Buffy snaps. She slices away at the darkness in front of her, her back pressed firmly against Angel’s. “It’s your fault I’m down here in the first place. I can’t believe you pushed me in!”

“Underground is a lot safer than being up there with the demon hordes,” Angel says. “Unless you wanted to fight off twenty Ghoras.”

“I’m the Slayer, that’s what I was made for,” she says.

“They have three heads apiece,” he says in exasperation. “You’re fast but you’re not that fast. I wouldn’t have taken them on.”

She mumbles something that sounds like “Bet I could,” and Angel smiles despite himself. In the short time he’s known her, Buffy Summers has run the gamut from wistful teenage girl to a sparking, annoying firecracker of a fighter. It reminds him of someone – and he pushes that thought away. That was another lifetime ago and he was in no hurry to revisit it. Lilith was wrong, she had to be.

“We’re looking for the source of this aberration,” he says. “It’s got to be here – if we destroy it, it’ll stop what’s happening on the surface.”

“How sure are you?” She says. “Because to me it feels like I left all my friends alone to fight the monsters.” Her voice cracks. “And my mom and Eric.”

“Buffy…” he starts, then his voice gentles. “I’m sorry.” He turns to look at her, but Buffy refuses to meet his gaze.

“Whatever,” she says. “Let’s just kill whatever needs killing and everything will go back to normal. Well, as normal as Sunnydale ever gets. Which is…not very.”

“It’s definitely not going to make any top ten lists of vacation getaways,” he says. Buffy laughs.

The tension in his shoulders suddenly feels lighter. He likes her laugh.

“I think we just barely edge out Fresno,” she says.

“I’ve been to Fresno, you don’t.”

“Hey!” And it shouldn’t feel so right to be joking at a time like this, with all the uncertainty – both above and below, but it feels natural to Angel. Too natural.

He frowns.

“When we get through this,” he says gruffly, “I’ll just need to settle some matters here and then I’m going back to LA. We won’t see each other again.”

She snorts. “Great. I’ll be sure not to write you a postcard.”

“I don’t think our paths will cross again, so –”

“I get it, Angel. If that’s even your real name, considering you’ve lied about everything else.”

The accusation stings. “When did I—”

“Going all school guidance counselor on me, in a devil’s mask ring any bells?”

“Oh,” he says. “That was reconnaissance.”

[almaasi]

reaction post typed while watching SPN 14x01 “Stranger in a Strange Land”

oh boy WHAT A GOOD START

03:13pm

I AM READY (slash not ready at all) FOR CAS BEING VERY SAD ABOUT DEAN FOR MULTIPLE EPISODES STRAIGHT (slash not straight at all)

i know almost nothing about this season besides dean being micheal for longer than he was a demon, and cas being :< the saddest puppy

-

03:15

yoooo i need to go find some headphones because i can hear all the BLRAHAHRGAH but voices are muffled

brb

-

03:18

headphones acquired

now let’s do this recap again

i paused on alexander’s boobs

i still don’t get why breasts are censored and non-breasts are not. like. they’re literally the same just less squishy???

-

WHOA THESE HEADPHONES HAVE BASS. i haven’t heard bass in months

-

okay no the issue with voices is the video file, not my speakers

welp guess i gotta just deal with it and squint at the screen because somehow that makes it easier to hear shit idk

-

03:22

still mid-key bummed about gabriel and dean yelling “gabe no!!!”

-

03:23

sam driving the impala alone is such a sad sight

-

i can head the adhan (muslim call the prayer) in the background

pffffff of course michael goes to arabia

i guess he teleported.... i guess that’s better than taking poor dean on a plane

oh wait the adhan was on dean’s phone??? jsdfghd unsure what to make of that

oH MY GOD MICHEL IS MUSLIM

THIS MAKES ME WEIRDLY HAPPY

IDK WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK OF THIS BUT I AM A FAN

oh wait never mind that’s nOT DEAn

IT LOOKED LIKE HIM OKAY, in profile, lying in bed

WHOOPS

-

oh god this guy better not die

i feel such immediate fondness

please let him be gentle and loving and important and not a terrorist or a red shirt

-

THIS IS MAKING ME SO EMOTIONAL I HAVEN’T HEARD ANYONE SAYING THESE PRAYERS IN SO LONG

one time i was in the school playground and i think someone asked if i could speak any other language and i said nope but i could say that prayer...... and they made me repeat so they could laugh at me again

-

also the dude skipped a whole surah (verse) and a hands-on-the-knees-bow before sijda (kneeling)

i guess it’s a timing thing but jsdgjgd INACCURACY

-

03:32

JENSEN PRAYING LIKE THAT PROBABLY SHOULDN’T BE A TURN-ON BUT WOWWW

PLEASE DO THAT A LOT MORE

his pronunciation was so beautiful, shoutout to whichever dialect coach sat there helping him say it right

-

03:34

“if you really cared about peace, you never would’ve left syria”

MICHEAL IS AN ASSHOLE

-

03:35

micheal: “you’re lost, and not worth saving”

definitely two distinct destiel concepts turned on their heads in six words there

cas’ “when he first laid his hand on you in hell, he was LOST”

and dean’s “you don’t think you deserve to be saved”

-

03:38

ooooo nice title card with the flapping wings

-

03:39

it’s so nice seeing the bunker crowded with good guys

-

03:39

this guy: sam season 18

500 other people probably made this joke already

-

03:42

sam: “maggie, can you hack the traffic cams on the freeway?”

maggie: “um................... no?”

relatable

-

03:44

BOBBY AND JACK YAYYY

god this makes me wanna write all the AUs where it’s not weird that character x is alive at the same time as character y. i know i do that a lot anyway but I WANT MORE

-

03:47

southern suit guy: “castiel... darling”

cas: “oh god” >:|

i love how cas is so done with everything and everyone, forever

my love for him knows no bounds

-

and i love that cas is still curious enough to ask “what did you just order?”

-

03:50

cas: *very calm, very stern, very slow* “does any demon know where dean winchester is?”

vs

*throws monster against tree* “WHERE’S THE ANGEL”

-

03:51

demon: “and how is it you lost dean? i thought the two of you were joined at the.......” *gestures to crotch* “you know... everything”

IS IT QUEERBAITING OR IS IT JUST QUEER WE JUST DON’T KNOW

BUT I’M ENJOYING IT

I’LL FUCKING TAKE IT, THANK YOU ANDREW DABB

-

03:54

oh cas :c

poor cas

he probably needs to read “how to win friends and influence people” tbh

if his first port of call to bargaining with demons is threatening them, that’s not getting him anywhere in the long run

not saying he deserved getting beaten up by a gang (hell no) but he probably could’ve offered, like, an angel feather or something

-

also whenever something bad happens to cas what makes me saddest is knowing that somewhere in the world there are people grinning with glee and taking it as confirmation that the character is worthless

i probably shouldn’t think about that but i do anyway

-

03:58

oh hey danneel!!! i didn’t know she’d be back, i’m glad she is

-

03:59

michael: “you don’t recognise me with this pretty face?”

1. michael thinks dean is pretty

2. i wonder how many casual viewers aren’t aware these two are married

-

04:02

you know what i find interesting

jensen seems to be able to control his face so that he doesn’t look obviously attracted to danneel in this scene (besides the chin touch)

i think his pupils are slightly dilated but that might be the low light

which leads me to believe

1. he’s trying extra hard because He’s Married To Her (and micheal has intense facial control anyway)

1.1. he doesn’t try so hard with misha because he doesn’t realise he’s doing it

2. he does the hearteyes and lip-licks with misha/cas on purpose because DEAN is attracted to cas

or ALL OF THE ABOVE

(and while 1.1 and 2 may seem to conflict, i theorise that jensen allows his natural reactions to show because he knows he likes misha and knows dean likes cas??)

anyway my point is that he showed less outward attraction to his wife than he does to his boyfriend and there’s probably a good reason for that and jensen was thinking about it while acting

-

04:08

the way michael hisses when he says “a placccccee..” and wobbles his head when he says “it’s very very human of you” reminds me of kaa from the jungle book (specifically the scarlett johannson live action/cgi version)

he a snek

-

micheal: “if they’re all these sad... lost... fallen things, maybe they’re not worth saving either”

clearly this guy never heard the story about the starfish

-

04:14

ugh lucifer’s still here? or ... wait is this the vessel?? oh mannnn poor dude

-

04:17

oh no sam, seeing his torturer being an okay guy now

everyone in this show is so traumatised

-

04:18

demon suit guy: “i’m the boy who’s got your angel! and you wanna seem him again... you know, alive, we should probably chat”

sam is having a bad day, i see

-

04:19

what’s cool about this episode so far is that yeah there’s a LOT going on

but it’s balanced and makes sense and is informative and entertaining, not a garbage pile of chaos like a deadly duo episode would be

-

04:23

cas does the best eye-rolls

and his eyelashes are so pretty

-

04:40

kip: “so take the deal, sam, before i stop trying to be crowley...... and show you who i really am”

a good line

-

04:44

hey the black dude survived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the demon’s vessel is fine!!!!

that’s new

-

04:46

the fact the humans can all come out of that fight just looking lightly scratched and cas looks like he was attacked by a giant squirrel is quite a feat

-

04:48

jack: “all i did was get punched in the face”

cas: “to be fair, we all got punched in the face”

face punch solidarity!!

-

04:49

jack says without power he’s useless

cas: “oh jack... that’s just not true”

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT 300% LEVEL COMPLETED POWER BOOST TO ALL STATS

-

04:52

oh heckie deckie it looks like michael is gonna raise an army of monsters

-

WELP THAT WAS GREAT

10/10

NOBODY I CARED ABOUT DIED

SAVING PEOPLE, HUNTING THINGS

THE FAMILY BUSINESS

I LOVE WHEN THEY ALL LOVE EACH OTHER AND WORK TOGETHER

i look forward to seeing charlie and rowena later!!! since they’re still alive in this universe i believe

god this show is so much better when people aren’t dead

i still mourn for kevin though

jack is a lil cutie patootie, maggie is adorable also. like mice in a house of rabbits

cas is still and forever my favourite. <3 <3 <3 and i love when he’s such a valued part of the team and knows it implicitly

CAS IS LOVED AND KNOWS IT, AND LOVES OTHERS AND IS CLEAR ABOUT IT

HALLELUJAH

[nicolaspooran66-blog]

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[centeris2]

Isn’t It Odd pt. 4

Carth is suspicious of Varana, the smuggler he must work with to save Bastila and escape Taris. As “coincidences” keep piling up he digs into her past, trying to find out who she is. 

Varana was many things, oblivious was not one of them. She didn’t miss that Carth decided to watch her training with Bastila, or that he brought T3. She also didn’t miss that later that day Carth asked to spar, chalking it up to him being bored and needing a work out, and that T3 again was present. Carth (and T3) continued to watch when Canderous took over, excited to finally get his blood moving. She was acutely aware that Carth kept T3 around him, the droid always watching as they talked and sparred.

So it did not take long for her to deduce that Carth enjoyed watching her. It was a bit creepy, but the droid didn’t follow her into more private settings, so she didn’t feel like a line had been crossed. If anything, he was probably spying for Bastila when the Jedi wasn’t around.

When Varana found T3 with Carth out of sight, she took the opportunity to talk to the droid.

“Hey, bud,” she said, sitting on the ground next to the droid, giving it an affectionate pat, “I don’t mind you and Carth watching, but let me know what you’re doing with all those recordings, okay?”

The droid beeped in confirmation.

“And one more thing, why don’t you take some shots?” Varana grinned and winked, making funny faces and poses for the droid until she heard someone coming and scampered off, back to her lessons. Carth missed her running out of the room, running his hand through his freshly cleaned hair, wondering if he had imagined hearing someone in the room.

T3 wasn’t able to find anything, all the news files and Republic files Carth could think of searching had brought up nothing helpful. He worried that whoever she was, she had been exceptionally thorough in hiding her identity.

“She’s either brilliant or a Sith,” Carth muttered. That had to be why she wasn’t showing up in any sort of Republic records anywhere. He grumbled to himself as he searched through the list of databases T3 was using. Carth knew there were more he could look through, but that would involve hacking into high security databases, and he didn’t know how much time he’d have to do that before he’d get locked out. There was also the issue of getting caught. He had avoided asking T3 to break into the Jedi classified files for that reason, he knew he’d be lucky to get away with it once.

“Think we could get anything else to try to identify her with?” Carth asked the droid, not expecting an answer.

T3 beeped a negative.

“I wish we could know before…” Carth didn’t want to say it out loud, didn’t want anyone to hear what he was thinking.

“‘I don’t mind you and Carth watching,’” her voice surprised Carth, and he looked at the holoprojection T3 created, “‘why don’t you take some shots?’”

Carth blushed when she grinned and winked at T3’s camera, at him, feeling like a naughty school boy as he realized how ridiculous this seemed… except for the fact that Varana should have died years ago with her parents, and the woman using that name was pretending.

“Turn it off!” Carth hissed when Varana stuck out her tongue and pulled down her robe, exposing shoulder and chest. The droid merely paused it, and highlighted a strip of skin.

“Is that a scar?” Carth guessed, “you can scan for scars that were removed?”

T3 chirped, somehow appearing happy at the praise and affectionate pat Carth gave it.

“Alright, let’s do something really stupid.”

Carth paced a bit, making sure there was no one around while T3 hacked into the Jedi secure files. He knew it wouldn’t be quick, even for a droid it would take time. But this was a droid specifically made to hack into top level security computers. When Carth passed by the terminal he saw files being pulled up and rushed to sit down, eager to see what T3 had found.

Revan. She was young and scrawny and making faces at the camera. Carth had seen Varana make those faces at him when she wanted him to smile, when she was being silly. Revan was arguing with the masters about something, her voice the same, the debate about slavery. Hadn’t Varana been complaining about that just the other day to him? It was the same passion, the same righteous fury, the same hurt for all those people in suffering, the same arguments. The hitch in Revan’s voice when she grew frustrated and close to tears was the same he had heard just a few nights ago. The scar was part of Revan’s admission files, a bright red slash that was described as a ‘laceration’, with no other details on how such a little girl had such an injury. Revan fought with the same ferocity and cunning in the video files as he had seen on Taris.

But… Revan had died. The Jedi… Bastila had killed her. Yet here he was, looking at files of a young Revan with a young Malak, her grade reports as a child, her training and growing up and being so very human. The Council… they had to know. They must have known. Or were they so sure that Bastila had killed her…

“Look up Revan’s death,” Carth muttered. When T3 brought up nothing, Carth tried looking for her capture, for files of her body, where she was buried, her mask, anything. Instead he found a purposeful hole in the files. The security files shortly after Revan’s supposed death were missing, chunks of video gone. Bastila’s return was mysteriously absent, instead Bastila was suddenly there and the security videos were back to normal without gaps.

Revan was alive, and the Jedi knew it. They were letting a genocidal maniac walk around free, pretending to be a simple smuggler.

“We need to go,” Carth hissed, not wanting to see anymore. T3 disconnected from the terminal, following Carth dutifully back to the Ebon Hawk. Carth didn’t know what to do, he was burning with anger and hate. Revan had been the greatest of the Republic, of the Jedi, and then she had betrayed them, tried to destroyed them, and now the Jedi were just letting her waltz around the enclave?

Revan was lucky she wasn’t on the Ebon Hawk, she should still be in training for the day. Carth knew if he saw her he was going to shoot her before she realized he had figured out her trick. But what was he going to do? She was powerful, how was he going to kill her? Shooting her in her sleep wasn’t the most satisfying idea, but it might be the most effective to make sure he’d live to still get his revenge on Saul.

“Someone’s in a bad mood,” Bastila’s voice cut through his planning and he jumped, startled.

“Yeah he’s been glaring at the table for the past ten minutes, didn’t even notice me!” Mission complained. Carth looked at Mission in embarrassment. He hadn’t noticed anyone else in the room, if Revan had come in and gotten the drop on him…

“Bastila!” he decided on a course of action. He had to know.

“Yes? I was-” Bastila pointed to the women’s bunk unable to finish her sentence as Carth grabbed her arm and hauled her off the ship.

“Onasi! What-”

“We need to talk.”

“I was sent to get-”

“Now.”

“Master Zhar wants Varana’s datapad- would you let go of me? What has gotten into you?” Bastila demanded, not appreciating being dragged through the halls of the enclave.

“If you wanted to talk, outside is not a very private place,” she hissed.

“Need to talk to the Council too,” he snarled.

“For Force’s sake, Onasi!” Bastila put her foot down and stopped, yelping and protesting quite loudly when he simply picked her up and carried her over his shoulder for the last few feet into the council chambers.

“Have you lost your mind!” she demanded, humiliated by the looks and chuckles of those in the enclave who had seen the display, her only relief coming from the door closing behind them.

Only two of the Masters were in the council chamber, Vrook and Vandar, who looked at Carth and Bastila in mild curiosity as Carth dropped Bastila back on the ground.

“Forgive the intrusion, I have no-” Bastila tried to apologize but Carth cut her off.

“I know what you did!”

“We have no reason to entertain this outburst,” Master Vrook dismissed.

“Varana is Revan.” Bastila looked shocked, pale, and a bit green. Vrook said nothing.

“Revan is dead.” Master Vandar corrected calmly.

“So you just had a clone of Revan sitting around that happens to have the same scars?” Carth demanded.

“Carth,” Bastila swallowed, sighing when he turned on her, glaring at her and waiting for answers, “Revan is dead.”

“Bullshit, you can hide scars and get rid of fingerprints all you want but Varana is Revan. Now I want to know why-”

“Revan’s mind is dead,” Bastila clarified, “my mission was to capture Revan, to get information. But Revan was too injured, her mind too far gone, she couldn’t tell us anything.”

“Her… mind? Then what is Varana?”

“Varana is a personality we created, in the hopes that while Revan was dead some of her memories might still linger and provide information,” Master Vandar spoke up. “The brain and mind are complex, and even with all our study it is difficult to understand. It is possible with the right guidance and triggers Varana will uncover information that will help us win the war.”

Carth realized he wasn’t breathing and forced himself to take a gulp, trying to process everything.

“So all this was… planned?”

“You mean the Endar Spire and Taris? Force no,” Bastila groaned, sounding exhausted.

“I meant the Jedi training,” Carth explained, noticing the scowl on Master Vrook’s face.

“That’s a no,” Carth muttered, looking directly at Vrook.

“Her connection to the Force was severed,” Bastila explained, knowing Vrook would be reticent.

“So you guys are just, flying blind? Hoping none of the wrong triggers come along that make her suddenly go evil?” Carth demanded, not liking this plan at all. It was a terrible plan.

“The Force works in its own ways, and she still has a part to play,” Master Vandar said as if that made it better somehow.

“And the fact that she’s a murderer? A monster? We’re just forgetting about all the countless lives that have been lost because of her? I thought the Jedi stood for justice!”

“We aren’t forgetting,” Master Vrook finally spoke, “and she will-”

“She will atone for her past,” Master Vandar interjected, putting an annoying amount of emphasis on ‘atone’ that Carth didn’t like.

“So, what, she remembers a few things and that makes it better?” Carth demanded.

“What justice could be found if the Republic and Jedi fall?” Bastila pointed out, making Carth grumble but he didn’t have any argument. If she could be useful, if she could help them win the war, then they needed to get every bit of usefulness out of her. Then she could be brought to justice, once the Republic was safe again.

“And how can she ‘atone’ for things she doesn’t remember?” Carth asked.

“Carth, she doesn’t know, she can’t know,” Bastila begged, “imagine the shock of finding out you’re… it could kill her.”

[trustscale]

Rogue legacy ps4

#Rogue legacy ps4 upgrade#

#Rogue legacy ps4 full#

You'll find yourself saying “just one more run” well into the wee hours of the morning as you know that this time, you're finally defeating that specific boss you almost beat last time. Expect to put hours upon hours into this game to reach the end, as the game will hook you in with its icy tendrils and never let go. Rogue Legacy, despite looking and feeling like an old school game, isn't something you're going to beat in an afternoon. Expect original jokes along with jokes derived from other games, such as Goonies II and Skyrim, so even though you'll be dying (and dying often) you'll do so with a smile on your face.

#Rogue legacy ps4 full#

The way your character runs, full of confidence with his sword pointing skyward and not a care in the world, gives you an idea of how the game presents itself. The game is well animated, the colors are crisp and vibrant, and all characters are full of detail. While the graphical style of the game won't push the PlayStation 4 to its limits, fans of 2D will find a lot to love here. Rogue Legacy harkens back to a time when games were about fun through both its graphics and humor. Once again, Rogue Legacy rethinks the roguelike genre, giving an alternative to every complaint most people have. However, if you find yourself dead but really enjoyed the layout of the castle you were in, you can explore the same layout a second time for a small fee after unlocking a specific feature. The four environments are always located in the same specific sections of the castle, so you'll always have a good idea of where to go to find specific areas, but every room in those environments will never be in the same layout twice. There are times when certain rooms will repeat, but on the whole each time you enter the castle you'll never know what awaits you at each turn. Like you would expect from a roguelike, the entire castle is randomized, presenting a new experience every time you enter its doors. These disabilities had a challenging, but fun, aspect to an already challenging game. Maybe your character is twice his normal size, making it easier to get hit, or maybe his vision is so bad he only sees things in black and white. However, with the good comes the bad and each new character will have a number of built-in disabilities, called character traits. While you initially start off as a warrior, capable of just hacking and slashing, future characters may be wizards, capable of attacking enemies at a distance, or a knight, able to block enemy attacks with his shield. However, in Rogue Legacy, your new character is the offspring of the character before him or her, chosen from a pool of three potential candidates. In many roguelikes, you play as the same character every time you start the game. Any remaining gold is taken from you as soon as you enter the castle, so purchase as much as you can before venturing back in! There is just one restriction: you can't carry gold over from one playthrough to the next. A single run never feels like a waste when you die as you're always progressing towards something. So while you may die, and die often, you're slowly making your character stronger while progressing just a little bit further in the game every time you play.

#Rogue legacy ps4 upgrade#

Through these shops you can upgrade your weapons, armor and even give yourself special abilities, such as dashing or double jumping. Where Rogue Legacy rethinks the roguelike genre is that the items and gold you find carry over to the next character, which you can use to upgrade your base of operations and unlock extra health, attack power and various shops. You'll jump, slash, downward-slash and more as you fight not only vicious enemies but the castle itself, which is laden with traps such as spikes and fireballs.Ĭhances are good that you will die, most likely in your first five minutes playing the game. You'll explore a giant castle, seeking to do battle with the four bosses who reside in the four unique wings of the castle, in order to unlock and defeat the final boss. Rogue Legacy is a 2D, action platformer similar to titles such as Castlevania and Metroid. Make no mistake, Rogue Legacy is still a difficult game, but it's also an incredibly fun one as well. If this sounds like an awful gaming experience for you, don't stop reading yet! Rogue Legacy, headed to the PlayStation 4 sometime in 2014, has all the fun elements of a roguelike while still providing some improvements to the genre to make it more accessible for newcomers. Upon dying, you must start the game over from square one, typically losing all of your accrued items, progress and experience. A roguelike is best described as a game where you have one life, and one life only, to progress as far as you can in the game without dying.

[kirain]

Top Ten Favourite Anime Games

For this list, I will only be including games that are specifically considered part of the anime genre, NOT games that were created by Japan Studio or other Japanese companies/creators. So games like shadow of the colossus,  Bloodborne, Metal Gear, Resident Evil, etc., won’t be mentioned. While it is arguable that such games could fit the anime genre, it’s never been clarified. So here’s a list of my top 10 anime games.

1. Gravity Rush

There’s no real order for this list EXCEPT for Gravity Rush. It is easily my number one favourite pick. I bought it for next to nothing thinking it would be a cute little experience, but it ended up gripping my interest for four days straight; which is rare for me. While at work, all I could think about was getting back to it, and it’s one of the few games with trophies that didn’t annoy me. Seriously-- not one trophy pissed me off. In every game there’s at least two or three that really grind my gears, but Gravity Rush had nada.

There are several challenges in the game that are tough but fair, and they never become boring because they’re designed in such a way that the more you play them, the better you get. You begin to learn the controls, the landscape, the shortcuts, etc., which makes for some excellent gameplay. At no point in the game do you feel like a failure, which is nice once in a while. On top of that the story is fun, the characters are lovable, and the art is breathtaking. During each new chapter, we’re given information in the form of a hand-drawn manga, which only adds to the uniqueness. The language in the game is also made up, so anyone can relate to it. And the music? Oh, don’t even get me started:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxIC6Vu1ee0&t=43s

And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, they went ahead and created a sequel, Gravity Rush 2! It’s pretty rare, in my opinion anyway, that video games have sequels that measure up to their predecessor, but Gravity Rush 2 might be even better! It lets us revisit old friends, make new friends, explore more areas, it gives us grater challenges and a newly implemented difficulty setting, and additional online adventures that have nothing to do with achievements! What really hits me about these games, though, is the freedom. You get to fly wherever you want, anytime you want, at ridiculous speeds. The world is vast, beautiful, and so fun to navigate.

After playing and falling in love with these games, I can only assume they’re called “Gravity Rush” because they’re an absolute rush to play.

2. Devil May Cry

Specifically the first game, Devil May Cry will always have a special place in my heart. I played the game a lot when I was in grade school and kept replaying it well into my high school years. All the way up until my PS2 broke. :’)

Now, I do know that this game was created by Capcom and that it was supposed to be related to the Resident Evil franchise, but director Hideki Kamiya openly stated that the game is an anime-style hack and slash action-adventure game, and even gave the anime T.V. show, Devil May Cry: The Animated Series by Shin Itagaki, his professional seal of approval.

That said, Devil May Cry is addictive with its brutal but charming character Dante, and its dark and twisted plot/gameplay. If you’re into cool characters, blood and guts, and kick-ass combat, this is the game for you!

3. Catherine

Another nostalgic game for me, Catherine was something I played constantly when I was in high school. The animation is enticing, the story is a giant mind f*ck, and the English voice acting is stupendous. Like many story-related anime games, it has multiple endings, as well as a karma metre that wraps into your choices. The story revolves around a man named Vincent  Brooks, who is beset by supernatural nightmares while torn between his feelings for longtime girlfriend Katherine and the similarly-named beauty Catherine.

While the game is mostly a platformer, the challenges are unreal, especially in Babel (an extra area not related to the story) and the arcade game, Rapunzel. If you want your brain to turn to mush, I’d suggest setting this baby to the hardest difficulty. Naturally there’s a trophy for beating everything with a gold time, so if you get that you’ll be able to gloat to all your friends about how smart you are. XD

Jokes aside, though, there are other aspects to the game that keep you going. You won’t get bored of the platforming because between each level is the story, given to us in two distinct anime styles, and a trip to the bar, where you can get drunk and interact with other characters. Depending on the dialogue you choose, you could be responsible for their dreams coming true ... or their untimely death. A remake of the game will be coming out for PS4 next year and I can’t wait to play it!

4. No More Heroes

No More Heroes is another action-adventure hack and slash video game that follows a man named Travis Touchdown ... who is a hardcore otaku. Literally all he cares about is killing and anime, which makes for a hilarious story. Travis is also a top-class assassin in a world where assassins constantly compete. Think John Wick: The Anime. This game is full of comedy and combat, as well as cool characters, crude challenges, and a cuddly kitty cat. I played this game religiously when I was in high school, and enjoyed it even up to it’s weird mind f*ck of an ending. The only downside being that it’s only available on Wii, which made for an interesting and unique experience, but a sad realisation that it will never be available for any other platform.

5. Trauma Center: Second Opinion

Just like No More Heroes, Trauma Center: Second Opinion is only available on Wii; but that in no way affected my love for it. Second Opinion is the second game in a long line of Trauma Centers, but for some reason it’s the only one I enjoy. Perhaps it’s because playing it on the Wii gave it a sense of realism. The game is a surgery simulator, and like an actual surgeon, you have to concentrate and keep your hands steady to succeed. If you move too quickly or throw yourself off balance, the patient will die. The art and music are also incredible and, believe it or not, there’s actually a pretty interesting story that goes along with each chapter. As you work your way to more advanced operations, you really take a liking to the characters and feel a strong sense of duty to your patients. To anyone who owns a Wii, this is definitely a game I’d recommend.

6. Chibi-Robo!

Chibi-Robo! This game takes me back! I spent hours upon hours playing this game, and I still would today if my copy hadn’t been stolen. This little treat is only available on the Wii and GameCube, and was created by Nintendo. It’s one of the most adorable platform-adventure games I’ve ever played to date. The Wiki explains the plot perfectly, so I’ll just post it here:

“Chibi-Robo! takes place in a 1960s-style American home and revolves around a tiny, highly advanced robot of the same name. He is given as a birthday gift to a socially withdrawn eight-year-old named Jenny Sanderson by her father. This is much to the dismay of Jenny's mother, a homemaker who is constantly stressed over how much money her husband spends on toys despite his unemployment.”

For a game that seems so basic, there are a plethora of areas to explore and they are huge. Ironically so, I’m sure, but it makes for some amazing gameplay nonetheless. As you wander, you help other creatures around the house, including the family, solve their problems and complete challenging and often comedic tasks; such as flipping burgers, cleaning up puddles, and-- you know-- helping the egg general save his fellow egg soldiers from the household dog. Yeah, stuff like that. XD

Honestly, it’s super fun and I recommend it to anyone, no matter what their age. It’s clearly geared towards children, but I can’t think of a single reason why an adult wouldn’t enjoy it just as much. It’s relaxing, freeing, and puts a genuine smile on your face. :)

7. Pokemon X and Y

Okay, I know I probably shouldn’t add Pokemon to this list, but I can’t help it! I’ve always loved the Pokemon games, but they just get better and better every time! Pokemon X and Y quickly became favourites of mine, and they consumed my life for a good two months as I captured every single Pokemon, bred the perfect IVs, and worked my ass off to get every shiny I desired. On top of that, I loved the story and, for once, how my character design turned out. What’s more, I fell absolutely in love with the Looker side quest, which is possibly the best and most emotional side quest I’ve ever played in a Pokemon game. X and Y will always be special to me, because in was with these two games that I caught ‘em all!

8. Pokemon Sun and Moon

Visually, Pokemon Sun and Moon are the best of the Pokemon games, in my opinion. They were also the first to really shake things up and give fans new and improved methods of breeding, capture, travel, communication, and more. We were also introduced to a new type of pokemon called “ultra beasts”, along with a fun and alluring story with several new characters and legendaries. Throughout the game, I found myself laughing hard at some of the experiences, and I spent countless hours capturing, trading, breeding, spoiling, and loving all of the new pokemon the games had to offer. I even transferred my pokemon from X and Y over so I could give them the same love and affection. ^_^

I have to thank @cassafra5 and @george-nordington, because they’re the ones who bought me this masterpiece! Thanks, guys! <3

9. .hack//OUTBREAK

This is a game that will always be near and dear to my heart. Back before guides were widely available, I was playing a game called .Hack//OUTBREAK. It came out in 2002, when I was only 12 years old. Back then, my dad was still alive. He never really understood my taste in anime, but he wanted to try and relate, so he bought this game for me on a whim. Little did he know I knew absolutely nothing about the .Hack series, and little did either of us know that OUTBREAK was actually the third part to two other .Hack games. Still, I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so I played the game-- and I fell in love.

Visually, OUTBREAK was one of the best games I owned on PS2, and although parts of the story were difficult to follow, I was hooked. I dedicated entire days to this game, and because there weren’t any guides, I had to write down every code and location so I wouldn’t get lost/forget them. Today, I still have pages folded safely in the case. The amount of exploration and character interaction opened me up to a whole new genre of video games. In fact, it basically introduced me to anime-style games. I could actually buy gifts for my friends and build relationships. That seems common now, but back then it wasn’t for a typical PS2 game.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck when the save cartridge was accidentally kicked by my brother and all of my data was lost. I wasn’t too concerned, since I figured I could just replay the game and get everything back ... but the disk was also severely, irreparably scratched. It no longer plays. As such, it is now merely a keepsake from my father. I miss you, dad.

But 16 years later and my sister and I are still quoting this game! XD @alannahkiwi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I-7hwgwqa4

10. Persona 5

I only recently started playing Persona 5, but it’s quickly made its way to my top ten. I can’t say too much about it just yet, aside from the fact that the animation is crisp, the story is gripping, and I’m ready to sink hours of my life into platinuming this gorgeous feet of human achievement! So much heart and sole was poured into this game and it shows with every in-game step I take. This is the only game on this list that I haven’t yet finished, but I have a sense that I don’t really need to. Thus far, every mission has been a gem and I don’t want the party to end!