#three kingdoms rpg

[variouspolltournaments]

Propaganda

Cao Cao: He usurps the Han dynasty, people keep calling him a villain for it, I think early on in the series he has a speech where he says if it's between being winning as a villain or dying as a hero he'll be a villain. He also feels like the protagonist of the show, he's got a bigger role than Liu Bei.

Magneto: Perhaps the best example of a villain being brought over to the heroes side, including leading roles in various comic series / movies, not due to story concerns or popularity, but just because as time has gone on it's become impossible to actually say he was ever wrong about anything

Angron: No Propaganda Submitted

Ellen: No Propaganda Submitted

[boggart01]

Guys look at the babies I made 🫠

[craigofinspiration]

Three-Point Planning, or How to Session Prep Like a Zelda Game

Have you ever wondered why exploring Hyrule in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom is so fun and rewarding? After many hours in both games, I have broken down the wisdom of the Legend of Zelda into one concept. Three-point planning.

Have you ever wondered why exploring Hyrule in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom is so fun and rewarding? How did the developers create such an engaging and enormous world? After many hours in both games, I have broken down the wisdom of the Legend of Zelda into one concept. Three-point planning. Nintendo What is Three Point Planning? Three-point planning is preparing three choices…

[myorinn]

Little art rewind where tumblr hasn’t seen half the drawings shown

[kastelpls]

wrote about Raishi, a bloody strategy rpg take on Romance of the Three Kingdoms

[tap-tap-tap-im-in]

I have discovered that gdq also supports/assists in organizing two all women (trans inclusive) charity events as well.

So now that's four times a year I'm going to be marveling at people's video game skills.

[luiscosta13]

Nem Sei o Que Dizem playing Three Kingdoms Zhao Yun

[felassan]

On this Gamestop listing for an Xbox copy of the game, the text contains some more information on the Deluxe edition etc items.

this post became really long so I put it under a cut. :)

Text reads:

"Dragon Age: The Veilguard Rook's Coffer Edition - Xbox Series X Unite the Veilguard and defy the gods in Dragon Age™: The Veilguard, an immersive single player RPG where you become the leader others believe in. Pre-order* to receive the Blood Dragon armor cosmetic for all three classes: Warrior, Mage, and Rogue. A throwback to previous Dragon Age games, the crimson stains on this armor will never fade Obtain a variety of weapons and armor, including curiosities from a forgotten era with the Deluxe Edition. You’ll receive cosmetic weapon and armor sets for the Warrior, Mage, and Rogue classes as well as cosmetic armor sets and weapons for each of your 7 companions. That’s 3 armor sets for Rook, 6 weapons for Rook, 7 companion armor sets, and 7 companion weapons – saving Thedas never looked so good. 6 Weapon Appearances For Rook. Cosmetic Only. - Stave of the Fallen Kingdom - Bow of the Fallen Kingdom - Spellblade of the Fallen Kingdom - Blades of the Fallen Kingdom - Aegis of the Fallen Kingdom & Sword of the Fallen Kingdom - Maul of the Fallen Kingdom 1 Warrior Armor Set Appearance For Rook. Cosmetic Only. - Armor of Bellanaris - Ghellara Helm 1 Mage Armor Set Appearance For Rook. Cosmetic Only. - Revas Robes - Circlet of Awe 1 Rogue Armor Set Appearance For Rook. Cosmetic Only. - Harellan's Bolts - Katriel's False Face 7 Weapon & 7 Armor Set Appearances For Companions. Cosmetic Only. - Bellara's Nerve - Ringlet of Sorrow - Davrin's Resolve - Plate of the High Constable & Beacon Edge - Emmrich's Mystique - Staff of Incessant Gaze - Harding's Focus - Sunderbow - Lucanis's Gall - Heartpiercer - Neve's Fervor - Cat's Eye - Taash's Might - Grief Features Rooks Edition Includes: Light-Up Lyrium Dagger, Rook's Card Deck, Enchanted Die, Glass Potion Flask, Cloth Map and Quiver, Dragon Age™: The Veilguard Companion Litho Print, Thank-You Letter Unite a Battered World - Thedas is home to storied factions like the heroic Grey Wardens and Tevinter's rebellious Shadow Dragons. Rally the Veilguard - Unite a team of seven companions each with rich lives, deep backstories, and their own expertise and unique abilities. Become the Leader Others Believe in - Select from different races and combat classes, customize your appearance, and choose your character's backstory"

[source]

first, I like the Fade pun in "the crimson stains will never fade" hh. :>

second, we talked [here] about how the deluxe armors look ancient elfy, and the description here calls them "curiosities from a forgotten era". the weapons blurb tells us that the weapons are "of the Fallen Kingdom" - given the appearance of the items, presumably this Kingdom and the era is Elvhenan, before it fell. this is confirmed in the names of the armors for Rook - Bellanaris, Revas and Harellan are of course elven words.

from this info, we can see that the bottom right weapon is a staff. the top left is a shield (here's another shield from DA:I with "Aegis" in the name for reference. the word means protection or backing, and also a shield or breastplate type thing associated with mythological features like Athena), and in sword-and-board style it comes with a sword. we know that each of the 3 classes in the game will have "two distinct weapon types". it seems like the names of these 6 weapons might note what these are: [dual] blades and bow for rogue, sword&shield and 2-handed (e.g. a maul) for warrior, and staff and "spellblade" for mages. the latter is 👁️ for me as I've been wondering what the second weapon for mages is for ages now. it was like "wands? floating spellbooks like some mage NPC enemies in DA:I?" but maybe it's these "spellblades"? ^^ which is also the name of one of the 3 mage specs. :D

Bellanaris: 'eternity' (see: Var Bellanaris in DA:I, the elven burial site. Keeper Gisharel: "Var Bellanaris. "Our Eternity."")

Revas: 'freedom' (one place it crops up is the secret greeting to enter Fen'Harel's sanctuary in Trespasser. Ar-melana dirthaveren. Revas vir-anaris.)

Harellan: in Dalish use, 'traitor to one's kin' (see: Codex Entry: The Rebel God). its root-word is related to harillen, 'opposition', and hellathen, 'noble struggle', so the ancient elven use of this word is maybe more along the lines of rebellion than deception.

Armor of Bellanaris and Ghellara Helm? Harellan's Bolts and Katriel's False Face? Revas Robes? for the Circlet of Awe, maybe on qunari Rooks it shows as vitaar as here, or it doesn't show due to their horns.

I wonder if more specific than ancient elven, these 3 bonus armors are related to Fen'Harel and his followers specifically. The Rebel God codex is about Solas ('harel). a heroic rebel against tyranny and slavery is someone associated with freedom. Fen'Harel's friend Mythal in the form of Flemeth is is Asha'bellanar, the woman of many years, and -anaris crops up in his secret greeting. if you wanted to, you can read into the three armor names a Fen'Harel connection. I could see a scenario where you might like, find these armors in the Lighthouse or something. maybe a codex or item description which associates them with followers of Fen'Harel or Mythal. (here I am just speculating for fun ^^)

Ghellara is a new name or word. it could be elven, as we have "Gh" in e.g. "Ghilan'nain" and "ara" as a sound crops up in the language a lot.

Katriel (🥺...) was an Orlesian elven bard and lover of King Maric, from The Stolen Throne. she hid her true identity from him, like a "False Face". her name and lore has cropped up in other item names before, like Katriel's Grasp. ahh, this is making me so excited to find and read all the other item names and descriptions in the game :D these flavor texts are fun and often super interesting 👁️

the 7 weapon and armors for the companions also have interesting names. they have 1 bonus weapon and 1 bonus armor each, and I wonder if the names of these items were chosen as they relate to their personalities, storyarcs, backstories, abilities etc. ((I'm overanalyzing and reading waaay too much into the names of these items just for fun, don't take this post too seriously, wild speculating is just fun to do. ^^))

Davrin: Grey Wardens need to have resolve to do what they do, and for a warrior 'resolve' has tanky connotations. we know Davrin is bold, and you get the impression that Davrin stands firmly and determined from lines such as "Nobody dies on my watch! For the Wardens!". As for High Constable - this is the rank of the Grey Warden who is second-in-command to the First Warden. historically during the time of the griffons, they were also the order's aerial commander. in recent times, they have also become the public face of the Order, acting as the ambassador to the High King and leading local recruitment. Maybe this is Davrin's specific Warden rank? if so, this is our highest-ranking Grey Warden companion yet, and I'm sooo curious to see the relationship and interactions between him and the First Warden. Davrin is also described as charming - perfect to be a public face and ambassador right? :D I also wonder if the historical role of aerial commander for that rank is part of why Davrin is the guardian of Assan. (also, there are some neat thoughts on the design of Davrin’s 'defaut' armor here. that post talks about the in-world griffon rider and irl aerial elements of his outfit design. :>) Or maybe he isn't yet, but can become this rank during the game? as for beacon, it has the connotations of light, hope, and towers and high places. when all seems lost during a Blight, the Grey Wardens come and save Thedas. I guess Beacon Edge is a sword. ^^

Emmrich: we have seen Emmrich holding a staff which does have an incessant gaze. a skull cannot close its eyes, and will 'look' for eternity. Mystique suits a gentleman necromancer who is a member of a mysterious order.

Neve: fervor is intense and passionate feeling, almost like zeal. Jessica alluded to this part of Neve's character during the Companion Q&A panel at SDCC. she described Neve's loyalty, dedication and great love for Docktown and its people. Neve is "really really fighting for those people", and Jessica loves how she has "that kind of a passion" and how she has "dedicated her life" to that and the other vision for Tevinter that she really sees. John mentioned that Neve is pushing back and fighting back against the Tevinter mageocracy and slavery. I guess fervor refers to these traits and beliefs of Neve's. Cat's Eye reminds me of horn-rimmed glasses (tell me that wouldn't be Neve's style in a modern AU hh?) and the imagery of a cat on the streets of Minrathous, ever-watchful from the shadows. it suits a detective from a big city with a dark underbelly. ^^ Feline senses are strong and sensitive - an investigator would never miss a clue at a crime scene or be caught unawares, yknow?

Harding: a Scout needs to be focused so that they do not miss anything when scouting. there is the imagery of a scout focusing on their surrounds, or looking at a far-off horizon. a marksman needs focus for their arrows to hit their targets. Harding has been focused on chasing down Solas for many years at this point in the timeline. focus is also a game mechanic in DA:I. we accumulate focus by killing enemies and when the bar is fully charged, the Inquisitor can use their Focus ability. maybe this refers to Harding's new magical powers? maybe mechanically in gameplay she can use them kind of like how focus in DA:I? as for Sunderbow, of course Harding is an archer. Sundermount is a mountain, and you can talk about "sundering armor". but what "sunder" really makes me think of is 1). the Altar of Sundering that was found in the Deep Roads in Ortan Thaig. it summons a Fade creature and is a source of magical power. why did the dwarves, who don't use magic, of that place have such an altar? 2). Sundering, the sacred mace wielded by Luthias Dwarfson, a famous Ash Warrior.

Legend says the mace was not crafted by hand, but instead hatched from an egg high in the mountains and then carried by birds to Luthias as a wedding gift from the Lady of the Skies. When Luthias dies, dwarves arrived to carry him to Orzammar to be buried as one of their own with the Stone. Sundering was to lie at his side, but the mace could not be found. Stories say the birds reclaimed it and will deliver it to another hero in time.

3.) various dialogue Solas has with Varric in DA:I.

"Dwarves are the severed arm of a once mighty hero, lying in a pool of blood. Undirected. Whatever skill of arms it had, gone forever. Although it might twitch to give the appearance of life, it will never dream." / "You truly are content to sit in the sun, never wondering what you could've been, never fighting back."

Solas: "Do you ever miss life beneath the earth? The call of the Stone?" Varric: "Nah. Whatever the Stone - capital S - is, it was gone by the time my parents had me." Solas: "But... do you miss it?" Varric: "How could I miss what I never had?"

Dwarves as they are in modern Thedas are a sundered arm, unconnected. They are apart from themselves, and from their parents, the Titans. their connection to the Titans broke when the Titans fell; without the Titans, they can't be "taller". if Harding's new magical powers has something to do with the Titans (see: Valta), I wonder if the "sunder" in "Sunderbow" refers to this.

Taash: there isn't much to go on here, but "might" makes sense for a mighty dragon-hunter, and a dual-wielding warrior has more damage-dealing warrior connotations (raw strength) than a more tanky-type, shield-bearing one. "Grief" makes me so worried 🥺 is Taash okay? what is she sad about? is there a bereavement in her backstory? who or what did she lose? what is Taash grieving? please, my heart hurts.

Bellara: you have to have nerve to be a Veil Jumper, a group that only accepts those brave enough to face the dangers in Arlathan Forest including its reality-warping magic. she's brave, optimistic, energetic, an adventurer; daring in her knowledge-seeking quest and desire to find out what's true and what isn't. she just sees a problem and wants to solve it. :) Sorrow.. we already know that Bellara has seen a lot of tragedy in her backstory, and that her optimistic outlook is sometimes a mask to hide the fact that she's hurting and in pain. like with Taash my heart hurts and I wonder what happened in her past 🥺

Lucanis: "heartpiercer" is a great name for the knives of an assassin that always find their mark and kill them. he always gets the contract done, and strikes fatally and with precision. he also pierced all our hearts 💘💘 (heartbreaker.. 🥺?) "Gall" is really interesting.. it has multiple different meanings and connotations. brazenness, temerity, bold behavior, audacity (I'd guess these are the meaning here). bile. great misery, suffering and bitterness. an open wound. to harass or harry.

[vintagerpg]

Looking at some recent RPG books this week starting with this beauty, Caer Mundus: The Lost Realm (2021). It’s a system agnostic attempt to reconstruct a plausible Celtic world for RPGs (the people we call the Celts didn’t write anything down, so what we firmly know about their culture is pretty scant). It’s emphatically psychedelic, with mind-altering substances (particularly mushrooms and red honey) fueling magic, visions and bravery.

There’s a ton of tools in the book: dogs, horses, heroic rivals, a system for tracking acclaim (and social stigma), tables galore. There are templates that present Celtic versions of Bards, Druids, Rangers and Warriors that can be laid over most system’s character creation systems. There are, of course, many spirits and monsters derived from the surviving mythologies of the British Isles (selkies, dullahan, coraniaid and so on).

Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is the epic quest line, the Song of the Blaze Above. It begins with an omen of apocalypse, which spurs the three old kings to attempt to purge the ellyllon, a sort of fae culture that has co-existed with humanity. The quest sees the players recruited to unite the three kingdoms (installing new kings if necessary) in order to prepare for the coming battle with the true threat: an army of ogres (who, through their naming, are highly implied to be Romans, at least metaphorically). That battle has three potential flavors: one where humanity can triumph, one where humanity is doomed and one where the ogres are a red herring and the fae are the true threat after all. It’s neat to have all the events mapped out, and pretty clear how you can map them to a system of your choice. Along the way, characters grow from scrawny whelps to epic heroes. There’s an Afanc. What more could you possibly want?

Grim and gritty art throughout, in the vein of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but slightly lighter and more realistic. You can catch glimmers of a way of life here. The cover is by Sawblade, whose art has decorated many a death metal album cover. My pal Darkwizard Berserker did the logo.

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

300 polls summary

And now our 300th poll is over.

Here is a Summary of these 300 polls results (with some comparaisons to the 200th poll summary):

The 10 Most Known Games :

1 Pathfinder 2e (3,20% Never heard of)

2 Shadowrun (8.30%)

3 Warhammer fantasy roleplaying (10.90%)

4 Thirsty sword lesbian (13.50 %)

5 Apocalypse World (14,50%) NEW

6 Mage The Ascension (14.80%) NEW

7 Blades in the Dark (15%)

8 Monster of the Week ( 15.20%)

9 Lancer (16.30%)

10 Monsterhearts (16.90 %)

10 Werewolf The Apocalypse (16,90%)

Two new game in this top : Apocalypse World and Mage the Ascension. Root RPG is now out of the top 10

The 10 Most Played Games

1 Pathfinder 2e 42%

2 Monster of the Week 36.40 %

3 Chronicles of Darkness 34.70% NEW

4 The Quiet Year 31.70%

Below this line, the played part was not the majority on the poll

5 Shadowrun 30.40%

6 Blades in the Dark 28.60 %

7 Lancer 26,10%

8 Paranoia 25.50% NEW

9 Masks a new generation 25.40%

10 Dread 25% NEW

Three new games in the top Most Played : Chronicles of Darkness, Paranoia and Dread. Which means Laser & Feelings, Fiasco and Honey Heist are out of the top 10.

The 10 Most Voted on Polls

1 Dallas The Television RPG 8013 votes

2 Wanderhome 1187

3 One HONK Before Midnight 1163 NEW

4 Fight Truck 1044

5 Chuubo's Marvelous Wish Granting Engine 1026

6 The Quiet Year 953

7 Dialect 893

8 Mork Borg 890

9 Pathfinder 2e 871

10 Thirsty Sword Lesbians 846

Only one new game on the most voted top : One Honk Before Midnight. This is the power of goose. Lancer is out of the Top 10

Percentage of Games per Decade

2020s: 158 polls (+53), 52.67% ↑

2010s : 75 (+26) polls, 25% ↑

2000s : 26 polls (+9), 8.67% ↑

1990s : 22 polls (+7), 7.33% ↓

1980s : 16 polls (+5), 5.33% ↓

1970s : 3 polls, 1% ↓

Most Known Game from each Decade

1970s : Traveller 29.30% Never Heard of

1980s : Shadowrun 8.30%

1990s : Mage The Ascension 14.80% NEW

2000s : Pathfinder 3.20%

2010s : Apocalypse World 14.50% NEW

2020s : Thirsty Sword Lesbians 13.50%

Some games have been dethroned ! Mage felled Werewolf for the 1990s. Apocalypse World won the 2010s by lighting up Blades in the Dark.

Which country do most games comes from ?

1 USA : 186 polls (+ 72), 62% ↑

2 UK : 29 polls(+11), 9.67 % ↑

3 France : 15 polls (+1), 5 % ↓

4 Australia , Canada (+4 ↑), : 8 polls, 2.67 %

5 Unknown (+3 ↓ ), Japan (+0 ↓) : 7 polls, 2.3%

6 Italy : 6 polls (+1), 2% ↓

7 Sweden : 5 polls (+1), 1.67% ↓

8 Finland (+1 ↓), Spain (+1 ↓) : 4 polls, 1.33%

9 Phillipines, New Zealand (+1 ↑): 3 polls, 1% ↓

10 Brazil (+1 ↑), Denmark (↓), Germany (↓), Scotland (↓) : 2 polls, 0.67%

11 Bandgladesh (+1), Ireland (↓), Malaysia (↓), Mexico (↓), Singapore (+1), Slovenia(↓), South Africa (+1) : 1 poll, 0.33%

We discovered game from 3 new countries : Bandladesh, Singapore and South Africa. A lot of american games for this batch of 100 polls. Please continue submitting games from other countries, and check the unknown ones to see if you know where they're from.

Most Known Game per Country

Australia : Mausritter 34.70% Never Heard of

Bandladesh : Midnight in a Perfect World 95.20% NEW

Brasil : CBR+PNK 54.40% NEW

Canada : Monsterhearts 16.90%

Denmark : Red Rook Revolt : 89.10%

Finland : Lamentations of the Flame Princess 44% NEW

France : In Nomine 60.20%

Germany : The Dark Eye 62.40%

Ireland : The Laundry 66.10%

Italy : Fabula Ultima 43.10%

Japan : Ryuutama 52.30%

Malaysia : Lumen Ryder Core 79.20%

Mexico : Nahual 81%

New Zealand : Monster of the Week 15.20 %

Phillipines : Gubat Banwa 36.80%

Scotland : Apawthecaria 81.40%

Singapore : Hearts of Wulin 63.90% NEW

Slovenia : Ultraviolet Grasslands 59.50%

South Africa : Nihilation 93.90% NEW

Spain : Eyes on the Price 63.90%

Sweden : Mork Borg 32.10%

United Kingdom : Warhammer fantasy 10.90%

USA : Pathfinder 2e 3.20%

Unknown : Brinkwood 69.30%

All the results and the submitted games can be found here

To submit a game, go here

[allgremlinart]

I would like to hear about the earth kingdom over expansion theory

‼️ ok. admittedly this DOES require some knowledge of my pre-unification theory to understand better sdhsdh.

but basically, it rests on a few certain assumptions and ideas that make me believe that The Earth Kingdom looks as big as it does because it has made some aggressive, ambitious, and somewhat wobbly land claims throughout its history.

the facts of canon are as follows:

While being divided into smaller kingdoms and states the Earth Kingdom has a centralized seat of power that exerts authority and administration over them (currently, Ba Sing Se).

The Northern Air Temple is marked on the world map as Earth Kingdom Territory, while the other three Air Temples which are not connected to the contiguous EK by land are not.

By 4,000 BG the four nations were not yet unified or ethnically identifiable.

my assumptions and theories are as follows:

While when we appear on the scene in 100AG its clear that the 4 nations developed to have a strong sense of ethnic identity, it is unclear if national ethnic (see: elemental) identity came before or after these territories unified.

The borders of the 4 four nations changed and oscillated over time.

It is the central authority that is currently in power (BSS, Chin The Conqueror, Kuvira, etc) that decides what is and what is not considered the "Earth Kingdom."

These decisions and claims are not always 100% salient, or there is no intrinsic or inherent claim to an ethnic Earth sovereignty over all the territory we see that it possesses.

So essentially what I've concluded/headcanoned based off my own personal assumptions is:

Once upon a time the Earth Kingdom decided that the Northern Air Temple and the mountains they lived in were now Earth Kingdom territory. The Air Nomads simply didn't challenge this because they didn't care about borders or nation states and also the EK has no way of ascending to the temples to collect taxes from them or anything anyway.

Once upon a time the Earth Kingdom decided that the islands closest to the South Pole, which were historically either a mix of Earth and Water elemental identities, mostly Water Tribe, or populated mostly by non-benders, were now Earth Kingdom territory. The people from these islands did not put up much of a fight to these claims since the EK rarely bothered to sail out there anyway.

In conclusion: this theory is mostly an excuse for me to make the world's history messier (because it's fun and realistic) and to expand the Southern Water Tribe's identity and cultural sphere of influence (because it's fun and I can draw about it.) Uhm. play with me in this space? if you want.

(the map I used is from the official RPG book, but here's another map of 98 AG by GPMAsss2 on Deviantart because. well idk just because. I like this one. atla has a cool map community if you know where to look...)

[istadris]

do you have any theories to what the plot for brothership will be?

I do!

So first of all, we know the plot will start in the Mushroom Kingdom while the brothers are living their life (and for Luigi that means getting in trouble)

Until a portal appears from their hand holding after Mario rescues Luigi.

Now, this is pure speculation based on the preview and a split second moment of the video, but I suspect that while Nintendo clearly doesn't want to rely too much on Illumination for inspiration, the movie might have inspired a scene in which Mario and Luigi try to hold on each other while going through the warp zone portal, but are separated, with Mario taking around his surroundings.

We know that the Shipshape will play a key role in the adventure: it's very likely it serves as the main hub, going from island to island and catapulting the Bros from its canon.

Since it seems to be the place where they meet their main allies (Connie and Snoutlet), it'll probably be their tutorial area : as such, I expect Mario to be temporarily separated from Luigi at first, so the player learns to control Mario alone, before he soon finds Luigi (and the player learns to control both brothers at once).

I don't expect an extremely convoluted plot, this is a Mario game after all. However, Mario & Luigi games are RPGs, which means a lot more dialogues and exploration than the mainline games. The M&L games also like to feature some twists here and there, and a rather clever writing despite their simplish stories.

So far, the bad guys seem to be the Extension Corps guys, the Gorumbla and that skull guy in a top hat, who seems in a position of power compared to the other three. Gorumbla seems to stand out in the theme compared to the others, so I expect he's more of a "you disturbed me in my nap and I'm ANGRY" boss than a real antagonist.

I expect a "Revolution" type of story : the electric-style habitants of the island live in harmony, until a group of jerks decide their way was the only one to follow and started bullying around the locals. Mario & Luigi get roped into the conflict as most of the habitants aren't fighters (and that by virtue of fighting back against bullies, they paint a big target on their back)

I also expect a bit of Technology vs Nature conflict, with the bad guys being all about technology over everything while the good guys are more nuanced and acknowledge the importance of nature in their life.

Top Hat Guy still puzzles me. What is his goal? He doesn't look like most of the electric-themed characters, what is his common goal with them?

Peach's appearance is very intriguing to me. Recently, Nintendo has given her more proactive roles (playable in the Rabbids RPGs, SMB Wonder, the main role in Showtime, an active role in the movie...) and I hope they keep with this trend of leaving behind her damsel in distress past.

The one time we see her in the trailer, she's with several local characters (all electric-coded, like Connie, Snoutlet and the Exension Corps) and Dorrie. A thing that stands out to me is that they all wear an orange piece of clothing, including Peach. It leads me to believe they're a crew or squad, and that Peach, once sucked into this place like the Bros, decided to stick with them while Mario and Luigi stuck on the Shipshape. Or maybe they're all part of the Shipshape crew, and rescued Peach (or the opposite). In any case, I expect Peach to have her own side of the adventure until she's needed with the Bros.

Is there a link with Connie's orange symbol on her hat? Although it looks more like a seed, to tie with her theme of tree-ship and growing plants.

Bowser is a full enigma so far. His moment in the trailer only shows him shooting at something, and the text on the website is ambivalent on whether he'll be a friend or a foe. I hope for the former, the Bros and Peach teaming up with Bowser against a common foe. But while the M&L games love to give Bowser depth and moments of allyship with our heroes (BIS, SS), they also insist on how Bowser is a bad guy after his own goals (DT, PiT).

And now for the places of the game they might visit :

First Island : with the red grass area to gently ease the player into a new place, the cliff providing the first environnemental challenges, and the first boss being a big brute with easy patterns to counter.

Obligatory Fire and/or Ice Island :

Flower/Nature Island, with one of the bosses being the monster plants

I'm running out of room for picture, but I suspect there will be a High Tech Island, with the big city (and probably one of the first confrontations with the main bad guys)

I don't know how accurate my predictions will be, we still don't have much; but this is how I see things going so far!

[boggart01]

Me: I don’t have a type

Also me:

👀

[satoshi-mochida]

ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist launches January 22, 2025 - Gematsu

Dark 2D Metroidvania RPG ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist will leave Early Access and launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Steam on January 22, 2025, publisher Binary Haze Interactive and developers Live Wire and Adglobe announced. Pre-orders for physical editions will begin soon in Japan, with information on physical editions for other regions to be announced at a later date.

ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist first launched for PC via Steam on March 25.

Here is an overview of the game, via Binary Haze Interactive:

About

Venture through a dark 2D Metroidvania RPG that takes place in a dying world where sorrowful artificial life forms called homunculi run rampant. As hybrid beings turn on humanity, cleanse corruption from their weary souls and uncover the source of their oppression in a journey of salvation for both man and machine. Taking place decades after “The Rain of Death” in ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights, which sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide, ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist promises 35 hours of content coming to 1.0 with all-new bosses to purify, fresh abilities to combine for custom playstyles, and mysterious biomes to explore. Each boss defeated joins Lilac‘s cause, adding ten abilities (each with three alt-fires), totaling 30 new abilities to Lilac’s repertoire. Equip up to four abilities at once to create a custom fighting style with a mixture of short-range attacks, long-range projectiles, lock-on auto-attacks, and much more. Explore a vast open world full of relics offering insight into ENDER MAGNOLIA‘s rich lore and access previously unreachable areas as Lilac’s skills increase over time. Gather gold and machine parts, then exchange them for items and upgrades at the Blacksmith’s storefront. Locate Lilac’s lost memories and piece together the tragic story of the fall of the Land of Fumes. International indie band Mili returns to the series to compose the melancholy yet whimsical soundtrack for ENDER MAGNOLIA‘s setting.

Story

Set in the Land of Fumes, this prosperous magical superpower is home to vast quantities of magical resources lurking underneath the surface. In hopes of advancing their kingdom’s development, artificial life forms known as Homunculi came into being. Regrettably, toxic Fumes from the underground drove the Homunculi to madness, turning them into feral monsters. Lilac, an “Attuner” possessing the power to save the Homunculi, finds herself in a laboratory deep underground. Become acquainted with the Homunculi who have been closely involved in the kingdom’s downfall. Set out in search of both Lilac’s lost memories and precious friends in the Land of Fumes on a journey of destruction and rebirth in a hand-drawn, post-apocalyptic world.

Scenario

ENDER MAGNOLIA is a dark fantasy 2D side-scrolling action RPG where you venture through the desolate Land of Fumes trying to save both humans and Homunculi. At the forefront of magical and mechanical development, the kingdom comprises a hierarchical societal structure. Here, you’ll come across abandoned cities, and discover laboratories oozing with heinous mysteries, a grand Sorcerer’s Academy, colossal factories, and much more. The hauntingly beautiful yet gruesome world of ENDER MAGNOLIA will unfold before you. Journey with Homunculi and help those who have lost their minds to the Fumes. Fight fearsome, powerful enemies, purify their souls, and rally your companions. Who will you save at the end of your quest—humans or Homunculi?

Watch a new trailer below. View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.

Version 1.0 Release Date Trailer

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For the last two weeks or so I've been playing the Mega Drive dungeon crawler Shining in the Darkness. I've recently been going through all the various action-RPGs the system had to offer and kinda found myself lusting for more, so I expanded the scope.

Shining in the Darkness had one of those cover arts I vividly remember seeing in game stores during the 90s, I understood already back then that whatever this was would be too complicated for my feeble preschool brain, but it had a shiny glossy allure that still beckoned to me with promises of daring adventures and grand battles. Questions lingered in my head: Who is that evil bastard zapping sparks at Cavin from the Gummi Bears? Why has the king entrusted the safety of his kingdom to a meagre boy and his two misfit friends?

Well, it turns out that big bad guy is called Dark Sol, the bane of all game difficulty discourse, and the reason the king has enlisted three poor kids is because there is no one else to rely on after your daddy went missing. Everyone else just sorta gives up along the way.

My initial conclusion of this game was to commend my young self for the striking assessment, my five year old self would never get anywhere in this game between the English text, abstracted navigation and number crunching battle mechanics. Shining in the Darkness is a bona fide classic dungeon gauntlet endurance simulator, where you traverse vanishing point block tunnels and encounter enemies. I've played one or two games like this before, like the original Phantasy Star, but this time a new desire struck me. I wanted to draw maps. Maybe I'm just getting older and more patient, leading me to wilfully ignore easily available resources online.

By my recollection, this is the first time I've dedicated myself to playing a game like this. Usually I just resort to my sense of direction, which I've gathered seems to at least be above average, since anytime I go anywhere with anyone I always end up playing shepherd so they don't get lost. Worst case scenario I'll just fall back to mapping efforts by online heroes from years past. For Shining in the Darkness I persisted blindly about halfway through until I admitted to myself charting a map of the labyrinthine caves would be a lot easier. Luckily, the game allows you to spend 1 MP to see a chunk of where you've walked, meaning I could get neatly organized segments to copy by hand.

Perhaps my biggest takeaway from this endeavour was how much of the game experience was expressed through this map project. I spent just as much time slaying beasts as I did counting tiles and filling them out with my pencil. It became a natural counterbalance that provided vital pacing to the game mechanics. Walking, fighting, charting. In turn, through the principle of learning by doing, I gained a more intimate familiarity with the environments by just replicating them out on a sheet of paper. I found that while the map helped, I actually didn't need it much for backtracking because my drawings had helped me remember the layouts of the corridors anyway.

I guess the lesson learned is that while old design sensibilities may appear to be arcane and cumbersome when easier solutions exists, the obfuscation is part of the fun. The game hands me an intentionally hard to navigate world, shows me that it's fully capable of displaying maps of it, but still asks me to provide that dimension myself. Through doing this, I discover that drawing maps is both surprisingly enjoyable and cognitively stimulating. I realize that had I downloaded some pre-packaged maps online and used as my bible, Shining in the Darkness would've been a vastly different experience, one of monotonous meandering through endless fights while confidently striding along the known path.

Perhaps that's why the game was called Shining and the Darkness in Japan, it doesn't flow as well as the western title, but at the same time it poetically reflects this act of discovery. I am Shining, the game provides the Darkness, we work together, we must unify to become whole.

As for Dark Sol, he turned into a big monster boy and was vanquished by a spunky cartographer child and her two cohorts. The unknown has been made known and the kingdom is once more saved.

/Kiki

[bryce-bucher]

Basidia Post #1

Introduction:

The Winds of Basidia is an adventure roleplaying game that I am co-developing alongside Modus Interactive. It's a sequel to his previous game The Snow of Basidia. Our main inspirations for this project include the n64 Zelda games, Fallout: New Vegas, Nausicaa, and Pathologic.

Tha Plot:

The kingdom of Basidia faces an apocalypse in the form of an extremely deadly, infectious basidium storm that is set to hit by the end of the next three days. Luckily, following an assassination of the king, the protagonist (a lowly nobody) chances upon an ancient artifact that was lost during the altercation. With this artifact they can relive the last three days of this beautiful, dying land over and over in order to try and find a way to save it.

Tha Factions & Misc. Basidia Politics:

There are three major factions in Basidia that are all trying to realize their own solution to the storm. Through their actions, the player can aid and join them on their respective quests. These factions include the Basidia Military, the Basidia Church, and the Rebellion (note: these are all working titles). The military and the church are in the process of fighting for primary control over the kingdom following the king's assassination. The military feel as though they have the majority of power and resources, so they should be able to take charge. On the other hand, the church feel as though they were second to the king in terms of closeness to God, so they have a right to be in charge. The military would prefer to just eliminate the church, but they cannot. The church is extremely important to the citizens of Basidia, and the military cannot risk losing that support. Operating in the background of this tension is a relatively small, organized anarchist-rebellion group. They were responsible for the king's assassination as a means to cause infighting in the kingdom. They operate through a horizontal hierarchical structure, and they are made up entirely of any Basidia citizens that believed in the cause. I'll leave it at that for now. Maybe I'll go into more detail with these factions and their motivations another time.

Tha Mechanics:

So this game is taking a while to develop due to how many interworking mechanics we need to build (as it turns out making a whole rpg is a lot of work). We want to emphasize player freedom (shocker ik), so we have to account for things like the player being able to kill whoever they want and go anywhere they want. This game has a timeloop, open-ended world, murder, infected areas, gliding, resource gathering, a weird marble lock system, a bomber's notebook type thing, etc. Maybe I should go into detail about the gliding since the game is kinda named after it. The player is going to be placed in a fairly vast world that takes a while to traverse on foot; however, as the game progresses the player will acquire various different types of gliders that they can equip and use. With these gliders the player can, well, glide freely to get around quicker, access new areas, and generally get more stuff done within the time limit. Sorry this section is poorly structured and rambely, but there are so many details I could go into for each mechanic that its probably best I just save a lot of it for individual development posts.

Conclusion:

There is a lot going on with this project, and I can't wait to share more of it. I'll see you next week when I probably talk about the marble lock system and/or the journal system that I am currently developing. Also go follow Modus and play Snow of Basidia if you haven't.