#xenosaga 3 spoilers

[h-worksrambles]

Takahashi bringing Fei into Xenoblade by any means necessary be like:

[minothtime]

i've reached the end of xenosaga episode III

[goro-pancake-akechi]

Hello, everyone! The Xeno Sexyman poll is ago! This is similar to the Tumblr Sexyman poll, except that it's done exclusively with characters from the Xeno Series, which includes Xenogears, Xenosaga, and Xenoblade Chronicles. This will be posted to both Tumblr and Discord in Xeno-focused communities. Round one is a total of 64 characters, meaning that it is 32 questions long. Each round will halve the number of characters and the number of questions. The votes for each round will conclude three days after being posted. As this is being posted on October 25th, it will conclude on October 28th. Keep in mind that this will contain spoilers for every Xeno game. Also, it would help if everyone who does the poll reblogs it! I don't mind I want as many people as possible to see and do the poll. Alright everyone, you ready? Vote!

https://forms.gle/Ax1M1DH1ufsAaeV56

[ravenbreakswifi]

I still can't get over the fact I watched Xenosaga while waiting for Xenoblade 3 to come out and it became relevant.

[himejoshinoah]

Yeah ok

[sicahyart]

I had the opportunity to draw a tarot card illustration of Ziggy for a Xeno Tarot Project as the Three of Swords!

Details about the symbolism in this artwork below the cut (/!\ Xenosaga spoilers /!\)

The Three of Swords tarot card is associated with hurt, betrayal and overcoming grief, which is very fitting for Ziggy. The card usually depicts a heart pierced by 3 swords, so I reused that imagery by having Ziggy's heart pierced by them. I wanted the swords to be more than objects, so I associated them to 3 characters who are cause of grief for Ziggy: to the left, Sharon, his wife, murdered with her son in front of him ; to the right, Canaan, who believed his existence had hurt Ziggy and chose to sacrifice his life to repent. The third sword is connected to the black silhouette in the back, the Black Testament, Voyager, the traitor.

The background is the stained glass from the Archon Cathedral, a place that haunts Ziggy, filled with death and despair. The red at the bottom represents the blood spilt there, and Voyager’s silhouette cutting the light from the window illustrates the heavy shadow he brought on Ziggy. The halo reinforces the cathedral aesthetic, and cuts Voyager’s shadow as a symbol of eventually overcoming that darkness he left behind. 

The flowers over Ziggy’s chest, covering the swords wound, serve a similar purpose: they’re a rose of Sharon and momo peach blossoms, for the family he lost (Sharon & Joaquin) and the family he found (MOMO).

I hope you like this artwork as much as I enjoyed creating it!

[satoshi-mochida]

Xenosaga Fan Translates Full Playthrough of Canonical Phone Game, Pied Piper

Noisy Pixel Source. Possible Spoilers for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 below.

To celebrate the 19th anniversary of the largely unknown Xenosaga: Pied Piper, fan @ValakTurtle has announced that they have translated an entire playthrough of the game on YouTube by @Keju_frangelico. Additionally, “the translation was built on top of Chaoslace’s original translation that was hosted on Zarathustra.”

The script was previously translated, but an in-game translation was absent.

For those unaware, Xenosaga: Pied Piper is a canonical entry in the series that is essentially required reading to fully understand and appreciate the events of Xenosaga Episode III. Given the title’s exclusive presence on mobile phones plus its lack of official localization, it’s not really known by those who haven’t played the Xenosaga games.

In fact, while it has been over a decade since I last played Xenosaga, I (think?) I remember Episode III trying to recap the events of Piped Piper because it is actually significant. As a result, it’s recommended to check out Pied Piper after playing Xenosaga Episode II, despite it taking place roughly a century before the events of the first game.

Piped Piper is arguably more vital to experience than Xenosaga: A Missing Year, which connects Xenosaga Episode II and Episode III.

If you’re a Xenosaga fan and have never delved into Pied Piper, this is a pretty fantastic way to do so. Honestly, huge thanks to @ValakTurtle for deciding to translate this playthrough with English captions. It even appears they’ve translated the menus during battles, which is a pretty intense and intricate step.

You can check out the full Xenosaga: Pied Piper playthrough playlist here or start watching the first episode below:

Earlier this year, fans united for G-MODE Archives to officially re-release Piped Piper.

Speaking of Xenosaga, the conclusion of the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Future Redeemed storyline has seemingly opened up the possibility of a Xenosaga revival or continuation.

[tamamita]

so what do you think of the future of the xenoblade series?

For now, I think Takahashi has other plans. But I'm sure that the ending of Xenoblade 3 FR left us all to think about what to expect from the future of the series. While the trilogy is over, Xenoblade is still not over and Takahashi never said that this was the final game in the series, only that the Klaus saga (the first arc) had concluded.

Regardless, a lot of things were revealed pertaining to the Xenosaga series, which means that he might actually try to implement Xenoblade within Xenosaga's canon. But that's a lot of spoiler to be dicussing right now.

Most fans are either expecting a new Xenoblade game to be out for a new-gen console, which might not be out for awhile, whereas some believe that Xenoblade Chronicles X will get a remastered version -- much like Xenoblade 1 -- or a sequel. Some people speculate that Takahashi might remaster and rehaul the entirety of Xenosaga, provided Namco goes along with it. Now if Takahashi decided to remake the entirety of Xenosaga, he'll be able to realize his vision for what those games were meant to be.

[valbellepeche]

**SPOILERS for Xenogears and all of Xenoblade except X**

I wanted to talk about how some xenoblade characters and elements (specifically the trinity processor) parallel parts of gears and saga. Beginning with xenoblade 1:

Alvis serves the role of both the Zohar and the wave existence within the story of Xenoblade 1. He is the power source for the demiurge that creates a cycle of destruction and recreation (Zanza/Deus) while also connecting with the protagonist and eventually allowing him to defeat the demiurge. The term "Monado" is directly derived from the Monad, which is the Zohar and wave existence are partially based on. At the end of the game, Alvis appears as a glowing green cross, extremely similar to how the wave existence appears in Xenogears.

The Monado III is very similar to the role of Xenogears (the gear) being the final form of the protagonists weapon after they make contact with Alvis/the wave existence. Alvis's line "I was here at the beginning, and I will proclaim the end." calls back to the bible verse which is the first thing you see in Xenogears, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." In the context of Xenogears' opening scene this is associated with Deus. (More on this later)

In both stories they drive the protagonist forward to defeat the final antagonist, creating a world where people are free to live without some god, oppressive government or religious structure deciding for them. The main thing that separates Alvis and the WE is that the WE acts in order to free itself from the Zohar, whereas Alvis, as the facilitator of the world, wants it to cease stagnation. Future Redeemed recontexualizes this slightly by saying he embodied Klaus's regrets.

Xenoblade 2:

Xenoblade 2 formally introduces the trinity processor as well as the actual Zohar. Being computers linked to the Zohar, the trinity processor is similar to Xenogears' Kadomony.

The way Pyra is found resting in the Ancient Ship is a reference to when Abel awakens Elhaym in Xenogears

Elhaym was created in response to Abel's desire for a mother figure, the way blades reflect their driver could be seen as similar.

More on Logos and Pneuma in a bit.

Xenoblade 3 (Primarily Future Redeemed):

Future Redeemed is what got me thinking about all this in the first place. Given the prevalence of Ontos and that it takes two forms, as well as the other parts of the trinity processor having relevance, there's a lot to talk about.

The first form Ontos takes in Future Redeemed is Alpha. He has the appearance of Alvis, but with Zanza's wing(s) and he wields the Monado I (which is also Zanza's). Zanza's influence is an intentional contradiction with Alpha's driving force of extinguishing the past for the sake of the future, and also alludes to how he takes the role of Deus, which Zanza held in Xenoblade 1. Zanza's angelic motif is contrasted by Z symbolizing the devil. Alpha's goal is to take the life of the City to a new world, which is very similar to how Deus acted to return to Earth. This connection is made obvious with Alpha's second phase being obviously inspired by Deus's final form.

This brings the whole "I was here at the beginning, and I will proclaim the end." thing full circle, what with Deus being associated with the ALPHA and Omega verse. Additionally, Xenosaga's expy is called Omega so it all fits together nicely.

If Alpha is representative of Deus, then Na'el fills the role of Miang. Both are women who act in order to achieve the goal of Deus/Alpha. What makes Na'el different is that it's at least partially coming from her own will, whereas Miang fully takes over women's bodies.

In Xenogears, Kadomony is composed of 3 parts, the Persona, Anima, and Animus. The Persona is what created the original Elhaym alongside Miang. Na'el is connected to Ontos and parallels Miang, which leaves the final aspect of Ontos in Future Redeemed, A, to be Elhaym. A is separated from Alpha by Ghondor's desire for a future that's the best for everyone, once again being similar to how Elhaym is created. A also states that they are composed of Alvis's memories with Shulk which is a similar type of thing.

Future Redeemed states that Ontos acts as an arbiter between Logos and Pneuma, using their input to make decisions. Without the complete Trinity Processor, Ontos cannot function properly. This feels very reminiscent of Xenogears' theme of becoming whole, and also Deus needing all of its different parts to accomplish its goals. Alpha is only defeated when the powers of Pneuma and Logos (at least symbolically) come together again.

Side note: this fantastic video by PhantomHeit talks about the trinity processor and speculates that Zanza and Meyneth may have stood in for Logos and Pneuma in Xenoblade 1.

Future Redeemed establishes Pneuma and Logos as intrinsically feminine and masculine respectively, granting credence to them representing Anima and Animus. This isn't the only thing pointing to this, Malos's battle theme in Torna the Golden Country is called "Over Despair and Animus". Nia's weapon in Xenoblade 3 is called the Anima Sword, which could relate to the 2 phantom Aegis swords that float behind her or that she created the Ouroboros power which allows Matthew to access Pneuma.

In Xenogears Animus takes the form of the Gazel Ministry, antagonists who wish to obtain the Anima Relics to become complete, not unlike Malos needing Pyra/Mythra to repair his broken core.

In the climax of Future Redeemed, everything comes together, not just the Trinity Processor, but also Keves, Agnus, and even Moebius to complete the power of Ouroboros and oust Alpha and -redeem- the future if you will. Humans joining together to create a future they can live freely in is a frequently recurring theme in Xeno, and it's a fitting end for this chapter of the series.

[doktorpeace]

I finished Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Redeemed

All in all absolutely phenomenal experience. Truly a visionary and audacious way to end such a popular series. Thematically resonant through to the end and well earned in the resolution it goes for. Beyond this I'm going to put a read more, under which will contain spoilers for the entire Xeno- franchise. That means Gears, Saga Episodes I-III, Chronicles 1-3, and X. I have a lot of thoughts and plenty more marinating to do, but these are my initial impressions.

Somehow managing to connect all of the Xeno- series not to AUs but canonically the same Prime Earth, which contextually is Our Earth is RIDICULOUS in how he pulled it off. It feels truly organic to all of the stories *AND* doesn't contradict any of them! It even, seemingly, directly ties into the beginning of X with it being 'May 23rd, 2022'. Elma arrived on Earth in the early 2020s and I believe she's that blue dot we see flying onto the Earth at the end of the credits.

Smashing all of those different FTL/Outer Space Colonization projects into a single radio broadcast in the background of just one cutscene is truly remarkable. Just a few lines recontextualizes this man's entire career.

And also, to those in the know, it reveals that all three of them: The Earthlife Colonization Project (Xenogears) The Immigrant Fleet (Xenosaga) and Project Exodus (Xenoblade X)

Occur due to Zohar related experiments gone horrifically wrong. Which we know from each series individually. But knowing that all of them stem from a single post-scarcity, conflict-free, truly equitable and globalized Earth, which nonetheless kept on trying different experiments with these godlike processors and all of them went awry is really interesting.

This game in particular very much focuses on the idea that advancement and power and control for their own sake are meaningless. If you don't have an idea behind it, if you don't want to make things the world tangibly better it's pointless.

Future Redeemed successfully ties every Xeno- game into this theme directly, no matter how subtle they are about it in their own content.

The Chronicles games happened solely because Klaus wanted to play God and make a new universe he would control, using The Zohar.

Gears happened because The Gazel Ministry wanted to create a creature that matched the Biblical God in terms of ability which they could control.

The Saga games happened because people wanted this power for transhumanism, to perfectly control the genes and births of every person, to ignore the realities of death and disease, but in doing so became so entrenched in making literal Designer Babies that it cuts off natural human diversity and reduces the people born to mere products and instruments shilled by different companies with different patents.

And all of these happened from The Zohar, a processor/machine mind that far outstrips anything humanity can believe. A thing which the humans of Earth only discovered by chance. Being meddled with purely out of avarice and hubris. The humans of that Earth didn't need any of those things. They'd already accomplished a perfect, post scarcity world. And that's why Alvis, a machine who's sole purpose is to be the logical arbiter between two other AI, when left to his own devices, decided going back to that would be best, no matter the cost.

He saw all of the tragedies in the three Chronicles settings that occurred solely due to Klaus' hubris and realized none of it would happen if these humans, the ones who've only known strife and difficulty and pain, had access to that post scarcity, conflict free, equitable world and beyond this, Takahashi buries the lede a little bit.

All of those previously mentioned projects to get humans off of earth. They're all cover ups by the Coalition Government of Earth. They're all touted as great advancements for human progress and potential but in actuality they're all just covering up massive, horrific, failures which would each result in the destruction of the Earth and its people. It's just Klaus' mistake had such immediate and tremendous consequences it couldn't be covered up.

Everything was destroyed in an instant. And we see, in Gears and Saga, that those decisions still ultimately do lead to an unimaginable amount of human suffering, just not on Earth. All they've done is ship off that suffering, literally, to some far reach of space.

Underpinning all of this is a distrust in the government and their motivations. A distrust for authority who claims they only want best for you.

Which is why Fei returns to living a quaint life. It's why Shion and Kos-Mos return to their normal. It's why Shulk refuses to become a god. It's why Rex and Pneuma live simple lives. And it's why Noah throws away the Sword of the End.

Each has the chance to become an ultimate authority, to have complete dominion over the lives of countless others, and they all give that up to just be...human. This franchise is truly something special. I cannot wait to see what comes next.

Please, Takahashi. Let us go back to Mira now.

Thank you, truly, @andawarmgeek, for sending me a download code out of the blue for Future Redeemed. This was an experience that I won't soon forget.

[techgirltourney]

Welcome to the Tech Girl Tourney!

With a whopping 64 gals who are cyborgs, robots, programs, and more this is shaping up to be a fierce and fun competition!

Here are some rules and such before I give you a written list of contenders and their schedules.

RULES.

Play nice with each other. No harassment or bullying of any kind will be tolerated. It’s a silly little competition! Stay silly! Stay kind!

Think to yourself: "is what I'm about to type about my opponent something I'd like to hear about my favorite blorbo or fandom?" If the answer is "no" don't type it. Hype up your blorbo rather than trash-talk the other gal.

Propaganda is welcome and encouraged (so long as you're following rules 1 & 2). If I miss your propaganda don't hesitate to hop in my inbox and point it out to me. I don't always get notifications on this tumblr account for some reason.

HERE BE SPOILERS (potentially). I don't know every fandom in this tournament but given the nature of these sort of characters, spoilers are highly likely for character reveals! By continuing to follow this blog and participate in this tournament you're consenting to seeing spoilers. I would tag them but I genuinely don't know which characters are spoilers and which aren't.

Play nice with me, your friendly neighborhood tournament runner. I am not a professional tournament runner. I am just another person on the internet with feelings. Don't come flying into my inbox to yell at me about things like seeding, or that your specific blorbo didn't get in, or that you think a certain character doesn't count. I will just delete and block messages that I feel are too hostile toward me. I've seen the kinda stuff other poll runners have had to put up with and I don't want to deal with it here. I just want to have fun!

All polls will go up at 12 pm EST and be up for 1 day each except the final poll which will be up for a week.

With that out of the way! Onto the contenders and schedule!

Side A - Group 1 - Round 1 [May 25th]

Motherboard (Cyberchase) vs Synergy (Jem and the Holograms)

Robot Candace (Phineas and Ferb) vs Tima (Metropolis)

Uran (Astro Boy) vs Ohno (Mighty Orbots)

Roll (MegaMan) vs Penny Polendina (RWBY)

Viv Vision (Marvel) vs Jenny Wakeman (MLAATR)

Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid) vs Orianna (League of Legends)

Teto Kasane (SynthV) vs Arcee (Transformers)

Robot Girl (Robot Boy) vs Bee (Bee and Puppycat)

Side A - Group 2 - Round 1 [May 27th]

Small Foot (Challenge of the GoBots) vs R. Dorothy Waynewright (The Big O)

Miri (Jetter Mars) vs Accord (Drakengard 3)

Ruru Amour (Hugtto Precure) vs Aigis (Persona 3)

Pixal (Ninjago) vs Ritsu (Assassination Classroom)

Lain Iwakura (Serial Experiments Lain) vs Sage (Sonic the Hedgehog)

Motoko Kusanagi (Ghost in the Shell) vs Falulu (Pripara)

Cutie Honey (Cutie Honey) vs Renais Shishioh (The King of Braves GaoGaiGar)

Jinmay (SRMTHFG) vs Mimi (Super Paper Mario)

Side B - Group 1 - Round 1 [May 29th]

SHODAN (System Shock) vs Drossel von Flugel (Fireball)

GLaDOS (Portal) vs Aradiabot (Homestuck)

Karen Plankton (Spongebob Squarepants) vs Tex (RvB)

Striker (Suisei no Gargantia) vs Miss Monochrome (Miss Monochrome the Animation)

Naomi Armitage (Arimitage the Third) vs Chiaki Nanami (Danganronpa)

Toa Nokama (Bionicle) vs Poppy Pipopapo (Kamen Rider Ex Aid)

Raptor 283 (Uchuu Sentai Kyuranger) vs Cindi Mayweather (Janelle Monae's Metropolis)

Alpha Hatsuseno (Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou) vs Magine (Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger)

Side B - Group 2 - Round 1 [May 31st]

Lal (Star Trek TNG) vs .GIFfany (Gravity Falls)

Megagirl (Starship) vs Hera (Wolf 359)

Monika (DDLC) vs Aelita (Code Lyoko)

Arale Norimaki (Dr. Slump) vs Piper (Robots)

Robecca Steam (Monster High) vs Sari Sumdac (Transformers Animated)

Aya (GLTAS) vs Fey (Welcome to Night Vale)

Orisa (Overwatch) vs Rebecca (Cyberpunk Edgerunners)

Chii (Chobits) vs KOS-MOS (Xenosaga)

Side A - Group 1 - Round 2 [June 2nd]

Motherboard (Cyberchase) vs Robot Candace (Phineas and Ferb)

Uran (Astro Boy) vs Roll (MegaMan)

Jenny Wakeman (MLAATR) vs Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid)

Arcee (Transformers) vs Bee (Bee and Puppycat)

Side A - Group 2 - Round 2 [June 4th]

R. Dorothy Waynewright (The Big O) vs Accord (Drakengard 3)

Aigis (Persona 3) vs Ritsu (Assassination Classroom)

Lain Iwakura (Serial Experiments Lain) vs Motoko Kusanagi (Ghost in the Shell)

Cutie Honey (Cutie Honey) vs Jinmay (SRMTHFG)

Side B - Group 1 - Round 2 [June 6th]

SHODAN (System Shock) vs GLaDOS (Portal)

Tex (RvB) vs Striker (Suisei no Gargantia)

Chiaki Nanami (Danganronpa) vs Toa Nokama (Bionicle)

Raptor 283 (Uchuu Sentai Kyuranger) vs Magine (Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger)

Side B - Group 2 - Round 2 [June 8th]

.GIFfany (Gravity Falls) vs Hera (Wolf 359)

Aelita (Code Lyoko) vs Piper (Robots)

Robecca Steam (Monster High) vs Fey (Welcome to Night Vale)

Orisa (Overwatch) vs Chii (Chobits)

Side A - Group 1 - Round 3 [June 10th]

Motherboard (Cyberchase) vs Uran (Astro Boy)

Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid) vs Bee (Bee and Puppycat)

Side A - Group 2 - Round 3 [June 12th]

R. Dorothy Waynewright (The Big O) vs Aigis (Persona 3)

Lain Iwakura (Serial Experiments Lain) vs Cutie Honey (Cutie Honey) Side B - Group 1 - Round 3 [June 14th]

GLaDOS (Portal) vs Tex (RvB)

Toa Nokama (Bionicle) vs Magine (Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger)

Side B - Group 2 - Round 3 [June 16th]

.GIFfany (Gravity Falls) vs Aelita (Code Lyoko)

Robecca Steam (Monster High) vs Orisa (Overwatch)

Side A - Group 1 - Quarterfinals [June 18th]

Motherboard (Cyberchase) vs Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid)

Side A - Group 2 - Quarterfinals [June 20th]

Aigis (Persona 3) vs Lain Iwakura (Serial Experiments Lain)

Side B - Group 1 - Quarterfinals [June 22nd]

GLaDOS (Portal) vs Toa Nokama (Bionicle)

Side B - Group 2 - Quarterfinals [June 24th]

.GIFfany (Gravity Falls) vs Robecca Steam (Monster High)

Side A - Semifinals [June 26th]

Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid) vs Lain Iwakura (Serial Experiments Lain)

Side B - Semifinals [June 28th]

GLaDOS (Portal) vs .GIFfany (Gravity Falls) Finals [June 30th]

Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid) vs GLaDOS (Portal)

WINNER

GLaDOS (Portal)

[tsunael]

10 characters/10 fandoms/10 tags

Tagged by : @icehearts & @aethergazing Tagging : Girl you think I know 10 people??

1. Bayonetta <- Bayonetta

I just love her, okay. She's gorgeous, she's confident, she's a witch that fights with her hair and can run 80 mph in 5in pumps. Jokes aside, I just love that her sexuality is a thing that she owns and has fun with-- and it's never used against her maliciously. (I also love her parallels to Dante my other fave). I could go on more but basically... she's truly one of a kind.

2. Akihiko Sanada <- Persona 3

My long-time beau. I RP'd him for about 8 years and met a lot of good people through that blog so I'm a little biased in how sentimental I am over him and Mitsuru. I'd add her too but I'm doing my best to be diverse here. Anyway, I just love him-- he fits all of my standards. He represents the Emperor arcana: the 'father' type. He's a control freak, he drags his guilt around by the ankle, is fiercely protective, has a little jealous streak, and is a hot-headed idiot (who is actually very smart)... And DON'T say it's because he has white hair.

3. Garnet <- Final Fantasy IX

The older I get, the more IX means to me. She has been my favorite since I was little. Not to get personal but I find her relatable: she grew up sheltered but was expected to do great things, and I am sympathetic that her mother (once kind and loving, even though we don't see it) was turned against her by forces she couldn't control. She deals with her grief more realistically than most FF heroines-- she gives into depression and self doubt but she never becomes bitter and that's something I want for myself.

4. Yuna <- Final Fantasy X

My grandma and I played all the FFs together, but the one that really made an impression was X. Yuna is my love: thematically, symbolically, and aesthetically. My sacrificial lamb who would burn herself to keep others warm. She takes her notoriety and her father's burden with grace and never shies from it even when she loses her faith in the system designed to throw her to the wolves. Also every line she has has such gravitas behind it... beautiful writing, beautiful voice acting. My forever girl.

5. Nier <- NieR

My doomed boy. I don't want to go into spoilers because Nier is more of a niche game, but I love him so much (and dadnier, too.) The moral quandary this game has... the morally grey protagonists... I love a character who loves with all his heart and would give anything for the people he loves. The side-story where it's implied he even ***** ******* for some coin was... man.

6. Kim <- Xenogears

Trying not to spoil here either it's just vague. IYKYK.

I thought about putting Elhaym here but I feel like the Zeboim era has more characterization than the main lol. Anyway. I love how he has become so cynical about the world around him, yet he is still willing to save and create life, only to find he suffers from the same affliction. As a scientist, he embodies the question: 'What makes a God?' and 'What is does it mean to be human?'. I love his story and I wish there was more.

7. Rubedo Yuriev <- Xenosaga

He's an idiot, he's a tragic figure, he's learned, he's traumatized, and his relationship with MOMO is uhhhhhh complicated. Honestly maybe I should have put Yuriev here because he's such an interesting villain. The URTVs are all squashed together for me like one big delicious smoothie anyway so.

Anyway Rubedo, your dad stared into The Abyss and it stared back and now he's insane and his fear of God and his own mortality was so strong he would use his own flesh and blood to run (and it was honestly really sexy of him) but what he never seems to grasp is that you can't run from what you can't see and sooner or later it will catch up.

8. Misato Katsuragi <- Neon Genesis Evangelion

Hi I love women with daddy issues.

I love her with Kaji. She looks for her father in him, while he's searching for his mother, but Misato, try as she may, she will never be a mother to anyone--not to Kaji, and certainly not to Shinji. There's a ton you can read into nge characters but there's something to be said about the trauma our parents force us (willing or unwillingly) to inherit, and how we hurt others as a result of that.

9. Dante <- Devil May Cry

He's so fucking stupid (affectionate). Dante Alighieri is rolling in his grave.

He's not only a boyloser but a boyfailure. He gets bullied by women and children and could probably suplex the earth. He loves his mom!!!

Anyway I love that he exudes a type of masculinity and machismo at first glance only to play the game and see he's a little fruity. I'm also a sucker for characters with duality themes that, when asked 'what makes us different?', the answer is because they chose to love-- which is not something you'd expect from a hack n slash game, inspired by resident evil in which you find new and exciting ways to kill things... yanno?

10. Kenzo Tenma <- Naoki Urasawa's Monster

I was running out of characters and was about to put Thancred or Squall but that's too many FFs so I tried to think of some anime that made an impression on me and Tenma came to me. We needed another Liam O'Brien rep here, clearly.

Anyway read/watch Monster if you haven't, it's an amazing mature series that barely feels like an anime.

Again, the themes of duality here-- who embraced life and who would rather take it? If Johan represents the inherent evil in the world, and man's propensity for it, then Tenma represents all that is good. He's just so tragic. The moment he finally stands up for himself he's punished for it, then when pushed to his limit, saves the life of a little boy only to be cursed for it. Even through everything he never gives up on people, and every life he touches is changed for the better. And that ending... oh man.

He's babygirl x100.

[gaast]

Since October 2022, I've been playing only one game at a time. That might not sound like much but for something that struggles to keep its number of concurrent games even at two, it's a pretty big deal. I did it because I wanted to commit to games, and to commit to finishing them. And for the most part, I've been successful.

As part of this, I've been tracking the games I've played and want to play, and I've been marking down the days I started something (usually) and the days I've finished them.

Now that this much time has passed, I've got a year's worth of games down, and I wanna do little write-ups for everything I played in 2023.

That means that anything I played in late 2022 (Silent Hill 2, Xenosaga Episode 1, Observation, and Red Dead Redemption, among others) can only get mentioned honorably here. But I'm gonna go through everything I started in 2023, beginning with:

Outer Wilds, January 1-January 7

What a way to start the year. Outer Wilds is unique and charming. It's really fun to fly through space in the awfulest space ship ever with the worst autopilot (have fun in the sun!) and check destroyed, abandoned planets, read ancient peoples' logs of their attempts to save the universe, and to be there at the end of everything.

Unfortunately: the fucking angler fish. I hate those fucks so bad that I actually didn't finish the game. I never brought X to Y (no spoilers) because I hate dealing with those guys. So I can't class this a perfect game. Those dudes need some changes.

Still, highly recommended.

The Sims 4, January 6-the ride never ends

I'm not gonna lie. This is just a sex thing for me.

Even still, I don't quite get why people hate it so much. I played the third game, too. This one's fine. This franchise isn't amazing. It's weird and held together by Scotch tape. I like that about it.

What a weird world.

Anyway, this must be around the time my ISP sent me emails telling me to stop pirating shit or they'd kick me off their plan, which would be bad because that ISP is the only one we can get in our building! Imagine being unable to work because you wanted TS4 DLC.

Bioshock, January 14-January 28, canceled

I couldn't do it.

This was my second attempt at getting through this game and I had to just admit that it's not for me. I didn't enjoy it. It was a chore. I decided to just set it aside.

Wish I hadn't paid for a PS4 copy when I already had a Steam copy. Ah well.

The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince, January 31-February 2

A very aesthetically-pleasing puzzleish platformer with a cute story and good music. I enjoyed my time with this simple little game.

Half-Life, February 3-February 5

You starting to see a pattern where I only manage to finish games, like, late at night, so I can't start a new one until later? Anyway.

This was my second attempt to get through this game. I did it this time, and I regret it. I didn't have fun.

I don't really know why I didn't have fun, I just didn't. Maybe the combat was too tedious. Maybe the jumping was too iffy. Maybe it just went on for too long. Maybe it's a case of "Seinfeld Is Unfunny." I don't know. I just know I don't like Half-Life.

So maybe I don't like the game, but I love the Headcrab Fucker 9000.

Poison Control, February 8-February 11

Sometimes you just wanna play a mid game.

Look, I like poison. I love pink. I love androgynous characters in suits. I like NIS. This game had it all. And it was perfectly. It made me want to stop playing a little while before it was over. It had a really good OST. I got the platinum trophy and I didn't feel satisfied.

I liked it. And sometimes that's enough.

This is the first on a small series of mid NIS-related games. I'll have more to say when I hit the other.

Grasping, February 15

Obviously I couldn't play this as intended, but it's not hard to imagine having shoved your hand into an awful box.

Anyway, this was good, I think. I don't really remember it.

The House in the Woods, February 15

Another horror game I absolutely do not recall playing.

Apocryphauna, February 15

I remember this one! It's good! I liked it! I wish there were more to it--like, a lot more. A lot lot more.

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, February 25-March 21

I held off on playing this for a long time because I had always heard it was "made by the B team" and "not as good as the other games." But I decided to play it. It was the gaping hole in my From résumé.

It's not as good. It has a ton of bosses and none of them are memorable except for a select few DLC bosses (Fume Knight, Sir Alonne, Sinh). It makes a lot of weird gameplay choices. It takes way too long for Estus sippies to heal you--like, in terms of the health bar going up. The Iron Keep is infuriating. So many of the runups are abominable. It runs with the clunkiness of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls despite having the svelte ambitions of Bloodborne and Dark Souls III. It has way too many sections where it just says, "okay, deal with a ton of enemies now."

And I loved it.

Honestly, this is probably my favorite of the three Dark Souls games. I think it is by far the most aesthetically complete game of the trilogy. It fulfills its own promise, you know? And I disagree with the people who call it bleak. I think it's the only game of the trilogy that actually offers hope. A real hope, too. One that says that, just because our struggle may not take us anywhere, at least our struggle itself is beautiful.

In a strange way, I think that Dark Souls II is the only Souls game that actually understands the Souls series.

"A lie will remain a lie."

Pokémon Violet, March 21-March 25

I didn't want to play this game. I didn't want to like it. I just wanted to play it. I love Pokémon. Sure, this wasn't a Pokémon game (according to me), but I wanted to play it anyway. The morning I finally decided to go for it, I had read that the professors were antagonists all along. How stupid!

And the reaction. Oh boy. All the glitches. All the performance issues. All the memes. What trash, right? Right?

I fell in love. I didn't think anything could unseat Gen 7 in terms of my love for a Pokémon generation, but honestly, this game might do it.

Did it need more time to cook? Absolutely. I'm not gonna sit here and say it should have been released as it was. No; it is in many ways a disaster, and it is certainly unacceptable.

But every inch of it oozes with love.

This game wasn't just shit out to make a buck. It feels that way at first, but no, everyone who had a hand in making the Gen 9 games absolutely loved what they were doing. You can feel it--from the sound design to the music to the character design to, fuck, everything. They did the best they could with what they had and they made one of the most charming, wonderful games I've had the pleasure of playing in far too long.

There is so much heart here. It convinced me that the future of Pokémon is still bright. Very much so.

Just... let's take a couple extra years to make the next one, all right?

Heroine Conquest, sometime in April

Look. It's actually pretty good.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, March 31-April 18

I'll get this out of the way: I didn't really have fun.

The game has aged surprisingly well. Or Skyrim is just a truly unmotivated sequel. Either way, it holds up.

The problem is that I just don't think that TES games are for me. They're just so fucking boring. And I never end up liking literally any character in them.

I have fun actually playing for a while, but the general guideline with Oblivion is "don't level up." Fun! Either way, it's just rote after a while. Nothing really feels satisfying, and you're always worried something is going to break.

Frankly, the main story quest isn't compelling, either. With hindsight, knowing it'll lead to the rise of the Dominion again, it's like, well, shit.

Anyway, I played it. And it's certainly a game that you can play. If you wanna.

FEWAR-DVD, April 23

I called it "an arcade game" in my notes and that's basically what it is. Doesn't mean it isn't fun.

(Have you noticed I'm not reviewing games yet? It's write-ups; I'm giving my thoughts and impressions. Also, it's been a while, so I don't super remember a bunch of these. Oh well!)

Bleak Sword DX (Demo), April 23

I think I liked this? Apparently it's out. I should review it and see if I wanna get it at some point.

It looks pretty cool.

The Signal State (Demo), April 23

I liked this a lot because it's so unique and it taps into a specific type of autistic urge for me but god is its price tag just too high for what I suspect that it is.

Deltarune (Chapters 1 and 2), April 22-April 23

This was a replay of Chapter 1 and a first play of Chapter 2.

I think when I first played Chapter 1 I felt... you know, I didn't want Undertale, or a sequel to Undertale, but a secret third thing. And when I first played it in... late 2019? It wasn't whatever that secret third thing was. I liked it, don't get me wrong. But I think I didn't... get it?

Not to say I wasn't excited for me. It just took me a while to convince myself to finally get to Chapter 2 and to meet the funny spambot man.

Anyway, I won't bother spending too much time on Deltarune. I'll just say that in this play, I realized that Deltarune is that secret third thing, and that I think it's better than Undertale.

I'm scared.

Pizza Tower, April 14-April 23

I think I'm guilty of wanting this game to be something it isn't.

I wanted WarioLand, and it's like that, but it isn't precisely that. It isn't trying to be precisely that. It's trying to be Pizza Tower.

I like the game, but not as much as I thought I would. Not as much as I think I should.

I'll probably reply this game in a year or two and it'll click and I'll love it the way I was always meant to love it. But for now, I'll just let the "Tombstone Arizona" guitar impregnate me.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, April 19-May 27

...It took me that long? Really? Huh.

Anyway, I love this game. I love love love it. I love the characters and the art style and the way they tell the story and the story itself and the gameplay (holy shit the gameplay!) and just. Man. I wish more games were just like this. Weird, experimental, talky, confident, cool, and unique.

This is the type of game that inspires you to write your own sci-fi. Or to write about its world. To think and to imagine.

And that's the best type of game.

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, May 28-June 6

Come to think of it, how can a sky be unknown. There's just the one.

As mentioned above, I played this after Ace Combat 2. With both of those under my belt, I now know: the way I want to play these games is not the way I'm supposed to play these games.

And that's fine. I feel like "gamers" nowadays are so fixated on the idea that games should let you play them however you wanna play them, and that if they can't accommodate that then they're somehow inherently flawed. It's like everything needs the mutability of Minecraft, the problem-solving freedom of Scribblenauts, and the role-playing depth of Dungeons & Dragons. If it doesn't score highly on all those axes, it's got problems.

Obviously, I disagree. Games can and should have "supposed tos." You should be expected to play a specific diegetic role. You should be limited (and by the way, you're always limited, so don't act like you aren't).

If I ever play another Ace Combat game (and I wanna play Electrosphere), I might do it on easy. I like these games but man do I not know how they want me to engage with them.

no-one has to die, June 4

I had to replay this Flash game that I had originally played once when I was probably 14.

I'm glad I did.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, sometime in 2022-sometime in mid-2023

The strange thing about the Danganronpa games is that they're actually really good.

They shouldn't be. They shouldn't work. But they do.

This was kind of a replay. I had read most of the original orenronen LP back in... 2012, 2013? I only now have actually played it. And it's good. It's really good. I'm glad I went through it, and I'm glad I went through it with my fiancé, and I'm glad he knew nothing of any of the twists, and I'm glad I got to experience someone experiencing those twists for the first time.

SCARLET NEXUS, June 4-June 6, canceled

This was a second attempt after a first attempt in 2022 got deep into Yuito's story before I aborted it.

It's not for me. Not to say I don't like it--I do. A lot. I wish I could play this game. But I demand such fucking perfection from myself when playing it that I get too caught up by how poorly I'm playing to enjoy myself and actually let myself proceed.

I had to stop because I just wasn't having fun. I'm sad about it.

Risky Sanctuary, June 10

This is one of those games that I hope the developer comes back to, not to spruce up but to make anew. Because it's a really fun concept that basically got held back by being made in a month for a jam.

It really shouldn't take that long to clean come off of a wall.

HYPNOSCREEN, June 10

I keep forgetting I gotta play this more.

Parasite Eve, June 9-June 15

I'm still not super sure how I feel about this one.

The plot is fun but it never becomes compelling. There's an obviously evil scientist and he does obviously evil things. Never a good sign.

The gameplay is fun but it never hits nearly the level of intricacy and care that a close relative, Vagrant Story, does.

The dungeons are well-designed, though, and even if the setting is New York, it feels... fresh? It feels like NYC is always a backdrop in games and its specifics aren't important to it (see: Prototype). Parasite Eve actually cares that it's in NYC and it goes to locations there. The game feels like the developers enjoyed making it.

Also the OST is awesome. And Daniel fucking jumping out of the helicopter, getting lit on fire, throwing the bullets to Aya, landing in the water, and surviving is by far the coolest shit I've ever seen in anything ever.

This feels like a game you have to play at least once. I don't know why it feels that way; it just does.

WASTE EATER, June 17

It asks for like 20 minutes of your time and makes you cry. It's awesome.

EXPERIMENT: GROCERIES, June 17

I was more bored than spooked. It was a good try and maybe someone else will find it more fun than I did.

I'm sure if I replayed it and turned a critical eye to it I could talk at length about it. But I just don't want to.

I feel like if you're going to make uncanny the grocery store, there's other ways to do it.

Final Fantasy X: HD, sometime in 2023-sometime in 2023

We're about to see schedule issues. You'll find out why later.

This was, obviously, a replay.

I swear, this game gets better every single time I play it. I don't know what it is. It's such a smart, insightful game, with lovingly crafted characters. I love the inexorable northward journey, the feeling like you're constantly outrunning something even if you know you're running straight into the very thing you're outrunning.

Maybe it's because once you're aware of the spiral, its pull becomes that much stronger. I swear, I cry more with each playthrough, maybe because it just becomes all the more apparent how hopeless the journey is, and how much strength it takes to hope regardless. Yuna and Tidus are fantastic.

The gameplay ages like a fine wine, too. I know, it's turn-based, so it's hard to get clunky, but the game knows how it's being lenient to you and it knows just how to turn it against you. It's a system you can get better at. It's a game that rewards you in proportion to the time you're willing to put into it.

I don't need to tell you that FFX is a masterpiece, I hope. But it's worth reminding ourselves that it is. Because I think it's willing to be vulnerable in a way that most games just aren't anymore. I think the only Final Fantasy game that I've played that is more vulnerable than X is XIII. I respect the hell out of that.

(Speaking of, another honorable mention from the end of 2022 is my replay of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy--and frankly, my love and appreciation for those games grew only deeper. They rule!)

You can talk about X forever. You can live in its world. It's fantastic, and it's always worth returning to.

Even if you have to make Yuna dance again, at least you know there'll be a time when she won't have to anymore.

Succubus Academia, September?-September 16

I tend to stay away from RPG Maker games, not for any valid reason but because creators, especially of eroge, tend not to really edit much. They end up looking fairly samey, with similar gameplay. Menus don't get edited, music is pretty bland, it's a fantasy setting... Exceptions exist, like Miwashiba's games ("that's a different engine!" yeah well they're still well-crafted despite being Made Like That) and, apparently Succubus Academia.

I won't tell you what tag I searched to find it on DLSite but anyway, I found it, I got it, I played it, and I loved it.

The map graphics are standard RPG Maker fare, sure, but the battles are totally custom and they're actually really fun. The music, though, the music fucking rules. I was there to bust a move, not bust a nut, I swear.

The concept is really fun too. "The only way to proceed is to literally get killed the right way. Sorry! But hey, at least you'll save the world. Snrk." Coupled with a battle system that actually has a really fun push-pull kind of resource management/health system, it just works. It helps that the battles all have Live 2D animation work going on, too.

Give this one a shot (no pun intended) if you like eroge. Seriously.

Dohna Dohna, sometime in September?-sometime in October

All right, look. It's not the best at anything. But it's pretty good at everything.

The character designs rule. The color palettes are awesome. The gameplay is fun. The OST is actually pretty outstanding. The combat is really fun. The mechanics are interesting. The writing has a lot of care put into it.

Alicesoft wanted to celebrate its anniversary and they were welcome to do it. I enjoyed celebrating with them.

Kirakira best girl. Even if Joker is truly best girl.

Baldur's Gate 3, sometime in October-November 14

One of the first sounds you hear in this game is a Wilhelm scream. This is a subtly masterful introduction to the game, as it signals to attentive players a lot about the artistic experience they're about to embark on: It will be more or less the same as everything else they've ever experienced, just remixed so it will hopefully be less noticeable.

And that's the thing. We've seen everything that BG3 does before, over and over, and we're so used to seeing all of these signs and tropes that it's actually become difficult to tell when they're being used poorly. BG3 throws so much of the same old shit at the wall and it can only stick because the shit that's there from last time still hasn't dried.

But here's the thing: I don't even know if any of its shit sticks. It's all so bad.

For instance, the party. Each individual party member is a collection of about 3 traits, plus their own unique brand of "horny for you." They're about as complex as late-stage Tales characters, but they have way less charm because they don't have anything like skits to round them out. In fact, because there's no guarantee that you'll have X or Y party member, or that they'll be present for conversation A, your party doesn't really have conversations together so much as they just talk through you like you're a telephone. You don't really have a party. You are a guy who has friends.

So you drag along this uninteresting, blandly-designed crew of the same fucking shit you've seen a billion times (literally one dude's whole thing is "I'm a vampire and I have vampire problems") who never really engage with each other (they'll maybe trade quips here and there, and they've got some dialogue they'll run through ambiently when specific ones are in the party together, but it's clear that This Does Not Matter) through a pretty standard fantasy world that by its own popularity offers little novelty. As you do so you meet asshole upon asshole who has a quick trait or two and says things in a European accent and maybe you'll get the scummiest Narrator I've ever heard say something smarmy based on a passive roll you'll probably fail mid-conversation. Go kill some shit and come back and maybe I'll try to help you not die. Idiot.

But you can't not die. You need to keep dying, and people need to keep failing to help you not die, or people need to keep trying to kill you because you're dying the wrong way for them, or else there'd be no reason to have the game. Honestly, if you lost the tadpoles before you killed the final boss, like, two party members would probably just outright try to kill each other, and everyone else would fuck off back to their shitty little lives, except for the ones who managed to escape their shitty little lives, in which case I guess the adventure continues! I don't feel like any of these people, with maybe three exceptions, would actually keep litigating the campaign if their lives weren't on the line.

But hey, even if almost every time someone speaks it's just to either whine about how hard they have it or to criticize you for a choice you made or to give you a quest because everything in Faerûn is your fucking problem, at least you get to have the gameplay! At least you get to slog through some of the most bullshit combat encounters they can throw at you with their barely-working mess of a battle system! With the most boring bosses imaginable save one! (Why is Gortash the only fun boss? Why does he get to have those explosives systems that aren't anywhere else?)

But oh, you get to make so many choices! You can be whoever you want, so long as they're someone who'll make any of these specific choices. Fuck off.

Meanwhile the music makes you want to fucking tear your hair out because I swear to god every single track uses the exact same leitmotif and it is so boring. Oh my god this game takes absolutely no fucking risks with anything. There's no fucking reason to play this thing. It's miserable. It's miserable, it'll make you save scum, its loading times (to load saves; loading areas is quick as can be!) are atrocious, and every time you have an option to pick something cool, you get fucking despised for it. You can become a fucking mind flayer and the game makes sure to tell you you're a complete fucking scumbag for doing it.

I hate this game. I hate it so fucking much. It is so bad and it has nothing redeemable in it and it has nothing noteworthy in it and worst of all it is just not at all fun. It's awful.

Game of the Year. Play it.

Monark, November 25-December 3

Time to fulfill the promise I made back with Poison Control.

This game is good. It's not great. Maybe it's pretty good. I liked it a lot. I enjoyed playing it.

Does it have problems? Sure. Could they be easily corrected? Yep. Does that hamper my perception of it? Of course.

As I said, sometimes you just wanna play a mid game.

After I finished Monark, I checked out its TV Tropes page, and I of course linked to "So Okay, It's Average." The Quotes page on that trope all seem to imply that just being all right is somehow worse than being bad.

I can't agree with that.

First of all, I think the binary of "good" and "bad" art is a false one. There's value in literally all art. There's something to mine, to find, to take home, to use, to learn--to whatever--in everything. Meaning and worth aren't exclusive to the good.

Maybe something isn't as good as it could be, but it's certainly what it is, and nothing else is as good at being it. Monark maybe isn't a great game but it's awesome at being Monark. I doubt any other game could compare.

So many articles from game writers and journalists lament the concept that "there's so many great games out there that it's just impossible to want to make time for anything that isn't great." That's... such a sad state, to me. Imagine playing a game only because it is considered "great." Imagine needing everything you play to have an award or a green Metacritic score just so you'll make time for it.

I don't think these writers mean to do this when they say it, but they're really benefiting a capitalist mindset. Companies have to do everything they can to get your attention. They have to make "great" games, or you won't play them. They need hype machines. They need stellar reviews. They need people talking. They need public reception to manufacture their game's own greatness, so that it will be great and then be played and then make money. If the incentive to get good reviews is to make money then the game is just a product and it wasn't made to be art.

I don't think people purposely set out to make shitty games or average games. I just think they set out to make the game they make, and the question is how well they achieve that goal. And that's entirely personal. It's something that only the creators can decide.

But in the end, some of the creators are producers and directors and executives at publishing companies who look at games in terms overhead, costs, projected income, earnings statements, financial reports.

But these are the people who make great games. Because they have to money to spend to make them great, the clout they need to keep exploiting their specific workers, and the agents necessary to make sure that reviewing publications will be predisposed to helping make their game great (you know, like what Nintendo relies on pretty much exclusively). The game doesn't have to be good. People just have to be told that it is, and then when enough people believe, they'll police the narrative so much that others will be scared to voice their opinion without getting a ton of clown emojis in their inboxes.

I'm not saying that's every "great" game. I'm willing to argue it's probably most Games of the Year as determined by Big Industry Figure Geoff Keighley, though (borne out for sure with 2022's winner; Elden Ring is so mediocre, dude).

Anyway, there's no need to play all the "great" games that are out. You know what you can play instead? The games you want to play.

You don't have to agree with me that sometimes you just wanna play a mid game. But you'll probably agree that sometimes you just wanna play a specific game. Good, bad, or mid, it's what you want to play because it, in some way, speaks to you.

That's all you need.

Mediterranea Inferno, December 4-December 6

Until now, I was cautious about pandemic stories.

The problem has always been that, sure, the lockdown happened for a year (in the US, at least), but it was only a year. It was major, to be sure, and I'm not downplaying that, but in the grand scheme of human history, it was a year. There's no guarantee (or even, necessarily, reason to believe) anything like it will happen again for a long time. So, I thought, how applicable could stories that come from it be to the future?

Don't get me wrong, I always recognized that in the lockdown was stories about isolation, grief, illness, fear, loss. But those are all distinctly human things we've been writing about since we could write. They weren't unique to the pandemic. Why use the very specific imagery of the lockdown to tell a story about those things when there's definitely more universal things to use?

I'm, as always, an idiot.

Beyond just the fact that it was an event and we'll never stop needing to take stock of it, to examine it, to see who we were and became through it, the pandemic was a world-ending phenomenon, a sea change, a new way of understanding ourselves, or misunderstanding ourselves, or misunderstanding others.

Mediterranea Inferno is about having lost yourself. The lockdowns made three young Italian men lose themselves, and when they came back together in 2022 they found that they had lost each other, too. It presents continuity with their histories: their self-destruction wasn't inevitable, but the pandemic forcing them to grapple with their places in life created living nightmares of isolation, grief, powerlessness, loss of identity, and loneliness.

When you start a new game, a card informs you that the creator made it "about his generation." He seems to think that we're lost, not in the way that the Lost Generation was, but in a different way. Whereas in the 1920s we lost faith in symbols, institutions, and humanity, in the 2020s we lost faith in ourselves and each other.

It's terrifying to admit that we can't do this alone, and that the crutches we always used to get through each day were other people. Claudio relied on his family name; it lost all meaning when his father blew his inherited fortune, revealing that there isn't necessarily a continuity between past success (Nino) and the present. Mida relied on the ways he could keep people at arm's length and when he couldn't get closer to the only person he wanted to grow closer to, he decided that others were there for him to take. And Andrea was never able to identify precisely what he needed from other people to keep him going, mistaking sex and skin-deep pleasure for the validation he so desperately craved.

Of course, if one of them gets accepted to Heaven during the Assumption, one of the others kills their friends and, in one case, accidentally himself. And if none of them make it--or if all of them do--they tell themselves that they're no longer friends. They walk away. They fall to the ground. They feel, sharply, the absence. They try to feel it in the crutches they replaced each other with (the past, the prestige, the plenty). But it isn't there.

Alternatively, if they suffer enough, they can give their spiritual guide through their pain an opportunity as well, and through him learn that they went through all of it to encourage them to revolt against their fathers, against the endless history that suffuses every rock in Italy. Paraphrasing: "There's never been an Italian Revolution. We've always been satisfied with what our fathers gave us, so long as we had permission to kill our brothers." He, like so many, wanted the pandemic to become a watershed moment, one that spurred on change, made the world a better place.

And the Sun Guys reject it. Their revolt is to refuse to be told what to do.

Just give them time to figure out what to do next.

I don't think you can tell this story without the pandemic.

This game is bleak. It's harsh. The style is immaculate. The soundtrack rules. Play it.

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, June 16-ongoing

Here is why the schedule slipped.

I like this game a lot. I burned myself out on it. Over the course of months.

I'm still not done. I'm not letting myself uninstall it until I'm done.

Jesus fucking Christ.

Pokémon Fool's Gold, unknown

The new music was great and the sprites were awesome and I love Eris. But to me this was mostly a fun new way to experience Gen 2. That's not a bad thing, really. Gen 2 isn't great, but there's a lot about it to love.

Pokémon Unbound, unknown

This and the previous entry are the only two Pokémon mods or fangames or whatever that I've ever played. I'm glad I started here!

If you're into playing fangames or whatever you know about this one and you know it rules. I'm not gonna bother praising it directly, though I'll say it earns all the good things said about it.

For me, projects like these really remind me of why we're still drawn to the Pokémon series even when the people in charge of it keep making pretty drastic decisions. I've said for years that the series is for kids and that it's not only fine but right to keep its focus firmly on kids, but Black and White proved that we can actually have our cake and eat it, too. We can have a game for kids that is also just flat-out a good game.

But for some reason, even if I ended up loving Gen 7 more than I did Gen 5, I feel like it's harder to call Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon good games? It's more like I can call them good Pokémon games. But are they good games?

I want them to be.

But what I want Pokémon games to be is totally different from what anyone else wants Pokémon games to be. Fool's Gold and Unbound confirmed that to me. I mean, I always knew it was true, but they confirmed it. What surprised me about them was that they were also good. That even if they weren't my vision, I still enjoyed them as a vision for Pokémon.

But to return to what I said a few paragraphs ago: We're still drawn to Pokémon because in each new entry we find more promises. We find new things to enjoy, to marvel at, to wonder about, to fill in. Every new mainline entry, especially since Black and White, feels like a new reinterpretation of what Pokémon is and can be, and even if we as fans don't always agree, we still have the conversation and we're still often compelled enough by something in the new interpretation that we hang onto it and let it be a part of what Pokémon is to us.

For as much as it stays the same, Pokémon is very much a living franchise, one that changes and, no pun intended, evolves. Maybe it does so in different ways than we might want, but there's nothing stopping us from knowing better. Well, nothing except Nintendo, a company that is more than welcome to fucking die immediately.

Pokémon, both the franchise and its fan works, is constantly grasping toward perfection. But we all know that perfection doesn't exist. We head towards and we know that we'll fail and we also know that even if we were to attain perfection, we'd reject it. Perfection is an illusion, a cruel one; even were it not, it would still be cruel, a poison pill. Real beauty isn't in perfection, it's in striving for it knowing you'll fail. It's about being weak, bad even, useless even, and still being loved. It's about trying, hard, getting nowhere close, and smiling afterward. It's about working together to make something new, something that loves, something that brings us all together to love even harder. It's about the struggle; it's about the effort; it's about the handshake after the battle.

Wherever Pokémon goes, no matter who's propelling it along, it'll be Pokémon. And that's what I want.

[goro-pancake-akechi]

Sorry for the long delay. Here are the results for round 1 of the Xeno Sexyman Poll!

The image is a bit small, so you may need to zoom in or download it. I will be continuously updating this as the poll continues through each round.

We have the first awards as well!

Most contested goes to Riki and Addam, who stayed at or around 50/50 for almost the entire 3 days.

Closest vote goes to Blade 2 Vandham and D, with 50.9%/49.1% as the final voting spread.

Biggest sweep goes to Zeke, who won with 94.5% of votes.

Biggest upset goes to Kallian, who won with exactly 80% of votes, opposing my prediction that Cammuravi would win that round.

Best prediction goes to Zeke, as an unbiased audience voted entirely in favor of him, and his voting spread was the highest.

And finally, funniest number goes to Zanza, who had 69.1% of votes.

Anyways, round 2 of voting begins now, 1:00 PM ET on Oct. 31st, and ends in three days, on Nov. 3rd at 6:00 PM ET.

And remember to share this wherever you can within the Xeno community!

Enjoy!

https://forms.gle/M5FJqcn32mo7dmUj9

[dollsonmain]

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 spoiler

So the kids go up to the queen of one of the factions and her name is revealed and my heart DROPPED.

Melia Antiqua.

If you played the first one, that's a familiar name. She was one of the main characters.

That Guy didn't remember. At all.

I went MELIA?! ANTIQUA!?!?!? and he goes "what she's old"

And I was liKE !!!!!!!! because Melia was a key component of the story, reluctant to take over for her dying father as the ruler of the region. That was a major plot point.

And then to come HERE, when the Xenoblade Chronicles games so far didn't seem to have much in common other than Nopons, and SHE'S A REPEAT CHARACTER.....

I about cried because she was evil (but she wasn't, it's ok) and like.....

How did he forget???

Turns out she's also a secret playable character after some conditions are met, and so is Nia from Chronicles 2 which is extra wtf because 2 was completely different from 1, and 3 is more like 1.

The first Xenoblade game I experienced (meaning That Guy played it and I watched) was Chronicles X which seems to be COMPLETELY removed from the others, though it's really not. All of the games take place on giant titans that have long since died and are now landmasses.

What really gets me about the Xenoblade games, though, is that I had wondered if they were related to Xenosaga at all.

Guess what shows up in Chronicles X and Chronicles 2.

Zohar. A key element in the Xenosaga series.

I gotta say the Xenoverse would be a truly horrific one to live in .

[perfectlyinadequate]

I really need to hurry up and finish P3 (Im at the end of October doing a tartarus run according to this guide (Im using a guide because I want to experience the game and get 100% (which I might have messed up anyways) dont judge me)) so I can do the xenoblade 3 dlc since Im also on my xeno brain rot, going through watching a lot of xenosaga and xenogears stuff and I GUESS THE DLC HINTS AT SOMETHING WITH THINGS COMING BACK?! Ive avoided spoilers. AND THEN I have FF16 showing up in a few days. And at some point I need to play P4G. Doesnt that I enjoy jrpgs and turn based games that take like 80 hours to beat.