tuwasduwillst

[tuwasduwillst]

Can you not do post titles on mobile? Bizarre. Anyway, this is just more thoughts about Veilguard, now that some time has passed since my first playthrough.

After my first playthrough of Veilguard, I tried to go back and play again. Typically, the different choices and love interests (and world states) can wrangle at least a good four playthroughs out of me before I decide to move on to something else.

This time, I'm almost considering ending it at one.

What changes between Veilguard playthroughs? My world state is virtually the same no matter what I pick in the CC; for the factions, reactivity is minimal and only a select handful of factions even feel like they're worth playing as to see what changes. If you're an elf, you're some amalgamation of a Dalish/city/other elf and have no real clear way of even setting your background to begin with (which is a bit of a problem for every Rook, but it especially stands out for elf!Rook IMO).

And the romances... to say I'm disappointed with what I've seen and heard would be an understatement. I've seen so many people zealously praising and defending the way that Veilguard handles its romance and I can't even begin to fathom how or why, when you compare it to how it was handled in other Dragon Age games. Admittedly, my first romance was Lucanis and I've heard he's worst off, but comparing notes with friends has shown that even for the "best" romances, it just feels like things are missing. BioWare devs were boasting about this being their most romantic game yet; Lucanis in particular was described as a "bisexual disaster" (and I'll get into him more in a bit). But I saw no proof of either of these things in the game.

Every major issue or faction in Veilguard was entirely defanged. The Crows are your friendly neighborhood watchdogs; the Lords of Fortune are "good" pirates who would never ever steal anything culturally significant to anyone else (this is where I stare pointedly at their leader, Isabela. Can I buy that she's more careful after DA2? Maybe, since apparently they canonized her being BFFs with Hawke and returning despite them claiming they wouldn't invalidate world states*. Do I think she bothers checking everything she finds to make sure it's okay to take? Hell no).

They didn't even take full advantage of the hooks their characters naturally had in their backstories! Lucanis is, essentially, heir to the Crows (or at least one of their houses); he brings up his restrictive life once over coffee, and you get some stuff in the mind prison quest I guess, but outside of that he's more well-adjusted than literally any of the DA2 companions despite being possessed by a demon of Spite! Who was horribly underutilized, by the way; his main job seemed to be to sniff and growl at things like a tiny and ineffectual dog. I have no idea why any of the companions were worried about him being a problem in the slightest, because after making that nosebleed happen super early on, he did literally nothing! He didn't even kill Illario or cause any problems at all!

Honestly, I have so much to say and basically none of it is good. I liked how they handled Solas (and his reunion with Lavellan). I liked the Mourn Watch. It was a very pretty game and combat was fun. That's about it and every time I play more of the game it makes me like it less because I notice more things that just don't hold up.

I might talk about it more when I'm not on my phone, but I just wanted some of my thoughts here now. 😔

* this was a lie, by the way, since Harding brings up two Inquisition members that potentially weren't even recruited (and Solas brings up one of them as well potentially); Morrigan drinking from the Well of Sorrows seems to be a canon choice, and the thing with Isabela seems to have had a canon choice made as well because otherwise her line about "learning what family meant" or whatever makes no sense at all.

[tuwasduwillst]

I was trying really hard to finish the game before I had to go back to work! And I'm glad I did, because if I had to stop during the last part of the game I would've been really upset, haha.

I think everyone I've talked to thinks the beginning is rough, which is too bad! But I guess having the beginning be the weakest point might actually be a good thing in the end...? I think I'd rather have a game end strongly and start weakly than the other way around. :/a

I Finished Veilguard (No Spoilers Version)

I'm going to make two of these: One with spoilers, and one without! This is the former.

Sooo as of a few hours ago, I officially beat Veilguard!

It took me ~77 hours for my first playthrough, apparently. And overall I would say that I really enjoyed it!

It's been over nine years since the last Dragon Age game was made, and I honestly never thought I would ever see another one get finished. I had almost entirely given up hope; when Veilguard finally got announced and had a release date, I almost couldn't believe it. And I still almost can't believe that it actually came out and I finished it!

Here's a list of pros and cons:

+

Combat was fun, especially at higher levels

Despite my disappointment about the world state situation, I do think they did a fairly decent job of working around it

The entire ending section was incredible IMO

The game felt whole and complete at launch

The companions were fun and I enjoyed having them along

Speaking of companions (and combat), I loved the battle shouts

As a Mourn Watch elf Rook, I felt like there were plenty of times where lineage/faction were recognized and that there was lots of unique dialogue based on it!

All sidequests felt relevant, important, and worth doing (which may make replays a little tedious, but oh well. It made the first playthrough better.)

-

Early combat could be rough as a mage (and sometimes even later on), because enemies pretty much exclusively target Rook, which means you get knocked around a lot instead of being able to case spells/attack

The early game is a little rough and feels kind of disjointed (but it quickly gets better IMO)

I do still wish they would have included more world state stuff

The fashion is... well, maybe it'll work better for my other Rooks, but there was pretty much nothing I wanted my first Rook to wear (I ended up using the pre-order dragon mage outfit for the entire game & the default Mourn Watch casual wear for at the Lighthouse)

I love the Crows, but their portrayal in newer DA stuff does feel like a bit of a "Cullen situation"; I've heard that even as a Crow Rook you don't get to discuss things much about the darker aspects of being a Crow (besides, y'know, the assassinating). I will concede that this could be at least partially due to mostly interacting with Talons instead of common Crows

I loved Lucanis and his romance, but something about it felt... thin, maybe? Threadbare? I love a good slow burn, but I don't think there was enough space for a proper one. Even just one more conversation between "properly" getting together would've made things better IMO. (This is complicated by the fact that he apparently gets together with Neve if unromanced, and they apparently have a decent amount of content together...)

I'm not really sure what else to put in here that isn't a spoiler... hmm.

I apparently took ~1.2k screenshots, and it probably would've been more if the stupid "skip cutscene" button didn't show up during cutscenes u_u I might see if there's a way to turn that off, actually...

But that's for later! Now it's time for the spoiler-y post. :)

[tuwasduwillst]

I Finished Veilguard (Spoilers Version)

This is my spoilery Veilguard post! And also my screenshot dumping post, because I didn't want to have to worry about spoilers when I have an entire game worth of screenshots to share (I meant to make more posts while I was playing, but I wanted to finish before I had to go back to work, so I was on a time limit... and Firefox has been crashing my PC lately, so I had to keep it closed while I was playing u_u).

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

I have no idea where to even start.

Like I said in the other post, I really enjoyed the game. I've been waiting almost a decade for some of these plot threads to get resolved, or have literally anything done with them, and now it's over.

I played as a Mourn Watch elf, romancing Lucanis, with an Inquisitor that romanced Solas and vowed to save him.

And it was a great first playthrough! I loved my faction, I loved that I got to react to all of the elf stuff as an elf without any "What's Mythal?" moments*, and I absolutely loved what ended up happening with Solas and the Inquisitor in my playthrough. I expected nothing, maybe a throwaway line at most, but there was so much more than that.

(* speaking of this, it was funny to me how much elven Lavellan used while speaking to Solas. Making up for the past, I see. :P (Though she uses a fair amount in Trespasser as well, I suppose.))

The game was gorgeous, IMO, especially when it came to textures and lighting. I'm so glad a BioWare game finally has good hair, it's like a miracle.

I can't think of much I didn't enjoy, in the end, especially when thinking about the game as a whole. I do think it's too bad there's a forced sacrifice, I guess, but IMO that's necessary sometimes, unfortunately. I'm not sure how poorly everything could go because I got the "best" ending; I might experiment with it eventually, especially if it's needed for achievements.

I think the companion quests were pretty good, and I enjoyed the ones where you're just hanging out with a companion somewhere. Sometimes they got a little overwhelming? But that's probably because I was pushing myself to finish the game before I had to go back to work, at least partially.

Rook is a fun protagonist, IMO; a good balance between Hawke and the Inquisitor. I'm not sure how "same-y" Rooks will feel between playthroughs, but hopefully there's enough of a difference with tonal options that it doesn't feel like I'm playing the same character over and over again...?

My biggest criticism about Rook (and kind of the start of the game) is that I really wish they would have allowed players to play through The Incident that got them sent away from their factions for a while. It would've been a good intro to the factions and game mechanics, a good intro to Rook meeting Varric, and then you could've had a time skip to where the game starts now. It also would've provided the space for some of the roleplaying decisions you make in the meditation room in the Lighthouse, if they wanted.

That said! Rook grew on me very quickly, and I'm genuinely sad to leave them behind now. I would love at least one DLC or something, but I know that BioWare has said they've got everyone working on the next Mass Effect now... :( And I love Mass Effect, don't get me wrong! But I really love Dragon Age.

Like I said above, I don't know how poorly things can go in the ending, so maybe that complicates things too. The more variables you add, the more you have to account for when it comes to DLC, which means more time and money spent. The game coming out at all is a miracle, so hoping for more might just be greedy at this point. (Still going to hope, though...)

I read the comics and read through Tevinter Nights/the site's short stories, so I picked up on all of the cameo appearances. I think my favourites were Antoine and Evka (they made Antoine so cute), Teia, and Myrna, appearance-wise! I was happy to see Viago as well, but for some reason I imagined him being a little heavier?? So seeing him skinny was a bit of a shock to me haha.

I thought it was a bit weird sometimes to be making life decisions for the companions, but overall I was happy with my decisions. I was torn about the one for Emmrich, because my Rook could've gone either way... but eventually I went with the more emotional option rather than the straightforwardly intellectual one (my Rook is a compassionate, peppy, goth nerd (without the goth clothing options sob)).

I only felt bad about one decision I made... but I would have felt bad either way for that one, so... RIP me I guess. Well, actually, I felt bad about two decisions and both of them were ones I would've felt bad about either way haha (but one would've also locked me out of my Lucanis romance, which is obviously unacceptable).

The Lucanis romance was something that I loved, but definitely wished there was a little more to. Not enough to be upset about it, but... I feel like I'll definitely be glad it was my first romance once I do another playthrough, judging by comments I've heard. Even just one more scene between acknowledging that Rook was interested and them being together would've been fine, IMO! Or after them getting together but before the other stuff, I don't know.

In the end they're super cute together so I don't really care too much, it's just something that I noticed while playing. I'm definitely hoping there'll be fanfic to fill in some blanks... or I might have to actually write something myself (unlikely, but not impossible).

To be honest, there were some moments during Crow quests too where I thought Lucanis would speak up for sure and he just... didn't, so I'm not sure what's up with that, either. Bugged companion responses? Nothing written for some reason? Maybe he was half-asleep and Spite was bored. Who knows, I guess. (Again, though, overall I really enjoyed Lucanis and his romance.)

I loved the wing thing in his romance scene. Very cute.

Look at the cute smile on his face as he looks at Rook 😭Augh they're adorable, I just wish there was more... maybe I'll have to commission something. Probably them cuddling and drinking coffee or Lucanis napping on Rook's lap or something, idk. Something cute, more than likely. (If you know of any artists that might be interested and has comms open, let me know. >_>)

Getting sidetracked, oops...

I enjoyed all of the companions; if I had to pick a least favourite, it would probably be either Davrin or Taash. I enjoyed them both still! But the former has the problem of griffons being nearly his entire identity, and the latter has the problem of their... well, identity being nearly their entire identity. There's enough other stuff there that I don't dislike them, but in comparison to the others I just felt they weren't as interesting, personally.

I'm hoping that maybe their romances will add more to them...? But we'll see.

I swear I had more specific things to say, but I can't remember them at all, so I guess I'll end things here! I'm happy to answer any questions anyone might have, with spoilers or as spoiler-free as I can make it, and I guess now I've got to decide what to do next.

[tuwasduwillst]

I Finished Veilguard (No Spoilers Version)

I'm going to make two of these: One with spoilers, and one without! This is the former.

Sooo as of a few hours ago, I officially beat Veilguard!

It took me ~77 hours for my first playthrough, apparently. And overall I would say that I really enjoyed it!

It's been over nine years since the last Dragon Age game was made, and I honestly never thought I would ever see another one get finished. I had almost entirely given up hope; when Veilguard finally got announced and had a release date, I almost couldn't believe it. And I still almost can't believe that it actually came out and I finished it!

Here's a list of pros and cons:

+

Combat was fun, especially at higher levels

Despite my disappointment about the world state situation, I do think they did a fairly decent job of working around it

The entire ending section was incredible IMO

The game felt whole and complete at launch

The companions were fun and I enjoyed having them along

Speaking of companions (and combat), I loved the battle shouts

As a Mourn Watch elf Rook, I felt like there were plenty of times where lineage/faction were recognized and that there was lots of unique dialogue based on it!

All sidequests felt relevant, important, and worth doing (which may make replays a little tedious, but oh well. It made the first playthrough better.)

-

Early combat could be rough as a mage (and sometimes even later on), because enemies pretty much exclusively target Rook, which means you get knocked around a lot instead of being able to case spells/attack

The early game is a little rough and feels kind of disjointed (but it quickly gets better IMO)

I do still wish they would have included more world state stuff

The fashion is... well, maybe it'll work better for my other Rooks, but there was pretty much nothing I wanted my first Rook to wear (I ended up using the pre-order dragon mage outfit for the entire game & the default Mourn Watch casual wear for at the Lighthouse)

I love the Crows, but their portrayal in newer DA stuff does feel like a bit of a "Cullen situation"; I've heard that even as a Crow Rook you don't get to discuss things much about the darker aspects of being a Crow (besides, y'know, the assassinating). I will concede that this could be at least partially due to mostly interacting with Talons instead of common Crows

I loved Lucanis and his romance, but something about it felt... thin, maybe? Threadbare? I love a good slow burn, but I don't think there was enough space for a proper one. Even just one more conversation between "properly" getting together would've made things better IMO. (This is complicated by the fact that he apparently gets together with Neve if unromanced, and they apparently have a decent amount of content together...)

I'm not really sure what else to put in here that isn't a spoiler... hmm.

I apparently took ~1.2k screenshots, and it probably would've been more if the stupid "skip cutscene" button didn't show up during cutscenes u_u I might see if there's a way to turn that off, actually...

But that's for later! Now it's time for the spoiler-y post. :)

[tuwasduwillst]

Veilguard First Impressions!

First off, here's my Rook! I'm pretty happy with how I got them to look; I ended up going with what's technically the "American male" voice or whatever (I was torn between that one or the "American female" voice).

And here's my beloved Inquisitor. :) I knew I wouldn't be able to get her to look the same as she did in Inquisition (her eyes/nose/mouth have specific shapes I don't think I can replicate, at least not with spending way longer in the CC than I probably should), so I kind of just made a "Veilguard version" of her that was mostly vibes-based, though I did try to get her skin/eye/hair colour to match and I think I succeeded there!

She's got more meat on her than she did in Inquisition because Inquisition elves are scarily thin. 😂 Though I did make my Rook tall and skinny... but they still look more normal than Inquisition elves IMO.

I've been really enjoying the game so far! I've only unlocked four companions and three locations, I think, but I've been enjoying myself. The areas are big enough to feel like they're worth exploring (and big enough for me to get lost in), but not so big that it feels like you're stuck endlessly wandering. The sidequests have all felt relevant and good, too, IMO!

My Rook, as I think I said in a post before, is a Mourn Watch member. I haven't gone to the Necropolis or anything yet, so not much about their past has come up at this point. You do get to make some little "past" decisions while you decorate your room, though, which I thought was nice!

They're using the preorder mage armor right now because I didn't like any of the others I had... I've got to look at fashion the next time I play, but I've been spending all of my money on upgrades and presents for companions. u_u

Since it's a new game, I'm a little worried about missing stuff, but I'm mostly just focused on taking things slow and exploring everywhere I can for now! If I miss something, oh well, I can just play again in the future.

I'm keeping this post spoiler-free, so that's all I've got for now! I'll talk more about it once I've played more, probably. :U

Oh! I do think the combat is fun, though. Even if I ended up in a fight against a level 25 boss enemy at level 12... I think it took me almost a half hour to beat it... many thanks to Lucanis for keeping me alive >_>

[tuwasduwillst]

I'm not sure how many people are still actively following this sideblog of mine, but just as a note, if I post any Veilguard stuff--spoilery or not--once I start playing, it'll be over here! I'll probably be doing most of my liveblogging (if I do any) on a specific Discord server, but I might also liveblog a bit over here. We'll see!

[tuwasduwillst]

Shadowbringers (pt 4/end)

This just has spoilers for everything, basically. :U I finished it and don’t feel like splitting stuff up because I have over 1k screenshots to go through...

Katana-bearing Centurion: Besides, there is but one hand that can make me whole again. My enemy... my friend...

He probably just says “friend” there in Japanese, but I don’t have my whole game switched, so I don’t get to know for sure. Good to know you’re still being weird, Zenos.

Don’t you smirk at me like that, mister.

Here’s Urianger being handsome, as usual

I hated fighting this old dude as Thancred.

1) I still can’t believe he can easily take out the WoL like he did

2) Stop making me be sword dudes!!

3) I get why they wanted people to see the dialogue here, but it was so slooooow and I died once near the end and had to do it all over again and ughhh, just go away

Ryne looks cute with her new hair and eyes, at least. :) Thancred is still a bad dad, but at least he’s doing better now... I guess.

Also, Urianger’s reaction to finding out that Thancred was paying attention to some of his talks about pixies was really good, haha.

...I wanna listen to Urianger give a pixie lecture...

Wow

This was something the game threw together when I asked it to pick recommended gear. It’s... some kind of look.

The Exarch/G’raha Tia is a qt. Y’know, I figured it was probably G’raha Tia, but I didn’t remember him being so short... and the lack of cat ears also made me doubt myself, haha.

I’m really glad I did the Crystal Tower stuff, though, because otherwise I’d... well, I’d still think that G’raha Tia/the Exarch is cute and like him a lot, but it wouldn’t have had the same impact.

I took a bunch of screenshots of Mikh’a. :U

& Emet-Selch, ofc

that one old dude: If you would pass me, you must endure all that I have learned on the battlefield... For I am a weapon forged in the fires of war!

~*oooh, I’m so scared of you and your tiny amount of health left*~

My MP doesn’t even have a dent in it, really. This is why I had such a hard time believing this dude could take out the WoL!! Even the first time we fought, I had tons of MP available to me and could’ve made a full recovery from being brought down to 1 HP. (...well, I have Benediction which is kind of cheating, but still.)

At least this was the last time I had to deal with him. He’s probably the worst thing about the expansion, which I guess I can deal with since the rest of it was so good.

Lots of really pretty screenshot opportunities in this expansion. c:

Mt. Gulg is something I thought was common to a bunch of FF games for some reason, but apparently it was in the original Final Fantasy, FFIX, and some random spin-off games. Weird.

How did Mikh’a hear him talking from that far away??

Emet-Selch has such a good design and you can tell that a lot of work was put into him. The expressions he makes, the way he stands and walks--it’s all unique to him and it makes him stand out a lot.

Even after everything that happened in the expansion, I’m really fond of him. They made the right move in having him kind of forge a more personal relationship with you/the WoL, because if he hadn’t been obnoxious in the background throughout most of the expansion it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as interesting/good as it ended up being.

I obviously chose to say that they were all Alphinaud’s assistants. :P

This little scene was so cute... lali-hos for everyone...

Crystal Exarch: Ugh! I would thank you not to shoot me!

I’m sorryyyyyy ; ~; You were there and I wanted to see what would happen!!!

Crystal Exarch: Ah heh... It may interest you to know that Mikh’a is a great hero in the land whence he hails. Some would say the greatest.

This little venture made me feel like I’d suddenly gotten married and adopted a child

(Which I’d be totally fine with, tbh.)

I loved this thing, actually!! I got to heal G’raha Tia, he healed me, we both healed our new tiny dwarf child, it was great.

c:

I’m still using the Mogrod. I’m never going to stop using it. Give me another thing that has a flower and swirly rainbows all over and maybe I’ll switch weapons, but until then? No.

...unless there’s, like... a really, really pretty plant weapon, especially if it matches Mikh’a’s outfit... but I don’t think there is.

I got to put my bubble on them. :D

He’s so cuuuuuute. And Mikh’a clearly agrees with my thoughts on him, considering the expression on his face when he looks at him.

One of the reasons I keep Mikh’a wearing the WHM gear is because I really like the contrast I get--a lot of the major characters wear black, so it looks nice when they stand next to each other. :D

Katana-bearing Centurion: The whereabouts of my one true friend, however--they interest me greatly. I but hope the beasts of this “First” are providing him proper sport.

Zenos is so funny to me. He just pops up like “did someone mention my friend” while his dad and Elidibus are having a serious conversation.

Innocence has beautiful hair and if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I’d never believe that he was Vauthry.

You can kind of see @tarifu in this screenshot! :D

You can definitely see her here--wait... why is half the party wearing dwarf beard outfits...

This is probably weird to say, but I genuinely like when characters I play in games like this suffer/are in pain. Not, like... constantly. I just like it when NPCs get to express concern and you aren’t some kind of unbreakable hero 24/7. >_>

Obviously I was going to say his name, who wouldn’t.

This made me cry!! I thought he was dead. :C

But thankfully Emet-Selch didn’t want him dead, so he did not die.

...why’d he even need a gun? Has he always had a gun?

I wish I could just float off into the sky after ruining everything and being a big jerk

sad kitty

I died when I came here with Jack and Mari because I didn’t realize I was being targeted by the boss until it was too late. :,)

I got to practice using my shield, though!! I’m not used to having one so I’m not super great at remembering it exists and using it; the tether thing is a good visual for “this specific person is going to be damaged soon and a shield would be Good”. ...unless everyone’s bunched up and I can’t tell who has it until it’s too late, I guess.

I know I’m level 80 now, but there’s still a lot I haven’t done and I’m still trying to figure out what the best way to do things is sometimes... I still need to mess with my hotbars and stuff, actually. I think I might switch some things around more than I already have, because some useful things aren’t as easy to use as they could/should be and I’ve been wanting to mess around with stuff for a while. The Trust dungeons should be a really good opportunity to test new configurations! Or the squad dungeons, I guess. :/a

I’m still not Ardbert’s biggest fan, but I don’t dislike him.

Poor Urianger, getting stuck with the role of the only other person to know the Exarch’s plans. :(

& then everyone died going to the bottom of the sea and the game ended

I got to help put dwarf helmets on sineaters :U

I also remembered that I have fancy wings now, wheee

I got a nice new outfit after doing my last Healer role quest! :D I like it a lot~ The whites are brighter than the last outfit, and the bit in back accommodates his tail much better than the corset did.

I might play around with mixing and matching some pieces once I get newer stuff, but for now this is what I’ve got! c:

...and I refuse to wear the hat. 100%. I’m not making Mikh’a look like a weird nun. :|

Amaurot was really good, even if being there mostly just made me sad. >_> The not-people were so cute and nice, though...

Big

The WoL hanging out on this giant bench is so cute.

I liked getting to talk to Emet-Selch’s friend. c: Well... kind of, anyway. Since it’s not really his friend...

tiny

Emet-Selch: I have broken bread with you, fought with you, grown ill, grown old! Sired children and yes, welcomed death’s sweet embrace.

I still don’t 100% understand how Ascians work, but I guess it’s canon that Emet-Selch fucks :/a

I regret typing that, I think, but it is apparently true

i think your fireplace has something wrong with it

Really though, this dungeon was excellent.

Alisaie decided that she wanted to LB right as one of the bosses was doing one of those “hide behind a rock Or You Will Die” things so she died & I accidentally walked right off the edge near the end of the last boss fight (oops), but other than that things went okay!

D:

ardbert could you please clean your axe somehow before you point it at me like that. tia

This was a really neat moment :U

I’m not calling Emet-Selch Hades ever. Sorry, Emet-Selch.

I was kind of afraid to do this trial and almost waited until someone would be able to do it with me, but it really wasn’t that bad in the end!

...except for when I died five times to the same attack... orz It was that arm-sweeping one, too, so it’s not like it’s not obvious that it’s coming. My problem was that I kept getting Raised in bad places right before it happened, so he basically just kept smacking me down over and over again.

(Which was partially my fault, because I should’ve waited to accept the Raise until I knew it was safe to be alive, but... I don’t like leaving the other healer alone and I don’t want to just be lying there uselessly if I can avoid it.)

Fortunately(?) the party wiped due to something completely unrelated (a failed mechanic I had nothing to do with) and I didn’t die at all the second time around! So at least there was that.

I liked this bit in the dark. c:

I also liked when I got trapped in the bubble and didn’t have to do anything. Thanks, Emet-Selch!

Genuinely though, it was a nice little chance for me to calm the hell down because my anxiety was getting real bad before/during this fight. >_>

Poor dude. :c Obviously he’s responsible for some absolutely terrible things and I’m not going to try to deny that or anything, but he’s lived for so long and he’s had to deal with the loss of basically everyone he ever cared about for that whole time. He recreated that entire city and all of its people, that’s how much he cared.

Still no excuse for basically trying to kill all of the people he didn’t consider “real”! But also still sad, IMO.

This made me go “awww” out loud and start to tear up, haha...

I didn’t want to leave him ; ~;

Estinien said a full sentence here about how these guards were dead, too (in a way that implied he assumed that’s what they’d find), and the localization translated it as “hmph”. Kind of a weird choice there, but okay.

Zenos basically went Full Yandere since he killed his father just because he could potentially get in the way of his thing with the WoL, so... that’s something that’s going to have to be dealt with at some point.

I’m interested in seeing how things go, but I’m also a wee bit concerned that other people might get caught up in whatever this obsession is. I don’t want anyone to get hurt or killed because of Zenos’s yandere tendencies. :(

Elidibus is being Boring on the moon.

But who cares about that! I got to lead a Girl Scout meeting for my level 80 WHM quest.

Oh! Almost forgot about the story I got to tell the girls: “The tale of a man who crossed time and space to save the world... and me.”

I think the second one is about (original) Minfilia, maybe? :/a I wanted to tell them about G’raha Tia, though.

Aaaand that’s all I’ve done! \o/ I unlocked a new dungeon and I know there’s more than one post-80 dungeon, so I’ll probably check those out when I get a chance... but I finished the main stuff.

Which is kinda weird, because now I’m done again, haha... but I’ve got plenty of stuff to do before the next new stuff comes out. Especially since I discovered that Vamo alla Flamenco is the “dancer’s theme”, apparently. Need to dance ASAP >:O

[tuwasduwillst]

Shadowbringers (pt 3)

spoilers for whatever the quest after the last post’s quest was and going through The Qitana Ravel (3rd dungeon)

Y’shtola and Urianger were having a secret conversation about what’s going on with Mikh’a and the whole absorbing the light thing. I want to know the secrets, guys!! Share them with me!

These bunny ladies have incredibly impractical shoes. Those tiny heels would get caught everywhere in these woods.

I apparently didn’t take many screenshots for this part of the game, so! Y’shtola fell into a hole!

Emet-Selch helped get her back, because she actually pulled the same thing she did when she lost her normal sight and was in the Lifestream or whatever! And apparently he can just snap her right back out of there, which is neat I guess.

Y’shtola got picked up and held by a bara cat man!

(dialogue option: Says the arch bringer of Chaos.) (I don’t think I have a screenshot of what this was in response to, whoops)

Emet-Selch: Ah hah hah! Flattery will get you nowhere, dear boy.

I’m sad he thought I was trying to insult him in the end here, I really wasn’t :( I want to be his friend... I don’t trust him, but I really like him.

anyway

I was going to say “look at the toebeans on this weird dog” but you can’t even see them. :(

Emet-Selch: Hmph! I was bored. But how is the hero of the hour?

In Japanese he said he wouldn’t do something that annoying when Thancred asks him if he’s there to lead them back, IIRC.

The reveal from the trailer--that Hydaelyn and... Zodiark? are supposedly just super-powerful Primals--happened here after the dungeon, with Emet-Selch also revealing that he was one of the people in the ~original world~, which is why he and the other Ascians are so set on making everything whole again, like it was before.

asfdajdkh I can’t stop thinking about Manis’s “theater Solas” comment now, because he basically is. That’s so funny.

This is unfortunately where I had to stop, so I didn’t get to do anything else... and I won’t have much time to play when I get home from work because it’s my dad’s birthday. :( Not that it’s a terrible thing to get time away from the game/computer, but I’m really enjoying it so far...

[tuwasduwillst]

Shadowbringers (pt 2)

spoilers starting from the quest The Oracle of Light & going through the quest Into the Dark

I love Il Mheg~

When I was in elementary school I used to check out books about faerie tales constantly, in between getting all the other random books I used to read. I had a particular interest in faeries/the fair folk, though, to the point where I’d sometimes fantasize about being whisked away while wandering around in wooded areas, haha.

So this area made me really happy--the pixies with their weird rules, the general aesthetic of the place, all of it--and it’s definitely one of my favourite areas in the entire game.

A baby.

The pact with Feo Ul was a fun little thing, too, giving you a convenient reason you can grab things from your world as well as a decent reason to not constantly have pixies & other random fair folk-adjacent beings harassing you. Not that it happened here, it was just nice for it to be useful again for different reasons.

So pretty~

Speaking of pretty! Look at Urianger and how handsome he is.

I think I’ve brought it up at least a few times and I’m not going to stop.

I got to put flowers in his house. c:

@tarifu was here at the same time as me! :D We were basically doing the same quests for a bit, which was fun because it meant I kept randomly running into her.

It’s rude that the game doesn’t let you tell Urianger that he’s handsome, btw. >:(

Thancred needs to chill out about baby Minfilia, because so far he’s just basically been a jerk to her. She’s just a kid! Let her live her own life!

Urianger apparently can’t swim, which is cute. Alphinaud’s reaction to learning that bit of information was cute too, haha.

Dohn Mheg was such a good dungeon, aesthetics-wise. It made up for not being able to take Urianger or Alphinaud with, kind of. u_u

Urianger’s dress looks nice on him. c:

idk, I’ve always liked Urianger, but the fact that he’s been with the pixies for as long as he has and he had a riddle contest with them in order to get to stay and everything else is just endlessly charming to me. Also, he’s handsome, but I knew that already from when we first got to see his face.

Speaking of charming! The Nu Mou were adorable. :D They weren’t like the ones in FFTA, but I wasn’t expecting them to be, so that’s fine. I like what they did with them in FFXIV. Very good puppy people.

The entire party except for the tanks got taken out by Titania’s attack just before this screenshot. Whoops.

Titania was interesting to fight! Not least of all because from my understanding, after reading what my party was chatting about, there are a couple of mechanics that are shared with optional trials I never touched, so uh... I was woefully unprepared, probably. >_>

I did my best, though! And I learned as things went on, getting better and figuring things out each time we had to go through stuff again. It helped that the party was (seemingly) enthusiastic and not upset about the wipes, which makes sense since it’s early access and it’s not like there are guides out for this trial yet or anything. (Unless there are, but it was literally the first/second day of early access, so...)

I do kind of feel like I should’ve explored side content more on my way to the expansion, but there was just so much of it and I have no idea what’s actually important/useful. orz

Eventually we made it through, though! And Feo Ul got to be the new king. :D (As a side note, I like that all of the pixies use “they” and there’s seemingly no concept of gender among them.)

Look who randomly showed up!!

None of the characters like him, but I do. He’s just so annoying. I love antagonists that are just there to say cryptic things and be annoying, especially if they randomly try to be friendly and you probably can’t trust them.

Urianger... is tall

This place has excellent music and is also great aesthetics-wise, so between here and Il Mheg I’m basically set for life on places to hang out for no reason in-game.

Look at him. There’s no reason to be posing like this. Who is he showing off for?

I love that he just went “welp, I’m bored now. bye” and made them look 10x more suspicious to the people pointing weapons at them. What a jerk

Urianger’s face being shown now means that he basically gets the Aymeric treatment, which is to say that I have a lot of screenshots of Urianger from this expansion.

Maybe I have an elf problem. :/a

Y’shtola! \o/ She thought Mikh’a was a horrible monster! And who knows, maybe someday that will be true! He seems pretty normal for now, though...

Actually, the English translation here was weird because it made it seem like Uriganger didn’t remember what was up with Y’shtola’s vision. I’ve been trying to pay more attention to the Japanese lines now...

Aaaanyway, now seems like a decent time to cut the post off again! I have one last bit and then I’ll be all caught up with my screenshots.

[tuwasduwillst]

Shadowbringers

spoilers for the beginning of the expansion through the quest The Oracle of Light

Liveblogging this over here so that people can avoid it more easily and breaking it up into (labelled) chunks so that people can read without worrying about being spoiled, hopefully.

This section was very pretty and also extremely rude. Stop making me sad about him!!

There’s a new long hair option that came with the expansion and I bought it, but it doesn’t suit Mikh’a as well as this one does, IMO. :/a It’s too straight for him.

idk, the slight wave gives off an air of “nice, pretty catman” and the straighter hair makes him look more serious, maybe? It’s a mystery.

nice pixels

I love all of the plants in this expansion so far.

Very pink.

This librarian man is adorable and I love him.

I expected a lot of people to be on, but in some areas there were so many people that I couldn’t even see where the quest markers were, haha. Intense.

idk why Aardvark Ardbert’s magical ghost is following the WoL(WoD now, I guess?) around, but I’m not a big fan of it. Get out of my room. :|

Eulmore was... interesting. Wasn’t expecting quasi-pole dancing to be a thing I had to do for the MSQ, that’s for sure.

Mostly I was just happy to see Alphinaud again. c: Even though I haven’t shown a screenshot of him yet, haha.

Here he is! Being an excellent artist as always, even if the dude on the left didn’t agree.

I got to help heal!!! I’m not delving heavily into spoilers or what’s going on here, so most of these are just going to be contextless screenshots, honestly.

Anyway, Eulmore is obviously messed up and Bad and I’m sure I’ll end up back there sooner or later.

After finding the babiest of baby brothers, it was time to find the babiest of baby sisters. I know some people like to jokingly refer to them as “son” and “daughter”, but to me they feel more like younger siblings. (Possibly because I’m the oldest of five kids, haha.)

I feel like things definitely worked out worse for Alisaie before she left than they did for Alphinaud. :S Poor kid. Seeing Halric the way he is probably reminded her of her kobold friend, too.

But life goes on and things need to get done.

I like the new Trust system, setting aside my sadness at never being able to have Alphinaud or Urianger in my party. The tanks are kinda... uh... not anywhere near as good as the people I actually know that are tanks, but they’re probably better than some random tanks can get, so I guess things balance out? It’s definitely neat to be able to see the characters comment on things in the dungeons, especially with one like this (where Alisaie especially had a connection to one of the fights).

~*woo, night was restored and the cute librarian was back for a second*~

I have a drunk dwarf as my quest-giver for healing, which I’m not sure how to feel about. :/a They... kind of make me think of Oghren.

I really like the style they used for this storybook sequence stuff, it’s good. Pretty messed up that they’ve just been sending little girls to fight their battles for them and die, though.

tbh, I like baby Minfilia more than old Minfilia. Part of it is probably just because I feel bad for her and want to help her out.

Mikh’a didn’t look as silly in this uniform as I thought he would! His poor ears must hurt, though.

I find it difficult to believe that this old man could actually beat me as badly as he did. :|

Hmm... I’m going to put the next bit in a different post, I think, since this actually covers a lot even if there’s not much to it.

[tuwasduwillst]

Chapter Thoughts

I lied! I’m back. (Well, it wasn’t really a lie, I said my last post would “probably” be the last one about this game...) After letting a few days pass, I’m experiencing... residual emotions about the game?? Or something. I have some things I want to say, so I wanted to ramble a bit. Also, I just want to reread things now that I know what happens.

PROLOGUE/CHAPTER ONE

I genuinely was (hesitantly) excited about having Kaede as a protagonist, which I’ve mentioned before. And I thought she and Shuichi were really cute together... until she died. (This actually made it so I can’t ship them anymore, weirdly enough. It feels kind of gross now?)

The game not showing Kaede’s actions (picking up the shot put ball, putting it in the vent, etc.) made me not trust anything else I saw or heard from any other perspective. In a sense it was almost pointless already at that point? The game had demonstrated it was okay hiding things from me that I really should be able to see without any real reason for it just so it can create a ~shocking twist~, so I couldn’t trust that it wouldn’t do it again. Which is partially why...

CHAPTER TWO

...I had literally no idea who the culprit was here until basically the end. I wasn’t even thinking about it, because I didn’t think it mattered until I got far enough in the case. I didn’t bother trying to connect evidence together. I didn’t know if the game would just trick me again.

I actually chose Kaito as the culprit before Kirumi, which isn’t in the post. My reasoning was that it was probably one of those two and, like I said, I wasn’t bothering to connect evidence together myself, so I didn’t care and just picked the person I would’ve preferred for it to be, which was Kaito. Obviously it wasn’t him, which left Kirumi.

Also, this comment is kind of funny to me, in hindsight: “they’re just bugs, unless you’re going to make people eat them or something it’s really not that evil… i guess you could argue that manipulating Gonta was somewhat evil, but… a kindergartner could do that, Kokichi…“

lmao :,)

ALSO LMAO AT ME BEING EXCITED ABOUT MAKI AND ASKING IF SHE HAS POISON, GOD. hey @past me shut the hell up, your favourite character died because of Maki and poison and you don’t even know it yet! you fool!

CHAPTER THREE

Ugh, Angie’s Student Council. Angie has the honor of being the first character I outright disliked, because I was doing my best to at least stay neutral with my opinions of most of the characters at first. If anything, I was relieved she was murdered. Tenko, on the other hand, I hadn’t wanted to die. I hadn’t given myself the chance to get attached to her yet, but I definitely liked her more than Angie or Himiko...

...and though I didn’t intend for it to happen, this chapter was where I realized how attached I was to Kokichi, due to his “It’s a lie!” thing after the investigation for Tenko’s murder. I genuinely thought he was dead at first and I felt a moment of honest panic because I didn’t want him to be dead. (I should’ve realized it sooner--I was completely charmed by the end of his last FTE--but I was stubbornly refusing to acknowledge I cared about some things just in case something tricked me again, so I didn’t. It’s super obvious, though, you can tell just by how often screenshots of him pop up even early on...)

Also, this line from me is kind of funny, for reasons I’ll explain later: “he better not actually die in the game now because i won’t even believe it at first and then i’ll feel bad.“

CHAPTER FOUR

My first thought for something to say is “Fuck you, Kaito,” but that’s not very constructive or helpful. (I got to the part where he punches Kokichi.) GOD. Every time I think of him I like him less! How is that even possible? I think I liked him at one point, you know? At least a little? And now when I think of him it’s just... nope. Not at all.

Though maybe I never actually did like him at all... the parts where he’s talking to Shuichi and Maki are never described in as much detail as they could be... Shouldn’t I know how I felt about a character...

Whatever, who cares about Kaito. The thing I wanted to talk about in this chapter was the whole thing with Gonta and Kokichi.

First off: I had an idea it was probably Gonta, though I wasn’t expecting Kokichi to just outright say it. And I didn’t know why Gonta would do it, which is why that “maybe?” is there after Kokichi asks Shuichi if he knows who the culprit is.

Second: The first “hmm” after Kokichi’s crying post-trial wasn’t originally there. I said something much more sympathetic “to him” initially, continued on, reconsidered, and changed it. The reason I reconsidered was because, well, Kokichi just helped Shuichi out way too much during that trial. During the investigation he was practically feeding him answers, and that continued into the trial, too. If he had genuinely not wanted Gonta to be executed, why would he do that?

I can buy him having some regrets, wishing he didn’t do it or something, but there’s no way that having Gonta executed wasn’t his end goal unless he got so caught up in trying to make the game interesting to himself that he forgot Gonta was an actual person or something. Or if he really did screw up in the trial and didn’t mean to reveal as much information as he did, but that’s pretty hard to believe.

I was a bit off here wrt what Kokichi was trying to get out of this, obviously, but I still can’t take those tears at face value. Not completely. That said, you can tell I do still feel bad for Kokichi here, since I definitely called him “honey” and didn’t even realize I typed that until I reread it just now. That’s... embarrassing, why did I leave that. WELL. It’s there now. Forever.

...anyway, uh. Like I said, I can buy that maybe he was being partially genuine there, even when he was asking to be punished with Gonta, but I also think he had to have known what was going to happen as soon as he made sure Shuichi knew how that poison worked during the investigation. That poison was Gonta’s best chance at not being accused, because it would’ve made Kokichi (and Kaito, who logged out before everyone else) look way more suspicious.

Third: My lack of commentary while Kokichi’s doing his ~I AM THE SUPREME LEADER OF EVIL, MUAHAHA~ thing is actually a sign that I’m thinking about things and not taking them at face value. Sometimes my lack of commentary means I’m bored, but other times it means I’m really thinking about something and don’t want to make stupid assumptions. (My usage of “hm” as my only comment also usually means I’m considering something, but that’s more obvious.) Other times it just means I have nothing to say, I guess, but I try to avoid that when possible.

Also, my word usage is usually somewhat deliberate, like me saying “Kokichi doesn’t seem too bothered by Shuichi saying that” instead of “Kokichi isn’t too bothered by Shuichi saying that”*. (Or other points, where I say “Kokichi claims” instead of phrasing it in other ways that would imply he definitely did something.) See! I was paying attention! I didn’t get everything, but I was trying to figure things out! ...even though I said I wasn’t going to! I mean, you can’t completely check out of a game you’re playing, okay, because how the hell are you going to actually finish it then? (Also, trying to figure out what Kokichi’s up to and trying to actually figure out what’s going on with the game overall are two different things, IMO.) (*I did notice the tiny bit where Kokichi seems affected by Shuichi saying what he did, I just didn’t include that in my screenshots.)

Chapter Five

Hoo boy. I’m just going to start off with the thing I want to talk about most here and then backtrack if I feel like I need/want to: the trial.

I started that trial pissed off and 100% convinced that Kokichi was dead and Kaito was alive somewhere. This is the only trial I was really emotionally invested in from the start. I mentioned that I was going to be a petulant 5-year-old for the duration of the trial, and that’s why--Maki insisting that Kaito was dead when I was pretty much positive Kokichi was the one that was actually dead legitimately made me upset, because either she was trying to protect Kaito or she was being annoying and either way it was irritating me because she was wrong.

(This is why the “if he dies I won’t believe he’s dead and I’ll feel bad” comment from chapter 3 is funny to me, because, uh. Nope! I was wrong.)

The Exisal thing threw me off a bit and made me a little less sure about what I thought. A tiny little bit of hope began to blossom--what if Kaito died from poison and Kokichi is still alive and will be okay after this trial?--but I tried to quash it as much as I could, because I knew I’d just be more upset at the end if I was wrong.

(As a side note, I was really confused about what to do here with names. I probably should’ve just gone with “Exisal Kaito” and “Exisal Kokichi” like the game did...)

It’s kind of funny, because while Shuichi was trying to fight against the hope that Kaito was alive, I was trying to do the opposite, haha...

Anyway... This trial was definitely interesting. I’m wondering when Kaito was meant to show the video, since it seems like he messed up his timing there; I wonder if it would have made a difference and if Kokichi’s plan would have worked.

But no one will ever know! He got stuck collaborating with someone that messed up his plans! (Unless everything failing was part of his plan, but... idk. I can’t really accept it. What’s the point, then? Just to make the others start thinking about their potential audience...?)

With regards to the rest of the chapter, during investigation I was hopeful that Kaito had been the one to die until Kiibo found Kokichi’s clothes, at which point I was convinced Kokichi was the one that had died.

Other stuff... oh! When Kokichi claimed he was the ~evil cult leader~ that brought Monokuma onboard or whatever! I didn’t believe him. Actually, I thought that maybe Rantarou was at that point if there really was one, haha... He was dead, but the series is weird, who knows what’s ever going on. I just didn’t think it was actually Kokichi, even if I didn’t know what exactly he was up to. (I mention one of the reasons why later in the chapter--the person in charge doesn’t have to negotiate with Monokuma or make suggestions, they can just do things.)

Chapter Six

Well, there’s not much to say about this chapter. My thoughts on it haven’t changed. I’m slowly just letting myself forget about/ignore it, honestly, because that seems like the best option if I want to enjoy the characters and other parts of the game.

Woo! Okay. Now I’m done talking about it here, I think. I really wanted this so that if/when I look back on my liveblog, I can fill in some of the blanks I left and not be confused about what I actually thought/did at certain points.

Oh, wait! I just remembered something else I can talk about here:

Bonus Mode/Extra Stuff

I actually got and used that love key thing! (After being told it wasn’t 100% terrible, thanks @chemicalnimu, haha.) I got, uh, let’s see if I remember...

Kiibo, Gonta, Kaede, Maki, Ryouma, Angie, Korekiyo, Miu, Rantarou, Kaito, Tsumugi, aaaand Kokichi. Once I got Kokichi I stopped trying, since his scene was the only one I was really curious about in the first place.

Some of them were surprisingly cute! (Like Kiibo’s, Ryouma’s, and Rantarou’s.) Others were unsurprisingly kind of creepy! (Like Angie’s, Miu’s, Korekiyo’s, and Tsumugi’s.) Kaede and Maki had pretty plain ones, not much to say there. I couldn’t tell if they were just trying to be funny with Gonta’s. :/a

Kokichi’s was the best one, IMHO, though I am horrifically biased and will admit it. I am astounded that the top fic for those two on AO3 isn’t some kind of phantom thief/detective AU. Okay, not astounded, maybe just a little disappointed. It could be so fun!

The scene was interesting, though! Kokichi is, AFAIK, the only one that actually leaves the room. (I guess Kaito technically also leaves, but he leaves with Shuichi, so that’s different.) He’s also the only one that actually backs off when Shuichi starts to get too overwhelmed, though there are a multitude of potential reasons for that. (You could argue that he really just prefers being chased, that he didn’t actually want to take it further than that, that he realized/thought Shuichi wasn’t as into it as he was hoping/expecting, etc.) Regardless of the reason, it kind of makes me happy, because none of the others backed off even when Shuichi was more than just a little bit uncomfortable/surprised. I do wonder what would’ve happened if Shuichi hadn’t said “wait”, though. :/a

Other than the key thing... hmm... oh! I actually finished up that Love Across the Universe thing! (Well, once.)

It was cute. c: I’ll probably mess with it a bit more to get all of the friendship... pieces or whatever for everyone, I guess?

[tuwasduwillst]

Character Thoughts

spoilers below

Every so often I do this for games I play or series I watch, especially longer ones. It’s a nice way to get my thoughts and feelings about things out, though it’s best done when I’m cataloging my thoughts throughout my playtime rather than just shoving them in one post at the end. Due to the nature of the game, though, the posts would’ve just gotten smaller and smaller, so... here’s this.

In order of introduction!

Akamatsu Kaede: I will continue to think of her fondly and I sincerely hope that someone has made a fanfic or fancomic or something based on the idea of her surviving the first trial and having to deal with things, because I think it would be interesting. I’ll always have a soft spot for musicians, especially pianists and violinists, so when she first showed up I was pretty excited about it. I would have been a lot more upset about the reveal that she had been unfairly executed if the ending hadn’t been the way it was.

Saihara Shuichi: Hmm. I like Shuichi! But I also have somewhat mixed feelings towards him. He replaced Kaede as the protagonist and her death was a strong motivator for him; a female character dying to motivate a male character, especially a protagonist, is a trope I really don’t like. At the same time, seeing him grow and become determined was nice, even if it’s a little soured by the whole ending thing. I like how he reacts to situations and he’s cute. It’s hard to put my feelings about the DR protagonists into words, because while I really like all of them, I can’t pin down the exact reasons why. (Maybe because of how easily their personalities mesh with the other characters or something...?)

Amami Rantarou: I don’t really know much about him, still. I like the look of his character and his relatively chill attitude; I’m definitely going to check out his free time events now that I have those extra things unlocked in the game. I took a peek at some of the DRV3 art on Pixiv and people seem to really like him, but I don’t know if that’s just because he’s cute or what.

Shirogane Tsumugi: I’m going to completely forget about her in a month, I can already tell. I forgot about her a lot while playing the game, which is why I made an effort to see her free time events after a certain point. She might have been the “mastermind”, but between my feelings on the ending and the fact that she left the shot put ball in the trash can, who does that, I’m fine just forgetting about her. ...I do wish she would’ve gotten Shuichi or some of the others to cosplay, though. :(

Ouma Kokichi: Hands down my favourite character in this game, no contest at all. If he hadn’t died I might have actually cared about the ending more. He was consistently interesting and entertaining throughout the entire game and one of the only reasons I’m going to complete my Vita playthrough is so I can go back and look more closely at everything he was doing and the things he says. FWIW I don’t think he was ever actually a legitimate malicious presence, though I still think “imp” is a suitable thing to call him. There’s no denying that he intentionally lies and obfuscates things for seemingly no reason at times, and while sometimes his poking at people can be beneficial for them (like when he got Himiko to cry), it’s not always. Even if I never 100% figure out when he’s being genuine or not, it won’t really matter because it’s fun and interesting to think about. And that’s the thing the main game lacked at the end, which is weird, because he’s... a character in the game. (Also, he’s clever and super cute and tiny. I want to pick him up. Just kind of... lift him up and carry him away from the game.)

Kiibo: I liked Kiibo. Okay, to be fair, I just like robots and think they’re neat, so I’m predisposed to like him anyway, but he was a cute little guy. I don’t have a ton to say about him or anything, but I did like him for the most part.

Chabashira Tenko: Overall I’d say I liked Tenko. Her whole “degenerate males” thing could get a little annoying at times, but it was easy enough to ignore. I wish she could’ve been friends with Himiko prior to her death.

Yumeno Himiko: I didn’t like Himiko, though I did grow to tolerate her by the end of the game. Every time she talked about how her magic was ~*real magic*~ it just annoyed me, especially during the trial for Ryouma’s death. What the hell, Himiko?

Iruma Miu: I wanted to like Miu. I feel like I almost could have liked her. I didn’t, though.

Hoshi Ryouma: I wish I would’ve had Shuichi spend more time with Ryouma, because he was a pretty chill dude. I liked what I saw of him, I guess, but I don’t have much to say about him.

Harukawa Maki: Ah, Maki. I can’t say I dislike Maki, really, and I suppose I’d say I like her, but my feelings about her kind of went all over the place near the end there. It’s complicated. I can’t really figure out how to elaborate more than that, it’s just... hmm. Maybe I’m just bitter about her partially being the cause of Kokichi’s death and I don’t even realize it or something, who knows.

Shinguji Korekiyo: I’ve got to say, I appreciate his Aesthetic(TM). Don’t appreciate the incest or serial killing so much, but hey, you’ve got to look for the silver lining. I guess I’d say I feel neutral about him, if anything?

Momota Kaito: I don’t think I liked him. There’s something about his character type that grates for me and although I tried and I did like him sometimes (like when he was afraid of ~spirits~ and some other times), I just didn’t end up liking him in the end. I don’t know if I’d say I outright disliked him, I just know that I didn’t like him. Which is kind of incredible, since I like his VA a lot. :/a His friendship with Shuichi was... okay, I guess. He was a source of motivation and inspiration for him.

Toujou Kirumi: The whole “Prime Minister” thing is still absolutely ridiculous, but I liked Kirumi. I hate her execution and the one trial mini-game image for her, but the character herself was good and interesting. I wish she could’ve stuck around a little longer.

Gokuhara Gonta: I liked Gonta! I don’t like how the localization chose to portray him, but I don’t hold that against him. He was a genuinely good dude and his sacrifice meant absolutely nothing in the end.

...but the fact he was really trying to help everyone else was nice of him, I guess! Even if his “help” meant everyone would die! He tried, okay. I can appreciate that. And bugs are neat.

Yonaga Angie: If I had to pick a least favourite character, Angie would be the one I’d pick. No to her cult, no to her brainwashing, no to all of it. The one death I was actually kind of glad about just because it put a stop to all of that. (Which I hate, because I don’t want to be happy that a character got murdered, but, well.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

...was that all of them? I think it was! \o/ Yay. This will probably be the last thing related to this game that I’ll post here, just because I’m done liveblogging and done with character thoughts and everything.

[tuwasduwillst]

ringo-boshi replied to your post “ch5 (pt2)”

This trial was wild. I remember being skeptical that it could be Momota simply because I didn't think he would be able to act like Ouma for so long XD At first I didn't get why Ouma took off his shirt either. Or why he even filmed the video. Now I think that he *did* want the case to be solved somehow, because if he hadn't done those things, I doubt Saihara would've been able to figure out the trick.

Haha, it is pretty hard to believe, even with a script. :P 

It’s possible he did it intentionally! It’s hard to know with him... It would make sense either way--the shirt being found and the video were both part of what made it ambiguous as to who it was under the press, but like you said, they both also helped Shuichi figure things out. And Kokichi definitely knows that Shuichi’s the type to ~pursue the truth~ to the end, so I don’t think he’d overlook that.

Ah, there's also been some debate about the line where Ouma says he can't find a game that he's forced to play fun. The original line is 人にやらされるゲームなんて…楽しい訳あるかよ One alt translation I found is "As if there could ever be any fun…in a game like this where you take people’s lives…". Basically interpreting やらされる as the causative-passive of 殺る. This seems to tie better with the "toying with our lives" remark later, but I can also see why it was translated as "forced to play".

Oh, that’s really interesting! o:

On the whiteboard, Saihara's "trustworthy?" in EN and 油断ならない? in JP.The motive video's translation cuts out the fact that DICE is explicitly against murder. The original line was 「人を殺さない」かつ「笑える犯罪」をモットに、愉快犯的な犯行を繰り返すDICEには… I don't know why they cut it out, considering Saihara even says it in the trial, except with the line cut out it feels more like he's extrapolating when he's actually just stating a fact.

That is definitely a weird thing to cut out, because it’s actually important and it’s explicitly there, like you said. What in the world made them make that decision... o_o

Also aw, that part of the whiteboard’s not as cute now. That’s okay, though, it’s better to know~

I'm sorry the whole thing bored you to the point that you started talking about your trip (and this is one loooooong trial) but I hope you have fun in Japan! If you're in Tokyo, you can get almost anywhere using the trains, and you can more or less use Google Maps to navigate the complicated train system.

Hey, it’s okay! It’s not like you put that twist in there, haha. That’s really good to know about Google Maps, thanks! c: (Also, thank you for the playlist! I’ll definitely check it out later!)

Speaking of the end, though, I did have this post and I’m not sure if the link worked or not when the post was first up. If it didn’t it probably looked like I just quit the game before it was actually over, which I didn’t do. orz

chemicalnimu replied to your post “ch6”

Yeah that was it basically :/ I like to pretend this chapter never happened...or something. Eh. I'm sorry you got to the point of "so done with this I'm gonna talk about my trip instead" because it's not a good feeling to have, but it was fun to see :D & I hope you have fun in Japan and eat lots of delicious food~ I have thoughts about the game, but well, in a nutshell - same. Writing here is a pain due to character limit so maybe I'll PM a bit later

That’s probably what I’ll end up doing, honestly! We can ignore its existence together~

And it’s okay! I’m glad it was at least fun to see, haha. :P I realized it was either me doing that or whining about it the whole time (or just posting screenshots without anything between them at all), and I didn’t want to just be whining and negative, so... that’s what I ended up with. (& thanks!)

If you feel up to it I’d love to talk about it with you and hear your thoughts about it! c:

(Also, there was a post that might not have been accessible when the post was first up, so I did really finish the game if it didn’t seem like I did!)

tarifu replied to your post “[[MOR] Shuichi does this and then it’s voting time. Tsumugi says she...”

yep, pretty much the same reasons that made you check out was what annoyed me lol! so pointless. anyway i hope you have fun on your Japan trip!! it sounds so fun, i hope you post about it! ^^ i was the same about fish too, i didn't really like it, but when I was in Japan the family i was with took me to a sushi bar and i couldn't stop eating it lol! it's what made me like fish, so maybe that will happen to you! i hope you try at least a bite ^^

I guess I’m glad I’m not the only one. :P

Thanks! I’ll definitely be posting about it! :D And that’s interesting about fish, maybe I’ll actually try some while I’m there and see if it changes anything! If I nothing else I can probably convince my sister to let me try some kind of fish she orders, haha.

[tuwasduwillst]

ch6

who the hell are you

i don’t know what any of that was about, but okay.

would you stop blowing things up?? what is even the point

Shuichi and the others decide to try to go talk to him and get him to stop.

stop blowing things up!!

he says he wants to destroy the school to end the killing game.

well that’s just rude.

they try to convince him that they can stop it together and that there’s still hope; Shuichi says there could still be somewhere for them to go, though he’s mostly just basing that on what Kaito told them before his execution about someone watching.

still, though, that possibility is their hope. they still have things to investigate in the school; they can’t just give up now.

great, thanks, now that you’ve blown half the place up you’re willing to stop and cooperate. couldn’t have just spoken to everyone before the explosions, noooo.

he says he’ll wait until dawn. what gives you the right to place a time limit on them?? 

once it hits dawn he says he’ll end the killing game and kill himself? okay

Monokuma shows up and says that the killing game is eternal and can’t be stopped.

also, destroying school property like that is ~an act of mutiny~. so now Kiibo’s going to have to fight off Monokuma and his stupid “kubs”. u_u

at least they’ll be distracted while Shuichi and the others poke around, i guess. still, what the heck. the guy just starts blowing things up without speaking to anyone else about it... geez... how inconsiderate...

Shuichi, Maki, Tsumugi, and Himiko all go into the school and decide to try to find the actual mastermind, because they think there could be someone in the school controlling things. they all split up, but before Shuichi can leave the school’s entrance--

a hole in the floor in front of him is created by some of the damage to the building.

what

staircase in the hole!

aw. i was wondering where it was, since it hadn’t shown up yet...

since there’s damage to the door, Shuichi can get in.

o: 

Shuichi looks around and most of his comments are “this seems comical” or “this seems like a kid’s idea of what an evil organization would have”

he won’t play with the RC helicopter :(

...not that he has time to, but.

Shuichi finds this book about the history of Hope’s Peak. Maki shows up while he’s looking at it and he asks her to tell him what she remembers about the history of the academy. she sighs, but she does it.

what she says is what he remembers as well, but it doesn’t match the book, and the book is apparently the most accurate account of the school’s history.

you can’t keep what you found from me, that’s unfair! i want to know now too :(

well, whatever he discovered, he decides he needs to go to Kokichi’s room and figure out more about him, since he found this book in his lab.

...don’t the rooms lock after the person dies?

what the heck

Shuichi’s remembering some kid asking him if he’s part of the Gofer Project; Shuichi says he’s not because he’s just a normal high school student. the kid was convinced all the kids were still alive despite the fake funeral thing and he was calling them ~heroes~.

oh, it was a delayed flashback light thing from the one Monokuma used after the trial. Maki apparently also remembered something like that.

time to go to Kokichi’s room! which i guess isn’t locked, because they get in easily.

awww, the whiteboard is too tiny to see on Tumblr. it’s funny, though--he’s got “annoying” written by the “kubs”, “suspicious” by Maki, “trustworthy!” by Shuichi (aw)*, and “weird” by Kiibo.

--oh no, i accidentally hit it away! D: come back, whiteboard!

* or it’s “trustworthy?”, i can’t tell. either way it’s cute

is that a lightsaber

Shuichi says they don’t have time to look through them, but Maki says she’ll do it. that way Shuichi can keep looking at the rest of the room.

speaking of the rest of the room, Kokichi had a bunch of stuff from the past murders. i was kind of wondering where that stuff goes after the investigation... and Shuichi commented on the missing inner tube after Kirumi’s trial.

Shuichi finds one of the motive videos on Kokichi’s bed and decides to play it. he doesn’t think it’ll be Kokichi’s video, but he wants to check it out.

it is his, though!

cuuuute

once Shuichi’s done seeing that, Maki tells him he can go and she’ll keep looking through the blueprints, because they rely on Shuichi most in situations like these. before he goes, though, she wants him to look at something she found.

it’s like a scavenger hunt! let’s go!

Maki thinks it’s probably just a prank, but Shuichi thinks it needs to be checked out. i agree, let’s goooo

oh, good, this is the right place. i had no idea what that note meant by “garden”.

huh.

Shuichi has another flashback before he leaves this area.

oh, good, Shuichi thought it was stupid as well.

anyway, the reason is ~*hope*~. you guys in the DR universe have serious problems when it comes to “hope” and “talent”.

Kiibo also had a flashback, so he ends up crashing through the roof of the area Shuichi’s in. he offers to destroy Rantarou’s lab’s door so Shuichi can get in there and check it out.

Kiibo does that and then tells Shuichi he’ll help him get anywhere he needs to go. even the place behind the bookshelf? o:

well, first: Rantarou’s lab.

ooh, roses. Himiko shows up, having heard the sound of Kiibo blasting the door.

uhhh... no.

weird zodiac vault...

the HORSE

what the... really.

and there’s a laptop on the table, so...

one file on there and it’s a video. oh, it’s Rantarou’s weird video, but now i get to see the whole thing.

one part of it was the video.

was there something special about his Monopad?

Rantarou got blocked from saying something in the video.

what kind of ultimate survivor gets lured over by a camera’s flash?

Shuichi thinks the mastermind knew his identity and that’s why he died.

another flashback!

Shuichi’s school friends: u gonna fuck some hot girls in space, bro??

yeah that’s definitely what Shuichi’s main concern and priority was

once the flashback is over, Himiko says she’ll check for whatever the other part of Rantarou’s perk was so that Shuichi can continue moving. Tsumugi approaches him just as he’s decided to go to the bookcase room--apparently there’s a new room by Kaito’s lab that opened up due to the destruction, so Shuichi has to check that out first.

it’s the room they were all asleep in.

there’s a thing on the table that apparently has all their information in it. Tsumugi noticed something she wants Shuichi to see.

and Tsumugi is worried about that because Junko also had a twin sister.

what, is it like a rule in the DR universe that if you have a set of twins one of them has to be evil??? no. Shuichi makes a note of it just in case it’s relevant.

now it’s time to go to the library.

Maki’s down there and she has something she found in Kokichi’s room that she wants Shuichi to look at.

bugvac...

Miu apparently made a prototype version of it. it works, but there’s nothing in there.

Himiko shows up--she didn’t find anything in Rantarou’s room. Shuichi wonders if someone took whatever he’d had.

they decide to check out the hidden door, but one of the Exisals shows up before they can even really get close to it.

good.

then he blasts open the door.

good idea!

well, here’s the room.

they start talking about the mastermind and Monokuma’s voice speaks up, saying it’s time for the “last boss”.

hey, it’s an ugly Monokuma head.

i’m not calling you that.

it claims to be able to make Monokumas, so everyone demands that it do it right now. it doesn’t.

hey, it’s Rantarou’s thing!

he had a map that had every single space labeled, including this secret room!

he was also told about the Monokuma spares, which is probably why he was trying to get into the hidden door that one time.

Maki goes to get the pictures of Rantarou from Kokichi’s room so they can figure out what’s up with the blood on this Monopad.

and what kind of idiot leaves it in the trash? surely there was somewhere better to leave that thing.

Kaede’s vest?

Shuichi gets another flashback, this time of when Monokuma first showed up and erased his memories before the killing game started.

Himiko tells Shuichi she’ll keep looking here, so he can go somewhere else to investigate more.

Shuichi and Tsumugi leave the room, but after they do the fight between Kiibo and the Exisal causes the hidden room to be blocked by rubble, trapping Himiko inside.

Shuichi says they’ll have to leave her there for now (Kiibo doesn’t want to risk hurting her by blasting it away) and continue their investigation.

oh, weird, the timer ran out and then it just gave me a huge chunk of time while keeping me in the same place.

since i wasn’t sure why it ran out and thought it might be due to my typing, i had to stop for a bit.

Shuichi found a way to make flashback lights in one of the classrooms; it let him pick from several different versions of memories and then spat out a flashlight into a locker in the room. when the door gets opened, the room goes back to normal.

Himiko found a hidden passage to the secret room; it’s not on Rantarou’s perk map.

Shuichi thinks he’s found enough to figure things out.

Monokuma agrees to the trial because it’s more interesting than fighting Kiibo. he warns them that there will be consequences if they don’t accomplish what they’re aiming for, but everyone left is prepared to accept that. they know they can finish this.

Monokuma makes Kiibo’s gear get removed before the trial starts, and when he shows up again, he’s got his ahoge back.

apparently the Monokubs put it back because he asked them to repair him.

what if every ahoge was secretly an antenna

Maki has the bugvac with her, so Kiibo asks to take a look at it. apparently he can zoom in on things now.

why bother making them in the shape of tiny Monokumas with cameras!

aw, it’s kind of cute.

apparently they function as a hivemind and they’re swarming all over the place. what the heck.

they bring up Kokichi using the electrobomb before.

haha.

although, Tsumugi... well. it doesn’t matter right now. we’ll see what happens in the trial.

...i feel like i’ve accidentally spelled her name as “Tsugumi” in these posts before, uhh. oops. listen. ...her name is literally right there, why... i have no excuse...

trial time! the “kubs” already won’t shut up and i hate it. Monokuma asks Shuichi why he called this trial.

gotta go back to that first case! he’s found new evidence and thinks that someone else was responsible for the murder, not Kaede.

did he become the ultimate survivor after that? what was he before that, then...

anyway, reviewing things! they thought Rantarou was the only one in the library at the time he was murdered, but that isn’t necessarily true.

someone was in the hidden room. someone had to have taken Rantarou’s Survivor Perk Monopad away from him after his death.

ughh, the bearsss

you tell ‘em, Shuichi.

they argue that he just didn’t have it with him, but the photo of Rantarou clearly shows him holding it.

regarding the timing, the mastermind would’ve known exactly what was happening in the library due to the tiny... Nanokumas? i think that’s what they were calling them.

Monokuma claims the Monopad got taken back just because it was meant for Rantarou’s eyes only, so after he died, it was removed. he says it’s not relevant, though, because this is about Rantarou’s murder itself.

Shuichi says that the mastermind was the one that killed Rantarou, though.

i still can’t believe it was just put in the trash can. who does that.

ughhh, i want to care about this trial but i really dislike those stupid bear cubs. just blow them all up already, they ruin everything

anyway... Shuichi says that Kaede’s shot put ball missed, so the mastermind had to fix it in order to keep the game going. that means that Kaede was executed for a murder she didn’t commit.

and now they’re trying to figure out who the mastermind is. Himiko suggests it was a 17th person, but:

it said that the person comes to the hidden room often, so they weren’t always there. if it was someone that had to stay completely hidden, it seems unlikely that they’d risk that.

there’s also the flashback light classroom--it reverts to a normal one when the door is opened. if they were just a 17th person, they could just use their own room for stuff like that.

the unfortunate truth that reveals is that the mastermind is one of them. Maki says it’s possible it’s not one of them right there; Kiibo agrees, saying the mastermind could have faked their death.

in order to really know who the mastermind is, Shuichi needs to know who killed Rantarou. which means he needs to go over everyone’s alibis again.

Himiko and Maki were in the game room. Kiibo was in his room. and Tsumugi was in the dining hall, but she left to go to the bathroom.

the bathroom that has the ~secret passage~. since the card reader dust was still there, that passageway is the only way the culprit could have gotten into the hidden room at that time.

etc.

Tsumugi denies that it’s her, saying it was just a coincidence that she was in the bathroom.

the trial continues and Shuichi points out that Tsumugi is the only one that didn’t try to command the “Motherkuma” to give birth to more Monokumas. she specifically told it to “create” more; it only works if the mastermind tells it to “birth” more.

why.

anyway, Shuichi doesn’t want to think Tsumugi is the mastermind. he’d prefer if she could refute what he’s saying. he wants everyone’s help and cooperation to find the truth.

Tsumugi isn’t saying anything to defend herself; they all want her to say anything that would prove her innocence.

Monokuma tells Shuichi to do the manga thing.

“wtf”

gotta be honest, i wouldn’t just stand around staring up if this happened, i’d immediately be backing away.

she has nothing to say to defend herself, though, all she says is that she didn’t do it and it’s obvious their logic is flawed. point out the flaws, then! participate!

no

no! get out of here

go away!

u_u

Shuichi says the trial is over; Monokuma covered up what she did and the whole game is illegitimate. 

she admits she messed up there, but that’s about it. the others start asking about the people watching.

the only reason she cared about things being exciting or the rules was just to replicate the original feel of the killing game.

Shuichi doesn’t believe that. that’s what they remember, but that doesn’t make it true. he brings up the book and asks everyone to say what they remember about Hope’s Peak and its history.

oh, that’s what was bothering him. and the other things... oh, this isn’t hard at all, even with my terrible memory. nice.

Shuichi brings up Rantarou--he said he’d won a previous killing game in his tape, but he’s not one of the students from Junko’s other games they know about.

he also has suspicions about Kokichi. they all assumed he was a Remnant of Despair, but Shuichi doesn’t think that’s true.

i never thought that was true, it didn’t make sense... idk why they were so convinced he was. is it because he lied all the time?? ...i mean i guess he did lie about being the mastermind and set up a murder and stuff, so it’s kind of understandable... and they had a memory of it or whatever.

anyway, Shuichi brings up Kokichi’s motive video and his organization.

it only had 10 people in it, too.

Shuichi talks about the flashback lights and the thing that makes them.

they “implant” memories and i don’t like the hangman’s gambit thing, geez.

the memories being false means that nothing they learned from the flashback lights matters. so even their memories about being students at Hope’s Peak...

okay, well, i apologize for being rude to Naegi before, then. if that plan isn’t real then it’s fine.

anyway, the reason she had them remember Kokichi as a Remnant of Despair is because she wanted to get rid of him; with them remembering Hope’s Peak as well, they’d be likely to target him, like Maki did.

all of the lights served a purpose like that--pushing them to do one thing or another, or feel a certain way about things.

Shuichi wants to know who this “Junko” is.

get out of there

THE SONG IS BACK

oh, good, it stopped. also, uhh, you’re kind of... drooling.

DR reveals the truth: cosplayers are evil

Shuichi brings up the whole “cospox” thing.

Megumi Ogata! <3

uhhh, right, actual game stuff is happening.

that’s stupid.

no u

no, it’s just stupid.

that doesn’t even make sense

“Sakura is my muscle waifu”

same tho

except i’d never use the word “waifu” ever, even ironically

so anyway this game really doesn’t want you to actually care about it, huh.

hey that ugly kid is there

you can’t mix Roman numerals and Arabic numerals like that

you know, if you’re sick of making these games or you’re bored or something, you don’t have to keep doing it.

well gee, if people want to watch teenagers murder each other in a game like this, i guess there’s just no choice but to continue making it happen

blllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhh

oh, hey! did you know i’m getting my passport today? i’ve never had one before, so i’m kind of nervous i’m going to mess up the application or something. i think it’ll be okay in the end, but i’m still a little worried. i’m really excited to go to Japan in May, though!

i’ve never even been outside of the US before, so that also makes me a little nervous, but i’ll be with my sister and her boyfriend, so i think it’ll be fine. i do need to make sure i keep studying Japanese, though, because i’m the only one that knows enough to have a conversation or read anything.

we’ll just be wandering around in Tokyo for the ~9 days we’re there, because we don’t want to wander too far and end up being lost or something. there’s plenty to do there, though! i want to eat a crepe~ which offends my sister because she’s been to France and had French crepes, but Japanese ones always look so good... and i’ve never been to France, so it’s not like i’ll know the difference.

in 53 seasons? really? what the hell were they doing

but i was talking about Japan. anyway! yeah, it should be pretty fun. i’m trying to save up as much money as i can. i’m not sure how much i should bring with me, but IIRC they still don’t really use cards much over there.

my sister is going to just withdraw cash whenever she needs it because apparently the conversation rate is better that way, so maybe that’s what i’ll mostly do as well. right now we’re looking at a place in Shibuya to stay at and it’s pretty close to a lot of really convenient things!

money aside, i kind of worry about public transportation. we don’t really use much of it here and it can be tricky to figure out, y’know? though with all the apps and technology around these days, it’ll probably be fine.

you can’t mess with me by using a piano~ you already did that once~

oh! there’s a really cute cafe that sells doughnuts that look like animals in Tokyo! we’re going to try to find it, but apparently it’s in a kind of hard-to-find place. the doughnuts are sooo cute, though.

oh, it finished.

sure, why not.

“ultimate real fiction” just sounds stupid

what was i talking about before? oh yeah, the doughnuts. honestly, i think the food will be a highlight of the trip, i am so ready to try new things and hopefully like them despite how picky i can be.

i think sometime before the trip i might go to one of those all-you-can eat Japanese places with my sister, just so we can try some things we've never had and make sure we're okay eating them. brand new things are fine to try, but you also don't want to get sick or just waste money on food during a trip like that...

i hate fish, so i know that's going to limit me a lot. i think other than fish the most common meat is chicken, though, so that should be fine? and i can have vegetable dishes or whatever, too.

hmmm... i ran out of things to say.

i just chose the option that appeared in front of me, don’t bring me into this. i'm done

hopebot

she wins: they get to live at the school forever Keebo wins: they have to finish the game and only two get to "graduate"

this post won't even let me stick any images in here anymore, so i guess i'm going to have to describe everything.

Kiibo volunteers to sacrifice himself so ~hope can win~. Maki also volunteers to sacrifice herself.

Shuichi starts talking about how he rejects that hope, blah blah, Kiibo's like "noooo despair can never be better"

Shuichi says that the people watching want hope, which is why this game keeps continuing and they ignore everything they suffer through to get this point. so if they choose hope here, they're just giving them what they want and it'll never end.

Shuichi wants to know what kind of punishment Maki and Kiibo will get. if it's what he's thinking, everything makes sense, including why Rantarou would participate in another game like this.

the punishment is to participate in the next game; Rantarou must have sacrificed himself last time, which is why he wanted to win this game. so if they choose "hope" here, the game won't end.

he decides he's not going to vote. if no one votes, the audience will hate it. he's done playing.

Shuichi gets the other three to agree and all of them decide to just stop. the audience doesn't like that and decide Kiibo's personality needs to be erased.

Shuichi says he's going to change the outside world, since they're why that happened to Kiibo.

okay i'm sick of not having screenshots, i'm going to do something

(click here for the secret end of the game post)

[tuwasduwillst]

ch6 (pt2)

read this after the other Ch6 post! this was originally a hidden private post so i could link it at the end of that one, but i don’t think it was working, so i changed it.

Shuichi does this and then it’s voting time.

Tsumugi says she didn’t vote for anyone, so it’s all down to Kiibo’s vote.

no votes.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(some rocks moved, so i’m assuming that Shuichi, Maki, and Himiko are fine.)

yep, there they are.

they’re going to go, but Shuichi isn’t sure about it being a peaceful world like Tsumugi said--after all, she mentioned her “copy” being perfect.

in the end, they have absolutely no way of knowing what’s true and what isn’t. Shuichi doesn’t think truths or lies really matter, though.

okay then

“:) i only have two friends left alive and my life is a lie”

there it is.

so... yeesh. i don’t even know where to start with that, so i’m just going to ignore it and check out some of this little extra stuff i unlocked. i’ll come back to my thoughts on the ending stuff once i’m done.

what the heck is this...

nope, i want to leave, get me out of this

aww, it’s a little board game!

oh my gosh, look at him! tiny pixel board game Shuichi! this is so cute!

oh.....

NO

c:

Sonia! <3

PROTAGONIST GANG

they chatted about how they tend to be the ones giving presents to people and it was really cute

he made a tiny little pixel bento... ; ~; 

playing games with this specific group of people is, uhh... Shuichi...

well, he’s fine.

D: Shuichi, no!

o:

:o!

Shuichi...

detective buddies!!

okay, this little game is cute and fun. i can see myself wasting a lot of time here.

...

:O

is he bullying her...

why

he didn’t get into a fight and beat everyone up like Shuichi did

he’s zooming around so quickly...

KOKICHI, NO

good lord.

cute and strange disaster boy club

tiny people that say terrible things to other people club

have fun with that

.......boss baby........

haha.

anyway, that’s enough of that for now.

what.

i see.

well, i don’t really have a ton of time to mess with this.

...

cute <3

so what’s up with these date ticket... thingies

:o

idk why that half heart is missing, btw, i didn’t do anything to cause that to happen as far as i can remember. it was just like that

anyway, this is interesting. when i get more time i’m going to mess with it more!

alas, i really need to sleep now, so i’ll wrap this up.

so... that ending. it’s probably more than obvious i completely checked out at a certain point because i just Did Not Care. honestly, whether or not Tsumugi was telling the truth doesn’t interest me. who cares. the game could’ve killed off Shuichi, Himiko, and Maki and it wouldn’t have made a difference to me at that point, despite liking Shuichi and Maki (and tolerating Himiko by the end, i guess).

i know DR is fond of its twists and weird random things, and sometimes it’s fun and/or interesting, but... i don’t know. maybe it was just too much this time. i was tired of it and i felt like i was just pushing my way through to the end out of sheer stubbornness. 

and there’s a big difference between a character that lies and is confusing--like Kokichi--and a game that is constantly lying and being confusing, IMO. Kokichi is fun and interesting and i’m definitely going to spend some time going over what he did to see if i think of it/him any differently now that i’ve finished up. the game as a whole felt like it was trying too hard to be ~shocking~ and ~twisty~, which is frustrating and annoying as a player. 

at what point should i really care? i’m not going to want to invest myself emotionally in a game that’s going to just yank me from place to place and then push me down the stairs and yell “gotcha!” as soon as i think we’ve finally stopped for a bit.

in the end, i wouldn’t say i hate DRV3, but it’s because i don’t care enough about it to feel that strongly about it, which is worse (IMO). i liked some of the characters, but they unfortunately aren’t enough to save the game itself for me.

 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ is my final verdict, basically.

BUT, that said, i will probably spend time with the little bonus features in this game and i’m definitely going to be thinking about the characters i did like, so it’s not a complete failure.

[tuwasduwillst]

same as the others, spoilers below

No problem! I understand what it's like to want to check a line in the original version. If you want, I can give you a link to a JPN playthrough that I've been using to check, after you're done with the game. That playlist is helpful but the vids aren't split by chapter so it's easy to get spoiled if you skip around in them. For what Ouma calls Gonta, it's actually just his first name, no changes. Because his name is spelt 獄原 ゴン太, katakana and all.

Oh, that would be great, thanks! :D

And ooh, I see. I didn’t know he had the kanji in his name.

chemicalnimu replied to your post “ch5 (pt2)”

Haha you found that inconsistent part about the hand in the sleeve! It bothered me too when I first played and later I learned that it was a localization error (they re-drew this CG a bit) in the original the hand was positioned close to the body so the transition in the video was pretty smooth. Also that's a horrible way to go...probably quick and better than being stuck with torture poison but still *shudders* that's some dedication. Too bad it was all for nothing.

They redrew it...? o_O That’s weird.

Yeah, it’s definitely not a good way to die, but there aren’t many actually good ways to die. >_> It makes me sad he had to do all that while being poisoned, poor little guy.

Actually now I’m thinking about it more and I’m really sad, haha... what the heck. :c