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kingofbodyrolls · 10 months

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BTS fic recs: June 2023

I've finally gotten back to reading again, so I wanted to make a monthly rec list of my favorite readings for that given month 🥰 All the fics on this list hold a dear place in my heart 🥹

I want to thank each and every writer on this list for creating such wonderful stories and art - you are truly amazing ✨

If you read anything on this list and you like it, please leave a comment to the writer or reblog the original fic’s post ♥

BTS fic rec index → May |💜| Jul | Aug | Sep (jjk)(knj) | Oct (pjm) | Nov (*) | Dec (ksj)(kth) |

Emoji meaning → angst = 🌩️, smut = 🥵, fluff = 🥰, comedy = 😂, personal favorites = 💯.

⭐The Boy with Galaxies in His Eyes 💯 by @oddinary4bts // jjk x reader // idol!au + fwb2l // 🌩️🥵🥰

📝 You had never thought the night sky could be found in someone’s eyes. That is, until you met Jeon Jungkook and his gravity pulled you in. Will he crush you with the galaxies in his eyes, or will you learn to explore his worlds and make them yours?

🗨️ It is a long one, but damn is it worth it! It will take you for the very best rollercoaster ride of your life. So if you haven’t read this yet, what are you honestly doing with your life?

⭐The Boy with Galaxies in His Eyes: The First Time (drabble) by @oddinary4bts // jjk x reader // idol!au + fwb2l // 🥵🥰

📝 Jeon Jungkook is an enigma of galaxies and black holes. When he texts you to hang out late at night, you can’t resist the gravity of him. After all, you’ve always been a sucker for outer space.

🗨️ This is a drabble of their first time together and if you read the parent fic, promise me you won’t sleep on this one! ✨

⭐I want to be with you 💯 by @oddinary4bts // pjm x reader // idol!au + s2f2l (fan) // 🌩️🥵🥰

📝 Moving to Seoul has always seemed like a good idea, until the bubble bursts when you realize your new neighbor is Park Jimin, and he’s not the sweet angel you’ve always imagined him to be. Will the reality of Park Jimin forever be a nightmare, or will he turn into a sweet dream?

🗨️ This was the first idol!au that I loved (and made me read the others). I adore this and I will read it again sometime 🥰

⭐Beneath the Water 💯 by @jungshookz // pjm x reader // fantasy!au + mermaid!au // 🌩️🥵🥰😂

📝 His legs were sparkling. You looked up from his face slowly and towards his legs, your head tilting in confusion when you were met with the sight of… well, it certainly wasn’t a pair of legs. What the fuck?

🗨️ This is just perfect; a tiny bit angst, gold certified comedy and fluff (with a sprinkle of smut). There’s also a bullet point drabble of this, so please check that out too (here).

⭐Failure to Communicate by @gukslut and @stutterfly // pjm x reader // college!au + r2l // 🌩️🥵😂

📝 Could either of you write an enemies to lover story about jimin and y/n set in college where he was her TA and got her kicked out of her major bc he didnt give her the grade she needed and was generally unhelpful?

🗨️ I don’t have much to say, just go read it - it speaks for itself ✨

⭐On Mute by @yoon-kooks // jjk x reader // office!au, coworkers!au, fuckboy!gamer!jjk + f2l // 🥵🥰

📝 You always assumed your handsome coworker was down to fuck anyone in the office except for you. He always assumed you weren’t interested in a guy like him. And both of you were content with never admitting your feelings… until he unknowingly confides in you in the realms of a certain tactical FPS game.

🗨️ It’s just so cute and wholesome 🥹

⭐Make Me 💯 by @jikookiekosmos // pjm x reader // office!au, boss!jimin/employee!reader + dom/sub themes // 🥵🥰🌩️

📝 After a bad breakup, you decide to go out one night and drink your sorrows away - that is, until you see your now ex-boyfriend there with someone clinging to his arm. To get your mind off of things, you go back to your job after hours; what you don’t expect is for your boss and CEO of the company, Park Jimin, to show up and offer you help in ways you didn’t know you needed.

🗨️ It has heavy dom/sub themes (which I’m normally not into, but imma switch for this one!). It is incredibly hot and so, so damn perfect 🥵

⭐Pay Attention 💯 by @jikookiekosmos // pjm x reader // office!au, boss!jimin/employee!reader + dom/sub themes // 🥵🥰

📝 You’d mentioned it in passing once before, your fantasy about blowing your boss - and now boyfriend - under his desk during one of his important CEO business meetings. So what happens when you want to turn that fantasy into a reality, and he wants it just as much?

🗨️ This is a sequel to ‘Make Me’ (but can be read as a stand-alone) - and it is just pure dirty smut. The dynamic between reader and Jimin is just so good ✨

⭐On Call: part 1 & On Call: part 2 by @yoonjinkooked // jjk x reader // s2l + rom-com // 🥵😂

📝 After a catastrophic first date, you end up leaving the hospital angry, tired and date-less. Hoping to have a drink or five, you end up in a nearby bar, sitting next to the same doctor who caught your eye earlier.

🗨️ Both parts are really, really good!

⭐Shake Shack 💯 by @kth1 // pjm x reader // s2l (though they went to the same high school) // 🥵🥰

📝 Crushing on a man ever since high school, you failed time and time again to actively talk to him. Until one sweaty summer day, you finally developed the courage to ask him out on a date.

🗨️ The story is so good, perfect amounts of sweet, a bit fluffy and then downright saucy!

⭐A Night at the Mall by @bunnybubae // jjk x reader // f2l // 🥵🥰

📝 Your best friend Jungkook works as a security guard at the mall and everything takes an interesting twist when you go to visit him during his shift on a friday night.

🗨️ Jungkook is so sweet and funny in this, ahh.

⭐Backtrack 💯 by @mapofthesea // myg x pjm x reader // producers!yoonmin, assistant!reader, bi!yoongi // 🥵🥰

📝 There’s no telling just how long you’d been stuck in the windowless studio, and you’re just about ready to walk out and forfeit your paycheck for the week, until your bosses strike up an interesting bargain.

🗨️ Holy fuck 🥵 I feel like I need to take a very long shower now 🫣🫣🫣 this is probably one of the dirtiest fics I’ve read. It’s so good 🤤

⭐The Forgotten Spaces [completed series] 💯 by @oddinary4bts // jjk x reader // college!au, dancer!au + e2l // 🌩️🥵🥰

📝 you’ve been dancing on the same dance crew since your teenage years, and you finally have an important role in it. It feels like life is taunting you when your rival comes back after disappearing for a year, ready to tease you every chance he gets. Will the teasing turn into more, or are you going to take him down with you?

🗨️ This is truly a masterpiece! The writing is perfection and the characters have so much soul, dimension, hurt and love. It is exceptional 👏🏾♥️ you just have to read this gem 💎

Thank you so much for going through my recommendations! I hope you find something that you like and show it some love. All of these fics and writers have inspired me to write again, so I'm finally working on my own stuff again (it’s been like 7+ years, yikes 🙈). Hopefully I'll actually finish something this time 😂 but damn it feels good to write again ♥

If you should be interested in more BTS fic recs please find more here 😀

#bts fic recs #bts fic #bts fanfic #bts imagine #bts scenarios #jimin fanfic #park jimin x reader #jungkook fanfic #jungkook x reader #yoongi fanfic #Yoongi x reader #bts smut

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incorrectallpersonaquotes · 6 months

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First impressions of Persona 5 Tactica, no explicit spoilers

As a Persona game, it's an amazing Fire Emblem game. Explaining: it feels more like I'm playing a Fire Emblem game with Persona characters in it. Which is not a bad thing, but I could see a Persona fan buying the game and feeling disappointed by the differences. It's not the same as Persona 5 Strikers that, although it does have a different battle system, still feels very much like a Persona game, giving the exact same energy.

Ryuji finally has a rival on being too loud for their own good: Erina is very cool, I love her.

Apparently, Lavenza's been hanging out a lot with Elizabeth and Margaret: SHE'S MORE CHAOTIC THAN EVER AND IT'S AMAZING!!!

Speaking not as a Persona fan, but as a tactical RPG fan (Final Fantasy Tactics is my favorite game of all times, even above Persona 5 Royal, a close second place), the system is very cool and fun to play. It has a certain level of freedom different from anything I've ever played in that genre, it has some elements of Disgaea and Phantom Brave, but so particular that, although the game itself reminds me a lot of Fire Emblem, the combat couldn't be more unique. Very cool!

The chibi/cartoon design is VERY HANDSOME, I love the 3D cutscenes, it's all so pretty and cool and fun <3

(had to interrupt the gaming to go buy groceries and have dinner, will resume playing soon)

#Persona 5 #Persona 5 Tactica

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the-priestess-of-dawn · 5 months

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Grima and Final Blows

The other day I mentioned that I had an essay about Grima to write that I'd been putting off, and between that and all the great essays my fellow Grimleal scholars have been putting out recently, I decided to sit down and finally get it done.

So here you go. An analysis of Grima's difficulties with directly killing people.

Okay, so I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time, because one of my favorite things to explore when it comes to Grima is the gap between their villain act, which they actively play up in front of others in both Awakening and FEH, and their true feelings, which are hinted at in Awakening (particularly through the Future Past DLC) and made even clearer in FEH— their own evil actions are repulsive to them, and they wish they could live normally among humans, but they don’t believe they have any choice but to be the monster that “the fell dragon, Grima” is supposed to be. They are committed to this “fell dragon” character, to putting on a show for everyone, and they are so good at it that it’s easy to overlook that they… uh… aren’t very good at killing anyone important. Not directly, anyway.

Sure, Grima is responsible for numerous deaths. But what is their actual kill count? Well, in Awakening’s main game… zero. (Unless you count Chrom, but, as we witness, that was not a voluntary act on their part; Validar took control of their body. You could also make the argument that Grima “claiming the sacrifice” at the Dragon’s Table counts, but the problem with that is, although it’s obvious that Grima accepts the life force of the Grimleal members as a sacrifice, it’s not at all clear whether or not Grima personally kills them. Although it’s possible that they did off screen, it’s also possible that Validar killed them, or that they were ordered to take their own lives; there’s no reason Grima would have had to lay a hand on them.) In the Future Past, it’s… one, maybe one and half (Naga’s spirit, and Tiki, but only in body. More on this later.)

And it’s not as though Fire Emblem shies away from showing villains directly murdering people, Even in Awakening itself, the intro to Chapter 9 shows Aversa killing a Plegian soldier for delivering an unsatisfactory report, so it wouldn’t have been out of place to let Grima stab a few NPCs as a show of brutality. Especially seeing as Grima is the evil dragon final boss. As early as Mystery of the Emblem, we can see Medeus killing his cleric hostages to restore his own health if you fail to rescue them before trying to defeat him, and as recently as Engage, we get a whole cutscene of Sombron eating Hyacinth. Fantasy violence my beloved <3

Anyway, the point is, Grima could have been written to be much more violent and I don’t think anyone would have complained. Instead, though, Grima repeatedly— and consistently across the series— tries to avoid engaging in direct combat.

Let’s start with what Grima does in the main game of Awakening. We know that Risen pursue Lucina into the past, because we see them fall out of the portal with her in Chapter 1. We also know that those Risen, as well as the others that are appearing throughout the land, are not being directly controlled by Grima, because later in Chapter 13, as the Shepherds are leaving Plegia after meeting with Validar, Aversa, and the Hierophant, they are pursued by more skilled Risen, and Frederick notes that “Either they are learning our ways, or someone is commanding them…” So… It seems that sending the Risen—with or without specific orders—to attack while Grima is not themself present is a favored tactic.

But what about when Grima is present? Take a look at the Endgame: Grima chapter. Yes, you eventually get to engage Grima in direct combat. But not immediately. What Grima does first is…

Grima attacks the Shepherds with dark spikes from a distance, reducing everyone’s hp to 1. Now, here’s what happens next: Grima attempts to possess their past self, Robin hears the voices of their friends and breaks free, Naga heals everyone back to full health, and then the fight against Grima begins… Except actually, the Shepherds have to get to Grima first, because they’re at the top of the map and they’re not budging. Naga warns them that “Grima’s servants will beset [them] to no end.” and she’s not kidding. Grimleal reinforcements will spawn infinitely, and they can hit pretty hard. Even with everyone starting at full health, it’s possible to lose units to these Grimleal soldiers if Grima isn’t defeated quickly. Can you imagine what would happen if Naga hadn’t healed the Shepherds first?

Well, I’d guess that they’d probably all die to the Grimleal without Grima having to face them up close. Which was probably what Grima was going for.

This isn’t the only time Grima tries the dark spikes trick, either. Grima attempts this exact same move in the Future Past 3 when they face Lucina, Severa, Laurent, and Gerome.

Grima announces “With the next blow, I will kill you.” and then demands that they hand over the Fire Emblem as well as the gemstone they hold. The threat is very real. But…

Given that at 1hp, a gust of wind could take the kids out, would it not have been easier and faster to kill them and just loot their bodies immediately? And yet Grima lets the kids have an extended discussion about sacrifice, and even suggests that Lucina would indeed buy a little more time by running… Again, I cannot stress enough that Grima should be able to finish them off in one hit at this point.

So the plan was almost certainly to back off and let the Risen do the actual killing, even though that would be a lot less efficient under the circumstances. And when Chrom and the Shepherds arrive, Grima immediately turns their attention to them, saying “If it’s a reunion you seek, my soldiers shall welcome you on my behalf.” Then they once again pick a spot at the back of the map and refuse to move from it, forcing the Shepherds to fight through the Risen in order to engage Grima in combat at all.

And sure, Grima has some excuses. “I was hoping not to have to flex any muscle,” they say right before the dark spikes attack, as if to justify why they didn’t do it sooner. And of course they taunt Lucina over having to choose to whether to run as her friends sacrifice themselves for her or to stay and fight and die with them. “I must say I shall enjoy this either way!” Yes, Grima, we get it, you’ve made it very clear that you’re an arrogant asshole.

But is arrogance really all there is to it? If we look at what Tiki tells Grima in the good ending of the Future Past, it looks as though Grima’s arrogance has brought their own downfall. “If you had left Mount Prism alone, Grima, you might have stood a chance. Instead, you have brought the Awakening right to your feet.” However, when you think about it… Is Tiki’s continued existence not in itself a result of Grima’s repeated pattern of not really wanting to land a finishing blow? The game states that Grima did in fact kill Tiki… but only in body, not in spirit. This is, according to Tiki, because Robin intervened.

Now, the question I have is… Is it really possible that Robin could have intervened both against Grima’s will and without them having any idea? Honestly, it’s hard to tell exactly how aware Grima is of Robin’s resistance, because they lie about it a lot, e.g. stating that Robin’s spirit perished in sending Chrom back to his own world, even though just moments later, Robin is once again overpowering them. So, keeping in mind that Grima is a liar, was Grima really arrogant to leave Tiki’s body in Ylisstol, and to not make sure that her spirit was fully destroyed? Or was Robin simply able to capitalize on Grima’s propensity towards backing off?

Because surely the only way Grima could be unaware that Robin had acted against them is if Robin hadn’t actually acted against them. I don’t think I believe that Grima really wanted Tiki gone. Naga, sure—longtime nemesis and all. But if Grima had truly cared about seeing Tiki’s existence destroyed… Well, I doubt Robin could have interfered that much.

But maybe it could still be a matter of arrogance. Maybe Grima just didn’t think Tiki’s spirit could do anything with Naga’s spirit gone, and thus didn't care to pay attention to her anymore once she seemed dead enough.

If that’s true, it doesn’t explain why Shadows of Valentia Grima exhibits the exact same habits when fighting Alm and Celica, despite never having been outside of the Thabes Labyrinth at this point in their life. As opposed to the various Terrors throughout the rest of the Labyrinth, which chase Alm (or Celica) down in the overworld to force a fight, Grima is immobile in their room, and will wait patiently there indefinitely until the player chooses to engage. You can even evacuate from the dungeon.

But if you do choose to fight Grima, it proceeds much like the battles against them in Awakening go. The main difference is that they actually will move from their starting position this time, if you position someone in their range. That still requires a fight against (proto-)Risen who are spawning in from the sides to stop your party’s advance.

So… Now it’s starting to look like Grima actively prefers this one particular trick… And it’s a fundamentally defensive maneuver, which makes perfect sense from SoV Grima’s standpoint (they were attacked out of nowhere, after all), but is not really an obvious standout strategy for Awakening Grima, whose taunts and threats suggest an aggression that would be better supported with a more offensive strategy… Consider, too, that Awakening Grima is in fact being even more defensive than their SoV iteration, since they don’t move towards you at all.

With all that in mind, it really, really looks like Grima doesn’t want to fight, especially in Awakening. Not that they don’t intend for the Shepherds to die—on the contrary, they’ve set everything up so that the Shepherds will eventually be overwhelmed—but that they don’t want to land the killing blow.

(And gee, I wonder what might be fueling their reluctance? Being controlled and made to kill your best friend by your own hand wouldn't be totally traumatic or anything, right?)

And then... Funny thing here, I’ve been procrastinating writing this essay for a long time. I originally started thinking about it shortly before the Depths of Despair banner was released in FEH, so imagine my surprise when I saw this characterization hold up in the writing of Fell Exalt Chrom’s Forging Bonds as well… The Grima there says that Chrom was the one to kill the rest of the Shepherds. Now, it’s pretty clear that it was through Grima controlling him, but that’s not the point. The point is that once again, Grima didn't have to do any direct killing.

Look, if it had only ever happened once, I could buy that maybe Grima was just underestimating their opponents, that maybe they thought they could get away without having to put very much work in. But for Grima to operate this way so many times, so consistently, and to their own detriment? No...

Grima doesn’t like direct combat. Grima has trouble even when it’s a fight they asked for.

And when you think about it, that makes their reaction to Robin choosing to land the final blow themself in the sacrifice ending all the more understandable.

“…YOU WOULD… NOT DARE!”

Because Grima would not dare. Grima has always preferred to let someone else land the final blow.

#grima #fire emblem awakening #fe13 #grima studies #honestly realizing that main game grima doesn't kill anyone kind of shook me #future past grima only has naga and tiki... neither of which we get to see on screen so tbh grima might have weaseled out of them too #expiration has 5 range after all. naga could have just taken some dragon breath to the face from afar. we truly have no idea what grima did #to my knowledge the only time we see grima actually try to KILL kill (not dark spikes 1hp em) is... rearmed grima in the forging bonds stor #not her specific forging bonds but the general overarching one for that banner #which i have major problems with for other reasons anyway #and which might be retconned by feh itself bc thrasir said arcane weapons should be avoided at all costs yet... so many rearmed heroes now #so i don't feel too bad ignoring that one #but yeah like... writing this essay made me feel for grima even more #um... you know that one quote that the robin who's part of the day of devotion duo with chrom has...#“Having someone to express your love to is an amazing thing. There IS more to life than constant battle!”#yeah. i think about that quote and i think about grima's defensive fighting style and i. feel things.#to exist always on the defensive...#such an exhausting life they lead

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sorenblr · 7 months

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thoughts on Akihiko Yoshida? hes done several greatest game of all time contenders but I still don't know how 2 feel about him tbh

I would rank him highly, although I do think his best work belongs to a bygone era. I've always had a lot of affection for Yoshida as the Square-affiliated artist most likely to describe form with profuse hatching. The original Tactics Ogre cover is one of my favorite pieces of game art:

I think he produced his most compelling work around this period, in collaboration with Hiroshi Minagawa, and more generally prior to the onset of HD development. I don't know how deeply involved he was with the process (Minagawa is credited as supervisor in both cases), but between Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII, his designs have been treated to the most compelling applications of texture mapping in the medium.

I also love the lush storybook style he adopted for Four Heroes of Light, and I wish that quality had carried more cleanly into Bravely Default.

His contributions to FFXIV are obviously accomplished but they don't really stand out in my mind due to their proximity to so many other artists on that project working in a style that roughly approximates his own. I think that's something that has muddled my impression of his work over the past decade, the glut of designers seemingly trained in his style, or the new prominence of those who simply came up in the industry working in a comparable idiom, usually in the Ivalice games. The deliberately abstracted faces contrasted with baroque or luxuriously rendered dress, the almost exclusive use of earth tones etc. It's evident everywhere from certain of Kazuya Takahashi's key art in FFXVI to Naoki Ikushima's entire corpus of Yoshida-lite emulations, even Hideo Minaba's work on Granblue Fantasy.

At one point this was a perfect triangular complement to the sectors defined by Amano and Nomura, but as we recede further and further from any remaining stylistic imprint of the former and all the appealing extravagance is bled from the latter, a sort of repetitious sameness sets in. It's no fault of Yoshida's, and I think his own work still consistently outshines his "imitators", but it probably accounts for my cooler feelings of late.

As an aside, the guy has definitely indulged his predilections to a greater degree as time goes on. He's settled on an anatomical template for his female characters that I find vaguely disquieting, as evinced in this Tomb Raider illustration. That one has especially chitinous proportions, but most of it is basically just, like... hippy zettai ryoiki shit. A fetish so mild that it's one step removed from being really 'into' big titties. Guys with active accounts across multiple booru image boards will be cranking their shit to 2B for long and silent aeons, when even the memory of man is only a shadow over the wine-dark sea.

I would still like another game where he's allowed a fuller reign over design responsibilities. Like Nomura, he's reached a position of seniority that precludes him from designing anything beyond a few core characters and some key art, leaving the heft of the work to younger artists or middle-talents like Roberto Ferrari. Hopefully he'll be on tap for something other than Nier Automota phone games or FFXIV package illustrations or whatever the fuck Little Noah: Scion of Paradise is supposed to be. Damn, videogames are rough! This shit is not cooking!

#ask #akihiko yoshida #final fantasy #tactics ogre #vagrant story #nier automata #hiroshi minagawa #naoki ikushima #hideo minaba

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superthatguy62 · 3 months

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top 5 ffs?

Oh, hello.

Just as a warning, I have yet to go through the post 5 FF games to a significant degree, so I'll be including some spinoffs:

5: Final Fantasy Explorers

I haven't played... well, any Monster Hunter-type games, so FFE was my first taste of it, and you know what? I enjoyed it. I played it on single-player, so it was essentially "Beastmaster: The Game" and the bosses were still fun enough. Also it probably has one of my top 5 favorite Big Bridge remixes and some of the music (particularly the general boss theme and Odin's theme) are highlights for me.

4: Final Fantasy Tactics

It clears the 'higher-than-you'd-expect' hurdle of me being able to actually play a decent amount of a strategy game and is generally fun to boot. I got up to Chapter 3 before the random encounters started kicking my ass enough to discourage me from continuing (though the fights towards the end of chapter 2 really tested my patience), though said encounters didn't help by me playing the PSP version with its magic/animation slowdown. By all accounts, I should probably go for the GBA/DS games since those lack permadeath (albeit with a very different tone plotwise), but I still intend to try out the PS1 version of the first game and hopefully not grind myself into a corner.

3: Final Fantasy 2

Yes, this. FF2's 'quirky' and 'complicated', but I dig the story, the gameplay once your characters actually get built up and just general setting. It's also to read the supplementry material and other notes on what could have been: It really shows that the devs were putting some thought into the story and its a shame how some elements didn't translate properly. It's the type of game where it gets better the more you know of how it works. That said the dungeon design alone holds this back fiercely, especially in the PSP's Arcane Labyrinth (Darkness floor, my beloathed). Speaking of which, the bonus content for this game is probably some of the better such content of these re-releases.

2: Final Fantasy 3

Wow, what a surprise.

FF3 is basically the video game equivalent of "it could be that deep" in my eyes. Because you don't have any of those fancy "Materias", "GFs", Magicites" or even abilities to carry over like in FFV and FFT, you need to team build your way through whatever the game throws at you. Again, FF3 is one of those games that gets better when you have more an idea of what to expect: Getting thrown into a mini-dungeon early on is annoying, but its less so when you have mages prepared ahead of time to either magic their way through or play "pass the Fire Rod that the devs conveniently added". The world isn't fully developed, but the nuggets you can find are interesting, especially the whole duality concept and the existence of the World of Darkness.

But this is also the same guy who has spent however many years obsessing over this game, so you know. Feel free to add some salt to this opinion.

As for why this isn't higher, it's because my image of this game has been ruined by my obsession, and there I feel there is no "definitive" version. All three versions are playable (yes, even the remake) and enjoyable (yes, even the remake), but all have enough pros and cons that I can't fully say one is better than the others. It's the kind of game that feels like it has yet to reach its full potential and I unfortunately don't think there are many people, at least in the west, who would care even if it did. 3's always been the overshadowed game. After all, FF5 is right there. And, oh hey, speaking of...

1: Final Fantasy 5:

Not quite a basic answer, but still a not-uncommon one, I feel. I was very late to the FF5 party, only playing it when the PR came out and not even experiencing it through osmosis like I did with FF6, and while my obsession with 3 means that it will never overcome that bias, I can easily see why people consider it to be the gameplay peak of the Nintendo-era, if not 6. It builds on what 1 and 3 started and the job combos can be fun to play with. That said, I'll admit that part of my ranking it so high is a particularly impressive mod known as "Custom Classes", which allows you to swap out basically all of the commands, meaning that you can carry over more than one skill between jobs. I haven't finished a full playthrough of CC yet, but between that and the reasons I gave for FF3, I'll be willing to give the edge to 5 over it.

Also, 5 gave us Gilgamesh and ExDeath (and indirectly eScape, and therefore The Twinning).

Honorable Mentions:

Dissidia (012): I don't know how to feel about this game. Settingwise: I love the ways it expands the FF1 mythos, but I hate how WoL is a manikin and what that implies for the rest of the FF1 party. It gave me my favorite portrayal of Garland, but it also gave me Onion Knight, whom I resent for sidelining Luneth's party in later crossovers. Even gameplaywise, I like the general gameplay, at least on paper, but I think I get far frustrated with it more than I would with a normal fighting game. Yet, I keep playing or get the urge to keep playing. Maybe it deserves to be on the list? Maybe it doesn't?

Final Fantasy VIII: I haven't gotten far in FFVIII (I finished the Dollet mission) but what I've played so far feels promising as far as my first PS1-era FF goes (some perfectionism on my part aside). Junctioning is an 'interesting' mechanic, but I think I like it. I need to get the hang of Triple Triad, but I can understand how people get hooked on it.

Final Fantasy Dimensions: Albeit with the mother of all asterisks: This is here mostly for the 'idea' than the execution right now. Like the other FFT games, I do have it ready for play, I just haven't gotten around to it, because when I play games on my phone, it's usually the gatchas that I'm stockholm syndrome'd to playing right now and it's rare for me to not be playing at least 2 at a time. At some point I do want to get around to actually playing it, but until it gets like a steam release or something, it'll be one of those "get to it eventually" type games.

Final Fantasy: Admittedly, it has been ages since I played through FF1 (relatively speaking) compared to every other game on this list aside from FFE, so I don't know how much mention it merits. But I'll put it here anyway.

#asks #Final Fantasy #opinions

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cyberphuck · 8 months

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I've been working hard, I've earned an infodump about my comfort character, right? The blorbo I put in Situations? Yeah!

SIT DOWN @qthewhatever IT'S TIME TO LEARN ABOUT ISILUD TENGILLE

(under a cut because I have *manners.*)

Isilud Tengille!

(we don't talk about his psx translation name!)

There he is, the boy! That's it, just a lil green dude! He's in three scenes! (people counting: abandoning Wiegraf and bleeding out both count as half a scene.)

Isilud is a Templar Knight working for the final fantasy tactics Church, sent-- along with his good buddy Wiegraf Folles-- to steal the Virgo Stone, a priceless religious artifact. He's 16 and he loves his job, which he got through nepotism (his dad is the leader of the Templar).

You first encounter Isilud at the monastery where Virgo is housed, where he casually stabs a defenseless old priest before stepping over his body and running to the lower vaults to grab the loot. Your main character charges down after him, and you smack into him while he's coming back up the stairs with a suspicious Virgo-shaped lump in his pocket.

Tactics likes to do this thing where it locks you into several (usually pretty difficult) battles in a row; Isilud is the second of these at the monastery. He's got a gang of both regular and Grasshopper knights crawling all over his battle map, which is a library where you can walk between or on top of bookshelves. Isilud is pretty much just a knight with rainbow sprinkles, but-- for some insane reason, as a boss whose fight takes place *underground*-- has both the "jump" and "ignore elevation" abilities, usually reserved for grasshopper knights who shoot 60 feet in the air and then land on you to deal damage.

(The jump ability is fun and useful if you're using it. When enemies use it it's fucking annoying, because you can't hit them while they're in the air.)

Anyway, Isilud's response to the main character's query of "why are you working for the Church, which the plot has established sucks a lot" is "the Church does not suck, in fact it's awesome, we want less corruption and more equality, and you should be helping us do that!"

(unbeknownst to Isilud, every single word in that sentence is wrong.)

Main character points out that Isilud literally just punctured a priest, and that's not very equality of him, but Isilud shrugs and says "you gotta break a couple of eggs to make an omelet. Also, you murdered a Cardinal."

("The end does not justify the means, do you even hear yourself, people are fucking dying" is the main theme of the game.)

The main character knows that the holy stones, including Virgo, that the Church is collecting are actually chunks of evil rock that turn people into demons. When he gently breaks this to Isilud, he says "NUH UH" and runs away.

That is the only battle you have against Isilud.

Isilud sprints for the exit, grabs main character's sister as a hostage, drags her out of the monastery, steps over a dying Wiegraf--

"Wiegraf, are you ok?!"

--and then makes his escape, only to be IMMEDIATELY stopped and taken prisoner by another dude.

(I am not even going to attempt to explain the different factions in final fantasy tactics, suffice to say this other dude is not on Isilud's side but he's not on your side either.)

Much later, Isilud is confronted by his father, who's just found out that Isilud lost all the special holy rocks he was carrying when he was captured. Enraged, his dad slaps him across the face and the animation for this is fantastic. I used to have a gif of it but idk where it is now, so here's one of Wiegraf killing his own dude:

And here's one of Delita punching Argath:

Which is a fan favorite.

Moving on.

After Isilud's dad is finished performing percussive maintenance on his son, he turns to the other people in the room, says "you fucked around, now it's time to find out," turns into a demon (hey, the evil demon stones really do make people into demons, who knew) and kills everyone in the room.

Including Isilud.

Isilud's final scene is of him being comforted by the sister he took hostage at the monastery. He begs her to tell her brother "you were right, sorry I tried to kill you" and then complains weakly that it's gotten really dark, and he can't move his arm to grab his sword (he also coughs up blood, another choice piece of sprite animation).

Then he dies.

(Later, HIS sister shows up to avenge his death, main character turns her around and points her at the right people, they go on to kill evil dad and save the ORIGINAL sister, and then everyone gets crushed under a cave-in and/or is trapped in purgatory forever.)

(It's a great game.)

#final fantasy tactics #isilud tengille #maybe brig can infodump about Wiegraf

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thatwordybirb · 3 months

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Ask game! 5, 7, 9, 11, and 14!! :D

Oh! =O Heck, I didn't expect- thank you!! Um!!!

5. something you see in fics a lot and love

That's, ooo, that's tough, since I don't have much spare time and I mostly spend it writing mine instead of reading. Thinking back on my favorite moments, though, I think hurt/comfort is my jam. Heartache, heartbreak, hyperventilation, gimme pain, gimme panic, gimme people barely holding together putting one foot in front of the other even when the person they lean on isn't there, I wanna see what my faves are made of and I want it to hurt!

7. your favorite tropes to read/write/draw

Damn, might've blown my load a bit early there! X'D I'm not super familiar with the functionally infinite catalog of tropes, though, so... hm, had to ask my beautiful beta readers for suggestions - aaand we immediately got on a tangent about Wide Screen Farquaad and started cackling like goons, okay!! Er!!! Now that I think about it, Found Family is in everything I'm writing. My Animal Crossing story features a lot of Tom Nook's relationship with Timmy and Tommy, my MHA story centers around if Tomura was adopted by Principal Nezu instead of All for One, my Final Fantasy Tactics Advance story is all about Marche gathering a family of adventurers with Montblanc - it's an important part of everything I'm writing. Okay the giggles have stopped and one of my betas insists that "furries adopting children" is the Most Important but I don't think that's actually a trope, thanks sis-

9. a ship that isn’t your OTP but that you enjoy

Oh, um, hrm, fuck, I have. So many OTP's. So that complicates things! I love them all so much!! I think the best fit is Sonadow, thanks to @shadows-coffeebeans - I'm not totally in love with it (yet), but I do enjoy it quite a bit!!!

11. if you’re a writer or artist, what fic or piece of art are you proud of making?

I'm actually really proud of all the things I'm writing lately! =D Got three novel-length fics in the fire, really love how they're turning out!! None of them are er, out yet, though, besides an MHA one-shot I posted last April. I haven't started posting them because I don't want to be discouraged by lack of readers. I will once they're done (except the MHA one, I will start posting that when the final episode of the anime airs), but until then, they only exist as google docs for folks that wanna beta read.

14. the ship that always makes you smile

All of the ones I love do! But by far the one that gets the most content, and thus the constant deluge of smiles, is Sam & Max. Ship is called Freelance Husbands, I adore how dedicated the fandom is, and it always fills my heart with sugar and sunshine, especially even when it's angsty~!

Sorry this one took me so long to finish, you're probably in bed by now, but feel free to reply tomorrow (if you want to at all, no pressure), and thank you so much for the pleasant surprise!!

#me talking tag #personal #fanfic #fandom

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roegadynroost · 8 months

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~About Roegadyn Roost~

Hello there fellow FFXIV enthusiasts and big lady enjoyers.

My name is Anarnee, I'm a 30+ ace woman that loves all things about female Roegadyn.

My journey in Eorzea started ten years ago in 2013. My younger brother was playing the game on PS3 and I saw him running through Ul'dah and it reminded me of Rabanastre from FFXII. I've been a devout Final Fantasy fan since I was very young, but I was super against MMOs at the time, so I was really upset when FFXI and XIV were going to be MMOs. I however gave FFXIV a try and I was HOOKED. When I started making my first character in the character creator, I was immediately drawn to Female Roegadyn. This was actually because the face I choose reminded me of the fierce Viera from Final Fantasy Tactics advanced and Final Fantasy XII. I loved Viera, and if they were in XIV at launch I probably would have ended up playing Viera then. However fate had it that Roegadyn were the option that most drew me in and my character Thyn'a Sindyrl was born. I made my first alt Mjna after I'd gotten to end game and decided I wanted to gear both Dragoon and Bard without having to fret about lockouts and I took both through the Binding Coil of Bahamut in those early days. I then made my alt Ahna when I had "tankxiety" and I wanted to get better at it, so my valliant Warrior girl was born. When Heavensward rolled around it was everything I wanted from the game and more, but come 2.51, my favorite piece of headgear in the XIV was added to the game - The Bunny Crown. Back then I just liked wearing them as a statement piece, but now they've become a key part of my characters identity. I realized, I couldn't have Viera, but I could pretend I was a really big Viera woman. As much as I still love Viera, by the time Shadowbringers rolled around, Roegadyn had become such a big part of my core, I could never imagine being anything else for very long. I love their aesthetic, I love their lore, I love them with my whole heart! This blog is a tribute to my journeys and a place where I can share my love for what I feel is one of the most woefully under-loved races in XIV. Though I've seen a lot of big lady love start to blossom over the years, it's not as accepted or normalized as I'd like, and I hope to share just a bit of the beauty I see in Femroe every time I log in to play. Thanks for letting me gush about my girls! I am always excited to see other folks Roegals too.

#About me #FFXIV #FF14 #final fantasy xiv #final fantasy #roegadyn #femroe #roegadame #final fantasy 14 #OOC

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vex-cti · 1 month

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[LONGPOST] I just finished... Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

I wanna write down all my thoughts before I delve into more in-depth online opinions. I'm writing this on the same day as having done the last two chapters of the game, so I may have not had time to process the story completely. However, I've been playing this game for the entire month and I got a lot to say. Obvious spoilers ahead, but I'll still try to keep some things vague enough.

Okay Square Enix, you win, I'll use photo mode

Graphics in video games are like how attractive a dessert looks, it doesn't dictate how it will taste, but it makes you want to try it. Rebirth feels like one of those games that is finally showing what the PS5 is capable of, with environments extremely rich in detail, superb lightning that's both colorful and conveys the right emotion for each scene, this is the prettiest Final Fantasy has ever looked, even compared to 16 which had some optimization issues and dull lightning in some areas, specially towards endgame. No single location in Rebirth feels half-baked, what used to be single screens and flat textures in the original have been completely re-imagined to have their own identity. I will talk about more about the open environments when I talk about gameplay and exploration.

Reliving the moments: Going above and beyond

The cutscene direction for this game is absolutely phenomenal, I love that they have amped up the campiness of the original 7, while also being faithful to the serious and emotional moments. What shines even more in Remake is the excellent writing when it comes to the characters, their performances are full of charisma, and it made it clear to me why the cast of seven ended up becoming so iconic to gaming as a whole. Every scene with these characters interacting, no matter if it was the dullest of sidequests, made everything entertaining. But the best part of Rebirth, like its predecessor, it's when it brings back the iconic moments we all wanted to see. The Junon Parade, Costa del Sol, Red XIII and Cosmo Canyon, Barret and Corel, and many more of these moments have barely altered from how they happened originally, reliving these moments feels like watching a high production TV Series based on a book you loved as a kid. If you love the original FFVII but have no intentions of playing the remake due to how things change, I at least recommend you look up the scenes that do stay faithful.

Some things left me wanting

Still, Rebirth only covers up to the end of Disc 1 section of the story, and has some blatant teases from trailers and the game itself that left me wanting. The Planet's weapons are mentioned and different versions appear, but there's no Diamond or Ruby weapon superboss yet. Both Cid and Vincent make their debuts near the final chapters, but are not playable for now, which left me a little disappointed. And this lets me segway perfectly into the other best part of Rebirth...

Can I just say I love the portraits in this game? Love me some PNGs

When I first played Part 1 of the Remake saga, I felt like I had no idea of what I was doing with the combat, I found the action-hybrid system too complicated and visually cluttered I felt like I was brute forcing every fight and not really enjoying myself. I finished the game and didn't come back to it until early this year where I decided to do Hard Mode for the Platinum, and this time I had a way better time, now understanding the combat system and each fight better. It makes for a flashy, semi tactical game with very visceral and satisfying animations, powers, character building thanks to materia, the importance of positioning, blocking, switching aggro, it felt like the realization of what games like FF12 and 13 aimed to be.

So imagine my surprise when Rebirth made it even better. Fundamentals are still the same, new skills were to be expected, but my favorite new addition are synergy skills. Not only do you get special commands you can perform with your partners in the party with extremely satisfying animations, you also have synergy real time action commands which reward you for being more reactive and agressive, now adding perfect blocks and counters, now every time you play with a different team composition you're gonna feel the difference of having Barret or Red or Yuffie as your partner, as you get access to different skills.

They also help you build ATB for characters not actively controlled at any given time, which is an excellent quality of life improvement. My only nitpick is that despite the menus allowing you to have 3 different party compositions and even allowing you to set the leader for each, Cloud is mandatory. Cloud is of course good at everything, so it's not the worst thing, but it does suck that I can't play as a team of Barret, Red, and Yuffie at any time in the open world. Though you can do that at virtual combat challenges or the colliseum. This feels like an oversight.

Fortunately, this meant I was playing around different characters all the time, because they're all great, and it feels super satisfying to set the right materia for each one according to what you envision them to be and complement their abbilities. Some are obvious: give Yuffie the steal materia, give Aerith healing materia. But who gets to be the mage, the debuffer, the buffer, the tank, that's up to you. I found Red XIII + Darkside materia works extremely well thanks to his Reaper Claw abbility and his health regeneration, sort of like a bestial Dark Knight, great crowd control and support all around. Cait Sith takes some work to get used to, and requires lots of setup, but his luck based gameplay can have some serious benefits, I'm sure he will come in handy in hard mode. Yuffie plays almost identically to her DLC, and she is excellent for handling boss fights with multiple parts or different weaknesses.

Exploring will either be fun or tedious, depends on who you ask

I feel like the other primary component of the gameplay, which is the exploration and traversal, will be a bit more divisive. It takes tropes from standard open world games like towers, points of interest, fast travel, loot locations, hunts, there is nothing new or original about it. However, that doesn't mean it can't be fun. Completing areas feels like I'm playing a collect-a-thon akin to Sonic Frontiers, where while it may not be the most exciting thing in the world, it is very relaxing for me, as I take in the sights and look for ways to get to new areas and find the next rare fiend. What I enjoy about the world design is that areas are not large, but are very packed and designed in such a way where you can't get everywhere by just looking at markers on the map, sometimes you do have to look for clues on the environment to get to where you need to, meaning you're looking at where you're going more than your tracker, which is great, but you still get the benefits of one. So it's a nice compromise, not as open ended as BoTW or Elden Ring, but not as braindead as a Ubisoft game. However, completing these areas can take a while, and if you're like me and plan to do all of them, don't be surprised when each area can take you up to 10 hours if you want to do everything.

"No seriously Cloud, I'm still waiting!" -Sephiroth, 100 hours into your game file

If you remember FF16 (I love that game too btw), you might remember how universally hated the sidequests were, not so much for their stories, but for their large amount and lack of variety. It seems like Rebirth is an active effort to avoid those same mistakes. Most sidequests in this game has you doing something different, have an entertaining story or character development attached to them, or even have you doing something dumb like bringing chickens back to their sweet innocent mother, or following an Ex Shinra employee in some brutal gold saucer challenges. I won't say every sidequest is a winner, at the end of the day, they're still busywork, and never will a game make you feel good saying "Congratulations on your progress, you have unlocked even more sidequests to do!". Still, I have to commend them, they do not bombard you with them, you can do a few at a time and be good for the next area, and the rewards allow your party to access more skills.

They have some of the most fun music too

The sidequest also introduce an excuse to have you do more of the minigames and take on their harder difficulties. And BOY did they add soooo many minigames, I could not believe I was encountering a new one what feels like every hour. There's something both horrifying and admirable about the devs commitment to bring back the spirit of a ps1 classic in this way. Have you noticed that triple AAA games basicly don't do minigames anymore? Yea fishing games are still around I guess, but Rebirth is not ashamed to harken to those videogamey roots and sheer goofiness. Red football, Fort Condor (love the reinterpretation), Super Dolphin Sunshine, and so many more. Enjoy youself with these minigames, and pick your least favorites too because there will be at least one that will make you want to break your controller. Contenders for me are Glide de Chocobo for it's terrible camera, and Gears & Gambits for having an overwhelming amount of Gambits for such a simple minigame (even FF12 had you start with a small amount). Still, there is more bad than good here. What I was not expecting was a brand new card game, akin to Triple Triad in 8 and 14: Queen's Blood.

*Insert Yugioh abridged reference here*

Not only did I not expect a new card game 2 hours into the game, I did not expect it to be so good, and have me thinking about different deck builds, deck synergy, strategies, and ways to one up your opponent with some smart plays. Queen's Blood is an extremely fun time sink and nice break from all the combat and normal exploration. It can be overwhelming at first, and having so many different cards with effects each is a hassle I've seen many not even wanting to bother with, finding some of its rules to be too confusing. I will say that if you're not constantly updating your deck with better cards you won't be making much progress, but you also won't know what cards are better if you don't play enough to get what your objective is, so it's best to start getting into it the sooner you start the game. Do make sure you take note of some of the later puzzles and challenges, as they can teach you strategies to make comebacks on hard duels.Screw the survival challenges, though.

But the journey isn't quite the same, after all

Perhaps the stuff I have the least things to say about, are the new elements to the story, which are more prevalent during the beginning and ending sequences of the game. I was honestly intrigued at the start, the tension and anxiety felt in this unknown timeline Zack has walked into, and the mystery surrounding the true fate of our protagonists, as it shows you bits and pieces of more information the further you progress, I was curious to where things were going. Unfortunately, the ending provided even more questions than answers, and I still feel like it's not as emotionally impactful as perhaps it intends to be, maybe due to the lack of clear information. I understand it wants to keep itself vague with the idea of multiple timelines and universes colliding, or what Sephirot's actual plan is. But it does make things like the Whispers feel even more pointless than when they showed up in Remake, but at least their presence has been reduced, as expected. Areas where changes to the story were most effective were when they were not pointed out to be a product of a split timeline, like the conclusion to the Junon festival, or the Gongaga reactor sections.

But of course, what most people were more curious about, was how was the ending going to change, we all knew it was going to be different no matter what. And while I feel like these convoluted elements do take off some of the emotion of the original scene, there is one element which does seem to align these new events with the emotions of the original: Cloud himself. For he experiences the events of the ending differently from the rest, and it's left unclear how reliable is his perspective. Add Sephiroth's manipulation of Cloud's emotions and he becomes this genuinely creepy and ruthless shell of himself. This new problem does not completely go away by the end, as Cloud is not fully aware of it yet. But with how the new version of the ending has unfolded, it left me with these feeling of doubt and... hollowness, confusion, not sure if to be sad, or hopeful. Which I feel is exactly how Cloud feels as well, as his human nature is questioned.

Despite thinking a faithful story remake would have been more satisfying, I can't deny these new events had me thinking about the story of FInal Fantasy 7 in ways I could connect emotionally to it even more. Perhaps, what this game truly achieved for me, is remind me just how much I love this franchise, for its extremely creative worlds and creatures, to its unique stories and unforgettable characters. Rebirth is a celebration of Final Fantasy, a joy to look and play, to relive and to guess. It's got one more part to prove if these changes to the narrative were really worth it, nonetheless. And honestly, I hope they don't keep relying on vagueness as much.

But when they are not being vague, I promise you, every moment, old or new, will feel exciting.

#final fantasy vii #ff7 rebirth #ff7 rebirth review #review #iranted #now when someone asks me what i thought about the game i can just copy paste this #no but wait then they would find my blog #i did not think this throuuuuuuuugh #i wonder if babyboi will want to ever do a final fantasy marathon with me hmmm i got so much to say about all games #i should also mention the towns in this game are WONDERFUL #and the gold saucer date had me internally sobbing

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sparx-png · 6 months

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blog intro! let's be moots!

I've had this blog for a while, but I realized I've never made an introduction and I love doing that. So here we go.

name: sparx

gender & pronouns: bigender/nonbinary, they/[any]

ethnicity: mixed-race latino

languages: english, spanish

age: 22

blog type: multifandom

interests: video games, anime, movies, tv, webcomics/comics, etc.

video games

• genres: RPGs, JRPGs, visual novels, platformers

• favorites: kingdom hearts, the world ends with you, devil may cry, mortal kombat, our life, mystic messenger, rakuen, ori and the blind forest, final fantasy, persona

anime

• blue exorcist, erased, tokyo revengers, jojo's bizarre adventure, attack on titan, ouran high school host club, free!, hell girl, to your eternity, death note, tanaka-kun is always listless, afro samurai, devil may cry (2007), from me to you, etc.

movies

• genres: animation, comedy, romance, romcom, fantasy, action, adventure, horror, martial arts

• favorites: scott pilgrim vs. the world, inception, studio ghibli films, gkids films, lord of the rings, knives out, the mummy, fantastic beasts and where to find them, the matrix, encanto, old 2D disney movies, insidious, old dreamworks movies, fantastic beasts and where to find them, etc.

• genres: animation, fantasy, sci-fi, action, adventure

• favorites: invincible, over the garden wall, the legend of vox machina, avatar: the last airbender, twin peaks, our flag means death, clone high, etc.

webcomics/webtoons/manhwa/manga

• omniscient reader, blue hearts, surviving romance, let's play, i'm the queen in this life, blue exorcist, death is the only ending for the villainess, i love yoo, my deepest secret, the guy upstairs, kiss him not me, age matters, batman: wayne family adventures, lost and found, comedown machine, etc.

other

• music, hello kitty, books, poetry/lyrics, liminal space, glowwave, backrooms, reality shifting (don't judge my escapism tactics aaa), language learning, stand-up comedy etc.

dni list

• homophobes, xenophobes/racists, transphobes, and any type of bigot I guess lmao

• i'd prefer to interact with 18+ users instead of minors, but I'm not super strict

And that's pretty much it! I'll likely be continuously updating the list of interests over time. By the way, this is my secondary blog. If we become moots, I'll follow you from my primary (@eightb-all) that I don't use much. Tumblr sucks at secondary blog capabilities :,)

Nice to meet you all!

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twiststreet · 8 months

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Saw people listing their 20 favorite games-- I'm mulling around my apartment and having a hard time connecting two thoughts together in a row, so here's mine, in order from best to worst:

Kentucky Route 0

inside

Yakuza 0

Neuromancer (1988)

Metal Gear Solid 2

Stardew Valley

The Last of Us 2

Baldur's Gate 3

Journey

Grand Theft Auto 3: Vice City

Disco Elysium

Save the Date

Lode Runner (1983)

Bionic Commando (NES)

Mass Effect 2

Metal Gear Solid 3

The Witcher 3

Wordle

Final Fantasy 7

Persona 5

I think they're all pretty imperfect (especially once you get in that 15-20 range)--

Persona 5-- depressingly undermined by the team's severe homophoba-- it's not a happy deal, but I'm into "games as tourism" and Persona 5 is the best one of those that isn't a Yakuza game;

Mass Effect 2-- dork shit-- more interesting structurally than in its actual content, its "story" structure;

Witcher 3, more interesting in design than play for me, the craft of its quest writing;

Final Fantasy 7-- just a lame choice, especialy since real fans say the earlier games or Tactics are better, etc. but I'm not a fan of the series or the game so much as just that particular experience-- plus, I still dig the blocky low-poly designs, actually, but;

Vice City probably hasn't aged well and was surpassed by its sequels in certain respects-- that's more just vibes and soundtrack than anything else;

Baldur's Gate 3-- obviously recency bias, and it really has an extremely unsatisfying last 5 minutes-- I wanted it to have a Witcher 3-style ending and it very, very much doesn't. Frustrating considering how much else I felt they did right!

Worldle just kind of a son of a bitch sometimes;

I could've put on more Kojima games easily-- first Metal Gear could've gone on there, Death Stranding too, but.

But that's my list.

#man is the deadliest game

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calvincell · 2 months

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Playing the demo for Unicorn Overlord & as I figured, Vanillaware still don’t miss! Yes I’m one of the 15 people who enjoyed Dragon’s Crown. Despite enjoying Fire Emblem & its ilk, my personal favorite type of tactical strategy RPGs are the ones where the units are little battalions of individual characters with customizable formations rather than the more ubiquitous style solo/duo units you get with Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics.

The very good indie game Symphony of War is the only similar tactical RPG that I’ve played recently though there might be others that just never passed my radar. As such, getting a beautifully executed tactics game from one of my favorite developers of all time is an absolute treat & I’m triply excited thanks to the fantastic & hefty demo.

Sadly I still need to finish the last 1/3rd of 13 Sentinels. 13 Sentinels is brilliant in every way but I’ve left it incomplete in my backlog for what might be a year & change now & I’m dreading that I might have to start over with a new game file since I might have absolutely lost my bearings in regards to both the story & gameplay by this point.

My only real gripe with Unicorn Overlord so far is that I wish more devs would pick a setting outside of Western/European High Fantasy for these tactical RPGs & RPGs in general to be completely honest. It’s one of the reasons I appreciate Advance Wars more than Fire Emblem despite growing up playing both. Just once I’d love to see a tactical strategy RPG game like this set in a cyberpunk dystopia or a retrofuture superhero setting or a prehistoric stone age fantasy world or within the afterlife cosmology of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Anything other than swords, knights, lords, castles etc. Vanillaware in particular would kill it with their evocative work in Muramasa & 13 Sentinels.

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penroseparticle · 8 months

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all the primes, gaymer

Platform of choice when gaming? I'm a switch gamer these days, but my end all be all was the PS2.

Top 5 games of all time. FINAL FANTASY TACTICS, LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK TO THE PAST, PERSONA 5, MARVEL VS. CAPCOM 2, and POKEMON RED VERSION. No I am not taking criticisms.

Favorite boss? I would have to say... Well, I said Whispy Woods already but if I have to pick another, I'm gonna say Shadow Sae from Persona 5. The whole setup around the Casino actually fucking slaps.

Most memorable gaming moment? I went into the Weigraf vs. Ramza fight completely blind in Final Fantasy Tactics and won my first time in, then won against the zodiac beast in the second phase, also first time. I felt like a total badass.

Most recent game you played? I'm working my way back through Etrian Odyssey 1 right now- I'm in the 4th Stratum and building up my B and C teams. and my team of Survivalists to farm materials.

Favorite game genre? Turn Based Strategy Games are MY JAM. It's either this or roguelikes. If you can combine both I am INTO IT.

Coolest enemy/boss design? I think that unironically designs like Shadow Link or Shadow Sora or whomever are just... great. Duel bosses that are a shadow version of the player. Mirror match. Lots of drama.

Do you play mobile games? I do. I play Fire Emblem Heroes, The NYT Crossword App (It's in my game launcher app natively, it counts ok), 2048, and technically I have Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions in app form which counts as a mobile game.

A game that you wish you could play for the first time again. You can't bottle a feeling, but I wish I could replay Persona 5 for the first time. I liveblogged it.

Do you typically choose to play a male or female character (when asked to pick)? Depends on the vibes. In Pokemon Crystal Version I played as a girl because you couldn't before in Red Version. I played Male Alear in Fire Emblem: Engage because I thought his outfit was slightly less dumb. I played Female Byleth in 3 Houses for the easy Sylvain recruitment and Peg Knight access. Sometimes the mechanical advantages will sway me one way or the other too lol. In World of Warcraft I usually made dude characters.

Favorite childhood game? When I was like 11 I played the Original Smash Brothers for literal hours at a time at my friend's house. Easily one of the greats.

If you could only play one game for the rest of your life, what would it be? Final Fantasy Tactics and it's not even close. I replay that game like. Every year.

Kill, Fuck, Marry (choose three characters) You didn't pick 3 characters. BOOOOOOO

#ask meme #nicrosil

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mycomicbox · 1 year

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You seem to be a huge fan of RPG’s what is your RPG favorite game and/or series?

Man, where do I even begin? You can't make me pick just one! I'm just going to go down the list of RPG series that I've played and enjoyed:

Pokémon: My bread-and-butter series since I was 9. My first game was X, but since then, I have played all of the mainline games from the Game Boy to the Switch (currently playing through Violet). I just love battling with those funky lil' creachers :3

Mario & Luigi (and by extension Super Mario RPG): A very charming Mario spin-off series with some unique twists on the RPG formula, mainly with using timed button presses to execute attacks. Unfortunately, the developer AlphaDream shut down a few years ago, so this series is probably dead...

Undertale and Deltarune: C'mon... do I even need to go into detail?

EarthBound/M🌏THER: I love medieval fantasy, but it's sometimes fun to avert tropes. Rather than playing as a knight or mage slaying dragons and goblins, you're a bunch of ragtag kids using PSI and baseball bats to fight animals, gang members, and animated objects. Plus, the series is full of great jokes and overall just OOZES charm. Also MOTHER 3 made me cry.

OMORI: The one that you were probably expecting. Lovely music and presentation, a heart-wrenching story, and beautifully displays mental illness without making a mockery of it.

Final Fantasy: I've only played a few of these (I, III, IV, V, and currently playing through IX), but I have enjoyed the ones that I have played. I've heard good things about VI, VII, X, and especially XIV (though XIV is an MMORPG and those intimidate me). I have to say that my favorite so far is V, simply because of the excellent job system. Speaking of job systems...

Bravely Default: A series that I've gotten into back in May of this year, and it recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary. A sister series to Final Fantasy that's basically a love letter to the JRPGs of old, with an excellent job system and a unique twist on turn-based combat with the Brave and Default commands. The fandom is frustratingly small, however...

Now for some RPG series that I'm wanting to try:

Persona: When the Switch port of Persona 5 Royal dropped, my brother and I both pitched in money to buy it, so I do own it. I just haven't touched it yet because I have so many other unfinished games on my plate. I WILL get to it, though, and that's a promise. If I like it, I might pick up P3P and P4G once those release on the Switch.

Dragon Quest: I've only played the first one so far and when I finished it, I was like "yep, that certainly was an RPG from the NES". Even though it isn't necessary, I want to try to play the games in numerical order (skipping over X because I can't read Japanese), though like I said, I want to clear out my backlog first.

Octopath Traveler: Love the 2D-HD style, and I've heard that it does have a job system of some kind. Also there's apparently a sequel on its way.

Fire Emblem, Triangle Strategy, and Final Fantasy Tactics: I'm lumping these together for one reason. All of the games I've listed so far are your standard turn-based RPGs, with your units on one side and enemies on the other. However, I am open to trying more tactical/strategy games where positioning matters. I've head good things about FFT, and I did find TriStrat at Walmart for relatively cheap. In the case of FE, however... what game do I even start with?

#ask #pokemon #mario and luigi rpg #super mario rpg #undertale #deltarune #earthbound #mother series #omori #final fantasy #bravely default #persona #dragon quest #octopath traveler #fire emblem #triangle strategy #final fantasy tactics #rpg #jrpg

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autopotion · 3 months

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For the gaming asks: 5, 12, 21 and 40?

5. Most memorable gaming moment?

HMM.... That is such a difficult question, it's really hard to pick! I think my answer to this is going to be an emergent moment, as opposed to a scripted plot event. Also I think I'm going to pick something recent lol, because I'd really have to sit and think about it if I was flipping through my entire video game history. So, how about a couple of little memorable moments from the last month or so?

Here's one. In Gravity Rush 2, I found an NPC busking. I stopped by him and applauded, then I used the sing emote. The guy dropped his guitar and started clapping for me! My jaw dropped, I was like, that was so cute, what a reactive sequence of events! (GR2 is full of pleasant surprises like that, and is my favorite thing about the game.)

I've also had a lot of memorable moments in my current Final Fantasy Tactics challenge playthrough, too. Outside of the hat guy stealing Gafgarion's sword and teleporting everywhere with Silky, I encountered an enemy Oracle in a random battle in Grog Hill, alongside a bunch of monsters. Since this is an invitation-only run, I had my eyes peeled for job classes I didn't already have (I also have the stipulation that any unit I invited has to keep their default job), so this Oracle was very attractive to me. When I got her in my party, I discovered she actually had more levels in Mediator than Oracle--which kinda makes sense, if you think about it on a mechanical level, because Mediator is the job that allows units to talk to monsters. Grog Hill is also located right near the largest battles of the War of the Lions, and we've encountered deserters there before. Zoe and I came up with a little backstory for her that was like, she used to be a Mediator with one of the armies, but got sick of the war and ditched, befriended some monsters in the countryside, and went Buddhist. (I find I'm creating a lot of interesting tiny narratives in my head for my generics in this run.)

12. Favorite game character?

How am I supposed to pick!!! My favorite characters are almost always from video games LMAO. I'll just name a couple.

Protagonist: Sissel (Ghost Trick) or Red & Mr. Nobody (Transistor) Party member: Aeris/th (FFVII & FFVIIR) NPC helper: Leliana (DAI) Antagonist: Tokiko Shigure (AITSF:NI) Of all time probably: Ovelia (FFT)

21. A game you thought you wouldn't like, but ended up loving?

Oh my gosh, I think the obvious answer to this one is also a recent pick, lol. I usually don't play games I'm expecting to dislike, true, but it does happen, especially if I'm just curious to test something out, or if I feel like I have to play it for whatever reason. Crimson Shroud is an example of the latter. Like, as a lover of Yasumi Matsuno and the other usual suspects he works with (like Basiscape), I felt like I owed it to myself to give Crimson Shroud a try, as the entry of his that I knew the least about, and especially because it's genuinely difficult to play it these days, so the game preservationist in me was like You Gotta.

But it seemed like everything I'd heard about it was designed to put me off. The oversexualized teenage girl. The fantasy oppressed ethnic group. The fact that the two main guys are named "Giauque" and "Lippi." The old and tired D&D tropes played completely straight. The fact that it was originally intended as a spiritual successor to Vagrant Story, a game that I admire specifically for its genre bending and cinematography, when Crimson Shroud wasn't doing the first thing, and, as for the latter, its characters are presented as static tabletop models... so I couldn't expect the kind of vibrant staging that Vagrant Story had. The dense mechanics (yes, I know that's a mainstay, but I do also have a habit of bouncing off of his games as well lol).

AND YET. While I still think it's probably Matsuno's weakest entry, it totally charmed me. I mean, you've read what I think about it already, but still. I think it was totally worth the playthrough, and it's got just as much charm as everything else he's written. I appreciated the dense mechanics much more because of the short playtime, and the tabletop figurines were genuinely interesting to look at, in the end. They were staged in amusing ways. YEAH. I DUNNO. I kinda like Crimson Shroud a lot.

Oh! I think another recent one is Misericorde. As someone who was never into visual novels growing up, I've become way more open-minded to them over the years (thanks to Zoe introducing me to Zero Escape tbh) and I was actively interested in the Nun Game, but I was admittedly frustrated when I belatedly realized that there was going to be no gameplay at all, not even basic exploration or a handful of dialogue options, outside of clicking through the text boxes. Partway through I was like "I don't think this is working for me." But after I got to the end, I found I couldn't stop thinking about it. Hedwig in particular really stuck with me. I'm actually extremely excited for the next entry, even if it's "just" reading. I know what I'm getting into this time, so I won't have any false expectations from the start, and I can enjoy it for what it is.

40. Best game cover art.

INTERESTING QUESTION..... Hmm..... I really like the cover for Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, and had a lot of fun trying to figure out who the characters were. Vyce running away in the background is also unintentionally hilarious. Her Story's cover is extremely clever once you figure out what's going on there. Zoe rightly pointed out that the Japanese Switch cover for Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is gorgeous. I also like the covers of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, Pyre... I guess for the most part I really like a well-made character ensemble cover??

#taupewolfy #thanks illy!! ❤️#quiznaibus

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