#Halcyonia | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

crystalelemental · 2 years

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With the end of Bravely Default 2, it's time for me to talk opinions about the game.

I'll be going for a while, so I'll break this into segments: story/characters, classes, gameplay.

STORY/CHARACTERS It's been years since I played BD1, but from just what I remember? This is such a massive improvement it's almost comical.

I promise I won't be blasting BD1 for too long, but I feel you need to understand how bad it was to really appreciate this game's improvement. The story of BD1 sucks. It's terrible. There's contrivance born of characters refusing to speak, and then there's whatever this was. Everyone dies. Despite how many are sympathetic or compelling, or caught up in this stuff solely due to unfortunate circumstance, everyone dies, and it's largely your party responsible for the killing. It's completely unsatisfying, and happens entirely because of the big emperor guy, who is Edea's father, wanted to stop this secret evil thing happening for Very Good Reasons, except that his conquest of the planet involves putting the most horrible people in charge of locations and causing untold problems to solve for one (1) problem that is super unclear that he could've just explained to Edea at minimum to get her to understand, but refuses to do so because if he did we wouldn't have a plot. It's an unsatisfying disaster of a game.

Thankfully, while BD2 is far from show-stopping with its story, it's a night and day improvement. Your protagonists feel like actually decent people, instead of black-and-white morality lunatics given the mantle of "chosen hero." Your antagonists maintain complexity, but a good chunk survive, with most that don't being killed either by other antagonists, or the consequences of their own actions. Your heroes actually feel decently developed, with Elvis being The Man, and Gloria having some nice bits, like helping Rimedhal cover up the truth about the Archbishop to avoid panic while they're being invaded. Historical revision isn't great, but she at least came up with a solution that kept the peace as needed, and felt like a response that a serious-minded royal would take. Everyone felt pretty solid. I mean except for Seth. He's kinda just there. I think it's in any Final Fantasy-esque JRPG that the male lead has to be the single most boring person in the cast for teenage male fantasy projection reasons. I don't love it.

To go over each of the areas: Halcyonia is boring, nothing much happens aside from establishment stuff. I did really wind up loving Selene and Dag, thanks to the sidequests that open up as a result of their survival. It's super cute and I love them. I want to like Lonsdale, but he's a Camus archetype. "I am good guy, but oooh, too loyal to not aid in the complete genocide of Musa." Okay buddy. Sure you are.

Savalon is my favorite region. Prince Castor was super interesting, and I love that a much latter quest has Pollux recognizing that Castor had a really good point about the obligations of a ruler, even if his methods were extreme. Anihal is precious, and despite being a piece of shit, even Bernard had some really interesting complexity to him that made the place feel engaging. And doubling back to this region in chapter 4, having the hidden politics still going on, and how the previous events here are leading to the conflicts in the present felt really organic. They're just really strong. You know. Except Orpheus. And what's her name. The Gambler class lady.

Wiswald is...I like Wiswald a lot in spite of myself. I think it has a really weak intro, being mostly a possession plot, where everyone is good just being controlled. And the final twist is that every bad thing has been Folie's fault, and she's doing all this just because she's a psychotic child who gives literal life to art. But I really like Roddy, Lily, and Galahad, and while she's boring as sin, I did kind of appreciate Folie for being a weirdo but in a way that checked out. Like okay, a mostly rejected child seeking attention, finding something she's incredible at but still gaining nothing from others, and turning bitter and actively malicious toward others is neat. Then there's the return phase with Vigintio. The intro to that is great on its own, but the memory from Vigintio is what sold me on the guy. He mastered turning into an undead, meaning that after he's killed by Emma he technically survives, and he actively stabs himself in would-be fatal ways just to prove he's unkillable and therefore won. I just think he's a cool approach to that kind of character, seeing a form of immortality and wanting to be the best mage ever through any means possible. Though also, special mention has to go to Elvis, whose crystal is the most interesting. He's chosen by the Earth crystal, and despite being all over the place and inconsistent, he's selected as the unchanging foundation of the team because, despite his transient nature, his one constant is that he'd do literally anything for the people he cares about. And that's a really cool approach for a character.

Rimedhal I wound up coming around on slightly, but still have as my least favorite. I kinda had that vibe the instant we walked into "This is going to be about religious zealotry!" That never goes well. But it did grow on me. Martha's probably my favorite. I don't know why, I just appreciate the flirting being a fakeout for wanting to brawl, and she's got that very direct, not taking anyone's shit attitude, so she's great. Dominic is slightly interesting, but only in the sense of his frustration at being passed over by the Fire Crystal as a chosen one, and specifically being passed over for the previous Fairy Queen potentially being the reason Fairies are the focus of the witch hunts. Helio's boring as sin, and Gladys I have mixed feelings on. On the one hand, I like the idea of a redemption arc where possible, and fully approve of her getting one in concept. On the other, she doesn't get one, and I'm not upset. Gladys is all about carrying out Helio's orders to have people jump to their deaths, in order to "weed out fairies," who she believes killed her parents. As a result, she's incredibly hostile, and is pretty directly responsible for the presumed hundreds to thousands of people who are dead in a pit. My problem is how she died. One of the townsfolk stabs her, after she saved their life, because she was responsible for the death of his sister when you first arrived. And it's like...okay, yeah, karmic justice in a sense, but by this point, she literally saved your life, dude. And to be honest? Every single person in that town is as guilty as Gladys. Literally all of you. We got to see everyone pressure the jumps, and actively falsify testimony to cast suspicion. Even under slight duress, you all participated gleefully in this ritual murder shit, and it feels distinctly unfair to have only Gladys suffer consequences for that. Either have Holograd burn the town to the ground or let her live, is what I'm saying. Though the bonus quest focused on how some remember her positive traits and others remember her as a brute terrorizing the city is fairly poigniant.

Holograd is boring. "We used to be poor, then we found the mines, now we're militarized." Adam is the most stock standard antagonist, trying to end all war by subjugating everything under his heel, only the strong should rule, etc etc. Edna's also boring as sin. Like okay, she wants to awaken the Night's Nexus, but it's never really clear why, so she kinda sucks.

This leads into the finale. Honestly? I like how it's handled. Your first ending is fighting Edna, destroying her, then having Gloria pray to seal the Night's Nexus again. Naturally, she dies in the process, for reasons. You get a sad ending and the credits roll, and when you boot the game...you see that scene play out from the book's memories. And this is where it gets cool. The book has only shown past events, through many characters' eyes, but now it shows the future somehow. You enter chapter 6 with that mystery.

You seek out the fairies, who explain the Night's Nexus, and turn an otherwise boring eldritch evil into a fairly interesting character. Night's Nexus is the remains of a human woman who entered the kingdom of fairies ages ago, and betrayed their trust by trying to consume the fountain of all knowledge. Her goal was to subsume everything, and coalesce all information to a singular point, to obtain perfect understanding. Past, present, and future are brought together to fully understand the deterministic universe, and that's...actually cool as hell. But she's sealed away forever, because god forbid women do anything, and that's where we get the angry, bitter sense of hate for the world. Sure, her lust for knowledge and control may have resulted in consuming everyone in addition to everything to create a perfect unchanging record, but sometimes you gotta do what it takes. Chapter 6 ends with you attempting to confront the Night's Nexus, but realizing that it is, in fact, completely immortal. You cannot kill it, and the fairies decide to seal off time within their realm, keeping it, and them, trapped in stasis for eternity. Adelle stays behind and it's super sad but oh no another fakeout!

The book shows you the battle of the previous heroes, and an asterisk you missed. You track it down, and you can finally read the book. Turns out, the book has its own asterisk, for the Librarian class, which I would kill to play as, because it sounds like magic. But it also turns out to be the soul jar for the Night's Nexus. If the book is in tact, the body will revive. This is...actually really interesting, and it checks out, because those visions of the future can only come from an entity with that potential foresight, and only the Night's Nexus has gained that level of ability. So it's actually pretty well done. Unfortunately, the climax is fairly sub-standard. You go to a new dungeon, you face off against it, the fight isn't that scary and its true form is less interesting than the mummy thing with shadow hands, and then you get your standard ending. But it's satisfying. Like, if nothing else, the story is satisfying, and I enjoyed experiencing it. The characters have a few duds, but mostly wind up being pretty engaging. I liked it a lot.

CLASSES The classes of this game are unbalanced as hell, but at least everything feels broadly useable. Throughout main game, everything felt viable on normal mode, and many of the classes I didn't use wound up having use as a sub-class, or having utility I didn't pin down instantly. Thief had Godspeed Strike, which is apparently the best midgame damage out there and a boss annihilator. Beastmaster had tricks for every boss, apparently, if you have the right monster. Salvemaker has a great combo with Phantom that, to my understanding, is infinite resources and sure-fire status application. Oracle's Reflect spell can be the best source of magic damage if you cast it on your entire party. There's a lot of stuff.

The only class I could not find any use for was Bastion. Shieldbearer is just an overall better tank class for the team, with Sub-White Mage being an unkillable god for the story. Though even post-game, with AoE stuff suggesting Bastion is an improvement, you often want that single-target coverage, and foes can just Brave past your one-use party shield and kill you anyway. So Bastion felt really weak in my hands, despite being obscene on the enemy team.

If I had to pick an outright winner, it's probably Phantom. The passives are insane. 50% chance to crit when hitting a vulnerability is tremendous, just about anything can make use of that. And guarantees of probability-based skills at the cost of 40MP is unreal. Status is guaranteed, it's the solution to Steal farming with the Thief's skill, and I'm pretty sure it counts Salvemaker's passive to regain used materials as well. And that's just its general utility. Offensively, Phantom/Ranger is unstoppable. You can guarantee hitting a vulnerability with powerful skills, and Ranger's second passive means you regain a BP if you crit, which is most of the time. You can toss out insane damage while maintaining max BP, it's insane. And it's a pure upgrade on Godspeed Strike strats as well. I imagine this is the best application for Hellblade too, since hitting a vulnerability with perfect elemental coverage is a great way to get constant crits. It's just such a powerful class.

My other preferred classes were Spiritmaster, Shieldmaster, Red Mage, Ranger, and Oracle. Shieldmaster was fantastic team defense with infinite healing as a sub-White Mage. Red Mage got Double Cast, which was fantastic after Wiswald. Prior, Black Mage bypassing immunities and absorb effects was better. Ranger is the other half of Phantom, and I just like running bows. Oracle had a lot of problems but I love it in spite of everything. Spiritmaster is the hard one, because its second passive is legitimately insane for supportive effects, allowing constant regen of HP, MP, curing status, negating debuffs, reviving the party, and giving +1BP. Its problem is it also clears buffs, and has horrific anti-synergy with classes like Bard and Oracle, which...kinda leads into my big problem with the classes.

Magic sucks post-game. Prior, it's great, just hit an enemy weakness and you're dealing good damage. But eventually, you reach end- and post-game, and your physical classes just dominate. Red Mage doublecasting into an enemy weakness might deal around 6-10k, depending on how strong the magic is and your crit rate. A single crit off that Phantom/Ranger build would deal 14-17k. It's unreal how much stronger your physical classes get. And this in spite of magic's built-in limitations. No magic class combination affords you perfect elemental coverage. You can get 5 at most with Black Mage and either Red Mage, Oracle, or Pictomancer. The only class with perfect coverage is Hellblade, but frankly? Hellblade's best utility is dying. Use it as the sub-class, with the Red Mage skill HP/MP Conversion to cast magic from HP instead, and use Ultima Blade. It uses all your MP (HP now) to deal damage, and with max HP, you deal 99,999 damage in one swing. That's way stronger than anything magic can do!

The only exception I've seen is Reflect strats. If you get your entire party with Reflect, and cast a party-wide spell that targets all your allies, it will reflect four times. Meaning that a single cast now hits all enemies four times. If you use all your brave points, that's now 16 casts in one round. 32 with Red Mage's doublecast. If the foe even takes neutral damage, you're looking at a ton of damage in one move. But the problems now should be obvious. Multi-target boss battles have varied, non-overlapping weaknesses and resistances, so you're rarely getting that full effect. But moreover, Reflect is removed by Spiritmaster. And every one of the trial fights has "Counter any skill: BP +1," so casting healing magic is a bad idea. Meaning you use healing items instead, and nothing else. Your best healer isn't even a healer, it's a random support with "Healing Item Amp" throwing X-Potions around. You basically give up everything heal-wise for a high-risk strategy to explode the foe in one round, focused on one caster and two Bards to boost magic and crit rate and get them a guaranteed action afterward. Which is a lot worse off than the physical classes being so self-sufficient and dealing better numbers otherwise.

GAMEPLAY With that introduction to classes out of the way, the last factor is just the gameplay itself. I'm going to say overall great with caveats.

The main game is fantastic. It wasn't until Chapter 4 that I started to feel bogged down. Everything prior is great. Dungeons are reasonable length, have some interesting challenges, and boss fights were super engaging with a lot of unique strats. Dragoon is probably the only time I felt like a specific class was necessary (Shieldbearer), but given that this game is direct about "You must always have a tank," it's not too unreasonable to expect it to be there. Vanguard only does so much at that point. Thief and Berserker are other close options, but Beastmaster prevents it from being a one-option affair. Thief has Vanguard beating its ass with Earth damage, but Beastmaster can summon the big enemies just before that fight for the same, and doing four actions with all of them is apparently a one-round clear. Berserker needs Bard to help with buffing defenses to avoid just dropping, but apparently the Fire Spirits that Beastmaster summons can inflict Stop. So that's neat. Basically, it's all great.

The only questionable system in a basic sense is weight. I get the idea. Anyone can equip anything for variety, but some classes are lightweight and can't handle much, while others are tanks that can pack all the heavy equipment. You can get heavier stuff on lightweight allies by using accessories that reduce weight, but often those have limited other effects, so it's a tradeoff. By and large, it's a fine system, but sometimes it feels needlessly limiting. By the end of the game, I have all the really good armor and weapons for Shieldbearer. I couldn't equip all of it because of equip load. I am level 75, and the only solution is to add more levels to equip everything. To me, that feels like a problem, and it's one that's easily solved by having equipment be specific to certain classes. But that does lead to situations where it's like "Why can't Red Mage equip this particular heavy armor, they're supposed to be the all-around caster," so there's tradeoffs.

Starting at the last dungeon of Chapter 4, it starts to suffer from JRPG Syndrome, where it's just gone on far too long. Dungeons are overstaying their welcome, fights are a bit more tedious than you'd like for having to do dozens of them, etc. Nothing is new about it, it's just frustrating. At least chapters 6 and 7 do away with that, by having incredibly short dungeons that just lead straight to a boss. But not before Chapter 5 can give you the Crystal's Resting Place as the ultimate test of your patience.

The other issue I take is the trials. Until now, there Brave/Default system had a particular give and take relationship between your actions and the enemy's. You can do a thing, or you can not do a thing and stockpile actions. If you do a thing, your opponent can respond, or they can gain advantage by not doing a thing. If you don't do a thing, you may gain a bit of turn advantage, or your opponent gets to set up something of theirs that may be detrimental. Maybe you're trying to stockpile turns for your mage to get casting, but oops, Oracle set Reflect, or Bastion set up Vallation. Trying to build up to something now wasted your time. The major problem was that Defaulting was, well, the default action. Unless you knew your foe could punish a Default, there was no harm in it. The solution was punishing taking multiple actions via counter skills. The Ranger is the first good example I can think of, where attacking could result in her unleashing Quickfire Barrage, hitting your entire party multiple times, and potentially causing a party-wipe if you were over-zealous and unlucky. While they're annoying, counterattacks felt like a sensible way to avoid making Default the obvious solution to everything.

The problem with the trials is that counters aren't attacks all the time anymore. Instead, you get "Counter any action: BP +1." Which is bullshit. It completely removes the give and take process, and instead makes it so your opponent is effectively always operating at max BP, because they'll counter everything you do. It absolutely annihilated healers, who just give the opponent BP and trap them in healing loops, leading the aforementioned statement that the best healer is "Healing Item Amp." And if you go on the offensive, now you not only need to worry about counterattacks, but giving them max BP again. It's like they realized the game's system was solved at this point, and a well-crafted team didn't necessarily need to change what it was doing, and said "Absolutely not" and decided the enemies should all cheat to maintain the illusion that this is difficult rather than just frustrating. And it is just frustration, because the same strategy I always used worked, I just didn't have enough levels to survive the constant attacks or to deal the necessary damage to offset their shit. It's just a badly designed cheat skill.

This comes to a head with the Bravebearer trial, which is just blatant in its cheating. Until now, foes use skills based on what's actually available through the class they inhabit. Sure, there are some upgrades, like Thief countering your Default with the BP steal skill, but by and large anything they do you can too. But not this fight. Lonsdale gets to set DOUBLE Rampart, which does nothing but waste your actions against a foe who can already shred your BP values. Of course, they all have the +1 BP counterskill, and the Bravebearer can one-shot literally anyone for damage cap for free whenever he wants, leading to situations where he can one-round your entire party for free. But that's not the peak bullshit. No, the peak bullshit is that, if you KO Bravebearer, and one of the others is still up? For absolutely no reason, through no skill other than "Fuck you I win," he gets back up two turns later with like 40% HP. And he will do this infinitely. So the carefully planned solution to take out the mage, then take down Bravebearer, leaving on the tank to whittle down through his double damage negation cheat skills, doesn't work, for literally no reason. This is the kind of boss fight design that I feel should be punishable by death.

This leads to the other big issue: I feel like status is kinda just something to bother the player. Very rarely did status ever seem to work, and most enemies seemed immune to anything that mattered. Every mage is immune to Silence, no one was ever hit by Stop or Slow, I think I got Blind on a foe exactly one time ever. The worst part is, it's not supposed to be this way. The story battle against Bravebearer, which is an incredibly tough fight, is weak to Paralysis. You can lock him down infinitely with Paralysis...if you knew it was going to work. Which, based on past experience, you wouldn't. That's really the issue. Prior experience dictates what's going to be viewed as worth trying, and status consistently doesn't work, until the one random fight where it's a solution you're just supposed to pick up on. I think the better solution is just making status a more viable approach throughout. "But we made like five different status effects that just completely shut the opponent down, we can't let you do that to everything." Then maybe your status effects were poorly balanced. But it's Final Fantasy style, so we knew that already.

FINAL THOUGHTS I really enjoyed the game. I wasn't sure I would, but I took a chance, and I'm happy with it. I will admit to intense frustration around the Bravebearer trial, but even that can be seen as me making my own life harder for no reason, as I still had 24 level ups to go before this became unsalvageable. Though given the structure of the fight, I'm certain it would've been anyway.

Basically, it's solid, but I think it suffers from the same curse that many JRPGs I've played have if I seriously considered them: fantastic, well-designed experience through the main story, that absolute falls to shit the instant you step into post-game challenge content.

#bravely default 2

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a-yarn-of-purple-prose · 2 years

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The Chasm Delving Highlight Reel, part 2

Time for an update on the chronological fic recs!

Last post I said I'd be going onto the second half of 2021 in this post, but that was a lie! I happened to fiddle with the search and now I somehow got more recs for the same timeframe as the first post. Tee-he.

Rules are over here.

As before, I'll remind you these recs are completely personal and, while I like to believe I have pretty good taste, I can't guarantee you'll love the same things I do. I do offer warnings, though!

Now here we go:

Refraction, by liminalblue

Rated: Not Rated

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Huachu (an NPC!)

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: author describes as Liyue NPC brainrot, I say it's introspective, sad brainrot.

Trigger warning: this whole thing is about death and there is some potentially triggering descriptions including some decay.

A poetic imagining of the case of Huachu, the NPC woman that faked her death to elope and whose story can be picked up by reading message boards in Liyue. The author uses the fact that the actual dead body was some unfortunate nameless woman and goes from there in several directions.

It's only 1,9k words and very worth your time.

Purple Horsetails, by halcyonia

Rated: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Yanfei, Xiao (in passing)

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: character study

Trigger warning: none

I love a good character study and this one is very well done. Yanfei's personality shines through in her notes. The author is very good at hinting at a full life while showing us little peeks at her thoughts.

judgement and memory, by glassdrachma

Rated: Teen and Up

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Ganyu, Keqing, Ningguang, Zhongli

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: character study

Trigger warning: none

A slice of Ganyu's life and her connection to Liyue's people. It's a very moving fic, delicate and introspective, with superb characterization in general (amazing Zhongli, even if his part is small).

requiem for lands past, by tetsuyas

Rated: Teen and Up

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Kaeya, Jean, Klee, Venti, Diluc, Traveler, Paimon

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: introspective Kaeya-centric fic

Trigger warning: none

A fluffy little piece centering on how Kaeya is perceived by several people in his life. It's a series of scenes, framed as a story being told to the Traveler and it's clever, insightful and, well, cute. It's a cute fic. About Kaeya. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find Kaeya stories that are not angsty? And, I mean, I like angst, I just think the man needs a chocolate and a hug.

Anyway, read this if you like Kaeya (and if you don't like him, imagine I'm staring at you judgementally.)

(Un)Happy Birthday, Master Ragnvindr, by TheOpticalMouse

Rated: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Diluc, Kaeya

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: angsty fluff with a side of tentative brotherhood

Trigger warning: it's a fic about grief for a parent, so you might want to be careful if it's your case (or, more possibly, you might click very fast because who doesn't want to read their blorbo work out their own similar grief?)

Gotta chase a Kaeya fic with a Diluc fic, amiright? In this fic, the Diluc & Kaeya reconciliation is a work in progress, so Kaeya takes the initiative to make Diluc's birthday a less horrible day. It's sweet and very familial.

I like how this fandom has the habit of writing birthday fics, it's very cute.

slow embers, by lady_peony

Rated: Teen and Up

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Childe, Zhongli

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: fluffy getting-together fic

Trigger warning: none

Set after the archon quest events. Zhongli and Childe meet again and rekindle their friendship through a tour of Liyue food stalls.

This fic will make you hungry. It just will. The food is too well described, their outings so sweet you'll long to walk the streets of Liyue.

Clash of Nobility, by seasparks

Rated: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Eula, Fischl

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: it's funny, though it's not crack because that has absolutely happened, honest, it's canon ^^

Trigger warning: none

Enough with the longing and the wistful, have a fic that is just funny. There is something inherently humorous in the idea of Fischl and Eula talking to each other and the author nails it.

introducing, trouble, by izabellwit

Rated: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Klee, Albedo, Lisa, Amber, Noelle, Sucrose, Jean, Kaeya

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: pre-canon cuteness

Trigger warning: none

Klee's first meeting with the Knights, on her own point of view, featuring a very stressed Albedo.

I love Klee, but it's hard to find an author that writes children well. This one does. Klee's voice is bubbly and enthusiastic, which makes it very hard not to be charmed by this fic. Give it a shot, it's only 3k words.

The Darknight's Assistant, by FuwaFuwaMedb

Rated: Mature

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Characters: Albedo, Diluc, Kaeya, Klee, Jean, Sucrose, Aether, Barbara

Ships: Albedo/Diluc

General vibe: adventure! Yes, it's shippy, but the other things are very interesting as well

Trigger warning: since this is a chaptered fic, I'll just say there isn't anything generally more triggering than the game usually is, but you might want to pay attention to the notes.

You might think of skipping this one because it's a rarepair. Don't.

Hear me out: what if Diluc got hurt while darknighting and the person to help him was not only competent enough to save him, but willing to keep his secret, willing to help? And we all know Albedo is a secret badass.

This fic is a treat, I'm telling you. The romance is sweet and flows naturally, the plot is gripping, characterization runs very well for everyone, the ending lands nicely. I couldn't ask for more.

keep my body from the fire, hire a gardener for my grave, by Magepaw

Rated: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Qiqi, Hu Tao

Ships: none|gen fic

General vibe: character study

Trigger warning: a lot of death talk in this one, including descriptions of decay.

A very well written little dive into Qiqi & Hu Tao. The author gets a lot of characterization across with very few words and for this I salute them.

I really like how self-aware Qiqi is and how much respect the author shows for her. With the way Qiqi is a meme in this fandom, reading a story in which she shines is very rare.

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crewcore · 2 years

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Halcyonia

#mine #image #photo post #suburbs #dusk #flash #room #bedroom #suburbia #suburbicore

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honorisen · 2 years

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@halcyonias ◈ starter call

“ You look like you’re lost. Need a certified SOLDIER to help get you somewhere? ” The question was as innocent as the smile he’d followed it up with, even if the retort probably sounded more like a pick-up line to anyone else.

Zack was being completely genuine though; especially to someone who looked like they could’ve used a guardian in the form of someone whose job it was to fight off threats and play his part on the front lines. “ I mean, I’ve heard there’s monsters around here, right? Might be tough by yourself. ”

#halcyonias #❰ v: dissidia ❱#[ ₪;; queue ]#[ tfw i had zero idea what to do for a verse here but??#yuna's got my permission to just smack him #even if he'll stop sounding like a huge flirt by his new reply lmao ]

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runalice · 2 years

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@halcyonias requested : balthier !!

❛ while i’ve no doubt in your skills, i believe it’d be in our best interests to retreat. ❜ the mobs of creatures gathering not too far from their hiding spot filled the air with low growls and equally grotesque snarling. ❛ we’ve been at this for gods’ knows how long and there seems to be no breakthrough. ❜ balthier adds to his point, all while wiping the beads of sweat that formed on his brow. with a small shake of said hand, he looks to the young woman while resting the barrel of his gun on his shoulder. ❛ the others should not be far. ❜

#【 p : in character 】#【 ch : balthier 】#halcyonias #I HOPE THIS IS OKAY :sob:

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fulgensun · 3 years

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☀ @halcyonias : guess who :)) ☀

❛ Ehh-- ? ❜

❛ Fine, I’ll guess, I’ll guess ! Yuna -- say, what do I win ? ❜

#halcyonias #▐┊ ic.#[ welcome back ;___; ]#[ on yuna aaaaa ]#[ you're never getting rid of me ahah <33 ]

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shrapnelstars · 3 years

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Theme song of me trying to fight the bosses that raise the job level cap:

youtube

#thing #Bravely Default 2 #Those boss rooms make me so firespitting furious #The Halcyonia one is the easiest #But I still haven't won it #I'm almost level 80 mind

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ceruleanthiing · 17 days

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First name Arin last name autism

#Halcyonia #Ninjago #idk. yeah

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belacedia-a · 2 years

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𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝟑 - 𝟓 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐎𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄

I'm fairly sure I've reblogged several of these in the past, but whatever, these are the ones I think suit my portrayal of Belphegor very well.

Sucker for Pain - Imagine Dragons et al.

Emperor’s New Clothes - Panic! At the Disco

you should see me in a crown - Billie Eilish

Devil’s Trill Sonata - Giuseppe Tartini

Play with Fire - Sam Tinnesz ft. Yacht Money

tagged by: zorkaya and etherux !! tagging: @queenharumiura, @halcyonias, @skylrks, @fullmtal, @sewnloved, @highseaskxng, @loreconcepts, and anyone else who’d like to try this !

#⁽ ⠀ ♔ ⠀ ⁾ ⠀ ⠀ * ⠀ study v ⠀ ⠀ ﹕ ⠀ ⠀ playlist.#⁽ ⠀ ♔ ⠀ ⁾ ⠀ ⠀ * ⠀ dash game.

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brave-heroes-of-light · 3 years

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"# BD/BS and BD2 crossover when???"

Bold of you to assume the games were never connected (I know what the creators said. It's a lie. I don't care).

First up, it's obvious the regions of Excillant mimic the regions of Luxendarc - Caldisla/Halcyonia, Harena/Savalon, Florem/Wiswald, Eternia/Rimedhal, Eisenberg/Holograd. But most importantly: Norende/Musa. Norende and Musa in particular are in the same location, are both wiped out, and, in the Isle of Nothingness, Musa is replaced by a giant chasm with a suspiciously familiar ledge... So yes, right from the start I concluded Excillant is Luxendarc's "Pangea". They're the same world, but thousands of years apart. (Although Pangea took millions of years to separate, this world has magic and it's entirely possible a BD2 sequel could include a literal earth-shattering event).

The Airship Adam had built? No one had ever seen an airship before - it was a completely new thing. A prototype even. A prototype to Grandship. The oldest surviving airship in Luxendarc - so old they even forgot it was an airship. An airship powered by a crystal (in the process of being discovered in Excillant).

The crystals are tiny here in Excillant. We know they grow over time. This place is a world without Crystalism. A world without Vestals watching over the crystals. A world without individual temples for the crystals. But we've seen the sealing chamber in Musa looks identical to the temples of Luxendarc. A precursor. This world doesn't even know it's possible to power the crystals without dying! They don't know how to find vestals who are able to safely work with the crystals.

Gloria's earrings? The original state of Agnès's pendant. Gloria's brooch? A precursor to the brooch Airy had.

Fairies made the Asterisks? You know who else made them? Sage Yulyana. A sage so old he's (supposedly) forgotten his own true name. A sage who existed before Crystalism. A sage who existed back when the land Norende was built on was a huge mountain. Ah, I forgot to mention my theory that Ringabel, Magnolia, Yulyana and Deneb are all fairies too (the hair, the connections to Florem, the connections to the moon, the connections to big secrets they seem to have in common, the knowledge of other worlds and ancient relics - see here for more).

Speaking of Yulyana. He also said there was a reason the great chasm opened up where it did. Where Norende was. Where Musa was. The place where the barrier between their world and the Celestial Realm was weakest. The place where the crystals were originally kept. The place where the original temple was built. The place where the 'angel' fell. The place the Nexus chose to inhabit - in fact, the place the Nexus grew up... I have no clue what exactly caused that weakness, but it's no coincidence all these things happened in essentially the same place.

The blind man in Holograd says he was the first to use the term "Heroes of Light" which people of Excillant seem quite familiar with. Meanwhile, when Yulyana used the term, he said it was very old - what people used to call heroes like Tiz, Agnès, Edea and Ringabel a long long time ago.

Wasn't Yew's ancestor a sailor? Doesn't Seth look a little like him? like a cross between Seth and Gloria? huh... "Beware the eye of Foundar" a mysterious figure in the Geneolgia crypt said. Foundar, Yew's sailing ancestor. Seth, the sailor surrounded by eyes. Everywhere. (another theory for another time, but BD2 is full of eyes).

And if you really want to know, ever since the trailer, I wondered if Adelle was connected to Deneb (the hair, the secrets, the black bird aesthetics, good with animals, borrows Elvis's blue scarf, very old without looking like it - plus Deneb knows how to use the Hourglass relic which could potentially be a fairy relic (again, fairy theories here)).

And now Airy's name turns up in Lady Emma's book. Perhaps it's just an easter egg. Perhaps it's meant to reflect the player's memories being saved in that book. Or perhaps it's more evidence for me to use to ignore BD2 supposedly being a completely different world.

In any case, the existence of parallel/alternate worlds are canon in both Bravely Default and Bravely Default II so at the very least they could co-exist via the Outer Oceans (along with any headcanons or AUs you want tbh)

#bd2 spoilers #bdii spoilers #bravely default 2 spoilers #bravely default ii spoilers #bravely default spoilers #bravely second spoilers #all the spoilers #bravely default 2 #bravely default ii #bravely default #bravely second

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adelle-ein · 3 years

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I made a modern office setting bd2/adellevis au and it’s got a plot and six gdoc pages of script. no idea if any of you will ever get to see much of it though because! you know. this might be it.

But either way, here’s basic intros, the meet-cute, and some other miscellany. Dominic is Adelle’s shitty ex-boss. Yes, Adelle hurled her shoes at Dominic’s head, but he ducked and they went out a window and into the head of a random passerby. Elvis doesn’t buy her new ones in this au though, just tea and sympathy (and kind of a job)

some other notes: Sloan is their boss, everyone lives and works in Halcyonia. Sloan didn’t make Adelle Elvis’s assistant for like shipping reasons or anything, Elvis really fucking needed an assistant lol. also no offense to sweater vest collectors, adelle’s just going through it

“but lace what do they do at the office” they work! “but what do they DO” i uh. something boring. idk what. sweats

#bravely default #bravely default 2 #bd2 #bdii #bravely default ii #adellevis #adelle ein #elvis lesley #gloria neu musa #seth #group: heroes of light #s: adelle and elvis #myart #bdart #bd2office

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godofwhateveriwant · 3 years

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Quick bd2 thought

So I was replaying this game for the third fucking time and I was about to beat up Shirley again, when I noticed some emblem looking things in bnd

This one’s for your team I suppose (It’s a bird obviously)

And this is for the opposite side (I wanna say it’s a sword over a shield but idk)

So I began to think... Could these be the emblems for Musa and Holograd respectfully? It just makes sense, Musa is the good kingdom and Holograd is the big bad in this case.

Speaking of Holograd

There’s this little bird guy on the Holograd soldier’s chestplate thing. I wanna say it’s a pheonix?

And Musa’s symbol is also a bird too, but not really sure what it’s supposed to be, an eagle?

I couldn’t find much else for the rest of the kingdoms, but Rimedhal’s symbol would literally have to a dragon

Also Wiswald really likes owls I guess

Black mage’s cravat and belt has a little owl design on it (Though can only been seen for Emma and Elvis, I believe).

And I’m gonna introduce you to this new guy from the new BD mobile game

This is Rufus, and apparently, he’s from Wiswald! (Got a translation from somewhere else) He has an owl design on his wand and on his coat seen below. Owls are associated with wisdom, so it makes sense.

So yeah, Wiswald would probably have an owl on it’s emblem, Musa with that Eagle thing, and Holograd with either the sword/shield design or that pheonix. And dragons are basically birds without feathers. No clue about Savalon or Halcyonia tho

Man BD2 REALLY likes birds huh

#bravely default 2

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auncyen · 3 years

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So, my thoughts on bd2 so far (still not done) are both spoilery and...a little salty, so under a cut they go. I’ll get the good out of the way first.

BDII is pretty nice as a return to the brave/default battle system and asterisk system. The controls are pretty fluid (once I realized I could press zr to unbrave in the middle of commands lol). Music and visuals are both nice. THE CHARACTER THEMES ARE DISTINCTIVE AGAIN (I still like BD1′s set the most, but in BD2 I can tell you which theme is which character’s and uh. I wouldn’t be able to do that with b2nd’s). “A Hectic Moment” is very fun.

And then like. Both the story and parts of the game design are baffling to me. I was not surprised by the prologue feeling dry because. BD game. Partially because it was a BD game I half-expected Sloan to defy his death flag parade and simply be forced to retire due to a wound or something similar but ok, he died. And first chapter made me hopeful! I don’t care at all for Orpheus (even as “love to hate” he just ends up kind of “meh”) and Anihal and Bernard felt a bit one note at first, but the twist with Castor where it seemed like his flaw was prejudice and then it was oh no backstabber was good.

The maniacal laughter kind of ruined it a bit, but still, good. (On this note, Castor and ...pretty much every ch. 2 asterisk holder had me thinking for a while that the asterisks handed out by the woman might have been tampered with and were driving people nuts, but at this point, seems firmly not to be a case, Castor was ax-crazy on his own. Okay.) And a later flashback about Anihal and Bernard made me regret a bit that the latter had died.

But like also at this point I’m kind of concerned that there hasn’t been any inner party conflict. Or like.........internal doubts. Or anything.

Ch. 2 was initially a bit funny for everyone having The Accent but eventually I got properly into it and, yes, all three people grieving a lost child was pretty touching.

Screw those woods though and why is the institute set up like that??? I know this is an RPG but guys. Guys. they’re supposed to be brilliant at that institute, at least one person would have set up the bare minimum of a rope ladder so they didn’t have to deal with the nonsense in between floors.

And then there was Folie. Folie’s dungeon is AMAZING. Her job is good.

Her boss fight is utter bs when you’re punished for using two different mage jobs and the character in general is just.............idk. I kind of preferred Mona’s death being accidental because it seems rather odd for someone like Folie who does not seem particularly attuned to others’ emotions to be like “ah yes, let me kill zis little girl and zen all of these people will be emotionally vulnerable for me to give zem my paintings” --yes, I also hated the accent.

I am of the opinion that there is no bad VA in this game (thus far) but goodness, the direction some of them were given.

Ch. 3 was interesting intrigue wise and the reveal with Adelle was GREAT but it also hinged very heavily on this being a BD game, since they made it obvious from the start of the chapter that, hmm, there’s something funny about her. (Honestly my guess had been shapeshifting dragon, so I wasn’t quite surprised by her saving Martha, though I WAS a little surprised by Martha not SAVING HERSELF BY JUMPING AWAY BECAUSE SHE WAS A FREAKING DRAGOON.) The party’s surprise at this is dealt with very quickly. Elvis’ reaction is kind of cute but it also just...........seems to cement that there’s never going to be any inner-party conflict, and there doesn’t seem to be any internal character conflict either, so it’s kind of just. Guys. Pls. Something interesting.

Coming back to world design: this religion feels so dumb and poorly-designed (Martha is in DIRECT CONTACT WITH THE LORD OF DRAGONS BUT ISN’T TRUSTED TO KNOW HIS WISHES??? THE FAIRY TRIALS ARE A ‘TRADITION’ BUT ALL THE DRAGONS ARE COOL WITH ADELLE???) and why is their holy hall full of crumbling walls and is, in fact, the only place I’ve found so far to “smash rock”? Yes, it has been bugging me.

the highlight of ch. 4 was Lonsdale, because he might not be the most original character concept, but it was interesting to have an antagonist with morals who has a friendly drink with Seth and warning for him at the tavern. (Also Seth’s piss-poor job at pretending to be just recovered from a cough for all of one sentence. And, in my game, while wearing heavy armor.) The low point was finding out how absolutely pointless Adam is.

It’s just....been very mixed and somewhat mediocre with the story, and lbr bd and b2nd both had issues with story too, but bd had an endearing cast that b2nd heavily borrowed from. The BD2 warriors of light seem very obviously inspired by bd crew but Seth never grieves his lost crew or misses his hometown or shows any uncertainty about the question of him living again. Gloria welcomes Elvis and Adelle easily even though they’re both clear about working in self-interest and there are never any trust issues even when Adelle’s concealed identity is revealed.

I’m not saying they should have had the exact same issues (esp since Gloria didn’t have any set up for mistrusting fairies) but they don’t have ANY issues.

I may now be at a point where Gloria does have an issue but it’s just kind of...1) there should have been at least a couple tell-tale hints about this sooner, it could have been as subtle as the king of Halcyonia gently suggesting she consider the marriages which would have painted him first as possibly evil, then as possibly just sexist or out-of-touch, and then finally you realize oh he knew and was hoping they could find other solution and trying to get her to consider a future that wasn’t dying (I think he knows. or at least I hope because if they gotta do this every 200 years then Gloria????? who knows to pass this down???? were you gonna teach your traumatized companions the secrets of being a vestal-lite as you were dying? because you didn’t.) 2) it’s just kinda. too late. A part of me is checked out. I know there is more and that the bd-style tweeest is finally starting, but this was the end of ch. 5 and both the main crew and story just haven’t been that interesting. If this wasn’t a bd game and I hadn’t gotten impatient enough about wanting to know about one detail that I spoiled myself for it being a fake ending, there is a high chance that I would have watched the credits, gone “well, okay. that was the game” and just set it aside.

And then maybe a few days later gone “wait they never explained the book was it buried in some request” because there is SO MUCH buried in requests and reloaded the game, but yeah. I still wanna fill in the gaps of what I’m missing, but I’m probably going to be slowing my pace and I really doubt I’m going to be active in the fandom because none of the characters have really grabbed my interest that hard.

#my thoughts on bd2 are also apparently a wall of text #so. that's a warning #bravely default ii spoilers #salt

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