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grape-eating-vampire · 2 months

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alright, it's done. i finished it.

this is the third and final part of things that happened in my first bg3 playthrough ever that I found so funny that I put them in my notes (spoilers below)

let me start this by saying I have only cried twice in the 155 hours it took me to complete this shit. however, I have almost-screamed at the characters more times than I'd like to admit. but first here's stuff that happened since the last one of these posts I made:

after killing Orin I went around Baldur's Gate for a while and did odd sidequests, including

clearing out a haunted house and sidelining to kill a stinky man in a wardrobe (and drag his body to a guy two streets over)

entirely ignored Gale's quest to look at a book because I kept getting arrested there after having killed the boss mage guy

I also foolishly though this wouldn't have any consequences. oh boy was I wrong

went to see a underwater prison, got told off by Gortash, decided to explore it after killing him, and promptly forgot to do so

killed Gortash! fuck that guy the only good thing about him is his fancy robe

tried to recruit a dragon called Ansur, found out the emperor is Balduran (????????? honestly I was shocked)

killed said dragon and felt like I was playing skyrim all over again

found a letter ("Dear Ansur") by Balduran/the Emperor. this was the first time I cried. I could still cry.

patch 6 came out! that was yesterday and I spent about 10 minutes trying out new kisses and sitting on Shadowhearts stool in camp (she now says "I'm glad you decided to join me" or something like that when you do)

went pretty much straight to the underground pool thing where the brain was supposed to be

failed abysmally to Dominate The Brain™

got pulled out by the emperor and had to start beef with Lae'zel because I had also forgotten to care about Orpheus and the hammer from the House of Hope

admittedly, I didn't really forget, I just didn't want to spend any more time with Raphael than I absolutely had to

my +14 persuasion saved the day once more and Lae'zel was fine with the one hope in her life getting his brains sucked out

went off to fight the brain once more. my game crashed twice trying to load that cutscene.

met all my allies! I forgot how many there were actually, and I only called on two of the groups later on

fought a lot. like a LOT lot.

got to the Netherbrain and kicked it's ass*

*had to reload about 3 times and try again because Minsc at level 12 was stuck on 100 hp for some reason and kept fucking dying

finally managed to kill the fucker! had Lae'zel deal the killing blow which seemed very fitting

more cutscenes, but this one actually didn't crash the game, I got to look at some beautiful unloaded walls and stuff instead

Lae'zel left right after we got to the haven. understandably so

remember how I ignored Gale's quest? well he didn't blow himself up like he inteded earlier, but he left to becOME A GOD????? I cannot fucking deal with this man

Karlach on the pier. this was the second time I cried, but unproportionally much so

Wyll left with her for Avernus, the little cutscene of them arriving there made me feel a bit better

Astarion had to leg it because of the sun (sorry)

Shadowheart didn't do much of anything during all of this, neither did Minsc, Halsin or Jaheira

decided to go help kids with Halsin, seems to fit my character (eventhough I really didn't roleplay so much)

we got an epilogue! yippie!

caught up there with everyone, except Lae'zel (who was there via the fantasy version of zoom) and Gale (who was there via the fantasy equivalent of a voicemail)

tried to hug Gale, couldn't, almost cried again but managed

also met a tressym who I recognized from fanart as Tara. I don't know why she was there, we never met her before and Gale hadn't mentioned her either

read a LOT of letters the party had received. barely kept my composure at the Gur's letter to Astarion

Withers did a cool speech and the game ended

after all of this and so much more that I didn't take notes about, I can confidentially say that Baldur's Gate 3 is the best video game I have ever played, and within it's genre my favourite ever!

I'm also emotionally devestated, especially after these final parts (but in a good way)

that's all, thanks for reading!

#bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #orin the red #enver gortash #astarion #gale #wyll #karlach #lae'zel #shadowheart #jaheira #minsc #withers #bg3 spoilers #the emperor #ansur

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foxstens · 1 year

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yea... blasphemous gets hard

it has an ng+ plus mode which gives you access to new bosses, i think an entire area, and also the true ending of the game, but also gives enemies more health, and you can choose from three options to make the game even harder. you can do it without any of them but each has a reward. and yea, ng+ basically means you replay the game but you retain all of the abilities skills and powerups you got previously, you’ll just be missing all the collectibles, currency, health and energy upgrades, and of course you have to discover each area and fight each boss all over again.

i’ve been doing this with one of the difficulty options that transforms your health bar into health orbs and halves the damage of your sword, it hasn’t been too bad, getting around and making progress takes a lot less time bc i know what the heck im doing, and everything does one orb of damage which is mostly a good thing. but i only get like 9 life orbs total and the flasks which previously refilled most of my health, now refill one orb instantly and then all the other ones over time. kind of like hiveblood i guess. which is really good in the overworld when you can just chill until your health refills but really freaking hard during boss fights jesus christ. like beating the three sisters platforming boss took me like three times as many tries as on my first fucking playthrough what the fuck

and it’s even harder now that i’m in the late-game like my fully-upgraded sword only does half damage and the enemies have so much health and one particular mini-boss is so fucking difficult for me i had to find a way to get around it so i don’t have to grind until i manage to kill it somehow. and now i’m in the prison area which i really liked on my first playthrough, i like its design, the enemies weren’t too bad and it has one of my favourite bosses, but this time around i am strugglinggggggg. there’s one enemy that just kind of screams and charges at you, they take like 5 hits to die now and that should be fine except that hitting them doesn’t stop their charge so you gotta dodge first then hit and then do it all over again, but it’s very easy to get stun-locked because they attack faster than you can get up from getting knocked over. so i entered this area five minutes ago and i’ve already died twice eh.

i’ve also tried two of the bosses required for the true ending that i never beat in my first playthrough, one of them is really cool, very much a dance kind of fight, really reminds me of troupe master grimm as far as the structure of the fight and even the overall vibe, i got close to beating her a few times but then quit bc i got tired.

the other one however, is in a very weird area, it’s a small area that has nothing interesting in it, one boss one collectible and extremely, extremely tanky enemies. the boss itself is kinda cool, visually it looks pretty different from other bosses i’ve come across and its attacks are all very easy to avoid, but it’s just. its health is obnoxious.

with my sword damage nerfed of course everything takes longer to die even if i abuse spells as much as possible, and that’s fine, i knew that going in, BUT THIS GUY IS FREAKING ABSURD. USUALLY WHEN I HIT A BOSS WITH MY SWORD I CAN SEE A BIT OF THEIR HEALTHBAR DISAPPEAR, THAT’S HOW ATTACKS WORK, BUT WITH THIS GUY IT TAKES LIKE 5 SWORD HITS FOR ONE TINY FRACTION OF ITS HEALTH TO GO AWAY. EVEN MY COMBO FINISHERS THAT DO 3 TIMES THE NORMAL SWORD DAMAGE AND EVEN MY POWERED UP SPELLS THAT DO 200% MORE DAMAGE BARELY SCRATCH IT WHAT THE HECK

and it’s so easy like in my first try i got well into its second phase before i died but holy fuck it takes so long. it takes so fucking long it’s so annoying. i do not understand this design decision, no other boss i’ve fought takes even a third the amount of time this fight goes on. i mean there’s like 4 or so bosses i haven’t fought yet but i don’t think they would have this much health. at least i hope not. i mean i’d like to finish this playthrough sometime this century maybe.

still having fun tho, am excited for everything i haven’t done yet and i’m also going to have to try some of the other difficulty options, though i might not end up going through the entire game with them. but even if i don’t i do want to do another full playthrough on normal mode bc you need to select an existing save file to access the boss rush and the difficulty on that save file carries over so... yeah.

#my posts #gameblogging #liveblogging blasphemous #long post #read more #my rambles

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purplesurveys · 3 years

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1248

Your ex taps you on the shoulder and says, “I still love you.” You say? I feel like I’ve answered a similar situation recently, but I would assume it was a drunk text or wrong text, inform them about it, and move on.

Do you play video games? Nah. I do feel a sort of connection of video games since I grew up surrounded by them, though; but I’m more of a watcher than anything. I like watching playthroughs of video games I’ll never play. Do you spend a lot of time with family? No. We used to, back when the quarantine was still a relatively new thing – we hung out in the living room all the time. But now that we’ve settled in this new normal, we’re back to our normal routines and I usually like staying in my room.

Is your house more than two stories tall? Technically, yes. We have a rooftop that serves as the ‘third’ floor.

Have you ever hit your significant other? Has he/she ever hit you? My ex and I never hit one another; that’s a gigantic red flag even I would notice, considering I ignored most of the ones I saw hahaha.

What makes you an attractive person? (Talk about your personality too!) I’m not sure if I’ll be able to answer this question directly, but I like my generosity. I’m not sure if I can call it attractive, though. But if we were focusing on physical features, I like my smile.

What color is your hairbrush/comb? Pink.

What snacks do you have available in your household atm? My dad splurged on chips in his last grocery run so we actually have quite a lot of junk food in the pantry at the moment. He also bought several packs of cookie sandwiches, wafers, sunflower seeds, and garlic-flavored peanuts.

Has anyone recently told you that they like you, or find you attractive? Neither.

Are you attracted to the last person you Facebook messaged? No, she’s just a good friend of mine.

Do you care about anyone that doesn’t care about you? I guess I don’t, because I’m not even aware of them.

Was your last Facebook friend requests from a male or female? Guy. It was another reporter, so I just ignored it and luckily he didn’t PM me just to ask to add him back, which others have already done. I really hate when work people try to make their way into my personal accounts.

Which one of your relatives is most likely to embarrass you? My parents, especially when they are rude to service crew. Gen X-ers are impeccably talented at that, apparently.

When was the last time you ate a bar of chocolate? Around two or three weeks ago when I had dinner at Angela’s. Her dad gave me a bar of Crunch so I can have something sweet after our meal.

Do you play any games on Facebook? No, I never did hop on that trend.

What would you like to get a degree in? I wanted a degree in journalism, and graduated with such. At the end of my college stint I didn’t want to pursue it anymore, but I pushed through with it anyway because it was too much of a hassle to shift and start all over.

Do you wake up a lot in the middle of the night? Technically not, because I stay up until the middle of the night anyway. It’s been a while since I fell asleep anywhere between 8 to 10 PM.

Would you prefer to read a book, watch a movie or TV show, or play a video game? Watch a show.

Do you usually get popcorn or soda at the movie theater? I don’t like either; I get fries instead.

What genre of films do you like the best? Drama.

How many bank accounts do you have? Two but I haven’t been using the other one in months. That was the bank account I initially opened when I first started ~adulting~ but when I got employed I was required to enroll in this other specific bank, so that’s what I mainly use now.

Have you ever had the flu? Not really. I just get the occasional fever that pop out of nowhere.

What is your goal for the next few months? Start saving FOR REAL, and also prioritizing furniture over merch for a while so I can finally fix up my room, which is quickly starting to look and feel like just a warehouse and not very homey at all.

Have you ever had some kind of sleep-disorder? How did it affect your life? Nope.

Have you ever had food poisoning before? Describe the experience. Yeah, it was from barbecue that apparently went bad, even though it tasted nothing of the sort. I woke up at 3 AM sweating profusely and with the most excruciating stomachache; I was feeling hot, cold, and nauseous all at the same time, and it probably lasted for like an hour or so.

What are two things that you have no problem paying full price for? Sealed albums and my pets’ vet expenses.

Funny, charming, cute, romantic, smart - choose only 2 for the opposite sex. Charming and smart.

Have you ever let somebody use you? Why did you do it? It felt nice to help people.

You can go back in time & change something in your mom’s past - what is it? Good question; I’ve never encountered this before. I would let her live a more comfortable, privileged life, where she didn’t have to staple her shoes to keep them closed or have to choose between eating at a fast food restaurant or being able to commute back home.

Do you know anybody who is around the exact same size as you? Who? I’m not sure, actually. Everyone’s always slightly taller than me.

Ever been to a haunted house? How scared were you? I haven’t.

Been on any websites today you wouldn’t want your parents to see? Tumblr, I guess? My survey blog isn’t for any irls to see.

Which is worse: dusting or mopping? I don’t really do either often, but I’ll go with mopping.

Would you marry somebody who was intensely religious? Not for me.

Did you pull a senior prank? No, that’s not a thing here. Did you graduate? Yeah, elementary, high school, and college.

Have you ever been unfaithful in a serious relationship? Nope.

What was the last song you listened to? It’s a song called Epiphany.

Are you one of those lucky people with 20/20 vision? Not ever since I was like 9 lol.

Is fashion one of your interests? I’m way more interested in it now for sure, mostly because the celebrities I’m into these days put a lot of effort when it comes to their style; so it makes me more aware of the trends that come and go, as well.

Do you think you’ll eventually find that special someone? I’m keeping it as a possibility, but it’s not a priority for me now.

Do you care what people think? To an extent, I would say. My life doesn’t depend on it, though.

Is acting something you enjoy? Never been.

What was the last thing you broke/sprained? Do you mean a thing or a body part? Anyway, I’ll answer both. The last thing I broke was my BTS Mic Drop pen of V looooooooooool the figurine came off the pen :(( It was pretty cheap though so I’m fine with it; I can always get another one. Last body part I sprained was my ankle, when I had a bad fall a couple of years ago.

Have you ever fought with a friend because of their boyfriend/girlfriend? Because of yours? Either hasn’t happened.

Has a stranger ever yelled at you for your language? I don’t think so.

Whose house, other than yours and your families', are you most comfortable at? Angela’s. Also JM’s, just because their family doesn’t hover and that vibe can sometimes be nice whenever I’m at someone else’s place.

Has any of your friends’ family ever yelled at you? Never.

Did you ever play a sport as a little kid? Did you enjoy it? Not as a very young kid, but I took up table tennis starting when I was 12. Did you ever watch the show Full House? Nope.

Is there a celebrity you are just DETERMINED to marry? Now that’s just delusional haha. I’m pretty obsessed with some celebrities, that much I can admit; but thinking of them in the context of marriage is so many steps overboard.

Have you ever burned someone’s picture? No. I could, but I am scared of fire and will probably just think of other ways to express my anger, like tearing up the photograph. What’s the longest hike you’ve ever been on? Total length was probably like 3 hours. I haven’t gone too far when it comes to hiking.

Would you ever get a lip tattoo? Not interested.

Who is the first person of the opposite sex that pops into your head? Hans.

Do your parents smoke cigarettes? My mom tried it once in her life, I think. My dad has never smoked.

What does one of your T-shirts have written on it? “Hope right here!”

Name a pet you definitely wouldn’t want. Anything that’s supposed to roam freely in the wild, like squirrels.

Would you prefer your partner smaller or taller? Taller, since I’m already quite pint-sized to begin with lol.

Do you enjoy going through old pictures? Sometimes. Other times, it's too painful. It also depends on the era of the pictures. < Agree, especially with the eras. Childhood photos are always fun to look at, but I have had to delete a CHUNK of photos from years ranging from 2014 to 2020 because I’ve lost a handful of friends from that period.

Do you believe people when they say they don’t judge people? It’s hard to for the most part, but I’ve noticed very few people people really don’t. Most of the time it’s bullshit though.

What did you love the most about the town you grew up in? That it’s pretty close to the metro.

What’s a movie that you laughed the hardest during? Hmm, I prefer TV shows if I’m craving comedy.

What’s a movie you cried the hardest during? Life Is Beautiful.

What’s your favorite restaurant? Omakase for my sushi fix; School Tteokbokki if I want Korean; Yabu if I’m looking for a generous rice meal.

Is there a dessert you don’t like? Anything with fruits.

Favorite album? After Laughter by Paramore.

What’s a book that you read because everyone else was reading it? I can name authors instead of books – John Green and Haruki Murakami.

Underwater or outer space? Outer space.

Dogs or cats? Dogs.

Kittens or puppies? Puppies.

Bird watching or whale watching? Whale watching. I don’t get to be in the water as much, so I would jump at the opportunity.

What is your spirit animal? I dunno if I have one but let’s just go with dog and elephant, I guess? They’re my favorites.

What was your best subject in school? History.

What was your worst subject in school? Chemistry.

What is one thing you wish you knew in high school? Don’t waste your time.

Who is your fashion icon? Audrey Hepburn.

Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds.

What color dress did you wear to prom? For my own prom it was cream-colored/beige. When I went to Mike’s ball, I went with a royal blue gown.

What’s your favorite plot-twist? I don’t think I’ve found my favorite yet.

Honestly, are you jealous of someone right now? Not actively.

Honestly, what’s the worst thing you’ve done when you were mad? I dunno...road rage, maybe?

Honestly, ever made anyone cry when you were mad? It’s very likely.

Honestly, when was the last time you REALLY cried your heart out? Sometime in the last week.

Ever pop someone else’s pimple? No thanks.

Do you need to return anyone’s phone call? Nope.

Who are you closest to? Angela.

Have you ever had a bad concert experience? No, all the ones I’ve been to have been amazing experiences.

Are you currently sad about anything? Not really. I can’t complain.

Have you had any form of exercise today? Nah.

Can you handle blood? Nope, I will feel faint if I see it 100%.

Has any place hired you underage for a job? No.

Have you ever carried a concealed weapon? I haven’t.

Are you currently searching for a job? No, I like the one I have.

Does eating breakfast make you sick? No?

#survey #surveys

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butnobodycame627 · 4 years

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Undertale-themed ask game because I'm bored

Send a song title and I'll answer

Your Best Friend : Who in Undertale would you get along with the best?

Fallen Down : Would you climb the mountain in real life? Why?

Ruins : Who's your favourite character in the ruins? Why?

Unnecessary Tension : What fight did you have the most trouble with? (Other than Sans, if you've fought him)

Ghost Fight : Did you cry at any point playing the game? If so, which part(s) made you cry?

Home : Cinnamon or butterscotch?

Heartache : Did you kill Toriel on your first playthrough? If so, was it intentional or because you did not know how to spare her?

Sans. : What is your favourite pun from Sans?

Nyeh Heh Heh! : What is your favourite pun from Papyrus?

Snowy : Who's your favourite character in Snowdin's forest? Why?

Snowdin Town : Who's your favourite character in Snowdin Town? Why?

Shop : Who is your favourite shopkeeper in the game?

Bonetrousle : Can you make spaghetti?

Dating Start! : Did you flirt with Papyrus? (Basically, was it a date or a hangout?)

Dating Tense! : Favourite ship?

Dating Fight! : Did you eat Papyrus' spaghetti or not?

Undyne : Do you get more sad watching Undyne's neutral death or genocide death?

Waterfall : Who's your favourite enemy character in Waterfall? Why?

Run! : Did you die running away from Undyne?

Quiet Water : Who's your favourite NPC character in Waterfall? Why?

Memory : Did you solve the piano puzzle without looking up a tutorial? (Bonus question, do you remember the solution?)

Bird That Carries You Over A Disproportionately Small Gap : bird 🐥

Dummy! : Did you punch them?

Pathetic House : Would you smooch a ghost?

Chill : Do you want to.... lie on the floor and feel like garbage?

Thundersnail : Have you ever won a game of thundersnail?

Temmie Village : Who's your favourite Temmie in the village?

Tem Shop : Have you ever gotten Temmie Armour?

Ngahhh!! : Is anime real?

Spear Of Justice : Did you die fighting Undyne?

Alphys : Do you... like.... anime?

It's Showtime! : What was your favourite show that Mettaton hosted? (Quiz, cooking, news, or musical?)

Metal Crusher : Who did you pick in response to "Who does Dr Alphys have a crush on?"

Another Medium : Who's your favourite NPC character in Hotland?

Stronger Monsters : Who's your favourite enemy character in Hotland?

Hotel : Did you get Burgerpants a date with Catty and Bratty?

Can You Really Call This A Hotel, I Didn't Receive A Mint Under My Pillow Or Anything : Did you pay for a room in MTT resort? Why or why not?

Confession : Bro...

Live Report : What did you report on?

Death Report : Did you defuse all the bombs?

Spider Dance : Do you normally skip Muffet's fight?

Wrong Enemy?! : Who's your favourite secret boss?

Oh! One True Love : Do you know all the lyrics to Mettaton's songs?

Oh! Dungeon : Did you finish the second coloured tile maze?

It's Raining Somewhere Else : Is it raining outside as you answer this ask?

CORE Approach : Any theories on Gaster?

Core : Favourite Core enemy?

Death By Glamour : What's your favourite Mettaton form?

For The Fans : There's a Mettaton-shaped hole in my Mettaton-shaped heart...

Long Elevator : Damn this is a long elevator huh

Undertale : Who's your favourite character in general?

The Choice : What was your first route?

Asgore : Would you like a cup of tea?

Your Best Nightmare : Do you call him Omega Flowey or Photoshop Flowey?

An Ending : Did you help the snowman?

She's Playing Piano : What's your favourite song in the soundtrack?

Here We Are : Favourite amalgamate?

Amalgam : Which amalgamate do you die to the most?

Don't Give Up : Has Undertale ever caused you to rage quit?

Hopes And Dreams : If you could say one thing to Asriel (or Flowey) right now, what would you want to say?

His Theme : Did you console him? (If you say no then I think something's wrong with you /j)

Bring It In, Guys! : make sure to brush your teeth before crossing the street

Good Night : Good night.

#undertale #ask game #send me some please <3

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1wngdngl · 4 years

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Pokemon Shield playthrough - Part 5

Back again with another post! This one covers Route 5 and the Water Gym.

Just as I start down the route, I encounter the Cameraman/Reporter duo, who are a classic trainer pair from past games. Given that all the Gym Challenge stuff is a big spectacle in the Galar region, it makes perfect sense that Gym Challengers would get interviewed along the way.

This horde of Minccino chased after me. It was adorable.

I discovered the Pokemon breeding-grounds - or at least, the artificial version of it. This is not the same as the old “Day-Care” that could also level up Pokemon. The Nursery is solely for eggs, while Levelling up can be done with PokeJobs and the experience candies.

The people here are really nice - they gave me a free rare Pokemon!

It’s like a baby dinosaur! I believe this is also the first Poison-Electric combo we’ve had.

Since I don’t want to have duplicate types, I remove Yamper from the team. I prefer dual-types, plus this purple dinosaur looks cooler. Okay, so he starts at Level 1, and he’s pretty frail, but I can be patient.

Leaving the Nursery behind, I encounter another traditional trainer class - the Chef. He sends out food to attack me.

I also find a wild Wobbuffet - and promptly realize just how horrible its catch rate is.

I wasted every last Poke Ball on this fiend. At least he gave decent experience when I knocked his lights out.

I consoled myself by catching the weird apple creature for myself. Here’s another unique type combo - Grass and Dragon (wait, does Mega Sceptile have that typing?) It only knows a defense-raising move and the incredibly-weak Astonish, and has horrible stats all around. I’m sure it will evolve into something great, if I can figure it out. (btw, is it weird that Galar has both apples /and/ “Leppa” berries?)

I decided that my psychic-bug-cocoon wasn’t doing enough for me, so it got booted off the team.

I also got a second try at Wobbuffet ;)

This guy has a nice camping spot for himself. He never leaves. Maybe he ran away from home?

Seeing a pink puffball and an apple fight over a toy is too cute for words.

My coworker also has this game, and was kind enough to trade over this incredibly-high level Wingull. Not that I really plan to use it, but it /does/ have Pokerus. You’d think by now the nurses and professors of the Pokemon world would have learned to harness the power of Pokerus and turn it into a mandatory booster shot.

Back on track, these silly Team Yell people are blocking the bridge forward.

I get to see what my Dark-type fox /could/ have evolved into, if it were still on my team :( It looks like a proper gentleman-thief.

I love Pokemon - you save someone from getting their precious possession stolen, and as thanks, they give you their precious possession.

Too bad the outfit for it is so garish.

The blue color is a little better though.

Now that I have a bike, I can go into the Wild Area and try the Rotom Rally mini-game. It’s basically a time trial as you travel between different regions of the Wild Area. It looks like you can’t get attacked by wild Pokemon while in this Rally mode, so it’s probably the quickest way to get around (minus the flying taxi, of course).

These guys can also upgrade your bike a bit, but it’s expensive. And they don’t have the ride-on-water option either.

You know, Serebii.net says that Bunnelby doesn’t evolve until Level 20. This is an illegal Diggersby here!

Okay. Back on the bridge. Riding is so much faster than walking, but I keep stopping anyway to grab hidden items and look at the scenery. You can see the Dragon city in the background.

Another fight with my rival on the bridge. His Scorbunny has evolved, but it’s still not too tough.

In this place, Eldegoss literally float by on the wind.

Here’s the tunnel that ducks under the train tracks. What could be on the other side?

That can wait! First, I gotta get my Pokemon sent out on more jobs. I love this logo that’s a blatant KFC rip-off.

Oh, I also discovered that you can, in fact, change the wallpaper of PC boxes. All of the choices are pretty boring, though.

Also, my coworker invited me on a raid battle with a 5-star Ditto. I have a bad feeling about this...

Scorbunny’s final form is so majestic.

None of the previous raid battles I fought had “barriers”! Is that something that only shows up in multiplayer raids?

This is it. We’ve weakened it, and now I have the chance to obtain this rare, useful, iconic Pokemon for myself...

Yeah, I failed the capture. I didn’t know they could fail. At least I got some good loot.

FINALLY, I make it to the seaside town of Hulbury. I wonder which British coastal town this is based on? For being the main port of the region, it’s not really all that big.

We encounter Chairman Rose and some of his “admirers”.

We also learn a little more about the relationship between Rose and Bede. Apparently Bede really wants to impress the Chairman, so maybe he’s not so much “working for him” as trying to gain his favor.

You know, I really don’t think he pulls off that outfit. What is it even - a mix of baseball uniform and swim trunks?

Oleana thinks she can boss me around.

I don’t owe you anything, silly person! This is /my/ Pokemon journey. And I’ll take as long as I want. ^.^

Sigh...Why can’t I just throw my coal monster at these goons to get past? My character is way too nice.

Oh, here’s another look at that elephant Pokemon that the Chairman had. It looks like it’s wearing a little hat.

Also, please be more creative when naming locations.

Here’s the “bustling market” I was told about? Must be a slow day.

We’ve got the stock “bitter medicine” booth (I never use these)...

Ah! Here’s something useful. You can bet I will use this item to maximize my earnings from every battle. I haven't seen an option to re-battle trainers yet, and those cool outfits won’t buy themselves.

I trade away for a Cottonee. You know, why don’t people in real life just trade pets with each other whenever they feel like it?

Pokemon, Pokemon...People already say your recent games are too easy, and now you’re giving me a free held item that’s super-effective against the current Gym? (Yet another sign that you should ignore Oleana and /not/ go straight to the Gym upon arrival.)

If nothing else, Hulbury is scenic. I bet the dock is covered with Wingull droppings though.

These people obviously don’t get the point of Pokemon.

With the hills overlooking the sea, I’m reminded of Los Angeles - or was it San Francisco? It’s probably a lot colder in Hulbury though.

Here’s the train station at the top of the town. Of course it can’t take me anywhere new. What if my dying grandmother lived in the next town over - would you let me get on /then/?

I never got into Pokemon’s post-game battle facilities much. I wonder what Galar will have in that department.

I go fishing in the pier, and find a few new Pokemon. That seems to confirm that what you catch is based on where you are, so there’s no rod upgrades.

Good to see that Basculin still comes in two forms. I’m guessing Sword version has the red form?

Another sneaky way to help players - hide a Chinchou in the pier. Its electric attacks would also be useful against the Water Gym.

Aha! Here’s that Pokemon we saw in the trailer, when everyone wasn’t sure if it /was/ a Pokemon or just a generic fish. Well, it is real, though it doesn’t look that useful. It actually looks like a skinnier version of red-striped Basculin.

Nope, not keeping you. I only have six slots!

Some more postcard pictures.

Here’s that weird-looking Pokemon that was also glimpsed in the trailer. Will I be able to find this in the wild?

A hidden Electric-type TM. This is why you explore and do side stuff /before/ continuing the main story.

About ready to face the Gym now. First, now that I’ve entered a new town, I have some new options for my league card.

Here’s a brief look at where I am so far.

And a preview of Nessa. That pose cannot be comfortable.

My team. I’m hoping Avery’s Electric attacks will help, even though he is a bit under-leveled...

First, the Gym puzzle. It’s not really that hard. You could probably do it completely by accident.

In the old days, we had puzzles involving sliding around on icy floors, and using the Strength HM to push boulders into the correct holes. Now /that/ was a puzzle!

I wonder if Nessa ever gets cold, wearing that?

Her Dreadnaw wasn’t a super-high level, but it was incredibly powerful.

It knocked out my Dynamaxed Pokemon, even when the Dreadnaw itself was small!

I had no choice but to pull out my starter, and fight water with water.

Turns out Nessa’s calm demeanor breaks when she faces failure.

And now it’s dusk. I still don’t get how time of day works in this game - is it just an aesthetic thing related to the story?

A change in lighting can make for totally different pictures.

I have access to a new job company. They must be a sponsor for Nessa, since she wore a pin with their logo. Does this mean we can actually encounter Wailord in the game?

I also get the Chairman’s league card. I like the way he writes his signature.

You know the drill - can’t advance with my life until I follow the plotted line into this restaurant. At least it looks fancy inside. I like the Wishi-Washi designs on the floor.

Some story stuff happens. I am completely extraneous to this conversation.

I don’t really know how I feel about the Chairman. I still think he’s probably up to no good, but he’s not the cackling-evil sort that Lusamine was. Maybe it’s actually Oleana who’s evil, and Rose is being manipulated.

This restaurant: Nice location, horrible service. The whole time I sat here - empty glasses, and no food. If I’m gonna be forced to sit and listen to some exposition, I should at least get a meal out of it.

Okay, that’s all for now! In the next entry, I will enter this tunnel into yet another mine.

#pokemon #pokemon shield #pokemon gen 8 #let's play #lps

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ghostmartyr · 5 years

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Pokémon Black 2 Randomized Nuzlocke Run [Part 9]

All eight badges earned, so what does that leave?

Pirates.

Team for the task?

Vertex (Luxray)

Caspet (Gengar)

Stormy (Metagross)

Photon (Rayquaza)

Nessy (Milotic)

Diego (Gardevoir)

...Those who did not participate in the last Gym, raise hands or whatever you have in place of hands for grinding.

#LET ME LEAVE THE GYM WITHOUT A CONVERSATION GEN 5 CHALLENGE.

Colress, I swear, if you pull a Euicine and make me fight you for the honor of not fighting the Terrakion...

He does not. He gives us a toy and basically says to check out the cave that I need Strength to go through more thoroughly. The Giant Chasm pirates are still blocking my way, so.

Siiiiiigh.

Box crew! What have you got for me!

I will take out Bessy, the level 33 Miltank, and teach her Strength.

Bessy is Modest and somewhat vain, but that doesn’t matter because she’s just here for HMs. She’s temporarily taking Vertex’s place, since Vertex isn’t in need of more experience.

Ah. Actually, Strength just lets you get Toxic. Which is fine, but sorry Vertex, guess I threw you out of the squad for nothing.

Hey we found the boat!

Marlon lets us aboard. Thought: I should go put Bessy back in the box and grab Vertex in case something goes wrong. Except that would take time.

...I am going to go put Bessy back in the box and grab Vertex.

After shifting a boulder on Route 22. And grinding for a bit.

Okay. A few hours later, I am more comfortable entering the pirate ship. Team levels are now 56-60. That is absolutely a balanced assessment of my current team. It is in no way misleading.

Me!

...This is the greatest grunt ever. He calls Marlon Smiley Swimsuit. Yes. You have perfectly boiled down his character essentials.

Oh wait, he has a Watchdog.

Sorry pirate friend. We can’t be friends.

Russell, my actual friend, is trying to go on his roaring rampage of revenge. Only as a responsible big brother, not a Sasuke.

I used to have a Sasuke. No more.

...I should have named Russell Itachi. If there’s ever a next time...

I continue to find it delightful that after N leaves, Team Plasma ditches their knight theme for a pirate one. I don’t even know why, I just love it. I love knight aesthetic, I love pirate aesthetic. My castle was right next to my pirate ship for most of my childhood, and it rocked.

Though my pirates wouldn’t steal people’s pets. A key difference. Pirate in name only. Well. And clothing. Pirate is just a more fun word than sailor, and pirates have looser fashion.

Mook time over?

Technically this one isn’t stealing.

Just animal abuse.

The villain of this game is just a salty old man who spent so much time in a refrigerator he decided the rest of the world should spend time in a refrigerator, too. Then he found out his region has a legendary Dragon/Ice type, and the rest is history.

Only history I have to repeat.

Because the villain of a Pokemon game decided his winning strategy would be shooting bolts of ice down at the world below.

Video games are the greatest.

...Wait. How did me and Russell get down here? Did Team Plasma just throw us off?

Also, yes Cheren. They use everything for evil. They’re the bad guys.

And then Cheren asks where the people Zekrom and Reshiram recognized are and. I wonder if he misses his friend. his best friend, [last game protagonist]. How much does it suck that he spent a full game with [person], and now they’ll never see each other again because [person] is bound to a different dimension. A world Cheren can’t touch.

Canon has, what. Red who comes back? Every other protagonist kind of just. vanishes as far as future references to that world are concerned. And Red spends quite some time up on a mountain. Alone.

These games are all about people who swoop in and birth legends, then vanish.

I made myself sad.

Anyway, to the Giant Chasm!

Totally bro.

Aw crud. Do I need Strength? I think I might need Strength. Can I mayhaps avoid that?

Oh. I could just go down the giant stairs.

Wow. Talk about your parties.

ONE MORE TIME ON THE BOAT.

I hate password games. At least the ship supplies a doctor early on. I wasn’t to the point of active concern, but I was feeling a bit itchy about using up healing items. I haven’t grown out of my usual standard in these games where I just let everything in my party die to avoid spending money.

Agreed, let’s roll you.

This guy just keeps throwing Cryogonal at me.

You know, I don’t have a lot to complain about regarding these games and their choices. I whine about everything, but all in all, I find all of them very solid and enjoyable. Even if gen 4 has too many HM requirements wtf just stop.

This isn’t really a complaint, but it is a confusion. Zinzolin is fought multiple times in a relatively small window, and his team never changes. We just keep beating him. I get the sense that they wanted a villain, but as a sequel game to a gen that went all out on that, they didn’t really have anything they were willing to turn into a threat.

Really, I feel like a better path to pick would have been giving one of the Plasma grunts a different hat and having them be the captain of a very confused and angry crew. But eh, whatever.

....Oh. You.

Why is the most anime hair dude in the game so gosh darn forgettable?

For the sake of my flawed memory, he wants to bring out the full potential of pokemon, and is willing to us whatever means are necessary. The only question is which approach actually yields results.

I like you, Colress. I am never going to remember you, but I like you.

Good grief his theme sounds like it came out of Phantasy Star.

First up is a level 50 Magneton. Caspet’s an okay choice, so I’ll just Shadow Ball it. Magneton Thunder Waves Caspet, then uses Volt Switch to swap in Beheeyem (also level 50), who takes a Shadow Ball and dies instantly.

Sorry, ‘faints.’

A level 50 Metang is switched in next. Out of twitchiness over Caspet’s paralyzed state, I put Nessy in and go with Surf. Metang uses Agility from the red. Colress uses a Full Restore. Metang hits a Zen Headbutt, but Nessy has the last laugh.

Ugh. Colress is going to send in a Magnezone. Stormy’s the best answer to that, I think. Stormy knows Hammer Arm. It hits, but like everything I hate, Magnezone has Sturdy. A Bullet Punch handles that.

A level 52 Klinklang is next. His only thing over 50. Stormy is paralyzed thanks to Magnezone, but a Hammer Arm that hits should end it, and I don’t think Klinklang knows anything that’s a threat.

Even if Stormy feels like being paralyzed.

Only once, though. Hammer Arm + Bullet Punch does the job, and we only have that pesky Magneton left.

Hammer Arm and we are done.

Please don’t make me fight another one of these clowns. I don’t wanna.

Aw heck, Russell’s having his moment with Purrloin drama. And I guess I’m not fighting robe dude. It’s all ninja for now. With my four pokemon who aren’t paralyzed. Maybe I should have fixed that.

For real though, our rival’s plotline here is pretty dang sad. He wants his little sister’s pokemon back, and by the time he finds it, it isn’t hers anymore. It’s had an entirely different life without them, probably committing crime. Because it’s been told to.

This is why you get the pirate Plasmas and the knight Plasmas. It’s fantastic that you, the protagonist, has a crew of pokemon perfectly happy fighting and doing whatever you want. But living things being forced to do whatever you want them to because you happened to throw a ball at them is pretty screwed up.

There’s not really a satisfactory conclusion to all of this, since critique of a game mechanic that is never going to stop being a game mechanic doesn’t get to start dramatic revolutions regarding that mechanic, but it’s all very sad and sobering.

That pretty ice tho.

BUT WHERE IS THE PROTAGONIST FROM THE LAST GAME.

No, but thank you N. I was not ready to die at the hands of Kyurem. Your assistance is much appreciated, and pretty great in your sequel. Props.

Gee, that looks bad.

Cue dramatic anime battle sequence.

Followed by anime transformation sequence.

Welp. Time to kill you. Let’s just hope I can.

...Stormy. I think I might want you to tackle this. To the front you go.

But really.

So damn cool.

It’s dead now, but so. cool.

There are too many fights going on. I think I wouldn’t mind in a normaly playthrough, but for a Nuzlocke, this is needlessly stressful and I am not a fan also I beat Ghetsis in the last game and it wasn’t fun then, either.

He has six pokemon, and he opens with a level 50 Cofagrigus. That is not Stormy’s friend. Nessy, if you would. Hydro Pump hits. Toxic hits from the other side, and I will deal with that in a moment, after the Cofagrigus is gone.

Ghetsis, naturally, uses a Full Restore.

Nessy handles it in the end, but is down to 73 health. Eelektross is coming out next. Time to switch. To... uh. I’ll give Photon a whirl. Feeling lucky, I use Outrage, and Eelektross faints.

Ah. Hydreigon is out next.

That is a nasty type combo for my team to deal with. I think. Geez, mark this where I have all the regrets, but Photon’s staying in to murder the Hydreigon with Outrage. Ganbatte.

IT’S SUPER EFFECTIVE AND A CRITICAL HIT, GOOD JOB PHOTON.

Seismitoad is next. Diego, time for you and your Magical Leaf to shine. Shine they do, and we’re on to Drapion, which I will leave to Photon. Two Air Slashes make their mark, and all that’s left is Toxicroak, so in you stay Photon.

AND WE’RE DONE HERE, SCREW YOU GHETSIS!

But where is that certain Trainer, N????

Anyway, with that, it looks like the plot portion of this Nuzlocke is over. All that’s left is heading up to challenge the Elite Four.

I think a battle like that can have its own part.

#Pokemon #Nuzlocke Challenge #Nuzlocke

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atopearth · 5 years

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Final Fantasy X HD Remaster Part 8 - Someday the Dream will End

(Thought it’d be a great title since the above is my favourite soundtrack and this is my last post on FFX! XD)

Yay! I got Lulu’s Venus sigil! I was hesitant to start the dodging lightning thing since you have to dodge 200 in a row, but omg, after going on YouTube and knowing that there’s a ditch where you can easily gather the rhythm to do it 200 times, it only surprisingly took me like an hour and a half after getting distracted a few times and failing lmao. Gotta say though, much easier than the stupid Chocobo race for Tidus!🙄 Next thing you know, I try the butterfly catching game for the Saturn sigil and start to contemplate whether I really want to be a perfectionist lmao. I totally forgot that I hate the butterfly game the most, like THE MOST. It’s literally frustrating me more than the Chocobo and lightning combined, I don’t know why everyone on the internet says it’s the easiest of the mini games😣😣 Okay, fine, after another half an hour with trial and error, I finally got the Saturn sigil too, not that bad I guess….

Finally got all the celestial weapons too yeee~ I’ve never gotten everything before so I’m pretty happy right now hahaha! So Yu Yevon is the one that’s been constantly causing this all for a thousand years, hiding within Sin using him as an armour, and then when people defeat Sin with the powers Yunalesca tells them about, he merges with the Final Aeon to continue this cycle of life and death. I guess when everything works out, it’ll be good, but once they defeat Sin, the Fayth will stop dreaming and Tidus will disappear… It’s kinda funny how you used to be all concerned about Yuna dying and now near the end of the game, you instead have to be concerned over Tidus disappearing instead. Why can’t they just be happy together sigh..

Well! I legit spent a day farming sphere levels for Rikku and Tidus to finish off the sphere grid getting all the strength and agility nodes but omggg, can I just say that having triple AP instead of double AP is like the biggest difference ever? LOL. And omg overdrive -> AP is like the best thing ever. So easy to level lol. Funniest thing was when Don Tonberry did 83k damage on my Tidus though hahahaah, did I really kill that many monsters with him🤣 But yeah, it’s cool that I’m progressing with my sphere grid but I’m kinda sad that I’m one hit KOing everything lol. I mean, this is the first time I’ve ever gotten so far in FFX so I feel like I’m killing my experience haha! But I really want to fight nemesis and penance and all the dark aeons so oh well. Btw, it’s because I OHKO Seymour in Sin and didn’t get to see him do anything with his cool music hahaha. At least Yuna finally sent him to the farplane lol. Anyway, back to farming monsters, just need to finish Sin and Omega Ruins and I’m doneeee!

GG though, Omega Ruins took sooo long (I guess Sin did too) but dang was it annoying lol. So anyway, after much leveling with Don Tonberry again, and getting all the strength, defence, magic, magic defence, agility, luck and fortune spheres, I am legit done with the whole sphere grid! I’m honestly not dedicated enough to do 255 everything, so since 255 luck = 255 accuracy and evasion, I am not going to bother lolll. Agility maxes out at 170 as well so yayyy, don’t need to farm moreeee. I’ve legit been spending my week doing all this lmao, watching TVB and farming, that’s been my life hahaha. It’s kinda crazy seeing myself finish all this though. It was super time consuming but it’s nice to see my characters deal 99,999 damage haha. Coolest thing was defeating all the creations by the Monster Arena guy and then beating up Nemesis! Yesssss! It could have been easier if I set my overdrive mode to Comrade (charges overdrive when allies are hit) since he dealt so much damage lol, but silly me left it on Warrior (charges overdrive every time I attack), so yeaaaah, that took longer than I wanted hahaha. Btw, Nemesis is ugly but yay! I’ve completed another goal of mine! Oh yeah, I also beat Omega Weapon, of which, he was so underwhelming, especially with the random monsters you have to fight along the way, FFVIII was so much more annoying and challenging imo with the Ultima Weapon and other guys. I guess we’ll see how I feel once I defeat all the Dark Aeons and fight Penance hahaha.

The Dark Aeons were relatively easy! Especially if you have ribbon/stoneproof, not being petrified and shattered is like the most important thing imo lol. Dark Bahamut kept killing me and pissing me off because he kept petrifying my guys and killing them lol, I had to put stoneproof on my armour to survive, worked out well since I needed it for the Magus Sisters too haha. And yes, I was lazy to fight them altogether so I separated them and fought the sisters one by one to save myself from the agony lol. And what do you know? Dark Yojimbo was actually the one to bring the most trouble! It’s not even because he was hard, it was because I had to fight him 5 times to defeat him and initially, I didn’t know and just defeated him four times and was like wth, why isn’t Penance appearing?! So then, I googled and realised that I had kept missing the true third battle in the green room, so yeah, that frustrated the hell out of me because I legit defeated him 10+ times because I went to the wrong place, didn’t understand etc, yeaaah I was raging lol. I really wanted to finish the game and defeat Penance in the same day with the Dark Aeons so yeah, I was annoyed that I was not on schedule lolol. Oh well, more time to prepare for Penance I guess.

So…. I tried Penance and I died hahahah. Gotta revise my armour lolol. I think ribbon, auto-potion (with only x-potion), auto-haste and auto-protect might be the best combo. I’ll try that and see. Or not lolll! My biggest problem with Penance was not surviving his immolation attack that does a lot of HP damage and sucks all your MP too. Well, anyway, after much googling etc, I revised my armour again, luckily I had 6 million to spend bribing monsters for stuff lmao. I used auto-potion, auto-haste, auto-protect and defence +20%. This accompanied with Rikku’s Ultra NullAll mix (lasts the whole battle as long as you don’t die!) gave me enough defence to survive the whole battle (yay!). After that, it was really rinse and repeat of destroying the arms and then hitting the main body whenever I could. It probably legit took 20-30 minutes. Crazy for sure. Not sure whether it’s really worth it since I didn’t feel very accomplished LOL, I just felt like a robot constantly using quick hit (throwing a three stars so it doesn’t cost MP), dispelling after every immolation attack and thankfully, I had auto-potion because it would have killed me if I had to heal myself every turn. So yeah, after that, it was really just a waiting game where I just kept doing the same thing for 30 minutes, yeah it was pretty boring. I liked the optional bosses from previous games more.

And now I can finally fight Sin! Honestly, seeing Tidus finally open up to Jecht a bit more and be a bit more honest, I felt happy for Jecht. He’s always loved Tidus. Too bad it wasn’t meant to be for them to ever be able to hang out together like buddies. Since I maxed out my stats, last boss was so easy, I barely did anything. Kinda feel like I should have let him do something so I could see it lol, but I was too fast hahaha. Pretty devastating to see Yuna summoning every single summon for Yu Yevon to take over and then we kill it to stop Yu Yevon from having anything to take over anymore. It was heartbreaking to see all the Fayth go like that. But at least, as they said, they can now stop dreaming… Auron always has to be cool doesn’t he lolll, even when Yuna sends him to the Farplane. It hurt when he told Yuna that it was okay to send him. I really liked Auron. It was also saddening when Tidus was like, this is his last battle with them because he’s going to disappear, I guess at least he told them. Slack to Yuna when she wanted to hug him but he was disappearing. Especially when at the end, she kept whistling, waiting for him to come back.

Never even know the Eternal Calm video or whatever existed. Kinda feels weird though because it’s set two years later where all Yuna has been doing is being something like a counsellor to people until a sphere of someone who looks like Tidus (Shuyin~) is found by Kimahri, given to Rikku and then shown to Yuna and then she decides to go look for other spheres like it and soon becomes a sphere hunter. Considering that FFX-2 is set two years later which I assume is not long after this, her personality sure changed quite a bit after getting some freedom haha. I guess it’s true that Yuna has never truly lived for herself until now so it is nice that she can do that now, but how did she learn to use a gun so fast? Lol.

Overall, I enjoyed FFX, but honestly, it’s not one of my favourites haha. It’s one of the first I played as an adult probably but yeah, if I had to really choose, I prefer the previous much more. But I do like FFX because of how much more, simple it is? It’s simple, straightforward and emotional. Rikku and Yuna will always be my favourites. Wakka being silly is also a highlight. Cool Auron will always be the dream guy though hahaha. Happy that I can finally say I’ve finished it completely! Now on to getting 100% completion for FFX-2! I got like 98 or 99 on my first playthrough with the help of a guide every now and then but now I’m gonna use a guide for the whole thing and hope I get the 100% this time around hahaha, wish me luck~

#Final Fantasy X

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greyias · 7 years

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Hop on the Crazy Train Guys! Spoilers and Rampant Speculation, Ahoy!

Hey guys, are you ready to hop on the Crazy Train? Find your tinfoil hats as I leap from the “Oh, that might make sense” discovery decrypted from the 5.4 Datamining into full on Conpsiracy Theorist mode. Full disclosure, I realize A) how ridiculous all this sounds; B) the extreme unlikliehood of this being the ACTUAL storyline is… low. But if it were. It would be a-MAZ-ing!

This my new pet Master Theory of the (SWTOR) Universe. And the answer, is not 42, as Douglas Adams might have us believe, but in fact 7-18-1-22-5-19-20-15-14-5. You can pry this ridiculous headcanon from my cold dead hands.

Spoilers, and wild speculation that grasps at the thinnest and most fragile of canonical straws, below the “Read More”. Leave your suspension of disbelief behind, because it’ll just drag you down.

So at the end of the revised letter discovered in the 5.4 datamining, in each of the variations on the letter that Theron sends, there’s an error message with a string of what appears to be random numbers. If you apply an alphanumeric cipher to them, it looks like he’s trying to say “It’s Zildrog” and gets cut off, hinting that perhaps everything is not as it seems. (Seeing as how we have to wait until next Tuesday to see if we do indeed receive this letter, well…)

So, anyway, let’s leap onto the crazy train guys. Starting where this whole traitor nonsense first cropped up, which was RageBot Tyth’s CAPSLOCKKKK speech at the end where he’s revealing that, *GASP* there’s a traitor in our midst. (This was pretty heavily hinted at from the first cut scene, that something was up). Let’s look at that speech, in all its Shifty, Capslocky glory:

YOU HAD NO CHOICE. YOU WERE LURED HERE. BLINDED BY DUTY. DISTRACTED BY TRUST. YOU DID NOT SEE THE BLADE TO YOUR NECK THE RAGE IN YOUR SHADOW. THE TRAITOR. YOU ARE BETRAYED.

There’s a dialogue option here that gives you three branched answers (if I’ve pulled from the proper datamining spot on TorCommunity), where you can be all “Bzuh? Why?” Or “You’re trying to trick me” or “I KNEW SOME MOFO WAS UP TO NO GOOD”: ONE MARKED BY ANGER. PAIN. HOPE ERODING. // RAGE FEEDS ON TRUTH // SUSPICION CORRODES

The first one… is interesting.

THE BETRAYER LURED YOU TO IOKATH. IGNITED WAR. SPARKED THE ENGINES OF RAGE, ENVY, PASSION, HATE, SORROW. THE BETRAYER NOW OFFERS YOU: SACRIFICE PRIME. FUEL FOR THE SIX GODS!

There’s an extra bit he says at the beginning too that’s interesting, but I’ll circle back around to that later, because it’s a bit of a tangent.

So, he specifically mentions that we’re blinded by our duty (doesn’t say to what), and we’re distracted by “trust”. There’s a “rage in (our) shadow”. They’ve lured us into this death trap with the specific intention of waking the old Zakuulan gods, in theory, to bring about the end of all organic life in the galaxy.

And if you’re thinking “Well, minus the genocide of the entire galaxy that sounds like it could be Theron! I mean, unless we’re like dating him and trying to rebuild everything and doing exactly what he has indicated that he wants up to this point”–hold on! Stop wallowing in despair, because I’ve got a better idea! It’s the Order of Zildrog!

Actually, I’ll do one even BETTER. It’s not just the Order of Zildrog. It’s Zildrog. As in, the old Zakuulan serpent demon who likes to sleep in the Endless Swamp, test warriors, and eventually wants to bring about the destruction of all life. Because that’s what crazy serpents of death do in their spare time. I mean sure, I could be 100% off base, being played by my own hopes, expectations, and cipher substitutions and grasping at the thinnest of straws here, but hear my crazy butt out!

After that speech, we all assumed that the traitor he was referring to, one who’s been at our side from “the beginning of it all” was person in the Alliance. But what if it wasn’t… a person? But still a member of the Alliance. An in fact, vital member of the Alliance.

What if it’s the Gravestone?

Okay, whoever hasn’t slowly backed out of this post at this point and unfollowed me, I assume you had picked “sentient warship of death and destruction” in the “Who is the Traitor?” betting pool as a joke, and are suddenly sweating and looking nervous. (“Am *I* a Scion? Can *I* see the future? That was a joke! I thought the theory of several jawas standing on each others’ backs wearing a robe made more sense!”)

And in a strange sort of way, this makes… a tiny bit of sense? There have been some things that have been nagging at me since we started KotFE/KOTET, but I had brushed them off as dues ex machinas and just weird plot holes. (I mean, they might still be. Sometimes things in SWTOR can be subtle as an anvil landing on your head) While this speech was going on, there was a tiny voice in me asking: What does this giant raging metal god of death care about me? How does he know this about some random person in my Alliance?

But a fellow mighty war machine from Iokath? Tyth just might know a thing or two about that.

“But Grey,” you say as you reach for a sedative as my ramblings start to reach a fever pitch, “you said this was about Zildrog. What does that have to do with the Gravestone? My lovingly loyal warship that I rescued from a swamp and has followed me into battle ever since?”

Well, what I’m saying (as I dodge that sedative to get out the rest of this wild hair that is likely unmoored in reality) is that the Gravestone IS Zildrog. And he’s finally making his move after pretending to be a loyal, stupid spaceship after all this time.

Hold on, let me put on my tinfoil hat and explain my insanity more. Because there are hints peppered throughout KotFE and KOTET that actually back this up. Ambient dialogue on Zakuul with both the Heralds of Zildrog and just random Zakuulans allude that Zildrog is like kind of the rebel of the God Pantheon (some don’t even consider him one of the Gods), hinting that maybe he fought with the other Gods. After the Iokath storyline, we find out that the Gods are actually Giant Mechas intended to play war games all over the galaxy, and Zakuul was one of their favorite worlds to destroy over and over, decimating that population constantly.

If you run about the place there’s all sorts of strange bits of lore about Zildrog that don’t seem to connect to the KotFE/KOTET storyline. Forgive me for I’m stuck at work and can’t go find all of the actual pieces of dialogue verbatim, but I just heard a lot of them this weekend running KotFE Chapter 7 (for unrelated reasons) and it goes something like this: Zildrog is a mythical “dragon” who is “sleeping” out in the Endless Swamp. Waiting to be awakened so he will one day return and “raze the world” and bring “death to all who did not believe”. He’s even got his own Death Cult! Cool! They’re just as insane as this theory, and fervently believe the Apocalypse is an Awesome Thing™. If only there was a way…

So, here we are, Outlander Extraordinaire, and we find this ancient warship out in the swamps. It’s called the GRAVEstone. A name that seems to indicate something ominous about its origins. It’s been whispered that its the only thing that ever stood up in a fight with the Eternal Fleet (which we now know also came from Iokath. As part of their War Game scenarios). It’s been a while since I’ve played that chapter and paid attention to the dialogue, but I recall Valkorion being a bit… vague about it. Like, possibly that he had no fucking clue it was there. (Or he did, hard to tell with Voidy McLiarface). It has this mysterious room that we spend at least two scenes in, and we’re like “Wow, this is weird”, and the game’s like “Yeah, isn’t it? Hahahaha, we better go stop Arcann now shouldn’t we little Outlander?” and you promptly forget about it until your next playthrough and you’re like “Yeah, this is still weird.”

Then we’ve got Scorpio, another Iokath droid, one of the more intelligent ones. She can talk to the Gravestone, interface with it directly. She tells us it has intelligence, an intelligence almost rivals hers. I think she even hints that it has its own purposes but that it won’t say what those are. Before we can delve into “Wait, are you saying that my brand new ancient starship is sentient?” oops! We gotta go stop Arcann again!

Then we’re in KOTET, we’ve just disarmed a fucking quantum bomb on board the Gravestone, when all of the sudden EVERY SINGLE SHIP IN THE FLEET + THE GRAVESTONE suddenly gets pulled back to its point of origin: Iokath. This is a really weird side trip considering its only purpose in the bigger plot of KOTET seems to be to explain the Fleet’s origins as well as give us some shiny new shield upgrades for when Vaylin attacks in Chapter 8 so we don’t immediately die. But hey, our Love Interest was super duper cute with us during this chapter and that was touching.

And then we defeat Vaylin, the Eternal Fleet goes feral and we have to tame it, we kick that stupid ghost out of our head once and for all, and we all live happily ever after! Yay! GO TEAM!

And then. We have to go back to Iokath. Everyone has to go back to Iokath, because a mysterious third party has suddenly slipped in information about these superweapons that literally no living character has memory of, or any reason to have memory of. Specifically, memories of ancient war machines that have been known to decimate entire organic populations, just because. One of their favorite hangouts being Ancient Zakuul, who built up an entire pantheon around them. The only justification for Theron knowing about this is that he plugged in during the Iokath chapters, but his behavior during that and subsequent chapters is either the best acting in the world, or suggests that he doesn’t know this at all. He in fact is the one who plugs back in, and finds evidence that explains the purpose of the superweapon. Dialogue on mine (because Light Side ftw baby!) indicates that maybe it’s Scorpio who’s giving you this information? But it’s vague, almost as if it’s someone else… like, say, an ancient artificial intelligence that lovingly takes you around the galaxy and lets you play with it’s big old Omnicannon? And it’s ignited another conflict, that has the potential to spread throughout the galaxy.

Oh yeah, and then there’s you. The latest in a line of people with control over the Eternal Fleet. Something that has been shown to mercilessly rain destruction on inhabited worlds like a mad dog unless someone is holding its leash. And hey, if you were, to say, be killed while sitting on a throne that information was planted for one of your trusty sidekicks to find, maybe it would be free to go about it’s business raining destruction on the galaxy. Oh, and those old slumbering “Gods” might wake up too, and go cause a few apocalypses of their own. And while everyone is distracted with all this dying, maybe that dark presence in that weird room might finally wake up and watch it’s handiwork.

Being limited as an AI on a warship, it might, say, I don’t know, send vague and cryptic messages to various opposing intelligence organizations. Possibly it had communication with that whole Death Cult that formed around it and lived in the swamp where it lived. Maybe it sent them some messages too, once the coast was clear, and the Eternal Fleet was no longer in opposition to it, now that it’s unwitting puppet had taken out every Zakuulan who had sat on the throne controlling it.

Or you know, Theron changed his clothes for the first time in his fucking life, threw on his Evil Cloak of Evil™, and said “Sorry bitches! It’s Apocalypse time! God I love dying horribly! Mwah ahahaha!” and rigged a train to explode. Because he’s just Extra™ like that I guess!

I mean, you know, who can say which theory is right? The straightforward one we’ve been led to believe with the 5.4 datamining retconning five years of character development for a pointless shocking twist, or the one with an ancient evil sentient warship that just wants to watch the Galaxy burn? I mean, they both have arguments in their favor, amirite?

Because I mean, I don’t know about you, but the only thing more bizarre than Theron being the traitor all along would be that we weren’t betrayed by a person all along, and no matter how many people Theron and Lana interrogated would they discover the culprit. Because who would think to turn to that giant hunk of metal parked outside and say “Hey buddy, sent any super secret encrypted transmissions with that intelligence we forgot about for 1.5 expansions?”

We were betrayed. By a fucking warship. OUR GODDAMN SHIP HAS BEEN PLAYING US ALL ALONG WHAT THE HELL BIOWARE I’M LAUGHING AND CRYING THIS IS SO INSANE IT CAN’T BE TRUE

Join me next time in “Insane Theory Land that Will Not Be True”, as I argue that Tenebrae/Vitiate/Valkorion, Master Manipulator and Devourer of Worlds was outsmarted and used by a sentient spaceship because lolololol. And—OH WAIT ONE LAST THING:

Back to Tyth’s speech. At the very beginning he says this: I AM ONE OF SIX. THE SIX BOW TO NO ONE.

The six gods in the Zakuul Pantheon: Izax, Scyva, Tyth, Aivela, Esne, Nahum. Zildrog isn’t included in that. Some believe he’s another form of Izax, the chief among the Old Gods. I’m nowhere near my PC right now and can’t double-check who is listed on the Iokath Operation, but… it was five bosses, not six right? Am I correct in remembering that Izax wasn’t listed?

Because there’s another funny thing about Izax you guys. There’s this whole “Watcher Izax” that’s mentioned by the guard captain in Chapter 6 who had gone off to the Core Worlds and didn’t come back. And then there’s Guss’s recruitment mission, where his master is named “Isaac”, and when we get back from that Sana Rae is very clear that there’s something very powerful, and very dangerous about this guy.

EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED. UP IS DOWN. NORTH IS SOUTH. WAKE UP SHEEPLE YOU KNOW I’M RIGHT.

(Okay I’m probably wrong.)

I mean, there are a lot of questions that still need to be answered: Why did the Gravestone start attacking the Eternal Fleet? If it’s part of the fleet, why is it the only Iokath ship, that looks different from all the rest by the by, that doesn’t need a Gemini droid to control it? Why did the Gods go to sleep? Why didn’t the Gravestone just wake itself up? Is the mud on Zakuul that sticky? The world may never know.

#5.4 datamine #spoilers #speculation #i know #it's probably not true #BUT WHAT IF IT IS #swtor #i will go back to writing my angsty fic now #I've planted too much false hope that might get dashed as it is #gravedrog

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nuzblog · 7 years

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October 26th, 2017

I have come before you tonight with dreadful news. One member of my party will not make it out of this entry alive. This very sad fact makes me very sad, and it will make you very sad when it happens.

But before I can tell you that story, I must first tell you this story.

Mt. Moon, as you may be aware... is a difficult dungeon for Nuzlockers. I go ahead and do the obvious thing, walking inside back and forth for a little bit. My first encounter is not nearly as lucky as the Jigglypuff or Weedle. No matter how much I could be hoping for Paras (the pre-evolved form of my favorite Gen 1 Pokemon), Zubat is what I get. Still, it's not as though I dislike Zubat. I go ahead and catch it. I name it Kenny. By the by, my nicknaming scheme has been guessed correctly. I won't say it here, in case anyone else wants a chance to guess - you might also get one of the Pokemon from this journey when it's over! At this point though it's pretty obvious, I think.

Randy only knows Leech Life, which is not yet a useful move, but IS one of the 3 damaging Bug moves that exist. This comes in pretty handy, actually, despite its low power.

Anyway, now that I've got a full team of 6, I go ahead and... grind! For like ever. I walk all the way back through Pewter, then Viridian Forest, then south to Palett, to heal at home... and then walk back to Route 3 where strong enough Pokemon to grind off of are. I do this like 3 times over, to where my two new guys are Level 10, before I start to venture a little further into Mt. Moon, fighting trainers, still going back home whenever healing is needed.

I collect the TM for Water Gun. Shelley could learn it, but she's gonna learn it from level up soon anyway. Lemmy could learn it... but so could Randy. And Randy's movepool is pretty limited right now. And he's lower leveled, so could use the anti-Geodude weapon, to keep more XP for himself. So I teach it to Randy.

I later collect the TM for Mega Punch. This also goes to Randy, filling his moveset out to a full 4. Around this time, Lemmy learns Hyper Fang - both moves have 80 base damage, when previously, my highest base damage was 40 on moves such as Quick Attack and Pound, so this is a pretty huge boost for my two Normal types.

Speaking of moves, can we briefly talk about the move Wrap? It might not be too bad in this game, since Ekans isn't wild (unlike in Red), but in Generation 1, moves such as Wrap, Bind and Constrict are... very silly. Whereas in later games, being squeezed in that manner is essentially identical to things like Fire Spin or Sand Tomb - inability to escape, and recurring damage at the end of each turn - Gen 1 makes them also prevent either you or the opponent from moving. Even though it makes sense to be able to bite someone who's grappling you, in the Pokemon World of Red, Blue, Green and Yellow, when you are constricted by a snake, your only hope is that its incremental damage will be low and it uses Leer on its next turn of action, or it will simply rewrap you. The one Rocket with an Ekans in Mt. Moon was pretty annoying as a result.

I also found a Moon Stone, and had a bit of a debate with myself on whether or not to use it on Randy now. I looked at its level up movepools between both Jigglypuff and Wigglytuff in Generation 1, and learned that Defense Curl (useless), Body Slam, and Double Edge (which is a TM) would be unavailable to me. Body Slam isn't a huge loss, and TMs can pick up the slack, so I go ahead and evolve Randy, giving it all 3 of these nice items I've found in Mt. Moon.

I walk past the Rocket I recall has a Raticate, since Raticate Rocket is a real rapscallion who ravaged my previous party.

At the end of Mt. Moon, there is a Super Nerd who has a Koffing, Voltorb, and Grimer. (My name in Pokemon Go, which is my Trainer Class and then as much of my name as would fit, is SuperNerdSter. Irrelevant, but also... relevant.) I would like to take this opportunity to discuss sprite oddities in Gen 1, since Koffing's sprite here has the skull and crossbones above its eyes, which is different from the classic Koffing design. In general, these earlier games took a lot more liberties with the designs. For my favorite example, you can look no further than my own party - Kenny's evolution into Golbat will also give it a huge, actively slobbering tongue to go with that enormous mouth, as well as squinty eyes that make it look both creepy and like it is bothered by light, both of which are slightly better than the regular eyes it has now, but still far far worse than the no eyes that its pre-evolution has. I feel that if Golbat had no eyes like Zubat, and still had its tongue, it would be one of my favorite ever Pokemon, instead of just one that I think is fine. Maybe not surpassing Parasect, but coming close.

Another notable sprite change is in a Pokemon I've encountered a few times before as well, Kakuna. In Gen 1, it has ARMS! The arms are still there in later generations, but are constantly flush to its body and no longer seem to have any range of movement. Which is a bummer! I loved Kakuna's arms.

Anyway. I chose the Dome Fossil, which I like, but I'm not gonna use it. I have... other plans, for Cinnabar Island. ;)

By the time I get onto the other side of Mt. Moon, my team is level 15. I could progress from here to Cerulean...

But first. I have some unfinished business.

I go ahead and walk all the way home again - for the last time. until after the Diglett Tunnel. And then I go back... to finish off the completion for Mt. Moon. I pick a fight with Raticate Rocket and his illegal Raticate, who murdalized my guys last time I fought him. This time, he is not so lucky.

Anyway. Back to progress. Unlike the two sides of Viridian Forest, the entrance and exit to Mt. Moon are on different Routes! Route 4 is new, so I hop down, now unable to return home, and run around, finding a... drumroll please... Sandshrew! I've never actually used one of these before, except I might have in one of my millions of Emerald playthroughs, where they are pretty plentiful in the desert. I also can't find one to save my life in Pokemon Go, since I started playing after they were removed from eggs. So I'm pretty jazzed to see this little fella. He's also Level 12, which is the maximum for the route, and pretty close to the rest of my team! His name is, after much debate, Leopold.

I add him to the party and heal at the Pokemon Center, setting Lemmy in the PC for now. I might as well take this opportunity to lock in a rule addendum I've been adhering to, but not specifically mentioned, so I no longer have the potential to weasel out of it. I did say these rules might be changing a little as we do this first game.

Rule 4c: At any given Pokemon Center, that Center's heal comes before any outstanding Notable Battle Heals that haven't been spent yet.

So for example, healing here at the Cerulean City Pokemon Center is the Cerulean City Heal, and not the Brock Heal. Got it? Good.

Now, I go ahead and have a pretty unsuccessful grinding session, on a similar "until I need healing" basis to one of them previous grinding sessions. Leopold gets to Level 14, and Randy gets to 16, but it's otherwise not great. Ah well. I heal again, since I have no way of progress without making another Notable Battle happen and I don't want to waste a heal. (In retrospect I could have knocked down some gym trainers, maybe gotten better XP than the grass gave.)

And then, I head North to Nugget Bridge, ready for yet another face off against Ash. I do like how frequently you encounter him in this game. Later Pokemon Games have a steadily shrinking rival presence, and a steadily more nonantagonistic role for the "rival." Like, the last 3 generations, your rival is actually just your friend who likes to fight Pokemon sometimes.

Unfortunately... I am underleveled. Pretty badly, looks like - Pidgeotto is Level EIGHTEEN. Whoops. I head into combat anyway, switching out when things look hairy, starting off with my two powerhouses, Randy and Lemmy...

Sadly, and tragically, an unexpected critical hit knocked just over the edge of Randy's health. Randy... is dead.

October 25th, 2017 - October 26th, 2017.

Poor Randy. We barely knew ye. And we funneled a bunch of resourced into ye that have now been wasted and are unrecoverable. :,(

Pidgeotto goes down fine after that, though - next is Abra, who only knows teleport, so I take the opportunity to use my last two Potions on Lemmy and on Shelley, whose high defense was the difference against the Pidgeotto. I then use Kenny's super effective WAIT SHIT AS I'M WRITING THIS I LITERALLY ONLY JUST NOW REALIZED I BROKE RULE 3.

Um. Whoops.

In all fairness, looking at HP and PP totals, I never actually used Windy or Bebe during that fight, so technically I did only use 4 Pokemon, but I did forget to box two of them. Boy, rules are hard to remember!

Leech Life. It's the super effective one. Remember how I said it would be useful? It was.

Then came Rattata, who I fought with my own Rattata. My Hyper Fang caused a flinch, and dropped it low enough for Quick Attack to finish it off.

After that, I switched back to Kenny, because thanks to Bug being weirdly good on Poison, Leech Life is Double Super Effective on Ash's Bulbasaur. Victory, despite being underleveled, with only one casualty.

And that's where I am - I'm at the Pokemon Center, in front of the PC, where I've swapped the deceased Randy for the extant Leopold.

Ah... poor Randy. You shall be missed.

#pokemon #pokemon blue #nuzlocke #entries

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aurantia-ignis · 7 years

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how do you rank the berseria characters in terms of personal favorites and why?

Okay since you asked ‘why’, I’m going to give you two versions. One with spoilers and one without.The spoiler-free rank!1. Eizen and *SPOILER CHARACTER*2. Laphicet3. Velvet4. Eleanor and Rokurou6. *SPOILER CHARACTER*7. Dyle, *SPOILER CHARACTER*, Benwick 8. Seres9. Magilou 10. Or & Toros, Percival 11. Artorius, Shigure, Kurogane, Medisa, Moana12. Oscar, Teresa, Melchior Reveals and reasons will be under the spoiler cut

>>>>>>>MAJOR BERSERIA SPOILERS BELOW>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>1. Eizen and ZaveidThese two tie because I can’t pick between the two of them. I love Eizen’s personality: the way he makes occasional puns, his enthusiasm for adventure and loot, the way he watches over Laphicet (and later, Velvet and the rest of the party). I love the way his backstory was crafted, how he had to live with the curse of the shinigami until Aifread taught him not to fear. I love the way he came to terms with it, the way he would rather live life to its fullest with the other pirates and one day die a dragon than be immortal forever just to be ‘safe’. I love that he obviously cares for his sister a lot, but despite that he has no intention of going back to live with her because he knows that his place is aboard the Van Eltia. It’s important, I think, for there to be characters that live for themselves and what they want from life than to have it all revolve around someone they love. I love how he interacts with Zaveid, how he fought so hard to save both Theodora and Zaveid. I love how he gave himself to save the world during the Death Edge period. I love his manzai bout with Magilou. I just really, really love this man a lot. Zaveid’s personality I’ve loved ever since Zestiria, but back then I lamented the lack of screentime and character development in the game. In Berseria, we get to see him so much more. I love the way he passionately defends the seirei. I love the way he tried to watch over Silver. I love the way he kept insisting that dragons are still the serei they once were. I love how he watched over the human children with Theodora. I love the way he interacted with Aizen, learning that there are different ways to look at death. I love how he fought alongside Eizen during the Death Edge period, and ultimately tried to follow up on his promise to take care of Eizen. And of course, during Zestiria… he tried to teach Edna what Eizen taught him, too. I don’t ship these two romantically, but I love them both and I want to see them interact more and I would fight to the death for either of them ;w;b2. LaphicetTHIS CHILD. When I first saw him I merely thought ‘oh it’s a cute shota how adorable’. He seemed to have a lot of potential, a blank slate that didn’t know anything, a person who has to learn how to live. I was a little apprehensive because I didn’t know how good the writing would be, and I worried a little bit that he’d not be as good as he could be.Thankfully, Berseria wrote him wonderfully. He went from “I’m not supposed to have opinions” to “THESE ARE MY OPINIONS AND NOTHING WILL STAND IN MY WAY” in a beautiful story arc. Unlike some of the other seirei like Zaveid, who went from normal to 0 to normal due to Kanonushi’s power, Phi was born already controlled, so he really had no idea what it was like outside Teresa’s control. He learnt that from Velvet and the party, though there were multiple obstacles including Velvet’s occasional meltdown “THIS IS AN ORDER”. I was waiting for the moment when he’d stand up against Velvet for what he believed in, and I wasn’t disappointed. The scene where he yelled at Velvet and demanded for her not to give up was a most amazing scene. I loved him for becoming Maotelus to protect the world that he had learnt to love, even though it was heartbreaking ;_;Aside from that, he’s adorable, and kind-hearted, and hilarious, particularly when bugs are involved. Protect Laphicet 2k17. 3. VelvetThe only thing I dislike about this lady now it’s probably her default clothes. I can’t stand them. She spent my entire playthrough dressed in her villager outfit. =w=;;I was also very apprehensive about Velvet because she had a lot of potential… but could also go horribly wrong. I saw her as a Sasuke type; an avenger who was consumed by revenge. There’s so much room for character growth that, if done well, her entire journey would be excellent. But if badly handled, she’d end up as boring and problematic as Sasuke. Fortunately, the game managed her beautifully. She did start her journey with a narrow minded “I must kill Artorius” goal, and kept that mindset for quite a long time. But she did begin to realise that she was doing essentially what Artorius did; that her coldblooded road to vengeance was nowhere near any kind of goodness, despite how she was so angsty about Artorius being the true evil that deceived everyone. I loved her entire breakdown scene; she was going crazy, and it was so carefully crafted. Although I had originally hoped that she’d have to pick between continuing with her revenge and deciding to live for the sake of those who still live (like Laphicet), what I received in the end with her revenge itself being rendered unnecessary was still quite good. Finally, I loved her for acknowledging that she had committed so many crimes while ‘saving the world’, and that she would atone for it by going into eternal slumber with Laphi, to protect the world that she had caused so much harm to. Very few games do this (there should have been a part in Graces F where Richard has to deal with having been a bad guy, instead of the whole world just going OH IT’S K WE FORGIVE YOU NO HARM DONE), and though it’d have been nice if she could live with Phi through the years, I think it was a great end to her journey. Much love for this protagonist who was clearly and wonderfully written.4. Eleanor and RokurouI wasn’t very fond of Eleanor at first, because her character archetype didn’t appeal to me. But she was the first to get her character development clearly. She reminded me a great deal of Flynn; blindly following orders because that was all that she had known. As the days passed with the party, she slowly came to see that her whole world might be a lie, and she was honest enough to decide that she wanted to see everything through, to find out what was the truth behind Artorius and the seirei. This has to be the first time that a ‘traitor’ character gave up the betrayal before it even happened, and I laughed a lot at that XD I appreciate her well-written relationship with Velvet, and her bond with Laphicet, even though it started out as ‘I HAVE TO PROTECT THIS CHILD BECAUSE IT IS MY DUTY’. Rokurou was the other way round. I loved his character from the start because he made puns and he did jokes and he was fairly open and honest, contrasting with Velvet and Laphicet. He was the first to show immediate care and concern for Laphicet, despite his “I am a gouma I have no feelings” drivel. Which I felt was a problem as the story went on. His character writing (or lack there of) wasn’t coherent at all, and there was so much potential for him to have been an excellent character. But instead, as even his seiyuu acknowledged, he was kind of shunted to the side. The entire thing with Shigure and Kurogane could have been handled much better. Ultimately, he fell from grace for me. :6. Laphicet Crowe/KanonushiA very fascinating character. It’s been years since any game has managed to overwhelm me with a plot twist; usually I can predict what happens in the plot. But at his first appearance as Kanonushi I literally sat up straight in my chair with a HOLY CRAP WHAT because it was /that/ unexpected. I loved the way he was written, how he was shown through the prologue (and Velvet’s POV) to be such an innocent, endearing character… and yet through the narrative later we’re shown that there’s far more to him that she never saw. It’s hard to say if the Kanonushi we see is still Laphicet Crowe, or if they’re two separate people, but it’s a fact that before his ‘death’, Laphi did think and say all of that stuff to Artorius. I can never call Phi Laphi anymore even though those who haven’t played the game are still doing so as a term of endearment ;w; 7. Dyle, Van Aifread, Benwick Dyle is my all time favourite monster NPC. He’s hilarious, and I love his gentle concern for Moana. Off the top of my head, him going “I WONDER IF THAT WAS MY ANCESTOR” when he was born a human cracked me up really hard. I’m really glad he ended up adopting Moana. Aifread is a great character, though we don’t see much of him. I liked his story with Eizen in the light novel, and I love his personality. I also love how he says that one of Eizen’s biggest failing is his refusal to introduce Edna to him XDBenwick is another adorable child. I love the way he’s written as a part of the storyline, the way he speaks to Velvet and the others throughout the plot of his own accord. He’s not just there to fill a Ship-chauffeur role, he’s there as a member of your party. I love the way he and the other pirates leaped to rescue Aifread, even though it was pretty stupid of them to do so ^^; 8. Seres/CelikaShe was a great sister. Again, it’s hard to say if Seres and Celika are the same people or two separate beings. If Seres had gotten control of her mind without the memories of Celika, would she be Celika? We’ll never know.But because she was a blank slate when she recovered Celika’s memories, I choose to believe that the being Seres was shaped by Celika’s experiences and feelings. And I loved her for believing in Velvet, for wanting to help Velvet stop Arthur. 9. MagilouHonestly, the only reason she’s here and not all the way at the bottom is because she makes me laugh sometimes, like during the manzai subevents. Magilou’s writing was messy, she got her entire ‘backstory and development’ within a single scene (much like Dezel’s was) and I honestly couldn’t care anything for it. She was the biggest disappointment for me, because I cannot find it within myself to care for someone with such shoddy writing. Even all through her heroic moment of Crowning Glory (or both times, actually), I didn’t feel anything for her at all. 10. Or & Toros, Percival,KuroganeDOGS. LOVE DOGS. LOVE THEIR LOYALTY. Prince is also kind of ok. But he was kinda nice. Also love his gryphon. Kurogane was likable, but didn’t really get a lot of screen time. I liked the idea of him using his own self as material to craft, but I wish that had gotten better developed.Let me also use this space to say I love the way the Aifread pirates + the ‘hostages’ interact. I always talk to every single NPC when I’m at base 8D; 11. Artorius, Shigure, Medisa, MoanaThe main reason Artorius is here instead of higher is because I don’t really care for him personally, but his writing is actually pretty great. He was wonderfully developed as a character, and throughout the game you get to see how he clearly grew to become Artorius the Antagonist from Arthur the good guy (which doesn’t always happen cough Heldalf). Shigure is kind of wrapped up in Rokurou’s messy underwhelming writing as well. And aside from that I also don’t care for him much. Medisa is a pain and I disliked how she was given a 180 simply because MOANA DAUGHTER SUBSTITUTE. It might have worked if she had been properly developed. Moana is here because I really don’t like childish immature selfish children. Yes, I get that they’re kids, it’s normal for them to act this way. But they still annoy the hell out of me each time they whine. And in terms of writing, she’s pretty unrealistic half the time…. 12. Oscar, Teresa, Melchior, BienfuThese people =w=Oscar and Teresa are not badly written. They’re pretty good. But they’re also terribly selfish human beings, and I just dislike their characters. Melchoir is a lot less developed than them, and he’s an asshole. Bienfu is just annoying from start to end and I found nothing to like about him whatsoever. =w=;;And that’s it. Sorry for the spam; I hadn’t realised it’d get this long ^^;

#tales of berseria spoilers #tob spoilers #/#//#///#berseria #tales of

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jamesnelsonart · 5 years

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Pokemon Let's Go play this game before Smash Ultimate comes out

Did you guys hear about Pokemon Go? It was really popular. It still is, actually. It will probably never get back to that point it was at when it launched and you saw groups of people playing it, but the audience has remained huge and consistent. I’m guessing GameFreak saw this success and realized they should probably do something with it. And that’s how we got Pokemon Let’s Go: Pikachu and Eevee, a reimagining of Pokemon Yellow Version which features connectivity with the popular phone game.

When these two games were announced, there was a divisive response. A lot of people were hoping for a REALLY new Pokemon title with new Pokemon, not a remake of Kanto, a region that itself has already been remade on the GBA. To top it off, wild battles are replaced by Pokemon Go-style capture sequences, abilities are gone, and you only get the original 151 Pokemon to play with. This announcement was seen as a big step back. But what this criticism fails to take into account is the fact that GameFreak has stated that a brand new core title is coming out next year, so the Let’s Go games aren’t replacing anything. If anything, these should grow the audience by introducing the casual Pokemon Go players to a simplified version of the battle system with the original 151 Pokemon so as not to overwhelm them. If they enjoy it, they may swim into deeper waters and buy the core titles. It makes sense. So… judging the games on their own merits, are they good?

I should say these games are clearly aimed for the younger fans. Pikachu and Evee have improved stats that make them quite strong. Pikachu is basically a sweeper with strong attacks and nice coverage while Eevee has kind of mediocre stats but the greatest movepool in the universe. Both of these starters can efficiently steamroll the entire game by themselves so little babies will enjoy this game a ton. You can tell this game was made for the super young as some of the puzzles from the gen1 games are simplified greatly. Also, you can now feed your pokemon stat-enhancing candies that can seriously boost their stats so even if your favorite Pokemon is something with poor stats like Lickitung or Onix, with enough investment you can still ride through single player using those ones if you wanna use your faves so this is great for casual players. Having your Pokemon follow you is cool too, you can even ride on some of them. If you want any kind of challenge, you’d best look elsewhere unless you’re interested in playing against your friends, because that’s the only challenge that can be found here. Even the small amount of postgame stuff is easy, unless you wanna fight the master trainers, but that’s more monotonous than hard. You might think you’re a winner if you beat all these people but the only winner will be the ravages of time after you fought someone with a level 70 Metapod and now you’re both using struggle because the battle actually took that long. You only gotta beat six of these guys to fight Red and you don’t get money or exp for beating him so… who cares lol. So from reading this you can probably tell that this game didn’t cater to my tastes but that doesn’t make it bad, in fact I think there’s a lot to learn from this installment.

Let me get this out of the way first: I really enjoyed Sun and Moon and all that they brought to the table. Alolan forms are cool, HMs are gone, the new Pokemon were well-received (though there were not a lot of them), z-moves are a nice addition that gave battles an unexpected twist, the story was great, playthroughs have some challenging opponents to face, and it was easier than ever to build a competitive team. After all this time some faults become apparent, however. Those games had constant cutscenes disrupting the flow for minor events, a limited selection of wild Pokemon for the adventure, and way too many tutorials that you were forced to watch. Pokemon Let’s Go might be a spin-off, but it seems clear it worked to address previous faults with the core titles. I actually wouldn’t mind seeing a lot of these changes implemented into the main series. You begin your adventure almost immediately and get to go on your way and start catching Pokemon. There are only a few cutscenes here and there and they are mainly reserved for encountering strong legendaries like Mewtwo, so they’re fine and inoffensive. I thought I would hate the fact that wild battles are gone but the more I thought about it the more I realized how obsolete wild battles have becoming in Pokemon games. You really have no chance of losing these things and if things actually manage to get risky you can always just run away. Plus if you’re interested in competitive play then captured Pokemon are often inferior to those hatched from eggs… a sad state for a game series about “catching them all”. In a recent interview Junichi Masuda complained that players just hatch eggs to get the Pokemon they wanted these days and that he wanted to bring things back to focus on catching. I think it’s safe to say he succeeded on this front. Capturing is fun and simple enough, and if you catch a ton of the same Pokemon in a row, its stats will be mostly-perfect. I would love if this wild encounter method were to be brought over to the main games. There are also some nice quality-of-life changes to make it easier to get the perfect Pokemon. Bottle Caps are easier to get to increase your stats, you can pay a lady in Celadon City to make every Pokemon you encounter have a specific nature for the day, and you can combo-catch Chansey to easily level your Pokemon up to their maximum levels to hyper train them. These are all nice. You know what isn’t nice? The strange lack of control customization. If you’re playing handheld you gotta use gyro aiming, so playing in a car is not really a thing you can do all the time. If you’re playing with the joycon the motion detector can be imprecise, making it a pain to catch Pokemon that move around. It’s kind of a pain that there’s no traditional control scheme for catching. It’s kind of strange that a game designed for mass appeal doesn’t have these basic customization features.

Speaking of mass appeal, this game has a pretty interesting way of getting casual players into competitive teambuilding by including a couple of basic battle features but keeping it limited so as not to surprise players or present too much that might turn people off to the experience. Only the original 151 Pokemon are available, along with Mega Evolutions, the Alolan forms and the new Pokemon Meltan, who evolves into Melmetal. This makes sense, as dark, steel, and fairy types didn’t exist during gen1 so the Alolan forms help to bring in more type diversity. That being said, I don’t think anyone would have objected to including the new evolved later forms of the original Pokemon to the game. Onix, Tangela, Scyther, Lickitung, Magmar, Electabuzz, Rhydon, Seadra, Porygon, Eevee, Poliwhirl, Slowpoke, Gloom, Golbat, and Chansey all got new evolutions as the games went on, and including them would’ve given us more type diversity and better Pokemon, but oh well. Abilities are gone in order to keep things simple so no one gets an unpleasant surprise when they try to attack Weezing with Earthquake. Hold Items are out as well. Movepools are also altered to keep things understandable so type matchups should proceed as a newcomer would expect them to. For example, sending an electric type out against Gyarados is usually not a great idea, as Gyarados will use Dragon Dance to outspeed it and beat it with Earthquake. But now Dragon Dance isn’t in these games, making matchups proceed in a more expected fashion. Weather is also gone, and a couple of recovery moves like Slack Off, Moonlight, and Synthesis are nowhere to be found, so Pokemon may be forced to rely on Rest without Sleep Talk. In a baffling move, Stealth Rock is a TM and Rapid Spin and Defog aren’t in the game. What the fuck, GameFreak. The move Teleport is actually useful now, it’s a negative-priority move that lets you switch Pokemon, it’s great for switching in something frail that can’t take a hit. Let’s hope they put that in the next core title. Most of this is only noteworthy for fighting other players, you will be too powerful to even need strategy for the single player, largely due to your starter and the capture system’s huge experience point rewards.

The capture system allows you to rack up a ton of experience points. Also, trainers in Let’s Go have small teams of unevolved Pokemon, so they do not do much to trouble the player. So how would you merge the capture system into a core title? Well, for starters give trainers bigger teams and have the CPUs execute real battle strategies against the player. This idea would make fights more memorable and also serve to teach the player about making their own strategies. Boom, you’d have a real game there. Let’s Go is mainly for casual players but I hope they don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater here, a lot of the new ideas presented are really good, and the game IS fun, but it lacks staying power. Imagine how much better the capture mechanic will be paired with a more… substantial game.

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geekade · 7 years

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Pokemon Propitiation: Day 819

The importance of saving one's game can not be overstated.

I may have mentioned here before that my son has gained an affinity for Rhythm Heaven. As it turns out, an excellent new Rhythm Heaven game recently came out on 3DS. 3DS is also where I've been playing Pokemon Blue, and lately, I've been hauling ass. I've gotten into a nice rhythm of playing again on a regular basis and have without a doubt surpassed my previous attempted playthrough's progress point. I'm seeing new stuff, and I've got stories to tell. But a few days ago, my beloved son wanted to play Rhythm Heaven Megamix with me. So he went into my room, grabbed my 3DS, which had my current Pokemon game suspended, opened it up, and somehow managed to quit the game without saving (he's only 3 and doesn't really know how to operate my 3DS) effectively killing about 3 days of progress. Considering that this is day 819 and I've only just beaten the 3rd gym leader, you can see how losing 3 days of progress is pretty painful. I'm also just now looking at a list of gym leaders, and I certainly have a long road ahead of me. Anyway...

Before my game got bumped back, I found myself in Vermilion City. I had dealt with the Team Rocket asshole who robbed that dude's house and decided to just chill in the backyard instead of, you know, going anywhere. Now it was time to see the sights. I went through a suspicious tunnel because some guards told me they were thirsty or something. No really, I have no idea what the living shit that was about. They aren't even blocking the way. I could just leisurely stroll past them and they'd never catch me. They're behind giant desks. Ugh, whatever. Just let an unaccompanied minor traverse some underground tunnels to get to the next town. I swear, I don't know what's weirder, the people of this world or its geography. Once I made it out of the tunnel, I came across some grassy patches, and wouldn't you know, there was a whole group of assholes just standing there in the grass waiting to challenge me to a duel. Well, jokes on you jerks, because I've been grinding my Pokemon like a motherfucker, and I am ready to kick all of the ass.

My Wartortle still looks like an fool, but he's a powerhouse. Also, I've managed to bring my entire team up to his level, so I've got a bunch of fairly strong dudes ready for almost any situation. I've got my Geodude who as long as there's no water around seems nigh invincible, my Pikachu for equal parts ass kicking and adorability, and my Ratatta, my first buddy, ready to kick ass and take names. And ass I did kick. These fools didn't know what hit them. In hindsight, I'm pretty fortunate I got the chance to do this part over again, because it's these idiots who are the real treasure troves of experience points, and I was about to get my first Meowth. I don't know why, but I like this little guy. I don't understand his payday attack, but he does some decent damage, and he's cute. When I had to start over and re-catch Meowth, I did it without challenging any of these jokers to a fight first, and was able to get him a nice little boost of XP in a short period of time.

The other thing I started doing before the great deletion was check out the S.S. Anne. The great and powerful Bill had given me a ticket after all, so why not have a look around. It was here where I had my first genuinely reasonable Pokemon battle. The first room I walked into had an old man in it. I walked up to him and he basically just freaked out at me for walking into his room uninvited. You know what? I'd yell at me too. I had just become so accustomed to everyone being completely insane in this game, that when this dude was like "What the fuck are you doing in my room? Get out or I'm gonna kick your ass!" and threw his pets at me, I genuinely felt bad about winning. What kind of asshole wanders into a stranger's room on a cruise ship? Apparently, this asshole. I truly am one with the world of Pokemon now.

As I traveled from room to room, I came to understand that this boat was just chock full of shit heads just waiting for people to walk in and challenge. Me, being on a mission to level up my Meowth, kept tossing him out and seeing how far he could get in battle. Every time his health got low, I'd walk all the way back to town ad heal him up at the pokemon center. Time consuming? yes. Efficient? Fuck no. But it's the only option that doesn't involve me blowing all my cash on potions, so whatever. On one of my trips back I realized that I was walking on a long dock to get to and from the ship. I also remembered that some dude gave me a fishing rod at some point. So I gave it a shot and what do you know? I'm in a battle with a Magikarp!

I'm pretty sure I had one of these bastards the last time I played this game, but I can't for the life of me remember how I came across it. All I know is that I wanted him to have a good life and get strong, so I trained him as best I could. I did not, however, have a Magikarp in my roster this go around. I immediately threw a Pokeball at this little guy and made him my own. It was shortly after this when my game got zapped. Again, it was a blessing in disguise because this time around I caught the Magikarp before going into the ship in the first place, and by the time I was done with the S.S. Anne, my fishy friend was leveled up enough to actually throw an attack at someone! Not an effective one, mind you, but an attack nonetheless.

At some point when I was going back and forth to various places grinding or healing, I found some dude who wanted to trade a bird for a duck. I don't remember the name of the thing, but it had an apostrophe in its name, which sounded exotic, so I went for it. I'm glad I did, because it seems to be the only pokemon I have that can learn cut, which I can finally do. I learned it from the captain of the S.S. Anne. He wasn't feeling very well. I met him after beating up a bunch of sailors. Never in my wildest imagination did I ever dream I'd have an occasion to write that string of sentences.

Fortified with my cut ability, I cut down a branch and checked out the gym and its leader, Lt. Surge. The thought occurred to me, how did all these people get into this gym if that plant was in the way? Can everyone in this game besides me just walk past things like trees? Whatever. It's gym leader time. I had my group all set and ready for a fierce battle. The few times I've fought gym leaders before this were long yet ultimately winnable battles. I was ready for the long haul, but instead I beat his ass into the ground. See, by this point, I had not only leveled my guys up enough to be a virtual murder squad, but my Ratatta had managed to evolve into a Raticate. AND SHIT GOT REAL. I love this guy. If I was in the game, I would have yelled at my squirtle and said "Look at this motherfucker right here. This is how you evolve. Not with those dorky ear wings or whatever they are!" Oh man, I feel like every time I pull this guy out the pokemon on the other end is crapping their nonexistent pants. Raticate looks fucking terrifying. I love him dearly. So with Raticate on hand, and the rest of my crew, Lt. Surge (who looks an awful lot like Street Fighter's Guile) went down. Even his Raichu, which I will admit was kind of intimidating at first, but the whole fight was like nothing. Weird.

After leaving with my shiny new badge, I headed in the only direction I hadn't gone yet (mostly because I have completely forgotten what the plot is at this point) and came across some more assholes with nothing better to do than toss their pets at strangers, and something called Diglett's cave. I walked around in there for about 5 minutes and called it a day.

I have less than 200 days before I hit 1000 days at this. Do you think I can do it? I certainly hope so...

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