#I need a better name for overworld ones i dunno

[butter-on-ghost]

The very long post of Endermen anatomy in my mind

ok, first off there’s four main Endermen.

Northern (The end)

Middle/Earthen (Overworld/earth (this is where most subspecies would be))

Southern (Nether)

Farlanders (Farland endermen :D)

Stuff like height, eye color, snout shape, horns, teleportation distance, etc would be different depending on where the enderman is from and who the parents are. Albinism can also be a bit more common depending on which enderman it is.

When it comes to teleporting, I think each different endermen has a different distance they can teleport and the amount of times they can do it rapidly. All endermen have these three slits on each side of the neck called ‘vents’ and those open when they teleport or if they’re exhausted. It’s like a magic exhaust pipe and that’s where the little colorful particles come from. Particles usually follow around the individual and fade away if they don’t teleport for a while. Chorus fruit is a good source of energy for teleporting and if eaten just before teleporting, can give a little extra distance.

What else is a broad trait for them uhh

oh, eye color also goes with blood, flesh, guts, in the mouth and stuff (blush as well)

Northern Endermen

The end seems like it would be really cold. No weather or wind, just cold. So endermen have a lot of fur, thick fur and maybe different coat types (wavy, curly, coarse, soft etc).

First off, I think the end dragon and endermen would be like a beehive kinda system. So the dragon would be their leader. Every 500 years or so, the dragon flies off to a secluded area and lays eggs. Returns and then the endermen that are already there take care of the eggs til they hatch (it can take a few weeks all the way up to a decade). Eggs are translucent and the color of the egg is what their eye color will be. They’re a bit bigger than a watermelon.

Kits have floppy ears when born and some will have round horn nubs already growing. It’s not super rare, but still it’s uncommon for an albino enderman to hatch. (Ex: Indie :D)

Northern endermen have paws. Big paws, very soft :], but really sharp claws and rough, thick paw pads. Feet are two-toed with sharp claws. The snout shape is kinda boxy?

Like this??? (I don’t know how to describe snouts ;-;)

Northern enderman have broad, long tails for balance AND for fighting (whack em :P). Horns are like Indie’s horns, long and smooth and simple, but some can be born with one horn or have an extra set of horns. Some horns can grow and end up growing into each other. Ears can be like Indie’s, but can look like goat or cow ears. The vents on northern endermen aren’t usually visible due to their fur, but if one overworks themself and teleports too much, the particles that blow out can cause the fur to move and expose the vents. They can teleport a pretty good distance (around the same distance as Endermen in Minecraft) and can teleport repeatedly ten to fifteen times before it starts to tire or hurt them.

Eye color ranges from bluish purples all the way to purple-magenta and can be any shades between that. Pupils are like cat pupils.

Scarring starts out as the color of the blood but ends up fading to black like the rest of the skin. Albino endermen’s scars fade to pale or dark grey

Scars from water don’t fade. Ever. (Most that’ll happen is that the color will turn a bit pale, but it won’t fade to black like normal scars)

oh shit I should put this somewhere, they do have sharp teeth, but also incisors since the only source of food is chorus fruit in the end. So yeah, they could eat meat, there’s just nothing around for them to eat that’s alive (aside from endermites). So the sharp teeth would be mainly for fighting.

I like to think that endermites are considered a rare treat and that’s why endermen are so quick to murder the little bugs. It’s funny to me.

They’re pretty chill, a player could barter and trade with them as long as they don’t look em in the eyes.

Last thing, there are three different kinds of northern endermen.

Standard: Just an enderman. Like a worker bee in a way. These guys would be the ones you see just roaming around the End. Body type can vary greatly.

Guard: Larger, bulkier and a bit more aggressive. These guys would stand around the little portal that the end dragon egg sits on. There’s four there at any time (unless one is killed). They also have a higher chance to have four arms. Larger snouts and more canines than usual. Paws are larger as well. They can hold their ground really well and very rarely move from their spot guarding the end dragon egg. Eye color is on the warmer side of the spectrum.

Falcon: These guys would be in the end ships. I think they’d run the ships and guard the loot in the chests. A couple weeks after hatching, they’re given a pair of elytra that kinda just fuses to their back after a year or two (I haven’t figure out how yet, so the excuse is ✨magic✨) They’re thinner and lighter so they can go faster and also have four arms more often. Excellent fighting skills and good accuracy when trying to hit a target. Paws are more like a hand-paw fusion than just paws so they can handle weapons with more grace. Eye color is on the cooler side of the spectrum and albinos’ can end up having pale lavender to teal eyes.

The eldest endermen are often the ones in charge of the rest. Some aren’t the best though and don’t really take into consideration what the entire population wants or needs and will even ignore any they don’t like (Ex. Indie). They show blatant favoritism towards individuals in groups they’re in charge of and often end up leaving the members within the groups to help and teach the ones that aren’t as liked.

Earth Endermen

Alright, these guys vary a lot because of the biomes they live in and the climate. So one that lives in a tundra would look a lot different from one that lives in a mesa biome or the desert. Fur patterns aren’t uncommon either. All endermen in the overworld have fur though, it’ll just be different lengths and types depending on what area they live in. Kits all have floppy ears that may or may not stiffen up as they get older (depends on parents’ genes). Horns, teeth arrangement, eye color, snout shape, ears and tail type all vary depending on the biome and general climate, but there are a few things that stay the same.

At least two horns

Blood, guts, inner mouth, vents and eyes are all the same color (heterochromia is addressed further down)

Canines no matter what (at least four, two on top row two on bottom row)

Three vents on each side of the neck

Paw pads

Fur

Some endermen that live near water or an environment with rainy weather have a higher resistance to water and can even stay in water for a certain amount of time (can’t injest it though, that’s a death sentence).

There’s also a whole other subspecies that’s semi aquatic. They have a very high tolerance to water, but will still die if they stay in it too long. Diet consists of fish and shellfish. Body expels any water accidentally swallowed through the vents.

Southern Endermen

My favorite of them all, southern endermen live in the nether! They can either have really really short fur (almost like peach fuzz but not quite) or scales. Sometimes one is born with neither, leaving them with just skin, it leaves them vulnerable though, like a scaleless snake. And sometimes, when scales shed, they have a chance to grow back gold, it’s like a freckle or a beauty mark :). Southern endermen are more reptilian than the rest. Their snout shape is more like a snake’s (wide and kinda flat) and the vents on their neck are almost always visible. Teeth are mostly made up of canines and they’re black!

Necks are longer so they can snap at stuff and have a further reach. Paws are more like a hand-paw fusion and have long claws on the ends. Horns aren’t super long but they are sharp and there’s usually more than two, often growing in rows. Ears are shorter and pointed. Some can have more animal like ears though. Eye color ranges from magenta to reds of any shades (the exception being endermen that live in the warped forest, they have turquoise eyes), often having little flecks of gold in the eyes. Pupils have tapetum lucidum (the shiny over it when light shines over the eyes). They also have fire/heat resistance to an extent. So if one were to touch lava by accident, it wouldn’t hurt as long as they take their hand out within the next few seconds.

Hands and feet are larger and wider, which helps when walking across soul sand valleys. Tails can have spines along the top (like a croc or gator) that travel up the spine as well. The underbelly has the softest scales.

Also teleportation distance is pretty short, maybe a meter or two, but they can repeatedly teleport a lot more times than the other endermen species (thirty times or more). Afterwards they get really tired though, kinda loopy and giggly as well if they push themselves for too long.

Kits with scales are very vulnerable for the first two to three years of their life while their scales harden. They’re also very bony and lanky lookin, like a calf or foal. Walk funny, look funny, act funny (love my lanky little babies, I need to draw them). Ears are floppy as always.

(Most) Southern endermen live in packs. Could be as small as five or as large as twenty, sometimes they travel alone, but often don’t last long. Pack mates are super close, they roughhouse and spar and annoy older pack members (harmlessly tho). Younger members often go out to hunt and forage for mushrooms and nether wart and other plants and stuff. There’s always one older enderman that is established as the one in charge of the younger ones. They end up teaching kits how to fight and hunt and other neat tricks they’ve learned. And then the rest of the older pack members work as the parents and healers. Some might also dabble in potion-making if they can get their hands on the right materials.

They don’t like piglins. Like, at all. Go out of their way to inconvenience any piglins near their territory. They don’t like players that much either, but kinda in the way a goose doesn’t like people. They’ll keep their distance and only attack if the player keeps pestering them in some way.

Farlanders

Very tall, like really really tall, almost twenty feet but they can definitely get taller. The entire population is white and they have fur of varying lengths.

There’s not a lot known about farland endermen, but they are known for being able to teleport miles at a time. They’re often very lanky and stare off into the distance, which gives them an unsettling feeling. Horns can become very intricate and complex, but some either have normal horns or don’t grow any at all. Eye color can range from bright green to teal and cyan. Snout shape is a bit more beak like, not as broad and boxy. And the teeth are mostly canines. Vents are always visible and so many particles blow out after a single teleportation that it almost creates a colored fog around the individual that teleported. Ear shape is more of an animal’s ear, like a cow, goat, deer and sometimes rabbit ears. Paws are very soft and they don’t have paw pads. Feet are also like a northern enderman’s feet, two-toed and clawed. Tail is often really long and thin.

They’re not the best fighters, since they’d rather teleport away than fight, but it’s already hard enough to fight them due to their large size. And they travel alone, sometimes bumping into another endermen, talking for a minute or two before going back to whatever they were doing previously. When it comes to meeting other things (like people), they get really awkward and might just teleport away mid-conversation.

Kits are around three feet tall when they first hatch, floppy eared with a lot of fur to stay warm.

alright, that’s all I have for each enderman species (species?) there are a few other things that I didn’t know where to put so it’s going at the end

If an enderman has heterochromia, two things might happen. The two colors that the eyes are will blend and that’s what the color of blood and guts and other stuff will be. Or the insides will just be one of the eye colors.

If a flask of dragon’s breath is consumed by an enderman, it acts as a plasma blast (like toothless). The blast can be stored until the enderman wants to use it and if they consume multiple bottles it stacks up. Plasma color is the same as eye color.

All northern endermen born from the same dragon are related, but there are other super-far-away islands that have a different dragon with different endermen.

Hybrid endermen exist

When an enderman dies, their body fades and what’s left is an enderpearl (so if the body doesn’t fade, they aren’t dead)

for shits and giggles, all endermen have that same thing cats have, where if you pinch the back of their neck, they get really calm and immobile (this works well with southern endermen if you catch them off guard)

I think that’s everything, if you have questions send me some :D

I want to add more to this of course, things like clothing styles, mutations and hopefully more. Sorry this took so long to finish :’)

#Long post #infodump #Minecraft enderman #northern enderman #Southern enderman #Earthen enderman #I need a better name for overworld ones i dunno #Farland enderman #Enderman #enderman anatomy #this took too long #but I finished it :D #enderman headcanons

[morshtalon]

Digital Devil Monogatari: Megami Tensei II

(Part 2 of a series of posts on the franchise, I guess...)

As the novels went on to expand on the wackiness of the first 2 titles and keep the story mostly consistent in terms of setting and tone, keeping the same protagonists and offering a pretty direct continuation of the story, the game series decided instead to recontextualize everything and move the story to post-apocalyptic tokyo. Also, they reworked some of the mythos and demon characterizations, possibly at the time with the purpose of offering an experience that would suit the demon recruitment system better. Of course, this would end up meaning that MegaTen 2 laid out many of the building blocks that the franchise would later welcome into its setting, and it could be said that the series truly begins with this game. Or maybe with Shin Megami Tensei just after it. Or maybe the telenet version from before MegaTen 1 that has no connection with Atlus, plays like old Gauntlet games and in which Set is weaker than Loki. You decide.

Anyway, MegaTen II is a huge improvement over its predecessor in almost every way. There is an actual plot that makes a few twists and turns as you go along (and, notably, starts with a big, involved meta reference to MegaTen 1, which was pretty surprising to me); there is a top-down overworld linking places together, a welcome cue taken from other RPGs that were making themselves known at the time; the music is really awesome this time around, courtesy of a sound chip designed by namco (which, unfortunately, is rendered moot in the remake, but hey, credit where credit is due) that expands sound channels and makes the NES sound very clean; the graphics are still pretty cool (and, in Kyuuyaku, the overworld looks very, very good, particuarly the underwater parts of tokyo) and the interface was reworked to be more user-friendly, along with several new features that have been added.

That said, though, it is a pretty technically impressive game, but some of the more base, "essential" issues of the previous one can still be observed in the sequel. Once again, long treks through dungeons don't feel very stimulating. Battles are easier than ever and, besides the return of great stuff like the level-drain and introduction of spells like Mudo and all the fun that brings, they need even less player input than before. The introduction of guns makes the early to midgame a joke, and extremely powerful melee weapons make the late game a joke. You're gonna be hitting that auto-battle button an awful lot in this game, so get used to passively watching your guys massively overpower everyone until someone gets the unlucky end of a curse's hit rate, or you decide to fight Tiamat well before you should.

Still, the more enjoyable, more sectioned exploration with clearer goals, mixed up with more fun setpieces and interactions make things actually much less bothersome this time around. Large sections of the plot are dedicated to finding a collection of McGuffins, and while that always runs the risk of looking like padding for sections where the designers were slacking off on plot, there are a number of weird ways you actually come across the McGuffins themselves, so it keeps things fresh by adding a modicum of variety to them. It's also nice to go around exploring tokyo trying to collect everything. Furthermore, the more farfetched, loftier but clearer goal means that there is more satisfaction from the player in finding out things for themselves as they slowly build toward something, contrasting the previous game where the constant, shorter fetch quests felt like an endless, pointless string of errands straining your patience. Funny how these things work out, huh?

Plot-wise, this is the game in which stuff actually starts happening. It's surprisingly character based for a while, then turns into a collection of setpieces, then goes back into a linear, sort of stage-like structure before the end. I think it shines when it's experimenting with weird circumstances. Perhaps the most memorable moment to me is a part where, in order to progress, you need to voluntarily have your character commit a stupid mistake that results in the amputation of his arm, just so you can go back to a cyber lab you may have visited previously and get your missing arm replaced by a robotic one, all the while walking around losing HP and unable to perform certain actions in battle because of your lost arm. There's really no story going on here, it's just the game being quirky with its setpieces and working gameplay into that, and it works quite well.

I will say, however, the overall story made no damn sense to me. It seemed like you were fighting for a certain faction, then it's revealed that it was all actually a ploy and the real enemy is the one you were fighting for, but then, for all intents and purposes, future actions you take in the game - if you opt for the good/more complete ending - seem to still forward that faction's agenda, so... I don't know, it's a mess of betrayals and revelations that probably didn't go through many drafts. It's entertaining, though. Maybe I'm just dumb and didn't get a pretty simple plot, I dunno.

Also, as it starts getting close to the end, it gets repetitive. Most of the third act revolves around a pretty flowcharty progression structure where you go somewhere, there's a town there, then you head to the local dungeon, fight a boss, get their item which allows you to go to the next place, rinse and repeat. It starts feeling a lot like its predecessor, like you're running errands and not accomplishing much of anything, just waiting for the story to take you to the next cycle of the same crap, but it's nowhere near as annoying. I also heard that there are crucial clues as to how to progress in two specific spots that weren't present in the original version of the game, so there's your daily dose of old videogame bullshit padding right there. I'm glad the remake fixed that, though, because I definitely wouldn't have been able to beat the game without a guide otherwise, and guides sour the experience a lot, especially in these cases where exploration and figuring stuff out is basically the name of the game. Good on you, Kyuuyaku, for adressing the issue and making things not soar into the ridiculous.

Another gripe I have with it is that, if you opt for the good ending, the game basically gives you everything you need, no strings attached. The most powerful weapon in the game, some of the most powerful demons in the game, and the most powerful gun in the game, just like that. Kinda takes the tension off the final battle when it's so obvious anyone could have done it, and it takes the focus off the demons you tried to fuse and make strong by yourself (unless you know what you're doing and you can actually fuse a demon stronger than the one the game gives you, which is unnecessary). Also, the very last dungeon is super underwhelming, definitely not what I expected after the whole third act. Like, the final boss is just there, dude, after a normal corridor. It sucks.

Still, however, the particular reworking of demon personalities and the intro to their philosophical standings in the world formed the basis for how they would act in the franchise ever since, and MegaTen 2 has a much more important place in the series canon than its predecessor. That, along with its setting, tone, and gameplay changes, codified what later SMTs would basically be all about. I think this game deserves a 6 out of 10, maybe a few tenths higher for possible cool stuff I missed. It's more streamlined, more expansive, and more passionate than its predecessor. It has a bigger impact on the franchise, and it introduced far more things that would become series staples than 1 did (like Jack Frost!). I definitely enjoyed it way more than I thought I would, and if you can stand the relative boredom of a simplistic, undemanding combat system and the rudimentary plot of a 1990 NES game, I think MT2 is worth your time, even if just to check out how things began and how they evolved from MT1. Hell, I liked it, anyway.

Oh, also, guns have their damage output affected by your strength in this game. Like, what?

#megami tensei #megaten #review #criticism

[dietaku]

Amazing Quest 1: Chapter 3

The first half of Chapter 3. Thank you for reading!

Chapter 3: The White Devil Dies in Magma! You'll find yourself by a large dam that is blocking the flow of a large river. Approach the dam on the left side, and you'll see a building you can enter.  --Thoreau-Londo River Dam Complex-- Worker 1: Dammit, the water pressure isn't enough to excavate the giant! What is the General thinking? The river just doesn't have the power they need to cut through the solid rock! Worker 2: Redirect from the electricity generation for the towns, then! The generals want the giant ready for Heavenly King Kord! Worker 1: But the towns depend on that to survive! You know their crops can't grow without the generators! Worker 2: Do it! Worker 1: Fine.... (Pushes a button) Worker 2: It'll be fine, you'll see. It's better this way. (The two walk off) Ozma: How rude! Rulers shouldn't abuse their powers like this! Kimayawa: See? See? This is the extent of the Dark Puddings' Evil! This is why we need to rescue my nii-san! Hiro: Hey, hey, both of you, we need to be quiet now. I don't like the sound of that "Heavenly King" guy... You now can freely move in the dam complex, and , of course, it's filled with enemies, namely Dark Soldiers, Pudding Commanders, and Frenzied Conscripts. You'll find that Kimyawa is adept at putting all of these down, but her defenses are pretty much nil, so putting her behind Ozma or Hiro is advisable. Head down, following the pipes until you enter a crack in the wall. You now can get past the dam, and if you follow the pipes, you'll enter the Glacier Valley Caverns. If not, then if you follow the river upstream, you'll enter the town of Heston. It's up to you. I'll describe the process I did here. --Heston-- The locals here all mention a stranger with purple hair and a variety of swords. However, you'll need to talk to the village elder to proceed. Elder: A strange young man calling himself the hunter of swords came by here a week past, going to the Valley of Giants. Kimyawa: What was he doing there? Elder: Legends tell of a powerful weapon hidden there during the Age of Ice. I believe your brother went there to find it and use it on the dam. This dam and the workers there are killing our ability to grow crops. All they ever use the electricity for is excavating dark technology from the caverns downstream. Hiro: As contrived and two-faced as that explanation was, considering you mentioned the weapon in the Valley of Giants as being helpful, but mentioned dark tech in the caverns downstream, are you setting up a "Technology is bad" message, or a "People are Evil" message? Elder: Whatever makes you angrier. Hiro: Well, uh... Ozma: So, how do we get to that valley? Elder: Well, normally, I'd say, go through the pass to the north, but be warned. You'll have to go past Zaius, that town of damn dirty apes. Be careful. So, as the elder said, go north. Sure enough, there's another town to the north, Enter it to get to Zaius. --Zaius-- The townspeople here are all very surly, and several will outright attack you. After interacting with three people, you'll get another cut-scene: Hiro: What's with these people? Villager: You came from Heston, didn't you? Those culturally backwards savages! We're the future! Hiro: Oh, no...I think we just got into the middle of a culture war... Ozma: What's wrong with Heston? Villager: The real question is, what's RIGHT with Heston? They're the reason our continent is falling into the brink! Hiro: You're kidding, right? The Dark Puddings are on your doorstep, they're stealing your livelihood, and you're fighting your neighbors. What reason do you have to do that? Villager: They open bananas on the bottom as opposed to from the stem! That's not natural! Hiro: ... Ozma: Hahaha....uh... Kimyawa: Etto... Hiro: I'm leaving, this is getting too idiotic. Villager: Yeah, well, I bet you open bananas from the wrong end, too, ya deviant! This is important, as the next bit won't occur if you didn't enter Zaius. Also, you may want to go to Zaius anyways, as it has an upgrade in weapon and armor for both Ozma and Kimaywa (Serafuku armors, Ozma's brutal bracelets, and windmill shuriken for Kimyawa.) Now, enter the gap in the mountains to the northeast. (The party is blown to the ground by a lightning bolt, where a large moustachioed man appears) Man: FLASH! A-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Hiro: An enemy! Man: I am the Praetorian Dou. I am here under the orders of Lord Zoddon himself. You are not to get past me! --Boss Battle!-- Praetorian Dou LP: 5700 MP: 450 Praetorian Dou immediately enters Pudding Form, a Vanilla Wave Form, which makes him immune to fire and air magic. Therefore, don't use Flame or Sky Prana with Kimyawa, but instead use physical attacks, and employ Ozma's Table Flip technique, which has a chance of lowering his defense. However, once he gets down to quarter health, his body will solidify, and you'll do no damage, cuing up a cut-scene. --Boss Battle!-- Hiro: Our attacks are doing no damage! What did you do to your body? Dou: Hahahaha, Lady Jaydea's Heavenly Kings are a wondrous lot. For instance, Lord Kodas has unlocked our ancestor's genes and found all sorts of new ways to empower ourselves. This is one such way; Cornstarch Armor Thickening! Ozma: GASP! Hiro: Who actually SAYS ,"Gasp!"? Anyways, we'll be back! You see! Dou: Tata! You're now booted back to the pass. You then should make your way all the way back to the caverns. Enter them to find the Glacier Valley Caverns. --Glacier Valley Caverns-- The Caverns, are, as their name suggests, covered in ice. Thanks to this, the enemies found here (Frost Munchkin, Sneaky Skier, Ice Flies) are also ice-themed, leading to Kimyawa being even more powerful offensively here, as her Flame Prana deals massive damage to anything and everything. Continue to follow the path, and eventually, you'll find the pipes from the dam, which leads to gouts of steam. Be careful, as you'll get "Red" from being hit by them (Hahaha). After the busted pipes, you'll find a stairway. Descending, you'll enter into the solid rock with large machines humming along the walls, as they (Presumably) drill into the rock. Another Swarthy, mustachioed man: So, how is the progress on the excavation? Worker: Ah, Praetorian Reh, the digging is going well, as you can see, the White Devil is nearly completely excavated... (The camera pans up to reveal a large robot nearly dug out of the ice and rock that seems to have covered it.) Reh: Excellent! Lord Kord ought to be very pleased. With this, the World will be under us soon enough. Hiro: What IS that? Ozma: Um...Dunno! Astute gamers will note that that is in fact, a boss creature which has terrorized those who played Amazing Quest: Pudding Quarter, and many sigh a sigh of relief after having to deal with Lee afterwards. Yes, this is the Golden God Bardugos, the mechanical deity created by the Golden Tribe to protect themselves from the Puddings. But, that's neither here nor there. Approaching it causes another cut-scene. (The machine's eyes flash, and the entire complex rumbles.) Hiro: What did you all do? Ozma: Me? Maybe it was you! Kimyawa: Look out! (The machine lashes out with its arms, and rises up) Bardugos: I AM BARDUGOS THE GOLDEN GUARDIAN! SCANNING FOR GOLDEN TRIBESMAN. AFFIRMATIVE. (It leans down to Ozma) AWAITING ORDERS. Hiro: Say something! Ozma: Uh...um....Oh! Destroy the Dark Puddings in the area! Bardugos: AFFIRMATIVE. (The theme of Bardugos, "Golden Guardian of Genesis" blares, as lances of light surge forward, vaporizing the workers and soldiers around the party. Praetorian Reh: Impossible! The Guardian has awoken already? Wait, no! The Light Puddings! Bardugos: CLIMB ABOARD MY CHASSIS. I MAY PROTECT YOU, MISTRESS. (The party climbs inside the robot's chest as Reh approaches, sword drawn) --Boss Battle!-- Praetorian Reh LP: 5600 MP: 450 This fight is a cakewalk, Bardugos regains HP each round, and has stupidly high defense. In addition, its attacks are a spectacle to behold. One or two of any of them ought to slay Reh, but I am particualrly fond of Golden Guardian Slayer Fist myself. --Boss battle!-- Reh: NO! I can't let the Light Puddings gain control of such a weapon! (Reh draws a grenade from his cloak) Reh: LONG LIVE ZODDON! (Explosion that whites out the screen, leaving Bardugos untouched and the ceiling open) Ozma: The Dark Puddings are willing to sacrifice themselves for their goals.. Kimyawa: BAKA-BAKA-BAKA! Hiro: Let's go pay Dou a visit again... You now have access to Bardugos on the overworld, and he makes random encounters incredibly easy. Head north, back to the pass, where Dou will remain. Dou: So, you return? With a...Ohohoho, you have the Golden God that brother Reh was excavating. So clever. Come! Try your luck again! --Boss Battle!-- Praetorian Dou Redux LP: 6000 MP: 600 Dou's stats are slightly better, but that's no problem for Barudgos. Once hit should drop him into his Cornstrch form, and two more hits ought to do him in. No sweat. --Boss Battle!-- Dou: Aaaaaagh! (Explodes) Hiro: SERIOUSLY! Why does everyone do that? Ozma: Ack! Look! (THe explosion has caused magma to erupt out of the earth) Bardugos: ORDERS, MISTRESS? Ozma: Um...Um....Let us off! Bardugos: AFFIRMATIVE...(it drops Hiro, Ozma and Kimyawa) ORDERS? Ozma: Ah, um...Use your special attack! Strike the magma! Bardugos: AFFIRMATIVE (Charges its eye cannons, but the magma causes the robot to buckle and drop to one knee, making its laser fire at the dam, destroying it in a blossom of white light. The river then floods the surrounding area violently and cools the magma, encasing Bardugos in stone.) Ozma: Bardugos... Bardugos: Do not cry for me, Mistress. I have achieved my function...

#Adventure #fantasy #fiction #science fantasy #writing #Amazing Quest

[paulruskeaton]

13 tips for future Fallout 76 players.

Fallout 76′s B.E.T.A. has given me a taste of what to expect from the full game. It has also given me a heads up on some of the mechanics and changes the franchise has introduced, for better or for worse. This post is written for those who already decided to buy 76, but chose to pick it up later, and to opt out of the B.E.T.A. Here’s some tips to make your first few hours with the game less frustrating. 

More after the break.

(These notes are based on version 1.0.0.6.; the last update released during the B.E.T.A..At time of writing, the game has not had its official release and the issues named here may have since been addressed by the development team. This post may be edited down the road for corrections and updates, if need be.)

1. Trading with party members is not the same as trading in general.... or trading as you have come to know.

In the current version, you have the option to trade with anyone on a server by walking up to them and holding down the key/button that prompts the trading screen. However, they’ve changed the up how the trading system actually functions. 

Instead of selecting what you want to buy and sell first and then confirming it all at once, you are forced to sell/buy each item individually. Pretty much, it’s less about item value and more about how many caps you have on hand. Caps are given more function in this game, as you need to them to fast travel long distances  and move your CAMP around. Okay, sure, but once you get to the real-life players involved with this system, things get... complicated.

Say you see a cool baseball bat in someone’s inventory and decide you want to have it. Here’s how you go about getting it. First, you select it, which marks the item as something you are interested in. Then the seller needs to select the item as well and then set a price. Once the price has been set, the buyer can then select the item again to purchase it. 

Sounds simple on paper, but no one in the parties I was in understood this system: me included. In fact, if you are in a party and want to swap gear, you are much better off dropping each other’s items---which appears in a bottomless paper bag at the moment---and pick it out of there. But if you’re looking to be a merchant, it’s still an awkward system. Again, you can’t purchase en mass or just swap items without getting caps involved. Okay, that’s not completely true: you can set the cap value to zero, but you still have to do this for each item you wish to sell/buy. 

Oh, and additionally, be sure to use the “offers” filter often, or at least if you get stuck with a person who isn’t talking. Which brings me to the next tip....

2. Your mic is either always on, or always off. 

There is no mic button; nobody likes this.

In most online games I know, if you want to talk, you hold down the button/key bound to that, which opens your mic. 76 does not have this. There are four options, toggled in only in settings: “Off, “Auto,” “Team,” and “Area.” The people I hung around with usually had it on “Team”, since that filters out everyone else on the server: who are the ones who have it on “Auto”. “Area”, which only broadcasts your voice to... eh... the nearby area, ended up being kind of useless, since not everyone wants to hear you all time: which will happen because Bethesda, again, made sure of that. 

You mic turns on whenever it detects a noise higher than a pin drop. So if you’re chatting with someone on Discord, have a dog, tend to breathe heavily, or if you’re pretty much in close proximity to anything that makes a noise, you will be heard unless you turn off your mic completely, or are muted. Additionally, while there is an icon that displays next to the name of the player who is talking, is is super tiny, so unless you are standing right in front of them or have a very distinct voice, you may not actually know who is talking. Speaking of things that are hard to shut up...

3. Audio Logs

In the first few missions, you are tasked with finding audio logs of the old Overseer and some groups that used to operate in Appalachia. Last time I checked, once you pick them up, they play automatically. So first off, they moved the holotapes menu away from “data” to its own menu under “inventory”; you go here to play/stop a tape. Second, if you’re playing with a team or just some unmuted folk, you’ll need to turn on the subtitles, so you can actually hear what you’re supposed to do. This comes in handy because...

4. Objectives are super vague, super cluttered, and super fickle.

You know that old problem with Bethesda quests where the compass will keep leading you inside, then outside, in then back out again for one marker? Well, that’s back: with a vengeance. At once point, a teammate and I decided to fix up a nearby power plant. The objective was simple: fix up the generator, reactor, and cooling towers. How, may you ask? Well, i’ll tell you right now, because the game sure doesn’t. You find leaks and broken yellow control panels. That’s it. 

Simple enough, right? Yes, but then the aforementioned marker problem comes into play. These leaks and panels are never in the same building and seem to use the same marker icon as everything else, so if you’re in a labyrinth of a building, and power plants tend to be here, expect to run around in circles. A lot. Additionally, unless you shut them off, you will see your teammate’s open objectives on your screen as well: cluttering up the HUD pretty quickly.

Oh, and some of these quests are on a timer. Yep. 

Some quests are called “events”. They pop up on the overworld map whenever a player starts them and anyone on the server can join in to assist. (Though they may not always get the XP... I haven’t figured out why yet.)The event ends either once it’s completed, abandoned (leaving the area) or after an allotted time. Why for the latter? Other than to annoy me, I have no idea. I do know that my friend and I failed that power plant objective, right near the end, because the game got impatient with our running around. Hardly our fault though: we kept dying. Why?

5. Because dragons.

Surprise! It’s Skyrim after all! 

Okay, technically no, but it’s an action RPG where you fight dragons so I’m making the joke now while it’s still a living horse. They’re actually “scorched beasts”, and they shoot nothing but radioactive murder plague death from their mouths. Don’t fight them until you are ready, and you won’t be for awhile. Don’t be like my idiot teammate and try to bring one down “for the XP”. You’ll just die. Over and over. Speaking of death...

6. You “lose” items when you die.

But don’t worry, you can retrieve them. But balance that choice wisely. You can respawn near your last death point, but do take a moment to ask yourself a few questions. “Why did I die?” Was it because of something manageable, like a ghoul or mutant that got the jump on you? Or was it a marauding player--who probably already picked it up--who now has a bounty on their head? Or was it because of the aforementioned murder death dragons? Take these into consideration. Also consider what you left behind. When you die, you only drop whatever junk/scrap you had picked up and haven’t stashed away yet. (More on that later.) Ask yourself, was it something kinda common like steel or cloth? Or was it something absolutely essential, like....

7. Wood and Aluminum

You need these. Always. Never walk pass them. Ever.

In Fallout 4, adhesive was the precious commodity. Now you can find that near everywhere. Meanwhile, in a video game literally set in an enormous forest, wood is hard to come by. Why? No idea. You can’t “scrap” your environment like in 4, and for some reason, axes cannot cut down trees. (Yes, they never could in these games, but I feel like there’s some serious cognitive dissonance going on here) You need wood to build shelters, crafting tables and make “boiled water”; all key for early survival. 

But you can scrape up enough wood for this if you know where to look: scrapping common weapons is the main one and some areas have lumber in small piles. The bigger headache is aluminium. Aluminum is much rarer and you need aluminum. Why?

8. Because weapons/armor can now break again.

Unpopular opinion: I actually liked the repair system of past Fallout games. Having to do equipment upkeep felt, I dunno, appropriate for a series about survival? It was also aided by the fact that you can do repairs on the fly with similar items, or the Jerryrigging perk. This time, not so much. When your equipment breaks, you need to find a workbench to fix it, and you need materials to do so. Once again, this is why you need as much aluminum as you can carry because most repairs need them. But what about...

9. Being over-encumbered.

So having to carry so much junk... well, you know what tends to happen. But the over-encumbered penalty has been tweaked a bit: while you will still slow to a crawl, it’s only after your AP meter has been exhausted. 

Luckily, they made junking more convenient: you can break down any junk, armor, and weapon at any workbench and some early perks allow you to carry more by cutting the weight of various items. Stock up on ‘em early if you can; it’ll make the trek back to your stash box easier. That said...

10. Your stash box is not bottomless.

Hoarders beware: use it or lose it.

Your stash is always with you as long as you have a CAMP around, but as I learned, it does have a limit to what can be held. Pretty much, you’re forced to craft and trade often; to not just pick up anything you find lying around because you’ll probably have use for it later. (After all, your priority is wood and aluminum anyway.) Unfortunately, I have no way to trump this system. The closest thing I found is to craft ammo: a much more precious commodity than caps. Come on, Bethesda, just because Metro uses a bullet currency doesn’t mean you’re prohibited from implementing it! That said, you may conclude that you could take the old Skyrim approach and just trade a high volume of useless crap for the good stuff. Well, guess what.

11. You cannot “print money.”

They actually nipped this one in the bud early on. Yes, you can craft things if you have the ingredients and recipes to do so. But that’s not for everything. I saw that craftable hatchets and knives can no longer be traded at the handful of NPC merchants in the game. Same goes for bullets: you’re better off just shooting your surplus ammo into the air, like a “true Appalachian”, than setting on them, waiting for value. Unfortunately, you cannot scrap bullets either, which is a shame and I hope the add the option down the line, around the time they further restrict our trading options.

12. Oh, yeah, I also said “recipes.”

There are more things in this game that require “plans” and “recipes” before they can actually be crafted. I was into this for the sake of immersion: how your character in 4 readily had the knowledge to build a small house with complete furnishings was something I found silly. But as I stated earlier, 76 has a very questionable view of reality, so it may void that a little. Regardless, you earn plans and recipes through various means. The common way, for armor/weapon modding anyway, is to scrap items, which gives you a chance to learn a new modding recipe for that item. You also earn some by completing quests and events, and can sometimes buy them from merchants. (Can’t sell them though.) On top of that, some still need the right perks to use. Oh, I should actually close on that one...

13. Perk Cards and Leveling

They brought back perks for 76, in the form of cards you unlock at every new level. You combine duplicate cards to raise thier levels as well. When you level, you are asked to put a new point into any of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes. The total number of points in your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. dictates what perk cards you can swap in. For example, if your Strength is 4 and you have a perk card that's upgraded to level 3, you won’t be able to slide it in if you have three level 1 Strength cards in the deck. Oh, and your choice of new perk card is NOT limited to what perk you decided to level up.

---

And.... pretty much those are the key things I want you future players to know. But here’s a couple other tidbits to know.

You need to be a special level to use Power Armor and some high-tier weapons. You can still use the chassis at anytime though, providing you have the cores.

Food rots. Don’t overpack with perishable meals that you won’t use, unless you plan to make fertilizer later.

You can make diluted Stimpacks, RadAway, and Rad-X, which means it’ll double your medicine supply, but will be less effective.

You can save structures to blueprints to be built later, but you will still need the materials!

ALUMINUM. WOOD. ALUMINUM AND WOOD.

And one last thing before you take off on your new wasteland journey:

Bethesda made a lot of questionable decisions here, not just in gameplay but in world building. Once again, you will find that a lot of lore has been glossed over and/or ignored by committee. You may be tempted to get very emotional over what can be perceived as a gross disregard of canon and that Todd Howard is satisfied with slapping the Fallout brand on anything he wants. 

I have come to accept this as fact and have chosen to still have fun with the game regardless.

It’s a big functional mess of a timesink that is, once again, more about making a profit than paying respect to a classic franchise: the norm of the industry. For all we know, this may become the installment that “kills” the franchise. But so far, I’ve been having fun and accepting it for what it is and prepared for whatever direction it chooses to goes in next.

As for you, I hope to meet you on these country roads very soon!

#fallout 76 #fallout #tutorials #gaming #long reads

[gamearamamegathons]

Dragon Warrior III: I Retroactively Get Credit For This Peace Also

Circe here! So, now we come to the end of Dragon Warrior III. All that's left to do is to storm Baramos's castle and beat the shit out of him. At this point, how much I retain from particular dungeons is starting to lessen as I just follow a guide instead of mapping them myself. But Baramos's castle is pretty much as you expect, a big mean dungeon with monsters who are obnoxiously strong. Naturally, I spent most of this dungeon just fleeing over and over again and hoping I make it to Baramos in roughly one piece. Baramos himself is this angry crocodile face guy, and he's pretty tough, but with sufficient levels, the standard boss fight approach works pretty well for this guy, bolstered by the fact that we now have an array of support spells like Barrier (magical protection), Increase (defense boost) and Bikill (attack boost). After a couple tries, he goes down, and I head back to Aliahan to celebrate that the world has been saved.

The end.

...

...

Okay, just kidding.

Actually, once we enter the throne room, a voice echoes in the room, telling us that he is the true archfiend Zoma, and he's going to take over the world anyway. The king laments that he doesn't know how to break the news to his subjects, so he orders us not to tell anyone. What a leader. I guess we're gonna have to figure this out by ourselves. But we've pretty much explored every corner of the world. What's left? Well, there's two important places we need to go. First is the Castle of the Dragon Queen, a location tucked in a little ring of mountains that can only be reached by phoenix. There, if we poke around a bit, we can meet the Dragon Queen herself, who gives us a Sphere of Light. Hmmm. Anyway, the second place is the Great Pit of Giaga, a location near Baramos's Castle that previously just had a big pit with a wall around it. Well, now the pit has cracked open and split the walls apart, so we can just hop in, something which is clearly a very good idea.

In the pit, we find ourselves in a new land, where we immediately find a boat. Traveling a bit east, we come across a familiar town...it's Tantagel! That's right. The world of darkness beneath the earth was Alefgard all along. Now, this is cool and all, but it might raise a more pragmatic question: where does this leave our EXP curve for this new leg of our adventure? Glad you asked! The answer is that we're fucked for the rest of the game, basically. We'll be able to level up and ease things a bit, but basically the overworld has endgame-tier monsters, the ocean has endgame-tier monsters, the dungeons have endgame-tier monsters, everywhere we go for the rest of the game we're not going to want to spend too long in combat because almost every encounter has the chance to inflict massive damage to the party.

But leaving that aside for now, what do we need to do next? Well, you may remember that in the original Dragon Warrior, we had to get together the items to acquire a rainbow drop, so we could summon the Rainbow Bridge leading to the Dragonlord's castle. Here, the quest is roughly the same. Unlike in Dragon Warrior II, Alefgard isn't just a cameo, we are in fact re-enacting the quest of the first game in compressed time. And as much as I'd love to recount every quest item in detail, the effect of compressing and simplifying the entire original Dragon Warrior quest is that it's all just kind of a mush of poking around Alefgard in my head. I will say, despite the overly strong monsters, it's decently fun to go around and see what Alefgard is like and accumulate quest items like magical barnacles. There are a lot of important differences, though. The landscape is very different. Hauksness, the ruined desert town, is prospering. Garinham is just a single house, and Garin is alive. A lot of little details suggest not-so-subtly that we might just be, in fact, in Alefgard's past rather than its future. And that might lead you to a suspicion of who our hero is supposed to be.

But let's not worry about that for now. Aside from poking around the towns and collecting quest items and trying not to die a lot from every single monster, the only noteworthy dungeon before Zoma's castle is a tower west of Kol. It's absolutely brutal too, full of ruinously powerful monsters who can take out one or two party members very rapidly. It does have a very important monster in it, though. This tower is one place among many in Alefgard where you can find Metal Babbles, which are stronger, meltier versions of Metal Slimes. These things are EXP pinatas just like Metal Slimes, but they actually give an order of magnitude more EXP, in the neighborhood of almost 15K. The catch is that they're very, very difficult to kill. One good way of killing them off is a hilarious wizard spell called BeDragon, which...does what it says on the tin, I guess. Your spellcaster becomes a dragon and starts breathing fire everywhere. This attack ignores all defenses, so it's a guaranteed kill for all Metal Babbles on the battlefield. That requires them to sit still for two entire turns though, which is...not terribly likely, unfortunately. Still, it's worth it, even if it does make the experience of grinding fantastically tedious. Grinding is unfortunately not optional, though, as you need to get to around level 40 at least, before you really have a chance of taking on Zoma. And I kinda suspect that I was underleveled even by the time I got sick of this process.

So, as before, we get together the Staff of Rain and the Stones of Sunlight, and we scrounge together a sacred amulet or something to satisfy the mean old guy, who is weirdly not that mean this time, and finally, if we do all that, he will give us a Rainbow Drop. This lets us access Zoma's castle. Once again, this is kind of a retread of the same kind of constantly-running-away experience that characterizes late game Dragon Warrior dungeons. Along the way, though, we actually encounter...plot! Remember our dad, Ortega? He fell into a volcano fighting a dragon? No? Well he's here. Turns out that he didn't die, he just fell into Alefgard, and now he's fighting a monstrous hydra! Ortega's doomed battle plays out in real time as a non-interactive fight, which I feel is a...questionable design choice, seeing as this battle goes on for quite a while. Unfortunately, he dies, which seems like...I dunno, kind of an unceramonious way for things to go after the game strings out the chance that he might've been alive all this time. With his dying breath, Ortega, not recognizing you, instructs you to tell his daughter what happened to him. And then he's gone, leaving me with the impression that...not...much has changed, actually. I mean, it's not like we were questing to find our dad. We just thought he was dead, and just kind of incidentally found out he wasn't, except now he really is, actually, dead. Shrug? Okay.

Further into Zoma's castle is an important item that actually changes a lot about how we can approach the dungeon. It's a Sage's Stone. This item, when used in battle, casts a free healing spell that recovers a lot of HP to the whole party, and it can be used repeatably. This single object instantly obsoletes a huge swath of our Pilgrim's spells, which is hilarious. It also means that, since it can only be used in battle, there's actually a good reason to stick around in battles, since recovering HP faster than we can take damage will leave us in a place to spend less MP than if we tried to run and came out of it all beat up. But it reveals another problem, which is that this approach to the dungeon slows things down quite a lot. It is, objectively, the better strategic choice, and in theory, it's closer to the intended way to play the game than to run away from every single battle no matter what. But it makes the game seriously drag, which I think is honestly kind of telling. It's also still possible for your characters to get wiped out even though we're healing back ~100 HP per character per turn, which I think is *also* telling. You wouldn't think the boss would be takeable in this state, but don't be so sure. After crawling our way through the dungeon, surviving with minimal MP use by constantly waving a rock around, we finally get to Zoma. He's kinda huge, like, he's actually four times bigger on the map than a regular character, and of course he has a big dramatic speech about taking over the world, pretty conventional evil overlord stuff. He throws three bosses at us before we even get to fight him, but that's not a big deal, because the Sage's Stone is seriously just that powerful.

Zoma himself is brutal. He has a wide array of heavily damaging spells, does a ton of physical damage, and takes two turns per round. My first attempt at killing him went miserably. But then I remembered something I totally forgot about: you're actually supposed to *use* the Sphere of Light on him. Doing this causes the screen to flash and turn Zoma rainbow colors...for a while...but after that, he turns blue, which of course is the universally understood color of weakness. He's a lot easier now, especially since we're able to build up a ton of buffs like before, letting us deal tons of damage while my Pilgrim keeps furiously waving that rock to keep everyone alive. Zoma does have the ability to dispel all buffs, which sucks, but with perseverence, we pull it off, and Zoma falls dead.

Zoma's castle dramatically crumbles apart, as they do. We escape through a...hole that spits us out the bottom of a different dungeon...okay, I guess? Then we leave and go back to Tantagel to celebrate. This time, really for real, the evil is defeated. The way back to the surface is sealed off, though, so it looks like we're going to be here forevermore. The king of Tantagel bestows us with a title, though -- he names us the Hero of Erdrick. Yes, that's right! Erdrick is a title, not a name, and it's the moniker our hero will be remembered by for generations into the future. So...that's the big twist! This is the story that precedes everything that happened in the first two games. Admittedly, I was kinda semi-aware of that from the start, because it's hard to browse a wiki without accidentally stumbling upon this sort of information. But it's kinda neat regardless, and it makes for a nice way to tie up the Erdrick Trilogy. Even though the storytelling of these games are very simple, I can appreciate that, within its own context, it's built up a little mythology that's meaningful within its world.

So how does Dragon Warrior III stack up? Well...as I've said, it's very similar to Dragon Warrior II. Admittedly, a lot of my experience was eased by the fact that I moved to digital mapping, which means that it wasn't quite so slow and laborious mapping out things as I went. But putting that aside and focusing just on the experience of the gameplay...well, it's pretty clear that the game repeats its predecessor just a bit too much. The moment of getting boat in Dragon Warrior II was huge, but it really only takes one repetition for it to feel formulaic. Dragon Warrior II is a game that's being pulled in two directions. It still has a lot of the puzzle box design of Dragon Warrior, but it's also just way too big and way too open. Much like the search for the five crests, the search for the six orbs is something of a midgame slump where the devs clearly want you to see this big wide open world they've created, but it's so huge and meandering that trying to find and navigate the threads of half a dozen different mini-quests is overwhelming.

As much as I got excited about the new class system at first, it runs counter to a lot of the game's design. The game is so demanding in terms of grinding that taking a huge risk like starting a brand new character, or starting a character over to move them to a new class, feels ridiculous. As much as the game might suggest that you want to change your party over time to adapt and grow, you don't *have* to, and the game never gave me a compelling reason to try. At the very least, it's good that it lays the groundwork for future class systems in later Dragon Quest games, but here, it feels almost superfluous. I had my four party members and that was it, pretty much.

That said, I think I was too hard on this game's combat when I described it early on. Over time, you get a pretty expansive range of combat options...or at least, enough to feel like a standard RPG. By the end, the combat didn't feel quite so one-dimensional, although that isn't to say it wasn't still pretty simple. This game's repertoire of spells is pretty expansive as well, with at least a vague gesture at an elemental system, an actual multi-target healing spell, solid and useful support buffs, and a couple actually usable oddball spells like BeDragon. As a system, what really holds it back more than anything is all the cruft it still has to clear away from the NES era of RPG design.

And that's it for Dragon Warrior III. I think I want to do a post after this, taking a moment to look back on the Erdrick Trilogy as a whole. After that, we'll be moving on to Dragon Quest IV, the final game on the NES. And boy, you'd better believe I'm not going to miss the NES era once we're good and properly out of here.

#circe #marathon #dragon warrior iii #dragon quest

[pahrak-the-sinnoh-slizer]

I beat NEOTWEWY!  That was the most JRPG-ass final boss I’ve fought in years, love to see it.  Need to dig into the post-game content before I try to compare it overall to the first game, but the ending at least...I’d probably say that’s better than the first game’s, and being able to say that just makes me giddy.  A long list of other, super spoilery thoughts below the cut.

-It’s pretty cool that every family of Noise has its own symbol this time!  Makes it a lot more clear when you’re hunting a specific Noise.

-Pachy Noise seem a little less annoying?  Maybe?  I still dread them but not the most.

-Puffers take a bit too long to explode and that’s annoying, but in the grand scheme of things that’s pretty minor.

-Those fucking Chameleons, though.  The vanish and snipe routine I could tolerate, but combined with that counter blast every time you hit ‘em...yikes.

-I still think Rex Noise are cool af, but the Maximazaurus kicked my shit in and it didn’t feel entirely fair.  How was I supposed to know that roar attack covered the entire battlefield?  Can it even be dodged, or are you just supposed to kill it before it can use it?

-Fuck Plague Noise

-RIP Drake Noise and Progfox :(

-I do find it a little weird that some Noise have a regular and boss version that use the exact same name.  Makes me wonder why they didn’t just recolor and rename the boss version.  Meh, it’s not that important.

-So it seems “mutating” a Pin just means evolving it but it requires certain conditions, and those conditions seem to be which character it’s equipped to when it finishes leveling.  Very glad there’s a skill on the social network that makes their conditions clear.

-RIP Shutdown PP :(

-Music still slaps.  I really like that one, “Breaking Free” I think?  It embodies that early 2000s angst, plus the final lyrics are “the world ends with me” and I’m a sucker for that shit.

-The direction they went with Kanon didn’t quite land with me personally.  Like it was still pretty good, I did feel a bit sad to see her go, but her introduction just really rubbed me the wrong way I guess.

-I was unsure about the VIP system at first, but shopkeepers do still warm up to you even if it isn’t as trackable.  And...I never did a whole lot with the brand chart anyway, I guess.  The VIP level being a permanent thing rather than resetting every time you leave the area is a strong point in its favor.

-I really like the social network!  Gives you even more info about the background characters and helps drive home the themes of connection, and it’s heavily incentivized by the wide variety of rewards you get from it.  Five of my six pins can be Uber now.

-There was a minute there I thought I wouldn’t be able to progress without grinding Style, but then I realized it only restricts abilities, not what you can and can’t even equip like Bravery did.  Yeah that’s a step up.

-OH, and Pin Mastery!  Mastered pins counting even if you evolve or sell them!  That’s good.  That’s very, very good.

-I like how most of the playable characters have their own unique Psych used in the overworld to make up for their interchangeability in battle.  Do sort of wish Minamimoto and Neku had their own, but it’s not a sticking point by any means.

-Also how fucking hype was fighting Leo Cantus Armo and then seeing Neku bust in with Twister playing, that was so fucking cool.

-Speaking of Hype...was kind of expecting Tsugumi to do more?  In and of itself I don’t think there’s really an issue, I 100% think it’s a matter of her being central to the sequel buildup in both Solo and Final Remix.  She’s super sweet, though. ^_^

-As for Tsugumi’s Noise form...well, lolz told me to bring Stone pins and those really trivialize the fight.  The first time, at least.

-Someone I do think was underutilized is Ayano.  We didn’t get enough from her prior to her infection and that limited the impact.  The flashbacks offered during that scenario definitely helped, and I really liked Rindo going through the day trying to talk with Shoka and mentally prepare her, but...they definitely could’ve done more with her, and her being one of the characters who actually dies doesn’t help.

-Neku’s so happy in this game!!

-SHIKI FACE REVEAL!!!!

-I lost my shit when Beat took off his mask, adding him relatively early was a Good Move.

-HACKER RHYME

-I feel like Joshua showing up right out of nowhere would be confusing to new players, but obviously I can’t say that with certainty.  Plus, there’s still the Secret Reports, those might explain quite a few things.

-Right, Secret Reports!  I actually got one before even beating the game (Report 3), it was after my social network got to 70% completion so I think that was the unlock.  I am...nervous about not having a checklist of the unlock requirements this time, but it seems they might be easier to get overall (I got Report 2 just from fighting Go-Go Beringei’s symbol on Easy) so we’ll see.

-Don’t think I see game time anywhere so that sucks, especially since the Switch’s gameplay records are so damn vague.

-Still a tiny bit salty the game didn’t tell me about what the “-” button does right away.

-All the books seem to be in one shop and I quite like that, as well as the whole organization/aesthetic of the Collection menu.  I really want to see if I can 100% this game.

-The Graffiti wall is also a cool spin on achievements, even moreso since you can actually see the wall in Udagawa.

-Susukichi’s completed Noise form is tough.  You really need to time your dodges when he punches, took me a minute to get that, and taking cover from that massive lightning attack is a pretty cool gimmick.  I got massive Ovis Cantus vibes.

-Can we talk about how fucking packed with spoilers that last trailer was?  I am of the opinion spoilers don’t necessarily ruin things but that’s a personal choice and holy shit Square.

-Really like how they subtly mislead you in regards to Swallow’s identity.  The way scenes cut made me think for the longest time that they’d be the leader of the Ruinbringers, helped by the fact that Susukichi and Tsugumi start just a bit out from Rindo on the social network, leaving just enough space for one character to link them.  Then they start making you think it’s Rhyme.  Then you get surprised by the final reveal, but it’s a surprise that makes sense looking back.  Love it.

-The whole bit with Rindo meeting anOther is also a really interesting juxtaposition with Neku meeting CAT.  Both of their character flaws can be traced back to their idols, but in Neku’s case it’s down to his own misinterpretation, while Rindo is just the type of follower Motoi wanted to create.  Meeting his idol is a positive experience for Neku, but a negative one for Rindo, yet they both grow as a direct result of the encounter.  Super cool.

-In fact, it’s actually Fret whose backstory ends up being closest to Neku’s, despite their wildly different dispositions, that’s nuts and I love it.

-After her speech in Week 3, Nagi might just be the best character.

-They did a hell of a lot with Shoka and I love all of it.

-I said it before but I was not expecting to love Kaie as much as I do.  Definitely in the running for favorite Shinjuku Reaper.

-I didn’t expect much from Hishima due to his nondescript character design, but he’s actually pretty cool.

-For Susukichi and Shiba both, they’re complete assholes in different and entertaining ways, but both manage to have a healthy amount of depth as well, I really like that.

-And fucking Kubo!  Hated him from the start, but he managed to grow on me as things went, and his final reveal left a hell of an impression.  I do sort of wish we got to fight him ourselves, but he got a brutal death and that’s what really matters.  Xander Mobus sounds like he’s having fun.

-Haz was a very interesting addition.  We’ve been wondering who he is since that final trailer (where they showed the last scene he, a Walking Spoiler, was a part of, what the hell) and I still wasn’t sure what to expect once we did get his name.  He definitely gave off the same vibes as Joshua so I thought he might be a Composer (either replacing Joshua in Shibuya or maybe coming from Shinjuku), but the reveal of what he really is was pretty cool.

-Uzuki mellowed out just the right amount, I like her a lot more now.

-Kariya’s pretty much the exact same character and I love that for him.

-Would’ve liked to see Hanekoma but oh well, it sounds like he’s still writing the Secret Reports so that’s cool.

-Oh yeah, Coco.  Mmm...I mean I still don’t trust her?  It is a little weird that Neku does, but not to a jarring extent?  I dunno, I feel like she’s still got a scheme going on...

-Again, fantastic ending, last scene very similar to the last scene of Steins;Gate so that’s a plus in my book.

-And it’s got its own Another Day!!  The mention of Tin Pin makes me wonder if it’s the same timeline as the first game’s Another Day, but not sure.  All three of the checkpoint bosses kicked my ass so I left to go hunt Secret Reports and fill out my Noisepedia, but eventually I hope to get further into it.

-I wasn’t super diligent with Pig Noise but there’s only one variety missing in my Noisepedia, plus I missed the second level Rex Noise.  Other than that and the spots past Phoenix Cantus I just need to try to fill in drops.

-Blond kid spending one of his seven days hunting for seven urban legends really took me back to the KHII prologue, and I’m one of the folks who liked that so I mean that as a good thing.

-”The pigs’ll come sniffing!”  Beat knows what’s up.

-The Chapters menu seems to count Scramble Slam rewards towards completion...I am quite nervous about that, seeing as I only got like halfway to the lowest prize every time…

-Commentator Reaper has my whole heart though

-There was one sidequest...W3D1, I think?  It said someone in Udagawa needed help, but I ran up and down Udagawa like 5 times and couldn’t see anyone.  Did I miss it?  Is it post-game?  Is the game bugged?  Hm.

-But I have done almost all of the sidequests, and I...usually did well on Dive missions.  There’s a decent chunk of stuff for me to do in revisits but not too much.

-Where I am right now, I still have some unanswered questions, but a lot of that comes down to specific details I might not mind if they don’t clarify.  Still hope they do, of course.  I crave knowledge.  Time to get back to finding those Reports...

#Pahrak plays NEOTWEWY #NEOTWEWY spoilers

[artyrogue]

Blind Date Gaming: Monster Race Okawari

Oof. Today's date reeked of mimicry, like I was going out on a night with a mockingbird holding a photocopy machine. Now, copying ideas and putting new spins on them is hardly new to the gaming industry (or any form of entertainment, really). Many decent titles and concepts came from such efforts, in fact! However, sometimes the new spins are rather odd choices. It's like taking the idea of a sandwich and tossing in soup. Do you want a stock-soaked PBJ sandwich riddled with noodles? Probably not, and that's kind of how I feel about Monster Race Okawari, tonight's blind date.

Looks kind on novel, right? There's some sidescrolling dragon runnin' at top speeds through different landscapes, some odd creepy things holding down the copyright date like it's a hostage. So what game does this emulate, you ask? Well, I'd say it sort of reveals itself quickly upon the game's start.

Nope, this looks pretty original, not at all almost exactly like any other majorly successful game boy game

So yeah, it's a Pokémon knock-off. The spin here is that, instead of fighting your little slave creatures, you throw them into auto-races. And by 'auto-race', I don't mean they drive little shriners’ cars around tracks all menacingly-like. I mean the monsters just...automatically kind of run with no real input from you. Like you wound up one of those cat toys and let them go. What fun.

Gotta watch 'em all!

You get to pick from 3 starters, just like in Pokémon. Let's check out our options here:

Okay, so you got generic snake, kawaii hedgehog, and definitely-not-Rhyhorn. Amazing. So, which to pick? Well, unlike pokémon, they don't have types; instead they have terrain rankings. For example, the snake is better in water, hedgehog best in grass, and I guess Rhyhorn could be good on ice? I dunno, I didn't really look much at the time. Each monster also has stats such as balance, jumping, and guts, but I couldn't tell you what any of those actually, y'know, do. Their HP is stamina, allowing them to run for longer periods. All of this is available for review in a totally unique stats page.

What amazing monster design. Definitely not something from a Lisa Frank sticker set.

Okay, that's well and good, but what of the overworld? After all, monster racin' is only half the game, right? What about the cool areas to explore and people to meet?

This is not building confidence

So the starting area is absolute crap. It's a city, for sure, but every single building looks identical and there are rows and rows of these houses. Interiors all look the same. I got so lost trying to find out where to go in the first 15 minutes or so. No one in the buildings has much to offer for progression (though I do wish I knew what they were saying...), but I eventually stumbled into what I assume is my rival and got my first pokémon. Err, joggimon. Whatever you want to call them. I went with the snake because it was so dang generic I felt bad for it. I named it a bunch of Japanese characters that vaguely looked like a snake so I could tell who it was in my party list.

What's this joggidex entry say? Well, Google translate seems to indicate 'It's always plotting things and playing pranks. When I'm bitten by a brood parasite, I get a good night's sleep.' Gotta love machine translations.

You eventually get shuffled to some generic field area where you can start enlisting other monsters to your team and leveling them up. Leveling is odd. Either you are completely outclassed by the random encounter (mostly due to terrain ranking) or you overtake them in a couple seconds and the game is like, "welp, good enough, have some XP". You can try to overcome the foes who are decent on the terrain, but they get perks you don't, like random speed boosts.

The lines mean speed! See?! This game has ACTION!

You, on the other hand, can swap between monsters on the fly, but it takes a few seconds for the current runner to stop and the new one to get started. Usually this means a loss, as once the foe is far enough away, the game counts it as your loss. Eventually enemies lose their stamina and can be handily beaten, but it's really not worth wasting time. Just grind on the weak, derpy-looking enemies.

Once I had a killer team of monsters, I ambled over to what I assume was the gym equivalent building in this game. I got into a few races against some new monsters, but with my ace runners, we overcame the lot of them. At least the terrain changed a bit, allowing me to get a minor taste of strategy (if you'd call it that?).

I'd better get a decent TM from this

Afterward, I was congratulated by my rival and left to go...somewhere? I have no idea. I wandered for like 30 minutes all over the copy/pasted landscapes and could find no way to progress. Probably somethin' due to the language barrier. I think I saw where I needed to go, but some idiot blocked me off and wouldn't allow me to pass. I slipped a 20 in his pocket, but the jerk just looked the other way. There goes my dinner payment.

There're also these random holes in the ground I can't seem to reach. Who built this infrastructure? ...Are the races in the sewers? (Cue repressed memories of Battletoads)

Guess that's the end of my journey here. This one was a bit of a letdown, to be honest. It seemed like it had potential, but the crappy map design, boring monsters, even more boring gameplay, and inclusion of brood parasites just made for a dull experience. This explains why I'm not going on another date with this title. It might be more fun if it got translated, but why bother? I'd rather take this Sprite of Passage and run. Hopefully faster than these loser monsters.

brings new meaning to 'time is running out!'

#blinddategaming #gameboy #monsterraceokawari

[apollo-writes-random-shit]

Escaping

Go read on AO3 here!

Chapter 1

(Spoilers for the latest Inbetween episode! It also mentions some of the characters from past videos.)

Karl couldn't help but gag as he collapsed in the rain, head ricocheting off the ground under him as he tried to catch his breath. Whenever he moved through a portal to leave the Overworld or Nether, he always held a fuzzy feeling in his head for a few minutes but nothing resembled how he felt right now.

Granted, he had just fled from a land that concluded it'd be enjoyable to try and keep him imprisoned before throwing a massive tantrum.

Karl didn't even know that a place could do that. Then again, the Inbetween wasn't a normal place. It was a land created by the Sky Gods as far as Karl could guess. How else would it appear?

With a sigh, Karl shoved himself to his feet, clutching his head as his vision floated as he swayed side to side. God, he felt like he was stoned and he had only smoked once. He still didn't know why he let Quackity persuade him but then again he had been stressed and it had eased him.

He sighed, vision finally clearing, allowing him to look around. He had to acknowledge it. The popping of lava and crackling of bright flames trapped in small cages while rain lightly fell was comforting in a way Karl couldn't understand.

It wasn't like The Inbetween's rain, where it felt like bullets, trying to rip him apart as punishment for listening to someone else, straying from a fated path.

No, this rain held comfort, flooding him with recollections of slow dancing under a moonlit sky, laughter gently echoing around the small clearing he and his lover had found themselves within.

He recalled late nights on a worn couch, sipping hot chocolate as he read aloud, a hand dancing in another's dark hair.

It reminded him of things that The Inbetween threatened to rob him of.

A soft smile graced his face as he started studying the encompassing scenery, hand tracing the warm stone plates extending away from the flame lit brazier. The small engravings almost seemed to hum to him, whispering words of safety. This place wasn't going to keep Karl permanently. It had rescued him from the fate of joining other lost souls, scurrying around quartz passages.

Yet...He felt like there were souls here as well. They weren't threatening, at least that's what Karl's own soul was perceiving. No. These were harmless ones. Souls of those he had met previously.

No longer did they yell in his head frantically. This time, it was gentle murmurs of approval, letting him know that he was finally safe. He could finally achieve his mission of saving the SMP from the hell it had become, one story at a time.

Slowly, he turned away from the brazier, gazing up at the arched plants which cast shadows over the already darkened ground, nether wart budding peacefully at their bases.

He couldn't help but let out a tired chuckle as he observed the black squares that covered the ground, inviting him to explore the area. It was elegant even if the only light sources were flickering flames and poping lava. It gave everything an uncanny glow but it was endearing in a way. It seemed more... Natural in a way when he compared it to the brightness that The Inbetween previously held before he acted out.

You did it, Karl. We knew you could.

His smile broadened. Sure he may not be able to see them but those he had met were there. Part of him wanted to apologize for failing them. For the harm, he had brought from bullying gladiators who had waited in the wings to killing the bandits, even if his hands had brought only one of them down, his mind had brought down all three. He desired to apologize to Robin and the rest of the innocent villagers for not stepping in and putting a halt to everything. For being too cowardly to come out of his hiding place to reveal who the true criminals were.

You have nothing to apologize for. What's done is done and you had no choice in the matter. We don't blame you.

He wanted to reveal to Ranbob what his idol truly was like but knew that would crush the hybrid who had killed in the green man's name.

He wanted to tell those who harmed him that it was okay. That he knew the risks that came with slipping into their lives to walk among them.

He had fallen multiple times but that was okay for that was his role.

We still hurt you. How can you be so forgiving?

"Because it's not your fault that it happened." Sure, Karl felt a bit ridiculous for conversing with no one but heat and rain as his audience but he still wished to open his mouth.

"It's like how you stated. What's done is done. It was your fate and mine but with your help, I can take the reins of my destiny. So thank you." He spread his arms, gazing up at the sky with a small giggle. "I keep you with me every second of the day and you all know that. Every lifetime, you're all there and I find comfort in that. So again." He hummed, smiling as he held his hands over his heart, shutting his eyes. "Thank you."

You're such an adorable sap Jacobs...No wonder we fall for you each lifetime.

Even if you did shoot me but you did the right thing.

A giggle escaped him yet again at the new voice. When he had first heard Mason's voice in this new land, he feared he'd be angry but he knew there was no bad blood between them. Well, that's what he was concluding based on the affectionate tone in the bandit's voice. "Sorry about that."

Eh. I did shoot a kid 'nd karma's a bitch or whatever.

Can we move on from this?

Yeah yeah, arrow boy. You still lost to a drunk.

God, was this what Technoblade felt like? Voices friendly bickering in his mind, communicating to him directly whenever they felt like it? Granted, Techno's voices lusted for blood and spammed memes along with telling him who to worry about while Karl's were voices of those he knew.

Shaking his head with a smile, he began to walk again, entertaining himself with the excited chatter of Robin, Jackie and the fishermen as the others bickered and made fun of each other.

Where was Ash? Karl had expected to hear him as well yet he wasn't there. He could hear Zachary telling him to enter the castle before him but where was the second one?

No answer came to his brief reflection. All he could hear were different conversations, including Sapnap's counterparts squabble over who was better.

Humming softly, he decided to listen to Zachary's request, letting the discussions wash over him. He wondered if the voices would follow him back home.

The castle was dark, lit up with torches but this dark was welcoming. Idly, he looked around, pausing as he recognised a familiar glimmer.

This one is safe Karl. Trust me.

At least Zachary was speaking to him and not arguing with the others. It was easier to focus on the hoodie-clad teen's voice if he was speaking to him directly instead of being in a group.

With a sigh, he decided to trust him. After all, what motive did he have not to give the teen some of his trust?

Wandering up the stairs, he did his best to focus on the excited mumblings of the architecture to settle his nerves. Even if Sir Billiam was acting somewhat like a snob.

"Alright. Can you all shut up for a second? I need to read the damn book." Despite the order, Karl couldn't help but beam at the replies, flushing ever so lightly as Rash complimented him before shutting up.

Welcome to The Other Side

You're home now.

Let's explore more soon.

"The Other Side?"

What like hell or something?

Well...We are dead...I think?

Not all of us dipshit.

"Alright alright. Some of you are dead, others are not. As for the name, I dunno if this is The Other Side as in death or something else..." With a sigh, Karl closed the book, setting it back down before picking up the flower that had been overseeing it.

He smiled softly as he descended the staircase again, free hand tracing the bannister. "I for one, think this is a better place than The Inbetween...It feels safer."

Allowing his senses to guide him, he idly considered the room. Even without understanding the land, he understood where he was going. After all, his instincts never abandoned him when it came to returning home.

Soft light appeared in his vision, prompting a lazy grin to spread across his features. A few more steps and he'd be in his library, ready to record everything down before he could go to bed.

Halting in front of the green and purple portal that swirled near him, he let out a hum. "Dunno if I'll be able to hear you all once I cross through this but if not, goodbye for now."

Idly tuning out the other's acknowledgments, he glanced down at the flower in his hand before tucking it behind his ear, pure white standing out proudly next to brunette curls.

A white tulip. Forgiveness, respect, purity and honour.

Maybe I should do some gardening when I get the chance.

#Karl Jacobs #DreamSMP #The Inbetween #The Other Side #Tales from the smp #Apollo's shitty writing