#I've almost finished my 100% playthrough

[chelsiegeorgia]

I then spend the next half hour levelling him up 

#I love when you stop moving and all the koco you've collected just materialise around you #sonic the hedgehog #sonic frontiers #sonic frontiers spoilers #sonic #seriously why does it take elder koco so long to level you up #i just wanna go faster old man! #I've almost finished my 100% playthrough #just gotta get one more achievement #get phantom rush 50 times #this is the first sonic game I've ever S ranked every level #I'm so proud #just gotta get through bullet hell then I'm home free #art #fanart #doodles

[zarrocktumbles]

Feeling really emotional about Hades at the minute ☹️

#gotten really back into it recently and I'm reaching the point where I've almost 100% completed the game and done everything there is to do #currently trying to do 32 heat with all weapons and it's so hard with the sword #and I'm frustrated at my lack of skill that I'm losing to the final boss over and over #but equally once i finish this I'm kinda done? #there's some tiny things to mop up like a couple of loyalty cards and filling the mirror #but then unless i want to grind out all the titles there's nothing left #and it's got me thinking about all the things i love about this game and all it's lovely little touches #the first time you beat a run and walk through Greece #all the hundreds of hours of conversations #one that's really sticking in my mind is Hades wearily saying “Charon take me home” #it's such a sad soft moment to me #the silver lining of almost being completely finished though is that i guess i could start again? #I've put hundreds of hours into this one playthrough without ever really having another go at a fresh start with all I've learned #anyway this was my rant #if anyone would like to gush about Hades today then you know where my inbox is

[misty79]

Stardew Valley Basic Mods Guide

I’ve been playing a lot of stardew valley because 1.6 is dropping soon and I’ve never done a Joja run before, wanted to see it before there were any potential changes. Anyways since I’ve been playing modded and while looking for new mods I realized it’s kinda overwhelming to find ones I like, so here’s some I recommend.

First off How To Mod Stardew Valley its much easier than it sounds. Every mod requires SMAPI or Stardew Moding API, Follow that link or go to nexus mods and search SMAPI then do manual download, slow download, then unzip the zip folder into your stardew mods folder (i recommend pining this to quick access), then follow the instructions in the installer and your all set, just add any mods to that mod folder, unziped, and your all set. Trouble shooting Guide on the stardew wiki or linked in the description on the nexus page.

Note, there are other ways to download mods that aren't through nexus, but nexus is the most simple in my opinion and has the most mods on it.

UI info suit, if you’re watched any modded playthrough you’ve seen this one. It adds icons under the mini calendar on the top right showing your daily luck, if the traveling merchant is there, if it’s someone’s birthday, if Queen Of Sauce is on, how long machines or crops take to finish, and so many other things you can check out on the nexus page

To-Dew, the name explains it pretty well, it is a to-do list that you can add things to and they show up in the top left corner. These can be daily, seasonal, a certain day of the week, certain week of the season, one day of the season, raining/not raining on farm/island, you can add headings if you have a lot on the list. It is one of the most useful mods I've found.

Convenient Inventory, sorts items from your inventory to nearby chests, you can also favorite items so they are not sorted out of your inventory

Generic Mod Config Menu, This mod allows you to change settings on almost any mod added while in the game from the bottom of the game settings page.

Visible Fish, Another super popular mod for almost any playthrough you could find, adds catchable fish to waters and optionally trash.

Dynamic reflections, Adds reflections to the water, puddles after rainy days, stars in the water at night

See NPC Map locations, Just what it sounds like, shows NPC locations on the map

Stardew Notification, adds more notifications for machines, cave harvests, morning silo report, next day weather, birthdays and more

CJB Show item sell price

Seasonal Outfits

Dynamic night times, adds transition skylines between day and night

Part of the Community, when you talk to or gift villagers if others are near they also gain friendship

Skillful clothes, Adds skill increase to clothes based on what they are, ex farmers pants +1 farming, sailor top +1 fishing

Cat Gifts, your cat will occasionally leave gifts for you

Happy Birthday, Adds your birthday to the game, on your birthday villagers will gift you when talked to

I have over 100 mods downloaded so there's more I can talk about but these are my favorites and don't change the game too much.

#stardew valley #stardew mods #smapi #nexus mods #stardew mods troubleshooting

[tempkiriri]

Hero's Day 90% done

Just finished all stories. Still a few choices till Max score in the Climax route and am missing a CG (I presume there's one related to Max score for everyone).

Also, finally achieved something: I snagged a sneaky Origami! My Mikire count has finally gone up! I've seen several, but usually wasn't fast enough to react (often bc I moved away from the PPSSPP tab to type or share something and then he popped up, couldn't click back in and then use the analog controls fast enough). But as I was occasionally capping the credits, I was surprised to see him show up! Prior to this, I'd only seen him in menus, so wasn't expecting him in the credits. When I reacted, he shouted "Shaaaaaaa! Mikireta..." Which is also his voice line for his loading screen dialogue.

I don't think the Mikire counter does anything, however, just a "see how many you can get" counter. At least, I can't find anything on if it does anything or not...

If you're curious abt the game and want to play it yourself? Well, obviously you need a PSP to play it on as it's a PSP game, and then you need the game disc, which you can probably find on japanese flea markets (don't worry, the PSP is region free). You have to unlock everything by playing through it, as there's no currently known cheats to just hack in certain levels of completion. Would be cool if you could load up into a state where almost everything is done for you tho, huh?

Ok no jokes for this one: As the walkthrough wiki isn't 100% complete or even entirely accurate (it IS accurate in what endings you get, but inaccurate in that some steps might be unnecessary. Antonio's first option doesn't actually matter for his blue ending, for example), I went ahead and made a notepad txt file guide for all the battle sections and elaborated on Nathan's route a bit. The save files ZIP has this txt file in it as a bonus as well so no need to download both.

That'll be it for the moment. None of the files are at 100% completion. One has finished 7/8 hero stories, another was my main documenting/playthrough file and this version of the file has the climax unlocked, mainly so the gallery doesn't have climax spoilers in it if you wanna go snooping around there before playing the story. And then two others were made to document stuff I missed in the other two files. When I truly 100% the game (barring some glitches that prevent certain things from getting properly unlocked, mainly Kotetsu's 13th eyecatch that's the same as Barnaby's 13th, and a third version of one specific BG), I'll upload that in a zip as well.

#tiger and bunny #tiger & bunny #hero's day #tiger & bunny hero's day #save file #psp game #ppsspp

[zayalive]

A Long Time

it has been a while since i've updated my blog. from where i left off, i still had to complete the red dead redemption ii story as well as finish that 100% grind. since then i have not only done both of those, but i have gotten all the achievements for red dead online as well. i honestly enjoyed most of the online experience besides the hackers. it took a grand total of 263 hours to get all the achievements in the game. it was definitely a grind, but i haven't experienced a 100% that wasn't a grind at least somewhat.

after red dead redemption ii, i wanted to check out max payne, as i've heard so many good things about the series. remedy seems to make quality games, and i'm a big rockstar games fan (duh) so i thought it would be a perfect fit for me. i started max payne, and so far i'm liking it. the face models and death sounds are really funny to me though, but i look past it. so far i've enjoyed the narrative, and aesthetics the game offers. i am hoping to finish my playthrough in the near future. i will say i'm either bad or the game is pretty difficult.

beyond this, i had set out to finish up getting all of the grand theft auto iv achievements. as of writing, i have just gotten them all. every time i go back to the base game, it's such a treat. easily one of my favorite games ever.

these shots are from my time finishing up the ballad of gay tony achievements but i just love how orange this game can be.

my ultimate goal for gaming in 2024 is to play/replay all the rockstar games titles in preparation for grand theft auto vi. i cannot express how excited i am for this game. just a day or so ago, jason schreier reported that rockstar are forcing employees to go back to the office for five days a week as they are entering the final stages of the game's production. my heart goes out to the developers on this one, but i can't help but be a little giddy. it's been such a long road (hehe) to this game, and we're finally almost there. trailer 1 felt so surreal to me, everything looked amazing. my favorite parts were the ped density, the motel scene, and then the store robbery scene that ended the trailer.

that just about sums up my gaming adventures over the course of the month i've been absent, it's been fun!

#rockstar games #100% completion #red dead redemption 2 #grand theft auto #gta #rdr2 #gta 4 #gta iv #grand theft auto 4 #grand theft auto iv #achievements #pc games #gaming #gaming photography

[jessjustplay]

I finished playing Final Fantasy X (again)

October 22, 2023

Game: Final Fantasy X HD Remaster First Time/Replaying: Replaying Game Time: 40 hours Console: Nintendo Switch Started: December 5, 2022 Finished: October 21, 2023

I finished this game last year in February, but some time in December I got an itch to play it again. At the time of my initial replay, I didn't have a TV so I played the entire thing on my tiny Switch screen. Now that I had somewhere to dock the Switch to, I wanted to re-experience the story again on a big TV!

So yes, I started Final Fantasy X back in December 2022 and it's taken me almost a year to finish it. In my defense, I have been playing a lot of other games! FFX was sort of just a back-burner, in-between-playthroughs type of game.

However, a few days ago I picked it up and could not put it down. Once you get past a particular area (that blasts an annoying announcement on-repeat the ENTIRE time), the game is very fun and picks up speed as the story unravels. I also decided I wasn't going to "do everything" which threw out a lot of that anxiety.

I have a PS4 now, so I thought, "If I'm going to 'do everything' I might as well go for a Platinum trophy!" I'm glad the Switch doesn't have a trophy system because it lets you enjoy the games without worrying about marking tasks off a list, but with how annoying FFX's side-quests are, if you're going to put yourself through that pain, you might as well get some sort of accolade!

I have no idea when I will start my Platinum attempt, but I really would like to try one day. I've played this game SO many times sinc eI was a kid - why not? People on Instagram telling me I should go for an easier Platinum trophy not only annoys me, but also makes me want to do it even more.

SPOILERS START HERE

Anyways, the endgame of this playthrough was really exciting! I told myself I wouldn't be getting an extra aeons or any of the ultimate weapons, so it was nice just walking around, leveling up, and going into boss fight after boss fight.

Normally, I would have Yuna's ultimate weapon and her Break Damage Limit would save the day! But this time I didn't have that and I relied HEAVILY on Bahamut to save our skins.

Seymour #2 took me two attempts, the Zanarkand Guardian was one attempt, the Zanarkand Trials Glyph Monster Dude took me 3 or 4 tries, Yunalesca was one attempt (!), Seymour #3 was one attempt (!!), and Braska's Final Aeon was ALSO one attempt (!!!).

I was surprised I was able to do do the final leg of the endgame in one attempt without dying. Not to mention, whie fighting Braska's Final Aeon, he petrified Wakka and that man disappeared! I was tempted to restart the game but then I thought, "It's not like I'm getting any EXP from this fight!" So I BEAT THE GAME WITH TWO CHARACTERS ONLY. At one point, Lulu and Yuna had less than 200 HP and I was freaking out!

What saving me was summoning Bahamut once, getting LUCKY AF that he didn't die, dismissing him, then using Yuna's overdrive to summon him again. I also used Auron to zombie Jecht and that helped for awhile, and I used Tidus's talk command once and that 100% saved Lulu and Yuna from dying. *THANK GOD*

Here are my final stats:

While I was more critical of the game this time around (more on that in another post), I still enjoyed this game and it will always be special to me! It's interesting though, I used to cry a lot watching the ending of this game, but this time I didn't. It's official - I'm old lol

When you're young, losing the person you "love" seems like the end of the world, but as you get older you learn people come and go. Yuna, you are 17. You will find someone new!!!

I did, however, cry during that one scene watching Yuna's sphere of messages (after beating the Zanarkand guardian boss). IT IS SO SAD!!! 😭 I felt my throat closing up watching that (specifically the Kimahri part). KIMAHRI, YOU'RE THE BEST! I need to write a Kimahri appreciation post.

#final fantasy x #final fantasy #finished

[claristhegirl]

Finished Path of Radiance Hard Mode last night, with less than an hour to spare before the year ended!

This was my second playthrough of the game, with the first being well over a decade ago. Was pretty fun to play it again! Various thoughts:

Wow, the game was easy. I wasn't expecting just how easy the game would be overall even on Hard Mode. Of course, this isn't the actual highest difficulty, and I do plan on playing Maniac at some point, despite the... not great things I've heard about Maniac.

Planning for Radiant Dawn transfers was an interesting twist, necessitating that I try to use everyone more equally instead of favoriting specific units too much (characters who reach max level get bonuses in RD for each capped stat in PoR). It felt kinda awkward being unable to use my best units much near the end, though. (Congrats Ike on getting Ragnell! Time for you to barely face combat anymore.)

I played on Fixed Growths mode. It was a cool thing to try out once, and was nice how it made planning my RD Transfers easier, but I definitely feel like I prefer Random Growths for casual play. It's just not the same without the randomness, lol. Also wasn't the biggest fan of how overly complicated "fixed" growths is in this game, with the equipped weapon and enemy classes having an effect, and how it's possible to abuse the "growth points" system with tiny exp increments.

The bonus experience system is pretty cool, giving meaningful reason to finish chapters quickly for once.

...On the other hand, the game is so easy that I barely actually used all that bonus experience I was getting, instead saving most of it until the very end to help get everyone to Level 20 for RD Transfers.

...Same with statboosters. I used my Angelic Robes early on on my Flier Girls, but otherwise saved them all for the end to cap stats for RD transfers.

...Same with Skills. Most Skill Scrolls ended up unused by the end, thanks to them never really being necessary. Notable exception for Aether and endgame Wrath/Resolve on Ike, of course.

Biorhythm is annoying.

Overall really enjoyed it despite the lack of difficulty. Gonna be starting Radiant Dawn Hard with transfers from this PoR save tomorrow! It's definitely not at all awkward how the difficulty names in the localizations between PoR and RD don't actually line up with each other.

Character and chapter info:

Only including characters I got to level 20/20 for RD transfers.

Jill (120 Wins) Transfers: HP, Strength, Skill, Speed, Defense, S Axes, A Lances, Mist A Statboosters: 2 Angelic Robe, 1 Speedwing, 2 Dracoshield Congrats Jill on being #1 Girl! The top 3 units were all surprising close in general actually. Jill definitely got some transfer favoritism here lol, totally worth it.

Marcia (117 Wins) Transfers: Strength, Skill, Speed, S Lances, Tanith A Statboosters: 1 Angelic Robe Girl!

Ike (115 Wins) Transfers: Strength, Skill, Speed, Defense, S Swords, Soren A Statboosters: Some unneeded extras I had at the end …I did have to cheat a bit to get him to cap Defense, by doing some fixed growth bonus exp manip (giving him 1 exp at a time). He would've come super close but not quite there otherwise.

Mia (100 Wins) Transfers: Strength, Skill, Speed, S Swords, Ilyana A Mia's a character I stuck with just because I really like her, even though her damage output was consistently disappointing for the entire game.

Nephenee (95 Wins) Transfers: Strength, Skill, Speed, S Lances, Calill A Statboosters: 1 Energy Drop I gave her Vantage/Wrath because lol. Given I avoided actually letting her get below half HP as much as I could I didn't get much use out of it, but it was cool when it did go off.

Soren (84 Wins) Transfers: Magic, Skill, Resistance, A Wind, B Staves, Ike A I'm surprised his Win count is so high, given his usual lack of an Enemy Phase, and that he stuck almost exclusively to Staves near the end to avoid stealing experience from others.

Astrid (72 Wins) Transfers: Skill, Speed, A Bows She suffered from being too good near the end; I outright stopped deploying her, since she was already close to the level cap so all she would do is steal experience. :(

Ilyana (55 Wins) Transfers: Magic, Skill, Resistance, A Thunder, B Staves, Mia A Statboosters: 2x Spirit Dust I wasted a couple levels of Bonus Exp on her, because I severely underestimated just how much staff experience she would get. Fortunately didn't matter in the end.

Tanith (41 Wins) Transfers: Strength, Skill, Speed, S Lances, A Swords, Marcia A Statboosters: 1x Energy Drop, 1x Secret Book I deployed her almost every chapter since she joined, but she starts at such a high level that she barely actually did anything until the final 3 chapters. Never used her Reinforcement skill either, for the same "not stealing experience" reason.

Geoffrey (8 Wins) Transfers: Speed, Skill, A Lances, C Bows Statboosters: 2x Secret Book, 1x Speedwing I barely used him, but he got to join the Transfer Squad thanks to Paragon making that easy for him, and the needed statboosters not being helpful for anyone else.

Mist (7 Wins) Transfers: Magic, Speed, S Staves, Jill A Statboosters: 1x Speedwing Girl. She came 1 point short of maxing Resistance with 2x Talismans that I wasn't using for anything else… Kinda disappointing but oh well. Was pretty fun to spam the Ashera Staff (repaired with Hammerne) near the end for a full level each time!

Giffca (0 Wins) Transfers: Strength lol

Turn counts and chapter info:

Prologue Mercenaries (4 Turns / 0:06:08) Ch01 The Battle Begins (7 Turns / 0:20:37) Ch02 Rescue (7 Turns / 0:19:37) Ch03 Pirates Aground (6 Turns / 0:18:44) Ch04 Roadside Battle (9 Turns / 0:48:02) Ch05 Flight! (6 Turns / 0:44:28) Ch06 A Brief Diversion (9 Turns / 0:56:57) Ch07 Shades of Evil (11 Turns / 1:12:38) Ch08 Despair and Hope (8 Turns / 0:56:57) Ch09 Gallia (17 Turns / 1:33:19) Ch10 Prisoner Release (62 Turns / 2:10:45) As shown by the turn count, I went for the Stealth mission here. Did it full Maniac Mode style, having Brom/Keiran/Nephenee all escape as well. Was definitely a bit stressful, being afraid the whole time that I would make a stupid mistake that would cost me stealth lol.

Ch11 Blood Runs Red (8 Turns / 1:38:47) Ch12 A Strange Land (16 Turns / 1:44:14) Ch13 A Guiding Wind (10 Turns / 2:01:02) Ch14 Training (8 Turns / 1:19:29) Failed this once thanks to guessing that Makalov wouldn't move until you get in his range. I guessed wrong, and so he died.

Ch15 The Feral Frontier (13 Turns / 1:24:33) Trying to go Pacifist for the Bonus Exp AND getting all the hidden treasure just, didn't seem fun to bother with, so I gave up on the Pacifist mission here.

Ch16 The Atonement (17 Turns / 1:53:25) Shoutouts to Jill for double missing a 90% displayed/98.1% actual at one point! It didn't really matter as I had other units to attack with instead, but, lol 1/2770 chance.

Ch17 Day Breaks (34 Turns / 3:13:12) Ch18 Crimea Marches (17 Turns / 2:13:30) Failed this once due to not paying enough attention to a Siege tome and leaving Rolf in range of one, oops.

Ch19 Entrusted (7 Turns / 1:47:30) Ch20 Defending Talrega (7 Turns / 1:13:16) Ch21 Without a King (17 Turns / 2:09:33) Ch22 Solo (10 Turns / 1:45:41) Ch23 The Great Bridge (11 Turns / 2:28:15) Ch24 Battle Reunion (7 Turns / 1:26:12) Ch25 Strange Lands (5 Turns / 1:33:06) This was basically the only map to give me any trouble (i.e. take 3 or 4 tries), thanks to the boulders actually being able to kill/ballista I underestimated the range of/the boss having Resolve that I learned the fun way changes who can double mid-combat.

Ch26 Clash! (12 Turns / 2:17:40) Ch27 Moment of Fate (21 Turns / 4:20:09) Very bloated time here, partly thanks to spending a while in base casually planning out what to do for RD transfers. Fortunately managed to finish this chapter and beat the Black Knight first try! (Turn 5 Player Phase, only 1 Aether proc)

Ch28 Twisted Tower (17 Turns / 2:16:24) Endgame Repatriation (11 Turns / 1:51:39) lol Wrath/Resolve against Ashnard. Only real challenge this map was making sure everyone actually reached 20/20.

#fire emblem #por #path of radiance #finished playthrough

[tails-artwork]

Gaming Thoughts - July 2023 - Sonic Frontiers

(I'm looking at doing a sort of long-term project to hopefully slowly get my art back into the groove amidst some of my studying. Basically at the end of each month to do one really small doodle based one a game that I play during the month and also give my thoughts on the game as well. Some games may end up getting covered twice depending on how much I keep playing it or such too. But maybe it might serve as a way for me to get back into doing some fanart and keeping myself from getting too rusty)

Anyways, to kick this off, we're starting with a game that while I did end up starting it in June, I managed to finish it off in the first half of July. Which would happen to be Sonic Frontiers.

Nonetheless, I have been a bit of a Sonic fan ever since my first game being the old PC port of Sonic 3D Blast, but back then I really didn't play super long or seriously with games like I do now, thus in all technicality the first Sonic game that I had ever beaten was Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on the GCN. I think ever since then I ended up having a stronger bias towards some of the 3D sonic games as opposed to the 2D ones despite the huge variance in quality a lot of the games have had over time.

Anyways, the moment I started Frontiers, I swear I ended up getting drawn in VERY quickly. I honestly struggled really liking going back to any of the boost era games (Generations and Unleashed included, so go ahead and grab the pitchforks) and the fact that to me Sonic felt as smooth as I remember in Adventure and Heroes already helped me enjoy more of the game. And honestly i found it really easy to control for most of the game as well while exploring in the actual world.

The cyberspace zones were…well…despite the fact that some of the boost era games have just never fully clicked with me, I think those were not tooo bad. There is an obvious dissonance on how Sonic controlled in the open area and in the cyberspace levels though and thus he felt a lot more stiff in those. But…damm some of the level layouts did tickle my fancy so much (Even though I feel like they missed some potential with the music for some of them, but that is a different matter.)

Regardless, I don't think I've ever been THIS sucked into a Sonic game since Heroes though, and I definitely am looking forward to the final update with this game as well with the different playable characters. I've been itching for Tails to have been playable in a 3D sonic game since almost forever and I really hope it comes out well in the end. All in all, still ranks quite up there as being one of my fav Sonic games, though I don't think it has dethroned Heroes or SA2B quite yet. (also yes, in my playthrough of Frontiers, I absolutely HAD to use the SOAP shoes for Sonic as well)

Also, throwing this last part under the cut because final boss spoiler potential.

I played the game on hard mode and was able to get the final last true fight. I heard a lot of people complaining about it before because it was a complete genre shift from a majority of the game, but like..it did feel like the game was preparing you for it with some of the small minigames there were so it wasn't 100% left field. And well…having playing Ikargua as much as I had before, this final boss literately just felt like a stage of that so that might be why I had quite a lot of fun with it and didn't have a hard time with it either. Though speaking of which, for those who DID enjoy the final boss though or those similar minigames. This is 100% a shameless plug to go and give Ikargua a try as well. And Radiant Silvergun while you're at it too.

Also, Sage's development in the game was just dawww. I really loved her a lot and I hope she shows up in future games as well considering the last scene in the ending.

#Sonic Fronters #Sonic the Hedgehog #Sage #Sonic #My Art

[patchwork-crow-writes]

So, Majora's Mask Randomizer is almost go! I've inputted my settings, generated a seed (which didn't crash the program, yay!), ran a quick playtest, and everything seems to be in working order. It'll be interesting to see just how crazy this can get :P

Before I begin, I'd like to quickly go over some things: this will be a largely glitchless playthrough. I'm familiar with all the speedrunning tricks and glitches such as Hidden Owl, Bomb Hovering, Grotto Wrong Warp and Weirdshot, but the settings I have enabled don't require the use of these tricks. The main goal of this playthrough is to experience the game in a new way without breaking its physics over my knee... that may come later, but not right now!

I have not shuffled music or added my own custom music. The music of the game is very special to me, and while it'd be cool to have any of the thousands of midi tracks created specifically for this randomizer program, I adore the classic soundtrack too much. This will not affect any of you, but I'm saying it because... I dunno, actually. Just one of them things :P

I'm also not going for 100% completion, I'm just gunning for the quest essential items and beelining it for the finish line. This may sound boring, but wait until you see the settings I've picked.

Speaking of which...

All the items ticked on this list indicate which items are going to be shuffled. You'll see the standard settings, including Shop Items, the Base Item Pool, Stray Fairies and Skulltula Tokens. Then there's more unconventional settings, like Cow Milk (cows will give random items when you play Epona's song near them), Soft Soil (items that appear when bugs are put near soft soil are shuffled), and Mundane Rewards (the 50 rupee prizes for minigames, etc.).

Then there are what I like to call the absurd settings. Things like: Hidden Rupees (which are spots in the overworld where rupees will appear if you walk over/shoot them), Freestanding Rupees (which are rupees that are just chilling out in the world), Caught Bottle Contents (All bottle items are shuffled, so fish can be bugs, bugs can be spring water, and spring water can be Deku Princess), Crazy Starting Items (shuffles the starting sword, shield and two of your three heart containers, meaning you start with no weapons and one heart), and the ominous sounding "Everything Else", which... do I need to elaborate there? I don't think I do, lol :P

Additional settings I have elected to switch on:

Ice Trap Onslaught - all junk items are ice traps. Junk items include small rupees, ammo refills... stuff you wouldn't normally go out of your way to pick up. There are. A LOT of them.

Quad Damage - I take 4 times the damage from all damage sources. Including the aforementioned ice traps. And I start with one heart. (spoiler warning - I am going to die. A LOT.)

Shuffled Enemies - all enemies are shuffled. This can softlock the game in certain situations, so will be interesting to see how this affects my playthrough.

Random Shop and Minigame Prices - the prices for everything are randomised. A deku nut can cost anywhere from 10 rupees to 990 rupees. To compensate, there is a 999-rupee wallet that has been added to the game. Locating this will be a top priority.

Random floor types - floor can be any texture, including grass, sand and ice. Would have loved for lava to have been one of the options, for the culture... but it isn't. Sad.

Unique colours for each of Link's transformations. I won't spoil these here, but I have picked thematically appropriate hues for each form. Here's hoping they look good!!

So... yeah. This might all seem a bit crazy - and it is! - but I do have the spoiler log to hand, so if it comes down to it, I can peek at what I need to progress. Plus which, I'm really excited to discover all the secrets this game has to offer, and whether I'll learn anything new about interesting item interactions, or hidden rupees that I never knew existed. It's a journey of discovery! And ice traps. And hardship. But hey, nothing ventured, right?

So, uh, wish me luck I guess! XD

#long post #gaming #majora's mask #randomizer #halloween #oh lord what have I gotten myself into

[tatsuki-fujimotos-toe-beans]

Ok I just finished my 3rd run of bg3 and I think I'm done for a while atleast. I've been playing it like it's my full time job for like 2-3 weeks now forsaking all human contact pretty much and I think at this point I've squeezed as much content as I can be bothered for.

First run as what I'd say was normal for me, I played as a barbarian first and then swapped to wizard when I recruited karlach (which didnt happen until almost act 2 because I just kinda ignored wylls quest and honestly didnt realise I was missing a companion lol. Finished the game with my lesbian harem of karlach laezel and shadowheart

2nd run I went for a paladin build. This time I decided I was gonna be 100% good (as opposed to like 70% good) and so I took oath of the ancients. Managed to keep it for most of the run too but had to google some stuff and pay off the oathbreaker knight once. This time I also had laezel but I tried to include astarion more since people on tumblr keep frothing over him but he was still kinda meh for me until I looked up how to use rogues in combat. Unfortunately he still didn't like anything I did but atleast I found lockpicking a lot easier with his insane proficiencies.

3rd run I finally played durge and did the "resist" playthrough. This was def where my interest really started to fade because while durge adds a lot it's not like it's a whole new game or anything. The extra content was fun but a lot of times throughout this playthrough outside of the durge specific parts I felt like I was kinda doing chores. Like I'd sit down and be like ugh ok let's do this and this and this and I was kinda just numb to most of it. I think that helped in a way to make the more durge like decisions and being evil overall even tho I played a resist playthrough where I was basically as "good" as possible.

I have an idea for a 4th run where I go basically solo or with some hirelings ig and just go full dark urge. And ofc theres the companions stories themselves like playing as the characters. But I think I've kinda gotten so much out of this game that outside of the solo full durge run theres not gonna be a lot more content left. Main issue with replayability imo is the quality of life which makes the game absolutely miserable sometimes.

But yea now I'm hitting like the serious post game depression and I really want to find some other game to completely dedicate my life to but that's probably unhealthy lol

I think the best thing that came out of my bg3 experience was the complete lack of league of legends in the time I was playing it. Before bg3, even if I was playing other games I kinda came and went and played some league here and there in the middle of those games and in between games. This is honestly probably the longest I've ever gone without playing league since I started in 2018. And the thing that is stopping me from going back now is the fact that I had to get used to wasd controls for the camera in bg3 and I was absolutely dogshit at them and I still am now. But I tried playing an aram recently and tried to accidentally move my camera using wasd and kept automatically alt left clicking the bodies of the enemy champs as if they were gonna drop loot lmao. So yea I've lost a lot of my mechanics at league and honestly that's probably for the best for now.

Still kinda want an obsession to sink into but I'll resist the urge for now. I want to play titanfall 2 and armored core both so that's gonna be a bit of time. And uni stuff is probably gonna start soon and take up a bunch of my time so that's gonna be interesting for a bit. I'm somewhat trapped between doing the easy thing which is to become obsessed with something new and doing the hard thing which I want to do: aka live an normal and balanced life. Tough stuff.

#baldurs gate 3 #bg3

[studiomomo]

Breaking News art fiends!!!

Nova Star may be coming at the end of the month. I know I know. March is my hard reset deadline and it's still a maybe. Redrawing panels is so much harder than you'd think. I'm working on finishing the first four pages before the end of the month, so keep an eye out for them. I've also cleared the Nova Star comic gallery to make room for the new pages without it getting repetitive. The old pages are now in the WiP gallery. As a reminder, the pages will not be restructured to scroll format until after the first book is completed. This means it will be exclusively on Ko‑fi and Tumblr for most of 2023.

In streaming news, I have finished Kirby and I restarted Spiritfarer. I will be playing through on Saturdays at a much slower pace than the first playthrough. I will be attempting to 100% this save file. Feel free to help me ferry spirits. 

505 Games has reached out and offered me early access to the console version of Unheard: Voices of Crime. We will be playing through the game during the 12 hour stream and there will even be a giveaway for the Steam version of the game! The March 12 hour stream will be the 17th at 6 pm EST. As always, the goal for the cosplay stream will be visible. If we hit the goal on stream, I guess I'll be getting bunny ears.

p.s. I stream every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 9 pm EST.

Nova Star is almost back!

#artist update #stream graphic #stream schedule #black streamer #Nova Star comic

[lordfrezon]

It’s 2023

I played video games and became a Dr. last year.

Let’s go over that first one.

Here’s a list of (most) of the video games I played this year, in a semblance of order of how much I think they’re good. Order subjective and up to change. But enjoy.

1. This position was up in the air for a while. Both games 1 & 2 could switch in a week, but at the time of writing, my favorite game I played this year has to be Elden Ring.

Elden Ring is a triumph of everything that makes video games great. Alternative story telling. Beautiful environments. Great music. And an open style of gameplay that allows and rewards experimentation. A triumph of a game by FromSoft and likely their best game ever made.

It's not perfect; the difficulty swings wildly, and like Breath of the Wild before it so much of the thrill is in the discovery that repeat playthroughs really lose a lot. But this truly is the current pinnacle of open world video games.

2. Just and this next game is honored to share it's spot next to Elden Ring, Elden Ring is equally as honored to be next to my number 2 game, Vampire Survivors. A game that is custom made to deliver serotonin directly into your brain. All the excitement of a slot machine with none of the predation. A game that proves greatness doesn't need a high cost, or great visuals, or the soundtrack of the year, just the ability to allow it's players to go nuts and have fun. To reduce the buttons to 5, to take away so much "agency" so players can focus on the decisions that matter. The DLC almost pushed this ahead of Elden Ring. And make no mistake, I will play (and have played) this game more than I will ever play Elden Ring. There is just so much that you can do.

3. I wanted to wait to write this list until I finished a particular game, thinking it might make the list. And at the #3 spot, Ultrakill delivers. Like DOOM Eternal on amphetamines, Ultrakill is a relentless, hardcore, high intensity experience where the only thing standing between you can getting destroyed is the fresh blood of your enemies. This isn’t an easy game, it’s punishing at times, but hot damn is it fun and it is still in early access. Can’t wait for Part 3: Godfist Suicide. Like come on.

4. Is it cheating to have an 18 year old game on my games of the year list? Maybe, but I first played Ace Combat 5 this year, so it makes the list at the #4 spot. Because it's insane. I've got a full review of this one but suffice it to say Ace Combat 4, 5, and Zero are probably the best trilogy of games ever.

5. At number 5, we have Sucker for Love: First Date, which while not the scariest game I played this year (thanks Anatomy! ) was way more unnerving than the silly concept of dating lovecraftian monsters seemed at first blush. Guess that as long as Lovecraft himself ain't writing, eldritch stuff is just real good.

6. Prey rounds out the top 6, an immersive sim that is great fun for 15 hours, and kinda plodding for 5 more but still a time I'd recommend. Full review for this one exists elsewhere too.

7. Procession to Calvary comes in at 7. While not high art (unlike what it's spoofing), the game is silly enough and a decent enough puzzle game that I can recommend it without many caveats. You're a "noble" knight on her quest to kill the heathens when you get told, hey, the war is over and you can't kill anyone anymore. Naturally, this upsets you, but you do get a chance to kill once more, with the enemy leader still being alive and all. So you hunt him down to get your last hurrah of murder in. It's not perfect, but it has enough charm for it's short runtime so deserving of a recommend.

Interlude: I played a bunch of things that I’ve previously beaten/written about in years past, so just gonna list some of those off.

Project Wingman: Still great, still fun. 100% recommend.

Katana Zero: See above, this is one of the best games of the past decade for sure.

Hollow Knight: I replayed the bangers this year, what can I say.

Ace Combat 4: yep more bangers.

Metal Gear Rising: eventually I’ll stop listing off contenders for top games ever made.

The Stanley Parable (ultra deluxe): but that time’s not now. Also this one is technically new and actually well worth it even if you played the original.

Bloodborne: another all-time GOAT.

Path of Exile: This one was real weird. It started off fantastic with the first two leagues, but Lake of Kalandra was turbo ass and had me uninstalling the game. Current league is back up to par, and am having fun, but the future of the game is kinda shakey.

League of Legends: Game is still garbage, but friends still want to play.

Dead by Daylight: Ditto.

End Interlude

Now for a list of stuff that doesn’t make the top 7, an arbitrary cutoff point.

Anatomy: Among the scariest video games I have ever interacted with. It's fucked.

Last Epoch: When PoE was crap, I played this. It’s... fine. There’s not much egregiously wrong with it (except the current final boss lol). It’s less diverse than PoE though so that’s something. But still, fine.

Neon White: I didn’t finish, but I had some fun with this one. Then it started hitting the wrong parts of my brain. Ya know, the ones focused on perfectionism and frustration. So put it aside. But the game is pretty cool.

Hypnospace Outlaw: Best wish fulfillment game ever, I played for 2 hours, realized my in-game boss was an abusive asshat, and I decided the most in character thing to do was quit my job and uninstalled the game. 10/10.

Halo 1: I had never played the original Halo. Probably should have kept it that way because it’s... not great.

Deep Rock Galactic: This is a game that’s pretty good if you want to do something repetitive. But I have a lot of things that do that, and this wasn’t the best of those.

Risk of Rain 2: This one was too much for me, godspeed if you like it.

Ace Combat 7: This game sucks. Except for the DLC. Which just shows how much the rest sucks.

Have a bunch of things I’ve started but not finished (and do intend to finish), but this wraps up all the stuff I can think of for now. Video games good.

#video game review #frezon does a game review #year in review #vampire survivors #elden ring

[thelightfluxtastic]

Similarities between Inscryption and Wandersong

I've been thinking about common threads between video games I like.

Take, as an example and contrast, my gf. She values the challenge. She plays games like Celeste and the Metroid series (with sequence breaking), games that require practice and precision and timing and skill. She doesn't enjoy games that can't be learned or mastered consistently/completely (e.g. procedurally generated). I love watching her play, because it's engaging to observe mastery, and because it allows me to experience games that I know would be frustrating and tiring for me to play.

I play games that are the exact opposite. A lot of games I own are point-and-click mysteries, like Detective Grimoire. One might have to randomly click objects to find the important clue or action, but there's not really a fail state. If you're playing Darkside Detective, it's because the characters are charming and funny and the story is interesting, not for the challenge of the minigame puzzles or some sort of skill demonstration. I also like narrative games, like Chicory or Strange Horticulture.

My absolute favorite game is Wandersong, which is almost laughably forgiving. It is literally impossible to get a sad ending on one's first playthrough. Fell off a cliff? No problem, the game will just pop you right back where you were. Missed some notes? That's ok, the game will progress if you got most of them.

Which is why I was surprised that, after finishing Inscryption, I found myself feeling the games were fundamentally similar. The aesthetics are complete opposites, of course. Wandersong is light and bright and soft and colorful; Inscryption is haunted and creepy and visceral. And yet, both games have an experience they want the player to go through/feel, and will tailor gameplay to do so.

Despite it's spooky appearance, unmodded Inscryption is deceptively forgiving. Death cards at the end of every run make subsequent runs easier. Certain game tools (the ouroboros, extra candle, squirrel totem, and making a broken card with Golly) make you feel like you're cheating but are 100% intended play. I haven't experienced this myself, but apparently if you just keep playing Leshy and refuse to explore the cabin he will get bored and quiet and sullen, because you're supposed to get to the rest of the game. Inscryption, like Wandersong, will unobtrusively give even the most unskilled player handholds to eventually get through the intended story.

This is true in other Daniel Mullins games too. You might not find every secret (all coins, vending machines, secret endings) in the Hex, but that's about as far as player freedom goes. You can't not punch Cooking Granny. You can't not use Vallamir's book.

It in general makes me think of video game experiences as falling on a spectrum. Some are more novel-like (or movie like): there is an intended story experience that the player is led through via gameplay. Others (e.g. Minecraft) are more toy-like: like a ball, sandbox, or action figure, they are meant for the player to do whatever the heck they want to with. ("Toy" here is used descriptively, not derogatorily). Of course, many fall between. Neither end of the spectrum is better or worse, it's just another aspect of video games, like genre or art style. Personally, my tastes are rooted firmly in the "novel" camp. I like games with narratives and clear start and end points, where I can have a complete, specific experience. And even that covers an incredibly wide range of games.

#inscryption #wandersong #video games #spoilers #daniel mullins games #mine

[retphienix]

I'm not sure if I should make this the finale post or not to be honest because I plan on playing some of the DLCs soon, so I'll make this a 'light' finale post because I'm sure I've said more than enough through my playthrough.

Morrowind genuinely surprised me. I heard all the oldguard TES fans saying it's way different and some claiming it was miles better.

Specifically I remember when Oblivion came out I heard from somewhere that Oblivion was just "dumbed down Morrowind" and kid me was like "What the heck are you talking about, Oblivion is the best game in the world (right now)???"

But man, they weren't wrong, but that's hardly what I'd point at in Morrowind in comparison.

Then again my memory of Oblivion is all rose tinted nostalgia and half memories.

What Morrowind is to me today is a fantastic fantasy game with some really interesting lore, a villain I love, a world that feels alien, troubled, imperfect and intriguing, and a gameplay cycle that felt really satisfying to me from the very start to roughly level 20 or so.

I REALLY like how pitiful and overwhelmed I felt at the start of this game- it felt fucking awesome to me and I know for some that's a weird statement and others it's the most obvious thing in the world but man is it true.

Level 1 in Morrowind as a newbie who doesn't know up from down is like waking up in the woods naked with the sound of hungry wolves all around you.

It's brutal, and exciting- every little victory- a potion, a new dagger, a new piece of armor- feels like the world to you.

I LOVED the early game in Morrowind, more than I ever liked it in Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout NV, Skyrim, or Fallout 4 (yeah I'm looping the bethesda engine NV in).

Because I constantly felt like I was punching up at a behemoth but I was getting away with it from time to time until I started to feel more on par with the behemoth, and eventually I overcame and hit end game and really became the behemoth and that was fun in its own right.

But I've been "mega end game god" in like 900 dang games at this point, it's always fun! And feeling like I earned it (like here) makes it feel better! But the journey often beats it and Morrowind's journey was so fun to me.

But yeah, beat the main quest. I did a lot in this game, and barely scratched the surface.

Beating it immediately made me think of how fun it would be to challenge myself to beat it- or another objective- right from the start without dumping hundreds of hours into leveling because that early game is a treat.

About the only things I didn't fully love were most of the quest designs showing their age.

Nothing super egregious, but there really was a lot of extremely simple "fetch thing" "Kill thing" "Walk to place" quests that didn't hold additional story value to make up for it.

Not to say simple is bad, but to say having a LOT of my playtime being killing various creatures for no real story reason beyond being asked to makes some actions feel pointless and like busy-work.

There were also quests that DID tie story in, which was really nice to see- things like inter-guild relations becoming a thing for some quests, or some quests having consequences further down the quest chain depending on how you completed it, and of course (as implied) some quests having multiple solutions with some of those solutions being interesting in how you find out about them.

I mean I think it's really neat how the fighter's guild has like 4 quest givers and if you blindly follow them you'll be doing all kinds of questionable stuff with questionable end goals, but if you talk to each of them you'll find that one of them is much more trustworthy and honorable than the rest, and it becomes a common loop to be sent on a quest for the FG and swing by him to ask if the quest sounds legit- AND MANY AREN'T! AND HE OFFERS ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS! THAT'S COOL AND LET'S YOU MAKE THE MISTAKE OF BEING TOO LOYAL AND FORGETTING YOUR MORALS BECAUSE YOU ARE "JUST PLAYING A GAME" BUT REWARDS YOU FOR QUESTIONING THAT LOYALTY AND SEEKING ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS! THAT'S AWESOME! Though the solution almost always being "just talk to the good guy before you do the quest" was slightly lacking, but such a cool idea.

But there wasn't a ton of this, but there also wasn't not a lot of this- it was an idea they clearly considered playing with and did when they could- I just wish there were both more and that it was used more on the menial tasks you're asked to do as well. I'm a sucker for multiple solutions is all, and consequences appearing later and altering how events play out or quests line up is always cool and I think it only happens a couple times in some guild quests if I'm not mistaken-

But again, I didn't do much in the grand scheme of things lol.

A TON of time invested and still, a metric fuckton to do including 100% of both expansions lol.

So- Morrowind. I really like this game :)

I think it's my favorite TES game, though I might change my mind whenever I revisit TES4, but I can at least say it's my favorite early game BY FAR and PROBABLY my favorite TES game.

I wonder if I can get buff enough to kill Dagoth Ur with like potion abuse. I haven't looked into it, all I know about him (and I knew before this gameplay also, I was just attacking out of curiosity) is that phase 2 rapidly regens health at like 2 billion a second or something, so you have to one shot him if at all possible.

Also I knew that he was supposed to be weaker depending on how many ash vampires you killed, but that that wasn't properly implemented (and I don't think the morrowind code patch bothers fixing it?).

Anywho- great game. I've been playing a lot of good games lately now that I think of it. I mean most of this blog is me playing good games, but I feel like, and I could be mistaken, but I feel like there was a stint there where I was playing "complicated" games and "games I don't enjoy but want to see the merit of so I'm being a sourpuss while I play".

Now I feel like the last 10 dang games were strictly good and or great. Can't say that's a bad thing :)

If you haven't ever played Morrowind before but you're familiar with say Skyrim, I'd honestly say give it a look. A look first- because it's a thick game to begin and you might be able to discern it's not for you based off a look- but a look none the less.

It's Skyrim with more RPG nonsense going on and a more brutal "rags to riches" hero story for your protag. Might be up your alley as much as it ended up being up mine :)

So up next is EITHER an entirely different game with some ocassional Morrowind posts as I touch on the expansions, or more direct Morrowind content as I emphasize the expansions until I finish them, but I'm leaning towards the former.

I think beating the main quest has earned Vaksten the Idiot a short break.

#RetPlays #Morrowind #TES #The Elder Scrolls #Also maybe I should make a new character for the expansions so I'm not OP but I dunno #might just crank the difficulty to max instead of leaving it unaltered and say that's good enough :P #Youtube

[wygolvillage]

I'VE FINALLY DONE IT!!! nice to finally see that sunrise after so long. for those who dont know, i wasnt able to finish my first playthrough of cotm due to my ds lite's L and R buttons refusing to work... so its nice to finally settle the score almost a year later lol

BUT THATS NOT ALL FOLKS!!! i stuck to my word and got 100% (both map and cards). i was planning on finishing tomorrow but i figured i may as well bite the bullet and get it over with. and honestly the arena wasnt nearly as hard as it was hyped up to be (having like 80 spiced meats and being overlevelled definitely helps though lol). thank god for the rewind feature making the random drops a lot less tedious

aaand here's the file :)

with that, i've finally 100% completed every gba castlevania game! (and every metroidvania in the series except dos)

[hollow-prey]

TPL Playthrough part 10: the last 5%

Good news: I went back to Snowy and got the remaining cells, and got the last few orbs in Spider Cave. I'm missing 3 orbs on Snowy but I don't care right now. I also made it through Lava Tube and am now in Gol and Maia's Citadel

Bad News: Gol and Maia's Citadel is a damn nightmare

Lava Tube was frustrating me with the narrow- rails- over- open- lava bit, because for a vehicle- and a level- that requires precise maneuvering, the zoomer is very, very difficult to control for precise maneuvering. Or maybe that's just me panicking and overcorrecting my steering and therefore getting myself killed multiple times in a row. Or both. Either way I wasn't able to get all the orbs/ scout flies in LT, and by the time I got through the section I wasn't in the mood to go back for them. But I will say, Lava Tube gets bonus points for having checkpoints so that once you reach a certain part, you don't have to start all the way at the beginning each time you die.

Gol and Maia's Citadel makes me want to cause chaos. Specifically one part of trying to navigate those rotating wedge platforms. I can't tell you how many times I've fallen off of them. I detest those wedge platforms. Infuriating. I was getting so frustrated that I started mentally ranting about the citadel's construction. I mean, unsteady flooring, gaps in the flooring, dangerous machinery in the way of certain footpaths, really most of the place doesn't even HAVE flooring, it's all open death pits; sure Gol and Maia can fly apparently, but bro you should still have reliable flooring!! My headspace really started to devolve into the "Smash Bros. owes millions of dollars in OSHA violations" Unraveled episode

I freed 2 of the 4 sages and then made myself stop for the day (because I was struggling so much with the rotating wedges and rapidly taking psychic damage each time I died). The adventure will continue eventually when I once again have some spare time between school and work.

What truly haunts me is the fact that this game is easy. Yes, some sections are more difficult and tricky to navigate, and it does get harder as you progress, but overall it's not terribly, miserably difficult. It was designed so kids could still beat it. Plenty of people have completed this game 100% multiple times, and others are good enough at the cheats and shortcuts and overall mechanics to speedrun and finish this game in mere hours. They make playing through TPL and traversing the tricky bits look so damn easy when I watch a longplay or walkthrough.

(wow, it's almost like playing a game yourself is different from watching someone else play it. It's almost like playing the game yourself for the first time and learning the controls, level layouts, and techniques is different from watching someone who has beaten said game multiple times and has mastered the controls and knows the layout and techniques by heart.)

The next game, Jak II, which has always been my favorite story-wise and to watch others play, is generally regarded as the hardest game in the series to beat. So if I, a 20- something adult, am already struggling trying to get through the first game, which is easy enough for children to beat, I worry how much torment Jak II is going to put me through because I will, without a doubt, get my ass handed to me at every turn in that game.

#game talk #*looks pleadingly at the Jak II icon on the home screen and mentally begs Errol to help me* #*despite knowing I will have to race against him later in the game and he will almost certainly kick my ass every single time* #ellie rambles