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snellyfish · 3 years

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May I ask..... what is in your post game V3? I dunno how to ask this without sounding weird.

HM!!!!!!!!! GOOD QUESTION;;

I mostly only have braincells for Kiyo and Angie so not a lot of my thoughts are straying from that unfortunately LMAO, I was able to branch off a bit answering this though so thank you for indirectly helping me develop more!!

But I like to think it's the same scenario as the second game where it was all just a simulation. I know what I fantasize about is a VR AU and that "postgame" tends to refer to the survivors but literally none of my favorites survived so reality can be whatever I want: postgame Shinnaga is so canon it's unreal!! I'm sure there's probably a VR fic for them somewhere out there in the world, I wouldn't know because I suck at reading fhdjfk, but I would love to write my own someday HEH

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They'd all wake up one by one as they die and end up all in the same facility where they're taken care of by the Danganronpa team, unable to leave until they’re well again due to the contracts they signed prior to playing-- Meaning Angie wakes up, Tenko wakes up a few hours later, Kiyo another few hours later, etc. Angie jumps back pretty quick from things so she'd be already VERY excited to see Kiyo* after watching the trial, mostly because Angie like immediately caught onto what his sister really was to him (HINT: CONTROLLING AND AWFUL) and yelling at her screen saying "GOD WILL SMITE YOU ALL FOR PICKING ON THE WEAK" at everyone just calling him some incestuous freak during the trial. Angie does have genuinely incredible intuition (thanks god!) so she looks past the fact he murdered her Scarily Fast. Everyone would definitely mistrust and hate Angie even more as she tries to preach to them afterwards about Kiyo and how they need to forgive him since he’s a victim and God (most important opinion) already forgave him, but no one ever listened to her anyway especially postgame so it’s all in vain 😔

*whom might take a bit to wake up and fully acclimate again because...idk this man was boiled alive that's kinda Fucked I think all the executed would take longer to wake up because they went through more lengthy + traumatic deaths I guess? This just means even more time for Angie to sit on her thoughts about what happened to her+Kiyo yuh yuh

Everyone becomes a mix of their pregame selves and the identities they were given, they'd end up being mediocre/average (sometimes bad) at what their handpicked talent was but a lot of them still keep up doing it until they DO become good again. A very small amount of them try to replicate their killing game outfits and kinda live off the high of being what they once were and accomplished in their fake memories, like Miu and Himiko. (this also makes me think about Irumeno a bit more 👀) Pretty much every single one of them in pregame saw themselves as nothing, being disposable enough to be in a killing game (even if it turns out to be virtual), so the new identities would overpower the mix for the most part since they’re the more intensified and dramaticized personality--IF THAT MAKES ANY SENSE LOL.

--Angie absolutely never stopped her art and has a less intense view on Religion, since garnering more experiences in life she’s just be less intense in general I'd think; more open with her emotions in that she'd actually cry, but still very manic and bubbly and optimistic nonetheless. After getting help (mostly from Kiyo who deals with the same thing), Angie is able to differentiate her thoughts and desires from “God”’s thoughts and desires, YEA she still has a funky little friend in her head. She's not AS pushy especially not with her equally traumatized fellow killing game participants but she still absolutely gets her moments of intensity and assertiveness now and then if she thinks something God is telling her is absolute truth and for the betterment of everyone: she is still Angie afterall, truly believing everyone would be much happier with her God in their lives but having enough self-restraint to know everyone will just push her away further if she tries to help them in that regard. She has her moments of desperation but most everyone’s too far gone from her already.

--Korekiyo is such a complicated one--I do like to think of pregame Kiyo as transfem/nonbinary and that would partially stick into his postgame identity in some way...killing game Kiyo was Just A Dude but after becoming the mix of the two identities he'd be VERY confused, especially with the influence of his (simulated) sister's influence. (genderfluid time? :)) He'd have varying degrees of when his...sister...alter...thing...comes out, or is present in his head in any regard, she'd be gone or slowly disappearing from his mind for months at a time and he'd initially be extremely unstable about it because he feels extremely isolated and lost when he can’t talk to her, but he's got Angie by his side so he becomes significantly less stressed about it over time, learning to cope with it. Eventually he finds himself no longer dependent on sister and...has to learn a SECOND time to not be unhealthily dependent; on Angie this time. (funky little idea I’ve been wanting to draw/write about sometime...hnnrngm) They’re both miracle workers when it comes to each other’s mental health it’s kinda insane. Of course, after realizing that Sister never really existed, he harbors near-immediate guilt for having murdered Angie and Tenko once he’s alone with his thoughts, not being puppeteered by sister, realizing everything he ever did he did for HER and realizing how fucked it all was pretty quickly--he does crave interacting with his victims in a positive and healing light but he’s sort of traumatized by it all to the point he is TERRIFIED when they’re around him at first.

--Tenko ends up EVEN MORE protective and grudgeful after she wakes up, trying to shield everyone and everything from most of the blackened, absolutely makes Kiyo manage to feel like even worse shit when he's got 1 extremely supportive and loving woman he killed and 1 extremely spiteful woman he killed who might legitimately murder him in return if he’s not careful. Tenko never makes amends with Angie and becomes close with Himiko (who's close with Gonta despite Tenko's wishes (she hates him for killing Miu, local woman)), managing to keep Himiko far far away from Angie, not only for "stealing" Himiko in the Student Council but also for the fact Angie's glued to Kiyo's side--making her the second least trustworthy person to Tenko..

--Himiko is very traumatized after the game due to surviving all the way til the end, likely making her (along with Shuichi+Maki) very disillusioned and lost--unable to decipher anything from fiction or reality--it takes a long time for Himiko to really “accept” anything; tried to cling to both Tenko and Angie but ends up just stuck on Tenko, mourning the loss of her friendship with Angie while doing so. Himiko would probably be shoved away from Gonta at first as well, but Tenko felt a lot more confident in Gonta so after a long while of her aggressively trying to teach him manners and keeping an emotional deathgrip on him whenever he wants to interact with Himiko, they’d end up close friends again. Still thinking about Irumeno-- Also with the whole ~~Survivor Delusions~~ thing, I think that helps play into Himiko’s attachment and insistence to keep up her old magician identity, because she has a very hard time trying to tell what’s real n fake ykno, and it takes her a while to realize she doesn’t have her talent anymore; absolutely ending in tearful breakdowns and unending determination to find herself again by forcibly trying to improve and push herself to her limits.

For the most part Kiyo and Angie are outcasted from everyone else, a lot of that being due to Tenko's preaching but...also everyone just doesn't understand what actually happened to Kiyo and they are all deathly worried about Angie, but not enough to get themselves involved; they're scared of Angie too, afterall, not as much as they're scared of Kiyo but ykno-- They think her naivety and determination to “fix him” is going to get her murdered again, every day they’re just counting down the minutes until it happens again. (spoiler alert: it doesn’t)

I could ABSOLUTELY go off more but I really have to end this at some point so fhdsjkfds--

TLDR;; Angie (and God alter) forgive Kiyo almost immediately. Sister alter likes to disappear sometimes making Kiyo sad and unfortunately dependent on Angie. Both Kiyo + Angie help each other heal and recover from their issues. Tenko hates both Kiyo + Angie with a passion and protectively forbids Himiko from seeing either of them. Himiko is close friends with Tenko and Gonta and Maybe More with Miu.

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rovelae · 3 years

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Behind the Scenes of “Hologram”

Today marks exactly one year since I posted arguably my most popular fic. “Hologram” is a postgame Saiouma one-shot about escapism, loneliness, and running away from the past. I put a lot of myself into this fic and I’m blown away by all the love it’s received, not only on AO3 but in Discord servers and other social media. All that excitement made me keep thinking about it, so I thought I’d share a (very self-indulgent) behind-the-scenes of sorts about how I wrote it, as well as what I think of the story.

This essay will contain spoilers for the whole fic, so if you’d like to read it first, you can find it here. Of course, if the tags scare you off, that’s valid, but you might want to skip this post too since I’ll be quoting it throughout (so, just to be safe, expect the warnings I’ve posted on AO3 to apply here too).

If you’re a Lorde fan you’ll recognize the lyrics in the fic summary – “Nothing’s wrong when nothing’s true,” from “Buzzcut Season.” The inspiration for this fic came to me while I was on my way to an early shift at work, and I needed a good song in my head to give me the will to live for the next eight hours. Not sure why I chose that song in particular, but maybe part of it is because I like imagining stories to go along with the songs I listen to, like AMVs playing in my head, and I’d never been able to pin down exactly what this song reminded me of.

The mood of the music is really what compelled me – there’s something lonely about it, and the lyrics sound like the singer’s trying to convince herself that everything’s okay even when all evidence points otherwise. There are “explosions on TV”, and “The men up on the news / They try to tell us all that we will lose,” but “we live beside the pool / Where everything is good.” Despite everything going wrong, despite the notes of fear creeping into the pre-chorus, the character will “play along… in a hologram with you” and “never go home again.”

From there, it was an easy jump to “postgame Saiou” and that was that.

There’s a cloud of seagulls hovering in the air around him, and a dozen or so more standing just out of reach, staring him down with beady black eyes. Kokichi takes a slice of bread from the loaf he’s holding and tosses it to one of the birds, watches it catch it and stumble under the weight, watches its head bob as it tries to swallow the whole thing at once. It gets remarkably far before four other birds descend on it, shrieking wildly.

“Mine, mine, mine,” he mumbles into his folded arms, wondering if Shuichi would get the reference.

He really wishes Shuichi was here.

Kokichi upends the rest of the loaf of bread onto the sidewalk and laughs at the resulting chaos until his chest aches.

To start off, I wanted to create the same lonely mood from “Buzzcut Season” in Kokichi’s simulation. He’s not exactly trapped there, but he’s refusing to leave, because as long as he’s on the fake Jabberwock Island, he can pretend the killing game never happened. The trade-off to that escapism is that the only people he can talk to are the NPCs, who aren’t complex enough to be remotely interesting to him, and Usami, who… well, tries her best, but is more of an informational / moderation program and can’t offer him what a therapist could.

The only thing Kokichi has to look forward to is Shuichi, who he’s convinced is an extremely lifelike computer program rather than the real thing, because the real Shuichi would definitely hate him for everything that happened during the killing game. He’s so locked into this line of logic that he doesn’t let himself consider that Shuichi has forgiven him – he doesn’t even have a good answer for why the Future Foundation wouldn’t just keep the supposed Shuichi AI on indefinitely, believing it’s their way of baiting him into leaving the simulation.

It’s not a healthy or sustainable lifestyle in the slightest, but Kokichi stubbornly refuses to do anything but wander the islands aimlessly, passing the time with ice cream and feeding seagulls until the next time he can see Shuichi.

He dreams that DICE is here in the simulation with him, smiling and carefree as they explore the weird music venue. One of them has gotten the karaoke machine working, and another found a box of kazoos and maracas in the back room. Kokichi already pities anyone unfortunate enough to walk by the building tonight.

“Not going to sing, Joker?” one of his DICE asks (over the sound of their youngest member shrieking through seven kazoos at once), sitting on the bench next to him.

“Some games are more fun to watch than play,” he answers, leaning back on his hands and sighing.

“Like a killing game.”

The warm dream-atmosphere turns cold then, and Kokichi’s head snaps over to look at him—but his brother is gone and Kaito’s looking back at him instead, blood in his teeth and face ashen pale.

“You... we don’t have to do this, man,” Kaito says, but it’s a lie and they both know it, and he doesn’t want to look behind him because he knows the machine’s looming over him with its unyielding steel and slow slow slow descent—

“You’re not real,” he snaps at dream-Kaito, who doesn’t respond except to lift him up again. “Nothing’s real, none of—PUT ME DOWN! LET GO OF ME! DON’T PUT ME BACK IN THERE!”

“Death is more mercy than you deserve,” Kaito says, and Kokichi claws and bites and kicks his way out of Kaito’s grasp like a wild animal, only to end up in front of a prison cell full of—

DICE, his beloved DICE, trapped and hurt and afraid, bloodied and beaten and helpless.

“Why didn’t you save us, boss?” says his second-in-command, clutching the bars with bleeding hands. “Why didn’t you do more? Now we’re all dead and it’s because of you.”

Moments like this are my reference to Buzzcut Season’s pre-chorus, where the not-okay starts to creep into the illusion. Despite Kokichi’s valiant efforts to forget, he’s still dealing with the aftermath of seeing his family hurt and in danger, watching his friends die, orchestrating the deaths of two of them, being killed himself— and then being told every bit of it was made up to entertain an audience who sees nothing wrong with that picture. Running away is not the way to heal from trauma, and one day soon it’s all bound to come crashing down around him.

“Do you know what this … island paradise represents, Kokichi?” [Hinata] asks, and Kokichi’s really not in the mood for a lecture but he continues anyway. “Jabberwock Island … was the setting for the fiftieth season of Danganronpa. The golden anniversary, they called it. It was my season.”

Kokichi hunches over, hugging his arms over his torso and stifiling a scream. He does not want to think about this right now—

“They wanted it to be the best season of all, which, unfortunately for us, meant it was also the bloodiest,” Hinata says. “Twice as many participants, deadly traps hidden across each of the islands— they even changed the way the motives worked, like when they told Fuyuhiko to cut out his own eye so Peko could have a quick death instead of suffering for days.”

“Do I look like your therapist, porcupine-head?” Kokichi hisses. A sharp pain is pounding into his skull, and there’s a bitter, metallic taste at the back of his throat. A taste like poison and blood.

“There was so much going on that the simulation malfunctioned,” Hinata says. “When people died, their Ultimate talents downloaded themselves into me. I’m told that the stress of so many personality grafts came close to liquefying my frontal lobe. I’m lucky I woke up at all… especially considering more than half of the others didn’t.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Kokichi grates out through the static building in his head. If he opens his eyes, will he see the beach or the dull chrome of the machine closing in on him?

“Because I know how much you want to forget about what happened,” Hinata says. “Believe me, I get it.”

….

“These things that happened to us… we can’t erase them, no matter how much we want to. Some things have to be remembered.”

I’d mostly like to leave Hajime’s season up to interpretation, but there are a couple things I wanted to say about it. I imagine Danganronpa is like the Hunger Games in that it’d go all out for big anniversaries. So, there were twice as many participants for the Jabberwock Island beatdown that was probably subtitled “Bloodbath Bay” or something equally appealing. The game’s formula changed from a focus on the mystery and the trials to “look at all these kids massacring each other a la Lord of the Flies,” and since the VR system wasn’t equipped to handle that many people and their deaths, it malfunctioned, giving Hajime way too many Ultimate talents and putting half the cast into comas from which they never woke up.

Viewers either absolutely loved or absolutely hated this season, depending on whether they were DR fans because of the “blood n’ guts” factor or the “mystery and psychological thriller” aspect. Team Danganronpa faced quite a bit of backlash for actually causing the real-life deaths of half its participants, but were able to weasel their way out of serious legal repercussions because of the waivers the participants had signed beforehand (plus a lot of bribery and falling back on their longstanding popularity). So, the cast of Season 50 failed to end the killing game, but helped provide great evidence for the “Danganronpa is morally wrong” argument.

Hajime works as a victim liaison for the Future Foundation and has been trying to take down Danganronpa since he got out of it. He’s like that in a few of my fics, actually; I like the idea of Hajime acting as a big brother of sorts to the V3 cast. It’s especially entertaining to imagine his interactions with Kokichi— though maybe not so much in Hologram, since to Kokichi he’s a representation of the past he’s trying so desperately to forget and the future he refuses to acknowledge.

“SHUT UP!” He launches himself at Hinata, his hands wrapping around the other man’s throat as he uses his momentum to slam him to the ground. “SHUT! UP!”

“Ko— ghk—” Hinata coughs, eyes wide with surprise, but aside from moving his hands up to grip Kokichi’s wrists, he doesn’t seem all that worried about fighting back.

The thought only fuels Kokichi’s rage until he’s choking Hinata so hard his knuckles are white. “If you want me out of this simulation so badly, you can kill me,” he snarls. “I’m never waking up! I’m never leaving, do you UNDERSTAND ME?”

Hinata grimaces, the outline of his avatar flickering, but he still doesn’t struggle, and Kokichi hates him all the more for it, despises him with a seething malice that festers low in his stomach. He wonders distantly if he’d actually kill this man in real life. Or if he’d be able to stop himself, feeling like this.

Kokichi’s breakdown here is more out of fear than anger. Like I mentioned, Kokichi sees Hajime as another piece of what’s hurt him, and no matter how Hajime tries to help, Kokichi will always remember Danganronpa whenever he sees him.

Warm yellow-orange light casts a relaxed, cozy glow over the dining hall. It’s an ambience compounded by the flickering candles on the table, which seems overly idyllic, but Kokichi will let it slide because of the adorable way Shuichi flushed when he noticed them as they sat down. Well, if he’s being honest, everything about Shuichi right now is adorable, from the way his hair keeps falling into his eyes to the way he’s nervously fiddling wth his chopsticks. Kokichi wishes he could keep staring at him forever.

Ah, not… not in a weird way, though, just… because Shuichi’s beautiful, and when Kokichi looks at him he can forget everything bad that’s ever happened, can create some new and brighter world to exist in.

This is an idea I wish I’d had room to explore a bit more in the story— that is, just how far Kokichi will go to pretend everything’s fine. I thought about making him border on delusional, like having him talk to people who aren’t there or forget what’s actually happening around him because he’s so lost in his fiction-within-a-fiction. It would have creeped Shuichi out a whole lot.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much room for that past the plot I’d already nailed down, so I focused on his loneliness and escapism instead. I do touch on it later in this scene, though— the couple paragraphs where he slips into fantasizing about being a phantom thief having a surreptitious meeting with his detective under the not-so-subtle supervision of his DICE. There would have been a lot more of that if I’d gone with the ‘delusion’ stylistic choice, to the point where even the readers would be confused about what’s real. Maybe I’ll look into writing something similar in a future story.

Eventually, Shuichi sets down his bowl and looks away with a little sigh, and Kokichi clenches his teeth because that’s the sigh he does when it’s time for that conversation.

“Um… Kokichi?”

Kokichi’s only response is to exhale the breath he’d been holding in a quiet hiss.

“I-I know you don’t want to, but… but I really need to talk to you about something,” Shuichi says. “Please?”

“My Mr. Detective can talk about whatever he’d like!” Kokichi says with a lilt to his tone that makes it sound more sarcastic than he wants it to. He takes the last bite of curry and wishes that it burns hot enough to hurt.

“It’s about Kaito.”

This more serious part of the date scene is meant to reflect the little bridge in “Buzzcut Season”:

“Cola with the burnt-out taste

I’m the one you tell your fears to

There’ll never be enough of us.”

It’s a part of the song that sounds especially bittersweet to me, a bit of self-awareness between the insistence that everything’s okay.

Really all I think I managed was to reference it when Kokichi’s internal dialogue comments on his drink being “so sweet it tastes burnt” and then later not tasting like anything. But hopefully the mood’s still there.

“Tell him… that I have nothing against him,” he says.

“That’s … not a lie?” Shuichi presses.

Kokichi shakes his head idly, still not raising his gaze. “I wanted to wreck the killing game and he wanted to save his friend. We both got what we wanted. I’d say the end more than justifies the means.”

Was that a lie?

(I don’t want to die Shuichi I’m sorry I’m sorry save me Shuichi please I’m sorry ithurtsmakeitstop—)

His fingers tighten into clawlike shapes, nails digging sharply into his forearms.

I really don’t think Kokichi would have anything against Kaito, even if here he’s not being completely honest with how much he’s affected by what happened. It wouldn’t make sense to him to hate Kaito for something he himself proposed, but I think there’d still be a subconscious barrier between them. Too much history.

“Don’t go, Shuichi, I’m so sorry, I— that was so dumb, what I said, please don’t be sad anymore.” He’s not sure if he can’t breathe because of the exertion of running or because of the hysteria boiling over in his head. “Please don’t go, I didn’t mean to hurt you— please don’t leave, Shuichi, I’m so sorry.”

“Oh, Kokichi….” Shuichi’s tone is strange, soft and pitying, like he sees something Kokichi doesn’t, and he shakes his head slowly as more tears follow the paths of the others.

Kokichi goes to his knees, ready to grovel if that’s what it takes, but Shuichi follows him down, closing his other hand over Kokichi’s, and then they’re both crying and he doesn’t know why, and all he can do is repeat a mantra of I’m sorry and hold on as tight as he can.

It’s horrible. Shuichi’s horrible. Shuichi’s wonderful, and kind and lovely and perfect and Kokichi hates him, Kokichi adores him, and it doesn’t matter because Shuichi’s not actually here but Kokichi doesn’t want to be alone, just let me pretend some more, please, please let me have this—

“I’ll… I’ll stay,” Shuichi says at last. “I can stay a while longer.”

You shouldn’t, Kokichi wants to say, but his mouth won’t obey him. You shouldn’t stay if you don’t want to. I don’t deserve having you here. I’m not worth your mercy.

But there on the bridge, crying tears of relief, he soaks up as much mercy as he can get and hopes it’s enough to drown him.

I wanted to create a contrast between them that highlights just how the isolation and trauma Kokichi’s experiencing has affected him. He has an almost unhealthy reliance on Shuichi as “the only thing that makes this world bearable,” and panics when faced with the prospect of being alone again so soon. Part of why Shuichi’s crying is because he’s realized the extent of Kokichi’s desperation. It’s not that he thinks Kokichi’s apology is insincere, but that he’s hardly heard him apologize for anything before, so Kokichi going this far has him realizing how bad things really are.

The door rumbles and slides open when they approach, revealing the bright light of the log-out point that took Shuichi away every time, that would wake Kokichi up in his real body if he walked into it. Shuichi stops just a step away from it, biting his lip as if searching for something to say, but before he can find it, Kokichi reaches out to tug at his sleeve.

“Shuichi?” he says, distant as the waves on the beach that he can still hear if he listens closely enough. Shuichi turns back toward him. “Before you go, can I be selfish one more time?”

“Huh…?”

Shuichi doesn’t move when Kokichi steps closer, reaches up to ghost his fingertips over Shuichi’s jaw and around the back of his neck. He lets Kokichi tilt his head downward, lets him hover inches away, close enough to feel their breath mingle in the night air. Kokichi pauses there to give him the chance to pull away. He doesn’t.

So Kokichi closes his eyes and the distance between them.

That last line is a ZEUGMA! It’s a literary device where one word refers to two more in a different way. A popular example is the hyenas’ line “Our teeth and ambitions are bared” from The Lion King. It’s my favorite grammatical trick and I’d love to see more of it in fanfic.

Slowly, he slides his hand down to Shuichi’s shoulder, using it as leverage to push himself away. That hurts even more. He can’t seem to open his eyes, and he feels so weakened, breathless, fragile. Cracked open, hollowed out.

When he finally does open his eyes, Shuichi’s are wide with some mix of astonishment and a dozen other emotions. Kokichi bows his head, taking a deep breath to ground himself. “Sorry,” he whispers. “I just wanted to know.”

“Kokichi,” Shuichi breathes, like a bullet through his heart.

“Goodbye, Shuichi,” Kokichi says, and shoves him into the light.

Shuichi’s little yelp of surprise cuts off abruptly as he falls through the door, vanishing into the glow, and all too soon, Kokichi’s alone again in a dream that suddenly seems far too vast. Alone, with the faintest taste of Shuichi’s lips still lingering on his own.

And he thinks, It was enough just to know you.

It’s a lie.

Nothing to say here except that this is my favorite scene and I’m so happy with how it turned out.

Fake sun rises over fake ocean, fake seagulls glide through fake sky while fake wind tousles fake palm fronds. Kokichi lies on his stomach in the fake grass and talks to his fake family in the fake notebook. Gives them fake names and runs through everything he remembers about them. Apologizes, over and over, wishes he could hug each of them goodbye one last time. Wonders if it would be more painful to die or to never have existed at all.

He leaves the notebook of his memories on the seat of one of the Ferris wheel cars on the fourth island, because one time he promised them they’d steal the London Eye together.

He buys a can of fake soda from the fake convenience store on the first island and sits on the fake beach watching the fake waves. Wonders when he’d hit the end of the simulation if he started swimming, or if he’d drown first.

White sand, blue sea, bluer sky. Washed out, like an amateur watercolor painting.

He opens the soda can and raises it to his mouth, but … even the thought of drinking it makes him sick to his stomach. He sets it down in the sand and flicks it over, watching the bubbly liquid run down and sink into the sand. The color’s all wrong, like blood streaked against a metal floor.

He walks the fake streets of the fifth island, passing fake skyscrapers and fake commuters and their fake conversations, until he finally stops outside the factory he’s never been able to bring himself to go into. Smells like oil, and metal and machines and he can hear the sounds and he’s immediately back in the hangar, dizzy on adrenaline and desperation and leaning heavily on Kaito so he doesn’t keel over and die then and there. Kaito says something about how maybe he should sit down for a minute, and Kokichi didn’t agree back then but he does now, goes down on all fours and dry heaves.

When his vision solidifies and he can stop gasping for breath, he sits up and presses his back against the factory wall, covering his ears and hiding his face in his knees. Tries to convince himself not to imagine Shuichi’s there with him, holding his hand again, promising everything’s going to be okay.

“I’ve got you. No one’s going to hurt you anymore,” or maybe, “Breathe with me, it’ll be over soon. You’re safe now.”

I love you.

He laughs until there’s nothing left in his lungs. He called these little daydreams obsession, before, but now they just seem sick and insane.

I wanted to indicate throughout this scene that Kokichi’s gotten substantially worse. Instead of halfheartedly interacting with the NPCs or finding something to spend time doing, he’s aimlessly wandering the islands, focused on how fake all of it is. Not even talking to his sketches of DICE can make him feel better. The suicidal ideation starts to slip in even if he doesn’t realize it— a fixation on wondering what death is like, purposefully triggering himself by walking by the factory….

The thing I want to talk about most though is the italicized I love you. I left it outside of quotation marks and dialogue tags on purpose because I wanted it to be ambiguous as to who’s saying it. If it’s Kokichi’s line, it’s sudden and almost out of place, like he couldn’t hold back from thinking it anymore. But it could be Shuichi saying it, too. Since it’s outside quotation marks, unlike the previous dream-Shuichi lines, it’s more vague, almost a whisper in Kokichi’s thoughts— like he can barely bring himself to imagine it and even feels guilty doing so, because there’s no way it could possibly be real.

Which do you think?

Eh, I don’t have an answer. When I hear it in my head, they say it at the same time.

“How did you know?” he finally croaks.

Shuichi’s breathing still sounds shaky, too. “Because you said ‘goodbye,’” he says.

Kokichi finally looks up at him in a silent question.

“You never say goodbye,” Shuichi says, rubbing his sleeve over his eyes. “It’s always….”

“‘See you later,’” Kokichi finishes for him. Despite himself, a tiny huff of astonished laughter escapes him. “I didn’t even know, not until a couple of hours ago. And you figured it all out from one word?”

Shuichi bites his lip at that. “You kissed me,” he says.

Kokichi’s stomach twists and he looks away. “I said I was sorry—”

“No.” Shuichi squeezes his hand into a fist and lets it fall to thump against Kokichi’s chest, like he’s trying to knock some sense into him. “It was so honest, and vulnerable, and… and I know how much you hate showing how you really feel.” Another tiny sob catches in his throat. “And so it felt like … like something you’d do if you weren’t going to s-see me again.”

“Shuichi….” Kokichi trails off as Shuichi muffles his cries in his hand again. He’s so breathtakingly smart. There’s no one else in the world who thinks that way, no one else who could possibly be that attentive and that clever. Not a programmer, not a team of shrinks… how can an AI manage it? How is it that Shuichi always manages to take him by surprise? How can he see straight through him when he least expects it?

Kokichi’s hand reaches up to Shuichi’s cheek. Reverently traces the path of the tears falling down it.

“I wish you were real,” he confesses in a whisper.

Kokichi’s stubborn. So, so stubborn. And he’s not used to being cared about, if the way he does everything by himself is any indication. So it makes sense to me that he’ll refuse to believe anything good can happen to him even in the face of convincing evidence. He’s pretty self-hating for someone so arrogant.

Kokichi’s weak, deep down to his core, weak for this man. Already knows he’d do anything for him, and the thought is terrifying—that one person could have that much power over him, even if he doesn’t realize it.

But what if he has realized it? Couldn’t this all be an elaborate ruse, a lie he knew Kokichi would be so desperate to believe that he wouldn’t bother questioning it?

…Shuichi’s never hurt him, though. Only that one time, when he really deserved it. Shuichi wouldn’t … betray him, even for what he thinks is Kokichi’s own good. They’re… different from each other, that way.

But still….

“I’m so scared, Shuichi.” It’s barely a whisper. “I don’t want to be alone anymore.”

“You won’t be.” It’s so hard to be skeptical, lost in his eyes. “I’ll be right there with you, for as long as you want. I won’t let you feel like this anymore.”

Promise me, he wants to blurt out. Promise you’ll stay. Promise me you’ll never leave me, Shuichi, he wants to demand, but that’s wrong, that’s manipulative and selfish and everything he doesn’t want to be for Shuichi anymore.

Shuichi, of course, says it anyway.

“I promise, Kokichi.”

…

“Kiss me again,” he says. “Please?”

Shuichi leans in close, then pauses, his brow furrowing the way it does when he catches him in a lie.

“I’ll kiss you again in the real world,” Shuichi says. “Okay?”

Kokichi shakes his head. “Shuichi, please.” Please, I don’t think I can do this. Please, I don’t want to wake up to a lie. Please, one last kiss for me to remember in case it was all fake.

Shuichi reaches out to tilt his chin up and Kokichi closes his eyes, savoring every second, burning it into his memory.

Shuichi’s soft breath ghosts over his lips.

“Trust me,” he murmurs.

Kokichi’s eyes flutter back open, searching his face. Shifting him around on the white board in his head, seeing what categories he fits into this time. Weird, of course. Suspicious, maybe not. Trustworthy?

Trustworthy….

“I do trust you,” he realizes.

Kokichi’s still hesitant to accept all of this— Shuichi kissing him didn’t magically fix everything. He’ll still doubt all the way to the log-out point, but at least now he realizes that this simulation is only hurting him— that if things are to get better they’re going to have to change, too. He’s got a long way to go before he’s all right, but he’s not going to have to face it alone anymore.

And that’s a wrap!

Once again, I’m really proud of this story, and I feel like I grew as a writer because of it. There are a few things I would change if I wrote it again, but for all its flaws it’s still my baby and I like how it turned out.

Thanks again for all your support for “Hologram,” and thanks even more if you actually waded through all this nonsense of a director’s cut. It’s a huge confidence-boost to think that people liked what I wrote, and even wanted to hear what I had to say about it. If there’s any interest, I’d love to review some of my other fics here, or theorize or brainstorm or whatever else you’re into. (Ask me what Byakuya’s Thing is in my superhero AU, I dare you 😉)

I do have a WIP in my folder of bits and pieces currently titled “boy finally gets that kiss”, and it’s a post-Hologram scene from Shuichi’s point of view to just sorta… tie it all together, have them talk things over again… and kiss, of course. We’ll see if anything comes out of that.

Until next time!

#Rov talks #Hologram #Saiouma #Oumasai #Behind the scenes #Director's cut #Fanfic review

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baconpal · 3 years

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pokemon rant time

this one’s about the 2 new things, and is at least slightly intended for people actually excited/interested in them, click keep reading or perish

Gonna try and keep stuff short cus there's a lot of topics this time and I've already gone off about how pokemon Isn't meant for me or meant to be a good video game anymore, but gamefreak is right back on their bullshit, so I feel I need to at least point it out.

I'd like to preface all this with, if you are a fan of pokemon still, please realize you can ask for more out of this series. Expect perfection, even if you don't think you'll get it anytime soon. Pokemon won't go anywhere, the old games won't go anywhere, and gaming is a hobby, not a necessity; don't accept low quality products from a company just because you feel like you're supposed to.

With this next wave of pokemon games, gamefreak is clearly testing how little they can put in to a $60 game while still keeping the 2 major audiences they've cultivated. By responding to the most obvious and vocal complaints from the community, gamefreak is aiming to make games that seems like what most players want, without having to put in the work on quality products.

GEN 4 REMAKES Pokemon BS (I am not calling this shit BDSP) is intended for the audience that put up with let's go and RS remakes. The most vocal and obvious complaints for these games is their failure as definitive versions of the games they are remakes of, such as missing features/content, or drastically changed story/dialogue/style. In a way, the recent remakes are inferior versions of incredibly old games, which shows a lack of improvement in pokemon as a whole.

To address these issues, BS is very, very, VERY clearly aiming for a more 1-to-1 recreation of the DS games, but with fully 3d graphics. Clearly the map layout has been transferred exactly, and gen 4 already had mostly 3d environments to begin with, and everyone knows about the future-proof pokemon models at this point, so the amount of effort required to create something like this is absolutely minimal. Assuming dialogue, trainer teams, move lists, etc. are also lifted directly from DP, then this game could be developed in basically no time at all, leaving the team time to ensure the product is of decent quality and includes ALL of the content of the originals, if not more, like the earlier pokemon remakes did to ensure they were truly definitive versions of the games. That being said, it is unlikely the team behind BS has been making use of this saved time to improve the game.

One failing already clear is that the quality is not very good, at least graphical quality. The footage we have shows environments lacking in color compared to the original, with messy, unpleasant textures that contrast poorly with the simplistic environments. The characters especially do not work. As cute and fun the fanart of tiny dawn has been, BS dawn and all other characters look awful. They have gorilla arms that reach down to the floor and lifeless faces, as well as incredibly stiff/simplistic animations. As it stands, BS is a visually inferior game to DP, though most consumers will simply see it as 3D>2D without any understanding of what an artstyle is, so this might not be a problem for many, but that doesn't mean you should accept it.

What remains to be seen is what content will be added/missing from pokemon BS. It is very possible that massive parts of the game, such as the underground, variety of online modes, postgame areas, and content from platinum could be missing entirely. We also do not know if pokemon from after gen 4 will be worked into the region, or even supported. Gen 8 still currently does not support a large number of pokemon, and the remakes may continue this limited dex trend.

Even assuming the remake includes everything from the DS games and doesn't add anything that slows down the story or harms the experience, it will still only be an exercise in forced obsolescence. The main reason people can't really play DP still is that the online isn't supported anymore. If BS turns out to be exactly the same as DP, then you're buying the same game for at a higher price, only to play it until the online service goes away again, or the next game comes out, if both don't happen at the same time.

Don't let yourself buy a 13 year old game at twice the original price.

GEN 4 NOT-REMAKE KIND OF NEW THING On to legends now, gamefreak is targeting the people who put up with sun/moon and sword/shield. The obvious problem with those games to most people was simply a lack of change from the standard pokemon formula. Even when changing the gyms to trials or stadiums, most people still understand that the format and story structures are mostly unchanged. Of course, this problem has seemingly been addressed by changing the game structure a fair bit, but almost entirely by removal.

Trainer battles, and by extension, gyms and tournaments/elite 4 have been confirmed to be absent, meaning all battles are only vs single pokemon, in spite of the player likely having a team of 6 pokemon. Even if battle difficulty is increased to compensate (doubtful), this will still drastically increase the simplicity of combat and make it even less likely for the game to include any meaningful challenge. Exploring towns and meeting NPCs is also seemingly missing, as the game is confirmed to have only a single village, which frankly looks incredibly boring and we've yet to see a single NPC inhabiting the village.

Battles now use an ATB format instead of a turn-based format (for those of you who don't know what that means, it basically means nothing, it's still turn based, it just means the speed state determines who gets more turns instead of who goes first, that's it), but beyond that there seems to be no noteworthy changes, pokemon learn 4 moves with limited PP, type advantage will still definitely be the most important aspect to battle, and the player being able to walk around during battle provides no meaningful impact. While the little dash the pokemon do to approach each other is cool, it is already a sign that gamefreak will not be addressing the issue of lacking animations for pokemon battles, as they can't even be assed to animate and program pokemon walking around the environment during combat, and lucario doing 1 kick for a move described as a series of punches isn't a great sign either.

On the topic of lacking animations, the new "pet simulator feature" for legends seems to be an advancement on the ride system from sun/moon, which presumably people missed from sword/shield. Being able to ride on your pokemon to do stuff sounds cool, but in all likelihood, this system will be limited to only a select few pokemon who will each do a select few actions, and is not a reasonable replacement for all the other pet raising features that have been removed in the past. Similar to BS, the total number of pokemon included may also be limited arbitrarily, in spite of the fact that no new pokemon need to be added, as these games are not claiming to be a new generation.

The largest issues I personally have with this new game is the horrible technical quality and gameplay quality shown in the initial trailer. Unfortunately, these types of problems seem to be difficult to explain to the average consumer, even though the issues seem incredibly obvious and inexcusable to people like me. Most people were able to understand the problem with the berry trees in gen 8, because it was easy to explain, "this tree doesn't look like the other trees, and it sticks out, isn't that weird?", and so gamefreak has eliminated any immediately obvious issues like that, sticking with a very consistent artstyle for legends, making it almost impossible to easily explain its faults to the average pokemon fan.

People have been really quick to compare legends to BoTW; the game that invented grass, trees, and mountains. In spite of these comparisons, nobody seems to point out that legends looks dramatically worse than that almost 5 year old game from the previous generation. Plants are stiff and lacking in energy, draw distances are poor, colors are drab, and textures are messy. Many parts of legends seems to ape BoTW on just the surface, essentially just following market trends. Even the controls seem to follow after modern 3rd person shooters/stealth games, including a seemingly pointless roll and a clunky looking ball lobbing arc that feels unfun before even getting to play it myself.

The largest issue, painfully obvious to some, and impossible to explain to others, is the framerate. The trailer clearly was ran on actual switch hardware, and not prerendered, which would be a good mark for gamefreak if it didn't result in a trailer that never once hit 30fps. Even with empty fields, with only 1 or 2 characters on screen, the game was incapable of meeting the target speed, and had to resort to optimizations like reducing the frame rate of pokemon only inches away from the player to stop-motion levels of choppy. If situations with almost nothing going on result in slow-down, how will the game perform during actual gameplay? Even though slow-down is something everyone can feel, many people aren't capable of identifying it.

The major things to wait and see for legends is if the removed aspects of the series are made up for by some additional systems or content, and definitely wait to see if the performance improves. As with BS, preordering a game like this only shows that gamefreak only has to market the game by saying it's different, not improved, like they've been doing for years now.

TL;DR FUCK GAMEFREAK One major thing of note is that gamefreak is releasing 2 games based on gen 4 at the nearly the same time, meaning they have no obligation to design new pokemon or even include pokemon not from sinnoh, and also that the sales of each game can be used as an indicator for which of their 2 audiences is more loyal to them. Both BS and Legends are in a position to be pushes aside if they fail, but if either succeeds, gamefreak can continue in the direction of the more successful game and reap the benefits, without any need to innovate, improve, or adapt to criticism.

The last thing I feel I have to remind people about is that gamefreak is a company; you don't need to be "grateful" to them. I've seen that word thrown around far too much by people who seem to buy pokemon games like its a tax, and not something they want to do. You don't have to suck up to a company that made games you liked as a kid if the games aren't what you want anymore. Pokemon is so wildly successful that it can't possible die, so don't buy the games out of pity, or out of some feeling of obligation. Buy the video games you want to play and nothing more.

Basically, if you are considering getting any of these new games, please wait until the games are out before purchasing them, and decide for yourself if they are worth your money, and more importantly, your time. Preordering these games only lets gamefreak know their audience will buy and put up with anything. They have no real competition at the moment, so the only thing the audience can do to encourage improvement is show some of restraint.

#juvenile rant #pokemon #if you read all that then good job cus jesus that got long #please just respect yourself #you deserve better games #you arent weird for wanting things to be good #anyway have a good night

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pokemonswshbutionlyplayedsword · 4 years

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I thought of this a long time ago but I never really put much thought into it. It's like a turf au or an apocalypse au I don't really know. But it's like it eternatus wasn't defeated galar went into this state of panic and basically collapsed. Now like everyone's against each other and like galars divided into the cities themselves based on the gym type. So most dragon trainers in hammerlock's and so on. The wild area would be life free war areas just thought it would be a cool postgame thing.

Okay, so I’m kinda new to the idea of turf aus, but I like what I’ve seen so far. As for apocolypse aus??? I love them. Like, a lot. One of my favorite types of aus. And now, Anon, you’ve got me thinkin about it, so sit down and lemme tell ya, cause I’ve got somethin’ to say. And tonight I’m feeling like ranting, so buckle up.

So here’s the plan, you’re on the right track. Eternatus demolishes Galar. There’s no leader that can ease the chaos that’s broken out. The economy is just gone. Wyndon fell apart and every other town was either mostly destroyed or abandoned. Now, what exactly is preventing Galar from putting itself back together? Good question. If you know me, you’ll know that my favorite game is Hollow Knight. In Hollow Knight, the player battles a plague caused by a godlike creature known as The Radiance. The Radiance creates this infection to gather the bugs of Hallownest and restore them to her hive mind (Yeah, I know that’s a lot to take in, but just go play the game. You’ll understand and you’ll also love it because it’s the best game.)

Now, I’m not saying that Eternatus creates a plague of sorts to bend the people and pokemon of Galar to its will, except that is exactly what I’m saying. That is what is happening. No other region can come help them because there’s nothing they can do, and even if there was some way to help, there’s no way for them to know if there’s actually anything left to save at all, and since Galar’s a big island, there’s no way for it to spread, so they’re on their own.

Here’s the vibe. Y’all ever heard of Darkwood? Yeah, another video game. Fantastic, incredible, intense and emotional. Aside from the fear and desperation to survive the night, the players of Darkwood will experience foreboding, hopeless and violent feelings. Protect what is yours and trust no one, essentially. Kill on sight kind of vibes. You know what I mean. And if you don’t, well, go play Darkwood, you won’t regret it. Warning, though, it’s graphic, bloody and can be really gross at times. But, like, that’s the aesthetic of it.

So, as a quick recap, what Eternatus has done: Effectively destroy most of Galar, especially the northern part of it; scorch the earth where Wyndon used to stand; spread plague and disease to technically enslave people and pokemon to only their base, animalistic instincts; and pretty much ruin the lives of the people who weren’t killed by the blast.

And, for the sake of convenience and my poor little heart, let’s say that no one was present for the event. Yes, Eternatus emerged in Hammerlocke, but it wasn’t defeated and it moved to Wyndon, taking possession of Rose Tower before creating the devastating blow that caused Galar to fall. No, no one we know dies, so that’s nice. But Eternatus is gone. There’s no tower to climb. No evil to defeat. No way out of this hell hole. Oh, and dynamorphing is officially cancelled, too.

ANYWAY, here’s where things get interesting. We now get to see what happens to our dear characters.

Milo is in Turffield. It’s a mess, but it’s not the worst place to be in Galar. He was there on his farm when it happened. Almost every plant was wiped out. Most barns were destroyed and the pokemon in them were either released or killed. It was hard, but Milo and his farmhands were able to salvage what was left and create a new, less impressive farm. Still, they have the most reliable food source in Galar. They had to build a lot of defense and acquire a lot of guard pokemon. They had to get really aggressive about defending their things because so many people would try to steal. But they get everything they need by trading with the other mini-societies that formed when the dust settled.

Nessa was in Hullbury. Things are extremely hard, but they’re on the sea, so a lot of the survivors tried to sail away. Nessa stayed, but she did help them try to leave. This was before the plague spread, so it was relatively safe, if not dire. After that, and when things get bad, she finds Sonia and Magnolia, and they go to Turffield to work and get protection. Magnolia definitely needs the sanctuary. Hullbury was abandoned.

Kabu is leading Motostoke the best he can. There are some survivors that follow Kabu, and they keep the production that comes from Motostoke, you know, metal production and shit. Most of Motostoke is abandoned. There’s a line of large warehouses and a nearby grocery store that the people made into a base. They’re a large crowd, but they do well because they’re so close to Turffield. There’s a lot of paranoia, though, because there’s not a lot of room for trust.

Bea is an excellent fighter, of course, so she protects Allister and the rest of the people who stayed in Stow-on-Side. They moved into the cave with the statue of the two kings. It’s so easy to fortify and, in fact, due to their pokemon, and the fact that a lot of people there have the right kind off pokemon, they are able to carve the cave out more and make an actually viable place to stay. They struggle with food a bit because they’re far from any reliable source, but they’ve made it work for their small group. There are very few of them left, so there’s a lot of trust.

Allister stays close to Bea. He’s terrified of what’s happening. He does his best to help, but mostly he stays in and tries to think of ideas. He’s come up with the idea of making tunnels to the other mini-societies. He understands that they survive if they have something worth trading. They have the power to make transportation possible. He’s currently looking for other ideas, too. If they make resources easier to access and they get means to acquire them, they’ll have a better chance of survival.

Opal knows that the woods around Ballonlea are thick and hard to traverse when the proper paths are not kept up. Thus, she has a choice to make. Does she make her town vulnerable or does she isolate herself from any other resources? She chooses isolation. They build into the trees to expand. They’re able to make farms of sorts, but they also forage. The survivors in Ballonlea isolate themselves from the plague and survive by living like the fairies- with the fairies. Most of the outside world don’t know if Ballonlea still exists. Opal knows she likely won’t live to see the end of this situation, she can only hope that she can teach her successor to lead the people of the forest.

Melony sets aside her problems with Gordie to protect her family. She works with Circhester to isolate herself from the rest of Galar. It’s hard to get to Circhester because the event caused the snow to come down harder. That makes resources hard to come by as well, though. The hot spring and a large home that houses the survivors are their stronghold. They’re not worried about being stolen from. However, monthly a group of people have to take their pokemon out and journey to the rest of Galar to trade and get resources. It’s risky, but its their only option. Melony normally leads these expeditions, and Gordie takes over while she’s gone.

Gordie is the second in command in Circhester. He’s the strategist, so to speak. He comes up with the plans. He takes care of everything while Melony is gone. He’s especially protective of his younger siblings. It’s going to be hard to grow up in a post-apocolyptic world. He used to sit around and think of what would happen in this situation, but now that he’s actually here...? He’s completely forgotten about his problems with Melony before the disaster.

Piers counts himself extremely lucky. Spikemuth has walls. It protected everyone within the city from the blast. But the walls are thin and they were already poor to begin with. The thing about Spikemuth is that they’re survivors. They may not specialize in anything, but they scrape by any way they know how. Piers may come off as an apathetic and careless person, but in this disaster, Piers steps up to lead Spikemuth. He fortifies the town with metal from Motostoke, he manages to barter with Milo to get food. They’re on cliffs right next to the sea. Some days it’s an Arceus send, some days it’s another way for Eternatus to laugh at them, but it does bring in food and scavenge sea garbage. In a town full of Zigzagoons, what else do you expect? One of the things they barter with is sending people to be temporary warriors/bodyguards. The people of Spikemuth can mf SCRAP.

Raihan fled from Hammerlocke with the rest of the survivors. They went to find Leon in Wedgehurst. There was nothing left to salvage in Hammerlocke. Some people split off from the main group. Raihan convinced Piers to let them seek refuge in Spikemuth. Some of them joined Milo. A few hoped to find Ballonlea, which wasn’t unheard of. Compared to the rest of the Galar, the rumors sounded like utopia. Raihan still has hope that help is on the way, and he’s used that to lead his people as far as they will go. His pokemon are strong and he can defend himself and his loved ones. He joins Leon in Postwick, where they retreat into the Slimbering Weald.

Leon evacuated Wyndon along with everyone else who was smart enough to leave. He immediately returned to Postwick to join Hop and his mother. The people there were pretty unharmed, since the blast didn’t reach quite far enough. Wedgehurt was abandoned for sure, but that didn’t really matter. They’re close enough to Milo to not have to worry about food so long as people came to help tend to the farms sometimes. Eventually, when things turned even worse than they already were, Leon led Postwick into the Slumbering Weald. With his powerful pokemon, he was sure he could protect them, especially with Raihan at his side. They’ve made themselves a home there, in that Weald, hoping that Zacian and Zamazenta reveal themselves to end this.

Rose is not safe anywhere. The people of Galar hate him for what he’s done, and there’s no one there to listen if he tried to explain himself. He’s not a survivor, he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He and Oleana end up leaving Wyndon with a certain small group headed towards Motostoke. He keeps his head down and his hood up. He wants to find the gym leaders and other authority figures around to make a plan to fix the region, but he can’t do that yet. He doesn’t have the means or the plans to make it happen. He eventually branches off from that path because he has no choice but to follow Oleana. She leads him to Spikemuth, and she convinces Piers to accept them. It’s not easy, but Spikemuth is probably one of the safest places for him now.

Oleana stays with Rose. She calls all the shots, but she protects him at all costs. She knows he never meant for this. She’s a fighter and good at surviving. Through rumors and travelers, she learns that Spikemuth is accepting of all stragglers who need walls to protect them. One of two things happen if she takes Rose. 1. They’ll be killed on sight or 2. Piers will accept them and they’ll be safe. Oleana doesn’t ask Rose, because she knows he’s still in shock and not of right mind right now. She thinks she’ll be able to get through to Piers, they understood each other. Luckily, she’s right, but she has to work extra hard to earn both their keep. She doesn’t exactly mind, since she rises through the ranks quickly and proves to be especially valuable to Piers.

Sonia goes with Nessa to Turffield with her grandmother. She regrets leaving Leon behind, but she had no choice. She had no idea if he was even alive. She hears rumors that he’s leading Postwick, but she can’t make the trip to see for herself. She won’t leave Magnolia behind, even if it means mucking around in Wooloo pens to earn her and her grandmother’s meals. It’s a simple life, not much to it, but she knows she’s extremely lucky. A lot of people never got this far. Plus, Turffield is an empire compared to the rest of Galar, and it’s one of the best places to be since they’re so wealthy there and Milo is so kind.

Magnolia is too old and weak to survive on her own. She knows she’s lucky that her granddaughter brought her with her. Turffield is the perfect place to be for them. Sonia earns both their keeps, so Magnolia lives a very easy life. She’s researching the phenomenon that’s happening, and Milo is happy to let her. She really hopes to find out what happened to everyone and to find a way to end this. She really needs Oleana and Rose to help her, but she thinks they’re dead, so there’s no point in looking for them. She’d go to Wyndon to look for answers, but there’s no Wyndon left to go to.

Hop was terrified when it happened. Luckily, not days after the disaster struck, Leon came home and led them all to the Slumbering Weald. He’s been Leon’s apprentice of sorts. He’s been learning to be a leader like him. He hopes that he’ll be able to help more soon. He misses his friends, and right now, he’s been looking into a communication method without cell phones or electricity.

Marnie is in Spikemuth, as Piers’ second in command. She’s incredibly important because she can see things that Piers can’t. He’s fiercely protective of her, more than he was before. She’s looking for solutions to all of Spikemuth’s problems, and she’s the one that convinced Piers to let Rose and Oleana into Spikemuth. She has been listening to all the rumors and stories that pass through, hoping to hear about anyone she knew.

Bede is in Ballonlea, being taught everything Opal knows. He was the one who suggested building into the trees. Opal’s proud of him, but he knows she worries. Bede doesn’t know how long they can last until they need to make contact with the rest of Galar. He’s stressed about the future and he doesn’t know how to fix any of these problems.

Anyway, the point is, Eternapocolypse AU is a thing now, and I encourage all of you to interact with it. I love apocolypse aus so much. Only post for tonight btw because I’m tired and this took an hour to write out.

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blackroseraven · 3 years

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Completed my Bloodmoon Campaign.

Got Dismas there at least, so he was able to see through the job to the end. We absolutely made a joke out of the Heart of Darkness, especially between Dismas’ Ripostes and the Hellion... being the Hellion.

Admittedly got really lucky with the clone fight. He summoned like TWO Imperfect Reflections right away, which is better than the usual 10 rounds of murdering Perfect Reflections until he finally calls out one. I also never really thought about how the first part of the fight is really where the real threat is: as outright damaging as the Heart is, it still only gets one turn. If all four of them lock on to a marked character at once they can pretty much instantly cause either Death’s Door or a Resolve Check if you don’t respond fast enough to put out the fire.

So yeah. Like. Once we got past DD2 I was pretty confident we were going to finish well. Honestly, the Necromancer Lord was a harder fight than this. Then again, the Necromancer Lord immediately summoned a Bone General and my usually-dependable Houndmaster whiffed on 90% of his attacks. We had to deal with two extra turns of fighting because he completely missed two 90% attacks at the end. I felt like we were playing XCom or something.

Now for the Crimson Court and the Farmstead, which means the Thing From The Stars, which I can usually deal with, and the Fanatic, which I... will be happy if he doesn’t party wipe me.

Overall like. I actually found Bloodmoon a lot more exciting and satisfying. Like, I’m not saying Darkest Dungeon isn’t a tough game, but it is honestly mostly fair, even if you occasionally get horrible runs of bad luck. It’s not nearly as difficult as Iratus - which is still probably my favorite game in this genre - but it’s got a lot of additional ways by which you can challenge yourself, often rewarding you for doing so.

So I’m happy that I can continue it in the postgame, and I look forwards to seeing how we do with torchless runs and all the other ways I can make my life more difficult for myself.

#darkest dungeon #games #blackroseraven plays games

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patchun · 2 years

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So. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. It has been a rollercoaster of emotions these past few months, as we have waited for its release. Today, I am thinking rationally, so here I'll be laying out my perceived pros and cons of these games.

PROS:

Following Pokemon

Online Underground

Updated Contests

New model poses for some Pokemon

Challenging postgame

Prettiest 3d entry in the series

Cute 3D Gardenia model

Seems as though it will be possible to complete the National Dex with minimal interaction with Sw/Sh

CONS:

No Battle Frontier

No Distortion World

Forced annoying Friendship mechanics

Likely no Megas

Likely no/minimal stat or movepool buffs

Forced EXP Share

I felt it was important that we not forget the pros amongst this flood of (mostly) bad news. In particular, the lack of Battle Frontier and stat/movepool buffs are reallllly big flaws in my opinion, and will definitely serve as major downsides to the game. The friendship mechanics thing is hard to visualize, just how bad that's going to be, but I have a feeling that will be worse than it is in plain text. The lack of Megas is also really annoying. However, I have a small shred of hope remaining that we'll get DLC that includes both Megas and the Battle Frontier. Let me dream.

As far as positives go, though, following Pokemon is really big! That's going to be really cool. The online Underground also seems like it'll be awesome, and being able to catch Pokemon from the Nat Dex before you even have it will really open up your team options (looking at you, Fire types). The other really big one here is the cute 3D Gardenia model updated Contests! Perhaps even if Mega Lopunny isn't in the game, I'll be able to use my shiny Lopunny to destroy the Contest Hall. I do think that these games will probably be best if you go for the 100% completion, and it's something I'm excited to try. I remember actually being serious about contests back in the original games, getting all the medals and everything. So I'm excited to do that again.

Ultimately, if this pros and cons list remains the same, and nothing changes with the Day 1 patch or further DLC, I think these games will be 6 or 7 out of 10 at best. Which, considering that I think SwSh were 0/10 games with literally nothing valuable in them, is a step up!

It's just a huge shame, because looking back on everything, I think it's very clear that ILCA really does care about making these games good. But it seems that Pokemon executives gave them barely any time, and they had to decide, "alright, what can we accomplish within this time limit." And it honestly seems like they did a pretty good job with that. But fuck the Pokemon executives, and fuck the Pokemon company. Just gotta remember that they are who we should be angry with, not the developers.

I hope that ILCA will be able to continue to work on the game after release and expand it further. I hope that we get some Platinum content as DLC. With that, I think these games could really shoot up to being some of the best Pokemon games of all time. It just depends on whether the Pokemon Company is going to force something else on them immediately after release, I think.

So, I won't be cancelling my preorder. I'm going to try to enjoy the games as they are and pray (and keep submitting tickets to Pokemon Support >:<) that we get more.

However, I do think, and I genuinely mean this, that this will be my last Pokemon game. I'm really tired of this obviously painful cycle, and of supporting it. According to Centro Leaks, we'll be getting a lot more from Pokemon next year than we expect, and uh, yeah, I really dread that.

#pokemon #bdsp #longpost

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commentaryvorg · 4 years

Note

I think most people don't do Kaito's free time events maybe because, you already spent quite some time with him during the main game, so either people think that they don't need to know more about him or want to use the events to get to know more about other characters who don't get as much time on the spotlight. Which really fucking blows, but I can kinda understand.

I could kind of buy that reason, if it wasn't for the fact that nearly all of the LPs I've ever watched max out Maki's FTEs, or at least get pretty damn close. I'm happy that this at least is a thing - Maki is also very deserving of attention and the other character besides Kaito whose FTEs ought to be considered basically canon, because of course Shuichi would choose both of them if left to his own devices. But this means that apparently, a character already getting a large amount of attention and development in canon isn't inherently a reason for people to not consider their FTEs worthwhile. It should be abundantly apparent once Maki joins training that there's going to be plenty more of her in future training sessions, just like there has been and will be of Kaito - but in Maki's case, that doesn't stop people wanting to see even more of her in FTEs anyway.

I do, however, agree that there are some unfortunate yet kind of understandable reasons for people missing Kaito's FTEs, but I think they're a little different to what you propose.

I think part of it just comes down to Kaito's availability. For someone who's alive for every FTE chapter, Kaito has surprisingly few available slots - only twelve. (And one of those is while he's ill in chapter 3, which might possibly make people worry they won't get an event even though that's not how this game works, while another one of his in chapter 4 has him not show up on the map due to a programming oversight. Not that I've ever seen either of those things be the deciding factor to prevent someone from maxing him.) Admittedly Maki only has one more slot than that - but all of hers come after she's come into narrative focus and shown herself to be an interesting and important character, and nearly half of them happen to be when there's very few other options available. Meanwhile, a third of Kaito's possible slots are before the training session that should (SHOULD) cement him as one of the most important and likeable characters, and also happen to be when there's the maximum number of other characters alive that people might also be interested in.

So, maybe it's reasonable that it's so rare for people to focus on Kaito in chapter 2 when that'd mostly be out of personal taste in character types and not narrative importance yet (though there really should still be more people interested in Kaito just for that reason and I'm definitely not at all biased to think this). And then, by the time they get a proper chance to be able to focus on him after realising how important he is (which is totally a thing everyone does, right, cough cough I wish), it's chapter 4 and they're also probably wanting to focus on Maki, too. I remember one LPer who was at the start of chapter 4's free time, about equally interested in both Maki and Kaito with one FTE done so far for each, so he decided to pick one of them to focus on for chapter 4 in order to definitely at least finish that one... and he picked Maki. If he'd picked Kaito first, he'd have had time to finish Maki as well, if only he'd known!

I think this might have to do with the fact that the knowledge of Kaito's illness probably makes it seem like his potential death is going to be related to that, and therefore he's most likely safe as far as chapter 4 goes. And if anyone assumes that Kaito will still be around in chapter 5, they're never going to predict that he won't be available to hang out in it anyway. I've seen a lot of LPers reach chapter 5 with Maki maxed and lament that they would want to hang out with Kaito next out of everyone remaining, if only they could. Which is frustrating, but I get it. I absolutely wouldn't want the game's writers to have forced Kaito to be available in chapter 5 just for the sake of making him easier to max out, because that'd completely go against the place his character arc is in at that point, and that's way more important than his FTEs.

But another big contributing factor to people choosing Maki over Kaito in chapter 4 if they were considering both might just be that people will be inclined to think that Kaito is a less interesting character than Maki, even though this isn't actually remotely true. Maki after all has a big obvious Tragic Backstory that people would want to learn more about, whereas Kaito... never talks about his issues at all, making it far too easy for people to overlook the fact that he has them. Still, it should be perfectly possible to notice that Kaito has at least some kind of issues by chapter 4, what with the whole lying about dying thing! Which... is admittedly not something one would expect to get expanded on by his FTEs in particular (even though they definitely do help explore that more than a first time player would likely notice), so, I guess I kind of get it. I hope that's the reason people pick Maki over Kaito in that situation if they do, rather than just thinking Kaito isn't interesting at all. (Though I'm still not remotely convinced it is as much as it should be.)

It's still sad, though! It still shouldn't be so ridiculously unheard of for people to hang out with him more than maybe once or twice. Even if you're not necessarily expecting any deep issues from Kaito's FTEs, he's such a likeable person who's fun to be around and just watch be Kaito, and that alone should be more than enough reason for at least a reasonable fraction of players to want to spend more time with him and learn some more about what makes him so very Kaito. Like I mentioned in my response to the previous ask, even without his issues, Kaito is still a really interesting person on the surface anyway, in such a way that people should want to find out more about it - and his FTEs do expand on some of that!

It's like... I've also not seen even a single LP that ever maxed Gonta's FTEs (I think I've only seen one even hang out with him at all?) despite the fact that basically everyone generally loves Gonta and agrees that he is pure and precious and good and is heartbroken by trial 4. That should make at least some people want to spend more time watching Gonta make a friend and be his usual lovely gentleman self and maybe talk about why the gentleman thing is so important to him, even if they're not necessarily expecting any particularly groundbreaking new insights into his character, no? But they don’t and I am sad about it. Gonta is good and deserves an actually healthy friendship. (And, Gonta's character aside, I'd also be really interested to see what an LPer who is familiar with Chrono Trigger and/or Street Fighter makes of Gonta's second FTE, during a blind playthrough and not in the postgame, before they know the twist.)

#danganronpa v3 #danganronpa v3 spoilers #reply #thanks for the thoughts and for relating to my frustration over this!#Anonymous

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umbrahighpriestofgiratina · 4 years

Text

Umbra Plays Pokemon Shield Bonus 3: Shield Snippets

Here’s all the ficlets I did for Umbra Plays Pokemon Shield in one place! Plus a small bonus one because @taggthewanderer asked for at least one postgame bonus

Shield Snippets

Funky, Heinwald, Mantle, and Duke were idling around the Gym lobby as Siegbert got them registered.

"Doesn't all this seem... Funny to you?" said Heinwald.

"In a cosmic sort of way, yes," said Funky, shrugging his shoulders.

"No, no no," said Heinwald. "I mean... Suspicious."

"What's suspicious about this?" said Mantle. "We get to enter a big tournament! See lots of humans and Pokemon! It'll be incredible!"

"I shall truly be able to show my might!" said Duke, flexing his muscles.

"Yes, I know we all are excited-"

"I'm dreadfully bored," said Funky.

"...Most of us are excited, but some things aren't adding up. The legend of the Darkest Day. The mysterious Pokemon Funky mentioned he encountered in the woods. The infuriating boy collecting Wishing Stars. Something is going on here and I will be the one to find out what."

"Hey! Seigbert is done registering us!" said Mantle.

"It is time!" said Duke.

"Finally..." said Funky.

The three went over to the counter as Heinwald shook his head and sighed.

"I almost wish I had a proper partner right now..."

---------------

Mantle was the happiest he'd been in his entire life.

He'd started out as this lowly Bug-type crawling around in Route 3, catching easy prey and hoping stronger Rookidee didn't notice him. But then Seigbert found him and recruited him for this fancy-ass Gym Challenge and now there was a screaming crowd all around him in a huge stadium cheering for him! Yes him!

(The notion they were cheering for his Trainer crossed his mind, but he dismissed it as ridiculous.)

And now all that stood in his way was Milo's Gossifleur.

"You think you're a bigshot, being a Gym Leader's Pokemon? Take this!"

He curled in a ball and barreled at the Gossifleur with a Flame Wheel, bouncing off him and sending him skidding back. In response the Gossifleur started... Singing, using Round.

"What the hell are you trying to pull?" said Mantle.

He used Flame Wheel again, and whatever the Gossifleur was trying to pull was cut off as he was knocked out. Milo promply boasted a few things Mantle wasn't really listening to and sent out an Eldegoss.

"More of the same?" said Mantle. "This'll be ca-"

Several things happened at once.

The Eldegoss was recalled into his ball. The ball ballooned and the Eldegoss was sent back out, now titanic in size. Mantle was about to object about how it wasn't fair when the same promply happened to him.

He couldn't belive it. He was huge! There was so much power flowing through him. No tiny bug anymore, he towered over all these humans. He was the apex predator now.

The Eldegoss slammed into him with a Max Strike, shaking the stadium. He didn't care. He fired a Max Flare, a massive gout of flame that made the sunlight harsher via its mere presence. They traded blows again. Both were weaker. Mantle shook away fear in his mind so he-

His trainer ran over to his massive form and sprayed him with a Super Potion. What was he planning?!

Then the Eldegoss caused a mass of plant growth to sprout beneath his massive form, which did... Almost nothing to his fiery, chitinous body. Then, the two Pokemon shrank back down to normal size.

It was then that Mantle realized what his Trainer was trying to do. Outlast them.

"So much for that, huh?" said Mantle, ignoring a Leafage and slamming into the Edelgoss with another Flame Wheel. This time, he went down.

The crowd cheered. His Trainer cheered. Mantle cheered. He'd done it. He'd made it to the big leagues. Mantle realized his Trainer was a big help here.

...But he still deserved most of the credit.

-----------

Funky really wished he weren't here right now.

He could be looking at the beautiful Galarian scenery, or cities, or even other Pokemon, for inspiration for a painting. Instead... He was facing down a Goldeen. A measly Goldeen.

"Let's get this over with," he said, rolling his eyes.

He swirled one of his paintbrushes in the air, sending a flurry of Razor Leaves at the fish. The Goldeen air-swam out of the way and rammed a Horn Attack into Funky's side, but a second, up-close flurry finished her off. An Arrokuda was sent out in her place, but the second fish suffered a similar fate.

"Is this a joke?" said Funky.

Nessa sent out her Dreadnaw. Both the Drednaw and Funky ballooned to kaiju size via Dynamax power. Funky admitted it felt good. Inspirational even.

His thoughts were interrupted by a G-Max Darkness directly at his massive knees, causing his enormous body to stumble dangerously close to the crowd - not that this interrupted their frenzied cheering. Funky gritted his teeth and caused a massive burst of plant life to erupt beneath the Drednaw in a G-Max Overgrowth. The Dreadnaw let out a mighty roar of pain as the plants penetrated her shell. There was an explosion, and the Drednaw shrank back down to size, KOed. Funky shrank back down to size as well, smirking.

"Like I said. A joke."

------------

The crowd cheered, the music blared, the lights shone down on the battlefield... and HeInwald didn't really care. He was looking for traces of how this place allowed the Dynamax phenomenon, and was so engrossed in doing so he barely noticed the Ninetales in front of him.

"You going to fight me or not?" she said.

"Hm? Oh. My apologies."

He lunged forward with a Night Slash. The attack barely cut into the Ninetales' fur as she spat a Will-o-Wisp at him, burning him.

"Concerning," he said. He let out a Snarl, dampening her retaliatory Ember. And again to her Fire Spin. And again to her Quick Attack. A second Quick Attack eventually took him down.

Mantle was sent out in his place. He was excited! He was in his element! Literally! Quickly he Coiled in on himself to sheild himself from the Ninetales' Quick Attack. A Fire Spin was sucked into his body via Flash Fire. Finally he used Bite, biting down hard on one of the Ninetales' legs.This was too much, and the pain caused her to promply fall to the ground, fainted.

An Arcanine was sent out in her place. "Stay, puppy!" said Mantle as he lunged and Bit the much larger Pokemon. The Arcanine Bit back, and the two Pokemon kept wrestling and Biting one another until Mantle proved victorious.

"Alright, who's next? I'm ready to take on any-"

He was promptly recalled and replaced with Lir.

Lir promptly panicked. There were so many lights, so many noises. And a very powerful-looking Centiskorch right in front of him. He wanted to go back in the ball. The ball did not judge. It only hated.

It got worse when the Centicorch grew and stretched into a much more intimidating form, and Lir grew and stretched in turn. The massive centipede hit him with an overwhelming blast of heat that turned the temperature in the arena up by several degrees, and in turn Lir hurriedly dropped a pillar of rock on the Gigantimax Centiskorch. Weak Armor causing bits of his body to fall away, he promptly yelled and dropped another pillar of rock on his opponent. When the G-Max Rockfall crumbled away, the Centiscorch was normal sized and unconscious.

Lir couldn't believe his eyes. He'd done it! He'd defeated a scarier foe! He could get used to this kaiju thi-

He shrunk back down to normal. He was small and vulnerable again. Where was the ball when you needed it?

---------

Heinwald had a soft spot for Ghost types, as paranormal as they were. He felt it was his obligation to inspect them. But no, his trainer wanted him to fight this one, this Galarian Yamask in front of him. Ah well.

"Hold still a bit will you?" said Heinwald.

He lunged at the Yamask with a Night Slash, only for a twofold tingling feeling to creep up on him. It didn't take him long to deduce that not only had the Yamask stolen his Ability with Wandering Spirit, he'd also Disabled his Night Slash. His Trainer concluded the same, recalling him.

Upon entering the battlefield Uk was hit with a Brutal Swing. Uk did not care, it barely scratched him. What did phase Uk was all the lights and noise and worse of all PEOPLE. Uk wasn't used to this kind of attention - normally Uk fed on negative emotions, not the screaming frenzy of an excited crowd. But Uk wanted to make his Trainer happy, so...

"Uk no let you win!" he said as he slammed the Yamask with a Sucker Punch, taking him down. The crowd cheered, and Uk did as well... only to be recalled.

Duke was sent out next. Finally. He had been honing his blade-claws long enough, and he would finally be able to prove his worth in a gym battle. A Mimikyu was sent out to face him, and he scoffed.

"Glorified Pikachu-shaped eldritch sack of oats! You think you can face ME?!"

As the Mimikyu Honed its Claws Duke slashed at him with Metal Claw to break his disguise. Duke barely flinched at the following Shadow Sneak as he barreled through and struck the Mimikyu with an Iron Head, taking it down.

"Ha! Is that all you've got! I need stronger opponents! Give me more! MORE!"

His request for more was ignored as he was swapped for Uk, and the Mimikyu was swapped for Cursola.

"Hey!" said Uk. "Enemy look like Lir! Maybe I should go easy on her... NOT!"

He jabbed the Cursola with a False Surrender. The Cursola attempted to Curse him in response... Only to KO itself from the effort. Uk scratched its head.

"Uk confused."

He was promptly recalled and replaced with Heinwald, who found himself facing down a Gengar.

"I suppose this is the part where things... Escalate," said Heinwald.

Indeed Heinwald grew to massive size as the opposing Gengar transformed into a massive, gaping maw. Heinwald sent coils of G-Max Darkness at the Gigantimax Gengar while the Gengar spat a wave of G-Max ooze that would have smothered the crowd if not for the protective barriers in place. Heinwald was hurt, but also mostly annoyed. He sent another Max Darkness that shook the stadium, doing the Gengar in. The crowd cheered. Heinwald shrank back down to size and smirked.

Guess fighting Ghosts was ALSO worth his time.

----------

The pastel colors of the arena almost blinded Duke, but he didn't let it get to him. This was his finest hour. Members of the Galaian Meowth line were raised to be warriors, and now he would be a warrior on the grand stage.

Also this Galarian Weezing was looking at him funny and that would not stand.

"You dare cross the great Duke, slayer of Champions? I'll END you!"

The Weezing sneezed a Fairy Wind in his face, further incensing Duke to deliver an Iron Head to her floating form. The Weezing collapsed to the floor and was recalled.

"Ahaha! Come at me! I will end you all!"

A Mawile was sent out. This one gave him pause... Those jaws... He missed an exchange between his Trainer and Opal but he felt something cause his abilities to falter further.

"Warrior's retreat!"

He was swapped out for Mantle.

"Some warrior you are..." said Mantle.

He Coiled in response to the Mawile's Iron Defense, also guarding against her Crunch. A Flame Wheel straight into the Mawile's Iron Defense position caused the Mawile to skid back, Mantle was confident when -

"What do you mean pink isn't your favorite color?"

This outburst from his trainer made him realize he was far more vulnerable, and he Coiled again, the Mawile attempting to shake him around with Crunch. Finally he yanked the Mawile's jaws into another Flame Wheel, taking her out. Opal sent out a Togekiss in her place.

"Heh... Guess you are tough..." Mantle said. "But you aren't tough eno-"

There was an Ancientpower and he went down. Duke was sent back out, and was torn. On one hand, one of his comrades had gone down. On the other, he felt invigorated.

"DIE WEIRD BIRD"

He slammed an Iron Head into the Togekiss' face, ignoring the Air Slash in reply. The Togekiss fell out of the sky as the crowd cheered. An Alcreamie was sent out, but Duke felt invigorated and felt more so after Obal said something about liking his trainer's "answer." He felt strong.

And he felt stronger as he grew and stretched and his foe grew and stretched to gargantuan sizes. Now it was a battle of titans. Bright bursts of light that reverberated through the stadium hit Duke, and it only increased his bloodlust. Steel spikes ran from him to the Gigantimax Alcremie, impaling it, breaking its massive form and causing it to shrink down, unconscious.

Duke shrank down and gave a roar befitting a much larger cat mon. He had conquered this puny Fairy gym and all had seen it.

Meanwhile his Trainer scratched his head. "Can't believe the quiz was in the gym battle too..."

------------------

Mantle felt a little insecure. He could kind of feel he was falling behind a bit. No. No he wouldn't let such thoughts get to him. Especially not against this damn Frosmoth.

"I know you're all head but heads up!"

He used Flame Wheel, rolling through the Hail the Frosmoth cast and slamming into it for an instant KO. The crowd cheered. A Darmanitan was sent out in its place.

"You really think you can clear this gym with moves like that?" said the Darmanitan with a Taunt.

"Oh I sure can!" said Mantle, ramming into her with another Flame Wheel. It was then the Darmanitan's form shifted - to a bouncing, hopping mad firey snowman.

"Woah, you seem mad... Good!"

The Darmanitan attempted to clamp down on Mantle with a Fire Fang, only for Mantle's Flash Fire to absorb it and Mantle to wrap her up in a Flame Wheel, tossing her across the arena and knocking her out. Next came... a Eiscue.

"And what are you supposed to be?" Mantle said.

He rolled into her with another Flame Wheel, only to merely shatter the ice around her face as she spat an Icy Wind at him. Mantle spat in annoyance as as the Escue tried to hit him with a Freeze Dry before he coiled into another Flame Wheel and KOed her.

"Aw yeah, I'm on top!" said Mantle.

He was promptly recalled and replaced by Funky as the opposition sent out a Lapras.

Funky cocked an eyebrow at the creature. How did it move around on land?

The question remained unanswered as the two embiggened to massive sizes that towered over the crowd. Funky waved his paintbrushes in the Gigantimax Lapras' direction to summon a G-Max Overgrowth, thinking it would end it quickly. Instead the Lapras responded with a song, a chilling song that clutched at Funky's heart like ice.

The pain The song. He thought back to his old troop. How they all were supposed to be musicians, it was in their blood. But he didn't want to be a musician, he wanted to paint amnd draw, but they forced him to do what they wanted, scolded him, until he finally ran away. But this icy song ate at him, damaged him both physically and psychologically untill he finally cried out, his booming voice aweing the crowd and echoing beyond the stadium.

"NO! ENOUGH MUSIC! I AM A PAINTER!"

Another Max Overgrowth. The Lapras collapsed, shrunk, was recalled. Funky shrank as well, panting heavily, even as the crowd cheered. He felt... Relieved.

Maybe this Gym challenge was an even better inspiration for his art than he thought.

----------

Heinwald didn't like the look of this place. And this Gym leader was totally copying his hairstyle. But what was more concerning was this Scrafty. He was Intimidating, and Heinwald knew one good Fighting move would take him down.

"Uk, don't let me down."

The two swapped places, Uk coming out straight into a Brick Break.

"Ow! You break brick? Uk break spirit!"

He lashed out with a hair-whip in a Spirit Break, sending the Scrafty flying and knocking him unconscious.

Before Uk could celebrate Heinwald was sent back out, and found himself facing another Obstagoon.

"...I forgot the rest of my kind were this crude."

He hit the other Obstagoon with a Brick Break, only to be grabbed and slammed with a Counter that took him down instantly. Funky was sent out in his place.

"Of course I'm on cleanup duty..."

Funky's Brick Break did the job this time, nailing the Obstagoon in the head. Funky was then swapped out for Mantle as Piers sent out a Malamar.

"Alright you overgrown piece of calamari time to get yours!"

He clawed at the Malamar with X-Scissor, ignoring his Foul Play, causing the Malamar to screech and keel over.

"Alright who's nex-"

He was swapped for Duke, who was now facing a Skuntank.

"Your stench offends the way of the warrior! You will be defeated!"

A Sucker Punch glanced off Duke's migty beard as he burrowed beneath the Skuntank and attacked from below, and a second Sucker Punch didn't dissuade him from doing it again, taking the Skuntank down. Duke roared a victory cry before glancing around in confusion.

"No Dynamax this time? I wanted to be a GIANT warrior..."

--------

Galadriel looked at the Flygon and Gigalith before her as a sandstorm raged. Then at her partner, Uk.

"Fascinating... You're my partner again then?"

Uk nodded. "Uk happy to share limelight with team!"

"It is settled then."

She lunged at the Gigalith with a Smart Strike as Uk attacked the Gigalith with a False Surrender. Galadriel dodged a Steel Wing from the Flygon as the Gigalith threw up a Stealth Rock.

"Hey! Trainer say Stealth Rock cheating!" said Uk.

"Refocus on the Flygon!" said Galadriel.

The Flygon slammed her with a Steel Wing as it tried to swoop out of the way, but a Spirit Break and Dazzling Gleam did it in. The Gigalith hung on, and Body Pressed Uk to little effect. A Sandaconda was sent out in the Flygon's place.

"What we do now?" said Uk.

"Get rid of the Gigalith!" said Galadriel.

A Dazzling Gleam from her took him out and heavily tore into the Sandaconda, which failed to do much of an impression with its Glare. A Spirit Break tore into it further, but the Sandaconda hissed in defiance as a Duraldon was sent out.

"Uk, now's your chance!"

"What Gal mea-"

Before Uk knew it, he was a giant! He couldn't believe it! All the humans in the audience looked so tiny and cute! He wanted to pet the-

Uh-oh. The Duraldon looked like a building now.

Galadriel sent out another burst of Dazzling gleam, taking out the Sandaconda and cutting into the massive Duraldon. The Duraldon, however, sent out a Max Steelspike, causing Uk to keel over and shake the stadium before shrinking down and being recalled.

"Uk! No!" said Galadriel. "You will be avenged..."

"And I'll do the avenging!" said Duke, being sent out. "Aye, glorified high-rise! You don't hurt my friends."

"I'll hold him off!" said Galadriel. "You get the jump on him."

Galadriel bombarded the Duraldon with another Dazzling Gleam. The Duraldon's massive fist crushed Duke with a Max Knuckle, but by the time the fist lifted Duke had buried underground. Galadriel fired one last Dazzling Gleam before a Max Steelspike left her prone.

"Duke... I leave this to you..."

Suddenly, the earth beneath the Duraldon shook as Duke burst from it, clawing at the Duraldon's underside. The Duraldon gave an unearthly creak and moan before toppling over into the protective barrier around the crowd, then shrinking and being recalled into his ball. The crowd went wild.

Duke cheered! His and Galadriel's plan worked! He was the friend-avenger! His name would be legend for ages to come!

...Also he'd hopefully get skritches and treats from his Trainer.

--------------

Galadriel peered around this city of Wyndon; it was so very different from the forest Seigbert had found her in. She wasn't sure she was so fond of the pollution and the noise but the bustling Auras of the people and Pokemon there... They were fascinating.

Almost took her mind off the looming threat.

Heinwald had told her everything. The conspiracy to hide the true nature of the Sword And Shield and the dual heroes, the strange boy on a mission from the chairman... and she had seen some of it herself. The resurgence of rouge Dynamax Pokemon, the state of Spikemuth, the tremors, all of which they refused to let her handle...

She turned her horn from Wyndon back in the direction of Hammerlocke. She could still feel the immense power radiating from its spire, and how... unstable it was. She feared the worst. She hoped that Heinwald wasn't right.

That the Darkest Day wasn't coming back.

In the Glimwood Tangle, they told stories about that event. About the rampages as the astral projections known as Dynamax and Gigantimax went out of control. About... it.

She knew a resurgence would be devastating. But at the very least she had hope.

Her Team. Her Trainer.

-------------------

The crowd was extra-wild today. Why wouldn't they be? It was rising star Seigbert vs. long-standing Champion Leon. Funky understood this and yet he did not care. All he was concerned about was getting rid of the Aegislash in front of him.

"Don't blink that one eye of yours."

Funky slapped the Aegislash with a Knock Off only to take a Shadow Ball to the face. With an annoyed grunt, Funky slapped the Aegislash to the ground with another Knock Off, knocking him out.

"Hmph. Thought so."

He was recalled and replaced with Mantle, as Leon sent out a Cinderace.

"Hey, Funky told me about you!" said Mantle.

He Coiled in on himself, only to be sent flying by an Acrobatics. He was quickly swapped for Duke, who ate a Quick Attack with little effort only to be sent flying himself by a Pyro Ball. Uk was sent out and delivered a couple Sucker Punches before he too was felled by a Pyro Ball.

Galadriel was sent out. Pyro Ball tore into her even as she dodged an Acrobatics. Seigbert switched back to Mantle, but as soon as the Cinderace let loose another Acrobatics Heinwald was switched in in his place.

"You may have been able to fell my friends... But not me!" said Heinwald.

He slammed into the Cinderace with a Double Edge, smacking him into the side of the stadium, KOed.

Heinwald was then switched for Funky as a Sesmitoad was sent out. Funky smirked.

"Cake."

He let loose a Drum Beating, knocking out the Seismitoad easily. Leon sent out a Dragapult to replace it. While his Trainer was fumbling around in his bag for Max Revives, however, a jet of flame left Funky unconsious, and Mantle was sent back out. Mantle tanked a few Shadow Balls and lashed out with a Crunch.

"Man this guy is tough!"

He was swapped out again, for Uk. Uk withstood another Shadow Ball and Sucker Punched the Dragapult to metaphorical death. A Haxorus was sent out in its place, and slammed Uk with an Iron Tail, KOing him again. Mantle was sent out only to fall to an Outrage. Finally, it was Galadriel's turn.

"Your rage only makes me stronger!"

She absorbed the Outrage without the scratch, and then, in the Haxorus' subsequent confusion, took him out with a Dazzling Gleam. Then... came Charizard. It grew and stretched into Gigantimax Charizard, dropping a pillar of rock on Galadriel. She fell, and Heinwald was sent out.

"This ends now."

He grew and stretched to Gigantimax form. The Charizard buffeted him with a Max Aircurrent before Heinwald dropped Max Lightning on him... And the Charizard shrank back to normal. He grinned.

"Too bad."

He charged his foot with Max Lightning and stepped on the Charizard. When he lifted his foot the Charizard was unconscious.

Heinwald shrank down to normal. The crowd went nuts. His Trainer went nuts.

Heinwald, ever so subtly, allowed himself a small fist pump.

------------

Zacian stared into Galadriel's eyes as she steeled her resolve.

"If I must face you this way... So be it."

Zamazenta's Iron Defense did not stop a barrage of Dazzling Gleams, but a Behemoth Bash did. Mantle slithered into the battlefeild.

"We're fighting a Legendary AGAIN?"

He was sent skidding back by a Behemoth Bash, but retaliated with a Fire Lash, striking Zamazenta's hide. Zamazenta bit down with a Crunch, only to have her jaws singed by a second Fire Lash.

"Sigbert, NOW!" said Mantle.

A Luxury Ball was thrown, but torn asunder. Zamazenta bit down again, knocking Mantle out. Funky came out next, eyeing the situation warily.

"You might want to bring out the big guns."

At this, a Master Ball was thrown. It sucked Zamazenta in, wobbled three times, than clicked. Funky grinned.

"Something something unstoppable force meets immovable object."

---------------

And that's all of them! There might be another bonus down the line but that depends on if an in-game thing can stop kicking my ass.

#umbra plays pokemon shield #pokemon sword and shield

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bluerosesburnblue · 5 years

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Liz Liveblogs Bravely Second: Final Thoughts

Alright, as promised, let’s take a deep dive into my experience with Bravely Second. I’ve done the postgame, not really much to talk about. All it really is is unused dungeons that appeared in Default, but not Second, repurposed to hold missing enemies with a set encounter rate. Game’s been 100% completed besides some of the Ba’al bestiary entries, which I’m working on. (And by 100% I mean all Bestiary entries completed, all item/equipment journal entries completed, all character levels and job levels maxed out, all songs unlocked in Chompcraft, and all Titles collected.) So, now that there’s nothing left to do but hope for the best at Fort-Lune, I’ve taken some time to organize my thoughts and gone back through the liveblog to see if any of my opinions have changed

Speaking of the liveblog, I saved it in a word document when the Tumblr purge happened, just in case, and that thing ended up being 98 pages/53823 words long. So wow. That’s more than the entirety my college thesis paper. Kinda nuts how much I can write when I’m motivated. So now I’m gonna write EVEN MORE

Major spoilers for Bravely Default, Bravely Second, and also Undertale follow below

I suppose I should start this post by talking briefly about my history with the series, since I only liveblogged Bravely Second and don’t think I’ve said much about Default before

I beat Bravely Default about three years ago (shortly before November 8, 2015 if the email I sent to my best pal anheiressofasoldier, who I will not tag as she’s avoiding Bravely Second spoilers, is any indication). I binged the game while at college, because I wanted to be able to play Bravely Second when it came out (...whoops). Around the time I really started getting into the game, indie darling Undertale came out, and I spent a lot of my time bouncing between playing Bravely Default and having Undertale playthroughs going in the background while doing schoolwork/grinding in BD. I learned one thing about my tastes during that time: I really love meta plots in games and the way that they both utilize the system’s capabilities to mess with the player and integrate the player into the story, expanding the lore and fostering the sense that you, behind the screen, really are a part of this story and a member of the world of the game, just like all of the other characters. It is a fascinating story mechanism, and it’s a surefire way to get me invested in the narrative

Makes it kind of funny that the Undertale spiritual sequel/AU, Deltarune, came out just as I was finishing Bravely Second. I guess the two series will always be tied together for me

For those unaware and who also don’t care about spoilers, Bravely Default and Undertale are both RPGs with similar twists at the end. Namely that you, the Player, are a full-blown character and active participant in the world of the story. And also that saving the game is an in-universe thing. Bravely Default reveals during its final boss battle that another realm exists, the Celestial Realm, and when it’s depicted the game uses the 3DS camera to show the player’s face, creating the narrative that the villain, Ouroboros, is attempting to break out of the “game” into the “real world,” and the entire plot of the game has been revolving around this fact. It is also revealed that “The Celestial” has been keeping Tiz alive and guiding him, and when he severs the bond between himself and the Celestial, he collapses and the game ends. You, the player, lose control of the character because he breaks your bond, which means you can’t play anymore

The first hint that there may be more to Undertale’s story of a human falling into the Underground land of monsters is during the final boss of a Neutral run (necessary to get the Pacifist ending and the first ending most people see), where the main villain, Flowey, abruptly crashes the game. Booting it up again causes the intro to glitch out and the save file to show what appears to be Flowey’s own save file. When accessed, the player is loaded into a black void with nothing but a save point. Accessing that causes Flowey to delete your save file (not unlike what Providence tries in Bravely Second), which begins the final fight against him. During the fight, he makes use of Save States to reload you back into the way of his attacks. This messing around with the player’s save data is only the first part of the game’s meta twist. Another reveal happens at the end of its Genocide route, where the player actively guides their character into eradicating every last monster in the Underground. You have to actively stay in each area of the game and kill everything you see until every enemy encounter becomes a blank screen with the message “But nobody came...” There’s no way to just accidentally end up on this route. Like, I cannot stress that enough. Very few people actually see the Genocide route, but its reveal is integral to understanding the overarching story

The final boss of the Genocide route is designed to actively screw with the UI (which is what I referenced when fighting Providence). His attacks change the shape of your action box, where you’re intended to dodge attacks in bullet hell segments, around. Some of his attacks are in the menu, hitting your icon in the text box and the buttons to select your action for each turn, constantly damaging you. There’s no downtime in this fight. You have to always be moving, because now he’s attacking your safe zones, just like Providence’s Bravely Second attack. There is no safe place from damage against these bosses. The trick to beating Undertale’s Genocide boss is to wait him out and dodge his attacks until he’s tired, and then use the time he’s asleep to move the action box into the menu to access your commands. Then, at the very end, you’re taken to a void and speak to a child you’ve never seen before, who informs you that you’ve both been controlling the main character of the game, Frisk. In a Neutral or Pacifist run of the game, this child is content to let you take control, and in fact may not even awaken as an entity possessing Frisk at all. In a Genocide run, however, they get so gung-ho about killing that they take control from you at various points. Noticeably, in the Genocide route, “Frisk” seems to act on their own a lot in cutscenes, something that they only do occasionally in other routes. The Mysterious Child informs you that they are the Fallen Child that the player named in the beginning, and that they also believe that they are some manifestation of... I don’t know how to phrase this. Game addiction? Completionist tendencies? They call themself “the feeling you get when your stats go up” or something along those lines. They ask you to destroy the world of Undertale with them and move on to the next game, where you’ll do the process over again together, killing all enemies and the “beating the game,” over and over until there’s nothing left. Accept their offer and the games ends there, the game’s world is erased. Refuse, and the Fallen Human informs you that you were never in control and attacks the player directly, causing damage numbers to be displayed across the screen and the game to crash instantly after. Booting it up again in either situation leaves you with nothing but a black screen with wind noises. 10 minutes after booting up that screen, the Fallen Human will offer to reset things so long as you sell them your soul. Accept, and every time you play a Pacifist route again the happy ending will play, before showing Frisk abruptly becoming possessed by the Fallen Human

I’d hazard a guess that what takes Undertale from being a goofy, lighthearted game with fun jokes and a lot of emotional moments into a ridiculously fascinating game to analyze is that reveal. The realization that the Player is a character takes that game’s story from good to great in a very short amount of time. Everything changes. And that’s exactly what happened to me with Bravely Default, which suddenly went from a cute throwback game to nostalgic RPGs (of which I have played none so there really isn’t any nostalgia there for me) that I genuinely enjoyed both the story and gameplay of to a brilliant game that I couldn’t get enough of. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that seeing that plot thread in Undertale is what made me appreciate its appearance in Default and hope that the lore there would be taken up a notch in Second. And honestly, I’d say it did. Gameplay-wise, it doesn’t go nearly as hard into it as Undertale does, but I don’t think it really has to. It’s not the same game, it just draws on similar themes, and I think it does that really well with the 3DS hardware. And to the Bravely Series’s credit, its integration of the Player into the narrative is done very well

So with all that said, what do I think of Bravely Second as a product? I had expectations, obviously. I expected to get more lore about the Celestial and the Celestial realm and was not disappointed. I went in spoiled on quite a few things, namely:

Anne is Airy’s sister, and is evil and works for a purple-ish pyramid named Providence

Ringabel is in it. Or at the very least, Alternis takes his helmet off. But it was probably Ringabel

The Kaiser’s real name is Denys Geneolgia

Obviously I knew who the asterisk holders were, since I had a list, so that spoiled Yōko as an antagonist to an extent, as well as a few tricky methods to beat bosses, namely Rev

A general overview of some sidequests, mostly Profiteur vs. Holly, Barras vs. Einheria, and Khamer vs. Alternis. You know, the controversial ones

Tiz/Agnès, Ringabel/Edea, and Yew/Magnolia are endgame ships

There is one time loop in the game. Not a world change, but a genuine time loop

I didn’t even pay much attention to pre-release info for Bravely Second, but try as I might, I can’t ever seem to completely avoid spoilers 😓. Oh well. The good news is that none of them really ruined the experience for me

Bravely Second is something that I haven’t seen in a long time: a good sequel. Good GOD have I seen games ruined by their sequels. Maybe I’m just bitter about the sequel hook in TWEWY Final Remix, which makes it seem like the writers have no idea what to do with a sequel, despite having a rich world to set it in. SO MANY sequels just rehash the first game, contradict its ending to get rid of everyone’s happy endings, or else try to explain things that didn’t need explanation (and explain them poorly at that). Bravely Second completely destroyed any of those worries for me. Everything feels like an expansion of the world and characters, done tastefully and with nothing but love for the first game that it’s expanding the lore of. I really felt the heart that went into making it while playing the game, and I have so much respect for the people who made it

Now, it does hit some similar plot beats, like the betrayer fairy who turns out to be working for an extradimensional being looking to mess with both the Celestial Realm and Luxendarc, but I love the twists it made to the formula. Bravely Default was a deconstruction of nostalgic JRPGs, where the helpful guide turns out to be working for the villain and tricked you into doing their dirty work, and instead of saving the world you were dooming it. Bravely Second then takes that plot and flips the perspective on it. They make the person being led by the fairy to open the Holy Pillar the villain, and he believes that he’s saving the world just as vehemently as the party did last game. Which almost makes him the perfect sympathetic villain, since he serves as a counterpoint to the main party who can understand exactly how he got into that position once the full extent of it has been revealed

At no point did I feel that Bravely Second’s added lore hampered the game, or ruined what I knew from the first game (I can easily ignore how silly it is that “oh all of the asterisk holders you killed last game were actually alive!” because I understand how much extra effort it would have been to design all new holders for old asterisks just to justify their inclusion in the game. It also might backfire for fans of the original characters who’d want to see their old favorites included.) Bravely Second’s lore expansions are only ever beneficial to its narrative. The expansion of the Celestial lore and the Plague, largely footnotes in Default, are turned into driving parts of the narrative in ways that only seem to make the world feel larger and older. Lived in. I can only hope that Bravely Third, or whatever it end up being called, keeps up the trend

And Bravely Default didn’t have the happiest of endings, with Ringabel getting a second shot to save his version of the party, but at the cost of abandoning the friends he’s made on this journey. Tiz is comatose, Til and Olivia are still dead, Edea is alone, and Agnès is left to reform her entire religion while fully believing that one of her friends is gone forever and the love of her life may never wake up. I am extremely grateful for being able to take that bittersweet ending and make it a happy one

On top of the amazing graphical upgrades, which stay true to the feel of BD while making everything feel grander, and the tweaks to the battle system to allow for minor enemy variation and the Another Round feature, which gives some incentive to carefully managing BP consumption, and some really fun new jobs, and I’d say I like Bravely Second even more than Bravely Default! (And browsing the internet, it seems like that’s an unpopular opinion. Dunno why, might be the fact that Second is goofier in its first half than the overall tone of Default and relies less on nostalgia for old RPGs). Bravely Second is where I feel the series went from a neat homage with some interesting gameplay innovations to a real adventure with its own unique world and story to tell

So what about the main characters, then? I’m gonna consider the main characters Yew, Magnolia, Edea, Tiz, Altair, Denys, and Anne, as they’re the ones who arguably drive most of the plot

Yew Geneolgia is the character that I was most worried about when I started playing this game. I was really expecting him to just be “Tiz but Younger” and I was happily surprised by what I got. If the liveblog didn’t make it clear, I LOVE YEW. He is such a genuinely sweet boy, who’s chipper and nerdy and so dedicated to his loved ones and I can’t help but relate to him. He’s like the perfect little brother I always wanted (I love my actual younger brothers but they ain’t perfect). His growth is incredible. He goes from a scared kid singing off-key to himself in the woods to keep calm to staring down the god of the realm of people that act as gods to him and telling him to get lost, all without ever losing his kind and dorky nature. He learns the importance of taking your mistakes and growing with them. His sense of familial duty is so wonderful to see, and he serves as an excellent foil to last game’s lead character, Tiz. We went from a low-class farmer and dutiful older brother to a high-class noble and dutiful younger brother, and the flip in perspective with the lead characters only serves to highlight the flip in perspective on the story as a whole. Yew is a Good Boy™ and I couldn’t ask for a better lead character in the game, especially since he’s not even on the cover of any version of the game? Bravely Second is Yew’s story and it’s a damn good one

Magnolia Arch is... honestly kind of underwhelming? She was marketed as the big female lead of the game, she’s the star of the teaser at the end of the international version of Bravely Default, she’s on the cover of some versions of the game! And I... uh... I like her just fine, but I don’t feel like she really served much purpose. She’s got a nice design, I like how sweet she is and her sense of curiosity as a newcomer to Luxendarc, but I don’t feel like she had much... point? She really feels like she was just there to introduce the major plot point of the Ba’als and be a love interest for Yew. I just can’t think of anything she really contributed to the game besides that. I don’t hate her by any means, I just wish there was a bit more to her than minor worldbuilding, especially with all of the buildup she got

Edea Lee is the person I would call the actual female lead of the game, just a different part of the game than Yew is. She’s the protagonist of the sidequests (sans the Yōkai quest, where she gets slightly lesser billing than Yew, but is still a major focal character.) Also, like Yew, she had little marketing. I really respect what they did with Edea. She was one of the most developed characters last game, having her whole arc where she learned to see the shades of gray in morality. So where do you go from there? How do you keep the character interesting without contradicting or repeating their character development from the last game? And my god did they do it with Edea. I love how she legitimately seems to have grown up in Second. She’s learned to see the complexities of situations and acts as a mentor figure to Yew, while still retaining her spitfire qualities... in the main story at least. Her development is actually about taking what she learned in the last game and applying it to a leadership role (which is what the sidequests are supposed to do, but really fail at in execution. More below.) She gets a different arc that complements her arc from last game, where she takes what she learned and now has to figure out how to apply it to a new role. The focus is less on learning to be a decent leader and mediator. It’s a continuation of her character, and it works really well. Ultimately, I’m happy with what we got of Edea (in the main story not... not necessarily Sidequest Edea, who may as well be a different character impersonating the real Edea for how much they have in common)

Tiz Arrior has a similar dilemma to Edea, and a different solution. What do we do with a character who’s already had a full game to be developed? Edea got a new arc that extends off of her first one, taking it in a new and mature direction. With Tiz, however, they decided that he would remain flat in Second, since he got the development in Default and seems content with where he is, personality wise. Like Edea, he’s placed in a mentor role, which I do really enjoy, but Tiz’s real strength in this game is how they used him for worldbuilding. He’s the perfect avenue to explore more of the lore surrounding Celestials, being the closest character to them thanks to his bond with one in the last game. So what does Bravely Second do? What it does best. It takes plot beats from the original and flips the perspective to give the player a new and better understanding of its world and characters. In this case, they take Tiz’s Celestial bond from the first game and give him a new Celestial to bond with, who is more than happy to exposit on his world and the world of Luxendarc. Like Magnolia, I feel like Tiz is much more of a worldbuilding device than a character in Bravely Second, though unlike Magnolia I can excuse this since Tiz already had a whole game that he was the main character of to be developed. We already like Tiz, so he has nothing to prove to us, and it feels good to see him get his delayed happy ending. Weird, though, how the two characters shown on box art for this game have the least impact as characters, though I suppose you could argue that they’re both tied to the main plot though other means. Other means such as...

Altair. Oh, Altair. You weird vegetable-loving alien man. He really grew on me, actually. I find it really interesting that despite constantly stating that the player is a Celestial and implying that the real world is the Celestial Realm, Altair comes in and almost seems to contradict that. Through him, we learn more about the Celestial Realm and, by extension, who and what kind of entity the Player is in this story. Is he aware of who we are? Who knows! He’s a good avenue of lore that I’m fond of. And if Yew is the emotional heart of the main story, then Altair is the emotional heart of the climax. His bond with Vega is what drives a lot of the overarching plot, and it’s a sweet romance. I dunno, I like Altair. I wish he was a little more meta-involved, and gave a little more info about the Celestial Realm, but he did good for what he needed to be. Team Dad’s good

Denys Geneolgia is tied for my favorite character with Yew and I’d talk about him but I already did and nothing’s really changed about my opinions since then, though the rewritten talk with Anne might need to be changed since she apparently doesn’t even know the player exists on the second loop, somehow. Oh well. I wouldn’t be upset if he was a party member in Bravely Third though *wink* *wink*

Anne is cool. Anne is a good foil to Airy, and my rage at realizing that she’s been playing the player since the beginning of Bravely Default is definitely a highlight. She’s a good foil to her sister from the last game. I mean she’s basically Airy taken up to 11 and without the pretense of being a good guy in this game. No, she got that out of her system last game and is in full blown Manipulative Bitch mode this game. She’s a fun villain to have on screen. Very punchable. I’m not sure if there’s much more to say about her, though. I would have loved to see her interact with the player more than the one scene where she taunts us. Just really rub it in that even though we’re a god in Luxendarc, she still managed to deceive us. Maybe expand on her relationship with Airy a little more, focus a bit more on her status as a foil to Denys. She’s a good antagonist, I just would’ve done more with her

We’ve covered the good, so what’s the bad? The sidequests. I’ve gone on a lot about the sidequests but I cannot stress enough how much I disliked all but the Chapter 6 sidequests. They are so formulaic, and that formula actually hampers the story they’re trying to tell with them. The sidequests are Edea’s spot to shine, and I can so clearly see what they were trying to do with them. They’re training Edea for her role as the Grand Marshal of Eternia, where she will end up facing two forces that oppose each other and have to make a decision about her nation’s involvement, which becomes evident during the Templar quest, which all of these seem to be leading up to. The problem, though, is that they’re trying to set up Edea as a mediator and then outright contradict that by having her just choose a side with no thought of compromise, desperately try to validate her choice as the only correct one, frequently claim that the other side’s argument has no merit, and then beats them down to make them agree with her. I mean, what!? That’s not mediating! That’s not my Edea!

By forcing us to make a binary choice, they completely gloss over any moral ambiguity in the situation, and the epilogues always focus more on how Edea feels about her choice, and not the impact that the choice has on the world as a whole. I can somewhat understand why they wanted to implement a choice system into the sidequests to make use of the second loop, but good gracious does it NOT WORK. And it doesn’t help that at least half of, if not 2/3 of, the sidequests try to make a situation morally ambiguous that really shouldn’t be? Or that has a clear correct answer? And all the rest are just really petty disagreements and none of them expand upon the world or characters in any meaningful way. Edea’s sidequest story of becoming a great mediator to make her father proud and grow into the role of Grand Marshal could have gone somewhere if that was a consistent thread between them and not a concept that solely exists in the Templar quest that tries to make the rest look good with hindsight. They really were the worst part of the game. The narratives weren’t enjoyable and the gameplay was just repetitive. Meet two bosses from the last game, listen to grievances, go through old dungeon from last game, pick a boss to fight, meaningless resolution. Rinse. Repeat. But in all honesty, the poorly written sidequests are my only big criticism of the game, and they’re entirely skippable to the average player. (I don’t recommend that you skip them because they offer useful jobs, but you certainly could if you wanted to)

Overall, I’d give Bravely Second a solid A. It is, unquestionably, one of the best games I’ve played in a while. Which is almost word-for-word what my final verdict for Bravely Default was in the email mentioned at the beginning of this post. This series consistently manages to suck me in and keep me invested in its world and characters. I adore it. I love the Bravely series so much and I’d happily buy whatever they come out with next so long as they never try that sidequest stuff ever again. Ever. (Though playing the game is probably gonna mean buying a Switch. Mmmm.)

Moving forward, what are my hopes for the hinted at Bravely Third? Ringabel’s certainly been teased a bit, so I’d hope to see him make a return. Especially as a playable character. I’d love to see his role with the Planeswardens expanded on and what their impact on the lore is. I could easily see Magnolia returning as a playable character, too, just for that little bit of extra development that she desperately needs and her implied relationship with the Planeswardens. I’d really love it if they brought Denys back and made him a playable character, finally giving him an actual, well-crafted character arc. Not to mention that his ties to both the Sword of the Brave and the Eye of Foundar make him an excellent candidate for the plot that the end of Bravely Second teased (also gives me more Geneolgia brothers content).

Story-wise, Bravely Default was centered around parallel worlds (or space), and Bravely Second explored the concept of time, so perhaps we could see alternate Realms/dimensions in Bravely Third. It would be interesting to see them expand upon the lore of the Celestial Realm, especially now that there are characters aware of the Player’s existence, such as Denys and Magnolia. Having Deneb around could also be an interesting choice, as she’d certainly know what the cataclysm in the Celestial Realm was and the capabilities of the Celestial Beings, since she is one. I’ve seen the idea of Deneb as a party member thrown around, and I wouldn’t be against it. Maybe if the whole party was made up of people aware of the Player’s existence, we could have more Player-party interactions. Dialogue choices in cutscenes for us, maybe, where we can talk directly to the party

I wouldn’t be against a Ringabel-Magnolia-Denys-Deneb party. I think that could work really well. Just a team composed of blond boys and silver-haired girls

I love Yew Geneolgia to death, but I think I’d keep him as a side character. He’s already had his story, though a look into what he did after Bravely Second would be much appreciated. Show me my son who reformed the Crystalguard and became the most well-loved member of House Geneolgia in history! At least give me a good sibling reunion! Give me the hug between Denys and Yew that I was robbed of in Bravely Second!

Don’t undo any of the happy endings everyone got. Tiz and Agnès are happily married and retired, and Ringabel and Magnolia make it back home safe to their significant others post-Bravely Third

I guess I’d also kinda like to see a good Cryst-Fairy around at some point. I like the idea I’ve seen around of the Player having their own fairy servant. That could be fun to play with. Maybe with those Party-Player chats I mentioned our dialogue choices could be telling our fairy what to tell the party. Speaking through our own, personal Cryst-Fairy, if you will. Though again, if we’re still expanding the lore, maybe they could go into the state of being of Cryst-Fairies more. Anne gave us a bit to work with, so I suppose I just want more elaboration on how they’re all siblings, how they feel about being siblings, etc. Maybe there’s a good fairy and a bad fairy in the same game and they bicker like real siblings

Also, can they give us confirmation as to whether Yōko was a Luxendarc native or not? And if not, can we see her home realm? That’d be cool. I’d like to see the Yōkai world please

I guess that’s really it, though. For now, that’s all I have to say on the Bravely series! Again, I’d like to give a huge thanks to everyone who’s read through the liveblog and/or commented on any of the parts of it. Seriously, you guys rock and I don’t know if the liveblog would’ve gotten as big as it did if it wasn’t for you guys and the support you provided. If any of you guys want to chat, don’t be afraid to hit me up. My ask box is always open

So! I’ve been Liz, this has been Liz Liveblogs Bravely Second, and I hope to see you all again if/when Bravely Third drops so we can all get lost in the world of Luxendarc together one more time!

#bravely default #bravely second #liz liveblogs bravely second #*fingers crossed for bravely third*

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gascon-en-exil · 6 years

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A Not Actually Definitive Ranking of Fire Emblem Games

So after a lot of deliberation I’ve decided not to revisit last year’s Zelda ranking project on a full scale for FE, but that doesn’t mean it’s not something I really wanted to do. 2018 is the year we’re going to get alternatively hyped for and disappointed by FE16, after all. With that in mind have an abbreviated list that will end up being one very long post. I’ve got games to gush over and an anon or two (and very likely actual followers…eep) to piss off, so here we go.

The “personal favorites of the series, love revisiting them” Tier - FE10, FE2/15, FE4

I’m never going to argue that Radiant Dawn is a perfect game or even just a perfect FE game, but damned if it doesn’t manage to do so much right all at once. An extremely ambitious story that builds off its mostly conventional predecessor in a variety of interesting ways, deconstructing a bunch of series narrative standards (life in a defeated country kind of sucks and there are people that don’t warm that quickly to young and inexperienced rulers, go figure) and taking an eleventh hour hard right at Nietzchean atheism as read by a Pride parade. Kind of falls on its ass by the end, but every experimental FE story does the same thing so I can’t fault this one. I love the army switching as motivation to try different units almost as much as I love the oh-so-exploitable growth and BEXP mechanics. Its Easy mode also hits a sweet spot for me of being challenging enough to not be a complete snore while also allowing the freedom for all manner of weird self-imposed challenges that don’t even require grinding. By all accounts Hard mode is one lazy design choice after another, but I don’t play at that level so no complaints here.

Never played Gaiden, but to its credit around half of the unique gameplay mechanics I like in Shadows of Valentia were also in the original: the modest army size, the novel approaches to inventory management and magic, the pretty basic class system with just a hint of nuance. The remake threw in some hit-or-miss questing, dungeon exploration, and achievements, but all the rest was either a solid addition or a continuation of NES-era annoyances that I could live with. And the story…SoV makes me dislike the DS games even more just because this game does so much with so little. Even leaving aside the mostly great voice acting there’s a bunch of new content that characterizes almost everybody and makes half of them (the men, anyway, because this is a remake of a Kaga-era game and therefore misogynistic as can be) gay because why the hell not, and then some development that constitutes the only solid attempt at worldbuilding Archanea-Valentia-Ylisse has ever really gotten and also retcons some stuff from Awakening into making sense. It’s even got some solid DLC with lots of character stuff for the Deliverance, the least sucky grinding of the 3DS games, and probably the only context in which I’ll ever be able to comment on anything from Cipher.

No remake needed for Genealogy of the Holy War to make it competitive with the rest of the top tier - just an excellent translation patch and the standard features of an emulator. I’ve never watched Game of Thrones and probably don’t plan on it, but I gather that this game provides the same essential experience with less blood and female nudity and marginally more egalitarianism for all. I can forgive it for being the original Het Baby Fest since you’d be hard-pressed to find a single entirely healthy and well-adjusted individual anywhere on Jugdral and I relate to that just as much. Screwed up family dynamics for everyone! It’s also arguably got a more fun breeding meta than either of the 3DS games, lacking Awakening’s optimization around a single postgame map with very specific parameters or Fates’s high level of balance that ironically stymies analysis. This is another game for interesting inventory management and unit leveling that isn’t too obnoxious, which mostly makes up for the maps taking an eon to play through even with an emulator speeding through those enemy phases. This would be a strange game to remake, but if it got a localized one of the same caliber as SoV I fully acknowledge that this could climb to the #2 spot. SoV would probably have the queer edge though unless they do some strange things to the plot or just make Gen 2 really gay…but then again Gen 2 is the part that’s more in need of fleshing out as it is. (Also, this game has So. Much. Incest. That’s not even really a kink of mine especially as it’s all straight incest, but I just find that hilarious in light of how Tumblr’s purity culture speaks of such things.)

The “good games, but don’t come back to them as much” Tier - FE7, FE9, FE8

Blazing Sword is not here for nostalgia purposes, especially since when I first played the game at 14 years old most of what I like about it didn’t really register. It was just that game with RPG elements that I liked and permadeath that I didn’t, and it took a few games after that for me to become an established fan of the franchise. Massive props for putting such an unconventional spin on a prequel to a textbook FE; this is a game in a series about war in which no war is fought, how crazy is that? We actually get to see the backstory of FE6′s tragic antagonist, even as it’s completely tangential to the plot of this game and so just feels like random Jugdral-esque family drama without context, and on top of that we get the first hints of interdimensional travel and kinky human/shapeshifter sex several years before either of those became controversial talking points about how they were ruining the series. I am so there. Lyn doesn’t matter to the saga, but her character arc is distinct and self-contained and also she picked up a disproportionately large fanbase while being bisexual and biracial so go her. Eliwood is sympathetic and homosocially-inclined even if his growths frequently make me want to cry (at least he gets a horse unlike his similarly-challenged son), and I can live with Hector even if I could have done without his lordly legacy. Throw in some average-for-the-time gameplay with just enough variety across the two routes and even more good character work *waves at Sonia and Renault and Priscilla -> Raven/Lucius and Serra and…* and it’s all in all a solid experience. The ranking system can go die in a fire though, which funnily enough it did after this game. Yay!

Like most early 3D games - except on Gamecube so it’s even more embarrassing - Path of Radiance has aged terribly by every aesthetic measure aside from the soundtrack. It’s also painfully slow, and my computer can’t run Dolphin apparently so an emulator’s not going to fix that for me. Those obvious flaws aside, it’s still an entertaining game, and more importantly it’s the prologue that had the crucial task of setting up all the pins RD knocked over in stellar fashion, whether we’re talking about the basic storyline that actually isn’t or the many het relationship fake-outs (more so in localization…I guess we’ll never know if NoA was actively planning that when they pushed Ike/Elincia like they did). PoR is also a love letter to Jugdral in both gameplay and themes, albeit an occasionally critical one. The jury’s still out on whether Jugdral or Tellius succeeds the most (fails the least?) of the FE settings at developing a complete world with a nuanced and resonant saga narrative, but that Tellius manages to be competitive while being kind of clumsy overall with racism and shifting the series’s overarching motif of dragon-blooded superhumans to one of kinky interracial sex is pretty impressive. The less I say about Ike the better since it’s only his endings in RD that save him for me; suffice it to point out that his worldview and general personality were clearly designed to appeal to a demographic that does not include me.

And finally comes The Sacred Stones, truly my average benchmark FE as I like it but struggle to have any particularly strong feelings on it one way or the other. The story is standard but has a few intriguing quirks, like the light vs. dark magic meta, surprise necrophilia, and how the main antagonist’s sexuality sort of depends on which route you take (except he’s still never getting laid so does it really matter?). It also seems to have been the first game to have made a legitimate effort toward the kind of replayability that’s normal for RPGs, what with the branched promotions, the route split, and the actual postgame. That’s all much more engaging than just filling up a support log. The gameplay is also more polished and (I think?) more balanced than the other GBA games, if one is willing to overlook the minor issue of Seth. Let’s see…something something twincest that’s now an IS running gag, something something guys talking intimately about their lances, something something SoV did the whole dungeon crawling with monsters bit better but I can forgive SS for not taking it that far. Moving on….

The “they have Problems” Tier - FE14, FE13

Probably qualifies as a fandom heresy, but yes I’m putting Fates first of these two. Fates is in every conceivable way for me the “You Tried” game, because I had such high hopes for it from the moment we got the earliest promotional content. I was expecting a World of Warcraft-style conflict between two morally grey factions with myriad convoluted grievances against each other messily resolving themselves one way or the other according to player choice (though note that this is already somewhat damning with faint praise as no one’s going to call WoW a storytelling masterpiece), with Conquest in particular a true villain campaign that I imagined might play out as European Imperialism: The Game. What we actually got was…not that, not at all, but amid all the complaints about plot holes and idiot balls and moral myopia most fans seem to have forgotten just how much there is to this game. It’s three full stories that together average out to be just about passable, with possibly the biggest gameplay variety in the series that fixed most of Awakening’s more broken elements (pair-up, children being unquestionably superior to the first generation) while also adding in new features that undoubtedly appealed to someone or other like Phoenix mode and the castle-building aspect. I can even mostly forgive the obvious growing pains Fates exhibits in terms of queer content, as they were pretty much inevitable once the developers realized that (almost) everyone was picking up on the subtext and that that approach just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Again, they tried, and if the results included face-touching fanservice and plot contrivances left and right and two-way cultural posturing that inevitably crosses over into real world racism at some point I can still step back for a moment and acknowledge that Fates began as a distinctive, high-concept setting on par with Tellius and Jugdral that was willing to do something different with the narrative norm (for two of its routes at least, and even so I’m not begrudging Birthright its conventionality because that grounding is important overall). And who knows? Maybe a later game will come along and retroactively make this setting coherent.

Fates might have more sexual fanservice, but if there’s any FE that I feel ends up a slave to fanservice in a broader sense it would be Awakening. Yeah, I get that when it was in development everyone thought this would be the final game, so it makes sense that the finished product turned out to be a nostalgia-laden greatest hits piece. It’s still hard to forgive Awakening for feeling so insubstantial, doubly so since it ended up revitalizing the franchise and now it and Fates are everywhere. It’s got a plot that only makes some sense in light of SoV and possibly on a meta level (following my theory that the plot structure is meant to mirror FE1-3 in sequence), the first iteration of an Avatar dating game heavily coloring the characterization and support system, and a queasily feel-good atmosphere that allows almost no character to actually remain dead and centers everything around the self-insert and the power of friendship. So much for the series’s traditionally dim view of human nature and recurring theme of the inevitability of conflict. What’s more, in spite of its theoretically broad scope (including a criminally under-explored time travel plot with a bad future) and numerous call-backs to older games Awakening does surprisingly little for developing the series’s most frequently-visited setting. I think it was in large part how generic this game has always felt to me even before release that I never got very hyped for it and as a consequence was never very disappointed by it. It’s just….there, with its nostalgia and its chronic “no homo” and its host of hilariously broken mechanics. I wonder if we’d have ended up viewing Awakening more favorably if it really had been the last game? Eh, probably not.

The “needs a remake or needs a better remake” Tier - FE5, FE6, FE3/12, FE1/11

I don’t have a specific order for these, except that FE1/11 is almost certainly the bottom since 5 and 6 have remake potential and, lack of localization aside, New Mystery was a better remake than Shadow Dragon.

I still haven’t fully played Thracia 776, but I’ve watched and read through Let’s Plays and have read more than enough analysis and meta on the game to where I can definitively say that I wouldn’t enjoy playing it too much and don’t feel all that emotionally connected to the story except insofar as it relates to the overall Jugdral saga. The concept of a standard FE plot that ends with the playable cast losing is an intriguing one, though they really could have done better than the weird non-ending that is this game’s final boss. I’m also not as invested in Leif the fallen aristocrat as I usually am those types of characters, possibly because it’s a foregone conclusion that he eventually gets his kingship anyway. I would like a remake, hopefully one that smooths over some of the original’s mechanical roughness and also makes a bunch of characters gay because the material’s certainly there in places, but I also admit that I’d rather have a remake of Genealogy first. Or, for that matter….

Binding Blade doesn’t have the potential for an amazing story-driven remake that Thracia does; after all, it’s basically a soft reboot of FE1 with an equally bland lord saved by his Super Smash Bros. fanbase and possibly his weirdly large harem. That said, there’s a fair amount of character potential and worldbuilding opportunities what with the series’s first true support system and the content of its unorthodox prequel. Even by itself I feel like BB does more to sell Elibe as its own distinctive world than any of Marth’s games ever did for Archanea, and that’s even with the reality that like the Archanea games this playable cast is inflated with some really forgettable characters (that seem to have followed a semi-rigid numerical quota by class in this instance. It’s weird.). This game never really stuck in my mind as a good playable experience either, not helped by the fact that it feels simple and antiquated compared not only to the GBA games that followed it but to the Jugdral games that preceded it. Good on them for throwing out some of Thracia’s more unwieldy mechanics, but did they have to throw out skills, hybrid classes, and varied chapter objectives too? The space limitations of the GBA couldn’t have been that severe.

While I’ve been spending much of this post ragging on Archanea, I will say that (New) Mystery of the Emblem has some interesting character beats, like the resolution of the Camus/Nyna/Hardin tragedy, Rickard and the situationally bisexual(?) Julian, and some of the antics of Marth’s retainers. I did like bits of the remake’s new assassin plot even if most of it is cribbed from the Black Fang; Eremiya’s no Sonia, but Clarisse and Katarina have their moments. Also, Kris isn’t that offensive to me since I was never all that engaged in Marth’s inconsistent personality and from what I’ve seen his/her supports don’t all devolve into a dating sim. New Mystery has a broader array of characters than either the original or the previous remake, without requiring the player to kill off characters just to get some of the new ones. That said, the reclassing in the DS games is still broken and allows the player to strip even more character out of their personality-deprived units. I’m getting to the point where I’m having trouble separating the two actually, so I’ll just go ahead and remark that I think everyone can agree that Shadow Dragon is the worst of the three remakes so far, with no supports, the aforementioned killing of units, a prologue that adds to the story but only exists on Normal mode and also requires you to kill someone off (seriously, what is it with this game? Is it commentary on the necessary sacrifices of war that they tried forcing on the player for one game until they realized it was a terrible idea?), the needless removal of features from earlier games like rescuing even as others like weapon ranks and forging were left in, that first clumsy iteration of reclassing, and little to nothing that I can see as elevating the story above the standard fantasy adventure fare of Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light that might have been good in 1990 but didn’t look so hot in 2008. Archanea just feels so lifeless overall compared to every other setting in the franchise, to the point where I don’t even feel that guilty about putting the first game in the series way down at the bottom when over in the Zelda ranking I raised the NES games above ones I found more fun to play solely because of their historical significance. Isn’t FE1 arguably the first tactical RPG? I feel like I should appreciate it more, but I just can’t. *shrugs*

#Fire Emblem #Mostly serious but not entirely

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radramblog · 3 years

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5 Random Pokemon

Had a low energy day today so I’m just going to shit out some bad content, sorry lol

(post-writing this me checking in, haha you thought you weren’t going to put effort into this)

Hitting the ol’ random button 5 times and seeing what pops out is always fun, right? Anyway I’m just gonna do that and give opinions on what pops out.

Kingdra (#230, Water/Dragon)

Kingdra is the only Dragon type introduced in the second generation of pokemon, and since only the Dratini line were Dragons in Gen 1, it meant the type was still absurdly rare. Despite this, the game has not one but two Dragon specialising bosses, and one of them doesn’t even have one.

3 Dragonites does not a balanced team make.

Clair’s Kingdra is actually an interesting bit of game design. It’s unique (until Gen 4) Water/Dragon is an excellent defensive typing, having only one weakness (Dragon) since Water shores up Dragon’s Ice weakness and Dragon resists Water’s Grass and Electric weaknesses. The game is designed such that it is extremely unlikely you are able to hit that weakness- while the area on the way in to Blackthorn is full of Ice types (it’s… Ice Path…), Kingdra of course isn’t weak to those, and it’s exceptionally difficult to get a Dragon type or a Dragon move before fighting her. Without trading, you can’t get a Dratini at all before her in Crystal (in Gold and Silver it’s available in the Game Corner, but it’s fairly pricey), and the only other species to get a Dragon move is Kingdra’s preevolutions, Horsea and Seadra. The Dragon move in question, however, is Twister, the weakest one in the game. These limits effectively mean that Clair’s fight is substantially harder than Kingdra’s solid but not groundbreaking stats would suggest.

After you fight Clair, you get immediate access to tools that would have made the fight easier- she gives you the Dragonbreath TM so at least one of your party can deal with them, and Dragon’s Den is not only home to wild Dratini and Dragonair but also has a Dragon Scale, letting you evolve Seadra into Kingdra. In essence, you’ve proven you can beat Dragons, so now you can play with them yourself.

Vullaby (#629, Dark/Flying)

Vullaby, the preevolution of Mandibuzz, is a ‘mon that doesn’t get a lot of use in the main series games. It’s always a version exclusive and is often only available lategame (Black, Black 2, Shield) or postgame (XY, ORAS). I can’t think of a single major character that uses it or Mandibuzz on their team. I think it’s a shame that it’s so dorky looking, since it’s a neat design idea- a baby vulture with a skull for a diaper- and it’s bulky enough that it was able to briefly see Smogon play (granted, in the lowest non-LC tier, and only in Gen 6, but still). At least Mandibuzz is a genuinely excellent Pokemon in competitive Singles (doubles, less so.) and a fucking excellent design.

Also, it’s female only for some reason? I don’t get it.

Cloyster (#091, Water/Ice)

Cloyster is a great example of an early generation Pokemon that could have been overshadowed by later power creep but was given the tools to remain relevant competitively. It’s yonic design belies a monstrous 180 base physical defence, higher than anything else in the first generation, tying it for 6th highest in the franchise overall (9th including megas and the purposely overpowered Eternamax Eternatus), and decent attacking stats as well, though it’s HP and Special Defense make it quite fragile on that end.

Also, it’s sideways in Red and Blue for some reason. But only on the front sprite?

Despite this glaring weakness, its strengths have let it be relevant in different modes across basically every generation of competitive Singles. In Gen 1 Clamp was an excellent move that only it had access to, and Ice typing made it immune to Blizzard freezes as well as giving it STAB on its own Blizzards, letting it effectively wall most of the viable physical attackers. In Gen 2 it gained access to Spikes, which were incredibly powerful and pretty rare, as well as the one thing that could get rid of them in Rapid Spin, though it competed for slots with the common Suicune. Gen 3 it was mostly doing the same thing, but the addition of Skill Link in Gen 4 and Cloyster getting it gave it a niche all its own. While there are a few Pokemon that get Skill Link, Cloyster is different from all of them in two ways- it isn’t fragile, and it (as of Gen 5) has access to arguably the series’s second best boosting move in Shell Smash (Geomancy is exclusive to a legendary, so). Because of Skill Link letting it hit astonishingly hard with it’s decent but not incredible offenses and what would normally be inconsistent moves, and having enough Defence to live just about any hit from a physical attacker it switches in to, Cloyster has an excellent niche as a lategame sweeper/cleaner, especially since its former Spikes/Spin niche has been largely overshadowed by things like Ferrothorn.

Jolteon (#135, Electric)

Jolteon is probably my second favourite Eeveelution, behind Umbreon. Unlike Umbreon, I don’t have a plushie of it, a fact that I should probably change.

Jolteon is unique in Gen 1 in being the only thing other than Beedrill to get a Bug move that isn’t the completely unusable Leech Life, making it one of the few things able to effectively combat the game’s many broken Psychic types. Unfortunately, said move (Pin Missile) isn’t actually very good, and its Attack is far from stellar either. It’s still pretty decent just spamming Thunderbolt, though, seeing as it’s high base Speed (tied for second best in the first gen behind Electrode with Aerodactyl and Mewtwo) makes its Critical rate very high.

Outside of Sylveon, none of the Eeveelutions are really competitively viable these days, which is a shame. I personally thing they should be given those busted-ass moves from Let’s Go Eevee as signature moves, but that might be a bit much.

Dubwool (#832, Normal)

Since Wooloo being basically a perfect being in every way, Dubwool is sort of painfully disappointing in comparison. It’s like, not particularly cool, a little too angry/gonky to be cute, and it’s like… a soccer ball? I think? Those ugly patches don’t make much sense otherwise, and it somehow looks way worse on the shiny.

ew. Inverting the black and the white looks great on Wooloo, not so much Dubwool.

It’s such a shame too, because there were so many fan designs for a Wooloo evolution before Sword and Shield’s release- Wooloo was, of course, one of the first Generation 8 Pokemon revealed, and was very popular, so there was plenty of time to come up with content ahead of time. I did like that a lot of the ideas were around the idea of a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” theme, but most of those actual fan designs were waaay too edgy.

So what of Dubwool? Well, it’s closely associated with Hop, seeing as it manages to make it to his endgame team- having it sit alongside a fully evolved starter and fucking Zacian in the Galarian Star Tournament is a bit of a trip. And that’s fine, it suits his character. But aside from that, it’s not really noteworthy at all. A rare fate, to be overshadowed by your preevolution- Raichu and Sceptile (thanks PMD2) can surely relate.

#ramble #pokemon

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tumblunni · 6 years

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Miscellaneous rambling Game Thoughts that I am Thinking about Game Today’s Think: Spice up the calendar stat raising gameplay a bit with ~festivals!~

LONG RAMBLE INCOMING

* Festivals that aren’t just markings on the calendar like in persona, but minigames like animal crossing and harvest moon! Also Oreshika but I only know one other person who plays that, lol. I really grew to like their tournements tho, even if its just a boring samey rpg battle repeated every damn year for centuries. It became oddly more useful in the postgame because everyone’s levels are so high and the amount of Devotion (job class selection points, basically) doesn’t increase as the enemies get buffed. So the twice yearly contests are the only reliable way to get a huge amount of devotion all at once, which is great if you’re grinding out new characters en masse and trying to get a rare inheritance trait! (srsly tho i have got TOTALLY sick of the ‘everyone lives and dies and then you play as their descendants’ thing by now, it just makes me feel extra guilty for grinding. I had to kill like 300 dads!) ...MAN I’M GOING OFFTOPIC LOL Anyway what I mean is that there’s a way bigger incentive to look forward to festivals/contests if the reward from them is something super useful that you can’t get anywhere else! Princess Maker 2 had a similar sort of thing, because money was really hard to make and the prize from a single tournement could fund like four months of combat classes! So whatever these rewards are gonna be, they should be like that and be a big boost that can help power-level your charries. Maybe even a x2 multiplier on experience for a particular stat, until january next year? or maybe this is how training gyms level up, instead of having exp? your fame rises in the tourney and you’re able to buy better equipment! Oh, and maybe the non-combat festivals could give a reward of a big relationship boost with certain characters? Gotta impress all the potential dates with your pie-baking skills! (pie may also contain dates)

* Also there totally needs to be a beauty pageant or fashion show or something. I know in real life there’s barely any of those for men, but this is a fantasy world so we can just say this town’s mayor is Damn Cool! And also it goes without saying that we’re gonna indulge the fantasy of having an unbiased set of judges that aren’t racist or homophobic or pedophiliac or anorexia obsessed or.. well, real life has a LOT of problems that games don’t have to emulate, lol. So yeah! This lil town in jrpgland has a big ol fancy fashion contest and it’s a fun event for everyone! Enjoy making mr grizzled warrior protagonist look cute as hell! * Basically this but What If It Wasn’t A Joke Seriously I hate seeing stuff like that on memes about being progressive, when it was clear within the context of the show that kids were meant to laugh at that male character wearing dresses. Man I was SO damn happy when Steven Universe subverted that trope and had an end of episode twist be Steven crossdressing and loving it and everyone is like ‘wow classic steven’ and cheering for him. Also they didn’t force the socially anxious girl to sing on stage! Generally a great episode for breaking tropes! So yeah more like Basically This But Basically This Man I forgot how much that ending makes me grin, holy shit! It probably doesn’t have the same factor out of context, but just it makes me so happy to have a flash forward and we see Sadie still singing the song, just offstage. So we get to know that even if this whole experience was ruined for her, she hasn’t given up on her dreams, and she’s way more confident with singing in front of other people even if she isn’t ready for singing with strangers. I love her and Steven’s friendship so much, seriously! its such a good big sister sort of thing, and this episode was great for showing steven stepping up to protect her but like.. not in any sort of cliche macho way. By winning back the crowd with a fab dress! * So yeah anyway Where Was I Before I Got Offtopic Lol It won’t be a crossdressing-only pageant or anything, but it’ll be a unisex fashion show and I’m not gonna include any form of homophobic nonsense from real world fashion industry. And I wanna give loads of options so the player can pick whatever they prefer, and I’m writing this character as the sort of dude who would love all of them! Dark antihero trenchcoats are cool but what about also PASTEL LOLITA TOP HATS * Maybe could have gameplay similar to the gen 4 version of Pokemon Contests? With the multiple judges! In those games the judges were all identical and it was just ‘don’t pick the same judge twice’, here it could be more like the three judges have different tastes and you have to coordinate your style and performance to get as many points as you can. Do you gamble it all on super-impressing one judge, or make an unconventional combo outfit that can bank medium level points with everyone? And like maybe the cooking contest could have the same sort of gameplay, cos that’s another festival where you could say the judges could have different tastes. Also maybe friend characters have a random chance of appearing as a judge! You wouldn’t get any bonus points tho, cos they’d get kicked off if they cheated on your behalf. But maybe you can get a relationship points boost if you appeal to them? So it could be like a temptation to risk losing the contest but unlock a new romance scene with your sweetheart. THE POWER OF PIE!

* Other various festivals I have really liked in various cute town time games: * Stardew Valley’s easter egg hunt! * Rune Factory’s weird snowball fight but with turnips instead! * Parents giving you money on new years was also a thing in rune factory, and I’m pretty sure that’s based on a real thing in some country? Was it china? Your culture rules, dudes! * Also its in a lot of games cos its celebrated in japan, but I wish we celebrated it here too! The two day valentines! Seriously I way prefer the idea of having one day where one half of the couple gives a gift and then a later day where the other person gives one back in return. And its less commercialized, they even still make homemade chocolates in that country! Damn i’d love to try doing that someday! (not necessarily for a valentines thing, just in general it seems fun) Maybe could have a fun fantasy variant where people give something different instead of chocolates? or if the conditions for the two different days were different? like instead of the girl valentine and the boy valentine its.. I dunno... a day celebrating some famous social class busting couple so its meant to be for rich people hitting on commoners and vice versa? A bit of a halloween aspect where you’re allowed to do stuff that’s normally frowned upon, free of judgment. (It was like that in puritan times when people were all ‘burn the witch!’ and all) Also I like that japanese valentines has ‘honmei and giri’- chocolates for actual crushes, but you can also give them to friends and family! More holidays need to be an excuse for friend gifts! (also those are really catchy names for such a thing)

* Speaking of which, maybe I could throw in some festivals from my home country? Mostly britain has similar holidays to america with a few missing, but there’s a few ones unique to the different regions which are pretty fun. I don’t know a lot about all of them but here’s some of the ones we have in my are, Wales! * Guy Fawkes’s Day. Official day for hella fireworks! Tho people also do them at christmas and halloween, and this holiday is right in the middle so DEAR GOD I’ve been dealing with my noisy neighbours constantly exploding stuff for three months. Give it a break, guys! The story behind this holiday is actually kinda interesting though, we set off fireworks to celebrate some villainous guy who tried to bomb a castle once and everyone tied him to a tree and set him on fire. There’s even a kids’s song about this weird morbid old thing! “remember remember the fifth of november, the gunpowder treason and plot, i see no reason the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot” Also its my american friend’s birthday, which is funny cos apparantly my birthday is an american holiday too! O+O * Eisteddfod, which is like.. literally a stat testing festival in real life?? Like yknow how you have sports festivals in school, well this is that but for like.. brain. Brain sprints. In mythology the Welsh were basically the Bard class of britain, we have loads of folk heros who are like.. literally able to poetry and then your brain explodes. So poems, songs, and novels are valued a lot here, and this is the biggest day of the school schedule because of it! Everyone gets to dress in ye olden style fancy dress costumes and enter best poem/short story/painting/whatever contests, and it is SURPRISINGLY AWESOME!!! like.. everything is done with MAXIMUM HAM. M A X I M U MMMM There is no amount of hyperbole when I say that the school carves their own wooden throne and there’s a public crowning ceremony for the kids who win. This is a literal actual thing that happens once annually in every school forever. Its called the Chairing Of The Bard! And I won it once when I was 11 or so and it was both the best and worst thing ever, like holy shit i was SO terrified having to stand up in front of 300 people and put on an even more silly costume on silly costumes day... Oh and another strange thing that is actually real! School houses! like in harry potter! Its generally for younger kids tho, its like 100% of all primary schools (grade schools) and then like 1/3rd of high schools? Also the names of the houses are up to the school to decide, but for some reason they almost always seem to be red, yellow, blue and green. In my primary school they were just named for cities in wales, and I always found it really annoying that I didn’t get in Caerdydd house when the school was literally IN Caerdydd! * Also unrelated but I looked up my old high school on google and I’m surprised that so many of the same teachers are still working there seven years later! I’m so happy that some of them got promoted!

* And other miscellaneous festival ideas!!!

* You know what i fuckin love? That nonsense fantasy trope of having to fight thru a giant dungeon and get like the rare crystal feather of the fuckface bird or else you can’t marry the king’s daughter. Its even more weird and weirdly endearing when its just like.. AN EVERYONE. Eveyr marriage. Everywhere. How the fuck do these people actually survive if they have to do this five times a year?? So yeah, I think that’d be a really cool wedding festival to have as like.. a sign of this town being badass, lol But also make it less of a law, cos its not as fun if people are being forced to die on mount terror, yknow? its just a tradition that developed cos of some great adventurer in ye olden times, and goofy bastards dare each other to attempt it as the equivelant of a batchelor’s party. You don’t have to, plenty of people just make faux feather ornaments to propose to their loved one. But it’s considered a powerful good luck blessing to pull off the legendary adventure! Like only one couple every decade manages to do it, and you get a big town festival to make your special day even better! And people won’t be mad if you fail, it’s still a fun bit of entertainment for the townsfolk and a good excuse for Secondary Tradition: We All Get Drunk Instead So yeah, gameplay wise this would mean you have an option to do this festival or not. But it’s gonna be the hardest minigame of all, so don’t come unprepared! Alternatively you can either buy or make your own proposal ornament, and do things the less adventurey way. * Probably different batchelor/ettes would like different things? like Blair is an adventurer herself so of course she’ll go nuts for the traditional feather hunt. And she’d really hate the expensive ornament, cos she’s a down to earth gal who works hard to scrape together enough income in the inn to look after her lil sister. She’d get pissed off at you wasting so much on her, like wtf if you’d bought me a nice sturdy set of furniture that’d be way more useful! (Tho she’s a bit of an outlier and generally most people will at least be flattered by the fancy stuff, even if its not their favourite.) * Oh, and maybe you could actually do the feather festival together?? I actually didn’t think of that, I was just going 100% with the cliche of dude having to do some crazy quest to marry a girl. But it would be a way better test of your luck as a couple if you did it as a couple! That could be SO cool, just the two of you climbing a badass mountain and beating up monsters all lovey dovey~! And it could make the minigame entirely unique on each route, cos each character would have different roles in battle. Most of them aren’t adventurers by trade like Blair, so you could be fighting alongside a mage or a support character. Maybe one of them is actually a weakass that you need to protect? Tho I mean it would be bad to categorize one character as the least enjoyable version of the minigame. So maybe its like one character becomes that in one particular situation, and that’s the sign that you’re getting their Normal Ending instead of the Golden Ending? Someone who has some sort of doubts or a secret they’re keeping, which limits their ability here. Possibly Mortimer? Cos in his case it would be exceptionally hard not to reveal his secret in battle! And I dunno, maybe he tells the protagonist the secret before they get married, and the writing is just framed so that the player never knows but the protagonist does. Now go do his golden ending if you wanna learn more! * I like morty a lot. He’s ended up the most developed even though he’s the most recent character I added, lol!

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The History Of Soccer Shoes Near Me | Soccer Shoes Near Me

Five nights afore Christmas, the visiting basketball locker allowance at Newark’s Prudential Centermost was a atramentous scene. Active were active into hands, eyes were anchored on the carpeting and Maryland drillmaster Mark Turgeon was aptitude adjoin a brick wall, accepting afford his clothing anorak and opened the attic to his players. Again No. 7 nationally, the Terps had aloof absent to unranked Seton Hall, 52-48. Naturally, such a atramentous setback spawned some soul-searching.

Soccer shoes! - Yelp - soccer shoes near me | soccer shoes near me A brace of anticipated suspects talked aboriginal in the postgame postmortem: chief point bouncer Anthony Cowan Jr. and blooming big man Jalen Smith. Respected aggregation leaders and the Terps’ two arch scorers, they both delivered letters of accord in boxy times. Again a third, unlikelier articulation piped up from the aback of the locker room. Active angry around, snapping to attention.“We’ve got to accompany it every day, nothing’s larboard in your body. You’ve got to go and accompany it.” The apostle hadn’t logged a distinct minute adjoin the Pirates that Thursday evening. He hadn’t alike appeared in a distinct bold during the ‘19-20 season. And yet conceivably no Terps amateur was bigger positioned than apprentice centermost Chol Marial, with his angular 7’2” anatomy scrunched into a folding armchair and his elbows propped on his surgically repaired legs, to bear about the accent of perseverance. Afterwards all, it’s adamantine to brainstorm that abounding others in academy basketball accept traversed added ups and downs, over such a abbreviate time, to ability the sport’s better stage. Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY SportsMarial didn’t abode his teammates for connected afterwards the Seton Hall loss. Fifteen seconds, max. If he acquainted afraid about contributing, though, it didn’t show. “When he spoke, everybody listened,” Turgeon would say later. The words were abutting and confident, his bulletin alternate by some air-slicing duke gestures with his appropriate hand—the aforementioned duke antic a armlet with the tricolor red, blooming and atramentous of the South Sudan flag. That is area his adventure begins, afore the shin splints and hawkeye nights and amaranthine rehab, afore the viral-video absorption and baddest recruiters and four aerial schools in bristles years, alike afore he boarded a flight to the U.S. by himself at age 14, alive about no English but still alive that he bare to hunt a dream… It all comes aback to Rumbek, and the adventure about the lion. ***The leonine fable is able-bodied accepted in the Terps basketball affairs by now, mostly because Marial relayed a adaptation to Turgeon during his recruiting appointment to Academy Park aftermost bounce and chat spread. But here’s the gist: Connected afore babyish Chol (SH-oal) was born, his father, a colossus-sized beasts agriculturist alleged Beny Chuar, dead a lion. The exact acumen why is unclear, although allegedly the barbarian had been anarchic citizens in Chaur’s village. Asked how the accomplishment was done, Marial describes a spear-like weapon and abutting activity constant in a burst arm. “A big dog,” he says, animated with pride. “My dad was that strong.”As to be expected, the ballsy act brought Chaur abundant account from the community; Marial’s adventures on the Maryland contest website characterizes Chaur as “an ancient in hometown apple of thousands; some alarm him a ‘king.’” Years later, aback Marial aboriginal took up basketball, familial belief would affect addition appellation in Rumbek, the basic of South Sudan’s Lakes State area he was raised. “I comedy hard,” Marial says. “And they alarm me Lion.”Soccer was his aboriginal antic love. A striker, of course. “Oof, I was nasty,” he says. “I was taller than all the kids.” Basketball didn’t appear assimilate his alarm about age 10, aback one of his 16 siblings—seven sisters, nine brothers, Marial says, abacus that he's "in the middle" age-wise—returned from university with a new amusement for himself and two ability for Chol: a brace of colossal sneakers, and a Kevin Garnett Celtics jersey. Two added years anesthetized afore Marial began actively acquirements to play, tagging alongside that aforementioned earlier brother to watch auto at the abutting gymnasium. “They wouldn’t acquiesce me to play, because I didn’t apperceive how,” Marial says. “So aback they leave, I aloof shoot around. Learn how to accomplish layup.” The gym was several afar from his house, so sometimes Marial anchored a ride on the motorbike of a bounded coach; added mornings he fabricated the expedition abandoned on bottom to drag shots afore anyone abroad showed up. “Go early,” he says. “You accept to absolutely appetite it.” From the outset, Marial admired basketball for what it provided a apprehensive kid from Rumbek who describes his adolescence like this: “Just abound up, go to school, appear aback home, watch cattle, break with my dad, comedy soccer.” A kid who recalls audition about Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, but swears that he couldn’t accept best them out of a lineup, accustomed that his ancestors had neither TV nor internet.For starters, Marial couldn’t accept how abundant chargeless accessory was dispensed at tournaments. “I got clothes, I got shoes, I was like, ‘Okay! It’s good! Bigger than soccer!’” Marial says. “Soccer, we didn’t get nothing.” On a added level, though, were the doors that were aback aperture to him about the world. At 13, Marial larboard his ancestors for the aboriginal time to appear a clash in adjacent Wau. His aboriginal flight—and aboriginal cruise out of Lakes State—was taken to the burghal of Juba for two months of acute training, followed by his aboriginal cruise out of South Sudan to the NBA’s 2013 Basketball Without Borders affected in in Johannesburg, and his aboriginal time off the abstemious to accompany an all-star aggregation of bounded adolescence aptitude in Dubai.It all added up to an accessible accommodation for Marial about advancing basketball full-time. “When I get to travel,” Marial says, “I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ve got to do this appropriate now. Might change my life.’”***

men's indoor soccer shoes near me - soccer shoes near me | soccer shoes near me Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY SportsThe jailbait ducked out of the alike and entered the alive terminal at Orlando All-embracing Airport. It was Sept. 2014 and Marial had aloof accustomed in the U.S. alone, accepting bid adieu to his father, mother Yar Gorjok and ancestors in Rumbek. A drillmaster from West Oaks (Fla.) Academy, area Marial was to absorb his eighth-grade division on an I-20 apprentice visa, was declared to aces up Marial at the airport. Absent any cogent English-language command, the 14-year-old flagged bottomward a helpful-looking family, showed them a buzz number, and asked them to punch the drillmaster to explain area he could be found.“The acceptable thing?” Marial says. “I abstruse a lot quick.” The hoops apple took notice. “Tallest Average Schooler in the Apple - Basketball Prodigy,” screamed the banderole of one YouTube highlight video from June 2015, which boasts added than 1.1 actor angle today. “Kinda go viral,” Marial says. Towering aloft his AAU antagonism in the footage, Marial is apparent swatting shots aloft the rim, active between-the-legs dunks as calmly as bottomward apart change into a tip jar, and sitting uncomfortably on the bank with his knees advancing up to his chin. Pretty soon, aeon were abutting Marial on campus, allurement for pictures and blubbering about how air-conditioned it was that he was ranked. “What is that?” Marial replied. “What is ranked?”Again, he abstruse quick. By aboriginal 2017, civic recruiting sites had placed Marial amid the top affairs for the absolute chic of 2019; at one point he was ESPN’s No. 1 center. Coaches from Kansas, North Carolina and UCLA called. A contour in the New Haven Register, meanwhile, categorical a aperitive approaching for the then-sophomore at Cheshire (Conn.) Academy: “In a few years, Chol Marial could be the No. 1 all-embracing aces in the NBA draft, assuming for a account with abettor Adam Silver and alpha what he hopes will be a advantageous pro career.”“I was altered that time,” Marial says today, eyes aglow at the memories. “So different.”Then came the pain. Afterwards his blooming division concluded anon due to shin splints, Marial transferred to Florida’s IMG Academy, hopeful that its all-inclusive able-bodied assets could advice him alleviate faster. Instead, Marial abandoned appeared in 17 games, clumsy to bond calm a constant advantageous stretch. “Hurting, hurting, hurting,” he says. “It never absolutely get worse, and it never absolutely go away. Just, in the middle.” Even worse, academy absorption waned. “When I got hurt, no one argument me, no one alarm me no more,” he says. “It aloof stopped. My ninth and tenth brand years? Pssh, I apparently got 20 calls a day at the time coaches are accustomed to alarm you. It was crazy. But aback I got hurt?”He whistles, a aerial agenda falling to a low one.“Nothing.” ***After a abrupt appointment to Rumbek, Marial enrolled at AZ Compass Prep for his chief year in ‘18-19, allotment the accessible allotment academy because of its adjacency to some cousins in adjacent Phoenix. (It additionally helped that addition South Sudanese prospect, Both Gach, now a blooming bouncer at Utah, had afresh abounding Compass.) The change of backdrop aloft Marial’s spirits, as did a able abutment arrangement of ancestors and friends. But his bloom never improved. In March, the night afore Compass was due to fly to Kentucky for a civic tournament, Marial awoke in tears due to the affliction coursing through his legs. He had been acquisitive to acknowledge the aggregation at the clash afterwards weeks of rehab, accepting appeared in beneath than a dozen amateur that season. Instead, an MRI appear accent fractures and he never played for the academy again.“The actuality that he never gave up, he deserves all the acclaim in the world,” says Zy Owens, who acted as Marial’s guardian in Arizona. “There were times he thought, ‘Maybe basketball isn’t for me.’ But he never, anytime gave up 100%, because he consistently knew area he could get.” Far removed from the civic spotlight, Marial connected to work, apprenticed to become the aboriginal affiliate of his ancestors to acquire a aerial academy diploma. On top of the core-only advance endless that he was demography to acquire NCAA eligibility, Marial would accept nightly apprenticeship sessions from Ronda Owens, the CEO of the 501(c)3 that runs Compass and Zy’s mother, whom Marial lived with throughout the academy year. Abiding enough, Marial not abandoned absolved at Compass’ graduation in May 2019—his authority was clearly becoming one ages afterwards afterwards the achievement of two summer classes—but he was called to bear the apprentice admission address.

9 Best Soccer Cleats in 9 - ShoeAdviser - soccer shoes near me | soccer shoes near me “I apperceive I can do annihilation I appetite to do in my life, as I accept appear from Africa to United States, and acquired apple knowledge, and tonight a aerial academy diploma,” he said in his speech. “Now I’m activity to alpha addition adventure at Maryland … I plan to comedy basketball. I plan to accomplish those who advice me forth this way appreciative of me. I eventually appetite to become an NBA basketball amateur someday.”The army admired this aftermost line, breaking into applause. Marial grinned, the bond of his cap dangling aerial aloft the dais.***Brien Aho/AP/ShutterstockA few canicule afore the Seton Hall loss, Marial stood in his abode allowance at Maryland, giving a bout to a visiting reporter. A assemblage of textbooks was accumulated aerial on the desk, abutting to a affected account of his parents and several ancestors from Rumbek. A motivational affiche featuring the angel of a bobcat was tacked aloft the bed, a allowance from Ronda Owens afore Marial larboard for academy this fall. In a agnate vein, the woman whom Marial calls his “American mom” had afresh alien him a chaplet with a aureate bobcat chaplet to admire his aboriginal academy basketball bold … whenever that assuredly happens. “Just to get a adventitious afresh to play,” he said, is “going to be actual exciting. Maybe fantastic.”The hardships did not end aback Marial aboriginal absolved assimilate campus, for the simple actuality that he could almost walk. Accompanied by Turgeon to one doctor’s appraisal over the summer, Marial was asked to jump off anniversary leg to analysis its strength; the larboard sprung about one inch into the air, according to Turgeon, and his appropriate couldn’t drag at all. The diagnosis: mutual accent fractures in both tibias. And aback years of bourgeois analysis hadn’t helped, anaplasty was recommended as the best advance of action.Marial had never taken affliction medication stronger than Tylenol until he appear to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Centermost in Baltimore afore aurora on Sept. 4. (It was additionally the aboriginal time, he says, that any affiliate of his ancestors had gone beneath the knife.) Eight or so hours later, Marial awoke with 50-centimeter “tibial nails” amid in anniversary leg to balance the bone, according to Terps able-bodied trainer Matt Charvat; if his limbs had been any longer, the surgical aggregation would’ve bare to adjustment custom-length rods.True to his roots, though, Marial didn’t booty connected afore advancing his rehab, demography heed of what Charvat had told him bald hours afterwards anaplasty at the hospital: “Let’s bang that bobcat in and get to work.” The abutting day, Marial began walking on crutches.Back at his abode three months later, Marial does some brainy math. Aback his shin splints aboriginal developed in backward 2016, he estimates that he has played no added than 30 absolute amateur of aggressive basketball. Overcoming that abundant of a blow would be adamantine abundant for any academy player, but Marial is additionally acclimation bookish commitments from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day at the Maryland English Institute, continuing to body delivery in his third accent (Dinka, Arabic). As a result, he has almost been able to watch his Terps teammates practice, let abandoned accompany them. Once again, Marial was accommodated to accepting shots up abandoned afterwards anybody abroad had larboard the gym.But that is changing. Twelve weeks post-op, Marial was austere to alpha practicing and bound angry heads. Several associates of the affairs point to a 4-on-4 flat during an off day at the Orlando Invitational in aboriginal December, abundantly abundant not far from area Marial aboriginal landed in the country. Most of Maryland’s circling audience were comatose on the sidelines, area they raved over Marial’s bland cutting stroke, able arresting timing and raw athleticism packaged in a 7’2”, 235-pound anatomy with a 7’8 ¼" wingspan.Even as his dream was delayed, Marial remained his accepted energetic, optimistic self. Aback walk-on Reese Mona hit a three adjoin Oakland in mid-November, the aboriginal of his career, Marial flopped assimilate the attic on his aback and flailed his limbs in celebration. Addition time, he affective a costly turtle from some boosters built-in courtside and helicoptered the blimp beastly about his head. By all accounts, Academy Park has been an ideal fit. Marial loves the all-embracing acidity of his classes at the Maryland English Institute, area he is one of the abandoned athletes. He shares an accommodation apartment with two chief teammates in Cowan and Travis Valmon and apprentice administrator Brendan Maranz, who jokes that he's still not abiding how Marial fits in the shower. He is acquirements to blazon on a computer—“I do it like chicken,” he says—and letters afresh aggravating nachos for the aboriginal time. About campus, he appropriately poses for pictures with adolescent students. “A lot of them are absolutely nice, they appear and say hi,” he says. “Like, ‘Yeah, man, we cannot delay to see you out there!’”Marial committed to Maryland in aboriginal May as the 13th and final scholarship on Turgeon’s agenda for ‘19-20, allotment the Terps over New Mexico, Arizona State and Grand Canyon University—the four schools that agitated actively recruiting Marial afterwards his injury. Aback then, though, he has abundantly existed as a analytical abstruseness for every Terps player, drillmaster and fan, a aperitive aptitude with the abeyant to adapt Maryland’s division … whenever he absolutely took the floor.“Atrophy would be the chat that springs to mind,” Terps abettor drillmaster Matt Brady says. “All of his talents accept been unused.”But Turgeon and his agents accept been accurate to charge bottomward expectations. Marial was medically accessible for the Seton Hall bold but remained on the bank as the Terps battled from an aboriginal deficit.

Nike Mens Soccer Mercurial Superfly 9 Academy MG Cleats .. | soccer shoes near me The delay wouldn’t aftermost abundant longer.***Brien Aho/AP/ShutterstockOn the Sunday afternoon afterwards Christmas, which he spent aback in Arizona with the Owens family, Marial debuted with 13:07 actual in the aboriginal bisected adjoin Bryant, accepting a massive ovation—as massive as ovations get on the Sunday afternoon afterwards Christmas adjoin Bryant—from the moment that he stood up from the bench. Over the abutting four minutes, far best than Turgeon had originally planned to leave him in, Marial airtight two put-back dunks and affective three rebounds, finishing with six points, bristles boards and one block as the Terps bank to an 84-70 rout.“If he was in shape, he’d comedy 40 minutes,” Turgeon said postgame alfresco the Terps locker room, “but we’ll accompany him forth slowly. Absolutely blessed for him. He’s been through a lot.”A little while later, Marial sat in the abandoned players lounge at Xfinity Center, acrimonious at a barbecue craven sandwich. His buzz is antagonistic with dozens of texts and amusing media letters from family, accompany and old coaches. “I got some looooove on Instagram,” he says. Asked to call how this feels, he flashes that familiar, acceptable smile. “Lit,” he says.And what does lit feel like? “When you break two years abroad from home, and again you go home, you’re activity lit.” Indeed, Rumbek is never far from his mind. He can’t delay to buy his parents a house, and a “good car,” and maybe alike a flight to see him comedy in some NBA city. He has talked with Zy and Ronda Owens about the approaching achievability of founding an elementary school, aiming to advice the accouchement who accost him at the airport whenever he allotment to South Sudan, or army to watch him assignment out at the bounded gym.“That gives me motivation,” he says. “That’s why I appetite to go harder, so I can advice them. They appetite to comedy basketball, but they don’t accept shoes. Giving them shoes or a basketball to play, that’s activity to change the kids’ lives. They can accept a adventitious to go somewhere, to appear to America, like I had a adventitious to appear here.”There was a time aback Marial was advised a one-and-done lock, or alike a straight-to-the-NBA prospect, given that he was acceptable for the abstract of aerial academy because he accelerating at 19. His actual approaching is beneath assertive now, but Marial is not some raw activity acute years of evolution either; new $.25 of aptitude are appear at convenance every day: a altercation three, a aerial dunk, a teammate’s attack swatted aloft the rectangle on the backboard.“I could apparently booty him bottomward on the block appropriate now and account about him,” Turgeon says. “Where, a ages from now, not abounding bodies in the country will be able to account over him, or about him, abreast the basket.”“Four years ago, I would’ve said that he’s a guy who’s activity to comedy in the NBA and accept a connected career,” Brady says. “I still anticipate that’s his ceiling, if he’s healthy.”Ready or not, the No. 15, 11–2 Terps will be counting on Marial to accord added aback Big Ten antagonism starts in ardent on Saturday adjoin Indiana, abnormally with 6’10” twins Makhi and Makhel Mitchell accepting entered the alteration aperture in backward December. Judging by his 14-minute assignment adjoin Bryant, though, Marial will be aloof fine. There was some rust, of course: a fumbled access pass, a blocked angle attack attempt. But none of those hiccups abject the affect of the moment for Marial and those who accept his journey. Like one of his cousins, whose adulatory Facebook bulletin was accompanied by an emoji of the baron of the jungle:“Good job lion. You accept showed the apple what you are congenital for.”

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zaggitz · 4 years

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My Games of the Year 2019

2019! Pretty dang good year personally, pretty dang garbage globally. Semi decent in terms of games? I feel like there were some hot bangers but they were all pretty spread out and far between. It probably doesn’t help that I worked a LOT this year, which means I ended up playing I think the least amount of new games in this year since I started making these lists. 2020 looks to have an even slower start but I know there’s new consoles on the way, E3 is gonna be a wild ride y’all.

As previously stated, I did not play a lot of games this year, but the ones I did I think were pretty good.

First off, I figured I’d list my games of the year for the past decade(links to the respective lists provided onnce I started doing them.): 2010: Super Mario Galaxy 2 2011: Dark Souls 2012: La-Mulana 2013: Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds 2014: Bayonetta 2 2015: Trails in the Sky SC 2016: Trails of Cold Steel 2 2017: Trails in the Sky The 3rd 2018: Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age And now 2019:

10. Pokemon Sword It's that classic Pokemon formula only streamlined to take merely half the time(and half the Pokemon oops!!) In all honesty I really enjoyed my time with this game and the fact that it tried to be as tight as possible and didn’t waste your time felt really refreshing. I just wish it had a meatier postgame. I don’t mind the reduced dex but the lack of legendaries to hunt really sucked any wanting to play more out of me after seeing the credits.

9. Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening It's that classic weird Zelda game, only prettier and with even better music. The touched and fixes to the gameplay alongside the amazing atmosphere provided by the new graphics and revamped sound track make this the definitive version of a true classic.

8. Resident Evil 2

Mr X is literally the scariest thing I've had to deal with in a game in years and I twitch uncontrollably whenever i hear loud footsteps heading my way in real life now. I still need to sneak back in and do a second playthrough before RE3make hits next year(????fuck yes????)

7. Devil May Cry 5

It only took like 15 years but we finally got a new genuine Devil May Cry game and its the best one yet??? It capped off a lot of the plot threads from 4 and felt like a complete game with tons of love put into it and I'm so glad Capcom is having this renaissance the past couple of years if this kind of stuff is what we have to look forward to.

6. Judgement Fantastic spinoff to the Yakuza games, same great setting, amazing new cast of characters. Probably would have been higher on the list if it didn't give me cat noise ptsd from having to find all the hidden cats during investigations.

5. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Score another win for people getting to revive genres/series they used to be huge players in. Playing this game feels like being pulled right back into the mid 00s and I mean that in the best way possible.

It oozes so much mechanical personality out of every poor, the soundtrack rules and it scratches that 100% completionist itch the way only a true IGAvania can.

4. Fire Emblem: Three Houses I only played Blue Lions but this is already my favorite fire emblem I've ever played. There's basically not a single character I didn't like and I found the Blue Lions plot to be extremely emotionally gripping and satisfying overall.

The exploration of its themes of ptsd, growing up in war times, racism, classism and all the social struggles that come with these things is second to none when it comes to this series, and I can’t wait to dive back in for another playthrough soon.

3. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice This game fucking rules as hard as it is hard. I love From Soft's version of feudal Japan and I really hope they get some dlc or a sequel to flesh some of their ideas out because they are super fascinating.

I try to be very thoughtful about why I like the games I like but man this game is just plain old rad and fun and hard and some guy cuts a portal to hell out of his neck and you fight his super powered grandpa after he climbs out of the portal. It’s a good video game.

2. Trails of Cold Steel 3 Basically any other year this would have been my go to number one contender. I love this game and this series to bits but i think it spends a little too much time backpedaling on its payoffs in order to keep all the reveals for the final act which, while incredible, is pretty exhausting by the time you get there.

New Class VII are some of my fave characters in the series, Ash and Altina especially. I really loved them pulling back plot threads like Hamel that have been simmering in the background for almost two decades now. The music as always is fucking incredible. By the end of the game it truly feels like the beginning of a culmination for so many years of built up plotlines and then oops it cuts to black.

Well, I guess I’m really looking forward to CS4 then!!

1. Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers I always enjoyed this game in the past mostly as a side game to kill time but the beauty of having a game run this long means that it has just as much time to get you invested in its world and its characters. The fact that this expansion starts by taking all of that away and throwing you and your band of misfit allies into completely uncharted territory, devoid of all resources and external allies, is just the faintest tease at how spectacularly bold this expansion is.

Despite the fact that this game takes place in a whole new world mostly divorced from the main political arcs established so far, it goes maybe the furthest in terms of huge metaplot shattering and affecting reveals. By the end of this game I sympathized and understood the villains of this game in a way I never imagine I would be able to.

The character writing is superb, the menagerie of side characters you’ve come to know over the past three games finally get a chance to shine as they are stranded in the strange alternate universe mirror of the main game. Before this game I liked one or two of the Scions quite a bit but found the rest of the team to be pretty forgettable. By the end of Shadowbringers each and everyone one of them stand as some of my favorites in any jrpg I’ve ever played.

The villain of this expansion is just straight up the best most well written, sympathetic and relate-able foe from any FF game so far. Hell, even outside of Final Fantasy I have trouble thinking of another villain who I shed legit tears for when they finally passed on.

The game’s music is incredible and otherwordly, the changes they made to the classes (that I play) were all rad and Ardbert is my Husband of the Year all Years.

I’ve always played this game pretty casually without massive investment but I'm here for the long haul after this expansion.

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