i feel like my two top video games to recommend if you ever want an emotional experience that changes you forever are Night In The Woods and Outer Wilds
Night In The Woods is easier to recommend to people because it's shorter and less game-y (number one on my list of games that could be made into a tv show or movie) but hoo boy does that game hit in a very real way. the way it captures the feeling of being lost in your twenties, the feeling of dying small towns, issues of poverty and capitalism and mental illness and addiction and grief and being queer.... not to mention its realistically written (and often extremely funny) dialogue, charming aesthetics, and excellent soundtrack. chef's kiss.
Outer Wilds is harder to recommend because there is a significant learning curve with the gameplay (you will crash your ship over and over. this is okay. it's kind of the point.) and it's so impossible to describe because every person's experience is utterly unique by design and the whole point is to discover things for yourself, but good lord, does that game rewire your brain chemistry. it's a game about the vastness of space and the even greater vastness of time, and the fact that despite this vastness, you can still connect with people, even if you will never meet, even if they died long before you were ever born, you can still touch other people's lives
both games are the type to make you question your existence, but still be comforted after the fact. both games say you don't have some cosmic purpose, the universe does not care about you, but people do, and you can find meaning even in uncaring world
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I've only just started chapter 3 of Gaiden but I am absolutely obsessed with the theme of powerlessness and how it's conveyed within the game.
I can't help but notice how often Kiryu says he 'doesn't have a choice' when doing pretty much anything. Even if it's in super banal, low-stakes interactions like doing something for Akame, he's constantly stating that he feels as if he has no agency in his current situation.
In the previous Kiryu Saga games, Kiryu is painfully aware of the consequences of his actions, but he still regards them as choices that he made; not something he was forced into.
His status as a Daidoji agent has basically beaten him into submission. He'll occasionally try to fight against this absolute control over him, but he's eventually returned to his position as a pawn in this huge, shadowy organization. The Daidoji are the first organization/power structure that managed to get control over Kiryu's tendency to burn shit to the ground and good god do they take advantage of that.
But then Kiryu's also painfully aware that this is the reality he asked for. Not only does he outright say this multiple times, but he's telling others that 'they started this' when they're confronting him and it's so obvious that he's talking to himself.
He's constantly bouncing between feeling miserable and powerless and then resenting these feelings and berating himself for having them in the first place. He's grasping at any sliver of control he can still have over his life, not to find meaning in his new existence, but to further punish and abuse himself.
I can't remember the exact post, but I saw someone describe Gaiden as a love letter to the Kiryu Saga and that's the best way to describe it, I think.
Kiryu's arc in his games is an incredibly slow car crash where we witness in painful detail how incapable he is of permanently leaving his life as yakuza to protect his family.
He has this almost codependent relationship with the Tojo Clan and feels a compulsive urge to get involved in the constant crises happening.
Of course, there were outside factors that were trying to pull him into these conflicts. Everyone believes that he's the only one who can fix everything. Kiryu's name carries power. Isn't it disgustingly selfish to refuse to get involved when he was the one who chose the clan's chairmen?
How could he refuse to deliver a single letter after the 5th chairman was shot right in front of him?
How could he ignore the people threatening to take his orphanage away from him and his kids?
How could he tell his daughter that she can't become an idol because of his past?
How could he justify staying alive when it did nothing but bring harm to his family?
What choice did he have?
But remember, you chose this, Kiryu.
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I CANNOT BELIEVE
after ALL THIS
it comes down to either
letting the prince we went to ALL THIS TROUBLE to save become a mindflayer, ruining everything we worked for and dashing lae'zel's hopes for her people right in front of her
letting karlach become a mindflayer because her engine is so close to exploding, functionally destroying her to let some form of her memories live on
or 3. becoming a mindflayer to save both.
this is KILLING ME. WAILING IN PAIN. I HATE THIS. THE CHOICE IS OBVIOUS FROM AN RP POINT OF VIEW, RYSE WOULD MAKE THE SACRIFICE PLAY, BUT I DON'T WANT TO BE A MINDFLAYER!!!! SHE DOESN'T WANT TO BE A MINDFLAYER!!! SPENT THIS ENTIRE GAME REFUSING TADPOLES BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T WANT TO BE A MINDFLAYER THIS IS KILLING ME
i wanted a happy ending with my wife lae'zel i promised her i PROMISED her i would stay with her. please. please why can't i just throw the eighteen barrels of smokepowder i keep in the camp chest at it instead. orpheus i hate this plan it sucks i want a new plan please PLEASE
larian why would you hurt me this way i am sending you the emotional damages bill
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Red & younger refer to Blue as "アオにさん (my katakana is dogshit; aoni-san) which is absolutely adorable
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Naruto shippuden things that made me lose my mind (ep 424-season 20 ep 30):
Madara just shot a laser out of his mouth?
Madara: he can see my limbo???
Madara sailing thru the air: I'll be taking that *rips Kakashi's eye out of his skull*
Madara, casually: sasuke sure is quick *gets sliced in half by sasuke*
Kakashi, thinking abt young team 7: I misunderstood you all then, in some ways I probably still do (Kakashi, u just said it was sakura's job to pull sasuke from the darkness, that is the most fundamental misunderstanding of team 7 u could have)
*apocalyptic things happening* shikamru: I think something bad's happening over there (thanks, dumbass)
Tenzo's dream is for team 7 to accept him as their captain 😭
Sasuke getting purple snake goo spit in his face made me laugh aloud
Madara, talking abt chakra: I will get rid of this curse upon humanity (do it, king!)
This is from a filler english dub episode but: Christmas exists in naruto -> ninja Jesus confirmed
It's so unbelievable in tenten's mind that she could protect and be valuable to her friends and village that the infinite tsukuyomi put her into the Menma AU. That's fucked up.
Jesus. Karin's backstory. Pretty fucked up that she's gonna end up working for orochimaru forever.
Tsunade's infinite tsukuyomi dream: I would like to join the audience in watching the TV show Naruto
I feel like it says a lot that senju tsunade set a huyga at the center of the Akatsuki plan instead of a uchiha
Everytime they talk about neji, the more you can feel how hard they fucked up by killing him
Fuck sasuke being a cop. I hate it. But also sasuke is the type of person who would become batman. He ran around calling himself an avenger. I hate it but it doesn't feel wrong. It is funny tho that instead of joining orochimaru, sasuke's evil arc is becoming a cop.
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