(lol exams are next week but Penny is more important 🙏)
Anyways, had a try on giving Penny a Team Star outfit
very Eeveelutions themed, clearly. Complete with LED masks, yay :D
Yeah, I gave her a car too (her Starmobile is a bit smaller than the others though but the platform she stands on is wider) fitted with rhythm game pads
The moment I saw the clip of Penny shredding the dance floor in the DLC's epilogue, my immediate thought "Yep, this nerd goes to the arcade and plays every single rhythm game available"
I also just find it funny at the thought where in the middle of the Cassiopeia fight she'll just pause the battle and forces the player to play a rhythm game with her lmao
(she for sure uses her own theme as the music for rhythm game match)
thinking about how the theme of letting go (and the related motif of critically examining long-held beliefs/relationships) appears with the companions.
there's arcade and veronica, who were raised in insular environments and surrounded by enemies their entire lives, who fundamentally disagree with the politics of those groups, and who have to find a way to reconcile the love and loyalty they have for the only families they've ever known with their personal ideologies and goals.
while cassidy and crimson caravans aren't major factions in the vein of the ncr/enclave/brotherhood, cass' quest also revolves around whether she upholds the legacy of her family or follows her own path.
boone is disillusioned with the ncr after the bitter springs massacre but still wears his first recon beret, perhaps as a sign of lingering loyalty, or perhaps as penance. he participated in a horrible war crime because he was following orders, because that mindset was drilled into him since he joined the military. he's not as ideologically opposed to the ncr as arcade and veronica are to the enclave and brotherhood, respectively, but the similarity is worth noting.
what makes these companion quests so memorable is that we're meeting these characters at critical crossroads in their lives, where they have to come to terms with complicated attachments, where they'll define themselves by whether they choose to hang on to a legacy or strike out on their own.
It's eternally a little funny whenever I see someone say something along the lines of 'everyone in Strive is so happy now! Everyone's stories are getting resolved! It'll be hard to make a new game when everyone's retired and living peacefully and resolved their problems' and then there's a haunted semi-sentient mecha corpse in the corner constantly screaming from being trapped in limbo
"Sega World (セガワールド), sometimes stylized as SegaWorld, is a formerly international chain of amusement arcades and entertainment centers created by Sega. Though not the first venues to be developed by the company, with operations dating back to the late 1960s in Japan, it would come to involve some of their most prolific and successful examples in the 1990s and 2000s. During their peak period in the 1990s, there were likely at least several hundred Sega World locations across the world. Off the back of the initial success of the venues, Sega were able to expand into developing the Joypolis indoor theme parks and several other amusement and entertainment center chains. However, a large majority of these were closed in the 2000s, primarily due to a worldwide decline in the amusement arcade industry rendering some centers unprofitable, an ongoing recession in Japan, and cost-cutting measures at Sega in the midst of their restructuring.”
more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_World
image sources: https://www.segadriven.com/promotional-material/
it's been mentioned a couple times and i do love the idea of the courier calling in their favor with the king to set him up with arcade! however i have two things to add. one, i think the king would do it for free on the grounds that he'll only call it a favor if it goes badly (and maybe he'll say he owes you another one if it goes well enough wink wink nudge nudge). two, idk about yall's couriers, but if MINE strolled up to arcade like "heyyyyy bestie guess who got you a date with the king" i think arcade would just calmly turn to veronica and politely ask her to crush his head like an egg in her pneumatic gauntlet so as to save him the embarrassment up front