#but i've never played the game before! only playthrough videos

[acatpiestuff]

recently some friends and I've been playing OFF

a bonus funny:

(its epsilon)

thanks to @tjs-stuffs for telling me this idea should exist

#off #off the game #off batter #off dedan #off spectres #my art #jerma #ahhh i rember being like POG POG POG ZACHARIE IS SO COOL #back in the day #but i've never played the game before! only playthrough videos #now i get to smash things around with a bat all by my self #also i gave the batter a valley girl voice when i streamed the game w my friends #they think its verry funny #eye contact #tw eye contact

[maybecoffeemixed]

MAIN PLOT LINE OF DLC HAS BEEN FINISHED, SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT (long post, be warned)

7.8/10, kieran doesn't actually kill us.

Seriously though, I enjoyed it!! Since I don't actually own the game (we poor), I watched a no-commentary playthrough so there are plenty of things I very likely missed, including optional dialog, side-quests, and whatever that thing with the professors is (still lookin' for a video without some guy over it), so I can only comment on the bits I saw! That being said, here we go.

First of all, the BATTLES!! Despite not being able to play them myself, they looked SUPER fun!! I screamed when I saw Lacey's tailwind/lightscreen prankster whimsicott, and even MORE so when I saw it was sashed! I loved the usage of competitive items, and the fact that all their teams weren't completely mono-type, each having one exception to their type (Lacey's excadrill, Crispin's Exeggcutor, Amarys's Reuniclus, and Drayton's Sceptile) that they DIDN'T terrastalize was lovely touch!! Amarys's fight was super hype in particular, despite having an over 20 level advantage, the person I watched still nearly wiped to her! Her trick room AI does appear a bit goofy, but it's a small flaw. Finally, Kieran's battle... I personally adore a good rain team, but unfortunately Kieran's politoed was frozen at the start of the battle, and remained that way all the way til the end, so I can't honestly say how difficult it looked. The one thing I will say is that before the indigo disk was out, I created a hypothetical team for Kieran, and I CALLED that Grimmsnarl!! Literally even the focus sash. If anyone's curious, here was the hypothetical team I made. I'm a nuzlocker, not a competitive player, so it very well may be shit. Apologies in advance.

Next is the characters!! Every design slapped as always, and I enjoyed their personalities! Lacey was adorbs, Crispin was fun, and Amarys might just be one of my new favorites! As for Drayton? Let me tell you, I was side-eyeing him the whole time the MOMENT after he said THIS to Kieran.

After all the hype around dokutaro/peechikeen (now know as pecharunt, apparently), and all the speculation that Kieran would fall victim to its influence, him saying "that's just peachy" made my rat brain go into overdrive. In the end, I think it was just Legends Arceus giving me Volo flashbacks.

Now, the main event... KIERAN! Let me tell you, he gave me GOOSEBUMPS. Every time he appeared, I could feel a chill run up my spine, and his battle had my heart RACING. ESPECIALLY his breakdown at the end of it! One of the best times I've had in a good while. The animation, his reaction, all of it was GREAT!! It was so refreshing to see him not immediately heel-face turn.

Unfortunately, though, what happened after that all disappointed me. I admit I got too attached to the Dokutaro Posession theory, buy it was still disappointing for Dokutaro (I know that's not its name, leave me be) to not play any role in the main story. It felt like a natural conclusion to what the game was setting up, I thought he'd throw the master ball at terapagos, it'd fail, and he'd become so overwhelmed with everything that has happened that he'd succumb to Dokutaro's control and we'd have to fight the Dokutaro-Kieran with Terapagos's aid. That's not what happened, and I felt a bit sad. His recovery from his breakdown was still set up nicely and had some atleast sufficient justification, but it still felt like too-little too-soon. It felt more like he just gave up all together rather than defeated his demons. He'd never be as strong as the player, and that's that, which is a sour note to leave off on.

We see that he legitimately has nothing. All the other students left the MOMENT he was defeated. No one came to help the kid who was clearly having a panic attack. The BB league cares about him, sure, but I wouldn't consider them his friends. They all thought Kieran getting defeated would "fix" him, and even when he clearly wasn't any better after being defeated, they didn't do anything to assist him. Sure, sometimes when someone has climbed so high, you gotta let them fall, but once they do, you can't just leave them lying on the ground. You need to be there to lift them back up before they start digging.

This isn't an attack on the BB league at ALL. Like I said, I really enjoyed their characters! In fact, this reaction is part of the reason I like them so much. It adds depth.

I just wish that Kieran DID start digging, and that it led to something bigger. Even if Dokutaro wasn't involved, I atleast wanted the final battle with him to be that big thing, and not just a turtle that can't do anything but throw out weak earthpowers.

Though the biggest failing to me is that Kieran apologizes to us, but we don't apologize to him. We as in the player, and Carmine

Kieran's actions are his own and I'm not saying he shouldn't have apologized, but he wasn't solely culpable for how things turned out. We and Carmine purposefully lied, kept a secret that was dear to him, and were the straw that broke the camel's back. Even if we the player didn't apologize, Carmine should've!! Her treatment of Kieran heavily impacted him, and he mirrored her abuse (Kieran telling Carmine to "Shut it", just like she did to him, for example).

Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, was in the wrong here. Kieran took things too far, Carmine behavior is a serious problem, and the played character was complicit.

I'm not demonizing anyone here, I am the number one Carmine defender after all, but everyone needs to take responsibility. Not. Just. Kieran.

I relate heavily to both Kitakami siblings, as both an elder sister with younger siblings who she's accidentally mistreated, and as a little sister with an older sibling who treats me like I'm lesser.

I've lashed out at my older sibling, and while my reaction wasn't proportional, it doesn't mean my emotions weren't justified.

I have severe genetic anger issues (that I'm now thankfully medicated for), and have unjustly taken them out on my younger siblings.

Carmine needs to apologize too, or the cycle will just continue. Maybe she already did and I missed it, or maybe it happens in the post-game. However, if she didn't? It makes me feel unresolved.

Anyways, that all I gotta say on it!! Hope someone enjoyed this overly long rambling!!

(P.S. I still don't trust dragon boy. "Thats just peachy" my ASS, you know something ya toothpaste haired cunt. Why did they request to bring ya along to area zero anyways, ya plot relevant FUCK.)

#I actually really like Drayton I'd just also punt him off a cliff #pokemon #pokemon dlc #kieran #pokemon sv #the hidden treasure of area zero #kitakami siblings #the indigo disk spoilers #the indigo disk #pokemon spoilers #kieran pokemon #pokemon kieran #scarlet and violet #the teal mask spoilers #carmine pokemon #pokemon carmine

[rationalisms]

sorry to whack a wasp's nest, and i am prefacing all of this by saying that i enjoyed the game and think there are a lot of good aspects to it, but!

i am genuinely so sick of the way people talk about baldur's gate 3

i don't think it should have won game of the year

it's so, so irritating to see people claim over and over that bg3 is somehow groundbreaking for the genre or some sort of trailblazing star in a charred wasteland that has seen no good release since dragon age: origins. and like, it's not just idiots in the steam reviews and on reddit who are talking like this (though they are fucking everywhere on both. one of the highest rated posts on the bg3 sub for months was some dude literally going "i've never played a ttrpg or crpg and i believe bg3 is a game changer" fucking lol). it's also like. professional video game journalists and reviewers. a lot of them!

and like. dragon age: origins is really not a particularly good game compared to many of its contemporaries and i seriously do not understand the chokehold it has on people but that aside, since it was released we've had so many incredible and amazing crpgs that featured outstanding writing, game design, art direction, music, voice acting, etc. the pillars of eternity duology, underrail, the wasteland series, tyranny, atom, the shadowrun trilogy, the pathfinder duology, even the fucking games larian made before this, the divinity: original sin duology are all doing what bg3 did, and often better than bg3 does it. and that's not even getting into the many, many games that came out before either that still hold up as masterpieces that leave both bg3 and da:o in the dust like planescape: torment or fallout 1 and 2!

in fact, it's really easy to compare larian's previous game, divinity: original sin 2, to baldur's gate 3 because they are incredibly similar in many ways down to the inciting incident being almost a 1 to 1 copy (you wake up captured on a ship and realize you've been shackled in a way thay suppresses your powers and harms you and the first act is dedicated to finding others who this has happened to and getting rid of it). except that dos2 handles a lot of the things bg3 also contains a lot better, like e.g. companion story progression. (it's absolutely baffling to have story progression tied to rests especially when the game goes out of its way to instill fake urgency in the player that can very easily lead to them avoiding rests and makes especially many early game moments permanently missable if you don't happen to rest enough times at the right time. my karlach romance got bricked in my first playthrough for this reason. also compounding this is the fact that even on tactician the game is so easy that you can go ages without needing to rest organically.)

dos2 also unquestionably has the better combat experience because the system was designed specifically for the game and around the games capabilities and limitations, whereas bg3 had to contend with trying to make d&d 5e work in a video game format when that's patently not what it was designed for. the amount of changes larian had to make to the ruleset to make 5e work for a video game should have been a sign that using 5e was probably just not a good choice. (and ftr i felt the same about the game solasta which also uses 5e.) and even with the rule changes and the way larian went out of its way to buff the extremely underwhelming and underperforming 5e martials, character building and progression is still nowhere near as versatile and exciting as it was in dos2 or other crpgs and you still have a lot of empty level ups or repetitive gameplay because you can only put so many rhine stones on a turd.

let me be clear: i don't think bg3 is a bad game. again, i liked it! i think it has some instances of really good writing (mainly in companion narratives and side stories imo, the main story is underwhelming as whole). the voice acting performances are fantastic. larian tried their best to make non-linear problem solving possible in a lot of places which is neat (but also makes the lack of them in other places really obvious and more annoying than it otherwise would have been tbh lol.)

i just hate the way that bg3 is treated like some sort of gold standard when it stands on the shoulders of predecessors who are just as good, if not better, but who get ignored because they don't have fully mocapped and voice acted character models or a 3D camera. there seems to be this complete reticence from so many people to play games that still utilize things like an isometric pov, despite the fact that the games which do so are designed around this. e.g. pillars of eternity and the shadowrun games are some of the most beautiful, artistically impressive rpgs i have ever played and make full use of the isometric perspective in its fullest to create absolutely stunning environmental design which wouldn't have been possible with a rotating camera. just because a technology is older doesn't mean it is worse! people absolutely should get out of their comfort zone more because they are missing out on so many gems otherwise.

also re: bg3 winning game of the year specifically: look, here's why this gets me so tilted. on release? vast swathes of the game were legitimately unplayable. act 1 was mostly alright because it had 5 years to cook in early release with constant community feedback and bug reporting. this was absolutely not true for act 2 and 3. act 3 in particular was legitimately just not working for me (and multiple of my friends). i have a soupy gaming PC that can play other contemporary games on ultra settings just fine, and yet i got as few as 2 FPS and frankly ludicrous amount of stuttering and lag on even the lowest settings while my poor CPU sounded like she was preparing for space flight. it's clear that they just did not optimize later acts at all. they did eventually fix the memory leak issue somewhat in later patches, but the performance in act 3 is still markedly much worse than the rest of the game. (also why the fuck is it like 200GB good fucking g-d learn to compress your shit larian!) and that's not even getting into how many quests were bugged and as a result not able to be completed.

in summary: i paid 60 bucks for something that released in an unfinished state that put my hardware at risk. i spent a lot of money on a game i was unable to complete in the state that i bought it in and that took several months to get to an actually playable state for many people. that is not fucking acceptable.

i am willing to cut larian a lot more slack than i would say, e.g. bethesda, on releasing buggy and poorly optimized games. which is why i was willing to patiently wait for a performance patch to replay it. i am not, however, willing to accept handing something that was patently not finished and did not give customers the product they paid for an award for game of the year.

that's a symptom of an industry that has gotten too fucking comfortable releasing unfinished games and putting the onus of bug detection and quality testing on its paying userbase. that's not my job! i paid for this because i expect a product that has already successfully underwent this process! but apparently games these days don't need to bother with that anymore because it doesn't matter if it's playable on release or not, they can still get a coveted industry award for it anyway.

tl;dr: bg3 is literally fine but i am begging everyone on my hands and knees to broaden their horizons and also the things we deem to be acceptable from gaming companies nowadays are shocking. ok. i'm done. sorry.

#txt

[phoenixspencer]

Hello! I love your gifs! How do you make yours so clear and high quality/What's your process? <3

Hi!! Thank you so much!! I've never really had to explain out my process to anyone and I don't know how much detail you need, but I'll try my best and try to be as thorough as possible just in case!!

For my D:BH gifs, the process starts out with recording my own game play. I have a gaming computer that already had the GeForce Experience app downloaded, so I use that to record my game play. It records at 1920 × 1080p, 60 frames per second, so the files can get... rather large 😅 The video of my playthrough of the Russian Roulette chapter (~11 minutes long) was just under 4 GB. So its not light...

From there, I figure out what in particular I want to gif (for the timestamp roulette series, I let a random number generator figure out whereabouts I'm looking). Once I know that, I open up VLC and use it to isolate that particular shot + a little more on either end.

After I have the shot(s) I want to gif isolated, I open up Photoshop. I use "File" > "Import" > "Video Frames to Layers" and choose the video I want. You can do this straight from the video of your playthough, but I find that the shorter the video is, the easier it is to work with in this step. I trim my video more, to about a click or two outside of the specific shot I want. Like so:

From there I delete any extraneous frames from the "timeline" section that comes up.

Then is cropping: my go-to crop uses the "W x H x Resolution" option - I put 540 px in the first box, 300 px in the second and leave the third blank.

After that, I have an action in Photoshop that does the next steps for me (to make things quicker), but what it does is sets the frame rate (which will have to be done again after saving the gif because Photoshop hates everyone apparently), converts all the layers into a single object, and sharpens the gif. I've only been gif-ing for about a year and a half, and before that I had exactly zero experience with Photoshop at all, so all the numbers from these steps are still the same as the numbers I pulled from the tutorial I used when trying to figure everything out. For those, you can look at this absolutely AMAZING tutorial, by hayaosmiyazaki, specifically steps 7. gif speed and 8. sharpening.

From there, I start adjusting the colors. From what I've noticed, I seem to do a good bit less color adjustment than some, or maybe even most, other gif makers. It's honestly all about personal preference, so play around with it and find what you like! I personally like to stick as close as possible to the original colors, while still brightening the image up enough to make it clearer and more legible. So, for a majority of my gifs, I only apply an "Exposure" layer, a "Brightness/Contrast" layer, and a "Hue/Saturation" layer (from the "Layer" > "New Adjustment Layer" menu.) The numbers here change dependent upon the lighting in the shot.

For example, here's a before and after of this shot I just did so I could type this out and make sure I got every step 😅 For this one, I did Exposure +1.0 (no change to Offset or Gamma Correction), Brightness +20, Contrast +10, and Saturation +5 (no change to Hue or Lightness).

Once I'm satisfied with my coloring, I go to "File" > "Export" > "Save for Web (Legacy)". I watch the gif there to make sure it looks how I want, maybe go back and do a few tweaks to the coloring if I'm not quite happy, check the file size and then save it!

Tumblr's maximum file size is 10MB so if your gif is over that, you won't be able to use it on tumblr - in order to fix that, you may have to delete a few more frames. Or you can crop it to so there's less pixels in the "Save for Web" pop-up by changing the numbers in the "Image Size" section

And now, once I have my gif named and saved. I go back to "File" > "Open" and open up that gif. From there, I go to the little three lines icon in the top right corner of my "Timeline" section, click "Select All Frames" and then click the three dots on one of the frames and change the frame delay. For my DBH gifs, I do 0.02 seconds cause it looks best to me. Depending on how many frames per second your recording software does/what you personally like speed wise, this may be different for you. This is also different for gifs from live action or other media (for those, I prefer 0.05 seconds - it looks the most realistic to me.)

Then, I just save again, overriding the file from before I changed the speed, and voila! That's my process!

I hope this helps; if you have any more questions, my ask box is always open!! And again, thank you so so much 🥰 I'm so glad you like my gifs!!

#so yeah that's the process #gif making #phoenixspencer gifs

[themolldollincident]

Queer tormented by ocd plays disco elysium absolutely zooted on edibles, a tragically short story in only seven snapchats

Not my typical content but i had to post it.

I LOVE video games but my OCD makes them very distressing to play sometimes. My playthrough HAS to be perfect or i get extremely distressed - not like i have to do a good job and win, but more like every single playthrough has to be a beautiful work of art from beginning to end, no decisions or time wasted on things that dont serve the STORY and the CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, and CERTAINLY no sidequests left uninvestigated and no bonus content left undiscovered. This has gotten harder in recent years as video games have become more complex and more beautiful, so oftentimes you CANT uncover every single thing AND play a consistent character, because huge swaths of content are often locked behind certain decisions that you CANT MAKE if you're committing to a specific character arc or story. So anyway a while ago I played through Disco Elysium. I LOVED IT. It was FANTASTIC. It was difficult to get through at times because of the ocd but it was so so worth it and helped me practice not engaging in compulsions.

HOWEVER.

I recently decided to play it through AGAIN while absolutely fucking ZOOTED on some edibles i've discovered that make it to where i basically dont fucking have my extremely severe case of ocd for just a few hours. (They are heavenly and i love them). I thought it would be really fun to play the whole game again, but this time i ONLY open up this save when im zooted, and i ONLY have fun, with NO pressure to make the playthrough any kind of art. JUST have FUN playing a VIDEO GAME for the first time in my life. I decided i would ONLY pick the dialogue options i found the most amusing, without doing my typical 20 minutes of overthinking for each dialogue box. I was going goofy mode and i was so excited. It didnt exactly go the way i thought it would though LMAO

This is the result of that tragically short but hilarious playthrough that had me SCREAMING in my living room, told in 7 snapchats

1. Opening the game and noticing something i somehow never noticed during the whole first playthrough around 5:35 pm

2. Creating a character build, 5:38 pm

3. Deciding to have a 1 in all stats except psyche and pour all points into psyche so that i can be psychic cop, failing to realize (because edibles) that there is a low attribute cap at the beginning, so i just accidentally chose to hamstring my attributes and just NOT USE my three points to build my character, 5:40 pm

4. Choosing ONLY Inland Empire for my skill increase, once again failing to realize that i wasnt maxxing out inland empire, i was just failing to use two skill points. Also i was enjoying the music in the skill screen, which is beautiful, but since i was high i thought the 5 minutes i spent just vibing to the music was like 30 minutes so i thought i wasted a bunch of time, 5:48pm. (Ive decided to call this method of accidentally using only one skill/attribute point at the beginning of the game because youre too zooted to play video games well "Harry-Maxxing".)

5. Going through the "trying to wake up" beginning of the game choosing only the funniest dialogue options and seeing dialogue i had never seen before! Fun! But also before i took this pic i referenced the nina chimera FMA meme and my partner hadnt heard of it so i explained it for only like 10 minutes, but again, since i was high, i thought i wasted like 2 hours on that. But it was only 6:16 pm.

6

6. and 7. A glorious 3 minutes later, i decide turning the light on is a great first move (its been a bit since my first playthrough). Again, i am only choosing the funniest dialogue options and not thinking super well, so i just kept saying shit like "BRING IT ON" and "Let it all go" because i thought it was typical harry being overdramatic and weird, and i thought it was hilarious. Turns out i had a heart attack from turning the light on and immediately died. Literally like 5 minutes of actual playtime. Incredible. I love this game.

It wasnt the full playthrough i was hoping for but it was awesome. Rip harry number 2. I definitely recommend harry-maxxing

#disco elysium #harry disco elysium #harry du bois #harry maxxing #edibles

[nonsubstantial]

MARCH 2024 DIARY POST

I'm keeping up the habit of writing a monthly post to catalogue all the things I've been obsessed with in 2024. At the end of the year, I want to be able to look back and remember what was making me happy all year long! If you are reading this, I hope you will enjoy hearing about these things or checking them out too! First, a chaotic collage of those things!

VIDEO GAME: As you may already know, Splatoon is probably my favorite video game franchise of all time. I really cannot overstate how important it is to me. Naturally, I was highly anticipating its new singleplayer DLC, titled Side Order, but when it finally came out at the end of February, my elbow was fractured in a way that made it painful for me to play. So, I had to wait until about a week into March for my elbow to heal a little. Then, I spent about 10 hours obsessively playing it, and I loved pretty much every second of it. It featured by far the most difficult levels ever seen in a Splatoon game, which was a treat to me as a player who was disappointed by the rather simplistic story mode of the base game. Splatoon 3: Side Order took the form of a roguelite battle tower, similar to Salmon Run but with new enemies, unique (and sometimes puzzling) stages, and customizable weapon builds. Even players who find it a bit too challenging at first can eventually mod the difficulty to an extent that (hopefully) makes it doable. The story was nothing crazy, but the gameplay and visuals were so unbelievably good that I honestly wished I could erase it all from my mind and play it again from the start. Just yay 💕, I love Splatoon so much.

TWITCH STREAM FAN EDIT: If you don't already know who Jerma is, he is a prolific video game streamer that I became a big fan of a few years ago. His unique humor has consistently impressed and appealed to me, and his fan community has proven itself to be both creative enough and motivated enough to persistently churn out edited “best of” versions of his streams. For better or for worse, Jerma announced his retirement from streaming last year, leaving his eager fans with nothing but his earlier content to dredge for, well… content. One such fan edit that was released this year, post-retirement, was a massive compilation of all his Nancy Drew playthroughs (save for one). This edit in particular was one that I found overwhelmingly funny and good, and it inspired an ongoing fanfic that I’m still currently working on writing. Oddly enough, watching this caused a domino effect that got me back into writing in general and has given me the surge of confidence and inspiration that I needed to keep working on creating the fiction that has lived inside in my head for years. I really hope this feeling never dies. You can watch the stream that inspired me, linked here!

MUSICAL ARTIST: Peach Kelli Pop is probably tied (with a few other artists) for the title of my favorite band of all time. Their entire discography is only about 2 hours long, but they were still my most listened to artist for several years in a row. It’s due to the consistency of the vibe across all of her work: upbeat and positive while still delivering a profound emotional impact. I've been able to just listen her entire catalog of music over and over and over again on shuffle. I might describe it as DIY rock, or feminist punk, and if you haven't heard it before, Gentle Leader is probably the best album to start with. Listen here!

MUSICAL ARTIST: After listening to nothing except Peach Kelli Pop for about a week straight, I started to look into similar bands that I hadn't already checked out and found one that really caught my interest. That's how I was introduced to Tacocat! Their band name is both a palindrome and euphemism, and their album Lost Time was love at first listen. They have cozy lyrics about aliens, birth control, and creating your own values, and their music has left me in a good mood every time I've thrown it on. You can listen to the first song that I heard, linked here!

SONG: It's Don’t Rain On My Parade, by Barbra Streisand!! I still haven't watched the musical that this song is from, but the drag queen Plasma mentioned it on RuPaul Season 16, which is how I ended up hearing it. This song gets an individual mention because I was absolutely blown away by this one individual track! It's brilliant and catchy right out of the gate, "Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter! Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade!" It's from 1964, but its recording sounds crystal clear and it channels its intended emotions perfectly. I felt compelled to listen to it over and over again, because it really is just so cheerful and artistically inspiring. I feel like it's a perfect piece of music. Listen here!

SONG: I have to give another song an individual mention! It's Mood Indigo, by Nina Simone!! I’ve been a big fan of Nina Simone for years now, but more often than not, I've stuck to my favorite album, Pastel Blues. I did branch out and listen to this song a few times in the past, but it only recently dawned on me just how perfect it is. Wikipedia says that it was recorded in 1964, about the same time as Don’t Rain On My Parade, and while it's technically a cover of an old Duke Ellington song, Nina Simone’s version has a totally unique vibe, evident from the first few bars. Its lyrics are meant to be cathartic, as they discuss suicidal ideation, while the drums, bass, and piano create a beautiful and upbeat swing melody that perfectly juxtaposes and rebuts the content of Nina’s vocals. It's menacing, catchy, uplifting, and truly perfect! I now believe it to be a landmark in Nina Simone’s career, and the whole of music history in general. Listen here!

MUSICAL ARTIST: Okay, one last music rec, I swear!! I was really feeling the vibes this month (but mostly just listening to bands that I already know and love). Along with Peach Kelli Pop, another one of my favorite bands is King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Ever since 2017 (aka, the year of the gizz) they have probably reigned supreme as my #1 most listened to band. They just have so much music, with so much variation, that I can usually find at least one of their songs that appeals to me. Since the start of this year, I've been collecting and organizing a playlist of my favorite songs by them, titled 31 Days Of Gizz. Not for any particular reason, but just because I find it fun to make lists! At the last minute, I decided that I would organize the songs, specifically in the way that I would play them if I were introducing someone new to the band. So, if you haven’t heard their music before, maybe it’s time I introduced you? But no pressure, I just like their songs and I made my playlist just for me! I'm linking to it on spotify, HERE, if you’re interested! (forgot to put this one on the collage, lol)

VIDEO GAME: Right before the month ended, I bought the new fantasy tactics game, Unicorn Overlord, and I am fucking in love. I’ve been a longtime fan of the fantasy tactics genre, so as soon as this game started making waves, I begrudgingly accepted that I HAD to play it. I really don’t have a lot of time in between trying to take care of things at home and working on my writing, as I mentioned before, but I briefly dropped all my other hobbies and managed to fit about 10 hours of gameplay in before the month ended. I really wish I had time to obsess over it, because I feel like it is a masterpiece, even if the rumors about there being gay content ended up being a disappointing exaggeration (the game was developed by Vanillaware, but was published by homophobic giants ATLUS and SEGA, so I’m not surprised). Despite the story being pretty much dog shit though, I believe the gameplay is damn near perfect, and even revolutionary within its genre. I’ll probably be sinking all my game time into it until the new Elden Ring DLC drops. If you’re a person who also likes fantasy tactics, then I highly recommend playing it (I got it for the Nintendo Switch, where it seems to run perfectly).

(that’s it. It is now APRIL!! There might be some repeats this next month, or I'll leave them out... we'll see. Hope you have a good day! ♡)

#personal #2024 reviews #2024 #march #splatoon #jerma #peach kelli pop #tacocat #don't rain on my parade #mood indigo #king gizzard #unicorn overlord

[silenthillmutual]

Should I play Pathologic Classic, or Pathologic 2?

That depends. How do you feel about visual novels and a little bit of jank? If that's not for you, Pathologic 2 is probably your best bet. Though if I can, I'd like to make a case for playing Classic anyway.

You might have heard a lot of things about Pathologic Classic HD. You might have heard that it's janky. You might have heard that it's ugly. You might have heard that it's nigh-impossible to play. Worst of all, you might have heard that it's not fun, and what's the point in playing a game that isn't fun?

I'm not here to argue about aesthetics or even for the value of negative experiences in gaming. If you'd like to have a philosophical debate about what it means to have fun, by all means, go ahead - plenty of us do enjoy the time we've spent playing Classic. Fun isn't, after all, an objective experience. What I am here to do, however, is tell you that the game is not impossible. Difficult? Sure. Tedious? Sometimes. A lot of walking? You have no idea! But isn't impossible.

(Even without cheating. But we'll talk more about that later.)

Both games are fantastic in their own right, but I don't believe enough people give Classic a chance, and Pathologic 2 is not a substitute for Classic. This is, in part, because Pathologic 2 is not finished. Only one route out of three [at the time of writing this] has been released. Even if it were - the metanarrative of the game is different. The characters and their relationships are different. The town is different. To me, the two aren't even the same game.

Pathologic 2 isn't exactly a sequel, nor is it exactly a remake. It's sort of a re-imagining. The kind of game Silent Hill: Shattered Memories wishes it was. And no one plays Shattered Memories and thinks, "I've basically played Silent Hill." Although as someone who has fixated on Silent Hill for over a decade, I can also confidently say that Pathologic 2 is not the insane bastardization that Shattered Memories is. Not to mention that Classic regularly goes on sale for under $2, so if you can give a two hour long YouTube video your attention, you can give Classic a shot.

I watched the Hbomb video, so I know everything I need to know about Classic, right?

Oh boy.

No, you don't. If you're looking for substitution videos, Pathologic For Those Who Will Never Play It is closer to what you need. Though as much as I love that video, I still urge to you either play the game yourself or watch a Let's Play of it. I know of three: SulMatul, Laila Dyer, and Keith Ballard; the latter two are blind LPs.

Why do I insist you play this game for yourself? Because it's a role-playing game. You wouldn't get the same experience of watching someone else's build in Disco Elysium as you would with your own, and the same is true here. Yes, it's more of a book than a lot of other RPGs you might have played, but part of the charm of the game is playing it the way you want to, and all that entails.

You might be thinking to yourself, "Well, no one can tell I've only seen the Hbomb video!" I regret to inform you that yes, we can absolutely tell.

Play the game.

Okay, fine, I'll play Pathologic Classic. Which route should I start with?

That's up to you, but I will say that people start with the Bachelor's route for a reason. He's an outsider to the Town, so you're more likely to get lore that wouldn't be available to the Haruspex. And the Town is strange, so that's information that you'll want. His route is also a little easier than the Haruspex's route, and the Changeling's won't be available to you yet.

If you do opt to start with the Haruspex's route, more power to you. Just keep in mind that his route isn't the only interpretation of events. In fact, no one route to the game is the only interpretation of events. Characters will be different from playthrough to playthrough, and it doesn't make one route more canon than another.

Any other tips?

Yes, actually! Quite a few:

Look at the controls before you start the game! The GOG release of the game comes with a manual - that'll be on your computer under Program Files -> GOG -> Games -> Pathologic. I couldn't find one on the Steam release, but you can find it here. Going through your options will let you turn off things like motion blur (which may help the game run better and make you feel less ill), but also get familiar with the key bindings. I've talked to a quite a few people who didn't realize the Bachelor had a plaguefinder or a torch.

Prioritize your daily quest. If you fail to complete your daily quest, one of your Bound will do it for you and they will get infected. This constitutes a fail state for you. You may not be able to get every side quest accomplished the first time you play the game, but as long as you make sure to complete the daily quest done you will be fine.

Make sure to check your letters! The game will make a little noise and a symbol will pop up on the bottom left hand side of the screen when you get mail. Doing this is very important - but don't let this be the only way you get information! Explore, talk to people, check on your Bound every day. Not every quest is going to come to you in form of a letter.

Buy food and supplies before you need them. That stuff is expensive, and prices fluctuate every day.

Loot everything you can! Every garbage bin you pass, every infected house you enter, every mugger you kill. Trading is important for getting things like medicine without paying for it, and selling off what you can't use can get you extra money. You will especially need empty bottles for water to trade with the town drunks. (And for trading - you'll have to click on your own inventory, then the other characters, and then hit the 'v' button.) Learn which NPCs will trade for which items, know their value so that you're never empty-handed in case you come across, say, a shmowder...

Save like hell. Constantly. If an upcoming conversation seems important, save right before you go into it. On Steam, F5 is a quicksave (you can have 2). There will be times when you'll screw yourself over on a conversation. Sometimes you learn more this way, but sometimes this means you can't continue a quest. It's a trial-and-error thing.

You are going to get infected. You should, of course, do what you can to avoid infection, but it's highly unlikely you'll make it through any route without getting infected at least once. It happens.

Daniil's plaguefinder will show you where the plague clouds are, and that can be helpful! Unfortunately, the other two don't have access to this device, so it's best to just try and remember where the plague clouds are. They don't change from route to route.

As Artemy and Clara - you cannot buy any herbs from the Odonghe that you do not have in your inventory. As any healer, you cannot buy things if you have no room in your inventory.

Looking to cheat? I won't tell anyone. Hit the ` key for console commands. 'god' will turn on godmode, 'fly on' / 'fly off' will enable flying (not the same as Pathologic 2's flycam!). 'propf 6995 disease 0' will cure you of Sand Plague (for the Haruspex and Changeling; 6986 is the Bachelor's code). Oh, and if you're going to use godmode, you should know that you cannot sleep if your health is at 0. Just apply a bandage and you'll be good to go.

Oh, yeah, and - don't eat the nuts. They do jack for your hunger. They're there for trading.

What difficulty should I play Pathologic 2 on?

Everyone has their own ideas and rules about how to play the game and on what you should or should not do on your first playthrough. A lot of people insist on playing Pathologic 2 on intended difficulty for the first runthrough, and I tend to agree with that. Even with upgraded graphics and improved controls, this game isn't intended to be easy or combat-driven. The difficulty sliders even say that the game is intended to be "almost unbearable."

That being said - your threshold for "almost unbearable" may be different from mine or someone else's. If the game is too easy for you, make it harder. If you're struggling to the point of wanting to quit, make it easier. Yes, someone will be disappointed in you. Not me though. I don't particularly care, and you shouldn't either. You are the one playing the game, not anybody else. If you're looking for someone's permission to make things easier on yourself, I'm here to give it to you. Some people just aren't good at video games, and there's no shame in that.

But keep in mind that this game is meant to be played multiple times. See how far you can get with the intended difficulty. You can always change it on your next playthrough.

General tips for this game?

Save scumming is harder for this game, and also kind of a waste of time. It doesn't undo your deaths, so you may as well just live with the consequences of your actions. As the loading screen notes, this sometimes makes things more interesting.

Your deaths will, by the way, have consequences on your gameplay. So try not to die.

There is no differentiation between Daily Quest and Side Quest. It's up to you to prioritize. Don't worry too much about completing every quest on the day it's given, either. You're not intended to.

Upgrading your inventory is incredibly important! Things will stack, but only to a certain degree. You can no longer carry 100+ bottles of water at a time. You also won't want to trade all your water away for bandages; you'll heal from sleeping. The water you'll need to make tinctures.

As always, you'll want to be frugal with your money. Unlike in Classic, however, you can barter with most NPCs for food, so your options aren't as limited. Do still buy nuts whenever you get the option to; they're worth more in trading than needles, which can also be used to pick small locks.

Since I've seen some confusion about this - prophyalxis is giving the Bound immunity boosters or tinctures. You won't just have your own list to take care of, though they'll be the most important. No, you're responsible for most of the named characters in the game. Get a feel for which medications work best, and then decide who gets the best treatment. You can't save everyone... without cheating.

Speaking of cheating - that works differently in Pathologic 2. To access the console, you'll have to hold down Control + Shift + F4. You can use flycam, but this is really only to take pictures; it does not move the character to whatever location you are flying to. What you'll probably want access to more is curing yourself of the plague, or turning on immortality. Both are located under Inspector -> PlayerUpdater -> Updatable. The two Elements you'll be most concerned about are Element 0 (the town) and Element 3 (the abattoir). For immortality, you'll expand the folder and change the aspect from False to True. For Infection, you'll expand the folder and change the element to 0 (for no infection). The wiki has a list of the commands for getting items.

And, I cannot stress this enough, buy the bull.

Why does the fandom ship the Bachelor and the Haruspex? They hate each other!

In one route of one game that you are statistically unlikely to have started (3.2% of all Steam players), let alone finished (2.3% of all Steam players). Even if the majority of their interactions were negative - which they aren't - that wouldn't stop people from shipping them. Have you seen how popular Hannibal is? That show ended five years ago and people are still making Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter content.

Though some people do like the ship from that antagonistic angle, the main reason probably stems from two places. The first is that they are narrative foils, and people love to ship narrative foils. Different enough to cause friction, similar enough to connect. The second is the first thing Daniil says to Artemy in the Haruspex route, around 5PM on Day 1:

Yes... Far be it from me to call myself a person of mystical inclinations. However, when I look at you, I get the feeling that nature is playing jokes on us. It's as if both the left and right hand have clutched the head to realize for the first time that they are two parts of a single whole.

Which reads like a reference to the myth that soulmates once shared a body and were split apart. This is how Artemy's first interaction with Daniil starts, and is immediately followed by Daniil raising his reputation entirely and allowing Artemy to sleep in his bed. There's more I could say but, honestly? Play the game and figure it out.

Why do so many people read the Bachelor as trans?

Good question! A lot of his fans happen to be trans, and that probably plays a large part in it. Some get gender envy from his design - ridiculous as a lot of people think it is, I know I'd dress like that if I could afford it. His cravat pin, which the wiki calls a snake, looks alarmingly like a uterus. He's short. His Pathologic 2 incarnation has that hideous bowl haircut that a lot of us had at some point in time in our transition. Most importantly, his goal of defeating death is implied to be a matter of bodily autonomy, for people to choose when it's their time to die, and that's very transgender of him.

It also doesn't hurt that his designer, Meethos, is trans.

If you're wondering why the reading isn't as prominent for the other two healers, I don't know. The headcanons are out there, but for some reason, the fanwork isn't. Be the change you wish to see, as they say.

Why does the Bachelor talk in random Latin?

Why are all these questions about Dankovsky? Anyway, it's not random! It's topical. It's also almost always a common saying - you can find most of them on Wikipedia. Why does he do it? To show off, probably. He's pretentious, what else is there to know?

What's with all the fanfic getting that guy pregnant?

Yeah sorry that's my fault.

What's with the interpretation of him as autistic?

Also my fault.

Why are people so insistent that the Haruspex is gay?

Finally, some diversity! I should correct you, though: I think the prevailing reading is that he's bisexual.

There's a lot of reasons to read him as bi, particularly in Pathologic 2. Don't get me wrong, there are instances in Classic that come across as not-straight; the aforementioned hands line? Artemy can reply that he feels the same. But in Pathologic 2, he gets tender moments with his (now) childhood friends Bad Grief and Stakh Rubin, where the former starts to ask him to run away together and he convinces the latter not to leave with the army. He even attempts to convince the Bachelor to stay in town in both the Nocturnal and Diurnal endings. Aglaya is the canon romance option in both games (for as much as the tragic narrative will allow), but people also read romance into Artemy's interactions with Lara. Hence, the bisexuality.

bonus links:

Daniil Dankovsky (dot com!)

Artemy Burakh (dot com!)

Respect the Kin

Steppe Language Dictionary

Spoiler-free Bachelor Route walkthrough

Spoiler-free Haruspex Route walkthrough

Spoiler-free Changeling Route walkthrough

#pathologic #pathologic 2 #the last two questions are a joke btw i just wanted to end with some brevity<3 love and light! #if you can think of anything i missed ppl might want to know lmk! #*levity. not brevity brevity is the other thing.

[not-poignant]

Re-reading Palmarosa (don't @ me about how many times I've re-read) and all the stuff that's come up in the last two chapters has been there for a long time!!! When did you know the heist was coming?

sakljfsaf I'm not going to @ you about how many times you've reread anon because rereaders make the world go round :D

And yeah, there's been hints for a long time! Honestly I knew pretty quickly that this was coming (there's also a few other things that are coming as well and a couple of those also have foreshadowing).

So I'd say I knew about Raphael going to Mephistar probably within about 2-3 days of starting to write this story, and actually before I finished my playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3. Raphael being the son of Mephistopheles is canon, and I quickly tried to see if that becomes like anything in the game beyond a reference (it doesn't) and after some research realised what a huge goldmine that was for plot ideas.

It's also canon that Raphael doesn't have a good relationship with his father, or has a more trauma-based relationship with his father, which makes sense, because Mephistopheles is a calculated sadistic asshat who believes that freezing people to death between glaciers over centuries is genuinely a good way to spend one's time.

I actually was a little frustrated with myself once I realised it was going to take more than 10 chapters to finally get to this point. Initially I was aiming for chapter 7-9, but I needed more established between Raphael and Astarion, and I needed Astarion to start getting a lot more curious about what's happening, because Astarion is basically a cat and if you pique his curiosity, he'll want to know stuff! Even when it's bad for him!

I kind of knew this fic would come across as 'just a PWP contract fic' but I really always wanted it to be very epic in scope, and a longer story similar to Stuck on the Puzzle or The Beast that Chose Its Own Bridle. Something that starts with intimacy between two characters, and then folds out into a much broader world.

But I also wanted it to be a surprise for the people who weren't looking for it! A lot of folks who even have played and finished BG3 playthroughs never find out that Mephistopheles is Raphael's father, and if they do, they have no idea who he is even if they've played some DND (you really have to have played very specific campaigns, or played previous BG3 video games etc. to have any idea).

That's made the build up and the foreshadowing really fun to do, because people are coming in with wildly different DND knowledge (some - absolutely zero, don't even play the game, some - only the game, some - only DND but nothing to do with Ba'ator, some - DND and Ba'ator).

This is actually a huge reason why I say the story isn't canon compliant, because it literally can't be. There's too many moving parts and a lot of Forbidden Realms isn't even canon compliant with itself. And I love that, and that gives me room for movement. FR is about creativity within structure, and that structure can be what FR and Larian gives us, and even then we'd already be picking and choosing what works for us because those two things aren't fully lore compatible. There's a lot of good threads about how Larian was quite selective in how they built up their version of Faerun. And I love that.

But also, same. :D

Anyway, so the TL;DR is I knew juuuust about from the beginning! Not from the first few chapters, but I'd say definitely by the time I started chapter 2!

#asks and answers #palmarosa #thespectaclesofthor #pia on worldbuilding #i was always very curious about the fact that #raphael had a lot of portals to elsewhere in Faerun #and then a portal that specifically goes to Mephistar #i guess that's the second reference to who his father is in the game actually #so he's obviously accustomed to travelling to Cania #and needing to have quick access #and digging deeper into Raphael and the hierarchy of devils #led me into a really rich vista for plot ideas #which also had me depart a lot from utilising most of the companions #i will say that so far absolutely NO ONE has guessed who the first companion we meet will be #though folks have suggested Gale because of the Waterdeep visit #and Karlach because of being in Avernus #Karlach is closer to who we'll meet #but it's neither of them

[taruchinator]

🐺 General Audiences

🐺 2k Words

🐺 Written for the @fnafchibizine!

‘Happy Birthday, Cassie!’

The lopsided cursive writing made of icing dripped from one side of the chocolate cake, making it appear soggy and unappetizing from any and all angles. Its candles having burnt out hours ago didn't help the case either, but that was okay.

It wasn't like Cassie felt like eating a whole cake on her own.

“Man, did I get the wrong memo? Didn't know we were doing a funeral today.”

FNAF? In MY account? More likely than you'd think! 🤭 Hey everyone! Alice here! Today I come with another special piece written for a zine: The FNAF Chibi Zine, to be precise! 💖

I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do for a cutesy project like this one in writing form, but then it hit me that I could get away with adorable goofiness and kids getting to be kids (the calm before the storm ig lol)

Something I've wanted to do was explore Cassie and Gregory's relationship, so that's exactly what I decided to go with! This can be seen as either platonic or romantic, tbh. I just love me these babies (even if Greg is possibly an evil psychopath 🙃).

You can also download it for free so consider checking the official account!

Cassie had never been particularly interested in video games.

At school, it was one of the things that separated her from the rest of her classmates in the social hierarchy, with everyone always showing off their newest consoles or big hit releases. As if she didn't need more help in sticking out like a sore thumb.

Despite owning a pretty decent handful of games, she was never the competitive type, so she didn't pay much attention to them—but that all changed one day when her father got a new job in the city as an engineer for the animatronics at Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex.

The man would pick her up after last period, and together they'd head over to the massive hall attraction, where Cassie was free to roam around wherever she pleased while the adults got to work. A few of the other employees’ children would be there too. She tried to befriend them at first, but eventually stopped once she realized they would laugh and talk behind her back.

That's when the Arcade Cabinets came into play.

With the restaurant’s powerful 80’s aesthetic, it was no surprise to see an area dedicated to these gaming devices from an older time. Once she'd explored every inch of the building and none of the animatronics were available to spend time with her, Cassie figured she'd give these guys a shot.

To say she enjoyed them would be an understatement.

Before she knew it, the brunette would find herself wandering into the gaming area more and more frequently, going from one cabinet to the next to try and figure out which one she liked best. It was surprisingly ‘Balloon World’, despite her complaints of not finding a single Roxy themed arcade cabinet.

And even though she was having so much fun, there was something that slightly piqued her interest.

At first she didn't even notice it, but after constant playthroughs of the same games, Cassie saw a pattern in all of them—they all had the same acronym as the top score player. Curious to know if this was a factory defect, she went looking into other games, even ones she didn't normally play, only to keep finding the same name over and over.

“GGY…” She mumbled the three letters as she placed her palm against the joystick of Princess Quest. For someone to have the high score in not just one, but all the games in the arcade, they'd have to have been playing here for a very long time. And yet, Cassie was never with more than a few kids at a time in this area, and rarely did she see them again unless it was weeks afterwards.

So now, only one question plagued her mind every time she walked into the building—who was this mysterious ‘GGY’?

Two hours.

That's how long Cassie had been waiting to play Midnight Motorist.

When she arrived at the Pizzaplex earlier that day, she'd planned on trying to beat her previous record, only to find a boy she'd never seen before already there. Usually she wouldn't mind this, after all it was a public place and many kids spent their time here too. It wasn't the first time someone was playing in a cabinet before her.

For them to take two hours playing in said cabinet however, was a different story.

“Um, excuse me?” Cassie dared to take a chance, gently tapping the boy's shoulder in order to get his attention. “Are you almost done?”

“Ugh! Wait your turn, will you?” The boy immediately flinched away from her touch, and was almost startled out of the track in-game yet was quick to steer himself back in the right direction. Never once did he take his eyes off the screen to acknowledge her.

This annoyed her slightly. “I have been waiting. You've been playing for hours! And I should know; I went to go see Roxy's performance as soon as I got here and you're still here!”

The boy seemed to share her annoyance, but something told her it wasn't for the same reason. “Who cares? I was here first, so don't get in the- wait no, no, no! Dang it!”

Undoubtedly thanks to her meddling, the car on screen crashed against one of the obstacles, causing an instant ‘Game Over’ to appear. Yet despite that, Cassie couldn't help but notice that the boy still managed to beat the previous high score, which only made her wonder how much longer he would've lasted here if she hadn't said anything.

In reluctant grumbles, the boy started writing his initials on the scoreboard. Cassie didn't even bother listening to what he was saying once she saw the familiar letters that were scattered all over the arcade.

“Ya know? You're lucky I don't have any more tokens on me, cause I'd definitely keep playing if I did! I was about to get to the secret level before you—” The boy's rambles were quickly cut short by the brunette's gasp.

Her expression quickly morphed into that of awe as she invaded the boy's personal bubble, causing him to back up again the cabinet with a look of confusion on his face. “You're ‘GGY’?! Oh my God, I've been dying to meet you, I'm a huge fan! I'm Cassie!”

The mystery of GGY was something that started eating at her for a while now, so getting to meet the face behind the name was incredibly exciting, even if said face belonged to a boy who was somewhat rude at first meeting.

It was only now that they were face to face that Cassie got to have a good look at him—He had shaggy brown hair, a blue striped shirt, and khaki shorts that exposed legs covered in bandages. He also appeared to be around her age, yet still, he was completely unfamiliar to her.

Sure, Cassie didn't know every kid that frequented the Pizzaplex, but she had a fair idea of the usual guests considering this was the place she spent most of her time at, perhaps even more than her own home. Maybe he just moved into town?

“It would explain his terrible social skills…” The girl mused to herself, still waiting on the other's reply.

He seemed to be stuck between being mad and confused, cornered like a wild animal not knowing how to respond to the interaction. Honestly she couldn't blame him—her dad always said she gave off a strong aura, which some people might find too invasive.

The mystery boy didn't seem to think so though, as he finally decided to snap back into reality and started pondering her question. He rubbed at the back of his neck and avoided eye contact, but Cassie didn't mind at all.

A faint blush spread across his cheeks as the boy averted his gaze in what was unmistakably fake annoyance. “I-I'm… Gregory.”

Cassie couldn't help but smile. She had a feeling this boy was going to be interesting to hang out with. “Nice to meet you, Gregory!”

‘Happy Birthday, Cassie!’

The lopsided cursive writing made of icing dripped from one side of the chocolate cake, making it appear soggy and unappetizing from any and all angles. Its candles having burnt out hours ago didn't help the case either, but that was okay—it wasn't like Cassie felt like eating a whole cake on her own.

Party decorations were plastered all over the walls of the empty room, with everything from balloons to streamers to confetti, and yet none of it made the sight seem any less depressing.

After all, what could be sadder than a little girl celebrating her birthday all alone?

Roxy had been there with her the first few hours, giving her hope that her classmates were probably just running late or maybe got distracted by the ball pit and arcade games on the way. “They'll be here any minute!” Roxy had said.

But when the minutes turned into hours, there was nothing left in the brunette’s heart other than pain. As the tears rolled down her cheeks, messing up the awesome make-up Roxy had done for her earlier that day, Cassie couldn't contain the soft hiccups escaping her lips, no matter how hard she tried.

“Man, did I get the wrong memo? Didn't know we were doing a funeral today.”

That voice was one Cassie had grown accustomed to when coming to the Pizzaplex. It would usually bring both joy and annoyance with it, yet this time she felt nothing but shame as she buried her face deeper into the cocoon of her smeared sweater. “Why are you here, Greg?”

Cassie could hear Gregory's footsteps as he made his way around the food table and towards her. The sound of rustling paper and shuffling could be heard before she felt a tap on her shoulder. Tentatively lifting her gaze, she was surprised to be greeted by both a napkin and a flustered looking Gregory.

The boy coughed into his empty hand as he motioned the napkin in her direction. “What do you mean? You think I'd miss my friend's birthday party? Sorry I'm late. Had to get your present ready…”

That's when she saw it—a small paper gift bag resting on the table in front of them. It had a tag attached to it with Gregory's name on it, albeit rather clumsily written.

Cassie didn't have time to react before her friend decided to take initiative and start wiping the streaks of mascara running down her cheeks. He gently dabbed her eyelids too, trying to get rid of as many tears as possible as he kept talking. “I wouldn't get my hopes up though. I won it at the prize counter a few weeks ago cause it reminded me of you, and your birthday just happened to be coming up so… yeah. Sorry if it's kinda lame.”

Finally getting a hold of the napkin Gregory was using, Cassie blew her nose into the piece of paper as she felt more tears starting to build in the back of her eyes.

She knew he was an orphan, and didn't have any money to his name, so of course getting her something from the Pizzaplex would be the best solution. But just the idea of him playing games and spending all of his tickets just to get her this gift, was more than enough to warm her heart even if he didn't think it was worth getting worked up over.

Which was why she was quick to grab the bag and open it up right then and there despite Gregory's protests.

Inside, nestled between some stray pieces of confetti, was an adorable Roxy-Talkie. She'd been eyeing it on the prize counter for a while now, so maybe she wasn't so subtle about it and the boy was quick to notice her interest.

A soft beep broke her out of her thoughts, causing her to turn and find a smug looking Gregory holding a Freddy-Talkie. His voice echoed on both her right ear and the Roxy-Talkie's speaker. “This is Captain Gregory speaking. Lieutenant Cassandra, do you copy? Over.”

Rolling her eyes at the use of her full name, she pressed the button to reply in feign annoyance. “I copy Captain Doofus, over and out.”

“Hey! Is that any way to treat someone who didn't just get you a present, but also went out of their way to get a matching one for themselves?” Gregory's voice rose in pitch and all Cassie could do was giggle in reply.

“I mean, let's be real. You got one just to annoy me.”

“So what if I did? That's proof that I care, Lieutenant.”

“Oh, finally! A guest!” Roxy walked into the room at the perfect time, looking at the duo of children with a delighted smile gracing her robotic muzzle. She turned to address Gregory. “Welcome to the coolest, most badass birthday party of your life! Not just because I'm here, but you also get to hang out with my best friend Cassie!”

The boy simply stared with a pointed look. “Are all these robots such suck ups?”

“Hey! That's Roxanne Wolf you're talking to! Plus she's right—it's my birthday! So if anyone gets to be a Captain, it's me.” Cassie smirked in the boy's direction, trying her best to look as cool as possible despite all of the crying she'd done mere minutes ago.

Gregory chuckled, but didn't protest. Instead he returned the grin as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. “As long as I get free cake, you can do whatever you want, dweeb.”

He ran away before the brunette could even react, already by the sweets table with Roxy close behind him. Still, she couldn't contain the smile from spreading across her face as she watched his excited form.

Maybe no one else showed up, but the person who truly mattered did.

And that was more than enough in her book.

✦𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐌𝐲 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐝 𝐓𝐨 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐌𝐲 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬!✦

#my stories #five nights at freddy's #fnaf #fnaf fanfic #fnaf gregory #fnaf cassie #fnaf security breach #fnaf ruin

[randomthefox]

I would like to say that your deconstruction of moments in sonic games is what made me like them, before I never thought game sonic has a personality because I’m not good at reading moments in sonic video games really well and I mostly stuck to fanon or comics, but your analysis have really changed my view in hand sonic

Thank you! Stuff like Linkara's History of Power Rangers and Mistare Fusion's Dragon Ball Dissection are big inspirations for how I construct analysis of Sonic media.

I heartily agree with the sentiment those analytical video series in particular predicate themselves on, which is that yes these media properties do warrant serious and indepth analytical discussion. Even though they are inherently silly premises for childrens cartoons. Because after all, these shows comics and video games were made BY adults, and those adults put serious analytical thought into the CREATION of these pieces of art. I see no reason to dismiss them as being devoid of content that merits serious discussion based on their target demographic. I consider it to be disrespectful of the hard work that went behind the creation of these properties to put it under less scrutiny on the basis of its intended audience. (Though I fully expect those who created these series to take the subject far less seriously than I do, just like I'd take someone analyzing the fruits of my employed labor less seriously than they do).

Whenever I play these games I reinforce and reassess my previous thoughts and feelings about them, and discover or notice new things that inspire new thoughts and feelings. Sometimes the hard part of scooping out those thoughts from my subconscious and hammering out the adequate words to coherently portray those thoughts and feelings hopefully strung together in as comprehensible a thesis as possible. I highly recommend playing the games yourself to come to your own conclusions and interpretations about the games, because my thoughts can only ever be my own and are not meant to stand as objective absolute irrefutable conclusions in any way.

I'd be nice maybe to take all my posted playthroughs of the games I've done on this site and string them out into a script to make a video series of analytical video essays myself one of these days. I might start having the free time to be able to do that again after next week. We'll see on that front.

[zevfern]

My thoughts on the core members of the Phantom Thieves from Persona 5! Spoilers ahead.

Kenta (Joker): he's just like me for real!

But seriously though, I really like Joker, and it's cool to RP as him, especially since the modern setting allows me to do so more naturally. I especially like fitting in pro wrestling related headcanons to his behavior (my headcanon is that Kenta is a huge pro wrestling fan, and before the events of the game was training to join a dojo after graduating HS).

Ryuji: THE BROOOOO

My favorite of the Phantom Thieves, his hotheaded and impulsive personality reminds me of a friend I have irl. For some reason his voice reminds me of Axel from KH despite the two having different VAs, and the two characters are quite different as well. He was the first confidant I completed, and maybe in a different timeline he would have been romanceable.

Ann: A rose by another name

Ann's very sweet and kind, and yet posseses tons of internal strength. Her whole story arc with Shiho and her recovery is so heartwarming it was hard not to shed tears during their farewell. Her VA also did an incredible job throughout the game, it's between her and Ryuji for best VA performance in my opinion.

Yusuke: Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, but poor

Really knocked me for a loop when I first saw this guy, but despite the looks he is quite different from his Fodlan doppelganger. His confidant cutscenes are some of the goofiest in the game despite (or maybe because of?) his serious demeanor. Yusuke also gets bonus points for introducing Hifumi Togo into the story, the girl I chose to romance in my first playthrough.

Makoto: Breaking the rules, for once

This is a very unpopular opinion, but I don't particularly like Makoto. Her whole "follows the rules but her true self wants to break them" isn't appealing to me, reminding me of a few other characters from other games and media I've never connected with. That said, I do think she has a great friendship with Haru, and their Showtime is incredible (it's a series of pro wrestling moves ending with a tag team finisher! They are in love a tag team your honor.)

Futaba: On the spectrum, off the wall

It's always interesting to see characters in video games who are autism coded, and while Futaba isn't perfect (of course she's a hacker and visits 4chan 🙄), it's the little details like her elementary school memories (surprisingly similar to mine) and the way she approaches her self improvement after having her heart stolen that really impressed me.

Haru: We fly balloons on this fuel called love

I'd been extremely exited to meet Haru from the first time I sighted her in game, as she's voiced by the same VA who voiced Marianne and I wanted to compare the two characters. In contrast to Marianne's gloomy demeanor that eventually turns hopeful, Haru is a beam of light right from the beginning. Her introduction as a Beauty Thief is the funniest gag in the game, and she keeps her optimism despite incredible hardship involving her father. Shame she's introduced so late, by the time I got her confidants I was already with Hifumi.

Akechi: I have forgiven Maxwell

The moment Joker met Akechi, this started playing in the background:

Hair jokes aside, Akechi's a fascinating antagonist: much like Kenta/Joker and his friends he's an outcast in Japanese society, an orphan living in poverty, and has only been accepted due to his newfound fame as the Detective Prince. While visibly he resembles Light Yagami, his personality reminds me of MJF, who also manipulated the people around him for his own gain. I haven't finished the game yet so I don't know if Akechi will repent, but MJF did turn face with Adam Cole's friendship, so maybe Joker can do the same to Akechi.

#persona 5 #p5 #p5 joker #ryuji sakamoto #p5 ryuji #ann takamaki #p5 ann #yusuke kitagawa #p5 yusuke #makoto niijima #p5 makoto #futaba sakura #p5 futaba #haru okumura #p5 haru #goro akechi #p5 akechi

[pansyboybloom]

im so sorry youre having troubles with double booking (the actual term for the 'i know this isnt real logically but it is real actually' jic you didnt know it) i feel like. thats one of the worst states to be in. id offer a hug but idk how much youd want one rn

are there any other games you play/enjoy in general other than legend of zelda? i cant remember you ever mentioning any, but i was curious if you're just a general gamer who just really enjoys one series, or if loz is an exception to not really enjoying video games or something. if you do enjoy any specific games, which ones and why? if not, is there a reason loz stands out among them all?

thanks so much. i got home after my lovely double booking (had no idea it was called that) and took my back up antipsychs and slept for like 4 hours before going to class. i really appreciate all of yall coming into my inbox and being so kind, it means so much <4 (<3 + 1)

im not much of a gamer at all. i grew up not being able to afford consoles, but my best friend had a gamecube and her favorite game was wind waker, so it was literally the only game i ever played for a very long time. but i loved the lore of windwaker, the fantasy and the princesses and gods, and i pretended link was secretly a girl the whole time and no one knew that he wasn't a 'real boy' (classic egg things), and i was into manga, so i begged my ma to get me one of the loz manga and fell in love with the series' lore even more. i still have my copy of minish cap's manga, the first manga i ever read!

i suck at gaming- I'll be the first to admit that im not very good at puzzle games, and even worse at combat, and now with my hand tremors i cant play most controllers. it takes me ages to finish games, and I've basically only finished ds/3ds ones bc it's easiest to steady my hands on those. that means that it's harder to get into new games since i rely on other people playing them. watching let's plays stresses me out, im constantly on edge for slurs and shitty remarks, so i tend not to watch those, and w the ADHD, silent playthroughs are a no-go. at least with zelda, i know every game forward and back in my sleep, so it's just easier to enjoy myself while failing to play them than if i start new games, ya know? still, i WILL finish skyward sword one day, tremors be damned!!!!

im honestly not sure why i latched so strongly onto loz. it's been a capital S special interest since i was at least 6 and I've never fallen out of it, ever, it's on my mind 25/7. it was the first fandom i wrote fic for before even knowing fic EXISTED, and I've devoted far too much time to it. it is a very problematic franchise-- Nintendo is a shit company, the main villain is racist, the gerudo on their own even more so, there's so much Orientalism, it's just. awful. but i keep coming back to it. i try to be very critical and not enjoy it blindly, but it really is one of the few things that kept me happy when i was suicidal and fucked up as a teen. as cheesy as it is to say, link saved my little egg life

[knighteclipsed]

ooc; TOA Anniversary Munday!!

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together. ily!!

tagging: (flutters my lashes)

Name: Kano!! IRLs also know me by Dimitri, but it is by no means restricted to there.

Pronouns: he/they/it

Birthday (no year): May 6th

Where are you from? What is your time zone? Georgia kiddo wrow. est in actuality, european at heart (during breaks)

Roleplay experience: Did some stuff back in elem? But never really got into it until TOA, which I joined about a year ago, the day before the 3rd anniversary!

---

Got any pets? Nope. I'd like to have a cat someday though.

Favorite time of year: Spring time baybeeeeee. Birthday bias but it's also a nice medium between extremes :softsmile:

Some interests and things you like: Uh...... Fire Emblem? Also most things that go into video games (drawing, writing, composing/playing music, i love programming so much it's insane, etc. etc), I'm a little art kid :sparkles:. Oh also Spider-verse and Nimona.... :softsmile:

Some fun facts & trivia about you: I know my integer squares up the 22? Did I mention I love math? Studying game design at a technical school rn, and I know six programming languages atm (JavaScript, CSS, HTML, Java, C#, and Python). I also programmed a text-only GBA combat sim in Python earlier this year. Took a couple weeks and I did that instead of my Physics work :D

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? ...So here's the thing. (JKJKJK) Uh..... I like Triangle Strategy, Hades, I've been meaning to finish the original Ori :shrek_mmh:, and Omori went crazy but I'm not playing it again (it's best on a blind playthrough). I also really enjoyed Undertale! Don't have much else on my backlog tho haha

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: So I don't really Pokemon. BUT. I do love Squirtle and Wartortle and I had a Gible named Nom Nom in Pokemon Arceus. Favorite type though would probably be Dragon or Dark. lol

---

How did you get into Fire Emblem? Back when I was in 3rd grade, my mother gave me and my brothers a Wii with Super Smash Bros Brawl! I was a Sheik main but my brother got me to play some other characters, including Marth, Pit, and Ike. I didn't like Ike for his slowness but Marth and Pit were good for my style of play. I later followed him into Fire Emblem Heroes hell, and then later into emulating Sacred Stones! Didn't finish it until after Three Houses came out though. Finished Azure Moon in three weeks (including school).

What Fire Emblem games have you played? I've beaten Sacred Stones and Three Houses, most of Engage, roughly half of Valentia, the first few chapters of Genealogy, Shadow Dragon, and Binding, and the demo of Awakening. Also about half of Three Hopes but that doesn't count it's a Warriors game (also through most of Book 5 in FEH) :/

First Fire Emblem game: Sacred Stones! The first I finished was 3H though lol

Favorite Fire Emblem game: Sacred Stones I think. Altho it's definitely fist-fighting 3H still.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? Dimitri is a solid one I think. Most of the Faerghus Four guys tho are... yeah. :woozy_face: Also mayyyyyyybe Diamant? I'm unsure tho FJDKNGKSFGN. The arospec-ness definitely kicking in :joy:

If you’ve played the following games, who was your first S support? - Awakening: N/A - Fates: N/A - Three Houses: Dimitri hah - Engage: N/A

Favorite Fire Emblem class: Grrrrrrrr that's a hard one. Probably one of the magical ones, but (gestures at this muse) yk. Wyverns.

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class? Either some sort of mage (probably Sage-leaning) or a wyvern class like Wyvern Knight. Mortal Savant is also very alluring.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Blue Lions, no question. My energy is definitely more Deer tho lol

If you were an Engage character, which Emblem would you Engage with? Sigurd. Dude is scary LOL

---

How did you find TOA? Okay so while I was still relatively new to Tumblr, I was browsing tags and a previous Dimitri's posts (the art especially caught my attention it was incredible) were coming up under the Dimitri tag (the mun knows who they are). When I looked at the blog and saw it was dedicated to Dimitri, I got completely suspicious of it immediately :crylaugh: Ended up digging around though and saw the art style was consistent, and after I got past the drabble at the top I realized it was a roleplay blog, which. While I was still new, I was accustomed from Twitter to people being both god artists and god writers, so I figured it was just all by one person. Followed it for a few months (which I got exposed for when I reserved Linhardt but I still find that hilarious so it's fine), and eventually the August activity check popped up last year and I decided to join. Yay! (Never found out who 'mun' was tho :/ (this is a jest))

Current TOA muses: Linhardt, Colm, and Valter!

Who was your first TOA muse? If you don’t have them anymore, could you see yourself picking them up again? Also Linhardt! lol. While I don't expect to be dropping him soon (looks away), if I ever did, I have a feeling he'd be back eventually. Adore my little genderball.

Have you had any other TOA muses? Nope! Picked them up one after the other and have yet to drop any dnjgkfsn

Do you think you have a type of character you gravitate towards? Hm...... Well I know I have a type, but it's hard to put into words haha. Anyone who makes me laugh I guess? And people who are super duper attached to their role in life (think knights and knight-adjacents like Selena and Glen). There's something going on in their noggins that is just so. (STARES) Also people who scare me with their in-game dialogue. (Valter, but TS Dimitri applies as well FNDJKNG.)

What do you believe you enjoy writing the most? I'm not really certain, but I know I have a LOT of fun whenever I craft dialogue. Me and my incapability to be quiet (endearing)

Favorite TOA-related memory: A close one would be two of the muns recognizing me when I submitted the Linhardt reserve, but I also get a kick out of Linhardt climbing a tree to escape a boar during Unscripted last year fnjsdkngsf. The birthday wishes back in May also made me explode (positive) EDIT: I FORGOT SIRIUS ROLLING VALTER FOR HIS LIEGE DURING KKE!!!!! THAT WAS HILARIOUSSSSSSSSS (so was patty's crush on valter. makes me cackle every time)

Got any delusions that didn’t see the light of day in TOA that you’d like to share? I might still make use of my Saleh blog. I have an idea I want to go for, but he isn't the biggest delusion right now. Neimi might also have a shot, but I don't expect to be doing anything for Lukas or Hubert any time soon. You all know who's coming next.

#[ ‘by my cursed lance!’ ] (ooc) #[ ‘to ask such a thing of me…’ ] (memes) #// i had fun filling this out!! #// the favorites were definitely some pretty hard ones #// as opposed to the just raw facts #// but hey!! we jive!! #// happy anniversary TOA!!! #// i look forward to seeing the growth of your true potential :softsmile: #// - kano!! :D

[anneapocalypse]

Elaborating on my feelings about this post a little, particularly in the context of video of games with high replay value like Dragon Age (which may not have been what the op was talking about at all, but that's what was on my mind when I saw it)!

I definitely think a good game of this type should give you a complete and narratively satisfying experience if you play it through one way and never return to it. (I mean there are also games like Zero Escape where discovering every ending is part of the "complete" experience but that's not the kind of game we're talking about here.) You should be able to play a Dragon Age game once and enjoy it without feeling like you got an incomplete story, just like (in my opinion) you should be able to pick up the game and enjoy it without having seen other canon material that is by definition supplemental. (Whether these particular games succeed at the latter is another discussion for another post).

I love a book that rewards a re-read--Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb series really does this for me and I'm looking forward to re-reading them again before Alecto comes out, and I went back and checked and the OP even tagged Locked Tomb on that post which doesn't surprise me one bit. Because it's true! Going back and reading Gideon after you've read Harrow and understand more about both characters and know more about the world and have starting to pick up on the hints about the true nature of certain characters... it's a thrill! Not because the story was incomplete the first time or incomprehensible, but because now you have the additional context to see all the breadcrumbs the author was dropping in a new light and it's just so, so rewarding and so much fun.

And I also love games that give me high replay value not just because they're fun to play (and let's be real I am not starting my ninth run of DAO because I'm obsessed with the combat mechanics) but because every time I get to experience a slightly different story and see the world and the characters from different angles. There is so much more to experience that way than you can possibly get on one playthrough. (And that's good in this type of game! We want our choices to change the story.) In DA2 there are sides of characters you won't see if you've only taken the friendship route and never rivaled them. I've written before about the templar ending of DA2 and how it reveals things that the mage ending doesn't and yeah, it's a "bad" ending and not everyone wants to play it but it's still another story that has things to tell us about the world. (And I'd venture to say that sometimes, we don't necessarily realize we are talking from the basis of experiencing slightly different stories.)

I don't think a story should set out to confuse its audience (in general--there are instances where intentional misdirection serves a narrative purpose but that's a digression here) but I also enjoy the experience of playing a new game unspoiled and without walkthroughs the first time and letting the chips fall where they may, and maybe getting a "bad" outcome because I didn't fully get what a quest was about, because you only really get one shot at the Chaotic First Playthrough. Being confused because you're in a funhouse labyrinth but it's definitely leading you somewhere is different than being confused because the story doesn't make sense, you know? And that first playthrough isn't an incomplete story, it's just one of many different ways you can experience the game. There will be plenty of time after that to replay with more knowledge and build the perfect world state, or make it Worse, or just choose something different.

So yeah, a story should work on that first level, that single read or playthrough, in order to be successful, but my favorite ones are the ones that do give me a reason to come back, and either offer me a new experience or deepen the one I had before.

#what do i tag this #general meta #fandom

[dany36]

well, i did it! i finished the main story for granblue fantasy: relink :) junk thoughts below (with spoilers)!

first, the things i liked!

the gameplay. i love love love how dynamic and fast-paced it is! i'm boring and my main character throughout the entire playthrough was djeeta: i tried playing as katalina but idk lol i think i was just too used to djeeta to fully switch to her. plus i think her CPU does a much better job of playing as her. when i played as io during one of her sidequests was also pretty fun but i just had to stick with djeeta! leveling up her Artes and then going ham on enemies with them all leveled up never got old. also doing link attacks and skybound arts is soooo satisfying, especially when it would deal the final blow to a boss! i have to admit at first it took me a while to get the hang of it, especially dodging/blocking enemy attacks and i kept going into critical condition or whatever, but once i got better at it, doing quests and fighting bosses was something i would really look forward to.

the bosses. ok i gotta say, granblue fantasy:relink has some of the best boss fights in a video game i've ever played. i mentioned it in my previous posts but i swear almost each boss had a different interesting gimmick instead of it just being "keep attacking until it's dead". i think my favorites were excavillion, when you fight the machines using rolan, fighting as bahamut, and of course the final battle where you're trying to rescue Id. like the boss battles were just so insane and a lot of stuff would be happening at once especially when they'd go into overdrive, but running around jumping trying to evade their attacks, although intense, is part of the fun of these battles!! idk i'm just really impressed with how dynamic these boss battles were and just gotta say hats off to the team that designed them, just super fun and satisfying to play through.

main character selection. ok as someone completely new to the series and not having looked up anything about this game beforehand other than what i saw in the official trailer shown in one of the state of plays, i had no idea you could choose the gender of the main character, so this was a pleasant surprise! i mean, other than her atrocious first outfit before you get to chapter 4 or whatever it is when you get your real armor, it's cool that you can just decide what gender your character is cus i mean, it doesn't really affect the story in any way so at least i'm not stuck with the default silent male protagonist :P

the music. coming from having played the last few entries of the tales of games, it was definitely great to hear some music that actually makes me feel something and isn't just background noise. i'll have to give the full OST a proper listen without me being distracted with a fight, but yeah for sure looking forward to reliving the experience with the music! edit: ok now that i'm listening to the OST with headphones on i can honestly say this is one of the best video game soundtracks i've ever heard in a game. like, i knew it was good and i knew there were some bangers in there but my god i just wasn't paying enough attention to it because i was too focused on the battles. like yeah the folca theme and the first forest section you entered i remembered being so good but like. excavillion primal III. managarmr primal II. seedhollow castle battle. ruined city vallion battle. and i'm not even done yet. what the hell what the hell the OST alone is enough to make this into a fantastic game holy shit.

post-ending content?? ok i only did the first quest as Id but i thought it was cool that, although the main story only took me 19 hours to complete, it looks like there is a LOT left to do as part of picking up where rolan left off + new quests?? plus i still need to finish the side chapters for the characters i'm interested in, so yeah, even though i finished the main story, there's still much to do!

rolan. what a cool chill dude. i mentioned in my post that i thought it was really neat how he turned out to be one of the most powerful characters in the game (i thought he was going to betray us or something), and was so sad when he first "dissolves" when fighting angra. i thought it was Id who was going to be sacrificed at the end but, glad that Id joins the party even if that means that rolan is now...floating in between dimensions or whatever. but don't worry, we will save you, mr fix it dude!

the story. again, as someone completely new to the series, i think the game did a pretty good job at catching you up with what happened in the previous game and giving you the background story of each of the crew members that are already there. and even so, the main story that develops throughout the game was interesting enough to keep me hooked. i mean it's nothing out of this world like i'm used to with other JRPGs i've played: there wasn't really any character development other than Id and MAYBE Rolan (Zathba also?? idk), since the crew that you're traveling have already traveled together in the previous game so they all know each other and whatever development had to happen happened in the first game (from what I understand), so i mean, i guess that was also different but can't complain too much since it looks like this game was born from a mobile game.

ok just something i thought was cool was in the final battles where your former enemies (i forget their names...it's the sword lady and the huge dude) join you in the fight and THEN zathba + other people you helped along the way bring their ships and help you against angra...like...damn, that shit was cool! another instance of these boss battle keeping it interesting!!

and now....for the things i didn't particularly like + other misc. thoughts.

the character side chapters. ok i think the first two or so of each starting character are great for catching up us newcomers, but then after that....idk, i wasn't really interested in the story that they'd be trying to tell. like, i know i'm not done with all of the chapters for any of the characters, so my mind might still change, but so far, not really impressed lol. they aren't really engaging enough for me yet and can...actually be quite boring with the storytelling! but oh well, we'll see if my mind changes once i'm done with the starting characters quests!

the overworld. i can't say i really missed having an overworld that would connect all of the levels. thinking back, most of the overworlds of other JRPGs i've played are quite boring to traverse through and the only reason you go through them is for treasure or finding new armor, which here in granblue you get them through quests. so, while not having an overworld is not something i'm used to, i'd say for this game it was fine not to have it.

the town sidequests. i mean, they're your typical fetch sidequests/defeat X monsters which don't really involve any interesting engagement with the NPCs that are requesting your help, so i'm a bit disappointed that that's all these sidequests are instead of something a bit more appealing.

the characters talking during boss fights. A LOT. like, i decided to play it in japanese and man, sometimes it'd be hard to keep up with what they were saying + paying attention to what's going on in the battlefield. especially in the last battle lol rolan was going on and on about...idk SOMETHING and i'm out here trying to stop Versa from fucking destroying the world haha. i mean just a minor nitpick but yeah

ok this is getting longer than i thought it would lol but despite the few negatives there at the end, i gotta say, i'm now a fan! i DOUBT i'll play the first granblue since...it looks like it's a turn-based game and i am terrible at those, but i'm really looking forward to where the series goes from here! i'm glad i decided to pick this up and kinda regret not getting the deluxe edition lol but oh well! there's always next time! :) but heck yeah, just overall had a pretty damn good time and can't wait to do more quests!

#granblue fantasy relink #granblue fantasy #gbf #gbf relink #junk

[icedcaramelcake]

Overanalyzing hollow knight characters episode 1: Hornet

Hi I don't know how to write intros but I've had SO MANY THOUGHTS about this game for the longest time and with the encouragement of my friend I'm here to dump them on this wonderful website! This is the first of hopefully multiple posts in this style with hopefully different characters and hopefully different games or shows I enjoy.

DISCLAIMER(s)!!

1. There will (obviously) be spoilers in this, if you haven't at least watched a summary and/or don't want to be spoiled I highly recommend clicking off and coming back later when you're up to date!

2. English is not my first language and I am slightly dyslexic AND I tend to ramble so I'm sorry if any of that shines through, I'll do my best to reread and cut out unnecessary parts but some might slip through so I apologize in advance.

3. I tend to read into characters wayyy too much, especially characters I like, so some of this might tread into headcanon territory even though I'll have a headcanon section at the bottom for that. Also I consume way too much fan media so that might skew my view on things too.

And last but not least 4. REMEMBER this is 100% my opinion, not law. This is just how I interpreted the character's overall arc and it's by no means canon, I'm just sharing my silly little thoughts on silly little fictional pixels on my screen, I'd love to hear what you think or if you want to add onto anything I said!

With all that out of the way let's start with probably my favorite character in this entire game, Hornet! <3

When I first got introduced to Hollow Knight it was through some challenge videos I believe, I heard of the game before but it didn't seem like something I would be interested in (spoiler alert I was wrong). As I kept diving down the rabbit hole I found myself getting more and more fascinated with the lore and especially with Hornet but it wasn't until my own playthrough that I crowned her as my favorite.

On the surface Hornet already has a lot of traits I really enjoy in a character. She can be sassy (as shown in the Silksong trailers which fdjhkfdjhksjkfd yes), she can be cold but she can also show kindness and gentleness every now and then.

Being the daughter of the Pale King but not ever receiving royal treatment from the bugs of Hallownest, having Deepnest's queen as her mother but being forced to leave her home due to the infection and never having a parental figure besides...Midwife...if you can count her as "motherly", all these shaped her into a powerful, agile but most of all determined bug that wants to get rid of the Radiance for good even though she's aware she doesn't have the means for it.

Her meeting the player character (who I'll call little knight for the rest of this post for the sake of simplicity + it's cute) is completely by chance, might be her first chance at "recruiting" a vessel in years, she has no way of knowing if she'll ever have this chance again. This might be her only shot at protecting the kingdom and her home, uncovering its secrets, basically fulfilling her life's goal! What will she do??? Befriend it, help it and defeat the Radiance with the power of friendship????????

Of course not, you've played this game you know exactly what happened.

Hornet attacks the little knight with little to no hesitation with OBVIOUS intent to kill (see: the dead vessel that's literally in the arena) despite this being a massive risk. She's dedicated, she knows that if the vessel is too weak nothing will work, she puts her desire to quickly solve the problem behind her and does what she thinks is best for the kingdom, trying to see if the vessel is strong enough to not only replace the Hollow Knight, but maybe even destroy the infection. She's been at this for so long, she has probably killed or seen so many other vessels getting killed and she knows they're not infinite but she still takes the risk and thinks of a farther future.

As the game progresses, her attitude slowly changes. While she never outright states this as far as I know, she doesn't treat the little knight as her sibling, downright pitying it for its heritage. But I think she starts to sympathize for it. They have the same goal, and while Hornet maybe thought she would be the one to save Hallownest, she sees why that would never happen. So she starts to guide the knight, helping where she can in her own distant way.

She starts being more open, less formal and while she never fully lets her walls down, her dreamnail dialogue from right before the true ending Hollow Knight fight show her being hopeful. She doesn't outright say it but I know for a fact (I'm speculating) that no matter what would happen she would accept her fight with the infection being over, she would be thankful for the little knight and dare I say proud (let me have this it was the only thing I could think of while watching the true ending cutscene ueueueueue).

Besides the in game playable lore I wanna touch on something I noticed while staring at her wiki for the 7381297th time today, and that is how Hornet has a piece of every "region" with her (at least mentally) if you squint. This is rllllllly iffy but I thought it was poetic and this is mY POST AND I GET TO WRITE WHAT I WANT DAMMIT.

Anyway

She has a piece of deepnest, kingdom's edge, city of tears and crossroads + greenpath + queen's gardens through Herrah (her mother), Vespa (who she was trained by), the Pale King (her father) and the White Lady who isn't explicitly said to have met Hornet but she knew of her existence and of the Pale King's... liaison for lack of a better word. I'd like to think she was part of Hornet's childhood if only for a little bit because i think it's cute and it has no lore evidence besides something Team Cherry said on their kickstarter

Anyway this is getting dangerously close to headcanon territory so I should probably summarize all this lmao.

Overall, Hornet relies on herself. She's independent, she's motivated, she's strong, she's everything you'd expect from a perfect princess. But she's also sassy, she takes risks, she has growth and passion and wants to help and do her part. I love her sm. She is an ice princess but the ice can help protect small critters from the harsh winds of winter.

FROM HERE ON OUT I'LL START RANTING ABOUT MY HCS SO IF YOU DON'T CARE ABT THEM TY FOR READING THIS FAR ILY HAVE A GREAT DAY <3

This. This entire video was the reason I wanted to make this. GOD. G O D. I KNOW IT HAS NO WAY OF BEING CANON BUT I ADORE IT???

Most of my hcs are gonna stem from this video so yeah watch it and like it and give it all the love it deserves.

I'd like to think that the Hollow Knight was some of the only family she had, even if it was only for a brief period of time. I'd like to think that one of the main reasons she wanted to get rid of the infection early on was to save her big brother. But as she grew up she realized that wouldn't be possible anymore. I think that was her tipping point, the thing that made her into the Hornet we know today.

I'd like to think that at the start she saw the vessels as pieces of her, potential siblings that could help her get her family back, that they could all be one big family. She loses that hope quickly until the little knight comes along. As she watches it walk around, discover the world with one goal in mind, she can't help but see herself when she was younger. She knows it won't make it out of this alive no matter what it does but she isn't sad. She knows this is what is supposed to be done. She knows that they'll be free of their cursed life once the fight is over. That doesn't mean she wants that. She tries to deny it but it can get lonely.

In the sealed sibling ending I'd like to think she feels guilty for becoming a dreamer but she knows she chose this path and she only hopes her mother can forgive her for it.

In the embrace the void ending when she readies her nail to fight the Hollow Knight I'd like to think some part of her is happy that it's alive, but she knows it's not the same as it was before.

I have more but I've been typing for an hour and my brain hurts and I can't think of them rn but I hope you enjoyed reading this! Lmk if you have any other ideas and I'll see you again when I have too much time on my hands<3

#silksong hornet #hornet #hollow knight hornet #hollow knight #i love hornet so much yall dont understand #silksong #Youtube