#has turned into 'I should make pixel art of every character'

[aaapplepie]

more pixel sprites but it's the minor antagonists this time

#fictif #last legacy #is minor antagonist the right category??? is there a level below minor????? #who knows. #(someone knows. not me though) #anyway rip to these two #somehow 'I'm going to go one or two more pixel art things (in between other stuff)' #has turned into 'I should make pixel art of every character' #bc I remembered how much I love doing pixel art #going to try to space them out so I don't clog up the tag #it's probably going to take A While so hopefully that won't be an issue anyway #but these are the first two! #apple.gif

[sexhaver]

ive been playing Cassette Beasts for a minute and it never stops being funny to me how flagrant they are about making this "Pokemon but with features you didn't know Pokemon has always needed". off the top of my head:

super effective/NVE hits have added benefits/debuffs beyond just doubling/halving the damage (hitting Electric types with Ground reduces their evasion and speed, hitting Steel types with Poison gives them poison-coated spikes that do contact damage, etc)

legally-distinct-Pokemon will learn new moves while in your party without having to battle, and you can then straight up steal these moves from them and put them on a not-Pokemon you actually care about using, which gives an actual incentive to hunt down and raise otherwise fringe not-mons beyond completing the not-Pokedex

we all played the Pokemon Infinite Fusion fangame right? we know how fusions work? okay so this game has them as temporary per-battle things instead of permanent ones, which is only marginally less cool while being infinitely easier to balance around

attempting to catch something shows you the percentage chance of success so you know whether you just got unlucky or if you should save your Pokeballs-i-mean-blank-cassette-tapes

leveling up is tied to your not-trainer instead of your not-pokemon, so you don't end up in the classic trap where your starter is way overleveled and everything else is underleveled and then you hit a fight your starter can't solo and have to spend an hour grinding to get the weaker not-mons up to par (funnily enough most Pokemon Nuzlocke romhacks have already figured this out and give you infinite rare candies with the only restriction being that you can't level past the next gym leader's ace pokemon, because Pokemon fans have realized that grinding is the worst part of the game way before Game Freak has)

moves, not-Pokeballs, not-PokeCenter visits, and healing items are all bought using entirely separate currencies which stops you from trivially breaking the economy in half

the soundtrack, fittingly, is pretty good! the vocals were a bit much for my taste but there's an option in the settings menu to straight up turn them off (letting the BGM play on its own), which i've never seen in any other game and really appreciate

downsides:

on a game design level, i understand why can i only carry a max of 5 not-Potions and 1 not-Revive at a time - it's to put a limit on how far away from fast travel points i can get by just running away from everything and healing off damage. on a gameplay level, however, this feels pretty bad

the pixel art style is trying to look as much like Pokemon as possible without actually being Pokemon so the overworld sprites look more like beta stuff from Pokemon that they cut for looking too weird. i have yet to find a haircut that doesn't look bad

this is super petty of me but something about the bloom and lighting of the 3d environments combined with pixelated 2d sprites that still cast shadows makes me painfully aware im playing a video game. it's like they were going for the same aesthetic as Octopath Traveler but fell just barely short. i can't think of a better way to articulate this feeling but if you know you know

it does that really obnoxious half-assed style of voice acting where plot-relevant characters will sometimes (maybe every third or fourth textbox) speak the first two or three words of dialogue before trailing off. mashing through textboxes (as one does) means constantly getting jumpscared by "hmm"s and "haha!"s "okay then!"s

i get that they wanted to make the player feel involved in the story, and it has a pretty decent hook so far, but oh my god. the amount of dialogue "choices" that just transparently do not matter. you know how people memed on Fallout 3 and 4's dialogue choices all leading to the same outcome, to the extent that you were basically choosing between "yes" and "yes (rude)"? and you know how Bethesda would at least attempt to justify how both options led to you accepting the quest anyways, even if it was really dumb? Cassette Beasts has streamlined this process even further by making the options in most of their binary decisions so identical that they don't even require different followup dailogue before rejoining into the main conversation thread. a solid 2/3rds of the dialogue options in this game so far feel like checks that you're still awake. i know this is a minor issue because people aren't playing Pokemon-likes for the engaging "choices matter" approach to storytelling, and i did ignore it at first, but it's so pervasive that you really can't ignore it

#cassette beasts

[kassymalone]

A Little Rant about Fun

Remember fun?

Remember when you could do things just because they were fun?

It keeps coming to mind recently, and it's starting to drive me nuts.

I've always done things with my hands - I used to do art before uni destroyed my love and confidence, I write things, I cross stitch, I make models, and I do these things because I enjoy them. Unfortunately I've come to hate talking to people about my hobbies because the almost always have the same response - 'what do you do with that?'

Do I sell on Etsy? No I fucking don't, this pattern took me 15 hours to finish, do you know how much I would have to charge for it?

Do I do freelance writing? No I fucking don't, why would I want a second soul-crushing job on top of my first soul-crushing job?

Why don't I actually get published instead of wasting my time with fanfiction so I can actually make some money off it? WHY DON'T YOU DO IT IF ITS SO FUCKING EASY

I've been thinking of making a quilt recently, with patches of all my favourite things, but I don't want to talk to anyone about it because I can already hear them asking 'and what are you going to do with it? Is this your practice one before you sell them? No, don't do it that way, that's the wrong way, no-one will like it!'

(Don't get me started on the 'you're doing it wrong' crowd, gatekeepers are a different rant.)

JUST LET ME DO THINGS. NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO MAKE MONEY. I know we're in a cost of living crisis right now, but I've been hearing this shit since I was a teenager, twenty fucking years ago! I still remember being talked out of singing lessons when I had a little extra money because 'what would I do with it?' Well fuck, my fat ass was never going to be the next Adele, but maybe I could have just had fun doing something I enjoy, but better?!

ON A RELATED NOTE!

You know what disproportionately annoys me? When people call the Nintendo Switch a 'toy' as if it's a bad thing. Like... yes? It's a toy? I play games on it?

'But the frame rate!', 'But the graphics!', 'But it can't run XX game!' WHO FUCKING CARES.

Yes, the xbox and playstation can connect to netflix and play blue rays and cook you dinner and raise your children, but they also cost a months rent and have all these bells and whistles to distract you from the fact that they JUST FUCKING TOYS. There's nothing either of them can do that I can't do on my PC, better and cheaper, and not have to turn on five different peripherals to make it work.

'But 4K!', 'But you can see the character follicles in this new game!', 'But the horses testicles react to the weather!'

Are you not having fun? Are you not enjoying playing your game? Never once have I been in the middle of a game and thought 'I'd be enjoying this more if it had more pixels.' I'm not even against other consoles, use whatever you prefer - if you like modern real-to life graphics then more power to you, but the amount of people who act like it actually matters somehow is concerning...

Yes, the switch hardware is behind what the xbox and playstation can do... but its a toy. Nintendo has never forgotten that it makes toys, and that's why I like it. It sits on my table, connects to my other monitor. I listen to long form youtube videos while I play TOTK. If I'm feeling sassy, I play it handheld.

My niece has one. We play Pokémon together and I let her win battles because the point is to be fun.

WHICH BRINGS ME BACK TO MY POINT!

FUCK the grindset 'but how can I monetise every possible second?' bullshit, FUCK the 'taking this thing that should be fun way too seriously' bullshit.

LET PEOPLE DO THINGS JUST BECUASE THEY'RE FUN.

LET THINGS THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO BE FUN BE FUN.

And now I've used the word 'fun' so much it's lost all meaning.

Much like fun itself.

[somethingwittyandweird]

What's your favorite game you played this year?

You've activated my “review of my year in gaming” trap card! I was already going to make this post in some form or another, you've just given me the perfect launching point. So, the first thing you should know about asking me for favorites: I never give just one. How could I, when it's been such a banger year of games? (Heads up, this one's going to go long.)

I loved Tears of the Kingdom to death, and it took home my most hours played on Switch. It is a shining example of what devs can do with an extra few months to polish a game. There were so many remarkable moments that testified to how much care and ideas the devs were able to put in. I loved how it used the time since the first game to develop familiar places and characters, adding depth (no pun intended) and also making sure every familiar location had some new twist. The story was a much stronger followup to BotW, and I think this overall has my new favorite ending sequence of anything in the series (I'd love to make a full post sometime about how the final Ganondorf battles just keep getting more spectacular with each new title). I am so, so, so, so normal about this incarnation of Princess Zelda. 

Also in my favorites this year is Fire Emblem Engage, which hit at just the right time to scratch my strategy itch. As a long time FE fan it’s not a surprise I enjoyed this one- though it lost the political intrigue of its predecessor in favor of a more traditional/tropey story, I still had a lot of fun with all its gimmicks and gameplay innovations. Also it is hands-down the most visually appealing game in the franchise, a title previously held by the series’ GBA entries which are masterworks from the peak era of beautiful sprite art. From the incredible crit animations to the spectacle of super attacks to the battle maps which are so beautifully detailed that the game lets you free roam around them after a battle just to appreciate them better. 

I finished the Link’s Awakening remake this year! It was a charming trip back to an older era of Zelda design philosophy and I found it fascinating to compare the ways where the classic puzzles and challenges differ from what the game would be like if it were made today, as well as the places where modern technology allowed for better QoL changes that weren’t in the original. I really enjoyed the music as well, which I find to be a standout among the series still.

Here at the end of the year, I have to give a shout out to Sea of Stars. It has everything you want in an indie darling- very pretty pixel art, very nice music, turn-based battles with timed hits I joke, but Sea of Stars does a great job balancing evoking/paying homage to icons like Chrono Trigger and bringing new gameplay to the JRPG formula. I like its pared-down take on JRPG combat which revamps skills/mana into a much more dynamic resource that’s constantly being spent and regenerated, and I’m a known sucker for character combo attacks which this game has in spades. The later parts of its story are told with a lot of heart, and again I am a known sucker for certain character archetypes. Surprisingly also, I think the movement and exploration is absolutely a standout- not something that’s typically emphasized in the genre. But this game constantly has you hopping across stepping stones, balancing on tightropes, climbing walls and ledges… the emphasis on interesting traversal and verticality is a strength few games like it can boast. 

Before my final pick, I’m including a special section for all the games I didn't play myself but watched my friends play and still want to praise: Hi-Fi Rush, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Mario Bros Wonder, Pizza Tower, the Minish Cap Switch rerelease, and more all came out this year and all of them have brought killer music, excellent gameplay, and stunning visuals that I’ve enjoyed to no end. Anyone considering to pick up any of them would find a quality product without a doubt.

With all that said: I think ultimately it has to be Tunic in the end. Underneath its premise of a Zelda/Souls-like adventure game there is a wealth of secrets that goes as far down as you have the courage to delve. It’s a game built to evoke nostalgia for games that you didn’t understand yet, posing as a game that you watched an older sibling play or a game you could only find a poorly-translated foreign copy of. It obscures everything and teaches you its secrets through context, exploration, and discovering in-game pages of the manual (remember manuals?). It’s a game made for lovers of secrets and puzzles, full of hidden paths and trophies that reward inquisitiveness and observation (and taking paper notes). It was when I saw that it not only has a conlang, but that it gives you the hints you need to fully translate it, that I knew I had to get it myself. It spurred me to screenshot every in-game piece of menu text, then spend evenings cross-referencing it to identify phonemes and construct a key.

The rush I got on completing that key is one of two moments I knew this game was absolutely special. The second standout moment is when the game teaches you its hugest secret, and then invites you to prove your mastery of it by presenting you a huge, multi-part puzzle. But, Tunic does the same thing that one of my other all-time favorites, Outer Wilds, does so well: powerups via knowledge, “unlocking” abilities that you always had, you just didn’t know that you did. The pieces to this puzzle are hidden in plain sight; it’s only when the game tells you what you’re looking for that your understanding shifts, everything clicks, and your eyes are opened to the path you have to follow. I don’t say it lightly, but I consider Tunic to be a one-of-a-kind title, and one that delivers completely on its unique vision. 

In case that brick of text doesn’t make it clear, I love this game. 

I love all of these games.

It's a fine time to be alive.

#i talk a lot tag #skysometric #loz #totk #sea of stars #fire emblem #fe17 #link's awakening #thank you so so much for giving me this space to make this post #sorry-not-sorry about the wall of text jumpscare #i mean everything i said sincerely and honestly still have more to say about some of these #that i'll save for another time #long post

[thygoddessouijathicc]

In Every Life DSAF AU (Please Read This)

After posting my headcanon about the DSAF 3 ending, I came up with a cool idea for a whole new AU.

The basic outline of this AU is that in every possible lifetime across every reincarnation, Dave and Jack will always end up falling in love for better or for worse.

My favourite thing about fandoms has always been the level of creativity. From artists creating beautiful works from designs that were original vague looking pixel art, to fanfiction writers who turn the story on its head to show us what could have been, AUs which take a story and make a new one out of it, OCs that I fall in love with just as much as the original characters. 

So I had an idea about this AU.

My idea was to rather than having it like my normal AUs where I just sorta write about it and nothing more really comes of it, what if instead I write a list of guidelines and prompts to get anyone whose interested to create their own section of this AU and have it be canon? 

I’d be pleasantly surprised if anyone but me and maybe some people I know personally contributed to the AU but on the off chance I can get someone to take part in this project I am posting this.

Do not read this or take part in this AU if you have not gotten the DSAF good ending because I don’t wanna give you spoilers.

Basic Idea:

To take part in the In Every Life AU all you have to do is create a story about or draw your own reincarnations for Dave and Jack and then tag it with “In Every Life DSAF” (You can also just create reincarnation stories or art about any other characters to contribute but the AU is predominantly about Davesport. I’d love to see some of those too)

Guidelines: 

The colour schemes of the two characters should be orange and purple. (It doesn’t have to be if you don’t want it to be)

No pedophilla, incest or otherwise toxic stuff because come on guys have morals.

If a story it can be any genre, fluff, angst, hurt comfort, yes even smut.

The reincarnations must be original.

Reincarnations of any member of the Flipside Squad or Henry can appear.

They do not have to be human, they can be anything you want.

This can take place at any time in history.

You can make up the setting entirely.

Your contribution to the AU can take place in any franchise you want, for instance, you could set it in the Owl House universe if you felt like it. The only rule about this is that the reincarnations still have to be original characters.

No being toxic to anyone.

Try not to limit yourself and believe in your own creativity.

Have fun!

I myself will be trying to contribute some content to this and I hope to see some of your guy’s stuff too! :D

Please reblog or comment if you’d like to participate <:

#dsaf #dsaf Flipside squad #In Every Life DSAF #dayshift at freddy's #dsaf 3 #dsaf art #dsaf fanfics #dsaf fanfic #dsaf au #dsaf jack #dsaf dave #dsaf dee #dsaf henry #dsaf old sport #dsaf steven #dsaf phone guy #dsaf peter #davesport #writing prompt #art prompt #technically #I’d love to see what you guys could come up with

[cycloplasm]

Finished Moyer after like... A year or so. He was something else initially but now he's an African Peach Moth.

The Fruitbugs game has a distinct artstyle- that is not found anywhere else in Futh since fruitbugs is the only real video game there is. Pixel is a new thing for people and very few recognize it as art. The fruitbugs creator, wanting his work to be seen as 'just as good' as the popular painted ads and movie posters, created Moyer as a personification of painting as a whole. He represents this by having a distinct style from almost every other character in the game, and by being made of paint in the game (touching any part of him leaves the player or fruitbug with hands coated in thick paint). Moyer was coded as being an artist and a boss- but the creator left the rest empty and went to bed, thinking he'd continue coding the next day. However he already added the magic runes in Moyer's coding, meaning he was already sentient like all other fruitbugs characters- Moyer saw his unfinished personality and completed it himself. Knowing nothing besides his 'based on art' and 'wanting to be seen as art' coding, Moyer revolved his entire personality around art and even painted his own level, which looks like an expressionist painting of a meadow. This new level's appearance being unplanned, the fruitbugs world panicked- after all how would any world react to a whole new country/landmass appearing overnight? And some brave fruitbugs and players can be sent to 'investigate'. Moyer is the final boss of that level, but after the fight he can be romanced like any other fruitbug. As a boss, he's on the mean side arguably, becuase Moyer actually dislikes the style of the fruitbugs game, wanting to repaint everything and everyone in his style. It's actually possible for the players to let him do that, but all other characters will dislike it heavily. The creator woke up to all this, went 'ok' and published the update before leaving it at that and going back to sleep.

Moyer having written his entire personality as an embodiment of art, he adores the latter (regardless of style/art movement) to a somewhat unhealthy level- as in he is completely uninterested in talking about anything else. You COULD interest him in something like the weather for example, but only if you suggest he could paint it or someone else could. This can make conversations with him somewhat hard if you're not an artist yourself. In fact, Moyer actually dislikes anyone that doesn't care (at best) about art, and is kind of forced by the game to interact with players regardless of their thoughts on art. As an artist himself, he's VERY confident and believes he can paint anything, but that's also because he views art as a mean of expression rather than a skill to be good at. His ego can put some people off, but with other artists, especially those who don't believe in their own work, he'll be surprisingly gentle, supportive and caring. In his own way, as sometimes Moyer will say things like 'I will believe you can be just as good at art as I am, someday'. But he truly cares about artists and wants to lift them up so they can believe in themselves just as much as he believes in them... Except for Kiwano- Moyer and Kiwano are ennemies. Moyer believes art should be made by anyone for free, while Kiwano wants everyone to give him money to create more self portraits and 'reimagine' every other piece of art he sees (by reimagine i mean turning it into something that looks like him, even if it's a landscape or a pot).

#o #rose'socs #fruitbugs #fruitbugs moyer #this took foreverrrr because of how im not used to emulate this kind of style but it is DONE! #hopefully it'll take less time next time i draw him... #he's kinda meant to look like a toohoo final boss- partially because he is based on what comes to my mind when #i listen to eosd's ost and eosd style arranges.

[blue-happy-octopus]

Taking heart in the face of AI

There has been a lot of doom-spreading about AI and content creation and I wanted to share something positive I think people have been sleeping on.

Today, more than any time in all of human history, we have unprecedented access to the most amazing collection of expertly crafted, immersive, and dramatic stories (movies). We have access to literally thousands of movies, with hundreds of new ones being added to that collection every year.

But these movies with budgets in the hundreds of millions fight against cat videos for our attention.

By any reasonable metric, an expertly crafted, pixel perfect, entrancing movie should crush a cat video. And the torrent of amazing films that are released every year should be crush anything made with a budget of less than a million dollars into the dust. But we still watch cat videos.

Because people don’t actually consume content for the content itself. We don’t just watch videos because we want to enjoy the process of watching the video. We watch videos because we like to feel things vicariously through others who are passionate about it. We watch videos of people finding their own cats adorable because that feeling is contagious. I love fandom art in part because it’s art of characters I know and love, but mostly because I know the art is being made by people who are just motivated by passion and who I can relate to.

AI is coming, and it’s gonna take jobs, and it’s gonna change things. But I know that the people that love drawing just because it’s fun are gonna keep doing it. And as long as someone is passionate about something, people are going to pay to see and support that passion.

And that’s also how we will tell real from fake. You can tell a real passionate creator from the everything about them. An AI doesn’t have a blog full of WIP sketches that slowly turn into real pieces. An AI doesn’t have a story about how an interaction with their daughter led to creating that piece. An AI doesn’t have a cohesive signature style that means that even when they draw a noire style comic way outside their usual territory, they still fit in with all their other work. An AI won’t reveal 5 years later at a book signing that actually the reason the twins are never individually named is because they kept getting them mixed up so they scrapped the names and liked it better that way.

Real artists and creatives don’t just create work out of nowhere. And it’s because every piece fits into a constantly evolving mosaic of the artists life that we love their art so much. It’s not that one tile, it’s the beautiful pattern of all the tiles. And it will be a long time before we have enough training data to make an AI that mimics that.

#ai #ai art #thoughts #hopefully someone reads this #for real #I know I have like 5 followers #so probably this will just get lost in the sauce #generative art #real artist #artists #future #hopeful #text post #real shit

[gamersonthego]

GOTG Review: AI: The Somnium Files and Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir

This is the next game in my Backlog Roulette series, where each month I spin a wheel to randomly select a game on my massive backlog that I must play (though not necessarily to completion). These wheel spins occur on the monthly preview episodes I co-host with my friends on The Casual Hour podcast.

Not every game on the Backlog Roulette wheel is going to be a winner, and they’re not meant to be. Many are games I curiously picked up on a sale or remembered from an old tweet or offhand comment from a friend. 

That was the case with AI: The Somnium Files. Someone described it as a Persona adventure game, and that was good enough for me to snag it on the cheap and hold onto for a rainy day. But it only took a couple of sessions to realize that while The Somnium Files isn't really what I had in mind.

AI is a detective game at its heart. You embody Special Agent Kaname Date, an acerbic yet disaffected gumshoe with a missing eye. In its socket instead is an AI robot called Aiba who pulls double duty as a sort of Zelda Navi-like character while also giving you a host of super powers (like being able to see through objects or hacking into phone records remotely). But despite having these tools available to you, it only makes the moment to moment gameplay even more of a hunt-and-peck ordeal. 

I just couldn’t get into it, especially once my AI eye turned into a scantily-clad anime waifu for little to no reason. The writing goes into a very creepy and horny mode once this transformation occurs, and that was enough for me. Maybe if the game was more fun to play, I’d have been able to overlook it, but after already being bored and frustrated by the larger mechanics, it ended up as the final straw.

Reeeeeal classy, Date.

So instead of slogging through AI: The Somnium Files any further, I put it down in favor of a different Japanese detective game that also happened to be on the Backlog Roulette wheel. One much more stripped down and straightforward (and much less horny), Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir. 

FDC is a series of two mystery games that (as the name implies) released on Nintendo’s Famicom console. While the 1988 and 1989 originals never saw a release outside of Japan, Nintendo and developer Mages remade the games from the ground up to release worldwide on the Nintendo Switch in 2021. 

What a difference 30+ years can make.

Loading up the first game, The Missing Heir, the interesting mix of new and old hits you immediately. Gone is the pixel art of the 1988 version, replaced by hand-drawn backgrounds and anime-inspired character designs. The chiptune music tracks have all been updated to more modern instrumentation as well. But ever-present is the simple list of actions and dialogue options of the UI.

And it plays like an old adventure game too, requiring you to select some of the same dialogue options multiple times (or in specific, untold sequences) to unlock further options to progress the story. Occasionally, the game will highlight options in yellow to tell you of new options that have just opened up by some trigger, but that is not always the case, nor do these highlighted options always further the plot either. I can appreciate how a detective game should leave the player room to actually make deductions on their own, but oftentimes in The Missing Heir, I would end up cycling through every dialogue choice multiples times, just crossing my fingers I would finally hit upon the right sequence or frequency. Eventually, I would give in and pull up a spoiler-free guide to cut down on the repetition and get through the story.

Because unlike AI: The Somnium Files, Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir actually has a fun story to uncover. Originally being a Famicom game, it’s no Sherlock Holmes, but there are ample rug pulls and intrigue, culminating in a twist you can probably see coming, but maybe not in quite the way you expected. Despite being a game centered around a murder (or two, or three), it’s just kind of a pleasant little experience to work your way through. It’s even got me interested in playing its prequel, The Girl Who Stands Behind.

AI: The Somnium Files may have ended up being a bummer for me (though other people seem to really enjoy it, according to numerous reviews), I’m glad it led me to a game I enjoyed much more. And even better, I was able to trim two games from my backlog this month. That's value, baby!

#game review #backlog roulette #nintendo switch #ai: the somnium files #famicom detective club

[lioma-gaming]

Monster Sanctuary

Do you ever get a craving for those colourful, 2D pixel art games from the SNES, GBA and early Nintendo DS era? Because I know I sometimes do. Let me introduce you to Monster Sanctuary.

At its heart, this game is another monster-collecting RPG. What sets it apart from many of its competitors, is, that it's a Metroidvania title - meaning that you will need to acquire certain monsters and items to access new areas in this 2D world - and it features a battle system which revolves heavily around passive monster abilities, buffs and debuffs. You know, like that "Howl" move you've never used in Pokemon.

Since you always bring three monsters into battle at the same time, using complementary skills is the key to victory. For example, one monster might apply the "Sorcery" buff with one specific ability, while another allows "Sorcery" to be stacked up to 3 times. Attacks also grow stronger the more "hits" you've landed in the same turn. This makes it important to decide the order in which every monster attacks.

Monster Sanctuary starts off kind of easy, but grows fairly difficult in late game. When even the randomly encountered monsters spawn at the game's max level, it all comes down to how well you can combine your monsters.

The world design as well as the monster design is a bit hit-and-miss. While some I find truly unique and interesting, others just leave me wondering "Why this?". Likewise, the music is nothing to write home about, but if you happen to get annoyed by the battle music, you can switch to a different track in the options. Actually, more RPGs should have such a feature, just to mix up random encounters a bit.

The only downside to this game is that it gets repetitive fairly quickly. Most of the time you will face random encounters that, if you play your monsters well, are not too difficult, and, if you already have obtained the enemy monsters, not too rewarding, either. Besides the occasional puzzle room and a very simple upgrading system for your equipment, this game has little to offer in terms of gameplay variety, and neither the story, nor its characters are very intriguing, either.

To avoid repetition, I recommend playing the game only for a little while whenever, and if you do not have the time for long gaming sessions and miss collecting pixel art monsters, perhaps you will find Monster Sanctuary to be your lucky pick.

PS: There's me saying "I recommend playing only for a little while", and then there's me trying to beat the same boss for three hours straight before wondering what I am doing with my life.

#monster sanctuary #nintendo eshop games #indie games #rpgs #gaming #nintendo switch #pixel art games #monster collecting #review #game review

[creationality-productions]

Story Time!

this is a story about why the freak Creationality has a dark side to it yet it's not really being used half the time.

Unless you're a scratch fan or you know my scratch profile from 2015 this story is pretty new to you so let me break it down.

So I used to have a scratch account back in 2015 but that's not where we're supposed to be starting Creationality animations was made somewhere in 2017 so this story starts in between that.

So, I logged on the scratch I saw a weird Flipnote animation which not a lot of people see Flipnote animations these days unless you look back to 2000 or 2010. Now as soon as I saw that flip note something weird or dark and mysterious had filled up my brain like "is this what the other side of the world is like". I kept on wanting to watch all the dark stuff & let me tell you I discovered a lot of dark stuff on YouTube. I saw Dark animations turning your favorite animation characters into dark characters and then for some reason I had that dark idea that was that close to turning me Evil. though as soon as I thought about drawing something dark, people were doing half dark half regular kind of artwork that's when i Drew evil Maizey, now known as Evil Amaizing. To tell you I kept on making art about him even going to head in and squeezing him in my character line of characters that I have in scratch, but then once I started my first YouTube channel I started looking back and was like scratch was not the place for me.

If I keep on going ahead and having to see cringe over and over again. The last scratch project I ever made was my best friend turning into a werewolf, I cannot tell you how many times I cringe looking at that. So that I looked at everything else and I was like "no". I'm deleting my scratch profile but thanks to scratch deleting it from the whole entire database I can't look back at it and probably take ideas from the scratch profile but thanks to every memory in my mind, that idea still stays within my mind and I could still control Creationality animations to have a dark side. I did make some pixel art of Evil Maizey, but I actually regretted it since it looked even worse., but you should have saw my scratch project.

Now the ending of the story will be coming to an end, but I got to tell you a little bit more about Evil Amaizing he is the evil side of Creationality animations. He will go ahead and do anything to make my life worse and he is technically the evil side of me in the real life now & just like how I have my own characters he has his own characters too. It's like he's a dark evil doppelganger. I really plan to do stuff with Evil Amaizing too, but I don't want to seem like it's going to weird because dark eyes with Darkness leaking out of the eyes is pretty weird these days, but it doesn't seem like a bad thing. Just make sure to keep it on a good social media (or social media that your parents won't question your life about). So, you now know about Evil Amaizing, Evil Maizey his past, and the Darkness on the side of me that will be coming to Creationality Animations soon which is probably going to start with that Halloween animation I promised to make that promise is probably going to be broken but again I'll try my best to make it.

So, bye you've amazed you will be going ahead and making a big role in Creationality animations soon and I'll see you guys' next time don't forget to like reply reblog share and follow me for more art on Tumblr. See ya next story time!

#Story Time! #Creationality Art #Evil Amaizing #Scratch

[video-game-backlog-junecell]

I am sitting on the couch and it's 2 AM. I am hating myself and angry and tired. I have tried going to bed and as night falls every evening I pace my floor trying to figure out if I need to start driving to the emergency room. I have done so twice before. I am alone, utterly alone and so very tired of being a prisoner in my own body.

I turn on my switch and I play Celeste. I beat the Mirror Temple - I am trying to balance a feather to help Madeline breathe in a cutscene.

The feather is severed by Badeline. You are such an idiot. Did you think breathing would help? You're not doing it well enough and it's your fault you're in this mess. Why would you even try to rest?

Madeline falls from the mountain she was climbing. She is at the absolute bottom--surrounded by green vegetation. I am crying. My progress didn't matter either.

I make peace with the night. I make peace with the fact that I will not fall asleep. I will open my Panic Attack Manual in my flower journal. It's bookmarked with a receipt from Walmart. I had called my dad in February desperate for some answer so I could sleep. He had me get a couple things from the store and I cocktailed them together so I could pass out, exhausted. Each page in the journal from a past Cassie writing to future Cassie that she made it through, that you're still here -- you will write one too. Progress doesn't matter. Save files get overwritten.

I make peace in the bathtub - 100 deaths later, falling from ledges, getting smashed into a wall by a Mayan face statue, bouncing into purple pink crystals, running out of stamina. I am sitting in the water hoping that it can stop my body from shaking and spazzing. Imaginary fever, complete betrayal from your own mind.

Madeline meets Granny who says she's never seen someone more angry at themself. That anger should propel me forward into finishing the mountain out of pure spite. That I should confront Badeline on why she is so scared.

Am I scared? I hope it's just fear. But when I think back on that time, I think of someone so tired. Did I even have the energy to be afraid? Am I really that far away from that period of time now, that I have dulled all that pain. I was so angry too. I was so very angry at it all.

Maybe I can climb the mountain.

I believe Badeline when she says she can do deeper. That she can pull the character into the center of the earth. I relate to her so much in the moment.

I begin to fight Badeline. I die constantly. Each screen a new challenge and the game pulling out every punch. A boss fight.

The music is hype, I'm winning and figuring out each challege. To borrow from another beloved pixel art character: I am filled with determination. I dodge, jump and leap my way down - I feel like a God. My brain wants to work with me - my brain WANTS to work with me.

My brain is trying to keep me safe-- but my brain doesn't know when I'm safe. I have to talk to it directly -- trick and pursuade my brain to know what I know: I am safe.

My brain is trying its fucking best, and I can't be afraid of feeling its anxiety.

I level up.

I can do more know - I can be more now. I accept that my little me might always be on edge, but that she is sometimes right. She has saved lives, she has kept me so safe after so much harm. I can climb a mountain.

#celeste #backlog #videogamebacklog #climb the mountain

[frisiunia]

Natalie better!!!

So I think it's quite obvious that I prefer Sofia. I think that a few people who follow Undermourning also prefer Sofia. After all there are only two fanarts of my AU (excluding one pixel art... and my acquaintance's fanarts...). Both of them are Sofia fanarts. As I said I also prefer Sofia and I think it's quite visible. I try to give ya as much Natalie content as much Sofia content I give ya. But I still think I favorise Sofia. I don't want Sofia has more spotlight than Natalie. I want them to have just as much spotlight. That is why now I'm returning some justice for Natalie!... Yeah... justice TwT

7 reasons why Natalie is better than Sofia

1. Language

I'm not sure if it's shown in stories very well. But in the assumption she should have rich vocabulary and use more official language. I think I do the second part very well, but it's hard to show character with rich vocabulary when mine isn't that rich. In my native language it is but not in English. However, Natalie meant to be the more eloquent one because she's reading a lot of books. It's big plus for me, at least. I'm a writer after all (though my writing is better in my native language TwT).

2. Courage

Natalie is braver than Sofia. Yes, Sofia has fewer fears than Natalie. However, when she does fear something, she can't find a courage to fight with that fear. On the other hand Natalie is able to do that. Here's an example:

When Natalie and Sofia first arrived at Toriel's house, they both didn't want to go any near the fire place. It's because they parents burnt as I once said. However, Toriel told them it's magical fire, and she made it warm instead of hot, so it can't hurt them. Despite that, Sofia still didn't wanted to be near it. In nowadays she can be close to it, but she never put hand into it. However, Natalie did. Not right away but when Sofia and Natalie came back after fight with Omega Flowey, Natalie found a courage to do it.

3. Perseverance

Sofia has yellow soul, Natalie has purple soul. That's a basic fact about them. I actually need to fix No Mercy Route in my AU... I actually want to make a post that fixes a lot of things in my AU, however what I will not change are battles with twins. They both are humans, so they aren't affected by Frisk's LV. And their battles are quite unique. And it has something to do with this point.

Twins have only 20 HP because they never killed anyone. Sofia can't dodge, but she can block which only reduces damage if she's using only her hands (or something that isn't very good at being shield) to do it. At No Mercy she is able to reduce Frisk's damage to 1. Which lets her survive 20 turns. While Natalie is able to dodge. She doesn't dodge all the time and because she can't block attacks, she dies after two-three attacks. Or at least she should. She's able to do something similar to what Undyne is doing when we're killing her at Neutral Route. She's able to survive a few turns more. Why am I telling this? Because it's the best example of her perseverance.

...Though she would never be able to fully resist death like Undyne does at Genocide Route :P

4. Politeness

Natalie is more polite than Sofia. I'm not saying that Sofia disrespects others. What I am saying is that Natalie tend to be more polite and delicate. Sofia usually says everything directly. Truth and her opinions. Even if it's hurtful. I personally think that this way of communicating is the best. However, some people are more sensitive. That is why Natalie's politeness makes her better. I do not support lying as a way to make someone feel better. However, trying to say bad things in delicate way is a good thing about Natalie.

5. Culture

Natalie appreciates beautiful things much more than Sofia. Sofia is only into fairytales and folklore. While Natalie reads books. Mostly fantasy but she also reads every other type. Description just musts be interesting for her. She also appreciates other kinds of arts. Maybe not as much as writing, but she loves authors creativity and likes to think what author had in mind making their work of art. She also loves symbolism and her favourite era in art is romanticism. She likes ballet too. And talking about ballet...

6. Ballet

In ballet as in everything else, a person needs time and practice to become good at. It can be said about EVERYTHING. Drawing, writing, other dances, sports etc. So what makes me say that Natalie is better because she learns this dance? After all, Sofia also needs to work hard to become good in archery. However... ballet is harder. It just had to be said. Of course, I do not disregard archery. You need to aim, judge distance properly, hold bow and stand properly. I heard that breathing is also important. However, I still think ballet is harder. It's a mix of sport and art. Knowing poses, flexibility, sense of rhythm. Actually every skill that is needed to dance but ballet dancers should be much more flexible. The fact that it's mix of two things says that you need twice more skills. And Natalie actually becomes good at it with time. Despite how hard it is, she's able to learn it with perseverance!

7. Emotions

I'm sure that Sofia's coldness makes her more attractive as a character. However, it also makes her have less empathy. Yes, she does care about others' lives. She does care about others' feelings. She wants to help others. She has sympathy for others. But Natalie has empathy for others. Yes, there is a difference between sympathy and empathy. When you're sympathetic with someone, you feel bad for their misfortune and want to help. However, when you're empathetic with someone, you understand that person which makes comforting them easier to you. Which means that yes, both twins care for others and want to help them. However, Natalie is the better one in emotions. She is more emotional and impulsive, I won't deny it. However, she also has more empathy.

So after writing that... I still prefer Sofia :P But I hope I proved that Natalie is also cool. Bye! :>

#undertale #undertaleau #undertale au #undermourning #Justice for Natalie

[shiocreator]

Carder Siblings AU gets a chapter 8 dunno if it is okay but like it is longer than chapter 7 however I should probably combine them just because chapter 7 is short very short you know the deal, spoilers Last Page Next Page

I was back now, from the doctor’s appointment. I checked my room, the computer was on, and it was waiting for me alone, without the other two characters that were there. It wouldn’t look in my direction, but P03 knew I was here. “Hey, P03, you going to give me some answers now..?” I still want answers, but it quite obviously doesn’t want to tell me… I enter the room and sit in the chair in front of the computer that holds my roommate.

“...Fine. You’ll just keep bothering me about it anyway, and I don’t want you asking them.” Once it turns around and faces me, I see his face, it looks annoyed. “Go on what do you want to know.” I fidget my hands a bit, playing with my coat’s zipper, I want answers, and I can get some of them, why am I so nervous… “Well? What do you wanna know?” it seemed to be getting impatient with me. “I… I want to know if you know, how Luke died… Or even just how you even knew Luke, why when I first saw you you were sobbing with pictures of my, HIS, family and friends around you... I doubt the ‘just an a.i.’ thing...” I, want closure, I want closure… But I also want to know, why. The question seems to have, shaken the robotic figure slightly despite the fact it probably knew I would ask something like that, I broke his composure, I saw it twitch and its screen went black for a moment before showing three dots. After a quiet moment, it finally responded with some answers, “I, don't know how he died.” ...I think it’s lying… Before finally answering the other half of my question its face turned, bored. “And, he played the game, if you remember what the old ha- Grimora, told you. He played my game. He gave me access to his computer. That’s all.” We both went quiet. I got some answers, but are they completely true… I let out a strained sigh after what felt like a long somber silence. “...Thank you…” I don’t, I can’t bother it more. “Sorry, for bothering you…” And after saying that, I finally remembered. “It’s fine-” It replied before I cut him off. “Hey actually, on a lighter note-” I pulled out my phone while P03, annoyed I cut it off, but curious, looked at me. “What are you-?” “I have a gift, I hope, for you-” “A gift???” It seemed genuinely surprised, it even had a new facial expression, before going back to his normal, bored expression. “I don’t think it’s possible to even give me anything.” Ignoring its assumptions, I ask “Would you mind if I tried to give you some new extra facial expressions? If I even can-” “What-” “I assume since you’re premade A.I. either way, you might not have many expressions you could use for every occasion, so I asked one of my little sisters to help, sorry if-” And it cuts me off after trying not to seem in shock. “They’re probably terrible.” It pauses, and its noise of beeps quiets and the text is a bit smaller as if to hint at a more quiet whispered tone “Can I see them?” Curiosity seems to have taken it. I show it the expressions my sister drew in a pixel art style for the robot. “How exactly did she know how to-” “I took a photo of your face once” “WHAT-” “You said it was fine!” “Oh.” He is annoyed again. It seems to sigh, “...Fine, I, am fine with the, gift.” I give it a smile and hook the phone up to upload the five new expressions I had Raine make for me. Once I downloaded the images onto the computer it swapped the files himself to an image folder labeled “P-03_EXPRESSIONS_NORMAL”. It then proceeded to close out all the file tabs and test out its new facial expression editions, a more sad expression, perplexed, one that glared angrily, happier face, and a worried expression. It swaps back to an annoyed face after, and grumbles, “why did I agree to this.” I form my hands into a heart while I reply with a “Cuz you love me.” with a grin, it just annoys the bot. “I regret everything.” It huffs out while i chuckle. I think it likes them though, he’s not deleting them after all.

#inscryption p 03 #inscryption #inscryption spoilers #inscryption Carder Sibling AU #Carder Sibling AU #AU #Fanfic #my writings #fanfiction #inscryption fanfiction #Carter Carder (OC) #Inscryption Carter Carder (OC) #sorry if its bad wrote it in one day and I actually don't have plan for this

[delta-syrup]

I’m not sure how serious you were but I’d be happy to explain hehe. The brief version is I followed this tutorial, but I made a few adjustments since I use csp. If you don’t use csp, I think you’ll still be able to do it but might have to fiddle around a bit.

I’ll explain more in depth under the cut, just cause I can tend to over explain LOL. I’ll include pictures as well.

I’m gonna use a drawing I did of my oc Elenor to demonstrate!

1. Like in the tutorial above, the first step is the sketch.

2. Again like in the tutorial, you go over every piece on separate layers. Consider where you want your shadows to be, as they might require an additional piece. For example, she has different sections of her hair, and places where they overlap is where i would want there to be shadows. So, her hair is going to be 2 layers to accomplish that.

While you’re making all these layers, it helps me to think about it as if it’s actual paper. So like, what is going to be lying on top of what to create this effect? For example, Elenor’s sleeve on the left rests on her body, and her body rests on her right sleeve. This helps keep your layers organized (bc you’re gonna have a lot of them).

Here’s a visual example of this. I’ve named the layers w the colors I did the line art in to help make it more clear though i know its confusing. It doesn’t really matter what colors you do the line art in since u can color it later.

3. Now it’s time to fill in the line art with the colors of your character. (you should turn off the sketch layer for this part!) On the SAME LAYER as your line art, just use a paint bucket tool to fill it in.

Like this! you can see its a bit messy, so just lock transparent pixels (might be called alpha lock on other programs), and color over it so it looks smooth. erase some parts that bled over onto other line art layers

So now it looks like this! and just do this to every layer. yes it will take awhile.

Once you’re done with all of that, it will look like this! Note that everything is still on its individual layers.

4. Now, like in the other tutorial, you want to duplicate every layer, set it to multiply, and blur the multiply later to create a shadow effect. If your drawing program does not have multiply, just lock transparent pixels and color it a darker color until you get something you like.

This is what that looks like. The multiply layer makes a dark area around the entire layer, but i don’t really want there to be a shadow everywhere. So I’ll just erase the multiply layer in the parts where I don’t want the shadow.

So now we have this! and again, do this for pretty much every layer. There are some that might not need a shadow but p much all of them will. it depends on your preference really.

Now that everything is blended, it looks like this!

5. Now we add in the details, like the lines on her ear and face. I just make a single layer and put it at the very top. BUT it doesn’t really matter.

So now we have this.

6. This is the final step! but it also takes awhile. go onto some free stock images website, such as unsplash or pexels, and search for a paper texture. Copy and paste that into your drawing, and use a clipping layer and put it on top of each of your layers- NOT the multiplied ones tho! I also personally do not have one over the detail lines like the eyes but it doesn’t rly matter.

You COULD merge all your layers and just have one clipping layer, but personally i DON’T do that bc i like to fiddle with the opacity from layer to layer.

This is how it looks while i add all my paper layers. u can fiddle with the opacity as you add them too. The opacity is totally personal preference but to give an idea mine are usually in the 5%-20% range.

And then, once you’ve done all that, you’re done!

I hope this makes sense, I don’t really do tutorials very much but they’re fun to make. Feel free to send any questions you have my way! ^__^

#delta draws #tutorial #i rly like how that elenor game out ill post it l8r tonight or something #oh this is ok to rb also if anyone wants! like if u found it helpful or something hehe

[baphomet-media]

Sword Art Offline - A CrossCode Review

Genre: Adventure Subgenre: Action RPG Developer: Radical Fish Games Publisher: Deck13 Platform(s): PC, Playstation, Switch, Xbox (Reviewed on Xbox Series X) Release Date: July 9th, 2020 Time Played: 60 hours

CrossCode was a game that I knew next to nothing about going in. I heard some faint praise for the title online, but I really had no idea what to expect. The game’s description bills it as a Zelda-like, but offers little else in the way of explanation. The vibrant pixel art environments convinced me to give it a shot. So is CrossCode a success, or is it just a glitch in the system?

Story

In the distant future, humanity has colonized the galaxy. On one remote moon, a company called Instatainment decides to create something unique. They create a one-of-a-kind MMO where the locations in the game are real physical places, and players can log in and explore them using avatars made of something called “instant matter,” a kind of extremely light and insubstantial matter that can be quickly and cheaply conjured up for all sorts of purposes, but cannot meaningfully interact with the physical environment. This MMO is called CrossWorlds, and has become very popular in the world of CrossCode. Despite the fact that the game features an in-universe MMO, CrossCode is in fact an offline, singleplayer game. The different meta layers can be somewhat difficult to explain at times, but I found it to be a novel and interesting setting.

You take control of Lea, a player of CrossWorlds who has seemingly lost her memory. While being aided by man-at-the-keyboard Sergey, she must infiltrate CrossWorlds from the outside and play the game to recover her memories. But all is not what it seems, as a strange flying blue avatar seems to be pursuing Lea.

Along the way, Lea will participate in the game of CrossWorlds alongside other avatars such as the feisty french Emilie (AKA Emilienator), the nerdy Toby (AKA C’tron), the braggadocious Apollo, and many more. Each character has a vibrant design and personality that make them stand out and feel loveable.

The game’s plot is quite intense at times and drips with intrigue, keeping you playing for hours on end. In one of my play sessions, I played the game for over 7 hours in a single sitting, which is a testament to how hooked I was. There are plenty of twists and turns throughout that keep you guessing, and many different layers to ponder over in between sessions. Unfortunately, I feel like the ending falls a touch flat, as it feels like the game just kind of stops and all the conflicts resolve at once, but it’s a small issue.

There is a bad ending to the game, obtainable by missing or failing a single optional story event, but if you’re paying attention and exploring you’ll have no trouble finding it. There is also a DLC epilogue episode that continues from the true ending, but unfortunately this epilogue is not yet available on console at the time of writing. It is currently slated for a ‘Summer 2021’ release, so perhaps I will be able to review it shortly.

I wish there was more I could say about the story because there’s a LOT going on, but unfortunately it would ruin the experience, so you’ll have to discover it for yourself. Suffice it to say that the story kept me intrigued and hungry for more up until the very end. The writing is often witty and funny, and I noticed various references to other series, such as Kingdom Hearts, Gurren Lagann, and Ace Attorney.

Gameplay

CrossCode at its core is a top-down action RPG. Lea has a number of different moves that can assist her in combat, such as melee attacks, ranged attacks, dodging, guarding, and special attacks. Additionally, once you complete the game’s dungeons, Lea will be able to switch into different elemental modes. Each mode has its own stats, special attacks, and affinities, and it pays to be vigilant about which elements are effective against which enemies. Plus, using elemental modes for too long builds up an overheat meter that, when filled, locks Lea out of elemental modes until it depletes. Due to all this complexity, it pays to think on your feet and be conscientious about how you approach fights.

On top of that, there are different consumables that offer timed buffs, different equipment effects which offer different buffs, as well as the Circuit, a skill tree with different trees for each element. Every time Lea levels up, she gains one Circuit Point for each elemental tree to spend on permanent buffs and unlocking special attacks. Some nodes on the circuits require multiple circuit points to unlock, so you’ll have to weigh which nodes to unlock when. All of this combined makes Lea highly configurable, but versatile enough to where you can completely change her build at any time outside of combat.

As you play the game, you will typically have allied characters fighting alongside Lea, which makes tough groups of enemies much more manageable. However, there are many areas which are “instanced” to where Lea must complete challenges alone. These are some of the game’s toughest challenges, and typically involve puzzle solving and/or combat. There are various dungeons around the Playground of CrossWorlds, the in-universe playable area, and most are quite extensive. These are the moments that the game somewhat feels Zelda-like, though really only in that you have to progress through dungeons with various puzzle and combat rooms in order to unlock a new element. Each dungeon adds new mechanics to master, and many dungeons bring back old mechanics from prior dungeons, requiring you to figure out how multiple mechanics work together. I found these sections a ton of fun, even if some of the puzzles were real head-scratchers.

Where would an RPG be without its sidequests? CrossWorlds, and by extension CrossCode, has plenty of sidequests for Lea to undergo to gain experience, money, and items. Most of the quests are your bog-standard fetch quests, but many have the player find new areas, face unique encounters, or even engage in minigames. Fortunately, a lot of the monotony of questing that you’d expect from any other game is mitigated by the fact that you can teleport back to any discovered landmark at any time for free.

As you explore the world, you’ll find yourself engaging in minor platforming. Essentially, areas of the game map are on different elevation tiers, and there are a ton of chests that are locked behind finding out how exactly to manage the elevation to reach a chest on a high ledge, often traveling on high elevation across multiple maps for a single chest. It can be a bit frustrating for people who constantly see chests that are seemingly out of their reach, but I found it fun to hunt them all down. Additionally, using a charged projectile to ricochet off walls and obstacles are quite common. One downside to the platforming is that it can sometimes be difficult to determine the heights of different stage elements at a glance, as the game doesn’t seem to have any sort of visual indication of the different elevations aside from just looking at the relative vertical distance between the floor and the next level. This often causes you to jump into walls or off cliffs during drawn-out platforming sections, which can be frustrating.

Overall, I don’t really agree that CrossCode is a Zelda-like. To me, it’s more like a 2d hack-n-slash without aerial combat. Still, that isn’t a negative, and I feel like CrossCode manages to create something that feels its own and not heavily derivative. I only wish the marketing had played more to its strengths instead of just bragging about how much the game was like Zelda and how many different genres they think they mashed together. I probably would have given the game a shot a lot sooner.

Presentation

The environments of CrossCode are gorgeous, with high detail pixel art that is hard to believe is based on a tileset. The character designs are bold and emotive, and really give you an idea of what each character is about at first sight. The game’s soundtrack is also a banger, with plenty of different tracks in many different instruments. It’s the kind of soundtrack I’d happily listen to outside of the game, and instantly becomes familiar to you.

Conclusion

Aside from a bit of platforming jank and a slightly underwhelming ending, CrossCode is a real gem of a game that anyone who likes RPGs should check out on their platform of choice, and especially if you have Game Pass. This is a game that deserves the same level of cult following as other indie gems such as Celeste and Stardew Valley. I look forward to the coming DLC, and whatever developer Radical Fish cooks up next (hopefully a sequel!)

Score: 9 / 10

#gaming #review #article #crosscode #Radical Fish Games #Deck13

[pestopascal]

While I will absolutely agree that CB2077 isn’t the ONLY game doing all this bullshit, or that other AAA studios don’t deserve the flack CDPR is getting, I have to say that this is absolutely the perfect storm and I think people are FINALLY seeing the problems in modern AAA gaming. CB2077 might be fun to play, may have a good story, but it’s almost impossible to see because of the glaring issues. Which, honestly, is a good thing. I hope games change after this.

under here

AAA studios have been like this and this sort of release has been completely normalised on all accounts by both the businesses themselves and fans because of the inherent reliance on modders (bethesda at the forefront of this), as well as the pushback every time companies actually go ‘uh we need a lil more time’ (although... they just shouldnt announce potential release dates, im even of the camp they shouldnt even start releasing the game until like 6 months out from their official date because they fuck it up every time. borderlands 3 being the only game i know of being in “secret” development and then announcing itself in march for a september release. game itself aside, thats how companies should do it). easily i can remember a lot of 2011 release games which have had the exact same issues as cp77′s release, and then every other game in between since. very rarely do you actually have a game that isn’t a fucked up mess of a pile of pixels. and it is always the customisable character ones that are honestly, genuinely, ugly looking at release. but you can definitely say its been happening looooooong before 2011, with unrealistic expectations, word limits, 11 month time frames, offloading sequels to smaller companies so they can suffer if it fails, etc etc. the entire system has been like this for so long... they dont know any real different nowadays.

i mean look. tlou2 released under crunch conditions this year, and was rewarded. it was ALL over the social media feeds, it was quite the controversy because, surprise surprise, the company promised they wouldnt do it uwu and then. bam ! crunch conditions. literally around that time too, bioware employees came out with a statement saying ‘man we wish dai FAILED so that back in 2014 we couldve proven crunch was a wrong practice’. they say this as well after having to produce da2 in 14 months, which just suffered from fans and journalism for reusing environments, because it was produced in 14 months, and honestly? no one pointed that out back then, bioware themselves pointed it out again this year, 6 years after release, that that game was produced in 14 months. rdr2′s release was hounded by stories of crunch, and they all disappeared into the night because... it was heralded as the best game of all time. that was 2018, 2 years ago.

i think too is that some people get kind of ... morally and ethically concerned. which is understandable. can you consume something when you know it was made under conditions like crunch? and i think one of the most confronting things about it is that 9/10, not only has your favourite company engaged in crunch conditions, they almost actively choose to continue with them. and then that’s a whole other bag of issues blown up over there when it comes to what is able to be consumed what isn’t etc etc

i think also like a mix of marketing, promises and then the expectations of what the game will be like have really had cdpr earn the ire of fans which is just like... you don’t believe what these companies are saying. you never should, esp when it’s their ceo’s saying it who don’t work on the actual floor. bioware itself is the main culprit of doing this to the point they finally came around with all the da4 concept art and teasing to be like ‘ummm but actually dont get invested?’. remember all that qunari lady fanart that bioware management was like ... please dont get attached? yeah. yeah. like at what point as well is there going to be heavy level of apprehension to approach this? and i can’t really talk either, i cracked open the door for mass effect again. i know exactly what kind of shit bioware will pull, i know they are teasing it already on social media, but mass effect is my ride or die series. that’s why people keep opening the door on letting these companies get away with it. and you can’t fault fans entirely either because this is down to a science of how to get money. i mean, fuck, mass effect andromeda’s entire advertising campaign HINGED on the n7 logo. for the nostalgia value. and i see text posts in the same vein of both ‘guys, disney isnt gonna fuck you if you consume every remake for nostalgia value’ and ‘its understandable why people do it’.

so then you have to go ‘well are fans as just to blame’ and then that’s a whole other argument.

i think also like. i personally havent run into aaaannnyyyyyyy of the issues that you see posted online. which is ironic bc 1) i play on ps4 and 2) its an old dusty ps4. in fact a lot of ppl i have spoken to who have had issues have played on pc. does this mean the glitches dont exist? ofc not, the vids and screenshots are right there. but like... ive had a basically unhindered experience so far, and i get where ppl are coming from (i do, i promise) where theyve basically found the game unplayable. is there also a standard of what ppl consider unplayable because ive played most AAA games at launch when they basically rushed to slap the box label on the game and called it a day until they work on patches. when ppl consider unplayable is also just... different per person. some people have a slight blur on the screen when turning too fast even in an MMO and decide the game is horrible and unplayable. some people can have broken quests and npcs not loading and falling through maps and still be fine. there’s no agreed statement of what makes a game unplayable either, which is why you read threads on twitter and someone goes ‘yeah this npc t-posed so i quit in the first hour’ with a dozen replies. everyone has different levels of it.

it’s a mixed bag of issues. im not excusing cdpr, but the ppl who worked on the game are honestly likely not the ones who pushed for a release. you’ve gotta look at sony and microsoft and ceo’s with bonuses coming up and the investors and shareholders and people who sit behind computers and read numbers detailing interest and demand and supply and how every single time they had to delay this game, the loudest (but smallest) bunch of assholes on like reddit and in the twitter threads complained that it was delayed AGAIN even though back in what 2015? they said it’ll come out when it’s ready. and yeah there are times when game delays result in a mismatched half assed sort of story (kh3... p5... ffxv... dai...) and then there are times when, if they need to delay the game... they probably need to delay the game. sometimes delays are bad sometimes theyre good sometimes you are sitting there like whew if you only didn’t try to be like THIS TIME this is the release date.

the ONLY WAY this will stop happening is, quite frankly, unionising. and everyone is allergic to that whole concept so like... this is “the perfect storm” as you put it. but it’s also not. people have been so disappointed over the last 2 years alone for gaming companies, the final product, the attitudes from higher ups, that i think cdpr is receiving a good few years worth of anger. i think theyre also on the receiving end of misdirection from american fans who still don’t fucking get the company isn’t american, because that’s another bag of issues as well. like we’re holding at least 8 bags of groceries out of the back of the car now, and we don’t want to take another trip, because there are so many little bits of this entire situation to look at. there’s so much back and forth.

i think the worst, but most realistic thing is: games won’t change. how they will social media wise will. maybe. assuming bioware gets their heads out their asses but... they’re going to be a lot more careful. i mean, hell, sony offered refunds. that was just a publicity stint. they dont give a fuck if the game was bad. as i said before, if they did, they would make all companies fix trophy problems, starting from like 2010 or whenever the trophy system first came out. they just don’t wanna fall in alongside cdpr being thrown on its sword. but the companies are gonna learn from this, get smarter, still do the same shit to their employees, still pay off journalists, still do media blackouts, etc etc. and we’re gonna be here in another year’s time, with another game, having these same roundabout arguments, and cp77′s issues are gonna fade into just a wikipedia article.

#replies #this got long so i threw it under a cut #i just like wrote as i was thinking too in between ovw sry lol #Anonymous