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zeldaelmo · 3 years

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Oooh! Okay! I knew some of these but I am really intrigued with fanfic reader!Link and fanfic writer!Zelda! May I request a snippet?

This story is alone @spicychestnut's fault. She had some tags about fanfiction reader!Link under a post of "All the trashy novels" and I couldn't stop thinking about it. It's just a very light-hearted little thing. No angst this time, just fluff and silliness, I promise.

The premise is that Mipha drags Link along to meet her new college friends Purah, Robbie, and Zelda. They go bowling. And Link claims he's good at bowling because...

"So, a Wii U, yes? Nobody has a Wii U."

Zelda drags her index over the bowling balls, deciding which one would suit her.

Link sighs in defeat when he admits the truth, "I have them all. I even play on my DS sometimes."

He waits for her smile to turn polite. Or for her eyes to roll, but they don't. Instead she quirks a brow and grins. "You are a nerd."

"I prefer the term gamer, but whatever." He is prepared to leave her alone, his turn is over for a while now and he doesn't want to be the creep who can't leave the pretty girl alone.

She picks up a pink ball that seams too heavy for her small fingers and looks back at him. She still grins. "Gamer is a bold word for a Nintendo-Nerd."

Effortlessly, she takes a measured step towards the lane, crouches down, and releases the bowling ball. The pins clatter. A strike, of course.

Her grin turns teasing when she catches him glancing at the score and at her. "So, Link... What do you play? Animal crossing?"

He wines inwardly. Why exactly did he tell her about his Nintendo collection? Ah, yes. Because her smile is too pretty to let him think straight. "Legend of Hilda, in case you are familiar."

"Oho, not only a nerd, but a sucker for the Princess/Knight dynamic, yes?" Her eyes twinkle with mirth and he has still no idea what to make out of this conversation. Is she mocking him? But she smiles the whole time and usually when someone catches wind of his antics, they are gone in seconds.

Time to come up with something smart. He likes the puzzles. Or, no, better, the dungeons. Legend of Hilda is famous for the tricky dungeons.

"Well, the Princess/Knight trope is a bon, but what really gets me is the soulmate thing." Link drives both hands through his hair. Something smart!

"Ah, yes, there is something about being cursed to be reborn together over and over again, I'll give you that."

Link nods absently, until his eyes widen. She's a little too well informed, isn't she? Could it be that she - no. Maybe she has watched her brother playing or something.

He guides her back to their places and quashes the urge to lay his hand on her smaller back for support. Well. He doesn't guide her. They just walk there. Maybe he really likes this knight in shining armor thing a little too much.

She sips on the straw of her coke, lips all rosy and lush, when she catches him staring again. Great goddess, she winks at him. She winks!

"What," he begins stuttering, throat dry, "what's your hobby?"

"Oh, I write."

Of course, she would have an intellectual, poetic hobby. Not smashing buttons.

It's easy to picture her, sitting cuddled in a plaid in the nook of a window, her laptop open and a tea mug hugged in her hands. She would gaze in a park-like garden and every now and then she would put down the most poetic words ever written.

"What do you write, if the question is allowed?"

"Short stories." Taking another sip, she leans forward to him so that the others can't hear her. "Well. And porn."

He has problems to keep his own beverage spraying only over his shirt and not on the table. Porn???

She clapps his back until he has mostly recovered, but doesn't give him the opportunity to pester her with questions about that.

"What about you? Are you a reader?"

"Yeah."

"Oh? What genre?" Her hand is still on his back for some reason. Unfortunately, she realizes, gives him a last tap, and withdraws.

Since she's still here, closer than ever with her knee touching his, he steels himself and goes 'all in'. "Fanfiction."

"Legend of...", she begins and he finishes for her, "... of Hilda, yes."

"Oh." That's all she gets out and Link wonders why this gets her more flustered than admitting that she writes porn.

"I know what you think. Fanfiction is only for twelve-year-olds, but there's some really good stuff out there. Look, my favorite author writes the best stories I've ever read. Better than most published writers." He grins and tips his head so that he can nearly whisper in her ear. "Including porn."

Another, "Oh." She shifts on her seat and for a moment he's worried that he has made her uncomfortable. But then she squeezes one eye close and asks, "What's their pen name?"

"Dark Knight of the soul."

She stills. The only thing that moves is the blood that raises from her neck to her face until she sports a flush.

"Zelda?" He touches her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she croakes before she points to the screen that shows the score without watching, "look, it's your turn again."

It isn't. He frowns, but stands up anyway. Where has he gone wrong?

This is a draft. Very obviously I need to include the other characters at least a little bit or it gets weird, but that's the general direction it will take.

Thanks for asking!

#zelink #modern au #wip tag game #fanfiction writer!Zelda #fanfiction reader!Link #zeldaelmo writes

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fan-fics-are-life · 4 years

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Alec Hardy sickfic

Alec groaned. He had a horrible headache, but he still had loads of files to look through. Headaches weren't new to him, but they hadn't gotten so bad in the last few years. It was half past eleven, so he was alone in the station. The workday had ended many hours ago, but Miller had had left only couple of minutes ago. She didn't want to leave Hardy alone (and she was willing to leave only because Hardy said that he would go home too), but she had to go home. She knew that Tom had put Fred to bed, but she still had to go home to his boys. The headache was only getting worse. In the begging it was just annoying, but now when he moved his head too fast to compare to files, there were black dots on his vision. He groaned again and put his head into his hands and hoped that the throbbing pain and the dizziness would just magically disappear. Sadly, that didn't happen. *** Ellie was almost at home, when she touched her pocket and felt that her phone wasn't there. For a second, she panicked, but when she thought about it, she didn't remember grabbing her phone from her desk. She sighed, turned around and started walking back to the station. She was relived when she saw that there was still a light on in the station. Then she felt angry. Hardy had said that he would go home too. She really didn't believe him but she still had some hope that the bastard would take her advice. She scoffed and stepped into the station. *** Hardy heard the station's door open. He looked up, but that made his vision go black. He groaned and blinked and luckily for him, his vision returned to normal. He really didn't want to see anyone at the moment. "Who's there?" he asked with an annoyed tone and loudly. The volume of his voice made him flinch. "It's me, El-Miller." was the answer to his question and soon the DS stood in the doorway. "What are you doin' here?" he asked her. "I forgot my phone." Ellie said and looked at him with a sharp look. He instantly knew that a lecture was on it's way. Ellie fried him with her gaze for a few more seconds, before opening her mouth. "You said you would go home." Ellie said with a very strict tone. "I will" Hardy said after leaning back in his seat, "You should go home, Millah, the boys are waiting for you" he added while rubbing his eyes. "Oh, don't worry, I already sent Tom a text saying: 'I'm going to be a bit late, forgot my phone to the station and now boss is being a knob' " Ellie told him with a sarcastic smile. Hardy shot her a glare, but didn't say anything at first. After a few more moments of silence, Hardy just said: " Just go home, Millah" "I'm not leaving before you are." she said in a tone that left no room for arguing. Hardy decided to play the boss card: "It's an order. And I'm your boss." He said and crossed his arms on his chest. "Well, technically, the it's past working time, so right now you aren't my boss." Ellie shot back, "You are my friend." she added quietly. Hardy looked like someone had slapped him with a fish. That definitely did not bring the results he was hoping for. He sighed and leaned forward in his seat, resting his hands on the table. "I'm fine, Millah, but you should-" "I already told you, I'm not leaving without you." now it was her time to cross her arms, "And you look like you could use some good night sleep. And a proper meal. And a day off." She wasn't wrong. Hardy did look (and feel) terrible. He was pale and there were dark circles under his eyes. He was also awfully thin. "Shut up" was all he could spit back at her. He stood up, but that was a very bad idea. Ellie saw how all the color drained from his face (although she thought that it was not possible to get any paler than he already was) and how his eyes rolled back. She barely managed to catch him, before he landed face first on the floor. Well, the phrase 'managed to catch' is a bit off. It came so suddenly, the she just went down with him, but it definitely was a softer landing for him. "Hardy?! Hey, can you hear me?" Ellie started to panic. She was in the station floor, int he middle of the night, and her boss was unconscious on her lap. For a second, she thought that his pacemaker had stopped working, but when she checked his pulse, everything seemed normal. She gently lowered his head to the ground and stood up. She moved his chair under his feet and ran to the kitchen to get some water. When she returned, Hardy was already trying to get up. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Sit down!" Ellie said as she ran to his side. She put the water on the table and pushed him down. Normally, he would've fought her, but right now he was too weak for that. "'m fine, Millah." he protested. "I think you need to check the definition of 'fine', because yours is very far off." she said and handed him the glass. His hands were shaking too hard and he spilled half of the glass on his shirt. Ellie took the glass back from him. "Here." she said as she put the glass to his lips. At first, he looked hesitant, but soon he accepted her help. "So, you want to tell me what that was about?" she asked after a moment of silence. "It was nothing" he said back and ran a hand over his face. "Okay, first, again, check the definition and second, as you can probably guess, I'm not satisfied with that answer." she said while standing over him like an angry mom. Hardy knew that she wan't going to leave until he told her the whole story. "Sometimes I get headaches and sometimes they are strong enough to knock me out." he explained, but didn't move his gaze from the ground. "And this was one of those times?" she asked sympathetically. He just nodded. "And how are you feeling now?" she asked and squatted next to him. "Still a bit dizzy, but I'm okay and you can go now" he aid quietly. "Yes, I will go and so will you. Do you think you can stand?" She rested her hand on his arm. Hardy groaned, but got up. He was swaying, but remained upright. "Okay, is you car here?" she asked as she guided him to the chair and sat him down. "Yes?" he said unsurely and watched as she cleaned his desk and gathered his belongings. "Okay, is that all you need from here?" she asked after she's done with the desk. He nods. "Alright, then we can go." she said and brought him his coat. He stood up and she started to help him get his coat on. "I can do this, 'm not a child" he says with an annoyed tone. "Better safe, than sorry. I don't need you to pass out on me again." she said but took a step back. When he was done, they left the station and locked it up. Hardy tried to get into the driver's seat, but Ellie stopped him. "What are you doin' ?" he asked her. "Putting you into the passenger's seat, obviously." she said and shoved him to the passenger's door. He was too tired to argue with her so he just got in. They drove in silence to Hardy's house. She helped him out of the car and into the house. Then she sat him down on the sofa. "You happy now?" he asked and glared at her. "Yeah, well, happier than I was before. Would you like some tea?" she asked as she took her jacket off. "No, I think I'll just go to bed, so you can go now, if you want." he answered. But it wasn't that kind of statement that secretly meant get-the-f*ck-out-of-my-house-I-want-to-be-alone, it was more like I-want-you-to-stay-but-I-know-you-have-to-go. He didn't like to admit it, but he enjoyed her company. "I thought I'd stay here, actually. If you don't mind, of course." she said quietly, not 100% sure she got the right message out of Hardy's statement. "But Tom and wee Fred?" Hardy asked softly. "I already told Tom that I'm going to spend the night here and that he has to take care of Fred. He answered 'OK' and a winky face, don't know what that was about. "Teenagers and their modern technology." Hardy answered, "Daisy uses a lot of those...what are they called? Emojis? She uses a lot of those too." Thank God, that they were boomers enough to not understand the meaning behind Tom's message. Otherwise the whole evening would've been very awkward. After a moment Ellie spoke up. "So, I guess I'll take the sofa, then" "Yeah." Hardy said and got up. He went to his bedroom and returned with some pillows and a blanket and gave them to Ellie. She nodded than thank you and started to make her bed. While Ellie did that, Hardy went to the kitchen and took 2 tablets of Ibuprofen. When he returned Ellie was already done making her bed. "Good night, Millah.... and, um, thank you..for.. bringing me home, I guess." Hardy said awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Good night and that's what friends are for." Ellie said with a warm smile. Hardy smiled back at her and disappeared into his bedroom. Ellie turned the lights off and closed her eyes, but the smile was still there.

#broadchurch #alec hardy #ellie miller #headache #passing out #fainting #sickfic #fanfic #fanfiction

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shielddrake · 4 years

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Final Fantasy XII: A Retrospective Review

So, I received Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age for Christmas last year.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge fan of the Final Fantasy franchise. I have played almost every game with that title that has been released…at least the ones released in America, since I sadly do not speak Japanese. So it’s not unreasonable to assume I would want a remake of one of its games. I have quite a few, in fact, including V and VI on my iPhone, III and IV on my DS, and I and II on my PSP. Final Fantasy IX was the first game I put on my PS4 when I got it (yeah, I admit I put a PS1 game on my PS4 before anything else) and I thoroughly enjoyed replaying VIII when its remaster came out last September.

Final Fantasy XII, however, is a bit of an exception because, my Internet friends, I have a confession to make: Final Fantasy XII is my least favorite in the franchise.

Now I wouldn’t say that FFXII is a bad game. Far from it. It’s a very good game. For the most part, I completely understand why so many people love it. I just don’t feel the same way.

When I first played the game when it was released, I was not too thrilled with a lot of the gameplay decisions and where it ended up going story-wise. At the time, I concluded that while it was a good game, it was a poor Final Fantasy title. And this is taking into account the fact that I had played and beaten both Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Advance several times before playing FFXII. Both of these games are quite different from the main FF series, but are great in their own right. I basically consider the Ivalice Alliance as a separate spin-off series, sort of like the Crystal Chronicles games or the Dissidia series.

But FFXII was not that great, in my opinion. I didn’t feel invested in the characters, I was not a fan of the combat or license board system at all, and I felt the story was incomplete at best and annoyingly vague at worst. There were a lot of missed opportunities for the use of the characters. I was neutral about the graphics, which, although beautiful, I felt did not really improve on what was presented in Final Fantasy X, and I didn’t like that a lot of the regular trends known in the previous installments (the summons being the main example that comes to mind) were thrown out for something completely disconnected. I finished the game just feeling a mix of boredom and irritation, to be perfectly honest. The only thing I can recall even remotely liking was the music, despite it not being composed by Nobuo Uematsu, my favorite composer of all time even to this day.

Needless to say, playing The Zodiac Age was not on my list of priorities, and I’m not sure I ever would have played it had it not been gifted to me.

All that said, I received the game and felt that, well, maybe since I have it anyway I would give it another shot. Let’s see if FFXII is as bad as I remember. Maybe a retrospective review would be a good thing to post on the twelfth anniversary of the game’s original release, so why not?

* Looks at the dates and realizes Final Fantasy XII was originally released 14 years ago, not 12. *

Uh, never mind. Clearly I’m way too late for that party.

Anyway, as I started playing, I decided that there were two big questions that I wanted to answer with this retrospective review:

1.) Is Final Fantasy XII as bad of a game as I remember it being when it was first released?

2.) Would I change my claim about Final Fantasy XII being my least favorite game in the franchise?

Obviously the game has been out for a long time, remake or not, but I want to warn against spoilers here just in case. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s experience after all. With that, let’s get started.

Statistics

I just wanted to start this review with a few facts about my playthroughs (yes, the plural is intentional).

I played through The Zodiac Age twice, once for about 42 hours in length and the second for about 47. I used each of the jobs in the zodiac job system in each playthrough, but in different combinations and on different characters. Of course, I couldn’t account for every possible combination. That would take a very long time…

The party was at level 46 on my shorter playthrough and 51 on my longer one. I did not complete all of the hunts, although I fought more of them the second time through. I did not try to get any of the special gear like the Zodiac Spear, mostly because I don’t know how. I also did not get all of the espers, because other than the required time you have to summon Belias to get into Giruvegan, I never used summoning.

I avoided any guides or other playthroughs for the game, relying on the game’s directions and my memory from my previous plays…fourteen years ago…to guide me through the main part of the story. Yeah, I haven’t played FFXII since it was released in 2006, maybe 2007, give or take a few months. So, if I got confused or lost during the course of the game, it was because I either missed directions or the game was not clear on where I needed to go.

At the time of this review, I have not experimented at all with Trial Mode or played through New Game Plus.

Graphics

This section will be short, since I don’t have a lot to say about it.

The graphics are very good. As I stated above, in the original I did not feel the graphics were all that different than Final Fantasy X released four years prior, and my opinion of The Zodiac Age hasn’t really changed. According to the Final Fantasy Wiki, the game was given “high resolution upgrades to backgrounds, character models, 2d parts, and movie scenes.” To be honest, I didn’t notice much of a difference, although that might be because I didn’t play the game often enough to have the original graphics etched in my memory.

However, that does not mean the game looks bad. On the contrary, it is still a beautiful game, despite a few small glitches such as Balthier’s dialogue not syncing up to his lip movements or Basch’s hair not moving, Those are minor nitpicks. The game is still lovely to look at.

Sound and Music

Again, the music for this game is excellent. As I mentioned before, the music was probably the one thing I would praise about the game when it was originally released. The Zodiac Age somehow manages to make it better by providing a rerecorded soundtrack that makes a lot of the notes sound less harsh. There is the option of switching it back to the original version, but I preferred the new one. Basically they took the one thing I liked about the original game and made it better.

The voice acting I am pretty neutral about. For the most part, I don’t think anyone’s voice work was either bad or good. Other than the overuse of sighs, of which I get most annoyed by Ashe’s because she sighs all the time, I don’t mind the voice acting very much.

The only one I have a problem with, and this was also the case when I first played FFXII, is with Fran’s voice. I always feel bad criticizing a voice actor because they put a lot of training and passion into their work, but I just can’t help but be really annoyed at the choices SquareEnix made when casting Fran. She sounds so different in the English version compared to the Japanese one, and I don’t think it fits the character at all. Viera, all viera, are supposed to be these rather ethereal beings akin to the elves in The Lord of the Rings. So why, then, would the translation team have Fran be given a voice that makes her sound like a nasally four-year-old? According to the Wiki, the translators wanted to “sell the new take on the viera,” but it just falls flat.

Miscellaneous Gameplay

Okay, I only made this section so I can briefly go over some of the extra gameplay components the game has, both old and new. First, the good.

The high-speed mode is great. I always thought the characters moved so annoyingly slow! This fixes that problem and honestly saves a lot of time. I feel like it sheared off a couple of hours off the game that are just empty time needed simply to move from place to place. I used this in the FFVIII remaster as well for the same reason. I basically never turned it off. It didn’t affect cutscenes, so that wasn’t a problem. Also, the sound effect of four people running in high-speed mode is strangely hilarious to me.

There is a transparent overlay map now available. I find this to be much more useful than the minimap alone, which was constantly moving and incapable of helping me orient myself. Previously, I was frequently frustrated and getting lost in pretty much every area, dungeon and town when I played the original version. The overlay map was especially useful in places where direction was important, like the part in the Tomb of Raithwall where you need to turn the statues to face the blade. I could never tell which way to turn them and needed to bring up the main map over and over and over again. The overlay map resolves makes this and general navigation much easier.

My only complaint is that, although it is transparent, it does take up a lot of the center of the screen, but that is a small price to pay for the relief of so much frustration. There are times when the overlay map isn’t useable, namely in parts of Giruvegan and the Bahamut, and then the frustration rises again, which only emphasizes how nice the overlap map is the other times.

Autosave feature. Need I say more? Thank you, SquareEnix, for an autosave feature! Especially during some of the hunts.

And now the bad, which can be lumped into one thing: minigames. Or I guess they’re minigames. They’re small quests that are required to further the story that are not combat based. The yell at the guards to make them move game while stealing the Dusk Shard, AKA the dumbest guards ever. The have Vaan declare he’s Basch in front of people in Bhujerba to get the Resistance’s attention, which unless you had already played the game you don’t know to do in front of the guides, leading you to just listening to Vaan spout annoying nonsense while literally nobody listens. The exchanging information quest in Archadia to get chops to be allowed to ride a flying taxi, which is only slightly less annoying this time around because they reduced the number of exchanges you need to do from nine to three. I guess they realized how tedious it was. I disliked all of these when I first played the game and they were superfluous and dumb and add nothing to the experience this time around too.

Character Progression and Combat

Now we get to the parts where I feel I can really say something constructive. I was initially going to have these be separate sections, but they are so closely related to one another that it seemed silly to split them.

There is something I want to make perfectly clear, that I must admit came very much to my surprise: The combat in The Zodiac Age is nowhere near as bad as I felt it was when I played the vanilla game. Before it felt like a boring slog just to get from one quest to another, but I found that not to be the case this time around. I think the changes to the license board helps with the combat be more dynamic and require a bit more strategy since not every character ends up being the same. I’ll get to the license board in a moment.

With the job system in place, you have to think more about how you’re going to approach an enemy rather than having everyone just attack the whole time. I mean, you can still do that, but your white mage is not going to be as strong as your knight, so having the white mage do only physical attacks doesn’t work quite as well. And with the option of giving everyone different abilities, it means that every character has a different role to play in battle.

The ability to add a second job later in the game adds to the diversity you can bring, since you can make any number of combinations of jobs and really none of them are bad. You’re also not limited by which characters can have which job. Once you pick a job for a character you are stuck with it (at least on the PS4 version) but that does not lock the job away from other characters. You can have two white mages, two knights, five red battlemages, or make every character a bushi if you so desire. You can have someone balanced, someone focused on only offensive spells, someone focused on healing, someone just for physical attacks, a tank…the possibilities are huge!

The gambit system is still in place, and I still am not a huge fan. If I have to micromanage a character’s actions, I’d rather have a system that allows me to input commands individually like in previous Final Fantasy games rather than allowing an AI to do it. However, I understand that the combat in FFXII is fast-paced enough that it makes that sort of system more difficult, and I managed to deal with it fine. I wish I didn’t have to buy gambits for every single miniscule action though.

On the other hand, I did find having multiple gambits useful for the various abilities each character has, especially since the job system allows for more individualized characters. This time, I felt like having several gambit slots was actually worthwhile because I had the characters able to do more things under specific circumstances, especially for spellcasters. This made it seem like it was worth the license points to spend on gambit slots from the license board. So while I still am not fond of the gambit system, I found it overall less annoying than before.

Obviously the license board is the biggest change to The Zodiac Age. The job system is excellent this time around, compared to the complete lack of a job system in the original version. Normally a blank slate for character progression isn’t a bad thing. VI, VII and VIII all had no job system as well, but you could still customize the characters to fit with a play style that you liked. Vanilla FFXII didn’t allow that. It was far too easy to make every character identical, so it ultimately didn’t matter which character you had in your party. This time, the available variety made it much more enjoyable to play and experiment.

The board was also improved on in that it was much more logical within each job. Before, the board was literally just a board, with every license just kind of lumped together. The license for a helmet was next to a license for the fire spell. It never made much sense and it seemed hard to predict what adjacent licenses you were unlocking. This time, armor licenses are together, sword licenses are together, magic licenses are together, and so forth. Some licenses in the same category are spread apart, such as the technicks, but for the most part there is at least some sort of logic to it all, making it much easier to plan character growth instead of it feeling random.

Later on, it is possible to make the characters very similar to one another, so that everyone can cast white magic, use the same technicks, wear the same gear, etc. This is especially easy if you pick secondary jobs that are opposite the first job (for stance, adding a foebreaker job to a white mage). This doesn’t happen until late in the game though, so it doesn’t feel nearly as cheap. FFX did the same with the sphere grid, but you had to be pretty far in the game before that was possible. Same thing here.

I feel I should mention the quickenings and summons, even though I never used the latter in battle. The mist abilities now have their own gauge rather than using MP, which is a nice throwback to the limit break bars of some of the previous games. I definitely prefer it that way. I found myself using quickenings less frequently than during my first playthrough, but that might be because the game was made to be overall a little easier.

Story and Characters

While the job system was the big change for The Zodiac Age, and certainly for the better, I feel I still need to talk about the story and the characters even though nothing about these parts of the game have changed. The big reason for this is because the story was where I had the biggest problem with the original version of FFXII, and therefore will probably have the biggest impact on answering my two burning questions at the beginning of this review.

That being said, if I were to go into all the details about the story and characters and what I think of it, this review would probably be three times as long as it already is. To add to that, since the game has already been out for twelve fourteen years I’m not sure there’s a whole lot I could add to the conversation that hasn’t already been said, other than to point out how I would change the story to make it what would be, in my opinion, better.

Perhaps if people are really interested in my in-depth analysis of the story I can do that in another post, but for the purposes of this review, I’m just going to give summarized version here.

1.) Reks should have lived, or been replaced by Vaan, or have both in the party.

2.) Vaan is not as annoying as I previously thought, but he needed to have a more concrete connection to the plot.

3.) Same for Penelo. Still kind of preachy, but seemed more like a Jiminy Cricket character this time around.

4.) The Strahl needed to be stolen somehow, both to give Balthier a better reason to go with the group and to give a better excuse to not just fly somewhere.

5.) That said, knowing the whole plot of the game makes Balthier’s behavior throughout the story make more sense. Better foreshadowing, in a way.

6.) Fran’s storyline needed to have a more satisfactory conclusion. It just sort of ended.

7.) Basch and Gabranth needed to have more personal interactions throughout the story to make their final moments more satisfying.

8.) For that matter, have more personal interactions between the party and both Dr. Cid and Vayne. We meet both of them a total of two times…over the course of a 40-hour game. Too disconnected from the party’s actions to give much motivation for us to defeat them.

8.) Why did they not use Vossler’s actions as a bigger plot point, with Basch trying to stop Vossler from doing what Basch was accused of? It’s sort of there, but it ends far too quickly. Big missed opportunity.

9.) More judge fights! We fight a total of three, Ghis, Bergan and Gabranth. I wanted more judge bosses!

10.) To add to that, have more context for some of the bosses. It kind of felt like so many of the bosses were there just for the sake of being bosses, and there’s only so many times I can say to myself, “It’s probably a guardian of whatever place.”

11.) I still don’t get the love people have for Ashe. I just don’t get it.

12.) And finally, Larsa should have been the main character. End of story.

…Yeah, that’s the summarized version.

Conclusion

All things considered, I definitely had a different experience playing through The Zodiac Age compared to when I first played FFXII twelve fourteen years ago. And ultimately this is why I decided on playing this game again. I wanted to see if my opinion had changed, if I could look at it from another perspective rather than just negative memory. And although some of my feelings haven’t changed, it’s good to look back on something and see that maybe it isn’t exactly as I recall it.

Let’s go back to the big questions I proposed at the beginning of this review.

First, is Final Fantasy XII as bad of a game as I remember it being when it was first released? No, it’s certainly not. I think the changes made to the license board made the combat more enjoyable for me, and by extension it seemed less of a hassle and more of an actual game. I enjoyed running around and exploring more, and the bosses and hunts were more entertaining as well. While I’m still not fond of the gambit system, I wasn’t as irritated by it and actually found myself experimenting more with it.

Second, would I change my claim about Final Fantasy XII being my least favorite game in the franchise? Eh, probably not. Again, even with the alterations made to the game, there are still a lot of things that I personally was not a fan of, especially involving the story. I’m one of those people who love the story of a game more than anything else (which is clearly why I prefer RPGs to any other game genre). Since the story is still the weakest aspect of FFXII, in my opinion, especially compared to other Final Fantasy games, the game overall doesn’t grab me as much as some of the earlier ones. It’s still a good game, but not great. To be fair, short of completely overhauling the storyline and characters, it would the difficult change those aspects for the better in just a remaster. This makes me wonder how the FFVII remake is going to go, but the jury’s still out on that one.

With all the various opinions and thoughts about what makes a video game good, it’s hard for developers to create what might be considered a perfect game for everyone, and the Final Fantasy franchise is no exception. That doesn’t mean a game cannot be corrected to make it better than the original. That’s what is good about patches and remasters. It gives the developers another opportunity to improve on what was criticized. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age definitely succeeds in this, even if there are still parts that are not quite as good.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a Kingdom Hearts DLC to play and then proceed to tear apart.

#final fantasy xii #ffxii #the zodiac age #retrospective #review #my opinion

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sleepyfan-blog · 5 years

Note

The Angst Prompt- 2. DreamSwap BlueXCross

Fandom: Undertale AU

Characters and pairing: DS Cross, DS Blue, Crueswap

Warnings: cursing

Word count: 1,513

Summary: Cross waits and worries for his friends to show. Blue ends up beating them home.

Cross lingered for a moment as he waited with increasing anxiousness for his best friends to come by. They had promised to come see him today, despite the fact that they really didn’t like Blue. Part of him wondered if something happened to them, as nightmare was being pursued as relentlessly has ever by the head of Justice Reigns because the others magic cause people to feel unhappy feelings when he was around them. It wasn’t as if it was nightmares fault that his magic was this way, as he knew that his friend would rather not have such a curse. But that didn’t mean that he should die because of it.

He was… Painfully aware of the fact that Blue and his friends didn’t get along with one another whatsoever… But that they tried to set their differences aside in order to all hang out together. Cross had texted both Error and Nightmare, but neither of them had responded… And the monochromatic skeleton was trying to figure out if it would be weird if he tried to call them. He was probably just overthinking things again. Nightmare and Error had been living in the Omega Timeline for the most part since he’d gone to living with his boyfriend a couple of months ago - as JR seemed to have done a successful recruiting drive of sorts and there were dozens of the fuckers in every AU that Cross visited..

But not in the Outertale that Blue lived in - but it was a post-neutral run, and there weren’t many beings in this AU. Not alive, which made it kind of lonely but a pretty good place to hide out in… And given that Blue was often engaged in less-than fully legal stuff, that made sense. Cross paced the floor restlessly, doing his best not to stare at his phone for any potential hint of his friends texting him. Should he check the multiversal extra-net to see if they’d gotten captured by JR? Would dream announce that two of the most dangerous criminals had been captured, or would he wait until he was sure that he could execute them (the mad bastard) to reveal the information, leaving anyone who cared for them precious little time to try to rescue them before they died by his hand?

Cross had wandered into the kitchen - frantically washing the couple of dishes that he’d left to do later for something productive to do, setting them carefully on the drying rack when he heard someone walk up to the front door, and turn the handle. He sprinted for the front door, a hopeful grin on his face… Before it fell, his shoulders drooping a little as Blue stepped through the door “Oh… Hey Blue…” He greeted with a tired sigh.

Blue blinked a little, a hurt expression appearing on the shorter skeleton’s face as he wandered over to the other “Is there something wrong, love? You seem… Upset to see me. Did I do something wrong?”

“I… No. It’’s just… Nightmare and Error haven’t shown up today and… They promised that they would…” Cross explained with a sad sigh, hunching in on himself a little as he tried and failed to smile a little bit at his boyfriend, rubbing his face with a hand, trying to shake off the disappointment.

The other hummed a little and frowned at that, tilting his head a little and remarking lightly “That’s odd - I hope that they haven’t run into any trouble. A friend of mine mentioned that they heard some chatter about JR cornering one of their top ten hunted - but apart from Nightmare and Error, the only people who are hunted by that organization deserve it because they are awful beings.”

“I… I really hope that’s not true.” Cold dread clawed at his soul, and Cross shivered a little… Unless Nightmare and/or Error had decided to go on a supply run, it was unlikely that they could have gotten captured. As far as he knew, no one in JR had ever heard of the Omega Timeline or Core Frisk, much less had been given permission to visit. “How was your day today? Did you get all the stuff done that you wanted to?”

“Yes…In addition, I was able to swing by a monster-friendly grocery store on my way home, and was able to get some shopping done… And I have a surprise for you~!” Blue teased, a small grin appearing on his face as he pulled out a bar of dark chocolate out and held it up for Cross to see.

His eye lights widened before shrinking a little and he pretty much tackled the other - ever since JR changed the definition of chocolate, it had been incredibly difficult to find some good true chocolate in a majority of the multiverse “Gimme!” He tackled the other and frantically grabbed at the candy, pouting as it disappeared back into the other’s inventory.

“Nooo Cross! I won’t let you have the chocolate just yet. Help me put away the groceries and then I’ll give you the chocolate.” Blue teased, grinning as he smooched his boyfriend’s teeth.

Cross sniffled a little and looked away from the other, getting up with a huff and holding out a hand, surreptitiously wiping his face “I… Fine… Not like I wasn’t gonna help you if you gave me the chocolate first….”

“Why are you crying? Aren’t you happy being my lover?” Blue teased lightly, a small frown appearing on his face as he cupped the other’s cheeks with his hands, staring at the other seriously, though teasing the other a bit for being so dramatic… Unless Cross really was so upset about his errant friends?

“I don’t know anymore!” Cross wailed dramatically, flailing his arms a little, even as he leaned into the other’s touch “You deny me my precious chocolate, holding it hostage for chores! Woe is meeee…. Okay I’m done now. Thanks for putting up with me.”

Blue huffed a little and smiled as he pressed another kiss to the other’s teeth again, hugging him close “I more than put up with you, Cross. I love you. Even and especially when you’re being ridiculous. It’s endearing and entertaining.” Blue chuckled with a small smile, leaning into the other’s touch.

The monochromatic smiled softly and leaned into the other’s touch, yawning softly as he nuzzled into his touch “Hmm… I guess that we’ll put away the groceries now… I just… Wanna cuddle with you on the couch and eat chocolate… Buuut it’ll still need to be done.” Cross pouted, sighing a little as the two of them meandered over to the kitchen and put away the food. He was still worried for his friends, but Blue’s presence helped to chase away the loneliness a little.

There was an obnoxiously loud knock on the door just as Cross and Blue had settled on the couch to watch whatever was on the TV - mocking whatever was on the Official JR Channel was a favorite pastime of theirs. The monochromatic skeleton got up and opened the door, and was nearly run over by a grumpy and soaking wet Nightmare, followed closely by an equally soaked Error. “The fuck happened to you two?” Cross demanded, going to the closet and pulling out a couple of the emergency towels and handing them to his shivering friends.

“Went to get stuff for C!Frisk, got chased by a bunch of JR Mooks, and opened a portal to an AU in a blind panic. We then spent three hours frantically swimming in the middle of a gigantic fucking ocean being chased by swimming JR Mooks until Error figured out how to get here from there.” Nightmare explained, gratefully taking one of the towels and drying himself off as best as he could.

“Oh dear, you can borrow some dry clothes of ours if you want - I also have a heated blanket if you want to warm up a bit faster after that. Also there’s plenty of popcorn and chocolate… I could also put on some hot water for tea or coffee?” Blue responded, a worried expression appearing on his face as he stood up, but did not move closer, aware that neither of them liked him very much, but doing his best to be a generous host.

“… If we could borrow some of your clothes, that would be nice, Blue. Cross is just too damn tall. We’d both be swimming in his clothes.” Nightmare grumbled affectionately “… And a hot coffee sounds amazing… Thanks Blue.”

“I… I would like some golden flower tea, if you have some.” Error requested hesitantly “… And a spare change of clothes, please.”

Blue nodded, teleporting off and back, handing the clothes to Cross, who gave them to his two best friends. “The bathroom is in the same place it was when you stayed here, Error… If you remember where it is?”

“I… I do. Come on, Nightmare…” Error responded, his eye lights dimming a little as he guided the other there so that the two of them could change.

#my writing #ds cross #ds blue #ds nightmare #ds error #crueswap #ds crue #dreamswap

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imagines-forthe-soul · 6 years

Text

What You Need (Sero Hanta x Reader)

(So today, I had a dream about making love during the rain and because my tape baby, Sero Hanta, was out here today being cute af, I decided why not write a fic about Sero and his girlfriend comforting each other during the rain. Enjoy!)

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

The sound of rain hitted Sero's patio window lightly. The room was a bit dark, but the lamp from up the ceiling kept the room somewhat bright. As for Sero, he was lying down on his hammock reading a book of some sort. His ears perked up as a knock on his dorm door could be heard.

"Come in!" he yelled across his room.

The door opens and it turns out to be you, his loving and gorgeous girlfriend. Your h/c hair was draped immaculately onto your shoulders and back. You wore a tight t-shirt that kinda showed a bit of cleavage action, along with a short skirt that showed off your toned legs.

"Oh hey there, Y/N," he beamed, getting up to greet you with a kiss. You kiss him back. When he pulled away from his kiss, you cupped his face and started to pepper his cheeks, forehead and nose with more kisses.

"Sweetheart, okay. I think that's enough," he said, his brow furrowing slightly.

"No-" you replied, your lips now smothering his neck with more kisses.

His big hands then lift your legs up, wrapping them around his torso. You let out a squeal and continued to nuzzle with neck with your nose.

"Come on, you big baby," he teased, leading the two of you on his comfy bed. He lies you down on the side, with him lying on his back and pillow. You then sat up, crossing your slender legs. Your small hand slithers his way onto his, fitting inside his palm perfectly.

"I'm sorry," you started, batting your long eyelashes at your tape boyfriend.

"There's no need to apologize, Y/N-chan," Sero replied, biting his lips. His gaze was more focused on your legs and breasts rather than your e/c eyes.

"Why did you come on here anyways? Is everything okay?" he assured you, his hand pushing back your hair.

"I guess. I just hate thunderstorms. Always did when I was younger and I needed someone to comfort me. That someone is you, Sero," you explained.

"Me?" he said, pretending to be surprised. He loved comforting you. He always wanted to make sure that you were okay in every situation. Ever since the two of you were kids (you're childhood friends with him), he would always patch up your bruises if you fell down hard on the concrete sidewalks; or he would give you his ice cream if you dropped yours.

"Duh," you winked.

"Come here," he coos.

He then pulls you in for a hug, his warm embrace pleasing you. And you were certainly pleasing him. Your soft breasts were pressing up against his chest, slightly turning him on.

"You know I'm always there for you, right darling?" he purrs.

"Of course, babe. Why else do I love you?" you whispered, your arms around his mid-back.

He then starts to kiss you, his lips pressing onto your plump ones. It soon turned into a makeout session. He then lays you down flat, a giggle escaping from both of your lips. You both continue to make out with each other, his hand now going up your skirt, causing you to groan at his touch. You were really sensitive to people touching you, so teasing was something Sero loved to do to you.

Your slender fingers guide their way to unbutton his top, exposing his broad chest. You stop kissing his lips and your hands slide down from his chest to his pants, groping his bulge. This causes him to grunt in an amorous manner.

"Sero-kun, I want it," you cooed, clinging onto him like a koala on a bamboo branch.

"You spoiled brat. You always get what you want," he teases you, chuckling. His hands go underneath your top, helping him to take it off. Your chest was then exposed, a black bra covering it.

"But I'm your spoiled brat," you reassured, the rain pouring down harder than before. Your hand place on top of his and you place them onto your tits.

"So soft," Sero mumbles, blushing.

"This is bothering me though," he whispers, his hands lingering to your back to take it off. Your breasts were exposed this time, his bulge growing bigger and bigger.

"Sexy," he coos, leaning in for a kiss. His lips trail down your neck, to your collerbone, to your tits. His lips lightly kiss them as he proceeds to suck on your tender nipples. Moans escaping from your soft lips.

He shushs you not to make any loud sounds as he starts to kiss your stomach. He jerks your skirt down, now lustfully hungry.

"S-Sero, baby. Be careful!" you blushed.

The tape boy simply grins and pulls down your black matching panties with his fingers. Your pussy was glistening, pink, and shaved.

"It would be such a waste not to eat this~" he purrs devilishly.

His tongue presses onto your clit in and out, a gasp escaping your lips. His tongue then licks around and out of your cunt, like a hungry lion.

"Mmmph~ Mmmmmph~ N-No~ Stop~" you begged, your mouth covered with your hand. Your other hand patted his head in a pleading manner, the sensation too much for you to bear.

He continues to eat you out for a while, until his tongue got numb from all that licking. His head pops up from in between your legs, flashing a chesire cat grin towarto ds you. He then sits up and unbuckles his jeans, his 7 inch dick sticking out from in between.

You then get up to try and suck it, licking your lips.

"No, no baby girl. We can't have that. You'll get it later," Sero assures you, giggling.

"Oh come on, baby. I want to suck your dick now," you whined, pouting a bit.

"Haha. You really are a brat," he purrs before scooping you up to position you two. He then lays on his back, with you turning your back onto his. He then sits your opening onto his hard cock, entering it inside you. A croak escapes from both your lips. You start to ride him slowly, your hands on top of your breasts. You then rode him in a normal speed, your breasts bouncing up and down and your hands on his knees.

"Mmm, Sero, this feels so good~" you purr.

"Aah, Y/N-chan! Your pussy is so tight!" he coos back.

Both of you moan in return, your head tilting back in ecstasy.

"Ooh, yeah baby~ Roll your ass around my cock, darling~" he groans, his hands playing with your hair. You roll around his cock in a circle rather than bobbing up and down on it. His hand slithers down your back then gripping onto your ass, tapping it lightly. A squeal from your lips escaping.

The storm has calmed down a bit, but rain still pattered on his window. He then sits up to make eye contact with you, his almond eyes fixated onto your fluttering ones. He then pulls you off from his dick, lying you back down flat. He lifts your smooth leg onto his shoulder, entering inside you again, this time a bit rougher.

"Ooh~ Ooh~ Yeah~ Aah~" you moaned.

"You little fox~" he groaned. "You only came in here because you were horny, weren't you?"

"Y-yes~" you blushed.

"Are you mad?" you asked him.

"Not by the slightest~" he smirks, thrusting in and out at a faster pace, causing your tits to jerk up and down.

You cover your mouth so you won't scream. Your hand grips onto his weirdly shaped elbows carefully, trying not to eject tape out of it.

After a while, you both felt your orgasms coming up.

"S-Sero, honey, please~ I'm about to cum, please~" you whispered harshly through your fingers.

"Aaah, baby! I'm gonna cum too! You cum first~" he purrs, his head tilting back, sweating raven locks drapped onto his sticky neck, his big teeth clenching.

You release your orgasm first, screaming violently into the palm of your hand. Sero then pulls out and starts pumping his dick back and forth.

"Get on your knees and open your mouth wide~" he commended you. You did as you were told, opening you mouth widely and hungrily.

"Ooh, ooh, Ohhhhhhh~~~~" he groans, cum dripping from the tip of his shaft. You lick and suck on it gently, absorbing the taste of it. Butterscotch with a mix of salt. You putted your fingers on the reminder of his cum and drag it across your breasts in a playful manner. Sero leans down to lick it off your chest, grimacing at the taste of his own semen.

You both let out a sigh of relief.

"Come cuddle with me," you whispered. He laughed and pulls you both under the covers, your cheek pressed onto his chest. You could hear his heartbeat beating back and forth.

"Did I satisfy you, princess?" he asks you jokingly.

You burried your forehead onto his pecs as a mean of nuzzling him. You then looked up to him and grinned.

"Yes. Thank You, Sero~" you giggled, giving him a peck on the lips.

He hummed in return and caressed his hands all over you, leaving chills down your spine.

"You want anything else? Something to drink? Some candy?" he asked you softly.

"No, I'm fine. I just want to stay here like this for a while and just cuddle with you, my angel," you purred, your lips close to his ear.

He then cups your face to kiss you, with you returning his kisses.

The storm has now cleared up, but that didn't stop the two of you giggling idiots from making out, naked, under the covers.

#boku no hero academia #bnha #boku no hero academia imagines #bnha imagines #sero hanta #sero x reader #sero hanta x reader #bnha sero #bnha scenarios #bnha writing #submission

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godsavetheq · 7 years

Note

1-30 c;

*GALE FORCE SIGH COMES IN FROM CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA*

1: Do you try to stay away from walkthroughs?

Yes. I want to win through my own merit. But I need that old ass game guide magazine for Perfect Dark because I want to unlock all the things and beat all the things (Perfect Dark will be a recurring theme from start to finish so buckle up)

2: Company you're always loyal to?

For consoles, Sony for the most part. XBox is the devil. But I do most of my gaming on PC these days.

For games, the Creative Assembly (which makes the Total War series of grand military strategy games). Although my loyalty is being tested because their cranking out fantasy Warhammer: Total War games like hotcakes now, presumably because their SEGA corporate overlords like the money they’re making off them. Though apparently they have a separate team that’s pretty far into developing the next historical Total War game so I’ll come back around when that comes out, probably.

3: Best game you've ever played?

What a hard question. You know I have 111 games in my Steam library? We’ll say 100 because some of those are like expansions of other games or test servers of WIP games. So 100 games just on PC, plus god knows how many PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, N64, GameCube, and Wii games I’ve played. It comes to a point where I can’t objectively single out one game from all of my favorites, so I’ll take “best” as meaning like highest production quality and best execution of the game, and I’ll hand it to Resident Evil 7. So professional, so fun... so Shoney’s.

4: Worst game you've ever played?

Shower With Your Dad Simulator 2015. Yes that’s a real game, it costs like $1 and someone bought it for me on Steam and it is the simplest, stupidest game that it probably belonged on a free online game site to justify its existence in some way.

5: A popular series/game you just can't get into no matter how much you try?

Well there’s a lot of popular games that I can’t get into, but that’s partially because I’ve internalized that I hate them without having given them much of a chance (looking at you, Dota, League of Legends, Overwatch (Or as we in the trade call it, “$40 Team Fortress 2″))

But now that I think of it, World of Warcraft. I got my free trial and played it some with Perry & Good Old Boys™ from Steam, but I just did not enjoy myself. I also had a prejudice against this one before I played it but at least I tried it and confirmed that I didn’t like it.

6: A game that's changed you the most?

Fallout series I guess. Kind of got me into post-apocalyptic stuff, RPGs and the like. Kind of opened the door for fantasy for me somewhat. I generally don’t like fantasy and I like to make the distinction between sci-fi and fantasy to justify my liking Fallout but truthfully half of the shit in Fallout is too over-the-top to qualify as like realistic fiction. Still haven’t played Skyrim because it’s too fantasy, but I’d at least consider it because it’s not all that different from Fallout if I’m willing to excuse the magic and shit.

7: A game you'll never forget?

Surgeon Simulator. What a titan of ridiculously clunky medical malpractice.

The Stanley Parable because that game messes with you and is comedy gold

POSTAL 2 because rarely does a game execute low-quality production and lack of taking itself seriously so beautifully

Hotline Miami because it fucks with you even worse than the Stanley Parable. I mean seriously, what a rollercoaster ride of mental fuckery. Am I a good guy? Am I a bad guy? All I know for sure is I’m killing a copious amount of Russian mobsters while masked figures in my head whisper nonsense at me and everywhere I go I see my dead best friend and........

Rollercoaster Tycoon (the old one for like Windows 98) because muh childhood

Destroy All Humans! 2 because they just don’t make any alien games that compare to it. Also muh childhood.

KHOLAT because it’s like a clinic in how to do horror right. And it came out at a time when it was a sad time to be a horror fan because Resident Evil was all “hurr durr our games need to be like Call of Duty” and there were no new Silent Hill, Outlast, or Slender games coming out. Of course eventually Resident Evil got good again, Outlast 2 came out, Silent Hills was SUPPOSED to come out (RIP)

Kerbal Space Program. I held out on this one for so long because I was turned off by the little green alien people and I figured it wasn’t serious. But holy fuck it’s actually like the best simulation of running a space program and designing rockets and shit oh my god like they train Astronauts with that game no lie.

8: Best soundtrack?

Slender: The Arrival. Honorable mentions go to Hotline Miami and Supreme Ruler: Cold War

9: A game you turn your volume off every time you play it?

None

10: A game you've completely given up on?

Five Nights at Freddy’s, like, all of them. I can’t beat all of the levels in any of them. I beat the five nights in the original FNaF but not the edgy sixth night. Didn’t even get that far in the second or third. Kinda lost track of which is which too...

11: Hardest game you've played?

Fucking Perfect Dark. I’ve been playing that game effectively for my entire conscious life and only just this summer have I begun to win A FEW levels on Perfect Agent difficulty. For context, I beat the entire game on Special Agent difficulty years ago, but at the time, I could not even beat the first level on Perfect Agent.

12: Shortest time you've beaten a game in?

When I got GTA V for Christmas several years ago I did almost nothing but play it all day every day and beat it in a few days.

13: A game you were the most excited for when it wasn't released yet?

Probably Total War: Rome II. Honorable mentions go to Saurian, Resident Evil 7, Silent Hills (RIP)

14: A game you think would be cool if it had voice acting?

I dunno, I feel like most games that SHOULD have voice acting DO have voice acting. Nothing comes to mind.

15: Which two games do you think would make an awesome crossover?

I got nothing.

16: Character you've hated most? From what game?

I have to do it. Ashley from Resident Evil 4. I don’t care if you are the President’s daughter, you are useless and annoying.

17: What game do you never tell people you play?

I mean, games that I don’t like I guess.

18: A game you wish your friends knew about?

I got nothing, my friends know about most such things.

19: Which game do you think deserves a revival?

Spore, 100%. Nobody before or since has saw to completion a game where you literally design your own organism from a microscopic sea creature, evolving onto land, gaining sentience, building a civilization, uniting your planet and pushing out into space to build a space empire. It deserves to be remade, and done right this time.

20: What was the first video game you ever played?

The first REAL video game was GTA 3, but I may have played something stupid before that.

21: How old were you when you first played a video game?

I dunno, young.

22: If you could immerse yourself in any game for one day, which game would it be? What would you do?

Kerbal Space Program. I’d finally make that manned mission to Duna (Mars), baby. It has eluded me for so long, and to see it with my own eyes... 10/10

23: Biggest disappointment you've had in gaming?

Rome Total War - Alexander expansion. It seemed like such a simple thing. Make an expansion for Rome Total War about Alexander’s Empire. It was the most pitiful thing I’d ever seen. I mean, I know the original Rome Total War is old as dirt, but the base game and the Barbarian Invasions expansion were pretty good.

24: Casual, Hardcore, or in the middle?

In the middle. I tryhard sometimes and just fuck around other times.

25: Be honest; have you ever used cheats (like ActionReplay or Gameshark)?

I mean... do the cheats in GTA 3 count that spawn a bunch of guns and tanks for you? I didn’t use them to beat the game, I just wanted to fuck around because that’s the best way to play GTA 3 :P

26: Handheld or console?

Given those choices, console. Never was too into handhelds after Gameboy Advance. I had a DS Lite and was into Scribblenauts on that for a while, but since then, nah.

27: Has there ever been a moment that has made you cry?

Don’t think so, but it hit me in the feels when John Marston got killed by the crooked wild west cops in Red Dead Redemption.

28: Which character's clothes do you wish you owned the most?

The only thing that comes to mind is Trent Easton from Perfect Dark because he has like a fucking red velvet suit and it’s so ridiculous like he’s the head of the NSA you’d think he’d wear a black suit but no, bright red. I’ll take 20.

29: Which is more important, gameplay or story?

Don’t make me choose. Depends on the game I guess. I like Perfect Dark despite the fact that its storyline is an incoherent mess. Try to follow along.

It involves a plot between Cassandra de Vries, owner of a shady arms manufacturing corporation with private paramilitaries on the march in every corner of their corporate HQ as well as all over the city streets (I, too, voted for Trump so that he could legalize corporate-owned private armies) that also has a massive underground research lab hidden inconspicuously under the city of Chicago; Trent Easton, the fashionable Director of the National Security Agency, whose goons start shooting up Air Force One in a plot to kidnap and clone the President of the United States, and a mysterious tall blonde man known only as Mr. Blonde who wears evil clothes and, unbeknownst to the other two conspirators, is a massive alien dinosaur thing that sounds like a jaguar in disguise who eventually kills both of them once they’re no longer useful. But don’t worry! The plot to give the dinosaur aliens a super-weapon fails when some guy sends his on-staff professional mass-murderer to go kill endless corporate militias and NSA agents to get to the bottom of it with the help of a flying laptop that has developed a moral code and a different race of aliens who look much less impressive. Or something. So that game makes a compelling case against storyline, but in other cases it’s not so XP

30: A game that hasn't been localized in your country that you think should be localized?

Everything that I care about is localized to the US.

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