I find it so painfully heartbreaking that Solomon just...laughs off all the derision, the name-calling, and possibly even did "evil" things on purpose because it's expected of him at this point. (He had not always been like this as Thirteen pointed out before). There was a time when he was "innocent". When his soul sparkled. When it resembled the kind of soul everyone in these god forsaken (pun intended with spite) three realms seemed to associate with the ever loved MC. He's just...worryingly carefree. And because he's like that, he feels even more of a tragic character to me.
Sometimes it even seems that he himself would seemingly make up excuses on why he's hated. Oh, it's because I'm a sorcerer this. I might have won a war against Devildom single-handedly this. I have forgotten. But maybe, I did something bad, that. Hon, you were doing that to SURVIVE. You don't have to be a faultless person to deserve compassion. You don't have to be MC to deserve to be loved.
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Since I've been replaying Subnautica recently, I've been thinking more about Below Zero.
From what I've seen, people tend to give Below Zero more shit than I think it deserves. Now, out of the two games I would very much say that Subnautica is my favourite, but I think comparing the two games is a bad idea in general because of how fundamentally different they are.
The premise of Subnautica is that you're a janitor whose spaceship crashed on an alien planet, leaving you as the only survivor when you wake up 8 hours after the crash. You aren't prepared for this. You're all alone. And you have been infected by a bakteria with a killcount in the billions. You know nothing at all about this world. This sets up real terror, helplessness and the knowledge that even if someone were coming to save you, they would experience the same fate as the rest of your ship's crew. You're not stranded on 4546B BY CHOICE.
Below Zero however, is drastically different. You have gone to great lengths to willingly smuggle yourself onto the planet to find out just what happened to your sister to cause her death. You come very much prepared and you're more than willing to face all the risks. You can also theoretically leave at any point. All you'd have to do is show yourself to Alterra and they would probably escort you to a prison themselves. You do not get infected. You are also not alone.
This willingness and initiative in Below Zero is a huge detractor from the terror of it all. And it is why I think a comparison is unfair.
(Also, you have a Truck. In Below Zero. And Truck-kun is there, ready to deal massive damage for you! Honestly I think it's way too OP. Fucking Shadow Leviathans become nothing more than a NUISANCE. But well, it fits with the theme of the game.)
All in all, Below Zero had nice environments, nice creatures, nice gameplay, a better base building system and some pretty intruiging storylines!
In my opinion, the endgame is pretty lacklustre. Any terror I felt regarding leviathans or the like abated very quickly, even though I have barely 30h in Below Zero. Meanwhile, going to the Aurora in Subnautica still scares the shit out of me 80h in.
Although I have to mention here that some of the familiarity you build up in Subnautica carries over. You can never get the same experience as playing Subnautica for the first time ever again. Because now you've already experienced it once.
Below Zero isn't really a worse game for not being able to do this, though. It's a good game, it's just... not as memorable. Because Subnautica is truly special. From its stellar soundtrack to its satisfying gameplay and moving story and setting, Subnautica is a fucking masterpiece. Sure, it has its flaws, but they're more charming than detracting. To me.
And it's unfair to expect anything else to deliver the same experience. Because nothing can.
And when comparing Below Zero to Subnautica, so many cool things lose their shine in its shadow. I still vividly remember jamming out in the seatruck to Diving In Too Deep from Nerdout. The story of that one old wreck that managed to survive by distracting the big gun was some really good writing. The frozen leviathan terrified me so hard even though I knew it wasn't going to come alive. Robin and Al-An's conversations are genuinely interesting an entertaining. The kelp area is really cool and the oxygen flowers are such a good gameplay change! Sam's storyline hit me right in the feels! MARGUERIT. The ice worm hit me straight off of my snowfox and down a cliff so I had to run the rest of the way. The research crew are also lovely characters!
There are a lot of things to love about Below Zero and we shouldn't let them pale by judging the game with standards Subnautica lifted to the fucking moon <3
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I love "Miko's Ingenuity" (the track that plays during Miko’s Story Quest cutscene) and upon revisiting the recording I took of the cutscene, I decided I’m gonna be loud about it and say:
We, as a collective, don’t talk enough about this.
We’ve seen Yae appear in a grand total of like 7 different version updates and throughout all of them THIS quest and cutscene is the ONLY time we ever see Miko even a little emotionally vulnerable. And I think it’s an amazing insight into her character.
Miko is gaslight gatekeep girlboss incarnate; she’s a cunning mastermind, likes to tease people and she’s always the one who’s 10 steps ahead in any given situation. We been knew that, and this is a persona she displays that no one has ever been able to break.
but THIS CUTSCENEE
[HER LITTLE FROWN!! :((( ]
[SHE LOOKS SO SAD]
She waited for Ei for 500 years, got her back, and now she has to send the souls of her friends and family away.
“It’s a feast and all feasts come to an end” [and what if I literally sob]
[My heart broke watching this I love her so much]
Her FACE ! THAT expression. I am sniveling on the ground.
We know both Ei and Miko have lost people close to them; here we see Miko go through the loss firsthand. And even in the presence of the Traveler Miko decides not to preserve her unbothered and nonchalant mask. She’s sad to seem them go. But she knows it has to be done and she takes comfort in the fact that these youkai lived their lives to the fullest.
good GOD I could go on and on about how hot she was for doing this in the first place (both the animation and the masterful big brain plan behind getting the whole city to do the chant along with her).
But I won’t, I wanted this post to mainly just be about how great it is that we saw this moment of vulnerability from her. And how this moment is NEARLY A YEAR OLD!??! I just thought it was so delicious from like, a character-crafting perspective. ‘Cause even in the recent Mikawa Flower Festival the topic of youkai losing friends throughout the passage of time is brought up again around Miko, and she played the part of, well.. ‘therapist’ for Chizuru incredibly well.
We have never since seen (and maybe never will? for a while at least) the same level of vulnerability that she displayed in her story quest, and I want people to remember it, because it definitely humanizes her more and just contributes so much to her character as we know her in the recent versions and I love her so much.
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I’ve finally finished P3R!
So now of course I must write paragraphs abt how much I loved it. Spoilers below the cut!
I can say without any hesitation or doubt that P3R is by far the best game I’ve ever played in my life.
They truly did such a wonderful job with remaking this game, so much so that it really makes me look forward to the possibility of more persona-remakes in the future. I’m so thankful that they stayed true to the original story, but improved where it was necessary. I’m blown away by every detail they put into this game, and how they managed to make even the menu screens absolutely beautiful.
I’ve always tended to get a bit sappy/emotional about games I really like, but I genuinely do believe that the persona franchise, specifically p3 and p4, have changed me as a person. They’ve effected me emotionally, and helped me navigate the meaning of my own life. I got invested within the persona franchise at a very young age (I think I was in the 5th grade lmfao 😭), and it was the first game series I really fell in love with — and that was only through watching playthroughs on YouTube at the time. Looking back on it, I think that it’s what really sparked my passion for video games, and also game development in general.
I started getting back into the persona franchise about 1 and a half, maybeeee 2 years ago, and being able to reconnect with the games and fall in love with them all over again has been such a crazy cool experience. Playing P3R after playing the original p3 was such a joy, and I can confidently say it emotionally impacted me just as much as the original did, if not more.
It’s not often I feel the urge to replay a game right after I finish it, usually I have to give it a break for a bit, but I’ve already started my New Game+ run of P3R and I’m not feeling even remotely burnt out, which I think is another example of how much I absolutely adore this game.
AAANYWAYS if you’ve read this far hi!! Rambling and getting overly emotional about video games is my one and only talent fr so thanks for listening 🫶
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I love your gale fic post. All the bg3 companions are so complex and well realised but something that really stood out to me was seeing each of them interact with known friends & loved ones outside the tadparty, its such an interesting look into each characters roots & relationships & the masks they wear watching wyll's complicated relationship with his father and astarion with his 'siblings' and elminster & mystra & Tara for gale it really rounded everyone out. Going back to childhood like you wrote would be fascinating
they’re all so well written and that complexity really shows when you get to see them in different circumstances... i love, um, for lack of a less creepy phrasing, peeling back the layers on characters like that and seeing what makes them tick and what set them ticking, so to speak
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