#i truly love this game i do

[storm-driver]

Having finished the DLCs in full, and thus gotten my fill of FFXVI in its entirety (save the Final Fantasy mode and the Kairos Gate endings), I can officially say, with all certainty, FFXVI is a game that exists.

Spoilers below the cut for FFXVI and its DLCs.

I'm not one to mince words when I wanna gush about a game I love. And FFXVI has the makings of something truly fucking incredible. Wonderful fight choreography, out-of-this-world kaiju battles, music that brings you to tears through passion alone, environments that speak for their rich history, characters with such strong bases and motivations, all tied up in a bow of underwhelming character writing and a misguided ending to what could've been one of the best stories I'd seen in the JRPG genre.

I wanna reiterate: I love this game. I think FFXVI is fucking amazing, was worth the 60$ price tag, and it's two DLCs were very fun to play through. I stand by my original word that Clive Rosfield is one of the best FF protagonists we've gotten since Final Fantasy X.

However, loving the game for what it does right can stand in the same room as disliking the game for what it does wrong. It's unfortunate that I feel the need to tear into the game like this, given how much I want to praise its feats. And I still will, I still think this game is worth playing in spite of what it does wrong. But it also be remiss of me to say "just ignore these parts of the game!" and hope that people can turn a blind eye like I can.

I was hoping the DLC could ammend something I originally disliked about the original game: the ending. The ending is by far one of the most contested parts of the game when it comes to discussing the positives and negatives. Some people like the ambiguity of it all, others would rather have the truth spilled.

For me personally, I'm not in either field. Because I don't think the ending to the game is a culmination of the journey Clive takes. It does not feel genuine. It doesn't feel like he deserved his fate to be left up to guessing. If he died on that beach or if he let his name fade away in history in favor of his brother. Neither of those choices speak to me as "Yeah, that's where the story was going."

It's bitter. Not bittersweet. Plain bitter. It feels like a kick in the teeth for trying to fight his destiny. How dare he try to change fate for himself and the world. You are now cursed to live a false life, if you even survive that long. Not even your dust will be remembered.

Now, my fervent and desperate hopes regarding this game were that the acquisition of the Leviathan eikon would change his fate. After all, we saw at the end of the game that Clive was an "incomplete" vessel, thought we're never told exactly why. The assumption is the missing Eikon in Leviathan. But if not Leviathan missing, what is? Is his humanity itself keeping him grounded, to a point where he cannot change his fate? The fate of his brother?

Is the ending, and I ask this with the utmost of curiousity, meant to tell us that Clive was destined to lose everything in the end? That fighting his shackles only helped the world, and he couldn't even save himself or his brother? That a price must be paid for hubris on this grand a scale, and Clive is the unfortunate victim of it all?

This game screamed to me constantly that he wasn't going to die easily. He would not let himself lose everything he'd worked so hard to retain. For god's sake, the main message of the Bearers and Dominants is that they should get to choose how to live their life, and to live their life to the fullest.

The ending of the game speaks of inevitability. A direct contrast to everything Clive was fighting for. The ending doesn't do a good job of making it feel like a bittersweet victory, as it just kills off Joshua and deliberately tells Clive, "Nope, not good enough."

I digress, this is gripes with the ending, and how I had hoped it would change. Obviously my hopes were misplaced. Or maybe I'm jaded and trying to interpret this in ways that the writers didn't intend. But I can't help but percieve it this way, especially when I look at other people discussing the DLC and finding a lot of them thought the same.

Another thing, the hidden Eikon in the Kairos gate content. Ultima being an eikon you channel. I genuinely do not understand the point of this eikon outside of it being a means for trailer bait. Because that's all it ending up being. No story implications. Not even true practical usage besides being intense damage nukes and an overall homage to Ultima as a source of power. Prove me wrong if something at the end of Kairos gate ends up being story related, but I have a very strong feeling it is not.

#ffxvi #sorry if i seem so upset in this post #i truly love this game i do #but god do these writers disappoint #there's so much wasted opportunity #and such a huge misunderstanding on how to deliver hopefully vs bittersweet vs downright depressing messages

[quiescentdestiny]

really love that Nora said "I'm gonna make the concept of 'fight, flight, or freeze' into three traumatized boys and then write an entire trilogy about it."

#my posts #aftg #tfc #all for the game #the foxhole court #Andrew Minyard #Neil Josten #Kevin Day #I truly do love that for us

[chalkrub]

it's mendel!

#my art #oc #mendel #anthro #furry #dragon #bringing back his sleigh bells because they kinda slay (sleigh) #i will revisit this i think. there's more i wanted to do with it but i wanted something to post before I leave for the next week so here... #watched the fnaf movie the other day for friend birthday and it was INCREDIBLY stupid and silly and bad but still a fun time somehow #the tonal whiplash was bizarre and the characters were incomprehensible and the dialogue was ridiculous and unintentionally funny #it's so funny this took 8 years to do what were they DOIN!!!! it cannot have been polishing the script!!! #but the animatronics and set design were incredible. even if they stopped being scary very fast i loved the funny murderous animals #playing elastica connection and iggy pop wild child was a choice that was made #anyway truly wild. i played the first four games and that's it so i can hardly profess to be the target audience #illustration

[baldursghaik]

Reading the reaction to Larian's decision to fully step back from wotc/d&d/etc has been interesting

a lot of mourning of the loss of "content"

"we could have had years and years of content" "this is heart breaking to never see these characters again" etc etc

is that what you really want? content? is this what modern media production has come to, that people aren't sated with anything less than milking a property until it's a barren husk of anything it once was?

Why can't we be happy with what we have? I don't think it's unfair to be sad about this news, especially given that it felt like some things were being teased or hinted at, and now they most likely will not come to fruition (at least at larian's hands), but is that really so bad? If you're so dissatisfied with a character's ending or arc, write a fanfiction, draw fanart, boot up the game again and just imagine your way into what you DO want

is that not the fundamental nature of d&d?

#again #I cannot iterate enough that it's okay to be bummed out about this #but I'm proud of larian for doing right by their employees #they have more respect for themselves as well as the source material than wotc/hasbro does #I just wish that people could be happy at all that we have so much already #the only thing I truly wish larian would add is more material for wyll because he was done so dirty in comparison to everyone else #but aside from that the game is a great playground and sandbox for a million other stories or ideas #and wotc/hasbro or even larian themselves cannot rip that out of your hands #you can make more of what you love about this game this series this entire universe

[lilidawnonthemoon]

#current hyperfixation is Pyramid Game & all its gayness and especially these two #what do you all know about SUJAEUN #i didn’t read the webtoon and started watching it for my girl Bona a bit reluctantly because of the intense bullying #and I'm enjoying it Bona picks her roles well & truly is a talented actress I can’t be mad even tho I miss her as an idol/ WJSN #didn’t expect so much gayness it’s not just vibes like 25 21 or implied like it’s canon with the idol trainee Yerim & her “bestie” Eunjung #and the bisexual “pervert” who joins them as the end of EP 4 lol #they’re all shippable tho like Doa why you looking at Suji like this (impressed with Seulki's acting btw its natural) #Suji is such an interesting character I love her & her dynamics with Jaeun and how they balance each other out (also CHEMISTRY) #I also really like Jaeun’s actress! #ryu dain #kim jiyeon #kdrama #pyramid game #2024 #photoshoot #bona #sujaeun #sung suji #myeong jaeun

[charles-jpg]

you say i killed you, haunt me then! | coriolanus snow and lucy gray baird

1. lev st. valentine // 2. clarice lispector // 3. anne carson // 4. anne carson // 5. haruki murakami // 6. richard siken // 7. unknown // 8. t.b bliss // 9. brenna twohy

#ugh there is just something so crazy to me about the fact that they both truly loved each other and yet they both ended up chosing #their survival in the end. something about their tragedy being the fact that both of them thought the other betrayed them first #tbosas #web weaving #coriolanus snow #lucy gray #hunger games #thg #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #president snow #lucy gray baird #snowbaird #tbosbas spoilers #kind of! #did this one for fun but it turned out pretty good if i do say so myself

[ryllen]

#mtas #my time at sandrock #mtas wei #mtas builder #fanart #i found my true love target ; v ; #the smiling type is the ones that truly snatch my heart #they bring me the utmost joy #as much ironic it is unsuur makes me unsure of the rest of the stage after confession #i just thought i marry him in case the builder parents come and there would be some kind of scene over it like in portia #till the very last minute my heart was somehow still half in about it #tho in the game unsuur is read very close as 'unsure' i actually pronounce it differently bcs it's close to something in my language #unsur : means element; i thought that's nice bcs it feels closely to rock related thing #https://translate.google.com/?sl=id&tl=en&text=unsur&op=translate #if anyone even interest the slightest on how it sounds when pronounced by me here's the google translate link #but yea i'm dying that it is literally being pronounced 'unsure' #pls help him he just needs to be given a chance to command so he can learn to do independent thinking from experience #like yeah probably there would be lots of mistake at first #but u're like a mom justice who decides everything for the child so when u ask the child they just be like don't know ask mom fshdshd #he needs to be put out there #or had that been done justice if so i am sorry ; v ; #but seriously i'm dying when i kept adventuring with justice and logan and unsuur was just told to wait like a puppy fhsdh #he needs to be taught how to decide things by himself seriously #it's honestly hard to write unsuur's character #like no matter how u tried somehow it doesn't feel as close as funny or as serious deadpan like the original #wei here is like a piece of white paper i can scribble whatever i want #it's unexpected #but i ended up liking wei

[pennyserenade]

thinking about mulder and scully and how gentle he was with her when she was lying there in the hospital dying. he walked into the room with a wide grin and held her hand and kissed her cheek, and spoke to her in hushed, conspiratorial tones, and everything was life or death but it was so quiet, so unimportant, as he sat by her side and looked at her. mulder looked as happy as he’d ever been, sitting there with her, and it wasn’t because he was; he wasn’t. he knew that she was dying, that they were coming upon the moment when she was no longer going to be with him sooner rather than later, and he was crushed by the weight of it, by the impossibility of it. when he came to see her again and she was sleeping, looking pallid and defeated, he slumped against her bed and cried on his knees in the dark—quiet, body wracking sobs she never knew about, because he never wanted her to know how weak her being weak made him. with the weight of impending death, mulder gave scully the most of life, all that he wished she could’ve received but hadn’t: that coddling, that affection, the beautiful mundaneness of domestic bliss. he listened to her—really listened to her. and he really loved her, loved her like a husband, or a boyfriend, loved her the way a better man would’ve.

and then when scully got better, when the cloud of death evaporated and she appeared before him with color in her cheeks and flirtation on her tongue, he took it back. gone were the days of all that soft love and affection and back was the mulder and scully of old. he sidetracked their team bonding workshop, pointedly ignored the glaring fact that scully agreed he needed to work on his communication, and got them stranded in the depths of the floridian forest. even better, he let her coddle him, let her hold him close to her chest and made her sing him a song as they shivered through the night and watched out for monsters that could kill them, because he couldn’t handle it. the idea of being anything to scully other than what he had been before — a nuisance, a challenge, a partner — terrified him so badly he went into overdrive trying to reinforce those uncomplicated roles again. it wasn’t that he didn’t love her. he did — he loved her to the point of insanity, to the point of self destruction (something she so worried about). he just didn’t know how to love scully when it wasn’t dire. he loved her so much that he could not stand the idea of failing her with anything inadequate and half baked. he was glad to give it to her when it was dire, but when it came to life long devotion, he needed a few more years.

#fox mulder #dana scully #x files #i think mulder and scully became end game at this point truly #like her original abduction scared the shit out of him and ruined his life obviously #but that time it solidified how important of a person she was to him. he realized he needed her and would do anything for her #she was his friend. his closest companion #her cancer made him realize he simply could not survive without her. he couldn’t #when she first told him about it being incurable he refused to believe it #and he so depended on her scientific nature — on her science and her rigidity regarding it — and he so valued the truth #even ugly truth. but not that one #he loved her and i think it was during this time he realized how frighteningly much

[tvlandofficiall]

happy birthday to the stupid salesman that's ruining my life

#ooc #spamton #deltarune #happy birthday spamt. you were truly the Themes Salesman of deltarune #(all jokes aside i really do love spamton he's one of my favorite characters in this game. as many of them are)

[horsemeatluvr23]

zedaph!!! coloured pencil n fineliner :D ngl i rly struggled w getting a photo of this one .. i ended up scanning it but i think it washed out a lot of the pencil detail n ended up looking like i deep fried it lmao. u will all just have to trust me when i say this looks better irl

#i rly enjoyed the process of this drawing but i don't love the final version... but i had fun so who cares!! #i rly wanna get better at doing coloured pencil stuff i find it so hard for some reason .. i think the colour theory side of it trips me up #trying to learn media that relies on your knowledge of colour theory is a Struggle as a colourblind artist lmaooo #anyways i love zedaph's videos so much he is utterly insane and i am obsessed. watching him break the boundaries of the game is so fun #his videos r just so enjoyable he is so easy to watch n he comes up with the most deranged ideas yet somehow always makes it work #i love how he gameifies everything it just adds another layer of challenge (and therefore satisfaction) to the game #his mind is truly. so unique... that sounds like an insult but i swear it isn't #i want to study him in a lab #he would probably study me back #horsemeat gallery #zedaph #zedaph fanart #zedaphplays #hermitcraft #horsemeatluvr does hermitaday #hermitaday

[babyboybuckley]

Shourtney fans how are yall feeling

#i am Not a shourtney truther and i do believe this is an elaborate prank #however on the off chance it is real #love this for them!!! #but again i am unconvinced until we find out more #that said!!! these photos are so beautiful regardless and im obsessed with their relationship #no matter what that relationship is #shayne topp #courtney miller #smosh #smosh games #smosh pit #shourtney #truly a wild thing to wake up to #fan art #smosh fanart #dont come for my art skills i draw for fun not because i have skills

[blindtigerart]

Revachols Finest Police on the Case

#i be trying painting and lighting stuff🙈🙈 #disco elysium #kim kitsuragi #harry du bois #they’re my goofy little fellas truly #i love kim so much he just lets you do weird shit because he’s a weirdo too #need to play some more but i like to savor the game like a good book teehee

[jabberwockprince]

A arcanist’s work. Exhibited in the 1990s for 24 years. Completed in Summer, on September 13. The exhibition was first held in Manila, Philippines, and after 10 years the exhibit later traveled to Spain, before going all over the world.

◆ Medium: Hunger ◆ Afflatus: Banquet of Concrete [Mineral] Everlasting True Love ◆ Fragrance note: Fruity - Raspberry, Apple, Coconut. Meat, copper. ◆ Size: 175cm / 5’7’’

new six stars character yall <3 here's Venison's insight II illustration and their role garment menu (i built that template from SCRATCH bro, i'll drop the psd later) they're my lil mercenary, local cannibal guy, former manus member <3

here's their fullbody sprite under the cut, i got too lazy to actually render it lmfao

#reverse: 1999 #reverse 1999 #re1999 #re1999 oc #reverse 1999 oc #digital art #purinsu art #venison beloved venison #i dont have their doc ready yet so teehee i suck at filling my own templates #yes theyre yandere or whatever. theyre extremely obsessive in general #does familial yandere exist? instead of like. ooo you gotta be my bf its ooo you gotta be my family #anyway. manus adopts a stray that vertin overlooked. it goes badly for everyone #thats their target wall in their insight II illust btw <3 mf is forming parasocial relationships with every person theyre sent to kill #love justifies the cannibalism and all #their arcanum is also bone and cartilage related! <3 #which fits soooooo good with the manus and arcana's aesthetics #they just have. to get to the bone. clear access to it. to properly use their arcanum. which means they get to EAT/RIP THE FLESH CLEAN FIRS #do you see my vision do you see where im going with this. the game deserves truly deranged guys #i saw the fucking manus garment for diggers. guys. we need to talk bout it

[sunshinediaz]

fuck it friday 🎄

i have nothing witty to say, how sad

have a little snip from my 4+2 fic which is going to be finished tonight and up on 24 december <3

“You slipped tongue in there, you motherfucker.”  Buck holds his hands up, sufficiently accosted. “Well, you were making a lot of weird noises,” he says, haughtily, “so you were clearly enjoying the tongue.”  Eddie scoffs, rolling his eyes. “I didn’t,” he lies, like a liar. He enjoyed the kiss a little too much—wouldn’t mind repeating it seventeen more times just to see if Buck is really that good with his tongue or if it was a fluke. It’s part of the scientific method, you know.  “Did so.”  “Did not.”  “Did so, Eddie.”  Eddie puts his hands on his hips. “Did—” Except Buck’s a lot closer than he thought, grinning wide and ruddy-cheeked, and Eddie’s not a strong man, not really, and so he closes his mouth, reaches out, grabs Buck’s cheeks, and pulls him in for another kiss. It’s sudden, and Buck’s off-kilter, leaning so far forward he topples, and Eddie catches him, wraps him up tight, and sucks Buck’s tongue into his mouth again, lets Buck play and taste, and swallows every little noise Buck gives him, and, yeah, Buck really is that good of a kisser, holy shit.  Buck pulls back first, breathless and full of wonder. “Wow,” he says, blinking heavy.  “Wow is right.” Eddie grins, tummy full of sparkly joy, and steals another quick kiss. “Come home with me after shift.”

tagged by @daffi-990, @fortheloveofbuddie, @giddyupbuck, @devirnis, @callmenewbie, @jesuisici33, @eddiebabygirldiaz, and @try-set-me-on-fire mwah

tagging @spagheddiediaz, @jeeyuns, @monsterrae1, and @wikiangela if any of you wanna share sumthin

#it's the 4 times the team tries to get buddie to kiss under the mistletoe and the 1 time they do #+ a little kiss just for themselves #and it's so silly goofy and EDDIE'S such a little bitch in it but i'm learning i can't write eddie as anything else #he IS my catty little brat and i love him #and buck in this is so precious #the entire team is truly #anyway don't get excited this won't be out for another 30 days lmao #tag games

[pixelatedraindrops]

Yuma Month: Day 31: Post Game

…for the sake of the world’s happiness.

#Yuma Month 2024 #rain code #master detective archives: rain code #rain code spoilers #yuma kokohead #pixeldoodles #my art #the last day…at last #you can tell I’m drained because this art is not high effort XD #but its still something and I didn’t have too many ideas #I sincerely hope to see Yuma again in the sequel if one is made #he is too complex of a character to just abandon y'know? #and I’ve grown TOO ATTACHED to him #never in my life have I been so connected and obsessed with a male fictional character before #he’s truly something else… I love him so much <3 #anyway this was fun but I am pretty exhausted #I may take a short break art wise for a while ;w; #I'm still sad I missed 2 days but 29 out of 31 isn't bad for my first daily art challenge #I loved yuma too much to not try it. #anyway yay! we all did it! ...kind of lol. #I really do wish I had a better idea for this but I was too tired... #so have the post game scene horribly drawn in my style #first time drawing the pattern on yuma’s cape PROPERLY #tbh him leaving is a good way to show a finale anyway #I hope we see Yuma again... I truly do. #thank you yuma kokohead for existing 💜 #and ty to my bestie Kazin for hosting this fun challenge #what a fun way to spend the month of May :3

[shanksxbuggy]

when your daughter is so beloved and famous you’re simply known as Uta’s father

#what does this man do? isn’t he just Uta’s father? #Shanks would love it though #Shanks’ favorite things to be called are Uta’s father and Buggy’s husband #one piece bounty rush #opbr #uta #shanks #red haired shanks #akagami no shanks #film red #one piece film red #i got the new uta in my first multi too truly we have something special together #op uta #one piece game