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the-headbop-wraith · 3 years

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3 _ 47 A Goodbye Letter

Kingsman Mechanics didn’t usually pick out supplies with smaller distributors, but occasionally Arthur would roll around to collect some of the less essential equipment which had a habit of wearing out. Sometimes it was worth it to spurge a buck if the use was versatile enough, while other equipment had components that wore out regularly and it required periodic maintenance. Other assets he did like to snag spur of the moment, typically for his personal work such as on his arm, or when he needed inspiration for new gear that was hitting the market.

It was always such an outlet to head out of town and browse the techno shop, supplied with quality parts and computer components for modest prices. One division of the shop displayed aisles of industrial shelving, with test gadgets up top for casual shoppers. Other portions of the store dedicated inventory to domestic living, or industrial distribution. It was likewise one of the nearest shops that carried valued craft supplies for largescale modeling, such as welding and do-it-yourself engineering. For Arthur’s needs, he was aiming for some new soldering parts to boost the efficiency in a refurbished arm.

There were advantages to a custom made mechanical arm. Dealing with corroded bolts and nuts or working with a stubborn, over twisted bolt was not the issue it used to be. However, it wasn’t a real arm, some of the angles he used to twist into for reaching sections of a car was now troublesome, and his false arm had limits different to a limb of flesh and blood. The circuits and servos didn’t mend on their own over time, if something inside the arm ceased altogether the whole arm crapped out. He couldn’t call for ten and give the arm a chance to heal, anything that needed fixing Arthur did so in his spare time. To avoid those complications, rotors and gears required maintenance; the harder the work, the more frequent the checkups. Circuits burnt out due to overuse – sometimes it overheated – wiring frayed of came loose from the excessive movement and prolonged abuse.

And dear gods, did he abuse his arm.

He moved down the large lane, checking his phone and comparing the listing to the names and brands of spooled wires in bins. A metal with a higher heat tolerance was more expensive, but it would endure more hours. However, he needed to construct a better housing for the circuit line to prevent the insulation getting snagged. One of the first arms he built, he totally forgot to factor in gravity and momentum; the wires were not secured like they should’ve been and the model was short lived. He didn’t even make it through the first (return to) paranormal case, they didn’t even arrive to the destination before the thing died.

With a shudder, he tossed the elected spool into his basket. Within, some large crates of craft metal for repairing cosmetic areas of the shop. Some lowkey cheapy materials he bought offhand, rather order wholesale. Some test gear to burn through before reaching out to large distributors for orders.

Next, he ventured to the aisle for hosing and insulation components. A new building line for storing energy for the battery would extend the functionality of his arm. The only thing he could do while resting was recharge the internal battery, big whoop.

On his way to the aisle, Arthur dithered and gave his space a brief examination. The creeping sensation that someone was watching, or someone followed him. It was no mistake, he knew that sensation better than a burn. No way this was paranoia. Never would he attribute his instincts to paranoia.

For now, he played it cool. It was more to the hope that being out in public would deter something malicious, but he wouldn’t let on about his suspicions. Once he reached the parking zone, he’d have to be on his—

In his ruminations, Arthur almost didn’t react in time to avoid the basket that eased out into his path. However, his reflexes remained uncontested, and he managed to swerve despite his gimp arm.

“Holy crepes! I’m so sorry, excuse—” He shut up, and mayhap his face drained of what little color it had. In his path stood….

MAMMA PEPPER!

The stern face, the tight shoulders, the imposing aura. Arthur purposefully avoided the Pepper Paradiso, the whole Pepper Bushel – save one vengeful spook – nononononononononononononononononononoNO! Why is she here? He avoided all the grocery stores in all their small town, save for the few times he had to go out and pick up foodstuffs because his Uncle was too sick or swamped with work, whatever – he couldn’t let Uncle Lance go out, even if he insisted he was fine – she couldn’t be here, not in the sacred mechanics haven. The last frontier of casual shopping, and freedom from the accusing eye. This was inconceivable!

Arthur opened his mouth, but words abandoned him. His throat generated an eerie whine. “Ack.”

“Arthur,” Mamma Pepper spoke, voice icy, but somehow heated and thick. “I haven’t seen you in some time. You and Vivi, don’t come by anymore. Do you?”

Any shape or form of human vocalization was beyond Arthur. He clenched his jaw, choked back a swallow, and tried for a syllable. “Uh.”

“Are you all right? Should I leave you?” She pulled the basket backwards, though there was plenty of room for Arthur to move onward.

“No,” squeaked Arthur. “Uh… it’s all right. I mean, I’m fine. It’s okay.” He took a breath. Without a word, Mamma Pepper stood, rigid and impassive. “Yeah. It’s fine. Um, Vivi… she uh, she—” He stalled when Mamma Pepper raised a hand.

“I see. I didn’t mean to intrude.” She tightened her grip on the basket. “I try not to push, but I also don’t want you both believing you are not welcome. You are always… welcomed at the Pepper Paradiso. Does it help when I remind you?” She peaked one critical eye at Arthur.

He nodded. “It… yes. I appreciate the offer.” He glanced aside, then, checked the supplies in the basket. Industrial Gas Connectors, among other parts and pieces from gauges to replacement dials. “How’s the restaurant doing?” Mamma Pepper seemed to frown. Seemed to. And sighed.

“Business as usual.”

“I didn’t mean the business,” Arthur interjected. “I was talking about your equipment. I meant to call and ask, if you… needed some maintenance work? I could come by sometime. I can bring, eh… Vivi. She’d like to come by too, I think. I’d have to ask. She’s been, um…” reflexively, he reached over to grip at his metal wrist, “been doing, erm… well. Yeah. I wanted to ask….” He stalled.

Mamma Pepper’s stare became harder, more critical. But there was an underlying softness he could scarcely discern.

For the past month Lewis spent the bulk of his time at Vivi’s apartment, while she was out at work or checking in with Arthur during days off. Though she recognized Lewis wouldn’t remain the whole time locked away or secluded from the world, he left notes when he was jamming off and for how long he intended to be. Where he went remained a mystery, which she was not super eager to inquire about but she did remain curious. She was more apt in reading his nonverbal cues and perhaps a little underestimated in her abilities, given her experience with paranormal creatures.

Today was one of the first times she hauled Lewis out, though he was foremost invited to change up his ‘routine’, whatever that consisted of. For a bit, he pretended to give the offer some thought – while he hovered midair looking pretty relaxed. It wasn’t a huge surprise that he went along, not that he had a schedule or anything to keep on task with. Aside from shopping runs, a task reserved for the evening, with funds set out for his personal use, and having no real needs of his own. He spent the money on making sure Vivi was well stocked, so poor-poor Mystery wouldn’t have to watch his partner drink those awful canned teas.

This day was not one to be in any particular place, with an established time to return on. It was a rare day to get out there and go nowhere, spend time in each other’s company.

And Vivi felt like she was getting to know a Lewis better. She wasn’t certain which Lewis she was becoming more aware of, since there was a difference between Lewis Pepper when he was living, and the Lewis postmortem – if she was to put it indelicately. There were not enough notebooks and folders in the Box which gave her insight into Lewis Pepper, not enough pictures to rekindle memories stolen from the pools of reflection. It didn’t matter so much that she remembered who he was, but that she knew who he is. It bothered her that she lost what once was, and might never be able to take it back.

A braided crown of stems and flowers alit on Vivi’s head. She took it down and gave the hoop shape a brief scrutiny.

“Not my best flower crown,” Lewis admitted. “But not a lot of flowers ‘round here.” He held a short stem between his teeth, and gave a comical southern draw.

“Is it imbued with special, mystical properties?” She turned the crown over and over. Lewis’ voice hitched, as he cackled.

“No, Vii. Not everything needs special secret magic to make it special.” He grinned. “It’s an old fashioned, unremarkable, flower crown.”

Vivi set the crown back upon her head. “Plants always have a charm about them, through the winter they endure. I don’t know what it is. The dormancy, the anticipation of reawakening post a harsh and relentless season, something previously viewed as unsightly, reviving, blooming. Hmm… I hope we can have a snowfall before the cold ends.”

Lewis shrugged. He leaned back against the tree they sat beneath, shaded from the sun by the thin branches brimming with miniscule buds. “One more snow fall wouldn’t be too bad, though I always love the colors of spring. I’m eager for the return of some color.”

Across the open field of the park, Mystery darted by like a bullet. As if a vengeful spirit was snapping at his tail. Like he was racing his own shadow.

Vivi reclined back and rested her head on his thigh. “Hey.”

“Hmm?”

“When you leave your notes? Do you actually go out somewhere, or… do you sometimes rest too?” she pondered. “I get this feeling you’re not gone completely. Like you’re still there, but unresponsive. Resting?”

Lewis reached a hand up and scratched at his cheek. “Uh, perceptive much? Sometimes I am a little weary and can’t fully manifest, like the way you… know. Since I can’t just be, I don’t want you to worry. Other times, I’ll find my way to the van. It… is a place where I feel at peace. Dunno why that is.”

Vivi pulled her hands up and folded them over her middle. “Hanging around with the living still overwhelming?”

“It’s a lot of energy to deal with. I can’t really escape it.” Vivi smirked.

“And how’s the van coming along?”

Lewis wheezed, “Slowly.”

Vivi tilted her head back further and gazed into the rich azure sky. “What about you? Not that it matters right now, but you’re not casting a shadow. That only happens when somethings on your mind, or you’ve pushed yourself a little too much.”

Lewis reached over and tucked back a loose hair under the woven crown. “That’s nothing to worry about, I’ve been more active than usual. I guess it’s not so noticeable when we’re doing the travel gig, and you’re focused not on me.” He offered a sly waggle of his brow above the sunglasses, and Vivi responded by squinting back suspiciously. “Mi queria, don’t worry so much. If I thought something was off, you’d be the first person I’d go to.”

Vivi scoffed. “You better, buster.”

Mystery sprinted over and gave pause, long enough to tumble down beside Vivi and roll in the scraggily grass. “Mystery!” The wily hound snatched the crown from her head and took off, his yapping suspiciously rebounding like cackling laughter. “You give that back!” Vivi flew up, scrambling to get on her feet. Lewis was up immediately, skiing forward.

“Oh! I absolutely will catch you! Don’t you doubt it!”

The ears and hair on Mystery shot up, and he was off faster than a beam of light. Lewis dove after the dog, zigzagging in wild patterns and grabbing at thin air upon every duck and slide Mystery pulled. The grass beneath Lewis’ heels scorched upon every twist; try as he might though, the pup was unattainable.

Before Vivi could fully devote herself to the chase, the muffled hum of her phone went off. She almost went ahead and left the phone beneath the tree, tucked away safely in the backpack, but decided better and picked it up. “Arthur?”

“Hey,” replied through the phone.

“Didn’t expect a call from you. Is everything okay?” She spun around and watched as Mystery made a wide turn, with Lewis hot on his tail. Literally. When Lewis spied Vivi on the phone, he abruptly broke out of his glide and jogged over. “Hmm?”

“What was that? Is Lew there?”

“Yeaahhh… Lew’s here.” She grinned up at the aforementioned specter. Lewis’ appearance flashed and shimmered, he set his hands on his vest and tugged. “Arthur says hi.”

“Tell him… hey, back for me?”

“Lew says Hay.” Arthur laughed. That was a good sound.

“I was callin’ to see if you were busy tonight, I have something I wanna ask.”

Vivi stepped back into the shade and leaned on the tree. “You can’t ask right now, over the phone?” Mystery padded around the side of the tree, lil crown looped over one ear.

“It’s ahh… a lil complicated, to talk about. Actually, you and Lew both.” Arthur didn’t sound super fortified himself, but his words came through. “Would Lew be willing to come by? If not, that’s okay too. It’s up to him. But he can come by too, I could talk to him.”

Vivi looked over to Lewis and hit the mute button on her phone. “He wants to see you.”

“I got that.” Lewis’ appearance dimmed, the burning eye behind the sunglasses glistened in the shifting fractures of his projected appearance. For a moment, Vivi thought he would vanish or lose his grip.

“You can say no,” she affirmed. “You don’t have to give a reason. He’ll understand.”

Lewis snatched her hand before she could work at the phone screen. “No, espera. I’d like to see Artie.”

“You sure?” You and he… you think you’re up for it?”

“Yeah.” Lewis took the little stalk of grass from his mouth and tossed it. “If he’s cool, I’d be down for a visit.”

Vivi unmuted her phone. “Hey Art, you still there?” Arthur replied with a hum. Some background noise came through his side, it sounded like traffic or machinery. “What would be a good time for us to swing by?”

“Around seven, a little after,” he offered. “I’m running some errands, so no rush. You don’t sleep, do you?”

“Mmm,” Vivi mocked contemplated. “It’s not in my schedule.” A sound akin to static emitted, and she took it as Lewis best attempt at clearing his throat. “Sounds good.” She wondered briefly, but dismissed the thoughts. “We’ll see you then.” She clicked off the phone and made certain it was closed out.

To Lewis, “He sounded tense and anxious. I didn’t want to ask.”

Lewis went over and took the crown off Mystery’s head, and set it back on Vivi’s blue hair. “If there’s a problem, I can duck out. Not that I mind a meet, some nonbusiness would be a nice change.”

Vivi peered at him quizzically. “I don’t think there should be. He’s put a lot of work at the shop, and that helps. But we’ll see.” She began walking, with Mystery picking up the pace by her side and Lewis at her shoulder. “Anywhere else you wanna roll by and check out?” She fitted her hand into Lewis’ and gripped his fingers.

In a flash of embers, Lewis lost his very convincing living appearance and stood frozen mid stride. At least the park for the time sat empty.

Vivi stiffened. “Fuck!”

Another crate of supplies went into the back of the work truck on loan. The parts and materials sat on high value, even the copper was an easy swipe if some lowlife happened by and recognized the glossy hull. With all the valuables packed into the front seats, Arthur shut and locked up.

Paths of sidewalk wound around the patches of desert xeriscape and clumps of cactus, cutting the sidewalk and parking zone into jagged portions. An expansive patio rolled out from the building entrance, fitted with a wide awning and short fence to divide the patio from the walkway. A few tables sat, awaiting company on the chilly day.

Arthur moved through the opening of the fence, his gaze taking in faces, his apprehension spiked higher. He didn’t see any familiar faces, but that didn’t reassure him. It was chilly, and his metal arm shifted in the sling; the only arm covered at this time. It would be best to leave, this wasn’t a good idea. He’d call, apologize. She’d understand. He hoped she’d understand. He took a step back. On the thoroughfare traffic picked up, though none of the vehicles cruising by slowed or pulled into the parking lane. Not yet. But soon….

The entrance to the café swept open and a familiar face glided out. Arthur grimaced, but hadn’t given his legs the memo to relocate. That would’ve been hella rude.

“I’m glad you could make it.”

Arthur put a hand to the low top of the fence at his side, but reframed from leaning. He was certain if he did anything but stand, he’d collapse.

“Yeah. I had a,” he stammered, struggling to collect his words, “a last pickup. Have you been waiting long?”

Mamma Pepper stood stock still, statuesque. “Not long at all. It’s chilly outside, I have a table waiting.” It sounded almost like she was inviting him into her own restaurant, though Arthur wasn’t sure why this out of the way café.

He checked the area over before stepping forward. One foot, then the other, steady. “This place. It’s new.”

“I assisted the owner’s in getting set up,” Mamma Pepper supplied. She held the door for Arthur, until he ventured in of his own pace. “Sometimes my family offers taste testing, and vice versa.”

Arthur concealed the little twinge that ran through his spine. “Awesome.” The interior was not splendid or over done, but simplistic with a homey charm. At the furthest side of the room, logs crackled and churned within a brick fireplace. From the ceiling, rustic lanterns hung. The dim light competed with the sparse interior tables, and the little candles flickering. One table at the furthest wall harbored a mug of steaming liquid.

“Take your time, if you choose to order,” Mamma Pepper spoke. “There’s no rush.” She left him and weaved around the tables, until she reached her target. She pulled a chair out, and then took her seat at the table across from the vacant chair. A blatant invitation, if he ever saw one.

Despite a line, Arthur went ahead and made an order. After the barista took his name, he ventured over to the location Mamma Pepper claimed. She was sipping at the beverage. “I never gave that sorta theme much thought,” he admitted. “They offer some interesting… mixes.” Concoctions sounded rude.

Mamma Pepper nodded and hummed. “Coffee and tea blends, with traditional staples. I wanted to tell you about it sooner, but I didn’t want to intrude.”

“Ah.”

“How have you been?” She squinted one eye at Arthur. “I expect well.”

“Y-yeah. We… uh, Vii and I, we’re still at it.” He rubbed the back of his head with the heel of his palm. “Doing investigations. Y’know that.”

“Nothing stops that girl.” A hint of a smile graced Mamma Pepper’s face. “I’m glad to hear.”

The barista brought by Arthur’s beverage, exchanged conversation on how the two were doing, and left. It was a joy to focus on something else, if even briefly.

“What did you get?”

Arthur gave the warm liquid a try. “One of the trademark Hy-blends.” He wasn’t a stranger to abominable tea and coffee concoctions, or anything to spark his brain and keep his eyes open on the longest of long roads between towns. But this was really good, the appropriate balance of strength to mellow, with perhaps too much cream making it thick like ice-cream. But good nonetheless. It wouldn’t keep his heart beating, but it was flavorful.

His mind worked to bring forth the questions, to inquire about how a family went on in the absence of a loved one. How did one approach the topic, and when was it an appropriate time? There was no reason to approach that at all, no reason to drag it forward if he could avoid it. He sipped his beverage, trying his darndest not to quake.

“You have a way with the machinery,” Mamma Pepper went on, through the absence of substance. “The equipment gets fixed – mind you – everything works without hitch, but it’s not the same. I can’t put my finger on what’s different. Your help was appreciated.”

Arthur slunk down in his seat a bit. “Yeah. Mn, sorry ‘bout that. Not, uh….”

“Arthur,” she stated, firmly. “I’m not disappointed. I’m trying to explain that we missed you. We missed Arthur, not Arthur the mechanic. Just… Arthur.” She sipped at her drink.

“Oh, right.” He looked around at the dimly lit space, the steady stream of customers. “Have you helped other restaurants get opened up? It’s pretty sweet, nothing like the Pepper Paradiso. Er, it’s more… rustic, I guess?”

Their exchange seemed to fall into place after that, with Mamma Pepper going lightly over a few changes at the Pepper Paradiso. The two caught up on how they were getting along, while skittering aside from the topic involving Vivi. Arthur wasn’t certain how to approach that grape vine, but Mamma Pepper’s questions were careful. It almost felt normal, like he wasn’t cowering under some terrible weight and suffocating. He could breath a little easier, his replies coming with minimal hitch – when he didn’t think about the now. She did admit her family kept up to date with Uncle Lance, which surprised him. Lance never let on he stayed in touch with the Peppers, though given his Uncle’s pokey (though prying) it was a little obvious.

As the minutes ticked by, Arthur did become comfortable with a topic delving into how Vivi was keeping. He didn’t want to elaborate a whole lot, but he wanted to assure Mamma Pepper that in the least, the blue-headed investigator sleuth had asked about the family. He wasn’t sure where to go from there, but Mamma Pepper filled in the blanks. She offered cheerful accounts of how the girls were growing so fast, what grade they were in now, and the mischief. It was all good conversation, pleasant and cathartic about the little things. Mostly mundane, and some entertaining and exciting. And when Arthur talked about the hamster he adopted, and built prosthetic wheels for, Mamma Pepper even smiled.

It was a little after six and the sun was in full set, when Vivi biked her way up the sidewalk beside Kingsman Mechanics. With her trotted the Mystery, prancing like a gazelle and very undog-like, but who was paying attention? Staff hadn’t cleared out completely, though the garages had long been shuttered and locked; barring the entitled customer from trying to get a simple (two hour) fix done on their car at the last minute. Vivi coasted up the empty carport and set her bike beside one of the sign poles for reserved parking, and latched the chain. Then, went over to the entry door and knocked. While she waited, Mystery turned his nose down and gave the area a brief scout.

“I know you can open the door, but I’m not keen on sneaking in.” As per usual, she wore one of the work backpacks, and in the side pocket sat a snug flashlight.

To Mystery, “You can run off for a bit, if you need. I think we’ll be fine.” This time, she gave the doorbell a buzz.

Mystery raised his head and gave Vivi one of his, “give me a break,” looks. He trotted back over.

In due time a wobbly, hazy form swelled beyond the dim barrier of the door. The door unlatched and opened; Uncle Lance stood there, somewhat surprised. “Aye, hey Vivi. Mystery.” He nodded to the dog as he padded by, welcoming himself in without prompt. “Arthur expectin’ yu?”

“Yeah,” she gasped. Upon entry, Uncle Lance secured the door behind them and pocketed the keys. “We’re a bit early… I had a few stops to make. Is he not in?” She fell in step behind Lance as he led the way, through the dark passage. Most the lights through the main workshop remained off, only the soft lamps offering radiance, enough to keep people from stumbling into each other or getting lost.

“Naw, been out all day.” Lance rolled his shoulders and stretched up one arm, gripping at the socket. “I should replace both arms,” he muttered. When he lowered that arm, he checked his watch. He didn’t wear a watch. “Not too worried. Ceptin’, I don’t have a ride out of ‘ere.”

Vivi couldn’t help but set a hand over her face and stifle the snicker. It was usually her or Arthur winding up stranded due to shared vehicles, if her bike was not available (though Arthur would first eat a healthbar than ride her bike). Now, it was Uncle Lance’s turn.

“I’m so sorry about that.”

Mystery yapped. It was a distant reply, given that he was now patrolling the work garage.

“Can’t be helped. I’m just glad whatever nonsense yu get involved with, you came out safe.”

Vivi grimaced and bit her lip. “Yes, very glad. It could’ve been bad.” Unbeknownst to Vivi, the flashlight flickered sporadically, until it sputtered and went out entirely. Crackling webs of fuchsia detached and dispersed off through the murky air.

Lance swung away from heading toward the office and gestured. “Something up with that flashlight?”

“Huh?” Vivi twisted herself in order to view the aforementioned electric torch. “Uhh?”

“I seein’ you haul that there thing around.” He tugged on his beard, in thought. “Well, not lately…. You’re not planning on doin’ no spook snoopin with Arthur? Ya’ll are on break from that job-work, eh? A vacation, ain’t it called?” He fixed Vivi with a ferocious, accusing glare – the shadow around his eyes intensifying to the tenth power. “Ain’t it, girl?”

Vivi sweated. How was it possible for someone so opposite of tall, to be so imposing. “N-no, Uncle. We… I swear….”

“I pay Arthur to do one of two things.” Uncle Lance counted them off on his fingers. “Work. An’ Rest. Ya got that!”

Vivi grabbed at her scarf. Oh sweet mother of gods, Lance looked set to unite with his rifle. “No! Absolutely NOT! Er, I… it needs to be looked over. I forgot to hand it over to Arthur, it was my fault! I was careless!” Lance’s features became more relaxed, and she risked a breathy exhale. Crisis averted.

“Ah. Groovy.” He pivoted and began walking, saying over his shoulder, “Call me when he gets in. And if you need somethin’, there’s chicken wings in the fridge.”

Vivi waved after him. “Kay! Thank you!” And then raced off, shooting into the corridor and charging up the stairs. Down the hall, the door to Arthur’s work room awaited ajar, and she barreled in.

A flash of embers all but blinded her. The rose-tinted blaze faded out leaving a hard, burnt fragrance throughout the room. “Lewis! Again?” She wobbled aside when Mystery shoved his way in through the doorway. “How does this keep happening?!”

“I thought you were Uncle Lance!” came the disembodied retort, somewhat crackly.

Vivi shut the door and checked the corkboard with the pinned schematics. “Why didn’t you wait then?” None of them were burnt, which was good.

“I got bored.” In a fuchsia surge of flames, Lewis shape reappeared. A skull and death suit, and then a fizzing surge of embers swirled about the skull and fitted the spirit with cheeks and a jaw, a living memory. “And… I kind of wanted to check the place out.”

Vivi studied Lewis for a moment, but said nothing. That was fast, though he hadn’t shed the death suit yet. “Okay. I’ll send Art a text, let him know we’re here. Make sure we don’t surprise him.” She set the backpack on the couch and rummaged through it. Mystery hopped up onto the cushions and curled up, his eyes tracking Vivi’s work. Up until she pulled up the laptop and her phone. “Aw. No power.”

She and Mystery turned their eyes to Lewis.

The spirit glanced aside and tugged at his tie. “You did ask earlier, didn’t you?”

Vivi pointed to her little phone. “There is a battery in here. It has only so much power.” Mystery growled and yipped.

“Be thankful your apartment covers utility costs.”

Vivi grumbled under her breath as she rooted around her backpack for the charger. “I forgot it. I know better.” Mystery bounced off the couch, within seconds he was back with Arthur’s charger clamped in his teeth. “Thank you. I probably have to hook up my laptop too.” She tsked, this was cumbersome and she knew better.

“I’m sorry!” Lewis swiped off the embers crackling at his vest and shirt sleeves, the same way someone would straighten out wrinkles.

“No you’re not,” Vivi snapped. “You shouldn’t be. It’s not your fault.” Thankfully, she never took the laptops charger out of the backpack; let alone disconnected it. She hooked it up to a surge bar and plopped down on the couch once more. Lewis sat down beside her.

“Watcha lookin’ up?”

“Emails. There better not be emails in my damn emails.” She went through the mail icon and sighed. “Of course, it’s from Duet.”

“Joy o joys.”

“A list of assets for review.” She closed out the email. “I’ll look at those later.” She pulled up a new tab, and began researching how to stop spirits from syphoning battery life on the Paranormal Corner site.

“Maybe… I should go for a bit.” Lewis glided out of his seat, up until Vivi caught the tail end of his vest and hauled him back down. “Or not….”

“Atta boy.”

#mystery skulls #mystery skulls fanfiction #mystery skulls fanfic #msa fanfiction #msa fanfic #mystery skulls lewis #mystery skulls mamma pepper #mystery skulls vivi #mystery skulls lance #mystery skulls mystery #mystery skulls arthur #mystery skulls ghost

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ajita-tannu · 3 years

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BIRTH NAME: Ajita Tannu NICKNAME: Aji AGE+DOB: 24 years old, 18th of February 1997 GENDER: Demi-girl PRONOUNS: she/her or they/them NATIONALITY: Indian/American ETHNICITY: Marathi Indian EDUCATION: High School diploma, Bachelor in Philosophy from the University of Ghent, one unfinished Bachelor in Philosophy at the University of Barcelona. PLACE OF BIRTH: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India CURRENT LOCATION: Pleasance, Ohio OCCUPATION: Working at their parent’s business at Southwood Inn RELIGION: Hinduism ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Good FAMILY: Unknown FACECLAIM: Prajakta Koli

+ Active, Friendly, Challenging, Dedicated, Disciplined, Passionate, Resourceful +/- Perfectionist, Ambitious, Outspoken - Argumentative, Blunt, Domineering, Meddlesome, Opinionated

@phqextras

HISTORY

Ritesh and Harsha had one dream for their only child: to be born under the best possible consequences. Which was after they had settled down in the United States, gotten their motel running, and ensured there was no possible way they could be sent back.

None of that worked out. Ajita Hannu was born in Mumbai, India, after all.

She grew up with her family, all of them on a small estate in the middle of the city, being exposed to the noises and the smells of her parent’s city. She was taught English by her mother’s sister, she learned some Hindi, but mostly she was kept at home while her parents tried to figure out their plan. Because the plan was still the plan. When her parents had finally gotten the visa’s and everything needed for their planned immigration, Ajita was seven. She had the same attitude as her peers: to be the best at everything.

Still, Pleasance Ohio was a huge adjustment. Everything was so quiet. Ajita spent a lot of her time either at home or at school, because she didn’t like how quiet it was. Something about it felt eerie. But slowly she became more and more acquainted with the other kids in the town, even if she had little time for it. Her parents owned the small inn at the border of the tow: the Southwood Inn. And between herself, her mom, her dad, and a friend of theirs who helps with the cleaning all the work is divided up. After school she helped out. Just a little bit at first, but by the time she was twelve, she did everything. And she did it as practically as possible. Ajita wasted not a single moment.

She would study while manning the front desk, listen to Spanish podcasts while she cleaned the rooms, and prepare her school paper while she checked the inventory. Ajita always had her hands in multiple projects at once. She was the main voice for less plastic at school, protected anyone at school who felt different, started a LGBTQ+ group because she had realised already at eleven that she was very much into women. Most people thought she was too much, always voicing her opinion or trying to get votes or signatures or followers or whatever she needed. She had very few friends, but she didn’t care. Her parents were her best friends, and Ajita had great plans. Like her parents, she had great plans.

Studying came effortless to Ajita, she got high marks, sucked in information at any opportunity and by age sixteen was fluent in English, Hindi, and Spanish, with the intention of learning Catalan, German, and Italian. To her every subject was equally important, but there was one thing she was most interested in: what people wanted. How people saw themselves. People. She wanted to know how humanity worked. So she applied at the University of Barcelona. Her parents weren’t happy, and she was met with some resistance. They didn’t want to let her go, afraid that she would be the odd one out, misunderstood, and that she didn’t want to come back. But they didn’t realise how much Ajita loved Pleasance. She would always come back.

After a whole lot of begging, Ajita was allowed to leave.

She moved to Barcelona at eighteen, her grades were top of the bunch, the scholarship was in her pocket, and she had grand dreams for her future. She was already on her way to study Catalan, and managed to pick her way through the application in Spanish without any difficulty.

She studied for one and a half year in Barcelona, traveling all over the country on the weekend, before she quit the program. The language was part of the problem, Catalan was different from Spanish, and because of her internal confusion trying to differentiate between two languages, she didn’t get the marks she wanted, or the marks that would keep her there.

Since she still had half a year till the next semester, Ajita traveled around most of Western and some of Eastern Europe, backpacking and crowd surfing. She had made enough friends over the years that she could knock on the doors in random cities and towns, and would always find a place to stay if she wasn’t staying in hostels. The experience was fantastic, and it was even better when she realised not much later that she had been accepted at the University of Ghent for another course in Philosophy.

Now nineteen, Ajita moved to Belgium for a second try at Philosophy, taking Dutch classes on the side and once again spending her weekends traveling all over, this time visiting places in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany.

Her bachelor was three years, and a one year Master - another reason why she came to love the Belgian system. That and she didn’t have to pay all that much when it came to tuition. But Ajita found more than just happiness in the place. She also learned a lot about herself. Belgium was a whole lot more accepting of her status as being a lesbian, but it wasn’t just that, she joined the LGBTQ+ clubs around the city of Ghent, and found herself.

Growing up they had always felt different, not really fitting the gender roles people had assigned to them. They didn’t like wearing dresses, they joined soccer teams, and all their friends growing up had been boys. They had felt slightly awkward in their own body, and jealous of male characters in the media. Growing up they wanted to be Batman or Ash Ketchum for Halloween, not a princes like their girly classmates. They loved getting dirty and felt awkward when someone suggested they wear make-up. They were a tomboy, according to the neighbors, their long hair always in a knot on the back of their head, checking out their face in the mirror, imaging themselves different.

Although Ajita could never really say different in what way.

Demi-girl was the term she adopted in Belgium, and she planned to bring home with her.

Their last summer vacation they traveled to India, where they stayed till Holi.

She returned home with a Bachelor in her pocket, and over twenty thousand followers on her youtube traveling account. Both of which were worth little back in Pleasance, but she would find a way.

The plan was to take over the family business, and then she was going to run for mayor, but before she would do everything she could to make Pleasance better. Her beloved hometown. Despite all the cities they had seen and placed they had visited, nothing could top Pleasance.

HEADCANONS

They have a husky called Charlemagne. They found him a year ago in Bulgaria, and after a whole lot of effort, managed to send him to their parents in Pleasance. For the past year they’ve taken care of him, but he instantly recognised Ajita when she returned home.

Ajita does not believe in Ghosts. She does believe that local legends can help Pleasance grow as a tourist spot.

Ajita is rather known around Pleasance, or was, before she left to study abroad. She was a very annoying kid, who was always putting a foot in someone’s business, writing her school paper, getting signatures. Ajita had so many causes that she got swamped half of the time. She would talk to anyone who she met on the street, any tourist, any traveler. The tourists love her, the locals not so much at times.

She helped put some places out of business when she was younger, outing businesses that were doing horrible things to their employees. But she has also managed to keep a lot of big corporations out, collecting so many signatures that she got a project stopped before it even began.

She doesn’t like George Alby at all.

Local businesses to Ajita are the most important thing in a small town, and big companies put them out of business is one of their major concerns. They understand the philosophy behind it, and get why small business have problems surviving while big corporations can go ahead without much trouble, but she believes there is a possibility.

They love backpacking, and hiking, which is what they always end up doing during the weekend, bringing Charlemagne along.

WANTED CONNECTIONS

- childhood friends: Ajita was seven when they came to Pleasance. They’re bound to have known most people around the school, being as active as they were, though few people could probably stand them.

- enemies: you don’t get as politically active as Ajita and not make any enemies, they are sure to figure out where they stand now, having returned after studying.

- visitors at the Southwood Inn: Ajita works at her parent’s business, though sometimes it looks like she’s the one running it. She’s not curious, but she will try to strike up a conversation.

#phqintro #intro

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frangelic999 · 4 years

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Resident Evil Time

As we all know, Spooky Season began on August 1st, as it does every year. Skeletons began to emerge from the earth, and we all joined together to help along the slightly unripe ones with just a knuckle bone sticking up out of the lawn. Pumpkins rolled down into town from the foothills, snuggling into piles of radiant leaves as they awaited their new, temporary keepers. Here on the west coast of America, ash began to fall from the sky, as it does every season of ash, and we all went out to frolic in the ash as we gasped for air in our newly toxic Zone. It never rains in California, except when it’s raining ash. As such, around August 1st I began my quest of playing every mainline Resident Evil game, and a couple of spin-offs. What follows is the book report that I wrote on this experience.

Resident Evil is a series that’s been on my radar in one way or another as far back as 1996, when I was a kid, but I never really took a very close look at it, or wanted to, until I played RE7 in 2019. My oldest memory involving this game is wandering Blockbuster with my older brother looking for a game to rent. Another kid was there, also with their older brother, and the little kid suggested Resident Evil, but the bigger kid sagely declared “Nah, the controls are bad,” and they left it at that. I don’t know why I remember this, but I do, and my general feeling about Resident Evil was negative, I think because I had played the demo and didn’t like it, due to the fact that it’s not really designed in such a way that a kid would like it much. My first actual experience with the series, outside of that, was playing Resident Evil 3 in 1999. At the time, I loved it, but I was 12, and wouldn’t have been able to articulate anything about why I liked it other than “cool videogame, Jill pretty. Jill me.” I also played RE4 and RE5 around the time they came out, and I enjoyed them as fun action games, but still didn’t think much of the series or really care about survival horror. My other experience with the genre pretty much only extends to Alan Wake, Dino Crisis, and Dead Space, all of which I played so long ago that I remember almost nothing about them. What kind of monsters does Alan Wake fight? Couldn’t say. Could be anything, really. I remember the main character of Dino Crisis, Regina. She had red hair. Regina pretty. Regina me? Strangely enough, wanting to play the role of formidable, independent, resourceful, attractive women in games was a running theme in my formative years. What could this possibly mean? We may never know. But anyway, I was very excited to go on this journey into the survival horror franchise, and one of the most iconic franchises of all time. It had its highs and lows, but it was well worth it, and I emerged with a newfound appreciation for the design and appeal of survival horror games. The intention here isn’t to give a full, thorough analysis of these games or a breakdown of every aspect of them, but to compile my various thoughts on them, so it’s more of an opinionated overview than a deep dive.

Resident Evil (1996)

It’s actually really hard to place this game when making a tier list, due to the simple fact that none of these other games would exist without the conventions Resident Evil set. It was groundbreaking, and literally invented a genre. At the same time, it's impossible for me to not compare it to other, better games, because I have knowledge of the rest of the series. It was an experiment for Capcom, and it shows in the game's rough edges. It feels like it had good ideas that didn’t always live up to their full potential, due to some combination of inexperience, available hardware/software, and questionable implementation.

RE1 is... not very good at being scary. It does its best, but it's a fairly early PS1 game. I think a lot of this has to do with the atmosphere and graphics. Visually, it’s just kind of ugly in that early PS1 way, and the color choices are dull and lack cohesion. For a horror game taking place in a spooky dilapidated mansion, it feels a little too bright, and I’m guessing it has to do with the fact that no one really knew how to make darkness convincing on PS1 at the time. But it’s not entirely the PS1’s fault this game is ugly, as you can see from RE2 and RE3 being not ugly. The color choices and backgrounds just aren’t especially lush or interesting.

I don't really need to go into the voice acting and writing of this game, due to their status of legendary badness. The live action cutscenes are unbelievably cheesy and almost impossible to watch with a straight face. The live action ending where Jill and Chris hold hands as they fly away in a helicopter is incredibly dumb. If you correctly chose Jill as your main character, it just seems incongruous that after fighting her way out of a deathtrap of horrifying creatures, she's now laying her head on the big strong man's shoulder. It’s bad, but fortunately the game isn’t entirely bad narratively. It was surprising, in a game from 1996, to see the in-world documents scattered around that add to the narrative, telling you what's really going on and adding detail to the broader strokes of the story. This is a thing that's ubiquitous in games now, AAA or otherwise, and I'm wondering if this game helped to establish that facet of games. RE1 has a simple story of evil corporate experiments gone wrong, with the driving force behind everything the player/character does being escape from the mansion, and this simplicity really works in its favor. As we shall see in later RE games, convoluted stories don’t really lend themselves all that well to horror.

If you look at other games released in 1996, there are a lot of fast paced action games, like 3D platformers and first person shooters, as well as RPGs, and it's clear this game was something different. It has that slow, methodical play that makes survival horror feel unique. The feeling of not knowing what's waiting for you behind the next door, but knowing you have to go anyway, and that balance between surviving and solving puzzles to progress. The backtracking and item hunts, the interlocking paths and puzzles, the environmental storytelling and documents, the sense of isolation, it's all here in the first game. Some players may not find inventory management thrilling, but it’s a key part of these games, and it’s mostly done well in the good ones. Inventory management and item scarcity are a big part of what actually captures that feeling of “survival horror.” Since items are needed to progress, your inventory is directly tied to your progress, and at its best this forces you to make tough decisions about what you really need to carry and by extension makes you play more conservatively and prioritize avoidance. At its worst, it forces you to go back to previous areas for no reason and wastes your time while hurting the pace of the game, which RE1 is only guilty of at one point toward the end. The more weapons and ammo you have, the less room you have to do the work of actually progressing in the game through item-based puzzles, so you often have to sacrifice some of your lethality to progress smoothly. There’s a fine line between giving the player too many resources and too few, and almost all good survival horror games walk that line very well. It's also just thematically appropriate that your character isn't able to lug around a hundred pounds of gear. The open-ended nature of exploration, or the illusion thereof, is also an important aspect of survival horror. In good Resident Evil games, you usually have multiple doors you can choose to open, multiple potential paths, and feeling out which one is right, and which places are safe to travel, is a big part of the game. That exploratory feeling of gradually extending your reach and knowledge of the place you're in, knowing how vulnerable you are but also knowing you have to keep going deeper, gives the player a much greater sense of agency than more linear horror experiences.

All of these good design elements are firmly established by RE1, but they're just not executed as well as in future Resident Evil and survival horror titles, and by today's standards, playing it can feel like a chore. I think it certainly deserves a huge amount of credit for establishing almost everything that's good and defining about survival horror. There were earlier horror themed games, and I'm sure there are online people who'd be strangely invested in arguing that it's not the first survival horror game, but Resident Evil was clearly something new, different, and more sophisticated. It feels like a beginning, a rough draft, but it established something special. In some ways, I feel like RE1 has actually aged better than a lot of its 1996 contemporaries. Not in terms of controls, visuals or voice acting, heavens no. But, in terms of things like a focus on atmosphere, good pacing, and elegant, focused design, much of it still holds up today.

-Monster Review Corner-

These are the monsters that started it all. Zombies, undead dogs, hunters, Tyrant, and the absolute classic, a big plant that hates you. And who can forget the most forgettable monsters, giant spiders? The enemies themselves aren't especially exciting, but honestly, they work very well for the style and slow pace of this game. The deadly mansion full of the living dead is a classic horror setting. Things like Hunters and Tyrant seem pedestrian by series standards now, but they would have been a surprise in a zombie game in 1996, and Hunters are terrifying when they first appear. Overall monster score: 7/10

Time to complete: 5:46

Games were shorter overall in 1996, but the short game length is another survival horror trait the game established, and that brevity is a trait I really appreciate about this series and the genre as a whole.

Resident Evil 2 (1998)

I feel like I’m going to be using the word “better” a lot. RE2 is immediately more cinematic than its predecessor, which is a good thing. It’s an important element of establishing tension and atmosphere. All the best horror movies, in my opinion, have smart and artful cinematography behind them. I’m not going to say Resident Evil 2 has masterful cinematic direction, but it’s a vast improvement over the previous game. Gone are the super cheesy FMV cutscenes and the atrocious voice acting. The voice acting here isn't great by today's standards, but people do talk mostly like humans! This must be due to the fact that it was the first time Capcom ever outsourced voice acting to a studio outside of Japan. The writing is also much, much better. The soundtrack is much more atmospheric, and even the save room music is better. Visually, the game looks so much better. Character models are more detailed and lifelike, and backgrounds are much more detailed, colorful and cohesive. I vastly prefer the character designs to those of RE1. They’re very 90s, in a fun anime way. Even the portraits in the inventory screen look way better. Even the story and the documents you find are more well written and interesting, and Umbrella is established as a more sinister and far-reaching presence.

RE2 gives you separate campaigns for Claire and Leon that are similar, but different in some major ways. Rather than being a super long game, it has a short campaign that can be replayed multiple times with different characters for improved ranks, unlockables, and short bonus levels. I actually really like this kind of replayability, as opposed to the much more common type of replayability of modern games, which is just making the game 100 hours long and filled with boring sidequests, trinkets and skill points. This is partially because I inevitably burn out on that kind of game, even if I like it (Horizon Zero Dawn, Breath of the Wild) and never finish the game. Super Bunnyhop has a whole video (“Let’s Talk About Game Length”) about the advantages of this game’s style of replay value which is worth a watch. I’m much more likely to rank a game among my favorites if I’m actually compelled to finish it. I’m always annoyed by how persistently gamers thoughtlessly complain about these games (or any game for that matter) being too short. Gee, maybe that has something to do with why 4, 5, and 6 all feel so bloated and outstay their welcome. Funny how the three most recent games in the series that brought it back from the brink of total irrelevance are all under ten hours in length.

The level design feels less haphazard and boring than RE1, but retains the satisfying sense of interconnectedness that the original mansion had. The balance of the game is good, and it feels dangerous without ever feeling unfair, like all the best RE games. Distribution of healing items and ammo feels right - I rarely felt like I was in serious danger of running out, but I always felt the pressure to conserve ammo and remember where healing items were to pick up later. This game is also a sterling example of the kinds of boss fights that work in survival horror. Rather than being reflex tests, boss fights are more a test of how smartly and conservatively you’ve been playing. If you’ve saved enough powerful ammo by playing well, you’ll have no problem with boss monsters, and there’s also the alligator fight, which, if you were paying attention to the area you just traversed, can be ended with one bullet.

Overall, it’s a huge improvement over RE1 in every way imaginable, and a genuinely good game even by today’s standards, if you discount the cheesy voice acting and dated cutscenes. I finished RE1 in two sittings because I wanted to get it over with, but I finished RE2 nearly as fast because it was hard to stop playing. This is where the series came into its own, and RE2 feels like the beginning of the series as we know it today, while RE1 feels more like an experimental rough draft.

-Monster Review Corner-

This game, overall, has some great monsters. Fantastic monsters, and this is where you’ll find ‘em. First, we’ve got your classic zombies. Classic. We’ve got your zombie dogs, two for one deal. We’ve got some evil birds who inexplicably burst through a window one time. Okay, decent. Giant spiders, boooring. But then, here comes a new challenger! It’s lickers, one of perhaps the most iconic Resident Evil monsters. These nasty wall crawlin’ flesh puppies have got exposed brains, big ol’ claws, razor sharp tongues and a complete lack of sight. Due to this last fact, you can avoid them by being very quiet, which is extremely survival horror. Lickers are great. RE2 also has a giant alligator, which even the RE2 remake team thought was too silly to include in the remake (but to the great relief of everyone around the world, he made it anyway). Personally, I love the fact that they brought the classic urban cryptid, the mutant sewer gator, into the RE family. RE2 also has a Tyrant who chases you around in the second scenario. He’s just Nemesis before Nemesis. There are also big plant monsters who look like walking venus fly traps, totally rad. And finally, all of the G-Mutation designs pretty much set the stage for the monster design of all future RE mutants, including Nemesis. They have this alien, body horror feel to them that’s become a hallmark of the series. Overall monster score: 10/10

Time to complete: 5:06

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999)

RE3 has a darker tone than RE2, a lot of quality of life changes, and the terrifying presence of an unstoppable Nemesis. It’s a more combat oriented game, not in that combat is more complex, but in that there are more weapons, more ammo, faster zombies, and in comparison to the two previous games there are more times where it’s safer to kill enemies than avoid them. Jill can also dodge and quick turn. Dodging is fine, and quick turn, was an excellent addition that’s been in every RE since then, minus RE7. It’s a very good game, but the fact that there are fewer moments of quiet exploration and puzzling detracts from the variety of the game and makes it feel more one note. It definitely feels more like an action movie, not just in its increased amount of fighting but also in its story beats and cutscenes. I think it’s important to make a distinction between the style of this game and RE4/5/6, in that those are action games with light or nonexistent survival horror elements, while this is a survival horror game with action elements. I played the game on hard mode, because this game only has hard and easy mode. Hard is essentially normal, it's what you'd come to expect from the series, and easy mode is easy and gives you an assault rifle at the start.

The titular Nemesis is such a great way to change up the Resident Evil formula. The first time you encounter him, he kills Brad in a cutscene, and you run into the police station. You think he’ll just appear at certain times during cutscenes and maybe a boss fight, but then a little while later he bursts through a window and chases you, and he’s faster than anything encountered previously in the series. That’s when it becomes clear that you’re going to be hunted, and from that point on Nemesis is in the back of your mind at all times, injecting an undercurrent of paranoia into every moment of methodical exploration. Although, I do have complaints about Nemesis, too. If you’re familiar with the series up to this point, his appearances are undermined by that very knowledge. What I mean is that if you played the first two games, you start to get a sense of when events or attacks are going to be triggered in Resident Evil, and that makes Nemesis much more predictable. You start to think “whelp, it’s about time for another Nemesis attack,” and then he shows up. Also, the first time you’re actually supposed to stand and fight him is an awful boss fight, and the first really bad boss fight in the series. The game’s dodge mechanic is finicky and hard to time, and it’s an important part of winning the fight, at least on hard mode. He’s basically a bullet sponge, which is not interesting.

Something that I like about three is it really expands on the setting by giving you lots of details about Umbrella and their relation to Raccoon City. You learn that not only have they infiltrated the city government and police, but a lot of the city's infrastructure was funded by Umbrella donations. You also learn that they maintain their own paramilitary force and are a far reaching, international corporation. Umbrella is really fleshed out as a more robust and powerful organization here.

Another unique aspect of this game, that’s never been in another RE game, is the “choose your own adventure” system. Nemesis will be after you, and you can choose between two different options, such as running into the sewers or hiding in the kitchen. You have a limited time to make these choices, and they have positive or negative outcomes, but never outright kill you, as far as I could tell. It’s kind of neat, and an interesting way to change things up occasionally, but not especially important.

Overall, this is an excellent Resident Evil game, though a good deal less original and groundbreaking than RE2.

-Monster Review Corner-

Honestly, most of the monsters are fine, but nothing to write home about. Nemesis is the star of the show, which you can already tell by the fact that the game is named after him and he’s on the front cover. He’s like the cooler, better, more deadly version of a Tyrant. Nemesis score: 10/10

Time to complete: 5:32

An Aside About Puzzles

I’ve been trying to figure out how to articulate what I like about the puzzles in this series, and this seems as good a place to put these thoughts as any. I get that not everyone likes the puzzles in this series, and that many of them can only be called puzzles in a very loose sense, but I think they add a crucial ingredient to the games.

The thing is, if they were more complicated or difficult puzzles, they would take up too much screen time, they would overpower the rest of the game, like too much salt in a dish. There are a lot of them where you have to follow riddle-like clues to figure out what to do, but they're all pretty easy. There are a lot of item hunts that boil down to finding item A and bringing it to point B, or combining item A with item B and using the result at point C, and I remember plenty of jokes over the years playfully lampooning this facet of Resident Evil. But, while playing through these games, I found myself dissatisfied with the view that these item hunts and simple puzzles are stupid, or bad game design. Because really, what makes these games good is not shooting or puzzles or atmosphere or good monsters, but all of these elements working together in harmony. It seems like the more harmonious that balance, the better the Resident Evil game. All these little parts make up the whole. The puzzles aren't hard, sure, but they aren't meant to be. They add an element of sleuthing and a sense of accomplishment and progression that would otherwise be lacking, and which could easily slip into frustration if they were any more difficult, and detract from the overall experience. If you just went around and shot at monsters and opened doors, it would be missing something big, and it would be a much poorer series. If you need evidence of that, may I direct you to Resident Evils 4 to 6. Without that exploratory feeling, without that aha feeling of figuring it out, it would feel bland. "If I use this item to open this, then I get this thing and I combine it with this, it frees up space in my inventory, and now I can take them back to the spot I remember from earlier because I was paying attention and taking mental notes, and I can open this path..." I'd argue that this feeling of things clicking together neatly, of attentive and methodical play paying off, is integral to the series and to the entire genre it spawned. The whole game is a puzzle that you’re figuring out, and things like item juggling, map knowledge, and carefully leaving enough space in your inventory are a part of that puzzle.

The puzzles in the series are more representational than what might usually be called a puzzle. The item lugging, inventory swapping parts that I remember being maligned at one time are more akin to piecing together a jigsaw puzzle, but those pieces are scattered across a monster infested, carefully designed, difficult to traverse map. What made RE7 feel so much like a revival of Resident Evil, despite it being a first person game that looks and feels very little like its predecessors, was returning to this approach to game design. It was a polished and well made return to the principles that made survival horror popular. The fact that Capcom brought back all those often complained about puzzles and item hunts, and slashed the current idea of game length to ribbons, returning to the roots of the series, and then those games being so highly praised, feels so right in part because it feels like the developers are saying "look, a lot of you were totally wrong about what made these games good."

Resident Evil - Code: Veronica (2000)

To me the most immediately noticeable thing about this game is Claire’s embarrassingly early-2000s outfit: high rise boot cut jeans, cowgirl boots, a short-sleeved crop top jacket, all topped off with a pink choker and fingerless gloves. I don’t think I’ve ever seen character design that so perfectly encapsulates the time period of a game’s release. It’s bad, and the game only gets worse from there.

I really tried to like Code Veronica, at first. But after playing RE1-3, saying it's underwhelming is putting it lightly. I honestly don't think I have a single good thing to say about this game, and it's possibly the worst mainline Resident Evil game ever made (RE6 being the only thing that might take that crown of trash in its stead). It's pretty much not possible to take Code Veronica seriously in any way, especially not as a horror game. The visuals have no sense of darkness or atmosphere and manage to look much worse than the old pre-rendered graphics, the puzzles are uninspired rehash, the enemies and bosses are irritating, the character designs are a particular type of early-2000s bad, the voice acting is insufferable, the story is asinine, and the game is full of the bad kind of backtracking. It's not entirely the game's fault it's ugly, it's a product of its time, but it's weird to see in retrospect because it looks worse than RE3 from one year prior. Previous RE games had bad voice acting, but this is the first one where the voice acting makes you want to turn the game off.

Up until this point, the storylines of Resident Evil games were very simple. Evil corporation caused chaos with a virus, get out alive. There are details scattered throughout about how the city and government were being paid off, but that’s the gist of it. Code Veronica is where the lore of RE starts to get convoluted and sometimes very dumb. I won’t go into all the ways the story is bad, but suffice it to say this is definitely when Resident Evil jumped the shark, and it paves the way for the stupidity of RE4. It also uses the “mentally ill people are scary” horror trope, which is perhaps my least favorite horror trope. The villain for most of the game, Alfred, has *gasp* a split personality and thinks he’s also his sister. Of course, at one point Claire calls him a “crossdressing freak.” I’ll just leave it at that. Of course nobody who writes this kind of thing bothers to do any kind of research into the mental illnesses they use as story crutches. I feel like I need to mention the voice acting, for Steve and Alfred particularly. Steve sounds like he walked off of a middle school campus, and Alfred sounds like your local community theater’s production of Sweeney Todd. They’re both absolutely atrocious and make the game that much more annoying to play. Claire’s acting is about what you’d expect from a Saturday morning cartoon of the era.

As though the fact that it's a bad game visually and narratively wasn't enough, it's also badly designed, not much fun to play, and way longer than the previous three. The game’s map, at least for Claire’s portion (most of the game), is divided into multiple small areas, each with one path leading to them, so you have to go over these paths repeatedly once you’ve retrieved an item from a completely different area, and it makes for a lot of very tiresome backtracking. The series always had backtracking, of course, but never over such long, samey stretches of space. On top of this, there are tons of blatantly bad design choices. To name a few:

-The hallway you have to traverse multiple times containing moths which poison you and respawn every time you leave and are really hard to hit on top of being a waste of ammo. It’s hard to see how they were unaware that this is bad since they also leave an infinite supply of poison antidotes in the same room

-The fact that there’s no indication whatsoever that you should leave items behind for the next character you have to play, which left me struggling to even be able to kill enemies as Chris

-Multiple times where in order to trigger progress you have to look at or pick up a certain thing, not for any logical in-game reason but just because it triggers a cutscene. One of these makes you look at the same thing twice, and I wandered around not knowing what to do for a while before checking a walkthrough

-More than one save room that contains no item box, when this game asks you to constantly juggle items and repeatedly travel long distances with specific items

There’s more, but I don’t want to write or think about this bad game anymore. This game is a slag heap that deserves to be forgotten, and I hope it’s never remade. Something I find really disappointing about Code Veronica is that the setting is ripe for a good Resident Evil game, but they botch it. It takes place in two locations, a secret island prison run by Umbrella, and an antarctic research station, both of which I can imagine a great RE game taking place in. I guess, really, the best thing that can be said about Code Veronica is that it’s a survival horror game. They didn’t totally stray from the principles that made the series good, they just implemented those things very badly, in a very stupid game.

Time to complete: who knows, I quit near the final stretch of the game. The internet says it takes about 12:30, which is far too long.

REmake (2002)

I played the remake first, and it’s the only game I played out of order, because when I started I had no plans to play the entire series. It’s a remake that fixes everything wrong or dated about the original while keeping the things that made it good, and I would say it’s the definitive version of the game and the one that should be played.

Visually, a lot of it looks very good, and uses darkness much better than the original. I like this game’s high def pre-rendered backgrounds, because it’s like looking into an alternate reality where pre-rendered graphics never went away, and just increased in fidelity. I actually really like a lot of the backgrounds in this game. Pre-rendered backgrounds have their shortcomings, but I think they can play a role in horror games. They give the developers total control of how things are framed, and framing/direction are a big part of what can make things ominous or scary in horror movies. You can do this to some extent in games with free cameras, but without nearly as much control. I think over time the popular consensus became that pre-rendered backgrounds are inherently bad, but I think like any style of graphics they have their pros and cons. The late 90s Final Fantasies are great examples of how pre-rendered graphics can be used to frame characters and events in certain ways.

The strongest suit of this game is that it really feels like a horror game, and avoidance is encouraged over combat due to scarce ammo and healing. The pace is slow and thoughtful, the mansion is sprawling and claustrophobic, and even one or two zombies feels like a threat, especially before you find the shotgun. Even after that, shotgun shells are fairly scarce. Like the original, combat mechanics are intentionally very simple and limited, though this one sees the introduction of the defensive items that return in the RE2 and 3 remakes. One thing I really like is that if you kill a zombie and leave their body, without decapitating or burning it, it will eventually mutate into a fast and powerful zombie, and these are genuinely threatening to encounter. You constantly have to make decisions in this game about what’s more important, immediate safety or conserving ammo. The fuel that’s used to burn corpses is limited, and can be used strategically to eliminate threats from frequently traveled areas. It’s a great idea for a game mechanic, but in practice, I rarely did this, because inventory is so limited that it didn’t feel worthwhile to use two of my eight slots on a lighter and fuel. Another nice added horror element is the fact that doors aren’t always safe. You’ll hear monsters pounding on doors, see them shaking, and at multiple points they’ll be smashed open when you thought you were safe.

A lot of the ideas that made this game good and the original good are ideas that were returned to in RE7, the RE3 remake, and especially the RE2 remake, and a big part of what made those games so successful.

Time to complete: 10:15

In my opinion it ran a little too long. It takes almost twice as long as the original, and I feel like the added areas pad out that length rather than improving the game. Even though I think it’s a very good game, it started feeling like a slog in the last few hours.

Resident Evil Zero (2002)

After Code Veronica, it was initially refreshing to feel like I was actually playing Resident Evil again and not some subpar knockoff. This one feels a lot more like classic RE, and in its slower pace it’s most similar to REmake or the original trilogy. I played the HD remaster of RE0(which changes nothing but the graphics) since it's the one I own on steam, so I can't speak to the original GameCube graphics, but the art direction itself is vastly better, and it creates an atmosphere that's perfectly Resident Evil. Highly detailed backgrounds, with rich dark colors, old paintings, dusty bookshelves, soft clean lighting, marble and dark wood, wind-rustled ivy, shadows and rain, creep dilapidated industrial spaces. The HD remaster is gorgeous, and one of the best looking games in the series.

This game adds two major new mechanics: playing as a team of two and swapping between characters, and the ability to drop items anywhere. Character swapping is an interesting gimmick, made more of a curiosity by the fact that it will probably never be used again in a RE game. Often it's pretty neat, but just as often, it's an annoying chore. I like the idea of controlling two characters, but I don't think what they attempted to do with it was entirely successful, and could have been better with a couple of simple changes. Ultimately all the inventory management required feels like more trouble than it's worth, especially since you have to carry weapons and ammo for both characters. Between inventory management and swapping off-character actions, I found myself in the inventory screen a lot more than in previous games. It seems like they could have alleviated these problems with more inventory space and buttons for switching off-character actions. Most of the time it ends up feeling like a chore to manage two characters and two separate inventories. In theory, the ability to drop items anywhere adds an element of player choice and planning, but in practice, I just found myself missing the item box that allows you to access the same items from different places.

This game is fine for the first hour or two, but ends up getting more and more frustrating the farther you get into it. After playing about half the game, I started feeling like I'd be having a less terrible time on easy mode. I died in it a lot more times than in any previous game. The combination of really irritating new enemy types and all weapons (even the grenade launcher) feeling underpowered means there are multiple enemy encounters where you're just forced to lose health. This wouldn't be so bad if there were enough healing items around, but there aren't. Every enemy in the game, even a basic zombie, feels too bullet sponge-y. I repeatedly found myself with very little ammo and no healing items, so in a lot of situations I would just die, and reloading with the foreknowledge of what rooms would contain felt like the only way to progress. Managing the health of two characters, one who has very low health, makes it that much harder. I played through all of the previous games on normal difficulty (RE3 on hard) so I know I'm not imagining the spike in difficulty. It's possible they wanted to make this game challenging for series veterans, but if that's the case they missed the mark, because part of what makes a good RE game is excellent balance of difficulty. In a good RE, you always feel like you're facing adversity but still progressing, and you really don't die all that often if you're being careful and using the right weapons for situations. In RE0, you just die a lot to frustrating video game garbage and feel irritated that you have to reload and repeat content. To make matters even worse, aiming feels weirdly sticky in this game and movement feels clunkier than previous games for some reason.

Just like Code Veronica, this game has a premise that seems like it should excel as a Resident Evil game, but it misses the mark. With the new mechanics, it feels like they were struggling to think of ways to further refine and reinvent a series that was getting a little tired. I love the formula of the first three games, but I can understand why after six games following that same formula, with a lot of very similar in-game occurrences and puzzles, they wanted to move in a different direction with RE4. This game feels like it's floundering, attempting to reinvent the series while being chained to the same rules, and though I have mixed or negative feelings about the next three games, it feels like the series was in dire need of a total overhaul.

-Monster Review Corner-

Whoever designed the monsters in this game thought that giant animals are absolutely horrifying. Giant bat, giant scorpion, giant centipede, giant roaches. There are also guys made of leeches, and they're pretty boring and annoying to fight, and it's hard not to find the way they move comedic. There are also hunters and your typical zombies. All in all, a lackluster offering of critters. Overall monster score: 3/10

Resident Evil 4 (2005)

Let's get the obvious out of the way: this game feels almost nothing like Resident Evil, and feels less and less like it the further into it you get. The devs made sure to do a lot of things that make RE4’s identity as an action game very obvious. It’s a game of series firsts: first in the series with an over the shoulder camera, first with weapon stats, first with such an abundance of enemies and weapons, first with QTEs, first where the primary enemies aren’t shambling zombies, first with currency and a merchant, the first where Umbrella isn’t the big bad, the first where you can karate kick and suplex enemies. It’s incredibly not survival horror. It might succeed as a 2005 action game, but it fails miserably at being Resident Evil.

I’m feeling generous, so I’ll start with the things I like about RE4. I really do appreciate that it’s a slower and more methodical action game than its contemporaries, and precise, thoughtful shooting is rewarded. I also like that the over the shoulder camera gives you a pretty narrow field of view, which makes it always feel like enemies could be lurking just off screen. This makes things more tense and is often used to surprise the player, especially in the early game. The almost identical perspective used in the exceptional RE2 and RE3 remakes shows that they weren’t off the mark with this element of the game’s design. However, in RE4 even this good thing is undercut by the fact that jarring, anxious combat music plays whenever enemies are anywhere nearby. The first 2-4 hours of this game, just about up to the Mendez boss, are actually a pretty good game, and provide most of the really tense and scary moments. Unfortunately, these opening hours aren’t really indicative of all the stupid shit to come. Something I grew to hate about this game is that it feels like it just goes on and on and on. It took me around 12 hours, which is short by video game standards, but long by RE standards. By the time I reached the end, it had long outstayed its welcome. Even in these early, decent moments, there was still stuff I hated, like the button mashing quick time events to run from Indiana Jones boulders, the garishly glowing item drops, the dumb kicks, the dynamite zombies.

The crux of a survival horror experience is the feeling of vulnerability, and this feeling is only scarcely captured in the opening few hours of RE4, when it’s still sort of pretending to be Resident Evil. But then, you keep getting more and more powerful, as you do in action games, you keep getting more and more weapons and upgrades and grenades and facing more and more enemies and bosses until it all feels trivial. It’s thoroughly an action game, and by the time you’re near the end, storming a military fort guarded by heavily armed commando zombies manning gatling turrets while you’re aided by helicopter support, it’s clear the game has entirely stopped masquerading as Resident Evil. On top of being a big stupid action game, it’s also extremely a video game. The glowing items that are dropped whenever enemies die, the tiny adorable treasure chests full of doubloons, the big garish video game markers for QTEs(and the most heinous kinds of QTEs: button mashing QTEs and mid-cutscene QTEs), the action movie window jumps and kicks, the cultists driving a death drill, Leon’s backflips, the dumb one-liners that scarcely make sense at times, a giant fish boss, a mine cart level. The absurd stupidity of this game never lets up, so much so that playing it in 2020, it feels almost like an intentional parody, which I know it’s not.

The story is kind of silly from the start, and delves increasingly into the realm of asinine bullshit as it goes on, as though Capcom and Shinji Mikami sought out the dumbest ideas they could find. In RE2, Leon was a cop for one day during a zombie apocalypse, and now somehow he's working for the White House on a solo mission finding the president's daughter. It's quite the barely explained leap. One of my least favorite things in the narrative department is that Leon's voice acting and dialogue make him insufferable. The humble rookie from RE2 is gone, replaced by a heavily masculinized, aggressive, arrogant, misogynistic, backflipping action movie hero. We went from six consecutive games with women either as one of two playable main characters or the only playable character, with Jill Valentine in RE3 single-handedly destroying the most powerful BOW ever created, to a game where a gruff manly man is tasked with rescuing a literal damsel in distress, and has actual lines like “Feh, women” and “Sorry, but following a lady’s lead just isn’t my style.” It’s atrociously bad, and I hate the character they decided he should be for this game. It also doesn’t even make sense, because why would he even have that attitude towards women after seeing what Claire can do in RE2? It’s a huge step backwards for the series. On top of this awfulness, the actual plot points are just increasingly unbelievable and imbecilic, in a way that totally undercuts any way in which the game could theoretically be frightening. At the end of the game, it’s not Leon and Ashley sitting in silence as they contemplate their harrowing and traumatic experience, it’s “Mission accomplished, right Leon?! Please have sex with me!” and then they literally ride off into the sunset on a jet ski.

At first I thought they were aiming to turn a beloved survival horror series into a big dumb action movie, which is partly true, but then I realized what they had really made: an amusement park. It’s divided into themed zones, like an amusement park: there’s a spooky village, a deathtrap castle, a haunted manor, slimy sewers, an underground tomb, a Mad Max island. There are little coaster cars with purple velvet seats that carry you through the castle, there’s a mine cart ride, living suits of armor, there’s literally a giant animatronic statue of Salazar you can climb around on, there are trinkets and treasures everywhere and a merchant always magically appearing to sell you new toys to make sure you don’t ever get bored or think too hard, there’s a lava-filled carousel room with fire-breathing dragon statues, a haunted house section, a shooting gallery, a cave full of monster bugs, a hedge maze, a tower of terror where flaming barrels are rolled down the stairs(and then you get to pull the lever to roll them!), there’s a crane game, an evil villain lair with a deadly laser corridor, there is for some reason a subterranean battle maze in a cage suspended over a chasm, and your whole visit to this horror themed wonder park culminates in a jet ski ride through a collapsing cavern.

I find it baffling, but "a masterpiece", "the best Resident Evil game", and “one of the best video games ever made” are actual ways I have seen this game described. Multiple reviewers called it the best of the series, and people continue to call it that. Gone is the tense, atmospheric, resource management based survival horror gameplay, the harmonious balance of puzzles, survival and action that made this series so beloved. It’s replaced with a theme park of homogenous action gameplay and an incredibly stupid story. In my mind, it’s not Resident Evil at all, and may as well have belonged to an entirely new series that’s continued in RE5 and RE6. Another oft repeated bit of unquestioned conventional wisdom about RE4 is that it “saved the series from itself,” which is strange given that it marked the beginning of a slump that lasted over a decade. But, who knows? Maybe Resident Evil had to undergo this kind of transformation and decline to ultimately produce the four most recent Resident Evil games, all among the best of the survival horror genre. If these bad mid series games had to come first in order for the latest four exceptional games to come later, then I’ll gladly suffer their existence.

-Monster Review Corner-

Another thing I actually like about this game is a lot of the creature design work. The Mendez boss fight feels like a Resident Evil fight, and his insect-like true form looks like a classic Resident Evil BOW. Verdugo and U-3, likewise, feel like classically inhuman RE creatures, and they’d be right at home in a survival horror series entry. Regenerators and Iron Maidens are genuinely terrifying creatures – or they would be in a survival horror game. Here, they’re just another enemy to mop up. The Plagas that burst out of enemies are a shock when they first appear, and look like horrifying hybrids of The Thing and facehuggers. The chainsaw men are initially one of the best and most horror-centric additions to the game, that is, until you get powerful enough to trivialize them and they stop appearing. At least in the first two hours, they’re legitimately scary due to your narrow field of view and the fact that they one shot you. But it seems like with each thing this game may have done right, there comes something that it did very wrong. Toward the end of the game, you start fighting stuff like the zombies with huge gatling guns, and it’s very dumb. I hate these military zombies, I really do.

Overall monster score: 6/10

Overall monster score minus the merc zombies and dumb robed cultists: 9/10

Time to complete: 11:28

By around the 8 or 9 hour mark, I was practically begging for this game to end.

Resident Evil 5 (2009)

When I started this, I thought I'd like RE4 more than RE5, but it turns out 5 is a much better game. It's a big dumb action movie, but it's a much better big dumb action movie than RE4, or RE6. The action is better, the graphics and art direction are better, the controls are better, the story, characters and dialogue are all better. It's too bad they just couldn't let go of the QTEs. It's a very good Capcom action game, but again, not a great Resident Evil game. It's much more confident as an action game than RE4, and almost entirely stops pretending its gameplay is about anything other than action, to its benefit. The combat is faster and more responsive, but still feels slower and more methodical than most action games. It’s just overall a significantly improved action game.

RE5 Chris is so much better than RE4 Leon. Chris and Sheva are a likable duo who feel like a typical RE pair and play off of each other well. The dialogue likewise has much more natural localization than most if not all previous games in the series. I don't really like how they gave Jill and Wesker Kojima character designs, and this bad aesthetic continues in RE Rev.

The files unlocked in the menu are actually kinda good, and this game expands and fills out the setting in some interesting ways, setting the stage for the Revelations games and RE6.

If you read the files, you learn what happened to Umbrella and how they shut down. What's nice is that the files and in-game story actually go into the ramifications of a world where BOWs exist and can be sold to people with various agendas. It's a world of corporations, NGOs, political subterfuge, and black market dealers making profit off of human suffering, where a whole international organization was created to handle bioweapon incidents. It's disappointing that with this backdrop, the game's actual story is ultimately reduced to a battle in a volcano to save the world from a supervillain. It's a very comic book conclusion.

I know they're infected with a monster virus, but the visual of black people as writhing, animalistic subhumans is, uh... problematic, to say the least. Also, the image of Africa The Continent as a land of dead goats, megaphone-shouting lunatics and rabid, violent crowds. Also the scene early on where some brown savages are carrying off a scantily clad white woman. At least she turns into a tentacle monster shortly after instead of being rescued. It's hard to deny that they probably chose part of Africa as RE5's setting due to the misconception of the entire continent being a war-torn land of petty dictators.

Some parts of the game are much better than others. Generally, the early game is good. The ancient city level is... pretty bad. And it culminates in a laser mirror puzzle that some version of would feel at home in an older RE, but here feels out of place and rhythm-disrupting. I wouldn't necessarily say the game gets really bad toward the end, except for the two consecutive Wesker boss fights. The boss fights against Wesker are both bad and pretty dull. You don't really want your climactic final battle against a longtime series villain to be so boring. I imagine it's a bit less long and dull with another player, like everything in the game. I've played this game in co-op and alone, and you're really missing something by not playing co-op. Sheva's AI can be very frustrating and many parts are clearly designed for two human brains. Overall, RE5 ends pretty fast, and wears out its welcome less than RE4. The biggest problem with RE4, 5 and 6 is that they totally lose the spirit of survival horror. Because of that, I don’t have much to say about the gameplay of RE5 other than it’s a pretty decent action game. If you’ve played an action game, you’ve seen this kind of game design before, and it’s just not all that interesting.

Neither of the D LCs missions are especially good or interesting, but I want to mention them because they do show the beginnings of Capcom experimenting with the episodic formula that they'd continue with Revelations, Revelations 2 and RE6.

Lost in Nightmares sees Jill and Chris exploring Ozwell Spencer's sprawling mansion, and is meant to be a throwback to the old style of RE. Unfortunately it doesn't have the spark that made those old games good, probably because it was designed by the RE5 team. It mostly ends up just being an extended and unnecessary reference to the classic games.

Desperate Escape is essentially just another level of RE5, but you play as Jill. Since RE5 already exists and is a fine length, this doesn't really need to exist.

Time to complete: 9:17

Resident Evil: Revelations (2012)

It's very rough around the edges, far from the production value you'd expect from the series, and definitely not something I'd call exceptional, but there are some good things going on. It definitely does feel more like RE than 4 or 5, but still only kinda feels like survival horror. It would be no great loss if this game didn't exist, but it's an interesting experiment.

This game was originally made for 3DS, and it feels very inconsistent, in a way you'd kind of expect a spinoff game made for a handheld console to be. It’s split up into episodes that usually take around half an hour, and have you switching between characters, and the short length was meant to be tailored to a handheld experience. Usually each chapter starts with a sort of interlude related to the main story where you play as other characters in another location, then it switches back to Jill exploring the main ship the game takes place on. The bite sized nature of the episodes makes it feel easy to keep playing. Some parts of the game are very fun and flow well, and other parts are just dull or frustrating. The game feels like a confused mix of survival horror and RE5 style action, and between that and the constant character swapping and hit-or-miss dialogue, it feels like a game that’s not very sure of what it wants to be. The bulk of the game where you’re playing as Jill aboard the Queen Zenobia, a BOW infested ship adrift at sea, tends to be the strongest part of the game, and it’s a great setting that’s perhaps underwhelming due to the graphical capabilities of the 3DS. You end up in a similar setting near the end of RE7, also directed by Koushi Nakanishi, and it looks a lot better there, and does justice to the concept better. Like so many things in Revelations, it was a good idea, but a bit underwhelming in its execution. This period of Resident Evil was definitely a time of trying out new directions for the series. Revelations, RE6, and another spin off I didn’t play called Operation Raccoon City were all released in 2012. RE6 is bad, Revelations is okay, and by all accounts Operation Raccoon City is not all that good. After a year like this, it makes sense Capcom went back to the drawing board.

The writing in Revelations is not great, and is sometimes suddenly better or worse, but I appreciate what they were going for with the rapport between characters. I also feel like this game messes up that classic survival horror feel of exploring an intimidating place alone. You're always with a partner and always switching perspectives, so it never feels like you're alone, and because of that switching you never even really feel like you're isolated from the outside world on the Zenobia. It feels more like a TV show storytelling technique than something that works well for survival horror. Part of what makes survival horror work is that atmosphere created by feeling isolated and vulnerable, and it doesn't really work when the game is always cutting away between chapters to show what so-and-so is doing elsewhere.

Most of the characters get Kojima style designs, which I'm really not a fan of. Previous RE character designs were always very grounded without being too boring, and included classics like Jill's beret look, Jill's blue tube top look, Claire's magenta shorts look, and Ada's red dress look. I’m really not a fan of the skintight suit covered in tubes, straps and gadgets style of character design. It feels very “anime Rob Liefield.”

I appreciate what they wanted to do by telling a story in multiple perspectives, and how they did it to suit a handheld game, but at the same time I feel like it disrupts the flow of exploration and the atmosphere of survival horror. Revelations 2 does a significantly better job of telling a story in different perspectives. Revelations was pretty fun to play, and had some decent ideas, but it’s nothing I’ll ever return to. It would be remiss of me not to mention my favorite bad dialogue of the game, so here are all of the best lines:

"Sorry, I don't date cannibal monsters."

"Me and my sweet ass are on the way!"

“Jill, where are you?”

"I dunno. A room, I think."

"These terrorists must be brought to justice... blast it!"

-Monster Review Corner-

They went for an “under the sea” aesthetic for the monsters in this game, so almost every monster is a variation of a bloated pale humanoid. It does have guys that are like walking mutant sharks with arms that are swords and shields, which I’m not going to pretend isn’t sick, but they really, really don’t fit in a Resident Evil game. Oops, wrong game, these guys were supposed to go to Etrian Odyssey. The only kinda cool RE monster is the one that’s like a nightmare mermaid with spiny abdomen teeth. Overall monster score: 4/10

Time to complete: 5:12

Random fact: this was the first RE game where you could move while shooting.

Resident Evil 6 (2012)

I’m not going to have much to say about this one. RE6 is bad in many of the same ways the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy is. Abandoning almost everything that gives the series its unique identity in favor of trying to make a game that will sell a lot of copies. Obsessed with QTEs and explosive, loud set pieces, and resentful of player agency. "No no, silly player, look over here. Move at this speed. Go this way. We know best. Now that's entertainment!" It's a game that desperately wants to entertain and impress, dragging you by the wrist through loud, brash, guns-blazing action campaigns that totally miss the point of both horror and Resident Evil. Most of the time it just feels like an arcade shooter, and you're expected to stick to the script so closely that it may as well be a rail shooter. It really does take away everything that makes survival horror special: it doesn’t have a slow pace, it’s not about exploration, you don’t feel vulnerable or isolated, there’s no sense of map knowledge or pathfinding, it has overwrought combat mechanics, there’s pretty much no quiet time, the atmosphere is more goofy than scary, and it takes forever to finish. Sometimes it feels like this game really wanted to be Left 4 Dead 2: the way campaigns are set up like movies, the special zombie types, the co-op play, the sprawling levels. Except the devs seemed to have no clue as to what actually makes Left 4 Dead fun. The producer said the idea behind RE6 was to create the “ultimate horror entertainment,” which perfectly explains why it feels so much like a bad movie you’re being forced to sit through. It’s bombastic and stupid like a Fast and Furious movie, but doesn’t even have the idiot charm of one of those movies. Resident Evil 6 is a long, forgettable and stupid third-person action game that doesn't even have the common decency to be fun.

Time to complete: Who knows. I'd finish this game if someone was paying me to, but they're not. People say it takes over 20 hours, which sounds unbearable.

Resident Evil: Revelations 2

Finally some good fucking Resident Evil. I was actually kind of surprised by how good this game was, something the mediocre Revelations didn't prepare me for. It's a very welcome return to a more survival horror style of gameplay. From the start, it's dark, lonely and atmospheric. You do always have a companion, but it's still mostly very good at capturing that survival horror isolation feeling.

It does have a few holdovers from RE6, most notably sprinting, skills and dodging, but it's the same style of dodge as RE3R, which doesn't feel totally out of place in a survival horror game, rather than the over the top rolls and dives of RE6. It doesn't have any of the dumb combat moves or the pointless stamina gauge or the action movie bombast. Skills are mostly passive and have only a very slight effect on gameplay. To me, this is a good thing, but it also means there may as well be no skills at all. It feels like something that’s needlessly tacked on, as though they wanted to convince a certain subset of their potential audience that it’s not just a classic survival horror experience, or perhaps they were trying to make it feel more modern, or extend replay value, or all of the above. In any case, it doesn’t need to be there and I’m glad it has little effect.

The game has a good deal of combat, but combat is simple enough to fit into a survival horror game. It would have been fine with less, but it's still fine, because it actually has things outside of combat, unlike 4-6, and lets you play, explore, and figure things out without a lot of overbearing guidance. A lot of the puzzles and navigation feel like classic RE, and it’s a great return to form in that regard. Sometimes it has a bit too much combat for my taste, but this is made up for by long stretches with few or no enemies, and it has those survival horror moments of exploration and puzzle solving to balance things out.

This game does AI companions right, for the first time in the series. Moira and Natalia are both really useful, and I found myself wanting to switch to them almost as often as I wanted to play Claire and Barry. You also don't really need to babysit them because it's pretty hard for them to die and they’re good at following behind. There are multiple good segments of the game where your characters separate, and Claire or Barry need to cover their partner while they traverse a room to gain access to the next area. Unlike in RE5, though, you’re not required to have a second player to have fun during these parts, and I don’t think it’s even possible to play the game co-op. At first glance this seems like a missed opportunity, but honestly, if someone had to play either of the secondary characters full time, it would get boring very quickly. I think it was a necessary sacrifice to make the two character system work well in a single player experience. I really don’t mind, since I think of survival horror as a single player genre. As a result, it lacks both the painfully slow character switching of RE0 and the painfully stupid AI of RE5.

It’s funny that just as in RE5, Rev 2 ends in two consecutive Wesker boss fights, but this time against Alex Wesker rather than Albert. Also, these Wesker boss fights are much better. The final boss makes use of the character swapping, and actually does it really well. Barry is running from mutant Alex through cliffside caves, and you switch between him and Claire, who’s in a helicopter with a sniper rifle. It’s very much a Resident Evil fight, in that it’s more about positioning and survival than it is about fast shooting or burning the boss down with damage.

I also actually think this game has a good story for the series, but mostly what makes it stand out is the characters themselves. I also really appreciate the callbacks to previous games. It refers back to things from RE1, Code Veronica, Revelations, and RE5. Alex Wesker, who I think previously only existed in lore notes, is the villain, and the Uroboros virus of RE5 plays a small role. It makes nods to the larger mythos without being so convoluted that someone who doesn’t know everything about every game would have trouble following. The central story is easy to follow: you’re trapped on an unknown mastermind’s monster infested deathtrap island, infected with a virus that causes you to turn into a disgusting, mindless monster if your level of fear gets too high. I love their choices of Claire and Barry as the main characters. Claire being a beloved series staple, and Barry being an unexpected but surprisingly great choice. I also love how you play in two different timelines, Claire and Moira on the island six months before, and Barry and Natalia searching for them in the present. You travel through a lot of the same areas, but fight different enemies, take different paths and solve different puzzles. Rev 2 also has the most naturalistic character dialogue and acting the series has seen thus far. It feels like the rapport they were going for in Rev 1, but done better, and both pairs of player characters play off of each other well. I like that Claire takes a matter-of-fact, seen it all before approach to the situation, because she’s been through two different self-contained zombie apocalypses, while Moira the teenager is always cursing and yelling and basically saying “what the fuck,” and she really acts like I think a teenager might in such a situation. Barry, the dumpy old dude with dad jokes who came prepared with his dorky backpack and cargo pants, and the fearless 10-year-old girl Natalia, also go together well. By the end, I found myself actually caring about what happened to these characters.

Between Rev 2's gameplay, dialogue, and visual style, it's easy to see how it paved the way for the third-person RE2 and RE3 remakes. It was a very good move for the series, and I'm surprised it's not mentioned more often. Despite being a sequel to a spin-off, it was at the time better at being Resident Evil than anything since REmake, which came out thirteen years prior. It has its highs and lows, but it’s a big step in the right direction, and a good survival horror game. It’s not quite the same quality of RE7, RE2R or RE3R, but I really liked Revelations 2.

-Monster Review Corner-

Honestly, the monster designs are one of the weakest parts of Rev 2. The principal zombie-likes are just these kind of blobby, gross dudes who run at you, sometimes while holding wrenches or other makeshift weapons. Most of the enemies follow the same pattern, kinda blobby humanoids that look like bloated corpses or conglomerations of body parts, and I find it pretty dull. There are also some generic RE dogs that for some reason have pig heads. I never hold zombie dogs against a Resident Evil game, because you can’t have a Resident Evil without evil dogs. I don’t make the rules. As you progress you just get bigger, meaner blobby corpse guys with different abilities. There are only really two exceptions that I find less boring than the rest: Glasps, and Alex Wesker’s monstrous forms. Glasps are invisible, bloated flying insectoids that instantly kill you if they catch you. In order to kill them, you need to switch to Natalia, who can sense them and point them out, then switch back to Barry to take your shot. They cause this weird vision effect when they’re near, implying that their invisibility is something they’re doing to your mind, which to me feels less out of place than physical invisibility. If you had asked me before if I thought an invisible enemy was suited to RE, I would’ve said no, but Glasps feel like a creature out of a STALKER game, and I like it. Alex's final form is classic RE, like the Tyrant or G-Mutation designs, but with more of a disfigured crone vibe. Her unnaturally long spiky spine and humanoid limbs give her a creepy marionette feel. The heavily mutated humanoids, like Nemesis, tend to be among the best RE monster designs. Before she injects herself with Uroboros and transforms, she looks like an ancient haglike being with the air of a hunched vulture, with tubes and staples and half her face peeled off, a victim of her own T-Phobos virus.

Time to complete: 7:45

A practically perfect length. It feels like a long and satisfying experience that's paced well and wastes very little of your time.

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017)

I actually played this game in early 2019, before I ever conceived of this journey through the series, and I was as surprised as anyone at Resident Evil 7 being a good game. An oft repeated sentiment among RE fans who dislike RE7 is "it's not Resident Evil." In my mind, that's a very strange thing to say, since it borrows almost all of its design principles from the classic trilogy. I think the negativity some people feel towards this game is a knee-jerk reaction to the first person perspective. I've learned that like any fandom, Resident Evil's is full of idiots who just kind of say things, and barely make any attempt to understand the thing they like so much. (Not to say everyone who's an RE fan is an idiot. People like Suzi the Sphere Hunter and Critique Quest on YouTube have plenty of insightful things to say. Your average video game comment leaver or redditor is just a "whoa, cool videogame" meme). RE7 brings back so many things from classic RE: a slow methodical pace, save rooms, a classic style map, limited inventory space, item boxes, emblem keys, limited ammo and healing, a small array of weapons, a relatively small number of enemies, a creepy isolated mansion, a lone protagonist, survival horror puzzles, a focus on exploring in order to escape, item-base progression, simple mechanics, a feeling of vulnerability, environmental storytelling, a relatively simple story, a harmonious balance of all these elements, and a short game length. Even the character switch at one point near the end of the game is classic RE. The design philosophy applied to RE7 is classic survival horror, through and through. This is so much the case that I noticed myself playing in a similar way to the classic era games. Checking my map to carefully plan the safest, most optimal route. Managing inventory for the least amount of backtracking. Making sure I checked every room as thoroughly as possible for useful items. Slowly making my way through a small but interconnected and well designed map. Feeling that sense of tension every time I opened an unfamiliar door. Getting absorbed in the atmosphere and taking my time. It's weird to say playing a horror game feels comforting, or cozy, but RE7 does, in a way. All of this isn't to say it feels just like playing the old games. It's a reinvention, rather than a re-creation, and I think that was the right route to take.

RE7 is the first game to use Capcom's RE Engine, and it looks extremely good, especially its lighting. The one thing that doesn't look exceptional is the models for people and their movements and expressions. People move and make facial expressions in that weird video game way that never looks natural, and it's kind of impressive how far Capcom has come since 2017 in that department. This is greatly improved in the 2 & 3 remakes, which also both use the RE Engine. The first thing I noticed while replaying this game is how incredibly detailed everything is, including the sound design. You hear your character's slightly hesitant breath, his footsteps, the creaks and groans of an old house, and other muffled sounds that can't possibly be attributed to a house's age. All of the visual details let you imagine how every part of the Baker farm slowly fell into disrepair, the toll that multiple floods took on the place, and the gradual disintegration of a family's sanity and normalcy reflected in the physical dilapidation of the house. Like the Spencer mansion in 1996, the Baker property is as much a character as it is a setting. The return to a seemingly abandoned, sprawling house as a setting really helps establish that this is a return to form, a return to slow, creeping horror. The house is a shadowy urbex nightmare of abandoned spaces and black mold. The washed up tanker and the mines you explore in the game's final stretch aren't nearly as memorable or characterful as the house. RE7 succeeds in actually being scary more than most Resident Evil games. It's very good at being a horror game, but has all of the survival horror gameplay that makes the genre so satisfying.

The RE7 team wisely created a new narrative that’s almost entirely disconnected from the convoluted mythos the series has been building on since Code Veronica, but used the ending to leave the narrative open to that connection to the larger story. This, combined with the first person perspective, makes the game feel more intimate and more focused, which really works for it. It's really more a story about the house and its inhabitants, about Eveline, Mia, Zoe and the Baker family than it is about its protagonist, Ethan Winters. In my opinion, he's one of the weaker parts of the game. This series isn’t exactly renowned for its brilliant character writing, but he’s just kinda there, like American cheese. At least characters like Jill, Carlos, Ada, Claire, Chris, Sheva, Barry and Wesker are likeable and/or memorable in a video game character kinda way. Ethan feels intentionally designed to be the most unremarkable mid-30s white dude you could think of, almost like he's meant for a target audience, and he drags an excellent game down a little bit. Even Nemesis, the monster whose only line is "STAAAARRSs," is more memorable. They can really do better. So while I’m very excited to see what they do with RE8 after the quality of the last three games, I was disappointed to learn I’d still be playing as Ethan. I'm hoping they'll figure out a way to make him less lame. The other thing is, almost every RE protagonist is a member of S.T.A.R.S. or the BSAA, or someone who knows how to shoot a gun, so they at least have some explanation for how good they are at handling these situations. Ethan is literally just some guy who goes into a swamp to find his wife.

RE7 is at heart an amalgamation of a bunch of horror tropes and references, even references to the series itself, and yet it feels more like a loving homage to horror than a hackneyed rehash. Meet the family from Texas Chainsaw Massacre as you explore the mansion from Resident Evil/The People Under the Stairs and evade your wife who’s now a deadite from Evil Dead, meet the gross body horror man from From Beyond, shambling swamp monsters, an evil witch grandma, and the little girl from F.E.A.R. You also solve a puzzle from Saw in a serial killer’s murder maze. It's all bundled together and interwoven so well that it feels like something fresh and unique rather than horror's greatest hits.

Time to complete: 7:40

Like all of the best survival horror games, it ends right before it starts wearing out its welcome. The short length keeps any of its ideas from getting stale.

-Monster Review Corner-

There really aren't that many different kinds of monsters in this game, which I'm fine with. The principle zombie-likes of this game are slimy black sinewy humanoids called molded. Eveline, the bioweapon in the form of a little girl, is the cause behind everything bad that happened to the house and family, and she creates a black mold which infects those she wants to control, and which molded are made of. A lot of people think they're boring enemies, but personally I think they're perfectly suited to the setting of a dilapidated, water-damaged house that's being slowly reclaimed by the surrounding wilderness. The first enemy you actually encounter in this game is your wife Mia, who switches between normal Mia and evil deadite Mia. She also chops your hand off with a chainsaw, which is pretty fun. Jack is the Nemesis of RE7's early game. He's an unnaturally pallid middle-aged man who stalks you and has regenerative abilities which are later revealed to be... extensive. As you explore the house in the early game, you're always on edge because you know he could be lurking anywhere. In his later boss form, he's a bulging body horror monstrosity. Marguerite is another enemy who stalks you through the boat house with a creepy lantern. She creates bugs that attack you, so she's like a nasty bug crone. As a boss she employs hit and run tactics, lurking in the dark waiting for you, so slow and careful is the best way to fight her. Eveline is just the little girl from FEAR. No two ways about it. I'm honestly not a big fan of her, just because I kind of hate the creepy little kid horror trope.

Side note: I think this is the first game in the whole series without evil dogs.

Overall monster score: 7/10

Resident Evil 2 (2019)

To my taste, Resident Evil 2 remake might be the most ideal incarnation of Resident Evil that exists. It has everything that makes survival horror great, and it’s all implemented extremely well. Combine this with the gorgeous graphics and chilling atmosphere and you have a practically perfect survival horror game. It feels like the culmination of everything that worked in the series over the years, with the visual fidelity to do it justice. It’s a good remake because it does more than just faithfully recreate the original – it takes the best ideas from across the series. It has the methodical pace of classic survival horror, the backtracking and slow unlocking of new areas, the shadowy, eerie atmosphere of REmake, the highly detailed graphics and sound design of RE7, the item combining of RE3, Revelations 2 and RE7, the close over-the-shoulder view of RE4 and beyond, which notably feels like Rev 2. I’ve talked about how survival horror is a balance of things, and in that sense, RE2R is superbly balanced. Visually, it’s so detailed and nails the atmosphere so perfectly that it makes you want to move slowly just because it feels like you should. Moving forward feels foreboding. The way zombies look and move is scary, and lickers are terrifying. Narratively, it’s the same story but told better, and characters are much more human and believable than the original. Leon is just a regular dude, not the regular shithead he became in RE4 and RE6, and Claire is a great character. The Raccoon City police station is the strongest setting of the game, it’s all shadowed corridors, bloodstained walls and shattered windows. You really get the sense of it being a building that was formerly used as a museum, and the barricaded doors and aftermath of carnage everywhere help you imagine what happened as people fought for their lives, and lost, before you arrived. The sound design is extremely well done and detailed, which I never noticed until I played with headphones. (I wish I had paid more attention to sound design on this series playthrough. It can be an important part of survival horror). Gameplay is no slouch, either. Patient, precise shooting and tactical retreats pay off, and inventory management remains an integral part of progressing through the game. You eventually have much more inventory space than in the classic games, but it still never really feels like too much until right near the end of the game. Puzzles and item usage feel just how they should in survival horror. The Sherry and Ada portions, in Claire and Leon’s campaigns respectively, are both a nice change of pace and they’re short enough that they don’t wear out their welcome.

Strangely, I don’t feel like I have much to say about this game, just because it so well embodies everything I’ve already cited as being good about survival horror. The police station especially is exceptional, in terms of atmosphere, map design, the layout of enemy encounters, methodical play, and balance. It’s very light on anything resembling fast paced action, and I love that. All in all, I think this is the most well-rounded and well-made Resident Evil game to date. It would be a great place to start the series, and a great way to show someone everything good about the genre.

Time to complete:

First run, Leon A: 7:49

Second run, Claire A: 6:39

Resident Evil 3 (2020)

Here are the common criticisms people have of this game, and why they’re wrong:

“It’s bad because they cut content from the original.”

First of all, these two are both excellent games, but they’re different enough to be completely separate games. Even the maps and the paths you travel through the game are totally different. Sure, it would be fun to see a clock tower area in the style of the remakes, but I’m not going to hold nonexistent content against a game, especially one that’s this good. If you want to relive RE3, it still exists. No one seemed to complain about how different RE2R is.

“It’s too short.”

It’s pretty much the same length as RE3, and it’s a fine length for a survival horror game. I like that the game is fast paced and concise, and this captures the spirit of classic survival horror. In this day and age I find short games refreshing, and brevity is a mark in a game’s favor rather than a mark against it. Also, when a game is short, I’m a million times more likely to want to replay it in the future. Case in point, this was the second time I played this game. If it took 20 hours, if it even took 10 hours, it would run too long.

“It’s an action game, not survival horror.”

It’s more of an action game than RE2R, but even that is up for debate. I feel like throughout a lot of the game, you’re really not doing more shooting than you do in RE2R, and Jill isn’t really any more heavily armed than Leon or Claire end up being in that game. There are more boss fights, and more explosions, though, and by the end of the game you have a ton of ammo and resources, but they generally give you tons of stuff at the end of these games. I mentioned that original RE3 felt more like an action movie than the previous two games, and the remake is a lot better at being an action movie. It has a breakneck start where you’re almost immediately in a fight for your life against Nemesis as he bursts through the wall of Jill’s apartment and chases you through the streets, which culminates in the player ramming him off of a parking garage with a car. I’m normally not a big fan of explosive set pieces in games, but this one is really good and is great at setting the tone for the rest of the game. Just like the original, it’s more action oriented, but it’s just much better at action than the original RE3. I really wouldn’t classify it as an action game, like a lot of people seem to. Its pedigree and presentation are thoroughly survival horror, in my mind. Inventory management is an integral part of the game and most of the game has that slow survival horror gameplay. One thing I like less about this game than RE2R is that it has fewer puzzles. It’s not like it doesn’t have any, but they take a backseat, which is why I’d call it more action-oriented survival horror.

“Nemesis doesn’t show up often enough.”

I really don’t know where this comes from, because I feel like if he showed up any more often than he already does it would get irritating and redundant. There are literally four separate boss fights against him, and multiple parts where he chases Jill around. How much more do you need in a five and a half hour game?

Now that that’s cleared up, on to other things.

The Resident Evil 2 Remake has a lot of noticeable similarities to the original version, but Resident Evil 3 Remake is basically a completely different game, and I honestly think that’s a good thing. Somehow, when you play the original RE3 in 2020, it feels more dated than RE2, and I thought RE2 was a better game.

Back on the topic of action: this game does a thing video games do I don’t usually like, which is when the main character is often seen falling off of exploding things and staggering through corridors and burning buildings and thrown against cars and so on and so forth. Here, I don’t really mind it though, maybe because it’s not a long game and these parts take up little of its play time. It also makes the fight against Nemesis feel more immediate and tangible. It does often feel like playing an action movie, but it’s Terminator 2, not Michael Bay. Also, the bad Nemesis boss fights of the original are replaced with actually good boss fights.

One thing I really like about RE3R is the way characters are presented. Jill and Carlos both feel like more relatable, human characters, with actual personalities, and this makes you much more invested in their fight to escape the city. They end up being two of my favorite versions of RE characters, and I hope we see them in future games, though I find that kind of unlikely. Resident Evil is really not great when it comes to consistency in characters. It’s a shame because I’d love to see a direct sequel with this version of Jill and Carlos. Apart from these two, even the rest of the cast are given a lot more character and feel human.

The Carlos segment of the game in the hospital is much more atmospheric and interesting than the original’s Carlos section, and this one ends with a siege style fight much like the cabin fight of RE4. On the topic of RE4, this game has a document explaining that Nemesis was created by implanting some kind of parasite into a Tyrant, and the author of the document berates Umbrella for going the route of parasites due to their unpredictability. You also fight a few zombies in the game who were infected by Nemesis and grow alien-looking parasites on their heads. It can be assumed that this is tying the lore of these games in with the Las Plagas parasites of RE4 and RE5 and paving the way for the RE4 Remake. I think this is neat, even though I wish they wouldn’t remake RE4 on account of it being garbage.

All in all, I really like this game, and it’s one of my favorites of 2020. It’s a very good survival horror game with tons of detail and character that can be finished in two or three sittings. I have pretty much no complaints about it other than the aforementioned lack of puzzles. It’s more fast paced survival horror, but it’s very good in it’s own right.

Time to complete: 4:36 (2nd playthrough)

I don’t know the exact time of my first playthrough, but my old save file that’s right before the final boss was at 5:52.

Final Thoughts

I feel like after playing all of these games, it should be asked: is the story of Resident Evil any good? The answer to that is… kinda, sometimes? But also no, not really? It’s often entertaining, scary, gory, tense and atmospheric in the way that a good horror movie is. It’s also a little silly, often in a charming way, like how you can always tell at any given moment that this setting is a Japanese interpretation of America. The story itself goes well off the rails by the time you reach RE4. I mean, you’re rescuing the president’s daughter from evil zombie villagers and space alien tentacle monsters and cultists and ogres and then the zombies get body armor and guns. (Let's just not ever talk about the story of Code Veronica.) But the story isn’t really the point, is it? I think the series is vastly improved because there is a narrative, and it just wouldn't be the same without it, but you won’t find anything too deep or meaningful in that narrative. The one saving grace is that a defining feature of the story is ultimately the fact that corporations and governments are evil and only care about profit, to the extent of sacrificing hundreds of people in multiple biological weaponry incidents. That aspect at least feels true to life, especially in the midst of a pandemic that neither our government, nor the extremely powerful corporations that exercise control over that government, are doing anything about. Umbrella is an international corporation that no one dares or bothers to oppose who maintains their own paramilitary force, has their own private prisons and research sites, and has their hands in every part of the government and infrastructure of Raccoon City and who knows how many other cities. The villain is always ultimately the unchecked corporation - even in RE7, the nightmare family that seems disconnected from the outside world is ultimately revealed by in-game documents to be directly linked to corporate experimentation.

In Revelations 2, as well as the new 2 & 3 remakes, the characters are at least likable and there’s nothing incredibly dumb like you’ll find in RE 4, 5 or 6. Some would cite the part at the end of RE3R where Jill uses a humongous railgun called the FINGeR (Ferromagnetic Infantry-use Next Generation Railgun) to kill the final form of Nemesis as something dumb, but they are wrong. The characters of RE2R, RE3R and Revelations 2 are likeable and human, so they seem to at least be going in the right direction in that regard. The storytelling of RE7, RE2R and RE3R returns to the more grounded approach of the original trilogy, which is a good thing, and I think a good sign for the future of the series and its setting.

There’s something I’ve noticed about RE games, which might just boil down to my own personal preferences. In pretty much every game, you end up in an entirely new location in the final act of the game, and that last part is never as good as the rest. In RE2R, you spend most of the game in the police station, then go to the sewers (and the orphanage if you’re playing as Claire). For the last stretch of the game you end up at NEST, Umbrella’s secret underground lab, and this part is weaker than the rest. Likewise, the ship and mines areas in RE7 are weaker than the majority of the game, the lab in RE3 and its remake, the lab in REmake, even the last section of RE5. This isn’t to say these parts are necessarily bad, just that they tend to be worse than the rest. At the same time, I think they’re necessary changes of pace and locale. I think there are two reasons for this: one, the first locations of RE games tend to be very strong settings with lots of character, and two, it’s an an example of a problem all horror fiction faces, which is that the more you ramp up tension, the harder it gets to do it in believable and interesting ways. If horror goes on too long, situations become predictable and it loses its bite, and survival horror games are no exception. Ramping up tension and action necessarily compromises the things that initially make horror enjoyable, like slow and eerie pacing, the danger of an unknown threat, the vulnerability of character or player, and the slow unraveling of mysterious and fatal circumstances. At the same time, horror needs a final act, needs some kind of closure, otherwise the building of tension feels like it was for nothing and the story is unsatisfying. I have no idea what the solution to this is, except brevity, which good RE games are very good at.

I liked a few RE games already, but playing through them all really made me realize I like this series more than I previously thought, and I like survival horror a lot more than I thought. The really bad and long mid-series slump that lasted about thirteen years can’t be ignored, but I really like more than half of the games in the series. It created an entire genre with a devoted following, and I feel like RE2R brought the genre back into the limelight somewhat. You can see the influence of the genre even on games that aren’t really in the genre, like Prey, Gone Home, Bloodborne, and Left 4 Dead. I’m really looking forward to playing through my list of other survival horror games.

Things Resident Evil showed me that I love about survival horror:

-Slow paced, thoughtful gameplay. You’re rarely rushed, and action isn’t the focus. Generally there’s nothing dragging you along in a certain direction, forcing you to look at or interact with certain things. It’s up to you to figure out the way forward.

-An emphasis on exploration. This is tied in with the previous point. A lot of the fear and tension comes from not knowing what's through the next door or what will happen next, but knowing you have to explore to progress. These games have a lot of backtracking, a healthy sense of map knowledge and memory as a useful skill, and lots of item-based progression. As I mentioned in my note about puzzles before, the whole map feels like a puzzle to be solved.

-A feeling of vulnerability, reinforced by things like limited defense options, slow movement, scarcity of items, limited inventory space, and simple combat. This goes hand in hand with the sense of isolation usually found in survival horror games.

-Environmental storytelling. Setting details being revealed through documents, destruction, corpses, bloodstains, locales, and even puzzles.

-They aren’t defenseless walking sims. It's on you to survive. Having a way to respond to threats, but not feeling like you ever have quite enough, is much scarier than being defenseless. It's because it's a game - mechanically, you know a game isn't just going to give you no defenses, then throw you to the wolves. Survival horror acknowledges its framework of video game, its limitations and advantages. It gives more of a feeling of success or failure hinging on your decisions rather than on scripted events. The player feels like they have more agency, even if it's not always strictly the case.

-Making use of silence, something games aren't generally good at. This ties in with quiet time, something I wish more games were aware of. That is, times when the player is just quietly left to their own devices, exploring alone, solving puzzles, reading notes. You're not in danger 100% of the time, which gives the danger teeth.

-Simplicity of play, or accessibility. These games generally don’t contain any difficult mechanics or concepts that need to be explained, have little need for tutorials, and are easy to understand and play. Things like difficulty settings, auto aim, and the assist modes seen in RE2R and RE3R expand accessibility too. I think difficulty goes in this category too. Honestly, most survival horror games aren’t all that hard, because if you died all the time, you’d get bored and frustrated. Survival horror games seem to actually want you to have a good time. Imagine that.

-Mostly short playtime. A genre that's often good at not wasting your time. It’s very good for people without much time or people who like to actually be able to finish games and move on to other games, or replay games. It might sound weird, but also, sometimes I feel like really long games have something to hide under all that repetitive content.

-New weapons or abilities feel earned, because you generally go through a lot to get to them and they’re not handed out very often.

-A harmonious balance of elements. When a survival horror game is good, it elegantly combines all of the aforementioned traits.

RE Score Sheet

Endings where I flew away in a helicopter: 8 Crank or valve handles collected and turned: 16 Zombies or dogs or birds that burst through windows: 19 Object pushing puzzles: 14 Shaped indentations filled (including cogs): 71 Jump scares: 13 Puzzles where you configure shapes or valves or gears or numbers or lights a certain way: 18 Oversized animal types: 12 (Spider, Bee, Moth, Snake, Shark, Worm, Scorpion, Cockroach, Centipede, Bat, Salamander, A Different Bat) Rooms with monsters in tubes: 8 Gigantic mutant plants: 4 Times when it looked like a character died but they didn't really: 10 Secret subterranean labs: 10 Switches that change the water level: 5 Batteries/cables attached to things: 9 Clock towers: 4 Vaccines synthesized: 4 Self destruct sequences: 7 Helicopters shot down or otherwise destroyed right before they were used to escape: 6 Unique viruses: 9 (Progenitor Virus, T-Virus, G-Virus, T-Veronica Virus, Uroburos Virus, T-Abyss Virus, C-Virus, T-Phobos Virus, Mold Virus)

Resident Evil Tier List

Obligatory tier list disclaimer: tier lists are stupid and bad and fail to acknowledge the many nuances of things.

#resident evil #survival horror #game reviews #shinji mikami #koushi nakanishi #capcom #re #spooky season

8 notes · View notes

pandoriasbox · 4 years

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Jade’s SSO Rambles - 3 Archaeology (Current System)

(Please keep in mind that these are my thoughts and opinions at the time of writing these rambles. I may change my mind in the future.)

Star Stable Online’s archaeology isn’t for everyone and that’s absolutely fine as it is a completely optional part of the game. However it does have a large impact on gameplay and not only because of Nic Stoneground and the AAE. It offers additional gameplay and a means of making shillings outside of the limited number of daily quests available. I also feel that if the game is expanded to include crafting that archaeology should play a large part in that and other future optional features. (I have some notes on ideas in the works that may link back to this but I won’t be covering anything in regards to potential future systems/mechanics and such in this particular post.)

Personally I love the idea of archaeology in SSO and I especially like how Epona’s archaeology functions. However the way the player is initially introduced to the archaeology system via Dino Valley feels incredibly outdated and I think it could be changed to better match Epona and improve the initial experience both to new players and the current digging experience for returning ones. I also have some notes on how Epona could be tweaked as well.

Also please note that there are technically minor spoilers in terms of Dino Valley/Epona and archaeology for those who haven’t unlocked these areas. (Nothing story wise though, just locations, names and game mechanics.)

Epona Praise

Epona has 4 collections and 4 areas you can find these items within. Each area is its own self contained section of Epona that doesn’t overlap with the others. This helps avoid confusion when hunting for specific collections and makes planning routes far simpler in my opinion. Each area has a “transition” between them such as the field and roads between Dews and the Marshes.

The layout of the dig sites and the general level design of each area is interesting to navigate without being excruciatingly frustrating. I do think that the Mirror Marshes and Shipwreck Shores could be improved (I will discuss this in my Epona suggestions) but once the player has established a route these are mostly negligible issues.

The available item pool from archaeology is relatively small and even with all the items filling your inventory stacked you still have 2-3 full inventory rows free. There are 4 collections with 4 items each, 4 junk items and 4 “interesting find” items. All of these make sense to find in Epona and the collections also give a hint to the history of Epona. In total if you had at least one of each item in your inventory it would take up 24 slots. I highly prefer the maximum of 4 junk items as this means I can repeatedly stack the junk to avoid taking up more space. I also greatly appreciate that only the tradable items can be pulled from golden dig sites and doesn’t include extra “valuable junk.”

While you can make a full run of Epona without having to stop and sell if you have 24 slots available the overall design of the region lends itself to doing so. There are two major areas you can go to for this, New Hillcrest and Crescent Moon Village both of which are located between major areas as transitions and optional pit stops in routes. Trailering is also really nice when it comes to planning routes as you can easily start at Wolf Hall Inn to begin with Dews or Crescent Moon Village to begin at Shipwreck Shores. There’s also the trailer at New Hillcrest for when you need closer access to Mirror Marshes or you want to turn in items for rewards to Chiron and Winterwell.

Overall I feel the pricing of the items picked up from Epona is pretty fair especially to end game players. At the levels where you unlock Epona there’s hardly anything the player is locked out of (besides due to reputation) and therefore the player often must pay the highest prices for apparel and tack. Epona gives end game players a means of grinding currency outside of the limited daily races and quests. For me personally I make most of my money off of Epona because I do work a full time job and I often only have time to run through the area on a semi daily basis to collect interesting finds and turn them in so I can sell the rewards for high shilling payouts. I think this is extremely fair for end game players and works perfectly with Epona’s archaeology. It is also optional and requires the player to hunt out each golden/interesting find dig spot across the entire map in order to earn it. Often meaning the player must plan a route and figure out how to navigate then adjust if they don’t run the full route. This also plays a huge part into why I personally love archaeology in the game as I adore more explorative features. (Such as hunting for stars, token photos and memories.)

Winterwell’s interesting find rewards I especially feel are well balanced both in how many you turn in as well as pricing. You have a chance of receiving higher priced items that could hit up to around 1,000-2,000 shillings or you can get something that is only worth 250-500 shillings. It’s a gamble and makes it so the player needs to keep hunting every day to find the interesting golden dig sites. I also greatly prefer the setup of having 2 single trade items and 2 double trade items. This means that the player has a 50/50 chance of getting something they can immediately turn in but also doesn’t clog up their inventory with 4 different items if you don’t find enough of each that day. In general Winterwell’s interesting find system and rewards feel far fairer and more interesting to me than Dino Valley’s.

I actually prefer the fact that after you get the Jones apparel the game won’t let you turn in items again to Chiron as it means I can simply chose to either skip or sell all of the excess items I receive from Epona. (I think if it were tack instead it should unlock the ability to buy additional ones after the first freebies.) I also really appreciate that both Chiron and Winterwell are within New Hillcrest and don’t require me to go outside of Epona or even the general area to turn everything in after I’m done.

Epona Suggestions

When Epona is updated I would love to see some adjustments made to the overall model/terrain and movement flow of the Mirror Marshes especially and to a lesser extent Shipwreck Shores.

The Mirror Marshes while it is supposed to be somewhat difficult to navigate should keep the actual digs arranged to allow for routing without too much trouble to players who are familiar with the area. I personally think adding more “underwater land bridges” would greatly help avoid water slow down (if this isn’t fixed in some other way.) There are some throughout the rivers and such where the player isn’t slowed down but I think some more mindful placing would be nice in terms of directions players will naturally move between dig spots. Or could do fallen logs if the collision isn’t difficult to path over. I would also avoid making dig spots that are extremely far out of the way. For example I have a problem with the current layout when it comes to the single dig spot over by the Moon Spring as there’s no natural reason to go in that direction.

Shipwreck Shores actually works fine as is since you can run through it with minimal getting stuck in the bigger holes thanks to the race course. However I feel it’s worth mentioning as the race course will likely get a change if the area does. Overall I like the idea of Shipwreck Shores being this location that may have once been underwater and now we’re moving over this jagged terrain that gave it its name. However I think the team can definitely adjust it so there’s less painful collision and getting stuck in holes while maintaining this feel and keeping a reasonable digging route.

For all areas of Epona (and Dino Valley) I think that the dig spots should be relatively in plain sight. Brush shouldn’t be mostly or partially covering them and placement should avoid having the spot in a very open area that makes it extremely difficult to find. It’s one thing where you go in a straight line between a few dig spots (like in the Mirror Marshes) but another to find those two dig spots in the red/pink dino bone area that are by the portal and tree amongst the dead brush/brambles. I’m not opposed to making it a little more difficult to spot in terms of a cursory glance, it’s fun to hunt down everything but it shouldn’t be difficult to spot when you know where to look. (Unlike the Dino ones I mentioned.)

There appears to be a bug with the coins received from Winterwell where sometimes they are called “Weird Object.” I might actually submit a bug report on this but thank you Cen for bringing this up.

Dino Valley Suggestions

Dino Valley in general I feel needs to be updated to match Epona as a bare minimum. A large part of the issues with it will likely have to be addressed with an entire update to the whole area. However I think the team should focus first on adjusting the item pools, payout and turning items in until they are able to do more with the entirety of Dino Valley.

Item pools should have their “junk” reduced down to 4 items max and should remain related to the valley’s history. I could see items such as dino eggs, used up kalter stone, ice crystal and broken pickaxes making sense. I would avoid using too many human tools or other items personally.

The golden “interesting find” sites need to have only the 4 tradable items available to be pulled from them instead of a chance of random higher paying junk. I would like to see the counts for trading these items match Epona’s 2 single and 2 double as I think this is better for inventory management and player interest/game feel. I’d also replace the tradable items with things that make more sense. At the very least I just don’t like having to turn in so many cellphones and action figures I dig out of the ice in a closed off valley that wouldn’t make sense to hold those. It’s really more of an immersion/lore nit pick.

Overall I think pricing should be adjusted for how much items in Dino are worth but this is something the team would need to decide the balance of based on the level the players who access Dino are at. Overall Dino doesn’t currently lend itself as well to regular archaeology like Epona does and I think that’s fine right now both as an early archaeology area as well as for grinding money for earlier leveled players. But I do think having it is a good boost for shillings grinding before players can access Epona. I would imagine most (non-end game) players who have access to Dino will be making a large amount of shillings from actual main/side quests instead of purely from world wide dailies like end game players do.

Small note on the dig sites I actually think the snow effect on them should be removed and the normal not gold interesting find ones should be more blue (like Epona’s) or otherwise made more noticeable for players. The current color scheme of Dino Valley makes it difficult to make the dig spots out against the ice/snow/rock that they are usually hidden against.

In general I would move many of the dig sites to more reasonable locations such as taking the ones off of the dangerous cliff side beside the elevator or in harder to reach (semi hidden is fine) areas such as the one you must fall down to get to the dig spot on the semi secret side path towards Icengate. If it’s possible to adjust the dig sites so they all have their own individual areas with transition points using the current appearance of the world that would be preferable but I wouldn’t expect it before a proper full terrain/area update. (The only area I think that works mostly well right now is the red/pink bone area. It could be tweaked a lot but I like how it’s sectioned off properly.)

I would like to see Professor Jura moved to Nic’s Camp so you can turn bones in right away in the same place as the interesting finds guy.

Update the Dino Valley dig site expression of “Nearby” vs “Close to” so it matches Epona’s. (Epona has it where nearby=junk, close to=collectable/tradable items.) Technically you could do the opposite and update Epona’s to match Dino since I guess Dino came first, it really doesn’t matter which as long as they match.

I made some notes in my Quality of Life UI rambles post as well, basically I would like to see it where when completing a dig there is no pop up pausing the player. It should do the items flying into your inventory and the shillings and rep you receive will float up and disappear much like after you turn in a race.

This may require a large inventory update/overhaul but I would like to see the game stacking items automatically in your inventory when you receive more than one of the same item. I’d also prefer this being implemented after we can remove items from a stack just in case.

I will have additional thoughts on the game’s archaeology system in the future and I plan on elaborating further on it in regards to potential new features as well as Dino Valley and Nic Stoneground. However I wanted to do a rambles post specifically about the current archaeology system and how I would like to see it upgraded before any new systems are introduced (or before updates to Nic’s quests and the terrain.) I also feel it’s important to point out how Epona has greatly improved not only the general archaeology experience but also the end game for players.

Again thank you for taking the time to read through this! If you have any thoughts of your own or questions feel free to reblog, reply or shoot me an ask!

#jaderambles #sso #sso talk #archaeology #archeology #3 #dino valley #epona #game mechanics #mechanics

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kibocode2021 · 3 years

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ECommerce is maybe the ideal way retailers can grow today!

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#ecommerce #kibocode #kibo

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ddaengyoonmin · 5 years

Text

Chapter 13

Pairing: Ot7xReader;

Genre: fluff, angst, smut(In previous and later chapters,

Theme: Based kinda on sword art online a lot of similar ideas and themes kinda combining the idea of them trapped in the game, but the world is closer to ALFheim online

Warnings; None that I can think of in this chapter

Word count: 2.1k

Taglist: (I definitely think I missed some of you and some usernames were changed from my last list😭 I need an organized tag list for the series, so comment to be added and I’ll also make a post soon) : @taekookandyoongi @life-anime-food @i-like-puppy-mg @seesawsmin-flower @karissassirak @btsvisuals @vynia

For the next few weeks your team had split into smaller parties so as to maximize on your experience gained from quests and items dropped. Since it was all equally split, the eight of you being in one party together would make the points gained spread pretty thin. You still all met up for most mealtimes and tried to always get together for a group meeting before bedtime, but besides that it was usually 2-3 of you partnered together for a quest.

You had stuck with Jungkook the whole time, not wanting to spend much time away from him after almost losing him and the incredible night you had shared, you couldn’t tear yourself from his side. Taehyung would join with the two of you sometimes when he wasn’t joined up with Jin, who he had been getting pretty close with. The two of them would sometimes go on missions just the two of them, your group would joke with them about their forming bro-mance.

One of the quests that you and Jungkook were currently on with just the two of you alone, had required quite a lot of tedious attacks on lower level creatures that were taking over a small farm owned by an NPC right outside of Midgard city. The sky was darkening and you realized how much time you had spent taking out the ‘Rat Infestation Problem’ quest’s small green toxic creatures.

“Jungkook, shouldn’t we head back?”

Jungkook was aiming a very precise purple shadow-ball shot at one of the glowing green rats in the barn the two of you stood in.

His back was to you and you giggled at the ‘pew’ sound effect he made with his mouth right before he shot his attack, hitting the rat dead on. He then turned to look at you with a big grin on his face, flicking away his black bangs that were messily falling into his eyes. He looked tired and worn out from spending the whole day on this task with you, but he was trying hard to not show it.

“I suppose we can, we still have like 50 more of these things to do. I can’t believe we actually were able to get 950 done in one day. Good teamwork partner” He lifted his hand for a high-five and you excitedly met your open palm to his with a cute little jump.

Jungkook slung an arm around your shoulders and walked with you out of the barn. The sky was darkening to a deep blue and you could see a small colorful purple and pink shade peeking from the sky on the horizon where the sun had just set.

Jungkook pressed his lips gently to the top of your head, “Let’s get going”

The two of you flew to the usual meeting spot that your team had designated. It was a small clearing in the woods where the eight of you had set up a sort of base camp, you’d all thought it would be fun if instead of staying in the inn you’d purchase tents from one of the merchants and set up a little home in the woods where you could all come and go as you pleased without having to give coins to the innkeeper for a place to stay every night.

You had been ecstatic over the idea, camping sounded like fun and camping with friends even better.

You and Jungkook had gone in on a tent together to share, it wasn’t huge but it was big enough that you could stand in it. It was a small room with a full sized bed and a small nightstand and rug on the floor by the bed.

Namjoon, Jin and Jimin all invested in a giant tent for the three of them, it was at least three times bigger than your own but they each had wanted their own bed so it was fitting.

Yoongi and Hoseok also shared a tent, they hadn’t wanted to invest much into it so theirs was about the size of your own with two small and simple beds almost side by side fitting into their space with nothing else inside.

Taehyung had purchased a small tent that was definitely suitable for just himself. It fit his bed and a small night stand that he kept a few books and a kerosene lamp on top so he could read before bed.

It didn’t take long to set it all up thanks to the way the games features worked, you merely had to click a button on your items inventory screen and motion with your hand to plop things down where you wanted them.

The tents all were positioned around a pretty looking firepit that the eight of you had all chipped in on together. White stones were stacked around it in a circle for design and to keep the fire from spreading further than the pit. You’d cook your food over it with some pots and pans you’d also purchased, and eat sitting on some wooden logs around the fire that Jin and Taehyung had dragged from in the woods and made into a seating area.

It was actually a wonderful home, and for the past few days there was a part of you that almost didn’t miss your home in the real world.

It started to scare you that you felt that way. You didn’t want to lose your drive to keep pushing forward in the game. No one had even made it past floor one yet and you’d all been in the stuck in the game for about a month now. You didn’t want to forget that you had a mom who probably sat at your side crying wondering if and when you’d wake up. You hoped that she wouldn’t blame herself for being the one to buy you the game. So badly you wanted to tell her, that you didn’t blame her, and that honestly you couldn’t thank her enough. Without it you wouldn’t have met all these wonderful people.

And there again lies your problem...did you really want to escape this game? There was a far too large part of you that hoped that you could stay here with Jungkook and all of your friends forever…

Jungkook tapped you on the shoulder motioning for you to land. Everyone else was already there and it looked like Jin and Yoongi had already started on cooking dinner together. They were arguing lightly over some of the ingredients that Yoongi was trying to put into the stew that was bubbling in the pot over the fire when you approached.

“Hey! Jungkook, Y/n!” Jin smiled your way as you walked over to sit on one of the logs around the fire. Everyone else greeted you as well and you smiled and returned their hellos.

Jin managed to convince Yoongi that there was enough garlic in the stew already and Yoongi reluctantly dropped it.

The eight of you talked about your days, sharing your stories and cool drop items that you’d acquired. Unfortunately today you and Jungkook had quite the boring time. Well...besides the hour that you and him had taken a break to go down on each other in the barn. Just thinking back on today’s memories of his head between your legs made your cheeks hot and a smile start to grow on your lips.

When it came time for sleep everyone left to their tents, saying goodnights and sweet dreams to the rest of the team you started to follow Jungkook into your shared tent. But, you stopped for a moment with your hand on the tent’s flap and turned around slightly. You had noticed that Taehyung hadn’t left to his tent and was still sitting on one of the logs in front of the fire, a blank expression on his face and his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward silently staring into the fire.

“I’ll be inside in just a second,” you said to Jungkook, giving your sleepy bed partner a kiss on the cheek before you turned and went to go join Taehyung.

You sat next to him on the same log. He silently acknowledged your presence with a nod and a small smile, not looking away from the fire when you joined him.

“Hey you” you spoke softly “Everything okay?”

He finally turned to face you, “Of course y/n” he grinned fakely. You saw right through it instantly, but didn’t want to pry too hard.

“Okay...well, I am here if you wanna talk you know” you let him know, placing a hand gently on his shoulder.

He frowned a bit and then chuckled, moving his shoulder to brush your hand off of him.

Was he mad at you? What could you have done to upset him?

“Tae?”

“Anyways. I don’t think I ever asked how things went with Jungkook that night at the inn” Taehyung smiled fakely again at you.

You suddenly felt embarrassed. Taehyung knew what he was setting you two up for at the inn, he obviously knows what happened, why would he bring it up like that?

You cleared your throat awkwardly, “Um, it went well. It was nice” you avoided Taehyung’s gaze that was trying to meet yours now.

“Nice?” he raised his eyebrows “Just well and nice?”

You fought back more of your embarrassment at this conversation’s subject. “It was amazing, He’s amazing” you spoke honestly.

Taehyung gazed back into the fire, you’d expected more teasing but instead he just muttered,

“Good, he deserves it. He’s a good guy.”

You noticed him biting at his cheek. Something was going through his mind that you couldn’t quite understand.

You wanted to say’ You’re a good guy too Taehyung, you’ve been through a lot as well. ‘

But, you were now quiet, watching his carmel skin that was enchantingly lit up by the warm orange flames, his mint green hair tinted with the color as well. He started poking the fire with a long stick, you noticed how strong his arms were, and his hands...his beautiful hands...

No. What the hell were you doing. You scold yourself in your mind for letting your thoughts wander. You feel guilty and ashamed for almost letting your thoughts go even further.

Taehyung quickly glanced at you seeing you staring he gave you a sweet smile.

“You should get some rest y/n. Jungkook is waiting for you. I’m fine, I’m just gonna sit for a while”

You nodded and stood up from the log and gave Taehyung a small wave as you left, which he returned lazily.

He stared after you as you walked to your tent and murmured something that you didn’t quite catch, but it almost sounded like,

“Lucky bastard”

Taehyung continued poking the fire with the stick his fingers curled around, watching the tiny sparks that would fly up and break away from the fire as he did.

You had gone to bed with Jungkook and he was alone now, that was what he wanted right?

His best friend was happy and in love, and he really did deserve it. Jungkook was the kindest and most caring man that Taehyung had ever met, and he loved him like a brother. Taehyung on the other hand didn’t quite think of himself as a kind man, he’d done his fair share of things he wasn’t proud of, especially when it came to women.

That’s why he didn’t deserve you. That’s why those perfect lips could never be his to kiss, and that stunning body could never be his to hold. You are too perfect for him, your beautiful face, your adorable laugh, the way you care for everyone. You’d also made your mistakes but you instantly owned up to it and tried to make it up to Jungkook.

But, You were Taehyung’s dream girl, he’d never felt such an intense flutter in his chest around anyone else in his life. He wanted to give you the world, he wanted you to have only the best in life, and that wasn’t him…

So, he pushed you towards perfect Jungkook, because that way you wouldn’t get hurt, though you and Jungkook had your own struggles, you seem happy now, and so does Jungkook.

So everything is going as planned right?

So Taehyung should be happy right?

This is what he wanted right?

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

The next morning you were awakened by loud chatter and commotion outside of your tent.

Startling you, the flap to your tent was thrown open and bright morning sunlight pour in. Jungkook shot up instantly, you covered your face with your arm groggily.

“What the hell is going on” you grumbled sleepily. Seeing Namjoon standing in the entrance with wide eyes.

“The boss has been found! He’s still there right now. Lets go!”

#bts fanfic #bts x reader #bts fluff #bts angst #bts smut #jin x reader #taehyung x reader #jungkook x reader #namjoon x reader #yoongi x reader #jimin x reader #hoseok x reader #faerie realm #bts x you #bts scenario #bts imagine

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heartwoodventures · 4 years

Text

The Sickness

The long, spindly black arm of the voidsent came surging up toward the knoll Aislinn had found for herself. Always take the high ground if you can. But now she was left exposed, no nearby trees within the Shroud’s forested glen behind which she could take cover. Short of breath, heart already in her throat from terror, she stumbled back, tripped, fell to the soft, mossy ground. As the black mass came rushing towards her, she could have done any number of things, she could have done what G’lewra ultimately did. Instead, she froze, twisting away as she braced for the impact. At the last moment the creature’s arm crashed against an aetherial barrier G’lewra had hastily scribed into place around the hyur. The shield was no match for the voidsent’s force and while it shattered, it had left Aislinn in one piece. Realizing she’d been given a reprieve, she scrambled for her gun and hurriedly pulled herself to her feet.

Why did it have to be damned void magic? When Heartwood Ventures took up this latest contract all that was known was that some sort of sickness was infecting the Shroud, deep into Sylphlands. The posting asked for medics and a few of the more martially inclined just in case. Aislinn was no medic, but she could fire a gun, weave aether if need be. However, it quickly became clear to all of them they were dealing with something far more sinister than a simple illness.

Their contact, a white-haired miqo’te scholar by the name of G’lewra, had met the crew in the Shroud and led them through the forest, explaining the plight as they went.

"I've scouted the area, my dears, the plants have plenty of water and there are no signs of scorch marks on the ground that would show signs of a fire I do however have a terrible feeling tis something none wish to usually mess with." A fairy fluttered over to rest upon the Seeker's head as her summoner continued to speak. "I believe we're dealing with a voidsent."

As the group traveled through the Sylph lands they noticed the devastation G’lewra had spoken of. A trail of dead grasses clearly marked the way, even some morbols had perished and looked like shriveled, rotten pumpkins scattered across the forest floor. Even those not sensitive to aether could feel the pressure in the air the deeper into the glen they went. The miqo’te brought them to a halt, turning to them with a look of concern.

Nazyl glanced at the shriveled morbols and grimaced, the dead flora and chill of the dread corruption near palpable, "Sheesh, ta so easileh bring down this maneh morbols...it has ta be at least be fourth rung...."

"Please be careful as we get closer as I'm sure this beast has fed on enough aether to give us trouble." G’lewra said, the Seeker's fairy moving to hide within her long snowy hair.

"Nymeia's Blood." Aislinn swore softly as she too took in the corpses strewn along the way, the oppressive air causing her ears to pop. There was surely a large concentration of aether somewhere close by. She shuddered, as if something had shot through her body. A sudden dread.

Y'ahn shifted the strap of her medical bag to rest more comfortably on her shoulder. "Lovely... If it's Voidsent we're dealing with I'd best double check I'd brought enough supplies to tend to whatever wounds this party is about to receive..." She huffed as she sat down in the grass, taking inventory of the contents of her bag.

As Y’ahn made her check, G’lewra continued on, "The beast has made its home deep within the Sylph lands, not even the poor darlings feel safe within their own homeland and have moved as far away from the thing as possible. When I went further in I could sense it had become rather large, ‘tis best we do what we can to eliminate it and quickly before it causes more damage to the land."

“Aye, if those cabbage fairies are afraid of the demon, then it must be something nasty. We ought to give it a good beating and show it who’s boss,” Aiswyda proposed. “Unless there’s some caveat on how to approach the thing.”

Y'ahn closed the flap of her bag, latching it back in place, seemingly satisfied with what she had on hand. "To Aiswyda's point, we do have a plan of some sort to handle the beast, don't we?" She asked as she stood back up.

"I could help with that, once we identify the demon." Nazyl offered.

Not just a voidsent. A -large- voidsent. Aislinn put her fingers to the bridge of her nose, pressing for a brief moment. "Aye, depends on what sort we're looking at here." she said, her voice sounding small even to her.

While her partners discussed the best plan of attack, Aislinn stood quietly staring into the dark wood, unable to focus on their words. She had run up against void magic only once before. And once had been enough. The mages had called themselves thaumaturges but she suspected that was more for their own protection than anything. Black magic was outlawed in Ul’dah, after all. Well, so was drug running but that hadn’t stopped the cartels either. Plenty was outlawed in Ul’dah that still carried on right in the shadow of the Sultana’s proud palace. She’d been young and naive. A fresh refugee and just desperate enough. Lured by the promise of payment in return for taking part in the mages’ study. As were many of the urchins the mages managed to find. In the end, she had been lucky. She had managed to escape. Others had not. The experience had been enough to convince her there was some knowledge that should be left well enough alone.

Off to her right, Koh nodded, his words bringing her back to the present. "The wood was weakened enough in the Calamity, best to save it from more damage, for its sake and the sake of those living in it best we handle this sooner than later." He'd lived in the outskirts of the wood, he knew how rough it could be. He didn't want those living there to have it any worse.

G'lewra started to move forward to lead the group further in, her ears perked to listen for any movement. "Please be on your guard, my dears."

The group moved with careful steps through the dark glen. The forest here was oddly quiet. No birdsong, no rustling of forest creatures through the undergrowth. It was almost as if all life within had been holding its collective breath. And then, all at once, the silence shattered. There came a sudden, rumbling roar from a deep ditch ahead. Black limbs reached up from the depths, grabbing onto the ledge as a gigantic voidsent heaved itself up and onto the ground, towering over them. Its dark, bloated body littered in masks that opened and closed rapidly as if searching for its next meal.

"By the twelve it's huge!" G’lewra cried out.

The masks as one almost seemed to scream with delight as it focused on the group in front of them.

"Aw, hells it's a Persona..." Nazyl gritted. The knight drew his weapons, mythrite blade and shield glimmering in the dim light, "Watch fer its magic, they can be fastah than they look, n' will freeze ye in place with but a gesture."

Nazyl may have been inured to the hazards of his job as a void hunter but for the rest of them the shock of the creature’s sudden and grotesque appearance reverberated through the group, crashing over them. Aiswyda let out an audible gasp, Aislinn fell back a step with half a mind to outrun her terror and Koh struggled to remain centered, taking several shakey, deep breaths as he stared up at the abomination before them.

While the others struggled, the lalafell was more than happy to be the first in, kicking off the hill and sliding down, shield raised to slam himself into the base of the creature, rearing back his sword to swing down hard onto the nearest mask, dragging Oathbrand across the earth in a turn, and cut upwards into it again, spraying dirt into it in the process, "All those faces n' yer still an ugleh bastard." He was already vying for the thing's attention.

So began the fight that brought the story to the present, with Aislinn scrambling back to her feet after narrowly avoiding being crushed beneath the voidsent’s grip. Now, the creature lashed out at Nazyl, hitting him squarely in the chest. The mail thankfully absorbed much of it, but gods did it smart. Coughing out a curse, he stepped back in and thrusted his blade forward into the black flesh, twisting and cutting upward to pry off another mask.

The voidsent’s gelatinous body wrapped around the blade and started crawling slowly towards the lalafell, devouring the sword.

"Sonofa..." Nazyl grunted as he struggled to pull his sword free.

The creature was far from finished. Its oozing form slipped up his arm, further and further until it had simply swallowed the lalafell whole as the rest of them could do little more than look on in horror. There was a suspended moment in which it seemed all of them wavered, frozen in shock and disbelief. Those that remained were fairly new to the Company. They hadn’t yet lost a comrade on a job. They hadn’t come back with any less than they had started out with. Comfortable and sure in their successes. Koh was the first to shake himself into action, calling up aether as he spun around, his steps light as he dodged the creature. With the miqo’te distracting it, Aislinn hurried to reload her weapon, letting out a string of curses, everything under the sun and then some, as her shaking hands struggled to fit the rounds into the chamber. Each of the creature’s unholy bellows and screams causing her to flinch in reply.

The fight was a punishing reminder that tested each of them sorely as they tried to keep up the momentum, to work together, to press their advantage. With each mask that they destroyed, the voidsent grew smaller until at last, with one final punch from Aiswyda the last mask cracked and fell away. As the powerful Roegadyn blasted the last mask off the voidsent, the beast withered on the ground as it started to shrink until it was nothing but a small little slime, squishing around until it finally burst into nothing.

Finally, quiet. The weight on Aiswyda’s heart had lifted, but something heavier had taken its place. The voidsent had just...dispersed, and the lalafell was nowhere to be seen. Aislinn dropped her firearm to her side, heart still hammering, knees weak. After a moment to collect herself, she slipped her gun back into place. Sucking in lungfuls of air, she slid down the hill to the others, relieved that it was over but still not quite back to rights.

"Nazyl." she said blankly. "What about Nazyl."

Aiswyda knelt down and felt the ground, searching for some sign of Nazyl. A hair, his sword - anything. But he was gone, and Aiswyda felt very, very small.

Y'ahn Tsunhe frantically looked about for the missing lalafell. "I... I don't see him anywhere!"

G'lewra’s snowy ears flicked in response to the mercenaries’ obvious discomfort as she drew closer. "Fret not, my dears, I'll find him in no time and bring word back as soon as I do." she said gently as she offered the group a warm smile to ease them all. "I'm still able to sense his aether so he's still around, I just have to locate him where this voidsent has sent him off to, never fear as I'm quite skilled in aether knowledge so I'll be able to find him in no time."

Koh looked up from where he sunken down to the ground, head lowered to his knees as he collected his breath and fought back tears. "Wait, he's...not dead?"

Aiswyda jumped a little, still in fight or flight mode, tunnel vision and all. But she took some comfort in the Seeker’s words “Ah..Aye. There isn’t much I can do now anyway. No use lingering in this dark place,” she responded, though her words sounded a bit hollow.

His aether could still be sensed. That was something. The tightness in Aislinn's chest eased a bit as she gave Aiswyda a concerned glance. The Roegadyn sounded how she herself felt. Hollow. Empty.

"We'll find him. We will." she said quietly to Aiswyda, trying to reassure both her friend and herself at the same time. She nodded to G'lewra. "Please...send word as soon as you find something." she said, trying to lend her words life she didn’t feel.

There was nothing left to do now but make their way back to Heartwood and give their report. A wordless exchange of somber glances said that not one of them was looking forward to that task.

(To be continued!)

#ffxiv #ffxiv rp #balmung rp #ffxiv crystal rp #Heartwood plots #Koh Srenh #Y'ahn Tsunhe #Nazyl Tharazyl #Aiswyda Nuthalwyn #Aislinn North #sickness must be purged

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slctoken · 4 years

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Solution Life - New payments solution

Solution Life is an open-source platform that enables to create peer-to-peer marketplace and ecommerce applications.

Solution Life aims at building a global sharing economy, allowing buyers and sellers to use segments of goods and services (car sharing, service missions, home sharing, etc.) to transact on the open, distributed source web. Using Ethereum blockchain and Interplanetary File System (IPFS), the platform and its participants can interact with the peer-to-peer model, allowing the creation and placement of services and goods without going through traditional middle parties. We plan to build a large-scale commercial network:

• Exchange financial value directly (listing, transactions and service fees) from big corporations like Airbnb, Craigslist, Postmate, ... to individual buyers and retailers.

• Exchange financial value and strategic value (internal aggregation of customer and transaction data) from similar corporations to entire ecosystems

• Create new financial value for market participants who contribute to platform development (e.g. building new technology for the Solution Life platform, developing new vertical products and introducing new users and businesses)

• Build the open, distributed, and shared data layer to promote transparency and collaboration

• Allow the buyers and sellers in the world to transact without difficulty in converting currencies or tariffs

• Promote personal freedom by not allowing a corporation or central government to impose arbitrary and overly conventional rules of business operation. To conduct these ambitious goals, we created the Solution Life Platform with programs that encourage technologists, businesses and consumers to build, contribute, and expand the ecosystem. We plan to build a broad collection of vertical industry applications (e.g. short vacation rental, free software engineering, tutoring) built on standards and data sharing Solution Life. When writing this article, the Solution Life platform is currently in Mainnet Beta. Platform Version 1.0 is expected to be activated in Quarter 3/2020. While the majority of engineering work is being done by the core engineering team, we expect future developments, after launching platform 1.0 from developer, will come to open source community members Together, we will create the Internet economy of the future.

Details of Whitepaper:

• Why is a new model of peer to peer trading necessary?

• Benefits proposed on the Solution Life Platform

• Product strategy, main features and technical overview

• Overview of the Solution Life team and community

BACKGROUND

Since the appearance of the Internet, the digital marketplace has connected buyers and sellers of goods and services, allowing transactions that have never happened before. Craigslist launched in 1995 and dominated for many years in local and regional commerce. At the same time, eBay began to grow and create a whole new category of sales based on auction, creating a more efficient way of doing market business. Through 20 years of rapid change, many businesses on the Internet market in both B2C and B2B types have developed strongly. Currently, sharing economy markets such as Airbnb, Uber, Getaround, Fiverr and TaskRmus have been very successful in combining buyers and sellers of the sharing economy. Now, the use of distributed assets can be sold as easily as atomic items, and people around the world are exchanging their excess inventory, time, and skills for profit. New markets including the Gig economy, the service sector and the use of segment assets are particularly suitable to be basis for peer-to-peer systems built on blockchain. Most of the shared economic enterprises have some common points. Firstly, as a collection, these companies have made a big impact on the world. Consumers of the markets were able to improve their lives with access to products and services that they didn't have before. Vendors have been using these platforms to reach customers on a larger and easier scale than before. Each market creates a "private home" for consumers and suppliers to transact together, creating liquidity for that market. Secondly, most sharing economic enterprises follow the same growth cycle. Without a few exceptions, these famous markets are difficult to launch and grow. Enterprises in the market often have to start building with millions of dollars, and in terms of Uber and Airbnb, these two businesses spend billions of dollars to scale. That is also the reason why these businesses suffered serious losses in the early days. In fact, the corporation is subsidizing the use of marketplace for its users. However, due to the very positive cross-network effect, successful marketplace businesses can increase revenue exponentially over time, usually by charging a fee per transaction on the network. Network-effect enterprises, such as share economy market, are often enterprises occupying all directions and growing stage, gaining a disproportionate value from the network for corporation’s management and their shareholders. In many ways, they become the only dictator on the scale they achieve. Finally, although there are huge differences in user experience, business mechanics, and vertical specific features among companies on the Internet market, they all share many parts built and rebuild many times. Lyft, Postmate, and DoorDash themselves has designed their own solutions for user and supplier profiles, shopping experiences, matching algorithms, reviews, and ratings. This is proprietary technology that is valuable on one side. On the other hand, chasing useless things each time creates a new market vertically wasted time and effort. Consumers also create and manage dozens of accounts on these market enterprises themselves, each with their own personal data and transaction history.

In the last few years, blockchain technology innovators and investors have called teams to build peer-topeer versions of businesses in the current sharing economy and to trade the Internet in a more efficient way. P2P lodging sites like Airbnb have already begun to transform the lodging industry by making a public market in private housing. However, adoption may be limited by concerns about safety and security (guests) and property damage (hosts). By enabling a secure, tamper-proof system for managing digital credentials and reputation, we believe blockchain could help accelerate the adoption of P2P lodging and generate.” - Goldman Sachs Research (Blockchain: Putting Theory into Practice) Don Tapscott, the author of the "Blockchain Revolution", said that Bitcoin-based technology could be used to promote the interest in Uber and Airbnb. - The Wall Street Journal "It is difficult for middle parties to achieve sustainable growth in business," [Fritz Joussen] said. "These platforms [tourism middle parties] build accessibility by spending billions of dollars on advertising, and then they generate exclusive profits based on what they have with sales and marketing. They provide great sales and marketing services. Booking.com is a big brand but they make outstanding profits because they own proprietary structures. Blockchain will destroy this. "- Skift However, most of the infrastructure and transmission systems for building distributed-market applications did not exist before Solution Life was born. We aim to address the shortcomings of current market companies and are happy that we have launched the Solution Life Platform, which opens up peer-to-peer commerce with corresponding scale.

ACTIVATE THE OVER THE COUNTER MARKET

Our vision is to build and develop a free service exchange on the new Internet. In order to do this, we have to build a simulation platform of most, if not all, of the functionality of a third-party intermediary on the blockchain and other distribution systems. This is an ambitious and technologically challenging goal, but we have already completed important milestones that demonstrate our technology and the realworld applications of the project. The Solution Life platform has 3 main elements, all of which are open sources:

• Solution Life enabled end user applications

• Solution Life platform for developers

• Solution Life's application protocol

Solution Life enables end user applications The Solution Life flagship marketplace app is our consumer marketplace product that allows buyers and sellers on the network to do business. It is available today on the web at shopSolution Life.com and on both iOS and Android mobile devices.

Summary

For the past two decades, Internet marketplaces and e-commerce stores have changed the way that buyers and sellers connect, creating new opportunities for the exchange of goods and services. However, these marketplaces have always been governed by centralized companies that maintain their individual monopolies on data, transaction and other service fees, and ultimately, user choice. With blockchain and other distributed technologies beginning to hit the mainstream, the world is poised for a new wave of decentralized commerce. SLC is bringing change and innovation to the global peer-to-peer economy. We're excited by the opportunity to lower fees, increase innovation, free customer and transaction data, and decrease censorship and unnecessary regulation. We are building a platform that invites other interested parties including developers and entrepreneurs to build this technology and community with us, altogether working to create the peer-to-peer economy of tomorrow. We hope you’ll join us on this exciting journey.

TOKEN SOLUTION LIFE (SLC)

The Solution Life Token (also known as SLC) is a utility token that serves multiple purposes in ensuring the health and growth of the network. The ERC20 contract is live on the Ethereum network today at:

0x4d44D6c288b7f32fF676a4b2DAfD625992f8Ffbd.

At a high level, this token is intended to serve a number of key functions on the platform. First, the SLC is a multi-purpose incentive token that is intended to drive the behavior of end users, developers, market operators, and other ecosystem participants. Additionally, the SLC is an exchange intermediary that can be used for payments between buyers and sellers on the platform. Ultimately, it is intended that SLC will serve a vital part in future network governance. Since November 2020, the Solution Life token has been used to encourage various forms of participation from the platform's ecosystem participants. Token Solution Life is used to reward users, developers, marketplace operators and / or other participants for performing activities and services conducive to Platform development. Solution Life Rewards Solution Life is an incentive program targeted at end users on the Platform. Buyers and sellers on the platform have been able to earn SLC since our inaugural Solution Life Rewards campaign in Nov of 2020. Solution Life Rewards enables everyone to have a stake in the network. We’ve intentionally designed the program so that even novice, non-technical users can participate. With Solution Life Rewards, users can get SLC from account creation and identity verification. One of the best ways to network is through referrals. As such, end users can also earn tokens by inviting new users. This creates more confidence between the buyer and the seller. Users can also earn SLC by following Solution Life's social networking sites or promoting project news on public channels.

To encourage trading volume on our Solution Life Platform, we also offer a refund mechanism for users who purchase from reputable sellers on our network. Solution Life Commissions Encouraging marketplace developers and managers to use the Solution Life platform is essential. Therefore, we launched an advertising and promotion program, creating an integrated business model for the decentralized marketplace running on Solution Life. Merchants on Solution Life apps can promote their listings using SLCs for greater visibility on search and browse results on our preferred and partner apps. The only way to join this program is to pay with SLC. When a merchant creates a listing, they can add a commission paid in SLC to their listing. This SLC is placed on escrow in the Marketplace Smart Contract.

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leadgainermarketing · 4 years

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A New Market Place to Buy and Sell Online

Online markets are wildly successful sales outlets among consumers around the world, sometimes offering you, as an internet marketplace, with a channel to meet a broad, ready-to-purchase client base.

The concern, though, is that it may be hard to determine which ones are a good choice.

Whether you're trying to market locally or overseas, or just searching for a directory of websites, we've put together a full selection of services that we provide.

Lead Gainer Marketing- A perfect Marketplace to buy and sell online

Due to its worldwide existence, growing success, and broad coverage, Lead Gainer Marketplace is a perfect platform for selling and buying the goods.

We offer a huge incentive for you to produce more revenues and eventually expand your services.

We also run an extremely successful service that enables buyers to attract an engaged and loyal customers.

Although we are one of the major online marketplaces in the United States, remember that it runs overseas stores in several other countries around the world.

A popular online marketplace straight from the beginning

At Lead Gainer Marketing, we have decades of experience developing competitive businesses. So your perspective offers us an insight into what type of industry, the product range offers the most strategic sense for you.

Where sellers and buyers are interacting

An online marketplace puts together a whole universe of buyers and sellers – with no danger and possibly good income for you as the business owner. Lead Gainers Marketing will be there to ensure that the marketplace works from the concept process to the development process and beyond. Our Platform serves globally and give chance to buyers and sellers to meet

Head high to become popular

Online markets are internet outlets that host multi-seller product offerings. You can sell your goods and services as well as extend your range, satisfy your consumers, and flourish by encouraging third parties to sell on your marketplace. Or, you might only serve as an investor and see the market come in.

What is the purpose of an Online Marketplace?

Because there's something to offer, there's been an online marketplace. It's a venue for several vendors to meet, and for buyers to evaluate what's on sale and make their decision based on needs, and demand. So life – and commerce – went on the internet and has become more complicated. Yet no matter how times have changed, online markets still provide consumers with a simple, accessible marketplace to compare a wide range of offers from some curated vendors. This is one single destination, constantly flexible, embedded into networks all around the globe, delivering drop-offs from everywhere with ease of distribution and returns with no restrictions on the range. Each process interacts easily with one another, and all information and observations are in one position. If you want to become the best to select; if you want to connect to your consumers, again and again, you need to have an effective, flexible marketplace network the centralizes the business, enables the spectrum to be expanded, builds a community for your consumers and unifies consumer interaction for them. That, in effect, would create new revenue sources for your firm and deliver useful information and reports that will guarantee your success in the market. For over many years at Lead Gainer Marketing, we've built not only marketplace solutions to businesses that need to be the place their customers can trust online, but we've established a procedure that tends to make them thrive.

Our Online Marketing Place tends to do the following process to get more leads to your business:

Centralized marketplace

A centralized market simply allows your buyers to shop your items from wherever they are accessible. On a scale, we see marketers and distributors posing one basic question: how do we push more revenue to move through not only our shops but all of our stockbrokers? When you have a client that needs what you have, you 'd probably come right to you rather than somewhere else. Be the location to be with your client. That is, be their first call lane, no matter which channel they use to get there. Unifying business experience does many things: it allows customers the convenience of a specific route to evaluate your brands across a broad base; it helps promote qualified leads to all of the stockholders, and it produces significant information and analytics for the company.

Dropship from the third party

Carrying stock takes with it both financial and physical constraints. Yet by introducing our drop-in option, you have no storage and no resource constraints. The Lead Gainer Marketing drop-in tool could be used as part of our online marketplace framework or as a stand-alone application built with the current e-commerce network. Once Lead Gainer Marketing is the duty of a third-party vendor, the company will be able to expand with unrestricted restrictions. Out streamlined product info, click & capture, and quick return kits render the business growing with the pace a reality. Through Lead Gainer Marketing's world-class API (Application Processing Interface), PIM (Product Information Management System), and powerful gateway software, our clients can quickly link and attach to third-party vendor networks. The framework is built to operate immediately with Shopify, WooCommerce, Neto, Big Commerce and Lightspeed, and a common XML plugin interfaces with Magento 's applications. Lead Gainer Marketing has been able to bring exponential goods from similar third-party vendors and to enter into new classifications through a drop-in solution.

Unending Aisle

By exploiting established brand or manufacturer partnerships, the company can generate revenues that it has not historically been able to accomplish. Whether by introducing new product categories or by promoting products that would not have historically been sold by these labels or suppliers. Expansion is infinite. Yet it's not just in the amount. Our marketplaces can check which brands and goods they want on their market by using our curing resources and smart data and analysis modules.

Consolidation of the Competition

When there is an extremely competitive market, our online marketplace will put the items together. With an online marketplace, like-minded retailers, products, and services can be combined into a single network, in one experience. The consumer-driven influence of these labels and goods can be utilized to strengthen the sector as a one-stop-shop for both sellers and buyers.

Increase sales

The marketplace business also provides versatility, usability, and, most notably, the capacity to make revenue streams. There is no end on the likelihood of other income sources, which could include the following: Profit on purchases Vendor memberships, Lead generation revenue, classified ads or Consumer - to - consumer revenues Show and advertising Customer Membership Information and insights.

Develop a Community

When an online marketplace is more than just a transaction-based network, it makes consumers feel integrated into a group or family, by membership rewards, personalized content, and range of products. A feeling of identity has been developed. To build the member-driven community, consumers must create a sense of confidence the is acquired by honest, objective content; they must be offered a platform to engage in product feedback and accessible forums, and there must be tangible benefits that come with being part of the community.

Insights and Data

The problem with 'digital information' for retailers is that all of their applications do not interact with each other, producing a fractured reporting base. However, to be able to fully connect and receive instant inventory updates from vendors or drop-off partners, the marketplace is quick to respond to these real-time data. Each contact with the client, whether it is an order, a transaction, or a refund, can be used in combination with the retailer and inventory details to establish a real-time view of the customer's records. Marketplaces, therefore, increase significant insights into customer segments, purchasing patterns, brand recognition, and so much more. This amount and range of data offer an immense benefit in structuring and organizing, defining sales sources, and responding to satisfy demand. Third-party suppliers are now able to leverage their consumer intelligence to help advise their selling and marketing plans by data on demand patterns, customer activity, and more. The purpose-built Marketplace Insights framework allows the company to prepare, expand, evaluate, connect, and perform far beyond what is achievable through the conventional eCommerce platform. What about developing a plan for the online marketplace? Please contact us

An Online Marketplace for Excellence

Lead Gainer Marketing Framework is more than just technologies We have built a strategy that allows our clients to harness our years of knowledge, research, and mutual insights to carry out their holistic business plan.

The Platform for successful Methodology

The System for Success is a framework that has been set up to direct you through the three pillars of our strategy: Innovation, Software, and Performance, to ensure the continuous growth of the business, from launch to day-to-day activities.

Exploration

The initial development process is about describing the business priorities and discovering the consumer expectations that you plan to fulfill. This move consists of a series of workshops to chart the business and set it up for growth.

Our Online Marketplace biased with technology

Framework FOR SUCCESS – TECHNOLOGY The Lead Gainer Marketing platform is modular-built, features-rich, and connects with a range of partner platforms to provide you with a full development provider to launch the marketplace.

LeadGainer Marketing Technology

Our technology is modularly built and comprises feature-rich marketplace Core technology which can be complemented with a front end solution, add on, and a connected community of partner businesses so that we can offer our customers a full-stack technology solution.

Modules

Use our modular framework to build the perfect online marketplace to grow your company. Select from the relevant module, whether for goods, services, mix in between.

Products and goods:

Get your business to the next level. Broaden your variety by drop shipping from 3rd parties, using our world-class Central Product Database, Function-built with multivendor functionality in mind.

Services:

Our e - commerce-enabled booking and appointment engine make it easy to provide a variety of services to your clients. Push traffic to the service providers using our resources of lead generation.

Events:

Optimized for events, our e-commerce-enabled booking and ticketing services allow for a wide variety of event styles, from large-scale shows to casual activities.

Attract consumers, market your goods, and expand your business

Advertise your catalog of products

LeadGainer Marketing

introduces the goods to millions of future buyers. Create your internet presence with our online marketplace. Lead Gainer Marketing continues to serve millions of users a couple of weeks.

Improved revenue without compromising the spending

Boost profits without any doubt or concern over wasting time and resources. Our team of experts will include promotion, policy, technology, and business growth guidance to help you expand your company.

Have the expertise to make progress

Our professional staff of global e-commerce experts will lead to higher profitability and create success. We are dedicated to influencing the way vendors to view online shopping. We've got everything you need to build an unrivaled online experience for thousands of consumers.

Benefits

Lead Gainer Marketing is one of the fastest-growing online marketplaces in the U

nited States

Lead Gainer Marketing is one of the leading online marketplaces in the United States. Lead Gainer Marketing offers over millions of luxury items to United States customers across 1,000 units.

Lead Gainer Marketing, the best e-commerce firm, is a pioneer in market development and product innovation. It's the United States' leading online consumer gateway where millions of customers come to buy digitally.

Top services from our team of experts

We know that time and your money are valuable and precious. With over years of rich experience in e-commerce, our specialists will direct you via the on-boarding process. Once you start selling, we will strive to be committed to your production. With Lead Gainer Marketing, you have growing leverage and versatility over your storefront.

Enhance Your Market

Lead Gainer Marketing would create a new avenue for you to increase your selling value. Our marketplace has millions of deeply loyal customers searching for the highest value for money. Through being a Lead Gainer Marketing vendor, you will extend your scope and show your goods to the public.

How that is working

1. Connect to the Lead Gainer Marketing Store Front

You would be contacted by one of our members to launch the on-boarding procedure.

2. Create your store

We will easily link to your eCommerce website and start displaying your goods in real-time. You can deliver the best value to our customers with an uncapped range of products on your storefront.

Our innovative communications department will support you prepare and intent for the months and years ahead. They will work with you as collaborators to drive revenue growth for your business.

3. Begin the sale

Your Lead Gainer Marketing account is the core of your network activities. You may monitor your purchases, control the execution of your purchases, and show the finances.

In our monthly market newsletter, we will keep you posted on future deals, business announcements, and other industry innovations.

Lead Gainer Marketing seems to be the most reliable online marketplace in the United States, offering the customers the best products from their favorite retailers, all in one place.

Promos:

Continuing Promotional Opportunities

At Gain Marketing Leads, we always strive to bring value to our customers. We run several advertisements every day to highlight our wide variety of items and offer any vendor the chance to display their goods. Both of our vendors are encouraged to take part in these activities that we encourage across effective media platforms, such as the blog and our regular newsletters.

Unique advantages for sponsorship

There may come a moment when you decide to give the goods enhanced and exclusive publicity. We offer our sellers the chance to conduct their own unique Lead Gainer Marketing selling activities with support packages at fantastic rates. Such support programs are accessible during the year and are particularly common for main shopping activities such as Christmas and the ending of the academic year.

Significant marketing Strategy

Throughout the period, Lead Gainer Marketing has developed up a pinnacle in world-class marketing campaigns undergirded by a variety of platforms that open the industry to thousands of US customers. It means that the industry is packed with thousands of consumers every day searching for prices and shopping for the goods.

Lead Gainer Marketing is an International shopping platform, aiming thousands of customers to thousands of US retailers. Dedicated to supplying our consumers with the best prices and a large variety of items.

With a wide variety of items and lifestyle stores, our retailers strive to bring the best offers to you across a broad spectrum of Decor, Home & Garden, Clothes, Tools & Appliances, Electronics, and Baby & Kids goods.

Classified Ads

We can market your company, programs, jobs, activities, goods, or things to millions worldwide for completely free on our social ads platform to help make local advertisements as simple and inexpensive as possible. The expense of advertisement in mainstream media (television, radio, magazines, tabloids) is astronomically high, rendering it nearly unavailable to small enterprises, let alone to private individuals. The influence of the world wide web offers a tremendous incentive to alleviate the pressure and expense of ads, and we can help the advertisement prices for members of our broader society. We are mindful of the rivalry in this field and aspire to remain among the strongest by continually enhancing the efficiency of our services. We consider customer input seriously and integrate it into our quality development approach.

Free Advertisements

We offer incentives for people and enterprises to post limitless online advertising, both locally and worldwide, free of charge. It covers free classified advertising for used vehicles, motorcycles, property, leases, printers, smartphones, cell phones, televisions, sound systems, utilities, decor, home appliances, toys, equipment, books, replacement parts and other products, cats, kitchen appliances, musical instruments, for sale and distribution. Nonetheless, we also have some luxury offerings on which we charge a nominal fee. This contains featured advertisements and advertisements on the homepage.

Featured advertisements get top slots in their search listings segment and are automatically repositioned regularly throughout the slot duration. At the end of the slot era, they turn to Free Adverts. Homepage Advertisement is categorized into three categories: the Banner Advert which occurs at the peak of all of our web pages; the Side Advert which occurs on the left or right side of our home page and most of our web pages; and the Large Advert which appears at the middle of our home page and most of our web pages. The prices for these advertisements depend on the duration of the advertisement and the type of advertisement. While Premium Ads should be shown until payment has been made, they may be viewed as Free Adverts if payment is postponed for many reasons. They will be upgraded to the appropriate premium level after the transfer has finally been made.

We agree that Free Advertisement is feasible in this era of data, and we invite companies to take their opportunity with us. Get in contact with us and put your free ad today.

Best practices to boost online revenue development

When you've mastered the success of the domestic sector, it's time to reach abroad where billions of consumers in several countries need or want goods much like yours.

Retailers sometimes take a long time to leverage on this chance, as they do not pursue the quickest path to start and expand overseas.

It is the position where you need to Lead Gainer Advertising. We take care of all the complicated stuff so that you can expand your foreign company in more than 30 countries by using the expertise that your team already has. The main distinction is the sticker that goes on the packaging as the products are delivered.

There is now a cross-border chance for revenue growth. The quicker you can make your goods accessible internationally, the better you can enjoy the benefits of our clients.

Keeping the staff from trying to acquire a whole new range of skills is a perfect way to make the project live quicker and more efficiently. In this, we 're going to discuss how your established team abilities could be used with the Lead Gainer Marketing Platform to increase your international markets.

Ordering Abilities

If you sell through online markets, your team can be able to sell the same product in different locations. We have all the expertise available to maintain correct product details and prices to improve revenue and profits and reduce consumer problems. Adding Lead Gainer Marketing to the combination implies just adding one more online marketplace.

A database management Company would help you simplify the cycle of delivering the product details to each market and managing supply and pricing through them. This automated system takes one stream of data from your in-house processes and then process the data and get it in the correct shape for growing marketplace you submit it to, which will save you a lot of money and time. And many have monitoring and control resources to help you optimize your results.

Marketing and Sales Knowledge

Selling internationally allows the procurement and merchandising departments more room to spread their wings. Through your squad, you have the market incentives and exposure you need to sell your goods across the globe, helping you to optimize revenue and profit growth. Cultural and geographic variations from country to country can offer a broad variety of selling incentives for various goods at specific markets at different periods.

There is enough room for aggressively selling your goods, finding out the best way to perform successfully, and playing with prices beyond the domestic sector. How to raise costs to maximize demand thus raising the cost per order.

Innovative Abilities

It's also the marketing and design departments that face the greatest workload burden as a business spreads abroad, so with Lead Gainer Marketing all the boost of work will be done for you, and the staff won't get overstretched.

All localization of marketing content is done for you, so you use the same advertising images internationally – and nothing else than copywriters or graphic design departments would do. And, you 're trying to draw on all the excellent research they've accomplished and made sure it's the offering that the buyer wants to purchase.

To allow consumers to buy your brand make sure that you have provided all the details that the consumer wants to remember, the key terms and key phrases that they may use to look for the product, and a copy that makes the consumer understand why they need it. The entire lot always has to be simple for the user to search easily – but don't think about bullet points. This is a careful balancing act!

All marketing will be done for you as well, and Lead Gainer Marketing promotes your goods through Google and other platforms in each region. There's nothing the marketing department has to do – other than track revenues and whether a specific nation is-well, find out whether you may like to launch a new project in the future. Technical know-how

Use Lead Gainer Marketing to exchange abroad ensures that only one device must be implemented to obtain entry to the globe. The implementations are easy and integrate flawlessly until set up.

Once integrated into the backend, it's just like managing any other marketplace. You need to have a strong syncing mechanism to keep the stock details and inventory data accurate. (You don't want to market a drug that you don't currently have because the stock feed is out of date or that the coupon has not yet been uploaded).

So you put orders down to your order delivery network, with where you can choose, prepare and mail much as you would on every other request. Maybe you're using a particular courier or postal form to send them to their overseas destination.

Operational abilities

Selling overseas in either approach involves having the logistics collaborators you need to deliver the packages to the final buyer to handle either return. It could be that your current partnerships should be extended to involve overseas shipping, and you will need to consider new mates.

It is necessary to increase revenue and income by increasing the distribution fee that the consumer pays in-region. Your goods must contend with items offered by distributors from all over the world, some of which may have much cheaper rates to supply packages to consumers in the nation – it might well be worth reducing the shipping prices to boost profits.

Organizational Skills

Getting just one exchange to incorporate, with just one currency to think about, with no localization job to undertake, will allow the effort to start with export abroad a far more straight-forward effort that will operate websites in more than 20 separate countries

When your Lead Gainer Marketing account has been set up, it's time to add items to Lead Gainer Marketing

product Categories (similar to Google Brand Types for Google Shopping Feed). Instead set the shipping rates, that are achieved with specific regulations and rates per market so that you can deliver the best delivery choices at the correct prices per each nation. Finally, synchronize the data between your networks and Lead Gainer Marketing – sending in your goods, stock and pricing details, and carrying out your orders.

The simplification of the Lead Gainer Marketing platform significantly lowers the impact on your project team while launching grow your company to international sales. After a short-term concentrated attempt to have it set up, you'll see revenues spread out month after month and year after year without needing to rebuild a new platform or execute a new advertisement strategy.

Don't wait to move!

Make the first move on your internationally-selling adventure and get in contact with our team to find out how easily you can get to grips with Lead Gainer Marketing and experience large international revenue growth.

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