#...this is so much text especially with new stuff aside from the map and character | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

corpsentry · 4 years

Text

behind the taylor swift gundam was in fact another, smaller gundam: a brief inquiry into the events of june 2020

so back in june this year june and i got together and we made this motherfucker of a story with this motherfucker of a thread to keep track of it all. but you already know that! and i’ve already got one foot and three elbows in my grave, so i’ll spare you the long-winded stuff. you wanna know how i wrote 93,035 words in 4 weeks? i’ll tell you how i wrote 93,035 words in 4 weeks-

-by linking you guys to copies of my planning documents because i feel like those words speak louder than any words i can offer in the present day. these are long documents. but they are also historical artifacts. very interesting. very weird. very, uh, full of cussing. so anyway, here’s

BIG DADDY: THE ORIGINAL PLANNING DOCUMENT

for those, like me, who have no motivation left in life to do anything and rely on summaries from others to acquire new knowledge, it all started with a single line.

prince of a fallen kingdom atsumu tries to kill hinata but falls in love with him instead

june, april something, 2020

with that in mind i tested the concept out with a few paragraphs of text, which you can find at the bottom of the Big Daddy document in the graveyard segment, accidentally sold my soul to the image of hinata with epaulettes, and then worked backwards, structuring an entire plot around two images:

a) hinata getting the shit beat out of him, with snark b) hinata and atsumu dancing in an empty ballroom under the stars

if you want a betrayal, you have to have something worth losing. if you want to fall in love with someone you don’t know, you have to meet them. if you have to meet them, there has to be a reason for that meeting, and so somewhere in between atsumu became a sword instructor and hinata the prince with daddy issues. june and i used this method of glancing anxiously over your shoulder to see what you’d missed to fill out the blanks in the story, after which i tacked up a bunch of post-its, typed out the plot, consulted june, typed out the plot again, and then broke the characters down into a bunch of questions, like ‘what do they want?’ and ‘what do they have?’ and ‘what are they afraid of?’

with the plot more or less ironed out, i decided it was time to start writing, and then i decided that i was actually too scared to start writing after all, so instead i set a couple of timers using classroomtimers.com (15-20 minutes long) and i sat down and i wrote about the world that hinata and atsumu inhabited.

each warm-up was 300-500 words long, and for the first few days, i’d write one before getting into writing the story proper. later these evolved into simply picking a scene from the story and launching straight into it, which became useful for opening those scenes later when i got to them organically.

then i got lazy! so i stopped. but these shitty little exercises were really useful for me because, unfettered by plot, convention, or any kind of tradition hovering over my shoulder, i was able to fuck around loosely enough to realize what i wanted this story to be. it was a very contrived kind of trial-and-error, an exploration of the characters, the story, but most importantly, the tone.

RESEARCH, PLANNING, AND VICTORIAN BOUGIE FASHION

this is a loose map of the castle and Important Locations within it, which i drew up at the start so i could keep track of where everything was and how i could get my characters from point A to point B. i wanted the story to have Some kind of internal logic, you know, even if that logic amounted to ‘a compass would function normally in this world whereas kageyama tobio would not’.

99% of my planning and organizing within those five weeks took place in this lovely dotted cat journal which my sister gave me for my birthday and i repurposed into a metaphorical Diary of Suffering while working on juno. i used it for everything from keeping track of narrative threads to clothing consistency checks, but the main purpose was this: each day at about 10 pm i’d crack open the cat book to a fresh page, stamp the date and the day of suffering at the top, and then write down a list of things i wanted to write, address, or fix today. then i’d sit at my laptop and write like a madman until about 7 in the morning. with breaks, of course, for sitting in the bathroom and staring at the wall and sitting in the kitchen and staring at the wall, but mostly i was writing. and complaining about writing. you were there, you probably remember that.

anyway, here are some pages from the cat book.

aside from the fact that my handwriting is complete shit, you can see that i made zero effort for any of this to be presentable. it was mainly a way for me to keep track of my thoughts because i have the attention span of an ikea wardrobe and tend to forget things as soon as i think of them. the lack of structure also mirrored the way that i went about writing juno. while i did proceed, for the most part, in chronological order, i had a lot of weird and useless revelations during lunch, which by this point was happening around 2 am, and in the 5 minutes before the exhaustion finally hit and carried me down to hell. i changed A Lot. again, to understand exactly how much the story evolved from day one onwards, please consult the big daddy document.

in the meantime, here’s something else.

once june sent over hinata and atsumu’s character designs i sat down like the fucking fool i am and spent 2 hours poring over a document about victorian and other fashion movements of the past so i could assign a noun, adjective, and verb to each element of their outfits. i don’t know why i did this. i certainly could have not, but i attempted to make sense of their ‘fits from a logistical perspective and that went into the cat book too. everything went into the cat book. the cat book is a relic of the past now, stuffed with artifacts such as the birth of oikawa tooru, and also his demise.

MEDIUM DADDY: EDITING, PROOFREADING, AND CREEPY MURDER CATS

i finished writing on june 26th, 2020, approximately a month after i’d first started planning, somewhere around may 27th or 28th. at that point i had about 90,000 words’ worth of story and no sanity left whatsoever, so i took a day-long break to stare at a wall and listen to taylor swift’s enchanted on loop.

and then i made a new document, which you can look at using the link above, and i laid out everything i had to do. i’d discovered a fuck ton of plot inconsistencies and general errors while writing and lying awake in bed at 9 a.m., sleepless in seattle, and now that i was free of the demon egging me towards the first finish line, it was time to Deal with them. i speed-scrolled through the draft, which was 200+ pages compressed into one google doc, because i like to tempt god’s wrath, and fixed up all the plot issues over the course of a few days. this was the fun part.

the actual, hard editing was the extremely un-fun part. i reread the entire thing, paragraph by paragraph, line by damn line, from start to finish, paying especially close attention to awkward phrasing, incomplete dialogue, and moments which had fallen flat in my haste to get on to the next one. this was really fucking terrible. i spent more time lying facedown on the floor than actually editing anything, but after a long time (about a week), that, too was done.

SMALL DADDY: TITLES, SUMMARIES, AND GOOD FUCKING BYES

i spent a good eighty days thinking about the title, though hilariously enough we ended up with something that was a blend of our names. june + elmo = juno, which is, all things considered, pretty perfect, but the process of picking the title was Hell, and i Did Not Come Up With The Title until about 2 hours before posting. you can take a look at the haphazard clusterfuck of my title-selecting process in small daddy, which is linked above.

so the title was a last-minute choice. so was the summary. and the chapter divisions. and actually all the songs in the playlist for juno. the day we dropped juno onto planet earth like a newborn baby pitched out of the sky, i spent an hour hunched over my laptop, cutting my 213 page google doc into chapters based on nothing more than a Vibe. two days before that, i also attempted to voice-act the entirety of juno, an affair which ended at the 20,000 word mark with a sore throat and the kind of exhaustion one typically wants to sleep in a coffin for 23 years to get rid of. so in all honesty, i did very little editing, which is why there are definitely minor typos and/or mistakes hanging out somewhere on that chunky ao3 webpage. but whatever.

my attitude by july 5th (was it july 5th? or 4th? somewhere around there) was basically whatever. anything so i could get finish this damn thing, chuck it out of the window, and never see another google doc until the next century. i’ve been asked a few times how exactly i wrote at a rate of roughly 2000-3000 words per day for four weeks straight, and my answer has always been this: i died. what died, you ask? my soul. my spirit. my Will To Live. i’m a creature of fixations, and juno was my fixation for june. will i ever be able to do this again? would i recommend this experience to anyone? is god real? the answer to all of the above is probably no. juno was a fever dream, and so is my cat book. and so are all the lattes i had. and so was my 9 am to 4 pm sleep schedule.

but what we made is real. the research, oikawa tooru, the 4 am conversations in which i was like ‘how the fuck do i end this’ and june was like ‘jade proposal’ (the proposal was her idea. all rise for twitter user atsuhinas. she is the mastermind behind all of the Inch Resting moments in this story; i just flapped a korok leaf in her direction and made sure the air circulation was working properly) are real as fuck, and looking back, there’s a lot i’d change, but i’m lazy. and college is starting. and anyway, i did write 93,035 words in just under five weeks, four if you don’t count the week of Editing Hell, so i think that’s pretty cool.

thank you for reading this to the end, and for following us on our journey through the enigmatic taylor swift gundam fic which quite literally consumed my entire twitter account for the five weeks i spent working on it. retrospectively speaking i really was butt-obsessed so i am frankly incredibly impressed with everyone around me for putting up with a Husk of a Man for a month. thank you for doing that. thank you for indulging my vague tweeting, and our butterfly dns, and for reading 93 thousand words of gay fanfiction set in a high fantasy world with epaulettes and galettes. on behalf of june, once again, we are incredibly grateful for all your support.

if you have any questions about specific aspects of the writing process, or anything you’d like to know in general with reference to JUNO, feel free to drop me an ask through my tumblr inbox, or through my curiouscat over here. i’m aware i didn’t cover everything, but there’s frankly too much to put in a tumblr post without passing away somewhere around the 56% mark, so let me know what’s on your mind, and i’ll try to answer that to the best of my abilities. but anyway, before i go, here are some

TAKEAWAYS

one: don’t try to write 93,000 words in five weeks. seriously don’t fucking do it you will end up jittery and sleep-deprived and you will leave all your friends on read for a month. pace yourself. set realistic goals. you wrote 2k this week? that’s fantastic. you wrote 4k in a day? you absolute motherfucker. i hope you’re taking a long fucking break tomorrow. your story will not run away from you, but if you run too fast, you will get tired, and then you will pass away.

two: you don’t have to know everything about your story before you start writing. in fact if you have a single camera shot of two characters holding hands under a rose garden awning, i think that’s fucking wonderful. if you look at big daddy, you’ll realize that my initial plot draft, and all the ones following that, are not perfectly aligned with the final version of juno. i improvised over half of the scenes in this motherfucker, and to be completely honest, some of the improvised scenes were the best. fucking oikawa tooru was improvised out of nowhere. he only got written in way later, around chapter 8 or something, because i realized i needed a plot device and a source of information to keep the playing table from toppling over. i Sat Down one day and was like ‘okay, it’s time to write oikawa into the introduction. because he matters now. he didn’t matter last week but now he does, and soon he’s going to be the fulcrum of the entire story, because it’s like that with oikawa tooru’. it’s okay to change your mind halfway. it’s okay to go back and rewrite entire scenes or segments. it’s okay to highlight 4 pages of fresh, sentimental writing, and hit delete. writing is a fluid process, and you Will make discoveries as you progress through your story alongside your characters. be understanding of that iterative process. be kind to yourself.

three: You Are That Motherfucker. you, me, your dog, your dog’s friend, your dog’s enemy, all of us are that motherfucker. i never thought i’d be able to write anything longer than the great big map, which was a much simpler, linear story in which the other main character did not appear in the current timeline until like the eighth chapter. juno was different. juno was the motherfucker, and i was scared shitless of it, and to cope with that fear joked constantly while writing that it’d never see the light of day.

but it did. it was a rocky process, and i was awake for 48 hours after posting it because of the sheer adrenalin stuck in my skull, but i got through it. and i wouldn’t have been able to do it without june, who stepped in when i flopped over facedown on the floor and dragged me to my feet like the badass friend she is, and without everyone else in my life, who put up with me talking about The Thing that i couldn’t really talk about, but juno’s up there now. forever, or until the internet collapses and civilization goes extinct. and if the nineteen year old clown with the attention span of an ikea armchair and an a level certificate from hell wrote the 93,000 word long thing, so can you. i mean this completely unironically and with every ounce of genuine emotion i can summon from the cracked asshole of my heart.

writing is hard. writing is scary. writing is an investigation of the world around you and therefore, by extension, yourself, and that kind of honesty is freaky. it’s like going skinny-dipping next to the president’s mansion. who’s going to see you? what if they take a photo? what if you lose your spot at university?

but don’t think about that. our world is overrun with stories the way cereal bowls are full of cereal, but it’s those stories that keep us all sane in the disgusting day-to-day muck of reality, so think about your story. what’s haunting you today? what message do you want to leave printed in font size 666 comic sans across the southern hemisphere of the planet? what will you be tomorrow?

a writer. you’re going to be a motherfucking writer.

#my stuff

34 notes · View notes

deannastrois · 4 years

Text

to the end of the decade

I started this decade out��not great. And straight. I’m ending this decade maybe not perfect but accepting that I need to get better and working on it through therapy and drugs. And bi. So I’d say that’s at least something of a step up despite that I’ve had bad depressive episodes this year alone.

I also started this decade being a shadow in fandom, a lurker with nothing to say and not making friends. I’m ending it on a completely different note having actually begun creating and writing and having people on this site I’m more grateful for than anything. (and I’ll put my thanks to specific people under the cut cause I am nothing is not a weak, soft bitch at heart)

To all mutuals, thank you really for sticking around. I know I’m not the easiest to get along with and I hope to talk to some of you more at some point. I’m just so bad at it but <33333

@lembeau, I know things have been weird this year and that’s on me but at the end of the day you are always my forever girl and original otp. I don’t know how I would have gotten through some of the years without you, you’ve been my (salt)rock and best friend and everything in between. I hope things go well for you in the coming decade and know that I’ll always have your back and be immensely proud of what you’ve accomplished. I love you more than Eliza loves Goliath and in every universe the Middleman could ever give us.

@xsarahx, you were the very first person I started talking to and befriended on this site, even pre-musketeers days which is more of a throwback. We’ve come a long way from the Andrew Lee Potter days and I am always glad to talk to you about anything, including, of course, how comics have fucked up so badly these days. I’m with you till the end of the line, babe.

@sidewaystime, okay this one time I’m not gonna go with the red vs blue joke with your name I promise. Even if in my head I definitely am. Thank you for standing by all these years and I disastered my way through a career in computers, I’ll always appreciate someone knowing my absolute pain when it comes to users. Beyond that you’ve always got the best ideas for fandom aus and I love to hear them, especially if they’re old 90s fandoms. (and Canadian)

@sweetlyfez, remember back in the day when I was figuring out I was bi and it was all Constance’s fault? Well thank you for standing beside me as I figured that all out. And then laughing about it later because okay let’s be real, it is amusing in hindsight. You encouraged (and sometimes goaded) me on to writing femslash and I’ll never forget that.

@fonapola, we’ve come a long way from the musketeer-ing days. Who’d have thought our love our rare pairs would take us here but I’m glad we got there. Thank you for always letting me ramble on about those ideas and your own amazing ideas and fics and vids and everything when it came to that. You let a small thing grow large and kept the excitement going. Maybe one day we really will write our own thing together and have a shared world of sci fi and magic and someone clearly ready to be played by Howard Charles…Here’s hoping there’s more games I can drag you into it because I cannot wait.

@biportamis, oh Hannah I’d say I’m sorry for the million and one spams this year but that’s a lie and I’m not and if you’re gonna make me have musketeers feelings in 2019 then I’m gonna make you cry over Hawke. It’s equality. Jokes aside though I’m glad we always have those and holy shit you wrote a book!! Remember that?? That’s wild and I’m so proud of you for it, I can’t wait to see what you do this next decade.

@vulpyx, I am eternally grateful we got to talking and sharing fandom things, you’ve always been fun to talk to and I look forward to every pokemon game so we can make jokes about it and just be excited over it. And books! We need more good books, I hope that next Kyoshi one is gonna be good. I’m also really thankful that you’ve understood my anxiety and I wish I could help you with your own but know that I’m always here if you want to talk or need a distraction. <3

@waverly-earp, we have been through a lot of fandom madness together. Starting with AoS way back in the day and it just kept going. You’ve been a wonder through it all and an inspiration to make better gifs that look half as good as your beautiful edits. I love everything you create and wish this site wasn’t so terribly broken that it missed out on a good chunk of that stuff, but I hope you don’t stop because they always look so good. See you in the next decade with probably a dozen other fandom things to complain about (sorry not sorry)

@amandatapping, wild how quickly we bonded when it came to star trek but I’ll never regret that, the crazy things and injokes we ended up coming up with still make me laugh and you are the only person (aside from those femslash events) I’ll make ENT gifs for. Sorry I don’t love it like you do but I’m always willing to hear about how much you love it because it’s important to you and you’re important to me. #legged, baby!

@girlonthelasttrain, has it really only been two years since we started talking because it feels like we’ve been sharing memes forever. I’d say I’m sorry for spamming you with them but let’s be real, I’m not and it’s what Tidus would want. Truly a millennial icon. But really thank you so much for being around these past few years, I appreciate it every time you let me go on about my latest worries and panics and hyperfixations. I hope we get to share even more terrible memes over the next decade and I love you more than 13x7.

@alluringcliche, it’s been a while since the AoS days which really feels like it was already a decade ago but regardless I’m glad those days made us friends. Thank you for supporting me when I needed it and being there, I hope I could do the same when you needed it. I’m always down to talk about whedon shows even if joss has disappointed us terribly and this is our city now. All the best for the new year/decade and I hope to keep up more.

@dragoncharming, I was gonna call you my fandom backup but then that doesn’t feel like the right term but I also can’t think of the term to use when you’re always the person I count on to know if I’d love/hate something. You’re my guiding star for fandom, knowing where to steer me and what to steer me away from and I love you for it. I hope we get to play dnd together soon because that would be so exciting and thank you for everything.

@boydetective, oof I need to get better at texting more because I feel like I fell off the map this year and I’m sorry. I love getting to talk to you about small fandom-y things and sharing the wildness of KH and BNHA (aaaand I need to catch up again) and thank you for just rolling with it as I appear and disappear and I’m sorry about that. I’ll try to do better next decade.

@vulpixelates, thank you so much for letting me join a dnd group, it’s been a lot of fun and I am looking forward to meeting more of your characters in one shots and later on. And thanks for letting me ramble on about a million things and have Bi Panic about fifty times a year because that’s very real and I am very bad with it.

@adhd-athena, you know how next decade is starting with the KH DLC and it’s like…finally…some answers…. Well I bet we spend the next decade with just more questions and by the end of it we’ll finally have KH4. And even more questions. Regardless I’m looking forward to speculating all about that and DSC and other things with you, sorry for all the spams about those in advance I’m sure. Thank you for always listening <3

@malarkiness, I’m tempted to stick a picture of troi in here because that’s usually what I send to you and I have no regrets. Okay that’s a lie, I send you other things and I’m grateful I can always send you the most random things or rambling things and you just roll with it and amazingly haven’t blocked me yet. I hope we get to talk more about KH and FF and holy shit the remake is so close but it’s only like ¼ of it and Nomura what are you doing. (no one knows, not even him) All my love for you and the next decade of SquareEnix confusion.

@twilightacespect, it’s funny to think that I didn’t know you on this site until only about three years ago because it feels like we’ve always had this friendship. And by this friendship I mean you sending me cowboy things and me being haunted by them. Thanks beks. Okay okay, I love you a lot despite the cowboys. We’ve shared a lot of stuff and you’ve let me go on about a lot of fandom things and I’m sorry for the million and one spams over it when I hyperfixate on something we share. Except I’m not and suffer with me.

@organasoloskywalker, this year has been hard and I’ve said it a dozen times before but I wish I could be there with you. I’m always here for you though and I love you so much. Thanks for always being around to watch things with me and dragging into PGSM hell (“it’s a musical, you like those!” LIES LEXI, IT WAS PAIN) and a dozen other things. I hope we get to see each other sometime in the future and do a TAZ show or something but I’ll always be the voice on the other end of the line texting you pictures of my cat and loving Wedge Antilles. (and you) Also you know see you tonight for Fantasy High watching. <3

#and with that emotional display I'm just gonna go

27 notes · View notes

onedirectionfanfics · 5 years

Text

The Shamrock Social Club by @harryonstage

Somehow you land a consultation with Harry Styles, one of the most renowned tattoo artists on the west coast. He agrees to design your first tattoo and ink it on you himself, but over the course of your sessions together, mischief ensues…

This month’s featured story, The Shamrock Social Club, brought together avid Tumblr fic readers and Twitter stans alike in excitement and anticipation for each update. It tells the story of a girl determined to get a tattoo and her wildly attractive tattoo artist, Harry—fondly known as “tattoorry” among readers. Check out our amazing interview with the brilliant author behind this masterpiece below!

***

How long have you been writing for?

God, as long as I can remember. I have memories of being in middle school, feverishly writing stories in my composition notebook when I was supposed to be paying attention to the lesson. I was conjuring up elaborate worlds and characters long before I ever planned on sharing them with anybody—before I even realized what I was doing.

Do you have certain habits or rituals you have to do while writing?

A lot of my followers joke about this, but I do a lot of writing in the bath. I turn off all my notifications and commit not to check my texts for awhile, and I cannot write without a giant warm beverage, usually coffee or rooibos tea with honey. I put rainstorm sounds on my bluetooth speaker. The thesaurus app and google dictionary are open at all times. Also, part of the creative process definitely happens long before I ever actually sit down to write—I’m constantly jotting stuff down in the notes app on my phone if I’m out and about when I think of a line to work into a scene later. I have all these sticky notes with like cryptic, half-baked ideas all over my desk at work… I’ll pick one up and all it says is like “The clicks a skateboard makes rolling down the sidewalk” or “The feeling of having an orange peel beneath your fingernails.” And I refuse to throw them away, even if I have no idea what I was thinking at the time. I think most people who write do that to some degree, though.

The ever famous question: how did you come up with this idea?

Honestly I was on tumblr and saw a collage of women with dragon and snake tattoos. I began thinking about the type of person who would want that symbol on them forever, and why. Minutes later, I wrote that “Tattoo You, 1981” blurb on my masterlist—of course named after the Rolling Stones album released that year—and then that became the preliminary blueprint for what is now The Shamrock Social Club. I literally thought it was going to be a one shot at most, but here we are nearly fifty-two thousand words later.

Throughout your writing in this fic, you show a great deal of knowledge about the process of getting a tattoo. Is this from experience or something you learned from researching?

Both! I have a few tattoos. One of them is a stick-and-poke. It’s been awhile since I got my last one though, so I had to refresh myself on the aftercare process. I called the actual Shamrock Social Club a few times to gauge what a master tattoo artist there would charge for something as large as the snake. I also wanted to be sure it was possible for an artist to fill in a tattoo as they work through the outline the way Harry does in the story. The researching process of a fic writer is so funny to me… I wish my readers could see me alone in my room at 2:00 AM eating dry cereal, deeply invested in a fifteen minute Youtube video comparing different types of tattoo inks.

When does a story go from an idea in your mind to paper? Is there a process you go through before writing it out, or do you just get straight in it?

I have so much respect for the writers who can just like, wing it. I personally need to have a story mapped out in bullet points beginning to end before I even open up a new document on my computer. That way, I get more time to sit with it and meditate on how close to reality it seems, and it helps me finagle the order of events and decide if there’s any room for improvement. Also, if I think of a detail or subplot that’s not in my original outline, it’s easier to pop it in and visualize how it synthetically fits with the story.

In all four parts (51k words), not once do you give a name for the main character or call her ‘Y/N’. Was this a difficult task? What was the reason for it?

This is a hot topic right now in the fan fiction community! Sometimes it’s difficult, but I think it helped make the prose in this story more seamless to read. As someone who has written original characters as well as self-insert fics, I think a strong enough writer can make a character feel personable and unique and real without an elaborate backstory, and I don’t feel that it takes anything integral away from the creative process for me. If you can get an audience to root for a protagonist in a couple of chapters through their choices, dialogue, hopes, and motivations alone, to me that’s a much more successful story… I deeply respect writers who are like “write for yourself, not for others!” but that notion doesn’t really keep me up at night. To me, it’s obvious that I’m writing for myself if I’m writing at all, and I’m very comfortable with that fact. Imagine that you’re in school for creative writing and your professor gives you an exercise with a few simple parameters… it’s a bit like that. I still only write about exactly what I want, but undergoing the challenge of writing for an audience has 100% made me a better, more versatile writer. To me that does not feel like a loss, or a compromise. Plus, I think it’s such an interesting way to engage with a story—you are explicitly the protagonist, actively steering your own trajectory with every choice you make.

Was the character ‘AJ’ inspired by anyone you know in real life, AJ?

Guilty as charged. I do tend to Stan Lee myself and my friends into my fics. Aijia, Iz, Steph, Ellen… all of those characters are based on my actual friends. It started out as a joke—I literally just needed a name for the roommate character, but someone suggested I name her AJ and I was like… why not? I love having fun that costs nothing and hurts nobody! Annie and I wrote ourselves into Under the Same Roof, too.

This fic very delicately tells the story of a girl who’s been sexually abused in the past in some way and is on a determined mission to self-healing. A topic not many will brave, but you did. Why?

This is such a good question. Honestly I was on the fence at first. As I was drafting the first installment, Nobody Fucks with a Snake, I knew I wanted Harry’s character to turn her away from the shop at first before he decided to take a chance on her, but I needed a reason why. Like, I needed him to see a glimmer of something in her, and simply him being attracted to her didn’t feel compelling enough to me. I thought it would be really meaningful and it would raise the stakes a little if Harry saw this like… tenacity and determination in her. One of my favorite scenes in the whole story is that pivotal moment in his office when we see Harry really start to understand the gravity of her predicament and how much this snake means to her. He’s so affected by her vulnerability, and it speaks volumes about both of them.

In the drafting process, I was talking with my friend Tanvi who also writes fic, and she wanted to know if there was some reason why Harry’s character feels such a strong urge to help this young woman, and why he goes to such great lengths to respect consent throughout the story. Like, does he have a loved one who was sexually assaulted? Is this a more personal issue for him? I considered this, but truthfully, I thought this story would be so much more poignant and effective if there like, wasn’t some special reason. Consent is necessary. Sexual assault is inexcusable and wrong. It is as simple and as complicated as that.

What was it like writing on an issue that makes a lot of people uncomfortable (but is still so important)? Did you feel like you had a responsibility to fulfil?

As a writer, it’s an enormous responsibility to parse trauma and heaviness and sorrow in a way that doesn’t glorify the pain, especially if you have a younger audience. Most of my readers are in their twenties, like me. I read something recently about how it’s true that writers shouldn’t cover topics such as sexual trauma, eating disorders, or major depression as to avoid romanticizing any of these terrible, life-altering experiences, but that doesn’t necessarily apply to people who have been through these hardships and turn to art or writing as an outlet.

I have an eating disorder. It’s something I talk about openly on my blog—as an aside, you should definitely browse my recovery tag! Through fic, I’ve written about what it’s like to have an ED. I’ve also used fic to write about having a stalker, and in The Shamrock Social Club, of course I write about the complex relationship one has with sex and romance and dating in the aftermath of being sexually assaulted. I write to focus on the triumphs instead of the pain, and I always try to make these experiences awkward, ugly, and honestly gross when they need to be. Without divulging too much of myself online, I’m well equipped to know what all of those hardships feel like. In fact, I’ve read many stories, fan fiction and novels alike, that portray eating disorders, stalkers, and surviving sexual assault in a really misleading light, and I wanted to create something I felt like accurately represented how insidious and terrifying all of that actually is. Most of all, for me, writing this story was so much more about the main character overcoming her strife, and finally feeling like she has agency and control over her own body again. At its core, the Shamrock Social Club is really just the story of a fiercely determined young woman on her own path to healing, who happens to meet a boy along the way. The writing process was very, very cathartic.

Your story got popular not only on Tumblr but across Twitter as well in a short period of time—an amazing accomplishment. How did you react to your (well-deserving) popularity?

Jesus, the memes that have been born out of this story on twitter and tumblr are… beyond hilarious. And trust me, nobody lurks on twitter more than me. I don’t know if I would use the word “popular” about this story or even about myself though. To put things in perspective, suddenly being under a magnifying glass is still super strange and new to me. I literally had about 500 followers for most of the eight years I’ve been on tumblr until the end of 2018, which is when I started posting fic. I think about this all the time, I could write a dissertation on how baffling it is that people suddenly seem to give me heaps of attention and put me on this pedestal when deep down I know who I am and I know how tumblr works and I know it’s just as likely that people could be sending messages and giving praise to literally anyone else. Everybody has something to offer, I just got lucky. In the grand scheme of things, this story has only reached a very small pocket of the internet and there really isn’t anything about me that makes me more special than anyone else, I’m just a person who had a few people’s attention for a little while because I wrote a story. I’m very proud and grateful to have people reading my writing and it isn’t lost on me how fortunate I am that anyone does in the first place.

The one thing I will say though, is that it’s profoundly moving to me the amount of sexual assault survivors who have come forward in the wake of this story. Anonymously or not, people have been so open, and have shared so much of themselves with me. It’s amazing how alone you can be made to feel when you don’t have an example of someone who has been through the same struggle as you and come out the other side, even if it’s a fictional character, and I think this story ended up meaning a lot more to people than I ever expected it to. I can’t wrap my brain around how special it is that something I wrote could offer some small comfort to another person who has survived something so awful. The response this story has gotten blows me out of the water to this day.

Who came up with the name ’tattoorry’?

Honestly I don’t remember but “tattoorry” is shorthand for “tattoo artist Harry.”

Lastly, anything you’d like to say to anyone who read your fic?

Thank you for reading my writing. On principal, I think that if you find something that makes you happy and it’s not hurting anyone, then that’s worth celebrating. The people who have engaged with this story made into into something so much bigger and more special than I could’ve ever accomplished on my own.

Thank you very much, this was a lot of fun!

***

Thank you, AJ, for your time and dedication to these questions! Check out more of her work here!

***If you would like to send in recommendations for next months featured story, please do so here.

#1dff #one direction fanfiction #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles fic rec

115 notes · View notes

erisgregory · 5 years

Text

Come Crash Into Me Chapter 6/7

cross posted to AO3

or start with chapter 1

Authors: Crysty09, erisgregory

Crysty09′s tumblr Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: M/M Fandom: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019) Relationship: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes Characters: Michael Guerin, Alex Manes Additional Tags: Fake/Pretend RelationshipAngst and Fluff and Smut Summary: Michael is dreaming about an air base in Arizon but Max and Isobel don’t want to look into it. So he takes his plight to Alex. Though they’ve just begun repairing their friendship, Alex agrees to help. Though to get on the base they will have to pretend to be a couple. What will they find at Davis-Monthan? And what will it mean for the future of their friendship?

Michael slept deeper than he had in a long time and woke up slowly with Alex in his arms. His mind wasn’t really working as he nuzzled into Alex’s hair, murmuring to him softly, “good morning.”

Alex's eyes fluttered open and he could feel Michael's breathing against his cheek and he smiled. He turned his head, "morning" he mumbled, planting a few gentle kisses across Michael's chest.

Michael cradled Alex close, relishing in the feel of him sleepy and warm and so near. As he woke up a little more he remembered the night before and the promise he made to think seriously about trying a relationship with Alex again. His hands stopped their stroking and Michael worried he might be crossing a line.

He felt Michael still but Alex continued kissing the other man's chest, his hand moving over the bare skin. "How did you sleep?" He asked, looking up at Michael with his chin resting on the other's chest, a sleepy smile on his face.

Alex didn’t act like there was anything wrong so Michael tried to shake off the anxiety he felt. “Great.” He admitted. He felt pretty great too, like a weight was lifted off his chest. “And you? How did you sleep?” He asked.

"I haven't slept that good in a long time," he replied, his smile big and bright. He could feel the bond between them thrumming and he couldn't help but grin as he looked up at the other man, "you ready for this today?" He asked, feeling calm and happy.

“I am.” He answered, smiling back at Alex. It was so easy to just not think too hard about things and just feel through the bond that they were both in it together whatever might come. Especially with Alex smiling at him like that. “I need a shower.” He said softly. “But I don’t want to get up.”

Alex laughed quietly, this day had the potential to go sideways in a million different ways but he was ready to face it together. "Me too," he said, his voice quiet. His phone dinged loudly, "that's probably Shawn," he added, not moving or breaking eye contact with Michael.

Michael rolled his eyes. “That guy.” He said with a huff. He hated Shawn and his smarmy jokes and the way he looked at Alex like he wanted to eat him. Luckily Alex didn’t seem to be in a hurry to hear from the guy which made Michael grin.

He couldn't help the small smirk that pulled at his lips and he raised an eyebrow at Michael; he could feel a new emotion moving through the bond at the mention of Shawn. "We really need to get this started I guess," he sighed reluctantly, "the sooner we go, the sooner we can find your answers and get back here." He finally rolled off of Michael almost whining at the loss of contact.

Michael only just managed not to reach for Alex as he pulled away. “Okay, okay.” He agreed. Of course Michael wanted to find the whatever it was he could feel tugging at the edge of his consciousness, but another part of him just wanted to stay put with Alex.

Alex rolled to the edge of the bed, reaching for his prosthetic. He worked to attach it, "you wanna shower first?" He asked, looking over his shoulder at Michael, his eyes moving over his form and biting his lip; for a split second, he wanted to jump on the other man and never leave this room .

"No, go ahead." Michael waved at him. "I'm still trying to wake up." Michael knew how to be an early riser from years working on a farm, but that didn't mean he was fond of it. Alex seemed much more awake by comparison.

He laughed, he knew Michael usually took a while to get moving so he stood up, the sheet falling away and leaving him bare as he moved to pick up his bag, rummaging through it to find clothes. He knew he should cover himself but instead he just moved around the small room.

Michael couldn't help but track Alex as he went about the room without a stitch of clothing on. He looked so good, so fit, that Michael was biting his lip without even realizing it. He eventually figured he didn't need to be staring like that, so he turned his eyes to the window where the light was streaming through the slit in the curtains. He propped himself up and tried to think awake thoughts, like focusing on what they were about to do.

Alex could feel Michael's eyes on him and it sent chills down his spine, he once again considered just jumping on the bed and letting Michael have his way with him. "I'll be out in a few," he said, swallowing hard and trying to push the thoughts out of his mind, he smiled at the other male and disappeared into the bathroom just as his phone dinged again.

Michael ignored the ding at first, but then several more came and they didn't seem to be stopping any time soon. It was irritating. So he leaned over the bed and grabbed the phone intending to shut the thing off and that's when he saw the messages that were popping up. Things like, 'hey hot stuff' and 'don't tell me you're still in bed' 'okay now i'm picturing you in bed thanks for that' and the worst offender 'wish i was there' Michael felt the color drain from his face.

Alex stood in the shower, letting the hot water wash over him, relaxing his muscles. This day had the potential to be very productive or very tragic and he tried his best to be hopeful. He had just finished washing his hair when he felt a strange, foreign emotion slip through the bond and he frowned, turning the water off and slowly working to get out before heading back into the room with a towel around his waist.

Michael was still holding the phone when Alex came out of the bathroom and he looked up at him. "I wasn't trying to read your texts, but Shawn's blowing up your phone." He tried, he really did, not to sound like he wanted to kill Shawn as he spoke, but it was a close thing.

He raised an eyebrow at the phone in Michael's hand, shrugging, "I'm not worried about you reading my messages," he smiled, running a hand through his wet hair. Alex walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed, "what did he say?" He asked, he could tell Michael was uncomfortable with the messages.

Alex smelled of hot water and soap and Michael didn't want to show him the phone, he wanted to pull him back into bed and cover him in kisses. He did hold out the phone though so Alex could see. Several new texts had come in and Michael felt sick.

Now that he could see Michael, he could sense a ripple of jealousy. He took the phone, scrolling through the messages; his face burned as he read them and he rolled his eyes and tossed the phone aside, mumbling, "ridiculous." He looked up at Michael and smiled.

"He's crossed the line." Michael said. Alex didn't seem worried, but Michael didn't appreciate the familiar way Shawn talked to him. It wasn't right. "It's not right." He said out loud.

Alex hadn't bothered to reply and he looked up at Michael's words, "Shawn's an ass," he reached out and touched Michael's hand, "always kind of has been." His eyes studied Michael, he couldn't deny that he was kind of cute when he was jealous, "don't worry about him."

If things were different, if they were really together right now and not in this weird in between place, maybe Michael wouldn't feel as put off by Shawn as he did. However they were in this weird place and Michael did feel threatened. But he would try, for Alex's sake. "Okay." He said, sucking on his bottom lip. "But I still think you should say something to him." He added.

He could sense the emotions from Michael, and he linked their fingers together, "I will if he doesn't chill," he smiled, he tried to make sure that Michael could feel his feelings for him and his disinterest in Shawn. The phone dinged again, "go shower and let's get this day started," he said.

"Okay." Michael agreed. Then he threw back the sheet, grabbed his bag, and padded off to the bathroom. The shower was still hot when he turned it on, so he was able to step right in and bathe. While he shampooed he reached out with his mind to push at that feeling he could sense. It was definitely there and it didn't feel far either. It helped him keep his mind off Shawn to think about that instead. When he was clean he dried off and dressed in the little bathroom before heading back out to Alex. He sat on the edge of the bed to pull on his boots. "I need coffee." He said. "Lots of it if I have to see Shawn right away."

By the time Michael came out of the bathroom, Alex was dressed and ready to go. He had sent Shawn a quick text telling him they would meet him in a little while and was leaning over the table looking at a map of the base. He smiled at Michael, "coffee sounds amazing," he said with a laugh.

Michael walked to the door. “Did you see someplace on there?” He asked indicating the map. He opened the door and waited for Alex to join him. He was still feeling put off by Shawn and not looking forward to seeing him.

"Yeah there is a little coffee shop just over there," he said, nodding towards the road, "hop in the jeep and we can be there in about 3 seconds," he laughed. Alex raised up and kissed Michael on the cheek before walking around the jeep and climbing in. "I also found a place back that way," he nodded, "looks like an old aircraft boneyard and I'm thinking that's where we should start."

That little kiss did a lot to bolster Michael’s mood and he was smiling to himself as he climbed in. “Sounds good to me.” He said buckling his seat belt. “I still feel it, whatever it is. I’m hoping it will get stronger as we get closer.”

Alex pulled over to the coffee shop, "let's get a little coffee and food in you and that should help give you some strength to feel for it." He climbed out and walked around to greet Michael, holding out his hand, it was an instinct now to reach for Michael when they were close.

Michael happily took Alex's hand and together they walked into the little shop and found a seat. The waitress, bless her, brought the coffee before they even asked, and then took their orders. Michael decided on eggs over easy, hash browns, and bacon. And of course more coffee.

Once the waitress brought their food, Alex settled in, eating in comfortable silence. After he finished his food, he looked up with a smile, "I figure we should start at the boneyard and work out from there." He finished his coffee, "that seems like a good place to be hiding something."

Michael nodded. "I agree." He said, wiping at his mouth with a napkin. He felt better now with food and caffeine in his system, though he was still dreading Shawn. "And we're meeting Shawn there?" He asked, hating to even say the guys name.

Alex could hear the bile in Michael's voice when he said Shawn's name and he almost wanted to laugh as he got up and dropped money on the table as they started out the door. As if Michael had summoned him, Shawn was pulling up when they approached the jeep, "hey there," he called at them with a grin.

Michael wanted to reach for Alex immediately but it didn't make sense, as they were just about to get into the Jeep again. Michael's lips pressed into a line and instead of saying hey back he just raised his hand. And his eyebrows. And he sighed heavily. He was basically one breath away from calling the guy out for his stupid texts.

After reading those texts and seeing Michael's reaction to them, Alex tensed up, "hey Shawn," he nodded, his tone stoic. Shawn jumped out of his car and walked up to them, "wow, good morning to you too," he raised an eyebrow, "guessing you didn't get laid good last night huh?" He asked, walking over and smacking Alex on the ass.

Michael snapped. He strode toward him and grabbed Shawn by the collar, jerking him forward. “That is it! You're gonna keep your hands and your flirty texts to yourself from here on out or so help me..."

Alex yelped at the feeling of Shawn smacking his ass and before he could fully wrap his mind around what had happened, Micheal was jerking him up. Alex turned, his eyes widening, and laid his hand on Michael's arm, "Michael," he whispered, leaning closer, "babe relax," he gently squeezed his arm. He glared at Shawn, "you really have to work on your boundaries," he growled, "does any of what you have done seem appropriate with someone who has a boyfriend?"

Shawn held up a hand. “Sorry, it was just a joke.” He croaked. Michael was listening to Alex, trying to focus on the place where Alex was touching his arm, but all he wanted to do was deck this guy. He did let go of him though. It took a massive effort but he also stepped back.

As soon as Michael let go, Alex stepped between them, his hands going to Michael's face, "hey, it's not worth it," he kept his eyes locked on Michael's. He wrapped his arms around Michael's waist and pressed closer to him, completely ignoring Shawn for the moment.

Alex stepped into his arms and Michael could feel himself starting to relax. He did spare a glance at a fairly gobsmacked Shawn and gave him a little twist of a smirk before bending to kiss Alex’s cheek. “I’m okay.” He assured Alex.

He could feel Michael relax in his arms and he smiled up at him. Alex raised up and kissed him on the lips, making sure that Shawn got the picture. After a moment, he turned to look at Shawn, keeping Michael's arms around him, "look, you have to start respecting me and our relationship."

Michael soaked up the affection from Alex. He could never get enough of it. And if Shawn got an eyeful then all’s the better.

“Fine, got it.” Shawn said. “I didn’t think you’d take it so seriously.”

Alex could feel the calmness slowly pulsing through their bond and he made sure to match it. "What me and Michael have is serious Shawn and it's seriously inappropriate to be touching and talking to someone like that when they are in a relationship." He glanced back at Michael with a small smile, "so shall we get on with this?" He asked them both.

Michael reluctantly let Alex go, but he felt a lot better and maybe just a bit smug at hearing Alex call their relationship serious. “Yes, let’s.” He said.

“Yes.” Shawn said a little bit more subdued than before. Once again Shawn climbed in back and Michael sat in the passenger side.

As soon as Alex climbed into the driver's seat, he reached across the car and grabbed Michael's hand. "So Shawn, I was thinking we should start out near the boneyard," he said, glancing back, "see if we can find anything out place there."

Shawn looked at their hands and nodded slowly, "yeah sounds good."

The drive to the boneyard didn’t take long but Michael used that time to try and feel his way toward the pulling of his mind. It did seem to be getting stronger and sharper somehow. So he figured they were on the right track.

Alex put the car in park and moved to get out, "feel anything?" He asked Michael as he moved around the jeep. He glanced at Shawn, his eyes narrowed and he suddenly wasn't even sure if he trusted the other male with Michael and his secret.

“I do feel it stronger here.” Michael said softly as if Shawn couldn’t hear him well enough anyway. “We should definitely check around here. He glanced at Shawn who just nodded as he hopped out. “Let’s look around.” He agreed.

Giving a small nod, Alex moved to wander around the empty boneyard, his eyes searching for anything that could be alien related. For some reason, Alex kept glancing back at Shawn, assessing the male's every movement. He gravitated towards Michael, "anything new?" He asked quietly.

“No.” Michael said. “It’s still kind of vague feeling. It’s not quite like Caulfield.” He admitted. The boneyard was humming at him but it didn’t feel right like maybe they weren’t quite there.

Alex nodded, "okay, so maybe we need to move on, drive around a bit?" He suggested, walking up and laying a hand on Michael's shoulder with a small smile before glancing over at Shawn.

“Yeah I think so.” Michael said.

Shawn stepped forward then. “I don’t think we should give up so quickly.” He said.

Michael glanced at Alex and shrugged. “I really don’t think there’s anything here.”

At Shawn's words, Alex quirked an eyebrow, looking between him and Michael.

"Maybe you're just not focusing enough," Shawn says, "too distracted," his eyes dropped to where Alex was touching Michael and Alex dropped his hand like he had been shocked.

“I really don’t think that’s it.” Michael said. He reached to give Alex’s hand a quick squeeze of encouragement. “I’m not distracted.” He said, leveling Shawn with a look.

Shawn shrugged but kept his mouth shut for the time being.

Alex swallowed hard but nodded, "alright, let's go drive around some, if we don't come across anything else then we can always come back." He glanced at Michael and turned to start back towards the Jeep.

Michael and Shawn followed Alex to the Jeep. Michael narrowed his eyes at the back of Shawn’s head as he climbed in. He didn’t like the guy but there was something else about it that was rubbing him the wrong way. He couldn’t pinpoint it and he worried that it would just come across as jealousy if he said anything. So he silently climbed in and tried to reach out with his mind once more.

Once they were all settled in the jeep, Alex sat quietly to give Michael a chance to focus. His eyes were drawn to Shawn in the rearview mirror, feeling uneasy at the way he was watching Michael. After a few minutes, he started the engine, "any ideas on which way we should start?" He asked, looking at Michael.

“Yeah, take a right when you pull out of here.” Michael said. His skin was starting to buzz, and there was a warmth when he focused in that direction.

“Don’t you want to swing around the boneyard just to be sure?” Shawn asked.

Alex nodded and followed Michael's instructions. When Shawn spoke, Alex completely ignored him and turned right out of the lot, keeping his pace slow and steady, his eyes jumping to Michael every few seconds. "Tell me if I need to turn or anything," he said.

“I think right again.” Michael said, pointing. The feeling was definitely growing stronger. “And straight.” Michael was starting to get excited. “And left.” He said. Shawn leaned forward then between them, but he didn’t say anything.

At each direction Michael called out, Alex blindly followed it, turning and keeping his slow pace without question.

Shawn was frowning, looking between the two of them, "where the hell is your boyfriend taking us Manes?" He sneered, "there is nothing back here."

“There is something back here!” Michael was sure of it. He had Alex take one more right and they found themselves in front of a single story building that looked empty.

“I’m telling you, there’s nothing here!” Shawn said, agitation clear in his voice.

Alex quickly pulled up to the small, seemingly deserted building and parked, "if Michael says there is something here, then there is something here," he said matter of factly, glancing at Shawn when he heard the agitation. He opened the center console and pulled out a small gun, tucking it in his waistband before nodding to Michael and sliding out of the Jeep.

Shawn hopped out and went to stand in front of Alex. “This is just an old administrative building. You won’t find anything here!” He said.

Michael came around the Jeep. “Are we gonna have a problem, Shawn?”

He raised an eyebrow at Shawn, crossing his arms over his chest, "what are you doing?" He asked, his tone harsh. Shawn looked between them, "there isn't anything in there," he tried again, "move Shawn," Alex said, his tone turning authoritative, "do I need to remind you that I am your superior officer?"

Shawn stood there a moment too long for Michael’s comfort. “What’s it gonna be, Shawn? We can still do this the easy way.” Michael warned. He watched as Shawn glanced down at the gun that Alex had.

“Fine.” He said. “But don’t come crying to me when this blows up in your face, Alex.” Shawn said.

Alex rolled his eyes and quickly pushed past Shawn, heading towards the doorway, continually glancing back over his shoulder to make sure Shawn wasn't trying to stop them. As he approached the door, he stood up straighter, in case they encountered someone with questions, but the doorway was empty and after a few seconds, he was able to pick the lock.

Michael kept an eye on Shawn as Alex picked the lock. It didn’t take long before they were in. The building did seem pretty empty, no personnel even, but Michael was sure they were in the right place. “I think we go this way.” He said pointing down a hall to the left.

As soon as they were through the doors into the empty building, Alex retrieved the gun, holding it at the ready if need be, and nodded to Michael. He stepped in front and moved down the hallway the other man had indicated, listening closely for any movement that wasn't them.

They didn’t encounter anyone in the halls as they walked, Michael following Alex along slow and silent. When they came to a big black double door, Michael knew what they were looking for was behind it. So he pointed to it and waited for Alex to go through.

Alex gave Michael a small nod and moved to the door, quickly pushing it open, his gun aimed into the room. After a quick sweep, he found no one and lowered the weapon slightly. He saw computers lining the walls and a large work table in center with a large glowing piece of material that he immediately recognized and his heart dropped.

Michael followed Alex into the room and he could feel the buzzing raise the hairs on the back of his arms. There in the center of the room was a piece of the spacecraft. It looked like it might even be the last missing piece. He walked to it slowly. It was hooked up to electrodes that Michael quickly removed. “Alex,” He said softly, “I’ve been looking for this forever.” Michael picked it up and turned it around in his hands. It felt like the buzz was settled now, as if the piece somehow sensed it was in the right hands at last.

He had moved slowly around the room, glancing at the computer screens as he moved. When Michael spoke he turned and looked at him, nodding once, "yeah it looks like the piece you have been missing," he said quietly, trying to hide the pain in his voice. He quickly turned back to the screens, not wanting Michael to see his face.

There was a thread of something off coming through the bond, but Michael couldn’t understand it. “Hey, we did it. You did it! You got me here! So what’s wrong?” He asked. He had the feeling that they may not have much time, but this felt important.

Alex had forgotten about the bond, and he froze at Michael's question. He wasn't sure if this was the best time to have this conversation but he also didn't know if he would be able to lie. "I-" he turned and looked at Michael, trying to keep his expression neutral, "nothing I'm fine," he finally said, "we did it." He smiled as best he could, "let's get out of here."

That feeling was still there in the bond but Michael knew that time was likely running out. What if Shawn had called someone on them? They needed to go so he would let it slide for now. “Okay, let’s go.” He agreed, cradling the ship piece close.

Looking around, Alex grabbed a large cloth from one of the tables and handed it Michael, "might want to cover that up before we go out there," he said, he didn't want questions about it. He shook his feelings for now, needing to get them back to safety and he raised the gun, turning to grab a large external hard drive hooked up nearby before heading out the door.

“Right.” Michael agreed. He wrapped the piece up tightly before taking up his place behind Alex. They headed back down the hall and still encountered no one. Outside Shawn was nowhere to be seen. It gave Michael a bad feeling. “No Shawn.” He needlessly pointed out. “Think he’s gonna be a problem?” He asked, hopping into the Jeep.

Alex let out a sigh of relief when they were back at the Jeep safely. He gave Michael a small shrug, "I don't know, three days ago I would have said no without question but after today I don't know," he sighed. He climbed in and glanced at Michael, "for now let's head back to the room and we can go from there." He started the engine and leaned back against the seat, taking a few steadying breaths.

“Okay.” He said. Michael buckled in and was silent for the ride. He almost wished they’d packed the Jeep already, but they definitely couldn’t leave anything behind which meant they had to go to the room.

When they pulled up in front of the building, Anthony was standing at the door with his arms crossed. Alex slid out of the Jeep and moved in front of him, "Anthony?" He frowned.

"Manes, I need to talk to you," he looked around him at Michael, "alone. Now." He glared at the two of them.

Alex bit his lip and glances at Michael, not sure what to do.

Michael hopped out quickly and came to Alex’s side. When Alex glanced at him Michael shook his head the tiniest bit. “Sorry, we’re a bit busy.” He told the guy. He had a feeling that everything was about to blow up in their faces and Anthony was staring at the bundle in his arms.

Alex immediately stepped in front of Michael and the bundle in his arms, blocking him from Anthony. "Whatever you have to say for me, you can say in front of Michael," he narrowed his eyes at the other male, "so either please tell me what you need or get out of our way."

Anthony seemed to debate it for a moment and then he held up his phone. “It’s your father.” He said, attempting to pass the phone to Alex. “You want to take this call.”

His eyes flashed between Anthony and Michael, he held up a hand to Anthony and stepped closer to Michael, "hey go on in and pack up the room, I'll take care of this and meet you at the Jeep," he said, keeping his voice low and moving between the door and Anthony to make sure Michael was safe.

Michael didn’t want to leave Alex, but he trusted his judgement. So Michael reached out to squeeze Alex’s arm and then he jogged into the building. In the room he rushed around throwing stuff into bags as fast as he could

Alex took the phone from Anthony and listened as his father made a bunch of accusations and threats that ended with Alex hanging up and handing Anthony the phone, "goodbye Anthony," he said, and the man walked away so Alex made his way to the Jeep to wait on Michael.

Michael came out with both bags to find Alex waiting patiently in the Jeep. He loaded the bags in the back and jumped in. “Everything okay?” He asked. Anthony was nowhere to be seen so at least there was that.

He was taking a few deep breaths when he heard Michael approach, "yeah, mostly just your typical Jesse Manes bullshit," he shook his head with a wry laugh, "told me how stupid I am for going on this mission, made some awful, nasty threats." He started the engine, "I think we should probably get the hell out of here pretty quick though. Would you want to stop a few towns over and get a room so we can chill for a while?"

Michael buckled in and nodded. "Yeah, that sounds good to me. " Getting away sounded good too, he would be glad to be safely off this base. They'd been really lucky, he thought. "Let's go." He said.

Alex turned the Jeep towards the exit and made his way through the twists and turns towards the gates. Once they were on the highway, Alex sighed in relief and removed the gun from his waistband; making sure the safety was on before dropping it in the center console. He glanced at Michael, "I'm glad that's done" he breathed.

#malex #malex fic #roswell new mexico fic #eris writes fics #come crash into me fic

6 notes · View notes

wisteriafield · 5 years

Text

So, Nioh

Overall I had a really enjoyable experience with it, I’d like to be able to try multiplayer but it’s a thing that’s kinda hard to get an organic experience of, PS+ aside.

The mission system is something I like to be able to replay stages/bosses that I enjoyed instead of having to wait for a NG+ cycle, the problem is that only a handful of bosses stand out, the final boss Kelley/Yamata-no-Orochi was kind of a letdown as a fight, Hundred Eyes was a cool design but a strange boss, I don’t think I’ll like it on NG++ when it turns into Touhou. The bosses I liked the most were something halfway between youkai and humanoid like Otani and Mitsunari.

Auxiliary abilities like Ninjutsu and Onmyo start out slow, but get more useful once you can stack skills to get more uses out of them, especially when you get the instant cast to be able to keep up buffs mid-fight. The slowdown talisman basically makes every boss a sandbag which is great for farming/stress relief.

The stance and skill system is what I like most about Nioh, player animations have actual discipline in them compared to a DS character, and it creates a higher skill ceiling of the R1 poke-roll to butt dynamic in a DS boss, for room to do stylish aggression with stance dancing and Ki pulses, on top of having a visible stagger break meter to know when to take advantage of it. I found high stance the hardest to use, it didn’t really increase stagger on high toughness NPCs, so it was more of a liability with its speed and ki cost. Though on Spear I preferred high stance, but things like low stance having a spinning pivot sidestep instead of a straight line dodge in mid? Really small things that I enjoy.

The game is very responsive, it doesn’t have queued inputs so you don’t roll after getting hit just because you were quarter of a second later, occasionally my item use inputs get eaten up, but its a lot less confusing managing items with Nioh’s control scheme (it’s very friendly)

The level design is amazing, having great setpieces and backgrounds use for dueling (Ohashi Bridge, Yomotsu Hirasaka, Azuchi Castle), and winding levels that have branching paths that lead to the same end, for different players with different means and attitudes, its very much like Dishonored’s excellent level design. I also like the sub-missions remixing the stage layouts. All in all, if DS level design can be compared to a metroidvania, Nioh feels like a more complex Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. It caused me some degree of frustration or confusion because I wanted to map out all of the areas in my head like I do with Dark Souls, but unfortunately I’m still not familiar with all of them, so I ended up running in circles or not knowing how to access some off-path areas.

My favorite weapon designs were the Douji-kiri Yasutsuna and the Hinomotogo, runner ups include the Tombo-kiri, Hozoin Jumonji Spear, Munechika Mikazuki (Gramps...!!), “Craneboy” Juzumaru Tsunetsugu, Raikiri, and the Furewakegami Hiromitsu. I haven’t gotten the DLC to try any of the Odachis.

The game’s aesthetic and approach, to me, make it more of a successor to Otogi, which was ironically made by From Soft before DS, but they have said before that their inspirations were taken from Onimusha as well as Diablo (the gameplay dynamic reflecting that strongly in particular) on top of DS. The levels didn’t have as much variance as DS in aesthetics, but they do hit all the right ones as a period piece.

For the player character being its own character, William was unfortunately underused and felt kinda boring, he mostly just reacts to stuff around him and doesn’t talk nearly as much in cutscenes as he ought to (when people are addressing him directly for instance), and him being the player character brings in some very traditional play of white savior tropes.

I thought that the naturally conclusion that Europe is trying to stir conflict around the world to create Amrita would set the stage for the sequel taking place during the Bakumatsu and the forced opening of the borders by the US to be for them to try and secure Amrita for themselves, and, in essence, have the player continue the fight after fighting for Ieyasu Tokugawa by fighting for his shogunate in the Shinsengumi against imperialists, but oh well, they’re obviously not taking that direction, as much as I’d have liked (probably because its hard to justify wearing armor for war in that age, among other things). The other idea I had would be to set it in the Heian period during the Genpei War.

Anyways, its understandable that the RPG elements aren’t for everyone looking for that masocore action experience, so I might be an outlier because I played MonHun for over 1000 hours and plenty of hours in CV HD and have minor experience with Diablo

I’ll just suck it up and buy the season pass now, I wanna build an odachi and stream the Osaka DLCs blind for yall since I get good bitrate on the PS4 now.

Stuff I’d like to see revised to the sequel

More skills/an active Mystic Art

Revise enemy damage output, allow players to learn from mistakes midfight and don’t completely trivialize the health bar by making everything 1 or 2 shot you at literally any point in the game

Design challenges that aren’t the Monster Hunter approach of Putting Two Bosses in a Arena That Weren’t Designed as a Single Fight (only one I cleared so far was Nobu+Noh)

I wasn’t sure how to make the best use of Blacksmith functions (Soul Match, Reforge) until halfway or near the end of the game

Make it a little easier to understand where specific Smithing Texts drop when they aren’t one-time quest rewards

Rebalancing Guardian Spirits/Living Weapon, every GS felt useless or extraordinarily niche compared to Kato, the starter offensive GS. I really like the unique animations for LW but its really overpowered to build around it

In fact, the way the game handles its RPG elements, you don’t really build anything until you finish your first run through the game, which doesn’t really set in habits of what players should do with their equipment for the new difficulty, how to look for sets for their weapons, or guiding them through substat rerolling. Your build isn’t based on your stat allocation nearly as much as how you pick your armor set and give it the proper substat bonuses

More types of youkai

I feel like due to the differences in nature of the games, a procedural generated dungeon like Chalices would fit Nioh a lot better than BB

Edit: almost forgot, almost all weapons within the same type have the same stat scaling, they should really change that up

3 notes · View notes

svtskneecaps · 6 years

Text

Blink and You’ll Miss It - Part 2

Summary: Sanha’s been a curious shit her whole life. Jackson’s always told her she’s going to get herself killed at some point. She thought that was a bunch of bull, but he might’ve actually been right. She might be in way over her head on this one.

Featuring: A bunch of bull, a lot of cursing, merciless butchering of honorifics, and other things. Essentially, it’s a Comedy of Errors: Story Version.

Warnings: Cursing. Lots and lots of it.

First ~~~ Previous ~~~ Next

Masterlist

** So this has been edited, and initially any ‘dorms’ were apartments. I didn’t want to edit it too much because it would majorly mess up the plot beyond repair. Please just assume that this school is rich as hell

“Did you seriously go antiques shopping again?”

“You never know what kids of stuff you’ll find!”

Sanha set her stack of ancient picture frames on the counter, dust billowing into the air. Her roommate waved it away, coughing. Youngjae added a few frames to the stack with his free hand, the other occupied with an old looking lamp (although it ran on electricity, as evidenced by the power cable hanging off his elbow).

“I see you dragged our neighbor into this,” Jackson noted.

Sanha rolled her eyes with a grin. “You hate antiques shopping, I didn’t want to inconvenience you.”

“At least it’s less dangerous than wandering closed off sections of campus.” Jackson lifted a picture frame from the top of the stack. “What’re you going to use these for?”

“What are picture frames for?” she countered, carefully taking the frame out of his hands.

He sighed at her, exaggerating the motion. “You’re a witch, honey. I never know what’s for your spells and what’s for home decor.”

“These’re for spells.” She held up half of the frames, all with cracks in the glass. “The rest are for decor.”

“And the lamp?”

“That’s for me.” Youngjae beamed. “It’s in decent condition.”

“Does it even turn on?”

“Why do you have to be such a buzzkill?” Sanha teased. “Can’t you just let us have our hobbies?”

“At least this one can’t get you killed,” Jackson conceded. Sanha knocked on wood, and he made a face at her before turning to their neighbor. “Thank you for going with her and making sure she doesn’t go anywhere dangerous.”

“You’re welcome, hyung!”

~~~~~~~

Sanha sat on her heels on her bedroom floor, sorting out her new picture frames and wiping them off with a dust cloth. She’d read somewhere that picture frames could act as a viewing portal, especially if the glass was cracked, and was eager to try it out herself. She had a couple pictures from some old haunts that she’d like to look into, literally.

She gently pulled the back out of a frame, swiping it with the dust cloth. To her surprise, a piece of paper pulled free and drifted to the floor. She’d thought the yellowed back was a part of the frame. She picked up the brittle paper with the utmost care, turning it over in her hands to reveal a newspaper clipping on the other side. The Korean seemed like a different way of speaking than she was used to, meaning it was probably a really old article, if the state of the paper wasn’t enough to denote that. It was hard to decipher, what with regular Korean reading still being difficult for her, along with a couple coffee stains littering the text, but she managed to get the general gist of it.

Officials still have not determined a cause for the explosion last Friday night. The school has shut down the unstable section of campus for the discernable future. Five students are still unaccounted for. Information or tips as to their whereabouts can be sent to the police station.

She could see the top half of the characters for someone’s name below that, and a bit of their hair in the accompanying photo, but not enough to guess the name or the person. She didn’t know the exact date of whatever explosion the article detailed, it wasn’t written, and she didn’t know which school. But an explosion on the grounds of a school tickled her curiosity, and that called for an investigation. That meant research, which she’d openly admit was her favorite part. She pulled her computer onto her lap and began.

Obviously, the first thing to do was make sure her search engine was in Korean. That done, she plugged in a couple search keywords. Five students missing. Five students killed. School explosion. Campus shut down. Only the last pulled up anything she wanted, and all it said was that her school had closed off one section of their campus. Boring. She hadn’t needed google to tell her that.

Just as she was about to click off the tab, her eyes skimmed across the date and she halted. The section had closed in the 20th century. The mid 20th century. That meant it’d been closed off for almost fifty years. The paper looked about that old.

Then again she wasn’t exactly an expert on aged paper, but at the moment it was her best and only lead. The digital archives of the paper only held so much, and she knew what that meant.

“Oppa, I’m going on a field trip!”

~~~~~~~

Jackson had almost insisted on coming, until she told him she was going to the library. Then he told her to have fun and not do anything stupid and said he’d be sitting this one out. He suggested she grab Jaebum on her way out, but she was in a bit of a hurry.

Which was how she found herself cross legged on the floor of the library surrounded by piles of old newspapers. The librarian had been a little nervous, but since Sanha was a regular (and a voracious reader) and always treated the books wish respect, she’d been let loose on the newspapers after promising to be careful.

She’d found an article about the school having a big dance in a copy of the school’s old newspaper, dated around the time the online article had said the section was closed off. She wasn’t sure if it mattered, but she made a note of it and moved on, setting it in the pile she’d dubbed ‘could be important but probably is not’. It was the smallest of the piles, next to the empty space where she’d put the important stuff and dwarfed by the pile she’d dubbed ‘definitely not important but also kinda interesting’. Most pages went into that pile.

She had a couple issues of the paper left, before she’d reach the exact day the section closed, meaning she was almost at a dead end. Despite her apprehension at hitting dead air and having to find a new mystery to poke her nose into, she pushed onward, avoiding her instinct to slow down.

In the issue dated three days after the school dance and a day after the school had closed the section, she found the full version of the clipping from the picture frame. The article itself wasn’t interesting, aside from the confirmation that there had been an explosion on her school’s grounds and that some students had gone missing. No, the interesting bit lay in the pictures that accompanied it, and the articles that came in the days preceding it, front page.

Dormitory explodes! the headline read in huge lettering. The pictures accompanying the article were a before and after. The clipping had only shown the after, and as she stared at the before, blind energy and disbelief surged through her. Not only did she recognize the ‘before’ photo of the ruined building, but she’d been there. She’d walked around inside a destroyed building. And yet, the picture showing the aftermath of the explosion displayed a mound of rubble with emergency response teams picking through the debris for survivors.

The article from the next day listed the names and photos of five missing students, four male and one female. A couple of the names sounded foreign (one boy was called ‘Mark’, as American a name as she could imagine), but the one that caught her wasn’t that of a foreigner. It wasn’t even the name at all.

Smiling almost knowingly up at her from the tiny picture box was the boy from the building, the singing guy who’d run towards her.

She had to set the paper down, bending down to rest her elbows on the floor in a way that stretched out her spine, the thoughts in her mind spinning fast enough that she barely even noticed the pain. She and Jackson had wandered around in a building that didn’t exist, and she’d seen a boy who had gone missing fifty years prior. He didn’t look a day older, either, even though he was probably old enough to be her dad. Maybe her grandfather, if her ancestors had kids quick enough. Was it a ghost? Could buildings be ghosts? Did ghosts even exist?

“They rebuilt it.” She voiced her thoughts aloud. “That must be. They rebuilt the dorm building, and we walked around in that.” It had to be what had happened. They’d rebuilt that building and shut it down again due to an outcry from the parents of the community and just left it there.

She had to check. She had to make sure she wasn’t crazy.

Snapping pictures of the articles she’d found, she put all the papers back where she’d found them and hightailed it out the door. She wasn’t sure she’d ever moved that fast in her life. Rain beat onto her forehead, almost causing her to pause in her mission to just stand there and listen to the soothing sound of it hitting the pavement and her head, but she instead shook her head and carried on. Investigations waited for no one.

Jackson would be livid, of course, but he had told her to have fun. And she was definitely having fun. The most fun she’d had in a while.

She didn’t need a map to get to the closed secion, and slipped through the hole in the fence that she and Jackson had gone through the first time, hidden behind the sign whose words had faded away long ago, but probably said ‘stay out’. Slipping on loose stones, barely avoiding spraining an ankle, she made her way back to where they’d seen the building for the first time.

Stepping around a faculty building, she stopped dead in her tracks.

The articles were right. The building was gone.

#got7 #got7 au #jackson wang #choi youngjae #im jaebum #got7 jb #mark tuan #park jinyoung #kim yugyeom #bambam #bambam bhuwakul #tags are still so hard i hate it so much #also jinyoung was the one she saw in the building #just in case that wasn't clear

3 notes · View notes

ssnakey-b · 7 years

Text

FF8 Translarison, Part 1: Back to... university?

Hello everybody and welcome to the first part of my comparative look at the English and French translations of Final Fantasy VIII! And yes, I have decided to call it “Translarison”. Because it's a TRANSLAtion compARISON, you see. BTW, I shall use “Translarison” as a tag if you want to search for these specific posts more easily.

The main reason why I wanted to do this was that, being French, I obviously grew up with the French version of the game but a few years ago, out of curiosity, I played through the game in English after hearing about some minor differences, and discovered that there were a lot more than what I'd been told, to the point that certain characters, scenes and even subplots come across completely differently.

On top of that, I just found some of the different choices in translation conventions very interesting, and possibly quite telling of cultural differences, so comparing the two fascinated me.

I also found it interesting that in some aspects, the French version seems to be based off the original Japanese scripts, yet in others, it seems too close to the English one to be a coincidence. It's weird, to the point if I wonder if the translator(s) used both versions as sources (assuming the English translation was already finished while the French one was being worked on). But then, there are also a lot of things that don’t match either (especially when it comes to names), so it’s also interesting to see when the translator took some liberties.

Gonna tell you now, maybe it's just out of nostalgia but overall, I do prefer the French one as the characters generally come out better in my opinion, but there are parts where I like the English one better, and I will of course point those out.

Now, let me explain how I intend to work on this thing. Although this is sort of a Let's Play as I will go through the game and comment on it, it won't be a complete one as I will focus specifically on translation differences and analyse the most interesting ones (as it would get tedious to do so for every line of dialogue where all I'd have to say is “they pretty much say the thing, except in French), so I will skip around. I may give my opinions on random moments from the game if I feel particularly strongly about them, but like I said, it won’t be the focus. If you do want to know my thoughts on every bit of the game, you can read a more traditional Let’s Play I wrote here: http://officialfan.proboards.com/thread/536741/french-version-final-fantasy-finale

I do intend to be as thorough as possible and highlight stuff from side-quests, but obviously I won't be able to cover everything considering there are parts where you need to split the party up and you can't change it until way later. Hm... maybe I could go through those again with different configurations as bonus content. NOT A PROMISE.

It is also important to note that I am an amateur doing this for fun. I apologize in advance if some of my interpretations are a bit off. I can however guarantee that my schedule will never slip as my schedule is “whenever I feel like it”. Keep in mind I'm doing this on my free time and it takes a lot of time to go through it, especially since I have to go through it twice for this.

One last thing before we begin: do not hesitate to ask questions. I just realized I didn't have an “ask” button active on my blog, so I activate just for this, but of course you can also ask me stuff any other way you'd like. Oh, and feel free to request me looking at specific stuff from the game. As much of a ridiculous fanboy as I am for this game, even I don't remember or know everything about it (which is why it remains so fascinating so many years later!), and I probably won't think of re-visiting locations on my own if they aren't tied to a side-quest.

Right, that's enough blabbering, let's get to the actual game!

Nothing to say about the opening cutscene as it is still in English even in the French version, so let’s head straight for the infirmary. Not much different so far, though I do find this bit interesting. When Quistis arrives, in the English version, she says:

But in the French version, she says:

Which translates to “Good lord! I knew it would end badly”. You get the same idea in both versions, that Quistis is used to Squall and Seifer fighting and getting into trouble, I just find it interesting that one version chose to specifically name the characters, whereas the other chose to focus more on Quistis lamenting her students’ behaviour. I should also point out that logically, Quistis must have picked up Seifer first, so the French version makes a bit more sense because, well... of course you knew it’d be him, you must already be aware of what happened.

Also, note how the French version doesn’t have quotation marks. While I think it looks better without them, I can see why the English version does that as it shows more explicitly that the names aren’t part of the dialogue.

The conversation between the two in the hallway is very similar in both versions but there is one thing I find funny:

There’s a line in the English version where Squall says “I am more complex than you think” which is pretty much word-for-word the same in French, but Quistis’ reaction is different. In the English version, she just asks him to tell her more about himself, while the French one, she uses the above line. You see, “complexé” is a word that pretty much means “hung up”, so she’s teasing him about his attitude.

I really like this dynamic between the two because whereas the characters’ angst is usually glorified in other FF games, here Quistis is seeing right through him (with her Laser Eyes!) and is having none of his crap. Also, it’s one of the few times the characters are being a bit more rude than in the English one. Not that Quistis is really being mean, but you get the idea.

On an unrelated note, I never noticed it before but as they pass by, there’s a dude who checks out Quistis and two girls look at Squall and then giggle to themselves. I love little details like that.

Next, we get to the classroom. Still only minor differences, like Quistis saying that “it won’t be a surprise to anyone” that the field test is this afternoon whereas the English version has her mention there have been rumours, which kind of implies that they just drop on the kids that they’re gonna partake in a genuine battle at the last minute.

As any seasoned FF8 player knows, the first thing to do is to pick up our trusty Guardian Forces, Shiva and...

... Golgotha?! Yes, here is the first renaming of the game. Give it a round of applause! It’s an odd one, seemingly a reference to the hill Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on. I guess it’s because the creature has a vaguely crucifix-like shape when it spreads its wings. I have to admit Quetzalcoatl is more fitting as it is a reptilian-looking flying creature, so it’s close to a winged serpent, but I guess Golgotha is less of a pain to pronounce, and it actually fits with the character limit.

Not much else of note aside from the fact that in the Garden Square forum, Almasy is misspelled as Almassy. And considering how much of an ass Seifer is, it seems fitting. Also, one of the students uses the initials J.I in the English version whereas they use O.S. in the French one, and I don’t know why.

Quistis tells us to meet her at the front gate, we leave and bump into Selphie, setting up the romance between the two. Oh wait, no. Don’t know if it was intentional, but I always loved that they played with the old “bump into each other at school” cliché by NOT having the two characters get romantically involved. And it goes to show how overdone it was that even my 11-years-old self was aware of it.

I prefer when Squall is slightly less antisocial so I have him give Selphie a short tour of Balamb Garden University. Yes, Balamb Garden University. In what is in my opinion one of the more interesting minor changes, the Gardens are referred to as universities. And although the other two retain their original names, B-Garden is indeed known as Balamb Garden University (and yes, they keep the name in English), or BGU for short.

I realize that when you think about it, it doesn’t really make sense since they teach children below college age and in fact, considering the max age to apply for SeeD is 20, they wouldn’t have that many college-age students, but I like the more academic-sounding name. Come to think of it, Balamb Garden Academy would probably make more sense. Oh well.

Not that much different regarding the map but I wanted to show off the fact that even on pre-rendered stuff, the text usually is translated, which again is a nice attention to detail (although accents are omitted for some reason, which makes me think perhaps the graphics were updated using a non-European keyboard).

Well, time to look around good old Balamb Garden University. First stop, the quad (or campus, in French), for two odd changes. First, there’s a generic male student who explains that all members of the festival committee have been dispatched around the world. In the English version, he then explains that in spite of Selphie’s enthusiasm, it doesn’t seem likely it’s gonna happen:

But in the French version, he instead says that their task is to solve armed and political conflicts:

And on the same screen is one of the weirder changes. In the English version,Selphie asks Squall if he’s interested in what she’s doing. In the French one, though, she asks if he’s interested in her. But more bizarrely, in the French version, instead of the generic “Interested/not interested” choices, the first option is “a little bit (physically)”.

And in both versions, she then tells him that in that case, he should join the festival committee. Naughty French Selphie, using sex-appeal to get new members! But now, get ready to have your mind blown as we head for the cafeteria and we meet the Disciplinary Committee, because..

... French Fujin can actually use her adult words! In fact, pretty much none of the language tics found in the English version have made it to the French one, so Raijin doesn’t go “ya know?” all the time either and indeed, French Squall doesn’t say “Whatever” either.

And frankly, good riddance as far as I’m concerned. I assume it’s something the English translator(s) added and I hate it. It might be funny for five minutes, but it completely kills characterization and I hate losing development for the sake of “OH! HE SAID IT! IT KEEPS GETTING FUNNIER AND NOT ANNOYING AT ALL THE MORE YOU DO IT!”

But if you thought THAT was crazy, hold on to your underwear because here comes another bombshell:

BOOM!! Hot dogs have been replaced with pretzels! Or as we like to call it where they actually come from (and yes, I do live in France but my region also has them as a local dish), bretzels. With a B. Apparently, in the original Japanese, it was a special kind of bread instead. No idea how many more localizations there are. It’s a bit weird that they went with pretzels too, as it’s very specific to some areas of Europe, whereas hot-dogs are also famous here (which lends credence to my theory that the French version was made independently from the English one).

Anyway, take a minute to pick up the shattered pieces of your world and let’s continue. You know these faculty guys with their rice hats? Well for starters, they’re referred to as “templier” (which means “templar”) in the French version. Also, there’s one hanging around the library and when you talk to him, in the English version, he calls Squall a “problem child” whereas in the French version, he calls him “the famous Squall”.

I kind of like the English version a little bit more, if only for how bluntly tactless the guy is being (why, he’s almost as bad as Squall!), and yeah... “problem child” is putting it lightly.

Inside the library is another small change that I find amusing. You know this short-haired girl near the draw point?

Well, in the French version, she says she wishes they had “olé-olé” books, which... is a term that can’t really be translated directly but basically means “naughty” or “smutty”. So yeah, if you thought the English version was being too subtle for you when she said she likes “romance novels”, you can rest assured she absolutely means the Harlequin kind of “romance”.

But enough lolligagging, let’s head for the Fire Cavern, which in French has become the Mines de Soufre, or Sulfur Mines. And here we already have one of the most interesting changes in the game. You know how in the English version, there is this dialogue:

Well, in the French version, it goes like this:

That’s right, the French version goes in a completely different direction, almost the exact opposite, in fact. Now, I remember reading that in the Japanese version, Quistis says something very similar to the English one and Squall thinks to himself “you’re a TEACHER”, meaning he doesn’t approve of how lightly she’s taking her role, so it’s probably a misinterpretation on the French translator’s part, but I love that version.

For starters, I think it speaks volume about Quistis. It highlights her insecurities about being a teacher, and students questioning her credibility due to her young age and lack of experience, while being oblivious to the fact that... yeah, being all alone with an attractive woman about their age , whose weapon of choice is a whip, would distract quite a few students. Hell, it seems to suggest she doesn’t even realize how absurdly beautiful she is. In every version, she deflects it by saying she’s only joking, but still, it seems there is more truth to it than she lets on.

But it also gives Squall more personality, showing that for his cold demeanour, he’s not a robot and he isn’t insensitive to an attractive woman’s charm,and he even shows a bit of a sense of humour. That shows a surprisingly large amount of layers on both characters for such a small bit of dialogue.

Also, the English version makes Quistis come across as more flirtatious, whereas the French one makes her seem more naive, despite her efforts to look like a tough instructor. And this shows one of the major differences between the English and French versions as the kind of romantic subtext between the two is very much downplayed here.

I like that a lot because while many people like to think that Quistis does have romantic feelings for Squall, or at least used to have some, I always found it very refreshing to have two fictional characters of opposite genders who work together and are just friends.

That’s not to say she wouldn’t question her feelings and whether or not they truly are platonic at some point, it seems unlikely that it would never come up, but I find the idea that her relationship with Squall is more friendly or sisterly a lot more interesting than yet another romantic sub-plot.

There isn’t really anything else to mention for the rest of the test so I think I’ll end this part here. And next time, we’ll be taking a look at the assault on Dollet!

I hope you all enjoyed this first part. Please feel free to comment and discuss and once again, do not hesitate to ask questions. Oh and if you liked it, a reblog would be nice to help spread the word. Thank you very much and see you soon!

71 notes · View notes

entergamingxp · 4 years

Text

Riot Games’ Project A is called Valorant, and it plays like a Counter-Strike killer • Eurogamer.net

If there can be only one thing taken from my time at Riot Games’ vast, lavishly fitted LA campus, it’s that the mega-developer is desperately keen to prove they know what they’re doing. Riot’s pitch for Valorant, its upcoming tactical shooter seemingly named after a kind of industrial carpet cleaning fluid, is one based almost entirely on competence: the game will have the best infrastructure, the best attention to detail, the most committed, communicative ongoing support, and the most rigorously balanced gameplay of anything like it – even if it comes at the cost, seemingly, of character and heart and anything else like it. I’ve played about four hours and moment-to-moment it really is brilliant, right across the board. Exacting, oddly approachable, tense. The potential is there for Valorant to be the pinnacle of tactical shooters – but it also feels a bit back-to-front. This is a game that exists purely to excel, like the child of two parents who only agreed to conceive so their kid could ace its homework. A game that’s very good at doing what other games have already done, but better.

Valorant

Developer: Riot Games

Publisher: Riot Games

Platform: PC

Availability: Summer 2020

Perhaps that impression is just a result of the way in which Riot has chosen to introduce Valorant. At times it’s felt almost comically self-conscious, the developer obsessively anticipating every gripe and grizzle before it comes about. Recall the initial teaser reveal, amidst Riot’s multitude of ten-year anniversary celebrations, where lead producer Anna Donlon talked at length about “Project A”‘s ambition to eliminate such essential woes as “peeker’s advantage”, and bless the world with 128-tick servers. Sexy! Dedicated servers are old news, it seems. The schtick of schmucks. Such is the world of games, in this time of subreddit megathreads and so many direct lines from community to creator, that one of the largest developers on earth announces a massive new game by correcting their audience’s complaint-jargon before they’ve even used it.

From the moment you equip your knife to move faster, you know Valorant will feel incredibly familiar to Counter-Strike fans.

Still, Valorant is impressive, and as weird as it is to lead with the technical firefighting stuff, so is that. If you buy it, Riot’s promises are hugely encouraging. In opening presentations at the studio, developers cited twelve games as inspiration, ranging from the obvious, like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to Crossfire and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (curiously, and perhaps cheekily: no mention of Overwatch), and the game itself feels like a surgical piecing together of the best of them. Each game’s minor gripe or community grumble extracted and eliminated before it ever came about. To describe it in brief, imagine Counter-Strike in a just slightly more colourful world, with better attention to the little touches, from a nice little ping system to slightly more playfulness in the maps, with things like fixed teleporters allowing for baiting and flanking. Above all though, its standout addition is the highly strategic abilities, each tied to your characters (“Agents”) that sit between the rigid grounding of Rainbow Six Siege’s Operators and the more cartoonish skills of Overwatch.

The abilities themselves are quite Overwatch though, as much as Riot wants to avoid saying the name. The main difference is the intention: with Valorant the aim is to be a “tactical shooter first”, with everything else in service of that. That means all the Agents still deal damage primarily through shooting (disappointingly, with real-world guns, which lead designer Trevor Romleski told me was in order to preserve a sense of inherent, “intuitively satisfying” feel and recognisability), and Agents’ abilities are always in service of that, whether it’s through zoning, or scouting, or debuffing, or just bluntly walling off entrances. Even the Agents that feel especially out-of-this-world or Overwatch-y, such as the Hanzo-like Sova (renamed from Hunter mid-way through my time there), who can fire off a scouting pulse arrow and a larger ultimate that can pass through walls, still rely on gunplay first – and the same guns as everyone else.

Combining abilities ostensibly for one purpose – like that green wall – with position and tactical play like this will be essential for the more advanced players.

Those guns are also at the centre of the in-game “economy”, which is very similar in concept to Counter-Strike again, or indeed the gold-based shopping of League of Legends. Games are played in a first-to-twelve format, which takes a good half an hour, or longer if it’s a close one. Matches are attack versus defence, with one team trying to plant a bomb and the other trying to prevent them. The maps, of which there’ll be four at launch, Riot says, will have a mix of two or three points to attack and defend. You win a round by either killing all five of the enemy team members or successfully planting a bomb and seeing it through to detonation – or defusing it once planted, if you’re on defence. And you play the game in chunks, so you’ll be defending for several rounds then attacking for several and, coming back to the economy, it’s between these individual rounds where you have a chance to buy weapons, armour and – crucially – more charges of your abilities. That economy is intended to be “team-based”, so the better your team does in a round the more money you have to spend before the next one, on those bigger and better guns and the like. In a nice touch that you’d hope would encourage teamwork, you can also ping a weapon from the menu and another teammate can buy it for you with a single click, helping the wealth trickle down from that one ringer on the squad.

As an aside on modes themselves, it’s just this one at launch but Romleski did say the team was “interested in exploring” other, faster or more casual modes, and that the core one’s length may change slightly if the community deems it necessary. Anna Donlon also added it’s “definitely” on the team’s list. “The team has been very focused on the competitive part… The questions we’ve been kind of debating amongst ourselves is: would you hold that back to wait to establish the more casual mode or would you put competitive mode out for the audience we think it’s for, start building that audience and start building a community – and then also at the same time be working on something that could be maybe a little bit more broad reaching or something that you would just want to play to decompress? … Do we wait to launch the game so we have that? I think the answer is probably no. Do we prioritise that work? I think the answer there is probably yes.”

Maps are crisp and readable, but that’s at the expense of them looking a little flat.

Looking for lore

Character and lore might not be the first thing on people’s minds when a hardcore shooter launches, but it’s been a key part of games like Overwatch’s success in particular. So why the silence on that compared to everything else?

Valorant creative director David Nottingham said he’s “a big believer in environmental storytelling”, and so the plan is to introduce it in-game, rather than via the “incredible” CG trailers of games like Overwatch – although they may do something similar “at some point”.

One in-game example: “You’re playing a map and you’re like, “Oh, there’s there’s a billboard up,” it’s maybe a sort of recruitment poster for Kingdom, right? Kingdom is a big faction, a company that exists in this world… and then you come back on a Tuesday and you log in and you’re like “Woah!” – someone’s gone in and defaced it. So for people who are paying attention it’ll be like, “Oh, there’s actually dialogue happening, and things happening within the world that I’m seeing play out in front of me.” And so for those who want to discover that stuff it will deepen their understanding.”

Back to the economy, and successfully gaming it will be what sets the top players apart from the merely skilled. I’d expect deep strategies and metas and all that malarkey to appear pretty fast around what you spend your first bits of cash on and who buys what for the rest of the team. The other side of that, of course, is that I expect the ubiquitous lone wolf players will probably refuse to share. Playing in the cocoon of Riot’s in-house “PC Bang”, on teams of five who speak the same language – and are happy to even use the game’s built-in voice chat in the first place – it would be easy to say that Valorant feels wonderfully tactical, with cooperation and character synergy baked in. The reality is that while, yes, the Agents’ abilities synergise quite beautifully at times, I’m sure that’s also down to having the right people to play with. The ringer on our team was Riot’s David “Phreak” Turley, for instance – a well-known professional League of Legends commentator who mains the support role when he plays. In other words: an unusually supportive, communicative environment off the bat.

Without a squad of chatty friends or some particularly good luck with online matchmaking, it’s very easy to anticipate an issue with toxic communication coming from such an incredibly tense, competitive game with both text and voice chat. As much as it might seem like a laboured point, this is something that many see as inseparable from League of Legends, and that Riot has already had to work enormously hard at combating. It’s arguably failed to really fix the issue, ten years on, and that’s despite League only featuring text chat in-game. Voice chat’s issues, most notably with the exclusionary effect it has on female players in particular, have been well documented. When I asked about this, game director Joe Ziegler promised to draw from Riot’s “centralised efforts” at battling the issue and apply some “specific salves around certain features,” but wouldn’t go into more detail during our chat. You can read more of his thoughts in our full interview with Ziegler and Valorant’s lead producer, Anna Donlon, but a suggestion would be to axe the voice and text chat altogether and go with Apex Legends’ nuanced ping system (something League of Legends itself made good early strides with). It’s also worth noting Riot’s already promised to improve on the pings they have. As Romleski put it, the implementation I saw was “not the grand vision” of the ping system: “we want to make sure players are comfortable if they don’t use voice or they don’t [feel confident in] calling out all the right information at the correct times.” Fingers crossed.

This is one of the zones where you’ll need to plant or defuse a bomb. Riot placed huge emphasis on its work with verticality, sightlines, cover, map-knowledge and more, and they’re all evident here.

Toxicity notwithstanding, Valorant’s intense competitiveness is also one of its greatest strengths. If you do get a good team, or just a good group of pals to play it with, I found there was a remarkable thrill to most of the rounds I played, especially so when we swept ahead to lengthy leads before almost throwing matches at the final round, or clawed matches back from the brink. Games frequently built to a natural climax of tension, and some higher-level plays – last-gasp, “clutch” one-versus-three kills or team-wide strategies coming together – can be incredibly satisfying. The game feels built to surface those particularly vivid, Rainbow Six Siege-style moments in particular, when there’s one player left and somehow they pull it off, turning things around with nothing but spit and hope and a little John McClane gumption.

It’s hard to pin down a single, quantifiable thing that brings that sort of heightened tension about, but Riot would argue it’s all in the basics. To go right back to their initial pitch, this is a game built on competency first, and apparently what that means is a tangible difference to all the little things. The art team emphasised their creation of a “clean zone”, for instance, where anything within the playable height range of the maps was slightly more muted and stripped back, whilst the areas above (roofs, skylines, and the like) was allowed to pop. Other elements are illustrated in accordance with a “readability hierarchy”, where Agents stand out above the playable space, which stands out above the visible parts of your gun, which is above the non-playable stuff altogether. Cover, on the maps themselves, is allocated with great precision, forming a curated spaghetti of “long lanes” of clear sniper paths and intentionally obstructed sightlines. All characters have equal-sized hitboxes. There’s tagging, and specific walls you can shoot through, and on and on and on it goes with a seemingly infinite string of minutiae that Riot has thought about (and talked about) at exhaustive length.

This balcony, and its longer sightlines to and from the room you’re trying to attack ahead, is a key spot for snipers.

Above all of that, though, is a technical effort that on paper sounds quite remarkable. As we all know by now, Riot boldly claims to have eliminated peekers’ advantage, something that I’d expect no-one but the most ardent of CS:GO nerds to have heard of or cared about until now, but makes a demonstrable difference to how long-term players will play the game. In most shooters like Valorant, you can briefly pop out from behind a wall to “peek” at what’s going on and quickly dart back with the shimmy of a button, and do so with no risk of getting picked off, because the delay between you performing the peek and the enemy seeing you is too high. You’re back behind the wall before it’s humanly possible to react and shoot. It’s become a time-old part of playing tactical shooters at a decent level, but in Valorant it no longer flies. Riot seems to have tackled this entirely by cracking open one of those League of Legends coffers, that I imagine they have lying around the place, and simply throwing vast amounts of money at the problem.

To get briefly technical, as I understand it Riot claims to have struck a deal with internet service providers that will route internet traffic directly from you to Riot’s servers, via service called Riot Direct, which it says means an average of 35ms ping for at least 70 percent of players at launch. I can feel the eyes glazing over, don’t worry, so in basic terms: much less lag, regardless of where you are. At the top end of the scale, competitive players and streamers that have been known to move across the continent of North America to get physically closer to servers, so that their ping is low enough for high-level play, can breathe a sigh of relief. For myself and most others, it’s just another quiet reassurance.

As well as the peeker-busting 128-tick servers and promise of super-stable ping for (almost) everyone, Riot’s also built Valorant to be playable on a huge amount of machines. David Strailey, who works at Riot in the netcode and software engineering side of things for Valorant, said that a $120, ten-year-old laptop with an i3-370M CPU (which equates to 88 percent of current League of Legends players) would be able to play Valorant at 30 frames-per-second, while 66 percent of LoL players could play it at 60. Slides were used to show off some apparently remarkable strides to improving the accuracy of hit registration. Riot even showed footage supporting a promise to upscale players with low FPS and lag, through some special server magic, so that even if they jittered about and jumped all over the place on their own screen their movement would appear entirely smooth on yours.

Wind all that back into the important stuff – the gameplay – and it raises interesting questions around where true originality and fun really comes from. Sometimes players coming up with clever ways to work around things that are technically problems or imbalances can actually lead to the most interesting gameplay. To go back to peekers once again, in Romleski’s words: “Let’s say we’re playing against somebody who’s peeking, you might ‘jiggle peek’ yourself as like a counter-way to deal with it, and I think it’s good that players are being ingenuitive and trying to come up with ways to deal with it.” The difference in Valorant, he says, is that Riot wants to build the “tools” for breaking sightlines and using space to your advantage into the game intentionally, so you can “find your own way to break that puzzle of some people holding that position,” rather than relying on server delay to do it for them.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/03/riot-games-project-a-is-called-valorant-and-it-plays-like-a-counter-strike-killer-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=riot-games-project-a-is-called-valorant-and-it-plays-like-a-counter-strike-killer-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

0 notes

thefoodiesfithome · 5 years

Text

I’m SO excited to share that we’re coming to you live from our new patio! *queue the band and parade*

We weren’t originally planning to take on any more larger scale projects this season given that we not only moved, but got our fence, installed five ceiling fans, changed out 3 kitchen/dining room lights and made the switch to a riding mower. But the cards aligned for us and here we are.

The timing and price were right, and we went for it. Our patio guy, Tony Farrell, came highly recommended to us by not one, not two but three unrelated sources, so we knew we had to look into him and entertain the idea of getting this big project done prior to the weather turning. Plus, with the addition we’ve moved our grill and smoker back here so we’ll definitely be using both of them well into the winter months. We’re the type to still grill in the chill 🙂

Picking the colors and design

We knew nothing about stamped concrete aside from the fact it’s concrete that is stamped to look more like pavers. Pavers allow in weeds between them (read: extra work) and are super expensive, and regular concrete slabs just don’t have the character we want.

#gallery-0-13 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-13 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-13 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-13 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Thankfully, Tony brought us booklets with information on all our options. When he stopped by to drop these off we discussed overall sizing with him live. We decided on a 20 ft x 20 ft square design, offset to the right when you walk out the back door. After taking some us-time we knew pretty quickly we liked the Ashlar stamp for the pattern because of how big the patio would be and because we didn’t want anything circular – we’re geometric and modern all the way at our house. Tony recommended the Majestic Ashlar based on our large 20 ft x 20 ft size, versus the Ashlar Slate which was the same print but in smaller stamps.

The colors took us a little more time to finalize because you need to pick a conrete color and a release color, and we went back and forth quite a bit. The concrete color is the color of the mix and the release color is sprayed on top of the finished product to give the print an even more dimensional textured look. We always knew the final product would be gray-based, but there were a LOT of gray options in the pamphlets so it took a hot minute to settle. The winning combo turned out to be a softer Gull Gray concrete and a darker Storm Gray release color. The Storm Gray color complemented our siding color especially well so we knew it’d match nicely, and with a slab of concrete this big, a darker color would make a better statement. While I’m not even sure patios fade (do they??), if they do, I figured we were also better off going darker so it didn’t lighten too greatly over time.

Before

Pretty basic, yea?

My biggest before pet peeve was the stoop. Why is it so small and unbalanced? #woof

Construction

The crew came at 6:45am on Saturday morning… an hour I didn’t previously know existed on a Saturday. Thankfully, all our neighbors are up even earlier thanks to their tiny humans, because we felt bad waking anyone up that early on a long weekend.

#gallery-0-14 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-14 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-14 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-14 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Early steps included surveying the perimeter and jackhammering out that unbalanced stoop. #YASS It was pretty loud so Bickell hid upstairs while Kev and I tried not to stare. The one guy used the hose to keep sparks from building… interesting stuff for home owners nerds like us!

#gallery-0-15 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-15 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-15 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-15 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Scheduling Hiccup

Kevin’s aunt was coming in from Florida to go to Frankfort Fall Fest with my mother in law and myself the day the crew was able to come and do the job. While I really wanted to be there to check things out every step of the way, I also didn’t want to cancel long standing plans (for one of the most fun events all season, nonetheless).

The scheduling wasn’t the most opportune for us, but we also understand the crew can’t move their jobs on our accord, so we went ahead with the Saturday install and Kevin took several photos for me so I could be in the moment even at the fest, he’s such a gem!

#gallery-0-16 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-16 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-16 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-16 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Change of Plans

We wanted the patio to start a few feet beyond the house to leave room for mulch, stones to place the grill and smoker, decor, etc. but that brought some questions about how we’re going to make a gorgeous focal stoop work. The patio is offest to the right when you walk out the backdoor also, so the step would not be your typical wrap-around-three-sides like I’ve seen in a lot of neighbor’s yards or in the pamphlets, so I was having serious trouble imaging what our end product would look like.

I described in [probably WAY too much] detail what I was concerned about to Tony and he didn’t even break a sweat. He said he knew exactly how to make a focal piece that worked with mulch on two sides, covers the full length of the sliding door, and has a patio on just one side. The only catch was, we’d want to either move the patio over so it didn’t quite reach the end of the house so it could go a foot or two beyond the stairs on the far side, or we’d want to extend the patio a little so it still reaches the end of the house and extends past the stairs for a solid look.

While no one loves spending more money on a project Tony said he’d only add the cost for the extra concrete it’d take because he really believed we’d want that look in the end, so how could we go any other way? I threw up my hands and let the professionals work their magic. It’s all you can do sometimes. But I’ll tell you what – it was the right call.

Spoiler alert: it turned out MAGNIFICANT.

After

The photos don’t even do it justice (probably because these were taken super quick after the finish so we hadn’t cleaned up at all)! The second photo above really shows you where the extra concrete past the stairs paid off. You wouldn’t want your patio just plain ending at the doorway and shoving the beautiful, focal point staircase into a corner, essentially.

Tony gave a solid recommendation and Kevin and I are thrilled we put in the relatively little bit extra to make it truly perfect. We’re very big on doing things right the first time to avoid regrets or going back and ultimately spending more to fix it.

We really mapped things out ahead so there wasn’t much that went array or much extra spending aside from the slight extension past the door. But as always, I recommend budgeting a little more than you expect as a just-in-case fund so you’re not left sweating relatively smaller decisions.

We also highly recommend Tony Farrell for your patio/paving needs if you’re in the Chicagoland area. Contact me for his info or shoot me a DM on Instagram. His web pressence isn’t big but he is very responsive via phone and text.

What’s next?

Since the install on August 31 we’ve purchased a few patio lounge chairs (on suuuper clearance), edged the entire perimeter of the patio with a mulch bed and lining for planting, and moved our outdoor furniture and equipment to it’s permanent backyard home. All on the DIY plan. I can hardly wait to show you the progress we made in just one quick week!

The landscaping and decor is it’s own story and will be coming Friday this week as part two of the patio saga. Talk soon!

Stamped Concrete Patio Reveal I'm SO excited to share that we're coming to you live from our new patio! *queue the band and parade*

0 notes

operationrainfall · 5 years

Text

Title TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble Developer Area 35 Publisher Area 34 Release Date July 11th, 2019 Genre Strategy Platform PC, Nintendo Switch Age Rating T for Teen – Fantasy Violence, Language Official Website

I should start this by mentioning how utterly excited I was by the prospect of the first TINY METAL. When I first saw it at PAX, and realized this was a true spiritual successor to a series I had long loved, Advance Wars, I was stoked. Even though I didn’t review the first game, I did play through it, and while not perfect, I felt it was a great start. So the sequel held a good amount of interest for me. Would this be a step up from the original, cementing itself as the successor to Advance Wars? The quick answer is no, but the long answer is it’s complicated. So join me as I address what TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble did right, and what it did wrong.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Full Metal Rumble seemingly takes place not long after the events of the first TINY METAL. I hedge with “seemingly” since I honestly barely remember the plot from the first game, other than something about lost technology and an evil mind-controlling clown. Events start with Nathan hunting the remnants of the Dinoldan army, which are apparently AI controlled puppets, despite looking mostly human. The sci fi nerd in me wished they had some distinctive robot trait if they were a drone army, but alas the only thing that identifies them as different are their glowing eyes, which made me think more mutant than robot. Putting that tangent aside, the story is rarely the most important part of a strategy game like this, but I prefer if there’s a solid effort made. Sure, Advance Wars wasn’t known for a brilliant plot, but it did have very eclectic characters with distinct personalities. The same goes for WarGroove, which had some really colorful personalities and a solid, albeit formulaic, plot. Sadly, none of those traits are in TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble. There’s some subplot about Wolfram hunting for her supposedly dead brother Ragnar, some nonsense about nanomachines and mutterings about a greater intelligence at work, but if so, it was never revealed in the game. So if you were hoping for some grand plot for this sequel, put that hope aside. It’s not utterly horrible, there’s some cool ideas, they just never coalesce in a meaningful way.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sadly, the same can be said for the writing in this TINY METAL sequel. They make an effort at relevant banter and dialogue, but at best it came across like a poorly written anime. Cause and effect are completely divorced and random things happen that only the characters understand. No character gets any significant development, and some barely show up, like Tsukumo. There were at least two separate instances where I thought I knew exactly what was happening, and then the plot pulls a complete 360, or worse, seems to totally disregard important developments. A good example is one seemingly heinous betrayal that turns out to be a nothing burger. I know I said most people don’t play this genre for the story, and while that’s largely true, I can’t help but expecting a better written adventure than this. But now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, let’s move onto the meat of the game, which is how TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble actually plays.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The best thing the original TINY METAL had going for it was how it emulated the mechanics from Advance Wars. This one does a good job, and actually adds some new stuff to the mix. There are new units, such as the Archelon, which is essentially an APC with a machine gun, or the Viper, a mobile anti-artillery that can move and attack in the same turn. Some of my favorite new units were from the Mecha class, which were all essentially humanoid robots of mass destruction. Think a walking tank, and you have the right idea. They’re great since they can traverse environmental hazards Metals cannot, such as mountains, even though they aren’t quite as powerful. Besides the new units, there are also some new mechanics. One good example are the Commander units. Not to be mistaken with Hero units, which are slightly upgraded versions of normal units you can deploy, Commander units take a page directly from WarGroove. These are massively powerful units with one downside – if they die, you lose the mission and have to start over. Had I not seen it done first in another game, I probably would have been more impressed, but that doesn’t mean these units aren’t useful. One cool distinction is that Commander units can be various types, depending on where you are in the story. An example is how Wolfram pilots a Blitz Mecha in one mission and a Gallant Mecha in others. They are easily the best units in the entire game, and I felt they lent a bit of extra spice to the mix. Commanders even have special abilities you can use after you’ve filled up your meter by dealing or taking enough damage, such as increasing the move distance or attack power for your units for a turn. Unfortunately, I still can’t shake the similarity to recent games in the genre.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

One improvement to the combat is now whenever you build a new unit, you can easily see what they’re most and least effective against. That dispels one of my biggest complaints from the first game, that it’s not super clear which units work best to counter certain threats. They even have a little window that appears when you are selecting a unit to clarify what they can attack. My primary complaint is the game never tells you this, and I literally found out when I was more than two thirds done with the game. That said, there are many other tutorials in the first few missions, and while informative, they tend to drag on a bit long, especially for fans returning to the series. But if you ever get too lost, there’s a handy Metalpedia that gives a brief rundown for what various units do. I just wish I could select a unit on the map and bring up that same description. You can’t even pause the game to see the map, which was a big letdown. I know there’s Fog of War everywhere in TINY METAL, but I should be able to see units once I’ve dispersed them.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Another change is that you actually have to keep track of your ammo and fuel reserves for all mechanical units. I thought I wouldn’t like this feature, but I actually really grew to appreciate it. It made my moves more important, and added a new layer of strategy. The AI for enemy units in Full Metal Rumble also seems a bit better. It uses Focus Fire MUCH more often, surrounding you to deal more damage, but it also does stupid shit like having Infantry attack Gunships, which almost always results in Infantry being massacred. I also noticed that my AI opponents rarely used their own abilities and seemed to shy away from attacking my Commander units. For reference, I did play the game on Normal, so maybe it’s not as incompetent on harder difficulties. Just don’t make the mistake of taking it entirely for granted, cause the Dinoldan army is more than capable of kicking your ass if you’re not treating it like a real threat.

More Metal on Page 2 ->

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Most missions in the game can be beaten one of two ways – either kill every enemy unit or take their HQ. I usually preferred to go for their HQ, since on many missions your opponent has factories and airports that can continually build new units. However, there are some missions where they mix things up. Some missions you have to survive for a set number of days, inflict X amount of damage to enemy finances, or kill a powerful VIP unit. Sometimes you won’t have any way to produce more units, and have to kill all your foes on the map. There are also some missions that have optional objectives, but they aren’t required to win. They just offer an alternate path to victory. Overall, the combat in the game is the highlight, but it’s not without its problems. One is that despite the variety I just mentioned and the combat being well-balanced, the flow of the game feels incredibly repetitive. I also wish selecting a unit for attack would give a preview of how much damage I might take, instead of just how much I will dish out and critical chance percentage. That said, I do like how the pause screen displays your Commander’s abilities and proficiency. It’s helpful knowing Wolfram’s infantry is more powerful, or that all of Tsukumo’s units deal more damage, but cost more money to build.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On the aesthetic design portion of the game, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. The music is very muted and unremarkable, but the art is top notch for the design. All the Commanders look great, and a new one in particular I was rather fond of, Nora, has crazy orange hair, hates talking with people and pilots the new Mecha units with ease. There’s some really cool cinematics that occur at various points throughout the story, and they look great, though for the life of me I don’t understand why they have no sound. Unfortunately, the level design is pretty lackluster, with the same colors and layout from mission to mission, with minor variations like desert and snow stages. Hell, there’s not even weather effects, which would have gone a long way to impressing me. There’s also some weird graphical glitches like overlap and layers not displaying all at once. Oh, and though the music isn’t great, the sound effects highlight the battles nicely. The boom and ratatat of cannon fire and machine guns are music to my ears, even if the random snippets units say whenever they’re selected gets old.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I hate to return to the writing of the game, but I feel it’s necessary. The writing is, sadly, incredibly vanilla, and unfortunately it has plenty of grammar mistakes. The way the text displays at times is also odd. Sometimes it doesn’t fit well or even goes outside the text boxes. Worse is that I don’t care about most of the characters or the plot. It all just felt really formulaic and uninspired, at least to me. And even after playing the game for 27 hours to beat Full Metal Rumble, I honestly have no real idea about the motivation for the enemy forces at all. I kept expecting some sinister force to reveal itself as the mastermind, much like in the first game, but it never happens. In it’s place, we’re left with faceless, emotionless AI puppets, and that’s truly disappointing.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Now let’s move onto the part of reviews I hate, which is talking about glitches and quirks. There are several I encountered in my time with TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble. It’s possible they’re isolated to the Switch version I played, but on the off chance they aren’t, I figured I should mention them as a PSA. One of the less problematic ones occurred with the new autopilot feature. As you progress from mission to mission, you move a plane around the world map. You can select autopilot to automatically move to the next stage, and that’s great. What’s less great is once I tried it and instead chose not to enter the next level, and suddenly my plane started flying around in circles. Another quirk is that after you supply a unit with more fuel and ammo, if you hover your cursor over it, the unit shows as still empty. But if you move the cursor and come back, it instead shows as refilled. One time I attacked a unit, and instead of going to the regular battle animation, that unit just exploded on the map. Another time in Skirmish, I was moving around and got ambushed by a hidden enemy. Instead of just stopping my progress, like it should have, my unit was dealt damage without any accompanying combat animation. A more prevalent problem is the blurring visual effect that happens quite often, including whenever you instigate a battle. But easily the worst glitch I encountered is the following: on multiple occasions, easily more than a dozen, I selected an attack target and initiated my attack, and instead my unit ended their turn. In a game where every move is key to victory, that’s a giant problem. And believe it or not, those weren’t all the weird incidents I encountered, just the more noteworthy ones. I know TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble has been updated a couple times since release, but these are all issues that need to be patched ASAP.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In the end, It just didn’t feel like Area 35 tried anything that dramatic in this sequel, just more of the same with some minor upgrades, and taking ideas from games that did it better. TINY METAL was born in the shadow of Advance Wars, and sadly, Full Metal Rumble never steps out of that shadow. I know that sounds harsh, and much as it pains me to say, I don’t know how else the next game can improve without criticism. Because I honestly still like TINY METAL, I just expect much more from it. That said, for $14.99, you get a lot of game for your money. I spent almost 30 hours just on Story mode alone, and there’s a lot more to do, such as Skirmish, Multiplayer and many, many goodies you can unlock with in-game currency. There’s also labs you can find in Story mode to unlock optional side missions. And if you are a perfectionist, each mission has optional conditions you can achieve to get more points. If you’re a fan of strategy games, TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble might still be worth a look. But if you’re a stickler and want a better adventure, there are far better options available right now.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3″]

Review Copy Provided by Publisher

REVIEW: TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble Title TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble

#Area 34 #Area 35 #Full Metal Rumble #nintendo switch #oprainfall #Review #Tiny Metal

1 note · View note

schirdotblog · 5 years

Text

The best games I played in 2018

That's what these lists really are, right? Just a list of the best things you played in a year.

I've been keeping track of what I've been playing, and it looks like I played somewhere in the vicinity of 215 games in 2018. I didn't finish most of the games I played, for obvious reasons, but I want to go over some of the better ones I played last year.

I think crowning any one game as being the best of the year is kind of dumb, and limiting it to just 10 means ignoring a lot of stuff that was equally good. I’m just going to talk about a bunch of games I liked in no particular order, and I hope that’s alright.

WHOLEHEARTED RECOMMENDATIONS

WEST OF LOATHING

Two years running now, West of Loathing remains one of the best games out there. It's the king of comedy in games. The jokes are masterfully crafted and there's more options to approach situations than just about anything else on the market that's even slightly worth checking out. I mean, they're so committed to the jokes that they're selling the game for $11.00 instead of $10.99 just because of a running gag (11 dollars? That's absurd. It's not even funny!).

I wish I had more to say about West of Loathing since it's the game I spent the second-most time on in 2018, but it's the sort of comedy where the jokes rely on the particulars of the phrasing and it sounds lame if you describe the jokes in any way other than the way they're told in the game. It's very experiential.

I'm looking forward to the West of Loathing DLC that should be coming out relatively soon. I think that Jick said that that's mostly finished on the most recent Podcast of Loathing.

Go play West of Loathing if you haven't already. It's quite possibly my favorite game of 2017 and 2018.

EVERBLUE 2

I really wish Everblue would get a remaster or a rerelease. It's so good. I mean, it's rough around the edges, but it's a really solid 'chill out and explore' sort of game. I think that the games press of today is a bit less stupid than the games press of 2002, and gamers today would have an easier time understanding what Everblue's trying to do.

Everblue 2 is a diving game where you hunt ruins for treasure, take pictures of fish, and help out villagers in a small town while competing against a big diving organization. If the game were made today by different people, there'd probably be a lot more cinematography and/or visual novel-esque cutaways. There's not, and a bit more art and making the characters bigger on screen probably would've helped sell the story bits and gotten people to feel more emotional than the relatively small characters and understated text boxes.

But, as it is, I think that lack of cinematography and overdramatization helps to give the game a really understated aesthetic. It's like the game's saying "look, just go diving and appreciate the ocean. Human drama's relatively small in the grand scheme of things, and what really matters is finding something you love and pursuing it aggressively." I mean, it feels a little bit off to navigate through the town. The town's done in a relatively static point-and-click sort of style. Moving a cursor around with an analogue stick feels a little bit off and makes me wish I was back in the diving section. And that's the point. The ocean is vast and huge and wonderful, in the game's eyes, and if you're playing as a diver then you'd want to just get back in the ocean ASAP. All the characters are small on the screen to help communicate how small and less-than-relevant all the drama is to the main character. Everyone else in the scene is going off about how "oh no, the evil corporation bribed one of the Amigos to get ahead of you in finding the treasure" but there's no cinematography to any of it so the feeling you get is just like "Yeah, but they suck at diving and I'm obviously going to get there before they do." You'll feel that way because it's a video game, but since the character's a preternaturally gifted diver, I'd believe that the character feels that way as well, even though they don't talk much.

Everblue 2 was surprisingly good, and I really enjoyed my time with it.

TETRIS EFFECT

Apparently there are people writing off Tetris Effect because it's Tetris. That's really weird to me because Tetris Effect is really good Tetris. I mean, I played a few different versions of Tetris in 2018 and Tetris Effect is by far the standout among them. If there's ever been a case for the value of sound engineers being closely involved with the design process, it's probably Tetris Effect. The subtle animation touches, the dynamic aleatoric music, the particle effects that are overblown but not in the mobile game way -- all of it mixes together to create one of the best versions of Tetris out there.

SEGA AGES: PHANTASY STAR

There's something about Phantasy Star that gets me. Maybe I'm just feeling nostalgic because Phantasy Star was one of the first RPGs I ever tried, but I feel like there's something that Phantasy Star 1 has that no other RPG I've ever played has ever quite captured. Maybe it's the sci-fi setting. Maybe it's the way that the game moves from top-down overworld movement into first-person dungeon-crawling. Maybe it's just that I really, really like the melody playing on the title screen. Maybe it's the fact that the game is fairly serious for an anime game, with the main character being a noble driven by revenge instead of a high school student being driven by the will of the plot.

Phantasy Star feels like a traditional sort of pulpy sci-fi adventure novel, and I think that's what really strikes me about it. RPGs don't really ever try to tell a straight-laced traditional sci-fi adventure, especially turn-based JRPGs. They didn't back then and still don't now. I mean, just trying to think of other RPGs that do the traditional sci-fi thing -- spaceships, interstellar travel, laser guns, robots -- off-hand, I can think of KOTOR, Mass Effect, Cosmic Star Heroine, Star Ocean, Ar Nosurge uh, maybe System Shock? A Blurred Line? Trials in Tainted Space? It's kind of slim pickings. And that's weird, isn't it? I mean, if we're trying to think of generic medieval fantasy titles, we can go and list off Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Dragon's Dogma, Ni no Kuni, Kingdoms of Amalur, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Age of Decadence, Pillars of Eternity, The Witcher, and so on before needing to reach into the bottom of the barrel for RPG Maker games and porn. It's like everyone writing sci-fi just kind of went "spaceships are lame, let's go do Shadowrun instead", and that's a shame because there's so much room to explore when you have literally the whole universe to work off of.

Genre trappings aside, I think the way that Phantasy Star transitions between top-down and first-person is really interesting at a gameplay level. Top-down exploration, at least at the time, would've evoked lighthearted romps like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, while the first-person dungeon-crawling would've made people feel a bit uncomfortable, since it's so claustrophobic and disorienting, evoking memories of more hardcore games like Wizardry, where traps were commonplace and the difficulty was insane. The contrast between the lighthearted and the deathly serious still comes through, even as this particular rerelease has gone and added automatic mapping and an easy mode that rebalances the game to be more accessible to modern design sensibilities. I could go and be all snide about the easy mode, but the whinging about easy modes is tiresome and the dick-waving around hard modes and difficulty and authenticity in games is dumb. The easy mode cuts out a lot of the grindy bullshit and makes it so that you can finish the game in a reasonable amount of time. It might be a little bit against the original spirit of the design, but it makes the game more enjoyable, and that's an acceptable tradeoff.

I really wish that Phantasy Star were its own genre of games, with new people experimenting with the mechanics every couple of years. Like, when you remember that the only other games that are structured in the same way as Phantasy Star are the NES and SNES Megaten games, right down to being able to talk with the monsters and having a first-person view of the item shopkeeper, you can start to see the edges of one of the most fascinating genres that games never explored. Top-down overworld into first-person dungeon-crawler turn-based RPGs with conversation mechanics has so much room to explore, and it's just intrinsically really gritty and cool. I wish more people would explore it. ... Goddammit, I'm going to have to make it myself, aren't I? I guess I'll go bash my head against that later.

Anyway, Phantasy Star is really great, and honestly one-of-a-kind. The spark of creativity that led to the first Phantasy Star game shines bright, even as the series has fallen off the map.

OCCUPY WHITE WALLS

Occupy White Walls is one of the most distilled social games I've ever run across. The goal of the game is to build an art gallery. Put up a couple of walls, go buy some classical art from the art that's loaded into the game's database, place it on the walls, open your art gallery, and wait to buy more art. The only things to do while you're waiting to get more money to expand your gallery and get more art are fussing around with the art placement, talking to people in the chatroom, and visiting other people's galleries. The fact that there's not some monetization scheme to speed up the timers makes me think that the point of the game is honestly and sincerely to get more people to appreciate fine art. The people in the chatroom are pretty reasonable, as online chatrooms go. Everyone has their own style of organizing their galleries, and their own taste in art. That's interesting to see, and it's honestly just a nice little game.

The game's in Early Access, so this is all subject to change. The game might add microtransactions or ads in a later update, and if they do then just ignore everything I've said.

SLAP CITY

I've been a big fan of Ludosity for a good few years now, and a fan of their cofounder Daniel Remar for even longer. The guys at Ludosity have been improving at making games for a while, -- I think Ittle Dew was the turning point where their output started becoming pretty consistently good -- and Slap City is the point where people have finally started to take notice.

Slap City is a platform fighter in the mold of Super Smash Brothers. Where other games in the genre tried to focus on elements like 'big franchise characters' (Playstation All Stars) or 'the technical fighting of Melee' (Rivals of Aether, Icons: Combat Arena), Slap City focuses on the silly party aspect of Smash, and the part where characters who normally don't fight are given a bigger moveset to fight with everyone else. Slap City captures the essence of what makes platform fighters fun, adds its own twists, and has clearly seen a lot of success because of it. I'm very happy that Ludosity's finally getting the credit and acclaim that they've deserved for years.

VALKYRIA CHRONICLES 4

Valkyria Chronicles 4 is, at present, the best game in the Valkyria series. I was really hesitant to buy this one after the absolute disaster that was Valkyria Revolution, but was pleasantly surprised to find that not only was it not a dumpster fire, it was actually pretty good!

Valkyria Chronicles 4 doesn't do anything especially grand by the standards of the series, but it's refined a lot of the rougher parts of VC1 and goes through a lot of the same ideas. Essentially, it's just Valkyria Chronicles 1 again, but way more polished at the gameplay level and with different characters at a different place at a different point in time. Frankly, that's what the series needed, and I'm going to be really interested to see where they go with Valkyria Chronicles 5. VC4 establishes Valkyria Chronicles as an anthology series, has really started polishing the core mechanics, and the designers are getting better at crafting levels with these systems. If Valkyria Chronicles 5 continues along this path and the designers are given more creative leeway to explore war from a different part of the army, we'll have a genuine classic on our hands.

Valkyria Chronicles 4 wipes the slate clean for the series, but does so in the way that soft reboots ought to. That is, it panders to the existing fans by sticking to the core ideas that made the original good and polishing them. It establishes its own identity, and is worthwhile in its own right, and doesn't lean on the original for a cheap sell. It's a really good game, though they need to distill the experience a bit further for it to be a truly great game.

SUPER CLOUDBUILT

I don't have that much to say about Super Cloudbuilt, but it's still the best 3D platformer out there if you can get past the initial learning curve and avoid the Defiance levels like the plague. I think the designers have learned from some of the weaker parts of their design and I'm really looking forward to seeing what Coilworks does with Sky Tracers. Guys, please buy Sky Tracers when it's released. The guys at Coilworks are getting really good at making 3D platformers but nobody's buying their games. Please buy their games so that they can keep making the best 3D parkour-platformers out there.

GRADIENT ADDICTION I don't know what primordial creative ooze this game came out of, but it’s absolutely delightful. There's a sheer joy of creation underpinning this game that's really hard to dislike.

GLOGWILLETTE Everything I said about Gradient Addiction applies here.

VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE: BLOODLINES Everyone was comparing Vampyr to Bloodlines and it's really difficult to see why they were doing that. I mean, yeah they're both vampire games but Bloodlines is really good and Vampyr is really bad.

Bloodlines is a game that's edgy in the sense that the word was used back around the time of its release. It's incisive. It's biting. It's cutting. They doubled down on the mid-2000s goth aesthetic, and it permeates this game. That's good, because the goth aesthetic absolutely rules.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines has a lot of charm to it. The writing's excellent and the gameplay feels pretty good. It's one of those classics that everyone's heard about, so I'll spare you any more words about it.

Ni no Kuni 2 The United States gets nuked and the President is transported to a fantasy world where a young king is about to get overthrown. He caps a few fantasy assassins with his pistol and decides to help the young king conquer the world.

Ni no Kuni 2 is absolutely delightful, go play it.

LESS WHOLEHEARTED RECOMMENDATIONS, BUT STILL REALLY NEAT

XENOBLADE 2: TORNA THE GOLDEN COUNTRY This is going to be the cult classic of the Xenoblade series, I can feel it in my bones. I didn't play much of Torna because I was burnt out on Xenoblade 2's systems after playing 110 hours of Xenoblade 2 and seeing the writing just getting stupider and stupider and the game not ending.

Torna the Golden Country is a prequel to Xenoblade 2. From what little of it I've seen in ten hours, it looks to be focused on all the most interesting characters of Xenoblade 2 at a more interesting point in the game's history. It's not really my thing right now, but I feel like I'm seeing a lot of the elements that people who are a bit more forgiving in their entertainment consumption than I am tend to really love. There's something here, but it's buried. The quality of writing seems much higher than in Xenoblade 2 and we've got a better protagonist than Rex in Laura and the character designs are much more grounded than the main game, and everyone's got clear motivations. These are the sorts of things you see in cult classics.

It's probably relevant to note that, while Torna the Golden Country is described as an expansion pack, it is standalone. You do not need to own Xenoblade 2 to play Torna the Golden Country. I bring this up because the marketing was really unclear on this.

I should really play more of this one.

CROSS CODE It's absolutely delightful, but I don't have much else to say about it. Starts dragging around the 14 hour mark.

YAKUZA (6, Kiwami, Kiwami 2) The Yakuza games are genuinely pretty great, but none of the ones that came out in 2018 really hit home for me. I'd recommend them to people in a heartbeat if they've never tried 'em before, but I don't have anything much to say about the ones that came out this year.

LABYRINTH OF REFRAIN: COVEN OF DUSK NIS put the cool bits of Hundred Knight's aesthetic into a game that doesn't suck ass.

MARY SKELTER: NIGHTMARES It's been like 8 months since I've played this and I don't remember much but I remember that the art style's neat and that it's one of Compile Heart's better dungeon crawlers. Need to get back around to this one.

GO VACATION An absolutely delightful family party game. The minigames are pretty decent and all the different vehicles makes traveling around the resorts reasonably interesting. I get strong MySims vibes off of this, and the MySims games were great.

There's something delightfully video-gamey about the way that you can initiate a cutscene with an NPC by pressing the A button while your car's hurtling towards them at 60 miles an hour.

B+, would recommend.

ALL OF THE KATAMARI GAMES We heart Katamari.

GAMES THAT EVERYONE ELSE REALLY LIKES THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED OUT OF OBLIGATION BECAUSE OF THEIR UBIQUITY

CELESTE Celeste is a neat little platformer that's kind of hollow and empty. It's technically competent and fun enough, but kinda bland. It's easy to recommend, but hard to find anything much to say about it. It's alright, but I don't really understand why it won the indie game lottery this year.

ASSASSIN'S CREED ODYSSEY god I just don't care about assassin's creed

RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 I haven't liked any of the other Rockstar games I've played and see no reason to play this one. Looking forward to the games industry unionizing so that Rockstar and other major studios stop exploiting their employees.

INTO THE BREACH I'm not into roguelites and this one hasn't changed my mind.

HOLLOW KNIGHT Hollow Knight's got a really neat art style and feels pretty good to play, but the Metroid and Souls styles are getting extremely tiresome.

THE MISSING: J.J. MACFIELD AND THE ISLAND OF DREAMS Didn't quite grab me.

VAMPYR Sucks! har har i did a pun

THE MESSENGER I mean yeah it's a ninja platformer. Seems competent enough, plays fine, has decent melodies.

BLOODSTAINED: CURSE OF THE MOON It's neat, but didn't quite grab me.

GOD OF WAR (2018) I don't want to play God of War.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN I'm burned out on superheroes.

SUPER SMASH BROS ULTIMATE It's fine, and I like it more than Smash 4, but it's missing the creative excitement of Brawl and 64 and Melee.

MONSTER HUNTER WORLD I played it to the start of the high ranks and I still don't get it. It’s fine.

SOUTH PARK: THE FRACTURED BUT WHOLE It's competently made and probably worth a look, but kind of a step down from Stick of Truth.

SUBNAUTICA Really good, but I didn't see much reason to continue after I'd gotten the big submarine. Just kind of fell off of it.

RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN Haven't gotten around to it yet.

OCTOPATH TRAVELER it's a really bland jrpg that does nothing new and nothing exceptionally well. h’aanit sucks and her speech quirk drives me up the wall.

DRAGON QUEST XI it's a really bland jrpg that does nothing new and nothing exceptionally well. does not take any creative risks. dragon quest 5 remains the only really good dragon quest title.

POKEMON LET'S GO eh.

MARIO TENNIS ACES It's fine.

PATO BOX It's really neat. I should play more of it one of these days.

DELTARUNE CHAPTER 1 Toby Fox remains quite good at making video games.

BEAT SABER It's good.

SPLATOON 2 OCTOLING EXPANSION in the splatfest, the octolings had black shirts and the inklings had white shirts

the octolings are trapped and the only way out is to ride a train under the city. the octolings are on an underground railroad, as it were HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

FORTNITE haven’t played it.

#game of the year #goty #2018 #some thoughts on a lot of the stuff that came out in 2018 #video games #some thoughts on some things that didn't come out in 2018

0 notes

gamearamamegathons · 6 years

Text

Dragon Warrior III: You All Meet In A Tavern

Circe here! It's time to dive into Dragon Warrior III, and there are some big changes to talk about. Admittedly, a lot of stuff hasn't really changed. Unlike Dragon Warrior II, which clearly had to totally rework how combat functioned to introduce a party system, Dragon Warrior III looks like it could be using the same engine as its predecessor. Battles play out similarly, and the game keeps a lot of the quality-of-life improvements from Dragon Warrior II without really adding all that many of its own. Yes, we still haven't shed the system where you have to talk to people by opening up a menu and selecting 'TALK'.

So what's new? Well, first thing you'll notice is that you get to choose your player character's gender. I chose female, and the game immediately tripped over its own feet by having my mom call me 'lad'. It seems like scripted text doesn't actually key into the character's gender, and you don't even have a different sprite, so I don't really know why they bothered to offer this choice. I would guess it doesn't really have any gameplay implications either, but who knows. I dunno, considering that characters don't consistently refer to my character by the same gender, maybe it means she's actually trans.

More impactfully, the way the game's party works has changed significantly. Instead of having a party of three dedicated members, I now have a single dedicated party member, and three other slots that can be filled with generic party members with their own classes. My character is of the Hero class, who seems to be an all-rounder both magically and physically, going back to the Hero class archetype of the first game. The game also gives me the recommended starting party members for free: a Soldier, a Wizard, and a Pilgrim. Mostly self-explanatory, except for Pilgrim, which is really a Priest who's gone through the early Nintendo censoring process. These characters more closely resemble the party of Dragon Warrior II: a physical fighter with no magic, an offensive spellcaster, and a defensive spellcaster. The game also offers three more classes I could swap in later on: the Fighter (a martial artist type), the Merchant (relatively weak class who gives extra gold in battle and other merchanty things), and the Goof-Off (joke class who's bad at everything?). I believe I can also unlock more classes, but the game hasn't told me anything about that yet.

The game also has a day/night system. This causes people in towns to be doing different things at different times of day, and I can only imagine that it will have a bigger impact on the game over time. I get kinda antsy about being outside when it gets dark, but so far it doesn't look like it really changes the encounters, it just makes the palette darker. I do have to credit them for creating a bunch of different palettes for different times of day, which is good because it seems like the only thing that indicates the passage of time.

So with that aside, how does the game actually play out? Well, it turns out I'm the child of the legendary hero Ortega...not Erdrick, I guess? Wonder whatever happened to that guy. Well anyway, Ortega died fighting a dragon, so now I'm the new hero in town. I'm told that I have to go out and fight the Archfiend Baramos, who will surely bring destruction to the world if I don't. I'll be honest, the game doesn't do a whole lot to sell the threat of this Baramos guy. Dragon Warrior starts you off literally across the water from Dragonlord's castle, and Dragon Warrior II has Hargon sieging a castle right at the start of the game. I mean, I assume the monsters are Baramos's fault, because that's how these games generally work, but that's just my guess. As far as I can tell from the explicit narrative, this Baramos guy hasn't even gotten out of bed yet and the king is just really, really worried about him.

The game starts off on a relatively small landmass, to give you a bit of space to wander around and fight relatively weak enemies. Remembering the chaos of sea travel from the last game, my boat senses are already getting nervous, but it turns out that the way to leave this land is via something called a Travel Gate. This was technically introduced in the first game, but it didn't play a big role...Travel Gates are basically little teleporter whirlpool things, and it turns out that ours was sealed off a long time ago in this big war, so you gotta unseal it first thing. The game also brings back the time-honored tradition of arbitrary doors that can be only opened by a single special key. In this case, we need to journey to the game's first dungeon, the Tower of Najima, to get the Thief's Key, which is necessary to find the Magic Ball to unseal the gate.

This is all more or less just practice, though, for the second dungeon, which feels a lot more serious than the first one. The Cave of Enticement hides the Travelers Gate, so it's necessary to travel to the bottom of the dungeon and find the gate, which will transport us to a new land. Here, we find another castle where the king is complaining that some guy stole his crown, so...like, I guess that's what I gotta do next. Now, you might be thinking, it'll probably be a pain to go back the way I came, if I ever want to, but I have good news! Finally, the Return spell allows me to instantly go to any town of my choice that I've already been to. This is going to make my life much easier, and finally take away the need to strategically manage my save point to get the most out of Return.

So far, the game has kept me on a fairly linear track, but I expect that that won't last for long. A brief peruse of Wikipedia uncovered the claim that DWIII is 'even more open-world' than its predecessor, which is interesting and concerning. Luckily, I'm offically doing digital mapping, which makes the process a lot less...arduous, let's say. So when the moment of boat finally occurs, it will hopefully be a bit less overwhelming. Especially with the ability to freely teleport, that's going to be a huge time saver.

I wish I had more to say about the game's combat, but thus far it's mostly very similar to Dragon Warrior II. This game introduces the Blaze spell, which is a step below Firebal and only hits one target, and it seems to also be working in an elemental spell system with Icebolt, another single-target damaging spell. The game has also introduced a paralysis effect called Numb, which prevents a character from acting but wears off after a few steps once the battle is over. Oh, and poison is back in spades, so that's great. Still, battles play out very similarly as they did in DWII. I have to say, even after the huge leap forward in the second game, Dragon Warrior's weakest quality as a series so far is probably that its combat is very simple. It's not fair to say that enemies have no mechanical identity, but a huge swath of enemies are just meat walls of varying size that you trade hits with until they fall down. The games have also been extremely short on bosses, and what bosses there have been have not had any unique mechanics to spice things up -- they're just stronger monsters. But hey, there's still plenty of time for the series to change things up.

#circe #marathon #dragon quest #dragon warrior iii

0 notes

sebastiano-merlino · 7 years

Photo

I've just published a new post on https://mylittleblackbird.com/2017/11/13/the-best-tools-for-writers/

The best tools for writers

This time around, I want to talk about the best tools for writers. I guess it was about time that I gave you some details on what I use for writing and in general to manage my writing life.

I have to say. There is no game changer and nothing in this list can replace some good old-time sitting on the chair. Said so, efficient tools will save time and effort, and in general, make our lives way easier.

Writing: Scrivener

Scrivener is hands down the best writing software I have ever used. For many years I have been a Microsoft Word’s user. Don’t get me wrong, it does its job really well but it is not focused on writers and, because of this, it cannot give you the same features as Scrivener.

One of the main downsides that I found while working with Word was the fact that it couldn’t centralize all of my documents. When writing a book, I produce a lot of additional documents (outlines, character profiles, etc…); in addition to this, I also have a lot of links and documents coming from my research. What I had to do at the time was to organize my documents in a set of directories and somehow find a way to reconcile what I had stored on my PC and the links I saved on my browser’s bookmarks. It was a mess.

In Scrivener, I can store everything in one place without having to switch tab all the time or having to deal with my inability to tidy up my stuff. A practical outline allows me to reach everything I need from within the program without too much hassle.

When I moved to Scrivener I also gained a bunch of incredibly useful features:

Export in multiple formats: epub, mobi and platforms like Kobo, ibooks

A distraction-free mode to concentrate only on what I am writing

Templates

Chapter outlining

On the negative side. Scriverer helps when writing a single book but it is not as nearly as effective when working on a series – documents will have to be copied across different projects causing some duplication.

It also has quite a steep learning curve, but once you learned it, you’ll have back all of your time back with interests.

Scrivener is compatible with both Windows and MacOS.

Organization: xMind

Mind Maps are useful diagrams that help to understand the connections between different objects. This is quite useful as a fast description mechanism.

Mind-mapping has been one of the most useful techniques I applied to my writing. I find it especially useful when building my characters but it is great every time I want to describe something in a way my brain can quickly process.

I used much software for mind mapping but finally landed on XMind. The main reason is that it already has everything I need and it does its job in a simple way. A bonus is that the free version of XMind already has all the main features.

It also integrates very well with Scrivener – if you link an XMind project from within Scrivener this will be able to display the content of the mind map without you having to switch between the two.

Inspiration: Pinterest

Everybody knows Pinterest these days, right? Right?

If you don’t, and you do any creative work, this platform will be good for you. Aside from being a marketing tool, Pinterest is also a good instrument to find and store information, especially for images or video.

I use it as a platform to search for inspiration and to pin all the stuff I want to come back to.

Much of the stuff I looked for “Seven Kinds of Darkness” is there on a dedicated board. Even ignoring the marketing implications of this, I find it invaluable.

Productivity: Habitica

Habitica changed my life. I am a nerd and I know it but bear with me.

Habitica allows you to gamify your life. It allows you to create an avatar offering a set of health points and mana – just like in an RPG. All you have to do is to set habits and to-do. For everything you do, you’ll earn experience points that will increase your level.

Now I know this might sound ridiculous for some people but I am a weirdly driven person and I bet there are many like me out there. Having a levelling system gives me the idea of progression I need in order to cling to my habits. This pushes me to improve all the time.

I also find the tool extremely simple to use and it is one of the few that allows managing both habits, to-do and recurrent tasks all in one place. I highly recommend it.

Self-editing: ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is a software that analyzes your text and gives you suggestions about what could be wrong with it. The software tells if you are introducing too many repetitions, if there is something imperfect about your writing style or if you have an overly wordy prose (just like me).

I love it because all the features I need are already included in the free edition. I mostly use it to have an idea of what to edit in my writing during the first loop of correction once my first draft is ready.

Copyediting: Hemingway

Hemingway was famous for how fluid his writing was. He could express powerful ideas without the need for complex prose. The Hemingway app has the goal to make your writing similar to that of the famous author.

The app gives you suggestions to improve your prose by reducing the complexity of sentences and removing passive voice. It is especially nice because it doesn’t just blindly say that something is wrong but allows for a certain level of complexity without forcing the rules on you.

Proofreading: Grammarly

Grammarly is yet again another tool to improve your what you write. It is probably the simpler tool in this list of editing systems. It works very well in identifying morphological errors and its error checking system is better than that of Word or Scrivener. The free version helps a lot already. If you are not a native English speaker, the paid version can be a good investment.

I use it as a final proofread for what I write and it often uncovers stuff I missed.

#On Writing

0 notes