#and tons more nonbinary npcs??
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Okay now EYE must ask you - how are you liking BG3??? How far are you?? Tell me about your Tav!!!! (Please and thank you <3)
hi!! 💖 i only started the game a few days ago and it was an impulse decision i made after having previously told a friend of mine that i definitely wanted to play it but that it'd probably take me a while to get around to it (and, because i thought i wouldn't play anytime soon i hadn't really been trying to avoid spoilers). but, i have the PC version and while it generally runs just fine, my computer is kind of slow and the game is so big that it took hours to download and install. so i kind of went ahead and started to come up with a whole character idea during that time LOL. sorry if my explanations of things get a bit too rambly/disorganized. i'm actually not very far in the game at all yet, i've been spending a ton of time doing stuff in the druids grove and i'm supposed to go find halsin but i haven't even gotten karlach in my party yet! i've recruited all the main companions except for her but i am excited to meet her. gonna put the rest of this under a cut for length.
my only background with DND is that i listened to the first campaign of the adventure zone and i've watched the legends of vox machina show. i also have a friend who's super into her own DND campaign and another friend who's told me a lot about dimension 20, specifically fantasy high--and i've considered trying it out for her but haven't gotten around to it yet! i think she actually told me the same thing about the episode lengths making it easier to get into than critical role, because i had tried critical role and it was just so long that i couldn't stick with it. but, yeah, i've also looked at the forgotten realms wiki a bit but i've never actually played DND. i have played skyrim and final fantasy 14 and some other similar RPGs with customizable blank-slate protagonists, and in those types of games i always have to make OCs to roleplay as--usually i'll think up a basic idea to start with and then flesh the character out as i get into the game. they're never really self-inserts but i do often project onto them a little.
so, in games like these my first character is usually an elf that specializes in elemental/destructive magic. idk why, that's just what i've always liked. in ff14 i started out as a black mage without knowing it was the hardest class to play LMAO. soooo i went into this planning to create a high elf sorcerer, but as i started writing out ideas and thinking about what to do, i ended up creating a half-high elf bard. they're transmasc/nonbinary and in my head they use he/they pronouns, but i picked the nb option in the character creator and that causes npcs to actually use they/them in dialogue which i think is so cool. i love that the character creator is so inclusive in regards to gender.
anyway, i named them elenion, which is something i took from the lord of the rings universe because i'm a huge nerd. in LOTR it's an elvish word that basically means "of the stars". here's a couple screenshots i took when i first started. let's just ignore the fact that this hairstyle clips into elf ears (and also that the face preset is from a mod i downloaded).
i didn't really give him a tragic backstory or even the most interesting story haha--i'm wanting to do something bigger and angstier with another character on a second playthrough when i'm more familiar with the lore and world of the game. and i'll probably also end up changing or expanding on some things about this character later, but for now i just kind of made a normal guy with normal problems. i had this idea that his father, a human who attracted the attention of a beautiful elf woman, was also a bard and was a very successful musician in his youth. so elenion has always shared his father's passion and dreamed of being like him, being able to effortlessly tell incredible tales and inspire crowds of people through song, but no matter how much he studies and practices he never feels good enough. if he seems confident it's usually just because he's gotten really good at faking it. he's also pretty reserved and often avoids having to talk about himself by asking a lot of questions. see, i kind of wanted to specifically find a way to not roleplay the usual sort of loud, flirty, goofy bard, lol. not that i dislike those kinds of characters or anything though!
however, bards are meant to be super charismatic, witty, and persuasive and of course the game strongly encourages that with the dialogue options and skill bonuses you get. so my way of explaining this is to have elenion be a bit like raine from the owl house, in that they may be shy, but they're very firm in their ideals and are no pushover when it comes to protecting themself or their allies. they're clever and have a snarky side to them, and they're genuinely friendly and caring in a way that gives them a sense of quiet charisma. which reminds me that one of the spells i gave them at the start was sleep, and it's made me imagine that when they were a kid they tried calming a crying baby by playing a lullaby on their lute and accidentally ended up casting their first spell.
oh, and, i also wasn't really sure at first where in the world i wanted elenion to come from but i decided on something pretty quickly after getting multiple of those dialogue options suggesting that the protagonist is baldurian! i pictured them growing up in a somewhat small town with their family but moving to baldur's gate as an adult, hoping that if they left the comfort of their home and started to journey out into the world a little they'd eventually find their spark and become the bard they wanted to be. unfortunately they've had little luck so far because even after all this time they can't see that maybe their whole fixation on trying to be just like their father and achieve the exact same kind of success that he had is holding them back. the fact that their father died the year after they moved away hasn't helped either. and now, in the middle of traveling to a historical site that they'd wanted to see in person and use as inspiration for a song, they've been abducted by mindflayers and are struggling with the massive upheaval that this has brought into their relatively mundane life.
so. yeah. my tav for this first playthrough may not be the most unique or exciting character but i like him! i like figuring out what kind of choices he'll make and thinking up new ideas for what he likes and how he sees the world. also, i find it funny how in your reply to my ask you said you thought you'd be into gale but then you fell for astarion--because i thought that i'd be all over the edgy, brooding, snarky vampire man, but it turns out gale is so charming and funny that i'm probably going to romance him first. i'm also pretty intrigued by shadowheart and wyll but i'm so early in the game that i can't even say who i think my overall favorite companion will be because they all seem so interesting!! even karlach despite the fact that i haven't actually met her yet, i've seen a bunch of cool gifsets of her and my brother told me he's been romancing her on his playthrough. i really need to go find her soon.
i'm sure you can tell from everything i wrote here that i am definitely enjoying the game LOL. i can already tell that there's just so many different things to do and see, that i will both need and want to do a lot of different playthroughs and that it's going to be something that sticks with me. nothing wrong with using guides and walkthroughs btw! i do it too because i'm worried about missing too many things and have the world's worst sense of direction even with a minimap. honestly i probably need to look up some guides for certain mechanics that i don't feel like i've really figured out yet. there's a sarcophagus trap in the ruins early in the game that got me SO stuck and got my whole party wiped and then i looked up a video and found out you could turn off the whole trap system by pushing a switch... i felt so stupid askjdfgf.
anyway, i think this got to be way too long of a reply so i will stop here! but if you ever wanna tell me more about your tav or anything definitely feel free to and i hope you're having an awesome day!
#asks#nerdalmighty#i hope all of this actually makes some kind of sense lol#i'm really not a great writer but i just think coming up with OCs with fleshed out personalities#and trying to get into their heads makes games like this more fun#and also ty for the ask!! 💖#baldur's gate 3
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how kurapika turned me enby
(Because it’s Pride Month, I want to ramble, and I think it’s a good story)
Okay so, Kurapika didn’t actually turn me into a gender liquid, but he’s the character that made me realize I was genderfluid. I also ID as genderqueer, nonbinary, and transmasc. Well sorta, “transmasc” ebbs in and out. They all overlap a fuck ton anyway.
I started IDing this way about a year ago. In case my Tumblr blog hasn’t made this clear, Hunter x Hunter is a huge hyperfixation of mine right now, and I was in the middle of rewatching it back then. This made it fresh on my mind. I wound up having a dream one night where I was Kurapika, but the whole plot of the dream’s irrelevant here. Mostly it just made me wake up thinking a lot about the edgy femboy.
For whatever reason, I started wondering whether there were any fandom headcanons about Kurapika being trans. At the time, I thought Kurapika was 19, so it seemed weird to me that in numerous different iterations of the show, he was voiced exclusively by women. Dub and sub, in both the 1999 and 2011 anime. Like, surely he’d be voiced by a dude at least once, right? I mean, he’s a grown adult, not a teen. (Well, this was an error on my part, but the mistake got me thinking.)
Mind, I didn’t actually think Togashi had any intention of making Kurapika trans. But maybe there were fandom headcanons about this? So I looked it up that morning, found out there were, and eventually fell down the fanfic rabbit hole. One of the ones I found, and really liked, was this soft story about him binding for too long, then Leorio chews him out and patches him up. It was sorta edgy, lots of dysphoric brooding and whatever, but I still liked it. It also made me ask myself, “Would I like wearing a binder?”
After that, I fell in a deeper rabbit hole. The “gender hole” or something. I thought wearing a binder sounded cool. Though this is funny thinking back on now, since I own a binder and don’t wear it much because I’m not really prone to top dysphoria (my boobs are small so pretty ignorable most of the time... and also squishy which I like).
Anyway. I started researching stuff like HRT and reassignment surgery, found a lot of stuff that was euphoric and a lot of stuff that sounded scary (mostly surgery). Things like facial hair, having squarer features, a deeper voice, coarser body hair, etc. sounded fucking amazing though. Of course medical stuff wasn’t the only thing I thought about. Wearing masculine clothing, being called a boy and “he/him” sounded really incredible too.
And then, to press this point, after talking to a friend I went out with her to the mall to buy clothes. I remember finding a plaid flannel button-down at an Old Navy, and trying it on in the changing room with some dude khakis. And like... I came to this realization that for like, my whole damn life, I’ve always looked in the mirror and not really associated the person there with me, like I’d been shunted into the body of some random-ass NPC. But in that moment, this did look like me, and it felt like me.
That’s not to say I never have these doubts anymore. I say I’m genderfluid, and not a trans guy, because there are times when female is okay. And there are also times when “male” isn’t okay. My gender’s more this Cthulhian horror than any one thing, and that makes expressing it frustrating for me. It seems weird that one day a thing can make me so fucking comfortable, and the next it’s horrible and I hate it.
I sometimes hear people say that enbies don’t experience gender dysphoria. This is just blatantly untrue. For me though, dysphoria stems from being locked into one gender than anything else. I feel like for me, my sex fluctuating is what’s most natural. Like being able to wake up and choose between masculine and feminine body features, or else getting to mix and match them. Making shit up. Being shit that doesn’t exist. Toeing the line of androgyny with my anatomy, things like that.
Unfortunately for me, that’s not actually possible. The gods have placed me in a single body that is -- for the most part -- unchanging, and in consequence, most of the people I know will only ever see me as that one thing. I genuinely don’t hate being born female and again, sometimes that’s what feels most natural. I firmly believe if I’d been born male, I’d feel the exact same way: happy with my body sometimes, frustrated with its immutability others. Female is a part of me, but when it’s the only part that’s recognized, it can be disheartening. There are many other important parts of myself I want to share with people, too.
Anyhow uhhhhh that’s my dumb gender rant. Currently inb4 I’m on testosterone and gain the ability to shapeshift :PP
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hollow knight 🤝 undertale and deltarune
gamers refusing to use they/them pronouns for characters that canonically use they/them
#olive.txt#hollow knight#undertale#deltarune#you know how fucking cool it is we have popular video games with nonbinary protags????#and tons more nonbinary npcs??#and then a fairly large portion of these fan bases are like um excuse me they/them means i get to decide#and then w deltarune toby made sure to use kris's pronouns a ton and really establish theyre not a player self insert#and it still flew over ppls heads its wild#like if you cant simply use the correct pronouns for a video game character what does that say for how you treat real people#even if they made the characters gender ambiguous to appeal to a wider audience they still are who they are ya kno?#and these characters using they/them is a big deal and important to a lot of people#theres already tons of posts made abt this and the tags of all of them are full of ppl that felt seen#or that these characters helped them feel comfortable w their identity#so if using the correct pronouns for some pixels is hard how about you get to practicing#because there are real people that are owed that respect#you can reblog but dont clown#and ofc feel free to add more characters#.txt
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GAMES WITH TRANS/NONBINARY REP!!
Happy pride month!! I love playing video games so I thought it'd be neat to share the many many games I've played with nonbinary and trans characters >:3
Sorry in advanced I’m copying and pasting stuff from twitter ;v; Also know that many of these games ARE on consoles, but if you buy them on pc/mac use itch.io if it exists. It gives devs more money!!
VALIDATE!! There's a demo on Steam and Itch.io that you can play RIGHT NOW and also a patreon you can support and I highly suggest it ^o^ It's a lovely VN with several playable characters and rlly good writing
Extreme Meatpunks forever is so SO good omg. It's a VN/mech brawler where u be gay and fight fascists!!! Trans and nonbiney ppl are out here being badass af. The game has cws/tws built into the game ( which i love sm ) Also there's a ttrpg on Kickstarter RIGHT NOW!!
Another game with nonbinary characters is an rpg called Ikenfell! It was one of my favorite games to play last year and the music and just everything? Honestly so good I'm def replaying it this year. It also has tons of good accessibility features!
ok but i wanna geek abt ikenfell just a smidge more
U DON'T UNDERSTAND 3 OF THE PLAYABLE CHARACTERS ARE NONBINARY <333 The strongest playable character also uses ze/zir pronouns and I think that's pretty epic
Ok so like literally every game I've played by @analgesicprod I've loved 100% And Anodyne 2? Everyone should go play it and I will keep saying it until everyone does. And yes there's a trans character in it <3 Drem my beloved <3 Go check it out!!
Another game studio I love is @pillowfightio !!! They worked on Later Alligator, We Know the Devil, and Heaven Will Be Mine. I highly recc all of them but esp. Later Alligator cuz like just look at Joanie. They're so cool.
In the game Everhood gender doesn't exist <3 Literally multiple characters are referred to with they/them pronouns and the gameplay is very enjoyable
CW LOTS of flashing lights and I feel like there should maybe be more cws but I'm not sure what else to add :l
I guess a warning is that Everhood gets into more serious stuff and I'll be honest when the game first came out I had to put it down for several days b/c I just wasn't ready for a lot of that stuff, but I honestly liked the game a lot!
I was debating on adding this bc while I love this game there's some issues. So Gnosia is like werewolf ( or among us if you will ) but more narrative focused with time loops etc. There's two wonderful nonbinary characters and you can be nonbinary HOWEVER
( minor gnosia spoilers. skip past if you want to avoid it)
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.
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For some reason finding out the AGAB of one of the characters is mandatory and I fucking hate that. It's so unnecessary esp for the world building that's been done. Also tws for the game: sexual abuse / assault, gore ( in only one scene )
(spoilers end)
but yeah I still added it because the characters are so neat and strong for the type of game it is and without that bit I wouldn’t feel so :/ abt recommending it. It’s pretty fun ngl
Wandersong!!! The main character is nonbiney and I love them <33 It's such a lovely little musical adventure with such a nice narrative and!! Some of the devs just released Chicory ( which I haven't gotten to play yet ;v; ) but check that out too!!
Bravery Network Online is super fun!! It's a turn based rpg that feels really good and has two characters that use they/them pronouns ( Fel and Reed ) the character designs are sooo good and the game is currently in early access!
I never thought I'd see a claymation point and click musical featuring a nonbinary detective but Dominique Pamplemousse is just that Need I say more?
A personal fav I think about every now and then is Dad fighter 30XX!! Like who doesn't wanna beat up their friend's shitty dad in the parking lot of a dennys?? Also the win music is my FAV
SPIRIT SWAP!!! By @SoftNotWeak !!!! Super chill and pretty game by lovely people with a demo you can play right NOW!! This game makes me want to become a strong magical thembo
More games I’ve played, but am too lazy to ramble about
ROM:2064 ( game is amazing but i got mixed feelings tho bc the og devs aren't getting paid for it I think :/ )
A Year of Springs
Secret Little Haven
A normal lost phone
Calico
Celeste
Hollow Knight
Undertale
Deltarune
Monster Prom / Monster Camp
Hades ( all of supergiants games slap btw )
If Found
Here’s games I haven’t played but have heard about
Bugsnax
Diaries of a spaceport janitor
Hustle Cat
Tell Me Why
Our Life
Last Minute Love
Black Tarot
Apex Legends
World of Warcraft has trans npcs :0
Dragon Age Inquisition
Sky, Children of the Light
TemTem
Battletech
Death and Taxes :0
Flicker :0 ( roblox games do count! It’s always cool to see what ppl make in it )
Assassins Creed Syndicate has a trans npc
Verdant Skies
Wandering Wolf Trick ( I love nomnomnami’s games sm but haven’t played this one. Highly reccommend her stuff )
If you have any games you wanna add to this PLEASE please do and I'll add them!! And while you're here please support the Queer Games Bundle going on itch rn to support tons LGBTQ+ game devs financially (including me ) <3
Last little edit for now: I’d def suggest trying to find cws/tws for these games just in case I haven’t covered everything for the ones I did talk about <3
#trans#lgbtq#nonbinary#indie game#video game#lgbtqia+#itch.io#steam games#nintendo#switch games#gaming#games#game#pc games#pride month#happy pride 🌈
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proof/full sequence of events/full context from this post bc i wanna be thorough or something idk. under a read more because it's a ton of images, and i tried to include image descriptions for them, so it's very long.
link to the reddit post that spawned bingus
[Image ID:
A cropped reblog of the above post by Tumblr user flyingfish1234. It reads "What the shit does this mean /lh".
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[Image ID:
A cropped screenshot of a reply to the above post by the original poster, Tumblr user nonbinary-enderman. It reads "the basic premise is that taz graduation had too many npcs, someone on reddit tried documenting all of them, jokingly added one named bingus described as above, and then the entire fandom went absolutely ham and ran with it, giving him intense lore and epic fanart, etc".
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[Image ID:
A cropped screenshot of a reply to the above post by Tumblr user starkeaton. It reads "hey, that person on reddit was me! please tell me the story behind whatever the hell you're talking about?"
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Two cropped screenshots of a reddit post in r/The Adventure Zone by user StarKeaton, with their username underlined. The first screenshot includes the title, "FINAL Graduation Character List!" and the visible text reads "Here it is everyone, the ninth and final character list for The Adventure Zone: Graduation."
The second screenshot is a single bullet point which reads "bingus (they/them): Hairless tabaxi with huge, beautiful eyes. They are very nice, and friendly, and help the thundermen on their quest to destroy the heroic oversight guild. They carry a enormous bastard greatsword (enchanted) and also are the worlds greatest swordsman, and also secretly an angelic vampire. Travis has clarified on twitter that their name is spelled in all lowercase. And if you cant tell i just made this character up completely because i got bored and i wanted to." The first word and the last sentence are underlined.
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[Image ID:
Four screenshots of a Tumblr reply from user nonbinary-enderman. Altogether, they read "oh my god this is. so much. hi i'm OP's main blog, penis smp refers to a phenomenon created by tumblr's dream smp community, based off of a post someone made mocking us. they made a post somewhat along the lines of "dsmp fans will see something completely random and be like "omg this is just like shittyfartbaby69 and penisunavailable during the electric chair scene"". that post soon spread into dsmp fan circles, where dsmp fans started playing off the joke by making up plot ideas for the characters mentioned under the name "penis smp." it basically snowballed from there, and at some points "penis smp" was trending on tumblr fairly high. if you search "penis smp" on tumblr there's a fair chance there'll be some kind of better explanation".
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[Image ID:
A screenshot of a Tumblr reply from user starkeaton. It reads "well i know nothing about dream smp but i love to see fans passion directed toward inane bullshit! thanks for the explanation".
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Hey hey hey! Look who finally made staff for the moon prison! Not that there weren't any before but they were like NPCs and not drawn. They're clothed a little more casually here but at least two actually have a uniform. Bios under the cut!
Kischicke kumarr (top left, he/they. Pronounced Kees-shi-keh)
- amab nonbinary. Cat. 29yrs old.
- security and surveillance. Their workday consists of looking at the security camera footage and making sure the surveillance AI doesn't have any goofs. For minor errors in the program they fix it themself, and for major errors they contact the higher ups and/or mechanics. He also adjusts and directs the cameras if need be.
Jacklyn Rodriguez (top right, they/them)
- afab nonbinary. Human. 30yrs old
- Medical and psychiatric care. Their usual duty is to keep track of and distribute medication, as well as direct some rehabilitative activities (like arts and crafts). For any new prescriptions or changes in inmate medication they're supposed to consult the doctors, although they have alot of differing opinions with some of the doctors about that.
Cyria Berg (bottom right, she/her)
- Female. Dragon. 31yrs old
- One of the countless of security guards. She's there in case someone decides to start a food fight, or get aggressive during their reception into the prison, or during their cell change, or whenever you need someone big and strong to lend some extra hands. All her spikes (and preferably horns) have to be kept short and blunt to minimize excess damage. She usually wears a padded uniform
Ruford Topperfield (Bottom left, he/him.)
- Male. Borderterrier. 51yrs old
- Upper management. He oversees activity in the facility, makes sure everyone does their job and stays up to standard. There's also tons of paperwork (digitally). He's one of the supervisors and has alot of say in how things are handled around here
#Moon prison#My ocs#Lore#Morsos art#Traditional art#Most everyone in this world is multiracial#Just as a btw#Because I think it makes most sense#Plus it's fun
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Note: picture in banner is not owned by either mod.
What ACNH villager reminds you of your character?
Would your character sell their turnips before the next Sunday? Or would theirs spoil?
If your character had an island, what would they focus on? The clothes? The villagers? Building up their island? The museum? Etc, etc?
Your muse is transported into the game, which non-villager npc would they get along with the best?
Would your muse(s) time-travel for items/creatures/events?
Would your muse co-own the island with anyone or would they make the other person get their own switch?
What was their first custom design clothing? Floor design, Painting, etc.?
What would your muse(s) score be for the Happy Homes Academy?
Would your muse use Nookazon or the like?
How likely is your muse to buy a villager for REAL money?
How likely is your muse to sell a villager for REAL money?
Describe your muse(s) character in the game. What do they wear? What’s their hair like? Are they the same gender or opposite(for Nonbinary characters: female or male model)?
How does your muse fair against the Tarantulas/Scorpions?
When they sell items, do they more often use the dropbox in front of Nooks cranny or do they go inside for the full value of what they sell?
How often does your charcter play ACNH on a scale of 1-10 (1 meaning barely/only when someone asks to and 10 meaning everyday for several hours a day)
What villager type is your muse?
If your character sometimes wanes off Animal Crossing, will they hop back on constantly when a new holiday/update happens?
Do they design a ton of clothes in the DIY station?
Do they create paths for their island?
How many times has your muse reset their island to get the villagers/island they want?
Has your muse ever LEVELED their island just to redesign it?
#acnh#rp meme#rp memes#roleplay meme#roleplay memes#inbox meme#inbox memes#character development meme#character development memes
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what is rqg? i’ve seen a couple of posts about it and it sounds interesting, but i’m in the dark as to what it is
I got another ask from an anon about the same thing, so I’ll answer both in one!
RQG is Rusty Quill Gaming, an actual-play podcast, consisting mostly of a long-running (four years now!) Pathfinder campaign called Erasing the Line (they occasionally play completely unrelated oneshots from different TTRPG systems, with guests). It’s really, really good. I’d say the main draws of it are:
The players (James Ross, Lydia Nicholas, Ben Meredith, Bryn Monroe, and later Helen Gould) and the DM (Alexander J Newall) are all comedians and improv people, so they’re fantastic roleplayers and actors, quick on their feet, and both absolutely hilarious and capable of making you cry.
The world is extremely cool, original, fun, and well-designed — it’s set in an alternate-history 19th century fantasy steampunk universe that still fits seamlessly with the DnD magic system. The DM has put an unbelievable amount of thought into this world, and the players have clearly read up on the campaign guide. If you’re at all a history buff, you’ll have a lot of fun with the cameos by historical figures from Oscar Wilde to Franz Kafka (but if you’re not, you’ll still follow it!)
The plot is similarly intricate — it’s essentially several mysteries wrapped up together, spanning multiple continents and involving many complex political factions. At the same time, it never feels exposition-heavy to me, because the DM is great at balancing action with plot.
On the subject of action: I’m not a huge fan of the Pathfinder system, being much more familiar with 5E myself, but they don’t spend tons of time on rules, and happily homebrew elements they don’t like.
The characters are brilliant. Player characters are multifaceted, with emotional depth and breadth among the best I’ve ever seen in actual-play podcasts. They have complex, tender, and often fraught relationships with each other and with NPCs, and they’re given space to develop and grow realistically as individuals. The NPCs are also fantastic — I have to mention Oscar Wilde again. I cannot stress enough what an absolute fantastic cad he is.
The show doesn’t shy away at all from some of the harder emotions. The DM is known for putting the PCs through the wringer both physically and emotionally, and the character backstories explore some really difficult, messy topics. That being said, they’re all handled really well, and once again — the show is just as often hilarious as it is heartwrenching. I’ve laughed through tears more than once.
This is going to sound weird, but the editing on the show is impeccable. Every single location has a unique, immersive soundscape so realistic that I have, multiple times, thought I heard some of those sounds irl only to realize that they’re actually part of the show. It adds a lot to the podcast’s overall effect.
There are a lot of canon LGBTQ+ characters. There has been, among the player characters, so far one confirmed gay man, one confirmed bi ace man, one confirmed bi woman, one woman who I think is probably bi, and one nonbinary character — and that’s just the PCs, and what I know of (I’m not fully caught up.)
It’s just so good.
So uh, this was long and I apologize, because you just asked what it was, but I’ve been meaning to make a post about why it’s so good, so I hope this is okay!
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Heart’s Choice Author Interview: RoAnna Sylver, “Dawnfall”
Find true love and family with a pirate crew at the ends of the universe, where aliens, ghosts, and portals open the space between worlds...and your heart. You are a Navigator, one who creates and guards portals from one dimension to another, wary of the liminal sea between them.
Your universe is made of two worlds: one contains the magic-infused world of Zephyria, and the other, the dystopian space station Eclipse. The worlds are balanced, until one day, an explosive disaster, a deadly energy storm, and an infamous pirate—the Ghost Queen—upend your life and plunge you into a race to save both worlds.
Dawnfall is a 232,000 word interactive romance novel by RoAnna Sylver, one of the first set of games releasing with the launch of Heart’s Choice. I sat down with the author, RoAnna Sylver, to talk about writing interactive romance. Heart’s Choice games release December 2nd.
Dawnfall has frankly an insanely wonderful setting for a romance game. Tell me about the aliens, the pirates, the ghosts, and the alien-pirate-ghosts.
Hi there! I’m so glad you think this sounds fun! Yeah, Dawnfall is weird as heck, and that’s one of the things I love about this story. It’s weird in a way I don’t think we’ve seen much of before. I really just tried to put in everything I find fun or interesting, and that I’ve always wanted to write. Dawnfall started out as a total brain-candy project, and runs on pure Rule of Cool. Pirates? Yes. Magic? Yes. A slice of cyberpunk? Hell yes. Eerie ghosts and faerie-tale influences and memory-sharing potions? Giant bird people? The power of rock n’roll? Yes, yes, yes.
And also everybody’s dateable, and in a couple cases, dating each other. We weave a tangled web, but I think it’s a pretty badass and spectacular web.
You seem to really neatly straddle the genre fence here with a romance and sci-fi/fantasy. What was challenging about cramming all of that into one game?
Thank you so much for saying that. I’ve always adored SFF, and there’s so much in this genre-collection, so many extremes and concepts and contrasting colors, that I couldn’t limit myself to picking just one to play with. This weird game-book is kind of a love letter to fantasy and science fiction and haunted house stories and cyberpunk adventures—I thought a lot about the Disney movie Treasure Planet for its genre-blending beauty, and the Bioware game Mass Effect for its array of fascinating, multidimensional alien cuties to interact with and date… and then turned it up to eleven.
I guess you’d expect the challenge to be in making it all fit together/be “believable,” but I kind of threw that out the window. I don’t expect anyone to find it ‘realistic’ (setting-wise anyway; I tried to make every character ring true of course), and I don’t really care if someone thinks it’s silly, or doesn’t take it seriously. It is silly in a lot of ways. DAWNFALL is a giant ridiculous queer space magic pirate adventure, and the only goal is fun. If you have fun, I’ve done my job, and there should be something fun in here for everyone.
Did you have a favorite NPC you enjoyed writing most?
Honestly I love them all so much in different ways, and I know them so well by now it’s really second nature. Their voices come so easily and they’re all so much fun. The Queen’s swagger is awesome though, and her mental voice/mannerisms probably come through especially clearly. I love Zenith’s vulnerable moments when xie lets xir guard down and lets go of the need to entertain or please. I love Averis’s journey and growth from cute wibbly nerd to a confident swashbuckler (who is also still a cute wibbly nerd). I love how deeply Oz feels, how strongly he loves and remembers and honors memory, and how unafraid he is to show softness and warmth. And I love a certain spoilery ghost-babe and how they’re so full of joy at the beauty of life.
I do want to give special mention to Aeon, though. This is a story about connection, and I wanted to show that sibling bonds are every bit as important and strong as romantic or any other. I also wanted to show a complex, multidimensional antagonist figure who holds heartbreaking secrets along with authority, and is genuinely trying to do what she thinks is the best thing, and wants what’s best for you, the PC, even if you might not always agree. Her balance between being so emotionally guarded and determined and unyielding, while hopefully being extremely easy to read and tell what she wants and fears and loves—spoiler: you; she loves you!—was a challenge I hope I pull off.
…Also I enjoy any time Vyranix gets his pompous feathered ass handed to him. I think we all know a Vyranix, or at least of one, and it’s always fun to take them down, even in fantasy.
Who would you be romancing as a player?
I’m gonna say “everyone,” and here it won’t actually be cheating, because you can romance everyone! At once! In varying degrees/relationship dynamics and attractions. You don’t see a lot of polyamory-friendly games or books or anything really, and this is an incredibly important thing for me. The second I got the idea for Dawnfall I knew it had to let players romance anyone they wanted and show polyamory in a realistic, healthy light. I’m also a-spec (asexual and aromantic), and having not just good representation but being actively included and welcomed and celebrated in fiction is so huge too.
Dawnfall is a romance of course, being part of Heart’s Choice, but one of the single most vital elements for me is making it inclusive for aromantic and asexual players and player-characters. Essentially, I wanted to write a romance that didn’t penalize players for not experiencing the attractions the way we’re otherwise expected or required—and I’m so grateful that my amazing editors and community not only accepted but supported everything I was trying to do here. (It’s so refreshing not to have to fight for inclusion and freedom. It shouldn’t be, but it is.)
And that’s where the concept of “Heart-Stars” and “Same-Feathers” came from. I’ve never seen anything honor queerplatonic relationships like I’m trying to do here, and I want everyone, of every sexuality and attraction, to feel like they have a place here and can experience this adventure without limits. And I wanted to show that it’s a very normal thing, hence this being the same for the human characters as well as alien. (One of the nonbinary characters being human is also no mistake. I love me some wild alien genders, but there are tons of awesome nonbinary humans too!)
…That being said, I think I gave Averis most of my anxiety-issues, and would really just like to curl up with Oz and watch The Great British Bake-Off. That sounds like a perfect night in my books.
What were some of the things you found surprising about the game-writing process?
Coding was definitely the biggest learning curve. I’d never coded anything before in my life, and it’s such a new skillset to learn, entirely different from any kind of writing I’ve ever done. Sometimes it felt rewriting my brain, which did not at all do this intuitively—and also sometimes like I bit off much more than I could chew (first game ever being not only a huge piece of interactive fiction, but a polyamorous romance with aro and ace possibilities, and so many more variables than expected!), but it’s been worth it. Entirely. If my writing makes anyone feel seen and accepted and invited to have fun as they are, it’s worth every bit of struggle.
Also, oddly, interactive fiction is in some ways easier for me than writing a plain old book! Probably because I love AUs so much, and every choice in a game is like writing a tiny AU of the story, so I get to do the same scenes several different ways. My ADHD-brain finds something about this extremely satisfying, most likely because it somehow feels more like multitasking! Several stories in one, and if I like two ideas, I don’t have to pick just one to write!
Honestly though, I think the most surprising part is just being done, and…that I could do this at all. It was so huge, and took so long, and I learned so much, and every day I’m just kind of going “who the hell am I?” about doing all of this. I’m proud of it. I did a cool thing. And trying to get better at saying that.
And, what are you working on now?
I always have about 8 active projects going at once (which shouldn’t come as a surprise after last question!), but my next interactive fiction game is with Tales/Fable Labs! It’s shaping up to be a Dawnfall-sized project, but a little faster-moving and action-y.
It’s called Every Beat Belongs To You, and it’s a romantic thriller that feels like Twin Peaks meets Mr. Robot, with a smattering of Repo: The Genetic Opera. A creepy Pacific Northwest town with a secret (and a rash of ritualized murders), a super-slick medical research company whose flagship product is a 100% perfect synthetic heart, a mysterious new-age group, and a sister who went missing just before discovering how it’s all connected. Also five simultaneously-dateable (including ace and aro ships!) cuties of varying genders! Who will you trust with your heart?
I’m very excited about Everybeat, which should be just as queer, polyam, exciting, and weird as all my stuff! Aside from that, I’m working on Stake Sauce Book 2, its companion f/f vampire series Death Masquerade, and Chameleon Moon Book 3. I’m not always working…sometimes there are videogames, and sleep. But I really hope to have a lot more fun things to share soon!
Oh, and depending on how this weird, fun thing goes, I do have some ideas for prequel Dawnfall stories; maybe games, maybe books, but the ideas are there. The world—worlds, really—is so huge, and I’m not done playing in it yet! I also have some character art drawn, and I want to do a lot more of them. It’s another way to show love.
So thank you so much! I really hope Dawnfall is as fun to everyone to read/play as it was for me to write. I can’t wait to share it with you!
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30 days - 30 ideas
i have so many ideas of little things to include in animal crossing games (new horizons and the future), so i wrote one a day on twitter counting down to new horizons’ release, and i thought i’d compile them all here for easy reading now that the list is complete and new horizons is only hours away. (note that some of these were posted before the direct/other information was released, so they may be a little outdated, but what can you do.) let’s go!
day 30: observatory. (i said little but this is the biggest one.) i want the observatory back. but more: imagine if we could learn about real world stars, planets, and constellations like we do bugs, fish, etc. in the museum. & visiting opposite hemisphere towns would teach more!
day 29: combining villager personalities & essences/natures (pocket camp) to create more varied villagers and dialogue. also species' traits. a peppy, natural bunny (dotty) would be very different from a peppy, cute squirrel (peanut).
day 28: be able to combine certain fish or bugs into one container in your house, so you can have a personal mini aquarium or habitat. also, please let us change the type of container (and give fish more space in theirs so it's not so depressing).
day 27: let us refurbish (almost) all items. i'm willing to give a pass on event/gracie items because they're supposed to be special, but otherwise. i hate having a piece that fits the theme but doesn't match and you can't refurbish. (this includes rugs, flooring, wallpaper.)
day 26: different wrapping papers for presents. the wrapping paper in pocket camp is so cute, much cuter than the yellow sacks we get to buy in new leaf. i'd send so many wrapped presents to my neighbors!
day 25: let us build big pwps/amenities that we and the villagers can interact with. bonus if they're seasonal: an ice skating rink in winter, swimming pool in summer, ferris wheel in the spring... riding a ferris wheel with cherry blossoms blowing? sign me up.
day 24: (another big one) a way to change gender, and a nonbinary gender option. in new leaf, i had a lot of friends stop playing entirely because their avatar no longer matched them after coming out as trans, but they didn't want to delete their whole town, so they felt stuck.
day 23: let villagers catch fish and bugs instead of just perpetually trying with no reward. while it's cute to watch them stalk bugs in the bug off, never seeing them catch any makes me feel sad for them!
day 22: choose held items in dream towns (dream towns better still be a thing). a small detail, but most of my characters carry wands or balloons but can't in dream towns. and when your dream is set on a rainy day, you always default to a red umbrella no matter what.
day 21: sound configuration options. (apparently you can change the volume of kk slider songs playing but i wrote this before that, okay?) not just those, but being able to turn up/down/off hourly music, ambient noises, effects, etc. i'd love to turn up the sound of the ocean!
day 20: SUNFLOWERS. well, new flowers in general, but specifically sunflowers! they're my favorite, and we need tall flowers in the game. plus everyone went wild over the sunflower event in pocket camp.
day 19: more things to do with villagers together. not just going to each other's houses, but inviting to the roost, bug hunting, apple picking, etc. would be SO cute! and that *we* can invite *them*, not just wait for a random ping.
day 18: combine “traditional” events and holidays with wild world events for a fuller calendar. i LOVE the unique wild world events, but taking out toy day, halloween, etc. was also a mistake. the wild world events would fill in those months where major holidays don't happen.
day 17: multiplayer islands to live on with friends. now, nintendo is FAR behind the times with multiplayer, so i don't expect this if ever, but i want it. i want to make a town with my online friends, like a minecraft server. please.
day 16: side jobs. no obligation to do them at a given time or at all, but something extra and fun. working at the roost is a great example, and i'd love to see more: villager home designer, shopkeeper, restaurant chef... these would especially be great later in the game.
day 15: diagonal furniture. please. i like putting things kitty corner and some items, like the basket chair, just don't look right without that.
day 14: let villagers write random posts on the bulletin board again! it was one of my favorite things about wild world.
day 13: more interactive items, for both players and villagers. we've seen villagers reading books and eating ice cream, which is great, but it bothered me that they couldn't play on the jungle gym pwp and stuff!
day 12: let us layer small, tabletop items. PLEASE. clutter looks so much better and realistic when layering is an option, like in the sims.
day 11: remove restrictions on where we can plant palm trees and cedar trees. it never even made sense that cedar trees could only be planted on the top half of the town, but nothing we've seen so far hints at this changing.
day 10: customizable community buildings. one of my favorite parts of happy home designer was designing our own shops, hotel, concert hall, etc. they really made my main street feel unique, especially compared to new leaf's main street where everything's the same (minus unlocks).
day 9: let villagers swim! i want to have cute beach days with my villagers but not if they're stuck on the land.
day 8: ceiling items. please don't take away our ceiling items. we saw a pinata that could potentially be, but that's it (even the hanging plant was converted to a wall item). and, while they were a great addition in HHD, there were very few ceiling items. i'd love a LOT more!
day 7: minigames! at the very least, bring desert island escape back, but i'd love to see much more. a mix of amiibo festival minigames and the one in nintendoland would be great, as well as some new ones. especially if they're multiplayer to play with friends!
day 6: create-a-villager! i don't expect them to be villagers actually in the game, but it could be neat as a little side thing. when hacking new leaf was big, there were a ton of cute and creative fan-made villagers just made with retextures, and i'd love to see more.
day 5: nocturnal villagers and activities. i LOVE nighttime, it's so relaxing, but you also run out of things to do (or, pocket space, if you like nighttime fishing like me). at least residential services will let you sell your fish 24 hours a day, but i'd like a bit more to do.
day 4: something to replace streetpass/the HHA showcase. i loved seeing people's houses, and being able to order from them in new leaf was a nice bonus. i'd love something similar with our friends list, a mix between that and what we had in city folk.
day 3: deeper lore on special NPCs. we have a lot on the able sisters and the nooks, even some on brewster and blathers, but i want to know more about the others! what's pascal's story? we know nothing about him, he just... pops up randomly.
day 2: more weather events/phenomena. red moons, eclipses, blizzards, hail, MOONBOWS... there are so many neat weather things in the world!
day 1 (WE MADE IT!): biome DLC. i've been asking for different terrains/biomes since before happy home designer, where we got to choose those. even though new horizons is set on an island, it's still a standard biome with four equal seasons. i'd LOVE dlc that allows us to make a snowy mountainside home, or a home like the PNW where it mostly rains and snow is uncommon. or a tropical town with sunshine and palm trees abound. bonus if the DLC means we can have more than one town per console. please, i need it.
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it makes me real damn sad to see all the drama and technical issues around borderlands 3, because past all the epic bullshit, 2k bullshit, massive technical problems and dumbass ceo, the actual developers and creatives and studio grunts at the heart of gearbox are some pretty cool people?? there’s women and transfolk (the main character designer for bl3 is a woman!), and dudes trying their best to learn and grow and be progressive with each new game, and who’ve made huge strides and put some really cool shit in each new iteration of the series in a way that a lot of triple-a games haven’t
like, the very first blands game back in the day was awful, just embarrassingly problematic, and bl2 had a few not-great things as well; but starting with bl2 they really made a point to improve, and it’s honestly one of the things i love most about the series? like, there are actually a ton of variously queer and poc characters and npcs throughout the series as a result, probably close to the most i’ve seen in a triple-a; hell the first human npc you meet in bl2 and one of the most loved npcs of the series is sir hammerlock, an openly gay black disabled (cyborg) man
i haven’t been able to play it yet, but bits and pieces have still made their way to me and there’s even more cool shit in bl3: a middle-aged black male openly gay couple! a sentient robot who evolves and identifies as a living person and after giving it serious thought, rejects gender and specifically identifies as a nonbinary person, using they/them pronouns and wearing a nb pride badge! and the big one: an important main story npc who currently identifies as an afab nonbinary person but is seriously considering fully transitioning to male, who’s voiced by an actual irl trans person! that’s a huge thing to have in such a big game! and i’m sure there’s going to be even more stuff i haven’t come across yet!
so i’m conflicted, because i’m ‘ughhhh’ at so much of the bs surrounding bl3, but i’m also devoted to supporting the actual devs working on it who get swept under the rug because of other peoples’ mistakes, and loving a series that has put an unexpected amount of work into having a genuinely diverse cast and world
man!! video games and the dumb dumb people gumming up the works of cool stuff in the industry!!!
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For the dnd ask meme ofc: 6, 12, 14 (although like, I realize you've done a bunch, so you can pick! I'd love to hear you introduce some of the ones we did, they were uh. fascinating groups in some cases!), 22, 25, 33 (this is so hard as a gm. like. just. infinite difficulty how do you do ittt)
6. Favorite death (monster, player character, NPC, etc).
Honestly my favorite death in one of my games was the time one of my hometown players decided to poison my brother’s character with a dart stuck inside a pair of magic gloves he really wanted. I asked more than once “okay so you just... put them on? You don’t look them over?” and he was like “Yeah, I put them on.” He failed his CON save and died.
But the REALLY best thing about that death was that he was an oil-based Gillman from Pathfinder, meaning his corpse was highly flammable. The rest of the party used his body as fuel for a bomb later that session in order to kill some NPCs coming after them. It was pure chaos.
12. Your in game inside jokes/memes/catchphrases and where they came from.
oh god, which game? there’s so many of them! okay quick rundown of some of my favorites:
WTNV game: “Hello, we’re scientists.” -standard opening dialogue whenever interacting with an NPC, even one the party has already met. (special mention goes to “better a _ than a cannibal!” because of the time a character was overcome with the desire to eat six-inch-high humanoid beings and totally ate one)
“Can I roll for unicorns/fairies?” - pretty every Renegades game I ever ran had someone ask this question, because the first one-shot I ever ran had the Natural 1 Perception check response of “You see pretty lights - they must be fairies!” and in one of my other games I for some ridiculous reason decided to allow a d100 roll for the players’ horse to spontaneously turn into a unicorn and somebody succeeded.
“Roll for dick size” - from the time I literally said, out loud, “No, we are NOT rolling for dick size!” while players were arguing about whose character was the most masculine, and one the players promptly rolled a d20 and got a natural one.
There’s like. Hundreds more and if you gave me a little bit of time I could probably name a few more, but I think that’s enough.
14. Introduce any other parties you have played in or DM-ed.
Meet the Robots and Secrets campaign: Frankie, a nonbinary lizardperson with parental connections to the Brony Mob and a robotic tail, Vlask, an alien wolfperson-human hybrid in disguise as a human and playing medical doctor, Scarlet, secret robot pretending to be human and working with the Robot Resistance, Kwrha, alien wolfperson senator who is actually a robotic body double pretending to be said alien wolfperson senator, and Leena, teaboo Superwholock fangirl who named her guns “tea” and “crumpets”, secretly a member of the Brony Mafia and evil all along.
I could introduce like, literally tons more but I don’t think anybody can really beat the Robots and Secrets gang for fantastic one-liner descriptions.
22. What color was your first dragon?
Black! It was the final boss in the Pathfinder Beginner’s Box adventure that comes at the front of the GM’s Guide!
25. What have your players done that you never could have planned for?
Uhhhh.... practically everything they’ve ever done? I mentioned in one of my previous asks that my brother once ate a splinter of wood from a chest they smashed... Befriending Station Management, adopting Carrot the Brony.... I mean that’s the whole point of ttrpgs, for me, is that you never know WHAT your players will do!
33. How do you write your backstory, or do you even write a backstory?
I genuinely used to not write backstories, whether as a player or a GM. I’d figure out what the character’s or baddie’s current situation was, and then kinda make up the why and the wherefore on the spot later on down the line. Legitimately I did not start thinking about character or villain backstory very hard until I started watching Critical Role and realized how incredibly cool it could be.
Now I write characters backstory first, and then come up with race/class/etc. For Ulundo I literally sat down and thought to myself, “I want to play the kind of character I really like, what sort of types of character do I enjoy, what kind of story leads to the kind of character I enjoy?” and I said to myself “You know, I’ve never really written or played a bad guy trying to redeem himself and still feeling guilty, but I love that kind of character” so I started writing out what he did and why he chose to not be evil anymore and that eventually led to realizing that, to fit in the setting, he had to be an elf paladin (he could have been a fighter, too, but paladin already works so much better the more I play him, and we already had a fighter)
If people wanna send me more prompts, or wanna see me introduce other parties, I’m down!
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Speaking of trans headcanons, I'm shocked there isn't more for DS2. There is a thing that lets you changed your character's sex.
TBH, I think the whole Soulsborne universe is vague enough with the ambiguity given by the armor (lack of faces/voices) that gender headcanons are really easy to apply ! DS2 is a little more on the nose with it because of the sarcophagus (which honestly amuses me to no end because I can go crazy with fashion depending on what form my Ninian has in that moment), and also it features a LOT of possible candidates with the tons of NPCs the game offers.
Headcanons can change of course, but there’s so much potential !! Be bold !! Give me those trans/nonbinary maidens and knights and scholars and mages !!
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Have you ever made a top 10 list of vidya you like? I enjoy reading your insight into games and I think it would be interesting to see that list and your reasons for liking them.
What is your favorite… sibling? Body part??
OK like, technically I did already make one, on this very site a long time ago (technically I reviewed the 10 that made the cut, separately), but I’m not super crazy about my analysis skills then and many that were on that list just ended up changing with time - both because I played more games and because I just ended up realizing I liked different games better.
Given that I absolutely love running my horrible mouth for probably way too long, your ask made me want to do one again, which was already an idea somewhere on the back of my mind.
A couple of disclaimers before we actually get into it:
No game is perfect. Games are made by human beings, who carry personal biases and intrinsic flaws. I love a ton of games and they are All flawed in different ways and amounts. If anyone tells you a piece of media is straight up perfect, you should run. I am not claiming any of the games on this list are perfect, and I am well aware of their issues. I have eyes and can read.
This is my list, the barometer for it is Me. If anyone reading this takes issue with picks (which is something I keep seeing happen and it still makes no sense) just simply don’t interact or make your own list. Not looking for arguments here.
These are not, of course, gonna be in-depth for all of the games, just what exactly makes me like them so much, which was what I was asked. There are only so many spoons an enby can have, after all.
I tried keeping it to one game per franchise (barring one arguable exception) because otherwise this would get much, much harder than it already was.
Additionally, I failed to round out 10 of them, only managing 9. I beat around the bush a LOT about what the 10th one was gonna be, but no matter what choice, I always felt like I was gonna betray myself in the end, so I have reserved a section for honorable mentions at the end. These are also not numerically ranked, because while I have a long-standing Favorite game of all time, which is the last one I’ll get to, the other ones occupy uncertain, ever-changing spots.
I’m currently sitting atop a good pile of games I’ve been meaning to check out for ages, and since 2 games I’ve played recently made this list, I think it’s prudent to also make a spot for games I plan on playing to completion soon.
Here you go, anon! (And anyone else who might be interested)
Stardew Valley:
This game is both the most recent release to be on this list and also the newest entry, since it literally hasn’t been a month since I’ve finished it, and that’s part of why I placed it first here.
Though saying I “finished it” is kind of a lie, and that in itself reveals the magic, even after the “soft ending” I just keep going back to it every day, because it’s a world that just puts me in such a relaxed state… I want to spend time in my farm with my bisexual husband every day and I’m already planning two other playthroughs even if my first one is already creeping up on 100 hours!
See also: I’m… not particularly into farming sims? I’ve tried getting into them before but I just found them a little inane and unfocused, if that makes sense, so if my love for a game can transcend even a genre itself, I’d say that’s a pretty well-executed game, generally speaking.
I just also find it super endearing that the entire game was made by one person. From the artwork, the writing and the soundtrack… it’s crystal clear that a LOT of love and genuine effort went into it, and that’s very heartwarming and gives me hope.
Speaking of love, it’s also the entry in this list that has the most queer representation in it, and that’s a huuuuge plus for me, as a nonbinary bisexual. It’s a pretty cute game, and it also still manages to juggle a lot of complex themes which are very personally relatable to me with surprising tact.
Pokémon Black and White:
This is going to date this post pretty hard, but I’m actually replaying this one riiiight now. It’s actually right next to me on the table. How quaint!
These have been my favorite main Pokémon games since their release, and it’s largely a case of me being awed by its story and characters when I didn’t expect to be. I also really appreciate the risk these ones took by excluding Pokémon of previous regions to post-game content, since it forces you to get to know the new ones (which are both plentiful and incredibly creative imho!!) as you make your team.
I really appreciate the moral themes explored in this game, and how they even toyed with core concepts that had been with the series from the word go, questioning the morality we were just supposed to accept from the onset of this franchise, to the point that I’ve seen many people feel guilty about opposing this game’s main antagonistic force, N (who’s one of my favorite characters in fiction, at that).
If we’re talking strictly about casts as collective, this one has my favorite, without a doubt, in terms of rivals, antagonists, gym leaders, and even other minor npcs. I liked how they managed to effectively tie in the gym leaders with the plot, which really should be done more often, and I feel the games suffer when that doesn’t happen (hey X and Y! what’s up). The character development a lot of characters get in the sequel (which while still good, I’m not as fond of) is also very good!
Am I also still salty about folks passing this one up and then posting misinformed, under-researched opinions about it, or even deriding the Pokémon designs? Maybe! …Yeah, okay, I am. I have vivid memories of forum posts at the time, okay?
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky:
So this was the exception I was hinting at before, in the disclaimers. It’s a spin-off that’s quite different than the main series in gameplay, so I’m counting it. I really couldn’t live with myself if I made a list of my fave games and didn’t put this one in it, seeing as it’s one of the most surefire ways to make me cry there ever were.
Much like the previous entry, this one is yet another case of the writing taking me entirely by surprise. It would have been very easy to make this spin-off a quick cash-in just using the Pokémon name, but hot damn does this one’s narrative deliver in good writing.
The previous Mystery Dungeon game was absolutely no slouch in touching very dark themes, but I do feel like those were executed both better and more uniquely in the “sequel.”
Every part of this game past the time travel is just lip-smacking, and although it starts slow, you can definitely see pleeeenty of foreshadowing nearly everywhere, which makes replaying this one very fun. It’s definitely also on my “Must replay at least once a year” list as well.
I think every game in this list has a great soundtrack, but this one takes the cake in utilizing it to heighten my emotions. I think everyone reading this who’s familiar with the game knows what I mean when I say that the farewell scene (and the track that plays in it) is completely heartwrenching and beautiful. Definitely one of my favorite scenes in gaming.
I’m also gonna give a shoutout to the relationship between the player and the partner here for being super endearing and genuinely touching, whether you see it as romantic or platonic.
Sidenote: I will have the liver of that one reviewer who stopped at Apple Woods and then said this game was nothing special.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask:
The prize for reused assets done well goes to…
I would follow that up with a joke, but I’m not gonna. This is legitimately a good thing imo. I think it’s incredible that this game was made in one year because they had to rush it, and there’s a lot you can learn about game design and creatively cutting corners by the way Termina was created, too.
The fact that this game came out as great as it did is almost a miracle, everything considered! I really like the setting here, it’s so delightfully weird, and it makes me care about the fate of even its incredibly minor characters, which makes their impending doom and that of Link’s even more harrowing.
I could see how the time-management aspect of it wouldn’t fly with a lot of people, and admittedly I’m most familiar with the 3DS remake, so I can’t comment too much on how it used to be originally, but I think it largely synergizes well with the story. This IS a world about to end, so it feels warranted in a way that could be tough to justify otherwise.
This game also does something very well with horror, both in-game and in backstory, which is that it doesn’t spell out every implication and event out for you, but it implies juuuust enough that your mind makes you even more anxious and paranoid, as nothing could ever be as scary as your mind actually makes it out to be, and toying with this is way better than outright throwing scary shit at you… even if this game does that as well, what with those mask transformations and whatnot! Jeez.
Undertale:
I don’t know how to start this entry without outright saying this in some shape or form, so it’ll have to do - I don’t care about the fandom. I just don’t. They’ll do whatever the fuck they want with those terrible AUs and character biases, and I’ll bemoan it as usual, but I actively refuse to stop loving Undertale as it is because of them.
This game is a brilliant commentary on video games as a whole and has a great metanarrative! Pretty brilliantly and excellently executed, to be honest. It’s also yet another game that makes me cry frequently, and also makes me introspect more than I already do.
The gameplay itself can be hit or miss for me, but I don’t feel like it hurts the strength of what is there in other areas like storytelling, worldbuilding, soundtrack and character writing. It’s a bit like pinching a very hearty, stout elephant!
The different endings offer very, very different experiences that ultimately contribute to this setting and its commentary as a whole, even if I’m too much of a goody-two-shoes to ever do the No Mercy Run, but I enjoy the fact that it exists AND that the game itself calls me out for not doing it myself but watching it on youtube. Boy, did I get read for filth with that one.
It’s also a game that masterfully implements a very specific kind of humor that I can’t get enough of, and it does so while simultaneously developing its characters and giving each of them just enough time to shine. It’s a great cast, all in all. I just wish people would appreciate more than one of the characters.
Fire Emblem: Awakening:
Like the game that made me etch a symbol on my fucking flesh forever wouldn’t make the cut. Come on.
I feel like this is the game in the series that comes the closest to getting the balance of qualities I appreciate about gaming right. It could always be better in a multitude of areas, but there’s a reason why it’s one of my most replayed games in general. The more whimsical tone? Doesn’t actually come close to bothering me, at the end of the day.
A lot of people don’t really attempt to get to know the characters like, at all, and then go on to say really dumb shit about them on social media that I’ve been known to flip the fuck about, just a little. But there’s just so many little details and anecdotes about them that you can learn through supports that make them feel more familiar to me, personally, than other casts even within the same series.
This game is also the one responsible for getting me through a really hard time in real life, so of course I still hold it extremely dear while growing out my critical lenses about it simultaneously (Yes, this can in fact be done). It did something similar to the franchise, too, which is always incredible and noteworthy!
It’s also responsible for me being on this site, so you really can say that its impact on my life is the biggest on this list, and I’m… not at all ashamed of admitting that.
I’m pretty sure I’ve spent over 500 hours with this one, without even counting the hours spent re-reading supports and other convos for my writing. This is a lot of goddamn time, but I don’t necessarily want it back, and that’s a good thing.
Udobure owns my soul.
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia:
If you were to suck out my brain into this fucked up jar thing and make it spit out my aesthetic biases in creative goop that creates games, two of them would come forth from this messy birth - Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia and Bloodborne.
Given that I’ve actually played OoE myself, it goes on the list! End overview.
…Now, that’s not exactly untrue, but I would be underselling the game if I left that as is, so I’ll clarify other aspects about it that I enjoy.
The main character, for one, she’s one of my favorite protagonists, and it makes me glad she seemed to be popular, but I’m not exactly thrilled with how what a lot of people (and the company) remember about her is fanservice.
Her story really struck a chord with me. She’s been robbed of her own emotions and memories at the start of the game, and when she regains slivers of it throughout the game, they still feel foreign to her, but even when things look to be at their absolute lowest (REAL nice plot twist, by the by!) not even that will stop her from performing her duty.
Another thing I enjoyed about this one was the difficulty. Normally, I’m not one to prefer the higher settings just because, and even when I try them, I frequently find myself in the position of questioning the absolute bullshit some games pull to fake any actual difficulty, but it works here because it’s actually balanced really well with what you can do and what you have available to you, making you actually think strategically.
Another thing I liked about this title that makes it stand out from the rest of the series is the map variety, since Shanoa isn’t constrained to Castlevania for the entire run, the game has an actual opportunity to show different locales, which is nice, even if they sometimes get reused in a boring way with just a different paint job.
Bayonetta:
Thiiiiis one gets on here for the longest period of courtship, without a doubt. I’ve been wanting to play it ever since it came out, but only got around to it this very year, since it was finally released on a platform I owned.
Well, alright, that’s one of the reasons, the other reason it’s here? It’s fun as FUCK to play! Every movement you make, every action flows into another and the combos all feel very natural, easy, but not devoid of strategy or thinking behind them. Beyond the gameplay, the entire thing is so darn over-the-top in typical Platinum fashion. It’s a very enjoyable ride that never forgets video games are supposed to be fun, above all.
I absolutely adore Bayonetta herself as a character. She is so amazing and multi-faceted despite the fanservice packaging. She’s quipping like the best of them in one scene, like nothing ever affects her, and then also ripping your heart out later when she shows believable vulnerability.
I would be remiss to not mention the soundtrack, since it’s one of my favorites in gaming (beaten only by the very next entry on here) and is also my go-to for writing; Between fun, catchy themes like Mysterious Destiny and Tomorrow Is Mine, reimaginings of older songs that imho are better than the originals, like Fly Me To The Moon and Moon RIver and utterly jaw-dropping boss themes like Blood and Darkness and The Greatest Jubilee, the OST conveys every beat of the action spectacularly and makes the experience even more memorable than it would have already been.
Bayojeanne forever.
Legend of Mana:
I swear I’m not trying to be hipster-y by having my favorite one also be the least popular one on the list (by a long shot) but it’s likely that the fact that content for it is so rare somewhat influenced how close this game is to my heart, in a way. I think it made me cherish it more.
You won’t find another game quite like this one, I don’t think. The setting is extremely unique in that… you build it. You have to decide where every area in the game goes and all. It’s actually implied you’re rebuilding this world after all the magic in it has gone to shit. It’s something I really like, for sure.
It definitely makes you work for its story, and though the gist of it is presented in a cumbersome way, being exposited in history tomes you can acquire and view in a specific location… even they don’t completely spell out the backstory of this world, but in a good way rather than the usual “we blatantly didn’t finish this” kind of way. It helps that there is a lot you can learn about it from environmental storytelling and interpretation, as well. I like that, being asked to think about symbolism and what it means.
Another good point about this game that’s difficult to articulate is that it manages to create an entire world with its own set of morals and philosophies that, if taken at face value, can sound completely alien to us, but the game immerses me so deep into its world, that I end up understanding what they mean by it anyways and sympathizing where I might have not. I think that helped shape my introspective nature a lot, in retrospect.
There’s also the fact that although the four biggest story arcs aren’t actually linked at all, they do still absolutely play into the same major theme… even if a lot of people end up missing what it is due to how obtuse this game can be (It’s love, my dudes. Love and its classical understandings are the theme that permeates this game’s setting).
It’s also absolutely impossible for me to talk about Legend of Mana without gushing about its art design. Even if the graphics themselves aren’t great, the way it implements backgrounds still completely floors me every time I play. It does really interesting things with perspective, which you don’t see often. Hell, even the aptly-named Junkyard is unreasonably gorgeous.
The soundtrack, then? It’s Yoko Shimomura at her absolute best. It goes all the way between upbeat melodies and soul-rending compositions and it’s just intensely distinctive. A special note goes to the song City of Flickering Destruction, which still makes my heart tighten even after so many years.
Whew uh, this got long… if you’ve read this far, congratulations! You certainly can put up with an untold amount of bullshit. I’m sorry this became so disorganized, but I also… really enjoy sharing these. Really, I do. I hope I at least piqued your interest with even one of these entries. That alone would make writing this worth it a thousand times over.
Honorable mentions: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem, Earthbound, Bloodborne, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, Pokémon Emerald, Pokémon Sun, Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Digimon World Dusk, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, New Super Mario Bros., Super Smash Bros For 3DS, Silent Hill 3, Resident Evil, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil: Revelations, Resident Evil: Revelations 2, Bravely Default, Night in the Woods, Shovel Knight, Zero Escape: 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors, Okami, Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
To play list: Dragon Age: Origins, Transistor, Bastion, The Darkness II, Skyrim, Hollow Knight, Dark Souls, Dark Souls II, Sonic Mania, Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 6, Alan Wake, Sonic Mania, Kingdom Hearts.
#Anonymous#video games#Jack's favorite games#I guess the overall trend is 'go dark thematically but handle with care and have fun with it'#I'm sorry for how some of the disclaimers come off I'm just a paranoid person and this site doesn't help#I think one look at the honorable mentions section reveals why this was hard for me#I'm also a character person and I appreciate characters who're pleasant and who I want to actively get to know and spend time with#before I'm a gameplay person and then I'm a story person#I'm just not a graphics person. I can appreciate when they're good objectively but they're not a necessity to me#I hope nobody started taking shots every time I said I enjoyed a game's world or cast
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