#can't wait to start posting more gameplay!
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📩 Simblr question of the day: You can answer one or both parts of this question!
1️⃣ Part one: If you make Story posts, what do you do for scenes? Do you build them yourself, do you download lots from the gallery or do you download them from someone online?
2️⃣ Part two: If you make Gameplay/Legacy posts, what do you do for a house? Do you build it yourself, download a home from the gallery or do you download them from someone online? Additionally, do you build onto that home or demolish it and rebuild the house when needed? (E.G When another child enters the picture or someone moves in)
❎ If you do none of those for either half, what do you do? Do you use someone else's save file? (WIndbrook by Folking, Willow Creek + Magnolia Promenade by Theneighborhoodsave, Silent Pines by Silentpinessave... etc)
( freely share this SQOTD around, anon or not, and use the hashtag " SQOTD " ~ 💛 )
Thank you so much for the ask! I think SQOTD is such an amazing idea and I really appreciate you going out of your way to get some conversations going within the community.
1️⃣ I think I'm a mix of storyteller and gameplay blog so I'll answer both. I used to use poses a lot more when playing and telling stories, but now I more or less only use gameplay to influence the story and I find I really enjoy that. It's a lot more freeing than having to find very niche poses to convey the specific idea you have. As for builds, I do everything myself. I'm not a fantastic builder, but I really like it anyway and really like seeing a save file full of my own builds.
2️⃣ Same as above: I build my own houses and yes, additions happen. The way I play, most of my households start out really broke (often with 0 simoleons). The houses start off as a patchwork of rooms, added on as my sims make simoleons. Then after a while, if I have enough simoleons saved, I'll redo the whole house but keep the bones and maybe a bit of the aesthetic. It really depends on how ugly it was to begin with. 😂 The house I built for Bruno and Belle on the old Gateway Peak property where my founders lived when I started my BACC was a complete bulldoze. It looks NOTHING like the original.
Thanks for the ask! Can't wait to get more in the future! My inbox is always open! Happy Simming! 💚
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Mt. Komorebi - Childhood Memories
#sims 4#sims 4 edit#maxis match#ts4#ts4 edit#simblr#sims 4 gameplay#ts4 gameplay#gerbit#postcard legacy challenge#postcard legacy#plc#gen 1#edward*#ine*#OUR BABIESSSSSSSSSSSS#can't wait to start posting more gameplay!#SO FUN!!!
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Meet the Aguirres | Sims 4 Gameplay (ft. Silent Pines)
Ines Clara Aguirre: your stereotypical 90s sitcom OC...she's just a teenager trying to figure out her so-called life. a self-proclaimed movie buff, ines dreams of a life that's 'just like the movies'. her nosy and daydreaming tendencies often get her into trouble...
Gael Aguirre: a proud descendant of ranchers, Gael recently made the hard decision of selling the family farm. in need of financial stability, he moved his family to silent pines where he hopes for a fresh start...
Sonya Wainscot-Aguirre: a brilliant journalist, sonya adores the life she has built with gael but still yearns for something more...she's uneasy about if their move to silent pine was the right decision...
Jaqueline 'Jacki' Aguirre: the 2nd eldest, Jacki is free spirit who is enjoying her indefinite gap year(s) by chasing her passions...this month it's crystals and gemology...
Miguel Aguirre: the eldest, miguel is a sophomore at FB and a typical overachiever...he graduated top of his class with a full ride to play soccer...
David 'Avi' Aguirre: as the youngest, Avi is showered with love and adores being the center of attention. now a spoiled and charming toddler, his inquisitive nature continues to grow...
Currently losing steam on my regency gameplay, but got super inspired recently after seeing people post their awesome gameplay with @silentpinessave! Took me a day to create this new family and download a bunch of 90s cc but excited to get some gp posts up soon and can't wait to explore the save more!
Also will be posting a lookbook for Ines soon!
-d.
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FAQs
Welcome to the FAQs post for Within Your Eyes. More may be added in the future!
Do you take NSFW Asks?
Yes! [Though at the moment, Asks are closed]
Will there be more poly routes?
Right now, the polyamorous routes I’ve included felt "right" to me. While I'm open to the idea of introducing more, I want to ensure that each route is well-developed and fulfilling. Therefore, I’m carefully considering any additional paths. My main focus right now is enhancing gameplay elements and keeping a manageable workload. Future updates might bring new possibilities, but for now, my energy is dedicated to enhancing the current experiences.
How many NSFW scenes will there be?
I let the story guide me a lot on certain things, letting it unfold organically, including NSFW moments. While I do follow a detailed timeline for the story, it's flexible enough to accommodate new ideas, including unplanned NSFW scenes. So, the exact number isn't predetermined — there could be quite a few, depending on how the story unfolds.
You should do __________!!
I receive a variety of suggestions for many aspects of the game. To streamline this process, I've set up a dedicated Feedback form. Please note that while I'm open to hearing your ideas, especially about technical aspects, there are limits to the changes I can implement. I encourage you to read the guidelines carefully before submitting!
Why can't the MC be a virgin?
Initially, I thought the MC's virginity could be an implicit aspect of their background, but I now recognize its significance to some players. While my story isn't purely NSFW, I can see the appeal for having this option, and I'm actively working on incorporating it — this includes adjusting existing scenes. I apologize for any oversight and appreciate your patience!
You said you've been working on this world for so long, why isn't it done?
Bringing a world that's been growing in my imagination for over a decade into an interactive format like Twine has been quite an endeavor. Initially, I envisioned a linear story with three main characters across three stories. However, as I started adapting it to an interactive, choice-driven narrative, I realized these characters wouldn't work as I had intended. This realization led to the introduction of a new character—our beloved Warden—and a shift in the storyline that hadn't been part of the original plan. These adaptations have opened up possibilities that have significantly enhanced my world. It’s taken time, yes, but the depth it's brought has been absolutely worth it!
"Who is ???" or "I already know who ??? is!"
While I love your curiosity and detective work (looking at you, code divers), I must tread carefully here. There’s definitely more than meets the eye. What you think you know is just another piece of a much larger puzzle. Regardless, I hope it will be worth the wait!
I love your story, thank you for sharing!
I promise I see you, and words cannot convey how much I appreciate and adore every message I've received. I keep them to uplift me on the hard days. I may not be able to answer them all, but know I cherish every one! Thank you for being a part of this journey ♥
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Happy Simblr Gratitude Day!!
There's so many amazing people that I follow, and I know I can never name them all, so if you don't get mentioned on this list, PLEASE don't feel bad. I know for a fact that I'm going to miss some incredible people.
(under the cut for length)
@simlit - possibly the best "bachelor challenge" to ever exist. An incredible story with compelling characters, excellent writing, and stunning visuals. I binge-read all of COTS in one day, and whenever it updates, it's the highlight of my day.
@simgerale - Miranda is so incredibly talented. She makes the most beautiful sims, and her story Regal that just finished recently might just be my favorite story anyone has ever posted on tumblr. I've been following it since more or less day one. Also her legacy family is ADORABLE.
@softpine - the last of my top 3 stories on simblr. Everything Brandi writes is so incredibly detailed and filled with so much love. There is so much nuance and detail that goes into all of her posts, and all of her characters are delightfully complex. I binge-read the entirety of Camellia over two days, and it was a DELIGHTFUL experience.
@potionio - Omen makes some of the most amazing sims I've ever seen. Everything they make is GORGEOUS, from sims to builds to edits. Amazing alt fashion and spooky vibes all around. Also just an awesome friend.
@panicsimss - another amazing spooky simmer. Panic has gorgeous OCs, and I love everything she makes. Poppy and Hudson have my heart!!
@salemssimblr - Ash makes incredible renders, and is also just very kind. She's an awesome friend, and I'm so glad to have met them!!
@goldenwaves - Izzy is another incredible render-maker and editor. They also are the creator of some of the most fun and interesting dnd ocs I've ever had the pleasure of playing with and hearing about. Plus, her new story Heartbreakers is super awesome!!
@wileyfern - They post adorable gameplay, and their legacy family has been going strong for a long time now. Her current heir, Ocean, is super fun to follow!
@void-critters - Jay makes amazing edits and has some amazing dnd ocs that I love hearing about. They're also super kind and a great friend.
@warwickroyals - Ayanna's story is one of the only royal simblr stories I really follow very closely on here, and for good reason!! The level of nuance and commentary that goes into her story is very special. If you're going to follow a royal simblr, let it be this one!! Plus some very cool cc!!
@heartblobs - A very lovely historical simmer who just recently started a new decades challenge!! Ellie's current family is super cute, and I can't wait to see them grow!
@wildmelon - Lush makes some of the most gorgeous sims I've ever seen, as well as amazing edits!!! Also a critical role fan, which makes me happy.
@rebouks - Somnium very quickly became one of my favorite stories on simblr, and now Forever In Between is following in the foorsteps! Becca has adorable sims, and blends an excellent mix of gameplay and storytelling. She's also an INCREDIBLE pose maker.
@ghostputty - Ky makes INCREDIBLE edits, including those very famous eye edits. Also, their story, Deck of Fate, is fascinating, and I can't wait to read more!!
@raiiny-bay - Rai makes amazing renders, and their Monster Boys universe and lore is FASCINATING. I could read about the zombie boys for hours!
@arcanewonder - Sara's renders are on a whole 'nother level. Truly nothing compares. The fantasy vibes are immaculate! Plus, her simblreen treats from years past have saved my ass in decorating the castle for RTQ/ATQH.
@barbieaiden - Sam makes some of the most awesome renders I've ever seen, not to mention his stunning story and intriguing OCs. I love Sam and Aiden, am morbidly fascinated with Tristan and Kas, and am eagerly awaiting the day I get to hear about his pirate OCs.
@rainymoodlet - Shan's sims are all GORGEOUS, but Dan is truly the best of them all. Dan's bachelor challenge, KMIK, is amazing, and even though my boy may be out of the running, I'm very invested to see who ends up stealing Dan's heart.
@samssims - Sam is a pillar in this community. Her NSB family captured my heart right away, and her unique method of storytelling is so cool. Not to mention her poses, which are a must-have!
@laeska - Makes some of the best hairs in the community, and all totally free!! Her simblreen gifts this year were amazing, and I have all of her cc in my game.
@retro-plasma - Corn's sims are beautiful, and their gameplay posts are stunning! They truly have a talent for making things come alive!
@omgkayplays - A truly incredible simblr. Stunning builds, mindboggling edits, drop-dead-gorgeous sims, and a fascinating story are all reasons to give Kay a follow.
@seaslugsims - Their story is awesome, their cc is amazing and very useful, plus they're super kind and amazing!!!
@simandy - Ellen is literally the first simblr I followed, back when I joined this hellsite 5+ years ago. Her cc is amazing, and absolutely a must-have in my game.
I know I've missed people, but I think I've hit my limit on tagging people. Either that or tumblr's just throwing a fit at how long this post is. Either way, each and every person I follow deserves a spot on this list, so don't feel bad at all if I missed you!!! I follow over 400 people, all of whom are amazing.
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Open Late Games released its first teaser for Speakeasy last week on April 25th, 2023 via a Reddit post, a Twitter announcement, a trailer release on YouTube, and making our Speakeasy itch.io link live.
Up until this point we've kept the development of our game hush hush. So who are we and what's this game all about?
Open Late Games is an independent development studio founded in 2020 with several projects in the works. Our focus is on creating games for women and the LGBTQ+ community, with an emphasis on immersive stories and quality gameplay. Our two member team is small but mighty, with experience in both creative and management fields.
As for Speakeasy, this is an erotic visual novel that might be new to our audience, but has been in production since 2021. Here's the quick info:
Join Old Hollywood heiress Cora West for a whirlwind of forbidden romance in the depths of a decadent illegal jazz club in Prohibition-era Los Angeles. Direct the heroine’s actions and determine whether she will make it out with her heart intact or lose herself in the glamor and excess.
Will you fall in love? Rule the city? Or damn it all and descend into ruin? The choice is yours.
Now come closer and we'll let you in on a little secret...
The script is complete, the demo will be ready soon, our Kickstarter will launch this summer, and our goal is to release the game before the end of the year!
Okay, that was more than one secret. When we started development on this project we made the decision not to release information until there was a solid body of work to present. As our debut title, we knew we would have a lot to prove and wanted to do this right. With the script complete, phase one of the character art finished by the amazing artist who signed on for the project in 2022, the game demo programming underway, and all the little details being drawn together, we knew it was time to let the world know about Speakeasy.
As fans of independent games ourselves who have supported studios/individuals and watched the development of titles we were excited about, we know how it feels being on the side of the end user who's clinging to updates and waiting for the game to come out. There's a fine line between foreplay and just being a tease; we want to get all of you excited for the main event, but also for you to know that a release is within reach.
Thank you for coming on this journey with us and we can't wait to show you what comes next.
Aura, Founder + Creative Director
#amare#gaming#otome#indie#indie vn#visual novel#indie games#otome romance#otome fandom#english otome#dating sim#amare game#otome game#r18 otome#indie otome
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i really love the art and writing you're doing for this, and i can't wait to see more!
i have a question. how does the actual clangen gameplay of this all look? when i play, events seem to happen so rapidly that i rarely have a chance to actually write any of it down and retain any of it, so i'm wondering if you have a specific playstyle that helps make the "story" of risingclan easier to write
The real answer is that you just have to slow down. I've found, especially after the Potato Update, this also increases your cats chances of survival.
So when I sit down to take notes (check this post if you're interested in my note taking format), I'll click "Timeskip One Moon" and write down anything notable from the moon events; births and deaths, any serious injuries, naming ceremonies, any new mate pairs or accessories, etc. Sometimes I also check the relationships section for anything interesting, but not usually since there are a lot of cats now and the relationships tab has become overwhelming.
Then I go to my cat list and name any kits, newcomers, or new warriors. I also usually change mentor apprentice pairs to make more sense, like if an apprentice is insecure I pair them with a loving mentor instead of a bloodthirsty one you know? I also make sure that brand new warriors aren't getting apprentices over older cats who've never mentored one.
Then I mediate as many pairs as I am able and go to patrols. I pair the cats up making sure to mix high experience with low experience or pair cats I want to date off so they can bond. If something seems like it would definitely kill someone I skip it. After each patrol, if something interesting happens (say a couple gets a cute romantic interaction or a new cat joins or an apprentice gets hurt) I take a moment to write it down. Repeat until everyone has gone on patrol and then start at the beginning again.
It's pretty simple! Just take your time to make sure you read every notif and then write it down. I honestly started doing this because I realized i was speeding through patrols and I was barely processing anything that happened in my games. So I started writing everything down and got really invested in that clan and thought, man I wanna share it with people! And that gave me the idea to start RisingClan.
Good luck with your Clans, go forth and have fun!
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Dude thank you so much for all the work you do compiling broken/updated mods and cc. And I'm sorry people can't just read the first page of the sims forum thread! Drives me bonkers, so I can't imagine how you feel
Thank you!
I'll be honest here: Simmers choosing to add mods to their game (and that includes CC, which are mods too) but not learning how to properly install and update them or how to use them across game updates, not reading instructions from creators, not taking them out when reporting problems on support forums or to Maxis but saying they did, and not reading available info before asking for support are a HUGE reason modders leave modding (or just stop publishing their mods and keep them only for their own use) and a HUGE reason support volunteers stop volunteering.
So I'm going to bounce off your kind post with some advice for other people.
If You Want to Use Gameplay Mods and Custom Content...
Learn how to use your Mods folder.
Learn how to set your folder up with subfolders so that you can find the files you need to delete when you add new ones. Learn what has to go no more than one folder down so the game actually sees it. Something every college instructor quickly learns is that younger people have often never needed to learn about computer file structure before. Well, you have to.
Read creators' instructions.
Creators' instruction will tell you crucial things like what a mod actually will and will NOT do, packs are needed for their mod, how your files need to be arranged in your Mods folder, what other creators' mods you need to run theirs, which files to install only one of, etc. Far too many people show up asking for help and the problem is they didn't read the instructions. Instructions are not optional.
Have a plan for something else to do after game updates.
Sometimes your gameplay mods and custom content WILL BREAK because the part of the game they "talk" to changed. Have a "vanilla" save or a different game entirely to play while you wait. Develop a second hobby. Clean your kitchen. Call your mom. If you choose to use gameplay mods and CC, you are choosing that you will need to stop using them occasionally, one way or another.
Read AHQ support instructions and follow them.
Reporting a game error at Maxis's AHQ? Read about testing for the error without your Mods folder, and supply all the requested info.
Read mod support instructions and follow them.
Asking for help with mods/CC from Deaderpool or Sims After Dark or a creator? When you join, read the rules you agree to; they aren't there for fun. If you choose to use mods with unethical or illegal content, expect that you will NOT get support. Answer questions honestly. Upload the files requested, not just pictures of them. Be kind to creators and volunteers: there are very good reasons they're asking you what they are, and if they give up creating/volunteering, you're going to be on your own.
Read broken/updated mod support instructions and follow them.
@scarlets-realm and I have very different structures and therefore different rules, but neither of us is going to stay willing to maintain our lists if we keep having to deal with Simmers who don't follow our rules, which we have set up, for one, to prevent false reports, which benefit nobody. I started my list because I was looking for info for myself and thought I might as well share it in a centralized way. If it becomes increasingly annoying, I'm happy to let Simmers go back to Hard Mode.
Don't ask "WHEN".
You are not a preschooler anymore, and when you were and were asking "Are we there yet?," you were making it harder for your mom or dad to drive the car. Creators are not working on your schedule; you aren't their managers. Leave them alone so they can actually get to the destination.
Don't ask "What broke".
The answer is already available to you. READ AND FOLLOW my Forums list (don't just pop in with a question). Please note that the Forums themselves have rules, and those MUST be followed there. READ AND SEARCH Scarlet's list. If you choose to use mods from creators who use a pirated/cracked game or packs, who paywall any of their creations permanently or longer than Maxis permits for their type of content, or who copy code without permission from other creators, you're going to be relying on the creators for support. Neither of us will support unethical creators by helping you use their stuff.
Get your news about what's broken and what isn't from the established lists, support servers, and the creators.
A lot of Sims influencers on YouTube and Twitch use mods, but that doesn't mean they're a reliable source of info, unfortunately. Some are using outdated or broken mods and don't realize it. Some have been known to say that a mod is "broken" when what's broken is a game mechanic or when they think a mod is supposed to be doing something it's not.
You have a choice:
You don't HAVE to use gameplay mods or custom content. Many players don't, including all console players. If you CHOOSE to use them, learn how to do so the right way, and be a supportive part of the community so that you can keep using them.
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Made these earlier that's why I got something to share asgsgfdffss
Hey art! New stuff! Aaaand if you're in the loop there has been a new cookie run game!.... I'll share my thoughts in a separate part on this post cuz I got a lot to say >_>;;;
But yeah! This is Marbled Danish Cookie! One of the brand new cookies released at Witches Castles launch, honestly when I saw him I was very interested, but then when I luckily got him via the gatcha, I just grew more attached to him! I'm in the middle of the part of the story he's in but I already know he's grade A regressor material 🥹 and since Cheesecake is also in this game I can soooo see her looking after him.
I def can't wait to draw more of him since he's been on my mind ALOT ever since I got him and saw him in the story, so look forward to that c:
Aaaaand now for my thoughts so far on the actual game!...
Cookie Run Witches Castle is so damn pay to win and frustrating to play it's not even funny
It's a mobile puzzle game where you match blocks instead of candy crushing it so you know it's already gonna be very luck based. The gatcha system is very idiotic with how you get things and especially cookie's! Now in kingdoms it's understandable (kinda) that you get soul stones and sometimes actual cookies! Because that's just what the gotcha only offers, in this game however you have residents, furniture and THEN cookies.... it's a real gamble on what you get since you need to max out a meter for anything to get something by ten in the gatcha! And the seasonal one??? Completely pay to win since you can't earn the special currency for it by normal gameplay...
Now I'm probably sounding pretty unfair right? The game did JUST come out, how can it be this ba- I'm on level 253
Let that sink in...
This game also has a story, similar to kingdoms! But the thing is that since it's a damn puzzle game about luck! I can't just play through and enjoy the story, I HAVE to play many levels to get a few story beats... and after you've been stuck on a level for long enough you start to... not really care about the story anymore. Like right now I'm only playing through the game just to see what goes on with Marbled Danish, but after that I can't see myself playing this game for much longer, unless the Devs do something drastically fix all the things I've mentioned :/
Now I can go into more detail about my thoughts but this post is long enough so I'll let you guys enjoy the cute baby cookie here lol
#seal posts#my art#cookie run agere#cookie run#cookie run witch’s castle#marbled danish cookie#baby md cookie#babyre#cglre#agere#fandom agere#age regression#age regressor#sfw agere#cheesecake cookie#cg cheesecake#ageredips#tbh if you guys want to hear me tear into this game just let me know lmao
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So I beat TotK and BotW, here are my thoughts
BotW is one of my favorite games of all time, and while it's ending was kind of disappointing, I maintain that it's still one of my favorites.
TotK is also an incredible game, with a fantastic ending to boot, unlike BotW, it felt like an actual challenge to overcome, unlike Ganon, Ganondorf is no pushover, and the fact you start the fight by fighting an army really adds to the feeling of ramped up challenge.
But which game do I prefer? Logically, my answer should be TotK, it's BotW, but with more content, however it's a bit more complex than that.
Gameplay wise, it absolutely goes to TotK, as promised the game is harder than BotW, and it has more meat to it with the abilities, enemies, alternate worlds (the Depths are just a more mysterious dark world and I love it), and Zonai devices.
Story wise though, I struggle to say which game has the better plot. BotW has the better main character arc (Zelda is the protagonist no questions please), however TotK has the better side character arcs (including one for Link) and emotional moments over all.
Story wise though, I struggle to say which game has the better plot. BotW has the better main character arc (Zelda is the protagonist no questions please), however TotK has the better side character arcs (including one for Link) and emotional moments over all.
I will say, it's cool that TotK is basically the complete vision of the Zelda team, you don't get that a lot in triple A games anymore, and while I understand why people might not like it, I do think it deserves acclaim for completing it's vision.
I plan on making more posts on both games later so stay tuned if you're interested. In the end, I give both games a 9/10, fantastic games that are dearly important to me. Can't wait to see what's next.
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Hey there, are you new to the Resident Evil fandom and want to know more about this weird blond guy with the sunglasses? Maybe you only play Dead by Daylight and want to know what his deal is without having to comb through a 20+ game series for his appearances? Are you trying to write a fanfic and can't think of anything for him to say, outside of constantly proclaiming his right to godhood?
Then have I got the resources for you!
(don't trust the fan wikis. They do things like claim that a man with one of the most Irish surnames in the world is Italian, just because his parents have some implied organized crime connections)
Ok now that you're in here I will reveal that the real purpose of this post is to spread the good word of original flavor Wesker, who I think is a really interesting villain with more complexity than people might expect. It doesn't look like Capcom is ever going to remake code veronica, which has a significant portion of his story, and there's a ton of his lore locked in a rail shooter most people never played, so I'm here to help fill in some knowledge gaps.
To start off, here is Wesker's Report 1. This is Wesker himself summing up the first 3 games for you, with glorious footage of the original playstation graphics:
youtube
Don't panic it's actually only 22 minutes long, the rest is an untranslated interview with the game directors.
Bam boom, you know what Wesker was doing from 1998 through 2000. Now let's step back in time a little and talk RE 0, the prequel game that explains how the outbreak that started it all happened in the first place. This is the story of Wesker and his buddy Birkin's past mistakes coming back to haunt them with a zombie-leech army (the past mistake in this case is disposing of your mentor's body improperly):
youtube
Stepping even further back in time we have Wesker's Report 2, which talks about his early years at Umbrella. This was only ever released in Japan, but fans have done a translation and gotten it voice-acted. This video has both the report and a compilation of all Wesker's scenarios in Umbrella Chronicles (the rail shooter this-is-the-story-so-far game):
youtube
It's long because it includes the gameplay footage. If you just want to read the report instead, google project umbrella Wesker's Report 2. You can also find UC's cutscenes separately on youtube. Wesker's scenarios are Beginnings, Rebirth, and Dark Legacy. UC condensed a lot of stuff and made some…odd story changes (especially to RE 3. Poor, poor RE 3), but it also added fun new stuff for Wesker to do, like beating up his creepy masochistic ex-boss. Godspeed, Wesker.
Now rumor has it that we are going to get Ada's campaign added to RE 4 remake eventually, but we don't have it yet, so until then here's their interactions from the original (lovingly updated to HD by fans):
youtube
RE 5 was Wesker's last (chronologically) and probably most significant appearance in the series, not to mention the version of him that's been everywhere since, but I'm not actually going to talk about him. To my eyes, RE 5 Wesker is a fun villain in his own right, he just isn't Wesker. He feels like a completely different character to me. If you've watched these videos you might have noticed this already.
RE 5, if you wish to give the writers the benefit of the doubt, is a story of Wesker having a complete mental breakdown after finding out certain retcons truths about his past. He's not usually like that. For one thing, count how many times he mentions being a god in any of this footage. Go on. I'll wait.
Classic flavor Wesker is calm, cold, and calculating. He loves pitting enemies against each other and then running off with the spoils. He does very little grandstanding and he's not all that hammy. He's pragmatic to a fault, and a master at shifting his plans around to work on the fly. He also doesn't give a flying fuck about eugenics, or "saving the world", he's in it for power and money and building better monsters just because he can. There. I said it. I feel better for it.
#resident evil#albert wesker#I also want to note that the bit about Wesker having Sherry has since been retconned#lore dump
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Random Ramblings
If this is somehow even more long winded than I normally am (yeah it's long), it's because I'm going through an IBS flare up that is kicking my butt.
BUT I wanted to get my thoughts out about some of my content warnings, because I'm very tired and have been shoving the same one in front of my Reece/Samir parts even if they might not reflect that particular part because I'm too tired to judge how spicy warrants a spice warning.
Where to start... If you haven't figured it out, all my grown sims are currently woohoo positive, as in they do not think that how much woohoo a sim does or does not have dictates how "good" a person is. Why? Because whoever made sex synonymous with shame is stupid and has ruined many a life (it was probably a dude, no offense dudes out there).
While I don't currently have any sims that are asexual, not all my sims feel the same about woohoo.
For example Charlie and Kaori would choose a good chat over woohoo most times. Not because they don't love each other, or are averse to woohoo, but because that's who they are together. Most days they tire themselves out as athletes and prefer to relax together
Cassandra and Rahul on the other hand love to have woohoo, particularly unprotected, three kids and still not done
Keira, who rolled the soulmate aspiration, chose to wait before she had woohoo. Her high school girlfriend (Morgan Fryes) cheated on her because she wouldn't woohoo. Even after meeting Marta (her now fiance) she wanted to wait until she felt comfortable being vulnerable around her.
Then of course we have my superstar Joey who is aromantic but allosexual (a mod did that, I didn't choose it). As soon as he became a YA he got a fwb. His philosophy is basically, oh she identifies as she? Can I hit it? I love you Joey that's why I call you a slut
Normally I just chuck up a sim spice warning if there are some screenshots taken during woohoo. Me being me, I don't feel like including pixel private parts in my published posts. Kudos to all you who do, it's just not my style. It's also rare that I'll write about anything that happens during a woohoo session, mostly I'll just write some foreplay then say it happened. That said, I do like to chuck in innuendo here and there if it feels like something my sims would say (any other writers feel like they know exactly what their sims would say at times?). I'm also not in a hurry to be classified as a mature blog, purely because that doesn't fit like 95% of my gameplay. Yes, I use wicked whims for my gameplay, but that doesn't mean I'm going to show you Luna being a lowkey pillow princess... shut up brain you can't just say that
Finally, on to my babies Reece and Samir. If there are spectrum's they are at the extreme end (also in my country the age of consent is 16 so any hijinks they get up before Reece turns 18 isn't percieved as illegal here). They both enjoy woohoo, like a lot a lot. Probably didn't help that there rotation had love day in it but they both also have high woohoo drives. They were flirty most of the time, so what would they do in that state? Sweet talk each other of course.
Now, if you weren't aware and you probably weren't cause it's been ages since their last rotation Reece and Samir also have a dynamic my other sims don't. Although on reflection Bob and Eliza have it as well, just to a lesser extent. Reece, chatterbox ego that he is, is a submissive. Samir, who barely says more than a sentence to anyone but Reece, is a dominant. When together they'll often lean into these roles, using both innuendo and statements of things their partner does that they're in to. Some people would probably label things that even use those words as mature, but it's a dynamic that exists people.
Now their chapter isn't me suddenly switching to speaking in 100% innuendo, but it has more than my average writing, at least for the first half you'll understand later if you read hence the sim spice warning. Looking back on it the chapter does not contain any screenshots mid woohoo, but the dialogue makes me want to put a disclosure above the cut, since I'm still not sure of all the rules around here, and my IBS is making it hard to focus right now.
Woohoo talk done? It's done! That's what she said... shut up brain, we're not twelve!
The other warning is about sim death. No one dies in the chapter but it deals with figuring out what happened to Samir's birth parents. Previously it's been established they were killed when he was 5 but the chapter and my Samir flashback pov short bit that I am low key proud of does involve mention of blood, death, dying etc. Me being me, I do not include any screenshots of dead, dying or seriously bleeding sims, it's not my aesthetic (don't act as though you don't love playing Until Dawn, the Quarry and The Dark Pictures Anthology which is full of gore... okay yes but gore does make me queasy for the most part, could never ever watch a saw film) and things aren't described in explicit detail. But death is death and grief is complex. It can hit you at unexpected times in unexpected ways.
So why am I bothering to put content warnings at all? Still sounds pretty tame. Yeah, probably, but as mentioned, I still don't know all the rules around here. Plus I would choose for someone to not read my story and avoid seeing something that upset them, than have someone grieving a loss see my dead sims bodies on their dash because I tagged it Sims4 every time. So if you see a content warning on my post, it most often just means viewer discretion advised. Not that you'll click and get flashed by my sims.
#upcoming#but not the next family#wow#This is longer than intended#Thanks for coming to my ted talk#but these thoughts have been in my head as I write#ramble ramble ramble#Is it time for more painkillers yet#oh nearly#Hoorah#Cramps are killing me right now#sims 4#the sims 4#the sims#Guess if this gets labelled as mature then I'll know right
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Simblr New Years Resolution 2024!
Thank you for the tag @pamsimmerstories 🫶
I've been a bit absent here recently (though still been lurking), so this is actually a good excuse to get me back into posting again 😅
What's your Resolution for your Simblr?
Well, I want to finish up the first iteration of my Lake Strange custom 'hood in the next couple of weeks. I was building for it non-stop throughout December, along with setting up all the households in my new rotation, and now I can't wait to start playing! I don't know what I intend to post from it here yet, as I don't want to end up basing my gameplay around taking screenshots for a story like I found myself doing with my TS4 legacy, but I'm sure I'll end up posting something. Tbh I have so many builds I could post right now but I've been super lazy with taking screenshots 😆
In terms of TS4, I honestly have no intention of going back to it anytime soon. I'm just loving TS2 far too much 😅
What do you want from the Sims Franchise?
Tbh, I just want Aspyr to port the final two TS2 expansion packs to Mac. It frustrates me to no end that I can't have Freetime and Apartment Life. I even wrote to them the other month, and they just came back and said they have no plans to do it (not that I expected anything different) 🤣
Any other New Years Resolutions?
Saying 'yes' to things again. 2023 was a year in which I let myself get trapped within my comfort zone, and I can see (with quite some clarity) how its had an impact on my mental health. I need to go back to forcing myself to being more adventurous again. Today I signed back up to the gym (so cliche to do that on 1st Jan, I know), and agreed to meet up with some friends later this week, so I'm off to a good start, I think.
Tagging @generation-simmer @akitasimblr @starandsims 💚
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I'm not sure what simblr's general opinion on this is, but peeking back in after my long hiatus, I have a lot of thoughts...
In my opinion, Patreon killed all of the momentum that ts4 simblr had pre-2020. I think we all know a lot of the bigger issues- permanent paywalls, creators doxxing and bullying, cliqueing up and sharing info- but I mean even besides that. I mean specifically early access, two to three week delays for releasing cc, the version of paywalling that most people (including myself) accepted.
It's good that creators were able to get paid for their work, especially during the pandemic. But I think, unfortunately, it had other effects too. I remember back then, being disappointed at how much was eacc, and that was only like 25% of the cc coming out, and it (almost) always was popular creators with high quality work. But slowly but surely, nearly everyone moved to patreon (which I've noticed has caused a lot of cc to be forever lost once patreons were closed/deleted) and 99% of the time it was early access or even exclusive. Many people started blogs with early access cc from the get-go, without having a presence beforehand, and those blogs seemed to be some of the most focused on blocking anyone that shared their cc. The cc varied in quality- it could be simple mesh edits that were still mostly ea, or recolors, or even just patterns sourced from other sites. It didn't matter what it was, it was just content for money, anything to pad out the month and keep patrons. Creators would do early access and then link the cc through adfly or to TSR or simsdom/simsfinds, one by one, even if it was supposed to be a pack. It wasn't bad enough to call out, but it was purposeful.
CC on tumblr became a business in a way it hadn't before, even with other paysites in sims history. And while some people are happy to donate to creators they like now and again... most people either can't or won't. Many simmers are children, and many simmers are adults with strict budgets, especially during the pandemic. And truth be told... they probably got bored. Because it's all terribly boring. CC shopping isn't fun anymore. It's the briefest serotonin seeing something interesting on your dash and then instantly flying away when you see you'll have to wait almost a month for it. And if it wasn't a creator I really liked, I forgot about it instantly after that... sometimes even if I really liked them. Motivation dropped. People stopped being excited, and stopped playing.
Nowadays, it seems even worse. Because the amount and variety of cc and creators has dropped drastically. I'm shocked to see 2-3 cc posts per day, if that, most of them paywalled. It isn't just cc posts either- used to you couldn't look in the s4cc tag for cc, it would be so crowded with non-cc sims posts, but now it's depressingly easy... and empty. Lookbooks, edits, gameplay, cc, it all seems more sparing. And you don't see the same creativity, the same fun random little items, stuff that was interesting even if it wasn't necessarily perfect. Or wild ideas or cc that would appeal to certain small niches. Because that isn't profitable, is it? When you need to create a certain amount of items per month at a certain quality to keep patrons and therefore income, you have to strategize, for good or for bad. Some people are able to do that, and while good for their business model, it limits what they can create and how much energy they can spend on each item. Some people aren't able to do it, and burn out and leave. Either way, creativity suffers. Enjoyment suffers. Creators leave from the passion being sucked out of their hobby; non-creators leave from frustration and boredom. And you're left with a handful of creators still going by their cc business playbook, month by month. But how long can those few sustain themselves?
It's natural for communities to ebb and flow, or even completely die out, but ts4 simblr had been going strong for years before this overall, even if it was in waves. In the pandemic, it should've flourished the way other many other communities did, especially gaming focused ones. But, it didn't. Instead it slowed down, more people left than the amount coming in, the engagement died down, and it seems like as a whole custom content hasn't advanced at all. Maybe it would've happened anyway, but I honestly think patreon contributed a lot. Also, ts2 and ts3 communities weren't affected in the same way, afaik, which makes me think it was paywalls even more.
Can it be fixed? Maybe. If paywalls weren't as much of a thing anymore- and I don't mean completely gone, but just a fairer ratio- I think it could. But now that it's become a standard, I doubt that will happen. I think most people have moved to other places where they don't have to deal with it, like discord servers, and simblr will continue to lose momentum.
It's good for creators to have the option of getting some income for their work, but I guess I'm just saying... at what cost? Beyond the monetary? If you're not super popular, are you even making enough for the added stress to be worth it? If you are, is this going to be satisfying and maintainable long-term, without burn-out/effects on your mental health? Who will pay for it when the number of players keeps dropping? And will this continue on to the Sims 5 community in the future? I honestly hope not.
#text#ceci speaks#delete later#ts4#sims 4#the patreon issue#this may be unpopular#especially with other creators#and i could be wrong since i havent been around for a bit#but this is what it feels like to me#long post#im just disappointed#and a little nostalgic#no one asked ceci#sorry creators that are actually great#and need the income#its all just sad
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my thoughts on tears of the kingdom (on a non-zelda blog)
so here's the thing, I love Zelda.
I've been playing the series since I was a child, practically raised on it by my oldest brother whom I have a 10 year age gap with. One of my most cherished childhood memories was when he got me Wind Waker on the Gamecube as a birthday present, I would have been around 7 years old and he would have been 17. Zelda was and still is a huge part of our lives.
So skip to today, we both got Tears of the Kingdom on launch day. We're both busy adults now who live far away from each other so we've just been updating each other on our progress and sending memes.
But I've got a lot of thoughts about the game that I really want to get out, as someone who's been with this series for two decades. My brother started with games like A Link to the Past and that was practically my first exposure to the series as well as it's what I would watch him play, alongside Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.
There will be mild SPOILERS ahead concerning the gameplay and story, so don't click the jump unless you've already played the game or don't mind getting spoiled!!! LONG POST AHEAD!
So I guess let's just get on with this, yeah? I'm not gonna separate it into "good" vs. "bad" because I find everything in this game has good shit that comes packaged with bad shit. It's a lot of pros with cons attached, so trying to separate it cleanly between "good" and "bad" isn't going to be a very productive approach.
I've seen TOTK described as "DLC" for Breath of the Wild (derogatory) while on the opposite end, Breath of the Wild has been described as the "tech demo" for Tears of the Kingdom (positive). Frankly, I can see where both sides are coming from. There are lots of elements in TOTK that feel like they could have been in BOTW, whereas other elements can confidently stand on their own separate from that of BOTW.
One such example is the new Sheikah Slate, aka the Purah Pad. While there are some features from BOTW that are surely missed (Cryonis, sigh) others have been replaced with far more beneficial features such as Ultrahand and Fuse (the bread and butter of this game) and Recall, which - controversial I'm sure - is far more functional and has way more opportunities to be useful than BOTW's Stasis ability. The Ultrahand ability alone is a massive upgrade, allowing you to go wild with the game's physics engine. The shrine puzzles are a lot stronger in this respect, having more to work with by combining the Ultrahand ability with thematic Zonai devices, often times taking you through a gauntlet of rooms with similar puzzle-solving, each more challenging than the last. There's nothing more satisfying - and doubly frustrating - than seeing the solution to a shrine you've already spent three days on and going "Wait, I could have done that???" It just goes to show that the inventive creativity necessary to solving these puzzles from BOTW has carried over twofold into TOTK.
However, I feel like these new features are less rewarding as the game goes on. While mechanics like Cryonis and remote bombs made exploring feel unique and accessible in BOTW, the lack of these features in TOTK have made exploring feel far more difficult than it should be. What used to be an easy - albeit slow - endeavor such as crossing a river by creating ice block bridges with Cryonis has now turned into an exercise in futility and physics knowledge. You can't just cross a river, you have to build a boat out of whatever resources you can find or use to cross said river. And while this is a very inventive feature that has really stretched the creative bones of its players, it's a feature that becomes draining. Sometimes you really do just want to cross a river without having to build a spaceship or a ferry. Sometimes you do just want to be able to get up to the top of a cliff without needing to build a hot air balloon. Even with the Autobuild ability, these new mechanics do really start to feel grating after a while, especially for someone such as myself who struggles with executive dysfunction and doesn't want to build yet another boat or flying car just to travel 10 feet.
Regarding that last statement, I think the inclusion of the Ascend ability helps to combat tiresome climbing, but it never seems to be an option quite as often as it could be. I've seen people praise the ability stating that it helps them avoid climbing cliffs entirely, but more often than not, I've found the ability is only usable for a third of a rocky mountain where it happens to have a platform jutting out that's close enough for Ascend to reach - with the rest of it encouraging you to just climb up naturally, or, you guessed it, use the Ultrahand ability to build your way up. The Ascend ability - like Statis from the game's predecessor - is very specific and not accessible enough in the world's design to make it actually helpful. You know exactly when and where you're supposed to use it, and trying to use it outside of those instances won't get you anywhere. Of course, I'm not going to judge this ability too hard because it's still more than what we had in BOTW, but I find its application isn't quite as useful as it could be.
And boy, there are a lot of things in TOTK that don't have as strong an application as they could. I think there's no truer place this could be said than the expansion of the game's map, through The Sky and The Depths.
Disappointingly enough, just like in Skyward Sword, which suffered for having a strong premise but weak delivery with an open sky that had nothing to do in it, Tears of the Kingdom has barely fleshed out its Sky and Depths areas enough to make them feel memorable or worth going out of your way to explore. Once you've explored 10% of either, you've experienced all of it. While the Sky and the Depths each have their own dungeon, neither of them really feel justified enough to explain why they had to be there. The Depths don't add anything to the nature of the Fire Temple - by the time you're finished with it, you'll forget you're even in the Depths - and while the Water Temple does have the addition of lowered gravity up in the Sky, no other islands have this, so it feels like a random addition in the way of a gimmick that doesn't actually play much of a role in the dungeon's puzzle-solving.
As for the Depths, I do have to say that the game introduced it in the best way possible. No one spoke of them, outside of an NPC in Lookout Landing sending you on a quest to find a nearby one, but they still don't describe to you what you're about to come upon. It wasn't in any of the gameplay trailers. You see a big hole in the ground with gloom coming out of it, you know you can jump down into it, but it's not until you actually do that you realize you're diving down into the belly of a completely different beast. Link keeps falling and you're realizing how dark it's getting and hoping you can pull out your paraglider in time to hit a ground that you realize you cannot see - when the music shifts and the horns blare and your stomach sinks realizing just how dark and vast this place is.
The Depths are what I truly fell in love with in this game. I was struck with that primal fear in my gut that I hadn't felt since playing Majora's Mask as a child. For the first time in forever, I felt like the smaller species, like a speck of dust in unfamiliar territory. It was a welcome feature for a game that - if you had preceded it with Breath of the Wild - needed something to shake things up.
But, unfortunately, that initial thrill wears off eventually. The Depths become just that - a vast expanse with nothing in it. Aside from the odd treasure chest containing a piece of gear, the Bargainer's Statues, and a couple main story quests that take you down there, the Depths have nothing. Mapping them out is a feat in and of itself, even more daunting than mapping out the above ground with its tens of lightroots, but once you get at least 50% through the map, you realize that there's really nothing else to it. In fact, the map of the Depths exactly mirrors that of the map above you, with even less to do due to its lack of notable landmarks (outside of a central mining area, the Korok Grove, and the aforementioned Fire Temple), lack of biome distinction between areas (aside from the Eldin area created specifically for the Fire Temple), and lack of shrines. Once you figure that out, mapping out the rest of it is an unfortunately boring cakewalk.
I think both of these new inclusions in the game are unfortunately half-baked, making TOTK in and of itself feel like a tech demo for something that could have been more expanded upon. That said, it's a tall order, to ask for the game to run an in-depth open world map on three separate levels - the hardware itself already often struggles to load the Depths if you dive down into them too quickly, as the fall itself is its own cleverly hidden loading screen - but it's a shame to see it essentially repeat the mistakes of Skyward Sword, and it's where I feel that "this could have been DLC" complaint comes from.
There are features that feel like mild downgrades from BOTW, such as its new Fuse ability to fuse together weapons. While it seems inventive at first, the amount of inventory being carried over from BOTW makes the gameplay grind to a halt as you scroll through your pop-up inventory list to find the right thing to attach to your arrows or weapons, often times mid combat. While you can sort your menu into different sections - such as 'most used' and 'most powerful' - such a thing could have been fixed by allowing the player to create their own custom lists of items or just reducing what is and isn't capable of being fused. It feels like an unnecessary extra step thrown in to BOTW's weapon degradation mechanic just to make it feel more unique.
Moving on, this is where I want to talk about the game's story. Like the last game, it asks Link to piece together the memories of companions already gone. The story woven within these memories is a tragic one, with an emotional depth to it that I found myself relating far more to than in BOTW, which asked us to sympathize with characters who we had never met and were already gone. On the flipside, TOTK manages to tell a similar story with a lot more emotional depth, now using Princess Zelda as the tether between the present and the past, in a way that I feel works much better than in BOTW. Its climactic twist felt like something you would find in Spirited Away, and its one that I felt was appropriate for the game's setting and themes. That said, I still do not find myself compelled by this game's version of the Champions, similarly to what I experienced in BOTW. At the very least, it brings back cast members from BOTW for us to connect through, such as Purah and Lady Impa, who I was happy to see return.
And then there are the Sages.
I have a lot to say about the Sages.
The Sages have to be the single worst inclusion of this game. And that's not to say they ruin the game, but in a game full of wonderful moments and amazing gameplay, they definitely feel like a tarnishing C- on an otherwise perfect report card. Just like in Breath of the Wild, the game's main story gameplay is the weakest part of Tears of the Kingdom. While BOTW had Link conquering the out-of-control Divine Beasts, TOTK asks Link to unearth ancient temples and awaken the spirits of sages long gone for their powers to be reborn through their descendants, three of which happen to be the successors of BOTW's Champions: Riju, Sidon, and Yunobo. While the development team and press surrounding this game called these temples "traditional dungeons", they are fundamentally the exact same as the Divine Beasts, following the same 4-beat structure in which you have to activate 4 'locks' (themed around the dungeon's setting) to unlock the dungeon's boss. I found these dungeons were often even easier than the Divine Beasts of BOTW, essentially asking Link to solve four separate shrine puzzles to get to a boss that follows a simple mechanic loop. While the bosses are far less repetitive than the Blights of BOTW, they are also far less intimidating or punishing, barely requiring any extensive thought to figure out how to overcome them. The hardest boss in the game - the Gibdo Queen - ironically had one of the easiest dungeons out of the four.
But here's the thing - Tears of the Kingdom is built the exact same way as Breath of the Wild, giving the player freedom to choose the order in which they complete dungeons, if they even choose to complete them at all... but unlike past Zelda games which offered this freedom, TOTK fails in how it delivers these dungeons and the narrative surrounding them. I was miffed upon completing my second dungeon - the Fire Temple - and realizing that the cutscenes it presented were the exact same as the first one I did - the Wind Temple - and sure enough, that same cutscene played out from its respective sage for the following Water Temple and Lightning Temple. They are all the same. While one could argue this was their way of navigating around the freedom of choice - to allow the player to experience neutral cutscenes that won't be out of order or out of context - the memories themselves are also out of order and out of context so having the dungeon cutscenes be varied should be a feature, not a bug to patch out. Currently, with its repetitive cutscenes and what you gain from completing a dungeon, it makes them far less enjoyable to do, knowing you're essentially just doing one big shrine with a giant enemy (one you can find in the Depths for farming, which makes them feel far less unique or imposing) with the reward of a heart in the end.
Of course, I'm forgetting to mention the other reward you get after completing a dungeon. Sage abilities. The biggest downgrade from BOTW by far.
In BOTW, upon completing a Divine Beast, you would be granted with an ability from its respective Champion, typically a passive one - meaning, if you had the ability enabled, it would activate on its own or you could trigger it a specific way, such as Mipha's Grace which would automatically revive you once in between cooldowns (basically a fairy you didn't have to catch) and, the fan favorite, Revali's Gale, which could be triggered by holding down the jump button and would grant you so much more ease of exploring.
Tears of the Kingdom, instead, asks "What if we made all of the Champions their own characters who could run around you, get in your way, and offer even less useful abilities?"
The present Sages - Yunobo, Tulin, Riju, Sidon, and Mineru - are akin to a teenager taking way more dogs than they could handle out for a walk. They are five nuisances who will run away from you when you need them, and run around you when you're just trying to pick up an item, causing you to accidentally trigger their abilities which are simply mapped to the A button. Too many times I've had them trigger a fight with enemies I was trying to avoid, blow away loot I was trying to grab, or blow up explosives that I wasn't aiming at, killing me outright. While they can be turned off, I feel like it could have been far easier to implement them in a way that wasn't so distracting and obtrusive - currently, the way they're implemented basically demands you keep them turned off until you absolutely need them. Considering a map of the Switch controller buttons comes up with the A button highlighted, it begs the question, why even have the other three buttons visible onscreen if they can never be mapped? Why not make use of different buttons for different companions? Or make them passive abilities similar to that of the Champions from BOTW? Overall, their inclusion feels clunky and not well thought out, and their abilities aren't near beneficial or useful enough to justify this much headache. At most, Yunobo is helpful in blowing up rock walls when you don't have Bomb Flowers, and Tulin is helpful in gusting you towards a landing spot while gliding through the sky, but that's about where their usefulness ends. Unlike in BOTW, the efforts required to gain their abilities barely feels like a reward, but more of an obligatory chore, making the dungeons feel even less rewarding to do.
With all that said, unlike in BOTW, Tears of the Kingdom never becomes a smoother experience to explore. The effort you put into completing the dungeons and gaining better weapons and gear never feels rewarded with anything substantial or worth working for. The Sage abilities are a burden and give very little benefit to exploring or combat the same way BOTW's Champion abilities did, the dungeons themselves aren't experiences worth writing home about, and the story is so milquetoast and repetitive that once you beat one dungeon, you've experienced all of them.
That said, while I've done a lot of complaining, there are a lot of things about the game I'm enjoying compared to Breath of the Wild. One such thing are the sidequests - there are a LOT more of them in this game, and many of them feel far more engaging and rewarding than Breath of the Wild. Accessing the Great Fairies requires an actual sequence of quests now, in which you bring a travelling band back together, and from that point forward, you can always hear them playing their music at the stables scattered throughout Hyrule. Hateno has its own questline that rewards you with what's possibly Link's greatest piece of fashion ever, Cece's Hat. Even the small quests feel more rewarding to do because TOTK feels far busier than BOTW did. There are far more NPC's, and the world itself just feels more lively; I wouldn't expect any less in the sequel to BOTW which experienced a cataclysmic event that wiped out the population of the kingdom. It's nice to see the difference in how the towns operate in TOTK because you can feel it through its sidequests. There are still Yiga Clan members in disguise on the surface, but it's far less now compared to BOTW where you couldn't talk to an NPC on the road without getting shanked.
Of course, it wouldn't be a BOTW sequel without one of its most daunting sidequests of all - the Korok Seed quest. This time, there are 1000 Korok Seeds to find, with new puzzles to find them, most notably the escort quests, which require you to build whatever godforsaken Roman-era torture device you need to build to get wandering Koroks from Point A to Point B.
That said, the unfortunate news I have to break to you after finally seeing someone complete the quest themselves - all that awaits you in the end, once again, is "Hestu's Gift" which I have to say, isn't as quite as funny the second time around. While in BOTW it felt like a funny nudge at completionists, in the vein of "Haha, look at you! You worked so hard to get all those seeds and all that awaited you was a pile of poop! It's all in good fun! The real prize was the adventuring you did along the way!" but having that be the end prize again in TOTK where we're exploring regions we've already explored before feels far more passive-aggressive, like it's making fun of you for really doing what the devs expected you to do a second time, with a snarky, "Seriously? You're that stupid? You really thought there'd be something new this time?" Especially considering the Koroks exclusively populate the Sky and the Surface - giving players even less incentive to want to explore the Depths, further robbing this new expansive area of less identity. Ironic that the Depths, an area so big that it requires its own hidden loading screen, would end up having even less to do than the Sky itself, which barely covers any surface area in the game's overall map by comparison. It's a damn shame the devs couldn't be bothered to think of something to reward the player with for all their work. At least in BOTW it could be said the reward was the exploration, as so much of BOTW's map goes untouched by its main story and its world was brand new to us back then - it's not brand new now, though, and the areas that are new are going completely unused.
I realize this review is getting quite long, but I want to close it with one final point - Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom's place in the Zelda franchise.
There's a startling lack of one specific thing that makes a Zelda game truly Zelda, despite the dev's best efforts to return its old school elements such as traditional "dungeons" and its nods to previous games in the title through its referential gear sets implemented right into the game (vs. exclusively as DLC in BOTW) - and that's the Triforce.
It's said that a true Zelda game can't contain its core triad of characters - Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf - without containing the Triforce in the center of all of it, and yet Tears of the Kingdom did this, and frankly, it just proves that point.
Anyone who knows me knows I'm not good at singling out a 'favorite'. Whenever people ask me what my favorite Zelda game is, my mind races through all the titles I played as a child - Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess - and yet I rarely think of Breath of the Wild and likely won't think of Tears of the Kingdom either. It's not for lack of trying or consideration, I do think both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are respectable games, both inclusive and exclusive of one another, but rarely does my mind go to them because to me, they don't feel like true Zelda games. And I didn't realize why until I recalled that the last game we had featuring Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, and the Triforce as core setpieces... was Twilight Princess. A game that will be turning seventeen this year, and will likely be twenty by the time the next mainline Zelda game releases. And one could argue even Twilight Princess doesn't count because Ganondorf was a last second addition - if we want to be really obtuse about it, technically we haven't gotten a game featuring Link, Zelda and Ganondorf as our main characters since Wind Waker, a game that turned twenty years old last year!
I felt its absence especially in Tears of the Kingdom, seeing Ganondorf manipulate his way into stealing the sigh 'secret stones' (I'm sorry but that name is so fucking cringe, please just call them "sacred stones" or "mystic stones" or SOMETHING more interesting than "secret stones", we don't even get any sort of lore or hinting towards where they came from, they're just magical McGuffin's with a stupid name) but not once mention his true motivations prior to finding out about the stone's existence. There was no emotional motivation such as what can be seen in The Wind Waker through a Ganondorf scorned by his lost culture and the kingdom that he just wanted to see wiped out to make things even; or Ocarina of Time Ganondorf who sought to access the Sacred Realm and take the Triforce and all its power for himself. Shit, there wasn't even a mention of Demise, the massive plot-twister of Skyward Sword, which Nintendo attempted to make the ultimate explanation as to why the games and their stories experience the same warring cycle from generation to generation; an explanation that could have worked, if they had actually followed up on it through BOTW and TOTK - yet, despite having the opportunity to do so, seem to just be whistling around the issue, pretending like it's not there. Despite having an Ouroboros in its title art, this cycle of death and rebirth is noticeably gone in Tears of the Kingdom.
Look, I get it. The developers have already stated that they're intent on moving forward with its open world format in future Zelda games. It's making them a lot of money. It's refreshing. It's bringing new fans into the franchise. And it's bridging the gap between generations by re-introducing classic exploration elements of retro Zelda while trying to also balance the narrative elements that modern post-N64 Zelda fans have come to expect.
But when you tear apart all the original components of a franchise, of its themes, its characters, its stories, and replace them with new components only slightly reminiscent of the old... can that franchise really be called the same thing anymore? When people ask me what my favorite Zelda game is, I don't think of Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom because to me, they're just not Zelda games. They're just what they are - Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Nintendo had a huge opportunity to make Tears of the Kingdom into a game that could tie its predecessors together with a neat little bow, and yet it still took the half-baked way out, layering it instead with its own story that doesn't even really work or take advantage of the foundation it's standing upon. They're their own games, and that's okay, but I can't help but feel that the further we go down this road, the less it'll encompass what made Zelda what it was to begin with.
And yeah, I'm sure I'm just being a typical 'old Zelda fan' who's complaining about the exact same thing that people complained about in games like Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. But when your Zelda game featuring Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf does not mention a word of the Triforce, I think both retro and modern Zelda fans can agree to even a slight extent that you can't have Legend of Zelda without the Triforce. That would be like having Super Mario without Power Stars (or some equivalent of them) or Kirby without its existential nihilism or Sonic without Chaos Emeralds. Sure, you can have games in their franchises without their respective trademarks, but do it enough times and people will start to notice something's seriously off. I think we can all agree that while Twilight Princess and Wind Waker may be, aesthetically and thematically, completely different games, you can't deny they're Zelda games at their core because they still have that signature cast fighting over those pesky golden Doritos.
In this respect, Tears of the Kingdom feels like it's suffering from the same problem Star Wars is suffering from - it exists to spite the titles that came before it, but knows it won't succeed without the fans of those titles so it makes as many cheeky references to those titles as it can without paying actual respect to them. It even opens the game with references to things that retro gamers will recognize - Rauru, Ganondorf recognizing Link's name, etc. - but then all those elements are later revealed to be unique to TOTK, such as Rauru being the first King of a Hyrule that's exclusive to the BOTW timeline, or Ganondorf only recognizing Link's name because a time-travelling Zelda told him his name, not because it's the same Ganondorf of titles' past. It feels incredibly disappointing to have all this setup and so little payoff especially for these games that are claiming to be the 'next step' for the franchise. It feels less like a 'next step' and more like a complete reboot for a different audience. These games are not reminiscent of what pulled me and my brother into the franchise way back in the day.
But I dunno, maybe it's a weird hill to die on. I don't want to be one of those "not my Zelda" puritans but when the games don't even contain elements of what made them distinctly Zelda back in the day, down to its trademark features, it makes me wonder what exactly where the series is headed.
Anyways. That was a lot. I do want to make it clear that I am enjoying this game, very much so, but like many games that top the charts with solid 10/10's on release, I feel like there are definitely still places the game could have been further refined, despite the extra year it took to polish it. From the inconvenient gameplay halters like the inventory fusing, to the obtrusive butchering of the Sage abilities, so many things could have been tightened up just a bit more to further improve on what Breath of the Wild started, rather than trade out what BOTW did for weaker alternatives. It's a game of gimmicks, rather than one of substance. While Breath of the Wild lacked substance itself in many regards, it at least had the benefit of being a brand new format, with a vast world one could spend hours exploring - with that same world returning in Tears of the Kingdom, with very little done to flesh out the attempts to expand it, it very much feels like it's simply riding off the coattails of Breath of the Wild, and in that regard, I can agree to an extent with the "DLC" arguments, while also agreeing that there are things in TOTK that very much improve on BOTW and make it look like a tech demo.
One thing I will recommend in the end to those of you who might be reading this - do not play Breath of the Wild right before Tears of the Kingdom. Whether it's your first time playing BOTW or you're wanting to revisit it, don't do it. I was fortunate enough that my last time playing BOTW was several months ago, but I've seen loads of people not enjoying TOTK because they replayed BOTW in the days before its release, and let me tell you, this game is far less of a unique or fun experience if you play BOTW right before playing TOTK due to the world design. If you play them one after the other, you'll burn yourself out on it and not get to appreciate what TOTK adds to BOTW's world as much as if you had gone in partially or mostly blind.
And that's all I'm gonna say on that. Tears of the Kingdom gets a 8.5/10 from me. I am excited to see where the franchise goes next in terms of its open world concept, I hope Nintendo can at least stray away from this version of Hyrule so we can get something new like we did in BOTW. Tears of the Kingdom was by no means a negative experience for me, and I'm planning on getting back into it tonight and tackling more of its sidequests, which are probably one of my favorite parts of the game. I could very well be way too hard on it, so this opinion could change over time as I spend more time in its world, but these are my general experiences that have come up in the back of my mind over the past couple weeks since its release.
Thanks for reading!
#tears of the kingdom#tears of the kingdom review#long post#tears of the kingdom criticism#legend of zelda#TOTK#zelda#breath of the wild#BOTW#review#game review
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Update Time, Update Time
Welcome back, everyone. Hope you all had a very happy New Years! I come bearing a late present for you all: A Versotale update!
Game Progress
As I anticipated, I needed to take a break around the middle of November so I could focus on schoolwork. Now that we've been on break for a little while again and will continue to be for the better part of January, I've already gotten a sizable chunk of stuff done. Still not as much as I would've LIKED to have completed - There are still like only three fully-completed rooms at the moment, and even then they have a ton of WIP assets and first-pass dialogue and all - but, that is the way of coding a game solo, mostly from scratch, and with the occasional glances at Undertale's code, isn't it?
Unfortunately, while I really want to share stuff with you guys, it's all in some way a spoiler that I don't want to spoil for the people who'd rather experience everything fresh for themselves.
...
So, if you DO wanna experience everything fresh for yourself, feel free to bow out of this post here. If you're sticking around, enjoy some mild spoiler-y content, some character designs, and some fun vague allusions to things I still really wanna talk about! I need to give you guys SOMETHING after this long wait, right?
Game Progress: Slightly Spoiler-y Edition
The OPENING CUTSCENE you saw a while back has been tweaked slightly to make Hercine more likable, and so the dialogue can flow a bit more naturally.
Two new cutscenes have been added to the beginning, albeit with some rough visuals. These three all flow into each other, and if you're speaking through each line of dialogue, they only take up about six minutes total. Still, it is a TAD bit too long for my liking without any gameplay behind it, so there's a chance I might cut a cutscene or switch the order of things around so there's a brief gameplay section before the last one. Who knows.
Undyne has been redesigned. Undyne now sports some less bulky armor that combines aspects of her canon casual and armored forms. If she's gonna be there the entire game, she may as well have a visually-interesting design rather than the blob of bluish-grey her armor used to be. I'm sure some people will consider this a downgrade, which is always the risk you run when you redesign a character you've already shown off... but I personally just can't stand working with that old design any longer. The colors barely pop, it looks messy, the armor's boring and flat-colored and almost even blends into her scales, etc.
You didn't get to see the outdated Frisk design I had for this iteration of the project, and I'm glad you didn't, because upon writing more of their scenes and reconfiguring their personality, I HAD to redesign them again. I don't anticipate this one changing ANY time soon, but, as with Undyne, no promises.
Next up, some important human characters in the first area that AREN'T Frisk! You'll meet them later on, and I really hope you all end up liking them and the story behind them! In the meantime, here, have their designs. Again, they might change, but I'm comfortable with these for now.
That's all I feel comfortable showing off for the first area at the moment! I'm hoping to record everything up until the first save point and post it on YouTube at some point before the end of January (Again, as I must reiterate, in its very unfinished form), but no promises!
While that's all for the first area, I have been poking around with redesigning some of the later characters you guys have not even seen yet. Particularly, the primary antagonist of the new Cold West. I have to admit, I was a little worried that, if I didn't switch up his design, people would start comparing him to Clover since Undertale Yellow is still fresh in a lot of our memories right now, but... I think you guys will really like "The long scarf of the law." He's a fun character.
Alright, that's all from me! I hope you guys enjoyed this brief little peek at some mild spoiler-y content! I hope to be back soon with some neat stuff for y'all to see in action!
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