#like there are some questlines that just kick fucking ass
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I would just like to talk to whoever was behind the UC Vanguard storyline in Starfield. Like, bro, okay, you're amazing but also I think you NEED TO BE MAKING HORROR GAMES.
I was NOT PREPARED for that. Like okay big Terrormorph monsters out of nowhere and you're suddenly the protagonist in an Alien movie, okay.
I was sweating head to toe by the time I finally killed that thing.
Then the next time you see them they sTaRt FuCKing WiTh YOU TElePaThecAlLy while you fight them, what. Congratulations you just made an Alien scarier than Xenomorphs.
Then, to top it off I have to go fight a twisty maze full of killer robots in hallucinogenic mist I can barely see through while intercoms make the groaning sounds of the dead leading me through.
Like, I'm 50 hours in. The rest of the game isn't like this. But suddenly I'm in a fucking horror game. I just wanted to get some XP while I'm busing working on my skills so I can get better furniture to decorate my house with, yanno? And suddenly....nightmares.
And I'm not anywhere close to done with this questline.
#starfield#starfield spoilers#uh yeah by the way this game gets REALLY GOOD#like there are some questlines that just kick fucking ass#including this one
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"Didn't Quite Make It" Poll
Propaganda (including the Estinien rant I alluded to a while back, which is probably the outside edge of allowable propaganda) and images below.
Erik: "talks down to the wol constantly, assumes they're an unintelligent musclehead, preaches to his fellow ala mhigans about the 'correct' way to rebel against garlemald in a similar tone, generally kind of a massive dickhead through the majority of the questline"
Estinien: "I HATE HIS STUPID GUTS. “OHHHH IM THE AZURE DRAGOON. THE ONLY AZURE DRAGOON!” BITCH NIDHOGG’S EYEBALL COULDNT RESIST ME AND MADE ME THE SECOND AZURE DRAGOON. BUT DO YOU TELL ISHGARD? DO YOU EVEN TELL YOUR BESTIE AYMERIC? NO. I BEAT YOUR ASS AND THEN YOU HAVE THE GALL TO CASUALLY BRING UP THE TIME YOU TRIED TO KILL ME LIKE ITS A FUNNY HAHA MEMORY. AND THEN LIKE SOME DUMBASS YOU CONVENIENTLY FORGET THAT NIDHOGG POSSESSED YOU ALREADY AND GET YOUR HANDS ON BOTH OF HIS JUICY EYEBALLS. YOU DIDN’T EVEN THINK OF OFFERING ONE TO ME! ME! THE SECOND AZURE DRAGOON WHO IS CONVENIENTLY HERE AND COULD HAVE PREVENTED YOU GETTING POSSESSED. AND ON TOP OF THAT YOU STOLE ALPHINAUD FROM ME. I WAS THERE ALONGSIDE HIM WHEN ALL OF UL’DAH WAS AGAINST US BUT INSTEAD HE LOOKS UP TO YOU JUST BECAUSE YOU TAUGHT HIM TO COLLECT FIREWOOD. THIS ISNT EVEN ALL OF WHY I HATE HIM. FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT PISS RAT WHO CAN’T EVEN DEAL WITH MOOGLES FOR A FEW MINUTES WHILE IM BUSTING MY ASS DOING FETCH QUESTS FOR A STUPID MINION LOCKED BEHIND TRIBAL QUESTS."
G'raha Tia: "He was an annoying little shit (I love him now though. I’m so sorry G’Raha T^T)" (Note: the submitter specified that this was just for his appearance in the Crystal Tower raids and not later on)
Hancock: "Just look. At his face. He is a smug little capitalist bastard who just happens to be on our side."
Khloe: "the myth of three lines"
Krile: "Spends her first interactions clowning on Alphinaud pretty harshly and while he usually deserves it he is also my baby and I want to kick her ass for it"
Lue-Reeq: "Brags about having so much money, gives out pocket change he mooched from his parents. Whines when the WoL has a poorly-timed Echo. Prevented me from having quality time with the Bard Boys in ShB."
Radlia: "I’m gonna be honest her facial expressions are fun to imagine socking her to but I’m mostly submitting her because I feel bad for ranting about my personal vendetta against est*nien earlier. She’s a lovely heel character! Very punchable." (Note: this was the same submitter as the above Estinien rant)
Rhitahtyn: "Poor bastard. I'd say beating him isn't even fun anymore but the new solo duty is actually very cool."
The Warrior of Light: "Cause it's us"
#ffxiv punchability#final fantasy xiv#a realm reborn#heavensward#stormblood#shadowbringers#heavensward spoilers
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Here's an interesting question: What's the best Paleblood Hunter ship and why? Would love to hear your thoughts on this lol
This is a quite hard question because even if you take the default Hunter (some guy with grey hair and grey/blue eyes we always see on the merch with something-something distant Cainhurst affiliation), the story still allows such flexibilities for that;;
I am personally compelled to think that Paleblood Hunter must have some moral restrictions and compass, even if he might be not completely lucid as the game functions like a dream and he loses load of memories upon awakening after Blood Ministration! And pair that with exhausting as many questlines as possible - so, wanting to help Alfred and seeing what happened, saving everyone and sending them to Oedon Chapel, completing Eileen's questline, having both Eileen and Valtr retire (they are still alive because I say so AAAAA!!!!!), all that. And let's presume that despite having to murder quite a lot of people, Hunter doesn't fall for needless cruelty and like, cares ok? He is not simply a murderous psychopath!
So yeah, Bloody Crow's ass is kicked to carry on Eileen's quest, Alfred certainly wrecks him up by showing his true face, Beggar he murders after the first victim (though still feels pangs because of the 'I did not ask to be like this'), Brador is seen as a total bitch, Imposter Iosefka is perceived as insane and Hunter would not really get behind her motivations, Micolash.... well, after wading through a whole village of display of his atrocities, and finally seeing THE man guilty for all this, I think this would be when Hunter actually loses it and murders him very cruelly, like, to the point of forgetting himself! You recall anon ask that suggested this scenario, and I still agree!
Basically? I feel like Henriett or Simon as the best ones! I talked about Henriett's potential as a character in this ( x ) post more, but she could be the similar type of a friend as Simon. Both knew some lore and are willing to share with Hunter, both follow us, both share reasonable and noble motivations (to stop/expose the Healing Church despite having once been part of it). I just really like this type of dynamic it seems? Paleblood Hunter is roughly following a good goal too - to find "paleblood" and stop the ritual that is fucking everyone over! And I still really love the idea I've got that since Bloody Crow has Repeating Pistol and is in Grand Cathedral and there is cut content Henriett's corpse file - he killed her, so- Yeahhh, these ships are very much straight vs gay version of one another, you feel?? xd It is a good type of a buddy that resonates with an interpretation of a Hunter who is rather a decent guy, not evil and callous, still in touch with the humanity despite mysterious connection with the paleblood on his own. These awesome buddies are as close to humanity and human values as our Hunter could stay, without ascending. And they are qualified to fight along his side, though Simon would be more like sniper + rogue and not blunt close combat like Henriett. There is not just ship potential - there is companionship potential, that I love. Like... let's just say that 'death' is a strong word for Bloodborne setting and they can live yet again. I mean, if Henryk was given second life just to fight again, clearly Yharnam functions a bit different :')
Funny enough, Eileen or Valtr are of the same nature - straight or gay variant of the same dynamics; an old person with very grim quest that is sort of in secrecy from the others, who also retires at the end and passes the mantle to Hunter! They are second best ships, yeah. There might be just drastic age gap (I think Paleblood Hunter is not really old, but rather 'colored' by paleblood and hence hair gone grey early), and a gap of mentor/student thing - nothing bad here, just that more "equal" ships are a personal preference!
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Honorable mention: Things might get.. interesting, following the idea of Paleblood Hunter being incarnation of Laurence (elaborated on here: ( x )). That could create really heart-rending bond with Gehrman (and also with Micolash, Fauxsefka and Brador maybe? depending on how much of the sentiments long gone resurface), but I do not even know where to begin with this idea... @_@" It always felt quite hefty with how many factors there are to keep in mind. But Hunter x Gehrman is very good regardless, even if doomed. @ Flora pls get SECOND host of the dream for a change ;-;
Thank you for an ask!!
#but also please do not ask such hard things again lol#ask replies#bloodborne#ships#paleblood hunter#bloodborne headcanons
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ok so MAJORAS MASK! I have the 3DS version, and I started it back when i was in highschool, but I didnt make it far (barely defeated the woodfall temple iirc). I just defeated the Great Bay temple and am starting Ikana Canyon, but here's... a rough summary of the journey so far under the cut!
deku link my beloved.......... he is just so small and cute. and haunting but yknow. I love the sound it makes when he walks
i am having a much easier time with shooting this time around- I remember hating the motion control aiming the first I played this, and it's definitely ROUGH on the 3DS, but it comes so much easier now that i've played hours and hours of splatoon lmaooo
i must have completely skipped the deku shrine the first time, or maybe blocked it out. hall of fucking misery. i had to redo this like 8 times
GORON TIME... i stopped somewhere after getting to this area the first time. The gorons are fun i love them.... rolling around also extremely fun.
also I love the giant terrifying masked smithy guy Gabora. I remember very distinctly laughing when i first got there and he flails at you grumbling indistinctly while the chipper shop music plays
this temple kicked my ass bc i thought i was just really really bad at navigation and remembering where things are (something very true about me, it's good i cant drive) but Really it was just because there was a trigger panel on the wall I didn't notice. teehee
i did the goron races several times.... i won it on the last day and then realized i'd need to do it on the first day to be able to upgrade the sword, so i reset time and did it again for the sword upgrade. but then.... baby goron and elder goron still said the same things so i thought I had to like... win again. i did not that did not change anything. I probably did this godforsaken race like 30 or 40 times.
I love elder goron by the way LMAO
also? kinda fucked up that they're expecting me to become their next leader and I can't explain anything. I'm literally just some kid, their beloved hero is dead, and as far as i know their beloved Darmani is just going to disappear again. Like- at least with the Deku, i know there is someone who mentions their son going missing and missing him, but at least it wasn't like... a community figure people looked up to who was missed.
I just happened to make it to the Romani Ranch too late to hear Romani's explanation of the Alien Ghost Things so i stuck around, and BOY HOWDY WAS IT AN EXPERIENCE when they just. started fucking descending.
anyway I helped them and it's horsey time
I also did some stuff around town- I have the Keaton Mask (but i haven't finished this questline) and Kabara's Mask. I love that that one just, completely erases and make's Kabara's face just... a fucked up polyp on your head. 10/10
great bay temple time.............................................
Gerudo my beloved :) (even if i had to restart the pirate temple bc of Time)
Mikau is a dweeb i love him. that said, just like with Darmani- FEELS WEIRD and bad that Nobody Knows It's Really Me and that he's dead and gone, and will just vanish. It's really tragic! Especially after getting Lulu's voice back! Fucked up!
fuck the beaver game FUCK the beaver game. I redid phase one like five times and then they said. you have to do it again but harder
Zora link's water movements are really janky- it feels like regular swimming, zora swimming, and charged swimming all work COMPLETELY different but it's not always clear when you're doing which- and the camera is very uncooperative as well, which was felt much moreso in the temple.
THAT ALL SAID I ADORED THIS TEMPLE. Def my fav so far- I know water temples are infamous for being hell on earth but I had fun with this one, and I liked the design of it a lot, and the minibosses were great- especially Wart! Looking around in confusion only to look up and make Eye Contact with a giant horrifying mass of little orbs. EXCELLENT
THAT ALL SAID PART 2. fuck Gyorg. I had to reset time in my first fight with him because the second phase took so long- and even then it still took like...an entire day of slowed-time. Having to wait until he gets close to mines only for him to more often than not only spit out piranhas was infuriating. I understand that a lot of the things I've complained about here are pretty 3DS specific port things, which SUCKS
anyway. ikana canyon time :) i forgot to say, but I got the Garo mask already doing the horse race to kill time for the Romani Ranch events. (Which i also had to try several times... minigames in this want me dead)
paging @neoanimus specifically bc i know you've been enjoying these updates on twitter
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wolship ramblings that have been occupying my filthy multishipper brain. In honour of the 14th of feb
thancred: my first ship. purely bc I also have a crush on thancred. I missed this dumb charming rogue dearly during heavensward and stormblood. why could he not come with me to the far east?? Ffs squenix let me bring my himbo for once smh
yugiri: always felt like yugiri and the wol have a unique, calm, but deep connection. I hc shura as gyr abanian so i imagine he would have felt so awful for her when he heard about what happened to doma. he would have been infuriated at what zenos did to her too.
hilda: she cute and could kick Shura’s ass and he would be very thankful for it
estinien: having played heavensward and the stormblood DRG questline, I now understand the popularity of wolstinien. so many PARALLELS with this boy. i also just love his grumpy, stabby exterior contrasted with his open respect for shura, who is by all accounts kind of an idiot flying by the seat of his pants
lyse: i hear ppl did not like lyse. they are wrong and i love my gf. i totally read her as having a little crush on the warrior of light. honestly, i just platonically ship her w shura too.
m'naago: LOVE THIS GAL shes so fucking cute and has some super cool moments (the griffin and the flag?? QUEEN) shura would absolutely have a crush on her at first sight.
fray: corpse boyfriend
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i need to finish the last part of the latest main story quest in genshin, but so far I do have to agree with everyone else who played it that, in terms of writing mechanics and quality, the Sumeru arc as a whole is really really good. The writers ditching the three-act-structure and “every scene must always be from the Traveler’s POV, if the Traveler isn’t there then we don’t see it” is a massive boon, and whoever’s writing the questline is extremely skilled when it comes to setting up and firing off chekhov’s guns. The most I have when it comes to mechanical complaints is that acts 1, 3, and 4 all reek a little too much of “we are fucking around with a bunch of smaller adventures and dawdling on the main goal so that we can seed plot elements for when things start to pop off in acts 2 and 5″, but the quests are otherwise good enough that I can forgive it.
I would like to see the Sumeru arc writers like. Go back and do a rewrite of the Liyue arc honestly. I know Inazuma’s the one that always gets brought up as bad writing, and to be fair that arc at bare minimum needed the actual-5-act space that Sumeru got, but Liyue just feels super underdeveloped in its own main story. It’s got the Adepti VS Qixing plot going on, but it honestly kinda does nothing because they never really explore the Qixing and their issues and the hints of “maybe the Qixing are corrupt rulers who we can’t trust to govern without the Adepti keeping an eye on them” never go anywhere. And a lot of the environmental storytelling details that establish that Liyue Harbor’s wealth and prosperity comes at the cost of all the other towns slowly dying are restricted to literally just environmental storytelling, nobody outside of the Qingce area really talks about “yeah all the rural towns collapsed because everyone moved away to where the money went”. Liyue Harbor itself is literally divided into a rich area and a poor area, but it’s literally just set dressing as far as the game is concerned. It’d be super nice to see an expanded rewrite of the Liyue quests that explores that a little more and gives the conclusion of “we’re going to bet on Liyue being able to get its shit together without divine intervention” some actual weight.
My only other beef mechanically is I think it’s kind of a waste that the Sumeru arc and the trailers leading up to it reveal that the Dottore actually has a bajillion clones of himself at all different ages running around getting up to some hot bullshit, and in the same arc that’s introduced in he ends up getting forced into deleting all his alts and the most we get to hear of them is them all going “What the fuck?!” as they get sent to the void. That just feels like a waste in terms of character potential if that ends up permanent instead of him sneaking around to go rebuild some more clones. I know Dottore got leaked to be playable, so I wonder if the playable Dottore will be a rebuilt clone who wants to kick his alt’s ass in revenge for his deletion, because otherwise the clones thing is just “??????????”.
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Skyrim/Witcher Crossover - Cicero Fuckeries
alright so i’m gonna make this its own post since I have a lot in mind for this specific lil scenario, and i don’t want to make a too big a text wall ajs;dlfkjasldk
just hear me out on this one, this would be a lot more entertaining than you might think
Cicero, Geralt and Jaskier first meet out on the road, out in front of the Loreius farm
Geralt was fully intent on ignoring Cicero’s call for help, but Jaskier is the one to be like “hey, why don’t we give this guy a hand?”
honestly the two prolly bicker a bit on what they should do but then Jaskier hits him with That Look and Geralt finally relents
Geralt helps up to the farm while Jaskier sticks around with Cicero, making small talk
aint long for Geralt to come back down the hill with Loreius in tow - really not hard for him to change Loreius’s mind on the whole ordeal
Jaskier finds the little man very odd, but still fun to talk to
Cicero also thinks he’s fun, but at the same time, i would not be surprised in the slightest if he’s lowkey plotting a murder - getting mother home stays his blade, of course, but if he has the free time? hmm... tempting, tempting indeed...
Once Loreius is down there helping Cicero, Geralt starts to leave, but Cicero calls out to him, asks him to wait, before tossing a coin purse his way as a thank you
he accepts it without a word, and off Geralt and Jaskier go
Jaskier has no idea what’s up with Cicero, but Geralt knows there’s something definitely not right
he wasn’t lying about his mother being in that box, as far as he could tell - his sharp sense of smell confirmed it - but there was just something... wrong. something dark. something evil
they don’t see each other again for a while, not until the Cure for Madness happens and Cicero is all alone in Dawnstar (assuming he’s been spared)
Geralt and Jaskier happen to be there, too, looking for work
they’re in the tavern, with Jaskier playing tunes for coin and Geralt sitting alone at a table, watching him and takin swigs of his ale, and Cicero sees em and he’s just like !!!!!!
just scampers his tiny ass over to Geralt and plops down next to him with a big smile on his face
“Well, well, well! Long time, no see, dearest Witcher! I was wondering if we’d ever cross paths again.”
“Cicero.”
they chat up a storm - or more Cicero’s talking to him while Geralt listens and prolly says like... five words in one sentence at most
definitely asks about his mother, who Cicero simply says is enjoying her new home
which confirms something on Geralt’s mind, but he keeps it to himself
Jaskier had seen the jester walk over to Geralt while he was performing, and once he’s done he goes over to say hello
ain’t long before it’s the three of them sittin there, chattin it up. Err, well, Cicero and Jaskier chatting it up while Geralt offers his most enlightening hmm’s
something something Cicero ends up more or less inviting himself along on the adventure since he, at that time between the Cure for Madness and the end of the DB questline, has nowhere else to be
something something also tagging along so he can go through with his little Jaskier murder plot
something something he does attempt to kill him a couple times but some thing or another foils it without him actually getting caught by the bard in question, or more importantly, Geralt
mind you, Jaskier actually likes Cicero - as eccentric as the man is, he relates
but then he hits him with the bard joke
and poor Jaskier
a lad is CONCERNED
HE’S TALKIN ABOUT SMASHIN LUTES AND BURNIN BARDS
starts sticking around Geralt a bit closer than usual
Cicero learns very, very quickly that you do not make murder jokes around Geralt
he does not appreciate them
he especially does not appreciate murder jokes about Jaskier
Regardless of this, Cicero tries very hard to get Geralt to laugh when the three of them are out on the road
he’s never seen him do anything more than smirk and “hmmph” in a way that he’s pretty sure was a laugh but isn’t positive on
he’s done countless jokes, no matter how well structured or not, desperate to get a chuckle, a smile, anything
Usually doesn’t work, but Jaskier gets a kick out of most of em
there’s some point in time where Cicero gives up on trying to kill Jaskier, for a couple of different reasons.
One, Geralt Will Find Him. Cicero may have outrun Arnbjorn but he will not stand a chance against a Witcher. He knows this.
Two, he’s found enough bloodshed travelling with these two to keep him contented
Three - honestly? Jaskier is friend-shaped. He can never know about who or what Cicero actually is since saying anything about him would technically break one of the Tenets, but he’s helped Cicero out in ways he may never know
at some point, the trio are at a jarl’s palace, attending some celebration (prolly the “slaying” or Alduin or something to do with the Civil War, regardless if we’re taking Dragonborn!Geralt into account)
Jaskier gets harassed by someone, who claims he slept with their spouse the last time they were there
Geralt steps in, tells em to fuck off, right
But Cicero’s watching from afar as the person leaves, and he walks over after they go with a grin on his face
“Tsk tsk tsk tsk! Naughty, naughty, Jaskier! You ought to know better than to sleep with a noble’s lover! You’ve gotten yourself in a situation now, haven’t you?”
Jaskier apologizes (kinda sarcastically, kinda awkwardly, not really sure where Cicero’s going with this)
and then the little fucker just hits him with
“Well... Geralt may scare them off for now, but... oh, what are you going to do if you’re alone, hmm?”
his grin widens and he leans closer
“Cicero could make sure they don’t come back. If you would like.”
and Jaskier is just like “wat” for a solid couple of seconds before he realizes he’s talking MURDER
Jaskier appreciates and utilizes Cicero’s murderiness and you caN’T TELL ME OTHERWISE
HE IS A FERAL FUCKING BABY NOT AFRAID TO SEND THE LITTLE GREMLIN JESTER MAN OUT TO STAB A BITCH FOR HIM
AND CICERO THRIVES OFF JASKIER’S FERAL BABINESS BECAUSE IT’S A SIDE OF HIM HE NEVER SAW UNTIL NOW
and poor Geralt
Geralt is very tired
not only does he have to make sure Jaskier doesn’t get killed, he has to make sure Cicero doesn’t go out killing people himself
the trio is often mockingly called the travelling circus by those living in the towns and cities they pass through
Geralt knows Cicero’s Dark Brotherhood and caught on pretty early, but he actually doesn’t do anything, per se
he keeps him in line as best he can when they’re travelling together - more or less makes sure he’s not killing people he shouldn’t be
but he knows Cicero’s off to his own devices when he leaves to go do whatever it is he does before travelling again
And, while he would NEVER openly admit it, he is aware the Dark Brotherhood is something of a necessary evil in Tamriel. From what he understands, they kill people, yes, but the ones they’re called upon to kill aren’t innocent people by any sense of the word. They’re slavers, they’re abusers, they’re corrupt politicians - the scum of the earth. Geralt (likely with a little bit of convincing from Jaskier if/when he finds out about Cicero’s true identity), tries his best to keep Cicero in line outside of the contracts he was once called upon to fulfill
I’m gonna leave it here for now and do separate interaction headcanon posts between Cicero and Geralt and Jaskier individually because this is a fucking huge text block but really tho
i just fucking love the idea of the gremlin jester travelling with the gremlin bard and gremlin monster hunter. there is a chaos there that i’m thriving on
#cicero#jaskier#geralt#jaskier the bard#geralt of rivia#skyrim#witcher#the witcher#netflix the witcher#the witcher netflix#cicero skyrim#skyrim cicero#skyrim/witcher#witcher/skyrim#cicero headcanon time#AU cicero headcanon time#the elder scrolls#tes
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Why N’Zoth should have been behind BFA’s War
Okay so I’ve been thinking this for a day or so now, and I’m gonna just dump my thoughts here.
In this essay, I’m gonna make the argument that I think N’Zoth should have been behind the war in BFA. It’s gonna be long as shit, FYI. Here we go.
It’s no secret that opinions on BFA’s story have been...mixed. Some think it’s a garbage fire, others think it’s okay but not stellar. Some bits of BFA’s story, such as Jaina’s arc I find very well done, whilst others are very...below average, must try harder.
I think the main problem is the overarching storyline running through the entire expansion. It feels very disjointed, like many self-contained narratives sort of strapped onto one another into what looks like a storyline, if you squint.
Contrast this with Legion’s story. What was the primary conceit of the expansion? The Legion’s back and we have to stop them. Great! A nice solid story maypole we can pivot events around. Everything the patches introduced tied back to this core story ideal:
Return to Karazhan: some freaky shit is going down in Medivh’s digs and we think the Legion is behind it. Stop them!
Tomb of Sargeras: Time to get to Tomb and stop the Legion from pouring in!
Argus: You know what, we need to stop the Legion Once And For All (maybe)! Time for a cataclysmic showdown on the Legion’s homeworld!
Even the Insurrection storyline held closely to the Legion storyline, since the demons had control of the city and a Titan MacGuffin we needed, so we had to help the Nightfallen boot them out.
Now, BFA has at first glance, a good premise. All-out war between the Alliance and Horde, whilst Azeroth bleeds underneath us. That seems pretty good, right? Yes, it is, but there is a problem; the status quo.
The trouble with wars, especially really big ones (like world wars), is that by their nature, they upset the status quo. The WoW status quo is both the Alliance and Horde is, in the lore’s eyes, on equal footing. Problem with this all out war is that someone’s gotta lose - but no faction can lose because that upsets the status quo.
Thus, the story has already lost its running shoes because it can’t change anything drastically at the end. There’s still got to be a Horde and an Alliance - now, Mists of Pandaria managed to end an Alliance/Horde war in a fairly convincing stalemate because of Garrosh. Since he was deposed and he was the instigator of a large portion of Bad Stuff, people could sort of understand Varian letting the Horde survive under the threat that they’d get their asses thoroughly beaten if they did anything bad again.
This did not work a second time. Why did it not work a second time?
That’ll be because Sylvanas burned down Teldrassil, which pretty much accounts to genocide. Now, Garrosh pretty much dropped Azeroth’s equivalent of a nuclear bomb on Theramore, and that was made a very big deal of, but Sylvanas decided to take a leaf from the Bombing of Dresden and add some fire to her war crime. And thus, a very large petard is hoisted around BFA’s neck.
The image of a burning Teldrassil is almost certainly a very shocking, very dramatic one, and I’m pretty sure that’s why Blizzard chose to do it. It’s certainly a very big, risky move in the terms of story that could have elevated it. The quest to try and save the citizens of Teldrassil as it burns is truly harrowing and excellent in how it underscores the hopelessness of the task.
The thing with the burning of Teldrassil is it has colossal consequences, and the story did not handle it with the gravitas it deserved. After that moment, you cannot bring the Alliance and Horde to a happy peace - the Horde has done an undeniably awful, inexcusable thing, and yet the Alliance will apparently look the other way and sign a peace treaty with them now Saurfang is dead and Sylvanas has run off to make Shadowlands happen.
So already we’re in trouble from War of the Thorns, which was not helped at all by Blizzard devs playing a ‘who burned the tree’ game only to reveal that it was always Sylvanas, she did it because she meant to do it. This did nothing but upset and annoy people (me included), which started everything off with a sour taste in our mouths.
Next stop is the attack on Undercity, which is good if not for the inexplicable stupidity of the Alliance not perhaps thinking that Sylvanas would use the Blight against them, after they just witnessed her burn Tedrassil down. And knowing she dumped Blight on Gilneas.
Despite these slip-ups, we’re keeping up this feeling of all-out war. The Horde gets word that Talanji and Zul are stuck in jail, let’s rescue them and get the Zandalari on our side to beat the shit out of the Alliance! The Alliance, not to be out done, decide to go get the Kul Tirans.
And that’s when the story fractures. The stories on Zandalar and Kul Tiras are kinda understandably divorced from the main war, but they’re so divorced as to be almost completely outside of it. The only signs of it outside the War Campaign are the Alliance sailors scrapping in Talanji’s Rebuke that you find in a non-essential side-quest, and the shoehorning of the Horde into the Stormsong questline, which then proceeds to break the latter questlines when the bloody quilboar seem to appear out of nowhere and become the main baddy (what?!).
It took the advent of 8.1 for Faction Assaults to start occurring and making us feel like all-out war, but it seemed a little too late. There was the attack on Dazar’alor that pushed the war narrative, but it was starting to get tangled up with the ‘Sylvanas is Bad Warchief, we must remove her. Or not...?’ storyline with Saurfang, which fell back onto ‘the Horde isn’t bad, it’s the Warchief who is!’ which 1, we’d already had in MoP, and it wasn’t a fun feeling that time either, and 2, it’s not really a good excuse after a genocide.
So Horde politics start, which are sort of interesting to Horde players, but not Alliance players, who only have Tyrande being understandably pissed at losing her home and people and going to wreak havoc to be content with. Well, if by ‘wreak havoc’ you mean ‘kill a val’kyr and somehow get beaten by Nathanos and then get shelved for orc drama later’. Salt was rubbed into this wound when a dev said that Tyrande had ‘got revenge for Teldrassil’ with this, which went down badly.
Now, there has been Old God stuff rumbling throughout the expansion up to this point, granted, but you can count on one hand the amount of times it was given a shit about. Only when Crucible of Storms comes out does N’Zoth do a proper ‘hey guys I’m a bad guy!’ thing, and he actually starts to slither into centre stage.
8.2 begins, when Azshara comes to kick our ass and free N’Zoth, and that’s when the tried and true ‘factions unite vs. the Big Bad’ trope comes out (as everyone and their mother predicted it would), and both factions decide that maybe they should focus against Azshara and her Old God master. But before N’Zoth beating, we need to boot out Sylvanas because she’s mean and burned a lot of innocent people.
8.2.5 arrives, everyone goes and makes angry faces at Sylvanas, Saurfang dies dramatically, Anduin and Jaina look pretty, and Sylvanas flies away angrily. Congrats guys, we did it! Now for some peace. Ignoring the fact Teldrassil is still ash, and Rastakhan is still dead (and the Zandalari are pissed about that), so it should be less ‘peace’ and more ‘polite ceasefire’.
And now it’s 8.3 and suddenly N’Zoth’s everywhere! And we’re going to kill him at the end of this patch and...that’s it. Next stop, Shadowlands. That big bad we’ve been hinting for a long, long time got a single patch to wave his tentacles and then he was very dead. Even worse, his big arrival was completely overshadowed by Shadowlands’ announcement. Ooof.
With all these things, BFA’s story feels like it set off without knowing where it was going to end up, except that maybe N’Zoth was involved and Sylvanas would ditch the Horde. So it bumbled around, making weird choices, and then wrapped up plotlines far too quickly. The war felt after Dazar’alor that it was about to escalate, what with Rastakhan’s death and Talanji’s ascent to Queen. Instead, it suddenly paused before deciding it was going to end so quickly I think it gave us whiplash, just so we could fight N’Zoth as an united front. So of.
As a result, we have plotholes still yawning open, very unsatisfying endings, as well a perpetual conflict between Alliance and Horde on every public forum imaginable - Alliance aggrieved that Blizzard has ignored them yet again in the story department, except when they wanted a shocking stunt, whilst the Horde is upset that they’ve been hit the ‘villain’ stick again, except this time it was a fucking bludgeon, and we’re getting very tired of this now please stop. This isn’t helped by all the foreshadowing of the faction lines either dissolving or loosening up during the coup against Sylvanas, and then Blizzard just going ‘yeah nah can’t do that, gotta preserve the status quo’.
So, how can we improve this by adding N’Zoth? Well, remember the core premise of Legion and stopping them? Repeat that with N’Zoth. It is simple, but we can give it its sweet twist - we’ve got to stop N’Zoth, because he’s not only trying to corrupt Azeroth. He’s also playing the Alliance and Horde against each other so they can’t stop him.
Immediately that makes N’Zoth the Big Bad, and also underscores the point of We Do Not Want Him To Get Out of His Cage, which makes the fact he does get out a big OH F*CK moment. Not that it isn’t already in current BFA, but can you imagine the gutclenching despair you’d feel as you’d done everything in your power to stop this from happening, and yet it’s happening anyway? Now you’d know what Khadgar felt like when the Tomb of Sargeras opened - and you’d know that you’ve got to do everything you can to put this right.
Let’s go back to the beginning, only this time we dial the Void stuff up. We begin the War of Thorns with the factions already tensed up re: Azerite, with preliminary scraps over it and what looked like the Alliance attempting a coup over some of the Forsaken (HEY BLIZZARD STOP PUTTING LORE LIKE THAT IN BOOKS AND NOT REFERRING TO IT INGAME KTHANKS). A tenuous peace, to be certain, which could only be made worse by Old God agitators, stirring up unrest in the factions.
As much as I would prefer the Horde not being the instigator in all the bad stuff, N’Zoth is the only variable I changed in this equation, so with unrest and some intel that makes it look like the night elves are making a move either to cut off Azerite production, or funnel it through Teldrassil, the Horde strikes at Ashenvale and Darkshore, instigating the War of Thorns.
Things look to be going normally, but you as the Champion notice Old God stuff lurking about and ‘hey this looks like what was happening before the Cataclysm- Oh. Oh no!’. You try to bring evidence that this is a set-up to the people in charge, but it’s escalating out of control. Night elves are dug in so deeply that the Horde has to set fires in the forests to get them to move, which causes retaliation, which gets Saurfang involved who critically injures Malfurion, but before the final blow Tyrande punts him into next week and maybe at this point someone goes: ‘wait hold up what do you mean there’s not Azerite over here’.
We stumble over to Sylvanas to try and tell her ‘no wait we’re being played’, but she takes this as misinformation and or a bluff, and fires a couple of catapaults to show she ain’t fucking kidding at Teldrassil. A couple. Enough to cause a ‘I mean business fire’, but since Teldrassil is in the fucking sea and I would assume almost always damp around its lower regions (you’re allowed a snigger at that), it’s not going to set the entire thing ablaze.
Except it does, because of N’Zoth’s minions in the Horde (and Alliance, probably), who fan the sparks with wind and feed them with power. Alternatively, we could have naga rise from the depths to set some Azerite-infused fires too, just to foreshadow Azshara coming onto the scene later.
With Teldrassil engulfed, everyone is shocked, including Sylvanas, who really didn’t intend this to happen at all (and is pissed because there goes her bargaining chip). The Alliance of course declare all-out war on the Horde because how dare they, whilst the Horde is briefly paralyzed with shock.
Saurfang and the others yell ‘how could you?!’ at Sylvanas, who yells back ‘that wasn’t part of the plan!’ and also something along the lines of ‘why the fuck didn’t you tell me the intel was shifty before this happened?!’ before going: ‘well it’s happened now, so we best gear up and stomp the Alliance into the dirt or we’re all going to die’.
Meanwhile people are going: ‘yeah but what about the influences of darker things going on? maybe we should do something about this’ with the answers being: ‘shut the fuck up, they set fire to Teldrassil’/’shut the fuck up, do you really think the Alliance is going to stop after what just happened’?
So it’s a race against time to try and get the factions to turn against N’Zoth instead of ripping each other apart before horrible shit starts happening and we’re all royally in the shit.
Everything happens pretty much as is from there, except we get some explanation for the lack of gas masks being ‘oh no our totally legit sources told us the Blight hasn’t been stockpiled in large quantities, we’ll send infiltration teams to neutralise it’. Only to find out that this is not the case of course and N’Zoth cackles some more. Sylvanas and Saurfang have an argument leading to Sylvanas booting him out and Saurfang getting captured by the Alliance despite the orc wanting death.
Everything goes as is from there, with Zul kinda trying to get Talanji killed because N’Zoth, in a mirror of Ashvane/Jaina. Just this time, we’re pushing the Void angle hard. They’ve both got their hands (or tentacles, rather) deep into Kul Tiras (Azshara) and Zandalar (G’huun), so it only makes sense to amplify their nonsense.
Over time people higher up the chain pick up the fact that N’Zoth’s doing this on purpose, but bad shit keeps happening so the Alliance and Horde can’t put aside their differences because both sides are doing genuinely bad things to each other! Yes, including the Alliance! Sylvanas is doubling down because she wants to survive this, and the only way she knows how is to utterly destroy her opposition. When she sees parts of the Horde begin to lose faith, she gets pissed because this is not the fucking time and this is the only way to stop the Alliance damnit.
Similar stuff happens in the Alliance, with Tyrande understandably going on a rampage against the Horde with Genn in tow, whilst Anduin and the others try to pump the brakes as they see N’Zoth’s tentacles looming everywhere.
Everything reaches a hecking climax when Azshara shows up and one thing leads to another, and N’Zoth comes bursting out, prompting an ‘OH SHIT’ moment. I’m thinking during Nazjatar, the small Alliance/Horde forces there ally, and when they’re just about to do something useful, the bigger kids show up going: ‘what the fuck are you traitors doing?!’ and during the argument, Azshara steals the Heart of Azeroth and unlocks N’Zoth’s prison, which leads everyone to realize ‘bollocks, we were played’.
Anduin can bring most of his Alliance forces to a standstill, and begs Tyrande and Genn to help him vs. N’Zoth. Tyrande tells him where he can stick it, but Genn is persuaded, though he says he’s going after the Horde as soon as N’Zoth is downed.
The Horde does the same to Sylvanas, but she knows as soon as N’Zoth is down, the Alliance will have her head, and especially when she realizes Tyrande’s still out there, she stands her ground. When a good portion of her powerbase decide on the temporary ceasefire to go after N’Zoth, however, Sylvanas tells them to piss off, and ditches the Horde. Talanji does a Genn, knowing how bad the Old Gods are, but she’s still getting blood payment from Kul Tiras after this is done.
Thus, everyone finally turns their attention to the big bad, fully entrenched, and ready for this grand climax. after he’s been causing all this pain and suffering. The Alliance and Horde are splintered, each nursing legit grievances against the other, but standing together for a moment, as always.
Yes, it’s Cata and MoP dressed up in a different coat, but sometimes a simpler plot is easier. That and Cata was more the factions poking each other in the eyes a couple of times rather than all out war.
With N’Zoth as the instigator of the conflict in BFA, we get a big bad we must fight, and we understand more than he’s a legit threat - and that he knows how to weaken us, so he throws us in a battle against one another so he can win. Yet everything isn’t forgiven at the end - the status quo is sort of there, but the factions are more fractured than before. Crimes still need to be answered for, but doing so may cause more conflict and death.
Sylvanas is out there and pissed, and feels the only way she can survive is to subjugate everyone that could ever harm her and perhaps transcend death itself. This entirely speculation on my part, but a part of me thinks Sylvanas’ main driving force is ‘I’ve been through enough, not even death is a respite, I’m going to become so powerful no-one will control me - I will control fate myself if I must’, which is actually fairly tragic and does grant me sympathy for her (watch this not be her main motivator in canon tho).
Does this solve all of BFA’s problems? No, of course not. But I do think it would have improved the story, at least by managing to keep the story flowing in a more linear direction. You’ll notice that Saurfang has all but disappeared from the N’Zoth narrative, that’ll be because I wasn’t too sure what to do with him. I do like him as a character, but he was pushing the ‘only the Horde has story’ narrative, and I’m not too keen on that. He’d still be a main character pushing for fighting N’Zoth and dying in the end, but less of all the focus.
To those of you who got down here - congratulations and thank you! I went on a very, very long time. Hopefully I have written if not a persuasive argument, then at least an understandable one. This isn’t meant as a ‘Blizzard’s writing is terrible!’, because sometimes it isn’t, but as a ‘I think it would have been better if done this way’.
Thank you for reading, and I hope 2020 smiles upon us.
#world of warcraft#wow discourse#is it discourse? kinda I guess#spr rambles#long post#i just think they did n'zoth dirty is all#he deserved better#honestly a lot of characters in bfa deserved better#but what are we gonna do
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Quick Tips for New Players pt. 2
You can roll through roars. Each monster type has different timing and will require a bit of practice to get it right but once you do it'll make fights a cakewalk.
To be fair you actually CAN roll through some lesser attacks but it takes practice to get the frames right. No, this isn't like Dark Souls where rolling through everything makes you invulnerable. Take some time to see which attacks you can safely roll through.
Every monster attack is heavily telegraphed and if you pay attention you can completely avoid all their attacks. For example right before Rathian does her air flip to hit you with her tail she will crouch lower, her roar will be a guttural growl and then she'll jump.
Every monster except for Bazelguese and Deviljho (correct if wrong) sticks to a certain path and area. As you get familiarized with the game you'll learn where they hang out and which camps to spawn in.
Gunlance users and HBG users. For the love of all that is sane please be considerate of your partners! When a Gunlance user uses Wyvern's Fire or an HBG user fires cluster bombs it sends your partner's flying. Not only will it prevent someone from attacking a monster and doing more damage to it it will also stagger a player and will prevent them from evading an attack and that could cause them to cart. The fault is all yours. So be mindful of cluster bombs and Wyvern's Fire. Don't be that person that spams that shit without regard.
Flashpods are only effective three times during the fight on tempered monsters. It's best to save them for when the monster is limping away to its nest where things can get super risky and hectic. Looking at you, Kushala.
Make use of the training room. It's fantastic! Spend some time labbing a weapon and get a feel for it. Also any items you use there will not be consumed so go ahead and test out a build and use some demon juice or powder or what have you to see how much damage you're doing.
Every weapon is capable of inflicting status effects (poison, paralysis, sleep, blast) it's just that some have an easier time doing it and with more consistency. For ranged weapons the best option is the Light Bowgun. For bladed weapons it's the Dual Blades. But even the painfully slow Great Sword can inflict ailments.
Speaking of ailments. Every time you poison, sleep, paralyze or add blast to a monster its resistances to that ailment go up. It doesn't mean you won't be able to do it again, it just means each time it gets a status effect it'll take more hits than the last time to get the effect. There are ways to make it easier like charms or decorations or you can eat for Felyne Specialist at the canteen.
Speaking of the canteen, if you scroll all the way to page 4 you'll have 6 slots to make your own menu. This allows you to save menus that have Food Skills you wanna make use of during a quest. Oh and FYI the "daily" skills ain't daily. They change every time you spawn back into Astera. I have no idea why they chose daily.
You can cancel any healing or buffing in case you need to get the fuck outta dodge or avoid an attack. Just roll. If you do it early enough the item won't be consumed.
When you heal using a potion or mega potion your character wipes their mouth. You can cancel that animation by rolling as soon as your health bar has recovered. Ain't much but it sure as shit could save your ass.
Lance users please stop "running over" your partners when y'all are attacking a monster. See #5 for reasons why you should cut that shit out. Now!
Low Rank and early High Rank players should definitely take advantage of festivals. Not only because of the events but because during festivals, up in the Gathering Hub, the canteen will have a special platter which is guaranteed to give you more health and stamina. You can only get it up at the Gathering Hub.
Do not throw away, sell or trade decorations when you start out in High Rank. Every decoration is useful and you never know how you'll change your playstyle in the future. Some of these are extremely hard to come by so keep them. Once you've established yourself a little better and are holding about 500 Palico Rally decos then you can trade them.
Hold off on trading Gleaming Stones at the smelder. I highly suggest you augment your armor first. I know it's tempting but these are a bit of a pain to come across and you REALLY will need augmented armors for end game and especially for when Iceborne drops.
Augmentation is unlocked the very second you get you hands on a Hero Streamstone or a Sullied Streamstone. Just do some tempered investigations, either threat level 2 or 3. Chances of getting one or the other are strictly RNG based. There is no way to know if you'll get it. Just keep at it and eventually one will drop.
The Siege of Kulve Taroth is super fun and can be done as soon as you're done with the main storyline. Not only do you get some really neat weapons but you can also make KT's Alpha, Beta and Gamma armors (I suggest the Beta and Gamma). Once you crafted the armor you want I suggest selling all of her materials for Zenny (the game's currency). You always end up with a bunch of materials and they sell for high easily netting you over a million. Just don't sell her gems.
With the exception of KT you should never sell any monster materials especially hard to come by pieces like tails and gems and plates. You never know which weapon or charm or armor piece you may need in the future.
If you wanna join a quest I highly advice you avoid any that have been ongoing for more than 8 minutes. Once the quest hits 10 minutes and you join you won't get any rewards. Unless you don't care for getting rewards, in that case join whenever the heck you want.
Deviation is the recoil or kick from each trigger pull. Recoil allows you to move as you shoot. All rapid fire ammo (the ammo with a white arrow pointing up) benefits from this. 3 Recoil Suppressor mods are mandatory for rapid fire ammo. You only really wanna do this for LBG. No matter how high the Deviation is it's super quick to adjust to and frankly after a few quests you won't even notice it. The wording in this game can be frustratingly confusing.
Insect Glaive users should also upgrade their kinsects along with the Glaive. Make sure you pair up the right kinsect with the right Glaive for maximum efficiency. Imma save you a lot of time and headaches. Grancathar III, Whispervesp III, and Pseudocath III are the best ones. All the others really suck. The kinsect from the Final Fantasy questline is absolute shit until you upgrade it.
If you're looking to hunt a specific monster with other players just hit Join a Quest, Respond to SOS and scroll down to Target and choose the monster you need. Some are easier to get than others but keep trying.
If you're going to join Low Rank quests don't be that asshole that never actually helps and just wants to show off. Actually help the host. Debuffing yourself is stupid as fuck.
It may feel a little intimidating at first but the hud has all the information you need. Pay close attention to it especially during a quest.
When you hover over a quest all the information about it is laid out right in front of you. It will tell you the time limit, reward, small monsters in the area, will say if it's a slaying, hunting or capturing quest so be sure to read everything carefully so you're prepared.
As you hunt monsters your Hunter's Notes get updated. Check back every once in a while to see what new info it has to offer.
Yeah, the game autosaves frequently but it's never a bad thing to manually save. I've had the game freeze and crash on me while I tried to join a game.
I highly suggest you get very well acquainted with the dive dodge. It will save your life! Remember, it can be done while running AWAY from a monster but it has to be within reach.
Some attacks will knock you down and if you don't press any buttons you'll just lay there for a few seconds. This can be super useful to avoid a fast follow up attack as NOTHING will touch you while you lay there. As you get familiar with the monsters and their attacks you'll learn when to get up and run and when to just lay there for a few seconds longer so that the attack completely whiffs.
HBG users, yeah you can put shield mods. In fact, it's kind of a really good idea to do so because putting away that weapon is painfully slow. However, you only really need just 1. Literally 1 is enough.
There can only be three monsters per map. Every time one leaves the area it's replaced by another. Do keep an eye on this HR as the missing monster can be replaced by Deviljho or Bazelguese.
Adamant Pills cure Guard Down.
Demon Powder, Might Seed, Adamant Seed and Hardshell Powder last for 3 minutes. Adamant Pill and Might Pill last for 20 seconds. Armorskin, Mega Armorskin, Mega Demondrug and Demondrug last until quest completed or you faint. Dash Juice lasts for 4 minutes. Also Might and Adamant Seeds, Adamant and Might Pills cancel each other out so you can only consume one or the other, can't eat both a seed and a pill.
Your buffs and debuffs show up next to your name on the screen. You can tell when a buff is about to go out when it starts rapidly blinking. Same for the powered up Kinsects. When they're about to go out they'll blink rapidly.
When you mount a monster quickly avert your eyes to the top right corner of the screen the game itself will tell you when to brace, attack or move. Don't look at anything else! Eventually you'll learn when to do what but it's just safer to watch the commands.
Your character doesn't level up in the traditional sense, your gear does. A level 29 could have far better gear and builds than a level 49. Don't let the Hunter Rank fool you.
Kelbi horns are fantastic items to have. Find a Kelbi with big horns and smack it in the face with a blunt attack, for example the shield of the Sword and Shield, to make the horns fall off.
Wanna talk to one person in particular in the session. Press options, triangle, hover over their name, click on chat, open the chat option and type.
Listen, no Elder Dragon in MHW (pre Iceborne) is weak to the dragon element. None. Taking a weapon with dragon element into an ED fight is just going to prolong the fight. You can get the Elder Seal effect by the dragon pods that they drop themselves. If you have the space for it the Elderseal decoration can up the effect of these pods. Dragon element weapons against Elder Dragons = horrible idea.
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So, I managed to get my butt kicked off the servers just as I unlocked what I believe is the second-to-last duty of Shadowbringers. Now that I’m left to fervently deny the option of sleep, I instead shall take the time to ramble on about all of the characters (new and old) this new expansion has made me love, interested in, and/or just very deeply want to write about
and I’ll likely add to it as I finish sidequests...and when it isn’t almost 4 a.m.
As to be expected, this list is riddled with spoilers for the entirety of Shadowbringers, so read on at your own peril!
it’s also riddled with thirst because of course, this is me we’re talking about
Kee-Satt - A wholesome Miqo’te boy found in Amh Araeng who cares a damn lot about his community. You meet him in one of the Aethercurrent quests, but I was curious enough to keep going for a bit afterwards and I’m happy I did! He just wants to get the materials to make a really useful metal, but he’s dealing with some intense discrimination since he’s the only Miqo’te among Hrothgar in the town (the others left for Eulmore at some point). He apparently has the cold shoulder for literally everyone but the WoL/D and confides his hopes and dreams to make his town better and safer with this ore he’s trying to find and I just love him.
Kai-Shirr - You meet him early-on in the MSQ while in Eulmore and I just...he’s got a cute face, a cute voice, and damn if I almost fucking lost my shit when I thought he was going to die. He was so desperate to be with his friends and I am forever sad that he at some point had to accept the fact that those friends were dead and like, I worry for him. Does he have any family? Anyone?? Please Kai-Shirr for the love of god tell me you’re doing alright let me help you.
Moren - The historian? Librarian? of the Crystarium that you meet early in the MSQ. He is a total dork and I have a total softspot for cuties like him. 10/10 would protect at all times, 10/10 would have him recite all sorts of stories from the First just so I could hear his soft voice more. Perhaps hear his voice in more ways than one.
Quinfort / Valan - Two adorable dorks that are part of an Aethercurrent quest in the Rat’Tika Greatwoods, though there is certainly more content of them afterwards in the sidequest chain. Definitely seem like close friends, Valan is the pragmatic to Quinfort’s exuberance and tbh I’d date both of them.
Chai-Nuzz / Dulia-Chai - A married Miqo’te couple who you meet early on in the MSQ. For a while I thought I was going to loathe them since at first I thought they were going to be written super shallowly, as one might expect from how Eulmore residents were at first glance. They get a bit of growth during the MSQ and, honestly, I love them both--they have the most adorable relationship that’s pretty damn supportive of one another and!! Dulia-Chai is a fat female character that isn’t!! Played off!! Like a joke!! She’s sweet and funny and super encouraging to her husband Chai-Nuzz. 10/10 would date them and I’m not afraid to say it. Let me date these two Square Enix, I swear to god.
Lue-Reeq - He is one of the four or five role quest NPCs in Shadowbringers, specifically for ranged DPS characters. I really enjoyed learning about him, honestly--he’s the child of a rich couple of Eulmore and by god does it show. He’s a bit spoiled at the beginning of the quest and a fair bit naive, but he was never really rude--a young man who had some self-confidence issues that he hid by tossing money around to try and buy friendship from people. It certainly didn’t help that I was playing as Khalja at that point in the game (who is my only top OC to date) and I wanted so bad to just fuck this soft Miqo’te man right out in the middle of the fucking forest after I finished the last battle of the questline.
Ardbert - This man has been through so much shit. He deserves a hug and, if it were me, more than a hug, but spectral kinky times aside I adored that I got to see so much more of his history and connections with the people of the First. The friendship that he shares with the WoL/D by the end of the MSQ is super heartwarming. I honestly think I’d have his whole team on this list if I had the time to go through the multiple role questlines that give you more insight to each of them
Solus [Emet-Selch] - Hello yes I’m too busy crying in the corner for commentary. Jk, but for real the amount of lore we got for the Ascians and their world and the new perspective of all the game’s evens we gained from that was...humbling, to say the least. It’s like, I still gotta kick your ass, but I sympathize with the heavy weight of pain and loss that you’ve been carrying with you for literal eons. A good example of a sympathetic villain. 10/10 would entertain a whole AU where somehow Emet-Selch is convinced to not do the thing, and/or maybe even indulge in a lil cliche concept of him falling in love with someone in the Source, like, for realsies, and eventually coming to terms with the fact that he will never get back the world and people he’s lost so long ago--might as well protect the people in the here and now.
Crystal Exarch [G’raha Tia] - I contemplated just putting a string of ‘aaa’ in here, but I figured it wouldn’t exactly communicate the sweet vindication I felt when I saw that hood get blown off to reveal his face in that absolutely beautiful cutscene. It was fucking cinematic, I fucking almost bawled. There is so much depth and literal years of stuff to wade through because, well, G’raha Tia is fucking alive and he’s over 100 years old and he’s been waiting all of those years for you. I watched those cutscenes, I read that dialogue, he’s so fucking in love with you and holy fuck do I absolutely reciprocate those feelings.
Innocence - I want you to take everything you know and trust about the universe and just toss it straight out of the window, because that’s what happened exactly at the second phase of the Crown of the Immaculate trial. My love for this character, whom I am considering as entirely separate from Vauthry for the sake of my own sanity, is largely based on aesthetics because....he is.....Big Sexy..... Look, I’m content with having an AU to have my attraction and writing make sense with him.
Thancred - More like Dadcred amiright? But for real, no, Thancred had a lot of emotional healing and growing through this expansion and I fucking loved it. His acceptance of Minfilia’s passing in the end, his naming of Ryne, how the two of them bonded as parent and child...it just brings a tear to my eyes. Also he is fucking hot as a gunbreaker.
Urianger - I’m not sure if it’s because Urianger really had an opportunity to shine with the Pixie quests/Il Mheg area, or if it’s because he totally rocks his new astrologian class, but he is just 10/10 in this expansion. Maybe it’s because he stopped wearing the goddamn eAR COZIES
Zenos - He has become Ultimate Yandere(tm) now. And, gods above, if that’s not one of my most guilty-pleasure Things(tm) to work with in fiction. He was in the game for maybe 10 on-screen minutes at MOST and yet he spawned so many damned ideas I can use.
#ffxiv#shb#shadowbringers#5.0#ffxiv spoilers#shb spoilers#5.0 spoilers#shadowbringers spoilers#this list; otherwise known as the Shadowbringers Thirst List (to be updated as i meet more characters)#but for real there are so many amazing characters#also hilariously i started this post when the servers went down#but i'm only posting it literally as the servers are coming back up#so apparently it took me like 4 hours to make this post bc adhd brain
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Fray for the character questionnaire!
Ah yes Fray, also known as the best friend who will kick your ass for being stupid! ______________________________________________________________
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| First impression |Who the fuck is this edgelord? And lots of yelling at them to shut up and let me be the hero already, it really did bother me at first that they kept stopping me and trying to get me to stop helping everyone in need. There was just so much yelling on my end, and my siblings had to listen to me go on and on about how Fray needs to stop getting in my way. But the glowing eye thing was cool.
| Impression now |Oh boy was I wrong about everything at the beginning, it’s amazing how fast it went from me being annoyed with them to me loving them and wanting them to come back after the lvl 50 quest. I actually ended up feeling really bad for not listening to them and doing exactly what they were trying to get the WoL to stop doing for once, and how much they just wanted to be heard.
Everything with them always made me go back to reread the text from the quests because everything had a new meaning once you knew the truth. It also really makes you rethink with how the WoL really feels.
And the journal entries only added to everything, it was the only questline where I read the journal entries because I knew Fray would have written something in it. I felt like it gave us a little more into Fray and their character.
So really I love them, I wish I could have them fight alongside me and go on adventures together. And sure you could say you’re always going on an adventure with Fray, but it’s not the same unless you can see them there with you, and not just them being there in your heart/head/whatever.
10/10 would go adventuring with again, and also finally listen to them for once.
| Favorite moment |Oh man it’s so hard to pick, um… I really like the part around the end of the lvl 50 quest, it was probably the first moment that really got me. The line “Say my name. Say it. My real name. Our real name!” for sure got to me, I was already guessing it at that point that Fray was somehow the WoL, but I’m also pretty sure we were meant to catch onto that around (or a little earlier then that) point, but still. But after the fight we get the whole “The Warrior of Light! Our Weapon of light!” because holy shit I’m still not over that line, I still think about it sometimes. But that’s also at a point where you can see how hard they’re still trying to reach out to the WoL, it actually hurts thinking about it now with how much they tried to be heard.
But there was also that moment where in the middle of the fight with Myste that was great. Fray comes in, Sidurgu’s disbelief at seeing what looks like his dead friend. And I love how Fray calls themselves the embodiment of good sense, what I feel fits anyway because my own WoL is a big idiot and probably doesn’t know the meaning of good sense. But also them being the one to tell Myste that he’s forgiven, and how much everything almost starts sounding like the WoL is finally finding how to love themselves, and that it’s okay. That they could be finally listening to Fray.
| Idea for a story |I don’t normally write anything that I would call a story (there’s small little things but nothing big), but I always loved the idea of a weird but silly Weapon of Light Family Vacation kind of thing. Serina being reckless like always, Fray having to stop her once again from almost getting herself killed, Myste being the one that has to step in to stop the other two from yelling at each other. It would be a huge mess, but also something fun for once for these three.
It could also be funny if it’s just them all taking the reins from each other for who gets to control the body, probably end with them all getting lots of strange looks from people because to strangers it would just look like the WoL is having a fight with themselves, and also telling themselves to stop fighting.
I’d probably never write it but it could always be a silly doodle of them going to disneyland/world because why not. It could be a doodle of them having to leave because they got in a fight with Mickey Mouse or some other disney character.
I would say they could go to the gold saucer, but Serina goes there everyday so it wouldn’t be anything new.
| Unpopular opinion |Uh, I actually don’t know how people normally feel about Fray. Like do they just see them as another side of the WoL, and therefor they just see them as their own character? Or do they see them as their own person?
I guess I’ll just say that I normally like to use they/them for them because fuck gender, Fray is whatever they want to be.
| Favorite relationship |They don’t really have anything with anyone else other than the WoL (well and Myste, but you still see them interacting with the WoL more so…) So that’s the only relationship I can think of, and really I actually really like it. I don’t know it all feels like there’s this lovely friend/family like love between Fray and the WoL. And I live for these kind of relationships.
So you could say I kind of ship WoL/Fray, but it’s not in a romantic way but more like a family/friendship kind of ship. But I could see my own WoL years and years in the future once she’s old and grey returning to her tribe and living in the azim steppe again, and if her family ever wonders why she isn’t married and has kids she can just tell them that she has her best friend Fray and their beloved son Myste, who else does she need in her life?
And we can’t forget about that last bit of the lvl 80 quest journal entry: “But even if this is our end, it won’t change what we had. I love you more than you’ll ever know. Be well.”
| Favorite headcanon |I’d say maybe my headcanon that in the middle of the night Fray will take the reins for a bit just to leave notes for the WoL, anything from small little things to help remind them to take care of themselves, yelling at them or reminding them how stupid/reckless they can be, but mostly just messing with them because hey you gotta do something for fun. They start teaching Myste to do the same and before anyone knows it the WoL is waking up to random notes everywhere.
Serina would get annoyed but also keep every note they leave her. Or at least would keep all the ones from Myste, (as she tells everyone that they’re letters from her son) but would probably throw out (some) of the ones from Fray just to annoy them.
I think everything really comes down to the fact that I see Fray as their own person, so that part of the WoL is now just different from all the other sides that makes up a person I guess you could say. They’re not just a voice anymore, they’re Fray, they hold such a deep love for the WoL, the kind of love that only someone who is you could have for well…you.
They’re the WoL, but they’re also Fray the Dark Knight. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the WoL and Fray are one and the same, but also their own people. And I will fight anyone who tries to tell me otherwise!
#Final Fantasy XIV#FFXIV#Final Fantasy 15#Fray#ALL THE LOVE FOR FRAY#BEST FRIENDS FOR LIFE#partly because there's no way to get away from them when they're you#can't hide from yourself#illegiblewords#asks
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Michael After Midnight: Dragon Age II
Dragon Age is a series very near and dear to my heart; ever since playing Origins back when I was in college, I have been inspired by the stories, characters, and lore. Hell, Origins alone is a huge inspiration to my writing, and why wouldn’t it be? It has great locations, deep lore, a core main party without a single weak link with each and every party member you have being unique and entertaining in their own right, and an epic story with all sorts of twists and turns. And it only has two really shitty segments in the whole game! It’s truly a great first entry in a series.
But despite my love for it, I put off playing the sequel for most of the decade, only playing it for the first time this year. And why is that? Because… the critics said it was bad… yes, unfortunately in my younger years I took what critics said without any grains of salt. Dragon Age II was not very popular back around the time it came out, mostly because of its radical departure from the style of the first game, with more hack-and-slash-esque combat, a much more simple and self-contained story, and a cast of characters far more divisive than the first time around. It’s only over time that people have started to give it the respect it deserves, but much like fellow fantasy series The Legend of Zelda it comes at the cost of the current game being bashed.
So how is this red headed stepchild of a sequel, anyway? Did the critics have a point, or is this really an underrated gem? Well, I’m happy to report that this is indeed a fun and fantastic game, and I heavily regret being kept apart from the lovely Merril for so long due to poor critical reception, but there are a lot of problems too. For everything it does really well, it kind of shits the bed in other areas, and a lot of that can be contributed to a rushed development cycle that got this game churned out just over a year after the first one, leading to things like all items lacking the detailed descriptions they would get in the first game, which doesn’t sound like much, but then you get an item called something like “Uncle Horky’s Spanking Rod” as a magic staff and there’s no explanation as to why it’s called that and you have to imagine up some ludicrous backstory for it.
The lack of flavor text is a minor gripe, though, compared to the obnoxiously repetitive environments of dungeons. Reusing and flipping dungeons around and reusing assets would be one thing, but here they literally just take a map, flip it a bit with no changes to the details of the level, and just block off doors that lead to areas they don’t want you going. The worst part is on your mini map you can see the blocked pathways you likely saw ten minutes ago in another dungeon, which just makes a lot of the missions feel bland and samey. It also doesn’t help that enemy types are rather paltry, so you’ll be fighting a lot of the same mooks in the same maps over and over as you grind for items, gold, and EXP.
And then there are some of the characters. The worst of the bunch are sadly two characters who are returning from the first game and its expansion Awakening – Anders and Isabela. Isabela is arguably worse, because she honestly seems rather fun and nice at first, if overly and aggressively flirty, but as the story goes on, it’s revealed that she is actually the cause behind some of the biggest issues in the first few acts, which she neglects to tell you until it is far too late and unless you decided to maximize your friendship with her, she will run off and never return to your party. I can’t deny that this completely soured me to her, and at the end of the quanari invasion of Kirkwall I was only upset I couldn’t find her in act three and kick her ass for what she did.
Then there is Anders. Poor, poor Anders. In Awakening, he was one of the most funny and charming characters, a nice little substitute for Alistair that I actually ended up liking for than the Weenie King of Ferelden. Here though? Anders can not go one fucking conversation without bringing up how oppressed mages are and how much the templars suck and blah blah blah. The worst part is I do agree with him, but he’s just so whiny and obnoxious about it I left him behind all the time, dooming my party to having no healer even as I fought high dragons, blood mages, and Corypheus. It was worth it to not hear Anders bitching about templars and insulting Merril and Fenris. Oh, and Anders nukes the chantry and sets off a civil war. Isabela may be a nasty bitch, but Anders definitely comes out looking like a huge cunt by the game’s end.
The entire endgame is kind of an utter mess too, seeing as no matter whose side you join you end up fighting the same two bosses, with one of them just not making any sense whatsoever. And then the game just sort of ends on a very unsatisfying cliffhanger. And as much as I just complained, all of this stings because really, the rest of the game is quite good, and the story is fun if scaled back from the epic tale of Origins.
Let’s get the obvious best part out of the way: Varric. Varric is literally the best part of the entire Dragon Age franchise. He’s a snarky, wisecracking surface dwarf with no beard who writes best-selling novels, constantly has his shirt open to show off his magnificent chest hair, and has a crossbow named Bianca that he is uncomfortably attached to. He is one of the greatest characters ever created, and there was not one single moment I left him out of my party, because he is a blast to have around, and what’s more, if there’s ever a situation where the dialogue wheel pops up and you can let him talk… you’ve won. This guy can talk his way out of any situation. There’s nothing bad you can say about Varric, and he is in fact the only companion in the game I can wholeheartedly stand behind as a paragon of great writing.
I love the other characters, don’t get me wrong, but they have their issues. Aveline and Fenris in particular, with Aveline being a bit too by-the-books at times to the point where she exacerbates the quanari conflict by demanding that elves who killed a guard who raped one of their own be turned over to her after they converted to the Qun. This is all despite her knowing full well that the poor elf girl would have otherwise gotten no justice seeing as how city elves in this setting are second class citizens at best. Still, she has a rather adorkable romance questline where you hook her up with one of the guards, and she’s not a bad person, just a touch misguided at times.
That last sentence can also apply to Fenris, but on a grander scale. He’s a cool, edgy, brooding elf who absolutely fucking hates magic with every fiber of his being. He is the Anti-Anders, though he’s far less annoying about it, and it’s hard to really blame him for being bitter seeing as he was a sex slave for an evil wizard for most of his life and then just had misfortune after misfortune piled on him. I really hated how mean he was to Merril, but otherwise I warmed to him and befriended him.
And that brings us to a very special girl, Merril. Merril is an adorable, klutzy, scatterbrained blood mage elf who is hated by her people due to the lengths she is going to repair an ancient artifact to bring a piece of her people’s heritage back. While she can be a bit arrogant and stubborn about the whole thing, it’s mostly due to how no one around her seems to believe in and support her; naturally, I believed in and supported her, and while things still managed to go south, she seemed at least to learn a little bit. Overall I found her to be an absolute sweetheart, and she never left my party, much like Varric; frankly, I was going in expecting not to like her and was going to romance Fenris instead, but as it turns out Merril won my heart immediately and my Hawke went lesbian this playthrough.
On that note, as much as I like how Merril, Fenris, Isabela, and Anders can be wooed by either gender in principle, I do kind of feel making everyone bisexual with no rhyme or reason kind of cheapens things. It’s weird for me, a bisexual myself, to be saying that, but it just feels off to be able to get together with everyone, with everyone being Schrodinger’s Bisexual until a romance is initiated. It’s nowhere near as bad as Skyrim, but I just feel it kinda cheapens the romance options. I prefer Origins and Inquisition in that regard, where you don’t have all the options but you do have some unique choices. But, hey, at the end of the day I’m hardly complaining that my Lady Hawke got to polish Merril’s Eluvian, if you know what I mean.
Aside from the characters, I think the game’s real strength lies in its story, which is fitting since the entire game is framed as a story being told by no less a storyteller than our pal Varric. It has a three act structure, with each act detailing a different year in Hawke’s rise to become the Champion of the city of Kirkwall, which is a crime-ridden wretched hive of scum and villainy. The first act mainly has Hawke making a name for themselves, living in the slums with their uncle, doing dirty work to try and get back a little prestige, and recruiting all of their allies, with the act culminating with a trip to the Deep Roads, every DA fan’s favorite location. It’s a nice setup for a lot of twists and turns later in the story, and choices you make in certain dialogue options or quests actually can change what sort of quests you get later. Then again, this is Bioware, so this sort of “action have consequences” gameplay is expected.
Act two deals with just how Hawke becomes the Champion. Rich from the expedition into the Deep Roads, Hawke gets to do all sorts of fun things, such as track down a serial killer who ends up murdering their mom, being stabbed in the back by one of their friends, accidentally inciting a race war that nearly burns down the city, and having to duel the warrior leader of the qunari to the death in combat. Yeah, act two really piles it on to Hawke, but it does tie into the game’s themes of how no matter the level of success, great actions will also come with great consequences, even actions meant to better one’s lot in life, which also resonate in the personal quests of characters like Merril and Fenris, who despite ultimately achieving their goals in the third act feel hollow, lost, and even broken by the end, and that’s not even getting into what Anders does. However the conflict with the qunari is resolved, Hawke is declared the Champion, and things seem ok.
But then comes act three, and boy do things go wrong. Knight-Commander Meredith has gone cuckoo for Coco Puffs and conflict between templars and mages seems inevitable; this act is basically wrapping up hanging plot threads and companion quests until Anders finally nukes the chantry and all hell breaks loose, leading to the final battle. The ending here isn’t particularly happy, with Hawke ultimately ending up a fugitive in the epilogue, and things can get even worse if you make poor choices in Inquisition, but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.
Here’s the thing: everything I just said? It could be entirely different from my playthrough depending on the choices you make. Sure, some things are inevitable, like Anders committing terrorist acts, Hawke’s mother dying, and Meredith going absolutely bonkers and making you fight statues, but depending on how you play, maybe you’ll like/romance Isabela, maybe you’ll resolve things with the Arishok differently, maybe you’ll side with the templars… the story ends the same but there are so many ways to make your story different. Throw in some great lore, some fun DLC that reveals some shocking truths about the lore, and the fun albeit simplified combat, and you’ve got a game here that has a lot of replay value if only to see where all the plot threads can lead.
I definitely think this is a good game, even a great one. It has its share of problems, but so did Origins, and frankly I’d sooner put up with the backstabbing pirate hooker and the pissy mage terrorist again then go through the fucking Fade and Deep Roads one more time. If you liked the first one, definitely give this a shot; you may end up liking or disliking some of the stuff I dislike and like. That’s the fun of these Bioware games, different aspects are going to appeal to different people. The question is, do I find it better than Origins?
In some respects, yes; I much prefer the simpler combat here, and I like the more down-to-earth story in this one, but at the same time Origins just had stronger characters overall and I’m a sucker for “save the world” fantasy tales. While Origins infamously had some real mind-numbing slogs in the form of the Fade sequence and the Deep Roads, while those environments were tedious at least they weren’t boring. But on the other hand… Origins didn’t have Varric.
It’s really a tossup, frankly, and I love both games a lot. I think each of them has their place and each of them brings something interesting to the table for the series. It’s one you really need to play for yourself to get a good grasp on; don’t be like me and put it off for nearly ten years, give it a go right after your done with the first game and see how you feel. Your experience is going to be a lot different than mine, that’s for sure.
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Rambling about Sekiro (spoilers below read me):
- Evolution of "i'm scared to block, i like Souls rolling" to "okay i'll block and sort of deflect but only basic attacks i know" to "okay I don't even need to dash except for perilous attacks!" to "okay now i can actually flip between defense and offense on the fly and this is SUPER fun!!"
- Basically, I've never in my life played a game where offense and defense mesh so well together, where blocking is FUN and viable, and seeing your attacks get deflected is actually GOOD and not just infuriating, because you're making progress in the fight.
- People've said Dark Souls is a little like a hard, combat focused Zelda but really, THIS is what that's like, and I'm in love. From did it.
- The upgrade system is neat and I appreciate it for rewarding exploration but also allowing you to challenge yourself by refusing to use them. Also it just works out really well for speedrun balancing and I can’t wait to see the evolution of speedruns in this game because there’s a good balance between wanting more power, posture, and HP and wanting to go as fast as possible.
SPOILERS UNDER CUT, DON’T DO IT UNLESS YOU ARE ALREADY AT /END/ GAME OR DO NOT EVER INTEND TO BUY SEKIRO
---!!!SPOILER ZONE (I'm serious do not read if you intend to play or are still playing)!!!---
(long space for people who might see this on the blog first as opposed to via the dashboard)
- I absolutely adore the weird scientific/medicinal/supernatural macabre shit in this game. The red lump item gave me chills picking it up the first time. Same thing with seeing the first undying monk thing, I couldn't even burn it (but then I finally did it with THAT ITEM... more below)
- haha hand in a jar! haha that guy that flies at you... haha, monkey :) haha ninja dog...... hell even the headless... I love From's mix of disturbing humor (or just flat out being funny despite the bleak setting). Their version of mimics in Souls sum this up best but there's plenty of things here too that are just flat out hilarious and I love it.
- Oh Christ, speaking of, I did the Doctor questline and oh god it gave me some of that Bloodborne dread.
- "IS THAT A FUCKING DARK SOULS?" also lmao when he falls
- "IS THAT THE FUCKING CHAOS BLADE!??" oooh fuck oh fuck *pushes up glasses* remember the cut content with Shiva in Dark Souls???
- Sekiro/Wolf having the "defy your father, break the code" moment was SO good and I love that whole archetype. Simple but I just... <3 Oh god and When Owl is basically just like "that's my boy" when you kill him... I... u_u
- giving Lord Kuro rice was SO cute and just furthered my love for Wolf because this child is teaching him part of how to be himself and to also enjoy things (basically chill the fuck out you freaking murder machine, you are more than that) through compassion, friendship, and a reminder of his own childhood and I don't really get emotional over stuff like this often but awww..! ;_;
- The sake dialogue moments are so good. A very simple concept but I love the nature of sharing part of one's past through a friendly offering, it felt like a really good balance between clear concise mechanics (sake) fitting neatly with narrative elements. It's basically just a dialogue item but it didn't FEEL that way. I felt genuine excitement upon finding new drinks knowing I'd get a chance to share it.
- OH MY GOD ENFEEBLED IS SUCH A GOOD ASS STATUS EFFECT??? THE ANIMATIONS!!! He just hobbles around like a dude who just suddenly became an old man (’cuz that’s literally what it is) with his sword as a cane??? I LOVE FROMSOFT! That shit is so wonderfully expressive but also fits perfectly with that style of horror humor (and I lied before. Mimics are beaten by THIS status effect. New number one spot for my fave moment like this in a From game)
- Oh also speaking of animation, those fucking boss kills!!! *deep inhale* BROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- While not my favorite boss mechanically, SPECIFICALLY that kill animation on the Giant Ape... DUDE HOLY FUUUCK! and then the fake out!?!?!? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! SO good!
- Lady Butterfly was a fun main boss and O'Rin of the Water was a fun mini boss. Plenty of others were fantastic but those stood out. Like, two of my friends so far have expressed the same feelings on Butterfly! Good Fight!
- I even liked the gimmick fights! They did it! Gimmick fights that are actually well designed! They're more about exploring mechanics outside of pure combat without punishing you super fucking hard at a random point just because they can. (Bed of Chaos, Micolash) Strangely a little bit of a breather, which is fitting because it’s a perfect counter balance to the stress of finding yourself in a unique situation. They actually give you time to analyze, think, and breathe it all in!
- I'm currently stuck on an end game "secret"/optional boss with some classic From Lore Implications *ok hand* and it's brutal af. I am excited to learn how to master this.
--- SLIGHT CRITICISM (basically the “i love it so much i can’t help but see small flaws but I’d still give it a 10/10 anyway” part) ---
- I like that even when they repeat mid bosses they usually put them in a new arena to change things up. I think a FEW were a little overdone though and could have benefited from maybe... I dunno, a couple new ones in their place or at LEAST alternate movesets to change things up a bit more than just location BUT the combat is engaging enough that I don't mind, I just found it a LITTLE weird how despite the rest of the polish there was a tad bit of copy-paste (but far FAR less egregious than DS1)
- Idk how replayable this game is gonna be but I can definitely see myself finishing NG+ and doing two more playthroughs for all endings. It's replayable more in the Metroid or Legend of Zelda sense and less in the Dark Souls character build sense. "I wanna try a new route first and beat bosses more effectively this time. I wanna be as stealthy as possible this run" etc. and not "I wanna make an int build" (less a critique and more an observation on how it differs from Souls replayability)
- Dragonrot is like, the only actual flaw in this game imo. It doesn't have enough depth. I was thinking it would have more end game narrative significance but it's just something tied to the sort of useless unseen aid mechanic which fails to really incentivize risky play. If anything it just encourages you to grind before bosses to cap the current exp bar and save/store/spend sen by spending 10 minutes fucking around elsewhere until you're ready so that you have nothing to lose. I feel like it should have done some world state changes and something more intense, like ACTUALLY having npcs die and having a healthier world state and an unhealthier world state where some enemies get weaker or stronger based on which extreme your world is on etc. etc. basically ANYTHING more than it is now. But this is super minor relative to how good everything else is. It just felt underwhelming considering all it was hyped up to be. It’s one of those things I just ignore as if it wasn’t there and it’s just as good because it has little effect on the parts that I DO like the game for.
---FINAL NOTE---
- To end on a positive note though, Sekiro managed to be a game that iterated on the Souls formula by defying part of what it became (dodge heavy, block averse play, slow, parrying primarily for one-shotting) yet still providing the same feelings of starting one of those games fresh. Part of what makes it FEEL Souls-y is precisely what separates it from those games, and it's all too good to really put into words at the moment. Like sure it's got Estus, bonfires, and a kick-your-ass "you're going to get stuck and frustrated and that's how it is" attitude and it's got a similar enough control scheme, but beyond that, there's just so much more combat and movement depth that it's a whole new beast, and I love it so much.
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Hello, it's the WoL/Zenos anon who requests WoL kicking Zenos's ass and let me just say OH MY GOD THAT WAS AWESOME THANK YOU SO MUCH! I really love the darker sides of the WoL, like the DRK thing where the WoL resents the people they protect, and it's awesome to see the WoL letting loose and just totally dominating Zenos the way only villains get to. You depicted it all super well, and the way you tagged it and had Zenos totally not giving a fuck struck me as really in character. Fantastic work!
Yay! I’m glad you enjoyed it! I was really tempted to have WoL be more rough with him / step on him or somesuch. But I didn’t. XD
I like darker WoL, too. But not too dark? I just finished DRK 70 quest. That quest was messed up. I had some feelings about it, lemme tell you. Anyway, I do love WoL embracing their darker side. It’s why I loved the DRK questline so much.
Zenos don’t give a fuck. I’m glad he seems IC XD
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Alright, so, I finally decided to give Amorous Adventures a shot (The clean version of course, got no time to set up the 27 thousand ancillary mods to get sex (or even just kissing) in skyrim to work), and after a couple days with them here's my thoughts:
1) first off, the Priestess of Azura? I think she doesn't work in the clean version. The site says she is a unmarked questline, and I've completed the Azura Star quest in her favour, but aside from her going "I will serve you from now on, Champion (of Azura). Obediently. Do to me what you want" Or some Submissive Comments of the sort, and have a bunch of dialogues options that IMPLY my character should be about to kiss her and whatnot, but nothing ever comes up, neither animations nor Text Screen like all the other Adventures do. Am I missing something?
2) That being said, It appears my Dragonborn... Likes... Older Women? He goes to the college in search for the wizard who stole Azura's Star and gets roped by Mirabelle, the deputy headmistress, into doing weird sex magic experiments with her (IS THAT EVEN LEGAL?), then when we get to whiterun there's Carlotta, certified "milf" who also happens to have a entire quest based around not wanting to be pursued by people, and Janessa, who apparently lost her last girlfriend 50 years ago and is still hung up on that. This isn't helped by the lack of branching path in the conversations, which forces me to have him as a suave womanizer whoever he's trying to bed, which I must say it's starting to give me That One Bosmer Casanova from Interesting NPCs war flashbacks.
3) (Then again, he's a Dunmer, so who knows how old he actually is (Then again he's younger than said priestess given how her vision of him from Azura came to her before he was born).
3.5) Or maybe he's just into women who can easily kick his grey wizard ass? Dude likes to live dangerously and with the constant yet arousing threat of Janessa gutting him the day he tries to cop a feel?
4) Also Ysolda has a thing for MIKAEL THE BLOODY FUCKBOY? And apparently he doesn't want to "tap" that because he thinks she's crazy because she hangs out with the Caravans ("Because no real nord would hang out with them, they are thieves and animals... No offense" he says, adding the last part as he notices my dear friend Inigo (The Blue Murdercat) giving him the glare to end all glares) and asked me for a mammoth tusk which OBVIOUSLY means she wants to use her to pleasure herself, and I must say, I feel like that's a waste of a romantic plot when it comes to Ysolda.
For one, they could have tied it to her Drug Smuggling Cartel and played up the Drug Kingpin Angle, instead than doing the old as balls joke about the mammoth tusk. That vanilla questline is an unmarked one anyway, they could have gone with that. Or maybe something about her not minding you fucking a Hagraven?
Then again I've still to talk with Madran in her quest, for as much as I know Mikael is just a huge fuckboy red herring and there is more depth on this than I espected (After all, I wasn't expecting "Murder is a Art" Janessa quest to have a scene all about the dragonborn, who was charaterized as a womanizer since then, to go "wait, if you aren't into it and are still hung up on your dead girlfriend you don't need to fuck me once we complete this job like we agreed, I don't want you to feel unconfortable" so, hey, maybe they are going to surprise me with this one)
5) BTW, I've heard Elisif is a beddable character here, and, while she does deserve to move on and find love again and whatnot, I really don't want to be a dick to Torygg by fucking his widow. Also I feel like Sybil is goinv to castrate my Dragonborn if he tries to do anything on the woman Torygg loved, so there's also that.
As a side note, Interesting NPC almost gave me a heart attack today when, while snooping around the secret tunnels of Dragonreach Prison in order to retrieve a Ring from the Rings of Old mod, I end up face to face with the ghost of a Snow Elf Woman, bastard daughter of a ancestor of clan battleborn, turned into a wispmother by Clavicus Vile.
Seriously, that shit was pretty unexpected, let me tell you.
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ffxv favs.
Tagged by @glaive-eve & @singlebecauseofthechocobros. Finally doing it cause whooo snow day also, I am apparently longwinded as hell.
Favorite Chocobro:
Nyx. Wait, what do you mean Nyx doesn’t count? Noctis, since the VERSUS XIII days. Yes, I am one of them.
Favorite Guest Party Member (including Ravus and Libertus from DLC):
LIBERTUS!!! This guy honestly deserves more love, but Aranea isn’t far behind.
Favorite Minor Character(s):
Too many list, to be honest. I have this stupid propensity to fall in love with minor characters; I mean what are main characters even? But uh, Crowe, Regis, Shiva/Gentiana, Ifrit, to name a few.
Favorite Villain:
Kenny mother-fucking Crow. CAWWW. Titus Drautos. Ardyn is great and all, but he’s really just a psycho with a vendetta against a dumb rock. Drautos though, he must’ve gone through some fucked up shit to foster so much animosity towards Regis that he devoted his life/career to playing double agent so he could have the satisfaction of running a sword through his “King.”
Favorite Kingsglaive Character:
NYX. I MEAN, who’s even posting this? The ultimate Nyx hoe. 😂 Honestly, I went into Kingsglaive having the lowest of all expectations and if anything I was slightly salty the MC for the movie wasn’t Noctis, but lo and behold, after a few hours with him, I was enamored. Honestly, have never loved a character as much as I do Nyx and I could go on and on and on about how he’s such a nuanced and interesting person but...that’s a whole other post.
Favorite Astral/Divine Being:
GRAMPA RAMUH! Cause this motherfucker is the only one that consistently saves my ass. Also how cute is it that he picks Noctis up to keep him from harm during the attack?
Favorite Character Overall:
Nyx. See above.
Favorite Weapon:
Ulric’s Kukris - seriously don’t expect too much from me. Joking aside, I’ve always been most fond of daggers and polearms.
Favorite Location:
GALAHD. Does it count since we never get to see it/it’s only spoken about? No? Uhhhh...Cape Caem. It reminds me so much of day trips I’d take to New England to harvest oysters.
Favorite Quest/Questline/Hunt:
THE ONE WHERE YOU UNLOCK NYX AS A PLAYABLE CHARACTER. No? Uh. Idk, *squints* I’m going to be completely honest with you, I hated the sidequests in XV and the hunts were a bore, so favorite mainline quest aka story segment would be Zegnautus Keep - yes, you heard me, pre-patch too.
Favorite Boss:
Ardyn in Ep. Ignis. Let’s not go into how stupidly easy and anti-climatic the bosses in the main game where. Fix this SE.
Favorite Monster/Monster Family/etc:
CACTA$$$$.
Favorite Song:
Somnus. DEEEEEUUUUS DORMIT ET LIBERIIIII IGNEM *flashback to edgelord-trashbag-Noctis-aka-my-favorite-Noct*
Favorite Boss Theme:
Magna Insomnia. Totally not because Somnus is in it too.
Favorite Non-Episode DLC/Update/Event:
UNH, UNH, PUT YO HANDS YO HANDS YO HANDS UP. That stupid fishing one that unecessarily reintroduced Afrojack to my life.
Favorite Episode DLC:
Comrades if Nyx finds his way into it. Or Episode Nyx. Episode Ignis for story, Episode Prompto for game play (yeah, I liked the stupid MGS feel and snowmobile).
Other Favorites of Note:
Nyx kicking Drautos’ ass.
Old Wall coming to life.
The stupid fucking Audi R8.
Shirtless Nyx...whattt?
Bahamut being the ultimate big-bad but still getting revered, what a BAMF.
I love-hated the ending, it was a terrible ending, but man, the emotions helped recement Noctis as a favorite, if not all time favorite FF protagonist.
I’m like 99.9% sure everyone I know has done this/been tagged already cause I’m such a slow ass, but just in case you guys haven’t & want to do it, tagging: @mp938368 @notsoartistic @hanalwayssolo @singergurl91 @inconsistencys @spectreblanc AND everyone else who wants to do it!
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