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radellama · 1 year

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Games I played in 2022

Well… what a year. Pleased to announce that I actually played some good games this year! And some terrible ones too! And also… I made a game! And graduated! Everything happened all at once, but I at least had the foresight to write down the games I played so I don’t have to stand and look at my bookshelf while trying to remember which games I actually played this year. Some of the games I played are repeat entries from previous years, however I feel that my experience with the games is different enough to warrant writing about them again, and you’ll see why. It would be nice to replay a few games and do comparative analysis/reviews based on what I’ve said in previous years, but I can only really do that with one game I played this year, so I’ll tackle re-reviews another time.

As with the others, I’ll try not to completely spoil stuff, but I do want to go in depth with some things- so you have been warned.

Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer

I don’t know why I forgot to put this in previous year’s entries, as I usually replay it every summer in Dec/Jan. Safe to say, I adore this game.

I think it was at the start of this year that I played a private stream in discord with a few friends, it was super fun just chatting on the virtual couch and showing friends how charming the game is. I’m certainly not opposed to streaming on twitch for my next playthrough of this either :P

Spyro 2 is the best in the og trilogy- it builds upon the foundations laid in the first game, but is an overall tighter and more focused play than the third game. There’s classic characters with incredible (campy/bad) voice acting that is just iconic at this point, a simple but effective story, and charming places to visit on your journey to gather all the talismans and complete the collectathon. I’ve loved this game since I was a kid, so I know this game almost inside and out, and I could hum pretty much the entire soundtrack from memory. I also really love the low poly ps1 era look if I’m being honest, to me it is just as charming as that 16-32 bit pixel art style and deserves to be appreciated in all of its janky glory!

Game starts with Spyro wanting to take a holiday to get away from the doom and gloom of bad weather, but The Professor intercepts you while you are travelling through a portal and asks you to help. See, Ripto has recently taken over the place, and the people need your help to kick his butt! They promise that they’ll help you get to Dragon Shores to enjoy your holiday if you help them by collecting enough Talismans and orbs to fight Ripto. There’s three hub worlds to travel through, all with a variety of levels, a speedway and secret orbs to collect. Each level you play through has a main mission, which is usually very simple and consists of going from point A to point B in order to unlock the exit portal and get the Talisman- but each level also has a side quest or two that provide an opportunity to collect orbs. Sidequest might be the wrong term for it, as they’re mostly minigame-esque - things like lighting up gem lamps, feeding fish to idols, semi-elaborate fetch quests, stopping a crazed penguin chef from cooking baby turtles, helping children terrorists, playing hockey with some monks, that kind of thing. Each level and hub world also has a set amount of gems littering the place, and you can collect them all easily with the help of your dragonfly buddy, Sparx. Sparx is a real g, he takes hits for you and changes colour to indicate your health, and not only helps to collect nearby gems as you walk around, but holding the L1+R1 buttons will make him face the direction of the closest gems. Really helpful for when you’re trying to 100% an area and there’s one pesky gem hidden in a corner that you missed.

The main gameplay for this game is simple 3D platforming, and you have the ability to charge into a run, breathe fire and glide to assist you. Most enemies are really basic, and can be killed with either fire or a charge attack. Small enemies can usually be taken down with either, but bigger enemies can deflect your charge attacks and enemies with metal can absorb your flame attacks. Super simple stuff, you don’t need to think too hard about the enemies in most levels and instead spend most of your time exploring levels and seeing what they have to offer.

At the end of each hub world, there is a boss to fight- working your way up from Ripto’s henchmen, Crush and Gulp, until you can fight the villain himself. Upon defeating Ripto in a boss battle that (mostly) tests your skill and understanding of the game mechanics in a final showdown, you’re treated to playing through Dragon Shores!

I love when there’s a bit of fun content after the main plot, it’s hard to say no to a nice reward! There’s a handful of nice carnival games to play, like a dunk tank, whack a mole type game, a love boat ride, and my personal favourite, the rollercoaster. If you collect every collectable in the game, there’s also a permanent powerup you can access that allows you to blast through levels. I do remember the powerup being active when I restarted a save on the reignited trilogy, and I had to toggle it off to play normally- but I can’t recall if that’s the case in the og one. Either way, it is pretty fun to have a supercharged power up as a reward for completing everything, as is mucking around in dragon shores.

To close, I really love this game haha. Although I enjoyed the reignited trilogy, I found that there were too many nitpicky changes that were made for my nostalgic tastes- making me always want to return to the og. It’s tiny things, like the monks in colossus doing their ‘waiyayaiyaiyum’ chanting being changed to a cliche ‘ooohhmmmm’ that sucks, adjusting/taking out some of the cutscenes at the start and end of levels to omit the implications of casual murder, changing the voice actor for the Romeo+Juliet mission to a female and male voice actor when it used to be two males… nitpicky stuff that if you hadn’t played the og’s and don’t care (as I so clearly do) you probably wouldn’t notice. It’s not a perfect game by any means, but it is in my heart. Love you Spyro 2 <3

Gateway to Glimmer Forest - https://youtu.be/PEM-pYocKnI

Colossus - https://youtu.be/-AiVIRplYSs

Zephyr - https://youtu.be/xVKYvtzhZP8

~~~

Donkey Kong Country 2

Ahh, a childhood classic. I was feeling nostalgic this year - something you’ll note in a lot of my games as you go down the list - and it was nice playing this again. I also found out that I never finished the game as a kid! There were still like two whole worlds I had never seen before, I have no clue how I missed them but! Yeah! I got a two for one, revisiting an old fave AND new content lmao.

The game still feels tight; I like the way it controls, especially in the later levels where it really pushes your skill level and mastery of its system. Diddy and Dixie are both great to play as, and throughout various stages you get animal companions to either ride or play as. Not all animal companions are created equally, though, as some are really frustrating to play as. Looking at you, Rattly.

I didn’t 100% this, I’ve decided to put it down and call it a wrap for the year with just the bonus world left. It’s really hard, and I like that about this game, but I need to call it at some stage so I can write these! I might continue playing over new years just for my personal satisfaction, but I’m already fine with having gone through the whole thing again and bashing K. Rool (with only one time that I looked up a walkthrough, muscle memory and perseverance through the rest!)

I’m not too sure what else to say if I’m being honest- this was more of a quick playthrough for nostalgia and stress relief while I was in my last weeks of uni. It still holds up to my nostalgic views, the visuals and music are still banging, and I had fun. There are tiny nitpicks I have, like some of the levels near the end not feeling all that coherent with the rest of the game, and the coins don’t seem to save when you close and reopen the game- grinding to get lives and having like 30-something banana coins when I save turning into 0 when I load my file sucked a bit when I wanted to save or hang out with Cranky :/ But I got over it, and I’ll definitely play this again in future lol.

Stickerbrush Symphony - https://youtu.be/mdPlcKg-qFs

Fonky the Main Monkey - https://youtu.be/CUsb2LvSmfM

Snakey Chantey - https://youtu.be/Mr2cFY_3PT0

~~~

Donkey Kong Country 3

Another childhood classic! This one I know for a fact that I completed as a kid, multiple times in fact. And I completed it again early this year! Fully too, like all the bonus world and all the banana birds and shit. Good fun.

This game is interesting, it is so different to the previous two while still being very much a dkc game. Going from having two light and snappy characters (Dixie and Diddy) in 2 to now having one heavy character (Kiddy) is a bit odd at first, but I have to admit, the level design and character movement felt like the best iteration of the three dkc games. I don’t usually care if sequels have nice refinements, that’s a given in most cases and doesn’t- or shouldn’t- affect my opinion on the game. But for this game? I dunno, it really just feels good when you master it, and I think after playing some form of dkc for most of this year, I enjoyed the levels here the most. Maybe that is childhood nostalgia, maybe it’s a more objective look during this playthrough- who knows.

What I do know is that this game is super fun, and I felt a much stronger connection to the world as I traversed through it. I think this is in part due to the overworld being more interactive, having a boat to traverse between each section- but I also think the connection with NPCs and the addition of ‘sidequests’ really helped the game feel uniquely like home. I use the term sidequest loosely here, as its more fetch quests and gathering collectibles that you’ll probably collect anyway, but it’s fun going around and meeting all the bears and talking with them. I also really enjoyed the bosses in this game- they truly feel like the final evolution of what the previous two games were establishing. The levels and bosses feel so stand out and memorable to me, and I really enjoyed all the extra little things like the bonus barrels and the circus tent with cranky. Even smaller details, like each level displaying a flag once you’ve completed it, and it being colour coded to tell you which monkey completed the level and if you got all the bonus content- that's so cool.

This is just gushing, but I can’t help it. I like this game, and it feels so cozy. I like going through all the worlds and feeling such a clear sense of progression, I like chatting with all the bears and helping/pissing them off, I like the unique bosses, I like seeing Wrinkly Kong chilling in her little cave and seeing it fill up with all the banana birds I rescue, and I LOVE revealing the ‘secret’ on the overworld. The story and stakes might not have been as drastic as the previous iterations, but there’s just something so appealing about this game. I can’t really articulate it much more than this, but I did see a really interesting video essay about this game a couple of months after I finished it - highly recommend checking it out as it brings up some interesting points in regards to how unique this game is.

As far as nitpicks go, again I feel some of the later levels near the end game feel a bit out of place (and I do NOT like the rocket level at the end >:( ), I can’t remember if it saved lives and coins between saving and reopening or not- if it didn’t that still sucks! But overall, the changes made here feel fine- it’s a unique game and a nice way to round off the trilogy.

I’ll leave it at that, with the final note of how this game has one really important core memory for me. When I was around 6-8, I remember struggling to get past the bees to enter the bonus barrel in the first rat warehouse level, and my dad introduced me to the concept of patience. It’s so simple, but it blew my tiny mind that I could do things differently if I stopped and waited for a moment, and that it might be the best way to do what I want. To this day, when I’m feeling really impatient and am able to catch myself, I call myself out by mentally replaying that section of the game, and making my way past the bees to get to the bonus barrel. This game means a lot to me lmao

Swanky’s Sideshow - https://youtu.be/Es4yf387pmM

Mill Fever - https://youtu.be/OWmd5dGN5Ns

Water World - https://youtu.be/N3aTwCvbbaQ

~~~

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Guess what? MORE NOSTALGIA! I played a couple of minutes of New Horizons with my sibling here and there at the start of the year when they were staying with me, and I just found myself missing older entries in the series. I stuck with Wild World for a good couple of months, and didn’t time travel or anything. Just playing raw Animal Crossing Wild World. The graphics looked a bit crunchier than I remembered on the ds, but they still have a certain charm that I like.

As soon as I booted up the game for the first time, and heard the title music, a huge wave of nostalgia washed over me- so it’s safe to say this is a really biased look back. I went with my tradition of naming my town Cessabit, and after exiting my taxi and landing in my new home, I got to work. I actually really like the early stage where you’re working for Nook, and I will NOT tolerate any slander towards him. He is an earnest and kind tanuki who helps you get your bearings with no time limits, you all wish you had someone like that in your life!

After completing the Nook tutorial, I was off on my own, and began doing what I could to earn enough and start living that animal crossing life. I got all my tools, worked towards filling out my encyclopedia and donating everything to the museum, and started breeding lovely flowers to decorate my neighbours houses. I was very glad that Chief was in my town- he’s one of my favourite villagers, so I’d hang out and make sure to chat with him every day.

One thing I noticed, that was refreshing to see after the sour taste left by NH, was the variety and types of holidays in Wild World. There’s standard ones like the fishing and bug tourney, where you have to try and get the biggest catch of the town by the end of the day- but there are also things like the flower festival, the acorn festival, and other little ones like la-di-day. I also loved when it was time for the flea market, I’d set up my house like a little shop of second hand furniture ready to go and enjoy selling the stuff I didn’t want so I could afford to buy some stuff from my neighbours. Little things like these were so much fun when I was a kid, and I had so much fun reliving them this time around. I appreciated the effort the developers went to in making the holidays not culturally or regionally specific, so as not to alienate anyone who isn’t immediately familiar with the celebrations. You as the player get to understand the holidays while the townsfolk share the festivities, it felt nice.

The only thing I couldn’t do to complete this experience was play with others in multiplayer. When I was younger, my sister and I would stay up late and play under the covers together from our bedrooms, giving each other gifts and mucking around in each other’s towns. It was extra fun when we got to see our cousin, as he also had a copy and it was really fun to make self imposed challenges for fishing and bug catching and hide and seek, pooling together to give the winner a prize. I also used to be a bit of a shit and dig holes to make mazes across town and force my sister and cousin to play through a certain set of events before I let them free- this was also something I did when I was younger on my own, I’d trap villagers into little spaces I’d dug and push them together so I could see their conversations/piss them off and watch them stomp in a tiny area. It was hours worth of effort to dig that much, for such a small ‘reward,’ - but that’s kinda the spirit of animal crossing. You accumulate hours playing in small chunks to only have mundane rewards, but it’s nice.

I stopped playing when I missed two days in a row of playing due to uni work and I opened up to see that Chief had left me, and I was so sad. That’s another integral part of the animal crossing experience - the villagers you wanted to stay would always be trying to leave, and the annoying ugly bitch ass fuckers would never leave!

Overall, I really enjoyed this revisit of animal crossing- the term I was going through at the time was the absolute worst one in my entire bachelor's, so playing during class and just before bed was really helping me keep sane. There’s a whole stack of things that make the game mildly miserable to play, like having to donate each item individually to Blathers in the museum and hearing the whole info dump every time, along with not having any indication that you’ve already donated something… just to name one.

As much as I love this game, I wouldn’t recommend it to newcomers unless I knew for sure they’d be able to understand and appreciate the context of the game. I have so many childhood memories attached to this game, and just recounting a small handful of the ones that I hold dearly would be a whole separate post that wouldn’t mean much to the rest of you, cause they’re MY nostalgic memories, not yours lmao. I loved playing again, but did find myself yearning for the few quality of life updates that were added in future instalments. Overall though, for the second game in the franchise, and the first handheld instalment- great fun!

Plus it has the best soundtrack + the movie is based loosely on this game and is really cute >:)

Title Screen - https://youtu.be/xllH3Zrcbz0

The Roost - https://youtu.be/DDRKhw6fhyY

6pm - https://youtu.be/X9G6gBCt6T0

~~~

Animal Crossing: New Leaf

I don’t have as strong a nostalgia for NL if I’m being honest, but damn what a nice animal crossing game. I remember the first time I played as a teen and having reservations about the changes, especially in the soundtrack and certain game mechanics, but overall it is such a nice animal crossing game. THIS is the one I would recommend as an entry point to the series if you’ve never played and want to check it out. The mechanics have been refined, and everything is generally very pleasant to play- it has really boiled down the exact animal crossing formula and added a new look and feel to it while still being familiar.

I love the additions to this game as well, though it took me a while to warm up to them as a teen, they really just make the game extra nice. I like that you can stack fruit in your pockets, and that there’s more furniture and clothing to collect, and cycling between tools by pressing the dpad is amazing! There’s new npc’s to fall in love with, and having control of the town via mayoral duties is really nice. It’s super fun curating the town to look the way you want- I have so much fun putting down tiles and creating nice pathways that lead to nicely placed buildings and bridges. Autism heaven. The only things I really wanna nitpick here are the fact that there’s less pocket space and that new villagers just plop their houses WHEREVER THEY WANT.

Back in the day, I spent real life WEEKS trying to breed blue roses, and finally got one! One single blue rose! And I was trying to breed it to make more so I could start mass breeding blue ones and add them to my rainbow of roses! ALL FOR THAT BITCH ASS CLOWN PIETRO TO PLONK HIS HOUSE DIRECTLY ON THE ONLY FUCKING BLUE ROSE IN TOWN WHICH DESTROYED IT FOR GOOD AND I HAD TO START BREEDING FROM FUCKING SCRATCH. I HATE THAT FUCKING CLOWN SOOOOO MUCH. Flower breeding is probably the only other real gripe I have- I do not give a flying fuck about flower genetics and needing some arbitrary system that seems as much down to rng as it is to genetics just to get a nice colour. I want to make a gay town with rainbow roses bordering all my footpaths, just let me have the colours. It only gets worse in NH… I spent actual real life MONTHS slowly trying to breed blue roses as I played... Wild world had it right- just put a black and purple rose together and you’re sure to get blue eventually! It used to be about colour combos, I think in WW it was 3 base colours and 5 hybrid colours for roses, that’s epic! And they made some kind of sense, not this bullshit where you need to have bred the roses from particular flowers over a long system to get a colour… fuck you.

Anyway, back to NL. As a 3DS game the graphics held up really well in my opinion. Everything is so cute and having a better depth perception in general is nice (and that’s without the 3D enabled, it’s cool but hurts my eyes so I never really used it). The big changes for this game are that you are the mayor and have more direct control over the town, that most of the shops are now in a main street above the town, and the addition of the island. I already touched on the mayor thing, and if you know NH you know the general deal for it here. The main street is an interesting choice, but it was one of the changes I didn’t immediately turn my nose at when I first played as a teen. That’s because it’s really cool to see your progress as you open more shops and the place gets more lively. In WW, you only really upgraded Nook’s as you progressed, but now you can upgrade Nook’s AND unlock a whole strip of places to shop at and hang out in. The museum is really nice too, they really stepped up in making it an even nicer place to visit. And, with the expanded encyclopedia, there’s plenty to collect and donate. Unlocking the shops all felt pretty natural and related- there were standard things like ‘when you’ve shopped a certain amount at Nooks, it’ll expand,’ and ‘if you get your fortune enough times, Katrina will open up shop,’ - but there are other things like getting to know Dr Shrunk and having to get villagers to sign a petition to open up a nightclub, and having certain shops opened via fundraising. It really helped create that community feel that’s important in an animal crossing game, a feeling that I think peaked here and was unfortunately lost in NH. Here, while you are in charge of major decisions for the layout and look of town, and the villagers contribute jack shit to the fundraisers as always, it felt like you were making a town FOR the town. In NH, having more control is super nice, especially when you want to get creative with it, but due to it having less interaction with the villagers in this manner, it feels disconnected and more like it’s for your benefit only, not the town/island’s. Plus, the main street being accessible right at the top of your town, only a short walk across the train tracks away is good. A huge improvement to the shopping district in Let’s Go To The City on Wii, which requires you to catch the bus every time you visit :/

The last big addition to this game is the island. I believe there was an earlier iteration of this idea with the gamecube -> gameboy linking thingy, but I didn’t experience the gamecube era so it was funky fresh to me. When you unlock it, there’s new fruits and bugs and flowers and fish- even a new tool/ability, diving! It’s super cool to see things expanded upon this way, and you get an island as a secondary place to curate the way you want. I would always take out all the flowers and shrubs, leaving only the banana trees and placing bananas over every single tile on the island so that it could guarantee a higher spawn rate for bugs and beetles that were mad expensive.

At night on the island, big bugs and sharks can spawn, and defacing the island in the manner I just described makes it so that those bugs are pretty much the only things to spawn, apart from one or two other bugs that are super common and spawn regardless. Spending an hour or so catching bugs and filling up the max inventory to take home, paired with the bell boom ordinance, means that you can get a solid 200-400 bells per trip. Also, the music on the island at night is just gorgeous, so it was really nice to just unwind before bed and hear that calming music while catching bugs and sharks before returning home and saving for the night. When I babysat as a teen, once the kids were in bed I’d stay up late for the parents and grind on the island like that while chatting with friends online- it was super nice.

ANOTHER thing the island added- yes, there’s more -is the inclusion of mini games! You can play them by yourself or with friends via local/online play. You can do games that are effectively fishing and bug tourneys- but with special rules, mazes where you have to collect certain fruits, a whack a mole type of thing, balloon shooters, hide and seek - so much to play! When you do well, you get a currency that’s only used on the island and the chance to unlock intermediate and expert versions of the same games, higher stakes for higher rewards! The inclusion of these were super awesome, as when you played with friends, you weren’t limited to making up your own games with your friend until you ran out of things to do- as there are literally games to play on the island! I didn’t play much online back in the day, and I didn’t at all on this replay, but that was a fun thing from its time.

The last major thing I want to mention, was that this game had a MASSIVE FREE UPDATE, adding the ‘welcome amiibo’ subtitle to the game. I remember when this came out back in the day, it was an unexpected but very pleasant surprise, and expanded on the already large amount of content in the game. You could use amiibo things to do amiibo stuff - I didn’t really play this shit cause I only have a pixel mario amiibo lol. But when you summon someone, they appear in a little camper van in Harv’s camp, alongside non-villager npcs with unique furniture you can order. They added another set of in-game currency, used in the shop and campervans at Harv’s, and you can earn currency by doing ‘dailies’ that you were probably already doing. This was nice, as it was an optional incentive to do things each day/week when you’re feeling a little directionless after having pretty much completed your town aesthetic. Things like picking weeds, sending letters, talking to villagers- the Nook Phone shit from NH originated here! I can’t remember if there was anything else major with this update- apart from the addition of BEING ABLE TO SIT ON ROCKS AND STUMPS!!! That was a BIG FUCKEN DEAL back in the day ahah.

Playing again reminded me of why I loved playing AC to begin with, and made my gripes towards NH even stronger. There was just so much missing from the base of NH when it came out, and pairing that with the annoyingly drip fed updates, content that was removed and having to pay for the DLC… Yeowch. I loved playing NH, but only for a short while. Playing NL, I loved it the whole time. I haven’t checked my NH game in months, but to my understanding, there are STILL things that were present in the base of this 3DS game that are absent in NH- which is very strange considering that game is about living on an island.

Overall, playing this again was so fucking lovely. Even though I don’t have as strong a nostalgia for this game, I still love it nostalgically and even more after this replay - it is The Quintessential Animal Crossing Experience™ in my opinion. Although I stand by the fact that the WW soundtrack is better (:P) there are so many lovely songs here, and the general vibe is so uniquely New Leaf- I struggled picking songs so you get 4, with the recommendation of checking out the rest of the ost if you are so inclined >:)

Tortimer Island (Night) - https://youtu.be/oikomQB2Hac

11am - https://youtu.be/8MHC3Q7LQ20

1pm - https://youtu.be/8g54wrI5mNU

7pm - https://youtu.be/dqSn-tJRbhc

~~~

Miitopia (DS)

What a strange and funny game. It’s a weird RPG-lite style game centred around your Miis, and I had a good time. I do think that a massive part of why I enjoyed this was due to having brain rot for chrono, so all my characters were chrono ones+my oc harland as my main mii man. And all extra npc types were star trek characters. Lol.

If you haven’t got funny ideas for friends or blorbos to put in this game, I think a huge part of the charm is lost- however, if you get a kick out of seeing your Miis travelling and fighting monsters and getting to know each other every night when they sleep at the inns- you’re sure to have a great time.

One thing I am surprised by is just how long this game is. I’ve been playing for most of the year on and off, and I’m STILL not at the end. It feels like an endless game lmao, but that is in part due to me replaying each level over and over until each path has been taken. I could say it was for the completionist in me, but it was actually about getting more chances for my Miis to get closer at night the more I travelled. Completing the maps was just a nice excuse >:)

The story is very simple. The big baddie (Matt, from Wii Sports in my case) stole a bunch of people’s faces, and you agree to traverse the land, gain party members, and retrieve everyone’s faces! I think it’s actually a pretty clever way to make the plot revolve around the Miis, and there’s a certain wit and charm to this game that made it super fun. I loved a lot of the cheeky dialogue, and the little ‘random thoughts’ the party members will have while you’re running across the levels. It was very funny when it was something that a particular character would not say, but even funnier when they totally would say that. My best example is Magus saying he ‘needs kitty cuddles’ while on a very long adventure, he both would and would not say that. I love it.

As far as gameplay goes, it's super simple, hence why I’d say it's RPG-lite. Classic RPG turn based battle system, it’s very simple and hard to mess up, but it also has an autoplay feature. I just left the autoplay on during every battle, as I just didn’t feel inspired enough by the simple choices to actually make calculated decisions. It was more fun for me to autoplay and speed it up, paying more attention to the things the Miis were saying and how they were reacting to each other getting hit. This made it a semi-idle experience for me, not the worst thing in the world, but it meant that I’d only be paying partial attention while playing at work or while watching youtube essays in the evenings to unwind.

Because it’s so simple, I don’t have much more to say. It has a certain wit, one that vaguely reminded me of things I liked about Paper Mario, and it was really funny playing with blorbos in this virtual-dollhouse-rpg game. If this sounds fun, and you have some Mii characters in mind, I’d say check it out! Just keep in mind that it goes on for a really long time, and you’ll have like 10 party members towards the end + a plethora of npc Miis to make/use. I feel the experience is a bit wasted if you haven’t got some Miis in mind, but it’s still a good time regardless. I may or may not see it to the end, but for now I’m fine with calling it done while I’m at the ‘final missions from townsfolk’ stage. Surely I’m just a quest or two away from the real ending, but whatever. I had fun while it lasted.

Getting Changed - https://youtu.be/VNFG451FY_U

In That Holiday Mood - https://youtu.be/4BaNOx_-azA

Title: Greenhorne - https://youtu.be/37Oq7Rb_m10

~~~

Aragami 2

Whoo boy. Um, I have a lot to say about this game. I’m also going to go pretty heavy into spoilers for this one cause. I need to talk about this.

As you may or may not remember from a previous goty thingy, I talked about how much I LOVED the first Aragami. This sequel… I knew it was going to be different, but damn it sucks so much… And I completed the whole thing…

So, where to begin…

Lets start with looks. This one has a more ‘realistic’ look, forgoing the stylisation found in the first game. They made the main Aragami that you play as looks really buff and shit, and they look solid. As in, solid and not wispy or smokey or shadowy, despite being a vengeful shadow spirit. They look like a generic buff assassin dude but with grey skin. I don’t really like it. The hub world that you can muck around in between missions is pretty I guess, but the levels themselves felt kinda empty and amateurish to me. While some of the later levels were quite elaborate with large city structures to leap across and mining caves and the like- a lot of levels just have an infinite plane of water as far as the horizon. To me, that took away so much of the atmosphere and made it feel like an ameture attempt at making a level. Both this and the first Aragami were made in Unity, but this game REALLY felt like it was made in Unity, but in a bad way. The new direction just felt so odd, it barely held onto any of the choices or aesthetics that made the first game feel so charming to me in the first place- scrapping it for more ‘realism’ at the expense of character within the environment and models. It makes it look like every other 3D game ever, and makes me disconnect from it.

Another place they lost me was with the level design itself. I mentioned a hub world earlier, and I hate the hub world if I’m being honest. It’s just huge and feels empty and when you have to talk with NPCs you need to leap and run across the whole area and it just feels crap. There’s nothing to really do, just visit a shop or dojo and talk with NPCs. There are notable ones, who actually have something more than the other copy-pasted background ones have to say- but even they aren’t memorable at all. You’d think having like a million bland Aragami walking around and wailing at how sad and shit it is to be one would make unique characters stand out. But no, it all just felt to me as though the developers went ‘oh, this worked in [insert almost any other 3D game], let’s do it here’ and fell into all the cliches instead of actually doing what might work better for this game. Every time you do a mission, you need to go to the mission board and enter the level, and when you complete it you’re spat back out into the hub world to chat with the NPCs and unlock the next mission. Being spat back and forth between levels and hub world like this just made me feel even more disconnected from the game and general plot. Not to mention, you revisit the same levels over and over, just with different mission parameters - so everything just feels the same! Because it literally is!

The general plot was confusing and not very good as well. The first game’s plot was VERY simple, but there was a clear understanding of where you needed to go, what you needed to do and why during most of the game. In this one? I had no clue what was going on for too much of the beginning, and then when I thought I had kinda wrapped my head around it, more convoluted shit started happening and it kept losing me. I don’t really know what happened or why in Aragami 2, and I played the whole thing. It was more bland and confusing than RE6, and that sucks…

Though in general the plot was shit, there were a few stand out moments that made me really wish there was a better director handling the narrative elements. As in the previous game, the objective is to be stealthy and traverse through the level, and you can choose whether you aim to be noticed by no one, kill no one, or kill everyone. It gives flexibility, and a fun incentive to try different playstyles for those looking to master the game. Here, due to the levels being separate missions, you had objectives like killing certain people, smuggling supplies, doing some recon and gathering specific items ect ect. The way most players will go through the levels won’t be a kill everyone route- at least not on the first playthrough -due to you being one hit killed if you get attacked. One addition to this game is the ability to defend yourself and parry attacks if you play correctly, A- I disagree on this design choice as it makes it too much of an action game and destroys the stakes in the stealth and B- parrying attacks barely works! I know for a fact I hit the buttons it wanted me to, but it’d behave so poorly and I’d die anyway! Anyway, you’re not going to be killing everyone, it’s a long and tedious task in most levels, and some have something like 80-100 enemies in the level. This made one moment really stand out, it was the highlight of the game for me, and it makes me so frustrated that this wasn’t played upon more!

So, you’re a shadow spirit or something, (and you can’t really rely on your knowledge of Aragami from the previous game’s lore, because it’s different) and you’re part of a whole race of Aragami shadow spirits. There’s some Aragami stuck as slaves and prisoners for the enemy, and there’s some plot I couldn’t follow or understand about a rival? Or something? Point being, you go on missions to various places across the valley, and most of your missions involve getting info on the enemies planned attacks, smuggling or sabotaging supplies and whatever other efforts are needed to help your fellow shadow spirit people. There’s some kind of crystal that can trap an Aragami’s soul and make the wearer of the crystal control them (I think?) and there’s a level where you try to sneak into the mines where the enemy are mining for the crystal. When you get deep into the caves, you come across a bunch of Aragami frozen like statues and it’s pretty unsettling. When you exit that area, you find every enemy in the level has died. If you were like me, you might have killed one or two enemies, but tried to hide them if they were in obvious areas - so to see EVERYONE laying DEAD out in the OPEN was REALLY UNNERVING. You’re one of the only people that’s known to be strong and skilled enough to wipe out an entire map like this, and even then- it’s fucking hard to do so! You have to walk out of the mines and back out into the village area while wading through fallen enemies, until a cutscene plays of the people who killed everyone. I think they were looking for you as well, but you’re just left on that creepy note and report back to the village chief at home. I was so lost on the game up till that point, and it had me ready to put everything aside and genuinely interested to see what was going to happen next- all for it to go right back to the same, boring, disconnected routine of hubworld to mission! LIKE COME ONNNN THAT WAS EERIE AS HELL AND I LIKED IT! MADE THE THREAT FEEL SO REAL AND I WAS WORRIED ABOUT WHAT I HAD TO DO TO GET OUT ALIVE, ALL FOR IT TO JUST PLONK ME BACK INTO THE HUBWORLD AND HAVE A SHIT DUMP OF A CONVERSATION.

There was another moment, there was this young girl Aragami that you have to rescue and I think she was the girl you chat to in the hubworld a lot. Rescuing her was shit and boring and her mum was losing her mind over the grief and just didn’t mentally recover even when her daughter was returned. The game if shoving all of that at me without really setting up anything more than just telling me that stuff, so I really didn’t give a fuck about them cause they just kept talking at me. But, one moment that could’ve been impactful was when the mother decided to perform a suicide ceremony where she takes off her mask and jumps into an endless pit because she just couldn’t handle her fractured mind anymore. I got back from a mission and saw everyone lined up while she walked towards the pit and we just stood there watching. IF some better narrative steps had been taken to actually make me care, that could’ve been SO MUCH MORE IMPACTFUL. BUT because it is SOOOO DISCONNECTED from the missions I’m playing and she just says the same repetitive shit, I didn’t care! If I’m remembering correctly, the mission you play just before the mum jumps is a request from the girl. She asks you to prove you’re trustworthy by going through a level without being seen and without killing anyone. Which. Girl. I literally plucked you from your slave life and brought you home, and you’ve been chatting with me and watching me go off on dangerous missions and coming back, what the fuck do you mean I need to prove shit to you?? ANyway, you go through the level and have to climb to the top of some scaffolding and look over the blandest fucking plane of water sunset and find ‘inner peace.’ One weird thing I noticed was that some subtitles just appeared even though no one was talking. In the game, up till that point, every subtitle was used when you were listening in on what guards were saying. But this? No one was talking, and the language swapped between first and third person and it was a confusing mess. It was something like 'looking out over the view, I feel my soul at peace. But something unsettling rests in your soul. Time to go back' Like. Ugh. You do that shit ass mission and then get back to mum killing herself and then you go back to more missions. THIS GAME IS ASS!

There were so many things that COULD’VE been COOL, but they fell FLAT!!!!! There’s these weird necromancer priest enemies, who are connected to their Aragami soldiers mentally, and will freak out and alert others if you kill/knock out one of the soldiers connected to them. This could’ve been a cool mini boss of sorts, making it nearly impossible to brute force your way through their web of soldiers until you defeat them, and maybe defeating that priest would make every linked soldier drop dead too, making it a worthwhile challenge for certain areas of the map. But no, they’re just some dude that looks and fights a bit different, and they’re weak af too. I’d just hit them with a dart and then go slaughter everyone nearby quickly. It sucked. Another thing was this strange underground lab that really made me feel like it turned into Resident Evil, there were bones and shit in the floors and so many signs pointing to the fact that something bad had happened there, but it’s just set dressing! One of the only times they do something interesting with the set dressing and it’s barely relevant! AUGH

I have so much more to say but it’s becoming hard to recall everything. What I do remember very clearly was how glitchy and crap the game was. There were so many times where I wasn’t even trying to and I’d glitch through the level and get stuck in a wall or something and enemies wouldn’t behave properly and shit like that. Here's an example I recorded, this shit suckssss!!!!

In the first Aragami, I played through it 4 times before I found a glitch. And I only found that glitch because I was zooming through the level and went too fast, shadow leaping into an area that hadn’t fully loaded cause I covered so much distance, and didn’t have time to render in the door to block me so I fell through it and got stuck in the back room of the game. It was pretty cool tbh, and although I couldn’t find a way back into the level and needed to restart, it was kinda cool.

This game though? I glitched out so much that it was game breaking, and I needed to restart levels when I was ALMOST FINISHED cause something broke and I just couldn’t progress. Which brings me to loading times. Fu Ckin G LoADING TIMES. Most games you can be generous and give it anywhere near 30 seconds to load between levels and still be patient. I like to think I’m generally pretty patient, I play RE and kinda like the door loading screens for fucks sake. This game had loading times of over a minute. EVERY TIME. I don’t usually care about this sort of thing, but this was most of the experience. Every damn time I needed to be spat into a level it was just a black screen that said ‘Aragami 2’ and it took a little over 30 seconds just for the music to load in. I’m sittingß there with effectively a blank screen in silence for half a minute before some music comes in, and even then there’s still anywhere between another 30-60+ seconds to go before I can actually play. And even for when I needed to reload a level I was already in? I’d assume that because all the assets are already loaded it’d take less time cause it’s just a reset, right? WRONG! Full 60-90+ seconds to reload the whole thing again! I know a minute or two isn’t really that long, but man. It is fucking forever in this context. Makes all the unnecessary shit in botw to unlock a shrine, descend into the shrine, and start the shrine feel like speed running…

On a more positive note, Two Feathers are back again with the music and have provided some absolutely gorgeous songs for this game. I really liked the main theme overture, its equal parts nostalgic and hype with its rearrangement for this game. This reflects how the rest of the soundtrack, and game in general, is for the experience. Bigger, and more. While the soundtrack is an undeniable highlight for the game, I did find myself missing the more ambient and atmospheric tracks of the first game, as having a constant track playing got repetitive and annoying. It’s a real shame, cause songs like the Kakurega Village theme are very nice, but hearing the same song for it over and over cause I keep having to be in the hub world makes it annoying! That’s the thing with stealth games, though I’m fairly new to the genre, having big bombastic tracks all the time really deflates the stealthy atmosphere, and ambient tracks (and even silence!) can be utilised to get more out of those select few tracks that do have more going on. I found myself missing the quieter tone of the first game, there was something a little somber about it all, and it really helped me get into the headspace of the game and its story. Here, while the songs are good, they just didn’t help set the atmosphere for sneaking around and killing from the shadows. It really highlights the action elements that were introduced to the game, but it just feels off track for what I personally think the game should be. That’s not to say there aren’t quieter and more ambient tracks at all, just that in general the ratio leans more towards these more elaborate songs- which I feel makes the entire soundtrack feel larger and louder if you get what I mean.

I’ve already talked for such a long time on this, and I feel like I have so much more to say, but it’s difficult to articulate everything the way I want… I wanted to enjoy this game so badly, but there were so many things that were gamebreaking and straight up not what I wanted from a sequel. It really makes me wonder what was going on during development for this game- despite my feelings for this game being rather sour, I did have moments where I genuinely enjoyed it, they were just few and far between. To my understanding, the first Aragami game was a 7 person team, and they got 3 more people on during development to make it a 10 person team. For Aragami 2, they doubled their team, having around 20 people working on this. Knowing that it was such a small team that made a game I loved so much and have played over and over is really fascinating to me, and it’s a shame they couldn’t capture me with their sequel despite the larger team. I wonder if there was a situation where it was too many cooks, or if someone new took the game in this new direction. I guess I’m just struggling to understand why they made such drastically different choices in ways that feel like they’re trying to separate themselves from their first game- it was a lovely game that was really creative and fun! Why distance yourself? Maybe there’s an element here that has gone right over my head, but I would like to know some behind the scenes info for why certain choices were made and what the development process was like.

This game is somewhat of a morbid fascination for me, in the sense that it is kinda painful to think about all the lost and wasted potential, and even more painful to think about replaying. There’s not much online that I could find for this game, not even a fan wiki to help summarise the plot. I was really hoping there would be some kind of summary or explanation somewhere, because I really want to know what the hell was going on, and to see if a different method of telling, or a recap of the story might help me to better understand. But no, there’s nothing. At least nothing of substance I could find.

I think I’ll leave it at that. It has been ages since I played, so my memory is a bit hazy- but I think it speaks volumes that I played both Aragami and Aragami 2 around April/May this year, and can remember more about Aragami than it’s sequel. I don’t think I’ll replay this game any time soon, but I’m not going to shut myself off from it. I did pay for the game after all, I want to get as much as I can out of it. Maybe it could be something fun to stream for a replay, and maybe a second look while knowing what to expect may help me piece together the plot a little easier. Who knows?

Aragami Overture - https://youtu.be/UhSuiYMAXkw

Lone Mountain - https://youtu.be/QxZYGPea8eQ

The Great Threat - https://youtu.be/3W2Jf9TFcBE

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Aragami

So, I have already reviewed this, and I didn’t play in the mindset to construct a real counter critique/look back while playing- it was more of a palette cleanser to play before and after it’s sequel. So this will be brief /cue 10 paragraphs

I love this game, that’s no secret. While I did praise it’s simple story- that’s what I’d like to talk about for this quick look back. I played my fifth playthrough of Aragami this year, and in all those playthroughs, I missed that there were lore scrolls hidden away in the menu that detail more of the story and history. Reading through these, I was able to reframe my understanding of the events and in game history leading up to the events I played through. They were nice little stories- it took me a couple of scrolls for it to really click and for me to understand what was going on, but when I did… Wow. I won’t say much about what they detail, as there’s a lot of names and places and things that happen that I can’t do justice in a recount; but I feel that they’ve really enhanced my understanding and experience of the game and it’s a shame they’re hidden away and so easily missed. It almost makes me want to replay 2 and see if there are any lore notes hidden in menus I didn’t see… almost. I might wait a while before tackling that again.

Also, I just wanna boast a little- I completed every level of Aragami on normal difficulty, every play style. I did a kill everyone route (which is best attempted after your first playthrough so you can take advantage of all your shadow techniques) and a kill no one and never detected playthrough. To challenge myself, I paired the kill no one and not detected and managed to complete all but 2 levels that way. It was really fun going through and feeling how much I had to change my way of thinking and strategizing depending on what style of gameplay I wanted to tackle, this game both introduced me to and made me really enjoy these kinds of stealth/sneaking games. Hell yeah!

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Another Eden

I previously spoke about this game, and that the whole reason I started playing was to see the Chrono Cross event- and I didn’t even talk about it lmao. I’m going to talk about it a little, and then this is effectively a pt2 because I played the pt2 of the main story.

So, Chrono Cross event. I’ve almost 100%ed everything there is to do with the event, just some branching dialogue paths and a Starky fight to do (and Starky is so OP it’s not funny) so I haven’t attempted to brute force my way through any more of it until I can level up more of my faves. Overall, this was a really nice little cross(ha)over event, it had a good amount of story to play through with different routes to take, and the world of Another Eden ties into it so believably that it was a great fit to cross over with. I only really cared about Kid and Serge, so I did their routes (good and neutral) as thoroughly as possible. In classic Kato fashion, I didn’t exactly vibe with the whole story, but it was fun while it lasted and now I get to keep Kid and Serge in my party permanently. I’ve maxed them both out as well, radical dreamer style >:) Now, they stay in my main party group of faves because they are really strong, and due to all my grinding and the way the event works, they both have heaps of light points so they’re awesome when I grind through dungeons. That’s all I really care to say about the event, it’s nothing too deep and I finished my grinding sessions on it closer to the start of the year, so it’s a little hazy and I don’t want to recall things incorrectly.

Now, onto the next main story chunk for AE. Full disclosure, while I enjoyed the most of the main campaign for part one, I found it too closely mirroring jrpg tropes (and in particular feeling overly familiar to ct without coming close to scratching the itch) so I wasn’t fully engaged the entire time. I also thought the ending to that section was convoluted bogus, like just eye-rollingly so. I understand they did that to keep adding campaigns, however ESPECIALLY after playing this section… yeah I still think it's bogus lol. This part 2 of the main story focuses on the ogre wars, and it went into the backstory of my favourite character. Turns out, he’s got a pretty tragic backstory! Trust me to latch onto that before it was even revealed lmao. (The fave in question is Dunarith btw, I like most those beast dudes, and they’re all decent fighters)

Cause this game also has timey-wimey bullshit paired with dimensional fuckery, that’s what leads most of the plot for this section. The ogres that fought themselves to extinction are somehow back, they kidnap the Beast King’s sister, and our main party resolves to put aside their differences and join the beasts to recover the Beast Princess. It was nice to see more of the beast culture (trust me to love the boring world building shit) and it was nice to see even more expansions on the map with more places and sidequests to visit. Snake Bone Island was without a doubt the highlight for me. A secluded little island (bet you’ll never guess what it’s built on!) with a bunch of really nice scenery and great music that has that palpable Mitsuda insp. My favourite part was definitely all of the quests that related to Dunarith, as he had so much more going on in his backstory than I initially thought. I was genuinely invested, and looked forward to playing during quiet moments at work and fitting in a quick half hour or so before bed. I don’t know if I should spoil what goes on in his quests, in case anyone reading would like to play and experience for themselves first, so I won’t say anything. One thing though, during the climax of the story mission regarding Dunarith, I was a bit :/// at how quickly the ‘issue’ was ‘resolved,’ it was really showing the lite in jrpg-lite to just whip out the tragedy and not let it sink in or breathe because the plot needs to be resolved by the end of the mission so the subsequent ones can follow through. If you can figure out this attempt at crypticness; it felt like it was trying to set up an event similar to ct’s most memorable moment, but without any of the time left for it to feel real, so the impact was lost. I’m just going to pretend in my mind that the impact was there, because honestly that’s my only main gripe with it, and I recognise that it’s very much an issue born from the fact that this is a lite game designed for mobile/ios. For the most part, it really felt like the developers of this game really refined things (at least narratively) from the first part, and crafted a plot that I was consistently more interested in! That in and of itself is a feat, as this has just turned into a very casual and almost idle game that I leave to auto play sidequests with minimal input from myself so I can grind and unlock the quests I’m actually interested in. To have a main story mission that was so consistent and interesting to follow, at least for myself, has me appreciating this game more than I did for prior chunks.

However, there is one thing I want to bring up that’s really left a sour taste on all that goodness. Right now, I’m soft locked out of progressing in not one but two quests I REALLY want to see through. The first is the main quest, I believe it’s the part that will wrap up/link to/start part 3 of the main story- so to be soft locked fucking sucks! There was never any indication that you’d need to upgrade certain party members via tomes (magic bs thingies you have to grind for that are rng drops in the End of Time rip off) and I had been grinding idly for MONTHS trying to get a tome for one character that I never use anymore cause she’s annoying and is not powerful enough to compare with my mains. I just couldn’t progress the story until a character I’ve outgrown was levelled up, and it wasn’t even clear to me how to get the tome in the first place. And let me tell you, the wiki’s are confusing and the reddit help threads aren’t all that helpful either lol. And all that grinding… to only get through like 3 chapters and find out I have to grind more for another character who is even more annoying that I dropped near the start of the game. Like!? This is a gatcha game, I’ve got like 50+ party members to choose from, and I have like 10 that are really powerful that I swap out, with my main 6 staying very consistent cause they’re so strong. Why do I give a fuck about some old one that I didn’t even like, and why do I have to grind forever while the game consistently refuses to give me the one tome I need. I have everything else I need to upgrade the shit robot girl. JUST NOT HER TOME. Sighhhhhhhhhhhh

I’m currently trying to blast through some major side missions/other crossover type thingies (?) because apparently you get a better chance for the tome through that. Fingers crossed, cause idgaf about the really long side mission I’m currently on lmao.

That brings me to the second thing I’m soft locked out of currently- which is this one wild side mission that I at first didn’t care about, but then came to get fairly invested. I didn’t care at first because it was about a bunch of religious missionaries from a church who vary in mild to moderate levels of being annoying, and I mainly picked up the quest because it was a great way to get heaps of the in-game currency I was trying to save up. As I played, there was a guy who fell from the sky, landed with amnesia, and then through some events you find that there’s a cultish group behind the straying church morals, and they try to get rid of the religious missionary figures that I mentioned earlier. In a panic, the guy who fell from the sky somehow uses crazy magical powers through his instinct/muscle memory, and it ends up rewinding time. He uses this to his advantage to save them, and then some stuff happened that I kinda forgot and they go to ‘heaven’ for a bit where they meet the angels who I’m pretty sure wrote the religious texts the missionaries based their faith on. Like, it was pretty cool, I'm a bit of a sucker for fantasy religion vs cult stuff. And I can’t remember most of it because I played it mid last year and got soft locked out right as it was getting to new heights of interesting because I haven’t progressed far enough in the main game. The main game that I can’t progress cause I haven’t upgraded a character I don’t give two shits about. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I was going to just play to max out Kid and Serge (and a few other faves like Dunarith) to see their stories to the end and hopefully have a bit of idle fun before putting it down for good, but I found myself pleasantly surprised and drawn in by a few stand out moments, and I look forward to seeing if there’s anything more like that. I at least want to see the end of that religious mission, but what sucks is that it’s been so long and I’ve done so many other quests and missions that I’m hazy and forgetting so much of it, and it’s REALLY hard to find lore recaps for this game lol. Sucks. I hope I can at least replay the mission when I’ve finished it, cause I want to pick up on the details now that I know it’s worth slogging through the stuff I didn’t care about in the beginning. Also, the music and art is consistently really nice, so yee haw. The game may not be perfectly aligned to all my tastes and preferences, and I often find myself uninterested or eye rolling at some classic Kato choices for story, but the sheer amount of content put into this mobile game is really something! I haven’t paid a cent and there’s been a good couple hours of genuinely fun and enjoyable moments for me- well worth it!

Conyum - https://youtu.be/6O3FefCeQRk?t=642

Serpent’s Neck Igoma - https://youtu.be/6O3FefCeQRk?t=1056

Palace of the Sea Goddess - https://youtu.be/6O3FefCeQRk?t=3385

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Radical Dreamers HD

Wow! The first Chrono game to make the list since I started doing these!!

In all honesty, I want to play through the chrono games with these lists in mind and make an attempt of actually articulating what I love (and don’t love) about them in a more in depth manner, similar to my resi branches.

I also only played one full go of RD when it came to switch, so I feel I can’t fully talk about it anyway. So, this will be a shallow gush instead :P

So! Chrono Cross HD with the first official Eng translation of Radical Dreamers! That was unexpected and very surprising! I never thought we’d be getting new Chrono content after all these years, especially not an official crossover in Another Eden (that had great voice acting for Serge and Kid btw!) and a HD game! I’m full autism for Chrono Trigger, then Radical Dreamers (and I guess Cross… it makes me a bit cranky but now that there’s this shiny new HD release I can dust off my switch and play with the most neutral-to-positive stance I can manage!) So let me tell you, it was soooooo nice to play RD in my bed! It was winter and I had just moved house a month or two prior and even though uni was really hectic, I played over 2-3 nights to complete the first playthrough. It was so cosy to play, all wrapped up in bed with a hot chocolate and the nostalgia I had for this game being awakened.

There’s a specific vibe to RD that I really enjoy, it’s just kind of eerie and unsettling, but so full of charm and wit and I fucking adore it. Although there are honestly a lot of plot points and references and what have you that allude to implications that absolutely butcher ct, it is a little easier for me to overlook them in favour of enjoying what this game has to offer. (I find it much harder to overlook these kinds of narrative choices in CC, because, well… reasons. I’ll go in depth another time) I love the trio dynamic, Kid is a sassy bogan, Serge is such a loveable denim dumbass and quintessential Boy™, and Magil is the reluctant adult supervision who barely supervises. Joking aside, I genuinely do enjoy the way the trio bounce off each other, and it’s great to have it framed through Serge’s pov. It makes me so sad that due to the experimental nature of this game, and how short it is, that Kato tried to distance himself and overcorrect things that weren’t necessarily issues and went overboard with CC. There is a certain magic here that captivated me, and despite it definitely not being the sequel I wanted, it’s better than the sequel we ‘got’ (in my opinion) and I’d highly recommend people interested by either CT or CC give this a fair go. And go more in depth and try to complete the multiple endings too, I haven’t finished all of them but there are some classic things that happen and gahhh this game is really fun in spite of and because of it’s weirdness and divergence from CT.

Day of Summer - https://youtu.be/iIHDQ0FONik

Gale - https://youtu.be/G7687ikwhao

Final Confrontation - https://youtu.be/Eo1r_BapDP8

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Solitaire

I just have so many hours on this that it deserves a special mention. Shout out to Solitaire!

No music recs, cause there isn’t a soundtrack… so……. Go listen to your favourite Jazzy album! And if you don’t have one, listen to this or this >:)

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Tetris 3DS

What is there to say? It’s tetris, but on the 3DS. I think the one I play is something weird like Tetris Ultimate 3D something, but my DS is in my room and I’m not getting up from my computer to go check lol.

Controls are refined, it’s nice to be able to slam down the tetrominoes quickly, and holding one in reserves is fun and changes the way you strategise. I don’t really strategise tho, I just play this the way I play solitaire. Brain off, I’m tryna relaxxxxx

I bet you could hum the tetris theme from memory, so go ahead and sing that to yourself as my music rec. Totally not cause I play the game muted while I’m watching youtube or something. Of course not.

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Star Realms (Mobile)

I played the mobile version of this quite a bit this year, mainly when my dad or sibling are in town. We usually play for a few days online after they’ve gone back home too, but I got busy with uni so I didn’t play much on my own.

There are campaigns to learn and master the various decks, so it’s interesting trying out the decks I don’t have to see what they’re all about. I still have no idea how to use the deck my dad likes to play with, but my favourite deck is Colony Wars, and I have a physical copy of it and no one to play with :’’’’(

No music rec for this either cause I play muted… so uhhhhh… listen to the nearest sci-fi sound to you!

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Bug Fables

Ahh Bug Fables. I’ve heard about this game and had it very far in my periphery for years- it’s constantly touted as The Game To Play if you’re a Paper Mario fan who yearns for the style of the earlier entries. And well, I saw it on sale on my PS4 and said fuck it. Why not?

Now, I wanna say upfront- I’m a huge fan of the Paper Mario series (despite not having played all the entries…) and I miss playing PM64, so to constantly hear this game as ‘oh yeah it’s got all the good thing of 64/ttyd and then does it better!’ made it have a lot to live up to for me. Now, I did try to go into this game as neutrally as possible, but due to hearing years of this game being built up that way, I did feel a bit disappointed that it didn’t really scratch that PM itch. Overall this was a lovely game and I enjoyed myself and will definitely replay in the future, but I found the lines between inspiration and imitation being blurred a little too frequently for my liking, and there was a certain (subjective) lack of polish that ultimately made me resent the fact that it is so closely tied to the PM games.

The visuals are nice, the animations are good- but I don’t really care about bugs so there wasn’t really anything that charmed me the same way seeing Mario characters in the 2D paper style did. The music is generally pretty good, with a few stand out tracks I’ll be linking, but there’s a lot of tracks that sounded annoying and.. Kinda bad.. At least to me. I don’t wanna shit on the composer, because in general this is a really high quality soundtrack and I really do like a lot of the songs! But when the first two or three songs I heard in the game were annoying or sounded discordant in a bad way, I was really hesitant to push through. That, paired with little nitpicky things and the admittedly unfair comparison to PM64 had me feeling glad that I didn’t pay full price. The look and soundtrack are also HEAVILY reminiscent of the 64 style and sound, and there were some things that I felt could’ve been changed to better suit the direction they were going to make this an even more unique experience that is undeniably ‘Bug Fables.’ Little things like the xp symbol being pretty much the same as the xp in 64, but there’s a leaf in it instead of a star… Things like that, things that felt too heavily lifted from the game it’s inspired by but choosing to leave it at an imitation because hey, it worked for them!

This game was a chance to take inspiration, learn from, refine upon and build something new from the things we learn with the PM franchise. My biggest gripe with this game is that, while they do have some improvements made from systems they pinched from those games- like the side quest board allowing you to just take every open quest and attack them at your leisure instead of ttyd’s way of only letting you do one at a time -I feel a bit burned by the fact that it relies on PM so much. I really wonder if this game would be half as fun to people who have never played a PM game, and if they’d understand the mechanics and gameplay and such for this game on its own. I often found myself thinking 'is this really the best decision for this game, or are they banking on my nostalgia for a different game to make me like this game more?' I also didn’t know how small the studio was that made this game, so while I recognise that there are limits and that a more indie studio can’t compare to the same level of polish and character as a AAA like Nintendo; I do wanna end my feeling of gripes on something like… Yeah, you made a great game! But! Did you really do all you could to cultivate the unique feeling you wanted for your game, or were you relying on my knowledge and experience of PM to charm me into enjoying this?

I know that’s kind of mean and a very harsh critique, but I wanted to get that out of the way so I could gush about what I genuinely enjoyed. Cause this game is great, I just feel it wasn’t the next step for me as a fan of PM, and that it has linked itself too closely with it.

So, onto the nicer stuff. This game was really fun! I enjoyed that fact that the main party is a trio, and it just stays as that trio for the whole game. It made it so tight in character development and really allowed me to get to know these characters and enjoy their dynamic. I loved hearing their thoughts on each area, I loved the moments that revolved around one of the characters and showed how the other two supported them through those points in the story. I also liked seeing the way they interacted with the NPCs you see frequently, the world does have a charm all of it’s own (just not one that I resonated with/felt too deeply)

The party consists of Kabbu, the green one, Vi, the yellow one, and Lief, the blue one. Ok, there is more to them than just their colours- Kabbu is a classic kind hearted and honourable type, Vi is hot headed and has that ego that rebellious young kids/tweens have, and Lief is a little more reserved, but witty and cheeky in his own way. The point of the game is to journey across the land and gather artifacts for Queen Elizant to reveal the Everlasting Sapling. There are a lot of different bug kingdoms, and a nice amount of side quests to help flesh out said kingdoms. The more you play, the more you gain an understanding of the politics between the kingdoms, and to what lengths various leaders will go to for the sapling. Lots of stuff happens, I don’t want to go in depth here because I think the way the game reveals certain plot points was generally paced well, and if you haven’t played this game for yourself, I’d recommend going in as blind as you can. If you’re hesitant, let me just say, that even though I was battling my own snooty bias towards PM, I really loved getting to know all 3 characters as they all have interesting backstories that intertwine with the overall narrative, and the more you dig around and try to find out about the world, the stranger/more fascinating some things seem.

I can totally understand why this game has such high ratings, it is a great game and not too difficult, so I do feel that even if you’re not as familiar with this style of game, you’re sure to get something out of it and look back on it fondly. I know I’ll be having fun thinking about certain quests and plot points, and I’ve periodically come back just to play the card game tournaments because they’re simple and fun once you wrap your head around them!

I would just say… I think it was done dirty by comparing/imitating so closely to PM, and that the strong connection to it did deflate some of the experience for me. Maybe thats a personal thing, due to my love for PM and huge nostalgia for PM64 in particular, but that’s something I’d like other potential players to keep in mind.

It’s a great game, and cause I was pretty harsh, I’m adding twice the song recs >:)

The One Left Behind (Leif's Theme) - https://youtu.be/BtrNUi4b7o0

His Friends Call Him Spuder (Don't Call Him Spuder) - https://youtu.be/Ivv-F-q81tA

Oh No! WASPS!! - https://youtu.be/vnguaxxXUbc

Kut It Up! - https://youtu.be/xoTFge7b1v0

The Sacred Hills - https://youtu.be/b_OSyr3IwAU

Termite Capitol - https://youtu.be/oILKKd80Hyg

~~~

Hitman Trilogy PS4 (2016-2022)

Zayum, I love dress up games!

Haha, for real, this was an unexpected favourite of the year for me. I have had so much fun the past month and a half bingeing this trilogy, and you’d think it being so recent would make it easier to talk about, right? Here’s hoping…

I had never really heard about Hitman until my friend told me about it, saying that she wanted to watch me play and that she thought I’d really enjoy it. She was right, I’ve had a blast. As I understand, this is a soft reboot for the series, but still has some lore/plot points that build off previous entries in the series. As someone who was freshly dropped into the world of Hitman through this trilogy, I was only mildly confused in the beginning, but once I started playing the campaign missions, it was relatively self contained and easy to follow along. Any info from previous entries seems to just be nods and references to things I can’t pick up on, which didn’t affect my ability to enjoy what was on offer.

And man, there’s so much here. There’s an overarching plot across the three game’s campaigns, and I was so pleasantly surprised that not only did the main plot have rippling effects across all the missions- but things like NPC gossip too! It was fun to sneak around and gather intel or complete the story missions that help to set up opportunities to assassinate your target; I often found myself enjoying the chance to be a nosey cunt and eavesdrop on conversations and follow certain NPCs as they went about their business. The attention to detail really helped to make this world feel large and lived in, and some of the best levels have some really interesting NPC tangents that have absolutely nothing to do with the hit, but are just as memorable- if not more. Things like this guy desperately trying to assemble a desk chair at the Swedish Embassy, https://youtu.be/NayAsm80RHM some nosey party guests snooping around and conspiring as to how the occupants are able to afford all their cool stuff, and a lady with a small cupcake business who is hiding murderous tendencies https://youtu.be/0mqkRo8AKz8 - just to name a few!

In general, the main plot and methods of killing in each level are good fun, and it was interesting to follow along and get to the bottom of everything in each game. I will say, I think it’s better to look at this as a trilogy (and this was the way I was playing) as some progressions in the ‘self contained’ game chunk may feel rushed or unexpected if you try to look at it on it’s own. There were even some points when playing that I found some plot points happened or developed very quickly, and I felt a bit lost because they weren’t given enough build up or time in my opinion. A large part of what lost my ability to hold onto the plot and comprehend it was the discrepancy in the cutscenes across all 3 games. I looked into it briefly, cause halfway through 2 I thought ‘surely it can’t be this bad without reason,’ and sure enough, there was a reason! Hitman 1 was produced with Square Enix’s support, but due to the original release dropping campaign maps once every few months, it really impacted player’s ability to enjoy it to the fullest. Square pulled out and IOI [who own’s the Hitman IP] now had to make Hitman 2 with reduced staff and budget, so the nice cinematic cutscenes from 1 were now stills with slight motion graphics animation. Like… Netflix screensaver animation. I understand that lack of budget and manpower lead to this choice, but it made it incredibly difficult to feel invested or even understand what was going on half the time with the still images - ESPECIALLY when there were more than 2 people talking. There was just no easy way to set that up with the limitation they imposed on themselves for the cutscenes, which is a shame because a lot of important developments happen in them. IOI did not drip feed the campaign for 2, and when 3 came around they brought back actual cutscenes, just using the in game engine to do so. I really wish that they just used the in game engine for all of the cutscenes, because they are very short but often complex and dramatic so it’s really important to see the acting and body language they want to give the characters. Obviously they wouldn’t have had the foresight to know Square would drop them and they’d have to continue making a AAA game as an independent studio/look for other publishers, but it just is such a shame that the plot of 2 was quite important but ultimately feels like a black hole to me because I struggled to understand the cutscenes. As I understand, there were also issues when 3 launched that made it difficult to link the levels for 1&2 into 3, where they intended for 3 to be the main hub to access the entire trilogy. Shit move, and I won’t really talk about it cause I wasn’t there to experience it, but I suggest looking into it more if you’re so inclined because it is sadly interesting to see what a mess it was. What I did experience from this mess was that, when the trilogy pack was on sale on the PS4, I decided to buy it and was so filled with dread to only see Hitman 3 downloading, thinking I clicked the wrong thing or got scammed (cause there are like a bajillion hitman expansions/access passes in the store, it’s so confusing!) BUT LUCKILY Hitman 1&2 are treated like access passes and in the game.

(Also there was no where nice to squeeze this in BUT even in the big budget cutscenes from 1, there were discrepancies in audio that I noticed. Maybe this is just because I'm a recently graduated film bro™ so I'm primed to keep an ear out, but just listen to the last cutscene in Hitman 1. The two voice actors were recorded in different studios and the quality gap is noticeable! Dianna sounds nice and crisp as always, but the constant sounds like he recorded in a make shift booth or was in his wardrobe and the mixers forgot to do dynamics processing!)

Another point of contention, and one that almost made me annoyed enough to not have a good time, is the fact that it requires me to be online. For anything to count, that is. There are offline options for main campaigns, but so much of the peripheral content to play has online as mandatory to even load it - and if you play through a main mission offline, any skills/missions/achievements ect you unlocked DO NOT COUNT and are not saved. Meaning that you effectively played for nothing. WHAT THE HELL. This is a single player game, I am alone on my couch playing by myself, and I still need to be consistently online in order to actually play. It is really fun seeing the end screen after a mission where you are greeted with a whole screen full of achievements and story missions to aim for, and when you’re offline you don’t get that because your progress didn’t count. THIS is one of the EXACT things that’s made me feel incredibly disillusioned and pretty much loathe the current gaming landscape. Sure, I’ve had my fun with some modern titles, and I really have been enjoying my PS4 these past couple of years, but come onnnnnnnnnn. Do you remember when you’d get a game, and just put it in? And you could start playing? Stick that cartridge in the console and you’ve got an experience waiting for you? Even moving to bigger games, the most you’re waiting before you can play is just for creating save data so you can record your progress. Modern games requiring you to install a bunch of shit and wait around for sometimes hours to be able to open it and actually start playing, only to then find that the servers are having a tantrum and don’t want to host your game… Makes me regret being a gamer in all honesty. And it feels like the biggest slap to the face when I encounter this kind of thing in a SINGLE PLAYER GAME with MINIMAL TO NO ONLINE ELEMENTS. If I didn’t have such a great time while playing the Hitman trilogy, this would’ve been a massive deal breaker to me. And I only seemed to drop from servers when I’d left the game paused for too long, so the servers are more stable than they seemed to be at launch. That makes me glad that I generally play behind the curve lmao.

Anyway, those big gripes aside, the actual gameplay of Hitman was fun enough that I was able to put aside what would otherwise be deal breakers for me. The stealth and spy aspects of this game were incredible, and felt rewarding and open enough that it truly felt at times that I could do anything. It wasn’t often that I felt lost or unsure of what to do, because even when I was lost, I could usually just wander around the level and eavesdrop until I heard something useful (or entertaining) or saw a new method of getting to where I wanted to go. It felt like a sandbox, a miniature open world for me to do whatever I wanted to; as long as I completed my mission. As I’ve only really played one other stealth game, and was largely unfamiliar with the style of gameplay, I played through the whole game on the casual mode- however now that I am more than familiar with how the game plays and starting to challenge my understanding of the mechanics with the escalation contracts, I look forward to the increased difficulty of professional and master mode.

Some of these worlds felt so elaborate and alive, and it scratches a particular kind of itch to go through the entire level and find new shortcuts and paths to places as I get intimate with the area. Levels like Sapienza, Whittlehorn Creek, Isle of Sgail and Dartmoor were personal favourites, though I enjoyed the majority of maps. Wandering around the city as various types of people, seeing where I could fit in and go unnoticed and seeing current events based on previous hits I did was fun as fuck. The Dartmoor level, which I suspect is a fan favourite, was a great shake up on the formula as it provides an opportunity for you to disguise yourself as a PI and investigate a murder mystery- interviewing suspects, inspecting crime scenes and suspects’ private rooms, and framing who you want as the culprit was super fun! So much of this game was just fun! As serious as some missions are, with eerie tones that really add an unsettling and sometimes downright disturbing implication, there are almost always silly things to do as well for when you just want to have some fun! Agent 47 didn't really talk much in the first game, but in the second and third he talks a lot more and it was interesting seeing just how seriously he takes his job… sometimes getting way too into it. Like, dancing in the flamingo mascot costume, stealing the clothes off the lead model and getting your makeup done so you can walk the runway, and giving some of the funniest and strangest dialogue when he is undercover as a real estate agent or giving a tour of a winery. The possibilities really feel endless, and I'm constantly impressed with the way the developers managed to balance everything for various gameplay styles.

There were, however, some maps that weren’t as fun for me- mainly military heavy ones. I know that a great deal of what I’ve said I enjoyed about this game is the fact that you can sneak around and snoop, but the sneaking and snooping in military levels (and ones that, while not explicitly military, feel like it with the sheer amount of security guards and their ranks) straight up sucks! When I was playing, I was often replaying the same level over and over to see all the main story missions, and sometimes just wander around the levels and try to see everything I could. When I first got to a military level, I found myself so bored by it that I did not replay it, and I stopped replaying levels over and over and just played once through to see the story to the end. I have completed the trilogy, but I feel much closer to 1 at this stage cause I am most familiar with those levels. It’s a shame the military levels affected me in that way, but I’m going to hope that based on my experience enjoying the early levels in 1 the more I played them, that I’ll have just as much fun getting to know the other levels while I keep playing over new years.

Another nitpick I think is worth mentioning, is that sometimes the game glitched out and made certain story missions unplayable for me, which was a shame. There were multiple times where things just wouldn’t register, or the NPCs would break and just stand still somewhere, or loop in their actions and not give me an opportunity to do what the game wanted me to do. It really sucked having to try reload saves or even having to restart levels because of glitches like that, but due to the nature of this game having multiple routes to achieve your goals, it wasn’t so bad. Oh and while I'm nitpicking - while it was great to be able to adjust the UI so that I could actually see the button prompts in game, I couldn't adjust the font size for the mission briefings while I was planning the missions. You'd think I could read the text on the tv while my couch isn't even that far away from it, but I constantly had to sit up and scootch to the edge of my seat to read, and even then the text was so small and had barely any spacing between words that I struggled to read anyway. Makes it apparent that it was made with PC in mind first, as that wouldn't be such an issue when the screen is centimetres away from your face, but zayum I came here to play dress ups and kill people, not strain my eyes :(

Another thing I haven't even touched on yet is the music! While there's plenty of diegetic music, the soundtrack itself is pretty great. The drawn out sounds of the strings really builds up that slinky mood, and are quite iconic sounding. A lot of the classical sounds feels like an homage to classic spy movies too, and that's hard to miss when there's a few heavy handed visual allusions drawn as well haha. One thing I really love in the soundtrack is the choir, the addition of vocals like that makes it sound almost religious at times, which is very dramatic, especially paired with the strings! It's quite a beautiful soundtrack, and it feels very cohesive across the trilogy without it taking attention away from the gameplay- which is quite impressive to me that it was pulled off this way! A stealth game by design requires you to focus more on your mission, and a poor or even mediocre choice in music can ruin the mood and experience, so to have such a classical and dramatic soundtrack NOT feel intrusive to my gameplay was awesome.

I’m finding it really difficult to articulate much more about this trilogy, because I’m still in the high of hyperfixation that’s bringing a lot of subjectivity to this look back (more than I aim for :P) I enjoyed the plot being connected and overarching even though it wasn't that deep, and there were some absolutely stand out levels that were so interesting in both a gameplay and worldbuilding manner that I enjoyed myself immensely. I don’t think I can really expand much more on the plot or gameplay as everything is a jumbled mess in my brain while I’m riding this high- so perhaps after I’ve put this down and come back in a year or two, I can write something better after having some space and this to compare my future thoughts to.

If you’re into stealth games, being a nosey cunt, or being bald- I highly recommend checking this trilogy out. A great draw to this is that, even if you simply watch a handful of different people playing, you’re sure to have a different experience every time due to the sheer amount of possibilities there are! I had a great time, and if you choose to look into this game more or play yourself, I hope you have a great time too. I think I just need to wait a while and have some distance from this game before I can say anything more in depth- as if this isn’t already paragraphs long :P

Showstopper https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBw4Kh30pOc&t=178s

Approaching Storm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBw4Kh30pOc&t=6445s

Severing Strings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBw4Kh30pOc&t=10301s

Invitation to Dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBw4Kh30pOc&t=10749s

#rads reviews #goty #not tagging each game individually as usual but tee hee #played some good games this year so it's at least a better read than last years

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rosieuv · 5 months

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I fucking hate sparx maths

I hate how it's layed out, I hate how you have to get the answers right for it to register as you doing it (which is stupid as GCSEs aren't about getting all the answers right, it's about getting enough right to reach a decent mark), I hate how the question changes slightly if you get the answer wrong twice, which makes it even more of a pain to solve and I hate how my maths teacher keeps forcing this stupid fucking website on us and if I don't do all the questions and get them right in a week then I get a late homework, which has caused me to get a detention and waste my precious lunch time. She even expects us to be using it to revise in our own time and gets mad at us when we only use it to complete the mandatory homework and nothing else. Her logic is: if you don't get the answer right, watch the video even though the videos aren't that helpful and before you press the play button (doesn't automatically play) the thumnail has all the working out so watching the video is a waste of time but it doesn't register on her side. And if you don't get the answer right 4 times then you're expected to message her on microsoft teams with a screenshot and your working, but why would I bother wasting my time like that knowing she's not going to help.

And then the questions, oh the questions! They've prepously made all the questions images so you can't copy and paste the text into google and look it up on gauth maths (even though you could just type it out word for word, which I've done before) and some of these questions are just so stupid it's irratating.

a stationery shop orders a batch of pens from a factory. the factory could make the batch of pens in 20 days using 12 machines. due to a fault, only 8 machines were used for the first 9 days. all 12 machines were used from day 10 onwards. work out the total number of days taken to make the batch of pens.

I couldn't wrap my head around it so I typed this into chat gpt to get help. It's an AI, it's built on maths in it's code, surely it could figure it out. And yes, it is cheating but I don't fucking care anymore. It's actually quite helpful as it went through step by step on how to complete it, which was helpful, and then gave me the answer. I put it in. Marked it as wrong. I rounded it from 17.33 to 18 as I figured it must register the decimal as a day. Nope. Now the question's changed.

If anyone from school sees this then I'm fucked, but just in case they do:

maths teacher that I won't name: if a website is good then people will willingly use it regardless of if there's mandatory homework. If it sucks and it's mandatory then you end up with people like me cheating just to do the bare minimum and get it out of the way so I don't have to look at it for the rest of the week. Like how people willingly started to use cars after they realised they were a lot better then horses and carriges. I don't care if I get into trouble for cheating, I just want to not get a detention (which I know I will because no matter my troubles there's always questions that get marked wrong no matter what). If a student is thinking about learning to hack just to shut down the sparx maths servers then I think it's time to switch to a better resource cause nobody likes it.

#maths #math #mathematics #gcse #sparx maths

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uncloseted · 2 years

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Hello! Considering what you have said about your former job, do you know of any games/audio-visual experiences designed to help sick (mentally or physically) people ?

Yes! I definitely do.

Because the field is very new and still quite small, there are only a few that are approved to be used as medical devices. Currently (as of December 2021), there's one game that's FDA approved for the treatment of a medical condition. It's called EndeavorRx, and it's used to treat inattentive and combined type ADHD in kids 8-12 years old. There's also one FDA approved VR experience. It's called EaseVR, and it's a treatment for chronic lower back pain.

There are other games that have been developed for medical purposes that show promise but are not FDA approved. There's MyoBeatz, while is a mobile rhythm game aimed to improve prosthetic control for amputees. Lazy Eye Games and GamE-blyopia have both been shown in early studies to treat amblyopia (Tetris has also been used to treat this condition). Tetris has also been shown to help prevent PTSD in people who have experienced trauma. The game Re:Mission and Re:Mission 2, designed for pediatric cancer patients, have been shown to lead to more consistent treatment adherence, faster rate of increase in cancer knowledge, and faster rate of increase in self-efficacy in cancer patients. (On a side note, if you want to be emotionally crushed, check out the game That Dragon Cancer. It's not technically a health game but it's a narrative game about going through cancer). There's Sparx, which is designed to combat depression and has been relatively effective at doing so. There's also SuperBetter, a game that aims to decrease symptoms of anxiety and depression and increase resilience. This is super old school, but the Eliza bot is a Rogerian psychotherapist chat bot, which can help you analyze and challenge your own thoughts. I think Nevermind has been tested on a small scale to help people with anxiety improve their emotional resilience (not totally positive on this one. It may have been something we talked about doing and then didn't).

GEMH Lab out of Radboud University has created a number of mental health games, including the aforementioned Nevermind. The Creative Media and Behavioral Health Center out of USC also does excellent work, including Healing Spaces, an experience for older adults with dementia. They also have unreleased-but-studied projects, some of which are focused on rehabilitating motion in people with Parkinson's Disease and making physical therapy easier, more accessible, and more engaging.

There's also a lot of research that's been done on the impact of commercially available video games on mental illnesses. There's been a lot of research into the game Journey as a possible treatment for depression, since study participants who played Journey reported a decrease in depressive symptoms, a decrease in rejection sensitivity, a decrease in rumination, and an increase in hope and optimism. However, the effects of playing Journey appear not to last- there was no significant impact on the participant's depressive symptoms 12 months after playing the game. Dark Souls has also been a popular subject of research as a treatment for depression, possibly because of its themes of persevering in a world that's indifferent to you.

The actual act of playing video games may have a positive impact in itself, regardless of what the game you're playing is. I did some research on how mindfully playing games can improve symptoms of depression and anxiety. Games that require participants to move around, like virtual reality games, augmented reality games (like Pokemon Go) or some Wii or Switch games (Just Dance, Wii Fit, Ring Fit) can also improve mental health outcomes just by virtue of the fact that the participant is getting more exercise than they were before. And games that require players to engage with other people can improve mental health outcomes by virtue of the fact that the player is making friends and having consistent social interactions, which reduces loneliness.

That's definitely not everything in this field, but those are the ones that come to mind. There are also a lot of products in this field that aren't scientifically backed and aren't great (anything that claims it's a "brain training" game or that it will "prevent Alzheimer's and dementia" is lying to you)(most "mental health apps" are also bad), so it's best to approach these kinds of products with some level of caution.

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megalo-station · 3 years

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top 3/5/10 favourite tropes Go!!

ARGH! TROPES IN GENERAL? FUCK YOU CAUGHT ME OFF GUARD

Okay let's see, I'm going with 10 because fuck it. In no particular order

1. Found family FOUND FAMILY FOUND FAMILY FOUND FAMILYYYYYY (see: every series I ever get into ever)

2. Character who has critically low self esteem but hides it from everyone finally lets it slip one time and everyone else is crushed and shocked because how could this amazing, unique, wonderful, sweet, kind person ever think they're worthless, what the fuck (see: Prompto Argentum, Anders)

3. Characters wake up one morning thinking it's gonna be another normal day. By the time they go to sleep next, the plot has been resolved because they stayed up for an entire 24 hours fighting the final battle they had no idea was gonna happen that day. (see: the final Harry Potter book, where about halfway through the book everyone wakes up and gets ready for Whatever The Fuck They're Doing That Day, and the entire rest of that book takes place within the next 24 hours)

4. Character who projects an attitude of always being humorous and fine, and has never been observed crying. They constantly make jokes and never seem totally fazed by anything that happens to them or others, always continuing to make jokes even in inappropriate situations. Then one day they finally come up upon the thing that breaks them, and for once they can’t even tell a joke, they just break down and can’t say anything. (see: Purple Hawke, TloS!Sparx)

5. Character who gives off a tough, fuck you, don't mess with me or I'll shoot you in the face is actually a huge softie inside and probably frolicks in the flowers and gives lollipops to children when they think no one is looking (see: Shadow the Hedgehog, Zaeed Massani)

6. On the flip side: character who normally seems very quiet, studious, even kind of dorky and nerdy, but then when they turn into their Secret Crime-Fighting Form it turns out they're ridiculously suave, charming, insanely cool, even a little too into being a vigilante sometimes (see: Ren Amamiya/Akira Kurusu, Chat Noir)

7. This one is kinda weird but: characters who are extremely facially and vocally emotive. We’re talking whenever they’re hurt or whatever they’re breathing super hard and making expressive faces, they put their whole body into expressing whatever it is they’re feeling at any given time, they’re always striking poses and shit (not on purpose but like, whenever they’re about to get into a fight or something they’re dramatically throwing their arm back and pushing one foot far behind them and dropping into a combat stance or whatever) (see: Noctis Lucis Caelum, every Sonic character lmao)

8. Limiters. Like there’s nothing else to it, just having so much power or whatever that you need a limiter to prevent it from going out of control (see: Shadow the Hedgehog again)

9. To complement this: characters who have Special Unique Powers but they’re scared of how much power they have, they’ll use their powers, maybe even often, but they’re always afraid of going too far and they get all angsty over it and probably have at least one “What have I done” moment and generally act like edgy tortured souls, bonus if they have a tragic backstory (see: Noctis Lucis Caelum again, Fenris, Todoroki Shouto)

10. Fuck Destiny, I’m Doing It My Own Way And I’m Going To Succeed Anyway (Narrator: and then they did) (see: FFVII Remake, MHA)

#sorry this is long and i didn't just list tv tropes titles like a normal person fhjkdgs

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alternativewinxcontinuity · 3 years

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Winx Alt Con Week 22 Part 01

Episodes: 304, 308, 321

Aisha is being examined by healers at the Palace on Land when Roy rejoins the group with news that king Neptune and prince Nereus have arrived with another group of survivors. Nereus's twin brother Tritannus, is still missing however.

In addition, reports were coming in that whatever had been causing the dark miasma of mutation, seemed to have stopped, and the mutants were holding position around the Tidal Gate.

For the time being.

With Ligea's speciality knowledge added to the mix, the healers finally have hope for Aisha's eyes. Before, they could only tell that there was something stopping her eyes from being healed, as though they were still being attacked, but the force 'attacking' her, was nowhere to be found.

At least, until the queen examines her niece and finds traces of corrupted fire magic.

The healers send out a request for fairy dust, since it has the ability to purify corruption and should be able to help remove the last of the fire magic damaging Aisha's eyes, but before a fairy can arrive, Tressa asks about Aisha's new necklace.

Confused, Aisha grabs at her neck, and Ophir backs up Tressa's claim that Aisha's Harmonix form hadn't come with a necklace. There is a momentary confusion before Aisha remembers the power surge back in the trench, which had coalesced around her neck.

Ligea, being a little bit faster on the uptake, informs her niece, that she may have unlocked her Enchantix form, and the necklace was likely her vial of fairy dust. When Tressa asks if Aisha's Enchantix form was also her Harmonix form, Ligea explains that since Aisha was in a place where her Harmonix was safer/of more use, her magic maintained that Form, rather than switching to the new one, and if Aisha focused, she would likely be able to manifest an independent Enchantix form.

Which she very excitedly does, though the people around her only get to stare in awe for a few seconds before Flora realises what this means: they don't have to wait for an Enchantix fairy to try fixing Aisha's eyes.

Ophir is called away to help with some spell work and Roy goes with him, both wishing Aisha good luck with her recovery as they leave.

Pulling off her vial, Aisha sprinkles her eyes while Flora and Ligea attempt to heal the physical damage. After a few tense minutes, Aisha opens her eyes, and looks at her friends for the first time in forever several hours.

Her friends realise Aisha's vision has been restored when she gets teary eyed and tells them they look gorgeous in their Harmonix forms. The group hugs, making sure to catch Tressa in the sudden pile up, though Ligea manages to stay clear.

Their good moods are interrupted when their communication bracelets chime, signalling that Stella and Bloom are trying to get in contact.

Their news is not good. But the group now has an idea why the miasma has slowed its spread for the time being.

Bloom relates the events of Solaria to the rest of the group as she and Stella walked to Alfea, choosing the slower option since Stella can't fly, and she is reluctant to be seen.

(With Daphne's guidance, Bloom has managed to break the metal pieces of Stella's ceremonial outfit, which meant it was no longer cutting into her cursed friend, but it also meant the outfit basically fell apart.

Rather than walk in the remnants, Stella had donned a robe, hastily conjured courtesy of Bloom, and the duo had begun their journey. Bloom had offered to try conjuring some shoes, but Stella claimed her cursed feet were fine bare.)

As the girls get close enough to Alfea to hear the whooping of some of the students who'd stayed behind during the holidays, Stella pulls the hood of the pink robe further down over her face, and Bloom tells the rest of Winx over comms not to rush back to Magix if they're still needed on Andros.

There's two fairies in the courtyard, one of them very familiar to the duo – it's the fairy who gave them the map to the catacombs way back (Una) – but the other is only passingly familiar. The two senior year fairies notice Bloom and Stella immediately, and make their way over, realising from the younger duo's posture something is very wrong.

Bloom signals them to stop, and they do, but Stella knows the pair have already seen her and almost starts to cry all over again, but is shocked from her grief when the more familiar of the two fairies calls her by name. The less familiar of the duo introduces herself (Giada) and offers to take a look at Stella's curse. The younger pair share a silent conversation, and agree.

The group quickly heads to the workshop that belongs to Giada's circle, and she begins examining the curse more in depth. While she works, Una and Bloom stay out of the way, and talk about what's been happening.

Una and Giada were both reporting in after finishing off a field assignment, and had heard from Griselda that a call for help had come through from Andros. The duo had been awaiting more information when Stella and Bloom had shown up.

Bloom retells of the adventures of the past twenty-four hours, hardly believing it has taken such little time. Una swears and admits the story sounds like something she should be telling Griselda and Faragonda, especially if the Trix - plus one world-destroying assistant criminal - have managed to escape from Omega.

From Una's tone of voice, Bloom realises she's underestimated how much of a Big Deal the escape is, and when she admits this, the older fairy tries to explain:

Omega is known as the End Of All Roads, the Devouring World. It was turned into a prison, because almost nothing could leave once it landed on Omega's surface. Sending the worst criminals there was the most 'humane' death sentence the Magical Dimension could conceive. The criminals are put into cryosleep, so they don't starve or dehydrate (an unfortunate way to go), and while they sleep, their life force and magic is slowly eaten away by the planet, until there is nothing left of the criminal.

For anyone to have survived as long as Valtor had, it was unthinkable, and had it not just happened, Una would have labelled it impossible.

Their quiet, horrifying chat is interrupted when Giada stands and darts over to an intricate box on one of the far benchtops, as she knocks on the lid, Bloom steps back over to Stella, giving the other Winx a hug. (for Stella's comfort, and her own.)

A pixie emerges from the box, rubbing her eyes sleepily, and she and Giada... communicate, the Winx duo assume. No words are said, but the fairy and pixie hold hands, and a long moment later, Giada is nodding, like the pixie has confirmed something she'd suspected, and heads back over to the others. The pixie sends the girls a brief wave, which they return, before the yawning pixie drops back into the box, the hatch she'd exited closing with a 'thwap'.

Giada looks at them both very seriously, and tells them that while they could try Fairy Dust, the type of curse is one of those unfortunately morally-grey types, that don't quite register enough as

evil magic, since it's in part, a perception manifestation spell.

To undo it, Stella will need to gaze into The Mirror of Truth. Una raises her eyebrows and goes to speak, but Giada cuts her off, explaining that she doesn't know the location of The Mirror, she's fairly certain there might be more information on her home world, Eraklyon, and if the duo head there, they might find a lead. They have friends there after all. Right?

Una gives Giada a very 'WTF?' look, but when the younger girls turn to her, she agrees with everything Giada has just told them. Bloom and Stella talk about it, and decide they have no other option: they're going to Eraklyon.

The duo get a creeping chill down their spines as the older fairies react to something unseen, looking around with energy crackling around their hands. After a tense minute, Una and Giada stand down, scowling as they tell the Winx pair that someone was scrying them, and only their voyeur's brief excitement at hearing of their plans had echoed through the spell enough to give them away.

Realising time is of the essence, Una and Giada promise to pass on the information the Winx have given them, informing Faragonda and Griselda while Bloom and Stella head to Eraklyon. Unsure she can teleport between worlds without her sympathetic magic sisterly bond, Bloom and Stella decide to take The Sparx.

Diaspro arrives in the palace of Heraklyon already feeling worn around the edges. Two tidal waves, one massive, the other enormous, had laid waste to several sections of coastline. While only a few people had been lost, the cities and towns able to shield themselves from the waves, swathes of wild land and coastal farms had been left unprotected.

As she makes her way to the throne room to meet with the king, one of the palace's many assistants catches her up on the important details she'll need to know for the meeting.

In the storage areas of The Sparx, Bloom and Stella manage to find some left behind clothes that will fit the blonde's cursed form. It's the first time they've really gone through all the clothes on the ship, and as they pull an oversized hoodie from the very back of the pile, a photo drops to the ground.

Ten young women in not-at-all serious victory poses, smile at the viewer, at the centre stands Daphne, not a trace of sorrow or melancholy in her face. The photo is thicker than those of Earth, but Bloom passes it off as a 'it's magical technology, things are just weird sometimes' thing and smiles at her sister's happy face, showing Stella to take her friend's mind off her predicament.

Diaspro is getting a headache, and is about five seconds from physically fighting someone when a brief recess is called. She steps out of the hall quickly, slipping away from the other Eraklyon officials so she can breathe.

The room is divided in the extreme, between sending no help at all, and sending everything and everyone.

Sky had been all for sending everyone and everything, and had beamed at Diaspro when she'd agreed they'd needed to send aid to Andros, but the look of betrayal when she'd tried to explain that they couldn't send as much assistance as he wanted because Eraklyon's people also needed aid... it had hurt her.

It had been like he thought she was saying that had to abandon Andros for the good of Eraklyon. Diaspro rubs her temples trying to ease her headache, trying to figure out how to explain to Sky what he should already know: they should send what aid they could to Andros, but they couldn't hurt their own people to do that.

Diaspro feels someone watching her and looks up just before the man speaks. She doesn't recognise him, something about him sets her teeth on edge, she can't quite focus on his words as much as she should with the headache pounding at her brain.

His voice is nice, she thinks as he empathises with her recent troubles, her loss of betrothal, how difficult her prince can be, Bloom worming her way into royal favour while knowing nothing about any duties she'd need to attend if this farce of a relationship continued.

It really was a pity Diaspro's life had come crumbling down like this, if she was still betrothed to

Sky, the idiots inside would have already listened to her plans and the appropriate levels of aid would have been sent where they needed to be.

This stranger can help her, he can ensure the good of Eraklyon is seen too.

He can help Diaspro get her perfect life back.

“Something is wrong” Diaspro thinks vaguely as she reaches out for the potion vial being offered to her, “something is wrong here,” she thinks as her fingers close over the crystal, an almost there burn creeping across her neck.

“But... why shouldn't I get my life back? It really would fix everything.”

Brandon leans against a wall as Sky paces back and forth, worried about the people recently harmed by the Waves, but also about the people of Andros. He watches the prince bemoan the royal council, annoyed that Diaspro hadn't backed him up as much as he thought she would. Like she didn't understand that if he didn't go the extreme end of the argument scale, there would be no middle to meet in.

Sky has finally worn himself out when Diaspro appears with two drinks in her hands, asking for a moment alone with Sky. Brandon shoots Sky a sympathetic smile and leaves them to it, glad he doesn't have to deal with the politics.

Halfway down the hall, his phone rings. Bloom and Stella are on their way to Eraklyon looking for something called The Mirror of Truth. He figures Diaspro might know something about it, or as a fairy might know where to start looking, and agrees to bring them to her once they land.

On his way to the docking port, he stops by his room to pick up the gift he's been meaning to give Stella.

Griselda barely catches Faragonda as she tilts so far she almost misses her chair entirely, both of the elder fairies want to be sick. The news Una and Giada have given them is unthinkable.

Valtor had been sent to the Omega Dimension over a century ago, nothing should have been left of him. The Omega Dimension devoured all that entered its territory.

“The Flame,” Faragonda says and gives Griselda a horrified look. Griselda understands what her friend means: The small spark of Dragon Fire Valtor possesses must have been just enough to keep ahead of the Omega Dimensions draining effects, must have been just enough to keep him alive in Cryosleep all this time.

Una and Giada share a look, a little shook by how shook their headmistress seems to be, and ask what the plan is from here.

Faragonda has to admit there isn't one, since they'd assumed Valtor was long gone, but if his Flame kept him alive, that's what they probably need to deal with.

Griselda brings up the Water Stars, the Primordial Elemental Opposite of the Dragon Fire, which might be enough to extinguish it.

Faragonda warns her how dangerous that could be, that backlash could be too destructive and do more damage than Valtor would.

Una and Giada are down right unnerved by the feeling they're possibly about to witness Faragonda and Griselda have a fight with one another, so they cut in.

Giada asks if they even know where the Water Stars are, because Giada is majoring in magical archaeology, and she doesn't know where they are. Doesn't even know very much about them.

Faragonda admits that neither does she or Griselda, the Water Stars were moved out of the Magical Dimension long, long ago so they didn't accidentally clash with the Dragon Flame and destroy all life as an unfortunate side effect.

Una offers to do some research at the Library, but Faragonda says there isn't any information at Alfea as far as she knows, and she and Griselda should begin preparing to protect the school, Valtor stole a lot of magic from various realms the last time he was free, they have to protect the schools artefacts and secrets and warn the other Realms.

Una clarifies that she meant the Library on Mysemne, the World of Memory and one of the two worlds of Lore. If any Library had the information, surely it would be them.

Faragonda takes a few seconds to express the grief she feels that children so young have to be involved in something so dangerous, but Una reminds her: “this is the path we chose, the path we continue to choose.”

Since “time will be of the essence, it might be a good idea to give you your graduation gifts early.”

Faragonda and Griselda take Una and Giada down into the Hall of Legacy and grant them the Three Wings of Clariel: Tracix, Zoomix and Speedix, something they shouldn't have gotten for another several weeks. (Zoomix, the wings of teleportation, will increase their range and accuracy when it comes to teleportation, meaning they won't have to worry about travelling via ship to the planet. Less risk of interception.)

Una and Giada appear in the main atrium of the Hall of Artefacts on Mysemne.

There's an excited looking young woman waiting for them. She introduces herself as Delphi and speaks a-mile-a-minute as she leads them towards the records that should have the information they're looking for.

After Delphi heads off to relay the information about Valtor to the elders, leaving Una and Giada in the archives, Giada has a momentary meltdown.

“What the heck was that? We said nothing the entire time! How does she know?!”

“I think that was Tempy's cousins,” Una admits.

“The vision prone one? She's nothing like your girlfriend... suddenly so much about everything suddenly makes sense.”

They dive into the records looking for clues on the Water Stars.

Bloom lands The Sparx in the docking bay she's directed to while Stella's fugue-like calm evaporates into a sudden panic because 'she can't let Brandon see her like this!'

Bloom tries to calm her down, but through the view screen they see Brandon approaching the ship.

Stella tucks herself further into the oversized hoodie they'd found, trying to hide as much of her cursed form as she can before her boyfriend can see.

Bloom exits first, doing her best to block Brandon's view inside until Stella is ready.

Brandon tells them he's going to take them to Diaspro, but there's an important meeting on at the moment, so they'll have to be quick and quiet. He wavers when Stella doesn't appear, taking a step to the side to try and get around Bloom, but she matches his motion and blocks him again.

He calls up into the ship, asking Stella if she's okay, or if she wants to stay on the ship while he and Bloom go find Diaspro.

'No,' Stella calls out, emboldened just enough by the fact Brandon would give her a choice for her comfort. She steps out into view, slowly edging forward, the fear Brandon will suddenly cry out in disgust hanging over her.

But he doesn't, he reaches for her, asks if she's okay, if it hurts. Stella sniffles and mentions the small cuts from her ceremonial costume, the ones that won't heal properly with the curse still in place.

He looks sad, like he aches on her behalf, and takes her face gently in his hands, asking if he can kiss her. She lets him, and he peppers her face with soft gentle kisses, leaving a lingering but chaste one on her lips.

'Let's go get you uncursed,' he wipes the few fresh tears from her face and places one arm around her, facing back towards the exit, though he doesn't move until Stella does.

Together the trio make their way through the corridors of the Royal Palace until they reach a large door. There's a voice on the other side, and it sounds like Sky.

Brandon disentangles himself from Stella to move ahead and open the door wide enough for the three of them to slip inside.

Without the door, Sky's voice becomes crystal clear: 'In this trying time, we must show unity, which is why I am announcing my re-engagment to Princess Diaspro!'

The approving voices are cut by the loud and disbelieving 'What?!' that forces its way out of Bloom's mouth.

She feels faint, like she can't catch her breath suddenly. Her head feels like its underwater and all the sound is muffled.

She barely catches Diaspro stepping forwards and calling out to the guards to arrest them.

Bloom feels disconnected with her body as the soldiers around the room rush forwards. Through the white noise of panic in her head she hears someone say 'use force if you have to, capture or kill, they can't be allowed to escape and spread chaos!'

There's a tug on her arm, a warm hand, and Brandon pulls the fairies away, hurries them down the halls and back to their ship.

Stella is saying something, panicking, Brandon replies in a hurried voice, but all of it is lost to Bloom, she feels only confusion, and heartbreak, and tastes something foul on the back of her tongue.

Brandon leads the girls as best he can, trying to avoid any good ambush points, any patrol of guards. He's fairly certain that the docking bay will be swarming by the time they arrive, the obvious escape, but neither fairy looks to be up to using the Ring to transport them out.

He curses himself when they round a corner and come face to face with Diaspro and an array of soldiers.

Diaspro smirks, summons an array of floating crystals and fires.

A startled voice sounds behind Brandon and the fairies (“oh fuq!”) and Diaspro's attack slams into an energy shield that hadn’t been there a second ago, her power shattering harmlessly midair.

The trio turn and Bloom is caught by the feeling of looking into a distorted mirror, a young woman stands with hands outstretched, and looking incredibly confused. She has vibrant orange hair and blue eyes, both a few shades darker than Bloom's own hair and eyes.

Stella gasps and cries out “Varanda!!” to which the stranger replies “Hey Stella, catch me up?”

Diaspro attacks again, backed up by the guards, but the energy from spells and weapons alike fizzle out against Varanda's shield.

Stella tells Varanda it's a long story and they have to leave now. Varanda points to the incensed Diaspro with a querying look, and both Bloom and Stella give her an uncomfortable “I don't know” look.

Varanda shrugs, sweeps her arms and the shield rushes away from their group to cover Diaspro's, forcing them against one wall of the corridor and leaving a clear path.

The group of four run, Varanda following the others’ lead all the way back to The Sparx.

Brandon hesitates just outside the ship, and Stella stops with him. When she questions what he’s doing he presses something into her hand.

“I gotta stay here Stella, something’s going on with Sky and Diaspro, something is Not Right. But I want you to have this, I’ve been meaning to give it to you for a while now. Never found the perfect time. It’s been in my family for ages. When you use it, I hope you see you the way I do, regardless of how you look: beautiful, amazingly talented, the nicest girlfriend a guy could ask for. You are gorgeous to your soul Stella, and I’ll always think you look amazing.”

Brandon lets Bloom pull Stella onto The Sparx and runs back inside to find Sky and figure out what’s going on.

Inside the ship Varanda takes a seat and watches Bloom pilot the ship through take off. A small bump rocks The Sparx and a warning light goes off. They’re under fire.

“I’ve got it,” Varanda says and lets her head slump forwards, a new panel in the ship’s defences pops up and indicates a fully powered energy shield has appeared around The Sparx.

Bloom lets out a quiet ‘cool’ and hits the throttle, taking them out of Eraklyon’s atmosphere and back into space.

In her co-pilot seat, Stella opens her hand.

A small compact sits within her grasp, beautiful, but baring signs of age. She opens it, and her reflection stares back with its slimy green skin.

Truth be told, Stella had always felt most beautiful when Brandon was looking at her, because his love made her feel beautiful, because he made her feel seen. The Winx made her feel seen, but in a different way.

Gazing into the glass, Stella looked at herself, trying to see herself the way Brandon and her friends saw her: as worthy.

Each memory of their affection and acceptance made her feel lighter, freer.

Like she was glowing.

She was glowing.

With a sudden burst of light Stella felt herself shift and her curse break, the face looking back from the mirror was her own familiar visage, normal once again.

Bloom exclaims wordlessly from the pilot’s chair and whoops with glee, Varanda, still not entirely sure what was going on, claps for her friend.

Which startles both of the Winx.

Guiltily Stella greeted Varanda properly and the trio get to swapping stories. Bloom and Stella explain what they’d been doing on Eraklyon, telling Varanda how lucky they were she’d shown up when she did.

“Only partly lucky,” Varanda corrects, telling the duo she’d been sent by ‘Her Imperial Grace’ to check in on Stella and offer her aid should she need it. They’d heard about Solaria’s recent issue from Nova.

Stella and Bloom are relieved to know Nova was alright, and Varanda assures them Nova was ‘better than alright’, since Nova had earned her Enchantix since they’d last seen her.

The fairies talk about what to do next, and Stella and Bloom agree they need to get back in contact with their friends and headmistress Faragonda, catch them up on what had happened.

The Sparx can handle a conference call, and thankfully everyone answers their phone.

The Winx are excited to hear Stella is no longer cursed, but are very confused and worried over Diaspro and Sky's behaviour. They throw out theories and suspicions, but they have no real proof in the end, and have to turn to other matters for the time being.

Faragonda warns them that their new threat is not to be taken lightly.

She lays out Valtor's modus operandi (his name has Varanda hissing in disgust, followed by a quick explanation of her Grandmother's Dominion heritage, and past encounter with Valtor) and begins asking the Winx for help getting in contact with the various other Realms of the Magical Dimension.

Some worlds couldn't be contacted, others had brushed the warning off, whether due to disbelief or because they were prioritising local damages from the tidal surge that had hit so many worlds during Valtor's return.

Musa offers to go and speak with the royal family of Melody, though she's not sure how much help it will be, and Flora offers to try speaking with Lynphea's royal family.

Tecna asks about Zenith, but Faragonda tells her they've already agreed to listen to reason and consider giving what aid they can.

Tecna admits she can't think of any world her word would have any meaning other than Zenith, but Faragonda tell her that staying on Andros with Aisha to help keep an eye on the overall situation might be for the best.

The trio aboard The Sparx agree that they should go back to Solaria to stabilise the world before it comes completely apart. Before the call ends and the group goes off to their tasks, Faragonda tells them she has a team looking for a way to defeat Valtor once and for all. The underlying venom in her tone telling them just how far she's prepared to go.

Aisha has sent a messenger to let her parents know what her friends are doing, so she doesn't know why she's so surprised that Roy comes racing down to the docks before she can steer Anne-Marine out to sea to drop off Flora and Musa on their respective worlds.

Her parents want to have a word with her about something, so she give Roy orders to take the other Winx members to their destination so they don't have to waste time waiting for her to get back.

Before she gets too far, Roy calls out that Ophir heard what their new mission is and thinks he might, maybe, possibly be able to talk some sense into a world with a heavier wizard population.

Aisha gives a nod and calls back “drop him off third!” and then has to dodge as she almost walks backwards into someone as she continues moving. She spins to face the right direction and calls a quick, 'sorry' over her shoulder before jogging off to see her parents.

The voice which gives an amused 'you're fine' reply to her apology is familiar, and has her missing a step as she turns her head back to the docks, but a wall blocks her view. She pouts in annoyance but doesn't bother doubling back as she realises she just missed her chance to see what Ophir's face looks like.

Valtor steps through the portal and back onto Andros, Diaspro following close behind him.

The Trix are pissed, he's been gone for longer than he said he'd be. He attempts to assuage their ire by explaining he'd had to take a slight detour, but he had the first fairy required for their plan: Diaspro (of Isis) of Eraklyon.

Icy demands Valtor give them what he'd promised them when they'd released him on Omega, but he persuades the witches to wait a little longer, until he had enough power from the other worlds to compensate for the power he'd lose.

The Trix hesitate, mentally deliberating (telepathically arguing the pros and cons) and Valtor uses the distraction to skip off to another planet, leaving Diaspro with the Trix in their hide out.

The women are understandably pissed, but with little else they can do, the quartet sit down and begin to talk shit about the Winx and Valtor.

Stormy remarks that Diaspro looks a little familiar, but she can't quite place it. Diaspro admits she fought the Army of Decay/Darkness and in the Siege of Shadowhaunt.

“Beside the bitch who ruined my life,” Diaspro adds, and Darcy gets an odd look on her face, a frown both her sisters recognise from long familiarity.

Icy knows her sister well enough to probe the fairy a little, “is that why you're with us now, why you came with Valtor?”

Diaspro confirms the suspicion, “he gave me back my life, I owe him a debt of gratitude.”

Darcy sidles closer to Diaspro and moves as if she's tucking a lock of hair behind Diaspro's ear, she says a meaningless paltitude even as she dives into the fairy's mind.

It's easy, it always is when someone's already broken in.

Diaspro's mindscape is a labyrinthine series of crystal caverns.

Darcy lurks through the shadows they cast and takes in the whispering coming from Diaspro's reflections on the cavern walls.

Affirmations that she was doing the right thing, what was best for her and her world. That she was right to take back her life and repair what Bloom had ruined.

Underneath it all was a running rhythm that concerned Darcy more than the subtle brainwashing.

'Valtor can take care of Bloom for good, if I can get her I must give her to him.'

Darcy withdraws, her eyes flicking down just in time to see Valtor's mark fade from sight on Diaspro's neck.

It's a testament to Diaspro's sense of duty that Darcy's intrusion has wobbled the Persuasion just enough for the fairy to start question.

“Why... am I here? What was I...” she sounds confused but distant, like she's not quite awake.

“You're here to help us connect the Eraklyon's Ocean Gate to a new web of power,” Icy assures her, reaffirming Diaspro's state of mind.

The quartet are startled when a new and unfamiliar voice cuts in.

“If it's the power of the Ocean Gates, I can help you there.”

#winx #winx club #winx alt con #Winx Alternative Continuity #Winx Alt Con Week 22 #week 22 part 01 #i guess i live #this is as good as the editting is getting #breaking week 22 up because it's basically all the season

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broken-clover · 4 years

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AU-gust Day 8- Superpowers/Superheroes

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So apparently when I say ‘these are very long, maybe I should make them less long next time’ it apparently means ‘WRITE NEARLY 5000 WORDS AND SUFFER’ I’m having. A day. Not a bad one just. A Day. This more or less feels like a pilot episode for something honestly.

Please do not ask why I keep writing Sin because there is no answer.

Ky had left him in charge of the scanner. Again.

And Sin knew why he had done it, why he always left him sitting in the high-backed chair perched in front of an array of high-tech computers while he and his friends leapt into action. It wasn’t because Sin was any kind of tech genius. It was because it was the best way of keeping him out of the way.

They didn’t even pretend like it was a real task in need of doing. Sol had already rigged the scanner so that it would send notifications to the entire team as soon as it picked up anything suitably peculiar. Ky’s excuse was that they needed him to watch it and make sure the scanner didn’t malfunction, but it never did. It was just a good way to keep him from running around while Ky couldn’t keep an eye on him.

Well, he could have brought him along, but whenever he suggested, Ky just had to get all uppity about it, and say in so many words that he didn’t want his precious baby boy going on dangerous missions, except he’d say it in a way that made him sound completely reasonable and rational, even though he was a teenager now and he was tired of spending time in front of the monitors and doing nothing but sitting on his ass like a useless idiot.

He shifted to prop his chin up on his other arm. The scanner did another rotation around Illyria, but no notification popped up, just like the last thousand or so times. Ugh, he’d been here for hours, when were they going to come back? The distress call had come from the complete opposite side of town, but considering that half of them could fly, and Ky himself could turn into a goddamn lightning bolt, they were awfully slow. So much for ‘just a quick mission’ like he had promised.

Groaning, Sin abandoned the chair and left it to spin behind him. He left the completely empty computer room to head into the equally-empty kitchen, hoping to find something to munch on. In between Sol’s beer bottles, Testament’s vegan snacks and Chipp’s leftover Japanese takeout, there was a plastic-domed pastry box. His excited smile melted off as soon as he pulled it out and peered inside.

“Thank you for keeping our city safe!” Said the fancy frosting letters. Yeah, he knew where it was from. The local orphanage had sent it after Ky and his friends had stopped Judgement from blowing up half the city last week. Because they were a bunch of good-samaritan do-gooders so compassionate and helpful that they got fucking cake from orphans.

He still cut a big piece from it before shoving the thing back into the fridge. Hey, cake was cake. Plus, he could get a kick out of ruining the letters and part of the bright yellow smiley-face under it.

At least being stuck at the base meant nobody raised a stink over him sitting on the meeting table. Sin was careful not to leave any shoe tracks on it, though, after Ky had chewed him out for it the last time. Personally, he thought having a white table was stupid in the first place, but that was the design Ky liked. It was the same reason they had the big sweeping ceilings, elaborate carvings along the walls, and a special designated chair for each of their official members, individualized by their names and insignias (Because his dad really was that fucking cliche)

In between bites of cake, he toed at the fancy lightning bolt carved into Ky’s chair, with ’Thunderseal’ written out above it. Sin remembered when he used to chase his father around the house, pretending to be him with a construction-paper mask and towel cape. He had utterly idolized Thunderseal, and dreamed that someday he would be able to take up the mantle when he became a real hero. It wasn’t a dream he clung onto anymore. Just the shadow of being his son was big enough.

Sin tried to take his mind off things by pulling out his phone. Maybe May would be up for a chat.

‘Anything going on w/ u?’

May always had her phone on her, so it didn’t take long before his pinged with a message. ’Just finished a job! Hbu?’

‘Send pics?’ Just his luck he got her while she was out working. At least maybe he could get a few cool pictures out of it.

Just like last time, it barely took a minute before she responded back with a pile of photos. All of them had May smiling with her teammates in uniform, along with a very irritated-looking (and very wet) tied-up criminal. He’d hoped that the pictures would have cheered him up, but all it did was annoy him further. She was younger and smaller than him by a lot, but she was allowed to go out on dangerous jobs.

Mer-May, the absolute darling of the Jellyfish team of superheroes. Even though they weren’t from Illyria, he still saw stories and photos about them in the paper. They looked like a real team. They probably took all their team members out on missions, and when they didn’t, he bet they had a much better reason than needing someone to watch the scanners.

’Great job! :D’ he messaged back with stiff, trembling fingers, before an errant current made his screen crackle and explode in a burnt cloud.

“Oh for fuck’s sake…” Why did that always happen when he got frustrated, this was his twelfth phone in the last year! Like he needed one more thing to be annoyed about.

Sin was sick and tired of being inside. He abandoned his half-eaten cake at the table and headed for the entrance, swiping his jacket and a spare mask on the way out.

++++++

Nobody gave him much of a second look as he slid along the wires twenty feet off the ground. Anybody who even noticed the crackle of electricity in the first place regarded him with complete nonchalance. Superpowered individuals had become a lot more commonplace, especially with the formation of publicly-known groups like the Jellyfish and the Guardians of Illyria. It was practically a celebrity subculture. Just a fixture of daily life. People with powers no longer had much of a reason to hide anymore.

In his absentmindedness, he nearly fell off-balance and slipped from the wire he was on. He wondered if Ky ever did that on the job. He might’ve been the team’s shiny poster-boy, but he wasn’t as perfect as everyone always acted like he was. It didn’t stop the newspapers and nighttime TV reports from painting him as some flawless guardian angel. Even when he was little, they were always talking about Ky.’s exploits, how he made Illyria a safe place. For the longest time, all that praise had convinced him his father could do no wrong.

Sin remembered the times when he would hold his father’s hand as they skated across the powerlines, helping him keep his balance. Sin always kept his eyes peeled for trouble, and whenever they spotted a kitten stuck in a tree or someone struggling with groceries, Ky would let him take charge to ‘save’ the civilian in need. He used to love the slightly-exaggerated smiles from grateful people and congratulatory pats on the head from his father, but it all felt so infuriatingly patronizing now. He didn’t want to be stuck helping old ladies cross the street while his father and his friends fought the real villains and saved the day. It never felt like he was helping anyone in the long run, he was just doing errands for people and nothing more than that.

He skidded to a stop on an electronic billboard, slid down the maintenance ladder, and found a place to sit. From his jacket pocket, he pulled out a tiny battered book and pen.

‘Sin the Superhero!’ was scrawled across the front in faded, childlike handwriting. He skipped past the scribbled-over and torn pages in the front half, all practically carbon-copies of Ky, until he reached the more complicated doodles and neater handwriting.

‘Hero Name Ideas.’ The list had gotten longer recently, but still none of them seemed to fit him right. He scratched off a couple of older ideas and jot down ‘Livewire’ and ‘Sparx’ at the bottom. Mmm, no, when he wrote them down on paper, that didn’t seem right, either.

“Ughh, why is this so hard!?” Sin groaned to himself, closing the book and smacking himself in the face with it. He wasn’t going to be Thunderseal. No matter what, he was not going to be Thunderseal.

He’d thought of skipping town and joining the Jellyfish, but May’s manager Johnny said that they only accepted female members. There were a few others scattered across the country, like the ones down in Kagutsuchi, Remnant, and Inaba, but they seemed so different from what he was used to, Sin wasn’t sure he’d fit in even if they let him join.

He spotted a convenience store half a block down. Maybe he just needed a snack to help him think. He hadn’t gotten to finish his cake, after all.

Sin slid back up onto the powerline and followed the sidewalk until he found a wall generator to jump into near ground-level. The light burst that followed him when he landed startled an older woman as she headed back to her car, but otherwise nobody paid attention.

The convenience store was awfully quiet for the afternoon, but all it meant was that he could scour the aisles for something to eat. They didn’t have anything meaty, so he settled for red licorice. It almost looked like meat.

“Would you like a bag?” The cashier asked, with the usual feigned-cheer that minimum wage barely afforded.

“Nah, I’m just gonna eat it now.” He replied, digging for a few spare bills in his back pocket.

When he found the money and went to turn back around, he spotted an ominous smear of crimson in his peripheral vision. Out through the front windows, a peculiar-looking girl was stumbling across the parking lot barefoot, stained in what appeared to be blood.

“The hell…?” Sin murmured. He realized he still had money in his hand. “Oh. Shit, uh, keep the change!” All but throwing the money at the poor woman, he grabbed his licorice and bolted out the door, taking a moment to swing his head around to find that girl again before running after her. “Hey! Hold on a second!”

Maybe he was too loud, because she immediately flinched and threw up her arms to cover her head. “I-I’m sorry!”

“You’re...what?” He skidded to a stop right in front of her. Yeah, that was definitely blood. The girl didn’t seem to be in a good condition, if the stumbling hadn’t already given it away. All the bloodstains appeared to be coming from the numerous wounds on her body, mixed together with a handful of ugly violet bruises. “Man, you look in bad shape. Did you get attacked?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” With her arms still covering her, she crouched down and began trembling.

Sin’s features softened. “Hey, I’m not gonna hurt you.” He crouched down next to her, trying his best to sound harmless. “Okay? Not gonna hurt you. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

“Y-you aren’t?” A single diamond-blue eye peeked between trembling fingers.

“No, I’m not. Are you in danger? Do you need someone to keep you safe?”

She gave him a slow, jerky nod. “Ok! I can do that. My house is really safe, my dad’s a superhero so you don't have to worry about people getting in unless you want them to! Why don’t we go there, and then I can get you some bandaids?”

Another little nod. “Sounds like a plan, then!” He took her hand, helped her back up, and turned in the direction of where he’d come from. “It’s over this way, so we can-”

“No!! No, no, we can’t!” She suddenly shrieked, trying to pull herself from his grip.

“Woah, woah!” Sin let her go in his shock. “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t go! I can’t go!” She cried, tugging at her pale pink hair with both hands. “I can’t leave without my sister!”

“Your sister? Where is she?”

Her expression grew haunted. “Oh...oh no...I left her behind...I promised we wouldn’t be separated…”

Sin tried to quell the growing feeling of excitement unfurling in him. Yes, this girl was clearly in need of help. He was finally doing his first real job as a hero, without Ky getting in the way! And he’d found it all by himself! But he needed to keep serious.

“Don’t worry. We’ll get your sister.” He gave the girl a confident grin. “Can you show me where she is?”

Another nod. “Uh-huh. I can show you.”

“Think you can show me from the rooftops? It’ll be faster that way.” She didn’t pull away again when he started leading her towards the generator he had jumped out of.

“Huh? There’s no ladder, how would you- aaaah!”

Sin scooped her up before taking off up the wires to the roof. “I’m a hero, too! I can follow electric currents! So if you can point me in the direction of- oh.”

The sudden movement had apparently freaked her out, and both of her trembling arms were tightly wrapped around him for stability.

“Oops. Um, sorry about that. I forget the vertigo is really bad the first few times.” He tried giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “But I promise I won’t drop you, okay? I just need you to show me what direction you came from.”

It took her a moment to unbury herself from her place in his jacket, but she reached out to point towards the heart of Illyria. “That way. It's by the big building with a cow on the roof.”

His grin came back as Sin felt the sparks fly off his feet. “Say no more!”

++++++

Sin had never been to this part of town before, on the ground or otherwise. It seemed like a perfectly nice neighborhood, but for some reason, there was just something that felt...off.

He tried not to worry about it. “Hey, so you didn’t tell me your name. I’m Sin! What should I call you?”

The girl in his arms seemed to have finally gotten used to the harsh movements, only wincing when the harsh wind blew the hair in her eyes. “E-Elphelt.” She said. “My name is Elphelt.”

Weird name, but he didn’t say anything. Even if he wanted to, he was interrupted by her pointing him left. “R-right there! The big white building!”

“This one?” He asked, sliding up onto the roof of what he could only guess was a large warehouse. A few trucks were parked out in front, but he didn’t see any people, nor were any lights on inside. “Are you sure this is it?”

“Mmhm!” She nodded vigorously, though the fear had come back into her eyes. “Please! I can’t leave her behind!”

We’re gonna save your sister, don’t worry.” Sin put her down on the roof next to him, and began searching for some kind of way in. “How did you get out?”

She walked towards one of the building’s edges and peered down. “Stairs! There’s emergency stairs by the windows!”

“Stairs?” He headed off after her. Sure enough, a set of metal stairs snaked down the building’s side. “We can get in through one of those windows!”

The two of them ran down a few flights, only stopping when Elphelt pointed one out. “This one! I think it’s this one!”

“This one?” Sin repeated back. He crouched down to get a good look at it. “I don’t think it’s latched; it should probably just slide open from the bottom.”

“Okay, then let’s-”

“Wait-” He grabbed her hand a half-second before she could slide the window open. “There’s an alarm. It’ll trigger if you pull it open.”

Elphelt recoiled immediately. “How can you tell?”

“I told you I can ride currents, right? I can sense them, too.” He put a hand on the wall next to the window. “Feels like there’s a whole security system set up and wired to the same main hub.” Elphelt was tearing up again in the corner of his eye, and he raised his free hand to assure her. “Don’t worry. Each window has its own sensor alarm. If I can just overload it…”

Sin pressed his eyes shut and willed a bolt of electricity into existence. He slid it between his hands a few times before feeding it into the sensor. After a moment, he felt the current split off between the window and the rest of the system as the wires melted and the plastic exploded.

“Okay, just hold your breath…” He put his hands on the sill. In one motion, he jerked it open and...no alarm.

“Phew…” Elphelt shook her head in momentary relief, before tensing up again. “We have to hurry! We have to hurry!”

She squeezed herself inside before he could even think of doing it himself. Once she had gotten inside, he wormed in after her. “Yeah, of course. But why do we have to hurry? I don’t think anyone’s here.”

The building was as dark inside as it had looked outside. The room they had been dumped into had a high ceiling and a concrete floor, but was nearly empty aside from some storage crates. At least, they looked like storage crates, he couldn’t really tell. From another pocket, he pulled out a rechargeable flashlight, funneled a bit of electricity into it, and switched it on. A narrow slice of light cut through the empty room.

It fell on Elphelt’s horrified face. “El? What’s wrong?”

“We have to hurry.” She spoke in a trembling whisper. “We have to hurry before mother comes home.”

He wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but it seemed important to her. “Okay. We’ll go quickly. What room is your sister in? Can you show me?”

The hallway was slightly lighter, but no less empty. Had everyone gone home already? Then again, he had no idea what this building was for in the first place, maybe there never were people at all. He couldn’t see any security cameras on the ceilings, but even if they were there, he doubted they would be able to see much.

He followed Elphelt down a couple sets of stairs. They both kept their backs pressed to the wall, their footsteps light, and their guard up. Sin glanced over his shoulder every few seconds to be absolutely sure they weren’t being followed.

At one point, Elphelt stopped and held a hand out to him. “I think this is it.”

Compared to the rest of the building, he could sense a veritable feast of electricity coursing back and forth beyond the door they were staring at. It seemed logical that if she was anywhere, it would be in there.

The new room was a stark difference in just how blindingly white it was. Sin had to blink and cover his eyes for a minute while he convinced himself that he was not actually going blind. Elphelt seemed unconcerned with the sudden change, and walked deeper in without him.

“Elphelt! Wait!” He hissed, blinking to clear his vision. The blurry edges eventually smoothed out and sharpened. “Woah…”

Just from a wild guess, it had to be some kind of laboratory. All the glass, fancy equipment, and desks looked like something from the sci-fi shows Sol liked to watch. What kind of science exactly, he had no idea. But it didn’t matter. He had to help Elphelt. Where had she gone to?

“El?” He called out, still trying to keep himself from being too loud. It was a bright white room and she had bright pink hair, how could he not find her in two seconds?

Sin felt his stomach growl as he began to search. Absentmindedly, he pulled out his abandoned licorice and peeled a strand off to eat it. “El?”

He thought he had spotted a flash of pink, but when he approached it, he found a strange pile of pink mush in a large clear dish. He didn’t have the slightest idea of what it was, but it unnerved him. Sin put down his licorice on the tabletop and reached for a glass rod that had been left near it.

What did he think would happen if he prodded it? That was another question he couldn’t answer. It made an odd, gooey noise as the tip sank into its surface. It had looked solid, but the more he pushed into it, the more the glass vanished, even when he thought it would have gone all the way through and come out the other end.

“Sin!”

“Elphelt?” He looked up from his impromptu experiment. Why had he let himself get distracted? Sin pulled the stick back out and set it on the table, and reached for his-

“Where’d I put my licorice…?”

“Sin! Please!”

“Coming, El!” That was more important. He ran off towards her voice. The tables gave way to what he could only describe as giant stove burners built into the ground. “Where are you?”

“Over here!” He saw a hand in the air and headed towards it. It was actually Elphelt that time, instead of some weird arm-monster, thankfully.

“There you are. Jeez, you’re fast-” His eyes went wide.

There was...a girl, suspended in some sort of glassy prison. It hovered over one of the weird floor-burner things, spinning around and around as the room’s lights glinted off it. The girl inside didn’t seem especially bothered by the spinning, or the fact that the ball was barely big enough for her to fit inside. If he didn’t know any better, she looked completely unconscious.

“What the hell?” He looked at his companion. “El, is this her? Is this your sister?”

“Ram…” She said, more to the other girl than to him. Her eyes had gone wet with tears again.

There was an electrical current running under the burner. Without thinking, Sin shoved his hand into it and discharged a bolt of electricity.

He was pretty sure he felt the fluid splattering on his face before he even heard the glass break. The overload of energy had not only shut off whatever the burner was doing, but forced the ball to shatter. He heard Elphelt dive to the ground behind him. Any of the glass that exploded onto him was melted by the heat of his lightning. The smell of ozone and the backlash from overusing his powers was making him dizzy, but Sin tried to focus on what was around him.

Once the chaos had died down, Elphelt crawled back out from the table she’d hidden behind. “Sin?”

“El.” He sent her a dopey, tired smile. “I got it.”

“Ram!!” The girl hurried back over to kneel down by the unconscious body. A few glass shards had nicked their skin, but there was nothing especially worrying. Elphelt seemed to be far more concerned with Ram than she was about her own injuries, anyway. She scooped up the other girl and held her close, placing a hand on her chest as she began murmuring something incomprehensible. Sin watched a faint pink glow envelop her hand and flow into the other’s body.

“Elphelt?” He asked in quiet awe. “You have powers?”

Whatever she was trying to do, it seemed to have worked. As soon as the glow faded, Ram began to rouse.

“Mhh...Elphelt?”

“Ram!” El hugged her sister tightly as her shoulder began trembling. “Oh, you’re awake, you’re awake. I promised I wouldn’t leave you.”

“Elphelt…” She put a hand on her sister’s back and smiled gently. “I’m okay.”

“Th-this is Sin!” When she regained some of her composure, Elphelt pointed at him. “He helped me save you!”

“Yeah. But El, you said we had to hurry, right? We should leave.”

“Oh! We need to leave fast, you’re right.” Elphelt stood back up, but she appeared remarkably calm. In fact, she was smiling. “But we can go even faster with Ram!”

The girl nodded in silent agreement. She looped a hand around her sister’s waist, before beckoning Sin over.

“Faster?” He was confused, but he complied, stepping closer so Ram could grab him by the middle. “I’m not sure what you me-EEEEEAN- !”

The question was answered for him very quickly. His feet were off the ground before he could blink. Ram was shooting off towards the nearest wall, and he had absolutely no way of stopping her.

“Are you insane?!” They were going to fly headfirst into a metal wall! Sin absolutely couldn’t handle hitting something that solid that fast, but he didn’t have any electricity left to try and shock her into dropping him. All he could do was watch.

There was a horrific crunch, and everything went black.

And then blue, as they passed through to the other side without a scratch.

Sin hadn’t realized he was screaming in terror until he stopped. He saw a massive gaping hole in the metal when he turned to look back, but he couldn’t see a single scratch on him, or his questionably-deranged pilot.

“It’s okay, Sin!” Elphelt called. “Ram’s really strong!”

‘Strong’ didn’t seem like a very good explanation on how they hadn’t just smashed their collective heads open, but really, after everything he had been through, it seemed stupid to ask questions.

++++++

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU RAN OFF??”

Sin winced, pulling the receiver away from his ear. “I know, I know, dad, I messed up-”

“MESSED UP??” Ky’s voice shouted back. “You ran off without telling anyone! I thought you had been kidnapped!”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry.” He said. “But I promise I can explain everything. I need a ride back, do you think you can come pick me up over by Bishop Bakery? The place over at the corner of Hansen and 15th?”

“All the way out there?! Sin, what are you doing in the north district in the first place?”

“Uh, that’s a bit of a long story…” He turned to look at his two new companions. Elphelt kicked her bare feet under the bench as she watched the cars go by, and Ramlethal was sitting cross-legged and bobbing her head back and forth to a song coming out of a nearby radio. “A really long story. Why don’t I tell you all about it over leftover cake?”

++++++

A dark shadow slid along sterile white walls, pacing back and forth and back. Immaculately manicured nails drummed against a pale sleeve, the only giveaway against a perfect porcelain mask of calmness.

“So they both ran away…” A melodic voice echoed off the high walls. “I never would have expected such ingenuity from her.”

The room went quiet for a moment. “Still, nothing I can’t handle. A few steps to shuffle around, but in the end, those girls saved me quite a lot of effort. Brought back to the Guardians on a silver platter! What a stroke of luck.”

She paused. “Oh? The boy? Just another pawn, easy enough to handle. His powers are little more than parlor tricks. I’ll have no trouble disposing of him as soon as he becomes a nuisance."

Another pause. Slowly, the porcelain mask began to crack. “Is that so?

In the blink of an eye, she lashed out to grab one of the trailing tubes. It was squeezed in a white-knuckled grip until the flow was dammed. “Now, you aren’t getting all high and mighty on me, are you?” She asked in a sickly-sweet voice, putting the smiling mask back on. “Don’t forget who gave you all of your shiny new toys. If it weren’t for me, you would still be rotting away in that hospital bed, where nobody could hear you.”

She took a moment longer to grab onto the clear plastic, then let it go. “I’m glad you’ve decided to cooperate. I helped you for a reason, you know. I saw the potential you had...Ah, I ramble so much.” She shook her head. “I’ll leave you to your work. And don’t forget to get plenty of rest. We have so much work to do, and so little time…”

The shadow moved away, melting into all the others with the sound of clicking heels. Once it was far, far away, the faint hum of magic sounded. From another pool of darkness, a half-eaten package of red licorice floated into the faint light. A single braid was pulled out of it, and invisible fingers peeled a stand off to carry it into an awaiting mouth. Artificial strawberry, what a peculiar flavor.

“So…” A silent voice echoed in the darkness. “...Sin?”

#AU-gust #superhero au #writing #guilty gear #Sin Kiske #Elphelt Valentine #Ramlethal Valentine #I will now proceed to bury myself in my front yard

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