straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2023-11-05 03:01 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2023-11-05 03:01 pm
251 | illness & a media round-up
This has been a week of illness for me, starting with me waking up on Halloween with a sore throat. I’m on the mend now, but I did default on my last 1K swap for my FIAB assignment. Maybe I could have managed it—I did canon review early in October, and the fic concept was one that would have wrapped up well in 1-2K, so doing it all in one day wouldn’t have been impossible—but I’m sick, and tired because of it, and I decided to go easy on myself.
I did finish the big unusual medium project I was working on for a different swap. I actually finished it on Sunday and was quite excited about it, but it took a few days for me to figure out the hosting for it. But it’s posted and approved now, so yay for that <3 It was a bit overkill for the amount I still owed on that swap, haha. But it’s good for the recip, at least.
► I’m about… six episodes in on High Rollers: Aerois, I think? They’re about to enter the chasm. I admit to feeling a bit ??? about their decision to go there first, considering how hard they were pushing the Harvest Guard for employment opportunities the previous episode / the night before in-universe. It just feels weird narratively?
Like, yes, I would love to see them explore this ancient city, but idk, narratively and in terms of building social connections in this town, it would’ve made more sense for them to help out the Harvest Guard with at least one of their problems first before going charging in on a treasure hunt.
Character-wise, I feel like I have a pretty good grip on everyone by this point, and am fond of them. Lucius remains the fave, of course <3 Followed up by Nova, maybe? I would like a little more from Sentry—as it is, her character concept is carrying a lot of weight for me—but Quill’s worrying and Aila’s attitude have also really grown on me.
Relationship wise, still aboard the Nova & Lucius friendship, even if it’s developing a bit different than I initially thought. Am also cautiously intrigued by Nova/Aila. Also, it took me way too long to realize that Quill and Sentry have a backstory together. Not much of one, admittedly, but pre-airship is more than anyone else has!
I do wish there were less of player’s missing sessions. For instance, would they have gone to the chasm if Aila had been able to cast her vote? Or, just in general—how the DM characterizes someone isn’t necessarily going to be 1-to-1 to how the player would.
► I did get a bit further in Bravely Default recently! By which I mean I finally, finally reached chapter five. Which is, of course, the point where everything starts to loop. Seeing the characters trying to figure out what’s going on is interesting—like, how they consider that it could be time loop, but then gather evidence for why that doesn’t make sense either (i.e., Edea already being there with them, the townspeople having no memory of Ringabel post-his awakening with amnesia).
Based on my own recollections of the game (which could be wrong, since, again, haven’t played since 2015), what’s going on is that Airy has been doing this same quest over and over, hopping between worlds / different realities, but this time, the whole airship crew came along with her. (With Ringabel, of course, just being the Alternis from the reality where Airy had been in the world previous to theirs). Which I still think is a fun concept!
And, imo, it’s pretty funny imagining what’s going on in Airy’s head in this point. Unlike them, she knows exactly what’s going on in terms of the change of scenery, so she’s playing dumb with her bafflement there… but them coming along with her must be such a source of WTF for her.
Though, at the point they enter the Holy Pillar in their world, Airy does say this: “I’m not even sure what’ll happen. I mean, this is a first for me, too!”
Which, what a weasel.
I know the latter half of this game has a bad rap, but I’m fond of it. I just love love love revisiting all the bosses—not for the battles themselves, but in the way they flesh out the characters. Especially the mid-battle dialogues! It’s just delicious to me. So far, I’ve done Holly & Barras, Ominous Crowe, Heinkel, and Jackal (& Khint, kind of), in that order, and the Holly & Barras one has been my favorite so far.
It was hard to decide which of the two to defeat first, since that decides which special dialogue I get, but in the end I went with Barras, if only because Holly is outwardly harsher and I liked the thought of seeing her grief. And it was delicious <3 Their rematches were some of the ones I was looking most forward to, because they’re very one note in their introductions, but I remember really liking their dynamic in my first playthrough and wanted to be re-introduced to that.
I also love the party’s reactions afterwards! Commenting on how different Holy & Barras seemed, and wondering if the difference truly was in their enemies, or in their own perspective of them. Just a fan of that in general.
Jackal pouring out his tragic backstory pre-fight felt a bit abrupt and awkward, but I remain quite fond of him. And my him/Edea rarepair got a bit of fuel (rarepair style, lol) with this post-battle dialogue from her:
“We’ve defeated a man who admits he is rotten to the core. Yet I feel bad about it for some reason…”
I did finish the big unusual medium project I was working on for a different swap. I actually finished it on Sunday and was quite excited about it, but it took a few days for me to figure out the hosting for it. But it’s posted and approved now, so yay for that <3 It was a bit overkill for the amount I still owed on that swap, haha. But it’s good for the recip, at least.
► I’m about… six episodes in on High Rollers: Aerois, I think? They’re about to enter the chasm. I admit to feeling a bit ??? about their decision to go there first, considering how hard they were pushing the Harvest Guard for employment opportunities the previous episode / the night before in-universe. It just feels weird narratively?
Like, yes, I would love to see them explore this ancient city, but idk, narratively and in terms of building social connections in this town, it would’ve made more sense for them to help out the Harvest Guard with at least one of their problems first before going charging in on a treasure hunt.
Character-wise, I feel like I have a pretty good grip on everyone by this point, and am fond of them. Lucius remains the fave, of course <3 Followed up by Nova, maybe? I would like a little more from Sentry—as it is, her character concept is carrying a lot of weight for me—but Quill’s worrying and Aila’s attitude have also really grown on me.
Relationship wise, still aboard the Nova & Lucius friendship, even if it’s developing a bit different than I initially thought. Am also cautiously intrigued by Nova/Aila. Also, it took me way too long to realize that Quill and Sentry have a backstory together. Not much of one, admittedly, but pre-airship is more than anyone else has!
I do wish there were less of player’s missing sessions. For instance, would they have gone to the chasm if Aila had been able to cast her vote? Or, just in general—how the DM characterizes someone isn’t necessarily going to be 1-to-1 to how the player would.
► I did get a bit further in Bravely Default recently! By which I mean I finally, finally reached chapter five. Which is, of course, the point where everything starts to loop. Seeing the characters trying to figure out what’s going on is interesting—like, how they consider that it could be time loop, but then gather evidence for why that doesn’t make sense either (i.e., Edea already being there with them, the townspeople having no memory of Ringabel post-his awakening with amnesia).
Based on my own recollections of the game (which could be wrong, since, again, haven’t played since 2015), what’s going on is that Airy has been doing this same quest over and over, hopping between worlds / different realities, but this time, the whole airship crew came along with her. (With Ringabel, of course, just being the Alternis from the reality where Airy had been in the world previous to theirs). Which I still think is a fun concept!
And, imo, it’s pretty funny imagining what’s going on in Airy’s head in this point. Unlike them, she knows exactly what’s going on in terms of the change of scenery, so she’s playing dumb with her bafflement there… but them coming along with her must be such a source of WTF for her.
Though, at the point they enter the Holy Pillar in their world, Airy does say this: “I’m not even sure what’ll happen. I mean, this is a first for me, too!”
Which, what a weasel.
I know the latter half of this game has a bad rap, but I’m fond of it. I just love love love revisiting all the bosses—not for the battles themselves, but in the way they flesh out the characters. Especially the mid-battle dialogues! It’s just delicious to me. So far, I’ve done Holly & Barras, Ominous Crowe, Heinkel, and Jackal (& Khint, kind of), in that order, and the Holly & Barras one has been my favorite so far.
It was hard to decide which of the two to defeat first, since that decides which special dialogue I get, but in the end I went with Barras, if only because Holly is outwardly harsher and I liked the thought of seeing her grief. And it was delicious <3 Their rematches were some of the ones I was looking most forward to, because they’re very one note in their introductions, but I remember really liking their dynamic in my first playthrough and wanted to be re-introduced to that.
I also love the party’s reactions afterwards! Commenting on how different Holy & Barras seemed, and wondering if the difference truly was in their enemies, or in their own perspective of them. Just a fan of that in general.
Jackal pouring out his tragic backstory pre-fight felt a bit abrupt and awkward, but I remain quite fond of him. And my him/Edea rarepair got a bit of fuel (rarepair style, lol) with this post-battle dialogue from her:
“We’ve defeated a man who admits he is rotten to the core. Yet I feel bad about it for some reason…”