Raxivace is Losing at Street Fi-TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER UPPERCUT

[maz89]

Oh, that incomplete quest will haunt you forever. Unless it is auto-failed later in the game, which I can't remember. Judging by your attitude towards Triss, I think you completely shut her off when she asked you to confirm your feelings for her, lol. The boat definitely sank.

Also, I assume that the Church of Eternal Fire had views on things other than magical entities, too. Because otherwise they're just a hate group.

[Raxivace]

Oh, that incomplete quest will haunt you forever. Unless it is auto-failed later in the game, which I can't remember. Judging by your attitude towards Triss, I think you completely shut her off when she asked you to confirm your feelings for her, lol. The boat definitely sank.

The quest hasn't auto-failed for me yet at least so I'm presuming I can find Triss again later and make her fix this statue guy. But yeah I rejected Triss.

Also, I assume that the Church of Eternal Fire had views on things other than magical entities, too. Because otherwise they're just a hate group.

I haven't seen much in the way of other views they might have, it really does seem like hating magic is their thing, though perhaps there's some context I'm missing from these millions of books in the game.

I like that these books are here in the game, but the text in Witcher 3 is too small for me to read comfortably for anything longer than a moment though even with the text size set to maximum.

[Raxivace]

So I've been watching an anime called Aura Battler Dunbine. Its been an interesting contrast to playing The Witcher 3 because its also fantasy themed. The premise is that there's the outer world of "Upper Earth", which is basically just our modern reality, and there's the inner world of "Byston Well", a fantasy themed realm with knights and castles and magical creatures and so on. One day the cruel villain of Upper Earth, Shot Weapon, finds his way into Byston Well. He brings with him modern weaponry and technology, planning to militarize Byston Well.

That's not important though. What matters is that Dunbine also has a red headed love interest, named Marvel Frozen who is better than Triss.



I mean wow she has a sword and also a handgun. That's badass. Does Triss dual wield medieval weaponry alongside modern pistols? NO.



Does Triss also pilot giant robots? NO.

Is Triss' name even nearly as goofy as Marvel Frozen, especially for a character we're supposed to believe was born and raised in the United States? NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[maz89]

I like that these books are here in the game, but the text in Witcher 3 is too small for me to read comfortably for anything longer than a moment though even with the text size set to maximum.

Let's just finally end the debate that has haunted fanboys for decades: PC > PS4/console.

[maz89]

Does Triss also pilot giant robots? NO.

Is Triss' name even nearly as goofy as Marvel Frozen, especially for a character we're supposed to believe was born and raised in the United States? NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, all of those things are important... but Triss is hotter.

Also, magic.

[Raxivace]

I like that these books are here in the game, but the text in Witcher 3 is too small for me to read comfortably for anything longer than a moment though even with the text size set to maximum.

Let's just finally end the debate that has haunted fanboys for decades: PC > PS4/console.

Counterpoint: console players haven't appropriated Nazi terminology "ironically" like "master race". Ergo we are better.

[Raxivace]

Does Triss also pilot giant robots? NO.

Is Triss' name even nearly as goofy as Marvel Frozen, especially for a character we're supposed to believe was born and raised in the United States? NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, all of those things are important... but Triss is hotter.

Also, magic.

Its true, Marvel has a very 80's design that doesn't look quite as good as it could today.

That being said, LOL JUST SO FUCKING LOL, A LOL SO GREAT IT TRAVELS TO THE MOUNTAINS AND STARTS AN AVALANCHE if you think magic is better than being an American. GTFO.

[maz89]

Let's just finally end the debate that has haunted fanboys for decades: PC > PS4/console.

Counterpoint: console players haven't appropriated Nazi terminology "ironically" like "master race". Ergo we are better.

Never heard of that before, but it rings true. We came first. You're a shadow of us. Wait. No. A low-res, choppy shadow of us.

Can this thread become a parody of all other fanboy wars and then segue into the thing it is a parody of? Yes.

[maz89]

That being said, LOL JUST SO FUCKING LOL, A LOL SO GREAT IT TRAVELS TO THE MOUNTAINS AND STARTS AN AVALANCHE if you think magic is better than being an American. GTFO.

Was this supposed to be posted in the Trump quotes thread?

[Raxivace]

Honestly my mind just broke for a moment there because you didn't react to a Dunbine character literally being named Shot Weapon.

Anyways Witcher 3. I've gotten all of the Gwent cards, won the tournament etc. And now, like Mifune in Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island, I am saddened that I will never have a worthy opponent ever again...

Until the DLC anyways.

[Raxivace]

Done with the Skellige stuff, toward the section now where you actually go to rescue Siri.

The actual main story here kind of just felt like a bunch of walking around, getting some inoffensive exposition dumps, though the shipwreck that brings you here is cool.

Also, this section had by far the strongest sidequests in the game. The Tower that appeared out of nowhere, the cursed werewolf in the garden, the Iron Islands-esque search for a new king and the massacre at the feast, Yennifer's weird little sailing date, the easy puzzle with the ghost in the arena, the fist fight with the bear, the Ice Giant on the island, the dude hearing voices, the haunted lighthouse and Geralt going to prison etc. It's like night and day compared to the kind of sucky Novigrad quests.

[maz89]

How many hours have you sunk into the game, btw?

Gah, I think I fell really hard for this universe, so I never really zoomed out to look at the main story arc in that way. I don't even remember what was so sucky about the Novigrad quests. A rerun might help with that.

[Raxivace]

How many hours have you sunk into the game, btw?

According to the pause menu I'm at 84 hours, though I'd assume some of that was from a few times I had the game running while I grabbed food or something (I'd guess this maybe only adds an hour or so at most to my gametime though).

Gah, I think I fell really hard for this universe, so I never really zoomed out to look at the main story arc in that way. I don't even remember what was so sucky about the Novigrad quests. A rerun might help with that.

Other than Carnal Sins which we already went into, I think a lot of them were just bland and didn't have any especially interesting set pieces or bits of writing. Even the few that have you run off to Skellige for a few moments are kind of whatever, like the dude who wants you to get a pearl for his debilitating wife that you never meet.

Like honestly the best Novigrad quests are the ones about Gwent. The Tournament was fun for what it was, and I like the one about the black market for Gwent cards with Zoltan.

[maz89]

84 hours... Have you cleared the markers on the map 100% so far? That might explain why I had probably spent more 20 more hours on the game by this stage.

Do let me know how you find the part of the game you've reached now (ie rescuing Ciri).

BTW, the more I think about it, the more I find myself thinking I liked the Novigrad stuff more than Skellige. I wish I could say more though. But I did really like the city setting, the variety of life, Triss, etc.

[Raxivace]

84 hours... Have you cleared the markers on the map 100% so far? That might explain why I had probably spent more 20 more hours on the game by this stage.

I've done most of Velen/Novigrad except for the upper right portion of the map which seems to have a lot of Level 30+ enemies. Its frustrating because they're not any more difficult than regular enemies but, say, a single arrow will kill me and these guys just take too long to kill.

I don't think I'll clear all the markers in Skellige though. It just seems like its a lot of diving for treasure I don't particularly want or need.

I like this game (And that's more than I can say about any other WRPG I've played before) but it does kind of bother me that at 80+ hours in I'm still not done with the main story and still have the DLC's after that. It just really seems like the bigness and breadth of the game works against it more than it actually helps it. Like this game wouldn't be any worse if the maps were all the size of White Orchard.

Do let me know how you find the part of the game you've reached now (ie rescuing Ciri).

The whole section at Kaer Morhen was great, and I've got all of the allies I think I can for the battle against the Wild Hunt. Still need to head to the Isle of Mist itself though.

Man Lambert sure is an ass though.

BTW, the more I think about it, the more I find myself thinking I liked the Novigrad stuff more than Skellige. I wish I could say more though. But I did really like the city setting, the variety of life, Triss, etc.

Yeah I still preferred the main story stuff in Novigrad but the sidequests of Skellige myself.

[maz89]

I skipped the underwater ones too.

I get what you mean about the breadth of the game working against it... okay, actually no, I tried to but I don't, lol. I think the reason for that is that it's not as though the markers are something that are necessary or central to the story. I personally liked the combat/mythology enough to browse every nook and cranny on the map, if only to keep alive the pretense of the Witcher universe being a real, relatable one. Even the nondescript bandit camps had some tragic (or comic) story buried in them, someone to save or help, the occasional random quest, etc. The vastness of the world/map gave it that lived-in feel. If one moved from Velen to Novigrad to Skellige at the pace of White Orchard, the universe would feel so much smaller, even if it is monsters, bandit camps and buildings we're talking about. Idk, it'd just seem weird that all of the game's story is occurring on such a small, uneventful patch of land, ya know? An epic needs a longer runtime to make you sink in to its tone, and so I felt it was with W3... But coming back to the original point, if you weren't such a friggin' completionist, you'd have reached the DLCs by now. ;)

Glad you liked Kaer Morhan... g'luck with Isle of Mist. One of my favorite parts of the game.

[Raxivace]

There were just so many moments where I had to find a place that wasn't clearly marked on a map, or where I had to run around mountains too much, or spend too much time just getting somewhere that it just felt tedious. Even stuff I liked doing at first like restoring abandoned villages felt like busywork after a while for an easy chunk of EXP since its not like any of these villages would give you a cool questline or anything. After a while it just feels like they focused more on quantity over quality.

I also just don't really agree with this notion that the world of The Witcher 3 actually does feel "lived in" either. It still feels very artificial and video gamey to me, but in a way that comes about only when a game is seeking to be immersive but just doesn't make it. Like I can't count the number of times I would get a scene where a guy thanks me for killing some monster, and then after the dialogue was over I'd get the stock line from the same NPC about how I'm a dirty mutant or whatever. The whole experience would have benefited I think from being a little more abstracted.

Anyways I finished the main game. I liked battle of Kaer Mohren itself (Which is a great setpiece and has some really nice buildup with the Brothers in Arms quests. Really nice job tying the side content into the main story) but didn't care much for the rest of the ending gauntlet of quests. Oh well, time to move on to the DLC.

BTW I grabbed the first game off of Steam and the 360 version of the second game, so I'll go back to those at some point to round out the trilogy.

[maz89]

Ah, I guess it was just a lot more successful at reeling me in! I mean it's quite telling that the ending gauntlet of quests didn't do much for you because the game actually made me care quite a bit about the characters and I loved that it gave them a fitting epilogue. (I remember when another game I really liked, Mass Effect 3, forgot about closure, and the studio released a patch to add an epilogue mission to fix that.)

For me, I don't think that that funny instance of that thankless bastard showing his true colors (lol) detracts from the "lived in" vibe that I was talking about, which really came from the accumulation of many encounters, moments and quests, including encounters with the normal and the not-so-normal - deranged, eccentric, odd - characters. Also, the sex scenes.

And I really loved exploring endless landscapes for a rare piece of armor or experience because it was just so satisfying in terms of both time/benefit. The gameplay made the "quantity" worth it for me. I can understand, though, how a more regular gamer could tire of it but I'm still glad the developers left that in - these gamers don't have to go traipsing around mountains if they don't want to. ;)

Btw, no mention of the silent, wordless scene in which father and pseudo-daughter are finally reunited? Really? I loved that scene.

How many hours are you in now?

BTW I grabbed the first game off of Steam and the 360 version of the second game, so I'll go back to those at some point to round out the trilogy.

Hey, even I haven't played the first one. The dated graphics in the screenshots were off-putting, although the story was interesting on paper. I liked the second one quite a bit too but, again with the clunkier controls/stiffer Geralt and relatively low-res graphics, I don't know if you'll like it as much.

[Raxivace]

Btw, no mention of the silent, wordless scene in which father and pseudo-daughter are finally reunited? Really? I loved that scene.

I'm not sure whether you're referring to the first reunion or the epilogue reunion. Honestly I didn't like either one very much. The first bothered me because the silly extended Snow White reference with the dwarves to begin with. I'm not sure why they felt the need to include this whole segment. After that though they tease for a moment that Ciri had died, which I thought was a genuinely interesting development and had me really curious how the story would develop from this subversive moment and then of course she comes back to life anyways.

Same thing with the ending bits. Somehow Ciri is the only one who can stop the White Frost because of her Elder Blood (I'm not sure why or how this happens), the game tries to pretend this was actually her story the whole time (Because I guess Geralt wasn't the one I spent like 70 hours doing stuff with. Must have just imagined that.), and then in the epilogue she's back in White Orchard unharmed having saved the universe (Maybe?) and is ready to become Empress. I was just thoroughly confused more than anything.

How many hours are you in now?

I've since finished Hearts of Stone and that bumps me up to, somewhat ironically, about 108 hours.

Hearts of Stone was alright by the way. Certainly more cohesive than the story to the main game. Just got Blood and Wine left now.

Hey, even I haven't played the first one. The dated graphics in the screenshots were off-putting, although the story was interesting on paper. I liked the second one quite a bit too but, again with the clunkier controls/stiffer Geralt and relatively low-res graphics, I don't know if you'll like it as much.

Yeah I played about an hour of it to make sure it worked on my laptop and hoh boy, Wikipedia tells me it came out in 2007 but frankly it plays like it came out in 1997. Still, I'll run through the main story at some point at least (And its own two main DLC's), though I'll probably do it on Easy because of how archaic it feels.

For all of the flaws I find in Witcher 3's combat it is lightyears better than Witcher 1. I did notice that Vesemir has the same voice actor in this first game though which is nice (And apparently his actor also played a character in Xenoblade 2, which is kind of funny since I'm coming to these games from finishing that). I think Geralt has the same VA too, though he sounds like shit in this first game.

[maz89]

I'm not sure whether you're referring to the first reunion or the epilogue reunion. Honestly I didn't like either one very much. The first bothered me because the silly extended Snow White reference with the dwarves to begin with. I'm not sure why they felt the need to include this whole segment. After that though they tease for a moment that Ciri had died, which I thought was a genuinely interesting development and had me really curious how the story would develop from this subversive moment and then of course she comes back to life anyways.

The first reunion. The game had been building up to this reunion since forever, finally breaking away with the 'Ciri flashback' mode of the game that usually appeared in this part of the game. The mysterious, foggy island; the dull, drab grey of the environment lending a foreboding tone; yes, those dwarves (and that fairytale reference, here stripped of its color); Geralt's unusually anxious face as he creaks open the door and walks over to a seemingly lifeless body on the bed. I loved everything about it. It worked so well for me because I thought Ciri was a fully fleshed character, for whom I'd begun to genuinely care, much like the protagonist who'd I'd spent so much time with.

I mean, come on, how many games dwell so much on a father-adoptive daughter relationship?

When you mentioned earlier that the fatherhood stuff wasn't working for you, I figured that the main thread in Geralt's story wouldn't do much for you. Because really, I'd play the game just to feel the chills I first felt when Geralt finally reunited with Ciri.

Same thing with the ending bits. Somehow Ciri is the only one who can stop the White Frost because of her Elder Blood (I'm not sure why or how this happens), the game tries to pretend this was actually her story the whole time (Because I guess Geralt wasn't the one I spent like 70 hours doing stuff with. Must have just imagined that.), and then in the epilogue she's back in White Orchard unharmed having saved the universe (Maybe?) and is ready to become Empress. I was just thoroughly confused more than anything.

Well, I'm hazy on the 'why' right now but as the lore goes, it has to do with Ciri's ancestry. There's some interesting mythology here - Ciri's powerful elven ancestors had a perfect plan chalked out, a plan that dictated who would marry whom designed to increase and secure the Elven Blood running in their family tree, thereby ensuring the fulfillment of the prophecy surrounding the Child of the Elder Blood. But, as these things normally go, one of the women fucks with that plan by falling in love with a human, corrupting the blood. Until its occasional resurfacing again and again in their family chain. And it resurfaced in Ciri too, the last descendant of a forgotten family tree. A lot of this information is given in the books you come across, I think.

On the "game pretending this was Ciri's story the whole time", it is important to remember that half of the time you spend with Geralt is when he's desperately trying to retrace Ciri's steps. It's clear, right from the beginning that starts with a flashback of a younger Ciri, that the story would keep returning to her and her relationship with Geralt. The two share a rich history too - something about Geralt refusing to adopt Ciri in the first instance, but later accepting the responsibility of fatherhood after he finds her on the brink of death in a chance encounter.

Also, she didn't become an Empress in my game. She faked her death and spent her life as an anonymous witcher. It was a much more fitting end to her story. That's because I didn't tell her shitty father about her existence like you did. Why would you do that? Did you hate her so much, you monster?

Hearts of Stone was alright by the way. Certainly more cohesive than the story to the main game. Just got Blood and Wine left now.

Yep, I expected you'd like it more. I think you'll like Blood and Wine the best.

[Raxivace]

I mean, come on, how many games dwell so much on a father-adoptive daughter relationship?

I mean I've played at least five others myself. It's just not unusual in a world where Telltale's The Walking Dead had as huge of a critical reception as it did. Some other games that have done it include BioShock 2, Silent Hill, Resident Evil 7, and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (All games as incredibly different from each other as they both are from Witcher 3). I'm told The Last of Us does this as well, though I have not played it myself yet. I'm not saying all of these games are great about it (RE7 in particular is real weird when looked in the context of this trend, since the daughter figure is the main antagonist of the game), but it seems like fairly well trodden ground.

This is just keeping the "adoptive" part as a strict criteria too- if you expand it to just father-daugher relationship games in general there's a bunch more. It's a pretty common trend in recent years, as game developers get older.

Well, I'm hazy on the 'why' right now but as the lore goes, it has to do with Ciri's ancestry. There's some interesting mythology here - Ciri's powerful elven ancestors had a perfect plan chalked out, a plan that dictated who would marry whom designed to increase and secure the Elven Blood running in their family tree, thereby ensuring the fulfillment of the prophecy surrounding the Child of the Elder Blood. But, as these things normally go, one of the women fucks with that plan by falling in love with a human, corrupting the blood. Until its occasional resurfacing again and again in their family chain. And it resurfaced in Ciri too, the last descendant of a forgotten family tree. A lot of this information is given in the books you come across, I think.

No I mean I get that Ciri had special ancestral blood or whatever, that's all fine. What I don't get is how having that leads to her stopping the White Frost.

Like did she just explode all of the snow away?

On the "game pretending this was Ciri's story the whole time", it is important to remember that half of the time you spend with Geralt is when he's desperately trying to retrace Ciri's steps. It's clear, right from the beginning that starts with a flashback of a younger Ciri, that the story would keep returning to her and her relationship with Geralt.

My point here is that the entire rest of the game emphasizes Geralt's desire to find her, Geralt's feelings and moral dilemmas, Geralt's "wild hunt" for her.

Through most of this game Ciri is little more than a motivating factor for other characters. Even in these ending parts its Geralt making decisions that determine Ciri's fate. Like apparently she would have died if Geralt didn't make the decision to throw snowballs at her.

If they wanted a story about Ciri they would have just made a game where you primarily play as her and she makes decisions for herself, at least IMO. As it is, she's about as much of a character as The Maltese Falcon is.

Also, she didn't become an Empress in my game. She faked her death and spent her life as an anonymous witcher. It was a much more fitting end to her story. That's because I didn't tell her shitty father about her existence like you did. Why would you do that? Did you hate her so much, you monster?

I took her to see Charles Dance because I figured he would come after us again if we didn't just clear the air. I'm not sure anything really indicated that Dance would be bad to Ciri specifically either- its not like she's a drunken dwarf like her brother Tyrion.

Ciri becoming a Witcher seems kind of silly to me since I'm pretty sure I committed genocide as destroyed all of the monster nests and cleared all of the contracts. They're can't be that many monsters left in the land.

Yep, I expected you'd like it more. I think you'll like Blood and Wine the best.

Having slept on it, I'm more positive on Hearts of Stone now. My two biggest issues with are:

1)Some of Olgieri's story feels like its retreading ground from the Bloody Baron quest.
2)Gaunter is slightly less interesting of a character if you get the information from the scholar. I liked him better when he was purely an anomaly in the world of the Witcher 3 that seems weird when you first meet him in White Orchard but that you kind of forget about after 80 hours. When you find out he's probably just a demon or something that demystifies him a bit too much for me.

The rest is pretty good though.

[maz89]

I mean, come on, how many games dwell so much on a father-adoptive daughter relationship?

I mean I've played at least five others myself. It's just not unusual in a world where Telltale's The Walking Dead had as huge of a critical reception as it did. Some other games that have done it include BioShock 2, Silent Hill, Resident Evil 7, and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (All games as incredibly different from each other as they both are from Witcher 3). I'm told The Last of Us does this as well, though I have not played it myself yet. I'm not saying all of these games are great about it (RE7 in particular is real when looked in the context of this trend, since the daughter figure is the main antagonist of the game), but it seems like fairly well trodden ground.

This is just keeping the "adoptive" part as a strict criteria too- if you expand it to just father-daugher relationship games in general there's a bunch more. It's a pretty common trend in recent years, as game developers get older.

Lol, well that was a rhetoric fail on my part. (How did I forget to mention Telltale's Walking Dead? Or Last of Us? Which, btw is brilliant and you should feel bad for not having played it yet.)

Point is I think W3 does it as well as the rest of them.

No I mean I get that Ciri had special ancestral blood or whatever, that's all fine. What I don't get is how having that leads to her stopping the White Frost.

Like did she just explode all of the snow away?

How did the Khaleesi travel from Dragonstone to the area beyond the Wall in such a short span of time? "Magic". I figured she (Ciri, not Dany) used her time/space bending capabilities to offset... uh an entire ice age. The game admittedly isn't clear about this, but the point is she was able to be this person due to the mental willpower she gained from her adoptive father. (She dies if Geralt makes her choices for her. That's the ending I wish you'd gotten so I didn't have to hear you ask this question. )

My point here is that the entire rest of the game emphasizes Geralt's desire to find her, Geralt's feelings and moral dilemmas, Geralt's "wild hunt" for her.

Yes, I understand, but I also think that all of those things end up painting a vivid picture of who Ciri is, her relationship with Geralt, and what they mean to each other. I mean, one never gets the impression that Ciri is someone other than who her father thinks she is because, after piecing together everything you know about her through Geralt and the people he encounters, you also spend a fair amount of time with her in the latter third of the game (not to mention the few times you're actually put in her shoes). She's meant to be special but not enigmatic. Unlike Yennifer.

Which reminds me, you mentioned Yennifer's quest only briefly but I have to add there's something truly sweepingly romantic about her connection/history with Geralt. Her quest was one of the best in the game because it showed her being vulnerable instead of her typical cool, hard-to-get type. Loved the range and moment of truth there, and how it drew from their rich history in the Polish literary works.

Through most of this game Ciri is little more than a motivating factor for other characters. Even in these ending parts its Geralt making decisions that determine Ciri's fate. Like apparently she would have died if Geralt didn't make the decision to throw snowballs at her.

People are a product of the circumstances they've grown up in and the experiences they've had. A child is influenced and shaped by the people around them, particularly their parents, so I don't think it's farfetched to believe that if Geralt never expressed affection for his adoptive daughter, it'd have implications on who Ciri would grow up to be. The "snowball fight" was critical because it asked you a big question: what kind of father would Geralt be to Ciri? It's a question that's repeatedly asked so Geralt gets more than one chance. It's an accumulation of many interactions with Ciri over the course of the game that determines whether she'll survive or not.

If they wanted a story about Ciri they would have just made a game where you primarily play as her and she makes decisions for herself, at least IMO. As it is, she's about as much of a character as The Maltese Falcon is.

Interesting you put it like that because, as I said earlier, if Geralt refuses to let Ciri be who she is, if he makes her decisions for her and strips her of her agency, she doesn't succeed in her fight against the White Frost. Which is, again, a nice metaphor for healthy parenting.

I took her to see Charles Dance because I figured he would come after us again if we didn't just clear the air. I'm not sure anything really indicated that Dance would be bad to Ciri specifically either- its not like she's a drunken dwarf like her brother Tyrion.

You had one job! Protect your daughter! From everything evil! Sigh.

Yep, I expected you'd like it more. I think you'll like Blood and Wine the best.

Having slept on it, I'm more positive on Hearts of Stone now. My two biggest issues with are:

1)Some of Olgieri's story feels like its retreading ground from the Bloody Baron quest.
2)Gaunter is slightly less interesting of a character if you get the information from the scholar. I liked him better when he was purely an anomaly in the world of the Witcher 3 that seems weird when you first meet him in White Orchard but that you kind of forget about after 80 hours. When you find out he's probably just a demon or something that demystifies him a bit too much for me.

The rest is pretty good though.

Oh, no. I meant that "I expected you to like it more than the main Wild Hunt storyline", which you did... even without sleeping on it. Blood & Wine is a fantastically executed mystery and ridiculously fun, and if you disagree with me, we can't be friends.

[Raxivace]

I finished Blood and Wine. Didn't quite get the ending I was going for but tbh I was so fatigued from Witcher 3 that by the end I was just rushing through it to be done with it.

Blood and Wine itself was alright. I like that it actually tried to expand on the gameplay systems of the main game but uh it would have been nice to have some of these like 70 literal hours of gameplay ago. Wasn't thrilled by the new monsters either- the plants and the centipede things in particular were super obnoxious with all of their burrowing underground.

The story is arguably a repeat of the Carnal Sins quest, but eh while hardly my favorite bit of the game its still better than Carnal Sins.

[maz89]

I feel like my big takeaway from your W3 experience is that... Carnal Sins sucked. Now I have to play the game all over again just to see why this particular side quest has gotten so much of your attention. I mean, you've articulated your reasons well enough but, no, this I gotta see for myself. Lol.

Side note: is this the most amount of time you've put into an RPG?

[Raxivace]

I feel like my big takeaway from your W3 experience is that... Carnal Sins sucked. Now I have to play the game all over again just to see why this particular side quest has gotten so much of your attention. I mean, you've articulated your reasons well enough but, no, this I gotta see for myself. Lol.

In this case I just think the "Vampire serial killer performing "ironic" murders based on the local customs" angle just naturally invites the comparison (Even if the story of Blood and Wine obviously complicates it). But yeah I bring up Carnal Sins a lot because it was the most disappointing quest to me.

Side note: is this the most amount of time you've put into an RPG?

For a single playthrough? Probably. If you're counting overall replays I've probably put more time into Dark Souls 1, Tales of Symphonia, Kingdom Hearts 1, and Kingdom Hearts 2. KH2 in particular I've played 6 or 7 times, and without skipping cutscenes and doing everything its like an 80 hour game in its own right.

Dark Souls 2 is probably up there for me as well.

[maz89]

I think the only game I've replayed in its entirety... is that Pocahontas game on Sega. I finished that game more times than I can count.

Wonder what was so special about KH2... ah, PS2... missed the boat on that one.

[maz89]

In this case I just think the "Vampire serial killer performing "ironic" murders based on the local customs" angle just naturally invites the comparison (Even if the story of Blood and Wine obviously complicates it). But yeah I bring up Carnal Sins a lot because it was the most disappointing quest to me.

So you didn't find the fairy tale facade worth mentioning? I thoroughly enjoyed it. The stuff of childhood memories, and an unusual (perhaps ironic) lightness I accepted with open arms.

[Raxivace]

Oh yeah that section. Tbh it seemed kind of out of place to me, and kind of fillerish. None of the shock value it was going for (Like the Rapunzel standin hanging herself with her hair) really landed for me either.

[Raxivace]

Wonder what was so special about KH2... ah, PS2... missed the boat on that one.

I really like the combat system of that game. Its easy enough to learn, but hard to master (Particularly on the Level 1 challenge run).

There's also a lot of weird subtext in the game too that I find interesting to consider. Like the story of KH2 is ostensibly that Yen Sid from Disney's Fantasia sends the main character and his friends Donald Duck and Goofy out on a racist genocide despite every cutscene in the game more or less proving him to be insane and have no idea what he's talking about. It's bizarre.

[Raxivace]

So I went back and finished Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. I'm able to appreciate what it did a lot more now, and for a SNES game from 1996 it does some cool and weird things using strategy RPG mechanics.

The basic story is that the main character, Sigurd, is called forth by his kingdom to basically conquer surrounding countries with his army in the name of bringing about "peace" and "order", though this is pretty blatantly imperialism. I previously complained about the maps being very huge, and they are, but it does really give the impression of it being an actual grueling war you're waging, of months to years passing at a time etc. Over the first half of the game you're gradually gaining more and more units, pairing them up with husbands or wives, and also collecting powerful weapons for them.

The weapon system in particular is interesting because if you kill 50 enemies with a specific weapon, every additional enemy you kill with that weapon increases their critical hit rate by 1%, and that's very useful since critical hits usually means you're killing most enemies in a single attack or two. You especially want to kill enemies as quick as possible because when one of your allies die, they die permanently and there's no bringing them back. You end up attached to your better weapons as a result, as they're literal life savers.

After completing Chapter 5, you're congratulated and rewarded by one of your allies for defeating all of your enemies. You get invited to a special ceremony. And at this ceremony you're Red Wedding'd by the guy who invited you and your entire fucking army and main character is killed right then and there. For real. The game and then cuts to 20 years later and you're now playing as Sigurd's son, Seliph, who is now raising his own resistance to fight and free the very nations you spent the first half of the game conquering. All those weapons you spent the first half building up? Most of them ended up in the empire's hands, and lol fuck you they're using these broken ass OP axes and swords and whatnot against you now.

Seliph and most of his few allies that you start with at this point are all at Level 1 too, though luckily Seliph inherits whatever Sigurd had when he died. If you trained Sigurd properly, Seliph will start with an OP weapon that can help turn the tide against enemies that outlevel you and outnumber you, so you can start building your strength back up, start finding more allies, kill enemies to get your OP weapons back etc., and then eventually fight to get your revenge. Any allies from the first half that got married have children too that you can find, and you can add to your army (And they have different stats depending on their parents)

There's a surprising amount of incest in this game too, especially for a Nintendo game. It really is Game of Thrones, despite coming out before any of the books did!

[Raxivace]

Of course, OF FUCKING COURSE, there's a stability patch for Witcher 3 PS4 that only comes out RIGHT AFTER I FINISH THE FUCKING GAME GOD DAMN I FUCKING WANT TO BURN POLAND DOWN.

I don't actually want to burn Poland down, I like Poland, but I'm a bit annoyed.

[maz89]

Oh yeah that section. Tbh it seemed kind of out of place to me, and kind of fillerish. None of the shock value it was going for (Like the Rapunzel standin hanging herself with her hair) really landed for me either.

Casually putting this back into my pocket...

Also, LOL at the timing of the patch. I guess you really weren't exaggerating about those technical glitches...

[Raxivace]

So I've been playing Final Fantasy II (And I mean the actual FF2, not FF4) and wow it is fairly bleak for an NES era game. Party members are dying left and right. I went back to the starting town after the Dreadnought captured Cid's airship and the princess, and some random NPC I talked to was like "Ah you worthless fuckers fucked this up bad, you guys suck at destroying evil airships. GTFO this adventure."

Its like geeze, sorry. We're just 3-4 adventurers, what the hell were you assholes doing when your sovereign got kidnapped?

[maz89]

I have played a total of 0 games since we last spoke... still have Skyrim to finish but I don't know if I'll get around to finishing up with that. :/

I do want to play the latest God of War on PS4 even though I haven't played any of the previous entries. What's your take on that?

[Raxivace]

I haven't played new God of War, no real interest in the series.

It sounds like this new one is another "dad game", as that what I see it being praised for, and its hard for me to find that kind of thing mindblowing on its own anymore (And I haven't seen any real argument that God of War does it in a new or unique or even especially competent way).

[Raxivace]

I like how Final Fantasy II has you killing the main villain 80% of the way through the game and sending his soul to Hell, only for him to defeat the Devil, take over Hell, and then invade the Earth again anyways with his new Satanic powers.

[Raxivace]

I finished FF2, and I'm now playing Final Fantasy III- the NES version specifically.

Amusingly, the default class your characters start in is the strangely named "Onion Knight". I've always wondered if Davos in Game of Thrones being nicknamed "Onion Knight" was an FF3 reference, but IIRC when the books with Davos came out, FF3 had not yet received a fan translation or anything, and the official English release of the Nintendo DS remake was still a few years off.

[maz89]

I am envious of your routine.

[Raxivace]

If it helps FF2 is like a 15 hour game lol.

[maz89]

Lol. Slightly less envious then.

[Raxivace]

Yeah now I'm real distracted because I got the Dark Souls 1 remaster and am playing that again too. So much for that routine lmao.

[Raxivace]

Found an interesting analysis of Witcher 3:

Geralt of Poland: The Witcher 3 Between Epistemic Disobedience and Imperial Nostalgia

[maz89]

Looks interesting. Will read. How did you come across it?

[Raxivace]

Looks interesting. Will read. How did you come across it?

When I get bored I google around for anything resembling academic articles about games/shows/movies I like or have played/watched recently. This is my life now.

[Raxivace]

Found another one worth taking a look at: "The Quest For Medievalism in The Witcher 3".

Wasn't as into this one myself, though it makes an interesting contrast with the "Geralt of Poland" piece.

[maz89]

Stop giving me so much to read.

[Raxivace]

Alright I'll just start posting blank Word documents I guess. That way there won't be anything to read.

[maz89]

That's a bit extreme.

[maz89]

Say, did you ever play Red Dead Redemption on PS3?

[Raxivace]

Say, did you ever play Red Dead Redemption on PS3?

Nah I never got around to that one.