Chit-Chat: Back to the Grind(stone)

[pkmin3033]

I like romance in games...when it's done right. It has to come naturally, not overtake the entire plot - like it does literally every time it pops up in a Final Fantasy game - and not be shoved down our throats at every opportunity. As much as I liked Jude and Milla in Tales of Xillia, I do not ship them, and that the game takes every opportunity to generate almost enough sexual tension to set my PS3 on fire is not appreciated. Similarly, the Shulk x Fiora pairing in Xenoblade...not a fan of it.

That said, the rabid amount of shipping going on in Atelier titles - especially the Arland games - is outrageously charming and part of the reason I love the case so much. Totori x Mimi OTP. The Sterk x Rorona shiptease is even cuter...especially in Meruru, when she's been turned back into an eight-year-old and he's stuck babysitting her with literally no idea of what the hell he's supposed to be doing; it's like he's aware of how much shiptease is going on. That was beyond ridiculous and somehow not as creepy as it should have been. xD

 

[Judge Mandolore Shepard]

When it comes to romance in video games, I think Bioware does well as making the romance optional. Over the course of Mass Effect series, a Male Shepard has a choice of 11 different characters to romance. Where as a Female Shepard has a choice of 12 different characters to romance. (Course two of the characters for Female Shepard requires at least both the From Ashes DLC and the Citadel DLC). Speaking of this series, I tend to ship Male Shepard with Tali and Female Shepard with Garrus.

 

[pkmin3033]

Bioware romances are alright in terms of dialogue sometimes - Iron Bull in Dragon Age III was absolutely hilarious - but the less said about those godawful sex scenes the better; they're absolutely cringeworthy. It's nice being able to pick your poison as it were, but...oh god, they really dropped the ball on those.

 

[JJ Styles]

Sex scenes ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Okay kiddies lurking around in the forum, you do not want to read on our following posts unless you are all okay with reading about smut and sex in video games. Go play your Pokemon games to help calm down mmkay? Also, if any of you are already opening your incognito browsers, do remember, my current Avatar is Aya, and every second you even try browsing for sticky stuff, SHE'S ON TO YOU ;) okay continuing on.

The first Sex scene i ever saw in a game was.. well, okay obviously not counting any porn or hentai or w/e (smutty VNs also not included), also cutting out GTA Hot Coffee because that was a disaster.. was probably Dragon Age 1 since I have a friend who got the game on launch, got pretty far, and hard (well you already know why he was "hard), and seeing that he's a smut-crazed lunatic that exceeds my own level of lunacy, he was showing me his "hard earned work" and i was like "WTF did i just saw? Was that allowed?"

Oh baby, romance in video games? I hope that some people remember Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix because my god that was a completely different experience than what i had from the first Fear Effect. I remember Fear Effect being a really gritty and edgy (back in that game's era, Gritty and Edgy was cool) game that i bought since i read about it in a magazine ages ago. Fear Effect was basically something like your action-adventure film noir + supernatural elements thing. It was great. Then some time later, I saw in those magazine ads.. those mag ads of Hana and her what i assumed her lesbian lover Rain... oh yeah. I saw it and i was like "I WANT THIS GAME!" since i was a little kid pervert lunatic years ago..

I swear on me Super Shotgun, that Elevator Scene from FE2 was one of the greatest things I ever saw back then, and its still one of the greatest things ever. Of course that triggered a f**kton of people even before getting triggered by things in video games was even a thing (remember kiddies, Aya's watching you!)

Sad to know that Hana, Fear Effect's heroine, is more remembered by her controversial lesbian relationship with Rain than the games she were in.

Damn, Hana was one of my fave Heroines from the PS era. Ohhh something to write about later ;)

Eidos Interactive... Rest in Pepperonis.

 

[pkmin3033]

We're such a progressive society: same-sex relationships in video games are still controversial for some reason, and you don't seem them popping up very often in the AAA industry...and in Japan they fit into a very small genre or they have a completely different context which is the Western equivalent of close friendship in most cases.

I mean, they made such a big deal out of the two, version-exclusive same-sex relationships in Fire Emblem Fates; it was ridiculous...although that said there WAS that whole "potion to change sexual orientation" thing floating about which sparked more people off.

Options, people. If it's optional then you don't have to experience it; nobody is forcing it on you. It's like how people are so against easy modes in video games that don't have them. Just play how you want. Stop getting uptight when other people can't play how they want to. Jesus.

I wanted to sleep with Wrex in Mass Effect and I am not happy about it. The bedroom conversations would have been amazing.

"Shepard." *nods*
"Wrex." *nods*
"Shepard." *nods*
"Wrex." *nods*
*awkward silence*

 

[Sir Codin]

Of course we'd all think Bioware romance scenes are good...they're the ones who made it popular. While a lot of people give much deserved praise to Baldur's Gate 2, they also lament that it was that game and Bioware that kickstarted pandering romances in RPGs.

In fact, a lot of die-hard cRPGers now give a lot of badmouthing towards Bioware for making "romance simulators" instead of RPGs. And personally, I'm inclined to agree with them.

 

[pkmin3033]

I'm not sure I'd go THAT far...Dragon Age: Origins at least was a pretty solid RPG. The merits of II and Inquisition I'd be willing to debate - especially as they devolved into mindless hack and slash on anything other than Nightmare, and even then they're not particularly tactical with the right party setup - but Origins...despite having the worst romance scenes, it was pretty damn spectacular for its time. The party banter alone made it worth playing; the whimsical humour was often entertaining. Especially with Morrigan. Claudia Black did such a fantastic job with her.

But Mass Effect...yeah. Especially considering how it all ended. I'm not on the "this was so bad it ruined the whole franchise!" bandwagon, but I was hoping for something a little more conclusive and a little less Hollywood movie...plus that bastard Marauder Shields was the worst final boss ever. I'd be more inclined to not forgive them for that than I would anything else, aha.

Square Enix are more guilty of terrible romances than Bioware are anyway; they completely derail the story. Every single time.

 

[Sir Codin]

Do not diss Marauder Shields....he tried to kill us to prevent us from experiencing the horrible ending. He failed, but we have to praise him for trying and dying for our sins.

I kind of gave up Bioware after I cemented myself to the fact that they'll probably never be able to top Baldur's Gate 2, especially considering how corporate they've become.

 

[pkmin3033]

Well, he stopped me from getting the platinum trophy for several days, which I did not appreciate ._.

That's understandable; after all, I don't think they've topped Baldur's Gate quite yet either. Bioware have become a great deal like Rare, really. Who knows, maybe in the future some of the better minds will break away and form their own independent studio and create something worth playing with Kickstarter funding. That seems to be the way to go these days for a lot of creators...

 

[Sir Codin]

Pillars Of Eternity was created through kickstarter by Obsidian and it's probably the closest anything's gotten in a long time to capturing the greatness of the Infinity Engine games. Of course, that's to be expected considering it was made by people who worked on Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale.

Granted, I haven't beaten it or played it in a while due to other things and waiting for both DLC to come out, but what I played I enjoyed.

 

[JJ Styles]

Holy sh*t, are we about to go into a direction where nobody will stay the same because... DING! I FOUND AN IMPORTANT NEWS ARTICLE WITH MY NEWS ARTICLE SNIFFING HELM!

Baldur's Gate Expansion gets negative reviews after it introduces a transgender character

And oh look, a Polygon article regarding how Beamdog actually responds

Feel free to give your own sentiments here. I feel like a lot of people have overreacted to a transgender individual being introduced into the game who isn't even a major character thus easily overlooked or missed out. I know there's like a "gamergate" reference with the said character's dialogue but then again, ITS STILL A MINOR CHARACTER, a minor, a minor like a.. okay I'll stop from there.

Then again, maybe JUST MAYBE I would sympathize with some people who would suddenly walk up here and say that a fantasy world like Baldur's Gate does not need any of this "REAL WURLD LIKE REFERENCES of Transgender characters walking among us" crud because its a fantasy world, thereby fantasy worlds have to keep their lore and charm as fantasy worlds. I can get their sentiments from my own point of view. Its like it would be totally weird if the Lord of the Rings universe was filled with ONE transgender character in the cast and was like a major character or at least a character that had a somewhat significant role... but come on people, we should be at least be more open to things.. at least to certain things.

But Game of Thrones has hot smutty LesYay scenes yet people are not complaining... *lady slapped! BECAUSE YOU MEN LIKE IT WHEN 2GIRLS ARE GETTIN IT ON* I dunno what the f**k I'm talking about but i still get the sentiments from people who say that fantasy worlds like Baldur's Gate need to stay as a "FANTASY WORLD"

still an overraction though, and isn't it ironic that its Gamers in this scenario are the ones being triggered instead of SJWs?

 

[Karma Police]

Divinity: Original Sin is also a pretty good cRPG released in recent times. Sure, it doesn't really evoke the Infinity Engine feel, but still.

Obsidian really needs to work on more games though. Especially if it's a new Fallout one. I'd really like a Fallout more along the lines of New Vegas than the more streamlined "Shooter with RPG elements" that was Fallout 4.

Baldur's Gate Expansion gets negative reviews after it introduces a transgender character

Goddamn, gamers whine over the most asinine shit.

 

[JJ Styles]

Ed Greenwood's statement regarding the Baldur's Gate tranny fiasco

"D&D has half-orcs, and half-dragons, and half-elves, and has magic items that specifically change gender, right there in the rules. Surely, if you can handle the basic notion of cross-species sex, having a full variety of gender roles should be something that doesn't blow your mind,"

When you think about it, inter-species intercourse between Elves and Men are so common in a fantasy world (KIDDIES I KNOW ITS A WEEKEND, REMEMBER AYA'S WATCHING YOU!), so the inclusion of a transgender character in a fantasy game shouldn't be so offensive right? But i guess that said character's gamergate reference line was the one that triggered people.

I'd rather read the negative reviews pointing out things that were working out wrong in the game.

 

[Sir Codin]

Oh trust me, I've read a few opinion pieces already:

The issues people have with Siege of Dragonspear go FAR beyond an NPC who's only schtick is that he's trans or the unneccesary comment about Gamergate....

I found this gem in a review:

There are some loud voices out there who will tell you that this is the great cultural war of our time. Here's a reality check. Nobody cares. Really. Gamergate is just a fun diversion for everybody except its most fanatical participants. Some of you may live on the Internet, but most of us just vacation there. If your life, your identity and future depend on whether a barebones broadcasting service can be used for civil discussion then you are not at the vanguard of human relations, you are at the bottom of it.

 

[pkmin3033]

Hmmm...well, that's partially right, but still incredibly narrow-minded and wrongfully dismissive. It's all fun and games if you don't care, but the fact is that a lot of people do, because if they didn't care then it wouldn't become such a controversy. These things are obviously issues "in real life" as well because if they weren't people wouldn't make such a fuss about them online, and god only knows we hear enough about the struggles of these under-represented groups in the news as well. People shouldn't make an issue of it, because there shouldn't be a problem with things like transgendered characters or same-sex relationships or whatever else it is people are making a fuss over these days, but they do anyway, and that is serious and it is a problem. But it's not a video game problem in that sense, especially not if it's included.

...but the vast majority of people do just want to play their games and have fun without the social commentary; it's the whole reason a lot of people buy and play them, after all. I enjoy discussing these things, but I'm not going to be put off a game by social commentary. These things are fun to consider in an abstract sense, but I'm not going to base my life off them...but at the same time, all discussion shouldn't just be summarily dismissed because it's not a matter of life or death.

 

[Sir Codin]

I should also make it known that that was from an RPGCodex review. Most RPGCodexers are extremely dismissive of anyone who doesn't share his/her taste. Despite that, I felt it perfectly captured how much I felt about both sides of the whole "gamers vs SJWs" issue.

My mockery of them in our Elder Scrolls 6 topic honestly isn't too far off base after viewing their forums:

But I don't think BethSoftworks will learn from their mistakes because I'm obviously an RPGCodex troll. I love being smug and stuck-up, I love making 24-paragraph tangents about how much Real-Time-With-Pause sucks, I appreciate dark and cynical roleplaying games where life sucks for everyone and none of it will ever get better, I have tremendously high standards because everything has to be perfect or else it's not worth my money and this makes me a hypocrite because in the same breath I'll also call Arcanum an "under-appreciated gem," I refuse to give praise to highly advertised games...or just in general; I refuse to give praise to games in general because if I did I would get crucified on 4chan's /v/-board and it's super important to stay on the good side of THOSE people....so yeah.

But (coming full circle on the overall topic) for the most part, I just don't want romance in my games. Hell, when I first came across the Anri subplot in Dark Souls 3, I was all "wait, why the hell is this Bioware waifu dating-sim bullshit in my Dark Souls game?" But then I got to the end and realized it was better than that because the "marriage" in question involves stabbing your waifu/husbando in the face and I was all "that was the most metal wedding I've ever seen."

 

[pkmin3033]

Well, I didn't think it was something an objective neutral party would say, haha.

But as I said, I think there is a grain of truth to it - when you're playing the game, you don't much care about what others might be saying about it as long as you personally are having fun. That's the thing about entertainment media: it can convey important messages and provide social commentary, but when nobody is forcing you to put up with it if you don't want to, said messages only matter if you want them to, and I think a lot of the time people do just want to enjoy themselves and forget about all the controversy and cultural dissonance, etc. It's there to be enjoyed, and if you don't enjoy it your opinion is either going to be dismissed or you're going to get screamed at something awful for voicing it. A lot of people will ignore the messages and just focus on having fun. Some won't. What you take away from a game will depend upon your personal perspective and priorities.

He or she would fit right in on Tumblr saying things like that though, I'm sure.

 

[Sir Codin]

In other news, HOLY FUCK, I came closing to dying once against the Lost Sinner.

I'm doing a "No Death" run in Dark Souls 2: Scholar of The First Sin. On my main character. In NG+2. For a single ring that helps with a (kind of) Guts cosplay. It's based off of one that someone did a while ago. The stats might not be the same, but it works like this:

Greatsword +10 (The Dragon Slayer)
Avelyn or Sanctum Repeating Crossbow (Guts' hand mounted repeating crossbow)
Pyromancy Flame + Forbidden Sun (Guts' arm cannon)
Bandit's Knife (a knife that Guts has, but rarely uses)

Llewdwyn Armor (Cape plus looks a bit like Guts armor)
Knight Gauntlets (Left gauntlet looks like Guts' prosthetic left arm)
Drakekeeper Leggings

Chloranthy Ring (Guts is known for his tremendous stamina)

It primarily looks like Guts during the Black Swordsman and Conviction Arc.

Spoiler:

If I use Vengarl's Helm and Raime's Armor, I can also maybe pull off Berserker Armor Guts.

 

[JJ Styles]

Okay DCC and VG, you know what time it is... what's the best way for me to round up going home after sunday mass and browsing around for things to do for the following weeks while avoiding all the smutty stuff?

ORGAN PARTY! AND EVERYBODY'S F**KIN INVITED!

Dead and gored to death demons are the only good demons. Unless there exist some sexy humanoid moe demons who may not be that dangerous but if proven hostile will have to join the organ party as well, AS THE MEAT! WHOOOOOOO!!

I'll be playung some more Parasite Eve since playing some Brutal Doom was so intense. PE is a much more relaxing game for the aftertaste ;) And Day 2 and beyond i feel like is where PE1 is now getting serious with the intensity, I'm loving it.

Also since its ORGAN PARTY TIME, you guys should also have your own Organ party entries as well ;)

 

[pkmin3033]

...every time someone asks me what time it is I hear "Reyn Time, baby!" in my head. Honestly, we're such a bunch of jokers.

Anyways, the closest I'm getting to anything remotely resembling organ party time is eviscerating people in Drakengard 3...which is a lot clunkier than I remember it being. Honestly, I'm not really in the mood for it; I'm just killing time until Atelier Sophie, which is as far away from organ party time as is possible to be. I think I've got Kirby: Planet Robobot on pre-order as well...I forget. Should probably find out...

Also, video games need more 8-bit remix albums. I found the Final Fantasy chips albums the other day and this stuff sounds better than the originals in a lot of cases.