Various thoughts on a variety of topics.
Traveling to neutral Selenfalen in place of her father to sign a peace treaty with the country of Milidonia, princess Ani of Inaco soon finds herself the target of the affections of a number of eccentric characters as she tries to better relations between the neighboring countries.
A parody of otome games which transforms into a political drama with a few action elements toward the end.
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HIDIVE
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It’s been many years since Fou first created the android Palme and lost his beloved Xian, now he’s an old man dejectedly following a meaningless routine and Palme little more than a shell. The sudden appearance of a woman from Below changes all that; her presence awakens Palme and she tasks him with delivering a mechanical egg down Below, a journey with the potential to shake the world’s very foundations.
A psychological fantasy adventure with intermittent bursts of action, notable dramatic/tragic aspects, and a few horror and romance elements.
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Kokone Morikawa has strange, persistent dreams about being a princess in a fantasy world, dreams she doesn’t give much thought to until the day her father is suddenly arrested. Afterward those dreams seem far more relevant to current events… and just may hold the key to clearing her father’s name.
A family-friendly action adventure that begins as half fantasy, half modern day and ends as fully merged urban fantasy.
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Michelle Sagara’s Chronicles of Elantra series is a bit different than most in that rather than a collection of related stories it’s more like one continuous story; the breaks between books are not much different from the breaks between chapters. As a result it can occasionally be somewhat frustrating to read, due to creating the illusion that the character development should be greater than it is.
Cast in Flame isn’t as abstract as the previous book in the series, and I’m immensely thankful for that. That said, the whole ‘heart of the house’ activation scene felt like a copy-paste of the Tiamaris claiming. The follow-up, Cast in Honor, is on the borderline when it comes to abstraction and features some interesting developments regarding both the shadow and Bellusdeo.
Cast in Flight is one of the more stand-alone books, which is to say that its central plotline is relatively self-contained and it doesn’t really leave any major loose-ends behind. It’s a nice change of pace after the previous two entries. The 13th book on the other hand both leaves several major loose ends dangling and starts off badly. Very badly. It’s not until about a third of the way through that events and character behavior become less… grating. But they do indeed get better and I’m definitely looking forward to the continuation.
The concluding novel in Kim Harrison‘s Hollows series makes it fairly clear that the series has been dragged out far beyond its expiration point with power-level creep that’s both ridiculous and inconsistent. Roughly half the book is someone doing something awful, blaming Rachel for it, and having everyone believe them for no apparent reason, while a quarter consists of Rachel beating herself up about ‘holding Trent back’. Only ~25% or so of it is decent-to-good and you wouldn’t lose much by just skipping straight to the epilogue chapter.
Originally R. Scott Bakker’s Aspect-Emperor series was meant to be a trilogy, but after a lengthy delay it ended up becoming a quartet. It’s very fortunate that The Great Ordeal is preceded by a detailed recap of what came before, because after nearly a half-decade gap I doubt many remember previous events at all clearly. It’s also fortunate that the book turns out to feel more like the earlier Prince of Nothing novels. I still don’t like the Esmenet/Kel sections at all though.
The Unholy Consult is a bit different though in that the disparate storylines are mostly merged into a single narrative while the vast majority of the book focuses on one battle. Ultimately I don’t think these two needed to be separate novels, as there are a number of aspects that end up completely superfluous (such as the Sorwheel/Serwa and White Luck subplots) or orphaned (those ‘vile angel’ interludes). The conclusion deserves special mention for being so… random? Though there’s a certain symmetry to the one person not damned being responsible for damnation, the way it happens does not feel natural in the slightest. It’s almost like an after-thought.
Phosphophyllite is one of the weakest houseki, mineral life forms composed of microscopic organisms, and for the longest time has not had a job or purpose until one morning when it’s decided that they should create an encyclopedia. Few of the houseki know much about the topic and Phos is soon directed toward Cinnabar, who keeps their distance from the others due to the poison their body produces. But after seeing how much Cinnabar is suffering from the situation Phos instead resolves to help them find a meaning for their existence.
A coming of age story with a moderate amount of action, large quantity of comedic banter, and a bit of mystery.
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I’ve now been playing this game for the last month or so, and have gotten nine characters through the default game content (and one of those through the expansion content). The simplest way to describe it is: Titan Quest with a Diablo aesthetic.
It’s a bit easier than Titan Quest though (you won’t have to worry about certain enemies being completely immune to your damage type) and seems to have a smaller pool of items. There’s some added complexity however in the form of the Devotion system, which allows you to enhance your base class combination in a ton of different ways and can inspire builds all on its own, and a few small roleplaying aspects in regards to the quests. So it’s a bit of a toss up which game is ‘better’, but I’m leaning toward this one because damage-immune enemies are a pain.
The characters I’ve used so far are almost evenly split between builds I found on the official forums and ones I was inspired to make based on certain endgame items or Devotions. I’ll list them similar to how I did the Titan Quest ones earlier, in order of Act 4 completion (or close to it; the ordering of the middle few might be off):
The first one to complete the normal game was not the first character I created, as the order was switched around for faction reputation-related reasons. I basically made them because I wanted a Retaliation build similar to the Templar I used in TQ without the annoyance of having to wait for enemies to kill themselves. So I focused on Piercing, Bleeding, and Physical damage centered around the Counterstrike and Circle of Slaughter abilities with Retaliation damage as a secondary. In retrospect this was not ideal and, despite the fact that they managed to complete the expansion content without issue (the old belt/amulet/gloves were just switched out), I’m going to respec it before heading into Elite as a more Bladedancer-ish build. I may end up re-purposing the retaliation aspects into a more fitting class combo.
Next was the second character I created, an Apostate. It came about from both being impressed by how powerful the Skeletons were and simply wanting to do something with this particular combo. While it’s a straight-forward pet build and the pets are fabulous at killing stuff already, I realized while playing some other characters that it would be better off trading most of the gun-based skills for the resistance reduction and defense of Spectral Wrath (since the Skeletons do Vitality damage), so now the desired end result looks like this.
The first created (which in turn inspired the one above) was one which had a very detailed and well written-up post on the forums; a Cabalist build centered around Ravenous Earth. While that was quite effective, I liked the look of the melee-variation better and so built my iteration in that direction. To give you an idea of how good this build is, it actually looked like it had a shot at killing Mogdrogen’s Avatar in Act 4 at under level 60 (I got him to ~60% health before I messed up and died).
The Deceiver build I used was inspired by the Abomination Devotion. That’s it. I saw that constellation’s abilities and wanted something that would be effective with it and so theory-crafted this end result. I also thought up a second, Flamethrower-centric build for the class combo… but I don’t think I’m ever going to actually play it.
Another forum build I liked happened to be a Cadence-centered Deathknight, though I thought it might ultimately work better with Beronath’s Shard. I finished Act 4 with it before I found the Shard’s blueprint though, so my version is currently more in-line with the original (note that the weapon is from the Blademaster’s Act 6 run and I was using a nearly as effective Soulsplitter in Act 3). What stands out most about this build, besides the insane Cadence-damage output, is that Spectral Wrath alone passively massacres most of the enemies that attack you.
The Spellbinder came about simply because I found a ton of gear that enhanced both Aether and Vitality damage. Although ultimately I want this character to make use of Drain Essence, without the Uroboruuk gear it just doesn’t do enough damage. Replicating Missile and Devastation are enough to wreck enemies though, so that’s fine for now. If it doesn’t work out I’ve got an alternate Devotion setup and an idea for a Diviner version as well (though that would probably be a bit too similar to the Apostate).
Near the end came a Reaper, which was one of the forums’ ones I modified. While far more effective against undead than a similar character I used in TQ, those enemies do tend to survive longer than others against the massive amounts of cold damage this Bone harvest-focused build can dish out.
The penultimate character was also a build I found on the forums, for a Crucible-decimating Purifier. I have not actually tried Crucible yet, but I figured I should have a character that can handle it. Regardless, they currently look like this and do indeed lay waste to large swathes of enemies.
Last was a Druid. At first this was meant to be a dual-wielder, and I in fact did play through nearly all the game up to this point dual-wielding (using the relevant Relics), but ultimately the reliance on Critical Hits along with how otherwise unhelpful the necessary Relics were to the build’s theme made me do a slight re-calibration into a more conventional caster setup. You may notice I have both Savagery and Shard of Beronath. This is intentional. Originally I just had the Shard, but then thought… why not alternate the two and have both? So I did and stuff just melts.
And that’s all the ones I’ve played so far (though I do have vague ideas for a Witch Hunter, Commando, Trickster, Magehunter, and Elementalist, along with a Tactician designed for a Hardcore playthough). You may have noticed that most of them make use of the classes provided by the Ashes of Malmouth expansion and so I obviously suggest picking that up along with the base game. While the classes alone are great, the two additional Acts it adds are sizable and add quite a bit of content.
I’ll close this with some tips (I kind of want to write up a mini-walkthrough of some sort):
Long ago the Demon King was sealed away and forgotten. Now he has returned, and the reluctant hero Nike sets out with the novice mage Kukuri on a quest to defeat him.
A fantasy RPG parody fond of random-style reaction comedy which features a secondary romance subplot and a bit of ecchi. Note that it’s a completely new adaptation of the source material and does not require having seen any of the earlier ones.
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Adrift in a seemingly endless sea of sand, the people of the ‘Mud Whale’ live and die on their ship-like island with no knowledge of how their existence began. The elders of the society know more than they let on however, and when a mysterious girl is found on a passing piece of land they begin to ask her questions related to the ‘mainland’. Overhearing this, the young archivist Chakuro realizes that she just might be the key to unlock the mystery surrounding his world.
A mystery-tinged drama focused on the trials and tribulations of a small isolated community. Though it becomes a war drama for a while, the majority of the focus is on social conflicts.
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Netflix
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Brought to the city in order to expand her horizons, a young foxgirl named Yuzu begins working at a hot springs inn. The opportunity allows her to meet many different kinds of people, from the slightly eccentric staff to a variety of travelers just passing though.
A slice of life with threads of personal drama, along with some yuri romance, which alternates between comedic and poignant.
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