Fictitious Whimsigot

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/788696811328225280

prokopetz:

RPG that does the “we only have 37 seconds to save the world!” thing but has no explicit mechanics for the passage of time (as one does), except if you progress through the game without completing even a single sidequest, there’s a secret ending where you show up early for the obligatory act-one fakeout boss, successfully prevent the baddie from blowing up the world, and the whole second act doesn’t happen.

RPG that really blatantly dangles quest hooks for character-specific subplots in front of you, except all of the character-specific endings suck, and the only way to get an ending that doesn’t result in half the cast dying is to keep it strictly professional with your party members.

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/788696811328225280

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prokopetz:

Team Cherry announces Hollow Knight: Silksong delayed due to unexpected difficulties with PS Vita port.

#PS VITA PORT LMAO (via @ashensamurai)

You think I’m joking, but a PS Vita port actually was one of the unmet stretch goals on Hollow Knight’s 2014 Kickstarter, right after Zote Mode.

(And isn’t that a fun counterfactual. The Hornet Mode stretch goal eventually got spun off into Silksong; imagine if Zote Mode had also been met, and Hollow Knight ended up being a trilogy whose capstone game has you playing as Zote.)

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derpravener:

prokopetz:

prokopetz:

prokopetz:

I recognise that this may be a controversial opinion on the “everything is better when girls” website, but I feel like making the action-adventure game protagonist’s obligatory tutorial/exposition-providing bratty little fairy companion a boy is underexplored territory.

You can tell how unutterably dire the situation is because people in the notes are unironically citing shit like Daxter from Jak and Daxter and Wheatley from Portal as examples of the type.

It’s a bit striking how many of the counterexamples folks are trying to come up with are either a. funny animal sidekicks, which is admittedly an archetype that often functions as the masculine counterpart to the bratty fairy companion, but is in no way equivalent to it; or b. aliens/robots/inanimate objects who aren’t gender-coded at all and are basically only boys simply because they’re not girls. There’s a time and a place for that, but it doesn’t fill this particular gap!

Closest I got after thinking about it a bit was the little demon that hovers behind you and revives you from The Messenger. It’s a questionable example, as if I remember right he only really explains his own mechanics and not things about the world or plot generally, and he’s kinda got one of those monster shapes that looks less clearly male and is more male by default. He is at least contrasted later by a female demon of the same kind though, so it’s not solely a matter of assuming.

This is starting to feel like an extension of that thing where when someone designs or draws a monstrous humanoid fantasy race, the men are all very bestial looking while the women are shapely and more athropomorphized.

If the ultimate conclusion of this line of reasoning is that we ought to have both more female companions who are weird little monstery things whose designs aren’t obviously gender-coded and more male companions who are eight-inch-tall twinks in miniskirts, you’ll hear no objection from me.

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/788646850081259520

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prokopetz:

Inadvisable video game premise #137: metroidvania where the access to later areas is gated not by physical barriers, but by social convention. You need the invisibility upgrade not to circumvent surveillance, but because there’s a guy who will trap you in a conversation you can’t extricate yourself from without being rude if he sees you.

Even if you manage to avoid getting stopped at the door, you suffer damage over time for being conspicuously under- or over-dressed for a given milieu. The “environmental immunity” upgrades consist of a series of outfits of varying circumstantial appropriateness and formality. At one point you have to hellrun a black tie venue in blue jeans.

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/788620134915932160

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I have to admire certain people’s willingness to make themselves look like fools in public pulling out endless edge cases and well-actuallies in an effort to argue that extremely obvious and well-established trends don’t exist. Usually they’re not even trying to make a particular point – they’re just doing it for the love of the game!

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/788606518828433408

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jestrogames:

prokopetz:

prokopetz:

prokopetz:

I recognise that this may be a controversial opinion on the “everything is better when girls” website, but I feel like making the action-adventure game protagonist’s obligatory tutorial/exposition-providing bratty little fairy companion a boy is underexplored territory.

You can tell how unutterably dire the situation is because people in the notes are unironically citing shit like Daxter from Jak and Daxter and Wheatley from Portal as examples of the type.

It’s bit striking how many of the counterexamples folks are trying to come up with are either a. funny animal sidekicks, which is admittedly an archetype that often functions as the masculine counterpart to the bratty fairy companion, but is in no way equivalent to it; or b. aliens/robots/inanimate objects who aren’t gender-coded at all and are basically only boys simply because they’re not girls. There’s a time and a place for that, but it doesn’t fill this particular gap!

Does ezlo from Minish cap count?

Me: *remarks on how many of the offered examples are inanimate objects or otherwise non-gender-coded non-humanoids who are only “boys” because all non-humanoid characters are male by default*

This joker: Does this guy count? *cites a talking hat*

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/788601565929963520

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vinfluorine:

prokopetz:

Team Cherry announces Hollow Knight: Silksong delayed due to unexpected difficulties with PS Vita port.

Wii version’s still good though right?

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/788570862450343936

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Team Cherry announces Hollow Knight: Silksong delayed due to unexpected difficulties with PS Vita port.

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/788559977020276736

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/788533010118131712

prokopetz:

prokopetz:

I recognise that this may be a controversial opinion on the “everything is better when girls” website, but I feel like making the action-adventure game protagonist’s obligatory tutorial/exposition-providing bratty little fairy companion a boy is underexplored territory.

You can tell how unutterably dire the situation is because people in the notes are unironically citing shit like Daxter from Jak and Daxter and Wheatley from Portal as examples of the type.

It’s a bit striking how many of the counterexamples folks are trying to come up with are either a. funny animal sidekicks, which is admittedly an archetype that often functions as the masculine counterpart to the bratty fairy companion, but is in no way equivalent to it; or b. aliens/robots/inanimate objects who aren’t gender-coded at all and are basically only boys simply because they’re not girls. There’s a time and a place for that, but it doesn’t fill this particular gap!

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/788533010118131712

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/788529360636411904

I feel like the language of the metroidvania genre has painted itself into a corner, a bit. Players will look at an environment that damages them continuously just from being there and think “oh, that means I’m supposed to come back later after I find an upgrade that makes me immune”, and don’t get me wrong, it’s useful to be able to clearly signpost that, but also, sometimes you want the player to suffer.

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/788529360636411904