Tactics Ogre

More words from me. Kicking off this week working with my old coworkers over at Aftermath; talkin' about Silent Hill f! Let's talk about one of the game's most memorable puzzles. It's about tricking yourself because "did something just move?" It's also about leaning close and getting intimate...

Competition is steep but push comes to shove, I think I'd probably say this is the "best" game I've played? As a work of design (particularly narrative *design* as well as writing) it's hard to think of something which has impressed me more. Brimming with variables and also damn fun to play!

Tonight's Fire Emblem update: finished Blazing Blade. Flat out the most *fun* of any of the Fire Emblem games I've been playing as part of my syllabus. This is the best the series has ever looked and there's some GREAT maps here! Can't recommend this one heartily enough! A great time!

Weekend read! Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn starts off with an exploration of the messy fringes of revolutionary work. Who are history's "radiant" souls? What does it mean to be a leader? The story kicks off with some big questions. And smart design! Read at: transgamerthoughts.com/post/7964535...

Skies of Arcadia released 25 years ago today in Japan, gracing the Sega Dreamcast with a remarkable adventure! A game which changed my life. And it really holds up even today! Earnest swashbuckling with a great cast of characters. I'm still slowly novelizing the game. Read at the link below.

Oh, hey! I'm *writing* again! Let's talk about a man named named Ramza Beoulve. Let's talk about the "ease at which men are branded heretics..." Let's talk about revolution. www.eurogamer.net/the-revoluti...

Weekend read! Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn starts off with an exploration of the messy fringes of revolutionary work. Who are history's "radiant" souls? What does it mean to be a leader? The story kicks off with some big questions. And smart design! Read at: transgamerthoughts.com/post/7964535...

Embargo is up! Let's talk about tactics! No, not *those* Tactics... I recently played Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. A blind spot for me as a fan, I found the best writing in the series and one of the few systems that really makes you *roleplay* Read more: transgamerthoughts.com/post/7955940...

Oh, hey! I'm *writing* again! Let's talk about a man named named Ramza Beoulve. Let's talk about the "ease at which men are branded heretics..." Let's talk about revolution. www.eurogamer.net/the-revoluti...

Played maybe my favorite Fire Emblem map ever now in Thracia 776. It's a prison break! Rushing to open cells and chests, trading folks whatever gear you can get as reinforcements trickle in. Bonuses for getting civilians to safety. So much happening! Really impressive for a level made in 1999.

reset progress and limiting to 25% chance, get ready for 5 years of coin flip

It's got enough room for me & the whole squad ⚔️

This would absolutely work on me. But truth be told, I'm the info-dumper in this situation. [Local trans furry girl dubs furry comics now too, shocking no one.] (@hal-monitor.bsky.social your work is amaaaaaazing <3)

This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the veggie pizza - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the supreme pizza - you stay on Lego Island and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Play Final Fantasy Tactics. Give Guns to your White Mages.

haven't played the new fft remake yet but i have art from when i played war of the lions

Spending the evening testing the waters of what I think is the most "notorious" Fire Emblem: Thracia 776! Leading a small band of rebels against a *much* bigger empire (and really strapped for cash) much of the early game is about capturing enemies in order to take their gear. Neat stuff!

I actually think it's worth listening to this interview. Coates does a really great job refusing to allow Klein to frame everything as in service to politics, and instead forcing him to meet Coates on the more essential ground of morality. It's frustrating to listen to, but also instructive.

It's the blog hailed in Slack as "the ideal defector post" but also "i don’t think it’s possible for a blog to be more Scocca than this one is"

“I am the adjudicator of the sacred history with which you dared trifle.” #grahatia

I think people need to learn to that sometimes there's not some secret game critic justification for a "bad" thing. And not everything is "smart" intentional friction. Sometimes a thing isn't secretly good or whatever. Sometimes a game just has bad combat! And Silent Hill f has bad combat.

I've only fifteen minutes into this conversation between Coates and Ezra Klein and the degree to which Klein is un-equippped for this political moment is so clear when he's forced to talk to someone else who *truly* is.

agrias

First Silent Hill playthrough down. A spell-binding story and the first games ever to make me literally short of breath. Complicated thoughts! Lots to love here but also some things (encounter design and combat) which I think truly drag down the latter half of the game in unforgivable ways.

trying to manifest a Skies of Arcadia re-release #doodlemancyart #artistsonbluesky

Almost done with my first Silent Hill f playthrough and while I *know* this has been a contentious topic I gotta say: I think this game has a bit too much combat. Not even in a "That's not Silent Hill!" way but as in there's a part I'm play now DRAGGGGED down by having combat layered throughout.

At risk of over-hyping: I just had an experience in Silent Hill where I like... had a panic attack or something? Passed quickly! Games generally are not "scary" to me but I had some sort of reaction to a creature where... once the confrontation was done... *something* physically happened.

Danika is both deeply knowledgeable and also one of the nicest folks in the world. Anyone with good sense would be scrambling however they could to add her to their team.

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

playing Unfair Flips and battling an oddly sick feeling in my stomach. brain spinning with thoughts of Diablo and Genshin and a lot more... horrible flop sweats as I ponder reward structures and other things. also getting terribly excited any time I get a streak so.. 😵‍💫

Hard agreement here. The quality of the script is very high but a big part of why I was *gripped* during scenes was that this might be one of the best casts I've ever heard.

Embargo is up! Let's talk about tactics! No, not *those* Tactics... I recently played Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. A blind spot for me as a fan, I found the best writing in the series and one of the few systems that really makes you *roleplay* Read more: transgamerthoughts.com/post/7955940...

I've words on the horizon but now that reviews are coming up I'll say that I was quite surprised at just *how much* I liked The Ivalice Chronicles as a remake. I thought the presentation here was ~super~ engrossing and even as someone who already knows the story well I was really, really drawn in.

Liberals only care about "decorum." So long as a certain process occurs, they don't care about the end results. If Congress approves a war? They're fine with the war. If courts overturn your rights? They're fine with that too because the *process* still happened.

The Fire Emblem syllabus continues! We are moving on to Radiant Dawn! I know this one has perspective shifts in the story and that's something I always love in war stories. A fun start so far. Leaping in time and into the perspective of freedom fighters in the last game's "bad" nation is neat!

A tyrant always dies alone, Guildenstern. Surrounded by silver-tongued leeches, he is utterly alone. He sows sorrow and reaps death.

This upcoming week is one where I'm really back on the writing grind but I'm taking today to at least dip my toes into the Trails in the Sky remake. Looks great, combat is snappy as hell, and the little touches with NPCs around the towns are lovely. Really fun!

i actually love it when i lose my 500 rosaries. i am freed from the burden of devotion and can now roam pharloom with the serenity of the faithless

That's a wrap tonight on Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance! The Tellius games are one of the few remaining blindspots for me and like... man, this was real goooood... A bit easy tactics-wise but the endgame maps are great and the writing is operating so far above most other games in the franchise.

blue rogues #art

DC-UK #18, Jan 2001 - 'Skies Of Arcadia' cover.

Took part of the weekend to play through Fire Emblem: Three Hopes as part of my pseudo-syllabus. I'll blog out some more details thoughts but I really enjoyed myself! I think layering all this stuff over a Musou game works out pretty great. Surprisingly good story branches here too.

my fodlan era didn't last long since I got into FFXIV the same year oopsie

dude i love living in a world where there are no consequences for anything.

careless, sloppy, alarming reporting error that puts people in danger during an already perilous time

It is fun to be playing multiple Fire Emblem games right now and get an announcement for a new one! I've had a lot of fun turning over the various eras of that series in my head right now. Next week, I'll start to write about some of my experience as well as get back to some "dungeon" games.

the shooter was an online gamer. it's important for newsrooms to understand video games more than ever. that's where i step in. so umamusume: pretty derby (ウマ娘 プリティーダービー) is a gacha horse racing simulator based on real life japanese race horses. in the world of umamusume, anime girls replace horses,

Pulling out my (super stylish!) 3DS this morning and still so impressed by this device! It’s still extremely cool! The 3-D “gimmick” has only gotten more fun with age. Also doesn’t hurt that Awakening is maybe the most inherently playable that Fire Emblem ever has been.

Yes, exactly this. People who are Dreamcast boosters (me) work exactly from a position of “damn, I wish this console that had a wild library of games that felt like they came from a different world had been successful.” If it hadn’t failed, we wouldn’t need to remember it, it would be with us.