The Grouch's Trash Pile [Baldur's Gate 3]

How am I doing?

Well, I got groceries yesterday, including a really nice little fancy cheddar I was going to eat with crackers, except I forgot to buy crackers, and that made me sad. Today when I had to go out to my injection appointment I had a brief moment of "and I could go pick up some crackers!" but then that fizzled because I know it's irresponsible, under the circumstances, to go to the store more than once a week unless I absolutely have to, and I've been feeling kinda brokenhearted about it ever since.

At least outdoors exercise is considering necessary here, and the situation isn't dire enough to forbid that; the past few days have been sunny and warm (for early spring) and I ended up walking a ton yesterday, on accident, just because I was so glad to be out. I walked some but rather less today, because my legs and feet hurt and are complaining, because APPARENTLY the indoors exercises I have been doing don't translate to walking muscles hardly at all.

Meh.

Spoiler: complaining about loneliness

It doesn't make up for the loneliness, though. J still has to work, so he's gone most of the time during the week; I tried to get into Lord of the Rings Online, which he plays a lot of, so we could play together at some point, but good god that game is a fucking headache of oldschool MMO problems and possibly the worst game map I've ever had the displeasure of using. I was okay with it for the first few levels in the intro area, but once I got into one of the main areas it became a tedious experience of mostly running around being lost trying to figure out where the hell everything is because the map has ALMOST NO FINE DETAIL. What you get marked is stables and 'points of interest', like the Brandywine Bridge. Want to know where a shop, your class training hall, or a mailbox is, though? TOO FUCKING BAD, run around and hope you get close enough the icon shows up on your minimap. Side quests? Run around and hope you get close enough the icon shows on your minimap.

He won't try FFXIV, saying it's not really his style (even though he regularly envies how good it looks) and that it looks too hard. He plays reaction-based stuff that I couldn't even begin to handle, so I don't understand why he thinks it would be too hard for him, especially not when much worse players than I am get through all sorts of content, and I'm barely average, at that.

One of my friends stopped playing altogether, Aud can't play because her laptop shits itself when she tries to run the game, and most of my friends both in and out of my FC either mainly play at hours I can't be on or already have a full pre-made group to run everything with. I know I should try to make more friends if I want people to play with, but I don't want new people to play with! I want to play with the friends I have.

I'm gonna go be lonely and sad in bed now since I have to get up early to do laundry.

 

uughh god I miss FFXIV so freaking much, ESPECIALLY when I get to play with you <3

also I'm really sorry about the crackers :(

 

One bright spot in everything lately is that J has been playing Yakuza 0 and holy shit that is a delight of a game?? He was like "This is like Saint's Row but Japanese!" and it very much does have that same goofy vibe, but at the same time is just... kinder, especially as you pointedly do not kill anyone. We keep marvelling at how so many of the goofy side quests he gets sidetracked into end in a really heartwarming way, like with the girl who gets Mamija to pretend to be her boyfriend for an evening, and the kid who gets a video game stolen from him and Kiryu tracks it down for him. The results are goofy and hilarious, yes, but also really sweet.

AND KIRYU AND MAMIJA ARE SUCH HILARIOUS DOOFUSES. Kiryu has major Stern Uncle energy, even though he's a dork and a half (J showed me how he answers the phone and I was cackling) while Mamija feels more older brother-y, despite being huge and scary looking. They're both totally ridiculous.

 

*changes the thread title and feels slightly guilty about it*

I'm sorry FFXII, I'll get back to you... eventually... but soon it's MAGICAL BROMANCE ROADTRIP TIME!!

 

I LOVE GLADIO SO MUCH YOU GUYS

I'm not even out of chapter 1 because I keep going "Oooh, stuff!" and running off -- there's so much to do! There's so much to do in a way that seems specifically catered to my interests!! And I love the world! I love this hodgepodge of technology and magic! BUT I LOVE GLADIO MOST OF ALLLLL

I just got the scene on the beach with him training Noctis early in the morning and it was so cute ; ;

The only sour spot so far has been Cindy. She's probably fine in concept, but in appearance that is some... really... really... bad character design. D:

 

Cindy would be fine if you put some overalls that she ties around her waist on her, pretty much

 

She could use a change of clothes, for sure. I was talking about this with some folks on a discord server I'm on and one person pointed out that she's dressed like a Sexy Car Girl, except like, three steps to the left of actually being sexy. I think it's because SE took the design too far, so she ends up looking like a parody of a Car Girl. She's Car Girl from a bad porn movie. I feel kind of insulted that it's assumed I'll find her sexy.

It doesn't help that her tits look incredibly fake -- not in a boob job way, but in a Renaissance-artist-doesn't-know-what-naked-women-look-like way. Like yeah, her jacket unzipped to show she's only wearing a bra underneath got my attention, but what it drew attention to was "... are those apple tits??????"

At least her shorts aren't quite crawling up her ass like they are in the original design artwork =_=;

 

One verrrry minor quibble about the dialogue -- the ambient banter where one of the boys complains about how hot it is and Ignis remarks that it's quite sultry is really annoying because THEY ARE IN A DESERT AND SULTY IMPLIES HUMIDITY. IT IS NOT SULTRY OUT THERE. YOU USED THE WRONG WORD.

okay I'm done

 

ngl my initial thoughts on Cindy were "dude that's going to hurt when you inevitably lean on hot metal, what in hell's name are you doing" and i stand by that

 

THERE'S MODS TO GIVE CINDY A REAL OUTFIT!!!!!

Well, two mods on Steam Workshop, but I'll take it!

 

Oh heavens. That is the height of flashbacks to explaining to a chat full of amab people how breast tissue distribution works.

 

now THIS is a girl I'd trust with my car!

 

Three run-ins with Ardyn and I'm already tired of him. I can see why people compare Emet-Selch to him, but E-S manages to be more entertaining and less grating while still being just as insufferably smug. Maybe because he displays emotions other than insufferably smug?

Eh, anyway. HOW ABOUT THAT TITAN FIGHT. I had no idea what was going on 90% of the time because the camera fought me most of the time, but hey, it was cool as shit! But if Titan went poof, what happened to the meteor??

 

Me, now awake: Oh right Meteor vanished when Titan did because I DID look over at the skyline and the pillars of its tail weren't there anymore

I think it's hilarious that the imperial radio announcement was so... blasé? about it. Very "Yeah Titan was causing problems but we kicked his ass until him and his dumb meteor vanished so good riddance." ISN'T HE.... ONE OF YOUR GODS???????

I'm only vaguely sure of what's going on in the storyline, not sure if that's because it's really kind of vague or if I just spent so much time zooming around in the Regalia that I forgot stuff. I'm still having fun, though, which is the important thing. I'm finally getting a decent handle on the combat system and that makes it even MORE fun. Fishing is fun! Running around on a chocobo and having Prompto zoom crazily around me is fun! Whee!!

No matter how much of a disaster the storyline ends up, they fucking NAILED the gameplay.

And everything, down to the scene in the background when you rest somewhere, is so well-crafted and adds to the experience. And it's all done in absolutely gorgeous environments that are a delight to run around in, and with all sorts of awesome environmental storytelling. I LOVE the mishmash of magic and drastically varying levels of technology this game has going on and I'm taking copious mental notes on what I like best to incorporate similar into one of my own universes. And!! The interactions between the boys are Good Shit, further scratching the same itch DA:I did for me, for all there's no customizable main character.

My only real gripes are the absolutely pathetic handling of female characters and the amount of awkward product placement. GOD why did they do the product placement. It looks out of place with the lettering not matching the game world's and it's so obviously wedged in (my 'favorite' was Gladio talking about Cup noodles in a way that was straight out of a commercial), but worst of all is the outright bizarre placement of American Express stickers on service station windows. WHY ARE THERE AMERICAN EXPRESS STICKERS. EOS DOESN'T HAVE AN AMERICA. WHY DO THEY TAKE A CREDIT CARD FROM AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT UNIVERSE. WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA??

 

Gentiana keeps photobombing Prompto's photos...

 

Holy shit I've never seen that concept art its fucking esher girl tier. God honestly I would take the worst of Nomura belts n zippers over this in a *heartbeat*, at least its fun and quirky and not this nightmare

 

Funny enough, this game was originally under Nomura's direction. :') I think if he had anything to do with the character designs it got scrubbed out though -- sure, he gets gratuitous with the belts and buckles but his designs are lively and hard to forget... unlike the snoozeworthy attire of so much of the cast (which was designed by an actual fashion designer). And... whatever the fuck is going on with Cindy--

LOL OH MY GOD:

Well you all fuckin' botched that, didn't you??

 

The original Nomura designs were (other then Noct) pretty sedate for him? We never saw his designs for Cindy or anyone like that (if she even existed in Versus XIII). I'll be honest I just *do not like* the Roberto Ferrari designs in XV or the VII remake, there's like...two I like in FFXV (I think Prompto's is a cute little punk outfit that would stand out more if everyone in the cast wasn't dripping with leather, and Iris has the kinda design I would have loved to cosplay as a teen), but I just think its mostly the kind of boring streetwear that would maybe fit on a tertiary character in TWEWY. But also...that quote....I don't think anything about her model even changed from the demo...

 

Those are toned down to the point of being generic! That's really weird. I wonder why...

From comparing Ferrari's designs on male characters to female characters, for the male characters I get the impression he gives them considerably more consideration on who they are as people, whereas with women he's focused on making their bodies look sexy and who they are as people is an afterthought.

 

So, with the FFXV character DLC -- should I play one after the character leaves the party and comes back, or save them all for after the main game? I just did all the parts where Gladio leaves on mysterious business and when he comes back he's got new scars, but there's zero elaboration on what happened.