I feel you. I dislike most of the pyro characters honestly! and also, oof, Thoma requires ascension materials from a special huge questline island in Inazuma. he’s kind of a pain to level. the pyro four star I like the most is a tie between Gaming and Yanfei. Yoimiya is my favorite 5 star one, and she works well with Thoma, actually.

you can probably guess who some of my favorites are based on profile pic and banner (eventually, anyway, they’re both in Inazuma.)

who do you have your eyes on that you want, anyone besides Diluc and Shenhe? I don’t know what the banners are currently.

yep! here it is on the steam workshop and I hope it helps you out! if you want the video series too, I can shoot that your way, it doesn’t really spoil anything and I didn’t know 95% of the mechanics even existed.

live and drink friend!

genshin is surprisingly good (I was also wow’d when I started playing), but ultimately I found the story lacking in a lot of key places for me (justice for Inazuma’s story especially!) which ultimately led me to quit for now. I played for two years, and have a pretty well established account. however, I have really bad fatigue issues and wasn’t able to keep up as well with the adventuring requirements, such as having to unlock chests for free primogems.

I think playing it until you’re tired of the grating parts is a totally valid way to experience it. especially because it’s free!

like the other comment, I tried Honkai: Star Rail and honestly I love it so much more. it is turn-based combat, but I feel like the writing is better, and they treat their characters better storywise (in contrast to genshin, which imho the hangouts for four stars are not comparable to the story quests some four stars get.) it’s my gacha game of choice, and while I’ve had my nitpicks, I have those with every game I play pretty much. I also agree it’s more f2p friendly.

these are all just my opinion tho! I hope you enjoy your time with the game and that you get the characters you want. may your pulls be blessed!

thank you for this!

I too have brain fog and memory issues in general. I’m glad to hear that systems seem simple to understand but have the high ceiling, I love that kind of thing. I just need to push on I think and try LE again, when I get my desktop back.

what is your class of choice in LE?

story is usually an important part for me! it’s one part of PoE that never impressed me. I might still check out Diablo 4, and I’m glad you laid out a lot of things for me. most of the stuff I could find online was still harping on previous issues that I now know some have been addressed.

funnily enough, I used to love running “lab” (I believe it’s short for “labyrinth” but my memory is shot and it’s been a long time) in Path of Exile, which was running through traps to rush to a boss. they nerfed that route shortly before I quit, too. but you got a lot of rewards at the end that had the potential to be good, and a blessing on existing equipment that you picked. a shame that boss farming in Diablo 4 isn’t as fun, but it’s something I’ll keep in mind when a sale rolls around.

sorting was probably one of the things I disliked the most in PoE, I could never grasp what was worth using or selling that well. goes hand-in-hand with my inability to roll with theorycrafting builds, so to hear Diablo 4 eases that some is nice.

ayyy new thread new game!

well kind of. I’m actually playing Caves of Qud a bit, now that I understand it more (I did end up installing the tutorial mod, thank you for that! and I did watch a small non-spoilery tutorial series as well) and I’m having a really good time. I started out with a character the tutorial recommended and have been fighting fish to level up. planning on taking on the first big quest tho!

sadly I’m stuck on an old gaming laptop that doesn’t really like to play games, so I can’t jump into all the games I want to. even my gacha game I play is pushing it, although I still login every day and do my required stuff. the laptop just gets extraordinarily hot. it handles Caves of Qud, because ascii, but I was wanting to jump in to Elden Ring at some point (I don’t have the DLC, does it make new runs more exciting at the beginning or is it a later thing?) and realized it’s not an option I think due to my laptop’s specs and general grumpiness.

so I’ve been wrestling with Borderlands 3 to get it to work, and my partner and I have been playing that for a bit. I love the BL series, although 2 was imho the best for writing. the humor still annoys me sometimes but I started playing the series with the first one when it came out, as a kid, so it has a special place in my heart. my partner hasn’t really ever played first person shooter games, so Destiny 2 (when we played) and Borderlands was their introduction.

unfortunately I am in it for the grinding, progression and crafting a build (usually something off the wall when I get confident.)

that said, I do love Hades! I’ve been wanting to get the second one despite it being in early access so hopefully that’ll be in my library soon.

I don’t think I was very good at the start at making my own builds in PoE, I think the tectonic slam build magically functioned somehow despite that, hahaha. I do miss the game, I played for a really long time. but it’s not for me anymore.

I’m glad to hear that Last Epoch is still going strong with new stuff. I backed in on Kickstarter long ago because I wanted more PoE-like games, so I’m glad it’s succeeding. I’m hoping that giving it another go will make it stick, because it being the “in-between” sounds like it’ll be just right.

honestly I wasn’t going to watch these and then I started to and now I have to watch all of them. Jauwn is genuinely entertaining and that’s always a nice find for me.

thank you for sharing!

I love the game, but I like extremely slow progress, so I use mods and modify the wealth multiplier(?) as well in the vanilla to make it more challenging. I also really love mods that add content, and there are quite a few out there! it’s annoying to always update mods manually (as compared to the steam workshop) but I did really enjoy when I was playing with my partner and we had 30+ mods!

a family member who I’m close to who also plays Stardew Valley likes to refer to me playing “Dark Souls Stardew Valley” which I thought was funny, especially because I’m terrible at Dark Souls.

overall I really like the game on it’s own. it helps that ConcernedApe has kept adding to it even though he absolutely doesn’t have to (it’s a big game as it is!) and I appreciate him for that. I do get a tiny bit stressed about the timer on days (notably when I’m playing with someone else and they’re really stretching the time thin) but it’s a very, very small thing. I had never played Harvest Moon or any other farming sim games before SDV, so I have no point to compare, but I just really appreciate the game being chill and a change of pace from games I’d usually play, that are almost entirely based on combat.

thank you for the tip!! I didn’t even notice it had a steam workshop, hahaha. I got the mod, so hopefully things go a little smoother next time. I have to play on controller currently which is a bit weird but I’m hoping I get used to it.

this is such a mood. I was playing Mario Odyssey earlier on a big screen tv, and… it still didn’t feel great, hahahaha. even though my monitors are smaller, I just prefer it.

I used to do emulation but stopped for a while. now it seems more difficult, but a family member just gave me quite a few old games (and I’m planning to ask for some others, like Banjo Kazooie and Pokemon SoulSilver hahaha) so I’m looking forward to getting back into that! I also miss the pokemon fangames that weren’t actually for emulators, have some good memories of those.

I love modding things and appreciate the modding community for games a lot. most recently modded game I played was Stardew Valley, but it made me miss the steam workshop and auto updating mods :c

I still haven’t touched Breath of the Wild but I own it for the switch.

trying out Mario Odyssey, since my main computer is down for the count. I don’t know why console gaming has become difficult for me after I started gaming on pc.

then, I’m dipping my toes in with Caves of Qud, but I don’t know if my brain is in the place right now to learn how to play. tutorial videos are likely in my future.

hey! sorry replying to this took so long, I have had some mental health struggles.

I can definitely relate to writing about those topics. I feel like it’s a really good way to cope, because it’s what I used my entire childhood as well, but also to explore those issues in a controlled environment. although I wouldn’t call it someone extending “pity” towards you, you’re seeking sympathy, and I know it’s easy to fall into that trap but wording is important!

I used to always write younger characters (though they were always teenagers) being taken care of by an older character, always an adoptive sibling situation, because I have no siblings but always wanted one. parents were never part of it. I think you and I want the same things in our writing – the healing aspect is really important instead of breaking the character over and over, which is something I see a lot of writers enjoy in the spaces I used to be in. it’s something I think is important for people to see (even though I don’t write publicly anymore), especially people who might be going through their own struggling.

I envy your ability to write sci-fi, I’ve never been able to write it in a way I was happy with. my favorite has always been “soft sci-fi” or “sci-fi that makes sense but we’re not going to do any math or science okay?” hahaha. just because unless it’s pretty simple (which yours sounds like it is) my poor single brain cell fries itself trying to remember and parse everything.

when you say reincarnation pods that determine what your new body is based on what psyche wants, does that mean even if people reincarnate, they don’t leave the afterlife? and also, does that mean you don’t really have any control over it? so someone who, say, is not in touch with or not open to admitting they’re something (like take gender identity for example) might end up having to stare that in the face? if so, I think that’s really cool! it makes for a really interesting plot to explore, even if you as the author don’t end up taking that route for any of the characters.

I love that choice for Chris’s new name! Solemn is also just really pretty. the choice to use a name change to represent starting anew is also very nice.

when you say “beefed up seraph”, what does that entail? extra powers?

and can you tell me more about Solemn’s new family? I love secondary/supporting characters. I have a curse with them ending up my favorites.

I’m not currently in a place where I would be very good at reading the WIP, but I do really appreciate you extending the offer. I understand if you can’t reveal too much because of you working on it, too! and of course, I wish you lots of luck and inspiration in that process.

Stardew Valley! but…extremely modded SDV. I’m playing multiplayer with my partner and we have almost 60 mods going. quite a few of them are aesthetic but we have some area expansions and stuff like that as well. I really like tweaking the game so that it’s more difficult, I’ve played it so much (over 300 hours!) that it’s more appealing to me that way.

I love modding games in general. it’s my curse.

I don’t talk here but I am a user and this community has helped me a whole hell of a lot. I’ll see if I can get a donation heading your way when I next get paid! thanks for your hard work.

aaaaaaaa Persona 3’s remake finally came out!!

I was a little too young to be playing the game when it first came out, but it really left a mark on me and I’ve always wanted Atlus to update the game. I started with FES on the playstation 2. and when I tell you I was so excited for Persona 4 that I called every video game retail store in the city until they said they had a copy and immediately went and bought it, I’m not lying.

so far really loving the remake! I’ve been busy with another hobby so I haven’t gotten to finish it. the voice acting is great (Akihiko is really the voice I felt strongly about out of the entire cast that I liked, and I know the voice actor from work in Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, and of course he knocked it out of the park. so did Allegra Clark, as my favorite character in the game, Mitsuru) and while I know reviewers complained about Tartarus being copy paste environments with the same enemies over and over, it really hit good for me and brought back memories.

other than that, playing Honkai: Star Rail (taking a long break from Genshin, because I’m really frustrated with how it’s being handled overall) and trying to pace myself with the content since Sparkle’s banner is going to last for another ten years. I’m so excited for Acheron (also voiced by Allegra Clark!) that I’ve prefarmed almost everything for her, short of her relics. there’s a reason my Discord status is “I love you in every universe” with a Raiden Ei emoji, hahaha.

this sounds fascinating!

I’ve only ever once commissioned art of my characters before (just one, and it was a rough sketch with some canons from a video game) but I know it made me really excited and it’s been my phone’s lock screen for four years. I have no artistic talent so to see one of my creations come to life still makes me smile.

what made Chris choose the name Solemn? what made you as the writer decide to write this kind of main character? who are the political activists? and lastly, what made you choose the afterlife as a setting?

those are just some questions that came to me off the top of my head! I know how much I love talking about writing so I wanted to give you the space to gush and chat about yours.

I stand by Persona being my favorite game series of all time (3 was my first one, but 4 is very good too) but those are available on Steam now so aren’t a great recommendation. but if you’re taking games that are in other places as well, I would say Disgaea (2 was my favorite) and Devil May Cry (3 was my favorite.)

I would echo what someone else said here about Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank. I know it wasn’t as popular as some of the other games in the series, but Ratchet: Deadlocked was the first game I beat multiple times in a row.

I also played a bit of Dark Cloud 2 and never got too far in, but heard a lot of good things.