Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask (The Five Stages of Zelda-Game)

[ShneekeyTheLost]

To continue:

* No, the bunny mask can't get you over, and no you can't cheese the stomp button, but later on once you get the dungeon item you can bypass it.

* All that effort for a drop of blood stray fairy

* Ahh, there's the miniboss guarding the treasure. I'm pretty sure the 'intended' method is to stand in the middle of the room and shoot it with arrows, but this works better

* That's definitely worth a 'OMG first try!' You're not the only one that remembers that one

* I must be dancing in a dress shirt, undies, and socks 'cause this is some Risky Business!

* Oh yea, *that* stray fairy... /shudder

* Don't mess with the Goron 'cause the Goron don't mess

* Surprise Deku!

* That... is not whom I remember guarding that Big Key...

* Zodi: "There are two ways to do this boss" Me: Ohh, is she gonna do the thing? Is she going to do the thing? Zodi: "We're going to do it the fun way" Me: Oh, okay.

* The eyeball is new. You just ram it with more goron spiky ball previously.

* So I guess you could say that he is no longer the GOHT?

* And now you have less than one day to get everything done in springtime. This time 'round at least. Fortunately, future cycles have a shortcut.

[LaZodiac]

* That's definitely worth a 'OMG first try!' You're not the only one that remembers that one

* Zodi: "There are two ways to do this boss" Me: Ohh, is he gonna do the thing? Is he going to do the thing? Zodi: "We're going to do it the fun way" Me: Oh, okay.

* The eyeball is new. You just ram it with more goron spiky ball previously.

* So I guess you could say that he is no longer the GOHT?

* And now you have less than one day to get everything done in springtime. This time 'round at least. Fortunately, future cycles have a shortcut.

I remember when I first played the 3DS version, that was my last fairy... and I got it roughly around when the final countdown started. Dicey, to say the least!

She, please.

No longer the greatest of honk time. Poor guy, maybe next year.

I am... unconfident, but we'll see how it goes!

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I remember when I first played the 3DS version, that was my last fairy... and I got it roughly around when the final countdown started. Dicey, to say the least!

She, please.

No longer the greatest of honk time. Poor guy, maybe next year.

I am... unconfident, but we'll see how it goes!

Apologies, fixed gender pronouns.

And hey, even if you can't do everything, at least you can show off the shortcut on the next cycle.

[LaZodiac]

Three... two... one... go!

Zodi Plays: Majora's Mask [14] Race To The Finish

Video Length: 40:09

In this episode, we try to clear up every little task that's available to us post Snowhead Temple! Thankfully there isn't really a lot of those; mainly I need to get the last two fairies, getting the enhanced spin attack for our human guise. After that we need to get to the Goron Race Track and do some racing to get Gold Dust! With Gold Dust, we can temper our Razor Sword into something a lot more powerful, and a lot more permanent! I can't wait to get it, on this cycle, here on the last day, which is a thing you can do. But first we need to get the Powder Keg license; not all that tricky, and this'll be useful to us later too! Once that's done, it's just a bit of cleaning up. Easy peasy!

Hope you all enjoyed this... lets say "chaotic" episode. Take care everyone, hope you all enjoyed!

[Lord Raziere]

Majora's Mask 14: Loop 4, Day 3
AKA: Restored Goron% Speedrun
AKA: Zodi abuses time powers beyond even the Ocarina so that she doesn't have to come back here.

Wait why aren't you playing the song of time backwards to give yourself more time? or did you do that before you start this?

nice pulling off that jump.

wow your on a timer in more ways than one with that keg.

oh yeah, one-tried the goron race!

oh right, schedule troubles. darn it. can you keep the gold dust through loops? ....no only the bottle. you have to win the dust on future loops. darn it.

yyyeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahh......Legend of Zelda was never one to track its own quests, and Majora's Mask is kind of a "no guide nightmare" on par with dark souls games.

whelp, time's up. ...oh right! you didn't give the fairies back! I forgot. but yeah, WHEW! That was a close one! you almost had to go through that dungeon a third time!

time for Loop 5! guess that gilded sword ain't yours yet. *shrug*

[LaZodiac]

Majora's Mask 14: Loop 4, Day 3
AKA: Restored Goron% Speedrun
AKA: Zodi abuses time powers beyond even the Ocarina so that she doesn't have to come back here.

Wait why aren't you playing the song of time backwards to give yourself more time? or did you do that before you start this?

nice pulling off that jump.

wow your on a timer in more ways than one with that keg.

oh yeah, one-tried the goron race!

oh right, schedule troubles. darn it. can you keep the gold dust through loops? ....no only the bottle. you have to win the dust on future loops. darn it.

yyyeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahh......Legend of Zelda was never one to track its own quests, and Majora's Mask is kind of a "no guide nightmare" on par with dark souls games.

whelp, time's up. ...oh right! you didn't give the fairies back! I forgot. but yeah, WHEW! That was a close one! you almost had to go through that dungeon a third time!

time for Loop 5! guess that gilded sword ain't yours yet. *shrug*

Once applied, the Song of Reversed Time sticks till undone or the loop resets, and I put it on at the start of this loop.

The improved Bomber's Notebook really helps with Majora, but there's just no fixing human error sometimes.

The close call with the fairies almost killed me, straight up.

[Rater202]

Okay, I'm not gonna lie, testing someone for powder safty by giving them a lit powder keg they have to deliver is kind of a **** move.

Thinking more on the "Young Link Zelda Game where he unknowingly attracts the crushes of girls who follow him around and end up being the problem-solving tools" thing, I'm thinking it would be set after Ocarina of Time but before the Kokoris have become the Koroks. But, you know, the process has started so when you encounter them they've all got greenish or brownish skin and leaves or flowers in their hair. A Kokori girl becomes fascinated with Link and starts following him, and her skill set is similar to the Deku mask in this game.

The time constraints on this game kind of suck.

We're getting into "gotta do the thing to do the thing to do the thing" territory, aren't we?

So I imagine that up next iis the part where you do all the stuff n the other areas that you need spin-attack or Goron mask to do?

[DataNinja]

I am so happy you managed to remember the fairies at the end of the episode. I was, the entire time going "uh.... Zodi? Oh no, she's gonna have to do the entire thing all over again, isn't she?" (And, well, turns out she is, but for unrelated reasons.)

[ShneekeyTheLost]

* I didn't know you could make that jump with bunny mask, I thought you had to go up to the other deku flower and fly over. Noice!

* I always had troubles with the TNT carry. In multiple areas.

* First try success on the Goron Race? I don't believe I've ever managed that in any playthrough I've done. Congratulations!

* Only to have a problem with the upgrade taking a day. Womp womp. However, now that we know we can beat the boss on Day 1, we can spend a cycle to do it. Progress, of a sort.

* You have to be a Deku to talk to the merchant about swapping deeds, but yes I think you need to buy his item first because it is a plot-relevant persistent upgrade.

* I was wondering if you would forget about the fairies or not.

[LaZodiac]

Time to tell you all a story...

Zodi Streams: Paper Mario [1] Goombs and Koopas and Fuzzies, Oh My!

Video Length: 4:27:17

We begin the Paper Mario stream, which is very fun. Paper Mario is a nostalgic classic for me, that I grew up with and have a fair amount of memories with.

Fittingly, and quite surprising to everyone, especially me; my good good friend Robin is also here! She's a video creator who I've enjoyed for a long time, and she became my friend a small handfull of years ago, and this is a genuine dream come true for me. I hope you all enjoy!

[Lord Raziere]

To elaborate on a couple things I couldn't while in the stream:
do you want me to tell you more about the secret of the clearing where Mario fell? its nothing big or needed.

the modded version of Paper Mario I'm playing with also does a bunch of other things to make the game more difficult and fun. imagine going through this game but with newer enemies, encounters designed to be tougher, badges all switched around and such so that going all BP in your levels up isn't an option because the enemies deal too much damage to fix with the HP up badge and getting your dodge action command timing is a required skill to survive. I just finished Dry Dry desert on it, and even the area has been changed so that I had to go through areas filled with enemies and navigate instead of just following the path.

yeah zap tap and peekaboo are pretty great. the latter badge is why I consider Goombario to be pretty useless: his tattle doesn't really tell anything you can't find out yourself and is only really useful for revealing the enemies health bar, his attacks are very basic and doesn't really offer the tactical options that other party members do, and his niche of hitting flying enemies unlike bombette or kooper is filled by someone else better as early as chapter 2. a badge takes away his one real battle use and thus relegates him to basically being that guy who provides color commentary. its why I don't think highly of the goomba, once I realized he's probably the least useful party member and that a lot of his overworld tattles is just him complaining about the environment, one gets the impression that he is basically a nerdy fanboy who really isn't cut out for the life of an adventurer and is just there to tag along after a certain point. (if you want to me say how I'd fix him, I'd say give Goombario magic instead of headbonks, because then he'd have a more distinct identity and ability that Mario can't do himself, as well as making him a good counterpart to Kammy koopa)

Bug Fables is a great improvement and refinement of paper mario's rpg system. having three party members with health bars is balanced out by not getting as much health per level, making investing in health not that beneficial compared to the other two. all three party members can use items so one going down isn't as a big of a deal. all three party members serve distinct niches and roles throughout the adventure both in and out of battle making all of them indispensable. enemies are varied and require different badge loadouts to beat, requiring you to strategize for each boss. combine with great writing and story and you get like probably one of the best rpgs I've ever played.

I'm still pretty sure that the shell tower attack is the secret attack what Bowser was impressed by given that the same sound effect is used when he witnesses it and by them using it on Mario. I don't know why everyone in the stream though it was the dumb mecha-bowser.

and yeah, the Peach doing stuff to help Mario in the interludes is great, her efforts are a big reason why Mario succeeds in this game.

[Rater202]

A bit late getting to this one, got caught up watching a playthrough of Cooking Companions

Anyway, Regarding the Mario named on the house... They're called the "Mario Brothers."

I stand by the headcanon that Peach usually allows herself to be kidnapped because being help captive only to be rescued by Mario makes her hot.

(I also stand by the headcanon that the Peach Beach track in Mario Kart came about because Peach invaded and conquered Isle Delfino in revenge for the abominable way they treated her party on what was supposed to be a relaxing vacation.)

I love cooking my own food but I rarely have time, energy, or the right ingredients on hand. I'm currently looking at a fondue-like cheese sauce that consists of cheddar and gouda melted into a chicken broth that's been seasoned with black pepper and red wine vinegar.

Considering that Peach's castle is bigger on the inside and contains portals to pocket realities hidden in paintings, you probably could stay there forever, little penguin thing. Probably all kinds of nooks and crannies you could hide in.

Zodi, didn't you just watch a cutscene of Bowser stealing an artifact that grants wishes? Clearly, he wished for this to happen.

Ah, RPG-style combat in a series known for platformers. Always an interesting adjustment.

Quick Mario, eat some spinach.

Luckily, being made of paper, Mario is impervious to most forms of fall damage.

So, random thought Princess Peach is clearly a Homo nintendus, the same human subspecies are Mario.

How did she become the Princess of a kingdom whose native inhabitants are one of two species of anthropomorphic mushroom?

I still want a return to Isle Delfino game which involves the Island being an open-world locale just for Mario to get some much-deserved reparations for hw horribly he was treated in Sunshine. An unlockable side game where Wario and Waluigi are actively sabataging Mario only to fail would be an interesting feature in such a game.

Goombario: Wants to be just like the man who has crushed countless members of his own kind to death beneath his feat.

Small child didn't get Vegeta'd. Vegeta defeated Goku and only lost the combined efforts of Gohan, Krillin, and Yajirobi wore Vegeta down to the point that Vegeta ran out of energy and so couldn't move out the way when Great Ape Gohan fell on him.

(Seriously, in the entire original run of Dragon Ball, Goku never actually beats Vegeta.)

This is more like a one-shot filler enemy in OG dragon ball.

And I imagine that you'll be finding another more durable hammer later and will have to backtrack.

Robin's avatar is giving me severe Body Envy.

Gonna be honest I'd rather take the girl Goomba than the boy Goomba. The boy's too much of a kissass.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where Gooma's advice isn't always possible to live by.

I was introduced to Disgaea by reading that you literally could reach levels of over nine thousand. Got Afternoon of Darkness afterward and spent literal years working on it, trying so hard to get the best ending only to get the normal ending after I finally beat Lamington. Apparently, I accidentally had one party kill that I never noticed or something and oh God was I pissed off.

I love how Red Goomba gets pissed off at you for killing his brother... When 1: They attacked you first and 2: you're Mario and thus he should know better.

King Goomba seems to be a touch senile.

That was just a Kammy-o to set up the interstitial.

Make them grow Kammy. We need to see No Good Lying Cheating Giant Ninja Koopas.

"Please Mario, save her Highness. Her... Very Highness. Because the Castle, it's high up in the sky, you see, and... Yeah."

Luigi: "Mario, loka-out, there's a Gomba behind you." *Jumps on Goombario, killing him instantly* "Thanka God I saw him a sneakin' up onna you."

...My apologies to all the fine people of Italy and various Little Italies for that one.

I really like in Smash Bro's Brawl, when you're playing as Snake and trigger the codec Call Easter Egg for Luigi, the Colonel starts insulting Luigi, and then Snake gets all offended and demands that Luigi be shown some respect. The call gets derailed when it becomes clear that this is actually Patriot! Colonel and not the real one(this being a meta-joke about L phonemes) but it's nice that one of the biggest badasses in gaming thinks that Luigi deserves some respect.

Again, I think Peach gets off on it. Daisy does not.

You're not wicked you drama-llamas. You're just jaded to the fact that this happens two or three times a month.

I can jive with Second Toad Kid's logic.

The question is, what does the Shop get from holding your items?

Are there degrees of degrees at the dojo? Can you go to the Dojo and get a better degree just to show him up?

Note: Chan and Lee, with Lee being an older mentor to Chan?

Jackie Chan got his start in films as a stuntman in Bruce Lee's films.

Minh T. is gonna have the whole of toad town overrun by an invasive species.

"Help us, Dr. Mario Mario, you're our only hope."

"The Adventures of Twink and Mortio."

Zodi, the correct term for an evil power ranger is "Psycho Ranger."

Speaking of Nintendo and Square Enix... I will bet you good money that Tetsuya Nomura considers Sora's smash bros. appearance as canon and will find some way to work a reference to it into the plot of Kingdom Hearts 4. And Nintendo will let him do it because it's free cross-promotion. Really it's only Dinsey saying no that would stop him.

Nomura did not include Final Fantasy characters in Kingdom Hearts III because he felt that the original elements of the series could stand on their own without the need for a boost from "what if Squall and Cloud were in the same game?"

then fans reacted poorly and he said he got the hint.

Although, the World Ends with You elements of DDD included a mention of Sora visiting Shibuya at some point, and low and behold the secret ending of KHIII shows Sora waking up in the middle of a four-way intersection and shows what appears to be the TWEWY version of a building in Shibuya.

...and then the KHIV Trailer shows Sora in a world called Quadratom, a sort of afterlife if you will, that's transparently just Tokyo.

So it may be that he intended to phase them out in favor of another property.

There is a non-canonical X-Men mini-series called "worst X-Men Ever" starring a kid named Baily Hoskins.

Baily had the power to explode. Once.

Not to be confused with Explodey Boy, who can explode as many times as he wants with no consequence.

Normally mysterious otherworldly quizmasters are a bad thing. Bad things tend to happen if you answer wrong.

Paper Mario remake where the only difference is you don't have to choose party members, they're all following you at once.

Though they'd have to find some way of making fights more challenging to compensate.

[Lord Raziere]

Paper Mario remake where the only difference is you don't have to choose party members, they're all following you at once.

Though they'd have to find some way of making fights more challenging to compensate.

Well....eh that is actually a lot of party members. thats like eight people following Mario. Bug Fables had to rebalance itself around three party members at once and those party members were all you got. like in Bug Fables you functionally have like 30 hp because each member had like 10hp each. so if you have eight party members plus Mario and they have even 10hp each? thats 90hp, functionally speaking. thats almost as much as the final boss.

and turns become you deciding like nine different actions each turn. if your not careful you'd probably blow through your FP all at once. I think the most enemies we see on screen in a single battle at once in Paper Mario and thousand year door is something maybe like.....four, maybe six, mechanically speaking? and most often the enemies are 2-4 in number. and those situations are generally when you start breaking the AOE.

so them all being there at once would make the player really overpowered for this combat system. it would be really overdone, when this combat systems strength is its simplicity yet allowing for tactical variance. like you could probably up the damage and health for the enemies but then you ruining the consistency of how its designed for minimal numbers. you don't want to overcomplicate it.

honestly would ruin this combat system.

[Rater202]

Fair enough.

---

Unrelated thought: A Lot f those reincarnation or portal fantasy stories, the ones with RPG mechanic like reality at least, have a gimmic where monsters will "evolve" into a similar but more powerful monster once they become powerful enough. Goblin into hobgoblin into orc into ogre and so on. And sometimes there's a branched path.

When you landed in the cell with the Bob-ombs the idea for something like that got stuck in my head: That Time I got Runover and woke up as an explosive. Protagonist dies in generic reincarnation fashion to a truck and wakes up in the Mushroom Kingdom as a lowly Bob-omb and over time they develop first into a bigger, stronger bob-omb but then into other explosion-related enemies until they're essentially a walking tank that shoots non-sentinet bullet bill drones.

And they're the one who has to defeat Bowser this time because Mario is off on one of those things where it's somebody lese causing problems for a change and Bowser didn't join him on this one.

My mind is weird.

[Lord Raziere]

thing is I know there was a homebrew paper mario ttrpg made right here on giantitp, but it was so long ago that I can't really find it, but it was able to like, make most if not all enemy types playable and was based completely on the actual video game system rather than some other game.

you'll soon see what I mean by Jr. Troopa getting "Vegeta'd".

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Unrelated thought: A Lot f those reincarnation or portal fantasy stories, the ones with RPG mechanic like reality at least, have a gimmic where monsters will "evolve" into a similar but more powerful monster once they become powerful enough. Goblin into hobgoblin into orc into ogre and so on. And sometimes there's a branched path.

When you landed in the cell with the Bob-ombs the idea for something like that got stuck in my head: That Time I got Runover and woke up as an explosive. Protagonist dies in generic reincarnation fashion to a truck and wakes up in the Mushroom Kingdom as a lowly Bob-omb and over time they develop first into a bigger, stronger bob-omb but then into other explosion-related enemies until they're essentially a walking tank that shoots non-sentinet bullet bill drones.

And they're the one who has to defeat Bowser this time because Mario is off on one of those things where it's somebody lese causing problems for a change and Bowser didn't join him on this one.

My mind is weird.

You know those tanks in SMB3 in World 8? That might be an option for one of the evolution iterations. Then you can go full Voltron/Zord and put multiples together for Giant Mecha With Lots Of Boom.

[LaZodiac]

In today's Majora's Mask; t h e m.

Zodi Plays: Majora's Mask [15] T H E M

Video Length: 36:47

Starting us off, we do all the stuff necessary to get ourselves the Razor Sword on day three. Just nipping that in the bud straight away; I'd rather not have to refight the bosses multiple times if I can afford to, but in this instance it's kind of needed.

With that out of the way... we've got access to Powder Kegs. Time to begin one of the game's loop-long sidequests! The Romani Ranch plotline! One quick Powder Keg to that boulder and we can actually access the dang place before whatever nasty business happens... and what a nasty business it is. According to Romani herself, aliens (specifically the Flatswood Monster type Japan loves so much) are attacking and threatening to kidnap the cows. It's up to us to stop them, because otherwise the cows'll get kidnapped... and Romani will get cownapped. We've seen the end result of that, so lets do our best to prevent it!

[Lord Raziere]

Majora's Mask 15: Loop 5, Day 1
Yeah I can imagine constantly having to redo things in this game can get tiresome.

Nice design to make the guy run away from the bomb.

They are coming. THEM. The Theys! They come because They are Them! and we are us. 0_0

Though I imagine this whole interaction with Romani being both oddly nostalgic and kind of surreal for Link, because Romani is basically a carbon copy of Malon but seems to be a completely different person. like her being here is the kind of piece of evidence that makes people think Termina may not exactly be normal. Link encountering someone similar in a different region is one thing, but someone who looks exactly like her, on a farm, as well as skull kid being here, clocktown being this place's hyrule, deku zora and goron kingdoms, Tingle being this dark mirror of Link of being a fairy boy that never grew up, there may something more than just Majora's Mask that is going on here.

to be fair, they did a good job making this creepy. I'm a little creeped out with this right now. the fact there is no music other the constant noise they make, that there is no explanation for what these...Them are, they don't seem to be connected to Majora's Mask, and I think they're getting faster as dawn gets closer, meaning they seem to know what your doing and trying to hurry up in response....the fact that Romani will get kidnapped and....traumatized....if you fail all well done piece of horror.

But I'd like to point out: Link has time traveled and fought aliens. through this tenuous and fragile logic, he is officially a Time Lord/The Doctor.

[Rater202]

@Raz I think the consense is that Termina is one of Hyrule's mirror worlds. A slightly off parallel dimension that Link stumbled into while following the Majora possessed Skull Kid.

So in a way, Romani and her older sister are Mallon, just not the same Mallon. You'll find counterparts to a lot of people Link met in OoT in Termina.

---

Now, considering that the threat are aliens...

...No wander Romani was the way she was at the end of the loop two loops ago. If she was abducted by aliens... Well, aside from the more crass stereotypes there are still a number of invasive medical procedures up to and including outright vivisection with or without anesthetic. There's also the possibility of lobotomy or brainwashing, force participation in some invasive or horrific experiment, or maybe they were going to eat her but changed their minds at the last minute because the scanner said she was too high in salt.

Any of tose, or a combination of them, would explain the constant thousand-yard stare.

[DataNinja]

Oh boy. That... sure is a thing. And, yes, I could see how this'd be terrifying for Kid Zodi.

[LaZodiac]

Oh boy. That... sure is a thing. And, yes, I could see how this'd be terrifying for Kid Zodi.

Even accounting for the fact that I'm thirty and kicked the **** out of them, they still unsettled me a bit. It's just always been a thing that aliens freak me out.

Fun anecdote time I meant to say in the video; when playing Bloodborne, the first time I met the little cabbage patch kid enemies, the aliens with the big squishy heads, it was at like 1 in the morning. I had been playing it all day, nice and exhausted. It was winter, so quiet and dark and a little cold. I am wandering down a dark foresty path and just... no music. Just the weird pitter-patter of these little guys, as I come across them playing around. They attack, a frozen sort of dread coming over me. Wordlessly, but very tensely, I beat them to death with my cane and walk back the way I came.

I message to my friend online "yeah I should probably get to bed" and immediately just went to bed. Out like a light.

Terrifying ****ing thing.

[DataNinja]

Even accounting for the fact that I'm thirty and kicked the **** out of them, they still unsettled me a bit. It's just always been a thing that aliens freak me out.

Yeah, no, that's super fair. (I've always been the opposite - aliens were always the coolest thing in the world to me. Guess I stole all of that from you, whoops. )

[LaZodiac]

Yeah, no, that's super fair. (I've always been the opposite - aliens were always the coolest thing in the world to me. Guess I stole all of that from you, whoops. )

Aliens are cool as ****! I guess it just depends on presentation; Garrus from Mass Effect doesn't feel like an alien to me, he's a cute praying mantis boy. Aliens as monsters are unsettling in a way no other monster IS to me, wheras aliens as people are like, barely a register.

I'm gonna emphasize that I'm someone who enjoys being scared so while I appreciate the concern for poor Zodi, as an adult this stuff is enjoyable even as it unsettles. It's one of the beauties of the human psyche.

[DataNinja]

Aliens are cool as ****! I guess it just depends on presentation; Garrus from Mass Effect doesn't feel like an alien to me, he's a cute praying mantis boy. Aliens as monsters are unsettling in a way no other monster IS to me, wheras aliens as people are like, barely a register.

I'm gonna emphasize that I'm someone who enjoys being scared so while I appreciate the concern for poor Zodi, as an adult this stuff is enjoyable even as it unsettles. It's one of the beauties of the human psyche.

Also very fair! I'm one who isn't a fan of horror in general, so, uh, yeah. The fact that people like to seek it out is something that often slips my mind. XP

[Rater202]

Even accounting for the fact that I'm thirty and kicked the **** out of them, they still unsettled me a bit. It's just always been a thing that aliens freak me out.

Fun anecdote time I meant to say in the video; when playing Bloodborne, the first time I met the little cabbage patch kid enemies, the aliens with the big squishy heads, it was at like 1 in the morning. I had been playing it all day, nice and exhausted. It was winter, so quiet and dark and a little cold. I am wandering down a dark foresty path and just... no music. Just the weird pitter-patter of these little guys, as I come across them playing around. They attack, a frozen sort of dread coming over me. Wordlessly, but very tensely, I beat them to death with my cane and walk back the way I came.

I message to my friend online "yeah I should probably get to bed" and immediately just went to bed. Out like a light.

Terrifying ****ing thing.

I think that's the intended reaction.

If I recall correctly, unless you go out of your way to gain a large amount of Insight early or find some way to sequence break, just running into those guys is the first sign that this isn't just a gothic horror or dark fantasy game.

...The ****ed up thing is that those aren't aliens. Those are humans mutated by the churches's experiments with insight and the essence of the various alien Gods you run into. Th extra messed up part is that those are the successful experiments and IIRC are like that willingly.

Garrus from Mass Effect doesn't feel like an alien to me, he's a cute praying mantis boy.

He's supposed to be a bird.

Like, the design inspirations for the Turians were highly anthropomorphized birds of prey with metal plates instead of feathers.

So Garrus is Metal Birb Husbando Batman with guns. That's his thing.

[LaZodiac]

I think that's the intended reaction.

If I recall correctly, unless you go out of your way to gain a large amount of Insight early or find some way to sequence break, just running into those guys is the first sign that this isn't just a gothic horror or dark fantasy game.

...The ****ed up thing is that those aren't aliens. Those are humans mutated by the churches's experiments with insight and the essence of the various alien Gods you run into. Th extra messed up part is that those are the successful experiments and IIRC are like that willingly.
He's supposed to be a bird.

Like, the design inspirations for the Turians were highly anthropomorphized birds of prey with metal plates instead of feathers.

So Garrus is Metal Birb Husbando Batman with guns. That's his thing.

Yeah the cabbage patch kids are freaky for a lot of reasons!

I know Turian's are birds but some of the chitin/scales feel bug to me. Still best husband choice though. Which reminds me I should stream Mass Effect at some point...

[Rater202]

Yeah the cabbage patch kids are freaky for a lot of reasons!

I know Turian's are birds but some of the chitin/scales feel bug to me. Still best husband choice though. Which reminds me I should stream Mass Effect at some point...

You sure you wanna do that? Because that's one of those things where if at all possible you do the whole thing in one go because there's a lot of crap set up in the first game that doesn't fire until the third. Unless you handle a bunch of minor sidequests off-stream and budget your time very well that's a year-long commitment at least.

[LaZodiac]

You sure you wanna do that? Because that's one of those things where if at all possible you do the whole thing in one go because there's a lot of crap set up in the first game that doesn't fire until the third. Unless you handle a bunch of minor sidequests off-stream and budget your time very well that's a year-long commitment at least.

I really like Mass Effect so it'd probably be fine.

[Lord Raziere]

I really like Mass Effect so it'd probably be fine.

Yeah, considering the way it turned out, it does a lot things well. If nothing else, its a setting thats a good middle ground between Star Trek's optimism and Wh40k's grimdark, and its kind of criminal that we're not getting any continuation of it made by a competent developer. it has a certain reasonability to it where things aren't all bad and you can be a hero, but the plots are rooted in realistic, complex social realities of the setting. like the main plot was arguably the worst thing about Mass Effect, so if you just had an alternate universe where it didn't happen and focused on the things that made Mass Effect great: the interactions between various alien species and being a space-faring badass who has to navigate and solve the political problems around them, they would've had something that could last much longer and be much better.

and something like Cerberus could still be around as a villain but done more competently so that its not just a bunch of mad science experiments, instead focusing on a political sabotage kind of thing to try and make humans look better or put them in a better position because something happened to some other species.

like there is a lot you could do with Mass Effect and its sad that all the developers could think of was "robot cthulhu kill civilizations over and over for uuh.....reasons."

[LaZodiac]

Yeah, considering the way it turned out, it does a lot things well. If nothing else, its a setting thats a good middle ground between Star Trek's optimism and Wh40k's grimdark, and its kind of criminal that we're not getting any continuation of it made by a competent developer. it has a certain reasonability to it where things aren't all bad and you can be a hero, but the plots are rooted in realistic, complex social realities of the setting. like the main plot was arguably the worst thing about Mass Effect, so if you just had an alternate universe where it didn't happen and focused on the things that made Mass Effect great: the interactions between various alien species and being a space-faring badass who has to navigate and solve the political problems around them, they would've had something that could last much longer and be much better.

and something like Cerberus could still be around as a villain but done more competently so that its not just a bunch of mad science experiments, instead focusing on a political sabotage kind of thing to try and make humans look better or put them in a better position because something happened to some other species.

like there is a lot you could do with Mass Effect and its sad that all the developers could think of was "robot cthulhu kill civilizations over and over for uuh.....reasons."

They had a more fascinating answer for why the Reaper's do what they do, but then it got leaked and EA forced Bioware's hand on changing it.

Also I LIKE the Reaper threat. It's fascinating! Reminds me of the Shadows from Babylon 5, or the Ur'quan from Star Control 2. But with a unique spin on'em.