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

[Rater202]

So I just finished the first video... Calling it now, you're gonna end up having to kill Barry. He's gonna get Taken and then he'll be a boss fight.

Video 2: We talking Old World or Chronicles because the otherworld, meta-narrative, literary, and legend/folktale themes are kind of pointing me in a Changeling the Lost direction.

[LaZodiac]

So I just finished the first video... Calling it now, you're gonna end up having to kill Barry. He's gonna get Taken and then he'll be a boss fight.

Video 2: We talking Old World or Chronicles because the otherworld, meta-narrative, literary, and legend/folktale themes are kind of pointing me in a Changeling the Lost direction.

I'll admit I don't know the difference, but due to Information I Know, Alan Wake is definitely a Mage. He did after all write a manuscript that seems to be telling the future!

[Rater202]

I'll admit I don't know the difference, but due to Information I Know, Alan Wake is definitely a Mage. He did after all write a manuscript that seems to be telling the future!

The main differance is lack of a heavy-handed meta-plot and, in the second edition of Chronicles (which was named Chronicles after theys tarted maing new content for the Old WOrld of darkness again) the game is less likely to actively screw over players.

Fewer Mary Sue NPCS, to. There was a reccuring NPC in adventure paths for a varity of game lines who was a Ghoul-Mage-Skinwalker, which is to say, he had access to vamprire, mage, and werewolf powers. Stuff which was normally forbidden to PCs. Half of his build was stuff that was techncially rules legal but was dependent on the kind of exploits that would get a rule book shoved up a player's ass if they came to the table with it and half of it was just literally outright cheating, and every single published storyline he was in had explicit instructions for the GM to cheat to keep him alive and have hime scape t the end if the PCs won.

Anyway... To use Mage as an example, in Old World reality operates on Consensus. Gravity is what Newton described because that is what the majority o f people are taught and believe. Mages ar people who have alone an avatar of divinity that bonded to their souls and thus get a much stronger vote on what reality is in their immediate vicinity,o the point of being able to use their own beliefs and trappings to warp reality though anything that pushes back too hard against the consensus or is otherwise blatantly supernatural gets backlash.

In Chronicles, mages are people who have achieved a form of Enlightenment and were able to connect to one of several supernatural realms and are drawing power from those higher realms to influence the lower one that they re trapped in.

I bring up Changeling the Lost, the Chronicles game about fae, because... Well for one Fae creatures have powers relating to contracts and storytelling.

For two... One becomes a Changeling after one has been kidnapped by the True Fae and escapes. Not everyone who is taken is so lucky and no matter what you're warped by the experiance. It's not a straight 1 to 1 obviously but...

[LaZodiac]

I actually did know the lore for Old World of Darkness, I just didn't know anything about new. Thank you though!

I'll avoid saying more about why I think he's a Mage until the we finish it- which could feasibly be next stream? We'll see.

[Rater202]

How much do you think Energizer paid for the product placement in this because those batteries suck.

Part of my brain is trying to figure out how someone would prepare for this sort of situation. Like if you knew going in what you'd be encountering and my first thought was like one of those headlamps. You know, like on a mining helmet but without the helmet. Light up what you're looking at but also keep a hand free.

My next thought was to stock up on Flash Bangs. If the sudden flash of a flare gun is an instant kill then a flash-bang should have a similar effect.

Not really sure what you'd do for protection. Wrapping yourself up in Christmas Lights or some **** might work to keep them from getting too close but it probably wouldn't stop someone from chucking an axe at you and cut the wires and the whole thing shuts down. Maybe like a whole bunch of reflective tape and LEDs?

Edit: I'm going to note that Raz didn't specify which Human Torch... Or Spider-Man... Or Wolverine.

Edit 2: I've heard the argument that RWBY's cast are better characterized and developed through he soundtrack than the actual show. Also, the whole thing went downhill fast when the plot started.

[LaZodiac]

Finally, a clean bill of health after surgeries and recovery!

(Immediately gets taken out by a remnant gall stone lodging into my liver flap, requiring medivac to Edmonton for removal)

No stream today, obviously.

[enderlord99]

Finally, a clean bill of health after surgeries and recovery!

(Immediately gets taken out by a remnant gall stone lodging into my liver flap, requiring medivac to Edmonton for removal)

No stream today, obviously.

All I can think to say here is "F"

[Rater202]

For the record, Zodi, "bag lady" refers specifically to a homeless woman, usually an older one, who keeps all of her possessions in shopping bags. Tends to be stereotyped as not all there, so to speak, and sometimes used more generally as a feminine equivalent to "bum," IE a homeless person who stays in one area and doesn't work.

Barry assumed that because Cyntheia was a touch off her rocker that she must be homeless and Randolph was essentially jumping to her defense "she might be a little off but it's not like she's a bum."

So yeah, if I have to pick one of them to call a **** from that exchange it'd be Barry.

Also 'Barbara Jagger' is really ****ing on the nose, especially with the existence of Cauldron Lake and the birds leg cabin.

Edit: Wow, Nightingale. You get called in and don't even verify that a crime has actually occurred or not before you start shouting orders, attempting an arrest, or start brandishing your gun and your response to someone trying to flee from what certainly looks like an illegal arrest is to immediately start randomly firing in the general vicinity of civilians in the direction of inhabited dwellings.

You just know that this guy has his job because he's somebody's nephew and there's a whole folder of questionable shootings that weren't adequately investigated before being declared good with his name on it.

Also why a helicopter? Why is the FBI here to begin with? Why arrest Rose when this whole fiasco is founded on the mistaken assumption that Alan and Barry did something to her?

...Okay, Nightingale literally just tried to murder Alan in cold blood I'm pretty sure Sarah has cause to arrest him.

---

Regarding Stephen King, he does in act have several novels of inanimate objects coming to life and killing people it's just that a lot of them aren't...

Christine is the one people remember, a couple of he rest of them were... Look, Cocaine is a hell of a drug and even Steven King would phone it in some times.

The Mangler gets a special mention for being a killer inanimate object that you basically have to feed yourself to. An industrial sized laundry press. Also mentioned in the orignal short story is a refrigerator that "ate" several birds and a dog.

[Rater202]

Time for more Ekaw Nala.

1: How are you holding up?

2: I actually broke down and looked up all the different Nights Springs episodes... Some of them seem to be thematically appropriate to the themes and narratives of the game and some of them seem to just be filler and with one exception you can easily tell which is which because the fileler ones seem to be phoned-in even in regards to the schlocky Twilight Zone Paraody nature.

3: I love how the spelling errors are the first thing that Alan comments on in the text from The Kidnapper.

4: ...Is that whisper on a loop

5: Marvel has a Techbro villain right now. Goes by Feilong. His whole schtick is that he's super pissed off that the mutants colonized Mars before he could. He also hates Iron Man because Tony had a plan to terraform Mars but not colonize it that fell through so he used legal chicanery to become the sole stockholder of Stark International and appoint himself CEO, frame Tony for a bunch of crimes, have someone sneak into one of Tony's AA meetings and spike his coffee with a drug that mimics the effects of excessive alcohol consumption to make it look like he fell off the wagon, framed Hodey for a murder and arranged for him to be sent to the most abusive prison in Texas, tried to arrange for Rhodey to be murdered in Prison while he was on the phone with Tony, he's using Stark Tech resources to make Sentinels, and it turns out that his backstory about his parents screwing him over and leaving him with nothing and his claims of being a self made man are complete bull****, what actually happened is that his parents loved him unconditionally and gave him everything but he resented them because they were both mutants but he didn't inherit powers from either of them and that's why he hates mutants.

He's one of the richest and smartest people in the world but he's just so petty and angry all the goddamned time. He's almost worse than Doom, but at least Doctor Doom actually comes across and competent and threatening. Feilong's mostly going off of plot armor.

6: Alan mispronounced "Mjolnir." The J isn't silent but it's pronounced like a y, "Meyouwl-near." Not "Mole-near."

7: I'm thinking back to an episode of Whose Line, where they're playing the Let's Make a Date sketch and Wayne Brady's Bachelor #1 as Chucky and he says "When's the last time you grappled with six inches of plastic" and only realizes the innuendo when the audience all goes "oooooh!"

Without breaking character: "My height! I meant my height!"

8: Eh, I think Rei could take Freddy. While he's associated with fire du to being burned fire is also his weakness due to dying in a fire and since all of Rei's dreams are about fire he'd be at a disadvantage. Additionally, he can't hurt you if you aren't afraid of him and can't hurt anyone if there's not enough ambient fear of him to go around and after the events of the first book I don't think regular bad dreams of a burned up jackass are gonna do **** to Rei in terms of fear.

Of course, actually defeating him is another matter. If you wake up while touching him he comes o the real world with you and you can kill him there but that just sends him back to the Dream world, albeit in a dormant state. To deal with him for long you have to give his early remains a proper catholic funeral and even then that just renders him dormant until something disturbs his grave

As for what he is... I've actually made the observation that he's closer to an Onryo than to most Western ghosts.

9: Did you watch the Samurai Jack revival?

[LaZodiac]

All I can think to say here is "F"

Thank

For the record, Zodi, "bag lady" refers specifically to a homeless woman, usually an older one, who keeps all of her possessions in shopping bags. Tends to be stereotyped as not all there, so to speak, and sometimes used more generally as a feminine equivalent to "bum," IE a homeless person who stays in one area and doesn't work.

Barry assumed that because Cyntheia was a touch off her rocker that she must be homeless and Randolph was essentially jumping to her defense "she might be a little off but it's not like she's a bum."

So yeah, if I have to pick one of them to call a **** from that exchange it'd be Barry.

Also 'Barbara Jagger' is really ****ing on the nose, especially with the existence of Cauldron Lake and the birds leg cabin.

Edit: Wow, Nightingale. You get called in and don't even verify that a crime has actually occurred or not before you start shouting orders, attempting an arrest, or start brandishing your gun and your response to someone trying to flee from what certainly looks like an illegal arrest is to immediately start randomly firing in the general vicinity of civilians in the direction of inhabited dwellings.

You just know that this guy has his job because he's somebody's nephew and there's a whole folder of questionable shootings that weren't adequately investigated before being declared good with his name on it.

Also why a helicopter? Why is the FBI here to begin with? Why arrest Rose when this whole fiasco is founded on the mistaken assumption that Alan and Barry did something to her?

...Okay, Nightingale literally just tried to murder Alan in cold blood I'm pretty sure Sarah has cause to arrest him.

---

Regarding Stephen King, he does in act have several novels of inanimate objects coming to life and killing people it's just that a lot of them aren't...

Christine is the one people remember, a couple of he rest of them were... Look, Cocaine is a hell of a drug and even Steven King would phone it in some times.

The Mangler gets a special mention for being a killer inanimate object that you basically have to feed yourself to. An industrial sized laundry press. Also mentioned in the orignal short story is a refrigerator that "ate" several birds and a dog.

Ah heck you're the one who pointed out Barbara Jagger/Baba Yaga, but then you also said the baglady explanation here and Knight explained that in stream thus my confusion.

Nightingale is so suspicious that if I didn't know for a fact that Control was NOT a game Remedy had in mind before this, I'd say he was a really obvious plant for Control. He operates exactly like an SCP "must stop this situation at all costs" guy would do.

I'll admit I forgot about those King stories, but I never really read his shorts, just his longs.

Time for more Ekaw Nala.

1: How are you holding up?

2: I actually broke down and looked up all the different Nights Springs episodes... Some of them seem to be thematically appropriate to the themes and narratives of the game and some of them seem to just be filler and with one exception you can easily tell which is which because the fileler ones seem to be phoned-in even in regards to the schlocky Twilight Zone Paraody nature.

3: I love how the spelling errors are the first thing that Alan comments on in the text from The Kidnapper.

4: ...Is that whisper on a loop

5: Marvel has a Techbro villain right now. Goes by Feilong. His whole schtick is that he's super pissed off that the mutants colonized Mars before he could. He also hates Iron Man because Tony had a plan to terraform Mars but not colonize it that fell through so he used legal chicanery to become the sole stockholder of Stark International and appoint himself CEO, frame Tony for a bunch of crimes, have someone sneak into one of Tony's AA meetings and spike his coffee with a drug that mimics the effects of excessive alcohol consumption to make it look like he fell off the wagon, framed Hodey for a murder and arranged for him to be sent to the most abusive prison in Texas, tried to arrange for Rhodey to be murdered in Prison while he was on the phone with Tony, he's using Stark Tech resources to make Sentinels, and it turns out that his backstory about his parents screwing him over and leaving him with nothing and his claims of being a self made man are complete bull****, what actually happened is that his parents loved him unconditionally and gave him everything but he resented them because they were both mutants but he didn't inherit powers from either of them and that's why he hates mutants.

He's one of the richest and smartest people in the world but he's just so petty and angry all the goddamned time. He's almost worse than Doom, but at least Doctor Doom actually comes across and competent and threatening. Feilong's mostly going off of plot armor.

6: Alan mispronounced "Mjolnir." The J isn't silent but it's pronounced like a y, "Meyouwl-near." Not "Mole-near."

7: I'm thinking back to an episode of Whose Line, where they're playing the Let's Make a Date sketch and Wayne Brady's Bachelor #1 as Chucky and he says "When's the last time you grappled with six inches of plastic" and only realizes the innuendo when the audience all goes "oooooh!"

Without breaking character: "My height! I meant my height!"

8: Eh, I think Rei could take Freddy. While he's associated with fire du to being burned fire is also his weakness due to dying in a fire and since all of Rei's dreams are about fire he'd be at a disadvantage. Additionally, he can't hurt you if you aren't afraid of him and can't hurt anyone if there's not enough ambient fear of him to go around and after the events of the first book I don't think regular bad dreams of a burned up jackass are gonna do **** to Rei in terms of fear.

Of course, actually defeating him is another matter. If you wake up while touching him he comes o the real world with you and you can kill him there but that just sends him back to the Dream world, albeit in a dormant state. To deal with him for long you have to give his early remains a proper catholic funeral and even then that just renders him dormant until something disturbs his grave

As for what he is... I've actually made the observation that he's closer to an Onryo than to most Western ghosts.

9: Did you watch the Samurai Jack revival?

1: I'm holding, is what I'll say. I've got this, it's just worn me down a bit.

2: Clearly the best and thematic ones were written by Wake. And to be fair this is accurate to Twilight Zone, some episodes make you step back and stare into the sharpest depths of the soul and wonder Why. And some of them are "man wouldn't it be ****ed if you were the last man on Earth, finally with time to read, and your glasses broke?"

3: God same I forgot to point that out. Of course it is!!

5: That sounds miserable. This is why I actually quite like Doctor Doom, since he's one of the only brain-genius smart guy villains (or heroes for that matter...) that decides you know what yes, I WILL cure cancer. I don't JUST want to turn people into dinosaurs.

6: I think "nir" is more of a "nur" sound but otherwise yeah. I did later imply Alan's only done five minutes of Norse research for this particular plot culdesac, after all.

8: While there is dream material Freddy could make use of, the fact that all mancer dreams are in their element means the instant he steps into Rei's dream he has walked into a literal inferno. Dude's the nightmare spirit, HE'S not the one meant to enter his worst fear. Hilariously this also kinda makes Ella immune, because she's kind of afraid of a lot of things... but due to her own mancy she's mostly just grossed out and unpleasant in her dreams, so there's not much Freddy could do there either. Like yeah, lotta fear juice in this girl, but her reaction to everything being smothered and smeared in blood and viscera is "... I need to practice meditation more to suppress this aspect of my dreams, it's so unpleasant v_v"

... the thought of him going for Verde and her just admiring his glove is, another good thought, honestly.

Yeah Freddy's an onryo in real life, but in my setting that'd just make him a particularly ****ed up ghost (I could go on at length about how ghosts function in universe, honestly).

9: I did and that was what I was referring to when I said it ended like Gurren Lagann! After I've given it some time to settle I'm firmly in the camp of "it's good right up until the exact, very obvious moment it isn't".

[Rater202]

Regarding Azula, she's 14.

And uh... I don't think the people who want to redeem her do it because of her age.

Lot of people seem to try and push everything onto her being estranged from Ursa or onto her toxic relationship with Ozai regarding his expectations and lack of reward but I think it's sort of established that even as a small kid that Azula was just kind of ****ed up by default and Ozai just made it worse. Like, there's some legitimate inborn illness in there.

For what it's worth, she is... Partially rehabilitated in the sequel comics. She's still kind of a psycho and such but now she's trying to act in what she thinks are Zuko's best interests and... Look, you'd a whole month of Springer episodes out of that family.

...I feel like Knight is making references that I should be getting but I am not getting them, regarding Verde's father.

Ella is also the Shaggy in that she's secretly a badass when her back is up against the wall. Could totally see her taking out an entire biker gang if she had to.

...So Scrappy was actually pretty popular when he was first introduced. He was meant to get smaller kids interested and he did. It's just that he sort of overstayed his welcome but even then the sheer hatred for him wasn't really a thing until it jut sort of spontaneously happened in the 90s.We got a "scrappy stinks" game on the Cartoon Network website, a shooting gallery where you throw garbage a him. Then during the Scooby Doo project marathons, when they were airing the Scrappy episodes, they depict Scrappy coming to rescue them as a bad thing with everyone reacting in horror to his arrival, Daphne running off to take her chances in the woods, and no one caring when Scrappy wonders off on his own and vanishes.

Then we get the live action movehat depicts him as not actually a Puppy but the dog equivalent of a Dwarf and also a total egomaniac who tries to take over the world with an army of demons for being kicked out of the gang after laying down an unreasonable ultimatum and he's never recovered since.

The weird thing is, nobody seems to dislike Flim-flam anymore despite the fact that when he was first introduced he got similar complaints to what Scrappy gets now.

As for Kats... I don't think he was a Satan analog I think he was just generically evil. When he first appears he's running a motel in the middle of nowhere and murdering the guests. The only thing cartoony about him is that he's a talking cat, he's otherwise just 100% straight-up a sadistic serial killer. Later episodes sort of toned it down, I distinctly remember one where he was a Dr. Mareau-type figure turning people into appliances and then making them fight for sport and other more cartoony stuff but even then he was consistently the most threatening of Courage's many foes to the point that he has a bad reaction to seeing any similar looking cats, like Kitty in the domestic violence episode.

...Did that Quack really just try to claim that Alan had a schizophrenia episode develop from his wife's death? Mother****er that's an organic illness, not something based on trauma. I'm pretty sure that the leading theory is that it's genetic.

If it wasn't obvious that he's a huckster to begin with.

[LaZodiac]

Regarding Azula, she's 14.

And uh... I don't think the people who want to redeem her do it because of her age.

Lot of people seem to try and push everything onto her being estranged from Ursa or onto her toxic relationship with Ozai regarding his expectations and lack of reward but I think it's sort of established that even as a small kid that Azula was just kind of ****ed up by default and Ozai just made it worse. Like, there's some legitimate inborn illness in there.

For what it's worth, she is... Partially rehabilitated in the sequel comics. She's still kind of a psycho and such but now she's trying to act in what she thinks are Zuko's best interests and... Look, you'd a whole month of Springer episodes out of that family.

...I feel like Knight is making references that I should be getting but I am not getting them, regarding Verde's father.

Ella is also the Shaggy in that she's secretly a badass when her back is up against the wall. Could totally see her taking out an entire biker gang if she had to.

...So Scrappy was actually pretty popular when he was first introduced. He was meant to get smaller kids interested and he did. It's just that he sort of overstayed his welcome but even then the sheer hatred for him wasn't really a thing until it jut sort of spontaneously happened in the 90s.We got a "scrappy stinks" game on the Cartoon Network website, a shooting gallery where you throw garbage a him. Then during the Scooby Doo project marathons, when they were airing the Scrappy episodes, they depict Scrappy coming to rescue them as a bad thing with everyone reacting in horror to his arrival, Daphne running off to take her chances in the woods, and no one caring when Scrappy wonders off on his own and vanishes.

Then we get the live action movehat depicts him as not actually a Puppy but the dog equivalent of a Dwarf and also a total egomaniac who tries to take over the world with an army of demons for being kicked out of the gang after laying down an unreasonable ultimatum and he's never recovered since.

The weird thing is, nobody seems to dislike Flim-flam anymore despite the fact that when he was first introduced he got similar complaints to what Scrappy gets now.

As for Kats... I don't think he was a Satan analog I think he was just generically evil. When he first appears he's running a motel in the middle of nowhere and murdering the guests. The only thing cartoony about him is that he's a talking cat, he's otherwise just 100% straight-up a sadistic serial killer. Later episodes sort of toned it down, I distinctly remember one where he was a Dr. Mareau-type figure turning people into appliances and then making them fight for sport and other more cartoony stuff but even then he was consistently the most threatening of Courage's many foes to the point that he has a bad reaction to seeing any similar looking cats, like Kitty in the domestic violence episode.

...Did that Quack really just try to claim that Alan had a schizophrenia episode develop from his wife's death? Mother****er that's an organic illness, not something based on trauma. I'm pretty sure that the leading theory is that it's genetic.

If it wasn't obvious that he's a huckster to begin with.

In my personal head canon, the Fire-bender healer lady that Korra meets is Azula after the long effort has been gone through. And yeah, it's clearly not all the abuse and upbringing that caused Azula, but that kinda makes it worse- she really needed some good to help her out.

Knight is referencing the seminal classic, Big Trouble In Little China, a crazy hong kong kung-fu action flick told from the perspective of the comedy hijinks side character: an American long-haul trucker whose truck was stolen in the kidnapping of the actual main character's girlfriend. He loves that truck god damnit!

This is very true, and the only reason I didn't mention it in stream is because I know Knight isn't quite there yet reading wise.

James Gun's personal vendetta against Scrappy Doo that fueled an entire genuinely pretty alright movie is hilarious and I cannot believe he stuck that landing as hard as he did. Flim-flam gets a pass for a lot of folk since "ridiculously child shyster" is a more tolerable character trait than Scrappy's "always be pressing W" approeach, and because he's associated with 13 Ghosts, a series everyone says is some of the best Scooby Doo.

This is why I lead that entire discussion with "I have not watched enough Courage the Cowardly Dog to answer this question" as a note, hehehe.

Yeah Hartman is perhaps one of the most heartless, egotistical, monstrous people in the game. He doesn't even have the influence of the Dark Presence to excuse himself either he's just the worst. He would absolutely be an """""AI Artist""""" if it weren't for the fact that that didn't exist yet and because Self Help Books(TM) are incredibly profitable slop.

[Rater202]

And of course, the quack is a trophy hunter.

...also, one of those trophies is pretty clearly a cougar and I'm pretty sure those were considered and endangered species when this game came out.

I bet he's the kind of guy who sits in a camouflaged stand surrounded by feeders and decoys and then takes the deer out with a god-damned sniper rifle with an X-ray scope and then acts like that's some big accomplishment. Bruh, it ain't hunting if you don't hun the damn thing, and it's not a sport if you're not being sporting.

Edit: And he blames the Andersons mental health decline on the heavy metal life style? I don't think this man i a real doctor, rocking it does not cause mntal decay, despite what generations of moral guardians will tell you.

...I bet they're not even demented. They're talking about The Dark Presence and one of the old manucript pages all but outright states that when Tomas Zane released the Dark Presence with his writing it was a band of musicians who defeated it. Clearly, it was the Old Gods of Asgard who defeated the presence before but the experiance eft them somewhat traumatized in ways that other people conflated with dementia as they got older and Hartman took advantage of the preconception to have them committed to his care in order to take advantage of them financially.

[LaZodiac]

And of course, the quack is a trophy hunter.

...also, one of those trophies is pretty clearly a cougar and I'm pretty sure those were considered and endangered species when this game came out.

I bet he's the kind of guy who sits in a camouflaged stand surrounded by feeders and decoys and then takes the deer out with a god-damned sniper rifle with an X-ray scope and then acts like that's some big accomplishment. Bruh, it ain't hunting if you don't hun the damn thing, and it's not a sport if you're not being sporting.

Edit: And he blames the Andersons mental health decline on the heavy metal life style? I don't think this man i a real doctor, rocking it does not cause mntal decay, despite what generations of moral guardians will tell you.

...I bet they're not even demented. They're talking about The Dark Presence and one of the old manucript pages all but outright states that when Tomas Zane released the Dark Presence with his writing it was a band of musicians who defeated it. Clearly, it was the Old Gods of Asgard who defeated the presence before but the experiance eft them somewhat traumatized in ways that other people conflated with dementia as they got older and Hartman took advantage of the preconception to have them committed to his care in order to take advantage of them financially.

Ehh... slight misread.

Tom awoke the DP, but managed to beat it. The Old Gods woke it up a crack, and fought off it's minions enough to weaken it. The rest checks out though.

[Rater202]

I've looked it up, there are in fact singles out there for the Old Gods discography. Ch8ldren of The Elder God kicks ass.

[Rater202]

Alright, time to find the Lady of the Light who's gone mad with the night.

...seriously, thank you for playing this game the band kicks all kinds of ass.

Abyss exalted are Solar Exalted whose shards of exaltation have been twisted and corrupted by the foul essence of the Neverborn and the themes of the Ghostly Death Lords. Still possesses themes of perfection and excellence, bit twisted toward murder and replacing the themes of radiance and virtue with ones of darkness and death. Also a few extras like being able to replenish their essence by drinking blood or inevitably being either incredibly attractive or ugly as sin. Exalted was originally pitched as the ancient, mythic history of the World of Darkness, and in that lens Abyssals analog to both wraiths and vampires much as Solars are analog to Hunters, Lunars to werewolves and other changing breed, sidereal to mages, and dragon-blooded maybe to eastern vampires.

I don't recall, did Allan tell Breaker about the flashlight thing? Because she seems to be aware of it which suggests that she may have had to deal with Taken before, albeit not likely having the full picture.

...You know, I had a feeling you'd get attacked by the deer float.

I mean, it is coming out for the fortieth anniversary of the franchise.

Why does your flashlight keep getting reset to the default/weakest one between levels? It makes sense the one time you explcitly lose your flashlight but come on.

...I can't figure out the answer to the riddle.

So Alan basically admitted that he made the tough calls on who lived and who died in this when he wrote himself into the manuscript after starting to break free. Barry keeps going through these terrifying situations because Alan needs the drama for the narrative to work and/or feel that it's realistic that Barry would be in danger but at the same time however willing he was to condemn innocent people to be killed or Taken he couldn't bring himself to kill his best friend.

Honestly with the size of the town vs how many Take you've already killed and who all those taken were is there even enough people left for this to be a town? Alan just sit at your typewriter and write out a fifteen-page narrative about how the survivors all evacuated and then the government fired a warhead containing the flashbang equivalent of a nuke into the lack to defeat the Dark presence for good and also that Alice escaped on her own and is perfectly safe.

...I repeat my prior statement about Barry.

It wasn't so much a prediction as me just speculating. In fact, if that's actually working then I speculated wrong since I figured it wouldn't be particularly effective.

Headlamp on the other hand I called. However, I believe that Barry is confusing the Eye of Mordor with the Eye of Balor.

Barry, if you did get used to this it'd be a sign that something's wrong with you.

...Wake. Did you just feed yourself a compliment?

Don't you love it when enemies spawn in out of the aether fter you start to progress?

[LaZodiac]

Alright, time to find the Lady of the Light who's gone mad with the night.

...seriously, thank you for playing this game the band kicks all kinds of ass.

Abyss exalted are Solar Exalted whose shards of exaltation have been twisted and corrupted by the foul essence of the Neverborn and the themes of the Ghostly Death Lords. Still possesses themes of perfection and excellence, bit twisted toward murder and replacing the themes of radiance and virtue with ones of darkness and death. Also a few extras like being able to replenish their essence by drinking blood or inevitably being either incredibly attractive or ugly as sin. Exalted was originally pitched as the ancient, mythic history of the World of Darkness, and in that lens Abyssals analog to both wraiths and vampires much as Solars are analog to Hunters, Lunars to werewolves and other changing breed, sidereal to mages, and dragon-blooded maybe to eastern vampires.

I don't recall, did Allan tell Breaker about the flashlight thing? Because she seems to be aware of it which suggests that she may have had to deal with Taken before, albeit not likely having the full picture.

...You know, I had a feeling you'd get attacked by the deer float.

I mean, it is coming out for the fortieth anniversary of the franchise.

Why does your flashlight keep getting reset to the default/weakest one between levels? It makes sense the one time you explcitly lose your flashlight but come on.

...I can't figure out the answer to the riddle.

So Alan basically admitted that he made the tough calls on who lived and who died in this when he wrote himself into the manuscript after starting to break free. Barry keeps going through these terrifying situations because Alan needs the drama for the narrative to work and/or feel that it's realistic that Barry would be in danger but at the same time however willing he was to condemn innocent people to be killed or Taken he couldn't bring himself to kill his best friend.

Honestly with the size of the town vs how many Take you've already killed and who all those taken were is there even enough people left for this to be a town? Alan just sit at your typewriter and write out a fifteen-page narrative about how the survivors all evacuated and then the government fired a warhead containing the flashbang equivalent of a nuke into the lack to defeat the Dark presence for good and also that Alice escaped on her own and is perfectly safe.

...I repeat my prior statement about Barry.

It wasn't so much a prediction as me just speculating. In fact, if that's actually working then I speculated wrong since I figured it wouldn't be particularly effective.

Headlamp on the other hand I called. However, I believe that Barry is confusing the Eye of Mordor with the Eye of Balor.

Barry, if you did get used to this it'd be a sign that something's wrong with you.

...Wake. Did you just feed yourself a compliment?

Don't you love it when enemies spawn in out of the aether fter you start to progress?

Honestly if the sum total of me playing this game is "someone else likes Poet of the Falls" then I've won.

Flashlight thing was told at the start of the episode, which happened at the end of last stream.

The way the game resets your equipment is Good in that it encourages you to use your weaponry, but it's Bad in that... well, downgrading the flashlight is just kinda silly. Sarah even said "we have your stuff" and girl, that is NOT my stuff. I was loaded for bore.

Yeah, it kinda comes and goes quickly that every death in this game is kinda sorta on Alan's head... but he wouldn't HAVE to do this if not for the Dark Presence, so it's probably... not fine, but at least acceptable. I do love that he can't bring himself to kill Barry though- the dude is a perfect comedic relief scumbag who survives despite it all.

It's mentioned a lot of out of towners come to do illegal hunting with those bear traps, but... also yeah no this town is going to have a SEVERE population drop by the end. It's a good thing the Dark Presence's final form is a tornado, cause that'll serve as a good enough cover for how many folk are dead.

I feel like, unfortunately, that kinda ending would be too convenient. You'd need to like, REALLY put in the weight to support "and then the government nuked it and that solved the problem". And even then you need to make an exchange, it can't be as simple as that- the only other example I can think of where this plot point was used still involved a "and then an innocent and a world hero and countless other people died as a result" kind of thing, intending to make it feel tragic. I didn't think any of this was executed WELL mind you, but that's me.

To be fair you speculated that they'd work to keep them like, Away, which it does! Given Barry's other equipment is his death gaze and limitless flares, the Christmas Lights are definitely enough to defend himself.

This end-bit is where the "enemies quite literally spawn out of nowhere" part becomes the most egregious... but also this is the Dark Presence at its most "I need to ****ing kill you and stop you"... and since Alan is shifting into action book mode, more gaps are being left for Barbara to start affecting things in turn. So I think it works!

[Rater202]

I feel like it might be best not to think too hard about wo wrote/created who less one go crosseyed.

[Rater202]

Okay, finished Alan Wake... That was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. Mystery/Horror games like this just have something about them.

I can... See why everyone was talking about the sequel when it came out.

I keep thinking about how my various characters would fair in a situation lie this and it's kind of tricky because most of them are obviously more powerful than an ordinary author but at the same time the dark presence is an esoteric threat that can't really be punched away.

Also, a lot of them are Marvel OCs with symbiotes so they're kind of already filled with darkness o a fegree and I'm not sure whether not the Dsrk Presence would be able to co-opt another eldritch horror's spawn like that.

Anyway, time for Legend of Zodi: Spooky Mask Thingy.

[LaZodiac]

Right suppose I should make a post about it!

Majora's Mask has finally resumed! As a stream, because personal maintenance (and other things) has made it difficult to actually get videos recorded and edited. I hope this is alright with all of you wonderful folk. But with this change, I'm also going to be doing better about posting these damn things, and making appropriate threads and such. I gotta be better- I ought to be, because of those of you who stuck around all this long.

So, without further ado...

Zodi Plays: Majora's Mask [27] Streams of Time

Video Length: 3:06:03

In this exciting episode, I... completely fumble and flail over myself for like an hour, having no real idea what exactly I'm supposed to do in a post-dungeon Zora's Domain. I think fundamentally the answer is "nothing, basically nothing changes here" but beyond that... I don't know, that feels like a mistake? There's gotta be SOMETHING to do here after fishing up Gyorg, right? Right?! We do at least get ourselves our third fairy powerup.

After that, we throw ourselves full force into the fourth section of Majora's Mask- Ikana Canyon. The swamp was full of rage and poison, the Deku King torturing a monkey out of his blind anger. The Gorons were snowed in and having a race to see whether they'd freeze or starve to death first. Termina Bay was... well the water was really bad, but aside from that this was more a personal story, of a woman losing both the love of her life and her unborn children.

And here, in Ikana? Well... everything's already over. Only two people remain alive in this desert kingdom, and they likely aren't even from here. Everyone else long since dead, and Skullkid's dastardly "tricks" has woken them from their slumber, imparted them with dark power, and set forth a sort of horror show, of mummies roaming the land and skeletons awaiting orders from long dead masters, and strange spirits seem to infest every corner. It's a rather chilling place... save the fact that one you get the Gibdo mask, it's a lot less threatening. You even get to engage in an item fetching dungeon!

Even with that though, I feel like the Ikana area is rather effective at what it is doing. Sure the ReDeads are dancing around because of our mask, but the vibe still gets through; this is a place of death and dishonour, and our time here will not be a pleasant one.

[Lord Raziere]

Yeah I feel that I have little to say on Alan Wake.

like he's clearly a Mage of some kind going for World of Darkness rules. Dark Presence doesn't match any particular splat though. uh.

I think Dark Presence simply dies to any character that can use light magic. Alan Wake was killing Dark Presence with flashlights and flares, any being that can like, produce more light than that will have an even easier time. Zuko for example, would just beat Dark Presence easy because he can blast as much fire as he wants. so pyromancy, electromancy, light magic holy magic (because it often produces light even if its just a side effect).....for all of the Dark Presence's manipulative corruptive aspects and such, its at the end of the day a run of the mill night creature that hates the light, which a lot of superpowered characters are equipped or more than equipped to deal with. basically its something that can ONLY be a threat to normal humans because of how it works and how we don't normally optimize our society to deal with it, and even then it gets defeated by a writer who probably wrote an endless flare supply into the story and just threw enough to get rid of it. if there were more creatures like the Dark Presence, you'd just have the military start making big flash lights to literally flash light or flare gun down all its minions to get to its core then light-gun the core- its to an extent, a manageable threat, from what I can see.

like the weird narrative writing powers thats more of a threat than the Dark Presence, but its not clear where that came from. If there wasn't a Dark Presence, it'd place a lot of power in Alan Wake's hands for determining peoples lives and what they do. like he's determining their fates. from that perspective I can see why Alan Wake might write Nightingale to be against him, because Dark Presence, is something you can kill with enough big flashlights pointed at it, but Alan Wake's narrative fate thing? that could be considered a huge violation of people's free will and autonomy, which is probably a crime of some sort. like what if Nightingale is Alan Wake's own guilt at writing people for the uses he needs for the situation, manifesting as this unreasonable cop character trying to kill him?

Majora's Mask:
as for Zelda, Ikana is fascinating because its the only time where a civilization openly blasphemed against the goddesses and the Triforce. like if you examine the designs they had, it was clear they thought very low of the goddesses, in like a tower they built that is cursed by the goddesses to turn upside down. and you have to wonder what happened to make them possibly think that any of this was a good idea. I don't know why but the impression I get is that Majora was a goddess worshipped by the Ikana long ago, they thought that Majora was greater than the goddesses, and that this didn't pan out-it just makes sense to me that Ikana and the Majora's Mask are connected.

also if I remember, Zodi talked about something about where Ganon's counterpart would be in Majora's Mask long ago and I replied something about the Ganon counterpart being in Ikana lamenting that all his power was for nought because the civilization is in ruins, too depressed to even interfere with Skull Kid's plans despite being powerful enough to do so. and that Zodi really liked something about that for some reason.

[Rater202]

Alan was beating the Taken with guns and a flashlight.

Defeating the Dark Presence required two different authors to twist their own narrative powers against it to make a hard counter and also sacrifice themselves and that's not exactly a problem you can punch in the face.

I still say that Changeling the Lost works here: What happens here isn't exactly a strict 1 to 1 deal with the crafting or contracts but Alan was kidnapped and held hostage by an inhuman supernatural being of emotion and narrative and while he managed to slip his leash and escape he was forever changed by the experiance. Additionally the focus on balance and doing things properly and not leaving any exploitable loopholes when you use narrative against the supernatural or it'll just make things worse.

[LaZodiac]

like the weird narrative writing powers thats more of a threat than the Dark Presence, but its not clear where that came from. If there wasn't a Dark Presence, it'd place a lot of power in Alan Wake's hands for determining peoples lives and what they do. like he's determining their fates. from that perspective I can see why Alan Wake might write Nightingale to be against him, because Dark Presence, is something you can kill with enough big flashlights pointed at it, but Alan Wake's narrative fate thing? that could be considered a huge violation of people's free will and autonomy, which is probably a crime of some sort. like what if Nightingale is Alan Wake's own guilt at writing people for the uses he needs for the situation, manifesting as this unreasonable cop character trying to kill him?

Majora's Mask:
as for Zelda, Ikana is fascinating because its the only time where a civilization openly blasphemed against the goddesses and the Triforce. like if you examine the designs they had, it was clear they thought very low of the goddesses, in like a tower they built that is cursed by the goddesses to turn upside down. and you have to wonder what happened to make them possibly think that any of this was a good idea. I don't know why but the impression I get is that Majora was a goddess worshipped by the Ikana long ago, they thought that Majora was greater than the goddesses, and that this didn't pan out-it just makes sense to me that Ikana and the Majora's Mask are connected.

also if I remember, Zodi talked about something about where Ganon's counterpart would be in Majora's Mask long ago and I replied something about the Ganon counterpart being in Ikana lamenting that all his power was for nought because the civilization is in ruins, too depressed to even interfere with Skull Kid's plans despite being powerful enough to do so. and that Zodi really liked something about that for some reason.

The idea I've always taken from Alan Wake is that the Dark Presence, as a living being of narrative, is a dark sort of glue. Every time an author writes a plot hole, and makes a character act out of character in a way that doesn't make sense, that's a gap the Dark Presence has to stick together... and in doing so, grants itself power. The fact that we can't be sure if the Andersons are the real norse Gods or not is an example of this- in the kayfabe gap, it was able to leach into them and take their powers for itself. Odin tore his own eye out because Odin does that, and Tor lost his thunder because there was enough ambiguity on whether Tor Anderson really was the living god of thunder himself.

In a sense, this is why Nightingale exists. Nightingale is an antagonistic character brought in to serve as a distraction for the Dark Presence. A cop with an alcoholic streak and a burning need to violence Alan Wake for the reality warping powers he seems to have obtained. He's an out-of-context problem for the town that allows for a reasonable reason for people to be on edge and act out. Nightingale being a constant threat to Sarah's ability to control the town is directly what causes it to be believable she might side with Alan when things really go down, because it opens up the idea that she's been noticing **** is going wrong ever since this "FBI agent" showed up.

I'm gonna need to pay closer attention to things, because I legitimately don't remember any triforce or goddess iconography in Ikana, and I certainly don't notice any elsewhere in the game.

Yeah I still like that idea, it's really cool. Ikana is clearly set up as like, a ruthless and kinda evil version of Hyrule, so framing it as Ganondorf's version of the world, but he's fallen into undead despair... it's interesting!

Alan was beating the Taken with guns and a flashlight.

Defeating the Dark Presence required two different authors to twist their own narrative powers against it to make a hard counter and also sacrifice themselves and that's not exactly a problem you can punch in the face.

I still say that Changeling the Lost works here: What happens here isn't exactly a strict 1 to 1 deal with the crafting or contracts but Alan was kidnapped and held hostage by an inhuman supernatural being of emotion and narrative and while he managed to slip his leash and escape he was forever changed by the experiance. Additionally the focus on balance and doing things properly and not leaving any exploitable loopholes when you use narrative against the supernatural or it'll just make things worse.

In a way, maybe DP is a Changeling and it's just kinda latching onto Alan and making him play by its rules. Does that make sense within WoD canon?

[Lord Raziere]

I'm gonna need to pay closer attention to things, because I legitimately don't remember any triforce or goddess iconography in Ikana, and I certainly don't notice any elsewhere in the game.

Yeah I still like that idea, it's really cool. Ikana is clearly set up as like, a ruthless and kinda evil version of Hyrule, so framing it as Ganondorf's version of the world, but he's fallen into undead despair... it's interesting!

oh right, I think I watched a video about someone trying to solve what Majora's Mask was really about, and they said that the cubes with the uuh......unflattering portrayal of the Ikana people think of the Triforce is like, only in the original version and got taken out in the re-release. let me see if I can find it.....this one (warning: is 1 hour and 21 minutes long)

real good, probably one of the best takes I've seen of Majora's Mask.

[Rater202]

In chronicles, a Changeling is a mortal dragged into the realm of the fairies by the True Fae, who are basically living stories who wear a variety of guises to be forced to play roles in the games, schemes, and narratives.

Somehow, they managed to escape, but their time in the clutches of the fae have left them warped to a degree.

[DataNinja]

...yeah, I'm not surprised that a game like Majora's Mask is one you can't just come back to and know what you're doing. That really feels like a game you have to play in a relatively recent "sitting" given all of the interactions of everything.

Ah, hoist by your own storytelling hubris, I see.

Also, you have way more patience for this nonsense than I would. Everything feels so finnicky and convoluted. I feel like if I hadn't before, I would have given up permanently after frustratingly forcing my way through that Gibdo maze, only to find I don't have the right strength of explosive.

[LaZodiac]

...yeah, I'm not surprised that a game like Majora's Mask is one you can't just come back to and know what you're doing. That really feels like a game you have to play in a relatively recent "sitting" given all of the interactions of everything.

Ah, hoist by your own storytelling hubris, I see.

Also, you have way more patience for this nonsense than I would. Everything feels so finnicky and convoluted. I feel like if I hadn't before, I would have given up permanently after frustratingly forcing my way through that Gibdo maze, only to find I don't have the right strength of explosive.

Thankfully this should be the last incoherent flailing as I do my best to remember what, exactly, I need to do to Do Things.

This is about the 7 Cursed World Trivia blasts Yza unloaded directly into my chest assassin style, yeah? Because don't worry, I've learned my lesson... finally, hehehe.

It genuinely sounds like most people did!

[DataNinja]

This is about the 7 Cursed World Trivia blasts Yza unloaded directly into my chest assassin style, yeah? Because don't worry, I've learned my lesson... finally, hehehe.

Yes, sorry, I realized belatedly that could technically describe a lot of stuff. But, I was referring to trivia barrages, yes.

[LaZodiac]

We're almost at day 3 and are maybe like a couple minutes from a dungeon, what's the worst that could happen?

Zodi Plays: Majora's Mask [27] Stone Temple Run

Video Length: 3:17:15

Starting us off, we very quickly zip around to get the powder keg to break our way into Ikana Castle throne room proper- a rather nasty last second trick, but easily fixable! Our reward is a fight with three goofy skelemans that really just aren't that threatening to be honest, though part of that is because we've got the Gilded Sword. With them defeated, they entrust us with the magic that'll allow us to properly climb the Stone Tower and reach the final temple... the Elegy of Emptiness, allowing us to summon up the spirits of the dead beings within us (and Shigeru Miyamoto) as wooden statues. Neat!

Stone Tower itself isn't much to talk about, though the puzzle is enjoyable if easy. The main course is the Stone Tower Temple, and it is... a hellish place. The basics is this- until you get the dungeon item, the Light Arrows, you can only really explore half the dungeon. With those in hand you can flip the dungeon upside down! This means that a lot of chests you make appear are upside down and need you to flip things around to get them. This is, unfortunately, a massive trouble because of how you need to exit the dungeon to do this, and in the right-ways-up version you need to redo the switch puzzle to even approach the dungeon every time. Oops, hope you aren't too fiddly with it.

Now, it IS possible to get through it easily and efficiently... but I forgot how, leading to a more natural exploration of the dungeon. That, plus the fact that I decided to dive into the most complicated dungeon when we were about almost out of time meant I ended up uh, flailing around a bit! I do manage to get all the fairies however, ensuring we get our final reward from the poor shattered souls: the Great Fairy Sword! It's Majora's version of the Biggoron, and while I overvalue the ability to guard it IS the strongest weapon in the game... baring one final exception that we'll get to later.

With that done though, it's time to engage the boss: TWINMOLD! Now those familiar with the original game may have noticed we're SUPPOSED to have received the Giant's Mask at some point, a mask that allows one to engage the boss on a more equal footing... not so here. Here, as befits the other changes to the bosses, there's a mixture of Mask and Unmasked combat going on. In the original you could take them down with elemental arrows (not light, interestingly enough) or giant up and slice them to pieces... but here, you have to do some fairly standard weakspot arrowing as Link, and THEN you get the Giant's Mask... and it's TIME TO THROW DOWN, as Link rises like the cream of the crop and begins mauling the remaining Twinmold with brutal fists and a GIANT SWING. You can even throw the massive orb structures in the area at it to instantly stun it twice... which isn't enough to kill it, sadly, meaning the fight devolves into trying to flail at the fiery centipede in a display that is sadly not as cool as the initial set up presents itself to be. Ah well.

The final boss has been slain, the final monster ripped from the final Giant's face, and with it we are finally empowered to take the fight to Skull Kid himself. But the Giants wish for us to "forgive our friend", not wanting to help us actually DEFEAT the lad. Interesting...

Well, that'll be for another day. Next time; relentless pursuit of Sides Quest as we (begin trying to) finish up all the collecting of Masks, Heart Pieces, and so forth!

[Rater202]

Finished the last stream just in time for this one.

...A thought ocred to me though... Did you... Ever do the Spider-House? You were trying to figure out what else to do in the Zora area.