Welcome to my TWISTED MIND...
INTERESTS
Only slightly ordered in a hierarchy
* means that my wife showed me this
VIDEO GAMES
Symphony of the Night was extremely influential in my life, keeping me close company during a manic episode I had in twenty-nineteen. It's genuinely one of the best games I've ever played and it gets better and more familiar with each run.
We became Richter Belmont in the flesh, obsessively playing through the game again and again on our Xbox, which btw is the best port of the game and you should buy it for $10.
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The way this game weaves a narrative through the castle that reflects Richter's own mind, it's something I've never seen another person talk about, and I'm pretty sure the people I've told this to think I'm crazy. I carry the burden of knowing this game better than anyone (woah there... calm down).
Really though, it's an amazing story as well and it's another thing that gets better the more you play, especially considering the different endings. You can take the story a few different ways, and it never really tells you what you're doing, however there is supposed to be one canon ending. As most die-hard fans of something, I don't exactly accept it, lol.
I couldn't reccomnd the game more highly. Just be careful not to become neurotic about it.
So this game and universe changed my brain chemistry. The atmosphere and setting of this game are excellent, and the content of its side quests and the main storyline are a fantastic ride full of detail and a good deal of suspense (the first time around, anyway).
It's a morbid game, full of things that will make you uncomfortable and horny and things that will feel very familiar if you're a truly fucked up and perverted individual.
After I finished this game, I delved into the wider universe of the TTRPG and it was similarly life-altering.
The entire point of the game feels like a morbid gothic parody of real life where the vampire clans represent the different flavors of fucked up it can make you
It's definitely way more complicated than just that, but it's what I like about it. I desperately want to engage in a chronicle either as a player or possibly a storyteller.
This is Beckett's source, and since he is a very prominent character within the lore of VtM, there's a hell of a lot of content to get through and we have hardly touched the majority.
I would say that he's definitely a product of Bloodlines, but we picked up quite a few things from Beckett's Jyhad Diary and various other tidbits from other lore materials.
Kind of currently having a Postal moment so this part is very unfinished. It's really getting me crazy though- I've had to increase my seroquel for the time being. There's a lot I have to say abt Postal but give me some time. I wanna add the Postal 1 box art to this section bc I love it, but I haven't actually played it yet LOL
FABLE
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I have a lot of history with this game. When I was very young, one of the first games I ever played was the first Fable on the original Xbox. I was a child, so I never got father than the first mission you take after leaving the Guild.
It was fucking scary and way too hard for me, but I enjoyed playing it nonetheless. Once I was a little older, I played Fable 3 on the Xbox 360 and I did get pretty far, I think I even completed the game. I was about 11 years old maybe, and I loved it! We'll get back to that.
Years later (when i was like 23/24) I decided to legit play it and I was actually kinda underwhelmed. It lacked a lot of the things that I really enjoyed about the games plus you can't be a girl. Granted it's still so important and very cool!
Theresa is just awesome in this one. It's crazy to me that they actually didnt build her character from the top down, they slowly developed this damaged little girl to become [SPOOOOOILERS go play Fable 2]
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When I was about 17/18 I saw Fable 2 on sale, and I assumed it was the one I first played as a child. It was not, but I was still captivated by it.
The story is easily my favorite out of any Fable game, once you really start the game the pacing is up to you depending on how much you want to take your time and explore, and you have a lot of choices you can make that end up impacting the world around you (which is a huge selling point for this series)
The later story beats of the game are VERY impactful and meaningful because they make use of suspense as well as making you feel the scale of time, it gives you a really good sense of seeing what your character is going through and you're given space to think about what it does to them
The context of the time period within the game is also really cool, the games are set along a timeline of the world. In Fable, you're living in hero times where born heroes (people who are born with heightened abilities) are cultivated to thrive, and given a place to train and work.
In Fable 2, your character is a homeless orphan on the streets of Bowerstone with their sister. The time of heroes of over and people basically assumed that was it.
I won't describe the plot verbatim but you find out that heroes still exist in secret, and that YOU are a hero.. Then you have to go around and find OTHER heroes because theres some prophecy you need to fulfill in order to stop a grieving lunatic from letting his hubris destroy the world
But at the very end...... It's revealed that you had no idea what was actually going on. [PLAY THE GAME]
So... Fable 3 pisses me off for a lot of reasons.
First and foremost, it forces the Fable 2 protagonist into a set narrative, as opposed to the first two games which are spaced out by hundreds of years to great effect.
It was actually teased in a DLC pack in Fable 2 (See the Future, go figure), and it's what made me so angry about it lol. What kind of RPG forces your character to live out a pre-determined plot??? (...peers over at Fallout 4.)
To make things worse, it forces your character to become a parent, and the King/Queen of the kingdom of Albion. I had in mind my character entire life, past future and present, so you can imagine how stupid this was for me.
And honestly it wouldn't have been as big of a deal except for that it takes place like 50 years after Fable 2 which further dictates what your protagonist does later in life.
To make matters worse, the kingdom has an even worse poverty problem since your (ORPHANED HOMELESS) protagonist took over. HOW?
To make matters EVEN. WORSE. it also (assuming you're playing the good guy) mechanically forces you to become an exploitative landlord because otherwise your kingdom will literally be destroyed and everyone will die.
This issue would be completely solved by making at least 100 years pass between the games. There is then plausible deniability, "Oh, my character never became the King/Queen that was some other person. Anyway!
I played this game when i was like 10/11 on xbox360 and I was fucking obsessed with it. I mostly just did shit like killing a ton of people and running from guards and getting a ridiculous bounty but I think I did beat it. I remember playing as the prince and getting feelings about it.
fable legends(?) hornsen kinect game
THE ELDER SCROLLS
I played Skyrim in 2015, it was my first impression of the series as was many other peoples as well. I loved it!
I made up plenty of characters, and my most developed are a Dunmer named Vilmis, and an Altmer named Arecano. They're inseparable and Vilmis is the tortured Dragonborn.
It was a looong time before I branched out, eventually I downloaded Morrowind onto my computer and jumped in.
As you might expect if you're familiar with the game, it took a while until I really got into it but when I did hoooly shit i was consumed. Hours and hours.
I made a character I liked, she's a spin-off of Alucard from Symphony of The Night who is an Altmer named Aurcarya.
I really fleshed out her story when I created two other characters, a Dunmer named Maravera, and a Khajiit named Ra-khtar.
If you cant tell, theyre based off Maria and Richter of Castlevania fame.
As for Oblivion, I could never really get into it. I would love to dive into Daggerfall, but I dont have the time yet.
FALLOUT
My very first exposure to the Fallout Series was watching my friend's older brother play Fallout 3.
I didn't think too much of it honestly, but when Fallout 4 came out I ended up getting a copy somehow and I fell in love with the game.
I played the hell out of it, and when I eventually found out about Fallout 3 I wanted to play it for myself! Luckily, I realized that there was a code for a free digital copy on the back on the disc case for Fo4.
That I also played the shit out of!
At the time, we didn't have money and so I wasn't able to get Fallout: New Vegas, but becoming part of a Fallout focused online space, naturally I desperately wanted it.
Eventually though, my mom got it for me and whewwwww I mean, I didn't get through the game as thoroughly as I had with Fallout 3, but thats kinda good because to this day I can hop in and have some new experiences.
I actually still haven't gotten through most of the DLC. Back then, like I said we didn't have money so I only managed to buy Point Lookout the The Pitt for Fallout 3, Point Lookout easily being my favorite.
For Fallout: New Vegas, the first DLC I bought was Honest Hearts because I thought Joshua Graham was cool. I didn't exactly understand Mormonism at the time.
As an adult, and this wasn't too long ago as of age 24, Dead Money is hands. down. the best. The characters are amazing, the gameplay and atmosphere are captivating, and I couldn't stop playing until it was over.
For most of my playthroughs of Fallout, I end up translating an existing fictional character and their situation to the Fallout universe, although I do have some old truly original characters.
I'm very fond of my Castlevania-inspired playthrough of Fallout: New Vegas, and my Castlevania-inspired Fallout 4 playthrough (using the Alternate Start mod to make it an actual rpg).
RED DEAD REDEMPTION
These fucking games. I started with Red Dead Redemption 2, obviously the game was amazing and the story was a roller coaster of emotions.
By the time the game had finished (keep in mind I had saved myself from spoilers) I felt an extreme connection to John Marston, being obviously very flawed and someone who made some serious mistakes accidentally mistreating people close to him.
He also has Tourette's Syndrome so jot that down. Once I got to the Epilogue, damn my life was changed! Such a beautiful ending.
By this point I am pretty aware of the first game being a sequel. I watched a 100% playthrough in one sitting because at the time I was heavily sedated.
Later on I got a copy myself! It's definitely more difficult of a game being that it's kinda broken, but I think I prefer it to RDR2 simply because of personal preference.
The experience of being someone with a tainted past which makes existence in a modern society really speaks to me, as I am also uneducated and failed by the systems of this modern capitalistic society and driven to violence because of this.
At least I was able to clear the charges from my record.
I had been into the series since like, 2016 or so but it was my girlfriend who made me play the games myself.
I HAD played MGSV because it was the only one available on xbox, so that was my extent of playing the games until my girlfriend made me.
The first Metal Gear Solid was of course very difficult, but i think PSX controls kinda speak to me so I picked up on it quickly. I'm still not very GOOD at it, but thats okay
This game had me by the nuts from about 2019 to 2022.. It was one of those things that permeated everything I did and really grounded me when I needed it to.
I played it on the switch, obsessively.. I never got into modding, I kinda just replayed the original levels over and over and made up narratives about it that related to Symphony of The Night, and I was once totally convinced that they based Richter Belmont off of doomguy.
They do have similar official art, so I wasn't entirely crazy!
I did once try to make a WAD, that was a recreation of Symphony of the Night. It didn't get far, because I'm awful at understanding complicated and unfamiliar things.
I have even more history with THIS game series. I think Ocarina of Time must have been the first game I've ever played period, and I never even got past the Kokiri Forest, but luckily it still kept me engaged enough to kind of obsess over it.
Later on in life when I was like 11 or 12 my dad bought me Super Smash Bros Brawl, and it became a huge special interest for me getting me back into Ocarina of Time and other things.
Around this time, I recieved my stepdad's friends collection to N64 games along with a console and a copy of Ocarina of Time AND Majora's Mask.
I had convinced my grandparents to buy me a cheap plastic ocarina, and I played the hell out of it, figuring out what notes corresponded to the in-game music notes so I could actually play the songs from the game.
I remember fondly sitting outside and just playing the songs again and again.
I was Link for Halloween that year, but I wanted to be Sheik. My aunt had made me a Hylian shield birthday cake that year, but I didn't get to have it.
A year or two after, my aunt bought me the Ocarina of Time 3D game, since I had a 3DS at the time.
Sadly I didn't get to play it because it went missing (pretty sure my mom sold it). Now, I have it on the current 3DS I play! Thank god for homebrew.
When it comes to Majora's Mask, my experience with it had been messing around with completed save files from the old cartridge i recieved.
I also did this with Ocarina of Time, but that game was far less intimidating so I actually made progress on my own save file. Majora's Mask freaked me out with it's timing thing, I never even bothered.
But that one is also on my 3DS, so I'm able to actually get somewhere! And I'm really loving it.
In 2018, I got a Switch for Christmas. The only game I had was Super Smash Bros Ultimate, which was in fact the reason I wanted a Switch in the first place. It was actually the reason I got into Castlevania, and later Street Fighter.
A year or so after, I finally bought the Street Fighter bundle thingy for the Switch, and I got to enjoy it! While I did give each game a chance, I kept coming back to SF3.
I think I must have experienced SF3 as a child, because the character select screen of the first one had been etched into my brain and it still gives me a wave of nostalgia.
Anyway though, the style is easily my favorite of the whole series, and I think I just love the era it was born out of. I main Alex, and Urien.
I also got a lot of fun out of SF Alpha, but not as much. For this one I main Sagat
'98 isn't the only KoF game I enjoy (I also like 2000), but it's by far my favorite. I love the team mechcanic, the OST, the backgrounds, the roster. In this one my go-to team is Yamazaki, Ralf, and Robert Garcia.
I like to stare at the half-naked women while I play, thus I'm kinda shit at it. Generally I don't excell at fighting games.
This game was introduced to me as a child when i had a Gamecube + game collection from my stepdad's friend. I didn't have a memory card so I never progressed very far at all, but I enjoyed it for the time I did play.
I also had Sonic Heroes in this collection. Same deal. Later on someone close to me had introduced me fully to the games but I'd rather not associate it to them anymore. Knuckles is my favorite Sonic character, for being unsocialized and rude in an awkward sort of way.
TV/MOVIES
TV SHOWS
I watched this show in high school, and it's definitely something that changed me. Not only did I grow up in that area but the meaning spoke to me.
It was awfully familiar. Some of it triggers me deeply, so I have to skip some things on a rewatch. It's understandable of course, given its extremely dark subject matter and its highly visceral depictions of murder and sexual assault.
It's all very visceral, its as realistic as it is outlandish and it captures the psychosis of being in the woods at night, an owl in the distance and cold wet air all around you.
There is a lot of tourettes in this show, LOL. Highly reccomend.
IMPORTANT DISTINCTION: I was mainly obsessed with the comics at the height of my special interest. Though, I was there at ground zero when the first episode came out on cable TV, and the show still means a lot to me despite it's tragic fall from grace.
I could go on and on if you asked me. I think the first few seasons of the show are actually way better than the beginning of the comics overall, and I don't think thats controversial.
By the time i was reading the comics, I caught up around when they found The Commonwealth, and I read it all the way up until Dwight's untimely death, which pissed me off so much that I stopped reading it.
I had some serious psychosis as I got through the All Out War arc, and it rubbed off hard on me. The first time I realized my plurality was when I had a nasty fictive of Negan, who stereotypically made me do reckless and dangerous things.
Me and my partner decided to watch this show on a whim, but it had repurcussions! Victor was born out of this show, obviously the deeply traumatized dangerous wild animal would call to us.
For a bit, we were into the current Wolverine comic arc because of how homoerotic it was, but that was q*eer-bait and we fell for it.
Otherwise, I've checked out some of the comics and taken things here and there, but honestly comics aren't typically my medium. Idgaf.
ANIMES
What a fantastic series. My partner was really into the manga as it was coming out, but it had associations with bad people that they knew.
However, when I watched it with them it was kinda mind-altering. What a thoughtful piece of media. It's very anthropological, and extremely gay and NOT in the tumblr way it's like actually legit erotic as hell.
Very fascinating characters and it does a lot with the historical setting its placed within. Highly reccommend.
Watched the anime off-handedly and it's just awesome. The art style of the manga and thus the anime is so tasty, and the characters are very particular and strange.
Noi blew my mind because I'm obsessed with buff women, needless to say she's basically kin-bait for me. Victor picked up that one because we think he needs to work on his masculinity problems.
Highly reccommend this series but it was trending a few years ago so I think most people in my circles are familiar with it.
This anime is beautiful, the style is soft and almost "aged", it has an antiquated vibe that I'm really into!
its very suspensful and mysterious, we still haven't finished it but it's always a pleasant watch when we remember it.
It's very cool seeing this upstanding surgeon who wants to protect all life slowly harden and shed the morals he once stood for.