Also back to your post, Avowed definitely felt cowardly in many respects compared to its predecessors. It's an ok game but doesn't remotely capture the lightning in a bottle that PoE 1&2 were for me.

Maybe one day we'll get a game set completely in Aedyr where the player gets to grapple with the incongruity of colonist empire at home versus colonist empire on the march. It'd almost need to be a political intrigue powerhouse of a game.

I love the series but it's definitely one of those things where you're only ever experiencing the receiving end of Aedyr. It's so shrouded in the way of being off-screen that it almost doesn't matter what it's like and it's just an ideological monolith that you can support or oppose.

Thaumaturgic: Swap positions of two warriors

Theurgic: Tear a disc of earth and hurl it into a new plane of reality, people included.

Thaumaturgy is stored in arcane foci, whereas theurgy wholly comprises an artifact which bears a heavy burden. Both serve as loot, but theurgy is far rarer.

FF 8-10 have pretty unique aesthetics for the series. The concept art for the older titles were much more expressive than the in-game art. Amano had a fascinating way of seeing things.

Disgusting

It'd take a lot for me to say no to Tron tbh. Complete reptile-brain watch, saved by aesthetics. That said, I also think they should pivot to animation instead. I quite enjoyed the show they put out a while back.

Good time to learn how to make a zine, though I may just turn it into a blog post.

Expecting it to clock in at 3rd or 4th level in terms of danger.

Fill the niche, but damn...2025 is grim.

Don't settle for punching!

At 65 hours into the game, I've cleaned up all the side quests and am ready to walk through the last area.

I think one-shotting the superbosses with Maelle is the emptiest stage of grief. It's like watching the few remaining granules of sand drop through the hourglass.

10/10 game

I tried Avowed on this CPU and a 2080ti and somehow I (a king) have become the peasant. My empire of dirt.

The up and coming creatives lack the precision that comes with lived experience, so it will manifest in messy narratives. Compounded with the fact that APs typically slant toward YA-levels of fiction, it's going to naturally lose the space for nuance. It will evolve with time tho, all is fleeting.

I believe it to be a product of the age we find ourselves in, and is likely largely a Western phenomenon given the American influence over the scene. All about the demographics. You will likely find many folks from traditional homes expressing their anguish and liberation.

(Cont.)