I've said it before and I stand by it: Tural isn't a nation, it's a series of showpieces set up to masquerade as a civilization. They're no more believable than an IKEA display bedroom purporting to be a place where someone lives. And it's such a shame given what the game has delivered before.

No one dislikes anything that anyone does in the DT quests. All efforts are met with essentially immediate acceptance and open arms. No one overcomes any actual hardship or faces any particular stakes; the plot only advances because their actions aren't immediate and time passes.

And even within those questlines, there's no abrasion or conflict. Alpa and Ronitt had to prove themselves against a time limit set by an elder. Maru and Trna had to build trust from the ground up because they were teen street racing thugs. Stigma-4 was still a war machine despite slinging coffee.

Blue Pelupelu didn't have a personality, she had (abacus noise) as her entire distinguishing feature. Gathering was A Local Guy and A Foreign Nerd and that's literally it. Fahrafahr doesn't have a single unique or even individualized personality trait; she's just Blue Armor.

For the combat quests there was...blue Pelupelu? And then the gathering quests was a Mamool Ja guy from the not-Hoobigo or Boonewa variant, and then Fahrafar who is just. Blue again. All just generically earnest, unremarkable, indistinct, forgettable quest NPCs.

Thinking back to the various Allied Society quests I've played (mostly in ShB and EW), every one of them had notable, relatable, charming NPCs whose personalities and quirks I can instantly recall - Tyr Beq, Ronitt, Maru and Trna, Dreamingway, Stigma-4 - but the same really can't be said for DT.

setting aside the garbage controls and nonsensical hit detection, you genuinely spend longer in unskippable cutscenes than you do actually playing the mindless "game"

Citation: sometimes I make the curtains blue because in the cadence of the sentence I'm writing a one-syllable color word fits better than a two-syllable one. It could've been "red" but I used an "oo" sound earlier in the sentence and "blue" would echo that. IDGAF about symbolism I just like sounds.

Me forever tapping the "Watsonian vs. Doylist Analysis" sign because I guarantee that unless the author themselves explicitly states why they did a thing in the work, there is absolutely no certain way to know Why They Did It and critics are on some level just being literature astrologists.

bonus estinien:

estinien: come with me. into an empty bedroom. and close the door

y'shtola: something must be wrong

urianger: something must be wrong

thancred: hot

y'shtola: i'm playing hard to get. i'm desirable. i'm a challenge. i'm worth the effort

urianger: she hateth me

thancred: oh yeah she's pissed

urianger: now hath i stared significantly at mine object of affection for near half a bell, adoringly, so as to conveyeth mine heartfelt intentions

y'shtola: urianger must be thinking really hard he's zoning out

thancred: fuck what'd i do now he's glaring

thancred: i would absolutely have sex with you

y'shtola: ugh so he definitely doesn't want to have sex with me

urianger: what couldst he meaneth by this

the real reason we need to bridge the gap between the Source and the First is because Ryne deserves to go to Sharlayan and make literally everyone uncomfortable AND THEN reveal that Thancred is her dad, which only adds to the discomfort

I think for soloing purposes I'm happiest doing up through about floor 60, mostly just because I like opening chests and hunting the Hoard, so having the ability to just run 71-100 when I want to get BOOKS is really, really nice honestly!

something something skelly joke i guess

"did you go buy the moonward bident specifically so that you could go running around with gigaros" I SURE DID