Underneath my yellow skin

Tag Archives: RKG

Looking at Elden Ring with fresh new eyes

Posted on by • 0 Comments

One of the fun things about the RKG boys doing their second season of Elden Ring (of course, just watching it is such a joy!) is that a few of us are doing a playalong playthrough. We share what we’ve done that week and how close it is to what Rory had done for that playthrough. We each have our own rules, with some adhering much more closely to what Rory is doing than others. The boys gave us the specs they used for Aunty Finchy (their protagonist) so we could recreate her if we wanted.

Me, I decided to do a character called Tee Finch who is a very distantly related cousin who admires Aunty Finchy and wants to follow in her footsteps. But, Tee is not quite up to the task, so has to adapt as best as possible. Also, my back story was that Tee would change appearence to match Aunty’s whilst accruing runes during the adventure. So, after boss fights, Tee would get cosmetic surgery to look more and more like Aunty Finchy. Tee currently looks almost exactly like Aunty, but I have decided to keep a few differences for story purposes (Tee wants to keep some things individualized and personalized).

Also, I’m just not as good as Rory at these games. That’s just facts. So I’m going to have to adapt in order to do the things he does.

Last night, I decided to hop back in and continue Tee Finch’s adventures. Here are the rules I set up for myself in the first season. One, I try to stick to the weapon he’s using. Currently, that’s the twinblades and the mind sword (Regalia of Eochaid). He likes dex weapons for the most part, which means my least-favorite category of weapons.

Two, I can use any magicks/items/etc. that Rory has in his inventory. One of the quirks of the brain of Rory is that he can’t deal with having more than three spells equipped at a time, even though they have…I want to say seven slots by now. It’s hilarious to me because that’s something I’m actually adept at–scrolling madly trhough the magicks to land on the one I want.

Anyway, I can use Rocksling because Rory has it and can use it. It’s such a powerful spell that can kill bosses throughout the game. I will get to that later.

Three. In the same vein, I can use whatever talismans and armor that I want–as long as Rory has them. And spirit summons.


Continue Reading

Streaming is not for me, part three

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I’m writing another post about streaming becasue why not? In the last post, I allowed myself to be distracted by the new FromSoft trailer because how the hell could I not be?! Funnily, I’m stlil not going as hard into it as I did with the last trailer, albeit a month late.

I’m a weirdo in that I don’t like to read/watch other people’s lore that much because I prefer to come up with my own. At least not before going into the thing. Watching any FromSoft trailer ahead of time is so dangerous because tehy show everything–and I mean everything. For Dark Souls III, they had the last boss on the box art.

The thing is, though, that you won’t know what any of the trailer means before you actually play the game. Krupa said this to Rory and Gav before they started the game–he could tell them exactly what was going to happen, and it would mean nothing to them. He’s right. However, if you want to go in completely unspoiled, you will most certainly not want to watch any of the trailers. They show EVERYTHING, and I mean everything. This was another thing Krupa said to the other two about the story trailer for the base game–and it was why he refused to show it to them. I watched it after watching that exchange, and he was so right about  how much it revealed. I don’t remember watching it at the time, and I probably didn’t because I wanted to be fresh. I did watch this one because…well, I just wanted to watch it. Probably because I was robbed of the full joy of the last trailer.

I haven’t gotten deep into the depths of this trailer beacuse I don’t want to make myself sick of it before the DLC even drops

Anyway. I was talking about how a small, but very vocal minority of the RKG community are gate-keeping as hard as they can, and how I feel the boys are absorbing some of it to a certain extent.

I want to make it clear that I love Retry. I have been a fan since their Prepare To Try days, and I aprreciate that they are fairly toxic-free. I know that sounds damning with faint praise, but it’s really hard to find on YouTube, especially in the FromSoft community. When I dip into other FromSoft content creator chats,I leave within a few seconds. They are just so gross af toxic, I feel as if I need a shower after dipping a toe in.


Continue Reading

Why I will never stream a FromSoft game, part two

Posted on by • 0 Comments

In yesterday’s post, I was talking about gate-keeping in gaming communities. Oh, not directly, but it was there. I was talking about the second series of Retry Elden Ring for RKG and how there is a small, but very vocal sub-section of the community who just want to bitch about how RORY IZ PLAYIN’ GAEM RONG!!?#$%! It’s in every community, I know, and it’s much less prevalent in this community than in any other I’ve dipped a toe in. And by this community, I mean the RKG community, not the FromSoft community at large. The latter is a toxic hellhole.

By the way. I woke up to a message from Ian that included the story-trailer for Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, one month before the release date. I will include it down below. And, man. I was so stoked and hyped. The first trailer dropped three months ago the day my personal tragedy happened (well, that day and the day after), so I was not in the headspace or the heartspace to appreciate it. Now, even though I am still dealing with the tragedy, I can fully appreciate the new trailer.

Which, by the way, is fucking fire. Both literally and figuratively. From does not miss when it comes to their trailers, and this is no exception. There are a million things to dissect. It says everything, and it says nothing at all. And, of course, taking it in tandem with the first means that we can just go off on it. The RKG Discord Elden Ring channel has been busy today in a way it hasn’t since the release of the last trailer.

I have two characters ready to go, one who is my first character and the other who is my wildly OP strength character. I will probably play the DLC with both, but it’s a question of successive or concurrent runs.

Anyway. Back to what I was musing about.

No. Wait. Can I just say that FromSoft’s trailers are just masterpieces. They say so much, and yet, they say nothing at all. Even having had played the base game several times for hundreds of hours, even having had watched the first trailer dozens of times as well, I still have little idea what the DLC is going to be about. I mean, I know the basics, of course (Mesmer, flames, etc.), but other than that, there is just so much room for speculation. And to notice details you hadn’t seen before.


Continue Reading

Streaming for thee, but not for me

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I’m taking a break from talking about my mental healt because something else came to mind. The RKG boys have been spoiling us with trailers for Season/Series 2, which starts on Saturday.

The first thing they gave us was an almost-twelve-hour video of all the bosses Rory has killed in the first season. It’s a good wy to quickly (well, more quickly than watching the whole series) catch up on the first season.

The first trailer was set to Shania Twain’s Man! I Feel Like a Woman (which was Mama Finchy’s theme song. Aunty Finchy, this player characetr, is her sister).

Here’s what you need to know about that. Krupa is doing a shadow playthrough on the PC with a ‘no-enemy’ mod running so he can do all the NPC questlines and get all the great shots/B-roll. In this trailer, he matched Aunty’s clothing/hair/movements to the song, which is wild. Such as turning her around on ‘let’s go girls!’, making her hair teal instead of pink for ‘color my hair’, making her wear the marionette’s armor and no pants for ‘man shirt, short skirt’, a shot of Astel for ‘really go wild’, ‘making her naked (well, bra and skimpy panties as that’s as nude as you can get in the game) for ‘gonna let it all hang out’, having a mustache for ‘forget I’m a lady’, and the first night shot for ‘going out tonight’ are some of them–if not all. I didn’t catch them all, but I got them in the comments/RKG Discord. And a few from Krupa himself. And, no dislikes! And no negative comments! (I scrolled, so I might have missed a few, especially at the end). That means this trailer is exempt from what I’m about to say in the rest of the post.

I will say it’s a superb trailer and if it wasn’t for the other trailer, this would have been my featured video. It truly is one of the best teaser trailers I have ever seen. It’s clear that Krupa put so much effort and time into it (And maybe Gav helped out? But I’m sure it’s mostly Krupa), and everyone loved it. I have watched it at least a dozen times and have gotten hyped each thime.

It helps that they dropped a date that was earlier than we expected. Which was also brilliant marketing, by the way. I think they told us they were aiming for June, or we just all collectively thought of it because it was the accepted timeframe for the new season. “Rory’s birthday.” Heh. Inside joke. Gav asked him  waaay back in season one of Prepare To Try when his birthday was, and he said summer. He refused to give a date for several minutes while Gav and Krupa scolded him for being so weird.


Continue Reading

Elden Ring and RKG

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I have been going on and on bout Elden Ring versus Dark Souls III for the past several days. I am trying to figure out which one I like better than the other. I have listed several pros and cons of each, but I’m not done yet. Let’s continue.

One thing I love about Elden Ring, though I suspect the hardcore fans may not agree with me, is how From made the point of entry easier. Not easy, mind, but easier. They wanted this to be a cultural phenomenon, and it certainly was. I am amazed at how popular this game was in the culture as a whole, and not just the niche society who usually appreciates the games.

I know there are some hardcore fans (read, dudes) who are salty that the games have changed at all. This has always been the case since the first game. Whining about things that make the games earlier. In this case, they’re mad about the spirit summons. The mark of a real FromSoft fan is to fight the bosses solo, but that is not enough. You must be naked and level one and don’t level up anything. You can’t use a shield or magic or pyro or, or, or.

I have said a million times that if that’s how you like to play, you go with your bad self. But the insistence that everyone has to play the games the same way is irritating and annoying. So is the whining that the bosses in Elden Ring are too hard to fight solo. “The bosses were designed to be fought with spirit summons!”

Well, yes. That’s the point of bringing in a new mechanic–to tune the game around that brand new mechanic. I know this is really hard to believe, but they may actually want people to use that new mechanic! So if the bosses are really hard solo, well, that’s how this game rolls. And, clearly, some people have found ways around that because there have been no-death runs. I’m pretty sure that the people who have done that are not bringing in spirit summons with them.

Fans are the worst sometimes. They want new and innovative, but they also want the core of the games to remain the same. Mind, the core is what THEY consider important, which may not be what the devs consider the core.

I’m pretty sure that difficulty is something Miyazaki considers when he plans the games. However, he has said that isn’t the main point of the games. Do I believe that? Not really. But I do think he cares more about the exploration than the difficulty.

They made it quite clear from the beginning that this was not your daddy’s Dark Souls. I mean, it’s got a lot of the Dark Souls DNA in it–of course it does. It’s been called open world Dark Souls IV, both derisively and not.

I don’t want to be swayed, but the RKG lads have started their Elden Ring Retry. Krupa is planning it to be a year-long in three series. One episode a week, which was how it used to be. They recently have been dropping whole series for Producers (Patreon tier), Netflix-style, but that would not have been practical for this game.


Continue Reading

When plans go awry

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I had a whole post written and everything, but I decided not to post it. I don’t have time/energy to write another one, so you’ll have to settle for this lovely little video about a tour of Rory’s (from RKG) island in Animal Crossing New Horizons…that is apparently alternatively known as Murder Island.

Laughter in the time of covid-19

Posted on by • 0 Comments

Even before self-isolation, I used to keep something in the background as a way of white noise. Podcast, Let’s Play, old episodes of the original GBBO, etc. It helps me concentrate, though I do admit that I will take mini-breaks in order to listen/watch the program at hand. Of course, many of the Let’s Players I watch are now self-isolating as well, which means more solo livestreams. In particular, the members of RKG are used to working in a group. Mostly three, sometimes two. I don’t think there’s ever been a solo stream by any of them before the move to self-isolation. They are Brits, which means now they are in lockdown. They put a post on their
Patreon about the solo streams they were going to be doing, and the one that had me most excited at first was Krupa’s Dark Souls plat run, part 2 for obvious and not obvious reasons.

Obvious reason: Dark Souls. Also, this is a producers stream, so it was more intimate than the other streams. It’s a great community, and the producers streams are a nice way to relax and chat with like-minded folks. Not so obvious reason: Krupa is the reason I clicked with the group in the first place. I was watching an episode of them playing Dark Souls III, and Gav said something about Krupa being a great teacher, the kind you were terrified of at the time but realized years later how great he actually was. After some bantering, Krupa shouted, “I’m not telling you what a sestina is again!” (He had been studying for his English PhD and had to student teach as part of his studies.) That he had worked ‘sestina’ into an episode of a Dark Souls Let’s Play reeled me in. Also, he’s the one who’s the most similar to me, so there’s that as well.

The stream was great as Krupes ran through NG+, the second part of the game, with the help  of many summons and crushed out the Dark Lord ending. Every time he finished upgrading yet another kind of weapon, a trophy would pop, and he would put on the achievement music. We would all crow about it and praise that sun HARD. \[T]/ Which is really fucking hard to do in the Dvorak system. It went for 7 1/2 hours with cameos by Ramen, his Maltipoo, who is incredibly adorable. A few of the other members and I started the Cult of Pyros in which we praise Vamos, our lord and savior. He is the blacksmith who deals with all the fire weapons, and he’s really hard to find. Hm. I think we should add Izalith as our Goddess. She was the witch who tried to recreate the First Flame with disastrous results. Anyway, it was hilarious, and we’re thinking of getting a t-shirt.

There was a real feeling of community as we helped Krupa on his journey for platinum. I don’t play on the PS4, so I was mostly moral support and Google Maps when Krupa needed to find something. Sometimes, a know-it-all can be helpful! The reason I know the game so well is because I died so. many. times. In addition, there is no map, so I was forced to rely on my memory. I have a great memory, but I’m terrible with directions. It was only with repetition that I could remember where everything was. Even then, I had some pockets in my memory. Such as trying to get Power Within in Blighttown going backwards through the area.

Side Note: I feel as if I’m the crazy auntie of the group since I’m one of if not the oldest of the group. I’m pretty sure I’m the oldest, but I’ll allow for the fact that there might be one or two who are older.

The stream was 7 1/2 hours, and he’s still not finished. He needs to make all the unique weapons and that’s it. He has to kill Quelaag, Sif (sob), and Gwyndolin one more time, which means making it to Anor Londo once again. That’s gonna be another two to three hours of Dark Souls goodness! It’s a very chill way to spend a day, but there’s also a sense of accomplishment as well when he gets one of the trophies.


Continue Reading

I suck at Sekiro

Posted on by • 0 Comments
father 'dying' in the background.
Everything is on fire.

I was watching the RKG producer stream (for producers and posh slugs, long story), and the discussion turned to Sekiro, of course. The boys got their start with Dark Souls, and they’ve done every FromSoft game* except Demon’s Souls and Sekiro. They’ll be doing a Sekiro playthrough later in the year, and I’m profoundly grateful they waited to do it because I wouldn’t have been able to watch it if they did it at release. I won’t watch anything about the game I’m playing, and it would have made me sad to have to delay my viewing. I know they took that into account when deciding upon the timing of the playthrough. Plus, they were still doing Scholar of the First Sin (DS II), and they plan on doing the remake of Resi 2 next. In addition, Daniel has to play through the game first because he’s the lore master and the one guiding Rory through the game. The lore side of it won’t be too hard as much of it is explicitly transferred in text or dialogue. There is some subtext, and if you’re going for the best ending, there’s a ton. In general, though, it’s the most accessible of the FromSoft games, lore-wise.

Anyway, in the chat, someone asked about the difficulty of Sekiro compared to the other games. I said for me, it was by far the most difficult. Someone else said for her, it was on par with Bloodborne (she’s only up to Genichiro, but she has beaten him). Someone else said it was the easiest game because you just needed to learn the movesets. That, of course, was a guy. Dudes tend to state their opinions as if they’re facts, regardless of what the opinion or the subject is. In fact, there was a study that showed dudes (especially white dudes) thought the most expert opinion in any subject was…themselves. I’m exaggerating slightly, but not much. It’s from being the center of attention all their lives and having everything catered to them. Look how many of them lose their shit when something isn’t focused on them. A Star Wars movie dares to have a woman or PoC character? It’s an outrage! It’s giving into the dreaded ‘diversity’ ‘identity politics’ as if having all white men isn’t an identity politics thing.

I will tear myself away from that rant with difficulty because I’ve done it many times before and it’s not worth getting into again. It’s also not really relevant to this post except that I wish I had a tenth of that confidence. I know I undervalue myself in many ways, but I really don’t think I’m overstating it when I say I suck at Sekiro. With over a hundred hours put into it, I suck much less than I did when I first started, but the game still goes against everything I find instinctual. In Dark Souls, I’m a turtler. I hide behind a shield, and I rarely let it down. I’m also a caster, so then I just stay out of range and hurl my fireballs/hexes. I’ve learned not to have my finger glued to the LB, but I still tend to keep my shield up more often than not. It’s one reason I had a hard time with Bloodborne. In addition, arcane is not viable until the very end game, so I really put myself at a disadvantage when I started out. I knew I would because I had heard the warnings about not doing an arcane build on your first try, but I’m stubborn. I am a caster through and through, and I’m going to play the games my way.

Continue Reading

Always the watcher, never the watched, er….

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I am always on the outside looking in. Even when I’m participating in a conversation, I feel outside of it–with very few rare exceptions. I’m gauging the other person(s) and calibrating my own responses. That’s not terrible in general, but taken to the extreme, it can be debilitating.

I’m a weirdo and a freak. I’ve discussed this with my taiji teacher because she is, too. The plus side to being an outsider is that it’s much easier to do things that others might consider odd because I’ve been doing that all my life. It’s always amusing to me when people get hung up on a certain band, TV show, movie, or whatever, insisting that you must like it as much as they do. Try saying you don’t like the Beatles on Twitter and see what happens. Or Breaking Bad. Or Titanic. The pushback is strong, and there are people who literally cannot fathom someone not liking __________. Well, not the last. There are plenty of people who agree with me that Titanic is shite*.

It’s the funniest when people tell me that my taste is horrible, especially in music, because I’ll cheerfully agree. It flummoxes them, and that’s when I know their intent is to put me down rather than have an actual conversation. I like to say I have no guilty pleasures, only pleasures because I don’t feel guilty about what I like (99% of the time). It’s weird because I feel guilty about almost everything else in my life, but not the pop culture I consume or not.

The downside, however, is that I just assume no one will want to hear about what I’m interested in unless there are plenty of indicators to the otherwise. When I think about dating, for example, I have a difficult time envisioning someone who will have the patience to put up with my oddities. Taiwanese American, bisexual, fat, agnostic, child-free (and do. not. want. children or steps), not interested in most mainstream popular stuff, and just plain weird. Add in video games as an old person and taiji, and the fact that I don’t want a traditional relationship, and, yeah. Prospects are dim.

The problem is that I’m so inclined to discount that anything I have to say is of any interest to anyone because I’m used to being ignored and invisible.

Side note: It’s fucking 2019. There is no excuse not to have more PoC and queer folks (and other minorities) in popular media. If I see a trailer for a show that is all white people, I immediately tune out. There was a stretch where all the trailers for new TV shows fell into the category I called, “White guys doing white guys things”. I have no interest in that bullshit, and I never gave any of them more than a second of attention.

The centering around white straight dudes in media has definitely affected how I see myself in general. Add to that a hobby (video games) that is all about white straight dudes, and my negative self-esteem is reinforced on a daily basis. I’ve mentioned before how I can get into some aspects of gaming, but I never feel truly accepted. It’s as if I’m tolerated as long as I don’t make a fuss or stand out in any negative (in their eyes) way. It’s gender, but it’s also age and race. I’m too old to be a gamer, and it stops me from fully participating in the community in general. It’s not hard to see that 95% of the visible gaming journalists/YouTubers/Twitchers fall into this category. Maybe it’s not quite that high, but it certainly seems like it. I’ve searched out women, but they are few and far between.

Continue Reading

My life is one long Groundhog Day

Posted on by • 0 Comments

The night before the new classes, I was hit with a migraine. I didn’t catch it in time, which I think is a shorter window these days. I’m also not sure my Excedrin Migraine (generic) pills are enough any longer. That would be a shame as it used to be I could pop two if I caught it in time, suffer through a low-level headache for an hour (and maybe some nausea), then I was fine. For the last three instances (in two weeks!), I didn’t catch two in time, and the one I did, it the pills didn’t have the same effect. It took longer to work, and the pain was more intense.

I’ve written before that I’m relatively lucky when it comes to migraines because I can still do work even though I’m not as productive as long as I take plenty of breaks. I think it’s because I have a very high pain tolerance, but whatever the reason, I’ll take it. On the other hand, it’s possible if I completely rested while I had the migraine, it might not last over twenty-four hours.

I just went to the grocery store, and I knew in an instant my migraine wasn’t over. It’s a gray and gloomy day, but there is sun. I winced as it hit my eyes*, and the bright lights in the grocery store made me nausea. I had to press my lips together several times even though I don’t throw up in general,** and I got out of there as quickly as possible. I hate nausea and dizziness. I would much rather have a backache or even a headache rather than nausea and dizziness–or my eyes hurting. It’s the weirdest feeling. It’s like the lenses of my eyes aren’t even there, and the sun rays are boring into my pupils.

Anyway, migraines suck. I don’t know why they’re popping more lately, but I need to figure it out. I hate having a whole day and a half (or two or more) wiped out because of them, and I haven’t had a full migraine in quite some time. I experience many of the triggers for migraines. Lack of sleep, stress, and depression are on the list. Also, certain smells, foods, and even sunlight can be triggers as well. That’s basically my whole life right there. The only one I am mostly clear of is the food trigger. I don’t consume caffeine any longer (which has been hellish, let me tell you); I don’t drink; and I don’t eat cheese any longer, either. Those are the biggest migraine triggers food-wise.

Veering wildly to another topic. The one YouTube series I watch consistently is the Prepare to Try lads. Well, it used to be. They were a group of three lads from IGN who started this as a lark. Apparently, Krupa (Daniel Krupa, who loves the Soulsborne series) floated the idea before the release of Dark Souls III of having a newbie (Rory Powers) play through the original Dark Souls with him, Krupa, as the guide/loremaster. Gav (Gavin Murphy) was along for the bants (banter. He drives the banter bus). I found it way after they did it, and I gobbled up the whole thing. I bingewatched the original series plus the Dark Souls III series.  They’ve done a bunch of one-offs as well as Bloodborne, and I was excited when they finally announced they were doing Dark Souls II (which Krupa hates. I think it’s a very good game, though not a great Souls game). This was in November of last year, then they said it was being put off until February of this year because reasons.


Continue Reading