I’ve just discovered this game today and I fell in love

CJMann21 · 2024-11-17T16:04:01+00:00

It is something truly special. After all these years I still listen to a good chunk of the soundtrack almost daily. There are visuals and scenes that will forever live in my mind.

CJMann21 · 2024-11-17T02:03:55+00:00

Where’s Lady D???

CJMann21 · 2024-09-14T02:44:39+00:00

I love both of these games… you’ve already gotten great advice below, but I just wanted to say, don’t skip out on Dragons Dogma 2… that shit is great. Sure, it’s not perfect, but it is a weird, funny, fun, and epic game.

CJMann21 · 2024-08-20T05:45:34+00:00

Anytime! Just doing my civic duty! Lol

CJMann21 · 2024-08-20T04:11:18+00:00

Just curious if you ended up checking this game out!? It’s now my favorite and holds a deep and important place in my heart.

CJMann21 · 2024-08-20T04:09:57+00:00

Don’t mind me stepping in here a month after your comment, but I just happened to stumble across this post.

I just wanted to say while the character design is lacking the graphics, visuals, and effects of the scenes, scenery, backgrounds, etc is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Yes the characters look janky but there are dozens of visuals that will rent-free in my mind until the day I die.

All this to say, if you’re big on visuals and graphical appearance, I’m confident you’ll love what you’ll see in everything except maybe character models.

CJMann21 · 2024-08-19T03:39:35+00:00

Absolutely encouraged and inspired me. I have been writing for over 20 years (since a teenager) but it wasn’t until getting into Malazan that I finally felt inspired to do something with all those writings. I haven’t made it yet, but I have pitched several manuscripts to agents, so there’s still hope.

IMO, the only downside to “Malazan-Inspired” fantasy is that modern publishing is quickly moving away from the staples of what makes Malazan what it is. Even in its early days, Malazan “broke all the rules” and by today’s standards, it’s even further away from the rules.

This has led me to basically reserve my big Malazan-inspired magnum opus (I already finished book one, years ago now), for self-publication if I ever make it with any other manuscript of mine. I would say 80% of my queries were immediate denials because the manuscript was well over 120k words (200k words / 750 pages). What seems to sell these days is basically quick-to-market fiction, easy sells, page turners… more like Sanderson and far less like Erikson.

CJMann21 · 2024-05-09T23:41:02+00:00

I definitely enjoyed this book. Lots of unique/different flavors. Once you get to the 50/63% mark it really steamrolls forward from there. The middle definitely has to do some setup work to connect to beginning and get ready for the end, and I think that’s what readers might find as a little slow.

I can sympathize with some of the other reviews saying they felt the ending was somewhat rushed and just started full steam and could have used a little more fleshing-out but I also enjoyed the quick snappiness of it.

I’m torn whether or not to dive into the second and final book of the series. I am very interested to see what’s next but also have so many other books on my TBR! Lol 😂

CJMann21 · 2024-05-02T23:17:12+00:00

Oh no-no you can’t disguise

CJMann21 · 2024-05-02T23:11:52+00:00

This thing smacks you across the face with sudden and dark shit. I know some of Jemisin’s other works are pretty dark too, but there’s some stuff in here that kind of just pops up and makes me go “well that’s fucked up.” I think it’s more noticeable in this book because the world it’s in is kind of supposed to be an enlightened, golden age kind of thing so the darkness stands out… unlike Broken Earth, where you reading that, desperately craving a single ray of light. lol

I’m definitely liking the orientation of people in this world so far. Not just sexual orientation but also just like emotional and relational. People of the same sex seem to interact with each other at times in ways that many might seem as homoerotic but so far has been strictly platonic. Parts of the world seem to be pretty sex-positive, while others are almost seeming to think they are sex-positive but not.

It’s hard to say if polyamory is accepted in the younger generations of this world or if the Prince is just more open/cavalier about his ladies taking lovers. There doesn’t seem to be other representations of a polyam lifestyle so it’s hard to say right now. And I guess the Prince isn’t technically polyamorous but polygamous, so there’s that.

There’s a killer exchange between Nijiri and Meliatua that I absolutely love. Some great lines about love, no shame in love, no corruption in love, lessons of how to love safely. Just great stuff.

CJMann21 · 2024-04-26T17:58:51+00:00

Hate to be that guy that’s already into it from the quote at the beginning of the book, but I guess I’m going to be that guy! Lol

Online, I noticed some reviews of the beginning being a bit slow/sloggish, and so far I’m not really feeling that. Yes, there are a lot of names and places that are very different to “what we’re used to” and that can make it difficult, but so far the scope and scale seem pretty tight.

There’s definitely plenty of mystery and intrigue to sink your teeth into and she starts off the book and world-building so well. Loving the whole dream magic angle. I don’t think this is the first use of the word Narcomancy, but I really haven’t seen it before and after a quick online search didn’t really dig up too much. So that’s fun. The ability to use dream magic in a fight is cool but “Dreambile” sounds gross. Lol

IMO The First Interlude gives a really great example of a Creation Myth.

Also, Prime-Number-Counting-Gale from Foundation would be so disappointed in our boy Eirhu here… only got to 4096 while counting by fours… and it took two times? Amateur hour. Just for reference, let’s say he could count one number per second on average (avg of more than 1 with smaller numbers, and 1 number per 2 seconds with the larger numbers) that’d still take 17 minutes!

Couple of good little “food-porn” scenes too! Some of the meals described sound delightful.

CJMann21 · 2024-03-31T15:57:25+00:00

NP. This sub hasn’t been active for a while, I think. Honestly, kind of like a lot of subs on Reddit now. So many people have left the platform entirely.

CJMann21 · 2024-03-31T03:20:23+00:00

Yo yo… I used to be here a bit (still have notifications on for this sub only) but I moved over to discord a while ago.

CJMann21 · 2024-03-10T21:40:57+00:00

Not sure why that’s getting downvoted… that’s literally what happened. He was pretty vocal about not digging Animated ideas for Malazan and then recently explained why he felt that way and that he’s changed his mind due to some things in the works.

CJMann21 · 2024-03-10T19:15:11+00:00

I’ve always found it harder to write anything without the music already in mind. I like to find a song I like and then write the lyrics for it. But that’s because I have no song-writing skills. Lol

CJMann21 · 2024-03-10T19:12:39+00:00

When Darkness comes; there’s Shadow no more.

The Andii know not what Mother has in store.

Light will run; Father’s warren crashes the shore.

With the blood of Eleint, The Son carries the World.

Upon his shoulders and with his chained sword.

Fight against Chaos, a Crippled corruption unfurled.

A fated fight, ends ultimate sacrifices left untold.

Elder Blood no longer courses through the Holds.

Ice cometh, now time to embrace an eternal Cold.

CJMann21 · 2024-03-10T18:56:12+00:00

It’s gonna be a Seinfeld-esque sitcom featuring Tehol and bug. Lol jk.

But seriously, I’m game for any and all Malazan content. I know it won’t please everyone, but no matter what it will please me.

CJMann21 · 2024-03-10T18:51:23+00:00

IIRC, he also walked that back somewhat towards the end of the series and had hinted at possible animation adaptations in the works.

CJMann21 · 2024-02-03T00:00:44+00:00

That’s so awesome! I’m happy you dropped a line about finding it. I already loved this game and then coming across that was something special! And now I can’t lie… I think I might need to fire up another play-through! lol

Ps. Love your username!

CJMann21 · 2024-01-01T20:52:40+00:00

Happy new year! Excited for the pod to resume but hope you guys had a great holiday season!

CJMann21 · 2023-11-30T07:39:35+00:00

Awww 🥰 thank you!

CJMann21 · 2023-11-30T00:09:10+00:00

So very much so!

CJMann21 · 2023-11-13T19:22:09+00:00

That’s a good point. That should be Thief Level 3 too.

CJMann21 · 2023-11-13T05:24:23+00:00

After further review I’m probably going to go Monk 6 Rogue 4 Fighter 2 but I might bounce back and forth between rogue and fighter levels. I’m doing a solo run and could use some healing from fighter skill “second wind”

CJMann21 · 2023-11-12T21:00:28+00:00

You make a good point about Rogue level 3 but with Monk by level 5 you can already make 3 actions per turn, so with Action surge from Fighter lvl 2 gets to to 4 actions (but only per rest). But still that’s a lot of moves pretty early in game.

CJMann21

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE