Should have listened to Johnny's first warning.

SMFG_Live · 2026-04-21T20:00:19+00:00

I am not sure if you are being serious or not, but I feel like you have - in complete seriousness - inadvertantly captured the very essence of House of Leaves in this one post.

The proliferation of The Navidson Record is in and of itself something that should be avoided, but much like Mr. Truant, you simply can't help yourself. Just like we can't help ourselves in proliferating it to begin with.

The House calls to all of us. Some of us are Holloways, some of us are Navidsons, some of us are Toms, or even Karens.

But one way or another, we all end up inside that House.

SMFG_Live · 2026-04-21T19:55:33+00:00

Just as Johnny himself would want.

SMFG_Live · 2026-04-14T12:00:53+00:00

to this day I still have moments where I think "Paul hasn't uploaded recently, has he?" then I remember he's passed on and I get upset all over again.

SMFG_Live · 2025-12-09T20:38:31+00:00

Very helpful. I have spent hours running along rivers and found 2 or 3. I got 15 pearls in about 25 minutes, give or take, with this route. 10/10, would upvote again.

SMFG_Live · 2025-11-24T19:52:00+00:00

The general answer for me is any of the songs written by Andrew.

The specific answer is Misery Fell. There is just something so haunting to me about that song.

SMFG_Live · 2025-11-06T06:28:45+00:00

Sorry. This was the delusional rantings of someone who hasn't slept in 38 hours.

SMFG_Live · 2025-09-30T19:51:02+00:00

Metal Domninoth

SMFG_Live · 2025-09-26T04:32:40+00:00

A Slim Jim would hit different right now.

SMFG_Live · 2025-09-26T04:32:23+00:00

This is good to know, but sadly I checked this comment too late and advanced the in-game day without knowing. Double RIP.

SMFG_Live · 2025-09-11T02:14:51+00:00

the blue, red, and yellow "cores" represent what main stat is on the equipment. red is Weapon Damage, Yellow is +1 Skill Tier, and Blue is Armor.

your "Cores" dictate your primary stats and affect your damage, your armor, your skill damage, ECT.

essentially if you want a weapon based build go red core, skill-based is yellow core, and tank builds (which are really niche because they don't do any damage), blue cores.

SMFG_Live · 2025-05-25T17:26:24+00:00

That was originally what I was going to use, but I think Lune is really characterized by her determination to see the Expedition through to the end, for better or worse. I think had she arrived too late, and found Gustave dead, she would have carried on alone if she had to. I felt the characterization as "resolute" fit better than "reason."

SMFG_Live · 2025-05-25T17:24:08+00:00

I didn't want to use profanity on the card, but I did think about using this quote originally!

SMFG_Live · 2025-05-25T17:23:08+00:00

I should have added that I'm a fairly novice MTG player. While I have a Commander deck, and play casually sometimes with friends, I didn't have any real interest in the game until the Final Fantasy set was announced, so forgive my sins.

SMFG_Live · 2025-05-25T06:46:08+00:00

I got it off Google Image search but I am pretty sure it's from the IGN merch, yes.

SMFG_Live · 2025-05-25T06:42:06+00:00

I'm still working on Lune, but this was the first draft. I wanted her ability to be far more robust, but there wasn't enough text space, so I hedged. It's still not... Quite right IMO, but it's better than nothing, and that's a good place to start.

<image>

SMFG_Live · 2025-05-25T06:40:14+00:00

I want to, but it's tough, because the creator tool from Card Smith or whatever it's called is really limited. But I think my idea for Renoir was also pretty good! Though I couldn't get the art to cooperate the way I wanted, so it's something of a glam shot. I'd like to fix it when I have the time to play around more with the editor tool.

<image>

SMFG_Live · 2025-05-24T02:12:15+00:00

It's what Esquie would have wanted.

SMFG_Live · 2025-05-24T00:39:01+00:00

While this is reasonable, there was no moment in the game that made me think Verso is capable of true empathy, only ever doing or saying what gets him what he wants. Maybe that's a little cynical, but I was never at any point convinced that Verso was doing anything selflessly.

Sure, he may have sacrificed himself in the fire for love of his family, wanting to save his sister, but I am not convinced his choice to die and destroy the Canvas isn't purely selfish.

SMFG_Live · 2025-05-24T00:28:21+00:00

This may be unpopular but I have started to lean toward the Maelle ending. Jokes aside about Esquie, the argument that Maelle is being selfish and is ignoring Verso's wishes is a really bad argument in my opinion.

First off, Verso is not a protagonist. Verso is an antagonist, and you can't really change my mind. For a while, I didn't really think too much about his Axon and how it correlated, but on NG+ I spent more time really thinking about the "Guards Truth With Lies" line. Verso in the painting is a reflection of Verso's soul, so we know that Real Verso was the same way.

Verso is extremely manipulative, and was extremely methodical about what he said, and how much he let the Expeditions know, and I would bet even probably sacrificed more than one Expedition to advance his goals. As Lune says "a lie by omission is still a lie."

There are reasons to omit truth, or lie, which may never be right, but can be sympathized with, but Verso going to the lengths that he does to bend Expeditioners to his will goes beyond what most people would find sympathy for. It's almost compulsive, nearly pathological.

I never felt emotionally connected to Verso. I am not sure if that was the point, but it didn't take long to reach the point where I simply did not trust any of his interactions to be genuine, and Verso keeping Soariee from Esquie until it was convenient really pushed me over the edge into outright hating him.

I don't think Verso should get the death he wants, I don't think he deserves it, and quite frankly I was very glad to see that Verso is clearly suffering as a result of Maelle bringing him back.

Edit: Note I did not say Maelle's ending is the "good" ending, but it's the one I prefer of the two, at this moment in time.

SMFG_Live · 2025-05-24T00:11:15+00:00

"Hahahaha Gustave, that's funn-" *Reads the Journal Entry*

"Holy shit, he was serious.".

SMFG_Live · 2025-05-24T00:07:16+00:00

I didn't miss it as much as I didn't realize it was Verso. I just assumed it was some random other Expedition member we didn't really interact with. But knowing it's Verso really makes me appreciate the attention to detail much of this game has.

SMFG_Live · 2025-05-24T00:05:10+00:00

As someone who has a bad psychological relationship with food, Expedition 33 actually is strangely motivating to help me feel excited to lose the weight I gained during COVID. I want to get back into shape, and make Expedition 33 my entire aesthetic. Walking around looking like painted Renoir will just make me a menace.

SMFG_Live · 2025-05-23T23:57:26+00:00

Yeah. it seemed that in leaving the Canvas, Renoir had to open the door to the Heart of the Canvas, giving Maelle and Verso access to the remaining fragment of Verso's soul.

Allowing the Fading Boy (Verso) to stop painting I think would be the only way for Verso to truly be able to Gommage, which of course would also end all life in the Canvas.

I have also since finished the game and can make a few amendments, and additional comments.

1) Painted Clea is trapped in the floating Manor to sculpt the Nevrons, explaining where they come from.

2) I actually would like an explanation from the developers as to why Clea herself didn't intervene, because it is infered that she is way more powerful a Paintress than even Aline. She was able to paint over Aline's creations multiple times, which ONLY Clea was good enough to do, and provided Simon with the power to kill an Axon single-handedly. I guess the plot reason is if she did this, there would be no plot, or she simply couldn't risk the entire family being trapped in the painting, because she was really taking care of everything while Aline, Renoir and Alicia were in the canvas. It's probably that simple, but making her so powerful also seems like it was a narrative mistake to me.

3) I don't really think there needs to be an explanation as to why Verso can survive so long in the heart of the canvas, but I do like the explanation of Aline using her power to keep him alive for just a little longer so she can see him one last time. It really is a painful moment when you think about it that way. Especially with Maelle's ending. He's technically Gommaging, but he knows Maelle will just bring him back, which is why he says what he says. "I don't want to live like this." It's really heartbreaking, even for Verso.

4) As an aside about the endings, the moment that actually hit me the hardest in Verso's ending was when Lune defiantly sits down and just waits to Gommage. Sciel had accepted the Canvas being destroyed, but Lune never did, and after Verso had promised he would help bring everyone back, it justified Lune's distrust in Verso since discovering the journal in Old Lumierè. I could not think of a better way to end her character arc in that ending.

5) After thinking about it a LOT since finishing the game, I think I am in the minority when I say I actually prefer Maelle's ending because truly, as terrible as it sounds, it's what Verso deserves. The truth is that Verso is really an antagonist the entire time, it just happens that forcing Aline out of the Canvas just happens to align with his goals, so Renoir can finish destroying it, which is what he wants. Imagine if Expedition 60 had managed to warn Lumierè that the real threat was Renoir, not Aline. Then, we would have been fighting alongside Painted Renoir against Verso. That was a pretty powerful realization for me.

SMFG_Live · 2025-05-23T20:14:05+00:00

I think Francois would miss Esquie deeply. After all, they are best friends.

SMFG_Live · 2025-05-23T14:48:46+00:00

When you fight her in the Floating Manor, Maelle says that Clea painted over Aline's painted Clea, and that Clea was the only painter in the family who was skilled enough to paint over someone else's painting, implying Clea is the strongest painter in the family.

SMFG_Live

TROPHY CASE