If One Ending is Good, Three are Three Times as Good!

Tags

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, combat, Death Stranding, mechanics, monsters, Outer Worlds, plot, reviews, romance, TV

Spoilers for getting near the cultist ending of AC: Odyssey

Butch:

Well, considering the weekend got busy, probably good that the game is making you do one last chore.

Did you kill the ghost? Or are there three things (one of which is a fort) you have to do first?

Let me know how it ends. Or kinda ends. Or ends but not really. Or should’ve ended.

Feminina:

It took me way too long to weaken Achaia enough that the conquest battle was provoked, considering I’ve been provoking and ignoring them throughout the game, but I did that last night and defeated the final cultist. Now I have a quest to go find Aspasia, who is in…wait for it…Kephallonia! Back to where we started!

Fingers crossed I’ll finish it tonight. I’m sure it will be deeply thoughtful and thematic and rich with material for discussion.

Or I’ll just backstab her and run away.

Whichever.

Butch:

Seriously? Way back where it started? That’s kind of a nice touch. I like that.

Why’d you have to do all the conquest battle shit? Wasn’t the dude just in the arena or something?

Maybe she just died of the plague.

THAT would be awesome. “Aww, you think you did the wrong thing? Your blogmate is all smug cuz he saved everyone? Well, cuz you unleashed malaria you don’t have to fight the final boss!”

OK, now I’m really hoping for that because hinging it all on a quest back in the tutorial would make me forgive all this game’s sins.

Feminina:

Oh man, that would be so great! Hahahaha! Malaria: the assassin’s final weapon against the cult.

I would love that.

One of the guys I had left on that line was in the Arena (and, helpfully unlike most of the enemies, he had not leveled up along with me, so when I finally got around to going there and he was still level 29, I wrecked him effortlessly and bailed).

His clue led me to the last guy, who would only make an appearance if I fought for Athens in a conquest battle in Achaia. Apparently he has a lot of riders in his contract.

Anyway, all this roaming around looking for cultists did remind me why there was so much map we didn’t really get to in the main, family-based storyline. Achaia? I’d never set foot in it until I had to go there for a (different) cultist. And some of those islands or areas of the sea, too.

Oh, and I did finally do that bit with Roxana and the Battle of 100 Hands, that you did 100 years ago while luring that one guy into a naval battle. Romanced and recruited her, obviously. I think I’ve slept with at least 50% of my crew at this point.

Butch:

Oh I never finished that one! I liked her, and thought that quest would end with killing her, so I left her, alone and lovelorn (but very much alive) wondering why every other hottie gets a spot on my boat.

How’d that one end?

Feminina:

I went back to the battle, killed everyone else, and the two of us were finally the only ones left standing in the Final Match Up. Then the master of ceremonies, whatever that dude’s name was, said “all right, now fight for the prize” and we gazed mournfully at each other and I said “we don’t have to do this,” and she said “don’t make this difficult! winning has been my only goal for so long!” and I said “there’s so much more to do in the world! join me on my ship!” and she said “OK!” (You know, with slightly more formal language.)

Then the dude got all mad and attacked us, because he was really invested in someone dying in that competition (I suppose the cult made it a condition of his continued employment and life), so we had to kill him and his guards, but it was no big deal.

There was a kind of nice comment Kassandra made going into the battle, something like “imagine how much all these warriors could accomplish uniting against the cult…instead, we gather here to kill each other.” It kind of made the whole thing make sense in a larger, social-control context. Obviously the cult would rather have highly trained mercenaries fighting each other than turning their attention to larger matters.

Butch:

Ah man! That sounds good! In a whole lot of annoying combat way!

And I could have made the social scene on the boat even more awkward!

Sorta reminds me, I show up with all my family. Mom, dad, bro all asking “So who are all these ladies?” Kassandra all “Uh….heh….yeah….now, don’t get mad, dad, I’m a grown woman why are you all looking at me like that?”

Oh, in other news:

The Outer Worlds Critic Reviews for PlayStation 4 – Metacritic
Apparently the Outer Worlds is very good.

Though I still vote for Death Stranding after Detroit. Mostly cuz Junior might buy Outer Worlds himself and I can steal it later. But I will defer to blogmate.

Feminina:

Well, because I’d put it off so long, it was really more “a bit of minimally challenging combat where no one else is even elite status.”

I basically just wandered around the battlefield (which was a series of different environments) assassinating people or waiting for them to kill each other off. It might have been kind of an interesting challenge if I’d done it earlier, but it was pretty much nothing at level 60, even though the other fighters were technically 60 as well.

Oh, and after Detroit…I already own Divinity: Original Sin 2, which has been sitting around for months. Do you have an opinion about that?

Butch:

I think it’s certainly on the list, but, pending reviews, I kinda want to hit Death Stranding while it’s still fresh. I have a feeling that it’s going to be rather avant garde, and we avant garde well.

Plus, after so much of things looking the same, I’m kinda in the mood for something REALLY different. Death Stranding and Outer Worlds are new universes, and, after my 5493875489th temple and my 357435874th horse ride, I could use that. I certainly want to play Divinity 2, but swords and spells and D&D isn’t exactly something we’ll go “whoa, THAT’S a thing.”

Plus, don’t you have to play with Mr. O?

Feminina:

Yes, but he said he’s coming on a quieter period at work, and he’s not playing anything else, so he may be free for it.

Butch:

I am sensing a strong desire to play this game.

Ok I’m in. But don’t let him slow you down.

But there are features of death stranding we might want to think of…because Death Stranding is kinda sorta not really but kinda multiplayer, we might get the intended experience when the most people are playing it as possible.

You read about the mechanic? The whole “bridges” thing?

Anyway, we can stall a little. It comes out November 8th, but the review embargo has lifted so I’ll find some reviews for us to read so we can see if it’s any good or interesting before we have to commit.

Feminina:

I did not read much of anything about it. I like to approach games with pure, blind enthusiasm.

“What the hell is this, some sort of interactive vidja entertainment program?” is the kind of thing I like to say.

“What does this button do?” is another.

“When do I get a shotgun and how do I set things on fire?” is yet another.

So no, I don’t know anything about bridges. And honestly, anything multiplayer-ish sounds like a negative at first blink, but you’ve done more reading than I have (I read…uh…your comments on the subject. And also I watched that one preview you sent), so I trust your judgment.

You know, more or less. As long as it’s not about old classics where you have to shrink sweaters in the past and stuff.

Butch:

You mostly say that third thing you said.

I, too, was skeptical about multiplayerish shit, as you know, and it’s a key reason I want to read reviews first, so I can figure out how multiplayerish it is.

What is seems like…..

So it’s a single player game. Everyone plays the same character (that would be Norman Reedus, who the women at the bus stop say is hunky, I defer to you on that), in the same world, same story, like any other single player game. The deal is that you can “help” or “be helped” rather anonymously when people see “reflections” of what you do. That is, sometimes, stuff that other people build (Say, a ladder up there, or a bridge over that ravine) shows up in your game. From random strangers. Also, someone might be playing and find a ladder or a bridge or something you built. There are, apparently, places to drop extra resources, drop boxes like, that then get randomly sent to other players’ drop boxes, kinda sharing with random strangers across game dimensions or some shit.

But this is all supposed to link in to the THEMES and shit.

It sounds different. But, again, a reason to read reviews.

I don’t think it has sweaters. But it’s Kojima, so you never know what it will have.

I’ll find us some reviews to read.

Feminina:

Hunky? That dude in the preview? Uh…if you say so, women at the bus stop. Seemed a little pasty to me. I mean, no offense to Norman Reedus. I’m sure he’s a lovely person with many fine qualities. (Or a total bastard! I don’t know, I have no idea who he is.)

Maybe he looks better in other contexts than the 30 seconds I saw of him in that weird-ass preview. Those other contexts are probably what those women are basing their assessment on.

Anyway, that mechanic DOES sound interesting. In a potentially annoying way, as well as a potentially useful one, but we’ll have to see how it ends up working in practice.

Butch:

His other context is zombies. He’s on the Walking Dead, a show otherwise sane people seem to love. Tried it for the first season and thought “Uh…..this….isn’t good…..” But maybe that’s just because Norman Reedus isn’t my type.

IF it ends up working in practice. And how. At the very least, it’s something that would give us a few good days of bloggage, I’m sure.

Feminina:

OOOHHHH…right. The Walking Dead.

Like you, we watched the first season–I think maybe even just about the first two thirds of the first season–and thought “Next.” Just…it didn’t even maintain the minimum level of interest for me that it was worth getting the last disc from Netflix, back when we used to get discs from Netflix.

And yet so many people LOVE it! More power to ’em, it takes all kinds, etc.

But yeah, I think I can kind of vaguely recall that pasty face in that context. Hm. Nope, not hunky there, either.

Maybe he became more attractive in later seasons that we didn’t watch. And since we never will, I shall never know. It’s OK, I’m comfortable with my ignorance.

Butch:

I, too, am comfortable. Though not really ignorant: I can state with certainty he wasn’t my type in that, either.

Feminina:

What if there’s a later season where he magically becomes a scantily clad sorceress?

I have to admit, adding magic is a twist that would greatly increase my interest in that show.

Butch:

I can’t decide if that would improve my attitude toward the show or mute my love of sorceresses.

Feminina:

Better not risk it. Sorceresses give you much more joy than that show ever would, even improved.

Butch:

Indeed. I shall avoid that show for the sorceresses.

This is getting weird.

Finish this damn game so we can get back on the rails. Or something.

Feminina:

I will! I just need to go to Kephallonia and probably do three things for Aspasia before I can kill her. Ha.

Butch:

All three of which will be on islands on the other side of the map nowhere near fast travel points.

But very close to question marks.

RESIST!

Feminina:

Undoubtedly! If there’s one place on the map I haven’t been yet, I’ll have to go there.

But I walked right by an alpha animal and a bandit camp last night, because I knew they would not help provoke a conquest battle.

I’m resisting.

Butch:

I’m proud of you. Very proud. Very, very proud.

Please finish the game.