Direct Messages - TheSleepingKnight

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 03:50 PM

have i ever told you about my favorite piece of metafiction

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 03:50 PM

no :O

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 03:50 PM

it's not homestuck dont worry

i will tell you

but first

i will warn you

that telling you that it is metafiction at all

is a massive spoiler

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 03:52 PM

oh?

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 03:52 PM

yes

it's a video game

and it's one of my favorites ever

and this moment fucked me up so much that i'm still thinking about it

in a good way

but

i do not want to spoil it!!!

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 03:53 PM

if this is all a build up to a rulesroll i'm blocking you

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 03:53 PM

but also, idk if you will ever play it or not

nonono

it's

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 03:53 PM

tell me the name of the game!

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 03:53 PM

Dragon Quest Builders 2

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 03:53 PM

Oh

yeah i'm not playing that

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 03:53 PM

Okay

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 03:53 PM

Continue

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 03:53 PM

so it's

dqb2 is this fun cute little game abt building gay little houses for gay little npcs

but like

there are a few very important things abt this premise

number one, it's a spinoff game of dragon quest, The Most Popular RPG Franchise Literally Ever

number two, it's a fuckin block game spinoff

and number three

it isn't even the first one they did. it's the sequel.

it is, as a work, deeply aware of its status as a doomed to irrelevance spinoff

but it never brings that up and it's never a point of insecurity

i had never played a dragon quest game before this one but its a series very dedicated to tradition

the same music tracks sound effects animations menu text across every single game

and thats like... a good thing, to a lot of people, that it's a stable constant, and able to tell good stories within that

but dqb1 was criticized for doing Dragon Quest Minecraft.... kinda predictably

and dqb2 instead is just

ugh

tisky

it's so fucking good man

i literally had never stayed up all night playing a game before this

but it was so fucking good

i'll skip most of the plot but i need to mention the intro

which has you, just, kinda, appear, in the cell of a pirate ship of dragon quest monsters, and they drag you out and force you to do a sort of lame tutorial

definitely a bad opener like. gameplaywise. it sucks hah

but then the ship is attacked(!!) and aha here are blocks i will use them to plug up the sh--

the ship goes down

there was nothing you could have done

everyone is dead.

all of the monsters are dead

all of the children they kept in cages are dead

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 03:59 PM

well that's a fuckin dark opening for a minecraft dragon quest game

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 03:59 PM

and their bodies are washed up on the shore.

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 03:59 PM

holy shit

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 03:59 PM

and you can interact with the bodies

that say the text

There's nothing to be done. The body washes out to sea...

and then the model of the corpse fades out.

it is the fucking

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:00 PM

...wow

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:00 PM

darkest opening

i have ever seen for a lighthearted video game

but there are 3 things that happen

obviously

you wake up

and you are fine

but you also see

this like

tumblr sexyman edgelord

named malroth

and when he wakes you up

he's like awh :( i thought you were dead like everyone else

and your character is like ??? and he's like check it out there are bodies on the shore >:D

edgy boy i love him

anyway there's one other survivor her name's lulu she's not important

basically

the game is poptropica dragon quest minecraft

u go from island to island doing unique storylines rebuilding villages and whatnot

girl bowser

and your character is like ??? and he's like check it out there are bodies on the shore >:D

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:02 PM

hey kids, you wanna see a dead body?

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:03 PM

and crafting mechanics n stuff are a thing

it's a little janky and there's some other mechanical stuff to talk abt that are fascinating but for now i'm gonna stay on malroth stuff

TheSleepingKnight

hey kids, you wanna see a dead body?

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:03 PM

NO LITERALLY

he's my son i love him

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:04 PM

send me a picture of-

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:04 PM

he is literally peak edgelord

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:04 PM

okay so he's a misplaced dragonball z character, got it

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:04 PM

like the evilest fuckin design ever

oh toriyama is the character designer for dragon quest lol they all look like that

but like

i tried not to google it

because

it was

very obvious

and every fuckin thing in the game was pointing to it

but the protags stubbornly pretended to do not see it

but dragon quest 2

the nes game

is about

the dark priest hargon

what a goofball

and his quest to resurrect

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:06 PM

why is he wearing a zubat as a hat

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:06 PM

thats his head

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:06 PM

why's he a zubat

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:07 PM

idfk its dragon quest man anyway here's the dark lord

and malroth keeps having episodes where A Mysterious Figure is trying to contact him and monologue about his destiny of destruction and blah blah blah (edited)

(malroth is a knight of doom btw)

but like

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:08 PM

oh hey homestuckin

or would it be classkin

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:08 PM

jan and i say "legal kin"

if you share a classpect you're legally allowed to kin them

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:08 PM

oh my god

anyway

continue

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:08 PM

anyway

the whole time as you're playing the game there's like this

weird empty feeling

there are this ancient structures and nobody knows what they are

churches n shit

to like

dragon quest religions

but everyone in the game believes in like. lego movie master builder religion lol

and have almost no concept of hargon or his forces as evil (edited)

but like

the protagonist is like

weirded the fuck out by this

and everyone looks at her like why are you weird lol

lulu also is weirded out by it but she's not important

anyway

in case it wasn't obvious

this is a spinoff game.

and

it literally

does not take place in dragon quest canon

and the stuff that is from dragon quest canon

like, say, your player character

should not be there.

the creepiest part of the game for me

slash best part

was moonbrooke.

i literally

had no

girl bowser

should not be there.

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:11 PM

whhhhaaaaat

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:12 PM

idea of what i was going to find

it's this like

frozen iced over wasteland

and i was just like

running around the island during a break in story events

collecting korok seeds

and then i find

this

unimaginably

huge

green paradise

no monsters.

no friendly npcs.

no explanation

and i finally

i keep running around

in this like

dumfounded way

like. what is this

and i find

this

massive

massive massive

ruined castle.

and it is filled with people

who all seem

to not, know, that they're not in dragon quest 2

they are talking about the castle's vast treasure

and there are chests!!! the chests are empty

they talk about the king and queen

(there is no one there)

and outside there's an npc running an inn

(it is a square of blocks and half of a staircase)

and she asks if you want to spend the night for 10 gp

(gp does not exist in this game)

and i literally.

like

it was so fucking haunting.

to meet these ghosts.

and

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:15 PM

this is some creepypasta shit right here

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:16 PM

not get an explanation for it.

until later, when i actually was far enough in the story to trigger the "HAHA! IT WAS AN ILLLUUUUSION AND WE ARE GOING TO KILL YOU" cutscene/battle sequence

but that emergent moment

of just finding this garden of eden

filled with ghosts of a different game

clued me in that i was in for some serious shit when they separated me and malroth.

and oh boy

moonbroke

did not stop giving.

so the first thing to know abt malroth and dqb2 protag is that they're

genuinely close????

like i love their friendship

dqb2 is a long fucking game

and the two of them like

go through a lot

she's a silent always-smiling protag and he's an emo edgelord who is Definitely Satan if not for his convenient genre-demanded amnesia

but they like... they get kidnapped and thrown into jail together, they raise crops in poisoned soil, they uh, they, i dont even remember what happened in the horny desert

shit was weird but like

they were there for each other!!!

he cannot craft and you cannot use the best weapons in the game

but he can

so you make him stuff

he appreciates your skills and you definitely appreciate his

and like... he keeps trying, throughout the game, to craft, literally anything

but malroth is a lord of destruction, so it just... doesnt work

at first he brushes it off but like

as the game progresses and he can't craft literally the most basic fucking health potion

he gets genuinely frustrated with himself

and its heartbreaking lol

anyways moonbrooke is a tower defense themed island

you gain access to traps and stuff

and have to defend this fortress over a couple story-driven waves of a siege

and at some point, someone starts killing good guys.

and like.

you know malroth

but they dont know malroth

and he, uh, looks very fucking evil!!!!

so they throw him in jail and you're powerless to stop them

believe me i tried

there's a box around his cell, they don't let you dig inside of it

but yeah.

this plus his inability to craft vs you able to craft seemingly endless amnts of bullshit

he starts transferring that resentment abt his abilities

onto you for your "betrayal"

and like

during this time while he's rotting in a cell

you are introduced to literally the darkest game mechanic i've ever seen

so there are a lot of friendly npcs and everyone shares the same animation set

and like, everyone can use a lying down animation

and you can, if someone falls in battle, carry them to a bed to heal

outside of moonbrooke church, three men die.

like actually die.

and you have to

use this mechanic

to put their bodies into coffins

and bury the coffins

and.

AND THEY JUST? THEY STAY DEAD

But here's the fucking craziest part

During the whole traitor arc

When good guys get got

you're told to bury the bodies

and unlike when you're introduced to the mechanic

there's no quest for it

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:26 PM

what the fuck

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:26 PM

you don't need to do this. but you have to, right?

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:26 PM

this is the darkest shit for a kid's game

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:26 PM

and you just

silently

alone

mourn these three nameless npcs

who fought for you (genuinely!)

in their unmarked graves that you dug

that nobody will ever visit, in this frigid wasteland.

your best friend hates you and you're facing death up close and a palimpsest asked if you wanted to stay in their inn and it's

so fucking good

and then

things

start getting

meta.

i think moonbrooke is fantastic

but the existential crisis stuff?

that is amazing in its own right

so you beat moonbrooke and go back to your home island, the one you first crashed on, right

every island you beat you take 2 or 3 npc recruits with you up to this main shrine

and this like lil ghost man is like hoohoohoo! youve unlocked the Desert Theme for building

bring life to this desolate wasteland hoohoohoo

malroth usually joins you for these

today he does not.

he needs some time alone

and that's when his sudden but inevitable betrayal happens, hah.

the thing about hargon

is that he not only fucking loses

but is completely fucking irrelevant in every other dragon quest game ever since.

so, if YOU were an evil cultist to a dark god

and you found an, erm, blockier version of your reality

but one you could control in its entirety

why would you not bring your god back to life in it?

so malroth has a panic attack when hargon is like HEY BRO DARK POWER

and opens a hole into another dimension

and all of the npcs you've gathered meet at the shrine

and the truth comes out.

Viridia... you're not from this world at all, are you?

Obviously, you aren't. You're a real person playing a video game, and they're NPCs in a sequel to a spinoff of the biggest RPG franchise ever

This story doesn't matter

And never did

In fiction, DQB2 Protag is from the real dragon quest

as is hargon

but like

okay

we have established, says the ghost

that we are in a work of transformative fiction.

but like

do any of us fucking care?

and there is an IMMEDIATE "NO!" from the crowd

EVERYONE is just like

LIKE? WHO CARES IF WE ARE FAKE

OUR RELATIONSHIPS ARE REAL???? WE EXPERIENCED OUR EXPERIENCES ????

SO WHAT IF THIS IS FANFIC VIRIDIA THAT'S YOUR FRIEND

YOU NEED TO SAVE HIM!

DO YOU GIVE A SHIT ABOUT DRAGON QUEST 2

NO!!!!

MALROTH DOESN'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT DRAGON QUEST 2 EITHER

NOT OUR MALROTH

HARGON CARES BUT HE'S EVIL LOL

SAVE YOUR BEST FRIEND

and so

you go into the black hole

and enter malrothland

and blah blah blah there's a lot of content there

you build a spaceship and find the captain of the ship that crashed in the opening of the game and he's like "lol sorry for kidnapping all those young girls" and you're like man that wasnt fucking cool but you are the first familiar face ive found so you get to join the party

anyway

the final battle

is

fucking insane.

and it's- -- for the first time in the game

you play as malroth.

and you enter his mindscape

and he's surrounded by enemies

and you cut them down

and then hargon is like

HAHAHA

YOU FUCKING MORON

and all of the enemies are the friendly npcs

you hurt them malroth

and in your rage, you go to strike down hargon, hargon, who's RIGHT THERE

and the strike hits

and viridia collapses.

and

you're left

with

your best friend

you

and she's dying

and you're a lord of destruction but there's a crafting bench RIGHT THERE and i can't do it i can't craft i cant.....

i can't let her die

and malroth makes you a health potion.

anyway

the game ends

with you killing the fuck out of dragon quest 2 malroth, with dragon quest builders 2 malroth at your side

blasting the main theme of the series

like literally you can peer into the other games behind dq2 malroth, their titles are displayed behind you in the arena

but you win!! power of friendship

and you finally find your friends

and you're safe

and who fucking cares about if this is canon or not

because here

you can build your gay little houses

with your gay little friends

and tell your own story.

it is genuinely my favorite game of all time if not for a ton of massive glaring flaws

like stuff u could patch but that they wont bc they dont do those kinds of things (edited)

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:43 PM

That's wild

"we may be a spin off game...but you know what, we're gonna go down as the most memorable spin-off game in history"

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:44 PM

LITERALLY LIKE -- EVEN IF WE ARE INSIDE OF AN IRRELEVANT SPINOFF GAME (edited)

WE'RE ALL HERE

AND WE ALL CARE ABOUT EACH OTHER

SAVE MARTHA

DO IT FOR HER

I played this shortly after my huge homestuck obsession last year

and i was just

struck by how uncynical it was compared to hs

which was just

heh heh heh this is a fan fiction this isnt canon isnt that inherently miserable????

and like no bro!!! shut the fuck up!!! my relationships matter to me regardless of what "canon" has to say about them!!!!

it's genuinely

so fucking good

and i haven't even discussed some of the best shit

or any of the like... vibe, of just, playing the game

or the fucking death camp???? there's a death camp and i do mean death camp like . there's an incinerator, with skeletons at the bottom, and you have to destroy the bones in there to progress the story

like they wanted you to see this

what the fuck

anyway

game's good

weirdly horny

does not expect you to select the female protagonist which leads to some weird emergent trans vibes????

but,,,, yeah

viridia dqb2 was also

the first time i had ever used the name anywhere

so she's kinda important to me, haha.

anyway

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:48 PM

No thank you for telling me about this

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:48 PM

Malroth should've known better.

>

His instincts had always told him not to trust anyone -- not because he'd be hurt by them, but because they were nothing to him. But Viridia...

>

She was different. She treated him like a person -- despite having lost his memories, he felt like that was novel, even before his amnesia. Lulu he was friendly with, certainly, but they only truly interacted while constructing a massive project or another.

>

Really, the only reason he'd befriended Lulu at all was because he'd thought she was dead.

>

Malroth had always had a fascination with the morbid.

>

But here he was now, in jail. And somewhere out there, Viridia was doing who-knows-what. Probably using techniques they'd come up with together to mine marble to build a castle for the scumbag who'd ordered him to be locked up here in the first place.

>

All that building, but she couldn't build a real relationship. He should have known better than to trust someone who smiled like an idiot.

>

The world wasn't fair.

>

There was a noise in the wall behind him. A very familiar, mallet-like noise.

>

The world wasn't fair, but sometimes...

>

"Well?" said Malroth. "Are you just going to stand and gawk, or are you busting me out of here?"

>

Sometimes friendship could repair just a little of the world.

>

---

>

In the tunnels Viridia had made, Malroth hatched a game plan.

>

"The good news is that there's nobody guarding the cell itself, just the entrance," he said. "I didn't see a single person since they locked me in there. So it'll be some time before they notice I'm gone."

>

Viridia soaked in his every word. God, it's as if she'd not seen him for years or something. Was he really locked up in there for long?

>

"They didn't deliver me meals, making this the second prison I've been locked in without food in a row," noted Malroth. "But again, that also serves our advantage. We've got time to plan."

(edited)

"What's that?" asked Malroth. "You want to know my plan?"

>

He shrugged his shoulders in frustration. "If I've got one regret in life, it's that we didn't tear down the whole of Skelkatraz once we got your hammer back.

>

"We can't let another person who thinks it's okay to abuse their people run free.

>

"Viridia, we're going to have to commit a little regicide."

>

Viridia started talking, and Malroth listened. He was taken aback by what she said.

>

"Eh? You want to center our headquarters in Moonbrooke Castle? Why would you ever want to go to that creepy place?"

>

She expounded her point.

>

"I see. It's the creepiness that'll make it safe for us -- nobody's going to dare even launch a raid on it. And besides, the only entrance is that hellish cave, warping in, or climbing in, like we did. And nobody else has those wings of yours, do they?"

>

Malroth belly laughed. "Okay! Operation occupy Moonbrooke Castle is on!"

i wrote that in march of last year

and rediscovered it

and like

just

wanted to

vibe in the game's vibe again lol

thank u for letting me talk about it!!!!

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:49 PM

it's honestly just nice to hear you talk about something you're clearly so passionate about

also viri fic hell yeah

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:49 PM

:D

literally viri fic

this is the only si i will ever write

i also tried to get across like

the rpg dialogue vibe

w like

animations playing, and distinct lines lol

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:51 PM

yeee

you nailed it

i instantly understood what you were emulating

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:52 PM

But yeah

DQB2 has lived in my head

I couldn't ever... Write fic for it beyond this, I think

Bc it requires a much stronger grasp of canon DQ's vibe to do so effectively, I think

Which I don't have

And the demo for dq11 was good but you have to play as a guy lmfao

If you are interested

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:54 PM

I'm good lol

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:54 PM

There is a demo for DQB2 that gives you the first whole story island!!!

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:54 PM

the only turn based combat i haven't despised has been Persona 5 and Deltarune's

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:55 PM

Oh it's realtime

The combat is actually fascinating too

Because it's dogshit

it's not empowering at all

Which means in turn

You gain this like

Very real comradeship

With the friendly npcs

Who are equipped with the exact weapons and armor as you

But they can't craft and you can, so your unique skill of building is genuinely valuable to everyone lol

Idk!!! I think the game is great. Very weird and a little broken but I do love it

Their exploration of the theme of gender in the mining town island is so fucking insane i honestly cant help but love it

(edited)

TheSleepingKnight 08-Feb-22 04:58 PM

what did you play it on?

girl bowser 08-Feb-22 04:58 PM

Switch but it's on PS4 as well (edited)