Blog Anniversary: KOTOR Version 2: Endgame

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

I know I'm late on this, but as we all know, life can get in the way. And between a bout of depression from my job and my family being...needy, I couldn't get to this until now.

Picking up a few months after the events of Vhae's Journey, Vhae, T3 and HK-47 land the Ebon Hawk on Tatooine and begin asking around Anchorhead for a man with shoulder length hair and a beard, or a woman with a Coruscanti accent. After a chapter of searching, Vhae finds out that Revan and Bastila are in a small hut in the Jundland Wastes, near where Obi Wan will live thousands of years later. HK-47 is overjoyed that he finally found his original master again, though T3 is hesitant, due what happened during KOTOR 2, and now being a little more loyal to Vhae than he ever was to Revan. 

Revan and Bastila invite Vhae and crew in, where Revan once again restores HK-47's memories and full capacity while Bastila serves them the dinner they'd been making. Vhae asked what their plans were, and Revan would reveal that his plans were to hide out on Tatooine until the Republic had rebuilt its strength so it could defend itself from Vlad Ragnos and his plans. Vhae balks at this idea, since she is shocked that Revan would be so inactive, since Revan always had a grandiose plan. 

Revan asked what Vhae thought they should do, then, and Vhae revealed the events of her game, with the defeat of Sion, Nihilus and Kreia and her gathering new Jedi recruits. Revan was pleased to hear this, as well as hearing that both Carth and Canderous had done what Revan had asked of them. This sent Revan's mind into motion, thinking that, if they could gather Vhae's allies, Carth's influence over the Republic, the Mandalorian clans AND Revan's Jedi allies, they just might have what they needed for Revan's original plan.

And so Revan and Bastila gathered their old Jedi robes and the lightsabers they had set aside years earlier and returned to the Ebon Hawk with Vhae the next day. From there, they headed to Dxun and set up base among the Mandalorians, and kept in contact with Onderon, to let them know about the future gathering of fleets. Revan and Bastila had a happy reunion with Canderous, and contacted Carth from there. 

At this point, the narrative would have split slightly, following Vhae and her efforts to reunite the the KOTOR 2 crew and Revan to reunite the KOTOR 1 crew. Vhae would find Bao Dur on Telos using both his mechanical talents and him figuring out Mechu-deru, a force power that allowed him comprehend and manipulate droids, helping out with the rebuilding. She found Atton and Mira on Nar Shaddaa, using their own foci to help others; Mira using her skills as a bounty hunter and empathic abilities to find lost souls and Atton as her protector (due to his precognitive abilities, IE his "bad feelings about this") and money maker through manipulating of probability. She found Mical on Dantooine, trying to uncover what he could from the Enclave as well as the Star Map, being very careful about the Dark Side. Brianna had returned to Enshan to try to reconcile her Echani heritage with her newfound connection to the Force. And Visas Marr headed to Alpheridies to have some down time and commune with the Force, trying her best to find a good balance between the Dark Side that had been thrust upon her by Nihilus and the Light she learned from Vhae.

Revan, on the other hand, would be speaking with Carth and Admira Dodonna about naval reinforcements, and while they could give them a fleet, it would be nowhere near the size Revan commanded during the Mandalorian Wars. Revan told them they'd make do, and spoke to Canderous about Mandalorian support. Mandalore wholeheartedly supported Revan, since Revan would give the Mandalorians the best fight they'd ever see. HK-47 also revealed about the HK-51 factory they hadd access to, and that droid army could make up the ground difference. At that point, they headed to Kashyyyk and reconnected with Zaalbar and Mission, who revealed their paths; Zaalbar was now the leader of his people, and pledged Wookiee support, and Mission had a smuggling network that she could use to supply Revan's army. They also found Jolee Bindo, having returned to the Shadowlands, though he was taking an active role supporting the Wookiees and reconnecting himself to the Force.

From there, they headed to Sleheyron, where Yuthura Ban was leading a resistance against Hutt rule. She was doing so subtly, having small raids against the worst slavers and getting slaves out. Some lived a life away from them, most stayed to fight. They recruited Yuthura and a strike force of elite fighters and headed to Cathar. 

On Cathar, they found Juhani, who...was doing something I can't remember. But they recruited her, and all of them returned to Dxun. 

Once all the teams were recruited, Revan revealed his plan. They would head to Nathema and assault Vlad's temple, lead Bastila to a Force Nexus, where she would use her Battle Meditation to enhance the team, giving Revan what he needed to face Vlad alone.

I had planned on a large space battle and a ground assault, with a small strike team heading to the Temple compromising of Revan, Bastila, Vhae and their Jedi companions, who are met by Revan's Sith team from the first story at their open landing spot. This was their first part of their role; the second they reveal to the team. They would lead the Jedi team into a diversion so Vlad wouldn't catch what was happening, Bastila and Vhae to the Nexus, and Revan is led to Vlad's chamber. Assassin falls during the diversion, Sith Lady and Vhae once they finally get to the Nexus, and Marauder betrays Revan for Vlad, claiming that Vlad had taught Revan "powers Revan could never dream of". 

Everyone was on the back foot, and I'd have given every one of the two games' crews a highlight during the battle and how they'd deal with a newly revealed character; Vlad Ragnos' daughter, who was using her own Battle Meditation to hamper the Republic.

However, once Bastila gets to the Nexus, she and Vhae defeat Vlad's daughter, the battle was now in the Republic's favor, and Revan defeated both Marauder and Vlad. Once Vlad was defeated, his troops were routed and destroyed (since most were Sith Alchemy monsters), Revan's team finally returned to Carth's flagship, celebrating until Sith Lady stormed the bridge. She was angry at Revan for not doing more keep her friends alive. Revan said he regretted the death of Assassin, and told her that Marauder  betrayed their purpose and attacked Revan. She turned from anger to despair, saying she knew that the lure of the Dark Side was strong, and that she didn't blame Revan for defending himself. However, she would not return to a Jedi Order without Assassin, revealing some feelings for him. However, she would not remain a Sith either, and headed off into obscurity.

And at this point, I would reveal that Revan was telling this story, via Holocron, to Tionne Solusar, shortly before the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong War, as that was the ongoing story at the time.

And that's it. That's the synopsis of the story I was telling 10 years ago. The huge epic that eventually got out of hand for me, and got put on hold when Mass Effect came out. And when SWTOR came out, the whole was idea was abandoned, since SWTOR did a LOT different with their backstory than what I had planned.

What's next for the blog, though? Well, I'll probably do a character bio of my Dark Souls characters, starting with Rain the Deprived, then going into Lucinde, Cleric of Velka.  If you know Dark Souls Lore, you might be able to tell where Lucinde's photo story will go as things progress.

For now, check out the Journey of Rain photo journey on Deviantart, and stay beautiful freaks!

Blog Anniversary: KOTOR 2: Vhae's Journey

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

Now, as I said before, Vhae Pano was originally a male protagonist when I was in my 20s, but thanks to Chronicle of Ana Shepard, I'm FAR more comfortable writing a female protagonist than I was back then, so going forward, Vhae is a woman for the purposes of  this story.

Now, much like KOTOR Version 2, KOTOR 2 follows the story of KOTOR 2 for the most part, with a few minor changes to suite the character. In this story, Vhae is a VERY sexually charged woman, and during the course of the story, she has a string of lovers, both male and female. Atton, the Rodian merchant on Dantooine, the Twi'lek Pazaak player on Nar Shaddaa, a string of other NPCs, finally ending with Visas during their "meditation scene", though when posting it to the old KOTOR adult blog, I would have gone into detail that it would have been a combination of the Force Sight scene and sex, making it a very transcendent experience for Vhae. (I wasn't comfortable writing gay romance back when Vhae was male, so Atton would have been off the table back then.) I also planned to imply Atris would been among Vhae's past lovers, giving some extra context for their interactions; Atris is just as much of a jilted lover as she is just generally upset that her friend left for war against the Council's wishes. Though, with Vhae's change in sex, that gives Atris an "angry lesbian vibe", but I feel that having them be former lovers adds context to their history.

I was also planning on including both Brianna and Mical (known as the Handmaiden and the Disciple in the game's party line up) in the story, because I like both their stories. I like Brianna's "I'm missing something without the Force" a lot, and I like the idea of having Mical being Vhae's introduction to teaching others, since he already HAS previous Jedi training, making him easier to bring up to speed. From there, Vhae would teach Brianna, Atton and Bao Dur in that order, with Visas and Kreia having their own stories.

As for Mandalore? Well, his story is as stated in the games, so other than just have conversations with him, there's not much to cover here. 

As we headed into the end, I was planning on using plot threads from The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod, giving HK-47 his mission, as well as him stopping G0-T0 on Malachor. From there, after the defeat of Sion, who revealed he has feelings for Vhae, and Kreia, Vhae and crew returned to Telos, where Vhae told her crew to "go and be Jedi", in so many words, and that she would go find Revan.  And that would lead into KOTOR Version 2: Endgame.

I'll post that one on June 14th, the 10th anniversary of this blog, without fail, even if I have to write it up ahead of time. But for now, look forward to it, and stay beautiful freaks!

Mass Effect Retrospective 15: Andromeda Companions, "Like 'X', but..."

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

 So, even though I've uninstalled Andromeda to free up space for Dark Souls, I'm going to finish off my retrospective. And today, that means comparing the Tempest crew with the Normandy crew. Or rather, to show just how similar the Tempest crew can be to the Normandy crew.

Starting off with the cockpit, Kallo is very different from Joker. While both are crack pilots who are suited to the seat, Kallo was part of the original Tempest design team, and came to Andromeda with the ship. And his memory is good, even for a salarian, meaning he's reliving the building of the Tempest all the time.

Suvi is like a combined Mordin/EDI/Traynor in terms of her roles. Like Mordin, she's the science officer on the Tempest, and like EDI, she's the voice that tells you that you've launched probes. But unlike them both, she's a woman of faith, though it's more of an "I believe in A monotheistic deity, but not any specific one in respect to real world religions." And like Traynor, she's the lesbian romance, though both are more than their sexual preferences, I prefer Suvi's romance to Traynor, since Suvi feels more natural, since it's slower (though you could blame Traynor's romance to it being the last game in the trilogy).

Next on the list is Dr. Lexi T'Perro, who is the ship's doctor. And of course, we compare her to Dr. Chakwas. Lexi plays the role of the "motherly doctor who takes care of the crew", though Lexi lacks Dr. Chakwas' tact. Lexi worries that the crew thinks that she thinks of them as nothing more than experiments, and that bothers her greatly.

Cora Harper takes the role of Kaidan/Jack/Miranda. Like Kaidan and Jack, she's the overpowered human biotic, and like Miranda, she's the second in command of the Pathfinder team. However, what makes Cora "unique" is that she has an asari mindset due to serving with asari Commandos for four years. Little more needs to be said about Cora. She's one of two heterosexual romances on the Tempest.

Liam is the resident "fish out of water", much like James Vega. But where Vega grows into himself over the course of 3, Liam tries to force his views upon a new galaxy. And while he does eventually find his niche, his path is really an annoying one, at least to me. Also, Liam's the other heterosexual romance on the Tempest.

Next up is Nakmor Drak. And Wrex is the best comparison for Drak; an old man of a krogan who wants better for his race, and is willing to fight for it. What makes him unique is that he's got Shepard levels of cybernetics. 

Up next is Peebee. She's like Liara only in terms of being young. In fact, it seems that her writers did everything they could to make her NOT like Liara while still making them both young scientists. The only other thing that's similar between the two is that she's a romance for both Ryders, though if an asari's a romance option, she's probably into both sexes.

Vetra Nyx is pretty much "what if Garrus grew up on Omega instead of Palaven". She's a turian who didn't go into boot camp at 15 and instead became a smuggler. Like Garrus, she cares about her remaining family, though in Vetra's case, her sister is a huge part of the game, and is even a part of her loyalty mission.

Vetra's also a romance for both Ryders.

Gil Brodie takes elements from Lt. Adams in that he's the "Chief Engineer", though unlike Adams, he's the only engineer. He clashes with Kallo over the Tempest; Gil is constantly remodeling and upgrading the Tempest to make it better suited for Andromeda, while Kallo wants him to leave the Tempest alone. That's actually their combined storyline, ending with them coming to an agreement.

Gil's also the gay romance for a male Ryder.

And last but not least, Jaal Ama Darav. And much like Tali was to the Normandy, he's the representative of his species.Lot of lore dumps from Jaal regarding the Angara. But unlike Tali, he's a romance for both Ryders.

All in all, the Tempest crew is very much like the Normandy crew, though much less fleshed out to only having 1 game to shine in. If their story had continued, they'd have had time to grow like the Normandy crew did.

 So, that's it for my Mass Effect retrospective, at least for now. When the next game comes out, I'll review the game and analyze its combat and companions once again. But for now, stay beautiful freaks!

Blog Anniversary: KOTOR Version 2 Summary

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

Now, remember, this story was conceived before the SWTOR announcement, some plot details will not conform with the current continuity.

Our story began between Revan and Bastila's Jedi strike team. Revan had just taken down a Jedi while Bastila and her team took down some of Revan's Sith. Bastila spoke her famous "You cannot win, Revan", and he dropped into his defensive stance before Malak's attack rocked Revan's ship, killing Bastila's team and gravely wounding Revan. Bastila was about to leave when she felt Revan's life force still active, though it was weak. She began healing him, only for a memory that they shared to surface; Revan, at 12, found Bastila crying out in the Dantooine wilderness. Bastila was four at the time, and Revan was the first Jedi to be nice to her after she was separated from her parents.

Bastila was shocked that Revan also found this memory important, and did everything she could to save his life. Doing so created their Force bond, though the memory that they shared reinforced it. She brought Revan before the Jedi on Dantooine, and they healed his body and mind. And that's where the hook of this story happens; they recovered Revan's personality, though they chose to not bring back the past 5 years, the length of the Mandalorian Wars and Revan's Jedi Civil War. 

Upon Revan's recovery, Bastila related the last few years to Revan, and he decided that he needed undo the damage he did to the galaxy. He talked to the Council on Dantooine, and they decided to try to deliberately recover his memories of how he managed to create the fleet, though hiding his identity at first.

He followed Bastila onto the Endar Spire, pretending to not know each other, but their bond allowed a sort of telepathic communication not found in most Force bonds. Then the Sith attack over Taris happens, and Revan had to reveal his Force powers during his escape. Due to this, he revealed to Carth his identity, and revealed his plan for this war to Carth; find a way to end the threat to the galaxy that he knew was out there that caused him to fall to the Dark Side and stop it it without compromising himself.

The events of Taris, along with most of the story, happen as they did in the games, though with a slight twist with Revan knowing who he is. the biggest change, other than Carth knowing who Revan is from the start, is that Revan utilized the Force to save the lives of himself, Carth, Mission and Zaalbar from a volley of grenades. He reveals that he is an undercover Jedi, though not revealing his name at this moment. 

The next biggest change is that, during the escape, Mission was injured. And when I say injured, I mean she had a metal bar impale her spine, paralyzing her. For the rest of the story until the Leviathan interception. She's dealing with physical therapy and acclimation to her cybernetics until she finally returns to normal around the time of Korriban. 

Anyway, during Dantooine, Revan finds Juhani, and recognizes her as "that young Cathar he saved on Taris years ago", and redeems her. She joins the crew, and during the Star Map quest, Revan regained some of his lost memories. 

This is how most of the story went; Revan goes through the events of the game, and regains some of his memories when he finds the Star Map. However, Revan has a special interaction with HK-47 and Jolee Bindo. With HK-47, Revan restores HK's memories upon buying him, and with Jolee, he mentions how "familiar his presence is".

As for the Leviathan, Revan, Bastila and Carth tell the crew that they don't want to know their escape plans, so every one of them happens, including Mission's. She finds this to be her "I'm back to normal" mission, since at this point, she hadn't been able to do what she did.

However, the battle between Revan and Malak happened differently than in the game; Revan regains all his remaining memories, and is battling his own Dark Side while fighting Malak, and he lost the fight, and Bastila did her thing to save the crew.

Upon escape, Revan talks to Carth about regaining all his memories, saying he's "now the man who destroyed Carth's world", and that he'd understand if Carth wanted to leave. Carth said that at this point, he "can't hate him" for what he did, since Revan had chosen to be better.

They headed to Korriban, since they still needed the coordinates from the last map, and Revan had to tip toe around his identity, though he was thankful that nobody knew his face. He redeemed Yuthura Ban, and was met by the Sith Lady character from the last story, and they talked about Revan's current plans. He told Sith Lady that he intended to stop Malak, then bring the might of the Republic against his old Sith Master. She told Revan that her team might not like this "redemption", though she herself would stay loyal to him.

The Ebon Hawk crew then landed on Rakata Prime, where Revan got into the Temple, and utilized his romance with Bastila, whom he'd been building a rapport with during this entire story to make her doubt her loyalty to Malak. And upon the Star Forge, he helps redeem Bastila, where they share their first kiss.

Revan defeated Malak, and was made a Jedi Master for his efforts, Bastila a Jedi Knight. He then tasks his friends with their quests for the next few years; Carth to gain influence within the Republic Navy, Zaalbar strengthened the Wookiees, Mission creating an underworld force for Revan to gather supplies, and with Canderous, he retrieved Mandalore's mask. 

From here, Revan and Bastila head into the unknown, where they would try to hold off Revan's old master for a while.

Next up is the story of Vhae Pano, the Jedi Exile. And unlike the two prior stories, this one hadn't been started at the time I stopped this saga. So this will be all new to my old fans. But for now, stay Beautiful Freaks!

Mass Effect Retrospective 14: Combat-Shepard vs Ryder

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

Today, I'm going to tackle Andromeda's combat, and how it differs from the Shepard trilogy's combat.

Before I start in, I'm going to refer to Shepard as "she", since I prefer the female Shepard, and Ryder as "they", since both Scott and Sara exist in the same playthrough.

When it comes to control over your character, you have more control over Ryder, and not in the ways you'd expect. Yes, Ryder has the jump jets that let them dash and jump around the battlefield, but I'm talking about something different. You see, Shepard automatically draws their weapons when attacked. Whether you holstered your gun or not between fights, Shepard automatically draws. Now, I realize that's a quirk of the combat engine, but it makes sense; Shepard is a heavily trained, heavily experienced, special forces soldier. Like Thane says, Shepard's training is so finely honed that entering combat is practically instinct. But Ryder? You have to tell them to enter battle by drawing their weapons, which, in my eyes, means they're a little scared about battle and have to mentally prepare themselves for a second or two, forcing the player to take action.

Ryder, however, is minimally trained. On Habitat-7, Ryder mentions that they've "tackled a batarian pirate in my day", but Ryder is quite a bit younger than Shepard. Practically first enlistment young; early 20s at the most, compared to Shepard being 29 in her first appearance. And for Shepard, that time between an 18 year old enlistment and her first appearance is spent in a LOT of foxhole situations.

That leads into the class system, too. The Shepard trilogy is all about a soldier and her team entering battle with their own strengths and weaknesses complimenting each other. Shepard spent 11 years refining her skill set to a point where she can handle any situation that comes before her. But Ryder is an explorer. Using Sara as an example for a moment, she moved from basic training into a field scientist role as a Prothean researcher. And while Scott spent his time guarding a Mass Relay, the Ryders spent their early careers learning adaptability. That's why Ryder isn't restricted to one specific class the way Shepard is; they're adaptable for any situation they come across as an explorer.

Now that they lore bits are out of the way, it's on to the mechanics. As I said previously, Ryder is more mobile, with the jump jets giving them speed to get around the battlefield in ways that are impossible for Shepard. But that's not without consequence; Shepard dives into cover at the touch of a button, where as Ryder has "contextual cover", where they automatically take cover if they hide behind something that CAN be used as cover. And while the games are designed around these systems, it takes a bit of time to get used to the difference if you're playing them back to back.

The other biggest difference is how powers are handled. In Andromeda, you don't have the power wheel that Shepard has. You select three powers for use in battle at once, and you can swap them out on the fly through the pause menu. That means you have to think carefully about what you're choosing. This makes Andromeda a little less beginner friendly in terms of abilities, because you have to really understand what you're doing compared to Shepard. That makes builds more important in Andromeda, with the profile system giving you access to different builds on the fly.

And the last thing I can think of is vehicle combat; there is none in Andromeda. I'm forced to play Andromeda the way I played the original build of ME1's Mako; get out of the car and fight there, though back in 2007, it was because you got 25% less xp from shooting with the Mako's cannons than with your small arms. The Nomad has no guns, and if you run over any mobs, IT takes damage. The Nomad is not a tank, it's an explorer's vehicle.

Andromeda is definitely a different beast when it comes to battle, though its fun in its own way. Just familiarize yourself on Habitat-7 before diving head first, and you'll be fine.

Next up will be my analysis of the Tempest crew and comparing them to their Shepard Trilogy counterparts, but until then, stay beautiful freaks!

Blog Anniversary Part 1: KOTOR Version 2 Sith Triumvirate Summary

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop! Today, I'm tackling the first in the timeline of my abandoned "epic", KOTOR Version 2: Sith Triumverate.

This story began just after the Mass Shadow Generator was activated and the Exile, Vhae Pano in my story, lost her connection to the Force. The main characters were three Jedi followers of Revan whom Revan let into his inner circle just before heading to the Star Forge. These three, already teetering toward the Dark Side, become the three prestige classes from KOTOR 2; a dual wielding heavy armor user that I'll just call Maurader(because I don't remember their names), a saberstaff, stealth based character I'll call Assassin, and the female of the group, a Sith Lord who focused on the mysteries of the Force, though I'll call her Sith Lady instead.

This one was to be a short, lore dump story, where I set up my interpretation of some of the backstory. They headed to the Star Forge, where they got their equipment, save for their lightsabers, which they would just switch out the crystals due to their background as Jedi, since Jedi view the lightsaber as an extension of their soul. 

From there, they would meet Revan's "true master"  Vlad Ragnos, the last survivor of the Sith species. Vlad, the father of Marka Ragnos, has an army of Sith monstrosities made from Sith Alchemy, and after this meeting, Revan revealed his true plans; to make the galaxy strong so they could bring its might against Vlad. However, as we'd find out much later, Maurader is tempted by Vlad's teachings, since his role is that of a brute in Revan's group, and wants to become more.

Here is where they begin Revan's plan. They first "inspect" the Sith Academy on Korriban, which is run by Exar Kun hardliner Jorak Uln. They prepare Uthar Wynn to take control of the Academy, leaving it fully in Revan's control, though Uthar Wynn does meet Revan, though with the mask, leaving a possibility of near recognition of Revan's voice during KOTOR version 2.

I also covered the recruitment of Saul Karath, the loss of Malak's jaw to Revan(which was due to Malak forcing Karath to destroy Telos instead of make it theirs, setting up Malak as the brute to Revan's brain), the building of HK-47 and his killing of a group of Jedi as a test, and him calling Malak a "meatbag", as he reveals in KOTOR. I also had a mission where Assassin infiltrated the Jedi temple and look for suitable Jedi to recruit, though this lead to him being ambushed by a pair of Jedi Temple Guardians and was forced to kill them.

The next bit I had planned was Sith Lady meeting Revan on Korriban just after he defeated Uthar Wynn and redeemed Yuthura Ban, Revan having fully regained his memories at this point(a major plot point in KOTOR Version 2 was Revan's mind was not wiped, but amnesic, and his regaining his memories of a Sith as they gathered the Star Maps), and they spoke of Revan's plans. Revan says that he still intended to go through with his plans, but with a Jedi's perspective. He also apologized for leading them down a dark path, and he'd do what he could to redeem them after this war was over. Sith Lady, still dedicated to Revan's cause, tells her allies of Revan's survival and that he intended to finish what he started, omitting his desire to redeem them when she recounts her meeting.

Curiously, I didn't have any ideas for a Maurader chapter, which is probably I introduced the idea of him being tempted by Vlad. Regardless, they sat back and waited for Revan to contact them again after the events of KOTOR Version 2.

Next month will be KOTOR Version 2 itself, but for now, stay beautiful freaks!

Mass Effect Retrospective 13: Andromeda Review

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

I know I'm late here, but I've finally gotten around to reviewing Mass Effect Andromeda. So at this point, I'm considered a "second wave adopter", since Legendary Edition brought renewed interest in the franchise, I thought I'd throw my thoughts into the bucket.

Now, I've only managed to get through the game twice; my first time through as an Adept, and my second as a Sentinel. First time through was the "I'm learning the systems, crafting and combat" playthrough, and the second is the "I know the game better and am discovering things I didn't catch the first time" playthrough. 

Mass Effect Andromeda takes place 634 years after the events of Mass Effect 2, in a galaxy far, far away (I know, but I had to do it!). You play as Scott or Sara Ryder,(whichever gender you choose to play as during character creation), fraternal twins of Alec Ryder, the human Pathfinder. Alec was one of the crew to travel through the Charon Relay, and one of the first N7s, though based on the events of the first Mass Effect novel, he wouldn't have been an N7 yet, since Anderson was a member of the first class through the program. As Scott or Sara, you are part of the Pathfinder team, a group who follow the Pathfinder in his efforts to find a habitable , or "golden" world, in the Heleus cluster of Andromeda, for the human race.

Unfortunately, Habitat-7, the golden world meant for the human ark, had been destroyed, and Alec was forced to give up his own life and save his offspring, transferring the Pathfinder authority to them. And this is when the story really begins.

Now, unlike the original Mass Effect trilogy, Sara and Scott both exist in the timeline. The one you didn't pick still exists in the story, albeit at a lesser extent; the opposite gender sibling being in a coma for the first half and inactive during the second half. However, you do play as the other sibling during a short mission late game, and as a plot device during the final encounter.

Now, at this stage, much like my Dark Souls Remastered review, I know I'm late here. All the anger over the story, animations, "Deadname Abrams" and what not have died down considerably. In fact, we're at a "was Andromeda really that bad?" point in history, where any video you find on YouTube is pretty much praising it. People are more forgiving of it than they were in 2017.

What's my view on it? I have fun playing it. The combat is very fun, though I had to get used to it. Getting your build just right is important, since you only get three abilities in battle per favorite profile. You have a LOT more mobility than Shepard ever did, though I understand completely why Shepard and Ryder are different. Shepard is a soldier, dedicated to a certain skillset, trained to fight and kill, with an imposed honor code to not allow them to become a monster, though a Renegade character can turn into one anyway. Ryder, however, is an explorer first and a fighter second. Their job is, to quote Star Trek, "seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before." Ryder picks up abilities that are necessary to survive and explore, not just kill their enemies.

And that's something I remind myself of when I create characters. Ryder is NOT Shepard, and should not be treated as such. And to remind myself of this fact, I utilize certain facets of the character creation and color schemes to create a "theme". Shepard's color scheme is black and red, with the N7 logo proudly displayed whenever possible. Ryder, however, is white and blue. I use the tattoos for Ryder, and a beard for Scott due to a lack of military regs on facial hair, to differentiate that they are civilians, not soldiers, and have a different mindset.

I also like the story, though I can definitely tell they were planning for more. The role as Pathfinder, some plot threads and the setup for the quarian ark, the story of Ellen Ryder...all of these are screaming "we were planning on DLC and a sequel, but due to the failure near launch, we're not doing that", leaving me screaming about the untapped potential.

For the things I don't enjoy, a couple of these things are my computer's issues, and the biggest one is a part of the game design. I have auditory glitches during conversations on the Tempest in some locations, (I'm looking at you, bridge!), and if I don't delete the autosaves after an hour or so, the game will crash due to a lack of memory, though again, these two are issues with my computer, one of which will be solved once I get an external hard drive.

No, what I really don't like is the exploration. I HATE open world games, and Andromeda is that in spades. That said, when I remind myself that the Andromeda Initiative is all about exploration and finding a new home for not only humanity, but all the Milky Way species, it becomes easier to stomach. That said, I spend the first...I'd say 20 minutes of my time on a planet driving to unlock the fast travel points so I can actually enjoy the missions.

I also don't like crafting, but I've found some easy ways to get what I want. First off, I pick up Financial Infrastructure 1 and 2 from the AVP terminal so I have a steady stream of money. Second, I get  Mining Operations, Hunting Parties, Special Forces and Lab Technicians in that order. And finally, instead of selling weapons and armor, I deconstruct anything I don't want in order to get their materials. That gives me what I need to build my gear, though Remnant and Heleus gear is still time consuming, since you don't get a steady stream of research points.

As for companions, they're not as good as the Shepard Trilogy companions, but we don't have three games to fall in love with these characters. Anyone playing Mass Effect 1 in 2007 might have found certain characters wooden or one note. I mean, fan favorite Urdnot Wrex was grumpy and confrontational in his debut game, and Liara was extremely wide eyed and naive in 1, far more socially awkward than I could ever be. But we grew to love them over time because we had the time to do so.

 All in all, I enjoy Andromeda. I'll be doing a full combat engine analysis, as well as one for the characters like I did for the Shepard trilogy. Look forward to that, and stay beautiful freaks!

Blog 10 Year Anniversary: Beginning Preparations

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

So I was going through my blog while I was on break at work last night, and I noticed that my first entry was on June 14, 2012. That means that it turns 10 years old soon.

So, while thinking about it, I decided to mark the occasion with an announcement; I'm going to spend the next several months giving a plot synopsis of the story I was working on when I started this; KOTOR Version 2.

KOTOR Version 2 was conceptualized before the SWTOR announcement, so the plot details were based on KOTOR 1, KOTOR 2 and the Tales of the Jedi comics. That means the "True Sith" Kreia was talking about was a surviving Pureblood Sith from the original Sith Empire, the ones that started the Great Hyperspace War. 

So, what should you expect? Well, starting in March and ending in June, there will be one entry per month as I try to remember what my plans were for the saga. It will start with KOTOR Version 2: Sith Triumvirate, a story with 3 unique characters that were created as agents of Revan. They fell under the advanced classes from KOTOR 2, and prepared Revan's Sith Empire for taking on the "True Sith", disappearing when Malak took over.

KOTOR Version 2 came from a what if concept; what if Revan's brain damage wasn't as bad? What if he remembered who he was up to the point just before meeting the True Sith?

This story followed the events of KOTOR 1 with minor variations, since Revan knew who he was, regaining memories with each Star Map he found. 

KOTOR Version 2: Vhae's Journey is the KOTOR 2 story, with a few changes as well. Vhae Pano was originally a male protagonist, though I'm changing Vhae to a woman this time, since I'm far more comfortable with writing a female protagonist. Also, both Brianna and Mical will be part of the crew.

Finally, KOTOR Version 2: Endgame will be the finality of the story. Vhae will follow Kreia's advice and seek out Revan, and she and Revan will gather their allies from all three previous stories to end the threat of the True Sith once and for all.

This is a big undertaking, since I need to re-read the plot synopsis of the two games, and the Tales of the Jedi comics, in order to remind myself of the details of these stories. I'll also need to prepare new notes in order to remember what the details of the non-game stories.

For now, look forward to these story plot synopses and stay beautiful freaks!