Oak 🍂

with you...

Fanart of Champion Geeta about to smooch Elite four Rika from Pokemon while she opens her shirt up. Rika has a stupid lovestruck smile on her face because she's extremely gay.

I made this in new years, hi

Fanart of elite four Rika from Pokémon getting fanned by a phanphy because it's hot as fuck outside

Coping with the heatwave drawing Rika thirst traps

spent all night drawing rika

Think the way they handled Decker speaks to their confidence in this OT draft class? Might be more plug-n-play tackles in their draft range (Lomu/Miller) - that’s the only way this move makes sense to me

This is so awesome I wish crop rotation was real (amazing work! always love seeing the 🌱)

Games Briefing: The Winter Olympics primer, schedule and what to expect

You may have already found some good resources, but in case you’re interested, The Athletic is doing a free daily newsletter throughout the games, detailing the top events and storylines each day. This article is a good starting point:

www.nytimes.com/athletic/701...

At this point, it’s not surprising at all for a Supergiant game to be this detailed and polished, but I just have to stop and appreciate the craftsmanship

Aside from the core gameplay loop, H2 just has so much sauce, from the artstyle to the character designs, from the sound design and the dynamic OST, not to mention the excellent dialogue and voice acting

This is the rare game I could see myself 100%-ing, and maybe even getting into speedrunning at some point

Even with so many games waiting in my backlog, I keep opening up H2 because I just keep having ideas for new builds and strategies I haven’t tried. And with the Oath of the Unseen and Fates’ Whim, I don’t see that slowing down anytime soon

The sheer number of build options is genuinely insane. I didn’t think I’d play any game in 2025 more than Xenoblade XDE, but I’ve already cleared that with 150+ hours in H2, and the game still feels fresh and satisfying to play

With the addition of surface runs, arcana, familiars, new weapons, new Olympian boons, Selene, and more characters to meet during your runs, H2 feels even more dynamic and polished than H1 (which already has one of my favorite game loops)

Now that my gripes with the story are out of the way, let me talk about the actual gameplay, because I think H2 at its core is one of my favorite games ever

As I mentioned earlier, I absolutely love Melinoe, but I think the story could’ve been constructed in a way for the major plot events to be more interesting for her character

While I really enjoyed Melinoe’s self-esteem issues early on, they become less impactful as the game goes on. This is mainly because Melinoe is mostly concerned about how she is not strong enough, in the literal sense. Melinoe doesn’t have a lot of faults; she’s confident, capable, and strong-willed. And while I do think this makes her pretty cool, I also think it means she doesn’t have a whole lot to learn; I don’t think she develops all that much. Probably her most significant “issue” in the story was not being willing to grant Chronos any mercy. It takes Zagreus convincing her to let him try getting through to Chronos before they go for the more violent route. But while I do like Zagreus having a significant role in this story, getting Chronos to attempt redemption feels like mostly Zagreus’ doing, not Melinoe’s. Yes, Melinoe needs to defeat Chronos in battle several times to enable Zagreus, but I wish Zagreus’ willingness to put mercy first had resulted in a more significant character moment for Melinoe

I also feel like the need for the game to remain a roguelike after the events of the story is to the detriment of Melinoe’s character. In H1, some of Zagreus’ most interesting moments are after the main story, with how his relationship with Hades changes. But in H2, Melinoe never really gets a chance to look beyond her task at what her life will be. There are some good moments between her and Hecate, and between her and Chronos. But because Melinoe has been so locked in on her task for her entire life, I wish the game had explored more of what she decides to do when that task is finally complete

Though I will say I think they could’ve done more with this idea. Most of my issues with this game’s story are due to it getting somewhat weaker in its later stages (see alt text for spoiler talk)

I really enjoyed a lot of dialogue related to failure between Melinoe and Hecate; Moros and Nemesis have some interesting perspectives here as well

I resonated with Melinoe due to the pressure she puts on herself; and when she’d comment on her own failures, I felt responsible. I was really rooting for her to be able to succeed and finally get a chance to rest

While H2 finds the right moments to inject humor; the tone is overall more solemn. I really like the concept of the player’s failures being built into a character’s personality via the roguelike structure

While the gameplay loop is similar to Hades 1, Hades 2 absolutely feels like its own game. And that starts with the premise; while Zagreus’ journey had primarily an air of mischief and achieving personal goals, Melinoe’s mission has much higher stakes

Game #9 - Hades 2

The last game I played this year was also probably my favorite. When I first started Hades 2, I was worried it’d be “just” more Hades, but those fears quickly vanished

Bored Melinoe

sibling tomfoolery
(tho using magic like that is not hecate approved 😔)

Hades

Bredeson is such a Dan Campbell guy. Would be a perfect TE3 in Detroit (especially if they lean into 13 personnel)

The amount of detail and polish in this game reveals such a high level of care put into it. Getting to experience the work of extremely talented devs with a clear vision was truly special; this game was absolutely worth the wait

I’m also absolutely in love with Christopher Larkin’s soundtrack, especially the area themes. Bone Bottom and Choral Chambers are the two I keep coming back to. Imo the tone for the entire game revolves around these two tracks expertly establishing the melancholy desolation of Pharloom

I throughly enjoyed Silksong’s level of difficulty as well. Never felt like any challenge was unfair or overly grating. Imo the bosses were appropriately punishing to match the tone of Silksong’s world, and most were satisfying to overcome

This is probably a silly thing for me to even think about. I’d imagine this is a common phenomenon among sequels anyway, but it’s something I’ll keep in the back of my head as time goes on