I'd like to formally announce the release date for the sequel to There Will be Thousands, There Will be Hundreds. It releases July 20th of this year. Here is a synopsis: It has been twenty years since the lost royal Andiin of Fjell was killed in the mountains. The Wanderlacks, led by Sitter, have rebuilt themselves and are stronger than ever before. The unruly bandits have become champions of the people by freeing slaves and fomenting rebellion. Rumors say that soon, the king himself will be brought low. But one man loyal to the throne may be enough to thwart their plans. Aerligr Tape serves as the captain of a group known as the Sorgfari. At the king's behest, the Sorgfari hunt and administer justice to any who violate the sacred law of Fjell. There is no deed too foul, no act too vile, that Aerligr would not stain his hands with in defense of the kingdom. If the king commanded him, Aerligr would travel to the end of the world and back. When Aerligr is personally assigned to hunt and purge the Wanderlacks from the land, he sees it as his opportunity to finally earn the favor in the etes of the throne. But Aerligr is not privy to the secrets of many would be allies who surround him, nor is he aware of the cunning prowess of Sitter and her Wanderlacks. To succeed in his task will demand the best of him--his skill with a blade, his ability to peer into the souls of others, and his great physical strength. Even then, he will find his faith in his gods, the Four, pushed to the very limit. In the end, he will be forced to ask himself one crucial question: If the price of the kingdom's prosperity is his own soul, is that a price he is willing to pay?

I've found this is the case with most remakes. KH enemy design in the final mixes is noticeably worse than the originals. The first armor boss is a good example. TWEWY Final Remix has terrible music choices during dramatic scenes, whereas the original had great atmospheric music for moments that required it. FFX removed a lot of the facial animations and nuance to their character models. The ports of KOTOR 1 and 2 that Aspyr did changed several textures for seemingly no reason. Dark Souls remake ruined its art direction. I have come to believe a lot of this is executive interference, to justify the expense that a remake/remaster requires.

Never. Not only do I not trust LLMs to be consistent, there's no way I'd upload an entire unpublished book to a third-party program that would have whatever access to the material they want.

I don't like this opening, or the song, at all

Final Fantasy no es lo que es gracias a su tipo de combate. Final Fantasy es lo que es gracias a sus historias y sus personajes.

Figured out why Kingdom Hearts 3 looks so poor to me, as compared to previous titles, despite the higher quality models and animations. Its the camera work. The camera is completely sterile in KH3, as compared to KH2, KH1, or even DDD. There is no scene direction.

Was gonna throw this on the TBR next month but I can get the audiobook through the library, which is quite short, and I need something to listen to at work today. Can probably finish it today, or get most of the way Currently reading - There Will Be Thousands by Alexander Rob

54. There Will Be Thousands by Alexander Rob A unique, thought-provoking, and layered book. Great character work and interesting themes, and quite the doozy of an ending that adds a lot of complexity to the story and themes 9/10 goodreads.com/review/show/77…

TP’s story is better than OoT’s btw

You actually see this a lot in traditionally published novels as well. Many of the old guard hem and haw at the detours Sanderson takes in his Stormlight Archive books, or some of the sillier elements in Harry Potter (S.P.E.W.), for an example, but these detours are what make the games feel alive and grander than they are. Not everything in a game/book/movie needs to advance the plot or a character, but, every decision made must feel meaningful, even if the player/reader/audience may not understand it.

Morrowind isn't open world because you can't just go everywhere at the beginning of the game without obtaining the right things

@KellyUlleanne indulges in some method acting for her work in Land of the Ill Imagined, by @TheStarwald. She was excellent to work with. Land of the Ill Imagined will release around June 30th.

For anyone who may be interested, here is an update on my books and other projects: Current projects: There Will be Hundreds: Completed, release date July 20th. Land of the Ill-Imagined 2: Final edits. Release date: November Land of the Ill-Imagined Audiobook: Post-production. Release date, June 30th. Future projects: The Town Atop Hell: Release date, projected January 2027 There Will be Dozens: Release date, Projected July 2027 Land of the Ill-Imagined 3: December 2027 The Deeps: Release date, 2032 (this is one I work on intermittently). There Will be Hundreds audiobook: TBD And here are some shapes I've doodled in an attempt to practice basic shading.

[Audiobook Trailer] Land of the Ill Imagined by Alexander Rob @TheStarwald Narrated by Son of Sonnet Featuring @KellyUlleanne Coming End of June, 2026 Synopsis Pyrus wakes atop a vast ocean, only to be told the impossible: he doesn't exist. He's a "thoughtling"-a character trapped in the Land of the Ill-Imagined, an endless purgatory where forgotten ideas and half-formed creations live a strange half-life. Forever on the cusp of creation, yet never able to be fully realized. Desperate for purpose, Pyrus joins the Censors, a secretive group of thoughtlings tasked with hunting down dangerous villains to maintain a fragile peace. But as fragmented memories of a life he shouldn't have begin to surface, Pyrus uncovers a darker truth about the world he inhabits. In a land where existence is a paradox, Pyrus must confront a shocking reality: not everything he's been told is true, and the line between hero and villain is far from clear. Text: amazon.com/Land-Ill-Imagined… Socials Alexander Rob x.com/TheStarwald instagram.com/authoralexande… tiktok.com/@alexander.rob.au… Kelly Ulleanne kellyulleanne.carrd.co/ Son of Sonnet sonofsonnet.com x.com/sonofsonnet instagram.com/sonofsonnetva/ youtube.com/@sonofsonnet Music: "Future Renaissance, by Godmode (YouTube Audio Library, No Attribution Required)

Bit of a long post, and only tangentially related to the OP: I was hired at a job this year by a friend who had bought a business, and the first week I was sicker than a dog. I could barely breathe, I couldn't even think. I still pulled myself into work at 6:30am because I knew how poor and unprofessional it is to call out your first week and I wanted to prove I was committed. My trainer (who was two weeks away from retirement) berated me those entire two days for not knowing how to do the job, and also for asking questions on how to do the job. I told my wife about it and she asked me if I should quit and I said no, I would just grin and bear it for two weeks, because the trainer was quitting after my training period, and my friend needed somebody to work the position and had been unable to find anyone prior. I had even backed out of the hiring process at one point when it was me and another candidate, and only worked the position because my friend called me and said the other candidate also dropped out. Anyway, my trainer told my boss he refused to work with me while I was sick. My boss told me to take the day off, so I did, and was subsequently fired for poor performance. A lot of you reading this will probably assume that I wasn't working hard during my training period, or that I am obfuscating details about my poor performance. Could I have done better? For sure, I definitely could have. You can always do better. However, none of my actions warranted firing. To contrast, at my prior position for a Solar Company (shout out to ION Solar), my first month there, my wife gave birth to our third child 2 months into the job. I was allowed a week off of full pay, despite my lack of seniority. Three days after my third child was born, my second (who was 2 years old) got pneumonia and was hospitalized. I had to be the one to stay with her since my wife was home with the baby. ION Solar let me take an additional week and half off. Friends and family would stay with my daughter for one hour in the evenings while I went to work and performed the bare minimum to keep my department running. I worked there for two years afterward and only left because they closed the market for the state I lived in, and I was unwilling to transfer out of state. They even brought me back for a time. A few lessons here: 1). The first week and month at a job are probably some of the most important of your career. It is tantamount that you make a good impression. Show up on time, be attentive, and learn quickly. 2). Even if you put everything out there and do your best, sometimes things don't work out. Sometimes people won't like you, sometimes you won't have the aptitude. It is better for both you and the business owner, once you realize either of these facts, to quit. That way, they won't waste time training someone who won't stick, and you won't spend time being miserable around work/people that you loathe. Try to secure a new job before quitting, and try to give notice (before you give notice, you will have to discern if when you give notice, they will actually retain you the full two weeks, or if they will just fire you). 3). Small businesses are sometimes more ruthless than large corporations. Larger corporations can afford to have people miss work, and missing days are factored into their budgets. Smaller businesses don't always do this. 4). Be wise when working with, or for, friends. I'm no longer on good terms with the man who offered me the job. I still struggle with bitterness for what he did, and I will never work for family friends again. The experience actually soured me on working for or with people from my church as well.

There is a divide in the fan base between people who see Zelda as a narrative, and people who only care about the mechanics of the game. The fans who only care about mechanics are the ones who say there is no difference between Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess, despite the fact they are radically different games. People who care about narrative are the ones who are dissatisfied with Botw and Totk, and by Aonuma's statement. The story in those games are barebones and the weakest in the entire franchise. Totk is an egregious offender in that it is one of the few Zeldas to be a direct sequel, yet it retcons massive portions of Botw. However, the mechanics of Totk are simply stunning. You can do things mechanically in Totk that cannot be replicated in any other game on the market. If you could edit terrain ala DK Bonanza/Minecraft, it would be the greatest sandbox ever made. I personally prefer narrative to mechanics. This is why Wind Waker being a "solved" game doesn't matter to me and to many other people who have been fans of Zelda for years. I don't care that I can build a spaceship on Totk, I care about why Ganon is back despite the previous game saying he had broken the cycle, and I care about Link and Zelda and their heroes journey. The combat and systems are an augment to the story and characters, rather than the reason I play the games. I also want to make the point that the systems present in Zelda games prior to Botw only hit a wall in the end game, before the second or final boss, at which point it is expected that the emotional weight of the story will take over and do the heavy lifting. Progressing through harder and harder dungeons using newly acquired items was intended to be a mirror for Link's character growth and advancement through the story. Games being "solved," is only an issue for people who put 500 hours into a title, which the majority of the populace does not. A single player narrative is intended to be played once, maybe twice, and then revisited from time to time, similar to a book.

One of the reasons I've never played Xenoblade 2 is because Rex's voice acting is so bad. I've seen clips and its like nails on a chalkboard for me. Nia is pretty great, though.

Square is wild for skipping the Xbox/Somy gamefest, and announcing Kingdom Hearts at a Nintendo Direct instead. I could not believe my eyes.

I am tentatively excited. This is one of my favorite games of all time. I have about 300 hours spread across the PSVita and PS5 ports.

Sometimes I like a post for the Community Note, rather than the post itself.