Todpole

Male / Irish / Isn't afraid to like cute things

[todpolle]

Todpole reviews Archive menu

Just doing a little revamp on my review list. Think I ran out of room for links so I’m dividing them into sperate lists based on genre.

I also have a Steam group for Steam Games I played as well as a side blog dedicated for free games

Todpole Reviews Steam Group:https://store.steampowered.com/curator/31188612-Todpole-Reviews/

Todpole’s Free Highlights: https://todpolefreehiglights.tumblr.com/post/618474131924697088/list-of-recommendations

Platformers: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/todpolle/686788423945715712?source=share

Shooters: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/todpolle/686788276532772864?source=share

Role-Playing Games: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/todpolle/686788191576113152?source=share

Puzzle: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/todpolle/686788130840412160?source=share

Beat-em Ups: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/todpolle/686788033548255232?source=share

Adventure: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/todpolle/686787881381068800?source=share

Others: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/todpolle/686787786896982016?source=share

[todpolle]

Just watched the TADC finale. For anyone who hasn't watched it yet, it sticks the landing. Not sure where it be on my ranking but it's definitely top 3.

[greenyvertekins]

I’m that Amy in Sonic Movie 4 will be yet another unlikeable, spotlight stealing girlboss because Hollywood.

Prove this wrong Paramount. Don’t have a lot of faith but it’ll be nice if you defy it.

[todpolle]

I wouldn't mind Amy being a girl boss as long as they keep her crush on Sonic.

[todpolle]

After some thought, I think episode 5 of TADC might be my least favourite so far, especially after episode 6 and the reason is very simple: it's Ragatha’s main episode and it gets hijacked by Jax. I mean did we really need Ribbits door at the end of the Intermission. Or the 3 shorts in the beginning that mostly focused on him.

[todpolle]

I want to expand on this a bit cause while the central problem is the same, there's a bit more to it. Let's start with the topic of "Jax Favouritism".

Honestly, this is the only episode that is negativity affected by Jax favouritism. Episodes 1 and 2 aren't really focused on him. He's barely in 3. He shares a B plot with Ragatha about them 'losing their masks' in 4. 6 is all about Jax and in 7, while everyone else is on the same page about leaving, he's the only one who rather stay in the digital hell than go home.

Episode 5 however spends the entire first act on Jax's antics and his interactions with Pomni. Meanwhile Ragatha is doing...nothing. She barely did anything in this episode compared to anyone else. So when Jax goes off about her being too nice, it feels a bit flat.

Another side effect of this is that when Ragatha finally does something ( her little fumble with Jax having no friends) she accidentally becomes the antagonist. This is not supported by the rest of the episode with Jax trying to weasel a friendship with Pomni to spite Ragatha and blowing up at Jax after Pomni gave her some bad advice. But due to spending so much time with Jax the audience is more likely to side with him. Its no wonder she was an easy target for bashing.

The structure of the episode might have also favored Jax a bit too much since it's primary a skit episode and a character like him is going to trive in that environment with his Loony Tunes antics. Though I can see an episode where Ragatha tries to be a supportive friend but starts feeling worried when Jax starts bonding with Pomni which mirrors Caines B plot if him being worried the cast prefer the suggestion box than his ideas(which was written well).

So yeah, Untitled maybe the funniest episode, but some poor writing decisions screwed over the character that should have been the focus.

[todpolle]

Faery-Legends of Avalon Review

Do you know what’s worse than playing a bad game? Play a game that feels like it might be a guilty pleasure and then ends it so badly the it leaves a sour taste that drips all over the whole experience. This is one of those times again. I don’t know what behind scenes drama was going on but it was pretty dreadful

Story:

There isn’t really much to say. Your custom character wakes up and the faery king wants you to help solve the issues of some of the worlds. Pretty simple stuff. Characters are one note but likeable, and the individual world plots do have some structure like trying to find what’s wrong with a tree, taking out each possible cause until you find the root of the issue.

And then the ending happened. There are several reviews saying how it ends in on a cliffhanger but I wasn’t going to hold that against it... till I saw it myself and it wasn’t even a cliffhanger. It looked like we were going to a final boss or dungeon, but instead we get a small confrontation and a choice which does nothing. Like we’re asked to save like it’s leading somewhere but it doesn’t.

Word of advice: Even if it’s just a chapter of a larger story or are sitting up a cliffhanger to the next installant, your ending still matters.

Gamplay:

Okay, now lets to stuff I liked. First is the flying. If you’re playing on a laptop keyboard, you not going to have a smooth time so I recommend mouse only. The difference was night and day with me stopping and going trying to move with keyboard only. But the mouse...Woah was flying around a blast with how smooth in turning was. Plus the worlds and dungeons are so small that the freedom of movement isn’t overwhelming.

Quests are split into two types, fetch quest or combat witch some letting you pick either option, like finding fish to feed a Seagull as a distraction or beat him up so he’ll leave. Fetch quest are what you might expect, just go around the area looking for the items or NPC required for the quest. So lets take this time to talk about dialogue. It’s sort of similar to something like Mass Effect with it’s layout and it’s moral choice system which does nothing but lock out super moves for your party if they don’t like you. Only real time this bug me was the cute pirate lady not liking me cause I was nice to her.

It think it was only one time one of these quests bugged out on me and that was one of the last ones where you have to find an old lady’s husband. And even after talking to everyone, I couldn’t get the dialogue option to appear until I followed a certain set of steps.

As for Combat, its as basic as basic can be. Everyone gets at most three turns and the only cost is how many moves you can do. Only thing to be aware of with fighting enemy weaknesses, either magical or physical, which the starting dungeon does teach you, and that you MC is the only one you need to worry about with equipment and skills you learn.

Equipment is simple enough to find. Find treasure chests or do quests or talk to everyone at the end of a world. And if you complete a set you get a bonus like more damage or defence. As for new skills, as you level up you get the option for permanent add-ons like wings or a trail for a single element spell or tattoos for certain boosts. But you can only pick one so you need to think what suits your playstyle the most.

Presentation

At the surface, it seems to be the brown filter like the PS3 era. But then you hear the mischievous music and it helps turns the drape and dark colours into natural and whimsical. I also like the character models like the goofy old men like Grimm or the freakish looking dyrad. It is hard to remember to how small you are though until you’re fighting bugs or ghost pirates

I do have one glaring issue with the presentation and that is the voice acting. Or rather, the lack of it. Aside from the music the opening section is eerily quiet, it’s almost unsettling. This could be fixed with some gibberish like in Banjo-Kazooie.

Verdict:

I enjoyed my time with this game but that was an awful “Cliffhanger”

5/10

[todpolle]

I might make a a quick thought of Hazbin Hotel season 2 after a rematch since its one of those shows that's better after a second viewing.

But for now I'll just say despite his small role in the story, I was hoping Abel would stand up to Lute and say no to the war crime she wanted to commit, and he did. I'm so proud of him.

[todpolle]

I know Alastor was an ass, but man, that flashback really shows how much of hypocrite he is. Say what you will about Vox since he's no saint, but at least he knows his weaknesses and works with other to cover them. While Alastor openly mocks him for it despite owning all his power to Rosie.

Honestly, the whole thing made me think Vox might get redeemed while trying to save the Vees in some way.

[burntoutautistic]

The contrast behind “Gravity” and “Sera’s Confession” is honestly so intriguing to me.

Because Sera is just like, “I can’t believe I killed so many people, and I feel even more guilty now that I know so many could be saved. I have so much blood on my hands!”

And Lute is just like, “Fuck that, I’m going to kill even more now.”

[mingot-studios]

are anti putting down hazbin hotel to build up haunted hotel yet?

[todpolle]

If they are, then those people aren't worth interacting for serious media discussion since those are completely different shows.

Ones a serialised musical about a rich girl trying to redeem people so they don't die in a genocide while the other is an episodic sitcom about a family living in a haunted hotel filled with ghosts and other creatures.

The only thing they have in common is that they are in a hotel.

[imababblekat]

Dance To Impress

@todpolle ,"TADC request: During an adventure in a bug kingdom Ragatha mets a cute NPC girl like a bee or something and Pomni tries to be a wingman for her. But Ragatha is afraid of messing up which leads to awkward comedy."

A/N: *squints at Ragatha as she hits up the Candy Kingdom Princess and chooses softball as an adventure* I know what you are!

~xXx~

Ragatha wasn't sure what was worse. The fact that Caine decided to throw the lot into a bug themed adventure, her developing a quick crush for one of the npc's, or actually being convinced to try and ask them out.

"I-I don't know, Pomni. It's been a while since I've done that. Maybe we could try something else?", Ragatha nervously suggested, her jester friend standing beside her with a hopeful smile.

"We could, but Kinger said bee's communicate through dance. Plus, Jax isn't here so now is a better time then when he is."

A shiver ran through the rag doll, a soft hand running down her face.

"Yeah, he's probably off trying to find a giant centipede to freak me out."

Pomni only gave her a lop sided smile, and gestured back to the npc of interest.

"Let's not think about that right now. Instead, think about how you're about to get a cute persons number. . .oh, and paying me back for telling Gangle I was flirting during our shift at Spudsys."

Ragatha covered her face, hazy memories of her on the stupid sauce and the uncharacteristic things she said and did coming back to mind.

"Again, I'm so so sorry! I didn't mean that, you know that right, Pomni?"

Pomni only chuckled, a slight mischievous smile to her.

"I know, I'm just messing with you. Now get going! Just like we rehearsed!"

Ragatha stumbled forward from Pomni's shove, nervously walking over to the npc who had quickly caught her attention. They were some sort of anthropomorphic bee, tall, beautiful, and standing with an air of pride. It had Ragatha's heart racing, seeing them casually examine their nails, cute antenna's twitching about.

"U-uhm, excuse me. . ."

Piercing eyes exuding indifference focused on Ragatha, and she deeply gulped. The poor doll was met only with silence, the bee staring at her, waiting. Peering over her shoulder, Ragatha looked back panicked towards Pomni. The other girl only gave her two thumbs up, a supportive smile to cheer on her friend.

"Well . . .here goes nothing.", Ragatha muttered out tensely.

Picking up her dress so that it wasn't fully in the way, Ragatha began to line dance.

Face hotter than a boiling swimming pool in the summer heat, Ragatha did everything she could to solely keep her mind on her foot work.

"Step right to side, cross left behind right, step right to side, touch left heel diagonally forward (clap). Step left to side, cross right behind left, step left to side, touch right heel diagonally forward (clap)", she reiterated in her mind, a country song she'd often heard at school dances or neighborhood cook outs replaying from memory.

By the time she finished, Ragatha was out of breath, taking a bow before the stunned bee npc. She could only look at the ground terrified of the npc's reaction to follow, and looked under back to Pomni.

Pomni stood back, a tight hand held over her mouth to keep from laughing, but still gave Ragatha a thumbs up. The doll only sent her friend a small glare, when a light tap to her shoulder had her nearly jumping out of her avatars skin.

"Ah! S-sorry!", she quickly apologized as the bee looked to her with. . .horror?

Oh no.

Pomni could see the situation clear from where she was, and even she felt a pit drop in her stomach at the bee's expression. Internally, she immediatley felt bad for Ragatha, and was about to make her way over to help when something the Bee said caught them both off guard.

"I'm so sorry, you must feel awful having lost your grandma that way!"

A moment of silence passed, Pomni and Ragatha exchanging utterly confused gazes, before simultaneously speaking.

"What?"

~xXx~

[todpolle]

Tadc episode 7 prediction

A plot is Pomni and friends not only enjoying the beach but having fun around the rest of the grounds like the carnival.

B plot is Jax is alone with Caine......

[todpolle]

My (Current) TADC shipping tierlist

Saw a tumblr using this Tier list(Create a TADC Shipping(up to Episode 5) tierlist) and wanted to use it.

Only change I'll is I should have moved the Pomni X Gangle X Zooble ship up a tier.

As for missing ships, Caine X Sun and Caine X Sun X Moon will share a tier with Caine X Moon. And Ragatha and Gloink Queen would be Tier 2 with most of the other Ragatha ships

[ignocubo]

like jax all you want but just block me now if you're one of those fans who claims that "he does nothing wrong!!!" and "all his bad actions are okay because it's a coping method!!". i genuinely have no tolerance for people who try to excuse the flawed/wrong things a character does just because of their lore.

[todpolle]

After some thought, I think episode 5 of TADC might be my least favourite so far, especially after episode 6 and the reason is very simple: it's Ragatha’s main episode and it gets hijacked by Jax. I mean did we really need Ribbits door at the end of the Intermission. Or the 3 shorts in the beginning that mostly focused on him.

[todpolle]

My idea for a TADC/Fallout AU

Had an idea for another Digital Circus AU. This time a Fallout AU with the cast being humans. The general premise is that six or seven vault dwellers wake up from some sort of VR thing but they have forgotten their names. The head technician, Kinger, assumes it must be a side effect from the VR experiment they’ve been subjected too and they’ve been released due to the experiment no longer being feasible. Or it would be if it wasn’t for the other people still in the VR sim. Kinger appears to be unable to release everyone and can’t get in contact with the AI looking after them, Caine, so the party leave the vault and get the codes to save the others.

Now I’m not a Fallout expert(I only have New Vegas and I’ve only explored the starting town), but I have seen a few videos on the subject. I imagine the location to be near a theme park like a rip-off Disney Land or the carnival area from Kirby: The Forgotten Land and the safest path to get their is by following the AI in their pitboys and the robot named Bubble and whenever they leave the path, they get attacked by the true horrors of the wasteland.

Of course this is mostly an illusion. As Caine has gone bored with using VR to entertain his subjects and wants to move to a bigger canvas, i.e. reality. As well as using Syths as his NPCs, and captured wildlife for more “Structured” Battle encounters like instead of the angel it’s a deathclaw, he’s found and been using some kind of defense system to keep “invaders” and had been experimenting with some drugs to restore limbs and bring people back the dead, which seems too good to be true. Which it is cause overdosing on these drugs can turn people into horrible mutants, which will be how Abstraction enters the AU.

As for the circus cast, they could not remember their names and the cast won’t how history with each other since they just met, but find new names as they explore the wastes like Zooble getting their name after a quest saving some locals and name them after a “Hero” from their “History”, or Jax being short for jackass.

I also think instead of factions, the relationship to the cast will be what matters most in this AU since they have different thoughts on what they should do like Ragatha wants to settle down and make sure the park is safe for everyone. Zooble is primary focused on the group and doesn’t care about the NPCs. Gangle and Kinger are mostly fine with most decisions as long as Gangle feels safe and you’re making progress in saving the vault. And Jax would be the player to blow up the bomb in Megaton and then kill everyone in Tenpenny Tower while they watch the fireworks.

Not to mention their own questlines like Gangle wanting to pick up drawing again so we look for art supplies or finding an old but still functional tattoo parlor with Zooble and you just talk as they give you a tattoo. Or finding Ragatha’s old home and she wants to burn it down so she can get some closure on that part of her life, plus a scene where you get confronted by her ghoulifed mother and Ragatha just shoots her while thinking she wasn’t a ghoul....Yes it’s a Simpsons joke

There can also be characters from other Glitch productions like the crew from the Gaslight District could be a group of ghouls and a supermutant hanging out in a bar in the middle of nowhere, or there’s another vault in the area that’s populated with robots that made their own society.

Also, I think money can be used in a clever way. In the park and several settlements, they can buy and sell things to the party with Wacky Fun Bucks. You know, fake currency. But some traders like travellers who sneak in don’t accept the Fun back and only take caps or NCR dollars. This can be a bit of world building to tell which settlements or traders are either Real or controlled by Caine.

And of course there’s abstractions. I don’t fully know how to implement them in the AU but one idea is that Caine doesn’t want the party to die, so before he set them free, he tested several drug to revive and/or restore the party even from death. But of course, there some side effects like paranoia, hallucations, and turning into a mutated monster like one of the Joy mutants from Lisa the Painful.

I think thats most of my ideas for a Fallout AU for TADC. If you want to use this for your own AU or share your ideas go right ahead. I just wanted to get my idea out there.

[todpolle]

Someone has got to make an anematic or something with Ragatha to this song.

[todpolle]

Had a thought of a TADC AU. It's one of those DnD AU only it focus on the players normals lives.

It starts looking for a group to play DnD with and finds the group involving a our circus gang with Caine and his plush toy Bubble as DM. The gang don't really like playing with him since he has an awful habit of changing the rules on the spot if things get boring and never listen if the party has a problem, but he's the only DM they could find who would let them play which includes Jax who should be kicked out for bullying the group. So Pomni decides to learn how to DM so her new friends can play properly and in peace.