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Who dat? In da smoke, who is dat? Oh…

I’ve been playing this game A Ghost of a Tale on Steam, and it’s pretty rad. I actually got it quite a while ago when it was in early access, but now it’s officially released, and, boy, it hits all the right nostalgia notes for an earnest anthropomorphic medieval adventure. The game was almost entirely created by one person, Lionel Gallat, a DreamWorks animator. It’s also an artistically beautiful looking game, but, being a one person production, it’s got some jank. I’ve fallen through the ground at least once, and the game has crashed on me three separate times. It’s still kind of hard to not recommend to any stealth/adventure game fans, though, because it’s delightful, and I’m sure it will continue to received patches.

I’ve also played some Subnautica, which is a game I really want to love, except I mostly find myself aimlessly wandering around the ocean floor trying to figure what to do next. I may cave and just start watching youtube guides, but figuring out what to do next literally IS the point of the game, so maybe that would cheapen the experience. Then again, it’s crazy time consuming and frustrating, so maybe cheapening the experience a little isn’t such a bad idea…

Published on March 19, 2018 by Alex Kolesar

leavescat

Odds that Nataku assassinated Hirotomo’s wife?
- charles81
  
  Pretty good considering he was her bodyguard and has just commented on how he “intervened”.
  - animalia555
    
    If this is true I feel the ultimate karma would be for Hirotomo to find out and off Nataku himself. Having Nataku killed by the “monster” he created would be too poetic.
  - leavescat
    
    Better question: Odds that Eijiro figures it out?
    - clogboy
      
      He will, eventually, and maybe even learn from his mentor.
      That is, clear out the element that’s not in line with how he envisions the clan. AKA his mentor. I figure him for a backstabber.
      
      Or, he’ll lure him into a trap where Nataku exposes himself.
    - animalia555
      
      Maybe he will share his revealation with the main cast once he is kidnapped? Oh, maybe he will go along willingly BECAUSE he’s starting to figure it out?
  - purplelibraryguy
    
    Apparently he too has no need for Bushido.
- SlugFiller
  
  Hasn’t this already been obvious since the flashback, like hundreds of pages ago?
- Hfar
  
  I’d bet money on it.
- Wanderer
  
  I thought it was more likely than not before. Now it’s almost certain.
  
  Also, impressed by Eijiro both having a heart and being smart enough to realize that troop losses do actually weaken the clan. It’s more brain power than anyone else (other than Atsumori) seems to be able to muster.
  - Nos Rin aka CTCO
    
    Ya, I really don’t get how less soldiers strengthens a clan. sigh.
Adam Latosiński

Not a single sound effect? What sorcery is this?
charles81

You feelin’ it Nine Finger?
You feelin’ the battle now?
- AGV
  
  Are you feeling it, Mr Crabs!
clogboy

I’m impressed! There might be hope for Eji yet.
animalia555

Be careful what you wish for Nataku, you just might get it.
- Ocean Burning.
  
  There you go, Nataku, just what you wanted! Yaaaay! 😁
KungFuKlobber

Delivery from Kenta Hut! Hold the Kadoosh.
Turul

Well, at least Nataku’s happy. That’s the important thing, right?… Or not.
foducool

“in soviet russia…”
- clogboy
  
  …Kadoosh plays YOU
clogboy

Ooo I want to try A ghost of a tale, it looks good.
I also greatly enjoyed Stories: The Path of Destinies (a PS+ freebie). It’s a fairy tale (animal kingdom) action RPG with the clever fox as its main character, except he has a Groundhog Day in a Choose your own Adventure setting. At the end of each level, you can choose which of two next levels to play based on a decision, at which point the game branches, and you’re directed to yet another way to fail (25 total) until you’ve gathered all the clues you need to succeed. It’s clever how the same environments can be reused to tell a different part of the story, depending on the path you chose.

Each story needs a good story teller, and all the spoken dialog is narrative like in Bastion. And the narrator is a talented bloke indeed. He really gives weight to the decisions, motivations and consequences.
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  Is that still available for ps+ I didn’t see Path of Destinies when I added this month’s games, although maybe I have to go the PS store to do that. I remember Kotaku writing about PoD a while back and liking the concept.
  - clogboy
    
    It’s not there anymore, and I’m sure I downloaded it for free (from PS+) and finished it between May 9 – May 13. Maybe it’s region exclusive or time limited. But I’m going out on a limb and say that it’s worth the $15, even if it can be beaten completely in between 5 and 20 hours (depending on how many scenarios you want to play). But then, once you know all the subplots it might fail to entertain, doesn’t mean you can’t have any more fun with the consequences.
Kid Chaos

“Let’s rock.” 😎
LordBolanderFace

“Really? Where is it?”
“Right here!”
“Where?”
“Here!”
“I don’t see it!”
“It’s me, you idiot!”
“Oh, my mistake. I thought you said BATTLE, not BABY.”
- Kid Chaos
  
  SAD! BABY! 😉
Hfar

I mean, what’s the worst Nataku could have done? It’s not like he’s killed a member of his clan before and blamed it on an enemy soldier, right? *cough*
Tim “Azur3flame” Eldred

Eijiro, growing a pair and starting to argue with his manipulative general. Nataku, becoming less and less subtle about his interference and machinations. Ken, ready for round 2 with a sword that can actually win in a fight. YASSSSSSSSS
- RickRussellTX
  
  Yeah, Ken’s looked like a fool in every encounter so far because… well he is a fool… but his fighting style was not appropriate to the situation.
  
  But finally, FINALLY, a situation that Ken is actually prepared for.
- clogboy
  
  “Ken, if you can stop Nataku here, I can end the war.”
  
  He’ll end up beaten, pummeled, within an inch of his life, and they’ll lose the village but gain Eji. Or any other combination of possible outcomes, depending on how long they want to keep this comic going, and how epic they want to make it.
  I mean, they can be close to the climax, but the good creators do love Shonen anime. :p Ofcourse they’d need to make filler material, introduce new side characters who’ll become main characters in their own filler arcs, do some background stories:
  – Genchu’s younger years under a wise teacher studying a forbidden sword form
  – the Izumi Ninja leader’s tragic loss that drove her to start the band of ninja (pl) in the first place.
  – the untroubled life of the previous Daisuke clan, and its corrupt leader who refused to play ball with Nataku because he finally decides to put his people first
  – a vampire arc that’s of no consequence to the story, because, well, vampires (pl). Duh.
  
  But that’s all speculation ofcourse. 😉
  - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
    
    Once the comic is finished, I’ll share all our various ideas that we eventually cut from the story because we didn’t want the it to take three lifetimes to tell.
    - Nos Rin aka CTCO
      
      Mind if I ask what you guys will do next after this story is finished? Been reading it a long time, and it’s just, sad to see a webcomic you’ve read since the early days of finding webcomics end.
      although one of my old webcomic guys is doing a new story, so that’s cool.
      - Paul McCubbrey
        
        I’m always excited for ends, because they make way for new beginnings. If David Willis had never finished It’s Walky!, there would be no Dumbing of Age. If Andrew Hussie had never finished Problem Sleuth, there would be no Homestuck. If Gigi D.G. had never finished hiimdaisy, there would be no Cucumber Quest. If Togashi Yoshihiro had never finished Yu Yu Hakusho, there would be no Hunter x Hunter. (The fact that he never seems to want to finish, or write, Hunter x Hunter notwithstanding.)
        
        I won’t be sad when this is over, I’ll be looking forward to what comes next. Even if I have to wait a while for it. Because it’s only fair that after creating something so wonderful, the authors can end it where they please and spend their time however they like. (In that order, Togashi.) But I don’t want to be sad, because if and when they do make something else, I want to be able to pick up where I left off and be happy.
      - Nos Rin aka CTCO
        
        Okay. I’ll finally ask. anytime I see the word Homestuck, it’s people praising it.
        I know I could just google it, but I’m interested on a perceptive of it, what exactly IS homestuck?
        And ya, now that, DDOFH is over, we have Star Power.
        and man, YuYuHakasho was good, maybe it could have, and probably should have, ended right before the “oh you’re part demon” bit, but ya, it was a good length.
        I think 50-100 is a good range of episodes for anime, but there are some good 12 episode ones and.
        
        hmmmm. ya true, I’m just curious to see what their next project is, but I hope this one doesn’t end too much sooner!
      - Paul McCubbrey
        
        Let me tell you about Homestuck.
        
        Basically it’s a postmodernist fantasy story with some sci-fi trappings and what I can only assume is a parody of both isekai (“trapped in another world”) and political thriller serving as the backdrop to a coming of age story about four kids learning things about themselves and figuring out how to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, nested within a trippy plot about time travel, alien conspiracies, and alternate universes that’s probably a metaphor for something.
      - Nos Rin aka CTCO
        
        fascinating, but is it any good or just really hyped?
      - Paul McCubbrey
        
        I think it’s good, but it certainly has its faults. It’s good if you’re interested in spectacle, convoluted plotting, and engaging characters, but if you want a story that makes sense the first time you read it I would recommend avoiding it like the plague.
      - Nos Rin aka CTCO
        
        so somehow without realizing it I came a cross homestuck.com from shencomix.com and. Uhm, hmmm. is it, supposed to srart off as a fake game of some kind with a John Egbert who has no arms and has just had his thirteenth birthday? cause it’s weird.
        
        eh, stories don’t have to make sense right away. like when people complained about unanswered questions in episode 7. dammit people you knew there would be an 8 and 9. be patient!
        some things are left unanswered until later for surprises.
        I mean I guess that’s sort of a different thing but, ya.
      - Paul McCubbrey
        
        Homestuck doesn’t really make sense later on so much as it builds a vibrant world out of self-consistent nonsense.
      - Nos Rin aka CTCO
        
        Hmmmmmmm.
Jonathan B

My current gaming focus is mostly divided between two games:

I started Fallout 4 over (again) due to a whole bunch of mod shuffling after my previous try became unplayable further in. I picked up a few items from the Creation Club, and so far my favorite is the pink power armor with sprinkles on it from Slocum Joe’s. I’ve got a mod companion wearing a suit of it because it makes it easier to see where she is at all times. 😉 I haven’t advanced past Concord on the storyline yet, mostly because wandering randomly and building my settlement are really the part I enjoy the most.

Secondly, I’ve become sadly addicted to Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes on mobile. Found a decent little guild, and overall I’m enjoying it. Biggest early mistake is spending all your early boosts to level up everyone simultaneously. Realistically, you’re mostly going to want one light and one dark team of 5 as your core, with others leveling based on their usefulness to Events or other special missions.They added Visas Marr from KOTOR2 in a recent patch, and I had to boost her up right away as she was my favorite companion.
- Arkone Axon
  
  Have you checked out Sim Settlements and the Rise of the Commonwealth expansion for it? It takes things up to a whole new level – specifically in regards to the settlement building. Making it both more complicated AND more automated (if you want). You can even appoint leaders to handle the building of the settlements, so you don’t have to bother.
- purplelibraryguy
  
  I’ve been mostly playing Stellaris lately. Conquering the galaxy, researching all the techs and like that. They just changed it so interstellar travel is all through hyperlanes, so you’ve got choke points, and they’ve beefed up the battle stations so you can build huge star fortresses with rafts of satellite defense thingies so they’re not a speed bump for even a medium serious fleet . . . but I haven’t been making them much because my philosophy is, a choke point is just something that will be superseded once I conquer the turf on the other side of it.
endplanets

1: Awesome
2: I don’ like Ken’s odds. Dude has not fared well in 1v1. The law of inverse ninja applied against him.
- Tim “Azur3flame” Eldred
  
  Up until recently, Ken was running on rage and a VERY large sword in miserable condition. Now he has a little more clarity, a little more focus, and a much more effective weapon. And he’s already been curbstomped once thanks to blind rage and pride. I doubt he’ll repeat that mistake. You don’t survive as a ronin by NOT learning from failures.
  - purplelibraryguy
    
    Mind you, lots of people don’t survive as a ronin.
Crestlinger

Ken has more motivation to win. If that blade breaks he had best fall upon the shards considering who owns it.
animalia555

Well asshole he may be but Nataku is right about ONE thing, “No plan survives contact with the enemy.”
- animalia555
  
  On EVERYTHING ELSE he said today, “he can stick his sword where the Rising Sun doesn’t sign.”
Alexis Casto

I love Subnautica, it’s a fun game, yet creepy lol.
Nos Rin aka CTCO

THE BATTLE IS COMING TO YOU!!!!
love it!
IDPounder

Gentlemen, just a small note – in panel 4, Nataku’s dialog should have the word ‘led’, not ‘lead’.
Nos Rin aka CTCO

I’d play subnautica if I didn’t have this fear of deep water. although if I can see it helps but still, uhg, the idea of a giant fish coming at me to eat me and not being able to get the heck away, no thanks.
PSadlon

Nataku’s logic only works if the survivors have the opportunity to cultivate further strength. Pyrrhic victories tand to be noted and smart enemies use them as an opportunity to further weaken you and you men are too busy trying to stay alive to cover your arse.
Insane Disciple

Hmm, more interesting choice of word, 9 finger Nataku
Frank Royce Harr

O.K., Eijiro’s learned a lesson.

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