#nonsims asks

rip

OOOH, HELLO NONNY!!!!! Welcome back!!!! And no need to apologize about being busy. Life gets in the way sometimes. 💖

My favorite video game of all time would have to be Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous. The first time I played it, I finished it (100+ hours first save) in just over a month. And then at the end of the year, I played it again. So I played it twice, for a total of 226.5 hours, in one year. (Also, between my two playthroughs, I played the first Pathfinder game, Kingmaker, which took 104 hours, so I played 330.5 hours of the PF games just during 2024.)

As for why I love the game so much, well, there are many reasons. I could be here for HOURS. But I'll try to boil to down as best I can.

First off, it's turn-based (or at least has the option to be. If you prefer real-time-with-pause, that's technically the default setting). I'm obsessed with turn-based combat, and really struggle to enjoy playing anything else. (I'm slogging through Dragon Age: Origins right now, and even though I adore the story and characters, the combat is a pain.) WotR's turn-based system works really well and is very engaging.

Secondly, it's based off of the Pathfinder 1st Edition ttrpg ruleset, which in turn used D&D 3e (or was it 3.5e??) as it's inspiration. So knowing how D&D works is at least a tiny bit helpful (though a couple of my friends would argue it's not that helpful, ahahaha).

Thirdly, there's SO MANY OPTIONS!!!! 20-something character classes in the basegame, all with at least 3-4 subclasses, plus there's a couple of DLC that add even more subclasses, and one that adds a whole new class. Also literally HUNDREDS of spells and feats. I'm big on making character builds, and this game is a build-maker's paradise.

Okay, but what really makes the game interesting is the story, and more importantly the mythic paths.

The story is that a few hundred(?) years ago, a hole was torn in the border between the material plane (Golarion) and the Abyss, home of demons. Called the Worldwound, it was created by a witch named Areelu Vorlesh. Since then, demons have been able to freely enter Golarion and wreak havoc on the world. An entire nation (Sarkoris) was destroyed, since the Worldwound was opened at its heart.

A demon lord attacks a major city during a festival, opening a great rift in the ground and causing chaos. Your character falls down, and escapes. In trying to help save the city from demons, they discover some... intriguing powers, and end up being named Knight Commander, leader of the 5th Crusade, meant to heal the Worldwound and end the demon presence on Golarion forever.

Now, about those powers. They're called Mythic Paths, and there's 10 of them. 6 that are available from early on (if you've discovered them), and 4 more that are only available late-game. They allow your character to unlock epic powers, as well as undergoing some interesting physical transformations.

It's genuinely one of the most interesting video game mechanics I've ever seen, and it makes the game much more interesting, as well as giving it massive amounts of replay value. Every mythic path has its own unique quests and characters, as well as unlocking unique dialogue options and choices. Each mythic path also has its own alignment restrictions, which also can shape what choices you make, as there are dialogue choices that can slowly shift your alignment over time.

Since there's 10 mythic paths, and several of them have multiple different potential endings to their unique quests, the game is worth playing many times to get a full sampling of what it has to offer. (Like I said, I've played it twice already, and I have an entire spreadsheet of future playthroughs I want to do.)

Also the characters are interesting! The "BBEG", Areelu, is hands down my favorite video game antagonist of all time. I'm so obsessed with her it's unreal. In my next playthrough, I'm planning on going for the secret ending, which involves her. There's also the 12 companions, all of whom are quite fun! My personal favorites are Ember, Arueshalae, Woljif, and Daeran. (Honestly, Regill too.) There's also a couple of hidden companions, plus some path-specific ones, plus one from a DLC.

hello! Thanks for the ask!

15. Do you have any houseplants? Do any of them have names?

Unfortunately, I don't have any myself. My mom has a couple, though the cats try their best to eat them if at all possible. (Don't worry. She's very careful never to bring home anything toxic to cats for that reason.) I used to have 4 lovely little cacti/succulents that I bought at the Sonoran Desert Museum in Arizona and brought home on the plane in a little cardboard carton. But like, 5 years ago, the cats (my dad's cats now) knocked over the pot in the middle of the night. Shockingly, it didn't break, and me and my dad spent like 15 minutes putting them back in place. Then I went to school and came back and my mom had thrown them out without waiting to see if they could recover. (I'm still salty about it, ngl.) They didn't have names, but one of them was an Old Man Cactus, and another one was a fishhook cactus. (there was also a barrel cactus and a aloe-adjacent plant.)

17. What’s the last thing you ordered online?

Hi nonny! Thanks for the ask!

📝 Fave quote

I have a lot of favorite quotes, which I love for a lot of different reasons. But I have a soft spot for this one from A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. (This quote came up and punched me in the face so hard the world started spinning.) Another top contender is: "First we only want to be seen, but once we're seen, that not enough anymore. After that we want to be remembered." from Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. (Truly one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read.) I also have a very, very, very deep soft spot for Doctor Who, and there's a lot of quotes from that show that have stuck with me in the past 10+ years of me loving that show. But there's too many to list.

🎁 Best gift you ever received and why

Oh man. Suddenly I'm blanking on every gift I've ever been given. Am I allowed to say getting a DM out of the blue from someone I'd never really talked to on tumblr asking if I wanted to join their dnd group? Because that landed me (eventually) 4 friends (including one of my best friends in the entire fucking world), a dnd group (with some of the most fun party dynamics I've ever played in), a trip to a renaissance festival, and also a critical role live show. If we're sticking with items, then idk. I've gotten some lovely art prints as gifts, a lot of dice (my karlach-inspired ones from my one nerdy cousin are my faves), and a very cool dice box, but I asked for all of those, so idk if they count. If we're talking about things that I got given without asking for them, then it's probably going to be something my sister got me. Maybe my tiny sword she got in Spain a couple summers ago? I just think it's fun to own a tiny sword. (someday I will own a full-size sword...) The shirt I'm wearing right now, which was a gift from my mom, is also up there. (Pics of both of those things under the cut.)