Finally caught up... stayed up half an hour longer than i planned in part to finish said catching up
I'll have general feedback and thoughts and whatnot tomorrow, but some thoughts that i put in my drafts while catching up:
Do we get Orthstirr from our farm in the new system?
Is there a reason we haven't started building the house/building part of our soulscape? (or is that not part of building out realm 1 anymore? i remember there being some back and forth on what exactly the 4 requirements for)
Have we tried alloying sword and aetgir? or one of those and gust?
Iirc, way back when blackhand first woke up, and we talked about the witch, blackhand said to just go kill her, so why is it now potentially nid or odreng for someone-possibly-halfdan to have done so?
Hopefully someone mentions this idea before i catch up but: is the water literal (the 'sparkfugue' as others have proposed, with halla forgetting to drink or eat for Days), or is this saying that there will be an odr "upkeep" for some things? (since it comes from a well, like water?)
This sounds like a hint to spar with him
(also just in general i think abjorn could use more fighting-screen time...something about one of his recent scenes had me wondering if he had...not nidheart, but whatever the term for a cultivation snarl leading up to a potential heart demon would be called in this system
oh right... i meant to give my feedback, whoops
Sorry about that, among other things i got...super into Bofuri and have blasted my way through the anime, the manga, and now most of the way through the ebook version XD
I'll try and remember any more specific feedback but the big things:
Favorite character: Hm. Aki and abjorn come to mind first... steinarr is very fun and interesting as a character
Shortlist of favorite/memorable scenes: The early 'walk on the ice' battle was very interesting, and set a tone for future combat. i think i partly prefer the lower biggaton level fights at the start in general, but it also serves as a good comparison of just how much more powerful everyone is now. Also the casual "...is that guy dead? did Stigr just kill a dude?" was very good for setting narrative tone and stakes.
The stalemate against the Knight during the raid was very fun and a good character moment.
the trip to the afterlife to rescue aki was very...ah shit whats the word... its in the same ballpark as 'thematic', positive connotations, can't think of the term atm i'm sleepy
And the big "thoughts on the system" bit...
-narratively: its a fascinating cultivation system, both the 'fake' one and the true norse one. very unique, but also feels very grounded in the culture, even if i can only go by vibes on that one since *i* know little about said culture and mythology and whatnot
Likewise, the little we've learned about other cultivation systems is great, and while the terminology occasionally is hard to keep straight, it again adds a lot of flavor
-mechanically: well. i love the premise of exploring and discovering a new cultivation system, but i think that while thats a major strength of this quest, its rather hamstrung by the fact that sometimes it feels like (at least from where i am) the "common" cultivation system is at least as opaque as the 'true'/hidden one. Things that seem to be pretty standard in universe, or uncommon but within the wheelhouse of, say, sten, often feel at least as mysterious as the minutia of Saga Establishment, especially once you add in the effects of people buying out of universe hints for the latter with reward dice, but either not doing so, or not knowing enough *to* do so, for the former. Narratively, it can (in the worst cases) make Halla feel less like a determined trailblazer setting out to forge and establish a new path and more like she's an isekai discovering One Trick That Doctors hate out of ignorance. The research dice/action system is... well, part of it is probably the overall "the training plans look like hell" issue, alongside "ah so. most people dont use dozens of tricks. we are Tricks Georg, and our training is rather fucked up looking as such". but also, like i said, it feels weird to have so much of the "braving the mines of the Enemy to unearth the true secrets of cultivation" research sit alongside much more...prosaic issues that seem like in universe they should be much simpler.
On a sort of half mechanics and half narrative issue. Between runes and the various training tools we've been picking up, and some similar things, it's starting to feel like there's tons of low investment power multipliers in the setting, but that they're not treated like that in setting. I have more thoughts on that but its late and my thoughts don't wish to be wrangled
Overall, really like this quest, not sure i could see myself getting invested in it as a *player* rather than a reader unless there was a general cleanup of the mechanics--theres a lot of cruft thats built up, and a number of things you've (understandably) had to tweak as the system saw actual use and ran into the actual events of the story, and i think its become something of a weight around your neck in producing an otherwise great story. I'll try and pin some more thoughts down...hopefully tomorrow, but i have several one shot ideas percolating in my brain that i want to get at least started before i forget them
For now, i'll leave you all with my calling card of a diffchecker
Norse Char Sheet 23/07/10 to 23/07/18 - [QUOTE="Imperial Fister, post: 26776304, member: 50146"] [Halla Skyfire] Endurance: (13/13) | Frenzy
www.diffchecker.com
(also, one thing i noticed making that...when did we go from 18 to 37 odr for the hearthroot...did i miss something?)
