I'm rewatching Twin Peaks for the 3rd time now, this time with my mom who experiences this for the first time, and we just finished S2, and she had so many questions but seemed very excited and really into it, which makes me very excited! And I thought about many scenes as I've now rewatched 2/3 seasons again, and wanted to make a Top 5 personal favorite scenes from the show. Would love to hear your lists too! Obvious spoilers ahead, for all 3 seasons as well as Fire Walk With Me. (Also, sorry for a long post, haha! I just have a lot I want to say about stuff)
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5. Major Briggs and Bobby at the RR diner.

I for real teared up the first time I saw this. Being in my early 20s and very unsure on myself and what will become of me, this scene touched me so much. Seing Bobby, a character who started out as a douche but also clearly problems of his own, slowly growing, and here, paying full attention to his father as he basically tells Bobby that "everything is going to work out for you", and Bobby tearing up because of his new confidence in himself and his future...Man, it hits hard. It's so beautiful.
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4. Dougie-Coop and the Mitchum Brothers celebrating with pie.

This scene hit me. It's pure feel-good. In this show of so much dark, this scene made me smile from beginning to end. Seing that the Mitchum brothers are actually more goofy than we thought and truly have hearts of gold, Dougie enjoing everything he's served, everyone having the greatest time. And then...One of my favorite moments from the series. The jazzy, upbeat piano stops, and is replaced by this slow, beautiful piano piece in minor. Dougie looks up at the first few, solo tones, before looking over to the piano man. This touched something deep in me, and I have no idea what. It's like...The song is nostalgic, it reminds me of something far back in my memory, as well as for Cooper. Somewhere in there, deep within, our beloved Dale Cooper is still alive. It's like the sudden change to this sad, slow and dreamy piece is Cooper, and us, briefly remembering things that once were; the quiet town of Twin Peaks, Annie, Big Ed, Harry Truman, James, Audrey - everything. Something that is long gone...but still there, somewhere. I cannot describe it. Followed by the beautiful interaction with the casino lady. This scene stuck with me.
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3. The Fireman creating Laura Palmer.

Part 8 of S3/The Return is something....yeah, something. It's a masterpiece of pure emotion everywhere, from chaos, to confusion, to terror, to beauty beyond words. The whole scene with the Fireman seing Bob being created, and thus (apparently?) creating Laura Palmer is a scene that makes my jaw drop every time I see it. I'm actually afraid of seing it since I'm afraid I'll watch it too much, and I don't want it to lose its effect, haha! The music sounds like something from another realm. It sounds heavenly. The visuals in this scene, the music, what's actually happening, the black and white and gold - everything is pure perfection in my eyes.
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2. Philip Jefferies returns.

This is, imo, one of the most important scenes in all of Twin Peaks. Not just Fire Walk With Me, but the series as a whole. It introduces Judy, talks about living inside a dream, and introduces Philip himself. The whole scene is SO eerie, simply because something is very off. The music is a backwards track with scream-like samples inside, which clash so well with the lit up hallways. They don't match, which makes it so eerie. Dale walking from and to the monitor and the security camera is odd, and seing him standing there while Philip walks past him is super disturbing. Dale looks at Gordon in fear, as if he knew this would come, and that this isn't good news. The whole scene is so unnerving and off putting. The convenience store part in there is great, too.
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1. The final scene.

Yeah, I know, maybe it's clichè. But I'm not joking when I tell you this: I have never, ever, in my entire life, gotten as many chills as I got in this scene. I cannot describe it. Not from any concert, any show, any theatre, any movie, anything. It was in my entire body, from a mix of pure terror, shock, confusion, realisation - all at once. It's an experience I will never have again, I'm sure. The show that started out as a seemingly normal murder mystery in a small town, that ends up revealing so much more hiding underneath. A show that slowly challenges us on how we view shows, how we take in scenes and a story. A show that has, especially in the 3rd season, given me this nightmare-ish feeling that no other movie or series has ever given me. And here we are, in the last episode, not entirely sure what's going on, but something feels very wrong. It's quiet. For so long. So very long. Sarah isn't there anymore...something's not right. They walk down. Slowly. Takes it time. Before Dale asks, in the silent night ambience: "What year is this?". Here, I got an unnerving feeling I cannot describe in words. We get more breathing room. We hear Sarah calling her daughter's name in the distance, and suddenly, the silence we've been in for the last 20 or so minutes is broken by the most bone chilling scream ever being put on TV. And it echoes far into the darkness that follows. It's like Laura realised something far beyond what I can begin to imagine. A feeling of pure terror, of a pure nightmare. It's impossible to explain. I sat there, with chills from my pinky toe all the way up to my head. I have never experiences anything like it.

After finishing the dead money dlc and re-entering the Mojave wasteland I realized that the Sierra Madre casino ambience music replaced all normal background music. Stays inside or out, even in other dlc. Any ideas how to fix this? Other sound effects stay the same.

WARNING: Extremely Long Post.
Hello all! I just recently wrapped up a playthrough of the OT and though I’d share some thoughts. It’s the first time I’d played through in maybe 3-4 years so while I remembered a lot of it, a lot of it seemed fresh. I did a post earlier about Mass Effect 1 and 2, so I’ll focus mostly on ME3 in this writeup, with some stuff that applies to the whole trilogy (of course).
Playstyle

• I played a canon playthrough (i.e. not trying to “game” the reputation bars to get max, just choosing whatever I thought my Shep would do). I went almost full Paragon in the first game (Spacer background, basically the model of a modern major general). My Shep then got fed up with Council politics and made a Renegade turn at the very end, during the Battle of the Citadel, allowing the Council to die, and then punting on the decision for a new ambassador.
  
• Then, ME2, after dying, coming back, and finding out the Council was still ignoring the Reapers, he lost patience altogether. Did probably an 80-20 Renegade-Paragon runthrough. Obviously due to ME2’s rigid reputation requirements, there were quite a few less-than-ideal decisions I had to make. My RenShep chose to give Veetor to Cerberus, and to not tell Kal’Reegar to hang back, which led to his death. This, combined with a too-low reputation score, led to seeing Tali get exiled from her people. This, oddly, was my canon moment of turning my Renegade Shepard towards a more balanced version; he saw Tali get screwed by her own people, and yet still want to protect them. Shepard started to realize that his people were with the Alliance. He slowly turned against TIM, at the end refusing to give him the Collector Base data.
  
• I played ME3 as a Paragade – probably 65-35 Paragon-Renegade. He still doesn’t have time for bullshit – especially in the middle of a Reaper invasion – but he also recognizes that it’s not only the things we accomplish, but how we accomplish them, that matter.
  
• Class-wise, went Soldier (focus on sniping) in ME1. Then, I figured Cerberus rebuilt me with some powerful biotics, so went Adept in 2 and 3. In 3, I played a Sniper-Biotic, which isn't a particularly synergistic mechanical build but made sense in my mind canonically.
  

Decisions

• Cured the Genophage/Mordin died/Eva lived/Wrex leads the Krogan
• Chose Geth over Quarians (didn’t have enough of the prerequisite points since Tali got exiled and I rewrote the Heretics). Tali killed herself.
• Chose Javik first in the Javik-Liara spat, then sided with Liara.
• Didn’t allow Aria to kill the General. Didn’t get to kiss Aria. 
• Paragon’d out of Samara committing suicide.
• Made the shot with Garrus. (In my headcanon, my Shep is the best sniper in the Alliance).
• Told Liara to be honest about me in the time capsule.
• Told Blasto he was a big stupid jellyfish during Citadel.
• Beat Jacob at fighting during Citadel.
• Renegade-distracted Traynor’s opponent during Citadel.
• Lied for Grunt during Citadel. (heh heh heh).

Romance
Romanced Liara in ME1, Miranda in ME2, and then Miranda again in ME3. I was unsure of who I would romance in 3 so I kept things flirty with Liara, but after running into Miranda again on the Citadel, I knew what I had to do. Led to a nice little passive-aggressive jab from Liara once I “locked in” with Miranda.
Overall, while I was warned that the non-squad romances suffered lack of screentime, I was content with the Miranda romance. It made sense; the thing I love about Miranda is that she’s her own woman, she deals with her own shit, and she has a perfect understanding of the position Shepard is in (i.e. she’s not going to beg him to come solve some family shit while he’s saving the galaxy). This game was a perfect representation of that, and so I felt it made a lot of sense. And we got to see Miranda more than, say, Jacob.
Contrast this with Suvi in ME:A, who had less content than Miranda in ME3, but she was literally by your side the entire time in the ship. Made the relationship feel really thin, especially because Andromeda’s playtime was much longer than ME3.
DLC
This was the first time I’d done a playthrough with any of the DLC. Overall, I thought it was all very strong.

• From Ashes: The mission itself was nothing to write home about, but Javik is a GOAT squaddie. He adds so much to the game that I can’t believe I played it without him. They wrote a ton of Javik-specific dialogue in scenes that could have easily not been in there (thinking Thessia). I definitely see why people were pissed he was day-one DLC; he was very obviously written as part of the game.
  
• Leviathan: Very much enjoyed this. The whole mission gave me Mass Effect 1 vibes. “The darkness cannot be breached” had some serious Sovereign “Rudimentary creatures of flesh and bone” overtones. I liked the underwater aspect, which was something we hadn’t seen before in Mass Effect. I didn’t like how the lore here interacted with the lore of the Starchild/Catalyst, though.
  
• Omega: I liked this mission a lot. Having Aria as a squadmate was killer (literally). I loved the Nyreen character and wished they hadn’t killed her off in such a lame way; and in a way that didn’t seem to affect Aria much. I stopped Aria from killing the general and told her I wanted to keep her guessing as to what I thought of her; hence, no Aria kiss. Sort of wish Omega would have become a place I could visit afterwards.
  
• Citadel (mission): I’m going to be maybe a little controversial and say I didn’t enjoy the mission parts of this DLC. The enemies were incredibly hard to kill – I played on Hardcore, but I had literally every one of my skills maxed out except Pull (which I never used). And it took 2+ biotic explosions to kill enemies, not to mention their annoying-ass drones. The pistol was OP and I get that was the point, but I kept running out of ammo. Also, I HATED the Guardian equivalents, which were Armor instead of Health, meaning Singularity did nothing. Also, you want to bitch about Kai Leng’s plot armor? How about Clone Shepard and Brooks? I mean seriously? Every time I get him down to half-armor, his shields magically reappeared? At least with Leng they had the decency to put in a “recharge period.” I killed the clone, BTW, because fuck that guy. I did really like the squad banter and the fact that everyone came along, and I legit fist-pumped when Wrex showed up.
  
• Citadel (party): Now this, I loved. I even liked Shepard and Jacob’s interactions. Got more time with Miranda, went out to the casino with her, spent the night with her at the party. All the squadmate banter was awesome. “Shepard.” “Grunt.” “Shepard!” “Wrex.” “Sheeeeeepard.” “Grunt.” “Shepard Shepard Shepard.” “Wrex.” My favorites were definitely the Traynor game with the completely unnecessary but incredible Western-shootout-style quick-zooms, and the Grunt part. “I love you, Grunt.” “Heh. Heh. Heh.” The laugh SEALED it. ALSO. MORDIN SLEPT WITH FUCKING ARIA T’LOAK, WHICH WE LEARN ABOUT IN A SELF-PERFORMED NOIR RADIOPLAY. Incredible. Everything about this part of the DLC was fantastic.
  

Squad/Crew
Javik is GOAT, Garrus is GOAT. Liara is Liara. I like her a lot, but the game really forces her on you which I found annoying for the first time. EDI is fine and presents interesting philosophical ideas. James is boring. I enjoyed having Kaidan back but I would have liked it more if they hadn’t gone so over the top emotional, especially with the music. They make it seem like it was your best bud/possible lover, when really to my Shep he was an old squaddie who he got along with. Tali was only around for a few missions before…well…I don’t wanna talk about it.
Cortez was fine, I like his vibe, and he and James’ relationship made that character bearable. Joker is Joker. I really liked Traynor. They did a lot with her character in one game. I might romance her on my upcoming FemShep run. Engineering crew is solid as always, though Kenneth is creepy AF. And of course I had to stick with my old pal Dr. Chakwas.
I wish we’d had the option to bring in Legion as a squadmate for a mission or two. Overall it would’ve been cool to have squaddies be playable during certain missions a la Aria in Omega. Have Miranda on Horizon, Wrex on Tuchanka, Legion in the Geth dreadnaught, etc.
Definitely sad when Mordin and Thane died. I enjoyed Samara at the party. I didn’t have either of the two ME2 DLC squadmates (Kasumi or Zaeed).
Highlight Missions/Arcs

• Thessia: I actually think this might be my favorite mission. I know, I know, Kai Leng plot armor. But I thought it was a little less egregious here; he had a fucking gunship backing him up, as opposed to at the Citadel, where he was just hanging out and Shepard missed every time. I think I loved it even more because I brought Javik and Liara along. The interplay between them was fascinating, and it was awesome to see their reactions to the Prothean beacon reveal. The mission was fun, too. In their spat afterwards, I sided with Javik first, but then I realized just how much it was killing Liara, so I told him to back down, which he did.
  
• Tuchanka: Fun mission. The Thresher Maw was epic. Liked working with Wrex and Mordin again. Honestly I didn’t like it as much as Rannoch or Thessia, though, or even Horizon.
  
• Rannoch: I took an entire week break before playing the Rannoch arc because I KNEW I didn’t have enough points to make peace between them. And I KNEW that my Shepard thought the Quarians were stupid and reckless for starting this war in the middle of a Reaper invasion. But I also knew that Tali would kill herself if I chose Geth. So I avoided until I couldn’t anymore, powered through, and chose Geth. Legion and Tali both died. My favorite moment was in the mainframe: “Legion, that looks like the same sniper rifle you use.” (pregnant pause) “It is an efficient model.” Just that small moment made me really believe Legion had emotions, was truly becoming sentient. My Shep lost a lot on Rannoch, and the choice I made there made my pre-conceived idea of a “destroy” ending a whole hell of a lot more complicated.
  
• Horizon: I romanced Miranda, so that might’ve played into it, but I liked the vibe of the place. I liked that Cerberus was fighting the Reapers – there’s stuff going on we’re not directly involved in – and finding out just how deep Cerberus had gone into indoctrination. And Miranda killing her dad was such a perfect character moment for her.
  

Gameplay/Multiplayer
By far the strongest of the trilogy, and I would even put it above Andromeda. It’s fun, it’s fast, it can be tactical if you want it to be. A perfect combo of simplicity of choice and customizability of weapons and powers. They really nailed it.
Multiplayer is so much fun. I keep wanting to try new classes but just go back to Human Engineer. Combat Drone and Geth Plasma Shotgun all day every day.
The Ending
Here’s a confession: I do not, and have not, ever hated ME3’s ending, even before Extended Cut. I thought it made perfect sense that the cost of defeating the Reapers would be astronomical. People say it nullifies all of your decisions; I think it’s a study in how, in all our lives, some of the decisions we make are far more important and far-reaching than others. And in how sometimes we are faced with impossible choices that need to be made anyway.
I was incredibly torn about the ending. Previously I’d always chosen Destroy or Synthesis, but this time I had to really think about what my Shep would do. It was an almost impossible choice.

• Destroy would mean the Quarians and Legion died for nothing, and that EDI, who I had told was a sentient being like all of us, would die. OTOH, the whole mission had been to destroy the Reapers, and it was the only way to guarantee they’d be gone for good.
  
• Control meant becoming a part of the machine; I saw what that’d done to TIM and it gave me a lot of pause. OTOH, I had rewritten the Geth Heretics, and the Reaper code they’d gotten helped the Geth achieve sentience, so that proved that Reaper tech (under the right conditions) could be made useful. Plus, with the Leviathan DLC I knew they were created by organics and, like Geth, could be controlled.
  
• Synthesis seemed attractive, but also seemed like way too big of a choice to make for every race in the galaxy. I’d seen the dangers of Synthesis through Saren; would it truly be as utopian as this Starchild was making it out to be? Or is it another form of indoctrination?
  
• Finally, Refuse. I actually strongly considered this. It would mean that this cycle would be wiped out, of course; but with the information stored by Liara in the capsule, perhaps a future race would get a big jumpstart, and be able to defeat the Reapers through conventional means without having to trust a strange space entity’s three predetermined choices. After a bit, though, I decided that was as much, if not more, of a big decision than Synthesis.
  

So I was left with two options: Destroy and Control. Essentially, this left me with the exact two options I was left with during Legion’s loyalty mission at the end of ME2: Rewrite (control) or Destroy (destroy).
Even though I’d been thinking about it since I started the trilogy playthrough, I still sat there for a good 5 minutes contemplating. I even literally walked back and forth between the two. Eventually, though, I chose Destroy.
My thinking was this: essentially, I think Control would work out great for a while. The problem is, I understood where this Catalyst AI was coming from, to an extent. It had its own internal logic that was separated from the values of organics; it considered living on through Reapers to be just as valid as being allowed to live, period.
My Shep eventually decided that, if he could already understand – completely disagree with, mind you, but understand – the logic of the machines, how long would it take for him to come around to it? After all, in my playthrough, the Geth wiped out the Quarians. So the Catalyst was right in that sense, to my Shepard. (Of course there’s the issue of EDI, but still).
If Shepard, as the Catalyst says, loses himself in a sense – how long until all of him is lost?
It was a tough decision. Possibly Control could work out perfectly, the Geth and EDI are saved, the Reapers help to rebuild the galaxy. But something about it made me think the cycle would just repeat; maybe not in 50,000 years, but perhaps 50,000 years after that.
So I made the choice to end the cycle for good. This meant that EDI, who had just told me I was the reason she felt alive, would die; it also meant the Geth, who Legion had sacrificed himself for and who I had chosen to live over the Quarians, would die. This is the most depressing possible resolution of the Rannoch arc, and not one I would like to repeat ever again.
On the plus side, I had like 5400 EMS, so I got the “Shepard breathes” ending. Hooray, Shepard and Miranda get to be perfect physical specimens together! And the Catalyst did say things could be rebuilt; perhaps there’s a hope that there’s an EDI backup somewhere, or the Geth collective isn’t completely gone. That’s the hope I’ll hold on to at least.
Misc Thoughts

• I wish Cerberus played a smaller role in this game. I did have a thought – like, half the stuff Cerberus did could have been done by the Collectors. It would make sense (Cerberus is half as strong, which would fit instead of having them being a galactic force; and the Collectors wouldn’t be super powerful, since we destroyed their base).
  
• I know everyone hates Kai Leng. And yes, I absolutely hate him too. But from my POV, his detrimental presence in the game is greatly overstated. He really gets barely any screentime in the grand scheme of things. He shows up next to TIM, without a line, on Mars; then when Cerberus takes the Citadel; then on Thessia; and then the final battle. I would wager Miranda gets more screentime than Kai Leng, depending on how long the battles took. He’s annoying, and the plot armor aspect sucks, but I didn’t feel like the ENTIRE GAME was ruined by him.
  
• HOLY SHIT THE SOUND DESIGN WAS BAD. Just…OMG. So bad. Barely registered any gunshots; the music overpowered any SFX; the explosions were like, unhearable. I never recognize good sound design until I hear bad sound design. The sound design in Star Wars: Battlefront (the new one), for example, is incredible; in ME3, it was bad. (I do like the Biotic Explosion sound though).
  
• I’ve seen some people complain about the conversation wheel being a little light. I thought it was perfect. This isn’t a worldbuilding game like ME1. Shepard has to be efficient with what he asks – the galaxy is on the line. Plus, I can go into the Codex if I want exposition. And while the dialogue wheel went light, I felt I actually got more lines from my squad and crew than in previous. They had something new to say after almost every mission, as opposed to ME2 where Garrus was always calibrating.
  
• I also loved how they moved the crew around the ship. It made it feel more like a living space, and like the crew wasn’t just there all separately with Shepard, but were actually a crew. This is one thing I thought that Andromeda did very well off the bat.
  
• Again, the party section of the Citadel DLC…just incredible. So much character work. So many in-jokes. So. Much. Fun.
  

Overall
Overall, I think ME3 is my favorite of the trilogy. ME2 has better story and characters – by a little – and ME1 has a great ambience/feel, but the epic arcs of ME3, as well as the awesome gameplay and character interactions (especially in Citadel) put it over the top for me. This is even before considering Multiplayer, which I will most likely continue to play after my playthrough is done.
I was planning on trying FFXV next, or even picking up Andromeda for a NG+, but I’ve already started a Renegade FemShep ME1 run. Damn you OT…I just can’t quit you.

I apologize for the length of this post in advance.
TLDR image of just the tier list if you don't want to read

S: Madarame’s Museum

Visual Design – 11/10

The visuals of this palace had me profusely nutting, especially this shot at the halfway point. The paintings and art in general allowed for the most visual diversity of any palace, but they all held a cohesive theme. The art museum being the prettiest palace sounds like a given, and the design team really delivered on it.

Gameplay – 11/10

Diving under and jumping over lasers made this feel like an actual heist where you had to dodge security and stay hidden. The puzzles weren’t difficult, but difficulty shouldn’t be an issue on only the second dungeon of the game. What they did do, however, was really emphasize and mesh with the idea of distorting reality. Jumping into paintings and moving from one to the next with no real discernable dimensional physics and the M.C. Escher-like staircases and portals towards the end reinforce the idea that this isn’t the real world, and the rules that govern it don’t apply.

Music – 9/10

The entirety of P5’s soundtrack is amazing, and this song is no exception. The combination of traditional instruments with the heavy, steady drum beat marching you along through the halls of the museum create an ambience that is simultaneously relaxed and filled with tension. You can chill out, but you know you need to keep moving.

Boss Fight/Ruler – 10/10

The final battle of the museum was the first time I truly felt challenged by the game; I lost this fight about three or four times before I finally did it right. The puzzle of figuring out which parts had immunity to which types of damage and strategically figuring out when you could afford to let one of the parts heal from your aoe skills as well as dealing with the fact that one part can revive the others all coalesced into a challenging, but rewarding conclusion to an already solid palace. Madarame himself also serves as a nice transition from Bully Teacher treating students at one school like shit to villains whose influence have a larger sense of scale. Madarame doesn’t control the whole world, but his reputation in the art community was nothing to scoff at. It also felt nice to see him grovel once he had finally been defeated.

Overall Score – 41/40

A perfect level 2 from a gameplay perspective, visually stunning, and narratively thematic. Amazing palace.

A: Mementos Depths

Visual Design – 10/10

Personally, I’m a fan of the eldritch aura this palace had. It felt like true evil, and the branching-veins-all-connected-to-a-central-heart motif is one I really appreciate. Shots like this and this give you a sense of scale of just how deep this rabbit hole goes, have amazing color and contrast, and the arterial tendrils wrapping around everything look sick and feel menacing.

Gameplay – 7/10

Simply put, there wasn’t a lot to do in this palace; but that’s okay. You had to crawl through Mementos proper just to get here, and it simply serves as the calm before the storm that is the final boss. The floor tile puzzles were still fun to do, and some of the fights were tough, but this was intended to be more of a mini-dungeon than a proper palace in my opinion. However, it was made a little easy given that there was a free full restore waiting at the start every time you made it to a saferoom.

Music – 11/10

Freedom and Security is my favorite track on the entire Persona 5 OST. It’s desolate, but has a slightly triumphant undertone: “you’ve made it this far, but look where you’ve ended up.” The lead guitar stands out and elevates the mood but also harmonizes with the violins providing the rhythm, and the periodic bang from the heavy drum goes straight to my bones.

Boss Fight/Ruler – 10/10

It’s God. You kill God. “YOU HAVE NO MEANS OF ESCAPE, HUMANS” and all that. Nothing but a badass fight that tests your knowledge of the game.

Overall Score – 38/40

It appeals to my personal fancy in more ways than one, and I really enjoyed this dungeon.

A-: Sae Niijima’s Casino

Visual Design – 9/10

Between its pretty lights and colorful halls, this was another solid palace design. It didn’t particularly feel unreal or distorted outside of the whole “everything that’s not the Casino is totally normal” thing though.

Gameplay – 8.5/10

This palace was fun and the minigames offered a neat change of pace, but “pretty good” is about the best I can offer for how I felt playing this palace. Akechi kinda asspulls two separate times for the sake of moving the plot along – which from a story perspective shows how smart, cunning, and forward-thinking he is – but from the standpoint of the player it feels kinda bad for a challenge to be presented only for someone to step in and go “nevermind lol sorry I planned for this.” It feels especially bad the second time. The solo-Joker boss gauntlet was my favorite part though.

Music – 8.5/10

On its own, this song is a 10/10. It’s another solid entry on the OST, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a good song for a dungeon. It’s too nonchalant and jazzy, and doesn’t offer the kind of tension you’d expect from what was supposed to be the Phantom Thieves’s last hurrah at the time. It fits thematically for the palace, and is good on its own, but on a greater scale in terms of the story it doesn’t evoke the right emotion in my opinion.

Boss Fight/Ruler – 9.5/10

I’ll admit, Sae was nowhere near my favorite character at this point, but that’s not a bad thing. A character doesn’t have to be likeable to be good. The purpose she served in the plot and the person she becomes after she changes her own heart – rather than it being forcefully changed – redeemed her. But up until this point, she’s been nothing but a workaholic that will cheat every which way in order to win. I don’t think cheating a cheater is fun, and the game doesn’t make you. You beat her at her own game entirely fairly with no rigged odds, and it’s very satisfying. After you expose her cheats, it becomes a war of attrition with no gimmick; it’s thematic, but does get a little grindy from the gameplay side of things.

Overall Score – 35.5(+1)/40

I’m giving this palace a bonus point because even though there were some aspects I had qualms with, I feel like it was greater than the sum of its parts.

B: Futaba’s Tomb

Visual Design – 9/10

I liked the meshing of ancient pyramid ruins with digital code and electronic rune patterns. The room beyond the locked door at the end of the main hall is spacious and bigger on the inside than it seems on the outside, which you could argue represents how Futaba feels about her room.

Gameplay – 8.5/10

Fun puzzles and good fights. The chase sequence in the town at the start wasn’t particularly stimulating and was over as soon as it started, and I wish that town had been expanded upon in general. The inside of the pyramid was good though.

Music – 8/10

This song fits thematically, but after the second or third loop it starts to drone on, but that makes sense considering it’s an ancient tomb – everything should feel dead and lifeless with a slight desert theme – and this song captures that feeling well. On its own though, it’s not one you’re going to put on repeat (or at least I’m not compelled to).

Boss Fight/Ruler – 9/10

These two should really be split up for this palace, since the fight is pretty unrelated to the ruler themselves. Futaba is a cute anxious girl with mental illnesses and a protecc score of over 9000. She’s great and I love her. The fight, on the other hand, was rather anticlimactic, since it was just a scripted loss until Futaba decides to awaken her persona, and then you just spam Mediarama until you can shoot the harpoon a few times and then wail on her until she dies; cyclical and repetitive gameplay. However, defeating an imaginary demon that haunts Futaba within herself is the whole point of this palace, so the fight still fits thematically.

Overall Score – 34.5/40

Really good palace. No real problems, just some small things that could be improved.

B-: The Okumura Foods Space Station Factory

Visual Design – 8/10

Space stations are neat and fit the industrial feel of a corporate factory; everything is bland and metal and unremarkable on its own, which means they hit the nail on the head. Space itself is also cool, so I’m showing my bias pretty strongly on this one.

Gameplay – 8/10

This will probably the opinion that catches the most contention, but I don’t think this palace was boring or unfun or a slog at all. It felt paced just fine, and the shuttle-hopping puzzle at the end was neat, if a little boring and susceptible to eventual trial-and-error that I’m sure we all resorted to. I thought it was solid.

Music – 8.5/10

I really like the way this track starts out, it’s high-energy and evokes anxiety and the need to keep moving; it also has that techno feel to it to match the space station visual theme. The problem is that it has effectively an entire minute of downtime where it loops the same quiet bassline over and over again with no variation or break. If only they had kept the same mood it has from the start.

Boss Fight/Ruler – 8.5/10

Okumura represents pure corporate evil and greed. He treats his employees like machines meant to do one thing: make him more money. In the fight, he hides behind numerous ranks of lackeys, and then once he runs out, he’s a total pushover. He’s nothing without his employees, and they’re the ones who do all the actual work; he just sits on his ass and barks out orders. I’m glad we got to put him in his place.

Overall Score – 33/40

A solid palace, not bad at all. I could understand why people would overlook or underrate it though, it doesn’t do anything particularly special despite taking place about 65-70% of the way through the game.

C+: Kamoshida’s Castle

Visual Design – 8.5/10

Both portions of the castle look cool. The first half is filled with grand rooms and stained glass and labyrinthine hallways all crawling with guards. Even the dungeons from the prologue bit looked cool with their running water and cells. The tower looks even cooler, and really shows the player how the distortion can spatially affect the palace. I liked how the floor would warp and change as you walked over it a lot.

Gameplay – 7/10

There aren’t really any puzzles and not much else to do other than go from point A to point B, but that’s fine since it’s the first palace and the player already has a lot thrust in front of them. Just exploring the castle and fighting baddies is fine and dandy for now.

Music – 8/10

The music for this palace was good. It’s shady and a little uneasy, and feels like nice thief background music. The right mix of fun and mystery.

Boss Fight/Ruler – 7.5/10

This boss fight was nothing special either but again, it shouldn’t have to be. Just being able to finally take down the asshole that’s been hogging up a ton of screen time with his assholery is catharsis enough.

Overall Score – 31/40

A great introduction to the game that leaves room to be built and expanded upon. Also, fuck that guy.

C: Kaneshiro Bank of Japan

Visual Design – 7/10

The interior design itself was rather bland and uninteresting until you made it to the vault, but that part looked pretty cool. Bonus points for being on a UFO though.

Gameplay – 7/10

Nothing special going on, just move from room to room killing enemies until you make it to the end. The puzzles/camera dodging didn’t feel particularly stimulating or challenging.

Music – 7.5/10

The track that plays for the first half is alright, but I don’t think it particularly fits the overall theme of the palace. Granted, I’m not sure what a bank really should sound like. I like the version that it switches to once you make it to the vault. It’s more bank-heisty in my opinion and I like the bass guitar. Still though, neither track is topping my list anytime soon.

Boss Fight/Ruler – 6.5/10

Kaneshiro is just a forgettable generic mafia boss obsessed with money. Nothing unique or interesting about him. The fight is alright, and the big-ultra-chargeup-oneshotyou attack catches you by surprise the first time around if nothing else.

Overall Score – 28/40

Most forgettable and average palace to me, which sucks because it’s the one where you get best girl as a party member. If not for that, I probably would have been really bored when I was actually playing.

D: Shido’s Ship

Visual Design – whateve10

It’s a cruise ship and the city is flooded. Yeehaw.

Gameplay – ratpuzzle/10

This palace had about one and a half too many rat puzzle hallways and it just kept going on and on. It’s not even particularly hard to not get caught if you’re just patient. Not only that, the rest of the palace is just a miniboss gauntlet, and none of the fights are interesting because they’re just buffed-up versions of normal shadows’ personas.

Music – voteforme/10

Couldn’t hear the music over the speech lol. It’s a persona song, so of course it’s good, but it’s not particularly standout. It does give a cruise ship vibe though.

Boss Fight/Ruler – ohgodhowmanymoreformsdoeshehave/10

It’s just an elongated boring fight against a strong enemy with multiple phases. I kept thinking “okay so when is it actually going to get hard or interesting?” That point never came. Even during his final phase I just kept thinking “oh yay time for another form switch maybe he’ll actually do something cool now” and then the victory screen displayed. The only redeemable part about this fight is Rivers in the Desert playing in the background, and it sullies that song’s name because it’s nowhere near as epic as it should be to deserve being accompanied by it.

Overall Score – yikes/10

I would have been really soured on the whole experience if this was the true final palace like they had made it out to be, so I’m glad it didn’t actually turn out to be that way. It’s just a slog you have to grind through.

Update Minisite with full patchnotes.
Unlisted Skill Changes from Beta

• Inspire aced is now 100% chance to revive but has a 20s cooldown.
  
• Uppers Aced revival now has a 20s cooldown.
  
• Endurance has been replaced with Forced Friendship. (+4 cable ties, 75% faster tying up/ 0.5% damage absorption per hostage capped at 8 hostages)
  
• Tower Defense basic has been nerfed to +1 turret from +2
  
• You can now swap active deployable with Jack Of All Trades aced
  

Update 100 Patchnotes:

• Fixed a crash that could occur when players would drop in on a heist where a sentry gun would be activated.

General

• Fixed a crash when receiving a new safe before the game has been updated *Fixed a graphical issue when switching Skill Sets when having the Maniac or the Anarchist perk deck selected
  
• Fixed an issue that caused two lives of the player to get deducted when getting tased while under the effect of swan song
  
• Fixed an issue where the new item symbol next to the Inventory would reappear after restarting the game
  
• Swan song will now activate after landing, if the player was downed while using a zipline
  
• Fixed an issue where clients didn't receive a message when a player revived another player using the Inspire skill
  
• Trip Mines placed by clients will not damage the Team AI
  
• Added Parallax Rendering as an option in the Advanced Video Settings in the Options menu
  
• Added SMAA Anti Aliasing as an option in the Advanced Video Settings in the Options menu
  
• Added the option to turn off the default FXAA Anti Aliasing as an option in the Advanced Video Settings in the Options menu
  
• Added SSAO Low Ambient Occlusion as an option in the Advanced Video Settings in the Options menu
  
• Added SSAO High Ambient Occlusion as an option in the Advanced Video Settings in the Options menu
  
• Added the option to turn off the default AOB Ambient Occlusion as an option in the Advanced Video Settings in the Options menu
  
• Fixed an issue where Jimmy, as a Team AI, would be called Sokol
  

Art

• Added decapitation to the Mercenary Cloaker when using a Katana Melee Weapon while playing as Jiro
  
• Added head trauma to the Mercenary Taser when using a Platypus 70 Sniper Rifle while playing as Bodhi
  
• Fixed an issue that caused special enemies to show multiple LOD steps at the same time
  

Sound

• Fixed an issue where a sallad destruction sound would sound like glass breaking
  
• Fixed an issue where throwing a Molotov could play a Grenade sound
  

Weapons

• The Heather SMG can now use the Milspec Scope
  
• Fixed an issue where an incorrect weapon modification could drop for the Saiga Shotgun
  

Steam Market

• The Sputnik Safe and Drill will not drop in the end of heist Loot Drop
  
• The Bodhi Safe and Drill will not drop in the end of heist Loot Drop
  
• The Wolf Safe and Drill will not drop in the end of heist Loot Drop
  
• The Crimefest 2 Safe and Drill will not drop in the end of heist Loot Drop
  
• The Dallas Safe and Drill will not drop in the end of heist Loot Drop
  
• The Jimmy Safe and Drill will not drop in the end of heist Loot Drop
  
• The Sydney Safe and Drill will not drop in the end of heist Loot Drop
  

Levels
Aftershock

• Fixed navigation issues in the construction yard that caused the Team AI not to follow the player
  
• Fixed an issue where the Team AI could get stuck inside of the house in the construction yard
  

Alesso Arena

• Fixed a small graphical issue near the stairs to the upper floor

Beneath the Mountain

• Fixed an issue where loot bags could get stuck under the helicopter
  
• Fixed an issue where players could fall through the world when opening the door to the compound
  
• Fixed an issue where the players could get stuck behind a concrete block outside of the control room
  

Birth of Sky

• Fixed a missing collision on the roof of the Car Shop after the windows break

Counterfeit

• Fixed an issue where the players could get stuck behind the door to the basement
  
• Added yellow outlines to the power boxes when the enemies turn off the power
  
• Removed invisible collisions in the basement
  

Escape: Park

• Fixed an issue where players could see through a wall

Firestarter Day 1

• Fixed an issue where the players could get stuck behind some boxes in the first hanger to the right

Framing Frame Day 3

• Fixed an issue where players could walk into the computer room multiple times to increase their experience reward

Goat Simulator Day 1

• Fixed an issue where players could bypass the fire and debris without turning off the sprinklers

Goat Simulator Day 2

• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck behind the door to the bridge control room
  
• Fixed an issue where players could get access to the bridge before the goats had been secured
  
• Fixed an issue where the poison gas would not properly damage the player
  

Golden Grin Casino

• Fixed an issue that caused debris to get stuck in the air
  
• Added a missing debrief line to the heist summary screen
  
• Fixed an issue where clients would not be able to pick up their gear from the guitar case if the host picks it up before them
  

Hoxton Breakout Day 1

• Fixed an issue where the Team AI could get stuck in the elevators

Hoxton Breakout Day 2

• Fixed an issue where players could walk through a part of the railing
  
• Fixed an issue with a bench
  

Hoxton Revenge

• Fixed an issue where the Thermal Drill would not respawn when thrown into the river

Mallcrasher

• Fixed an issue with the animation of the police cars driving in when the alarm goes off

Murky Station

• Fixed an issue where the Blowtorch effect would not be visible from both sides

Santa's Workshop

• Fixed a issue where lamps would keep glowing after being shot
  
• Fixed an issue where the players could get stuck behind the snow cannons
  

The Bomb: Forest

• Fixed an issue where the ambience audio was playing the wrong file

The Diamond

• Fixed an issue with lamps

Transport: Crossroad

• Fixed an issue where loot bags could get stuck on a ledge above a store window

Undercover

• Fixed an issue where players could jump into a room that was not part of the intended playable area

Watchdogs Day 1

• Fixed an issue where the players could get stuck behind the door to the balcony leading to the left loot drop-off point

Watchdogs Day 2

• Fixed an issue where loot bags could get stuck behind a bike

Update 100.1:
15.3 MB

• Fixed a crash that could occur when players would drop in on a heist where a sentry gun would be activated.

Beta Discussion Threads:
Beta 1
Beta 2
Beta 3 (Steam announcement)
Beta 4
Beta 5
Beta 6

As-sallamu-allaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barak-a-tu.
I hope you guys are kicking it in good health, good spirits and good times and may we be guided by Allah SWT this month.
Now Porn and a casino? Sounds like a crazy friday night, but we're Muslims so don't go getting ideas ;p
We've seen both pmo and gambling termed 'behavioural addictions' and after looking into the latter from a Muslim perspective I wanted to know what was the thrill of gambling? and here are a few things that stood out from an article:
1. The reward
A reward from making a win is a high to gamblers much like an o is to a pmo addict. We both assume that the next gamble whether its money or a video a scene or angle within it will cause a greater reward, but...check your losses on this one.
2. No Windows, No Clocks
In a casino, there's no windows or clocks so you gamble and are heedless of time. No surprise both gamblers and pmo addicts, lose the gift of time. Both want you to enjoy the moment; stop worrying, start gambling.
3. Lit up Lights, High-flying sounds
In a casino the lights are attractive, drawing you like a moth to a light. Likewise, porn videos generally use lighting to give a 'home-made' effect, with soft music to lull you into a trance-like state. They want to make the 'fantasy' seem attainable.
4. Ambience
In a casino, there's comfortable couches, they are clean to an almost OCD degree. You might feel the slot machines, drawing near to you and the rest of the world's in motion blur.
Similarly, in pmo the men are scripted as aggressive, selfish and idiotic. Whilst women are misleadingly scripted as submissive, giggly, and physical beauty is magnified all at the expense of personality. Think of a witty salesman who compliments and asks closed questions that warrant a 'yes' response. It's meant to create a 'want', to condition you. By offering rewards without effort, dopamine becomes misdirected. You overindulge until eventually you're numb. You now see the difference between playing hard and working hard.
Remember, "the finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist", it's you're spotlight, instant gratification only equals delayed regret.
5. The Labyrinth design
Casino's are designed much like mazes, where you can get lost in a swarm of machines, twists and turns, inviting you to travel and be adventurous, only in one direction; gamble. You often here pmo addicts talk of how pmo search engines are ineffective, perhaps done to keep you on there longer. Not to mention, the ads on the sidebar lower your inhibitions more, in the state of arousal people are more impressionable, so it's the best time to advertise things you don't really need.
Let's stop the gambling and start stacking deeds inshallah, to profit off the Prophets, so we don't see our losses on Judgement day. A day where rehab could mean jahannam to purify us before getting to Jannah, May Allah Protect us from the fire and admit us to Jannah.