rionaleonhart: final fantasy x-2: the sun is rising, yuna looks to the future. (hope is all we have)
A couple of people responded to my question about male love interests in videogames by saying they were having trouble thinking of games they'd played with female protagonists. So, in case anyone's interested, here's the list of games I've played in which the main playable character is female!

In cases where control is split between two or more characters, I've taken who's presented as the protagonist into account. Final Fantasy XIII, for example, has you controlling different characters at different times, but the protagonist is definitely Lightning, whereas, although you could argue that Sam is the main playable character of Until Dawn or that Mizuki is the main playable character of AI: The Somnium Files: nirvanA Initiative, those cases aren't clear-cut enough to be listed here. I haven't counted games in which you can choose the protagonist's gender; these are games that were specifically designed around a female main character.

I've listed these games in alphabetical order and included some brief notes about each one, in case anyone's wondering whether to pick any of these games up. I've put asterisks next to games I particularly enjoyed. (Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy the others; there's only one game on this list I'd actively advise against playing (spoiler: it's Beyond: Two Souls).)

I've also only included games I've played myself, not games I've experienced through Let's Plays or watching friends play them, which is why I've omitted Assassin's Creed: Liberation, Danganronpa Another Episode, Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, We Know the Devil and The Zodiac Trial. But then I changed my mind and included We Know the Devil anyway. You can't tell me what to do.


Videogames I've played with female protagonists. )


I noticed while writing this how often I used the phrase 'young woman' in the game descriptions, so I took a moment to work out who the oldest protagonist in this list actually was. The results were slightly discouraging. By a long way, the oldest of these female protagonists is Chloe of Uncharted: Lost Legacy; I'm having trouble establishing her exact age, but I think she's around forty when the game takes place. I think second place goes to Red of Transistor, at the grand old age of twenty-seven.
rionaleonhart: final fantasy viii: found a draw point! no one can draw... (you're a terrible artist)
[personal profile] rthstewart is currently hosting a three-sentence ficathon, if you'd like to poke through the current prompts or post some of your own! (Exceeding three sentences is absolutely allowed.)

This seems like an appropriate time to do a commentfic round-up, so here are some scraps of fanfiction I've posted here and there.


Zanki Zero, 150 words, prompt: character/everyone )

Silent Hill 2, 100 words, prompt: mistaken identity )

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, 200 words, prompt: Pyrrhic victory )

Night in the Woods, 150 words, prompt: while the town sleeps )


'Riona, did you give yourself that anonymous character/everyone prompt?' you may very well ask, to which my response is 'shhhh'.
rionaleonhart: final fantasy versus xiii: a young woman at night, her back to you, the moon high above. (nor women neither)
Happy new year! May it be a better one.

As in 2019, I didn't officially participate in Yuletide but ended up writing a couple of fics. Here's the first: a Night in the Woods treat for [archiveofourown.org profile] plastics. I'd never written for this game before, and it was interesting to try to capture some sense of the tone and atmosphere.

I actually got a lovely comment on this from one of you guys before reveals; hi, [personal profile] implicated2!


Title: Haze
Fandom: Night in the Woods
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 1,200
Summary: Mae and Bea go on a road trip. Unless they're dreaming. It's hard to be sure.


Haze )
rionaleonhart: final fantasy x-2: the sun is rising, yuna looks to the future. (just gonna reload while talkin' to you)
More Red Dead Redemption II! I accidentally pissed Marston off by barging into his room when he was asleep and going 'WAKE UP' and then going 'I've forgotten what I was going to say now.' You wouldn't think that would be easy to do accidentally, but you would be wrong!

There was a point where Arthur was really close to an old flame of his because they were hiding together on a tracking mission, and the controller vibrated in a heartbeat rhythm to show that he was really conscious of his heartbeat, and it was extremely cheesy and, I'll admit, pretty cute. I've always had a weakness for 'OH NO, WE'RE CLOSE UP FOR NON-ROMANTIC REASONS, I SHOULDN'T BE HAVING THESE ROMANTIC FEELINGS.' And conveying Arthur's state of mind through controller vibration was a really interesting choice; I don't think I've seen that before.

Red Dead Redemption II has one of the most baffling game design decisions I've ever seen. Arthur's old flame invites him to the theatre. Rather than showing a montage of the acts, or just cutting to them leaving the theatre and talking about what they've just seen, like a normal game, it makes you sit through a full three-act, fifteen-minute series of performances.

(There was admittedly a 'leave theatre' option, but I didn't dare choose it because I didn't know whether it meant 'skip the theatre performance' or 'bugger off in the middle of your date'.)

I did love that there was a 'make a move' option, and when I chose it Arthur attempted the 'stretch and casually put your arm around her' move and then panicked and retracted his arm when she looked over at him, way too late for it not to be obvious what he was doing.

I also love his journal entries after that 'reconnecting with Mary' mission.

It never worked before and it won't ever work now, yet it gnaws at me, the idea of it gnaws at me like a sickness.

What is wrong with me? Do I really think I can retire someplace nice and live a normal life with a wife?
Am I a big enough dolt to believe that is possible?


I always love it when videogame characters keep journals; it's such a great way of giving some insight into the protagonist. Nathan Drake and Mae Borowski's silly doodles, Sean Diaz's anguish and panic and furry art, Arthur Morgan's nature sketches and morbid thoughts: I love them all. Keep it up, videogames!
rionaleonhart: final fantasy viii: found a draw point! no one can draw... (you're a terrible artist)
Q: Riona, do you really have time to write mini-reviews of every game you've ever played?
A: I absolutely don't.
Q: And yet.
A: And yet!

Some of these are more just reminiscences than reviews, but I've said at least a line or two about every game. Possibly. I've almost certainly forgotten about some.

For the most part these are listed alphabetically, so you can easily track down any games you're interested in, but games in a series are listed together, so, for example, 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors, Virtue's Last Reward and Zero Time Dilemma are all under Z for Zero Escape, and World of Final Fantasy comes under F. I've put a (LP) next to games I've only experienced through Let's Plays. Flash games, text adventures and electronic versions of card, tile or board games are not included.

Games I first played after originally posting this entry are marked with an asterisk.


Thoughts on every game I've ever played, or close enough. )


I'm glad I've put this very important and necessary entry into the waiting world.
rionaleonhart: final fantasy versus xiii: a young woman at night, her back to you, the moon high above. (nor women neither)
I've started playing Night in the Woods! It strikes me as ideal for a Higurashi AU: small towns, dark secrets, the 'outsider' (although Mae is technically returning to Possum Springs) and the group of friends who already belong to the town. Perhaps fortunately, my ability to write this is limited by the fact that I haven't yet experienced the last few Higurashi instalments. (Come on, official translators!)

I probably won't write Night in the Woods fanfiction, to be honest. I really struggle with writing characters if I don't know what their voices sound like, so I rarely write for unvoiced canons.

Choosing which characters to spend time with is pretty stressful. Here's the problem: videogame logic dictates that you should choose the character you want to focus on and just spend time with them at every opportunity. Games are often set up to give you the most satisfying payoff if you pick a goal and stick to it, because then the game will recognise, 'Oh, this player wants a better relationship with Bea; let's channel them into the "bonding with Bea" plotline.' Real-world friendship logic, meanwhile, dictates that you should divide your time between your friends, rather than focusing on one to the exclusion of the others; in real life, if you spend all your time with Bea, Gregg is going to start feeling abandoned. I don't know which sort of logic this game is operating on!

(To be honest, this was an issue that barely crossed my mind in Oxenfree, because I was so invested in Alex and Jonas's stepsibling relationship. Screw everyone else; I was absolutely going to spend all my time with Jonas. And Ren did end up feeling a bit abandoned, but, hey, I had a great relationship with my stepbrother, so I didn't care! Sorry, Ren.)

I'm trying to go with what feels right without worrying about it too much. Bea and I had a horrible conversation yesterday; I suppose today I should spend time with her and try to make amends. Gregg's lonely because his boyfriend's out of town; I'll visit him today.

But everything we end up doing is so antisocial! I don't want to beat up a car with a baseball bat! I DON'T WANT TO SHOPLIFT OR TALK BEA INTO SHOPLIFTING, GAME, DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS. But no; apparently I cannot prevent Mae from being a bad influence. I do like characters who make relentlessly terrible decisions, but I become distressed when I'm playing a game that makes me carry out their terrible decisions!

(I did enjoy the 'spraying passers-by with the fish fountain bit'. That was another bit that made me go 'NO, MAE, THIS IS A BAD IDEA' at first, but seeing Bea's progression from 'oh, my God, what are you doing?????' to uncontrollable laughter made me smile.)

There was one point where I got stuck and had to look up how to progress online, because the solution was so clearly a bad idea that it would never have occurred to me to try it. JUST JAM YOUR PAW INTO THE ELECTRICITY, IT'LL BE FINE.

So far the game feels a little slow - nothing's really happened in terms of plot - but I suppose that makes sense; you're playing a drifting, directionless young adult in a dying town, and playing through day after day of nothing in particular happening helps to convey that sense of drifting. The dialogue is fun enough to keep it interesting. I really like all of Mae's silly doodles in her notebook, and the playful undertone of her relationship with her parents.

My favourite part so far is when you discover that Selmers is a poet:

My heart is
A dankness
But when I see you
I feel a thankness.

When I feel
A blueness
All I need
Is a youness.


'That's very romantic.'
'It's about my horse.'
'Oh.'
'We're just friends.'