The Queue: Anxiety is a heck of a drug

I’ve lived with an anxiety disorder for years, and one of the ways I’ve dealt with it is by isolating myself as much as possible from other people. Going to BlizzCon last year was a massive effort, and while I was very glad I got to go, I was also very tense and even afraid the whole time. Coming home was sad, because BlizzCon was so amazing, but it was also a huge relief to not be around so many people, and to be with my wife and our little family again.

So it’s strange. In a way, all this self-isolation we’re all doing now is just how I live all the time, so I’m seeing everyone having a hard time coping and I have no idea how to help. I hope you’re all holding up okay.

This is the Queue. We can hang out here.

As I explained on the podcast (that’s right, you get double answered because I wanted to talk about it some more) I hadn’t heard about Last Epoch at all until you mentioned it, because I avoid Steam and Steam Sales like a vampire avoids garlic and crosses. Because here’s a secret — I really get dragged into games I love and obsess over them and play them relatively constantly, and it can end up having a pretty bad impact on my life. To the point where I look up and weeks have gone by.

But I did look up Last Epoch and it does look pretty good. Right now, I’m focused on Godfall as my big looter/slasher game of choice, and that’s because it looks a lot like Onyx Path’s Exalted TTRPG had a murderous heavily armored baby with Diablo.  But I’m definitely interested in Last Epoch’s weird time travel meets Diablo vibe — it’s kind of a mix of Path of Exile and Chrono-Trigger and I am definitely intrigued.

Still, I’d throw them all in a woodchipper if it would get me Diablo 4 sooner.

I eat meat.

They have opened it already, and yes, I’m going for Twilight Devastation 3.

Back in the 90’s, when many of you were potentially not even born yet, I had a PlayStation. The original one. It came with two games. Silent Hill, which we all know, and Xenogears, which was a completely berserk little game. It was a Square-Enix game, but it was unique in a sea of Final Fantasy clones (and, indeed, the Final Fantasy series itself) and not even games like Chrono Trigger really matched just how weird that game was.

I loved it. I loved how it delved into genetic memory, Qabbalism, the nature of good and evil, the evolutionary impulse, and an extradimensional being that may or may not have been an AI, or perhaps an emanation from God. The Xenoblade games (and Xenosaga before them) are essentially spiritual successors to Xenogears, but they’re not directly connected and they lack the full-bore fun lunacy of that original game… well, at least to me they do, anyway.

I haven’t really looked at Xenoblade Chronicles, but on the off chance it’s anywhere near as good as Xenogears, I’m gonna say you should get it.

I don’t really understand the second part of your question. It’s probably a WoW in-joke I have blotted out of my memory, like the thing with the bears being skinned aggroing every bear and oh my God it’s back in my head.

For the first part, I have no idea. We don’t even know if we’re getting a time jump, or what Sylvanas’ ultimate role will be in Shadowlands when all is said and done.

The Missing Diplomat quest from original WoW could definitely work, especially since it send you to Darkshire and Dustwallow Marsh and you could add sub-adventures in those areas (Stalvan Mistmantle comes to mind for the Darkshire portion of the quest chain) — just make it any generic missing royalty you like.I also think you could tie it in to the Onyxia quest chain with Marshal Windsor without too much work.

It would require inventing a powerful undead antagonist for your party, but the Mathias Lehner quest chain from Wrath could be a pretty satisfying D&D adventure, with your party tracking down the past of said undead antagonist and discovering the lengths they went to in order to remove all human feelings from themselves.

And you could do some fun stuff with some of the WoW dungeons, like Dire Maul, Auchindoun, or Grim Batol. Grim Batol in particular — a former Dwarven citadel corrupted by Duergar sorcery, now used as a lair by malevolent dragons and a sinister aberration in thrall to lose and forgotten gods? It writes itself. Replace the Old Gods with Tharizdun if you want to set it apart from its inspiration.

I could do this for a while — I think the Horde storyline in Nazmir could be adapted and would be a really cool mega-adventure, similar to the old Temple of Elemental Evil module or Descent into Avernus. What is G’Huun, and can your party stop this self-proclaimed God of Blood before he infects the whole world? It’s even kind of timely.

Okay, that’s the Queue for today. I hope everyone does okay today.

I also hope they do Xenogears Remake because that game rocked.