The Queue: Mischievous but Well-Behaved

Fairies are cool. They’re smol, helpful, and often sassy. They’re full of vigor and usually have a good moral sense. They like to have fun and play tricks, but not to the point where the jokes become harmful or dangerous (usually).

This is The Queue, where we talk about fairies, but also about Blizzard games, other games, and all the outlandish things that make our wings flutter and whisk us wherever the trail of pixie dust will lead.

Uhhh… I’ll have to make a top 3.

#3) Faerie (that’s her actual name), from Trials of Mana. She’s the first fairy companion in a game that I really liked, so there’s some sentimental value there. But she doesn’t have much in the way of a personality; she acts more like a resource to provide necessary exposition and story direction.

#2) Amanozako from Shin Megami Tensei V. Okay, she’s technically a different kind of creature (demon or goddess depending on how you choose to interpret it), but she fills the “fairy companion” role perfectly regardless. She has a ton of personality and humorous moments, even if her morals are sometimes dubious. But best of all, she’s voiced by the lovely Deva Marie Gregory, who also plays Meerah, of Dolly and Dot fame, in WoW.

#1) Gallica, from Metaphor: ReFantazio. She has considerably more personality and story than any other fairy I’ve ever seen. The sass, the cuteness, the heroism, she’s got it all, and she might be my favorite companion period — not just fairy companion! — in any game I’ve played.

Civilization 7 on February 11.

On the one hand, I’m already scared of how much time I might lose on that game (assuming I like it even half as much as I liked Civ 5). On the other hand, I’m also scared of not liking it (like I didn’t like Civ 6). So my expectations are pretty tempered at the moment, but either way, it is the next major release I’m looking forward to.

Kinda unsure, to be honest!

I’ve finished a few Diablo 4 seasons and I’ve leveled every class to max level except for two: Druid and Spiritborn. So logic would dictate that the next time I decide to play a Season, I’d playing one of those two classes.

However, my favorite class is still Sorceress, and I’ve had this itch to replay it for quite some time now. So even though I originally planned to play a different class each time and get them all to max level… I’m now considering having the Druid and Spiritborn wait a bit more, and just roll a new Sorceress (with a completely different build than I did last time). I don’t know!

My favorite is The Psychic (“must play five cards”). Honestly, this one might as well not exist; it’s a freebie.

My least favorite is definitely The Arm (“decrease level of played poker hand by one”). I hate the feeling of losing progress in a game, and seeing my Full House go from level 7 to level 6 sucks. I always do everything in my power to play around it, unless it’s absolutely impossible to avoid it.

Honorable mentions on the suckage go to The Tooth (“lose $1 per card played”) and The Ox (“playing your most played hand this run sets your money to zero”). Guess I don’t like to lose money either!

Bonus answer: For Final Boss Blinds, my favorite is Cerulean Bell (“forces a card to always be selected”) — I like how it often makes me think creatively, but usually it’s not bad enough to feel frustrating or unfair. My least favorite would be Verdant Leaf (“all cards debuffed until a Joker is sold”) — although I have beaten this one once or twice by playing fully debuffed hands anyway; sometimes your Jokers and Poker Hand Levels can carry you by themselves.

Under normal circumstances, I’d be more interested in playing that supposed remake of Fire Emblem 4 (Genealogy of the Holy War) that there have been rumors about for years than a brand new entry in the series. If your question had been asked in a more straightforward fashion, this would have been my answer.

However, your little monkey’s paw there changes my answer considerably! I think a new entry would likely have more stuff to keep us busy for the 2-3 years it takes them to finish Genealogy than the opposite. So if it had to be done that way, I’d take the new entry first, and the remake later.

With all of that said, I just hope they’ve learned their lesson from Fire Emblem: Engage, and actually make a story (and world and characters) worth caring about again for their next entry. Gameplay in Engage was more than fine, but for an RPG, just gameplay isn’t enough. Gotta have that second pillar there as well.

See, Kalcheus, when a Nightborne man and a Nightborne woman love each other very much, they join their local coven of Warlocks and summon some sort of demonic entity that they pay a fair amount of gold to. Said demonic entity leaves on a hunt across the Twisting Nether for an innocent child that they bring, kicking and screaming, to the happy couple back in Suramar. The child might belong to a different race, such as Eredar or Sayaad, or even Satyr or Nathrezim in some rare cases, but it’s up to the new mom and dad to make sure they feel loved and like they belong among the Shal’dorei. Either way, the infant creature will probably feast on Arcane energies and small animals, unless it finds humanoid children that happen to venture near the great city. Night Elf infant souls, in particular, are delicious. Wait, what were we talking about again?

Know your enemies, Queue, and don’t let them surprise you with sea monsters. Ask plenty of questions, and have a whimsical day!