Primal Strife Chapter 13 Preview

Well, it’s been a while since I posted a new chapter of Primal Strife, due to a combination of over-brainstorming, being distracted by other stuff, and just wanting to leave readers in suspense after last chapter ended with essentially a motha fuckin’ T-Rex. So, here’s an early preview of Chapter 13! And as always, remember this story is rated M, except on AdultFanFiction, where the uncensored version is posted.

Dominic, Percy, Claire, Tracy, Garrison, Jacob, Katrina, Gang, and Cory

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– Dominic

…So, suffice to say, we were not having a good last day of our trip to the Viridian River. Looking to my sides, taking a quick survey of my team, I could tell we were not looking good. Garrison’s arm was a bloody mess, Jacob’s wing was torn, Katrina was a little cut up, and Percy was trying his best to see to all three of them. Meanwhile, the rest of us were all a bit shaken up and low on ammo, and now we were facing off against a Reptile Hairless, one of the absolute last things you EVER want to find yourself up against. This was going to suck, BADLY.

“Stay clear of her bones and claws,” I advised as calmly as I could while I readied my rifle, Cory reloaded his revolver, and Claire tightened her gloves. “They can stab and shred you apart before you have a chance to realize what happened.”

The massive Hairless let out one earth-shaking roar before lunging at us, her teeth ready to chomp down on us. Before she could, though, Claire leaped up and punched it hard in the snout, while Cory and I rolled to opposite sides and opened fire on her eyes. For the brief moment that this left her stunned, Tracy quickly let loose a spray right into the Hairless’ open mouth, probably hoping to make her back off…It didn’t work out so well.

I barely managed to even see it when it happened. All I know is that, following this initial attack, the Hairless swung her giant, spiky tail around. I just barely managed to duck and roll under it as it threatened to slam and skewer me. Tracy, however, wasn’t so lucky. While she managed to avoid the spikes, the tree trunk-like flat of her tail managed to plough into her side, sending her tumbling end over end across the ground.

“TRACY!” Jacob screamed, immediately forgetting the state of his wing and hurling shuriken after shuriken at the Hairless. Meanwhile, Claire, having held onto the giant’s nostrils, was now on top of her head, throwing relentless fists into her face, giving Cory a chance to grab Tracy and pull her out of the Hairless’ immediate vicinity.

“Claire, get down!” I yelled, taking shots at the Hairless’ underbelly.

“Don’t have much CHOICE!” Claire screamed as she was suddenly thrown off the Reptile’s head, flailing in the air. Jacob managed to leap up and catch her before she hit the ground, but his wing gave out almost immediately, causing him to crash into the side of the Nova. The Hairless opened her jaws wide and charged at them, clearly about to chow down on them, until an orange and black blur rocketed across the side of her face, actually managing to leave a sizable slash mark across her cheek.

“Kat!” I shouted as the tiger rolled and landed nearby. “You sure you’re alright?!”

“I’ve been worse!” Katrina replied as the Hairless instead turned her attention on us.

Looking just behind the giant Reptile’s foot, though, I spotted Garrison using his teeth to ready an explosive arrow on his crossbow. Realizing his plan, I began unloading every round I had into the Hairless’ skull, keeping her attention on me. Katrina soon figured it out, too, scooping up Tracy’s fallen pistol and shooting at the Hairless’ eyes. Before the Hairless could chomp down on us for the constant aggravation, though, Garrison managed to fire the arrow directly into her hide and quite literally blew her ass clean off. Kat and I got out of the way as the Hairless tumbled forward, her back end and tail a gruesome mess.

“…Holy shit,” Cory muttered as we regrouped. “Seriously, you need to start making more of those arrows.”

“That’d be great…” Garrison moaned, lowering his arm as Jacob and Claire slowly scaled down the RV, “…if I weren’t out of materials. That was my last one.”

“Tracy?” Jacob inquired to Percy, who was looking over the fallen skunk.

“She’s definitely got at least ONE cracked rib, possibly more,” Percy replied as Tracy gasped in pain before looking to Jacob’s wing. “…I think you aggravated it.”

Jacob glanced down at his wing, now dripping in blood. “You don’t say?”

“Head’s up, guys!” Claire yelled, pointing to the stirring Hairless. “She’s not done yet!”

Sure enough, just a couple seconds later, the now bloodied and VERY angry looking Reptile Hairless was back to her feet, glaring holes through us. Opening the pouch on my belt with bullets, my heart sank as I found only one left. Looking to the others, it was clear they were all either out of ammo or close to it. Garrison scoffed, using his teeth to free his crossbow from his wrist.

“You’ve only got one good arm!” Percy insisted.

Garrison nodded, eyes on the Hairless as he prepared the claws on his left hand. “That’s one more than she’s going to have when I’m done.”

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And that’s all for now. Lemme know what you think, and be sure to read the full chapter when it comes out, either on FictionPress or AdultFanFiction. Ja né!

Jyger’s Rant – Freedom Planet Review

So, you know how fans have complained for years and years about how the Sonic games have lacked a lot of what made them great back in the old Genesis days? And, you know, there’s a reason for that, and why 2D Sonic platformers nowadays, while I wouldn’t necessarily call them bad, have ultimately failed to capture that same feel: The people who developed the old Sega Genesis Sonic games don’t work at Sega anymore. It’s that simple. The developers at Sega don’t know how to make a Sonic the Hedgehog game that the hardcore fans (and, let’s face it, they are LEGION) have demanded for going-on-decades now. Mind you, I wasn’t among the fans that were complaining about the 3D Sonic games and begging for more 2D Sonic games… … …Then we had atrocities like Sonic The Hedgehog for the X-Box 360 and Playstation 3, we saw Sonic The Hedgehog 4 ultimately disappoint, and now we’ve got the Sonic Boom spin-off series that seems to have finally caused the fanbase to go completely insane, and at that point, even I couldn’t, in sound mind and judgment, like where the franchise was going.  And if Sega can’t give us good Sonic games, we’re just gonna have to look elsewhere. The only problem is, where are we ever going to find a good Sonic-esque game being made nowa-

… … …HO. LY. SHIT! XD

Okay, real talk, I’ve actually been following Freedom Planet for some time now, ever since Liam and Woolie did a Let’s Play of the game a few months ago (so, thank you, Super Best Friends, for introducing me to this game), but I wanted to hold off on giving my opinions on it until I’d sat down and played it. As such, I had to wait until it was available on Wii U, which only happened the other day when I wasn’t paying attention. 😛 Also, despite the fact that it was originally thought up by the creators, GalaxyTrail, as a Sonic fan-game, it’s not EXACTLY the same. A number of people have brought up how the game looks and feels like if the video game developers, Treasure (developers of such games as Gunstar Heroes, Wario World, Mischief Makers, and Sin & Punishment), had obtained the rights to Sonic and made a game for the series. As such, it comes off both as a tribute to the Genesis Sonic games and a lot of other 2D platformers of that time trying to cash in on Sonic’s popularity, while also having its own unique identity.

The story of the game (which, FYI, you can pass over all of the cutscenes by playing the game in Classic Mode as opposed to Story Mode) stars Sash Lilac, a water dragon, and Carol Tea, a wildcat, as they find themselves in the middle of a conflict with an intergalactic warlord named Arktivus Brevon. Brevon, having crash-landed on their planet, seeks to leave by using the power of an ancient artifact called the Kingdom Stone. However, the Kingdom Stone is the world’s primary source of energy, and to obtain it, he sets a series of events into motion to force the three major nations of the world into conflict so that he can take the stone in the confusion. I won’t spoil the entire story, and a lot of the details can seem a bit glanced over at times, but let’s just say that a lot of the story focuses on trying to get the three nations to work together to stop Brevon, and on the friendship of the main characters.

One thing I think this game does smartly is that it introduces the idea of multiple playable characters with radically different styles of gameplay right away, and doesn’t have a single character get top billing. Sure, one can make the argument that Lilac is the main protagonist, since a lot of the story’s more epic moments occur around her (and, in early development, she was a hedgehog…and it shows, lol), but Carol is most definitely not left out of the fun. Let’s be honest: A big part of the reason people complain about other playable characters in the Sonic games is because the game is called Sonic The Hedgehog. It’s got nothing to do with if these characters are good or not (and, a lot of times, I actually rather like the side-characters in Sonic), or if they add anything fun or unique to the gameplay, it’s about how the game is supposed to be about Sonic. Here, we don’t have that problem. Lilac, even if she IS the main protagonist, does not do everything herself. Even when playing as her, there are points in the game where her friends will pop in to lend a hand, such as during a running boss fight where Carol rides her motorcycle (which is badass, btw) and does occasional attacks to the boss while your other friends drop items.

Such an epic boss fight, it’s the loading screen for the Wii U version when you start it up. XD

As for the gameplay itself, like I said, Lilac mostly plays like Sonic, but with other abilities tacked on, although these abilities are oftentimes required to survive. Her Dragon Boost allows her to rocket through the air in different directions, and she can use her hair to whip enemies and do a spinning double jump. Carol can scratch and pounce on foes, do wall jumps, and kick at lightning speed. The last playable character (and only in Classic Mode), Milla Basset, can do flutter jumps, dig through the dirt, pick up items, and produce energy fields that form shields, lasers, and blocks. I’ve heard that they plan to add more playable characters later on, but for now, these three are all cool, despite the lack of a Milla campaign taking place in the actual Story Mode. There’s also different difficulty levels: Casual, Easy, Normal, and Hard. Naturally, because I kinda suck at the old school Sonic games, I opted to go with Casual, just to start myself off. And frankly, I like that there’s a Casual Mode for guys like me to start off with and gradually grow in skill.

So yeah, if you’ve been missing games like the classic Sonic The Hedgehog games, Rocket Knight Adventures, Ristar, and so on, go and get Freedom Planet. It’s currently available on Wii U and Steam for less than 20 bucks, so as long as you have the means to pay for it, there’s no reason you can’t get it. And hey, when you do, feel free to come back here and lemme know what you thought of the game. Also, be sure to check out the designer of the main protagonists, Ziyo Ling, and her work. Ja né!