The MOKKOGRAD Report: September 2025
Hi Friends!
For some reason I always seem to hit a hole in August. Things just weren't moving along as well I may have wanted (but I honestly can't recall), and I also spend the entire second half of the Month with a very persistent and annoying cough.
On the other hand, I got to meet a friend this Month and found a composer for JRPG game, so it's not like absolutely nothing happened. It just all felt weird and sluggish.
Gamedev-News
I very much lost grasp of what I wanted to do with JRPG game this month. It's not that I don't like working on it, it's more that I don't really know what to do next, even though there's definitely work left to do. I hope things pick back up again soon though...
Blogpost-Shares
Nothing again! I did write a draft about learning new skills, especially those that are related to fields of creative expressions, when you're already an adult and how I think the idea of having to "push through frustrations until you get good at something" is deeply flawed, but I then didn't sit down again to edit and publish it. Maybe I still do it, even though the vague discourse I saw that spurred me on is now long in the past.
Interesting things I played/watched/read
Apparently I'm in an Obsidian RPG hole, because after playing through all of Neverwinter Nights 2 last Month, I now have played through Knights of the Old Republic 2 and have started to play through Pillars of Eternity again.
Kotor 2 is an interesting example of a game that looks at its subject matter very critically (the Jedi really don't come away all that well in the game), but because it's part of a large media franchise still cannot really do anything to fully break with the established rules of its setting. Sure, the Jedi are a structurally deeply flawed organisation and the game basically screams at you "this thing is bad and will continue to be bad, because it keeps framing its own continued survival as an objective moral good, despite all the evidence to the contrary", and at the end it just can't bring itself to a full deconstruction, because it's Star Wars and Star Wars has Jedi in it.
It's kind of interesting how much beholden Star Wars is to its own setting in that sense. Jedis and Light Sabers are so entrenched in it, that it's impossible for it to imagine itself in a way where these things don't exist. Maybe because it wouldn't be Star Wars then...
In a more broad sense, something else I noticed after starting Pillars of Eternity again, is how many of Obsidian's games have their main protagonists be somewhat wounded, or fundamentally altered.
Neverwinter Nights 2 has the protagonist first be pierced by a shard of a Silver Sword and then in Mask of the Betrayer has their Soul replaced by some kind of cosmic hunger.
Kotor 2's Exile is a walking wound in the Force.
The Courier in Fall Out New Vegas is shot in the head at the start of the game
Pillars of Eternity starts with your character being violently turned into a being that can see and touch other people's Souls, which may or may not also kill them over time.
Pillars of Eternity 2 then again starts with the same character having their Soul ripped from their body.
I don't really have much else to say here aside from "Obsidian sure likes their cosmically wounded protagonists, huh?", but it does make me wonder why they keep coming back to this particular well.
P.S.: I do want to mention that Obsidian belongs to Microsoft and thus their games fall under the BDS restrictions. So I definitely wouldn't buy any of these games just right now and honestly, I do still feel a bit strange talking about them at all.
Videogames aside, I also finished reading through the entire set of Earthsea stories by Ursula K LeGuin and there's so much I like about these. I like how well she manages to create a world that is full of magical and wondrous things, while telling stories that are mostly about people doing people things and being concerned about things that people are concerned about.
I said back in July how reading Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion made me question whether or not Tolkien was actually interested in human beings, or even liked them. With Earthsea, you can really see someone creating a world to talk about and explore the people that live within it. Even the most powerful humans in Earthsea are still human beings, with the concerns, wishes and flaws that we all have.
Something else I appreciate about the particular Edition I read is how each story came with additional notes from LeGuin, where she talked about her own motivations and reasons for why each story ended up being the way they were.
I definitely want to read the second set of stories that LeGuin put in roughly the same setting, but first I wanted to read some of her other work next.
Books are great.
The Cartograph Section
From the travel Journal of Escrapan t’Arch, Principal Carer during East Meere's third expedition to the forgotten Lands of Insel.
Year 290 of the Sinking Age
Day 102
Several Expedition members were lost when the Swamp suddenly rose up and started attacking the camp.
Day 105
Barely slept since we hurriedly broke camp, bought some strange smelling spice from a local merchant who claimed it would help me sleep.
Day 107
I think the Vendor was lying to me.
Day 110
Reached another Camp of Explorers. The noise of the crowd was too much to bear, so I tried my best to stay away from everyone. The Expedition set off to the Southern half of Insel.
Day 112
Moved my tent to the outside edge of the camp and finally managed to sleep well.
Day 120
Found remnants of another expedition, who tell stories of vaults full of ancient treasures in the Mountains to the west.
Day 123
I never saw anything like this. Mountains shaped like Battlements. Cliffs that are shaped like Castle Walls. Are these the remnants of the Tyrant's Wall?
Day 124
Stumbled over a small rivulet of brown Sap that was coming out of a crack in the cliffside. Put some of it in a bottle for further studying.
Scouts came back with reports of a Lake that was glowing with its own light at night.
It's been very hot.
Day 135
Finding a way in these cliffs with the heat beating down on us is taking a toll on everyone.
Day 140
The Sun is still relentless, but at least we reached the lake.
Day 141
It is strange, the lake does really only glow at night. During the day it just looks like an ordinary mountain lake.
Day 142
The Expedition dredged up a lot of ancient weapons from the bottom of the lake. Maybe this was the site of a battle during the big invasion, or someone used this place to get rid of them? We took as much as we could carry and will move eastwards tomorrow.
Day 143
It has started to rain. Finally...
Day 150
Don't know what I would prefer, several weeks of relentless heat, or this seemingly never ending rainstorm that we've been under.
Day 151
I'm starting to believe that maybe there's some truth to the local's belief that the land itself hates people.
Day 160
While seeking shelter from a particularly bad outburst of weather, we stumbled over what looks like the entrance to one of these old vaults we've heard about.
They're going to send out a group tomorrow to see what's inside.
Day 162
A few hours after the party left camp, apparitions started to appear all around us. About two thirds of the expedition didn't make it.
Current Stats:
2 Red Jokers
1 Black Jokers
(the game ends when three jokers of one colour are drawn)
Reputation: -1
Coin: 4
Wares: 1
Wounds: 1 (Dishevelled)
Food: 2
2 Landmark Die
3 Biome Die
2 Temporary Dice
See you in October!
