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springsodasSo, yesterday I experienced an unfortunate disappointment. Waaaay back in July, I preordered the Pipin' Hot Collector's Edition they had announced for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate video game, which I am VERY excited for because of all the goodies that come with it (physical artbooks, my beloved). Originally, it was supposed to come out the same day as the Deluxe Edition back in August, but they had to delay both because they were concerned with the quality of the pre-order bonys items (the Deluxe Edition did already came out back in September, BTW)
However, I learned that the Collector's Edition has once again been delayed, now to December 5th and it's weird because they didn't actually make a proper social media post stating the release had to be pushed back again, at least to my knowledge? The only mention of it I've seen is over on Bluesky where Super Evil Megacorp listed their roadmap for 2025 Q, so I'm not sure why they didn't bring it to the attention of people who have it on preorder. Oh well. Just gotta keep waiting.
In other news, though... It's weird. While I would still say TMNT 2003 is my favorite turtles iteration, Splintered Fate is coming in at a close second because... I just love it so much. While the gameplay on its own super fun as a roguelike beat-em-up similar to Hades, the development team put so, so much love into its story as well as the way the individual characters are portrayed. TMNT has always been a franchise that celebrates familial love and the bonds that exist between siblings as well as fathers and their children, and this game emphasizes it so much with how much the turtles lean on their friends and each other in their journey to rescue Splinter, as well as the conversations where good ol' Rat Dad reaches out to his children to console them in their moments of vulnerability. In addition, while it is heavily inspired by the IDW comics (they even had Tom Waltz, writer for the 100 issues of original IDW run and co-writer of The Last Ronin, on board to help out with the story), it's still very much its own universe, which I really, really like because it gave the developers more freedom to do what they wanted with the plot without being constrained by pre-established lore.
Unfortunately, the game has one major shortcoming with its writing, which is that by virtue of being a standalone TMNT video game, it doesn't have the most developed universe outside what's actually necessary for its plot. As a result, there are many unanswered questions, such as how Splinter, the turtles, and other mutant characters in the game came to be or where Angel got her exo-suit (since Harold Lilja, a character original to IDW, isn't here). That said, for people who enjoy things like worldbuilding and character development like me, that means the game's universe is practically an open sandbox, so you're very free to expand upon and add to the universe as you see fit at long as it doesn't conflict with the established lore. (And there's really not much in the canon I would personally change outside a few minor tweaks to Raphael's characterization; while he's technically my least favorite of the turtles due to not relating much to his anger issues, I really do love his character as portrayed in both 1990 and 2003 otherwise and I'm not too happy that they swapped out his usual struggles with his short temper for one where he is insecure about his intelligence; he may not be booksmart like Donatello, but he's also not a dumbass and very street smart, ya know?)
Before I begin expanding on the universe, though, I think I'm going to go ahead and begin a series of posts that go over the lore of game because there is just. So much to go through. They'll also likely be continuously edited because I still need to play through the DLC that's come out thus far and I want to make sure all my information is confirmed (which is only slightly difficult because the game doesn't have an option to turn off auto-dialogue, which I Do Not Like.)
However, I learned that the Collector's Edition has once again been delayed, now to December 5th and it's weird because they didn't actually make a proper social media post stating the release had to be pushed back again, at least to my knowledge? The only mention of it I've seen is over on Bluesky where Super Evil Megacorp listed their roadmap for 2025 Q, so I'm not sure why they didn't bring it to the attention of people who have it on preorder. Oh well. Just gotta keep waiting.
In other news, though... It's weird. While I would still say TMNT 2003 is my favorite turtles iteration, Splintered Fate is coming in at a close second because... I just love it so much. While the gameplay on its own super fun as a roguelike beat-em-up similar to Hades, the development team put so, so much love into its story as well as the way the individual characters are portrayed. TMNT has always been a franchise that celebrates familial love and the bonds that exist between siblings as well as fathers and their children, and this game emphasizes it so much with how much the turtles lean on their friends and each other in their journey to rescue Splinter, as well as the conversations where good ol' Rat Dad reaches out to his children to console them in their moments of vulnerability. In addition, while it is heavily inspired by the IDW comics (they even had Tom Waltz, writer for the 100 issues of original IDW run and co-writer of The Last Ronin, on board to help out with the story), it's still very much its own universe, which I really, really like because it gave the developers more freedom to do what they wanted with the plot without being constrained by pre-established lore.
Unfortunately, the game has one major shortcoming with its writing, which is that by virtue of being a standalone TMNT video game, it doesn't have the most developed universe outside what's actually necessary for its plot. As a result, there are many unanswered questions, such as how Splinter, the turtles, and other mutant characters in the game came to be or where Angel got her exo-suit (since Harold Lilja, a character original to IDW, isn't here). That said, for people who enjoy things like worldbuilding and character development like me, that means the game's universe is practically an open sandbox, so you're very free to expand upon and add to the universe as you see fit at long as it doesn't conflict with the established lore. (And there's really not much in the canon I would personally change outside a few minor tweaks to Raphael's characterization; while he's technically my least favorite of the turtles due to not relating much to his anger issues, I really do love his character as portrayed in both 1990 and 2003 otherwise and I'm not too happy that they swapped out his usual struggles with his short temper for one where he is insecure about his intelligence; he may not be booksmart like Donatello, but he's also not a dumbass and very street smart, ya know?)
Before I begin expanding on the universe, though, I think I'm going to go ahead and begin a series of posts that go over the lore of game because there is just. So much to go through. They'll also likely be continuously edited because I still need to play through the DLC that's come out thus far and I want to make sure all my information is confirmed (which is only slightly difficult because the game doesn't have an option to turn off auto-dialogue, which I Do Not Like.)
(no subject)
Date: 2025-10-26 06:42 pm (UTC)Love looking at the game's universe not being very developed as an opportunity for worldbuilding and character development! Doing that stuff is my one of my favorite fandom things, ngl
(no subject)
Date: 2025-10-26 06:45 pm (UTC)