#i just like to recolor... uh... everything i put in my game

[treefish]

forever toying around with colors and textures

[victorluvsalice]

...where it was fucking RAINING. *facepalm* Yeah, uh, I looked at the in-game calendar, and as it turned out, for their three-day honeymoon (Saturday, Sunday, and Monday), only Sunday was forecast to have decent weather -- Saturday and Monday both had "Monsoons" listed. *grumbles* If I wanted them to have to deal with thunderstorms, game, I would have had them stay home!

Well, anyway, welcome to KP Beach Cottage, aka my edited version of "Beach Cottage Rental" by SprattyWasHere! I was intrigued by it because it was a build that only used Cottage Living and Island Living, which Spratty designed for a Sim who was trying to catch all the different fish available in Sulani. Given my trio's whole deal as "cottagecore occults," it felt like an appropriate honeymoon location for them, so I slapped it down on the Key Point private island lot and made a few alterations (including recoloring some items, like the kitchen counters, to be more colorful; swapping out some of the CL furnishings for IL ones -- notably the beds and everything in the bathroom (except the toilet, as there IS no Island Living toilet for some reason O.o); making the whole house just ever so slightly bigger to accommodate both the shower AND the tub in the bathroom; replacing the back porch dining table with a games table and putting a new bigger dining table under the little awning thing; putting out some beach towels; and trading all the fish traps in the water for fun floaties (there was also supposed to be a boat, but I think NPCs stole it)) before letting my Sims book it. I thought it would be a lovely island getaway, especially with those cool custom pictures Spratty included! I wasn't planning on rain!

*sigh* Ah well -- there was nothing to do but suck it up and hope for some better weather moving forward. I had everybody get inside, where Alice settled in for a nap on one of the couches while Victor let Smiler get a snack from his wrist. Victor then made some chips with salsa for his and Alice's own morning meal while Smiler got on upgrading the big double bed -- hey, there was nothing better for them to do, and they might as well guarantee that Victor and Alice have as comfortable a time sleeping here as they do at home! Alice woke up just in time to chow down on the finished chips, then it was Victor's turn for a nap while Smiler kept upgrading and Alice --

Started a puzzle! There weren't really any other good entertainment options available, and I've been meaning to try out Sims puzzles for a bit anyway. After briefly playing around with the idea of doing a puzzle from reference (but not having any really good shots to use in Alice's immediate area), I had Alice start on a cute cat-and-dog puzzle as the gang waited out the rain. Smiler completed the bed upgrades just in time to help her finish up the 100-piecer -- I know it looks like they didn't enjoy the finished product in that final picture, but that's just them being Erratic. :p I personally think it's very cute, aw. :) Not how I INTENDED them to spend their island vacation, but honestly not that bad a start, either.

[m0n0lithical]

Sims - get to know me

Tagged by @igotsnothing thanks so much I absolutely wanted to do this one! Also if ya’ll like occults you better go follow them.

1. What’s your favourite sims death? Either meteor because of HOW dramatic it is, or pufferfish since that’s like, the only way for your own sim to kill another sims (without mods, anyway).

2. Alpha CC or Maxis Match? Mostly Maxis, but I do have mix elements (like the hairs that aren’t TECHNICALLY alpha but are so detailed they almost look it), especially in my fandom saves because the outfits in those are always alpha.

3. Do you cheat when your sims gain weight? Nah, if I really want a sim to stay the same weight, I lock the weight/gain loss (I do this for my selfsim every time so she’ll STOP LOSING WEIGHT oh my god woman). But if I’m playing with it on, what happens happens.

4. Do you use move objects? I don’t even have to enter this cheat because it’s always ticked on my BBB.

5. Favorite mod? I mean the most practical favorites are MCCC and BBB, and really most of the ;must haves’ the majority of people have, so lemmie pick a lesser seen one – PreferencesPlus by Helaene is a huge game-changer for someone who really dislikes all the missing likes/dislikes in the game.

6. First expansion/game/stuff pack you got? ...I wanna say Outdoor Retreat? I know, horrible pick, I didn’t know how lacking it was.

7. Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing? Like LIVing

8. Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? This...is hard, but I’m gonna have to roll with Amie, because she’s evolved beyond being just a sim at this rate – she’s also my FFXIV character, as well as a VtM character. But she absolutely did START as a sim.

9. Have you made a simself? Yes – she’s set loose in EVERY save I have for sake of hilarity – I love passing by her in-game and she’s doing something utterly random. The last time I saw her she was shooting down a goth witch lady flirting with her – thrilled the sexuality update can make her proper asexual now, was so happy to see it without having to put dumb flags on her!

10. What sim traits do you give yourself? Lover, Unflirty, Lazy, Cat Lover, Creative, Foodie.

11. Which is your favorite EA hair color? I’m a pretty big fan of the middle red tone. Or the green, if we’re picking unnatural colors.

12. Favorite EA hair? The RoM updo short locs are SO good. Honorable mention to the EL undercut half-ponytail.

13. Favorite life stage? I’m gonna be boring and say YA, because the game is LITERALLY built around them so you have so, SO many more options.

14. Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? I do a little bit of everything, but CAS is my specialty. I spend HOURS in there.

15. Are you a CC creator? If some hair/eye recolors and simple tattoos count, then yeah. I really can’t be fussed learning blender beyond pose-making.

16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad? My social anxiety stops me from interacting a lot, even if I try my best to talk to people. Like, I know the chances of someone being an asshole to me are very, very slim and that most everyone is chill and laid back like I am – REASONABLY I know I’m being dumb, but also my brain is an asshole.

17. What’s your favorite game? In Sims, I’ve honestly only played 4 (a friend sent me 3 a while ago but I have yet to fire it up). Outside sims? Uh...Okami for single player, Guild Wars 2 for multiplayer.

18. Do you have any sims merch? God I wish.

19. Do you have a YouTube for sims? Hahahah like my internet would let me upload videos.

20. How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing? Lord I have no idea...I’ve been fiddling with different types of sim face styles, but I keep falling back to the same one, really – at least for non-themed saves. And it doesn’t even stand out I’m pretty basic bitch.

21. What’s your Origin ID? Monophony! I mostly make sims, but there’s a few terrible builds there, too.

22. Who’s your favorite CC creator? That is a hard as hell question...but I wanna say @simandy,. For multiple reasons, but primarily because their hairs are just...to die for.

23. How long have you had a simblr? It’s been a year or two, but I took several hiatuses as I got distracted by my MMOs. I have a goldfish attention span.

24. How do you edit your pictures? I have several different reshade presets I’ll alternate between, and a good number of Photoshop actions and/or PSDs, and it’s always some combo of those. Each save has a different reshade/action (or PSD) combination to make them have their own looks (I have a word doc for ref so I know what save uses what combo).

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far? Vampires will always be my favorite, but I was shocked by how much I also enjoyed Werewolves – I’m not a werewolf person, really. Non-occult...Growing Together really does add a ton through the whole game.

26. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next? I uh...well you see >-> I’M STUPID WITH MY MONEY I HAVE THEM ALL.

I’m only gonna tag a few peeps since I’ve seen most people having done this - @simarcana, @druidberries, @apricote, @lotus030, @salemssimblr if ya’ll wanna do this here’s your excuse! <3 Feel free to ignore if you don’t wanna!

[jester-png]

Chapter 1 of a Techno and Phil immortals au fic I’m channeling my dsmp brainrot into hope you enjoy lol

AO3

He’d grown used to being alone. After centuries of blood and slaughter, he thought he didn’t deserve not to be. His hands were coarse and rough from overuse and the binding on the handle of his sword had worn long ago. He could stand being alone but most of all, he was tired. He’d spent lifetimes robbing and pillaging and murdering, and for what? The voices demanded blood, and they were never satisfied.

He trudged wearily through the snow on that day, returning from his hunt. He dragged his game behind him, a large deer that must've weighed at least 250 pounds. The animal dyed the snow a deep crimson as he dragged it, and the color very nearly matched that of his cloak. His breathing was heavy and labored, and his legs felt as though they could give out at one wrong step. By the gods, he was tired.

He could see his cabin in the distance. He told himself it was right there, he only had to keep walking a few minutes more.

No. You'll never make it. Give up.

It was at times like these, when his fatigue was at its peak, that he had trouble tuning them out. Snowflakes stuck in his eyelashes, and he dropped the deer behind him. He needed to shed weight just to make it home, and he knew he could come back and get it later. His muscles ached, a small, drawn out pain that he'd carried for longer than he could remember. Except now, there was nothing to distract him. No kingdoms to overthrow, no children to orphan, no blood left to be spilled for miles. Just him, and the snow. His vision blurred, and he found himself stumbling. His fall was cushioned by the fluffy snow beneath him. As he drifted out of consciousness, the cold of the snow on his skin was the only thing he could sense, along with the silence of his surroundings.

He'd always liked snow. At least, he thought he had. When you were as old as he was, "always" seemed like such an insignificant word. His memories of childhood were nearly nonexistent at that point, but every once in a while he'd get glimpses, small feelings or familiar scents that reminded him of something distant. The one thing he was certain about his past was the snow. He remembered sitting out in the snow for hours on end as a child, just watching in wonderment. He loved how monochromatic the world got when it snowed, like the gods had taken a paintbrush and recolored everything in greyscale. But most of all, he loved the quiet when it snowed. Moments of quiet were rare for him now, but whenever he remembered the snow of his childhood, it always seemed so calm. The world still got quiet when it snowed now, but his voices filled the quiet as quickly as it came. As the years passed, quiet became a foreign concept, and he longed for the cold of days gone by.

"Are you alright, mate?"

He heard a voice in the distance. He tried to move, but felt something heavy pinning him down. Despite his fur lined cloak, he was freezing. As his awareness slowly returned to him, he registered that he was covered in snow.

"Aw, jeez. How long have you been out here?"

The voice was closer now, and he felt the snow on top of him shifting. He tried to move again, and with much effort, he rose to his knees. He tried to stand further, but quickly lost his balance. He felt a pair of arms catch him before he hit the ground.

"Woah, woah! Easy there, mate. We need to warm you up."

His vision was still blurry, and he felt weak. He didn't like to feel weak.

"Is that your cabin?"

He could make out the figure's arm pointing behind him, and he turned his head. He couldn't see through the snow, but he'd always had a good sense of direction, and he knew his cabin was that way. A short "Mm.." was all he could get out.

"Well that's... vague. If it's not yours, I'm sure whoever's it is won't mind."

The figure then hoisted him up on his feet, slinging his arm around their shoulders. Even in the bitter cold, the figure's hand on his wrist was incredibly warm. He was vaguely aware of some dark canopy shielding them from the snow before he slipped back out of consciousness.

He remembered that warmth on his wrist through his sleep, and the warmth had spread through his whole body when he came to. He blinked, and his vision had cleared. He recognized the ceiling of his cabin, and that he was laid on his couch. A fire burned in the hearth, filling the cabin with an amber light and a welcoming warmth. He looked around, and things were neater than he remembered leaving them. His cloak was hung to dry near the fire, and he could smell cinnamon somewhere in the house. His sword and axe were propped against the doorframe, and he could see out the small window on the door that it was dark, and the blizzard was still raging outside.

“Oh, you’re awake!” He cocked his head toward the voice, and saw his rescuer clearly for the first time. There was a man standing in the threshold to the kitchen, a cup of tea in either hand. He was slim, but looked as though he could put up a fight. He had golden hair pulled back in a short ponytail, and a green and white striped bucket hat. “Sorry, mate. I know you’re probably confused.” The man made his way over to the living room, and sat in a chair across from the couch. He placed one of the teacups on the coffee table between them. “I made you some tea. I’m Phil.”

He picked up the teacup and took a sip. Tastes of cinnamon and peppermint filled his mouth. He looked up at the man sat across from him, Phil. Phil had an expectant look on his face.

There was a long silence. “...And your name is?” Phil prompted.

It was then that he realized how out of practice he was at social interaction. He tried to speak, his voice raspy at first from lack of use. “Oh uh... Technoblade.”

Phil stood up and offered a handshake. “Nice to meet you, Technoblade. Sorry for breaking into your house.”

Techno stood and took Phil’s hand. Again, that warmth. “Don’t sweat it. And... thanks for helpin’ me out back  there.”

The two sat back down, and sat in silence for a moment as they both sipped their tea. After a moment, Phil spoke. “Oh! Now that you’re awake, you should sit closer to the fire. Dry out your wings faster.”

Technoblade’s eyes went wide as he registered what Phil had said. He slowly set his teacup down on the table. Then, in one swift movement, he grabbed his cloak and swung it over his shoulders to cover his wings, grabbed his sword, and pointed it at Phil’s face. “You... weren’t exactly supposed to see that.”

Phil stood cautiously, raising his hands in defense. Techno raised his blade with him, the tip just inches from Phil’s face. Phil spoke, his voice shaky. “Woah, careful where you point that mate.”

“Yeah, I really appreciate you gettin’ me back home safe and sound...” Technoblade’s voice was as steady as his blade, experienced in violence and with a taste for blood. “..but I really can’t have you goin’ back where you came from and blabbin’ about that particular feature of mine.”

Yes. Kill. Blood. Kill him. Blood for the Blood God.

Phil wore an expression of hurt, almost betrayal. Techno wondered how a man he just met could trust him enough to feel betrayed. “Technoblade I know we’ve just met, and you’ve no reason to trust me, but please, trust me. I wouldn’t.”

“What, you think I’m an idiot?!” Techno swung his sword down as he raised his voice and stepped closer to Phil. Phil didn’t move. “‘Hey guys, I found this freak with wings in the middle of nowhere, let’s go put his head on a plaque!’ Do you know who I am?”

Yes. Yes. BLOOD.

Phil lowered his hands. “I don’t know who you are, Techno. But I know what you are.” He unbuttoned his cape and let it fall to the floor behind him. From his back extended two obsidian black wings, at least 20 feet in wingspan by Techno’s estimate. The feathers had an iridescent quality, colors shifting in the firelight.

KILL. IT DOESN’T MATTER. KILL. BLOOD. KILL.

Technoblade willed the voices into silence. He needed to think. “You... you’re an immortal?”

“I’m like you, Techno.” Phil gestured to Technoblade’s sword. “Now, will you please put that away? I imagine we have a lot to talk about.”

[doubleddenden]

As much as I'm enjoying replaying DBXV2, I think it's time they just do XV3 already. There's only so much DLC you can add to a game my man

Here's what I'd want

1. Stop rehashing Z, we know the entire god damn plot of Z by now. You know what has hardly ever been touched? OG DB. For that matter, the Black Star DB saga in GT. The Other World Tournament arc in Z isn't even touched and its one of the better fillers. Hirudigarn, Bojack, Legacy of Goku, the DB retelling movies, man there's Super Dragon Ball Heroes with more interesting shit than anything Super has put out. For that matter, a true Tournament of Power arc with all or most of the contestants. Hell, why not an ORIGINAL plot that doesn't rely so much on rehashing? Fu decided to help Dr Gero and Dr Wheelo send Cell and Frieza back before Goku met Bulma. Raditz and Nappa decide to join the Z fighters, the Ginyu Force JOINS THE TIME PATROL, idk man something new. Like, is the SKoT the only SKoT or are there other SKoTs for other Universes?

That would make an interesting and fresh plot point. Having to help correct histories in OTHER universes with new stories for each.

2. More and enhanced transformations. I wanna embrace my ultimate dad bod by becoming Super Sayain 4. I want there to be a Super Sayain equivalent for Namekians without turning them giant. Majins get a better Super than just Kid Buu. And also better hair transformations.

3. Better customizations that has more body types for everyone and better fits. I want male Majins to be able to be like Super Buu, roided out Saiyans that are like 8 feet tall like Broly or Kale, shrimpy lads like Cabba, sliders for body parts, etc. Also better fits on clothes with adjustments maybe? And extra stuff like Code Vein to add abs resize. Plus letting us mix and match under and overcoats or capes, recolor everything to our liking, etc

4. More Characters that are overlooked. Yajirobi cut off Vegeta's tail, not Krillen. Why do we have Kefla but not Caulifla or Kale? The GT aliens during the BS arc, the Tuffle Androids from SDBH, Roshi, Chiaotzu, the wolf guys from Super, there's a ton to tap into without rehashing forms and shit

5. Fighting styles. I want to use swords like Trunks and Tapion, let me.

6. No more TP bullshit, just put everything in the in game store and let me buy things in game without using real money and without an internet connection, updated now and then obviously

7. Way more customization for Mentors. Why can I recolor Vegeta's armor but not his skin suit? Is it literally his skin? I can recolor Goku's gi almost entirely. Also, I'd like at least their other outfits as options rather than just 1 I can recolor or 1 special one. I would like to mix and match too or just replace their equipment, but that might be asking much.

8. More races. Beast people are a thing throughout the entire series. Kais, androids, off worlders, DB Fusions actually did this pretty good with a catch all race. Also, custom transformations for it would be nice.

9. Better lighting. Seriously my eyes hurt looking at the character creator screen and things get so saturated

10. Better audio mixing. People who have played the game need no explanation

11. This will never happen, but I want small crossovers, even if it's just costumes. Dragon QUEST would actually do very well since Toriyama did its art as well, and the two art styles would mesh very well. Plus Chrono Trigger, which I feel would mesh with the Time Patrol plot very, very well.

12. Please. Please stop. Letting. Goku. Hog. The. Glory. At least with XV 1 we could beat the final boss before he showed up. In XV3, I want it to be you and the other two time patrollers that came before you. That's it. No Goku. Maybe Vegeta for a change, or Trunks, but no Goku.

I don't look to see it happening any time soon given XV2 is still being milked dry, but a lot of my quieter interests have been getting news recently so uh. You know. Manifesting it.

[askroahmmythril]

Reference List for amiibo Fighter Names (Set 4)

37) Pichu : Zap Nezumi - Those who have been with my channel for awhile might remember a cute and charming Mega Man style game called Nezumiman.  I love that game so much and would love to see a sequel.  Squeakuel?...  Anyway.  Most of the bosses were dubbed (Element) Nezumi, depending on their power.  So Pichu gets to fill in as Zap Nezumi!  Up top we have all the various stage bosses, and Pichu is dressed in all the fashion items Nezumiman gets for beating them.  He’s got Perfect Fashion!  Which according to Nezumiman, also involves having Dr. Gyoniku’s butt in the background.

38) Pikachu : Agent 25 - Actually a self reference, this one.  Agent 25 is a “character” that has appeared in some of my silly bits I’ve done for past videos.  Theoretically his real name is Conduit, my Lv. 100 Pikachu, but he serves as an agent for me, going by the codename Agent 25 (his Pokédex number), protecting me from annoying talent agents trying to zap me with a dragon prod for taking time off.  We went with a full-on James Bond style for this one.  A minor detail, the display of PokéBalls in the nameplate having five empty circles before it is supposed to reference the display showing how many Pokémon a trainer has in a battle, thus, he’s the only one here.

39) Pit : Icarusicus - What can I say, I grew up with Captain N as a kid.  Back then, as a gamer, you took whatever media you could get.  Captain N was cheesy as heck, and got a lot of source details WAY wrong, but it was still fun in its own weird way.  In that cartoon, Pit was instead simply named Kid Icarus, and had a habit of inserting “-icus” at the end of everything he said.  So here the more modern Pit is faced with a blast from the past, his cartoony old weapons and contact from Kevin and Princess Lana.  Neo added more details, like some Mega Man sprites recolored and restyled to look like characters in Captain N.  Including a Simon Belmont sprite given his look from the cartoon, blue bomber jacket and blond hair and all.  The building shown is the Palace of Power, Princess Lana’s base of operations.

40) Pokémon Trainer : RedVersion - Again a self contained reference to Pokémon.  The trainer he’s based on is Red as he appears in Fire Red and Leaf Green.  Thus, RedVersion, in reference to the original Red Version of Pokémon.  Neo and I both had the idea to try to pose the Pokemon and Red himself like how they’re posed in the original game sprites.  Neo also went an extra step, using minimalist colors to mimic how the sprites looked on a Game Boy Color or Super Game Boy.  While I do like the idea, I might ask to stick with full color just to mimic the amiibo itself if we do indeed redo these.  The overall look of the card was designed to look somewhat like the original Pokédex.

41) Robin : ShipREKT - Again, Fire Emblem is not exactly my area of expertise.  But this silly idea came to mind, knowing Robin’s game has a lot of “pairing people up to increase bonds” mechanics.  Sooooo Shipping : The Game.  So I just had the silly idea of drawing him in super charming anime style.  Of all things, I think I was largely influenced by a scene from the Unova episodes of Pokémon where a male Minccino was using Charm.  I suppose this is a good time to mention that, in cases where only one figure was released for a character, I go with that style for them, so for instance, there’s only a male Robin card, only a female Wii Fit Trainer card, no wireframe Little Mac, no Koopalings, etc.

42) ROB : Spin Cycle - I mean, ROB’s all about spinning his gyros, that’s really all there is to this one.  The colored swirl in the background was supposed to mimic the red and blue colors of the gates from Gyromite that he’d help you move.  However, it also kinda looks like the colors of those infamous Tide pods.  Which... I mean, spin cycle IS a laundry term, so yay accidental references?...

43) Rosalina : Cosmic Mama - I love Katamari!  Seriously given that was a Namco game, I would have loved it if some Katamari music got in on the Pac-Man stage.  Ah well.  This was one of those where I just couldn’t resist the reference and sneaking the Half Inch Prince into the picture.  Neo further personalized some of the Lumas, as well as adding the famous “I feel it!  I feel the cosmos!” quote.

44) Samus : Chozen One - A self contained Metroid reference, and a silly pun.  Samus is the “Chosen One” in the sense that a lot of Chozo prophecies as seen in the Prime series seem to center around her actions.  So just a combination of Chosen and Chozo.  I had worried that Samus would be hard to draw in Visio Home, but it turned out to be really good for drawing the defined lines of her suit.

45) Sheik : HARP HERO - While I’ve never actually played any of the Guitar Hero games, the fact that Sheik generally just follows you around to teach you new songs via her harp made this idea stick with me.  A shame she doesn’t use her harp for anything in Smash...  Seriously feels weird that she doesn’t.  Anyway, I had the track display the notation for Bolero of Fire.  For some reason, the scene of her teaching you this one just stuck with me as a kid as one of the most iconic scenes with her.  This was also drawn before we started putting character icons in the nameplates.  In his version, Neo added the Sheikah eye symbol to the nameplate.

46) Shulk : RA1NFALL - This is a reference to Project Rainfall, a community effort to coax publishers into localizing a few select games in the US.  If memory serves, Xenoblade Chronicles was the first and perhaps most prominent game to have been part of this effort, hence my putting a 1 in the name.  I didn’t really have a good solid way of drawing rain in Visio Home, so Neo added that on his end.  Really this one probably saw the most changes between versions, as I really had very limited info on Xenoblade.  My frame as such is.... really clunky looking.  Neo was able to make something far better looking on his version.  The symbol on Shulk’s Monado here means “rain,” so, uh.... umbrella utility!

47) Sonic : SpeedRacer - A reference to the anime of the same name.  Sonic here is posed like Speed after he jumps out of the Mach Five during the Speed Racer title sequence.  Meanwhile Sonic’s car here is the one he drives in Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed, as well as being on the game’s Starlight Carnival track.  Neo gave me the idea to have a Coconuts peeking out of the trunk of the car to mimic Chim-Chim, the monkey mascot of the Speed Racer team that had a habit of stowing away in Speed’s trunk while he was racing.

48) King Dedede : ThreeDeDe - A joke on 3D imagery, such as that found on the Nintendo 3DS.  The first Kirby game for the 3DS, Triple Deluxe, even had a mode where you played as King Dedede on his own adventure, so hey, him celebrating this moment of glory does not seem out of character for him.

[shenanigumi]

Hakuouki Question Meme

From this post! (I just don’t like reblogging lists of questions with all my answers attached, and I don’t wanna bother anyone by tagging for credit, but please do go check out the linked blog.)

1. Why/how did you decide to start playing Hakuōki?

I saw a post of KW/EB’s CGs (back in early 2016, long before it was localized—might even have been before Edo Blossoms was out in Japan) on @chibitorra​’s blog and liked the post, so she was all excited that I knew what Hakuōki was. When she found out I’d just liked the post because of the art style, she showed me some more art and I fell in love and later bought Memories without knowing anything at all about it, including the fact that Hakuōki is historical fiction.

2. What routes and/or games have you played so far?

All routes, extra content, and DLC in:

Memories of the Shinsengumi (3DS)

Stories of the Shinsengumi (PS3)

Hakuōki Shinsengumi Kitan (iOS)

Kyoto Winds (PS Vita)

Edo Blossoms (PS Vita)

And as a bonus:

Warriors of the Shinsengumi (PSP)

3. What is your favorite character and route? They don’t have to be the same.

Favorite character… oof. Difficult question. Still the disgrace to all demon-kind that is Kazama, though it’s worth noting that my first impulse was to say Shiranui. But my favorite route is definitely Heisuke’s.

4. Is there a song that you associate with your fave?

Panic! at the Disco’s “Emperor’s New Clothes”, on account of that one not-quite-AMV I made, feat. HakuMyu!Kazama.

5. Who was the first route you played?

Hijikata’s, because Canon First, amirite? But it’s worth noting that because I went into it blind (and initially locked myself into a bad ending since I was playing on one file…), I actually ended up with the most affection with Saito at first. Thankfully, he and Hijikata were so close that I only had to load my last save to pick Hijikata’s option instead and put him in first place.

6. Did you go with the name Chizuru or did you pick another name? What was it?

At first, I used the name “Michiko” for no particular reason other than I like the name. Then I decided keeping “Chizuru” was better since she turned out to have a personality of her own and I wasn’t seeing myself in her situation. After that, for specific routes in Stories, I used “Chihiro” because that’s the name of my self-insert in that one dumb epic I can actually write now.

7. Is there a character that you just can’t get yourself to like? If so, who?

Iba Motherfucking Hachiro.

8. What characters (besides the player character) do you enjoy seeing interact the most?

Harada and Shiranui, for damn sure. I adore their rivalry-[b]romance and I wish there was a lot more of it. Other than that, Kazama and Sen for… fairly obvious reasons.

9. Is there a character that doesn’t currently have a route that you really want to see with one?

Nomura is the first that comes to mind, but really, I have mixed feelings. Given what they did with KW/EB, I no longer have a great deal of faith that Hakuōki as a franchise could handle more new routes in a balanced way, especially since there are so many reboots already.

10. Did you cry at any point during the game?

Who do you take me for, someone who isn’t 100% emotionally driven?

11. What was your favorite moment?

Wow, that’s open-ended… um… wow. How am I supposed to even choose?? There are so many different kinds of moments and so many favorites of each kind. But… out of everything, I think Kazama and Heisuke’s sass battle may rank the highest. That or Shiranui’s geisha route.

12. What is your favorite CG?

God, that’s a tall order too. I ran through my entire copious collection of CGs in search of whichever one spoke to me most and I think this one ranks highest:

(Coincidentally a part of the same scene as the one I chose for my favorite moment. And in my favorite route, too. Figures.)

13. Did you prefer the characters’ original outfits and hairstyles or their Western ones?

Hmm… it really depends on the character and, for that matter, the game. I’d have to say, overall, I’m a total sucker for the original/Stories Western wear, but the recolors and redesigns in KW/EB aren’t quite as good imo.

14. Thinking about your favorite character and route, do you think you could fall for and date that person in real life?

Uh… no, probably not. Kazama is a terrible person and I don’t want to be anywhere near him in any way, and Heisuke is more like a brother to me.

15. What is your opinion on Itou?

I think his presentation in the game is terrible and that he did, in fact, deserve to be assassinated.

16. If you found yourself at death’s door, would you drink the ochimizu and become a fury?

Yeah, probably. My reasoning would be the same as Heisuke’s, though—more out of fear than anything else—and my regrets would be comparable. Don’t really wanna think too far down that road…

17. Do you think the Ishida Powdered Medicine actually does anything?

Not knowing what’s in it, I can’t say for sure, but I think it’ll fix some ailments more than others. They probably exaggerate its healing capacities.

18. Do you want to see Sweet School Life or Reimeiroku localized? Would you buy them?

I’m actively interested in Reimeiroku and would buy that shit so fast you wouldn’t believe. But… as for SSL, the weird student/teacher dynamics prevent me from really wanting them to translate that one. I’d still buy it, though.

19. Did you watch the anime?

I did, all three seasons. But the Sekkaroku OVA is by far my favorite in so many ways.

20. What would you like to see in any future games?

I… don’t know. I don’t know if I even want any future games in the first place, given the number they did on KW/EB, retconning things that originally made sense into things that don’t make sense anymore. I think Hakuōki might have hit its peak, and I’m apprehensive about additional installments.

[bignookling]

100 days to acnh challenge - 1 to 74

found this challenge and decided it would be a great way to pass the time until the release date, and a good way to get people to know me a lil better too c’: i feel so powerful starting at this point, there are so few days left to wait! 

1. Do you prefer making up a new name for your villager, or using your own name? i never, ever used my own name... i always felt like this would be boring, and i kinda want to give myself the opportunity to create a new “character” based on the events that happen to them in the game... (my first character in wild world was named Scarlet :^)) 2. Do you use the first map you’re given, or do you reset for layouts? i am bige resetter with bige plans all jokes aside i am way too indecisive and spent way too much time on this, i would even check people’s dream towns prior to resetting to gather ideas and fresh input on this. though usually, each time i remade my town i had a specific kind of map in mind? most of all, i like having a secluded nice little corner to put my house (being able to move your house in nh is a game changer honestly!) grass type and colors of buildings also matter. residents not so much because, hey, i can also reset for that later! (i am terrible) 3. Do you use the face you’re given, or do you wait for guides and choose your favourite? similarly, i use a guide. i think the only times i didn’t was my first times in wild world where i didn’t really have access to a fast internet connection :’^) (guess what i am also indecisive about this! my most used are the classic arched villager eyes, the almond shaped ones and the shiny anime ones THEY ARE TOO CUTE) 4. Favourite town/island name?/Have you a name picked out for your town/island? I WON’T SAY YET... i have multiple options for now and idk what to do... but my nl town is named Suzuran, and i really like this name :] 5. Will you be sharing with friends/family, or is your island going to be all your own? probably gonna be my own! my mother used to have a character in my wild world town though :) 6. What’s a new feature you’re excited about? ALL but mostly the terraforming/switching everything up options!! for...reasons mentioned above... also the weeds. i never really got to dupe clovers or stuff like that so i am very pumped 7. Favourite fruit? buttfruit peaches probably... i also love perfect oranges and perfect pears because they’re like golden... i like gold like perfect fruits in general hehe i also love the new fruits in new leaf! 8. Least favourite fruit? apples are a bit tacky to me but i still love them i am sad i cannot really make a lot of fruit trees work in my minimally colored nl towns... some people do it so well though and i am TRYING 9.  Favourite area? (Beach, campground, shopping district etc, from any entry in the series.) THIS IS HARD I DON’T HAVE A LOT OF MEMORIES i have fond memories of the beach in wild world just because of some people’s really pretty hacked towns. like they added a whole “manor” (big player house) in front of it and that was the bomb. i also loved the cliffs in city folk and am so glad they are back... 10. Where do you like to like to put your house? Do you like that level of customization, or do you prefer to have some things decided, like in older entries? as i said i like secluded, remote areas for the house, and i also loved to put it near the cliff in city folk! (you better be fully awake if you step out)  the beach is a neat option too. but in nl my favorite was next to a waterfall! 11.  Favourite grass pattern? triangles! when i was a kid it was my least fav and i always avoided it though... then i visited a friend’s cf town and was like “wait this is MORE LIKE REAL GRASS” and i had an awakening...  12. Least favourite grass pattern? circles are a bit... odd for grass i think 13. Favourite villager/s? purrl was my absolute queen when i played wild world and still is. i love cats in general... and deer. and coco. coco is so my aesthetic and goals for a town feeling if you know what i mean, i adore her. doyoing 14. Least favourite villager/s? i am basic and like cute things so the least cute and mostly most tacky, bright colored ones... i am sorry...i still care about all your villagers 15. Did you like doing Tom Nook’s chores, or did you find those to be a pain? generally speaking i like them when i first play the game because they are immersive and kinda introduce you to the main concepts of the game? (the city in city folk, being mayor in nl etc) but with side characters and resetting they get a bit repetitive and frustrating upping your reputation to be able to work as a mayor in nl also is a pain 16. Favourite NPC/s? label is my queen and wife. i love her sisters too, and tom nook... BLANCA too i adored her when i played wild world and couldn’t get to see her in my town and was so hyped for her nl event laughs, and joan and daisy mae... i’m probably forgetting some faves I LOVE EVERYONE wait KAPPN has cute dialogue too!  17. Least favourite NPC/s? is there one? i don’t know? i’m gonna go check a list of npcs now ... i am back and honestly I DON’T KNOW 18. Do you use paths? Are you excited about the new path tool? i don’t use paths in my town because they are a mess to set up and i love the natural look anyway, but some people do it so well! i love the ones with natural colors and the little details.  the new path tool looks so convenient, but i don’t know if i like the textures! i’ll probably use it sparsely because i also wanna keep that wild look to my town 19. Favourite feature from an older entry?  the lights on the villagers’ houses in wild world is what came to mind first, hahah 20. What was your first Animal Crossing game? WILD WORLD!! i played it so much and for so long 21. Favourite activity (fishing, bug catching, fossil hunting, other)? bug catching (ca-ching) is my fave out of this list, i also love visiting dream towns and playing with friends in general! 22. Least favourite activity? diving is so slow... 23. Favourite bug? the huge butterflies you see in summer (i was AMAZED when i first saw them), the fireflies (SAME, the first time i saw some was in someone else’s town in city folk as we crossed a bridge and it was just magical, laughs), and the big shiny beetles... it’s not just for the monies, i promise 24. Least favourite bug? either the small butterflies that you see everywhere when you’re trying to catch something neat for the bug-off, or the tarentulas/scorpios because i NEVER MANAGED TO CATCH THEM 25. A quarter of the way there! How’s the wait? actually there’s barely a month remaining as we speak, so pretty fine! i still have to pick my character and town names, and to be honest i am mostly worried i’ll start procrastinating like crazy once the game is out. coughs. at least i’ll draw ac characters? 26.  Favourite fish? i love coelacanths because i am a big nerd, also the sharks and the cute colorful fishes 27.  Least favourite fish? just all the most common ones probably? sea bass isn’t the only one... 28.  Favourite fossil?  what are these questions. uh, i loved putting the small squares ones in my room in wild world...especially ammonites 29.  Least favourite fossil? the ones that bring less cash money? i only care about fossils when they’re displayed in the museum tbh. and there i just love them all 30. Favourite furniture series? the ranch series looked way better in wild world and i am mourning now i love alpine, rococo and modern wood the most! the green one looks cool recolored too! i like combining different series the most, too 31. Least favourite furniture series? anything bright and tacky (except maybe the lovely that’s still fairly cute?)  32. Favourite soundtrack? (Gamecube, DS/Wii, etc) i can’t remember but i get huge pangs of nostalgia if i listen to the wild world/city folk one 33. Least favourite soundtrack? i DON’T KNOW... maybe nl was a bit less whismical? 34. Favourite wallpaper? alpine, chic, exquisite, classic, [...] anything that looks warm and natural and makes for a comfortable house!  35. Do you have a nice memory of the games/community etc you’d like to share? when i was a young teen, i idolized someone in the wild world community because her town was honestly incredibly pretty? so much thought has been put into it and it was just a dream. it made me want to invest more time and planning into my own towns and that’s how i got really, really hooked on the game, i think 36. Least favourite wallpaper? anything really colorful and tacky again... 37.  Favourite carpet? the wood ones, mostly! 39. Favourite furniture item? i love the oven thing from pocket camp... and the rocking chair... and the fireplace... 40. Will you be buying a Switch for Animal Crossing, or do you already have one? i have preordered the animal crossing one... i live for this (i am so glad i waited though honestly) 41. Least favourite furniture item? the huge tacky things or things that just look odd in a house perhaps... wait but i still like to see them and some people use them so well. why would i hate on furniture i wonder 42. Favourite flower? jacob’s ladders and white flowers in general. i adore the look of the ones in nh, holy sh- 43. Least favourite flower? pretty much anything that’s yellow. just never goes with my town plans... the roses especially are so bright i’m 44. Favourite hybrid? i miss the colors of the ones in ww/cf so much... so so much but in general i like anything that’s purple, black or blue i think :> 45. Least favourite hybrid? hmmmm the orange ones from new leaf i think? in the previous games they were so rich and warm though... 46. Favourite shirt? the canary shirt, maybe? though i mostly use qr codes, ahaha some of these outfits are still super cute... 47. Favourite dress? anything pocket camp tends to be good, also this one forever in my heart. i adore the flowery sleeveless dresses too! 48. Favourite accessory? bandages, heart shades, leaf, and tortoise specs! 49. Favourite hat/helmet? celeste’s ribbon, hibiscus hairpin, and that tiny straw hat 51. Favourite shop? i always adored able sisters, and leif’s little gardening shack :> 52. Do you collect amiibo cards/figures? Would you like to see them used in the new game? we know they are compatible now, but i don’t have any! maybe i should buy some? 53. Fishing Tourney or Bug-Off? bug-off is quicker and funnier >:] also i remember i ALWAYS WON in cf while playing with friends... fight me... 54. Do you like making your own clothing patterns? there are so many nice ones already that my slots are always full, so i don’t bother... i remember making a two-toned shirt that i wanted irl when i got new leaf, but that’s pretty much all 55. Did you streetpass with many other ACNL players, or is it a feature you didn’t get much use of? I ALMOST NEVER DID...

56. Favourite villager species? CATS... also, deer. basic basic 57. Least favourite villager species? mice and monkeys have the least cute designs i think...? also hamsters idk. i don’t know i like villagers don’t make me choose 58. Favourite nickname from a villager? 59. Least favourite nickname from a villager? I NEVER LET THEM NICKNAME ME... i am sorry to all the aminals 60. Do you try to collect everything in the game, or just try to get your favourite bits and pieces? in wild world i tried to fill my catalog, but now i only get what i need or what i know my friends might need 61. Favourite villager personality? i always had a thing for the snooty and cranky ones! the uchis are cool now too 62. Least favourite villager personality? the jocks are boring to me and they tend to have my least fav designs. when i like one i keep them though because it is so rare...wheeps 63. Do you “plot reset” for villager house placement, or do you let them move in wherever they want? i only really started doing that with the welcome amiibo update that apparently makes it easier, else i just waited for the annoying ones to move... (and time travelled a lot) 64. Are you excited to wear any of the new accessories (like the bags etc shown in the E3 trailer)? i will COLLECT THOSE and COLOR COORDINATE 65. What season are you most looking forward to seeing in New Horizons? 66. What’s your favourite season? i think summer, i want to hear the cicadas and see the fireflies again, and i also want to see how the rain and wind look like! i remember seeing really pretty storms in nl during summer too ♥ 67. Least favourite season? winter gets slow after a while? i still love it though 68. Which game’s events/holidays do you like the most? 69. Which game’s events/holidays do you like least? i don’t remember ‘-’ honestly i feel like i liked them all for different reasons? wild world felt more “involved” in the community, REMEMBER THE GARDENING CONTESTS! and city folk gave you better rewards and was a fun minigame for the day.  70. Do you have another nice AC related memory you’d like to share (in-game, of the community, etc)? i had a vivid dream that your character could DIE in animal crossing once (i predicted new horizons yes) 71. Do you prefer the “live” versions of K.K. Slider’s Songs, or the airchecks? i tend to prefer the airchecks but the concerts are Special, no matter if it’s with friends or alone 72. An NPC you’d like to see more of? mmmnnh blanca always. i love her spirit 73. An NPC you’d like to see less of? really unpopular opinion probably but i wouldn’t miss reese and cyrus too much if they aren’t as present in nh 74. If you could have any piece of AC merchandise, which would it be? the plushies are so good... i’d like like... a fauna one... idk WHEW I’M DONE... i’ll be posting the rest of it daily now! 

[emmelfish]

100 Followers Gift: Born-In-Game Sims (Free to Good Home)

What the hell? 100 whole people are following this nonsense? I barely expected even five people to be interested!

Well thank you, you absolute beautiful people on Tumblr – I feel like I should gift you something in return. And until I learn how to recolor sweaters (it is after all my dream to make special sweaters for all the fraternities and sororities in the game), you can have some born-in-game sims. Do with them as you please! Utilize their lovely genetics as face templates! Be wary of their alarming personalities!

They come CC-free, packaged in basegame clothing. I do have some Maxis Match in-between skintone blends by PurplePaws installed that I use in my game, so if any sim is not S1, 2, 3 or 4, I’ll make that clear in the descriptions so you can apply your own equivalent when in CAS. 

You’ve not seen them yet in my gameplay pics, but my defaults are now the beautiful Fountain Eyes by @dreadpirate. Just be sure to use Clean Installer so that these simmies pick up your own defaults :)

Satan’s Twins, I mean... Skip Jr and Susie Broke

From the loins of evil (uh, actually Brandi’s and deceased Skip Broke’s) come these cheekboned blonds with their horrible personalities, but at least they love each other, right? Susie’s always dragging Skip Jr to parties he’s too introverted for, but he enjoys being misanthropic with her once they’re there and dragging everyone’s outfits. Christ, how did someone as friendly as Brandi ever give birth to these chodes?

Susie Broke

Sloppy/Neat – 3

Shy/Outgoing – 10

Lazy/Active – 9

Serious/Playful – 3

Grouchy/Nice – 3

Hobby – Fitness

I was planning on setting Suse to Popularity (baaaahahahahaha) because of those bonkers max outgoing points, but also, her love of Fitness means her body skills would be on point come career time and potentially lead to a Hall of Famer situation. Nope, when I put prototype adult Susie in a different neighborhood for this shoot she rolled Cult Leader. Of course she did.

Download Susie Broke

Skip Broke Jr

Sloppy/Neat – 3

Shy/Outgoing – 1

Lazy/Active – 10

Serious/Playful – 10

Grouchy/Nice – 3

Hobby – Sports

I’ve thought about making SJ a Knowledge sim – I think he has an interesting personality for that aspiration. When I tried it in his test hood he opted for the top of the Intelligence Career, and if it wasn’t for those 10 Playful points I’d probably wholly agree with that. Maybe he’d be the inappropriate prankster of the SCIA office?

Download Skip Broke Jr

Frida and Remedios Broke-Dreamer

Twin girls of Brandi and Darren Broke-Dreamer (Brandi’s second set of twins GOOD LORD), conceived when that pair said not one word to one another upon meeting and proceeded to plow. Here they are, old enough to be truly horrified by that story. Named after surrealist painters because of their artsy parents, they’re the youngest of SEVEN GODDANG CHILDREN (related to Dirk Dreamer and all four Broke kids). Man I love these two. 

Frida Broke-Dreamer

Sloppy/Neat – 3

Shy/Outgoing – 7

Lazy/Active – 10

Serious/Playful – 7

Grouchy/Nice – 7

Hobby – Fitness

Given I imagine Brandi’s second set of twins to be a little more laid back and hippyish than their older siblings, I headcanon Frida as an aspiring yoga teacher (the more spiritual end of the Fitness hobby?) although she’s the one family member who could potentially beat Skip Jr and Susie in an endurance test. She’d take after her mama as a Family sim I reckon.

Download Frida Broke-Dreamer

Remedios Broke-Dreamer

Sloppy/Neat – 3

Shy/Outgoing – 8

Lazy/Active – 4

Serious/Playful – 7

Grouchy/Nice – 6

Hobby – Nature

Didn’t I tell you I’d make one of Brandi’s kids a Romance sim? Step right up Remy! Laid back and chill, with effortless charm and bags of confidence, I could imagine her being quite the success on the dating scene. I’d also really love to do something cool with her Nature hobby – maybe she’ll buy Florence Delarosa’s flower shop after Flo retires?

Remy’s skintone is between S2 and S3, so I’ve packaged her as S3... please remember to use Clean Installer just in case any of my CC lingers!

Download Remedios Broke-Dreamer

Matilda Caliente-Goth and Joséfina Caliente(-Lothario)

Remind you of a certain two sisters? Yep, I’m pretty excited at how much these cousin BFFs look like their mothers. Matilda is the laid-back and fun-loving daughter of Mortimer Goth and Dina Caliente, and Joséfina Caliente is the jaw-droppingly confident and energetic result of an ill-advised afternoon of passion between Nina Caliente and Don Lothario. They each only have four nice points so you can’t sit with them.

Joséfina Caliente

Sloppy/Neat – 1

Shy/Outgoing – 9

Lazy/Active – 8

Serious/Playful – 5

Grouchy/Nice – 4

Hobby – Fitness

There’s an interesting mix of both parents’ personalities (and looks) with Josie, and as the progeny of Don and Nina of course her hobby would be something that involves racking up Body points. Given how extroverted she is, I thought perhaps the perfect aspiration for the lovechild of two Romance sims would be Popularity. No doubt there’d be something sporty in her future but I do headcanon her as having serious book smarts, so we shall see... *strokes chin*

Download Joséfina Caliente

Matilda Caliente-Goth

Sloppy/Neat – 4

Shy/Outgoing – 6

Lazy/Active – 4

Serious/Playful – 7

Grouchy/Nice – 4

Hobby – Games

When you’re drowning in Fitness and Nature sims it’s so nice to get a Gamer. They’re super rare in the uberhood! I could imagine Matilda growing up on chess, stealing all of Alex’s video games, then maybe one day interning at Lucy Burb’s game development company (Luce rolled the LTW to reach the top of the Gamer career in my game) and likely becoming a vlogger in the field. She’s definitely a Pleasure sim, the spitting image of her mother Dina... and takes after her in the ‘well, black goes with everything?’ fashion stakes.

Like Remy, Matty’s skintone is between S2 and S3. I’ve packaged her as S3 like her mother, so add the skintone you feel suits her best – also, you’ll see that she appears in your CAS in Mama’s basegame dress, for funsies. 

Download Matilda Goth

Hope you enjoy! Please let me know if any links are broken or if anything borks with the files, I will gladly try to fix.

[fyonnkalnonn]

Warhammer 40k Battle Sister is, uh, not great. Unfortunately it’s one of those games that is doing pretty much everything like RE4VR but slightly worse.

Also the game has a height adjustment meter but insists on giving you a visible body with inverse kinematics does not seem to scale up. Love to see that my shoulders are located somewhere in my armpits.

You can tell how not great it is by the fact that I don’t have any screenshots and also I got an achievement for killing ten dudes in melee during Chapter 2. Only 30% of players have this achievement. Melee dudes are like half the dudes you fight.

Also if you’re out of ammo for a gun, it will let you pull the wrong ammunition out of your ammo pouch. Which is exceptionally good because bolt pistol and bolter magazines look the same. Spent like five minutes trying to figure out why I couldn’t put more ammo into my pistol, and even longer before I realized the bolters I found throughout the level were not, in fact, just a recolor of my pistol, but a completely different gun.

[gamearamamegathons]

Dragon Warrior II: Double Peace

Circe here! I've done it. Finally: I, personally, have brought peace to the land, twice. But okay, let's start from the top. Admittedly, the deeper I got into the game's tangled line of quest items, the more I forgot what all does what where. Following a guide doesn't help, since it's easy to forget stuff I was just following step-by-step rather than putting together myself. But I'm glad I did, because I was really running out of patience for this game. In the end, though, I managed to find the jailor's key and the watergate key, open the path to the moon tower, get the moon fragment, open the path to the sea cave, find...uh...something there...the Eye of Malroth? And also scrape together the five crests and bring them to a single tile in the middle of nowhere in which I can find the dwelling of the wizard Rubiss and get his charm.

The *important* part is that with the Eye of Malroth and the Charm of Rubiss, I can now enter the final phase of the game. The sprawling overworld quest, eventually, funnels down into a single ominous final path: the Cave of Rhone. I knew the cave was bad, because while digging for info on the game and how to continue, I saw a lot of players complaining about how difficult it is to get through. And they're not kidding. At this point I'd long past given up on mapping the dungeons, so I was just following the guide to the letter to get through. But even then, the encounters are brutally punishing. I'm starting to notice a concerning trend, and it's apparently not just localized to the first Dragon Warrior: the final 20% of the game or so is made up mostly of miserably difficult and unfair encounters. Saber Lions became one of my least favorites, having physical attacks powerful enough that a group can rip through a single party member. I'd gone remarkably long in this game without any deaths, but now my characters were dropping like flies, and that's a serious problem in a game where revival is very, very limited.

So getting through the Cave of Rhone basically boiled down to luck and running, a lot. The more I bump into this kind of problem, the more I feel like 'running' as a mechanic is a serious, gaping design flaw, even among the already fairly flawed games of the early console RPG era. See, if you just don't want to deal with encounters because they're sapping your resources every fight, you have two options every turn: fight or run. Fighting is a surer thing, but it's definitely going to cost you. Running, on the other hand, gives you a chance to escape scot free, but if it fails, you have gained exactly nothing and taken a ton of damage. What's more, fights against strong enemy groups are generally survivable by whittling down their numbers. A couple turns of failing to run will likely leave your party in such bad shape that if you decided to fight after all, you'd be starting from way behind and likely end up just getting killed. At that point, all you can really do is keep running. Even though a lot of run attempts succeed on the first try, I didn't find it that rare at all to find myself failing to run three, four, five times, knowing that I'd wasted that many turns where I could've at least been taking down some of the enemies and leaving myself with a more manageable encounter that I could probably defeat. This kind of dynamic is a recipe for misery, and I mean it -- trying to get through the Cave of Rhone marks the first time in this marathon that I had to physically step away from my computer and take a breather because I was so frustrated.

There is, fortunately, a reward of sorts at the other end of the cave. You emerge into Rhone itself, a mountain-ringed landscape with a unique snowy tileset. The monsters here are brutally powerful, but if you can make your way to the monolith, you'll find perhaps the single best thing in the game: free healing, free revival, and a save point, all rolled into one. Welcome, this monolith is going to be your home for a while. See, you're probably far too weak to beat Hargon right now, but monsters in Rhone give absurd amounts of EXP. In a matter of a few hours of grinding, I was able to leap forward 11 levels before I finally got bored. My guide recommended beating the game at level 30, but I went all the way to level 35 because fuck this game's idea of a fair fight.

There are problems in Rhone, though. For one, you get to see two new delightful spells that enemies can cast: Defeat and Sacrifice. Defeat has a low chance of killing any one of your party members, and one of the monsters, Blizzard, likes to cast it a lot. There's nothing you can really do about it. If they're dead, they're dead, and even after Glynn learns Revive, he can only cast it out of battle. Sacrifice is the real nasty one, though. Golden Batboons will rarely cast this spell, which destroys the user in order to kill all targets. Yes, that's right. If any enemy casts this spell in a battle, you TPK instantly, no resistance, no saves, no nothing. Why this monumentally bad idea exists in the game at all is considerably beyond me. However, if you're chilling in Rhone, you probably don't need the money you lose from dying anyway, so anytime you return to the monolith, either from travling back yourself or from a party wipe, you just pick yourself up again with the free heal and go back out. Unfortunately...no matter how leveled up I got, it didn't feel like the hits I was taking from enemies got any lighter. I was getting a lot more HP and MP though, so that's a plus.

Still, I'm not gonna lie. Traveling through Rhone and Hargon's castle was about as miserable as the Cave of Rhone, with the main difference being that it was shorter. When you reach Hargon's castle, you find a replica of Midenhall Castle. The trick is that the Charm of Rubiss lets you see through the illusion, so when you use it, you get to see the true nature of Hargon's castle, which of course is filled with flaming souls, damage tiles, and demons. Then you have to make your way behind the throne and use the Eye of Malroth, which takes you to the dungeon proper. Here, you meet the, uh...first bosses in the entire game, I think. First you come across three forced encounters as you make your way up the castle: Atlas, a recolor of the giant enemies; Bazuzu, a recolor of the batboon enemies; and Zarlox, a recolor of the demon enemies. They're all fairly unremarkable as bosses -- the game's fights are more interesting than Dragon Warrior's, but there's still a pretty predictable range of what enemies can do: cast the same spells as you and breathe fire, pretty much. The big sticking point, though, was Bazuzu, who inexplicably can cast Defeat *and* Sacrifice. Yes, a mandatory boss battle can end with the boss just instantly wiping your party with nothing you can do about it. And don't think 'sacrificing' himself means he's gone, either. That doesn't count as him being defeated, naturally.

After that, you make your way to Hargon, an angry-looking wizard guy. He's basically Dragonlord 2.0, more or less. The most dangerous spell at this point is Explodet, which deals massive damage to the whole party, so he's got that, of course (Illyth learned it too, which is pretty cool, although basically all enemies at this point in the game have a chance to resist damage spells). But he's not too tough to beat -- an important detail is that enemy HP caps out at a single byte (255) so even the final boss is limited when I can do upwards of 50+ damage per hit with my main hero. After Hargon goes down, he's followed by Malroth, a character with no dialogue whose existence is only lightly alluded to before he suddenly attacks you. Suddenly this is starting to feel like Final Fantasy... Anyway, Malroth's big downfall was the innocuous Defence spell, which lowers enemy defense. By hitting him with this spell repeatedly I was able to make him very vulnerable to physical damage while spending relatively little MP, which is good 'cause I didn't have much left at this point. Thanks to hitting him for like 90 damage a pop, he eventually went down, even after he'd managed to kill off Glynn.

With the evil defeated, I'm now free to walk over the overworld unimpeded, letting me make my way back to Midenhall to receive congratulations and ascend to the throne. Happy ending, credits, a surprisingly detailed ending screen, and that's done. So...how was Dragon Warrior II? Well...I can say that it's a huge improvement over its predecessor. A proper party, bigger fights, more monsters, a bigger world, all the good stuff you'd want to put on the back of the box. But the cracks that were there in Dragon Warrior start to show through as the game gets bigger. Fights are draggy and slow, the overworld is sprawling and hard to navigate, and the devs seeming obligation to make your life hell for the last several hours of the game persists. These games are under pressure to impress with sheer numbers and size, but the game design model they're built on isn't sustainable in that way. The fatigue of navigating a huge world just piles on, especially when there's little escape from the oppressively high encounter rate.

I think that's really the big sticking point. Navigating the world might've been pleasant, but the game can't let go of its instinctual drive to be antagonistic to the player, and that's really what wore me down. If I could've stopped encounters while I was sailing, if late-game encounters weren't so frequent and oppressively difficult, the game would've been fine, and I might've even figured everything out on my own. The game's deepest flaws really come down to tuning, and this one is tuned like, well, an NES RPG. But there are still big parts of it I enjoyed, even though I don't think I'd ever play it again.

However, we're not done with Dragon Warrior II yet. Reconstructing my save data awakened in me a desire to dig deeper into the workings of the game and maybe break things a bit. Join me next time in my final, technical post about Dragon Warrior II where we will seek to answer three big questions: What all really is in the save data? Can we sail off the edge of the map? And how the heck *does* Repel work?

[crawl-out-through-the-callout]

Fallout 4 Mods on PS4

So I made a list of all the mods I have active on my current file. In doing so I found some I need to, uh, change or that are redundant, but I can still fully endorse any of these mods. For context, I have the Season Pass, I'm on the PS4 and usually play on Very Hard. The balance feels okay in that it's never outright impossible but situations vary wildly from easy and hilarious to drain-the-blood-from-your-face levels of oh shit. I can also safely say this is the prettiest mixture of mods that I've ever had. Anyway, the mods:

Armor and Weapon Keywords Community Resource (AWKCR) (PS4: All DLC) Creator: Valdacil Notes: Important. For everything. Seriously.

USO Base Game (core component of Unlocked Settlement Objects) USO Season Pass USO Mashups Creator: ANDREWCX Notes: Good for people like myself who spend entirely too much time decorating settlements.

Integrated Commonwealth Creator: ANDREWCX Notes: Actually makes the DLC kind of mixed with the main region instead of this weird, walled-off land you can only really tell your other companions about.

[PS4] SimpleGreen - SimpleSeasons 'Spring' [PS4] SimpleGreen / SimpleYellow / SimpleRed (Nuka-World Plugin) Creator: ANDREWCX Notes: I know it's fall and all, but it's been 200 years and plants are vicious little buggers. If nothing else, Boston should be drowning in kudzu.

[PS4] Cages Overhauled & More Creator: 3lric Notes: Kidnap and adopt local faction members, synths, and creatures, and get robot settlers that work.

[PS4] Overgrowth, Immersive Living Forests And Grasslands [PS4] Overgrowth, Far Harbor Creator: MisterOverseer Notes: -and sure, the bombs in Fallout are supposed to be crazy strong, and it's not like people have stopped using nukes there since the Great War, but if people can live there, plants certainly should be. And Nagasaki and Hiroshima look just fine today. It's been way longer in Fallout.

Reverb And Ambiance Overhaul -  ALL DLC [PS4] Creator: Mm137 Notes: The reverb sometimes sets back to max at odd intervals - I usually keep it at around half - but it makes the audio blend into the various settings so much better. You'll be less eager to throw an explosive in that pipe you're standing in, but it's more immersive and just sounds nice. The radio echoing off of old walls in abandoned rooms is especially nice.

[PS4] Eli's Tweaks and Fixes All-In-One Creator: TheRealElianora Notes: So, so many of these bugs needed this. Water, power, and defense go up more per their sources, weights have been altered, you can get a new molerat disease cure by befriending Curie and gathering a bunch of stuff, and more unique game items don't get dropped into the 'junk' category - like MacCready's toy soldier.

[PS4] Water Redux Creator: lamanise Notes: Looks good. Like, so good. The water is changed based on what kind of body of water it is and whether or not it's stagnant.

Limited Minutemen Quests [PS4] Creator: Chucksteel Notes: Poor, sweet Preston. He didn't ask for that overwhelming sense of duty, and this mod helps the both of you out. You won't be constantly getting asked to help settlements (or failing the quests when you don't immediately jump on them) and he gets to relax a little.

[PS4] OCDecorator Creator: Ethreon Notes: For placing all those little objects in your settlements without worrying about a settler making them explode into an interior decorating disaster.

Time Scale changed from 20 to 6 [PS4] Creator: StormLord Notes: Longer days, longer nights. Makes keeping track of in-game time easier and more immersive without outright breaking any quests.

Peaceful Radstags Creator: Ash1597 Notes: No more bloodthirsty companions running off to murder the local wildlife for, uh, existing.

Loaded Loading Screens Creator: PoppaMcNikap Notes: Funniest mod by far, is even better if you're familiar with the original ones. Had actually made me laugh out loud sometimes.

Be smol (p small) NO DLC! [PS4] Creator: Drhamm Notes: I'm short. I like my character being short, too. Only makes some animations (like putting a fusion core in Power Armor) look silly at its worst, is otherwise very immersive.

Sanctuary No More Hammering Creator: Djpudz Notes: Sweet, sweet relief for your ears and for the settlers' arms. It's not like they were doing anything except aggressively hitting buildings anyway.

[PS4] Restore Barney Rook mission Creator: Abates Notes: Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy is this such a paaaaaaaaain. C'mon, Barney, you've been here for how long and you're gonna die as soon as you since I'm within three miles? Dude.

Plenty 'O' Exploration - PS4 - New Interiors And Exteriors To Explore! BETA Creator: DangoSan Notes: Lots more story and many more locations to check out. Blends in well with the vanilla setting - to the point that looking at the list now, I'm surprised by how many of these locations I thought were just a part of the game to begin with!

Power Conduits Radius Increase And No Build Limit - All DLC [PS4] Creator: StormLord Notes: Settlements no longer end up 60% wiring, 40% building.

The Beantown Interiors Project [PS4] Creator: Chucksteel Notes: Love me some new places to explore. There were too many boarded-up buildings, anyway. This one even adds some to Far Harbor and Nuka-World!

Colzie's Place Doors Anywhere Mod Creator: Colzie Notes: Doors are nice. The Wikipedia page for walls says, "Doors are mobile walls on hinges which open to form a gateway." Which, I mean, I guess is true. I can't say it's wrong.

NSA No Settlement Attacks  (Base Game + DLC) PS4 Creator: Djulisa Notes: The only part of the vanilla game I actually dread. Settlement attacks never seemed to really care what your defense was at or where you were, but now you can escape that responsibility.

The Castle Revamp [PS4] Creator: FelloutIsLife Notes: Has that annoying problem where the debris sometimes respawns, but the fixes to the wall (and the free materials from scrapping that debris) are worth it.

[PS4] Luminus Workshop Lights Creator: ShanicTheOatMeme Notes: No more streetlamps that give off the light equivalent to that of a candle! Works and looks great with mods to change the brightness of nights.

Vault 88 - Restored Lighting - Rad Scanners - Turrets [PS4] Creator: StormLord Notes: The first area in the Vault looks crummy and is a pain to fix/work around...Until now. This mod fixes all that.

Immortal Cats - PS4 Creator: GenaTrius Notes: I really like cats. That's all I have to say about this one.

D.C. Glory Expansion Pack 1 Light [PS4] Creator: SlacksNawfside Notes: The Great Green Jewel sure as hell doesn't look like one...Until now. My poor system doesn't like the full version of this mod, but the Light one still looks lovely and makes it feel like a settlement worthy of the name.

TenPines Bluff Settlement Overhaul Ps4 Creator: Undernier Notes: Went here at too low a level. Gonna have to come back. The settlement itself still functions regardless but the nearby quest can be pretty dangerous. Look out for the minefield.

Power Line Physics [PS4] Creator: Cdante Notes: Because that's what a Bethesda game needs. More physics. (No, but really, it looks nice.)

Stumble Upon Interiors [PS4] Creator: Chiaro22 Notes: More things to explore? Yes, please. Some of these are actually really cool, and all of it blends in well with the vanilla game.

Consumables Overhaul - PS4 Creator: Aaronc53 Notes: Because food should matter, and cooking it should matter more. Works well with mods that decrease stimpak quantities.

No Build Limit - No DLC [PS4] Creator: StormLord Notes: Oh, no. This is here twice, sort of. Aw, shi-

Fizztop Grille Workshop - PS4 Creator: Mk221 Notes: Gage did say Colter had some peculiar taste, and I agree. I'm just gonna push everything off the top of the Fizztop and put in my own stuff.

Workshop Decorations Pack Creator: Astlem Notes: Probably one of my favorite mods ever. The bookshelves can have books, tables can come with clutter, desks look like they're in use...It's all so, so good.

Insignificant Object Remover Creator: AKcelsior Notes: Helps with frames, is generally comforting. Tucks you in at night and reads you a story.

[PS4] STS - Scrap that Settlement (Base Game) (+dlc addons) Creator: 3lric Notes: Doesn't let you scrap everything, but it sure lets you scrap a lot. There's this one makeshift structure on Spectacle Island that gets on my nerves, but I can't think of anything else I've had issues with since getting this mod.

UCO Base Game (core component of Unified Clothing Overhaul) (+season pass) Creator: ANDREWCX Notes: Very important. Very nice. Lets you upgrade, recolor, and wear armor in all kinds of ways.

DLC Ammo Leveled Lists Creator: Worlds Notes: Adds DLC ammo and weapons to other level lists, rearranges what drops when.

NPC Pipboys for PS4! Creator: Batta0909 Notes: Looks cool. That's about it.

(DLC) Companion Combat Overhaul Creator: Haighter Notes: A different mod that changes up perks for companions and actually makes them, you know, hit their targets. Their base clothing is also a little better. Also makes every other Courser a little harder thanks to the boost to the Courser Uniform X6 wears.

Superb Settlers [PS4] Creator: LilleMats90 Notes: Settlers actually show up with some gear, which makes sense since they're been getting by on their own 'til now.

NPCs are not Cartoons AIO  -vBy Drhamm [PS4] Creator: Drhamm Notes: Companions look a little less unsettling. Plus, why do these twenty-year-olds look forty? Radioactive problems or not, it's creeping me out.

PS4 Shut. Your. FACE. Creator: Random.Encounter Notes: Why does every NPC feel the need to yell at me?! I'm JUST TRYING TO LIVE MY LIFE.

[PS4] Dogs not Brahmin Creator: ANDREWCX Notes: No more Brahmin cornering you in settlements or spawning on your roof. Besides, the Commonwealth could use more dogs, right?

Equilibrium: Weapons (Balance Fixes) Creator: Alexananiev Notes: Pros: Your pipe pistols are no longer useless. Cons: Enemy pipe pistols are no longer useless.

M.C.O.R. - Main Character Outfit Redux Creator: Sargeschultz Notes: One time I accidentally scrapped Kellogg's Outfit and broke my own heart. Never again.

Buffed Minutemen Militia 2 [PS4 Version] Creator: Dragonovith Notes: If I'm gonna be the general, you can bet your ass I'm training and equipping you...Or this mod can do it for me. Squads summoned by the flare gun (I'm not sure I've ever done that?) also have a squad leader, which is a nice touch.

Companions In The Institute Creator: Ash1597 Notes: I get lonely, okay?

Companion Perks (PS4)-DrNewcenstein Creator: DrNewcenstein Notes: Gives companions lore/backstory-based perks, which is pretty cool.

Ranged Robotics Hack Creator: Djulisa Notes: Re-breaks this perk into the funniest thing to bring into the Mechanist questline ever. Make robots explode at a distance by aiming your gun at them, then hacking from however far you are. Beautiful. Simply beautiful.

More Map Markers - PS4 Creator: Mogomra Notes: Because it's nice to know where you're going - and where you've been.

Slower Respawn Rate Creator: Sway4829 Notes: I like feeling like I'm actually having an effect on the Commonwealth, like clearing out a location matters. This lets me pretend.

[PS4] Deliverer Mark2 Creator: Areis3020 Notes: I love Deliverer. I usually grab the Mark2 at ~level 60 or so and use the regular one until then.

1st Person Animation Tweaks [PS4] Creator: Thedust01 Notes: Mostly lets your character chill out when moving around instead of constantly pointing their gun at everything all of the time. Don't be so paranoid, Sole, it's not like everyone you've ever known is de-oh.

Vender Diversity Overhaul [PS4] Creator: Hroun Notes: Vendors should matter, right? Right.

NPC Loot Drop Rebalance [PS4] Creator: Hroun Notes: Fewer enemies carrying stimpaks, adds more variety and character to the various factions. Maybe this file won't end up with 200+ stimpaks (but it probably will)

No Legendary Items from Creatures [PS4] Creator: Hroun Notes: Why did that Mirelurk have a gun, anyway? It'd be cool if it was jutting out from one of its claws from someone it had killed before, or something, but no. It just has a gun. This fixes that.

Sanctuary Hills SP Rebuild [PS4] Creator: SpiritPixie Notes: C'mon, Codsworth, you've been cleaning for 200 years and this is what it looks like? No way.

Silent Stealth Field [PS4] Creator: AlpineYJ Notes: Bweeep. Bwooo. Bweep. Bwooo. Bweep. Bwooo. Every. Single. Time. You move. NO MORE.

Loyal Gage [PS4] Creator: Sway4829 Notes: I just wanna keep my trash friend, okay? I love Porter, but I also really love shooting the Nuka-World Raiders in the face. Or in the back, in this case.

Pipboy Light To Spotlight Creator: Ska00l Notes: Provides a bigger light than similar mods while still remaining more immersive than the vanilla light, which apparently turns you into a beacon or something.