#so if you play through 3 times you can max them out without using skill points on them

[sysig]

VUXisms (Patreon)

[monsterkasa]

PRSK Crystal Farming Guide

I'm 2+ years into the game and there's a lot I've learned that the game doesn't really directly tell you. Here's all the ways I've found to get crystals!

FULL COMBO/S RANK SONGS

Getting a full combo on a hard, expert, and master will give you crystals (more per higher difficulty).

Getting an S rank on a song (can be any difficulty) will award you crystals. This is easy if you have a strong team, otherwise it's best to go to co-op.

CHALLENGE SHOW

Hitorinbo Envy is the best song to play during your challenge show (it provides you the highest max points because it's short + card skills activate more). Play it at the highest difficulty you can get close to full combo/actually full combo.

If you haven't already, unlock every character's challenge show. There's a lot of crystals you can farm (3,250 per character).

Level up your best cards for each challenge show character team to maximize the highest rewards.

AREA CONVERSATIONS

You get 10 crystals per area conversation. More unlock as you view events + as the game updates.

CHARACTER RANKS

Character Ranks are the biggest crystal farming strategy in the game. There's a lot of ways to unlock the ranks (buying stamps, costumes, alt covers, playing enough songs with a card leader) but I'll just cover the ones that you can get a lot out of at one time.

Max the mastery level on all of your 1* and 2* cards. If you have enough materials, begin maxing your 3* cards as well.

Max the skill level on all of your 1* and 2* cards. Again, if you have the materials, begin on your 3* cards.

Watch the card stories on all of your 1* and 2* cards. This can get expensive because you have to level up the cards, but you get crystals from just watching them + character ranks. If you have the materials, begin watching the card stories on your 3*s.

Train all of your 3* and 4* cards. This may take a while if you don't have level-up materials, but you can just put them on your team and level them up organically.

Level up area decorations (character items in Sekai and the plants outside of Kamiyama and Miyamasuzaka).

EVENTS:

The event exchange always has crystals. Exchange for those. Also always exchange for the cards because they help with character ranks.

Play enough to rank T50000. You will get 500 crystals at the end of the event. It's not very difficult if you utilize your auto shows every day (Melt) and make a decent event team.

Watch through all the event stories. You don't have to actually read them if you don't want to, just skip through them. They only give you crystals if you "read" them when the event is ongoing.

Attend the event show. You obtain 300 crystals from this (along with the event sticker, which helps with character ranks). As long as you enter the show, you can leave and it'll still count as "viewing."

PAY TO PLAY:

If you buy the mission pass (~15 USD), having Colorful+ (~5USD) is very useful in getting it completed in time without having to spend too much time playing (in case your schedule is busy).

DAILY CRYSTALS

Log in every day to get your daily rewards. Sometimes you can get additional rewards depending on what campaigns may be going on.

Play your challenge show (Hitorinbo Envy).

Watch the daily ads (if they're available in your version).

Use up all your energy (20 if you watch the ads) by either playing or using the auto show feature (I recommend Melt, since it's so long it'll give you the highest amount of rewards).

[ibuprofinator]

alright I beat veilguard, here are my thoughts. light spoilers but I'm avoiding anything explicit.

TLDR: worth it if you can get it on sale and can make peace with some cringe writing, lore changes, and lack of meaningful reactivity based on the race you choose. A major thing going for it is that it feels 100% complete and fully realized before release, which is more than what I can say for a lot of games. I had a lot of fun with it at the end of the day even if I doubt I'll replay it all the way through again any time soon.

Gameplay

The combat is very fun, and it's kind of incredible how different your experience of the game can be depending on your class (on a mechanical level). I've tried both mage and warrior, and their base mechanics are VASTLY different to the point where it feels like I might as well be playing a different game with some similar mechanics. I've talked to my friend who beat the game as a rogue, and even their mechanics seem very different from what I experienced from the other two classes.

The bad side of that is that they reuse the mechanics of a lot of enemies. It's not noticeable right away, but once you fight a few mages or two of the seven or so dragons you can fight in the game it gets very repetitive. The dragon mechanics barely changing depending on the type of dragon was especially annoying. Also, if you reach the max level (50) just know that enemies stop scaling after level 45 and things won't feel like a challenge anymore once you reach that threshold. For context I beat the game on the second hardest difficulty.

I still would've rather they changed around a few things so we could bring 3 companions with us like in previous games. I also wish they had more automatic skill use from our companions since I always forget to get them to use any of their skills. I heavily relied on some of the skill upgrades that had them use it automatically.

Exploration/Level Design

The world exploration is fine. I find that it's a bit too hand-holdy at times, and seems to rely heavily on giving you a shiny thing (chests) in order to keep you engaged which makes it feel cheap (in addition to all the chests/collectables being marked on the mini-map. again, a bit too hand-holdy for me).

That being said, I like how relatively limited the world is. Especially in comparison to Inquisition where there was just WAY too much. The areas aren't absurdly huge, but I felt like I was getting a good baseline for the vibe of whatever country I was in. In some ways, it felt like a more streamlined and higher quality version of the areas in Origins/DA2.

The areas are obviously very well thought out and designed, and I really enjoy the stark difference between areas you see both before and after your first major choice. I've seen people critique that choice being too early in the game, and I kind of disagree. My gripes with it are how it was handled after the change, but I'm not going to go into a tangent about that here.

The one thing that irks me to no end is the teleport beacon system. You always have a designated "respawn point" when you die. What this means in practice is that every single time you load a save that isn't in the middle of a cutscene, you'll spawn at whatever teleport beacon is set as your spawn point instead of where you physically were when you saved.

I hate this. To me it contributes to the cheap feeling of the game and also throws me off because every single time I loaded a save I didn't know what the fuck I was doing since often times I was far away from the actual thing I was in the middle of before I quit the game for the day. It's okay-ish if you're just tracking a quest, but there's actual world exploration in this game without markers.

Alright, now the actual writing of the game.

It's cringe too much of the time. It assumes you're not paying attention to anything most of the time. I hate the "next time on..." narration after the quests that sometimes outright spoil you for the next thing that's going to happen. I hate that you get the resolution to mysteries that have existed since Origins before you're even fully out of the intro to the game without giving any of it time to breathe.

Meanwhile, it seems unwilling to engage in anything that might potentially be vaguely "problematic". The companions don't argue, or if they do it's resolved almost immediately. Any tension between the companions is caused by one person having concerns about another person, and then the other person is like "yeah I get why you're concerned we're cool" (both in banter and in scenes at your base).

The world feels devoid of basic elements of previous games, like elven oppression, beyond a few non-specific references about "elves having it hard. In addition, they seem to be adding NPCs of different races to the background of the world seemingly at random. No, I don't think that there'd be this many vashoth or tal-vashoth shop-keepers in this part of Antiva, or this many elves casually intermingling with humans in Minrathous or all these veil jumpers that aren't elven much less Dalish.

It seems almost random, and more in line with modern dnd played for fun with friends or the atmosphere in the lower city in BG3 than a dragon age game. The fact that you can choose any origin regardless of your starting race is kind of insane considering the reality of some of those origins. There doesn't seem to be much, if any, intention behind it. Which makes it even more frustrating that I can count on half of one hand the amount of times it came up in any real way that I was playing as a dwarf, and lost track of the amount of times it should have considering a big part of the main plot has to do with dwarven history.

To be specific, and without giving too many spoilers, there's one scene where you find out something about the origin of modern dwarves. The "angry" dialogue option for that is for Rook to start yelling and making very good points, only for it to end with them saying that they can't dream with the same weight as everything else and it comes across as goofy as hell considering we don't know dick or all about the downsides to not dreaming in-universe. It's just something they can't do. But no, not dreaming is the same thing as your entire civilization crumbling right?

The companions themselves are written to be hard to dislike. Aside from Taash, all their hard edges have been smoothed down into something that barely manages to stay engaging. To be completely fair, I might be especially sensitive to this. I had just beaten BG3 and then DA2 before playing this game, and they're both games with a bunch of shitty people who slowly get better over time. VG, in contrast, doesn't have any tangible character arc for a lot of the characters outside of maybe one choice at the end of their quest line. Even then, it's minimal.

The game clearly has a few themes it was going for, but it either hits you over the head with them or doesn't earn them. There was one point where Rook (with no prompting from me!) said that their group had become a family. Which, yes they all get along and are working well together towards the goal of saving the world, but that didn't really feel earned at the point they said it.

Another theme I think they wanted were "a real leader takes responsibility for their actions" but we don't have any real options to either take responsibility or deny responsibility. This ties back to the issue I mentioned earlier where interpersonal problems get almost immediately resolved, and most were never even that serious in the first place.

There's a lot of explicitly telling you what the narrative themes are without following though. I've critiqued BG3 for hitting you over the head with themes, but it's NOTHING like what I've seen in VG.

They also have a very bad attempt at calling back to earlier parts of their arc/things Rook said. Forgive me for bringing up Astarion, but an example of that is Astarion saying "this is a gift, I won't forget it" both when he bites you for the first time and when he stays a spawn after killing Cazador. In Veilguard it's just people saying the same line almost verbatim about 100 times. Like I said earlier, the game assumes you're not paying attention.

And finally, I like the overarching story as a concept. Rook being forced to take responsibility for this team, in part because they feel guilty and in part because everyone else is too bogged down in their shit to do it so they HAVE to. And then working hard to build that team and the factions supporting them up in preparation to face something completely unprecedented? Then the individual plot points without having to slog through how they're written to get to the end? Love all that! Great bones to work off of!

I also really liked a lot of the arcs of the NPCs, and the one I think about constantly is Jacobus (SPOILERS IN THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH) specifically where Treviso is blighted. I'm not sure if it's different if Treviso isn't blighted, but I was so heartbroken by everything that happened to him culminating in him giving in to the taint to lead a group of darkspawn against the mayor to stop them from releasing gaatlok.

SPOILERS OVER

And that's the thing, there's so many little moments like that in the game that felt so incredibly real that it made me more and more frustrated at a noticeable amount of the game that seemed to be written by someone who read a few bullshit pop psychology articles and wanted to gloat about it by inserting a bunch of surface level mental health understanding into the game.

All that being said, and despite the fact that I don't think the game earned a lot of the character moments that came in the finale...it has, by far, the BEST end game sequence of ANY game - RPG or otherwise - that I've ever played.

I've never been hit so hard emotionally by characters I otherwise didn't give a shit about. I made one choice knowing it would result in someone specific dying (and I didn't really care because I didn't like them), but the way that person died and the way that death is talked about afterwards broke me in ways I didn't expect.

And the ending is LONG, too. It really feels like you're fighting a final battle alongside an army and the army is supporting the small group you're in so you can make it to where you need to go and kill the gods. And it feels realistic. There's no way everyone gets out unscathed, it's physically impossible in the game itself.

For a game that made me feel incredibly safe in the sense that all the companions had plot armor up until that point, it felt like a shock in a really good way. You spend all this time with your companions, learning about them and watching them interact with each other in the lighthouse and see their relationships with each other and then at the end of it there's nothing you can do to save some of them. Some don't die, but face something almost worse than death. And it's all for your benefit so you can have a small shot at pulling this off.

It's like the suicide mission in ME2 on crack in the best way possible. You learn things over the course of that long ass finale that made me look at the entire game differently and understand a lot of characters so much more.

To dial it back a bit, I think the romance in this game is pretty well done. I've only done Neve's, but it feels more realistic than other similar RPGs in the sense that y'all aren't falling over yourselves to commit to each other and there's no expectation on staying together after this. It feels like a new relationship, and she even still flirts with Lucanis which I honestly didn't mind! It, perhaps unintentionally, made it all seem that much more realistic plus it would've built up nicely to them getting together had I not romanced either of them.

It almost marketed itself as a dating sim, but really it's such a small part of your interaction with your romantic interest. I'm assuming other romances are slightly different, but I kissed Neve a grand total of one time before the finale and then there were a bunch of longing glances. I played with the idea of romancing Taash before reloading, and it feels like y'all are just incredibly casual about it even after going to have dinner with their mom. Both felt VERY realistic for the stakes of the game and the level of commitment both of y'all would be able to offer.

Do I think this is GOTY worthy? No, but I do think it's overall more fun to play than Inquisition which DID win GOTY. I think it's worth the $40 I paid for it, and I had a very good time playing it despite how much I just wish it wasn't a Dragon Age game. Unlike with Inquisition, I don't dread the idea of playing this game again. Leading up to me playing DAV, I was going to replay all the DA games, but I ended up skipping Inquisition because I did NOT want to have to slog through all of that again (I was doing completionist playthroughs).

The game is really good at cinematics and the big moments in the world, and I just wish that same love and care translated to. I don't know. The actual writing all throughout the game.

I really hope the series ends here, and they don't do something with the vague hints that have been in this game and Inquisition about some bullshit going on across the sea (the secret post-credits scene pissed me off but I'm not going to get into that).

It has a sense of finality to it, and I'm happy with this wrapping up everything I've seen this series build towards since I got Origins for Christmas when I was 13.

[faultychips]

I <3 Catching MONSTERS and BEASTS!!

...Y'know, the more often you have to acknowledge something awkward, the more awkward it gets. So, I'm not gonna make a big deal about how long it's been since I last made a review again after this time. Finishing college and health complications got in my way for a little while, but I think I'm finally ready to get back in the saddle, and I'm very excited to write about games again, at whatever pace I need to take to do it. I've missed this. Let's get back into it already!

In my search for something that can measure up to my expectations and my nostalgia for Pokémon, I came across two games that stood out to me: Coromon and Cassette Beasts. Both looked like very fun games, but to know how good they really are, I had to try them out for myself. Let's start, then, with the game I finished first.

Coromon is, first and foremost, an extremely good "Pokémon Clone". It can be kind of exhausting to hear this said about any game that remotely includes monsters or creatures, but Coromon is very clearly trying to replicate the core features of the Pokémon games, and it does it very well. There are technically 124 Coromon to collect, but a few are variants on existing ones, so it's really closer to 110. Still an impressive number of original designs! I found myself thinking "Wow... this game's art is gorgeous!" over and over again; the game would not be nearly as engaging, as it indeed is, without the vivid backgrounds and beautifully animated sprites.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with Coromon. Everything that is fun about Pokémon is present and still fun in Coromon, and there are even a few improvements on the formula. For instance, capturing Coromon seems to have a much higher chance of success, making that whole process much less annoying while still not being a guarantee, and you'll be given plenty of free healing and capture items throughout the game that I encourage you to use freely (basically everything is available in shops by the end of the game, unlike items such as Max Revives in the older Pokémon games). There is also a welcome change to the "shiny" formula: there are instead "basic" Coromon, "potent" Coromon, and "perfect" Coromon, each with a different color palette and most importantly, better stats for rarer variants. This gives players an actually good reason to seek out "shiny" variants, and the midground Potent Coromon are relatively simple to find and you'll meet a nice amount over the course of your journey. (Perfect Coromon are... not so easy to find, but I'll get to that.) And most importantly the game is fun! Coromon Battling is unique in many ways--like how there are 13 types, but only 6 are available as Coromon Types, and the other 7 can only be used as Skills (attacks)--but it's just as entertaining as Pokémon battling and I enjoyed designing my team around the blend of new and familiar rules.

Of course, in a cruel bit of irony, Coromon falters in the same ways it triumphs: it is a lot like Pokémon, specifically the older generations 1 through 5. I hope you're the kind of person who likes grinding level-ups in RPGs, because you'll be doing it inevitably here. The story is also pretty forgettable, with mostly unremarkable characters... true to most Pokémon storylines. The "Perfect" Coromon replicate all the time-wasting problems of regular shiny Pokémon, typically taking multiple hours to catch just one, while adding on that the perfect ones are ideal for competitive play and therefore you're playing sub-optimally by not grinding out hours to get one; the double-edged sword of "a good reason" to get "shinies". Though honestly, for better or worse, you don't need to worry about competitive play because there aren't enough players online at any given moment to actually engage with the multiplayer features. There are no asynchronous options to cover for this, either. I found this a real shame, because it seems like the only way to get certain visual cosmetics (that the game goes to great lengths to make sure you know about) is through participation in multiplayer battles. It feels like you should be able to purchase them with actual real-life money; I wouldn't be willing to do that anyhow, but I couldn't even find a way to do that, so... Maybe on the mobile version you can. And finally, when Coromon's main story ends, you're basically done playing, same as many modern Pokémon games. There's an attempt at a battle tower equivalent of sorts, but I found it way too grindy for way too little rewards. It's hard to get excited about cosmetics and such when there's nobody else to show them to.

I think one thing that Coromon does that doesn't work very well that is unique to itself is that the player character has a good lot of dialogue, and oftentimes I found myself thinking "Wow... I wouldn't say that. That really takes me out of roleplaying as my character." Ultimately, it's a small 'problem', but I think it's an interesting example of why silent protagonists are so effective, because when the player character acts independently of the player, it can be distancing. ...Oh, and the game was made for mobile first and once you see that big glaring pause button at the top of your screen it's hard to unsee it, but ultimately I do like having the option to use just my mouse as a controller when playing. It would just be nice if you could toggle the mobile UI elements off.

Ultimately, Coromon was a game I enjoyed a lot, and nicely satisfied that Pokémon gen 4-5 2D itch I had, but while it makes a lot of the same good choices as Pokémon, it also carries over many of their flaws. I think it succeeds as being a generally equivalent experience, though notably lacking some of the perks that come with Pokémon's cultural popularity. As I was writing this review, they announced that they're in the process of making a sequel to Coromon, which will be titled Coromon: Rogue Planet. While I didn't feel like I necessarily needed more of the original game after the 50 hours I sunk into it, I think this is a great opportunity for the devs to learn from the creation of this first game and for the sequel to surpass its inspirations; I will be watching to see if it does.

Despite coming out about a year after Coromon, my Cassette Beasts review is actually much more overdue, because I started playing it in 2023 almost immediately after its release. I spent 30 hours in the game, did everything you need to do in order to beat the final boss...and then I dropped it in early May and never got back around to truly finishing it. After playing Coromon, I decided it was also time I put this other beast to rest. In all fairness it had been about a year and a half since my last playthrough, so I started a completely new file from the beginning to make sure I was refreshed on the full Cassette Beasts experience.

Cassette Beasts, like Coromon, has a really phenomenal amount of work put into its artwork. Every single monster is fully and energetically animated, with attacking, hurt, and sleeping animations for all 129 monsters (in the base game). There are also full dialogue sprites with a range of expressions for every remotely important NPC in the game, and it makes each bit of interaction feel more significant and engaging. There are some caveats to the visuals which I'll elaborate more near the end, but overall, the effort on display is incredible and all the 2D artwork looks great. The monster designs in particular manage to be unique in ways I really appreciate; it's really easy for mon-games to fall into the trap of just making most of their catalogue "just a real-life animal but... red, or maybe blue" and I feel like Cassette Beasts manages to avoid that trap and is consistently creative with their real-life inspirations.

One of the first things you might notice about Cassette Beasts is that all of its battles are in "Double" format; i.e. you control two different characters at once, facing one or two enemy characters; usually fighting 2-on-2. Those were always my favorite in the Pokémon games, and having an entire game of it does not disappoint. I also really like how much there is to the combat system; the way different types interact with each other is complex without being too hard to remember. Whenever you encounter a new mechanic you haven't seen before, like status effects such as Poisoned or Burned, a tutorial tip will show up to explain how the specific mechanic works, which helps a lot to evenly introduce the player to everything as it becomes relevant. In summary, the battling system is designed well and very fun to play around with.

One of the other things you might note about Cassette Beasts is that it boasts a "fusion" mechanic, something rather coveted in Pokemon spaces (so much so that there is a volunteer-driven fangame dedicated to the concept), making it a perfectly understandable feature of a game trying to go above and beyond the existing fusion-related ideas Pokemon has to offer. Unfortunately, while this idea is relatively well-implemented in gameplay, it wasn't anything very interesting either--every possible combination of monsters are fuse-able, and every fusion has a custom animated sprite, which is a jaw-dropping amount of work, but because of the huge amount of them these fusions tend to be very simple blob-looking combinations, often with "copy-pasted" elements. Shortcuts like these are extremely understandable given the workload, but aren't very compelling to look at. Since textually these "fusions" occur when the player character and a given NPC have a strong bond, maybe taking the time to design a single complex, unique fusion for each NPC instead of every single actual combination--quality over quantity--may have been a better choice.

The pacing...let's talk about it. The game doesn't waste any time hitting you with its complete premise and then throwing you out into the open world within the first hour. This feels pretty breakneck, but I suppose I appreciate that it seems to be trying not to waste your time...though I think a game should ideally make you enjoy even the starting tutorial-y parts of the game. Unfortunately, the game never really stops feeling breakneck, since it is an open world game with quests that you can technically complete at any time. Pretty much the whole map is accessible to you immediately, gatekept only by obtainable abilities scattered throughout that have no hard level or progression barrier. The game then becomes a series of frantic grocery check-listing: run back and forth from one destination to another, fast-travel repeatedly because it's the most cost-efficient option for healing, snap up every new objective the game puts in front of you...wander aimlessly until an NPC hands you another quest or hint about something you should probably be doing right now. This formula is what actually caused me to drop off of Cassette Beasts for so long back in 2023; once you reach the endgame, the quests dry out almost completely, and I just... ran out of momentum. Not to mention, that's around the time the game will start increasing your chance of finding bootlegs- the "shinies" of this particular title, which have a random typing and better moves than the average beast. My last hours on that save file were spent trawling the world map for these random bootleg encounters under some vague pretense of preparing for the final boss, before I realized how pointless it would be to raise a monster from scratch when I already have a fleshed-out team from the previous 25 hours of playing...and then I had no willpower left to cross the finish line, so I dropped it and moved on. On my more recent attempt, I was able to mostly ignore the bootlegs (still compulsively catching every one I found of course -- maybe one day shiny Pokémon just won't be a thing in these games and I can be free) and got all the way to the final boss and got to see the ending, which I enjoyed and wish I had just gone ahead and seen in 2023, but… it still felt like it was hard to really sit still and savor the world of Cassette Beasts; there's always something I ought to be getting over with instead. It could honestly sometimes be more of a nauseating chore than a thing I wanted to do.

...Actually, it took me two play sessions and a total of 50 hours to realize this, but I think the game actually made me motion sick for a majority of the time I was playing it. A previous version of this review was a bit more harsh (as harsh as I'm comfortable being, anyway) but I realized after looking it up and seeing some other reports of the same issue that it's likely more a fault of the way the game's lights and camera are functioning than anything else it features. I almost never get sick playing video games, so I'm honestly not exactly sure why it was happening, but I suspect it's something about the 3D backgrounds with 2D sprites, as well as the ways the camera shakes and sometimes swerves quickly in 90 degree increments. I feel like the game would have looked nicer (and been less nauseating) if the world map was in 2D with a stricter player movement limit, with less room for janky collision and puzzle malfunctioning, but I also understand that would have likely been much harder to implement. The music is a small part of this, but I also feel like the addition of vocals to existing instrumental tracks in certain areas and conditions made me get tired of hearing said tracks over and over very quickly; more songs to rotate through may have helped this, but I feel like the vocals were best isolated to the fusion battles, and even those ones start to get repetitive eventually.

Finally, I want to wrap up by talking about the story, because I feel like Cassette Beasts has a great story with an interesting cast of characters, but it's also very brief in total, and it often pulls its punches when it feels like there's something interesting about to take place. For example, one of the NPCs you can fight alongside in battles--I'll call these “companions”--is an ex-member of a cult that still actively occupies the island you're stranded on. Not only that, but she was essentially a high-ranking member with a good degree of participation and control over the cult’s activities; sounds serious and complicated. But dig deeper and you come to realize that the cult is little more than a paparazzi club for a guy who intentionally resembles a talk show personality, and the only real negative impact they have on themselves and others is the fact they hoard a small bit of land far away from anybody else, and are generally antisocial. Your companion will still act like she can never be forgiven for her involvement, to which your character will have two options of response that both say "it's okay, you're not a bad person"... which is true, because it seems like she never did anything of particular consequence. I don't think any of Cassette Beasts has to be gritty or serious or troubling; my favorite companion quest is the one where an artist's character from middle school has come to life and wants his validation, which is quite silly and fun, while also having real emotion to it. But it feels like sometimes the game dips it's toes into more serious topics with purpose--cults and depression/suicidal ideation being the standouts from the companion questlines--but then quickly retreats or covers itself with jokes before it can really make a proper impact, and I find that disappointing. (I do wonder if maybe these companions have their more potentially "undesirable" edges sanded off because 5 out of 6 of them are romanceable.) But aside from the companions, I really enjoyed the main storyline of the game, and the different "Archangels" you'll meet were the highlights of my visual and gameplay experience. The ending was satisfying and, in my opinion, nice and sappy in the best ways. I love a good story about alternate worlds and strange creatures and people rising to overcome any challenge. I really enjoyed the time spent exploring that with Cassette Beasts; my main criticism is that a lot of the rest of the game feels like a winding distraction away from this solid core conceit. Maybe in a more concise game a playthrough would take a nice 10 hours rather than 20...or maybe I would play longer instead in a game that makes you feel better about taking it slow.

Despite the criticisms I've had in this review, it is truly amazing to see the work small independent teams are doing nowadays, making titles that rival triple-A studio efforts. Especially when it comes to Pokemon, which has found itself producing increasingly unimpressive games over recent years, but also in general, as big game companies across the board rush to get messy products out the door, there's a great opportunity for indie devs to rise to fill the gaps of quality these studios have left empty. It is no small feat to do, but Coromon and Cassette Beasts shoot for the moon anyway, and I think they stick the landing quite well in their own rights. My criticisms are made partly in the hopes that they will be useful feedback for whoever comes along looking to make their own Pokemon-inspired title, be it these studios in sequels, or a newcomer to the game. These two games are fine candidates for someone looking to have a new, fresh experience with the classic monster-catching formula they enjoy; if either interest you, check them out below!

Coromon is available for $19.99 on: Steam, GOG, Nintendo Switch; $4.99 on App Store , Google Play

Cassette Beasts is available for $19.99 on: Steam , Nintendo Switch, Xbox / Xbox Game Pass

[haplogamingchef]

Nioh 3: Best Strategy and Build to Defeat Jakotsu-baba

Introduction

Facing Jakotsu-baba, the final boss in the Nioh 3 demo, can be overwhelming if you're not prepared. Her unique mechanics and the realm-based combat make this fight different from anything you've faced before. Whether you're playing solo or avoiding co-op to challenge yourself, this guide walks you through a solid, tested strategy and a reliable ninja-focused build using the kusarigama.

In this guide, you'll learn how to effectively dodge, counter, and deal consistent damage while minimizing your risk. If you're wondering how to beat Jakotsu-baba, this guide covers everything—from skill choices to smart positioning.

Understanding the Jakotsu-baba Boss Fight Mechanics

Before jumping into combat, it's crucial to grasp how Jakotsu-baba works in the Nioh 3 demo. Unlike many bosses, she applies a special debuff that lowers your maximum HP every time you take a hit. This isn't permanent—you can recover the lost max HP by landing attacks back on her. Timing your offensive moves becomes essential not just to deal damage but to maintain your health.

Jakotsu-baba also summons a black circle on the ground, creating a hazardous zone. If you fight inside this area, your Ki rapidly drains, leaving you vulnerable. Avoid standing in these zones and instead bait her into attacking outside them. You’ll have more breathing room to react and counter.

Best Weapon and Build Choice: Kusarigama with Ninjutsu

For this fight, the kusarigama is one of the strongest weapon choices. It offers quick strikes, ranged pressure, and excellent synergy with ninjutsu. The high mobility of the kusarigama lets you weave in and out of combat, perfect for staying safe from Jakotsu-baba’s long-reach attacks.

Your build should focus on:

Stamina and HP: Boost survivability so you can take a few hits while learning patterns.

Dexterity: Amplifies ninjutsu effectiveness.

Strength or Skill (depending on gear scaling): Improves damage output with kusarigama.

Key perks to equip:

Elixir Boost: Increases damage and reduces damage taken (by ~5%) right after using an elixir.

Dodging Buff: Grants Ki regeneration when you dodge with perfect timing.

Dash Ki Cost Reduction: Helps maintain mobility during extended fights.

Essential Ninjutsu Skills to Use in the Fight

If you're running a Nioh 3 ninja build, make sure to unlock and equip specific ninjutsu skills that boost both your damage and utility during the boss battle. One of the standout techniques for this fight is a skill that lets you jump in the air, form a projectile, and then dive down with a strong hit by holding Triangle after pressing Circle. This stagger attack not only interrupts Jakotsu-baba’s combos but also deals significant damage.

Timing is everything—if you initiate this jump attack just before her attack animation starts, she gets stunned and won't retaliate. But if you're late and she begins attacking, she’ll power through and punish you. Practice this sequence to get it right consistently. It's one of the best ways to control the tempo of the fight.

Combat Tactics: How to Control the Battlefield

Positioning plays a big role in this fight. Whenever the boss activates her black circle zone, avoid standing on it. These zones drain your Ki rapidly, and without Ki, you can’t block, dodge, or attack effectively. Instead, stay just outside the perimeter and bait her to move out of it.

You’ll notice that Jakotsu-baba can be baited into attacking predictably. Once she starts an attack pattern, circle around her to get behind. Her back is less defended, and you can safely land combos or quick kusarigama hits. Keep moving to the side rather than dodging backward, which keeps you closer and ready to strike again.

Using Realm Awareness to Your Advantage

When Jakotsu-baba pulls you into her realm, her range and aggression increase. Her attacks reach farther and come out faster, so it’s critical to stay on your toes. This is when your mobility-focused build really shines. Use your dash, powered by Ki-efficient perks, to keep dodging and repositioning. If you avoid standing directly in front of her, you’ll have better chances to avoid her long-reach grabs and wide sweeps.

One key to surviving in the realm is monitoring the ground. Avoid the glowing puzzle-like patterns—these are areas that suppress your Ki regeneration. Being stuck without Ki means no dodging, and that’s usually fatal. Stay alert, keep moving, and use ranged kusarigama hits if needed to create space.

Ultimate Skill Timing: Finish the Fight Strong

Your ultimate Yokai ability can be tempting to use early in the battle, especially when you land a few combos. But it’s best saved for the final phase of the fight when Jakotsu-baba is at low health. Her stagger meter builds slowly, so relying on it too early may waste your chance to close out the fight efficiently.

Instead, keep using your regular ninjutsu jump-stagger combo and kusarigama for consistent pressure. Once she’s down to 20–30% HP, pop your ultimate and go all in. This burst phase can end the fight if timed correctly, especially when you’ve recovered all your max HP and have full Ki reserves.

Mistakes to Avoid When Fighting Jakotsu-baba

One common mistake players make during the Nioh 3 demo boss fight is staying too aggressive inside the cursed zones. These black-circle traps punish you by draining Ki quickly, making it almost impossible to dodge or block. Avoid fighting in them unless you're confident in your timing and mobility.

Another mistake is using your ultimate ability too early. Since it has a long cooldown, it's not worth activating unless you’re sure you can end the fight with it. Save it for the final phase when the boss is weakest. Finally, don’t stand still—Jakotsu-baba thrives on catching you off guard with fast, multi-hit attacks. Keep circling, repositioning, and baiting her into predictable movements.

Why This Build Works Well Without Co-op

Many players opt for co-op to make tough boss fights easier, but this build proves that you can handle Jakotsu-baba solo. The combination of high mobility, quick recovery, and damage-boosting perks lets you recover from mistakes and stay in control. Learning the boss mechanics on your own not only helps you get better but also makes the victory more satisfying.

This strategy focuses on adaptability and timing over brute strength. If you prefer refining your skills and going in solo, the kusarigama + ninjutsu combo offers the tools to make that happen. It rewards patience, movement, and precision—core elements of Nioh’s combat design.

Conclusion

Beating Jakotsu-baba in the Nioh 3 demo requires more than brute force. With the right ninja build, good timing, and awareness of her patterns, you can handle the fight solo without relying on co-op. Equip your kusarigama, make smart use of your ninjutsu, and avoid the cursed zones. This guide gave you a complete strategy—from build setup to attack tactics—designed to help you learn, adapt, and win. Stick with the plan, stay mobile, and you’ll defeat Nioh 3’s final demo boss with confidence.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: What’s the best weapon to use against Jakotsu-baba in Nioh 3? A: The kusarigama is highly effective due to its speed, range, and compatibility with ninja-focused builds.

Q2: How do I recover lost max HP in this boss fight? A: You regain lost max HP by hitting the boss back after taking damage. Offensive timing is critical.

Q3: Is co-op necessary to beat Jakotsu-baba? A: No. With a solid solo build, proper ninjutsu, and positioning, you can beat the boss without help.

Q4: When should I use my Yokai ultimate ability? A: Save it for the final phase of the fight, when Jakotsu-baba’s HP is low and you can finish her off efficiently.

Q5: What skill helps with staggering Jakotsu-baba? A: A jumping ninjutsu skill lets you stagger her by holding Triangle after Circle, if timed before her attack animation starts.

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[burronetta]

Journey to P3 - Playing through everybody in "Dead by Daylight"

I've clocked in nearly 800 hours into "Dead by Daylight". It's easily my favorite competitive game and is definitely among my top five favorite games of all time. When I got started, however, I realized that I needed a process to unlock every perk in the game so that I could get the most out of my experience and optimize my perk builds. Otherwise, I was going to get burnt out and FAST. So, I've opted for a series of rules that help me to navigate DbD and try every single character for the perfect period of time by simply leveling them up to Prestige 3 (or "P3"). This unlocks the perks at max level for every other character, Survivor or Killer, in the game, and gives me some time to test out which perks I like and which ones I find tedious.

So, without further ado, and because screaming into the void is better than pretending I don't exist, here are my rules that help me to get every character in DbD to Prestige 3!

CHOOSING/LEVELING SURVIVORS/KILLERS:

Selecting a Survivor or Killer can be based on any criteria; friend/forum suggestion, playstyle, how interesting their perks look, etc.

Once you have selected a Survivor/Killer, they must be advanced to P3 before a new selection can be made.

The first selection of perks on a Survivor/Killer must be a loadout of their original three perks and nothing else. This is so the “Adept” achievement can be completed during the initial P3 run.

Once the “Adept” achievement has been accomplished, then you can change out any perks for a full, new loadout, provided that the first perk is always one of that character’s original perks.

This build is not meant to be an optimized strat for effective play. Optimization will come later once all Survivors/Killers are at P3.

Leveling the Bloodweb is to be completed with a focus on advancing perks first, then BP-increasing offerings next, and finally items/offerings that influence gameplay.

PLAYING IN THE TRIALS:

No add-ons/items may be brought into the trials:

In the case of Survivors, this is to get a feel for raw gameplay and to take advantage of perks that may improve skills or make finding items in the trial easier.

In the case of Killers, this is to allow you to get used to their basekit and to not be dependent on any playstyle that requires a specific add-on.

There are exceptions to the “No add-ons/items” rule:

Tome challenges that require you to use an item during the trial can be used as an excuse to bring said item. However, it is recommended that you attempt to find an item during the trial to make the challenge more interesting.

Scratched-Mirror Myers is the best reason to bring add-ons to the trial, and possibly the only reason I’d break this rule as Killer.

The only offerings allowed in the trials are BP-increasing offerings. They are to be utilized in an order that focuses on maximizing BP for all players in the trial first. The specific order of preference for offerings is as follows:

Event-specific BP offerings (Screech Cobblers, Frightful Flans, etc.)

Bloody Party Streamers

Green Envelope (In the case of Survivors)

Escape Cake/Survivor Pudding

Yellow Envelope/Hollow Shell

Green Offerings (Survival/Sacrifice is offered last)

Yellow Offerings (Survival/Sacrifice is offered last)

Brown Offerings (Survival/Sacrifice is offered last)

No matter what perk loadout you have selected for the trial, the ultimate goal is not just attempting to escape/sacrifice as many Survivors as possible. This goal may be circumvented in favor of more entertaining play, such as goofing around with the Killer/Survivors, playing for the sake of increasing BP, or participating in tome challenges. It’s not to say that you aren’t allowed to play the game exactly as intended, but fun is most important.

NEW CHAPTER PROTOCOLS:

Whenever a new chapter is released that features a new Killer and/or Survivor, the current Killer/Survivor is placed on hold until the latest additions have been advanced to P3, then you can return to the withheld Killer/Survivor.

Adept achievements for the new additions are considered absolutely necessary, as it’s more likely to test the value of all new perks while attempting to complete the achievements. Any additional achievements that are added alongside the new chapters are assumed to either be completed during the P3 run incidentally or to be accomplished later.

EXPENDING BP:

BP received during trials is to be accrued until you hit approximately 100,000 BP, then is to be expended on the Bloodweb. Exceptions are made at the player’s discretion.

All BP gifts are to be utilized in the following way:

Randomly provided BP gifts, BP earned during Tome challenges, and weekly free gifts are to be expended (at personal discretion) on the current Killer/Survivor being advanced to P3.

If a more recent tome challenge requires you to play as a specific Survivor/Killer that has already been advanced to P3, you may play as that character for the challenge, and any BP accrued from completing that challenge will be expended on the current Survivor/Killer being advanced to P3.

BP awarded during the monthly 13th MMR reset are to be expended advancing Survivors and Killers not currently advanced to P3 all to level 15 (unlocking all four perk slots). Once all Survivors/Killers are advanced to level 15, then the MMR reset BP can be used to randomly advance the current Survivor or Killer.

So far, these rules have served me VERY well while I've been playing the game, and once I've completed getting everybody to P3, I'm planning on doing a "Journey to P6" next! This is where for each Prestige level, I will take one of the Survivor's/Killer's original perks, and craft a build around it so I can get used to thinking about how to maximize value out of those perks. I've only got 8 Survivors and 9 Killers left, so I'm extremely excited about the next leg of my journey now that it's in sight!

[ocean-prose]

Helpful Terminology

Hello, lovelies! Thanks to everyone who's read Breaking Protocol so far, it's really a labor a love for my field and a tribute to baby's first f1 pairing. <3 Since I've already gotten into the weeds a little bit just with chapter one, may I interest you in a guided tour through said weeds? I've compiled a list of terms that I've already written about or will eventually write about, and wanted to make a quick resource for those not in the medical field. :) If you would please follow me under the cut:

Intramedullary Rod

Also called an intramedullary nail, it is a rod that is surgically inserted into the inner cavities of long bones (femur, tibia, humerus, etc) to fixate a fracture internally--as opposed to a cast, which fixates externally. This is what's in Daniel's leg after his accident, and like Max said, you can get up and going on them. Here's an example of what one may look like within the femur on x-ray:

Weight Bearing Precautions

Sometimes after surgical repairs, patients will be restricted on how much weight they can bear through a limb during the healing process, mostly to maintain the integrity of the repair and decrease complications. These can range from not being able to put any weight through a limb, to putting as much weight as one can comfortably tolerate through it (in Daniel's case), and everything in between. These are can be progressed and eventually lifted after certain periods of time per the surgeon's protocol as a patient returns to full weight bearing. Here's a chart explaining the different precautions:

Vocera

Vocera, my behated. As we as a society have progressed past the need for pagers, these fuckers have slipped into that vacuum at some hospitals. I've had the misfortune privilege to use these both during my time as an aide and during one of my clinical rotations. They're basically an intra-hospital communication system that one can operate almost completely hands-free to call and/or leave messages for colleagues without having to use a phone. I always preferred to use an earpiece with mine for the protection of patient information. However, if you don't have an earpiece, you need to specify to the person you're talking to that you're on an "open mic" so they know to keep information vague and free of patient identifiers. I tried my best to describe the annoying sounds and cadence of it, but it's truly an iykyk visceral-type reaction to seeing it out in the wild (sorry). Shout out to the commenter who described the interaction as biblically accurate, but even the love of God can't save you when you're logged in to your Vocera.

Old model:

New model:

Gait Belt

Ah, the humble gait belt. The #1 way to cover your ass as a therapist or anyone helping a patient perform a transfer. Putting one on is one of the first skills learned in PT school. It's a belt that goes around a patient's waist to assist with completing transfers, recover loss of balance, and (most importantly) allow for patient's to safely descend to the floor when arresting a fall.

These ones are great :D

These one's suck >:(

Myself and everyone I know prefers the cloth ones because they can be secured more tightly and are less likely to slide up into the patient's armpits. However, a lot of hospitals use vinyl ones because they're easier to sanitize, but they're awful because you can't get them tight enough and are prone to slipping. Theoretically, there should be one in every hospital room, however you end up playing Sisterhood of the Traveling Gait Belt because they have a tendency to wander off or go missing.

D/C

Or discharge! When a patient is deemed well and safe enough to return home or to the facility they live in. We as therapists actually play a big role in determining if patients meet the functional criteria needed to go home. Though, you'll still hear everyone say "discharge." Denoting D-slash-C is documentation shorthand, but I have a loose "brand" that I'll be sticking to for chapter titles and this will pop up.

Inpatient vs Outpatient

Pretty simple. Inpatient services are typically administered while a patient is admitted to the hospital, whether that's for acute care, long-term care, or rehabilitation. Outpatient services are when patient's come from their home to receive treatment, and these clinics can be free-standing or attached to hospitals. Max and Charles are inpatient therapists, but Daniel will also have an outpatient therapist once he's been discharged (feel free to leave your guesses for who it'll be below :3)

Code Blue

The last thing anyone wants to hear over the intercom system. Technically, there's lots of codes with different colors in the hospital, but this one is most important when it comes to patient care itself. A code blue is called when a patient is non-responsive and lacks a pulse and/or isn't breathing. You can also kinda think about this as a patient flat lining. This is where CPR or rescue breaths need to be started immediately. However, contrary to movies and television, not every patient experiencing a code blue needs to be defibrillated. In fact, only three abnormal heart rhythms warrant shocks (meaning that the heart is still beating but incorrectly and inefficiently). If a patient's flat lining, you start CPR. Sometimes you may hear providers talking about responding to a "code" or a patient "coding."

In a similar but less serious vein is a Rapid Response, in which a patient may be experiencing acute distress and require immediate care but is still responsive. These can be cardiac or neurological in nature.

And finally: Ocean, why is everyone rubbing their hands together when they enter Daniel's room?

Two words: Hand. Hygiene. Hospitals and clinics are very picky about this--and for good reason! It's expected that prior to and immediately after interacting with a patient, you wash your hands, whether it's with soap and water, or with sanitizers. I didn't write about it, by my hospital actually required us to wear sensors on us that synced with the soap and sanitizer dispensers that tracked when we got close to patient beds and how well we adhered to hand hygiene. Like, you literally got a monthly report in your email.

Anyway, if you made it this far, good on you! I obviously love to yap about my job, so I hope this was coherent and helpful lol. If any more things pop up, there can be a pt 2. But for now, rest assured that I'm trying my hardest to get the next chapter out soon!

[themolldollincident]

Queer tormented by ocd plays disco elysium absolutely zooted on edibles, a tragically short story in only seven snapchats

Not my typical content but i had to post it.

I LOVE video games but my OCD makes them very distressing to play sometimes. My playthrough HAS to be perfect or i get extremely distressed - not like i have to do a good job and win, but more like every single playthrough has to be a beautiful work of art from beginning to end, no decisions or time wasted on things that dont serve the STORY and the CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, and CERTAINLY no sidequests left uninvestigated and no bonus content left undiscovered. This has gotten harder in recent years as video games have become more complex and more beautiful, so oftentimes you CANT uncover every single thing AND play a consistent character, because huge swaths of content are often locked behind certain decisions that you CANT MAKE if you're committing to a specific character arc or story. So anyway a while ago I played through Disco Elysium. I LOVED IT. It was FANTASTIC. It was difficult to get through at times because of the ocd but it was so so worth it and helped me practice not engaging in compulsions.

HOWEVER.

I recently decided to play it through AGAIN while absolutely fucking ZOOTED on some edibles i've discovered that make it to where i basically dont fucking have my extremely severe case of ocd for just a few hours. (They are heavenly and i love them). I thought it would be really fun to play the whole game again, but this time i ONLY open up this save when im zooted, and i ONLY have fun, with NO pressure to make the playthrough any kind of art. JUST have FUN playing a VIDEO GAME for the first time in my life. I decided i would ONLY pick the dialogue options i found the most amusing, without doing my typical 20 minutes of overthinking for each dialogue box. I was going goofy mode and i was so excited. It didnt exactly go the way i thought it would though LMAO

This is the result of that tragically short but hilarious playthrough that had me SCREAMING in my living room, told in 7 snapchats

1. Opening the game and noticing something i somehow never noticed during the whole first playthrough around 5:35 pm

2. Creating a character build, 5:38 pm

3. Deciding to have a 1 in all stats except psyche and pour all points into psyche so that i can be psychic cop, failing to realize (because edibles) that there is a low attribute cap at the beginning, so i just accidentally chose to hamstring my attributes and just NOT USE my three points to build my character, 5:40 pm

4. Choosing ONLY Inland Empire for my skill increase, once again failing to realize that i wasnt maxxing out inland empire, i was just failing to use two skill points. Also i was enjoying the music in the skill screen, which is beautiful, but since i was high i thought the 5 minutes i spent just vibing to the music was like 30 minutes so i thought i wasted a bunch of time, 5:48pm. (Ive decided to call this method of accidentally using only one skill/attribute point at the beginning of the game because youre too zooted to play video games well "Harry-Maxxing".)

5. Going through the "trying to wake up" beginning of the game choosing only the funniest dialogue options and seeing dialogue i had never seen before! Fun! But also before i took this pic i referenced the nina chimera FMA meme and my partner hadnt heard of it so i explained it for only like 10 minutes, but again, since i was high, i thought i wasted like 2 hours on that. But it was only 6:16 pm.

6

6. and 7. A glorious 3 minutes later, i decide turning the light on is a great first move (its been a bit since my first playthrough). Again, i am only choosing the funniest dialogue options and not thinking super well, so i just kept saying shit like "BRING IT ON" and "Let it all go" because i thought it was typical harry being overdramatic and weird, and i thought it was hilarious. Turns out i had a heart attack from turning the light on and immediately died. Literally like 5 minutes of actual playtime. Incredible. I love this game.

It wasnt the full playthrough i was hoping for but it was awesome. Rip harry number 2. I definitely recommend harry-maxxing

[cobraonthecob]

just remembered that i haven't posted my merc 2nd seat predictions so here they go, i made them before fernando signed to stay with aston martin btw

REMEMBER. this is all for fun and for merc to deal with. some will be funny, others serious

SERIOUS PREDICTIONS: 1. carlos: easy swap, also, i'd scramble to grab carlos. he has a good brain under that pretty hair and why not. swapsies!

2. fernando: harder to get, as he has said that he'll consider going to merc if aston is a flop this year and merc is stronger this year. as we all know, he is choosing a stable future...hopefully.

3. alex: even harder, as he'll want to be the number 1 driver nurturing williams into a top-contending team. something drastic would have to happen to make alex consider moving

UNLIKELY, BUT POSSIBLE

antonelli: IF he makes top three in F2 and a lot of persuasion, but i feel like merc will try and persuade williams to take him on and take on another, more experienced driver. or merc will just put this kid fresh out of school in merc itself.

esteban: if alpine remains at the bottom of the standings and pierre is dominating, then i can see esteban trying to say 'hey merc, take me, i'll be a second player, idc, just get me out of here'. i doubt it though, considering his history of not getting along with his teammates and i think he and george would kill each other in a way that'll give toto a giant headache

I WOULD BE SURPRISED 1. mick: we love blonde nepo babies, don't we? IF mick is to return to the grid, i can see him getting strong-armed to williams and pulling alex to merc, or merc says 'fuck it, let schumi junior warm the seat for the next coming of max verstappen', then that's a possibility. his second year at haas (aka when the car was in a place to score points) showed that he can score good points, but he wasn't very consistent. he really should've gotten a third year to finally prove his skill, but alas. kmag and nico have way more experience. realistically speaking, he's going to have a hard time coming back to the grid unless he pulled a daniel and gets a P2 time or better in a merc in a tyre test. now, mick's job as reserve and i think he also helped develop the car means that he could be pulled to williams if that's an option, but i don't think mick to merc or williams is a possibility

2. logan: if he can score points this season and alex is not willing to play second and seat warmer at merc, i feel like logan would take it. currently, the way the season's going? if i were logan, i'd start looking to formula e, f1 has nothing for me going on if i can't turn the car in a corner without it attempting to fling itself into a wall

3. valtteri: idk if he'd be willing to gamble on being the better driver when merc has been slowly putting their eggs into the george basket. also why would he go back there. used to be in SILLY but now moved here since hulkenberg has taken a seat at sauber, though a driver of his caliber would be able to easily beat hulkenberg

SILLY 1. sebastian: he retired to be a girl dad, but then deciding 'fuck it, i'll pull a fernando' would have me laugh for a grand total of two seconds before i'm like 'no'. we have plenty of older drivers and no new fresh talent on the grid already, like keep your promise and be with your family

2. rosberg: why would he do this. he retired to be a father and he's happy doing other things. f1 is NOT the end all be all. let him be happy running an ice cream shop with his wife and an extreme e team

3. nyck: what i'd give to be a fly on the wall for that phone call. i can see it. toto calls nyck. nyck picks up. toto is begging on his knees. nyck smiles. 'you left me out of a williams seat for so long that i went for alphatauri. now i'm happy in formula e and wec. thanks, but no thank you. good-bye.'

4. yuki: after all the disrespect alphatauri/vcarb has put him through, he can go to merc and claw his way there. or maybe not. idk how i'd feel about yuki playing second driver to another white man

5. pierre: given alpine being a flop, i wouldn't be surprised if he showed up to the merc/williams auditions. i can see him going to williams to replace alex should alex move to merc, or pierre going to merc, but i don't know he's WANT to be a second driver at merc or williams despite the fact that maybe i do want a pierre-alex lineup. ex teammates of max verstappen let's fucking goooo

6. daniel: after all the smoke and mirrors and the reason why nyck's therapist can afford their kid's motorsport career, daniel makes a move to merc. this prediction is so impossible (merc and daniel wouldn't even consider it for different reasons) but thinking about it made me laugh

[misc-obeyme]

I really like the MC and OC questions. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask you a few about yours : Relationships & Personality :2. Concept and design :2. Demon :3: Human :3. And also (if you like, it's not in the questions but it intrigues me): what is their favourite food? -^^

Hello there, ^^ anon!

Relationships & Personality 02: On a scale of 1 to 10, how annoying are they to Lucifer? :)

I'm gonna give Arsenios an average score of about an 8. Normally Arsenios avoids Lucifer because he knows he's gonna get annoyed lol. He doesn't want to start trouble. But if he actually talks to Lucifer, it shoots up to like the max. So averaging it out I'm going with eight.

Ciaran is always a 10. Ciaran doesn't like Lucifer very much for quite a while. They eventually come around, but even then, they are a troublemaker at heart. They are actively contributing to Lucifer's grey hairs and most of the time it isn't even on purpose.

Concept and design 02: What inspired you to create them, and what is the first thing you decided about them?

Arsenios was based on the concept of the crossroads demon, but specifically the idea that musicians will sell their soul in exchange for musical talent. I was just thinking about more traditional demon stories and how they might fit into the world of OM. So the first thing I decided about him were his powers and that part of his history.

The only thing that inspired me to create Ciaran was the need for an MC lol. I actually went through a few different iterations before finally settling on who they are now. They had different names and slightly different looks and personalities. Their backstory has always been somewhat the same except that the amount of siblings they had changed drastically. Like at one point, they had four siblings. But anyway, I think the first thing I decided about Ciaran was their name. It's a name I've always liked. So I basically went okay, my MC's name is Ciaran, now who are they? And then I took bits and pieces of everything I'd written so far and that's how Ciaran came to be lol.

Demon 03: Do they have any special abilities?

I answered this here! And rambled quite a bit, too lol. But I will add something about the way Arrie makes pacts - obviously the whole point is to give humans musical talent. So instead of just raw power, Arsenios is essentially giving the human he has a pact with knowledge and ability. He's passing on his own skill at playing an instrument to that human. He can still be controlled through the pact like any other demon, so I think he could give the human raw power if they demanded it. But that's not usually the point and most humans who make a pact with him are doing it for the talent.

Human 03: Did they believe in demons and angels before the exchange program? Did they have any contact with the paranormal before it?

Ciaran tries not to think about these things at all. They were perfectly happy not believing in such things and now they want to enjoy the ride of being an exchange student in the Devildom without having a religious crisis at the same time lol. Ciaran's mother is a devout Catholic and Ciaran was raised with that belief system. So for a time, they believed in all that stuff. But as they grew older, they began to question and eventually left the church altogether. So they very much stopped believing. After that, they didn't really have an opinion. If you asked them about what they believed, they would say they didn't know. They would say that they think it's more important to focus on the now, on the life you're currently living, than to worry about what might happen in the afterlife. They're too busy living to worry about it. (This all changes dramatically in the AU where they're half fae, but let us not get into that lol.)

I don't think Ciaran has had any paranormal contact previously. They're pretty thrilled about magic existing because it's something they liked to believe in (in a non religious way). But if they had ever encountered anything like that in their life, they were unaware of it at the time.

what is their favourite food?

Arsenios's favorite food is macarons! It's kinda silly, but he's friends with Barbatos and has been for a while. So Barb invites him over to the castle for tea parties and such. And that's where Arrie first encounters a macaron. He's amazed when he picks one up and it's super light. And forever after that, they were his favorite. Arsenios is a good cook, but he's terrible at baking. So I think he sees them as really special in that sense, too.

Ciaran's favorite food is a roast beef and provolone sandwich on sourdough bread. Specifically bread baked by their older sister. Even better if there's also pepperoncinis on it. Their sister Fiadh owns her own bakery and she's been baking since they were little kids. She's been making sandwiches for Ciaran for so many years, it's like a comfort food for them now.

Woo well this has gotten long! Thank you so much for asking! I'm having so much fun answering these!

MC & OC Ask Game

[wilsons-striped-ties]

april tc challenge (days 1-30 one shot)

April TC Challenge by @morethanwords0475

done this back in may, don't know why i didn't post this but it's updated to passion fruit!

Day 1: Happy April Fool's! Have you ever pranked your tc; if so, how did they react?

nope but ive surprised him with a birthday present and he was so stunned

Day 2: What is the earliest thing you can remember about your tc?

i was walking around with some seniors and saw him and back then i was like year one so i didn't know who he was and my seniors were like oh that's passion fruit, he's super scary but he's a good teacher

Day 3: Do you like your tc's subject? Do you consider yourself to be good at it?

MY FAVOURITE SUBJECT!! i used to be the top of his class

Day 4: How do you feel about your age gap?

i don't even know our age gap

Day 5: Have you ever said anything to you tc that showed you favored them? Have they said anything like that to you?

HELP ME last saturday i went back to my high school for their 100 year anniversary musical and somehow ended up telling him that he's my favorite teacher before running down the stairs :' he's called me his star history student and apparently bragged about me a couple times before

Day 6: Have you ever noticed any small habits they have? If so, what comes to mind first?

he paces a lot while standing up and his resting position is hands behind is back. he never buttons his shirts to the max, there's always at least two buttons undone unless he needs to wear a tie, and he'll run his hand through his hair absentmindedly, and he talks softer when he's one on one, or when he's giving instructions to me, and he'll always say "come on lah" in the same tone, same facial expression, same pronunciation. when he doesn't remember a particular detail about the chapter, he'll wave his hand around in the same way, and he will always lean to the side and shift his weight around whenever he's talking, he just can't stand still :'

Day 7: What gift would you like to be able to give them, regardless of if it's realistic or not?

i'd like to gift him my book, like be able to dedicate it to him in the dedications because he's the muse and main character of my book, but it's still in process

Day 8: Does your tc ever talk about what it was like when they were still a student?

yup, he was telling us once how he used to play truant HAHA

Day 9: Does your tc have a significant other? If so, what do you know about them, and how do you feel about them?

he has a wife and three kids, i don't know anything about his wife but his kids i know some stuff about, and ive seen his youngest son a lot because he goes to the middle school that's affiliated with my high school

Day 10: What is the longest time you've gone without seeing them?

maybe a month or two? i try my best to go back to my high school every now and then

Day 11: What do other people usually think of them?

those who have been in his class say he's super funny and his predictions for the national exam topics are eerily accurate, those who haven't been in his class say he's scary looking, they think he's a gangster LMAO

Day 12: Do you often make up excuses to speak to them? What kinds of excuses do you like to use?

OH FOR SURE i go back to school in hopes of seeing him, i ask him questions when i was still a student, i did so many practice papers for him to go through with me

Day 13: Other than the subject they teach, what are they really passionate about?

i feel he's passionate about family, he always seems so gentle around the topic of his family and he's really a compassionate and understanding person, he values family and kindness a lot and i that about him, he's also big on knowledge in general and also feel he's passionate about his looks LMAO he always dresses really cool and he always wants to look good and stuff and it's kinda cute

Day 14: What is a skill you really wish your tc had?

i wish that he would sing more, he has such a good singing voice but he doesn't sing out of teasing us :( i also wish he wrote poems or books or short stories or anything really, he looks like he has a really interesting perspective on life and just looks so poetry coded please and why does he look like such a guitar player...

Day 15: Which MBTI personality do you think they are? (If you don't do MBTI, which Hogwarts House do you think they'd be in?)

he's definitely a slytherclaw, not sure about his mbti but i would KILL to know his mbti

Day 16: if you could go back in time and choose, would you still choose to develop feelings for your tc?

I WOULD SLAP MY YOUNGER SELF how could i have been so blind??? the most perfect man (him) was right in front of me and i stupidly chased after mango... i regret my entire prom man i could have made so many memories with passion fruit :'

Day 17: If it was the last time you would ever be able to see your tc, what is one thing you would never leave without saying to them?

would tell him that he's built my confidence and self esteem up and never brought it down before, something that nobody has ever done before and he's taught me not to be afraid to put my opinions out and that I'll never know if I don't try, so he's given me the spirit of curiosity and trying no matter the circumstances and the odds and that he's genuinely my favorite teacher and that i do love him :'

Day 18: When was the first time you cried because of them?

never cried cause of him before <3

Day 19: How well do you think you know them?

i definitely only know like 30% of him :'

Day 20: Do you ever lie to them? About what?

i hardly ever lie so nope

Day 21: What is the longest time you've spent with them?

one on one maybe around forty minutes or so, in a class/with people maybe an hour plus

Day 22: If you have had other tcs in the past (or right now), how are they similar to or different from your current (or primary) tc?

mango vs passion fruit: I guess the difference between the two of them is that they're polar opposites HAHA

Day 23: Have you ever seen your tc in clothes they don't usually wear? Casual clothes if they wear formal attire or the other way around?

he always wears a dress shirt and dress pants 24/7 but during photo takings/formal events he wears ties and I'm like woah okay, and ive seen him wear our house shirts or just polo/soccer team shirts and it looks quite cute on him, ive seen him in shorts before and ive died before

Day 24: When was the last time they made your heart thump?

every. single. time. i. see. him. especially when we make eye contact ajajsjdgfdks

Day 25: How do you think your tc would react if you confided in them that you felt sad or stressed or anxious?

i think he would show me so much care and concern that it would physically wrench my soul, he's always so sweet and he is the kind of person to check in on you if he knows something's up, or follow up with you and he would definitely reassure me that he has full confidence in me :'

Day 26: What is the best dream you've had of them?

i dont knowww unfortunately i dont dream a lot about him but there was one time in a dream he initiated a photo with me

Day 27: What is the saddest/scariest dream you've had of them?

glad to say that I haven't got any dreams like that regarding him before

Day 28: Does your tc ever bring you up to other students/teachers that you know of?

oh definitely, my friend from another class told me he praised me in front of them 😭

Day 29: Do you see them as being a romantic person? Are you?

HE WOULD BEEE hes so tender and thoughtful and really really really sweet and he takes the initiative and hes just so wonderful hes definitely romantic... im a hopeless romantic enough said

Day 30: How have they changed since you two first met? How have you changed?

hes played around with his hair more and the way his beard outlines his jawline is insane now, hes more casual and comfortable around me and hes also able to joke with me more hehe. im more confident in terms of speaking my opinions out, im more comfortable with being myself around him, and i think because of them, im more thoughtful and i put in more effort in studies and gifts and my wardrobe too HAHAHHA

[derekscorner]

Fated Rantings: Remnants Rambling

A Game Better Than It Has Right To Be

I recently finished what is my fourth romp through the Fate Series. It has been slow going due to life but truth be told I didn't want to rush either.

My go of Fate Grand Order is still ongoing, my first anime was Apocrypha, then I watched the 2006 Fate Stay Night, and now I've finished Samurai Remnant after 70+ hours.

Each of these has been good so far. I may hate gacha games but FGO has a solid initial story arc and it's Lost Belt 6 story is also great apparently. I'm not sure I'll get that far but I am determined to finish Solomon's villain arc.

While I'd rate Apocrypha a better anime than it's often given. I am still in shock from the sheer contrast of Astolfo in-story vs the internet osmosis he's become. While the 06 anime was decent for me I do admit I had already seen plenty of lore videos prior so I knew what was going on.

Then there's Samurai Remnant that is better than I expected. I tried it because I am a new Fate fan and Type-Moon doesn't localize things often. I'd argue it is my second favorite story so far falling just behind Apocrypha.

Imagine a Fate Stay Night remade in this style!

Game mechanics weren't perfect or without annoyance for me, I will admit. I feel like Iori gets knocked around far to easy and can be stun locked.

The barrier gauge among most enemies and bosses is honestly a pain and feels like it's padding a bit (until you hit max level anyway) and it is easy to get lost in the towns at first.

Yes you have a map but I did get annoyed more than once be slow traversal hazards or dead ends. Granted, this is an aggravation for extras.

When in-story it is all fine. There's story reasons or game mechanic reasons for why you will have to crawl around, sneak, and so on. It was very much an issue I gave myself for wanting to do every thing and search every corner.

Many other things that annoyed me at first quickly vanished later as I leveled up or filled out skill boards so I will not list them. It was a somewhat basic but unique (in ways) game play set up for what is essentially a visual novel.

I only mention it all because I think this game would be an amazing blueprint for other Fate games. I've already seen people hope for a Fate Stay Night remade in this game's image.

Whether it's a new route or just the old novel redone the hope is now there and I find myself agreeing with them. Samura/Remnant is a great prototype for taking visual novels that began Fate and turning them into a video game that can reach more people.

Story is where it Shines

I won't lie, I expected something 'okay' or "mid" as kids call it, but no. This story actually is rather good. Several characters have more going on than it initially appears and multiple runs are required.

You'll play this game 3 to 4 times if you want every ending or to finish ever digression mission. Something I highly recommend you do because you'll miss out on explanations for several plot points or character motivations.

Admittedly, there are several things that I didn't get answered despite my thorough go of the game. I completely missed the fact that Tsuchimikado's family can use divination for future sight. It was this very skill that allowed him to create the Waxing Moon Ritual.

The whole reason the ritual is flawed is due to him using imperfect foresight to orchestrate the event. The story tells you several times that the ritual is a sham compared to the Fuyuki Grail War but I don't remember it ever actually stating why.

The wish of Rogue Berserker was also something I missed in-game. I won't spoil who he is (or was?) but knowing his wish now makes his finale and leyline placement much more sensible.

Leyline you ask?

Ah yes, it's explained in-game but I'll spoil it here since it's not that much of one. Due to the rituals imperfection a number of extra servants are summoned to Edo.

They're "rogue" or stray servants who are bound to a leyline in the land. (A spot of particularly high mana essentially.) On top of the rogue servants a pseudo servant and ruler class servant are also summoned.

Of course, none of these extra heroes have much interest in the ritual. You can befriend them in the story but the actual war itself is carried out by the 7 actual servants and their masters.

As for the ruler, well, Gilgamesh really just proves why he never gets the role in the funniest way. He doesn't care about the false grail, he doesn't care about the half-assed ritual, and he doesn't care for his job as a ruler.

He literally fucks off, weebs out, and opens a store five houses down from yours early into the game. It is one of the funniest fucking things.

It's small things like this or Gilgamesh's antics that give the story life. I don't want my section above to paint the image of it being bad for some things going unexplained. It's entirely possible I missed the in-game explanation.

But do know that characters will sell this story too you more than the plot beats will.

The story itself, in terms of progression, is simple. Iori gets drug into the ritual like most Fate protagonists do. Many of the events triggered are usually by way of the other masters having an actual battle.

Iori is there, he's an active participant, but he mostly runs around seeking information or making allies while major events are kicked off by the magi or servants triggering them. The digressions show you a lot of these perspectives.

Iori isn't a fool or ignorant of magic, he's just not a man of status or means to pull the stunts many others cause. I would argue he "has no desire too" but that in of itself is a murky topic.

Overall, I do consider it a good thing because the story is character driven instead. So much so that I won't even dare to try and fit it all in a post. I'll let you discover that for yourself...except for Assassin.

Not a bad character by any means but he has a moment in the game mid way and to this very day I do not get why he does what he does. It's like they just did whatever they had to for that boss fight to happen...

I just find it a shame because his digressions are actually humorous. Many character interactions are funny at times. It's always the small things too, little scenes that you could miss if you rush.

Other Questions & Conclusions

To be honest there's more I could ramble on but it won't fit into one post and I do not feel like I can make more than two or three. One reason is due to me obviously missing details that I only learned later due to a video by Otakudaikun.

Another reason is due to the sheer number of characters. There's several I've only seen for the first time outside of FGO and do not feel like I can do them justice due to my lack of familiarity.

Others are so simple that I do not think they have much to be said. They're not bad for it they're just simple and true to their nature.

Such as Jeanne. I didn't even get into how disappointing it is for her personality to be muted. And make no mistake, this is Jeanne corrupted not FGO Jalter.

I didn't cover just how much Rogue Berserker hit me personally since I liked his legend as a child.

I'd need a whole post of it's own to talk about Rogue Rider and her antics. Sure you see a loli but by hell I know Amaterasu's lore in Fate, her nature, so I only get nervous seeing her grin. (though I do love her dynamic with Kaya)

Nor did I elaborate on how cool it is for the main servants (the ones paired with masters) to be legends from Japan or China. I actually learned a few interesting ones due to this writing decision.

There's the other endings as well but nothing is as deep as the 'Entreat the Darkness' ending imo. They're all decent though.

I even have this theory that Iori is the reason Musashi was summoned to t his timeline with no proof other than he wants to best his master and she wants a decent opponent.

What I will reiterate is that you should try this. It's a great place to start Fate and it's a good one to try if you already follow Fate.

Go give it a try, bye now~

================================================

Other Fate related ramblings here: https://derekscorner.tumblr.com/tagged/fated-rantings

[goldguy40]

Welcome to the instruction manual! Here you will learn about the game comic Multilight and how to play it, as well as some tips and tricks. and some additional info.

*Story

You play as The story starts with Annie, who ended up on the other side of Lightsky called Ediesthou.

Your Her quest is to find your their lost siblings and to find a way out, but something might happen later on...

*Controls

To move you use the ARROW KEYS, with pressing DOWN to crouch or tapping two times LEFT and RIGHT to run.

You can jump with SPACE, attack with Z or use abilities using X. Press SPACE two times to fly (You can use CTRL to swap attack styles).

Use C for skills, S to swap skills and numbers to swap between characters.

If you want a break or fix something press ESC for the menu, just be careful where you might pause. Ignore that

Each character have their own abilities, here some examples:

Annie - Dash: dash to move faster! Can pass through attacks.

Kayla - Endurance: You're able to receive one more hit, making you unable to attack for a while instead.

Kirime - Spirit: Turn into a spirit to be immune to attacks and go through enemies, but you can't attack in this state.

*Some Characters have more than 1 attack style, press CTRL + Z to swap between them.

*Don't forget! Each time you swap characters you will receive a delay before being able to swap again, so be careful!

*Attacks and abilities don't use stamina, but skills do! Always look at your stamina to make sure you can use your skills.

*How to play

Move around, shoot and dodge attacks! Beat the boss to move to the next stage. Don't forget to grab some points along the way. Be careful! You can only take one hit, otherwise you'll lose a life, lose too many and you'll go back to your checkpoint.

Each time you graze your stamina bar increases, allowing you to use skills and abilities, but there are other ways to recover stamina, so don't worry!

If your stamina is maxed out, you can charge by holding C, release to launch a powerful attack!

*Although extremely powerful, sometimes it's better to use skills rather than a charged attack. Please ignore these as well

*Points, items and difficulty.

Enemies you defeat defeated will give you points, they can be used to achieve a high score and, if you collect collected enough points, you may get an extra life they receive an extra heart.

But there are other ways to get those points, such as:

Enemy combo - Kill 3 or more enemies at once to double their points! But remember, Special enemies do not count.

Perfect Dodge - If you defeat a boss phase without dying and skills, all bullets on screen will turn into points, with big ones turning into golden points!

No Skill Challenge - If you beat a stage without using your skills, you will be rewarded with a lot of points! Irrelevant

Sometimes they can also drop items that help you on your way that can be useful. Here's all the items you can get they can drop:

Recover (small): Recovers 3 of your stamina.

Recover (big): Recovers 10 of your stamina.

Recover (Power): Recovers your stamina to the max!

Super: Allows you to use Skills without stamina temporarily.

Heart: Gives you a new life.

Depending on the difficulty, your Some parts the game comic will might change, such as here are some examples:

EASY - Mid-boss checkpoint, 3 stars (1 for mid-boss) and full stamina.

An easier version of the normal difficulty, good for a first try.

NORMAL - Mid-boss checkpoint 6 stars (3 for mid-boss).

An alternative version of the original story, made for casual gameplay.

HARD - Double bullets, 6 stars (3 for mid-boss) bosses have charge attacks.

A harder version of the altered story, made for those that like a challenge.

OVERDRIVE - Double bullets, 9 stars (6 for mid-boss), new phases, enemies, bosses have charge attacks and 1 new playable character.

The original story, without difficulty changes, experienced players only.

And that's all! Thanks for reading this manual! Feel free to come back here any time if you need.

[dany36]

now that i've S-ranked every stage in the DLC and also completed the map, just have some final junk thoughts from the sonic frontiers dlc (plus me raving some more about the music) before i move on to another game :)

i know i mentioned that playing as amy is the best out of the new playable characters, and i still stand by that opinion, but MAN is tails' MAX rings cyclone flying ability fun as FUCK. like, i kind of have a hate-love relationship with it. on one hand, who the hell doesn't like flying around the island at max speed? like, oh, there's something all the way over there, let me just ZOOM right over in a few seconds!! AND the fact that you can control its height unlike knuckles' flying is just insanely cool. on the OTHER hand though, yes it cheapens tails' flying ability because honestly once you get the cyclone ability, you don't even have to do any of the set-paths that the game wants you to follow to get to the map kocos or skill kocos. you can just fly up to them and boom, didn't have to do the set path. which is kind of sad because those can be really fun and satisfying to complete, so what i'd end up doing was get to the area where the map koco would be, and instead of just flying up to it, try to follow the path and get the map that way to not just suck the fun out of the entire thing

but also, that one M-puzzle where it lit up 3 or 4 red beams of light all across the island and you had to reach all of them under a time limit??? MAN i think that was my favorite puzzle of all!!! i first bumped into that one when i was playing with amy, and at first i thought i was gonna have to come back to it with sonic since i didn't think i'd get another character that would be as fast as him (also didn't have the spin dash ability yet since this was early in the game). but holy shit once i unlocked that ability and saw just how fucking fast you could fly around the island (skells from xenoblade x my beloved), i immediately went back to that puzzle and just completed it as tails. just so damn awesome!!

and SPEAKING OF the spin dash....wow. amy, knuckles, and tails may not be as fast as sonic, but they become just as fast as him with this skill. and i can't believe i went through the entire main game without using the spin dash more often. spin dashing around the island and abusing the hell of its physics was just something that never got old, even in the sonic stages. i don't think i ever used the fast travel with the portals since i mean....spin dashing everywhere the island is just like a damn dream come true: it's always something i'd do in sonic adventures' mystic ruins but at a smaller scale, but this time? the ouranos island is fucking huge and gorgeous and then with that beautiful music playing in the background and just rolling around everywhere at high speeds AAAAAAAAAA this game is honestly just the perfect sonic game!!!!!

i think i already talked about this earlier but the new stages were super fun and actually challenging to S rank, unlike the main game. there were some i wasn't too fond of (like that one where sonic's speed as "gears"?? what was that lol) but overall they were a joy to replay over and over and try to bring my time down. i think my favorites were definitely 4-A (with the rocket boosters and beehive-looking things) and 4-B (the one with the hologram tails and the falling platforms).

the music. GOD how does sega keep doing this!!! every single new character theme is just so on fucking point, but i gotta say amy wins this one as well: there's something just so hauntingly beautiful about her theme that just honestly fits the overall mood of the game. but honestly, all just so good. i neeeeed to get my hands on the ost, especially since i'm late to the party and realized that now they have a GORGEOUS BEAUTIFUL AMAZING remixed version of the windy and ripply (emerald coast 2) song AKA a song so dear and beloved and nostalgic to my heart that just thinking about it makes me want to cry tears of joy. like, running around the islands with that music playing in the background is just so freeing and beautiful and exciting that just makes you feel glad that you get to experience a sonic game like this.

oh shit got sidetracked talking about this game's overall out-of-this-world soundtrack again um um um what else. i mean, i really don't know what else to say except frontiers just knocked it out of the park and surpassed my expectations in every single way possible. as i was playing the game and would just be exploring the island and completing puzzles/paths, i'd just keep saying to myself "this game is fucking amazing" every once in a while. sega just fucking nailed the 3d sonic formula and any doubt i had about an open-world sonic game was just thrown out the window: i couldn't stop thinking about this being a MUCH larger, more fun, and more gorgeous version of running around mystic ruins than i could have ever imagined, and it's exactly the type of exploration freedom that i had been itching for in a sonic game.

and it goes without saying that sega bringing back amy, tails, and knuckles as playable characters was just soooo fucking good and refreshing to see, and my god did they do them justice. last time they were all playable was, what...sonic adventure?? really?? like, holy crap. sonic frontiers really was a love letter to 3d sonic games and ughhhh i just can't stop saying good things about it. EVERYONE NEEDS TO PLAY THIS GAME!!!

anyway!!! can't wait to see where the sonic 3d series is headed after this, but for now, time to wait for sonic superstars (holy shit that's soon!!!) since that looks fun as hell too, and that's me saying it as someone who prefers 3d sonic vs 2d sonic!

[otome-com]

Love and Deepspace Beginner Tips

Welcome to this friendly and comprehensive guide and Love and Deepspace Beginner Tips, specially made for newcomers diving into the world of Love and Deepspace! Whether this is your first gacha game or you're just looking to play smarter, we’ve got you covered with beginner tips and strategies that’ll help you get the most out of your experience. Let’s walk through this together and unlock everything this amazing game has to offer.

In this article:

Understanding Level Restrictions Maximizing Daily Experience Mastering the Combat System Choosing and Upgrading Weapons Navigating the Gacha System Spending Wisely and Responsibly Participating in the Oracle of Stars Event Evaluating Event Rewards Deepening Your Connections Engaging with the Community Advanced Leveling and Core Hunt Balancing Efficiency and Enjoyment Final Thoughts

Understanding Level Restrictions

One of the first things to know is that your story progression is tied to your account level. On your very first day, you’ll have access to Chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 3 unlocks on Day 2, and Chapter 4 becomes available on Day 3. To level up smoothly, focus on Daily Missions. Tap on the Agenda from your homescreen, then hit Daily. These simple tasks will help you level up, earn items, and stay on pace with the story. Keep an eye on your account level—it’s displayed in the top-left corner of your homescreen, right above your name. 🗝️ Love and Deepspace beginner tips: Don’t rush. The pacing is designed to ease you in. Take your time getting to know the game mechanics, story, and characters.

Maximizing Daily Experience

Daily missions are more than just chores—they’re your ticket to leveling up fast. They also give you stamina and useful items. Just remember: stamina recharges over time, so make use of it before it maxes out. Use your stamina wisely! Activities like Bounty Hunts help you gather key materials to upgrade your characters and Memories. Logging in daily, even if only for a few minutes, keeps you progressing steadily—and ensures you won’t miss limited-time events or freebies.

Mastering the Combat System

The game’s combat is a satisfying mix of hack 'n' slash action and strategy. You’ll have a supportive companion—a boy of your choice—fighting by your side, controlled by AI. Start with the tutorial and take your time in the Training Room (found under Battle). A key mechanic to master is parrying—time your skills when enemies flash red to block and counter their attacks. 💡 Love and Deepspace beginner tips: Practicing your parry timing early on makes a huge difference later in tougher fights.

Choosing and Upgrading Weapons

Your playstyle matters! Here’s a quick breakdown of weapon types: - Guns – Safe, ranged, and easy to handle. - Swords – Balanced and great for close combat. - Claymores – Heavy hitters with slower attacks. - Staff – A later option for ranged magic and healing. Don’t forget your Memories—cards that boost your skills. Upgrade them regularly using Bounty Hunt materials. Even low-rarity cards are super useful early on, so don’t toss them aside! Matching your team’s Stellactrum (element) to the stage requirement can seriously boost your damage and defense. It also helps you break enemy shields faster.

Navigating the Gacha System

Ah, the gacha—exciting but tricky. You’ll get lots of free tickets early on, but use them wisely. The two types of tickets are: - Empyrean Wish (standard) - Deepspace Wish (limited) Save your diamonds for limited banners—they’re where the rare, exclusive goodies live. Standard tickets are easier to earn through gameplay. 🎯 Love and Deepspace beginner tips: Be patient with your pulls. The 5-star rate is low (around 1%), so hitting pity might be necessary. Plan ahead and spend smart.

Spending Wisely and Responsibly

If you’re thinking of spending real money, set a budget and stick to it. The game is fun without spending, but there are value bundles worth considering: - Aurum Pass – Great for diamonds and stamina. - Linkon Welcome Pack I – Affordable and helpful. - Association Special: Level 10 – A solid early boost. Above all, spend in a way that adds to your enjoyment—not stress.

Participating in the Oracle of Stars Event

This special event is a chance to earn exclusive 4-star cards and cosmetics, but it runs on a roulette system. You get a free spin every two days, and extra spins cost diamonds. Odds of pulling the exclusive card? Around 0.33%. Most spins give you Oracle Dice, which can be exchanged for items in the shop. It’s best to wait until near the event’s end before spending your dice to avoid duplicates.

Evaluating Event Rewards

Ask yourself: do you want powerful combat cards or cute collectibles? While the 4-star event cards are visually stunning, they may not outperform 5-star ones. ✨ Love and Deepspace beginner tips: If the featured boy is your favorite, go for it! Games are about joy. Just be mindful of your resources.

Deepening Your Connections

One of the sweetest parts of Love and Deepspace is bonding with your favorite boys. Use the With Him feature to interact and customize their space. Tap, shake, and caress to see adorable reactions. Visit the Date section for story scenes (Falling for You and Anecdotes), listen to voice messages, and chat via the Little Phone. Play the Claw Machine and Kitty Cards mini-games three times a week per boy to earn chocolates—which you can trade for cosmetics and goodies!

Engaging with the Community

Tap the person icon under your name to add friends. Sharing tips and chatting with others can make the game more fun. Don’t miss out on updates—follow the official socials: Twitter, Discord, Instagram, and YouTube. Get creative! Share fanart, write posts, or just hang out in discussions. Just remember to be kind—this is a community built on love (and deepspace 💫).

Advanced Leveling and Core Hunt

Once you unlock Chapter 4, things really open up. You’ll gain access to Protocores, special slots that enhance your Memories. These work like artifacts in other RPGs, providing stat boosts. Farm them in Core Hunt (under Battle). Focus on percentage-based stats rather than flat ones for bigger returns. Match the correct Alpha/Beta (Solar) or Gamma/Delta (Lunar) Protocores to your cards for top performance.

Balancing Efficiency and Enjoyment

Don’t forget to enjoy the journey. The story, art, and interactions are just as important as stats and pulls. Explore the dialogue, admire the visuals, and take your time. Games are here to make us feel things—to laugh, cry, and fall in love. Let yourself savor it.

Final Thoughts

This guide has walked you through the essentials, from leveling up and combat to the gacha and special events. We hope these Love and Deepspace beginner tips help you feel more confident and ready to dive in. So, take a deep breath, choose your boy, and begin your journey into the stars. You’ve got this—and we’re cheering you on all the way. For more Guides, click HERE. Read the full article

[theearthmagicguy]

*Sits in a lawn chair before folding my hands serenely in my lap.*

I am officially asking you about World of Final Fantasy. Just be warned, I have only played FF7/Remake and FF10.

Okay. OK. That's probably enough, it's probably fine.

So WoFF is a really pretty creature collector that uses the ATB guage in a weird way. It's sorta presented as a cross between the ff10 turn totem and the ff7/8/9 ATB guage. Everyone shares the bar and moves at up it at the sum* of their speed.

I say sum because this game doesn't just handle every fight in a double battles format, it uses The Forbidden Tech: standing on each other's heads. Combining the stats and moves of creatures and sometimes a human of various sizes into a single unit (not fusion, they are one trenchcoat away from getting in a theater). So you could set up a buncha mages to cast fire exponentially better, or intentionally split them to cast fire separately. If they all know it it becomes fira when they're together. Alternatively you can split to divy up punishment if your opponent slaps each of you too hard. Or stack up to to completely nullify 2 to 4 whole elements if you build and raise right.

Keep in mind that hp and ap are tracked separately (ap caps at 4 a piece, 12 when stacked), but buffs last individually, meaning you could use a single target reflect, split, and then cast ultima on yourself or some shit if you're quick with it.

Actually catching mons is another unique thing. Every monster has at least one thing you can do to give you a chance to catch em, and the more you do it the bigger the catch chance. This can vary wildly, and you'll really wanna keep scan on hand. There is no traditional catch consumable, usually you get the one mon until you go through it's skill tree enough to earn the right to catch another of it's kind, regardless of form. God forbid you raise the thing. That also means if you caught a small tonberry, too small to fit into it's robes, filled with the hate of god, and then found a normal tonberry, you can't catch that normal tonberry immediately.

Monsters can freely switch between their forms once you unlock em, as well as variations you can switch to too with their own forms. Their skill trees, stats, and resistances are fairly set in stone, meaning that they're usually purpose built without intervention. But honestly, nobody's ever gonna be obsolete (which I love), and you can modify them by filling the blank spots on their skill tree (think sphere grid but you can put stats OR abilities into the blank spheres). Also all their forms in the variation you have them in share the stat growth from their skill trees, as well as the abilities and blank spot modifications, so you Can get fairly loose with it. Mastering their whole tree across forms lets them learn one of 3 unique things. These can vary a lot, but can't be changed later.

Honestly my 2 big gripes hafta be A) The fact that there was only one save and no ng+ for the longest time (I think there's still just 1 save) and B) The "summons" usually being kinda beans.

See, you can't have anyone else out once you summon, that makes sense. It's like doin an ff10 summon. Except. Every action except defend uses AP. You now have 24, but the cost of moves is ridiculously high to make up for that. And if normal mons felt purpose built, then these guys are MMO restricted in their playstyle. If you used an actual summon like Bahamut, you WILL immediately use your ult for max dps. What else are you gonna do? You can't use items either, and most summons are more durable than the average mon but not That sturdy. The only summon I had that bucked that trend was a behemoth I raised from a lil guy to Hough. Had a ton of health and defense, defending never took AP, and he had a move that got exponentially stronger the lower his health got. He also had the good ol Meteor Counter, which would let you counter by casting meteor two whole times. Because it still costs ap to cast. And he is not a mage.

But uh, yeah. Games good. Games really really fucking good. I don't remember if it does well on pc, maybe look into that before buying it on steam. They do look like fucking funko pops though.