#so many running gags in this playthrough...

[cizzle-freezy]

a whole collection of the PMD: Explorers of Sky doodles I've done in the past weeks as practice and/or downtime at work as a way to figure out how to draw this band of misfits. SO glad I found a groove

the singular human in this doodle dump belongs to @paco-png, as it's meant to be a more pkmn-universe-esque concept of his mortician OC, Bread (you know, before becoming a phanpy in the pmd universe)

[ejthenobody]

Random Thing I Feel Like Talking About: The Vandelay Soft Drinks in Hi-Fi Rush!

Warning: Hi-Fi Rush spoilers.

Forgive me if I format this a bit weirdly, I just feel like sharing about this very minor and random thing in my current absolute #1 favorite game, Hi-Fi Rush.

Anyway, in this game, you can find these various vending machines throughout pretty much every regular level, aside from the first as they're introduced in Track 2. The whole point of them is that you can smack the heck outta them to get a bunch of gears and batteries to recharge your Reverb gauge (your beeg special attack gauge if you don't know). Very helpful for the first playthrough when you need all the gears you can get in order to get all of your moves sooner rather than later, plus you can do some casual combo practice with 'em.

In the process of destroying these vending machines though, they spit out a ton of cans of the six drinks shown on them. All six drinks are branded and based on the six department heads at Vandelay, these being Korsi-Cola, Rekka Pure Energy (Get apple Juiced), Mimosa Sparkling Water, Carte Blanche, Kale-Ale Executive (I think?), and Roquefort Espresso.

Here's close ups of the vending machine's screen:

However, while messing around in Photo Mode today in Track 4, I realized something really, really cool: the drinks all actually have nutritional information on them!

But it's not just some basic scanned image grabbed from some random canned soft drink and slapped onto the textures, instead it's all stuff based on the personalities of the department head the drink is based on! Here are some pictures of each label:

I don't really know why but I just love each and every single one of these, not just for being funny and interesting, but also because they exist at all! It's such a minor detail that I feel like most people never notice, but it's just so charming to me that it's there!

Some details I wanna point out in specific about these cans are: 1) All of these labels say "Please Recycle!" at the bottom, except for Kale Ale which commandingly says "Recycle!"

2) Korsi-Cola is a caffeine-free cola which I both like the idea of as someone who loves soda but prefers non-caffeinated ones, but also I can't help but interpret this as the VAGUEST and MOST SUBTLE form of foreshadowing for at least the very end of the Decaf Firmware Update joke. And aside from just that running gag I like that it's caffeine-free and has a little label on it that says something along the lines of "a calm mind makes the right choice." It makes a lot of sense for Korsica's drink to be branded like that, namely due to what happens with her in the story and how she interacts with Chai directly before, during, and after her boss battle.

3) All of the info written on these labels and on the rest of the cans alludes to something about each character, some in more obvious ways than others. Roquefort Espresso says "Unleash Your Inner Beast" or something like that on it (along with Silver Extract as the other ingredient). Mimosa Sparkling Water has "Mimosa Flavor" as the second ingredient which is just the most vain way to put it. Carte Blanche (Zanzo's drink if you didn't put that together) as a noun literally means, "complete freedom to act as one wishes or thinks best."

I could keep talking for at least two more paragraphs but I think I'll stop here. Just wanted to share this because it's pretty funny and cool to me, and is just one of many, MANY things that shows much effort and polish went into Hi-Fi Rush.

[thiscityneedslessfog]

so when I blindly played Persona 4, I played with a pack of seven friends. Rise’s player was the only one who wasn’t blind, and would basically tell us How Not To Die. This playthrough was streamed, so pretty much every moment save one is on record.

Everyone else, including me, had no idea what was happening. Here are some funny moments from the first through third arcs. I can’t possibly list them all, there were too many good moments.

(Rise’s player is male and female. Naoto, Teddie, Kanji and Yukiko’s players are male. Chie and Yosuke’s players are female. I’m Yu’s player. I’m… me. I’ll be referring to everyone by their characters. Including myself at some points.)

Yu: Who are you? Amenominakanushi…?

Naoto: Obviously that’s “???”

Also Teddie accusing the reporter of being the MCK because he was so grossed out by his behavior towards Yukiko.

After the first session:

Teddie: So what do we know?

Yu, deadpan: The Midnight Channel Killer is a misogynist.

Also we immediately started shipping Yukiko and Chie within like five minutes. The minute we heard the “never had a boyfriend line” I went “gay??” and Naoto parroted me.

Cue the next session having two gems:

Yu: Are you two ready?

Yosuke: Yes.

Chie: No.

*group starts laughing*

Later in that session:

Yu: Yosuke, what do you want to do?

Yosuke: Uhhh, skill.

Yu: WHICH SKILL??

Everyone except Rise trying to figure out how to make Yamada’s death look like an accident. Everyone hated him.

We started suspecting Adachi of being the Midnight Channel Killer after Yukiko’s testimony. Kanji and Yosuke immediately set out to be crowned as Adachi’s #1 and #2 haters. Kanji replied to Adachi’s “Relax, kids, the police are on the job!” with “Yeah, fuck you too, Adachi.” We honestly all acted really weird around him during that scene.

Naoto and Kanji momentarily shipping Adachi x Dojima. Yosuke said “The minute we start calling him (Adachi) ‘dad’ it’s over.”

Yukiko forgot the names of the spells and started just calling fire magic “Arson.” It caught on. But when Kanji first heard it when Yosuke was begging Yukiko to commit arson during Kanji/Take-Mikazuchi’s boss fight he just went “Commit arson?!”

Speaking of Yukiko, when we found out the gag glasses were equippable, Rise, Naoto and Teddie all started clamoring to get them on everyone, especially Yukiko. Yukiko, meanwhile, wasn’t paying attention, and when he saw the funny glasses after casting a spell, simply asked “…Who put those on me?”

Yukiko decided against using a fire spell on a fire weak enemy out of a desire to drop-kick a bitch and missed. I, meanwhile, genuinely forgot I had a fire spell and cast a physical attack. Rise was dying inside.

I forgot to buy armor before entering Kanji’s dungeon… which made it a huge slog. Despite this we still succeeded in crushing the miniboss because I figured out its attack pattern and then SP STALLED IT. To which everyone just DOGPILED on it. I want everyone to know I was very sick when this play session happened which made me powering through a shock. Yosuke was laughing uncontrollably.

We didn’t finish the dungeon that session, I got sick of dying, we bought armor and then found out Adachi wasn’t linkable while a character was in the dungeon. I can only describe my reaction to that as running off to sulk. (I REALLY wanted to social link him—Yukiko, Naoto and I were the sole non-haters at the time)

The scene where the girls try to make curry:

Yu: Am I the only half-decent cook in this entire city?

Kanji: Yes.

Me threatening to throw the unhinged boyfriend of the girl he got the number of in Okina into the TV, to which Yukiko went “Whoa, we are not the Midnight Channel Killer, hold your horses” while Teddie and Naoto were laughing. I remember Kanji was there too but I think he was just startled by my reaction.

Upon Himiko’s Midnight Channel Episode, I went “I. Do. Not. Need. To see. A shadow’s genitals.” And then Rise questioned if shadows could even have them, to which I wasn’t sure and then realized this was NOT the time to be asking that…

Himiko going full monster form and the entire player group present (Yosuke, Yu, Kanji, Teddie and Naoto) all immediately screaming variations of “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT”

Kanji called flattened Teddie a deflated Capri-Sun.

Upon clearing Rise’s dungeon and checking the Midnight Channel, Kanji exclaimed “A body has not been discovered!” Cut to…

[argisthebulwark]

Hiiiii ,✨ Idk who your ocs are (idr if you've made any posts) but wow what a time to find out!!!! Questions 1, 2, 13, 16, and 17 for the character ask game with whichever one you choose! I want to know about my mutuals little guys 👀

!! thank u my beloved, the oc that's in the front of my brain is my BG3 Durge so i'll be answering about them <3

1. What was the original thought that led to the creation of this character? Vyrg is my indulgent murder Durge. They came after my resist, morally good Durge playthrough with my gross daughter named Ratt. He's bad with people and resorts to violence but I wanted Astarion to have a partner that was equally traumatized and bloodthirsty, even if it's a bit different. I loved playing a resist Durge but really wanted to experience the fucked up nasty side as well and Vyrg is all about that.

2. How long was the process before the character reached its final version? (or a version that would be clearly recognizable as the character?) In an earlier patch I'd tried to play Durge but kinda messed up the playthrough, resisting some urges and indulging in others, so I remade him in Patch 9 and went full murderboy. I changed his appearance a bit as well, so I guess there was two identifiable iterations of them - shorter haircut because I simply don't think he'd have the patience for messing with long hair.

13. Do you have a voice claim for the character? What do you imagine the character sounds like? None of the voice actors in game are exactly what I picture, I imagine they have a gravelly smokers voice. Like their laugh sounds more like a bark, a bit offputting but sexy to freaks like me. Rough and almost out of use.

16. Is there any memes or running jokes associated with the character, both in and out of universe? Out of universe not really because they only exist in a few short fics I've put on AO3. In universe (aka in my unedited wips) I have a running gag where Astarion assumed that every dead body they encounter is Vyrg's work even when everyone knows it's not. Like, they're all entering a new area together for the first time, see a corpse, and Astarion's like "damn, did you do that?" He thinks it's very funny every time.

17. Are there any motifs or symbols associated with the character? How are they represented, in their design, personality or in some other way? Like every other Durge, Vyrg wakes up on the beach with little to no memory. I like to think that they view their memory as a sort of shattered window, often writing about them searching for any hint of life before the Nautiloid as grabbing handfuls of broken glass. No matter how many times they pry for answers, trying to catch a glimpse through the window, he finds nothing but pain. I chose the completely black eyes in character creation at first just because they look sick, but slowly started to really identify Vyrg with them. I think his lack of knowledge of life before makes them feel empty, like there's a void in their head and the flat black eyes reflect that fairly well.

thank you again so much for letting me talk about my little guy, i love them very very much and hope to yap about them more in the future lol <3 ask game here

[baronaliswritingcorner]

Been drafting all these ideas for my Colloyd fic next month. As mentioned earlier, it's something of an absurdist wedding; truth be told, I don't have a firm plot -- I don't even know if it'll be the actual wedding or the reception (maybe both?) -- so I'm just writing outrageous scenes I find funny and seeing where they lead me. Hopefully I'll have something concrete soon.

Naturally, with all the silliness going on, I'm taking the opportunity to stuff it chock-full of obscure references; in fact, there's this whole list of potential gags that's growing by the day. I'm aiming to have it all flow organically rather than propping up an easter egg fest, but I wonder how many my fellow fans can spot? (Actually, this is probably why I won't share any previews...sorry!)

To help prep myself, I've been revisting the game's multimedia; currently, I'm watching the *anime blu-rays, will probably reread the manga, descend into the potential horrors of the audio dramas, and then-

...oh...oh no, it just hit me. Am I really going to replay this stupid game for the sake of this one fic? (Hey, with nonsense on the brain, maybe this is a golden opportunity to do an all-team swimsuit run...)

How many times have I beaten TOS at this stage -- over fifteen times? I've lost count. It was just over a decade ago that I began my 100% run with the original GameCube version, complete with every character ending? Took me over five years, if I recall correctly. Between everything from missables, doing one entire playthrough for the Gung Ho title, and accidentally forgetting to inherit the Collector's Book data one time, you better believe it was a tough ride.

Still, as a Tales of Symphonia superfan, I couldn't accept anything less. Rest assured, I'll apply the same passion to this tongue-in-cheek fic. The patented fluffy sweetness that is Colloyd will remain intact, I assure you.

Please look forward to it!

*Okay, seriously, who was responsible for the translations here? It's bad enough the Discotek release is so barebones (none of the comedy omakes are included), but what's with all the inconsistencies? I mean, Rewin? **Techbirds?? Barraclough Temple?!? Did they not have anyone cross-reference the actual localization? They already did the bare minimum with Raine/Refill -- surely you could've at least done a quick Google search!

**Heck, this is from Tales of Phantasia for crying out loud! How do you mess that up?

[somegirlnamedalicia]

I played how many hours?!

Okay. Wow. Toontown Grindworks good. It's very satisfying to work you way up and get more Laff, Gags, and items. There's clearly a lot of inspiration from the various private servers, but there's so much uniqueness to it that it's far from a rip-off of any of them. The custom Cogs are all pretty good (a few of them don't seem like business puns to me, though), the bosses each offer unique challenges, and holy crap, the song "Give 'Em the Works" is so freaking good. I started muting my game to listen to other stuff while I did later runs, but I always unmuted for that song. The whole ending sequence of each run is so satisfying, though I do wonder about that teaser at the end...

Brief wishlist for future updates:

Something you can carry into future playthroughs, like a slight boost to jellybeans earned, better luck with rare items, etc. Or even the ability to carry over jellybeans to your next run.

Achievement hints. Apparently, one has a minuscule chance to trigger. Like, lower than the one you're probably thinking of if you're familiar with this game.

Whatever is being teased at the end. It has me intrigued. 👀

Overall, really fun game, the kind where you'll say "Just one more run," but then you unlock a new character and wanna see how they play, and the cycle continues until you've somehow racked up 31 hours and 16 minutes of playtime since the game's release despite claiming you're "not really into roguelikes."

Oh, apparently there are mods, too. I should look into those sometime.

[mysmashplaythroughs]

Pokemon Gen 1 Semi-Playthrough (Part 5)

Pokemon: Weepinbell.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Melee Opening.

Moves: None.

My feelings on it: Earlier in Arbok’s entry I said it was the last of Team Rocket’s Kanto Pokemon. When posting that entry on the blog I realised I’d made a mistake in saying that, Team Rocket did have two other Pokemon during the Indigo League, however they appeared so rarely initially that I almost forgot this was the case. When looking up about it to remind myself, I realised James Weepinbell or rather Victreebel had such a bizarre story I felt I had to go over it. It appeared after a flashback referencing James catching it off-screen and taking it to Butch and Cassidy (Team Rocket’s Rivals) who were pretending to run a daycare but actually planning on stealing all the Pokemon left with them for Team Rocket. They evolved Weepinbell into Victreebel to make it stronger and when James found it again it affectionately let out a high-pitched scream and bit onto the top half of his body. This became a running gag and Victreebel didn’t do too much for a bit before becoming more commonly used in the Orange Islands and Johto. Then Jessie and Meowth forced James to trade Victreebel for a Weepinbell that knew Sweet Scent for one of their schemes. At first James was heartbroken however he soon grew to love his new Weepinbell that actually did well against Ash for once. It did so well in fact that it evolved without a leaf stone (required to evolve Weepinbell into Victreebel) after it’s victory. After doing so however it made a huge mistake and bit Jessie, in her anger she outright kicked it off the team. At the same time the Magikarp Salesman (yes the one I mentioned in my Gyarados entry from the games) who James had traded his original Victreebel to similarly got angry at it keep biting him and kicked it away as well, the two smashed into each other in the sky, landed and fell in love leaving together. I guess I’m just recounting the anime here but still that was such a wild ride I’d forgotten about (or might have actually missed although I have vague memories of it) that I just felt the need to mention it, plus it’s more than anything else I could think to say about for Weepinbell overall. I think I might have used it on a team once but I don’t remember it being too great.

How I caught it: From what I remember I believe I caught Bellsprout on Route 15 as well as Oddish. It is possible I came across a Weepinbell but Bellsprout is more the one I seem to remember catching.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: Nothing beyond in a Pokeball.

Pokemon: Slowpoke.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Master Spirit.

Moves: Confusion.

My feelings on it: I’d be surprised if there were many people who disliked Slowpoke, I’m a fairly big fan of it. The anime helped with it’s depiction of Slowpoke but it’s also one of those Pokemon where even back in the Gen 1 games it was easy to ‘get’ what it’s like. Even better it was a psychic type back in Gen 1 which made it a very worthwhile Pokemon to add to your team. Slowpoke saw a slightly bigger role in Gen 2 with their appearance in Azalea Town, Slowpoke Well being a landmark of the town. This game also was the first time mention was made of Slowpoke tails being considered a delicacy and it underwent an interesting evolution in the series going from something seen as cruel and evil with Team Rocket doing it in Johto, yet it became something seemingly legally used as food in other regions such as Kalos, Alola and Smoke-Poke Tails (assumedly smoked Slowpoke Tails) are an ingredient that can be used in curries in the Galar region. Honestly I think this is a fairly cool bit of world-building for the series where some regions see this as a terrible practice whilst for others it’s common practice, it’s often mentioned that Slowpoke’s tails can fall off on their own and grow back very quickly. The worst thing about Slowpoke, which is obviously in the name is it’s speed where there are very few Pokemon I believe it will be faster than (barring level differences), but beyond this it's a Pokemon I’ve always liked and used a couple of times.

How I caught it: I believe I caught Slowpoke on the Seafoam Islands, it was fairly easy to encounter so didn’t take long, I caught it in a Pokeball as always.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: Slowpoke has a unique role amongst all the other Pokemon in Smash as a Master Spirit. I’ve not really decided yet how I’m going to approach Master Spirits, most likely depending on their role such as shopkeeper spirits requiring me to reference their shops, explorer spirits referencing exploration in their original games etc. For Slowpoke its role is a Dojo spirit who can teach a spirit a ‘style’. Honestly… I’m not that up on the styles and things in World of Light, from what I gather they alter stats so in basic terms a ‘defensive style’ will boost defensive stats over offensive stats. Slowpoke seems somewhat unique as it grants ‘Forgetful style’ which in effect from what I’ve seen restores a spirits stats back to their original levels. I did initially plan to just say that was all there was to say on this, but I realised this actually does match something in the Pokemon games somewhat, the Move Deleter who in earlier games would allow your Pokemon to forget a move, handy for getting rid of HM moves they couldn’t forget otherwise. I don’t know if this was a reference to that or just simply Slowpoke being forgetful, but it’s the closest I can think of for a reference to the series. Beyond this I gave Slowpoke Confusion as a move which I believe is being referenced in it’s spirit battle as your controls will suddenly reverse during the battle.

Pokemon: Slowbro.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Melee Opening.

Moves: None.

My feelings on it: So like Slowpoke I like Slowbro. Honestly, Slowbro’s always been an enigma to me, it’s a combination of two Pokemon as it has a Shellder on its tail, the two seemingly both evolve as the Shellder looks different both to it’s regular form as well as its own evolved form Cloyster. The second odd thing about this is it’s said often in Pokedex entries that Slowbro can devolve if the Shellder fell off of it’s tail, this is a mechanic however that has never been used in any of the games for any Pokemon. This whole idea is very interesting and cool to me however, I like Shellder biting into a Slowpoke’s tail and releasing venom into the Slowbro allows it to have more immunity to pain as well as stand on two feet and inspires it slightly beyond its usual temperament as a Slowpoke. I will also mention there’s another evolution for Slowpoke not mentioned in Smash that is fairly different known as Slowking, in this case the Shellder bites onto Slowpoke’s head instead of its tail and its venom releases actually make it far more intelligent to the point it supposedly attempts to solve the mysteries of the world. It’s said this vast intellect however will completely disappear along with all memory of it if the Shellder falls off of Slowking which is a somewhat scary thought honestly. I suppose as I’m going over other forms, I’ll briefly mention that Galarian Slowbro and Slowking are somewhat darker versions of them both with Galarian Slowbro having Shellder biting on its hand which can cause Slowbro a lot of irritation causing it to lash out at anything nearby, Galarian Slowking has Shellder covering most of its head with the Shellder being a lot more dominant and actually controlling the Slowpoke as well as apparently making various chants that are undecipherable.

How I caught it: Similarly to Slowpoke I believe I caught another Slowpoke in the Seafoam Islands and then evolved it later.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: Nothing beyond in a Pokeball.

Pokemon: Drowzee.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Melee Opening.

Moves: None.

My feelings on it: Drowzee’s an odd Pokemon, it’s actually fairly accurate to what its based on being a tapir, also I didn’t know before but assumed it had some mythological reference which it turns out is the case with baku in Japanese myth being a creature (commonly depicted as a tapir) that eats bad dreams. What’s interesting is Drowzee’s often depicted as somewhat sinister (especially in the anime) in it’s ability to eat dreams, however it seems like in mythology it’s actually somewhat more friendly being something children call on to help take away bad dreams, there is a risk however in calling upon it too often as this can build its hunger to the point that it might also eat a person’s hopes and desires. In a way this has been the most interesting I’ve found Drowzee ever after learning this, it’s a shame this more pleasant side of Drowzee seems less emphasized however with it apparently preferring to eat nice dreams over bad dreams and it’s somewhat creepy aspects such as finding children’s dreams tastier as well as apparently your nose itching during the night meaning you’ve likely had a Drowzee eating your dreams through it. There is a nice aspect in that it apparently shares it’s favourite dreams with those it trusts but it’s definitely not as friendly sounding as the baku seems to be. I suppose I should briefly mention it’s more notorious evolved form, if Drowzee’s somewhat creepy Hypno is undoubtedly so, it’s said to hide away from humans and lie in wait for victims who it puts to sleep and steals their dreams. It’s also said that Hypnos have been known to kidnap people who’s dreams it likes and there apparently was even a case of one taking a child away with hypnosis. I mentioned in Cubone’s entry about it from what I’ve seen not being too involved in the creepypasta Lavender Town sorts of things, Hypno is front and centre in these sorts of stories however and honestly it’s not that far from how creepy stories about them in canon are. I realise here I’ve mentioned more about the mythology behind Drowzee and Hypnos whole… thing, but really this is the most interesting thing I have to say about Drowzee and way more than I was expecting to cover.

How I caught it: It’s funny, I had one route in mind when it came to Drowzee similar to a couple of other Pokemon I associate certain routes with, but then I realised after looking it up this route is the only one Drowzee is found in Gen 1 being Route 11. Naturally this means I caught Drowzee here with a Pokeball as always.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: Nothing beyond in a Pokeball.

Pokemon: Krabby.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Melee Opening.

Moves: None.

My feelings on it: This is a Pokemon that it’s only due to the anime I have affection for, but in this case it’s a lot of affection. Ash’s Krabby was his first Pokemon in the anime to be transferred as he already had 6 on him, this showed off the mechanic from the games as well as implying that Pokemon in the PC are, at least in the anime transferred somewhere else where they’re looked after rather than being stuck forevermore in a PC. Due to this Krabby didn’t look like it would have much to do but this changed with the Indigo League at the end of the Kanto season where Ash decided to use Krabby in battle. It did surprisingly well and fairly quickly evolved into Kingler. Ash’s Kingler was pretty cool managing to do well in a few battles and the voices for Krabby and Kingler I think stuck with a lot of people who grew up with those episodes with me hearing a few people imitate it even years later. It’s due to this I grew a fondness for Krabby and especially Kingler having one on my team in the past. There isn’t much more I have to add beyond this however.

How I caught it: I can’t remember for sure but I believe rather than fishing for one I found a Krabby on the Seafoam Islands. Since I decided on the Pokemon from the Melee intro later I think in this case I specifically went there for Krabby alongside others such as Slowpoke.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: Nothing beyond in a Pokeball.

Pokemon: Rhydon.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Melee Opening.

Moves: None.

My feelings on it: Two things come to mind for me when it comes to Rhydon, firstly that it was apparently said by Ken Sugimori to have been one of the first Pokemon ever created, secondly an infamous moment in the anime where Pikachu managed to defeat Blaine’s Rhydon by hitting it’s horn with an electric attack, despite Rhydon even in Gen 1 being immune to electric attacks. It’s interesting on that second point that Rhydon later gained the ability Lightning Rod which attracts electric attacks towards it which it will be unaffected by, whether this was inspired by the infamous moment in the anime I don’t think has ever been mentioned. Honestly Rhydon’s never been a Pokemon I’ve had many thoughts on which is somewhat surprising really now I think about it as I quite like Rhinos, mostly related to my love of Donkey Kong Country and Rambi, it surprises me therefore that I didn’t try to get a Rhyhorn to name Rambi but I don’t remember ever doing so. It did make for a good Pokemon for Giovanni however, although along with others back then it’s quad weakness to water and grass definitely didn’t help it feel intimidating. It was one of those Pokemon that gained another evolution in Gen 4 which I think made it even more fearsome, but I admit I don’t have much knowledge of how good it made it, mostly as it was another trade evolution.

How I caught it: From what I remember I believe I caught Rhydon in Cerulean Cave rather than catching a Rhyhorn and evolving it. I believe I would have caught it simply on the journey to find Mewtwo there rather than searching it out specifically as it wasn’t too uncommon I believe, it did require a little bit of tracking down however.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: Nothing beyond in a Pokeball.

Pokemon: Electabuzz.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Melee Opening.

Moves: None.

My feelings on it: Electabuzz is one of those Pokemon I always think of as strong and would try out but I’ve usually gotten something else I prefer by the point they become available so I don’t bother. It doesn’t help that it was originally in Pokemon Red and therefore the version I didn’t have as a kid. My main exposure to it beyond toys was in the anime, it had some pretty odd appearances there. The episode I probably remember most with it in it was where there were two gangs fighting in this town over which would be appointed as an official Pokemon gym. One group had Scyther and the other group had Electabuzz. I remember this episode also introducing this thing that was ignored I think ever since of both Scyther and Electabuzz being sent into a rage when seeing the colour red. Other than this, probably the thing I remember most of Electabuzz is its voice in the anime, I’d advise looking it up if you’ve not heard it before, it’s really something. Electabuzz similar to Rhydon and also Magmar who’s the next entry gained a new evolution in Gen 4. Electivire will actually have an entry later down the line so I won’t comment much more on it, but it definitely is another reason I’ve always seen Electabuzz and Magmar as being more like rivals (with them both also gaining a pre-evolution in Gen 2) and why even back in the early days I was always surprised they went for Scyther rather than Magmar for that anime episode.

How I caught it: As you can see, similarly to Arbok Electabuzz was one of the few Pokemon entirely exclusive to Pokemon Red not appearing in Yellow or Blue. Due to this I realised the only option I really had was to catch Electabuzz in Pokemon Crystal. I caught it on Route 10 in Kanto which makes sense as in Pokemon Red it was found only in the Power Plant which was on Route 10, however as in Pokemon Crystal the building no longer has wild Pokemon it instead appears in the grass outside on Route 10.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: Nothing beyond in a Pokeball.

Pokemon: Magmar.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Melee Opening.

Moves: None.

My feelings on it: Magmar is a Pokemon I always thought was meant to be some amazing uber powerful monster. The reason for this was the episode of the anime where it first appeared (I believe) as Blaine’s main Pokemon. I remember how instead of coming out of a Pokeball like most other Pokemon it rose up from the lava surrounding the battlefield and managed to defeat Ash’s Pikachu. Then in the following episode for the first time Ash’s Charizard actually decided to fight for him as it felt like Magmar was a worthy opponent with it being easily one of the best fights in the original series. Magmar was again another Pokemon I wanted to try but rarely had on my team because of how late it appeared. It always felt odd though that Blaine didn’t have a Magmar on his team until Gen 2 not even having one in Pokemon Yellow which changed a lot of gym leader’s teams to be closer to the anime. Apparently this was because the games development happened before Blaine appeared in the anime, however even so I still felt like in Gen 1 Magmar was an obvious choice to go for as part of the fire gym leader’s team that late in the game, especially when instead he has Ponyta and Growlithe along with their evolved forms. Given Magmar only appears in Pokemon Mansion on Cinnabar Island where Blaine’s gym is it feels like an obvious choice. Beyond that Magmar as I said in the last couple of entries had a fair few similarities to Electabuzz only as a fire type, it gained a pre-evolution in Gen 2 with Magby and in Gen 4 an evolution with Magmortar. Unlike Electivire, Magmortar doesn’t appear in the Smash series so I guess I’ll just say it’s a design that’s grown on me, I used to find it too over the top and I felt it destroyed my image of Magmar being so cool etc, but now I realise how goofy Magmar looks really (although I definitely still like it a lot) especially with it’s weird butt forehead (I realised writing this sometime I have to have an Electabuzz and Magmar and call them Beavis and Butthead one day…) Magmortar does have the cool handcannon arms so that also helps.

How I caught it: As I decided to cover the Pokemon in the Melee opening movie later down the line I didn’t run into the problem I did with Weezing of having restarted my Virtual Console copy of Blue before getting the exclusive Pokemon I needed. Due to this I simply had to track down Magmar in Pokemon Mansion, however I do remember after looking it up realising I had the best chance of finding one on the third floor. As I wanted to get it fairly quickly however I ended up going to the very small room you can access easily, so therefore I spent a lot of time just going back and forward in this small room, still eventually I found Magmar and I remember catching it fairly easily in a Pokeball.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: Nothing beyond in a Pokeball.

Pokemon: Seel.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Pokefloat.

Moves: None.

My feelings on it: Seel is often put forward as an example of one of the most unoriginal of early Pokemon, partially just because its name is outright Seal but with two es. Honestly, I can agree, there are other Pokemon that are just versions of animals like Rattata but even then I feel they have a bit more to their design than just being a rat. I still think Seel is fine however, it’s definitely not one of my favourites by a long stretch, but I don’t think every single Pokemon has to be weird or deviate a lot from a real life animal, it does have the horn and tusks afterall. Also, when it comes to seals, I’ve realised after watching videos of them and sea lions in the past how much they can remind me of dogs and Seel specifically has a very ‘doggish’ face, honestly it’s the type of Pokemon that if they were real I would probably like as a pet. Beyond this I really don’t have much to say about Seel.

How I caught it: From what I remember I encountered Seel fairly easily in the Seafoam Islands so there wasn’t much of note with regards to it.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: This is the first of only two Pokemon in Gen 1 who appeared exclusively in the Pokefloats stage. I debated whether to cover them but given I have just so little else to say about Pokefloats to begin with (when it comes to it being based on anything from the games, not what it’s like as a stage) I felt it was worth it to just include the Pokemon that exclusively appear on it. Beyond this, as it’s just a floating platform there’s nothing more to add other than catching it in a Pokeball.

Pokemon: Lickitung.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Pokefloat.

Moves: Lick.

My feelings on it: I mentioned in Weepinbell’s entry how I forgot there were two other Pokemon in the Indigo League anime that belonged to Team Rocket, this is the second one which belonged to Jessie. I won’t go over it’s whole history like I did with Weepinbell as it’s not that interesting, but I did find it interesting that it’s the only Team Rocket Pokemon that seemingly got to have a happy ending with another trainer, being accidentally traded for a Wobuffet and the trainer seeming fairly happy with Licktung who seemed happy with him. I remember as a kid getting Lickitung and immediately thinking of Yoshi which I would have nicknamed it if it wasn’t for the fact that in Red and Blue it is a Pokemon only available through an in-game trade (similar to Farfetch’d) which means you can’t change its name. I like to look at descriptions of each Pokemon when writing these posts just to remind me of some lore facts relating to them, but honestly reading Lickitung’s is just disgusting with constant comments about how it’s tongue is not only sticky but stinks, this might be one of the rare times hearing more about a Pokemon has put me off it more than I was before.

How I caught it: Despite being an in-game trade Lickitung is available in Pokemon Yellow in Cerulean Cave. I believe I ran into one during my journey through there and caught it then rather than bothering to go back to Blue and do the trade for it.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: Initially I thought there would be nothing to add as this is another Pokefloats Pokemon, however I realised somewhat uniquely Lickitung will extend it’s tongue for fighters to fight on as the stage progresses. Due to this I figured the move Lick was worth noting which is already known by Lickitung anyway. I caught it in a Pokeball like everything else.

Credits.

For information on this game I used to research relating to attributes such as movesets etc for Pokemon I must give credit to Bulbapedia, Serebii and SmashWiki.

The screenshots in this post are taken by me using the Photo Club feature in Pokemon Ultra Moon, screenshots using Nintendo Switch in Super Smash Bros Ultimate and Trophy Images taken from SmashWiki. Spirit Images were taken from The Spriters Resource submitted by Random Talking Bush.

[rottenbrainstuff]

BG3 playthrough - Wasting time at the southern checkpoint

Spoilers below

Guess who backtracked about 5 hours of game time because they only just discovered that the newspaper actually changes every day based on what you did that day, and now they need to go back and collect them all? This is why I’ve been playing since October, have over 500 hours on my steam account, and still haven’t finished one single playthrough yet…

I’ve been playing since October. Wow. This game has just totally taken over my brain. On the one hand it’s been amazing to have my brain so thoroughly distracted, cause things have been getting really rough, and I appreciate the distraction, so so much. But on the other hand… I do sometimes wish I could be spending all this effort doing something actually useful. Last year I had been making some progress on personal projects, and I’ve had no desire to touch it at all since October. Sigh.

After finishing the backtracking and collecting all the papers, guess who found Carm’s Garms and wasted a few hours dressing everyone up like barbie dolls? I am NEVER going to finish this game!!! Look, it’s not my fault that Astarion looks so fabulous in so many things. I think my favorite dye for him is the white and scarlet, but sometimes the black and furnace red has good results. My tav used to wear a lot of red but has lost his taste for it - reminds him too much of what he wore as a bhaalspawn. He’s been using the azure and blue dye a lot.

So of course I finished the Open Hand Temple investigation. That was super interesting but also super sad, more tiefling refugees getting shit on, and the only person who really cared about them got murdered for his trouble. I like the little touch that Astarion disapproves of any religious comments that you make: on brand. I only just noticed getting a statue made gives the subject a permanent buff. Enjoy, Astarion. (and everyone else in the camp: enjoy Astarion) Found Petras and Dalyria at the flophouse. Trying to kill each other - that’s how you know they’re really siblings.

Obviously if I was at the clothes shop, I ran into Naaber. Oh boy. I didn’t get the joke at first and was quite bowled over by how strange and out of place he is, though I did find it funny and listened to everything he had to say. Then I looked him up online and found out he’s a running gag brought over from BG2 which is funny… But I ALSO came across a discussion where people were, as far as I am able to tell, asking in complete earnest if there was any way to deal with him besides killing him. ??? Look I know there’s no “wrong” way to play and whatever way makes you happy is the right way, but like damn. WTF are some of you doing? He’s an annoying dude to be sure, but it is a LITTLE bit funny, and if you don’t like him, you don’t have to even talk to him at all. (right? It almost sounded from what people were saying that he was following them around being a nuisance, but he definitely didn’t follow me. Did he used to follow players in previous patches or something?)

And then I went to Sharess’ Caress. Boy oh boy, the devs really liked this location didn’t they, they put in a ton of detail, lol. It’s kind of funny how everyone wants to meet at Sharess’ Caress. I thought it was just a funny brothel, but apparently it’s a respectable taphouse as well, judging from how many people just hang out here / conduct business meetings? Or is this like the people who claim they like to go to Hooters for the wings? Anyways I adore the cat, I adore mamzell Amira, I adore the put-upon chef. I adore how Amira introduces Raphael and makes the services he’s offering sound ambiguous. I wonder if she knows full well what he’s actually doing in that room, but this is how she introduces him, and some poor asshole who just wants a quick blowjob gets talked into selling his soul instead, or if she really does just think he’s some kind of freelance gentleman whore, temporarily renting out a room from her. I can’t decide which is more funny.

Drow twins: god the dude is hilarious and the girl is interesting. I must have spent at least one solid half hour just reloading and trying out all the different dialogue branches with them. What do other races get to talk to them about, I wonder? Being a drow I had some options to ask about their history and how they ended up here, and also point out that Sorn’s Menzoberranzan Love Trick is just a name to make customers excited. I assume at least that non-drow characters have other paths to get to their backstory? I wasn’t able to see the foursome because I was romancing Astarion, and he’s not comfortable with that, but I checked them out each on their own. Everything with Sorn made me laugh and laugh. If you say you aren’t sure what you’re into, he chats with you a bit, and dark urge has a few extra little options that are so funny. The only thing I didn’t get to see was what happens if you fail the athletics or persuasion checks. Nym was kind of an interesting encounter - first you have the humour option of just complaining and crying to her for a couple hours, or you can actually just talk, listen to her talk about herself or get some weight off your own chest. If you choose to talk about boundaries, she will talk about how the female drow stereotype is a spicy dominatrix, but she doesn’t feel comfortable doing the rough stuff. That suits my drow just fine - as his boundary, a male drow can say he’s uncomfortable with dominant drow women. It was very interesting. And apparently my tav keeps his gauntlets on during sex. Not sure if that was a bug or on purpose but it was funny, lol.

That was just me checking things out for my personal curiosity anyways - in my actual save game, I didn’t do anything with either of them. I know Astarion says he’s ok if you fool around, and whether he actually is or not is debatable (he seems more comfortable here than when you talk to him about Halsin, IMO), but my tav just really has no interest if Astarion isn’t there.

I walked in on the nymph and her client… I had no idea what happened there so that was a shocking surprise.

I was stuck for a while trying to decide what to do about Raphael offering the contract. I had said that I would do anything in my game to trigger his hilarious little monologue at the epilogue party. It sounds like you must sign the contract then break it in order to get that. But everyone in the party is so freaking mad about it, I don’t have dialogue options to indicate I’m doing it fully intending on going back on it later, I don’t really want to deal with the Emperor being pissed off just yet, but if I lie to him, what do I do with Voss? Lie to him too? Man I dunno. I think it’s simpler just to tell Raphael to fuck off. Plus it’s also pretty funny to go and steal the hammer from him later. He’s the one who made me aware of the hammer: if he hadn’t mentioned it at all, I wouldn’t have known about it, but now that I know that he has it, BECAUSE HE TOLD ME, I’m going to go steal it? I just think that’s hilarious. Idiot.

HOWEVER IN THE END: I decided to do the contract. I have a second playthrough that I started and put on hold with a tiefling paladin, and since she would NEVER sign a contract with Raphael, I think I’ll make my durge do it. But besides just meta game reasons, I also reasoned… he just recently found out he’s a bhaalspawn, and I think he’s feeling like his crummy soul is forfeit. No big deal signing over his soul to a devil when he’s already completely fucked. Who knows, maybe Raphael and Daddy Bhaal will have a fistfight over it later and that would be hilarious. That’s where my tav is coming from.

I also did Gortash’s big fucking coronation but I’ll write that up as its own thing I think. Goddamn I am enjoying this game so much.

[designerblade]

AI: The Somnium Files

I picked up AI: The Somnium Files on a whim recently, when I was desperate for something to play and didn’t have the budget to buy something new. I purchased it from the PlayStation store a few months back on super sale and completely forgot about it. I had no expectations, and ended up really enjoying it!

Let me clear the air by saying I’m a huge Danganronpa fan. Despite their problems, I’ve always really enjoyed the series’ style and mystery solving mechanics. I figured AI: The Somnium Files, also developed and published by Spike Chunsoft, would be up my alley.

Differing from the high school setting of the Danganronpa games, the protagonist of AI is an adult man (probably in his early 30s) who’s a detective for the Tokyo police. His name is Kaname Date. He lost all of his memories and one of his eyes six years ago, and the overarching plot of the game is figuring out how and what happened.

One of the big gags of the game is that Date is obsessed with porn, and that’s often used during the combat sequences. It’s often brought up by the game’s female characters (Mizuki, his child roommate and Aiba, his AI in particular). I always found the use of this humor uncomfortable, especially when being mentioned by a minor. I expected it though, as the Danganronpa series is riddled with uncomfortable, out-of-place sexual humor as well. If that’s to your taste though, you’ll probably enjoy this game.

Another problematic stance this game takes is in its characterization of Mama. Mama is a fat trans woman who’s old friends with Date and runs a local bar. She’s an informant, so you visit her a handful of times throughout the game. She’s motherly and kind, and a bit flirty. Unfortunately, the other characters in the game are regularly transphobic and fatphobic towards her. They refer to her as things like a “monster,” or a “giant grape.” Mama is happy and doesn’t mind, but it’s uncomfortable seeing how she’s treated, even by her old friend. I look forward to the day when Japanese games aren’t like this anymore. My patience towards their use of fat queer people as a joke is gone.

I found a some of the other characters to be compelling, and was always excited to see more of them. Mizuki was very well acted, and I liked her standoffish nature. Iris, a young internet idol, was also always a joy to see. Date’s boss, Iris’s mother Hitomi, and Ota Matsushita (a fan of Iris’s) + his family were also all fun to learn more about.

An important gameplay mechanic is psyncing. Most of the game is clicking through several different locations to look for clues and interview characters. Standard point-and-click mechanics. Psyncing is where they switch things up. Date works for a special unit of the police force called ABIS. Their purpose is to get information, no matter what, and they have a special psync machine that allows them to do so. It puts the suspect to sleep, and lets the officer enter their dreams for 6 minutes to look for clues pertaining to the investigation. During these sections, you run around as Aiba in the body of a young woman.

I never found the psyncing to be much fun. They’re kind of like puzzle rooms, but nonsensical. The option you need to pick to progress is never clear or linear, and you’re timed in the rooms, so making too many mistakes can be punishing. I often had to replay the psync sections a few times to get them correct. Sometimes I had even figured out the solution, but the inputs kept taking too long and forcing me to restart. At best I found the psyncs neutral or tolerable, at worst a frustrating nuisance.

The best part of the AI: The Somnium Files is its use of branching paths. I ran into my first “ending” around 5-6 hours in, and was shocked that I had learned so little. The game encouraged me to play through again, starting from a branching segment from earlier on in my playthrough. I did so, and the differences were WILD. AI is kind of like Nier: Automata, in the way that you really have to see every ending through to solve the case and get the true ending. It was super worth it! There were so many fun twists and turns. I liked seeing how much Date’s relationships changed with each playthrough. In one path he and Mizuki were extremely close, in another they couldn’t even look at each other.

Ultimately, I had great time with this game. I flew through the 25ish hours in about two weeks, which is fast for me. The mystery kept me guessing until the very end. I also enjoyed the soundtrack! I definitely want to check out the sequel from last year, Nirvana Initiative next time it’s on sale. I’d recommend AI: The Somnium Files to any anime mystery fans! There is fun to be had here!

[itsclydebitches]

Recently, I've been watching the voice actress for Aerith playthrough FF7, admiring Aerith's house and garden and I look back on rwby thinking how it has so little of that. Aside from their literal homes, the girls spend so much of the series on the move that none of the locations they visit have much significant meaning to them; from the random, forgotten village where Jaune forged his weaponry with Pyrrha's to Weiss being totally cool with dropping her Atlas on Mantle.

You know, that's a really interesting point. Setting is such a crucial part of experiencing a story and the emotional weight of RWBY's has, arguably, been lacking. Not with Beacon, I don't think. School settings are classic and from the cafeteria food fight to the girls' decorated dorm; Oobleck and Port's classrooms to Ozpin's secret vaults, there was a real sense of lived-in space there. When I think about the home of RWBY, I think of the school, not the literal homes that we only spent a comparatively short time in, split four ways across a Volume. The events of Volume 4 and some of 5 were too packed to allow for much of that character work through the setting. With the exception of Yang having a flashback in her kitchen and Weiss being locked in her room (I do love the visual of summoning this giant knight in her tiny, isolated space) there's not much that had an emotional impact on me in terms of the setting. Certainly not the Haven house that was immediately tainted by the Volume's many problems.

What stands out to me is that none of the characters miss spaces. Nor do they really grieve for them. We don't hear the group reminiscing about Beacon. The one conversation we get, at Haven, is about how much they've grown and moved on from that place. It's not an acknowledgment that this placed they loved is just gone (or at least, currently inaccessible due to grimm). That ability to shrug off the loss of a home is cranked up to a thousand when we see none of them balk at - or even mention as a relevant concern - the fact that using Ambrosius will destroy an entire Kingdom. I agree with Robyn that the people are more important than the place, but that doesn't mean everyone involved in that decision shouldn't respond to it as the emotional decision it is. Volume 7 tried to make us believe that Weiss was standing up to Marrow to defend her home - the home she twice tried to run away from - and then Volume 8 went straight to complete disinterest in its destruction. As you say, RNJR spent all of Volume 4 going through forgettable places. Ren is the obvious exception there, grieving his hometown and the people there, and it's probably why I find it to be one of the better parts of the Volume. Ruby leaves home with just a note. Oscar does her one better by leaving his Aunt, presumably with no idea of what's happened to him. Atlas, prior to its destruction, could have had a new sense of home attached to it, but we kept moving from place to place for short bursts: Ironwood's office, the meeting room, their dorm (only to wake up in a gag montage), out in the mines, out in the streets, at the election party, in three different training grounds, in the hideout, in Atlas HQ, in Amity, in the whale, at the manor. That's the place we spend the most time in come Volume 8 and... that right there is the problem. The middle of the battle was not the time for the group to sit around in a safe, comfortable space and try to develop. The downtime of Volume 7 was actually quite hectic, bouncing the group all over the Kingdom and not allowing them (and the audience) to get attached to one particular place. "It will be just like Beacon!" Penny said. Not in terms of gaining an attachment to the setting it wasn't.

RWBY became a travel story and that's fine. The problem is not that they move around a lot, but that they're not striving for home and they're no longer making meaningful connections with where they've been. Compare Volumes 4-8 to Frodo and Sam, frequently recalling the Shire and using the thought of home to spur them on. Why is the group doing all this? The meta-narrative claims it's for their loved ones (trust love), but the primary text makes no mention of them. Ruby and Yang don't long to return to Tai. Jaune isn't worried about his six other sisters in the world. Hell, he wasn't even worried when grimm attacked while one sister was standing in the danger zone. Blake has no plans to return to her family and pick up with the White Fang. Weiss has no thoughts about the destruction of her Kingdom, is not there for the death of her father, and "dies" after a speed run reconciliation with her mother and brother. Qrow has rejected Raven, Ozpin, and has made no mention of Tai. He's also the one the rest of the group keeps forgetting about, left to be missing, in prison, and then alone in a destroyed Mantle. Oscar, as said, hasn't even made mention of his Aunt, nor has a desire to return to the farm become a part of his struggle with the merge. Ren and Nora are the only ones whose home is solely with one another, yet Nora has rejected that, so... what now? What is everyone fighting for? We're left only with this generic "Kill Salem because she's the established bad guy" motivation. It rings hollow and a part of that may well stem from the group's disinterest in the homes attached to those people. We'll presumably only get a Volume (maybe two) of this island and I doubt the end of RWBY will take place in Vacuo, so we're set to leave two more hastily developed locations behind. Maybe if the group were having a positive impact on these places like they did in Volume 4, it would feel more like these places meant something to them (and us). As it stands, the group is currently leaving only destruction in their wake and they don't seem to care about the untouched homes they should want to return to. They're just wandering on this mission because it's The Right Thing to Do. They have no plans, no desires, no drive, no wants, no motivation beyond "kill the bad guy because she's a bad guy." They feel unmoored from the world they're trying to protect and that makes them incredibly hard to connect to nowadays.

[theniftycat]

Ace Attorney: The Original Trilogy are probably my favourite games, not because I played them so much, but because they are infinitely rewatchable. So, I thought I’d share some recommendations of streamers who played them.

My most recent and favourite discovery is a veeeery small channel called ChallengerApproachingTV. It’s a group of 5, I think, professional voice actors who played most of AA games, giving each character their own voice. They play games at least semi-blindly and they do it quite casually, so there are many jokes and improvised moments. I started watching them shortly after I started playing The Great Ace Attorney, because I wanted to see someone else experiencing it. I really recommend starting with it because they do a great job and with a huge love to the franchise, also, only one of them had played it before, so it’s a blind playthrough. The first AA game they played a lot earlier and with only one of them not having played it beforehand, if you’re okay with the first (tutorial) case being played in like 5 minutes, it’s also great.

My first acquaintance with the franchise started with lucahjin’s playthrough. She was great and made very funny commentary. She made me want to play the game myself which I did. It’s also a blind playthrough, she ships some great shiips and she’s super into the games. To this day she’d played most of them. She played the old DS version, so it doesn’t look as crisp as the remaster.

The one probably seen by most people is RTGame. I’ve watched him casually for years, so when he started playing AA, I ate it up. I’d only recommend his playthrough if you already know and love the franchise and can take some criticism of it. His running gags are hilarious and he’s very entertaining. However, he’s not quite the target audience and it shows.

I’ve experienced the og trilogy 5 times now (1 playthrough, 3 streamers and 1 anime). I probably won’t stop there either, because why not.

[the-thought-emporium-imperial]

Another Mass Effect Post

Would you trade having multiple endings for one really good one that is augmented by elements from your entire 3 game run?

- Saving the Geth AND the Quarians augments the behavior of the Crucible so it only targets active reapers, if you don’t have both it offs all Synthetics

- Betray the Krogan? Kill Wrex? The ground assault charge on Earth changes ENTIRELY, more enemies, differing layout, way more Brutes since the Krogan didn’t help the Turians

- Foster the relationship between EDI and Joker, the Normandy swoops in at the last moment to scoop up Shepard mid spacing after the Crucible fires, whether Shepard survives still depends on how many resources you’d built up through your playthrough

- You could have the Dark Energy thing from 2 matter more as it’s a sign of something wrong in the Galaxy, are the Reapers responsible? You don’t know... Unless you let TIM keep the Collector Base, study of which exposes how the Reaper creation progress works and what that might entail for the structure of things in the Galaxy... Especially if Conrad Verner’s still around. (Him being an expert in that shit should not have just been a gag.)

- Legion can join the party again and survives in 3 if you destroyed the Geth bases in ME1, Preserve the Heretics in ME2, and make peace between the Quarians and the Geth in ME3... BECAUSE LEGION DESERVED BETTER DAMMIT! But I want you to feel like you earned it.

[retphienix]

Alright, this is gonna be tough because I desperately want to say so much for the game's sake and my own, but it's just so much.

At least the playthrough as a whole exists to show a lot of those things, and there's no shame in some of the impacts the game had for myself going unsaid :)

LONG POST INCOMING, NO 'READ MORE' BECAUSE IT'S RELEVANT TO THE POST AND NOT AN AFTER-THOUGHT

CLICK 'J' ON YOUR KEYBOARD TO SKIP. (Sorry mobile users)

8:48 - Do you have any idea how good a step forward it felt to smash the repressing bulb?

9:50 - So I'll get ahead of myself because this fight shows a lot of the visuals that play into this: Something being the manifestation of guilt for Mari is so incredibly visualized.

Between the base 'Something' being extremely close to the shadow she cast and including the one visible eye that bore down on Sunny and Basil after the hanging, to the stairs incorporating into the design.

The seaweed and spider are more general anxieties though they do circle back to Mari since she saved Sunny, but those two forms don't feel as directly related as the stairs (heights) and base 'Something' forms and what they represent for his repressed guilt.

Could be wrong ;) Tell me what you saw in the forms of 'Something' if you'd like to expand on them :)

12:39 - Just to prove the point before you get to fully see the truth- Something morphs into the figure of Mari hanging. It doesn't fully demonstrate the "eye" aspect yet, but still I just wanted to say kudos on the way 'Something' is shown visually. Formless for a reason, and that form becomes more defined as you understand what it is, exceptional damn thing.

15:43 - Basil's part in all of this makes me so damn sad. Plenty to say later (obviously), but he harbors so much guilt, wants forgiveness so much, and is so (not shown yet) desperate to believe in Sunny's innocence while knowing but not comprehending the truth. The fact he harbors his own 'Something' due to the guilt of all this is heartbreaking, these kids endured a hell no one should. Losing someone so important to you and harboring the guilt and fault of it when nothing of the sort was intended. A childish fight with raised emotions got out of hand and all this came of it.

Hell.

16:30 - I absolutely adore how the photo album is used for this reveal.

Absolutely incredible execution that's specific to this story and its characters and makes piecing (literally) this together tense and grim.

22:27 - I NEVER SPOKE TO OR INTERACTED WITH THE THING IN THE CENTER OF THIS ROOM AND I'M A NORMAL AMOUNT OF UPSET ABOUT THAT >:( lol

29:41 - Okay.

So this reveal as a whole is so unbelievably well paced and incredibly hard hitting.

All game long there's a weight of having lost Mari. Repeatedly it's told that she killed herself and no one can understand why and everyone (MYSELF THE PLAYER INCLUDED) is looking for meaning in little moments, seeking out hints that maybe she was suffering or depressed or this or that.

And while that has gone on FOR THE ENTIRE GAME there has also been this uneasy weight surrounding Sunny/Omori. Visions of Mari twisted and deformed into phantoms of horror.

For the most part I assumed it was just him coping with having lost his sister and maybe a dialogue on how when she was alive he was in her shadow (in his mind) and now that she's gone he remains there?

That was the best I could figure, more or less. But it continued to seem more and more malicious in design and MUCH more 'heavy' in how it's presented as a shadow behind Omori/Sunny throughout his adventure and life.

The weight and 'overshadowed' looks of the scenes felt more and more foreboding and less like a simpler "I'm living in her shadow" story, but I couldn't figure out what it was.

Then these pictures come out and piece things together.

The final result:

Sunny and Mari fighting. (Context appears to be his growing disdain towards playing. It's stated he loved playing, but it's also shown that he begins to dislike how much Mari is dragged away for classes and the like up to and including playing. So my read was that Sunny was upset that their fleeting time together was dedicated to the recital and broke his violin in an emotional blur and the fight occurred.

Alternatively it was accidentally broken and both of their emotions were running high as it happened)

Mari falling to her death.

Sunny and Basil carrying her upstairs and tending to her.

Sunny breaking down as it sinks in.

The visions having Basil say "It's going to be okay" by the bedside. (I perceive that as a memory of what Basil was saying as he tried to manage his emotions during the event)

Sunny and Basil carrying her back downstairs and to the backyard.

The makeshift noose.

And finally the sight that burned itself into Sunny's eyes of her hanging after it was all said and done.

Just holy shit to it all in how it's revealed and handled.

Stories have twists all the time, and I ain't gonna make some bold claim like "Most unpredictable!" "Best twist!" "What a twist!" or whatever, though that'd be funny.

I just want to say this twist worked BEFORE the reveal as a foreboding sense of unease and curiosity- it lent itself to intentionally vague and easily misconstrued explanations, basically- instead of it outright misleading you beyond the characters that believe the lie repeating the lie, it allowed you to mislead yourself.

It did the twist the right way! And well! YOU trick YOURSELF! The people repeating the lie are being lied to or have motivation to repeat the lie! The GAME isn't lying (as so many twists handle it) the game is giving the world reason to mislead and allowing you to be mislead!

Now am I yelling affirmations for the way things SHOULD ALWAYS BE! YES! BUT THAT'S BECAUSE IT'S NOT AS NORMAL AS IT SHOULD BE! lol

31:40 - All the "You will really miss them"s hurt :(

33:25 - Right out the gate, a spoiler for what isn't here:

I looked up the alternate endings of the neutral route and my heart hurts to know Sunny doesn't stick around and Basil dies :(

34:00 - BASIL BEING OVERWHELMED WITH DENIAL AND GUILT AS HE ATTEMPTS TO MENTALLY PROTECT HIS VIEW OF WHO HIS FRIEND IS BY INVENTING A SECOND PARTY THAT DID THIS IS SO FUCKING REAL AND AMAZINGLY DONE.

And it explains the name behind the 'Something'.

'Something' behind you did it. There's 'Something' behind you, isn't there.

'Something' all around us, that potentially being the truth comin' in.

When 'Something' ruined my photos, Basil repressing protecting Sunny by destroying the proof.

Just expertly done.

'Something' being repression of the memory and impending guilt. Dannnng.

36:26 - It's 24 hours after I beat the game as I type all this so here's a gag.

Here's the part where Basil beats some sense into his friend, because after this Sunny gets knocked out and wakes up 200% improved and ready to save Basil from his own guilt by releasing them both from the secret.

So basically Kel dragged us out of bed, then a couple days later Basil beats us up, and that's how Sunny gets better :^) Game Over.

38:46 - This fight made me feel utterly terrible, a highlight being the energy bar saying "Everything is going to be okay".

or at 40:17 - when Basil pokes out Sunny's eye and the screen does this? That's an underutilized but always awesome visual.

41:12 - I THOUGHT I WAS DEAD AT THIS POINT :)

Because just before entering Basil's home on this night you see his Grandma's ghost here. So seeing Sunny here told me "WELL. YOU FUCKED UP!"

42:25 - Like I said, beat some sense into Sunny.

Here's the mental side of things where Basil's beatin' told Sunny to go remember the good times and confront his inner self and I'm being partially facetious because there's plenty to say about what's coming up.

43:15 - Goosebumps every time due to the sincerity and hope of this.

43:40 - Hug for anyone needing that.

51:11 - I could cry again and I just might before this post is done being put together.

This accident was never meant to be.

55:09 - Timestamp is arbitrary, I won't go over every flashback but I do want to say what a beautiful way to use these photos. To relive the memories? To find the strength to overcome and all that? After all these years of suppressing memories? DANNNG I love this game.

1:04:09 - I stepped in poop.

1:04:15 - Barefooted.

1:04:22 - I embraced my failure.

1:12:00 - The violin.

1:13:00 - "The anxious feeling-" "They believed in you" "No matter what you didn't want to disappoint them" I'm filled with love and gonna cry about it.

1:14:00 - So an important theme in the game, as if it has just one, is Sunny suppressing emotions and demonizing himself.

Obviously the ending shows him breaking free from both but I think it's important as hell to look at how he builds up to being able to.

After all the dark moments show him as a bloodied monster, demonstrate a perceived lack of remorse for what he's done (as in he sees himself so poorly that he says "I must not have felt bad about it, I'm a monster", not that he actually doesn't feel bad about it, that he thinks he shouldn't because he's bad), have him stab dream Basil to protect his repression of the memory, the build up to breaking free from that is him remembering the good in him through the lens of his friends.

Both in the real world and in revisiting the memories within the photos.

He hears about the good in himself that he has pretended isn't there and finds the power to overcome this deadened shell he's made.

He learns how to forgive himself by finally remembering he's worthy of forgiveness and is more than his mistake, that even the person he grievously harmed would want him to forgive himself and would understand the mistake didn't define him.

1:15:15 - Just because you did something bad doesn't make you bad, to put it more eloquently than my rambles. He had to learn that.

1:19:20 - I've done this fight 4 times.

You may be wondering why 4 times, it ain't like I replayed the game a ton or anything.

The short of it is:

1) For the good ending :)

2) To see what happens if you go "up" in the hospital- it's a dead end- I assumed it'd be a bad ending. So I got the good ending again :)

3) For the bad ending.

4) FOR THE GOOD ENDING TO WIPE THE HORRIBLE FEELING IN THE PIT OF MY STOMACH AWAY FROM THE BAD ENDING :)

In doing so I did get one layer deeper on the BG of Omori in the fight, here it is:

And I learned on the fourth run that the fight is simpler than I gave it credit lol, Cherish refills your juice, so there is no reason to use Encore. You can get to the end (and deeper more easily) by just using the triple attack and Cherish and Calm down when necessary.

1:29:00 - A summary of the fight is that it's extremely impactful emotionally, but very obviously isn't a "Fun fight". It's great mechanically and story wise for what it's trying to do :)

I'll just say it here: I'm surprised there wasn't an end-game "Omori" fight, you know, in dream world? Because combat is SO good in this. I am lead to believe that the Omori route where you never go outside in the real world has more bosses and zones and would fill what I just implied I wanted- but you're also railroaded into the Neutral endings which are both sad :(

And honestly? That makes sense and I applaud the decision :) Embracing the fantasy world for more 'fights' isn't exactly the path to recovery. Also and I know someone will be bothered I say this because *I'm* bothered I'm saying this- it makes sense since a big predecessor did the same thing lol.

Undertale Genocide has new bosses and a harder end game challenge (Sans) while being the worse ending, while the good ending has a flashy and story/emotionally impactful final fight that isn't as challenging because challenge isn't the point of the morals being explored.

I just bring it up because it's interesting, has a parallel, and after fighting Omori 4 times I really REALLY wanted to do an end-game fight in Dream World.

1:30:00 - forgive me as I cry again. goosebumps and more.

OH NO~!

DRAT!

So I use a cheap video editor and I use the free format of it which limits to 720p and I didn't think twice of it.

I recorded at max, but downgraded after editing.

At 720p you can't see the detail that made me break down crying!

At 1:31:55 Sunny's eyes go wider as he sees Mari as they finally get to experience the duet in this dream state (White Egret Orchid, this is real and happening, I'm taking this to my grave :'( ) he sees her smile and that smile made me break down, but in the 720 it's blurry :(

That's on me, I could have posted the scene raw in HQ but I didn't know it'd compress just enough to be invisible :(

still. that duet scene can make me cry on command. just because of that alone, but also the entire thing.

1:33:42 - Sunny breaks from his shell and feels his emotions again.

1:37:07 - I wish every game would end with a mirror to see yourself.

The 'Despite everything, it's still you' vibe just cements all the growth and experiences that have happened as so much more real when that happens. Bonus points because mirrors in Omori are a time bomb where you can be reminded of the guilt following you- and this one is safe. This one is pure and clean. You did it.

1:37:50 - As I said earlier, going up does nothing. Dead end.

1:39:00 - I have to tell you something.

Simple ending. And yet slams me like two trucks. I'm so proud.

1:41:00 - Post credits scene.

This is so heartwarming and their smiles are the purest thing in the entire world.

1:42:50 - BAD ENDING RECORDING.

All I'll say on that is the bad ending made me feel terrible inside. Give up, live in your bubble, and subconsciously end it all so you never have to confront reality again.

My gut felt heavy to be honest.

And the fact that THAT is when Bo En Time is played is INCREDIBLE.

Having the sky shift like that gave goosebumps and cemented my dread.

Just seeing it now has me feeling very poorly.

Okay. Video done.

Now for general thoughts.

First off this White Space cycle has been going on for YEARS with Sunny only getting worse as he suppresses things more and more and the reason he found the strength to overcome is because of his friends and I'm gonna yell about it.

THE REASON SUNNY IS BREAKING FREE CAN BE DIRECTLY POINTED AT KEL THINKING "FUCK IT, I'M ABOUT TO LOSE A FRIEND, AND I DON'T WANT TO"

And I just think that is sweet as hell. The strength was inside himself, but the problem itself caused Sunny to demonize and not trust himself- he needed someone to break him free and help convince him that he's not irredeemable. And boom.

The way this game handles Denial and even gives it physical form with the 'Something's that both Sunny and Basil harbor is just awesome.

I touched on it but combat in Omori is very, very good.

I've said it here and there as I played and I feel like going at length in the finale post is pointless because this isn't a review but to put it concisely.

Types changing mid-combat, the character archetypes being so well defined, the follow up system, combat in Omori is some top notch turn based RPG stuff.

Like up there with the greats, the timeless masterpieces. This is GOOD fighting. So it was surprising the good ending didn't emphasize it- I explained why that makes sense, but even still! It'd probably be lesser for it (as explained previously) but it's interesting they practiced that restraint for the message they wanted to send.

Repeatin' that Mari's smile in the recital made me cry. Burned in my brain.

I'm still surprised I got the post credits scene because I DID water the plants a lot but when the game showed me them all dead I assumed that was the fail condition.

I genuinely do want to try the Omori route some time down the road. I hope I get around to it.

I am slightly dissuaded just because the Omori route only gets the neutral endings which are not Good To Be Blunt :(

But I want to see what dream content there is and I hear there are other bosses!

Other small bits from my notes:

Replacing denial (the black bulb) with hope (the white bulb) was good as heck.

The imagery of the 'Something' is so top notch- using the shadow of her body combined with the piercing gaze of her single eye- MY GOD.

The fragility of life being so present- between memories of near death experiences, to the way in which Mari dies, to the ease at which either Basil or Sunny can end the game. It's tense and heart-wrenching.

The way the 'Something' behind Sunny almost always shadows over him like an ever present weight.

Tearful, hopeful, pure, kids enduring a guilt metric tons heavier than their bodies could ever handle and finally, finally moving beyond it.

I said more in a personal post, and I'll reblog that.

Honestly, just timestamping through the video took it out of me and got the point across.

Omori is a wonderful game.

It's definitely a favorite for me, high up there on my list.

Between the themes, the gameplay, the humor, the ending.

This is a good one.

And now I get to end having experienced all the care and love in this title, that's such a sweet thing.

Now I know this finale post is a mess, illegible even. I have gotten sloppier as I've begun embracing just 'experiencing and rambling' and perhaps my formatting with change yet again until I find something more easily shared.

Despite that. I want to thank any who popped in on this playthrough.

This was a good one, a highlight of the blog for sure- and I'm always happy when I see some people enjoying the absolute mess I toss online when I do one of these :P

So thank you for your time, and thank you to any ridiculous enough to read my nonsense here.

Have a good one :)

And just as expected I feel I've said nothing and barely touched the surface as the post-game-head of mine does a poor job lol. Even still :P

[smol-and-trashy]

Sylvix Vore Fic (FE3H)

A/N: This is probably mega OOC, but I fell in love with both Sylvain and Felix during my first playthrough of FE3H and been itching for a vore fic featuring them. It’s probably more accurate to read this as platonic due to my inability to write anything remotely romantic... This was also inspired by @sinfromlokislair‘s Sylvix fic, theirs is a lot better tbh haha.. Vomit warning, so if that makes you squeemish, please leave now! Enjoy :) 

_____________________

Felix growled as he shoves off the giant finger, wishing this oaf wasn’t the first person who offered help. While Sylvain would disagree, it wasn’t entirely his fault that he was in this position. The blast of magic was directed towards their professor and Felix, standing behind her, found himself foolishly taking the hit. He expected a lot of things to happen, well aware of the effects of taking a direct hit to dark magic, but being reduced to the size of a field mouse was not one of them. Now, he has to pay the price of the curse. 

Felix pinched the bridge of his nose, he expected something like this happening to Sylvain, the reckless skirt-chaser, but himself? He was usually more collect in battle. He sighs, regret still weighing heavily over him, but he had more pressing matters to tend to, specifically regarding the man before him. He looks up: Sylvain Jose Gautier loomed over Felix in all his self-proclaimed glory, Felix swallows. Goddess, he was gargantuan, his chest taking up most of Felix’s line of view and he has to crank his neck far back just to peer up in his friend’s eyes and feel like an equal in conversation. Bubbles of fear and humiliation rose up inside the smaller, but he represses those feelings, swiftly replacing them with indignation. “For the last time, Sylvain, quit poking me.” “Sorry, sorry, it’s just that you’re so tiny and cute! I really can’t help myself.” Sylvain laughs a little, folding both hands behind his head. “Insatiable, as always,” Felix mutters under his breath. If Sylvain heard, he gave no indication, instead, grabbing Felix without a single warning. As the tree-sized fingers close around his waist, Felix soon finds himself face-to-face with his ginormous friend; bemused, Sylvain simply watches as the smaller struggles in his grip. “Let me go, Sylvain!” he squawks, trying to pry those fingers off him. Really, the man had no concept of personal space. “Mm, I could, but,” Sylvain leans forward with his elbow still on the table, drawing closer to Felix. Fruitlessly trying to maneuver his legs and kick at Sylvain’s too-close face, he stops; scowling as he notices his own reflection in those amber eyes, and at last, Sylvain pulls back. “This is all too much fun!” he winks. “Hilarious, now let me down, you oaf.” Felix says flatly, “I would rather dual the boar than being stuck here with you.” “Really? Because most ladies would love to be in your shoes, Fe.” Felix squirmed a little in the redhead’s grip, not fancying himself so high. “Let them. At least you would finally leave me alone.” Sylvain leans on his arm, a cocky grin adorning his lips, “Ouch, don’t be like that! Least now, you can’t refuse to get dinner with me.” The raven-head rolls his eyes at the reminder of Sylvain’s countless dinner invitations, most of which he had turned down in favor of training. “Forcing me to eat with you, would you stoop so low?” Sylvain says nothing, only flashing a sly smirk and hoists Felix a few inches higher, just above his nose. Felix unwittingly tenses up, he's much too high and Sylvain was taking this joke further than he'd like. He curses while digging his nails into his friend's skin, trying to force himself to be lowered. Yet, the other refuses to budge. He can't tell if Sylvain thought of this as one big joke or if he was really this careless. "You incorrigible---" "Aw, c'mon Fe, you’re just cute enough to eat!” Sylvain interrupts smugly, dangling Felix over his wide-open mouth; He wasn’t seriously going to drop him, but it was all too easy to get a rise out of him. Felix’s heart pounds furiously against his chest as he’s forced to peer into Sylvain’s awaiting maw. Sharp white teeth that could easily bite him in half taunt him while that wet tongue twitches and Felix doesn’t even want to think what is beyond that dark, pulsing throat. It was repulsive, everything. Despite himself, Felix couldn’t stop staring. Is this what prey feel when they’re about to be eaten? Strangely enamored? He frowns, choosing not to dwell on it, and instead, averting his eyes to the door, he was no damsel, but a piece of him wishes for Ingrid or even the boar to pay Sylvain an unexpected visit. Relief sweeps through him as those lips close, “Tell me, do you have a death wish, Sylvain?” he growls, but the older man’s lips quirk upwards, evidently amused. As Sylvain opens his mouth to make a quip—- “Sylvain!” Ingrid barges into the room, and in an instant, he loses his grip on Felix, barely able to make out the tiny man’s objections as he falls straight towards the gaping throat. Sylvain’s jaws snap shut, and the obtrusion at the back of his throat causes him to swallow, purely out of reflex. Fuck. All traces of coy playfulness disappear instantly as he feels the tiny body make its way down his throat. He sits there, in cold shock, as Felix drops into his stomach. The heavy, humid air hits him, and Felix lies absolutely still, paralyzed with disbelief. This can’t be real. That half-wit did not just swallow me. Felix’s heart pounds in his ears as he wipes the slime off his face. The chamber wasn’t as dark as he anticipated, in fact, he could see the wrinkled pinkish walls fairly well. His own stomach turns as thick chyme splashes on him, and before he’s able to gain some semblance of footing, he’s thrown at the opposing wall. More liquid soaks him, and Felix thrashes aimlessly, the only coherent thought going through his mind is ‘I need to get out of here.’ He rushes to the nearest wall, cursing at Sylvain for taking his swords beforehand, and punches at the wall. No reaction. Not a wince, not a protest to stop, nothing. The chamber groans and convulses, but there’s no direct response from Sylvain. Felix clenches his fist, and despite the heat, he feels an icy chill plunge into his veins; no, he must persist. He’s trained on hours end, he can make Sylvain notice him. As Felix is about to inflict another punch to the walls, he hears a familiar voice around him, pushing down the squicked feeling of hearing his childhood friend in such a ubiquitous manner, he pauses to listen. Sylvain stands up and freezes, a nervous chuckle arises from his throat, “I-Ingrid! To what do I owe the pleasure of—“ “You know how many messes of yours I had to clean up for the past week?” He blanches as Ingrid wastes no time in berating him for his less than reputable behavior, “You promised that you would cease your philandering ways, but I heard from Ashe, of all people, that you were—-“ she pauses, Sylvain was almost hunched over, sickly pale with his arms twisted around his stomach, “Are you okay? You look unwell.” At that, Sylvain straightens up, “Ah, yeah, yeah, just ate something bad earlier,” he winces as he earns a nasty kick from Felix, “nothing some rest can’t fix!” Ingrid’s concerned expression only deepens, she purses her lips, but Sylvain, armed with a charming smile, puts a hand on her shoulder, “Honestly, Ingrid, I’m fine. But it’s cute of you to get all worked up over me! Y’know, maybe a kiss on the cheek would help?” The blonde shoves his hand off, rolling her eyes, “I’m not…Take care of yourself, Sylvain,” she sighs, turning around and finally shutting the door behind her. Alone in his room, Sylvain gingerly presses a hand on his belly, earning sharp kick in retaliation. His mouth suddenly feels like it was filled with cotton, and finding himself at a rare loss of words, Sylvain racks his brain for the right thing to say, for something to say. “You alright in there?” he mentally slaps himself after the words come out of his mouth. How utterly stupid he must sound. “Am I alright in here?” Felix repeats incredulously, blood boiling with every ticking second, “Did you really just ask the man who’s stewing away in your filthy guts if he’s ‘alright in there?’ What the hell do you think?” Sylvain swallows and finally sits down on his bed, trying to control an incoming rush of vertigo. He runs a hand through his hair, slicking the ruddy strands back into place, and sighs. “You’re right, I-I’m sorry, Felix. You’re not… melting in there, are you?” His heart-rate begins to pick up, thumping wildly in his chest like a caged bird. “Oh Goddess, you need to let me know if anything is happening!” “As you should be,” Felix says while checking out his arm. His once white sleeves are stained from the juices, but he’s feeling no burning effects. Not to say the acids wouldn’t be activated when Sylvain eats something—-other than himself. “It looks like I’m fine, for now.” “Good, let’s get you out of there.” He’s met with an affirmative hum, and Sylvain plants himself on the floor, firmly pressing both hands on his stomach. Tiny fingers tap on the bottom of his belly and now wholly aware of it. The feeling is entirely alien, almost ticklish; he automatically heaves, offhandedly noting the room getting warmer as sweat gathers on his forehand. Bile creeps at the bottom of his throat, and Sylvain dry heaves once again, “C’mon…” he murmurs. His stomach groans louder, noisily protesting the shrunken being inside, and his fingers slam on the hardwood, curling instantly. As his guts twist and turn in itself, he grimaces, wishing for a drink to aid him in this uncomfortable process. Sylvain’s eyes widen as he gags, only able to retch out strands of saliva. There is a distinct lack of a certain sharp-tongued mercenary.   “No…Why didn’t it work?” he whispers, clutching at his middle. “Sylvain…” Felix’s voice is dangerously low, and Sylvain was sure that if he hadn’t removed the former’s weapons, his insides would have been lacerated mercilessly. Even though they’d been friends since childhood, even though they made a promise, there was no way Felix would let himself die such a humiliating death. Felix glares up at the tight sphincter from above, it’s much too high to force open, but maybe if Sylvain was lying down… He pauses, out of nowhere, acids begin to bubble and churn. The stomach gurgles louder, and suddenly, he’s thrown from wall-to-wall, hardly getting a chance to catch his breath. A god-awful groan resonates around him, and his head gets submerged under the liquid; everything flies by too quickly; this was it, this was how he was going to go down. He can’t breathe; one moment his lungs are filled with acids, and the next, he finds himself splayed on a squishy surface. Felix coughs and gasps for air, for a split second, he really thought he was done for. Arm slung over his head, he almost doesn’t notice the shadow looming over him or the fast pulse below, rivaling his own. He needs a good minute to recoup himself as he breathes slowly to even his heart-rate. Finally removing his arm, he looks above. Felix’s breath hitches as the thundering vibrations of Sylvain saying something reverberates through his body; nearly admonishing himself for such a pathetic reaction, he realizes the words aren’t registering. “—-about this, yeah?” Felix catches the tail-end of whatever the redhead was trying to say. “Alright.” and for the first time since this ordeal, there’s no bite behind his words, only thinly veiled exhaustion as he finds himself slumped against Sylvain’s index finger. He just wants to return to normal and forget this day ever happened.

[kinogane]

Way Too Much Thought on the Last Two SBCG4AP Episodes

There was a recent poll on the Homestar Runner subreddit about people’s favorite SBCG4AP episodes. Dangeresque 3 is the clear winner, and 8-Bit is Enough is near the bottom, which roughly tracks with how I rate the episodes as well.

But isn’t 8-Bit is Enough being that low a little weird? It’s certainly the most flashy of the five episodes: front-and-center for the episode is Trogdor, who is one of the most enduring things from Homestar Runner writ large. The premise of Trogdor and the other video games escaping into reality lends itself well to the video game format. The TROGDOR! cabinet was just sitting there, unused for four episodes, which builds anticipation. And as the conclusion of SBCG4AP, it certainly ends on the showiest note, with a low-poly PS1/N64-era confrontation between Strong Bad and Trogdor. So why does it seem like not a huge favorite?

8-Bit is Enough is identifiably a Homestar Runner video game; it has all the trappings of one with the likes of Trogdor and Stinkoman and so on and so forth. But it’s also the SBCG4AP episode that feels the least tied to Homestar Runner as a universe. Most of the gags and interactions are more predicated on video game humor (more specifically, NES-era video games and point-and-clicks) than it is to anything specifically from Homestar Runner, because most of the trappings are largely Homestar Runner by association. Trogdor is from Homestar Runner, but Trogdor’s main connection to Homestar Runner is the fact that he was a cool thing created by Strong Bad in a sbemail. By design, there’s not really that much you can do when Trogdor shows up besides point at him and go “look at that cool ass dragon”.

Dangeresque 3′s entire premise, meanwhile, is literally the continuation of a running gag that started five years before its release. It’s ostensibly a spoof on cop/detective stories, but the real meat of the Dangeresque movies is the gulf between Strong Bad’s creative ambition and the movies’ incredibly amateurish feel, ranging from laughably revealing editing to stilted acting to a mostly a cappella soundtrack. All of this, besides being funny, serves to emphasize Strong Bad’s pathological need to make himself seem way cooler than he actually is by, which is basically his entire schtick in Homestar Runner.

Dangeresque 3 is initially framed as if the player is controlling Dangeresque scene-by-scene, but it becomes clear quickly that the player is actually controlling Strong Bad acting as Dangeresque while trying to ensure that the shoot goes smoothly. It, of course, does not, with multiple obvious cuts to redo mistakes, multiple instances where Strong Bad very obviously gives stage directions, and a sequence where the movie is paused mid-playthrough as Strong Bad and The Cheat argue about a huge failure in editing.

The game literally tracks how many outtakes you’ve seen.

The premise of playing through a dude’s really bad vanity project he made with his friends associates(?) isn’t exactly difficult to pick up on and appreciate, but because said dude in question in Strong Bad, an established Homestar Runner character, and said associates are also established Homestar Runner characters, the specific ways in which they chafe against the movie and flub it are core to the enjoyment of the game.

For instance, in Dangeresque 3, Strong Bad intends to cut a bit of Marzipan’s hair for the movie (which in itself is reminiscent of the haircut sbemail, where Strong Bad unsuccessfully tried to do the same). Marzipan won’t comply, so the solution is to take her beloved ficus, Credenza, and toss it into a “shark pond” so that Marzipan will be sufficiently distracted. Both the dialogue setting up the puzzle (where Strong Bad explicitly refers to Marzipan) and the scene afterward, with the cut to Strong Bad (as Dangeresque) with a pencil stuck in his ear, makes clear that this was an in-the-moment, improvisational scheme that Strong Bad cooked up to keep the movie going. The set-up, solution, and payoff play off what we know of Strong Bad, Marzipan, and their dynamic.

Contrast the Stinkoman 20X6 puzzle in 8-Bit is Enough, where Strong Bad can only insert himself into the game world if Stinkoman dies. The solution is to tell the enemies to be faster and less predictable, which charitably speaking could be seen as a nod to I Wanna Be the Guy-style precision platformers that operate on those rules, and more likely is a manifestation of the “boy, these enemies are real dumb, imagine if they didn’t move in set routines” thought that’s crossed the mind of anyone who’s thought about enemy AI patterns, difficulty, and/or their theoretical agency in the game’s world, jokingly or otherwise. There’s nothing strictly wrong with this puzzle, but nothing about it is relevant to the fact that it’s in a Homestar Runner game besides the aesthetics of Stinkoman. (And maybe a general sense of irreverency.)

The net effect is that Dangeresque 3 rewards you much more for having a deep knowledge of Homestar Runner. When you see Strong Bad trying to foist Senor Cardgage into an important role because he still thinks Cardgage is an aspirational figure, when you see Bubs trying to shill his merch while his character is in a prison that is just his concession stand, when you see Marzipan start preaching about environmentalism and get fast forwarded, it all plays better because they’re follow ups on threads already established by the cartoons that you’ve almost certainly already watched. Meanwhile, 8-Bit is Enough is largely content to show you the thing you recognize and make spoofs on and references to video games, something that is undoubtedly part of Homestar Runner, but is not a large part of what makes it something people still fondly remember and quote over a decade after its heyday.

[journal-of-an-outlaw]

The Price to be Paid

Hey gang! 

This is my very first Tumblr fanfiction. I used to write waaaay back but it’s been awhile. Just finished my first playthrough of Red Dead Redemption 2 and of course needed to write something about my story with it. 

Feel free to message me with feedback or thoughts, like I said it’s been a few years so I’ll post this to Ao3 after awhile. Please like and reblog only, no reposting. 

Chapter 1 

“See that one? Easy. Go nick his watch.”

You laughed and smiled over your shoulder at Abigail as you walked over towards the cart that had stopped from one of the nearby farms selling apples in the middle of town, red and bursting to be eaten. A man who was picking out which ones looked best out of the pile didn’t seem flustered by your sudden appearance which was good. It made the next part easier. 

“Oof! Excuse me sir, I didn’t see you there. Are you okay? Oh, let me help wipe that off your shirt.” 

Coffee bled a dark brown down the man’s white shirt as he hastily moved to grab something to stop the spread, and you were ready with your handkerchief. While he snatched it out of your hands, you removed his pocket watch without him knowing, the pressure of your hands on his torso masking the motion. The cold coffee had been sitting on the edge of the cart as if someone had forgotten it in their haste to leave for the center of town. He huffed and hawed and made a bigger fuss than you could have hoped for, but the nearby prying eyes only saw a silly girl who managed to spill coffee onto the boy buying apples. 

You smiled one last time at him and batted your eyes then flounced down the street and around the alley to meet Abigail. She laughed and grabbed your shoulder while you showed her the watch; no engraving or photo slipped inside which made you relax at the fact it wasn’t overly sentimental. 

“Now see, this here is exactly what you can pawn off. A good 8 dollars for this, plus whatever else you can grab adds up fast. Then maybe...a way out?” her eyes were kind as her mouth twisted into a coy smile. 

You smiled back at Abigail. The past few months while she and her gang were in town you had grown close. She hadn’t divulged too much about the people she ran with and that you could understand. The world was dangerous and full of opportunities and you couldn’t judge her for the choices she had made to keep her and those she cared about safe. You had never really left the town you were raised in and your family was your ‘gang’, but their secrets would never haunt others that you choose to surround yourself with. You knew she had a man, maybe not a husband but someone she loved. And a son that she loved more than anything in the world. Although she’s never told you outright about him, you’ve seen her buy (or steal) little trinkets and toys that no grown man would want. That’s when Abigail taught you the same tricks. How to divert the attention of shop owners so your hands could dart into your pockets with stolen food, or how to nab items to pawn to build up your own funds when you bump into folks and cause a scene. You had been eyeing the mountains outside of town a lot more lately, and thinking how great of an escape you could make. 

“Where would I even pawn these? Do I walk in with everything at once?” you asked her. She contemplated for a moment. “You don’t want to walk in with arm loads of stolen things, but a few here and there should be okay...maybe clerks will let you trade them for goods! Like for food or clothes and such. There’s a good pawn shop in Rhodes, but that’s a long ways from here in Blackwater.”

Your hometown, or at least the place you had been raised in, was hot, dry, and desert like most of the year. The people were kind and you liked being situated by the river. On particularly hot nights you would sneak out and sit by the slow and lazy moving water, imagining it was carrying you someplace new and far away, where no one would know you and you could start over. But you knew that idea was just that and there was no escaping. Small fantasies were all you had. Some nights you yearned for your life that began in Boston, but Blackwater was the only home you had ever known.

Abigail brought you back to the present with her hand on your arm. “Y/N, I might have to leave soon. I don’t want to but there are things I can’t change that are set in motion by the people I’m with. You’re...well I guess my friend and I wanted to let you know.” You laughed at her hesitation to call you a friend. Knowing her it isn’t an insult. If anything, she means it as a way to say she doesn’t get close to many people and has somehow chosen you. 

“Abigail I appreciate you telling me, but I’ll see you again! I am not worried.” Sometimes your blind optimism got the better of you. Damn those novels that you got lost in. Few things brought you pleasure like the chapters of a book. 

The two of you clasped hands and parted for the day as the sun set behind you. Slowly but surely you were building a collection of items that had been lifted off the residents of Blackwater and were going towards your future pawn trips. As much as you loved the town and its dusty, dirty humbleness there was a darkness that lived there. 

You neared your house and felt your heart drop to your stomach as the parlor light flickered on meaning your mother was not home, but your father was. Dad had a mean drinking problem, and as the man in charge of  some government organization had power which mixed terribly with his vanity. He wanted everyone to know that he and he alone was in charge. 

Climbing up the steps quietly you hoped to sneak by. That damn fourth step gave you away, and you silently swore as your father barked for you to come back down. 

“Y/N! Get down here. How dare you walk by and not say hello to your father?” You mumble an apology and kissed him on the cheek, the smugness in him as strong as the whiskey on his breath. As you turned to head to the kitchen for dinner he grabbed your elbow hard enough to make you wince. “Were you in town today,” he asked, but it was more of a statement than a question. He must have seen you, or heard about Abigail somehow. “Y-yes father, I spent the day in town. At the market, there was a wagon from a nearby farm…” you drifted off and tried to walk to the other room. Your father stood abruptly, but was distracted by your mother opening the kitchen door. She was a force of pure good and the only thing that could tame your father’s wild ways. Her face beamed and invited you both for dinner. 

“How was town today, Y/N? The apples look delicious.” You mother winked at you and motioned to the three red apples sitting on the counter waiting to be baked into a pie for dessert. While in town you didn’t even notice her so she must have moved quietly. The roast chicken and potatoes were delicious and you couldn't eat fast enough. After dinner, your father went out to the back porch to smoke while your mother sat and played cards with you. 

“Mother, why don’t we just leave?” you whispered. This was a conversation you had had many times in the past. “If we packed and left at midnight he couldn’t track us. We could go to the mountains, move west or even north again! A new city with no one following us and we could make a new life. Work in an art gallery or a farm or...just some place nice and safe. Where no one could hurt us.” The darting of your eyes was not missed by your mother who had never known about your father and how his rage manifested late at night. He always did have a knack for hitting you in places that no one else would ever see.  

Her hand was soft as it wrapped around your own. You knew this fantasy would never happen but you always hoped someday she would finally agree. 

“My dear, we musnt run away from those things that we fear. Fear only increases when we turn our backs to escape rather than face it head on.” 

********************************************************

The next day in town you met up with Abigail again. You knew the time was coming for her to leave from the way she clung to you a little tighter and laughed more forced and often. It made you sad to think that this bright light in your life lately would just be gone due to...whatever it was that would drag her away. Loyalty and family all meant something to you of course. But it was still upsetting to think that this exciting time would soon be over. 

“The last thing I’ll teach you as a thief is this. In order to pull off a good heist, you have to believe. With everything you have. A poor orphan left to die on the side of the road? Believe. Someone who just got robbed and needs a ride to town? Believe. Someone who isn’t being abused by a man somewhere in town? Believe.”

She stared you down hard during this last line. You flinched and moved to cover the bruise that had been exposed when you rolled your sleeves up from the heat. A soft expression met you when you looked up to her blue eyes. 

“I...It’s nothing I promise.”

“And that, hon, is exactly what I was talking about. You have to believe. Make it out of this town, safe. Please. If not for me, maybe just for you.” You watery eyes meet hers and you realized that it’s obvious to everyone but you that leaving may just be your last hope to being happy. The only issue you have is leaving your mother behind with the monster that hides behind the eyes of your father. His rage wasn’t always there. Mother said as a child you lived happily in Boston just the three of you. It was supposed to be four, and that’s where the trouble began. When your brother was lost a few days after his birth your father couldn't stand it. The whiskey was his crutch, and it soon became more of a constant burden. Every day it seemed he stumbled in from work already drowning in the vile stuff. Even the thought of its scent brought you gagging now. Your mother says that’s the reason you had to leave the northern city and move to the nowhere town of Blackwater and start all over again. That drink and the havoc it caused. 

While you had the time the two of you decided to celebrate. Sitting in the saloon you clinked your drinks and cheersed to seeing each other soon someday. Abigail loved hometown whiskey and your poison of choice was gin. Many drinks later and the two of you stumbled out to the main road, needing fresh air after leading the whole bar in a great rendition of a popular song. You swayed in the heat that met you outside of the doors. A huge commotion down by the water caused half the town out to come bursting out to the roads behind you. Galloping horses, screaming, and gunshots were all you could make out. Damn those drinks and whatever was in them! You couldn't see more than four feet in front of you, and everything beyond that was a big old blur. 

“Y/N! We need to move. Now!” Abigail somehow sobered up and was in charge of the whole situation. “Get behind that building and pretend you don’t know me-” but her words were cut short by a man grabbing her arm and yanking her down the road. 

“Abigail!! Hey! Let her go!” You chased, well, more like stumbled after, the pair and beat his arm with your fists. He released Abigail and grabbed your hands, shoving them down by your sides and forcing you to stare into his eyes. 

“Now what in the hell are you doing?” You stare dumbstruck into his face thinking that you might have landed yourself right into one of your novels. Beautiful blue eyes searched your drunken face and you couldn’t even speak. His eyebrows pulled together and crows feet showed around the edges of his eyes, years of the open sun and road changing the landscape of his face. Stringing coherent thoughts together was a struggle when Abigail shoved the man. “Arthur! Let her go she’s my...she’s my friend.”

Arthur raised his eyebrows, “Abigail I have to get you back to John-”

Three men raced around the street corner on horseback and shouted in your direction. “Those three! Stop them! They’re linked with them gangs from the riverboat!” 

You swung around to face Arthur and Abigail. “What have you done. Your gang! What did you do!” 

Arthur swore and grabbed you by your waist. “Abigail, get on that grey horse there. The bay is mine.” She nodded and took off down the road. You cursed and swung as hard as you could but it was no use, this man had you captive as he put you on the horse and followed Abigail. The lawmen were not too far behind and you heard the bullets they fired whisk by you and hit the buildings down the street. From the back of a horse you watched the faces of people you knew zip by faster and faster, and with them the memory of who you were confined to be quickly slipped away. What a strange turn of events in the past few months. Abigail had taught you how to pickpocket and thief your way hopefully to a new life, but instead of taking that route here one was riding you off on a horse. It scared you, but you couldn't look back. 

A sharp and terrible pain grabbed you suddenly as a bullet met your left side below your ribs. Screaming, you almost fell off the horse but managed to clutch onto Arthur’s shirt with weak fingers. He turned around at the noise and seemed upset as his face filled with worry when looking at the blood spilling onto your shirt. The pain proved too much and the last thing you remember was landing on a hill of grass with dust swirling all around as the sound of pounding hooves raging your ears from all directions.