raguna-blade

[raguna-blade]

Struggling to figure out what the gacha aspect would enable that you couldn't do without the monetization strategy.

Like, sure there's the aspect of your story and available characters changing based on your draws, so there's that aspect that you could do if you were trying to do it seriously. High Rarity characters or whatever are plot critical so you can't move forward until you get them (or maybe the reverse? Depends on what you're going for...)

but the monetization is firmly unneeded, and you could achieve it without it so like...???????????

I'm trying to imagine the whole "gacha game are Good Actually because the gacha business model enables narrative structures that wouldn't work in conventional games" thing applied to literally any other similarly predatory monetisation scheme. I want to see the story that can only be told through the medium of battle royale lootboxes.

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Beat The Second Secret Boss of Chapter 3 and I am enjoying that feeling one, but two I cannot believe the strategy for that fight really did boil down to

Just Don't Get Hit 5-Head.

ITS EZ

JUST DON'T GET HIT

IF THEY'RE SWINGING FOR YOUR NOGGIN JUST SAY NO AND DUCK

DOING SOME FINAL BOSS SHIT? NO THANKS JUST GONNA AGREE TO DISAGREE AND NOT TAKE THAT ON THE CHIN.

YOU'RE THINKING TOO HARD JUST DODGE.

[raguna-blade]

So I'm wondering at the mechanical set up of Deltarune right about now, reaching the end of chapter 3 and having a bit of trouble with the secret boss, and I'm suddenly wondering about the way the game is very very very EXTREMELY clearly intent on you playing it over and over again to figure some things out.

Like I always wondered how you're supposed to figure out the Snowgrave Route without some kind of in game hint, and it's been a while so perhaps i've missed some hinting in chapter 2, but there's some OVERT hinting in chapter 3, in addition to a bunch of other stuff like the game out and out telling you some secrets only AFTER you would have been able to put them into action (Drink from the Oasis several times)

Which taken with the way the game can shift RADICALLY between routes, and the way that some story stuff seems gated between them, also makes me wonder about there being just one ending.

Which, I don't think is a lie. I think that's objectively the case. there is only going to be one ending...However, like in the chapter 3 section with the Ice Key and everything involving the Sword Route, I'm suspecting that you're flat out going to be denied from accessing it you haven't done "everything"

Not literally everything. There are (for now) obviously a couple of a secrets that don't go anywhere and seem to be just easter eggs, minor goofs etc. But there's definitely clean clear route splits and SEVERAL characters are clearly aware of you the player as an outside entity who in some ways breaks the rules of the game.

Which, taken with Ralsei's thing about Darkners not being real, only to then launch into the characters playing a video game (complete on couch) and the way the SOUL is able to interact with that in ways they can't, strikes me as there's definitely something you, as the Soul and the PLayer character (Because you're not Kris. The game is ADAMANT about this) need to actually do to see the ending.

Now this admittedly feels a bit like a cheat. Oh there's only one ending, but it's gated behind blahblahblahblah which yeah a little bit, but I don't think it's unfair to characterize it as one ending. All Routes Lead Rome, and you have to travel a lot isn't weird.

Hell, that's a VERY standard story telling trick in video gaming. You have to see the "other endings" to reach the true end.

Which get's me back to the games structure bit, because the game is set up to let you just leap back into whatever chapter you want, at whichever ending you want, casually. It tracks at least a few secrets (the Shadow Pieces) things persist through chapters etc etc etc. And the video game set up of Chapter 3 Honestly encourages this reading for right now. You have the game, you have the true game, you have things you have to do that are pretty arbitrary to unlock the ending, etc etc.

It remains to be seen how this plays out of course, and I half expect the release schedule is in part to encourage this kind of thought in the player (A lot of the stuff involved sounds like the old days of gaming where you'd have stuff like Horde all of your rare healing items to keep certain characters from dying) as well as give them the time to scour the game to find these secrets.

If it looks like that's the case whenever i get to chapter 4 I'll be pretty excited about it.

[raguna-blade]

Things that have increasingly been making me uncomfortable in Deltarune:

How Every Single Time* You Get Control Back after a cutscene Kris stares at the fucking camera.

*I Say every Single time, but I only started really picking up on it in chapter 3, and i'm REASONABLY sure this has been going on but uh...Man. Man I do not like that.

[raguna-blade]

I know that character designs are ultimately done by the people with the pen and that's fine whatever.

But sometimes it's genuinely very very fun and funny to try and figure out why certain characters dress the way they do IN UNIVERSE, especially when it just absolutely clashes with their personality and you find that there is, in fact, a pretty solid reason if you look at it right.

In this case, the thought was spurred by Dizzy from guilty gear who was...A Lot.

But makes sense when you realize that Testament probably gave her those clothes and or that fashion style and it's just...It makes me laugh harder than it probably should, but when you see her in Strive wearing MUCH more modest clothing that fits her vibe a bit more it just makes it retroactively funnier.

[raguna-blade]

i started the holoEN series after sana graduated and finished it after the other graduations 😭 so here's a bonus sana for the complete set!!!

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The Dragons in BoF 4 are so fun

I like when media depicts dragons as creatures that come in many different shapes and sizes.

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The completed hug collection.

Thank you so much for all the love and support!!

[raguna-blade]

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A Rei fan art I just finished x

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samus's pursuit of a photo

rest under the cut

some writers notes below. thanks for readin

[raguna-blade]

💀It's Here⚡

This is PART ONE. PART TWO will be as a response in the REBLOGS. A link to a free PDF version of this comic will be available in the responses/comments!

[raguna-blade]

💀It's Here⚡

This is PART ONE. PART TWO will be as a response in the REBLOGS. A link to a free PDF version of this comic will be available in the responses/comments!

[raguna-blade]

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ happy pride month. smash the world’s shell!

[raguna-blade]

Ok, and also, i'm probably not going to dive into the general fandom reactions, a little but that's just for me, but i'm hearing a lot of people being like "oh man Remmick was sympathetic and blahblahblah" charismatic and...

Like i'll grant you sympathy. He absolutely has a a sympathetic story sure but...

Man, this dude was uncanny as fuck to me the entire time. His entire diction, body language all of it, up to and including when he went fully mask off reminded me of those guys who're trying to pretend they're on your side and talking your language, they know your struggle my guy and it's so patently false.

Maybe some folks haven't had the experience, but everyone in the flick basically twigged him as full of shit instantly, and pre reveal their only concern was 1: Is he entertaining enough, and 2: Is inviting this white guy in worth the potential trouble he'd invite and the answer to both was No...Although Admittedly 1 was premised on him being not nearly good enough to overcome 2 but still.

I dunno. Most i could say to the guy was that he was surface level polite but that's it, and if that's the bar for being charismatic and stuff I'm kinda wondering.

By Comparison Smoke and Stack were charismatic as hell even when they had straight up shot 2 different guys. The scene with the girl in front of the store was absurdly charming, and even when they were lying about some subject or another, either by omission lack of intent or otherwise, it didn't have the same ring of fakeness that Remmick did. Like you could tell they were lying but it didn't have that...The word is escaping me. It didn't have that plastic quality he did that made it abundantly clear they were full of shit.

I dunno. I gotta start trying to get my thoughts on things out there a bit more, if nothing else to get the practice in it.

[raguna-blade]

Watched Sinners and i gotta say that was a fantastic movie. Sammie's song in the juke joint dam near made me cry.