#<-Technically; I mentioned a spoilery enemy

[zerothefool0]

IDEA

In Stars and Time AU where it's actually all a play.

Further idea: The actor for Siffrin and the actor for Mal du Pays are siblings.

"In Rounds of Applause", and it's a more fluff-centered modern AU.

[betweenblackberrybranches]

I'm really intrigued by your automaton au. What's the origin of the hatred with witches? How did it start? What was it like during Sun and Moon's time serving the king? How is it now in Y/N's time?

Also, how did Sun and Moon end up in Y/N's relative's care? Is the body their in Moon's or Sun's (cause of the cracked head)? Was Y/N's relative part of the witch hunts or is he just some crackpot collecting magical junk?

Anyway, hope you get better! And thanks for this au, it's really cool.

Hi so thats a lot of questions you have there, i have mentioned some of that stuff in older posts but ill answer some of them for everyone who doesnt want to dig around for older posts.

So whats up with the hatred for witches? For that we need a small crash course

So the whole world of the automaton au is permiated by magic, its everywhere and in everything.

witches are the link between the old ones and the humans, they have been around forever. Every human can technically become a witch, though some are more naturally talented. The only real prerequisite is that one has to get along with atleast one of the old ones.

The magic of witches is directly tied to the old ones. There isnt really a rule to how because it really depends on the individual witch and the old ones and their ralationship but one thing is always the same, its a give and take situation.

And then there are wizards who developed from a fringe group of witches who tried to amplify their own magical powers without the help of the old ones. Over the centuries that fringe group started to get more and more political power. Turns out people rather just have power without having to also give something in return.

Well the Wizards started to go to war against the old ones and the witches whos purpose it is to keep balance between the humans and the old ones became enemies of the wizards. The wizards started campeighning against witches, calling them traitors of humankind for working alongside the old ones. That escalated until witch hunts became a thing.

Though all this only happened in the "developed" lands which the wizards had fully cleared of old ones (so only around the bigger cities and the capital). And with wizards having a big political power the hatred for witches became the norm around the "developed" lands witch witch burnings happening till a few decades ago. Now witches are still hunted and looked down upon but its less of an immidiat danger to be in the "developed" lands as a witch (still wouldnt reccomend it tho)

How did the guys end up in Y/Ns granduncles hands?

Well at some point Moon kind of went mad killed the ruler that made Sun kill their lover. It was a few years after that had happened tho. In that time the guy had made both of them be in the front line of witch hunting, they had worked as old ones hunters before for other rulers but humans was a whole other thing. Especally because they started executing whole families of witches children included. So yea Moon ripped that guy apart and they got decomissioned. But for some odd (spoilery) reason they were not destroyed but sealed and thrown into a lake on the palace grounds, never to surface again. Until they did resurface around a hundred years later(by that point the palace had been rebuild and the lake didnt belong to the palace grounds anymore), got found by a junk collector and got sold around as antiques for a while untill falling into Y/Ns granduncles hands who kept them for a few years before dying. So yea.

Is their body Suns or Moons?

Its Moons. Sun exploded himself out of grief and despair so yea they are in Moons body but the peple putting Sun in there also installed his rays into Moons head for the aesthetic, Moon didnt have those before. (Im just gonna say this now, they are one being anyways they were allways tethered together even when they didnt have the same body they could comunicate through a shared link. There is a reason for that but its highly spoilery)

Was Y/Ns granduncle part of witch hunts?

Yes he was. The audacity of that guy, really. He even ratted out one of his older aunts to the authorities when he was young. Luckily at that point they had stopped executing whole families for having a witch in them and most witches in the borderlands were just ignored. But that aunt lived stealthily in the "developed" lands and she was taken in and never seen again. So yea that guy worked for the wizard councel and was actually a quite important guy he deffinetly was majorly involved in witch hunts when they still were a thing.

(At the same time some of Y/Ns relatives swear that Y/Ns granduncle actually protected his family and or witches in general against witch hunts, but probably thats just wishfull thinking on their part, not being able to belive that the guy would be so cruel)

[ejsuperstar]

SOULBREAKER DIGEST: JANUARY 2024

Welcome to the first Soulbreaker Digest! I will be making posts overviewing the contents of each Soulbreaker Update video like I did for the teaser trailer! Now, go watch the latest Soulbreaker Update video:

Rest of my post will be under the cut! [<- Prev] [Next ->]

Welcome to the rest of the post! It will be split into a few questions, including game updates, answered Q&A questions, theories, and misc. I will not being going through the non Soulbreaker content discussed.

GAME UPDATES

Dice Death and Dating is now Soulbreaker! So much new content as been added that it really requires a rename! (exciting!!) And the reason for the name is spoilery

Nothing has been cut from DD&D (awesome!)

Gameplay has been being rebuilt to make it more satisfying, responsive and juicier.

The main gameplay loop is finished, work on story and other content is going to be worked on now to get it to a state for a public demo.

Work has been done on the Soulbreaker's sprites! And we got to see the walkcycles!

New enemies! Twiggy, Teevy? (Look the subtitles call it TV so IDK how it's actually spelt) and Burnie (also nicknamed explodey) They're more basic enemies and also "little bastard"

Story progress! The game is almost half written at this point, polished and all.

Q&A ANSWERS

Taken directly from the video!

Q: "Is our main character canonically nonbinary, or is it one of those "its you so they're whatever you are" type of deals." A: " I'm happy to confirm that it's the latter. The character is whatever you would like them to be and the reason for that is that, while the character does have their own personality and their own story, we still wanted it to be you because the game's also still got some dating sim in it and if there's like a weird disconnect then it just feels off, you know? So the character is very much you. It's whatever gender you prefer them to be honestly. It's kind of like Link from Zelda, technically link is a dude but you know." Q: "Will there be permadeath and if so how is that going to work story-wise?" A: "Permaddeath no not exactly, the game is a roguelite and the lite part means every time you die you get to retain some of your stuff. You'll be dying a lot probably, but if you've played games like Hades, you know, you can come back check in with some of the story elements that are maybe in the House of Hades, before you then gear up and head out to your next run. So kind of a similar flow like that for Soulbreaker." Q: "I remember when talking about Soulbreaker, Cult of the Lamb was mentioned as inspiration! Are there any other games that are noteworthy to its inspiration to give us a good idea of what we'll be seeing?" A: Definitely so, Cult of the Lamb is a huge one, I mean everybody at the studio loves it. But some of our other Inspirations for Soulbreaker are Binding of Isaac, Dead Cells, and Hades, because they're all fantastic games, we all love them, and really we're just combining them into like the Bound Dead Cult of Hades kind of thing. It's going to be so much fun, and if you like any of those games or you're curious about them you're going to love Soulbreaker, so yes..." Q: "What will our ranged attack arsenal be like? Will we be able to attack at range at all?" A: "Yes. So you'll be able to cast all sorts of spells, and there's actually currently some talks in the studio about adding a dedicated ranged weapon as well, so, yes on all fronts! Melee and ranged you guys." Q: "Is there going to be co-op play?" A: Not for now. This is an idea that's floated around, but to be honest, co-op takes a lot of time and effort to do right, and right now we're focusing on all the other features instead. This is one of those 'maybe wishlist features', would be cool if that could be added one day, but for now? No, it's not going to be in the game." Q: "Can we befriend the tarrasque?" Q: "No no no, the REAL question is, can we ROMANCE the tarrasque?" A:

Q: "What is the power system in the game? Like, can the little Soulbreaker guy unlock new abilities, or will it be more based on loot and magic items?" A: "Yes, both actually. There will be some upgrades you can unlock to permanently upgrade yourself, and there's also a ton of items, kind of like in Binding Of Isaac, that you can use to upgrade your player during a run. It should be amazing chaos." Q: "Will Gorthan and Julian be in the game?" A: "Absolutely! In fact, the whole Fool's Gold cast will be in the game. Gorthan and Julian will likely take the place of merchants / blacksmiths in the game.

Theories and Misc observations.

So, VERY interested in the name Soulbreaker being spoiler teritory! I'm guessing the term Soulbreaker means something tangible in the game, as in its a class or a title of some sort. Maybe it's related to the mercury infection, maybe you can fight it *because* you're the Soulbreaker.

Happy to have some of my questions answered. VERY happy Julian and Gorthan are back (Over the course of the development for @fghuntforthecrystals I have grown pretty attached to Julian and Gorthan). I hope we get lots of banter and stuff with them! I need more Julian content in my life!

Also interested in the mention that, while the Soulbreaker's gender is up to the player, they have their own personality and story. Was really hoping they would have their own personality and I'm very happy about it!

Congrats on my friend @alynwrench for getting their art shown in the Sands segment of the video at the start too! That's awesome! We love Alyn here!

Last but not least, excited to have the new enemy sprites, will be adding them into my Soulbreaker Kristal mod at some point, though I will have to guess on how they attack (minus Burnie) since we didn't see them in action.

Huge thanks to Felix and the rest of the Cryodon team for working hard on the game, and showing us the development. CANNOT wait for the kickstarter, I am so hyped. - EJ out.

[maareyas]

octopath 2 updates! a lot has happened

- i finished everyone's 3rd chapters (finally)! Throné's and Temenos' routes :''''''D

- I started actually using the secondary jobs mechanic. Castti with a cleric sub-job is so 💙💙💙

- I wish there was a way to toggle between job outfits though. As much as I like Armsmaster Hikari, the roman armor just looks so dumb 😭 I unequip secondary jobs during story bosses because of this fhhdhsh

- Ochette's thief outfit looks cute though 💙 and I love that Temenos' scholar outfit makes him look more detective-ish ✨

- I've gathered an army of rats and birds with Ochette. love AOE attacks that also gives your team buffs/enemies debuffs. in hindsight I'm grateful that I chose her as my starter since she's very versatile!!

- I tried fighting the boss in Ivory Ravine, not really as a serious attempt at first because I was exactly the recommended level, and I usually face bosses overleved to make up for my lack of a solid strategy aside from "breaking the enemy as soon as possible"

- it did in fact, become serious and I WON BUT ONLY BARELY. like the boss would recover from breaking next turn and unleash 7th Calamity 😭😭 I just went all out do-or-die. thank god Armsmaster Hikari and Ochette's draefendi's bow was able to kill it at the last turn 💀

spoilery thoughts under the cut:

- Throné's chapter 3 was wild from start to finish 💀 one hell of a love drama. rip to Father, also he is way thinner/gangly that i expected from his overworld sprite lmao

- Mother's boss fight was pretty easy since I was very overleveled and my team comp was apparently pretty good at countering her. I technically K.O'd her before her desperation attack/scripted dialogue hdjsjs I ended up properly beating her with an hp thief lmao

- Wellow's manor is scary :'''D

- THEY KILLED MY BOY CRICK,,,.....,.,.., i'm going to miss him 😭 newly anointed yet gone so soon................his VA did a fantastic job

- i really love Temenos and Hikari's VA's work too btw

- I was 9 or 10 levels beyond the suggested when I did the Cubaryi boss fight and I STILL had so much trouble, my god 💀 the consecutive turns, debuff shield, AND high shield points....absolutely irredeemable. Her sprite is sick as hell though.

- also the battle reprise of Temenos' theme that plays just before you fight her? i love it 👌

- I finished Castti's 3rd chapter last AND I KNEW ITTT I KNEW IT WAS TROSSEAU. THAT WHITE-HAIRED BITCH (<- tends to gravitate towards white haired characters) not quite as exciting as Throné's or Temenos' 3rd chapters, but it's still quite a Punch

- idek if I mentioned it before but I love love love the worldbuilding in this game. both in lore and actual gameplay!! I'm grinding equally for story reasons and so I can explore new location without being on the verge of death every time lmao. Wellow's manor. Im so scared of going there-

- once again Agnea's story is..........eh.......... I really want to care about it but it just feels so weak. I wish it felt deeper, I guess? Agnea's personality has felt one dimensional, which would be fine if her plot thus far hasn't also felt that way fhhsjsj "I want to be a star and make people happy" good for her but I need more substance than that. pls. i need a plot about that bright sincerity vs. the soul-sucking nature of the entertainment industry vs. the highs and lows of being a creative/arts person vs. how arts (specifically dance) bring happiness and life to people-

[ajdrawshq]

3, 9, 23 :D

u know u did smth right when i have to re-look up how to do readmores on mobile for an ask cksbxjsbn

3 - 1-3 games you've played in the past 12 months that you really enjoyed

Omori, Radiant Historia, and Octopath Traveler (in that order)!! and probably several more that im currently forgetting bc the last few months felt like years. i saw Omori on game pass n since i remembered seeing the occasional post abt it i decided to try it out and man!!!! good fucking game!!!!! i dont talk abt it often bc theres very little i can say abt it that hasnt already been said, but it means a lot to me - both the games messages and the world n characters. i even got some new mutuals out of it :3 then Radiant Historia.. i could say a million things abt this game and i Have (most of which is still in my drafts) but god i wish more ppl knew abt this thing. it has its flaws for sure but it does some stuff ive never seen in other games, or not quite the way they do it. n im super attached to the characters <3 probably one of my favorite time travel games by far. and then!!! Octopath Traveler!!!! my most recent beloved.. i did Not think id like it as much as i do but now im very not normal abt it. its such a gorgeous game both in story and the general Vibe of it all its just so <3

9 - A game you played completely blind with no prior knowledge of and enjoyed/loved

definitely octopath. i didnt know Anything going into this game other than that someone recommended it to me bc i also like radiant historia so there had to be some kinda similarity there. going into it, i wasnt sure how following 8 seperate characters and 8 seperate storylines would work nor did i think the endgame would tie them all togther that well, if at all. starting up the game wasnt the most interesting, like when ur going around collecting all 8 characters for the first time and trying to keep up with em all, BUT!! its the kinda game that gets good if u put the time and effort into it and before long i already had 100 hours in. after a while i got really attached to the main team id been using and the other 4 were just as interesting, even the ones i didnt expect to like much?? i adore all the different dynamics within this funny lil ragtag found family so much and all their individual stories.. and everything else is incredible too!! the music is SO fucking good its literally all live orchestrations (and all the musicians are credited too!!) and the boss themes and town themes and route themes are all gorgeous. the graphics are fucking ridiculous, like this game has the best water graphics ive ever seen and that is not an exaggeration in the slightest, and the snow is so so pretty, and the blur effects.. mwah. the overworld pixel art is cute and the enemy/boss pixel art is suprisingly beautiful and detailed. the level design for dungeon-esque areas made treasure hunting fun and i like having to search for hidden pathways in a game built in such a different way than im used to (tho i still have yet to find a way to certain treasure chests >:/). and the gameplay - ive never seen an rpg with set characters that is as flexible as this. u can literally build any character any way and it will be perfectly usable and that is so awesome to me. like theres definitely some optimized builds, but if u wanna make the heavy hitting physical tank guy into a magic dps machine there is nothing stopping u. and he Will kick ass. the gameplay is straight up made for u to do whatever u want with it. the whole world is entirely at ur fingertips. anyway very cute game highly recommend it <3

also worth mentioning are omori, 999, and kh3, but only to some extent bc i technically knew at least Some stuff beforehand for each game but not enough to like. Know. yknow

23 - A "wow" moment of awe

ohhh ive been wanting to talk abt this for a while now thank u for enabling me. in octopath traveler, a Big moment for me was entering the .. spoilery true ending area. ive played a lot of games by now. there are very, very few that have 1. made me genuinely worried about a side character ive met 3 times total n had little more than neutral feelings about and 2. made me feel Actual Dread upon entering an area. the vibe is incredible. first going to a place thats talked about only in tales of a recent tragedy, where there is almost no sound, no life, nothing but burnt, abandoned remains, a save point, and an entrance. and when you actually go inside.. good god. the music is haunting. just the very place is haunting - quite literally!! and the massive lore drops along the way,, man. Man. theres a fuck ton of stuff they just drop on you all at once (some ppl dont like the massive infodump style and im usually the same but i was so fucked up by it i actually absorbed it all lmao), but One Specific Reveal alone was its own wow moment and i havent fully recovered from it. and then the final fucking boss(es)???? hello?????? and the fact that within the eye you can even see (spoiler)........ oughhh. and thats not even mentioning the leadup to it all - the hints are somewhat obvious as you complete each characters ending, but they dont really tie together until you find the diaries. some are more subtle, like the previously mentioned reveal that continues to fuck me up whenever i think about it and i have yet to recover from the whole thing. yes the true endgame is ridiculous and hard as shit and everyone hates doing it. yes its one of the most awe striking moments ive ever felt in a game and i wish i could do it again without the literal suffering that comes with it. no its not even worth it but id do it. yes i am so fucking normal about this game

i also need to mention 999, aitsf, and stella glow here bc holy fuck the three of them deserve it. ive talked abt the first two at some point on their own (the safe ending........ that fucking safe ending!!!!!!!!!!) n i dont have it in me to do a whole thing on stella glow after that ^ so just. trust me on this. ill probably rant abt it at some point its really one hell of a game. oh also ffxv but specifically bc of like the first cutscene where it shows the chocobros getting ready to leave bc that was the first time since id played kh1 and kh2 thatd id seen such pretty looking graphics n characters

[luanna801]

I’m getting mighty curious about this D.N. Angel series you mention in some of your posts! Would you mind telling us a little about it and what makes it worth the read?

Listen, I’m always delighted to have an excuse to ramble about D.N.Angel (I would probably ramble about it far more if I wasn’t worried about annoying people), and delighted to know that my posts got someone interested in the series! So no, I don’t mind at all - I’m absolutely thrilled to get this ask. :-)

Okay, so the first thing you need to know about D.N.Angel and what makes it worth the read is that the main character is an absolute sunshine:

^Meet Daisuke, our protagonist and deserving bearer of my #Actual Most Adorable Human Being Daisuke Niwa tag.

I enjoy morally grey characters, but sometimes it’s just really nice to read a story about someone’s who’s kind, and gentle and good-natured, and cares for others with every fiber of his being. And Daisuke is all of that, and more (he also looks like he literally shines when he smiles, bless). That’s not to say he’s lacking in flaws or moral complexity - you’ll see that right off the bat when I explain a bit more about the premise of the series - but he’s a continuously sweet and lovely person in a way that’s very lovable.

Daisuke’s deal is basically that he’s been trained by his family to be an expert thief from birth but never knew why (and never demanded answers about this because… well, he can be rather too nice for his own good, frankly). It isn’t until his 14th birthday, when the series starts, that he finds out that he comes from a long line of phantom thieves who have the unique magical ability to, under certain circumstances, transform into an entirely different person by the name of Dark:

^This is him. (The series’ title is obviously a reference to him, although he is not technically speaking an angel. But he is a winged magical being so, y’know, close enough.)

So basically this is a Magical Girl series (despite the protagonist being male), with the twist that Dark is a separate person unto himself, as opposed to just being Daisuke’s transformed self. When Daisuke isn’t transformed, he basically exists as a voice inside Daisuke’s head, and vice versa. Naturally Daisuke isn’t too thrilled with this situation at first, so a large part of the early series is the two of them learning to co-exist with each other.

(Co-existence, or lack thereof, is a major theme in the series! But I can’t discuss that much without getting a bit into spoiler territory.)

The transformation is, specifically, triggered by Daisuke (or Dark, when he’s the one in control) having romantic feelings, which leads me to…

… Risa Harada, Daisuke’s crush (at the start of the series, anyway).

Daisuke and Risa are classmates and he’s had a crush on her for a while, but she isn’t interested in him romantically and turns him down when he confesses to her (leading to his initial transformation into Dark). She feels like Daisuke isn’t cool enough to be boyfriend material but unsurprisingly… well, this happens:

(The art from this series gets a lot better as it goes on, I should tell you.)

So yeah, Risa has it bad for Dark pretty much as soon as she lays eyes on him. This starts off as a pretty shallow crush at first - he’s cool and mysterious, while Daisuke seems like your typical Boy Next Door - but as time goes on, she grows up quite a lot and their dynamic gets a lot more depth.

Meanwhile, Daisuke’s been told that the only way he’ll stop tranforming into Dark is if he gets into a successful, requited relationship with someone, but Risa only has eyes for his alter ego. But someone who feels quite differently is:

Riku Harada, Risa’s twin sister.

Riku and Risa are your time-honored trope of identical twins who have completely contrasting personalities. Riku is a down-to-earth tomboy, while Risa is a romantic adventure-seeker. And unsurprisingly, Riku thinks Dark is a lawbreaking jerk, while Risa thinks there’s nothing cooler than a magical bad-boy.

And, on the flipside, while Risa thinks Daisuke is far too average and milquetoast to be a romantic prospect, Riku likes and admires him for the kind and creative person he is.

Despite their differences though, the Harada sisters do have some major similarities - they’re both very outspoken in what they believe in, very stubborn when they make their minds up about something, and very brave. And while they do clash over their differences at times, they also genuinely love and are very loyal to each other.

The Daisuke/Risa/Dark/Riku love quadrangle occupies a fair part of the early arcs, but it largely ends up being resolved a couple of volumes in and the series from there on focuses a lot more on developing the relationships and plots revolving around the various magical shenanigans everyone deals with, which I appreciate.

Most of the D.N.Angel plots revolve around magical artwork, which Dark (and Daisuke) typically try to steal and which often ends up creating a lot of unintended magical havoc, both for the main characters and on a larger scale. Which brings me to this guy:

^This is Satoshi Hiwatari who, cards on the table, is my absolute favorite character in the series and it was therefore vitally important that I talk about him last, as he brings out my tendency to ramble.

Satoshi, like Riku and Risa, is Daisuke’s classmate, and when the series isn’t focusing on the more serious and plot-driven elements, there are often lots of cute scenes of all of them in school, doing regular things like going on field trips or putting on their school play. (Of course, these are also in turn always hijacked by magical shenanigans, because these kids do not lead normal lives.)

So Satoshi comes from a long line of magical artists who make most of the aforementioned magical artwork that Dark and Daisuke are always stealing. Because of this (and other reasons which are more spoiler-y), his family and Daisuke’s are mortal enemies, and they’ve been trying to capture Dark for generations, which is currently Satoshi’s mission.

Oh, and to facilitate this Satoshi is somehow a freakin’ police commander at the age of fourteen, because he’s just that much of a super-genius. This is ridiculous, obviously, but it should be noted he’s usually much more competent than any of the adult police officers, so. *shrugs*

Also, his life is The Worst. You’ll understand more about why when you read the series, but it’s vital to understanding his character that he has basically never known love or kindness in his life and is one of those characters who severely needs hugs at all times (but would probably have trouble accepting them.)

In spite of the fact that they work on opposite sides of the law and have this longstanding feud between their families, though, Satoshi and Daisuke come to form an increasingly close friendship as the series develops, which is really sweet and one of my favorite aspects of the series.

There are also two main villains of the series, but I’m not sure how much to talk about them without giving away spoilers? But suffice it to say that a lot of the overarching plots of the series tend to revolve around them and the different ways that they go about targeting Dark, Daisuke, and other characters in the series. There’s also quite a bit of backstory development regarding Daisuke and Satoshi’s families, the nature of Dark and the other magical beings who exist in that universe, and things like that.

This is far from a complete overview of the series (particularly since I was trying to avoid anything too spoilery), but that should at least give you a solid starting point! Let me know if there’s anything you’d like me to expand on more, and if you do pick up the series, I look forward to hearing your thoughts. :-)