#2. there are already so many games in my backlog that i already own; i wanna get through some of those before buying more

[chrismcshell]

last night i watched someone play through the first couple hours of hi-fi rush again, and this might have been a bad idea because now i am once again HAUNTED by how good this game looks and how good its soundtrack is and how much i want to play it. help

[sparatus]

choose violence ask game:

2, 16, and 19

choose violence🔥

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

blah blah blah top/bottom is reductive and real people don't fit into such strict yadda yadda rehash of ye olde seme/uke discourse from the naughts anime fandom. anyway saren is a bottom who pretends to be a top for his own sanity because he's already so small and fragile he's regularly mistaken for a child and his friends are feral fucking animals. he's the ringleader of the trio he has to maintain dominance somehow. unfortunately for him both of his fellow coyotes love scrapping for dominance and both of them discover he's really into getting knocked down and made to beg and he's never allowed to live it down ever

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

why do you all want to put garrus and/or shepard in the council seats. or primarch garrus along the same lines. putting any of the squadmates in high authority actually. none of them is suited to politics and the vast majority of them directly state "i hate politics i do not want to be in charge i want to go home and retire and not be bothered for 50 years" especially garrus since i specified him. yeah ik putting shepard there is usually a "lol fuck the council imma wreck shit" thing because for a fandom of mostly 25+yos everyone here is incredibly childish but there also is just a lot of people who seem to genuinely think garrus/shepard/tali/kaidan/etc are the actual best choice for being in charge. none of you know anything about civics and that is why your xenopolitics takes are all completely rancid prelude to war speedruns

19. you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

i have no shame i like what i like, this is already niche central already fuck it no gods no masters.

if i MUST say something. i suppose given [gestures vaguely to entire internet presence] there's probably something to be said for how i also enjoy dabbling in aus or simply "yeah teia's chill with sharing as long as she's still top dog" screwing around with pairing sparky with other characters, specifically his fellow old turians in authority. sparatus/quentius is a perennial favorite and is sneaking its way into a spirian + quentilea (ierian/teia + quentius/nautilea) platonic polypile with benefits all 4 of them just because i love sparky and quenty's dynamic with each other as boss and dragon flipping to besties outside work. sparatus/corinthus i also sometimes entertain. and ofc sparatus/desolas which i still have an ask for somewhere in the hellscape of my unanswered ask backlog and lives rent-free in my head. i just think sparky has potential to have some fun and interesting dynamics with a lot of his fellow Old Turians In Authority it's not a crime to have a canon/oc ship but also dabble on the side

[lamonnaie]

thanks for the tag @sollucets i loved reading ur answers !!! 🫶🫶 i've been a little ia lately + busy with irl things but i'm slowly trying to work through the backlog of tag games 😅

1. why did you choose your url?

it's from the french words "la monnaie," which basically means small change. i found the word amusing when i first learnt it a while ago and i've been using it as a username practically everywhere ever since :]

2. any sideblogs? name them and why you have them

technically no? i set up the ao3 feed for the dangerous romance tag on a sideblog pretty much just for my own convenience, but that doesn't rlly count lol

3. how long have you been on tumblr?

i've been lurking on tumblr since ~2015, when you could actually use the website pretty functionally even without an account, but i only made this account in 2020.

4. do you have a queue tag?

i do! it's just "q" (although it's empty right now because i haven't been on much 😩😩)

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

i finally made a tumblr account after 5 yrs of lurking because of this one niche movie that had somewhat of a fandom on here and i wanted to interact lol

6. why did you choose your icon?

because fairy lights !! they're pretty :))

(i use this icon everywhere as well as my url, i think i've only ever changed it once on here)

7. why did you choose your header?

i had to go back and check my blog because i genuinely didn't remember what my header was 😭😭 but it's just a cute gif off of google that i picked coz i liked it :)

8. what’s your post with the most notes?

apparently this post about akkayan and raysand??? guess that answers the shitposts question as well LMAO

9. how many mutuals do you have?

quite a few !! is there any way of actually finding out the number? i have no clue, but if someone follows me i tend to check out their blog and if we have similar interests i'll follow back :] that being said, probably around 30-ish who i've actually interacted with beyond mutual liking and rbing hehe

10. how many followers do you have?

382!

11. how many people do you follow?

486 - definitely need to do a clean out tho because i follow a lot of random blogs from interests long gone by

12. have you ever made a shitpost?

yes lol

13. how often do you use tumblr each day?

it depends honestly, sometimes several times a day for several hours (😭), other times i'll go a day or two without opening it <//3

14. have you had a fight/argument with another blog?

nah, if i don't agree with something i'll just unfollow and/or block

15. how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ posts?

very unnecessary, i get that there's good intention behind it but it's honestly just annoying to see and will actively make me not reblog it 😭 (or at the very least i'll go back and rb a version without the addition)

16. do you like tag games?

HELL YEAH, i love yapping about things 🥰🥰

17. do you like ask games?

yesss they're so much fun !!!! (that being said, my askbox is so wonky that it never saves my posts as i'm writing and then it'll randomly crash and i just the ask altogether????)

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

hmm i have no concept of tumblr famousness but just looking through my moots there's quite a few who i feel are pretty well known???

that being said, gonna give a shoutout to dee @distant-screaming who is the most famous person ever to me because i love love love their fics so much 😭😭😭 like have i ever fully watched nlmg? nope. do i still constantly go back and read her palmnueng fics? absolutely.

19. do you have a crush on a mutual?

no i wouldn't say so :) i admire a lot of people on here and i love all my mutuals <33 (but in a platonic way hehe)

20. tags?

i feel like people have done this already (so no pressure + pls tag me in ur post if u've already done it !!) but tagging @dramalets @distant-screaming @winnysatang @hellswolfie @blackstar-gazer <33

[silvercatto]

Weekly Journal - June 8th, 2024

I know it's very early in the morning (at least for me), but I'd like to write out this journal real quick.

Only five days into FixTF2. We've seen to gain quite a lot more traction now, several news outlets were making headlines, popular YouTubers were making their own videos about it, and we even have the official TF2 voice actors supporting the movement as well! At least two of them, I'm unsure about the others yet.

You know, I may have overthought me boycotting Steam as a whole, I feel like it's not going to be effective in the long run until many others are willing to do it with me. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm still not buying anything from their store, I haven't bought anything from there in a month besides to gift one of my Steam friends Half-Life 2 Deathmatch. But otherwise, I'm not buying anything from Steam until the designated date shown in a previous weekly journal. Hell, I even started buying from GOG.com a few weeks back, though I had to go through some hell to get the payment to work. And itch.io is also a good place to find some games, too.

What I'm saying is that I will probably go back to using Steam online again, and get back into Source mapmaking since I kind of miss it. I'm still thinking a bit hard about supporting Valve, as they made some beloved games, but with older Valve games, I think it's safe to say they're not as supported as their newer titles, as hard of a pill that is to swallow. Half-Life 2's 20th anniversary is coming up in the next few months, and I actually planned on making a map-pack to celebrate the occasion. However, due to the circumstances, I don't have enough time, and I tend to worry about putting in as much effort into my work as I can before publishing it, compared to most others I probably know.

Chances are, I may just make one single map for the celebration, but I'm going to try to make it a big one. However, my backlog is already as big as it is, so I'll have to think of something. But enough fluff, let's go ahead and say that I'm thinking of using Steam again, but just for Source mapmaking and testing, as well as uploading to the Workshop as per usual. But I need your opinion(s). The FixTF2 movement is going VERY hard, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down. That doesn't mean, I won't keep supporting it, in fact I'm still doing my best to keep the flame going.

So, to sum things up, I want to get back into Source mapmaking, as I've been aching to do it for quite some time, but I need your input. The questionnaire will be linked at the very end of this journal, and you're free to fill it out as you wish. In the meantime, I've made another one of those flyers for the FixTF2 movement, so I thought I'd show it to you guys as well.

This has been Week 3 of the Silvercatto Weekly Journal. Enjoy the rest of your day, and remember to keep the flame going. Toodle-oo!

[archivebottles]

hi hi!!! I'm absolutely insane about your art lolz

what kind of stuff goes into your art? I'd love to get some insight on your style bc I'm definitely so normal about it hahaha.

anyways have a nice day!!! :3

hmm good question! i do actually put a lot of thought into my art (although sometimes it doesnt feel like it when im drawing it lol)

i dont have a fancy tutorial or infographic for my inspirations but for me though a lot of my inspiration is just 'what i think looks nice' i saw thicker lines and i thought 'oh i like that on my art i dont think i like using thin ones' or 'oh textured brushes feel much more fun to use!' ive been drawing for a long time and esp recently ive been taking a lot more time to test out new things and also i have been drawing digitally for a LONG time and that time has helped me figured out my art style

although it appears no matter how different i think im making my art looks people seem to know my style in some spaces ha ha

honestly my biggest think i look at many different things for inspiration. Mediums have all sort of genres in them! books! music! games! movies! other peoples art/art history! dont be afraid to mash things together. think fantasy could have something more? make it from a creatures perspective because you loved to read warrior cats as a kid. i really like character design! and concept art i remember looking at the concept art for metroid prime 2 echoes and being so amazed as a kid and because i like thinking about concepts and 'building on an idea' i like to make redesigns of my fav characters (and also i have ocs of my own ofc lol)

for me it was one thing to build a character from the ground up(i never liked taking an existing character and making them my oc by tweaking some stuff) and its another to say 'hm how i can i add something i like to this design that already exists on its own?' (which i think is such a fun exercise)

as for how i come up with designs that where it gets a little complicated. i sort of got into the habit of doing these designs bc i was reluctant to look up refs so i liked to guess to fill in the cracks. this isnt exactly ideal and i dont do this to so much of a degree now but having a hug backlog of inspirations sets me up for a launchpad on where to look for something i think fits that character (color, setting, style, etc)

unfortunately i do not have a list of famous artists i take inspiration from i played gacha games during my college art history (sorry) but i do like the use of horror vacui in art! its the fear of open spaces so its a lot of patterns and designs all cramped together its my fav thing but im also trying to force myself to leave more spaces open lol

uh this post is long as hell i can be more specific if you need me to the tldr is 90% of my art decisions are 'i think it looks nice :)'

[transgirl-gaming-thoughts]

My Thoughts On: Rhythm Heaven DS

Hi there! It's Alex! I recently (ok, like a month ago) finished Rhythm Heaven for the Nintendo DS, or more specifically I played the Japanese release, Rhythm Tengoku Gold. I absolutely adored the first game on the Gameboy Advance, so I was really optimistic going into the second entry of the series! Did it pay off? Eh...

Keep in mind that all my thoughts should be taken with a grain of salt, as I am not an objective game analysis expert or reviewer, I'm simply sharing my personal thoughts.

I've never leaned much into the whole "Nintendo gimmick controls", like the Wiimote or the DS touchscreen. Some games make good use of the touchscreen like Cave Story on the 3DS eShop allowing for more seamless inventory selection, but mostly I view these things as novelties that could be done without. I play Skyward Sword on the Switch so that I can use button controls instead of motion, for example. So when I saw that RHDS was controlled 100% using the touchscreen, I wasn't thrilled. BUT, I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and start my journey!

The first few games are alright, with a new take on Built to Scale from the GBA entry, and some more neat rhythm games, but right after Remix 1 we reach my first symptom of carpal tunnel: Ping Pong. The Ping Pong game in RHDS is easily one of my least favorite rhythm games in the series so far, and that's counting the rest of this game! It was my first taste of the mixed bag that is Rhythm Heaven DS. Con: The rhythm games aren't as consistent as the first one. While I pretty consistently enjoyed the games in the GBA game, the DS entry constantly had me on highs and in lows. Some games I loved, like DJ School, and some I abhorred like Ping Pong and Moai Doo-Wop.

Reaching Remix 6, I was worried as to how I might fare in the second half of the game. I already knew there were 10 levels in all, so I- wait, are those the credits? Yep, after Remix 6, the staff credits roll, and then the last 4 levels are added, making them technically post-game content? That felt odd to me and totally threw off my rhythm of progress. Looking at my backlog and seeing that it was already beat made it hard to continue for a little bit. I finally did come back to it and... well...

Con: The last 4 levels are pretty mid. Most of the games in levels 7-10 are just new harder versions of previous games, and the remixes most of the time use games that weren't even in that level so you have no fair clue as to what may be thrown at you. It sort of feels like this was a "Rhythm Heaven Expert Mode" which was an unpleasant punch to the throat. I love Rhythm Heaven because I feel like it makes rhythm games accessible to people who aren't really any good at them (i.e. me), so to have a slew of games of this manor wasn't exactly fun for me, but I can see why people might like it.

Now, I have to say, Remix 10? Easily made the whole game worth it! Pro: Remix 10 is a bop. Remix 10 incorporates every game up to that point, and strings them all together in a perfect song that ties together the leitmotif of the game present in so many of the songs! Remix 10 made the rough journey worth it for me, and that's saying a lot considering how many things I disliked about this one.

One last Pro: It has one of the best soundtracks ever! Particularly I love Fan Club, The Dazzles, and Karate Man 1 and 2. Fantastic music, even among Rhythm Heaven games! I was blown away!

In the end, despite everything, I still enjoyed Rhythm Heaven DS. It's not a favorite of all time, it's not even a favorite among the series, but it's still a lovely game with an identity of its own. If i had to rate it, I'd give it maybe a 4/5 stars to be fair, but it's far from perfect. Still, I look forward to sticking with the series, as Rhythm Heaven Fever on Wii is next! Be sure to ask questions and suggest new post ideas in my ask box! Stay safe, stay hydrated, and God bless! Happy gaming to ya!

~ Alex

[aethernightmare]

Weekly schedule for September 2024.

Wednesday → Honkai Star Rail.

Thursday → Zenless Zone Zero.

Friday → Final Fantasy 14: Heavensward.

Saturday → Genshin Impact.

Sunday → Dot Hack 2: Mutation.

I really wanted to get started on some mainline Final Fantasy games, but it's been too hot this summer and my schedule has been too packed with IRL work to expand any further than this (I'm struggling to keep up already). So it may have to be after .Hack// finishes.

My PC has also started having some noise issues (fans? AIO cooler? hard drive?), that I've still yet to fully diagnose, and could end up being outrageously expensive to fix depending on the source. So that plays a part in my delay as well.

So far Heavensward has had a ton of FF12: Revenant Wing references, and I feel bad not being able to give viewers the same context that I have. Supposedly there's going to be a fair bit of FF6 references as well, and I'd like to replay that for my own context eventually.

But there's only so many hours in a day, so I guess I'll just do what I can. It's not like I'm a professional streamer by any means. And sometimes I think I need reminded that I shouldn't push myself so much. As I don't exactly get the viewership justified for pushing myself or my equipment to their limits. And I'm not actually that entertaining, as I mainly only stream to justify my "wasting" time on my days off, and to force myself through the backlog (again, to not feel guilty).

I'm going more casual with some of the liveservice games as well. I'm not keeping up with Zenless' timed events at all atm, and only do story-based stuff in Genshin anymore mostly. I'm just too burned out otherwise, and have so many other games I want to get to.

This could also mean I might skip updates of some games during some weeks. I'll still try to stick to the schedule, but there might be some times where I just randomly, with no explanation, skip an episode that week.

It could also just be the seasonal depression, but my brain has been going through the "why bother?" motions again. I know growing an audience takes time, but in the current internet climate, I don't even know if I want one. As that degree of attention comes with a lot of negativity. But it's also not worth doing all this entirely for myself either, when I'm trying to get even minimally monetized as a partner. So I'm torn on my feelings.

I also make so much hype about stuff I want to work on in the moment (like right now), but six-sixteen months later when I can actually get to it, my feelings are often totally different. Or I end up not having the time I wanted to devote due to other factors (PC scuff, outdated equipment, terrible neighbor drama, family issues, health stuff, extra work loads, dead internet becoming more real by the day, really nasty attack campaigns online towards people similar to myself, etc.).

Idk, sometimes I'm just tired and want to take a hibernation nap for like a year so I can wake up to all this stuff having gone away. But it never seems to stop.

Sometimes I think streaming would be more fun if it was something I did for a rare game here or there once a month, but I also know then I'd be streaming to no one. And the few IRL friends I used to stream to/with aren't a part of my life anymore. (Not that they even really participated back then, they just lied and said they would one day).

Basically I'm only on this road because it's what's familiar at this point, and I don't want to deviate into the woods with nothing else going for me and no other plans. Since I don't have any other clear life paths atm. I'm kind of just going with the flow unless another road appears out of the fog.

Heck, the internet / social media could be dead in the next few years and that'll make the decision for me. Who knows.

Idk, I'm just really tired. Sorry for rambling under the schedule.

[leicamoments]

Semi-Final Woe for Railway

Harrogate Railway Ladies 1-5 Leeds Modernians Ladies

Bank holiday weekend and instead of loads of games scheduled, there actually seemed to be relatively few on. What a shame given that many teams have a backlog of fixtures to catch up on, and the weather was fantastic.

Looking at what was scheduled to be played, there was only one real option for me…a trip to Station View to cover Harrogate Railway Ladies First team.

Now, I will be totally honest…I cast an eye at the FA website fixtures, then the table and misread what the fixture was. I thought that this was Railway’s last league game and next week was the League Cup semi-final.

Not my finest moment.

Anyway, I arrived at the ground about 45 minutes before kick-off and made my way to the dugouts…the camera case has been there so many times over the last decade, it could probably wheel itself there on its own.

Railway had beaten Knaresborough Town Women in the quarter final on a day that could be described as being the antithesis to the glorious weather for the Semi-final.

Harrogate’s opponents in the Semi-final were Leeds Modernians Ladies, a team with a formidable record this season. Leeds Mods sit at the top of the West Riding County Women’s Football League Premier Division, having already secured promotion and the league title.

With a game left in the league, Leeds have won 16 games and drawn only one; Railway have played them three times already this season, losing all three fixtures. This was going to be a formidable challenge for them.

Harrogate Railway have had an excellent season themselves, sitting fourth in the Premier Division and having had good runs in both cups.

The visitors started well, actually very well, enjoying both territorial advantage and the lions-share of possession. Railway tried to disrupt Leeds Mods play but struggled to get up the pitch and put any real sustained pressure on their opponent’s goal.

The first real chance to open the scoring fell to Leeds Mods as a shot was spilled by Railway’s keeper and the striker could only hit the outside of the post as the goal gaped wide open. 

It only took around eight minutes for the visitors to actually open the scoring with a long ball played through the Railway defence and a calm finish, 0-1.

With about 15 minutes of the half remaining, Harrogate Railway were clawing themselves into the game, winning more possession and various battles all over the pitch; but it was Leeds who got their second with around five minutes of the half remaining, 0-2.

Half time and Harrogate Railway needed to regroup. Two goals down, Railway had a mountain to climb, but were still up for the fight.

The second half got underway, and Harrogate were pushing further forward, gaining more possession, and working hard to get back into the game.

Unfortunately for Railway, a move in the fifth minute of the second half down Leeds Mods left by the visitors saw a shot placed across the goal and just inside the post to make it 0-3.

Leeds were enjoying themselves now, knowing that they had probably won the game already, playing some nice passing football, with their number 18 in particular impressing up front.

It took until around the 85th minute for Leeds to get their next to make it 0-4, rapidly followed a couple of minutes later by their final goal of the game, 0-5.

Harrogate Railway could have been forgiven for giving up at that point, but they continued to battle and in the closing minutes of the game won a corner on their right.

Lou Donnelly fired in a wonderful cross and Paige Swales got on the end of it to fire it through a crowd of players and past the Mods’ keeper to make it 1-5. The goal was richly deserved given the work rate the team had put in throughout the half.

The final whistle went, and Leeds Modernians Ladies progress to the League Cup final, and deservedly so given the excellent play they had shown throughout the 90 minutes.

Railway probably didn’t deserve to lose by as much as 5-1, they had some excellent spells in the game and showed more of their usual character in the second half; but ultimately, they were beaten by a team that were more clinical in front of goal.

Railway return to league action next week for their final game in the 2023/24 Premier League season, entertaining Bradford Park Avenue at Station View at 2pm on Sunday 12th May.

Leeds Modernian Ladies scorers – Leah Garbutt, Tanya Fozzard, and a hattrick by Lauren Tate.

Good luck to Leeds Mods in the final!

[bainhardt]

Marchcember 2024 SPRING do - Part 2

I suppose it's fortunate this isn't a proper December To-Do, because next game off the list isn't even really backlog, although it is a similar enough scenario to Mega Serval which also got a post... We'll just say this one's more of a "March Playing a Video Game." I bought Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen earlier this month on sale and even finished it in time for this name scheme to still make sense! With my track record, it's practically a miracle this was done with such fast turnaround.

I had my feelings on the game already figured out during my playthrough at about exactly "half-fun." If I didnt like anything about it I wouldn't have bothered finishing, as should be pretty obvious. But there was no shortage of griping along the way. I'm already reminded of a couple other games, saying that...

I absolutely hated traveling. Dunno exactly why but the stamina running out on me all the time made it not fun in the least to explore. It was doubly cruel for the game to give infinite stamina inside Gran Soren, suggesting they did realize that idea had merit. Why not only have limited stamina during combat? The thought had me desperate for Elden Ring's design. At the same time, blaming this whole issue on stamina alone would feel wrong when I know I enjoyed similar games like Skyrim in their day.

I guess to hit on all my scattered thoughts on the subject - movement reminded me of Legends Arceus; the control didn't feel properly snappy and responsive and "fun." Clunky is the descriptor here. Also, the swarms of enemies in the wilderness are entirely pointless. This is maybe the only action game I remember playing that had random encounters. There wasn't much in the way of exp or loot to be gained from fighting my five-hundredth wolf or bandit, and it certainly wasn't fun to do for its own sake, so I employed the age-old technique from RPGs: I ran the fuck away constantly. And finally, the lack of any kind of quick travel was initially a huge turn-off for me, but as I progressed and discovered the portcrystals, I can give them, again, about half credit for this one. I think giving the player a limited number of warp points is a fairly unique compromise... but I would really prefer the warps themself be infinite. I can say with confidence that without the Dark Arisen infinite ferrystone, I wouldn't have played this one for very long.

As for the other side of our basic foundation mechanics, combat gets a "fine" from me. The third-person action approach is cool, but I feel it may have ended up a little too simple. This part reminded me, strangely, of Tactics Ogre (not a good sign); I never once felt like I had to change or reevaluate anything I was doing for the entire game. I learned three Thief skills right at the beginning and mashing the same buttons over and over always worked, so I had no reason to broaden my horizons. Trip enemy with rope, hit enemy with flurry attack. Dunno if that's typical because I haven't played many games like this. And I can imagine what you're thinking: you're supposed to branch out because you want to experience the other possibilities! ...Well, I think it's important to say I didn't really find combat so fun that I wanted to do it any more than necessary, or as said earlier, for its own sake.

Which establishes the main idea here: if the core gameplay loops the game spends most of its time asking you do to are not particularly fun for you, playing it can feel more like a chore. The proportion is so important, too. How much do you like and how much do you wish you could skip? It feels so stupid to talk about it like it's not obvious, but I think it's a huge underlying element of the games that lose me somewhere or other. I just want it to be all good.

So I'll take that as the turning point to talk about stuff that was good! I really love the Arisen/Pawn system of the game, both mechanically and narratively. It made for a fascinating world setting. I initially wanted to know the story because of this, though I don't know for sure I got all of it because I was averse to doing anything other than what was strictly necessary (sorry). The Pawn AI was also fairly reliable. They didn't always do what I'd hope, but they never did anything I actively preferred they wouldn't, either. As I've mentioned, I haven't played other games like Dragon Age or whatever, but this feels like it might be the ideal version of your pseudo-D&D RPG experience in a game. You get all the fun of a full party while only needing to fuss over two of the members' finer details. Actually, to that point, I think I would have enjoyed more details to fuss over. Getting to decide more out-of-combat things my Pawn and I should be good and bad at would make outfitting the party even more fun.

Another plus - one of my own making - is that my characters never stopped making me laugh when they were on screen. This game let me create any character I wanted and I was so unsure of what to do I ended up a hulking, dykey Bart Simpson in a Princess Zelda cosplay. But the true star of the show was Tom Scott, who served as my rock and guide throughout Gransys. I don't know what I'd have done without him.

Quest and dungeon design seemed pretty good overall. While perhaps not many, all of the quests I remember felt unique and had me tracking down more interesting objectives than your usual slay monsters X times bullshit (while also cleverly including that through the bulletins). But it warrants repeating that I avoided even considering certain quests because I knew they'd require I carve halfway across the map through mobs of dull enemies feeling no sense of reward or satisfaction, only to do one cool dungeon and then immediately turn around and drudge my way back. Where I did journey, that ferrystone was always pulling a lot of weight.

And to make an important distinction here about the combat: boss fights were great. I enjoyed every boss that I recall - even when these encounters occasionally slowed down to a bit of a slog, I still preferred their far grander-scale slog to trash mobs at their best. Bespoke monster fights should've been like, the only fights in the game... or maybe that would've crossed too far into Capcom's Monster Hunter (though it's still nice for it all to be building towards a conclusion). But yeah, climbing on guys was fun, learning their moves and options, having your Pawns caught in the crossfire and calling out advice and stuff. Loved all that. This is where the game's systems actually engage the player on a proper level. I was chuggin' through items, reading about the myriad status effects I was suffering, smacking my forehead as That Same Pawn went down for the umpteenth time at the least opportune moment. To return to my point about proportions from before, boss fights felt like the only reward the rest of the drudgery in the game kept me wanting after, and they're easily the best memories from it. I specifically chose to fight the dragon at the end because I wanted to beat ass one last time! Polish up the combat a little and give me further ways to customize my characters around unique challenges and threats posed by these monsters, and I'd be begging for more.

Damn this got longer than I intended. To conclude, I'm glad that I got this game done and relatively quickly, but I am definitely not begging for more. I didn't even buy it because I wanted to play DD2... I just thought the Monster Factory episode was funny.

[felassan]

Jon Renish (Foundation Technical Director @ BioWare, working on DA4) recently did a Twitch stream where he played through some DAO. Although he works on DA, this is his first time playing through DAO. He’s playing through it looking at random details from a dev perspective as he’s currently working on DA4 and therefore wants to know more about the previous games.

On the stream he mentioned some tidbits on the development of DA4. There were also some insights and anecdotes about the development of DAO and similar. It’s a 3 hour stream so I collected them here in case that’s of use to anyone (for example not everyone can watch streams which don’t have subtitles/captions). The stream is a fun/interesting watch though, so if you’re curious or able to watch I recc doing so. 😊 The rest of this post is under a cut for length.

Please note that there’s some paraphrasing on my part, this is not a transcript.  There are also some additions from another dev who featured on the stream to give some commentary. The stream also contains more snippets that at times I couldn’t make out (I tried my best!).

(There is a mention of Cullen’s VA in the text below.)

DA4

Jon said he can talk about things about DA4 that aren’t “consumer-facing”, but he can’t say anything about the game that would be consumer-facing but which isn’t already publicly available. There are several reasons for this. One, that’s not his job, there are people whose job this is and they let each other do their respective roles. Two, BW are a publicly-traded company, so if he said something that could affect that that would be insider trading. Three, they’re not done making DA4 yet, so if he said that they have added [x] to the game and people got all excited about that or pre-ordered on that basis, but [x] ended up being cut, people would be like ‘BioWare lied to us’, when it’s just that things changed during the course of development, as is often the case

He’s glad that fans are excited for the game but notes that fan expectations are always double-edged. It can be really tough as some people started ‘playing’ the game in their heads as soon as they heard of it. That’s fine, he loves that, but he hopes that peoples’ expectations don’t turn into requirements. Clearly BW have alluded to certain characters, like Solas, being in the game, but some fans say things like “If [say] Morrigan isn’t in the game, then, rahhh!” Y’know, there’s a lot of talk about how certain characters have to be in the game, and yeah.

On characters which are quantum (i.e. characters which can die or which can have similar end-states as death in previous games): their being quantum makes it really hard for the devs to work with those characters in subsequent games. The devs naturally aren’t going to put as much effort into characters which could have died previously. A character can have had an amazing appearance throughout/role in a previous game, but if there is a risk of something happening to them and of them being removed [effectively] from the plot, it just doesn’t make sense to have them as a major character in a subsequent game. If a character can, say, sacrifice themselves in some glorious ending, the devs have to make sure that if they use them again, in worldstates where the character didn’t do that, the character is kind of ‘muted’, as the devs don’t want to disrespect the players who made a different choice

A comment in chat expressed a wish for Shale in DA4. Jon’s response is that he has no idea on that front

Bugs don’t come out of crunch, they come out of development in general. Crunch does impact on the quality of a game though. In recent years BW are always really trying to reduce crunch, they’re currently working really hard to bring it down. The best way of doing that is by controlling scope. As creatives it’s tough to balance wanting to make great stuff and be industry-leading with the desire to constantly do extra passes over things they’ve created like the audio, art etc. Their biggest enemy is time, other ways of reducing crunch or time spent in general include iterating tools to make often-repeated processes as time-efficient as possible

I think the following was an observation on the industry in general as opposed to a BW-specific/-exclusive comment: he thinks that as a result of this sort of thing [working to reduce crunch], a lot of games are going to have to be smaller and a lot more focused in scope i.e. the devs will have to focus on hitting the key selling points of that particular game/series as hard as they can, and cut down on branching out sideways/wide on a bunch of random other stuff

Jon doesn’t personally engage in character creators in games, but he knows that for some players that expression is worth a lot of time and focus. BW want to be industry-leading in this kind of stuff as it’s something which is interesting/key/integral to their games

In a way BW have made their own nest of problems what with every DA game being so different to the previous one. Still, he notes that each game has a staunch fanbase that says that their particular favorite game is the best one in the series

He doesn’t want people who think that DA4 isn’t what they want to buy it and be upset - there are so many other great games out there! BW are going to make the game they’re going to make - if some people like it, that’s great, and if some people don’t, that’s cool. Sometimes waiting until reviews are out and/or really seeing beforehand if a game is something that you want [has things/features in it that you want] prior to getting it - as opposed to jumping right in or pre-ordering - is a good idea. Fans don’t always know what they want, but they do know what they like - these are 2 different things

He hopes that whatever they ship for DA4, people go “I enjoyed this experience”, and that then, if there’s additional content for it down the road, people can decide, “do I want this further content?”

On hair: BW are using the new hair technology in the latest version of the Frostbite engine, so they’ll see what they can do! This was said in response to a comment about the hair in the latest FIFA games (as EA make FIFA)

A comment in chat asked about a flying mechanic (griffons). Jon’s response is that flying is such a heavy gameplay mechanic that you can’t put it in a game without everything in the game being built about it (see Anthem)

Relating to the above comment, in DA4 mounted combat would be cool but then they’d have to make the game ‘around’ mounted combat and make the mounted combat feature meaningful

On the underwater concept art: it should not be interpreted as a promise of gameplay. BW have amazing artists who sit down for a couple weeks while they’re in early production and just draw loads and loads of all kinds of stuff. Concept art is like a moodboard or Pinterest board. Elsewhere in the stream he advised, take all the concept art together like a mosaic and ask, ‘what is the overall theme[s] here?’, and to zoom out from individual details. [This stuff echoes PW’s word on concept art]

BW don’t generally write things or the choices as bleak as the choices in DAO were anymore. This is a conscious choice on their part, they want their game to be fun [note: this was said when the side quest in Orzammar where the Warden has the option of convincing a dwarven mother to abandon her young baby to die was being played through. It seems to refer to intensively grimdark choices/beats of this kind]

I think this was more of a general comment on games: SSDs (solid state drives) mean that players will see shorter elevator rides (Mass Effect - was this a reference to the remaster?) and fewer switchback corridors (those are actually loading zones). Generally, these are going to change mechanically the time it takes to do stuff in games

The devs have lots of features on their backlog that they’d like to offer players but each will ofc involve implementation and subsequent maintenance, and each one that is chosen to add is being chosen over something else. And sometimes, it’s hard for them to tell if [x] feature or [y] feature would be better to add to the game

They’re about to work on a giant feature (a pure tooling feature, something that isn’t consumer-facing) that is probably going to take ~2 staff years of effort [I think “staff effort” includes multiple staff working concurrently, so 2 years of staff effort doesn’t = 2 years of time chronologically] to get done in the next few months. They’re investing all this effort across the people working on it because they don’t want their artists and designers etc to have to deal with the problem that it’s going to solve anymore. I’m not sure what this feature is but elsewhere in the stream they referred to tooling and automation and gave the example of, the better your tooling is, the fewer times you have to manually set the camera for a human vs elf vs dwarf position, for dynamically-generated [cinematic?] content and for the first pass to be automated (if this is the case, less time is spent/wasted on redoing it and manually touching it up) [see last bullet point in this section]

He doesn’t know how big DA4 is going to be but said “let’s ballpark and say like most games it’ll be somewhere between 70 and 100 GB”

If we kept our Wardens as the PC throughout all 3 games, at the end they would be so powerful that it’d be a bit like “Let’s just do [thing], I’ve killed gods before, whatever”. He thinks it’s good that they have fresh characters each time in DA in order to reset that power level. Some people want more Commander Shepard in the next Mass Effect and he feels like, ‘what else could you possibly want / what else could that character possibly do after 3 games?’

When asked how much freedom he/they have now to focus on next gen, he said that there’s actually almost no difference on that front. The problems never change. They now have better renderers, better ray-tracing, better graphics cards etc, but they have always made DA games for high- and low-spec PCs, so it’s actually about gameplay systems. The freedom isn’t power-based and them getting access to more cores and more RAM generally isn’t going to change how the games are played. The games still have to be made for hard drives on PC. Dev creativity matters more than power here. The challenge of building a BW game is more about/from managing loads of different plotstates, loads of different art pieces, etc

On the title situation (two): names are the last thing they worry about because names have to go through legal before being approved. Every name, including character names, has to be checked in case it’s a famous person, or associated with something bad, or offensive in a different language due to localization etc

They don’t do face scans of people with big beards

There was also a bit about changes/developments to/in the cinematic design process and associated tooling [?] but I found it too hard to follow sorry >< This bit of commentary begins at timestamp ~ 1:52:45 and continues til ~ 2:00:05 [keep listening through the bit where they pause for a cutscene]

General BW

There’s currently ~350 staff in Edmonton, ~200 in Austin and more elsewhere

He notes that DA games sell pretty well, but relative to EA games in general, they’re a drop in the bucket compared to FIFA

DAI

5% of players of DAI never created a character [Q: does this refer to people who just used the default appearances/presets with no editing, or people who only played multiplayer?]

The mounts don’t actually go faster than running, this is an illusion

I think they said it has 55,000 lines of dialogue. [I’m pretty sure I remember devs elsewhere saying it has 80,000 lines of dialogue]

One of the companions had to have their name changed during development because of legal/translation reasons. It sounds like the original name sounded too close to something offensive

DA2

Back when DA2 was internally code-named “Nug Storm”: this was at the beginning when it was pitched to the team on a set of slides. The image on the slide for that pitch had devil horns, a metal hand and no flesh, it was just made out of fire and flames

DAO

The engine DAO is made on is the third engine that they tried for it during development. [David Gaider has gone into the DAO engine stuff some on Summerfall’s series of DAO playthrough streams]

The cracks on the cracked eluvian asset are modelled after the crack on the Tardis in Doctor Who from around that time, as at the time some devs had been talking about Doctor Who a lot. A dev actually added this factoid to DAO’s entry on TV Tropes but someone else (evidently not a DA dev) came by and deleted it saying that it was too much of a stretch x)

Before the game had its name there was an HTML script that randomly generated possible titles for consideration, it adds verbs and nouns together e.g. “Grim Dark”. One of the craziest possibilities that it once generated that the devs always remember is "Bone Wind”

One of the portraits that’s used for decoration around the world in-game (it’s of a bearded human man) is actually of a specific BW staff member

He played through Stone Prisoner, where Wilhelm’s son Matthias gives exposition in the cellar. Matthias is voiced by GE and this had been pointed out to Jon earlier on. Jon: “I don’t think that character’s voice acting was super strong there”

On the in-game area towards the end of Stone Prisoner: Outdoor areas in games are large and one of the things needed for them is streaming, so different chunks can be ‘streamed in’. There’s a tower [?], and technically the top of the tower was made an outdoor level so that sky stuff could be there, though it didn’t really need to be. The person that made it an outdoor level chose the very smallest chunk size for the terrain mesh, which determines how fine of a streaming they do. So when playing, every time you moved like 4 meters, the game would stream out 50-100 chunks behind you and the same in front of you (this is the bubble around the player of what actually exists). Because it was so small, it was constantly thrashing the CPU and disc to do all the loading. The devs were like “this isn’t going to work”, but they barely had any time. The solution: they made a new level that was outdoor and copied all the sunlight and other settings, but with the largest chunk size. They copy-pasted the entire level from one to the other. The problem with that many chunks then is that there was a giant expanse of flat terrain sticking out of the middle of the tower. They didn’t know if the story was going to involve shots of the outside of the tower for this sequence or not, so they took the terrain deformation tool and bundled all the terrain vertices at the bottom of the tower in a giant clump. So to this day there’s a mess of vertices and twisted terrain at the bottom of the final level that probably no-one has ever seen [not sure though if this anecdote is in reference to a place in that DLC or somewhere elsewhere in the game?]

There were also some tidbits on Anthem, however I didn’t note them down (sorry).

If you think I misheard or misunderstood anything from this stream please let me know and I will edit/fix it. :) 

(Thankyou to some of my friends who explained a tech detail from this to me.)

[source]  <-- current rewatch link

[maryse127]

Now that I am out of class (and over the initial shock of Nintendo UK's stupidity) let's get to an old fashioned round of Direct predictions/hopes!

Xenoblade 3 dlc. I bought the expansion pass before launch and I would like to know what I bought (yes I am crazy and Monolith Soft owns my sorry little ass)

A new mainline Fire Emblem game. It's been 3 years! Give me Fire Emblem! I know I have 2 routes left in Three Hopes and one in Three Houses but please give me a new Fire Emblem or a remake of an old one

Botw 2. No explanation necessary. At least give an update. I do not expect a release date. A title would be nice tho. Gives us anything. Please.

Twilight Princess and Wind Waker were rumored again. They have been for years but honestly with botw 2 delayed to next year we dont have anything Zelda this year. So it would make sense Nintendo drops some remake this holiday season. I probably wouldnt buy either of them (at least not anytime soon) but porting them to Switch finally would be cool.

Honestly there isn't much else I really want because I have too many games as is. Just got into Final Fantasy XV and still have much Xenoblade 3 side content to go and Crisis Core is coming sometime this winter as well and botw 2 next year and Three Hopes in my backlog and just there is already so much.

I would be surprised if Three Hopes doesnt get dlc at some point so they will probably announce a season pass without really showing any content of it

I will drop everything and immediately buy a new Style Boutique/Style Savvy/Girls Mode game tho if it ever happens. Please don't let that series die with the 3ds. I loved those games

Like I mentioned before I want Square Enix and Monolith to remake Xenogears in the HD 2D artstyle of Octopath and Live a Live. Same for Chrono Trigger. Neither of those will happen. But I will include them for inclusivity's sake

Final Fantasy brained as I currently am, I would also still like to see ports of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy because I would like to play those games and have no machine capable of doing so (my laptop is not strong enough for games)

Xenoblade X won't happen until Xenoblade 3 dlc is over so nope. But please Nintendo. I am begging you. Release this game from hell. It deserves so much better.

Maybe we get an update on Pyra Mythra Smash amiibos? Tho that could also just be a tweet sometime. I dont remember what other amiibos are also coming. I just realized there will be a Sora amiibo?! Sometime. I havent played Smash in years

Honestly this list shows I really only play a few jrpg series and zelda oops. In my defense all these games take forever to play so can't really take on more series XD

[heavens-bookshop]

Fic Asks Game!

I was tagged by my lovely friend @princip1914​ and decided to give this a go while I’m procrastinating on working on a fic (the circle is complete)

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

I'm up to 26 now apparently!

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

78,636 (one day I will make it to 100k)

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

I’ve only written for GO since it was the thing that made me want to write fic for the first time.

4) What are your top five fics by kudos?

Frayed (5k E) - Aziraphale struggles to process 6000 years of repressed trauma

Dreading the winter's near (2k, T) - Crowley has a hard time with cold weather on account of being a snake

Apicius (3.2k, T) - Aziraphale and Crowley go on their first date post-Armageddon

Vipers that cannot be charmed (5.1k, E) - Crowley's venom has sex-pollen like qualities, and they use it to act out a fantasy Aziraphale has harboured for centuries

Treasures of Heaven (2k, T) - outsider POV, a moment between Crowley and Aziraphale as seen from the POV of a waitress in a coffee shop

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try! I used to be very good at it but I lost my way a little while back. I would love to work through the backlog tbh

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Hmm, I haven't actually written much angst (despite enjoying a good angsty fic) so I am not really sure I have a good answer for this. In some roundabout way, it might be The Bible Project purely because it's a historical fic and therefore doesn't end with the two of them together. But the fic itself is lighthearted and silly so that's probably a dumb response. Maybe it's Pink and Poppy? A little ficlet I wrote that's set during The Night At Crowley's Flat and overall has a more melancholic vibe.

7) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I have not written a crossover! I think they're super fun to read but my brain cannot write them, it's like my writing needle has to be in a specific groove and really protests jumping between others. But there are some great GO crossovers out there!

8) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Thankfully I haven’t

9) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Yes, yes I do. Still something of a novice but I do really like using sex as a way of exploring some aspect of character or their relationship. I find it super fun to plot the smut like that!

10) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not a fic, no!

11) Have you ever had a fic translated?

I don’t think so

12) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

As Princip said on their version, we co-wrote a little ficlet where Crowley and Aziraphale are algae! (Elaborate-On-That-No.gif)

13) What’s your all time favourite ship?

Aziraphale/Crowley for sure, I’m hopeless

14) What’s a WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Hmm, well I hold out hope to finish all the WIPs I have currently published on AO3 (however misguided that may be). I have a very sad WIP that I worked on when I was Going Through It™ where Aziraphale is killed by hellfire and explores Crowley’s grief. I would really love to finish it but I also think working on it takes a lot out of me.

15) What are your writing strengths?

Oh dang what a good question. I think I’m good at constructing a narrative, I think I use words fairly efficiently, and I think I can sometimes write interesting or funny dialogue between Crowley and Aziraphale.

16) What are your writing weaknesses?

I am resisting the urge to be immediately self deprecating and say “a lot“ (GROWTH.JPG). Realistically, I think I still struggle with structuring my writing. I’ve got a lot better at it, but when I read back some of my first several fics, I can see that I was definitely stuck in Science Writing Mode since that has been my only writing experience for the last, like, decade. I think I’ve managed to make things smoother and flow better for fiction, but I still get stuck. I also think that I struggle to make transition scenes interesting, and I’m sure I do a thousand other things that writing advice columns always tell you not to do.

17) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I think Princip’s answer to this was pretty identical to my feelings, which is that, much like writing dialogue in a dialect, it can be used to great effect when done sparingly. I think if you start writing too much of the dialogue in another language or with a thick dialect, it starts to a) become hard to follow, and b) runs the risk of turning your character into a stereotype.

18) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I mean, when I was 11 I used to write stories where me and my brother had our own Digimon and we’d go on adventures and stuff. But other than that I used to be a strictly Fanart Only creator up until GO!

19) What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

Gosh another good question... I think I’m definitely proud of several of the fics that have already been mentioned here, and certainly Frayed and Vipers cannot be charmed have a special spot in my heart. However I do really really love the SFW fic I wrote for the snake zine, Let Sleeping Serpents Lie. I think I got a good mix of soft and funny, and I also got to work with a super talented artist!

----

I have no clue who has or has not had a go at this point but I’ll tag @racketghost and @fremulon and @theoldaquarian and @forineffablereasons case none of you have done it yet! If you’re reading this and haven’t done it yet, feel free to fill it in and tag me!

[dramaticviolincrescendo]

Thank you for tagging me @gallavictorious ! 🧡 It’s been a bit since I had the time or energy for writing, but it was fun to go back through things for this.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

39

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,527,620

3. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Somnus Ultima (FFXV)

The Seven Soulmate Commandments (Shameless)

Royal Protocol (FFXV)

Unashamed (Shameless)

Lips Sealed (Shameless)

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Ordinarily, I do. I have a bit of a backlog right now that I need to get to. I’ve always been of the mind that if someone took the time to provide feedback, I can find the time to thank them. Unfortunately, that sometimes means being…months behind now. There will be some surprised people when I get through my inbox who’ve probably already forgotten they read my work.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

World So Cold, the first story of a Captain America/Harry Potter AU trilogy that nobody asked for but I had a great time tormenting the five people who read it with.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Honor Bound, the one and only “fix-it” fic I have ever written and will ever write. This is what happens when you take a fantastic concept, grind it up over years of production team changes and company overhauls, and throw together the scraps that remain.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I’m not really a huge fan of crossovers, personally. I prefer to place characters in a different setting, like that Captain America/Harry Potter AU trilogy I mentioned. That said, my only crossover was Cabin Fever, which…may or may not count since dreams are involved.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I wouldn’t call it “hate,” but I’ve had a couple of people comment with criticism that I wouldn’t exactly count as constructive. I tend to ignore it and agree to disagree on our preferences.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No. Never. Not in this life or the next. Finding ways to avoid writing it in the Shameless fandom was difficult but, fortunately, I succeeded.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

To my knowledge, no.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, though someone did offer to translate into German once. (That Captain America/Harry Potter AU just keeps coming back to haunt me today…) I declined since I would prefer to have the opportunity to check and make sure none of the meaning was lost but don’t speak German.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

On three occasions, yes. There was one I sincerely hope has been lost to the bowels of the internet, Royal Protocol with @irregularrogue , and (How to Break the) Alibi Armistice with @gallavictorious . (She’s got the link in her post!)

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

…To write? Uh. Well. I honestly don’t enjoy writing ships very much… Romance isn’t as interesting to me as other relationships, so I think I’ll cop out and just say if there’s bromance, I’m game.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I…think that I am coming to accept that In Pieces may remain unfinished. I stopped at a point where I’d actually be comfortable making that the official “ending,” but I absolutely hate that…I’ve simply lost steam. That’s what happens when you write fifteen lengthy stories in just a few months, I guess. Ordinarily, having detailed outlines helps me stay focused when I start getting tired, but the content and rapidly deteriorating coherence of Ian’s perspective has really weighed on me to the point where I took a break and never really recovered the same energy I had for it. I’m still hoping to get back to it someday, but whether that will actually happen, I can’t say. Good thing it wasn’t really getting much traffic—I’d feel even worse if I was disappointing even more people than I may already be.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I think I do well with keeping a story flowing. I tend to write from specific perspectives and make the narrative sound like an internal monologue, which can limit the amount of information a reader receives but makes it fun to only show what the character knows. I believe I’m also pretty good at making ordinary thoughts sound a little prettier by using different words. I just don’t like reusing the same phrases over and over.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

In connection with the previous question, I can get too wordy. What I could say with one sentence can take me a paragraph to get out. Sometimes that’s called for, especially if the character is in a position where they’re rambling to themselves, but sometimes it’s unnecessary.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

If I have a character speaking another language, I’ll usually put it in italics and indicate that they’re speaking another language. (…Like all the Russian in my Captain America/Harry Potter AU. I haven’t thought of that series in YEARS, yet here we are.) I don’t trust that Google translate will provide an accurate translation that would stand up to scrutiny by those who actually speak the language, and it can really detract from a story as a reader to keep scrolling to the bottom to see what the footnotes say. To each their own, but that’s my system.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter back on good ol’ MuggleNet Fanfiction. They’re all still there, too!

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

My brain…doesn’t work that way, unfortunately. I only write for fandoms that I fixate on, so there really isn’t any casual fanfiction for me. I’ve wanted to write Kingdom Hearts fanfiction for years, but it’s so compelling and complex as it is that I can never think of what I’d write for it and have therefore done very little despite it being my first and longest-standing fandom. Typically, though, the desire to write smacks me in the face when I consume something new and have that “oh…I need more…oh no” moment.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I would say it’s a tie between Somnus Ultima and the Light in the Shadows series (you guessed it—the Captain America/Harry Potter AU). While the former can be wordy and the latter is obviously one of my older works, what they have in common is that they required the most creativity. The rest of my fics tend to be canon compliant (or had better be for the endless research I put into them) and feel like playing in someone else’s sandbox. Those felt like taking multiple sandboxes, pulling them apart, and creating a brand new sandbox from the various pieces. I’m more proud of them than I can say.

I don’t really know many fic writers on a basis where I’d feel comfortable tagging them, so I send this out to just @glon-morski , @gardenerian , and @mrs-monaghansblog if you so desire! 🧡

[the-oak-owl]

Tips from Max the Innkeeper

Some ideas and advice that have helped me with my blog.

1. Keep a tidy schedule (using a queue)

In order to keep a calm and steady flow of content- and to turn odd-hours travelers into regulars- I find the queue to be very handy. On the automatic Tumblr queue, I post twice daily (when I’m not handling orders and questions/chitchat, which I don’t count towards that number and handle at my own pace). You can raise or lower that number however much you want to create either a bustling vibe or a more quiet sensation. This also means you can create a backlog of posts in case you don’t happen to be online for a day or more.

2. Start your own garden (making original posts)

Folks love seeing original posts! Plus, no matter where it goes on Tumblr, with one post, people can find their way back to you. Don’t burn yourself out with making as many as you can, though- people don't mind seeing you reblog content. "Aesthetic" posts and such can help to strengthen the immersive quality of your blog (if used well). Just give 'em a few original posts scattered in your queue. Works like a charm. Also, make sure you get into tagging content correctly (see point 4)!

3. Chat with patrons (encourage interaction)

Reblogging conversationally (appropriately) and opening asks and submissions encourages folks to talk with you and send questions or requests! It’s also great for attracting regulars. (If you want to open anonymous asks, that can only be done on browser-version Tumblr. I know most people are here on mobile, including myself usually, so if you can't find that option, that's why.)

4. Public relations (tagging and promos)

If you’re starting a blog to fit in the “town” here, try checking around for some existing tags that might fit your idea. Are you hosting an inn or tavern? #innkeepercore should do. Are you constructing a new shop or market stall? Try #merchantcore! Making a sort of character blog? How about #knightcore, #rangercore, or #royaltycore? Some people may also get a bit miffed if you tag your stuff with the wrong tags, so get out there and find out where you stand. There are lots of different sorts of -cores out there to explore and it helps the right folks find you as well!

Additionally, for anyone who wants a promo/local businesses entry from me, I will only do so through direct contact. My DMs are open, though I will say this is not a guarantee to gain a promo, seeing as I take this seriously. I’m more likely to add you if you've already got a strong idea going or have your blog already figured out. The name of the game is community, however, not ranks.

That’s all I have for now! I’ll add some later if requested- and, if you have any tips you don’t see here, you’re welcome to add your own.

[higuchimon]

[information]

I decided since my old 2021 Resolutions post was so horrifically out of date, that I should write a new pinned post. I recommend reading this for information about me.

First: no more writing resolutions. I'll write what I can, when I an.

Second: I am non-binary/agender. Pronouns are they/them, though I responded to she/her so long that I am not bothered by them. I'm also asexual & aromantic.

Third: I am nearly fifty. My fandoms of choice are, in no given order, are: Power Rangers (MMPR-PRLR, with occasional dips into later ones), Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Tamers, Digimon Frontier, Digimon Xros Wars/Hunters, Digimon Applimonsters, Digimon NEXT, YGO DM, YGO GX, YGO 5Ds, YGO Zexal, YGO Arc-V, YGO VRAINS, YGO Sevens, Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boubeiu Love & Love Love, Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boubei Happy Kiss, Kingdom Hearts, Pokemon, and Trollhunters. Digimon tri & Digimon Kizuna I might take small bits from but am not overly fond of them. Nothing more needs to be said on that front. YGO GX is the blood in my veins. I am unlikely to writee any given game for Pokemon.

Fourth: I have a large backlog of prompts for fics, both submitted by others and taken up for myself. If you wish to send in a prompt, the inbox is always open but it may take time for me to get to it, depending on my mood and what the prompt sparks. Please check "higuchimon prompts" for lists of prompts.

I warned you. All right. Here we go. You'll see some concepts and preferences pop up repeatedly. Tread with caution.

Digimon Adventure 02

Non-epilogue compliant: fics where the epilogue (and now that they exist, Tri and Kizuna) isn't going to happen. Non-canon ships (most often Ken x Daisuke & Taichi x Yamat0) abound. Fics seldom related to one another unless otherwise noted.

Loss, Gain, & Other Heartaches: A new enemy brainwashes a lot of human Chosen and their partners, after destroying the original twelve's patners, leading to the Digimon's data being merged with the Chosen's.

Division of Destiny: What if Vamdemon turned Sora into a vampire and from there defeated the Chosen? Well, he ended up turning Taichi, Jou, & Mimi into vampires as well, while imprisoning Hikari and giving Yamato, Takeru, and Koushiro to Piemon and the Dark Masters as slaves. A pesky rebellion formed of Daisuke, Iori, Miyako, Ken, Osamu, and various other charactes tries to fight them. Firm ships are currently just Ken x Daisuke.

When Blood Crosses: Oh, one of my favorites and probably my oldest AU altogether. What if humans and Digimon could have children together? And what if they did already? Seven out of twelve of the Chosen are part Digimon - or more. This is a full-blown multiverse. Stories don't always relate to one another, but the basic concepts tend to be the same. Ships can vary but for the most part are Taichi x Yamato, Jou x Koushiro, Mimi x Sora, Hikari x Miyako, Ken x Daisuke, and Takeru x Iori. Not averse to Piemon x Takeru, either.

Quiet Interlude: Little fluffy pieces featuring Taichi x Yamato in an establihsed relationship during 02 and beyond.

Adaptions: I don't have much written here but I have Such Plans. It will involve Things Happening to Taichi (in season 1) and Daisuke (season 2). It will probably end with Taichi x Yamato and Ken x Daisuke.

Take To The Skies: In this world, some people have wings and can fly. Daisuke is a Flier. The Digimon Kaiser thinks that makes him the perfect pet. But he will need training, of course. Kaiser x Daisuke. Other stories might involve the others who have wings.

Return of Old Enemies: Takeru is captured by two strange Digimon and collared so he can't speak. That's only the beginning of what's going on.

Fragmented Memory: Kaiser x Daisuke. Kaiser has wiped Daisuke's memory and convinced him that they're together. The other Chosen are not happy about this.

Broken Bonds: A soulmate AU featuring Piemon x Takeru. This is also a breeds AU. Piemon murders Patamon and takes Takeru.

Fight To Remember: Kaiser has lost his memory. So has Daisuke. Together, they need to learn who they were, who they are, and who they're going to be. Ken x Daisuke, obviously.

Services Rendeed: Daisuke gets poisoned and the cure lies within territory controlled by the Kaiser. The only way to save him is for the Kaiser to do it. His price - Daisuke himself. To be his until he gets bored with Daisuke. Sadly, the Kaiser isn't easily bored. Ken x Daisuke.

Stirring Shadows: Ken had a very naughty dream about being the Kaiser again and wanting to dominate Daisuke instead of the Digital World. Now, it was just a dream - right? Ken x Daisuke, older.

Scars of Victory: The Digimon Kaiser defeated the Chosen and took Daisuke as his trophy. For seven years he's ruled over the Digital World unopposed, having blocked the older Chosen from entering the Digital World. Now the barriers have dropped - and revenge is best served cold. Ken x Daisuke, brainwashing, off-screen death.

Course of Events: Set in a breeds AU: Vamdemon notices something unusual about Daisuke when he's in line to meet Tailmon and sends him to Piemon, who discovers who and what he is. How interesting. No current ships.

Walking The Edge: The Chosen have fought the Kaiser for years without knowing his true identity. Daisuke has also been dating Ichijouji Ken for years. So when the Kaiser finally reveals who he is - well, Daisuke has a choice to make. And the Kaiser will only allow one.

Dark Brotherhood: breeds AU. Ken, as Kaiser, has discovered that his half-brother is Yamato. Or rather, Anbumon. An alliance is offered. Ships: Yamato x Taichi & Ken x Daisuke.

Danger Zone: The Kaiser is very annoyed at Daisuke's continued existence as his enemy. So he decides to change where Daisuke's allegiance lies. Kaiser x Daisuke.

Hidden Truths: Miyako-centered breeds AU, also involving Jou and his dark side Fuseiimon. No ships centered, but light indicationss of Ken x Daisuke, Jou x Koushiro, and Taichi x Yamato.

Errors of Love: Aged up AU. Daisuke is dating the Kaiser. This is probably a very terrible mistake. KEn x Daisuke.

Magical Educations In Love: Magical school AU. Established ships: Ken x Daisuke, with possible Ken x Daisuke x Takeru.

Shadowed Soul: Piemon x Vamdemon x Takeru. is it love or just sex? Takeru wishes he knew. It's also a soulmate AU.

Melody of the Heart: A world of magic and magical creatures. Loosely a mirror of my breeds verse (and I do mean loosely). Established ships: Taichi x Yamato, Ken x Daisuke, Jou x Koushiro, Mimi x Sora. Others to come.

What He Wants: M rated/non-con, Kaiser x Daisuke. That's pretty much all there is to it. Just a couple of drabbles now but I'll expand it later.

Game of Life: breeds AU. The Kaiser's noticed something about some of the Chosen and wants to know what's going on. Undecided ships.

Bitter Bargains: The Chosen have fought the Kaiser for years. He's shown a rough attachment to Daisuke - kidnapping him on a regular basis. Then one day, Daisuke wakes up to find the Kaiser in his bedroom. Oh, dear. Non-con Kaiser x Daisuke.

Sanguine Bindings: Aged up AU - and Ken's a vampire, who mind-controlled Daisuke from episode 2 onward. Brainwashing/mind control/non-graphic non-con.

Purpose of Existence: Kaiser found out about Daisuke being a very special breed and claimed him for his own. Daisuke doesn't like this but something isn't right - he listens, whether he wants to or not. Aged up/breeds AU. Ken x Daisuke.

Buds and Blossoms: A romance between Hikari and Mimi. That's about it.

No Good Decisions: Daisuke accidently eats something he shouldn't have in the Digital World. It wouldn't be so bad - if the Kaiser hadn't found him and determined that someone needed to watch him. Ken x Daisuke.

Blood Of His Blood: Breed AU. Piemon wants to live again and will ensure that he does, through his oldest son.

For All Time: Taichi's been in an accident and Yamato's not sure when he will wake up. Taichi x Yamato.

Heart of Demon, Soul of Angel: AU where Taichi is an angel and Yamato is a demon. At least it starts off that way. A lot is going to change. Established ships: Taichi x Yamato & Ken x Daisuke.

Bonds & Bondage: Kaiser goes ahead and Rings V-mon. This affects Daisuke, unexpectedly. Now what will the Chosen do? Ken x Daisuke.

Fireblood: Breeds/Firestarter/Healer AU. Vamdemon bites Yamato and awakens his dark side - not good for anyone at all. Taichi x Yamato.

Flaming Ivy: The 02 Chosen are Healers and Firestarters and are working out what that means for them. Ken x Daisuke.

Digimon Tamers

Fair Wings: Some of the Tamers have wings, including Juri, Kenta, and Ruki. Adventunres and romance thereof. Established relationship: Juri x Takato.

Digimon Frontier

Consequences of Games: Just a set of fluffy post-canon fanfics featuring the Chosen playing games and what happens after the games. Firm ships include Kouji x Kouichi and Junpei x Izumi.

Heirs Apparent: Lucemon's spirit escaped confinement and was able to have an encounter with Kimura Tomoki, siring twin boys.

Godslave: So, Lucemon is the God-King of the world, ruling humans and Digimon alike. What he wants, he gets. And now he wants Kouji.

Tales of WInd and Water: Stories that cicle around Ranamon and Izumi.

Reflections of Dark Shadows: An AU where Kouji doesn't have a twin. What he does have is a reflection - and the reflection doesn't like his boyfriend. Established Takuya x Kouji, one-sided Kouichi x Kouji.

The Wind-child: A fantasy AU where Izumi is the daughter of AncientIrismon and has many adventures.

Yu-Gi-Oh Xros Wars/Hunters

Not Telling All: Yuu is a vampire with a taste for Tagiru. Tagiru doesn't know - at least not yet.

Hunting The Great Game: A rewrite of Xros Wars/Hunters. Set three years instead of one after the Xros Wars. Taiki finds himself back in the Digital World and that's where it all begins.

Digimon NEXT

Knight Tales: Fantasy AU. Kahara Shou's village is slaughtered and burned down and he's the only survivor. Taken in by Barbamon, he becomes the Demon Lord's devoted Knight.

Yu-Gi-Oh DM

Pleasures of Shadows: Yami no Malik has been revived as an incubus.

Crimeland: An AU where there are three Kaiba brothers (Seto, Seth, and Mokuba) and - many other differences I haven't gotten to writing yet. Only set 'ship is Seto x Kisara.

Uncertain Choices: A modern day AU, with Atemu and Yuugi as twin brothers. Only set ship right now is Atemu x Mahaado. If I ever finish the sequel I have in mind, I will add Seto x Yuugi.

Ways of Magic: a magical AU. Seto and Mokuba are dragons. Pegasus is a sorcerer. Mai is a pirate queen. Otogi is a djinn. A few scattered set pairings such as Otogi x Bakura Ryou.

Heart of Magic: a magical AU. This one involves a magical school where various characters are students or teachers. Established ships: Atemu x Mahaado.

Gifts of Power: A Superhero AU. A large chunk of people have powers. Established relationship: Isis x Mana.

Yu-Gi-Oh GX

Reversal AU: In canon, Juudai has the poewr of the Gentle Darkness. Here, in a world very like Dark World but with differences (such as a sun), he has the power of the Destructive Darkness - and he is pure evil, enjoys it, and has the overall goal of destroying all of creation. A small, plucky rebellion stands against him. Do they stand a chance? Time will tell. Be warned: non-consensual Juudai x Johan, as well as someone becoming a vampire, and many other twisted plot points. I love this AU.

Stronger Than Water: We don't know much about Johan's past. So what if he actually grew up in Dark World, as Brron's adopted son? And was sent to kill Juudai? Firm ships are Yubel x Juudai and maybe Yubel x Juudai x Johan. I havevn't gotten far enough to be sure.

Hell's Ice: What if Ryou were the one taken by Kagemaru and Amnael instead of Fubuki? Well, add in some elemental affinities and we have the Hell Kaiser of Ice - one of the Seven Stars. No set ships othe than Yubel x Juudai, though I am debating a few.

Itch To Scratch: Juudai and Yubel are demons. Johan's an angel - or he thinks he is, anyway. What he really is, he'll find out eventually. Firm ship is Yubel x Juudai x Johan.

Bridges: So, in this series, Juudai's power is that of the Light of Creation. Johan has the Gentle Darkness - and Juudai has been possessed by the Light of Ruin for seven thousand years.

Dead Weight: It's the zombie apocalypse! Ahhh! No set in stone ships yet.

King's Champion: When a late-night break-in goes very wrong, Yubel ends up taking Juudai to Dark World for his own safety. He ends up being raised by Brron. But taking him away from Earth has consequence, both good and bad. Yubel x Juudai. Not ruling out Yubel x Juudai x Johan in the future.

Shadow Demons: Juudai: King of Hell, with Yubel and Johan as his Consorts. Ryou, a demon prince. Fujiwara Yuusuke, a shadow mage with Honest as his guardian angel. Fubuki as an angel of love. Asuka slays evil vampires. And much, much more. Established ships: Ryou x Yuusuke and Yubel x Juudai x Johan.

Echoes: Rewrites of different parts of GX. Currently only the Haou arc, but others to come. Established ships: technically none but eventually Yubel x Juudai.

In The Shadows of the Fae: Juudai is the King of the Fae with Yubel and Johan as consorts, and Shou as his servant. A delicious AU that I enjoy. Established ships: Yubel x Juudai x Johan.

In Chains: Fantasy AU. Brron is gifted Shou as a slave, and Shou has to deal with that. Not easy. Established ships: Yubel x Juudai x Johan & Edo x Ryou x Saiou.

In Any World: A series of non-connected Yubel x Juudai AUs. Each is a one-shot and is in a different AU.

Past and Future: Yubel shows Juudai events that happened in their past lives together, as they forge a new future with one another. Yubel x Juudai.

Sky Stories: A lot of people have wings. Juudai didn't - until he fused with Yubel. Ryou has rusted metal wings - until Edo takes care of them. ANd many more stories. Established ships: Yubel x Juudai x Johan.

To Accept Fate's Will: A soulmate AU. Established ships: Yubel x Juudai, Edo x Saiou x Ryou. O'Brien x Sea God's Priestess.

Hole In Your Heart: Not fighting means that Shou's in danger. Especially when he gets captured and sold to one of Haou's servants. As if his third year wasn't already going downhill. No actual ships that I know of (probable future Yubel x Juudai)

In Space, In Light: Juudai sent Yubel into space to be healed by the Gentle Darkness. In canon, it failed. Here, it worked. Uh-oh. Yubel x Juudai.

Paladin's Quest: post ending series. Ryou dies of heart failure and is reborn as a duel spirit without his memories of his past. But that's going to change, because what he did in Dark World cannot be forgotten.

In Darkness We Find FIre: An AU of my own devising, that I call Healer/Firestarter. Healers can heal & communicate/grow plants, and Firestarters bun things. There are a lot more details than that but this tale is a retelling of canon through that lens. Established ship: Yubel x Juudai.

Politics of Ages: Asuka is a vampire queen with two consorts: Manjoume and Ryou. Lots of vampiric politics.

Infinite Love: A magical AU with soulmates. Features Ryou x Yuusuke, Camula x Ruthven (OC), and Edo x Saiou.

King's Knights: Post-canon series. Juudai offers Ryou, Fubuki, and Yuusuke as his Knights. But that's just the beginning. Johan has his own tale to tell.

Passion's Flight: Soul-wings universe. Established asexual/aromantic Asuka. Future Yubel x Juudai.

Prisoner of the Black Tower: Johan is trapped in a black tower by someone called Haou. He doesn't know who that is. And he wants to leave.

Apprentices: A mild alternate timeline, where Kyle and Nero from season 3 meet and become friends - while in Haou's dungeon.

World of Fusion: Brron fused all the dimensions and the world that results is so very different. Now Brron also has three sons: Juudai, Johan, and Rune (the Johan lookalike from season 3). Also, Ryou is a vampire. Established relationships: Yubel x Juudai.

Fate's Heart: Multiple tales of Yubel and Juudai as soulmates.

Power of Earth: Healer/Firestarter AU, featuring Jim and O'Brien.

Family Flowers: Healer/Firestarter AU, featuring Rick and Cobra.

Red Zinnias: Healer/FIrestarter AU, featuring Saiou and Edo

Destructive Flames: A merging of the Firestater/Healer AU and the Reversal AU. It's even less fun than the usual REvers - well, for values of fun.

Spirit Friends: People become friends with Duel Spirits aren't in their decks. Such as Wolf for Juudai and SQuall for Amon.

Bonds of Kinship: Exploring the relationship between Johan and the lookalike - his twin brother.

Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal

Order of the Outcasts: A fantasy AU loosely inspired by AD&D. The Order of the Outcasts is the Barians. Yuuma is a powerful healing mage and Astral is his fae companion. Much fun to be had! Co-written with SilvorMoon.

Committed To Her: Kotori is Queen Merag's slave, and devotedly loves her. Merag would like to return it, but it's not that easy. Obviously, a Merag x Kotori story, and an AU.

Cry of Vengeance: Vector wants revenge on Nasch for a long-ago offense, so he attacks Nasch's boyfriend Durbe. But that's not all he wants his revenge on and he has an interesting way to get it. Vampire/slight magic AU.

On Dragon's Wings: Mizael is a dragon. Vector is a prince who becomes a demon. And many other changes for a fantasy AU. Established ships are Vector x Mizael and Alit x Leo.

Inevitable Encounters: soulmate AU and how they deal with it. Established ships: Kaito x Yuuma, Durbe x Nasch, Kotoi x Merag/Rio, Vector x Mizael

Fae Whispers: Durbe x Chris. Chris is a Fae Prince who offers for Durbe to become a Fae Knight.

Different Numbers: Another soulmate AU. Features Durbe x Nasch, Vector x Mizael, V/Chris x Kaito, Gilag x Sanagi, & Alit x III/Michael x Yuuma.

Prison of the Prince: Vector wishes to keep Fae Prine Mizael as his prisoner. Mizael isn't so thrilled about that. Vecto x Mizael.

Hating Humanity: Durbe finds Nasch and Merag before the Astral Messenger arrive. Without Yuuma's influence, what will Nasch do? Durbe x Nasch.

Blurring: There are multiple ways to detect one's soulmate. Mizael has Vector's name on his right arm and Kaito's on his left - right arm is for the soulmate and left for the enemy.

Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V

Beat of Wings: Some characters have wings, including Yuuya, Yuuto, Yuugo, and Yuuri. And Shun. And others. No real ships (that I know of) and Yuuri is going to have fun!

Life With A Demon: Featuring Masumi x Yuzu, Asuka x Selena, and past Selena x Masumi. Demon AU, along with other creatures of magic.

Confusing: Yuuri has captured Shun and is training him to be a warrior of Fusion. Shun would rather not - but his mind is now Yuuri's plaything.

Angels, Demons, and Deciding Factors: Angel/demon AU. Yuuri is a demon, who encounters the angel Shun in his territory. Yuuri decides that he wants this angel for his own - mostly because Shun doesn't want that, nor does Yuuto. M rated/consent issues/brainwashing.

Collars and Keeping: Yuuri captured Shun early in the war and Shun escapes the first chance he gets. But Yuuri won't let him go - and there's a horrible punishment awaiting his pet.

Fae Song: Selena x Rin x Ruri x Yuzu. Selena is a Fae Princess and the others are her servants.

Deadly Daughter: Professor Leo Akaba decides he can't trust Yuuri and thus trains Selena to be his sgent to find and captue the other gils with her face. Selena's girlfriend, Asuka, helps - only seeing what happened in the war turns her away from Fusion. Undecided ships.

Dragon and Falcon: Yuuri's a dragon & Shun's a shapeshifting falcon. Yuuri claimed Shun as a part of his hoard and his servant. And it just seems that dragon saliva does something to shapeshifters. non-con/drugged Yuuri x Shun.

Soulwings: In this AU, when soulmates meet one another (or when one's true purpose is found), wings are developed. So when Kaito and Edo cross paths... Established Kaito x Edo and alluded to Yuuri x Shun.

Strike Hard, Strike Fast: Vampire AU. Sora, Yuuri, and Dennis are vampires. Ruri and Shun are vampire hunters. So when Shun crosses their paths, Yuuri decides to take him for his own.

Opposite Ends: Yuugo is brought to Shingo as his slave. Yuugo doesn't like Shingo. Oh, they're going to have a lot of fun.

Dragonflame and Nature's Spark: A HEaler/FIrestater rewrite of Arc-V, mostly featuring Ryou and Mizael, along with Yuuri and Vector. Ship: Ryou x Mizael, Durbe x Chris, and Shou x Michael.

Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS

A Model Life: Kogami Ryouken is a supermodel. You know, when he's not a cyber-terrorist.

Power Rangers

Flip Of a Coin: Tommy Oliver is Tommi Oliver here. Gender-switch from birth.

Soulborn: Soulmates from the Power Rangers. Established ship: Cassie x Phantom. Future ship: Kat x Tommy.

BKCBL

Burning Inscription: Soulmates have the most important words spoken to them by their soulmates written on their arms. On Kinshiro's: I am Battle Lover Epinard! Nonsense. Atsushi x Kinshiro.

Love of Spirits: Kinshiro is a spirit of the sun. Atsushi is a wind spirit. The others are also magical beings. Kinshiro x Atsushi.

Crossovers

Elemental Ties: YGO GX & Digimon Frontier. Juudai and Kouichi cross paths. But they're not the only ones who share elements.

Replacement Vampire: YGO GX & Digimon Adventure 02: Post his defeat in 02, Vamdemon awakens in his Perfect form again, in a new world, where he meets someone he never thought he would - a female vampire. Camula didn't think she'd ever see another vampire. He's not quite her species, but he's definitely her type. Firm ship: Camula x Vamdemon. Also, vampire Seven Star!Ryou.

Scorpion Strike: YGO GX & YGO Zexal: Ryou wakes up in the Barian World, and doesn't know his name or anything else. But he's a Barian now, so he works for the Barian World. Ryou x Mizael.

Those are all my current series. Here are the series that I have waiting in the wings:

Power Rangers

Unexpected Tales: A series of fics about ships I like: Rita x Zedd, Emily x Jason, and Tanya x Adam.

Yellow & Blue: A pair of fics involving Trini x Billy

Digimon Adventure 02

Blossoms of Death: Non epilogue compliant, where a new enemy attacks the Chosen and a lot of things happen including friendship between different Chosen and their partners.

In Our Veins: Breeds AU. Non epilogue compliant and the breeds slowly start to awaken to their powers. Known ships: Ken x Daisuke.

Far From The Tree: Breeds AU, rewrite of a very old story of mine. Starting in the Devimon arc, the Chosen begin to awaken.

Last Dark Master: Breeds AU, another rewrite of a very old story. Yamato attracts Piemon'os attention. No ships at this time.

To True Love: A series about Taichi x Yamato. Mild Ken x Daisuke also.

Heed The Call: The Kaiser discovered the breeds - especially Anbumon, the strongest of them all. Time for an alliance. Ken x Daisuke & Yamato x Taichi.

Digimon Tamers

After Tamers: Post-canon, the Tamers have even more adventures with their returned partners.

Burning Brightly: An alternate take on Ruki and Renamon meeting one another.

Yu-Gi-Oh GX

In Solitude Lies Strength: A slight divergence changes a great deal about Juudai's rule in Dark World.

Different Kind of Darkness: When Juudai encounters a vampire before his rule in Dark World begins, everything takes a dip to a deeper darkness.

After Academia: Graduating doesn't mean that their adventurs have ended. They're just different now. Yubel x Juudai.

Colors of Love: A different soulmate concept - those who have soulmates only see the colors of their soulmate's hair and eyes until they meet - at which point they see all colors, and sprout their wings. Edo x Saiou and Yubel x Juudai, with others to come.

Hi Kari Kouri E: Healer/Firestarter. Kagemaru wants a powerful Frostflame on his Seven Stars team, so sends people to recruit a six year old Marufuji Ryou. Future Yubel x Juudai and Ryou x Yuusuke.

Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V

Prey and Hunters: Yuuri captures Shun and has a good old time tormenting him. Rewrite of my original "Yuuri torments Shun" story. It will have a crossover with Mythology of Love by SilvorMoon eventually.

BKCBL

Seduction of Shadows: a realm with Io being human, Akoya being a demon, and Ryuu being an angel.

Crossovers

Love Is Out Of This World: BKCBL & Digimon Adventure 02. When the Digimon Kaiser drops into the Student Council Room, things become very interesting. Ken x Daisuke, Atsushi x Kinshiro.

Ties To Magic: Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Tamers, and YGO GX. A fantasy world where anyone can meet anyone at all.

From Shadows Within: Digimon Adventure, 02, Tamers, and Frontier. A new adventure for everyone! Ships: Ken x Daisuke.

I fully expect to develop more of these in the future. Time will tell! And I will update this when or if the time comes.

[daleisgreat]

Speed

Today’s entry will mark the first official 4K home video release I am writing about. I already own a few other 4K UHDs, and a couple of months ago, I watched my first 4K video at home with 2001’s The Fast and the Furious. However, I already covered that movie’s BluRay release here several years ago, so I will not be dedicating another entry for it, other than to say that the 4K upgrade pops and makes it look like a new release. Today’s entry is for 1994’s Speed (trailer). Before diving into this movie, I noticed one of the tracks from this film’s score repeatedly used throughout sounds awfully like one of the main themes I primarily associated with the Metal Gear Solid franchise. I have no idea if this was pointed out before, and I just overlooked it all these years, or maybe I am grasping at straws. Click or press here to take a listen and decide for yourself. 1994 was a hell of a year for Hollywood movies primarily transpiring from a highway with The Chase, Speed, and the OJ Simpson Bronco chase….oh wait (although I highly recommend the ESPN 30 for 30 on it, simply titled: June 17th 1994). The majority of Speed has a straightforward premise: serial bomber and local madman Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper) planted a bomb on a bus rigged to explode once the bus drops below 55 miles per hour. Police officer Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) is alerted to this by the bomber himself to exact revenge on Traven after successfully rescuing hostages from an elevator Payne armed at the beginning of the film.

From there, for the middle hour of this nearly two-hour film, the action almost entirely takes place on the bus. Traven makes a grand entrance onto the bus by commandeering a Jaguar and having its owner (Glenn Plummer) take the wheel so Traven could heroically leap onto the bus and save the day. It would not be that easy of a rescue mission as Payne has eyes on the bus, and Traven has to play by his rules and get him his $3 million ransom to disarm the bus. Without question, the middle hour on the bus is the best part of the film. The opening half-hour is an excellent appetizer with the elevator hostage crisis that Traven and his partner, Harry (Jeff Daniels), successfully foil. However, once the action shifts to the bus is when Speed takes off. Shortly after taking control of the bus, one of the passengers freaks and inadvertently shoots the bus driver, and a fellow passenger, Annie (Sandra Bullock), takes over the wheel. Throughout the film, Annie and Traven have wonderful chemistry, and I could not help but root for the duo throughout. Every couple of minutes, there is a new potential conflict to overcome to keep the bus going over 55mph. The film wisely peppers in brief dialog exchanges to let the movie breathe just enough before the next hurdle makes itself present.

The film's standout moment is the major obstacle for the bus to overcome when it encounters a stretch of unavoidable highway under construction and missing a hearty chunk of the road. Traven’s solution is that since that stretch of a road is on an incline, they may clear that gap if they build up enough speed! That epic stunt hits all the right notes, and I got goosebumps all over again re-watching it, and odds are, I bet you did too if you have seen this movie. If you have not, then watch this scene and see for yourself by click or pressing here. A lot of the critical discussion in the aftermath of this movie was if that jump was realistically possible. The best thing I can do is to compare it to another film, Road Trip, which is likely a better indicator of what could happen when attempting such a feat. Once the middle bus portion of the film is over, there are still about 20 minutes left where Traven tracks and chases down Payne in a subway station. The movie felt over once the bus portion had such a satisfying conclusion that it almost feels wrong to keep sticking with the film by this point, but I recommend you do since there is a satisfying payoff in the form of Payne’s demise. I have to share a story now when I first saw this film at around 13 or 14 on VHS. My dad’s VCR had what seemed to me at the time was a revolutionary feature where if I kept pressing the pause button repeatedly, it would slowly, frame-by-frame, play the film in super slow-motion. At that age, I thought this was a fantastic way to get the most out of the biggest stunts in action scenes. My favorite moment exploiting this feature was seeing Traven and Payne wrestle around on the top of a subway train until Payne was not watching his field of vision, and a warning light lead to his sudden beheading. I slow-motion replayed that sequence countless times in my awkward, early teenage years. Suffice it to say, Hopper plays the out-of-his-mind bomber perfectly, going so far as to make sure he receives his appropriate cinematic comeuppance.

The director ensures the many passengers on the bus maximized their minutes to the point I where it feels like you are right there with them!

Two audio commentaries are the only extra features of the 4K disc in this 4K/BluRay combo pack. One is with the director, Jan de Bont, and the other is with producer Mark Gordon and writer Graham Yost. Props are to whoever decided to subtitle the commentary tracks. I very much appreciate it! I first started to bounce back and forth between the two commentary tracks, but Bont was way too relaxed and had too many pauses to hold my attention, and I finished up with his track within five minutes. However, Yost and Gordon are very much engaged from beginning to end and have fun cracking jokes and sharing memories throughout. Some quick takeaways I got from them were how they wanted to film a major scene outside of a sports arena, dealing with critics poking holes at how unrealistic their stunts were, and how watching the movie felt very different at the time of the commentary recording just two months after 9/11. The BluRay disc contains the remainder of the bonus features. Inside Speed is a four-part feature lasting just under an hour breaking down the visual effects, stunts, and location sequences, but half of it also contains an HBO First Look special hosted by Dennis Hopper that hits all the right kinds of cheesy mid-90s EPK nostalgia that it is worth checking out. Aside from 12 minutes of extended scenes and a Billy Idol music video that seems totally off base with the tempo of the film, there are a couple of Action Sequences mini-features breaking down some of the stunts. I highly recommend watching the one dissecting how they did the bus jump, as it shows raw footage of what really happened when they shot it, and showed footage of some of the specific safety measures they instilled to make that stunt as safe as possible and had some eye-opening interviews with the stunt driver before and after.

After watching that old VHS copy nearly a dozen times, Speed wound up being one of my favorite action films I got burnt out early on and never bothered upgrading to a DVD or standalone BluRay. Watching it again in 4K all these years later breathed new life into it for me. I am not an expert at breaking down video quality by any means, but watching the 4K disc on my 4KTV gave the impression of this having far more current production values. The editors somehow managed to remove all the old film grain defects for a smooth 4K upgrade. If you have not seen Speed yet, then it has everything you could want out of a mid-90s action movie with explosions, gripping thrills and stunts, dramatic rescues, plenty of zinger one-liners…..and a Billy Idol theme song. Pardon me while I attempt my best Dennis Hopper impression here, “Pop quiz, hotshot, which 1994 blockbuster that takes place primarily on a bus is a perfect candidate for beer and popcorn movie night at home?” Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron The Avengers: Endgame The Avengers: Infinity War Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve The Clapper Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed I & II Deck the Halls Detroit Rock City Die Hard Dirty Work Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Grunt: The Wrestling Movie Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Hell Comes to Frogtown Hercules: Reborn Hitman I Like to Hurt People Indiana Jones 1-4 Inglourious Basterds Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Justice League (2017 Whedon Cut) Last Action Hero Major League Mallrats Man of Steel Man on the Moon Man vs Snake Marine 3-6 Merry Friggin Christmas Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions Revenge National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets Nintendo Quest Not for Resale Old Joy Payback (Director’s Cut) Pulp Fiction The Punisher (1989) The Ref The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VIII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Scott Pilgrim vs the World The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Slacker Skyscraper Small Town Santa Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Sully Take Me Home Tonight TMNT Trauma Center The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild The Wizard Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past