#I've just been having a ton of fun with GI to the point I have brainrot for it and FF XD

[sakurarisen]

Just a heads up to some edits I’ve been working on the past few days:

I’ll be running this blog a little differently going forward! Sera is now what I call a Tri-Main in her primary settings; I’ll be focusing less on solely Final Fantasy with a crapton of AUs, and more on FF, Genshin Impact, and the original setting Spellbound as the main and primary verses! All the other AUs and the like are staying intact as AUs, nothing is changing in regards to relationships or threads - I’m just making this a dual-fandom and original setting type of blog! <3

Edited Sera’s carrd in regards to the above; GI and Spellbound are now their own sections in full with room to grow, rather than crammed into one space.

In regards to the carrd: I’ve split it up a big better into FF/main info, GI, and Spellbound. As previously mentioned, the later two have their own full sections - Anything in them pertains to their verses only (i.e. Sera’s snow leopard features at GI only, fox goddess is Spellbound only, etc.), but the main carrd was a little harder to split up. Thus, ‘FF/Main Info’ contains the overall personality, appearance, and the like that applies to everything regardless of verse, and anything noted to be FF related, like mentions of Midgar and Gongaga and so forth, are FF based *only*. The same applies for the AUs in the misc section.

There’s a new blog as a side to this one: @risingstarcatcher​, a semi-private multimuse for GI! <3 Things there are still being ironed out in regards to muses and their abouts, so expect some changes if popping in!

The rest of my blogs will be following suit with Sera in the Tri-Main style in coming weeks as I figure out what to do with things around here.

I’m slowly catching up on things and have been for the last several weeks, but between stress and my health, focus hasn’t been my strongest ability, and I’ve been doing a lot of gaming instead to try and keep my mind off it. Apologies for the long waits, and a ton of thank you’s for the patience with me TWT <3

~Pom

[gaymer-hag-stan]

Ok so, with the Tekken 8 Closed Network Test now concluded, I'd like to share a few thoughts.

The game looks great, I love the new redesigns, I love the new animations and the fact that they got the entire cast to rerecord their battle grunts and win / pre battle quotes, it was especially weird to have certain characters use voice lines from different actors, some of whom weren't even speaking the same language 🤣

The redesigns are almost exclusively great so far, but I do hope we get alternate costumes. Yeah customization is there but I don't really care to have Nina in jeans and cowboy boots or Jin in platinum blond pigtails like... A lot of fighting games just have a palette swap as the second costume and call it a day, but from the very beginning all the way up to Tekken 6, Tekken had an alternate outfit for every single character. Not only that, but it was usually a more "casual" outfit too like, Kazuya's Tekken 1 1P was his karate gi pants but his 2P was a tank top and jeans. Asuka's Tekken 5 1P was her Aikido uniform and her 2P was her trademark shorts and tank top and so on. Tekken 7 originally went for the 2P palette swap, but at some point they added extra costumes, including classic looks, via an update, and I hope they are there from the start this time.

I played almost exclusively as Nina because she's been my main since 2005, with a little Jun, a little Xiaoyu and a little Jin thrown in. I also tried Lili's, Hwoarang's and Asuka's combo trials (nice that they FINALLY added combo trials, I don't know what took them so long lol) I gotta say it's extremely satisfying to see Harada CONSTANTLY shading Street Fighter on Twitter by saying that the base roster will feature a lot more fighters than our competitors an also Mortal Kombat by saying that they are focusing on legacy fighters before they even start considering guests. Like. That's a ball move and a huge reassurance for the fans. I also know it's in good faith and no harm is meant towards Capcom or Netherrealm but he's right and he should say it!

If there's one thing I hope they copy off of Capcom is Word Tour mode. Yeah NetherRealm Studios' cinematic story mode is fine... I guess... But World Tour mode is the best single player mode ever featured in a fighting game and Namco even have their own blueprint in the form of Tekken Force. We're probably still getting a cinematic-style story but there's still hope for Tekken 9, or maybe even a smaller-scale Tekken Force return, in the style of Tekken 4 or sth.

Arcade Mode needs a proper reintroduction as well, in Tekken 6 you only got 4 battles and you were done and in Tekken 7 you straight up got nothing at all out of Arcade mode and character endings were instead for the base game characters who weren't prominently featured in the cinematic story and you got them after a single battle... Very underwhelming.

Also hoping other "missing" modes like Team Battle return and maybe Tekken Bowl will be included from the get go this time? I've also had this request forever but I'd love to see 1P Vs. Com or Com Vs. Com fights be included in offline versus. Literally every other fighting game has it except Tekken and Virtua Fighter and I can't tell why. It shouldn't be hard to implement and honestly sometimes it's just fun to pick characters, costumes and stage and just fight it out with the computer, as a break from online grinding and whatnot.

Now, as for the battle system itself... It's lots of fun! There's tons of stuff going on at all times but it feels great to experience and it's not really overwhelming or anything. It's cute that they have included an "easy mode" for new players to ease themselves in the fun. I'm not a master player by any means but I've had almost two decades of experience in Tekken and legacy skill does play a big role in the Tekken meta so it's an interesting way to even out the playing field. Interestingly, they also seem to have simplified some of the more complicated commands like, I can pull off all of Nina's combo throws now with a total of like, four button presses at most? Crazy! The heat system feels a bit weird at first but it's a huge asset once you get into it which doesn't take all that long anyway.

Overall I am very satisfied with what I got to play and I feel like Tekken 8 is gonna be another huge chapter in Tekken's history as well as the FGC's as a whole and I honestly cannot wait! Hopefully I will have moved out of Greece by the time it's out because my internet connection was killing me 😭🤣

I also better see miss Anna and Christie in the game or else I'm rioting.

[alexissara]

My Experience With TCGs

Card games are one of my favorite mediums for games, I've always loved cards and collected all sorts as a kid, Digimon, Neopets, Pokemon, Yugioh and more. I've also always been designing card games, generally the rules were just something for me and my siblings to enjoy our big mix of cards or custom cards I made by cutting out art from magazines and instruction manuals for games. So now I am working on designing a game that is actually playable and fun for everyone, Soul Of The Hero. I've been working on this for years and It's changed formats a few times over that. However, with it's current design I do think it has the legs to finally do everything I want it to do. To get to this point I did a ton of card game research, I've looked at dead and alive card games, games I play all the time and games I'd never play competitively to really get to the heart of what makes them fun, special, and great.

Yugioh

Yu-gi-oh is a game I played competitively for years and have kept up with for most the time even after I quit playing competitively. There has been little blank spots but it's a game I am deeply familiar with. Which is why in studying yugioh, I found not a lot to learn from in a positive way, it was mostly a lot of what not to do. Yugioh has been improving as a game since they left behind anime tie ins and focused on making the competitive game it's own thing. However, the game is a bit of a mess, a fun mess but it doesn't really feel like something that I want to emulate.

Still that is an important part of the process of making something and I am sure years of playing Yu-gi-oh will somehow show in the final production of Soul Of The Hero. I love Yu-gi-oh, I just also think it's a mess and probably not worth diving into ATM.

Cardfight!! Vangaurd

This game is one that fascinates me always. It always felt like this might be the best designed card game around. Until the D series every card was a resource in such a perfect way that truly made Vanguard stand out from every other card game. There wasn't a lot of dead cards, there was less useful cards but thanks to shield values and boost every card can do something, every card is an important resource.

This is a game haunted by terrible management which really holds back it's potential to soar but when I am working on card games, I think about how this games so tightly designed. Having cards all have multiple uses means your players are never drawing a card and utterly dreading it, they might not prefer it, it might mean their going to lose, but especially in the early game every card can be used for something.

Digimon

This game has one of the most fascinating resource systems. You have a rather wide pool of resources you can use but the more you use the more your opponent gets for free. It's a genuine travesty that this game is utterly fucked for Color Blind players. artistically this game really is top shelf which is really impressive given Digimon's previous TCG outings were some of the ugliest games ever printed. The actual flow of play is also really great, it really captures Digimon as a series while making an engaging set of gameplay. It's a perfect use of Digimon for a game.

The biggest thing the Digimon TCG inspires me about is trying to bring out a unique identity through mechanics, to have mechanics that simply scream, this is my game, the simple act of using them is recreating the essence of it.

Pokémon

The Pokémon TCG is a strange and unique beast. I've played it a few times in my life and I've grow to really appreciate the game more as it's improved over time. The card games ability to draw massive amounts of cards, do big time disruptions and has totally unique mechanics. I love how it has a lot of mechanics each of which can give a bit more character to each creature. It's a card game that really makes use of every inch of space of it's design to give every card a unique essence.

Something I found enrapturing and I am taking into consideration is the Rapid Strike mechanic. It was just printed on the card art, like a little stamp and it becomes this key symbol and something that there is a lot of support built around. It's not something for so early in game design but it might be a better way of doing like Archetype titles then having every card be called "Darkest Warrior Knight" then name or whatever the fuck. I also really love how able you are to dive into your resources and think that is such a fun point of design.

Sentinels Of The Multiverse

I love playing co-op and this game is one I've sunk upwards of 300 hours on. This is a game I just a blast to play despite it many of problems. This is the game that got me thinking about two v two card games in a serious way and not as a tacked on extra mode.

It's team based play is also something I am looking to when I am looking at making a purely co-op mode for my game because I think it clearly does a lot really well in making fun challenges for a team to fight with creative decks.

Fire Emblem Cipher

This game really pushed me and inspired my design further. Fire Emblem Cipher's actual card design is just, gosh, breath taking in the way it communicates so much visually about characters very quickly and how those things about the character can then be brought back into the mechanics. A lot of games have lots of little flavor information about cards that sometimes get used as mechanics but this is so quickly visually communicated all while being colorblind accessible.

It's a shame this game never got a non Japanese release and that it died shortly after Three Houses release. I have not got a lot of play experience because of that but just reading translated cards and seeing the design is a major design inspiration.

Magic The Gathering

This is the classic TCG but it is also one I think is lacking to me. The act of playing down Mana, it simply does not jell with me. The methodical play of MTG is clearly a ton of people's thing but it is not mine. What I can appreciate is the modern exploration of aesthetics and themes they've been delving into. The mish mash of settings and styles makes the game instantly a bit more captivating.

I think Magic is another game where what I'm taking from it is mostly "what not to do". Like don't sell proxy packs for tons of money but also like just design stuff I don't really jell with. That is one of the best ways to learn afterall.

Wixoss

Sometimes something that looks bad can inspire you. I've not played this game but it just, really doesn't look like a game I'd enjoy, maybe I Would but until there is some kind of digital way to play I probably won't bother. I love girls and playing all girl decks but it seems maybe a bit too horny vibes with young characters to be a thing I wouldn't really wanna touch without some assurance about the game overall.

I have no idea how Piece cards work in Wixoss but what I can say is just the vibe of the piece cards inspired a whole new mechanic for me. Sometimes the vibes are strong enough.

Weiss Schwarz

I wish this game was more exciting but it is painfully boring for the concept of "a bunch of random ass licenses fighting against each other". The games far too limited in deck building with ugly ass screen shots and promotional arts used to make the cards. It simply is terrible only worsened by the like terrible clash of some of the IPs.

However, the concept of a bunch of clashing universe has always appealed to me from like the first time I played X-men vs Street Fighter on the playstation one and this card game reaffirmed it is possible to do it and get people to want to check it out.

Shadowverse

The app had fallen onto my phone several times but it wasn't until I played the game on my phone that I started to really understand Shadowverse. The game could be called anime Hearthstone but even if that was at it was it would be way better then that game cuz it's so ugly, I much prefer the art style of Shadowverse.

The gameplay however has a really exciting Evolve mechanic that stands out among all the card games. The ability to buff any card even if for some it is just a stat boost as a core mechanic is just super cool. I think it shows that there is so many dynamic ways to make cards variable resources.

Legends Of Runeterra

Who would have expected to fall in love with this game so hard. This might be the most interactive card game ever created. This game is strictly digital and it would be impossible to work into a physical game in any good way but that's great, it's using the medium it's in to it's fullest. Creating cards, adding keywords, the push and pull of the more you do the more your foe can do, it's a really really intensely fascinating card game.

I think the champion system is where I am really looking at the game for what I could pull from what I am doing. I think having conditions to unlock a stronger version of a card that a deck can centralize around is really neat. I don't know if that literally will work in what I am doing but I think I am at least looking at the heart.

-----

If you enjoyed my little card game thoughts, you can follow me here, I'll probably talk about card games more on here and it'll keep you tunned in for when I am releasing my own card game in the far future.

[icarus-suraki]

Invading your personal life with: 9, 50, 74

Invade my personal life! Or let me invade yours...

9. Do you have any cool talents? Well, despite being 40, I can put my feet behind my head. How's that?

No, for real: I've got some kind of EDS connective tissue thing. My brother has it to a greater degree (I'm envious) but we've both got the thing where your skin feels a bit odd and your scars look strange and you're just a little too flexible for your own good.

It's cool except that when I go for walks, sometimes my knees decide to be like "Hey, I have an idea. How about fuck this?" and start slipping (for lack of a better term) side to side and it hurts, so I always have to be ready to limp back home if that happens. My hips will do the same thing, but it seems less frequent than my knees.

But, yeah, I can cram all 5 feet, 10 lanky inches of myself into a standard-size moving box, which was a trick I did a few times during move-in at college. It's kind of fun to be able to wriggle into small spaces like that. It's come in handy a few times at work, interestingly enough.

50. How are you doing today? Not super-great, actually. Not to be TMI, but I've been feeling sick for the last couple of days. It's like my entire GI tract is swollen and sore, from my throat on down. I was bloated as hell Friday night and all day Saturday--even my head hurt, wtf? I'm better today but I'm still all sore. I'm not even hungry and I don't even want to eat but I can tell my blood sugar is getting low… I was supposed to have supper with my folks but that's not happening, which is frustrating…

I'm also feeling a bit anxious about my therapy appointment tomorrow because those are rough and I wish I could just be better already.

The weather is nice, though, if a bit chilly. But it's dry now, which is a relief after yesterday's humidity, and it's perfectly clear. And I'm working on some cosplay plans, though I'm feeling a bit uneasy about those because cosplay can be expensive as hell. But I want to. I don't want to say I need to but I kind of need to. It keeps me going. I can't sacrifice everything. So I'm pricing out fabric and working out how I want to do this. (The hat, a major element of the costume, is sitting nearby and motivating me immensely.)

74. When was the last time you travelled somewhere new? You're asking me this in a post-Covid world? This? Me? In a post-Covid world?

Okay technically in August 2022 I had to drive out to the city water department main offices for a job interview. I ended up getting hired but the fact that I had to leave for work at about 5am and drive for an hour made it tough. That and the fact that my job responsibilities got changed on me unexpectedly and I wasn't getting any training… Yeah, not a great match. I think that's the last time I travelled somewhere new. I'm genuinely trying to remember…

Unless this question is really asking about travelling travelling. Like internationally or something not-quite-locally, in which case that would be something like 2010? I think? Summer 2010 was when I went to Otakon, which was definitely a new place for me. (That was the year of dudes walking around yelling "Backscratcher? Mmbackscratcher!" from Family Guy, I think? It was also the summer of Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver and the related Pokewalker and there were literally Pokemon walkers wearing dozens of the things and offering to walk your Pokemon for a fee. And the staff at the H.Naoto booth said my ouji-style outfit looked great and got me to hang around for a handshake event with the designer(!!!!). And I met a ton of people I only knew online to that point, which was awesome. Yeah, that was a fun time--to think I almost didn't go.)

I don't travel much--can you tell? Maybe I'll have a different answer to this when I have spending money again. I mean, I fully intend to go to Japan before too much longer.

[skylitcreations]

💐Comfort character for any 3 fandoms lf your choice? (and maybe why if you feel like explaining haha)

Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon)‐No matter what, Usagi remains my main comfort character. She's been a constant in my life and I always go back to her. I love her views on life and have tried to apply them to my own as much as I can. I've definitely messed up along the way, but I still keep that goal and will eventually get there.

Seto Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh) - I found Seto extremely relatable as I was growing up (except the monetary side, ofc). I often shielded my little brother from a lot of things and was the smart but stubborn pessimist. Him replacing war with games through taking over his adoptive father's weapons company and converting it into a gaming technology company instead really inspired me. That and him just not giving a damn how fucking weird he could come across as and being unabashedly himself was also inspiring. I genuinely think he helped me ignore those who would make fun of geeky kids in school cuz I just gave no fucks.

Eleventh Doctor (Doctor Who) - Eleven got me through some really tough points in my life (including the point when I realized I need to work on myself more). I also met my wife because of him so that's a nice plus. A lot of his quotes get me through a ton of my harder times.

[mejomonster]

Hey, so, idk if you follow @ thebibliosphere or not, but if you don't you might find her mcas and/or chronic health tag helpful? Idk how closely your symptoms will align with hers, obviously, but it might open up different avenues to explore, even if there's no overlap otherwise.

Thank you for linking me to her! The general topics she posts might be helpful!

I just read some mcas posts though and I don't think mcas is very similar to what I have. Which is fine just it's like dang :c I still got no idea what's wrong

My main issue has just been this extremely severe constipation and stomach pain, with many foods making it worse, that since August got so bad I had been vomiting for weeks just because I couldn't even hold down solid food. Very few laxatives were having any effect on me at all, finally my doctor is trying amitiza and I can hold down food and use bathroom. But I'm still somehow very full of stool daily and so if I stopped taking my meds or ate too many foods that back me up even worse id be unable to eat again. And then also during the month I couldn't eat my electrolytes kept going down to dangerous levels putting me in the er over and over (I was on laxative lactulose so that may have worsened it), and my thyroid levels dropped a lot during that time.

I've had allergy tests but I cannot eat some foods I'm not allergic to, and the food sensitivities I have should at most only cause fogginess sleepiness or slight constipation and should be tolerable 1-2 times a week (my allergist did food sensitivity tests on me since I have no full on deadly-type food allergies). Like I can't seem to eat rice or corn even though I have no medical food sensitivity to them. All oats seem to constipate me even though again they are a safe food for me. In fact even all safe foods just meats veggies fruits and almond flour foods will constipate me if I don't take amitiza. Even soup alone will constipate me to the point of vomiting if I am not taking amitiza. My gi doctor has no idea why and just did an endoscopy and colonoscopy, there were no blockages, she took samples and is waiting for results. I just had a gut motility test to see if the problem is digestion which I'm waiting on results for. The thyroid stuff only got noticed because my allergy doctor ordered a ton of blood tests trying to figure out why I'm getting so backed up I am puking up food. I was starving all of September until my meds got changed and in er a lot it was not fun time ahh ToT

I really have no idea what can be causing me to be this sick. I have been constipated for weeks before and still it never affected my ability to eat and hold down food. Versus since this August where I genuinely starved if I didn't use the bathroom "enough" each day from lactulose. I would get intense nausea and vomit food if I ate more than 300 solid calories in like soup soft form. Vomit period if the food was too solid or too much. Only since 10/11 after my colonoscopy cleared me out and I got put on amitiza have I been able to eat 1000 or more calories a day, all safe type foods meat veggies fruits almond flour mostly softer foods.

Like I said tje thyroid angle is just being looked at because my tsh and t3 dropped a lot in 2 weeks and now are both abnormally low, which could make constipation worse. And constipation or Something connected starved me for a month. But also I just tried thyroid meds for two days and felt fucking awful and have been bedridden so I am going to stop the meds and wait for a specialist to check this stuff hopefully in a month or two. I would hope abnormal levels for a few months won't hurt me worse or maybe they'll fix themselves.

In the ER they took tests for autoimmune disorders, all my blood tests came back negative I was fine according to them. Also I don't have celiac disease. So I'm not sure if mcas shows up on an autoimmune bloodtest as U Have Something, but autoimmune disorder angle so far has not helped my doctors figure out what is wrong with me. The er each time just kept fixing my electrolytes and giving giving pain meds for my intense abdominal pain and sending me home.

Right now amytriptline is helping get rid of pain and nausea. Reglan is possibly helping with nausea and digestion (my stomach doctor is unsure if I need it or not) and amitiza (medicine for irritable bowel syndrome for constipation and for inexplicable constipation) is helping me use the bathroom so in theory also helping me keep down food. But it's all very tentative as the pain is only being masked, no idea why constipation or whatever is going wrong is causing vomiting issues, and if I stop my meds I'm probably starving within a week and in the er within 2 again. I have no idea how IBS C could be so severe a person is starving and ending up in er, but also if it's more than that or something worsening that then I have no idea what causes that and neither do my doctors. My stomach doctor is trying so hard but it's not been obvious and she keeps trying more tests. I am tired and scared tbh and I just wanna feel stable again.

But yeah just like ToT tldr: thank you for the rec! I appreciate it a lot! The chronic issues in general may help!

I just also am not sure mcas sounds anything like what I'm going through. My symptoms and issues are mainly affecting my digestion like crazy- can't use the bathroom except with very specific medicine ( I may have ibs but it's never been so bad I cannot eat before??) And can't eat (and that whole month was horrific as still no one has any idea why and it could just happen again). I've been browsing their account and I'm not seeing much I relate to except for just general food intolerance. But I've never needed allergy medicine for any of my food sensitivities, it's just they've made my tummy hurt a bit more and worsened my constipation a bit. But at my worst times literally any food has caused that. Allergy medicine hasn't been needed or given to me any of these times.

[duckielover151]

The Avengers (Rewatch)

This is definitely the one I was most excited to get back to, and I'm gonna try to keep this little reflection blurb from being nothing but fangirling... But I might as well say up front: I fucking love this movie. On one hand, it's just a lot of fun. I've always loved a good action flick. But on top of that, it does such a great job of telling its story that even someone who didn't know any of these characters beforehand could get attached to them. And I speak from personal experience there.

There's so much nostalgia attached to this one for me. The Avengers was the very first Marvel movie I ever saw. It's the one that kickstarted the obsession. My parents got really into camping when I was in high school. One summer, we went on this weeklong trip, where my siblings and I each got to invite a friend to come with us. A few days in, the campground was having a movie night on this big projector, and they were playing The Avengers. I honestly didn't have much interest in it, but my friend had already seen it and was so excited for me to see it for the first time. I ended up loving it, and we spent the rest of the trip talking about almost nothing else, with her catching me up on some of the backstories for the characters. And then, of course, I set about collecting and watching all the prequel movies as soon as we got home and then saw almost every new movie as it came out in theaters, up until the point I dropped off from Marvel for a bit.

The fights can be fun in an almost mindless way, but I've found being familiar with the characters only enhances the experience. The creators knew their audience. If there's one thing we'd enjoy more than seeing the Avengers team up and fight an evil alien army... it's seeing the Avengers fight each other. (I'd definitely forgotten just how many Avenger on Avenger conflicts there were before that glorious team-up.)

But I think this movie's greatest strength is the attention it pays to every single one of the characters. Two and a half hours is on the longer side for a movie, but I didn't see a single minute of that runtime that I felt could have been cut. There's quite a bit of downtime with these characters before shit really hits the fan, and that's one of my favorite things about this movie.

...Okay, the only comparison that's coming to mind right now is that old Yu-Gi-Oh! crossover movie... Bonds Beyond Time? But I guess it's as good an example as any of a movie that tried to do kind of the same thing but really struggled. That movie is so rushed. Forget the characters and their individual stakes, they barely set up the story before that final conflict is happening.

The Avengers was really set up so that it could be the movie that first pulls you in. Obviously, there were details I missed the first time around, but it did give me enough to get at least the gist of all the characters and get attached to them. Looking back at it through the eyes of this rewatch, I particularly appreciated that little scene they had with Hawkeye and Black Widow, when he's first recovering from the mind control. Because Black Widow might have had a decent role in Iron Man 2, but all we see of Hawkeye before this movie is, like, a 10-minute cameo in Thor. He's the only one I wouldn't expect anyone to be attached to beforehand, even if they'd been a Marvel fan from the beginning.

And the writing and dialogue was just a ton of fun... I could go on and on. Clearly. But I want to enjoy this while I'm here. Because I know a lot of what's coming from the later movies I haven't seen yet, and there's a good chance this first Avengers movie is going to remain my overall favorite. A happy ending isn't always necessary for a good story... But I think it's safe to say that most of us like to see it. I just know I'm going to prefer the triumphant tale that ends with the team coming together... rather than the depressing ones that result in them falling apart.