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luckcycler · 5 years ago

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hi! i know you have a info page (or whatever it's called) for your characters butt doesnt work on mobile? anyways i wanted ask if you could tell me what ultimate talents they have?

Huh…

Not sure how invested you are with how you phrased your question but I just copy-pasted all the info on this ask.

I’ll put it under read more because otherwise, it will be super long

Basic info:

Heartbreak is a story of 16 former students of Hope’s Peak Academy who have found themselves locked in the bizarre setting of a love hotel. And thus, a new exciting killing game takes place once again!

As the concepts of guilt and justification clash together inside the sickeningly pink walls of the hotel, one starts to wonder who exactly is the morally righteous one?

And to shake things up… a new rule has been added to the monopad.

The cast:

Aino Inoue

Former Ultimate Mermaid

Age: 20

Class:75-B

Blood type: O

Likes: Long Walks on the Beach, Astrology

Dislikes: Sand

It’s time for opinions! Meaning opinions from this woman! This is Aino Inoue, the ultimate mermaid! Or more precisely a professional underwater mermaid actress. It appears childhood career dreams do come true! She became a very known underwater actress for her infectious charm and her ability to stay underwater for 9 minutes without breathing.

Her attitude towards others is very straightforward but that doesn’t mean she is unfriendly, actually quite the opposite and especially if she is under the liquid courage. What’s personal space? She certainly doesn’t know.

Aino is a very nosy person and loves to give relationship advice to other people, even when these other people really don’t want it. It doesn’t help that quite a lot of these advices come from her obsession with astrology and blood type personality theory.

She can also be seen more often than not with a cocktail in hand to a point her constant state of tipsiness worries some of the others. In Aino’s opinion, it just makes her twice as fun!

Daisuke Okamoto

Former Ultimate Robot Combat Champion

Birthday: May 25th

Age: 19

Class: 76-B

Blood type: B

Likes: Logic Puzzles, Memes

Dislikes: Raisins in Bread, Academic writing

Here comes the local memester! Daisuke Okamoto is the current robot combat champion. But despite his promising career path in the art of mauling battle robots and much to everyone’s bafflement. After his time in Hope’s Peak, he went to study engineering at his local university. He refuses to tell why he had such a change of heart even when he still regularly competes.

Daisuke is a second-generation immigrant with his mother being American and father being Japanese. Because of this, his sense of humor is influenced a lot by western internet culture. He tends to joke around a lot giving him a carefree attitude. He loves to entertain, although in serious situations his joking nature can come off as insensitive.

But under all the jokes and terribly outdated meme’s, he is very intelligent and a hard realist who wants to know every detail of the rules and isn’t afraid to ask them from Monokuma.

Gina Higanbana

Former Ultimate Biochemist

Birthday: October 31st

Age: 23

Class: 72-A

Blood type: B

Likes: Poetry, Family

Dislikes: Frankenstein (Story), Sour Plums

Speaking of eccentric mad scientists! Gina Higanbana, the ultimate biochemist is the sort of person who definitely befriended every monster under her bed when she was young. Gina is a boisterous workaholic which has paid off since she is known most for her study of parabiosis. Unfortunately, not all of her fame is from positive feedback, as some of her testing methods have been found very unorthodox…

Gina presents herself as larger than life, after all, she is a woman of science! Though she delves with modern problems, her way of talking is very old fashioned, and even poetic, making her sound like she would fit right into a 19th-century romance novel.

While being a semi loud presence to the group, Gina tends to withdraw to her own space and has trouble talking about subjects outside of her interests. But when it comes to teaching neighbor kids how to turn a volcano eruption experiment into a baking soda canon, she is the right person to tag along.

Hotaka Muramaru

Former Ultimate Florist

Birthday: January 27th

Age: 22

Class: 73-B

Blood type: A

Likes: Frogs, Bellflowers

Dislikes: Kiwa Fukuda

Hotaka Muramaru, the former ultimate florist… Well, a former florist, really. He isn’t doing too hot in his life at this moment. These days he mainly does gardening work around his area. It is unfortunate as he was known for his striking floral arrangements and attention to small details before his family’s flower shop business went down.

Hotaka as a person is very forgiving by nature. He doesn’t like causing conflicts and it is very hard to get him angry. Despite these positive traits, he seems to be nice for the sake of being nice which makes it hard to get close to him in a way that matters outside of everyday small talk. It seems preserving what little image he has left is more important to him. This has also made him quite the perfectionist.

Kana Nakano

Former Ultimate Lifeguard

Birthday: May 2nd

Age: 25

Class: 70-A

Blood type: O

Likes: Children, Geocaching

Dislikes: Spontaneous Plans

Kana Nakano, the ultimate lifeguard is very passionate about her job. She is the mom friend of the group you know you can always rely on in any hardships, niche killing games included. She has become a very popular lifeguard at her local kids’ poolside as she has a knack for talking to children. Though because of this her way of talking can sound very condescending when speaking to other adults. She tends to simplify her words and soften the meaning much to some of the group’s irritation.

As a person, she can also be very stubborn until she meets her goal. If nothing else, she makes a great leader figure with a lot of survival abilities and experience in tough situations.

Katsurou Furusawa

Former Ultimate Hunter

Birthday: September 5th

Age: 23

Class: 72-A

Blood type: A

Likes: Sewing, Peace and Quiet

Dislikes: Wet Socks, Attention

This timid yet patient boy who looks like he just crawled out of a swamp is Katsurou Furusawa. Though he doesn’t like talking about his talent that much, he is known as the ultimate hunter. He got his title for his exceptional trap making skills and the ability to stay unmoving for hours to no end, blending to his environments seamlessly, and waiting for a pray to trigger his traps.

Personality-wise, Katsurou is bashful and likes to talk to himself rather than others. He has a tendency to be a people pleaser, disregarding his own beliefs and feelings on topics just to appease both sides of the argument. He was never a problem child, as he has always done what his parents told him to. Even accepting the invitation to Hope’s Peak was not his idea.

Katsurou is also a huge daydreamer. He seems to be more comfortable with the world inside his head than the real world, and it shows.

Kiwa Fukuda

Former Ultimate Scapegoat

Birthday: December 31st

Age: 23

Class: 72-B

Blood type: AB

Likes: Citrus Fruits, Tacky Decorations

Dislikes: Paper Cuts

Though she looks quite sporty, her talent is far from a healthy career. This awkward and accident-prone woman is Kiwa Fukuda, our protagonist. Unfortunately to some, she is known as the ultimate scapegoat, though this information is confidential especially in court. Her line of work is basically taking the fall for a singular person’s or even a whole company’s mistakes. If that’s not deemed realistic, she will direct the fault towards a more suitable candidate. The amount of guilt Kiwa’s work as a scapegoat leaves her with has made her desensitized and apathetic towards others.

Personality-wise, Kiwa is laidback and can come off as an airhead thanks to her apathetic demeanor towards their current situation. She tends to joke about terrible subjects that make people around her a bit uncomfortable to say the least.

Kiwa is also clumsy and tends to get involved in accidents without trying to. Be it an injury, a misunderstanding or a terrible accident, it’s easy to assume she always has something to do with it whether it was her fault or not. Kiwa now wears a bicycle helmet all the time to make sure she won’t get a third fracture on her skull.

Kohaku Iwatomi

Former Ultimate Gemologist

Birthday: June 4th

Age: 19

Class: 76-B

Blood type: O

Likes: Shiny Things, DIY

Dislikes: Loneliness

This is Kohaku Iwatomi and he is happily ready to talk your ears off! Kohaku is known as the ultimate gemologist, mainly because he changes his specialty in gemology quite often, always wanting to try out something new. He seems to excel in all the areas he has tried out so far through pure dedication and excitement towards his profession. Though, for some reason, he has been working as a gem appraiser in his local pawnshop for longer than his peers thought he would withstand to.

Kohaku is a very cheery young man who loves to mingle no matter the topic. If you know him, you probably know his whole life story. He doesn’t like silence, nor does he bode well if left alone for too long. He isn’t narcissistic though as he is very empathetic and wears his emotions on his sleeve, he just really likes company and he has so much information to share with everyone!

Kohaku also has a liking towards thrift shop clothes and DIY projects hence his striking and pretty mismatched appearance.

Masami Kiyokane

Former Ultimate Croupier

Birthday: July 17th

Age: 22

Class: 73-A

Blood type: O

Likes: Board Games, Philosophy of Ethics

Dislikes: Alcohol

As if there were not enough party poopers in this group… This is Masami Kiyokane and he is known as the ultimate croupier. He got his title through diligent croupier work at organized events and after coming of age, at established casinos. Masami also has gotten quite good at seeing who is cheating and he knows most card games by heart. He seems fascinated by game rules in general.

Masami’s personality is pretty uptight and passive-aggressive. His way of talking tends to be a colorful use of personification, especially when he is going on a tangent and complaining about something. Though he talks big, very rarely is his bite worse than his bark as he mutters under his breath before admitting he is in the wrong.

Masami has a very strong moral system he believes in. His rather judgmental attitude is unusual for someone who has a hobby of learning about ethical philosophy though and often he gets called a hypocrite for playing favorites. He is not very happy about that.

Mei Kaneko

Ultimate Phonologist

Birthday: March 21st

Age: 18

Class: 77-A

Blood type: B

Likes: Corvidae, Accents

Dislikes: Wasting Time

This young girl is Mei Kaneko. She is the youngest of the group as she is the only one still studying in Hope’s Peak. She should be set to graduate soon and she is more than excited to continue with her dreams towards a real working life as the ultimate Phonologist!

Personality-wise, Mei is very energetic and will give her all to any task at hand. She is also very loud and a bit of a daredevil. If you tell her to not push the red button, she will definitely push the red button.

Growing up, Mei’s neighborhood had always been surrounded by corvids. As she slowly got more familiar with them, she developed a fascination towards the crows that kept playing in her backyard. Mei had been studying dialects and languages since she was little thanks to her bilingual home and decided, quite abruptly, that her life work from then on would have to deal with establishing communication with corvids.

Nori Ikari

Former Ultimate Sailor

Birthday: December 8th

Age: 20 (?)

Class: 75-A

Blood type: AB

Likes: Folk Tales, Making Rope Knots

Dislikes: His Knee Brace

This theatrically boisterous man is Nori Ikari, the ultimate sailor. Believe it or not, he is as young as 20 years old, which has led some of the group to believe he is a vampire in disguise. Nori comes from a vast lineage of sailors of different ranks but all just as proud seafarers! Nori got his title as the ultimate sailor after recklessly making a week-long fishing trip alone in a trawler boat made for a crew of 10.

Nori tends to tell long tales of his ancestors which sound just bizarre enough that no one is quite sure if Nori is speaking the truth or not. To be honest, everything he says just sounds downright like a big fish story all the way down to his accent. Is this man real? No one has a good answer to that.

Personality-wise Nori can be pretty intense. He has a habit of making a bigger deal out of very normal things. Nori values honor and traditions and tends to get quite defensive if his integrity is challenged. And if needed, he might challenge you to a sword fight at a parking lot if he deems you need a fair ass kicking.

Okemia Momose

Former Ultimate Opera Singer

Birthday: March 10th

Age: 24

Class: 71-B

Blood type: A

Likes: Vintage Aesthetic, Home

Dislikes: Hope’s Peak, Luck

This nervous woman is Okemia Momose. It’s been a while since people have heard her sing, but she is still regarded as the ultimate opera singer. She got her title for her incredible range and her ability to hold a note for almost half a minute.

Nowadays though, her fame is shadowed by a traumatic event she went through in one of her performances. She was one of the performers at her local opera house which was run by a Yakuza family. However, there was a very strained turf war going on around the area that one day resulted in a shoot out at the opera house. Unfortunately to Okemia, she got caught in the crossfire and a bullet hit her temple. Though she survived, she got inflicted irredeemable damage to her brain which developed into a stutter.

Despite her towering over everyone with her height of a 6’5 feet, she is not very confident in herself. Okemia is a very high-strung person who tends to think the worst possible thing will definitely happen to her. Though she is nervous she has a lot of resentful opinions that are made from wise words

Shion Arai

Former Ultimate Figure Skater

Birthday: July 23rd

Age: 21

Class: 74-B

Blood type: B

Likes: Rhinestones, Straightforwardness

Dislikes: Cleaning, Bootlickers, Mornings

This person here is Shion Arai the ultimate figure skater! Under all the glitter, rhinestones, and an eccentric personality lies a somewhat kind-hearted individual who is willing to cooperate… as long as it doesn’t inconvenience them.

Shion got their title thanks to their impeccable ability to adapt and improve fast. They have won multiple competitions in their teen years despite starting the sport at age 12, which is considered quite late. After graduating Hope’s peak, Shion’s placement in the podiums has started to steadily drop. If asked about the slow decline of their career, Shion just shrugs nonchalantly, leaving it at that.

Shion identifies as nonbinary and they are very prideful towards their identity and their achievements. Despite this, they are also incredibly lazy and rarely bothers to do something they don’t want to. Their goal is to go where the bar is the lowest and if that’s not possible, they WILL complain.

Suzu Nagahashi

Former Ultimate Ballerina

Birthday: November 1st

Age: 21

Class: 74-A

Blood type: A

Likes: Rainy Days, Leather Jackets

Dislikes: Dancing

This cold and assertive young lady is Suzu Nagahashi, the ultimate ballerina and she is not here to get herself killed over some dumb motive. Suzu has been known for her skills all her life. Rumor has it her mother, a former ballerina, started teaching Suzu how to dance the moment she was able to take her first step. Absolutely no one was surprised when she got her invitation to Hope’s Peak, though she rarely showed up to school thanks to her harsh performance schedule.

Suzu is very stoic and she picks her words carefully. Though her tone of voice is very serious, her pink frilly dress makes her attempts to be taken seriously harder for her. Luckily Suzu is stubborn and will try her utmost best to keep the situation she has been thrown in solely under her control.

Tetsu Asukaze

Honorary Ultimate Taxi Driver

Birthday: October 1st

Age: 26

Class: N/A

Blood type: AB

Likes: Radio, Coffee, Extraterrestrials

Dislikes: N/A

This funky young man is Tetsu Asukaze and he is known as the ultimate taxi driver. Who would’ve thought that was a talent, huh? Tetsu’s situation as an ultimate is a bit different from others because he only discovered his talent after getting old enough to drive which meant his high school days were already over. Despite this, Hope’s Peak decided to give him an honorary title of an ultimate taxi driver. Whatever that means…

Even though Hope’s Peak had given a public acknowledgment of Tetsu’s talent, he doesn’t think much of it nor does he feel he really belongs with the other ultimates.

Personality-wise, Tetsu is your serene local cryptid whose life has no order and looking at his sleeping schedule it’ll stay like that. Despite his harmless chaos, he is a very sweet lad with a passion for the unknown and obscure theories.

Tsubaki Ito

Former Ultimate Mortician

Birthday: May 8th

Age: 24

Class: 71-A

Blood type: O

Likes: Medical History, Bad and Gory Horror Movies

Dislikes: Spirals

This unnerving and small woman is Tsubaki Ito, the ultimate mortician. She was born as a miracle child to an old couple that ran a mortician family business. In fact, everyone in her extended family is at least a generation older than her. As the years went by, her family slowly passing away from natural causes had become a regular occurrence.

Tsubaki is specialized in body restoration and desairology, as she tends to work with victims of causalities. She got her title by her ability to make even the worst of murder victims to look like they are merely sleeping in their caskets.

As the concept of death is an old friend in her family, Tsubaki has become desensitized towards the subject and can come off as insensitive towards the killing game. But what can you do when your daily routine occasionally includes pulling out a chainsaw from someone’s chest cavity due to a gruesome accident? Despite this, Tsubaki is very sweet and will address everyone with an endearing tone.

#Anonymous #drs heartbreak #fanganronpa

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curserp · 5 years ago

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first of all, i just want to say i loved seeing all the thoughts and theories that were going on around all of this !!! honestly, i think some of you guys gave me too much credit, because most of this is a lot simpler than the intricate stuff you came up with--- i wish i had thought of some of the things you all did ! but for now, finally, here’s ( most of ) the clues i purposefully placed, as well as some general info, which i’ve tried to break up into sections for ease of reading.

SKELETONS / NUMBERS :

the skeletons are listed below with their id numbers ( the tags are linked as well ) :

andromeda : #0237632.

arachne : #0272463.

cassandra : #0276372.

daedalus : #0323357.

helen : #0043536.

heracles : #0472537.

jason : #0052766.

medea : #0063332.

midas : #0064327.

narcissus : #0672787.

orion : #0067466.

pandora : #0726372.

paris : #0072747.

perseus : #0777387.

each of the id numbers were decided by entering the skeleton names onto the dial pad of a phone--- abc = 2, def = e, ghi = 4, jkl = 5, mno = 6, pqrs = 7, tuv = 8, wyz = 9.

phones in general were hinted at a few times.

in asks, as i tried to use the word ‘call’ repeatedly when asked about it, ‘key’ once, as well as the word ‘phony’ at one point. get it ? phone-y ? that one was kind of a stretch, i know.

a phone prominently featured in a branch on the classification quiz.

the encoded text messages were, obviously, sent from a phone.

on an update before dropping stage 3, a strange voicemail was mentioned and you were encouraged to delete it from your phone.

the database speaks to you over the phone during curse finalization.

on the graphic for stage 3, a phone is the only object in the hallway.

some names did need to be shortened in order to fit all the same number of digits, so andromeda became adrmda, pandora became pandra, etc.

honestly, this code was weirder and more random than most of the other things, so i’d call it bonus points more than anything else. a lot of you puzzled out who was who without knowing what the numbers meant.

CURSE REGISTRATION / STAGE I ( here ) :

i asked you all to send in these results to the curse database, and used those totals to decide the order in which the skeletons would be released ; midas ended up with the most results so they’re posted first, cassandra got the least so they’re last, etc.

results from all three stages will also factor in to some future plot drops, though i’ll keep those quiet for now.

TEXT POSTS :

these are pretty straightforward ; i chose text that i thought suits each skeleton as i’ve written them, and tagged them with their respective curse ids to tease the fact that there were ids at all.

FOLDERS PAGE ( here ) :

this displays not only the skeletons’ classifications, but also their active danger levels ; one exclamation point for low, two for medium, three for high.

while the classifications were shown as only numbers 001-007 at that point, since the curse classification blog hadn’t dropped yet, in this ask a few posts previous i wrote the types as the first word of each corresponding number on the list.

CURSE CLASSIFICATION / STAGE II ( here ) :

when you reach a result on the curse classifications, the clock at the top of the screen stops and displays a single time. that number corresponds to the number on the files image. when you get an error it shows only zeroes.

the classifications are :

chaos ( pandora, paris )

death ( arachne )

hero ( heracles, jason, perseus )

infamy ( cassandra, midas )

loss ( daedalus, medea )

love ( helen, narcissus, orion )

monster ( andromeda )

yes, those are alphabetical. when i was making the folders page i just kinda said fuck it.

i took the hands off the clock on the image in the post, both because i wanted to draw attention to the clocks on the actual pages, and cause it looked sick.

if you get to page /c6, the clock stops and zeroes out. that’s because there’s no way to get anything but an error after that point.

i asked you all to send in these results to the curse database, too, and they were used as tiebreakers for the skeleton posting order. like, medea and pandora ended up with the same amount of results from registration, but there were more loss results than chaos from classification, so medea goes first.

TEXT MESSAGES ( here, here, here, here, here, here, and here ) :

the encryption on the text messages is caesar cipher, where you shift the alphabet a certain number of letters over and substitute those letters for each other. for example, an alphabet with a shift of 1 would have a become b, b become c, and so on. the shift changes for each text message, depending on what the character’s curse classification is. so the text from narcissus ( #0672787, classification of 6. love ) has a shift of 6.

the decoded texts are :

#0063332. ( medea, shift 5 ) : you made your choice. now i am making mine.

#0672787. ( narcissus, shift 6 ) : at least you’ll be hung in the stars. i’ll only be remembered like a cautionary tale.

#0072747. ( paris, shift 1 ) : don’t blame me, please. i am not the villain.

#0272463. ( arachne, shift 2 ) : did you make this for yourself, too ?

#0472537. ( heracles, shift 3 ) : wasn’t my strength meant to earn me a better reward than this ?

#0237632. ( andromeda, shift 7 ) : you cannot be a hero all the time. what if my monster wins ?

#0064327. ( midas, shift 4 ) : i could have known better, at least. nothing this gold could come without consequence.

i also wanted to use this to kind of further their feeling of being watched ---which i hope i started to get across just in some answers to anons ---with the messages between skeletons be ‘intercepted’ by the database.

CURSE FINALIZATION / STAGE III ( here ) :

before dropping this stage, a ‘data breach’ was mentioned twice in separate posts. this was to ( hopefully ) encourage people to look for hidden information--- aka, the data that was breached.

there are five total hidden pages on this stage, and one secret extra message.

first is another intercepted message from one of the skeletons. the link is here.

on page /b2, click the word ‘key’ to get here.

the text message is from #0276372, aka cassandra, who is prophetic. cassandra is the only skeleton with anything set about their curse, and their prophecies will be a part of gameplay.

the url for this page is 0677437, and if you use the same keypad method as the numbers for the skeletons, that translates to ‘mssges.’

second is a chart monitoring active danger levels. the link is here.

on page /b3, the clock has stopped at 00:00:14, for the 14 skeletons. if you wait those 14 seconds, you will automatically be redirected.

the url for this page is 0003282, or ‘data.’

the third is a contact log between the database and a god. the link is here.

on page /c2, a ‘source’ is mentioned. if you view the source code of the page, the first thing at the top is the url.

the clock on this page has stopped at 02:09:01, and the connection was lost at that same time ; if you substitute letters in for numbers, 291 spells ‘bia’, the goddess of violence, who the communication was with.

the url for this page is 0005647, or ‘logs.’

the fourth is an incident report from a monster attack. the link is here.

on page /c7, ‘time’ is mentioned repeatedly. click on the clock to get here.

the incident report is 8-1-18-16-25, which, with a substitution between numbers and letters, translates out to ‘harpy,’ the type of creature from the attack.

the url for this page is 0737678, or ‘report.’

the fifth is the list of id numbers and their skeletons. the link is here.

on this ask, i asked ( yes, i sent this one to myself ) about the numbers, and responded ‘why haven’t you searched.’ put /numbers directly after the url of curse finalization to get here.

if you highlight above the ‘submitting’ text on the /finalize page, you can find a message : ‘you’re not safe here.’

the codes you all reached are going to remain kind of a mystery for now. there is a solution for it, if you’re really interested in puzzling it out, but i’m not going to list the answer here. they’ve helped me decide the first plot drop of the group. this is somewhat of a teaser for how the gameplay will go here ; the curse database will remain an active player, and you’ll often be helping choose events. you just might not always when you’re doing it, or how.

easter eggs / fun facts, i guess !

when you get an error in curse registration or classification, if you hover your mouse over the word ‘error,’ it shakes like a glitch. this serves no purpose and means nothing, it just took me a while to figure out how to code, so i wanted to point it out. just let me have this

i actually had a very different stage three planned when i dropped stage two, one incorporating the results from registration and classification more, but the classification results i got were totally different than what i’d expected. while the registration results were pretty varied, over half of the 40-something answers i got from your classifications were for ‘love,’ and i actually got only one ‘monster’ and zero ‘death’ results from you guys. which i suppose is fitting, since there’s only one skeleton of each ! but still, it threw things off a bit, and i had to pretty thoroughly rework stage three. besides, i ended up with like 100+ results from both stages, and i got kind of overwhelmed with my original idea. you all kept me on my toes !!

i sent two asks to myself : the one i needed to set up so i could list out the curse classifications, the one to drop a hint about the /numbers page. the rest all came from you guys ! and for that i am hugely grateful--- i had sort of escape plans the entire time if there wasn’t enough interest, where i’d be able to drop the main after stage one or two and skirt around the extras, but i’m so glad i got to follow through on this thing to the end. i wouldn’t have been able to do it without your engagement. every single time i get a little inbox notification i get excited.

i noticed some of you were getting a lot of error results, but that’s not on you ! there were 32 possible results on curse registration with 16 of those being errors, and 15 results on curse classification with 8 of those being errors. so don’t worry, you were more likely on those stages to get an error than a result.

some of you wondered if the general urls ( /a1, /b2, etc. ) of the different pages on the registration, classification and finalization blogs meant something, and i’m sorry to say they don’t. originally i was going to customize them so they’d be harder to just sift through later, but there ended up being 130+ total pages between all three blogs--- and for my own sanity, and for the sake of easier organization when editing them, i just left them as they were with their letters and numbers.

someone asked me if this post was for cassandra since the quote involves cassandra in the source material agamemnon. whoops. it’s not, that post is actually just a nod to the fact that i don’t know how to read.

i think that’s just about everything ! there are all kinds of other small things as nods to skeletons, the plot, the database in general, future plot drops, all scattered throughout answers on the curse database--- and i’ll be here all day if i list them all. if you have any specific questions about anything i would love to answer them, so please feel free to shoot them my way ! i believe that’s the gist of it, though. thanks so much again for going along with me on all of this !!

#curseadmin #cursetalk #this is so long i'm sorry #but i think i covered everything !!!!

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faylor · 6 years ago

Text

Impulsive

Chapter 2: Out of the Black

Nearly an hour had passed on Tony's flight back to upstate New York. He sat comfortably in his seat, sipping on a freshly made cup of coffee as his mind trailed through the events of the past couple days. It had been an unexpected and unfortunate turn of events, but it almost didn't surprise him. It seemed as if everywhere he went, trouble followed just behind him. His conscience was troubled, knowing that his efforts hadn't saved everyone during the earthquake, including Doctor Murray.

He rubbed a hand across his forehead at the haunting thought, letting out a sigh. It could've been worse - much worse - had he not been there with the suit, though. And he had made sure to set up a fund for those affected by the incident before heading off, which did give him a small amount of comfort.

However, there was one memory from that day etched into his mind, playing almost on a loop.

The girl - Doctor Murray's daughter. What was her name again? Aly? No, no. Alex? Yeah, that was right.

He had definitely seen her use some sort of unnatural ability to stop that debris from falling on them, and it sparked endless questions within him. How did she become enhanced? What all was she capable of? Was she dangerous? Did anyone else know about her?

It simply struck him as odd, and he needed to know more. He pulled out his phone, hesitating for a moment before his curiosity got the best of him.

"Jarvis? Can we pull some data on Doctor Miranda Murray's kid?" he asked.

"Yes, Sir," the AI replied, and within moments, a number of files and photos began popping up. He quickly gestured a hand over his phone, and the images became holograms in front of him.

"What've we got here..." Tony's eyes scanned curiously at the information sprawled out before him.

"Alexandria Murray, fifteen years old, currently enrolled at Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto, California," Jarvis informed.

"Any info on her... enhancements?"

"Negative. No records found on them."

"Hmm... Alright. Family history? Anyone of importance?"

"Not particularly. As of yesterday, her only currently living relative is her biological father."

"What've you got on him?" Tony took another sip of his coffee, his eyes slightly narrowing as they focused on the newly shown documents.

"Marcus Calloway, convicted felon. He's been locked away in prison for the past twelve years," the AI continued.

"What for?" he questioned.

"Black market arms dealings and money embezzlement."

"Interesting." He paused, setting down his mug. "So... the kid's got no one, huh?"

"It would appear that way, Sir."

"And where is she now?" Tony's voice became curious.

"Child Protective Services in California currently have her in custody. She's going to be put into foster care in a few days."

"Right..." He paused, his gaze averting out the jet's window next to him. "Jarvis, get ahold of Pepper for me, will ya?"

Without a word, Jarvis did as asked. It took only moments for Pepper to pick up the call.

"Tony?" her voice rang.

"Hey, Pep. Uh, change of plans. I'm gonna be a little late getting back."

"What happened?"

"Nothing, nothing. I just... I need to take care of something."

"And what might that be?"

"Something I hope I don't regret."

xXxXxXx

Alex's tired eyes gazed absentmindedly out one of the windows in the office, her mind drifting as it had been frequently in the past couple of days. Two days. Two days now she'd been in custody of CPS, awaiting to be shipped off to some random foster family. She hated this. All of it. Everything had changed so fast, and for the worst. Just this morning, she'd been told that a potential home had already been found for her. She wasn't ready by any means.

"Alex?" a voice suddenly spoke, snapping her attention back from whatever void it had been drawn into.

"Hmm?" Her gaze shifted toward the woman sitting behind the desk parallel of her - Ms. Ortiz, one of the CPS officials who was apparently in charge of Alex's case.

"They're here, if you're ready," the woman informed.

Alex sighed, her eyebrows momentarily lifting. "Sure, yeah. I guess."

"Alright, I'll be right back." Ms. Ortiz stood from her seat and left the room.

Alex's fingers toyed with the hem of her flannel shirt while her thoughts began to race again. She didn't want this. She just wanted to run away and be alone. She was only on the second floor of this building. She could slip out the window pretty easily, maybe no one would notice.

She shook her head at the idea, letting out a breathy scoff just as she heard the room's door handle begin to move. Her heart jumped a bit as she set a careful gaze on the doorway as it began to open. Ms. Ortiz's face came into view, followed by... No way.

Ms. Ortiz led the man into the room before closing the door behind them, and her eyes found the girl once more. A slightly puzzled look spread on her face as she noticed Alex's own expression.

"Alex, this is Mr. Stark, which... I'm sure you already know," she chuckled.

"W-What are you... Why are you here?" The teenager's voice was quiet and slightly timid as she stared at him in disbelief.

Tony looked at the official, removing his glasses. "Do you mind if I have a moment to talk with her?"

"Sure," she replied with a subtle smile. "I'll be right outside."

Tony watched as Ms. Ortiz walked out the office's door, and as soon as it was closed, he turned himself to Alex.

"I know, I’m just as surprised as you are.” He sighed. “Look, kid. I'm gonna just cut to the chase, alright? They're gonna put you into the system in, what, couple days?"

Alex's eyebrows immediately furrowed at his words as her lips slowly parted, but she couldn't manage to put her vocal chords to work. Tony took a brief moment of silence as well, his eyes studying her expression.

"You ever been to New York?" he asked.

"What?" her voice finally muttered. "I-I don't understand..."

"I'm gonna take that as a no," he remarked. "Welp, first time for everything, I guess."

"Mr. Stark, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Long story short, you're coming with me, kid."

Alex's eyes became much wider now as her mind tried to process such a shocking sentence. Was she hearing him correctly? Did he actually just say that? Her throat was tightening, and her stunned gaze didn't budge from his own.

"Unless you'd prefer to go into foster care, that is," Tony added, taking a small step in her direction. "It's up to you, really."

"Why... Why would you do that? I don't..." Alex squeaked out. "You don't even know me..."

"So are we just gonna ignore the fact that you stopped over a hundred pounds of falling concrete from crushing both of us, without even touching it?"

Alex felt a chill course its was through her body as her heartbeat began to pick up pace. Of course he had seen it. She knew that. But all of a sudden, he wanted to take her in because of it? Why?

"I suspect your... powers, or whatever you call it," he continued, "won't settle too well with any family you might get put with."

"But they will with you?" Alex spoke a little more audaciously.

Tony raised an eyebrow at her. "I've seen worse, kid. I promise. And besides, you'll fit right in."

"Are you... trying to recruit me or something?" She raises a brow.

Tony's head cocked to the side as his face showed signs of thought. "I wouldn't exactly put it that way. But if that's what you wanna call it-"

"I don't," Alex interrupted, her tone cold and firm.

"Okay, alright. Well then it's not." Tony hesitated, attempting to pick his next words very carefully. He needed her on his side. "We'll stick with calling it... a new start, yeah?"

Alex fell silent once more, her eyes dropping to her hands that were clasped in her lap.

"What d'ya say, kid?" Tony's voice sounded again, this time at a slightly quieter tone.

"I... I don't know..." Alex, whispered, raising her head to him with hesitation.

Tony took another step toward the teen, crossing his arms. "Listen, I know this whole thing sucks. I do. But trust me, it's gonna suck a whole hell of a lot more if you're stuck in the system."

"How would you know?" Alex rebutted coldly. "You don't have the first clue."

"Look, kid, I'm here to help you. Not the opposite."

"By doing what, exactly? Trying to drag me into your super cult?"

"Not a cult, first off. Second, with your fun little abilities, you'll fit right in with the rest of the circus freaks without anyone batting an eye." He smirked.

Alex huffed through her nose as she subtly shook her head. "Do I really have a choice at this point?"

"Logically speaking... No, not really."

Alex remained silent for what felt like minutes, trying to process what had just happened. Tony Stark literally just offered to... become her guardian? Just because he had seen her use her abilities exactly one time. It didn’t make sense. But at the same time, she figured he wasn’t wrong. If she’d accidentally let her powers slip at the wrong moment with a random foster family, who knows what’d happen to her. Best case scenario, she’d be turned over to the government for experimentation, she thought. Well, okay, maybe not that. But it still wouldn’t be a good look. She didn’t want to admit it, but yeah, he was right.

“So you just expect me to drop everything and leave?” she questioned.

“Like I said, new start for ya,” Tony replied, the corners of his mouth tilting upward.

“What if I don’t want a new start?”

“Change isn’t always a bad thing, kid.”

The teen dropped her gaze to her hands resting in her lap. This wasn’t going to be easy. Actually, this was going to suck. But she had to make a decision, and once she did, that was that. No going back.

Maybe it was time for a new start.

"Okay, fine. Whatever." There was a tinge of bitterness, if not uneasiness in her voice. "Just... I'm gonna need my stuff.”

"Oh, that's not a problem. It's being taken care of..." He paused, tapping his finger on the screen of his phone a few times. "...now. And I'll deal with all the paperwork mumbo jumbo, with your autograph here and there, too, of course."

Alex's eyes narrowed slightly as she finally stood from her chair. "Don't make this weirder than it has to be."

xXxXxXx

Pretty much all of Alex's free time was spent hidden away in the room that Mr. Stark had made for her out of one of the guest rooms. He had made sure that all of her posters and books were properly put in place. However, her clothes remained in her open suitcases that were carelessly laying in the floor. She hadn't bothered to put them up yet, simply sifting through the now disheveled piles whenever she needed to get dressed.

She kept to herself as much as humanly possible, only making an appearance outside of her room when it was time to eat. Even if either Mr. Stark or Ms. Potts had attempted their hand at small talk with her during said appearances, Alex kept it short and simple. The last thing she wanted to do was bother anyone or get in their way. She had grown practically reclusive, holed up in her own space away from everything else. But due to that, her mind kept toying at dismal thoughts to the point where she just wanted to scream.

Nightmares had started to infiltrate her sleep, and they were becoming more frequent and terrifying as the nights went by. They were always about the same thing - the same day. About her mother. In the midst of these grim visions, her body would jolt awake in the middle of the night, a cold sweat beading on her skin as she attempted to catch her breath. She thought that it might get better over time, but it seemed to be going the exact opposite. It didn't help that the overall feeling these nightmares gave her lingered into the day, which only added onto the weight she was already carrying with such a sudden, drastic change in her life.

It had been nearly a month since she'd been brought here, and she was having such a hard time attempting to adjust to this new lifestyle. Moving away to a different city - across the country, let alone - was hard enough to adapt to on its own, but now she was living in an unimaginably state-of-the-art tower which belonged to someone she only barely knew.

Everything felt extremely out of place, especially herself. Why was it that Tony Stark was willing to offer up a place in his own home to a random fifteen year old? Sure, he'd told her that it was to protect her from any kind of danger her abilities might put her or others in with an unknowing family. But was there more to it? Was she supposed to be some kind of lab rat for him to experiment on? Surely not, she thought.

On top of that, she couldn't shake the overall feeling of grief that ate away at her day by day. She attempted to fixate herself with diversions to ease the pain, but it never really went away.

She let out a heavy sigh as she absentmindedly flipped another page in her book. It was all she could do to keep herself distracted from the racing thoughts that overtook her mind, trying to focus on her reading to little effect.

It was too quiet.

Decidedly, she stood from her desk and made her way toward the small stereo that resided on her nightstand and turned it on, instantly connecting her phone to it and opening one of her many playlists. Only moments later, her room was filled with the sound of Iron Maiden.

That was better.

She flopped back down in her desk chair, returning her attention back to her book. She tapped her fingers against the desk top as she read, focusing to the best of her ability. Her eyes kept scanning the print on each page, but it hardly seemed to register. It was a mindless task at this point, if she were being honest. Maybe she could use a break - a real break. Something outside the four walls she so intently kept behind. She thought that maybe a little self-given tour of the place might not be so bad.

Opening her door, she made her way out into the corridor. Instantly, she could hear two voices that were bickering back and forth, causing her to hesitate for a moment before continuing. The voices became louder as she approached the main living area of the suite, and she stopped right in her tracks as soon as the source of the voices finally came into view.

"-not right to just leave her all alone in that room for so long, Tony!"

"I'm giving her some space! Is that reallysuch a bad thing? After what happened, do you think-"

Tony's cut himself short at the sudden sound of Alex clearing her throat rather loudly. The two adults quickly whipped their heads in her direction, a surprised expression appearing on both of their features.

"Alex..." A soft yet nervous smile appeared on Pepper's face as she spoke. "Did you need something?"

"Oh, no. I was just... Study break." Her words were followed by a shrug. "Needed to get my mind off things."

Tony's face turned to slight confusion. "You're studying? It's summer."

"Just mindless reading. For fun, I guess." Alex glanced toward the floor, a forced breathy laugh slipping out.

"Listen, uh, I've been meaning to talk with you about some things, kid," Tony stated, trying to change the subject.

"Oh? Um... maybe later?" Alex replied, her eyes flickering back up to Tony. "I just really need some fresh air, ya know? Good for the soul."

Her lips pressed into a fine line as she gestured toward the balcony adjacent of her, and she started to make her way toward it without another word. She had hoped that she'd made it clear she wasn't in the mood to talk, at least not about the subject matter she was certain that he'd implied.

This particular balcony had quite a beautiful view of the city. Alex's eyes calmly scanned back and forth through all the buildings as a slight breeze brushed against her. Maybe it wasn't so bad, being here. At least, she tried to think it wasn't. But those same dark, invasive thoughts kept creeping up on her, and they made her feel absolute guilt. How could she live happily ever after when she could've saved her mom's life? It just wasn't fair. None of it was.

xXxXxXx

Later in the night, she'd finally lulled herself to sleep after a few hours of failed attempts, but it didn't last. She jolted awake with a strained yelp, her body wringing with sweat as she sucked in stifled breaths. Her eyes began to sting, tears welling within them as she blinked rapidly. These haunting nightmares had become a regular occurrence over the past few weeks, but this was different - worse. It felt so real. She recalled how the image of her mother stared dauntingly at her, repeating "You could've saved me..." over and over again.

Alex pulled her knees tightly into her chest, wrapping her arms around them before burying her face within them. She was fully crying now, muffled sobs wracking her body. She didn't remember falling back asleep.

The next thing she knew, her eyes were fluttering open to see bright sunlight spilling into the room - much brighter than she'd been used to. She glanced to one of the room's windows. The curtains were... gone? It took her only a moment more to realize that they'd fallen to the ground as her eyes trailed to the floor.

It wasn't just the curtains, either. Books, clothes, and even her bed covers among other things were scattered all around. She sat up quickly, a small gasp escaping past her lips at the sight. Had she done this in her sleep? The thought made her feel sick.

Her abilities were still a mystery to her, and this just added insult to injury. Did she really have no actual control over them?

Maybe Mr. Stark was right all along. Maybe she did need his help.

She quickly dressed herself in the first pair of distressed jeans and old t-shirt she could find before heading out of her room in search for some coffee. She reached the suite's kitchen, finding it completely empty to her contentment. She pulled a coffee mug from one of the cabinets before starting the coffee maker. The thick aroma filled her nostrils, which eased her a bit in contrast to the thoughts of what had apparently happened last night.

"You been having nightmares, kid?" The sudden voice made Alex nearly jump. She turned around to see that Tony was now standing just on the edge of the kitchen, mug in hand.

"Jesus... A little warning next time would be nice."

"You didn't answer my question." Tony took a sip from his own coffee. "You been having nightmares?" he repeated, this time a tad more foreword.

"What are you talking about?"

"Let's not play dumb, alright? I have Jarvis monitor your heart rate at night," he explained nonchalantly. "It's been kind of alarming the past couple of weeks. And last night, it was practically off the charts."

Alex chewed at the inside of her mouth in hesitation as her eyes averted his gaze. "It's nothing," she answered after a moment.

"Nothing, huh?" He raised a brow. "Then why does it look like a tornado destroyed your room?"

Shit.

Alex felt her heart jump slightly, a pang of embarrassment hitting her. She had intended on cleaning up all of the evidence before anyone had time to worry about it, but that was entirely out of the cards now.

"I mean, I could just assume that you had an overly-dramatic fit of teen rage and trashed everything, but I don't think you quite fit the bill for that." Tony's tone was amused as he spoke, and it was obvious to Alex that he'd pieced together what had happened.

"I didn't think you'd see," she admitted, her fatigued eyes finally looking up to meet his own. "I'm sorry, okay?"

"Jarvis informed me, and I'm glad he did." Tony raised a hand defensively. "Besides, don't be sorry." His reaction garnered a perplexed expressed on Alex's face. "This is sort of what I've been meaning to talk to you about, anyway."

"What?"

"You need to control this... this thing you have, right?"

Alex sighed, her eyes dropping to look at her hands. "This thing..." she repeated with a scoff before turning back to him.

"Whatever you wanna call it, you gotta learn to control it. I don't wanna come home one day to find... Well, no home. Capiche?"

"It's not that simple," she retorted. "I don't even know how it works in the first place. It just... does."

"Okay, well we can figure that out," he assured.

"How?" Her voice was almost amused at this point.

"Run some diagnostics, tests - all that jazz."

"No," Alex disputed, her tone much more serious, if not skittish now. "No tests."

"Okay..." Tony's eyes studied her for a moment, curiosity laden within his gaze.

"I just... I don't wanna be poked and prodded at is all."

"Fair enough." He paused. "Tell you what, no tests - yet. But you've gotta work with me here. We need to figure out what makes those little powers of yours tick, and in order to do that, you need to show me what you can do, alright?"

"I guess..." she spoke slowly, her gaze carefully watching him. "But I-"

"Okay, great." A smug smile began to form on his lips. "We'll get started on your training tomorrow."

Alex's eyes suddenly grew wide as her eyebrows wrinkled. "My what?"

"Hope you have some kind of athletic wear," Tony added as he turned to walk away. "Might be a little challenging in those skinny jeans."

"Wait- No! Huh-uh," she retorted, starting after him. "You're not gonna turn me into a freaking Avenger! You said you weren't recruiting me!"

That stopped Tony right in his tracks, his sneakers squeaking on the floor as he abruptly came to a halt. He slowly turned himself around so that they were facing one another again, his lips pressed into a fine line.

"You're gonna be one tough egg to break, aren't you, kid?" he asked, his voice writhe with sarcasm.

Alex's face settled into a much more subdued expression, her arms crossing firmly over her chest.

"That's the problem. I'm already broken, dumbass."

#fanfic #fanfiction #marvel #mcu #avengers #original character #oc #tony stark #iron man #iron dad #mcu au #endgame fix it

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wombatlogic · 8 years ago

Text

Project 4

a horror/independent adventure game by lizardotaku (https://rpgmaker.net/games/9461/)

a review

So what is it?

Project4 is advertised as a a horror/adventure game, and it definitely leads towards the adventure side with a heavy dose of surrealism. It's inspired by the likes of HOME and OFF, neither of which I've played, so my perspective might be a little odd... especially considering I don't play many horror games to begin with. However! I do like "walking simulator" games so let's see what Project 4 has to offer. It's advertised as "shortish" (~2 hours) and "complete" which are both things I appreciate.

I'll try to make this spoiler-free.

Story

Project 4 opens with an intro story about a pair of twins who live isolated in a forest, surrounded by other children hunting rabbits. When the player takes control of Trost (Class: Actor) in a completely unrelated environment, my impression was that Project 4 is ruled by two different stories: a concrete one outside the game's environment, and a central conceit/metaphor story of the projects. The "real" story is updated as Trost progresses through each of the projects. Trost has an objective, and is oppposed to the projects and their worker denizens, etc. As the game continues, the story is wrapped up in the named engineer minions that populate the projects, but especially mystery characters like Emil that show up in each zone to support Trost. The relationships between the individual project managers (bosses, basically) are all interesting as well, especially the last two, Tris and Dell, which are unusual fights where Trost is the agressor. Each zone has a self-contained plot that plays out as Trost visits (and generally kills off half the project's residents), plus things like notes/logs that tie together a story between all of the projects, their former visitors, and dynamics between each of the project heads.

Then, after the last fight of Project 4, after Trost's rampage is finished, the concrete story from the beginning picks up where it left off to end the game. Confession time: I didn't fully get it. I spent a decent amount of time trying to understand how the narratives fit together (the conceit/metaphorical one inside the projects vs the one outside) but I couldn't parse the pieces. I could piece together who the characters were in the projects vs the characters in the conceit, but but by the end of the game, this wasn't new info. I felt like they're should've been a payoff at the finale, some sort of "Ah-ha!" revelatory moment where the meaning of the projects and the characters would take on a new light, but it just never came, even after I spent some time trying to refigure it out, including replaying the first half of the game or so.

My conclusion is that the timeline of the external, real story of Project 4 is wobbly and not really a linear narrative... more of a "master effect" feeling kind of thing. That's my biggest gripe with this game: the way the twins' story cuts into the projects' story heavily imply there's something crisp to be figured out, but really it's much muddier. Stuff I didn't understand includes an entire playable character "Blackmail" who shows up out of nowhere, the fate of Emil, the purpose of the big ghosty chase scene character, and generally what the linear timeline is to the story of Project 4. When for 90% of the game I think there's a deeper meaning to look for, and then in the closing minute, the meaning is just as vague or inscrutable as everything else... The rest of the story retroactively loses its impact.

Aesthetic

In short: it's good. My initial interest in this game was almost solely from its title screen. It reminded me a ton of an animated short titled "Rabbit" I remember from a ways back . Either way, the game doesn't quite pan out like that. Black and red aren't the themes here, more "vivid color" on black, and strong tonal contrast in general.

I'm not sure how much of this is an idea from the inspiration sources of Project 4 (HOME/OFF) but it's executed really well. The four titual projects each have their own color theme, emotion, guardian boss, NPC attitude, etc. The first project feels a little empty (the only events for the first few maps are stream traps), but by the time I got to Project 4, I was really into it. The intro to Project 4 is the high point of the game -- there's a neat panning and title drop for each, and the one for Project 4 capture this rainy, melancholy feeling much better than I can put into words. It's super nice.

The tiles all fit in with the themes -- they're straightforward and sometimes evocative. The tiny animations are very welcome, they make the game feel alive and they're subtle enough to be atmospheric without attracting too much expression. Facesets are also simple and effective, and the colors all match the project, a nice touch. I can't stress how much individual expressions helps convey the characters. Emil especially has an amazing faceset. The battle actors are (mostly) great as well. There are a lot of variants on the individual enemies, and towards the middle of the game, they start trending surrealistic. I definitely like the "strange" vibe vs the traditionally horror ones encountered in the second half of the game.

Speaking of surrealism vs horror, the few places where the game fails to live up to that title screen are when it tries to be a straightup horror game. There's an incongruous chase scene around midway that's not interesting, scary, or fun from a gameplay sense. The same character comes back later on and I still don't really get it. The disclaimered gore/language in Project 4 is alright -- it serves as a nice contrast with the environments anyway -- but it doesn't stand out too much.

Sound is a mixed bag. The menu stuff is generic enough except for the dialog scroll tick (nice). Music is from a variety of free sources and generally used well, although I don't like recognizing tracks in game from other places (such as with the Presence of Music) but it's alright. I winced everytime I heard scream.wav though.

Mechanics

Combat is not this game's strong suit. I've never, ever seen a single-character combat system work well in an RM game, or even an RPG, outside of roguelikes. And Project 4 is single character for the vast majority of the game. Worse, there's a single dominant strategy: spam the "PARALYZE ENEMY" skill. It locks down the enemy for a solid 2-3 turns, by which it's easy to paralyze other enemies on screen as well. It trivializes the boss fights too, as everyone is equally vulnerable. It also seems an odd design decision to have skills cost no MP - that would've put a limit on my paralysis spam, at least, although having no skill cost basically meant I was using an ability every turn rather than mashing the attack button like most RM games. At least there are no random encounters and the fights are relatively quick -- I didn't get bored.

There are a ton of items to be picked off the ground, mostly restoratives, and a character that sells healing items as well. None of these are relevant, of course, because paralyzed enemies do no damage, but even if they were, an issue: One of the items for sale costs 1 gpmoney. So I bought a hundred Fish Piece items at the first shop, thinking I was clever for finding an infinite healing exploit, aaand then never touched my fish stick stack for the rest of the game. Oh well.

Apart from combat, there's the one previously-mentioned chase scene (I had to restart three times but the solution is "hold the down arrow key") and a fishing minigame. I was pretty amused by having the game tell me the height and the weight of the keys I fished out of the sewer but I didn't exactly get why this game has fishing in the first place.

There are a few puzzles and timed maze sort of challenges, most of which are passable. I didn't appreciate a screenshaky one in Project 4 where I couldn't tell where the exit was, but the most egregious thing in this game is a "enter the code" type challenge at the end of the game, also in Project 4. It uses the Hero Name Entry system to take a passcode, and if it's incorrect, starts a battle. Okay, to start off the battle is trivial because all combat in Project 4 is trivial, but expect to fight this fight a thousand times because there's no indication that the passcode is a numeric passcode, or indeed any indication at all of how to figure it out. There are numbers in the surrounding room ("There are zero good reasons to trust anyone, not a single one") but they're vague, out of order, and include terms like "several" which apparently means 7. Anyway, even after basically reading instructions for this puzzle on the gamepage, I still had to cheat to figure it out. Just skip this one, seriously.

I'm not sure if Project 4 would be improved as a pure "walking simulator," without the combat. The violence is a theme, at least. I wonder if there's a good way to rethink the combat to make the single character fights interesting, but the rest of the gameplay cruft could be safely cut along with the straight horror elements (the chase scene, basically).

Conclusion

Project 4 is an interesting, unique, game. It's short enough where if you're still reading it's probably worth playing (). I only wish I could recommend it more strongly, but the conclusion just lacked the power to make the game memorable. I really did enjoy exploring the world of the projects, the purple Project 4 especially, but the whole thing almost seems like a "cargo cult" exercise in a surrealist game -- it has a lot of well done aesthetic elements there, plus some neat characters and an overall sense of mystery, but because that core story comes off weak, it's not possible to put meaning in any of those things. I can't decide if I want to see this game with a revamped/revised conceit with the story of the twins, or just some of these environments show up in a tighter, punchier game, but either way, I appreciate about half of what's here, even if it's only the nucleus of something that's really great.

#rpg maker #horror #surreal #game reviews

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