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centrally-unplanned · 5 months

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Watched a bunch of stuff last night, including the Alita OVA from 1993! I thought it was a lot of fun, the thoughts:

--- It did the "obvious" thing of adapting the romance arc with Yugo of Volume 2 as the core, while blending in the events of Volume 1 as sort of backstory and setup as opposed to their own story. This arc is Alita at her most humanized in the early parts of the manga, and its the plot that centers Zalem as the untouchable overlord city most effectively. Any short adaptation is gonna choose this - part of why James Cameron (lol) did the same thing!

--- Speaking of, the manga does not actually have any particular focus on Alita's eyes, but the anime definitely has more than one shot where it establishes them as thematically special. Given that the James Cameron film is famous for going full CGI on Alita's eyes, and he knows about the property from Guillermo del Toro passing him the OVA as opposed to the manga, I think I can see the chain of events that lead to that (ill-fated?) decision.

Her eyes are pretty amazing in the OVA, so I get it! As my previous reblogs showed lol.

--- I think I can break apart the manga into three "concepts": the setting as cyberpunk dystopia, Alita as a character dealing with identity issues as an amnesiatic combat robot, and shounen fighting & levelling arcs. The OVA heavily focuses on the first part, ditching almost all the shounen stuff - its fight scenes are quick and focus on violence & bodily destruction over strength or "fighting techniques", etc. This is great for me, obviously! But it also, almost accidentally, ditches most of her identity issues? Because its less than an hour long, and needs to do a ton of worldbuilding - including even adding in a new character from Zalem to help with that - and is doing Yugo's entire arc, you really don't have time left for Alita's struggles. Yugo actually gets more "inner depth" than she does! She commits to being a bounty hunter, then after that she is pretty much just In Love while Yugo goes through his detailing of his past and collapse.

I'm not saying it doesn't work, it does as a story. Just interesting for something that is known as very "protagonist associated" to have an OVA where she is barely the protagonist.

--- While no Urotsukidoji or anything, this is another one of those OVAs where its reputation, particularly in the west, is as a hyper-violent, gory OVA? And like so many it really isn't. People get decapitated, don't get me wrong, buts its never lingers on those moments. Instead they serve as tone setters for the crapsack world or just are part of the action sequences.

I think in general the OVA era rarely made horror/gore films the way some other mediums/industries did? There are exceptions of course but in the end anime is trying to do too many other things; beautiful animation, focus on character designs, often being adaptations and so doing the plot of those more complex stories, erotic content for audiences that aren't *that* fetishistic on average, and more. All of these priorities compete for space in comparison to having endless jumpscares and blood splatters. So far my track record for watching the famous "gorefest" or "~crazy~" anime is that every one of them is tamer than the rep suggests, and I believe this medium/genre mismatch is why.

--- The biggest question I have around Alita in general is why there was never any more anime? Its weird, right? Its a famous property from a beloved genre, it had a hollywood film for some crazy reason, things like Ghost in the Shell got multi-season anime after all. Why no feature film remake in the 2000's? Why no 13-cour in the 2010's? I don't have an answer to that yet.

Why the initial OVA was so minimal is at least partly answered by Kishiro here:

MNS: Many fans have wondered, why were only 2 anime OAV episodes produced in 1993? YK: It was based on the plan proposed by the animation production company. It might have been better to turn down the plan and wait for a better adaptation proposal to come up, but back then, I couldn't afford to review the plan coolly. At that time, I was still serializing the work and was so busy that I wasn't ambitious to make it into animation.

Essentially he took the "deal on hand", not offering much, because he didn't have the time, money, or business savvy to work the industry for a better proposal. 100% understandable. I don't think the OVA did too well? I can't find a lot of sales figures, but the comments I see are in the "respectable" range, and it didn't get quick or expansive rereleases over time.

More broadly, and again speculative, I think maybe Alita overall isn't that successful? Like sure Kishiro is still out here releasing more sequel manga to this day somehow, but when I look at the "media mix" its just really sparse. No big video game adaptations - it has a PlayStation game in the 90's - it has like a drama CD and a novelization? No big merch waves or tie-ins. I am betting the big anime production committees just don't think its a hot enough property to sell that great. Wouldn't be a bad idea or anything, but not one you have to do like idk Chainsaw Man.

In the western fandom spaces its quite well known because of the idiosyncrasies of licensing history, the weird James Cameron factor, and I think a general fascination with anime cyberpunk; the west eats up any of the older cyberpunk properties for its aesthetic in a way that can blind people to the reality of that just being a subgenre in Japan at the time. Alita might just be niche enough that it not getting any wider anime adaptations is no grand mystery.

(But I hope to dig into this question more)

#battle angel alita #mini essay

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your-local-simp-writers · 6 months

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༺☆༻ Introduction ༺☆༻

Hello!

We’re the dynamic duo behind “𝕐our 𝕃ocal 𝕊imp 𝕎riters,” just a couple of friends who love to get lost in the world of stories and games. We’re here to share our passion for writing and all the geeky stuff we can’t get enough of.

♡ About Us ♡

I’m 𝒞𝓁𝑜𝓊𝒹 and I’m all about gaming and art. You’ll often find me with a controller in one hand and a comic book in the other. My better half, the yin to my yang. She’s the partner in crime, the sweet melody to my wild riffs, and the one who brings a touch of grace to our shared tales of adventure and heart, 𝒞𝒽𝒾𝑒𝓃𝓃𝑒! She is the other half of this storytelling team. We both love creating stories that’ll make you feel like you’re right there with the characters.

♡ Our Writing ♡

We write what we love, and we love what we write. Our stories are inspired by our current fascinations—be it a game, a movie, or a manga. If it’s interesting and fascinating to us, it’s fair game for our writing.

Most of our stories are “x female reader” because that’s where we feel most at home. Occasionally, we’ll write “x gender-neutral reader” pieces for a bit of variety. However, we generally steer clear of “x male reader” or “OC x canon” stories. We want to create a space where female readers can see themselves in the worlds we love so much.

❤︎ 𝒞𝓁𝑜𝓊𝒹 '𝓈 Interests:

Gaming: I’m a huge fan of Kingdom Hearts, Batman Arkham games, Mortal Combat, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Doom 3, Phasmophobia, Five Nights At Freddy’s, Twisted Wonderland, Call of Duty, Halo 3 and 4, Sonic and Transformers. If it’s a game or relating to horror, chances are I love it.

Comics: Batman is my passion. I collect anything related to the Dark Knight, and my collection is my pride and joy.

Anime/Manga: I'm into One Piece, Princess TuTu, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Jujutsu Kaisen, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Kingdom Hearts, Sgt. Frog, Free!, HellSing, and a bunch more. I have also seen MHA, Fairy Tail, Dragon Ball, Soul Eater, Naruto, Castlevania, Diabolik Lovers and more.

Disney & Tim Burton: I’m a Disney kid at heart. My top 5 Disney movies are Treasure Planet, Cinderella 3, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and The Princess and the Frog. And I’m all about Halloween and everything Tim Burton.

Music: I love RnB and Y2K music so much! However, you can usually find me listening to cutesy, cheesy love songs.

❤︎ 𝒞𝒽𝒾𝑒𝓃𝓃𝑒’𝓈 Interests:

Gaming: I’m definitely not the biggest gamer around, but I do love to play Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft! Sometimes I’ll also dabble in some fall guys, FNAF or Poppy’s Playtime. On Roblox, I love to play pretty much anything but pvp games due to the fact that I’m not the best at them. Horror games are probably my favorite, even though I’m a chicken!

Anime/Manga: My favorites are definitely Fairy Tail, Jojo’s bizarre adventure, Naruto, and Demon slayer. I’ve also watched MHA, Danganronpa, Yona of the Dawn, Food wars, High Rise Invasion, Angels of death, and more!

Disney and Tim Burton: I’m definitely a Disney girl! I love all Disney Princess movies, both animated and live action. My top three not in any particular order would have to be Tangled, The Little Mermaid, and Princess and the Frog. For Tim Burton, my favorites are the classics, The nightmare before Christmas and Corpse bride.

Books: I’m also a huge book girly! My favorite genre has to be fantasy/sci-fi. My favorite book series is The Lunar Chronicles, I definitely recommend it!

♡ Join the Fun ♡

This is an invitation to you, dear reader, to become a part of our narrative. Engage with us, inspire us, and let us inspire you.

So, come on in, get comfy, and let's share the joy of stories. The next chapter is always the best one, and it starts right here, with you and us. Requests are always welcome in the ask box! and even inquiries, should you have any!

With all the warmth in our hearts,

𝒞𝓁𝑜𝓊𝒹 & 𝒞𝒽𝒾𝑒𝓃𝓃𝑒

P.S: 𝒞𝓁𝑜𝓊𝒹 drew the image, just so most people can get a idea of what we look like♡ AND THE G.M FIARY BOOK IS FOR FUN, for the pure shits and giggles TRUST

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zizz-asdf-re-r-o-u · 8 months

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Dramatical Murder Battling NU Carnival

As a fan of both Dmmd & Nucarnival, yknow, I just had to.

If the 2 harems were to actually go into hand to hand combat.... Dmmd has only half as many people, Nukani has Kuya & Blade. And Eiden cannot fight period, so it'd be unfair. what i think might be more fair is paired off fights.

Clear vs Blade: Duh i had to do this. OG android vs new generation android. White-haired battle singing autism robot that calls their love interest a nickname vs white-haired battle singing autism robot that calls their love interest a nickname. 2012 sex robot learning human feelings vs 2022 sex robot learning human feelings. Cute service top with a depressing backstory vs cute service top with a depressing backstory. I think Blade would win by a landslide. Assassin Blade's biggest advantage is his durability combined with combat skills. In story (NOT game units) he can deal a shit ton of damage, take a shit ton of hits and instaheals super quickly. Meanwhile Clear also has great combat skills, but slower self healing and he is defective with a history of being damaged. So technically an unfair fight.

Koujaku vs Edmond: Both normal human swordfighters, ofc I also had to do this. I feel like their skills are matched for what they can, however Koujaku is a gang leader and is willing to get rough and Edmond... is a prim and proper(lol) knight for the most part. And if Koujaku went into Beast!jaku mode... well yeah Edmond's definitely lost.

Mink vs Quincy: the 2 big quiet traumatized depressed daddies whose communities died/were killed. I wanna say this would end up being a draw because Mink is a normal human that can be injured or killed, meanwhile Quincy is kind of immortal but has low motivation to fight unless he gets involved. if he had to, I'd imagine Quincy is supernaturally stronger though.

Rhyme Ren vs Garu/Karu: ok I'm just pitting them against each other cause they're the Dogs. However, although Garu/Karu is a survivalist, their stamina SUCKS & their fighting seems just passable. I love garu&karu, but Ren could 1HKO them. (Ren is also bigger, stronger, and more experienced than them so this is also an unfair fight.)

Noiz vs Dante: Originally I was gonna pair Noiz with Rei since they're both slightly apathetic special interest knowledge people, but Rei isn't really a melee hand to hand combat fighter. Dante can fight, and he has an advantage being bigger, more muscular, & having magic powers. (Interestingly, they're also both the youngest in their respective casts haha.)

Aoba vs Eiden...? The protagonists. However, this is also unfair fight cause um Eiden can't fight for shit and was recently a desk job worker lol. Whereas Aoba was a helluva punk, can still fight on his own, and has supernatural powers.

Ok now for fights that might be on even skill fighting levels and not just pairs.

Blade vs Scratch gang + the Alphas: Considering that Blade has been able to level entire battle fields and kill multiple sorcerers, I think this might give him a tough fight, even if he wins in the end. I will say, this also might depend on what weapons Scratch are carrying and how bulletproof Blade is. The "essence conductors"/guns got taken away before we can see how Blade reacts to them, but if Scratch had their guns, they might be able to take out Blade. (We don't usually see Dry Juice or Benishigure use guns, so I mention Scratch).

Kuya vs Aoba, Sei, Clear, & the Alphas: Technically, Kuya is also far too powerful, however I don't think Kuya is ever seen doing weapon or hand to hand combat fighting. So if Aoba & Sei can subdue his magic.... then Clear & the Alphas could pummel his old man body xD

Rhyme Ren vs Olivine: Nice smart guys with super powers and also very buff. I think people forgot that Olivine is Strongk as heck. Not sure who would win, but Ren is more offensive focused (although Ren has a pretty good hp/shield in Rhyme) whereas every time Olivine fights he's more defensive/support focused (but still seems to pack a punch). Let me know if you have thoughts.

Aoba vs Garu/Karu: Ok not just because they're both feisty ukes who are the shortest in the cast with fantasy DID, but they are also speedsters, rely on kicks a lot, frequently faint a lot, and have low stamina. So i feel like this fight is more evenly matched than against Eiden or Ren. It'll also be interesting cause both Reason!Aoba & Desire!Aoba would be willing to fight rough, whereas Garu is not & only Karu would be willing to fight rough. However Desire!Aoba would be willing to use Scrap on Garu/Karu whereas Reason!Aoba would not. Also, Aoba is 7cm taller than Garu/Karu, but Garu/Karu are significantly more muscular than Aoba everywhere. I feel like whoever runs out of stamina first will be the loser.

Clear vs Edmond or Dante: xD I just wanted Clear to be able to beat someone. And he was able to beat many cops & guards before and Edmond is basically a cop.

Eiden vs Ren in Sei's body: I also wanted Eiden to be able to win against someone haha. And Ren in Sei's body doesn't have Sei's powers, so they can probably do some comedic whacks at each other haha.

I know I've left out Yakumo, Rei, Aster, and Morvay. But i couldn't come up with anything for them, esp since they're more magical than melee combat (and not the same level as Kuya). Anyone have suggestions?

#nu carnival #dmmd #personal #meta #dramatical murder #i was only able to get through the combat fighters #anyone have suggestions for yakumo rei aster & morvay #I say they're not the same magic level as Kuya but have we seen Kuya face down Berserk Yakumo? i wonder who would be stronger #Same with Blade vs Berserk Yakumo #Still wanna know how bulletproof Blade is #dmmd vs nu carnival #nu carnival vs dmmd #fight #fight meta

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the-pan-ace-writings · 2 years

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Prologue

Mind Over Badger

hello!

This is the beginning of what will hopefully be a series. I have tried my best to plan this out so it doesn't seem like it's wandering. It's very likely that if youre reading this that I have several if not all chapters written. That being said I would love input and will potentially change the trajectory of this fic. This is very much going to be about family and while I'm not the biggest romance writer ideally I'd like to write in soap ghost badger?

I will try my very best to keep the description of badger racially ambiguous, especially since I ended up writing in he/ him pronouns. I feel like we dont get alot of male reader fiction and I would like to add to that.

And finally I would like to preface that I do intend on just following Badger hopefully in a third person perspective but I suppose we'll see how that goes as I write.

Thank you so much and please enjoy this prologue. And if anyone had better title ideas let me know! <3

First Next Masterlist AO3

Kate Laswell and Captain John Price sat in a quiet corner of a café, other customers paid them no mind as they softly bickered.

Laswell leaned forwards trying to emphasize her point in an attempt to keep Price from walking away. “Zakhaev wants Barkov’s throne” It caught his attention, turning back into settling in his seat and set his hands in front of him.

“I almost buried him in Pripyat… with MacMillan”

Laswell shook her head, a small frown steeling her face. “That was the Father. This is the son, ‘Victor’.”

“Lovely Family.”

“They Are big fans of Hadir’s.”

“Well that would explain why he’s still alive.”

“They're going to get him out.”

Price leaned forwards face almost giddy as he knows this is his in

“Then give me what I need…”

Laswell stared and his face completely unreadable although bordering on exasperation as she dropped her hands down to the table with forgotten drinks and onto the file folder that contained the personnel files that Price had requested from General Shepherd. She shoved the file across the table and leaned back into her chair as she watched him almost smugly remove the files and smile.

She let out a sigh and leaned back towards him as he started looking through the collection.

“Who's your crew?”

Price grabbed the bottom file, lifting it up to inspect for a second before placing it down on the table for Laswell to see. A picture of a young man in basic fatigues and with close cropped hair, he had a slight smile just ghosting his face.

“Sergeant Garrick.”

“Kyle?”

“They call him “Gaz”. He never said anything”

He pulled another. The picture on the file was of a stockier man, with broad shoulders also dressed in fatigues. His hair was cut into a mohawk which just barely had to be within regs. A scar broke though just under his lip but didn't interfere with his closed lip smile.

“Sergeant John MacTavish, SAS. Sniper- Demolitions. Goes by “Soap”

“Why”

“That's classified” he smirked

Price chuckled and pulled another file to the top, an unfamiliar name to Laswell was read over. It was of a man bigger than the last, again in the same fatigues this one notably crisper around the collar, there was no smile on his face. His nose was crooked slightly and a scar ran over the bridge. His hair was pulled back and braided tightly and intricately into what likely led to a bun, he had a beard that was neatly trimmed into regulation length. He looked like a stern man.

“He goes by “Badger”, His sister “Otter” dubbed him couldn't figure out why, close combat specialist”

The last file Price tossed down onto the table, it was missing a picture.

“There he is…Simon Riley”

“There’s no picture”

“Never”

Price picked up the files again tucking them away. He leaned over with a cheeky smile egging Laswell into getting her approval.

“Now the rest. That's need to know.m Unless we got a deal”\

She shook her head before letting up

“What are you calling this task force?”

“1-4-1.”

First Next Masterlist AO3

#soapghost #soap x ghost #taskforce 141 #call of duty #cod mw 2022 #mw2 2022 #captain price #john price #kate laswell #john soap mactavish #simon ghost riley #john soap mctavish x reader #ghost x reader #ghost x male reader #John soap MacTavish x male reader

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bladesmitten · 6 months

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ok so i'm going to ask: is pwotr worth playing? i'm asking as a huge bg3/da fan - what's the character creation like (if any), how is the story and are the npcs good? is the battle system comparable at all?

hello ^_^ if you like CRPGs, it's likely you'll enjoy pwotr too! the game often goes on sale on steam so i'd advise you to wait or perhaps visit fitgirl if you wanna try it out first. i wrote a spoiler free Gamer Review™ here but i'll also answer your specific questions:

compared to da and bg3, the character creation in pwotr is massive. there's sooo many choices from the class selection alone! that might be overwhelming, but there's also indicators for which classes are beginner friendly and there are pre-generated builds/characters you can use so you don't have to think about all that.

pwotr is isometric in graphics, like hades and disco elysium, so your character's appearance is more simplified than bg3/da. you'll also choose one of the provided art portraits to represent your character or you can use your own.

the game is text heavy with minimal voice acting so there's definitely a lot of reading. the story itself is compelling to me. the main premise is: you gain mysterious powers and become in charge of an army to close an interplanar rift called the worldwound. you don't need to know much about pathfinder lore to understand what's happening, and there's also a feature where you can hover over certain terms in dialogue and it'll give context as to what it means.

there's 5 acts and a prologue. act 4 has a tonal shift which i personally like. act 5 kiiiinda falls off in terms of pacing, but it's still not as egregious as bg3's act 3 lol.

the companions and NPCs are great! i like most of the companions, they're all complex to me. i might not care for maybe one or two of them but there's also like 12 companions so that's still 10 out of 12. the companion quests are done well imo (except for nenio's, but that's a problem with puzzle design and not her story), and your choices and actions actually matter and have consequences throughout the game. decisions made in earlier acts can and will impact later acts as well as companions' endings :-)

as for the combat -- it's a mix of real-time with pause (dragon age) and turn-based (bg3). you can switch between the two modes with the press of a button, so if the battle is going too slow, just go real-time, and if a fight is too hard, go turn-based for better strategizing. pwotr is based on the pathfinder system, and it has some similarities with dnd so certain terms may already be familiar to you if you played bg3. it's still worth reading what the spells do because they can be different at times.

the enemy encounter/level/puzzle designs leave much to be desired though, and that might be my biggest criticism of the game. there's quite a lot of random encounters that don't really matter. some encounters are way too strong for the current party level so i got into the habit of saving before entering a room just in case my party gets fucked by some optional boss mob 😭 i played on normal difficulty and i fared well up until the end of act 3 where there's a difficulty spike and i turned it down to casual. it might also be helpful to look up guides on youtube so you don't end up like me lol.

this got long so uhh i'll wrap it up by saying i enjoyed pwotr and like i said, if you like CRPGs you'll probably like this one too! :-)

#ask #Anonymous

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animehouse-moe · 1 year

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Well, Tumblr decided to bug out on me and I've now lost the original question that was asked, but someone had asked for my favorite series (be it manga/anime/movies/Tv/etc), and this was my response.

(first of all, so sorry for losing the question! I should have taken a screenshot or something when Tumblr wouldn't let me post)

It's all good, I enjoy getting these types of questions because they make me think about this stuff haha. I'm not one to really do well with the idea of favorites, so having to pin down stuff like this can be interesting for me!

That said, for this one I might just stick with anime for the list to make it a little easier. I can definitely do a top ten of manga or other stuff later on though. Also, this list will be in no particular order because I'd be stuck forever trying to figure out a satisfying order for them.

Sonny Boy

I think it's a very fair point to argue, that at this stage in his career, Sonny Boy is Shingo Natsume's magnum opus. There's just not much else to it. It's a series that he created, from his own mind and talent, and he executed on that. There are very, very few people that work in anime that can manage a feat such as that. In terms of story, I don't have any issue with claiming Sonny Boy is the pinnacle of high school storytelling. It stretches the fabric of reality so far that you might struggle to claim that it's about high school, but the longer that you spend with it, the more undeniable a fact it becomes. Or maybe you could generalize it to the human condition, or how the cracks in society will fester and form no matter the condition, or how authority will always appear in a self-serving manner, or this or that or any concept under the sun.

Terror In Resonance

Call me crazy, but there's quite a few reasons why this is the Shinichiro Watanabe anime for me. Bebop and Champloo have rose colored glasses that adorn every fan in the community, so I feel like it's hard to really take a proper look at it compared to Terror In Resonance (even though it has a similar amount of users on MAL). As a Mappa project, it is simply the best they've ever been from start to finish. As a concept, Watanabe's approach is impeccable as it examines the frustration and sorrow of displaced children in a society that never wanted them. It's powerful, concise, and from start to finish an incredibly focused series filled with some of the crowning achievements of animators in the industry. Seriously. Takashi Hashimoto, the animator for this cut, actually did all the math to calculate the speed of the smoke as it fell and moved. Some of the best work you'll see on an anime.

Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song

I am a big, big fan of Tappei Nagatsuki's work, so being able to experience an anime that is entirely his vision of the work is really impressive. It's one of the biggest struggles with artists, I find. Understanding their work through different mediums. What you see as an anime is not what they created as a manga, or light novel. But this is different, it is Nagatsuki's (and Umehara's) sole vision, the entire intent behind their creativity. And WIT knocked it out of the park to an insane degree. As a post-AoT studio, they showed just how far they can push their creativity and execution on a series beyond human. Incredible story, incredible animation, arguably some of the best hand to hand combat we've seen in an anime in a very long time. It's just that good.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

Maybe you see a trend going on with my picks, and while yes it's partly recency bias, it's also a gravitation towards anime originals. I'll add a piece to that at the end, but this is about Edgerunners right now. I was in high school when the video game was first announced. That's a decade ago, now. I played the shit out of 2077 when it dropped, and I'm absolutely eating up Phantom Liberty currently. It is then, absolutely no surprise, that I've placed Edgerunners on a pedestal. But of course, there's also a reason that Edgerunners is in the top 100 anime on MAL, and why it's Trigger's highest rated anime. It's just that damn good. An incredible story revolving around Night City and the themes that Mike Pondsmith laid the groundwork for decades ago. A true tribute to the tabletop game and the genre at large.

The Tatami Galaxy

I don't think there's a way I couldn't put The Tatami Galaxy on this list, truthfully. Of course, that also encompasses the sequel ONA The Time Machine Blues, and spinoffs like The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl. Tomohiko Morimi is a genius, Yusuke Nakamura is an icon, and Masaaki Yuasa is a savant. Incredible work for such an incredible story and message about the pursuit of perfection and the beauty that lies in the present. Arguably, much like titles such as Sonny Boy, these are 100% must watch titles for an anime fan. I'd highly recommend the others still, but these two represent such core and important aspects to how people choose to lead their lives and the frameworks that they do so within, that I strongly believe it's a requirement. I also wrote a review on the novel when I read it in January of this year.

Heike Monogatari

I think history is a very important thing to understand. I also think that history can be presented as obtuse, disinteresting, or too literal - especially in relation to history stories or myths. Heike Monogatari by Science Saru is arguably one of the greatest examples of how to display a modernized version of such a foundational tale to the history of Japan. It's also an incredibly powerful moment for the director, Naoko Yamada, as it was their first real work since the arson attacks on her home studio of Kyoto Animation. Because of the weight of her past, her work beyond words on this anime feels that much more powerful considering its messages about the past and fear of the future. It's wonderfully emotional, and contains one of my favorite closing scenes to a series.

The Saga of Tanya The Evil

Light novel aside, anime quality aside (though both are great), there's a separate reason this title is featured on this list: the adaptation. It is, for lack of a better term, borderline insane as an adaptation. It bears almost no similarity to its source. The tone is different, the scope and scale differ, there's significant changes in terms of narrative, and even the order of large scale events differs. But still, somehow, it remains a fantastic series. Bearing nearly zero resemblance to what it claims to adapt, it is something that I love. It's an incredible feat, and the gold standard of its one-of-a-kind approach to adapting a light novel.

Mononoke

Horror is a very hard thing to do right, at least in my opinion. Many get suckered into thriller territory very quickly, and avoid the psychological nature of horror. The immovable nature of something fearful standing in front of you, the slow descent into madness and despair. Mononoke grasps that incredibly well, and earns a spot on this list because of it's appeal in that manner. Also, the art is just incredible, personifying the more classical style that would be associated with the creatures and myths that pepper the story. I'm incredibly excited to see what comes from the upcoming movie.

Welcome To The N.H.K

While it may differ between its three formats, the core of the story stands strong. Impossible to put into words, it's more of a descent than anything. A descent that turns inwards on each of the characters as they slowly lose their grip on reality, as they continue to fall apart, piece by piece. I have my qualms about how they choose to end it, but I am a very bitter man at my core so it's more a personal difference than a quality one. Regardless, if you want an acid trip down the rabbit hole of depression, mania, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and all manner of other illness, there's no better story than Welcome To The N.H.K.

Toradora!

There's something special about Toradora to me. Is it the era that the anime comes from? Is it the appeal to a classic style of romance without falling prey to the issues of the layout? I'm unsure. But something about it feels so… comfortable, to me. I could watch it again and again and enjoy each minute. It's probably not the best romance anime out there, but it's one that I'll always be drawn to.

And with that, the list is over. Just to provide some extra context and honorable mentions, I'd love to have put series like Alien 9 or Monogatari on the list, but the challenge with them is the fact that the first is a shorter OVA, and the latter is a much larger series encompasses nearly too much to explain in this sort of context. There's really quite a few series like that that I struggled with when forming this list, but they're still really great titles nonetheless.

Anyways, the anime original point. While it's sort of an unconscious thing, I do realize what I do with it. Anime originals present something that you can't experience elsewhere. They are the end all be all of their creative vision, and that excites me more than a manga adaptation. Following someone else's blueprint vs creating your own, obviously one is more interesting than the other. And that sentiment extends to some of the other titles on the list like Heike Monogatari which approaches a classic story with a radical new viewpoint, or Tanya The Evil which basically forgoes the vast majority of its source material. It's really something I struggle with at large with adaptations. So many people want to leave their marks on the work, but quit just short of doing so in a meaningful manner. Very few go the mile to say that they did something in regards to the work, and instead meddle with it in minor ways which can negatively impact its reception as the original material. A great example of valuable changes is Heavenly Delusion. The team under Hirotaka completely re-arrange the order of events in the anime, and in doing so elevate the series in a way that only they can. Anyways, I digress, a discussion that I should leave for another time. This is my list, it may not be the best list out there, but it is mine.

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lunarbard · 10 months

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After a 6 hour download due to bad internet, I finally got around to playing the Baldur's Gate 3 epilogue. And it feels like yet another piece of a game that fails to be more than the sum of its parts.

I'm a fan of Larian studios - DOS2 is one of my favorite games - and I appreciate how much work went into Baldur's Gate 3. I also ran seven playthroughs in that first release month; I've probably run through that game more than 90% of its players today, let alone given the timeframe. But BG3 had already been the biggest push for me to move away from D&D 5e in my tabletop games just from the Early Access, and I went into the release knowing I would find the combat rather insufferable (especially after a month or so of playing Wildermyth, which probably has my favorite simple tactical combat in a crpg I've played). And the application of skills in general. But honestly the cinematics / story delivery (and promise of consequences later) in EA had me wanting to see the rest of the game.

And the game does have its moments: Karlach's monologue & Dark Urge refusing their blood are fantastic. But those are all that really stood out in their entirety,

I stopped playing the game because the seventh playthrough was my tactician run for the last achievement at the time, and ironically it was the first time I actually got Dark Urge's special good ending (my four other Dark Urge runs I went to Avernus with Karlach). And the game gives this little somber note of reflection for Dark Urge, and it's an incredible moment that gives more closure for the whole game than the default endings and epilogue combined.

Then it's rather strangled the moment you reflect on the rest of the game, because the game doesn't allow itself much space to breathe. And it's all the tadpoles' fault.

If there's one thing missing from BG3 (which is being generous), it's adventure. The tadpoles have a lot of game design uses, but perhaps their largest impact is how they allow the game to yoink you on a single track towards its conclusion. So exploration is limited, and typically just rewards you with the equivalent of a pile of necrotic needles & a blighted shambling mound digesting you (all with a 30 perception check required to not be surprised, mind you). Or you accidentally skip half an act because you wandered into a tomb.

But I digress on why Act 2 is a wad of melting glue desperately trying to bridge the gap between the two actual halves of the game.

DOS2 and BG3 are both built out of wide area maps set in linear chains. There seems to be this philosophy that single, completely interconnected maps are just better than traveling between smaller areas via a world map even when those maps make the story make less sense, like the goblin camp being a ~10 minute walk from the grove down a straight road.

I want you to imagine what Act 1` might look like if the map was instead properly split up into distinct locations across an overworld map:

Your arrival in the grove is timed with the goblins attacking Waukeen's Rest; if you look through the telescope, you see their banners marching in that direction.

That gives you a marker on your world map to travel to, which takes a few hours overland and you find the place burning after the raid and can help the people there.

Here you could get two leads: the Zhentarim sending you down the road to the toll post to check on their shipment (with the flind & gnolls being a set encounter when trying to reach there) and tracks that lead to the blighted village.

In the blighted village you encounter some goblins, get the location of the goblin camp (likely from a dead or alive goblin), and head to that marker to find the warband returned from the inn and celebrating. (or maybe you find information on the Selunites here, and follow the indications of a Selunite temple in hopes of finding a healer, only to find it ruined with goblins in it).

Area divisions - whether short loading zones in old Monster Hunter or a dotted line for travel across a world map - give a ton of space to state or imply time & distance without needing to accurately render them. Pathfinder: Kingmaker did a great job of also throwing in some party banter for companions when you rested, which, with a good budget, could do wonders for providing those little companion interactions a good chunk of bg3 players appear to crave.

Those are some of the breathing moments the game needed. Little bits of connection, reflection, and companionship. I want more small moments for Dark Urge where you get to have them think on their affliction - really think! not "kick cat: Yes / no / normal dialogue." I want more urges that are actually urges and you have to resist, or actively save someone, and build this narrative anywhere other than your head because the game treats the Dark Urge as "here's a really evil option. You're good for not picking it."

Which sums up 95% of the game's "moral" choices too.

The one thing BG3 does better than any crpg I've played is its graphics, cinematics, and letting you make an explicitly trans character.

And I think that's why the epilogue felt so flat to me. You walk around and talk to people, then watch everyone give a toast. For all I've come to dread the thought of playing this game, I would pay a good amount to get an epilogue that's like DOS2, but with cinematics instead of character art.

#ttrpg #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #bg3 spoilers

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gear-project · 3 months

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Annon-Guy: I'm making a new voting poll regarding fighting games and I thought I'd ask you one fighting game fan to another about what you think of the following games? (You can message me instead of replying this in the ask box if you prefer)

Street Fighter

Soul Calibur

Virtua Fighter

The King of Fighters

Dead or Alive

BlazBlue

Bloody Roar

Melty Blood

Phantom Breaker: Omnia

SkullGirls

Mortal Kombat 1

GranBlue Fantasy Versus: Rising

DNF Duel

Been a while since somebody asked me my thoughts on Fighting Games in general, so I might as well respond in a post:

Street Fighter 6 has loads of fresh potential, and I'm actually thinking about coming back to this series after my extended hiatus (the only problem being I can't afford games at the moment, hehe). Though I will still continue to take a passive "casual" approach to playing any and all fighting games, like I usually do. Capcom games tend to be a deep sore point with me in the past because of how hardcore the userbase typically is, so if I DO return, I'll be taking it very slow.

I'm STILL CURRENTLY PLAYING SC6 IF ANYONE ASKS. I'm just fully absorbed in farming/forging weapons in Libra of Souls. In fact, I just got a Level 90 Balor Scythe with 50% (max) critical hit rating! I got lucky today! I know Harada recently said he was partly responsible for "Euthanizing" Soul Calibur's development team as-is, but I still haven't given up hope for Soul Calibur 7, that is literally how much this series means to me... Soul Calibur is second only to Samurai Shodown and Guilty Gear in my heart of hearts.

Virtua Fighter: Sigh... that's a game I haven't played in eons... I played Dead or Alive 5 when the VF cast were guests in that title, and I goofed around a little bit with them, but to me that series always felt "basic" in terms of character appeal... sure a few characters were interesting, but I haven't really delved in to the game since it matured to more advanced graphics. I get that lots of fans (like Rooflemonger) are diehard VF fans for technical reasons, and I respect that... it's just to me these characters are the 3D equivalent of early Street Fighter concepts and that generic-ness never really appealed to me.

KOF... I have mixed feelings about this series: on the one hand the character designs are always peak or near-peak, and the music is always great... on the other hand the Team-based combat resources they've relied on for years feels rather dull to me. If they took even half of what BlazBlue Crosstag used and applied it to KOF, that would spice things up for me considerably. I've played my share of these games, Garou Densetsu: City of the Wolves (Fatal Fury) is going to do lots of things KOF has not done in a long time. My biggest beef with KOF is the fact it's so hard to earn meter and use it. I'm a Guilty Gear player, so Tension is super important to me, so I guess Gold Burst spoiled me in that regard, but still... KOF resources feel like they could use a fresh coat of paint in my humble opinion.

Dead or Alive... I actually haven't played since DoA5U to be honest, but at the same time this series has some goofiness to it that I always liked. The Combo freedom of the series always felt good to me, though there's a huge technical aspect to the attacks and hits, so it takes a long time to really understand what you're doing in that game... I also struggle with the Izuna Command Throws in that game, but I think I really love the counter parry system the most (even if some people hate it, I think it's very intuitive as a defensive tool). In terms of characters and roster, there's a lot that's both absurd and cool at the same time... and I think most DoA fans understand it... though the fanservice DOES get out of hand (we're an FGC community, not a BROTHEL). But sometimes they hit the nail on the head with DLC costumes, so that's a plus.

Barring what Mori has planned for BlazBlue in the future... I just really loved goofing around with mods in Central Fiction (I feel sorry for Console BB players as they are missing out on a lot of fun in the PC community). BlazBlue has always played second fiddle to Guilty Gear for many years, but despite this, it grew its own dedicated community to the point where you can TELL THE DIFFERENCE between a GG fan and a BB fan, and I respect that. Also, shoutouts to Ishiwatari for composing fresh music for BlazBlue that is a far cry different from the usual music we hear in Guilty Gear. It's just a fresh feeling whenever I play BB instead of GG, to be honest.

Beastorizor... Honestly, I had the misfortune to only ever play a demo of this game back on the PSX (PlayStation One console), so I was never lucky enough to get access to these games on a regular basis. I really like them, to be honest, and related to this but I also got in the manga "Killing Bites" because of how similar it is to Bloody Roar in concept... so I kinda wish Killing Bites had a crossover with Bloody Roar one day... that's how cool this series became in my mind. Also the art style and visuals were "very similar" to the Prototype build of Guilty Gear prior to the shift to 2D sprites for the first game back in 1998. Outside of Bloody Roar, Battle Arena Toshinden has a very similar art style to Guilty Gear's as well back in the day. BR is a very nostalgic game to me. I just wish Konami would get off their high horse and make a fresh game already.

I own Type Lumina (and Actress Again) on PC, and I've barely scratched the surface of that game to be perfectly honest. Melty Blood always felt like a different kind of game to me... in fact all French Bread games feel different from your typical "fixed combo fighter" games... they really put emphasis on options and freedom in these games, and I always appreciated that. The Moon system in the older games was just like EX Mode in Guilty Gear... so many variations you could pick to suit your play style, it was amazing, really. Also, the fact Lumina can customize your character sprite colors is the cherry on top... few 2D fighting games can brag to the idea that you can make your own unique colors, and Melty Blood is always going to be in my thoughts at some point. Also, I'm a huge fan of NekoARC Chaos... and no one can change that aspect of me!

Phantom Breaker... unfortunately I have never played this game, or seen it, so I can't really say much, though I know a few people who play it. My fighting game library is large, so sometimes I miss the boat on some titles, sadly.

Skullgirls... yet another game I barely play, though I keep saying it: the animation style feels optimal to what I would expect a Darkstalkers Remake to be. This series has a lot of Legal History that is plaguing it at the moment, but I still trust in the REAL SOVIET HEART of Mike Zaimont to pull through one day. I think this game has a lot of innovative concepts that people barely realize should exist in fighting games, and they're STILL adding new characters to this day as well! Well, it's yet another reminder that I have to get more DLC for this game later...

Mortal Kombat 1 (not to be confused with my nostalgic feelings for the Sega Genesis Port of the First MK game)... to be honest I've barely finished playing MK11 to really shift gears and play MK1, though I've heard some controversial discussions about the DLC of late, I have no idea what Ed Boon has in mind for the game's future... it's a tad different from older MK games to say the least, but they're still doing lots of fun stuff with it, so that's always good. And Ed knows how to spin a good yarn if Story mode is any indication.

Granblue... ohhhhh mannn.... I want to play Rising so bad... I want to play Relink too... I'm just broke. T~T Granblue will always be fun to me... and the fact they're adding costume and weapon elements to the game is just so great, plus the RPG mode makes me wish more games did what they do. Just the fact Granblue is being made by Soul Calibur's devs is also a nostalgic and great feeling as well. I'm still a hardcore fan of Vaseraga, to say the least... I'm also looking forward to trying 2B again as well (which is ironic, since 2B is ALSO in Soul Calibur 6).

DNF Duel... yet another game I haven't touched yet... I'm falling behind... it's killing me, honestly. I have yet to play Dungeon Fighter as well... though if DNF Duel really wants to appeal to me, they'll add an actual DUNGEON Mode to the game. That's my wish, at least.

Okay, I think that's everything... I just wish my PC was functioning and I could afford half the games on this list more. And I still have my eye on the latest Under Night In-Birth game as well... sigh... so much to think about...

#GP Talks Shop #Fighting Games #My Fighting Game Wishlist #My Birthday's coming you know? HINT HINT

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asheternal · 25 days

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Game's I've played recently and my quick thoughts

Brief thoughts about several games I've been going through recently under the bar

Signalis-

The BEST modern survival horror game marrying old school controls and puzzles, the combat is a little clunky but that's to be expected by the format, but god... I love lesbians man... I also really like the art direction, and I'm not the biggest sci-fi horror fan on the planet, but this game feels more Silent Hill than most games meant to be Silent Hill-y.

Needy Streamer Overdrive-

Meh. I get what it's going for but I have major issues with how this title handles some of its subject matter as well as being generally not fun to play. Some of the music is amazing, others hurt my ears and make it hard to focus on what's happening. I really liked the art, I just don't think it's for me.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk-

AMAZING game, I love the general vibe and how good the music is. Only issue I really had was on my end, I just think comboing needs a bit more explanation because I didn't know how to go between rails for a while

Slay the Princess-

Up there with DDLC in my favorite visual novels list, I adore this game. I'm still working on it as you read this but of the several endings I've seen so far it's really good. I love the art style and narration, not to mention how they handle text is easy on my eyes. Very good horror title!

#ash vidya

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ashes-to-asher · 9 months

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Storytime, I guess? X'D

So, I'm a DM for a homebrew campaign (Othiat) with 3 players (@everdreamart, @traumallamarama, and @blazingjuniper). We live very far away from each other (the closest player to me is over 400 miles away), so we play via Discord. Whenever a map is needed, I've always turned to Owlbear Rodeo.

Last session, I ran the biggest encounter I have ever run.

The party had to stopped to spend the night at an inn in a small town they'd passed through before. They noticed that something was off; flies were buzzing around even though it was winter, there was a general smell of decay in the air, the townsfolk mentioned that the well had turned foul, etc., etc. The players knew something was up, but I don't think they realized just how bad it was gonna get.

Long story short, that little town was about to be at the center of a demonic invasion.

The PCs were woken in the middle of the night to screams and a poisonous green fog flooding the streets (and their room). They rushed outside, not having had time to put their armor on (so AC was low af). They almost immediately got attacked by a Bulezau, barely dodging out of the way in time.

That's when the map came out.

It's an absolutely monstrous thing: probably 50x100 grids, with each grid representing 15x15 feet. The entire town was on this thing, and the party had free reign to hide, fight, or just run and leave it all behind. Problem is, that green fog made it so they can't see jack.

Owlbear Rodeo had a huge update relatively recently, and now there's a bunch of new extensions and features. One of those extensions is called Smoke and Spectre (by Battle-System and Armindo Flores). I've always been a fan of using fog to hide things on maps, but Smoke and Spectre took things a step further. Each PC had their own independent radius of visibility, and I set it so that everyone could only see out to a radius of 30 feet. I also gave them a few visible points on the map, representing locations they knew of, but the vast majority of the map was empty nothingness to them.

I had been worried that the lack of visibility would turn out to be too frustrating for the players to enjoy the encounter, but it actually worked out well. Everyone was forced to slow down and plan out their moves carefully; the town as swarming with demons, and getting too close to one would prompt an attack. Everyone was going one grid at a time, anxious and terrified (in a good way!) of things lurking just out of sight. Movement also became an issue in general, since one of the PCs (a tabaxi monk) is a lot faster than the others, and another PC (a fairy druid) could fly over certain obstacles.

The party actually got split up in the chaos, leading to them desperately trying to coordinate when they couldn't see each other or even their own surroundings.

They eventually individually made their ways (makin' their way) to the town center, where the invasion had begun. There, they encountered a Wastrilith in the well, which was way too high level for them to actually take down. Knowing that there were still survivors in hiding, though, the level 6 party was determined to end the threat.

See, this wasn't necessarily meant to be a combat encounter; it was meant to be a survival encounter. The demonic invasion has ties to the larger plot, and is supposed to serve as set-up/lead-in to certain things the players are still only vaguely aware of (things I will not be spoiling via tumblr). I expected the players to engage in combat here and there, and they did had combat with some of the lower CR demons around the town, but the overall point was to set up plot and give the players a unique encounter.

They almost had a TPK with the Wastrilith? ^^;

The thing downed two of them, but the druid had just enough spell slots to keep the others from dying. The party was doing decent damage, but there was no way they could survive more than two or three rounds of this thing's damage output. Finally, low on HP and spell slots, the satyr bard pulled a clutch Dissonant Whispers. Wastriliths have great Strength and Constitution, but their Wisdom isn't all that impressive.; it failed the saving throw and was forced to flee, giving the party a chance to escape its radius.

A whole lot more happened (little Opportune Moment has a rough night ahead of him, courtesy of a Tlacatecolo), and the encounter isn't technically over (next session, the party is going after the Sibriex that started it all), but holy crap was it a good session! X'D

My laptop almost caught fire trying to process the map and all the tokens on it, but this was a planed event I'd been excitedly dreading for so long, and it worked!

The limited visibility is what really sold it. Fog effects only go so far, and this encounter would not have worked if the players had been able to see their surroundings. The fear and anxiety about the creatures lurking in the dark heightened the experience for all of us, myself included; I got to play around with the visibility of the demons, figuring out how much they could see and hear.

Next session will be a bit more straightforward, but you can bet I'm gonna use Smoke and Spectre again; in fact, I already have a few ideas... >:3

#dungeons and dragons #dnd #dnd storytime #othiat #owlbear rodeo #smoke and spectre

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judgeanon · 1 year

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Plastic Skies - Model 13: F-15E Strike Eagle "Garuda 1"

Near the end of last year, I bought a sheet of bootleg decals to make my Mobius-1 F-22 Raptor (as seen here!). The sheet had a lot more decals than just the Mobius ones. Some were for planes I had no interest in doing, some ended up in my old decal-less Berkut model, and some inspired the model I'd end up building right after the Area 88 Tiger. After all, I knew sooner or later I'd end up making an F-15. Even if I'm not its biggest fan.

Yeah, yeah, I dunno, I just don't like the F-15 Eagle. I know it's the backbone of the USAF and a fantastic plane and it does everything and the story of how it was conceived is super funny, but there's something about it that just doesn't spark anything in me. It's just... a fighter plane. Much like the Flanker platform, it always felt like the most standard example of Fighter Jet to me, without the cool swing wings of the Tomcat or the sleek small shape of the F-16. There's no such thing as a boring fighter jet, but the F-15 is close.

That's not to say we don't have some history. One of the last models my brother built back when we were kids was an absolutely massive (for us) 1/48 scale Eagle. As with all our models, it was glued together and not much else, and I distinctively remember it losing one of its tail fins somewhere underneath a bed. Still, the thing was huge to us, and I always remember it as the biggest model we ever had. But that's about as much fondness as I have for the Eagle.

Or at least, as much as I had until Ace Combat happened.

Although the Eagle is very prominent in several AC games, the important one for this model is Ace Combat 6: Fires of Rubi--I mean Fires of Liberation, for the Xbox 360. This was one of the very last Ace Combat games I tried during my "I want to play all of them phase", since although PS1, PS2, PSP and 3DS emulation are all pretty good right now, Xbox 360 emulation is not quite there, and has apparently been not quite there for years now. I should know, I tried. But earlier this year, a very generous and dear friend of mine offered me an old Xbox 360 which he'd come into possession and was using to try some cool hacker stuff. And soon, I was finally getting to play AC6.

The game itself is great, as are all Ace Combats. It has a really interesting "large-scale battle" system, where different units are doing their own thing and you can choose which ones to support. It has the first appearance of high-g turns, which I love. It has a killer soundtrack, but that's no surprise. It has a really frustrating boss fight followed by a really amazing final level. And it has one of the most gloriously OP fictional jets in the series. Its story isn't quite as engaging as the PS2 games but I'm very glad I played it. And as seen above, the game's cover star is the F-15E, a plane for which I already had the decals to make.

So as I was finishing up the Tiger, I knew what the next project would be.

This was also going to be my first Academy model kit. Academy is a Korean model kit company that as far as I can tell sits quite comfortably in the middle ground of model kit quality. They make decent stuff for a good price with solid plastic quality, although some reviewers note a few glaring accuracy issues. I don't really care about accuracy when it comes to models, especially not at the price I found this, so I got to work pretty quickly.

The cockpit was the first step. Emboldened by my work on the Tiger, I tried to really make it shine this time, adding those little extra dabs of red to the flightsticks and other touches. Unfortunately, the decal sheets were a bit too wide for the panels, so they ended up getting warped and stretched. It looks pretty bad, but once inside the plane, I figured it wouldn't be visible. And I was right! Althouh what is visible are some of the corners where I skimped or forgot to paint, something which I'm definitely trying to work on in my latest kits.

The main fuselage was a much easier fit than the Raptor, although not quite as easy as the Tiger. The Eagle is a big motherfucker, after all, so putting it together requires a lot of pressure in different spots. Unfortunately, it also resulted in some plastic melting around a few corners, but only in the underside, and only on one wing. It was still a good lesson that made me want to invest in better cement, but it'd take a while for me to actually do it.

I decided the next step would be the nozzles, which is where this particular kit goes a bit fucking nuts. The F-15's thrusters feature external fairing arms for their variable geometry nozzles, which is way easier to explain with a picture:

And if you're observant, you can go back to that first picture of all the model's sprues and see how this kit handles that. But just in case:

The parts in green are the 30 (!) parts necessary to build just the two exhaust nozzles. The parts in orange are Academy offering people who aren't insane a way out, with two fully built nozzles with "turkey feather" panels instead of the arms. Which is very thoughtful of them, but after 12 models, I guess I was feeling a bit insane.

Admittedly, it wasn't rough sailing. The panels themselves didn't fit as well as I would've liked, and the faring arms required a very delicate touch. Still, I figured it'd all look at least decent once I went in with my beloved burnt iron paint, and sure enough, the end result was mostly fine.

Around this time, I started running into what's become my weak point this far into model building: indecisiveness. It's easy to think that models are "put them together first, then paint, then decals, then varnish, then panel lining, then clear coat", and some cheap kits are perfectly capable of following that order. But the more experienced I get and the bigger kits I try, the more I find myself playing with that order, doing things like painting certain parts of the plane first before gluing, or even fully detailing things like tail wings before I'm even done painting the fuselage.

Which sounds smart and is the way to do until you're staring at four different tasks and you just don't know what you should start on now. In this model's case, one of the biggest problems was armaments.

This isn't even all of it, btw. This is still missing the eight other missiles I also had to paint. Though I will say, as messy as the yellow tips on the Mk 82 bombs are, I'm still a little proud of the way I figured out to paint them roughly similar:

It's not perfect, but nothing is. However, the armaments thing was something that bothered me all the way to the end of the build.

Painting the fuselage was a way different story. One of the reasons why I chose AC6's F-15 was precisely because it's just one big color. No camo jobs, no masking tape save for the yellow bits on the tail wings, just me and my brushes and a newly bought box of Revell Greenish Grey paint. That paint is... an odd one. Looks absolutely disgusting when wet, like the insides of a toilet after eating some very unhealthy food, but once it dries out and especially once varnished it looks... kinda cool? Kinda awesome? It just has way more personality than the usual air superiority grays of most USAF fighters.

The other part of the build that was surprisingly comfortable was the landing gear, since this model only has one door for each gear. Made the whole thing go by in a breeze, and before I knew it, I was already putting in the decals. At least the big ones. Admittedly, they're not 100% game accurate, since AC6 uses low visibility versions of the emblems and such, but they were there and I wasn't not gonna use them.

Panel lining was also shockingly easy for this kit. Although I'm still pretty lousy at it, the kit's panel lines were very well defined and easy to get the paint in. Compared to other kits I've had, this one was very well behaved when it came to this step. Sooner than I'd expected, the whole thing seemed almost ready to be done. I just had to finish the armaments and we'd be all done.

So... yeah. You might notice something missing here. As it turns out, this kit doesn't actually have enough parts to put the 12 green bombs I'd painted besides the Mk 82. They're supposed to go three alongside the edges of the conformal fuel tanks (where the missiles now are) and three on the little chunks poking out of the sides. But for whatever reason, this kit only has four of those little chunks instead of six. And due to some issues with the instructions, I think I also glued the ones it did have wrong.

On top of that, I had some issues gluing the hardpoints with the Sidewinders and Mk-82 bombs to the wings, mostly because hey, protip: gluing stuff that's already painted and varnished is waaaay harder than gluing stuff when it's fresh off the box. But I just had to be a smart boy and get all the panel lining done first... Very frustrating, especially after realizing this, too, isn't game accurate. But it'd never really been my goal to make something perfectly accurate to the game. Like with the Raptor, like with every kit I make, I'll always choose what looks good to me over what looks closer to the real (or virtual) thing.

Eventually, the whole thing was done. Painting the cockpit was tricky but I've lost a lot of my old fears about it these days. And once the whole thing was varnished, I found myself really liking what I was seeing. The long nose, the beefy wings, the shiny engines... Maybe I'd been wrong about the F-15 all this time. Maybe it isn't really a boring jet. Maybe I just needed to let it back into my heart. And although it gave me a real tough time in a bunch of places, at the end it's low-key one of my favorite models so far, and a nice homage to an unsung game.

And it looks pretty cool on the Area 88 base too.

#My Stuff #Hobbies #Journals #F-15E Eagle #Ace Combat 6 #Garuda 1

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crystalelemental · 2 months

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Generation 6 has held an awkward spot in the series for me. Since around Gen 7, I started calling this game the beginning of Pokemon's decline in quality, or at the very least, the point at which the strains we all now understand began to show. Cut content, delayed feature rollout, save-annihilating bugs; Gen 6 was the first time this felt prominent and noticeable. But it was also the last time I truly felt whimsy and excitement picking up a game. Maybe I was still young enough, or maybe fan response was still positive enough, but the introduction of Fairy type and the presentation of mega evolution as a concept got me really into it, and I went through that first run wildly excited. While my eventual opinion would turn a little sour, recent years have also resulted in my mellowing out, and holding opinions on what I like a little more earnestly. So now that it's finally time to revisit Kalos, let's see if I'm finally ready to love again.

My team used was Braixen, Spritzee, Emolga, Carbink, Gourgeist, and Cryogonal. We had additional rotating cast members of Fletchling, Butterfree, Wartortle, Furret (if you count the HM user), Krookodile, Meowstic-F, and Sliggoo, with a ton of options that were brought in early but didn't stick around longer term.

Right out of the gate, this is an extreme departure from previous games, where I had a dedicated team of six and very little deviation. XY's biggest change, and the biggest hangup for many in my demographic, was the EXP All. This tool allowed the whole team to gain EXP per battle, and now also with each capture. Many who were used to previous systems complained this made the game too easy, myself included. I did soften out fairly quickly into "I'm not opposed to EXP All, but I don't think it's integrated well," and I'll get to that, but I'd like to start out with what works about this system.

EXP All allows you to rotate your team around in a way that the series never had before. EXP always felt extremely finite, and grinding was a long, drawn-out process you did one by one. You could catch something up with the old EXP Share hold item, but it took a while, and you certainly couldn't swap an entire team. The EXP All allowed this to happen. It's a pretty obvious feature, but it's inherently at odds with how people played the older games.

When you're used to the system of picking a core of six and going with only that, this expansion feels unnecessary. You already know how to manage your party's EXP, and sharing it around just means you're overloaded with the stuff. You're wildly over-leveled, and nothing can stand against you. The expectation was that players would switch up their team more often to counterpick opponents, but the reality was that many players from the olden times were already set in their ways and wouldn't rotate the team at all. The merciful thing was that XY left EXP All as optional. You could turn it off. But its mere presence sparked complaints, because...I mean, let's call it what it is: players have trouble not optimizing their own fun out of the game.

"But it's optional" is not a compelling argument when presented with a system that is purely beneficial. Players who are used to attempting optimizations are going to look at EXP All as mandatory in many situations, because why would I not want to optimize? If you play normally, you're still going to hit points of grinding, why not turn it on for that at least and save the trouble? But now it feels like a cheat. When you insist it shouldn't be there, but its presence is a pure benefit, there's no winning for you. You have to meet the system where it's at.

This happened for the other features introduced as well. Pokemon Amie was a cute little minigame hub to play with your Pokemon more directly, feeding and petting them, which increased an affection score that granted in-combat bonuses, such as boosted EXP, and the ability to randomly dodge or endure through attacks. Again, all upside, but feels wildly overpowering. Then there was Super Training. Pokemon finally acknowledged the presence of EVs without calling them what they are, and allowed players to train in perfect increments of 4, allowing players to actually maximize stats without knowing the whole system. Again, both features are optional. You can ignore both. But like. Come on.

Unlike EXP All, however, the intention here is harder to see beyond "make game easier." EXP All rotating the team keeps some teeth in the game while giving the player more time with a wider variety of Pokemon, but Amie and Super Training don't. They're just embellishments to make everything easier, so...why are they there? What benefit to they confer?

At this point, it's best to talk about statistics in a way I haven't before. Not because they're important, no one runs these numbers in main game, but it illustrates the point.

In prior games, at best your Pokemon was fed stat boosting medicine to cap out around 100 in speed, relevant offensive stat, both defenses, and HP. This equates to 25 points at level 100, or 15 around the level 60 you typically finish a game at. XY's introduction of Super Training allows players to fully invest two EVs to maximum, for a total of 63 points at level 100, or around 37 at level 60. This is a wild jump in power, speed, bulk, whatever the player wanted, compared to what used to be possible. But if we assume this was intentional, and designed to accomplish something, then we can start to pick apart where the benefits are and what you can do.

The first obvious one to me, person who is used to optimizing natures, was to consider offsetting a bad nature. If you pick up...let's say Chespin, and roll an unfortunate Modest nature, in previous games you would suffer. My Platinum run involved a Gardevoir who had Sassy, and let me tell you, that speed drop hurt. Detrimental natures can be difficult to work around in ways that don't involve grinding levels for the missing stat points. Super Training allows you instead to maximally invest in the stat, providing an extra 22 points at a comparable level. Which is more than the 10% drop of a bad nature at the level you're finishing up the game. But this was a fairly superficial one. That never stopped you from being able to work around it before, so what's truly new with this system? What can you do now that used to feel impossible?

Suppose you picked up Fennekin as your starter. You really like the cute fox, and when it evolves into a little fox magical girl, you are delighted. But you've seen Delphox and...yeah, it's just not as cute. but you know, you're used to the older games, and evolution is really almost required. You can beat things with pre-evolutions, but the grind is intolerable. But hey, new generation, new mechanics, you decide to stick to your guns and not evolve Braixen, using everything at your disposal to make it as strong as possible.

Statistically, at around level 60, here's what their stats look like, considering a neutral nature, max IVs (because the calculator defaults to it) and no EVs:

Delphox: HP: 178 (75) Atk: 106 (69) Def: 110 (72) Sp Atk: 160 (114) Sp Def: 143 (100) Spd: 148 (104)

Braixen: HP: 159 (59) Atk: 94 (59) Def: 93 (58) Sp Atk: 131 (90) Sp Def: 107 (70) Spd: 111 (148)

In every category, Braixen lags behind pretty severely. The smallest gaps, in Atk/Def, are still 12-17 points of difference, while the important ones, Sp Atk/Spd, are off by 29 and 37 respectively. That is a massive discrepancy, and the kind of statistical drawback that will keep most players from even considering Braixen. So historically, you would evolve to Delphox, and taking the best possible outcome you probably don't have with medicine, you get this at level 60:

Delphox (100 EVs HP/Def/Sp Atk/Sp Def/Spd) HP: 193 Atk: 106 Def: 125 Sp Atk: 175 Sp Def: 158 Spd: 163

But you've decided you're sticking with Braixen. And maybe you don't even know how EVs work as a system, but you do understand number go up in Super Training, and also that speed determines turn order while Sp Atk governs damage, so you max out both. You slap that Eviolite item on for a pre-evolution, and you get:

Braixen (252 Sp Atk/Spd, 4 Def EVs + Eviolite) HP: 159 Atk: 94 Def: 94 -> 141 Sp Atk: 169 Sp Def: 107 -> 160 Spd: 149

Braixen is now comparable. You're still slower by a good margin, but offensively and in bulk, you average out compared to what a final stage used to get.

Now, this wasn't a perfect solution. A second stage like Braixen can roughly keep up, but a first stage is far more behind than its final form. So let's say you're still scarred by SmogBird, and can't use Talonflame. You also have Braixen, and don't want the type overlap of Fletchinder, but you do want a Flying type. So you pick up Fletchling, and run a comparable approach. To compare stats with Talonflame:

Fletchling (252 Atk/Spd, 4 Sp Def + Eviolite) HP: 142 (45) Atk: 121 (50) Def: 75 (43) -> 112 Sp Atk: 71 (40) Sp Def: 69 (38) -> 103 Spd: 135 (62)

Talonflame (100 HP/Atk/Def/Sp Def/Spd) HP: 197 (78) Atk: 135 (81) Def: 123 (71) Sp Atk: 112 (74) Sp Def: 121 (69) Spd: 189 (126)

Fletchling doesn't just lag across stats, its speed is wildly behind. Attack gets closer than I anticipated, but you definitely feel this discrepancy more strongly, and the Super Training can't salvage it.

But EXP All can. Keep Fletchling in your party long-term, to soak up all that experience and over-level a bit, and now you get:

Fletchling (same parameters, level 70) HP: 164 Atk: 140 Def: 86 -> 129 Sp Atk: 82 Sp Def: 79 -> 118 Spd: 157

A comparable spread. Speed is still lower, though, and your bulk isn't great, so maybe you're worried about your little bird managing through a hit. We've exhausted EVs, and even EXP All only goes so far without serious grinding, so what do we do?

Amie can grant sudden surprises, like bonus crits, dodges, and endure effects, that let your little baby stick it out. Even if stats aren't on par, you can get some surprise outcomes that can make it work.

I think this was the intent. The three new features work in step with each other, providing means of keeping pre-evolutions and generally weaker Pokemon up with their fully evolved competition. It's more of an investment, but it's now a reasonable one (45 minutes for Super Training, 15 minutes for Amie) compared to trying to force level grinding well beyond what's typical (several hours and likely a lot of frustration regarding damage).

Now, for all that good, I do think the system struggles against itself in two major ways.

First, nothing is done on the opponent's end to combat these tools. Opposing teams remain small like Gen 5, but without the same teeth. All of the E4 felt surprisingly easy, except for Wikstrom who kinda got the drop on me from a misclick and remembering too late that three of my Pokemon were weak to Steel. But like...Malva literally could not hurt Carbink. She had nothing against it. And that's rather staggering after Unova, where each of the E4 felt so supremely capable of countering their expected weaknesses that Hydreigon felt difficult to use. Combined with the sense from many that EXP All and the other features simplified things, it's easy to understand the belief that the game is too easy. After all, the system works great for pre-evolutions, but it's a universal buff and you get more benefit from full evolutions, so why not stomp it all? The answer is fun, but again, people optimize away fun. I'm getting off topic...

Second is structure. In older games, you would pick up Pokemon as you went. You get your starter, maybe an early option, then not get you third until about Gym 3, staggering out a new Pokemon every gym or two until you have a team of six going into the League. With smaller regional dex sizes, this wasn't too difficult, because you only had so many things to choose from. Gen 6 is flush with options across a ton of types. By the end of Viola's gym, you have something in nearly every single type available for your party, and several with multiple options. Choice paralysis starts here. I have a tough time playing games from this point on past the opening, because I'll start, get wishy-washy about the team, and then just...stop. I think it's also bad for the new Pokemon when you have a huge roster, and a ton of the early acquisitions are powerhouse favorites like Bagon and Ralts. It feels hard to justify picking up Goomy, who turns out okay but not great, when you can pick up Bagon, Axew, and Gible by that point. I prefer Gen 5's requirement to use the new stuff.

There are plenty of other issues with the gameplay. I didn't even talk about the myriad issues with Mega Evolution and how it may as well not exist given its access point. But these are aspects that are more understood and agreed upon, so I think it's time to move on.

I have talked about this already several times on this blog, but it's been a while and it's fresh so I'm doing it again. When the game came out, I was fully on board with the story complaints. It makes no sense, it's stupid, Lysandre's stupid, etc. All of it is obvious and dumb. But in recent years, I have softened to the point that I think I'm something of a Gen 6 story fan.

The major complaints against it tend to focus on the antagonist, because...let's be honest, Pokemon never has a robust story, all of it centers on what the antagonist is doing and your player is interpreted based on being the foil. Complaint 1: Lysandre's motivation makes no sense and is stupid. Complaint 2: Lysandre is so obviously the villain, why doesn't anyone stop him or question him?

I'm tossing complaint 2 out the window immediately. I have no interest in this point, it's a boring line of thought that ignores the concept of dramatic tension and what the characters are experiencing for whether they fit into our perceived logic boxes as omniscient viewers. It's as vacuous as complaining about why Eirika would trust Lyon with the Sacred Stone: because she cares about him and wants to trust he can overcome this. Done. Easy. Almost like you didn't think about the story at all if this is your complaint.

The first complaint is more salient, though, because it feels like bad writing is at fault. Why is Lysandre so contradictory? He claims to care so much about people and the region, but he's actively genocidal. He claims he wants to be someone who gives to others, to be a good person, yet is given ample opportunity to change when confronted with how wrong he is and never does. He goes on and on about people who take, but runs a Scientology cult you pay a small fortune to get in on, and runs a tech company that spies on people and collects personal data for profit. What is his deal?

But with age, I feel like...I've seen a Lysandre before. He runs a tech company and is likely worth billions, but he also runs this little cafe and is apparently a pretty good boss who cares about his workers taking breaks. He cares deeply about the country and its future, and is extremely philanthropic to things he believes are important. But at the same time, he views some subset of the population as parasitic, taking beyond what's theirs and dragging the whole country down with them. His only perceived solution is one of violent removal of these people, and is overtly willing to let others be harmed in the crossfire of removing what he has identified as the problem. I hope you can see where this is going.

Lysandre is an extremist and a nationalist, who is on the one hand someone who wants to help others, but on the other so deluded by his belief that he's perfectly identified a specific group that is The Problem. It's just that said group is a wide shot. At times it's the "unproductive fools" that makes it sound like he's on about welfare. At times it's stuff about ongoing war. His specific target shifts constantly, but his end goal is clear: everyone has to die, unless they think exactly like him. Only the in-group that he's created is worth saving. While his specific complaint feels inconsistent, his big picture is. This is the end result of that kind of in-group/out-group thinking.

This is the same for Sycamore, a highly regarded professor who, while likely not as wealthy as Lysandre, fits in the same general social spheres. Sycamore has not radicalized like Lysandre has, but Lysandre is also his friend. Yes, he goes off about things and can be uncomfortable at times, but this is a man you've known for years as someone who is compassionate and driven and does good things for the world. It's hard to confront that he may be going down a dark path.

"Okay, but Lysandre literally goes off about the positive spin on genocide and he doesn't do anything." Of course he doesn't. Aside from just believing it can't be his real feelings, it's outlandish enough to read as apolitical. The reason you get gamer dudes talking about games like FF7 as if they're completely apolitical is because, when you have a political statement that meets group consensus, there's no debate to be had, thus it is apolitical. It is bad to harm the planet to the point of killing it. No politics enter here because duh. The flip side of this coin is that anything that is so wildly against group consensus must not be serious, and is thus also apolitical. It's only when there's debate that it becomes a serious question, and serious extreme views fly under the radar because of that disbelief. And thus, Lysandre saying "What the ancient king did was terrible, but you can't deny it cleaned up the problem" is treated as just an impassioned statement said in anger, rather than a serious concern. He says it in a rough way that stings the ears, but it's because he's passionate and justifiably angry at the state of things, don't think ill of him. He doesn't mean it. Until he does. And then the warning signs make sense.

This also ties into why I think Serena (or Calem, but it...it's Serena) is the most developed protagonist, despite being silent. Protagonists get some mild character solely through their stance against the antagonist. Dawn can be assumed as a sort of champion of emotion - the importance of feeling and empathizing with others - solely because Cyrus is the complete opposite. In the case of many protagonists, this does little. Gens 1-3 don't add anything, and Gen 5 has Ghetsis who is so laughably cartoon evil that it doesn't say anything about the protagonists that they oppose him. Even in contrast to N, their presentation as "Caring about bonds with Pokemon via Pokeballs" is so in line with the status quo narrative of literally every game that it adds nothing.

Serena has flavor, though, because of the scene in the labs. You are presented a choice of two buttons. Press one, and the weapon will be damaged in a way that renders it inoperable, and the day is saved without any conflict. Press the other, and it will fire instantly. Serena is given that choice. What makes this scene tick is two elements. First, that Xerosic will fire the weapon anyway if you guess right, and Lysandre will call him out for it. The gamble was legitimate, and Lysandre was willing to let his entire plan fail before it even took off if you guessed right. Which brings into question, what's his motivation? If the genocide could be stopped so easily and he'd be fine with it, then there's another, possibly more important goal, he's after, right? Which leads to the second interesting point: there's a third option, but you cannot take it.

Look at the situation from outside. The weapon is inert, and as far as you know, the only way to currently turn it on is one of two buttons in front of you. If your end goal is "don't let the weapon fire," you can just...not push a button. That's a viable option. Stop Xerosic but don't make a choice. Except you can't just leave. The game makes you choose, which reflects the notion that the character would not think to, or would not accept, rejecting a choice. Which, I think, was Lysandre's goal.

Consider Serena as a character. When you start this journey, you are with four friends, who (notoriously) suck. They're all kinda bad at what they do. Calem is no threat as a rival, Tierno and Shauna just kinda fart around without accomplishing anything, and Trevor is so bad at being the guy filling out the dex that I have never lost our competitions no matter how much content I skip. Serena breezes through the toughest trials the region has to offer, and excels far beyond her friends, even acquiring and mastering the art of Mega Evolution that Professor Sycamore couldn't achieve. Serena is, by definition, gifted. She is exceptional. And because she is exceptional, she has never really known failure. When Lysandre makes his announcement that the weapon will be fired, there is no ultimatum issued to you. There is no reason for you, specifically, to show up. And yet he counted on it, so thoroughly that he had this decision set up just for you. A decision you didn't have to make, but cannot back away from. Why?

Because in that moment, you're thinking like him. Who else is going to stop him? Professor Sycamore can't even talk back to this guy about his extremism, he's all but useless. Your friends certainly can't contribute much in a fight. Diantha hasn't done a thing since she showed up. If you don't, who will? It has to be you. You're the only one qualified, because you've proven, time and again, how exceptional you are. You have the inflated ego, the sense of self, to see this problem the way Lysandre would. To see it as your responsibility. He openly shows it, but the character really could be part of his in-group. You have the outline for that path, you just need pushed down it. And imagine what it would do to someone like that to have made the wrong choice. God I need to write that fic some day...

Now, this isn't to suggest that XY story is peak...although I am inching ever closer to that statement to be inflammatory. A lot of its problems are really in presentation rather than substance, though. Lysandre doesn't get much play, despite how much Ghetsis got to ramble on about literally nothing interesting. Diantha does nothing but mumble about bonds one time, despite how many previous champions became deeply ingrained in their regions. Even Sycamore doesn't really get much play. But your friend group does, and a lot of that play feels extraneous and slows down progress a bit. It's just a bit too much of them, and at times they can feel rather annoying, which...I guess is ludonarrative, in some sense.

It's really just...cutscene spam. Gen 5 could go for a while, but Gen 6 feels like you get a lot more stop and go. Here's a scene. Okay now go downstairs for another scene. Okay now leave the lab for another scene. Okay try to move on to be told to visit the cafe for another scene. Okay now leave but oops another scene! It's constant interruptions where you think okay, this time for sure we're going forward, but then it screeches to a halt again. The strict gameplay sections are still fun, but I found it harder to deal with a lot of the unnecessary interruptions. I will, however, applaud the Santaulune Forest. I think having Shauna follow you and heal your party as needed was a divine way to offset the usual need to run back to the center like a dozen times while catching and training your early party. It really smoothed things out.

Overall...I had a ton of fun with this run. I'll be honest, this is above Gen 5 now. I'm kinda staggered by it too, but it checks out. It's just fun, and fast, and lets me get away with absolute nonsense. This definitely isn't my favorite, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

As for the next game up...long story short, my wife's playing Digimon but also works over the summer while I don't. While she has the switch, I think my handheld is going to be ORAS or White 2 (I'm avoiding Gen 7 as long as possible), but I'm going to start picking up Galar. Haven't decided between Sword or Shield, but...there's going to be a lot to say there, too.

#pokemon gen 6 #pokemon xy #pokemon replays

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shockdingo · 1 year

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Starting Over II - Video Essays are Fighting in the Streets!

In my last post I made mention that the Bird app scrapped my page out of the blue, so I figured I'd start over and introduce or re-introduce you all to me & my works over here! I'm a voice actor by trade, but one of my main passions is making Video Essays. I LOVE Street Fighter and tend to make several videos about it; it's a funny thing, it's got a surprising amount of interesting story details & lore, but localization troubles in the 90s affected its spread.

First up is the video that got me into video essaying:

"Man of Mystery"

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For years I had speculated about the mysteries of the Street Fighter universe with fellow lore fans on the Shoryuken dot com forums, eventually I wanted to put my findings out into the world and make them easier to consume, thus I thought of a pilot to a YT series!

One of the more obscure of the Street Fighter roster, Q immediately caught my attention. First appearing in the last edition of SF3 - Street Fighter 3rd Strike, Q immediately had people scratching their heads:

"Is that a robot?"

"What's his deal?"

"Fedoras? Those'll never catch on, now Trilby's? I sense the 2000s are gonna love 'em!"

In the 20+ years since his debut, little has been revealed about Capcom's Combat Cryptid, buuut with a critical eye, you can notice some rather interesting details and a possible connection to a non-playable character named David Spender. Check out the vid for a dive into mystery!

G& Q: The Golden Question!

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This was a follow up to Man of Mystery and solidified my love of video essays! Street Fighter V dropped a rather striking and strange DLC character 5 years ago, he became known as G, the self-titled President of the World! This video focused on the early, pre-release speculation; when details emerged, people like myself noticed more than a few passing similarities to ol' Q and thus, I threw my thinking cap on, covered myself in gold dust, downed some tea and got to crafting this video!

G & Q: Fool's Gold!

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The fantastic follow up! When Capcom sent El Presidente to the world stage it only went to solidify possible ties to G & Q. While more mystery than answer was present, Eagle-eyed viewers noticed even more ties between the two characters, as well as a possible path for G. His story mode also featured an interesting look into the social media world of Street Fighter! Grab a snack and a delightful beverage and give this a view, heck, tell a friend! You'll never know who digs Street Fighter and a good mystery solving caper!

The Road to the New Generation! - A Street Fighter 3 analysis!

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The biggest, most involved video yet! As Street Fighter 6 was on the horizon and a user made mention that SF3 characters could use more focus, I got to researching & forging!

SF3 characters are certainly loved now, but upon their debut & for several years, they just couldn't catch a break, thus lived in the shadow of the Uber-Famous SF2 cast. This has resulted in many not knowing what the cast is all about. Quick, tell me the name of Alex's mentor! Okay, good guess, what about Magnificent Mutant, Necro...what's his real name? See?

This is a deep dive into information that's really obscure but captivating. Street Fighter 3 until SF6 was the FURTHEST in the timeline, so for ages, no one knew what happened to Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and the rest of the cast after 3rd Strike. With SF6, we now have that knowledge and forward momentum with the lore, but at the time, I felt this would be a nice refresher before making the jump into the future.

If you've got the time, grab a snack, maybe a meal, and give this a watch. I've time coded various sections so you can focus on specific areas or even resume viewing if that makes it easier for you.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, I put a lot of love and hard work into these, so it means a lot to me if you check these out! If you dug this post, I'll make more highlighting the other work I've done!

Thanks and have a good one!

-ShockDingo

#video editing #street fighter q #street fighter #Capcom #Youtube #deep dive #video essay #lore #street fighter 3 #street fighter 5

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baconcolacan · 2 years

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Sorry about the moth thing- lemme fix that-

What type of spider do you think the regimen gang would be?

CW for spiders, I'm putting this under a readmore so that people who are arachnophobic don't have to see my answers. I love love LOVE spiders so I will include pictures and might contain me gushing about them as related to my version of the boys in Regimen.

Edd: Darwin's Bark Spider. (Caerostris darwini)

See, when I think about Edd in general, I would associate him with the orb weaver species of spider. This is mostly because I personally think that orb weaver webs look really pretty and unique. I always thought that Arachne (in Greek mythos) was revived as an orb weaver, so that she could continue her artistic weaving in her next life. Artists = Orb weaver spiders.

The thing about Darwin's Bark though, is that this particular orb weaver is known to spin the world's biggest webs to date, with one recorded to reach 82 ft in length, plus its webs are also known to be the strongest spider silk, known as Dragline silk. In Regimen, I mostly try to keep a more canonical characterization of Edd along with things he's known to be. Artistic is obvious, but he's also steadfast and strong (Dragline silk), and like most fans I associate the world I'm using as "his" (Large webs). He tends to "catch" people around him, lots of people, and build up from there. Matt: Sequined/Mirror spider. (Thwaitesia argentiopunctata)

Aside from the obvious name, do I really have to explain more?? LOOK AT IT!! My GOD, Mirror spiders are SO SO PRETTY. When threatened these little guys are likely to make the "scales" on their back expand, reflecting a lot more light than they usually do. In Regimen, Matt is still very sunny and somewhat optimistic, he's still confident about himself despite some rough upkeep on his part. Amongst all the bleak and dreary, I had a lot of fun writing Matt because he still does shine despite everything. But there are times where Matt still falters, where he tends to wither away in the background especially when it comes to problems with Tom. Mirror spiders are also able to make their "scales" smaller when they want to hide, usually to make their escape. If you've read Matt's parts in Regimen, he does have this habit of slipping away sometimes, hiding his luster and withdrawing, when it all becomes too much. Still, he's able to shine even during these moments.

Tom: Peacock Tarantula. (Poecilotheria metallica)

Oooh boy, Tom. Tom, Tom, Tommy. My main guy in the story. I was actually so torn about him, there were two spiders I thought would suit him. The Peacock T ofc, and another T: Green Bottle Blue (Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens). In the end, I chose the Peacock for this version of him. Peacocks are Old World Ts, they're arboreal so they live up in trees and usually spin funnel webs (webs that go down like a tunnel, usually they have "trip-wire" webs at the front to alert the spider of prey or predator). Like most Old World Ts, Peacocks are really really fast spiders, they're very skittish and would often avoid predators by fleeing, so they don't often look for trouble, but Peacocks are still venomous, and while we haven't had any deaths caused by this T as of yet, their venom is still a cause for concern and their effects (heart-rate increase, sweating, headache, stinging, cramping, or swelling) are able to be felt for a week, and in extreme cases, months later. (Hey, effects of something done that can still be felt months later?? hMMMM Wonder if Tom has done anything like that HMMMMM)

Tom in Regimen starts out not actively looking for trouble, he was all about defense and fleeing when needed, so long as he could survive to the next day, he doesn't need to risk extensive combat. As we went on though, he started getting backed into a corner more and more, causing him to violently lash out with no other choices he thinks he could make. Peacock Tarantulas are also extremely aggressive when overly threatened, if they can't flee from an encroaching predator, they will use their venom, which like I said, poses something of a medical concern to humans, what more to an animal? Peacock Ts are also semi-social. They tolerate spiders from the same species living near them, sometimes they would even form communities. Other spider species will threaten them though and they will attack them. Don't really need to explain how Tom relates to that yeah? See: How he treats Matt vs how he treats everyone else. Tord: Sydney Funnel-Web Spider. (Atrax robustus)

So hey, you know how much I love writing parallels? Well, coincidentally, just like Tom, I had a difficult time choosing a spider for Tord. It was either the Sydney Funnel, or the Redback (Latrodectus hasselti). After comparing them though, I felt that the Sydney Funnel-Web Spider was the best choice. You might have heard about this guy, Sydney Funnels are recorded to be one of the world's most deadliest spiders, and does have a record of actually killing people. These guys are super SUPER aggressive when they're threatened, like would show you their fangs aggressive, that kind of behavior in the spider world is like a High Level of aggressiveness. Their fangs are strong enough to bite through human nails by the way, if you needed to be even more concerned about them. Not only that, but Sydney Funnels are known to deliver full envenomation, by biting repeatedly. These little fuckers will HOLD ON TIGHT and bite the bejesus out of you. Vindictive little shits, all for pissing them off/startling/scaring them. Sydney Funnels are, like their name implies, funnel-web weavers. They're terrestrial spiders and like to hide in innocuous, shaded, places. i.e. Under logs, crevices, under plants, etc etc. Like all funnel weavers, their webs have "trip-wires" on the outside, making them semi-ambush predators as they would dart out and nab prey when they get close enough.

I'm pretty sure you can guess why I think of Tord when I chose this spider.

#asks #anonymous #cw: spiders #tw: spiders #Regimen ao3 #TYSM FOR THE SPIDER ASK ANON #BUT ITS OKAY BTW I KNOW YOU DIDNT MEAN ANY HARM WHEN YOU SENT THE MOTH ASK #You couldn't have known about my phobia <3

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