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masiethewriter · 16 days ago

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Honored Eternal Path of Demise CH. 24 - Unlocked Shortcut

It is not the lack of light that makes it feel like the walls are pressing in towards them, but rather the much narrower passages. If Shen Qingqiu were to reach his hand above his head, he could easily put his palm against the ceiling. It is not low enough that he and Luo Binghe have to crouch, but only just barely. The walls on each side are also close enough that they can't even walk besides each other. Though Shen Qingqiu would be able to push himself past Luo Binghe if it was needed. It is the exact kind of hallway that makes Shen Qingqiu fear one wrong step would turn him into minced meat. His only security is to stay close to Luo Binghe. The more deadly the trap, the more it might hesitate to trigger if it runs the risk of hitting the halo of the hero.

First Chapter ~~ AO3 Link

"-it can be used to detect whether the Killer is in the vicinity. Though, there is a risk of him hearing it, so we have to use it carefully."

Holding the spirit box out, Luo Binghe takes it to investigate. As he turns it around in his hands, looking at its strange build, he asks further questions.

"So this- you called it a spiritbox? How does it know whether the Killer is nearby? And why do you call it a spiritbox? That is quite a strange name."

"How it knows, I can't say. But it has warned me plenty of times in prior sessions, so I can confirm its function. As for the name..." Shen Qingqiu hesitates. When gaining the item, its name was written in big, clear letters. It's not exactly like he was the one who named it. But so far, the horror they have experienced has been quite grounded, so he can see why Luo Binghe is asking.

"I just call it that. I once happened to read something about ghost hunting and they used a similar tool with the same name."

"Ah, I see... I have to admit, I wouldn't have imagined Senior to be into hunting ghosts."

"I'm not," Shen Qingqiu answers simply before turning towards the bookshelves behind the desk.

He has made a decision. For now, he will assume Luo Binghe will remember each loop. If that is the case, he better get the explanations out of the way early, so they don't have to waste time on it later.

Also, the more info he shares with Luo Binghe, the less Luo Binghe will suspect him of hiding stuff. He doesn't want to reveal too much too early, but all the knowledge he already gained about the upper floors should be safe enough to share. If Luo Binghe tries to ask him for future stuff, he will stay vague depending on what it is. And anything about future levels he will act completely ignorant about. Better to not get into those messes if he can avoid it.

Introducing Luo Binghe to the safe room and its mechanics is surprisingly easy despite how he is still hiding this world being a video game. Just a few excuses of having experimented during his loops seems to be enough to leave Luo Binghe satisfied.

He has been ignoring the spirit box for many sessions now, but since they are already here, he decided they might as well bring it with them. He clearly isn't saving any time this session and it will be good for Luo Binghe to see how it works in practice.

Really, there is only one item left to introduce, though one he is still considering whether it is worth it.

The hint book still stands on the shelf, obvious to Shen Qingqiu's trained eye. Since his first time here, he has not touched it a single time. Had he been stuck with no idea how to progress he might have given it a chance. But as he remembers how useless it was back when playing the game, he has yet to bother.

In this case he doesn't think it will hurt to bring up. Free info to deliver so Binghe stays trusting.

"Finally, there is this one book to note. In case we get lost or don't know how to progress during the loops, it is meant to guide us in the right way. Though from experience, I can already tell you it is generally not worth bothering with.

Pulling the book off the shelf, it is heavy in his hand as he lifts it up to show. Luo Binghe pockets the spirit box, stepping around the desk to look past Shen Qingqiu's shoulder down at the book.

"Senior truly is impressive. It looks no different from the others. How did you find out it was special?"

"It's just about knowing what to look for. Though really, I have never found a use for it."

"You said it is meant to guide us. How does it do that?"

"Well, if it actually worked, you just flip to a random page and a message-"

action following words, Shen Qingqiu opens the book randomly. He expects to either get a blank page or some kind of nonsense useless advice. Instead, he stops in his tracks when he is met with a single bold sentence, shakily written in such large letters that they spread across both pages.

STOP IGNORING ME

What...?

For a moment, Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe just stare at the book. Hesitantly, he flips to another page, but they are completely blank. Repeating this a couple of times confirms this to be the only thing written in the entire book.

"Senior, what does this mean...?" Luo Binghe carefully asks above Shen Qingqiu's shoulder. Finding himself speechless, Shen Qingqiu tries to make sense of the meaning.

Since the very first time Shen Qingqiu has been inside of this safe room, he has not looked into this book a single time. Not until now. But before he transmigrated, back in the real world when he was playing the game non-stop, he used the hint book many, many times.

This is how he knows how useless it is! How many times did he not waste time trying to make sense of whatever nonsense it had written before he just gave up and looked up a guide online?? It was one of the main reasons for why he made so many guides himself! Clearly the game itself was not going to help you play it!

But out of every single time he checked the pages of the hint book, not a single time did they appear as anything like this.

Most commonly the hints would appear as some rhyming riddle that was impossible to solve 85% of the time, with the last 15% being so easy it took out all the fun. But never did it ever feel like the book was speaking directly to him. And never were the hints written in such a messy scrawl.

Who is he meant to stop ignoring...?

The Killer? He doesn't think he has had a single session that could be classified as him ignoring the Killer. No, that bastard is too good at tracking him down for that.

Is it some other character? Liu Mingyan he literally just met for the first time in the last loop and he felt like they had a good amount of interactions. Ning Yingying? Well, he has been avoiding her for a good while. Is that an issue? But as Shen Qingqiu he is not meant to meet up with other characters at this point of the game. Why would it be a problem that he is not constantly hanging out with her?

Or could it be-

No, that section hasn't even been unlocked yet. Unless the message is literally just the hint book telling him to get his head in the game and solve the goddamn puzzles? But how is that a hint! He knows he needs to progress, that is what he is constantly trying to do!

Stupid useless hint book! See if he is ever going to check inside it again when it behaves like this!

"Utter nonsense, I suspect. This is why I said it is not worth wasting time on."

Shen Qingqiu shuts the book with a loud smack. Right as it closes, though, he swears he hears the sound of a muffled far-away scream.

The wording must be leaving him on edge. He knows there is no one out there to make such a scream. Ning Yingying is both too far away and should not have reached the gates yet for it to come from her. With the Killer not activated yet, there is also no reason for the other characters to be in peril. There aren’t even any minor monsters or random NPC’s in this level of the game, so truly nothing to make a sound like that.

If anything, it also didn't sound like a scream of fear or terror? More like... frustration? Or something similar?

It must be his paranoia making him hear things. Creaks coming from an old mansion or the howling win. Nothing to worry about. He puts the book back on the shelf, where it will stay for a long, long time if he has any say. Without sparing it another glance, he turns to leave the safe room.

Luo Binghe does not stay back, but is quick to follow, keeping in step with Shen Qingqiu. As they return to the entrance, Shen Qingqiu throws a worried glance towards the heavy main doors, but it is too late to do anything now. Why Ning Yingying would rather weather the storm on her own than stay with him and Luo Binghe, he does not understand. He can only hope that her going out there alone is not a death sentence...

"Through that is where Ning Yingying and I woke up, both in the previous loop and this one. Has Senior had a chance to explore those hallways yet?" Luo Binghe suddenly interrupts his thoughts as he points towards a set of doors. He sounds curious, like his assumption is that Shen Qingqiu has searched every single nook and cranny to find all the secrets this mansion contains.

Well, Binghe is not really wrong, but in this case-

"I checked it out just once. Almost every door was locked, though. Out of the two rooms I could enter, I couldn't find anything interesting."

"Those were probably mine and Ning Yingying's rooms then. I also don't think they have anything special," Luo binghe nods along. He takes a moment to think before he continues. "There was one door missing its door handle though. Do you know anything about that Senior?"

Of course Shen Qingqiu knows about that, but he decides to stay quiet and just shake his head. Until that door handle is found, that area of the mansion will stay closed off. It's why he hasn't bothered spending more time around those hallways than that one initial check.

"It is good to know, but it is better to keep our focus on the upper floors. That is where the majority of the mansion is unlocked and are some of the only areas we can explore from here." Shen Qingqiu says instead.

Walking up the stairs feels weird to do with Luo Binghe right behind him. Just how many times have he walked up here on his own, doing his best to stay away from others while progressing in the game? Luo Binghe was a great asset in the last loop, but Shen Qingqiu had always expected their partnership to be temporary. He can't help but feel odd to suddenly be accompanied like this.

Luckily, Luo Binghe does not seem to mind. As they walk down the long hallways, Shen Qingqiu starts to explain what Luo Binghe should expect. Just a few points here and there such as the best way to avoid traps and how to recognize real doors from the endless rows of fakes.

A good example comes up when they reach his room. Though, when Luo Binghe asks if he can look inside, Shen Qingqiu declines with the same reason Luo Binghe used for his own and Ning Yingying's rooms earlier.

Once they reach the cross section of the hallways, that is when Shen Qingqiu hesitates. Where should they start? In the loop just before he went astray with Luo Binghe, he had solved the piano puzzle in the music room. In the secret room it had unlocked he hadn't found any items of use, though. Until he had all the items required for the big puzzle inside there is no need to return to it.

Contemplating their options, Luo Binghe waiting patiently at his side, Shen Qingqiu suddenly has a realization. He had been trying to reach the locked room when everything went to shit in that session. Sadly, back then he hadn't been able to investigate the room properly, distracted and absentminded as he had been. Trying to get the Killer to unlock the door once again seems nearly impossible.

But what if there was another way?

"Binghe, you said once you and Liu Mingyan had left the basement, she showed you around the short- some secret passages. Would you be able to find those again?"

"Oh, absolutely Senior! Just follow me, they should be this way."

Walking straight ahead, it is Luo Binghe's turn to lead. Shen Qingqiu does point out the rooms they pass on their way such as the music room, the kitchenette and the living room. It is before they reach the laboratory that Luo Binghe stops by a set of doors that Shen Qingqiu remembers as being just as fake as most of the other doors.

Still, Luo Binghe pulls out his knife and to Shen Qingqiu's astonishment, he is able to slide it inside the doorframe, an area Shen Qingqiu was certain was pure wall. Twisting the knife around for a bit, Luo Binghe is able to loosen some kind of mechanism, the door swinging open.

Fake turned real just by the use of knowledge and the right tool. Shen Qingqiu is certain he would never have found this on his own, applauding Luo Binghe in his mind. He of course doesn't have a convenient knife that can unlock the door, but if he ever has to access the shortcuts himself, he now knows of one way.

Together they enter the new passage that has revealed itself.

It does not take long for Shen Qingqiu to begin to feel claustrophobic in these hallways. While it is the same deep red carpet and matching wallpaper that surround them, the lightning is much duller, making the shadows deeper. Interestingly enough, it is not candlesticks that provide the light, but instead old-fashioned oil lamps mounted to the walls.

It is the exact kind of hallway that makes Shen Qingqiu fear one wrong step would turn him into minced meat. His only security is to stay close to Luo Binghe. The more deadly the trap, the more it might hesitate to trigger if it runs the risk of hitting the halo of the hero.

As they continue, at one point a downward staircase reveals itself. Though the steps don't go very far before they are utterly covered by darkness. Shen Qingqiu, who has already learned his lesson about darkness and traps does not even consider going down there. Luo Binghe makes a brief comment about that being where he and Liu Mingyan came from, but otherwise also doesn't stop.

Since they entered, Shen Qingqiu has wondered whether they will find Liu Mingyan here. As far as he remembers and from what she said, she doesn't have a room like the rest of them, but instead wakes up directly in these hallways. Where exactly that is, Shen Qingqiu doesn't know. Either way, they don't see any signs of her as they reach their destination.

What stands before them isn't exactly a door, but it is clear the surface can still be pushed to the side. Luo Binghe is quick to do so, opening up for a room Shen Qingqiu has only ever seen once before.

Luo Binghe immediately steps inside. Shen Qingqiu, on the other hand, suddenly finds his body refusing to move.

From where he is standing inside the secret passage, he can see it is some kind of study. A few bookshelves line the walls and there is a dark wooden desk close to the back half of the room. Besides that, there isn't much else he can see from his current angle. Yet still, he does not go forward.

"Senior...?" Luo Binghe calls him questionable when Shen Qingqiu doesn't follow.

He just... He just needs to step inside. It is just some room. Actually, it is not just some room. It is the one room he has been fighting tooth and nail, session after session, to get inside off. There is no other place in the mansion that he has spent so much effort towards entering. From trying to trick the Killer into unlocking the door to his one attempt at stealing the key himself, many deaths have been caused by Shen Qingqiu trying to get inside this very room.

And now, as he finally is able to enter just like that, he finds himself frozen in place.

"Senior, is everything okay?" Luo Binghe worriedly asks when Shen Qingqiu hasn't moved for way too long.

Shen Qingqiu tries to nod at first, but realizes Luo Binghe might not be able to see itin the low light. "I'm fine, I just- Just one moment Binghe."

Taking deep breaths, Shen Qingqiu tries to get his act together. He puts all his will into putting one leg in front of the other, to just move forward. Forcing his body to act despite every instinct in him screaming to turn away. He is his own master and he will step inside this room and progress the game!

He does not move.

Grinding his teeth together, he feels frustration bubble up. But he just can't take another step.

Ready to just throw himself into the room, he startles when he suddenly feels a touch on his hand. Looking up, he hadn't even noticed Luo Binghe had stepped back inside the secret passage.

With a soft expression of comfort, Luo Binghe takes hold of Shen Qingqiu's hand. His palm is warm and soft and somehow… Somehow it manages to calm the racing of Shen Qingqiu's heart.

Just a little.

Pulling him along, Luo Binghe steps back inside the room, Shen Qingqiu right behind him. As he passes the hidden opening Shen Qingqiu can feel his breath getting caught in his throat. For a second, he is certain some terrible trap will fall upon him or the Killer will burst through the door. He is convinced he will be met with bloody red and empty eyes.

Nothing happens.

Shen Qingqiu walks safely through the secret passage and finds himself inside a very normal study.

Luo Binghe does not let go of his hand as Shen Qingqiu can finally fully see the room in full.

In its entirety, the room isn't particularly big. It could easily be imagined as the study for some high-ranking servant or hire. It is enough hidden away that paperwork can be filled without disturbance and comfortable enough to meet with some high class visitors. It doesn't contain much besides the bookshelves and desk. A cupboard is pushed to the side, revealing itself to be the hidden door to the shortcut.

Everything in the room is set up extremely meticulously and kept in order. The books on the shelf are sorted alphabetically and by subject and there is not a single piece of stray paper on the desk. Everything has been arranged in such a precise way that in itself it tells a lot about the owner of this study without Shen Qingqiu having to know who it is.

Which makes it all the more unusual to see the cluttered pile haphazardly thrown into one corner of the room.

All of this is taken in by Shen Qingqiu. All, but one spot his eyes refuses to turn towards. His hand feels clammy in Luo Binghe's hold and the longer they stay like this, the more Shen Qingqiu can feel his embarrassment build.

He is a grown man! How long does he plan to stand here being comforted by Luo Binghe? It's not like he is a future wife! Even if that one area of the room makes him sick to his stomach just thinking about it, he should be able to handle it. This is a horror game! What use will he be if he let himself be affected by every terrible thing that happens?

Forcing himself to release Luo Binghe's hold, he keeps his head fixedly turned towards the pile on the floor as he walks over to it. Standing closer, it becomes clear to him that it is not by any small force that this mess has been thrown here. Kneeling down, he finds books with broken spines and ripped paper. Studying the wall right besides, there are even a few marks left from where it has been hit with violence.

Luo Binghe takes the chance to look at the desk while Shen Qingqiu riffles through the mess.

After looking through a couple of pages, he is certain he recognizes the writing. Taking a second to remember, he realizes the red cursive lines are similar to what was written on the child's drawing that he and Binghe found in the forest. Back then, he didn't have his glasses, so he couldn't read the words himself, but the red pen used is quite distinct.

Picking up a page at random, Shen Qingqiu skims through its content. He doesn't understand much at first, as it is hard to find the meaning without context. That is when another piece catches his attention. While it has been ripped apart at least twice, he is still able to recognize the official paper for what it is.

A marriage certificate.

On this particular fragment, Shen Qingqiu is not able to find the names of the couple. Neither is he able to find the rest of the page. Still, It is with a grim expression that he guesses this might not have been the happiest of marriages.

Something about this is poking something in his mind. Something this reminds him of. But for now, he puts it away. He will return to it later.

He continues to look through the pile when he finds a single book that is neither broken nor contains any red cursive writing. Looking it over, his eyes widens as he realizes what it is.

This-! Did he just-! Is one of the puzzle pieces really just laying around wildly like this-?

Looking it over, he searches for any signs of the book being a fake. But truly, it seems legit. A dark leather cover with the subtlest imprints of flowers and a single line of golden text on the front, the songbook looks exactly as Shen Qingqiu remembers it.

He quickly packs it away to take with him. It's not that he expects that he will use it this session, but just the knowledge that he can find it here later is a huge advantage. Especially with the shortcut, this has now become one of the easiest puzzle pieces to collect.

Excitement begins to bubble in his stomach as he stands back up. It is only thanks to Binghe remembering the last loop that he has been able to find this so easily! He is thankful and eager when he turns back towards Binghe.

Binghe, who is holding a single piece of paper in his hand. A paper that, once Shen Qingqiu is close enough to see what it contains, he realizes he remembers all too clearly.

#SVSSS #scum villain's self saving system #scum villain self saving system #scumvillain #Shen Qingqiu #Shen Yuan #Luo Binghe #BingYuan #BingQiu #mxtx #Ao3 Link

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gamingblur103s · 5 months ago

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my thoughts on neo the world ends with you

long but probably not very good to read. spoilers and allat

i have to admit that i have a knee-jerk resentment towards a lot of the twewy franchise outside of the original game. every port and remake and reimagining of the original is simply worse off because something fundamental about what made the original experience so fantastic is removed. granted, this is often out of necessity for it no longer being a DS game, and from a business perspective, something like the anime adaptation only makes sense when a sequel is coming out practically immediately after the anime ends. still, in regards to these rereleases, i can easily see them as things that only add to the franchise rather than remove from them. the mobile port, despite screwing with the art style and the gameplay, added new music that is on par with the original game's score. the anime adaptation, despite its truncation, occasional mischaracterization, and format the story was not made for, looks pretty great and is still fun enough to be an effective recap, which was its precise purpose. it is much harder to say the same for final remix.

final remix is a port of a port; it maintains the streamlined and exponentially less engaging gameplay of the mobile version. granted, it comes with new pins which work well enough with this new base, but that doesn't change the problems i have with these fundamentals. to make up for that (as well as bridge the gap between it and neo), final remix comes with "a new day": a continuation of the story that is necessary to experience in order to understand neo.

to be blunt, a new day is where my previously mentioned resentment began. the story it tries to tell is so emphatic on its mystery that it foregoes any actual depth. as something that is expressly being tacked onto the original story rather than its own entity, its poor quality leads to directly detracting from that story.

the reaper's game (for og twewy at least) was meant to act as a symbolic prison for neku that colored every bit of his progress. yes, his character development is fairly blatant, but if anything, it benefits from that. the framing of the reaper's game actually makes the arc more grounded in how arduous it is, in how it was so much longer than neku could have ever expected, in how it hurt in all the ways he was scared it would.

it's all perfectly embodied by the fact neku is still wearing his headphones when the original game ends on the sublime emotional note of him taking them off. it's careless storytelling, to such an extent that it colors everything that came before it as the last canonical events we get to see, made all the worse by how it (and consequently, the game) ends with Neku dying. again. the only thing that keeps me from being completely outraged at the comical disregard of his arc is that it at least doesn't take away his emotional development.

there's also the iffy characterization overall, once again to serve a mystery the plot cannot afford to answer the larger reaching implications of. mind you, there's nothing outright OFFENSIVE about its portrayals (i actually think fake joshua is the best example of characterization in the whole thing; it's fun to show what a character is by what they aren't), but it's all just so vapid. forgive me for being smarmy enough to use an antimetabole, but when you go through a whole-ass video game that has its plot function in service to its characters, playing such a blatant sequel-bait that has its characters serving the IDEA of a plot feels like a disservice to those characters. if there's a connection to be felt, it's not indicated or made stronger by what happens here; it's all for the sake of hype.

i'm rambling, but hopefully that embodies my emotions going into neo comprehensively enough. i couldn't help but see a new day as utterly counterintuitive, and as a result, i had my typical territorial nature for my favorite things cranked up to twelve. i couldn't even fully trust the original staff with this game. for a while, i couldn't shake the feeling that the franchise of twewy outside the original game tarnished my experience with it. i did everything i could to convince myself to go full "death of the author": everything that isn't the original game simply isn't canon. but that didn't feel right to me, so i still kept this deep curiosity in me. then, about two and a half years after its release, i started up neo and spent my winter break exclusively on playing it through to the end (college made it so if i didn't finish it then, i'd have to wait till the summer).

this FINALLY leads me to my thoughts on the game this post is supposed to be about.

in a word, neo feels derivative. mind you, that's by no means the full story. for certain aspects, that description is either deeply unfair or outright untrue; for others, it's frankly generous. holistically, however, it feels like a continuation of what twewy had to offer, when it could've been an evolution. this by itself would make it worse than the original, but then there are times where it can't even accomplish that much.

on that note: the presentation.

og twewy didn't just have a fantastic style, but phenomenal direction. it was a multi-pronged refutation of the idea of "style over substance". the pause menu alone is so informative, yet so digestible because of its adherence to the game's style, what with its inspired choice of music and cute lil thumbnails for all the menus you can navigate to from there. there's also accounting for what players will most often check the menu for and an effort to make such features particularly accessible. the shining examples of this are dedicating nearly all of the top screen to the map and the fact that all the combat options aside from the pins (your level, partner behavior, game difficulty) are available on that screen, rather than hidden in another menu. hell, credit where it's due, the rereleases' version of this menu are all just as good; the attempt to depixelize the visuals makes it look a little too much like a gacha game for my liking, but absolutely nothing about it was changed in such a way that it becomes harder to navigate

in general, i think ui/ux design is way more important in games than it's given credit for, though that's undoubtedly changed in recent times. it's always been listed as a separate career from other graphic design jobs, and rightfully so, but for games especially, it can't be stressed enough how much they make or break a game's flow and "vibe". fact of the matter is, a significant chunk of a player's time is going to be spent in menus no matter what. i'm sure there's exceptions to this, but all i can think of is very primitive examples like pong which obviously don't apply to what i mean. as a result, making those menus feel fun and/or natural to use elevates the entire experience in ways even the most diligent game developers might not realize. an article from gamesradar has a translated quote from persona 5 director katsura hashino which really emboldened my feelings on the topic

"In Japan, UI design is often handled by new employees. ... Top level designers are usually in charge of characters and background graphics, with the UI being secondary. I think that’s a mistake. That’s why Atlus' UI designers are paid so well."

(side note: as great as the menus in p3r mostly are, the change for the in-battle menu from the revolver chamber is criminal. i know they still kinda have it, but i still prefer what the original did)

with all that said: neo twewy has three pause menus.

the first menu, which i will call the main menu, is where most of the options that relate to gameplay are. your current objective, social network (no jesse eisenberg in sight), equipment, map, and collectible progress. each of those five things i mentioned are their own menu within this menu, except for equipment which is actually two menus in threads and pins (to be fair, just like twewy).

the second menu, which i’ll call the pause menu, has all the shit that give off system setting vibes. saving, loading, going to the title screen, volume control, subtitles (always yes), voice track (we’ll get to that), the works. worth noting that this menu has absolutely no style to it. it is laughably barebones. sauceless, if you will.

the third menu, which i’ll call the combat menu, has all the combat options twewy had at the bottom of its main menu. this menu is also pretty lacking in sauce, though i suppose there’s only so much that could be done without it feeling obtrusive.

an insane person would argue this is a good translation of the immediate access in twewy’s ui. this division means less navigation is needed for certain option and it makes clutter a non-issue (in theory). while i’m sure this is true for some, for me, it became a consistent headache which would often undermine what i think are its design goals. the main menu’s subdivisions are a good example, but i actually didn’t have too much of a problem with it since switching between the menus was fairly snappy. the pin menu, however, was COMICALLY clunky. it becomes far too difficult to navigate your list as soon as week 2 starts. neo is a home console game, so there is zero need for a single pin to take up THAT much space on the screen, especially when that same pin at a different level of progress is listed separately, effectively doubling the amount of shit you have to sift through. the attempts at giving me shortcuts and filters ended up only confusing me. by the end, i resorted to exclusively consulting the full list every time, because even if it was tedious as all hell, at least i understood it and could eventually memorize the positions of things.

granted, it’s not all bad. you can actually access the combat menu while you’re in the main menu, so you can experiment with your level and view the drop rates in the noisepedia simultaneously. this version of the map, while it takes extra steps to access, also has features twewy’s map did not, namely the ability to see the kinds of noises that spawn in an area. you can even zoom in and out! for some reason!

these undeniable improvements are not only things twewy did not have, but in some cases (i.e. the map's new features) couldn’t have. however, it’s still missing the forest for the trees; the fundamental flow is still so disjointed that these features feel like a bandage on a tumor. i fully concede this next complaint is at least partially on me, but i cannot tell you the number of times i pressed the button for the wrong menu. because each menu has important shit that i need frequent access to, my muscle memory for the “i need menu things” neurons are always confused. if i’m not wasting time by going to the wrong menu, i’m wasting time by hesitating on pressing any button in case i’m wrong.

i’m being cruel here to an extent, and i acknowledge that. in isolation, these problems aren’t even a fraction as damning as i make them out to be, but when it’s something repeatedly experienced throughout the entire game, i cannot ignore how i dread having to interact with these menus and how they color my experience. granted, you could argue these complaints refute my thesis statement on neo being derivative. it may have failed, but is this not neo trying something new? to that, i would make the distinction that this is not a case of neo evolving, but rather, simply adapting.

allow me to branch back out to the more general subject of the game’s presentation.

i am by absolutely no means going to be calling the presentation of neo bad. that might be shocking to hear after me going so hard on the ui of all things, but i'm not an idiot. the soundtrack is a delight ("the beginning of a happy life" is genuinely, no bullshit, honest to god one of my favorite vg songs i have ever heard), the visuals are never any worse than ok (fret's design is by FAR my favorite, but i also liked shoka, rindo (mainly just his mask continuing the theme of neku's "hear no evil" with "speak no evil"), and susukichi), and when the two combine, it consistently achieves a familiar vibe throughout.

VERY familiar.

again, the presentation of neo is not bad. i would go so far as to call it good overall. but i genuinely struggle to think of any way it substantially iterates on what twewy has to offer. from where i'm standing, it feels like a complete copy-paste (with one exception that i swear i will get to soon cuz this is now like my third time alluding to it).

it's a bit of a mainstream example, but when you look at something like final fantasy, there's a clear throughline in the presentation of pretty much the entire series. even at its most vibrant and cutesy, there's this particular breed of gothic or sci-fi or—and i truly do not mean this disparagingly—edgy you can feel in the foundation of a final fantasy game. conversely, even at its darkest, final fantasy has its own brand of whimsy and bombast in chocobos or summons or the bajillion leitmotifs throughout the franchise. through it all, final fantasy has maintained a strong fundamental identity, but has managed to express it in a myriad of ways that, rather than dilute said identity, only bolster and refine its spirit.

i use final fantasy specifically because of its similarities to twewy. granted, these similarities are largely surface-level, but that's also kinda my point. final fantasy as a franchise achieves the variety it does through acknowledging what is fundamental to it and innovating off of that. by contrast, twewy (the franchise, not the game) is afraid to change its spirit and seeks purely to preserve it. because of that, the only way you could really differentiate twewy (the game, not the franchise) and neo at a glance is because of the hardware they are on. acquiescing to the merciless march of time, rather than embracing it.

that's why i still think my complaints about the ui ultimately fall back on the critiques of neo being derivative. while the problems with the ui in isolation seem like the developers trying something new, when you look at neo holistically, it is so clearly just an attempt at merely adapting, and sometimes it feels like neo fails even on that level. it isn't even innovation by necessity; every change feels like a sacrifice more than anything.

and on that note: gameplay.

i would say i generally enjoyed playing neo. the overworld exploration is very bog-standard, but i still appreciate it. remind is cute (it and telewarp's mechanics are obviously scripted but successfully "feel" cool to use) and dive fights are cool. i didn't mind the lack of fast travel, and in fact ADORED beat's soundsurf. having it add to your groove makes so much sense it hurts, and i love what it does to the music. but all of this is kinda window dressing when compared to the combat.

i'm sure my utter obsession with rpg (especially traditional rpg) gameplay aids my love of neo's combat, but i think most people can appreciate the gameplay loop. assigning party members to specific buttons is an undeniably fun concept. the hyper-customization of the combat is also something to be admired (to an extent); i'm sure i'm not particularly special for this, but i adore any opportunity to play a game "my way". the pin list is a teensy bit bloated with repeated ideas but with a higher number and/or different and somewhat arbitrary "element", but i sincerely love it overall. with how diverse the ideas are, there's a shocking few that i would consider objectively worse than the others. for example, the strength of the game's combo system "groove" means that a pin having a lower power doesn't actually make it necessarily worse, since less damage per attack allows for longer combos, which allows for more liberal and consistent use of the special moves unlocked by reaching the 100%, 200%, and 300% thresholds. inversely, as a compulsive grinder, the game's progression felt fairly natural even when i was pretty blatantly overprepared. fights are incredibly busy, and the boss fights especially are designed so that a single mistake can become a slippery slope of punishment. i died fairly frequently, particularly from getting too big for my britches and taking on a reduction chain i just couldn't handle. thus, fights never felt thoughtless the whole way through, which i was frankly REALLY impressed by.

i would accredit each of these compliments (or a stronger version of them) to twewy (to the point where i'm strongly tempted to derail this whole thing into how much i fucking love twewy's gameplay), but to its credit, neo does take different ways to get there in a lot of cases. to be doubly fair, though, as i've previously stated, these different approaches feel like they needed to happen rather than resulting from a distinct and passionate vision. to be TRIPLY fair, though, what's here has so much polish and depth that there was clearly some kind of passion present. my mind made a strong connection to kingdom hearts; i am not a big kh fan, so that is either indicative of just how similar neo and kh are (that someone like me could point it out) or how ignorant i am to action rpgs (accusing neo of being similar when it's really not). i'm open to either option.

the hyper-customization also feels like a double-edged sword, in that there is virtually no difference in how each of the six party members play. making your party members distinct from a gameplay perspective is INCREDIBLY important, because it's such an effective tool of storytelling. for better or worse, how a character performs during gameplay will directly influence how a player will view that character holistically. if, either by pure luck or bad game design, a character underperforms, a player is inclined to view that character less fondly. while neo's method of little if any distinction seemingly circumvents this slight dice roll, it closes off a unique opportunity entirely and settles for something that feels a little bland. mind you, this doesn't change anything about what i liked about the game's customization and customization as a whole. i do believe, generally, that the more customization the better, but that can't be an excuse to homogenize the party members.

none of how the game handles levelling up and stats really helps this. yes, characters will have different tastes in terms of food (leading to potential bonuses on top of the stat increases that food already does), and some clothes will have secondary benefits exclusive to certain party members, but it's not nearly enough.

i'm tempted to say that the solution to this would be to find a better balance, and that is still true on a fundamental level, but i also don't think making party members distinct and customization are mutually exclusive, or even necessarily things that mitigate the capacity for the other. if you want to go as extreme as what neo attempts, then yes, a focus on customization will undermine uniqueness, but there's also ways to let them heighten the other. in twewy's case, the dynamism of neku's gameplay vs the static "gimmicks" of his partners spoke not only to the personalities of each character individually, but also of neku's relationship with those partners and with people as a whole. more contemporary and popular examples of this would be pokemon (especially nowadays with nature mints and streamlined ev training) and persona (especially 5 royal).

the latter of the examples i bring up is an interesting one to me: taking advantage of a protagonist who is a canonical blank-slate (not to say joker or any persona protag from 3 onward has no personality, just that they are wild cards) to let them fit whatever mold the player wants. it's a big indicator of what i mean when i say that customization and uniqueness can coexist, because in this case, they're two almost completely separate spheres that manage to function without overpowering the other. when they DO interact, such as with the intended evolution of the mc's personas or the customization allowed for non-mc party members, it only enhances what it touches.

i should stress, despite these critiques, that i think neo's gameplay is good. i had fun with it. there are aspects of it, such as its pin selection, that i found memorably impressive. but i want to stress why i stick so strongly by my thesis—that neo is derivative—even for its best aspects.

and on that note: the story.

let's get the big thing i've been alluding to out of the way: i ADORE neo's localization. i really, truly, sincerely think there wasn't a single time in the entire game where i felt some piece of dialogue was awkward, and that is not only a compliment for the localizers, but for the writers as well. don't get me wrong, i could sometimes notice that things were localized, but that realization never jarred me. rather, it made me that much more confident about what that piece of dialogue could tell me about the character saying it, the situation they're in, and/or their relationship(s) to whom they're talking to.

i won't act like it's absolutely perfect, of course. however, my complaints come from failures to achieve the goal of localization, rather than with the innate nature of the practice. for example, probably my biggest hang-up on it is that it undersells a lot of the sentiment when shiki and neku finally reunite, though the voice acting is partly responsible for that (likely moreso the voice direction rather than the actors themselves, but i can't say for sure).

back on the positives, i do find the english voice acting pretty good. miranda parkin as nagi is my personal highlight; her performance reminds me a LOT of erica lindbeck's futaba sakura, and you should absolutely look into her work on her youtube channel "ParkinArt" when you get the chance, because she is superbly talented. shoutouts also go to xander mobus as kubo (i struggle to think of a sleazier voice) and pretty much every returning va.

in general, i am pretty massively defensive of localization and localizers; whole lotta people who don't know shit spouting, well, shit. to be fair, i'm not much better, but at least i'm on the side of the people who do this shit for a living. and i'm also on the side which appreciates those people for the work they do, because i can't help but feel like it's really fuckin hard. you're not just translating the literal words, but finding ways to synthesize it to maintain the SPIRIT. This short video by "Jehtt" about the opening line of Sonic Adventure is an excellent example of what I'm talking about.

youtube

as for the content getting localized itself, final remix (and specifically a new day) made it clear that whatever sequel comes out, it's going to be some kind of direct continuation of what's been established, rather than a self-contained story in the same universe or something along those lines. personally, i would've preferred the latter if a twewy sequel HAD to exist, and to its credit, my favorite things about neo twewy's story tend to be the things which THEORETICALLY make it stand on its own. obviously, your enjoyment is enhanced if you play the first game, but there's enough in neo to make it possible for someone who doesn't to still understand it.

for example, new characters are fun, even if occasionally half-baked. i'll get the riff-raff out of the way: the shinjuku reapers felt like goofy personifications of gimmicks that served their purposes well enough, coco is a bit less annoying this time, tsumugi is hilariously half-baked after being hyped up as much as she was, hazuki... exists, and i struggled to see any of the other team leaders as more than an impetus for other characters (though i am DEEPLY grateful kanon isn't as bad as she could've been). speaking of which, how about those characters?

my favorites were nagi and fret; i see their concepts as a bit tropey, but executed well all the same. the ways their arcs intertwine were surprisingly compelling; nagi's dislike of fret wasn't just a weird gag, but an inevitability of fret's compulsion to put up a front and nagi's keen perception and hatred of "fake" people. once nagi learns why fret puts up this act as he makes an effort to move past that instinct, they start bonding almost immediately as she tells him more about her inner workings and that she'll take care not to be so judgmental thanks to his influence. the reveal that she got fret on elegant strategy after the events of the game made me smile way more than the game trying to get me to like rindo and shoka as a couple ever did.

on that note, i could take or leave rindo as a protagonist, and in general, my interest in the shinjuku reapers (especially shoka) waned as they became more significant. that's not BECAUSE of their significance, mind you, simply that they ended up disappointing me in one way or the other (with the possible exception of kaie who was just kind of a silly little guy). it comes back, yet again, to my thesis on this game failing to meaningfully iterate. i understand and agree that there's a lot of value in establishing parallels between characters, even if the plots of their stories are disconnected. i would go so far as to say it's ideal to make a sequel expand on the subtext of what's been established like that, as long as it and what's new bolster each other. in the case of rindo, i struggle to appreciate things about him that aren’t some extension of neku when he was a protagonist. i found his arc about making his own decisions sudden and a bit inexplicable, especially with how blatantly it was stated. felt like a case of saying a character was having a specific arc without actually giving them that arc.

as for shoka, i do like her more than rindo. in fact, it’s her relationship with him that made me lose interest; it felt like all the things that endeared me to her, like her relationships with the other shinjuku reapers and her brand of snark, got pushed to the side in favor of said relationship. it dominated everything else about her character in a way it felt like it just didn’t with rindo. granted, this could just be because he’s the protagonist, and her “snark” is a surface level reason to like her. however, i don’t find that first concession to be an adequate excuse, and it was precisely her personality that got me interested in the character to begin with, only for it to feel discarded (albeit probably not completely, i’m sure there’s a cute lil moment or two i’m forgetting). considering shoka’s love of gatto nero and shiki’s presence in the game, i imagine the parallels between the two have to be somewhat intentional, including with their relationships to their respective mc. like with rindo, these parallels make it hard for me to appreciate the character, but unlike rindo, shoka’s parallels seem to actively oust the things unique to her, as opposed to rindo’s leaving little opportunity for appreciable distinction to begin with. again, i ultimately prefer shoka, as tis better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.

that just leaves the three elephants in the room/party: all of them are returning characters. two of them are characters you played as in twewy.

i do want to make it clear that even at my most territorial, i don't think i was ever completely against the idea of there being returning characters; if anything, my ideal twewy sequel would actually feature characters like joshua or hanekoma more prevalently than they were here. rather, much like most things, it comes down to how you implement them, and neo does so in a way that pretty blatantly relies on them. even that isn’t a necessarily a bad thing, but remember what i said about this story attempting to stand on its own?

what shocks me about their sheer prevalence is that very little of it feels necessary. i don’t get the feeling that any of the og gang were needed to make this story work on a thematic level (as happy as a lot of their scenes together made me), and in fact, as i alluded to with rindo and shoka, it actually seems to impede or dampen a lot of what the game is trying to go for. i see it as perhaps the single most blatant example of my thesis statement. neo plays with the concept of a self-contained story, but is unable to let go of what's already there, innovate enough on the franchise and original game’s core, and pull through with something standalone, because it seems generally unwilling to embrace change, and consequently, key aspects of creativity and what makes a good sequel. i understand if others don’t share this opinion, but to me, it really feels like neo only changes when it has to, and that reflects in the changes it makes as well as the ones it doesn't.

and on that note: the conclusion.

sorry this feels so disparate. i definitely wouldn't call neo a bad game, and in fact, i think given some time, i can comfortably call it good. plus, i can, after some difficulty and deliberation, say it and even final remix's existence only add to og twewy. impulsive territorialism be damned, it makes me happy to see stories and characters i love be added on to like this. the aspects i consider bad, even if they might be fundamental, are not enough for me to avoid embracing and appreciating the good. my silly little headcanons are not “threatened” by things like final remix, even if it felt like they would be in the moment. it is still possible to imagine all my favorite characters living happily ever after with each other, even that cunt with the mop for hair joshua, and if anything, certain scenes in neo only add to those delusions. i may have complained about them, and i do stand by those complaints, but i cannot deny how much i love them in isolation. i think the only thing that could've made me hate them is mischaracterization, but the only instance of that which stuck out to me (neku and shiki reuniting) seems to be a translation issue, and the real sentiment of the scene aligns far more strongly with my views of the characters.

that said, i'm still definitely disappointed by it all. neo's derivative spirit felt very pervasive to me the whole way through, and by the end, i felt a strong urge to replay twewy. that's not a necessarily bad instinct to have after playing a sequel, because it's the idea of "wanting more". it is, however, bad in this case, because it was a mix of that and the idea of "wanting better". i wanted to play something where these good ideas were new, or better yet, something where the new ideas were good. as it stands, i'm left the slightest bit hollow; just enough to be noteworthy, but i still feel like a dick for bringing it up.

i'm happy i played this game. i may very well play it again in the future. there's aspects of it i like to the point of loving. and yet, i hesitate to say i like it.

my feelings on this game continue to be jumbled, even after all this. still, writing a lot of it out definitely helped, and it was really fun to make! thank you oh so very much for reading; i hope you enjoyed it!

oh, and i would rather rip my dick off than play scramble slam again-

#ntwewy #neo twewy #neo the world ends with you #twewy #the world ends with you #might be forgetting smth #ah well maybe later #i don't wanna include character tags cuz i don't wanna be the fucker that interrupts someone's search for fanart of their fave

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b-skarsgard · 7 months ago

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•Nicholas Hoult remembers his first encounter with the dreaded vampire Count Orlok. It started with the voice — a haunting, rumbling tone that cuts through shadow.

Robert Eggers, his director on Nosferatu, a reimagining of the 1922 black-and-white silent film classic, played Hoult an audio recording of his costar Bill Skarsgård, the It actor behind Pennywise who now transforms into the titular lich king. In the weeks leading up to filming in Prague, Skarsgård studied with an opera coach to lower his voice an entire octave to reach the deep bowels of Orlok's timbre. He often recorded himself experimenting with the voice, sending different Voice Memo samples to the filmmaker until they found the right sound. Skarsgård labeled one such audio file, "Tiger Growl," which is just him breathing as Orlok. He thought about that famous scene when Thomas Hutter, the unfortunate estate agent, played in this film iteration by Hoult, accidentally cuts himself in the presence of his vampiric client, who then becomes almost aroused by the sight of blood.

"It was unlike anything I'd heard before," Hoult recalls to Entertainment Weekly of listening to some of those samples. "It was chilling to me. Rob was playing it off of his phone, but it still filled the room."

"He really wanted a very deep, resonant voice," Skarsgård says of the director behind The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman. "The character is somewhat paradoxical because he's very powerful and demanding, but there's something frail about him, as well, because he's a corpse. So the voice needs to be very powerful, but at the same time, there needs to be some sort of fragility or almost pain and labor in his breathing and talking."

•The actual look of Orlok feels far more precious. Skarsgård partially secluded himself from the rest of the cast ahead of filming; he would see folks on the weekend, but on shoot days, he maintained his distance from the likes of Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe, Emma Corrin, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Ralph Ineson to enhance the impact of seeing him transformed. The same approach applies to the film's marketing.

•The actors themselves are careful when talking about the reveal. "I’d hate to spoil anything," says Dafoe, who plays the Van Helsing-esque figure Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz. "The only thing that I thought was really great and felt really fresh is he looks like he could have been from Romania as opposed to a suave English guy or something. He had a look that was rooted in historic accuracy and a folk tradition."

"I think the best way to discover Orlok is through the movie for the first time," Skarsgård adds. "The movie functions on that, as well. He lives in the shadows for a long time, and it teases the reveal of the character as the movie progresses."

•Skarsgård experienced his own jump scare prior to filming. David White, the prosthetic makeup FX designer who worked with Eggers on The Northman and Skarsgård on The Crow, sculpted a clay bust of what the actor would look like as Count Orlok as a reference for the real thing. “I was terrified just looking at the image,” the actor remembers. “It looked so, so different from me, way more so than Pennywise. I was worried that I couldn't perform through it, that it would feel like giant prosthetic pieces, and I couldn't come alive through that.”

The words ��Grinch” and “goblin” came to mind for Skarsgård, but it was on the second camera test, with him sitting in a chair in full getup and surrounded by candles, where it felt like the Count finally arrived. “That was the first time where I felt the camera was alive, and I [could] start becoming this thing,” he says. “Robert came up to me after, and he was like, 'There he is.’”

excerpts taken from the article which you can read in full at the link above

#bill skarsgard #bill skarsgård #nosferatu #article #entertainment weekly #nicholas hoult #robert eggers #willem dafoe #lily rose depp

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preciousmomentsfigurine · 9 months ago

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hey, is anyone still here? looks like the last time i was on here was two years ago and change. things are really different now, but i guess then again it would be weird if they were the same

i was thinking of returning to this dead site because for a good fifteen years it was a big part of my life and provided me with a unique way to express my thoughts and ideas and feelings and opinions and musings to an audience of people who can hear me but not truly know me outside of my words that i share on this platform. and on the same coin i enjoy following the lives of people i know nothing about and watching their stories and selves develop and evolve from a complete distance in every sense

i'm five months sober now

i have a hard time pinpointing when exactly i became an alcoholic, but i guess i could say i dealt with it in some degree for about eight years, and progressively, as it always goes

i graduated with my masters last may (2023) in critical media studies where i spent my time writing and researching feminist cultural social and media theory. i produced a great deal of work i was and am very proud of including a thesis that is honestly my life and heart's work but unfortunately over the course of those two years my drinking escalated rapidly and by the end i was manically and drunkenly banging out papers and essays in the dead of night sleepless and naively inspired

somehow i got a 4.0 though despite that. everyone in my life always says i played off my drinking well anyway. beats me how or why

once i graduated i practically immediately began drinking all day every day while somewhat-hardly-kind-of-not-really looking for work which was fruitless and i quickly learned my degree i worked so hard for meant practically nothing to employers who were merely looking for experience i dont have outside of my teaching background in grad school

for almost exactly a year i was drunk 100% of the time i was awake

same old story, at some point i switched to bottom shelf pints of vodka, which constituted my breakfast lunch and dinner. sat on my couch in my filthy apartment occupying my filthy poisoned failing body either watching tv or causing problems somehow

this was when i was twenty-nine. for a while now i had known in my heart of hearts i wasnt someone who would ever be able to handle my liquor or drink like a normal person, whatever that means, and that too much was never enough, and that it was literally impossible to function so long as booze was a part of my life. any attempts to "cut back" or "take breaks", i knew, would end the same way, which was waking up to shots of room temperature vodka and being a prisoner to the worst shame a person can feel

i figured once i turned thirty, which was this march, that would probably be about the time i got sick of my own shit and said goodbye to the bottle. which i undeniably felt a kind of affection toward as if it were a lover. still do in a sense and thats why ill never flirt with it again

my sobriety date is april 16th 2024. my last drink was a shot of vodka at 8:30 am on the 15th after creating massive gashes in my upper arm the previous evening during a blackout fight with my boyfriend

im still unemployed and extremely mentally ill and my bipolar has gotten progressively worse over the past couple of years and will likely continue to according to what the science says and all of that. after my last manic episode last month i adjusted my meds (again) and for now they seem to be working but i don't hold my breath really

i do AA and i like it a lot, i do it my own way, i have a sponsor who approaches the program liberally and progressively and shares many of my comorbidities and has allowed me the freedom to define my relationship to the program and god in a way that works for me and i have made incredible strides through this. i have become a far far far better person.

being sober is easy and i never want to drink. not once not ever

ive never worked so hard on myself in my life because i got as close to death as i ever had and ive been very close at many points in my life for many years. when i was drinking i knew i wouldnt make it to see 35 if i continued as i was

therapy, AA, meds, a whole fucking lot of discipline

ive been with my boyfriend for two years and wed like to get married. thats nothing that will happen anytime soon but it is nice to think about. he has been by my side through unimaginable things that any sane person would not have stuck around for. he is my heart and my soul

im also trying to start applying for jobs again but im genuinely on the fence if i am capable of holding a full time job due to my severe mental illness. im exploring a bunch of options right now as far as that whole thing goes. the future is very uncertain as always

let me know if you see this or remember me or anything.

bye for now

#alcoholism #mental illness #mental health #personal #journal #journaling #update #life update

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marniethelordwizard · 3 months ago

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Going back to replay Baldur's Gate 3 has really helped to illuminate why I found Dragon Age: Veilguard to be such a frustrating, unfulfilling experience. I think it boils down to the missteps of Rook as the protagonist.

To preface, I liked Veilguard. It is a good game, a solid 7/10. It's not the mess people are making it out to be, nor does it hold a candle to the previous games in the series. It's a gorgeous, fun experience with good side characters. The last act in particular was spectacular.

When I began DAV, I decided to roleplay my Rook as a gorgeous, badass female Qunari. I chose all of the assertive, ‘renegade’ dialogue options to serve the character's stoic, no-nonsense attitude, with the intention of making her softer as her story progressed. And yet, it still felt like I was playing a predetermined character with a very distinct personality. At times, I could be rude or harsh to others, but it was so often followed up with a quippy, lighthearted remark that felt super out of place in the conversation.

I remember reading the experience of one of the people who participated in the Community Council for Dragon Age 4 during the development process. One of the pieces of feedback the Council provided to the developers regarded Rook's character, specifically how Rook basically resembled a tongue-in-cheek Ryan Reynolds-like Marvel superhero, which the Council found annoying and irritating. In response, the developers toned down these aspects of Rook's character, which is the version that made it into Veilguard. Despite these alterations, that quippy, Marvel personality still felt like a defining characteristic of my Rook, even while trying to play as the exact opposite. If you’re going into Veilguard planning to play Rook as a happy-go-lucky protagonist through the funny, sarcastic dialogue options, you’re going to have a better experience.

Playing Rook felt more similar to playing Geralt in The Witcher games than the previous Dragon Age protagonists. As the player, you can determine how Geralt reacts to events and make choices which shape the game’s outcomes, but Geralt remains fundamentally the same character no matter your decisions. To me, that’s what playing Rook was like. I couldn't be mean or rude, or purposefully antagonize my companions. The only characters I really could antagonize were the clear-cut villains and Solas.

On that note, I think that’s why the idea of Rook serving as a foil for Solas didn’t work for me narratively. A cool idea, sure, but perhaps not the right one for an RPG. IMO, this is where the problems with Rook as an RPG protagonist are most obvious. Veilguard wants to provide players with the agency to make their own character with a distinct background and have meaningful consequences for their choices, while also needing to set up Rook as having enough of a predetermined personality as a hero to contrast Solas’ role. Rook has to be a certain way for the overall story to work both narratively and thematically, but this undermines the function of Rook as an RPG protagonist whose personality, background, and choices you can decide as the player.

The execution of the regret prison failed for me because you never truly make decisions which allow you to feel regret. Of the choices you make, they are simply not comparable. Rook’s choices led to one of their companions dying after making the conscious decision to sacrifice themselves when the time came. Solas’ choices led to *ahem* an entire group of beings becoming tranquilized, his mother/lover/bestie getting murdered (twice), the fall of the Elven empire, people being cut off from the fade, spirits being banished to the fade and becoming corrupted upon leaving, the elves losing their immortality, the canonization of Evanuris’ propaganda in Dalish clans, etc.

Like, one of the reasons Solas is so incapable of moving beyond his mistakes is the whole sunk-cost fallacy. His actions have caused so much irreparable damage to the world and so much harm to the people he was trying to save that to stop would be to give up on those things, despite how much he wants to.

I guess you could argue the Treviso/Minrathous choice is more comparable to Solas’ mistakes, but it never even comes up in the prison where Rook is facing their regrets? You’re never blamed for your actions in any meaningful way. You can face some pushback when choosing between Minrathous or Treviso, but it’s still not framed within the overall narrative as Rook’s fault and something they should be saddled with regret for.

I think this is partly why the world was stripped of any social or political context. If we were given more control over our choices in a morally grey setting, make bad and harmful decisions, antagonize and alienate our companions, that foil narrative would serve no true purpose; Rook would no longer be a hero. Erasing the world the previous games built up avoided any potential for Rook to be as bad or worse than Solas, which comes at the expense of player agency.

I’ve read people say the Inquisitor would’ve better suited this purpose, but I still disagree. There are more parallels between the Inquisitor and Solas (figureheads of powerful organizations, leading armies, navigating politics), but again, you can't have your RPG protagonist serve as a foil to another character, because it fundamentally undermines the mechanics of that genre. Sure, you can create an Inquisitor who strives to make the world a better place and serve their people, but you can also make a self-serving, power-hungry Inquisitor who cares little for anyone else.

If Veilguard was going to set up a foil for Solas, I think it truly only would’ve worked with a NPC, similar to how Lelina is written to be a foil for Corypheus in Inquisition. Davrin or Bellara could’ve been super interesting to set this narrative up for. The Viper could’ve been another cool character to set up, who has tons of interesting parallels to Solas.

Veilguard sacrifices the player agency of Dragon Age as an RPG for the purpose of making the design of Rook's character work - which overall weakens the story, setting, characters, and fundamentally, Rook as a protagonist. It’s not something I blame the writers for. The writers worked in terrible workplace conditions. The development process was a nightmare. It's not John Epler's fault either. He came on as captain to a ship that had already sunk halfway under. After Inquisition, Veilguard was not the game Bioware intended to make. I can believe it’s a game they’re proud to have made, particularly under those circumstances, but as we’ve seen from the ideas in the Joplin years, it’s far from the game they envisioned. I would’ve loved for them to have created a game on par with Baldur’s Gate 3, which they had the potential to do, but it would’ve required enough resources, respect, and support from the studio, not one where writers are alienated and resented.

#veilguard critical #dav critical #dragon age critical #solas #marnierambles #why i ever call veilguard the veilguard?#no

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yuri-is-online · 8 months ago

Note

Hi Yuri! I have a little thought experiment for you. Do you think souls belonging to humans from Earth would function differently from souls of humans from Twisted Wonderland? Would they have souls at all in the way residents of Twisted Wonderland recognize them due to coming from a world lacking magic?

…Would that train of thought make Yuu essentially an empty vessel by Twisted Wonderland’s standards? Not me going crazy over the theory of there being something else in the dark mirror that Crowley wants to bring back.

- 🦐

Oh Shrimpy anon! I have been thinking evil thoughts about this for so so long.

Souls are spoken about in general terms a few times in Twisted Wonderland. The soul does seem to have something to do with unique magic, and from various npc interactions in the story and various events (specifically books 5&6, GloMas, and Playful Land) there does seem to be an understanding that everyone has a degree of magic within them, but a mage is someone who has access to a mana pool and the ability to channel that mana into a spell. With that in mind, let's analyze what the mirror says about Yuu:

The main issue with analyzing this set of lines is we don't know what the dark mirror would say about someone like say, Ace's dad, who also has no magic but does belong in Twisted Wonderland. The last exchange probably wouldn't happen, he's from the Queendom so he belongs back in the Queendom, but would the nature of Mr. Trappola's soul also be unclear to the Dark Mirror?

The specific words used are soundless, colorless, shapeless, and utterly vacant. The colorless bit is easy enough to pick up on, when you summon from the Dark Mirror the coffin opens to reveal the color of the dorm the character is from. NRC staff + Grim have grey and special characters like Rollo have a vaguely pale golden brown color. Yuu's soul doesn't share any of those colors so there is no dorm that would be appropriate for them.

Soundless sort of makes it seem like the mirror can't hear Yuu's thoughts? We don't have examples of mind reading spells in Twisted Wonderland... but it sort of makes sense that if a soul is considered magic, and Yuu's world has none that their soul wouldn't make sounds or have the same shape as someone from Twisted Wonderland. Utterly vacant would again just be referencing the complete lack of magic the soul possesses and not the mirror hating on us (too much anyway) because there really is nothing there for the mirror to see. That would technically make Yuu an empty vessel, but just how empty is the question?

Yuu clearly still has a soul or some sort of consciousness. Lilia seems to think we suffer from some sort of curse because of how dizzy our visions make us, and we can still very much be affected by magic. If something (or someone) took over Yuu's body, I think they still would be there inside but utterly powerless to resist. In a way, it would sort of be like their own version of an overblot, but instead of the phantom being attached to the back of their body like a shadow they would be a perfect fusion? Just like the possession that occurred during the second Halloween event... but if that is why Yuu is in Twisted Wonderland then what part does Grim play in this? Is the goal to fuse Grim and Yuu together? Or is Yuu being here a mistake... questions questions and zero answers.

As a side note, I get hung up on how Malleus's magic functions a lot because I could have sworn that people used to think your soul left your body when you dreamed? And if Yuu's soul isn't made of magic like the other souls in Twisted Wonderland that would naturally make Malleus's magic work differently on them but not Silver's. The most logical explanation for why we are in Mickey's dream and not our own is because it would 1) invalidate player head cannons to give Yuu a canon dream about their home and 2) it allows the Mickey plot line to progress but I still would like there to be a reason for why Yuu finds themselves there beyond those two things. If Yuu's soul really isn't magical I wonder if there will be some sort of consequences to Malleus putting them to sleep like this. The light novel intro has Yuya? seeing a vision of the Chimera and hearing someone encouraging him to move but being unable to heed that request. If Grim's overblot happens and picks up right after everyone wakes up from Mal putting everyone to sleep, Yuu being unable to wake up sounds like a good trigger for something like that. It would sort of be the opposite of Book 6 where Yuu goes to S.T.Y.X. for Grim, except this time Grim eats Mal's blot stone and Yuu is unable to stop him because they can't wake up.

Or something i dunno

#<3 asks #twst spoilers #twst theories #twst theory

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phantomrosegame · 22 days ago

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Asterika Devlog 1 - Intro

About a week ago, I announced my next game, Asterika: Phantom Rose Refrain! It's a grid-based rhythm game where the player moves to the beat of the music while dodging obstacles.

youtube

The game received over 1,000 wishlists in the first few days after the announcement, which was a positive start. I appreciate the reception from both new players and those who played my previous Phantom Rose games. Thank you sincerely!

Why Asterika?

My reason for working on Asterika than say, make Phantom Rose 3, is fairly simple. I wanted to try an entirely different genre after building two roguelike card games. At the same time, there’s still more stories I want to tell within the Phantom Rose universe.

I've enjoyed a diverse range of rhythm games, from DJMax, Deemo, and Ouendan to arcade classics like Taiko, Jubeat, and Pop'n Music. This passion, combined with the realization that my next game would need a lot of music anyway, made developing a rhythm game feel like a logical next step.

My hope for Asterika is that it can be a good game on its own, and perhaps develop its own identity, while also serving as a way for me to continue exploring the Phantom Rose universe.

But Asterika will be a rhythm game at its core. And of course, no prior story knowledge of the previous games will be needed to play Asterika; it's more of a personal desire to connect them thematically.

Current Focus: Demo Development

The main focus right now is on building a playable demo of Asterika. I need to get gameplay feedback ASAP as Asterika’s core concept departs from traditional rhythm games. Technical feedback on aspects like music sync, input timing, and difficulty will also be tremendously valuable since it’s my first time building a rhythm game.

To get the demo to a shareable state, a few things need to be done:

Develop the base game client: The core game currently runs only using a developer tool, so an installable client is needed.

Work on localizations: Historically, the Phantom Rose series has found its largest audience with English, Japanese, and Korean players across all platforms. I'm anticipating this will be the case for Asterika as well, so focusing on these languages makes sense.

Improve UI visuals: I'm looking at areas in the UI and visual effects that could be enhanced to make the gameplay feel more exciting and dynamic. This is the kind of work that will continue throughout the project, but for the demo, I want to reach a level of quality that provides a strong initial experience.

Create more song maps: Speaks for itself.

Finishing the demo will be a notable step, as it means the core infrastructure of the game is functional. Good news is that many of these features are functional on their own, even the song map editor. I just need to bring them together.

What’s Next for the Devlog

As I continue working on the demo, I intend to use this devlog to document challenges and progress. Keeping a regular log might also be a good way to push myself to get things done!

Thanks for reading. If you forgot, Asterika is available to wishlist on Steam. I also have a dedicated channel in the Phantom Rose Discord if you have any questions.

#devlog #gamedev #asterika #indie game #rhythm game #solo dev #Youtube

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blueskittlesart · 1 year ago

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i see discussion abt the traveler in the notes of a reblog and i think it’s very interesting you say that bc honestly i think it’s the amount of disconnect present in The Twins Themselves and The Player that intrigues me but also intensely frustrates me. it feels like “the traveler”/you as a person playing the game and lumine/aether/the twin chosen are two separate entities and honestly that could be Really interesting if it was acknowledged and could fit in nicely with some of the vague themes of otherworldly/fourth-wall breaking stuff and personal autonomy they’ve got going on. but Nope! i think this is yet another issue of the Gacha Mechanic too in a way bc honestly all of the instances of x character bonding with The Traveler ends up pissing me off REAL bad lmaooo. i would much rather there be some kind of genuine distinction in the twin’s dialogue too bc the whole idea of. “oh this character you are playing is Their Own Character but also they have the exact same story interactions and dialogue as their twin” is just. Eeufhhh. maybe this is just a lot of personal issues i have with the setup because i am someone who not only enjoys lore but also characterization and character interactions with other characters and the world around them and i am not a fan of when a You The Player character is thrown into that. sorry for dumping this here i just need to let out these thoughts somewhere

I think what it comes down to is that on launch hyv was worried about player immersion but reluctant to commit to a true silent protagonist. in most actual gameplay, the protagonist twin functions as a silent protagonist, meaning a blank-slate character with no autonomy, completely at the mercy of the actions the player chooses for them. (the only exception to this rule is A-plot quests which directly involve their sibling.) But in the A-plot of the story at large, the twins, regardless of which one you choose, are NOT blank slates in any sense, and that's what leads to the disconnect during gameplay.

Silent protagonists are a method of storytelling unique to video games and they're specifically a vessel to further player immersion, the idea being that a player character whose backstory and personality are unknown or nonexistent is much easier to insert one's self into, thus creating a more immersive experience for the player. I think that this was probably the original intent behind the twins, at least to a certain extent, and is likely at least part of the reason that hyv is still keeping all their story cards so close to their chest--the more we learn about the twins, the less our chosen twin functions as a silent protagonist. In a game with so many playable characters that AREN'T blank slates, hyv may have worried that having no designated player-insert character would break immersion from the get-go. However, the story planned for the game at large relied on a protagonist that was, from the very beginning, NOT a silent protagonist. the twins have personalities. they very obviously have backstories and pre-game relationships with each other at the very least. they have NAMES. The fact that genshin has you 'name' your character who quite literally already has a canonical name and gives you no reasoning behind that is one of the most glaring examples of this weird inconsistency in the writing imo. It almost seems like they want it both ways. they want a perfect silent protagonist for player immersion, but they ALSO want a protagonist who is tied up in the story because of their history and relationships and personality. and it doesn't work, because those two things are fundamentally incompatible. you cannot allow your players unlimited choice in the actions, thoughts, and feelings of your playable character while also requiring that character to make certain choices and have certain feelings and relationships for the story to progress. The result of attempting to do both is a story which promises unlimited choice to the players and then jerks them along in one direction anyways, which only results in frustration and immersion-breaking. there are plenty of ways to do a non-silent protagonist in a video game without sacrificing the player's experience, but what genshin has done is given us this weird worst-of-both-worlds combo that just. does not work.

#asks #sorry for all the genshinposting guys but im so used to using my video game writing hyperfixation to analyze GOOD writing that this is #actually an interesting change of pace. im fascinated by how many things went wrong here

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proximasaur · 4 months ago

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Gods and Goddesses (in myth's universe)

This is Nephivia (aka Nephi), the god who rules over the world "Myth" (a years-long placeholder-name for now).

Everything involving my world-building is work in progress plenty of lore will change overtime. I just want to share the concept around gods in this universe (unfortunately I only have one example and probably won't have another for a long time - if).

The concept of myth's gods

(exploring different ideas for there being other gods other than Nephi)

Note: Gods are not to be confused with myth's deities the Astrone, who are godly creations themselves (Nephi's assistants, Myth's representatives of elements and principles)

The idea is that gods/goddesses in this universe are born from places like stellar nurseries and nebulae, places of immense power which then create these extraordinary beings (commonly alongside celestial bodies).

(warning: 1500 or so words follow)

Once the god is powerful enough, they will leave their place of birth and begin a search for a world to inhabit, essentially bringing their own version of life to the world (whether it was already occupied or not). You could call this terraforming. Some gods may actually create a planet from scratch, or manipulate the system's star to be hospitable (or even create organisms immune to negative effects of others). Each god can be different, with their own rule sets for each world.

Gods can grow or lose their power, depending on how they manage it. Some powerful gods may occupy multiple worlds, even to the point of ruling an entire galaxy (and I'll extend upon that later). However, this can strain a gods power which tends to limit their capabilities and creations.

Gods ruling over multiple worlds are more likely to have fauna more like Earth's, limited to the universe's own rules (which godless worlds follow - at the moment I'm not sure if godless worlds containing life should exist or not).

A god(dess) like Nephi could be considered extremely powerful due to her ability to introduce magic into her world, however, Nephi only rules over one world, meaning potentially unlimited amounts of her power can be concentrated on a single globe and the extent of her actual capabilities is unknown.

As of Myth's current age, Nephi could probably terraform multiple worlds with the same rules as the original Myth (magic, multiple realms, creatures who wouldn't function properly on a world like Earth). But if she were to inhabit several dozen worlds, consequences and limitations would begin to appear.

Worlds like Myth would likely begin to collapse (magic systems would fail, Astrone would weaken and could possibly die, dragons and the alike would lose their abilities, and that's if the world itself is lucky. The non-living realms could destroy themselves leading to no divine realm and no spirit realm, just the original).

If Nephi were to stretch her limitations further, she would begin to lose power over multiple worlds, or risk eradicating herself (if not severely weakening herself to a point of inactivity - like a god in a coma if you will - this idea hasn't been explored enough to define).

Chances are, this will never happen, as Nephi prerfers to align with magical-fantasy systems.

To add to this specific goddess: Nephivia has no restraints against time and is able to see and influence the past, present, and future. She is an apathetic god who sets out stories for her creations. Some individuals have mass amounts of her attention set on them and experience more complex, eventful, lives, while all others have minor influence. She sets out their stories like an outline (she is not fully in control of their lives, only the potential events that are to play out - indirect influence), not everything can play out to plan (the astrone for example are less under her influence and some can cause unplanned trouble - she is more likely to communicate with them instead if she seeks their involvement, so she probably directed the astrone of tyranny "Poldra" to aid the celine known as Falcor).

Nephi would be labelled a goddess of time and fate (excluding Creation, her alternative title), but there would be plenty more out there with similar abilities.

What happens if two (or more) gods come into contact with one another?

This depends on the circumstances.

Sometimes, when searching for a new (if not their first) world to occupy, a god may encounter another. If the god decides to pursue the already inhabited world, it is highly likely to end in a fight, if not a war.

There are worlds out there that have multiple ruling gods (like how many mythologies have multiple gods except under myth's universe rules). It could be a cooperation between gods of multiple worlds, it could be a weird circumstance of 'sibling' gods, or maybe it could just be a cold war, etcetera.

A war between gods can lead to the destruction of another. They could end up weakened, or falling to defeat and loosing their own world, or they could be eradicated.

But the most terrifying situation of all is when two extremely powerful (galaxy-ruling level) gods go to war. For whatever greedy reason two (or more) gods of this level decide to fight, they risk the destruction of the entire universe.

For such power to collide would result in mass destruction, which would reach into further settings, affecting not just those involved, but other gods. These gods in their true forms are huge compared to those like Nephi. Think of two galaxies colliding, and while a collision in Earth's universe shouldn't be bad, in myth's it's like a trigger for the big crunch.

When a war between such powerful beings ends in disaster, it triggers the destruction of the entire universe, and upon being destroyed, everything is reborn all over again. A new universe, with entirely new gods and stories, only to repeat again.

This is important to prevent the universe from becoming crowded, as single gods in a galaxy of many are highly likely to become more powerful and occupy multiple worlds as time goes on, which increases the chance of galaxy-ruling gods to experience conflict towards others on their level.

To extend upon Nephi again: her power over myth is somewhat similar to the universe's rule of resetting. When events go out of hand and begin to go against her worldly visions, it is said that Nephi will reset her world all over again (specifically the living realm Amorta), starting from the second age, before sentient life came to be. The Astrone (and some spirits/non-Astrone) from what-was-the-past remain, along with their knowledge of the old world.

This would be more likely to happen if her creations began to pollute the world (yes, similar to what's going on with earth), overpopulate, or if the world itself began to die. Except, there would most likely be times (to Nephi's plan or not) when such events could occur and play out, which could give rise to a new age, with new creations or evolutions. When the Astrone begin to weaken till they are no longer active (e.g. when the Earth Astrone loses her power from nature, or the Air Astrone is weakened by pollution) is when Nephi will be more likely to act upon this time reset.

A final note is that technology, powered by electricity, is a forbidden rule on Nephi's world. While it is possible that such devices could be created in future ages (perhaps something to do with the Lightning Astrone or even my minor Astrone of energy and stamina Drein rose to power), such devices are meant to fail, (I wouldn't mind one day exploring a weird magic-lightning system of electricity for a new age).

Wait... gods CAN die?

As explained, gods can die by using up all their power or battling another god, alongside the destruction of the universe.

"Only a god can kill another god" ~ Ares (Wonder Woman 2017)

There is no other way that a god can die, but perhaps the death of a god could have some advantages. For one, perhaps the defeater could absorb what power remains of the other. Or maybe, under the perfect circumstances, the death of a god could lead to the creation of a new one, their remaining energy scattering out into the universe where it could take on new forms within nurseries.

Just an idea though, and most likely will be discarded.

If Goddess is the name for a female god, and Nephi is referred to as female, do gods actually have a (physical)gender, does that mean gods could reproduce?

If gods could reproduce, it's not how you think, they don't you-know (don't you dare start💀) at least they don't do that when they plan to have miniatures, (gods are technically advanced shapeshifters, they could live like a mortal if they chose to, or they could live like Nephi - all gods are different, with intentions, personalities, or even none - in an alternative universe, the Astrone would be real gods cooperating on a world).

Taking minor inspiration from the fact that many godly mythologies on Earth have family trees, there probably are divine families in the myth universe and it involves some sort of power transfusion between the godly parents. It would differ from how a goddess like Nephi created her divine (non-god) beings the Astrone.

Perhaps a lot of time is needed, or maybe they have to travel to locations where gods are born.

This is something I haven't decided on (obviously). The idea of a family tree of gods for some settings is interesting, but based on the lore of how gods are born, it doesn't make as much sense.

While the power of gods can grow over time (which can come from advancing their power, practising, creations, time, etc.), how do they have enough power to join with another to create something just like them (and then again!)? It would weaken them significantly to create anything near powerful enough to embark on a godly quest of occupation.

But wait! What if... what if they aren't meant to be strong? What if these god families act more like the deities mentioned on earth, with each descendent representing and gaining their power from elements/principles/etc.? Each new generation could become weaker and weaker in power so they soon are just representatives of their connected 'element'. This is very similar to Nephi's Astrone. They will never be able to leave their world, and could probably be considered as something other than a true god (maybe this is like the Titans to the Olympian gods - damn I need to research more on mythologies :p)

Well... looks like that's that for now...

Any questions, please feel free to ask, and I'll go into plotting mode to find the right answer.

For something that isn't entirely needed in myth's lore, I sure did write way too much. I might right about the basics behind the astrone next, however... they are underdeveloped, and I have to warn you that there is a disturbing story lying in the lore behind Radein (lightning and power), Xorvceious (malevolence), and "Poldra-who-needs-renaming"(tyranny and also power - not referring to strength which lightning holds)

Further warning: All of my ocs are fcked up (typical trauma I guess - more like sad/cruel stories, bad endings), which is why I say Nephivia is a cold and apathetic ruler (but I'm to blame aren't I? Cause not all are in the myth universe *cry*)

Please, if you're under 16-18, I suggest shying away from my blog as there are mentions of content other than violence (however, I try my best to phrase it lightly since I myself am not comfortable talking about such things)

#worldbuilding #lore #gods #gods and goddesses #goddess #lore dump #fantasy worldbuilding #world building #art #artist #digital art #artwork #drawing #creature

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thegamingcatmom · 5 months ago

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You asked for asks and I'm asking :) I know is probably a long shot from where we stand rn bc everything is new and terrifying, no matter how nice they are, how beautiful they are... MC has still been abducted and that's well, quite a shocking experience I might say, idk I've never been abducted by pretty women before so wat do I know, right(?) Thing is MC can't stand them, Irina can't stand MC, Tanya and Kate want to be in MC's pants and Eleazar/Carmen play a more chill kind of parental figure in all this, whic I'd say they both are the most neutral of the bunch but not less to blame bc well, they are part of it too. My question is. How the hell is this even gonna work? Like what's going to change for MC to go from hating them to tolerate them to eventually like them and fall in love with them? Same with Irina, how goes from wanting to unalive and suck MC dry to fall in love with her? I understand this may be kind of a huge spoiler to the future bc of obvs reason but I find it to be so interesting how the dynamics are going to change, sure is gonna be a bumpy road there (ha see what I did there? :p) but it is the goal after all, so I understand totally if you don't wanna say anything about it bc well, spoilers(?) But if you could at least share a lil bit of what's going through your mind on that regard? Bc in my mind I find it quite difficult, like is MC's love a lie? In the sense that she falls in love bc the trauma is so severe that she's accepted this is all that it is out there for her bc she is not getting out, like that's kind of sad but it is a possibility yk some kind of psychological response to trauma perhaps. or is her love going to be genuine, like she found true love bc she eventually got to know them and oh surprise they are not that bad despite the fact that they abducted her? (That doesn't sound pretty good either XD) But I think you'll understand where I am going with this? if not is ok I'll try to explain better (: Thanks <3

I knew I could count on you. ❤️

Aight so, right off the bat:

It is difficult. And complicated. And ugly. And beautiful. And just fucking complicated.

A bumpy road alright. 😉

...is MC's love a lie? In the sense that she falls in love bc the trauma is so severe that she's accepted this is all that it is out there for her bc she is not getting out

This is something I can answer with 100% certainty:

No, I won´t turn MC into a brainwashed puppet. I´m not saying she will always be honest with her abductors (which is well within her right, if you ask me), but when she does start developing feelings, they will be real.

...Whether she will accept them is another story. 🙈

But there´s so much that still needs to happen before we even get to that point. And I think this is really what it comes down to:

It´s about all these different struggles and obstacles MC & the Denalis will have to face - alone and together. These challenges will force changes - some for the better, some for the worse. But both is needed to make progress.

I mean, it´s easy to live in a bubble when there´s nothing there to burst it, right?

...Well, it has been burst the moment Tanya chose to bring MC home. Thing is, nobody´s realized it yet. 😅

I mentioned it a while back, but the Denalis have this system in place that has worked for centuries now. They never had a reason to change their way of living and their, well, "culture". Which basically means Tanya is the boss and everyone else just goes along with whatever strikes her mood at the moment.

...More or less. With lots of hissing and spitting. 😏

In other words: They´re a less than functioning community right now because Tanya is a less than ideal leader right now. A leader is supposed to act in the best interest of everyone else, which means Tanya should have ended MC in those woods.

...Logically speaking. 😏

But ye, there´s a lot that needs to change first before we can even think about feelings, which means that all of this here-

Like what's going to change for MC to go from hating them to tolerate them to eventually like them and fall in love with them? Same with Irina, how goes from wanting to unalive and suck MC dry to fall in love with her?

...can´t really be answered in a straightforward way. It´s gonna be a long and bumpy road (hehe) for all of them, and it´s because of those bumps that they´ll eventually (hopefully) become the best versions of themselves. Because, in the end, that´s what it´s all about. ❤️‍🩹

...she found true love bc she eventually got to know them and oh surprise they are not that bad despite the fact that they abducted her?

I mean...getting to know them is defo a huge part of it all. If not THE part. This will (hopefully) become clearer as the story progresses, but MC & The Sisters have more in common than they´re currently aware of. And I think this will make a big difference, in the long run.

(Tip: Check out Chapter 2 again. 🔍)

BONUS: REMINDER

We´ve also got something else heading our way that might cause some panic, distress, disbelief confusion among The Sisters.

Don´t forget: MC has a +1. 😉

Thanks a lot for your ask! I love reading those novels. 💋💋💋

#tumblr asks #the bumpy road home #formerly the sisters #twilight #the twilight saga #the denalis #denali coven #denali sisters #tanya denali #kate denali #irina denali #carmen denali #eleazar denali

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p5x-theories · 6 months ago

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Kayo’s Confidant

(last updated 4/19/25!)

This post documents the fully filled-in information on Kayo Tomiyama gained through progressing her Confidant! It contains things that could be considered spoilers for her Confidant, as part of the information is a summary of its story.

Kayo is available in the evenings most days, when it isn’t rainy. Her Confidant is tied to the Charm social stat, and level 17 Charm is required to fully complete it.

Favorite Presents

(An asterisk (*) marks the special presents added with (and unlocked through) Miyu Sahara’s Confidant, which are liked by all Confidants currently in the game.)

Simple Cosmetics Bag A portable cosmetics bag with exquisite style and amazing capacity.

Gossip News Weekly A magazine that reports on various entertainment and celebrity gossip. Its circulation is irregular, but it's very popular.

Designer Perfume Softly-scented designer perfume.

Deep Red Lipstick This colorful limited edition lipstick is said to make the wearer look very mature.

Latest Facial Beauty Device The latest beauty device on the market, with a streamlined design to perfectly fit the contours of the face.

Rose Bath Gift Box This charming rose-scented bath gift box helps relax and nourish the skin all over your body.

Fashion Magazine This magazine, which has frequently set circulation records, focuses on the most cutting-edge fashion news and information.

Dress-Up Doll Beautifully packaged ball-jointed dress-up doll that can be freely outfitted with clothing.

Universal Vitamin Tablets A multivitamin complex nutritional tablet that provides all the body's daily needs in a single tablet.

Premium Fragrance Combination A classic home fragrance set with a soft scent.

Limited-Edition Keychain* This keychain has a unique shape, and is well-made, but there weren’t many of it produced. It has a certain collector’s value.

Bulk Snacks Value Pack* A combo pack containing a variety of traditional snacks that will remind people of the taste of childhood.

Advanced Essential Oil Combination* A value-for-money set of essential oils, with multiple functions to help you relax your mind and body.

Chestnut Cake* Fragrant chestnut cake with mild sweetness to suit most people’s tastes.

Musical Snow Globe* A snow globe that plays music, and can be shaken gently to make snow fall inside.

Desktop Incense Machine* A household incense machine that is small in size, so it can be placed anywhere.

Personal Information

Pre-Version 4.0:

Birthday: April 28 Zodiac Sign: Taurus Age: 44 years old Profession: Housewife Height: 160cm Weight: 55kg Blood Type: ?? Interests: Chatting Features: Fashion design, clothes styling

Version 4.0:

Birthday: April 28 Blood Type: B Age: 44 years old Profession: Housewife Height: 160cm Weight: Isn't it inappropriate to ask a girl that? Favorite Food: Fried shrimp tempura Interests: Puzzle games on cellphones Features: Dress cutting, all handicrafts

Story

Character Details My neighbor, a full-time housewife, who likes to chat with everyone. She once worked for a fashion company as a fashion stylist, and her husband seems to still work for that same company.

Personal Data 1 When she was young, she was apparently a rebellious gyaru from Shibuya, and later had a son. She seems to be a bit troubled recently. She often comes to me for discussion, and even gives me clothes as a thank-you gift...

Personal Data 2 What she once knew as popular fashion is something that today's young people have never even heard of. Despite the generation gap, Tomiyama refuses to admit defeat, and decided to continue to get closer to the youth of today.

Personal Data 3 In order to better understand the younger generation, Tomiyama often asks me for advice, but every time, the topic ends up turning to her own experiences when she was younger. Although there's a lot she still seems unable to understand, I can tell she's really working hard.

Personal Data 4 The first time I met Reo Kamiyama, he quickly demonstrated his dedication to tokusatsu. While Tomiyama doesn't understand tokusatsu, in her nephew Kamiyama, she sees her own younger self pursuing her dreams.

Personal Data 5 Tomiyama always regretted that she failed to be a good daughter for her parents because she was young and rebellious. After becoming a mother, she tried to be a parent who never fought with her son, but it backfired, and she ultimately failed to connect with her son. Facing Kamiyama, she hopes that this time she can truly be a good support figure for him.

Personal Data 6 Kamiyama's audition did not go well. Tomiyama wants to support him, but doesn't know how to get involved, and seems to be at a loss. As it turns out, Kamiyama understands how she feels, but doesn't want to worry her, so he's forcing himself to act indifferently. Both of them hope I'll keep their secrets, but is this really okay?

Personal Data 7 Her successive missteps have made Tomiyama start to reflect on whether she's being too worried and nosy. But her enthusiasm and concern for others are part of her personality, right? I hope she won't worry too much, and realize it's better to be sincerely herself.

Personal Data 8 Tomiyama's concern led to Kamiyama deciding to leave. He realized that he's been too absorbed in his own world, and alienated the people around him. After I talked to him, he finally came around, and returned to his aunt who was waiting for him.

Personal Data 9 Tomiyama and Kamiyama were finally able to honestly express their thoughts to each other. Although Kamiyama's sticking with his decision to leave, this time it's for his own sake, and he's no longer uncertain. As his elder, Tomiyama also sincerely gave him her blessing.

Personal Data 10 Now that Kamiyama left, Tomiyama is back to living with just her husband. She seems to better understand the distance between herself and the youth thanks to this experience. Growth is a subject that both the young and old deal with. Maybe we can all learn more about it, going forward.

Voice Lines

Japanese VA: Atsuko Tanaka | Chinese VA: ChuRong Fan

(As I can only add up to ten audio files per post, I’ll only include the Japanese lines below! Feel free to ask for the Chinese ones, though.)

I'm Kayo Tomiyama~ Can you tell me about what's popular with young people these days?

When I was young, I always spoke my mind without hesitation. I enjoyed my time as a stylist, and I'm still pretty particular about fashion even now!

In age I'm thoroughly an adult, but mentally, I'm not all that different from when I was younger~ But it seems I'm completely out of touch with the culture of today's youth... The passage of time is cruel.

The clothes that I've been giving to you? Ah, they're all samples from Darling's work, so don't worry. But I can guarantee their quality!

Every time I talk to you, I feel younger again~ Huh? I'm too chatty? You're so bad! ... Just kidding~

Seeing that kid, I just can't help but cheer for him. Maybe I see my past self in him?

No way, asking me about Darling suddenly... though now that you mention him, you do resemble Darling when he was your age.

Confidant-Specific Bonuses

Rank 1 Fashion Designer: Gain outfit "Casual Formal Wear".

Rank 3 New Trend: Gain outfit "Casual Formal Wear - Green".

Rank 9 Diversity of Fashion: New outfits become available for purchase at the Shibuya Underground Mall Clothing Store.

Rank 13 Sewing with Care: New outfits become available for purchase at the Shibuya Underground Mall Luxury Clothing Store.

Rank 20 Special Taste: Gain outfit "Casual School".

#character info #okyann #open beta #game content #translations

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