#and i am having fun but. mostly because the gameplay is fun

[showyoumyfavoriteobsession]

(Light spoilers for act 3 of Hardspace Shipbreaker)

The story in Hardspace Shipbreaker is focused on unions/labor rights, and I was really curious how they were going to handle the conflict of, like... in-universe, you're doing extremely dangerous work under unethical conditions to try and pull yourself out of deep debt; but as a player, the "work" is the extremely fun and satisfying gameplay. So at some point the devs have to face a game design problem: squaring the story they want to tell with not stopping the player from experiencing the fun part of the game. And I really liked how they did it! They managed to meet both goals by telling the player to just absolutely destroy a ship - giving them something fun to do, a slightly different problem to solve that (probably) wasn't something they would have done in normal gameplay, as well as being a good in-universe justification (a work slowdown, destroying profits, showing solidarity). I haven't been totally enamoured with the story in the game - I'm into the themes, but the writing is a little clunky and the scenes tend to slow down the pace of the game - and I thought they might just have the workers go on strike, which would be thematically appropriate but kind of a bummer in terms of gameplay. It was a pretty clever way to solve that conflict.

[biohazard-inevitable]

Greetings borderlands community!

It appears I have grabbed all you guy’s attention by falling into this hole so I say to you, Hello! I have fallen head over heels for handsome jack even though he definitely wants to murder me and im having a blast. Looking for friends in this community!!! Hello! I can be talked to!

[spectrearia-archive]

started playing hatsune miku: project diva mega mix recently and now i'm kind of addicted?? uh oh lol

barely even sunk 4-5 hours into the game and already i'm attempting songs on hard/extreme difficulty xDD i'm just impatient I guess haha

[zyk1ng]

I was gonna make this post way way earlier but I forgot lol but Uhm

I have played through the splatoon 2 story fully and am replaying it (for a future post bc a lot of the dialogue is rlly funny) and honestly while I absolutely loved it it makes me even sadder that splat 2’s story mode was kinda tossed aside (for valid reasons ofc) because it’s so Cool.

Excluding the gameplay, I think they did marie so well, because she sells the desperation of someone who’s got nobody she knows by her side. While she of course keeps the sassy attitude of sneak dissing her best friends (agent 3) and also telekinetically telling you to fuck off if you talk to her too much it’s very clear she genuinely cares so much about agent 4 and is so grateful they’re doing what they do.

these are only two screenshots of 8(?) of Marie randomly being really sentimental to 4 because this stranger chose to help her in her time of need rather than just ignore this GROWN WOMAN hanging out on a sewer drain

It’s like heavily emphasized multiple times that Marie could not be more grateful for 4’s help in retrieving not just the zapfish but also her cousin.

But then revealing that 4 knew about Callie the WHOLE TIME (I have a lot to say about this part but it’s mostly hc so) which is so KIND OF THEM???? this random woman recruits them into a secret military agency and hides the fact she rlly misses her cousin but they help anyway bc they WANT TO. (They didn’t even know either of them were famous btw) Marie shows a lot of gratitude toward 4 ESPECIALLY after the big reveal.

(You could make arguments for 3 being similar bc an old kook made them do it but this isn’t about them..)

And it’s not just being grateful for the one time, she genuinely enjoys 4’s company and wants to be better friends with them and chat after the zapfish and Callie are saved 😭😭😭

It’s so cute too, because 100%ing the game and even just being a little nosy is something that Marie picks up on, and remembers way later in the game. (More abt this later)

god I love this socially inept squid woman and her adopted child soldier that likes finding pieces of paper

Speaking of said soldier! I think the way they characterized 4 via the actual gameplay rather than art/statements/whatever is so cool

4 doesn’t have many illustrations besides the chaos splatfest and that one group photo where they’re being funky in the corner (and the apartment) but I feel like the reason for that is the fact that a lot of Marie’s dialogue as well as how splatoon 2’s hero mode is structured/designed speaks a lot about how they wanted to represent 4.

From a realistic standpoint, of course splatoon 2’s story mode has to be more creative both prompt wise and secret wise. But it feels like the reason its that way is because both 4 and Marie are separate types of people from Craig and 3.

The bosses help a lot with this too, being more gimmicky and weird (subtracting stamp.) Octo shower and samurai being bosses where you have to either react well or change your positioning to effectively beat them. (Octo shower is my fave btw I loved fighting it the first time)

The level design also shines in this aspect because if I’m honest I remember none of the splat 1 levels significantly besides the few octoling ones. Splatoon 2’s levels are very detailed (and also insanely pretty) and have some rlly fun puzzles in a handful of them and even the more fast ones are a blast to play through

And then all the little extras (sardiniums and scrolls alike) are hidden so well and you usually have to go out of your way to find them and even the secrets that aren’t either of those things have substance

Small note, a lot of extras are also made so that it flows well with the levels design (like the first dualie request mission) which is also extremely fucking cool.

the way marie touches on those little discoveries is so smart too because it (as I said before) characterizes 4 as someone who loves to look for things even if it’s on a whim especially since the sunken scrolls in the game are so much harder to find than in splat1.

And the fact that unlike splat 1, you can (technically) 800% the game by playing EVERY SINGLE LEVEL WITH EVER SINGLE WEAPON TYPE. to me it feels like it deepens the fact that 4 likes to be really thorough. marie goes “you have a problem.” When you break like two hidden egg crates in this one level and it’s so great.

I love what they’ve done with 4, whether it was intentional or I’m over-analytical.

Nothing gets past them, looking in every nook and cranny whether or not there’s secrets to be found. They’re too nosy and thorough and they like to be around marie after completing missions, they don’t know who the squid sisters are, hate balloons, may or may not be ok, have impulsive secret finding, partake in many extracurriculars, can be needy at times, go with the flow and they apparently smell better than agent 3.

Agent four, of the New Squidbeak Splatoon.

[felassan]

Snippets. 🐺💜 DA:TV spoilers under cut.

Carly: Lucanis is "pretty average [height] everyone else is ridiculously tall" [source]

John: "getting absolutely dummied by an encounter in the game you work on as your day job is a uniquely humbling experience" [source] Trick: "Me desperately doing side quests to bulk up before the next big critpath beat because I KNOW I am not currently good enough at Rogue to beat that meat grinder at my current level and gear without dropping the difficulty back down." [source]

John: "hands up if you’re in game dev and have ever caught yourself searching Google for a guide to the game you’re working on that’s not even out yet" [source]

Flaming greatswords? ^^ [source]

Jay: "God, I remember the concept art for this scene" [source] (the scene in the gameplay reveal when Solas sheds a tear when it fails)

Kala: "Thinking back to playing Dragon Age Veilguard with the Council and all the fun we had, the crying (mostly me) and the shock at some of the surprises (especially Caitie) and I can't believe that's gonna be the entire fanbase soon. I can't wait to experience it with everyone" [source]. "I genuinely cannot wait for everyone to see Veilguard. I *know* for a fact there is going to be things people will freak out about, just like we did. There's A LOT people will love. Everyone will have stuff they don't like, which is inevitable, but there's so much to love" [source] Caitie: "Holding hands and sharing headphones because i unlocked the [redacted] scene first ❤️ Fond memories 😭😭" [source]

Trick on some of the chairs in the Lighthouse library group screenshot: "As much as I ADORE the idea of Solas sneaking out of Skyhold with a U-Haul packed to the brim with furniture and all the good mage gear you gave him, I expect it's likely just a common Fereldan style." [source]

Caitie: "If it helps- ive also seen silly ‘head canons’ and jokes thats will end up true haha" [source]

Caitie: "I'm not sure if we can say where we ended up in the story- but we got farther than the GI guy did it seems! By quite a bit. Did not get close to finishing it, however." [source]

Kala: "Pssst… we saw the companion rooms and the Lighthouse and it was really something amazing 👀👀" [source]

edit/update:

here are some more snippets which were posted by the Dragon Age official YouTube account in the livechat on one of the videos last month:

"There are lots of hairstyle options, we’ll have much more to share on the character creator in the coming weeks!"

"It wouldn’t be a Dragon Age game without a visit to the Deep Roads!"

"Our team spent a lot of timing refining combat and making it feel fluid and fun whether you play as a Warrior, a Mage, or a Rogue"

"It wouldn’t be a Dragon Age game without consequences! Your choices will influence the world of Thedas, as well as relationships with your companions"

A user asked "Are you a Fen’Harel spy?" Dragon Age replied "👀"

[existentialterror]

ARG notes: ZampanioSim

Okay, a work this metafictional and also that (I think) responds to audience interaction is going to need a high-caliber gimmick. Hang on.

...

Alright. Hey guys, catfishAnabasis (Light) here, taking a moment out of my surprisingly busy day tell you about a weird thing on the internet.

ZampanioSim is an intricate and brainbending ARG. It takes direct inspiration from Homestuck, The Magnus Archives, and House of Leaves, as well as the creator (JR, jadedResearcher/justifiedRecursion)'s previous canon of Homestuck fan-work and games. A major theme is "unreality".

HERE IS YOUR TRAILHEAD.

Feel free to ignore the rest of the writeup and check it out now.

I know very little about JR's other work, right now. However, among my many INTERESTS, I am something of a TMA ENJOYER and an AMATEUR INTERNET INVESTIGATOR, and if I were in a HOUSE I like to think I could LEAVE it pretty easily.

So, yeah. I figured I'd just describe my experience of this rabbithole and maybe you'll want to check it out too. I'm sure this will only scratch the surface.

ZampanioSim is structured as a nested labyrinth. In the same way that:

Homestuck is a webcomic framed as an interactive adventure game about an account of kids playing a video game (Sgrub) that doesn't exist, and

House of Leaves is a novel framed as a found scholarly discussion about a documentary (The Navidson Record) that doesn't exist about a house that doesn't exist,

ZampanioSim is a game-based ARG framed as an attempt to simulate a game (Zampanio) that doesn't exist based on a found FAQ of the game (that only sort of exists).

More concretely, ZampanioSim features a lot of nested browser games, as well as audio, narrative, an actual audience-interactive narrative game (the way Homestuck was originally), external websites, and more.

The starting point is, of course, the House:

ZampanioSim takes full advantage of the browser as medium. There is content accessible via the address bar, developer tools, cookies (I think), the developer console, and probably more that I haven't realized.

Like, to give you a sense of the kind of rabbithole we're dealing with: Here's a map I made of the House outset page today:

...And I say today because the House does change over time. Today (a friday) when I clicked on the EastEast route, for instance, I was greeted by this grotesquely distorted version of Rebecca Black's "Friday":

Okay, let's talk about what we have going on in the House map, starting from the doors and working out. (I've given some of these my own names for clarity.)

North

The Classpect Menu Game:

This, I think, is the main titular "ZampanioSim". It's the part that's intended to recreate the experience of a supposed old computer game, but by and large, you only experience the menu screen, not the rest of the gameplay. You can select attributes (based on Homestuck's Classpecting system + the Magnus Archives fears) gain points and select skills and (depending on your seed) eventually "beat the game". It's glitchy, it's a hellscape, there's an entity or two in the menu system that are trying to talk to you. It's great fun. Contains links to a rabbithole (which you can plug passwords into for more secrets) and + some secrets to you in the credits.

(While mostly the aspects seem to add flavor to the menu options, there's a special class called "Waste". This appears in neither TMA nor Homestuck, but comes from a fan or meta-joke that Andrew Hussie and Toby Fox, the writer and a major composer for Homestuck, are classpected* as the "Waste of Space" and "Waste of Time". By telling it you're a "Waste"you're more likely to get weird glitches and new options in your Classpect Menu game run - there's a fun recurring element in some of these games about the game changing depending on who you tell it is playing. I learned about the Waste trick from JR's youtube channel. Also, setting your birthday as Halloween might also do something.)

I have no idea if the different iterations of games here are substantially different. I haven't checked. There's a lot going on. "There's a lot going on" is a good summary of ZampanioSim overall.

*( Uh, classpecting is this in-Homestuck personality system where game players are a [Role] of [Element].)

Eyedlr: Eyedol Games is the company that supposedly made the original game Zampanio. Eyedlr is their spambot-filled tumblr clone, which also has secrets in it. (Actually, just assume everything has secrets out.)

East

The House Exploration game: It has the same setup screen as the Classpect Menu game, but this one drops you into a game with visuals: An infinite(?) procedural house you navigate with imagery derived from your choices.

Peewee's exploration game: When it's not blasting Rebecca Black's Friday But Weird into your ears, the EastEast route is another procedural infinite(?) maze, except that you type directions to Peewee, a snake guy with goggles who also moves around on his own. This one also introduces named characters we learn more about elsewhere.

Bathroom text: Procredural bathroom maze, unless it's just some text telling you to take a break. ZampanioSim really likes telling you to take breaks and hydrate, so that you can better appreciate and spread Zampanio.

Absolutely not. Also, I'm a busy woman. I have to finish this writing summary first.

South

The Train Game: a game - notably not a maze - where JR walks down a series of train corridors and monologues to you about the game and the "reality" behind it.

The mazecrawler game: You tell a little guy how to navigate an infinite(?) maze - and if you choose right and open up your browser's Console menu, you can learn a great deal more about

West

The only West route is AdventureSimWest, which is an actual text narrative game where readers submit commands that the author incorporates into updates - just like early Homestuck. It's still going. The logs are extensive but it's mostly about the antics of a new employee at Eyedol Games, which is stuck in a time loop.

Other

Then there's some other scattered clickable text -

The truth about alt: An exchange between two shapeshifters.

A transcript: A dialogue between two people who apparently work for Eyedol Games.

The lower left leads you to an apparently rotating selection of other Zampanio-related games. I particularly liked NagaGirlfriend.

None of this is even the stuff you can reach this page exclusively through the Console menu.

And much more

And there's a lot of stuff that's NOT branching directly off of the house. There's other things you find buried in links or by searching - a discord and a wiki that both straddle the line between in-character and -out, Archive of Our Own content, a youtube channel, the Eyedol website...

Is there a "story" to ZampanioSim?

Yes.

Like I said, there's a lot I haven't seen yet. But what's going on is something like this:

JR is attempting to recreate this game, Zampanio, of course, and tap into its fanbase. The game Zampanio is an infectious meme. Eyedol Games is a transdimensional company that is perhaps both trying to spread the meme and contain it, by removing its spores, e.g. the Zampanio FAQ - the thing that inspired JR to make ZampanioSim - from the internet.

Various parts of the game recognize that they are fictional and may identify you the reader/player as "Observers".

There are a few recurring characters who have gotten swept up into the meme, either working for Eyedol or trapped in ZampanioSim or both, and have followed it from variant to transdimensional variant.

(this is an image from homestuck. it's a reference.)

Japes aside, this is a brain-bending, very cool, and completely ludicrous unfiction project which I believe is made mostly by one person with an unparalleled hand for web sorcery, whimsy, and vibes. The vibes are so good.

The host website, Farrago Fiction (which AFAICT is a multi-person project), hosts a number of often-homestuck-inspired weird games and simulators.

I know ZampanioSim is now a few years old and is still actively updating. Consider checking it out.

2024-08-24 edit: Part 2!

[ramblingthoughtsofayoungadult]

Headcanons: Jordan Li with Streamer!fem reader

A/N: This character has a chokehold on me just like they do everyone else. Also, I don't claim to own this character nor the gifs, I just had this idea for a scenario.

Notes: 1116 word count and some swearing.

You never thought that your stream you started out of boredom during high school would take off but by the time you got to GOD U, you were always on the Top Ten Streamer list on V-TV.

 Your content ranged from wholesome gaming, collabs with other creators, and commentary on popular videos or media. Emma, Marie, Luke, Cate, and Andre had all been featured at least once but your oldest friend, Jordan, was hesitant.

“I don’t want a bunch of weird strangers knowing who I am,” they muttered when you tried to convince them to join for the millionth time.

You pouted, “Jordan, that’s what the mods are for. Anyway, it’s a risk you’re going to have to take as a supe anyway, right?” They were reluctant to admit you were right and after bribing them with Olive Garden, grumpily sat next to you as you set up your stream the following night.

“Try to look a little more enthusiastic,” you teased as you adjusted your cameras to frame you and Jordan well.

“It’s hard when I’m still hungover,” they griped. Despite their mood, you couldn’t help but feel giddy as you clicked on the big green “start” button and sat down in your custom gaming chair.

“Hi everyone, welcome back! Today, I have a very special guest who taught me almost everything I know about gaming,” you chirped, pulling Jordan’s chair closer to your side. “This is Jordan.”

Almost immediately, your chat started going crazy. “Who’s the hot guy?” “That’s your friend???!!!” “I knew I should’ve tried harder to get into GOD U.”

Jordan’s eyes widened at the response, and they sat up a little straighter and waved. “Hi everyone and yes, I am Y/N’s friend, and I did teach her everything she knows about gaming.” You elbowed them in the side playfully. “Not true!” “Before me, she didn’t even know what T-posing was.”

You playfully smacked their arm and shook your head. “Shut up. Anyway, tonight I am wearing my cozy sweatshirt because it is spooky season and to celebrate, we will be playing Outlast and Jordan is here in case I faint from fear and emotional support.” Jordan snorted, “You’re playing Outlast when you couldn’t finish FNAF?”

The night was filled with screaming and panic from you while Jordan mostly laughed at your pain and tried to give directions.

“Go left! No, the other left!” They shouted. “I panicked!”

Throughout the gameplay, the chat was bombarding you both with comments and donations. “Cherrypickednightmare gifted 50 subs and said, ‘Please give Jordan their cut’,” Jordan read. “Thank you for the subs! What cut? This is my channel, Jordan is a guest. They are here as a friend,” you said without taking your eyes off the screen.

“I don’t think you did this well with anyone else on the channel, I think I should be compensated,” Jordan teased. “Your pay is my friendship and potentially more Olive Garden.”

With that statement, your subscribers sent more “gifts” and subs as you continued playing. “Mikeysleftfoot said, ‘For the Olive Garden fund,” Jordan chuckled. “Yes, chat, for only 9.99 a day, you can provide Jordan with a week’s worth of Olive Garden even though they only eat the breadsticks, but someone needs to order something so no one gets kicked out,” you teased in a fake serious voice.

Jordan seemed to have too much fun interacting with chat while you were avoiding being attacked by zombified asylum patients. “WHY DID I COME INTO THIS HOSPITAL ALONE WITHOUT A WEAPON? I’M A JOURNALIST AND NO ONE KNOWS I’M HERE!” you screamed while frantically trying to get your character to run away from the giant patient. “Y/N, Viledeeds87 wants to know how we met.”

“NOT NOW!” But you died in-game seconds later and huffed. “We met in kindergarten,” you stated. “No, preschool.” You burst out laughing, “My bad, I lumped the years together. We were on the playground, I got a splinter from the swing set, and Jordan walked me to the nurse’s office.” “I’ve been looking out for her clumsy ass since.”

After that night, your friendship with Jordan and Jordan themselves became a hot topic on your channel. “Someone said, ‘Why is Jordan so daddy?’ Relax, chat, or else I will not bring them back on the channel. Their head’s gonna get too big from your thirst,” you joked.  

Surprisingly, Jordan loved the attention, especially the reactions they could get out of you because of the attention.

“I should write up a contract to make sure I’m getting my proper royalties,” Jordan suggested mindlessly during a study session.  “You know I have a team of lawyers, right?” “Scared they’ll agree with me?”

But when your merch collection came out, Jordan was the first to model and post about it on social media. Their appearances on the channel were regular and fueled more engagement on your streams, which your management loved.

Your other friends offline couldn’t help but comment on it either, with Andre only being a little jealous of the attention Jordan got while Luke and Cate couldn’t be more supportive.

Emma and Marie proudly shipped you and Jordan. “You’re so cute together, I mean, it’s giving frenemies and will-they-won’t-they at the same time!” Emma insisted. “No way, there’s nothing there. Jordan’s my best friend and it makes sense that we would have decent chemistry.” “I may not be super experienced in this area but, they do not look at you like a friend, on stream and off,” Marie commented.

You thought your younger friends were nuts. If there was anything between you and Jordan, you would be the first to know. Sure, you occasionally got butterflies around them when they smiled in either form and you regularly bought things or sent them pictures of something that reminded you of them. But all best friends do that, right?

Then one night, when you should’ve been studying, you were scrolling on social media when you stumbled across fan compilation videos of you and Jordan. While a lot of them were funny, a few of them were on the shipping side.

For the first time, you saw how Jordan’s big brown eyes softened when you weren’t looking at them and how they were so quick to pull you in their lap when you tried to storm off in a rage-quit. Was this how they always acted around you?

As you raked your brain, you began to remember several moments where Jordan acted a little more than a friend to you but at the time, you brushed it off. Did this mean they liked you? Did this mean it was finally okay for you to admit how you feel?

[malwaredykes]

I know you mostly post about fnv but I'm curious to know whats your opinion on the other fallouts?

fallout - really Really REALLY good. unforgiving, yes, takes some time getting used to. not without its flaws of course. for example i couldnt for the life of me figure out some very basic shit at first because the UI was designed by rodents i think. very Very engaging once you get past all of that. phenomenal first entry in the series. music, plot, worldbuilding, themes, major characters, mwah. mwah. They Dont Make Em Like That Anymore and there are many good reasons for it but time passed doesnt disappear so you can always play classic fallout.

fallout 2 - thing get weird. some of the highest highs, some of the lowest lows. the highs are really high though. unfortunately has a particular kind of needless edginess to it that gets extremely tiresome. "heeheehhee SECKS *begins to warp violently* heeiiuhehyehye" type. bizarrely racist and misogynistic at many points. contains some of the best voice acting moments in video game history. at many points its just very very tedious, like if with fo1 at some points i was like Well this is kinda rough, with fo2 there were stretches of the game where i was like What the hell am i even doing here Who are these people what is this crap. the enclave as this games evil fucked up faction is so great i love how theyre gradually introduced and then shit hits the fan. has a lot of texture to its worldbuilding and some really good fun moments but again it goes off the rails so much. i rly need to replay it but every time im like God do i really have time for this. i love that you drive a car

fallout 3 - weird fucking game. some truly unjustifiable design and worldbuilding decisions despite having also introduced a lot of rly good things. fun gameplay i mean its that classic falloublivionrim buggy grimy versatile ps3 pure brick ass gravel gamebryo bethesda. VERY funny to have so much of the games plot be like I Gotta Find My Dad like girl i dont care about my dad he can go die. oh wait he does. it has what i call The Martin Septim Problem and i think its kind of self explanatory. fawkes best boy hes my little birthday boy. fun to explore and do your own thing and discover whatevers going on out there. i HATE the brotherhood of steel in fallout the third. i HATE the enclave in fallout the third but i dont think it even comes close to how much i hate the brotherhood of steel in this game and what precedent it set for the rest of bethesda fallout. these creeps. im supposed to find any of this awesome? fuck no. oh also im ENDLESSLY amused by the prologue its like a nightmare sequence akskfnckxjnc. im being BORN?? ive just slid out of my mothers WOMB and CERVIX and VAGINA and theyre bringing up a screen to show her what an ugly monstrosity im gonna be when i grow up and shes like Waoww and she dies??? im a TODDLER? Release Me. Unhand Me You Fool. oh also that sequence where youre in a CRAZY SCIENTISTS SIMULATION is so stupid i love it

fallout 4 - havent played it for longer than 15 minutes (made me barfy). everything i learn about it is bizarre. like WHAT the fuck happens in that game. your old wrinkly son tells you youre stupid and dont need to know anything hes doing and then is like im dying can you take over for me??? also the intro is truly something i mean i dont mind having Some backstory to my character but youre saying i had to be straight married with a baby and living in a nice suburb, with a robot house servant? fuck no

everything else i havent played and have no real Thoughts about

[queenlua]

what would you recommend as a first Fire Emblem game to play? do i just pick up the latest one, or does an older one capture the True Fire Emblem Experience(tm) better? sorta like Super Metroid still being my absolute favorite of that series…

iiiiiinteresting question, huh! it probably depends somewhat on what you think you'll like / care about the most in a Fire Emblem game?

my personal first FE game was Sacred Stones & i think that's still a really good place to start. the spritework is *gorgeous*; i personally think it's the visual peak of the series. it's got the core "old-school" FE gameplay but with lots of nice quality-of-life improvements (as compared to e.g. something like FE4 or FE7), and the story is my second-favorite in the series after the Tellius games—just a good core emotional core with really well-drawn characters and support conversations.

the drawback is that it's on GBA, so if you don't have one of those lying around (or some other handheld to play it on), you're stuck playing it on an emulator on a computer, which i think hampers the enjoyment somewhat—like, i played a lot of that game in "in-between" moments, while on the bus, etc, and it was really excellent for that. also: it's on the easier side! which i didn't mind; i find the FE game loop enjoyable both when i'm just cruising through baddies AND when i'm having to tightly & rigorously strategize every move. but i know a couple people who stopped playing because they found it too easy & got bored

i do think the Gamecube/Wii FEs (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, aka the Tellius games) hold up really well. obviously i am a little insane about them *stares at fanfiction output* and thus clearly biased, but the character writing is shockingly good & rich (sometimes despite itself, lol), and the gameplay's real fun! reasonably challenging while not making you want to throw your controller across the room (unless you opt into lunatic you mad lad!). i do think they're a little ugly though lol. rip. also, if you like PoR enough to play RD, you'll find RD... uneven. it's uneven in ways that mostly delight me, but like, yeah it's suffering a little from "we're telling like four different storylines with a HUGE cast & jerking you around between them a bit" so it interrupts the usual "smooth progression of your carefully-curated army" gameflow for something more like "wow, hope you're looking forward to saying BYE FELICIA to all your old dudes & putting down a random rebellion in Crimea for exactly five chapters & then doing something else entirely."

those games are my personal faves though and. i will always tell people to start with them. in principle. but you should decide if you trust me lol

a WHOLE lot lot of people got started with Awakening, and the core gameplay in that one is VERY fun. about halfway through, if you're sufficiently clever at assigning abilities, the game becomes a little too easy to "break," but it's an enjoyable ride the whole time. it also introduced a LOT of the quality-of-life improvements people now take for granted in modern FEs (you can choose to disable permadeath; UX is much nicer; etc). so if dealing with some old-school cruft is unpalatable to you, you'll definitely want Awakening or newer.

unfortunately the writing in Awakening is, uh, not great, lol. there's two generations of characters you're playing as, and the first generation is just... not very interesting! very one-note and tropey! storyline is nonsense! the second-generation characters are a little more fun but overall i found the main plot's incoherence + the plethora of dull characters meant that i found the story very forgettable.

i think the writing in Conquest/Birthright is similarly weak but i do have to say, if you want to powergame and optimize stats and get REALLY SWEATY GAMEPLAY NERD about it, Conquest can't be beat. best map design in the series, extremely challenging, etc

and then there's the massive fandom juggernaut known as Three Houses lol. of the "modern" FEs, this game contains the most Stuff I Like About Fire Emblem. the storyline's a lil jankier than e.g. the Tellius storyline, but still has plenty of fun stuff to chew on, and even if you don't some of the 3-4 storylines offered, there's a pretty strong chance you'll resonate with at least one of them. and the gameplay is *fun*, lots of QoL improvements, reasonably snappy...

...but it does have a somewhat bloated, "AAA-gamification" feel. visiting the monastery between EVERY SINGLE FUCKING CHAPTER to do "home base"-y stuff gets old fast. and also, the gameplay starts to drag some as you go along... a campaign takes like 40-50hrs iirc, and near the end, i usually find myself going like "jfc i don't WANT to do these three skirmish battles before i go onto the next one... but i need to because it's the Objectively Optimal Thing To Do... why is this game making playing it so annoying," lol. also, the writing, while reasonably solid... could've been reduced by like 50% and probably been *stronger*? most "old-school" FE games only had 3-5 support conversations per unit, and that was generally enough to give a good sense of the character without Overwhelming With Pointless Chatter. but so many characters in Three Houses have *so much more* text than that and it just starts feeling like.. a chore... to go through... especially when in practice i won't even like all those conversations... so yeah idk

tl;dr if you have slightly old-school sensibilities, get Sacred Stones; if you want a "modern" feel, get Awakening or Three Houses; if you want to make Lua Internetperson happy, personally, you should grab Path of Radiance :P

[stelladess]

My personal.... "review"? rating? for the gacha games that I have played, roughly in order but I do not remember exact order so... yeah Mostly just rambling to have my thoughts down in writing somewhere. No insult intended to any game here or the people who like them whether I like it or not. Chances are I was just not the intended demographic or that my tastes are just different.

HI3: Incredible story, some of the best characters in any media I have ever read, watched or played. However the gameplay is a very mixed bag, the gacha aspects are downright atrocious (even by gacha standards) and it has serious pacing issues. Also a lack of world building and the art direction has clearly shifted multiple times. The story has gotten me to straight up cry though and part 2 has alleviated or fixed a lot of my big issues with the game (more consistent artstyle, better pacing, far more fluid gameplay, better worldbuilding, etc), although nothing on the gacha side of things. One advantage is that it is relatively easy to ignore the gacha aspect and just play the story though since most of the time you get trial characters from the ones who are actually there doing the things in story at the time.

Genshin Impact: Beautifle world, great character designs. The character writing and world building is pretty great in this one.... but the story itself is a very mixed bag. And it has an even bigger issue then HI3 with large amounts of fairly pointless dialogue that neither progresses character or themes, this is improved in the latest regions somewhat from what I have heard but it is a constant frustration earlier. Also it is an open world game with all that entails, which is a type of game I am not particularly fond of. The combat gameplay is also not my favorite. I eventually stopped playing this, around the time of shogun banner...

Symphogear XDU: I am a huge symphogear fan, and it is great to have more stories with these characters and expanding on them in fun ways and putting them into new stories. This part of XDU is great, a lot of these stories are wonderful.... however as a game it is terrible. Also no official english version anymore so it is awkward to get running and to actually be able to read it. I stopped playing because the game side was just... bad. There are some fan translations of various events that are worth checking out if you are a symphogear fan though!

Blue Archive: Love the setting, in terms of visuals and audio it has probably one of the best presentations of any gacha game I have played. The character designs are also great, if a bit limited by the school theming.... I hate sensei so much. I think sometimes the story´s own themes are hampered by sensei being a creep. Now I am not the target demographic for Blue Archive, so me not liking or sticking with it is not a surprise. Just frustrating because of the parts I do like. But, again, just not for me. It was never intended for my tastes. Also the gameplay is basically an auto battle system with *slightly* more strategy on top of it. Which is not really my thing.

Tower of Fantasy: I played it for like a week with my friend. Like with genshin the open world nature turned me off, and the world felt like it stood out less to me, the entire art direction was to me not as strong. I did not hate it is just that I liked it less then genshin, which already could not keep me playing.

Princess Connect RE:dive: My friend recommended this and I had enjoyed the anime, so I downloaded it, the next morning crunchyroll announced they were ending the service for the global version. I took this as a sign of some kind and decided to not try and keep up with it.

Honkai Star Rail: One of my absolute favorite games! The writing is very easy to follow along but with quite a bit of extra depth to be found if you are interested, the gameplay is also simple but requires enough thought to feel like an actual game, visuals and music is some of my favorites too. The characters, story, setting and presentation is all incredible. In particular the comedic writing and the character dynamics are very fun. I play this on a daily basis.

Arknights: In terms of world building this is easily the best gacha game I have played, it also has probably my favorite art direction, with only star rail competing for that spot. The gameplay is strategic and very fun, the big downside is it needs a very big time investment to really enjoy. Lots of reading and the gameplay has a very high skill ceiling even if the skill floor is quite low. It also misses a lot of obvious QoL features that would drastically improve it (something as simple as bookmarking story nodes for one...), but despite its flaws the stories, characters and themes are great. And in particular how these are written in a way that makes it feel intrinsically tied into the world. The planet of Terra is one of the most important aspects of the game. I love that it has a very unique technology level for a fantasy setting too. Also the prose is often really really good. I play this on a daily basis.

Zenless Zone Zero: The chill slice of life vibes of this game are great. New Eridu is a really cool setting and the characters are all great. It is far less story driven but that is fine, it really gives off the vibe of being relatively normal people just living in a strange world. It does feel somewhat "incomplete" currently though, but it is still off to a strong start. Gameplay feels like a far more developed version of early HI3 gameplay, that grew in a different direction from what HI3 part 2 took it in. I lied earlier about the visual direction of star rail and arknights being uncontested, this game might even be better in this department. I play this on an almost daily basis.

[jasminesilk]

Generation 2: I'm in love... with a vampire?! 🧛🏻

Tristan Black: Loner | Creative | Art Lover

"Your dad's a ghost, your mom's a “kook”, and your maid is a skeleton?! All you’ve ever wanted was a normal family, and to stop being the ~weird kid~. Your parents were always busy with work leaving you with only your art supplies and plopsy shop. That is until the new kid at school shows interest in you...could this be your chance for a normal life?!?"

I will be taking some creative liberties with the challenge rules moving forward, mostly because I want to play with the special bloodline trait for spellcasters. Mainly I will not be doing the Good Vampire aspiration, at least not with Tristan. He will remain a spellcaster. I will however have his spouse Alastor complete the aspiration instead. I will probably also change up gen 3 rules and extend this legacy to be at least one more generation longer, as the rules only go to gen four. I'm just having too much fun with the Black family!

ps: Tristan is actually a young adult in this portrait, not a teen lol. I forgot to get any CAS screenshots of him while he was a teen and like always I am way ahead in gameplay, so enjoy this sneak peek!

[hollowtones]

How are you enjoying Whispers In The Walls so far Ms. Hollowtones?

I will post more about it another time when I am not juggling 3 projects & also playing the video game and eating and sleeping and going outside and stuff. Fucking love the update, though. Maybe my favourite story quest in years, which is saying a lot because I've loved basically all of the narrative stuff in "Warframe". I cried like a little baby about gay old men. LOL

The new gameplay stuff is all really cool & the tech issues I've had running missions with friends have at least mostly been funny. The new heavy attacks are very fun on Citrine's gun-scythe. I like reaping through a gaggle of enemies and getting a lucky proc & just shooting a meteor of hot plasma that hollows out an entire hallway. The new colours of archon shards they added (it has been very fun insisting to friends what don't play that "they just invented new colours today & We're calling them orange and Green") are the sorts of thing I was hoping for & I've got some ideas in the back of my noggin I wanna try building once I can get more of 'em.

[alltimefail-sims]

I reread your post about how Moonwood Mill and Granite Falls could be connected, and I would be really interested to hear how you actually use Granite Falls in your game! For example, what lots do you put there and how do you play with it?

I recently downloaded a mod that makes Granite Falls liveable and I am hoping to incorporate it into my occult gameplay.

Thanks for all the posts you've made so far about your occult lore. I love reading about it!

Hi friend, I'm so sorry I took forever to get around to answering this! I haven't updated my mods or anything in a minute so I couldn't pop into my occult save to take specific screenshots (for fear of corrupting it), but I'll do my best to illustrate how I arrange it!

As you can see, I go with a pretty simple layout. I think werewolves, especially those in the Moonwood Collective, are no-frills when it comes to their living arrangements - it's really more about functionality and community than anything, and this world lends to that vibe so effectively.

Little bit about my lots:

The National Park: Because Moonwood Mill doesn't have a National Park and I think a core tenant of the Collective is environmentalism, I maintained the lot type but renamed it "Moonwood Falls." It acts as the divider between Moonwood Collective Territory and Wildfang territory - once you pass completely through it you'll see a trail that'll lead you directly to the Moonwood Commune if you follow it. I talked about it in a previous post, but one of The Collective's main duties is watching over the national park lands that are still left in Moonwood Mill, not just for the sake of environmentalism but also to keep threats at bay that might be traveling through. Also there are resources for herbalism that are easier to access on this type of lot, so I keep it for practical reasons as well!

Residential Rentals x3: The members of the Collective live simply and in close quarters to each other. The number of cabins range from lot to lot, but they were all built by hand by members of the collective and mostly serve the practical purposes of shelter during unpredictable weather and spaces to rest. Members of the Collective are not hanging around their houses all day, they're not watching TV or playing video games, they're all usually outdoors and almost always congregating together (big emphasis on community). The wolf family I play with primarily in this particular save lives in one of the cabins by the Volkov residence. Note: I haven't converted these to residential rentals yet in-game, but now that we have that feature I intend to! Before they were just residential lots that I would have multiple sims live on!

Community Space: This space is primarily a community garden and is the epicenter for the day-to-day activities that the members in the Collective engage in. Aside from gardening there are washtubs and clotheslines, a space to have communal meals and meetings (I imagine members of the Collective share resources more than not), various outdoor activities for kids and teens to engage in**, and even some sales tables. It's a skill-building/learning space, but it's also a fun space to build community and friendships. I kind of think of this space as the Collective's equivalent to the bar the Wildfangs congregate at. If you were to stumble upon the Collective's commune or visit as a guest, this is the first place you would be directed to. Lastly, I have a small "Medical" cabin set up on this space as well that obviously serves no in-game function other than housing restrooms. That being said, it appeases my personal lore that normal doctors would have 0 clue about how to treat a werewolf and their specific ailments (not to mention a werewolf from a pack like the Collective who has their own beliefs and methods on healing/treatments for their kind anyway) so a space such as this would be a necessity for any wolf pack.

The Volkov Residence: with Kristopher being the alpha, it only makes sense that the Volkov family home would be located in Granite Falls at the center of the commune, easily accessible from any part of the property. Although it's a large lot, again that's for a practical reason: I imagine a lot of the livestock and valuable resources are guarded by the alpha, so much of the lot's space is actually dedicated to those things. Kristopher, like the rest of the pack, lives quite simply and values practicality and inner peace above all. There are two interesting elements that set the alpha's house apart, however. First is a lookout tower, and second is the caging cellar*** beneath his home. Yes, a caging cellar is what it sounds like: it's a basement deep underground with barred enclosures that serve as dedicated spaces for "new turns," especially those that are particularly out of control of their bodies, or for particularly vicious/violent wolves that stumble across the commune's property - they are usually wolves without a pack, but occasionally Rory will have to come bail a Wildfang out lol. Needless to say this is one of many points of contention between Rory and Kristopher, but the wolves who find themselves in containment are not being punished: it's supposed to be a safety measure, and it's only utilized when necessary (but yes when you think about it, it's absolutely an ethical nightmare lmao).

** I have very convoluted lore about young wolves and schooling! The very brief overview is young children (newborn - kindergarten basically) do not go to traditional school environments and learn their basics from the adults around them at the community space (very hands-on learning style, like a non-traditional nature-based schooling). As they age, they do eventually go into town to receive their "formal" education alongside human peers, but there are still certain mandated lessons that are wolf-specific that they have to learn on the commune. Basically the "traditional" school acts as a part-time co-op where wolf children (1st grade to 12th grade, essentially) go to learn the things they cannot learn from the Collective (arithmetic/reading/writing/history/etc. you get it). It's funny because I'm sure most of their public school, non-wolf peers think they're a part of like a creepy religious cult or something lmao but they just can't have some teenage werewolf boy in the same gym class as a normie human unless they want an accident to happen, ya know?

*** Part of the contention with the caging cellars is actually rooted in the town's history with them - especially as it relates to anti-wolf hysteria and an uptick in hunters. As such, it's not unusual for them to be found in basements of some of the older houses in Moonwood Mill. Most of the younger locals have no idea what purpose they serve/served other than being lowkey creepy, but the older residents know what's up. In modern day, most people had theirs removed, not seeing a need for industrial cages in their basements lmao. HOWEVER, in my occult save, I have a headcanon that Celene López lives with her grandparents who are VERY educated in werewolf lore and although they're not against the wolves they do not trust them fully, so they still have a caging cellar in their basement... just in case! I have a whole storyline that I won't get into haha: I'll just say Lou became very familiar with that space when he transformed into a wolf. If you're curious about the details, feel free to ask!

Anyway, whew that was a lot but I think that just about covers it! As always, thank you for asking about this - I'm always happy to talk about this stuff, I just hate that it took me forever to get back to you! Hopefully it was worth the wait, and could help you or inspire you in some way as you build up your own wolf lore! I'm always curious to hear your thoughts about how you'd lay out Granite Falls as well, so feel free to share if you're so inclined. <3

+ For those who just read all this and have no idea what I'm on about, this ask piggybacks off of a previous ask on my werewolf lore which can be found here!

[simbleleven]

Hey, everyone, call me Eleven.

Guess I'm a new-ish Simblr in town, though, gotta admit, I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. I've been playing Sims for quite a while – mainly Sims4, I was never actually a Simmer Kid. I recently got into editing my screenshots and stuff, but had no place to dump 'em. So, here I am. Fun Fact; I don't have a Simself, mostly because I imagine running into them in-game would break my immersion, like, damn, what does this guy want.

Big CAS Player. Love making Sims, or remaking Townies. Editing screenshots is fun. I have gameplay ideas and so much lore, but I'm actually bad at playing them. Very little gameplay here, sorry. Mostly, I just wanted to have a Sims-oriented blog, that I can fill to my heart's content. Expect CC-Finds and Lookbooks. WCIF-friendly, but I'm a slow person. Currently my blog is a bit of a construction site – I like meticulously organizing my stuff, hence the mess.

Hopefully y'all don't have any big expectations. I treat the game like my personal little dollhouse. You can sit with me and watch, I guess. I sound a bit dry, but I like to think I'm pretty chill.

See y'all around. Gotta load up my queue.

– Eleven

[clownawnie]

Pathologic 2 thoughts now that i finished it

After a very long 52, nearly 53 hours, I finally finished Pathologic 2. These are my thoughts and feelings after finishing it and how it impacted me as a mixed indigenous person. I am Māori not Buryat so my perspective is just from growing up as a mixed person and not anything culturally specific.

Also! This will be all over the place, this is less of a structured analysis and more so just me jotting down my feelings and experiences with the game just to get them out there. I briefly go over the endings so spoilers for that i guess

Okay to start I really enjoyed Pathologic 2, it's truly a one of a kind experience. I played on an easier difficulty because I wanted to experience the story first (I do plan to replay the game at the intended difficulty at a later date) but it still felt challenging, I was definitely not having a walk in the park and it was for the best. I struggled a lot as someone going in mostly blind to Patho 2. I was very adamant about not using guides and while it added to my experience of the game it also caused me to fuck up and die a lot. (the first 16 hours or so were from my first attempt which failed miserably) 

I really enjoyed the gameplay, despite initially being overwhelmed by the size of the town I found it easier to navigate in the latter half of the game. I personally love games where you just collect stuff and searching through drawers and dressers for random coins and buttons was very fun for me. Walking around and just admiring the scenery was quite relaxing (when I wasn’t being chased by men with knives). The clunky combat wasn’t a deal breaker for me but the lack of aim reticle did make it hard to actually hit people consistently with the gun but eh that wasn’t really a problem. It did take an embarrassingly long time for me to figure out certain mechanics (like sneaking) I also love a lot of the characters, although I have a very clear favourite.

  Artemy very quickly became a character that was dear to me. I heavily related to him as a mixed Indigenous person who used to be close with their culture but now feels disconnected as an adult. Seeing him struggle with language, struggling to remember the right terms and the customs that used to come easily to him. Having a foot in two worlds but unsure of where you belong in either of them. He’s just like me fr. I immediately got invested in Artemy’s story and it made me try my hardest to play his part well. I love imagining myself acting as the player characters in games and it seemed fitting for Pathologic 2.

This personal investment in Artemy made certain parts of the games very difficult for me emotionally. There were many moments during the game when I had done something wrong and it struck me hard. Playing Pathologic 2 felt less like controlling a character and more like being the character, I wasn’t controlling Artemy I was Artemy. Every time I messed up it hurt. I was failing, doing a poor job filling in the role and because of it those closest to Artemy, to me, were getting sick.

I remember the first time one of the characters got infected, it was notkin. He was infected after going into the death house, I remember how my face dropped seeing Notkin all wrapped up and sickly. I was panicked when I realised Murky’s friend wasn’t just the girl's imagination but an embodiment of the plague and I felt absolutely lost on day 10 finding all of the kids infected with only 5 cures on me.

Overall I loved the story, I love things that can make me feel so much dread and pain and Pathologic 2 very much did that. However, I’m very conflicted on both endings. I played through both of them one after the other and I’m unsure how I feel about them.

I knew nothing about the endings when going into the game so I had no expectations but around day 9 or 10, after the talk with Isidor in the dream did I realise where the game was heading and it made me upset. For some background, I have struggled alot with where i stand in the world in terms of identity, being mixed can feel so isolating and i struggled alot with feeling like i couldn’t fit in with either side. I’ve been dealing with this over the years and feel more comfortable with both parts of my identity, not having to pick one or the other and existing as both. So i felt an awful feeling in my gut when i realised the story was pulling me, that i would have to make a decision town or kin. It felt cruel to make artemy pick between his two halves.

The endings themselves i’m torn on. I don’t particularly like either ending very much, maybe my feelings will change when i’ve had more than 24 hours to stew on my thoughts.

The diurnal ending left me feeling quite empty, I saved the town but killed the earth, assimilating the kin into the town and leaving no room for the past. The idea of the past and the future being incompatible pains me.

The framing of the nocturnal ending made me feel odd. It's the preservation of the past, of miracles. But it felt so… horrific… seeing people, children wandering out into the steppe. People artemy was closest to unable to even recognise him. It was framed much darker than the diurnal ending, it made siding with the kin feel like i had made a mistake. Im unsure if this was the intention of the ending but its how it felt. Maybe I’ll dissect the endings in greater detail at another date after hearing more perspectives from other players.

Overall, I am glad i played pathologic, despite my torn feelings on the endings I do deeply enjoy the game, the world and the characters and i can’t wait to play through it all again. I want to 100% the game, see everything it has to offer, achieve what feels like the impossible and save everyone.

[neogandw]

Page 4 of 6, the rest can be seen here.

Honestly this is the part where I just get to have fun with the training montage and the reason of why I love Smash Bros like I do.

The gameplay IS fun even if I don't actually play online matches all that much (I'm not all that competitive, I play mostly solo or with friends exclusively), but to me Smash Bros is a toy box.

I love these universes and Smash Bros has introduced me to many more over the years, to me its an introduction to various things I could learn and play with, and even more fun to me its concocting how these series gel together and how you could use their elements as playthings to craft a story or a cohesive universe.

I explored this before with another massive comic I made, honestly kind of one this is a sequel to. Its "The Strongest Fighter".

To me, I am not interested at all in "who would beat who", I prefer to think of "Okay, if these two were to meet, how WOULD it go down?" or "If so was in this situation, what would they do?", the joke of the Strongest Fighter comic is not to actually decide who is the strongest in terms of made-up power levels, but rather an exploration of how these characters view and talk about one of their own in a context disguised as a poorly thought-out question.

A lot of people tend to miss this, sadly, even if Shulk points out "Anyone can beat up Kirby" rather blatantly at the end.

So, going back to Page 4, its also similarly an exploration of the question "how do you go on about getting strong in this context?".

With splatoon, there's not much other than "pick up the weapon and sink or swim, we ain't an helicopter parent, you figure it out". But when you introduce the idea of a MENTOR (specially one out of universe like Peach is) how would you go on about teaching something so abstract as getting good aim?

Its not so much that Orange needs training in weaponry at all, I did make it a point to show that she was Super Fresh with everything BUT the Chargers back on Page 1, but that her aiming skills with the Charger are so off that:

Speedy targets won't stay still (Joker just dodging out of the way)

Her shots are blantantly obvious (Samus just leaning her head to the side)

She's not using shooting at a range, so her aim is so off that she misses even in Super Flat World.

So the training montage is tackling these issues.

Study up and learn how the weapon actually works, as I said her first mistake was skipping up Sheldon's explanation, so the first thing Peach does is explain the basics of the weapon to Orange (if you notice, the billboard does show things like leading the shot as exemplified with the Rabbid, using bombs to flush out your enemies and the importance of things like Ink Saver). Basic stuff, but you do hit the books to learn your tool.

Learn in a safe envoirement that is somewhat predictable, and it is slow going (notice the timer of the Break the Targets), get used to shooting long-distance first and foremost, no matter how long it takes.

Then you introduce the erraticness (AKA: the ducks) and practice off that, Orange hit exactly half and Peach mentions as much. The dog may laugh, but its a start.

And finally, put it to the test. I specifically chose Sonic to be the target to be hit because he'd be the most erratic, fastest and would NOT allow himself to be hit that easily. Landing a headshot on Sonic has to be the hardest thing you could do.

I did mostly pick scenarios that would be funny, but I did want it to be a ramping up in getting good. Not just jumping from point A to point B and just skipping to "welp, you're a god at sniping now".

Anyway, the hidden jokes and references of this page:

I used to be a teacher (programming, if you're curious), so the panel of Inkling Girl going to school is reminiscent of my experiences as a teacher and a student. hence why Inkling Girl's set-up on the school resambles what I know rather than the desks you find on Garreg Mach. Such as taking special attention to draw the ever present ruler, using a square notebook for math, the pencil sharpener and erasers being the ones we use down here on México and the bag being a knock-off rather than an official product. Its just sort of the norm you see around here.

You may notice the random calendar on the Garreg Mach page on the top left. On the coloring process I decided to add to the joke of Inkling Girl going to school by imitating a Persona UI.

Originally the joke was to have it be styled after P5's, but the UI used wound up being Persona 3's instead. Not only is it topical thanks to Reload, but the reason I did it is that curiously -just as I was working on this panel- I hit this date on reload ( 8/10 ) and it just so happened that THIS is when you downright lose an entire week worth of days because Mitsuru decided to sign you up for summer classes without consulting you. Fitting for Inkling Girl sacrificing her own free time to learn and study.

Small thing, but if you actually read Orange's notebooks you may notice she's dividing by zero.

Just to show how much Inkling girl sucks at aiming, the break the targets timer is there to show how badly she's doing. Normally during Break the Targets you either get timed to your best time counting UP if you're doing it on the dedicated mode or counting DOWN from 2 minutes if you do it from Classic Mode. The timer instead reads 28:05.15, meaning that Peach had her do it at her own pace and its been nearly half an hour of just missing shots (since she's only been able to hit 1 target so far).

Also, the timer number may be random, but its actually Splatoon 1's release date. I love to hide significant numbers like that on my works. I forgot to mention it but Peach's player ID back on page 3 was also a release date.

And to add on to the cute factor, the platform they're standing on in Break the Targets is actually taken directly from Peach's stage. So she's lending her own target test for the practice.

Fun fact: on the Duck Hunt panel you can see the UI discussing how many ducks have been hit by Inkling Girl. Not easily apparent though is the blue bar below the ducks.

THAT is the minimum requirement. In the original Duck Hunt the UI for the duck tally would shift over to the left and be compared to that blue bar, if you didn't shoot enough ducks to go beyond where the bar was pointing at the game would end.

Essentially, Peach is asking for a bare minimum of 4 ducks to be hit, which Inkling Girl technically did as she managed 5, but she's still frustrated due to the dog's mockery.

Irregardless of how the montage was gonna go on the planning phase, I always wanted to have Sonic be the last test for Inkling's improvement because -once more- I like to think more in-character when writting down these scenarios.

Sonic is the fastest thing alive, he's capable of dodging whatever bullet or explosive eggman tends to throw at him (capable, not reliable, it depends on player input if he does so or not). So he'd be perfect for target practice, specially for something like Sniping.

Sonic's pride would NOT agree with being shot in the face, admittedly, but he could be talked into it if asked as both a challenge and a request. Peach wouldn't put anyone in danger and it is really just ink, so if its for the sake of helping others, Peach could reliably ask Sonic to do it and he'd at least take solace in helping someone else. Though he'd likely taunt and make it as hard as possible due to his ego.

To show that it was amicable and that Sonic agreed to it I had the two bits of Peach handling a tower and Sonic giving a thumbs up, to show that he was in on the plan.

I could have drawn Green Hill Zone again (in fact, the planning phase did had it AS Green Hill), but I instead opted to go with Seaside Hill as the background (kind of a mistake on my part since Ocean Palace is OBTUSE on its architecture), mostly because I wanted some scenery variety with Sonic, its not always gonna be on Green Hill Zone, you know.

The Loading screen that Inkling is having on her head while she realizes she passed the final test is from Sonic 06, which I shouldn't have to tell you that its infamous for its loading.

I originally wanted it to be Splatoon's loading icons, but those would have required animation since they're not visually understandable otherwise. So I just went with the Sonic theme and made it match.

The UI used for the last two panels are the stage clear screens for Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 1 respectively. Also, I didn't just copy-paste the assets from Splatoon 3 into the comic, every time you see the weapon icons like that its one of my recreation of those assets.