#basically my thoughts on this are that i hope we start getting more fangames that are basically undertalelikes

[acerikus]

It's always so funny to me when I see people say things like 'uty will never be undertale!' and list all the things they think it did wrong/inaccurately to the og game. Don't get me wrong I think it's completely valid to not enjoy it for those reasons, but at the same time it's a non-toby fox game that I never felt tried too hard to PRETEND to be a toby fox game, y'know?

There's quite a few things I think it misses the mark on when it comes to canon compliance with undertale, but I don't really mind that tbh (especially when it gave us such a fun fanon take on flowey, which is pretty damn accurate to undertale even if it doesn't make sense with the timeline and even if itd makes him a little too developed by the time frisk falls to make sense). To me, uty is a game that takes place in a world SIMILAR to undertale, by different people, that isn't quite trying to do the same thing. It doesn't have the same soul as undertale sure, but it doesn't need to. Different games serve different purposes and especially w the context of yellow being a completely free project done in fans' time as a labour of love to a game that they enjoyed, I think they did a pretty damn good job.

(again this isn't me throwing shade at people who don't like it, more an excuse for me to get some of my own thoughts out about the game lol)

[khywae]

No more fanfiction

Hey loves,

I just wanted to chat with you about a new direction I'm taking in my career.

My recent trip made me rethink a lot of things. It made me realize how short life is and how much time I've “lost” due to mental health struggles. My mind was my number #1 enemy, but not anymore. Now I'm determined to pursue my dreams unapologetically.

My biggest dream is to create a lasting legacy. I want to leave behind tons of content with the female gaze, portraying men as objects of desire rather than just women. It might seem like a silly dream compared to other, more grandiose ones, but I never had access to a lot of content like that. I always felt starved, scavenging the internet for scraps, especially when it came to submissive men. While I've found solace in the writing world, which flourishes with the female gaze, it’s still not enough. Men are just too gorgeous not to be appreciated in other forms of art. I want to live in a world where women have access to quality female gaze content and don’t have to resort to the male gaze if they don’t wish to. That means no faceless dudes, no showing only the woman’s body, and no men so ugly that could make a freight train take a dirt road. Enough.

To turn this dream into reality, I started to think. I could continue with writing, but as you guys can see from the number of words in The Muse and the time it took me to write it (6 fucking years), it would take too long. As the old saying goes, ars longa, vita brevis. Art takes a long time, and life is short. And I, my darlings, have a mission.

Because I love writing too much, I need something that limits the amount I can write. I thought about making videos, but it took out a large portion of the writing part, and it left me unsatisfied. After a lot of thought, I realized that video games can be the solution. They have visual elements, so I don’t need/can’t rely so heavily on my writing; I love games, I play them every day; and I can count on my fingers the number of adult games for women, meaning we need more. A lot more.

Like our himbo icon Kronk says, oh yeah, it’s all coming together.

So I'm excited to announce that I'll be creating games – fangames at first – that mix the interactive side of games and the smut from fanfiction. The SFW version of the games will be free, and the NSFW version and other perks can be accessed through my (freshly launched!) Patreon. There you'll have the power to vote for the next character featured in the games, access work-in-progress pictures and animations, see my writing process, and more. I’m still figuring things out, but I’m super hyped for this!

Currently, I’m working on the very first game of this legacy, called My Assassin Bodyguard. Yes, I transformed the Toji video/fanfic idea that I posted before into a game. You can play the demo now on itch.io!! You don't even have to download woooo!! The game may seem really basic as I get a hang of things and learn new software, but with time we’ll make improvements, such as adding different player characters, a smut gallery, and voice acting (!!!). Anything to make the experience the best it can be.

For those of you who are mostly here for my writing, don’t despair. My writing will still be alive, just in a different medium that needs me right now. I hope you understand. Thank you for your support all these years, for being here through it all. I'd be thrilled for you to join me on this new journey and help me bring this dream to life, together.

So here's the link to Patreon! (⸝⸝ᵕᴗᵕ⸝⸝) I hope to see you there! But if you can’t, I’ll still post updates here and you can always play the games on itch for free. After this dream is accomplished, my next mission will be to write books. Maybe I’ll do it along the way. We’ll see. Life’s full of surprises after all, and that’s the beauty of it. Let's enjoy it the best we can ♡

With love,

Khywae

TL;DR: Life's too short, I write too much and too slow, and I've got a ton of content to create to make my dream happen. So I'm switching to game development for now. I'd love for you to join me on this journey to make this dream a reality. Thank you for everything, love you.

P.S.:

About the Lore

I was so excited about this that I created a little world. Based on the two iconic fanfiction terms —ship and canon—, and my love for Pirate AUs, I came up with a world where we sail across the ocean, collecting ingredients to craft Tapes that connect us with different Alternate Universes. It’s basically a Witch-Pirates-‘90s nostalgia mix. I've got plans to flesh it out even more over time, like adding some decorations, some hot pirates... Important stuff, you know?

Here's the boat in its simplest form, to symbolize that our journey is just starting:

[pixeldotgamer]

✨All My WIP Projects✨

Since the results of that Twitter poll I did show people REALLY wanna know what I'm working on, I figured I'd just announce/summarize most of the things I have in development right now!

This will be pretty long so it's getting tucked under a read more!

Don't Tell My Wife / DTMW (Game, Horror VN) Status: Active Development

DTMW is my entry for SuNoFes2024 on Itchio! Folks may actually recognize this one as I streamed some concept art a while back, and even posted some as well!

This game focuses on a Husband and Wife in the woods. Specifically, the Husband and something he's been trying to plan for a while. Now there's only one week left and his Wife has taken notice.

"You have one week to get your plans sorted. You thought you had more time than this. Don't let her find out."

---

Treacherous Flesh (Game, RPGMaker Horror) Status: Research & Writing

TF follows the story of Ila, a woman who contracts a deadly illness and must wait 8 months for treatment. The game follows her over that time as her symptoms worsen, and her body turns against her.

Like many of my projects, TF pulls from a personal feeling. This game is an outlet for my own ongoing health problems. I started working on this game after being told I had to wait 8 months for an ultrasound I need for diagnosis. It's month 4 of 8 now.

Probably the most outright depressing thing I'm working on, this game actually means a lot to me. This is an outlet, but I'm also hoping it resonates with people who may be going through what I am.

---

Dead Girl's Club (Game, VN) Status: Research & Writing

DGC follows a girl from a religious cult town tracking down the male "murderers" of girls from said town. The game is a very blatant look at the transmasc experience tackling themes of family, community, passing, more.

---

Computer Angel (Game, Point & Click/Interactive Fiction, Horror) Status: Concept Development

Computer Angel comes from my own fascination with the concept of "angels speaking to you through your screens" and such, whether for horror or comfort.

In CA, your aunt has just passed away suddenly and you end up with her computer. As you investigate the machine to use for yourself, you realize there's something in the computer. Something that would very much like to make your acquaintance.

With 3 narrative paths depending on your choices, I want CA to be a spooky and surreal little game! While the concept has been fleshed out, this one is on the back burner until I dedicate myself to learning GameMaker which is the engine I want to use.

---

Pop-Rock & Curly (Game, Point & Click) Status: Research & Writing

A brainchild of mine from 2019, where I said to myself "What if I made a detective/robber OCs but they're lesbians?" and then PR & C just. existed in my brain?

After just having them rattling around in my brain but never drawing them more than once, I decided to adapt them into a game! I've always had a love of P&C games, so it only makes sense I take a stab at one (Art from 2019)

The game follows detective Pop-Rock, who is personally requested by Curly to help as she rats out her no good boyfriend who has stolen a big flashy item. Using this as a chance to improve her reputation, PR ventures into the cities criminal underworld.

---

Juno Law (Game, VN) Status: Pre-Dev Done, Art Concepts Started

Juno is what I'd call my first "modern" game idea, the first game idea I can pinpoint where looking at it I could go "Wait this could actually be a game!" Basically a "what if I made an PWAA game" type deal

We got lawyers, punny names, gimmicky designs, and more! While not what I would call a fangame, Juno is meant to be my love letter to Ace Attorney that I started cooking up after playing the main 6 games. I actually was pursuing this as my first game!

Juno is a LARGE game. The biggest of anything even on this list in scale. Because of that, I've had it on the back burner since I finished the full game notes back a few years ago. The game is completely outlined! All characters, trials, plot lines, all of it!

I'm really passionate about Juno, but I knew I had to be honest with myself; This is just too much for my first game! My weakest skill, in my opinion, is my writing. So, starting out with massive narrative VN? Maybe not, haha. Someday though, I want to make it.

---

7. Cleopocha (Game, ???) Status: Concept Development

Cleopocha is about an android idol named Chapel, who starts dreaming of their past personas. It's a game largely about identity and asking what do we own those who came before us, especially when we don't remember them?

My current sticking point with Cleopocha is actually genre! The story I want to tell needs breathing room in a way a VN can't provide, but I'm unsure if an RPGMaker type game is quite right. What should the gameplay even be? Those kinda questions 🤔

---

A2amB (Podcast, Liminal Space Horror) Status: Research & Writing

I've had this fascination with doing some kind of story based podcast as far back as 2019, where the title A2amB comes from! The name is a placeholder from the idea I had way back then. (Art from 2019)

The story now is WAY different than the first concept. Salvaging characters and concepts from a MOTW campaign I was running, the podcast is now about a liminal space mall and the people stuck within it. (Art from Aug 2023)

Casey Day, local computer repairmen and burnout, gets dragged into the liminal mall and is stuck fumbling around trying to get out again. Besides twisting halls, a mannequin cult, and unpleasant personalities - Casey will also be haunted by his own issues.

I've been on a steady dev pace with A2amB, but I'm still figuring out what I want from the story, as well as how I want to deliver it. So currently I'm just locking down the pacing and themes in a way I find satisfying. I'll probably have to trim a lot of ideas..

---

And there's the bulk of what I'm working on! I need to refine my pitch process a bit, but I honestly just love gabbing about ideas!! I have no set release dates for these projects, they'll happen when they happen! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

[shukumeinorivals]

sorry if this has been asked before, I'm new to this account and in tumbler in general, so I don't know how things work lmao. My question is how did yall get into translating?

Welcome, I hope you enjoy your stay!

I'm the only translator, so I can only give you one answer.

The short answer is, I got into it because I wanted to understand songs and video games related to Pokémon, Vocaloid and Hetalia.

The really long answer would be...

Story time!

When I was very young I heard one of the Pokémon openings in Japanese for the first time and fell in love with the way it sounded, so I asked my mom to get me a dictionary because I wanted to look up the words I heard and translate the song (lol I was kinda naive). I had no idea kanji or any other writing systems existed yet.

Anyway, she got me the dictionary and because it was in romaji, I actually learned a bunch of vocabulary and fixed phrases just by reading it obsessively. Some time passed and I learned a bit more about the language and kinda taught myself the katakana syllabary so that I could spell the names of my fav characters at the back of my notebooks. I was so proud about it.

A few years later, I was introduced to the wonders of Niconico, Vocaloid and Hetalia all at the same time by a friend I made online. She showed me a Hetalia hand-drawn MAD that had one of Luka's songs as BGM; after that, there was no going back for me, my child self was so amazed and wanted to understand those songs more than ever.

Naturally, I joined the fandom, where I got to know of the existence of doujinshi and fangames.

(Me after watching that video.) So I begged my mom to take me to Japanese classes. At first it was hard to find a school because I was younger than the minimum age some required but we eventually found one. Unfortunately, the courses at that school went only up to lower intermediate level (N3) so I finished rather quick. That was enough to understand doujinshi and pixiv comics but it took me literally hours to read through even short doujinshi and many songs I liked were still out of my league so I was a bit bummed. Around that time, I got super into hetaoni and I was really frustrated because I was struggling to understand all the dialogue but, when one of the translators in the fandom started translating it, I was so impressed and grateful and just wanted to be cool like them and help others understand too. That was probably the moment I decided I wanted to start translating for others as well and pay the favor forward.

Eventually, I grew confident enough to talk to a translator (it took me ages because I was extremely shy, like the kind that gets anxious and can’t even order at a restaurant shy lol) and ask them if they could check a few attempts I had made at translating stuff and I was glad when it wasn't ridden with corrections as I thought it would be.

I wanted to go back to classes but my schedule back then was packed with activities so I was like whatever, I'll teach myself the grammar for the next certification level and so, with the help of very useful webs like japanesetest4you, I did just that and I passed, against all odds. I did the same for the final one but I failed on my first try because my reading speed was not fast enough to finish all the readings, so I hired a tutor who made me read articles like crazy, against time for 6 months... it was torture, but it worked lol.

I'm still learning to this day, because I want to master it, but I basically use the skills I've obtained so far for exactly the same reason I started learning, which is understanding songs, video games, doujinshi and novels, as well as helping others understand them and hopefully encourage them to start their own learning journey.

Ao.

[junkobears]

So I’m finally getting around to play Your Turn to Die/Kimi ga Shine years after everyone else played it already and recommended it, as usual for me! Just finished Chapter One Part One so here’s my thoughts on the game so far, for the three or so ol’ death game / DanRon fans still hanging around on here and following me who might be interested, haha. I’ll try to put up a liveblog post for the end of every part I finish playing through, I’m going into this, say, 99.9% blind for reference:

Surprise, surprise, so far I’m enjoying the game! The premise is intriguing so far and the low-res fan-inspired Danganronpa art style obviously is appealing to me, haha. I’m eagerly awaiting a moment where we will become the swing vote between one character being horribly executed or another one being horribly executed. Aside from that, I’m not sure I have any general theories on the nature of the death game itself at the moment...

Non-character related points that stuck out to me:

-The list of names in the bar that had all these other unknown names alongside the group we have met so far... hoping we will start meeting these people in the next chapters? We desperately need more female characters in this game for one!

-Three arms were visible in the scene when Sara investigates her room and gets kidnapped, so I think her stalker is actually multiple characters, theories on who exactly below. Comedy option is that her passed out featureless mother is actually involved in the stalking/kidnapping/murderin’ group behind the death game. She didn’t look THAT injured to me.

-I wonder if alternate routes depending on characters alive, considering the dummy bullets game, I wonder if it’s actually possible to kill anyone there and the game actually continues on? Or do you just get a game over ya fucked it moron the pattern to the bullets is bleeding obvious how the hell was that possible joke ending. But also I wonder if there are actual divergences based on who you agree with or refute often in the discussion segments. Might be a lot of extra work for a free fangame, though. On that note Joe was so cool with Sara handling the gun I almost was tempted to shoot him point blank as a warning to not be so trusting of me, haha. Sadly he was just too cutely simple to actually pull the trigger on in the end.

-The cupboard in the bar could’ve done with being more visually distinctive because that tripped me up for no joke nearly an hour before I realized it was a thing that could be interacted with. Failing this early at the basics of a point-and-click adventure game, truly shameful.

And because it’s me and I love a ranking, here’s my first character opinions from top to bottom with extended thoughts on each of them!

SARA: It's fun to have a female protagonist who gets to be both the 'everyday normal person thrown into death game' & 'group leader everyone trusts' archetypes at the same time! Let's hope she doesn't get Kaede'd... eternally live in fear of this happening! The title of this game however does not imply good things eventually for Sara. I enjoy that even with random men bizarrely trusting her Sara is still like WTF about it at the same time, so she has a lil' personality despite being the POV. But gurl her fringe with braid AND side ponytail hairstyle is not it. Hoping for symbolic haircut when she also actually gets more scenarios to start reacting too now that the actual death part of the death game has started.

KEIJI: He's wildly, unbelievably suspicious with being a policeman but refusing to use the gun in the dummy challenge (then again Japanese police are like UK police where they don't actively use guns right?), and in general just being shifty about how the group was kidnapped (yeah it HAS to be that Weird Cult I Won’t Go Into Any Specifics About Trust Me Guys!) but I’m still actually charmed by his tired & easygoing demeanour? Just like yup let’s just get on with this death game nonsense, haha. But also I definitely feel like there’s going to be more to him immediately trusting Sara and putting her in the group leader spot than “you’re cute” as well. More likely for bad reasons I feel at this point!

JOE: The spunky and goofy best bro type... who I actually really like!? At first I rolled my eyes when he popped up from behind that hedge supposedly creeping but as the chapter went on I changed my tune, Joe’s a Good Boi. I have my fears that they’ll try to set up him and Sara’s friendship as romantic later on but I also don’t get that vibe really, I like how banter-y but genuinely loyal their dynamic is at the moment. Actually feels like a proper high school friendship. Apart from that I’m not sure entirely where his character is going so I’m interested to see what he gets up too next.

REKO: She’s this high up because I absolutely adore the punk rock bitch aesthetic she is rocking 🎸 but so far she hasn’t really gotten to do much at all aside from worry about Kanna, which is pretty lame so hopefully future chapters will give her something. I have high hopes you can remain a favourite Reko!

SOU: He’s the 0.1% of this game I’m kiiiiinda spoiled on, but only in a “I know this character was popular with people who were massive Komaeda/Ouma fans back in 2017/2018″ way, lmfao. Which implies to me he’ll turn out to be a lil’ shit of some sort. The vibes couldn’t be any stronger after that opening scene with him SDR2 style as well... dunno perhaps he’s Sara’s actual stalker? He does seem strangely drawn to her so far... also the fact he conveniently got locked out of the gun game? I’m enjoying him though because I can relate to the pain of people constantly telling you to just get a job when you just wanna sleep. And honestly his design is pretty, even sometimes I can be into the problematic anime boys... don’t tell anyone 😷

SUE MILEY: Death Game Mascot Host character we always appreciate one of those, love her Madoka-esque design, and her open glee and bloodthirst for democracy. Kind of interesting she didn’t immediately punish Kai for outright attacking her and just ran away however. The fact when collecting her limbs to assemble her every character kept commenting on how ‘lifelike’ she seems also stood out to me, maybe she’s not actually a literal doll/puppet and is human? Then again they did literally build her and she talks about a master so... hmm. Curious to see where the game goes with her. Would like her to actually be the main villain in the long run despite her master.

NAO: Gives me extremely Tsumiki vibes but without the fanservice so that can only be good things to come. Love how frantically panicking she is in general and her messy artist design (though initially I was thinking florist) is SUPER cute. Also enjoy how immediately she was like “I hate Keiji but Sara you’re pretty cool please love me!” which is fun shipbait I can get behind perhaps. Otherwise she didn’t do much this chapter either, but with her mentor figure now headmelted I’m hoping for more of a focus in Part Two from Nao.

KAI: Stay at home dads are pretty progressive I suppose. I don’t really believe he’s Sara’s stalker at all like this chapter is implying but I don’t really have a particular reason why I feel this way. I guess it just feels too obvious/soon for this reveal, it’s really more a meta thought. I enjoy his dedication to his cooking utensils and refusing to let anyone wield the frying pan, the man is a Peach main in Smash Bros clearly so I can respect that.

MISHIMA: rest in pieces old man, he wasn’t particularly interesting to me but I did appreciate his scene when they’re all trying to comfort Kanna over her sister’s death and he lies pretty easily to convince her she couldn’t have done anything to save her sister, added a bit more character to his older prof shtick. But his default creep hands pose whilst being the crime of old didn’t do him any favours at all so the three votes for his death ain’t surprising. I wonder if we’ll ever get a breakdown of who voted for him later on? It’d make no sense but if nao was one of them that’d be really intriguing actually.

GIN: I apologize, small otaku child who would probably hate me for being another annoying adult who likes alcohol! No one on this cast tell him about the irony of his name. His costume design and cat plushie is super cute anyways. That’s pretty much the extent of my thoughts so far!

Q-TARO: Honestly this guy just exists and not much else... I laughed at him being the only character not immediately cool with the idea of handing a random teenager a gun and trusting her to not fuck it up and kill him at least? otherwise fast food burger man is certainly a Design Choice???

KANNA: ehhhhhhhhhh the innocent child character who the protagonist wants to protect has never been my favourite archetype on it’s own. Apart from her dunce bucket hat that reminds me of Greg from OTGW, nothing about her is really standing out to me so far. So presumably she’ll be one of the main characters to the end of the game, haha. Not sure if the shot of her wetting herself was entirely necessary also. Hoping there’s a bit more to Sue Miley’s angry retort that she was a willing sister killer, otherwise Kanna will be languishing at the bottom of the ranking for a while.

[danganronpedits-archived]

hiya! i love the way you do kin matchups so i would like to request one. danganronpa and its fangames please owo im your friendly neighborhood gremlin with a love for mischief. i like purposefully annoying and pissing people of bc its funny. i used to be a malicious jerk, but have been taking steps to be a better person. despite being extroverted and friendly, i dont get attached to others easily. oh also i love birds and fairgrounds/circuses. thank you, knock yourself out

ooh... haha, you sound really different from a lot of the anons i’ve gotten! thank you so much for requesting(and for the compliment ^^;), this was veery fun to plan out! hope you enjoy it :)!

from danganronpa, i first match you with...

kokichi ouma!

just to start off- that owo???? i just??? you mean to tell me that kokichi WOULDN’T use that? starting off, both of you are total gremlins. ingame, i mean, spoilers and whatnot, but kokichi literally runs a gang based around mischief and pranks. the fact that his gang is dedicated to that and only that i feel like is something else you have in common- while kokichi ingame can definitely be malicious, this is likely because, well, it’s a killing game. more specifically, one that basically no one trusts until the first murder happens and everything is suddenly real. i’m not trying to excuse his actions in it, but i feel like if he had that same personality of his outside of the game, there would be less of a need to be so distrustful and harsh towards others- after all, the outside world is intimidating and threatening, but there’s a lot more places to run to if someone wants to kill you, rather than in one single academy. sorry, i kind of went off on a tangent!

the two of you are rather extroverted, and while he’s not exactly friendly, he has this demeanor that implies that he’s going to be a sweet, adorable little guy. not saying that that’s you, but you know! the two of you seem very energetic, at least from your typing style, though that may not translate into real life. he loves getting on other people’s nerves for his own entertainment, ie kiibo. i would also say that he doesn’t get very close to others easily, as we see with both the cast of the killing game. plus, this is more theorising, as kokichi is strongly implied to be an orphan, that’s also something that causes trust issues/trouble getting close to people in victims of this, as, well, they weren’t able to be taught those kinds of bonds. again, i’m not saying that you’re an orphan, but that’s something the two of you are very likely to have in common. finally, i mean, dice has a clown aesthetic. he definitely likes fairgrounds/circuses.

from danganronpa another, i match you with...

satsuki iranami!

satsuki is definitely one that jumped to my mind right away. quick one, she’s literally the ultimate clown- she loves circuses! plus, the owo. how can i resist pointing it out. while i wouldn’t say she intentionally bothers others for the sake of comedy, it’s more like... a lot of her comedy can come off as annoying occasionally, just because it’s so clownlike,(who would’ve guessed, haha) which is such a niche art in my opinion. i think both of you are very energetic and extroverted, as well as friendly, but neither of you seem to get particularly attached to the people around you- at the least, satsuki doesn’t seem to express it. you both do seem extroverted and friendly, but i think that lack of attachment to people can make you seem insensitive or rude at times, as it’s a bit harder for satsuki to be personal and genuine with someone. i wouldn’t be surprised if you share that with her.

satsuki, being a clown, is definitely someone who i think would have a love for mischief- i kind of teeter totter between the headcanon that she can appreciate all kinds of performance and comedy, versus her being like... an entertainment purist that only sees clownery as the valid kind. but regardless, a lot of the circus aesthetic is based around mischief and playing with people’s perceptions, so she seems like she’d have a fondness for mischief too! satsuki also, just from her talking about her inferiority with her siblings, could be someone i see as having more roughness or rudeness thanks to that insecurity. that’s just a headcanon, as we don’t know too much of her past from my knowledge, but it doesn’t seem too unlikely. obviously, she’s a better person now/she always has been the person we see ingame, so we don’t know exactly. linuj feed us more satsuki info 2k20

from super danganronpa another 2, i match you with...

hibiki otonokoji!

hibiki and kotoko were really hard for me to pick from between these two, but as you can see, the former won out! hibiki Has The Gremlin EnergyTM, in my eyes, and she does use... the cursed owo. while i wouldn’t exactly say hibiki’s one for mischief, she does take on a form of that- her half-jokingly picking on people is what i’d consider to be this. some of these comments do come from malice, as she has her own insecurities that she hasn’t quite worked through yet. i definitely don’t blame her for having these, and if you relate to her i don’t blame you for having them, as there are several good reasons as to why she’s been held back. however, we see ingame that she does have a lot of potential to grow, like how you’ve talked about becoming a better person that’s less driven by just rudeness. in fact, she can become rather kind to other people- of course, her efforts and growth are cut off, but still...

hibiki does enjoy, at least at the beginning of the game, picking on people and bothering them. i’d say that this is for a mix of both her amusement, and as a defense mechanism. her sister has likely caused her trust issues, which makes it harder for her to really get close to people. after all, we see exactly this ingame. setsuka, and i suppose her sister, are really the only people that she’s able to trust at first, despite having a cheery and extroverted demeanor. i think that she does have a lot of potential to trust others and be open, but this potential tends to get stifled by her environment. also, finally, we don’t really know her thoughts on a lot of her hobbies/interests i don’t think? but like, birds sing, and she’s a vocalist. maybe there’s a connection there?

-

it’s time for minor matchups! however, i’ve specially noted hiyoko saionji for someone that you’d remind me of strongly in the past. otherwise, from danganronpa, you somewhat remind me of kotoko utsugi, genocider syo(not too much of toko), and miu iruma! and also, you remind me a tad of monaca towa. from the danganronpa another series, you remind me of setsuka chiebukuro!

gah,, i feel like that was really long haha. hopefully it was alright, though! please remember that you know best, anon, and that if you’d like anything in this post changed, please let me know! (also, requests are open again!)

-mod tsu

[terlezi-pyrope]

Alright I wrote a bit here on this last update and Homestuck in general. 

So, I don't like being so negative about Homestuck. I wanna be able to hope that this is going somewhere, and believe me, I do still think it is. BUT I guess I'm so uncomfortable because a lot of stuff that's coming up in the epilogues and now in Homestuck^2 is stuff that I thought we had moved away from? I'm not a long term Homestuck fan. I didn't get into this in my teens and then follow it until its end only to be disappointed by the new content now several years after Act 7. I spent a good five years trying to get through the first 5 acts of Homestuck and had to restart multiple times because the beginning KEPT putting me off so bad. The racism. The sexism. The repeated r slurs. The constant ableism. It made me go "THIS is what my friends are into? Sure these characters are likeable but how can I read something earnestly that's making me cringe on every other page?" And this was all when I thought I was a white, able bodied, person without a dissociative disorder (though I also thought I was bisexual and agender for much of that time, which were tied in with that ignored dissociative disorder). I'm still white, but literally all of those other things I know now to not be true. And the beginning of Homestuck makes me WAY more uncomfortable, now. But eventually I did persevere in reading it last year and I fell in love. I found these relatable, queer characters whose ultimate journey had a lot of flaws but that still connected with me. And somewhere along the way, that kind of thing became waaaay less prevalent and Homestuck became waaay more enjoyable. And then I finished Homestuck. And the Epilogues had just dropped so I jumped right into them. And I don't remember a LOT of them because the material made me ridiculously uncomfortable and caused me to dissociate quite a bit. And then I discovered my system and my OSDD. TAVRISPRITE, of all things, helped me discover I have OSDD-1b because it made me and my cohost examine why the feelings inherent in Tavrisprite were relatable as two consciousness fighting for control and unable to reconcile with one another, which led to us communicating better and seeking therapy. And then I saw the dissociative themes EVERYWHERE and the work became even MORE relatable. When Hussie made a comment about Karkat having what humans might diagnose as a dissociative disorder (and which kinda matches diagnostic criteria for OSDD-1a) we were over the moon that there was direct, word of God acknowledgement of themes we had seen since we discovered each other. And when HS^2 started, I was excited. I was hoping this would be a return to form, and a continuation of that relatability that I hadn't found in most other media. And in a lot of ways, it has been!! But the things that bothered me about the epilogue are a throughline into hs2 that are continuing to make me squirm and make it hard to read this work. I don't blame the hs2 writers for that. They've got to do the best to work with what they were given and with the outlines and stipulations of Hussie. But if I'm a little negative or upset or even (god forbid) unable to keep reading this as it goes forward, this kind of thing like was in the last update will be why, I'm sure. I don't want that to happen. I don't even think it will. But even if it gets better, it doesn't change that these things are kinda taking Homestuck back to a place that made it VERY hard for me to get into in the first place. Not so obliquely, mind, but enough so that it's noticeable and I'm definitely not the only one noticing it. And that's not even mentioning stuff like the Skaianet debacle which I wasn't even aware of until recently. Basically, I don't want to be so pessimistic about Homestuck. It's given me a LOT in this last year and I'm glad I read it. I've written more words in fanfiction in a year than I've written of my own original work in two years because I'm writing Homestuck fanfiction. We (my cohost and I) are helping make a whole fangame for God's sake. So, I'm not gonna stop reading. But I am gonna vent and I am gonna complain if something makes me upset or if it triggers my dissociation. This is a work that begs for criticism as much as for praise, and I love it so, SO dearly, which is why I have to make sure I communicate the parts that are a negative experience for me. I'm not going to pretend it's perfect, and I appreciate the fact that this community very rarely does. It's part of why I love being a part of it so much and have hyperfixated on this work for longer than I normally do for any one thing. Anyway, I'm essentially just rambling now but my point was when Homestuck's bad I'm not gonna act like it isn't. I love this story, and these characters, and this community, but I did not love where this last update is pointing certain aspects of the story. And that's okay

[latin-dr-robotnik]

Sonic and the Mayhem Master (Full Fix Update Part 1) - Personal thoughts!

So, if you have followed this blog for a while, you might have caught wind of a few things that I like, from music to series to videogames and, specially, Sonic fangames.

No, I’m not here to talk about Sonic ATS once again, but I’m going to talk about another very nice fangame I’ve been following for at least two years (my Spanish blog had more info about it though): Sonic and the Mayhem Master.

The last time I reported on this project was during my SAGE 2019 coverage, which... didn’t set the world on fire, let’s put it that way. There were two main demos back then, and after that, we recently got more updates from author Trinitroid. The “Full Fix Update” as he calls it’s the latest show of progress, but it’s currently split in two parts, with part two yet to be released as we speak.

What’s in store for the Full Fix Update? Well, a lot, actually.

First of all, Trinitroid claims around 70% of the old bugs have been squashed, and I can confirm that stuff like UI scaling (present on all previous demos) are no longer a problem to me. Other stuff, like deaths bugging the game progress are still an issue, but the author is aware, and I do believe there’s more to love about this update past technical issues. Let’s also remember that this is still a heavy WIP, and even the first text screen when you boot up the game tells you about how this is more of a “playtesting demo”.

The biggest thing about this update is the content available to play through. You can now explore a longer part of the first chapter of the game, “Lamp of the Deadly Mist”, while also tinker around with the basic gameplay systems in place, something that the author says he wants to focus on first, before continuing with the story and his more ambicious ideas. I did explain some of the basic ideas behind the plotline on my last report about the game, so I’ll assume you know at least what’s going on and why Sonic and Amy look and feel so different to their canon counterparts.

The first part of the Full Fix Update lets us play through the first part (lmao) of Sonic and Detective Amy’s first assignment on the city’s power plant, meeting some different robots (some friendly and others not so much) along the way, and even interacting with different parts of the environment that give some nice additional text and some funny comments like this one. I always enjoyed this new steampunk-Sonic universe Trinitroid is creating, and the different exchanges along the way are still a highlight of the project. Amy is such a savage in this game, lol.

Like what you’ve come to expect of a RPG, this game’s dialog has a good amount of charm and, should you choose to interact with most stuff along the way, can give you a healthy amount of backstory and development. There is a part where the story kinda breaks up and picks up again in a fourth wall breaking “Sorry I haven’t finished this section yet” dev message, yet it’s done in such a fun way it works very well this early in the dev process.

Also, many, many references. Won’t spoil you on them, but there are some pretty cool references sparked here and there.

How does it play, though?

As with each demo, the author keeps on improving the basic gameplay systems that will power the entire adventure. This is a RPG game... with a twist. Instead of passively taking on turns and carefully thinking about each step, Mayhem Master takes a more active approach, as you have you keep dodging the enemy’s attacks and building your MP meter for a few seconds, until they overheat and you have a small window to decide: do you spent your MP points attacking the enemy? Do you heal yourself? Do you decide to power yourself up with a random permanent boost? Do you skip your turn (granting you a MP boost for the next turn)? Or do you simply roll the dice hoping to land on a 50-50 change to flee from battle? You only have so much time to think before your turn is over, and the game will ask you to multitask as you make quick reactions. Even though I kinda miss the old, card deck based battle system, the current one works a lot better in terms of creativity and possibilities, according to the author. 

I need to also add that the difficulty curve isn’t yet in place as of this update, and it’s something that Trinitroid fully acknowledges, so things can take a while to get used to, and difficulty spikes will happen to you as you play. Still, I do think this approach to combat could make it a very big selling point, should Trinitroid’s wishes to make this a different indie game out of this in the future come to fruition. So far we have only seen a very small enemy selection, but every single one of them has their own battle quirks, and some of them can get wacky very fast, so don’t underestimate them. The only thing they lack is maybe to make some comments in-fight, but I don’t think that’s a priority, and it could potentially distract you from the actual battle. Just sayin’.

So, that’s where things stand right now. I started covering this game around two years ago, and I'm rather happy to see it still coming along, no matter how fast or slow updates may come. Back in 2018, I remember pointing out the unique art style and premise of this game, and the fact it took the RPG route, as I was going through a “Hey, we need more Sonic RPG games” phase. As the second part of the Full Fix Update looms on the horizon, I’ll start to pick up my coverage efforts, because I really like what I’m seeing and I want more people to talk about it. Who knows, we may be on the brink of something special, be it for a Sonic fangame or for a future indie title.

So, give this one a shot, be wary of technical issues along the way, and maybe we can talk more about it, what do you say?

[sirwolficus]

How dare you state you have a Sam and Max game idea and not share it? Please what is it? im very curious 👀

well buckle in fellas because its a long ride! i’ll put everything under the cut but heres a tl;dr picture before we get into it

well the picture says a lot; a common sam and max adventure in which they ensue a villain with a very powerful arsenal and not everything is fully explained or is even addressed within the plot.

its not 100% thought out, as most of my ideas are. but basically it starts out with mister commissioner giving our favourite two detectives a new mission; some woman has been kidnapped by an uber-crazy mother fucker and its the type of case that’s perfect for the boys!

and with every sam and max game, there is a bosco (well, there was one in hit the road and OBVIOUSLY one in the telltale games. i love that guy!) there is also an npc ally that’s sort of a mix between momma bosco from the telltale games and the geek from the show. no name yet but a sketch. actually, here’s a sketch below;

on the left, bosco; an absolute nutcase that hides his identity so that no one can tie his various illegal activities back to him.

middle is the smarty-pants; undertiminable age and gender. super smart and hasnt slept in many, many days. are those eyelashes or eyebags? no one will know!

and on the right, the originally kidnapped woman– which brings me to continue…

after some whacky hijinks of finding clues and talking to other people, you eventually track her down: tied up against a wall in a cell, with her own psychic power being drained from her as max and sam do who fucking knows what! once freed, it’s revealed she is a part of a long-lost civilization that has been in hiding for decades. they are the gatekeepers of the universe; in charge of keeping everything in line and in order. everything about them is very much kept under wraps– the knowledge that a small group of people are basically in control of all of space can very much bring alot of unwanted attention to them.

while trying to get her out to the safety of sewer tunnels that reek of shit, the main villainess of the game is shown. she’s the one who’s kidnapped the woman, and apparently doesn’t go down easy. she manages to slip away at the last moment, much to the anger of the kidnapped woman. apparently, they’ve tangled before– not face to face. with her pulling the strings in the shadows while growing despise for our two favourite freelance detectives.

however, the case isn’t solved. their perp is still on the loose, and sam and max aren’t basic bitches, yall! with the help of a new ally, they hit the road (reference intended)! smart fucker ally does some shit and gets them a new lead, with psychic now-not-kidnapped woman giving them tips and tricks.

everything seems to be going well until they actually seem to get to the height of the case; the confrontation. the villainess is a stone cold fucking bitch. sam and max enter the confrontation scene, ally(ies? undecided) waiting in hiding for if backup is needed. they come up on the other hostages and when sam goes to rescue, whoops, its actually a trap. he gets shocked (same voltage as a shock collar i’d think?) and whoops! dead hostages. yikes. 

“the only one i need is her!” villainess shouts while entrapping ally lady who has psychic powers because im a bitch.

she monologues to the two fucking furries about how much she fucking hates them. like a little bitch. GOD i want to marry her.

now, there is one fact about the freelance police i love: they are always together. villains never try to separate them, it’s always sam & max, never just sam. or max. and i love that. we’ve all seen what happens when they do get separated as well. sam turns edgy and desperate. max tears apart time and space just to get to his partner.

but what if a villain tried actually tried to separate them? to really try and make them suffer the one way they know how– creating their worst nightmare in real life.

so, our unnamed villainess because im on the creative thin line right now, uses our psychic ally to tear apart a hole in the fabric of reality and creates chaos throughout all of existence. and, well… you can see what happens.

enter our two main alternate detectives.

throughout the hub-bub of reality being torn apart, our four detectives are mixed up;

our max is stuck with another sam, and our sam is stuck with another max. throughout trying to track down our villain.

you get to jump through different worlds as comedy ensues. you can play as either sam OR max– thats right you can play as the fucking lagomorph psycho.

there are two different roads you can take to track down our villainess, with sam going down the much more clue-filled path where you have to be clever. max, however, goes down the violently-interrogating-everyone path. unsurprising.

sam and max both meet our villainess at around the same time. now since it’s dimension hopping, there’s… obviously gonna be more than one villain. now we’ve already established she isn’t above murdering people.

sam is a calm person. at this point in the game he’s pretty much figured out this max is not his max. he’ll come in and try to arrest her, and by arrest i mean letting max decimate her before turning her in and surprisingly not getting arrested for police brutality. basically the same thing happens with our max as well but much more violently. and, well…

she points the gun at sam. she threatens to kill him in a gruesome fashion. she hates him more than she does max.

here is a picture of what i think their office would look like to break up the chunks of text. this isnt a fucking fanfic. actually it sort of is but fuck it

for our sam, other max is extra.. protective. and trigger happy. so he tries to jump her. and, well, she isn’t dumb. max kind of.. gets shot in the face. yeah. im an angsty angsty motherfucker.

for our max, is almost the same. max gets ready to jump at her, and as she moves to shoot max and max moves to try and rip off as many of her limbs at once, sam moves to cover his little buddy. and, uh, well im predictable.

so… watching their best buddy (or atleast another version of them) getting murdered right in front of your face without being able to do anything about it? that shit messes you up.

villainess would probably make a quip about the situation before disappearing, throwing our sam and max to rot in a timeless void of a pocket dimension. enter cutscene.

now, throwback..! remember new bosco and the smart ass person? smart ass is a smart ass for a reason. bosco is fucking insane and surprisingly his theory on space physics rings true.

they open up a hole for sam and max to jump back in through. they are still separated at this point. now max is trying to track down villainess and try and restore all of space. oh! i should have mentioned. the rupture in dimensional travel and space is kind of destroying everything. anyway, max is now tearing through space in a fucked desoto trying to find the villainess and definitely trying to murder her. sam, being all of max’s moral compass and control, is now (in his mind) dead and he needs revenge. now while sam is tracking him (trying to find his own max! d’aw) they’re doing more bad than good to the fragile lifeforce of space. psychic ally astral projects and tells them both that they’re fuckin up and making a mistake. max tries to shoot her. sam pleas. shes strugglin to even speak with them but she’ll do her best.

badabing badaboom, max drives through a wall and finds villainess’ headquarters. sam quickly catches up and is like !!!! little buddy!!!! boom boom fight or whatever the fuck. heartfelt reunion! people are saved. but how will they fixed the fractured existence of the universe? bang scavenger hunt (im not sorry i fucking love searching for shit in games i dont know why) so that allies can make cool thing and fix universe.

boom. everything fixed. villain is like dead probably. thats my game idea i hope its not dumb

lemme know what yall think. i cant think of any cool name other than “Sam & Max; Freelance Police (The FanGame)”

i desperately want new sam and max content in this day and age.

[yuki-yozora]

Variables - fanfic ( Underswap Papyrus x Reader ) (Chapter One)

 : !!:  Author's notes ◌ °: !!:

﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎

Hello darlings! ‧ ₊ ° “

If you don't want read the note, please, roll this part.

As I mentioned in the prologue, it's my first time doing an underswap fic, so I'd like your opinion. ˚ ˚ *

I'm doing it the way I think it would be Au if it was complete as well as the fangame, but that doesn't mean I'm 100% following its original forms. ‧ ₊ ° “

That said, I will do my best to stay faithful and make writing interesting and fun. *

The cover image was edited by me, I know it's not the best, but I tried. ° ⸼ ⊹

If I get the link or names of those who created the images I will make available. °

Remembering that I have profiles in tree communities of Undertale in pt br, if you see an Vivinare, something ( skeleton, boned or skelly) with the same post, it's me, don't be scared. ˚ ˚ *

· · ✦ · · · · · · · 1 Notices · · · · · ✦ · · · · · · ·

Fic will follow many of its original creator's ideas with some interpretations and theories of mine. Here's the link about the creator: Popcorn (His profile no longer exists, he made another and left Au, she belongs to fandom, basically)

CENSOR:

Not for fragile hearts.

CONTAINS

(in general): violence, bullying, subliminal jokes, slight depression.

GENRE:

Adventure, Drama, Comedy, Thriller & Romance

˚ ˚ * In this fanfic ⁺ ˚. *

1 Chara is a boy;

2 Has original characters.

˚ ˚ * This chapter presents ⁺ ˚. *

1 slight violence;

2 Citation to depression;

3 drama.

Attention:

Big chapter ahead.

﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎ ﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍﹎﹍ A year has passed… No news ... No trail ... not even false leads. (That fill us with hope just to take care of us.)

We.

I haven't used those words in so many days when referring to my life. Just one in the back, my brother was kidnapped. Chara was taken from me and taken where no one can find him. Your friends' parents shout accusations, as if I could hurt a single hair on your head:

"- It was certainly the oldest. After all, it's not the first death of the family. -"

Heh. People can be cruel.

We were four. He, the only boy and middle brother, only ten years old. The other oldest, Bianca, and the youngest, Daisy, were murdered by someone we trusted. Bianca's boyfriend, Elric, was on the Wizards Order. And to be accepted, the fire had to be fed with a precious commodity. He spent years fooling us into doing this… so that I could do that to him… That was two years ago. I tried to overcome my sadness, Elric was already under arrest, there was a Chara to be comforted. Gradually, our somewhat lonely new routine took shape. He made good friends who didn't judge him as many citizens: relatives of the children killed by the weirdo. Affectionate surname. We finally started to straighten up ... Until one day a couple broke into the house, terrified Doug, Chara's best friend, while frantically attacking me and the other taking my brother out of me in the blink of an eye. Despite my success in containing who attacked us, the other simply disappeared without a trace ...

It was like magic.

The search began in a human pursuit. All in vain. Police dropped the case in the fourth month, new ones were emerging. And there's no way to blame them for that (in a small, old town near the mountains, Ebottown had its high dose of violence.) The neighborhood avoided me as if infected with the plague and made a point of emphasizing how much I was despised. Escape, death. I thought of all this. But the spark of hope that he could come back kept me from leaving. And for that, I tolerate. All the antagonistic attitude of the neighborhood took me from my daily work. It just wasn't working, and my colleagues got angry every time my presence disturbed their eyes. To ensure basic survival, I accepted the night job offered by Luka, (The intimidating woman, the neighbor of the front house. Tall and powerful, with flawless black skin. Wearing her full hair or brightly colored turban, but there was always a vibrant purple, almost neon. His style of clothing was almost Gothic, spiders reminded me, for a strange reason.). The job was in a very elegant night bar serving colorful drinks and a space for parties or 'dances'. All the darkness and the bright alcohol made it difficult for people to recognize me, and anyone who dared to bother me was quickly arrested by the other bartenders or Luka, who was responsible for security. Strange to say that I felt more comfortable there than in my own home… loneliness ails me. Like now, a rainy day, with strong winds. Typical of the city. Interestingly on my day off. No strolling around, (Y/N).

* The rain outside is cold as your feelings and you know you don't deserve it.

A sigh and a roll of his eyes. I was annoyed myself. This whole situation, as if childhood turbulence was no longer enough, made the most frequent episodes of self-deprecation. Now it wasn't just my huge thighs or scars until I said enough. Or having tires in place of a perfect waist, or my abdomen getting easily swollen. No ... That's what I said, how I said it, how I breathed ... I probably needed help:

* But no one will come ...

I got. Luka was a good person, but I couldn't pour that much on her… I'm not worth it. With a flick of my tongue, I got up from the flowered carpet, centered in a bedroom entrance. I just went in there to clean, other than that, I watched the empty beds by the entrance, in silence. I closed the door carefully, looking back out of habit before going to the bathroom. A few gray floors peeled off the wall (cheap workmanship), the sink still full, but there were leaks in the pipe, the toilet was so bad it clogged up with the urine flush, the boxing was tiny, as if someone was trapping you in the closet while bathing you in cold water. Yes, the shower burned. At least I still have cute cabinets and a mirror….

Ah…

I looked into the mirror.

* After all, it's still you.

Long, curly hair, very messy and (h/c), with all the broken hair floating around (better known as fritz and he was too thin to be soft), reddish brown eyes (which weren't as red as Chara's) were probably the only things I liked about myself. Then we have my skin (s/c) very pale due to lack of sun exposure, random acne spreading, not in excess but bothering, deep dark circles, decorated with today's tear marks. A humorless laugh escaped my lips, his hand moving almost on its own, turning on the tap, rubbing the water over his face carefully. This is kind of dangerous, being alone with my sad thoughts.

" Finally. " I sighed, wiping my face on the nearest towel, hands then, as a painful smile crossed my face. " I have that." I tapped my side pocket of shorts where a deck of cards accompanied me everywhere.

It was like an extra part of me since Luka gave it to me, along with three other never-missing items: the black lipstick that Bianca wore when she came out with us, always in a pocket, the yellow ribbon of Daisy's hair on my head. her hair may look like a rattlesnake's nest, but she was always there.) and the weird book of basic flirtations that featured Chara as a pun and that he liked more than necessary (though small, no longer fit into pockets, so the his usual place next to my hip, between underwear and skin.)

I took advantage and wet my hair a little, as if he wasn't coming back to it later. Finishing up and getting some of the apparent melancholy from my face, I managed a hesitant smile at my reflection, but it returned to the cold look when something seemed to burst in the distance and the light went out. A blackout… when all I have to eat is frozen spaghetti and I'm out of gas.

So ... so ... perfect.

Worthy of a rainy day, which seemed to get stronger by the moment. Making a loud, unfamiliar sound, I emerged from the bathroom downstairs, using instincts to move without breaking anything. A kind of mind map danced in my mind, the matches in the cutlery and candles in the open closet seemed to light up like object-hunting games. I lit three candles that had already been used, then looked at the plate of food waiting to be warmed. Shaking my head gently, I put it in the fridge, even though it had no light to keep it intact, and pulled a jar of yogurt in place. This will be my dinner. Sitting at the round table with a prepared spoon, I began setting up the cards to play solitaire when I heard another noise. Much closer than the last. Slowly I took the cards from the table and stuffed them in my pocket, frowning.

A bang ... Coming from the room. Walking carefully, I approached, looking slowly out the door. My coffee table was split in half, the iron baseball bat stuck in the wood seemed to be the murder weapon. That stick was from Luka ...

More noise came from upstairs, my door still seemed to be closed. A kind of cold rose in my veins. This was strangely familiar. I looked around the room before going to the club and pulling it carefully.

* The Metal gave you a shiver of premonition.

I climbed the stairs, knowing exactly where to step so as not to make noise, but when I reached the top floor, I relaxed. The noise ceased. All doors remained closed, my room being the only exception. I peered through the door and, as I thought, he fled, as he had a year ago. The room was ruined, as if it had been a break-in party. The bed broke, the mattress was torn, as were my papers and the wardrobe on the floor, some scattered clothes, a strange substance staining the rug and writing on the wall: - You know where to find me. - My camping backpack, which I used during the research, and a book on the history of the city were in the center of the room. The open book, an image of Mount Ebott circulated there.

"... All right, all right. "

I grabbed the backpack and the book, going down and putting on my neon blue wellies before leaving. I looked at Luka's house and the staff in hand, then ran, just pushing open the door. I didn't have to walk much, she was in the middle of the room, which had several broken things. Concerned, I knelt beside her, almost panicked, but relieved when I saw her breathing. I used your phone to call the police, but decided not to wait. Finally, I have a clue. A chance to catch him. I needed to do this. I laid her on the couch and left a small note, leaving before I changed my mind.

* You are full of justice.

It was night when I started to cross the forest. The rain persisted above, making the cold run down my back. Sharp branches and thorns scraped my skin and ripped my clothes, but now I barely cared. I needed to continue. It wasn't long before I reached the clearing in front of the mountain, the place that started it all. Immaculate gray dust lay where the eternal fire lay. Not washed by rain, not carried by wind. Right there, waiting. I wiped something hot from my face and turned, the cock getting colder against my skin.

* You need to move on.

Gradually, I felt scratches burning, but I made sure they wouldn't be long enough to stop bleeding. As expected, climbing was not an easy task. The soaked, sloping ground was almost a waterfall of mud that made me slip and lose my balance as I stepped on the loose rocks. My hair, my legs, my clothes had mud on everything. I dropped to my knees as I reached one of the peaks, breathing hard as I looked into the dark cavern not far away. Lightning roused me from the trance I entered, so I started to get up, feeling someone watching me.

- It is not bad. -

With one hard blow, I tried to hit him behind me, a whistling noise was all I could get. My muscles tensed automatically with the evil laugh. " Not bad. " He sneered behind me again, his dark red cloak flapping violently in the wind, mocking his hands saluting me.

" What you want? " I growled. He started to laugh, part of his mouth visible, a large scar on the left side of his face, lips and chin. " Foolish child. You have no idea what you did when you attacked that wizard, do you? Knights are so ignorant. " He shook his head, like I was a lost cause. A gold stick with a ruby top appeared in his left hand. " So we agreed that you should be eradicated, like monsters. But you multiply like rabbits." His voice was thoughtful. " Anyway, it's trivial in our day ... But, how you attacked us ... A massacre is inevitable! " Another laugh followed.

* You have no idea what he is talking about, but decide to face him anyway.

" Does not matter. " I took a deep breath, making a decision. "I don't want to know your motives now." I watched the ruby light up with its magic. " Still ... You must be punished. "

With a speed I didn't know, I advanced and hit the club in his ribs, pushing it aside and giving him a breathlessness. A sigh of pain was all I heard before something moved away from him and fell to the muddy ground. I felt discomfort in my chest and arm, but got up without difficulty. Once again, I set off to attack, but dodging a red sphere he threw. It surprised me and the rodeo was not so successful, it scraped my arm and burned my skin. Others came and it was hard to get rid of them, the mud at my feet making me slip all the time. Adrenaline took over my body and I felt even faster, confident, almost enjoying fighting, the steady pace: side, side, spin, jump, run, roll, attack, lose. It wasn't long before I hit his face, an uncomfortable, muffled sound sounded around us, something that looked like a tooth flew away from him. He withdrew closer to the cave, making me follow him cautiously. That smile sent mixed emotions in my core. Suddenly, many spheres formed and advanced against me at high speed, barely leaving room for evasion. One of them hit me in the belly and the pain I felt was masked by the lack of mobility. No matter how much I moved, I couldn't leave the place.

" Finally. " He hardly seemed to have such a hoarse voice that he seemed. " You slippery trash. " He approached, holding his stomach, sweat mixed with rain, some blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. " Now. " He gripped my face tightly, the team being torn from me and thrown into some dark corner. " Come . " My body began to float, following it to the cave. " Com'on, not look at me like that. I'll tell you a secret. " He laughed. It wasn't too deep, there were flowers scattered all over the floor, all golden flowers, I think, a smaller hole in the ceiling where the rain fell and a larger, very dark hole in the floor. On the walls, several inlaid crystals gave the lighting a mystical feel. Suddenly I was hurled, slipping on the floor and ruining some flowers, stopping right at the edge of the hole. Barely able to move, I lifted my face to face him. I was completely defenseless. There was a macabre smile on his face, his now visible eyes glowing with blood red. "Your brother is just waiting." He whispered. " Go get him. -" And a kick threw me in my death. Soon, only darkness painted my world.

*It's the end.

· · · · · · · · · · · · · End notes

My english is very beginner, so i'm using the help of google translator. If anyone with available time can help me review, I appreciate it. (Y/N) - your name (h/c) - hair color (s/c) - skin color More legends will be added in the future! Word Count: About 2,880 If i use any images similar to the game can be found on the Gamejolt website. They do not belong to me.

[elegiacmarquise]

The Legend of Zelda: Stone of Paths: Main Characters and Introduction

Here we are the designs of the Link and Zelda from the concept of a fangame I’m creating: Stone of Paths, which it could be considered as a prequel of BOTW. Before I start, however, I do want to thank my friend g0thi-cr0c, who patiently helped me with the translation of the first messy draft: thank thank you a lot!

I’m really really sorry, true Zelda fans, if this AU is kinda inconsistent with canon: despite I tried to inform myself as best I can do, I’m aware there are something I’ve might be missed; therefore if you notice some continuity or even logical errors, tell me! As you may notice in the next lines, the following are the basics of the games: so I didn’t deepened some parts of the story nor the character, and if I can get some help from some enthusiasts, I can be more than happy! So criticism is more than accepted! Short Version (also known as tl;dr): Setted 10.500 years before BOTW main events, the quest of this incarnation of Link is to defeat a Ganon which split itself into the three (plus two after an event) timelines which started from Ocarina of Time. Starting from the northern of the Akkala Region during the Child Timeline, the Hero of Paths (initially a simple forester) will be helped by Cice, a fairy sent by Zelda to call Link, Tiusha, the daughter of the Gerudo Matriarch and Nanas, a Sheikah who discovered and passed a part of his life to study and develop the Sheikah Slate and its correlations with the Guide Stones. He will give Link the fruit of his studies in order to travel to other timelines. Even the Princess herself will help the hero, albeit her distant relationship with him: initially emotionally afflicted by a tragedy happened in the game’s beginning, she will slowly be aware of herself and unlocking Hylia’s powers. In the final dungeons her presence will be fundamental! ———————————————— Link, the Hero of Paths: the main protagonist of this game; he lives with his horse Epona in the village of Redleaf, northern Akkala: a zone particularly liked by wayfarers for its peculiar position between mountains and seaside. His job is to be a forester but often he helps his fellow villagers in their everyday duties. Gifted by a very good sense of orientation and sword skills, Link is already celebrated in his homeland, mostly for bravely protecting it by the countless monsters who usually scare the wayfarers during their wander. His adventure starts in the beginning of Autumn: the entire village of Redleaf was preparing to host the yearly Fall Festival, and since it was the period of the year which traditionally attracted most tourists, Link overworked himself to make surd the festival was going as best it could be. In the day the festival begun, a mysterious, horrific, creature suddenly appeared in the town nearly destroying it, causing both the tourists and the locals to run away. As soon as he could, Link took his wooden sword and fought the monster but was unexpectedly hit hard by the beast, leaving him nearly dead. In his uncertain state, he heard a muffled voice which tried desperately to tell him something he couldn’t distinguish. That voice vanished just after. Soon after, he was woken up by Cice, a little Fairy who took care of him. After the fairy presented herself as to be sent by Princess Zelda, who desperately tried to send him help with her weak telepathic powers. The magic being begged Link’s help in order to save Hyrule from the return of Ganon and his fellow army, promising him the safety of the village as well: when the forester accepted, Cice hurried Link and Epona to go to the Kokiri Forest, where the Master Sword was protected  and to defeat Ganon as soon as possible. In the woods, despite the Deku Tree and the Sword’s spirit agreed for the Hero to extract it, they both weren’t as sure as they were with the other Links: despite their awareness of the heroic nature of the Akkalan forester, they still had the sensation he was too weak to defeat this force, but didn’t know what exactly led them to these thoughts. They felt this incarnation of Ganon was really different, almost as he came from another world but at the same time they couldn’t prove it, so they preferred remaining quiet. With a new sword in the sheath, the hero ran towards Hyrule Castle, where he met Zelda for the first time a little before trying to defeat Ganon. Despite the weakness of her powers,Zelda still cared about his arrive, to the point to give him some of the best weapons in the castle. She also made her mother bless him, despite the queen being deeply worried about the lack of her daughter’s actual powers. But when Link managed to defeat the beast and everything was about to be restored into their original form, a dark force revived Ganon, allowing him to be even more powerful than he used to be; it destroyed the already corrupted castle, killing almost everyone who lived there at the sole impact, including the Queen of Hyrule. In the tragedy, during the escape from a falling castle, the Hero accidentally lost the Master Sword, but at the same time found the barely surviving body of Princess Zelda. Cice ordered the swordman to escort her to Kakariko Village, the birthace of her old nurse Impa; she the only surviving person who could cure her. After a troubled travel, they arrived to the village: surprisingly, Impa was already aware and prepared of their visit, having been advised by the late spirit of Zelda’s mother in dream. Without anything else to do, and shocked by the dispersion of his beloved villagers and failure of his heroic duties, the swordsman was requested by Impa to met Nanas, a Sheikah scientist. A former ambulant shopkeeper, he’s known for leaving behind his former life to do researches about a miraculous Stone (which will be called the Sheikah Stone terminal in BOTW). This stone can memorize some new information which can also be manipulated into runes; they afflict the surrounding world with the connection of a smaller rudimentary tablet made with an extremely rare material (also known as a first version of the Sheikah Slate we’ll see in BOTW). As Link first stepped into Nanas’ home, the stone glowed in a light Nanas didn’t ever see before, and automatically installed an unusual  rune the scientist remembered not programming: when activated, Link could see passages otherwise invisible which could lead him directly to the monsters Ganon sent through all Hyrule. The first passage he found brought, in spite of himself, to the first beast he met in a deserted Redleaf village. After finally destroying it,Link could open another secret passage which led him… in the same place. But something at the same time seemed to have changed: some of the buildings, or new faces which couldn’t recognize Link at all. As the hero remembered, they were preparing themselves to host a festivity; however, when asked about the Fall Festival, the people looked at him strangely and replied they actually were excited about the upcoming visit of King Horatio Casimir Hyrule. Between the greeting crowd, the King recognised Link instantly, deeply surprising the hero: as the King would tell him in a second moment, the true reason he visited such a far village was a Prophecy that has been handed down for centuries. It told a green dressed Hero would come from another Hyrule’s Land of Autumn at the time in which a single Princess Zelda existed in all the three timelines and introduced the Fallen Timeline. Unlike the other two parallel Hyrules, the people living in this one were generally aware of not being the only one. Added to the fact the King didn’t have a distinctive legacy since the premature death of his wife, he became slowly worried about the right time for the prophecy to happen, so he decided to go against the court’s will, both relieved and even more worried to be right about his encounter. In fact, both Link and Ganon would have to come at the same time; in order to prevent a total destruction in his land, the King explicitly asked Link to bring him the Zelda from his dimension, defeat Ganon and finally reunite both the timelines he was in, along with the third one. Therefore, after hearing the King’s request, Link and Cice went back to the Kakariko village in his world and told Impa, Zelda and Nanas about the three Hyrule timelines; they started their main quest, in order to find the Master Sword again and rebuild Link’s native village. Princess Zelda Telene Hyrule: the Princess of Hyrule and first female born in the Royal Family of Hyrule after 100 years, therefore a descendant of Hylia. For this reason, added to the possibility of an incoming menace, her concerned parents took the drastic decision to rarely let the Princess go out of the castle; this norm had become harsher after the premature death of her father when she was still a child. The Queen of Hyrule, who wanted to show the daughter the variety of the reign’s population and tey to make feel Zelda less alone, decided to bring in her castle some exponents of every Hyrulean race; and the child became particularly close with the Fairy Cice. Aside of her isolation, she spent a rather peaceful childhood. While she was already prepared to act as a proper princess and was raised in a peaceful period, Zelda was still worried about her future both as a queen and as a descendant of Hylia, fearing to disappoint her loving yet severe mother. Even at the beginning of her eighteenth year of life she couldn’t do anything aside from a weak power of telepathic speech she gained when she was a toddler. In an apparently normal day of her life, an huge malevolent entity possessed her castle, imprisoning almost everyone in it: the Hyrule army tried to defend from the beast but were mortally defeated. While the Queen and her daughter tried to think about a solution, Zelda decided to send a telepathic help appeal to everyone in the kingdom which only a comatose Link received. With both hope in her heart and worry about his safety, she asked Cice , the smallest being in her castle, therefore the most likely to pass unnoticed to Ganon, to reach for the hero and to cure him with a mixture of a medicine she prepared herself and the fairy’s own healing powers. She couldn’t do anything but revolving her prayers to the Goddess Hylia and searching for the best weapons in the castle, in order to give Link the best aid she could offer. Usually described as calm, imaginative and compassionate, this Zelda often shows the tendency to be overly obsessed by negative thoughts and guilt feelings, especially after almost her entire court was killed by Ganon. Despite her first encounter with Link in the castle was hopeful, she will close herself after the accident and feel useless to have not helped enough to avoid that tragedy. Spending most of her day in her room, she often asked herself the reasons she was gifted by such a weak power and why she wasn’t as powerful as her ancestors, trying to give herself an answer she couldn’t completely satisfy. She saw Link’s presence as the concrete incarnation of her own failures  to her duties as both a Princess and a descendant of Hylia; therefore,when he came back to Kakariko Village from his interdimensional travel, she preferred avoided directly talking to him, preferring being mediated by Impa instead. However, she was aware about the vicious circle which her behaviour could to her and the few people she could trust, so she took the wise yet difficult choice to restart a temporary new life and get used to the simple village life. Despite she was still emotionally overwhelmed by her beloved mother’s grief, she was strong enough to become Nanas’ assistant; while she offered him to do some smaller works for him, she slowly became fascinated by his researches. She also befriended Tiusha, a cheerful Gerudo girl who kept staying in Kakariko village after finding her ideal voe in Nanas. Despite her firstly avoiding behaviour, Zelda became progressively closer to Link as well: she was deeply displeased about the lack of help she offered him, but eventually apologized to Link in tears and was happily forgiven, keeping evolving herself further. Positively influenced by both Nanas’ brilliant mind and constant effort in what he does, by Tiusha’s optimistic yet powerful behaviour and by Link’s selflessness and courage, she slowly became more free by her negative thoughts and influence of her mother visiting the lands around Kakariko village for some research requested by Nanas. In order to travel safely and to reassure a worried Impa about her wellbeing as both a surrogate child and as a Princess, Zelda also restarted practicing archery and learnt some sword basics. However, the moment Zelda will remember the most was when another emotional crisis came: the sudden miss of her mother’s love and role model rapidly interrupted her slowly healing process. This time, however, something changed; her heart was instilled with her first wish, a spark of hope in her previously pessimistic mind-set: to visit the Spring of Power, the Spring of Courage and, lastly, the Spring of Wisdom. She was insecure about her mastery with the weapons, so she asked Link, who already had to go there in order to find the Master Sword, if he could escort her. When the green dressed hero accepted, they prepared themselves and left the village despite Nanas, Cice and Impa’s doubts. Acting as the third and last guide in the game, after Cice and Tiusha, her bond with Link intensified to the point of revealing him her past and her feelings when the swordsman escorted her and protected her from the monsters. When they arrived to the Spring of Power and defeated Ganon together, Zelda started to slowly regain Hylia’s powers, fully obtaining them as she arrived to the Spring of Wisdom. As she would tell Link and Cice, when she prayed at each Spring, she internally reached up a state of ecstasy and felt surrounded by a comforting light Link would only catch a small grasp of; she also heard the reassuring words of her mother, who told her she was proud of her progress and that she would be a great Queen to Hyrule . Lastly she saw a beautiful and mysterious woman who kissed her right hand without saying anything. Back in her world, a Triforce jewel in her gown appeared. She felt for the first time in full peace with herself, as she felt her telepathy power improving and other abilities unlocking. As she progressively gained her powers, her help was crucial during in the resolution of the last few dungeons, and her intervention (as King Horatio hoped) was crucial to reunite each Hyrule into an united big reign. Along with Tiusha, Cice and Nanas’ technology,she participated in the final battle with a dimension-merged Ganon, the most dangerous Hyrule ever witnessed; her godly abilities,united with Link’s skills and Master Sword (merged from the three dimensions by Hyrule’s unification) managed to defeat and seal it.   This incarnation of the dimension-merged Ganon, however, lasted for 500 years until it became more intelligent and powerful: its freeing became the Calamity Ganon whose legend was narrated in Breath of the Wild. At the end of the adventure, despite facing up a first politically difficult period, Zelda was crowned as Hyrule’s Queen and her wisdom and diplomacy were loved by her subjects; it’s hinted in the game’s credits she visited the Redleaf village to speak again with a Link who implicitly accepted to marry her. Their children’s progenie after 10.500 years will give the birth to King Rhoam,and then to the Zelda of Breath of the Wild. Nanas’ discoveries and research, already known and developed by a small elite of Sheikah people Link would meet into his journey, were made famous by Zelda’s narration of the events: even more people were interested in his technology and his very first uses of the terminals and the Sheikah tablet, to the point they developed them for more uses, just as the future Sheikah Towers and Shrines. King Horatius from the Fallen Timeline abdicated the throne in favour of the owner of the Triforce and willingly dedicated himself to help the now Queen Zelda as her political adviser. Thanks to their resourceful knowledge about politics, as well as Hyrule’s cultures and timelines, their governing guidelines were useful to keep the Reign in peace for 500 years. Thank you a lot for reading! I hope you’ll like it:3

So… I happened to be more into Zelda.

After my initial skepticism due to its high praise from both critique and pubblic, I finally brought Breath of the wild, which it’s revealed to be the best decision I did in a while: I loved that post-apocalyptic setting, that ruins, the charm of villages and characters blended with a fun gameplay and the fitting music! *v*

I also loved the characters and the sparse storytelling, and even the Zelda herself, to which I never really was a fan due to her kinda aggressive behavior and unfitting character design, she has still a lot of interesting and relatable parts! I especially like how she struggles to do her duties and her difficult relationship with her father. I didn’t like however, how fastly and suddenly she got her powers.

I’m looking forward to buy even more game from this saga, despite I still like Mario and Pikmin better, maybe starting from Skyward Sword, which has such an intriguing plot.

[outofoxygen]

An Critical Analysis of HOME

“I’m mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.” -Space Funeral; derived from Network

HOME is an OFF fangame made by Felix, may his soul rest in peace. His work is one of the most well-known OFF fangames, and is generally one of the most well-loved. I don’t like it, at all. So I shall eviscerate it. (Oh, and I spelt CONFINIUM wrong.)

Part One: Characters

The first character I shall start with is the Judge. Now, the Judge is one of the most well-loved characters in OFF, for good reason. He is witty, intelligent, enigmatic, mysterious, and knowledgeable. He’s altogether one of the best characters in OFF. However, he makes for a poor protagonist. How?                   Well, the main the problem with having the Judge as a protagonist is that one of his main attractive features is his enigmatic and mysterious behaviors, which are enabled mainly by his knowledge and intelligence. Whilst you can write the Judge as a intelligent protagonist, the main problem with making him a protagonist or even mainly playable is this: You remove his mystery and enigma.                                                                                                                    A protagonist, by nature, reveals their thoughts and knowledge to the observer, and even more so in games. The Judge is a mystery because he has knowledge that you don’t, and a whole story to him you don’t know. He’s altogether mysterious because he’s opaque, whilst Felix made him transparent with HOME. This kills his allure as a character. At least he’s still somewhat verbose.

Another major point is that he’s not that good in combat. The Judge is lacking in competence power, with only physical and special (or magical) attacks; yes, you can argue this allows him to engage both physical and spiritual enemies, it limits his ability to the party damage-dealer, when there are some characters better at doing immense damage per turn.

I shall now go to Alain. Alain is probably one of the better-written characters in HOME, and he generally conveys the idea of an churlish, starved cat. He is practical and has the ability to keep himself rather calm, but he also lacks strong morals and clearly doesn’t concern himself too hard with his fellowship’s opinions or worries. However, his backstory is painfully edgy, and his meeting and dialogue seem to convey an general ‘grimdark’ feel for him, though he thankfully drops this motif later on.

I can sing the praises of Alain’s potency in combat any day. He is, luckily enough, one of the most powerful characters you can obtain, rivaled only by Valerie, The Batter, and Alpha. He possesses one of the greatest utility competences imaginable in the form of Leeching Palpate, which allows him to continue absorbing health from the opponent whilst his party dies around him, along with the only Neutral attack in the game, thus ensuring that Shredding Palpate (which reduces enemy resistance to Claw attacks) is effective against mostly any opponent, except those already resistant to Claw (which their resistance will get degraded anyways).Thus, he is possibly the most versatile fighter in the game.

Valerie. He is mostly notable as The Judge’s brother, who dies in-game due to Japhet. In HOME, you can save him... after Japhet gets to his 2nd phase. At least it’s not the phase where Valerie is completely gutted, but I’d like to know something. Can anyone explain how he’s supposed to be alive after having his throat and innards mangled by a bird? Also, Mortis Ghost stated that Valerie was shy and soft-spoken, whilst in HOME, he keeps talking. Talking and talking and talking.

Oh boy. Valerie’s combat prowess. Aside from a death rate rivaling Epsilon, he’s obviously a glass cannon. He has one of the best potentials for damage, practically converting him into a nuclear warhead just through spamming a Break, then using the correlating Aneurysm to lash at the opponent with immense power, rendering them lying bloody and brainless on the ground.

On to Jozlyn! Now then, let me immediately ruin all potential to beat around this bush: Jozlyn is an annoying idiotic mess that makes me want to strangle her and myself. She is basically what happens when you grab an funnel and force the whole ‘LOLrandom!’ archetype and a stock ‘girl’ personality into a cat. She is the token female character of the cast, which OFF didn’t require or use. Not only that, but her ‘quirk’ of constantly adding ‘:3′ to every single damn line that the world had the misfortune of existing is disgusting and disturbing, at the very least.

Jozlyn might be forgivable if she is at least usable in combat. Maybe she can one-shot something? Is she an massively useful quasi-enemy targeting character, like Epsilon? No. No to both of these hopeful dreams. I almost gag thinking of having to use her in combat. Her main skills makes it evident that Felix couldn’t even THINK of making her slightly strong. Whilst Epsilon had rather weak multi-target attacks, not only could he not run his mouth 24/7, but also he had the advantage of something called ‘buffs’. Jozlyn just stole Omega’s ability to use curing competences and ran off.

The Batter. I’d imagine everyone who has played OFF has a strong opinion of him. Is he a mass murderer? Is he just someone trying to end an broken world before it can get worse? Is he a child murderer? Well, ignoring these questions, you can say something: He’s a stoic, dedicated, pious man, who is short-sighted, doesn’t care about the means, and is too blinded by his goal of perfect purity to care about the harm he causes. Of course, his personality is wiped in HOME. How, you might ask. Well, consider the following:                                        Given that we’re playing from the Judge’s point of view, he’s the enemy. However, it seems that Felix ignored that he has a personality, he’s got goals, and he’s not just some thoughtless mass-murderer. He is at the very least morally ambiguous, yes, but just having him be the dedicated typical evil archetype dilutes the narrative of OFF heavily.

Now, you might wonder, how can you state the mechanics and ability of an enemy as I have with the playable characters? What, are you going to say he’s too easy or strong or something? Well, the Batter is playable in the later part of Zone 2 leading up to the boss fight, and OH YESSSSS. He’s immensely strong, tears down enemies quickly, and comes with Alpha, who has the ability to endlessly heal your party. The downside is they’re AI controlled, but still, he’s not awful, he’s a LIVING GOD. Now then, time to move on from characters.

Part Two: Themes and Genres

HOME has some pretty obvious themes and genres, like OFF. They’re both quirky, surrealist role-playing games that have dark themes, like death. OFF pulls this off (haha) well, and OFF is, in my opinion, able to prime itself off of dark humor. Whilst yes, you can disagree with me on this, in my eyes, it is consistent of dark humor: it subverts some of the darker parts with comedy, such as Enoch is an absolutely detestable, merciless, and evil potential-metaphor-for-capitalist-businessmen, but he has an hilariously small face and an very notable way of speaking that highlights some of the humorous prospects of him.

Dedan is able to abuse his Zone’s denizens/elsen, but he is not only rather hilarious to read the lines of, but his incessant swearing and vibrant expressions of speech give him an obvious personality, and adds some comedy to him. As such, I rest my case that OFF involves dark humor heavily.

Now then, I don’t think HOME is good at this at all. The first thing I don’t like is that most of both Dedan and Enoch’s lines are torn right out of OFF, and it’s very heavily notable. I didn’t like the fact that Dedan and Enoch just use butchered versions of their canon implementations, and it’s absolutely awful.

HOME is even worse at adding in black comedy, with its general tendency to seem pretentious (with the whole forcing-you-to-walk-through-purified-zones and having The Witness, or Edna, try to tearjerk you for things the Batter did, not you), and even worse, it takes itself too seriously. It’s annoyingly haughty, and it tries to leave an impact it can’t. What’s even worse in my eyes is the fact that it has to include an credit song that’s supposed to be sad, just because one was in OFF.

OFF made it so I can’t listen to Judy Garland without bursting into tears, but HOME didn’t have that impact. Another, more severe problem, is that in the true ending of the game, the world gets fixed again, and everything’s happy. That’s too sappy, it’s not the dark game I came for. OFF seems to be able to point out the fact that if we don’t stop a destructive force, then it will ruin everything to the point where we can’t repair it. HOME undermines this with the whole damn happy ending sludge that tosses away one of the most profound parts of OFF. 

Yes, it’s nice to have hope, it’s nice to have games that end with hopeful endings. I know that barely anyone can handle continual barrages of hopelessness, sadness, and misery, but it’s OFF! We’re talking about one of the more dark indie games you can find out there! We are not talking about some damned happy-go-lucky good funtime game. We’re talking about Unproductive FunTime’s greatest, most recognized work, not some damn stupid romp-in-the-fields-of-happiness-and-sunshine by an AAA developer!

Part Three: Plot

HOME has a simple plot: basically, it’s OFF but you’re the Judge. You’re not purifying anything, just wandering around casually and killing spectres, ghouls, and burnts. You fight the Guardians, then wander into the purified zones, before entering an semi-trippy area, before reaching towards the end. So... what’s wrong with HOME? Well, guess what! It tries too hard!

HOME added an Fourth Zone. Whilst this is no problem normally, (in fact, the fangame CONTINUUM does this rather well with 3 zones! And yes, I just gave a shout-out to CONTINUUM.) HOME makes Zone 4 (or Bordeaux) grimdark and edgy to the point it makes Alain’s semi-edgy appearance in the beginning look happy-go-lucky. It’s a GRIM SAD WORLD that has elsen committing suicide left-and-right, gun-elsen, and, worst of all, an wannabe guilt-tripper true guardian who is rather annoying, and lacks an personality. Or a reason to be, just like Bordeaux.

Then, afterwards, HOME basically takes a fat ol’ hit, and announces: “Dude, like, what if you had to wander about those purified zones? That’s, like, deep, man.” So that’s what it does. Yep, you have to stroll through those zones you didn’t purify, fighting transparent shades of guardians. Yay. Whilst grinding through actually good-looking plague doctors. Yay.

Finally, skipping to the end, HOME gives you the Judge either interrupting the Batter at the switch-point, or him about to slaughter Hugo. Of course, you get either to the bad end or the good end, respectively, so it depends whether you get the ‘hooray yay happy’ ending or the OFF-style ending. So, you don’t really get the choice of siding with the Judge or not.

Part 4: Supporting Cast, and Main Enemies

For any OFF fan, Zacharie is one of the most notable supporting characters, given his mercantilism and natural charisma. HOME adds a new merchant. Oh boy. They keep Zacharie, and the new merchant, Viola, isn’t purely awful.

Now then, on to my FAVORITE part. The notable bosses. Dedan is still an loudmouth that has a tendency to hit elsen, whilst Japhet is rather new. Japhet is now, instead of being an mainly tragic character, just an insane evil douche who wants to kill Valerie. Oh no. Enoch, my favorite OFF character, is luckily untainted by any filth, due to his small screentime.

The Queen still uses the monologue style that was interesting and new in OFF, but predictable in HOME. She still has original and new dialogue, but instead of fighting someone who destroyed her world, she’s just angsty about the fact that the Judge kinda softened in up for the Batter accidentally. At the very least, the Queen has interesting dialogue at the end, now. You even get a choice at the end of it, and that’s beautiful.

Sadly, I don’t think there’s really any opponents left, but there also isn’t really any supporting cast. So I’ve got to wonder: What else do I have to list for this short section? Nothing. So, on we go.

Part 5: HOME’s Basic Enemies, and Combat

HOME, for the most part, uses OFF’s combat system due to having the same engine. HOME, however, has different enemies and competences, obviously striking something new (just like how CONFINIUM has new competences, that are also good!) and original. The enemies are interesting to observe, and truly help to build a feel for the game. They have interesting-sounding and looking competences, and they have great designs, as mentioned.

HOME is not only superb at this, but even excels to a point it should be looked at for an idea of how to make competences for OFF fangames, and for looking at good designs for monsters that fit in with OFF’s aesthetic and feel. Given that I’ve spent quite a bit insulting HOME, I can still announce that it gets OFF’s enemy and competence feel right.

Part 6: Did Felix get OFF’s Feel Right?

Hell yeah. HOME does feel like an OFF fangame, and it does things that are unique and interesting, like any good OFF fangame. HOME conveys OFF’s feel with the ability Felix had to not only draw OFF’s style of art, but he sometimes even nails the quirky writing that OFF had. The music of HOME fits in remarkably with the game, and it sounds like Alias teamed up with someone else to produce music for the game.

HOME also has the good luck to have been made by someone so creative, as Felix was truly able to design new areas. The maps for Zone 4 fit in well with the areas Felix made, and so do the new book pictures. HOME just has an excellent feel, and I can see Mortis Ghost actually announcing it as the spiritual successor to OFF. There are, of course, other fangames that are also equally beautiful and appreciable, such as CONFINIUM, which I wholeheartedly recommend, and even plan on analyzing later; DOLL, which, despite its anime-style and strange characters, is appreciable; Continue Stop Rise is enjoyable, and is fun to play; and Play Ball is a humorous game intended as a joke game, but it isn’t finished, like CONFINIUM.

But, Felix had a good sense of feel and lore for OFF, and applied this to HOME. However, I do believe it’s time I head to the conclusion, no?

Part 7: The Conclusion.

HOME is an enjoyable fangame. The characters (especially Jozlyn) are not the best (except Alain), and the plot has an ending that tosses OFF’s main point out, but it’s playable, and Felix definitively knew how to write rather well. He was able to write excellent lore and establish an nearly perfect feel for his game. HOME has unique monster designs, and nice competences. You can enjoy the game, and you could potentially cry at some of the turns in the plot.

It’s a lovable fangame, and it seems to actually strike its way out well in the general nice lineup of fangames, especially given its general acclaim in the fandom. HOME could’ve done quite a lot better, and some of its characters and themes were poor, but it was never truly awful. I’ve seen worse games, you’ve probably seen worse games. It deserves its place among the lineup of good OFF fangames, and I must say that you should play it if you haven’t.

Either way, HOME is still good, and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to play an OFF fangame. CONFINIUM, in my eyes, is a good fangame for an OFF fan who loves the style of OFF’s storytelling a darker themes, but HOME is more suitable for a general audience.

All in all, my verdict on it is that HOME is good, and I’d recommend playing it. It’s beautiful with its general feel that truly rivals OFF, and it’s got select dialogue that’s excellent.

[tumblunni]

ANYWAY! I’mma gonna talk about my playthru of Digimon World Next Order, to distract me from the fact i’m rapidly approaching the ending and have to wait to sate my JRPG tastes on Persona 5 afterwards...

* it is really really REALLY REALLY really REALLy great to finally be able to play a game in the DW series as a female character. Holy SHIT, man this is overdue! And it isnt handled awfully like in Cyber Sleuth where everyone constantly calls you male and the character design is really oversexualized and doing weirdass poses for everything. There’s still a lil bit of ‘cliche girly option traits’ but seriously she’s like the least stereotyped design we’ve had in the games since Dusk and Dawn! She gets to wear SHORTS and A HOODIE! A hoodie that has an inexplicable hole in the back for some reason, but whatever! xD Also I actually like her version of the Protagonist Hair better, even tho I think its lame they colour coded them in the ol cliche genderedness. Boy character just has one streak of coloured hair at the front, but girl has a spiralling streak on the end of her ponytail that looks like a punk poison sort of fashion~! And it leaks pixels when she runs, and has a really nice glow effect that kinda makes it draw patterns as you swing her model around. Makes me wanna run in circlesssss~ Her dubbed voice is a bit boring cliche anime love interest tho, a bit squeaky after you’ve been hearing it for hours. But the dude is Like Every Shonen Hero Voice Ever, so i think its meant to be intentionally generic for both of them. I could swear he’s voiced by a bad Tai impersonator! XD Also I’m just kinda thankful cos every other girl in the plot gets a REALLY squeaky unbearable english voice, thank god protagonist is spared...

* its a lil bit of funnyness tho that for some reason the skill list is the only place where the translators forgot about the protagonist options. Like.. a LOT of Tamer Skills are weirdly gendered when it would have taken five seconds to change that. Why does it have to be stuff like ‘Cooking Boy’ and ‘Cooking Man’ instead of basic and advanced cooking? Especially cos the other one in between is called Gourmet Cooking...

* I love forever that so many of the virus type recruitable digimon are sweethearts of hugs and joy. Now THAT reminds me of the original Digimon World! Seriously I am SO GLAD that Literally The Same Myotismon has a sidequest about rescuing his precious myobrella so he won’t faint in the sun. or like.. if its not the same Myotismon then MAN he would totally be a great ship with the other equally helpless one in the first game XD He has a nice new function as a townsperson, instead of just being ‘a manager’ in the colloseum and never even being a fight. (That annoyed me as a kid! He just stands there!) Now he runs the card gallery, cos you collect ‘antique cards’ in this game and he restores them with his painting skillz. its a nice lil in-joke cos they’re all the original first trading card artworks from waaaaay back in the first season! And Piedmon is in this one too, yay! He’s actually like the only morally dubious virus type AT ALL, he talks like a cliche mwahaha mad scientist even as he does nothing particularly evil. His sidequest is a funny thing of playing hide and seek and he sucks at it. While yelling hammily about being an evil genius! And then he has quite a useful function in the town, he does a random effect on you once per day with his evil science, and it could be good or it could be bad, but if its bad he actually pays you compensation money for it! EVEN THE EVIL GUY IS TOO KIND And OH MAN I am so happy and sad for Skullgreymon! A good guy skullgreymon was always one of my ideas for a DW fangame, im so happy it happened for real! In this game Skullgreymon is a fashion designer with low self confidence, and you recruit them by finding weregarurumon who’s their biggest fan and becomes their first friend. Its so sweet! They never actually interact once you recruit them both tho, cos they work at different parts of the town. But im still gonna assume they keep in touch! Its also a shame skullgreymon doesnt actually run a fashion shop, cos there actually WAS a fashion shop in Digimon World Redigitize aka the one damn game we’ll never see dubbed T_T Instead skullgreymon gets this kinda depressing role of just standing around outside the entertainment area saying ‘i wish i could work with children but they’re always scared of me’, and then if you bring a newly hatched digimon to see them then they gain bonus stats from being terrified somehow?? NOOO WHERE IS THE OPTION TO TEACH MY CHILDREN THAT SKULLY IS A FRIEND

* Anyway, my main digimon are (still) Hershey and Zephyr, and I love them! I’m still working on hoping to eventually get the full terriermon and lopmon canon digivolution lines with them, wow its hard. But I adore them no matter what form they take at the moment! I ended up loving them so much that i never raised any other digimon ever. i just rename them the same name every time they reincarnate, and pick the same eggs! I’ve gotten close to unlocking every single variation of the bunno brothers evo lines!! But it IS getting really annoying that you have to type the name manually every time, why no option to just stick with the previous name? DW1 had that and it was on way worse hardware! Oh, and its funny that I started off calling them the bunny brothers cos thats what they were in adventure 02, but then after playing the game for ages I’ve settled on headcanoning hershey as female and zephyr as nonbinary. And also I started off with the cliche personalities of sassy rebel terriermon and stoic lopmon like in Tamers, but Hershey ended up being the rebel instead and Zephyr is like a shonen hero cinnamon roll! They’re both equally sassy and eccentric tho XD I’m not quite sure yet what would be their ‘canon’ final mega forms that I wanna keep them in for the final boss and stuff. But hershey’s made me regain my appreciation of Ladydevimon after I stopped liking her as soon as I grew old enough to understand that most of her fans only liked her for being ‘a stripper’ :P Like.. she’s a really damn good design even without the fanservice?? I like her way more than devimon, myotismon and etc, I wish she’d gotten to be a major villain! i mean it sucks that devimon got to be one when she’s literally his evolved form. (And yes I am happy that it continues to be canon that ladydevimon can digivolve from devimon and the same for angewomon and angemon. DIGIMON AINT RESTRAINED BY HUMAN GENDER ROLES YO) So yeah anyway, I kinda headcanon Hershey as a hypothetical less skimpy redesign of LadyDevimon? or like.. if she got her own unique Mega form that kept a similar design, rather than just being retconned into lilithmon and rosemon’s evo lines. I just don’t think the skimpyness fits with Hershey’s personality but the rest of the design just has such a cool piratey thiefy type look?? And she’s like THE BEST monster girl in the franchise, she’s the only one who really gets to be monstery looking, even if she’s still an hourglass figure sex object. i mean i always thought it was meant to be a subversion of that?? She has that giant monster claw hand and is really vicious and powerful in battle! All her animations in the game are her shredding things with it and doing the classic dracula rise-from-the-grave when she’s knocked out, and just... ITS REALLY BADASS!! I didnt know how cool a fight with her could be, cos she just got that stupid ass fanservice joke slap fight in the anime... ANYWAY Ladydevimon is good I appreciate her I like her even though she’s in the general genre of fanservice digimon that I dislike. She’s like the one single one I dont hate! (Tho I still wish we had more than like.. two un-fanservice female digimon in the entire damn series) Buuuut I dont think her design quite fits Hershey even though she’s the digivolution I keep using ingame. Maybe if I can find a different Mega that I prefer, and make up a fanmade digivolution line? or I could do a fanart variation of the digimon...

* ANYWAY I kinda ended up headcanoning Hershey as a former member of the broken apart pirate crew in Mod Cape. Cos like.. what if your digimon had backstories of what their life was like before they met you! like Gatomon in Adventure, they were chosen to be partners to a destined hero but had to wait so long they’d become disillusioned. Cos when you meet em at the start of the game they’re mega level and only get poofed back into eggs cos of machinedramon’s attack. WHAT LIFE DID YOU LEAD WITHOUT ME. I AM HERE TO PROTECT YOU NOW AAAAAAA!! So yeah it would be cool to headcanon Hershey as a former highway bandit type character who has trouble adjusting to living in a city surrounded by happy innocent people and hugs. I dont see her as grumpy tho.. like, she’s kind of a bombastic trickster archetype but she’s still super cynical and ‘I only care about myself, anything else gets you hurt’. I was thinking maybe if I designed a fanmade mega for her she could be like a magician pirate zombie demon??? Like.. yknow piedmon is a deck of cards clown guy with those four daggers? i actually got Piedmon as her digivolution when she was a Ladydevimon and I was thinking MAN it could be so cool if we had like a zany zombie digimon who attacks by stabbing a sword through her own back! Like ‘watch me saw a woman in half’ XD A design where she has a load of weapons stuck in her and uses them to fight with! like how mummymon is a mummy + soldier in a leg brace design, hypothetical zombiemon could be a zombie + actual tragic assassination victim. Plus a magician. Or a clown. And ladydevimon. And a pirate. LOOK I JUST HAVE A LOT OF MUTUALLY CONTRADICTORY HEADCANONS OKAY xD

* I don’t really have as much development ideas for Zephyr yet, aside from that they’re Hershey’s more cheerful and positive sibling. But I see them as also being kinda creepy and battle-hungry and stuff? Like.. both these twins are total virus types, clown type, typical final villain type of acrobatic doom! And both are good guys deep down. But Zephyr is a more cinnamon roll type of good and Hershey is grumpy unwillingly dragged into goodness. And like.. Zephyr is a bit dotty and only accidentally creepy, not really understanding how to socialize properly. And probably they would be like ‘NO BIG SISTER, STEALING IS BAD’ *currently stabbing a guy* I think maybe my headcanon for Zeph might be that they were for some reason left completely alone while waiting for the protagonist? Hershey at least found some companionship with the pirates, even if she became super bitter after the team broke up. I think Zeph maybe started off as a wild forest mon that’d even forgotten how to speak, until by pure chance they bumped into their long lost twin sister and then met the protagonist. So like an innocent angel who’s all new to the city and excited about everything, but also kinda fighty and dangerous because of the same stuff that makes them innocent. I dunno, I might make them an angewomon or ophanimon to match with Hershey? Tho I wanted to make them both good guy virus types, it could be an equally interesting contrast to have a vicious battle-obsessed angel who’s the absolute opposite of softspoken fancyness! And I also kinda associate them with the colour green even though I ended up picking a grey themed digivolution for Hershey instead. But all of Terriermon’s natural digivolutions are all machiney and don’t suit this personality as much... I dunno, maybe I could make up another headcanon/variant type thing? Cos after all lopmon’s line gets two champion level forms and two megas but terriermon only has two recolours for the same ultimate level. Maybe even it out, lol! Or like, I’m thinking like.. what if Terriermon had a mega that suited Henry more? i was reading someone’s review where they said it was weird that pacifistic Henry got a giant robot specializing in attack while Rika got the humanoid pacifist digimon. And yeah, that IS totally weird! And it got me imagining what if Terriermon got a humanoid digivolution that was like a martial artist?? or maybe like a speedy superhero lookin armour thing! Like just a more humanoid rapidmon! or I dunno maybe if puppetmon is in this game then zephyr could be puppetmon. I miss puppetmon. puppetmon never got to be in ANY games except dusk and dawn! I WANNA SEE A 3D PUPPETMON YO!!

* Man I just spent this entire post rambling my headcanons for silent protagonist characters instead of actually talking about the game... aaaa...

[enderoftheend]

5 Things Thing

Tagged by the one and only @five-foot-a-b1tch​! (I’m stealing your number symbols, they look fancy.)

5 things I keep in my bag ① Laptop: Windows 10 Acer laptop in prime breaking down condition! This thing is a few years old. I hope it lasts until I get a new one, lol. I’m a bit attached to it, though... I have fond memories of me playing games in class when I’m supposed to be working. (I’m a high school student, okay? It’s what we all do.) ② 3DS XL: Okay, not ALL the time, but... I do bring it a lot. I take my Pokemon very seriously. All I need to do to have caught ‘em all is to finish the Alolan Dex and then gotten a Diancie. One day, I’ll be a real Pokemon master... ③  Sketchbook: I try not to think about the fact that it has my sister’s ex boyfriend’s name on it. I’m pretty sure it was his when he was in year 9 art, but... he left it here, so yoink. ④ Books: Lots of books. My bag is heavy... ⑤ Laptop charger: The battery on my laptop is warped, so the charger is like a lifeline for it. Well, it has crappy battery life, basically.

5 things I keep in my room ① Birb statues: My dad bought them for me. One of them is a macaw that’s drilled into my wall. The other is a bald eagle that’s sat on my shelf... my bird sits on the eagle, sometimes. He has no fear. ② Plush animals: Most of them are different types of birds... I have an elephant, cheetah and Fennekin one as well though. I also have a really old robotic cat toy, which has been out of battery since forever. It’s furry, though... and again, my bird likes to sit on it. I’m still a kid, so I have a bald eagle plush that I still sleep with. I love bald eagles, y’know? They’re my favourite animal. ③ Assassin’s Creed Special Edition boxes: More specifically, the Notre Dame edition of Unity and the Buccaneer edition of Black Flag. I used to be obsessed with Assassin’s Creed, but now my love for it is more nostalgia for how much I used to enjoy it. I still stand by my opinion that Connor’s the best character, though. ④ Merchandise: Of the Attack on Titan and Undertale variety. I have a Survey Corps uniform, and though... poorly made, I still very much so enjoy it, because I’m a freakin’ nerd. The Undertale merch I got a few days ago from Fangamer. It came with two shirts, one of which is too big for me, but that’s not gonna stop me from wearing it. ⑤ Feather box: I collect feathers. Most of the feathers I have in there are from my bird, since he’s... usually the bird at closest proximity to me in most hours of the day.

5 things I’ve always wanted to do with my life (oh god) ① Concept Art: Getting the obvious stuff out of the way. I enjoy digital painting moreso than doing lined art. It’s just fun to work with colours and lighting and shapes more freely. ② Animate: Probably not gonna happen... especially compared to my art skills, my animation skills are subpar (I know because I tried, I have a YouTube channel with crappy WMM animations in it), and I’m not patient enough to spend days upon days animating a 5-minute video. I have immense respect for animators. Not to mention, every good animation program costs like $500??? What the hell???? ③ YouTube personality: Again, probably never gonna happen, but I want to feel important to a wide range of people. ④ Make a game: It’s not just Undertale that makes me like Toby... Everything he says and does inspires me in some way. He’s my biggest role model at the moment, and I’ve had an idea for an original story for quite a bit. What made me sure that I wanted to do this eventually was a quote he had on his (inactive) Tumblr, when Undertale had its first Birthday. ⑤ Cosplay: Yes. 5 things I’m into  ① Attack on Titan: AoT AoT AoT AoT AoT (it’s always been my most favourite thing ever. I have a place in my heart specially dedicated to it.) ② Undertale: Coming second only to Attack on Titan. I love this game so, so much. I joined the fandom a little late but was immediately charmed by the game the moment I met Flowey. It didn’t take me long to start obsessing over it... by the time I stepped out of the Ruins, I already lost myself to this world. Look at me now. Haha. Ha. ③ osu!: osu! is an Australian-made rhythm game where you click the circles... to the beat. (No, it’s not Japanese, like I initially thought it was. It was actually made by some guy in Perth.) I’ve only been playing for about 9 months and I’m ranked 46k globally out of over 9 million players. Something about seeing you grow out your skill in such a short amount of time is so rewarding. It’s great for improving stamina in my arms (which I’ve always had trouble with, thanks to a certain disability that I was born with) and perhaps the greatest thing about this game is the culture surrounding it. There’s kind of a poetic balance between beauty and elegance, intenseness and frustration, and just... utter weirdness. I love it. ④ Touhou Project: I only recently got into it, but boy, did I get sucked into it. It’s just so damn difficult that it’s impossible not to play it over and over. And, I’ve watched Memories of Phantasm, the fanmade anime... the only good thing about it is the animation quality. And that’s not just me complaining like a hipster... it actually sucks so badly it’s funny. My favourite character is Cirno, in case anyone’s curious. ⑤ Warriors: The one and only book series that I actively follow. The writing’s horrendous in some books, but I love the ideas in it anyway. Plus, Jayfeather is to live for. My favourite book would be either Bluestar’s Prophecy, which was the first book I’ve ever read, Tallstar’s Revenge, which made me shed a manly tear at the end, or Path of Stars, which ACTUALLY made me cry, because that death scene was so emotional. I loved Gray Wing, man...

5 things on my to-do list ① Improve my art: ok. ② Get on top of my schedule: I swear I love my comics... ③ Catch ‘em all: You don’t get it... I take my Pokemon VERY seriously. ④ Actually beat Touhou 6: IT’S. HARD. ⑤ Become a 4-digit player on osu!: Because the community gives 5-digit players like me enough smack for being mediocre... 5 things you may not know about me ① Well, I guess you know NOW, but I was born with a disability. Low muscle tone, AKA Hypotonia. It’s not actually that bad, I think... it does get in the way, but it’s liveable with. ② My earliest memories involved me being a selective mute. This was when I was 4 years old. I only felt comfortable talking at home, and even then I didn’t do it much. I also had OCD, apparently, which I think I can remember a little bit of at the back of my mind. Not too sure, though. ③ I like flowers. For symbolism, partly. But picking flowers has a sort of childish innocence that appeals to me, as well. I don’t think I have a favourite flower. ④ I interacted with Markiplier before I knew who he was... Everyone else on the server at the time knew, though. I was one of the few people on who was very confused. My exact thoughts were, “Who the Hell is this loser?” I was like... 12 or 13, maybe? It was back when he still played Minecraft. And I’m preetty damn sure it wasn’t a fake, seeming as I recall him typing in the chat with words that correlated exactly to what he recorded on his first episode of Drunk Minecraft. I didn’t say anything until after he finished recording and hung out for a bit because I practically just got on the server. ⑤ I’m half Italian. Have you ever been to an Italian Christmas family reunion at midnight? Because I have. It’s loud.