#big fan of a good raz

[emo-nordegraf]

i just almost screamedand started stimming HARD because i saw this video of richard horvitz listing off his voice roles n it had raz in it oh my god

[raz-writes-the-thing]

hi raz! hope you’re having a good day ❤️ i would love some soft cuddly martin whitley x reader, i don’t mind if it’s headcanons or a fic :) thank you!

Howdy cutie! I hope you're also having a great day!!

Martin snuggle hcs below for you:

Martin Whitly x GN!Reader / requests are open

Prodigal Son: @stevekempscocktails @go-bonkers-go-foolish @peytonpenguin37 @complimentary-breadbasket @darktealrat (send an ask to be added to a tag list!)

Martin loves a cuddle. He loves to comfort and care for others so being able to hold you and see how that makes you feel better has him so soft for you.

So many forehead kisses- be surprised if he doesn't wear a kiss mark into your forehead permanently

He's a big fan of rubbing your back too. Anywhere really. If you're cuddling, he's running his hands over your skin somewhere.

So much cooing. Things like:

"Oh, my dear- see? Isn't this better? Yes, I think so too, Punpkin."

"It's alright now. I've got you. You're safe with me, love."

"Holding you is a delight unto itself, dearest. I could never tire of this."

He loves having you face towards him when you cuddle. Your face on his chest and his arm around your back.

If you play with his chest hair it makes his heart swell. He lives for it.

"That's what this gut is for, my dear. Bear cuddles. Yes, yes, I know. Just come here. Oh, that's better. I can feel the stressors of the day just melting away."

Pleased and almost obscene-sounding sighs of relief and contentedness.

[technovillain]

What do you think the interns would be up to after the events of psychonauts 2?

Okay soooo I think they all (under the new "Junior Psychonaut" titles) are given big projects to work on.

There is a little bit of discrepancy between different media sources regarding Adam, but I'm pretty sure something in the artbook was saying he was intended to be on a higher level than the other interns. Which makes sense because he not only comes off as the oldest but it's kind of evident that he's on a slightly higher level, what with his big public view project and his mentor being the head of the entire organization. So while I think in canon he is still referred to as an intern as part of the intern program, he was sort of functionally already a "Junior Psychonaut"..... which is something I feel like Hollis and Truman sort of made up to promote them for their hard work.

I also like to hc that their mentors told them to brainstorm good ideas over the summer, things that they were passionate about. That was what sparked the recent creation of Morris' pirate radio (also something that Milla would find cool and encourage as a music fan)

So I choose to believe they have these projects to work on as Junior Psychonauts:

Morris wants to get his pirate radio off the ground and (though it would make it less cool) maybe make it less .... pirate-y. In the sense that he could get more than one song for it. And more employees than just the one random 5 year old who climbed into his treehouse. It could also be a sort of psychic-station, broadcasting to brainwaves for study time.

Gisu wants to work with Otto to improve the status of psychic mobility, especially around the motherlobe. Creating levboards, safe apparatuses for brain balls, streamlining psychic mobility aids, etc.

Sam wants to get the Lumberstack Diner operational again, and is determined to employ animals as servers. Give them an opportunity to "better themselves". I honestly do not think that Coach would care much about this project. He's not a great mentor lol....but as a fellow cook, Compton would appreciate the project and probably pitch in, maybe as an excuse to get away from Lizzie and her project.

Norma is trying to....help balance the budget. And work on finances with Hollis. Scintillating. On the more interesting side, it would require a little government help, which would mean learning how to lay it on thick to try and get some government money....professional schmoozing skills.

After Lori's "exciting" new haircut comes out of Ford's barbershop, some of the agents are looking for some more modern styles. Lizzie decides the place is extremely outdated and needs a facelift to keep up with the times. She's right but her noncomformist, somewhat anarchist decor choices and style really stress Compton out. He's just sure she's going to do a bunch of stuff that Truman will hate, and he could get stuck cleaning up a big mess.

I don't think Raz and Lili are expected to take on big projects just yet. First of all because of all the personal intense family drama they just went through. Second of all because of their age.

I also think they all are permitted more field work with their mentors, and more mentor work time in general. Really "locking in" so to say on the idea of them actually becoming Psychonauts someday and not just hanging around the facility.

[ottoslab]

You Edgarposted....do u have any big Edgar thoughts. I feeel like nobody ever talks about him very much other than how well designed his level is!

i love Edgar!! I love how silly he is! I love how friendly he and Raz are to each other! He’s just got such a fun design and real fun dialogue, im a real big fan of him :) His memory vault art makes me smile every time. Never in my life have i seen a guy drawn like he is so full of love. Definitely my favorite vaults throughout the game.

Something about his dialogue is just so fun. Like i said, he and Raz have brief but fun interactions together.

“You good?” “I’m good 👍”

Hes just got so much charm. Probably my second favorite character in the Thorney Towers area behind Sheegor :)

[snurgle07]

Say all your psychonauts 2 thoughtS

All of them huh? I think about this game so much, I’d be here all day, but this certainly gives me a good excuse to ramble about some things I love about pn2. :D

- The characters are amazing! 10/10 I care about pretty much all of those freaks. The art style makes them all look so charming in a lopsided weird sort of way, and the game is so empathetic to everyone that even the characters we don’t get much of or who serve a limited purpose still feel well rounded and real.

- Raz is excellent. He’s loads of fun in the first game and continues to be a blast in the second. He’s even more adorable and earnest in the sequel and I love that for him!! He’s definitely one of my favorite characters of all time, I adore him.

- Adoring the characters goes for everyone though. And pn2 has a whole new cast of characters who are all super fun in their own ways. The Psychic 7 especially are super cool. My biggest soft spot is for Lucy, but I love Bob, Ford, and well, the rest of the seven really, a whole lot. Getting to meet the Aquatos is also awesome, and the interns are cool too. Lotsa cool groups of characters to enjoy.

- The story? Awesome. Feels grander than pn1 to be honest, and I like that, but also it’s completely great on its own. It’s got loads of mind shenanigans, drama, great mental health commentary, and manages to balance out all the trauma with enough healing and empathy and even a bit of humor that it all still feels nice and hopeful despite everything. Like yeah there’s a lot of angst material certainly, and as a fan I gotta love that, buuuut sometimes I need a piece of media to punch me in the gut and then give me a warm hug afterward.

- On the note of mental health stuff, I feel it did great. It’s noticeable that they talked to experts and people with personal experience. They were able to convey the mindscapes of certain traumas and mental health issues with more accuracy. The first game was certainly empathetic and kind in regards to that, which was a big deal at the time, buuuut the accuracy was a bit lacking back then. Pn1 shows it’s age a bit in that regard. Pn2 improves on that wonderfully with both kind and more researched explorations into the mind.

-The morals regarding the complexity of the human mind and the messiness of humanity and how we often make mistakes and have more to us under the surface… heroes are often flawed, villains may just be a version of a person we made up in our mind based off of our limited perceptions… aughh good stuff. There are so many good takeaways from psychonauts 2 and I love it!

- Also on a more personal note, I probably owe this game my fascination with psychic powers and psychics in fiction. It’s tangentially what got me into Mob Psycho 100, and has inspired me to make some psychic ocs. The art direction really impacted me and even the way I draw. My style has opened up so much more since practicing drawing such funky looking characters. I genuinely think it has helped me improve a lot and helped me discover more about what kinds of art style I adore and inspired my own. The gameplay too, alongside the art direction, has impacted my aspirations a lot as far as being an artist and hopefully to work in game design— which is to say it’s super inspiring! I think it can inspire people in a myriad of ways, it’s a very unique game like that, and it really reminds me why I love art, storytelling, and games so much. I genuinely feel I owe it a lot for a variety of reasons and I’ve seen many others who play it feel the same. :)

TLDR: Psychonauts 2 my beloved…

Thanks for the ask! I will never not want to talk about psychonauts, this game is sticking in my brain for good.

[aquato-family-circus]

Obviously I'm a big fan of trans Bob but I'd like to add on trans Sasha and trans Raz. Imagine Raz looking at the comics and realizing he can be a guy like that. He's so excited about seeing someone can change their gender and shows his parents immediately. Just seeing how happy he is about the opportunity to change your gender being why his parents allow him to have True Psychic Tales comics at all.

trans Raz being inspired by trans Sasha is SUCH a good headcanon I always love to see it. Sasha is a big big inspiration for this little guy he wants the sasha look so bad it gives him the gender feels something fierce

[shpiin]

Big fan of when you put Raz is mental distress, that boy is not okay. Cute little guy going through mental crisis. Good stuff. *chefs kiss sound*

Tehee :3 thanks

I'm trying my best but sometimes I'm afraid that if more people find out HOW bad I can make him feel I think they would be...disgusted or think that is something really not fine with me (but idk I just like a bit of dark stuff)

[cosmignon]

Psychonautssss

PSYCHONAUTS ON MAIN LETS GOOOO (BC I USUALLY POST ON AQUATO-FAMILY-CIRCUS HAHA)

The first character I first fell in love with: 

AUGUSTUS AQUATO YOU WILL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS!! I'd always liked Raz of course, but when I was rewatching the first game to prep for the sequel the last like 20 minutes of it rocked me. the difference between Raz's perception of his dad vs the real deal who's just a well meaning if overprotective father captured me so violently and immediately it felt like I was being jostled around. Plus Augustus has such a cool design and his voice work is so soft yet gruff and kind. He's a delight. Idk what my opinion on the first game would be without him bc it's one of the strongest highlights in the emotions department.

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: 

It's haaaard to say bc I just liked most of them off the bat but I do think I needed some time for Cassie O'Pia to grow on me. Her level was overstimmulating the first time I played it so I didn't rly appreciate how nice it looked or how cool her archetypes really were. Love her now tho, of course, bc I love all the old people psychics

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: 

I Don't Care Much for the campers aside from Lili & Dogen. I think they're definitely fun, I've enjoyed a lot of fan work about the individual campers and do have favorites among the ones who Aren't Lili & Dogen (Clem & Crystal, Chloe) but they just don't really compel me much. Same goes for the interns but with them at least I can remember all their names and quirks off the top of my head (bc there's only 6 of them)

The character I love that everyone else hates: 

I think Gristol is an interesting character, I think he's fun! I don't post abt him much bc I get the vibe ppl get annoyed about it? Which is fair, he sucks, I would hit him with a crowbar if he was real. but he's just kind of a pathetic guy once his plans fail. He's fun to talk about and theorize about what in the world could actually make him become a better person or at least have a change of mind like the other antagonists we've been inside the heads of.

The character I used to love but don’t any longer:

Error answer not found

The character I would totally smooch: 

HOLLIS FORSYTHE CALL ME

The character I’d want to be like: 

I wish I had the patience and chill attitude of Milla or the cool big showmanship of Helmut. The brightest and most colorful characters basically !!

The character I’d slap: 

See: Gristol.

A pairing that I love:

Bob Zanotto and Helmut Fullbear are married and in love!! I love those guys so much it is absurd.

My first playthru experience of not expecting any gay content period was one of a kind.

the shift from "Oh Helmut's so obviously queercoded good for him. I hope He and his "Bobby" have some fun friendly guy pal thing going on"

to "Oh He and Bob were GAY gay"

to "ROBERT ZANOTTO YOUR GIANT WEDDING CAKE IS MAKING ME CRY" can not be replicated.

A pairing that I despise: 

Not a big fan of Norma/Frazie! There's cute art of it for sure that I can appreciate but when I'm just alone w/my thoughts I feel like Frazie could do better and Norma needs to work on herself or else they'd have the most explosive teen drama break up ever and make it Everyone's Problem.

[dammarchy211]

Dex mind concepts! And misc

To start, I’m just going in the order I drew them in lol, some structural things! The main base for the level is a burning house, representing both “burning bridges” to show leaving his old life and home before, there being a lot more to loose by running away and becoming a villain, as well as a “fire burning him from the inside”. The platforming bits would be mostly in the large rooms, and would be populated with a looooot of doubts and!

Nightmares! The premise of this mind would be, since psi-portals don’t work on children, Raz would astral-sleepwalking to Dex’s mind instead! And even though it’s his actual mind and not a dream, it seemed like a good place to add nightmares! And I think they really fit with the ambiance

Next is the monsters! Vaguely mentioned in the first one, I wanted to include some non-standard enemies, more like in psychonauts 1. I need to color some of these in, but I wanted them to look like those’ smiley creepy children’s book/cartoon villains! As I mentioned in post about Raz’s family, a big part of him turning away from his family and the psychonauts in general, was their treatment of him as if her was a “little monster” (oddly not rlly for his psychics, but the behavior issues his family imposed on him). One part of that was getting “timeouts” in a closet. However, it happened to be full of old psychic tales comics, sparking his interest in villains to begin with!

Annddd! In the connecting hallways, there are 4 doors that raz needs to get through rooms and hallways. Raz would actually start the mind level in door 3, it’s set up as if that’s be the entire level! I wrote this in my notes so!

(Wouldn’t let me paste this for some reason?)

After Door three Raz would go to the first door. It represents his parents (and sister), put on like a humiliating theatre show. It’s incredibly based around magic shows, playing cards, and circuses. I don’t have much for the mechanics, there might be manifestations of his parents n sister n stuff in there too, but idk. Maybe like a funny monster lookin version of them!

Door 2 is based around his grandpa, the psychonauts, and the motherlobe (and whispering rock kinda!) it’s mostly just showing a lot of the stuff Raz loves and adores (minus the grandpa bit, I’m sure Raz knows who he is, but I know rrlllyy think he’s the type Raz would be any more than a casual fan of lol) from the perspective of someone who just Loathes those things! It’s really supposed to put into perspective it really Why Dex hates those things, and how the people your around and experiences can make a good thing seem terrible. Idk if I’d want Dex to show up here, and leave so Raz has to chase him, or if Raz would just fine him in a later part of the level. Probably the latter but even then idk if I’d want him to show up in Door 1 or 2.

DOOR FOUR DOOR FOUR RAZ DOOR. This one is rlly new!! So Id want it do have this kind of “under construction” vibe. This one would be Heavily heavily inspired by comics, like the whole thing looks like a comic set up. I mean, Dex is starting to be a Real Actual Villain! He’s even got his own nemesis! i.e. this door! But! I’m not really sure what I’d exactly want the area to look like specifically. This is where Raz would For Real meet up with Dex, maybe try to talk with him. A lot of Angry yelling and such, mostly from Dex. Just a Real Nice conversation between two people with just so wildly different perspectives on the same thing, despite being so similar in their core behavior. They would eventually come upon a temporary truce, given that the psychonauts came across evidence of the head of CRIME planning on throwing the agents under the bus.

And HERES THE MISC STUFF!!!!

[kitchfit]

Year in Review: Games pt 2

Back to Bildeo Bames! After finishing my big Kingdom Hearts binge, I told myself to cut back on gaming for a while until Tears of the Kingdom came out. That was a huge lie! I love deception and falsehoods :D

Psychonauts

The idea of going inside someone's head to discover an entire universe created from their thoughts and memories has always been a fascinating one for me. I spent a lot of time as a kid imagining what my own or my friends' brain-world would look like and how you might navigate it. So imagine my surprise when I found an entire 3D platformer based around that concept. And for $5 on sale, no less! This had been a cult classic for a long time, but the recent sequel I still need to play elevated it to a higher place in the social conscience.

You play as Raz, a young kid who crashed a training camp in order to become a Psychonaut, people who covertly enter other's minds to extract secrets for the government. At least that's the idea, Raz ends up using his training to help his mind-victims work through their insecurities and psychoses in order to improve their mental health, first focusing on people in his camp, and then on clients in the nearby insane asylum. This isn't just out of a heroic desire to help others, but the easiest way Raz has to save his new camp friends, whose brains have all been cartoonishly sucked out of their ears and placed into jars. This world is so goofy and fun and the premise allows for endless creativity with settings and like. You can write a whole essay on any one of these levels. Damn I need to play the sequel.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

I like Sonic quite a bit. The characters are so expressive and fun and the world is similarly wacky and cool. The lore is an odd mix of typical video-game nonsense and genuinely fascinating tragic backstories. I loved the Sonic X show and Sonic Underground but like. The games... Okay the games are fun, but there's always one thing that ends up giving me a huge headache. Usually the Chaos emeralds. Eventually I'll go back and play through the Origin games and meet the games on their terms, but in the meantime this is the perfect Sonic game for me.

It's just a three hour visual novel written in the style of a murder mystery! It's so cute! Sonic is dead! You spend most of the game as Barry the Quokka, who's name is actually Kitch, a dorky dude in charge of catering on the murder mystery train, thrust suddenly into Amy Rose's birthday party on a quest to figure out the culprit who fake murdered our best blue boy. The game is full of so many adorable designs, fun characterization, and goofy plot tangents that its clear Sega just gave a group of Sonic fans free reign to go crazy over an official project. If you get bored of the visual novel part, its interspersed with random isometric Sonic levels you can plow through pretty quickly. I had a pretty good time with all of it.

Sonic Adventure: DX

In fact I had such a good time with The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog that I jumped immediately into an actual Sonic game. This was Sonic's first real jump into 3D, and I was always led to believe that jump missed the platform and tumbled into badly rendered, inanimate water. This isn't true! The voice acting is pretty bad at times and the animation gets wonky in places, but like. I am a Kingdom Hearts fan. These are not negatives. It also splits a singular story into multiple perspectives, so you discover more context for what's happening the more characters you play as. That doesn't mean the story is amazing or anything, but the effort is commendable and I love when stories do this.

Each character sits in a different genre of game as well. Sonic himself translates his 2D gameplay pretty well into a 3D setting, which is what most people reference when talking about this game. Tails is more of a direct racing game where you can basically skip most of any level due to the fact he can fly. Knuckles is a treasure hunting game focused on exploration. Amy is a survival horror game where you beat the shit out of robotic pyramid head at the end, and Big the Cat is a fishing game that's pretty fun after you tear all of your hair out. The last story, Gamma, is a rail shooter about one of Eggman's robots developing a conscience after learning it is being powered by a small tormented bird, before going on a rampage against its robotic brethren and self-destructing, freeing them all from Eggman's control. It's surprisingly... pointiate? powniant? *checks watch* poignant dammit. I have an English degree. Anyways robot stories like this always get to me for some reason.

Pokemon Infinite Fusion

There are a few communities where the amount of effort that can go into amateur fan content astounds me. The Pokemon fanbase is one of those communities. Romhacks have been popular in this community for a long time, many of them matching or exceeding some of the professionally made mainline titles, in my opinion, at least. Pokemon Infinite Fusion approaches that line with just the shear volume of fan content present in this game.

Any Pokemon of any stage can be "fused" with another to create a new design. Their typing and stats depend on a fairly simple algorithm, but the designs themselves are created by hundreds of incredibly talented independent artists you can find credited in the Pokedex. You can even import your own design if you wish! Obviously, with the amount of possible combinations, not all of them are artist-created, most procedurally generated, but there are just so many that it boggles my mind. Here are a few of my favorites

[Image I.D. Fusion of Mawile and Electavire created by Sadfrog, it has jumper cables in place of its giant mouths]

[Image I.D. fusion of Cofagrigus and Weavile that resembles Midna from the Zelda series created by King Peggy]

[Image I.D. fusion of Charizard and Aerodactyl created by artist Beespoon]

The game itself is a decent remake of Firered and Leafgreen with a significant post game. I have a couple issues, such as the credits being kind of vague and buried, and the gameplay being glitchy in certain areas, but this game is still being updated, so I'm excited to see what else it will offer in the future.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Ocarina of Time is the quintessential Zelda game, Breath of the Wild reinvented the franchise, but this is my first and favorite Zelda game. When I think of Zelda I think of this Hyrule's landscape, this Link's journey. I can talk at length about the perfect structure of this game, the dungeon layouts, the visuals' mix of quirky and grimdark, the fun boss designs, but I can't deny its all washed in nostalgia.

The story is about two people with the rest of their life apparent ahead of them, both cursed and disfigured beyond their imagination and forced into a role they could have never predicted. People say Midna is the greatest "helper" in the franchise, but really she's the hero right alongside our main boy. This isn't Link's story, its both of theirs. And at the end, neither of them can truly return to what they used to be; the curse is dispelled, but the change remains. For Midna this means sacrificing her closest relationship for the good of her kingdom, and for Link this means leaving the town he knew as home. Maybe he's looking for a way to find Midna, maybe he's off on a new, dangerous adventure, maybe he wants to do motion-controlled sharpshooting on Nintendo's cool new console. Regardless of his goal, his adventure changed him in a way that he can no longer live comfortably in the life he grew up in. So he leaves.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD

When this game came out, the biggest complaint about it were the broken motion-controls. Personally, they always worked fine for me, but I'm glad the switch remake added a new control scheme to make the experience more accessible. Now more people can complain about the actual game rather than the controls! Honestly never really understood why this game was so polarizing, the only big problem I had with the original was Fi's constant interruptions (which were toned down in this version), but Navi did that shit way more frequently and no one marked that as an abject flaw. It's a damn good 3D Zelda with excellent dungeons and a really compelling conflict.

This version of Link and Zelda are one of the only overtly romantic iterations of these characters. A classic childhood friends to lovers dynamic. Zelda is on her quest to restore the power of the goddess and Link is set on supporting her, no matter how painful it might be for him. A cool detail I love in this game is after Zelda seals herself up in the Orange Sap of Eternal Agony or whatever, the lines on Link's face notably lengthen and darken.

[Image I.D. Link at the beginning of Skyward Sword. The lines under his eyes are visible, but indistinct]

[Image I.D. Link towards the end of Skyward Sword, the lines under his eyes are deeper and more apparent.]

It's as if the trauma of his journey has physically aged him. Idk maybe its just a lighting thing I'm reading too far into. I'm glad this Link and Zelda get a happy ending. My only complaint nowadays is learning Nintendo almost made a "hero mode" style extra game where you play through Zelda's adventure! And they took it out! Cowards! You get glimpses of what it would be like in the end credits, like they're taunting you.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Breath of the Wild might be my favorite game to just exist in. Every inch of Hyrule is so thoroughly laid out; the environments are gorgeous, the movement is fun, there's always something in the distance worth checking out, and the towns are so heavily detailed. You can spend hours even after completing the game 100% just driving around the landscape or studying the textures and wall decor in Kakariko to find some hidden piece of storytelling. In that regard, excited to say the Tears of the Kingdom is the perfect sequel.

I was concerned when it was revealed we were exploring the same Hyrule's map, just a few years later, but they changed things up so thoroughly, exploring the same area doesn't feel like retreading old ground, but seeing how the area evolved. It's familiar, rather than identical. Not only that, but there are now two entirely new maps situated above and below the old one, each with a new, invigorating aesthetic that are so fun and exciting to travel through. Go to the Sky for some awesome Agoraphobia, or travel to the Depths for some cooky Claustrophobia. You will never know how badly I spelled claustrophobia at first.

The story is nowhere near as elegantly written as BotW, and that's fine, it's a sequel, it only needs to add on to the original, and it brought it me Tears (HAH) for entirely different reasons that BotW. The dragon's tears sidequest had genuinely shocked me with the order I collected them, and the endgame boss sequence was just so incredibly peak. On the lore side of things, and how it connects to the larger mythos, this game makes me want to strangle someone, but this is Zelda, I would not have it any other way. Mechanically, I'm never one to push a game to its absolute limit, but this game has so many tools intended for the player to do exactly that, and I'm excited to see what other people come up with.

Recently, as of writing this, the Youtuber Any Austin put out a video analyzing the woodworking of TotK and BotW, and it might sound goofy, but it got me pumped to return to it in the near future, to just exist in Hyrule for a while longer.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team Pt 1

This is the first title I'm granting the "pt 1" moniker. Some games have a definitive ending, and then a post-game epilogue that is an entirely new story that I might finish next year. This is a childhood favorite of mine I'm revisiting. The mystery dungeon games have this insane hold over my psyche and always wrench an emotion out of me like no other Pokemon games can. While that didn't change time around, I realized I had a great deal of nostalgia blindness over its story. It's not bad at all, but it plays into a lot of generic adventure story tropes while I remembered it being more unique. In truth, this game was actually my introduction to a lot of those tropes and archetypes, and it pulls them off very well. It occasionally moves into some insane territory, like your cute Pokemon guys are hunted down by a lynch mob at one point.

This game also established a lot of Pokemon identities in my head, and are the reason Mons like Ninetales and Gardevoir are some of my favorites. Its such a comfortable game to go back to, but it will always be outshined by its successor, in my opinion.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Skies Pt. 1

No, I didn't misspell that. This is a fanmade improvement hack that adds some quality of life adjustments, like shortcuts for all of your moves, and a bunch of new story sidequests. Most of the story elements are relegated to the post game, so my playthrough was more or less identical to the original. That being said, this is one of my favorite games of all time. The reason I remembered Red Rescue team as having a more in-depth story is because of this game. Upon my umpteenth playthrough of this I can confirm that it is not (just) nostalgia blindness, this is still one of the best video game stories I have ever experienced. You can withdraw all of the elements that make it a Pokemon game and you are still left with a really well written, emotionally driven science fiction story. Wigglytuff and Chatot aren't even Pokemon to me. They're just the chaotic gay couple from this game.

The gameplay is mostly unchanged from the first, with the addition of the lovable 4th generation freaks. The change of focus from rescuing Pokemon to exploring new areas and finding treasure always hooked me and spurred on my imagination as a kid, it captures the sense of wonder really well.

Link to hack: https://hacks.skytemple.org/h/skies

Pikmin

This is probably my most replayed game ever. It's a pretty short game, if you know what you're doing. There was a point where I had the map so consistently memorized I could do a playthrough in my head, lmao. Take that Miyamoto. I pirated your game through MY MIND. YOU WOULDN'T DOWNLOAD A MEMORY.

There's still something magical about the atmosphere in this game that I don't think any of the sequels quite matched. Something about music; the mystery; the sound design; the isolation. It's just one man forced to make friends with these adorable alien freaks to ensure both of their survival. Later entries would focus on the intrigue of exploring what seems to be the ruins of human society from an ants perspective, which has its own appeal, but this game feels most genuinely alien and hostile in the way nature can be, in a beautiful way. I also played this with gamecube controls for the first time in my life man fuck the gamecube controls.

Pikmin 2 pt 1

This game has come under fire in recent years, which I think is goofy as all hell. I heard people call it "the black sheep" of the Pikmin series back when there were only three sheep! And a pygmy goat on the 3DS, I guess. I understand a lot of the criticisms, but this was a dream come true when I first picked it up as a kid. Now you have an endless amount of time to explore the Pikmin Planet to your leisure! You have another dude (he sucks so much I love him)! More little freaks to follow you around! Even more big freaks who want to kill you! I love freaks. I don't know how much time I spent studying through the Piklopedia to understand the wider ecology of this viddy game. It solidified the character of Olimar in my head even moreso than the original.

People hate the caves, (or hated?) but I think that's just because it wasn't like Pikmin 1. There's something to be said about the generic aesthetics dulling down the personality of these dungeons, but it always felt like a suitable expansion of this world. They're bugs! Tons of bugs live underground! Of course that's where they're all hiding. Because of the endless time limit, they did ramp up the difficulty on some of these caves to the bullshit level, which made me want to move on once I paid off the debt. Sorry Louie! I know you like it down there anyways. With the other freaks.

Pikmin 3

I never owned a Wii U, so this game coming out at the peak of my Pikmin hyper fixation was agonizing. I staved off the insanity of not being able to play it by scrolling the fanwiki articles for every new creature it introduced and rewatching the trailer demo over and over again? Huh, I really did that. Finally being able to play it on the switch is fantastic, and I don't have to deal with that stupid gamepad. Sorry, really cool bulky controller with a tiny screen you can't see shit on.

This game is so beautiful. It almost retains the majesty of discovery that the original had. I understand why people often refer to it as the true sequel. It works to strike a balance between the tight survival gameplay of 1 and the explorative aspect of 2 by having your day count tied to the amount of resources you can gather within a day, which also allows the plot to manufacture genuine anxiety when a certain asshole steals all your shit. All that time you spent gathering a buffer against certain starvation for your dudes was worthless unless you can get it back. You can actually lose the game at this point if you aren't on top of things.

I like all the new dudes. They all fit within the pre-established universe very well and contrast nicely against the original trilogy of dudes by being nice and actually liking each other. You just feel bad that Olimar hasn't been living it up with these cool cats all this time, and is instead tormented by his asshole coworkers every waking moment of his life on PNF 404. All three of the coolcats also get original Piklopedia entries from different professional perspectives. All together we get an amateur biologist (Olimar), a cook (Louie), an engineer (Alph), a botanist (Brittany), and a tactician (Charlie). Most of Charlie's are just "can I take this bug in 1v1" and I love him for that.

Cutting this off here for now. Remember how I said I love deceptions? That also went for writing this in a timely fashion. Oh well, one person's Monday night is another's Friday morning. That's how timezones work, I think. Going back to movies next Monday. I don't watch a lot of movies overall, but I have a lot to go through.

[shiningwonderland]

Tokiya Ichinose (Repeat) Memorial

A day that felt like a dream

Translator: Koto (twitter: kotowari16) Proofreader: Mimi (twitter: _mimisaurora), Raz (twitter: agnadance) Editor: Pam (twitter: skywyld), Sasteria (tumblr: forestofsecret), Terry (twitter: turtlemudge), Mae (twitter: itoshikimaegirl)

Things have gotten complicated.

To think that I’d be co-starring with HAYATO….

Saotome-san’s choices have me perplexed.

It was precisely because I wanted to avoid getting too involved with HAYATO that I went through the trouble of choosing and enrolling in Saotome Academy....

And yet….

"Wah, oh my gosh… HAYATO-sama is coming… HAYATO-sama is…."

The sparkle in Nanami-san’s eyes was….

I know you’re getting the opportunity to see your favorite idol in real life, but aren’t you getting a little too carried away?

Today was the first time in a week that we had a lesson in the recording room….

But Nanami-san had been acting like this ever since we received the news about Ohayaho~News earlier this morning.

She took her lessons seriously, but seemed to have her head in the clouds during recess and lunch breaks.

Even now, during the preparation for our lesson, her thoughts were completely occupied by HAYATO.

"Nanami-san… Aren’t you a bit too happy to be able to meet your favorite idol?"

"Eh?! Ah, aaaaaaaaaah, meeting him, that’s ridiculous. If I could catch a glimpse from afar, if only for a second… that would be more than enough to make me happy!"

What’s she going on about…?

If she’s his fan, wouldn’t it be obvious to want to talk to him?

"You can at least talk to him in some situations, can't you?"

"Eh… ah… no… that—I don’t want to intrude on him... and I wouldn’t want to end up bothering him either…."

She became extremely wary and made herself even smaller than she already was.

"In the meantime, since I’m going to be talking to HAYATO tomorrow, is there anything you want me to bring up?"

Suspecting she might ask for an autograph, I asked the question spitefully.

"Please do your best!"

She clenched her fists tightly and sounded as joyful as possible.

That wasn't what I was asking, but….

It looked like we weren’t quite on the same page.

"It’s his job. So, of course, he’ll do it perfectly. But you are HAYATO’s fan, right?"

"Yeah! I love him!"

An immediate answer….

And with a big smile, even….

She's quite remarkable.

"If you are a fan, then wouldn’t you want to talk to him personally?"

"Of course! But now isn’t the time. HAYATO-sama is my favorite idol, my inspiration, and… my dream…. Someday, when I’ve become a great composer, my dream is for him to sing my song. That’s why, until then, it’s enough for me to just be a fan who cheers him on from afar!"

Her eyes were shining even more than before as she talked about her dream.

The sight itself was beautiful, but for some reason it only irritated me.

"I see…. But the song you should be writing right now is mine. If you fail to debut, that dream won’t come true."

"I know! I’ll do my best! First is the recording test, right? Time to study, time to study ♪"

She prepared herself for the lesson in a good mood.

HAYATO’s impending arrival didn't distract me or interfere with my classes and lessons.

However….

Those sparkling eyes, in addition to her being so excited….

There was nothing I could do about it, was there?

"Are you ready? I’m going to sing."

She was doing precisely what she needed to do. And yet, why, why was this so frustrating…?

And so, the next day.

HAYATO came to our school.

There was still something small that needed to be done, so I asked Nanami-san to take care of it and came to school early.

Ohayaho~News filming started early in the morning.

In spite of having arrived at the academy much earlier than on a normal school day, Nanami-san had already made it to our meeting place.

"So this place is going to be featured on Ohayaho~News today. How lovely."

You’re looking quite chipper this morning.

She had been like this during yesterday’s lesson, and the excitement had still been there on the way back home. Had she sustained it all this time? If that was the case, that was some tremendous energy she had.

What was it about HAYATO that animated her so much?

What was it about HAYATO that was so charming…?

HAYATO and me….

Why was it that HAYATO was the only one who provided her energy when we looked almost exactly the same…?

It had been puzzling me ever since yesterday.

I have to focus and stop worrying about unnecessary problems… because… I have work to do.

"Ah. Ichinose-san! Good morning. I hope you have a good day at work today."

"Yeah, likewise, have a good day."

I wondered what exactly she thought of me.

HAYATO or me, whose existence would have the greatest meaning to her…?

I believed I had put in some of my own effort as her partner, but….

I'd been pretty strict and unrelenting with her ever since school started, so she might not think too highly of me.

I thought of something else and hurriedly denied it: the idea that maybe she was enduring it just because my face resembled Hayato's, but was actually suffering.

Let's forget about it for now.

Because this is an important job that has been given to me, Ichinose Tokiya….

[britishsass]

Speaking of main character subtitles, what would you put for them? (and your ocs if you want 😁)

Good question! I don't have all of them, but I can come up with a few main folks... Probably during situations they don't fit as well to break the tension.

Raz: "Jack of all trades, master of...?"

Lili: "Don't call her a flower or she'll burn you."

Milla: "Basically Mom."

Sasha: "Secretly thinks socks with sandals are cool"

Morry: "He may look mad, but right now he's thinking about bunnies"

Ford: "Cooks a great burger. Also founded the Psychonauts."

Otto: "Inventor, mechanic, and big fan of terrible food combinations."

Lucy: "Would drown me for a single cornchip."

Cassie: "Author of Mindswarm, and owner of 2,675,014 bees. She's counted."

Compton: "Would rather be petting a rat right now."

Helmut: "Has the nervous energy of a hyperactive Chihuahua."

And last but not least for the canon folks...

[right after Bob is seen having a panic attack because the Motherlobe feels stuffy]

Bob: "He's totally doing okay for sure."

For a few OCs as well:

Loren: "You can hear the gears turning in xir mind whenever you ask a question."

Nightwind: "Big Brother really is watching."

Heath: "On Wednesdays we wear pink. And every other day too."

Nash: "DOES THIS GUY HAVE AN OFF SWITCH??"

Cynder: "Ashes to ashes doesn't include comic books, right?" Or "Right now, he's thinking about superheroes."

[ecoamerica]

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[a-shrieking-cloud-of-bats]

finished psychonauts 2 and I think given the act it was following up on it was incredible

personally I've always thought of psychonauts as The Best collectathon (or at the very least the best theme for a collectathon) in a time period that was absolutely swimming in the things and it's a cult classic for a reason. I would imagine the fifteenish years between the two helped but even considering that it's a fantastic little collectathon years after they've mostly disappeared (though there's more then I can count in development by indie devs For The Record; I unfortunately don't have any specific examples on hand because I just woke up).

If I had one issue with the game it's that it was a big fan of its cutscenes and it felt like it was yanking the controller out of my hands to exclusively have raz do a little pose and say a one liner, and it felt like it was happening A Lot. I might be making up the frequency of those things, but I recall getting annoyed by it quite a bit when wandering around in the overworld; thankfully it's not an issue that carries over to the mental worlds. Honestly the more I think about it the more this might just be a case of me being unsure of where to go to continue the plot after hollis.

anyway yeah good; I spent two dollars on this and as someone that is very reluctant to drop 60 on much of anything these days I think I coulda bought this at full price and not regretted it; people aren't overexaggerating when they talk this game up. You might consider psychonauts 1 first? I wouldn't call it required but it does give you some backstory and as I saw someone else on the internet say, I don't think there's a PS2 game that's aged as well as it.

[hakhub]

Tag Game- 9 People I'd Like to Know Better

Took from @exmeowstic (hi how are you I haven’t heard from you in 6 months! Drink water, have a good one)

last song: Angel- Massive Attack Definitely one of the newer fixations. Love their sound tho. Pls hmu if you have album recs for triphop/industrial!

currently watching: rewatching Utena with some friends once a week and other than that binging MST3K when I’m chilling out at home.

currently reading: Going Clear (Lawrence Wright)- EXCELLENT nonfiction read on the insanity of Scientology and by extension LRH. Buck wild so far. Also got a copy of Leviathan Wakes (James SA Corey) waiting to be cracked open.

Comics wise I’m reading Aliens Earth War when I can.

(bonus!) currently playing: coming back to Monster Hunter World! Also FGO on the side.

current obsession: Many things!

Trigun (AAAAA Stampede has made a fandom renaissance and I finally get the opportunity to info dump inappropriately on the new fans about how much I love TriMax. LIV/RAZ PROPAGANDA MACHINE LEGGO)

Dead Space (anyone that lets me rattle on for 100 years about space horror probably knows why and this is one of them lol)

Street Fighter 6 (I literally do not have enough money to find a copy and the game is sold out everywhere I look but someday I’ll get to play it instead of watching Daigo and Higuchi clips auughhh)

My Big Dumb OC Project (War/Cry)

anybody who wants to can write up answers! Random frens: @ayyydra @beetlebrownleaf @halite-reblog @leastofallourselves

[aquato-family-circus]

for the trans hc, as a nonbinary trans myself whom loves seeing xyrself in media: raz and lili are trans (binary trans, though they both use they/them) and its so funny to his family coz augustus and donatella are trans (also binary trans, but they're both mad gnc) so its just…history of t4t in the aquato lineage (ford is agender (really no mind about pronouns) and lucretia is genderfluid (she/her but she has her man and woman days intermittently). also cassie trans woman lives rent free in my head, as does trans bob. i think the world needs more old trans folks (binary or otherwise)

my longlived general hc from forever ago is that, in the same way that the psychonauts seem to attract nd folks, the psychonauts also attract trans folks (its the government healthcare and the whole anti-psychic thing thats like "why would we do that to other folks as well?" kinda mindset) so if you see a psychonaut? likely trans in one way or another

all real good thoughts, and big agree about any random psychonaut you spot more than likely being trans

big fan of dona and augustus being t4t, good for them good for them

[razputin-vodello-au-archive]

Wonder if any of the interns are star trek fans? I'm more of a deep space nine fan myself.

[Lizzie] I've seen all of the reboot movies, and I have watched the first season of 'Picard' with my sister.

[Norma] Big fans of Patrick Stewart. I may be a lesbian, but that man does something to me.

[Gisu] (Giggles) Amen to that. Speaking of Paddy, I think I have seen some of the 'New Generation' movies ...and I think I've seen one of the old ones with the whales, if I remember correctly.

[Adam] I've seen 'Star Trek: The New Generation'. It's on Netflix.

[Morris] It is!? I'll need to check it out.

[Norma] We're done with our assignments for the week, so why don't we go binge a few episodes in a row, instead of a movie?

[Adam] You know, why not? Some old school sci fi sounds pretty great.

[Sam] I'll go check it out with you guys, but I never was that much into Star Trek.

[Lizzie] I'll text Raz and tell 'm to meet up. And anyone object to me calling Millie to join us?

[Gisu] Fine by me.

[Lizzie] (Pause) You okay, Norma? You suddenly look a bit glum.

[Norma] Nothing, just ...I think that Frazie would've loved this.

[Gisu] Aw, she'll be back in a couple of weeks.

[Morris] And then you can have all the

[Lizzie] (Chuckles good-heartedly) You're all a bunch of bleeding hearts, you know that? Right, we still got popcorn?

[Sam] I think we used it all during the halloween movie night.

[Lizzie] Right ...I'm gonna call Millie and ask her if she can bring some over. (Pauses, turns to Norma) You okay with me having my girlfriend over, Norma? I don't want to make it look like I'm pushing that fact in your face.

[Norma] (Chuckles) Now who's being the bleeding heart here, Liz? Go, call her.

[Lizzie] (Grins) (Phone pings) And just got a text from Raz. I'm gonna go pick him up, you guys take care of the rest?

[Gisu] Go and collect the cuddle bug. Run, run as fast as the wind.

[Lizzie] Nah. (Casually saunters out of the room.)

[Sam] (Shouting after her) Oh, and ask Millie to bring some soda as well!

[Lizzie] (Thumbs up) Y'all better not mooch of my girl! That's my privelige!

[Norma] Okay guys, you know the drill. Put money in the pot, so we can pay Millie back.