#but like i have too many ffxiii on there lol

[kalebsded]

In my opinion, you don't have to agree:

I both love and hate the fact that the FFXIII fandom is small. Not as many toxic weirdos are here, but also there isn't enough merch, and most people have completely different ideas that you might agree with only 50% of it. If you want content you gotta risk seeing some stuff you don't wanna see, unlike something like Steven Universe where you can follow only the people you 100% agree with, and filter out the disagreeing people. I hate a lot of ships that people I know ship, and I know I love ships that those people also probably hate, but if we all want that FFXIII content there isn't much of a choice. 💀

But also, the fandom being small means that people come to ruin it less often than something like Steven Universe, which gets more and more toxic as the days pass. Higher quality stuff also comes from this fandom because it's kind of an acquired taste. Most people hate FFXIII because they're stupid and refuse to give it a chance, and the people who like FFXIII have a higher IQ than their thermostat, which means higher quality fan art, analysis' and so on.

I do wish it got just a tad bit more love, it's a crime that I can't get a lanyard for my school ID with Lightning, or Cocoon or something like that on it, and it's a crime we can't get a lot of things like that with FFXIII on em. I definitely don't want the fandom to be like FF7 though, that fandom is WAYYY too big for my liking lol. Don't get me wrong, I love everything about that game too, but I'll never join that fandom and openly post about it and stuff.

I want the FF7 fandom to leave me alone/hj 💀

[lordgroose]

1, 8, 17, 24? 🤘

1. Meaning behind your url when i was trying to decide on a url about seventy years ago, i landed on lordgroose, because i was a big fan of zelda games. i think skyward sword was pretty big at the time? anyway, Groose is the best zelda character change my mind

8. Favourite movie really close tie between Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World!

17. Piercings you want ages ago, i used to have my left earlobe pierced! i tried stretching it too much too fast and it got infected, so i removed the piercing and it closed up. i'd really love to get both lobes pierced again someday! i've considered an ear or nose piercing as well, but idk if i'll ever do it tbh

24. Tattoos you want there have been so many over the years that have come and gone while i've controlled the impulse to get them lol. i still think a triforce on my hand would be neat. one of my former coworkers has the l'cie brand from ffxiii tattooed on his arm, i think that'd be neat. or a cactuar from ff somewhere would be solid!

the number 34 is really important to me as well, i'd like to have that number on me somewhere. idk. i haven't thought about tattoos too much lately. i still don't have any! i should probably change that someday.

[selenityshiroi]

FFXVI 13 hours in:

My answer to Clive having an angst attack is to make him pet the dog after because he obviously needs the free serotonin

I also get free serotonin from petting the dog so win win

Lady Hanna MVP. She gave me new drip.

I'm assuming (as I have done since awkward teenage 'not sure if I should hug her to warm her' moment) that Clive and Jill are intended. They aren't being TOO subtle about it but it's got that typical 'chaste but yearning' thing FF tends to do in their main pairings.

Which is hilarious because this game has also given us three scenes where people had extremely unchaste intentions and also naked Clive scene so the whole typical FF romance seems both wildly out of sync with the rest of the games tone but also quite charming BECAUSE it's against the rest of the game's tone.

Margrace=Joshua seems confirmed with the hood of the cloak coming down so called it (unless it's a deliberate red herring but doubtful...which I am very grateful for because one less guilt on Clive's shoulders eventually)

I am loving this game but SE level design is still prominently their weakness

And on that note: EVERYONE PRAISING THIS GAME WHO BLASTS FFXIII FOR BEING A CORRIDOR SIMULATOR OWES FFXIII AN APOLOGY. The only difference is a) you can actually go back to the corridors in this game and b) XIII at least had actual items at the end of their corridors and not just crafting materials and 5 gil

Combat is still surprising possible for someone like me who doesn't play many action RPGs. I've died and few times but the single reset with full potions has gotten me through each bit of content I struggled with (three times, I think?)

The only 'assist' accessory I'm using is pet assist. Because otherwise I will 100% forget to tell Torgal what to do. Otherwise I'm on action mode still

The times when I've managed parrys and precision dodge/counters make me think I'm actually good at video games lol but mostly it's probably luck as I spam combos and dodges

But it's getting me through

But, seriously, this game is the baby of FFXIII Trilogy and FFXIV so it's hilarious to me that this is getting so much love when XIII trilogy gets so much hate

The combat is basically LR combat. Right down to Eikons being paradigm shifts. The level design is pretty much the same as XIII but with the freedom to go back on yourself (so...like XIII-2). The UI and quest system is all FFXIV. The Active Lore is the XIII data log but presented easier. Staggering obviously started with XIII and had been a staple since.

And the plot...oh boy is there a nice sprinkling of XIII plot dressed up in XIV medieval fantasy dressing. It's still its own thing but this is clearly CLEARLY more XIII/XIV spiritual successor than anything else in the series

Again...as a FFXIII fan I'm super amused by this because, again, XIII is hated so much but there is so much praise for this and its not actually all that different! It's just tidier and adjusted to fix a few errors of the past which is pretty typical from a progression point.

The beginning was super cutscene heavy and then everything up until getting Jill to join us was very 'story/cutscene heavy broken up by minor fetch quests and take down a small batch of monsters'. It's only really opened up now Jill is here and we actually are out in the world on a mission.

Since I AM only 13 hours in I assume I'm still quite early in the game, though. So I'm assuming this sort of exploration is going to be more the standard going forward.

So, yeah, for all my 'I'm not sure if I'll enjoy the gameplay or the grimdark 'appeal to Western Audiences' bullshit that doesn't actually appeal to me in general' concerns, I'm enjoying the gameplay and the grimdark story is not as grimdark as I expected

Clive, in particular, pleasantly surprised me because he isn't a typical gruff angst machine as some of the promotional images implied

He's still kind and polite and careful with people and has a lot of compassion (which is also why he's hurt by what happened and is dwelling on it) but he's also letting himself be driven forward into looking for answers instead of JUST dwelling on it

Him taking plates around the Inn for people doesn't feel out of place because he does indeed seem like the good sort of boy who will just help out because he's been asked

So, yeah, much more my sort of character!

(Also if anyone wants to tell me 'but XIII was actually just a bad game' then don't. Because it isn't. It had a bad start (where you weren't even introduced to the actual battle system until like 3 hours in) and it required you to actually pay attention to the people around you and the things you heard and read in order to understand the plot fully. Which was novel at the time and is now kind of expected. THIS GAME even does it (no way would you understand half the background of the nations without the datalog active time lore). There is a reason a lot of people replay XIII nowadays and go 'wait...it's actually a pretty good game'...seriously, there are a crapload of people who replayed during the pandemic or when it went on sale on steam who are like 'why is this so hated???'.)

[bleachpanda]

DFFOO - Regrets and Memories

I haven't updated this space in a long time because I've mainly been playing visual novels and I already put down my thoughts in those posts, but now I have something for this blog!

Anyway, even though Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia (DFFOO) has become too grindy for me, one thing I love and appreciate is the story. I 100% recommend it because it gives you a lot of "what-if" scenarios I wish we could see. For example, for Final Fantasy Type-0, I really hated Machina by the end of the game. Apparently, you had to play it again on new game + to properly see his reasons blah blah, but I hated him so much, I couldn't be bothered lol. But in DFFOO, they used one chapter(?) of the story to convince me how much Machina regretted his actions, how much Machina cared about Class Zero, and how much he wanted to make it up to them. I honestly didn't think I would be able to forgive him, but after reading it, I really did, and I actually really like Machina now lol! It really goes to show how much effort the people behind DFFOO's storyline, and it also shows how much they understand and love each of the games because they show the emotions, personalities and thoughts of each character so so well. Another thing that's great about DFFOO is how it fleshes out characters who didn't have the opportunity to be explored more in their respective games. For example, Ultimecia from FFVIII is a recurring "villain" in the game, but her interactions with Noel from FFXIII-2 and Zidane from FFIX show much better depth to her character and how lonely she feels than it does in FFVIII.

Anyway, I started this post because I wanted to talk about Jecht from FFX. Obviously, if it's about Jecht, it's going to be spoilers so just a heads up~ Seeing Jecht think that he and Braska and them died for "no reason" after knowing how Yuna and them were able to stop the cycle of death with Yu Yevon and Yunalesca, it really breaks my heart. As Yuna and Tidus said, it was because of Jecht and them that they were able to find another way and have the will to destroy a system they believe is wrong. But it's true though, if I was Jecht, I would probably think the same thing. There was a method all along and yet they went along with the Final Summoning thinking it was the only way. Regardless, it still saved people and they did it for everyone, but it must feel crap knowing that they could have lived and been a part of Yuna and Tidus' lives.

Another thing I like about DFFOO is how "beginner friendly" it is. They don't expect you to know or remember everything about every single FF game, so they incorporate things like lost memories or regrets with different characters to tell you the context without it being a word vomit. It makes sense within the game, and it helps people who haven't played the respective game before understand the character, and for the people who know the stories and characters, it gives off a nice sense of nostalgia whilst refreshing your memories haha.

And the best thing about DFFOO? Honestly, if you're a fan of FFVII, you'll love how many characters there are in this game. For me, I love getting to see the Turks work alongside Cloud (for now), and I love getting to see more of their interactions with others, especially with people that we'll never get to see them interact with again e.g. Zack. But really, just seeing people who are "dead" get to live another life in this world/game already makes me so happy because they're all so appreciative of having this opportunity to see the people they love again and do things they could never do before is just so sweet. I mean, I love seeing Jecht bond with Tidus, I love seeing Machina apologise to Class Zero and form a better relationship with them, I don't even know Galuf but I love seeing Krile and him get to interact again, and I don't even know Cecil but I think it's so cool that he gets to see a grown version of his son Ceodore haha. And even though I barely played FFXV, it's nice to see that Gladiolus and Ignis have their memories of the "ending" of FFXV (but Noctis doesn't), and they just want to continue protecting Noctis and are happy that they can still fight alongside him. I just really like all these little things, and I think it's such a treat to FF fans. Btw, I don't know why but this ended up becoming a review post even though all I wanted to talk about was how sad it was sad to see Jecht feel regrets over whether his decision was right. I can never talk about what I want properly lol but I guess yay, mini review of DFFOO🤭

[ultimablades]

Okay, finally going to jot down my FFXVI thoughts, things I liked and things I wish had been different. No story spoilers so this is more about gameplay/game design choices, but I'm going to put under a readmore to be safe.

Pros:

Loved the main cast of characters. For me, the characters are the most important part of a Final Fantasy game, if i don't like the main party I'm going to have a hard time staying interested in the story. I ended up loving Clive so much more than I was expecting and he's quickly become one of my favorite FF protagonists. He is full of love and his journey was important to me!! Outside of Clive, I fell in love with a lot of the other characters. The Dominants were all so different and had their own unique stories and it was fun getting to learn all about each one of them. And there were so many secondary characters I grew fond of, I was excited to see them again. Also, last note, the main villain design was good. That's all i'm going to say about that.

Along with the characters, I thought the main story was really good. I don't want to say too much about it because I don't want to talk about story spoilers in this post but there were so many epic highs that had me going "Now this is a final fantasy game," nothing hits quiet like SE money does when it comes to jaw-dropping story moments and cutscenes.

I liked the side quests, yes most of them were fetch quests/go kill this monster quest, but that's just how side quests in most games are tbqh. They gave really good lore about both the characters and the lore so I didn't mind doing them. Some of them i think should've been part of msq.

I enjoyed the gameplay, Eikonic abilities are so varied and different, it's fun to mix and match and play around with them. The stagger bar was a good edition, I know FFXIII had something similiar but this reminded me of FFXIV's burst windows in a way, cause I found myself holding my LB4's and eikonic abilites for when I knew a stagger was about to happen. Dodging and parrying were fun once I got the timing for them figured out. I also like that you can't just eat potions and face tank your way through fights.

In that same vein, I liked the look of our ascension grid. Like, just aesthetically, I enjoy the design of it.

The size of the zones was really good I thought. This was another thing that reminded me a lot of FF14, but you basically have a set number of zones that are more "open world," that you can run around in, do side quests, find hunts, kill mobs, etc. None of those zones were too big or too small and I think they struck a good balance between FFXV's massive overworld that could take a long time to traverse and the more linear, straight hallways of previous FF games. Between your chocobo and the obelisks (which are just FF14 aetherytes lol), it doesn't take long to get where you need to go.

Boss design in general was really good. It's hard not to keep making comparisons between FF14 because some bosses literally look like HD versions of their FF14 counterpart and do the same attacks, I'm not mad about it but as an FF14 player I kept going "Hey it's blah blah blah." But boss fights were fun! Especially some of the endgame ones really made me think about my eikon setup and what abilities I needed to use.

Eikonic battles in general I think were a lot of fun and the biggest spectacles in the game. They don't happen frequently enough that I got tired of it, the controls for the eikon are simplified so I think it would have been annoying to do them too much. But they always happened at a story high point, so you're like "OOOOHHHHHHH" when you're doing them. The high point of the game for me was an eikon battle.

Active Time Lore in general. I love it. I'm kissing it. I want it in every game moving forward.

I didn't personally use these but I love the accessibility features they added that do things like making dodging easier, auto-linking your combos together, etc etc. More accessibility features is never a bad thing! This story is good and I want everyone who wants to experience it be able to. And now they've made it so you can turn off the motion blur, which didn't bother me but I know it bothers a lot of people, so I'm glad they included it. Should've been there on launch but hey, better late than never.

Cons:

The pacing in this game can be.....rough at times, in a way that is very FF14. The highs of this game are soooooo high, they are so good, but then the lows are like trying to walk through mud. You will do the coolest boss fight of all time and then the next quest will be "go do this boring task." I don't mind downtime in a story – it's good to have an ebb and flow, you need the slower bits to enhance the epic moments. I just wish they had used their downtime better. Again, it feels very FF14 msq in that regard, if you have played FF14 than you will know what I mean. I mentioned liking the side quests and I wish they would've used some of that downtime to integrate those stories into the main one instead of having them be optional. There is some good bits about our main cast members that you can miss if you don't do the side quests, and I think that could've improved the pacing a bit – slows things down without making it feel slow cause we're still learning about our party members.

The crafting system in this game is a joke. It doesn't matter, it feels like a tacked on afterthought. You don't have to think about it at all. You will never want for crafting material and sometimes you will upgrade your gear only for a stronger item to become available at the shop after the next cutscene.

RPG elements in this game in general are pretty weak. There are no elemental weaknesses or anything of that nature, there aren't a lot of stats, so you don't really ever focus on that, you're just going to use whatever gear is strongest. The ascension tree for your eikonic abilities is cool but beyond that, you don't really have much control over Clive's numbers, you feel me.

In that same RPG element vein, you have no control over your party member's gears or stats as well. This makes sense because who is in your party changes depending on where you're at in the story. I wish I would've had more input in my party's actions though, outside of Torgal who is very easy to forget about, you can't give commands or plan attacks or anything like that. The party is just always AI controlled and will go off and do their own thing. Mainly, I wish there had been more party synergy. This is something that FFXV does incredibly well, and since I just replayed that game before this one, I think it makes it even more stark to me. in FFXV, you can issue commands to your party members called "techniques" and you can do thinks like link strikes that are unique to each party member that really makes it feel like you're fighting together as a team, even if the other characters are AI controlled. I would've loved something like that in this game, party members doing specific team attack when they're near Clive or piggy backing off specific eikon abilities as his. It's very easy to forget they're even there sometimes. I literally just realized as I was typing this, you party members don't even have their own health bars!!! They literally can't die!!! I also wish there was more banter between party members, though that may just be a personal want, cause I loved that in FFXV. Idk I love a good party dynamic in an RPG and there just. Isn't one at all in this game really lol.

This story is really dark at times and I wish there had been more moments of levity and lightheartedness to balance it out. Maybe they just felt like it wouldn't fit tonally but I find having those lighter bits in a dark story can make us care about our characters even more! The story isn't all doom and gloom but there are no classic FF moments of silliness, you know.

Purely a personal gripe – there is no fishing mini game, gotta ding it for that.

Overall though, the game is legit like an 8.5/10 for me personally, I love it. I had a good time playing it. I'm still playing it when I'm not raiding. I'm going to beat it on Final Fantasy mode. I recommend it to anyone who loves Final Fantasy because this is without a doubt a final fantasy story.

I think the things that I listed as cons will be forgotten by most people in six months to a year and what will stick with people is the spectacle that was the boss fights and a story about the deep bonds of love that make us who we are.

TLDR: Game good

[dazais-guardian-angel]

Fic Questionnaire

@ford-ye-fiji tagged me to do this; thank you. ^_^

How many works do you have on AO3? 106

What's your total AO3 word count? 395,897

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? 27 fandoms, though for most of them it’s only like one or two. They are Akatsuki no Yona, Bungou Stray Dogs, My Hero Academia, Hunter x Hunter, Tales of Zestiria, Tales of Berseria, Tales of Graces, Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Xillia, Tales of Hearts, Tales of the Rays, Professor Layton, Noragami, Pandora Hearts, Dai Gyakuten Saiban, A Series of Unfortunate Events, RWBY, Tangled the series, Doki Doki Literature Club, Ori and the Blind Forest, Vanitas no Carte, Genshin Impact, Kiznaiver, Boku dake ga Inai Machi, Kuroshitsuji, Ai the Somnium Files, and Charlotte.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? “Pictures, Posters, and Tender Beauty”, “Plus Est En Vous”, “My Reason”,  “I Am Here, Too”, and “A Bandage for my Scars, and your Heart” ...Not surprised that four out of five of those are MHA fics, but I will never understand how that Tangled the series one I did got so insanely popular..... maybe because the show director himself acknowledged it. 0_0

Do you respond to comments, why or why not? I try to, though I have to shamefully admit I pick and choose which ones I respond to. I appreciate every comment I get, of course, every writer does, but idk, I just feel like a broken record responding to all similar shorter comments with “Thank you so much!!! I’m so happy you liked it <3″ or something like that... Is that cruel of me? >_> I also feel weird responding to comments on my super old stuff, because aside from a few exceptions, I don’t really like most of my old fics anymore alkgklflkkl and I barely remember them enough to be able to give a reasonable response to comments on those. Instead I just put all my energy into responding to longer, more detailed comments, because with those I actually have more to work with to say back... But again, I love all my comments!! I’m really sorry if I don’t respond to your comment, it doesn’t mean I’m not grateful, I just don’t know what to say back OTL

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending? Haaaah, there are a few, but proooobably the most angsty ending would be in “Smile, and maybe tomorrow, you’ll see the sun.” Since the thing is basically 12k words of agonizingly drawn-out All Might death... :’) Though I meant for the actual ending to be somewhat hopeful/bittersweet? and I surely have other ones that have more painful endings... But that’s the obvious one that comes to mind, since I’ve had multiple people yell at me for it. :)

Have you ever received hate on a fic? I can’t remember any instances of outright hate, but I’ve gotten some... odd comments every once in a while... Or just some annoying criticism that the person didn’t intend to be mean about, I don’t think, but that realllly wasn’t warranted. These comments are very rare though.

Do you write smut? If so what kind? Noooo way in hell lol

Have you ever had a fic stolen? ....I mean, not that I know of!

Have you ever had a fic translated? Yeah, I think I had at least one someone asked to translate into Russian, although they put it on FF.net lol

Have you ever co-written a fic before? No... I really want to though. Multiple friends and I have planned different ones, but we haven’t gotten around to doing any of them yet because I’m into different fandoms atm and also dealing with health problems that distract me.... My ex-friend and I had a major one that was in the planning stages, but then she stopped being my friend so it never got off the ground. :’) I’m still upset about that...

What's your all time favorite ship? Mmmmm that’s hard; I don’t ship that much at all, so although I have a few favorite ships, one in particular doesn’t really stand out to me as my hardcore OTP.... Buuut I guess I would say Snow/Serah from FFXIII; I love ff13 so much, it’s so special to me, and those two are just the absolute sweetest and the heart and soul of the game 🥺❤️ I haven’t written anything for them or ff13 in general, but maybe someday.

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will? I only ever have one WIP at a time, so..... Hopefully not my current long one, I am constantly trying to slap myself for thinking, intimidated as I am by it with all my ideas for it and all the research I need to do. :’)

What are your writing strengths? I think I’m really good at writing characters’ emotions... the emotions they show, and everything they’re feeling internally. I really like the stream-of-consciousness style of internal monologue I’ve started using within the last few years; I think it’s very... cathartic? In general I just think I’m good at writing softness, cause I definitely feel the soft feels rereading my stuff lol

What are your writing weaknesses? Motivation.... starting a writing session and not getting distracted.... ADHD.... what do I do. :’) Although I just said I like that stream-of-consciousness style I use, I often feel like I use it too much, or things get redundant, and too wordy and overwhelming, bah..... I’m also shit at just.... knowing things, like worldbuilding, but like, real-world stuff that everyone knows, but I’ve been living under a rock my whole life and not done a lot of things that are normal for most other people, so I struggle with that in my writing, which is why all my fics not-so-subtly eek around mentioning things like food and irl places and so much else, haaah.... now I’m got myself writing 1800s Victorian London; someone save me

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? Ehhhh only do it veryyyy sparingly, like when a character is startled and might briefly revert to their native language, or something similar. I just did that in one of my recent fics, actually, and looked up a few Russian words, being super anal about getting it right.... and I still got a comment correcting my Russian, even though it was only like 3 words in the entire thing, with nothing else to say about the rest of the fic... it was a little frustrating :’)

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for? Akatsuki no Yona/Yona of the Dawn. That was the first series that really got me into fandom and making online friends, and gave me the courage to try writing fics; I’m so grateful to it for that, and it still remains one of my favorite mangas <3 Ah, to be able to pump out fics as easily and quickly as I did back then...

What's your favorite fic you've ever written? I think it’s still “Manufactured Hearts, Real Happiness”, the sole Tales of the Abyss fic I’ve written. TotA is my favorite game of all time, and I wrote this for a Tales big bang that happened a while back; it turned out much longer than I ever anticipated, one of my longest fics to date, and pretty much exactly how I wanted it to be, which is always the best feeling... I was so happy to feel like I did my favorite game justice. :’) Now.... my dream is for my current WIP to become my new favorite, if I can pull it off right; we’ll see :’)

Uhhhh I’ll tag @sixtyfourk , @cenally , @arcane-palm , @kyoukalay , @magicmetslogic , and @evevoli03 , if any of you want to do this~

[themelodicenigma]

I’ve seen a lot more talks recently going around about Ultimanias, Benny Matsuyama, Maiden, etc. Here, on the Twitter...If there is one thing I’m genuinely curious about, is what exactly sets everyone’s understanding about epitexts? For supplemental materials like guidebooks or reference/fan books and how exactly they’re produced? How much do you understand about the history of Studio BentStuff and their way of making said materials, or even about anything related to authorship and publication?

There are just too many things thrown around so easily on the internet these days, not enough productive conversations about these things man. It’s...weird.

It’s easier to have a conversation with someone if I understand their foundational logic for this stuff, because a lot of the things I see are very strange. Or at the least, isn’t practical for what goes behind the production of these types of materials. Authorship and production knowledge is important—having a pragmatic approach for having a sense of what happens “behind the books” is a must have for decent conversations about guidebook/fan book making. Whether it’s for materials that are purely informational, for entertainment and uniqueness, or the sweet spots between—right where BentStuff typically specializes in.

There are SOOO many companies, SOOO many writers and editors, that exist and create this stuff, obviously going way beyond just Japanese related companies like that of the Famitsu, Dengeki, or V-Jump brands. But, obviously given the tags, FFVII or Square Enix games are the topic for today, along with BentStuff. For this stuff (heh), there has always been more than just Studio BentStuff, and even for them, the foundation of how they make their books is what makes them, I’d say, one of the best companies that do what they do. And what they do, how they get it done, was always set before the Ultimania series. If you don’t know about how they made their ALL ABOUT series or their Kaitai Shinsho (解体真書) series, then you don’t really know about the Ultimania—the former two being the heart of the “research and analysis” and “project”-minded approach they use to create that series. I know many don’t understand Japanese or don’t want to go through the trouble of working out translations, but....there is SO much information out there, on their website, in their books. And to be honest, so many of these misunderstandings start to not make sense to me when we have had whole online communities for decades dedicating themselves to translate stuff and provide information.

We can regurgitate the same quotes from the same books for 20 years, making circular arguments, but not talk about this in-depth?

I’ve been planning on releasing this huge thing, this “archive” essentially, of information about BentStuff, but I’ve realized that it’s honestly easier to talk about these things on a more case by case basis with interested people. Because there’s a lot, and I want to be able to talk to people about this stuff so people can really get where I’m coming from. Maybe I’ll post something at a later time to get something started, but this would definitely be a thread where it could start.

But, like, I gotta cover something I saw recently.

Honestly what set this off for me is someone saying that Matsuyama is a “rando writer” (as in being external to BentStuff) or was “commissioned” to write the Diary Entries or Maiden....

It’s just...so interesting the amount of confidence one has when saying these things without any of the proper evidence or understanding on the subject. I’m not trying to be harsh, but, it’s just weird. I just want to throw this out there, real quick:

Matsuyama essentially co-founded Studio BentStuff along with a few other writers from the BASIC magazine company, the lead in that being Akira Yamashita, who is the CEO. Matsuyama is one of the Directors of the company, along with Ichiro Tezuka, a name ya’ll probably recognize from FFIV stuff. This company was built by writers and lead by writers, but many others (some from BASIC too) eventually joined them to create what we have now. He ain’t no “external” nothing, though when it comes to their published books, it is true he didn’t do much until the FFVII Kaitai Shinsho. 

Also, BentStuff write and edit [proofread] their own books, even if there are others who will supplement this, typically the publishing editors. e.g. like with Kaitai, those in the Famitsu editing department (whoever published Famitsu at the time) or for the Ultimania, editors from SE. Naturally that is to say, they get whatever they need if they can from the developers of what book their making—this is the same for any company who makes guides, really, if they have the opportunity to be in further contact with them. However, that caption of a picture you keep quoting from the book? A line from the character profile? Story Playback? You can literally see in the back of the book who was in charge of writing that—go read their staff comments on their website (if you don’t feel like translating like I did, just use Google, you can at least get a general gist for most comments). There’s a lot (they stopped including comments around the FFXII Battle Ultimania), with Ultimania being the latest series, but check out ALL ABOUT and Kaitai Shinsho stuff, too, but there’s even stuff for Dragon Quest. It’s a treasure trove, and the staff say some funny things too a lot of the time. Either way, you’ll appreciate what it is they go through to make these materials.

On that note, of Matsuyama’s writings (particularly of the Diary Entries and Maiden for this discussion), he was never commissioned specifically to write what he does—his own staff comments on the BentStuff website and the peritext (or lack thereof) in the books counteract this alone. Not to mention, it isn’t practical in how the process of their book production works.

Yes, BentStuff as a company can either get the license or be hired to write a guidebook, but in determining who does what for the book, this isn’t done the same as, say, Jun Eishima being hired by SE to write the FFXIII or FFXV novels. Or, even, what Matsuyama would’ve had if he was able to write the originally planned novel for Lightning Returns. The decision of who does what is mostly internal of that of BentStuff, for example, who does the Scenario section, or the maps, who writes the prologue if included, who does the character profiles, boss data, speedruns, time charts, technique tables, etc. Whatever. Matsuyama, just like everyone else, does his decided part, and we can’t any more say he was specifically “commissioned” to write his creative materials than we could for all the other members doing their roles. At least, not without the proper evidence. (get into more below)

Either way, don’t create the wrong idea by using "commission” to describe the reasons as to why Matsuyama included these materials—the most practical and rational reason being, you know outside of him co-founding the company, that many companies allow creative freedoms or projects to be had about their works. Canonical or not—this isn’t new. If a company founded by writers gets the opportunity to write guidebooks, it makes sense for them to seek the opportunity to work in their own “projects” to make their books unique, and the idea of this started all the way back in their ALL ABOUT series, precedent to both Kaitai Shinsho and Ultimania.

There of course, has been other things, like “Square Enix said” when it comes to anything written in the Ultimania books, the notion that certain presentations within a guidebook suggest canonicity, that the more creative materials [their “projects”] Benny or other BentStuff members create are canonical simply because they’re in the books, etc.....oh boy. 

He isn’t a “rando”, nor was it “commissioned”, and most of his creative works are limited to the books for entertainment purposes by BentStuff, for the book, and typically nothing more like being officially a part of the respective series canon. Unless evidence supports his or other’s authenticity as author’s for the series in question, I believe the default thought for ALL his materials should be that of fun readings for the books, expressions by BentStuff. That honestly goes into a different conversation about the canonicity of any of Matsuyama’s or others materials in the guidebooks and about authorship/authenticity, but the important thing to note is the two emphasized points above. If you want to get into canonicity, we definitely can as, honestly, it isn’t really too hard to cover with the proper evidence, which is also from in-book peritext or Benny’s own comments. Other observational stuff too. There are only a handful of materials that can really be discussed based on evidence of Matsuyama’s authenticity as a writer for the respective series. At the top of my head, included would be the short stories for Brave Fencer Kaitai Shinsho, the FFXIII Omega story, and maybe, his materials for the series SaGa—some like Beender just setting-wise aren’t canonical, but the value of his interpretation for this series can be discussed considering he has worked on one of the games scenario at a later date.

I digress.

Like I said, I’m just open to discuss this stuff without having to write a huge informational dump of like, their entire history, though I know people who are researching themselves would find that useful. It’s just a lot. But if any of that above is something you believe or disagree with, please, feel free to tell me why and we can get this ball rolling. It’s fun to talk about, at a certain point, I didn’t spend all my time researching just to be miserable. 

Eh, sort of.

Misery loves company, so....

[thechocobros]

Wasn't it Nomura's fault Versus 13 never came out in the first place though?

It’s almost 2019 and people still think that what happened to Versus is all Nomura’s fault? Even after all what happened last week in Square Enix? Listen, son. That is probably one of the funniest metropolitan legends going around on the internet. Let me try to be objective and explain you. 

EVIDENCE UNDER THE CUT

Let’s start from the basis. What kind of person is Nomura? Is he really such an inconclusive person like most of the Tabata-stans like to think? Hard enough. He’s the creator and director of the Kingdom Hearts saga, which counts at least 10 games/movies/phone games, has a super complex yet completed plot, colloborated with freaking Disney and brought millions of dollars to the Square Enix company. He produced and did the character design for another successful title, The World Ends With You. He did the character design for a BUNCH of Final Fantasy characters, he even directed Advent Children movie, cooperated with Sakaguchi and Kitase for years… i mean, that’s what i call a curriculum. So, think with your own brain: can a person like this really be the single responsible for what happened to Versus?

Of course, Nomura isn’t jesus christ, and he has indeed a weird personality, like most of artists have. For ex, he’s an introvert, he’s very sensitive, he has his complex vision of things, he isn’t really able to endure a lot of pressure and he needs time to figure out things. Also, he doesn’t apparently like to be forced to do what other people say. This type of personality caused him a couple of troubles in the past, since Square Enix liked to have such an artist bringing money to the company, but at the same time kinda hated not being able to control him.

In fact, that’s more or less what happened according to a lot of articles and interviews collected in the last years (and if you can read italian, message me and i’ll give you even more sources): 

When Nomura started to work on ff13versus, there were a lot of things going on in Square Enix. Three major games were supposed to form the ambitious Fabula Crystallis saga and Nomura was glad to take the direction of ffxiii versus. He dreamt big about it: since it was not a numbered chapter, he really wanted to make it different, with extremist themes and innovative gameplay. Nomura invested a LOT in the Versus game, especially on the emotional level (if you saw him during the rare interviews of that time,you would know it. Nomura gets extremely vulnerable whenever it comes about his own creations). For this kind of project, he clearly needed a lot of money and staff and Square Enix initially promised it to him. 

Was Nomura a naive idealist in dreaming out loud? He certainly was.

Because Square Enix had other priorities. For example, the engines.Play Station 3 offered great opportunities but the research team to work on the new engine was formed only after the Fabula Crystallis saga’s announcement, which lead to a literal race against time from the very start. Nomura admitted immediately that the engine wasn’t ready to stand at the level of what he wanted to do(which was VERY ambitious)but Square Enix wanted anyway to present the next games even if it was very soon. When the engine, named “Crystal Tools” was kinda ready, a huge group of people started to work on FFXIII. When i say huge, i mean huge. Nomura was left alone with few people in his department and of course he did what he can with the staff he had until 2008.As a matter of fact, in 2008, Nomura had already arranged almost everything in the plot and in the concept design and in the trailer that was showed during the same year the chocobros and Stella made their first appearance, but … the game didn’t have basically anything else. Just the plot and the concept. Too many things had to be done, and nobody was ready to make them. In fact, Square Enix was focusing on FFXIV, which was back then a huge flop to be saved. For years Square Enix struggled with this problem, took staff and money away from Nomura in order to save the online game that couldn’t compete with other games of that time. I said this in simple words, but the operations connected to FFXIV had  disastrous consequences on Versus. Here we’re talking again about engines, programs, obsolete platform etc etc: all these things mean nothing for most of us fans, but they’re extremely important for games development. Square Enix’s dark time began in 2011 and ended in 2013, with millions of dollars damage. Not only Versus was a victim of the attempts of saving FFXIV, also other titles. 

In all this mess, Nomura released again a long Versus trailer, but he said once again that no matter how detailed the trailer looked, the project was far from being started. Nomura even said to “forget about Versus”, because he knew that he had no possibilities to work on it. He was alone with a couple of people, how was he supposed to work on it? No money, no staff. Yeah, what would you have done in his place? 

Nomura wasn’t happy about this messy situation. Because of it, he “broke up” with Yoshida, he basically didn’t make any appearance in 2011 and 2012, he basically had a depressive phase. In spite of this, he managed to focus on another important title like Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance (@ KH fans: DDD was written in Nomura’s dark time and this may explain a lot of things lol)

No matter how horrible this impasse was, Nomura still was deeply attached to FFXIII VERSUS. In those years, in a sort of desperation act he considered the possibility of turning the versus game into an action game, or even a musical. Anything, but to renounce to this project. 

Then, Play Station 3 reached his death time, and Play Station 4 raised. To say it in simple words, almost all the work they did on Versus had to be thrown away, because Square Enix decided to move the game on the new console. 

Back then, Hajime Tabata’s team was the only one free after the release of FF Type-0, so Yoichi Wada decided to integrate Nomura’s team with it. Tabata and Nomura were a good team at the beginning, actually. One was pragmatic, the other visionary, they were supposed to be the perfect combination. 

But …  in 2012 Square Enix lost 105 millions of euros, Square Enix’s CEO Yoichi Wada resigned and Yosuke Matsuda took over. Square Enix really needed to change things for good and start anew, so in 2013 they quickly announced Kingdom Hearts III and FFXV to try to hype fans again. 

FFXIII VERSUS - now FFXV - was presented at the E3 in 2013 with another trailer, but again the trailer was deceptive. because it was realized completely in CGI. In fact, the game would have been completely changed in the next years. In spite of this, Nomura finally seemed to have a good time thanks to it and to Kingdom Hearts III announcement. 

But after the E3, Nomura’s presence in the FFXV department started to weaken— 

And then, the new CEO Yosuke Matsuda reorganized entirely the Square Enix departments. So after 7 years, Nomura was moved away from the FFXV’s direction and replaced with Tabata before he could even take a breath. It was just the CEO’s decision. Matsuda thought that two other projects needed Nomura the most, aka KINGDOM HEARTS 3 and FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE.

If we want to be honest, though, we are forced to admit that “we take you away from ffxv because kh3 and ffviiremake need you more” was just an excuse to hide something more painful that happened inside the Square Enix’s building walls. For years, Square Enix refused to explain things in detail, Tabata himself said with a cold expression that it was a decision the “high places” took. 

All we can notice is that after 2013, Nomura clearly started to reject every FFXV’s mention. He acted all along like Versus was his baby and really was offended when Square Enix took it away from him. 

What happened after is history: Tabata completely overturned the game concept, the story needed to be rewritten and some scenes and characters were repurposed or removed. Final Fantasy XV sold well at the beginning (more than 8 milions copies i think?) but mostly because it was advertised for 10 years straight. As a matter of fact, the hype slowly dissapeared update after update, and yes, the DLCs didn’t go well as expected and actually caused a big loss to the Square Enix company, which lead to Tabata’s resignation.

So, long story short.

Whatever was the real reason beyond the change of director in FFXV, point is that Nomura wasn’t fired, he was promoted with even more responsability. So, if his contribute to Square Enix was really so terrible, wouldn’t he be forced to reseign like Yoichi Wada and Hajime Tabata? yeah, that’s something you should think about. 

Most of Final Fantasy XV fans who blame Nomura for Versus’ failure don’t even know half of the things i wrote above. They just contribute to spread this stupid rumor, without having any source. 

You can like FFXV, you can like Tabata etc, but truth is that this game has been run very wastefully for 12 years by the SQUARE ENIX COMPANY AS A WHOLE. 

FFXIII VERSUS, NOMURA, FFXV AND EVEN TABATA… THEY ALL SUFFERED AS A RESULT. 

Reblog to stop ignorance. 

[dragonmickie]

LIST TIP 10 GAMES

thisll be a lil hard since i cant think about that many things at once but ill give it a go

1. a tie between dragon age origins and dragon age 2. origins has more like... it gives me an old mood? idk what that means have fun figuring that out. theres some parts i dont like about both but theyre better than inquisition lmao

2. Spyro 3 year of the dragon when I was young and my cousin still lived in arkansas whenever she visited she liked to play it w me. for whatever reason we called it “spyro egg hunt” which like. not wrong! I also like the second and first game too but 3 is my fave

3. the legend of Spyro dawn of the dragon. i know like, unpopular opinion, but this is another game i used to play w my cousin that i really enjoyed. also you got to play cynder. my dream of playing a girl dragon... i also like a new beginning

4. Final Fantasy X! as I haven’t actually finished it yet I probably shouldnt have it on my faves but I used to watch my mom play it So I Have Emotions About It. also yuna is pretty and ffxiii (the only other game ive actually played) sux u.u

5. this is gonna be dorky but sonic heroes. I liked it alright as a kid but now that ive played + finished it and posted me playing it on youtube i have feelings about it lol... also i think its fun dont be mean to me

6. Psychonauts! its just a bunch a lil psychic dudes. fuck the meat circus though

7. also stupid but Left 4 Dead. I used to play it w my uncle and cousin and also have played it w Roren lmao. playing it alone is boring though

8. TECHNICALLY i havent played it but resident evil 4. I constantly watched my uncle play it as a child and i thought leon was so cool and that ashley was cute lol

9. Portal 2 although I haven’t finished it lol.. im dumb. i chose the second bc i was also bad at the puzzles in the first game

10. Stardew Valley! its just nice and chill whats not to like about ithonorable mention minecraft of course

this was kinda hard to do and the list isnt in accurate order but im bad at knowing what games i own and like lmao... but that’s basically it!

[devilreno]

name : sir dorksalot, lol only some know the real one nickname/s : i have loads but they’re top secret, so make some new ones for me here, hm? height : 5′5 (168 cm) nationality : B)..... alien favourite fruit(s) : strawberries, cherries, melon, watermelon, banananaaa favourite season : spring favourite scents : wild berries and cotton candy cuz it’s sweet and I wanna bite favourite animals : dogs, dogs, dogs, cats, hamsters (they tiny and adorable ok) tea, coffee, hot cocoa : would go for the tea and hot coco average hours of sleep : sometimes 5.... sometimes 7.... sometimes 10... sometimes 2. depends.  when my blog was created : LOL a few days ago i crashed in here like ‘sup, i’m ‘bout to meddle with y’all random fact : Dunno 'bout myself but did ya know it's actually very common for a dog's paws to smell like Fritos? The corn chip odor which some human noses interpret as more of a popcorn scent. favourite food :  i eat anything,  ‘cept bitter things. ew favourite t.v. shows : attention span…… too short (leaving this as how maes said it LOL) favourite movie : too many to count favourite vine : i’m a bad bitch u can’t kill me sexuality : bisexual, leaning towards girls pronouns : he/they favourite book series : don’  bash on my Harry Potter books! The Hunger games, Divergent and their other books. favourite video game(s) : ffvii, ffxiii, ffvx, until dawn, assassin’s creed favourite subject :  english, arts guys or girls : fictional guys and real girls lolol jus’ sayin’ last time I cried : don’t ask me this shit, i don’t remember what I should be doing : sleeping favourite fandom(s) : ... sECRET.. but ff is one of them

tagged by: @officiums

tagging: just steal it~

[dizzymoogle]

Why’s Xii so underrated anyway? I haven’t played it yet and It’s mostly the spinoff in FF that are underrated

I have no idea. Maybe cause it’s tied to the Final Fantasy Tactics Universe? (Ivalice, uses the races, has judges etc…all stuff from Tactics) I don’t know many people that have played the Tactics games. So some people may not be too familiar with the terminology, keeping up with all the stuff. (judges, espers, occuria, nethicite, etc) Though if you wanna talk about confusing terminology I’m looking at you FFXIII…lol

It also brought in the job system, that some fans don’t really care for (the job system in general I mean, not XII’s system in particular) Kind of took from FFX’s sphere grid with it’s License Board but some people didn’t think it went over as well as the Grid.

I know one person I talked to didn’t like the whole political aspect of it (the whole empire trying to overtake everything) but some big bad nation trying to take control of everything is not uncommon in games (looks at FFXV…lol)

idk I just know a lot of people seem to overlook it but it’s very good game. It actually has a lot of good reviews though so it’s not underrated critic wise lol

[jazzraft]

2, 5 ,12 ,13 for the fanfic asks!

fanfiction writer asks

2) What fandoms do you write for and do you have a particular favourite if you write for more than one?I’ve mainly been writing for FFXV, which is my favorite fandom to write for because it has my favorite ships! In the past, I’ve written for FFXIII, often crossing it over with FFXV, and a tiny bit of FFVII:CC, and while I haven’t done many other Final Fantasies beside those, I’ve played plenty more that I would totally write for if the right idea hit me in the face.

5) If you had to choose a favourite out of all of your multi chaptered stories, which would it be and why?Hmmm… I think right now it would be Secret Ingredients, because it’s super self-indulgent food porn and witchiness and throwing both of my favorite pairings into one beautiful threesome - and also a gift for my buddy! (Though it’s not technically a chapter story, my all time favorite is the Dark at Night series as a special mention.)

12) Who is your favourite character to write for? Why?Noctis and Nyx pretty much come with the territory lol I find that I relate to Noctis a great deal and Nyx was a surprised me with his complexities once I started writing him and putting myself in his point of view. Exploring each of them on my own outside of the game’s narrative has really opened up their characters a lot for me. Also, Aranea is an absolute delight to write because she’s just so wickedly funny and I love practicing her scorching wit lol

13) Who is your least favourite character to write for? Why?Hmmm… I guess that Ardyn would be the easy answer. I find him difficult to get right and often think the few appearances I have him in where he’s not the POV character are a little too on the creepy side and not enough on the genius egomaniac side. In the few pieces I’ve done where he is the central focus, it’s been like pulling teeth to finally get to a point where I think he really sounds like himself. He’s evil and difficult even in a metatextual context lmao

[kleptoyade]

Get to know me Meme!

I got tagged by my housemate buddy @tacotits​!

Rules: Answer the 20 questions in a new post and tag 20 blogs you would like to get to know better.

NICKNAME: Klepto

GENDER: female

STAR SIGN: pisces

HEIGHT: 158 cm (5′2″ish)

TIME RIGHT NOW: 2:35pm

LAST THING I GOOGLED: fahrenheit to celsius

FAVORITE BANDS: The GazettE, SuG, Alice Nine, Linkin Park, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Golden Bomber...

FAVORITE SOLO ARTISTS: uhhh..... I mostly listen to bands... れをる? Kyary Pamyu Pamyu!

SONG STUCK IN YOUR HEAD: Surprisingly I currently don’t have one stuck in my head?? That’s rare

LAST MOVIE I WATCHED:  “Neko Ninja”, about a ninja who is trying to protect a cat who he thinks is his dad shape-shifted into cat form. It was half hilarious and half awful.

LAST TV SHOW I WATCHED: Touken Ranbu Hanamaru!

WHEN DID YOU CREATE YOUR BLOG: 2014 for this blog (but before that I had tumblr on and off since 2010)

WHAT KIND OF STUFF DO YOU POST: I’m not super active on this blog these days, but I reblog fanart and random things I think are funny or cool, and my and my friends’ cosplay/art 

WHEN DID YOUR BLOG REACH ITS PEAK: This blog probably peaked in 2014 or 2015, but the higest peak of my tumblring was in 2013 when I was updating my visual kei tweet translation tumblr every day.

DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER BLOGS:  Check out my personal blog where I write about my adventures! And my cosplay blog! And I have a bunch of other blogs actually, but they’re not active anymore.

DO YOU GET ASKS REGULARLY: no, I always get really excited if there’s something in my inbox lol

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE YOUR URL: because I’ve had the nickname Klepto ever since my Starcraft days, and I like Kansai-ben

FOLLOWING: 126

POSTS: 2,551 

HOGWARTS HOUSE: Ravenclaw!

POKEMON TEAM: You mean like what team I had when I played Pokemon, or what my team would be now? Purely based on my favorites, it would probably include venusaur, jolteon, and... idk some water pokemon too

FAVORITE COLORS: Tropical ocean colors; mint green, aqua, etc. Also orangey-pink.

AVERAGE HOURS OF SLEEP: Recently I’ve been trying harder to get at least 7 hours a night

LUCKY NUMBERS: 3, 7, 9, 13

FAVORITE CHARACTERS: Ookurikara, Shokudaikiri Mitsutada, Sarutobi Sasuke, Cloud, Yuna, Tidus, almost everyone from FFX and FFXIII and most from FFVII too, Shion, Aoba, Nakigitsune, I HAVE A LOT OF FAVORITES if I keep going we’ll be here all day

WHAT ARE YOU WEARING RIGHT NOW: a pair of dark gray jeans that I bought at the secondhand shop as casual clothes for Kuri, a black t-shirt (Utahiroba Jun & MINT NeKO collab) over a light gray long-sleeve shirt, and the very fluffy blue knitted sweater with fluffy white trim that Mabs gave me for Christmas

HOW MANY BLANKETS DO YOU SLEEP WITH: Three in winter (one of which is an electric blanket), and one in summer

DREAM JOB: This says “dream job” so these are not really realistic but, professional blogger?? Fashion designer?? Something else related to fashion/makeup/making props for movies or cosplay??

DREAM TRIP: I don’t know if I have one dream trip, but there are a lot of places I want to go! Hokkaido for the snow festival, so many more places around Japan (and revisit some favorites like Sendai), Australia, and sometime I’d like to go back to Sakura-Con with Mabs and Agi!

I really don’t know who to tag, but this is fun so definitely do it if you’re interested!

[toradh]

And for the top 5, I’m sending your ask right back at you! =D Top 5 (or 500) pieces of video game music!

HAHAHA EVERYTHING YOU DO IN LIFE COMES BACK TO YOUOK HERE YOU GO, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER (except alphabetical per game lol)

I’m gonna… put this under a cut for length. Oh boy.

Chrono Cross (fun fact: I’ve never played the game but I own a copy of the soundtrack):-Scars of Time-Fields Of Time - Home World-On The Beach Of Dreams - Another World-Departed Souls-Dragon Knight-Prisoners Of Fate-Magical Dreamers - The Wind, Stars, And Waves ~-The Dream That Time Dreams-Dragon God-Life ~ A Distant Promise

Assassin’s Creed II:-Earth-Ezio’s Family-Venice Rooftops (my first contact ever with AC was the Soul Calibur version of Venice Rooftops and at that very moment I KNEW I had to play the game that it originally belonged to. No kidding!)-Master Assassin (it’s from Brotherhood but yada yada)

Assassin’s Creed III:-Main Theme-Ratohnhaké:tonThe Liberation soundtrack was also amazing, I could listen to the Main Theme for days.

Dissidia Final Fantasy:-the openings and ending medleys, and also that new version of The Man with the Machine Gun is killer

Final Fantasy IV:-the goddamn opening of the Nintendo DS remake

Final Fantasy VI:-Terra’s Theme

Final Fantasy VII:-the battle theme and boss battle theme, who doesn’t love it-the main theme once you had spent enough time in the menue to actually ever hear the end of it-Cosmo Canyon AKA Valley Where Stars Fall whatever and Become a Great Soldier-Words Extinguished by Fireworks-Listen to the Voice of the Stars-and of course Aerith’ theme-Towards the Mountain-The Day of Our Last Moments-Perfect Jenova-Carmina Burana reloaded uhm I mean One Winged Angel, too, of course-also the opening and ending credits from Crisis Core which is a mediocre game, but it let me hack n slay, had the infinitely more lovable protagonist, and it had some cool music remixes

Final Fantasy VIII (oh boy, the FFVIII OST is my fav right after IX, although the latter wins every other race in the franchise)-Liberi Fatali and also the Overture AKA the motherfucking opening credits when you insert Disc 1 for the first time-The Landing-Force Your Way (honestly this game has some of my favourite of favourite battle themes EVER; the feeling of beating up bosses after spending hours, HOURS in the menue to set up your team is incredible lol; like OH MY GOD MY PLAN ACTUALLY WORKED)-The Mission-The Stage Is Set-Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec-Premonition-Drifting-The Oath-Trust Me-Lunatic Pandora (gives you a headache if you listen to it for too long tho lol)-Compression of Time-The Castle-Legendary Beast-Maybe I’m A Lion-The Extreme-the Ending Theme (yep, including Eyes One Me! I mean it’s cheesy but it kinda grew on me…)(basically the entire end of the 4th disc is a blast, not gonna lie)

Final Fantasy IX (buckle your seatbelts!):-Place I Call Home/A Place to Call Home/whatever AKA the opening credits-Living by the Sword-Hunter’s Chance-Marsh of the Q Tribe-Sword of Confusion-Eternally Good Harvest-Roses of May-City Under Siege-Protecting my Devotion-Light of Destiny-Chamber of a Thousand Faces-Mount Gulug-Four Mirrors-Concurrent Battles-Terra-You Are Not Alone-Assault of the Silver Dragons-Organum (which is an obscure organ version of the opening credit theme which gets a billion variations throughout the game anyway; it’s on a bonus soundtrack CD that I bought at one point before I finally got my hands on a copy of the actual OST)-and of course the One True Melodies of Life

Actually 90% of the soundtrack

Final Fantasy X:-People of the North Pole-A Fleeting Dream-Suteki Da Ne, too

Final Fantasy XII-the boss battle theme-the Esper battle theme-also the Imperial March I mean Theme of the Empire

Final Fantasy XIII:-Blinded by Light (VIOLIN BATTLE THEME VIOLIN BATTLE THEME)-Saber’s Edge-Lightning’s Theme-Caius’ Theme from FFXIII-2 (which was a waste of time BUT it had Liam O’Brien. Can I just have a poster of Liam O’Brien’s voice pls)

Final Fantasy XV (I still haven’t played this thing lol):-Too Much Is Never Enough (I bought sheet music lol)-Somnus (both instrumental and /w lyrics)-Departure-Wanderlust-Ardyn and Ardyn II-Labyrinthine-The Hydraeans Wrath-Homecoming

(notice a pattern lol)BTW every single Distant World CD is a fucking gem and you should buy them

Kingdom Hearts whatever (I’m not gonna go through the individual titles):-Dearly Beloved in all versions ever released-Disappeared-Another Side-all of Vanitas’ battle themes-Ventus’ themeand of course Hikaru Utada’s songs I love that woman; and also the orchestral/instrumental arrangements that were used in the trailers.

Tales of Berseria:-BURN (why is it capslocked tho)

Tales of Destiny:-Yume De Aru Youni-Irony of Fate in that goddamn epic remix from that orchestra CD thingy

Tales of Symphonia:-Starry Heavens and the sweet instrumental version that plays when you thought you had lost all your teammates but they come back and help you while you rescue that one team mate whose affection for Lloyd was highest

Tales of Vesperia:-Ring a Bell

Tales of Xillia:-Progress

Tales of Zestiria:-White Light-Zaveid the Exile-Flaming Bonds are Being Tested-Melody of Water is the Guide in Spiritual Mist (can we set a petition for Mikleo to play his own trial theme on the piano, yes, sign here, thank you)-Competing with the Honor of the Land-Fight Between the Wind and the Blinking Sky-Rising Up

(why do these trials themes have so long names bleurgh. So yeah AKA ALL THE TRIAL THEMES)

(basically all the Tales openings lol)

The Legend of Zelda… oh god why are there so many games.So I’m only gonna go through my two favs:

Ocarina of Time:-Lost Woods-Windmill Hut (aka the Song of Storms)-Gerudo Valley

The Wind Waker:-Dragon Roost Island-Molgera’s boss fight theme

also the bonus orchestra CD from Skyword Sword was so good :O

Valkyrie Profile:-Take A Flight

Xenogears:-Stars of Tears-Grahf, Dark Conqueror (only a JRPG would name a villain Grahf tho lol)-Premonition-Awakening-The One Who Bares Fangs at God-Small Two of Pieces (PLEASE I NEED SHEET MUSIC FOR THIS WHERE CAN I FIND SOME; legally if possible lol)-the battle themes aren’s bad, either(fun fact: I’ve never played this game, either)

Xenosaga stuffz(never played that either lol. I didn’t listen to the complete soundtracks, either, only bits)-The Miracle-Kokoro (whoever came up with that song title has guts, but it’s seriously super beautiful, and Joanne Hogg makes a comeback on vocals!)

BTW I never played anything Wild Arms, either, but I really the openings for the first and third game in the series, respectively.Oh and that one boss battle theme from Shadow Hearts II! (I think it’s called Hardcore to the Brain?) I actually never played that thing, but I watched my sister (who’s super fond of the game!) for like 90% of the plot I think.

…Would you believe that this a selectionI… I’ll better not go into movie soundtracks*faints*

…Uhm, do anime songs count lol

[triggerxhappy]

1, 12, 20?

ASK THE MUN ABOUT THEIR WRITING | ACCEPTING

1. As a writer, who is your biggest inspiration?

I don’t think I have one big inspiration, but more some amazing writers that I love, that probably inspire me somehow, like J. K. Rowling, Suzanne Collins, Emily and Charlotte Bronte, Arthur Rimbaud, Alexandre Dumas and many others that I don’t think about right now :P

12. Is there a quote from a piece of literature that holds great value to you? What is it and why is it important to you?

“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers toturn on the light.“ from J.K. Rowling (Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) is seriously one of my favorite quote in the world. It’s just so true ? Like, even if it’s not always easy, if we cheer up the others, if we’re this light for the others, it helps so much. ♥

20. Who are your top three favorite fictional characters and why?

Just three ? Omg this is so hard… LOL if you ask 3, i have ne choice to just say FF characters because I’m so FF trash

Noctis Lucis Caelum (FFXV) - Noct is so relatable. One of the main reason why I love him that much is because he feels so real ? He has flaws, he’s shy, he’s awkward, he cries… He’s amazing, really ♥

Locke Cole (FFVI) - Locke is the first fictional character I fall in love with when I was like 3-4 years old LOL He has everything I love on a character: he’s funny, very nice to everyone, and has his tragic past that follows him everywhere even if he doesn’t talk about it and prefers to look strong. I want to have a remake of FFVI so he could have a voice and a beautiful hq design ♥

Lightning Farron (FFXIII) - Light is so strong, physically and mentally. She’s very human, too, even if she could seem cold at first. If she wants to be strong that much, it’s because she has to be, so she could really help people she loves, and she’s just a wonderful character. I admire her a lot ♥

[surprisebitch]

anyway! for those who played FFXIII, i’m curious what your party or battle team is like? just wondering! i have my own but yeah, i’d really love to know who you ended up using mainly and if you have different formations for farming, i’d love to know too!

me currently, i’m considering having Fang, Lightning and Hope endgame cause Fang is the best commando, Lightning is the best ravager, and Hope is the best Medic. 

for dealing with sooo many enemies though (like more than 5), i have Lightning, zaddy Snow (best sentinel) and Hope 

for dealing with mission monsters, i have Lightning, Sazh, and Hope. cause Sazh is the best synergist and you can end up beating high level monsters even at an early part of the game.

for farming adamantoises, i have Vanille, Fang, and Sazh cause Vanille is the best Saboteur.. and i love how it really fits her character lmao. seemingly sweet but actually is super secretive lol and yeah spam Death spell tbh

but yeah, for the ultimate weapons, i’m considering just having Fang, and Hope get their ultimates. i think Lightning is super strong without her ultimate but yeah all of my members have max tier 1 weapons atm while Lightning is the only one on tier 2 and im earning to level transform Hope’s Hawkeye

and yeah, there are various paradigms i use haha

but yeah! what’s your party like? im curious to know! :)