#but not burn them to make money in a gacha game

[danieyells]

Thank you for sharing the tdb affinity lines! I know I won't be naturally getting any of these for ten years (if the games even still around by then) lol.

I was wondering if you could share any interesting lines of Taiga's? No pressure tho! It's just after seeing some of his lines from other people, he seems to have a bigger role in the story and I'm curious if any of his lines give any more clues to the situation on hand. Also would be interesting to see if he genuinely starts caring for mc besides wanting to like. Eat her for lunch lol.

It's no problem! And yeah that's part of why I wanna share them--getting the units to high enough affinity is a pain and to even see any of the home screen dialogues you need an SR or SSR, which means good luck with the gacha buckaroo.

YES TAIGA MY BELOVED. he's my favorite behind maybe Towa. Chances are if you've seen the one line you've seen the only one referring to that, although there is one more that may be related? But it might be general. As for caring for the PC, this is a joseimuke so. The characters will always love you more and more with time. And Taiga most certainly does haha doesn't prevent the hunger from rising up though. friendly reminder to feed your Taiga!

No affinity required:

"...Who're you? Don't pop up out of nowhere like that. Wouldn't want me to shoot you by mistake, would you?"

"What are you again? A middle school student? A transfer student? Got it, an honor student! Gyahaha! I'm never gonna remember that!"

"Playing with these morons is exhausting... Lulu gets all mad if I win too much..."

"That smells amazing... Shit, where's it coming from?"

please feed your taiga.

if you have messages:

"Huh? You got a letter. If it's for me just reply for me, yeah?"

Affinity 1:

"It's too early for your bleating. Shut your trap unless you wanna get abducted."

once again, welcome to sinostra's house of human trafficking--

Affinity 2:

"That dealer sucks. He's been here the longest? Why should I give a shit? Fire him."

Affinity 3:

"You wanna know what kinda meat this is? Anomaly meat. What else would it be? ...Who the fuck're you again?"

he recognizes you enough to ask 'again'! progress! also I guess he almost exclusively eats anomaly meat.

Affinity 4:

"Oops. I lost all the money Lulu gave me. Better make a run for it before he notices."

Affinity 5:

"I'm bored... Hey, you over there. Come play five finger filet with me. Gimme your left hand."

five finger fillet also called the knife game is when you put your hand on a table and stab the gaps between your fingers with a knife in a sequence! Obviously stabbing the hand being played with means you lose. Taiga's chibi plays it when he's idle!

Affinity 6:

"They nabbed one of ours? You guys aren't toddlers. Deal with it yourselves."

it's fascinating that there's such a faction divide within Sinostra that members of Taiga's side get abducted by Romeo's, and probably vice versa. And I bet Taiga doesn't care about any of this. Or at the very least it's not that serious to him.

Affinity 7:

"Gambling and shoot-outs are pretty much the same thing. Morons who panic mess up and get dead. Gyahaha!"

Affinity 8:

"None of you morons have any flair for the table. Lulu needs to raise the minimum bet already."

isn't it your casino too. . .can't

Affinity 9:

"You're a real smooth talker, huh? Don't remember anything you said though. Ciao!"

your seduction attempt didn't fail because of a bad roll, it failed because taiga failed a perception check lmao. . . .

Affinity 10:

"Can't sleep? Sit over there. I'll deal the cards."

He'll play with you until you fall asleep. . .or maybe he'll sit around making ASMR card shuffling noises until you doze off.

Affinity 11:

"...I'm not gonna play today. I'm sleeping. I don't care if the place is burning down— don't wake me up."

fun fact, he's making this face when he says this lol

Affinity 12:

"What's that guy's name again? You know, the one who's gonna become a judge or a cop or something. ...Whatever, I'll just forget it again."

at least he was interested in knowing for a second! maybe he'll give him a nickname.

Affinity 13:

"I spy, with my little eye, a tasty-looking kitty-cat.... Come over here so I can pat you. ...Nah, changed my mind. Scram."

maybe it's just my interpretation but I like to think he's hungry and he saw you and he mindlessly tried to lure you closer because he wanted to eat you, then came to his senses and told you to go away so he wouldn't do something stupid like trying to eat a human. . . .

Affinity 14:

"I'm starving... You, get my usual. It's breakfast time."

i wonder what his usual is.

Affinity 15:

"How does Lulu always have so much energy this early in the morning? It it 'cause of all that expensive water he drinks?"

Affinity 16:

"Stop talking. I don't care."

Affinity 17:

"You going to bed already? Aren't you a good little kitty-cat. Whatever, do what you want."

he'd rather you stay up with him but he's not attached enough to try and make you stay up. . .yet.

Affinity 18:

"You want a surefire way to win at the table? Doesn't exist. You just gotta keep playing."

Affinity 19:

"Hey, go warm up my bed for me. What do you mean how? Get in there, dumbass."

either you're gonna get fucked or you're gonna get disappointed when he really just wanted a warm spot that smells nice to lie in and he makes you leave after he gets in bed. Or maybe he'll let you sleep in the bed with him and use you as a little body pillow!

I'd also like to add that the expression he's using is called "using the "adult" face "adult" so uh. leaning more towards you're gonna get fucked here.

Affinity 20:

"Where you going, kitty-cat? Class? You don't need to go there. I got something more fun in mind for us."

the expression used here is once again simply labelled "adult" so. . . . No going to class and no going to sleep.

Affinity 21:

"That's it, kitty-cat. I feel like my luck'll change if you're around."

Affinity 22:

"I'm starving... This isn't enough... I want more... More..."

they've gotta stop letting him go so long without eating because he clearly loses his mind if he doesn't eat enough meat.

Affinity 23:

"I'm the only one who sees how fucked we are. But he won't believe me. So just let it all burn down—I don't give a shit anymore."

if Taiga sees the future or knows the future because of timeline/loop shit, then that Taiga doesn't seem to actively care much about being Captain or doing his job makes sense. He knows that if nothing changes everything's going to fall apart anyway so there's no point in trying. We don't really know what his stigma does either--in fact, his "good luck" could be that he can see and react to future events, so he knows things like what cards will be drawn and such. But he's getting tired of everything always going so bad no mater what he does in response to what he sees. And Romeo(? it doesn't say who he's telling about how bad things are getting) isn't helping to make changes. . .so he's just giving up. But now you're here, maybe you're different somehow. Maybe somehow you're an outlier in this timeline. Maybe injuring you was on purpose to change something in the future he saw. Maybe that's why he's telling you about the spy. . . .of course this is all speculation. Until we learn what his stigma does or what he means by 'ditch this future' then. . .all speculation. But there is a wickhive post that someone can see the future. And the more I think about it the more I wonder if it's Taiga. (also because i'm sure someone will point this out, the wording 'let it all burn down' is specific to the English dialogue, so it's not a callback to the pre-prequel sequence where the school is on fire.)

Affinity 24:

"If you don't like pain then quit flailing around. I'm getting a taste of you, so close your eyes and shut up."

welcome back to the torture chair! You're probably getting cut like a piece of good meat before he just sinks his teeth into you! Your hands and legs are bound and he's not going to let you get away without eating at least a little of your flesh, so suck it up. That or scream and hope somebody comes to rescue you. . .but the desire to eat the pc never goes away. Most likely because he just wants to eat fresh meat in general and the more he likes someone and the more they hang around him the more he wants to eat them. . .although I assume he unlearned it and now you're here and he just can't help himself. . .if they did consume demons to become ghouls, I bet you're the only thing short of maybe Romeo that'll taste anywhere near as good as that demon did.

Affinity 25(max):

"You're not getting away from me, kitten. You're here till death do us part, whether you like it or not."

oh and also you're married. y'know in case you wanted to do that. or even if you didn't. you don't have a choice in the matter.

Spring:

"(Yawn) Man, why am I so tired today... Someone spike my food?"

"What? Cherry blossoms? Is it that time of year already? Man, that snuck up on me."

"Fuck it, I'm taking a nap. Come over here and be my pillow."

"What's with that vacant look on your face? You need more excitement in your life? Come over here, I'll play with you."

Summer:

"Too hot... Hey, I want my breakfast on ice. They got tons of it over on Jin's turf, go nab some."

hey uh why do you remember Jin by name. like i know Jin's short enough of a name to not need a nickname but also you remember not only Jin but where he lives and how cold it is? Then again you started in the same year, maybe Taiga remembers all the third years since he's known them for two years?

"Why don't we make a giant pool in Sinostra? It's so hot here. I'll put up the cash... Wait no, I used it all yesterday."

YOU COULD HAVE A NICE POOL IF YOU WERE MORE RESPONSIBLE WITH YOUR MONEY.

"Quiz time—where's Lulu going all dolled up on a stinking hot day like this? Answer— he's cheating on me! Gyahaha!"

THEY ARE FEEDING MY SHIP WHAT DO YOU MEAN TAIGA JOKES THAT THEY'RE DATING. they have such awful married couple who hate each other but also love each other energy.

"Shower? I don't wanna... Shut up and strip me already then."

man he has no fucks to give that you'd be taking his clothes off and seeing him naked huh. . . .

Autumn:

"Good weather for sports? You get a lot more exercise fighting to the death. Gyahaha!"

how frequently do you think he fights to the death. . .probably a lot less than he used to. poor baby needs his deadly enrichment. Also the fact that he finds the idea of fighting to the death fun explains why he smiles when he takes damage in combat lol

"That looks tasty. Gimme a bite."

so given one of the most common autumn foods in japan is like sweet potatoes(and also the pc probably doesn't eat raw anomaly meat) I assume this means he does eat normal food, just prefers to eat raw meat especially from anomalies? Either way, i am once again remind you to feed your Taiga.

"We're going out. I've been eating more lately and these guys are too slow. Gonna go stock up."

you've been eating more lately? because it's autumn? what are you, a bear about to go into hibernation?? also he's taking you grocery shopping i guess. or anomaly hunting. . . .

"Watch your back. Way easier to jump people when it gets dark so early. Gyahaha!"

i'd like to think he stuck his gun under your chin and snuck up behind you from in the dark here lol

Winter:

"You trying to pull my covers off? Wanna die?"

my boy does NOT like being cold. Or getting up in the morning. So winter mornings? just leave him in bed.

"I wanna go nab some food from Harry's place, but it's too cold for that shit..."

"Oh, I got an idea. I just gotta use someone as a punching bag to warm up. Hey you guys, stand over there."

Taiga beating the shit out of his own men because the exercise will keep him warm. . .why do people side with you again?

"I don't like the cold... Come on, come be my hot water bottle! Let me cuddle up to you!"

Getting all tangled up with Taiga under his blankets while he shivers because Sinostra is in a desert and deserts in the winter can be FUCKING COLD especially at night. It gets cold and he's just the whiniest little meow-meow. Until he gets hungry.

His birthday:

"Huh? Whose birthday? Mine? Gyahaha! Totally forgot about it! Grazie!"

it's okay Taiga, I forget my birthday too most of the time.

Your birthday:

"Is it your birthday today? That little twerp told me. Okay, you can take one thing from my room."

Ritsu fuckin doxed you? is that legal? Doesn't Taiga's room have like a pile of coins in it. . .is one coin 'one thing' or is 'the pile of coins' one thing. . .then again the background is AI generated so. not really sensible and doesn't say much about him sadly. considering taiga's described as spending his money wastefully I assume he buys a lot of random things he doesn't need or use--then again he probably spends most of it on gambling. But considering he's offering you anything out of his room, I assume there's a lot of nice stuff in there.

New Years:

"You gonna go skipping off to a shrine together just to get your fortune told? That's dumb. Here, let me guess what it'll say—you'll have an okay year."

Valentine's Day:

"Is that for me? Sure I'll take it, but it better be edible."

i was gonna say 'has he never gotten valentine's day chocolates before?' but i remembered that he probably doesn't really remember if he has so. this is probably his general reaction to gifts lol 'is it money and if not can i eat it'

White Day:

"What's that expectant look on your face? Lulu was harping on about mimosas or something before. That what you want?"

of course he doesn't know what white day is lol but he does remember that Romeo had something tasty!

April Fool's Day:

"I'm gonna die soon, you know? And I'm taking Lulu with me. ...Gotcha! Gyahaha!"

wait you didn't remember white day but you remembered april fool's day? maybe someone tried to prank him first lol remember guys, suicide is not an appropriate april fool's prank!

Halloween:

"Trick or treat. Where you gonna put your chips, kitty-cat?"

I think if you're trick or treating then they're supposed to decide if you get the trick or the treat. . .but it seems more like Taiga to give you something that could be a trick or a treat lolol russian roulette is a totally acceptable halloween party game right? of course!

Christmas:

"Come on Santa kitty, tie a ribbon 'round yourself and get over here. Gyahaha!"

at least he knows what gift he wants! unfortunately you don't know what for but based on his expression you may not get eaten. . .depending on your definition--

Idle:

"...This is boring. I'm outta here."

"Are you done yet? I'm hungry over here."

Absent:

"Long time no see! You decide to ditch this future too? Sorry I'm not dead yet."

AND HERE"S THE LINE THAT'S CAUSING SO MUCH SPECULATION. . .what does that even mean Taiga. . .what do you know, what have you seen. . .and can we fix this future instead of leaving it to rot--

UH. YEAH. I THINK I'VE SAID ENOUGH HAHA. . .everything Taiga says is so. . . ./gestures weakly) IT REALLY DOES SEEM LIKE MORE IS HAPPENING THAN YOU REALIZE RIGHT??? The game's still so early on we probably won't learn for a very long time lol. . . . But, yeah. Taiga definitely loves you--and lusts after you. As his affinity goes up, he asks "who are you" a lot less, did you notice? He starts to remember and just say "kitty cat" and "kitten", because that's who you are and he can remember that. So far the only people he remembers are Romeo, Hyde, and Jin it seems. And you.

[randomnameless]

To be honest, after that last interview I’ve seen a lot of negativity on my dahsboard regarding Nopes and Fodlan in general and...

TFW I couldn’t join the salt fest earlier :’(

Did IS or KT work on Nopes?

“Yes”

Well, through that interview...

I know I’ve been racking IS over the coals lately, because I’m a filthy “elitist” and I still remember the Tellius, Magvel and Elibe eras and I deeply miss them. Even if we all hate how IS seem to fall on “tried’n’true” tropes like brainwashing (especially women) so it means a character #didnothingwrongitwasntthembutmagic - 

That interview, about Nopes, tries to sell the “everyone has a point and valid reasons to fight” and...

I really thought more than I should have about a stupid shitpost project I wanted to post, but I realised it might leave a bad taste in some people’s mouths and I don’t want to make anyone feel ill at ease when shitposting about this “game” but - I thought that nonsense about a “civilizing mission” is now commonly accepted to be utter nonsense, and just a stupid leitmotiv to justify conquest, imperialism and, because those two always go along, racism.

The shitpost idea was to “replace” France in this with a certain Empire and copy-paste Faerghus, Leicester, Brigid, Dagda (but not the lizards, in an ideal world they are, “finally gone” from Fodlan) - but no, it’s a real poster that really existed and displayed a mentality that also existed during dark times, and if I can shitpost with Lion King memes, I won’t do the same with that thing.

But damn if I wasn’t expecting the FE series to take the “With 79600 Men France brings peace and the benefits of its civilisation to its 60 millions of indigens” 1931 propaganda seriously, or at least portray the person who support this “opinion” as someone who has a valid point of view, clashing “ideals” with the rest of their world.

Still, who am I talking about, Supreme Leader or Clout ?

“Yes”

Adrestia wants to bring its “reforms” and “enlightened” ideas about how the world should be beyond its frontiers - that shouldn’t exist in the first place because once upon a time Adrestia encompassed the entire continent so MAGA.

Clout? Wants to “free” Faerghus and its king from “antiquated” notions like chivalry, loyalty, devotion by conquering the land, nearly waltzing on the capital and killing a beloved benevolent figure.

And so...

Why is it suddenly an issue? I mean, I love games where people fight for “reasons” and not because we need a final boss else we can’t close the route, nope.

Beyond talking about games and the messages they convey - I expect more from this “conflict” than *shrug*, *memeshrug*, *sigh* and “okay okay let’s say I agree now just please shut up I don’t want to interact more than necessary with you”.

If the conflict is based on “irreconciliable ideals”, then why don’t we see those characters argue about say “ideals”? We only get a glimpse of it in AM, and then the topic switches to sandwiches because merchandising needs to sell and Shinon can’t make people pots of earl grey or half-naked cipher cards.

In Nopes? Everyone (sort of) agree that the “Rhea Piñata” is bad and they could just get rid of it, then nothing bad will happen.

Clout drinks a Kool-Aid off-screen and no one, after some “mandatory” eye raising from Judith, even asks explanations, nope.

Nopes erased Supreme Leader’s belief that non-humans shouldn’t rule over humans because they, as a race, have no regards for human life.

And Dimitri is hit the hardest with the *shrug* + *memeshrug*, not even voicing any complains about this kool-aid because, just, let’s get over with this nonsense.

So why are they fighting?

“No U” was already used in Nopes, so here they need a Deux Ex Machina and a lot of idiot plot balls to, say, ask Supreme Leader why she wants to conquer Fodlan and remove Rhea from the surface of the continent - no sir!

Why Dimitri doesn’t kill them both the second they’re out of space, because they’re trampling his country and killing his men for no reason?

We all laughed about “no U” and thought it was something exclusive to Supreme Leader because, well, Supreme Leader and marketing means she can’t be challenged - but it was actually in this verse’s DNA!

We don’t see Clout challenge Supreme Leader when she offers Kool Aid - he drinks it off-screen.

Dimitri doesn’t challenge Clout or Supreme Leader about their invasion of Faerghus - he evens sips Clout’s Kool Aid !

Where is Elincia “You cloak your desire to rule with pretty speeches, but it is petty avarice nonetheless!” to the two persons invading a third country for, uh, reasons, or “to civilise them”?

I know I’ve been talking a lot about this game as of lately, because imo it’s a mirror of what we could have, but in TS -

When three people argue about which path to choose, “sacrifice the few for the sake of the many”, “Bootstraps!” and “sacrifice the many for the sake of the few” - those three characters argue, and shout, and fight, and defend their opinions, and ARE challenged by, well, the characters supporting the other options.

In FE16 we had “no u” and “sandwiches”.

In Nopes we have “maybe I’ll stop chasing you and trampling your country if you stop running away teehee ~”

Dimitri accepted to shelter Rhea and the Church because they requested help? “Okay okay maybe you have a point maybe they’re bad and they should be gone”. Where’s the progression between “I’ll accept to help them because even if it means war with Adrestia - provided they weren’t MAGA’ing our way no matter what we did - because that’s the right thing to do, they helped us tremendouly in the past and now, so today, I’ll help them too” to “mkay Clout you’re maybe not wrong” ??

Back to this interview, it finally appeared clearly -

FE16 and Nopes - Fodlan - isn’t a traditional FE verse.

IS worked with KT to make FE16 and Nopes (maybe Nopes is more KT’s bby than IS’s).

Water’s wet, what of it?

From what I could read around, and from a friend who played more Musous games than I did - Musou games aren’t supposed to tell a story with a “complicated” or “serious” plot, it’s a beat them all where you combo randoms with the units you like the most. No earl grey, it’s just to have fun!

FEs... are T (or S?) RPGs, a story based type of games. There is a verse, characters, relationships between those characters, etc etc. Earl grey can exist, because characters are written in a way to make them “interesting” to the player who’s supposed to interact with them in their world.

So what is Fodlan? A Musou or a FE verse, or the worst of the two?

We have a conflict where people will always fight (FE?) so you have to pick a side (FE+Musou?) to see where/how the story is going to end (FE)?

But contrary to “traditional FE”, the characters in Fodlan leading the factions... don’t interact. There is no opposition between them à la Elincia v. Ludveck or even Chrom v. Gangrel, we only have “no u” or  “teehee~”.

Why?

Why ???

Because the 3 factions have to be different and refuse to side with each other, even if it is super artificial (FE16′s Gronder Battle v.2 says hi) ? And this artificial “opposition” is even more important than the plot? So even when a Red Emperor does Red Emperor things, for this reason we will still have 3 factions?

To still have the choice to pick “your faction” to “beat the others”? 

FE16 tried to cook up and come with an explanation, even everyone hated Clout’s myopia in Gronder.

Nopes drops all pretenses, all leaders have “reasons” and their routes are just “their POV” about how to change things.

Even if those reasons are really reminiscent of Paris’s 1931 Colonial Exposition.

It wouldn’t be an issue if Nopes was an usual musou game (Ganon does Ganon things!) but since Nopes wants to be a FE game?

It is an issue. In FE Giffca roasts Ashnard, in FE, when Lundgren offers Kent a chance to surrender Lyndis to become one of his knights, Kent (tries to) kill him. When Nergal/The Black Fang ask Eliwood to abandon Ninian to them and they promise they will let him leave? Eliwood draws his sword.

No U doesn’t work. In FE, where those things are said, usually, it doesn’t work well because the Lord/Hero/someone you’re playing as gets rid of the person making those outrageous claims. 

Ultimately, we’re left with people who have to fight against each other, but who can’t... really hold any animosity against each other, leaving the illusion of a posibility where they could have talked (and not warred... for an artificial reason). Does this feel foggy enough?

Tl ; Dr (because this is already long enough) : Sorry to Pat, but FE16 (and Fodlan?) has always been thought as a nod to FE4 and Belhalla’s Academy, i.e. how Sigurd, Quan and Eldingan used to go to the same school together and became friends. And how tragic it is that they have to fight against each other.

However, FE4 built up this conflict, and... Quan sided with Sigurd.

In FE Fodlan? People oppose each other for... reasons that aren’t built upon and we’re supposed to be sad that they fight each other? Why? Did we hear about past history between them when they were friends? Or saw it on-screen? Why should it be a tragedy?

FE16 tried to give an answer, and it wasn’t convincing.

FE Nopes... per the devs, doesn’t even try. It’s just here, they all have their POVs and reasons, and they fight because they fight, and it is sad that they have to do so because. Look, they could have been friends under other circumstances (maybe if one of them didn’t try to invade the world to MAGA, or if the other didn’t start a war on the other with a third party involved but we’re not going to talk about that) but it doesn’t so here you go.

So while I wanted to say Nopes is a 66% KT product and the “two writers” meme could really imply that IS wrote AG (and AM in FE16) while KT wrote SB and GW -

At its core, FE Fodlan is not a FE verse, but a hybridation of KT’s approach to games and stories with FE’s approach, and just like a liger, it spectacularly failed.

Why, it’s not wonder so many people actually liked the Fodlan cast in FEH (or in their first apparitions) there was no pretenses or illusory conflicts/friendships to be had, Supreme Leader’s words and “ideals” could and are challenged, something that never happened in FE Fodlan. 

Could FE Fodlan have been something really nice/good with IS being only dev ?

...

Ultimately, I don’t think so, FEH is... imo, the best window we have on IS and... well. The writing sucks, but moreover... IS wants to make money through this gacha game. 

Some people already wrote a lot about it, but Supreme Leader’s partly designed to sell alts in FEH. So, judging by how everyone hated Supreme Puppet and her “Deedee?” - I’m not sure FE Fodlan, made exclusively by IS, would have been a better thing.

----

Real Tl;Dr : If KT works on the next FE game, I’ll seriously consider not buying it because, for me, this crossover was an utter failure.

If IS releases a new FE game right now, I’m still going to be doubtful and wait to see if people have a good opinion on this game.

To be clear, the only FE game I’m going to buy with closed eyes at the moment is a remake.

[rinkkuma]

୨୧ BLUE LOCK BOYS AS BFS pt. 2

ft. chigiri hyoma, reo mikage, & sae itoshi

tags. a bit of cussing, the use of “blackmail” in reo's part is used jokingly (no toxic relationships here!!), reader implied to have longish hair in chigiri's, gn!reader, all fluff ! / author's note. thank you sm for the support on the first part!!

CHIGIRI HYOMA

loves doing his haircare routine on you, and if you're too tired, he'll be a sweetie and do it for you! as much as he loves skincare routines, but his hair is his top priority.

tests new hairstyles on you and you pull every one of them off, but when he tries them on himself, he's upset about how they don't look as good on him as they did on you.

plays those random dress up games online, (gacha life) and makes you and him.

has disney movie night marathons with you! his favorites are definitely tangled, (totally not because he just wonders how she takes care of that much hair) frozen, the little mermaid, and lilo and stitch. sets up the couch with lots of pillows, blankets, and snacks to make sure you're comfortable! you end up not using half of them and just use him as a pillow the whole time.

wakes you up early (which you don't mind) on sundays so you guys can go to the local farmer's market. people running the stands compliment you two for being such a cute couple! chigiri buys lots of fruit while he's here, (he believes farmer's market fruit is the best, he's right) especially strawberries. he also likes going to strawberry fields with you to pick strawberries during the sunset.

would love to adopt a cat with you! (canon that his favorite animal is cats! sorry if you don't like cats) has a whole list of names planned in his notes app and a bunch of toys he plans to buy for the cat.

REO MIKAGE

a little cliché, but look at anything for a little longer than one second and he buys it for you. i mean, what else is he supposed to do with all of his money? if you could fill a room with all of the things he's brought you just because you looked at it, you would need multiple rooms.

his whole ‘hidden’ photos folder is full of silly photos he has of you just for a little laugh every once in a while. (totally not to use as blackmail and to send them out of the blue to you) truthfully though, he doesn't think you have a single bad photo.

has a dedicated section in his closet full of clothes for you whenever you stay over at his house mansion. (bro probably has a walk-in closet that could be a size of a small bedroom)

two words, staring problem. just having a conversation with him, and his eyes are burning into your face, carefully listening to every word as if you're giving a very important speech. (which you are in his mind) you could be talking to a friend across the room, and he will be staring and pouting, waiting for you to hurry and come back to him. point is, man is staring at you 24/7.

although you two are dating, still stalks you on social media. (shamelessly) deadass one day he got up to use the bathroom and he left his phone on the bed, and you decided to peak at his phone, (not trying to be noisy, just curious) and saw that he was looking at the instagram highlight you had that was photos of you. you never let him live it down and still tease him relentlessly to this day.

holds your hand anywhere, anytime. while walking, sitting on the couch and chatting, while you guys sleep, literally anything. the warmth of your hand brings him comfort and makes him feel warm and fuzzy inside.

ITOSHI SAE

has a secret instagram account dedicated to you. posts all of his photos of you and the captions are just him ranting about how much he loves you. he blocks you to make sure you never find it because he's a little embarrassed. maybe he'll tell you about it one day though.

loves baking! his favorite thing to bake is muffins and bread, and let's you be the taste tester! request something for him to bake, and he makes enough to enjoy the rest of the month! if he ever needs to leave the house early for practice or meetings, you always wake up to a muffin, freshly cut fruit, and a note on the kitchen counter neatly set for you. on days he doesn't need to leave the house early, you wake up with breakfast in bed!

puts up with you and your shenanigans. hungry and too lazy to get up? he already prepared your favorite 10 minutes earlier. can't sleep? cages you into his arms and strokes your hair until you fall asleep. bag too heavy? he was already carrying it. you're the only person he'll put up with.

although the doesn't quite know how to express his emotions with words, definitely does with his actions. to physical touch, gift giving, and just spending time with you, sae doesn't let his inability of expressing feelings with words stop him from letting you know how much he loves you.

needs you to give him a kiss before you or him leaves the house for anything. these kisses last a little longer depending how long he'll be gone. if he's leaving for a trip overseas, he kisses you until you're breathless and pulls away every few seconds to murmur an ‘i love you’.

loves going on walks while it's raining with you. brings an umbrella and makes sure you're bundled up, you can't get sick on his watch!

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

Star Rail mechanics for beginners

Characters have two attributes:

Their Path

Their element

Characters can equip two sorts of items:

Lightcones

Relics

Characters can upgrade three things:

Their level

Their upgradeable abilities (basic attack, skill, ult, talent)

Their Traces (extra skills + extra damage multipliers ability tree)

This is all you really need to keep track of.

FAQ

Q: Can you dodge?

A: No. Shield up and/or use a healer. Shields are really good.

Q: Can you assassinate enemies?

A: No, but attacking them first does damage them when the fight starts.

Q: Is the turn-based combat fun?

A: I found it fun, it’s not so complex that it’s hard to understand, it’s pretty and it’s relatively dynamic. Try it out~

Further details below.

Path

Acts both as a weapon class and an analog for a dnd class style battle role. Preservation characters have Tank like abilities and so on.

Element

The damage type your character does, as off launch thats one of seven:

Physical

Ice

Fire

Lightning

Wind

Imaginary

Quantum

Each enemy has multiple weaknesses among these. Enemy with a weakness to an element usually resists it less and their Toughness bar gets damaged every time they’re hit by their weakness. (It’s like a second white HP bar.)

Once the Toughness bar is empty, they suffer from an element-specific effect (Frozen if you broke it with ice, Burn with fire, etc), their action is delayed, and they’re stunned for a turn.

Lightcones

A character can equip up to one, and their level can be upgraded. They add extra stats to any character and each have a Path assigned. Only a corresponding Path will activate the extra effect a Lightcone has.

Example:

A Hunt character with a Hunt lightcone will activate the extra effect (ex: Basic attack damage 20%), but this will not happen if the Hunt character equips a Preservation lightcone. However, the Hunt character will benefit from the extra stats in both cases. (ex: HP +300, ATK + 200, DEF + 400) .

Lightcones are primarily gained in gacha but there’s a few other ways to obtain them, like level up rewards or shops. They come in 3*, 4*, and 5*.

Identical lightcones can be fused up to four times (for a total of five levels), which increases their extra effect.

Relics

They’re equippable items that have stats and set bonuses with extra effects. Set bonuses in CBT3 were at 2 and 4 relics of the same set.

They come in 2*, 3*, 4*, and 5*. The maximum level of a relic changes with its rarity. As off CBT3, none of the Relic set were rarity locked, so you’ll be able to upgrade any of them by swapping out for rarer pieces.

A character can equip up to six relics, split into two subtypes of relics: sets with 4 relics and sets with 2 relics. You don’t need to worry about this. Just know they add stats to your character and give extra bonuses when in a set. Easy.

These are NOT gacha-locked, they’re fully farmable. Farming can be automated and you can borrow a friend’s character for it too, so it’s not too tedious and also an opportunity to experiment~

Level

Characters are leveled up with exp materials and other materials you find or fight for. User level locked due to materials becoming accessible over time.

Upgradeable Abilities

There’s four abilities you can upgrade (and one you can’t, Technique).

Upgrading an ability makes its multipliers go up, but doesn’t change how it works.

It takes material and money for each, all of which, to my knowledge, can be obtained just by playing the game normally (I think one of the rarest ones is in the free battle pass though).

These upgradable abilities are:

Basic attack

Skill

Ultimate

Talent

Upgrade them to make them better. That’s really all there is to it.

Regarding how they’re used:

During your turn, you may consume a skill point to use a skill, or use a basic attack and gain a skill point.

Skill points are shared by the whole team.

Attacking and getting hit gives your character energy. When energy is full, Ultimates become available. These can be used at any time, even during the enemy’s turn.

Talents activate without your input whenever their conditions are fulfilled but may have use limits.

Traces

Traces are skill trees with two sorts of bonuses you can unlock:

Stat bonuses (ex: HP +4%)

New abilities

You can upgrade Traces over time with materials and money. Each unlocked node of the Trace only needs to be bought once, so it’s a good idea to keep an eye on whether you can buy a nice one.

(As a word of personal advice, unlock at least one, preferably two ways to remove debuffs from allies before chapter 2, it’ll make your life easier during a certain boss fight… March 7th and Natasha have cheap Traces that let you do so.)

For character information and cost calculation you can use this website, but beware of spoilers as it’s a database.

[visxionery]

Revealing my desired enstars shuffle units!!! I might make more posts about each unit in particular + what songs it'll prob sound like. First is the event card and second and third is gacha card and the rest is event

but for now here's a brief look into each unit!

dystopia : they are all mystical beings that live in a dystopian world where art and order is gone.

heartthrob : think aisle with you plus atoz but spin it. This is more of a sad nostalgic kind of love unit? Like basically a we used to be in love and I long for you kind of thing. CAUSE I KNOW VALENTINES ARE LIKE HAPPY BUT I WANT SAD VALENTINES OK ARGHHHH (gets dragged out)

wonderlandz : mascot cosplay group, imagine twisted wonderland met wicked drugs and this. ill explain more on who is who <3 vetarannoruma : a group doing a documentary about investigative work but then gets caught in a ACTUAL CASE, they somehow end up on a plane- someone gets shot???!!! and ibara throws a bomb somewhere-FIND OUT MORE IN THE NEXT EPISODE OF VEGAS TRUE CRIME-

5050' : so eichi is investing shit right and then makes a bet and loses sum money idfk to RINNE AMAGI? Turns out rinne is good at investing and shit but then eichi like nuh uh ur reckless kohaku is on the shuffle cause rinne and his dirty schemes. Kanata is trolling and Tetora is burning kitchens (i'll explain i swear-)

imaging : OHOHO THIS IS A HALLOWEEN SHUFFLE, so switch makes a haunted house right and natsume is like lets do a mirror maze *casts sum spell* then SUBARU gets caught in the spell and suddenly theres multiple of them and the other three members get trapped.

dia thieves : game show where they battle for fans and try to rizz you up but then stinky pr does smth and THERES A SCANDAL?????? find out more on dia thieves : broke asf....

phantoms at the opera : OK OK I KNOW MAYOI AINT IN ERE BUT I DIDNT WANNA MAKE IT THAT OBVIOUS. So hokuto is doing sum dramatica shit and then he gets a theatre role outside and then they have to act out shit think masquerade ball BUT THEN (here's the plot twist) THEY GET THRUSTED INTO A MURDER MYSTERY GAME BY GATEKEEPER (dun dun dunn!!!) SHIT HAPPENS NAGISA GETS INTO A CULT TSUMUGI IS HANGING OFF A LEDGE REI ALMOST DIES HOKUTO WRU and madara is yo mama.

CU2+ : So midori and hajime has been part of a buddy system made by es to cultivate good relationships between fellow idols, but they chat anon they all do so no one knows who each other is. Midori has been feeling a bit down lately and the rest of the support grp helps him but then everyone puts on a false persona because they want to be a better version of themselves. Hajime wants them to all meet in the real world at around 2 plus, but Midori has other plans...

Parasol : ARASHI WEARS A SUNDRESS TWO PIECE I REPEAT ARASHI WEARS A- basis is its a modelling gig and compared to arashi chiaki is TERRIBLE DAWG i love you chiaki but i know you can willingly go without bathing so on the day of the shoot they put so much effot in bad weather strucks and ITS A BRINK OF A NATURAL DISASTER.....but arashi is stuck and all alone....

PLEASE IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS THOUGHTS JUST YAP IN MY COMMENTS I LOVE TO RAMBLE ABT THEM <3

[rimeiii]

While putting myself at risk from backlash from the majority of the WHB fandom, I have this to say about the current situation with the news of a potential boycott, as well as the login bonus + raffle announcement.

A friendly reminder that, like the Molar Office IDs login bonuses back in Limbus Company that were announced + released amidst the Vellmori debacle's fallout, the Christmas/NY login and raffle campaign in WHB is highly likely a planned promotional event before the player backlash happened, not a response to the backlash. Having a holiday promotional campaign is normal for most gachas, after all - and is likely already a part of their roadmap, even if in WHB's case they never revealed their roadmap.

If you really want to see change in the game state then make your voices known by not playing the game anymore, not just halting in-game purchases - and definitely not by harassing the devs, because harassment would only make your main message be ignored. Because when it comes to gacha games, another metric devs use to gauge how successful and profitable a game is would be player retention - because existing players, despite being F2P, represent an opportunity for them to make more money by potential future purchases from these current F2P players.

(Continued under the cut for length)

There's a reason why, during the Project Moon boycott, many players downright stopped playing and uninstalled the game, calling for others to do the same thing. It was only after a large dip in both profits and active player count that Project Moon started adressing the issue, and let me remind you that their initial statements were really fucking bad - even more so the doubling down, tarnishing their reputation to this day.

As someone in my crew server said:

As for the actual fallout of the shitty response, which was mirrored by a large majority of players (and keep in mind many players had already stopped playing and creating content for Project Moon games at this point): people uninstalling the game completely. And now Limbus Company has to make do with a tarnished reputation, lower player count, and lower profits overall.

The other way to make your voices known is to be loud in social media, though this is very dangerous in a sense that it could devolve into all-out fighting between players. And it also needs to be a united front between all players. My mind returns to the Summer Fortune debacle back in Granblue Fantasy, which was an entire fucking mess of bad decisions. For a tldr of the campaign, written as I was trying to make sense of the campaign (which may also include incorrect calculations):

And the fallout, which happened the moment the lottery results were announced:

As much as there were conflicts in the game between high-tier reward winners and those who only got the lowest tier (highest tier is basically a choice of any fucking unit you want, lowest tier are just some upgrade mats), everyone was mostly united in the sense that their anger is for the most part directed towards Cygames, the devs. People filming themselves getting rid of everything in their account (grid burning), quote tweeting the announcement tweets, getting Granblue trending - all to make a statement. And it paid off, because the very next day...

Cygames not only compensated everyone with a higher tier reward (T3, the second lowest tier that only has roughly a ~26% chance for a player to grab - free Gala limited unit. You can see how unbalanced the reward tiers are and how it sowed frustration and anger in the playerbase atp), they never released a campaign as bad as Summer Fortune. However, it did turn a lot of players away from the game - this was the start of most of my server just not really caring about GBF anymore.

People boycott and protest to make a statement, to make their voices heard. And sometimes you need to go to such an extreme length to do so - including deleting your account and your game, as well as sacrificing your enjoyment of the game. It's like the Korean VGC Nationals for Pokemon (basically competitive Pokemon) - they risked it all to protest the bad treatment TPC Korea gave towards the Korean players by playing top 4 using full Metronome teams as protest (a movement backed by most, if not all Korean VGC players), and while the players did suffer from it (their invites for Worlds got revoked), the damage has been done (the entire Nationals tournament got canceled).

TPC lost a lot of respect from VGC players worldwide, and after the mess that was Yokohama Worlds with the sudden rule changes (increased hack checks announced a few months before the event, which included a note for all players to be safe and use their own mons without trading with others - at a state where players were still testing out teams before making them in-game, commonly with the help of others), many players have expressed that they wanted to quit competitive Pokemon. A lasting impression, especially in the competitive scene, as detailed below.

And do you want to know why no moves were made on Pokemon, yet actions were taken for both Limbus Company and Granblue Fantasy?

VGC is one of if not the tiniest part of the Pokemon franchise. Most of the money Pokemon gets is from merch sales, if I'm not mistaken. VGC players complaining won't make a dent in their earnings - especially with how obscure VGC is.

Different case with Limbus and Granblue. Players dropping the game, getting rid of all their core equipment, uninstalling the game? They all directly impact the game and potential profits - so, they eventually addressed their respective situations. I could go on about other forms of protest that resulted in concrete actions, which end up benefitting the game (the Passenger buff situation in Arknights, Punishing: Gray Raven's rocky launch with an apparently P2W campaign), but in fear of this post getting too long, I shall stop.

Am I being harsh? Yes - perhaps to some people, overly so. But unless something drastic is done, I don't see the devs planning to fix anything massive in this game, and I wouldn't be surprised if paywalled seasonal gacha units with high prices will eventually become the norm.

[thefirstknife]

First, I wanna say that I do NOT condone the extenely nasty and toxic behavior of various parts of the fandom, especially towards the devs. But I'm starting to wonder more and more if this is actually something the company brought on themselves? The game at this point relies on an increasingly expensive and predatory FOMO model and a lot of players seem to exhibit symptoms of genuine addiction to the game, or at least a very unhealthy relationship cultivated by that FOMO and "well I sunk all this money in I can't just stop now" mindsets. Which leads to players burning out and being irrational, which leads to some players being ruder or cruel and gives toxic players (who would be toxic anyway) a community that doesn't reject them out of hand because the community itself is so exhausted and frustrated and genuinely struggling to have a healthy connection to the game due to the entire model it operates under. It doesn't mean the devs or other players deserve the cruelty they've faced, but it feels like this behavior breeding among the fans is the natural consequence of the direction the game has gone. (I notice this in various mobile gacha type games that are heavily FOMO and predatory, too--the addition and sunk cost issues seem to make it truly difficult for people to be able to behave rationally)

In a way, I guess? It's not really the devs making these decisions though, it's the executives and marketing which pretty much has nothing to do with the game itself. It's still Bungie, but this stuff goes beyond just Bungie and just Destiny and just game development.

Basically, what people are mad about is capitalism. But since it's much harder to fight a whole system we live under and the system under which games are being made, people instead turn to individual companies and then also on devs, mostly because devs are the ones who are visible online. A marketing CEO from Bungie who signs off on these decisions isn't on Twitter.

I definitely wouldn't say that any company "brought individual employee harassment" on themselves. Like, no matter what state the game is in, you should never go for the random devs online and people should know that, no matter how mad they get. They're definitely not making these decisions and a lot of them are actively against them. For example, this is from a senior narrative designer at Bungie:

Note that the first thing he mentioned is "monetization and business interests overshadowing artistry." This isn't isolated, it's just one person who wanted to share, but it's a general sentiment among the actual devs. Nobody wants their work to be subjected to the aggressive monetisation schemes that ultimately piss off the consumers and ruin the product itself.

But as I said, the issue here goes above and beyond just one game or one dev studio. A lot of people keep talking about awful monetisation in Destiny, but I genuinely can't agree that Destiny, of all games, is the worst game monetisatio-wise. I'm actively involved in games that are worse and especially games that became worse, the best example of which is Overwatch. I don't think Destiny gamers could even comprehend how awful Overwatch became monetisation-wise. And that doesn't even begin to dive into other horrible practices in the gaming industry.

The point isn't to say that just because there's worse than Destiny, that Destiny is fine. It's definitely not and some things have certainly changed for the worse, though there were also horrible practices in Destiny before that were since removed. There used to be loot boxes. Like, actual gambling loot boxes. I would honestly just buy the ornaments directly rather than being tempted to buy 50 loot boxes and gamble. The only good part was that dismantling items from loot boxes could give you bright dust, but that makes sense for loot boxes that you had to buy with silver. So technically you bought that dust with silver. You could get them also for levelling so there's that, but that was really the only way to earn anything. Grind insane hours and hope for the best or take the easy way out: buying boxes for money. I cannot stress enough how much gambling is the worst predatory practice in existence in the gaming industry. Nothing else will ever be as detrimental and scummy as encouraging gambling. People don't really remember this or even know, but the switch to direct purchase is actually better.

However, of course, the increase in the amount of things that are silver-only is definitely felt. One of the worst parts is shaders for me. Shaders got no business being for silver and in bundles where you technically have to spend $10 for a shader. Event cards are also a sore spot; they're literally just Eververse bundles, but with extra steps that tie them to an event so you feel like you're earning stuff in gameplay. They come together with random currency (tickets) that stays unused unless you buy the card. It's 100% made to make people want to pay.

But sometimes the criticism on monetisation is also really superficial and from people who don't understand game development. One of the examples that people often use is dungeon key. Now, personally, I think that dungeon key should be separate for each dungeon instead of forcing you to buy 2 dungeons at once for $15. You should be able to buy just one. Like, come on. However, the idea that we have to pay for dungeons is not a predatory practice. It's content that has to be made and requires resources and dev hours (regardless of what people think of the dungeons). People will usually say "dungeons used to be available with seasons!" This is a lie.

Before WQ, we had 4 dungeons released since vanilla D2. Shattered Throne was the first and it was a part of the expansion. Pit of Heresy was second and it was a part of the expansion. Prophecy was a part of Season of Arrivals (!). And Grasp of Avarice was 30th Anniversary, a separate pack that had to be bought separately. Out of all dungeons available so far, only one was a part of the season and I genuinely don't even know how they managed that and I feel like some devs probably laboured over Prophecy essentially for free. So the idea that "dungeons were just for free in seasons" is just a lie. Only one was, an exception that possibly negatively impacted developers. If we want 2 dungeons per year, we will have to pay for them. And we do. It's either that, or maybe they can include one dungeon in the expansion and that's it. I wouldn't mind that, but the same people shitting on devs are also the people who shit on devs over "content droughts" and "not enough content" so I don't think that would satisfy them.

The point is that while some of the criticism is absolutely warranted, a lot of complete misunderstandings and lies often get mixed up with it and this all results in the situation we're in now where the only thing that the community is doing online is being negative and spiralling into dev harassment. And they end up feeling justified because the company is engaging in predatory practices. It's very easy to get into that mindset and to feel like you're not just allowed to harass, but encouraged.

The biggest issue with monetisation is always people who spend a lot of money aka whales. And by a lot, I mean a lot. Like there are people who buy every single thing in the store (and this is applied to all games). An average player buying a shader once in 3 months is not a problem. The whales are what shows up on marketing reports and what makes soulless capitalist ghouls add more of this shit to games. Which makes it even worse that the people who are perpetuating this hate train against monetisation riddled with incomplete misleading information and lies ARE WHALES. Aztecross who made the big video is a whale. Last time people checked his stream, he literally had 8000 silver in his account and people who watch his streams have said that he frequently has segments with his chat where they look at the store and he buys stuff, ON STREAM, while also asking his chat which items he should get. He's a hypocrite who is doing this to earn more money and is, to me, not any different from the soulless capitalist ghouls that work in gaming industry marketing departments.

The best thing he can do, if he cared about this topic, is to stop playing and stop making content about Destiny. Like, that's genuinely it. If he and other content creators like him are so serious about this topic and believe that the monetisation is such a serious problem in Destiny, they should stop spending money, stop playing, stop marketing the game and stop making content for it. There is no other way for Bungie to get the message, certainly not by going at random devs. And then after that, the next best step would be to involve yourself in political action to bring stricter laws to the whole gaming industry when it comes to predatory and anti-consumer practices.

In the meantime, serious talk: if any video game ever made you feel like you have to spend money, especially money you don't have, and you spent that money against your better judgement, please reach out to someone. It's not shameful and you're not alone. Games are a hobby and entertainment and should never put you in financial risk or ruin. If any video game is too much for you and you can no longer pay for it, but you feel like you have to keep playing and it's risking you financially, again, please reach out to someone. There are people who can help you deal with these feelings, especially if you know you can become addictive. The gaming industry as a whole preys on people's need for entertainment and dopamine rush and if you can't resist it on your own (which is, again, not a shameful thing), there's options to get help. This is mostly about the extra stuff like microtransactions, but it also works for just base game stuff. A year of Destiny content is cheaper than a year of some other games, but it doesn't mean that it's something everyone can afford. You can absolutely skip seasons or even expansions. You can also wait for them to be on sale and I always recommend looking out for sales anyway. There's genuinely very little value in being constantly pushed by FOMO and there IS a way to get out of the FOMO mentality. You can work on that, especially with people who can offer professional help if you need it.

Never let the capitalist scum control you.

[gold-rhine]

Would you recommend Playing Star Rail to anyone? Why or why not?

no, i wouldn't. my own dislike of turn based games aside, here are the reasons:

1.Way too little content. Right now there are basically two regions and a starter area. Each has like 6-8 maps, every map is just corridors with like 10-11 chests and couple of puzzles on some maps. You go through basically all of it during main quests. They just released second half of the second archon quest. There are like some side quests, but they play pretty quickly. You can go through all of this in like a week max if you play slowly and bc some quests\puzzles are time-locked to make them feel longer.

There is simulated universe, which is fun at the start, but once you build your characters and figure out best buffs, it also becomes boring, because it's the same enemies in the same corridors. I enjoyed it for like a week, and now I play it once a week for rewards and thats it, which takes like 40 min.

There is also like hsr's equivalent of abyss. Idk, you can theoretically replay same fights over and over there until you get 3 stars, but like. I mean, if that's your cup of tea, I'm not kinkshaming, but personally I play through it once and that's it. so like. another hour in a week mb.

2.So, once you burn through available content, there is literally nothing to do but grind resources. I explain to you my daily routine:

1.log in. Do daily rewards missions for primos.

2.use autoplay to grind resources. mb upgrade characters if you can

3.log off.

because there is no exploration in hsr, there is literally nothing to do but replay abyss and simulated universe over and over

3.Again, because there is no exploration and limited number of quests, it's literally impossible to get primos if you want them without spending. You can only get them from daily rewards (like 60 I think?) and events. Like, if you already did quests and abyss, that's it, you can't get even one wish per day. say what u want about genshin, but if you actually play the game, you can get 2-5 wishes daily just from exploration and quests. And there are roughly bazillion more quests in genshin, bc it's a huge game that was out for years. I have 100% exploration on my main account in every region and I still have like 20 quests and hangouts not done there despite playing for like 1,5 years.

so in genshin, if you want a character and you spent your free event wishes etc, you can grind the primos for free. I know, bc I do on my new f2p acc, like you can get like 100 wishes per banner which guarantees at least one 5 star. I started Kazuha's banner with 0 savings. spent 30 whishes on kazuha and then 70 on alhaitham and then stopped pulling bc i didn't want to main alhaitham again lol, so probably could get another 5 star on hard pity.

In hsr, you can do nothing, but spend money. Like, I started Luocha banner with 15 wishes saved and at the end of his banner I was at 70 pity. I couldn't even get to 5 star pity. I happened to get him on the last day on 73 pity and win 50-50. But if I didn't, I couldn't go grind like in genshin, I could just spend.

So I think gatcha monetization feels much more predatory in hsr bc once you're through very limited content, you're out of options.

TLDR: play this game if you, like me, need to waste time and only have your phone on you. Like I'm often bored at work, this is why I make shitposts on tumblr and have several other time-wasting apps. Also make sure you're won't be tempted to spend money on gacha. Please don't spend money on this game guys. Its turn based, its easier than genshin, you literally DO NOT NEED strong characters to play, and like. Paying money so game can auto-play itself is just insane to me. Please don't. You can find cool looking anime art on the internet for free.

Don't play otherwise.

[blazehedgehog]

My take on the Twitch "brand guidelines" situation, which I've been believing more and more over the last 24 hours:

StreamElements is a popular site that hooks in to the Twitch API and lets you create custom alerts (those fancy animated graphics that pop up on stream) for when people subscribe/cheer/follow/donate. Tons of streamers use them! I use them!

Very recently, like within the last three months, StreamElements has launched a new Sponsorship tab. If you use StreamElements, it's impossible to miss, because they've been sending me 7-10 emails a week about each new sponsor offer I have.

Generally they'll tell me how I could make "up to $900" by doing a sponsored stream with a list of requirements and goals I'd have to meet in order to earn my payout. There's a lot more to it than that, but we'll get to it.

The thing is, this StreamElements Sponsor system is an almost direct clone of a system Twitch already has: the Twitch Bounty Board. But there's a twist: The Twitch Bounty Board is only available to the upper-crust of streamers who hit consistent and moderately good viewership numbers. And the higher numbers you pull in, the bigger bounties you get with bigger payouts.

StreamElements Sponsorships aren't anywhere near as high profile. A Bounty might have a streamer order food from Dominos, comp them the price of the meal, and have them eat and talk about it on camera. A typical StreamElements Sponsor is a gacha mobile game you probably haven't even heard of.

And that "up to $900" claim on StreamElements is just the hook. Once you actually read the terms, you'll learn that the minimum payout is $15, with $900 being the maximum possible earnings. And usually, just to earn that measly $15 minimum, you have to stream for multiple hours, across multiple days, with special overlays, a special chat bot, while also requiring several viewers to use your offer code and also play for multiple hours.

It creates a discrepancy where Twitch Bounties have a higher barrier of entry but a much higher success rate, and the StreamElements sponsors have a much lower barrier of entry and probably a much smaller trickle of money.

The thing is? Twitch likely gets a cut of the bounty payout, but StreamElements doesn't have to pay Twitch anything for a sponsor. And even if the StreamElements sponsor program has lower payouts and more difficult/nebulous requirements, slots still fill up quickly. That's a lot of money changing hands on Twitch that is not necessarily feeding back in to Twitch itself. And it is through a system seemingly designed to devalue something Twitch is already doing.

Twitch slapping down all these rules about "burned-in advertising" were undoubtedly about pulling people out of StreamElements. After all, the new guidelines said it was fine to link things around the video, like in the description/bio below the stream. Since Twitch literally owns the website, in theory it probably wouldn't have been too hard for them to reskin a streamer's entire page for a bounty integration. There are already plugins and things to generate widgets that aren't burned in to the video and hover over the player's HTML.

It's not hard to imagine a scenario where you accept a Twitch bounty for Mountain Dew and it adds a special Mountain Dew Widget over your stream that's part of the video player code itself, something StreamElements would probably never be allowed to do.

Further evidence for this comes from the fact that, just a few weeks ago, Twitch added a feature to let you generate stream alerts from the Twitch dashboard itself. StreamElements literally started their entire business on robust and highly customizable stream alerts, and once StreamElements started pushing their own bounty board clone with Sponsorships, suddenly Twitch starts testing its own in-house alerts generator.

Twitch was obviously trying to head this off at the pass and provide users as little reason to use StreamElements as humanly possible, but they obviously didn't get there fast enough and were more than a little overzealous.

[wyrmmaster]

Priconne EN was definitely a "Not a huge earner but consistent" category, but given every other game I hear CR have access to constantly has stories like "They made the rates worse, they make the monetized packages more expensive, and their community managers tell people to fuck off to the JP servers if they complain" I'm betting that Cygames had them on a short leash for Priconne and they decided they got more money out of pump n' dumping flavor of the month gachas every 6-12 months instead.

That sounds plausible.

Cutting something as relatively popular as Priconne seems like a bad move if they wanted to pump and dump, though. That sort of thing gets not-insignificant numbers from FoMo players looking for something to fill their time while their mainstay is resting; what they did here is majorly burn a significant portion of that pool who are now raising hell over it - potential players are going to hear about this and none of that will be good for milking new gacha. I'm amazed that they seem surprised by the blowback they're getting.

They'll probably see more success than they deserve regardless, but reputation might start telling eventually.

Alternatively this might have come from the Cygames side if Crunchy wanted to change prices, which is a whole other can of worms, if equally as dumb on Crunchy's part.

It's just weird.

[mlynar-nearl]

the amount of pulls you just said was insane sorry, did you just say 290 for ling/lee? and 170 for gavalter/pozy? absolutely insane that is some. wow. (can i say anything i hand mhy my wallet like it is free)

ok but yeah i can see like.... why. i mean. i love old man nearl i want him, i want him now so i can finally get started on my nearl family agenda and have to m9/mod3/maxlvl everyone in the nearl family (i love them little lovelies) and i have only done this with nearlter but blemi needs rocks and i hate rocks i hate farming 1-7 with a passion i have literally postponed farming rocks so much i have like 7??? un-e2'ed 6*s just bcs they need rocks (and also bcs they are not meta lol)

ur wallet is terrifying. anyways will u max pot the old man? i feel like u wld tbh but like complete guess.

and yeah most ppl will talk abt honkais story instead since it is pretty good, but i like the gameplay very personally, like... im a sucker for good hack-and-slash games (that i can play on mobile bcs idh a pc oop) that also dont require *that* much brain and honkai has honestly filled up that for me lol. its nice its flashy i press buttons its a win-win

but yeah before that, for the longest time, it was just arknights that stuck with me and its really obvious why bcs its a really good game (even now ofc tho sss pains me in every way possible) and i still do is2 all the time for fun even tho ive maxed out my candle level for weeks alr like hell yeah !!! i love this game!!! i burn out sometimes but i usually get back within one or two events (hence my incomplete guide ahead + the one medal missing from lingering echos + i only completed medal set for tw on the rerun) but yeah i love arknights and sometimes i wish i had more friends to yell abt it !!! watched the concert (the one with phenomenal agents and i was rly sad that i couldnt talk abt it to anyone properly)

ah once again sorry for the length, but i would love to hear what other gacha games you play as well ! personally i am a gacha game only person (my standards are a bit low sometimes) and i dont play much outside of gacha tbh. ah and of course, have a nice day !

i pretty much only pull on limited banners which is why i could put in that many for gavial and pozy without dipping into the wallet that much. ling and lee, on the other hand, THAT shit hurted my money. for my arknights pulls i basically set myself a number of rules that rely on the slight delay between CN and global that let me think out ops in advance and such. essentially, i allow myself one operator release between limited banners to actually invest in, based on how they look, their mechanics, and what i like in a character. so mlynar is my one between gavialter/pozy and omertexas/penance, simple as. GG was a previous "one." so was surtr. unfortunately this system does mean i have to skip characters that i do like- for example, i prio'ed GG over gnosis and fiammetta, who i both really enjoy as characters- because i ruled that GG has the most utility that i can take advantage of in my average playstyle and her global range is just too good at covering for my smallbrain moments. so for that reason, i normally have around 17 ten-pulls saved for each limited banner including the free ones that you get (meaning i average around 175 pulls since i throw in a few singles to make it nice and even.) ling and lee were an exception since mr lee just decided to fight me on it. to this day the only operator released on a limited banner that hasn't come home is irene and that's because i put foresight in myself and reminded myself that gavialter and pozemka would be upcoming in a much shorter gap than between ling/lee and specalter/irene, and i would regret it if i went all in for irene. the primary goal is always the operator who will be impossible to get at any other time of the year. yes i plot these things that far in advance like a general going to war. it's how i Survive . i've been doing it pretty much since i started when the limited to save up for was W.

i don't intend to pull for maxpot on mlynar for this reason. even with him sitting at my all time favorite character in the game, it doesn't fit my standard of pulling. eyes are ahead to omertexas and penance once he's home. though i do have idle plans to use any royal guard tokens i get on him. i would like him to be maxpot someday but given that i generally roll with the broad goal of collecting as many characters as possible, it's incompatible for the moment.

rn i indulge at feh and genshin at the request of my friends who do play them. i do enjoy genshin and it's a fun time killer- it's a shame the fanbase is So. i try not to indulge in gacha games unless they're recommended to me by friends, and arknights was, in fact, a rec when it was fresh enough (i think right after partial necrosis dropped because i had the frostnova lore explained to me as a hook.) i started right at the tail end of nian's banner. most of the vibeo games i play are non-gacha to avoid the hurts to my wallet that mr lee put on it. at least with arknights i can feel like i'm actually paying them for a good game PFSDLGH.....

[stellamarium]

【Welcome to my self-ship/ yumejo blog】

She/ Her • Adult Hello! I’m Avi, and I almost never know what to say about myself! (’: I tend to jump from fandom to fandom, and thus add and remove F/Os in tandem. In addition to drawing art and writing stories with my self-ships, I also enjoy coding things out for them (ex. making fake sites for them, replicating in-game layouts (like “Obey Me” chats), etc.)

I tend to gravitate towards video games, particularly gacha games, so most of my F/Os tend to be from those media.

I love to work other people’s self-ships too, so if you would like to do a trade (art, writing, or coding in exchange for either art, writing, or anything else you’d like to try to offer), please do ask! Due to time constraints, I may not always accept, but I would love to work with your self-ships whenever the opportunity arises.

Before You Interact:

I don’t mind interactions with/ from minors, so long as a respectable distance is maintained between us.

Some posts may contain sensitive subject matter and will be tagged accordingly.

This is a SFW-only blog.

I’m a bit uncomfortable sharing romantic and queerplatonic F/Os but don’t mind talking about them with you. This means I’d be happy to gush about them with you, and you can gush to me about your relationship with them any time, but I would prefer not to see art/ writing of the two of you together and would rather that we both stay in our own respective private spaces alone with them in that regard. Sorry! ;;

Likes, reblogs, and replies are always welcome and appreciated on any and all of my posts!

I interact from @avi-stella​

Links:

Follow me on Twitter

Ask me questions on Retrospring

Learn more about my self-insert/ ships on my self-ship site!

Commissions | I offer art, writing, and coding (static sites and/ or visual novels)

F/O List and Tags under cut:

Text Posts: (💫) [in my thoughts]

Vent Posts: (🌑) [into the void]

Answered Asks: (🌠) [make a wish]

Headcanons: (🌟) [twinkling stars]

F/O Letters: (💖) [in my heart]

Self-Insert: (🌙) [stars and moon]

Art: avistellart

Writing: avisteliterature

Last Updated: August 06, 2022

ROMANTIC

Alfonse (Fire Emblem Heroes) (👑) [ golden prince of my heart ]

Líf (Fire Emblem Heroes) (💀) [ even in death]

Louis Amamiya (Code Vein) (🩸) [ drinking in your love ]

Seox (Granblue Fantasy) (🦊) [ hidden behind your smile ]

Diluc Ragnvindr (Genshin Impact) (🔥) [ stars burn for us ]

Barbatos (Obey Me) (☕️) [ to serve and love ]

SilverAsh (Arknights) (❄️) [ warm in your heart ]

Zelos Wilder (Tales of Symphonia) (💖) [ my chosen one ]

QUEERPLATONIC

Sandalphon (Granblue Fantasy) (🪶) [ snarky coffee love ]

Jade Leech (Twisted Wonderland) (🐬) [ sweet and cunning ]

Floyd Leech (Twisted Wonderland) (🦈) [ bite and squeeze me ]

Lilia Vanrouge (Twisted Wonderland) (🦇) [ cutest love ]

PLATONIC

Leona Kingscholar (Twisted Wonderland) (🦁) [ let sleeping lions lie ]

Azul Ashengrotto (Twisted Wonderland) (🐙) [ buying friendships with money]

FAMILIAL

Deuce Spade (Twisted Wonderland) (♠️) [ we can change for the better ]

Camilla (Fire Emblem Heroes) (🌺) [ blooming flowers ]

Narmaya (Granblue Fantasy) ( 🦋 ) [ fluttering feelings ]

[redphienix]

Out of the big 3 card games I think yugioh is the most interesting and fun to play, it's a shame it's somehow run by the least competent and shitty corp in a slap fight between 3 of the dumbest corps.

Pokemon stumbled into making collectors items via the source material, so the weird game gets to survive rather well off a market fueled by collectors (and built for them).

Magic has really smart formats that make it reasonable for players of varying skill types to engage with it properly.

Then Yugioh is like "HA, LOL, MILK YOUR WALLET DRY AND BURN IN HELL IDIOT" with a borderline resentment shown towards actively supporting alternate formats, horrendous card production practices, a furious push for power creep, some of the worst reprint ideologies imaginable-

it's at a point where the best way to play yugioh right now is to play the "pseudo single player gacha game" version of master duel, which is great fun, but is still built to eat money and isn't a community experience like, you know, both other card games or playing paper.

Dumb

[finalthebunnygirl]

Hi, here's a brief critique of your Bedman AI video, as Romeo himself would put it.

In the term "voice actor", "voice" is merely adjunctive to the word "actor". It is the second word that is important, there are around 8 billion people with voices, yet only a scant percentage of them are voice *actors*. The stilted facsimile of an AI using a voice actor's voice is incapable of replicating their acting, and an insult to the art form as a whole, undermining the talent and heart that the actors put into their voice work. At the very least, take some syllables from Yuri Lowenthal's voicework and make some sentence mixing, at least then you're making it into an artform. Every teenager in 2009 did the same with CGI Zelda cutscenes to make Youtube Poops, if you lack the effort to do the same don't even bother cutting corners, or you'll begin to regress into dependence and apathy. Apathy; the very same emotion that anyone who's seen more than 5 of these AI voice videos will feel from the sixth and so forth once the novelty wears off.

In addition, to advertise Genshin Impact as an "open-world action RPG game" is generous, given that none of those aspects of the game are its true purpose, but as a casino where you cannot win even a penny. Its playerbase of fans who gamble actual money for samefaced anime characters whose tastes have devolved just as much as those who rely on AI voicework. There are countless games out there whose creators have put their hearts and souls into creating unique art experiences, yet Genshin fans see one anime woman or twink they find pretty and choose to dedicate every second of time they have and cent they've earned to this slop, unable to leave due to FOMO and the sunk cost fallacy that the gacha industry weaponize to keep their players as hooked as any other addicts. There are countless better games that almost all cost less than the $50-200 Mihoyo wants you to burn for a single character too. It saddens me to watch so many people devote their lives to a single repetitive game that treats them like braindead walking wallets rather than explore the breadth of art that the genre of gaming has created.

Not only that, but gacha games are not built to last forever. Once they stop making profit, they shut down all their servers and the developers run with the billions they've milked off their fanbase (look up what happened to Dragalia Lost if you don't believe me). What point is there in gambling immense sums of money for anime waifus that will all vanish from existence in ten years or so? Even buying a body pillow of a Genshin character, on the surface an action that would make someone considered a world-class loser, is less pathetic than spending money on the actual game for them; it will indubitably cost far less and it will probably still exist in a decade.

Bedman of all characters advertising Genshin is especially ironic, as he is harshly critical of just about everyone and everything, and would easily recognize the extremely easily admonishable aspects of the game with its predatory gacha system, time-sinking structure that encourages gambling addictions to the point where players forsake all other objectively better games because they have chores in Genshin that must be done to keep up with primogem distribution that eat all that time out of every day. It doesn't take 200+ iq to see that.

Typing paragraphs on a joke post: sounds like Romeo behavior

[smokeybrandreviews]

Brave New Worlds

The return of BLEACH was everything i wanted it to be. Thousand-Year Blood War exceeded every expectation i had for a modern take on one of my all-time favorite franchises. It helps that so far, this arc is as strong as the absolute masterpiece that was the Soul Society arc. I was thoroughly satisfied with every second of this first season, never once feeling letdown by the writing quality or animation pedigree. Studio Pierrot really put in the work, which is hilarious, because way back when BLEACH was a thing, that animation sucked ass. I don’t know if it was just early-Aughts syndrome but the content we have now, skews much, much, closer to the animation in the films, specifically Hell Verse, and i cannot wait for it to come back in a few months. It’s like I'm sixteen all over again, picking up that first chapter from a random scanlation site. Still, it’s a few months until July (optimistically) and i need something to sate this burning need for more BLEACH content. I landed on playing the mobile game, BLEACH: Brave Souls.

Now, if you’ve been around these parts, you know i don’t care for mobile games. I hate the gacha. I think it’s an objective scam. You also know i swear by Azur Lane and, up until my account was lost, Fate/Grand Order. I never went into these games with the intent to actually “play” them. I am a MASSIVE Nasu shill so FGO was a no-brainer and Prinz Eugen’s design stuck me as brilliant so i eventually played Lane. I’ve since fallen off of FGO because it’s awful but still support the franchise because of course i would and have made Azur Lane my time-waster of choice. Mostly because it’s actually good. I have actual fun with Lane, which is wild to say because the game play loop is bare-bones, at best. It takes a lot for me to actually commit to a gacha so i was a little reticent to jump into Brave Souls. Will this thing skew FGO and just be a constant stream of money-guzzling, auto plays? Or would it actually have some form on engagement, even if it is minuscule, like Azur Lane. Surprisingly, i found that this game is a weird combination of both.

BLEACH: Brave Souls is frustratingly adequate. It gets a lot of the same thing Azur Lane does, right, but leans heavy into the absolute worst aspects of FGO. The roster, immediately, needs to be recognized. If you’re a fan of the characters in BLEACH, Brave Souls got you covered. There are multiple versions f your favorites, each with a distinct move set and focus. Kind of. I have two versions of Tier Harribel and they are basically the exact same character, only one is a five star and the other a six. That’s it. There the same otherwise. My grail right now is a different version of Harribel, her Hogyoku-enhanced form, but i have no idea how t even make that happen. Tier is my favorite character and i can’t get a hold of her dopest version because this game is weird as f*ck that way, which is my biggest frustration with this game; The Gacha. Having all of those characters is an absolute detriment to pulling the ones you want. It’s insane how many different banners are available at any given time, none of which let’s you pull six star characters. As of right now, there is no path for me, as a new player to this game, to build a roster of natural six-star characters. I have to evolve them from five-stars, which is a problem in of itself.

You need stuff. Like, SO much stuff to make this happen. I’m talking gems, rings, scrolls, and whatever else. Farming in this game is insane and, considering there is a consumable system that burns every time you take on any mission, that sh*t gets expensive, quick. That mess is wildly frustrating. I mean, i was able to max out several characters because, as a new player, they give you a ton of sh*t but, at the same time, it goes so fast. Then there’s the endgame content. Like, there’s none. The entire game, so far, is available to you right now and one you’re done, you’re done. The game play loop, itself, is solid as f*ck. I like the presentation and the in-game models but, like, there’s only thirteen story chapters. That’s it. You can run back through on a Hard mode but as far as story content goes, that’s it. There’s no real replay value once you’re done. There are Challenges and co-op and things like that but, ultimately, the draw her is developing your roster but it’s like pulling eye teeth to gt the characters you want. I am over here just grinding sh*t out. That’s what this game basically is, a grind fest. I can deal with that but i don’t know if other, younger, people can. Is BLEACH: Brave Souls worth the effort? I would say so if you’re a BEACH fan. If not, give this one a pass. It’s more of a hassle than it is fun.

[smokeybrand]

Brave New Worlds

The return of BLEACH was everything i wanted it to be. Thousand-Year Blood War exceeded every expectation i had for a modern take on one of my all-time favorite franchises. It helps that so far, this arc is as strong as the absolute masterpiece that was the Soul Society arc. I was thoroughly satisfied with every second of this first season, never once feeling letdown by the writing quality or animation pedigree. Studio Pierrot really put in the work, which is hilarious, because way back when BLEACH was a thing, that animation sucked ass. I don’t know if it was just early-Aughts syndrome but the content we have now, skews much, much, closer to the animation in the films, specifically Hell Verse, and i cannot wait for it to come back in a few months. It’s like I'm sixteen all over again, picking up that first chapter from a random scanlation site. Still, it’s a few months until July (optimistically) and i need something to sate this burning need for more BLEACH content. I landed on playing the mobile game, BLEACH: Brave Souls.

Now, if you’ve been around these parts, you know i don’t care for mobile games. I hate the gacha. I think it’s an objective scam. You also know i swear by Azur Lane and, up until my account was lost, Fate/Grand Order. I never went into these games with the intent to actually “play” them. I am a MASSIVE Nasu shill so FGO was a no-brainer and Prinz Eugen’s design stuck me as brilliant so i eventually played Lane. I’ve since fallen off of FGO because it’s awful but still support the franchise because of course i would and have made Azur Lane my time-waster of choice. Mostly because it’s actually good. I have actual fun with Lane, which is wild to say because the game play loop is bare-bones, at best. It takes a lot for me to actually commit to a gacha so i was a little reticent to jump into Brave Souls. Will this thing skew FGO and just be a constant stream of money-guzzling, auto plays? Or would it actually have some form on engagement, even if it is minuscule, like Azur Lane. Surprisingly, i found that this game is a weird combination of both.

BLEACH: Brave Souls is frustratingly adequate. It gets a lot of the same thing Azur Lane does, right, but leans heavy into the absolute worst aspects of FGO. The roster, immediately, needs to be recognized. If you’re a fan of the characters in BLEACH, Brave Souls got you covered. There are multiple versions f your favorites, each with a distinct move set and focus. Kind of. I have two versions of Tier Harribel and they are basically the exact same character, only one is a five star and the other a six. That’s it. There the same otherwise. My grail right now is a different version of Harribel, her Hogyoku-enhanced form, but i have no idea how t even make that happen. Tier is my favorite character and i can’t get a hold of her dopest version because this game is weird as f*ck that way, which is my biggest frustration with this game; The Gacha. Having all of those characters is an absolute detriment to pulling the ones you want. It’s insane how many different banners are available at any given time, none of which let’s you pull six star characters. As of right now, there is no path for me, as a new player to this game, to build a roster of natural six-star characters. I have to evolve them from five-stars, which is a problem in of itself.

You need stuff. Like, SO much stuff to make this happen. I’m talking gems, rings, scrolls, and whatever else. Farming in this game is insane and, considering there is a consumable system that burns every time you take on any mission, that sh*t gets expensive, quick. That mess is wildly frustrating. I mean, i was able to max out several characters because, as a new player, they give you a ton of sh*t but, at the same time, it goes so fast. Then there’s the endgame content. Like, there’s none. The entire game, so far, is available to you right now and one you’re done, you’re done. The game play loop, itself, is solid as f*ck. I like the presentation and the in-game models but, like, there’s only thirteen story chapters. That’s it. You can run back through on a Hard mode but as far as story content goes, that’s it. There’s no real replay value once you’re done. There are Challenges and co-op and things like that but, ultimately, the draw her is developing your roster but it’s like pulling eye teeth to gt the characters you want. I am over here just grinding sh*t out. That’s what this game basically is, a grind fest. I can deal with that but i don’t know if other, younger, people can. Is BLEACH: Brave Souls worth the effort? I would say so if you’re a BEACH fan. If not, give this one a pass. It’s more of a hassle than it is fun.