#cg from the scenario where they mention it

[shirolian]

Thorn Witch and Ivy King

The day of our wedding is finally drawing near. After a month of preparations upon the insistence of my mother, we all were beside ourselves with joy that this arduous journey is at the end. Very little remained from mine and Leopold’s wedding plans but we knew that opposition would not end up well. At least the prolonged waiting gave us time to get to know each other better. The two weeks that we spent together in the palace were marred by the constant pressure and threat that I would be selected as prince’s Guillaume bride, which, in the end, came to pass. When my name was called forth by the King and I had to step forward, my mind was only filled with the thoughts of Leopold and his proposal that he made the night before. Luckily, before anything could be announced, the door to the Throne room bursted open, Leopold standing in the doorway. He whisked me away in front of the whole court, leaving the King no choice but to withdraw, lest he risked public humiliation. 

Reminiscing about the past, I wistfully ignored my mother’s speech as she went once again through the guest list. Our family, di Parisi, is the most powerful noble House in the land with the exception of the Royal House and therefore as it stands, mother invited everyone who means something. Knowing that Leopold is not opposing my mother’s wedding plans precisely for this reason, I keep reading my book about Tremaine’s geography. 

“Daughter, are you listening?” The sharp voice interrupts my thoughts and I glance up. 

“Yes mother? Something on your mind?”

“I said that I invited the King and his son, the Prince. However the accommodations will have to be the best in the house and thus you and duke Stavizzi will make do with your own bedroom.” Mother informed me, her gaze once again falling on the guest list in her hands. 

“Won’t it be awkward though, for the King and the Prince? And do you plan to also invite his new fianceé, Lady Francesca? I would rather avoid having to endure unfriendly gazes at my own wedding.”

Mother’s sharp inhale answered on its own, the words following right behind.

“Out of question, di Parisi will have the King present or else this House will become a laughing stock of the whole country and my work at court would be all naught.”

Sighing, I close the book, my expression pleasant as ever. 

“As you wish, mother.”

Summer days were always considered best for weddings because of the high probability of having sunny weather. It was so on the day of ours. Actually, as my mother wished to have a grand wedding worthy of di Parisi, it was agreed that me and Leopold would have a private ceremony the day before the official festivities. At first the idea of the farce irritated me because it meant that our public wedding would be there only for show, to display the power of the di Parisi House. However, the more the guest list grew, so grew my conviction that it’s probably for the best and using my wits, I secured my mother’s permission to arrange our private and very real ceremony as me and Leopold see fit. 

Standing in front of the mirror, I observe my simple white gown. Tonight, I will wed Leopold as myself, Eloise di Parisi. Tomorrow, in my place will be the daughter of the duke of Florentia and so will the dress change accordingly for a more ornate and luxurious one. 

“Minette, are you really quite sure about this?” Frederique, my dearest brother, hoovers behind me, with a silver hairpin in his palm. I can see his worried expression full of doubts about Leopold’s true intentions. The popular narrative? Cunning as fox and cold as ice, the duke Stavizzi charmed the daughter of the most powerful House in the Kingdom just so he could snag her rich dowry and better his social standing at the court.

“Frederique, place that hairpin in my hair already lest I will think you intend to bet it in your next game of cards,” I smile gently at him and hear his sigh as his worries are promptly brushed off the table. Carefully, he places the hairpin in my updo and observes his work briefly.

“I sincerely hope, sister, that you’ll find happiness in this marriage. You must be happy, for all of us who remain stuck here,” he says with a bittersweet smile and I turn to him, taking his hand in mine.

“You are not the heir of our House, you still have a chance for escape and I believe you will make the most of it.” The reminder makes him nod in agreement and he squeezes my hand, reassuring us both that someday he will make it happen. We then glance to the window, the sun is setting down and the gentle golden rays cast an otherworldly glow on my white dress. 

“Come, sister, let’s make you a married woman.” Frederique’s smile softens and linking my arm with his, he escorts me outside to our private chapel.

The sun is almost set on the horizon when I enter our small chapel in the company of my brother. Hundreds of candles are lit and casting its golden light on the painted walls of holy murals. Hearing us enter, Leopold, dressed in white just like me, turns around and our eyes meet. His gaze is gentle and loving and I return the feelings, conveying the very same with my own expression. In a short moment we cross the distance between the door and the chapel's altar, Frederique releasing my arm from his.

“Take care of my sister, will you?” He says and stands aside as the only witness, along with the priest present.

I glance briefly at Lepold by my left side and he chuckles softly, apparently doing the same. The priest clears his throat, expression amused by our antics and he opens the book of Saints Prayers, placing two silver rings upon it. I shouldn’t feel nervous but here I am, trying to calm down my frantic breathing. The rings received the Holy Blessing and Leopold offers me his hand. When I place my smaller palm upon his, the priest bestows a red silken ribbon to signify the union. 

“Leopold, wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife, to live together after Saints ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honour, and keep her in sickness and in health so long as you both shall live?”

“I will.” 

“Eloise, wilt thou have this man to thy wedded husband, to live together after Saints ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou obey and serve him, love, honour and keep him in sickness and in health, so long as you both shall live?”

“I will.” My voice is a bit shaky but I swear the oath nonetheless. The priest removes the silken ribbon, offering us the book of Saint Prayers with the rings. I turn slightly to my left and Leopold takes the ring decorated with sapphire. Gently taking my hand in his other one, his grey eyes gaze into mine. Whoever said that he is marrying me for my name would be proven wrong at this very moment, for his eyes speak nothing but love. 

“With this ring I thee wed…” He pauses for a moment and starts sliding the ring down upon my finger. “...and with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods, I thee endow.” 

The ring, secured on my finger, shines and I can feel my cheeks flush with warmth. Reaching for the second matching ring without any gem, I feel like my legs might give out at any moment. My hand shakes slightly and he notices, instantly taking it in his own and caressing it reassuringly with his thumb. In silence, I slide his ring on and gaze up. 

“In the name of all Saints, I pronounce that they be man and wife together.”

I exhale in relief and Leo smiles warmly. He places a hand on my back pulling me closer while his other hand laces with my fingers clasping our hands together. He bends down slightly and his nose brushes with my own. It’s not our first kiss but I blush either way due to the presence of others. The soft and very brief sensation of his lips upon mine passes all too quickly and my eyes flutter open, taking in the handsome face of my now husband. 

“Eloise Stavizzi, Duchess of Tremaine.” He says my new name and title, enjoying the sound of it. And, to be honest, I like it too. Very much so - not because of its grandeur, but because it ties me to Leo, the man I love dearly as one can love someone whom you know for two months.

“Husband.” I reply, smiling fondly and he places another kiss on my cheek.

“Dearest.”

Frederique snorts in the background and the priest flashes us a benevolent smile while Leo links our arms and, together, we walk outside into the starry night.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

The Current event makes me smile since it kind of confirms a headcanon I had that the Great Seven have animated movies based on them. Makes me wonder about the plot of the movies

Disney should get on the Twisted Wonderland AU Animated Remakes. What is Ursula was a good witch, what if Scar was right to take the throne and did he take it from Mufasa? (Or whoever is the stand in for him)

The Evil/Beautiful Queen...actually GOOD?

Yeah, it makes sense! Since the Great Seven are historical figures and the stuff of legends, surely there would be popular media made in their image. It’s like how the Disney fairy tales borrow from stories in the public domain or how there are historical retellings and reinventions (Hamilton, anyone?).

I believe TWST has mentioned films based on their own stories and history before too, but purely in the animated sense rather than live action. In book 3, Ace and one of the Atlantica Museum guards talk about an animated movie based on the tale of the mermaid princess and her prince; this movie is said to have come out ~30 years ago, which corresponds with Disney’s animated The Little Mermaid. Ace compliments the movie’s soundtrack too way to stroke your own ego, Disney/j.

Later on in Tapis Rouge, the characters discuss other films based on the Great Seven, including one Queen of Hearts movie. A Sea Witch movie is also mentioned; in it, she “goes gigantic” and also sings as she brews potions. The Octatrio quite enjoy this particular film.

(Side note: Another anon once suggested to me that people probably also write fanfics of Neige and Vil since they’re celebrities… Think like “My mom sold me to One Direction?!” Wattpad kinds of fics, but replace One Direction with Vil or something. You can read those post here!)

It’s… interesting this event specifically has Vil promoting a live action adaption of an in-universe animated film about the Beautiful Queen—an animated film which was the first full-color animated movie AND it originally released close to 90 years ago. They also reference the funding issues that Disney suffered while producing Snow White + inviting bank employees in to preview the movie to acquire more investments, stating that the studio that made the animated Beautiful Queen experienced the same. The in-game live action is even slated to come out “NEXT YEAR”. They’re not being subtle here with TWST’s references to their own version of the irl Disney Snow White (the live action is coming out in 2025, the OG is also almost 90 years old, etc.). I wonder if the EN server will actually get Tapis Rouge around the time of the irl release of Disney’s live action Snow White as part of a promotional campaign? 😂

UPDATE: There are even more not-so-subtle references to Disney animations in part 4 of the event, including discussion of cel animation, rotoscoping, adding blush to the characters, and how Disney brought in real animals/observed the “real thing” to help with animating similar scenes or subjects. They also cheekily say that most animation nowadays is CG 💀

I know some books under Disney publishing try to show alternate tellings or show the villains in a more sympathetic light, but I don’t know that they would ever commit to fully animating a film like that. It definitely would not happen in the style of traditional animation, Disney no longer seems well-equipped to handle that task 😔 I feel like it would also be pretty niche or might not get overwhelming positive reception with recent audience calls for “true bad guys” instead of twist or sympathetic villains (though I’m not sure what percentage of people watching Disney actually have this opinion).

I do wonder how those “AU” films would work though…? It wouldn’t be as simple as suddenly turning the G7 into “good guys”. The scenario and other characters would also have to drastically change. TWST doesn’t necessarily make the original “good guys” “bad” in a world where the villains are historical figures; we still hear plenty of positive or neutral stories about the achievements of the mermaid princess and other Disney heroes.

There are also times when the same story diverges into multiple separate stories that seemingly have no connection to one another. For example, there is a story where a princess marries a street rat (clearly referencing Aladdin) and they live happily ever after in spite of the difference in their social statuses. However, there simultaneously exists a story in which the Sorcerer of the Sands saves a princess from being deceived by a fake prince (also referencing Aladdin). The same goes for the mermaid princess (Ariel)—there is both a story referring to a “mermaid princess” who married a human prince and also a different story (clearly still pulled from the same film) about a mermaid who made a deal with the Sea Witch to find true love but broke her contract in the end.

Very cool idea, just not sure where it would lead or it it’s feasible or worth it monetarily for Disney.

[ember-owlet]

Could you maybe do a Viktor cg fic please??? Or headcanon or anything you want.

But like, cg Viktor x male or nonbinary little reader who's like... Baby, like 0-1, nonverbal

If not, that's okay!!

a/c: yes, definitely!! i know viktor has been a very popular topic in my asks as of late, and i can see why! it took me a while to think of the perfect scenario for you, i hope you enjoy this little fic firelight! thank you for waiting ʚ♡ɞ 

tw for brief mentions of viktor pondering his death!! stay safe, you can always come back to this when you're ready (ૂ′ᵕ‵ॢං)

dynamic: gn!little!reader x cg! viktor

The warm glow of morning shone through the still air of the scientist's lab. Papers scattered endlessly around the scuffed desk, and resting atop them was none other than the main resident of his second home. His body rose and fell to the soft whirrs of the hexcore, filling in the gaps of silence around the overbearing steel walls, the foreign object rotating seamlessly above him. The unsure creak of a door alerted Viktor to wake to an alarmed position, his head whirring around instinctually before his mind could register the intruder's identification.

An endearing effort, nonetheless it was near impossible not to wake Viktor; He was truly the lightest sleeper in Piltover. Growing up in the undercity developed a skill to wake at the drop of a pin to danger, and though moving to a city like Piltover would be no cause for such concerns, some habits never left him. You can take the boy out of the city, but you can never take the city from the boy. Letting the foggy images clear, his shoulders relaxed, exhaling at the presence of Jayce with you in hand and rubbing your eyes with a soft yawn. "Oh. Good morning, you two." The scientists' voice was hoarse, dropping his guard he released the scalpel from his grasp. "I assume you both had an eventful night?" Viktor stood up from his spinning chair, walking over to see the dark circles under your eyes that reflected his own. "Jayce, don't tell me you made my little one stay up too late." Jayce rubbed his neck and chuckled, it wasn't rocket science for your caregiver to guess how late your adventures turned out. "Sorry Vik, they just couldn't fall back asleep and I didn't know what else to do. We spent the night making a pillow fort and playing blimp captain." You quickly waddled over to Viktor, widening your arms to embrace your papa. He sighed, closing you in for a gentle hug. "What am I going to do with you poklad.." Viktor patted you along towards your designated corner of the room filled with toys, coloring books, and sensory items. Jayce was the first to close the distance, waiting until you were out of distance to make his comment to the other. "They really missed you, y'know. I get that they're not allowed in the lab while you're working with the Hexcore, but they were really worried when you didn't show up."

There was an audible exhale when Viktor shook his head. It pained him to even ponder the fact that you were alone and frightened for him. "I know, I just-'" If he had been honest there were more than a few times where he wouldn't have been able to return to your arms again. "I would never want them to be here in case something were to happen to me." Jayce instinctively reached out to console his companion. "Of course. But it won't happen. Not as long as we're together." He pulled the corner of his lip in a small smile, rubbing Viktor's shoulder in confidence. "But make sure they get some sleep. I'm supposed to keep my reputation as the fun one here." Nodding, Viktor watched the broad figure walk himself out of the office. He let the air settle, exhaling with a small wheeze. You were able to catch his attention, weepy eyes to the contrasting brightness. His eyes would widen to the sight of you grasping at the air towards him. With every attempt to stand, your knees would buckle to exhaustion; further frustrating you in your need to be held. "Hmm." Viktor's throat rumbled. If not for himself he would at least allow his body to recharge for you. "I think we've been up long enough myška. Let's have a rest, shall we?" Lifting himself in unsteady movements he hobbled towards you, his head gesturing towards the door leading to the bedroom. You lifted yourself onto the bed, watching as Viktor dragged the drapes slowly. You couldn't help but giggle as your caregiver playfully joined your side with a chuckle, curling yourself against his slender stature. Grunting, you could feel his aching body move to turn on the lamp and grab the journal off of the nightstand. You looked at your caregiver's notes, each observation recorded with their own key for additional thoughts. Viktor tilted the journal so you could see it better. "I think we're making real progress, there's just- something missing." He rambled on about what adjustments he would be able to make once the two of you were awake. But for you, the feeling of his body with the rumble of his voice was safe, and sleep would begin to make your eyes grow heavy from exhaustion.

[omnomnomdomcaps]

You mentioned “language play” is one of your top kinks. That’s a new one I’ve never heard of tbh! I know I can just Google it but I’d like to hear it from your perspective. What is it? What about it turns you on?

Well, I'm glad you asked, as it just so happens, *cough, shameless plug, cough* I wrote a three-part guide to it which you can find here!

In short, language play is any kind of CG/L or dom/sub session where the big is speaking primarily in a language that the little doesn't know. It creates a very natural control dynamic, and can be used to fun effect in ageplay, petplay, and a range of other scenarios. I highly recommend it! :)

[azuresky-agere]

hii if its not a bother could u possibly do a mini fic of little!venti cg!aether? idrk abt the scenario tho /_\

LITTLE!VENTI AND CG AETHER? I love them.

Minific plot: a crowded angel's share gets to Venti. Luckily, Aether can help.

-

Despite Venti being a bard, he wasn't really...good at being front and centre. He could quite easily get lost in his music and alcohol, but once he realises how crowded and loud the tavern is, it hits him like a metaphorical brick. He was never particularly good with crowds, and he isn't exactly sure as to why but the issue still stands.

A bard that can't handle large crowds in a tavern. How ironic.

Tonight was one of those nights, and the tavern was relatively lively. Mostly still tavern-goers that he knows. but he still feels....scared. Despite that, he only has to focus on Aether to calm himself down. His eyes were beautiful, and he loved the other deeply- not that he knew.

The two had been sat at the same table for a while, doing a relative catch-up. With all that happened in Fontaine, and the rather wind-less location of the Fortress of Meropide, he's not been able to watch the blonde and his fairy companion.

Dread began to set in, and unlike his usual self, he pauses mid sentence.

"Venti, are you okay?"

Tears began to run down his cheeks, as he hastily attempts to wipe them away with the cuffs of his outfit.

"M...good." he smiled, despite crying. "Jus' lots'a people."

Aether had experienced this before. He was unsure if Venti was a regressor, but he wasn't doing good in Angel's Share. The tavern had become a bit too crowded for his liking also, with the addition of a berry-flavoured alcoholic drink, the nation was quite literally going buck-wild for the beverage.

Still, Aether took it upon himself to assist his friend.

"Do you want to leave?"

Venti shook his head, glancing at the staircase behind Aether. "C'we go up...?"

Aether ignored the other's thumb nestled in his mouth, and quietly turned around to glance up at the secondary floor, something which was visible from where they were both sat. The floor was overcrouded as well, with every table being occupied by a resident.

"We can't, kiddo."

To this, Venti whined to the other, using his free hand to wipe more tears from his cheeks, sniffling after. Mostly, he'd calmed down, but he was still upset!

"Come on, we'll leave and go get something to eat at Goodhunter. On me."

With a sniffle, Venti stood up and toddled over to the door, ignoring the drunkards around him. Aether held his hand, leading him quietly to the mentioned restaurant. He sat down, clearly a bit...mentally small. Any small noise or sudden movement would distract him, and anything particularly shiny would steer his attention.

"Venti, you okay?"

He nodded, thumb still in his mouth. Aether took a small chance, trying to get the other's finger out of his mouth with a simple nudge, nothing more- and Venti originally did such, wiping it on his shorts.

"Sorry, I have a sort'a...headspace?" Venti began to frantically explain. Aether's chuckle quickly cut him off.

"It's alright, I figured. With the thumb stuff, and the fact that your waistband isn't particularly hidden right now."

Franticlaly, Venti wrapped his cape around the other, before Aether chuckled again. "That's happened to me a few times before. People in Angel's Share are probably too drunk to tell left from right, much less what anyone's wearing under their clothes."

He chuckled. "You are right."

"Plus, I do age regression too."

Venti put two and two together, and nearly choked on his apple slice. "What?"

[popomocco]

deSPIRIA's staff interview

Interview given by the creators of deSPIRIA, published by the Dreamcast magazine in 2000-06-09. The interview is located at pages 44 and 45 in this pdf.

Many thanks for the person who archived this issue! You can see other deSPIRIA articles in here, but this is the only entry that has an interview, the other JPN ones are game guides.

Translation done by rio 🧬🦠🧬

Title in page 42: STAFF INTERVIEW　The up-and-coming

Text on the first photo: How was 「deSPIRIA」 unique system and setting made? We will now chat with the staff of Dennou Eizou Seisakusho and a producer from Atlus to better understand the development of this piece of work.

Text under the second photo: Dennou Eizou Seisakusho, a company based in Osaka, situated right next to Higashiyodogawa. It has approximately 20 staff members, the game 「deSPIRIA」 has been developed in a garage modded into a production room. The scenery in this room is very different when compared to most game companies.

Profiles:

行澤星人　・　seito YUKUZAWA

Dennou Eizou Seisakusho (limited). Managing director

President and CEO of Dennou Eizou Seisakusho and deSpiria's art director. His most prevalent work is the PS game 「Dark messiah」  [Hellnight] (published by Atlus).

[Please get lost in the peculiar setting os this game]

藤本裕　・　Yutaka FUJIMOTO

Dennou Eizou Seisakusho (limited). Planner

DeSPIRIA's director. He was responsible for the script, setting and such. His body of work includes RPG computer games and 「Dark messiah」 [Hellnight].

[Please have fun in this peculiar cybernetic world]

上田清隆　・　Kiyotaka UEDA

Dennou Eizou Seisakusho (limited). Planner

DeSPIRIA's director.  He has been involved in works such as 「Last bible」and 「ぐるぐるガラクターズ」(published by Atlus).

[Please pay attention to this dark script]

田中裕之　・　Hiroyuki TANAKA

Atlus (incorporated). Producer

DeSPIRIA's producer. His body of works include 「Princess crown」 and 「Growlanser」.

[Please get absolutely hooked on this game's world]

- I want to know how did Dennou Eizou Seisakusho and Atlus get involved with each other.

Tanaka We have been associated with them since the release of the PS title 「Dark messiah」. Yukuzawa went to study CG in america, we started talking to each other about how I knew that there are people like this out there but how I had never met any one them. We talked a lot and as a result I got interested in this company Dennou Eizou Seisakusho that Yukuzawa and company created  and asked them to proceed with the development of 「Dark messiah」.

- What is the reason for the company to be established in Osaka?

Yukuzawa Three years ago when we made 「Dark messiah」 and whatever location was fine for us really, but I was born and raised in Osaka and by pure coincidence the garage of a company building happened to be vacant. We didn't have any money we could borrow for the company, "so let's set it here" and that was it.

-What occasion caused the creation of deSPIRIA?

Yuzuzawa  When we finished working on 「Dark messiah」 and we started talking about what we should make next, and made 「Dark messiah」 is also like this but, our scenario planner Fujimoto said he wanted to create a setting with an even stronger appeal and that is what kickstarted this project.

Ueda And then while thinking about the components in this dark world, we were shaping to this idea of making it a traditional RPG but then we thought "what if we make a system where we are able to read the opponent's true feeling without speaking to them" and then we fleshed it out.

Fujimoto 「Dark messiah」 is a horror adventure game set in Tokyo, but this time we wanted to produce a chaotic city based in Osaka, Hong Kong and such other places. But at that time we didn't plan for it to be a dark work. But then we incorporated the idea that Ueda mentioned and it resulted in a darkly cool Osakan setting that you can see in its visuals, script and such.

-Is there any building that was used as reference?

Ueda While talking with Fujimoto about creating a fictitious city based in Osaka, we talked about things like Naniwa and joked around about a tsūtenkaku robot, takoyaki missiles and making a game with an image like that, but we wanted to try creating a more serious game. We wanted to make a motif with a significance similar to the image of 「Black rain」 but not overly so. This is Fujimoto's own unique setting.

-What does this reinstated Osaka look like?

Yukuzawa Setting wise rather than a parallel world, it is like a possible future. It has the feel of a place that has the remains of the once destroyed city, but also has things that are completely different. It has areas that feel incredibly realistic with a setting that is completely different. It has many things that will make a resident of Osaka go "Ah, it is that thing".

-What is the theme of this piece of work?

Fujimoto The theme is "dread".  This expression also means fear, but it is a type of fear that originates from internalized feelings, like desolation. Many other horror games have things like monsters and other things that are scary to look at, but we wanted to express through the dialogue a type of internalized fear that stems from the ambience and such.

-To express such a theme, the team also had to represent things that are taboo in the game industry though

Tanaka We worked on the game while being conscious of those restrictions, but once the game was finished, we looked back and saw that at some point it became a half-assed effort. It was something we wanted to avoid the most, but while trying to create this new setting while imposing those restrictions, that world ended up disintegrating mid-air. So we decided to adopt a creation style where we create whatever we wanted to create and fix any portions that were troublesome later.

Title in page 43: The staff's goal is...?

-How did the MIND system come to be?

Fujimoto As we mentioned before, the general idea stemmed from being able to read people's minds. To create a game in the RPG genre means you can't leave battles out, right. The MIND system was created by applying our concept into the battle format. That system has 3 functions: listening, absorbing and peeping into people's minds. The materialized shape of these beings is similar to that of a monster. Since they aren't proper living beings nor monsters, they were shaped in such a way that their function can be easily understood. Since there is no way for them to actually have a body we actually didn't want them to be shown.

-So MIND battles became a sort of combat that happens in the mind, is that right?

Fujimoto Yes. But, it is not a fight that happens completely inside the mind, or the subspace so to speak. It is simply the protagonist's point of view which changes. There are enemies who aren't MIND users after all.

-Was there anything referenced for the creation of MINDs?

Yukuzawa We didn't reference anything in particular. The designers came with a bunch of ideas and then we decided amongst those ideas. Rather than looking like a monster, an animal or anything of the sorts, we wanted something with the impression of something that lives inside a human, so we set on this depiction of a parasitic insectoid.

-How many MINDs are in the game?

Ueda We have planned more than 60 of them.

-Are the battles planned encounters or random encounters?

Ueda There are both event battles and encounter battles.

-Is there a set amount for the number of MINDs the protagonist is able to release?

Ueda In the battle field it is 2, 3 if you include her. But there is an outer layer of consciousness where she can hold the 2 MIND previously mentioned plus 4 others, making it 6 in total. There is also a deeper level of consciousness, if you go to a special facility you can access those MINDs in the deeper recesses of the mind and interchange their places.

-How did the explorational spheric system come to be?

Yukuzawa There was a feature in QuickTime movie where you could see a static image with a 360 degree view, right. I think it came around 7 or 8 years ago, but it gives the images such an incredibly realistic feel to them and since it is basically a flat image it can look incredibly pretty even without any rendering. Thanks to it we were able to display the environments seamlessly.

-The idea for the messages in the mind diving sequences to be displayed in movement is really innovative.

Ueda From the start we wanted it to be a type of expression method that was done through a message rather than something graphic. We reached the feel of it by wanting to show a message in a representational manner, so the emotions can be felt around through how they are displayed. Actually, it would have been fine to present the information all at once using something graphic, but we set out from the place of wanting to show that by seeing how the words are displayed in the other party's consciousness the feeling they are experiencing can be understood. By the way they move I believe it is possible to form an image of how they are feeling.

-How many patterns are of this display?

Ueda It changes according to the other party's condition, circumstances and such. If it is a peaceful moment, if it is a violent moment. Since there are also cases in which the main point is hidden in between the text, in such times the sentence stops and forms in a way in which it can be readen. There is no standardization at all. The movement of the messages are manually created.

-What are the circumstances surrounding the conception of Allure, the protagonist?

Fujimoto It started with this image of her being raised by the sisters in the church. In the process of incorporation of the MIND user setting, she became this character who was born without a heart, who was raised in the sterile environment of the church, she kills those who interfere with the church, heretic leaders and such. She doesn't speak to other people and is solely focused on her duty. She herself does so without questioning the morality of it and behaves only according to the success or failure of her mission.

Since she is this emotionless human being who gradually acquires these emotions through the choices she makes, one of the reasons why we chose a girl protagonist was so this change could be easily understood.

-What is the origin of this work's title?

Fujimoto It is a made up word, but in this game's world 「SPIRIA」 while mainly referred to as a memory solution, it is also the name of the process of the materialization of a human's memory, so we wanted to name the game by expanding upon this word. We thought that 「SPIRIA」 by itself felt weak, so we added 「デス」 [read as desu, but it also reads as death] so it would have more of an impact.

-Lastly, please pitch this work to us.

Ueda I want the players to see this profound setting, with a world that is a little off. It is a bit text heavy, so please take your time and play it without haste.

Yukuzawa I want the players who play this game to get lost in this peculiar world that cannot be found in any other game. I want them to have a first hand experience of wandering in this world through the eyes of the protagonist.

Ueda I want people to play through the dark scenario in the game while deliberately reflecting upon its contents. I also think that the cyberpunk setting is another point of interest.

Fujimoto I think that an unprecedented setting has been made. I want people to enjoy this peculiar cybernetic world.

-Thank you very much

[arimiaromage]

I'm back with more dgrayman doujin fangame updates! after last time where I found Kanda x Lavi fangame that got a physical edition, I decided to keep digging to find the other games the developer made while waiting for it to come in. well, I've found another!

(if these interest you, I'm going to tag all of these posts as "#dgm fangames")

I was able to find & order a disc for their first dgm fangame, Infinite Melody (also called unendliche Melodie). like before, this game was so old (from 2007!!!) and only in JP that I basically haven't been able to find anything on it. and when I got the disc in...

...it was a preorder bonus for the game that's just a strategy guide! a bit of a letdown haha, but still interesting nonetheless. (side note: the site I found it on had translated part of the kanji as "attack"- but if you add 本 to the end of it, it suddenly becomes... strategy guide!)

so I loaded it up and found a 16 page pdf by the creator that is a guide for how to play the game. and now I'll share it online for preservation/archival purposes.

A bit of a shoddy translation-

Hello, nice to meet you! My name is Rindo, the owner of moonlight cafe. Thank you very much for choosing the sound novel type adventure game "Infinite Melody" produced by our circle!!

They then go on to say that this is their first (?) work for dgm and that they've published several works before (other games?) so they're more familiar with that than making manga. From their experience this game isn't that hard but they wanted to make a strategy guide just incase for the people who didn't want to keep retrying. After that they talk a bit more about the game structure itself- it sounds like Kanda is the main love interest and there are 2 scenarios, one for Allen and one for Lavi. It also sounds like there's a CG gallery in the game.

So, a bit of explanations for those not used to visual novels- in Japan (especially in the 2000s) they were referred to as sound novels or adventure games rather than visual novels (nowadays you'll see them called adventure games). A love interest is a character that's romanceable for you, the player character. A route is a set of choices that leads you down a particular story, usually just meant to signify a specific character- so if you have a game with multiple love interests, then saying "the Kanda route" would mean you're talking about the storyline that happens when you romance Kanda (but "route" is not specific to just romance).

The next section is character bios! This game is set in modern times with Allen as some sort of apprentice working for a magazine company.

a brief translation summary-

Allen is a newbie reporter for the music magazine "Asian Music". He heard Kanda's songs over the radio years ago which got him interested, but this turned into disgust the more he learned about Kanda. That doesn't stop him from buying Kanda's new CDs, though. He lives alone in a very cheap apartment.

Lavi works for an entertainment production company (Rozenkuroitsu? Rosenkreuz?? (????)) and Kanda's manager & music arranger. He's supposed to only be his manager but Kanda insisted on him doing arrangements too. There's more here about Lenalee being the younger sister of the company's president and her and Kanda are childhood friends with Lavi.

(side note- the oval at the top of these says "character [number]" followed by their name, and Lavi's lastname is still listed as Bookman, even in modern times. just a funny little detail)

Kanda is a singer-songwriter who's very popular- his songs always reach the top of the ranking charts. Despite this, people fixate on his looks when mentioning him. He's currently under a lot of stress due to his increasing workload and his popularity. He's a bully who loves Perrier (the water??), quietness, and the sky.

top one- Bak Chan (yes, that's Bak!)

Bak is the editor-in-chief for "Asian Music" and Allen's boss. He's old friends with Komui Lee, the president of the studio Kanda and Lavi work at, but he refuses to ask for special interviews because pride (?).

bottom one- Lenalee Lee

Lenalee is the younger sister of Komui, the president of the studio Kanda and Lavi work at. She's also the one who writes the lyrics for Kanda's songs. Her, Lavi, and Kanda are all childhood friends.

next is a few screenshots of what the game looks like! lots of CGs, too bad we can't see any fully. (a CG is basically cutscene artwork)

the next section is a quick strategy on how to get the good ending for each route. it looks like this game has a different way of setting it up- usually a "route" is for a love interest, but in this game you're able to play as Allen or Lavi and date Kanda as either of them, so the "routes" are for Allen and Lavi (despite playing as them).

Allen route

the creator listed some of the important choices in the game and gives a small idea of how to answer them to get the best ending. for players this would be a helpful guide, but for us it'll help us get an idea of what the game covers.

the first choice is set in Kanda's office where you choose a drink. Allen hates alcohol so that's a no-go, but if you remember from Kanda's bio he love Perrier.

the next choice is when Kanda asks Allen out on a date. despite wanting to go, it might be better to decline him so both of you can focus on work.

the next choice is where to take Kanda on his day off. it should be somewhere where Kanda doesn't have to use a microphone (as that's his day job) and somewhere where people won't be staring at him (as he's basically a celebrity).

the last choice is a bit hard for me to understand- the author said they left some of these vague, and this one is basically "Kanda asked me directly!!". maybe it's a love confession? once you reach this part, the creator says you can rest easy (and maybe bully him a bit).

Lavi route

Lavi is Kanda's manager so several of his choices are related to, well, managing Kanda.

his first choice listed is whether or not he should interrupt Kanda and Allen arguing in a room together. even if you might be in the way, Kanda might appreciate you being by his side.

his next choice is about going to Los Angeles (a vacation?). Kanda is Kanda and will be grumpy, but lying to him will make things even worse. (I'm not sure if this is Lavi trying to convince Kanda to go to LA for a vacation or Lavi going alone to LA and Kanda ends up going)

the next choice is Kanda insisting on going back home to Japan. work is important, but Kanda's health is even more important (especially as you're his manager). after persuading him, indulge in what he wants for a bit.

the last choice is.... where should Kanda sit on the plane?? if you made it this far then the creator says you can relax. they say Kanda may be stubborn but he's not a child- you don't have to always take care of him.

you can play either route in whatever order you want, but if you get the true ending in either route, you'll get bonuses! the creator really encourages you to play both routes.

this is a mini skit between Lavi and Allen with Kanda interjecting. It's basically Allen and Lavi arguing who Kanda likes more.

last but not least is a final credits page for the doujin circle.

...and what's that? a new website link? let's check it out!

surprisingly.... the website is still active!!

on the website there's this description for the game, which we already kind of understand from the character bios:

見習い雑誌記者アレンは、メディア嫌いで有名なミュージシャン“神田ユウ”の取材をすることになった。同じく、神田のマネージャーのラビは多忙を極める神田の、心労を解消させる方法を模索していた。取材当日、生理的に嫌いだと思っていた神田を前にアレンはとんでもない失言をしてしまう……。 　みたいなノリです。詳しくは体験版をお試しください。 　最初の選択肢でアレンルート（神アレ）とラビルート（ラビュ）に分かれます。

basically- Allen works as an apprentice reporter who is assigned to interview Kanda, a popular singer who hates reporters. Lavi is Kanda's manager who is trying to find a way to relieve Kanda's stress. on the day of the interview, Allen said something (improper/embarrassing/a slip of the tongue) even though he thought he hated Kanda.

even more surprisingly, there's still a trial file on the website?! I'm not brave enough to download this lzh file right now, but maybe soon once I get an isolated environment... if you press the Trial page and then the first line under the image, there's a lzh file (a type of zip file) you can download. please only do this with virus protection on your computer or in a virtual machine, don't download strange files with no protection!!

yep, that's about it. I'll be on the lookout for this game's physical release (that's not the guide book haha) and the developer's other games, but I hope this was interesting!

I apologize for the shoddy translations, if you'd like to translate the parts here feel free to add it as a reblog/comment. I've posted every single page from the PDF so there's nothing additional I have. if you have any more info on the developer/doujin circle feel free to add those as well.

or, maybe.... you're brave enough to try the trial version for yourself? 👀

[surely-galena]

ToT Main Story 10 Thoughts/Commentary (Part 1)

[1] [2] [3] [4]

Okay, what an opening. And also -- the absolute whiplash between Agent Raven with his scary threats and then Luke going "hey MC what's up? :D"

Huh, so this is what we're going to be dealing with this episode. Considering what the card CGs are for main story 10, maybe this counts as foreshadowing.

Kiki dear I missed you!! She's such a good friend to MC, it's so nice to hear from her again <3

This is actually quite a welcome lighthearted scene after all the tension and drama of main story 9!

First, it's nice to see MC is still concerned about Artem, even if his treatment of her in main story 9 was different than usual. And then to have Celestine in on the plan is also delightful, because Celestine is always charming whenever she gets to appear in the story.

It's so funny to me that MC's thoughts about Artem in this scenario are basically very normal things, like. Vulnerability. Fear. Basically -- Artem being able to express something other than his usual calm, cool demeanor.

I do find it interesting that they're not really addressing main story 6, though. Like, was that not scary enough for either of you?? I think both of you were terrified of losing each other back when you were trapped within glass walls.

Aaaand... okay, break time to talk about these two ridiculous debate scenarios.

Case 1: The CHA-CHA?? Of all dances?? My word this guy is truly drunk. And walking right in front of the car, too. Not to mention a stark juxtaposition to 10-01's tense discussion of curses.

Case 2: Uhh hold on, this is Themis Law Firm. One of the go-to law firms in Stellis, and one of the staff members can simply claim to be a security guard?? And then proceed to denounce Artem Wing of all people?? Who hired this guy??? If he was someone who had broken in, I'd somewhat understand that, but this is a staff member. Not to mention one with enough connections to gain access to the broadcast system.

MC: Hey HOW did this guy GET IN we were having a SERIOUS conversation!

Artem: No, it's fine, just ignore it--

MC, already rolling up her sleeves: Ohhh no. No way am I ignoring this. Hey LISTEN UP, you ASKED for this!

*debate start*

Whoa you didn't get a sprite last time! I did not expect Miss Fortune Teller / Felicia to look like this, but somehow, it feels like things are a little too obvious. At first glance, it looks like she could be another Ava Kendricks, but because she's the primary suspect, it's hard to think of her as the true culprit. It'll be interesting to see where the story goes with her, though.

[a-student-out-of-time]

As an opponent of switch theory, I will try to answer the points that you present. 1. Firstly, the fact that Teruko prosopagnosia is mentioned in chapter 2 does not mean that it will play an important role in chapter 2, that if the author thought if Teruko prosopagnosia was mentioned in the chapter where this aspect is used, it would be very obvious, so they placed this mention on one chapter earlier in the hope that the reader might slightly forget, thus making the mystery harder for himself. and by the way, THE OTHERS DON'T HAVE prosopagnosia THEY WOULD NOTICE IF J SOMETHING IS WRONG AND HOW THE THEORY of conspiracy failed, how do you explain it?

2. To show that Teruko still feels pain for Min's death and that although she can pretend that she doesn't care, she will feel pain for people's deaths.

3. Isn't the CG where Arei epicly opens the door, the hair isn't the same length? artistic approach.

4. Why weren't we shown the wigs during the investigation? Maybe because they are not involved in the murder at all? during the search for the body of Arei Teruko, she would have noticed that something was missing here and the investigation returned in time, but if this did not happen, then they are unlikely to be connected with the crime. and what if wigs play a part in chapter 3 where teruko prosopagnosia comes into play.

One of the reasons why I don't like this theory is that it's not Arei's character to follow what plan is not clear, seeing as Eden the person she worries going through a difficult time thinking she's dead. Did Arei continue to pretend to be J after seeing this? NO it's not the character of Arei, it's not only an OOC theory for Arei but a theory of a completely waste character J that hasn't even started going through the character path.

//First of all, thank you for taking the time to offering some counter-arguments. It's nice to have someone addressing the points I've made.

//But I still don't see these as particularly strong ones for a few reasons. And by a few, I mean I've gone into a lot of detail as to why:

1A. It doesn't matter because, as I've talked about before, the only people who actually examined Arei's body were Teruko (the person who can't differentiate faces) and Arturo (who we've learned had reasons to half-ass the investigation, if not kill her himself). Not to mention they didn't exactly do a good job investigating her actual death regardless of those details, and what they found was very surface-level. Nobody would've found out it's not her because nobody would've known to check if that wasn't her body.

1B. The idea that they're placing that detail a chapter early, where it isn't going to be relevant, feels very wasteful to me. Yes, they did place setup in the prologue and chapter one, but those were small moments and would've come off as just comedy if you weren't paying attention. Xander's super strength was relevant to Chapter 1, after all; it proved vital in decoding the murder plan. Veronika asking probing questions about the details of Teruko's prosopagnosia is very different from Teruko not remembering Charles until Hu mentions his hair color and outfit. DR chapters are often each self-contained stories, and the details we get are always relevant to the case, no matter how small, and potentially the cases that come later. There's been no DR game that includes character details that don't become relevant at all until the next chapter. Putting in details that won't have payoff until later, unless we're talking about contributing to a larger narrative, doesn't happen here. That's not just a DR thing, that's a basic good writing thing; let the information we get in the middle of a story be relevant to that story, not just serve as setup for a different one.

2A. If it were as simple as that, why not just include a brief flashback to Min. Xander has gotten plenty of mention this chapter, such as when Teruko was playing with cacti and very clearly roleplaying a scenario where she defeats him and begs for forgiveness. That's definitely a sign she misses Xander. But if Teruko was referencing Min there, she would've said Min and Min would've appeared. Instead, the screen went black and we got no mention of what she was reminded of. I'm actually not fully convinced it was Min because...

2B. Something I haven't really discussed in detail here is the scene with Charles and Whit in the computer lab, where they're doing some hacking. Teruko asks about Charles' brother, the one he doesn't even remember, and Charles proceeds to ask her if she knows what Childhood Amnesia is. That also got no follow-up, as Teruko was hungry. I'm starting to think Teruko wasn't reminded of Min, but someone else from her past, which I'm certain is going to be VERY important given the nature of her motive secret.

3. Yes, but she was actually herself in that CG. I'm not talking about when she confronted Arturo, because that was very clearly Arei. I'm talking about the corpse found in the playground, whose hair is clearly longer than it's supposed to be. That was before the window of time where the two of them could've switched places, and thus the body found. And as I've said before, you can't just assign artistic license because Xander's look wasn't subject to that.

4. Again, the idea that things are only here for setup in Chapter 3 is unsubstantiated. This floor was created for Chapter 2, thus the things here- like with every other DR game- are going to be relevant to Chapter 2. Not only that, but we saw the wigs on three separate occasions in this chapter: when they first entered and got new clothes, when Teruko asked Rose about her secret, and when J tried to get Teruko to help her get away from Arturo. After that, the one time they went back there- when they were looking for Arei- it didn't pan over to show the wigs again, and that was the last time we saw inside the dressing room. That doesn't strike you as suspicious? Furthermore, why can't the wigs be relevant here and now, rather than later?

//To be honest, it sounds more like you're specifically trying to discredit my theory rather than offer a solid alternative. You can't just look at this and say "Well, none of it is guaranteed to be relevant now." Why not? What makes you so sure it isn't?

//You also can't just say "No, you're wrong" in a debate without some kind of solid basis for why I'm wrong. Otherwise, it comes across as you disagreeing on the grounds of "I don't like what you're saying."

//I'm not trying to be petty, I'm just offering my stance on debates. You need to work on your counter-arguments, though I really do appreciate you taking the time to offer them.

//And I can understand the disagreement, I honestly can. It's a crazy theory and I don't even expect to be right about everything, and I totally get why you'd see this as nonsensical and that it would come at the cost of another character who's comparatively gotten much less development. But let me offer you an alternative to your final point of disagreement.

//Arei said several times in the flashbacks that Eden is someone she needs to protect. We don't know what exactly happened on her end of things, before or after she confronted David, or how all the other moving parts of this chapter fit together. We don't even know how the murder actually happened yet.

//With that in mind, we can't make the assumption that, if Arei is really disguised as J, that there would be zero risk of her exposing herself. As I've said before, that would be an easy way for David and/or the Blackened of this case to pin the crime on her, because all she'd really be able to defend herself with are hearsay on her part.

//And given that she knows David's, Arturo's and one more person's secrets, would it really be a stretch to say that she could convince J to help her? That maybe the two of them worked together to try and protect the others? Especially since J, knowing that Arturo pulled a knife on Eden, seems like the kind of person who'd want to take action.

//I never suggested the story sacrificed J so Arei could live. I'm suggesting that, much like we saw with Arei in the flashbacks, plenty of things could've gone on behind that scenes that show the two of them were major players in what went on. The flashbacks with Arei and Eden were phenomenal, so the very same could be true with J.

//That feels more interesting to me than "J gets stalked and harassed by Arturo for a chapter, and then gets to dunk on him in the trial." Yes, I'll be sad if she's actually gone, but what matters is how it actually happened and the circumstances that lead up to it.

//Again, we've gotten basically no details on the murder itself as of yet. Nothing that suggests things couldn't have played out like this, or, like with David, there isn't more going on here than appears from the surface. We can't say anything is ooc for anyone, because we don't know the full story here.

//When we actually start getting into the meat of this chapter's murder plot, how it happened and who was involved, as well as the last secrets, then we can start to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of my theory.

//If my theory is wrong, then it's wrong. But if I'm right, this could be an amazing trial that would rely on those themes of rebuilding trust. Especially if, like I said, Arei's goal was to help protect Eden, and unmasking herself now would threaten that goal. And for Teruko, it means having to actually put genuine trust in someone and hope they're not lying.

//Before we start considering what is or isn't setup for the next mystery, we should try and solve this one first with the tools we've got our disposal.

[judesmoonbeauty]

Miss Fairytale Keeper, Come Have Fun With Us: Jude Jazza END

Translations will not include screenshots or CGs as mentioned here. Fan translation only. Not 100% accurate. Please expect grammatical errors. Cybird owns everything. Feel free to re-blog, but please do not post my translations elsewhere. Thank you, for you support! ☾.

When I reached out, it was Jude’s hand I took.

Jude: If ya let go of me, I won’t letcha off.

Kate: Okay!

He makes me stand up, and kicks away all those attacking me, one after the other.

Jude: Tch, what kind of management do they have to be so hated like this?

Kate: Should YOU be the one to say that about other people?!

Jude: Don’t say unnecessary things!

The ones who attacked me were thin, and looked very poor.

They’re people who’ve lost something very important to them through gambling.

Even if I do sympathize with them a little, it’s never an excuse to draw deadly weapons.

Jude: Run!

Punching and kicking, he defeats his enemies one after the other, pulling me along strongly, and as we head for the door, we dodge bullets in the thick black smoke.

As we left the casino, explosions sounded behind us.

We kept running until we reached a nearby port.

Jude: I’m havin’ a real shitty day.

Kate: Is it okay now?

Our fastened hands were easily released, and the warmth of my right hand cooled quickly.

Feeling a bit lonely, I opened my mouth to gloss it over.

Kate: In the end, we didn’t collect any evidence.

Jude: There’s evidence.

Kate: What?

I’m not sure where he got it from, but holding a thick ledger in his hands, he handed it to me.

When I looked inside, I saw things other than money that had been wagered in the casino so far, and a list of customers who received them alongside Viscount Smith’s signature.

Kate: When did you get this?!

Jude: Took it from that damned Viscount when the explosion happened.

(I couldn’t see because of the smoke, but I guess that’s what happened.)

Based on the overwhelming evidence, the casino will be brought to justice before her Majesty the Queen.

Just as I was feeling relieved over completing the mission, I suddenly remembered something.

Kate: If I had known that I was being used for collateral, I would’ve bet….

(I knew that Jude would win…..)

Then he made a disgusted expression…..

Jude: Our princess doesn’t seemta understand why she was prohibited.

As we stood facing each other, the sea breeze blew through his hair.

Jude: Ain’t no way someone who shows their emotions so easily could win.

Jude: Imagine how much a young woman without much money would hafta pay if she lost?

(Ah…..)

I recall the words of Viscount Smith and realize.

(Selling my body, experiencing atrocious things, the worst case scenario….)

A chill ran down my spine as I realized how naive I’d been.

The client list had records of women and children being sold, and I finally understood those repeated words had been for my sake.

(Jude said that he’d protect me.)

Feeling mixed emotions of his kindness and my own naivete, i bit my lip and looked down, but when his shoes came into view, I looked up.

Jude: Really, cantcha say thanks to the person who saved ya?

Kate: …! Thank you.

When I expressed my gratitude to him, who is foul-mouthed but kind,

Jude: Seems like Crown’s Fairytale Keeper has grown attached to the admirable Vogel.

Jude: Kissin’ the winner. I think ya wanted that bad personality.

Kate: That’s something Nica said on his own,

Jude: Such good friends that yer on a first name basis. (Jude’s angy face.)

His raised voice and pouty expression, seemed to indicate he was in a bad mood.

Jude: I mean, is the princess even bold ‘nuff to kiss a man herself.

Upset with his making fun of me, I confronted him.

Kate: It’s just a kiss, I can do it.

Jude: If so, then I’ll betcha won’t.

Kate: If I can kiss you?

Jude: I’ll do anythin’ ya say. Probably impossible anyway.

He’s so confident I can’t do it despite my enthusiasm.

We faced and stared at each other for a while,

(Where should I kiss him……) T-T on the lips.

I looked at his lips, but didn’t have the courage, so I felt conflicted,

Jude: ….Ridiculous. (I’m with him on this one.)

He turned on heel and walked away.

Kate: W-wait a minute!

I quickly grabbed his arm and stood on my tip toes as he looked back at me,

Jude: Huh?

I kissed his forehead.

Kate: ….I kissed you.

Kate: Now, please listen to what I have to say.

He put his hand to his forehead, his eyes slightly open,

Kate: I’m Crown’s Fairytale Keeper, not Vogel’s Fairytale Keeper!

Starting to feel embarrassed, I ran past him.

Kate: That’s why I’m going home!

A few seconds later, with the sound of him turning around, only one word was heard.

Jude: Kid.

(He’s making fun of me again…..!)

When I turned to say something back, I saw the softest expression on his face.

Kate: Huh……

It was as warm as sunlight, and it was the first time I’d seen it.

It felt like time had stopped for a moment,

Jude: What kinda dumb look are ya makin’?

His grumpy face returned immediately.

Jude: Hurry ‘n go home.

He started walking and I followed him quickly.

Kate: Please wait!

Perhaps the reason why I didn’t stand next to the swinging jacket that was a step ahead of me, was because the excitement I felt still hadn’t gone away.

[Master List] [Jude Epilogue]

Heh, jelly Jude. Pouty Jude. More of that please.

Dividers: @.adornedwithlight

Tags List: @sh0jun @theimaginativelyreticent @sapphire-323 @letter-from-afar @nateko @cosmowgyrall. @lunaaka

[goombasa]

Thoughts on the Super Mario RPG Remake

So hey, guess what I got for Christmas?

Okay, so, to give a bit of context to this, the original Legend of the Seven Stars on the Super Nintendo is one of my favorite games of all time. I played it backwards and forward and I've probably played through it start to finish more than any other game on the SNES. I love the world it created, and felt like one of the first big proper expansions to Mario's universe, rather than just being an incidental new place where the game was taking place. I love the new characters we were introduced to, particularly Geno and Mallow, and I was always disappointed that we never saw them again. I mean, I get WHY we didn't, the game was made by Squaresoft pre-Enix merger, and as such, most, if not all of the game's original characters were the property of Square and not Nintendo.

Oh, and of course I love the fact that this would be the impetus for other Mario-themed RPGs down the line, including Paper Mario, its sequel, the Thousand-Year Door, and the Mario and Luigi series… not that either of those series are in particularly good shape these days. But this was the start of it all.

So imagine my surprise when Nintendo announced during the Nintendo Direct in June of 2023 that there was a remake of this game in the works for the Switch, AND that it was going to be released later that same year, just in time for the Holidays!

I never thought it was going to happen, but it was happening. One of my most favorite games of all time, was getting remade, from the ground up, and brought properly into the third edition! Holy crap! AND GENO AND MALLOW WERE COMING BACK, BABY!

But… the more that I thought about it, the more my excitement died down. How would the gameplay hold up? Were they going to change a bunch of stuff about the game? Would they add a bunch of superfluous fluff? Who was even making it? It wasn't made by Nintendo or Square-Enix, but by a third party called ArtePiazza, a studio that up until this game came along, I hadn't actually heard of before. I was worried, and that worry was only exacerbated by how much this game meant to me personally.

Thankfully, all my worry was for nothing. This is not only a very faithful remake that makes changes only in what I personally consider the right places, but also a reminder of how much these older games tended to be better about respecting a player's time.

And now I'm gonna talk about it all.

The Developer

As it turns out, ArtePiazza has a long history of working with Square Enix, and were actually the primary developer behind a lot of the remakes of classic Dragon Quest games, as well as the CG designs and scenario designs in others, so they definitely know what they're doing when it comes to RPG remakes. It's not really surprising that I hadn't heard of them before, as they were more a background studio that offered assistance rather than main development.

This isn't the first remake they've been responsible for, like I mentioned, and I definitely think they did a great job with it, but I kind of wish I knew a bit more about the studio as a whole now, but information on them is a little bit on the sparse side, aside from the list of projects they've worked on which mostly consists of the Dragon Quest series, and a small handful of other RPGs here and there.

The Story

Hokay, so, this is a Mario game, but it's an RPG. That basically means that you have a very typical RPG setup, and at no point does it feel like the game is treating itself very seriously. I say that as a positive, because the story is paper thin here, basically an excuse to have Mario and friends go all over the place in this weird and wonderful world that has been created here.

The story itself wasn't really changed at all from the original. It is as close to the original as possible while at the same time altering some of the weird mid-90's quirks of the script. Most of the changes are minor, like removing the Bruce Lee name drop just before the Bowyer fight, and a few of the names of certain characters and enemies were changed. The only one that I kind of wish they hadn't changed was Mack, the first commandert of Smithy's forces that you fight in the game. His name was changed to Claymorton in the remake, which does make sense, it's still a pun on his weapon of choice, but in the original, he was known as Mack. You know, as in Mack the Knife? Pun on the song? Because he's a sword, but still… kind of a knife?

Okay, I get why they changed it.

Point being, if you are a fan of the original, nothing here is going to ruin any sort of memories you have of the story, simple as it is. Whatever changes they made are negligible and it retains the same flow, and most of the sillier moments are preserved perfectly here in the remake.

The Characters

Like the story, there's not a huge amount of characterization here, so if you were expecting the remake to suddenly give more depth to anything here, you're going to be disappointed.

At the same time though, none of these characters really needed much in terms of depth. Their designs and personalities are more than enough to carry the game. The villains barely get much of an introduction in this game, simply showing up at designated points to be the antagonist for that particular chapter of the story, and yet every single one of them has such a striking design and an interesting personality (for the most part; the aforementioned Claymorton is about as generic as it gets, save for his design and pogo-sword gimmick) that I don't think ‘depth’ is every really an issue. Entertaining is probably the best way to describe the characters here. Even the most minor of characters manage to leave enough of an impression that you are never going to mistake one person for another as you journey across the Mushroom Kingdom here.

This is something that carries over beyond Smithy and his gang to the one-off minor villains you run into, like the fame-hungry Punchnello, the underwater pirate Johnny, and of course the completely detached from reality Booster and his Amusement Tower.

Also, you fight a sentient wedding cake at one point, and the ending to that fight is legitimately hilarious.

And then there are the playable characters. Mario is given more of a mischevious bent in this game, and I was really surprised to see that they kept in some of the less flattering moments for our hero. There's a point where Mario's ready to just deck a child in the face for basically saying he isn't as good as Geno. And there are the many moments where Mario, rather than just recapping past events to other characters will just mime his way through what's happened, basically playing every character at once, and it's fantastic. This was one of the first times in the series where Mario had a lot of character beyond just being a heroic jump man and I think it did a very good job at conveying that character.

Also, you can make Mario say some real mean things to people in this game and just be a dick, which doesn't really have any sort of consequence, as most of the ‘yes/no’ questions, you do have to eventually agree in order to progress, so there's generally no reason NOT to make Mario talk negatively at least once or twice, just to see the other character's reactions to him just flat out refusing to be a hero for once.

Princess Peach is how she always is. She spends the first good chunk of the game in her usual role as a damsel in distress, and even after she joins the party, she doesn't really get a chance to shine on her own. Mechanically she's one of the most important party members, but in terms of personality, she really doesn't stand out much once she joins your party. I kind of feel like she had more dialogue before she was rescued than after. It's not a terrible portrayal, but you can definitely tell that this was written during a time when Peach's role was mostly to be the damsel, and the fact that she was part of the main party was enough to celebrate, whereas steps have been taken in future games to give her a bit more personality, and to make her a more active element in the story. It's especially noticeable when you compare Peach to Bowser's portrayal.

Bowser is fantastic in this game. This was the first time Bowser was shown to be anything more than just a big, evil brute in the games. Back in 1996 this was pretty unprecedented, and it really made Bowser into the more endearing, well-loved semi-villain that he is today. Like, yeah, Bowser is evil, but at the same time, he's also a bit of a dork with self-confidence issues who thinks he's way smarter than he is, and it's just… it's just so great. It's to the point where, even in RPGs where he is the main villain, Bowser is just as much comedy relief as he is an antagonist. It's the same here. After defeating him early in the story and then slowly watching his forces dwindle down to nothing as he tries in vain to defeat smithy on his own, Bowser is just a delightful curmudgeon to have on the team… even if, in terms of mechanics, he was actually the character I ended up using the least throughout my playthrough.

But then there are the newcomers, Geno and Mallow. I love them both, from an aesthetic point of view. Mallow, being a little cloud creature does fit right into the Mario world without issue. Geno's a bit more unique looking, but his role as the guardian of the Star Road fits right in with the occasional character guarding a super powerful area or relic or long lost power source that seems to crop up, even in the regular platformers now and then. And as they aren't really Mario characters, at least not in terms of the main canon, the writers did have a bit more freedom with these two, though not a huge amount was done with that freedom. Geno is about as static as Mario, Bowser, and Peach, though he's certainly a talkative character. I never really got much of a vibe for his personality though, as much as I enjoyed his design. Mallow is unique amongst the main cast of the game in that he's really the only one of the five that has something resembling a character arc. Orphaned as a child, wanting to find his real parents, and learning to be more confident as a result. It's really simple, much like most other subplots in the game, what few there are, but it does give his character more agency in the plot beyond the shared goal of wanting to stop Smithy from taking over the world.

Speaking of Smithy, can I just say how much I love the idea behind him. He's an alien blacksmith who literally forges the enemies that you fight, making sentient weapons that are completely loyal to me. It's an intriguing idea for a villain and I kinda love it. It almost makes me a bit disappointed that he just exists to be a villain. We don't know anything about him, what he does, where he comes from, whether or not he's done this to other worlds and so forth; Like I said before, we don't really need all that stuff for this to be a great game and an enjoyable story, but the fact that I'm not disappointed and yet I'm still asking these questions about the villain does tell me that I think he's at least an interesting force, especially with how much he's built up over the course of the story before you finally confront him. He might be one of my favorite Mario villains just for his concept alone, and that extends to his minions, all of whom are based around various weapons, their names a pun on the weapon they're based on. It's great stuff.

What the characters lack in depth or complexity, they more than make up for by just being absolutely off-the-wall strange, and I am here for it.

The World

Exploring the world in this game is a pretty straightforward experience. Folks tell you where to go and what to do, and then you do it. You pretty much will never find yourself wondering what you're supposed to do next, and that's without the need of a waypoint or a radar or even anything to really remind you of what you should be doing, though the remake does give you a handy journal function to remind you of recent events and any interesting information that you've gleaned from talking to people.

While the original didn't have any journal or fast travel functions in it, moving around the map was fairly snappy (actually much snappier than in the remake) and the areas and dungeons were small enough that revisiting them for whatever reason never felt like much of a chore. However, adding in modern sensitibilities and accessibility options for the convenience of the player is something that I will always welcome, especially since they slowed down traveling on the map quite a bit for the remake.

But that's about the only thing that feels like it's been made slower. Mario no longer needs a button held down in order to run on the overworld, running is just his standard mode of movement in this remake, and his speed is a very happy medium between his walk and run speeds from the original, and it works perfectly for getting around quickly enough and avoiding enemy encounters, not that you'll really want to, as combat is really fun, but I'll get into that later. Platforming also feels better in this version as well. The original wasn't bad perse, but the sprite-based isometric layout of the game combined with the strange ascent and descent speed of the jump could make platforming a bit tricky. And yes, the game does have platforming, usually in optional mini-games

While the areas themselves are small and even somewhat linear in their layout, the isometric layout of everything does make exploring worthwhile, and of course there are always hidden treasure chests and enemies to keep a lookout for. There are even invisible treasure chests scattered all over the world, with a particular NPC in the game that will even tell you how many hidden treasures in the world you haven't found yet, how nice of them! You can find a bunch of stuff just by talking to the individuals and poking around in every nook and cranny, whether it's directions to a hidden treasure room in the forest maze, a challenge to hit a certain number of consecutive bounces using your jump attacks, or hitting a button in Booster Tower that opens up a completely new screen in the previous area. And that's to say nothing about the rush that you get when you grab an invincibility star and just plow through a ton of enemies in the overworld.

And you get Experience Points for it!

The Combat

The combat is fantastic, from all angles, and is probably the part of the game that was both the most heavily altered, and the the most improved in this remake. And make no mistake, it was already pretty solid to begin with. The timed hits mechanic, where you can push a button to either increase the strength of an attack or defend yourself against an incoming attack or spell and potentially eliminate all damages if your input is timed well enough.

However, the old game, for as good as it was, could be somewhat vague about what you could and could not block, and also what the timing was for certain attacks. It also limited you to only using three out of the five characters at a time and you couldn't change characters mid-fight. Also, Mario always has to be in your party, so party composition couldn't be super varied. The remake addresses most of these issues, and in pretty decent ways.

First off, if an attack is unblockable, it will say so in the corner when the attack name is announced. Then, whenever an attack is used against you, or you use an attack, an exclamation point will apear above the character's head, letting you know when you should be hitting the A button. While decent timing will get you a small bonus to damage or defense, if you perfectly time the button press you'll either completely eliminate any damage you take (defending) or you'll dish out extra damage AND cause a small shockwave that will cause a small amount of damage to all other enemies (attacking). It's a smart system, and encourages you to learn the tells for both your enemies and allies. to maximize your offense and defense.

Oh, and that exclamation point? It doesn't stick around all the time. After you've successfully gotten a few perfect hits and blocks, the indicator will stop appearing. However, if you start missing the timing frequently on the same attacks, it will come back to help coach you into properly hitting that sweet spot. Depending on your team composition, you'll also get bonuses to certain stats if you manage to keep a combo chain going of successful attack and defense. And speaking as such a big fan of the original, I actually needed that help getting the timing down. With the new 3D models, the animations are far smoother, and also a lot quicker too, leading to the timing feeling a lot trickier. This game also has a lot more attacks that can be blocked with a button press, and I'm not sure if they could always be blocked in the original, or if the timing was just that strange. To be fair, the timing on these particular magical attacks (Diamond Saw, Bolt, Storm), they're really tricky to get down, even with that helpful little indicator.

The ability to switch in party members from idle during battle is also more of a boon than I thought it would be. In the original game, you were stuck in combat with whatever characters you had in your party, and generally I never switched out specific party members, save for some very specific fights. I'd almost always go with Mario, Bowser, and Peach, and end up leaving Geno and Mallow behind. It isn't like the game ever forces you to use them again anyway. But in the remake, you can swap out a character without wasting their turn, something that becomes very useful for characters afflicted with status ailments or knocked out, or when you just want to experiment with other characters' abilities against certain foes.

And by far, the biggest quality of life improvement to the game's battle mechanics were with its special weapons. The system itself remains unchanged, you have a pool of flower points that is shared by all your characters that they use to utilize their special attacks. In the original game, these were, by a large, kind of useless, at least in my opinion. Apart from some specific fights, all I would use special attacks for was for Peach's healing abilities (which makes her super powerful in this game, she can basically keep everyone hale and hearty all on her own so long as you don't let her get KOed). It is true that plenty of enemies in the game have weaknesses to elemental attacks that party members have in their special attacks (Mario's fireballs, Mallow's thunderbolts and snowy powers, and so forth… also Mario's jump attacks count as their own element too), but there was very little indication about whether or not using a special attack on an enemy was actually affecting them any better than your regular attacks. Add in the fact that powering up the special attacks required more involved button inputs (pressing the D-pad in a clockwise rotation, rapidly pressing the attack button, holding it down and releasing it at a certain point, etc.) and sometimes I just wasn't sure if I was even using them right.

The remake on the other hand, gives you plenty of ways to know just what would be best to use against your enemies. First, when you use Mallow's Thought Peek ability (Psychopass in the original game), you not only get the enemy's remaining HP total, but also a list of everything they're weak against, including status ailments as well, which can also encourage you to use all those items and spells that inflict statuses on your enemies rather than just having those collect dust. When you use an attack that hits an enemy's weakness, or a resistance, it will TELL you that, letting you know that, yes, you are doing something right. And those special attack inputs I mentioned before? The game gives you a visual cue that not only makes it very clear what you're supposed to do, but gives you visual feedback on how well you performed the action, so you're always sure exactly how well you're performing them.

I don't want to say that the original was terrible in this aspect, but the original never really made special attacks feel like a necessary piece of the puzzle beyond healing abilities, and some early game fights that benefited from Mallow's screen-hitting attacks. It was balanced in such a way that using your regular attacks was still perfectly optimal. In the remake, not only was I more often switching out party members to change up my strategies during fights, but I was using special attacks a heck of a lot more often because I could be sure that it was something that would be effective this time around, which in turn made both Mallow and Geno feel much more helpful overall. This is actually the reason why I ended up using Bowser much less than I did on the SNES version, as he is a useful tank, but I found Geno's status as a glass canon and Mallow's ability to cover and reveal multiple weaknesses to be a lot more useful compared to Bowser's interesting but underutilized ability to inflict a lot of status ailments. Combat just doesn't last long enough to make status ailments useful to use.

I would even go as far as to say combat overall feels much faster  than the original. Not that it was slow before, but the animations just feel much snappier and more fluid and the lack of really needing to think too hard about what you're doing from turn to turn means that most regular fights are going to be over within three turns. The game's balance is just perfect in this regard, especially if you're new to RPGs. Speaking of which…

Breezy Mode

Look, the original Mario RPG was not hard. At all. And that was by design. It was built to be an RPG for people who didn't play RPGs but were familiar with Mario as a series. Combat was simple, the numbers were kept small, the level cap was very low, and the timed hit button presses kept people engaged and alert during combat, rather than just encouraging them to mash the attack button the whole time to get through the fights quicker. You're never confused on where to go, the few puzzles the game throws at you are very easy to figure out and dungeons are relatively small, quick affairs with only the occasional gimmick to spice up a boss fight here and there, such as Bowyer's ability to lock down a button.

I've gone on record in this post saying that accessibility options are a good thing, and I mean that. More options and more difficulty settings will always be a good thing, and there, it is no different. I just personally find it funny when a game that is already built to be easy and accessible goes even further and gives you an option to make the game even easier. It's a good thing, to be sure, and it's especially helpful for those struggling with the timed button presses. Heck, if that was all this mode did, it would have been a perfect accessibility option in general, but it also decreases the EXP needed to level up, and decreases the overall battle difficulty, lowers the HP for all enemies and bosses while still keeping the story the same. They took an introductory RPG and made it even easier to get into for anyone who is even remotely curious about the genre, and with how many RPG series are transitioning into more active combat systems and leaving the old turn based systems behind, I think this is a great way to introduce the concept of how these older RPGs functioned to people who just didn't grow up with this era of games.

The Post-Game

So, this is basically the biggest thing that was added to the game. As faithful as the remake is, one thing I'm very glad to see being added is a little bit of post-game content. There's not a lot of it, but it is there, and I felt compelled to talk about it.

The original game had no post-game. At all. In fact, there wasn't even anything after the credits, which was the style at the time. Games would usually just end, and stay on their THE END screen until you reset or turned off the console. Here though, after beating the main story, you unlock a brand new questline that will take you back to past locations to rebattle harder versions of bosses you fought during the main story, like Booster, Punchnello, and Johnny, and these fights do something very interesting: they really dial up the gimmicks. I mentioned before that gimmick fights weren't really all that prevalent in the main game. I mentioned Bowyer, but off the top of my head, there are also the two fights against Belome where he'll either eat one of your party members (the first fight) or clone your party members to fight alongside him (the second fight), and the second phase in Johnny's fight which turns into a one-on-one duel with Mario. However, each of these extra fights dials up the gimmickery quite a bit, to the point where they can feel somewhat like puzzle fights, as each one has to be fought in a very particular way.

You fight Booster, and if you let him finish his work, he'll drive a train into your body, dealing max damage to everyone on screen, basically guaranteeing a party wipe if you don't interrupt him and take out the snifsters, who are going to be encouraging him the whole time. You fight Jinx, who will instantly KO a party member if you fail to land a properly timed attack. You fight Punchnello, who has built up his defenses so high that the only way he can be hurt is by turning his bombs around towards him. There's even a rematch with Johnny that is once again a one-on-one with Mario, but this time you can't even use items, meaning that surviving the fight is going to be down to learning how to defend properly against all of Johnny's attacks. All of them CAN be blocked, but he has some pretty annoying timing for all of his attacks.

This all culminates in a rematch with the game's hidden superboss, a Final Fantasy inspired villain known as Culex. You fight him in his original 2D form during the story if you find the key to his door, but during the rematch, he has achieved a perfect 3D form, and man oh man, is he a challenge, well worth it if you're craving something that's actually pretty difficult in a game meant to be more welcoming to new players.

What I like about these fights is that they are essentially tests to see how well you've mastered the game's timed hit mechanics, and it makes you feel good for properly mastering them. Even if you're at or near max level (which is pretty easy to do in even a casual playthrough), these bosses will challenge you. You even get some new equipment for each of the extra bosses, usually super-powerful golden weapons for party members that didn't really have an ‘ultimate’ weapon the way that Mario and Peach did (the Lazy Shell and the Frying Pan respectively). You don't really have a reason to use these weapons since at this point you've basically done everything else in the game at this point, but the fact that there is a tengible reward for doing this post game stuff is always fun. And your ultimate reward for beating all the extra bosses and then defeating Culex? You gain the ability to fight Culex as much as you want, and see how fast you can beat them. It's not the greatest reward, but the fact that the developers went out of their way to include something to do after the credits roll in a game that initially just ended after that? I think that's really cool, especially considering just how much tougher these fights are compared to everything else in the game. It's just nice to see something that challenges you and your knowledge of the game's mechanics beyond what is usually required during a basic playthrough.

The Future

If I haven't made it clear at this point, this is a fantastic game. The original is a fantastic game, and it isn't often that I find a remake that can stand toe to toe toe to toe with the original, and while there are differences between the two, they mostly balance each other out. Both can be played and enjoyed easily, and while the remake does have a lot of very helpful quality of life improvements, the original version's more deliberate timing with its more limited animations still makes it very fun to play, it's just a different feeling.

I hope this game continues to sell well, and my biggest wish is that this means that the future for classic style RPGs will continue to be strong, or maybe we'll see some more new Mario RPGs that are quick, snappy and simple like this one, rather than these strange pseudo-RPGs that the Paper Mario series has turned into, or the drawn out, boring slogs that the Mario and Luigi games became.

But between this remake, and the upcoming remake of The Thousand Year Door that's supposed to be coming out some time this year, I have hopes that Nintendo is using these to guage interest for another original Mario RPG game.

I'm also hopeful that we might be seeing Geno and Mallow in games beyond the one they originated from. I'm not going to pretend that I know the details of whatever agreement Nintendo and Square Enix reached to make this remake a reality, but I'm hoping there was enough wiggle room for Nintendo to actually do something with the characters and concepts contained therein. At the very least, maybe Mallow and Geno will be able to appear in games outside of their origin in a form that's a bit more than just a glorified PNG, or a little background element cameo. Again, because I don't know the details of the agreement between Square and Nintendo for these characters, I can't be sure if this is just really wishful thinking on my part (game publishers are notoriously controlling over the IP that they own, with Nintendo being cited as the biggest example when it comes to their characters), but hey, I never thought we'd ever get a remake of this game, let alone one as polished and fun as this.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end of this post, it ended up a lot longer than I actually meant it to be, I just couldn't help myself and needed to gush as much as possible about a remake of a game that I have held dear to my heart since childhood, and I hope that this is a sign of more RPGs of this nature from Nintendo, or featuring Nintendo characters.

Who knows, with all of these remakes, remasters, re-releases, and smaller scope games that are coming out for the Switch as of late, this might be the year that we get some ideas about what Nintendo's next console is going to be, and what sort of games might be on it. That might be something to talk about down the line.

[saitolover]

🎩 finished lupin's route! & code:realize ~guardian of rebirth~ overall as well!

here are my thoughts on lupin's route & my overall thoughts for the game!

it's been a journey finishing this game, and i can fully say that i loved the cast so much. they were all so lovable and seeing them altogether and bonding together was the cherry on top. dynamics like these where the cast are this tightly knit & feel so close are (chef's kiss). anyways, let me first get to lupin's route!

lupin's route thoughts

this route was 1. absolutely so cute & romantic, and 2. great in terms of the overarching plot for the entire game. you guys don't even know how i started to kick my feet during the one cg/part where lupin kissed cardia through her hat, like... if that isn't the cutest thing. i don't know what is.

man, there are way too many moments for me to remember on the spot (so i should be taking notes by chapter from now on... hmm.), but what else do i have to say other than the fact i loved the romance between cardia & lupin? like the cheesy lines from lupin? corny, but it fits him, they're sweet lmao. cardia telling lupin she loves him, but then proceeding to tell him she loves all her friends, then to her realizing she has feelings for lupin??? yes. the way lupin started losing his cool for once (very ooc for him, felt very odd and wrong to see him like that lmao. it was fun tho because we got to see more of his bond/friendship with van during the late parts of his route, which was fun bc we don't see that often)! yes yes, there's too much to talk about and my memory is starting to fail me now.

for the plot, it was nice to see how everything and everyone became tied to this final route. like, victoria mentioning her hidden intentions + the zicterium being used -> lore from victor's route. nemo & the gravity alleviator -> impey route lore. van & aleister's in the ship, and how aleister revealed his intentions to him -> van route lore. omnibus & guinevere coming in to help with overturning fate -> saint germain lore.

it was great to see some of the side characters shine as well. seeing more of delly supporting the gang & how he & van are going to be working together. cardia telling finis that they're siblings, that they can be together (but still ended in finis falling ://// don't touch me). holmes (and his stupid fake name lmao) and his connection with aleister. victoria & leonhardt taking action during this entire conflict. yeah there's probably more & this is probs obvious & makes sense for the "main LI route," but still, it was very nice to see this all tie together...

hmm, and i guess that's all i have to say for now!

overall thoughts on code:realize

as i said before, i loved the cast so much. all the routes were enjoyable and great, and learning about the backstories and the world all of these characters live in was super super fun and interesting up until the last minute. also the extra scenarios are fun and cute. if i had to say, i think my fav routes would have to be.... too hard to decide. i would list the three i've played recently, but that might be recency bias (also bc i barely remember much of the other routes...), so i'll let this all marinate. overall, love it very very much! :]

[listingdemo]

Black eyed peas i gotta feeling music video pull down top

Bug when Tenten doesn’t react to MC if he looks like Naruto – fixed.

Bug when Tenten wears training outfit in her shop – fixed.

Loop that occurs during the second event with the rapist – fixed.

Fixed bugs with the usual dress in the holiday event.

Added the ability to change Hinata’s clothes at school (as Naruto).

Added CG in the forest (in the Ten-Ten’s route).

Added 4 characters for the rapist event.

Fixed the light from the lights at night on the second map.

Fixed tooltip translation in inventory.

On first start the music volume will be set to 0.5.

Added quite a bit, because we had to rewrite/supplement the scenario.

Added continuation of the Ten-Ten’s route.

Although he had already closed the channel, we decided to save the reference.

Added reference to the DohlyEnot (YouTube channel with reviews of porn games).

Can be triggered during walks in Konoha after 20 days.

New Naruto sprite is used in the holiday event.

Added outline for interactive elements on map.

Fixed a bug with Kakashi and the table in the Hokage residence.

Fixed a bug with Ino’s panties when the skirt was turned up.

Added additional scene with Ino, Temari and Ten-Ten.

Added additional scene with Mei at the hot springs.

Genre: ADV, Slave Training, Straight, Oral sex, Masturbation, Anal, Doggystyle, Parody, Naruto As it turns out later, you are the invited trainer for girls above mentioned… It is time to decide what your trainings are gonna be like… Though… Since it is a dream, maybe you can have some «fun» with them… Can something so vivid be just a dream…? Obviously, they confused you with someone else so you put a bold face on and decide to play along. You are met by three familiar to you girls: Hinata, Ino and Sakura. Kunoichi Trainer APK Android Port – After continual viewing of Naruto for a several days, you end up near the main entrance of Konocha somehow.

Viper GTS (later adapted into a 3-part H-OVA).NARUTO: Kunoichi Trainer APK Android Game Latest Version Download.

Variable Geo (later rebooted to the Advanced V.G.

Utawarerumono (From the time Aquaplus began as Leaf, and it is only for the first game not Mask of Deception nor Mask Of Truth).

Anything by tokinogiri, such as Succubus Prison.

Taimanin Asagi (a series of NSFW games with a heavy focus on action in addition to sex).

Anything produced by StudioS, including:.

Strange Flesh, a Bara Genre Beat 'em Up.

Anything by SQDT, such as Succubus Quest.

Princess Lover! (adapted into a 12 episode ecchi series, later followed by a 2-part H-OVA).

Ouroboros (Sierra Lee's indie RPG, not the prototype version of Edmund McMillan's The End is Nigh).

Ne no Kami: The Two Princess Knights of Kyoto.

Morenatsu - A kemono boys love visual novel.

Monster Girl Quest! Paradox RPG (the sequel, set in an alternate universe).

Miss Peach World (pornographic clone of Color Dreams' Menace Beach).

Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! (The anime also includes an in-universe example in episode 3.).

Little Busters!: Kud Wafter (spin-off focusing on Kudryavka "Kud" Noumi).

Little Busters! (Updated Re-release Ecstasy only).

Heart of the Woods has an 18+ patch adding sex scenes.

Fate/hollow ataraxia - More so than Fate/stay night, where the sex serves a purpose, as opposed to it being there just for the sake of being there.

Anything by the company Eushully, including:.

Cobra Mission (Not to be confused with ASDER's Famicom Unlicensed Game of the same name, or Sachen's Mission Cobra).

Canvas 2 ~Niji-iro no Sketch~ ( fan translated in October 2010).

Darker games may employ an unlikeable jerkass who changes for the better or for the worse, and some may even use a Villain Protagonist, or someone not human and subject to Blue-and-Orange Morality - in either case, completely devoid of morals. The Handsome Lech is also a popular character archetype that is rarely portrayed negatively. Nice Guys and Troubled, but Cute characters who may be flawed or even somewhat jerks with a good heart can be found in games with a lighter tone. In general, the protagonists will be one of several specific character types, and only rarely if ever generic and faceless. There is a large crossover between Visual Novel and Porn with Plot because of the more story-oriented nature of Visual Novels. As a result, many are re-released with said content cut for the sake of reaching a wider audience. Many games tend to only have one sex scene at the end after hours of play, and in a large number of others, sex scenes can be disabled by menu options. Although the term "H-game," literally translatable as "pervert game," would suggest otherwise, the erotic content is sometimes about as important as similar content in an R-rated film.

[maboroshi-no]

Back to ask you questions about the Hamefura Pirate game. ☺️

What did you think of the music and the art? The voice actors, the backgrounds and the outfits? Anything you really liked?

Hello serekan!

I personally love the music! I even listen to it all day long during work 😊. I am so glad the OST was given with the limited edition of the game ☺.

My favourite track is "Key to a Possibility"(?) ("Kanousei no kagi") 😆, which is the music that plays when Keith unleashes his magic. It is so epic and exciting! I was so in awe during this scene, and this music contributes a lot to it.

The "Pirate Trigger" music is gorgeous. I get an intense feeling of freedom 😌, and it feels like the world is expanding with so many possibilities when I listen to it

The "Hand in Hand" theme is the music which plays during an ending scene. It is so emotional and really feels like Katarina and her chosen capture target will be happy together... 🥲

The "Sweeter than a romance novel" music is the music which plays during sweet moments. I love it ☺.

In addition to this, the opening and ending songs are great too! But I prefer the ending song. When I watch the ending credits, it feels like everyone is so close to each other.😁

Regarding the art, I would say it is okay, but not gorgeous. Keith is not as handsome as in the anime and the color of his eyes is too light in my opinion 😑. His eyes should be a darker blue. Geordo looked a bit different than usual in his confession scene too 😕. But Nicol's CGs are always great, especially when he saves Katarina 😁! For some reason, Mary looked like she was in her late twenties, but it may be only me 😅?

Regarding their clothes, to be honest I didn't like the party clothes they were given 😕. The "swimsuits" were okay on the girls (aside from giving jewelry to people swimming), but I don't think the swimsuits looked good on the guys (except Alan).

Regarding the voice acting, it was great too☺. I got chills during the scene when Keith unleashed his magic. I blushed all along during the scene where Keith hugged Katarina from behind, even without understanding the lines where Katarina said he was whispering in her ear and that his voice sounded sexy. Katarina singing the pinky swear song bringed warmth to my heart. It also felt so emotional when she called Keith to save her.

...I guess I keep mentioning Keith's moments 😅... It is the first route I played after all, so it made the most impression.

Regarding the others, I love Nicol and Rozy's voice actors, but I don't have anything special to mention. Except I almost cried at Nicol's 4th memory scenarios, when his parents congratulate him for finally stealing getting the girl he loves 🥲.

I don't particularly love Silva's voice, but I love how chill he sounds

Oh, there is also this scene when Rozy asked Geordo to leave Katarina's protection to him (because she seemed terrified of Geordo). When Geordo said "...Leave Katarina's protection to you? ... I guess it can't be helped... Katarina, I will leave this... other man... protect you...". The tone of his voice was really sinister 😰!

I also loved Liliana's voice, it was sweet and cute 😊. Except when she got emotional, then it was too high-pitched. Cet's voice is annoying as fuck 😠, the voice actor made a great job to make you hate him just by hearing him.

Okay, I think it is about all I can say 🙂.

[adastra121]

So...First impressions for Romance Club as someone who tried it out from Choices. I haven’t played all the stories yet so don’t trust me to be all that accurate. But here are my thoughts if anyone was curious about giving Romance Club a try. Uh, spoilers beneath the cut!

Here’s the quick summary: Path of the Valkyrie and Legend of the Willow are pretty good. But you should be careful if you’re sensitive to sexual violence, misogyny, and um…incest.

Hooooooooooo boy. If you thought the male love interests were forced in Choices…You just…don’t get to decide on the MC’s sexuality — no matter the story, she’s attracted to men (I’m going to use she/her pronouns for the MCs because they’re all female so far). Sometimes the MC will have a male ex. That ticks me off personally — it wouldn’t if they used it only once or for a specific MC in a way that would fit her arc, sort of like in Mother of the Year or Baby Bump in Choices.

I started with Chasing You, the murder mystery, since that’s usually the first kind of story I gravitate towards. I don’t…remember any content warning, so a lot of the “romantic” elements in the story came as a shock. There’s the forced LI Alexander, though I think the more accurate term here is “predator.” He did that — you know, the walk in romance scenarios, where the male LI stalks toward the heroine until she backs herself into a wall and it’s played off as ooh~ sexy, which it usually only is if you know and like the guy — to MC when they don’t know each other, he forces a kiss on MC and…the most wild part I’ve gotten to so far…he PINS MC DOWN ON HIS BED AND TIES HER TO IT WHEN SHE STRUGGLES. AND HE FEELS HER UP UNDER HER SHIRT. (The context is that MC is injured and snuck into his room through a secret passageway while he was still sleeping, and he was concerned so he wanted to inspect her for injuries. Yeah.) Then when the MC calls him out on it the next day or something, he says, “Okay. I won’t lay a hand on you again without your permission,” and proceeds to ruffle her hair teasingly afterward. I fucking hate you so much Alexander I didn’t kill my aunt but so help me I will MURDER YOU RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE COPS

Oh, also there’s incest. MC can flirt with her step-cousin and her adopted step-cousin…who are later revealed to be fucking. Yeah. Big trigger warning for that. If you were grossed out by the diamond option in Wolf Bride…In this case, they’re not blood related, but still.

Yeah. So your male love interest options are the predator, a cop, and your step-cousin. Rachel seems cool, though (I don’t know I think she and Alexander used to have a thing? She might be a stalker? Somehow, still the least problematic LI as far as I know). But they did give her this really weird line when she was…flirting with the MC? I don’t know, she was running her hands all over MC’s curves and she said, “You awaken the man in me.” …Hooray, genderfluid representation………

Anyway, at least in the recent story On Thin Ice, there was a trigger warning for sexual assault? It was just…offhandedly mentioned that MC was an emotional mess, got drunk and (her drug dealer) Peter took advantage of her but she didn’t mind it and thought it was good sex — and they’re still acquainted. I don’t trust any of the male LIs on this godforsaken app.

I also don’t necessarily like the MCs much. A lot of them come off like someone tried to write a strong, independent heroine but still needed her to submit to the male lead because of his dark and sexy charms~ She’s feisty and sarcastic and she needs to be wrangled in by a male LI—oh my gosh, girlboss gatekeep gaslight! That’s the kind of vibe I get from them! XD It’s either that type of heroine or the shy, unsure, meek, you-know-she-has-a-mouth-breathing-voice one. Whose life likely still revolves around men.

At the same time I can’t really be too mad at it, because, you know. It’s called Romance Club, it advertises the kind of romance you’d find in the steamy novel section. And it delivers what it promises? I think it’s targeted toward an older demographic and by that age, most people should already know what are unhealthy tropes, what are danger flags in relationships.

Um, as for the stories, I do like Path of the Valkyrie, which is a Norse mythology adventure story and it’s amazingly not that romance heavy. Legend of the Willow’s good, too, just not for me. I don’t really like the MC — her default personality’s too meek, polite, and sincere for my preference, which are chaotic MCs that would make a joke of everything, tempt fate, and literally flirt with death. But I don’t think Romance Club has one of those yet, so I’ll just settle for Loki.

The art’s nice (uh though the CGs can look really wonky sometimes XD to the point of hilarity). I love the amount of detail they put into the backgrounds to mimic what’s happening in the story. Oh, my favourite thing is that the stories offer free clothing options that are actually nice! And for each time you get to buy a diamond outfit, you get a new free outfit option that looks good! So you know, if you’re dealing with all that bs at least you look cute.

So yeah. I’m going to finish Path of the Valkyrie but I’m probably not going to keep the app much longer past that.

[ahjustroza]

Hello, could you write an HC about an GN!MC who used to be a mob boss or run an illegal organization and the Mains 6 + Valerius' Reaction? Doesn't need to be angsty just dramatic

I wanted to go dramatic with the CGs lmao. Also, it got long and everything is under the cut.

Warning!

Headcanon includes the mention of murder, suicide, crime, and depression. So I would say it is NSFW.

Mob Boss MC Headcanons

Asra

He always knew it

He knows everything about you even the things you don't know about yourself

I can see you as the type of boss that doesn't create mass murders for personal gain

However, I can see thievery, blackmailing, and playing your games dirty

Maybe illegal underground market business in the red market (a version of the black market in Vesuvia)

You are smart but also have a soft spot

For him

And only him

Since MC canonically lives with him for a long time I can only picture you being a mob boss in your past before him

But your past is probably still haunting you

You don't necessarily need a tragic childhood to be a mob boss

I want to leave the reasons up to you but I refuse to believe you would be cruel and unreasonable

Because you are all amazing human beings

Many people get into this lifestyle by mistake, choice, or by someone else's force

Whatever reason that made you get into this lifestyle however did change you

You have trust issues, always on defensive mode, and always observing everything around you for possible threats or problems

But he came into your life and became the center of it

You told him what you did before moving to Vesuvia step by step

Not in one go

You tried to see how he would react to you

When you couldn't keep this secret from him anymore, you just told him

It was very impulsive of you

Highly surprising

You told him how you started from the bottom and climbed to the top

you told him how everyone in your home knows your name

How many people were your followers and how if you ask they will come and continue to follow you without a question

You did dirty work, you hurt people too

Violence is something he can not tolerate

At all

But just like you, he is also at the loss of words when any topic comes to the possibility of you leaving

He doesn't want you to go

And you don't want to leave

So expect him to stay away from you for a while

He will not speak of it out loud ever again

Never going to tell anything to even Muriel

No one has to know

Because you are now here and a different person

He will assume that you did what you did to survive

Just like his best friend...

When you lose your memories and slowly starting to gain them back

He is hesitant to answer any question regarding your past

But he knows that he has to

So he does

And you get involved in the red market

Asra is disappointed but you assure him that it is to find ingredients for your magic shop

He will never leave you, but he is not approving illegal business

Yet who he is to judge?

He made a ritual to bring you back by killing the Count of Vesuvia

So he is more on the stick close to you so that you won't get hurt side

Nadia

She will either use your connections for spy mastering or lock you up until she gets rid of your gang/illegal organization

But oh no she will not give up on you for being a simple mob boss oh no

She grew up into the royalty and probably dealt with and seen worst situations

She will not allow you to put yourself into any kind of danger and if she must she will put you on house arrest or even lock you up in dungeons

She dealt with a crazy husband before and she learned from her mistakes

So do as she says

She will give you two options, either listen to her or leave Vesuvia completely

Nadia will want her answer on the spot because if you truly want to be with her, you shouldn't need a lot of time to think about it

She will be even more dominant around you

She will make sure to remind you who has the power

If you leave Vesuvia she will never want to see you again

But she will be there personally to put you to the ground if you cause any trouble

If you choose to stay then you have another two options

You leave the business completely or run it for her favor

Provide him important information about the underground market and other organizations in Vesuvia

Yet that only can happen if you can hide your identity as a mob boss

So get creepy and wear a Tokyo Ghoul mask during business hours

I'd say if you chose to go disguise and spy on the underground for Nadia

You two will be the dictionary definition of the power couple

Like hot damn

Imagine

You live like royalty during the day and go be a mob boss during the night

She will even make you her spymaster if you are willing

Julian

He will volunteer to be your henchman (is this what it is called?)

Yeah

You have now extra trouble because he is not leaving your side

He will even find you more connections for business

He knows key people in different countries and cities

He knows roads to pass without getting caught

He did live this lifestyle for quite a long time after all

Minus the mob boss part

He is by no means not letting anyone he doesn't like to even have an audience with you

My man knows his way with people and not afraid to put up a fight for you

He is impulsive but useful in the underground world

He is a doctor without a license (or it is just a myth? who really knows...) so he was really doing illegal consultations on regular basis lol

He will patch you up when you get hurt and probably will teach you how you can make lethal damage to your enemy during a fight by teaching you anatomy

You will have to send him to horny jail whenever he talks about anatomy because he is a visual learner

And the best way he teaches anything is to show you

So lock him up

It's not like he will resist

He is good with reading body language too

I can think of Julian to be giving you the most understanding reaction when you tell him that you are a mob boss

He has a history (again I remind you)

So if he is in love with you, he is stuck to your side and yes he will still have his leeches with him

His plague doctor mask becomes popular underground too

If you didn't know better, even you would find him scary and intimidating looking during the friendly business hours

And Julian being Julian, he will insist that you find yourself a mask too

So that you will be a power couple

But make it romantic

However, this is the best scenario where you are just doing business in the red market by selling illegal goods, or being a Mob Boss Robin Hood

if you do unacceptable things, such as cruelty towards children and the innocent

And anything violent that including torture and murder,

He will end this all himself

Julian is dramatic but if he had to kill you because there is no other way to stop you he will

Then will follow you not too long after.

Portia

She will hate to hear that.

Portia is strong but fragile at the same time

She has a strong emotional connection to you and you are probably one of those people she trusts more than anyone

So when you say that you are a mob boss she is broken

Hurt and disappointed

But mostly confused

She doesn't know what to do with this

What to do with you, with what you have between the both of you

She loves you a million

But you are wrong with your life decisions

the good and the bad fights inside of her mind when she tries to make a decision

She will either leave everything behind and live a life similar to what her brother had to live

Or let you go to be yourself and get hurt

She will never forget you or never stop loving you

But she will be in a deep depression after you leave her

Most likely never recover

Because you broke the trust she gave you

So if you want her

If you want to be with her

You have to play your cards right

You are on very thin ice here

You can literally break her in a way without a return

So chose your life carefully

What do you want to do as a mob boss?

Will, you hurt people? Cause trouble and chaos? Torture the innocent and break families?

Or will you just do underground illegal trades and sales?

She can keep your secret if you just do your business in the red market

But she will not tolerate you causing harm to others

She will hate it but will stop you no matter the cost before you become the monster you two fought while falling in love with each other

You have her heart

But she has yours too

So she will not allow anyone else to stop you and do it herself

Because she is afraid for others to put you down in a painful way

She'll stop you rather gently

Caress your cheek while crying beside you

She will never forgive you but also will never stop loving you

You are her only big love and will remain like that forever

Or

She will be the person she was while Julian was on the run

Always nervous and always having anxiety and panic attacks

She won't leave you no

No no no no.

She rather dies than spend a day without the thought of you not loving her

Being there for her

She refuses very strongly to let you go and also get caught.

So in this scenario, you two are still together and preferably alive

But she is in agony every second of the day

And you know that this is all your fault

Yet continue anyway.

Muriel

No.

He is not accepting this.

He will be furious and hurt so much that he will tell you to go right away

He trusted you and you betrayed him

There is not much to say for Muriel

He doesn't want to see you again

Even though he wants you

He dreamed about having a peaceful life with you

But he will not go over all the pain he had caused by violence and power

Lucio

You already know he is down

He will do anything for you

Destroy enemy mob boss?

Run the entire underground together?

Invade a city so that you can make the illegal legal?

Do you want someone dead?

Do you want him to arm people for you?

Recruit followers?

Done.

With the potential he has there is no option to stay peaceful in the underground business

Even if you just mention that you want to make a certain business

He'll take it as order the moment it comes out of your mouth

It will be scary

Terrifying even

You will be unstoppable

Valerius

Lmao you probably got him cornered and forced him to work with you

And he got so turned on that said yes on the spot

But made it look as he was the victim here

He seems to be distressed with your connection but secretly he likes the power you have

You do as you please, take whatever you want

And people in the palace have no idea

He knows that you are smart

Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to become a boss and run your business flawlessly

He'll support you financially of course

Under the table

But the real job he does is to give you information

He is also good at creating gossips and rumors as well

He is connected to the high class and works in the palace so it is really hard for people to make any kind of connection between him and you

He pretends to make investigations about your illegal business but what he actually does is mislead the palace

In return, you get him precious stuff

Expensive wine, silk clothes, anything he wants

Oh my god Valerius is your sugar baby and he doesn't even know

Whenever you tell him to see you he is there the moment he can leave his work

He likes to be around you but plays hard to get

He loves to see you struggle and frustrated

He will not give you away but don't expect him to go down with you if you get caught either

He cares about his reputation

The best he can do is to help you escape in a way people can't make connections with him

Then you will most likely become his sugar baby-ish for a while

He will boss you around but the second you remind him who you are he will act bratty

Oh does he likes being bratty