#extreme rakugaki LOL

[backspacedlc]

i'm definitely not going to finish this or clean this up so tosses and moves on o(-( sorry Link you are half baked

[commander-snacks]

I haven't heard abt much of it myself, but what are your thoughts on Rakugaki Kingdom?

I was certainly really happy when it was announced, even made a youtube video abt shortly after the first announcement. I honestly have many thoughts on rakugaki kingdom (was gonna make a video for that too but never did) but instead i am going to make an insanely long post about it here instead!! so thank you for giving me a reason to finally write this stuff down lol -the actual core gameplay of the series, the character creation/drawing, is flawless. they brought it over so well, and being able to draw right on the screen with a tablet means its easier than ever to control!! despite being an ipad game it is SO much more powerful of a creation engine than graffiti kingdom. You can add insane amounts of detail, and many life improvements such as being able to resize things, manipulate polygons, rotate stuff, etc, are a very welcome change. you can even chose if your creation has 2d outlines or not. heres a few creations posted recently on the official twitter!!

-THE ABILITY TO POST DESIGNS ONLINE IS A GAME CHANGER!!! This game now has a community to it where you can like and download various creations from other players. this is something the series needed badly. -The pre-made characters used by enemies in the game are as creative and wacky as ever. One of the most memorable being an owl thats made out of a milk carton. -I am very happy ZUN was involved with the game, we even got a sequel to his original graffiti kingdom reimu!!

and better yet, an official touhou crossover event happened and now reimu is an actual character in the game!

(more under spoiler)

-They got many people involved from graffiti kingdom, we had an official pastel done by her OG creator, and the OG voice actor for pixel's tutor (sadly thats about all the graffiti kingdom stuff we get in this game though)

-Theres apperently a feature where you can actually export your creation as a 3d model!! so you make them into a VR avatar even. Though I must admit I dont know how this feature works or its limits. -The little area where you can watch your lil creations dance n have fun is similar to the magic pengel starting area which is so damn cozy

-Im extremely happy how popular it got in japan. theyre having a blast creating stuff and im glad the game is making money because of that. Meaning future rakugaki games are finally possible again!!

-Music is pretty dope!

-Thats about all for positives for the game, I actually had more than I realized pfft. Now for the more unfortunate stuff:

-The character designs simply arent as striking as what we've seen in the serious before. The rather samey anime style is kinda eh in comparison to graffiti kingdoms cartoonishness and magic pengels ghibli-style designs. Maybe some fans like the characters, but they certainly dont strike my fancy

-The stories are a slog. The "cutscenes" are just png icons of the characters talking back and forth (with your main creature faithfully sitting in the corner not doing much). I only got through so many before I decided Im just not gonna bother.

-The battle system itself is more like magic pengel which isnt a bad thing by any means but instead of the rock-paper-scissors style game play, you just get generic elemental moves and special moves that are pretty much like the z-moves in pokemon.

-And finally my biggest gripe: you cant immediately use your creation in battle until you go through possibly the most painstaking way to level up ive ever seen in a mobile game: watching DOZENS AND DOZENS of uneventful cutscenes and slowly choosing your stats as you go, until like a full hour later your creature can now be used. Its horrible. Sure you can still see all your creations animations in the test zone, but otherwise if you wanna make the most out of the creation you just spent two hours on you need to watch cutscenes. This is what kinda killed my enjoyment for the game, as much as I wish I enjoyed rakugaki kingdoms story and battles I just cant. I was even originally planning to translate the cutscenes to bring em to the english audience, but i can hardly sit through em as is. Im not even sure if theyve updated or changed this or not because I just stopped checking.

The drawing system is the true star of this game, and I still love it for that alone. I dont like really PLAYING rakugaki kingdom, but Im still very very happy it exists. It means a lot to me that this series is alive again and I hope it continues to grow!!! Rakugaki forever<3