#floaty the drifter

[weirdmarioenemies]

If you're even vaguely familiar with Kirby, there is no doubt in anyone's mind that one of the most iconic abilities is Parasol. It's a unique ability, it gets a ton of merch, and it's cute, to boot!

But when you think about it, there's not a whole lot of enemies for Parasol, is there? There's a lot of enemies that hold Parasols, there's the Parasol itself, which may or may not be sentient, but Parasol doesn't bring a wide variety of enemies to mind like, say, Fire or Spark might.

Believe it or not, there actually are a few enemies that give Parasol that neither HOLD a Parasol nor ARE "just" the Parasol...but they're wholly exclusive to a few games, and have not had a proper reappearance in the games since the SNES era. So, let me introduce you to all of them! Maybe there will even be some you like, or wish would come back!

But first, an honorary mention...

Name: Parasol (Kirby's Dream Land)

Debut: Kirby's Dream Land

You know it, you love it, it's...Parasol?!

That's right! Before it became the ability we all know and love, Parasol actually debuted in the same game Kirby did, which you might note did NOT have copy abilities! Like Waddle Doo and Sir Kibble, this is a classic example of an enemy that had an ability based around it, rather than vice versa.

I want to talk about specifically its iteration in this game, which is a bit different compared to future entries. First off and most noticeably, its appearance is wholly different! The hood is smaller and shaded but with no discernable pattern, the handle is thinner and the hook itself looks more rounded! Secondly, all Waddle Doos and Dees will let go of their parasol once they land, with none spawning while holding them or keeping them when they land anyway.

And another thing: you can't even dang inhale them when they're being held! The Waddler in question will be swallowed, but the Parasol will drift away or, in the Extra Game, even hone in on you! I told you they were debatably sentient! It actually does that in a few future games like Kirby's Adventure, but not nearly as commonly as it did in the original Extra Game. So strange!

OKAY OKAY time for what the post promised you now I promise. Hold my hand (and your Parasol) as I take you through The Parasol Enemies That Time Forgot:

Name: Floaty the Drifter

Debut: Kirby's Dream Land 2

"Floaty the Drifter", not to be confused with Floaty the Cell Core, is such a wonderful name. "Floaty" would already be a sillily obvious name on its own, on par with names like Flamer and Chilly and Cappy, but adding "the Drifter" makes it even moreso. Is that its species? Its title? Is Floaty an individual? Probably not, we see multiple of them in the same level and often, and this is not like Vividria where it's canonically an individual that just so happens to be fought in pairs for gameplay, but it's funny to consider. Imagine if they followed through with other enemies, like "Spikey the Poker", "Burnis the Scorcher", "Elec the Trocuter"…

Floaty the Drifter actually acts as the main provider for Parasol in this game, wholly replacing the titular object itself except for when Kirby uses it. On its own, it doesn't do much floating OR drifting, instead hopping around in its own little world, kind of akin to Cappy, but it lives up to its name when a Waddle Dee holds it, in which...it will just act like a normal Parasol! Wholly and entirely. Even when dropped, it flies off rather than initiate its normal grounded behavior. I think I've heard some of them fly at you when released, but I can't think of any instances of that, and that's still a Parasol behavior anyhow.

As you can tell, Floaty the Drifter's claim to fame is in its unique design, bearing a single mischievous eye and a stark green coloration only seen in artwork. In fact, despite being a one-off mook, this would even grant it its own role in the anime!

Floaty the Drifter, or just "Drifters" as they're called here (I guess it is a species!) are bought by King Dedede in the episode "Escargoon Rules" to attack Escargoon and his mother after presumably being "I'm With Stupid"’d all day. I did not watch the anime! According to the wiki, they're about as fragile as you'd expect a swarm of umbrellas to be, as while they swarm towards and wrap around victims, they are easily KO'd by Fire and knocked away by Kirby's own Parasol ability.

You might be wondering why, exactly, Floaty the Drifter even has one eye in the first place, considering that its role is largely the same as Parasol. To answer that, we'll have to move on to the next creature to feature:

Name: Jumpershoot

Debut: Kirby's Dream Land 2

I bet you never expected an ability like Parasol to have its own, dedicated midboss, did you? And such a sophisticated one, at that! It's even one of the few Kirby characters with toes, for the freaks in the audience!

As you may have guessed, Jumpershoot and, to a lesser extent, Floaty the Drifter are both based on the kasa-obake, perhaps one of the most ubiquitous yokai! And this is despite not really ever having appeared in folktales, if ever. I was always under the assumption that the kasa-obake was a tsukumogami, an umbrella after it had lived for 100 years, but apparently even this isn't set in stone, either!

Jumpershoot first appears in Big Forest, the second world of the game, and guards Coo because...some reason! I don't think it's ever mentioned why the Animal Friends are kidnapped, they kind of just are! And as for Jumpershoot, does he work for King Dedede? Dark Matter? I don't know how employed midbosses are. Mr. Frosty is on the Halberd once.

Our favorite umbrella attacks by jumping and gently falling towards the ground, then makes a rapid, Tornado-like spin around the room that, after a bit, repels attacks! Then, rather than dropping Stars, he throws his own sandal at you that you can shoot back at him! Don't worry, it regenerates, so you don't have to feel guilty for robbing him of footwear!

I really really like Jumpershoot. And apparently, so did Shimomura, because he reappears in Kirby's Dream Land 3, acting much the same but with more detailed sprites! He's such...a cool character, you know? You wouldn't expect a Parasol midboss to be a yokai, of all things, especially one that acts so rowdy! I love him!

Sadly, as much as we'd all love to, there is no game where you can play as Jumpershoot. Tragic, but true! But...you can get a taste, a crumb of its rapid spin attack by having the Parasol ability while riding Coo, which makes Coo spin around invulnerably just as he does! And while he would later find himself joining the foray of midbosses abandoned after Kirby's Dream Land 3, Parasol Coo still appears in Kirby Star Allies, so his soul is still with us...

This would be the end of the road for Jumpershoot, in terms of games, but luckily for Jumpershootheads, he would make one final appearance in a piece of Twitter art, joining a medley of other monsters by spooking Channel PPP! He's still got it!

Sadly, this wraps up the Jumpershoot section of this post, and thusly we have no more Dream Land 2 Parasol enemies to speak of. But don't worry, we still have more parasolic beasts in the next title...

Name: Sasuke

Debut: Kirby's Dream Land 3

Although Floaty had a cute design, it's rather appropriate that the enemy that replaced the Parasol of Kirby's Dream Land would itself get replaced in Kirby's Dream Land 3, isn't it? But Sasuke is no mere living umbrella!

Sasuke's design might bring to mind Bumber for our veteran readers, and its behavior is much the same! It drifts down slowly and steadily, and starts walking back and forth on whatever block it lands on, just like Parasol Waddle Dee, but its hat never detaches, so it will never not give Parasol! Personally speaking, though, I think Bumber is MUCH more cute and memorable...sorry, Sasuke! At least you will always have Naruto to confide in.

Sasuke also made an appearance in the anime, where he's built a lot more like Lololo & Lalala. Here, he draws a gun at King Dedede and Escargoon, an

Name: Klinko

Debut: Kirby's Dream Land 3

The oddest Parasol appearance in both looks and functionality, and our final Parasol giver, is Klinko! It looks like it would give Cleaning if anything, with its hat reminiscent of a besom! It doesn't even drift down slowly like every other Parasol enemy does at some point–in fact, while it hops around, it doesn't share any traits with the Parasol ability at all, and is the only Parasol enemy like that! So, why does it give Parasol, then?!

The answer is: it's not wearing an old broom, but actually a straw umbrella, because it's based on yet ANOTHER yokai! Shimomura seemed to think yokai were the future of the Parasol ability, and who wouldn't!

The amefurikozō, unlike the kasa-obake, has a bit more concrete lore, being children that appear in and sometimes cause rainfall, hence why they wear straw umbrellas. This is true of Klinko, too, as it appears in cloudy stages or stages with heavy snowfall! Its Japanese name, Kinko, might also suggest some relation to the separate yokai Yukinko, a child associated with heavy snow, which could also explain its tendency towards icy levels.

It's easy to see why such an unparasolic enemy would not be used any further, but I kind of like them more for it. They're an anomaly! Sure, this is essentially just Floaty the Drifter's hopping behavior, but the lack of any other Parasol attributes than just wearing an umbrella really make it stand out to me! And that's the beauty of these enemies—the longer Parasol goes without any new enemies, the more these guys will always stand out, and that's wonderful, I think!

What do you guys think? Is the time right for some of these guys to make a comeback? Is Parasol better with the limited enemies they use now? Or should they make new ones? Tell me! I can't do anything with your suggestions but I have nothing better to do than read them!

[djdjdjmk]

Do you have that thing when you look through entire kirby wiki to draw some enemies from here

[classickirbyland]

Here’s an umbrella you wouldn’t want to stand under.

[brinelakes]

i still dont know anything about irby but ive played dream land 1 and 2 and i think the sun & moon bossguys are silly

[angrybatart]

Re: Your open request for art subjects.

I have a few, so I'll just drop them into one ask instead of spamming your inbox (like I normally do lol). Please let me know you got this ask so I know Tumblr didn't eat it.

Mari Lwyd outside a house, standing in the snow (Maybe featuring a quarantine sign lol).

Security camera POV of alternates/anomalies in a residential or business building (like from the games Alternate Watch or Caught on Camera). (Wonky or disproportionate anatomy is sort of the point). (I would request any thing else in my "Anomaly Detected" tag, but you said you don't want to draw real people so I'll check my ego for now lmao.)

A very smug Morshu stood behind a table of wildly overpriced items, while Link (whatever iteration you please) looks at the items and prices with an expression of serious deliberation.

RE4 merchant but he is selling genders and/or pronouns (however you want to visually represent a concept like that lol). An LGBT+ pin can be seen fastened to his shirt.

A cover of any/all of these hypothetical magazines.

A picture of Sayori from DDLC smiling cheerily and wearing a black shirt that says BEST GIRL! in cutesy pink letters over a picture of a bookie with a bite taken out of it.

The "Drifter" from the song Hell's Comin' With Me by Poor Man's Poison, at the exact moment he declares himself to be the righteous hand of God. (It's a good song).

L4D1 Tank infected shouting victoriously in front of a scoreboard that reads as follows:

A contented-looking Polish cat sitting at a dining table, behind a plate of pierogi and a shot glass and bottle of Polish vodka.

A badass cowboy shooting (preferably with some manner of lever-action rifle) at some massive, protoplasmic, star-spawned horror that is attacking him. (I can provide mood music for this if you want).

Reynauld from Darkest Dungeon 1 fighting another Reynauld who has been husk-ified by the Colour of Madness crystals, with cyan ooze and crystals leaking through his armor and with floaty breaks in his limbs and stuff. You know what I mean.

Someone falling in the snow chasing after the Sprigatito that stole their kielbasa. (This one also has a couple of songs that would fit it).

A sponge crab but it's the size of a semi and instead of a sponge, is carrying a piece of terrestrial land on its back, complete with stump and maybe a broken-down old car.

A gangster-style portrait of some chickens dripped out in expensive sneakers and gold chains.

Some manner of Trollge (some of those videos are genuinely disturbing).

JSHAHDJDHAHGDJ

That is A LOT. Lol Thank you, though! I'll try to do some of these!

[drifting-rocket]

Drifter back in his prime, perhaps?

// Sure! Here he is around 1995. His hair wasn't nearly as floaty yet- but he hasn't spent enough time around ghost-types yet :3

[synnthamonsugar]

you tag the dark vanguard as "#my wives" and i Will be including the floaty fishy friend in this, not just drifter.

My wives & the weird small dog that they adopted from the pound on europa

[live-on-the-boat]

What a day, what a day…

We started as usual, at midnight. We finished the series of turbulence yo-yo’s and then went on to pick up the drifting moorings.

One of them just showed up, 5 minutes after we started heading into it’s direction. We recovered it on board and started heading to the next one. That was easy!

The ocean was as flat as a mirror, the calm before the storm. A large southerly front was approaching, with big wind chills and a good bit of swell. Better we got this second mooring before the wind and waves would pick up.

We discovered however that it had not send its new location for about 1,5 hours… we therefore had to reconstruct its trajectory based on its last location, direction and previous drifting mooring trajectories.

It was dark and we were not sure if we could communicate with it and turn on its flash remotely. (Which would make finding it in the dark a whole lot easier!)

After 2,5 hours of staring in the dark, searching the with the 2 large search lights. THERE IT WAS!!!! A faint light was flashing of the location bouy, that barely kept it’s head above the water. But the other series of floats, a big yellow one and the series of smaller orange ones were not there?

When it came closer we could see that the line was still attached, pulling the little red and white floatie under. Probably all our instruments were still attached! What might have happend was that the big yellow float, that has a large glass (high pressure rating) ball it in, might had gotten a crack in it and slowly taken on water and lost its bouyancy..

Because now the whole series was just a vertical line going down, it was going to be a mission to recover it.

By this time the wind and the swell had picked up, it was freezing cold. The little floatie came closer to the boat, and while we tried to catch it, the wind and waves swept it under the boat. We ran around trying to see where and if it would come up again. And it did. In parts… we saw 1 little orange bouy, without any rope on it. Close by was the yellow bouy, about 2m below the surface and on the other side we found the little foam that was in the red and white location bouy. It was chewed up by the propellor of the Tangaroa.. crestfallen we went back to the lab to download the data of the other mooring we were able to recover.

And then we heard Jasmin who was still on the bridge shout over the radio: I FOUND THE SNAKE!!! which was the last part of little bouys before the instruments were attached. And it did look like something heavy was pulling it down on one side. We tried to recover the snake, but as there were no loose parts of rope it was super hard to catch it. We lost it again and then found it, 3 times, all in darkness and during the storm with only search lights to help us.

5:49 was the last time we had seen it… we kept looking.

We estimated its location by the current the boat measured and based on its last seen location.

Daylight finally arrived and we kept looking. But the little orange snake and $100k worth of instrument were no where to be found…

At 9am the captain called my supervisor, who is the voyage leader of this trip. He brought the news very gently: ‘Hi Craig, we had a whoopsie with one of the drifters. It would be good if you could come up to the bridge so we can discuss the situation’

We decided to give it until the tide turned and the direction of the current would change again.

We did not find Floatie #13…

Not all hope is lost! The weather will settle later tonight and we are gonne be in the area for another week. Maybe, just maybe we find it again..

[decorishing]

[gallery] Color:Light Blue – HammockColor: Light Blue/White Stripe Relax or workout. The Monterey boasts a 4-in-1 inflatable float system: hammock, lounge chair, exercise saddle, and Drifter. The Multi-purpose lounge quickly converts for relaxation, socializing, and even exercise in the pool. Lounge features comfortable cool weave fabric and folds easily for portability. Easily inflate and deflate with duo lock inflation system. The Monterey inflatable float system is a great addition to the summer pool this season and delivers fun so you can socialize, relax and even exercise. -Versatile: Monterey 4-in-1 Hammock offers 4 unique positions! Hammock, lounge chair, drifter and exercise saddle. Great for free-motion water (aerobics) exercise. -Recline-Relax-Dream: Supportive mesh lining keeps you cool as you relax on the water’s surface. -#1 Customer Comment: “Easiest pool float to get on and get off of while in the water.” -Perfect Size: 44” x 28” (112 cm x 71 cm) -Ages 15 and up; Weight Capacity 250 lbs. WARNING: This is not a life-saving device. NEVER leave children unattended while device is in use. Use only under competent supervision. Good safety practices should be followed at all times. Do not over-inflate or use high-pressure air to inflate. COMMITTED TO CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: LIMITED WARRANTY – Your satisfaction is our ultimate goal. That’s why all Aqua-Leisure products carry our performance warranty. Fabric colors may fade if frequently used in high chlorine-salt-bromine chemically treated pool water or ocean-water. More importantly, commercial pools are much higher in chlorine, salt and bromine levels than your average home residential pool. Product color and graphics may vary from those pictured. For warranty service or more information, email Aqua-Leisure Industries, Inc. at customercare@aqualeisure.com. Make sure this fitsby entering your model number. Patented Thick, Non-Stick Pvc: Our Special Pvc Laminated Material Is 50% To 70% Thicker Than Most Other “Sticky Pvc” Pool Hammocks And Water Hammocks Country Of Origin : China Easiest Pool Float To Get On Or Off: Seat Rests In Water - No Jumping, No Ladders, No Flopping; Best For People 4’ To 6’ Tall Ez On-Off Pool Hammock: Multi-Purpose Pool Float, Lake Floatie, Ocean Floater; Great For Seniors And Expectant Moms [amz_corss_sell asin="B01CETEZ78"]

[le-poofe]

Art trade with @ray-the-cinema-roll

I love this design, Drifter was really fun to draw! I hope you like it!

[phoenotopia]

The Last Phoenotopia Blog Update

(Date 2021 MAR 01)

I debated how to open this blog post, but perhaps the main crux of this blog post is the best place to start. The blog is being retired.

The purpose of this blog was to be a "development" blog for Phoenotopia, and well, Phoenotopia's development is done. I'll still be doing bug fixes and maintenance on the PC and Switch versions, and playstation and xbox ports are underway (by a publisher). But I'm not going to be making any more major changes to the game. At some point, you put the paintbrush down and say it's done. Blemishes and all.

Recent Events

The game launched on Steam last month, and like any launch, it was hectic. Bugs Galore. This is our first commercial PC launch, so it was a real baptism by fire. Unlike Switch's one configuration, the PC has multiple configurations and factors to account for. The game needed to be able to handle multiple control schemes, screen resolutions, refresh rates, and more! I had a 60Hz monitor going into launch and didn't know anything about Hz (I do now). There was a troublesome stutter that some players were sensitive to that my whole team didn't notice since our eyes compensated it away. There were a few times where in fixing something at one party's behest, it introduced problems for another party. A few times, due to disorganization, I unwittingly rolled back a fix that was meant to be applied. For some, the game couldn't play at all (really glad Steam allows refunds).

It was messy. It was tiring. I.AM.BEAT.

I think the worst of it is over... I'll still be around to do the last updates and bug fixes, but I'm ultimately ready for what's next.

SO what is next?

What isn't next... is Phoenotopia 2. As you may have heard down the grapevine, the game couldn't be what you call successful. No one's earned even minimum wage on it.

Maybe there's hope in the game's long tail. A year or two down the line... maybe. I won't hold my breath though. At some point in the past few months, I finished processing (or grieving) and it's time to move on.

The game has at least earned enough for us to continue our modest operations. As long as we don't expand the team, and we don't take another monster six-year dev cycle like what Phoenotopia took, we can continue. We'll have to be smarter and faster. Perhaps the most valuable thing we gained from all this is experience.

The Experience

It is a dev blog. Here are some of the lessons I've accumulated from this game's development.

- Have a good menu design. Menus aren't just that in-between fluff before you get to the good stuff. Menus are KEY. Your menus need to be robust, expandable, and *understandable* (to you, the developer). Because once the game's out, you will invariably be asked to add more options. And if your menu design is bad, every time you have to add a new menu option, it becomes a whole new pain all over again. Support mouse from the get-go, etc.

- Focus on features that people will actually care about. For instance, I've never seen anyone praise the camera's zoom feature. In practice, people try that feature a few times and then never use it again. But that feature was a constant consideration factor for every level. Run through it multiple times to make sure the level didn't break, think about which zoom levels made sense, resize rooms because they worked at one zoom level but not the other, and so on.

- Don't do boxes that you can move around. Other 2D platformers avoid movable boxes because they're a huge headache to program and they really complicate the game space. Enemies need to respond to boxes you throw in their path and either navigate around or attack it. When you're moving the box, you have to worry about constantly changing your collision size and reconciling when the box gets snagged on the environment. The boxes were also a constant source of bugs because people can manipulate them to soft-lock themselves and more.

- More focused script. Phoenotopia's 100,000+ word script was panned more for being bloated than it was praised for being lengthy. Long scripts take a long time to write and make the game more unwieldy, increasing the costs of translation and upkeep. Every update we're addressing some textual error or mistranslation. There are some highly renowned games (e.g. Hyper Light Drifter) that do without a script at all!

- Be flashy! A bat and a lightsaber take the same amount of work to program, but the lightsaber will draw a lot more attention and interest.

- Slopes, surprisingly! Six years ago when I started, Unity was ill-equipped for 2D games. If you used the physics that Unity provided you'd have a really floaty character that wouldn't adhere to the slope when going downhill. There were a hundred different tutorials saying different things (use forces, use move position, use translation, etc). You can get rectangular collisions done in a day, but to do slopes took weeks. Meanwhile, games can actually get by fine without slopes. Most people won't even notice. Did you know the Phoenotopia flash game didn't have slopes? Neither does Hollow Knight or Rogue Legacy. You can save yourself a lot of work by avoiding slopes.

(big entities look weird on slopes. Bad slope!)

I could write enough little knowledge nuggets like this to fill a book! But I'd rather just make the next game. 

So… what IS next?

As mentioned previously, it's not Phoenotopia 2. Pirate and I are mostly just tossing some ideas back and forth right now. We'll go silent for a year (or two). Our next game's scope will be more modest in some ways, more ambitious in others. It will definitely be more smartly designed. (There will be a map!)

We'll announce it when it's ready for the public. It might be necessary for us to do a kickstarter. I've tried to avoid kickstarters having been burnt on quite a few myself and also because I worry that mismanaging a kickstarter would earn the ire of backers.

But I did keep this blog regularly updated for six years. So I've gained some confidence in my abilities to at least manage a kickstarter well.

Is it really the last Phoenotopia Blog update though?

Okay, not really. There is some news that I'll need to announce, and this blog is one of the game's main outreach channels. Here are the events that will cause me to update the blog:

Announcing the launch of the xbox/playstation ports when they're ready

If a physical edition of the game happens

If a new language is getting introduced into the game (Korean is a high possibility)

When we're ready to talk about our next game

If (BIG IF) we begin development on a Phoenotopia sequel. I do want to do a sequel one day if we have the means and the demand is there. 

Those updates will be more on a "when they happen" basis, rather than me reporting in every couple months.

Fan Art

As always, I'm very happy to see fanart of Phoenotopia. Major thanks again to Pimez for collecting all the artwork from the corners of the internet! Since this is the "last" blogpost, Sir Pimez can finally take a rest from collecting the fanart :P

ÆV made a series of pictures that tell a story. A Pooki is humanely sheared of its wool to create a hat. The Pooki is unharmed. Nice! Gotta love Gail’s expressions.

Amagoo Mazeru makes a stunning landscape shot of a full moon and shooting stars. It’s a sharp and clear vector art. I like the faint glow of the moon and the fire and the subtle gradient in the night sky. Very skillfully done!

Hah hah. I got a chuckle out of this one. I imagine this is how Gail's enemies see her by the end of the game. CaESar made this image based on TerminalMontage's famous youtube videos. Nailed it!

CrownStar drew two pictures of Gail. I'm a big player of JRPGs, so the first shot instantly reminded me of Persona 4's art style. (Hmmm... Phoeonotopia as a JRPG... there’s potential there...) Next, Birdy is shown carried off after her defeat. I really like Birdy's expression here - she just seems mildly uncomfortable.

There's a bit of a story behind the first image. As Firanka shares it, she wasn't able to defeat the Big Eye monster at the end of the flash game, so she believed a tall tale that what awaited after was a 6 armed Kobold boss. Hilarious! The second is a rendition of the lonely Anuri elder. A rare subject. The loneliness is portrayed well here. I feel lonely just looking at it!

Koo_chop draws the clash between Gail and Katash at the top of the towers. I really like this interpretation of the game's art style. It’s faithful to the in-game graphics. And the lighting, from the glow of Gail's bat, to Katash's sword, and the lightning in the background... Amazing!

Lime Hazard shows Gail with a salute pose. Very appropriate for this occasion. I also like how there's a slight tilt in the angle that Gail is portrayed. Those dynamic angles are always hard to get right, and Lime Hazard pulled it off very skillfully. See you next mission!

Lyoung0J with a digital painting of Gail posed sitting on a rock. I like how it almost seems like she was caught in a candid moment - she’s smiling, but also feeling self-conscious. Cute! The art style really pops, and I like how Gail is sporting what I call the old anime style nose. 

MyUesrNameIsSh*t with a sketch of Gail performing a skillful slingshot. I like how Gail is depicted with her tongue out in a mischievous manner, the way all mischievous people with slingshots do.

Niitsu Kentaro returns with a 2021 Happy New Year picture. That happened didn't it? A New Year... Gail's pose gave me a chuckle with how she seems to be waving the bat around as casually as one would wave hello. And "Phoenotopiyear"... Well said! One day we'll have our Phoenotopiyear...

Ochan Nu breaks all records with a stunning NINE pictures in one session :O

There's so many goodies here. My favorite would be the one with Gail staring intently at the screen - it's like she's looking directly at you. You almost feel uncomfortable.

Next, there's an Animal Crossing villager dressed as Gail and sporting her pink hair. It even looks like a house Gail would live in. Gail is a connoisseur of the arts and likes Mona Lisa. Yes :)

There are various comics of Gail pointing out Gail's weird food habits. A picture of Fran looking really cool, and even Gail rocking a bathing suit. (bathing suit image linked here in case NSFW). Wow!

Pimez didn't just collect the arts, he creates them as well! This one, which he aptly named 'The Year 175' is a depiction of when the dragons invaded the towers as told by an elderly Daean woman. Great pixeling skills! I got a good chuckle from the ice dragon leaving with its stuff slung over its shoulder.

Quo made a stunning picture of Gail playing the flute surrounded by the 5 musical notes and the Phoenix logo behind her. The theme seems to be "fire" and it works really well. Gail herself looks awesome depicted in her red suit - it's like she's leading a marching band!

Rai Asuha depicts Gail in the late game with her red suit, and night star bat, and holding a lamp. She looks ready for adventure! I really like the white outline here and Gail's poofy shoulders here - the art style feels reminiscent of Final Fantasy Tactics.

Seri also draws Gail bearing her late game equipment. Unique to Seri's drawing is how all of Gail's equipment is accessible from a pocket on her shirt. I also like how Gail is depicted with her lucky earrings - that accessory is often forgotten.

Treedude depicts Gail with a bat and wearing a funny smirk. She looks like she's ready to hurt someone!

Warotar returns with everyone's favorite Great Drake, Bubbles! It seems so happy to be featured!

I'm really grateful for all the fanart this game has received. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

Closing Notes

Pirate drew a picture to mark the occasion. It shows Gail enjoying a hot chocolate with marshmallows and a pumpkin muffin. A rest well-earned...

Goodbye! Until next time!

[encyclopika]

Animal Crossing Fish - Explained #144

Brought to you by a marine biologist with a native animal gone wild...

CLICK HERE FOR THE AC FISH EXPLAINED MASTERPOST!

Okay, so, I know my intro doesn’t make sense right now, and that’s fine; I’m here to explain. Ecology is the study of ecosystems - how organisms and inorganic resources interact in all their beautiful, complex ways. Think food webs as the most well-known example in this field of study. You’ll find that everything is in a quasi-perfect balance (as it should be), and when you tweak one of the gears in this machine, you’ll find the machine starts to act funny. For instance, if you remove apex predators, their prey will experience a rise in their population, which could severely hurt the population of their prey, and so on. This is called a trophic cascade. This can also happen if you add non-native species (invasive species) into a system they don’t belong. Sometimes, a native species can start wreaking havoc in this way, and one of the best examples of this is today’s floaty friend, the Nomura’s Jelly, which was available this summer in Pocket Camp:

Native to the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea, and Sea of Japan, Nomura’s Jelly (Nemopilema nomurai) has always been a common sight in these areas. They’re actually quite astounding to see, as they are one of the largest jelly species, with a bell diameter of 6+ feet (2m)! They are just one of many species within the Class Scyphozoa, the true jellies. Within that Class, Nomura’s Jelly is within the Order Rhizostomae, an order of jellies in which do not have any tentacles extending from the edge of the bell, and have feeling arms instead underneath. This makes it very different than the Moon Jelly we covered a while ago, but nevertheless, it’s a drifter that eats anything unlucky enough to succumb to its venom.

It’s so big, some of the things that succumb to its venom are humans, though those humans don’t get eaten by it. Yeah, don’t fuck around with this thing.

Nomura’s Jelly populations have been blooming out of control recently in their native range. Called “the jellyfish joyride”, Nomura’s isn’t the only jelly on it. In recent decades, jellies of all kinds have been steadily replacing fish in the world’s oceans. A lack of predators (they didn’t have many to begin with, but humans just so happen to find their predators delicious (tuna and swordfish), or are making it really hard for them to survive (sea turtles)), warming seas, and injections of nutrients (such as lawn and farm fertilizer washing into the sea) so their plankton food thrives, have become the trifecta of the jellyfish joyride. Humans are acutely aware we’ve fucked this up, so we’re trying to find ways to mitigate it.

https://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines/13233/nomuras-jellyfish/

Attempting to eradicate the Nomura’s Jelly, or any Jelly, for that matter, is easier said than done. Although fishing for them and using them as a food source and medicines, it’s too little too late. Ya see, once jellyfish are on that joyride, it’s really hard to remove them from their new throne as dominant species. This is because they actively eat small fish, especially fish larvae, including the larvae that would have grown up to be the jelly’s predators. It’s a terrible feedback loop. What needs to be done is to prevent the joyride to begin with, but, ya know, we’re a reactive society that still doesn’t understand that maybe being proactive about shit might just save us a ton of money and hassle. *Heh*, just one of the many drawbacks to being a marine biologist is watching this shit happen and no body wants to listen to you STILL.

And there you have it! Frustrating af, no? 

[turquoisemagpie]

Drifter.

Been feeling odd recently. So many things are happening in my life, a mix of really good things and very stressful things; change is happening so quickly and feels so solid, and I mentally feel very floaty and aloft, just drifting through it all. 

[indiestarclash]

Select Your Character (Mobile Version)

(Note: These descriptions are subject to change as I actually hammer out the movesets)

(Bolded names mean I finished the moveset)

Shovel Knight: An all-around generalist who does well in everything but doesn’t excel anywhere; main weakness aside from a lack of real strengths is being a bit heavy for his archetype, meaning he can be combo food if he’s not careful. The Mario, basically.

Shantae: Rushdown with unique movement options that can let her dance around her opponent if used correctly; knocked off easier due to being on the lighter side and has a lack of heavy-hitting options - at least ones that aren’t heavily telegraphed.

Juan: The premier grappler of the arena, Juan has everything you could want - a unique grab that lets him throw in four directions, big attacks that hit like a truck, and the heaviest weight and most health among the cast. As a downside, however, he’s rather slow, and can be juggled easily thanks to his large size.

Drifter: A classic swordie, Drifter excels at spacing and dealing damage with his swift strikes and pistol, making sure his opponents feel the pain while always being just out of reach. However, he’s somewhat light, and should he be forced into an unfavorable position - like getting comboed, for instance - he’ll have a bit of trouble getting himself out.

Meat Boy: A hit and run character, Meat Boy plays true to his games and is a damn slippery little bastard, able to weave in and out of enemy attacks like it’s nothing while racking up damage on them. Which is good, because also true to his game, Meat Boy can die pretty easily thanks to having very low health for his weight class.

Quote: A notable zoner, Quote takes advantage of his wide array of weapons, his floaty physics, and unique double jump to keep his opponent at bay while staying comfortably out of danger. However, true to his archetype, while Quote has short-ranged options, he is at an extreme disadvantage if he’s forced to be in close range instead of it being on his own terms.

Crow: Something of a hybrid character, with extreme upsides versus extreme downsides: he has excellent zoning with his grenades and rockets, hits hard like a grappler and has a special grab that works like Donkey Kong’s cargo throw in Smash, and can move in very quickly via bomb jumping, but he also is on the heavier side, making him easier to combo, has poor mobility without bomb jumping (which is difficult to learn), and has to deal with resource management.

Spooky: A trapper-type character who specializes in taking over the stage, Spooky uses her ghostly powers, a few techniques borrowed from the various monsters lurking in her mansion, and even a few of said monsters themselves to gain the upper hand. While on her own her moveset is rather weak, with the right set-up you can really show your opponents why they should take you seriously.

Hat Kid: An all-rounder character similar to Shovel Knight, but whereas Shovel Knight had a bit of a lean towards being heavier and dealing damage, Hat Kid leans towards the lighter side and prefers to play keepaway, with her attacks having a bit higher knockback than normal and being good at poking opponents. However, just like Shovel Knight, she ultimately doesn’t excel anywhere.

Cuphead: Although he doesn’t have as much zoning options as others in his category, Cuphead makes up for it with wacky cartoon antics that give him a bit of an edge in close range compared to other zoners. However, while he does better, he’s still not great, as true to his game he has low health and can die fairly quickly.

The Knight: Much like in their base game, the Knight requires patience to use to their full potential, pestering opponents with little hits before striking for big damage when the opportunity presents itself. Proper resource management and timing is key, for if the Knight is caught unawares, their low weight, health, and speed can make fights difficult.

Turnip Boy: A setplay character, Turnip Boy uses his Boomblooms and portals to set up combos and force his opponent into disadvantage, with his wide variety of garden tools and other miscellaneous items also giving him excellent disjoint. However, with his considerable end lag, your efforts are likely to blow up in your face if you aren’t careful.

Lilac: Although she doesn’t have the most combo potential, Lilac makes up for it by dealing more individual damage than most with her archetype can manage and sheer, unadulterated speed. However, her speed can make her difficult to keep track of, and being too predictable can lead to her getting KO’d rather early.

Tao: A mid-range fighter that acts as a mix between rushdown and zoner, Tao’s specialty is unrelenting pressure. With a variety of multihit attacks that serve to buff her neutral special, Tao is very good when it comes to dealing flat damage, although her ability to knock her opponents off the stage and her light weight leave something to be desired.

Beheaded: Though the Beheaded starts off well-rounded, he can quickly adjust his stats to become anything from an aggressive rushdown to tactical zoner to slow-moving tank thanks to a unique gimmick. This, combined with his wide arsenal of weaponry, can make the Beheaded unpredictable to try and fight against.

Cadence: A somewhat odd character to use, Cadence’s unique heavies and her down special can make her one of the heaviest hitting characters in the right circumstances, and without nearly as many detriments that usually come with said power. However, this takes skill to achieve, and without that extra boost Cadence can flounder.

Peppino: A super heavyweight with surprising mobility, Peppino can hit with the speed and force of a runaway train, and if his moveset and gimmick are properly utilized to their fullest, Peppino can become an unstoppable juggernaut just as he is climbing the Pizza Tower in his game. However, he has a very predictable and easily edgeguarded recovery, which, combined with the drawbacks of his momentum, can easily lead to your downfall if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Commander Video: Exactly as mobile as his games would imply, Commander Video is easily capable of keeping up with opponents and racking up damage before finishing with the final blow. However, his individual moves don’t deal very much damage, meaning it can take a while before you can actually knock out another player.

Candyman: Meant to feel right out of his home franchise, Candyman’s primary source of damage is the iconic anti-gravity ball that he smacks around at insane speeds to pressure his opponents, having a few tricks and countless ways to set up the ball so that the opponent will never see it coming. However, he doesn’t do too much damage on his own, which combined with how floaty he is can make him an easy target.

Umbrella: A close transfer of her moveset from Skullgirls, Umbrella is a unique grappler whose Bobblin’ Bubbles and hunger mechanic present her with options other grapplers wish they could have. However, her slow mobility and light weight can present issues that she’ll have to try hard to overcome.

Beelzebub: A combo fiend that can give veteran Smash players Bayonetta flashbacks, Beelzebub straddles the line between sophistication and brutality by constantly shifting in and out of her more monstrous form, as well as putting her own spin on some techniques used by other characters in Helltaker. However, her individual attacks having low damage, light weight, and a unique character mechanic forcing her to constantly be on the offensive can prove to be a challenge.

Beatrix: A lockdown character who specializes in taking control of the stage and keeping opponents out, Beatrix uses her ranch expertise, gadgets, and Slimes to force her opponents to approach on her terms. However, should an opponent get past her defenses, she finds herself at a disadvantage and will get juggled. A lot.

Saffron: If you hate zoners, Saffron is the character for you. Armed with a wide variety of magical spells, Saffron has attacks and projectiles that come in at unusual angles that anyone trying to stay away will have a hard time countering. However, Saffron herself can suffer a bit up close, and has to deal with the whims of RNG for her main and most useful special.

Boss: A heavyweight zoner with long-ranged attacks that hit like a truck and good projectile game, Boss can be an opposing presence on the field. However, much like his home game, his attacks are heavily telegraphed, meaning good players can easily dodge and punish a Boss player for being too predictable.

Cthulhu: High risk, high reward - has hefty attacks with good range that are rather slow; main thing is that he can inflict Madness on his opponents, which increases the amount of damage and knockback they take but increases the amount they can dish out in return. Properly managing this so it doesn’t backfire on him is key.

[i-am-a-meat-popcicle]

Yammering about hammerlock’s big hunt borderlands 2 dlc on what I’ve played of it so far:

Hammerlock being from a planet called Hermes and him inviting the vault hunters to Argus to hunt things down pleases me because mythology reference.

Dr. Nakayama being like “What do you mean I’m not a threat?” is hilarious.

Witch doctors are crazy powerful holy crap. And human enemies constantly graduate into stronger forms of themselves? Holy crap.

Also why are their veins all glowy glowy and purple? hm.

Oooh spores! I remember you from the tales game! Pretty! So are you like a plant thing? I think you are! Ooh you could be like a weird mold spore or something. All floaty floaty. Oh god everything is on fire!

Drifters I don’t like. I kill one and all the sudden another one sprouts up from the ground to give me a heart attack. Also what’s with that abdomen like thing on the top? WHY IS IT VEINY? It looks like a fucked up brain or it could be the digestive system or some kind of filtering organ but I know it looks gross.

Bug rino and WHY IS IT SO FAST? I imagine they come in many colors. I have thoughts.

So, A scaylion is a flipy flipy scorpion? What? Ok. And have resistance to all kinds of damage... ok. Spontaneous babies. hm.

I love the area and all the freaking trees and other plants.

There’s this weird ass lilly thing that I want to know if there’s any lore on it. Also there’s those large thorny vines that you typically see around Stalker nests so I wonder about those too.

I’m on a boat. -cue old spice commercial whistle- 

[the-nut-queen]

I Have a lot of thoughts on beyond light so I’m going to share them

spoilers for beyond light obvs

The Nut Queen’s thoughts on Beyond Light/SotH:

Campaign:

·       Pretty much went how I expected, i.e. nothing unpredictable or particularly interesting/mould breaking

·       That being said, I liked it! And had a lot of fun

·       Good to see Variks again, good to see the Stranger.

·       Eramis was a pretty decent villain, but pretty much had the same motives as every other Eliksni enemy before her (Skolas, Aksis, Siviks, etc.)

o   Very much felt like Rise of Iron… 2! With the Eliksni taking a new power that they didn’t fully understand to wreck shit, and also, it’s Clovis’ fault again

·       The boss fights felt a little dull. Getting to the end and just spamming stasis got old pretty quickly. I think having that for the first time work, then being able to use stasis as a subclass going forward would have been better (instead of getting the subclass at the very end of the campaign, I haven’t even started upgrading it with shit yet)

·       Liked the ghost lines and voices lines that would happen as you travelled to places

·       The progression felt very smooth, I hardly noticed when the game switched from “story mission” to “kill some adds for some stuff to progress” which was nice.

·       Liked the likewise smooth integration of the empire hunts to the main story line (good source of repeatable content for the future) although I was a little confused when I got a triumph for empire hunts since I literally hadn’t heard House of Salvation call themselves an Empire before

·       Ghost being super concerned with you using the darkness then the guardian just not fucking saying anything is kinda dumb lol but that’s pretty standard

·       It was pretty dumb when at the final boss fight Eramis freezes your ghost and shatters your splinter and freezes you then the stranger’s voice over is like “look within” and you can just suddenly use stasis because why not lol

o   Would have been cool to have a “guardians make their own fate” reference here instead

·       WHAT IS THE POINT OF FIRETEAM “E” (Elsie/Stranger, Eli/Drifter, Eris) Don’t get me wrong, I love them! and I love that 1 solitary cutscene where they’re brawling and using stasis, but they literally serve no purpose to the story? Especially dumb how mara and the nine were like “ooh only 3 have transcended their design ooh they are so special” and then they just stand around a campfire while you do all the work lol

o   Sidenote, the Stranger’s little floaty thing: what is it? And what is the point of it besides looking cute in one cutscene??

·       Also really annoyed that the BOSS for the Glassway Strike is just another boring fucking hydra, like wtf. You introduced a fucking sick new Vex type!!! (wyvern) and you DIDN’T use it as a BOSS for the NEW VEX strike. The boss fight was so boring too, it was literally just a hydra but with lots of health and sometimes it disappeared, come on bungie

 New Light:

·       Pretty cool! Shaw Han is boring though. Bungie you need more women characters and more GHOST characters (also like any non-binary characters)

o   It’d be funny to see a guardian/ghost duo NPC where the guardian doesn’t talk and the ghost does! Like with literally every npc except Osiris/Sagira their ghosts just don’t fucking say anything . (I get that it is more money to hire more voice actors and to write more lines etc. etc. etc. but its getting a bit old. GHOSTS HAVE OPINIONS!

o   Maybe even an npc who is just a solo ghost! They haven’t found their guardian or their guardian was slain by the hive or something that would be cool

·       Where is Shiro-4?

·       Where is Misraaks/House Light?

·       Navota: also boring. Just a hive wizard. You may as well have just had Omnigul come back. Or her nightmare (though I understand that that was dealt with on the moon in the nightmare hunts but still)

o   Disgraced strike: also boring. And the boss fight is also boring and takes forever?

·       Cosmodrome: Cool to be back, was fun to get annihilated by an immune hive night in skyshock as is tradition

o   Annoyed there doesn’t appear to be any Rise of Iron continuity with the landscape, the splicers fuck some shit up in the divide and outside the wall

o   Also, is the path to the Rasputin bunker just gone?

o   Yeah I just checked, the path to the grottos area (from D1) from the forgotten shore has just disappeared in D2 they just put more cliff there

o   Wtf why

o   Also the D1 location maps are so awful lol (wow, we really used to live like that huh)

·       Cosmo lost sectors: nice. Hive labyrinth was fun. Sad they didn’t reuse like the Rasputin bunker but that’s chill

 Season of the Hunt:

·       I’m keen to see my BOYS Pulled Pork and Crow

·       SPIDER DON’T HURT CROW ISTG

·       Not sure what the seasonal content has in store

·       I hope it isn’t as boring as season of undying that sucked asss (obvs I have this worry since they spent the majority of the time developing Beyond Light/Europa, (I assume))

·       It looks like a combo of nightmare hunts and other seasonal public-style events

·       Maybe an escalation protocol/blind well style thing? Idk we’ll find out

 Overall:

·       BUGS! So many fucking bugs

o   you fucked up a perfectly good game, look at it, it has anxiety

o   omg bungie please help us

o   girl help, I’m trapped under the prison of elders grav lift thingo

o   girl help I’ve been launched into the wall at mach speed

·       GAMBIT:

o   You fucked up gambit too. You took all the cool shit out of Prime then mixed it with the lame shit from regular gambit to make gambit whatever the opposite of “prime” is

o   My idea for a better gambit TM:

o   Each class gets one (1) class item

o   They look like the prime class items except not coloured/glowy

o   There are 4 mods you can slot in the “combat style” mod slot ie the last slot

o   They’re like, idk 6 energy to slot

o   And they give you the gambit prime role! And the class item glows in the respective colour and you get an aura too

o   you get all the fun prime perks without having to grind r*ckoning and also have a full set of amour equipped, so you got freedom with your gear

o   it would be GOOD

o   sigh

o   gambit is the worst now

o   it’s like just as hard as prime was too but you don’t get good perks so you just eat shit

o   gambit rant over, moving on to planet rant:

·       YOU CAN’T SAY THAT FOUR CELESTIAL BODIES HAVE “DISAPPEARED” CANONICALLY ONLY LEAVING AN “ANOMOLY” (AS DESCRIBED BY WEBLORE) AND THEN

·       AND THEN fucking have CRUCIBLE AND GAMBIT MATCHES ON THE DISAPPEARED PLANETS

o   I totally get that for time, resources, crunch, and hell even desire would mean throwing out a heap of crucible matches would be not ideal because then there would be like 3 left

o   But

o   WHAT THE FUCK. Maybe if you said idk the vanguard has quarantined the four legacy planets due to the giant fucking darkness pyramids looming there so you’re not allowed to go there any more (as like an in game/lore reason for the planets being vaulted)

o   Cus like yeah you can’t patrol there anymore but drifter doesn’t care about vanguard sanctions so he can just ignore it for the gambit maps

o   And shaxx

o   Could like come up with a reason? Idk

o   It’s just really

o   Really

o   Stupid

·       I like the move towards being chill with gender (changing “male” and “female” to “Masculine” and “feminine” however I would like to see this go further. Ability to change your pronouns whenever you want, ability to change your characters gender presentation whenever you want, ability to be “androgynous” and use “they/them” pronouns

o   Like really, we’re space wizards in the far far future and some of us are even robots. there’s no doubt there would be trans guardians

Final thoughts:

I love this game, I love bungie, I am keen for what the future has to offer

But

I can’t help but feel like this is just another “beginning”

Like shadowkeep was supposed to kick off the era of darkness with the discovery of the first pyramid ship then we just had two random seasons after it that just felt like Curse of Osiris and Warmind Redux

Then arrivals was a phenomenal season

But yeah I was expecting things to be more high stakes I guess? The beyond light campaign didn’t feel very high stakes and it kinda just felt like “oh look you can use the darkness now”

in short, bungie hire me for good ideas and more queer characters