#ginko icons

[kawaiill]

Ginko

[wintermadness]

✗ ICONs : Ginko [Mushi-shi] | part. 4

[glnkgoleaves]

@flovverworks was the first true follower and gets thing!

He was clinging to the last pieces of calmness before the rain really set in for the night. Small droplets smacked against the ground with a small ' plunk '. The mushi-shi didn't mind such a sound as it settled and soothed his soul, but a presences of a someone else made his usually calm hands coil around the teacup more.

" You can come out. "

[infestedguest]

The other day in my botany lab our instructor called ginkgo trees “trans icons.”

[lesyasun]

◆ 200 Essential Sims 2 Mods, Defaults and Fixes ◆

I have just reinstalled my game and currently reorganizing downloads folder. I thought that it could be helpful to share the resources that I use. If you're starting over just like me, good luck! We can do it :D

All the mods are listed in the random order. But important ones go first. I also added tiny descriptions of what each mod does. Also, let me know if you notice that some of these mods conflict. I’ll appreciate ♥

This is an endless list, so I’m hiding the part of it under the cut. I also decided to share the PDF and word version of the list for convenience. Have fun!  ♥

◆ DOWNLOAD ◆

Clean UI - changes user interface to minimalistic and modern one.

Clean UI for Bodyshop - the same style interface for Bodyshop.

Bodyshop Brightening - redefines the lighting used in BodyShop. Must be put in Documents/EA Games/The sims 2/Config folder!

Minimalist Bodyshop Background - put in the Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2 folder and click F5 when you are in Bodyshop.

Minimalistic Logo Screen

No Pause Frame - removes the red frame that appears when the game is paused.

Default book covers and novel icons

Better Bubbles - replaces the default blurry low-resolution Chat, Thought and Yell Headline Bubbles with brand new high-quality textures.

Talk to Me - a speech icon replacement mod that replaces (almost) all speech icons with TS4 icons.

Camera Mod Compilation

Widescreen Camera Cas

Maxis Match Lighting Mod by Dreadpirate 

Maxis Roofs Default Replacement by Curiousb4

Clean Neighbourhood Templates by Jawusa - these neighborhood templates allow to create clean custom neighborhoods with no Townies/NPCs or if you want to play in EA's neighborhoods, but without the playables.

Clean and Empty Stealth Hood Plates by Jawusa - allow to get rid of Maxis families that appear in neighbourhood's bin.

Rural Charm terrain and road default replacement by Criquette

Linden HOOD Trees Replacement 

Birch HOOD Trees Replacement by Sixfootsims4

Pine HOOD Trees Replacement

Palm HOOD Trees Replacement by Anima

Redbud HOOD Tree Replacement by Suratan-zir

Ginko HOOD Tree Replacement by Suratan-zir

Lowedeus HOOD skies + by Zena-dew-drop + by iCAD + by iCAD#2 + by iCAD#3 + by iCAD#4 + by iCAD#5 + by iCAD#6 - hood sky replacement which also can be seen from the hood view. Some of them have animated clouds!

Seasons Skylines - a custom objects that adds more realistic background in a hood view

No More Bluriness by Simnopke - replaces snow and beach textures into HQ.

Moon Replacement by Simnopke

Sun Replacement by Lowedeus

Neighbourhood decorations can be placed anywhere - enables neighborhood deco to be placed on/overlapping lots

No Rocks Hood Deco Mod - gets rid of those deco rocks that serve as placeholders when using certain hood deco.

Sim Shadow Fix - fixes Sims' shadows shown as black rectangles.

ACR - makes all the romantic interactions autonomous.

Pregnancy Wear Any Outfit - allows your sims to wear any outfit instead of maternity clothes. If the outfit hasn't got a pregnancy morph, it will appear on a sim without a pregnant belly.

Community Time Project - enables the passing of time on community lots to be spent on the home lot. When your sims come home from the community lot, they won't travel back in time as in vanila game.

Simblender - can teleport sims onto your lot, set family relationships, move sims in, make townies, give skill points, set career levels and more

No Plumbobs - removes plumbobs above sims heads and in hood view above lots too.

Sims 2 Sliders - various extra sliders for Sims faces in CAS. I have most of them except for asymmetry ones.

Invisible Stop Signs – makes the stop signs in the hood view invisible

Busy Roads NH Traffic Default Replacement - replaces Maxis’ neighborhood cars

OMSPs - special tiny shelves that add extra slots for clutter

White Roof Trim Replacement

White Floor Edge

White Wall Top

Antiredundancy - spawns one NPC per type instead of 3.

No Townie Regen - doesn't allow the game to spawn new townies when you create a clean hood

Breadfruit Tree Fix - yes, it’s a very important fix that must be in top 50 :D Maxis Breadfruit Tree is broken and when the lightning strikes it, the fire effect never goes away. This is so annoyiiing.

Build/Buy Mode Enabled on Community Lots

Community Skilling - enables your sims get skill points on community lots. By default they can’t gain them.

Sleep on Community Lots

Business Runs You - it will manage the employees, making them take breaks automatically, giving them reasonable wages automatically, etc

Autoyak - adds phone options to call friends. Automatically picks and chooses existing friends and calls until relations are repaired. This mode is required for the Business mod above.

Autosoc (AL directory) - adds "automatic socializing" to your sims. Sims will automatically use (un)friendly/romantic interactions to boost their relationships quickly.

Bathroomusesyou - handles many configurations of bathroom usage.

Macrotastics - tons of shiny features for automating tedious and repetitive gameplay, including motive-maintenance, businesses, socializing, and skilling.

Lighten Up! A Mod for Brighter Computer Screens

Custom Computer Screens

Sims play Sims 4 instead of SSX

Sims 3 TV Shows default

Day Setter - allows to set any day of the week. Can be useful when you move out sims.

Painting Easels by AnoeskaB - adds new easels and canvas sizes.

Exercise Equality - a fix that makes all the exercise machine equally used when they are used autonomously.

Exercise Tweaks - fixes energy drain for some machines/activities.

Batbox - there are many fixes. But I mostly use it to fix First-Born Syndrome. It’s a bug that causes all children born to the same 2 parents to look exactly the same. Save your game. Pick "Fix..." and then "Rerandomize Sim Generator." The game will boot you out of the lot, which is why you need to save the game first. Go back to the lot and give birth.

LTW Variety - lifetime wants for careers are no longer strictly aspirationally correlated, and will instead vary by appropriate interests and personality.

Physiology Fix - fixes the broken physiology skill that makes your Sims gain body skill points instantly. 

Maxis Modular Stairs Passage Fix - sims can walk under modular stairs.

No 20k Handouts - eliminates the magic 20K handout when a sim moves out or graduates from college.

No Eat Crap - Sims will talk considerably less when eating, especially if they are in a hurry (because they're tired, starving, need to pee, have more orders.

No More Leafy Plantsim Hair

No Memory Uneducated - your sims won’t get a bad memory about not going to college when they grow up into adults.

No Quitting - prevents employees from quitting just because you didn't read their mind and realize they wanted a raise. They will complain but won't actually quit.

Nossrespawn - eliminates respawning of Secret Society members.    

Townie No Memory Loss - prevents the game from erasing townie's memories when you marry them or move them in to your house. 

Perfect Plants - gardens & shrubs will always stay in perfect condition. 

Pet Coats Enabled All Ages - kittens and Puppies with patterns! ^_^

Pets and Children Share Bed - allows Pets and Children to use the bed at the same time.

No Rod Humble - this mod will nix Rod Humble from coming to your lots, and dropping off presents filled with computers. EDIT: This mod seems to conflict with Visitor Controller. Use this one instead.

Rug Fix - allows to place Maxis rugs diagonally or off grid.

Same Sex Marriage - replaces Joined Unions with Marriage for same sex couples. Includes relevant wants, fears, and memories.

Separate Top/Bottoms for non-Everyday Clothes Mod

"Shop-at-home" Hacked Coat Hook - allows to buy clothes at home.

Gussy Up Mod - allows to change your sims and townies/NPCs appearance and clothes for each category.

Simply Leftovers - allows your sim to put away leftovers as single plates instead of a whole dish.

Slot Enable Package - enables additional slots on the Maxis counters

Smarter Ep Check - the mod itself does nothing but requires for many mods by Cyjon5.

Television Placement Mod - allows to adjust the height of TVs

Watch TV from All Chairs - allows sims to watch TV from 45 degrees angled chairs.

Townie Apartment Residents - apartment neighbors and roommates will be chosen from the townie pool rather than social groups.

Traits Project - adds extra traits to your sims. The traits are objects that must be put into your sims inventories. Some of the traits are actually not just pictures and can influence sims’ behavior.

Use Inaccessible Beds - lets your sims get into a double bed where one side is against a wall.

Centerpiece Enabler for Maxis Small Objects

Equal Genetics - changes genetic rules for eyes and hair. It allowes recessive eye/hair colours to overcome dominant ones.

No More "Dance Face" - fixes the stuck confused face animation.

Pregnancy for All Genders

Same energy gain for any bed

Smart Beds - makes sims smarter about bed usage

School Vacation Mod - kids won’t go to school in summer and winter. EDIT: Unfortunately, doesn’t work for me.

Sunbathe Anywhere

Build Sandcastles Anywhere

Visitor Controller - allows to ban or control certain sims groups on community lots

Turn On and Offs Replacement

Zodiac compatibility overhaul

Personality Please! - opens up the more extreme personality interactions and animations (usually only available to sims with 0-1 and 9-10 points in a certain personality) to more sims by changing the threshold to 0-2 and 8-10, respectively, and other fixes.

Go Steady for Adults + Last Name Dialog

Visitor Snacking Fix - visiting sims will no longer raid the fridge for snacks during parties if other food is available.

Interest Age Mod - now all sims’ interest levels are truly random and not dependent on their age stage.

University Lifetime Wants (uni_ltws) - enables University career LTWs.

Sim Transformer - turns your sim into any supernatural.

Freezer Clock - this object will allow you to stop the time in the sim world and/or freeze a sim individually in a middle of an animation sequence. Useful for portraits.

Abort Bed Making - fixes the issue where once a Sim has "Make Bed" you can't cancel it (they won't stop moving, they just have to do it). 

Age Transition Teens Keep Love - stops teens from losing their crushes/loves when age transitioning to adult/YA.

Antidateflowers - resident sims no longer drop off date flowers on their own doorsteps.

Glowing Desserts Fix - baked alaska (from the base game) and crepes suzette (from Nightlife) don’t glow after you load a lot or take them out of a Sim’s inventory or a fridge.

Community Lot Arrival Delay Fix - your sims will always be the first to arrive, and other visiting sims will start to appear shortly after.

No Welcome Home Hug - prevents kids from autonomously hugging their parents when they arrive from work.

Brighter Autumn Leaves 

Bring Hobby Friends From Work Fix - fixes bug that causes a sim to bring the same Hobby Friend home from work EVERY DAY for the rest of their lives.

Arms at Side poses for BodyShop - in BodyShop, the thumbnail poses show the arms at the sides, but the poses used inside BodyShop are with the hands-on-hips.

Default replacement noses for cats

Chinese&CoffeeSitDownFix - sims will now look for somewhere to sit down other than just the room they are in when eating chinese food or pizza, or drinking coffee/espresso, juice, or an instant meal.

Apartment Buttlers - butlers and nannies can now enter the apartments of the people who hired them.

Call NPCs - reverts a "fix" made in FreeTime that prevents sims from calling almost all NPCs.

Fewer Tourists - the game is hard-coded to expect 12 tourist families of 4+ members each. If it doesn't find that, it gets annoyed and pouts by not generating tourists at all.

Genie Initialization Fix - fixes a critical EA bug regarding genie creation.

No Auto Urn Cleanup - prevents sims from cleaning up urns autonomously.

No Neutral Spell Alignment Shift - neutral spells such as Cleanius Corpus and Creatum Nutrimens won't cause any alignment shift. 

Plantbaby Changes - plantbabies now get only half the skills of the parent sim.

Reputation New Friend Fix - fixes a reputation rewards bug where the game overwrites a variable, potentially befriending sims like Baby New Year.

There Can Be Only One Professor - game will generate one rather than two professors for each major. Gender will be random.

Community Phonebooth Replacement

Community Lot Parties - allows you to throw any party at any time on any lot. 

Dazzle No Motive Loss - this mod prevents motive loss when using Dazzle interaction it adds energy instead of subtracting it.

Desk Locator - makes your sims to put their homework on a certain desk and not drop it on the floor. + some mesh recolours.

Pregnancy Controller Fix - removes unused and excess Pregnancy Controllers from your lot. All they do is bloat your saved game files and slightly slow down your game.

Leaf Pile Fix - if you tell a Sim to rake leaves, they will stop at one pile instead of continuing with more piles if they aren't having motive failure issues. This mod fixes that.

Default Glass Doors and Windows by Slig - fixes Maxis blue glass.

Put Your Books Away - sims will not drop the books on the floor after they finish reading them.

"Talk About Hobby" Want Fix - with this mod, the Talk About Hobby want is not fulfilled when the other Sim rejects the interaction.

Toddler Pet Stroke - toddlers can now use a cute stroking interaction on pets.

First Kiss Interaction Enabled - enables first kiss to be used any time you wish as long as the relationship score is high enough between your sims.

Food Already Available - before a Sim decides to cook or take a snack autonomously, the game checks if there's food already available on the lot. If so, it prevents them from doing it.

Front Door Hack - deliverypersons should no longer be irresistably drawn to the inaccessible door of the mausoleum in the backyard when making their deliveries. Garage doors are not considered front doors regardless of level.

Blocked Doors Can Close - doors that stay open because they are blocked by objects on the same tile are able to close with this hack.  

Gypsy Matchmaker Fix - allows to interact with Matchmaker on a community lot.

Mean Interactions to Any Age - enables mean interactions for teens towards adults/elders and vice versa. Now teens can argue/be argued, tease/be teased, annoy/be annoyed, gross out/be grossed out and fight with anyone older than them.

Random Stereo Station - makes newly bought stereos choose a random station when being turned on for the first time instead of always choosing salsa.

Accessible toddler high chairs - allows sims to access any high chair from left and right sides and also access diagonally placed highchairs.

Already in Crib Fix - this is for the problem of parents and nannies getting babies and toddlers out of one crib only to place them in another.

Kittens and Puppies Eyes Fix - fixes the bug when new born kittens and puppies do not use default eyes.

Children can get cereal from fridges

Timing Fix - fixes broken aging or aspiration decay or any other timed event not working in certain lots/neighborhoods.

Transparency Fix - will prevent Sims from randomly getting broken transparency.

Pie Menu Strings Text Fix - fixes broken pie menus plagued with redundant functions, grammar mistakes and missing translations.

Look at Me Now - makes your sims look straight at you. Useful for posed screenshots.

FX Cube Default Replacement - this is a small package with replacement for fx cube, that shows only in nhood decorating mode and disappear in other modes, so it’s very useful for skyboxes and skylines.

Less Square Water Lilies Default

Baby Bottles From Mini-Fridges - sims can now grab baby bottles from the University minifridge.

Listen to Music - allows your sim to listen to music from chairs/armchairs.

Ladybug Extender - now ladybug loft can protect more squares from the bugs in your garden.

Nobabyharassment - sims spend less time around toddlers/babies and don't try to bathe them for 57th time in  a row10. 

No Dishes in the Bathroom - sims will not autonomously wash the dishes in bathroom sinks.

No Corrupt Death - the formation of the corrupted death memory, as seen in gossip of the form "jagged lines", "tombstone", "dead Sim", is now suppressed.

No Drop Tired Baby - eliminates pointless dropping of tired babies and toddlers.

No Reassign - attempts by non-selectable sims to reassign workers are ignored. Managers and community lot owners will not be able to randomly reassign workers when not controllable.

No Road Pillows - sims may no longer hold pillowfights in the road: The target must nowbe in the same room, and a nearby bed in the room is required.

Studio Lamp - the best lighting for portraits.

Mixedup Background Rug - the plain background for portraits of your sims. Some recolours in Curiousb Colours + Aelia's Retro, Jewels and Autumn colours, Pooklet's Unnaturals + Anna's Colours + Nyren's Colours.

Basic CAS Background

Prettier Bubble Bath Texture Default

Level Numbers Added to Job Titles

Phonehack

Plant Fixes - seasonal maxis plants fixes + some texture defaults.

No More Stupid Werewolf Hair

No Maid Hair - allows female maids to spawn with a random hairstyle.

Buyable Aspiration and Career Rewards

"Select your cemetery" after sims died - fixes the bug when last sim died on apartment lot, his/her urn/tombstone is sended on random community lot.

Mirrors Go Down with Walls

“Ask Sim on Date” by Phone Want Fix - with this mod, the Ask [Sim] on Date want is not fulfilled when a Sim you ask out on date by phone rejects the invitation.

Couples Counseling Icon Fix - replaces the icon of the Learned Couples Counseling memory, which originally has broken transparency, with almost the same icon of the Reunited With [Sim] memory, which is not broken.

Crepes Suzette Fix - this mod fixes the serving plate with crepes suzette. By default, it looks empty when there’s one crepe on it, and a crepe shows up on it when it’s actually empty. Now, it looks empty if it’s empty, and a crepe shows up if there’s a crepe on it.

Exercise Bike Fix - fixes various problems with the Exerto Super Exercise Bike.

Glowing Computer Fix - turned off computers don’t glow as if they were turned on, each time you have loaded a lot, or taken them out of a Sim’s inventory.

Go Under Spiral Stairs - with this mod, Sims can go (and you can also place objects) under the highest part of newly bought spiral stairs.

 Half Wall Fixes - fixes meshes of half walls' rails and posts.

Insects Sanity - a bunch of mods that make insects sensitive to weather and environment, and make insect-related interactions more reasonable.

Jump Rope Outside.

Memories About Roommates Fix

No Greetings NPCs - gypsy matchmakers (from Nightlife) and Garden Club members (from Seasons) don't come to greet your Sims and present themselves whenever you play a particular family for the first time or right after you have installed an expansion pack that introduces one of those NPCs.

No University Aspiration Change - with this mod, the game doesn’t ask you if you want to change your Sim’s aspiration, right after they have finished their sophomore year.

Passers Dress Properly for Cold

Smooth Firefly Jar Light Animation

Basketball Fix - fixes the lot view of the basketball court.

Marriage Postmortem - the marriage "spouse" line is no longer automatically disconnected after death.

Functional Yoga Mat

 "AnyCounter" Espresso Bar Station - invisible espresso bar counter.

In-And-Out Invisible Pool Spot - sims can dive in the pool from the floor anytime they want : no need to go all the way to the ladder or diving board to get in the pool, they can also get out without a ladder, and big dogs can swim in the pool, too.

Visitors can't take from Money Tree

Eat More Talk Less - will completely bypass the conversation if the sims is in desperation for energy, hunger, fun or bladder, or is in a bad mood. Sims with maxed social will talk less.

Better Phone Messages - replaces the pointlessly nasty telephone messages with more courteous ones. It also adds the feature that when the sim you are calling isn't home because of work or school, it will tell you when they will return.

Diagonal Easel Mod

Maxis Premade Sim Templates Hider - hides Maxis sims templates in Bodyshop and CAS.

[pokemon-icon-factory]

Ginko Guild Member Volo icons — requested by an anon

Free to use, but credit is appreciated

[lady-moriel]

Eyes N5 Shiva

Default and Non-default (facepaint) version;

40 swatches;

custom icon;

HQ compatible.

17 March 2023 - UPDATE default version for infants!

Patreon | Boosty | SFS - free

@emilyccfinds @sssvitlanz @coffee-cc-finds @simbfinds thank you for reblog!

All swatches under cut!

Face sliders, presets, make up and eyelashes by Obscurus-sims, skin by Sims3melancholic, hair by Ginko, moon acc by Nell-le, earrings by Sugar owl.

[faerielandsims]

GINKO

G53 - 25,4k (Adult, MF)

The hair looks shiny in CAS, but it is ok in game, only the little icons are shiny in game. Totally forgot to take a screenshot when testing in game.

[dontmindme2600]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks...

It’s no problem, I love answering questions like these!!! But also that’s a RRREAALLLYYYY hard question for me bc it changes depending on what I’m currently obsessed with lollll and it’s even harder for me to rank from least favorite to favorite so,,, if you don’t mind I’m just gonna keep it to anime/games and list like off the top of my head in no particular order!! If that’s ok:

-Yusuke from YYH (I’m a sucker for the “punk guy with a heart of gold” trope and also the first episode/chapter where he shows up to his own funeral and gets shocked at how much everyone misses him is like,,, the only anime/manga scene that actually makes me cry lmfao. It added a lot more depth to his character as well and I thought it was cool that Togashi managed all that in literally the first volume)

-Illumi from HxH (his design is iconic and I just think he’s cool. It’s honestly mostly the design… I wanted to only do one character per series for this post but Chrollo and Kite are also up there)

-Jolyne from JJBA (funny, badass and kinda relatable in a way??? Like I’m not very confrontational at all but somehow I just. Get her. I also love the way she speaks lmao)

-Spike from Cowboy Bebop (Looking at my blog theme I bet you could never guess! there’s a lot of reasons I like him but to keep it brief I just think he’s very fun to analyze bc his character is so complex if that makes sense?? Also he’s hot which is a bonus)

-Ginko from Mushi-shi (just seems like a cool dude!! Helpful and knowledgeable)

-Vash from Trigun 1998 (How can you NOT like him,,, I immediately liked him since his intro in episode one lmao. Forever mourning the loss of his accent in the 2023 version)

-N from Pokémon (This one’s the hardest to explain for some reason but tbh I just think that he’s cool! His backstory and mannerisms are really interesting and as a Pokémon fan it’s nice to see when they get really creative with the human characters! Also keeping true to my one character per series rule here but Guzma and Team Skull as a whole are also hilarious and I love them)

-Majima from Yakuza (specifically the version from 0, but I like all of them. He just makes me laugh lmao which is super fun!! But he also shows that he’s actually a very respectable guy on a lot of occasions, which bumped him up for me. Oh also his intro in 0 IS SO GOOD)

-Klavier from Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (I’m ngl I just think he’s hot but also he made me laugh a lot… and it was always just generally really fun/interesting whenever you got to talk to him in game)

-Otacon from MGS (Like a lot of other characters on this list it just started with him being really funny. I mean come on you really can’t beat a character introduction where you hype the dude up to be this super serious science hacker guy, and then when you finally meet him he pisses his pants and rants to you about anime… Aside from that his codec calls are really fun, Otasune is a good ship, and his character development as he ages is also interesting)

[kawaiill]

Ginko

[wintermadness]

✗ ICONs : Ginko [Mushi-shi] | part. 3

[docholligay]

Love how Ginko will see a man sitting there, clearly having one of the worst days of his life, and just be like, "Oh is this seat taken?" Iconic work by the man.

PLease please do not spoil anything for me in your excitement. I don’t want to know anything! I don’t even want to know if something is a  cultural difference, or if you can’t wait for me to get to a part. If I  wonder about something, please don’t say stuff like “Just wait til…” You know what is great for all that? The discord! Which apparently has its own mushishi channel now, which must mean y’all are excited for it!  

[fourseasonsfigs]

Wu Ti Music Box + Good Sword

Today is day two of our music box extravaganza!

If you haven't read yesterday's post, I highly recommend it, if only to hear all about my tragic backstory 7-month long Attack of the Nerves over getting this music box and it's two sisters to me.

Anyway, the original Tian Ya Ke music box sold very well, and so encouraged the maker to expand into additional offerings. After all, there's a whole soundtrack, right? She added Tian Wen next, and then this one, offered for sale with this listing and name: Untitled - Dry Ticket Run 1.3

Unlike the original Tian Ya Ke and Wenzhou figure, which came together, this listing was for the music box only. She did offer a separate fig set called Good Sword, which I did in fact pair with this set. Since the figs are all removable though, you could easily swap them around to different music boxes or even no music box at all. I know some people just buy the music box and put figs of their choosing on it. That's a super cute look too.

Same pic of the music box storage boxes from yesterday! I try not to re-use pics, but in this case I'm hiding the fact that I don't quite remember which box color went with which. I'm almost positive Wu Ti is the teal one, but I couldn't 100% swear by it.

I really, really love this music box - it's incredibly detailed and very beautiful. The gold chasing on the patterns makes it seem even more intricate and gives it an inlaid feel to it. I hate to use the phrase, 'it's even more beautiful in person', but it really is.

Without further ado, here is your White Glove Figthusiast Special 360 Degree (tm) video:

Once again, my apologies for the dust (and piece of lint! what the heck!) on top of the music box. I'm now displaying this in a glass cabinet after giving it a stern talking to with a feather duster.

Gosh the jianghu looks beautiful on this box. You wouldn't even know what dastardly events are going on from this peaceful and scenic tour of it.

I really love this music box - it's incredibly detailed, and the gold on the patterns gives it a beautiful inlay look to it. Makes it seem even more intricate. I hate to use the phrase, "it's even more beautiful in person", since that's not very helpful when I'm posting pics and video, but it really is.

Here's the removable key for the box - just like the other one, you wind the box by turning the base, not with the hairpin.

Alright, on to the fig set! The name of this set, Good Sword, is of course from this iconic scene:

And because we all deserve a closeup of Gong Jun's elegant and beautiful hand pose:

Many thanks to the Weibo user credited on the pic, you're elegant and beautiful yourself, as well as brilliant for this excellent pic!

Here's the full view of the figs on top of the box. Like the whirling Wenzhou from yesterday's post, these figs also have magnets on the bottom. These don't click on quite as sturdily as the Tian Ya Ke ones do. Either the magnets are less strong, or it's due to the much narrower foot base on these, where they are casually flirting standing vs in motion. The figs will definitely fall off this base if I walk around just holding the base at any kind of speed (don't ask me how I know this, and yes, I caught both the figs and my breath, I swear I never was this nervous before figs came into my life!), so now if I have to move them I either take them off the base, or carry them with one hand on the base and the other cradling the figs (much like Lao Wen's arm cradling A-Xu's waist here).

Alright, here's my best attempt at a 360 degree photo set so you can see how this fig would look spinning around on a music box:

There we go! I will note this is the only fig set I have of Lao Wen in this first meeting / rich young master outfit that absolutely nails the ginko hairpin, it's beautiful. Frankly all the details here are gorgeously done.

As you can see in the pics, the fig maker rendered our wealthy philanthropist very bright white all the way around to provide contrast to our scruffily disguised wanderer friend. I personally would have preferred either a slightly warmer skin tone for Lao Wen or else perhaps a little less blush - or both! Some minor adjustment would make the contrast still there, but a little less stark. But I'm not the artist here, and I think the execution was pretty true to the artist's original sketches:

Hehe Lao Wen and his smirky smile!

The fig maker also included a bonus of self-inking Wenzhou stamps in this set, which was the bonus I accidentally briefly included in yesterday's post (instead of the washi tape!), before a lovely reader's timely comment saved me from further embarrassment!

I should have known because the faces are exactly the same as the Good Sword art sketch, not of the whirling figures, but who knows where my brain was floating around yesterday. Please do go back and check out the very beautiful washi tape bonus with the Tian Ya Ke set, it's gorgeous.

These bonus stamps are super cute! It's hard not to go around stamping everything. Although, now that I think about it...I got a refill of the ink in a different Junzhe stamp set (totally unrelated, but also a blue and red set just like this style), so I guess I could keep stamping away!

The fig maker doesn't do box cards, probably because she both customizes the boxes and gives us these very cool bonuses in each set instead. I'll happily take it.

Speaking of the box, once again we have the excellent protective plastic clamsheet for the figs inside of a paper box:

Material: Metal (for the music box) and PVC (for the figs)

Fig Count: 195

Scene Count: 15

Rating: This person's voice is like a phoenix singing, and his appearance is beautiful.

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[captorcorp]

Katya's Blorbo Poll Announcement! (STATUS: Round 1 voting open!)

Ok here's the silly little poll I've been thinking of setting up - if you don't want to see posts about it, please block the tag "#katya's blorbo poll' (got 6 votes for tagging it vs 4 for making a separate blog so...)

We have 16 candidates for #1 blorbo of all time, all of which are characters that I like to rotate in my mind. This poll was vaguely seeded, but mostly based on vibes, how important the characters are to me, and characters that I would feel bad disqualifying instantly lol (it's all for fun dw about poll integrity)

Vote for the character that you prefer out of each poll, or the one that you think is the most iconic favorite of mine, or just whoever you want to win!

Each round will last 1 day and new polls will be posted as soon as the previous polls close (probably. may be slightly late sometimes idk). The first round will start at 8pm EDT tomorrow (12am UTC). I won't reblog the polls again once they're started, but another summary bracket will be posted after the results of each round.

Have fun and remember this is just an excuse to make you all look at my little guys :)

Bracket links and character sources under the break:

Round 1:

Sho Minamimoto (The World Ends With You) vs Envy (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

The Prisoner (Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye) vs The Wanderer (Genshin Impact)

Meowth (Pokemon) vs C.Q. Cumber (Splatoon)

Gardevoir (Pokemon) vs Aiba (AI: The Somnium Files)

Noa Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters) vs The World Machine (OneShot)

Ginko (Mushishi) vs Koharu Hondomachi (Id: Invaded)

Strawberry Crepe Cookie (Cookie Run Kingdom) vs Mary (Ib)

Redd (Animal Crossing) vs Tabby (Animal Crossing)

[satoshi-mochida]

Completed the game 100%(not counting/using DLC), so here’s some details and thoughts on Soul Hackers 2(PS4 version). Possible mild, contextless spoilers.

Despite the title, you don’t need to have played Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers to pick up and enjoy/understand Soul Hackers 2, as aside from Soul Hacking itself, which I think functions differently the way Ringo uses it, nothing from that game really makes an appearance in this, nor is needed to understand the story or themes.

There's a Hint System that shows up on loading screens, but you can really just turn it off after a while once you get more used to the game’s mechanics, plus doing so makes the load times a bit faster.

Battles are semi-random(except for a few parts where Figue/Mimi is crawling through vents where they’re the normal kind of random battles) and spawn on the map that you have to run into to start. Before starting a fight, Ringo can slash the enemy to knock it down(except for Risky enemies) and either run into it to start the fight with a chance to get a first strike or run, as the enemy will disappear after a couple seconds. There are three types of enemy encounters:

Normal enemies, shown as a Red icon on the map

Rare, annoyingly agile enemies that drop items which can be sold for money, which are colored Gold.

Risky enemies, which appear as large purple/black icons, are always at a higher level than you, and also change every 10 levels you gain. The former two will always be the based on the dungeon you’re in, but these ones stay the same until you can another 10 levels, which means, for example, you could be fighting level 95+ enemies if they’re set to appear as such in Risky encounters, and you go to an early game area.

Each time you enter a dungeon, Ringo will send out her current Demons to perform recon in the area, which involves searching for items, money and Demons to possibly recruit. They will randomly appear at certain areas and can be spoken to to receive whatever they found/talk to the Demon they scouted. Some areas will have Key Items that can unlock conversations at Bar Heidrun, and some items from Requests are found this way, as well.

A little ways into the game, you’ll meet Madame Ginko at Club Cretaceous, who will give you Requests to fulfill as the game progresses. Only the first is required, but I’d recommend doing them. Some new ones will appear on NG+, as well.

Dr. Victor returns from past Devil Summoner games, this time taking the role of a circus master and theming the Gomaden as such. Like previous games, you can fuse Demons and Summon ones registered in the Compendium here, as well as Mitama Fusions, which raise the stats of a Demon by fusing one of the four Mitama Demons to another Demon. The prices here, and at other stores, though, seem to be rather higher than I’d expect, even after getting some discounts from Requests.

Other stores include:

De La Mancha, standing in for the Don Quijote stores, and Breaking Mart, which sell the usual healing items

Zefiro, which sells accessories

The COMP Smith, where you can pay in money and Demon Materials to upgrade everyone’s COMPs

Yang Yang Palace, which sells higher rank healing items, as well as stat boosters, both permanent and temporary, also having you pay in cash/materials

Ringo can increase her Bond/Soul Level level with the rest of the party via story events based on choices you make, with how much is increased shown, as well as from talking with the others at events at Bar Heidrun that become available as the story progresses, clearing Requests and finding specific items from Demon Recon.

Introduced very early on, the Soul Matrix is a dungeon that is connected to the three other party members besides Ringo that’s connected to them via her Soul Hacking them back to life. Arrow, Milady and Saizo each have a section that's 5 floors deep, with progress stopped by either story progress or how high their Bond/Soul Level is with Ringo, each floor getting more difficult. You probably won’t be able to clear any fully on a first playthrough, but the points you get are increased on a second run enough to make it possible to access every floor. Only part of Arrow’s is required for the story; the rest is optional, but I’d recommend going through it, since opening the gates that require a specific Bond level and finishing a floor lets you get a new Skill for the party members(Ringo can get these types of Skills, too, from a Ringo hologram at the entrance as her Bond level increases with the others).

At the group’s Safehouse, they can eat Meals, which has them talk about the food(each has their own likes and dislikes), and gives the party various effects, such as boosting stats, making Demons on recon find more items/money/stronger Demons, have rare/Risky Demons spawn more often, and so on. You get more meals from your party members and Figue giving them to you when going back to the Safehouse sometimes, as well as from store, vending machines and food stalls/stores around Karakucho.

In contrast to the previous Devil Summoner and other SMT games, where the Demons you have fight alongside you, here you instead ‘equip’ the Demons to a party member(only one to each), which affects their stats/resistances/weaknesses/etc. and lets them use their skills. Enemy Summoners, plus some enemy Demons, fight alongside their summoned Demons, however, and they’ll be desummoned if the Summoner is taken out. 

There’s no instant death skill like Hama/Mudo. While the Ruin element is kept, there’s no ‘light’ equivalent, with the ‘elements’ for attacks being:

Sword(Ringo and Milady's normal attack is this element)

Gun(Arrow and Saizo’s normal attack is this element)

Fire(Element favored by Milady’s Passive Skills)

Ice (Element favored by Arrow’s Passive Skills)

Electric (Element favored by Ringo’s Passive Skills)

Wind/Force (Element favored by Saizo’s Passive Skills)

Ruin

Almighty

A welcome difference from the majority of SMT/Persona games is that Ringo is fully voiced, having full conversations instead of just voice clips and not having to infer what she might be saying. It really helps show her growing personality, and makes the conversations more interesting.

Aside from through Fusion, Demons are recruited in a different way, as well; instead of talking to them in battle, sometimes your Demons will find one willing to join while on reconnaissance, and then you get one choice to recruit or deny them joining. Here, they can ask for money, HP, MP or an item(s). If your Demon Stock is full, they’ll leave but can heal you, or give money/items.

At the start, the Demons you get can only have 4 Skills, but Ringo can learn her own Passive Skills that raises the amount you can have up to 6.

There are Requests specific to the Soul Matrix called Aion Directives, each floor having new ones, though they’re all mostly similar: 

Defeat X number of Y enemy, 

Collect certain key items from Demons on recon all over the map

Defeat a strong enemy with added conditions.

Similarly to the All-Out Attacks of the Persona games, Soul Hackers 2 has ‘Sabbaths’ which have you can build up ‘Stacks’ in battle by hitting enemy weakness, as well as other ways once you get more of the party member’s Passive Skills, and some Demon Skills can add onto the amount you gain. As it rises, shadows of your Demons will appear floating behind the enemies, and they all attack at the end of your turn. There are also ‘Sabbath Skills’ that can activate during a Sabbath, which can range from doing more damage, lower stats, stealing money/items and more. As the maximum amount of Demons you can eventually hold is 18, that’s most likely the highest Stack you can get, though only 10 is needed for a Trophy.

Ringo can also learn several Commander Skills that can be used once a turn in battle. Several include letting you switch out your Demons, buffing everyone for a turn, granting an extra action to one party member for that turn, and changing  the Sabbath attack to focus on one enemy instead of them all for more damage. They all have a cooldown, so they can’t all be used on several turns in a row.

I’m not sure if it’s intentional, but the three party members beside Ringo feel like they slightly represent the usual SMT alignments: Arrow for Law(who works for Yatagarasu), Milady for Chaos(who works for the Phantom Society), and Saizo for Neutral, since he’s a freelancer. It’s not a 100% similarity between each, of course.

Another potential reference, this time to the first Soul Hackers, is Ringo’s main strengths on her COMP, Electric and Almighty, being the same as Nemissa’s if you picked the ‘Sexy defines her’ option to describe Hitomi Tono in that game.

Though some recurring characters from the Devil Summoner games are present, namely Madame Ginko and Victor, Dr. Thrill and Mary are absent, as is any cameo from ‘Kyouji Kuzunoha’, Rei Reiho or others(not counting the Nemissa DLC), maybe to have it stand on it’s own more.

If you’re going for all the trophies, you’ll need to grind to at least level 95, as that’s when you can fuse the highest level demon, Seth. It’s kind of a slog, but the only way to do this in a reasonable amount of time is to fight Risky enemies over and over.

The recent update that allows Ringo to dash at any time in a dungeon by pressing the Touch Pad without getting Milady’s Assassin’s Steps skill(which got reworked) makes the pace and exploring so much faster and more enjoyable, the latter being much more sluggish beforehand.

Some little details that I liked:

During certain boss battles, the characters may say unique lines when their turn comes around, or in the bosses case, when a skill they’re weak to is selected and the cursor is over them.

Dialogue portraits transitioning on the fly during conversations to better reflect the mood of what’s being discussed. This works really well with having Auto turned on for dialogue. This may make more sense to see in action than described.

All of the party members are adults(or created in the image of adults by Aion, in Ringo and Figue’s cases).

There are two endings, Normal and True. To get the True Ending(which is easier on a NG+), you need to:

Say ‘I do not’ to four certain dialogue choices in the final dungeon

Finish at least the fourth floor of each character’s Soul Matrix, at least entering the 5th floor, and have their Bond at 100+, then select the second dialogue choice at the end.

Something I don’t really care for in this is how the store’s prices and Summoning Demons from the Compendium, even when you get discounts from doing Requests, are all pretty expensive, so it felt like grinding for money is kind of a necessity. A couple Meal items, Skills and a late-game Sabbath Skill make this a bit easier, either making enemies drop more, stealing from enemies(which you keep even if you run away) or receiving more from Demons sent on recon, though. 

There are some parts I feel could have used some more screen time or work, though, such as for Arrow’s friend Kaburagi, R.S.(who I really wish had been a recurring boss, since his few scenes were fun, plus there was hinted to be more to him), and other characters. The dungeons, though having a few puzzles in them, could probably be better, both in design and number, two of them being in a subway system(though storywise, one makes sense to use). 

Part of me wants to buy and play the ‘Lost Numbers’ DLC scenario to see if it has anything important or interesting in it, but I’m not fond of Atlus making it DLC, and not part of the main game(which, to me, does stand on it’s own and can be understood just fine). Maybe I’ll change my mind in the future, but not right now. I also don’t plan on getting any of the DLC Demons that really should have been there to begin with.

I found a guide to making a couple OP Demons that, while they won’t make you completely invincible(there’s no way to block Almighty damage), they do make the game much easier.

OP Titania

OP Yoshitsune

Very useful Loki

While it doesn’t reach the highs of, say Persona 5 Royal, I enjoyed this one, and glad I came back to it after it got that update and saw it through to the end. Hopefully, the characters come back for another game, especially Ringo, since they were a big part of what I liked about it, having some moments for them I felt were well done. It also seemed like it was hinting at more stuff to occur in this setting and with these characters, as well.

[baileytomkinsviscomblog]

Pick, Pack, Sell! - Research

Three books I found quite useful resources for research during this Unit were:

Graphis Poster Annual 2023 - Graphis

Fully Visualised Branding Stories - Ginko Press

Hand Job: A Catalog of Type - Michael Perry

These are some examples that I found inspiring.

This page from Hand Job showcases the work of designer Jeremy Dean, whose distinctive hand-drawn typography caught my eye. I was particularly drawn to the 3D effect, with the cursive word protruding from the page. The contrast between the thick black sections and the more delicate font struck me as particularly effective.

This particular style heavily influenced the logo design of my brand.

The second example is from the Graphis Poster Annual, promoting a photography exhibition titled "The Portfolios 8." I was captivated by the unique image of two merged bulbs seemingly suspended in space, lending the poster an otherworldly allure. The exhibition information was very small, displayed in a seemingly random location at a slight angle at the bottom of the poster, which struck me as an intriguing choice. This placement allowed the main image to breathe in the negative space, drawing even more attention from the viewer.

One of my favorite examples comes from Fully Visualised Branding Stories. design agency Bleed was tasked with refreshing the brand of the Austrian baking company Ströck.

The guidelines of the brief insisted that the rebrand keep the traditional logo and yellow colour scheme; additionally, the core values of high-quality ingredients, handmade tradition, and a sustainable production process were well represented.

With these guidelines set out, Bleed created a series of minimalist grain patterns and illustrations. I believe this simple idea effectively reflects the company's values and the quality of the product. These patterns were applied to a packaging line as well as signage. As well as these patterns and illustrations, Bleed found creative and respectful ways to combine the brand logo and yellow colour into the designs.

As well as the packaging, I also admire the design of the poster, which I find simple yet effective. Using bold staggered white text that intertwines with falling grain, the logo and additional information are kept small and neatly tucked away at the bottom, leaving enough space to allow the viewer to appreciate the brand's iconic golden yellow.

References

Perry, M. (2008) Hand Job: A Catalog of Type. New York, New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Graphis Poster Annual 2023 (2023). New York, New York: Graphis Inc.

Fully Visualised Branding Stories (2019). Hamburg: gingko press.