#home stuck sprite game

[juney-blues]

i love 2d rpgs with diagonal player/npc sprites more 2d rpgs need to have diagonal player/npc sprites

[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

I missed drawing for my old WIR AU, so I came back to it for a bit!! Exploring the lore and the characters is just as fun as I remember it being.

Mini summary of the character lores and random tidbits under cut to remind myself, because I forgot everything :) I might revamp some of the lore as well.

The Turbo twins just barely managed to escape being unplugged along with their game after Turbo game jumped years ago. They survived, but homelessness for a game sprite is dangerous, since it implies a lack of protective anti-virus barrier their consoles would typically have offered them. The twins' raw codes were now completely exposed to external errant bugs, viruses, and other malware, which could prove to be fatal. So, they were stuck going around stations picking up odd jobs and services in exchange for temporary shelter in other games' consoles. But because of Turbo's actions and his disappearance, the twins' reputations were forced to take the full brunt of the arcade's backlash and scrutiny. This ruined their chances at a permanent home, not to mention the fact that letting an outsider stay too long in your game was considered very taboo at the time (especially with the whole game jumping scandal). Thus, they were stuck hopping from one game to another, never staying for longer than a few days at most.

- Felix and the Turbo trio knew each other before the Turbo incident :) He and the twins are still in contact after the incident, and he sometimes lets them stay in his game.

- Felix' in-game story is pretty much the same as Ralph's. There's still the stump, except that in the beginning of the game it's actually a full tree that Felix and his father used to care for before the latter died. The animation shows the bulldozer knocking it town to a stump to make space for Niceland, which basically is the whole opening of the game where Felix gets mad and wrecks the building, blah blah blah, you know the rest :)

- Felix used to be mistaken as the hero of his game a lot since he looked so small and unassuming. It annoyed him to no ends, because he despises having to talk to strangers.

[v6quewrlds]

ok now what happens when wifey is on a girls trip and sends some photos of her in a little string bikini, her 9 tattoo peeking out, and joe is stuck at home. what do those texts look like? why is cincinnati qb joe burrow screaming into a pillow? is it physically possible to die from blue balls?

she didn’t get to take many trips while she was in residency. she mostly had weekends off excluding being on-call sometimes. but due to exams and certifications she had to take, she spent most of them studying if she wasn’t with joe or attending a game in cincinnati or cleveland.

now that she’s practicing, she has a better balance, with more flexibility and control over her schedule. she likes to take at least two vacations a year, one with joe, one with her girls. sometimes she’ll throw in a winter trip with both her friend group and joe’s.

the girls’ trip falls around the same time every year. usually in early april. some years they go international: somewhere tropical like fiji, or somewhere mountainous like switzerland. other years they stay domestic: they survived their miami trip not once but twice.

this year, they decided to on puerto rico. valeria, one of her friends from med school is a native with family still living near rincón.

joe loves when she goes on her girls’ trips. beyond the obvious (bikinis and skimpy outfits he personally gets pictures of), she’s always in the best mood in the week prior and following the trip. she comes back with a glow, that relaxed, refreshed, happy glow that stays with her through the summer. the tanlines she comes back home with are another plus.

she’s mostly away from her phone during the trip, save for the sporadic videos & pictures sent to joe and the nightly facetime calls where he gets to listen to her ramble, see how bright and wide her eyes are, her friends excitedly adding in little details and adlibs to whatever story she’s laughing too hard to get through.

the “9” tattoo is so proudly on display, peeking out from her going out fits and her string bikinis in every color of the rainbow. his brain always shuts down for a little when he opens her good morning text. it’s always a short rundown of their plans for the day attached with a picture of her choice in swimwear that morning. another picture comes through with the shorts or the cover-up she’s wearing to walk down to the beach, head to the local museums, pay a visit to a gallery.

he gets pictures of her meals too. she adds sprite to her wine one night. the evidence is sent to joe through a horribly lit video taken by her friend, ayanna, who videos wifey pouring the soda, a man from another table with the sourest expression on his face.

he’s not above dramatically complaining about his “blue balls”, this deep, thrumming need at the bottom of his tummy that he can’t get rid of, one that she’s certainly not helping. she rolls her eyes, reminds him that he’s on speaker and leah’s in the bathroom. he mutters something about leah somehow constantly finding a way to make his life 10 times more difficult.

by day four, joe’s restless. she must have deliberately left the outfits she knew would be his favorite until the last day. they’re all in his favorite color, undeniably new purchases he’s never seen before, didn’t even know she had gotten.

it doesn’t help that she keeps sending him pictures, videos. there’s a one-piece with a low back and a bikini with the thinnest ties he’s ever seen. then a maxi sundress that she wears to dinner. there’s body jewelry and he swears her skin’s shimmering.

you’re an evil woman. he responds when he realizes she is, in fact, doing this on purpose.

she doesn’t respond with any words, just another picture of a purple lingerie set, because of course she’s shopping for lingerie at a time like this.

leah picked this out. do you think it’s worth buying? i’m on the fence.

he chokes on the water he’s sipping on, already imagining what it would look like against her skin.

emphasizing my last point. you’ve already bought it, haven’t you?

waiting on the green light from you. i’m not convinced the color’s right for me.

you’ve been wearing purple all day, babe. of course it’s your color.

do me a favor?

anything.

tell leah to get lost tonight. miss that pretty face you make when you cum for me.

[lime-bloods]

the realisation that a black hole's gravity is the same force that keeps characters 'stuck' in their 'homes' recontextualises a lot.

trapping Lord English in a black hole is poetic justice, so in retrospect it's obvious that the narrative forces behind his punishment would be the same as those behind the punishment he gives out. but the Rapture - the inevitable gathering of characters at a black hole, a tradition dating all the way back to Problem Sleuth - should also be thought of as cosmically analogous to the synonymously-named Reckoning: so it only makes sense that when a character is sucked into a black hole, it's analogous to being returned to the hole they were born from, just as the Reckoning sends the characters to the places of their birth (and just like how cherubs return to the black holes they were literally born from to reproduce, generation after generation).

consider the sprites, being drawn to the Plot Point the same way they seem to be drawn to the Battlefield once the game of Sburb is over - remembering that the rules of Sburb dictate a sprite cannot leave the Hero's home (until set free via pendant), we can now see that sprites are at all times subject to the whims of the gravitational pull of the childhood home.

and now that Beyond Canon's forces all convene once more at the singularity of a black hole, setting the scene for yet another Rapture, it becomes especially clear that this meteor they're all fighting over so intently is in fact the same meteor where the trolls were ectobiologically born. Vriska is tugged at not only by the gravity of her old toxic cycles of behaviour, the gravity of her oppressive childhood home, but by the gravity of the very literal rock that gave birth to her. the more layers we peel away, the more and more literally the Plot Point seems to be a cocoon for Vriska to be reborn from, if only she can escape that gravitational pull of the past.

remember, too, that like a cherub returning to the black hole of its birth, this meteor was once where Kanaya wished to seed the next generation of the troll race - just one small additional nuance to the fact that she must now defend it with her life from the encroaching forces of Jane's regime.

and even Kanaya's own Space symbol seems to take on new significance in this light. etymologically speaking, the starry arms of a 'galaxy' are mother's milk, befitting the aspect of creation; but the black hole that pulls the spiral arms together, too, is now the comfort of the womb. so it should be emphasised for a second time that Beyond Canon's "constellatory quartet" - three Heroes of Space and one of Void - are convening now at their own black hole, surrounded by the spiral arms of a galaxy, pulled in by the immense gravitational influence of a monolithic entity simply called Home.

[curly4830]

Finished ISAT last night, this game was an emotional rollercoaster from start to end, tbh. I've got a lot of thoughts about the game and they're all pretty short, but I'd like to list some of them here.

The coin is interesting! I think mechanically it's a good way to check Siffrin's internal monologue of the same thing, regardless of area/party status. But story wise, it's a whole other thing to me. Loop and Siffrin have their own kind of Heads/Tails duality, and Odile's coin flip makes me think that it could have/might have been Loop in our Siffrin's place instead, if things had gone just a little differently. Siffrin's forgetfulness being both a foreshadow to his home country AND the potential years worth of time stuck in the loops. and the player's forgetfulness, that too. Another angle I'd like to explore in the future is Siffrin's sprites, and the (possibly intended) idea of taking the growing space covered in shadow on his face as a loss of humanity/the concept of self. It helps take the idea of Siffrin seeing himself as an actor to the next level for me. You could extend this to the Mal Du Pays/Bigfrin sequences being the total loss of self, Siffrin being sent over the edge(and subsequently grounded by his party members). But he made it back! and that's really what matters, isn't it. It's very in line with the literal context of the scenes but I appreciate that the lines are there to be read between, even if not everybody cares to. i definitely think about faces/the self a normal amount, you can trust me i swear. Siffrin clearly did not have enough problems on his own so I had to push my whole faces/sense of self thing on him too. Loop. oh god Loop. I have a lot of thoughts about Loop and their Identity, and it's going to take a while to figure out! but i'm totally fine with that. is it morally wrong to feel a deep kinship to loop?? i don't know!!! i'm gonna find out though. i was actually just recently thinking about how i don't like using the term kinning for characters because it feels very intimate and I can't say i've felt the same thing other people who kin characters feel. BUT. i think loop gave me some kind of disease i think i'm not well I just couldn't do most of the Dagger dialogue. It was too much for me personally. I did it once and it made me feel bad enough to return it and swear off the idea. until i go back to finish achievements, that is. Fucked up, though!! The loops and their infinite catharsis started to mean nothing at all until they make the even more fucked up mega catharsis. I thought Signalis and it's ending hit me hard but this game reduced me to a crying mess by the end. And lastly I'm very appreciative of @usefulnt0409 for being there to help me through the entire game. I like sharing my first playthroughs of things with people that enjoy them. Having them around to help with mechanical stuff I'd never pick up on(Loop dialogues and the conditions associated with most of them) and when I'd accidentally skip a dialogue just made the experience very special. I don't think I'll soon forget this game, it was an incredible experience even through the gas leak 5am vcs. I think they made it better.

[twinkletwirl]

A little something different...

I thought I'd talk about this electronic toy I imported from Korea, the WishCat WishPad! It's super cute, but... somewhat scammy!?

Based on the WishCat Korean animated series by the same studio that brought TeeniePing, the WishPad has a 2.8 inch touch screen and comes with a stylus (that can be separated in half as the feather part has a sensor), a strap, one card, card portfolio pages, activity pages, and a binder than can hold all the pages as well as the device itself.

I find that the home button on my device keeps getting stuck, and I noticed that there is some extra acrylic that jams it, so must be a manufacturer error with just mine.

The device has 20 games, the ability unlock Wish Cats to care for, a shop so you can renovate your room, and some pointless profiles for human characters from the animated series. Here is what I think of it!

Pros:

Audio - It has cute music and a lot of spoken dialogue, including cute cat meow sounds. The speaker isn't the best quality of course, but I am very pleased with all the audio.

Graphics - The animations aren't very smooth, but the sprites themselves are super cute and in the mini-games there is usually a lot of detail on screen. The device sometimes even displays the full-on 3D artworks as the characters appear in the show.

Exterior design - The design of this device is intricate and dazzling! Every detail, including the little cat ears and paws, is gorgeous!

Variety of games - 20 games is a lot, and they're of varying difficulty and styles. Many of them are really basic but I still find myself failing to win sometimes even as an adult. A few are like "move the character to avoid or collect objects", but there's a Bejeweled-style game, dress-up games, a tennis game, a very simplified rhythm game, etc.

Battery level on display - The device takes four AAA batteries and there is a meter with 4 bars in the upper right of the screen sometimes, so you know how much power is left. Oddly while I was playing, the meter went down to 3 bars but later back up to 4 bars haha.

Decent touch screen - I've had touch screen toys where the touch sensors were literally divided into only 4 areas... Thankfully, this is more like a normal touch screen even if there's a slight delay to respond. You can even move your cats around on the main room screen, which I find nice because you can choose precisely where you want each cat to sit!

Cons:

This device is almost useless unless you buy separate figures. You do NOT earn ANY points for playing a game UNLESS you have scanned a card from a separately purchased figure, after which the corresponding game's "Star mode" will be unlocked. This means you CANNOT buy any wallpaper or furniture for your room unless you buy additional figures. You better hope the figure you bought corresponds to a game that isn't too hard to win, and that you're okay with playing the same game tons of times for points. Additionally, you cannot care for any cats beside Iemeow, or read ANY profiles for any of the cats, unless you buy these extra figures. I understand the former so that scanning the cards will have more incentive, but the latter bothers me because the boring human profiles are readily available. Thankfully I bought 5 Wish Cat figures as well, but the fact that an entire feature (buying furniture and customizing your room) is paywalled feels scammy to me.

Even if you do buy figures, you have to grind - You earn 20 points for winning a game that you have scanned a card for. How much is the cheapest customization item? 1000 points. The most expensive is 20,000 points. Three of the games have a "Special mode" where you can win 300 points instead of 20. For each of these three games, you need to scan 5-7 unique and specific cards to get Special Mode. I find this quite predatory considering the toy is for young children and the figures with the cards cost $10 or so each. Despite me buying 5 figures, they aren't the right ones for any of the exact lists, so no Special modes for me!

You cannot pet the cats! - I was almost devastated to discover this! Despite the touch screen, if you touch the cat while in care mode, nothing happens. Instead, you can choose petting under one of the options and WATCH a hand pet the cat... I saw this petting animation in marketing and assumed you could pet the cat manually, so I am a bit disappointed!

The card it comes with doesn't really do anything - It's a card of Iemeow (the default cat on the device), but it does NOT unlock Iemeow's profile or Star mode for her game. It just plays the Wish Cat music theme and a simple looping animation of all the Wish Cats. That is still cute and nice, but I had thought it would at least unlock her profile... You still need to buy the separate Iemeow figure for all that.

Neutral aspects:

The stylus has a sensor, but... - In care mode, you can choose to feed, bathe, or play with your cat and to activate the option you selected, you have to touch the base of the plastic feather to the emerald above the screen. This is cool, but if you lose the stylus or even just the removable feather bit, you won't be able to care for the cats at all.

You can get extra foods and toys, but... - They are single use. And to get a new food or toy, your Wish Cat has to have a full meter, and their meter will empty after you exchange it for the new item. So, you deplete your Wish Cat's meter entirely in exchange for an item that will increase the meter by 2 bars once... It's a little odd. But the extra toy animations are cute, at least.

Sorry for the long post. I know I complained a lot, but I just wanted to express my thoughts on this toy! It was very expensive but I do not regret buying it; it is very cute and I like electronic toys that have a lot of games. I just hope the figures show up on AliExpress at some point so I can get more (International shipping from Korea destroyed my bank account lol).

[torchstelechos]

Hi! I was looking at your blog and I was thinking about my own emotions during the game and...

My memory is not the best, but I remember that during the first conversation with my friends at the end of Act 2, I... Could really sympathize with Siffrin. Understand what drove him to do this

I mean, when all these characters started talking about how they would all go their separate ways, how they would "abandon" Siffrin (and us as a player by proxy), how they would all go home and just... Leave us aside, just asking to "drop by" sometimes?..

I felt like I couldn't let them go so soon.

And I should clarify, at that point I didn't know that Siffrin was the one causing the time loops, but something deep inside me already knew, so I looked at Mirabelle's game sprite and said "no, you're not going to be let go that easily, that's not going to happen" with tears in my eyes, because I hate saying goodbye, and I felt some... Strange resentment that they wanted to leave so soon, from Siffrin, from me

For me, that ending was unacceptable, unsatisfactory, and I was actually glad that the loops continued, even if it meant that Siffrin and I'd failed our "defeat the king, break the loops" mission, because it meant that I would be stuck with these characters for a while longer

And maybe Siffrin was also happy about it on some level, and I was actually on Siffrin's side here

It's just interesting how Siffrin and the player are so deeply connected on some level that you can feel a similar spectrum emotions that made Siffrin create this loop in the first place

It's interesting how the game pushes you to feel like you're in Siffrin's shoes when the characters talk so much about "going home and asking to visit sometimes" which felt like "leaving you behind"

So when the game told you that Siffrin is the reason the loops continue... I understood it. And even supported it

Hahaha... I hope it didn't sound like a crazy person xd

Good mood!

Howdy!! Happy you liked the stuff in my blog, i have a lot of emotions about the game and the character interactions. Which is why!!! I loved the very in depth description of your emotions about the games character stuffs!! I think its fascinating how well the game can connect the player to Siffrin, especially since the game holds no reservations in telling you that "No. You are not Siffrin. Siffrin is part of this world and you are not" which might sound harsh but it actually makes it very satisfying when you as the player can help Siffrin get his wish in the end. We aren't Siffrin, but we are helping them, and sometimes that means getting really emotionally invested in the same goal.

When I first started the ISAT experince, it was strange how much I felt connected to Siffrin because at first it is very much Oh! I did not feel this with SASASA! So,, its strange how much the different circumstances of the two games can change the outcome of the player's feelings. Going further into this, I did start with SASASA and then went into ISAT which informs an experience that I had not anticipated. With Loop, we were not there from the start and we as the player are only helping right at the end which makes it hard to connect to the same degree as Siffrin but we still care very deeply because of what we have seen. Loop is already knee deep into Act 4 mental anguish, we have no lead up, no build up, just that they are there and we have to help them. And then we fail. But we only find out in ISAT that we fail!! So, at first you can brush that aside as, We can do better! We can help them more than we did before! Then we get into ISAT and its,, different. Because now we know Siffrin from the start instead of right at the tail end of their spiral, we know how important everyone is to them, we know that its going to hurt when Siffrin gets to the end and loops back. We already know.

We have these preconceived conceptions of how this is going to go, but at every step we are wrongfooted because the game cares. Siffrin forgets the parties names, but Loop instantly goes to fix this and we the players can relax. We have someone to talk to! Who knows whats important and helps us get more into what Siffrin thinks because now we have a variable! The others stay the same for countless loops but then we see more of them and suddenly we're right there with Siffrin, we didn't know this about them. We couldn't know this about them until now! But then it grows stale, because now we know. We know, because we are learning with Siffrin. Then we have to focus outwards instead of inwards, because we love them all so much! We care about them! ...and then it doesnt work and suddenly we have to figure out why we're stuck. And it hurts because it starts getting obvious WHY its happening and,, we dont want the characters to leave just like that! There isnt any release of emotions! We didn't help Siffrin like we wanted to! We can't help Siffrin! Only the party can, and from the previous loops we know they'll leave us.

We're stuck forever, and thats horrible. Because Siffrin is losing things he can not lose without it becoming SASASA, and we know that. So when Siffrin starts to lose it, it hurts but at the same time its amazing! Something new! Something changed! Maybe this time, we can help Siffrin! Even if Siffrin is wrong, maybe this time. Except the house is changed, the ending is changed, the party has changed, and Siffrin has changed. And suddenly the thought of explaining hurts, because its the end. The real end!! And we have to be the ones to press the dialogue! We have to be the ones to press attack! We have to help guide Siffrin to their ending! And we do! and its amazing! The party is going to stay with Siffrin, even for a while longer! ... We wont get to see it, but thats okay because we're just here to help Siffrin.

And then we go to the favor tree to let Loop know.

And suddenly it becomes clear we failed someone.

But without them, how could we have saved this Siffrin? How could we have led them to where they needed to go? How could we have broken the loops without them?

We failed the Star, but we saved the time traveler who can help the Star in our stead.

I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT HOW THE GAME PROGRESSES AND HOW WE THE PLAYERS ARE PART OF THE ROYAL WE UNTIL WE NO LONGER CAN BE WITH SIFFRIN OR THE PARTY AAAAAAHHHHH.

Anyway thanks for sending this ask it made me go crazy with how I see the player in relations to Siffrin and Loop <3

[nightshademyn]

Hi hi can I interest y'all in my Summoner OC Cresselia? She's been an OC of mine since I started playing FE Heroes back in 2019, so I wanted to share her! More ramblings about her down below!

When I first started playing FEH in 2019, I couldn't think of a name to give my summoner in-game. I chose Cresselia after one of my favorite legendary Pokémon (and one I spent three weeks shiny hunting in 2018). The name kind of stuck, so now I'd like to think she chose to name herself after her favorite Pokémon upon arriving in Askr. She strikes me as someone who was already a strategic thinker. Even though she was quite lonely back on Earth, she loved to play the Pokémon TCG and loved coming up with new strategies. I think those skills lend themselves easily to strategizing as a tactician, though she still tends to stress about it easily. She does take a lot of notes and ask the opinions of other tacticians she's summoned as a way to make sure she's thought everything through. She's prone to fainting when she's stressed, so she likes to be prepared and have back-up plans. She also used to be a performer! She was a musical theater major and loves to sing (it's one of the few things she's proud of). She tends to view the battlefield as a stage, and the summoner persona as a role she has to play. She's able to convincingly act stoic and sure of her actions, but deep down, she's full of doubt. At the end of the day, she's also kind and compassionate. Though she was initially shy and kept to herself, her kindness helped her forge many friendships over time, and it's those friendships that have made her feel more at home in Askr than anywhere else. I think that's enough rambling for now. I'm sure I'll have more to say eventually, but I'll stop here. As a bonus, here's the flats for this piece, and a sprite edit I did of her for the funsies. I really hope y'all like her because I like sharing stuff about her 👉👈

[monokuma-apologist]

Some of the participants of the next-gen killing game! These guys belong to me and @detective-dick-gumshoes-pot-room!

(Some of these older designs are inspired by the drawings done of these silly guys by @foryoupeko!! Please check out the art they did I kid you not I pull it up just to look at it at least twice a day IT’S THE GREATEST THING- Also! These are all traced from sprites from the official games in an attempt to recreate the style as closely as possible! Needless to say doing this was mostly for body and face shapes! And finally, this doesn’t contain all of the important characters!)

When the tragedy had begun to die down and the world was beginning to recover, Makoto rebuilt Hope’s Peak Academy to ensure that those who fell victim to the Killing Games were remembered…and to restore Hope’s Peak Academy to the shining beacon it was always meant to be. But something’s gone wrong- it’s impossible. How is he back? What’s going on?

Koji Hinata - Ultimate Gamer

Though it seemed for ages like Chiaki really was gone for good, with the help of Kazuichi and Alter Ego, she was able to be brought back- restored, though stuck fully digital. And she and Hajime were able to be happy.

Koji is an AI created by her years ago to serve as Hajime’s and her child. Though usually quiet and cynical, he loves his parents more than anything in the world and is a whiz at video games.

Now, with an artificial body, Koji was selected to attend Hope’s Peak as the Ultimate Gamer, just like his mom…

…and, having already been forced to participate in a killing game at a young age, Koji wants nothing more than to go back home to his mom and dad.

Hotaru “Angel Boy” Tanaka, the Black Dragon of Tartarus - Ultimate Poet

Sonia and Gundham struggled for ages to conceive, though they wanted a child more than anything in the world. But they stayed hopeful. When Makoto found an infant orphaned by the Tragedy, he suggested the pair take him in- and thus, Hotaru is their “angel boy”, their gifts from the heavens.

Hotaru is just as odd and proud as his father, though he’s much more smooth and charming. He has an interest in all things strange and unusual, and truly cares about those around him.

Natsuki Kuzuryu - Ultimate Sportsman

Natsuki is really bummed that he didn’t get chosen as an Ultimate Swordsman, but he supposes this will have to do.

Though he often comes across as cruel and detached, Natsuki is fiercely loyal to the other Jabberwock Island kids, and won’t let any harm come to his little sister Fumiko or his best friend Aika.

Kiko Naegi - Ultimate Lucky Student

Though she’s never gotten along with him, Kiko takes great pride in the accomplishments of her father and will fiercely defend him against anyone who tries to slander him or his attempts at restoring Hope’s Peak.

She ends up taking lead the most, though she at first clearly has a disdain for the other participants…especially the kids who grew up on Jabberwock Island. She’s extremely annoyed by Honda’s constant emphatic support, but she does grow to care a lot about him.

Fumiko Kuzuryu - Ultimate Negotiator

Fumiko was always a daddy’s girl- and as she grew older, she retained that same innocent physique that her father once had. Fumiko, though, takes great pride in this, as it thoroughly assists her endeavors to manipulate those around her.

Fumiko puts on a very sadistic, uncaring persona, but she’s deeply loyal to her friends and especially her brother, comforting him greatly when Aika dies. She’s the participant who most frequently performs the autopsies.

Aika Mioda-Soda - Ultimate Mechanic

Aika has the combined passion and enthusiasm of both of her parents- and is proud to be following in her dad’s footsteps as the Ultimate Mechanic. Though she causes a lot of trouble- frequently pulling pranks on other participants- she’s desperate to at least build camaraderie between everyone and stop the killing before it happens. How tragic it is, then, when she accidentally becomes blackened herself- executed by one of the machines that her dad built so long ago.

Honda Hagakure - Ultimate Salesman

Honda’s older brother told him that his time at Hope’s peak would be full of great riches, great fortune, and great romance- and he’s right a third of the time, so one of them is bound to happen, right?

Honda is very frightened of this killing game- knowing he’s unable to kill anybody and is an easy target, making his chances of escape slim to none- but when he’s not struggling to withhold panic, he’s usually following Kiko around, who he thinks is a brilliant leader and the smartest person here. (He may or may not have a very obvious crush on her).

Though he can be a bit of an idiot, Honda genuinely wants everything to be okay and is more than willing to make sacrifices for those he cares about.

He’s a bit of a kleptomaniac, with a briefcase full of completely useless trinkets he stole from his peers.

[dreamingpichu]

Overthinking and asking way too many questions about the Wreck it Ralph universe's lore, logic, and laws of nature

What's the implications of .exe games in the Wreck it Ralph universe? Like is Sonic.exe like actually evil or just like the other bad guys and only acting out a role?

And like what about rom hacks? You're literally manually changing a game's code, graphics, and characters to make a new game. Would a rom hacked game be more like amnesia or would characters know they were in an edited version of the game?

What about programs like RPG Maker, where the entire point is to edit them to your liking? Are the various available character sprites you can use in place of making your own sentient?

At what point in the game making process do the characters gain sentience? Do characters have to withstand being alive in unfinished games or do they only become sentient when the finished game is played for the first time?

And like what about modding? If you mod a game on your laptop to add new content to it, but then delete that mod, do the base game characters remember and mourn the modded characters? Or do they just forget they existed?

Are customizable player avatars sentient? Is it like a Kris Deltarune situation where they have their own identity separate from the player, or are they like soulless robots that only 'activate' when the player turns on the game?

What about games where almost all the characters are made by the player? Are each of your individual created Sims and miis sentient?

If every mii is sentient, does their personality and sentience carry over to each game they're played in? If you create a mii in Mii Maker and that mii becomes sentient, then you put said Mii in Tomodachi Life, do the Tomodachi Life and Mii Maker instances share memories or do they become separate entities?

Is erasing your save data like the end of the world?

If you made a mii in mii maker, then put that mii in Tomodachi Life, then deleted the Mii Maker version of the mii, then transferred the Tomodachi Life mii back to Mii Maker, then deleted your Tomodachi save, then put that mii into a NEW Tomodachi save, would that mii remember everything that happened to it?

What if an unplugged game gets plugged back in? Do the escaped characters just return home, or do they have to meet clones of themselves?

Are some game characters stuck in a Toy Story Buzz Light-year situation where they don't realize they're video game characters, or do all video game characters automatically know they're in a game?

How do characters in bad games feel about their existence? Does CDI Link realize his game is bad or does he just not care?

What are the rules about interacting with humans? Is it considered taboo for a game character to directly talk to a human? Does it work on Toy Story logic? Have humans and game characters ever spoken to each other? Are game developers aware that the characters are alive and just don't tell anybody?

How deeply do a story's events affect a character's psyche? If the characters know they're just acting in a game how badly do in-game events traumatize them? Are horror game protagonists living in constant agony or are they able to just laugh it off and spend time with the scary monster after hours?

Does every instance of a character have the same personality? Is arcade Bowser identical to a Bowser from Mario Odyssey?

If Turbotime was popular enough to get sequels, re-releases, or cameos in other games, would that Turbo be just as much of a cruel, egomaniac as the arcade Turbo? If similar things were to happen to a Turbo from say, a Smash Bros game, would that Turbo also 'go Turbo'?

How many other video game characters have gone turbo?

Have other Hero's Duty cabinets had Cy-Bugs escape and cause problems in other games? If so, would the game be considered a liability? Would it be deemed too dangerous to be kept in arcades at all?

If Cy-Bugs are functionally a virus, are there other games that have similar issues? Would the Wither Storm for example function like a virus if it were to escape Minecraft Story Mode?

In games like Super Smash Bros where you can adjust CPU fighter levels, is a Level 3 CPU purposely holding back and making dumber decisions compared to a Level 9 CPU, or are they just straight up less intelligent? How does a game forcefully dumb down a character, and how does that even feel?

Do some games get unplugged because their games are actually broken? Surely not every game is unplugged due to lack of popularity, missing characters, broken controllers, or rogue viruses. Can games just straight up stop functioning, with no fault of the characters? Such as dead pixels or aging internals?

Are video game corruption videos like Vinesauce Corruption Stockpile akin to LiveLeak gore videos?

Why does Sugar Rush have such good graphics for a game supposedly from the 90s?

Why does Sugar Rush have mechanics like the double-stripe candy cane trees and Nesquik sand that don't make sense for a kart racer arcade game with only one track? Those mechanics make more sense for a home console platformer like Mario 64 or Banjo Kazooie than the game that Sugar Rush actually is.

Which specific Mario arcade game is in the arcade? It can't be Mario Bros. or Donkey Kong, as Bowser is clearly seen at group therapy. Wreck it Ralph takes place in 2012 so it can't be a release from later than that, but it also can't be a Japan exclusive release, or screen-less machine like a pinball cabinet. While two of the Mario Kart arcade releases would be valid, both GP and GP 2 contain Pac-Man characters, which brings up the final question,

What about games that have characters from other games in them? How would a character react to meeting themselves?

How different would classic Pac-Man be to the modern Pac-Man seen in Mario Kart Arcade GP?

[tenaciouschronicler]

Its Not a Hack if its Not Forbidden:

CG Lore Revelations and Theories

CG: OK, THERE COMES A TIME WHEN BLACK INEVITABLY BEATS WHITE /ON THE BATTLEFIELD IN THE CENTER OF SKAIA /THE WHITE KING IS CAPTURED OR KILLED OR SOMETHING /THAT'S WHEN THE RECKONING STARTS /THE RULERS OF DERSE /THE BLACK KING AND QUEEN /GET THE POWER TO SEND THE VEIL TOWARD SKAIA /TO DESTROY IT /THAT KIND OF STARTS YOUR BIG "COUNTDOWN"

We already knew the first part so it just further confirms it but it makes the kids playing this game so much stranger. As far as we know, the only thing that would make the kids lose their King is PM going to said battlefield and asking for his abdication to get the package for John that Jade sent. The White Queen is the one who has decided this is the best course of action. Somehow, potentially kickstarting The Reckoning is seen as a better option and strategic enough to make a difference in the outcome of the game. It does mean that the kids however were not the true catalyst for the meteors arriving. They played a part but its likely just a completion of a timeloop especially as each kid had a different countdown. Theres supposed to be a big overarching countdown that occurs that we likely dont see. And actually now that I think about it in some way they have bent the game again. Somehow they have glitched past the countdown while still having started it.

EB: so then it's up to us to save it?

CG: YEAH, YOU HAVE THAT LONG TO KILL THE BLACK QUEEN AND KING /AND SKAIA ITSELF SORT OF BUYS YOU SOME TIME /BY ACTIVATING ITS DEFENSE PORTALS /TO CATCH SOME OF THE METEORS /THE THREAT GETS BIGGER THE LONGER YOU TAKE THOUGH /SMALLER METEORS COME FIRST AND THEY GET PROGRESSIVELY BIGGER AND BIGGER /AND THERE'S ONLY SO MUCH OF THEM SKAIA CAN ABSORB FOR YOU.

This part confirms something we only sorta questioned, where did the meteors come from? They are from The Reckoning and Carcino is actually not aware of where the meteors actually go. We have seen the Sburb spirograph over Earth releasing meteors and from Roses exploration of the lab, their existence follows the same pattern of starting small and getting larger. Im guessing in most cases players are deposited into the Medium but their planet is left unharmed. Its not until the Reckoning that Skaia 'absorbs' the meteors and destroys their home. This is part of the game that most are unaware of until it happens and then...? Who knows. The kids are already aware their planet is donezo and their mission is to, i dont know, recreate it? Something along those lines. Im curious what a normal session Sprite normally conveys when players enter the medium.

EB: ok, but it sounds like we've got plenty of time before that happens right?

CG: THAT'S JUST IT /YOU DON'T /ORDINARILY YOU WOULD BUT /YOUR RECKONING STARTS MUCH SOONER /BECAUSE OF SOME DUMB THINGS YOU'VE DONE /YOU COMPLETELY BLEW IT ALREADY AND YOU HAVE NO CHANCE OF WINNING ANYMORE /WHICH ORDINARILY WOULD BE FINE /JUST ANOTHER BUNCH OF LOSERS TO FAIL AT THIS GAME /IT'S WHAT YOU DO LATER THAT CAUSES SO MUCH MORE TROUBLE THAN THAT

This part is crazy. Theres no way this game is over before it started. How are we already endgame when theyve just started playing? Yeah endgame, I refuse to believe this is a true end state when the Exiles are still running around. And what exactly does that mean for players who lose? Are they stuck there? What does Skaia do with them? Are the trolls stuck?? Did they lose their game?

Carcino is adamant that the kids 'FUCK UP ROYALLY, END OF STORY' but then whats the point in trolling them? Lets say this is not normal, being able to reach out to another game session. If each session is cut off from the other, how did the trolls learn of the kids? What happens in the future? Its clear that a majority of the trolls dislike the kids but theres no real reason to. Unless somehow the kids do something that glitches the game, as theyve shown they do alot accidently, and they 'hack' the trolls session causing something to go wrong and opening a tunnel for communication. It would be similar to the pumpkin that appeared when John fell asleep that kept him from awakening on Prospit. But that still begs the question of why troll? I guess you could do so in the moment to vent frustration, but why go through the trouble of timeline hopping? If the outcome is clear and inevitable and you cant change it what is the point? We are missing something about the trolls mission.

Theres also the idea that the kids session is broken. Something somewhere has gone wrong and now the kids are playing in a game prone to glitching (and I say glitching in that the kids seem to have a knack for solutions and problems that arent normal for the game).

[thegirlgraves]

decay 3A first playthrough retrospective ˚₊·

go to the sister post after this one, the "decay 3A predictions retrospective", for more specific thoughts on the endings overall. i had to split the post into two because of the image-count of THIS one, so check it out!

this post will be less full-analysis of this game and what it all means and such (maybe), and more-so me chronologically showing screenshots of character graphics and moments i have thoughts about while going through my first play-through of the game.

i took notes and screenshots of moments that interested me while playing this through, and i'll be going chronologically by whatever ending i hit first naturally with my own choices. enjoy <3

join me as i traverse through the mental decay of andrew graves!

BEFORE WE START. i chose a decay save with BULLETS and i chose "ANDREW" at the decision, and i did NOT pick up the wedding ring.

the way leyley has brought up this kinda shit since they were KIDS. also notable took a screenshot of this particular screen because its the first time a blush sprite was used in the new chapter. ended up being very common, CUTE ADDITION DEVS!!! :3

however, most of the early memories are fucking MISERY to sit through, not because its poorly written or it sucks, but because I FUCKING HATE THAT HAGG I WANT HER FUCKING DEAD. I FUCKING HATE THAT FUCKING BITCH. (shes already dead and she didn't even die brutally OR in pain. what a shame.)

seriously though the way andy was abused as a kid MUST be from some generational bullshit, the way renee was barely 15 when she had her first kid (and seemingly, just so she could have her perfect little chess pieces of "see mom! fuck you, my husband are SO well off and MY kids are SMART!". they were really just born just to prove a fucking Point. no wonder she disposed of them so easily.) and how renee passes down this ideal that the oldest sibling basically is THE parent of the other siblings, might show renees childhood and some generational trauma, but i don't care enough about her to give a shit SORRY.

all i wrote in my notes at this point was, sarcastically: "guys i think andrew had a troubling childhood im not sure though". by the way the little intro before they wake up was fucking BAD ASS. i love the new music holy fuck.

this whole sequence of ashleys amputated body and his reactions to it are so fucking interesting. i do love seeing him fall apart mentally, teehee! (the way the puzzle was like, about digging up his "beloved" out the grave and pieces her back together, does he think he destroyed her? and will attempt to put her back together? i wonder if this was an actual vision or if it was just something something vaguely symbolic puzzlestuff.)

also, we now get andrew's POV for the bunny plushies descriptions.

oddly repulsive, interesting :3

SPEAKING of item descriptions, when he obtains ashley's head...

though... the fact ashley is a big eye demon in this realm is INCREDIBLY interesting, not sure if it was meant to be a "shes all encompassing on andrews part" or if she ACTUALLY looks like that in demonic form. VERY interesting..

things are GETTING BAD! she shackles him to a radiator in a random cultists apartment after andrew lets all the souls in the demon realm escape (on accident, maybe) and he is literally STUCK with ashley with all his items gone and he CANT leave, so he becomes a fucking alcoholic.

even though she hates it so much. shes so SCARED.

after he calls julia begs her to let him free and NEARLY runs off to start a new life, gets doused in a cold bucket of liquid reality and he sulks on a bench by himself. until his old friend shows up, and has a small moment of "maybe i want ashley back :("

he comes home, with groceries, a bag of excuses and ashley promptly FLIPS her fucking shit as andrew desperately tries to calm her and tell her that he just wants to be with her forever. honestly if ashley stopped being a shivering rat with no trust capabilities right here, maybe a Genuinely good ending couldve occured. SHOCKER! she doesn't though.

he tries to get ashley to feel better by smoking with h- wait what the fuck.

oh they're making out on the couch now, splendid.

now ashley is trying to be the perfect little Wife for andrew, while andrew descents further into his alcoholism, and while ashley proceeds to piss him off over minor things that cause very Bad things to happen.

the title music playing while he beats The SHIT out of ashley is kinda fun and shows how fucking manic he is. in a way i cant describe. boo.

and they uh. Work it Out.

ok but seriously this scene here is horrifically interesting because... i still don't even know what to make of it. its like. ashley pushes andrew to fucking her while drunk, he's always Wanted to and he ADMITTED to wanting to fuck her the night before also while drunk. though ashley mainly fucks him to keep him around (her inner narration rats it out), it seems to be her last ditch effort to prevent him from killing her/killing himself by resorting to sexual favors? since she views this whole thing so transactionally due to her deep rooted insecurities regarding anyone GENUINELY caring about her as a person at all. its EXTREMELY FUCKED UP.

though, despite everything, i find it hard to consider it outright rape in my opinion (i am not a SA victim so i am being cautious with the word here), though it definitely was not safe OR sane OR normal in ANY fucking capacity, dubious at ABSOLUTE best (since ashley is disinterested in sex, which is something i understand the feeling of. not in a "asexual way", which is what a LOT of people feel it is.) but i REALLY think that if either of them didn't want it, they would've started fucking killing eachother and probably just thrown themselves out the balcony at That moment.

then again, the dialogue BEFORE the fade to black is something to be picked apart. i feel i am not qualified enough to get into it without romanticizing it or potentially getting it WRONG. TL;DR, THEY FUCK BUT IT IS NOT SAFE OR SANE OR EVEN REALLY CONSENSUAL AND hes not even hard and shes not even wet. ALSO THEY'RE SIBLINGS. everybody knows shits FUCKED.

oh, also.

this set of lines was so GODDAMN DIABOLICAL i had to rewind to the previous save i had and go back because HUH.

but anyway.

true shit. ashley taking advantage of the "women cant rape" because she Does.

anyway, after this point the route ends with them literally fucking KILLING themselves, andrew romanticizes the shit out of it after pointing a gun to her head for her Making Him Do That and they jump from the 7th story floor, to go SPLAT in front of a whole bunch of kids.

what an ending guys!

. . .

dudes what the FUCK did i just endure.

[oaktaro]

平安京エイリアン | Heiankyo Alien

Heiankyo Alien: Pitfall Trap Game – 1979 Sep? (uncommercialized proof of concept) – Apple ][

Space Invaders was big, and Weekly Asahi magazine would run a story searching for the next big game, soliciting college computer clubs around the nation for new ideas. After visiting 2 at the University of Tokyo, Itaru Kawakami of the Theoretical Science Group (TGS) led an emergency meeting to come up with an idea before the article would be published. He put forth the idea of a game where the player is in their home attempting to trap cockroaches. Another member, Mitsutoshi Tabata, has implied that the idea would’ve played like a Snake type of game, and I’ve seen it cited that you would use glue traps, so perhaps the Snake element was the danger of getting stuck by your own traps as you lay more and more down. A fan creation of this game has since been made called Vermin Wars. TGS, however, were cautious about giving the player too much freedom of movement in an open space, so the playing field would be reimagined to resemble a Go board where you place pieces at the intersections of squares instead of within them, almost as if the lines are the streets and the spaces are buildings in a city grid. This changed their setting from a home interior to a city! With everyone talking about this new horror movie, Alien, they decided that could be the new monster that you trap. In brainstorming a city to take place in, they landed on the nation’s former capitol, once called Heiankyo, which had an impressively strict grid, making it an easy leap for them to then have you play as law enforcement of the time, attempting to dig pitfall traps for the invading aliens. Asashi would publish the idea, resulting in them being contacted by electronics company Denki Onkyo, who were interested. The group looked to Tabata to program it, as he owned the legendary Apple II, but the one thing he couldn’t do was optimize it. Apparently the game took 10 minutes to even boot, so Kawakami stepped up to optimize it and met Tabata at the train station to take the entire Apple II, which is humorous to imagine them lugging around. He would ultimately decide to switch to the Apple II’s low-resolution mode, effectively quartering the resolution and changing the available approach to visuals, resulting in humans, aliens, and holes being different colored blocks. This build of Heiankyo Alien: Pitfall Trap Game was taken to Denki Onkyo as a sort of proof of concept. According to an article instructing readers on how to make their own TK-80 version of the game in the February 1980 issue of I/O magazine, there were already PC-8001 and MZ-80K versions as of writing the article, with some version of the game being shown at a school festival the previous year, presumably the Apple II version.

Heiankyo Alien – 1979 Nov – cabinet

They were set up on the first floor of the Oda district office. Kawakami and Keiichiro Shimada would become the project managers, with the team fleshing out what should and shouldn’t be done. They changed the street layout to be less uniform. A timer was added to end the game in the event that the player closed themselves off from danger, and, inspired by the idea of using candy to distract the slit-mouthed woman of legend, they wanted to include a hard candy that can be used to temporarily stop all the aliens from moving, but midway through development scrapped the idea as they found it overcomplicated the controls. With a sole keyboard to type out what they wrote and burn it to ROMs, every time they wanted to test if what they came up with worked, multiplayer modes would be added, having you either take turns or co-op with both of you on screen together. One thing Denki Onkyo pressed them for was to give the player an animation for when they met their end, resulting in the last-minute addition of an angel sprite to float away. The game would be demoed at the Amusement Machine Show in October, where it was discovered that adding too many coins would cause the coin counter to spill into VRAM, removing one of the city walls, allowing one of the aliens to wander off, scrambling the game’s data, but when all was said, patched, and done, it would hit arcades (as Digger in the U.S.) to great success, being among the highest-grossing arcade games in Japan. Game Center Arashi was a book series about its protagonist conquering arcade games with its story about him attempting to score 10 million points in Heiankyo Alien in 20 minutes, spotlighting not only the game but its strategies and terminology, making them even more accessible. These were also detailed in I/O magazine, who, in their April 1980 issue, announced TK-80BS, MZ-80K/C, and PC-8001 versions for sale. Desktop versions of the game from the time are usually distinguishable by their use of green instead of blue, outside of the handheld version. I also notice the cover of Game Center Arashi has more square-shaped, pink aliens and green buildings while the city walls remain the blue that I’m used to seeing the arcade version be. The handheld version uses condensed, repeating stages and greatly simplified visuals to keep the core gameplay intact while maintaining portability and affordability. It would inspire many future games like its side-view counterpart, Space Panic.

Heiankyo Alien – 1990 Jan 14th – Gameboy

“Denki Onkyo was bought by Murata Manufacturing, and the rights were left hanging, but when the Game Boy version was released, they were transferred to a company called Hyperware, which was run by Takeshige Arimasa, who was a colleague of my brother-in-law at TSG.” -Norio Nakagata (alongside Takane Ohkubo are the Game Boy remake’s uncredited music artists)

As the 1980s rolled around, Denki Onkyo would not survive with the rights to Heiankyo Alien going up in the air. Hyperware was able to grab the rights and get to work on a remake. It features raising and lowering lanterns blocking the roads to keep the environment ever-shifting on the player and the monsters! A new boat mechanic allows you to traverse a river faster than taking the streets. Cinematics, including an ending, were added. While there would be a classic mode, the remake was rocking a faster pace to keep up with a new breed of alien sporting more erratic movement, and that’s not the only rocking being brought. The remake’s Multi Matrix Sound System (MMSS) is that when it’s multiplayer mode is linked to another Game Boy, it’ll combine both Game Boy’s sound systems into one, allowing for audio, twice as complex! The co-op of the original would return in classic mode, and the remake mode allows for competitive multiplayer where you each get your own screen and can affect each other’s game, sending aliens you’ve buried into their game as if you’re on opposite sides of the Earth, and those monsters evolve when they come up on the other side! The rebounded aliens can be taken out for good, and I have to mention how good the game’s overall branding is! The clean red, while only displaying the outlines of the monsters, is so classy yet harsh and vintage. Unfortunately for all involved, the remake did not seem well received in its time. Seemingly being dismissed as an overpriced repackaging of an antiquated 70’s game, even retrospective reviews years later were looking back on it negatively.

Nichibutsu Arcade Classics 2: Heiankyo Alien – 1995 Dec 15th – SFC

A new game for the SFC would attempt to try again with more screen real estate and modern graphics in the original game’s gameplay with multiple stages of dynamically dropping factors to deal with, from power-ups to power-downs to juke. This version would also not be a turning point for the series popularity. This also includes the ability to play “original” Heiankyo Alien, which plays like the arcade game but visually has an indigo background with green walls and buildings, which is not a color scheme of the official version of the ‘79 arcade game that I’m familiar with.

Heiankyo DX – 2003 Nov 17th – mova505i

After 2001 mobile versions, sporting both original and new graphics, a 2003 game titled Heiankyo DX would have you face 15 stages of alien tapping across night and day stages with further upgraded graphics. I’ve always wondered about the attitude toward mobile games from their regular players at this time. Perhaps the 2001 did alright to lead to Heiankyo DX, but the series overall 14-year absence following this gives me the impression it didn’t look like something with a lot of potential to commercially capitalize on, and I’d assume that simpler 1970s game design would have the best chance on phones at the time.

The 2017 Heiankyo Revival

Every time a new Heiankyo Alien came out, it would mention how popular the original game was, as, much like Space Invaders that inspired it, its original entry was something it never recaptured, but, just like Space Invaders, that’s not to say that not just the legacy but the idea of new games was not appreciated by players like the fan game that added guns, Heiankyo Crisis. By the 2017 revival, I note a general change in tone of people voicing their opinions of Heiankyo Alien from suspicious of its value as a commercial product to liking a new little game being offered, and I think the two factors that play into that are the lower relative price after inflation and in comparison to competition alongside Nintendo leading a shift in online and print discussions of home games away from almost only being the pushing forward of the bleeding edge of hardcore to also enjoying smaller, simpler games. By the early 2010s, Minecraft seemed to cement this rapidly growing market and general tone change in video game discussions, leading to opinions of not just new Heiankyo Alien games but older ones by first-time players seeming more open-minded to simpler than Triple-A games, though I do note Tetris on the Game Boy as an anomaly in this thinking. It again helped that people of the 21st century didn’t have to pay triple A price for Heiankyo games. Even outside of retro game prices in a pre-WataGames world, I remember people commenting in the 2010s how initial video game releases are cheaper than they ever have been due to the variance in prices on top of the great price reset PlayStation popularized. As of the publishing of this article, Triple A games are still less expensive than they were during the SNES generation. At least, that’s my suspicion for why the change in tone between the 90’s and 2010’s seemed to happen for Heiankyo Alien, but let’s get into what they actually offered!

NEO Heiankyo Alien – 2017 Sep 7th – FC

NEO Heiankyo Alien is a Family Computer entry taking place in 299X where you can trap multiple types of aliens in a vibrant nightscape or play a version of the original that has a similar color scheme of the “original” mode in the 1995 game but neon blue and green, perhaps reusing the neon blue and green of Neo Kyoto in the new game mode. You could also just listen to the soundtrack featuring a nice list of composers in "Heiankyo Music" mode. Over the years, the soundtrack of the 1990 remake, since credited to Nakagata and Ohkubo, seemed to become the series identity, and Nakagata, who's credited as NEO Heiankyo’s producer, made a new song in that style for this game’s soundtrack too. There was a remixed version of the game’s soundtrack released though, unlike the Game Boy game, they never seemed to release the in-game version of the soundtrack.

Heiankyo Alien – 2017 Oct 13th – Windows 7-10

While Nakagata was working on NEO Heiankyo Alien, he was approached by Mikito Ichikawa, who heard Bug Fire was inspired by Heiankyo Alien and wanted to do his own remake of it for a series of remaking retro games that he was doing, resulting in another new Heiankyo game releasing! Now, technically there was a version of the original Heiankyo Alien officially released as shareware for Windows in 1999, but the 2017 game referred to as “Heiankyo Alien 3671” goes for a very colorful and enemy-filled rendition of the game as well as the ability to play a version of the arcade game that seems to be the more arcade-accurate (taller) aspect ratio with mock-ups of the cocktail table instructions used as borders, though it uses the same color scheme of blue roads and green buildings that NEO Heiankyo used, and I'm not sure if there was a version of the '79 arcade game in this color scheme. 3671, of course, also has quite the spotlight on music, even announcing an “Idol Version” in collaboration with a group called GUILDOLL. This never seemed to come to fruition, with people asking why the “idol mode” is grayed out in the menu years after the game seemed to stop being updated in 2021, despite advertising for it never being removed from the Steam store page. Even with that, the game is still generally praised by the minority that are aware of the Heiankyo Alien series.

[doujin-and-drop]

Gyaku Shaun Sai Hanri / Ace Arftorney ENGLISH PATCH (VER. 1.0)

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS VERSION 1.0. THE EXTRA BONUS CASE HAS NOT BEEN TRANSLATED YET. THIS POST WILL BE UPDATED WITH A VERSION 2.0 DOWNLOAD ONCE THE BONUS CASE HAS BEEN TRANSLATED.

Thank you all who have waited patiently for me to translate this game! It was a lot of fun. Please support Cheshire, who now goes by Oota Manta, for creating this game! (here is his pixiv - MAJOR R-18 WARNING)

For this game to run properly, you MUST either set your computer's locale to Japanese or use a locale emulator.

EDIT: SPRITE PAGE.

DOWNLOAD LINK (INTERNET ARCHIVE)

Below are some translation notes (spoiler warning)

This was my first ever major translation project. Since it spanned the time of almost two years, the quality of the translations may increase as you play through the game. Nonetheless I have gone back and redone a lot of the earlier dialogue with the help of a friend to make it sound more natural in English. If you find any errors or typos, you may leave an ask and I will correct it in a patch update.

In order to keep the spirit of an actual Ace Attorney game, several things were changed. Most notably, the characters names.

Names:

稲刈たんぼ (Inekari Tanbo) is Phoenix Wruff. People familiar with the Japanese Ace Attorney names may recognize that this name is nowhere near Naruhodou Ryuuichi. That's simply because this character, as with Edgewurrth, were not actually named after the main characters of the original series. I decided to change this given their clear homage. Inekari Tanbo literally means "harvesting (a) rice paddy".

条框蓮司(レンジ) (Jyoukamachi Renji) is Miles Edgewurrth. To be honest, I don't think there is a pun in his name. At the very least, I had trouble thinking of what it could be. If somebody knows, let me know. The most I can figure is the first kanji in his name can mean "streak", and according to Cheshire, Edgewurrth was supposed to get the white streak of hair, not Abe, but he didn't like how it looked on the former.

萬舞 (Man Mau) is Krystal "Kris" Balle. Her name means "10,000 dances", hence her English name.

濡沼 ウキモ (Nuranuma Ukimo) is Ashley Goodhead. Ukimo doesn't seem to have much significance as a word, although it could be related to 浮き which means to float, as in like, floating in water. I say this because the other parts of Ukimo's name, 濡(Nura)沼(Numa) refer to being wet and to swamps.

If this is true, why the name choice? Well, it's very complicated...

濡 Means a little more than just being wet. It also can mean being wet in the sexual sense. There's also the word 濡れ衣 (Nuraginu) which means to be falsely accused of a crime (literally and archaically "wet clothes"). Both these I would say fit Ukimo, not only because of her story position of being falsely accused, but also, well... just look at her design. It would be naive to claim there's nothing sexual about it.

沼 has some connotations among gaming, interestingly. It can mean being addicted to something (that something being a piece of media, typically) or being "swamped" in a game, i.e being stuck and unable to progress.

Now, this meaning of the word has only come into play somewhat recently. Like, 2015-ish. Which makes it sort of inapplicable, since Gyaku San was created around 2003.

A different slang use of 沼 that was used around this time was 池沼 which means, basically, the r slur... in a way? It's used to make fun of "weird" or "cringe" behavior, typically present in those with mental disability. It's a homophone of 知障, which does mean "mental disability​".

With all this in mind, I had a very hard time piecing together a name for Ukimo that would feel at home in Ace Attorney. Especially because I don't know the full extent of what Cheshire had in mind when naming her.

Ashley was chosen given that, to me, it is a very "popular teenage girl" name. "Ash" would also make her closely related to "Phoenix". (Get it? LOL). I almost debated on making any use of ウキモちゃん (Ukimo-chan) be "Ash", but decided it would be kind of weird...

Goodhead was chosen for several reasons. It, of course, is a clear sexual pun, but it is also a reference to James Bond, something I feel could encapsulate some of the slang meanings of 沼 (media obsession) while serving to imitate Ace Attorney's love of pop culture references. "Goodhead" could also be taken literally, as in meaning she has a good head on her shoulders, which would refer to her being innocent; the "false accusation" meaning in her name.

It was the best I could do. Orz.

阿部伊知郎 (Abe Ichirou) is Abe Founder. He kept the first part, although his last name became his first name, and his original first name means "The one wise son". However, without the kanji, "ichirou" can mean to fail your college entrance exam. Considering that he lies about going to a prestigious college when he actually went to a average one reminded me of this, so his last name was chosen to hold similar meaning. "Founder", as a noun, can mean someone who establishes something, and typically this is used with positive connotation. However, as a verb, it can mean "failure", which I think is apt and captures this stark contrast meaning.

Many things in the game were changed to better be understood by a Western audience, such as obscure Japanese pop culture references and suchlike. The backwards poster bit was the hardest, but I managed to pull it off. In short, Ashley's - or Ukimo's - poster originally was a reference to an old Japanese song (likely) that had さんさん(san san) written. When read from the back, さ looks like ち(chi). The "look dood" poster said 犬さんぽ in the original, which means "dog stroll". But when read from the back, it looks like 犬ちんぽ which means "dog penis". I did my best with this, haha.

[juliansjss]

“ WHEN YOU GET BACK ON A SATURDAY NIGHT . . . AND YOUR HEAD IS CAVING IN “ | Faust ! |

Warnings : fem!reader, public sex, p in v, softdom!faust, blowjobs, honestly pretty vanilla if I’m being completely honest. (I do not support the actual person, or the band mayhem, just Valter playing a part.)

admin note : it’s Julian and all I’m saying is I have a new found love and appreciation for Valter, and idk where it came from

___________________

The day had started fairly normal. You and the taller man had got there around six PM, the place was bumping with people. The fair has always been one of your favorite places since you were a child.

Everything from the greasy food, and the spinny rides, you loved it all. It screamed of nostalgia and childhood. You loved it, and you made it abundantly clear. Yet, it was still pretty shocking when Faust came with the idea to go together, as somewhat of a date. It came as a major shock, since that kind of thing didn’t scream him. But it screamed you, and he knew that. It was something you had brung up multiple times since the two had been together.

So that’s how you ended up, a large lemonade cup in one hand and the man’s hand in your other. He however, stuck out like a sore thumb. The man’s dark and moody aesthetic clashing against the bright yellow and pink that was spread across the park.

He rubbed your hand, even if it wasn’t his scene, it made you happy and that’s all that really mattered.

The first ride you got on, was a simple one. The music express, a classic, as Faust said. You agreed. The two of you get in, him on the outside of the ride. As the ride begins, you cuddle on his side as the ride moves you that way anyways. It was a sweet couple of moments, having fun without worry about anything else.

The night went like that on multiple rides, until you found some seats to watch as the sunset and fireworks began to go off. The two of you cuddled into each other, a soft kiss tucked into your head by the man. A happy smile on both of your faces as the night began to calm down.

Most of the children that had been there before, were gone by now. Mostly replaced by older teenagers and adults. It made everything slow down. The two of you felt more comfortable being outright romantic. From kissing to his arm wrapped around you, in a protective embrace. The smile plastered on your face was enough to last for days.

The two of you walked around a little more, playing games as most of the rides were closing down as it hit close to 10:30pm. It was time to go, you knew that.

“Can we get some late dinner?” You said, moving your head to look up at the man, with a curious expression.

“Of course,” he mumbled quietly, “what are you thinking?” He said, looking back down at you.

“There’s a diner about 5 minutes away? Heard they got good burgers” you said, with a soft laugh.

“Sounds great.” He said, returning the soft smile on his face.

The two of you walked to his small car, putting your stuff in the back seat. And drove down to the small diner, there were about 3 other groups of people, which wasn’t all that bad.

The both of you got a small booth, close to the window. The waiter came up to you both, taking your drink order.

A water for him, and a sprite for you. Pretty normal for the both of you. Then once that was brought to the table, the both of you ordered.

The dinner went pretty smooth, the two of you paid and sat up.

“Can you come with me, real quick?” He mumbled against your head softly.

You nodded quickly, a little confused as he dragged you into the family bathroom quickly. That’s when you noticed the strain against the man’s jeans. Oh. That’s what it was.

“That’s so sweet.” You mumbled, staring up at him, “can’t wait to take me until we get home?”

The man shook his head, as he kissed you deep. Lots of tongue. God it was so hot, you couldn’t even lie. The risk factor, his tongue pushing against yours as you flushed against the wall.

His hand, pushed under your thigh and your leg wrapped around his hip, the position reeling with passion and lust. And that’s all that was there.

“Fuck, you’re so hot. You wanna suck me off?” He whispered, he wasn’t the greatest at dirty talk, but that was okay. It didn’t matter when the want pushed through him like none before.

“You know I do.” You said, getting down on knees, shimmying the cardigan off your shoulders, to land at your back and the wall, before taking the straps of the lacey black tank top off your shoulder, pushing them down to let your chest show, moving to unclip the deep burgundy bra off.

A deep primal groan came from deep in his throat as he saw the scene in front of him, grabbing your chin, leaning down to kiss you roughly once again. “Don’t be too loud, got it? Can’t get caught.” He whispered, and you knew it was more for what was bound to happen.

A soft nod came from you, as he began running your hand up and down his cock, a smile plastered on your face as you watched the man above you. His long hair falling in front of his eyes, watching you like a hawk.

You stroked him for a while longer, before leaning down to lick him, softly at first before you began grabbing his thighs to keep yourself grounded as you thrusting him into your mouth, his soft groans and grunts, like your own special music to your ears. You continued thrusting him into your mouth with a big smile, taking it with no fear as he tangled his large hands in your hair.

“Mm, fuck. I’m gonna cum.” He whispered out, his hands tangling in your hair tighter, making you squeak out a moan, you nodded as permission for him to do just that.

And that’s what he did, cumming down your throat with a deep groan, he grabbed your chin roughly and you opened your mouth, showing none of the cum left over. “That’s a good girl.” You smiled as he helped you up.

Maybe it was a bit gross to be on your knees and giving a blowjob in a random diner at 1am, but it wasn’t really the worse place the two of you had fucked, and you knew what you were getting into when the two of you had gotten into a relationship, it was okay.

“Wanna fuck you, baby.” He whispered against your ear, as you began stroking him once again.

“Want you to fuck me.” You said, humming as you continued until you felt him get hard under your touch, didn’t take too long.

“See what you do to me? Get me so worked up, so quick.” He mumbled against your neck, as he began littering it with hickeys bubbling up against the skin. He grabbed his wallet, grabbing a condom from it. The picture of you two, smiling brightly as you kissed, from behind the packaging.

He slid it on as quickly as possible, tossing the wrapping in the trashcan not too far from the two of you. As he pushed himself into you, you let out a soft yelp. It never got old, the slight stretch against him.

“That feels good, stay still for me, pretty girl.” He whispered in your ear, and you listened, how could you not with the sweetly sick tone?

So , you just nodded as he began to thrust slightly into you, not too quick, but not fast enough at the same time. You looked at him and he looked back at you with a knowing look, thrusting into you a bit faster as he brought his hand up to cover your mouth, as he began leaving more hickeys, down your body, stopping at your chest as he took your nipple in his mouth.

The moan you let out could have very well been from a porn, the mumble against his hand. He snapped, still not detaching his mouth from you, but bringing the hand to rub your clip even faster than his thrusts. The some whimpers and groans coming from the bathroom, was quite definitely the reason you heard the kitchen staff becoming increasingly louder as they cleaned up for the night. You would feel bad about it, but for now you were far too concerned with the pleasure between your thighs to give a fuck about what was happening behind that door.

“Fuck, please.. I’m gonna.. cum.” You said breathlessly, mumbled and whiny, as you watched the man in front of you.

“Me too, sweetheart. Cmon, that’s okay.” He mumbled, finally taking his mouth from your boob, taking his hand from your mouth to kiss you deeply.

You moaned into his mouth, as you finished against him. Your heart beating out of your chest as he groaned against you, finishing in the condom.

You both caught your breath as he took himself out of you, and as he threw the condom away.

“I love you.” He whispered, as the two began to clean up.

“I love you too, thank you for the sweet date.” You said, standing on your tippy toes to kiss his cheek.

[hippae09]

Slightly Founded ramblings

Okay so people like it when I have something to say about vampires or at least apply my knowledge from Tsukihime and Project Moon. That's cool! I'm glad one of my favorite characters from tsukihime at least the og IS Satsuki though to be frank most the characters in that game are up there on my favorite scale but I find the particular twist of the knife Tsukihime plays with her to be a horrifying statement on young love. HEAVY Spoilers for the far side route if you haven't read those yet!! As it pertains to the original novel Satsuki is a very sweet girl who clearly has some form of crush on our protagonist Shiki for a long time now despite being a fairly popular person around the school some dim hope is all she clings to romantically. Shiki at no point truly tries to reciprocate this and bluntly he's a bit of an idiot for it as upon learning of your move and how it's on the same path home as her she immediately asks Shiki to walk home with her as far as her path goes, you do obviously. All that is good in the world in the transient moment before we know anything about Shiki comes from Satsuki as the sun sets on the beginning of the vn and she tells us a short story of Shiki's heroism. How he saved her from a seemingly impossible situation of being stuck with the rest of the team in a sport equipment shed with effortless moves though in truth being because he sliced the door open with the mytic eyes of death perception to her registers as nothing short of a miracle. Shiki has forgotten this and with reluctance she of course goes "Just as I thought" this is my own read on her emotions as it stands.

An acknowledgement that despite making such a large impact on her she isn't really anything to Shiki just two people who are friends maybe but that largely slide past each other as if nothing is happening at all. An essential part of her character however is a small promise that if she ever were in trouble Shiki would be there to help, keep this in mind as we move forward. In my playthrough of tsukihime I did not reach many bad ends by some miracle but a particular few did stand out to me so allow me to set the scene as the novel so greatly does. One sees Shiki at the school again meeting Yumizuka once more but something seems off? His mind scratches and peels at the edges as it always does in the supernatural world which he has an unfortunate draw for in the lot of life of Shiki Tohno. It's just Satsuki though! So one would think until you begin to recognize certain signs from earlier routes such as if you reach the far side routes you would have the knowledge of enchantment from Arc in near side as Shiki's mind begins to twist looking into Satsuki's eyes as she very explicitly asks a dumbfounded Shiki to go out with her. Additionally her sprite has taken on red eyes one would recognize from encounters with Roa as well, what stands before is you is the girl you know gone horribly wrong but where? how?

She seems to derive an innocent sort of pleasure from Shiki's confusion as his mind crushes itself in a reaction describable only as the "nanaya supernatural danger sense". Conversion to a Dead Apostle is not a guarantee in tsukihime or at least it depends on the lore of remake and og as I recall so don't fault me here if I miss a point or two but most likely you end up as a walking zombie known only as "The Dead" which serve to bring blood back to the dead apostle which made them mindlessly though some of these corpses can become dead apostles it's all a lucky gamble. The uncertainty of Shiki in this death is that of a strange feeling of knowledge he shouldn't know that if he were ever to wake up again he would never know warmth in his sorry existence. The same pain as Satsuki is currently enduring and crumpling under. She can't bear it alone so she thinks to drag the one person she knows will save her into it with her. A large smile on her face all the way as a misinterpreted promise becomes a seal for Shiki's fate. This all comes after the Ciel route after all wherein we saw Shiki go through a great deal of suffering to fight off his own issues with vampirism. A blight that twists both body and mind but has no recourse against the human heart. The final bastion of humanity. This is all but a single bad end let's get into the actual meat here!

Shiki looks for a murderer, the vampire killer known for leaving bloodless bodies. Ring any bells? It's Roa if you've played the nearside routes which to get to far side you have to anyways but Shiki doesn't know this so he searches the city. An important note is that SHIKI/the real Shiki Tohno is more in control and deliberate in these routes and is the only person that could possibly be responsible for Yumizuka whether it be out of malice spiting our Shiki for taking his place or a wrong place wrong time victim discarded like all the other women he seems to go after is a mystery, not to even begin to mention the possibility of him having done profane things to those bodies he killed as SHIKi is known to derive pleasure from cannibalism due to the demon genetics he has even without Roa in his head.

"With those toys" pertains heavily to Kohaku and a couple other topics but I would assume mostly her seeing the relationship they have is of a parallel the one his father had with her of constant sexual abuse. This is how SHIKI sees people. He doesn't. His insanity has driven him to essentially only have eyes for his sister Akiha and her acknowledgement in the same way that when Roa possess his body he seeks only the acknowledgement of Arc with no qualms about defiling every woman he comes across. This is all to say. Yumizuka Satsuki suffered greately. This much is an truth which hardly needs to be spoken. Shiki arives in a back alley and finds littered bodies the work of the vampire? It must be! There isn't any suspect at the scene, Satsuki appears from behind and gently she accuses Shiki himself of being the murderer. A striking accusation but not an unfounded one with all the strange happening of his life and his lifelike dreams of the murders caused by his link to SHIKI. She puts it so softly, plainly even. He was even attacked by a half formed "dead" as soon as he entred the alley making him look even more like the criminal who must've done it.

With a smile she completely dismantles him in those bright school clothes yet the symbol of innocence in the mind of the player. There's something wrong however. She hides her arms strangely, a spot of red.

A true moment of horror which I've come to learn is what Tsukihime employs best at times. A perversion of what you might have previously thought, as I said before vampirism touches both the mind and body. She justifies even murder in the fact it was not a crime of passion or hate, she has no regret and even laughs at the idea that Shiki can't find it in himself to truly think she did it as she's a girl. Her only mistake was that a bit of her own vampiric essence snuck back into one which created the dead which almost got Shiki, someone truly dear to her who she has always been watching since that day with the shed. That is all she has her eyes on, her only fixation still. It is not on the blood of her hands but on Shiki Tohno. The same Shiki Tohno she thinks she can become like a killer. A hero. More than she is and burdened with only a curse. Shiki doesn't understand, he never could! It's a desperate cry which will never be fully understood as she is now something that cannot be allowed to continue existing. Shiki yet continues searching for her finding her again at the park. Options appear. choose wisely!

I recall saying I like her, she bit the living hell out of me.

"It only hurts at first" She wants again, for you to become like her. Help her, Shiki, help her. She moves with intention "not like those failures" She truly wants this for you. Shiki should be like her, be it as retribution for not being there to save her or as a twisted romantic motion of hers she wants you to both be the same. A killer, both the same. The girl we once knew reveals another tidbit here. That she has ALWAYS been watching him. That she never spoke to him due to this, now that she finally has her own horror she feels as if she can speak on equal grounds with him. That hidden edge not even Shiki himself understands that is his true lineage as the last of the Nanaya scared her out of ever talking to him truly.

It keeps Shiki an inhuman being recognized as a killer by all those involved in the supernatural world. Things are not so easy for our poor heroine Satsuki.

Legs skittering backwards, running. Shiki runs away from her even now. Avoids her. He is not one to be predated on. The hidden edge of the Nanaya continues to kick in recognizing the vampire in front of him as his enemy of course, even with all she has done to manipulate the one person she truly desires it isn't enough to stop his fight or flight. These two will never touch again. They will never share a smile with one another again. They are only enemies now, human opposing a vampire trying to eat him alive. That dumb smile now becomes a look of shock used again and again. A reminder of failure. We arrive at the "heart" (pun intended) of my point.

This, line, here. The heart remains. You cannot touch, cannot change, cannot even begin to FATHOM the force behind a human heart. Perhaps it's the undertale I've played before or the other fiction I've consumed surrounding the importance of one's own will as well as the rest of tsukihime that speaks to me so deeply here. She is in pain because she can't do it. She speaks a big talk but really she can't do it, she never asked for this! Yumizuka Satsuki will only ever be in pain as long as she continue to live. There remains a single line for Shiki to cut, her heart. His knife. His mystic eyes which long ago saved her come again to give her a quick egress from life. She has mentioned that it would have been so much easier if she just died. Cried that she doesn't do it because she wants to. She isn't SHIKI. She isn't Roa. She's just a god damn innocent girl who got unlucky enough to survive her encounter. That survival was the worst thing that could've occurred to her as . Carrying this disease is eating her from the inside out.

She dies turnt to ash, at peace. She can finally reminisce on that sunset walk again. A sunset she will never see again. Shiki chooses to survive over giving his life to her as a form of mercy so she doesn't have to continue on this way. For a moment, a heroine is born as she feels truly satisfied in being chosen by Shiki for only an instant. The bite would haunt Shiki for the rest of the route as he fears he himself is suffering her same fate but it is truly just SHIKI fucking around. He feels pain, discomfort, and all sort of sensations from it, Sensations we can only imagine Satsuki must've felt as well, sensations which can't be described by language other than as pain. That is the nature of her fate. A love that never would be and a route that never released.

I end my thoughts and rambling now. I hope this was satisfactory on the whole as I'm no expert, I just enjoy this heavily and write in my spare time. Read the OG tsukihime vn it's awesome!