#i know this is a ds game from 2008 but the way these characters repeat themselves like everyday is so wack

[scuffle-with-spirals]

Felix: It looks like it’s gonna be another good day today! :) Any honestly, any day that looks beautiful and healthy is gonna be—

Sir there is a RAGING TYPHOON OUTSIDE I am being CARRIED by the wind the HARVEST GODDESS herself has the wheel there is CONSTANT THUNDERING AND BOLTS OF LIGHTNING i can’t fuckign water my crops straight what are you ON mister mayor and where can I get some. Is Sherry planting smth a little freaky schneaky in the back there Felix. don’t lie to me buddy i just wanna try it

[wolfsgravity]

I can’t sleep so I’m just thinkin’ about my range of Pokémon romantic F/Os. This series has meant so much to me for so long, and I know F/Os from that source make up a decent portion of my list. I’d feel more embarrassed about it if I didn’t make it abundantly clear that Pokémon is one of the most pervasive influences in my life from an exceedingly young age.

I just. I dunno. I find my collection of Pokémon series F/Os so interesting.

I’m just gonna ramble a bit.

I’m going to talk in Generational order, because my 1am brain couldn’t decipher a more cohesive timeline if it tried.

Giovanni is a funny one. As a kid, his character in the show intimidated me a little. But I really loved Team Rocket on some level. They were my first Pokémon villain organization, and with the Gen III games having Aqua and Magma, I decided pretty early that Team Rocket was my team. I had a stint in Magma since when I was young, I thought I’d specialize in Fire types, but eh it didn’t stick. No team really stuck nearly as much until Team Skull! So I had a lot of time for my intimidation from Giovanni to evolve into a fearful respect, to a mild devotion… by the time I played Let’s Go! and Ultra Moon, I was more than a little excited to see him in game. As in, I would quietly cheer when he appeared on my screen, in some weird giddy manner. It was only a matter of time before I realized I was crushing hard.

Steven Stone (he has a full name so more often than not I use it when referring to him) probably didn’t make the biggest impact on me in the original Gen III games? Hoenn was my favorite region for a while (in part due to pre- “Hoenn confirmed” hype), but he didn’t have a huge role in Ruby/Sapphire. Maybe I noticed him first in Emerald? I wish I could remember my real first inkling of crush on him, because I just remember when I played Omega Ruby… I was already obsessed with him. He showed up for the first time in game and I squealed. I spent the whole game seeking him out and already making romantic passes at him in my around-19-year-old head.

I am counting Grovyle for this, but it bears repeating that my S/I for the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games is a Pokémon too. Those Mystery Dungeon games enamored me as a teen! I got to BE! A POKEMON!! So I probably got Explorers of Time/Darkness for DS not long after it released in 2008. I was so excited to have Gen IV Pokémon to be and battle and recruit, ugh, this game meant so much to me. I will always remember being part of Wigglytuff’s Guild super fondly. And like, as I am super susceptible to mental role play, putting myself in my characters shoes (or lil toe beans I guess) has always been second nature for me. So a dashing Grovyle just jumped into my silly life and was the most honorable and misunderstood character and I am not even joking when I say I fell for him in my first playthrough. And I’ve played through it a lot. I was always jealous of Celebi. I hate every Dusknoir I see to this day. *chefs kiss* Good game.

Gen V is “oops all F/Os” Gen, where to even start..

Just kidding, N is the obvious choice to start for me. He was love at first sight. He just, ugh, he cares about Pokémon SO MUCH. I literally don’t know how to even expand on this. He literally rode the Ferris Wheel with the player character in the game, and I WASNT supposed to interpret that as a date? Wack. It was a date. I love him so damn much. Next question

Elesa comes next because I’ve always thought she was stunning. I mean, duh I guess, she’s canonically a model. Also, Electric types are in my top 3, behind Fairy and somewhat tied with Fire, so she was a woman after my own heart. Her Emolga kinda wrecked my team and I respect that. Also, she loves puns. So again. Woman after my own heart. The only reason she’s still listed as Crush and not as Dating is because she intimidates me. She’s out of my league and I worry she’d only see me as a friend. Well, not “only”, her and Skyla are bffs and that also looks fun. I just. Can’t imagine her romantically being interested in me sometimes. Heh.

Grimsley was a crush that came on yeeeaaaars after his Gen, and it hit me like a freight train. I swear, he made very little impression on me in B/W, because I was young and I was just excited to possibly see N again as champion. I was a little shit, okay. I also never played B2/W2 all the way through, which is a huge stain on my Pokémon record. Anyways. When he showed up in Sun/Moon, I gasped. I was like, that’s a familiar face. Why is he hot now? (The answer is we was always hot, and I just had a few years to grow between games). But like, I kind of tamped it back down? I think I legit tried to tell myself around Sun/Moon era that I can’t keep finding Pokémon characters hot, because I was drooling over another one in Moon. Anywho. Grimsley kept popping up as fanart on my Tumblr dash for a while and by the time I pulled him in Pokémon Masters, I slipped into love. Whoops.

Professor Sycamore, probably not my proudest moment of fandom. He was another one I liked from the very introduction. I made fun of him in equal measure, but I affectionately referred to him as “Professor Hotdad” for an embarrassingly long amount of time. He’s not even the oldest of my Pokémon F/Os. One of my other Pokémon F/Os is canonically a father. But nope. Sycamore was Hotdad. That all said, he did make me smile like a crush-stricken schoolgirl when he talked in game so it wasn’t all just memey objectification. I do love him dearly.

Gen VII! Alola! Guzma! Oh man, like I’d stated earlier, Team Skull really nestled it’s way close to my heart the way no team had since Team Rocket. It wasn’t all because of Guzma, I really did like the group of ragtag misfits banding together and creating a family. Guzma was icing on the cake. Oh boy, he made my heart do funny little flips even when he was threatening me in game. I loved his design, I loved his character, the way he talked, I just. Ugh, I was down bad for ya boy in Moon and Ultra Moon. He’s actually the inspiration behind my main blog url: its-ya-boi-remington. The “Y’all are stupid!” line and face lives in my head rent free at all times. Guzma protection squad.

(Nanu isn’t a romantic so I won’t talk about him here, just know I’m not forgetting him!)

Leon was, believe it or not, my actual first Gen VIII crush. I saw that fashion disaster and felt a warm comfort from him. It didn’t help that I mentally read every character in Galar with some UK/British Isles accent, that sweetened the deal. I was actually gushing to a couple then-friends about Leon while we all played Sword/Shield together and they kind of mocked me about it. They chided me that Leon “doesn’t bat for my team” and said either of them would have a better chance with him if he were real. So I was a little downtrodden about Leon after that for quite a while. It wasn’t until a couple months ago when suddenly it hit me that A- He’s literally fictional and my version of him can like me regardless of what “team he bats for” and B- I’m nonbinary? So rules get thrown out the window, anyone who likes me is both a miracle and some kind of gay whatever way you spin it. So I let myself warm back up to him, though I’m still a little skittish from before.

Piers, I guess, as awful as it sounds, was initially a crush rebound. Like, don’t get me wrong, I’d have been attracted either way. He’s a musician, a SINGER no less, and has that emo/punk vibe. But he’s also gentle and kind. Swoon. But it helped that I had my crush-feelers out full-force for a cutie in game to obsess over since I was still butthurt about my “friends” killing my crush on Leon. Obsess I did, and continue to do. I could probably snap this man over my knee like firewood he’s so lanky, idk why I put that in here but it’s staying. Piers is the one I most imagine jamming out with on a regular basis, and it makes performing for no one a bit more fun 🥰

I’m finally getting tired, I feel like I’ve been typing this for an hour. I probably have been. Ah geez now I gotta tag all these F/Os lmao. Thanks for letting me ramble.

[writinboutgames]

Neo: The World Ends With You Review

NEO: The World Ends With You is weird game.

It's a sequel to the 2008 cult classic DS game The World Ends With You. But it's also a sequel to the anime of the same name that was just released.

In terms of both story and gameplay, it's almost a rebooted version of the DS original. You play as Rindo, who has been drafted into the Reaper's game: a game of life and death, where you must reach rank #1 over the other teams or risk Erasure.

You walk around Shibuya listening to some cool J-rock tunes, solve puzzles, eat food, go shopping, and most of all, battle the Noise, creatures created from human emotion that want to kill you. Thankfully, there are no random encounters in this game. You can choose to fight random enemies by approaching them, or just run away and avoid them. The only other encounters are story critical ones, and fighting a few enemies in between will help you grow stronger, but isn't crucial.

The battle system itself lets you choose the actions available to you by equipping Pins with certain abilities. You will almost always equip a “Repeated Tap” pin that functions like a basic attack, along with a couple of different types to make you more powerful. Each pin has a finisher or a charged attack that will create a “sync opportunity”, meaning it's advantageous to do a full combo with one pin, then swap to another, because it charges an ultimate ability that lets you do even more damage.

Combat feels frantic and button mash-y, but there's enough strategy and precision that even early on which buttons you mash and when can be the difference between failure and success. For example, there's a dodge button that lets you avoid damage. As you progress the combat system adds layers of depth that provide a bigger opportunity for skill as the battles get tougher.

Overall, the greatest flaws of the battle system are twofold: it might overwhelm some people due to the frantic pressing of buttons required to play well, and it has very little in the way of control remapping. If you struggle to press buttons fast because you're new to games or because of a disability, you'll probably have to play on easy mode. That said, the game can be made easier by grinding enemies or by simply playing the game at a slower pace, so it may still be possible to beat for a newer player.

The thing that elevates the combat from decent to great fun is how it ties into everything around it. You can get extra rewards from battle by lowering your HP, but lower it too much and you'll struggle to win. Those rewards can be sold to buy food or clothes which power up your party, or used to buy different pins, which can change how you fight.

And each fight brings you closer to the next story segment. The story is generally straightforward. You have to get more points than the other teams, or else you die, and your characters try to achieve the objectives that will earn them points. Intertwined in the basic story is a mystery: what is the Reaper's game, why does it exist, and what greater forces are working behind the scenes? The characters are endearing, and avoid JRPG stereotypes by growing as people over the course of the game.

This story combines with the stylish art and music to give a really slick vibe to the game. It feels cool to live in this hidden world within Shibuya, and to indulge in the sights and sounds while trying to keep your characters alive.

The only caution I'd have about the story is that many of the finer details of the story are contained in the previous game. If you don't know anything, the story will still make sense. The three main character are brand new, and on a brand new adventure. But some characters will stand out as being from the previous game, which might make the story feel more shallow if you don't already know them.

There are always going to be two questions for a game like Neo: The World Ends With You; “Is it a worthy sequel to a 13 year old game?” And “Is it worth playing?”

The answer to the first one is unequivocally yes. There are some minor quibbles to be had about whether the story is quite as iconic as the original, but the gameplay and story both expand upon and hearken back to the qualities that made the original so special. I've been waiting for a sequel since the first game, and I wasn't disappointed.

The answer to the second question, thankfully, is also yes. If you like JRPGs, are interested in learning a somewhat strange combat system, and like the aesthetic on display here, you'll have a wicked good time.