#idk it's super cool to ne

[moonchild-in-blue]

I was tagged by @dearscone to share 6 albums I've been into recently - as always thank you for the tag babes 💖

Nap Voucher - Take Me Back To Eden | Rex Orange County - Apricot Princess | Muse - Absolution | Crown The Empire - The Resistance: Rise Of The Runaways | Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool | Eepie Coin - Jaws

I have been listening more songs than actual albums, so to speak. I'm kinda in between vibes (???) and let those song-based yt radio/mixes take over. So I just picked the ones that come up more frequently. (Sleep Token is kinda the whole thing but I've been back into the TMBTE groove, and Jaws owns my ass)

actually the one album i've had on replay is [foghorn noises] but. well

Also this is not originally part of the game but I'm feeling extra so. Here's my favourite song from each album:

(this is pretty much tied with The Apparition but. Chokehold has me in a- )

(lol)

6 albums so let me tag 6 people lol (how did this little dot grew into a big circle 🥺 too many frends to tag 🥺) @eepymonstrr @melit0n @channelsoph @lifemod17 @polteergeistt @a-s-levynn

[dare-g]

First attempt

[mrfoox]

Just remembered all the shit I said today and I need to hide, I need to perish, help me

[st-danger]

Its the anon with the manipulation struggle ehehehe. Thanks for your reply!! I really wish you all the best for finding a new job next year and i hope that you can fulfill your wish with the antarctica. That sounds super cool!!!

Yea i don't really know myself why this seems to be difficult for ne to write. Its more when i wanna write like... heated kinky moments where the more dominant (not necessarily more experienced even) maybe teases his partner a bit. I love love love your and loads of other's writing of a mean Rain or a cruel Swiss but if i try to write something like that myself yeah.. i find myself a bit irritated sometimes. And your tipp with the checking in is pretty good i think but idk how i could implement it into moments where the "dom" is purposely trying to be a bit yk.... mean and maybe wouldn't constantly check in. Maybe with a fixed safeword or so eh?

Checking in doesn't have to be a stop what you're doing and ask them in serious tones if they're having fun- it can also look like repeating a motion and asking how it feels. Stroking a finger inside and leaning in to get in their ear and asking what it's like. Asking if their little slut (if that's a word that works!) is enjoying it, or if they're a greedy little thing and want another. Or faster.

Or maybe they're new to getting flogged. Maybe there's a lot of time spent just teasing them with it, making them feel it against their ass before f i n a l l y giving them enough of a slap to get them to jump. Asking if just that got them excited. If that's all it takes. Because they're easy for it, aren't they? All hot and bothered from almost nothing at all- do they want to feel it a little harder? Do they need more already, needy, pathetic thing, or can they manage to be patient while they warm them up more?

[vespertea]

Erlang Shen ! I'm playing with their dynamics some more and trying to get a feel for personality. We know that Erlang Shen is stronger than SWK, and I think this would be one of those dynamics where he isn't the same kind of "jeering" monkie king that he is with Macaque, who's weaker than him. I think SWK maybe has a genuine distaste for Erlang since he can't win against him. And SWK desires to be stronger, and more powerful, and is in his own world trying to be the very best (leaving Macaque behind). Erlang has a positive personality and still tries to get along with SWK, since business is just business. Maybe also doubles as a sort of babysitter to make sure the monkie king doesn't try the same tricks again..

For Macaque, since Erlang is strong but friendly, maybe they do alright together? I haven't thought about this one as much, but I do know that if Wukong sees them together, he only sees the bad. It's kind of funny, that Erlang is this hero who wants to rid the world of evil, but since he has stood in SWK's way time and time again, he's viewed as a villain. Macaque probably likes his dog, in his own tsundere way. SWK maybe would have an irrational fear of the goofy fella based on previous battles...

Maybe they're the kind of acquaintances (Shen & Macaque) that do things together because their mutual friend(s) asked them to. They don't like nor dislike one another, so they get along.

SWK and Erlang have the kind of relationship where one friend lets things go really easily and the other doesn't, and maybe they even have a competitive relationship where they always have to "be better" than the other (though I think Erlang Shen makes more fun of it, and SWK would take it more seriously). I feel bad making Wu look more like a grumpy monkie king, but I'm still thinking of positive points in their relationship..... uhhhhhhhhh

Oh, maybe the kind of story where the hero requests the help of the monkie king and his troupe, and he refuses... MK and Mei are immediately on board and have to talk Wu into going with them, and he reluctantly agrees but stays reserved away from shen while challenging him on everything. They go through their super cool and epic journey, have some bonding moments in between, maybe they fight again but it's out of bottled feelings, and then at the end of the journey they win together, and then SWK warms up to the half-blood and accepts that "Okay, I guess we can be friends" feeling. I think they could have been friends from the start if wukong was acting the way he did with Ao Kuang and Ne Zha (trying to be friendly, letting the past slide) but I think the reason he would act like THIS is because he lost to Erlang Shen. He didn't lose to Ne Zha, so he was confident in messing with him to get what he wanted. Same for most of his rivals. But since he lost to Shen, maybe it became something more dark, something that's a bit more .... resentful.

Idk, I'm still working on it lol.

[shot-by-cupid]

I posted about this in a couple servers already but I was thinking about it again so I figured I would re-ramble and hopefully be a bit more coherent

This scene from the movie is really interesting to me for a couple different reasons

1. Like. Obviously Mario is upset, is this kind of like. A coping mechanism for him? Id like to think it is 2. Very funny that Nintendo is a company in their own movie I mean obviously they would be but idk it just makes me laugh 3. He is playing kid Icarus

4. The NES is a pretty old console, now I could be wrong and I could be thinking about this too much but at least from what I’ve seen most of the technology in the movie is pretty. Modern? Like take Luigi’s phone for example, I mean yeah it’s still got a home button, but it look’s nothing like what a cellphone in the 1980s would look like,,,

So that got me thinking. Either. Idk they’re poor, in the movie the NES *is* a modern console, OR, my personal favourite theory- Mario is just a bit. Old school <33

He’s also shown to have a boombox and a crate full of vinyl records in his room which kind of. Leans into that a bit. Maybe he’s just into retro stuff idk. I think it’s cool *twirls my hair*

ALSO ! The fact that he’s playing kid Icarus specifically!!! Idk I just think that’s a super fun detail and it makes me wonder like. Is this his favourite game or is it just. What he happened to play. Like I mentioned earlier the fact that he WAS upset and this is the game he CHOSE to play makes me think that maybe like. A favourite of his.

I like to think in some. In-universe version of smash bros this is who he’s maining 😭

I am probably thinking way to much about this I am. Sick in the head I have brain worms and I will shut up now

[bisluthq]

I'm new on your blog. So if you allow me to ask, which kind of books do you usually read?

I personally usually read thriller/suspense, mystery like those books that have people disappearing or there's criminal investigations, the romance genre in general but I specially like historical ones (but not like connected to royalty, more like historical periods. I read a lot of books with World War I and II as background. Just finished the other day an autobiography kind of book of two jewish brothers that ran away from the nazis) and those where there's a lot of drama and suspense with the romance as in it's not like plain romance. I noticed the book you mentioned is historical romance, even though I never heard of it. Have you ever read anything from Lesley Pearse? She's the one that got me hooked in that genre.

I'm not the biggest fan of fantasy and sci-fi - just general genres that start for reality -, but every once in a while I give it a try if something catches my attention. I usually also don't read YA books or those recommended on tiktok, because I feel like that kind of writing is not really for my age range anymore 😂 I'm not exactly a teen, so the romance in those books is like eh...I usually say it's too much water with sugar

I have been trying to catch up on reading a lot of those classic books, cause I confess that I was never really into reading them. Since my first language is not English, the books you are required to read for school are the classical ones of my own language yk so it was never really a requirement, but I do think it's important. I even caught these beautiful editions that was like a magazine collection thing every two weeks. They did it to more than 50 classical books and I got a handful. I'm a sucker for beautiful covers 🤭

I read a looooot of different things. I have read some Lesley Pearce books. If you enjoy that kind of stuff, some other quite mainstream writers to look at would be Lucinda Riley (I really like her work - it’s super well researched, like I’ve legit learned things about places/historical periods in those places from her books and the storylines are really great), Kate Morton (she also takes inspiration from a range of genres), Mary Chamberlain (again, insanely well researched because she’s a history professor actually but there’s always a lot of romance and stuff and also she’s a very cool person idk), this is a specific book that I think you might enjoy - it’s kinda a historical detective story but in a weird way and there’s a lot of personal intrigue which is When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro and you will almost definitely enjoy The Remains of the Day also by him (but most of his other stuff is fantasy/sci fi tbh). Ken Follett writes epic stories (he does both detectives/thrillers and historical books but not really heavy on the romance - always a bit but not like romance books per se). Also you could try Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah (not strictly romance but there is some and it’s such an interesting story and history that I’d known very little about). Idk those are some to try that I think you’d like. If you’ve read any of them lemme know and I can suggest other things too lol.

also it’s quite dreadfully written (but not as bad as a lot of BookTok faves actually) but Barbara Taylor Bradford’s A Woman of Substance (not the sequels) is a fucking EPIC story lmao. It’s also easy to read. And the sex scenes are weirdly kinda hot lmao even though it’s very fade to black haha. Like it’s not as good in terms of trying to read to improve your English vocab or interest in literature but the plot is 👌🏼😂

As I say, I’m always happy to suggest books to people because I read a lot! I try to do like at least two “serious” books a month (either nonfiction or contemporary fiction of various genres or whatever) and then I read a couple romcoms/random detective things sometimes parallel to that if I just want something that’s fun or some poetry parallel to it if I find something new or a poet I like releases a new collection and like maybe once or twice a year, I read a classic-ish thing I haven’t read before but because of how much I “had” to read when studying and “have” to read to teach, there aren’t thaaaat many I haven’t read and actively want to lol. So yeah I’m always reading something or several somethings.

In terms of The House of Doors idk man it’s a bit of a weird book so I can’t say I’m not enjoying it but it also wouldn’t specifically be something I’d be recommending, it’s just something I’m trying rn.

[spacevixenmusic]

Fionna and Cake thoughts so far

I like what they're doing, but there's a nagging part of me that's really of two minds about the whole thing. It's hard to explain.

There's something I don't like about the constant callback cameos by the original AT characters. Don't get me wrong, I understand why they're doing it - mechanically, thematically, nostalgically - but it is bothering me a bit. I don't think it's even a fault of the show itself, so much as it is a fault of The Current State of Media In General.

Listen, I have quite literally been watching Adventure Time religiously since the very first episode aired. I LOVE noticing all the subtle and not-so-subtle cameos in the Fionna and Cake series as they pass by, because I recognize them all from all this time I've spent immersed in this little universe. But there are times when it starts to feel like Fionna and Cake is a series of nothing BUT cameos and callbacks, and that kinda sours things for me.

I know, I know. Mechanically, that's how it's SUPPOSED to be, since Fionna and Cake is - by definition - a fanfic of Adventure Time. It's an AU. It's a crossover. It's a spin-off. It's SUPPOSED to be that. But just like with all the other big name reboot and remakes and re-imaginings we've gotten in the past 5-10 years, it's all just a big game of who's-who and tugging on nostalgia's heartstrings to make this IP emotionally impactful (i.e. Sad, because sadness is the only emotion people ever seem to give a shit about - but that's another opinion for another time).

The Current State of Media In General is that very few new original shows are being made. Studios aren't taking any risks. A significant percentage of shows in the past decade are all just carefully constructed, reimagined, retooled, re-tellings of every possible IP you ever felt attached to as a child. DuckTales, TMNT, Castlevania, Animaniacs, Trigun, He-Man, Super Mario Bros, even fucking FLCL has multiple new spin-offs. It's all about spotting the obscure references and fawning over the little ways they changed things into something meant to tickle the emotion centers in your brain (oh look, Della is singing the Moon Theme from the NES game but now it has lyrics and is sad!). After a while it starts to feel very...formulaic? Manipulative? Corporate?

Idk man, sometimes I just want something to be completely New and original, and not feel like a cut-and-paste heartstrings-playing nostalgia-fest. Sometimes I don't want my childhood to eat well. I want my adult self to have its own new things to enjoy, that mean something to me NOW. I want something that feels Fresh, like, oh I don't know, Adventure Time when Adventure Time first came out?

Again, I get why Fionna & Cake is all cameos. I get it. I understand it. And there's a big part of me that still even loves to see it. But I also sometimes feel kinda cheated by it at the same time. Like there's a glimpse of a show in there that could have been its own cool thing if it weren't so laser-focused on Expanding The Lore. I wish I could describe this feeling better. It's complicated. I'm complicated.

But hey, if you're out there and feeling the same way, congrats on finding this post. I'm right there with ya, buddy.

Now, let's get back to enjoying Fionna and Cake for what it is.

[bahamutgames]

AFTERTHOUGHTS - ROUNDUP ROUND 13

May - July 2024

Hello again! It was slow going for me with gaming for a little bit, but I've really started to pick up the ball again and have been playing a lot of stuff and really enjoying it too! And now I'm sitting here on a Summer Tuesday night, and I wanna talk about some of the stuff I was playing over the last few months!

And of course I gotta say it: These aren't reviews, just my thoughts, please play anything I talk about if it interests you!

Super Mario Land (April 21, 1989) - Gameboy

FINALLY Mario Land 1 is on the NSO. Not sure why this took so long, but it was nice to replay it cause I haven't touched Mario Land 1 in over 7 years now (god damn...) Mario Land 2 is one of my favorite 2D Marios ever so I was interested to see how Land 1 holds up. And honestly? It's not that amazing, it's a pretty clunky feeling game. But it's not like, offensive or anything. It's very creative with a lot of unique worlds and enemies similar to 2. But without any new power ups and the actual platforming feeling a little odd, it just isn't the most exciting old Mario to revisit. But, the game does have 2 particular strong points that I still love: Shmup sections which are super neat, and a surprisingly solid soundtrack! Pretty much every song in this game is a winner with my favorite probably being the credits theme. Neat!

Megaman: Dr. Wily's Revenge - Megaman V (July 26, 1991 - July 22, 1994) - Gameboy

Continuing with the Gameboy stuff, we have the Megaman Gameboy games! All 5 of them were recently made available on NSO and after having finished Legacy Collection 2 earlier this year, I jumped at the chance to play these games! And they are VERY interesting to say the least. Since they're all fairly similar I'll keep them all together in this afterthoughts.

So, yeah... These games are Megaman on Gameboy! That's exactly what it sounds like. They're Megaman... but smaller and more green. But what's so interesting about them is that they're not the same stories from the NES games. Instead they actually have their own plots while recycling robot masters and enemies and such. Because of that they're a little underwhelming I feel like, but it's very interesting to try these games out in such a shorter format.

Particularly what makes the format interesting is that you tend to only have 4 robot masters, then 4 robot masters acting as Wily Stages afterwards. As opposed to usual Megaman tradition of 8 masters and then a handful of Wily Stages removed from the masters. A big issue I have with Classic Megaman and X is that the games can feel a little long in the tooth, particularly when you get to the ending fortresses. By the end of the NES Era sometimes they were asking you to do 2 fortresses and it was just SO draining. And I always wondered how it would be if this format was shortened a bit. And these games answer that! But honestly I think they may be too short now. So maybe there's no pleasing me.

Another FASCINATING thing about these games are the Megaman Killers, who are new bosses you fight before Wily that all have their own lore and want to kill Megaman. I think they're all neat! But kind of wasted as concepts. I think this premise would've been stronger if they stuck with Enker (the killer from the first one) and had him getting stronger with new abilities each game instead of new bosses. And then have him sacrifice himself in the 4th one instead of the new killer. Idk, just would've been more impactful imo. But they were still neat and the payoff where you rematch them all in 5 was very cool!

And speaking of 5, I have to give that one serious props for not only having a fully original story, but fully original robot masters! Instead being the Stardroids, who are alien robots named after the planets! These guys rule (Mars is my favorite) and they are also hilariously ultimately poorly used lol. In the end despite making new villains, Wily is still the villain. Just so they can kill him off before the final boss anyway? SO WHY PUT WILY IN THE STORY JUST TO RUIN THE STARDROIDS IF YOU WEREN'T EVEN GONNA USE HIM??? Very odd.

I can't recall any specific complaints about each game now unfortunately just because it's been a hot minute since I finished them. But just general megaman stuff like the ones where you can't slide or charge aren't as fun. No fast weapon swap is lame. But it's gameboy so whatever. And I also wanted to give these games some serious props for having some pretty cool cutscenes which I certainly was not expecting on Gameboy of all things! And not just in game cutscenes, but full on hand drawn cutscenes (not animated, just still frames, but still.)

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (May 23, 2010) - Wii

SUPER FUCKIN' MARIO!? Here's another one I haven't played in... god I don't know, maybe over 10 years now somehow. I lent my copy out to someone and a bunch of stuff happened to them almost immediately so I just never got it back, until recently! So I jumped at the chance to FINALLY replay this one!

And ultimately? Yeah it's fine. I think in terms of gameplay it's VERY good. I probably still prefer Galaxy 1's levels but Galaxy 2 still feels great and plays great and has a lot of fantastic galaxies that are TONS of fun to play through. The addition of Yoshi is great, the new power ups are all super fun and creative (cloud being a personal favorite), a lot of the bosses are really cool, and even super gimmicky stages like the Fluzzard levels are really fun! And of course, I shouldn't have to tell you that the Galaxy games are still gorgeous and have some AMAZING soundtracks.

A particularly surprising thing to me was how much I found myself liking Lubba and Starship Mario. For some reason I really felt like I was just gonna hate them both because they're such a step down from Rosalina and the Observatory. And they certainly are, but Lubba is very funny and charming and a lot more like, gruff than I was remembering. And the Starship being a sort of marooned space ship that picks up other travelers as it goes across the galaxy is SO cute. I love the idea of an offshoot of Lumas who are just galaxy explorers, it's cute.

But yeah where this game truly fumbles is in the story, no surprise there. It's... So nothing. Like, actually just nothing. So it's not bad, sure. But it's actually NOTHING. Even if we Ignore Galaxy 1's story, this game's story is so nothing it's crazy. I actually feel like the plot weighs the game down, and Galaxy 2 would've REALLY benefitted from maybe just cutting it out entirely. You can really tell it was originally planned to be DLC I guess lol. But I understand they probably couldn't ship a $60 game with no story at that point. But still, I feel like they could've done something better. The only interesting part of the story is when the Luma takes Mario's hat at the end. But yeah over all I just feel like the story does more harm than good.

Any other notes? I thought some of the later levels were a little irritating, and some of the later bosses can be a bit of a pain. Like I remember Squizzard pissing me OFF when I was younger. And while I don't think the fight is that hard, it's just not a good feeling fight imo. Like it feels almost like it doesn't work right. But yeah (I'm sorry I keep saying but so much in this section) Galaxy 2 is very cute. While I still would have to say I prefer Galaxy 1 by a wide margin. It's more Galaxy, so it's a winner in my book!

Deadly Creatures (February 9, 2009) - Wii

Ah... Deadly Creatures... What an incredibly odd game. I've had this sitting on my shelf for YEARS but just never got around to playing it. However for some reason it kept calling to me, and I finally gave in. And I'm... Glad(?) I did???

For those of you not blessed with knowing WHAT this game is. It's a character action game where you play as a feral Turantula and Scorpion, each on their own story, just trying to survive. While in the background two humans (voiced by Billy Bob Thorton and Dennis Hopper) are having an actual plot happen that you can only listen into. It's FASCINATING! And honestly, doesn't feel real. It almost sounds like a joke, or an indie game, not something you'd get on the Nintendo Wii. But here we are.

So, for positives. This game is actually nuts. The concept in of itself is fascinating and a huge point towards it. It's all hyper realistic animals too, the only talking is EXCLUSIVELY from humans in the distance. Which is REALLY cool and is such an interesting way to tell a story. But the combat is insane and over-the-top despite having you play as photo realistic arachnids. You'll be doing spinning chops and slapping enemies around as the Turantula, or full on preforming brutal finishers as the Scorpion. Each have their own moveset and gain their own abilities throughout the course of their story, and they even crossover sometimes where you'll redo sections of an earlier level as the other character and access new paths, AND SOMETIMES THEY EVEN FIGHT EACHOTHER! It's so cool! All the enemies are other small animals and bugs, sometimes even letting you fight full on lizards. I think the graphics are surprisingly good for a hyper realistic Wii game, and crawling around these big human sized environments and even climbing on walls is really cool and ambitious. The music is atmospheric, again the game looks great, there's unlockable concept art and you can freely change the difficulty between levels which feels pretty progressive for a Wii era game.. It's all really neat and feels like it shouldn't be on the Wii!

But sadly... The game just can't really bring all these positives together in a meaningful way. The story isn't really that great, I saw someone say "the way it's told is better than the story itself" and I would kind of have to agree. Combat isn't really that fun the further you progress. It suffers from the Character Action game problem of giving you moves you execute by inputting shit like "XXYXBAABXAY" except Deadly Creatures ALSO has motion inputs for attacks. So you have to memories shit like "A+Forward on the control stick while waggling the wiimote left and right" it's actually insane and by the end of the game I barely used more than 2-3 moves. They start throwing so many enemies at you in later levels who all move so quickly that you'll only want to use your fastest moves anyway. And for some reason most of the combat in the late game is given to the Turtantula, who is objectively less fun in combat than the Scorpion, which was REALLY annoying. Ultimately I got so fed up that by stage 6 or 7 I had to turn it down to easy which was REALLY REALLY annoying. I thought a lot of the bosses were pretty damn underwhelming, navigating the overworld between battles could get pretty boring or even really annoying if you had to climb walls but fell off and died instantly. For every great idea the game has, it has something that it just doesn't do particularly well or exciting. Idk how to describe it.

I saw someone say this about the game online and I really have to agree: The game has everything it needs to be a shining success. Good graphics, killer and unique concept, a good gameplay idea, and Dennis Hopper. But it just fails to string it together in a satisfying way. Ultimately the game is so fascinating and bizarre that it exists at all, so I'm happy I played it, but it just wasn't the banger I was hoping for. I think this game would've been WAY better on PS3 or 360 without motion controls, and maybe it could do with a remake or a spiritual successor of some kind.

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (August 7, 2008) - DS

And last but not least: We have the first ever Fire Emblem game! Or at least the DS remake of it! So I'm no stranger to Fire Emblem, but I've only played 2 of the more recent ones. Awakening and Three Houses. But I'm not ashamed to admit that both of those games are AMAZING and Awakening specifically is one of the best RPGs I've ever played personally. So I certainly had high hopes for the game that started it all!

And... well... hmm... I don't want to say it's a bad game by any means, cause it's not. But it just really didn't hit the way I wanted it too. I think I had my expectations a little too high because, at the end of the day, this was an NES game. And I'm sure hardcore FE fans will execute me for saying this, but I just didn't like it as much as FEA or FE3H. It's so much more bleak, and sad, and not nearly as over the top and anime as those games were. Most of the first act is just Marth losing everyone he holds dear to him and it's sad! And it feels so sad and hopeless! And while the story is full of fantasy stuff and is a good story that works perfectly fine, it just didn't really captivate me or do anything where I was like "WOW!! This is happening!" And then even in gameplay, it's strategy RPG stuff. Yeah. But it just doesn't really feel as exciting as the later games. Which, sure, it's an NES RPG originally so I shouldn't expect anything mind blowing this early into the genre. But I think its problems are actually a little more unique and interesting than you'd think.

For starters, I did not play FEA or FE3H with permadeath. I know Permadeath is the big thing with these games. But I'll just come out and say it, it's less fun. Not just because losing teammates you like sucks, but because it makes me have to play so sheepishly and slow and careful in fear that anything I do will have 50 guys rain down on someone I moved 1 tile too far. Which is the point, yeah, but PERSONALLY I enjoyed using my units as distractions in FE3H to be so much more fun and rewarding. Does that make any sense?

And then the game is a little odd because other FE games will let you do a lot of things between battles. Grinding, shopping, preparing for fights. But in this one you can only buy the same basic starter weapons and there's no grinding between matches and that's IT! You want to grind? Go to the arenas ON THE MAP IN THE MIDDLE OF A BATTLE. You want to buy real items and real gear? Go to the stores ON THE MAP IN THE MIDDLE OF A BATTLE. Am I crazy or this WAY too much to ask of me in a game where leaving someone in the wrong tile means they're permanently dead? It's neat, but it's so weird especially compared to later games.

But, potentially my biggest issue with this game is that Marth, for as much as I like him. IS TOO MUCH OF A MAIN CHARACTER!! You can only beat a stage if Marth is there to get onto the end tile. You can only recruit a character if Marth goes into their city. Most of the teammates have 0 dialogue and the whole game is just Marth talking to the same handful of dudes. Again, this is almost certainly just growing pains of being an NES RPG. But still.

I have other issues, like it being nearly impossible to get teammates without a guide on who to bring to each fight. Or how annoying the enemy AI is. Or that the 3D graphics look a little ugly at times. Or the fact I basically never got a chance to use Tiki because by the time you get her your army is already so beefy. Or the fact I somehow missed the items I needed to get the ultimate weapon so the final boss was basically invincible and I had to use cheats to beat it. But I think I've flamed on this game enough. It's not all bad.

The story, while exceptionally bleak, is neat for a Nintendo game. It's just a brutally honest story about how upsetting and awful war is. No glorification of it at all. Some of the teammates are genuinely really cool even if they don't get enough attention. Cain and Abel, all the axe weilding dudes, the old man wizard whose name I forgot. I liked them a lot! And I feel like this one has a lot of job classes that just aren't in future games. Like pirates who can walk on water. Or Ballista users who can't move far but can fire missiles over MASSIVE distances. These guys in particular where really fascinating to me. If there's an enemy with that class, odds are you can have a teammate of that class too. It's also got some surprisingly funny dialogue, and I like that there's no real romance in it until like the last possible second. And a lot of the flavor to the menus and cutscenes, particularly the chapter intros, was very cool!

It's not a bad game by any means. But I think it's painfully obvious this was an NES game originally. And as a DS remake it didn't do enough to maybe update some of the NES-isms it has? I know I just flamed on it for like 50 paragraphs but I do think it's interesting still. It's just not really what I was looking for after playing Awakening and Three Houses. But I'm glad I tried it! There's plenty more Fire Emblem to play and I know there's gonna be a lot more of them that blow me out of the water going forward.

[chibishortdeath]

Fuck it, Simon Belmont, because why not you basically themed your blog after him

You don’t have any specific numbers, so I’m just answering every question >:3c mwahahaha—

1. “Why do you like this character”:

A lot of reasons!!! First off, most of his games are super fun and some of my favorite platformers just in general. I replay CV1, Simon’s Quest, and SCV4 most often cause they’re a real joy to play! I also absolutely LOVE Simon’s story, I’ve considered making comics about it if I could ever get out of recent art block whoops, even though I’ve seen many people say he doesn’t have one (´TωT｀). His designs are really cool, he’s got great music in his games, there’s just a lot to love and I’ll explain more in detail in other questions.

2. “Favorite canon thing?”

I really like the concept that he looks up to Christopher as this legendary hero and then ends up considered the same kind of legendary hero by Juste and others after him. It’s pretty ironic, kinda bittersweet, especially after being hated for so long. Castlevania loves its cycles like that. Also just Simon’s Quest in general, I love that game.

3. “Least favorite canon thing?”

Ooo that’s very hard. There’s kinda a lot of things about him that aren’t explained or confirmed, especially personality wise, but I kinda like that in a way cause it leaves room for interpretation and whatnot. Idk hmmm. I’m gonna go with Grimoire of Souls in general. I had some hopes for it, but it ended up being kinda lame. A lot of the characterization was weird and don’t even start me on things like the Cursed Whip theory being in there 💀. So I just choose to ignore it and not consider it canon.

4. “If you could put this character in another media, what would it be?”

I have thought about drawing him as if he was a character in other series for ages lol. I’ve already drawn him as a Pokémon trainer, I’ve thought about drawing Castlevania and Soul Eater crossovers before, and I tried drawing him in the style of Resident Evil 1 but could not get the art style down. Idk put him in Fortnite or something that’d be funny we already got Solid Snake so Konami has been in talks with them I guess X,,,,,,,,,,D

5. “What’s the first song that comes to mind when you think of them?”

Probably either Simon’s Theme (of course lol) or Bloody Tears, but I do wanna mention that I have a YouTube playlist of songs I wanna make Simon animations with eventually (alas animation is HARD).

6. “What’s something you have in common with the character?”

Mostly negative things unfortunately d(;w; ). Like self comparison, doubt in my own abilities, trouble making and keeping friends, etc etc. Although a lot of these are based on assumptions and interpretations, as a lot of him usually is. Simon does have a really similar hair color to me on the NES box art tho so that’s cool.

7. “What’s something the fandom does with this character that you like?”

There’s a lot of really nice art of him!!! Usually portraits, but sometimes there’s other doodles and whatnot too :3. Cool fan redesigns too! I also have seen a lot of neat headcanons, a lot of which I’ve adopted. I also appreciate the Captain N reunion stuff for the most part, it’s pretty wholesome.

8. “What’s something the fandom does with this character that you don’t like?”

I’ve seen a lot of comics, especially around when Smash Bros Ultimate came out, that were really… weird. I think all of them could kinda be boiled down to “old = bad” in the way that the artists probably just found out he was from the 1600s and then decided to make him the Boomer to Richter’s Gen Z for whatever reason (ya know despite Richter being from the 1700s but anyway). Simon would either be the jerk in the situation and/or the butt of the joke. I don’t think that Simon would have any issue with any of the female characters’ outfits let alone start harassing them for it. I saw some comics that made fun of him for not speaking very much in some genuinely disgusting ways too. Like making him not able to read or practically just the generic caveman stereotype. Especially in cases where the artist would depict other silent NES protagonists really nicely after making Simon out to be a complete idiot and asshole. There was also the trend of making him generally be all “oh no witchcraft!!!!!!!!!! What sin!!!!!!! The horror!!!!!!!!” about like anything and everything. I guess a lot of this comes from Smash Bros fans not usually being fans of Castlevania, but I’ve seen it in the Castlevania fandom too just less frequently. There’s also the “Simon has no story” thing oof. I’ve seen people tell people to skip his games or play fan games instead before :(

9. “Could you be roommates with this character?”

Realistically, no, my room is too small for another person :(. If that wasn’t an issue, then yeah probably :).

10. “Could you be best friends with this character?”

I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO—

11. “Would you date this character?”

No, he’s probably married, generally feels more like a bestie, and I’m aroace lol

12. “What headcanon do you have for this character?”

Too many oh my god. I think he probably makes things. That’s a very vague sentence lol, but think like armor, knives, general woodworking, all his necklaces and headbands and stuff, etc. He generally seems like he keeps to himself and lives mostly alone, so I can see him doing all that by himself. He keeps some bones and teeth of things he hunts most of the time. A lot of people have him as the most super Christian of the family, but I see him as like Christian but really not organized or strict about it, if that makes sense? I’ve seen someone else describe the Belmonts as like “Christopagan” before and yeah I think that fits. Idk why but I have consistently drawn him with his cross necklace in his mouth sometimes. I headcanon him as semiverbal (I think that’s the correct term for it, basically like inbetween speaking and nonspeaking). I like to think he’s like really average height for the 1600s cause he’s about as tall as other townspeople and skeletons and stuff. Which is funny cause that’d make him like 5’5-5’7 ish and that’s kinda short in modern day lol. And I guess that makes his 8bit sprite being used all the time make more sense XD. I have way more, I didn’t even get into Simon’s Quest related ones, but I don’t wanna make this too long aaaaaaaaaaaa

13. “What’s an emoticon that reminds you of the character or you think they’d use a lot?”

Ok this is funny cause I actually do have one for this and it’s got context. It’s the “:3”. So I was watching a bunch of people’s playthroughs one night cause I was bored and ran into a channel with a toooooon of speedruns of maps from Harmony of Despair. Whenever they’d get to a boss battle they’d use the typing feature just to go “hi” with a different cutesy emoticon every time, but when they got to Dracula they specifically went for the “hi :3” and then went “oh no :(“ when Dracula started attacking and now that’s the way I think he’d text I guess.

14. “Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character”

How does one properly explain how much this guy slays in one aesthetic term—

15. “What’s your favorite ship for this character?”

Oooooo, in canon probably like his wife (Selena) and/or the Mysterious Woman (who could be the same character depending on what theories you go by), but outside of that Simon Belmont x Getsu Fuma and I can’t even explain exactly why, but it’s pretty cute.

16. “What’s your least favorite ship for this character?”

Any BelmontXBelmont shipping ugh, it’s unfortunately really common on some places… also the whole Lucas or Pit or whatever other child character thing the smash bros fandom had ugh. I guess I also just don’t see the appeal of shipping any of the Belmonts with Dracula.

17. “What’s a ship you don’t hate but it’s not your favorite?”

I’ve also seen people ship him with Solid Snake, Palutena, or Bayonetta before. Ummm he doesn’t really have a lot of other characters he’s shipped with tbh. Idk I saw someone ship him with one of the priests from Simon’s Quest once.

18. “Relationship in canon you admire?”

Unfortunately he doesn’t really talk to people enough in game to form canon relationships 😔

19. “Relationship in canon you don’t like?”

I don’t even know if I can answer this one for the same reasons as the above 💀💀💀. I guess the townspeople hating the hell out of him, but I don’t hate that cause it’s kinda integral to the plot???? Yeah idk lol

20. “What character is the ideal best friend for this character?”

Simon and Shanoa would get along a lot I think. Sara too. Hmmmm… I think he and Alucard would probably also be good friends. Christopher too for many reasons. Simon just really needs friends my poor dude is out here in Dracula’s Castle and the Romanian countryside after being cursed alone like this poor guy :’(

21. “If you’re a fic writer, what’s your favorite thing to do when writing this character? What’s something you don’t like?”

I have not written much at all, however what small comics I have done I looooove to make sure to sprinkle in whatever symbols he has in the games into it. He has a lot of cool things ranging from like rose thorns to The Hanged Man card and a lot of them end up meaning things like martyrdom and whatnot idk I made a post about it a while ago :3. I also like specifically Simon’s Quest speculation stuff, like what if scenarios for the vague, left open spots of it. If it’s not something super angsty or lore heavy, it’s usually just wholesome character interactions or doodling him being comforted by Christopher or Trevor cause I was sad or something lol. As far as things I don’t like writing uh idk that’s hard, maybe just any kind of filler scenes cause I’m not very good at those oof. Dialogue is hard too 💀💀💀

22. “If you’re a fic reader, what’s something you like/don’t like to see in fics?”

I’ve mentioned a lot of things I don’t like seeing in uh question 8, but things I do like is when people really try to go full horror with him. I’ve seen some Simon’s Quest fics (sadly there’s very few :’3) that really try to get that same feeling of anxiousness and dread the game does and I love that honestly. It’s a really dark story in the series! I also saw one that went psychological horror with it with him kinda losing himself a little at night it’s just ough it’s cool :D! Simon is a horror protagonist! Make him afraid!!!

23. “Favorite picture of this character?”

Again, too many!!! X3

24. “What other character from another fandom reminds you of them?”

Not from fandoms I am in (yet, hopefully I’ll get into these), but Ragnvaldr from Fear and Hunger I’ve heard is just directly inspired by him and Alfred from Bloodborne also, to me, seems heavily inspired by him. The whole Vilebloods section seems very Castlevania inspired tbh. From other fandoms I’m in, that’s hard to say, there’s not really any I don’t think.

25. “What was your first impression of this character, is it the same as now?”

Well I got into Castlevania through Smash Bros and at first was completely indifferent about him, he was just kinda fun to play as. Then Richter got me to play SotN and actually get into the series more. I had no idea I had SotN on XBOX360 for a long time, but that made it pretty easy to start playing. And now I am absolutely hooked and Simon is my favorite character so uh yeah X3.

26. “Freebie!”

I guess I just say anything? Ok, I am currently half trying to cosplay Simon’s Simon’s Quest design rn! I have like everything but the armor, but I’ll have to wait a while to be able to get materials for it oof. But yeah :). Hopefully that works out. 

Ok yeah that’s pretty dang long wow, but yeah, thanks for the ask!!!! I am happy to rant about Simon anytime :3

[mell-150]

Oh fuck yeah another MOTHER fan! What's your opinion on the GBA ports of MOTHER 1 & 2? I need to see if there's a common answer bc Idk if people like this port or not.

hii :3

Okay so if I'm judging Mother 1 + 2 just as it was officially released in Japan and comparing them to OG Mother 1 and 2 as they were released in Japan, then I think Mother 1 (GBA) has some very cool additions like the inclusion of a run button and a proper end credits (features which were previously only present on the at the time unreleased Nintendo of America translation of the game), though I'm not sure if I'd like to trade the Famicom version for the lower resolution and lower quality music.

It is worth considering though that if you don't own a Mother 1 + 2 cartridge then you will likely only be able to play Mother 1 through the Nintendo of America translation (aka EarthBound Beginnings, aka Earth Bound Zero) or online emulation, and if we consider online emulation, the most accurate translation of the Mother 1 script to English is almost certainly Clyde Mandelin's (aka Tomato) translation of the script, which was originally written for the fan localization of Mother 1 + 2.

Tomato's fan localization also includes an "Easy Ring", which serves as a band-aid solution on the game's infamous balacing issues. These are all very strong positives in favor of the Mother 1 + 2 version of Mother 1, however, if you are tech savvy enough, you can accomplish all the same features on an NES rom of Earth Bound Zero simply by applying a balancing patch of your choosing and the "Mother Restored" patch on your Earth Bound Zero rom. This is, in my humble opinion, the best way to experience Mother 1.

As for the Mother 2 part of Mother 1 + 2, the Super Famicom and SNES versions are both just better =P

[fae-iii]

Mienfoo Postmortem

Real excited about this: I finally got that time lapse thing to work in Aseprite! It turned out to be super easy with the things I learned from the Buizel animation. There's some parts where I was playing with different palettes and the gif goes mostly black and I couldn't figure out how to get those parts to display properly without hand-editing each one of them, but other than that it's pretty cool. Thing for next time, I guess?

I think I'm getting pretty good at finding a process that works for me. One cool thing I've been able to do recently is, like what I did with the arms, putting little placeholder shapes in so I can visualize where a thing is gonna be and then working towards that. Idk where I started doing that, I guess I just did it a little bit and then more and more on each subsequent piece and I'm starting to get pretty good at it; I think!

You see me do a few things in there like I tried to make the eye in vain before I got a real start with the head, I could do things more efficiently in places like there. Speaking of heads, I'm getting pretty good at these musteline heads! "Sneasel and Mienfoo have two different head types;" they're surprisingly really similar and I feel a lot more appreciative of the pokemon designers skills… at design!

Idk, it's not 100% accurate of a head to the official design and you can see me try to correct that a bit in the timelapse, but what I got feels really nice and has a certain- hmm, idk, je ne sais quoi, lol. It just comes across as a mildly different artstyle, I think.

The left leg kinda looks weird, I think? I didn't really have any idea of where the underlying knee bones are on Mienfoo to really match it up with my reference photo (I was gonna link it; it was on pinterest which I don't really like and the link is now dead, so I guess it's not important anyway). Also the neck band is kinda weird, but it looks OK.

The tail, lol, I kinda panicked because I almost forgot it, I think you even see me put in a little shading before I start on the tail. I struggled with it a bit before my pea-brain made the connection that it was kinda like the ribbon feelers on my Sylveon piece and I just took the end of a ribbon from there and chiseled away and added to it, lmao. I think, on the Sylveon piece, my brain was truly firing on all pistons with those ribbons.

I think the art journals have run their course, I've internalized a lot of the stuff I would've written down in there like, "You can draw lines with the line tool" or "this sucks, but maybe It'll get better :)" so I don't think I'll be doing those that much if at all. But I guess doing a little post-mortem longer than the main post is a fair substitute, lol!

Also, I think this might be the last piece of art I'm sharing this year (maybe making if I don't get my ducks in a row). And what a year it has been! ~47 pieces according to my archive on imgur. That's 47 more pieces than I did last year! I don't think I'm gonna do a recap of this year of art until whenever it was I posted that Gastly art and then, for "accounting purposes," I'll do recaps at the ends of years after that.

Look at me making big, multi-year plans :3. I really wanna stick around and I hope anyone following me wherever does too! Thank you for a- ok, well; it could've been better mental-health-wise and things still feel pretty rough, but I'm getting it figured out- great year! Let's hope for an even better one in the far-flung future of 2014, babey!

[vamptoll]

is golden sun mid. i was playing them on the switch online emulator and idk it feels abit generic to me. i like the sound design but thats mostly it... just wanted to ask if youve played this series as ive seen you talk about gba games and jrpgs and get your thoughts as well bc i feel like im missing something

I thought for a moment that I had mentioned in the tags of some post that I did not like golden sun when I first read this ask, because that is something I would do. I just... did not enjoy golden sun when I tried to play it a while ago, and I really don't think my opinion would be better now.

I remember the intro taking forever, nothing particularly interesting happening, and despite having a lot of potentially interesting and cool mechanics the game didn't seem to really use them for anything... cool and interesting.

TBF I do think a lot of JRPGs are... kinda bad. But even a bad jrpg might have a striking visual or an emotional story and at no point while playing golden sun did I get either of those. Mid feels likes a pretty great encapsulation of it. It's reputation imo probably just came because the gba was super popular, it got localized instead of JP exclusive (which a lot of better jrpgs never came out here when they were first made and didn't have the chance to get a reputation) and enough copies were sold to enough children that some of them would have a good time and nostalgia for it.

But on the bright side, NSO gba does have... umm.. wait... actually the gba library is not very interesting to me. They have kirby for the nes and snes, which are great. And holy shit, the pokemon trading card gbc game?!? Oh man, when did that get added? That game IS good actually, as someone who isn't even a huge pokemon fan. I might do another play through using the switch emulation.

[justusjonas]

Jeffrey!

DANKE!!!! 💓🫶

1: sexuality headcanon

naja er ist ja canon schwul eigentlich, nicht? <3 soweit es halt geht 🫶 jeffreyyyy 🫶 mehr kann ich dazu nicht sagen 😌

2: otp

ich mag ihn fast mit justus mehr als mit peter :,) peter und jeffrey sind sich ziemlich ähnlich und ich finde justus & jeffrey ergänzen sich so gut…vorallem wenn ich mich an dem headcanon festklammere dass jeffrey gerne mit technikzeugs rumspielt und da ganz gerne auch mal bastelt <3 da könnten die super drüber reden…und justus würde ihn bestimmt auch in wettschwimmen besiegen & jeffrey wäre voll beeindruckt 🥺 für mich ist deren dynamic irgendwie dass sie beide den anderen richtig cool finden 🥹 aber er und peter sind auch cute <3

3: brotp

siehe oben UND finde ihn und bob spannend als freunde weil von bob die ganze zeit so eifersüchteleien kommen…ich würde die einfach wirklich gerne mal 1:1 interagieren sehen pls pls pls andre marx oder kari erlhoff oder so…😭😭

4: notp

idk mit mädchen halt 🤷

5: first headcanon that pops into my head

hat zusammen mit justus AP physik <3, interessiert an technik & musik <3 er kann beim thema musik genauso viel von sich geben wie bob (bob findet das ganz schrecklich), schmeißt gerne und oft partys (die sogar justus ab und an mal besucht, auch wenn er partys nicht so mag) (das hier ist schon fast canon, er schmeißt ne halloween party in "feuerteufel“ und justus wäre auch gekommen wäre da nicht der fall gewesen)

6: favorite line from this character

justus’ und jeffreys funkgespräch aus pfad der angst:

7: one way in which I relate to this character

auch gay aber in die andere richtung 💓

8: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character

hmmm sein verkleideter auftritt am anfang von „der mann ohne kopf“ war schon iwie peinlich aber auch schon iwie süß also nur so halb…ich mag ihn einfach <3

9: cinnamon roll or problematic fave?

cinnamon roll denke ich 😌❤️

[mbti-enemies]

INFJ here. how compatible are INFJs and ISFJs? what are some ways to get ISFJ's interest?

helloo!!! infj here too.

hmm i love isfjs <333 perhaps my favourite person is one even if we're not super close.... and that's because compatibility wise i do sometimes feel like it can be more challenging to get a click- the classic with double Fe how do you decide where to go eat because neither of you can make up ur mind T-T. but if you click then it's awesome well done! it's kinda crazy because..... you might be used to being the one really really trying to get to know the other person but... if isfj likes you they'll do it too. and the differences between the way you guys do it.... infj's and their questions that look deep, about Your Life, and Souls and Colours ..... and isfj taking notice of your small habits and every day things and the little "this made me think of you"s are just- *gets lost*.. ........ anyways double Fe can be also be so so refreshing. and the way infj depends on isfj and isfj's always their for them with the Si, also making sure that infj stays on the ground, butalways a pillar, and also really good at giving advice? and isfj thinks infj's Ni is pretty cool and wonders at it from their place while also being the reason infj loves the beauty in the small things, though they apprciate it different ways-

those vibes.

anyways. about interest..... idk dudeeee like with anyone? be yourself (because while they might seem quite put together the buried Ne loves a bit of craziness and chaos, a bit of fun and spice to complement them... remember that isfjs and esxps (ikr crazy) are a tried and true pairing... but so are isfjs and istjs.... there's a range and yeah... just be you infj!) and be kind. really ask them about their day, and tell them about yours, properly, that's the sort of stuff Fe looks for and appreciates and is something to build on. be kind to them. remember their birthday and get them something, even if they don't expect it. if you're looking at your isfj from a much further distance, ask them to get coffee anon (bring them coffee?), get to know them.

[videostak]

rly wanna hook up the nes for some reason.. like ya i have both a famicom and nes okay kill me hoarder girls unite but like srsly i got a nes at a swap meet when i was like 13 or smthn maybe even younger (actually i think the same swap meet im going to tomorrow lol back when i would go with my grandma and older sister often) and then later down the line probably when i was like 16 or smthn got a regular famciom but it was modded to be av p poorly so eventually decided to get a twin famicom ANYWAYS enough backstory but ya i have an urge to hook up the nes for some reason... like idk i guess they rly do have different energies.. i have most of the same library on it but a year or so ago got some nes games from my uncle who had some he was getting rid of and got like kid icarus and tmnt and lolo 3(playing that just makes me wanna get lolo 1 tho -_-) and robocop and cool shit like that but for some reason i have a urge to play mario 3 specifically on nes even tho i have it on famicom?! idk when iwas cleaning out my closet i found this lil like figure thats based off the art of tanooki mario from mario 3 but like rly accurate to how mario looked back then and the proportions idk where these figures come from i think they have one of yoshi from smw too but like i think my family got it for me in like 2014 or smthn when they went to nintendo store in new york on vacation. but anyways i think looking at it is making me wanna play smb3 and for some reason like i associate all the art for it and the kinda vibe it gives off more with the american nes than the famicom. i guess that makes sense tho. like its def THE nes game moreso than THE famicom game. like u kno. itss release and everything seems to mean alot more like a big event over here than when it came out in japan? actually idk what it was liek when it came out over there since i dont kno but like i associate mario 3 stuff with the nes alot maybe cause that was also a game i got at the swap meet too(same one) like itss just a v nes ‘retro culture’ type game so ya. i associate og super mario bros more with the famicom tho cause when i think of that i think of like old strategy guides and all that early art where mario has beautiful sexy red overalls and like the characters all having somewhat different designs and fds mario 2 and based shit like that. anyways yeas...