angrywerewolfvoid

[the-meme-monarch]

ut fangames as of late have had a lot of heart to them and they deserve all the praise they get but idk something makes me really defensive when people start saying "it's even Better than the game it's based on" like undertale get behind me

[yuseis-mindless-twaddle]

Cohesive List of Notable Layton Projects I'm Working On

I'm Yusei, mostly active on Discord as of late. I entered the Layton Fandom through the subreddit and have been spreading the plague that is me since then. Since I just set up this account, here's a cohesive list of my notable Layton-based works: 1. Professor Layton and the Dreadful Food Service (2023 - On-going)

Above is a video playthrough of the (currently broken) demo of the game. It contains 1 puzzle and some shotty concept art. Development on the game has progressed much since the demo, including new assets, more puzzles, and some storyboarded cutscenes. Current project status: On Hiatus. Team Enigma, College, and Calamity Witch Arianna have taken precedence over this specific fan game, but it will be returned to in time (breaks from school, usually).

2. Professor Layton and the Mansion of the Deathly Mirror: Reflected (202? - On-going)

I would like to make it known that this is not my endeavor alone. I'm the head programmer, but this is a group effort so please take a look at the other department heads -- their work is incredible, and I'm very proud to be part of a team with such pleasant folks. Together, we are Team Enigma! There's plans to make more games than just this, so keep an eye out for any news post-MotDM:RE.

Current Project Status: In development. It'll be a slow process but we're making good headway already. Look forward to updates as development progresses.

3. Calamity Witch Arianna Tetralogy (2024 - *anticipated* 2025)

Want to "play" it yourself? Check it out (supposedly it work on phones, too):

This is planned to be a four-part mini series about Arianna from Professor Layton and the Last Specter. The idea is that each new chapter gets progressively more complex (longer runtime, new features such as puzzles, more actual art from my end, etc.) -- chapter 1 is already out, but it's simply a visual novel for now. Puzzles and basic investigation have been coded for chapter 2, which is currently in development.

Current Project Status: In development. Essentially working on this when I have time and the energy. On scene two, thinking up puzzle ideas. Doing voice work, as well.

4. Coin Forager -- a Layton-community-lead hint coin finding game! (2024, like last week - hopefully as long as people want to submit entries)

Coin Forager is a fun little idea I had whilst browsing the Reddit-Discord. The idea is that whoever wants to can enter a photo they've taken from a place they feel like would have hint coins hidden around and I enter it into this little searching game. So far, we have 9 entries. Version 1.0.0 will be uploaded to itch once I get 20 submissions. Hint coins found through each location can unlock information about the area, such as the name of the place or a fun fact about it. Everyone is free to enter a location!

Current Project Status: Always in development. The goal is for this to be open for as long as I can. Folks will always be welcome to submit an entry, and I'll find the time to add it!

So that's it, for now, at least off the top of my head. Thanks for reading, and I'm sure there'll be many more projects to come in the future!

[chrisgraves09]

Hey, have another one of my ramble posts cause I just wanna get this off my chest.

When I first got into FNaF when the fourth game released, I was growing interested into the community and what it was like. That’s when I started lurking both Tumblr & Reddit in late 2016 during Christmas time. That’s when I getting into drawing. By then in early to mid 2017, I began joining the Five Nights at Freddy’s subreddit and Discord server and just… wow, seeing an entire community full of great people showing their support and love to this franchise is just incredible.

I began getting involved with showing off my drawing and art of the FNaF characters and lemme tell you, it was really nice. So nice that it was when I began my Freddit Users Drawing series where I would draw almost every single member in the Five Nights at Freddy’s subreddit. I didn’t even wanted attention for that alone. I was just showing my appreciation and my thanks for being a part of the Five Nights at Freddy’s community. From 2017-early 2020 I’ll say were my best years of being in the FNaF community. Being able to be excited for new game entries, books, merchandise with the community was so good that I wish I could experience that phase once again.

But then in mid 2020, I started getting inactive on Reddit and only focusing on Discord. This ain’t a problem in of itself mostly because I was focusing on the FNaF fangames that were released like Five Nights at Sonic’s, Project Readjusted (😵‍💫), and many others. Not to mention my high school graduation happening. By then, Twitter took over and I have only lurked there until many years later.

2021 came in and the first FNaF related controversy started and it struck a blow in my head. People started fighting, distancing themselves from the franchise, and I’m just sitting there if it’ll affect me in someway. Thankfully (for the moment) it didn’t and I continue making FNaF art like usual. Then 2022 came up with the Pear tree, striking another blow to my heart. And THEN 2023 came up with there being several people being not so good people and the whole FNaF + situation, making me question more and more if this’ll become an ongoing issue. And what do you know it? This year has the goddamn Talbert Files thing happening and probably more coming. And this is supposed to be FNaF’s 10 year anniversary. Everyone is becoming increasingly pissed, fighting with one another, and even leaving the franchise as a whole.

I said it before on Twitter and I’ll say it here: This community has devolved into just bitching around for the sake of bitching around and both Twitter and Reddit are especially the case. FNaFTwitter is by far the most miserable side of the community and I mean it. The Freddit community has become so toxic that I’m becoming so ashamed to be apart of it now. It’s not the same Freddit I used to know. I was originally gonna do a third Freddit Users Drawing series last year to remind me of the good old days. But it seems like that ain’t happening anymore. This is just depressing to look at…

All of this controversy, drama, and turmoil this fanbase endured ever since 2021 has unfortunately changed my perspective, mood, and feelings toward any FNaF “fan” that chooses to be an asshole. It’s gotten to the point where I wanna dissociate myself from the community. Specifically FNaFTwitter, Freddit, and even several Discord servers. I’ve became conflicted day by day and week by week and if I really want to stay in this dumpster fire of a community and deal with this bullshit mess or maybe leave everything behind and go on my own terms. I really don’t know what to do. Maybe time will tell in the future, who knows?

Ok, I’m done rambling for now.

[crystallizedday]

You know

Fusionfall’s universe is actually kinda flexible when it comes to what different types of games you could theoretically make for it.

I know that sounds weird, but like

Imagine Fusionfall but as like a sort of

Chao garden style game where you’re assigned by Dexter during the war effort to take care of nanos that are left at the nano stations

Basically just as a way to keep them stimulated & prepared for battle when the time is right.

Like

You have all these different virtual environments & snacks & doohickeys to make very specific nano happy

Like maybe you can give a bone to a Courage nano to keep him content, or give a Bubbles nano a stuffed animal to play with.

Obviously, not all these nanos are gonna act like lil bbies since you’ll have like

Maybe Dexter & Mandark’s nanos just wanting to keep themselves stimulated with work or puzzles

Or maybe do very specific activities with them like helping them train for battle or just chilling out with em.

& if you do a good enough job, Dexlabs allows you to create your own nano as a permanent companion to help you tend to the other nanos, & THIS nano will follow you around.

I like to think your relationship with your companion nano influences its behaviors around you & the other nanos

Like if you treat them & play with them & keep them fed, they’ll wanna stick by your side.

But if you neglect them, they’ll either keep their distance or wander off.

Y’all know me. I would LOVE to have a Demongo nano as my lil companion, feeding him lil snacks & giving him all the affection he deserves…

The idea made me draw these shitty doodles on my phone one day & I love them so much OWMWOSMSODM

Bro can float, but he still wants uppies just cause KANAOSMOSMXOSMX

I love him so much…

… but uh

This post isn’t JUST to pitch a chao garden style fangame.

Cause like I said

Fusionfall’s universe is HUGE

& you could make a variety of different games out of it.

For instance

Ya know how the Book of Bill has people binging GF recently

& some fans are re-experiencing the silly lil Grunkle dating sim made forever ago?

…

Don’t judge me, cause I know some of you would LOVE that idea.

Obviously, the selection of who you could grow closer to would be kinda small since well

Most of the cast are teenagers, & I ain’t about that…

The Ace situation in the og game still pisses me off, & I’m so glad Retro retconned the shit out of it…

But you still have very notable characters like

Ya know

Professor Utonium, Him, Father, Mojo, Demongo, Hoss Delgado, Grim, Grandpa Max, Demongo, Samurai Jack, Vilgax, the Scotsman, Demongo

Look

I may be biased, but it’s at LEAST for a good reason, cause bro is like one of the VERY FEW VILLAINS I’ve seen where a redemption arc could GENUINELY work & feel SATISFYING with how he’s written in Fusionfall!

& I’m JUST saying

It would be REALLY sweet to see that unfold & YOU be the one to help him get to that point, ya know??

It may be incredibly self serving, but come on. I just wanna see this man be genuinely happy for once in his life KAKWOSNSODMDOCMDOFK

But ya get what I mean now though, right???

With such a huge crossover of characters in a universe where everyone just

Coexists with each other

& their backgrounds & history have been most likely altered in ORDER to co-exist,

You get this EXTREMELY unique universe that stands out from ANYTHING that’s EVER been done by Cartoon Network, let alone other big companies.

& regardless of if you factor in the fusion war into the story or not

You can create some BALLER content using this universe as a template.

& I’d LOVE to see how creative people can get with it!

Also

If any of y’all seeing this have any cute lil hypothetical fangame ideas of your own

I wanna hear em!!

[chimeraan]

I've been playing PokeRogue recently and it is one of the scariest games I have ever played because it's so good at being addictive. If you don't know PokeRogue is a Pokemon roguelike where you and your team of Pokemon face a back to back gauntlet of Pokemon battles, getting randomly dropped items and power ups along the way (as well as new pokemon) while facing off against gym leaders, a rival and boss pokemon. It is incredibly faithful to the battle mechanics of Pokemon albeit with a few changes to abilities and having new moves added. It is also has a gacha egg mechanic...

It is completely free, as it's an unlicensed fangame but it is made with such precision and detail to its roguelike gacha game premise that I have never encountered a more addictive game. Everyday has a new minor event in what Pokemon have Pokerus, every run you'll get something new, there's the fucking Egg hatching gacha game mechanic and right now there's an honest to god mobile game event on in which shiny odds are drastically increased.

It's already consumed so much of my time that I'm gonna say it now, if you need to work on a project, study for a test, homework etc etc DO NOT FUCKING PLAY IT, hell even if you feel like you're predisposed to addiction and it affects you too negatively you shouldn't play it.

The gacha thing is fucked as well because not only is it gacha from tokens you earn from beating gym leaders, you have to play more for the gacha egg to catch once you get it. So if you feel like you're done with a play session and you go to the gacha machine before logging off just to see what you're gonna get from all the gacha tokens you've accumulated and then you luck out and get a legendary egg.... then you're going to want to play more to see what's inside the egg and the cycle repeats itself.

No lie, the saving grace is of course that this is a free fan made game, I don't think the developers intend for this to be as distracting as it is but it's a really good example and argument that even when your game is free, gacha and waiting mechanics are inherently predatory and destructive.

I'm throwing Shade either, it's a good well made game and the developers have done well. It's just that... maybe they went too far in a few places.

[tartrazeen]

Whenever I do make a Danganronpa fangame, I've already got the main conceit figured out.

An All-Stars Game

It'll be post v3, so it's sort of a desperate, last-ditch move by Team Danganronpa to spark interest in everyone again.

If the real world's been convinced to reject real murders (Thanks for ruining the fun, Shuichi), then the gimmick this time will be an All Neo-World Season. They'll call it "The Killing School World" or something dumb like that, and they'll trot it out as a more socially conscious version of the game.

But the gimmick on top of that gimmick is getting to fully recreate past characters. There'll still be volunteers or whatever, not AI, but the memories implanted will be specifically crafted to bring old fan favourites back. And in the Neo-World Program, they can even look like the original characters too. (Not 'original' as in "actual characters from DR1 or DR2." These'll be new characters to us, but they'll be from like season 5 and 27 and 14 and whatever.)

These returning characters will all have two major traits in common:

They have all been the blackened in their season

They remember everything from their season - right up to when the body discovery announcement was made for their victim

This opens the door to a bunch of cool things I could play with.

Technically, if their memory cuts off that early, they won't know Danganronpa is fake yet. I'm not interested in having that be the big reveal again - and like DR2, I'd actually want that revealed early on to get it out of the way - but I love the disparity in knowledge it gives them. Some of them will have suspicions that gets them to figure it out sooner, and some will be sideswiped by that.

Depending on when their trial was, they'll have more or less experience heading into this All Star round. The people who made it to trial four or gonna have way more to draw on than people who killed at trial two.

Not knowing how the trial went is going to give so much overinflated confidence to some, repeating their past mistakes, or artificial doubt, causing them to screw up on a detail they managed to hide perfectly last time.

Not knowing if they won brews a lot of questions around why they're All Stars. Did they get away with their murder, and that's why they're here? Did they lose and just get a gloriously gory death? Was someone just a fan favourite for their personality, their brains, their glorious screw-ups, or their motives? What does an "All Star" even mean when everyone's supposed to be an Ultimate?

Does being in a second round change a character's total attitude? Do they think it's a second shot at life that they can't squander, or proof they'll never truly escape this place? Do they start pandering to an audience out there, or outright flaunting their status as a fan favourite to see how much shit they can get away with? (And how does Monokuma react to that kind of fourth wall breaking? 👀)

How dangerous is each character, depending on the trial they made it to? Somebody who got to trial 5 might have an incredible strategy to have made it that far, and someone who hasn't seen a single trial surely landed on their face right out of the gate. Or at least, that's what they can claim. We all know Hiro survived DR1, so it doesn't take a genius to survive that long and then screw up on their own at the end. And someone who doesn't even remember the first trial? Maybe they're so good that they won on their very first try, under the maximum number of noses around to sniff out the truth. Or so they can also claim. 👀

What were the motivations? Not everyone has to be a dick, just a killer. Were people justified? Do they try to moralize it? Are they honest about having a shallow reason? Do they regret it now, or wish they could've gone bigger? And will the circumstances surrounding all that make another appearance this round too?

And of course, if everyone here's a killer, how can any of them be trusted? Then again, if everyone is a killer, surely they understand each other better than anyone else.

The main theme I want to dig into is gonna be "teamwork" versus "trust". That'll be my hope/despair, truth/lie thing. They don't have to necessarily trust each other, but they do have to work together. But how can you work with someone who can't trust to not stab you in the back? 👀

[slightly-gay-pogohammer]

At least with a game that never comes out, you can't be disappointed by it's quality.

my biggest counterpoint is that. yea a bad disappointing game is, technically speaking, of course bad - it comes with bad writing, bad characterization, and also most of the time you have to pay for it

but. here's the kicker. even in shitty ass games that i hated, i could find something i actually liked!!! as much as i despise thieves in time, i have the second chapter very enjoyable, for example, and while yiik is a poorly thought game with abysmal writing i do find a few characters and OST pretty damn good, and going with fangames idk if any touhou fan ever played dream logical world but it's bad in possibly anything except some INCREDIBLY creative spellcard ideas with the fifth boss that i'd love to see used again!! and if anything, you have plenty of people to complain with!!! fun!!!!!!!!!

but when a game is just cancelled. what is there :( there are people in the tags that say that if a game is cancelled we could still get it in the future so it's good but. no we don't. we won't get alice asylum, because american mcgee said that having the game cancelled completely ruined the idea of game developing for him; we won't get the raving rabbids prototype, because we already got a raving rabbids game; we won't get the tomb raider angel of darkness trilogy because the devs were rushed and the first game flopped

like yea having a shitty game is more frustrating but not having one to begin with is way more crushing to me :(

[zecoritheweirdone]

SO. UNDERHERO.

When i first heard you talking about this game, i was still kinda in undertale recovery so i thought jt was an undertale fangame but in a more fantasy classic rpg-style

Very clearly i was dead wrong lmao

I genuinely like the premise of a young mook killing the hero and taking their place, and the artstyle made it REALLY appealing to me! Then once i learned it was adjacent to the mario and luigi rpgs i was pretty excited!

The world is such a fun place, with the villain hq being like an office building and the other worlds are cool in their own way, especially the ghost world but I'm incredibly biased lmao. The characters are fun, too! Cereza especially was great, and of course i too love puzzleman lol

The gameplay is fun! The battle system is unique and interesting while still having a good ol rpg kick to it, and i love that! Though admittedly it feels weird that the game is so low level-oriented, i feel super weird about beating the final boss at level 16 lol

The music... had its ups and downs for me. Some songs were genuinely amazing, but others just kinda felt boring

Of course, the game itself isnt perfect. Sometimes it can feel kinda bland, they really didn't try with the pause screen and im not the biggest fan of the ui (the mask kid's mask staring at me in the upper left corner is... unsettling, imo), and i never really got over how floaty and mildly sluggish the game could be. Also the physics were weird. Also i don't really like world 3 all that much lol

But overall this feels like that game that you look at the box art of while at toys r us, beg your parents to get it for you, they oblige, and you adore it and wanna talk about it to your friends and they have no idea what you're talking about, and you feel alone in loving it until you go online and either find a bustling fan community or find out a big youtuber made a video on it and new fans are entering the series nonstop

....was that a long winded analogy? Lol

Anyways i can totally see why you love this game and while i don't think it'll effect my brain as much as it did yours, i had a great time with it and definitely wanna reccomend it to friends and stuff!

YEAHHHH !!! tho it may have had some ups and downs,, i’m glad that you ended up enjoying it overall!!!!

also: yeah, i get that 😔,,, i also ended up trying to reload my save to see if there was anything else, but- alas.

apparently the devs are thinkin ‘bout making a sequel some time in the future, though! after they finish the current game they’re now workin on, that is,,,

[systemrestart]

Remi's 2023 favorites!!

I used to do this on twitter but given what's happened to that site, I'm doing it over here this year! This was a brutal year for me MH wise, but at least I was introduced to some good stuff.

List under the cut

Starting off strong with my favorite thing of the whole year......

[FAVORITE VISUAL NOVEL]

Heaven Will Be Mine

Worst Girl Games has done it again. I am so glad I finally read this. Very few pieces of media have ever so perfectly captured what it means to feel 'inhuman', but still trapped by Earth's, humanity's, "gravity". The relationships between the 3 girls, and the circumstances that shaped them, put beautifully to the page feelings I know many other queer people share. There is nothing else like this out there.

[FAVORITE VIDEO GAME]

Mystia's Izakaya

Mystia's Izakaya is truly THE Touhou fangame to play. So many fun characters to get to know and serve food to, really great restaurant simulator with minor rhythm game elements, gorgeous pixel art in both character portraits and environment, so many challenges to try and outfits/music/items to unlock......!! And there's still more DLC coming out.

The love and effort put into this game is astonishing, and I am so glad I gave it a shot despite being nervous about restaurant sims. Highly recommend, even to non-Touhou fans!!!!

[FAVORITE SONG]

Psi

The lyrics seem to be a criticism of the extreme pace of 'content consumption' online nowadays, which I have mixed feelings on, but regardless, the song itself is absolutely killer. Particularly the verses. The effects with the TVs during the second verse are also great, capture the chaotic and mildly ominous energy of the song extremely well. This is definitely the song I listened to the most this year

[FAVORITE MOVIE]

Glass Onion

Watched this at the very beginning of the year. One of the best live-action movies I've seen in a long time, genuinely brilliant. Really hoping for more Knives Out films, they've knocked it out of the park so far. I also think this one and the first Knives Out will be very rewarding to revisit

[FAVORITE ANIME/SHOW]

I didn't watch anything this year. whoops

[FAVORITE MANGA]

Until I Love Myself

Most of the books and manga I read this year were autobiographical/semi-autobiographical, and this was one of my favorites. This is about a nonbinary mangaka dealing with sexual harassment as a editing job, and the subsequent struggles they have with PTSD, navigating life in the wake of the #MeToo Movement, and their difficult feelings on their gender and body, and how those things affect how others treat/see them. Reflected a lot of my own feelings and thoughts on these things, and very insightful. Can be a rough read at time, but I highly, highly recommend it.

[FAVORITE BOOK]

Stone Butch Blues

Absolutely life-changing read. It is extreme heavy, deals in police violence (including sexual violence inflicted upon LGBT people), labour rights and protests, severe discrimination based on gender and presentation, extreme poverty in part due to said discrimination, difficult and multifaceted relationships between queer women and lesbians......... there is a lot here. It is raw, and real, and while there is agonizing hardship here, there is also incredible, deep love, for the community that keeps up afloat, keeps us going. Please, if you can stomach the content, I beg of you all to read Stone Butch Blues if you haven't.

..... aaaand that's it I think!! Happy new year y'all!

[ilaiyayaya]

The Anti-Big Oof, Some May Even Say "The Small Foo"

Just played The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog today, a dumb, goofy little visual novel made for April Fool's Day a few months ago. It's really cute, it took me waaaay longer to get to it than I expected, I originally was going to read it the day it released, but uhhh i forgor💀 but now that I have actually finally read it, it's so good and was definitely worth reading. It's not very long, and there's not a ton to it, but it was created by a team of really dedicated Sonic fans including a few of the writers for the IDW comics and it is so incredibly obvious, it is absolutely filled with obscure little references to the series as a whole that only weird obsessive freaks like me would ever even notice. The number of times I went "WAOW✨" was immeasurable, the Knuckles OVA hat, "Big Oof" (classic), I think they even indirectly referenced the fucking Shadow pissing on Eggman's wife video, not 100% sure on that tho, may just be reading into it too much, but in my headcanon they're 100% referencing Shadow pissing on Eggman's wife frfr. It's crazy how the writing teams for every Sonic related thing now, the games, the comics, even the social media is just made up of a bunch people that are just as obsessed with Sonic as even the most insane fans, like the last 10 years of Sonic media has pretty much just been a collection of officially licensed fan passion projects and I'm all for it. Like obviously there's been the typical corporate made stuff that was obviously just rushed out for money and had no love behind it too, just like any franchise, but like, I'm not here to talk about that, I don't want to talk about that, I'm here to talk about PURE, RAW, UNFILTERED PASSION AND HOW FUCKING COOL IT IS!!!

The Sonic community in general is just insane in how passionate they are, like what other community has multiple entire expos dedicated to fangames, that have been recognized by major members of the official Sonic development team? (If you can't tell I am very excited for SAGE and SHC, the next 2 months are gonna be so pog >:)).

It's so exceptionally fun experiencing any kind of work in general that's so clearly made with a ton of passion put into it. Like art that you can just sense the passion oozing out of has got to be like, peak art, always, no matter the actual thing itself, if it's been made with a ton of love, it's peak, no question. It's why there's a lot of specific artists and communities that I just resonate with so hard, like when an artist or community just loves what they make, that's just like, so cool this is my excuse to mention Trigger/Gainax I love Trinax I love it when they have to make the final episode of an anime black and white and at 2fps not only for stylistic reasons but because they just HAD to put their entire budget into the 2 minute big robot scene like how could they resist and I mean this entirely unironically I fucking LOVE that they know exactly where their talents and passions lie and are willing to put everything into what they want to make at the expense of other parts that they don't want to make. Remember when in Promare Galo starts ranting about like ancient firefighters or some shit in the middle of a fight and it was basically just a stand-in for the writers wanting to rant about ancient firefighters or some shit? yea, that was cool. Remember when in Promare they kis-

Also I don't know where to put this but I want to say it because I thought of it, but references aren't just cool because you get the reference they're making, references are cool because they can show a clear love of the thing they're referencing, and that's why Sonic is cool ok bye :)

The fact that this game is the 2nd time they've referenced the Peter Griffin death pose in official Sonic media is honestly very concerning.

[a-girl-called-bob]

I know everyone has their ‘nintendo franchises that are never coming back and it’s a fucking travesty’ list and i know that fangames and spiritual successors do exist but I still feel the need to scream about this so here’s my personal list of nintendo ips that I’ll nut if they ever decide to revisit

panel de pon/puzzle league - this is the biggest one for me personally, like it is such an ideal fucking form of the block puzzle genre that it is a crime that nobody else can just make one of those legally.  the version of it that they perfected by about the gbc-era pokemon puzzle challenge should just have been rereleased as-is on every nintendo system like so many of their other games like i would actualy have paid 40/60/whatever dollars for each one every single time like tetris or puyo puyo or fucking any of the other million franchises that get incremental updates every three years or so.  the ds game was an incredible stride forward too like the touch controls are such a natural fit for the style of puzzle game but because they directed intsys to completely file off the personality of the game it didn’t sell well and now the franchise is dead.  it makes me SO MAD

chibi robo - dude when i first read the plot summary for the fan translation of the DS game (the sequel, usually called “Clean Sweep” due to the patch name but its actual name is much longer) I cried real tears.  You’re just a li’l robot guy!  You go around this poor family’s house and do your li’l chores and make them happy!  And then I played it and it was at first much less emotional than I felt reading the summary and much weirder and goofier than i expected and then i played it some more and the emotions came back and hit me like a fucking truck.  The original on gamecube is really good too but the DS sequel (which takes place in the next generation like Jenny the kid from the first game is the mom in the sequel which!  wow!  Jenny Sanderson Autistic Icon with the Frog Outfit who Only Speaks In Ribbits becomes Single Mom living a hard but happy life with her son she had out of wedlock!  THIS IS SO FUCKING GOOD WHY DON’T MORE PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THIS (yes the stuff with the literal devil would not play to an american audience in the mid 2000s i know BUT STILL)).  Nintendo basically torched the franchise by trying to go all in on Chibi Robo as a cute li’l mascot robot guy instead of doubling down on the weird parody of 2000s Americana and Toy-Story adjacent lore they had going on and it’s SO.  AGGREVATING.

earthbound - you already know what it is but like, this one I actually get it.  Itoi told the stories he wanted to tell, it’s over, he doesn’t want to make any more, and we should respect that.  BUT.  Tell me a full remake in the style of Link’s Awakening with the toy-like aesthetics but leaning heavier on the claymation models used in the promo material wouldn’t do goddamn gangbusters.  Seriously.  Is it pandering?  YES.  Would I drop 60 bucks on it without thinking for more than 0.2 seconds?  YES.

Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan - I’m actually okay with Nintendo not revisiting this franchise for a few reasons - the DS was really the ideal vehicle for it, the OSU fan community is wild and vibrant even if I don’t go there, and it’s just not the same playing with fingers or a mouse as it is with the stylus.  However.  They could make a just dance knockoff using the joycons to track hand positions and put their funky guys in suits up on screen and I’d probably still go ‘y’know what for the price of their B-tier catalogue games? I’ll give it a shot’

Kid Icarus - I’m not even going to go into this one in full detail we both know we’re not getting another one until 2037

Punch Out!! - actually I think we can leave this one behind it’s, uh, kind of driven by cultural caricatures.  the boxing is good and seeing someone speedrun one of these blindfolded fucking rules but.  there’s an irishman named Aran Ryan.  maybe we should just keep moving.

Warioware - I’ve recently been playing through Warioland 2 and I can confidently say that I could write an essay and record it on video about how this game’s level design is ahead of its time.  Nintendo’s platformer repertoire includes sprinklings of puzzle elements here and there, but more recently they’re all pretty firmly in the realm of ‘skill-based’ platforming with puzzle elements primarily as a gate to accessing bonus materials or collectibles.  Warioland is the reverse of this - in some cases you literally cannot fuck up too terribly, as Wario is too powerful to die.  There’s some occasional tedium (Warioland 2 in particular is structured such that you can’t get hit by bosses even once or you have to start over, which Sucks Very Much) but it’s really a design philosophy that I think is worth revisiting.

Freshly Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland - no I think we’re done here

[niadevbutreal]

Undertale Yellow has no business being this good while being an Undertale fangame, they legit just released a fanmade Undertale prequel. Not only does it have really well written and designed OCs when usually even one half well written OC in a fangame is like striking gold in the Arctic (I think Martlet is now my favourite Undertale character period, she's a total birdbrain but she's doing her best ok, and adorable while doing it) that match the themes and tone of the original, but there's only like three canon characters included and none of them are Sans. Hell he's not even referenced, this game deserves a reward for making an Undertale fangame without Sans alone, I thought that was impossible. Plus, the soundtrack slaps almost as hard as the original (it's how I found out about the game lol, rare YT recommendations W, haven't even watched anything UT related in years).

The original is still overall a better game, some of Yellow's attack controls are janky (looking at you Axis and El Bailador), some of the attacks can make you wish you were playing Shin Megami Tensei 3 for how bullshit RNG can make them (a certain final boss' wall but with one gap in them attack can go fuck itself for all the times the next one spawns with the gap near the top while I'm at the bottom on the side I am on), and spoilerless Undertale hits harder in the feels when it counts, but Yellow isn't all that far behind, which is fucking incredible given Undertale is still one of the best games ever made.

Still not going to interact with the fandom because no thank you (I don't count playing a fangame as interacting with the fandom), I am perfectly capable of enjoying something without interacting with its fans, but I can appreciate a damn good fangame when I play one.

[hashashafashasha]

i'm sure you've heard this a hundred times but to the one person who hasn't PLAY DELTATRAVELER PLAY IT NOW ITS AWESOME ITS AMAZING MY ONLY COMPLAINT IS THAT THE MUSIC ISN'T INCREDIBLE BUT OTHER THAN THAT ITS GREAT AND ALL THE SPRITEWORK IS GREAT AND ALL THE STORY IS GREAT AND IT HAS EVERYTHING YOU COULD EVER WANT FROM A UTDR FANGAME AND WON'T BE A HUGE DISSAPOINTMENT LIKE SOME OTHER FANGAMES I COULD MENTION AND EVEN THOUGH I'M NOT A HUGE FAN OF UNDERFELL ITS REALLY GOOD AND IF YOU LIKE DELTARUNE YOU'LL LOVE IT I PROMISE AND I'M SORRY FOR PUTTING THIS ON YOUR DASH BUT YOU HAVE TO PLAY IT.

play it please its really good and it'll really improve you and even if you think you've already played it an update came out recently so play it now please thankyou sorry you're welcome

[freakish-hazzard]

So I've heard multiple people say they think Spark The Electric Jester is a cash grab-y game meant to capitalize off the popularity of Sonic. This is a sentiment that Really Really annoys me because of how uninformed it is.

I can see why such an opinion would form. Its taking a lot of notes of inspiration from Sonic games, like a lot, and that can come off as trying to entice Sonic fans to buy it.

However, I think the difference between Spark and a game thats trying to copy Sonic for money, is that Spark brings many new ideas to the table alongside the Sonic stuff, while also being heavily inspired by kirby with the jester powers in the 1st and 2nd games. It has a unique identity while also wearing its inspiration on its sleeves.

It's also important to note that games heavily inspired by Sonic are not a new thing. Sonic fan games have been around since the 90s and there are a LOT of sonic fangames, and freedom planet, an original game that wears its inspiration from sonic on its sleeve, was released in 2014. There is a reason we have SAGE EXPO lol

Spark has quickly become one of my favorite franchises of all time, it is incredibly charming, the controls are so fucking fun to just use, the world is so interesting, the character designs are cool, and the music goes SO hard. And while the games do have some rough spots, overall its one of my favorite series of all time.

So it sucks even more when people spread misinformation about it being a bad cash grab of a game, because its blatantly not true. Not to mention its made by mostly one person, and he deserves support for his games that he puts time, effort, and money into.

Play the game, and then share your opinions on it, because a half baked, uninformed, and unnecessarily hostile opinion can be harmful to open discussion as well as the games reputation because people will think you've played the game. As for people reading reviews of media and games, remember to form your own opinions on the matter rather than believing just what someone else says, engage with that goddamn media!

Also i don't think those people even played spark tbh lol. I think if they did and still thought it was a cash grab, spark 1 wouldnt have 93% on steam, spark 2 wouldnt have 91% on steam, and spark 3 wouldnt have 97% on steam.

GO PLAY SPARK ITS REALLY GOOD!!

[captainfightingflower]

The Tee K.O. 2 avatars are so unfathomably ugly to the point where it feels like everyone’s praising them ironically.

How do people find the Tee K.O. 2 avatars CUTE?!? Are we looking at the same bunch of avatars?? I’ve never seen a piece of official media adapt character designs this fucking ATROCIOUSLY in my life! They’re violently inaccurate, incredibly uncanny, and don’t even respect their origin game’s source material. It feels like reading the reviews for the Mulan remake with how disjointed the praises are to the actual product. Did you guys actually SEE the avatars, or are you just saying that you did so Jackbox Games can get your precious games on time that you keep pestering them to release immediately?

I’ve seen people compair this to Super Smash Brothers, and that’s probably the most brutal insult i’ve ever seen someone hurl at that franchise. That game respects each characters, they adapt each character to perfection, being in that game is a thing of pride. The only one i’d really complain is inaccurate to their source material is Samus, but that’s it! Tee K.O. 2 is a fucking travesty where everybody looks like they were drawn by an amateur artist for their fan game, and i’m pretty sure if any of my characters were represented in a professional project like how Tee K.O. 2 did it; i’d instantly wanna dissociate from the entire thing all together!

This entire pack is just an officially licensed fangame, that’s it, you can not convince my brain that this is anything but a fangame that just so happens to be published by Jackbox Games. I’m honestly starting to believe that i’m being pranked, because how can anybody in their right mind unironically call these things CUTE?!? That’s what’s fucking getting me. There’s no way people fucking like this, there’s absolutely zero redeeming qualities about their design adaptions and i cannot wrap my brain around anybody genuinely liking these as anything more than a fucking joke.

If you like them: HOW?!?! Tell me, tell Fighting Flower, why do you like these design adaptions?! What’s cute about them?!? What looks good about them??%! WHAT’S EVEN ACCURATE ABOUT THEM?!?! HOW, HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM?!? WHAT’S ALLURING YOU TO THESE AFFRONTS TO GOD?!?!?!?!?!

Nothing against you personally for liking them, i just can’t understand anybody actually liking these frankly terrible designs. I’m more surprised how nobody feels as offended about it as i do. I hate these designs, because at a fundamental level: they’re just bad. Not badly drawn, just bad. You can say you like them, but they aren’t good adaptions of character designs, that’s just the factual truth: they aren’t good. Show this to any professional art teacher and they’d think you were playing a prank on them. It’s practically reaching bootleg levels of awful. These don’t feel authorised, these don’t feel official, they are BAD.

I could write an ENTIRE VIDEO ASSAY about how these design adaptions FAIL AWFULLY at being good adaptions. I could go on and on about how these things should’ve never left the drafts! I bet you even i could depict them better, and i ain’t even a professional! And i’m not claiming that ‘cause i think i’m more talented than them, i’m only saying that to show how BAD those adaptions are! That a fucking hobbyist can better adapt character designs to a game’s design philosophy than a group of PROFESSIONAL ARTISTS!

I hope the pack gets stolen like the movie Foodfight! and the staff is forced to start over from scratch, or at least put that thing in the damn oven and delay it to next year! It’s so unbaked, i bet you they don’t even HAVE drafts. They thought the first thing they could and chuck it in there, because it sure damn feels like it!

[wyrmblogging]

My Review of Synthesis, by ANTITHESIS: a Joker/Crow Roleswap Zine

I wasn't paid or asked to write a review of Synthesis, but I've been seeing a couple mentions of it here and there, so I figured I'd do a write-up of my thoughts!

What is Synthesis? Synthesis is a fan-made visual novel based off of and inspired by Persona 5 made for the ANTITHESIS zine. In it, Goro Akechi is the leader of the Phantom Thieves, and Akira Kurusu/Ren Amimaya is the "Detective Prince." The plot starts a few days before the Phantom Thieves steal Okumura's treasure, and there are four different endings to the game, with 2+ hours of gameplay.

My Thoughts This was the first visual novel i've ever played, and I feel that Synthesis was incredibly well put together. There were no glitches I ran into (until one at the very end, which I will talk about later) and the character art for Joker and Crow, in particular, were both beautiful, imo.

It took me around 2.5 hours to get all four endings, but I'll admit, I was speeding a bit to get the True Ending. (I did also get bad ending #2 twice, so...)

All in all, I don't think Synthesis would necessarily be disappointing to you unless you're expecting Crow and Joker to have sex on screen. Spoiler alert: they kiss once, and nothing more.

There's a bit of subtext surrounding the pressure that is put on Joker to always have a perfect facade up in public, specifically surrounding any relationships he has, and there is a small mention of Joker hypothetically getting outed. (as a note on this: the proceeds from ANTITHESIS are, in part, going to an LGBTQ+ charity, so i think it is a bit more understandable that there is some additional focus on something like that) I do think that the mentions of Joker's need to have a positive public facade is quite interesting, especially considering that he's in Crow's normal role for this game. No, this definitely does not make me want to write a character study on Crow. Anyways.

Good Things to note!! - I felt that everyone was in character, and Joker and Crow in particular felt in character considering the roleswap. - save and load features in the game work perfectly aside from one thing i'll note later - you can toggle between Joker's name being Ren Amimaya and Akira Kurusu - if you're replaying the game for a certain ending, you can skip all previously read dialogue until you reach the next choice to make - JOKER HAS THE FUNNIEST LITTLE METAVERSE OUTFIT HE LOOKS LIKE A JESTER I LOVE IT - goro ponytail. that is all. - aside from the language and some mentions of suicide (which is expected, it's Persona 5) Synthesis is entirely SFW! - goro says fuck

Things I felt weren't perfect - although we get some info on Joker and Crow's backstories in this AU, i wish there was more info! I want to know how Joker ended up working for Shido, and I also wanna know more about how Crow's backstory in general!! - I understand wanting to only have sprites for the main characters, but it was a bit unsettling to have dialogue options for a character that seemingly doesn't exist. (pretty sure that's common in visual novels tho,,, so maybe i just need to get used to it) - there's no full-body shot of Crow's outfit for this AU in the game, only a chest-up view - you can only get the true ending after you've gotten a bad ended and unlocked the New Game+ option, which makes sense from a coding standpoint (there are special dialogue options you Cannot Choose if you're not in the New Game+ option) is a little frustrating because you then need to replay the entire game. so thank god for the skip dialogue feature. - there is one glitch with the save/load feature that is specifically with the New Game+ option: you can't really save and load it. If you do, it makes it impossible to get the true ending, so if you're after that ending, you either need to sit there for ~2 hours for a full playthrough or use the dialogue skip option

Last Thoughts I'll be the first to admit that Synthesis probably isn't the most groundbreaking fangame out there, but I still find it incredibly charming and entertaining! I loved seeing the new outfits that Joker and Crow both had and I really did enjoy trying to get all the endings! Some of the dialogue near the end genuinely had me shocked (in a good way) and finally getting the true ending was SO SATISFYING.

The ANTITHESIS zine will have leftovers for sale next week (7/22/2022-8/5/2022) with proceeds going to an LGBTQ+ charity, and you can download Synthesis here if you're interested in playing!