#it's like if rune factory were a final fantasy game

[teecupangel]

Tee, I'm adding another fandom to our Isekai Protagonist Desmond bunny bank. I finally got around to playing Rune Factory 5 (after being distracted by a bevy of other games) and was hit by the idea that Desmond would find eating BREAD to gain new crafting recipes to be really fucking wild. Like. How in the hell?! And that, to separate them from normal bread- they're. They're just. They're just called [Insert Craft] Bread and that's it.

For example! You want to make a potion? Gonna have to scarf down some Chemistry Bread! A new battle-axe with added poison damage? Weapon Bread! Wanna learn how to make some, I dunno, soup dumplings to woo the local wolfman himbo? (Or himbo wolfman, either way he's pure of heart and dumb of ass.) Well, you might need to level up your cooking skill but once you've gotten a level (or three or ten), then you might get lucky after chowing down three or four Cooking Breads but when you don't get any sudden bursts of enlightenment after that then you're gonna need to level up again!

All of it might have Desmond questioning reality some more but at least he's got some eye-candy to make up for it all! (And we could even make some of the potential husbands local expies of his usual AC partners. And yes, you can choose to romance and marry your own gender now in RF and it's non-fantasy sibling game Story of Seasons.)

(Just in case anyone is wondering, Story of Seasons is the real Harvest Moon sequels, not whatever ‘Harvest Moon’ game Natsume Inc is publishing. If you’re wondering if it’s a real ‘Harvest Moon’, any Harvest Moon released in the US by 2014 named ‘Harvest Moon’ are not part of the real series under Marvelous/Xseed)

Okay, so let’s talk about Desmond waking up in some weird place he has no idea ever existed in his own world. People assumed he has amnesia because he ‘forgot’ so many things about their world but Desmond is pretty sure he’s been transported to a different world.

Exhibit A: monsters.

Exhibit B: the logic behind these… ‘specialized’ breads.

So Desmond is left with no choice but to… well… go with the flow.

He has no idea why they gave him a farm though but… it was nice.

There was something nice about how everyone was helpful. It made Desmond feel like he was truly part of Rigbarth. SEED sounded fishy as hell though so he didn’t agree to joining them (also, he didn’t want to join any organization right now).

Overall…

Desmond liked to think of this as his retirement.

And it was fun trying to figure out how this world works. There was a lot to do for the farm but, even though that was true, Desmond had never felt more relaxed.

There were also a lot of kind people who didn’t mind joining him in exploring what lies beyond Rigbarth.

Hell, he even got a monster ranch going on in one part of his farm.

And then…

A man with amnesia going by the name Lucas arrived in town and…

He believes he knows Desmond.

He doesn’t seemed to remember when or how though but it was a clue. A clue to why Desmond had been sent here…

But the real question is…

If he finds the answer to his questions… would he be able to return to his old world?

Did… did he even want to?

Unorganized Notes:

I kinda like the idea that the bachelors and bachelorettes remain who they are and this will be a case of Desmond finding love in the ‘strangest’ of places.

His children though… the game gives 3 (1 older and twins) so that means we can have Desmond’s children be reincarnations of Altaïr, Ezio and Ratonhnhaké:ton (called Connor in this one). The twist can be hidden at the beginning on and Desmond learns they’re really his ancestors later on. This does mean that you’re free to choose who Desmond falls in love with (or make it a vote idk).

Considering Lucas’ true identity in the game, this might end up being one of those “eternal love” setup where Lucas used to be an Isu who created the world Desmond is sent in as some kind of simulated universe and placed his conscious there to escape the Solar Flare millenias ago. Minerva’s last ditch effort to save Desmond pushed him into the Grey and Lucas noticed that Juno was trying to take him so he grabbed Desmond and yanked him to his ‘safe world’. Lucas lost his memories because Desmond isn’t part of his world so Desmond’s sudden appearance caused a chain reaction that ended with Lucas’ amnesia (as he’s being repaired). His children being ‘reborn’ is actually his Bleeds gaining their own bodies.

Will Desmond make his own Brotherhood in this one? Probably not. At most, he’d teach his children Assassin-like tricks to help them be safe but not train him the way Bill did. That’s why it took a while for Desmond to realize his children are his ‘ancestors’. Ezio was the one who realized something fishy was going on at the start because (1) his older brother is named Altaïr and (2) one of his parents is named Desmond. The monster and fantasy-esque setting of the world he was reborn in offkiltered him a bit though XD

Up to you if you want to have an actual ‘oh the world is in danger… sorta’ plot as well or you just push it in the background with Lucas and Radea and let Desmond have his retirement.

[veebs-hates-video-games]

Ok I should probably do the Harvestella thing before I get too far distant from it and forget everything. 13 Sentinels has consumed my brain over the past week, so let's do this before I lose what's left of Harvestella.

I know it got kind of mediocre reviews and a bunch of people were underwhelmed by it, but I actually thought it was pretty great. From what I've seen it failed to find the right audience, probably because the very little promotion it got made it look like a farming sim with kind of a Final Fantasy-style story tacked on, and people who expected that from it were disappointed. When it did manage to find the people who were into what it actually is (85% JRPG with like 15% farming sim layered on top) a lot of them loved it though.

It's kind of a weird game, because the farming stuff is simplified somewhat from games where that's the primary focus, and some of the RPG stuff is also not done quite as well or as in depth as in a pure RPG (mainly the combat), but if the combination works for you like it does for me it really does have a lot going for it.

I'm someone who loves the idea of farming games but can never really get into them and stick with them long term, whether it's Harvest Moon or Rune Factory or Stardew Valley or whatever else. I had the best luck with SDV, but after about 10 hours I just couldn't get myself to keep going, and most other stuff in the genre I don't even last that long. It's streamlined enough in this and has enough other stuff to balance it out that I actually enjoyed that part of the game this time though, so that was nice for a change.

The big surprise was the story and characters and world though. I played the demo almost a year ago and could tell that it was going to have Typical Final Fantasy-style Nonsense (affectionate) (not to be confused with most recent actual mainline Final Fantasy games, which for me keep turning out to be Typical Final Fantasy-style Nonsense (derogatory)), but I didn't expect it would do that stuff as well as it ultimately did.

The initial premise of the game is pretty straightforward, but the world turns out to be a lot more interesting than it seems at first as more gets revealed about it throughout the game, and there are a bunch of interesting characters who get their own storylines and develop pretty well through them too. It gets increasingly serious sci-fi story in the latter half of the game, but earlier on there are lots of fun and simple bits that establish various characters and the world and why you should care about it in the first place.

Interestingly in those earlier parts, and kind of in side quests in general, there's a lot more focus on the kinds of stuff you'd expect to see in Games for Girls™ that you don't usually see quite as much of in big RPGs. There are a whole bunch of side quests and storylines focusing on people's interpersonal relationships and families, and multiple things get resolved through getting people to actually communicate or listening to children and taking them seriously as people. I think that's kinda great and that more games should include stuff like that more.

Exploring for more materials and ingredients or to do story or side quest missions is fun and satisfying enough. I normally hate stamina systems and being time limited, but if you eat literally any food at all you get free stamina regen for a while so that's not a problem, and there are like eight billion fast travel checkpoints and various shortcuts that you can unlock all over the world, so it doesn't feel like you have to constantly redo stuff after running out of time. You just go home at the end of the day and can pick up right where you left off usually (after tending to your farm stuff in the morning, of course).

The weakest part of the game is probably the combat though. It's...fine? I guess? It's both too simple and too complex at the same time. Like there's not a lot of incentive to do anything but spam basic attacks against trash mobs, and in boss fights there's not much reason to do any more than that other than use your skills when they're off cooldown. But there are like 37 different damage types that your different attacks can deal, and different enemies are weak against different flavors, and against bosses you can get a "break" that causes them to take more damage if you use the right kind(s) against them enough.

There's potential there for something interesting, but it's terrible at telling you what type of damage you're doing or what kind you should be doing, there are way too many different kinds with no meaningful difference between them other than visual effects, and I'm not going to memorize what every stupid attack in the game does when I can't even see the little symbols on the break gauge that represent different types or remember what each one means anyway.

Also you don't get a block or a dodge (certain jobs do sort of get a dash ability, but it's not great), so a lot of the time against a lot of kinds of enemies your options are basically limited to just take damage and deal with it, which I'm gonna be honest is stupid and not fun. Yes it does incentivize you to cook food/throw stuff in the juicer and use those things to heal yourself, but it's just annoying going into the menu to use them, and it's not particularly satisfying cheesing boss fights by drinking 14 glasses of juice instead of like...actually using the combat mechanics the game provides you?

If you can get past that most other stuff is pretty enjoyable though. I liked the art style more than most of Squenix's big main games these days like what I've seen of FF16, and there's some unreasonably great music in it. Like they did not have to go this hard in 5/8 or whatever in the farming game about farming, but I'm glad they did because it's kind of amazing. Thank you Go Shiina for your excellent work.

So yeah, definitely not a game for everyone if you're not into the kinda weird combination of things it tries to do and (mostly) succeeds at, but if it is your kind of thing it's a surprisingly fun world and collection of characters and unexpectedly well done story. Like I liked the storytelling more than in probably 90% of Final Fantasy games I've played (which I know isn't saying that much because I perpetually complain about them, but still).

It's a game about running your own farm but also hope and the absence of it and what it means to be human, and I thought that was pretty neat.

[dgiacomo]

Munday

again a weird question (apologies) but have you ever looked into other JRPGs besides Pokemon?

[I haaaaave..! Though I guess it depends what you classify as JRPGs XD How loose can we get? Cos I mean, some people consider Zelda games to be JRPGs, others don't... some people, I think, don't even consider Pokémon to be a JRPG XD So it's hard?

I've tried Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, but I've never finished one. I've tried Chrono Trigger (but the DS version I played wouldn't activate a trigger?? so I've annoyingly never finished it). I've played Golden Sun (but got thwarted by Deadbeard, not realising that that was a post-game boss and I COULD back track off that island XD, so I've never finished it). Good track record here.

For "looser" "RPGs" made in Japan, I like Bokumono (Story of Seasons/original Harvest Moon) and their related spin offs (Rune Factory)... Rune Factory can be considered a JRPG at least I think... Bokumono itself is more like... an... RPG.... farm sim?? I suppose. And I've played some Zelda but frankly I'm not good at Zelda XD

I'm sure I've had a bunch of other JRPGs or similar on old consoles I never realised were... I guess Ax Battler. Was never good at that either though, the Game Gear would always die anyway... looking it up on Wiki, it's considered an "action-adventure" game, like Zelda II... So there you go XD

Thank-you for asking though, hahaha! XD]

[doberbutts]

Tag to make sure I don’t forget: @alliered asked for my review of Harvestella [so far] and I didn’t want to write a whole huge long scroll monster for those who want to skip it. So for those who don’t care about videogames, here’s a readmore

I’m about halfway through the first season (I think? This will be a point later) and mid chapter 3 of ??? so keep in mind I am pretty early on in the game still.

As said in my original post about the game, it’s not really a Stardew clone, so anyone expecting that going in is inherently going to be disappointed. I did not see any advertising for this game (intentionally- as stated I prefer going in 100% blind if possible) so I don’t know if it was advertised specifically as a Stardew clone or if it was just supposed to be a farming sim with Final Fantasy elements. Which personally I would say it’s a Final Fantasy game- and a FF offshoot game at that- with farming elements. Think Crystal Chronicles and Tatics when thinking of the tone and “feel” of the game, with gameplay more akin to CC or even some of the Mana games.

It has a fairly robust job system which, so far, is mostly a stance dance. Mage is good against some enemies and bad against others. Lancer is better for these enemies but Fighter’s better for those. And so on. I haven’t really seen any indicators to tell me which job is best for which enemy but you can switch on the fly (you’re supposed to switch on the fly) and your appearance and weapon change accordingly. Kind of like how in X-2, the different costumes gave you different abilities. I’ve been defaulting Fighter/Mage because those are the first two classes and they give you pretty beefy hits for many of the beginning enemies, but I’m sure as the game rolls on I’ll probably find something I like better.

Farming is fairly simple, and this is where I think a lot of people were disappointed. You’ve got a house and a field you can upgrade and put stuff on, yes. But those used to the level of customization found in later Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons/Rune Factory games, and even Stardew Valley, are going to resent the fact that there’s nothing really to mark it as “yours”. There’s a set number of places you can put things and a set number of things you can put. You can upgrade the house but so far I’ve not found any fun decorative options and it doesn’t really seem like that’ll be a thing here. It’s much more early Harvest Moon in that way, actually as I’ve been playing I’ve been thinking about how similar it is to Innocent Life, which I thought was fun enough but a lot of people really didn’t like it. That game’s sitting at a 5-6/10 even nowadays, and it came out in 2007 [in the US].

Anyway, the farming aspect is mostly just so you can make money. On one hand they do flat-out tell you that (”but you must make money somehow, so why not grow and sell vegetables”) and plot-wise it makes sense in the grand scheme, but I do think at the current moment you could take out the farming elements and it would play mostly the same with little detraction of quality, and that kinda sucks for a game marketed as a “farming sim”, you know? It’s just a chore to do so you don’t run out of money while you’re off adventuring every day. In fairness, that’s also what crops turn into towards the end of Stardew, where if you’re doing it right your farm is mostly automated and you’re fucking off 99% of the time to one of the dungeons or running around after villagers or chasing elusive difficult-to-catch fish.

Speaking of- villager NPCs. I understand why they made them this way but I do think that it will put a lot of people off. The vast majority of NPCs are nameless, with no portrait or unique quality whatsoever, and there is no relationship/friendship system with them. Important NPCs are named, have a portrait, and also have a serious case of Main Character Syndrome where they stand out from everyone else. These are the people you can build social connections with, not the others (outside of cute little sidequests that are 100% optional). This is in part because there are multiple towns and giving each of these 20-ish person towns unique, fleshed out characters is, well... super fucking annoying and a waste of time especially knowing that many of these characters are gunna have maybe 3 lines. Also, gone are the days of memorizing your future spouse’s daily routine just so you can chase them around and throw a turnip at them every day and making sure you enter a map by the south exit at exactly 3pm on a sunny day (yes I’m looking at you, Kai romance in FoMT)- you level up your social connections via doing quests and completing the story.

Fishing is: buy book about fishing, select “fish” when at a designated fishing area, wait, press “A” when you hear a big splash, ta-da you have a fish. So there is no fishing minigame which I know some folks were sad about but also that is more or less how fishing has worked in the various Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games for decades so... Also I distinctly remember when Stardew first came out everyone hated the fishing minigame because it was poorly explained and also super hard, and there’s still mods to make fishing easier in Stardew to this day, so maybe the lack of a minigame is not such a bad thing.

Plot is pretty standard fare Final Fantasy shenanigans. The crystals are Being Weird and You Have Amnesia But Seem To Be Connected To It All and The Religion Is Heavily Foreshadowed To Be Bad. I do like that your friend Aria has a backstory so far that’s pretty much I’m The Main Character, but she’s not the main character. I thought that was an interesting subversion of the isekai trope where someone else was brought from our world into this one and our job is getting her back [heavily implied that we, also, don’t belong in this particular world, of course].

Combat... well. This is actually a pretty legitimate problem- we’ve established that it’s not really a farming game, it’s a Final Fantasy game with farming elements. Okay, so we’re fighting monsters and going home to water the turnips got it. Except... the combat system is... incredibly simple. Press button, hit monster. Press button a whole bunch of times to hit monster until it dies. But without a dash, dodge, or combat roll (there is, technically, a dash if you tap the “run” button but I found that by accident, no tutorial told me that I had a dash) that means that you’re mostly standing there getting wailed on by a monster and trying to out-HP the damned thing while shoving food in your face to keep yourself from dying in the mean time.

Your NPC buddies are often not incredibly helpful- they don’t aggro enemies on their own but that also means that if you aggro an enemy by accident, they’re not helping until after you hit it for the first time. Enemies usually target the player character, so the option of running up to something, hitting it, and retreating so your buddies can absorb the damage while you whittle down their HP is not readily available either. I’ve only died once and it was because I aggro’d a level 9 enemy while I was level 3 (oops) so it’s not unworkable, but it is annoying. The folks on Steam complained about the lack of haptic feedback, meaning that the feel of the hits don’t really feel like you’re hitting anything, and while I do agree that on Switch at least it’s not as good of a feel as other games (AC Valhalla and that bow tho...) it’s also not the worst I’ve experienced either. I will say that it’s much better now that I’m in chapter 3 and have a third party member, rather than just having a singular partner, but still.

Time... so remember the “I think I’m halfway through the first season”? There is no calendar I can find so how long do the seasons last? Well I don’t have any idea but I’m on day 16 so clearly longer than 15 or 7, both of which have been season limits in other farming games I’ve played. I’m assuming either 28 or 30 now but, genuinely, I just don’t know. This is kind of a problem in the first season because without knowing how long the season lasts, I can’t determine if it’s a good idea to grow those crops that are high valued but take 6 days to grow, over crops that are low value but are ready in just 1. Again, this is an important factor in the farming aspect, so while I’m sure I’ll be just fine once I hit summer because I’ll have an idea of what the change of seasons looks like, right now I have absolutely no clue what’s ahead of me. What happens when I run out of time? Are we talking Rune Factory 5 where all crops grow in all seasons but some crops grow extra good in certain seasons? Or is this a Stardew hard limit? What about crops that say they can grow in both spring and summer, will they die or will they continue to grow if I plant them in spring but they’re not done til summer?

A lot of people complained about the clock being way too fast and, maybe it’s just the seasoned farming sim player in me, but I think it’s fine? You don’t have a lot of time to fuck around but I cleared the first dungeon in a single day and that was even with me taking the time to do the time-penalty repairs on shortcuts etc. At first I thought maybe it was a holdover from people who’d played the demo, because apparently there was a day-one patch that lengthened the day timer, but there’s folks with 20 hours on record on Steam saying it’s too fast and I just don’t agree.

Similarly, initially the game starts pestering you to go back home at 6pm, and the first day it forced me to go home and sleep at 9pm, and that was very jarring. I understand that it’s trying to teach players to watch the clock and not get caught out past the day-end timer, but I can see why someone would dislike that. But that was just the first day, and it didn’t force me home after that, and after I cleared chapter 1 it stopped pestering me about sundown at 6. It does still poke you at 9pm and 10pm by chapter 3 but, again, other farming sims do warn you albeit less blatantly as you get close to the day-end timer. It’s also an earlier time- midnight- than a lot of the competition which lets you stay up til 2-4am depending on which one, but I never understood that since I literally come from a farming community and there is absolutely no way someone can continuously go to bed at 2-4am and wake up at the penalty 10am (instead of regular 6am) and feel rested enough to do it again the next day when it comes to farms.

The stamina system also pisses people off which I don’t understand because a lot of them are Stardew players and Stardew has a stamina system. And, again, I’m coming from the oldschool Harvest Moon games where you took a stamina penalty for fucking running in the rain. Long story short, everything except walking and talking costs stamina. You do have a lot, and the game also tells you first thing that you need to eat in the morning so you can recover stamina as you work throughout the day. I eat a single sandwich in the morning and I have yet to have a stamina crisis. I’ve been down to the wire a few times if I was doing a lot of farming, then went into a dungeon and fought a bunch of enemies, then stopped and harvested a bunch of stuff, without eating. But I can do all of those things on one sandwich and still have more than half my stamina by the end of the day. Just make sure you eat.

A big complaint a lot of people had is that the towns and the dungeons feel large but empty, with nothing really to do. I both agree and disagree- again my other farming sim this year was Rune Factory 5 which I would absolutely agree felt large but empty and like nothing I was doing really made a huge difference. Compared to that, this was an improvement, with more stuff to do around the towns and more people to talk to and more variety than three seasons of giving people their favorite gifts and getting the same weirdly aggressive and distrusting dialogue as when I first booted the game. But I do also agree that many of these maps feel very big but with very little to do in them. I find myself wanting to interact with people’s shelfs and wardrobes and assorted pots and pans, even just a little popup saying “[NPC]’s bookshelf, lined with medical texts”, and there’s nothing like that. It’s a little detail but I think it goes a long way to make a world feel lived-in instead of sterile. Animations when interacting with things in the dungeons, rather than a black screen and flavor text, would help as well. And, yes, giving some of these characters some variety- on x day [NPC] will be here between 6am and 10am, on y day [NPC] will be in their bedroom, etc would make me want to really pay attention to the layout of the town and interact with the town more. It doesn’t do any of these things, so it just feels... empty. The NPCs I want to talk to are always standing in a specific spot, unless I’m about to start a quest in which case they’re standing at the <!!!> on the map.

Weirdly there’s no voice acting for cutscenes, but there is voice acting for both just wandering around and also combat. Seems like a strange choice but ok. I’m not someone who needs voice acting in order to enjoy a game, again I am from the era of the Gameboy where we didn’t even have fucking color on our non-backlit screens, but it’s odd to hire voice actors and then not... use them...

And on that note, this is a personal pet peeve, but TEXT DIALOGUE TAKES TOO LONG and there is no way to make it go faster or skip it. So while I’m reflex-mashing “A” to try and hurry this along because the text boxes stick around long after I’m done reading them, invariably I will accidentally select a dialogue option I didn’t want, because there’s also a delay between what’s displayed on the screen during cutscenes vs what the buttons are doing. Probably a minor annoyance for most people but this is a big one for me. If you’re going to make me read a bunch of text I don’t mind, but you have to give me the option to rapidly click through it because I read faster than developers think people read. It’s like they made it so the text boxes stay up for long enough to be subtitles for voice work, and then... decided not to do voice work, and so now we just have text boxes that stay up forever.

Graphics are pretty usually. The first couple days for whatever reason sometimes the textures wouldn’t load and so I just had low res avatars walking around and I was like “whoa this looks like garbage suddenly” and then that? Stopped? So idk what that was about but I’ll bet if people are in chapter 1 or 2 and are saying the graphics are shit, that’s probably happening to them too. It went back to normal but it was very strange and I can more than understand being really put off by that. Do really like the art style, I’ve always liked the art style of the older FF stuff and this feels very similar with a bit of a modern twist. I especially like the way they’ve done the character portraits and I think that’s just my love of linework and pretty shading but who’s to say. I do really like that the choices for protag are so identical- too many games have radically different male vs female models and this model is more or less “has boobs” and “doesn’t have boobs” and that’s it. The outfits are slightly, slightly different as is the hair but it’s mostly boob or boobn’t.

So, yeah. I’d say a 7/10. Certainly some optimization issues. I think either the combat or the farming should be beefier- either give me a Final Fantasy game with actually good combat and some really simplistic farming, or a farming game with actually good mechanics and some really simplistic combat, but don’t give me a combo of both with simplistic combat and farming. Could be a little more fleshed out and it shows that it wasn’t. Dunno if this specific game had crunch but if it did (willing to bet it did, Squeenix is really churning them out this year), that’s probably why the lack of little details and also voice acting. Overall it’s fun, I don’t regret the purchase so that’s the important part, and out of the various new farming sims I’ve played recently this was the most fun. Not interested in the nostalgia-bait of A Wonderful Life (which I logged far too many hours on my gamecube) and RF3′s re-release doesn’t have gay marriage so I’m not into that either. Maybe into Fae Farm next year, it’s apparently really similar to Fantasy Life (another game I logged far too many hours). 

[tiredgameenthusiast]

Too Many Farming Simulators?

We better crop up for the next few games. (10/21/2022)

As of recent, there has been a discussion going around in the Nintendo community of one of their latest Directs. Here’s what’s happening:

In the recent Nintendo Direct, many fans, new and old alike, have been discussing the newest upcoming titles. People have noticed a few “familiar” patterns within the newly released games. 

Simply put, Farming Simulators.

Nintendo announced four new farming games along with other titles:

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life - (A remake of the GameCube classic version from 2003.) In this RPG/Life-Simulating game, you play as a farmer in the town of Forget-Me-Not-Valley a quiet homestead town where you can collect animals, crops, and items. There’s much to do in this cozy game, with town events and many quests for your character, the protagonist, to go on.

Fae Farm - In this soon-to-be released title from the creators of Dauntless, you can play as a fae, with magical abilities on the beautiful island of Azoria. Additionally, this game can be played with up to 4 friends, where you can traverse dungeons and ruins, cultivate an enchanting farm, and customize your world and characters to your desire.

Rune Factory 3 Special - (A remake of the 2009 DS game Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon ) In this combat-focused JRPG you play as Micah, a young man with amnesia and a strange ability to transform into a sheep monster. Fight monsters and cultivate your farm in this charming remake of one of the beloved games in the Rune Factory series. In this remake there is also a newly added “Newlywed” update in which you can choose your bride-to-be!

Harvestella - In this JRPG, action-packed game from Square Enix (creators of series such as Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy) there is a time at the end of every season in which all of the world’s plants wither into dust, named “Prometheus”. In this, story-telling farming simulator, grow crops and battle against monsters to level up and fight against the evil “Geist”, who is set on bringing death upon your world.

This rest of this year, and next years to come seem like they will be full of plants, combat and magic. Farming simulators seem to be taking the cake in these new releases and we are possibly set for the age of farming sims. Can it be too much, or is all in good fun? Here’s what some Tumblr users had to say about the most recent Nintendo Direct

“That nintendo direct sure was ‘Oops all farming sims’ huh?” - from user @kaijubrains​ - original post

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“RPG Fans 🤝 Farming Sim Fans

having an entire nintendo direct feeding them the most delicious content” - from user @introverted-trashcan​ - original post

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“Watching the nintendo Direct rn. I'm at Rune Factory, that's 3 farming sims already” - from user @mindofthemage​ - original post 

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“That Nintendo Direct was really good. No joke, I wanna buy three of the farming sims they advertised.” - from user @lord-radish​ - original post

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All in all, there does seem to be mixed reactions on the latest games coming out, however you look at it though, farming simulators seem as though they’ll be sticking around for the next couple of years, hopefully, they’ll all be fun to play!

What do you think of the new games being released? 

What were you hoping to see this direct?

Comment down below! 

[irascible-iridescent]

I checked my 3ds and I played so much of the same games x’) too bad Ever Oasis had a shit story bc I really loved the oasis management and traveling outside in the desert and other places. And getting new residents for my oasis. The fantasy races there were cool looking too. They should have made it more with kids friendly story without characters dying forever and be corrupted for all the eternity :/ it was shitty. You should be able to save everyone and add them to your oasis as friends. Also you cant play in the oasis after the final boss which is kinda not cool, I wish they did at least some after story where you can just chill and build stuff and talk to ppl. Im surprised I played Omega ruby this much bc I didn’t like it. I probably spent too many hours in planning my base. Pokemon Y is my first pokemon game and I loved it so so much I still love it and I would replay it if the game had save files :/ I did a looooot of shiny hunting there. Fates was a boring dumb game and I cant believe it I got it instead of Awakening but what can I do the time is gone now. Ace Attorney is the best game ever and I love it so so much. Im REALLY surprised that I played rune factory 4 for 155 hours bc isnt it crazy??? I mean I don’t remember playing it this much! But I remember how i tried to unlock everything, I wanted to get ALL marriage proposals cutscenes, but I couldn’t get the last one. Im such high lvl there??? And I have like +8000 weapons?? All my crafting skills 80+?? Wow how did I do that

[sunchipanim]

So much of Final Fantasys identity is through ripping off other games. FFXIV would not exist without WoW, the FF TCG would not exist without Magic the Gathering, and actually maybe I should have started with this example but the very first Final Fantasy game wouldn’t even exist without D&D first edition. There are further spinoffs that are probably less important like My Life as a King coming from Matching Maker/Metropolismania or FF Explorers just being Monster Hunter but with FF enemies, but no one really talks about those. I’m not here to deride the FF franchise for iterating on already popular games, far from it. I actually wanna list more it needs to start ripping off.

Animal Crossing - lemme dress up a chibi warrior of light in FF cosplays and decorate my house while talking to bipedal chocobos and behemoths and shit

Minecraft - Dragon Quest did it and it was great. It took place in an alternate history timeline of the first game where the villain won. Do that with FF1. Say Chaos won. How do we rebuild? Minecraft style with eccentric NPCs, duh.

Dynasty Warriors - You keep making these numbered FF games with action-oriented combat reminiscent of either KH or Nioh but what you fail to understand is that Musou is way cooler. Give it Stranger of Paradise’ job system and let me customize how I kill hoards of catuar. Better yet give the customizable avatar MC the job system and let all my cohorts be returning FF characters from series past. And gimme obscure shit, too, I don’t mean throw Cloud and Sehpiroth in there and call it good - don’t fucking skimp on Faris FFV or Maria FFII or any lovable character from games you don’t milk annually.

[Your Favourite 2D Fighting Game Here] - I know you think Dissidia is cool and original or whatever but take a step back and look at how much more popular 2D or even more grounded arena fighting games are. How much more character-per-character you could shove in a full move roster rather than just “Brave attack and Damage attack”. Hey, @ SquareEnix, this isn’t just for the fans, dude, this is for YOU. It could sell gangbusters. You like money enough to sell NFTs but not enough to make a 2D FF fighting game? Lazy dogasses. Call it Fighting Fantasy like you were originally gonna call FF1, have some fun with it. And again, I swear to god, if you topload it with VII I’m going to bite your ankles off.

Octodad: Dadliest Catch - 

Pokemon - Another thing Dragon Quest dared to do and strived off of. Call it Final Fantasy - Beastmasters as a callback to the cool recurring job that Yoshi-P won’t add to XIV for some reason.

Rune Factory/Harvest Moon/Stardew - I think this is what Harvestella is supposed to be, but it doesn’t go hard enough IMO. MORE Final Fantasy. Romancable returning characters. Ranching baby behemoths. Real-time combat in dangerous dungeons. Maybe farming.

Elder Scrolls - You guys have a good thing going here, you’ve got a grand RPG series with history and lore and recurring enemies and themes - now make it open world, first person, and release it several times in an identical state over the course of a decade.

uuh anyway in conclusion if u make video games then rip off as many other games as you can cause you’ll probably do better than them eventually

[factorialsfandoms]

Fic Writer Ask: 2, 17, 37 :D

2. Go to your AO3 “Works” page, to the sidebar with all the filters, and click the drop-down arrow for “Additional Tags.” What are your top 3-5 most used tags? Do you think they accurately represent your writing habits? (I am ignoring the top one as its a pseudo-fandom tag just so that people who do or don't want stuff based on a specific fancomic can filter as appropriate. As I consider it more a fandom tag and the others are more interesting) Hurt/Comfort (28) Angst (21) Major Character Injury (18) Blood (14) Fluff (12) Which... yeah that's probably all legit. Over 157 works I'm honestly surprised none of those numbers are higher.

Incidentally, on my FFXIV account it goes Specific Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV) (40) Ficlet (13) Hurt No Comfort (5) Named Azem (Final Fantasy XIV) (5) Angst (4)

Which is... much sadder. No comfort there, sorry (of 50 fics)

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

Basically all of my rune factory aus over so so so many fandoms. That one I did actually write. Oh! And for my most niche... One of my brain children is a LOTR/Avalon Code crossover. It might get repurposed with another fandom something, but just... An Avalon Code retelling with whatever blorbos I had at the time would be delicious. Especially exploring what making the edits actually /means/. ... It'd actually go really well with AI: Somnium Files but also /no/. Maybe a 999 Au, though, that'd be entertaining...

37. Promote one of your own “deep cut” fics (an underrated one, or one that never got as much traction as you think it deserves!). What do you like about it?

Oh boy let me see... Promoing always feels weird... You know what? I'm promoing I Will Still Be Here from my soapbox rn. Post-canon Fire Emblem: Binding Blade fic in which Elphin reveals his true identity to his father, King Mordred. It is soft, it is gentle, there's a lot of pain being carved open for them both. Letting your father know your death was faked against your will after you were left delirious and dying by an assassination attempt? Well he never actually gets to doing that - they'll get to it when emotions are running less high - there's more a lot of crying and commenting on miracles, but I love it. I know why its less well liked. Being a fic for a game never released in English using some minor characters barely anyone cares about, but I just... It's not even an amazing fic it's just gentle and I think the characters in general should have more love.

[tandemunicycle]

Farming Sims: an exercise in futility, and the one that got it right

tl/dr: The only good farming game is Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life and I will die on this hill.

Before I begin I would just like to say; I have not done extensive research into the actual logistics of these games or the opinions of goals of their creators, this is based purely on my own experience and opinions.

So first off, some loose education for those who are not indoctrinated, a farming sim is short for a farming simulator, basically a game that, well, simulates farming. The levels of scrutiny in the simulation vary, with some having aspects of fantasy while others delving into the specifics of crop growth and animal management. In many of these farming sims, however, the farming itself is not so much the focus of the game as is the life of a farmer, especially one living in a small town. Growing relationships, fixing up the town, getting married, getting a better farm, all of these common gameplay features of popular farming games such as Stardew Valley and Rune Factory.

There comes a time, however, that many players of these kinds of games become quickly familiar with. It can come early, or later in gameplay as your farm and daily chores become more and more automated, and the daily habit of farm chores become chores to the player as well. I'll just refer to it as the slump, as I don’t know if other gamers actually have a phrase for this.

You see, in these types of games it's all about A. resource management and B. upgrades to living conditions. You chop lots of wood to get a bigger house so you can cook better food and better food lets you farm longer and better tools let you farm even longer than that. These are not inherently slump-inducing, but you soon come to realize as you progress that there is no end. No goal. Sure you may make your farm the biggest or the richest or improve your town to the max but… then what? The years go by and nothing changes. You do chores to what, get a better fishing rod? Romance all the people you can in town just to see what they say? You’re an immortal god in a sandbox full of turnips and although there is no end, most likely you’ll just start over again, because the game wasn’t about the town or the people or you, but about all the shit you could collect and do.

Farming sims induce a strange sort of depression in me. A monotonous day to day that only changes on the surface. Kind of dramatic, but I think it’s true.

Now let me tell you about Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.

This game is not beautiful. It’s 2003 GameCube graphics with low polygons, the music is often repetitive and lulling, the writing and translations are choppy at best and confusing at worst, some aspects of the game like any farming sim are painfully repetitive and slow, and I think to have fun sometimes you need to plug in a podcast and play mindlessly. But this game does something no other game of its breed had the bravery to do. And it starts quick.

After the first year you have to marry one of the Bachelorettes (or bachelors if you’re playing the Another Wonderful Life version, which I may mention some details from, but generally follows the same formula), and the next chapter (Chapters start with being a year long, then time between them increases, except in Another Wonderful Life where they remain one year long. It is implied that several years had passed in between chapters) you live in a larger home with your wife and toddler son. What has changed other than the size of your home and family? Well, Nina, a kindly old woman who lived with her husband Galan, has died. Galan, now sullen and nearly speechless, has moved to the hill where Nina's grave is, while a new family has moved into the home they once had together.

This immediately breaks the standard set by its predecessors and its successors. Change in farming sims usually only happens when the player initiates it, acting as a sandbox for farming and ranching and dating random hicks, but as you play Harvest Moon you start to realize this isn’t just a farming sim, this is a life sim.

The changes with time don’t stop there. As the years go by the player character and all of the people around them grow and change. Galan after a while (and helped if the player befriends him and keeps him company) comes back out of his shell as a friendly townsfolk again, only to die a chapter later. The player character, as well as other adult characters around you, slowly grow grey hairs and wrinkles. Some faster than others. Your son grows up, and in what I think is a stroke of video game genius, your son's future career path is affected not only by you and what toys you give him, but by who you befriend, what you do, and how you run your farm.

And in the final chapter, chapter 6, when you are old and grey and your son a surly teenager and all the people around you different, some new, some there since the beginning. How does this final chapter end?

You die. And that's the end.

This is the genius of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. Change doesn’t just happen because of you, it happens to you. People grow old and die and move away and move in and change and stay the same and when you’re old, you know what? You die too. That is so beautiful. Sure the writing can be flat and sure the characters aren’t as deep as some games, but it also has that unique feel that you can only have in Japanese games that everything going on isn’t said. Some things are just left for you to feel.

For a long time I didn’t understand why other farming games just felt off. Bland and flat and soulless, and I realized after thinking about Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, that games before and after it had a completely different philosophy to them. They were collector and builder games, about getting the best farm and chopping wood and completing the town museum and fishing all the fish and making the town and land cute and cool and efficient. Those kinds of things aren't bad, but I felt so incomplete with them. They felt hollow.

So I kept looking, for a long time, for something that could compare. Stardew Valley is a great game, but I came into the realization that I would just be doing this, forever with the same people no matter if I played for 3 in game years or a hundred. Other Harvest Moon games, or Story of Seasons games as they’re called in the future, are just painful to play. I got the most recent to come out, Pioneers of Olive Town, and it nearly made me cry in frustration at the pretty graphics and freedom of customization at the sacrifice of everything that gives a game soul. 

Repetitive chores and boring characters are kind of a given for the farming sim genre, but I don’t think any other game of its breed will ever live up to Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life and Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life until the people who make these games are brave enough to give the story a satisfying conclusion and make them more than just sandboxes to play in.

So, if you have some time, and some patience, and want to try something a little different, get *COUGH*emulate*COUGH**COUGH* Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life (or the special edition version since it shortens the chapter time because DEAR GOD THOSE GET LONG AND DULL), and tell me what you think, because while I talked about some of the gameplay aspects, I have not even mentioned the half of it and its characters.

[xpao-bearx]

《This story series is also on my AO3 acc @ Paoloca》

SUMMARY: The bachelors of Selphia conjure up a plan to decide who truly deserves the beautiful princess' heart...if Frey can only choose one of them, that is.

PAIRINGS: Frey x Vishnal, Frey x Kiel, Frey x Doug, Frey x Arthur, Frey x Dylas, Frey x Leon (Polyamorous Ships)

RATING: Mature/18+/Romance & Smut. Please bear these in mind if you are uncomfortable and do NOT report!

NOTE: I have been an avid fan and lover of the Rune Factory series for a looong fooken time now and with RF 5 coming up (who else can't wait?!?!) along with my bursting inspiration, I decided to do something a lil special~ 💖

This story is actually one I wrote--or at least TRIED to write as I didn't finish it--many years ago on my old Wattpad acc (I have a new one now). As such, I'm taking the basic plotline from the original idea I had and simply making it a bit better especially now that I'm older + more mature (pfft yeah sure "mAtUrE" xD).

I sincerely and deeply love ALL of the amazing bachelors on RF 4 and as someone who absolutely ✨A D O R E S✨ reverse harems, I really *personally* don't think that Frey has to choose! And so, here's a naughty + sweet story that'll kinda just delve into my--and I'm sure others'--fantasy ;)

I hope ya lovelies will enjoy this story series and your wonderful support is always very much appreciated! 🥺💕💕 Also, feel free to fangirl/fanboy with me anytime~

P.S. Please forgive mah pathetic ass in advance if I ever portray any of the characters wrong, I promise to do my best!!

"The Princess' Harem"

Part 1: The Game

☆ALL CREDIT GOES TO THE TALENTED ARTIST☆

Summer 1, the dawn of a sweltering season. But most of all...

Beach Day!

Ah, yes, a most wonderful holiday to take a dip in the refreshing water and don the most attractive swimsuits that perfectly hugged one's form! And while it was understandable for the gentlemen to gawk and admire the lovely ladies, it seemed that all the bachelors of Selphia were completely ensnared by one warrior princess in particular...

Frey's tinkly laughter carried in the air as she happily swam around in the lake with the other girls. It was certainly a gorgeous day, yet none could quite rival the turquoise haired beauty's radiant smile.

"Haa... The princess is SO beautiful~" Vishnal sighed dreamily, his violet eyes turning into hearts.

"A goddess among mere mortals!" Kiel piped up cutely.

"You guys are so lame! But, uh... Y-Yeah, I agree, I guess." Doug conceded, face flushing as scarlet as his hair.

"I am a man, after all. Therefore, I must say I agree as well." Arthur cleared his throat, propping his glasses.

"You are all perverts..." Dylas grumbled, though he couldn't help but shyly sneak a peek at Frey.

"My, my~ You're such a bad liar, horsie. Calling us perverts when you, yourself, are one~" Leon chuckled, smirking.

"Who're ya calling horsie?!" Dylas snapped, but couldn't start an argument when all of them heard a splash and saw Frey emerge onto shore.

"Princess!" Vishnal beamed, not wasting a single second as he dashed towards her with a towel much like an excited puppy. "Are you done swimming?"

Frey gratefully took the towel, wiping her drenching body with it. "Yes, I am! And once I change into my clothes, I'm going to be checking the requests."

"You're ever so diligent, Frey. I truly admire that about you." Arthur smiled as he and the rest of the boys approached their beloved girlfriend. Arthur's glasses then flashed as the sun reflected on them, and he quickly grabbed that splendid opportunity for his gaze to drop and hyperfocus on Frey's nearly naked body. He barely managed to suppress it as he almost shamelessly licked his lips, fully taking in and very much appreciating her wet and fit physique.

"Oh, it's nothing! I'm only doing my duties." Frey giggled, embarrassed as her cheeks tinted pink. "But other than that, how come you guys aren't in your swimsuits? It's boiling!" She frowned worriedly.

"Why, is milady that eager to see me in all my glory?" Leon purred, standing in front of her in a flash. His teal eyes sparkled mischievously, as one of his hands reached forward to run his fingers through her long hair. "If you want to see me that badly, I'd rather 'perform' a private show for you tonight~"

Frey became as red as a ruby, opening and closing her mouth repeatedly like a fish out of water. She tried to speak, but no words came out as she could only stare up with eyes as wide as dinner plates at an amused Leon who was enjoying this situation far too much.

"Oi, knock it off!" Dylas growled, wrapping a protective arm around Frey as he glared sharply at Leon. "She's gonna go fishing with me after she's done, anyways!"

"WHAT?! No fair, you can't hog her all to yourself! If you guys are going fishing then I'm going, too!" Doug huffed, snatching Frey away from Dylas.

"No way, you dumbass dwarf! You're not invited!"

"Well, I am now, you fucking nag!"

As the two handsome idiots bickered like an old married couple and fought over Frey, she could only release an exasperated sigh. Honestly, she loved them both, but there was really no use trying to talk any sense into them. The best anyone could do was just wait it out until they inevitably get tired.

But as Doug and Dylas were yanking Frey from one side to another like a ragdoll, they suddenly stopped. It seems that everyone else halted, too, and the air blew bitter cold. Frey, oblivious, could only raise a brow before she finally realized--or more like felt--what all the boys were staring at.

She looked down, Doug and Dylas' hands accidentally cupping each one of Frey's breasts. All of the boys were a thousand shades of crimson, and Vishnal even started to have a nosebleed.

"ACK! S-Sorry..!" Doug and Dylas exclaimed in unison, abruptly pulling their hands away as if they were burned.

"O-Oh, uh, it's f-fine..!" Frey stuttered, not being able to meet anyone's gaze. "I-It was just an accident, after all!"

"Are you sure you're alright, Frey?" Kiel asked, holding her hands into his gently as he studied her face in concern. "These lowlifes didn't hurt you, did they?" It was rare for Kiel to be angry let alone badmouthing anyone, but it was clear from his tone how upset he was. Honestly, Doug and Dylas were a little scared...

"Y-Yes, I'm alright!" Frey nodded vigorously, smiling brightly. "Seriously, guys, don't worry about me! I'll see you all later, okay?" She hurriedly gave each one of them a chaste peck on the cheek before making her way back to the castle.

"So..." Leon began, a fake smile plastered on his lips as his eyes held no emotion. "I wonder who the true perverts are now?"

"H-Hey, it was an accident! Besides, it's all this moron's fault!" Dylas retorted, pointing an accusatory finger at Doug.

"MY fault?! If you just invited me in the first place, none of this would've happened!" Doug shouted furiously.

"You guys...touched...the princess' b-b-breasts..." Vishnal muttered, totally lost in his own world as he was slowly deteriorating from existence.

"Oh, my..." Arthur let out a heavy exhale. "I'm sure you two already know this, but as soon as Frey is done with her tasks then you both must apologize to her again. Accident or not, it is completely unacceptable for a man to touch a woman without her consent."

"Hey, y'know, I've been wondering..." Kiel cut in. "Do you guys ever think if Frey is just being strung along by us?"

"What do you mean?" Doug frowned.

"Like, didn't we confess to Frey at different times? And at every confession, she rejected all of us. And later on, it was only then we found out that we all shared the same feelings for her."

"So, what's your point?" Dylas pressed.

Kiel sighed, staring pointedly at the taller man. "Don't you find it a bit weird that now, we're all in a relationship with her? I know that being in a polyamorous relationship with Frey was something we all consented on from the very beginning, but why the sudden change of heart?"

"Isn't it obvious? Being in a polyamorous relationship means that Frey likes all of us at the same time, which is fine. Maybe she was just too shy at first to admit it." Leon shrugged.

"That may be true, or...what if she's only with us out of pity?" A wave of realization washed through everyone, and a certain pang of sadness settled in their hearts. "Frey is such a nice person, it's possible she only agreed to be with us since she felt bad for rejecting us. And now, she doesn't know how to break up with us for fear of hurting us even more."

"There's also one other possibility..." Arthur spoke up. "What if she actually likes one of us, but can't exclusively date that person?"

Dead silence. Only the faint sounds of the lake thrashing and birds chirping, before Vishnal was the one who first woke up back to reality.

"So... What are we supposed to do?" He questioned softly. "I feel so terrible... If what you're saying is true, then I don't want to continue on like this. I love Frey, but I can't ever bear the thought of hurting her!"

"How about a game?" Leon suggested.

"Now's really not the time, foxy." Doug rolled his eyes.

"No, no. You've misunderstood." Leon shook his head. "I'm talking about a game to see who Frey truly likes or doesn't like. And that way, we won't have to be hurting her and suffering like this anymore."

"Hmm... An interesting proposition." Arthur hummed thoughtfully. "I don't quite like referring to this as a 'game', but colour me intrigued. What's your idea, then?"

"Alright. So, we each get one whole day to spend with Frey. Completely alone, and no one is allowed to bother anyone else. As long as Frey is okay with it, then we can do whatever we want with her. Going on dates, exploring...you get the idea. Finally, by the end of the week, we'll all ask her how she feels and who she had the most fun with. Her answer will then determine what will happen afterwards."

"Hmph. Okay, that sounds good." Dylas nodded, agreeing for once. "How can we settle who goes first and last, though?"

"I think it would only be fair if we go in the order that Frey met us. So it's Vishnal, me, Doug, Arthur, Dylas, and then Leon." Kiel offered.

"All in favour?" Arthur asked, and everyone collectively voiced out their approval. "Good. It's settled, then. May the best man win!"

"Speaking of, I forgot that the castle is undergoing construction! So please excuse me, I'll have to get going now!" Vishnal grinned, disappearing in a blink of an eye.

"Wait... I just visited Ventuswill earlier with Granny Blossom." Doug furrowed his brows before gasping. "That bastard..! He went to go have a headstart with Frey!" He immediately chased after the conniving butler, but not before his shoulder got bumped hard by Dylas.

"If anyone's gonna get a headstart, it's me!"

"Oh, shut the hell up, HORSIE!"

Arthur sighed deeply, rubbing his temples stressfully as Kiel only chuckled sheepishly. Leon simply watched the scene, his fan hiding his smirk.

'There is a saying: Save the best for last~' Leon thought satisfyingly to himself.

[impromptu-breakdancing]

The Flashy Lights List

 Fuck flashing lights

Here are some movies, TV shows, games and more that I have seen that have flashing lights. I’ll try to include where you can find the thing and/or who made it. Huge thanks to everyone that helps me update and add on to this list.

MOVIES

Mary and the Witches Flower - Netflix

Cars - idk where to find it I just know that it’s made by Pixar and that all the other car movies have flashing lights because let’s be realistic here, it’s a racing movie. There are going to be flashing cameras.

Titanic - Don’t know where you can watch it but I do know that the door was big enough for both Jack and Rose to fit on

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005 version)

Ratatouille - (Pixar) Unfortunately. I think it’s a creative movie so that’s sad

Up - (Pixar) DAMN YOU, YOU ONE LIGHTNING SCENE!!

Just gonna go with all of the Star Wars movies because I am too lazy to watch each one and am unwilling to watch the prequels and the ones that Disney made 

IT - both versions most likely. I know for a fact that the more modern remake is

Until I know for sure, I’m just gonna say that all Marvel movies aren’t safe

Zootopia - Pixar

Brave - (Pixar) It seems too good to be a Disney film plus it was a princess movie WITHOUT SINGING

Maleficent - Disney

Ghost Busters - Both the older version and the revamp

Monsters University - (Disney) please correct me if I am wrong

Planes - Pixar

The Maze Runner series - THE BOOKS WERE SO MUCH FKING BETTER

I would assume the Harry Potter series

Pixels - idk bro let me know (thanks

SHOWS

Code Geass - Netflix... for now (jesus christ if you are photosensitive please don’t watch this. If you aren’t and you watch anime PLEASE DO WATCH IT!!!)

Probably most anime but lemme get back to you on that

Supernatural -CW and Netflix

Doctor Who - A lot of streaming services

Stranger Things - Netflix

American Horror Story - The main streaming services (basically the ones that everyone knows)

Raising Dion - Netflix (thanks @uhwhatami )

The Flash - Netflix and CW???? (Thanks @amberputh )

The Curse of Oak Island - History Channel

Pokémon - probably the games too

VIDEO GAMES

Far Cry 5 - (they do have a warning before the game starts up)

Far Cry New Dawn - (yep another warning. kudos)

Undertale - (after playing it again I am going to repeat myself. jesus christ if you are photosensitive please don’t play this. if you aren’t and you play video games PLEASE DO PLAY THIS!!!)

Delta Rune? - (I haven’t gotten that far into it yet so lemme get back to you on that)

OXENFREE - if you like short horror games, I would definitely recommend this game

Life is Strange - they didn’t even wait a second before coming at me with that thunderstorm (PlayStation)

The Last of Us - PlayStation

Cup head - Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Steam

Mr Hopps Playhouse - PC game

Kid Icarus Uprising - Nintendo @justepilepsy

Naruto Ninja Clash - Game Cube @justepilepsy

A lot of Final Fantasy games (thanks @littlevoidpuff)

Detroit: Become Human - Sold only on PS4 (I’ve been replaying it to see if there are any flashing and have fallen in love with the game all over again)

Super Smash Bro’s - Probably all versions but after getting the final version yeah stay away (Nintendo)

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Nintendo (thanks for the help @spacecripple)

Worse Than Death - Flashing lights near the end of the game (thanks @his-eyes-of-silver-and-blood )

The Original Legend of Zelda games - @his-eyes-of-silver-and-blood

Shovel Knight - @his-eyes-of-silver-and-blood

MOBILE APPS

SuperStar JYP

SuperStar SM

Just Kill Me 3

BT21

MysticMessenger? I think if you just skip the introduction video you should be just fine.

Shiba Force? I saw my friend play it but it just looked like a flash and then no flash? Would someone mind helping me out with this one

DangerousFellows (Courtesy of my friend Bella)

Pokémon Go - I think the evolutions are the only things that contain flashing lights

MISCELLANEOUS 

Angry Birds Arcade - It’s like a physical gaming machine (thanks @his-eyes-of-silver-and-blood ) 

“Whoever the f * c k has been editing recent GameGrumps vids has been using a lot of flashing shit and I hate it (avoid the whole channel tbh...)” @his-eyes-of-silver-and-blood

[aggressionbread]

that quarantine ask thing

tagged by @copperplatescript thanks, i love answering these things!

Are you staying home from work/school? 

Yes! The farmer’s markets got shut down, and my local one is currently doing a parking lot market just for essential items, so obviously crafts aren’t included in that. But even though farmer’s markets are included in phase 1 re-opening, neither me nor my mom feel like its safe or responsible to go back at this time, so we’ll probably still be at home for at least a few months.

If you are staying home, who is with you? 

Just me and my mom. It’s always been like that though so we’re used to it. 

Are you a homebody?

Very much so! I’m very lucky that my normal life routine hasn’t changed much, I know not everyone gets that luxury. I love being at home and usually stay home like 5-6 days a week anyway. But it’s a little disappointing not getting to just walk around Wal-Mart, browsing the craft section on that 7th day.

An event you were looking forward to that got cancelled? 

This was the first year in a long time that I made any plans at all. Anime convention was the biggest one! And just various festivals (food festival) in the city, and just general plans to go to big city shopping malls and Do Stuff with my bf.

What movies have you watched recently?

I literally don’t watch movies and haven’t seen anything since Sonic, so I’ll put video games here. Final Fantasy VII Remake, Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Rune Factory 4, Story of Seasons, Roblox.

What shows are you watching?

I watch 90 Day Fiance and General Hospital with my mom sometimes. I mainly just watch Vinesauce streams though, and youtube videos.

What music are you listening to?

IDK why I’ve been listening to Nine Inch Nails recently? Other than that just been doing my Spotify Weekly to try to find good stuff.

What are you reading?

I don’t read much :( no attention span + libraries are closed. I’d put crafts here instead but I’ve been so unmotivated I haven’t done any. Oh wait I did that p5 Joker doll (pics to come) and that pokemon gameboy sculpture and the resin shaker charm!

What are you doing for self care?

I’ve been going for walks, trying to be healthy! Hmm not sure how much this is “care” but i’ve been doing some online shopping recently. Trying not to be hard on myself for having absolutely no motivation to do anything. Been doing a little crocheting too, that’s always good for me!

is it cheating if i just say I tag any mutual/follower who wants to do this? IDK who likes these and who finds them annoying so i won’t pressure anyone :o

[benisasoftboi]

Unorganised Thoughts on Cindered Shadows:

Spoilers! All the spoilers!

Yeah it took me a week to finish it, as always, I’ve been busy

It’s possible that someone will remember that I’ve made a few of these, and that I said I’d be doing Crimson Flower next, but haven’t. I have finished that route. I wrote something up. It ended up being over 8000 words long. I decided no one would want to read 8000 words of me complaining about fantasy politics, and did not post it

If anyone is interested in knowing in detail what I think about any or all of the following: Edelgard (short version: good in concept, but severely let down by the writing), Fodlan’s politics (surprisingly complex! Which is why the main characters’ having such simple and naive politics is so frustrating!), Rhea and the church (she creeps me out), general opinions on minor things (most controversial: I actually like F!Byleth’s outfit) or various shipping opinions/headcanons (I like pretty much any pairing except Dimitri/Anyone, and Linhardt and Caspar with anybody but each other), give me a shout and let me know. I won’t be holding my breath, but like... if you want me to ramble I wouldn’t say no

Anyway! Cindered Shadows!

New characters ranked by how much I like them as characters, most to least: Yuri, Hapi, Constance, Balthus 

Reasoning: I love pretty boys because I am, emotionally, still 12, stoic-type girls are also great and I love her design, she annoyed me a little at first but I thought the sunlight thing was interesting and she eventually grew on me, and I don’t dislike him at all, he’s just the least interesting to me

New characters ranked by how much I like them as units: Balthus, Yuri, Constance, Hapi (ugh, I really like her but she was total deadweight for me)

I’ve always really, really loved the concept of both underground cities and groups of people who have nothing in common aside from being outsiders, bound together by that one shared trait - so I. Love. Abyss. I wish the whole game was set there, it’s so cool

Some really good maps! Actually, let’s review each level:

1: Good intro to the Wolves. Aside from the ‘secret fourth house’ line, which is bad and makes what is otherwise a great concept sound really dumb. But the map itself makes for a very good demonstration of each of the Wolves’s deals. Bit messed up that you kill a bunch of Abyssians and no one really addresses that again, though

2: Even the game comments on the fact that releasing four waves of enemies in a circle gets tiresome. Least favourite

3: Wish the game had been a little clearer of the exact requirements for finishing the map. Also, enough reinforcements to almost be too annoying, but it managed to just avoid that, for me at least

4: This fucking level. I love an escape map in concept, but that goddamn doll at the start. I don’t know how I would have beat it if I hadn’t realised Edelgard can be reclassed out of her armor for better movement (speaking of deadweight units... was the same on Crimson Flower, Lord ranking in terms of actual usefulness in battle is Claude > Dimitri >>> Edelgard, and I say this as someone who normally loves defense-based units in video games). Anyway, despite the fact that it took me like six tries, this was my favourite of the lot - partly because it was so satisfying to finally beat, and partly because, like I say, I just love the concept

5: Breather level, thankfully. Cool to see Metodey again. But... why is he there??? I made Edelgard kill defeat him

6: Starts out really hard and gets easier. Biggest problem for me was the Bolting mages. I found that the trick was to use Ashe’s battalion gambit on Byleth and counter from afar with the Sword of the Creator. Map’s a cinche after they’re gone

7: A really, really cool final boss fight, and really great to just get to fight a big monster without having to slog through hundreds of other enemies as well (two per turn is fine, gives characters like Ashe who are too weak to fight the boss something to do). And there’s no way I could find to cheap it like on Crimson Flower (something I had to do then because of Cyril and his goddamn Murder Axe). Only wish it wasn’t the case that half of the Wolves can basically never touch the boss without being insta-killed. Hapi and Constance should have been able to do more than Phantom Aelfric Clean-Up

It was really nice getting to have all the Lords work together. I had Edelgard and Dimitri do a Gambit Boost and it was weirdly emotional

Am upset that no supports were available. Primarily because this would have been a great opportunity to add some side-story exclusive supports between the Lords. I get why they couldn’t do that in the main game, but I think the lack of any connection between them (besides the mostly one-sided Dimitri->Edelgard) is one of the game’s biggest downfalls, and this could have at least compensated a little

At least we got a few conversations in Abyss

Oh I wonder who the traitor could be, who is it, of the five characters we’ve met it couldn’t possibly be the really generic looking old guy who wasn’t in the trailer oh my god I’m so shocked it WAS him this is an unprecedented twist the likes of which we will never be graced with again

Liked getting some back story and an actual name for Byleth’s mother

I want to know how ‘Noa Fruit’ became a thing. Linhardt alludes to it, but I want that lore. Give me the Fruit Lore, Intsys

Also give me Mysterious Woman lore

I’ve said this before, but Gatekeeper x Abysskeeper OTP

Why can’t Yuri and Linhardt support I want them to bond over being smart bisexual pretty boys with grappler best friends (I have a very long mental list of characters who should have had supports together but don’t) 

Yuri’s make-up is gorgeous. Love that design choice

The ‘Nabatean Chalice’ reminded me - I’ve kind of always wondered if Nabatea is meant to be a call back to Nabata from the Elibe games, or if it’s just coincidence that they sound similar

Will we ever find out anything about the Crest of Ernest or nah? (Fiver says if ever, it’ll be randomly explained in a Forging Bonds in FEH like three years from now. Wouldn’t put it past them) 

So Byleth’s nickname was the ‘Ashen Demon’. And these guys are the ‘Ashen Wolves’. I kind of figured that would come up? Was it a translation thing?

I love how the reasons for each of the Wolves being in Abyss were “I barely escaped execution by the Church for the crime of murder”, “I was experimented on and now have dangerous magical powers”, “I’m the last surviving member of a collapsed noble family” and “I’m in like, so much debt, lol”. Kind of makes me wonder if Leonie ends up down there in some of her endings

Although I hear that there’s actually a little more to Balthus, as revealed by supports. I haven’t seen all of them yet, the only one I’ve looked up was Dimitri and Hapi because those two interacting intrigued me and... I know what I said above, but this might actually be a Dimitri pairing I don’t dislike? What is this???

I’ll watch the rest at some point, but won’t be starting a new 3H playthrough. Rune Factory 4 Special finally comes out next week and the moment my pre-ordered Archival Edition shows up at my door, it’ll be Fire Emblem who? The only dragon I know is Ventuswill, and the only empire I’m worried about is the unfortunately named ‘Sechs Empire’

Although, the fact that Kiel and Caspar have the exact same voice might end up being... hmmm

Eh, I got over Doug and Yosuke Hanamura. It’ll be fine :)

[cherabby]

anyway i think what lowkey bothers me about people making fun of ppl who didn’t know that you had to play the rest of the kingdom hearts games to understand what’s going on bc “imagine going to see an avengers movie without watching any other marvel movies beforehand and getting angry because you don’t know who these characters are or what’s going on” and like you’d have a point... if game series consistently operated by the same continuity of serialization in other medium. 

like, by all means, those people should have done their research beforehand and actually looked up whether this series was a continuous one or not, but acting like it’s the dumbest thing in the world and comparing it to films totally ignores the fact that games really don’t often rely on continuity. i mean, consider the fact that kingdom hearts is produced by square enix--you know, the folks that also put out final fantasy, the games that you can more or less pick up just about anywhere in the series and have a self-contained story that doesn’t depend on playing the previous 14 titles to understand what’s going on. and that’s not just limited to square enix either; pokemon, rune factory, the legend of zelda, fire emblem, etc. are all series that don’t necessarily require knowledge of the previous games to enjoy the story at large. recent big games like persona 5, nier: automata, hell, all of the fallout and elder scrolls titles--like, a game being the third in a series doesn’t necessarily mean anything in terms of continuity. 

games with hard, clear-cut continuity that you HAVE to play every prior title are kind of a rarity these days. like--the no autosave in pokemon thing? that’s something that’s reasonable to find funny because not having an autosave in turn-based jrpgs is basically a staple, so if you were at all familiar with the genre you’d know that. hell, most games fucking TELL YOU at the beginning that they have autosave, so you’d think the logical thought process would be “I didn’t see anything about an autosave, so it must not have one”. but, like, continuity is so inconsistent between all kinds of genres it’s basically a fucking guessing game.

[beardycarrot]

Well, that was interesting. Something I 100% fully expected to make an appearance, Animal Crossing, didn’t... and something that I knew was coming this year but thought would be announced later, the next 2D Zelda, made it in.

I’m surprised that it’s the Link’s Awakening remake I’ve been demanding for the last decade, though. I knew what I was looking at the second I saw those crashing waves, and I love that animated opening sequence... but I’m not sure how I feel about the art style of the game itself. Everything is shiny, looking almost like plastic... as if it’s all a Playmobil set or something. It’s certainly unique, and maybe it’ll grow on me, but at the moment I’m a little lukewarm on it.

What I’m not lukewarm on, however, is GODDAMN RUNE FACTORY. I won’t be getting the enhanced port of Rune Factory 4 coming to Switch, as my younger sister got me the 3DS version for my birthday and I still need to play it, but I’m seriously hyped for the announcement that Rune Factory 5 is in development.

I’m also surprised that, of all games, Assassin’s Creed 3 is coming to Switch. I mean, I loved every moment of that game, I thought it was great... but that’s an uncommon opinion. I’m not really sure why Ubisoft thought this was the Assassin’s Creed port the world needed, when AC3 and 4 have both been on Nintendo, while the most beloved part of the series, AC2 and its spinoffs, haven’t. Or maybe they viewed AC3 as the game that could be improved the most and have done that... who knows.

I’m writing this an hour after the Direct ended, but if memory serves, I think there were a few things that can be downloaded right now? Demos for Yoshi’s Crafted World and Daemon X Machina, and they released one of the Final Fantasy ports (IX?) out of the blue? I... might actually get that. FFIX is the one with the air pirates and Vivi, right? I’ve never actually seen or played that game, and am definitely interested to.

[a03-sailormoon]

Genderbent yandere x reader oneshots

by Yandererulz

This is just like my Yandere x reader oneshot book except it's different Yandere gender bends x reader. ---------------------------------

Have you ever watched a movie, played a game or seen anime character and thought I wonder what it would be like if they were the opposite gender?

  Well now they are and they want you. They want you more then life it self. You better watch it. You better not cry. You better not run. I'm telling you why! Yanderes are coming for you~

Words: 499, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Death Note (Anime & Manga), pretear, Hetalia: Axis Powers, Corpse Party (Video Game), Brothers Conflict, Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types, Sword Art Online, Fairy Tail, Vampire Knight (Anime & Manga), Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan, Fruits Basket (Anime), Saiunkoku Monogatari, Uta no Prince-sama, 花咲ける青少年 | Hanasakeru Seishounen, 神々の悪戯 | Kamigami no Asobi, Amnesia (Game & Anime), Diabolik Lovers, 七つの大罪 | Nanatsu no Taizai | The Seven Deadly Sins, Prince of Stride: Alternative (Anime), Hakuouki, 私がモテてどうすんだ | Watashi ga Motete Dousunda | Kiss Him Not Me, Hana Yori Dango | Boys Over Flowers (Anime & Manga), Fushigi Yuugi, Hiiro no Kakera, Koi suru tenshi Angelique, 喧嘩番長 乙女 | Kenka Banchou Otome | Girl Beats Boys (Anime), Angelique when the heart awakens, Dance with Devils (Anime), hanayaka nari waga ichizoku, Heart no Kuni no Alice | Alice in the Country of Hearts, Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, おおかみこどもの雨と雪 | Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki | The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki, Magi - Fandom, One Piece, Tokyo Ghoul, Kamisama Hajimemashita | Kamisama Kiss, Kill la Kill, Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn, Rosario + Vampire, Soul Eater, 食戟のソーマ | Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma, Deadman Wonderland, Glitter Force, Sailor Moon, Princess Tutu, Durarara, toradora - Fandom, Final Fantasy, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Fire Emblem Series, Minecraft (Video Game), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Elder Scrolls, Harvest Moon, Rune Factory 4, Super Smash Brothers, Fallout 4, Fable (Video Games), dragon dogma, Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game), 牧場物語つながる新天地 | Story of Seasons, Fantasy Life (Video Game), Bravely Default (Video Game) & Related Fandoms, どうぶつの森 | Animal Crossing Series, ホームタウンストーリー | Hometown Story (Video Game), The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, Super Mario & Related Fandoms, Mortal Kombat (Video Games), World of Warcraft, Metroid Series, Kirby - All Media Types, Street Fighter, Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types, 悪魔城ドラキュラ | Castlevania Series, pikman, Assassin's Creed - All Media Types, Crash Bandicoot (Video Games), Mystic Messenger (Video Game), Doki Doki Literature Club! (Visual Novel), Disney - All Media Types, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Total Drama

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con

Categories: F/M

Characters: pretty much everyone from the listed anime/games/shows/movies

Relationships: yandere/reader

Additional Tags: Yandere, Reader-Insert, Rape, Smut, Violence, Gore, mature - Freeform, 15+

from AO3 works tagged 'Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon' http://ift.tt/2Ijjo6E via IFTTT