#kind of how i love pokemon except pokemon is like. the ULTIMATE thing but its definitely up there

[pawphin]

i admire everyone that has been mentally ill over a source for over a year because my brain is absolutely incapable of staying on a source for more than 7 months

[fakemon-archive]

ASTRA DEX, created by DarkNe0s (2009)

Did you ever make your own pokemon when you were younger? Maybe drew them, sprited them, and then shared them on some long-gone corner of the internet?

What kind of pokemon did you make?

Today, we have plenty of guides to making fakemon that more closely match the design style and philosophy of official pokemon designs, and MANY creative and incredibly talented artists bringing these fan-made dexes to life. But even still, it's hard to say what exactly makes something a pokemon design- especially when it's something that varies so much between generations.

Good Lird. The similarities between these seems to start and end at "IT IS GREEN".

Ultimately, what a pokemon should look like is entirely subjective- but that's obvious enough, isn't it? That's just the base line of fakemon design itself. Everyone and their mother knows it.

Let's have some fun. What should your pokemon look like? Do they need to be as close to official design styles as they can be? Or can they be frightening, cool monsters? Maybe something more cartoonish? What's the weirdest you can get with them? Who's to say you can't get any weirder? What should limit you?

You can answer that on your own time. Let's look at the ASTRA dex!

SKIPPEA - LEAFALING - JETRANG

The Astra region begins with a TERRIFICALLY creative grass starter- a samara, or "helicopter seed", which becomes an actual helicopter before its final stage- a powerful grass/flying-type jet! It's a very fun and well-designed line.

There's also the more... "up-to-date" version on deviantart, or at least as up-to-date 2009 can be considered. The most noticable difference lies in the middle stage, given a much 'beakier' face. It and its first stage have also been given a lighter shade of brown, as well as dark pupils that match with the final stage.

Meanwhile, Jetrang is the perfect animal- the only change it recieved was being made just slightly more aerodynamic.

GOFLARE - SMOKOAL - BOMBURROW

How cute! It's a magma gopher with a gradually cooling shell of rock forming over it- AND it's a landmine! If this thing ends up in your golf course, you best just give up. Once again, other than slightly lighter colors, only one stage has received particularly noticeable changes- this time the final, being given clearer markings and removing the lava pit on its back to be a more solid shell.

One of my favorite bits of this line is how the middle stage is given the typical angry Sugimori eyes, while the final has those dark sweet-looking cute eyes you see on things like eeveelutions and vulpix. A very darling creature- I think I'll take it to the local golf course!

SQWIMP -CLAWDAWD - CLOBBSTER

Oh. Oh

Sqwimp

As you can tell by the complete lack of difference between the video version and the deviantart version, this is THE perfect beast. There's very little to say on it- it's a poor little shrimp that grows tough armor, and becomes practically untouchable! ... Except for its antennae, which are quite vulnerable.

Actually, it reminds me quite a bit of a certain videogame extraterrestrial... though, it's hard to say whether that's by design or pure coincidence.

Ah, this got pretty long already! As such, the rest of the post is simply going to be an image and link compilation of the rest of the dex that exists. The purpose of this is both to showcase the dex, but also to preserve its existence.

How much digital information is lost in a day? A youtube video from 2005 could be taken down for using copyright music, and nobody might even notice. An old, forgotten forum could finally shut down, throwing years of shared comments and ideas to the wind. It's insignificant to most, you don't need to cling to everything really.

My main interests lie in creature design. Both in original creations and fan-made. Not as a professional, but in general- I love seeing what fantastical things people create, and what you can learn about their own thought process through them. What they imagine makes a good design, or a cool concept, or an awesome creature- in these cases, what they imagine a POKEMON to be on their own terms.

This blog is meant to archive old and unique fakemon projects wherever I can find them as best I can, in case they should otherwise be lost to time. If you have any projects of your own that you'd forgotten, or if you know of anyone else's, please feel free to share! I have a lot of love for these things, and I'm hoping to spread that love to others.

Anyway, most images should have links to their original playlist / video / deviantart upload. Now, do note that unless explicitly stated by the original creator, these designs and sprites are not for free use in other projects.

And of course, if you are the original creator of these and have your own comments / would like the post to be removed, please feel free to speak! No need to be shy on these webpage

DarkNe0s deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/darkne0s

DarkNe0s youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DarkNe0s/videos

[golisopod-mutual]

Beat the game. Final boss was super easy, I was two or three levels over most of his pokemon so I thought it would be harder.

All the paradox forms I saw fuckin SLAP except hariyama. Not a big fan of hariyama anyway though lol. Ttar and Gallade are especially cool, and I love how delibird’s tail is a fluid-filled bauble.

I like how they used fonts and typos and blacked out letters in the ai’s dialogue as it went haywire, that’s a fun immersive detail I wasn’t expecting. No offense but I don’t usually expect pokemon to go the extra mile for little details like that lol. I also think it was REALLY neat how the text changed in the second phase. Started as ‘you are challenged by ai turo’ and then the text box went fuzzy and staticy and it changed to ‘you are challenged by the paradise protection protocol’ again the glitchy effect was cool and immersive.

The final boss music slapped, and the music in the second phase was not as cool but appropriately emotional and triumphant. It did something kind of undertale-esque to me where you get your pokeballs disabled and have to just choose hopeless options until you click battle and miraidon’s icon at the bottom starts to glow and pulse. Reminds me of the asriel fight where you have to struggle for a few turns before you get the save option. I like that way of handling the situatuion as opposed to just giving us a cutscene and being done.making the whole ‘hopeless til miraidon takes on its battle form’ thing be a playable moment is cool. I liked that sorta thing w asriel in undertale and i liked it here.

I think something the game did well was make me like the characters :) I ended up feeling really fond of all the friends my character made through the story. The endings of the individual quest lines for everyone made me emotional, and the ultimate ending to the game achieved the same feeling. Seeing everyone walking together after the area zero stuff, and the snapshot at the end of them all hanging out.... my friends!!! Through the last bit of the game, too, they’re all so kind and express so openly how happy they are to know/be friends with the player character. it’s very sweet and it did get to me a lil bit.

In terms of pokemon, I know there’s a few I haven’t seen yet. But right now I think my fave is paradox ttar. I haven’t seen the scarlet paradox forms yet, but my brother will play thru the end tomorrow so I’ll see them then. My final team ended up being skeledirge, pawmot, ceruledge, paradox ttar, palafin, and tinkaton. On to dex completion!

[sokokoko]

Sometimes I want to cringe in pain seeing my old stuff but, really, it's all just growth. Cant blame a kid for being a kid or too ambitious/making stuff that's too complex or not seeing plot holes/problematic things

I find the contrast between these 2 summaries for the same thing to be an excellent example. There's like 5 (or 6? I'm pretty sure it's 5 tho) years between them

Old:

Have you ever heard of a Guardian? Well I suppose you have but not the type I'm talking about.

Six teenagers descended from The Origin 8 have been chosen to wield their power to defeat The Ultimate Evil™.

Sent by The Grand Maker™ to show these kids the ropes, how will they fare?

But! What are these Guardians you ask?

Three demons on a reformation program, and three lost souls who never made it to heaven.

But The Guardians have to abide by special rules.

What happens when the knight ends up falling for the royalty that they were supposed to protect?

Angst, betrayal, memory erasing, lovesickness, tears, tears, tears, arguments, tears, romance and did I mention jumping to conclusions?

An Action/Romance series.

New:

When a group of teens are told of the existence of magic and assigned four unpredictable and secretive mythological beings as their teachers, they fear that the real challenge might just be getting along rather than simply defending Earth from its invaders.

Changes I made:

[ I find it so funny how I cut things down to one sentence ]

☆ 6 teens were cut down to 4 because

A) when examined, 2 were lacking in personality (+ their guardians were a) problematic yikes 2) no personality having)

B) the cast was overwhelming because each teen had a guardian so that's 12 people

☆ Chase was high key insane and irredeemable. Woah did I not know just how bad he was

☆ Nina was a nicer clone of Zinthia except ?? She didn't really have any substance or backstory :/ she was just Koko's friend/cousin(?)

☆ Dominic was Nino's clutch (although he was his bro and gave him confidence and support by removing that support Nino has more opportunities to grow. This is the one thing I feel bad about. Sorry for taking your bro, bro)

☆ The Grand Maker is now called the Overseer cuz he didn't make shit (except messes that teenagers, oddly enough, not just these ones, have to clean up)

☆ I wanted to do this plot twist thing where the ultimate evil was revealed to be a lie and the GM was just screwing around with the group for his experiment. Like, he markets them as being chosen to defend the Earth from the ultimate evil but when they're like we did it he's like "lol wut, there was no ult. evil. I just wanted to see if humans could magic"

I might still do something similar. I'm still doing clean up on younger me's vision.

☆ The Origin 8 no longer exist because some of the guardians' love for the humans were based off the fact that they were descendants of those original 8 humans and that's kinda weird in hindsight

☆ No more implied age gap of centuries or weird mythical creature age conversions!!

☆ The crew are no longer demons and lost souls/are no longer dead people

Just: a harpy, a siren, a boogeyman and a netherworlder (last one is kind of hard to explain so that's the best I can put it. What makes it complicated it that that's not a species but a title(?) you could say. It's something you become)

☆ What did I cut out? A dragon and a cervitaur (like a centaur except it's half deer half human instead of horse)

☆ The knights and royalty was not meant literally it's a metaphor

☆ The guardians had an evolution mechanic so they were less like people imo and more like Pokemon... but I planned romance 💀 so.

[thelastpilot]

‘On GOD We Are Going to Get You a Girlfriend’- A Lovesquare Story as suffered by Nino

My last charity fic for @mlbforblm! The prompt was Aged Up College AU lovesquare, in which Adrien is struggling with his love for both Marinette and Ladybug and Nino is put in the position to be the ultimate wingman. I went a little off script with this prompt but I hope it scratches that itch nonetheless. 

The concept itself lent itself much better to 15k than 4 but I did what I could! Hope it gets a laugh out of you. 

It was twilight in Paris, the tail end of sunset slipping away as people all across campus engaged in extremely varied states of productivity. That is to say, at most 20% of the campus’ live-in population was actually getting any work done, while the rest of them were either limping along or had already given up.

It was midterms week, clearly.

In the dim space of a reasonable apartment accommodation were well -intentioned study implements of every kind. The completely average couch and carpet were covered with just enough of a layer of highlighters, pens, and printed pages to give a really studious impression at a glance, but whatever vibe it might have managed was thoroughly ruined by a young man laying face down on the floor, a game console nearly tumbling from his hands. Another, separate, but equally as unfocused young man had his back to plain white wall against which they had been meaning to put like… a chair or something at least for most of the semester now, staring idly out of the sliding glass door to his left that offered only a sliver of a view from his current position. At most he could see two lovely, but neglected, potted plants and a shoddy balcony looking off towards the main body of their college campus.

He watched the small patch of sky he could see succumb to a light coverage of clouds, and as he considered the possibility of rain, he sighed.

“Nino?” he finally spoke, looking away from his strip of sky. He waited for a response for a second or two, before reaching out with his foot and gently prodding his friend’s side to check he was alive, smirking slightly when he received a grunt for his efforts.

“Mm,” Nino answered from his curled up position, the glasses on his face a perfect reflection of his Pokemon team’s stats, which was ironic considering that Stats was exactly the thing Nino was avoiding at the minute. After a beat too long, he realized his friend was still waiting on his response. He lifted his head slightly, his hat falling free to the ground as he said, “Mm? Yeah?” He blinked slowly. “What?”

Adrien smiled down at him, chuckling a little before tossing aside a textbook he had been pretending to take notes from for the last hour. When his lap was free he leaned forward and rolled to the ground, mimicking Nino’s exact positioning on the ground a small distance away from him, sighing again (louder this time).

“What?” Nino repeated himself, laughing when Adrien leveled him with a sour look. He rolled his eyes but dutifully paused his game, shutting his Switch off and putting it on the ground out of their eyeline. “Go for it dude, what’s up.”

“You’re not going to like it.”

“Is it a girl thing?” Nino asked flatly, raising an eyebrow when all Adrien managed was a sheepish smile. “Dude.”

“Come on! You’re my friend, you’re contractually obligated. Look don’t make fun of me just help okay; I’m really stuck now.” Adrien pleaded with him, bringing his hands in front of him to cartoonishly beg for his grace. He got another eye roll for his trouble but Nino hadn’t gotten up and left yet so that was a good sign.

It wasn’t that his friend didn’t want to help him, its just that… well.

Adrien always had some kind of girl problem, pretty much off and on for the past five years. He knew it got hard to listen to and Nino had put in way more than his fair share of time into this. Especially since he had made essentially no progress whatsoever in all that time, but boy was he almost on to something here.

Nino said nothing else, making a vague hand gesture for him to continue and Adrien did as he always did.

He hesitated, carefully considering how to phrase something.

“So um, there is this girl. That uh, girl, I always talk about. The one you don’t know. And then there is another girl, one who you do know.”

“Do we HAVE to be so vague man? We’re in our own place, there is no one around. Can’t you just say it? I get so confused when we do it like this.”

Adrien tensed slightly, discomfort crawling up his back. “I uh, I can’t. Just- just listen okay? I can’t explain it.”

“We’re in our house,” Nino complained again. But Adrien ignored him, because he always ignored him when he said that.

“Just listen okay?”

Nino looked at him squarely, or at least as squarely as he could manage while laying on the ground. When Adrien patiently waited for a response Nino finally sighed, rolling on his stomach and laying his face sideways on the floor to match him, nodding stiffly for him to continue.

“It’s just, there is these two girls,” he began, “I’m losing my mind over it, I’m worried man and it’s coming to a head. I know I’ve said that before, but I mean it this time. I have never ONCE in my entire LIFE gotten the timing right Nino, I’m dead serious.” Adrien rolled around a little gripping his hair with both hands. “I get the timing wrong EVERY TIME. I have never been where I’m supposed to be! I’ve never made a move at the right time I have never done it right. I get close with one girl but she doesn’t reciprocate or she tells me to wait or she says that its complicated, then I get close to the other girl but I feel GUILTY because I still care about the first girl. But she says it isn’t right so I work on it I let go but then the other girl is gone or moves on or life gets in the way. I have been in the wrong place EVERY TIME-,”

 Adrien’s ranting continues, rolling around on their carpet as he incredibly vaguely and very stupidly details a problem that he has had for many, many years. Nino can feel himself retreating into his own thoughts, more focused on Adrien’s animated rolling than his actual words. He reaches out once to save a stack of notes from getting creased and ruined, but other than that remains completely still and lets his friend do his thing.

This happened maybe once a week or so, maybe a little less often or more often depending on the status of the girls.

The fact that Adrien literally REFUSED to say their names made this completely incoherent, but where in his love life he was inconsistent, when it came to never talking about work Adrien was true to form.

Nino blinked blearily as Adrien continued, pouring over the reasons he cared so deeply for them both and why that made him feel like a bad person. It left Nino to stew, wondering much like always why they did it like this.

The two of them were superheroes. Spoilers if you didn’t know. He didn’t feel like much of a superhero when he was sprawled out on his shared apartment floor suffering the long run up to failing his Stats midterm like any other student. But the fact remained that he was one, and so was Adrien. The problem was that Adrien was serious about keeping life and work separate. It was pretty much only hard and fast rule about this gig that Nino had picked up on when he first joined. Never talk about work as a civilian, under any circumstances. You only get to talk about work when you’re suited up, and you’re only allowed to talk about life in plain clothes.

Honestly, it was so hard to do it that way, but the rules were clear, not that anyone had actually stopped to explain them to him. Adrien froze up whenever he even so much as mentioned an akuma attack or asked about an injury. Don’t talk about work, but…

They lived together now, this was the first semester where they had done so and Nino was so hyped about it. Like FINALLY, our kwamis can relax and we can be ourselves. He had been so excited about it, but to his profound disappointment Adrien refused to relent on his rule. Their kwamis were never even out in the open except for in their rooms, like he knew Adrien was strict but surely he wasn’t that committed.

Nino understood that it was probably Ladybug’s rule but still, it’s not like she was here. He wouldn’t advocate for disobeying her but… come on man. His brain hurt.

He KNEW Adrien was talking about Ladybug/Marinette. He knew that for a fact, but Adrien would never say her name out loud, because that overlaps with work (even though they hang out with her in person like every single day.) Maybe Nino didn’t know who the heck this second girl he was talking about was, but at the very least he could be clear about one of them.

Whoever the second girl actually was sounded a lot like Marinette, so the for-sure thing was that he had a type. Honestly though he had stopped trying to figure it out years ago. If he wasn’t so exhausted from not studying he would humor him like he always did, but today… man he was kind of tired.

He waited until Adrien was done talking, undoubtably ending by asking for advice as per the usual. Then, like always, Nino said what he always did.

“You need to communicate. If you are not crystal clear with these girls about what they want and what you want nothing with ever happen. You need to bite the bullet and TELL them, at least ONE of them, what you’re thinking.”

And like always, Adrien groaned and covered his face and said, “It’s not that easy!”

They both grumbled dejectedly into the carpet, repeating their years old platitudes until they gave up on each other. Nino usually did this a lot better but he reserved the right to tap out and Adrien usually seemed to accept that.

The only different thing Adrien actually said was when he was standing. He mumbled, “I know, I know. You’re right, as usual but… I’m maybe gonna ask someone else. See what they think.”

“I don’t know what answer you’re hoping for, but that’s all I’ve got.”

“I know,” Adrien sighed, offering a hand to help him off the ground. He smiled gently, but his eyes were sad. Enough of a gesture to explain that he wasn’t actually mad at Nino’s dismissiveness. He had a right to refrain.

 They spent an idle few minutes cleaning up their mess, consolidating their notes and books into two loose piles and neither saying much. It was only about thirty or so minutes later when Adrien announced vaguely, “I’m gonna go for a run.”

“Yeah man,” Nino answered, knowing by heart Adrien’s codeword for ‘patrol’. Didn’t know why he didn’t just say it, but that was a dead horse long beaten.

 Adrien left within a minute or two but Nino stood blearily for awhile in the living room, staring at nothing as he debated just going to bed for the day.

He was just about to head to his room to ask if Wayzz was ready for dinner when the kwami in question came flying into the room, confidently out in the open space now that Adrien was gone.

“You’re getting a call!” Wayzz piped up importantly, waving his little flippers a bit to sell the point. “It’s Cat Noir!”

“I- what?” Nino sputtered, glancing towards the apartment door in confusion. “He literally just- ugh.” Nino groaned as loudly as possible, Wayzz shaking his head a little. “Why is he LIKE THIS, he could have just TOLD ME TO COME.”

“I know he’s odd about it, but he must have his reasons. You should go, he must need you for patrol.”

Nino demanded a few more moments of frustration, which Wayzz indulged, before grabbing his keys and unlocking a window in case he didn’t feel like using them. It was Adrien’s turn tonight but okay whatever.  

 It only took him a minute or two to transform and get out onto their building’s roof, stretching a bit before raising his wrist. He forced himself to take a deep breath and remind himself of the rules while he returned Adrien’s call.

Through the hazy, green, holographic screen he saw the face of Cat Noir answer on the first ring, the feline superhero sighing in relief and smiling widely.

“There you are! I was hoping you were out. Hey, I know this is kind of sudden but… um I was wondering if you were willing to meet up with me. I want to ask you about something.”

He allowed himself to hang his head in frustration just out of the video feeds eyeline, pulling a sharp breath through his teeth before answering, “Yeah bud. Lets meet up.”

“Great!” Cat Noir answered enthusiastically, genuinely happy that he had agreed for whatever reason. “Meet me here when you get a second,” and he sent over his current location. Sure enough he was literally like, one block over.

He hung up without a goodbye, dragging his feet as he started to head that way. He was slow about it sine it was at most five seconds away for him. Adrien was so INTENSE about this charade some days it just drove him completely crazy. But rules are rules.

He waited for about a minute to distance their patterns, then with a short jump and a few corner’s turned he found Cat Noir crouched on top of the Linguistics building.

“Hey, you got here fast,” Cat greeted him happily, a little nervous looking actually. ‘Carapace’ as he was really had to resist the eye roll there, deciding instead to nod.

He went over and sat somewhat heavily, not pretending with an greeting at all and just watching him flatly. For whatever reason this made Cat Noir hesitate a little, but he quickly got over it, pushing through the weirdness and folding his hands in his lap.

“Well, listen I won’t waste your time much. I know we don’t really do this, we only ever talk about work and that’s the safe thing, I get how it is.” Cat Noir looked away, his gaze fixated on the possibility of rain, before he finally sighed.

“I just… I was wondering if I could get some… girl advice?”

Cat Noir looked to his ally, scanning his face and getting even more nervous as he more or less saw a brick wall of an expression on Carapace’s face.

Carapace blinked, saying nothing as Cat Noir began to talk unprompted, persevering despite the lack of reciprocation.

“So um, there is a girl, and you know that.  I always talk about her, and there is another girl, one that you don’t know.”

Carapace blinked.

He softly let out a “Bro…” but Cat Noir was hyping himself up now and he started rolling.

“It’s just, there is these two girls,” he began, “I’m losing my mind over it, I’m worried man and it’s coming to this point where like, I-,”

He kept going, looking down at his gloved hands and missing Carapace’s slowly warping expression. He started rambling, about how he always got the timing wrong, about how he cared about both these girls so much and he just didn’t know what to do. He started and he didn’t stop, completely unaware of Carapace starting to lose touch with reality.

Finally Carapace interrupted, stammering slightly in a tone that was wildly like…

Disbelief?

“Dude I- stop, hang on. Dude I just- I know?” He waited for a beat, watching Cat Noir blink in confusion. He scanned his face, looking for just- literally anything. After another moment that was way too long, he finally braved it. “We- we already, we already talked about this.”

Cat straightened, throwing his head back in exasperation and groaning loudly, “Okay I know I talk about girls sometimes but I honestly never bother you with this much can you humor me please?”

“No I-,” Carapace paused, his voice getting quieter. “We just… literally we-,”.

“Please man I- UGH I’m really having trouble!” He nearly shouted it, looking so genuinely unheard that Carapace was reeling. “You’re one of my only close guy friends I NEED a second opinion, I’m begging now. I already asked my other friend but he always says the exact same thing and he’s RIGHT but I need someone to say something else!” Cat suddenly mimicked his voice saying, “”You need to communicate.” That’s what he says, he’s RIGHT obviously but I just-,”

He kept talking, briefly glossing over how this ‘friend of his’ wasn’t particularly helpful with this line of questioning, so Cat Noir had chosen to seek HIM out instead.

And as he went on with his rant, Carapace slowly brought his hands to his face in intense contemplation.

Suddenly, in the middle of Cat Noir’s over the top love ranting Carapace decided to interrupt him.

“Hold up- hold on now. I need to clarify something, just cause I need to double check alright, just checkin’ something.”

Cat Noir paused, looking to him and slowly saying, “…okay?”

“You KNOW I know you’re Adrien Agreste right?”

 Silence. Cat abruptly went rigid, but Carapace just splayed his hands wide, rapidly searching his face for confirmation of the impossible.

“Like dawg you KNOW that right? You’re aware? You know that right?”

Cat Noir was frozen, holding as still as possible like Carapace was a T-Rex and if he didn’t move this problem was just gonna go away. But Carapace pressed further, getting louder as he said “DUDE you know who I AM RIGHT?!”

The feline superheroes breathing was starting to pick up, his eyes blown wide as he REALLY looked at his friend, before he nearly inaudibly squeaked, “…no?”

“ADRIEN-,”

“Shhh!” Cat Noir leapt forward, trying to grapple him as he went into full panic mode, “Wait shut up shut up!”

“IT’S BEEN FIVE YEARS!”

“SHUT UP!”

They started to wrestle, Cat Noir violently shushing his companion as he had a full melt down, saying things like “All this time-!” and “You’re an idiot!” and “I thought you were just- oh my god!”

“Please!!! This is terrible Carapace shut up!! I don’t know how you found out my identity but I-,”

“WHOSE THE SECOND GIRL-!?”

“Lower your voice!”

“WHOSE THE SECOND GIRL”

“What do you mean?!”

Carapace gripped him hard by the shoulders and threw them both until Cat Noir was flat on his back with a harsh thump against the roof tiles. The turtle hero held him tight and shook his shoulders, his eyes crazed with years of realization colliding together at once. “Who is the second girl in your ridiculous life, what’s her name?!”

Cat Noir looked wild and frightened, finally becoming so flustered that he just hissed in a whisper, “It’s Marinette okay!?”

“And?”

“And WHAT!?”

“AND?” Carapace reiterated, shaking him harder.

“And LADYBUG you MORON!” he hissed as quietly as he possibly could.

Instantly Carapace stopped, holding him in a vice like grip just above the tiles. After an incredibly still moment, he dropped him, closing his eyes and putting his hands over his face.

Cat Noir was flat on his back, panting heavily and staring up at him freaked out, but it was like Carapace had been struck by lightning and he was just sitting there, completely still.

 “Oh,” was all he finally said, curling in on himself slightly. Before suddenly, he pitched to the side and just lay there on the roof tiles, rolling onto his stomach.

“…oh?!” Cat eventually managed, twisting onto his side to look at him just laying there. “That’s all you have to say?! Of COURSE it’s Ladybug! I talk about her EVERY. DAY.”  

“This… explains… so much,” Carapace muttered, not even listening to him. With a huff Cat crawled onto all four and went over to him, his heart racing in what was nearly a panic attack at this point. But all of Carapace’s energy had been spent, and he just mumbled dejectedly with his face smooshed against the tiles.

Cat Noir’s ears twisted forward, trying to make out the words, before he just lost his patience and hissed “What are you saying?!”

“I said YOU’RE STUPID!” the turtle barked out, turning his face back into the filthy roof.

“Why am I- UGH forget it! Just forget it we have a way bigger problem here- If Ladybug finds out my identity has been compromised she’s going to-,”

“Is SHE stupid too!?” Carapace interjected, twisting just enough to look up at him incredulously. “Is everyone stupid but ME?”

“What the hell are you talking about?! Dude there is RULES! No one is allowed to know anyone elses identity!”

Carapace just gaped at him, before his eyes unfocused and he just went limp. He whispered it when he said, “So she IS stupid…”

He waited a beat, and wretchedly mumbled to himself, “Oh god you’re both so stupid.”

 Cat Noir was at a loss, looking all around him like he was desperately trying to make sense of it all, stopping only to try and sort of Carapace’s miserable breakdown.

He was about to give up and just drag Carapace to a lockable room somewhere before his friend propped himself up all at once with the most exasperated expression he had ever seen on a human person.

“So help me- someone has to do some shit about this, listen to me-,” Carapace got to his knees and lunged forward to grab him by the bell. He pulled him forward, and with all the determination of a war general he proclaimed, “On GOD I am going to get you a girlfriend, do you hear me? I am going to make this happen because I can not STAND another DAY of this. Got it?!”

“I- Carapace I-!?”

“GOT IT?!”

  Cat Noir dangled helplessly in his grip, and with his last wits he sputtered out, “Okay, okay!!! I’ll do whatever you say!”

[crystalelemental]

Aera, I have to keep this under a cut, there’s a lot.

“books-are-my-life-stuff: Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts about the story event! I had fun reading all of them! I'm surprised that you like A Golden Future, even though (if I remember correctly) you're rather indifferent towards Morty as a character. I agree with what you said about the event, though! To me, my favorite story events are:

#3. Midnight Spookfest (Halloween 2021) #2. Hearts United #1. A Golden Future

Hearts United is really great to showcase how far the character has come, how they have overcome so many difficulties to reach this point. It's really touching, especially during N and Lillie's side of the story.

Halloween 2021 is because I'm biased. Morty and Caitlin's outfits are amazing. Allister made his appearance. And best of all, the fact that everyone almost got killed just because Morty didn't want to hurt Pumpkaboo's feelings by rejecting its offer to escort them to afterlife. I literally laughed out loud at that part, that's so silly I love Morty so much.

A Golden Future is my favorite for...obvious reasons. I cried so much when reading the story, it's so good and I'm happy for Morty. Honorable mentions for the Ideal Formula, who used to be my #1 favorite until A Golden Future dethroned it. I still bawled when Hilbert and N talked about the end of BW games with Unwavering Emotions in harmonica played. It was such a great moment.”

All very solid picks.  The 2021 Halloween one was close to the top as well, probably fifth favorite?  It didn’t have quite enough for me to love it as much as the others, but Caitlin being one of my top favorites was a good bit of bias as well, and I loved how she’s super excited but trying to remain composed so only Darach really notices how into this she is.  It’s just really cute, I love her.  Hearts United was okay, but I felt like the anniversary events didn’t really do enough.  They kinda just existed, and I wished they did more.  Especially knowing that Shining Heart of Dragons was technically part of the 1.5 anniversary, and that one’s fantastic.  I dunno.  Sometimes they do amazing writing work, and sometimes it feels like they’re pressured to put something out just to have the characters do a thing.

“A Pasio Spectacle is definitely the best solo event period. Everything about the event is just really great.

It's funny that my favorite Legendary Events are almost the same as you, except Pure Heart and Rainbow Wings are at #2 while Dragon that Rules the Sky is at #3. I like Zinnia, and I'm glad that she got her happy ending with Rayquaza.  Zinnia's storyline is kiiinda similar to Morty's in a way that both Morty and Zinnia wanted to be recognized by a Legendary Pokemon, but are considered unworthy and they chose the protagonists instead. Then they got their wanted Legendary at the end.

New World Dilemma would have been my top 3 if Sinnoh Villain Arc didn't ruin it, I still love it though. Give and Take is also great, it makes me like Sycamore, but yeah I agree with what you said.”

I think Zinnia’s just didn’t have the same level of impact for me, because...really, I just never connected with Zinnia?  She’s kind of obnoxious to me?  And to be honest, I find their circumstances different enough that I can appreciate Morty’s struggle, but not Zinnia’s.  Morty wants to better himself to be worthy of the legendary Ho-oh, and his ultimate goal is fairly low-stakes.  While Zinnia felt like she wanted to play the savior more than anything, but is at least willing to step aside to let someone else literally save the world.  Her search for Rayquaza never felt as personal to me, I guess.

Sinnoh Villain Arc is the greatest tragedy of this game, and I wish we could get a mulligan.  They somehow produced three of the coolest trainer/Pokemon pairs ever, and still made a bad story out of it.  I can’t believe it.

“Again, thanks a lot for sharing your opinions! Sorry that I couldn't help myself but to share my favorites too, but it's rare to be able to discuss about the event's story considering a lot of Masters players don't read the event story like what you found out back then. Glad to share opinions regarding the story with you who also like to read the story!”

You’re welcome!  I actually really like the story bits, and most of the events are at least decent.  Very few tend to be ones I dislike.  I think they do some great work with the source material, and I’m really looking forward to the Johto Villain Arc.

[wild-ditto-appeared]

Duelist Kingdom but with Ditto

What would Yu-Gi-Oh! (OG) be like if Ditto was there from the beginning? How would Ditto have gotten there? Why would Ditto be there?

Here are some Sylvia braindumps from my most recent pacing session:

Ditto arrives on Duelist Kingdom Island, helpless and afraid and very VERY confused. There are no animals on this island, no trees bearing fruit or bushes with berries or, frankly, most food of ANY kind except the fish that swim down the streams--and Ditto is very much an herbivore, thank you very much.

So Ditto quite frankly, nearly starves to death on that damn island. Then it's startled by the sound of fireworks.

No, the Duelist Kingdom Tournament hasn't begun yet--won't begin for quite some time, actually--Pegasus just wanted a private show of fireworks that day.

Ditto Transforms and makes its way to the direction from which the fireworks came from--and when it gets close enough, it spots the giant castle (thanks to Ditto's small size, it's a lot harder to spot the castle when surrounded by tall-ass trees, so it needs to be much closer to be able to spot it on its own).

For story-telling reasons, Ditto never considered Transforming into a Flying-type Pokemon and just. Surveying the land. Like a sensible Pokemon. It was too young and never had to really do that before, so it wasted a lot of energy out there.

When it finally trudges all the way to the castle, sometimes Transforming and sometimes not because at this point Ditto is really really tired, Ditto stumbles onto the brick steps of the castle--not the front ones, mind you, but one of the rear entrances/exits meant for guards. And it can't get into the castle, so after considering giving up, it scales the wall as an Aipom, flips over onto the wall's walkway, and de-Transforms, using up the last of its energy before it falls asleep. This is where Ditto is found by some of Pegasus' guards.

They... don't know what to do with Ditto at first. So they grab it and lock it in a dark black box with only a little hole to breathe out of, then go on their way to lock it in the dungeons, never to be seen again when Pegasus finds them and asks what's in the box.

The guards tell him they found something suspicious on the balcony and they would throw it in the dungeons for trespassing. Pegasus analyzes the interior of the box with his Millennium Eye and ultimately decides Ditto is harmless, asking that the box is handed over to him. The guards, knowing better than to question him, oblige and go back to their respective duties.

Pegasus frees Ditto from its little prison, but Ditto is asleep still, clearly hurt and worn. At a loss for what to do, Pegasus panics slightly, ordering all sorts of food from his chefs. The whole castle is in panic. "Is Pegasus ordering a feast of some kind? Who is coming over that's so important? Why wasn't anyone notified?" Really, Pegasus just wants to know what Ditto will eat and he has nothing to offer of his own except wine and cheese.

Although lots of food is made, Ditto only eats the fruits and vegetables, and even then it's mostly the fruits and berries whose plates are wiped clean when Ditto finishes eating. So... all of that meat and fish and other such things are... sort of wasted.

Pegasus doesn't seem to really care, though. Ditto is sleeping with a full belly now, and he allows it to stay the night. Then another. Then another.

Fully befriended, Pegasus and Ditto become close enough friends that he even refers to Ditto as "his pet," which it doesn't seem to mind. Even after Ditto has shown off its transformative abilities--which in fact makes it appeal to Pegasus even more--Ditto is accepted wholeheartedly into the castle and treated with almost the same amount of respect by his guards as Master Pegasus himself.

Then the Duelist Kingdom happens and something changes in Pegasus. He's suddenly a lot moodier, a lot more serious, a lot less jovial than Ditto is used to him being. He seems to carry the weight of guilt and distress on him at all times. Ditto tries to relieve it, but Pegasus brushes off its attempts. Eventually, four duelists make it to the castle--plus one Seto Kaiba. For the duration of the duel, Pegasus orders the guards to keep a close eye on Ditto to make sure it doesn't leave its little box, so that Ditto doesn't have to see what happens to Kaiba when he loses.

After Kaiba has lost his soul, Pegasus allows the guards to release Ditto--and Ditto had obediently listened to Pegasus because it trusted him, thinking that he would not make me do this if it wasn't important. When it was allowed outside of its box, Ditto went straight to Pegasus to cuddle, because it had been scared something serious was happening. Pegasus tried to reassure it, but his voice was still heavy.

Ditto was present, however, for the finals. For Mai against Yugi and Joey against the "In America" guy because I don't feel like looking up his name right this second. Ditto sensed when Yugi's Millennium Puzzle activated and when he switched into Yami. Ditto then realized--wait, why does that somewhat feel familiar? A little different, but still familiar in a way.

And then it realizes that other similar feeling had been coming from Pegasus this whole time: the Millennium Eye.

But Pegasus was nice, and although the power Yami wielded was frightening to Ditto, he didn't seem to be doing anything bad with it... well, yet. So Ditto gave Yami the benefit of the doubt.

Then the final duel, Yami versus Pegasus. At first, it was fine. But when they reached the second phase of the duel, which took place in the Shadow Realm, Ditto felt BAD VIBES. LOTS OF BAD VIBES.

But not from the Puzzle. No, they were coming from Pegasus. From the Eye.

And for the first time, Ditto grew afraid of its friend. It grew afraid of its caretaker and followed Tea and the others when they ran to Yugi's side of the duel to try and reach him. Ditto tried headbutting the bubble headfirst as a Dreepy, as if being missile-shaped and going as fast as possible would break the barrier. It didn't, and Ditto nearly fell before Tea managed to catch it.

And it started to cry, because that was scary. Where did Fancy Man and Spiky Man go? Why was Fancy Friend fighting? Why did it feel so WRONG and BAD?

When the duel was over and Pegasus lost, Ditto flew straight to him as a bird, ignoring Yugi's friends' protests. It snuggled with Pegasus, buried itself in his hair, nuzzled his face, everything it possibly could to ask if he was okay, if the bad stuff was over.

Pegasus barely responded to Ditto, merely plucking it from his shoulders and carefully setting it down on his dueling field. With a sad smile, Pegasus spoke--half to Ditto, because his eye was trained on it and half to Yugi, who won the duel.

"Very well, Yugi. You win. I am a man of my word. I will release everyone I have captured."

Ditto was in shock, hearing this. Its feathers fluffed up, it stared at him incredulously, its eyes trained on him and almost shaking, as if to ask, "You... you had people captured?" And suddenly Ditto realized what the duel was about.

Yugi, Tea, and the others saw Ditto's reaction--didn't miss it for the world, despite having been taken aback when they first learned of Pegasus' transforming little pet--and felt sad for the little fella. Ditto truly cared about Pegasus, truly loved him, and now, like many others, Pegasus had managed to hurt Ditto too.

Pegasus told Ditto that he knew it would most likely not forgive him for what he'd done, that he wouldn't blame it if it wanted to leave, then left Ditto with that decision while he went to release the souls he'd captured.

Pegasus didn't come back.

Ditto witnessed the guards giving Yugi his prize money and title, and when they demanded to know that everyone whose soul Pegasus stole was okay, the guards simply said that Pegasus was handling it. Ditto was still confused, still lost.

What... what now?

When Yugi and the others went to check on him to make sure he did, in fact, keep his word, Ditto went with them. It wanted to know what happened to its caretaker, its friend.

Pegasus wasn't there. In fact, he was missing from the entire castle.

When Ditto found out about this, it cried. With Yugi and friends as witnesses, Ditto sobbed and grieved for Pegasus because he was gone. He was gone and Ditto hadn't even been given the opportunity to answer with its decision.

Ditto was there when it heard the reason why Pegasus had done all of this. Ditto was there when Yugi and friends met Kaiba and escorted Mokuba back to him safely and soundly. Ditto was there when they moved to leave, but Yugi hesitated.

Yugi turned to Ditto, pitying or sympathetic or empathetic or whatever, but he was clearly concerned for Ditto when he bent down and extended a hand in offer.

"I know Pegasus is gone now, and... and we'll never be him, but... maybe you can find companionship in us until Pegasus comes back," he offered Ditto.

And Ditto, with nowhere left to go and no other friends to turn to, nodded and accepted Yugi's offer, burying itself in his shirt to grieve. Then, they take the ship home.

Let me know if you wanna know how Battle City should go with Ditto, too. Just something I thought of earlier today. I'm gonna be real, it probably doesn't sound that great, but I don't think it sounds like trash either, sooo... //shrug// maybe it works? What do you all think?

[radramblog]

Ultimate^2

Super Smash Brothers Ultimate has finally unveiled its final DLC character, with reactions ranging fully across the spectrum. Hot takes abound.

I mean, statistically, just about every possible opinion is going to be represented. There were at least 500,000 people watching the reveal stream, and that’s not including those viewing through restreams. That’s insane for a trailer of any kind, let alone for a console-exclusive video game DLC.

Now that it’s been like… a day and a bit, I think most of the spciest takes have probably been made, which is the perfect time for me to chip in with my own milder opinion. More of a butter chicken, really.

(no images in this one i’m lazy tonight)

I figure I’m this late already, might as well drop some notes on the other ones first.

Piranha Plant was kind of the definition of an unexpected pick. Not only was it from an already well-represented franchise, being fucking Mario, it’s also just…not a character. As such it makes an odd choice for a DLC fighter…except for the part where it was free. If you owned the game in its first month. And frankly, I don’t think people would have been happy if it wasn’t. As it is, though, it’s a perfectly fine character- surprisingly cute, actually.

I’m unsurprised about Joker’s inclusion. With how huge Persona 5 became in both Japan and the west, capitalizing on it to make a shitload of money makes perfect sense. The character plays well enough, though the meter gimmick was kind of a daunting sign of things to come. All that in mind, though, the most surprising thing about Joker being in the game is that they still haven’t put P5 on the Switch. Atlus please.

Hero and Banjo/Kazooie were announced on the same night, and I distinctly recall someone saying that this was one for the Japanese audience and one for the Americans. I mean, I’ve never played Dragon Quest, so I guess I fell into the latter? Both series have a long, well-regarded pedigree (Banjo’s lack of recent offerings notwithstanding), so both arguably deserve their respective positions. Hero is the much more notable character gameplaywise, though, with the incredibly complex mana and spellcasting mechanics. Complaints about RNG in Smash aren’t completely unfounded- though it has existed in the past in the form of, say, Luigi’s misfiring side-B- but I know a lot of people think Hero took it too far. If I’m honest, though, the weirdest thing is just having Akira Toriyama-ass 3D models in the game. Banjo’s gameplay is…awkward. The kit is kind of a mess, but at least the gimmicks weren’t going too hard, you know?

Next was Terry, perhaps the most obscure character on the entire list in 2021. I actually really like Terry in this game- while he’s still trying to emulate a similar feel to Ryu/Ken, the difference feels more natural, if that makes sense. Maybe it’s because I’ve never really devoted significant time to them, but Terry’s kit feels easier to work within than the Shotos when going between characters.

Finally for the first Pass, we had Byleth. I think it’s for the best that they announced the second Fighter’s Pass before this released, because if both 4 and Ultimate had ended their run on Fire Emblem DLCs then people would have been pissed. I mean, people were already pissed, but like…moreso. As someone who has played Three Houses, I do think the game is worth celebrating, but having yet another Fire Emblem Protagonist (read: basically a blank slate) in the game over all the substantially more interesting characters 3H has to offer is just really frustrating. Also the final smash looks like dogshit, like FE3H has overall worse animations than Smash for obvious reasons but I’m pretty sure this attack looked better the first time around.

FP2 opened with Min Min, which brings ARMS to the table. ARMS. The only first-party fighting game Nintendo has outside of Smash, so it looks a bit less weird next to everything else but…come on, man. I think this was the most confusing pick of all of them- the game came out in 2017, and having Min Min in Smash would serve as promotion for a sequel…which hasn’t been announced. There was a graphic novel in the works, but it was cancelled earlier this year. Oops? At least the stage was fun.

As much as playing them is awkward and complex, the Minecraft addition was fitting. Only the best-selling game around. I think people weren’t sure if Microsoft would go for it, but they let us have Banjo, so sure. I’m mostly just annoyed that they couldn’t get any of the songs from the actual game in there- like, you got one in from the fucking mobile game, but you couldn’t just get C418 on the phone?

Sephiroth is definitely one of the hype-ier releases from this pass. The character is iconic, as is his theme and his home game. I’ve never played any Final Fantasy game, but I can still respect the name. Once I remember how to spell it. The whole bossfight aspect to his release was also quite cool, while it lasted.

On the other hand, I have no love for Pyra nor Mythra. There’s so much wrong with these ones, frankly. They’re another swordy character, immediately following Sephiroth too, and they go back on Smash’s very deliberate decision to split characters like Zelda/Sheik and Samus/ZSS up (Yes I know Pokemon Trainer does the same thing but I have a lot more leniency for them). Add in their being from a JRPG much less well-known or remembered than the previous couple characters and the designs being…questionable, I have a big issue with the whole thing. This was also around when I kinda stopped playing the game in general, and they definitely didn’t help pull me back in.

Kazuya might have, though. With the exception of him and Sephiroth, all the characters from the Fighter’s Passes were pretty much protagonist-types, but this motherfucker pulses with the essence of bad guy. What I’m saying is that he’s fucking cool, and while he’s ludicrously complex, that makes perfect sense since…I mean just look at the combo lists from Tekken 7. His inclusion also kinda rounds out the list of biggest fighting game franchises out there being rep’d in the game, though I imagine now I’m going to have stans from Mortal Kombat or whatever on my back. They’re not going to put a fatality-capable character in Smash, guys!

Finally, this rounds us around to the original point of this article. Let’s talk about Sora. And by that I mean…I don’t really have a huge amount to say about him. Kingdom Hearts is a franchise that completely passed me by growing up, and I don’t think I have the time or energy to devote to it now. I’m sure it’s good, people seemed really excited for him to be in the game so they have to have gotten that love from somewhere, but I don’t share that feeling.

That’s not to say that I don’t think he deserves a slot. The idea of “deserving a slot” in Smash Bros is kind of an odd concept, even though it’s come up a lot so far this post. But a slot in this roster isn’t just a place in a popular fighting game, because at this point, Smash is kind of a museum of (mostly Nintendo) games- and so having representation is a forever acknowledgment that the franchise is, or has been, an icon to so many. Kingdom Hearts, to my knowledge, has 100% earned that position, and so Sora getting to be playable here makes perfect sense. He wasn’t my pick (Touhou representation never I guess), but I’m happy for those who wanted him.

As far as the actual gameplay looks, he reads like a character that kept in mind what people didn’t like about Hero when he released. It’s another sword-based character, which I think at this point speaks more about the demographic of video game characters than it does about Smash. But I appreciate that the Magic Bullshit is toned down, and that it’s also his only real gimmick (The 3-hit combo feature is A Thing, but other characters e.g. Bayonetta have already done that, so whatever). His recovery potential looks patently absurd- like he just gets Pikachu/Pichu’s Up-B as a Side-B that can also be chained with his actual Up-B? This guy better be light as hell or he’s going to be super hard to take out. I dunno, I think he looks solidly fun enough- more dynamic and aerial than the other swordfighters, at least- and that’s good enough for me.

And I guess that marks the end of Smash Ultimate. Not with a bang, but with a key…dude. It’s been a very solid run, the game managing to keep itself fresh across several years of development, even as other games have risen and fallen. Smash is kind of forever at this point, I think, though the finality of Ultimate’s ultimate character implies that this particular iteration may be coming to its end. And seeing as it is always one Smash per console, I wouldn’t be shocked if the Switch itself was nearing its endgame as well.

Okay but also it’s pretty funny how they heavily censored everything Disney out of Sora’s DLC except for that little Mickey charm on the trailer, like how much must that one shot have cost them, was it even remotely worth it, I don’t know but I kinda want to

[horrible-monstrosity]

I find myself increasingly concerned with the direction Legends Arceus is taking the relation between humans and Pokemens. No, I'm not talking about the bit with Pokemans attacking the player directly when you don't have your own Pokeymans ready, that was going to happen eventually, but just... the Sinnoh myths had stories about humans and Pokemon being so close they were considered the same sort of being, there's marriages, what have you, coming from thousands of years back. But this game apparently taking place only some hundreds of years ago... and it's "before Pokemons and humans lived together uwu"? The fuck? I feel like the games have been significantly moving away from humans and Pokemon being equals of a sort who both benefit from being together to Pokemons being some superior beings who humans benefit from but not vice versa and Pokemans are the superior creatures who humans should grovel in gratitude to and put up with all the shit from while never daring to burden them in any way. See gen 7, where living in haaaaarmony means having their lives and culture corralled by some asshole fairies because people can't be arsed to fight the ultra beasts, except the trainers who're forced to become kahunas fight the UBs themselves anyway (where they're forced to become fanatical enough about fighting to become strong enough to do so, but they're not even expected to be strong to fight UBs it's to lead their community... don't try understanding it just eat fairy shit and get excited for more fairy shit I guess). Why not just have a culture of the trainers who want to be strongest, or who have the greatest talent, being lauded as UB-fighters and becoming community leaders as well? Naw man, doing everything as the fairies want is haaaaarmony. Humans can't be strong enough with their Pokemon teams to fight the UBs, but have to be strong for other reasons ordained by The System, but then the ordained stronk humans have to fight the UBs anyway. But the fairies help, I guess. I fucking hate fairies man. Fucking elves of the Pokemon world. Smug sparkling fucks, fuck em I keep forgetting about the ride Pokemon but it still feels like the humans are supposed to bow and scrape to earn the gift of basic movement services so I don't think it really counts Gen 8 I don't know as well but it seems to go like this: Doggos are responsible for all good, their trainers or whatever their human companions are might as well not even exist. The postgame story is about those eeeeevil humans thinking they have some relevance to the doggos or something, eeevil I must say, so they have to do something evil to prove that.... um, something. Just some dumb shit that feels like a strawman argument against humans having any place in this world. Grovel to doggos.

Gen 6 was around the point where the weird cynicism started to creep into the franchise, mostly ORAS's weird abandoned ship segment, but it's pretty clear of this... aside from one random ace trainer or something late in XY who asks you, humans benefit from Pokemons, but how Pokemons benefit from huamn??? huh??? You're expecting an answer from him but he's just like, I bet you can't think of anything huh, hmmm??? Grovel, human.

You compare this to gen 5, and I'm not even talking about the Plasma plot (which was clearly bait on Plasma's part to get the public's sympathy anyway), but things like using Excadrill to dig out the mines. The 'drills were getting to do what they loved- dig- and being treated well by the humans in exchange for digging this spot in that way as directed. An equitable relationship that produced resources. This sort of thing existed as a counterpoint to N and Plasma's stated beliefs that humans were nothing but horrible for Pokemon and that they could never live together... Ironically what the later games are leaning towards, except that there is a way, and that's for humans to go fuck themselves. And again, Sinnoh's old myths, as well as any other myths that involve people and Pokemon together going back thousands of years.

I'd really thought the idea of this series was that Pokemon and humans were practically made for each other, that they were together from the very beginning. Raising Pokemon allows them to have a crafted moveset including TM and tutor moves, gain EVs, use held items aside from the few random ones they find in the wild... it's baked into the game itself completely incidentally. But no, I guess it's a Pokeyman's world and humans are just intruding on it somehow. What the fuck. Sigh.

I'm hoping that "Pokemans are so dangerouse man" line is just about the red-eyed frenzied Pokemon and that we aren't going into all Pokemons attacking humans and humans living forever at their mercy and deserving to scrape and grovel just to survive their onslaught.

By the way, my autistic retard fanfiction: First off, when the wall breaks and the doggo statues are found that make everyone realise who the "real" heroes are (something we can THANK Bede for by the way, because if he hadn't destroyed a priceless cultural artifact Eternatus would have gone off unopposed... but no one ever acknowledges this, as Bede is shat on and disowned by Rose for following what Rose taught him and then forced to trune out by trunny granny. figures she's a fairy trainer, I fucking hate fairies)- the idea that the doggos alone are the "real" heroes is actually a misconception brought on by people/society's tendency to elevate Pokemon, similar to why people bought PLasma's bullshit back in Unova. So when Eternatus is starting its nukes, people are just waiting for the doggos to get going and beat it... but when Hop sees the doggo statues, his budding professor brain immediately sees the truth- both the doggos and their human trainers are needed to unlock the true power of the sword and shield items. This even makes some sense with the game mechanics, as Pokemon typically can't use items more complicated than a berry... so with Leon and co busy fighting the dynamax mons and knowing no one would listen to him, Hop turns to the only person he can ask- you, who saw the doggos in the foggos at the beginning with him, to go retrieve the items so the doggos can actually do their thing. Also, Rose was radicalised and groomed by some crazy apocalypse cult, an ironic inversion of his supposed grooming of Bede (here he actually has a heartwarming father-son relationship of sorts with him). They pushed him to push the darkest day plan up like he did, convincing him there's a desperate energy situation but secretly just wanting the maximum apocalypse-ness out of a single action (while possibly believing themselves that there's an energy crisis but that the real solution is to destroy shit so less people and things use energy). So there's that. In the end he's taken to jail, but it's not some absurdly mundane ending where he just gets arrested for apocalypse crimes, rather he's being questioned for what he can tell them about the cult, on understanding that he was coerced into this, and that he can pay for his crimes by giving information on the cult itself. Bede relates this to you with some concern for his sort-of dad. The Swordward and Shieldbert plot (I forget if that's their actual names but whatever) has the two bros asking you to aid in investigating the apoc cult while preparing to accept their destiny as the doggos' masters. You see, they've been raised for this, learning all about Pokemon companionship but having no actual close contact with Pokemon at all (to prevent any Pokemon from forming a bond with them closer than what they'd have with the doggo- your first Pokemon is special, after all). Book smart but street dumb, in other words. You know, as opposed to some inexplicable dumb shit because Mother 3 ruined an entire generation of game writers. They call on the doggos to battle the baddies and are disappointed they go to you and Hop instead of them, but ultimately accept it. Afterwards, Hop contacts Sonia with a request... soon he has the two brothers over to choose their very first Pokemon. Swordbro was going on about Swordog's nobility and Shieldbro about wanting to touch Shieldog's fluffy mane, so Hop has out a Yamper and a Wooloo, presented as a choice, but he knows exactly which one they'll each choose. This is another manifestation of his potential as a professor- not only doing the professor thing of handing out first Pokemon, but considering what Pokemon they'd work well with. Isn't that nice? Also there's something in there about Bede's long lost identical twin who's also being used as a pawn by the apoco-cult but I'll explain that later

My idea for the origin of the Pokemon world as we know it- Arceus didn't create Pokemon, or the world itself, but it is responsible for the way the world is now. Once upon a time, when humans and Pokemon were one kind of being, there was too much strife and disagreement among the groups and nobody was learning their lesson, so Arceus got fed up and split the world into two types of beings that would have to get along in order to thrive. It instated the "rules" of Pokemon battles, that attacks have set damage ranges and types have well-defined interactions, that attacks in battles only deplete some abstract hit points level instead of causing the damage they "should" for what they are (this doesn't apply to wild-on-wild predation necessarily, so it's a privilege enjoyed by Pokemon being aided or advised by a human). Outsider beings- aliens, maybe ultra beasts, etc- are "converted" into Pokemon when they enter "Earth"'s airspace, which is why even beings from the furthest depths of space follow the rules and biology of earthbound species. These "rules" require Arceus' powers but don't rely on its constant action, so it can be captured and hang out with a trainer for a while, play by its own rules to see how things are going, without disrupting the system. I'd never expected anything even vaguely like this to turn canon of course, because it's so specific and particular to the sort of ideas I tend to have, but... not like this man

[polkscastle]

That New Pokemon Direct, Though (My Thoughts)

Pokemon is now 25 years old!! With this momentous occasion, we have received a new Direct video about Pokemon's up-and-coming developments!! It came and went in a snap but, still gave us a look at a brilliant and shining future, while providing a taste of a legendary history. My Thoughts: ----- New Pokemon Snap: I don't believe I have ever talked the Pokemon Snap revamp on this site so, here we go. I've never played the original Pokemon Snap game so, I have no personal nostalgia for this spin-off. However, I am kind of excited for it. I think it could be a full little side adventure. No battles, no enemy teams, no big save-the-world journey; just looking for Pokemon doing fun Pokemon things and taking pictures of em. Sweet!! I may or may not actually buy it on release (I'm trying to be tighter with my budgeting). Still, I hope it turns out to be fun for a lot of people. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl: OoooooooooooooOOoooOO!! THIS IS IT!! We've finally got some Gen 4 love in here!! No joke, Generation 4 is my all time favorite era of Pokemon. Diamond was the first main game I ever played and was what really drove me into becoming a full on Pokemon fan. This maybe fueled by blind Nostalgia but, SWEET ARCEUS, I AM HYPED AS HELL!! That said though, I do feel I need to address some criticism/concerns I have as well: - I will count myself among those who expected GameFreak to give us the same game story of the originals delivered with the graphics/art style of the current generation, like with previous remakes. Color us surprised when we're shown gameplay footage and see the return of chibi-fied overworld characters and grid-based environments. Now this really isn't an issue for me. I don't need the end-all-be-all of video game visuals as long as the game can still function properly. Honestly, I kinda missed the little blocky little overworld people. They were cute. Still, it's bit weird that the main games of the two most recent generations have consistent full scale models and more organic environment layouts but, these remakes appear to be recreating the old games' style as closely and as strictly as possible. Why this is, maybe explained more by my next point. - Despite being co-directed by Masuda himself, the remakes are not being developed by GameFreak's staff but, by a partner company, ILCA. This has me concerned. Not that I think that they'll do poorly or change the games in any bad ways. They're already working off of a solid template. However, that is my concern. That since they're not the usual staff, they're going to be too cautious with changing anything from the original games. Whether out of reverence to Masuda and GameFreak or, out of fear of the nostalgia blinded fans, they'll stick strictly to adapting Diamond and Pearl exactly as they already were. I know that is kind of the point of remakes and remasters (giving old and new fans another chance to play the original) but, since I've already played the originals, I wouldn't mind some alterations. I like it when a remake can look at its older self, keep and enhance what was great about it, change or take out what doesn't hold up well anymore, add some new things for little spice, and ultimately give its consumers a fresh new take on a older property. Things like the Delta Episode (a new epilogue adventure building off the old main story) were my favorite parts of playing through Alpha Sapphire. So, I am hoping for something like that to appear in these games. However, this is just the announcement. I can't truly say that GameFreak/ILCA sticking so close to originals (if that is indeed what they're doing) is a pro or a con for these remakes until I play them. And yes, I will be playing these remakes because my love for Gen 4 is that strong!! One of my main boys isn't a Luxio for now reason!! Heck, I've even thought about streaming my playthrough of it!! Nah, never mind. No one would watch that. Still, I am a bit disappointed that I won't be able to explore a full-scale, open area Sinnoh region... ...unless... Legends Arceus: OH MY... okay, just listen. Within the back corners of my mind, this is the Pokemon game I always wanted. A Pokemon adventure taking place in a far earlier time in the world's history; SIGN ME UP!! Years ago when I tried coming with ideas for a fake Pokemon game, my biggest idea was an adventure that was half set in the past (time travel shenanigans. I blame Pokemon 4ever and its steampunk Pokeballs). So far, I love what I am seeing of the game. The old world versions of the Gen 4 protagonists look great and, I'm stoked to see an untamed version of Sinnoh. What's the story? How does Arceus come into play? Could the story possibly be about the older conflict between Dialga and Palkia? This actually gives me hope that Legends will continue on as a series with the other regions!! Possibly even one for Johto that depicts the story of the Legendary Beast Trio... ...please? No major criticisms or concerns so far, except maybe two. First is that, from what we were shown in the trailer, the game still needs polishing. The overworld Pokemon animations look a little janky to me. Second, and by far the most important thing, is HOW DARE YOU MAKE THE STARTERS THREE FAVORITES OF MINE!! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CHOOSE!!!???? ----- TLDR; I thoroughly enjoyed the new developments shown in this Direct but, I'd still like to keep up an attitude of cautious optimism for these new releases. They may not end up being perfect but, I'd like to keep hoping they'll still be enjoyable to play. Thank you for stopping by, Friends. Hope you're all staying safe and well. Have a wonderful day. ^w^ (*sigh* that was a long one. Thank Arceus, I no longer have to deal with all those nagging REMAKE GEN 4 comments ever again... ...they've already started screaming about Gen 5 now, haven't they?)

[eri-blogs-life]

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth

This has definitely been one of the games that I played this year.

So I have... a lot of thoughts about Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth and I wanna talk about. These thoughts might not be super contiguous or all track logically, but honestly, that’s just kind of the same as the experience that I had playing Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth (I’ll just say CS for short going forward). CS is a good game, and I enjoyed my time with it a lot, but it also is a bit baffling at times and so it’s like... I like it, I had a good time with it mostly, but there are bits that made me just feel confusion as to whether I could actually call this a good game. 

So... I’m gonna try organizing my thoughts here based on the game’s title to start, cause that seems like a fun way to start out with this writeup of my thoughts.

The Digimon

So, I’ve attempted to play through this game 3 times now. The first time, I picked up the version on PS4 second-hand from gamestop and made it maybe 4 chapters into the 20-chapter story before a better big game captured my attention. The second time, I bought the Complete Edition when it came out on Switch and attempted another playthrough. I think that time I made it 6 chapters in, but issues with the game’s difficulty and my bigger interest in other games that were out at the same time made me fall off of it. Lately, I’ve been on a kick of playing through really big JRPGs on the Switch, and I figured this was the time to really push my way through. But to do that, I had to find the fun. Because my previous times, I didn’t find it to be a ton of fun - the story was meh, the experience was extremely linear, the difficulty had weird spikes and valleys all around, and it just didn’t seem that fun. But I was recently watching a retrospective on the digimon franchise (shout out to Billiam on youtube for that if you’re interested), and while watching I came to the realization that the fun of digimon has always been different than in pokemon (the comparison to pokemon is, unfortunately, always inevitable when talking about digimon - the two were so closely intertwined in popular culture in america in the late 90s / early 00′s that it’s hard to deny there’s something to connect them)

Pokemon’s about catching them all. Digimon’s about raising a partner. Digimon started as a tamogatchi brand marketed towards boys, with cool monsters you could fight with each other. The fun of digimon has always been seeing your partner(s) grow and become new forms. And that’s where I finally found the fun in Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth.

The fun is in bonding. I found out in my second playthrough how to nickname digimon, and that became my go-to when I would get a new digimon on my team in this playthrough. Every digimon had a nickname. Early on I had a team consisting of Willis, Stinky, Specty, Babby, Evil Babby, Big Bird, Tomato, Axey, and Beedril. Over time, I got to watch these fools grow - Willis from a Terriermon into a Gallantmon CM, Stinky from a Guilmon into a Diaboromon, Specty got fused with someone called Shellby and went from Specty the Patamon to Shellspecty the Cherrymon, Babby fused with Big Bird and the two ended up as an Aeroveedramon, and so on. 

The fun of the game was in watching as these monsters I’d bonded with became stronger and changed into new and different forms. And that was the fun of the game for most of the early game for me, and continued throughout the game, mostly.

Ultimately, the game has some weird difficulty spikes at times, especially in some of the sidequests, which feel nearly impossible. I ended up focusing heavily on trying to find all my digimon final forms that had penetrating moves (moves which ignore the enemy’s defense or intelligence when calculating damage), because a lot of the game’s main story bosses are heavily focused on having high defense, and relatively low HP. So, that meant that I couldn’t just use all my favorite digimon. Some just didn’t have what it takes to hold up against certain fights, and I had to move them away from forms I really liked to try to find them stronger forms so I could complete the sidequests. It was still entertaining to play, and did have me continuing to see my digimon grow over time and we bonded, but it also felt a bit lackluster that some favorite mega-level forms just didn’t have what it took to deal with some of the late-game sidequests (at least in hard difficulty, which I played through on - thankfully you can change the difficulty during a playthrough, so I could have dropped it to try to do the sidequests, but I didn’t opt to do that. I just still haven’t beat all the sidequests, instead focusing on the main quest). 

the game doesn’t have a lot of animated cutscenes but those it does have come out strong

The Story

CS’s story is... fine. I think it’s probably a decently good story that’s just told confusingly. And I think there’s a couple reasons for that, but one of the biggest is that the translation is not the best. It’s passable, but it doesn’t always feel like things were translated in a holistic way to the whole game, rather it feels like each line was translated on its own, which leads to things feeling like they don’t all track together naturally at times, and a bunch of mistakes like the Eaters being referred to as Bakemon (a digimon name), because in Japanese they’re referred to sometimes as bakemono, which is just the Japanese word for a monster.

The other big issue I feel I have with the story of CS is that it feels like it’s all over the place, at least early on. Early on in the game, the story starts to set up a lot of different characters and plot threads that don’t seem to really connect with each other until much later in the game. That kind of story can be told well, but in this case, I just feel like the execution left a lot to be desired. For a long time, it felt like I was just playing through a bunch of different unrelated stories rather than a singular story. I’m not sure exactly what would be the right way to implement the idea to help keep the early game’s story interesting, but as it is, it felt a little lackluster.

However, that really only applies to the early game. And the late game, though in a bit of a different way. Around chapter 8 out of 20, the story starts popping off, and the individual stories concerning all the side characters start coming together to reveal the bigger picture of what’s been happening in Tokyo and Eden lately, and what issues that’s leading to in both the real and digital worlds. And from about chapter 8 through 19 or so, it feels really good and strong and there’s a clear singular direction that the story is taking, and every new piece of information seems to feed into the major plot in some way. 

And then as you get into the last chapter, things start to feel a little less narratively tied together again. See, yes, the mysteries were building into a singular situation that was threatening both the real and digital worlds, but the game feels like it lacks a narrative throughline, or even multiple narrative throughlines for each major character. It feels like there’s no moral being focused on here, rather, it feels like there’s just a series of events that happen because it would be cool to have them happen. And they were cool. But... to really make a story feel good to me, I feel like there needs to be some sense of a complete narrative moral, and I just didn’t feel that way from this game. The closest I could tell was one line from the ending,

“You will now be the master of your own future.”

But... that feels weak. It didn’t feel like being able to control their own future was much of a theme for any of the main characters, except maybe Arata. And even then, it was a pretty weak theme. (I suppose an argument could be made that the game’s very linear story means your character doesn’t have a lot of freedom from a gameplay perspective, so the gameplay supports you not having control over your future, but... that’s a pretty weak argument.)

So, the story is interesting, but it’s also pretty weak. 

fusion evolution is apparently gay as hell and i love it

The Cyber Sleuthing

There’s not really any actual sleuthing in this game. It’s really just a narrative device to give your character a reason to help out with a variety of random situations. You very rarely, if ever, have to actually solve mysteries/puzzles during your journey. So... not much actual sleuthing. But the greater mystery of the story does get really interesting in the mid game, so I’ll give it that. 

Other stuff

Here, I just wanna talk about some other miscellaneous thoughts I have about this game, and then kinda sum it all up. 

I loved Persona 5. It was a wonderful game, and such a powerful turn-based JRPG, that it’s influenced my perception of basically every JRPG I’ve played since. And it feels weird to do that. Like I feel like CS is a really decent game taken on its own, but when I’m comparing everything in some way to Persona 5, CS feels like it sucks. Like there are so many aspects where I can see ways to improve upon the game - the translation is lacking, there’s no english dub, combat is fairly smooth but Persona’s combat always feels like it’s a puzzle to be solved but CS’s combat feels like it’s just ‘have the right type digimon in play’, add more social elements to let me grow closer to Yuuko, Nokia, Arata, and other characters. 

There’s this narration near the end of the game to explain how things change after the big final boss battle, and it’s narrated by one of the in-game characters, Nokia. And it’s amazing, because Nokia’s character can be kinda... ditzy, I guess is the right word? So there are parts in that bit of narration where she’s just like “and, you know... stuff changed” or whatever. It’s both funny, and leaves things fairly up to the player to have their own interpretations for what happens with everyone after things are over. There’s some small scenes after that narration that show some of what the main cast has been up to since the events of the final battle, but nothing that gives too much of a clue as to what happened.

----

There is a running gag throughout the whole game about how your mentor character likes experimenting with coffee, making weird blends like adding red bean paste or seaweed to her coffee, and she loves pushing this on other people who often react in horror. But there’s also this really nice scene in the finale where it shows the main character, without Kyoko around, drinking mayo coffee, and I think it’s just cute as heck

There’s a canon nonbinary character in the game, who complains about being forced to choose between either a male or female avatar when logging into the online system, and I absolutely love that kinda shit <3

My favorite status effect is one called Dot, where it converts your digimon into a sprite form and prevents them from using special attacks. And I love when JRPGs add fun unique statuses like this, which make sense within the context of the world

In Summary

So, to tie it all together, here’s my final thoughts:

I enjoyed my time with Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth a ton. But I’m a fan of digimon and jrpgs. I think the game has its fair share of problems that mean I couldn’t really recommend it to just anyone, but if you like digimon and jrpgs, it’s worth picking up. And the complete edition comes with two games for the price of one, so all the better. 

[samsonet]

Silver Dreaming (2/6)

That night, Raihan has a dream.

He’s on a rocky mountain, the highest point in Alola. The sun shines down on him, warm on his skin. His heart is racing. There’s a grin on his face.

He’s battling someone — he doesn’t know who — and it’s exhilarating. Flygon rushes across the battlefield like a shooting star. Whatever his opponent does, Raihan is one step ahead. He is winning and it is glorious.

On the other side of the battlefield, his opponent smiles.

*

At nine exactly, Professor Kukui walks through the door.

He’s grinning, buzzing with the kind of excitement people usually get at their first time in a stadium. Raihan doesn’t get to witness that kind of emotion often; by the time challengers get to him, they’re usually used to the spotlights.

“I’m glad you asked me here,” Kukui says. “Z-Moves need a lot of space, so it’s hard to find places to really show ‘em off, you know?”

Raihan doesn’t know, but he nods anyway.

They stand at the center of the pitch, side by side.

“Now, Z-Moves have a long history in Alola and are critical to our culture… but I can give you the full report later. You’ve got the Dragonium-Z on your Z-Ring, yeah, so if you send out a Pokemon with a damaging dragon-type move, you can use the ultimate dragon move!”

“Really? I’ve never been fond of Draco Meteor, myself.” But he sends out Flygon all the same.

“No, not Draco Meteor. Devastating Drake. It’s even stronger — trust me, I measured it. Now! Watch me!”

Kukui proceeds to… make the strangest poses Raihan has ever seen, and that’s counting the Charizard pose and dabbing.

“Can you copy that, cha— Raihan?”

With a shrug, he does. Let it never be said that the great Raihan does not have a good memory.

“Perfect! You got that like a Smart Strike! I knew you’d be a natural at this!” Kukui steps back, gesturing for Raihan to face the opposite end of the pitch. “Now, act like you’re in a regular battle. Do the pose, and channel the energy through you. And when you’re ready, command Flygon to use Devastating Drake!”

Either this is going to be the most humiliating experience ever, or it will be epic.

Raihan closes his eyes.

He crosses his arms and flings them out.

Are his fingers really tingling, or is he just imagining it?

Hands forward, palms facing together, fingers curled. A dragon’s mouth. Dragons guard treasure. Dragons are wise and terrifying. Dragons get slain and the fairytale still ends happily ever after.

If he opened his eyes now, they’d be sharp, glaring. That happens when he’s worked up. He’s still not entirely sure how he does it.

His heart is racing. His arms feel hot, almost burning, like he’s holding the sun in his hands.

Alola is paradise. Alola is full of friendly people and strong Pokémon. Alola has a desert where there’s a sandstorm always raging, and a guardian deity lives there.

He opens his arms, the dragon’s maw. Flygon cries out.

Maybe Raihan is imagining it, but at that moment, he’s certain that he and Flygon are completely in sync. He feels his partner’s excitement, feels the sun on his scales, feels the power coursing through every atom of his body —

Flygon roars.

Raihan roars, too.

“DEVASTATING DRAKE!”

The power courses through him like nothing he’s ever felt before. He stumbles back at the force of it, almost falling over before being caught by Kukui. He tears his eyes open just in time to watch Flygon unleashing the most awesome move he has ever seen.

A gigantic purple light in the form of an amphipthere flies across the pitch. It spirals up, then plummets to earth at the spot where an opponent would have been.

It leaves a smoking crater in its wake.

Oh, Arceus. Arceus. Arceus.

Raihan’s shaking.

He’s gradually aware of Kukui’s voice. “Deep breaths, cousin. Deep breaths. In through your nose, out through your mouth.”

Deep breaths.

Deep breaths.

In and out.

It takes him a while, but Raihan recovers. When he comes back to his senses, he realizes that he did not, in fact, faint or even fall over. Somehow Kukui has kept him upright. There’s nearly thirty-six centimeters’ height difference between them. How strong is this man?

“That was…” Raihan rubs his face. “I… man.”

“Intense, yeah? You did good. A Z-Move is powered by a trainer sharing their light with their Pokémon, so for yours to be so powerful on your first try… You’re amazing, Raihan! Exceptional!”

“Is it always this… draining?”

“Well, it’s like any other move, really. If you practice, it gets easier. You will practice, right?”

The Z-Ring glitters.

“...yeah. I’ll practice.”

“Great! If you want, I can call Kahuna Olivia later. She’s the one who made your Z-Ring. You’ll be working with her at the league.”

“If I become champion. If.”

Kukui’s smile falls, just the tiniest bit. “Still thinking about it, then?”

“Yeah. I am.” He’s not thinking clearly. This is a runner’s high, he knows that, and that means he’ll probably crash later, but… “Damn. That felt amazing. Thank you, Professor.”

“Anytime. Er… is there a place where you can lie down for a bit? You still look a bit unwell.”

“I’m fine. I’ll be fine. If you can just help me back into the main building, Sebastian can help me from there. I don’t want to keep you from your other plans.”

“Okay. If you’re sure.”

Kukui walks him back inside, and the gym trainers take him from there. Raihan lets himself be guided to a back room. He drinks water and lets himself rest.

Today had been put aside to train for his battle with Nessa, but he’s not sure if he can handle his usual routine right now. Instead, he lets himself replay the Z-Move in his mind. The dragon, the light, the raw power from a Pokemon who couldn’t even Gigantamax…

He imagines his next match against Melony. Maybe he’d switch things up a bit, send out Duraludon first and save Flygon for last. She would be confused, of course. The whole stadium would be. The commentators would wonder what in the world he was thinking. Melony would Gigantamax her Lapras and wait for him to do the same with Flygon, but then he’d reveal his Z-Ring and unleash a Devastating Drake, and maybe he’d finally beat her for once.

He’ll have a match against her sometime next year. It’s more than enough time to get used to the move, to get accustomed to battling with it.

Next year —

No. Wait.

If he takes the offer, he won’t be part of Galar’s league by next year. He might never get the chance to battle Melony or Nessa or Piers or Milo again.

It’s… a shame.

But that’s what happens when you grow, right? Sometimes you have to part ways with people you used to know. He hasn’t battled Sonia in years, after all, and he doesn’t miss her.

Most of the time, at least.

*

A couple hours later, he’s recovered enough to head back out. His trainers seem relieved to see him. Raihan helps them finish repairing the pitch, then goes over their training.

At the end of the day, he goes home.

Sonia and Nessa are waiting at his door. Sonia’s holding a six-pack of soda in one hand and a bag of takeaway in the other. The food smells delicious.

“Glad you two could make it,” Raihan says, letting them in.

He doesn’t have to tell them to make themselves at home. They do it themselves, getting the fluffy blankets out of his closet and pulling out the folding table for the food. Nessa turns on the telly and sets it on mute. Raihan grabs the Leon Jar from the top of the fridge. It still has a few coins in it from last time.

They settle in, lounging on the floor. Sonia brought their favorites, as she always does: potato curry for herself, coconut curry for Nessa, bone curry for Raihan.

Sonia’s always been good at remembering things like that.

They meet up like this once a month, alternating who brings the refreshments and whose house they go to. They never really planned for it to become a thing. It just did.

There are rules, though.

Well, just one. Don’t mention Galar’s champion.

Usually, that’s not too hard. But if Raihan tells them about the offer…

He keeps quiet, at first.

Nessa’s talking about the maintenance plans for the lighthouse. Sonia’s concerned about how it’s weathering the summer storms.

“I don’t remember them being that harsh last year.”

Nessa shrugs. “Climate change. But the lighthouse will be okay. It’s been here for a hundred years, it’ll last a hundred more.”

“I hope so. I love that place.”

“Same. Hey, Raihan, you control the weather, right? Make it sunny around Hulbury for me, okay?”

Make it sunny. Like he holds the sun in his arms.

“Sonia,” he says. “Your gran is meeting with some guy from Alola, right?”

“Yeah, Professor Kukui. How’d you know?”

He takes a bite. “Mm… I might’ve spoken to him. Did he mention anything about the Alola league?”

She furrows her eyebrows. “I don’t think Alola has a league, Rai. They’re pretty traditional.”

“Yeah.”

Nessa sips her soda, looking him in the eyes. “Got something you want to share with the class, Raihan?”

“...if I tell you, you have to keep this a secret.”

“I can do that. Sunny?”

“My lips are sealed.”

Raihan leans forward. “Alola doesn’t have a league right now, but they’re setting one up. And Professor Kukui asked me to be the champion.”

As soon as he says it, he realizes how silly it must sound. He can’t take the title in Galar, and then all of a sudden someone from another region walks in and offers it, no strings attached? Ridiculous.

The girls don’t seem skeptical, though. They just look at him curiously.

Nessa asks, “But what about Leon?”

“Hey! You said his name!”

Nessa snorts, but puts a pound coin in the jar. Then, staring Sonia in the eyes, she puts in another. “Seriously, what about Leon? His rivalry with you is like half of the reason people come to watch his matches. Is Rose really going to let you off so easily?”

“I don’t know. Rose seemed pretty excited about it.” Raihan leans back. “Oleana said, too, that if I go, you would be that guy’s greatest rival.”

Nessa looks down. He knows that expression on her face: she’s imagining it. She usually loses to Raihan on the second round of the finals; with him gone, she’ll likely be the one facing He Who Must Not Be Named for the champion title. She’ll lose, of course, but as his new Greatest Rival she’ll be lifted from mere second gym leader to something higher. She’ll get the adoration, the respect, the sponsorships…

She deserves it all, honestly. He couldn’t pick a better person.

“Are you…” Her voice is hesitant. “Are you going to accept, then?”

“I’m still thinking about it. But honestly? The idea is kinda growing on me.”

“You’ll let us know before you leave, right? We have to throw you a party, and Gran will probably have things to ask you...”

“Sure, sure. Anything for Sunny’s granny, right? I haven’t accepted yet, though, so let’s not talk about what-ifs. Ness’ and I have a match to prepare for. There’s no way I’m going to lose!”

“Oh, just you wait!”

*

A couple hours later, they’re ready to call it a night. Nessa and Sonia share the guest room, as usual, and Raihan goes to his bedroom.

He turns on his phone and checks his notifications.

His last selfie, from yesterday morning outside Rose Tower, has six thousand likes. The comments section is full of questions about what he was doing there.

Nessa’s official account has some pictures from her latest shoot. He gives the post a like.

He scrolls through a while longer, but nothing else catches his interest. Still, he’s not quite ready to unplug yet.

He texts Piers. U up?

Dark specialist, mate. I’m practically a Noctowl.

Then, before Raihan can type a reply, Piers sends another message: Is this about the Alola championship?

How the fuck do u know about that?

Don’t ask and I won’t lie. Okay, it’s like this: You were at Rose Tower. So was that professor. He’s been talking about looking for a champion. It’s not hard to put two and two together.

He doesn’t like that. Piers is a good guy, but he’s from Spikemuth, and Spikemuth isn’t known for being quiet. And that’s not even mentioning how the rumor ended up reaching him in the first place…

It was supposed to be a secret.

I won’t tell anyone. Cross my heart. The rumor is going to spread, though. You know how the tabloids are. Promise you’ll let me know before you leave?

There’s yet another person acting like he’s definitely leaving. Is there something in the way Raihan talks that makes them think he’s pretty much accepted the position?

I havent decided that I’m going yet. but I’ll tell you if I do

Three dots appear, a signal of Piers typing.

He continues typing for five minutes.

It makes Raihan anxious.

At last, the message appears: Have you thought about who’s going to take care of Sandaconda and Duraludon?

What?

Alola has a pretty limited dex, mate. I don’t know if you’ll be allowed to take them out of Galar.

Really?

He’d known Turtonator was native to Alola. He’d sort of assumed all the rest of his team would be allowed there, too.

Raihan fact checks this in this quickest way he knows how: googling it.

Turtonator, check. Goodra and Flygon lines, usually found on Ula’ula. Turkoal, also found on Ula’ula.

Sandaconda and Duraludon…

Not part of the dex. Not found in the region naturally. In other words: not allowed.

As the champion, Raihan could be an exception, right? Didn’t champions usually have exotic Pokémon on their teams? If he makes it a strict condition, there’s no way Kukui would refuse to let him bring his partners, right?

But that’s wishful thinking. Raihan knows his Pokémon well. He knows the Sandaconda line, in particular, could cause trouble if one somehow made its way into the wild.

So if he leaves, he’s going to play by the rules.

It probably rains a lot in Alola, he thinks. They won’t be happy there anyway.

He texts Piers: I’ll probably ask Aria to take care of em.

He doesn’t want to think about how Piers is likely judging him on the other side. Raihan is selling out, and he knows it.

Going to bed now. Talk to u tmrw.

Raihan sets his phone to Do Not Disturb, and tries to sleep.

[hyphypmic]

The Dirty Dawg: Build-A-Bear

Dedicated to @straynoel ! Thank you for the lovely suggestion. Sorry it came so late! School is always gonna be a bitch you know? 

Samatoki

Regrets ever agreeing to going on this date, but then when he sees your face light up at the aspect of going to a Build-a-Bear workshop, he suddenly has no regrets, though he has to look like he doesn’t want to be there because he’s a toughie like that

Picking the stuffed animal: believe it or not, he get’s kind of involved. The kind of really annoying involved

“Idiot. Don’t get that one, the seam looks loose.”

“Those eyes are too creepy.”

“Why would you choose a bunny at a build-a-bear workshop.”

“Don’t get white, it’s going to get dirty.”

You don’t get annoyed though, even if some people are wondering why a Yakuza boss is in such a place, you find it cute that he’s trying to act all tough when in reality he’s kind of invested

Ultimately, you end up choosing the classic teddy bear, just because Samatoki said that it’s cute and that its the entire point of going to build a bear is to make a bear

For choosing clothes: this part takes even longer than the bear choosing part because Samatoki looks like he’s actually shopping and doesn’t let you get the pink sparkly ones because… I mean… he won’t be caught dead buying that for you

You decide though that he gets no say in it and you choose a white polo and black pants and rubber shoes

And a leather jacket

He realises it’s his clothes after like, fifteen minutes

You say that it’s because you want to be with Samatoki AKA Mr Ha Ko on The Microphone even if he’s not there with you

Samatoki really tries hard not to blush and is just calling you dumb repeatedly

For Accessories

You get a microphone. Enough said. You almost get the sunglasses but Mr Ha Ko said no even if he looked like he was thinking about it. Maybe next time.

For choosing the Sounds:

Nope. -Samatoki

Though you get the burping sound so it’s funny, much to his chagrin

It kind of reminds you of whenever Riou (unfortunately cooks)

For choosing the scent

Samatoki doesn’t like any of the smells to be associated with Samatoki Jr., but he offers his cologne instead

For the Heart Ceremony

Oh my, its free, the heart I mean and you’re all for it. Samatoki however, is not.

You make him do it and Samatoki refuses so hard, but then he does it anyway

The person in charge makes it as unhumiliating as possible because he is THE yakuza boss and he is THE scariest person ever so it’s just a quick: rub it on your chest so that he feels the best! Rub it on your head please don’t make me dead- I mean, so that it will be wise! Rub it on your arms (oh damn that bicep) so that he’ll be strong yay! Please don’t kill me

It’s funny though to see him grumbling like that

For stuffing

He’s actually willing to help you and is like actually careful so that you don’t over stuff it

For naming

“WE’RE NOT NAMING IT SAMATOKI JR.”

“What no… not Mr. Ha Ko, he’s too… soft”

You: But it has to remind me of you!

Him: eh… Toki?

You actually name it Toki and make him sign the birth certificate  (he signs with reluctance as ever and tries to look tough but really how can you look tough at a place like this)

He pays for it. No hesitation whatsoever and practically drags you out of the workshop, complaining about how embarrassing it is, but you know he enjoyed it

You find out later that he did the same thing for Nemu, except he did it alone.

Ichiro

Is all in for it

No regrets whatsoever

Yes let’s go there.

Ichiro actually has gone there for Saburo (and Jiro… and himself) so he says your bear can join the Buster Bros Bear Family

Picking the Stuffed Animal:

Something nerdy and yes he is so into choosing

“Don’t you want a dragon?”

“Oh wait but those clothes won’t fit…”

“Oh maybe a regular bear? Nah that’s boring.”

“Oh but if it’s blue it would be weird if we dressed him or her up in that outfit bc the character doesn’t have blue skin

Though, you end up picking a generic bear and decide to go all out on the clothes and the accessories so you have more freedom to personalise

Ichiro wants to buy the Pokemon build a bear online though, maybe some day

Choosing Clothes and Accessories

Here we go, you’re both cosplayers and you both know your way with clothes so this part

You immediately talk over the pros and cons of what cosplay to buy for the bear

Or at least, something that resembles the anime of your choice

You both agree to dress up the bear (and give it the accessories) of your favourite anime character from your favourite anime

Ichiro makes sure it is accurate as possible

Down to the top, the number of buttons, color of bottoms, color of the accessories and the overall vibe of the bear

No like, he really took it so seriously

And so did you

Choosing the Sounds

Well, none are accurate enough, but since you can record sounds, Ichiro plays one of the iconic lines from the anime and records it on the sound

Yes you both look like weebs but you both are cute weeds because nothing is cuter than making a toy look nerdier or as nerdy as the two of you combined

Choosing the Scent

Match personality to scent…. Well you tried but in the end you picked lavender

Ichiro said that it smelled good so you just went with it and trusted in his judgement because you love and believe in your boyfriend yehey

For the Heart Ceremony

Oh well, you make Ichiro do this one with you and he wholeheartedly agrees with it.

Thankfully, the employee knows you’re both weeds so he/she makes the entire thing super anime related!

Rub it on your head so he’s as smart as ___! Rub it on your arms so he’s strong as Goku! Jump up and down for it to have the power of _____! Etc. Etc. It actually lasts a longer time than usual because the employee is also a weeb

For Stuffing

He places a kiss on your nose before he helps you stuff it carefully until it is full enough so that you can hug it tight and it will give you comfort yay

For naming

Well obviously, you name it after the character you dressed it up as

Then you realise you can buy other clothes and ichiro realises this also

So you both have to decide on the name

Akira, for the sake of having the nickname of Aki which is pretty cute if you ask me

Also, at this point you both realise you could have cosplaying bears with your disgustingly cute couple cosplays

Both of you sign the birth certificate and he boops you on the nose with the bear and plays with it as if it is the character

Ichiro pays for it, and even buys and extra outfit for his bear to be matching with yours.

Jakurai

Kind of reluctant, but goes with it anyway if that’s what makes you happy

However when you both get to the mall, he seems to be slightly into it

He actually thinks this would be a good idea for Doppo and Hifumi and for his clinic… mostly whenever Doppo visits he’s a nervous wreak.

Picking the Stuffed Animal:

Is kind of serene about it

Picks each one up gently and strokes it like really peacefully like he’s actually contemplating each one

He does suggest some, but mostly just helps you choose between the options you picked

You get a Sabertooth and Jakurai gets a Wolf

Reasoning behind the Sabertooth is because it’s cute

Wolf… because… Matenrou… I mean… duh

You actually tease him about it but he blushes and clutches it tighter

He genuinely wants one

Choosing Clothes and Accessories

Jakurai obviously wants a doctor’s outfit for his!

Complete with the head light and the stethoscope

And the clipboard

And a chew toy

Yes it costs money but how much do you think Jakurai, the leader of Matenrou, winner of the most recent division battle, talented doctor, etc etc, earns?

You pick whatever the hell you want, but you get a black turtleneck for your sabertooth because why not

Choosing the Sounds

Jakurai picks a heartbeat sound because whenever he visits the children’s ward, he wants the kids to hear the heartbeat of their new friend (no I’m not crying you’re crying bitch)

You pick a meow because it’s kinda cute to hear such a “fearsome” beast meow

Because it’s cute, I mean… hello why not

Jakurai doesn’t even fight you at all, he’s like content to see you happy with what you’re doing, plus he’s also having fun making his wolf

Choosing the Scent

Jakurai chooses strawberry because it’s kid-friendly and he remembers both Doppo and hifumi like that scent, as artificial as it might be

You pick lavender, well there’s no exact reason, but it might be Jakurai’s shampoo, though you never actually know because with hair as great as his, he probably uses a shit ton of great shampoo

For the Heart Ceremony

Now, Jakurai being 30 something and you being of the same age-ish, there is no way the two of you were going to do it

However, there are some small kids there that know Jakurai (and you by default) and look really really hopeful that you’re going to do it

So your mom and dad instincts come out and you both enlist the help of your kids

The employee does the usual heart ceremony, and you and Jakurai really enthusiastically do it with the kids because you’re motivated to make them laugh as the ceremony gets sillier and sillier

You see the genuine joy in Jakurai’s face when he’s helping people and you get a little emotional because wow he’s such a great guy

For Stuffing

You’re both careful with your toys and you know, you’re still gushing over Jakurai being a wonderful doctor and he’s good with kids (I mean he has two big kids, so how different would actual kids be)

He just says that you’re incredible as well

You know, you’re both at that age where you just want a fluffy domestic life so you’re both kind of just glowing in happiness

For naming

You sign each other’s birth certificates (DOMESTICITY IS LIFE BRO) and you name yours Airi (meaning beloved Jasmine) and he names his Tsuyoshi (which means strong) because he wants his patients to always feel like they’re strong and that they’re brave

Jakurai of course pays for both bears and you both have like a coffee after and have a very cute and fluffy date

You also take pictures with the kids you played with a while ago because they’re his fans and they want you and he wants you to be in the picture because really they had so much fun

Ramuda

Is the one that suggested this date happen

Yes we all know he’s a manipulative, multi-layered personality, but he actually enjoys doing build-a-bear

Loves it. Practically skips his way to build a bear.

Has gone there for himself… and for himself… he has at least three

Picking the stuffed animal:

Nope not the bear

Why would you get the bunny

Get the unicorn!!! Ooo or the dragon *drags you* oh what about this one it’s so soffftttttt

Ok so you both end up getting a pastel pink cat (him) and a pastel pink dog (you)

Because

I mean

Your boyfriend’s hair is pink… and he has a lollipop that’s pink… and his speakers are candy… I mean if anything you like that kind of thing

Choosing Clothes and Accessories

Oh god this takes longer than Samatoki and Ichiro

Ramuda is the fashion designer

No that clashes with the pink!”

“Why would you choose that pants with that shoes”

“Are you kidding me with the skirt? You should get a patterned one if you want a plain shirt.”

Your outfit:

Pastel Rainbow tutu

Rainbow unicorn hoodie

White sneakers

Star Necklace

His outfit:

He also likes the rainbow unicorn hoodie so you’re matching

He also wants to get it in real life

Pink shorts

White sneakers

Star Necklace

Outfits are so cute and Ramuda is thinking about actually getting that outfit

Choosing Sounds

Meow and Woof

I mean, it’s pretty cute

And nothing is more kiddie than picking the actual sounds of the animal and giggling

Oh no actually after you pick up the meow and woof, you both decide to pick I love you sounds so you both can squeeze it at each other

Ramuda may be a sketchy fuck who probably has a network and he knows what he’s doing, but he’s a child and he just wants fun

Choosing the Scent

Oh this one is fast

Ramuda immediately goes for the bubblegum and you for the vanilla cupcake

No debate whatsoever

And also you’re both craving for sweets

For The Heart ceremony

Let’s go

You’re both so game for it like, the employee is a huge ramuda fan so she goes for it with the heart ceremony

Give it a twirl!

Ramuda: wheee~

Clap your hands together rub it on your heart

Blow a kiss!

 Dance to “insert J-Pop and K-Pop song here” so that your friend will have rhythm

Jump around!

So on and so forth! 

For Stuffing

Overstuffed the first time

Understuffed when you take it out

The employee ends up helping you because you both keep fucking up

Ramuda gives you a big hug after and holds your hand

For Naming

You sign each other’s birth certificates

Ramuda has a really nice signature with the hearts and the stars

Yours: Mao (Dance Cherry Blossom)

His: Hoshiko (Star child) because he likes it and it’s great

Obviously, Ramuda is secretly loaded, but you somehow space out and pay for it… though Ramuda sneaks the money back in your bag like the kid he is

[bbs-backlog-challenge]

BB’s Games Of 2019

2019 as a year felt like it lasted two years, and a lot happened in my personal life. Got a new job, learned to drive, got my first car, moved out of the in-laws’ basement into our first real apartment, started my first long-term game of DnD (which in itself has involved a new relationship and an emotional breakdown)- and between it all I somehow managed to play 77 games. Backlog’s down to 35 titles, lads- at this rate, I’ll be down to zero by July 2020. (Not gonna happen.) In 2020, I’d like to explore the SNES catalogue a little more, but before that happens we have to review everything 2019 brought me, in a somewhat chronological order.

- Near A Tomato Carry-over from last year’s post since I was in the middle of playing it at the time. I definitely never quite got a handle on the combat and I think some of the themes went over my head, but I still had fun here, and the 9S hacking minigame never got old. It was a gift from an old friend who I miss. Was nice to reconnect. - SSBU With my new main Zelda, I cleared all of WoL and got every spirit on the Spirit Board. I never really used her before but she’s cute now! Really liked the attention to detail in the spirit encounters. Unfortunately, Cloud is still in the game. - Mega Mans 1 2 and 3 I actually spoke about my experiences with the Mega Men in my BBLC post for Mega Man Eggs, so you should read that right now. - Metroid Samus Returns It’s Good. Like, a solid Good. Never Great, never Bad, just Good. It’s nice to see one of the least accessible games in the series get a remaster, but it feels very disposable, if that makes sense. Like they just needed a Metroid to keep people busy while they reboot Prime 4 development. AM2R is vastly superior, go play that. One point of amusement- the game tells its story without narration, and also seems to pre-suppose you know Metroid lore. I was entertained by the thought of a newcomer to the series being completely mystified by the sudden space-dragon that comes out of nowhere to wreck you at the end of the game. - Khimera: Destroy All Monster Girls You can click here to download it, ‘cos it’s free, which is almost criminal. This is one of the higher tier games I’ve played this year. A little bit Mega Man, a bit Metroid, with hints of Touhou and Undertale, it’s pretty tough at times but never to ‘precision platformer’ levels. It’s a lot of fun and the dev deserves your support. - Steve And Ollie RPG Oh, I made this one. Making something else next year? Question mark? - Prof Layton 3 Feels like these are getting weaker as they go along. The story has always been absolute boohockey, but the puzzles feel like they’re degrading in quality too. With over 200 in each game, that’s not super surprising, and I’m glad they didn’t bulk it out with a load of the awful block-slider puzzles. Still, it’s Layton, if you liked any of the other games you’ll like this cos it’s the exact same thing. - Fault Milestone Two Yo, there ain’t a damned thing I can say about Fault, so go play the first one and then play this and you’ll understand. - Full Throttle I never bothered to finish it. The obtuse old Sierra puzzlers were hard enough to deal with back in the day, and just feel kind of inexcusable now. I don’t have the patience for it. - eXceed 3rd Slick and fun bullet hell with a nigh-incomprehensible story and great music. Touhou fans will like it. Music by SSH who is relatively well known in doujin circles. - ASAMU Finished it before writing my BBLC post! - Eternal Senia Everything I said in my post rings true- do your best to look past the wonky translation, because there’s a heartfelt story underneath it. Very accessible gameplay, by design. - Inivisble Inc You have never before been, nor will you ever again be, so aware of having left a door open. I fully expected to hate Invisible, but I got hooked pretty hard. Quite tempted to do another run of it once the backlog is clear. - Pyre GOTY. Supergiant’s best game so far, and that’s not an easy thing to say for this Bastion veteran. I sobbed by the end. I’m not being dramatic- literally sobbed. Please play it. Music and writing and, just, heart, are all top tier. All the Nightwings are the best, but Hedwyn is the best best. - Ellipsis Finished it before writing my BBLC post! - Just Cause 2 I found myself getting bored very quickly. The main missions are all identical (really, they are) and the side missions are very uninspired. Blitzing around in a jet or grappling around a mission target is a lot of fun but it feels very shallow. There’s a lot to do but not really any reason to do any of it. I dunno, it’s a kind of hollow experience, that I nonetheless had fun with. - LiEat It went over my head a little, but that’s more on me I think. These horror-esque, eccentric japanese RPG Maker games usually do. But, it’s neat, and short. If this sort of thing usually sticks on you, I think this is a good title. - Shantae Pirates Curse These games always felt non-essential to me; I’m not sure why they never stuck. They never really go below or above Good. Entirely enjoyable but I don’t feel like I’d have really missed anything if I hadn’t played them. It is, however, absolutely worth investing in for the utterly superb sprite work. That doesn’t sell a game by itself, I know, but Shantae is a pixel art masterclass. - FF5 I’d more or less finished it by the time I wrote my BBLC post, so I don’t have much to add. It’s a refreshingly goofy entry in a series known for taking itself too seriously, even compared to its predecessor. Look forward to my entry for this game in my Games Of 2020 post, having played the Four Job Fiesta! - Touhou 17 It’s mid-tier in the touhou hierarchy, IMO. Didn’t set my soul alight but I did enjoy it. Playing as Wolf Marisa makes the final boss too chaotic to really enjoy, but playing through again with Reimu made it more fun. I beat Extra on my third run through, which gave me false confidence that after 10 years I might actually be good at these games- to then be quickly humbled by attempting Th11’s Extra. Final Boss’ theme song has one of the greatest lead-ins of all time, especially given you start the fight by running away from her! Also really loved the Stage 4 theme as you barrel head-first into Hell (the real one this time), and the haunting, calm-before-the-storm serenity of Stage 5, overlooking the City Of Beasts. - HackNet + Labyrinths GOTY. (Yes, I know I already said Pyre was GOTY; it’s my post, I can have two GOTYs. Make your own damned post!) It’s hard to say what I loved about these games without spoiling too much- just know that they play very much like investigation games, and figuring out the puzzles feels great. Labyrinths technically takes place during the events of Hacknet, with a somewhat more Black Hat approach to things- despite this, play all of Hacknet first, and then play Labyrinths. The expansion introduces a lot of new stuff and much trickier challenges, such that going back to the base game afterwards to finish that would leave it a little hollow- a disservice to how great the ending is. - Mega Man X I said everything I wanted to say in my BBLC post, and anything I didn’t cover was better said by Egoraptor. - Octodad Finished it before my BBLC post! - Chroma Squad The final mission is disappointingly poor, but everything up to that point was pretty good. Huge variance and creativity in the bosses. However, the most fun I got from it was when I realised the game allowed me to customise my team name, transformation name, and other such terminology. Dave, Dayve, Davy, Davina, and Dehve shouting “It’s time to Chromatise, Chroma Squad!” very quickly became “It’s time to shit, you bunch of fucks!” and it was funny every single time. (Personal favourite bit of dialogue- “I tried to shit! It worked!”) - Pyrite Heart Finished it before my BBLC post! - Starfox 2 Finished it before my BBLC post! - Burly Men At Sea Finished it before my BBLC post! - Disc Room Finished it before my BBLC post! - Kokurase Finished it before my BBLC post! Should have broken these ones up a bit! - Metroid Rogue Dawn Very, very impressive romhack let down by a distinctly un-fun final section. They managed to fix so many of OG Metroid’s problems, I’m surprised the gauntlet of terribleness that is Tourian escaped with only a cosmetic change. Nonetheless, it’s free, and the other 95% of the game is superb, even from a purely technical standpoint. - Wuppo I dunno what happened here! I was full of praise for Wuppo when I played it, but somehow I just couldn’t stick with it and just never felt like playing it. It’s a very aimless game, and I wonder if that might be why? It’s a shame, I feel disappointed in myself for not seeing it through, but ultimately I play games to have fun and I just wasn’t quite there with Wuppo. - Super Mario Odyssey I loved it, obviously. I wrote my BBLC post towards the end of my time with Odyssey so most of that stands- I do want to add that the controls always felt a little loose, like I wasn’t quite as in-control as I was in Galaxy. Also Mario prioritises walljumping over ledge-grabbing and it’s super-hard to unlearn that instinct after 20 years. Finally- Long Journey’s End is just bullshit. - Secret Of Mana Dropped it pretty soon after Finning it. There’s some logic to the way the game works, some kind of hidden turn-order system, that I could not at all figure out. My AI companions (useless, btw) would hit an enemy which meant I couldn’t, except sometimes the hit would still register but only actually go through 3 seconds later, without any way to tell which way it was going to go. It takes like 7 months for your character to get back up after taking a hit. It’s just, wonky, and I couldn’t solve the puzzle of how to make the game do what I wanted to do. - Pokemon Shield Still working my way through it. It’s- yeah, it’s pokemon. Get a similar vibe to Sun/Moon with it that it’s kind of unfinished- lots of small (and some not so small) parts of the game just feel like there were bigger plans that couldn’t be realised in time. I’m still enjoying it! They did a great job of making the gym battles, and the whole process of 8-badges-then-champion, feel like a spectacle. I think only the anime has managed it to this degree before. - Earthbound Man, I really, really want to like this game, but the battle system is terrible. I need to play through the game again buffing my party up with cheats or something, because it’s so unbalanced and cheap. Everything else about the game is wonderful, but I got so frustrated with the fights! - Mario Kart 8 Didn’t play any of the single player this time, it was midgi’s christmas present so I just joined a couple of multiplayer games. Absolutely baffled that the game features F-Zero style anti-gravity courses, has Mute City and Big Blue, and even has the Blue Falcon as a selectable vehicle, but they haven’t put Captain Falcon in it. Like he’s ever going to get another game of his own? Let him have this! - Carmageddon 2 It’s pretty clunky by now, being 20 years old, but still plays well enough. The physics are super loose so you slide around like your tires have been buttered. It was more fun when they were zombies instead of just normal people. Missions are brutally hard and should be skipped with cheats. - Neopets After 15 years of playing, I finally got a Ghostkersword. The site as a whole has gone through a lot, and certainly its heyday is long gone, but there’s no other game quite like it. I’m playing the Food Club every day, still. - SIF New phone can’t run the actual gameplay section well enough, so I just log in occasionally to grab free scouts. Here’s another one whose golden years are behind it, sadly, but I certainly still have a lot of affection for SIF. - FF1 Mobile version, which fixes a lot of the bugs with the NES original. This year I completed a solo run with 1 Red Mage, a 4-black belts run, a low-level run, and a 4 White Mages run (which ended up being a lower-level run than the low-level run). I’m fairly comfortable in calling myself an expert in FF1, now. There’s still not really any other games like it- build a party as balanced or imbalanced as you like, and see how they fare. I’d like to build my own game in a similar style, one day. - Re: Live Gacha games and RPG just don’t mix! Both gacha and events do not gel with core RPG mechanics of your character(s) developing in strength as the game goes. It seems impossible to balance the game well- do you cater to the whales who spend and spend until they have the strongest teams possible, meaning the free players or the terminally unlucky can’t stand a chance, or do you cater to those players and give them no reason to spend for the more powerful characters? It’s a shame, because the anime was baffling but in that enjoyable way where you just kind of go with whatever it throws at you, and exploring that in a non-freemium game with a solid beginning middle and end would be really interesting. - Tiny Thief Mobile game that’s not available any more, I think my BBLC post covered it well enough. - F-Zero One of the criticisms most commonly levied against F-Zero is that it wont hold your attention for long. While that’s true, it’s not like you have to make a purchasing decision about it any more- it comes bundled in with the other games you’re buying, so the only investment is time. Ignoring that, it’s still fun to burn around the tracks, and the sense of speed hasn’t ever diminished. The music, too, is underappreciated, with Port Town being my personal fave. - F-Zero GX I can’t believe Nintendo hasn’t done anything with this ridiculous universe for 15 years now. The cutscenes are so hilariously overwrought, and the cast of characters is huge! It could so seamlessly intersect with the Starfox universe, too. There were rumours of a Starfox Racing title some time ago, and I really hope that’s the case. It’d work so well (by which I mean, a particularly enjoyable kind of awful). Anyway, the game still plays great, Story Mode is WAY too hard, Dr Stewart’s theme is a Tune. - Stratosphere This game is from 1998! Build a flying fortress, deck it out with fortifications and weapons and power supplies, then use it to destroy other fortresses. I only ever played the demo as a kid, never got the full game. Took some cajoling to get it to work on modern hardware, but eventually I got in and it wasn’t worth it at all. Wow, that performance, apparently it was designed to run at a terrible frame rate and it wasn’t just a result of my 1998 PC not being up to the task! A shame, but I guess it put one of my ghosts to rest. - DKC 2 The best of the three SNES games, despite the inclusion (and protagonism) of Diddy Kong. Lots to love here, but the OST is top notch. - DKC 3 Not as good as 2, but IMO better than 1. There was a much heavier emphasis on gimmick levels in 3, not all of which hit their target, but does provide a great deal of variety. Consensus is that 2 is better, but if someone claimed 3 was the best DKC, I’d let them get away with it. - King Arthur’s World (SNES) Speaking of putting ghosts to rest… We somehow always managed to get this game whenever we got a SNES, and kid!Beebs most certainly didn’t have the patience for it. Adult!Beebs barely does, either. It’s a very ambitious attempt at some sort of RTS/Puzzle hybrid, somewhat comparable to Lemmings? King Arthur must make his way from his starting position to the throne elsewhere in the map to claim it as his own, using the myriad abilities of his soldiers to get him there in one piece. I decided this year that I was finally going to play through the whole damn thing, start to finish, for the first time ever. With copious use of save states and rewinds, I was finally able to slay this demon. For as fiddly and frustrating as it is, I would still say people should check it out if they have the tools to do so- there’s not really anything else like it, on SNES or otherwise; you’re guaranteed a unique experience, if nothing else. - Oscar (SNES) Terrible. - Spanky’s Quest (SNES) With a name like that, how could I refuse? It’s a weird little puzzler, aping (wahey!) Bubble Bobble and Parasol Stars a little. You’re a monkey who can blow bubbles that stun enemies, but if you bounce the bubble on your head it gets progressively larger and can be burst to send a barrage of similarly-sized sports balls at your opponents to knock them out. You know, just like real life. - Addam’s Family (SNES) This easily-dismissible movie tie-in is actually a very competent platformer with some very, very light metroidvania exploration involved. Gomez has to go through Addams Mansion and rescue the members of his family who have been kidnapped by… something. There’s hidden secrets everywhere and the family can be rescued in any order you like. Genuine recommendation. - Panel DePon/Tetris Attack The only vs puzzler I enjoy (yep. Not even puyo puyo. I know.) I played the HECK out of this in my teenage years, and got crazy good at it. Tendonitis says I’m not allowed to do that any more, but once I shook the rust off I was still pretty strong! It was released as Panel DePon in Japan and was fairy themed, but for the western release they replaced all the fairies with Yoshi characters and renamed it Tetris Attack despite having nothing to do with Tetris at all. Up to you which you prefer- language isn't too much of a barrier here. Soundtrack is killer. - Subsurface Circular Finished it before my BBLC post. Still not decided if I liked the way it ended. - Master Of Orion 2 C’mon. After playing three other pretenders to MoO2’s throne, I had to give the real deal a couple of spins too. It’s Civ 5 in space. Customisable race builds. A whole galaxy to bring peace to, by whichever means you prefer. Would love for someone else to get into it. - Touhou 8 Last minute entry I just played yesterday ‘cos I wanted some Touhou and I haven’t played this entry in a long while. A Solo Marisa Normal Final B run, if you’re interested. Kaguya beast-mode tearing apart the Spell Of Imperishable Night at the end of the game is still an awesome moment, but it’s a shame you can miss the last couple of spells if you take some unlucky hits. - And here’s the list of Bins, which are all covered in their BBLC post: No Time To Explain MoO Skyborn Jumpjet Rex StH 4 Ballistick Munch’s Oddysee Outland Project CARS RiME Magicka Waking Mars Urban Chaos Divinity: Dragon Commander Strike Suit Zero Hell Yeah! Lambda Wars Beta Stranger’s Wrath MoO 3 XCOM Lots more Fins than Bins this year! Good to see!

[frostiifae]

11, 19, and 25 for the meme! :D

11. Video game you’ve spent the most time on.

That would be Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. I had a 300+ hour save file, deleted it to start over with my girlfriend, pushed that save file to 300+ hours, made an alt, pushed that one past 100 hours, then started over for another 100 hours before we switched to a different game. I’m pretty sure that second main account was actually closer to 500 hours. I wish MH4U could’ve gone on being fun forever. We still had so very much to do, and I still have thousands of lines of notes saved on what my goals were and how we were going to achieve them. I’ve been thinking about picking up Generations Ultimate sometime soon, but... 

19. Do you use strategy guides?

nnn....no. Well... Yes? Uh... shit. This is kind of tough to answer. 

Here’s the thing; as a kid, I used to get strategy guides for Pokemon games because I saw them as maps, and I felt like it was cool to be an explorer with a map. It wasn’t until I think Diamond and Pearl that I skipped a guide on release, and Black and White were the first games I played completely blind. It’s a different experience, definitely. 

Other than that, I will pull up gamefaqs guides to progress through JRPGs (looking at you Tales series) because no matter how much I enjoy them, my ADHD makes playing them a nightmare; and once I’ve progressed far enough into any game that I’ve decided I want to really push it to its limits, I’ll pull up guides and do extensive research to help me do that. So this is me getting all star emblems/icons in MMBN games, pushing to endgame in Monster Hunter, completing the perfect Persona 3 playthrough, etc... 

But my pride does demand that I do my best to get through a game without using a guide whenever possible. Fate/Extella Link may be the first game I 100% without using a guide at all. I’m pleased by that, but trust me, it’s not impressive. That game is not complicated. 

25. Video game that you wish you could burn from your memory.

I remember this question from last time this ask meme came around... There are two different ways to interpret this prompt; it might mean “a game you hated so much you wish you could forget it ever existed”, which for me would probably still be DmC DmC. The more I’ve learned about its development the more I can’t even find it in me to hate the people who made it, it’s just... not a good game. It’s very bad. It’s not even bad in a funny memey way like DMC2. 

But you could also take it to mean “a game you loved so much you wish you could play it again blind”, and last time I said Pokemon Gold/Silver, but I’m not really sure how well that’d hold up anymore. I worry it’d feel too small by today’s standards. In fact, I feel like I’d probably pass this up for most of my favorite games, since... having and maintaining mastery over them is part of what’s fun about them, and giving that up would kinda defeat the purpose. 

After much careful consideration I’ve decided that the best game for me to forget and start over with would be something like Knights of the Old Republic. I would love to experience those blind again, except now understanding myself better as a human, and maybe with the opportunity to share that experience with others. But this one, too, I worry just might not hold up. It might not be as fun as I remember it being. I was easier to please as a kid...

[ghostmartyr]

Pokémon SoulSilver Randomized Nuzlocke [Part 2]

Standard Nuzlocke rules apply

Non-standard rule of only being allowed to catch something if it has a Type in common with the most recent thing you caught applies

Randomizer only touches wild pokemon; everything NPCs have remains the same.

So far, we have the first badge, and just caught our first official teammate for our starter. He is Fludd the Whiscash, to accompany Chance the Dewgong. Next pokemon has to be Water or Ground.

May I have the good fortune of finding one.

Fludd is Gentle and alert to sounds. He doesn’t have much in the ways of experience or moves yet, but we will soon see to changing that.

Route 33 has Shuckle! Adorable!

Fludd’s only offensive move being Mud-Slap is proving a trial of patience.

Wild Bastiodon appears. This is the route of tanks.

We’ve talked to Kurt, kicking off the Rocket plot of this section, and I think once Fludd is 10 or 11 we’ll continue down the Slowpoke Well. Where there will be non-Slowpoke things waiting for us.

I really just want Fludd to know something better than Mud-Slap.

..Water Gun is not terrible. Helps that the route I have chosen for training is beset by constant rain. Every single Shuckle having Berry Juice is not on the list of things that help anything except Shuckle delaying the inevitable.

I lied. Fludd is 13 before we start thinking about other things.

My current other thing is going to be Ilex Forest instead of the Rocket plot.

For reasons of pretty.

We find a Charizard!

That is very much not Water or Ground.

Cyndaquil is not Water or Ground either.

Hey, Fludd learned Mud Bomb. Yay.

Okay, fine. I guess we can save the Slowpokes if we really have to.

I love how as technology advances, video games get to be prettier. It makes me happy in my feelings places.

I also love how Kurt really doesn’t do anything. He tries. Then he falls and can’t get up. Then we go in and do the job he wanted to do.

Mawile is down here. Nothing I can do there.

The Grunts go down like Grunts, and then it’s Proton time!

Proton!

That guy!

He’s got... aquamarine hair! That’s like a personality!

Fludd beats him down, too. Party as it stands is Fludd at 16, Chance at 20, and Sleet and Cloud at 5. With only Fludd and Chance really counting as full party members. That will change slightly when I need something to Cut stuff.

Which will be right after we deal with this Gym.

-many weeks later-

-cough-

Anyway, Gym!

This will mostly be Fludd’s show, since he could use the levels. If anything happens to know Absorb, we’re bailing, but he should mostly be okay.

Upgraded Gym aesthetics are always good.

Almost as good as playing a Pokemon game without feeling compelled to give every single fight full play-by-play detail. Assume if I magically teleport through the plot that I did everything perfectly and expertly. All a result of my personal talent, not overleveling my precious pokemon in hopes of keeping them from dying from my stupidity.

Oh heck, whoops. One of the pre-Leader battles is a double.

Sleet is in the second slot.

Let’s not.

Good news! Sleet is still level 5. She still appears to be a casual passerby of this party, not an official member. This matters.

Bugsy looks so happy. Good for him.

(Unlike some Johto Gym Leaders.)

This will be more entertaining later in the game, but I think Pikasprey has brought up how this region’s Gym Leaders really are the most irresponsible about their job title.

Ultimately, Chance will take out Bugsy’s Scyther. Because it’s level 17. Like Fludd. And U-turn apparently really, really hurts.

No, Chance, you may not learn Rest. You’re a starting party member. That means you have nothing but attacks, and we compensate for our lack of strategy with levels.

Badge get!

But suddenly....!

-zooms through the battle at the speed of sound-

Good job, team!

Now we get to do a Farfetch’d puzzle that I am absolutely not terrible at.

Glory to Cut. Which we will be unceremoniously dumping on Cloud. Hi Cloud. This is your team. This is your role in it. Thank you for your contribution.

Oh.

Huh.

You’re part Water, aren’t you?

tfw I can actually catch something in Ilex Forest. Maybe I even will.

CAUGHT!

New member of the team, your name is now Downpour! Downpour is Quirky and highly curious, and we already love him. Even with the inevitable switch training about to go down.

We’re all just so happy that this place has been given level 6 Charizard to mine.

The truly nice part about being such a disaster in playing this part consistently is that Kurt gives me free balls. What, you forgot to play for a month? Your reward is not knowing what’s going on! Also free catching tools! You Win!

I also think that me being aware of EVs is the worst thing that ever happened to my enjoyment of pokemon playthroughs. I’m just left looking at wild level 6 Charizards with Sp. Atk signs in my eyes. What do those look like? The world may never know, but they are now part of my balanced breakfast.

Also, Nature Power becomes Rock Slide in Ilex Forest.

Downpour is going to be the most overhyped Special Attacker of its kind.

Assuming I ever find a Water Stone.

This is one of those changes from the originals that I’ve never fully understood or cared for. Except at the end of the day, I am a complete sucker for people you’ve helped along your journey all reuniting and recalling what you’ve done for them.

I just really miss the Eeveelution coolness of their dance hall.

And I don’t know why this one needed any help at all. Is that a lore thing? Are all your interactions with them just secret character tests?

Downpour is 19, which feels like good enough for venturing into Goldenrod. I really shouldn’t be living the life of mindlessly murdering wild Charizard for EVs for hours on end. Let’s just try to put a cap on it.

Forbidden Day-Care lore.

Lyra’s grandmother ships us. Awk.

I’m accepting everyone’s number in this. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that before, but unlike in the originals, I don’t think there’s a limit on numbers on your phone, so might as well hoard them up.

Geez I feel old.

Vote now on which NPC pokemon person gets to stay in your phonebook. Maybe if you’re lucky you won’t abandon the one who hands out random evolution stones. :)

Oh, hello. I can catch you.

Do I want to? I’d be back to Water/Ice, and right now I have the option of picking up a Grass thing somewhere along the way... hm.

On the other hand.

Cloyster is cool.

POKE BALL, GO!

Damn it, poke ball.

Heavy Ball?

Damn it, Heavy Ball.

And now I am out of Great Balls.

Poke Ball. How do you feel about a redemption arc.

The Poke Ball declines. I have one Fast Ball, and one Heavy Ball. The odds of me getting a new friend out of this are dwindling. The route’s death appears to be at hand.

One Fast Ball.

Yeah, it breaks out.

Okay, Downpour. Kill the non-friend.

With Chance’s help, because the non-friend knew Supersonic.

Bye, Route 34. You’re dead now, and I need to buy catching tools before I forget and meeting my next friend turns awkward.

Whatever. I have a bike now.

Failing basic trivia is my favorite part of each Pokemon game.

PSYCH I WON.

My prize is a Radio Card, but the real prize is getting Whitney back inside her Gym. Where I can now battle her if I so choose. If I want to progress in the game. Her Miltank is waiting.

So we’re just going to do literally everything else we can, except not literally; these games have too many things, and I’m not getting distracted by Voltorb Flip.

...What does Nature Power actually do? Because Downpour has been spotted using Rock Slide, Earthquake, and now Tri Attack through it. It’s becoming a staple of his kit. I don’t think I’ve ever bothered using it before. I was under the impression is was always Swift?

Or is that Nature’s Gift? That’s a thing, right?

Bleh. Fighting first, looking up vitally helpful information later.

The grass has Hitmontop. Not Grass or Water, so it must die.

Wait what the heck. I was out innocently Headbutting trees, why are you here?

This is intensely awkward. My usual mode with these things is that something only fits the requirement of my Nuzlocke team if it’s been Randomized, and for whatever reason, the randomness doesn’t touch Headbutt encounters. Exeggcute is part Grass, but it is not Randomized. Sleet and Cloud are more proper team candidates.

I’m just going to say that Headbutting doesn’t count for a route’s encounter. This run isn’t intended to be overly difficult (this is not the grindlocke); the aim is fun, and I have more fun not using the standard encounters for the game.

What I’m saying is the Exeggcute dies.

(I’m just never going to be able to get a Psychic Type in this.)

My thing at the moment is beating up pokemon in the wild because I’m not sure how to deal with Whitney. Stress-grinding. Chance can’t fight the Miltank. Rollout against Ice sounds like a nightmare. But Chance is also the only female on the team, and my teams have terrible luck in love, which Whitney like exploiting.

Fludd doesn’t really have moves. Water Pulse is nice, but Mud Slap is his only other attack. Downpour is theoretically a cool option, but I don’t know what Nature Power does in the Gym. These kiddos do not have movesets that play well together. Tickle spam would be ideal, but Fludd doesn’t have a physical attack. Only Chance does, and there we have the Rollout problem.

This team could have some nice synergy (for once I almost think I might want to have someone with Rain Dance), but right now they just don’t know enough, and I do not like heading into Whitney this way.

So let us continue to explore the countryside in hopes that a solution is found.

Yanmega is not Grass or Water. Neither is Pikachu.

RIOLU.

You’re not, either.

Neither is the Zubat in the next route. Bonsly looks like it should be, and yet. Volbeat is a nope.

You, on the other hand.

Okay okay okay. Downpour. Do not ruin this for us. I know you want to kill it. We can feel it in your heart. However, we could use a friend. We could use another link in our chain.

...Actually, Fludd, how about you lend a hand with this.

SHARPEDO GET!

I dub thee Hurricane. Hurricane is Modest (dang it) and alert to sounds.

To use, or not to use. That is the question. Physical attacker? Good. Yet another pokemon with a generic shrug at the difference between physical and special? Hm.

I think Hurricane is a reserve. If we’re leveling you, little guy, it’ll be a bit later. We’re happy to have you, but you don’t fix anything well enough that I think I want to train you up just yet.

On to the park. Where the Dunsparce lurk. More Smoochum. Zubat.

I found a Dig TM. That might go to Fludd. ..Or is Fludd going to learn Dig naturally? Fludd will learn Magnitude in a few. I can wait. I don’t remember if this gen allows multiple uses of TMs or not. I could look that up, but effort.

Er. On that subject, though... internet, where can has Water Stone?

“ Johto: National Park (Come 1st in Bug Catching Contest), Route 42 (PokéGear Phonecall) “

Uh.

Oh no?

Wait!

“ Johto: Pokeathlon Dome“

Hope.

Yikes. I wanted to avoid that, having no touch screen, but Downpour, I’m not abandoning you so easily. We’re a team, man. A team. We’ll get you your usefulness.

Welp, I’ve defeated all the trainers I can.

I guess.

It’s time.

Downpour is level 24, Chance is 25, and Fludd is 23. Fludd’s going to be taking the early parts in the interest of balance. For Whitney herself... I really don’t know. I’ll play it by feel. I do want to make sure Downpour uses Nature Power before that fight, though. I don’t want to go in without knowing what it does.

It does Tri Attack in here.

...Yeah, I’m looking it up. What the heck does Nature Power actually do? Besides use moves that are strongly connected with things occurring in nature?

Finding the gen four version is too much trouble. Let’s just proceed knowing limited amounts. Yay for Tri Attack.

-makes an unhappy face best represented by toddlers-

One Clefairy and one Miltank.

This is not a scary thing.

See? Fludd already massacred the Clefairy.

This is fine. It will be fine.

Fludd stop flinching.

Aaaaaand there’s the Attract. The Miltank’s been using Stomp only, so it should be safe for Chance to go in and get a few hits. Fludd used Tickle a few times to counteract the Stomp being annoying.

Chance. Sweetie.

Stop. fucking. flinching.

FUCK YOU AND YOUR SUPER POTIONS, WHITNEY.

YES. IT’S DEAD.

YOU ARE NOT THE ONE WHO SHOULD BE CRYING HERE. MY SOUL IS IN DESPAIR, WHITNEY. YOU AND YOUR STUPID MILTANK. EVEN WHEN IT ISN’T USING ROLLOUT.

I sort of ship the flunky that tells you not to worry, Whitney will give you your badge after she stops crying--with Whitney. Just because. I spend a great deal of time in my Pokemon playing shipping random NPCs.

Pokeathlon opened, time to. grind for the Water Stone.

If my memory of this is correct, before you beat the Elite Four, there’s a different evolution stone available for purchase each day. Today’s is a Moon Stone.

Oh, this is going to be hell!

tfw you remember the Jump course being the kindest so pick it but none of your team is actually good at jumping so you’ve got to bring in the reserves.

Hurricane, Cloud, Sleet? Your time is now.

...

..

.

These games are not meant to be played on a touchpad.

Yikes.

Oh my fucking gosh this is hell do not want.

Well.

I lost.

Yay for 325 points.

LET’S KEEP GOING, SHALL WE????

Where’s my mouse...

Let’s try Power on for size. Chance, Downpour, Fludd, go for it.

Oh look I lost.

Downpour, you better appreciate how much I love you.

LOOK WE WON THE STAMINA ONE.

I’m not documenting this further. Know that I am miserable, and this is not meant, in any way, to be played with a mouse. The levels of unfortunate are everlasting and I am sad.

-the next day-

I have to wait another day for a Water Stone, but I have enough for it, so now we can move on to fun things. Like the game. The game. Which is fun.

tfw Jirachi is secretly an odd tree.

Route 37, have ye any Water or Dark?

Chimchar, you are found lacking.

Ah crud.

Totodile is not lacking, but I really don’t think catching it is a good idea. Pure Water locks me into Water. We might end up there anyway, but I’m not in such a hurry to commit just yet. I can kill a route to keep some variety alive.

Sorry, Totodile. :(

Ecruteak means Bill, which means I could go back to Goldenrod and find out what his Eevee has become. Let’s do that before we think about anything fancy like plot progression.

Sleet, into the box with you. Maybe you’ll come back if I don’t like whatever Bill’s offering.

Carnivine. Interesting. Uh. How about... Drizzle? Drizzle. Cool. And. Uh. Sleet. You’re staying in the box. Sorry, but level 5 things that are filling out party count are really just going to end up as very sad sacrifices. We’re avoiding that for now.

-another day passes-

(without me getting balls from Kurt, whoops)

WE DID IT.

Now to find out that Downpour’s spending another twenty levels not needing it because moves matter more than stats. To the internet.

...Oh.

Oh, Downpour.

Oh, no.

You, uh.

Kiddo, you’re going to be needing some help as we move forward.

But the good news is that means we’re evolving you now! Yay! Power boost! You go, you funky little duck frog thing.

Maximum cuteness achieved.

That’s a good stopping point for this round, I think.