#like i just love love love nier for how it focuses a lot on the idea of seeking out purpose for yourself

[elegyofthemoon]

listen i also think 2b is hot but also i am very very tired of walking into the tags every now and then only to see sexy art of her this is not what im here for im here for the existential crisis

[bluerosesburnblue]

I feel like I already know the answer to this, probably (LOL), but if you could add any other Square Enix series to Kingdom Hearts, what would it be and why? Bravely Default, Dragon Quest, NieR, The Bouncer, Parasite Eve, Forspoken, the Mana series, Xenoblade Chronicles, Valkyrie Profile, Fullmetal Alchemist, Soul Eater? Something else I didn't list here? (You can cheat and choose more than one, if you want:))

Actually, I don't know if I would add any other series. Don't get me wrong, I love the characters from a lot of these, but for me it's a question of how well they could fit into KH without losing the things about them that make them unique, you know?

I love the cast of NieR and NieR: Automata, but those games are SO dark, and a lot of the appeal of those games is the uniquely bleak and hopeless atmosphere, and I can't see them being added to KH without scrubbing away any of the traits that made people like them in the first place. Parasite Eve, too, falls into this category. I mean, The 3rd Birthday kinda already proved why wackier JRPG plots don't work with that cast, they're far too grounded for it. At best you could hope for some of them as background NPCs in an Enchanted NYC, but they'd basically have to be the equivalent of Setzer's KH2 appearance and at that point it just feels kinda cheap

Characters from The Bouncer could make decent cameo appearances in a KH-exclusive world like Twilight Town, since that game is obscure enough that I doubt anyone would get super offended if they were represented weirdly or relegated to just a cameo. But that would also run into the same issue as the Parasite Eve example, where the cameo doesn't really do much other than go "oooooh, look, CHARACTER" (which is my main issue with the use of some of the FF characters in KH already). Alas, this one will probably only ever be referenced as Pence's Dog Street shirt and that's probably for the best given how weird that game is

And then there's just a ton of games that I don't know enough about to say. Forspoken, Octopath Traveler, and Triangle Strategy all come to mind

If they had to bring other properties in, then Bravely Default would work the best for me, at least of the properties you listed that are actually Square Enix owned-and-produced and not just Square Enix published and/or affiliated. Not only is Bravely Default meant to evoke classic Final Fantasy, so it's not too far off from what's already in the game, but the characters already have a lot of "modernisms" in their speech and behaviors that would make them very adaptable to a lot of different worlds in KH and the tone of the games overall. Not to mention that the classical fantasy setting of the games could be pretty reminiscent of some of the more fantasy-focused Disney films, allowing them to blend together. I'm imagining, like... an Edea cameo in Arendelle, not unlike Auron in Olympus. That all being said, I've never played Bravely Default II, so I can't say how well that one would hold up. I'm only thinking of Bravely Default and Bravely Second's casts

And while I do like Xenoblade Chronicles, I would never call them Square Enix series. That's not even close to accurate. Those games are produced by Monolith Soft, and while the company was founded by an ex-Square game director and a lot of the initial employees there were ex-Square employees who brought a lot of those same sensibilities over, the company itself really has nothing to do with them. Would I like it if Nomura's guest designed characters from Xenoblade 2 showed up? Sure, I think having Jin and Lauriam interact could be funny. Or Mikhail and Demyx. But it's not going to happen, because those aren't Square Enix characters. Sora's just gonna have to hang out with Shulk, Pyra, and Mythra in Super Smash Bros. and leave it at that

[construingseacats]

Umireread: Turn of the Golden Witch: Chapter 2 - Wonderful Utopia

The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.

This is a promising chapter name. I presume we’re in for quite the fantastical time, then?

Not content to just monopolise the scream market, Jessica’s VA corners the funny market with an extremely exaggerated read on hugs and kisses. I honestly couldn’t imagine reading this without the voice acting.

Ah, I suppose the scene we opened on wasn’t the first time she saw an aquarium then - although it does say something that she can go on that date again and have it feel like the first time. Young love, eh?

This is an interesting one to think about - Yasu definitely wouldn’t have seen this in a positive light. I can’t help but wonder where things would be if George had tried to be a little more forceful.

I suppose this falls more towards a Bern-esque hypothetical that rips the guts out of the characters for the sake of a story - the answer would be that a fundamentally different George erases the human that Ryukishi has built up inside him, and the plot effectively doesn’t happen with an early exposure of Yasu as Furniture.

God man. I love Jessica so much. My heart really breaks for her all the time.

Yasu is unsettled by how extreme her Beatrice persona is, the lengths she has forced her to go to revoke her status as Furniture - but none of this would have been possible without that very forceful push to destroy the status quo.

I, too, loved having my imaginary friends mess around with others when I was younger.

I’m… pretty ambivalent towards all this discussion of the mirror and the torii shrine? I’m not seeing much of a deeper meaning here - beyond the initial assumption of it being the adornment of the test of the bombs - so all the framing of it as a magic sealing mirror that stopped Beatrice from existing falls flat for me. The fact that it’s discussed in this much detail makes me think I might be missing something here, but I’m starting to suspect that it is just intentional misdirection.

I remember being extremely bored at the start of Episode 2 on my first read, but man, it’s really out for blood with anyone rereading it. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that the sections focusing so heavily on ‘Furniture’ hit harder once you know the connotations behind it, but man.

We have an angel and a devil on the shoulders here - one of them is telling you to abandon the concepts of love and be content to live a pitiful existence as furniture, and the other is telling you to kill everyone in the world.

We’re just lampshading that here and now, I see?

While I suppose we’ve already dug into a lot of the framing of fantasy and reality in Episode 1, Episode 2 sure is starting strong with it here. Maybe things are terrible. Maybe life is pain. But if you believe hard enough - you convince yourself of the fantasy, you seek out the magic - the sea can be deep blue to you too.

It’s interesting seeing all these conversations through the lens of internal dialogue - of Yasu convincing herself of things, swayed by her many aspects - but for the most part there’s not much to add beyond acknowledging it. This is a great scene, but it mostly speaks for itself, you know?

Umineko and NieR: Automata sit in a very questionable hall of fame where they make a poignant scene comedic by censoring the word “love” and letting our immature minds fill it in with any other four letter word we desire.

Over a million words to comprehend the meaning of a single sentence. It sounds insane, but it’s so worth it.

It’s really weird seeing Kinzo outside of the study. His sprite feels so out of place on a sunny day.

There’s a few moments of disconnect here where the sprites are yet to change to the emotion that the text is describing, which gives you odd combinations like this.

The answer was there all along Kinzo, you just had to make an imaginary girlfriend and pretend Beatrice was still there with you.

…I jest about that, but come to think of it, isn’t that partially the truth? The servants make a point about how they buy into the illusion of the Witch for Kinzo’s sake. I know that’s partially a hint towards Yasu’s existence, but I can’t help but wonder if that’s part of it as well. Of course, mandating servants to indulge in your fantasies means they are not treating them with love, but with compulsion; and, as hard as you try, you cannot obtain magic by sheer compulsion. Kinzo’s many years as a sorcerer are more than proof of that.

I feel a little underwhelmed by the chapter name being “Wonderful Utopia”. I suppose it’s reflective of Yasu’s honeymoon period following the establishment of Beatrice, where she can enjoy the temporary joys afforded by a relationship with George, but I think I was expecting something a little more… juicy, I suppose. Ah well, it’s not like we’re leaving the flashback period any time soon.

[glassvines]

Thoughts On 2023 Favorites

TV Shows 1. Good Omens season 2: Oops, I'm obsessed again. You can make the argument that a second (and PHEW eventual third) season was unnecessary, but I disagree. It was nice to get a season that wasn't so breakneck in it's pacing. Everything slowed down a bit and focused in on Aziraphale and Crowley's shenanigans. Which, let's be honest, is what the audience wants. That being said, I liked everything else about it too. A cute/silly plot, fun new characters, and a devastatingly sad finale that left me distraught. I could not have asked for more really. (Except more kissing. Please tell me there will be more kissing.) 2. Lockwood and Co: A spooky premise that probably took a lot of effort to appear even semi-believable [as a tv show]. Yet, it was pulled off with flying colors. It was also perfectly atmospheric and charming, so of course netflix canceled it. I plan on reading the books.

Animation (TV & Films) 1. Murder Drones: 2023 was a good year for indie animation overall, and out of all of them Murder Drones was the show to win my entire heart. Perfect setup for horror and YA spoofing, but also well written enough that I enjoyed the character focus and progression as well. I'm psyched for the final two episodes set to release in the spring. 2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: If any movie of recent memory deserved a decent sequel it was this one, so I'm very happy it turned out as great as it did. One of the few comic-book films I bothered with in 2023. 3. Hilda season 3: Easily one of my all-time favorites from Netflix, so I'm beyond happy it has a great ending now. Gorgeous animation, a lovable main and support cast, and perfect chill vibes. Deserves a bluray release. 4. Elemental: Listen. Pixar's still got it this was so cute. You're forgiven for The Good Dinosaur Peter Sohn. 5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: So much fun tho. Love the current creative trend in cg films happening thanks to Into the Spider-verse. Also, the No Diggity scene was incredible. The movie has an A+ soundtrack. Anime (TV & Films) 1. Trigun Stampede: So relieved this turned out to be great, considering the original is a favorite of mine. Not a easy feat in the age awful, cash-grab reboots. 2. The Boy And The Heron: Honestly? My favorite Miyazaki film since Howl's Moving Castle. Genuinely moving and left me misty-eyed. 3. Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc: This show is so pretty. Still surprised how well the series portrays it’s simple, compelling cast. Like it’s an effortless sort of thing (it’s not). 4. Suzume: Makoto Shinkai's last three movies just make me happy okay. Happy and hopeful. The best comfort movies ever. Video Games I have a steam deck now so you'd think I played a bunch of video games last year but, no. I didn't get heavily into much last year. Played some Hades though? Live Films || Note: I watched so many great classic horror movies this year that I had never given a proper watch. I would like to continue that this year!! 1. Talk to Me: Please make more horror movies Danny and Michael Philippou. This one was wild. 2. Dark City: The fact that The Matrix got four movies and this didn't get any sequels is a fucking tragedy. 3. Coherence: Love me a simple, creepy sci-fi movie with an interesting premise. Apparently, quite a lot of the film is improvised as well? That blew my mind. 4. Greener Grass: More films that just feel like one big Adult Swim skit please. This style of script is hysterical to me. 5. Caveat: This goes on my fave list simply for scaring the shit out of me lmao. Movies walk a fine line, when the intention is to make you uncomfortable for long periods of time. They risk being irritating instead of entertaining. Caveat had me shrieking at my tv (in a delighted sort of way).

Honorable Mentions 1. Lore Olympus 2. Nier Automata anime 3. Asteroid City + Wes Anderson's new short films 4. OPLA

Things I'm Looking Forward to in 2024 1. Dune 2 2. Second season of Severance hopefully! 3. Madoka Magica Movie 4: Walpurgisnacht: Rising?? Is it finally happening or what? 4. New Magnus Archives

Some Creative & General Goals for 2024 I feel like I was drawing a lot more in 2023! Still nothing worth posting online, but I'm making some progress I think (slowly but surely). Goals: make more art for my siblings when they request it, finish some digital art that I started, and finish the diorama piece I planned out. On the general goals I'd like to travel more! Particularly, I'd like to visit some national parks.

[maximuswolf]

Animal Well is magical

Animal Well is magical Animal Well is a new metroidvania (puzzlevania?) created by a single guy, and it has taken over my life. I'd go so far as to say it's on its way to becoming one of my all-time favorites. Why? Well, this is a tough game to talk about because the less you know the better; with that said, I want to discuss a few things, in vague terms, to help you decide whether it's for you or not.First, I want to touch on game length and layers, as I've seen some confusion here. This game is like an onion that you'll slowly peel back to reveal deeper and deeper meanings and puzzles, and then deeper mysteries still. The first 10 to 15 hours it plays similarly to a metroidvania, in that you'll be dropped into a mysterious world and begin exploring. Beyond this first Layer, though, there's so much more. I reached what people are calling Layer 2 last night and I literally sat in my chair and said, "holy s%#^." I now had knowledge and tools at my disposal that let me explore the world at an even deeper level, uncovering new puzzles and finding new meaning in parts of the environment I had been wondering about for the past 15 hours. Apparently there's a Layer 3 (and maybe 4) I haven't even reached yet, and I simply cannot wait. While I believe the first 10-15 hour "Layer 1" is fantastic in its own right, it's when you begin uncovering the deeper content that the brilliance of this game really shows itself. I think a lot of people will play this game and not get the hype (I've already seen this sentiment online). It's going to take more than a few hours to "get it." The further you get, the more you realize how special this game is. It's like people who beat Nier: Automata to get the first ending and then stopped playing; the best part of the game is yet to come! While this game is a metroidvania, in that you'll gain new tools and use those tools to reach new areas or solve old puzzles, it has no traditional combat and focuses on puzzles. With that said, there are many creatures in the Well, with some being friendly or useful and others...let's just say, don't want you there. True to its design, these "enemies" will require puzzling to avoid/overcome. But yeah, don't expect Hollow Knight or Prince of Persia combat here.Unlike most metroidvanias, this game never gives you the standard abilities we've come to know and love (double jump, air dash, etc.); instead, it gives you tools you'd never expect and lets you figure out how to use them. Some are more obvious, but even those have multiple uses you'll only figure out in time. Not even going to name a single one, as they're all so unique and fun to discover. Excellent stuff.Perhaps the easiest way to understand whether you'll love Animal Well as much as I do is to say this: Do you love games like Fez, Outer Wilds, Rain World, or ICO? The kinds of games that are dripping with mystery? If so, then I think you're the type of person who will "get it" and love digging deeper into the Well to uncover its mysteries.And lastly, if any of this sounds interesting to you, please, please, please do yourself a favor and avoid watching reviews or videos. I don't think a single part of this game should be spoiled. Submitted May 15, 2024 at 01:36PM by juniper_falls https://ift.tt/Gxvea52 via /r/gaming

[mysticdragon3md3]

Pic reads: "Shout out to 'emotionless' women bound to a purpose who eventually self actualize and find meaning in life outside their stated role".

The other day, I saw this Tweet, and I was confused as to why these characters aren't also in my list of impassive all-time favorites. Today I realized it's because they aren't defined by being self-destructive.

I too love "emotionless" women. I like Terra/Tina and Xion, Jack O and Ram seem nice, and I'm still avoiding spoilers for Nier Automata. And for that matter, why aren't I a huge fan of Byleth? But I never thought of them as my all-time favorite characters, like I do with Kikyo, C.C., Devil Homura, and lots of the Claymores. But why is that? My list is also a bunch of "emotionless women", emotionally numb, "dead inside" women.

But today I finally realized: the crucial component for me to identify with characters is self-destructiveness. Kikyo, C.C., and Devil Homura all act emotionally numb and "dead inside", but they are ALSO self-destructive. C.C. explicitly states that her goal is to die. Kikyo may be acting on all the emotions she repressed in her first life, but her demeanor is generally impassive and she disregards the repercussions of her actions on her relationships with others. She acts like she has nothing to lose and no longer cares about burned bridges or anything anymore. She's self-destructive. Devil Homura's demeanor clearly reflects turning her back on all her previous personal ideals and is just letting all her values (of self-discipline and selflessness) erode---which is particularly sad and extreme, given how much resolve she fought with beforehand. She is now acting in a way that destroys the things that were her identity. The Claymores I relate to, have given up on expressing emotions and acting as humans, yet have underlying moments of striving to retain their humanity, and that contradiction reveals a tragedy of how they want to retain human morals and emotions, but mostly give up on such in their daily lives. Acting with such contradiction is self-destructive. And most telling, despite how much I love Rukia Kuchiki for being Strong and cool, I had always particularly identified with her, when she became a prisoner, awaiting her death sentence. That state of her giving up, and working towards focusing all on her death, turned her from a character I admired with awe, into a character I related to. And the difference was the self-destructive tendency.

I generally have favorite characters whom

1) I admire,

2) favorite characters who are a ray of positivity and pure-hearted sunshine,

3) then favorite characters who I relate to for being angsty, emo, and---now I realize---distinctly self-destructive.

With all that in mind, I should be REALLY into Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd. He's self-destructive, emo, and ALSO pure-hearted and admirable (once he got his mental states integrated). But instead, I've been so distracted by how incredibly admirable and warmly positive Claude von Riegan is. I guess in the end, I'll slightly more favor characters whom I can admire with awe and who also convey positivity into my life, slightly more than I'll love a character that I can identify with for having angst.

[rigelmejo]

Language Updates! May 25, 2022

My health is still being mean but hopefully it'll turn. As expected, I'm not studying much.

But I did get the urge to study again. So I did. And it went in an odd direction (for me) so I feel like documenting it.

First the Japanese stuff - I got into playing Final Fantasy 7 again, and video games always remind me how much I want to learn Japanese, so the urge to study kicked in gear lol. As of now I'm not doing anything big, I'm too tired lately for big goals. I am playing Yakuza 0 now and having fun picking up the words I do know. And learning some words, mainly though just refreshing my memory on things I already knew like 少し,あるんだ, zenbun matte etc. Some sentences I fully understand! Most I know a couple words, some I only hear omae lol. As one would expect.

I'm also listening to Glossika Japanese again (as review so the old files I've heard already). So not much listening, at the beginning again lol, but everything is coming back fast. So that's good.

I also bought Koisenu Futari today and started reading it on Kindle. It's like 249 pages and my reading speed says I'll finish in 8 hours, which honestly is amazing to me since usually I read too slow to Ever finish a novel ToT in a foreign language (unless it's french). I read 7 pages and it's clear to me on some level I remember the grammar i learned i jusr don't explicitly remember it if it makes sense. Like I know what's a noun or verb or how the verbs conjugation affects meaning but I'm not able to say exactly whats going on. Basically it's readable, thankfully, cause my brain still remembers how to interpret the grammar. I still credit forcing myself to do 600 Clozemaster Japanese sentences last summer for all the grammar comprehension improvements tbh, it really truly helped me get used to real world sentences and the variety in them (versus textbook sentences). Anyway so far its nice! It's to my happiness an easier read (difficulty wise) with a lot of Kanji I know so I also can kind of cheat and guess the meaning on a lot (I'm mainly looking up Kanji pronunciations/confirmations of definition and hiragana words). But I will say :c kindles Japanese to English dictionary sucks So I'm glad i recognize the Kanji a bit.

Basically, I'm back into Japanese a bit. I also found some audio dramas with eng subs I'd like to listen to that I was going to months ago, maybe yest Listening Reading Method with. But tbh my attention span is short and I don't think I can focus for 1.5 hours to get through them (though Nier Replicant Audio drama AND mdzs Japanese audio drama are on youtube which are both very cool and i do eventually wanna get to ToT)

Now for the out of character portion. So ive been watching kdramas. Live Up to Your Name, Mr Sunshine, Tomorrow, My Country the New Age, etc. As you do. And it turns out... when I listen to something long enough I really want to learn something. So I looked into learning Korean a bit.

I want to preface with!!! If YOU are brand new to learning Korean, like comprehensible input/nature method learning methods, I highly recommend going to Learn Korean in Korean YouTube channel and just Devouring all the videos made by that guy. THAT is a well made course where you can genuinely learn through comprehensible input for the basics and some surface conversational stuff (possibly more). I watched 1 of his videos once knowing zero Hangul and not caring if i learned and learned how to introduce myself. His videos are GOOD.

That said... mejo is a messy person who doesn't follow their own advice, and despite me KNOWING I love that specific learning material... I'm not using it. Why? Because watching YouTube videos requires consistent focus and i just cannot reliably focus on something for several minutes right now. I can't do long periods of focused study at the moment. Even though I know if I binged his channel I'd learn a lot.

So what is mejos plan to learn korean?

Well studying Hangul is step 1, which I've done before and have done the past few days again. Now I'm practicing just kind of seeing it in practice (like in textbooks etc) to get used to properly reading it and remembering. As my motivations for wanting to learn korean are Extremely Shallow right now - I'd just like to know some lines in kdramas when I watch, maybe absolute MOST I'd like to have a convo in korean like hi how are you do you draw (and in a world I'll never live in... enough to read Korean guardian translation but let's be real its not gonna happen.. probably). I have no intense need to learn to read Hangul. I'm gonna pick it up anyway, since it's everywhere and reading it is ultimately critical. But books with romanization are my friends right now so I can compare romanization to the Hangul to test my reading of the Hangul, and to learn words with an approximate pronunciation instead of absolutely no idea if i picked a moderately close pronunciation up (if theres only Hangul and I read a,syllable wrong I'm gonna learn words wrong lol).

So I found Teach Yourself Korean (or some equivalent type book) on archive.org for free. And am reading it. It covers Hangul, and then simple surface level conversations like your typical beginner textbook (hi, how are you, my name is, i work at, I study, I want to eat x etc). It works fine for some Hangul reading practice and getting a chance to look at sentence structure. Realistically I know korean is SOV and a really Great help would be a textbook that does literal word by word translations cause my brain likes seeing that but I'm not putting tons of time into this. (Also sadly? I KNOW there's a cool korean textbook out there whixh starts with english but in korean sentence structure then adds more korean words, like comprehensible input for korean but also intuitive grammar instruction. And i DONT know the name so I canr find it ;-; if you know the name of the textbook I'm mentioning please message me).

For words, i was going to just be brutal to myself and hop right into Clozemaster Korean. That was utterly impossible lol! With very poor Hangul reading skills you are screwed in clozemaster, there's no romanization to help you sound anything out. Also you don't hear audio until after you answer, also the diffetent grammar structure is not explained even minimally in Clozemaster. So I have realized. Yes, yes you really do need to be upper beginner or above to use Clozemaster reasonably comfortably. Unless you're learning a language with similar grammar and a similar alphabet like French or Spanish then maybe you could jump right in as a complete novice if you were up for the challenge (I can read some Spanish, I could probably push through clozemaster Spanish to study and learn more vocab even though it would be brutal). I realized clozemaster is just NOT helpful as a complete beginner in korean with zero grammar knowledge. Now normally, I'd dive right in and spend 1 week to 1 month reading a grammar guide summary of the language so I have a vague idea of what I'm looking at verb noun adjective subject object particle wise etc at all times. But as I mentioned, im exhausted lately, i cant do intensive focused reading for hours which a grammar guide would require of me. Also... to be honest, I find it an interesting experiment to go into a language totally unprepared. I was prepared for all the other languages I studied to some (minimal) degree since i studied literally all of them as a teen at least a little (japanese, Spanish, French, German, mandarin). While it's not much, it does mean if there were ever 6 months of struggling with sound or writing system or what the heck does a verb look like in z language, i got a little practice prior to diving in more as an adult.

So. What to do. Well I know for me, comparing sentence structure truly helps me grasp grammar the best. It's why clozemasrer Japanese helped me SO much with grammar, it's why one of my fave japanese textbooks is Japanese Sentence Patterns, it's why Spoonfed Chinese anki deck ans audio files help me so much. Seeing and hearing a sentence in both languages helps me figure out where words go in each, how they conjugate, what phrases are different completely etc. Unfortunately anki and memrise sentence decks in korean would make me exhausted, as i can't do the hours long intensive focus I need for flashcards personally at the moment. Clozemaster has a radio mode (to help make it easier on me) but clozemaster sentences start TOO hard compared to educational made sentences which tend to start artificially simple but help clarify the sentence structures before adding complexity gradually. Well i was like... glossika Korean might work. Turns out I'd downloaded the old glossika korean audio files a year ago so I put them in a place I could listen to. And that's going to be my primary setup for study probably. I doubt I'm going to pick up much, certainly not at the slow rate I've got to study right now. But if I DO learn anything then I'm putting in a good word for comparative 2 language audio flashcard type study materials. They worked EXCELLENTLY for me for chinese listening comprehension, increasing vocabulary, grammar patterns, but i used them as an upper beginner who could read some stuff already. Korean would be my first time trying to use glossika with a language I can't already read some things in (aka comprehend basic stuff to a decent level when reading already). We will see if i pick up much. But I can already tell it's easier for me to figure out new words than clozemaster korean, so glossika is easier for a beginner to use for sure. (Personally I do Not recommend modern glossikas subscription model I hate the flashcards but tbh i canr do flashcards often, I prefer the old glossika audio lessons they used to make so that's what I use whenever i say glossika).

So yeah, my plan for korean right now is: glossika korean audio files (dual language audio of sentences starting simple then progressing), and Teach Yourself Korean book read through. Maybe some other stuff, but this is easiest.

A side note: I am sad to report the FSI korean course audio files on archive.org are Only korean. I say thus because FsiS chinese course audios read the English aloud, then rhe chinese, then the drill directions then the drill answers. So you can basically do the entire course entirely through audio (which is great if visuals are an issue for you, or so it can be done without needing to look if say you're walking or working, and the book is mainly pinyin so it's not a huge loss to just use the audio files). So I was expecting the korean FSI course audio to also have all that - which would have made it serve the "simple sentences with dual audio to compare and pick up words and grammar" function. But there's no English in the audio, so i found the korean glossika audios instead. (In a pinch FSI courses are yes dry, but very good introductions to several languages. I like their tone drills a lot for chinese.)

Another side note: sad to report that unlike Japanese and Chinese I am not aware of the really cool niche textbooks yet. Like in Japanese, I have textbooks specifically suited to me - ones that focus on sentence patterns, 2 that teach through reading and progressive difficulty, Kanji mnemonic books. Same for chinese - I have an old grammar book that writes a way I understand, 3 comprehensible input massive graded readers that increase in difficulty, some more graded readers by difficulty, a 500 most common hanzi book with a bunch of words that use them underneath, parallel texts, a wonderful hanzi mnemonics book, a wonderful chinese intro book that covers 1000 words (which isn't ideal but i appreciate the author and irs better than one textbook I found which only teaches 200 words total yikes). I learn well with comprehensible input books like graded readers/stuff that makes you learn by trying to understand, and with comparisons of sentence structure with a LOT of common words so I pick them up. Like I mentioned above... I know a korean textbook exists that writes the English in korean word order then gradually adds in more korean words too, I am very interested in finding it if anyone knows the name or has heard of it before.

[dragons-bones]

early morning 5.5 thoughts:

thoughts on Werlyt, MSQ, and YoRHa below the cut:

So I did Werlyt first to get it out of the way and it is still Bad Fanfic: The Quest Line. like. this was definitely better than last patch, but goddamn it just really highlights how unsatisfying the rest of the story was.

Cloud Deck was amazingly fun fight, though. EX is going to be a bitch but gimme.

where the fuck was Nero seriously goddamn this was the perfect place for him

NGE vibes were great but ultimately: still don’t give a single solitary fuck about the au ra kids. heavy-handed plot devices, every one of them.

that pop was very satisfying

(as discussed in the FC discord) ...that, uh. that ending cutscene is a lot less heartwarming when you realize all the Terncliff townspeople probably had trauma reactions to seeing images of their conquerors walking around all of a sudden.

hindsight: BAD FANFIC. REALLY BAD FANFIC.

anyway

MSQ was next and I have SO MANY First Brood feelings and am now seriously jonesing for a Meracydia-focused expac at some point in the future, hnnnnnnnng.

there was great worldbuilding and buildup, I think; the tempering stuff I found fascinating since it implies another layer to primal summoning and that the perception of the summoned by the summoner can have a huge effect on things.

I’ve seen some discussion before about untempering the Unsundered and honestly, after the Tiamat stuff, I genuinely wonder if it would have been possible at all. like, the implication with Tiamat’s is that it worked despite five thousand years because of her sheer force of will and that she saw Bahamut as an unequal. while the Unsundered I feel probably would have had the force of will...their perception of Zodiark wasn’t just as a god but as necessary to the continued functionality of the star and reality.

like...jesus.

(for the record, my interest in the Unsundered remains firmly in the, “fascinating antagnoists” category and the Ascians as a whole with the, “god I’m really tired of these fucks” category.)

also! something I noticed: despite the excitement of everything, this was a pretty chill patch! both 3.5 and 4.5 were the big “holy shit” patches with 3.55 and 4.55 being the denouement into Stormblood and Shadowbringers.

but 2.55 was A Realm Reborn’s HOLY SHIT moment and I’m willing to bet good money that 5.55 is going to be the HOLY SHIT lead in for Endwalker.

did you notice HOW MUCH MSQ STUFF FROM THE TRAILER WASN’T IN THIS MSQ THAT MEANS IT’S IN PART TWO.

Estinien versus Alisaie is hilarious btw and it’s a miracle that man isn’t dead. though god, I have to feel for Alisaie: I joke a lot you can’t tell my twin brother and I are even siblings, but before puberty hit us, we looked muuuuuuch more alike, and I knew another brother-sister twin set as a kid who looked so similar the only way you could tell them apart was their hair style (the brother’s was traditional-boy-short and the sister traditional-girl-long). I lost contact with them after we went to a different school, but I’m curious now if puberty did the same for them as for me and Twin-Boy or not. and as much as Yoshi-P and the devs talk about and semi-enforce a time bubble, I do wonder if we’re actually going to see Alisaie and Alphinaud age a bit in Endwalker

after the Alliance briefing, while the other leaders have gone off and the rest of the Squad and Scions go to talk with Arenvald and Fordola:

Aymeric: Darling, it’s not like we haven’t seen each other in a week, we had breakfast together this morning--

Synnove: Don’t care, I’m horny, find a private corner or I ride you on the meeting table.

Aymeric: I’m not complaining, merely pointing out a fact! And my vote is for the table.

Synnove: >:3

during Paglth’an: drive by shippy smooches after defeating the latest enemy group

WHAT A FUN DUNGEON but I’m gonna have to go in here as GNB to learn how to do the pulls

DID I MENTION RECENTLY MY FIRST BROOD FEELS god I love Tiamat

*paps Arenvald’s cheeks* you’re a good boy and I love you very much

I know Ishikawa-san isn’t likely to do anything permanently harmful to my boy, but if she does, I will fly to Japan and fight her (after a detour to fight Koji for all his goddamn puns)

and then Nier

my issues with some of the visual elements aside, the fights were hella fun...but the story had me all ???????????????????????

like, the stuff with the dig site chief and Komra I’m enjoying, but everything else...no. I was definitely a little confused for the CF and PB portions of the story, but the Tower at Paradigm’s Breach just...explains absolutely nothing in a meaningful way? and I really feel that this portion they went hard on the Nier/Drakengard references so I was left feeling, “I don’t know why this is important or what the implication of this very obvious reference is.”

like, Return to Ivalice from the get-go was an obvious homage so I just tuned most of it out until we got some sweet sweet Dalmasca/FFXII stuff, but even with this raid series being another crossover,  I felt like there was a mystery and buildup that was being well-handled for the first couple of parts, so this part falling flat is a letdown for me

I’m hoping we’ll get some meaningful explanations in addition to the Komra stuff in the weeklies going forward. cause like. damn. I’m sad about Anogg and heartbroken for Konogg but I don’t know what the context of everything is and I’m really frustrated.

really super glad that we’re going back to original stories for the 24-mans in 6.0.

So, yes! Having a fun time with 5.5, ready for 5.55 to fucking take me out at the knees. today, we do Hatching-tide, custom deliveries, fishing, and Fishing (Unreal)! a girl still needs an Incitatus whistle and also the anteater minion.

[rpgmgames]

May’s Featured Game: Verloren

DEVELOPER(S): Choko ENGINE: RPG Maker VX Ace GENRE: Horror, Adventure WARNINGS: Flashing images, loud sounds, sudden sounds/images, full list (contains spoilers). SUMMARY: Chris Winter, find himself alone and lost in a black void filled with nothing but coldness. The only warmth you feel comes from your breath. In this void the young boy sees a door filled with light, trying to reach the door only leads to the boy to fall deep into a world filled with nothing but nonsense. Only when you find the key, then you’ll be able to leave.

Download the demo here! Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! *Choko: Hello, I'm Choko! I'm the developer, artist, and writer for Verloren. I've been messing around with rpg maker since 2013 but finished my first finished game in 2016 which is Desolate Village. I've also made other games since then. Those being Demon Tea, Friend Hunt, and Star Detective. So Verloren isn't my first rodeo in the whole game development stuff, but it is the biggest project I've ever work on so far. Besides game dev stuff, I'm a huge rpg maker games, horror games, rhythm games, and just games with a interesting style to them.

What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially? *Choko: Verloren is a horror adventure game that focuses on Chris Winter, a young boy who finds himself alone and far away from home because of this he won't stop for anything to find a way home and learn why did he arrive here. During the course of the game Chris would meet others who have their own goals. What inspired me to make Verloren is a bit hard to say from what I first started to work on it back in 2017, I was mostly trying to work on another project after finishing Desolate Village. It could have been something else but I really forgot. But since I took a huge hiatus year break during 2018, I would personally say the time I actually initially started to work on Verloren was in February of 2019. Since everything was rework with a fresh outlook on everything, so the whole head space with Verloren is totally different from 2017-2018. What inspired me when I went back to rebuild/fix the game was friends, since their support made me feel I could go back to work on the game. During 2018 I would say I wasn't in the best mood while working on the game, so the support my friends gave me really helped a lot and encouraged me.

How long did you work on your project? *Choko: I've been working on Verloren for three years now. But will say 2019 to now is when actually development started/actually got going. 2018 I took the whole year off to cool down/chill. So the Verloren of 2017-2018 is very different from the Verloren of 2019 to now. If that makes sense....

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Choko: Oh boy, this section might be very long since there's a lot of games and media which inspired/ influences Verloren, though for many different reasons. Will say the two rpg maker games that inspire me a whole lot when it comes to everything they do is Mare and Akademia (I know it's just a demo still at the time writing but it's very good. Good demo, like the characters are great!! Everything is very nice!) Other rpg maker games do inspire me, mainly friend stuff but Mare and Akademia are two games I really love and wish I can make Verloren a game which has characters which feel realistic in a way they do. Like please go play them. Besides rpg maker games will say that NieR Automata, Okage: Shadow King, RE 1/RE 0, Deemo, Rule of Rose, Smile For Me, and the Kirby series are games that just really inspire me with Verloren, there's just certain aspects of them which I hope I can capture in Verloren. Other than video games, I do get a bunch of inspiration from artist I follow, comics/manga, and anime though if I mention all of them it would just lead me to ramble away, but will say Pandora Hearts and Death Parade are two series I really love and both. I just enjoy series that shows character interaction and bonds, because that's a main part in Verloren. I really just get inspire by character development if you couldn't tell..... ^^;

Have you come across any challenges during development? How did you overcome or work around them? *Choko: Besides the 2018 thing I mention earlier. There has been tiny bits of challenges, like with creating maps, since it takes me a while to get into the mood to make them, but wouldn't really call it a challenge. Since all the time I just have to take time away from the map to gain motivation to make them. Another challenge I guess would be writing cut scenes which I love, though it's a whole process of making sure the characters aren't just rambling or going off-topic since when I write I tend to get in character, as in voice act the lines or try to think how they would. Though the process isn't really a bad challenge since it just takes a while until I get it right.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Choko: There's been soooooo many changes to this game. The biggest change I would say is the characters, they had a lot of design changes and personality/motivation changes. But other than that, I would say the mood of the game change a lot, also how scenes play it, originally it just felt like stuff happen to happen. Now it makes a lot more sense and isn't just some random thing I added. Sadly I can't list everything that change because that's spoilers but trust me everything change for the better.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Choko: At the beginning there wasn't a team, since I wanted to do everything solo. I mostly enjoy doing art, writing, and eventing the game. Though currently now there is a team, mostly with people I know, it's more so just a critique/feedback team + voice actors. Currently there are only two VAs since I didn't want to focus on voice acting before I had most of the game done, in the far future I may make a post about it. But so far the whole team is more so just a chilling area then anything else and I enjoy all the fun talk that happen there.

What is the best part of developing a game? *Choko: The best part of creating a game is to see the characters you created come to life. I just really enjoy seeing everything come together. Idk I just find it cool that when making a game all starts out as concepts/ ideas and then after days/weeks/months of work it becomes a actually thing you can look at and show others. Most cutscenes in Verloren I get super happy when I finish them up, because I can see them as a real thing rather than a bunch of ideas of "this is what I'm going to do". Also the joke/shitpost memes....they are also the best part of making a game.

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *Choko: Yep!!! I play a lot of rpg maker games, I really enjoy seeing what other people do. I just find it cool that anyone can pick up the engine and learn how to use it. Also it's a fun way to find inspiration, just seeing other rpg maker games and being like ">:O I didn't know you can do that!!!".

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Choko: This question is very hard, mainly because I relate to because a lot of characters in the game I relate to in tiny levels. For my favorite character it's Vladimir....I do like every other character in game. Chris is my second favorite I have to say (kinda a lie since ties with another character) but Vladimir number one, he's just soo much fun to write. He's maybe the one character who has a lot of scenes which gets a huge smile from me.

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Choko: Not really, mainly since I was lucky to be able to take a huge hiatus which help me in 2019 to rework everything. So every problem I had with the game I fixed.

Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Choko: I would just leave the game alone after I finish Verloren, it's a game that doesn't need any follow ups because I feel it would just take away from the impact when you get to the end. There really isn't anything I would need to explore, since Verloren is meant to be a single game and that's it.

What do you most look forward to upon finishing the game? *Choko: I look forward seeing how people react to the full game, I am low key shock on how people are reacting towards the demo and all the tiny predictions/speculations. Also the warm positive feedback towards Vladimir is shocking, since I thought no one would like him because of all those jokes/puns. I hope the final game has the same positive reaction, also that other characters get a warm positive feedback towards them.

Was there something you were afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Choko: The only thing that worries me is that if I mess up and people can't understand reasons why x character did that. Since one of the main things with Verloren is that characters have their own way if viewing stuff. Like morality is pretty gray because I don't want to write a black and white story.

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Choko: Main advice I'll give out is placeholders are your friend. Don't spend time making assets for a system you didn't test and you test it and it doesn't work. Just have a placeholder graphic which helps you test it and when it's done you can always slap on the asset. Following up with this, create a debug room. It would come in handy to test systems/ events than having to play through your game to test it and learn you need to fix it.

Question from last month's featured dev @cheesesteak-horror: Do you have creative processes you practice before starting development? *Choko: No, not really. I often just jump right into development and go from there. Most of my practice come from when I work on small stuff or just when I'm bored I often just mess around with things.

We mods would like to thank Choko for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Verloren if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum

[gothamcityneedsme]

I saw this bouncing around my dash and decided to fill it out myself for fun :)  I decided to not double-list any games, and I tried to mix up the companies I used too so that the list would be more unique.

Long post, so I’m doing a readmore for my longwinded part lol.

(read more)

Favorite Game: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords - I could talk about this game forever.  How it tears apart the Star Wars universe from within, how it creates a compelling story while challenging the usual themes, etc.  I could talk for ages about the characters and how their motivations slot in place, and how this game lends itself to interpretation and analysis alongside roleplay.  It’s just a wonderful game, one I deeply love and will always love.  It’s a game that isn’t afraid to have you talk to other characters for twenty or thirty minutes at a time and honestly I’m always riveted at every line.  This game deserves the cult fanbase it has, but I think there’s a lot the fanbase misses in appreciating this game.  (Note...gameplay is a little janky and a community made mod restores a lot content that was cut before shipping-the game wasn’t properly finished).

Best Story:  Fallout New Vegas - It’s the setting that makes the story here, and all the moving pieces and factions alongside the main conflict really make this game stand out.  There’s so many little pieces to find along the way in the world and the way the main quest splits based on who you want in power feels important--and you are choosing a future for this whole region.

Favorite Art Style: The Witness - This game is peacefully wonderful with its visuals.  There are wonderful nature scenes and nests of wires and panels spreading in various parts of the island that are fascinating to look at.  The environment is half of the gameplay in most areas, so it’s important to look around even though exploration is not really the gameplay.  You find puzzles in the world, even in nature, and it’s fascinating.  The colors are bright and beautiful.  There is even a map in the middle of the island inside of a lake that helps you track your progress if you notice it (it isn’t like a normal ‘map’).

Favorite Soundtrack: Shin Megami Tensei IV - I love video game soundtracks, but SMTIV is something special.  The music booms in ways that make you really understand the atmosphere of the world, and there’s a great mix of different kinds of tracks for different places.  I love the tracks for the other worlds you enter, and the themes of the different routes are done so well.  Some of the music draws from past SMT games, but the remixes done for this game really are stunning to me, and there’s so many fantastic original tracks.

Hardest Game: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - I love this game but I literally never touch it without a walkthrough, which is why it gets to be the hardest game on the list, despite being a point and click adventure game lol.  Also just emotionally this game is challenging too, but I definitely mean this more in terms of getting a ‘perfect run’.

Funniest Game: The Stanley Parable - Trying to make this list has taught me that I don’t really play many ‘funny games’.  I don’t know if a game where multiple endings demand that you kill yourself should count as a ‘funniest game’, but it is also a game where the narrator tells you to stare at a fern and memorize its features, so....it counts.

Game I Like that is Hated: RWBY Grimm Eclipse - I’ve been playing this game since it was in early access and have loved it the whole time.  I find the gameplay soothing and fun, and I like playing the different characters.  It’s a game I play to chill out and just enjoy some fun battle mechanics.  It’s a fun game and I’ve spent over 100 hours in it, so I hope I like it, lol.

Game I Hate that is Liked:  Nier Automata - Neither this game’s gameplay or story impress me, and the fact that you have to replay basically the same stuff from a more boring-to-play-character’s pov in order to SEE all of the plot is a huge damper on the experience.  The story, to me, someone who engages with a lot of robot-focused fiction, is far from impressive or new, and it hardly engages with genre specifics at all, let alone in a new or interesting way.  I view this game as ‘a story with robots in it’ rather than ‘a story about robots’, which, to me, is a detriment.

Underrated: Nevermind - This game is amazing and very unheard of--and when it is heard of, it has been marketed incorrectly.  Nevermind seems like a horror game, and does market itself as one a bit, but it’s much more than that.  It’s more about trauma, recovery, therapy, etc.  This is a game that is so mindful about the topics it engages in that I am impressed by it every time.  It’s heavy with symbolism and character, despite lacking conversations or other similar game mechanics.  This is a lovely game that I really wish more people knew about-`p5-all of the patients are so interesting, and the focus on recovery and mental health is impressive.

Overrated:  Fire Emblem - I sort of mean this as the series as a whole really.  I have enjoyed the entries I have played somewhat, but I overall consider the series much less impressive than I was led to believe by others.  The gameplay especially is not impressive to me in any regard, even though I sometimes do find myself enjoying it.  The stories are alright, but many of them are weighed down by the gameplay and as a writer and person who likes to analyze writing, it’s very hard to do so when it isn’t able to fully exist under the chains the gameplay forces on it.  There are ways to mix gameplay and story well, Fire Emblem has not really done that in any of the entries I’ve played.  That being said, I don’t regret playing them, and I will occasionally replay, but I consider them mediocre games at best.

Best Voice Acting: Devil Survivor 2 - I love the voice acting in this game.  I feel like all the characters are really suited to their voices, and it’s really easy for me to visualize their voices.  They really bring the game to life and make both the dramatic and the funny scenes more enjoyable.

Worst Voice Acting: Jedi Knight Jedi Academy - I love this game, I really do, but some of the voice acting is janky.  Some of it is okay too--I think Kyle Katarn’s voice actor does fine, and some of the others I like NOW but hated when I was a kid, but the male protagonist voice in this game is just awful.  Which is bad when Jennifer Hale is the female voice actress lol.  His performance is passable though unless you’re playing darksided--the darksided ending to the game lacks all punch when you’re playing the male protagonist.

Favorite Male:  Battler Ushiromiya from Umineko no Naku Koro Ni - He’s the protagonist for most of the visual novels and I adore him utterly, especially once you move past episode 2.  He’s a wonderful character who I care about deeply.  I love his drive and how he fights--he’s someone who is easy to cheer for.  He matures well throughout the series and his character development is just wonderful.

Favorite Female:  Naoto Shirogane from Persona 4 - I really like how Naoto fits so well in the game, especially for being a final recruit--oftentimes the final recruit of Persona games (post 3) have a bit of a more difficult time feeling right with the group.  Naoto works really well though, and I love her struggles and story as well.  I think the difficulties she has concerning living as a woman in her field hit very deep to a problem that has existed for a very long time.

Favorite Protagonist: Connor of Daventry from King’s Quest 8 Mask of Eternity - I’m like, one of four fans of this character in the world, lol.  KQ8 is not a very well liked game and it does have a lot of issues, both with age and with how much of a departure it is from the series prior to it.  It’s strange to take a puzzle adventure game and make it a hybrid with what basically is a shooter, and it doesn’t really work.  Add to that the fact that you spend most of your time in the game without anyone around to talk to and it leads to this really polarizing and weird experience.  For me, Conner goes through what I would consider to be the ‘Ultimate Nightmare Scenario”.  Everyone in the world is turned to stone except him (and he survived out of mere chance) and so now it’s up to him, practically alone, to save the entire world.  There is no game lonelier than this.  I adore him for his bravery in the face of it, and how he just picks up to do what must be done because someone should do it, and if no one else can, then he will.  I also really love how he apologizes to people who are encased in stone while he takes money from their houses to help him on his journey.  I really do think he went back after the game was over and gave everyone heaps of gold to pay them back with interest lol.

Favorite Village:  Oakvale from Fable - The first Fable is the only one I really like, and it was one of the games I played when I was little, so the hometown in the game always meant a lot to me.  I like how you grow up there and how your tragic backstory is there--and then how you get to return to the town years later after you’ve come into your own, and you can see it completely rebuilt.  I like to spend a lot of my time in this town, just wandering around it and playing the minigames.  Even though I have a house in every town, Oakvale is where my hero calls home.

Most Hated Character:  Merril from Dragon Age 2 - I don’t really want to lay into how I feel about Merril, but what I will say is that it was suggested to me that I totally ignore her when playing, and I did so.  I only met her for her quest, dropped her off in town, and literally never spoke to her or interacted for the rest of the game.  I had a much better experience for it, honestly.  She appeared after I made my choice in the end of the game, which felt weird since I hadn’t spoken to her in several ingame years, but other than that, the game was totally fine without her.  I sort of just wish you could kill characters in DA2 the way you can in DAO, then I’d just do that, tbh.  It doesn’t suit very many (or any) of the characters I rp in DA2 to keep her around or support her in any way.

First Game I Played: Mixed up Mother Goose Deluxe - I’m not actually sure if this is the FIRST game I’ve ever played or not, but it’s one of the first I played alone as a kid.  I really loved it--this is probably what created my love for point and click adventures, and the game was very silly and fun.

Favorite Company: Bioware - I’ve always been a sucker for Bioware games, ever since Knights of the Old Republic 1 was my favorite childhood game.  I love how they do stories and party members, and while I’m not a fan of all of their games, I really love what they’ve made and their style of storytelling and character driven plot.  Even though sometimes their stories get cliche, I think the suit video games well and most of my early gaming was within their games.

Hated Company: EA - Bioware truly only started to go to shit after the EA acquisition, so I fucking hate EA.   I know Bioware had issues before EA too, but I definitely don’t think EA has helped the situation whatsoever.

Depressing Game: The Beginner’s Guide - I relate to this game as a creator and a writer, and it affects me deeply because of the story it tells and the questions it raises.  It makes me reflect on how I think of myself as a creator, and it reminds me of friendships I used to have.

Creepy Game:  The Path - God, I love this game.  It’s just aimlessly wandering around and finding symbolic scenery and watching your current character comment on it.  Then, you go off to find your girl’s wolf, and each one is different and unique to her, and you watch it ‘kill’ her--and facing her wolf is the only way each girl can truly mature.  Whenever you get to grandmother’s house, the camera switches to first person, and your eyes keep closing, so you can only see while clicking to move.  It forces you to keep moving so that you can see, but since you are moving, you only get to see things somewhat vaguely.  It’s got a great atmosphere, and I love the symbolic storytelling.

Happy Game: Eastshade - This game is so sweet.  There’s some drama around to with many of the quests, but I like this as an rpg without combat, and I think this would be a really good kids game.  There’s a lot to see and explore, and the game was made to be really pretty so that you want to paint several aspects of it.  It’s really lovely to just wander around in this game and bike around the area, painting anything that suits your fancy.  As long as you don’t finish the main quest, you’re free to wander, and materials do respawn, so you essentially can infinitely paint once you get far enough.

Favorite Ending: Virtue’s Last Reward - I love the questions this game asks and where the ending goes.  It thematically ties together--the whole reason the game itself exists is to get the attention of a ‘higher being’--the player, essentially.  I love how it plays with that concept, and even though the final game in the series doesn’t entirely pick this idea up where this game left it, standalone this game is stunning in how it comes together.

[mamthew]

My full review of Persona 5: Scramble. Some mostly minor spoilers scattered throughout, though I try to flag them in advance.

When Persona 5: Scramble was announced, my expectations were fairly low. As it was yet another Warriors spinoff of a better-known series, I expected Hyrule Warriors but with Persona characters. I thought we’d get the P5 crew, maybe even a few from P3 or P4, maybe a villain or two, mindlessly tearing through thousands of enemies in essentially interchangeable levels, justified by a threadbare, 6-hour story. The demo, then, blew me away. It was just…the beginning of a sequel to Persona 5, maintaining the locations, presentation, and characters of the original game, but with a beat ‘em up battle system. I began thinking of Scramble as a direct sequel to literally my favorite game of all time, including everything a sequel might entail. 

Having played through almost all of Persona 5: Strikers (I have started but not bothered seriously attempting New Game+ in Merciless difficulty), the game we ended up getting was halfway between those, I think. They managed to recreate the presentation of P5 impeccably, with gorgeous menus, beautiful battle effects, entertaining scene transitions, etc. However, the half of the game that isn’t dungeon-crawling is deceptively scant. The story centers around a road trip across Japan, but each city isn’t nearly as realized as P5’s Tokyo, with only about 3 rooms apiece, and some of the later ones not even getting a hub at all. The hubs really only exist to have shops, with none of the time management, minigames, or relationship building in a mainline Persona game. Still, it’s the only Persona spinoff I’ve played that has a real-life component at all, so I found it refreshing to get to wander Sendai, Okinawa, Osaka, and other towns in a game I’d initially not expected to have any towns at all.

The dungeons are where this game shines, though. They’re actual Persona 5-style dungeons, made occasionally even more dynamic with the addition of platforming and sidescrolling sections reminiscent of Nier Automata. The battle system uses the bones of the system in every warriors game, but slowly builds on it with more and more complexity until it’s not only a unique system, but is honestly one of the more engaging action battle systems I’ve played in a minute, in which you’re constantly trying to time dodges just right for extra hits, which can then open the option to either get in an extra hit with your character, which heals some SP, or switch to another character for an extra hit with them, which increases the rate at which the special gauge increases. As Joker, you have an array of Personas you can switch between on the fly, shifting your moveset, your stats, and your strategy as you go. Each of the other characters has their own gimmick that makes them unique and fun to play and sets them apart from Joker, who otherwise would have access to all their elemental attacks and stat spreads. Strategically placed objects around dungeons can be used to pull off special moves in battles, as well, letting you jump up to chandeliers and drop them on enemies or dive off of walls and tackle enemies. The battle system takes a little too long to actually become complex, but once it actually reaches that point it’s really rewarding. The bosses, too, are fun, with designs deserving of the Persona name and strategies that make full use of the environments. You can even replay them at different difficulty levels as the game goes on. I’ve never played a Koei Tecmo game with this much polish, and the battle system makes me hope the Warriors team goes to try an actual Platinum-style character action game. I think they’d knock it out of the park.

I’m a little split on the story of this game. The bones of the story are good. The characters are all written perfectly, and seeing them interact again was enough that I actually teared up a bit when I first booted up the game. I enjoy the new characters, and they work well with the party. The pacing is solid and it has a good emotional core. The villains are decent for the most part, and the ending is pretty satisfying. Several of the villains directly correlate to specific party members, too, which gives us further insight into those party members, and lets us watch as they see themselves in someone else and recognize where that other person broke off from their path. The game is in part about trauma and the ways it drives individuals to lash out at a world they’ve always believed to be cold and unforgiving, which could be a powerful message if done well. In this game, though, it’s not done very well at all. The ultimate message – if this game could be said to have one – is that individuals without support networks are driven by trauma to make bad decisions. That’s not…necessarily untrue, but it’s not…necessarily true, either. This message is probably at its worst when the game gets into inadvertently ableist territory with a character near the end, who -spoilers until the end of the paragraph- tries to essentially enslave mankind because her dissociation due to trauma convinces her that she has no emotions and therefore the species as a whole should have no emotions either. It’s…frankly a really gross bookend on a game that, until that point, had managed to avoid most of the issues with male gaze and homophobia that the original game had.

Every message in this game, though, is too individual-focused to function as a real message or social commentary. It even undercuts the sharp themes in the original by showing people in similar positions of power as the original villains just…choosing not to fall to corruption and consequently avoiding all of the problems that would arise from their power discrepancy. For a spoilery example until the end of the paragraph, the villain in Persona 5 who’s a CEO is a villain because his need to make profit drives him to exploit his workers, paying them less and working them more. The villain in Strikers who’s a CEO is a villain because his father was abusive and that led him to think people must be controlled. One is a real-world problem applicable to any CEO. The other is a story that exists only in the fictional realm.

This wouldn’t be such a glaring issue if Persona games – and especially Persona 5 – weren’t known for their social commentary. That’s not limited to the main games, either. Persona 4 Dancing was a rhythm game with a story about parasocial relationships and the pressures they place on public figures. Strikers ostensibly touches on parasocial relationships, but doesn’t…really have anything to say about them.

The game does try to make a statement sometimes, but everything it tries to say is disjointed, at odds with the previous game, or inapplicable to real life. The villains’ deeds don’t really have much similarity to each other, either, unlike in 5, and it’s stated outright that several of them would not hold any power at all without the supernatural world, which both prevents their stories from saying anything about the real world, and flies in the face of the purpose of Persona as a series. The supernatural worlds in Persona games are the collective unconscious, which means that the worlds are used to give the characters and the player visual representations of abstract concepts. The Palaces in Persona 5 are not the sources of the villains’ power; that comes from regular old societal hierarchies. The characters in Persona 4 were experiencing their inner turmoil before they were sucked into the TV world, and the midnight channel only made manifest what was already there and unseen. Conversely, the first two villains in Strikers are only in the public eye because they use supernatural means to make people like them. That the supernatural means involve smart phones doesn’t say anything about technology, because that’s not how technology actually works. In a follow-up to a game that was as furious at the world and desperate for change as Persona 5 was, it’s a glaring departure for the characters to just…befriend “the good cop,” or -spoilers again- push the mayor who’s based on Margaret Fucking Thatcher to run again but do things the “right way” this time.

That being said, I’m not actually that upset with this game. I have a lot to say about its missteps because I have a lot to say about Persona 5, but the gameplay is legitimately fun, and I do really love seeing the characters again. I’m more bemused than upset with the game’s fumbling of…the thing that made me fall in love with Persona 5 to begin with. Part of that is because the game is still so solid and fun, and the characters are written so well that I can overlook the issues. Even deeper, though, is that the last few years has radicalized so many people that the statements made in Persona 5 are simply…more visible in the mainstream than they were when it released. Late show hosts rage about the exploitation of waged workers. Video game streamers remark on the cruel arbitrariness of the current system. Shows about cops are being pushed to justify their existence to an increasingly disillusioned public. I think if Persona 5 released today, it wouldn’t have the same impact it did in 2017. To my mind, the game no longer carries the responsibility it once did. So this game is fun and doesn’t really matter, and that’s actually okay.

But if Persona 6 isn’t a return to form, I’ll take it back.

[mmx-code-crimpphire]

Headcanon about X and Zero’s song

Okay! If you guys wanted to talk about X and Zero’s song. I wanted to write this headcanon for a WHILE.

Of course, this is another long one, so be prepared, mates

They, of course, start discovering this song shortly after they officially established their relationship. They head to bed for the night in X’s room, since he actually has a mattress in his charging tube, and it’s big enough for X to have actual sleeping positions like humans.

Zero barely fits in there with him, and soon they’d have a room for just the two of them so they won’t have to just go to X’s room a lot of the time. But when X is awakened by a nightmare, he couldn’t sleep, so he leaves Zero to sleep and goes to walk to hopefully get him more at ease and cuddle in Zero’s arms again.

When he passes the Rec Room, however, he discovers Iris is playing a video game. He investigates and checks it out, greeting her and the like, asking why she’s up. She can’t sleep, and X let’s her know he can’t sleep due to a nightmare and tells her about it. She gives him some comfort and lets X watch her play for a moment. He found out she was playing NieR: Automata (very amazing game, I might add). She was playing 2B’s route for the millionth time, as she is her favorite character, and A2 being a tie.

When she hits the City Ruins area, X is enchanted by the song that plays it's Medium level with voices playing.

Iris notices and hangs around in the area for a minute before asking X about it. He was so enchanted, he didn’t even pay attention to what Iris was actually doing to let X hear the song more. The Neo Blue Bomber snaps back to reality and realizes he must have been goofy looking being enchanted by video game music. Iris tells him that’s nonsense, since she loves the song herself. She stays idle, fishing in the river for a little while to let X hear the song a lot more, while Iris sings the lyrics to the song. After hearing it all, X starts singing with her. She even lets him play a little bit, and he loves it.

He then asks her if the lyrics mean anything, then being told the language is made of five existing ones, but the lyrics don’t mean anything. Which disappoints X. But Iris then tells him that he can interpret the lyrics to anything he choses, since canon-wise, they don’t mean anything.

X then perked up and told her that he thinks the song would mean someone showing them the light and going hand in hand with that person, going towards the light together. It warmed up Iris’ heart hearing that, knowing how artistic X can be, which embarrasses the Blue Bomber a little. He’s then encouraged to tell Zero about it, since she imagines them going towards the light, hand in hand together. X then blushes and lets her know he’d tell Zero and thanks her for being his company, she nods and thanks him back while going back to playing.

X then comes back to his room and sees Zero awake, worry shooting through him. Zero tells him he had a nightmare, and X tells him he had one earlier, which was why he was out. He nestled next to his Midnight Ripper again and tells him about his meeting with Iris and the song he learned from the game she was playing. He then tells him about the lyrics not meaning much canon-wise, but then saying what he thought the lyrics meant and what Iris told him.

Zero blushed to that and actually agreed. Since X saved his life when they met, affectionately touching his cheek, making X blush as well. X then sings the song and Zero starts doing it after a while. Zero liked it that much that he might as well download the actual track. The Quiet version, the Medium version, and Dynamic version, all with and without vocals. He gives all versions to X so he’d listen to it himself and he thanks him for them. They then try to cuddle and try to sleep again.

Sometime after that, they train one day and Zero has an idea. Since he’s been playing the song on his guitar for almost two months with X next to him, both singing the song on occasion as well, he thought they should have the song be something special to them, since it’s starting to become that. X likes the idea, and Zero even takes it a step further. If X was comfortable with it, whenever they unjustly separate going on missions together, they’d sing the song back and forth, so they’d eventually find each other. Of course, they would communicate with the comms on their helmets, but especially if they don’t work, they really have to rely only on their voices.

X feels embarrassed at first, since his voice is quiet whenever he sings. Zero would want to help him with it so they can find each other in the future and the Neo Blue Bomber.    agrees to it.

They practice, and they have two or three instances where they separate because of mechanaloids tossing one or the other away or by other means and it’s greatly helped them. One instance where their comms worked fine and they can hear each other’s voices afterwards. Another was when Zero’s comm was busted and couldn’t communicate well so they really had to rely on each other’s voices, and a third instance was when the communications were jammed, so they couldn’t communicate at all, relying on each other’s voices fully.

When the Giga City incident had taken place, and they duo had been unjustly separated by Mavericks, hoping Zero wasn’t dead, X kept on singing for days and days on end, meeting up with Spider and the others along the way. He didn’t tell them their relationship right away, mainly focusing on the mission and worrying about Zero on top of it. When they find out Zero’s alive, X continues to sing again, telling the others about his relationship with Zero. Making them more determined to reunite the duo.

When they finally did, hearing Zero’s singing voice, X rushed to the area Zero seemed to be and helped him in the nick of time. They took in a reuniting hug, a few peppered kisses, and everything was okay. Zero was alive. He didn’t want to lose him again. Not since X1 arc. Well, not until X5, he loses him again.

X then tries to sing the song after Zero’s death, but he could never finish the song without crying. Not with how sentimental the song was to him and Zero, with how they used the song to find each other and they sang it together when they were alone. Iris then helped sing it to him so X can cry and remember Zero.

But when Zero came back, and they had a quiet moment to themselves where they didn’t get triggered by their trauma, they’d sing together again. X almost cried but kept it together, letting tears slide down his face and holding his lover’s hand as they cuddled together under the stars. Glad they’re just together again. They sing the song together more often ever since. Damn, how many times am I gonna say “together” in the paragraph, eh? lmao

That’s it!! Hope you guys enjoyed it!

[razeluxe]

Razeluxe’s Top Ten Male Characters

So I’ve been thinking about doing a particular list for my favorite characters across anime and games for quite a while and with some advice I decided to break it into my favorite male and favorite female characters. Most people that know me can probably guess at my top three favorites but if you don’t know me... well you ‘bout to learn lol. This was harder than I thought to compile...enjoy my fanboying of the boys lol.

By the by, I’ll do my best to keep spoilers to a minimum.

10) Apollo Justice (Phoenix Wright Series)

I’ve played only two games that this character was in (Apollo Justice and Dual Destinies, slowly working through Spirit of Justice) and this character particularly in Dual Destinies struck me even more than Edgeworth who is another amazing character. Apollo has an amazing spirit and it was only through playing Dual Destinies that I really got to understand Mr. ‘I’m Fine’ and his stupid ‘Here comes Justice’ puns. I feel his original game didn’t allow him to shine (still a great entry in the Ace Attorney series I don’t care what anyone says) and Dual Destinies allows him the development he deserves. He gets hurt during a trial and it allows a deep dive of his character even if his personality shifts for a while. Damn he’s savage. He’s considered the underdog in the Wright Anything Agency but he’s to me the hardest working person there who is also the most factual in court.

9) Gokudera (Katekyo Hitman Reborn)

Or as I like to call him, Scowludera since he’s scowling like 90% of the time. This Ichigo ripoff’s character development is insane. And I think that trend follows most if not all the characters in this list. His relationship with his sister is interesting and he’s pretty explosive in terms of personality and intelligence. His fights are all really interesting too, he has some of my favorite interactions in the series thus far (haven’t read the post anime manga chapters yet sadly, but he’s more than earned this spot on this list). He butts heads with people a lot and he can be ignorant but he grows from his experience and you get to see it bit by bit. This dude is loyal to the bone. RIP if you aren’t Tsuna or Reborn. Also, I’d like to shout out this anime as one of the few to do the shounen genre proper justice. Go watch it. Also his sister Bianchi is <3. Oh wait. Male list. Oops. Can we also talk about his weapon? Not gonna say spoilers but that thing is dope and probably one of the best ever designed weapons. And his kitty Uri <3

8) Joshua Bright (Trails in the Sky)

This will be short as I don’t want to spoil anything, but Joshua is a very easy character for me to connect to personally. His feelings, actions, development probably relates more to me than a lot of characters on this list. He’s got good people around him...I’m very happy for his ship and support it 120%. Also the Trails Series, both Sky and Cold Steel are probably my favorite series of anything period. Go play it. There is more to this character that meets the eye and has broken my heart more than once ;_;

7) Neku Sakuraba (The World Ends With You)

Neku Neku Neku. Another very relatable character for me (see the theme here? lol) He initially shuts out people and over time, through his experience in the Reapers Game, he starts to open up and bring people into his circle. He goes through some crap, like a lot of trauma. When you learn of him it’s no wonder he wound up disliking people and society. He’s extremely creative and that creativity manifests itself in different ways. Kinda like me. It’s worth mentioning I used to roleplay this character back in the day, the very first canon character I used to write for. 

6) Shulk (Xenoblade Chronicles)

One of the only blonde’s on this list. Shulk is a character that is driven by revenge but eventually changes. He goes through some pretty traumatic stuff that I absolutely will not spoil. His personality when he encounters a certain characters shifts big time and it’s kind of scary considering how early you see this. Also he gets points for being a notably intelligent character. I mean, the dude has his own lab...and is able to fix and adjust stuff. He’s really a great and well balanced character despite all the crap he goes through. Also I used to make fun of this character and dislike him a little bit, but then I grew up. 

         The list gets real starting...now. Not that it was fake before. :o

5) Jaden Yuki (Yu-Gi-Oh! GX)

Anyone who has actually watched the entirety of GX might know why he’s here. His character development in the latter seasons so unreal and interesting. I’m not spoiling crap but there is a lot more to the character than meets the eye. Like a lot lot. Over the course of the series he loses his innocent eyes and his personality changes a lot...His character is probably one I can relate to in terms of the reasons for his actions, the way he gets down about himself, the way he acts in the final season...it hits me hard...he’s too dang relatable...just like..

4) Rean Schwarzer (Trails of Cold Steel)

Surprise surprise. Rean is here. -hears crickets- Guess you’re not surprised. I wonder why. I think I relate to this character more than anyone else on this list. Except number one. Number one is in his own league. Rean is a character who generally carries a happy disposition...he has a unique power but you can see he is actively scared of it. It’s something I actively deal with...he’s so scared of himself that he puts distance between family and friends. He never feels he’s good enough. He’s made headway through this, but...

One thing that’s extremely interesting about this character is his selflessness. You may think this is driven to the ground in character stereotypes but for Rean it’s different...his selfless has been described as abnormal by characters in game, and it’s not for positive reasons...Rean deals with some real unhealthy stuff. This is getting long.

As of this post Cold Steel 4 comes out in one month and I’m extremely worried for his character. If you’ve played 3 then you’ll know why. Also if you haven’t played the Trails series, go play it. No buts. Heck I’ll even buy the game(s) for you if I can.

--

Oh look we’re at the top three. I want to say that while numbers two and three here are pretty interchangeable, these characters have been in my top three for over a decade and a half and I don’t see this changing anytime soon. Rean I love you but you have your work cut out if you ever want to breach the top 3. I wanna post a few honorable mentions here. They didn’t get into Smash but they do get Mii Costumes at least! -shot-

Davis Motomiya (Digimon Adventure 02) 

This character was everything I was when I was a kid. The way he tries everything to woo Kari is too cute. Also his unwavering faith in Ken. Also Davis Cries Veemon.

9S (Nier Automata)

Not mentioning any spoilers. Just watch this character and see how his vision of the world changes over time.

Okabe Rintaro (Steins; Gate) 

Okabe’s shift from his ‘persona’ as things get real and his efforts to fix everything is too relatable for me ;_;

Yosuke Hanamura (Persona 4) 

No, I do not ship him with Yu. They’re great buddies for sure, and he’s pretty cool. Really likable character for me personally save for a few moments in the game...he’s also the main in the Arena games. “Let’s do this, Jiraiya!” He’s so cool lol.

                    Top 3 time. Fiercely dedicated to these guys.

3) Robin (Teen Titans Go! 2003)

Robin is such a raw character that carries his past and tries so hard to move from it yet it embodies him to his core. He has since gained a softer side from forming a team, and has been doing normal teenager stuff...which is good for him. However at times that Batman side impacts him so hard that he can only concentrate on his mission, and starts shutting out everyone and everything to do things himself. It actively gets in the way of his interactions. He deals a lot with moving on from failure and acknowledging his friends more, which he does get better at over time. He is also represented by the color red. My favorite color. He’s badass and yet carries so much crap. I connect to this character a lot even now. Third canon character I ever wrote for.

2 Lloyd Irving (Tales of Symphonia)

I love Lloyd. I love his voice, I love his attacks, I love his stupid double sword logic. He says wielding two swords makes him twice as powerful lol. I love his development. I love his idealism and how it matures over time. I love everything about Lloyd. It was legit love at first sight. I remember being 15-16 and seeing him on that Gamecube boxart and saying “I wanna play that guy” Most people I feel (guys in particular) probably looked up to certain characters growing up as a child/teen. Lloyd was mine.

1. Zidane Tribal (Final Fantasy IX)

While it was love at first sight for Lloyd, that was not the case for number one on this list. I was 13 when I first played FFIX. Zidane upon encountering him, I always thought he was a cool character, but he was nothing special.  Even at Zidane’s lowest point I thought he was an okay character at best. I had not finished the game.

Fast forward a few years and I decide to play FFIX again, this time determined to finish it. I had went through some things, grew up a bit before turning this game on. This damn bandit...I remember writing this bit years ago: “His infamous mantra labeled above describes him well, but under his ability to console others with a smile, to cheer people up and meet them at their point of need with his abundant optimism lies a blonde who masks his pain and keeps his issues to himself. Despite his many friends and buddies he harbors a deep loneliness that, like his problems, he keeps to himself. One would have to look carefully to notice his character flaws for Zidane does an impressive job of hiding these problems. Whether it be through his energy, his theatrics, or focusing on other people, Zidane can cover things up quite well.”

Zidane has an absurd amount of depth to his character that I was never able to comprehend as a kid, beneath his flirting, his playful attitude, he hides a lot of feelings, a lot of anger, a lot of sadness. It used to boggle me how he’s able to uphold his sense of virtue despite what goes on in his life and the end of disc 3 answers this for me. It goes without mentioning that this was the second canon character I’ve ever written for, and I still love writing him. I could and write walls of text about how Zidane is so amazing, a chivalrous thief, a lover and a flirt but I think I can let you go lol. Hit me up if you really want to hear me ramble about any these characters, also play FF9.

...So I wrote all of that and forgot to write about Zidane’s ship...have to give it its own paragraph because I love these two together and she does wonders for Zidane as a whole as does he to her. She’s a princess and he’s a thief, they take their time to show them together through different things, different ordeals...particularly the ordeals. Its interesting seeing them both at their worst moments and the many funny moments..Man, that boat scene gets me every time...If I ever write a top ten couples list this couple would no doubt be in the top two if not number one. And I’d probably write way more than this about them because they’re great. Also they’re canon. A healthy canon. Also Dagger’s hot. Oh wait wrong list.

Okay finally done. Not editing this anymore :P

[winterune]

Happy 29th Birthday, Hanae Natsuki-san!! | 26.06.20

Gahh I’m late. Just found out Hanae’s birthday was on June 26 (so many seiyuus having their birthday on June). In this post, let me share my current top 5 favorite Hanae roles I have had the chance to encounter ^^

#1: 9S - NieR: Automata

The sole reason why I’m creating this post. I’m not much of a Hanae fan. There was a point in time when I was, until my days got oversaturated with Hanae anime (kind of like how I’m not much of a Matsuoka Yoshitsugu fan). But I’ve gotta say, give an emotionally broken anime to Hanae Natsuki, and he’s sure to rip your heart out. 9S is only an example of this seiyuu’s emotion range, down-spiraling from the easygoing android into sheer madness, and he’s not the only character Hanae has had to display such range. Hanae as 9S simply broke me.

#2: Arima Kousei - Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso

The second Hanae role I encountered, around the time when Hanae was starting to get more recognition and landing more leading roles. Beautiful art and beautiful music, I’m sad to say that I’m one of the people who didn’t think Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso was all that, though I was in love with it when I first started it. The animation seemed flawless and the classical music was amazing (I’m a sucker for classical music). Maybe because the progression was too slow, and after catching up to the manga, the anime just lost its flair. Still, I will never forget Kousei :3

#3: Kaneki Ken - Tokyo Ghoul

One cannot simply talk about Hanae Natsuki without mentioning Kaneki Ken. The anime wasn’t good. I went into it knowing how big the fandom was, but sometimes, I’m even more insecure about anime with huge fandom backing it. The first season was all right, but the barely good pacing it had fell apart in the following season where the story was all over the place. It was a mess. Still, Hanae’s Kaneki Ken was definitely one of his best performances, and is probably the most memorable to me. I mentioned another character like 9S. This is him. They’re different, but I will never forget Hanae’s screams at the end of season 1 as Kaneki plunged into madness. (also, Tokyo Ghoul introduced me to amazarashi, so that’s something :3)

#4: Biscuit Griffon - Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

I didn’t find a gif of him alone T_T A side character and the voice of reason, Biscuit was probably my favorite character among the Gundam IBO cast. Soft and caring, he’s the one everyone often went to with their problems, including Orga. Not much to say, as I don’t remember much but the fact that I loved him (and I only just remembered that Hanae voiced him lol)

#5: Kaizuka Inaho - Aldnoah.Zero

My first Hanae role! I loved him after watching Aldnoah.Zero. The distant “prodigy” protagonist who doesn’t talk much. I dropped the second season halfway through though, haha. 

Honorable Mentions

Katsuragi Maki - Hoshiai no Sora

The most recent Hanae anime I saw. The anime has a lot of flaws, the major being that it doesn’t seem to know which direction to take. We have the typical “bad club turns good” idea, then we have the “people with dysfunctional families find comfort in each other” idea. It’s clear the director wanted to go with the latter. Would’ve turned out much better if he had dropped the former. The main problem was that the staff wanted to focus on both, but it sacrificed the emotional and character depth the anime could’ve gotten if they had only focused on one. Maybe, if the anime had been longer, say a two-cour anime, they could’ve given it justice. 

Sakishima Hikari - Nagi no Asukara

I haven’t seen NagiAsu... It was around the time when I was tired of hearing Hanae’s voice every where that I couldn’t focus on the anime every time I hear Hikari (and Ishikai’s character) spoke lol. It’s still on my to-watch list, though. 

Kamado Tanjirou - Kimetsu no Yaiba

I felt compelled to add Tanjirou, even though I haven’t seen the anime ^^; saw 4 episodes, and felt it too shounen for me ^^; I’m getting old... Too much monologue, not enough action (and in action, I mean story). The art and animation were out of this world though. Still, Hanae’s the main lead of this mega popular franchise, so I’ll put him on the list. maybe one day i’ll try to watch more of it. def want to see what the fuss was all about with Kamado Tanjirou no Uta

---

Apparently I haven’t seen a lot of Hanae roles. Which is surprising because I see him everywhere xD (tho well, the anime I’ve seen him in tend to be mega popular franchises lol--or at least, popular in its time)

[bahamutgames]

Nier Automata: [A]fterthoughts

Game: Nier Automata: Become As Gods Edition (June 26, 2018)

Console: Xbox One (Via Xbox Game Pass)

Alright so I’m trying something a little different this time with my opinions on a game. Usually I will share this on Twitter in a thread. However, I feel like I’m having more and more to say on games I play lately. And Twitter threads just don’t feel right for sharing massive amounts of text. So I thought I’d give this a shot now. However, this isn’t meant to be a review or an indication of whether or not YOU should try the game. This is just me pouring my heart out about what I’ve played and giving my honest opinions about what I just experienced. This is just for anyone interested, and I highly recommend you try out this game and any other game I choose to talk about in the future, to get your own opinions on how you feel for it.

As such, this isn’t a very well written piece either. It’s mostly just me throwing up thoughts into a post. But, if that’s your thing or you’re just curious about what I have to say, you can read my huge info dump on my feelings about Nier Automata in the readmore! 

Spoiler Warning for some parts of the game, including the finale and ending.

Opening

About 2 days ago, I sat down and beat Nier Automata for the first time. And after sitting on it for a bit, I’m ready to talk about my time with it. I wasn’t originally planning on doing a big thing for playing this game (I was saving it for a different game.) But plans got sidetracked, and by that I mean Microsoft had a sale on 3 months of Game Pass for $1. And I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try it out. I was really excited to see they had the game on the service, as I’ve been wanting to play it since it came out. So naturally, I jumped at the chance.

Stuff I liked

Honestly, I really liked this game. I thought was cool and loved a lot of the topics it covered, as they’re things I really enjoy seeing games tackle. Evolution of life, the existence of religion and our relationships with god and death, strange surreal things, androids and robots becoming more than just androids and robots. The story has so many aspects I really loved seeing. A highlight for me was seeing the robots start to become sentient and deal with grief, family bonds, how they should live outside of what they were programmed to do. It was endlessly fascinating to me.

Game also had tons of fantastic characters. I think my favorites may have been 6O and Pascal, if I’m being honest with myself. But also also really liked all 3 of the main playable Androids, and I found myself falling totally in love with the pods too. There’s tons of other great and interesting characters you don’t even get to play as or see that much, it has a fantastic cast I really loved. Particularly, I thought the designs of the androids were really interesting. Dressed in all black with white hair is a cool aesthetic. My favorite design may have been 2B’s, obviously I thought she was really hot. But I think her outfit is actually very cool and classy in a way that understands how to make a character hot without just being in your face about it? If that makes sense. I also really loved A2′s look, being able to see her joints is a really cool underused aspect for an android design. I wasn’t super into the robots themselves at first, but I found myself really loving how they looked by the end of it. Their weird and minimalist designs really leant themselves to the sad and peculiar story they had to tell.

Nier has a fantastic gameplay style too. I was shocked to learn that it was a Bullet Hell! Bullet Hells and Shmups are my “secret favorite” genre, that I really love but rarely actually tap into. I thought the game had really fun use of Bullet Hell gameplay, with fun Shmup sections and fun action RPG sections. I was particularly impressed with how much fun the crossover of the two genres would be. Fighting back against a bullet hell in this type of gameplay style was incredibly fun and endearing. And I think it handles these two completely different genres really well in a pretty cool way. I also loved being able to get multiple weapons for the androids and pods, though I did mostly stick with the same the whole way through. Just the standard weapons and the beast slayer. Plus the laser for my pod. Hey, if it works, why fix it, right? I also really liked the chip system. I had a ton of fun figuring out which chips suited my style the most, and I liked feeling powerful because of them.

Outside of all that, the game looks and sounds AMAZING. The aesthetics particularly really got to me. I’m a huge fan of cities and buildings reclaimed by nature, and I’m a huge fan of sci-fi aesthetics mixed with modern and medieval aesthetics. And the game has both of these used in really great ways. Mix in some of the weird and creepy visuals thrown in throughout some of the game’s darker and sadder scenes? And it’s beautiful. I thought the music was really good too. I wasn’t crazy about it while playing it. But listening to it in the background while writing this makes me realize how good of an OST it is. I really love Pascal’s village theme, Treasured Times, and the credits music.

I also really adored a lot of the interested 4th wall breaks and ways they play with game mechanics and tie them into the functionality of the androids. A scene that really comes to mind is that the settings are actually your android settings. And having to go through them for the story mode, then getting to see it again as 9S. I also thought parts where your vision gets glitched out was very interesting, and things like that were really charming to me.

One of my favorite parts of the game, was absolutely the finale. Huge spoilers for this part obviously. I was teetering between not really liking the game anymore, and loving the game by the end. So the finale was really going to make or break it for me. But ultimately, I think the finale was AWESOME. Having to play as the pods fighting the credits to get a better ending was really cool and genuinely exciting to me. I had a total blast blazing through one final, tough bullet hell finale. Also, seeing all the cool little messages players left was so nice and genuinely heartwarming. I got messages from the USA, Mexico, even one from North Korea! It was so cool! And such a good idea. And getting help from everyone at the end was so awesome. Ultimately, I chose to give up my save data because the ending scene was actually pretty tough for me and I’m not that bad at bullet hells. So I figured it’d be selfish not to lend someone a hand out there in the world. (plus... to be fair, when my game pass expires, I won’t be playing this game much more lol.)

Stuff I didn’t like

With all that praise though, I don’t necessarily think the game was perfect either though. There was a lot of stuff that really rubbed me the wrong way. The gameplay had a lot of stuff that just didn’t feel right and was oddly frustrating. A big one for me was the lock on just being completely useless for some parts of the game, jumping around the enemies far off when there was something right in front of me ready to get hit. It made killing some enemies genuinely more challenging than needed. A huge issue I had with the gameplay was actually that there aren’t enough Shmup sections in the flight units. Most of them take place in hacking sections, which, in my opinion. Aren’t that fun, or at least considerably less fun than the way superior flight unit sections. And that’s the type of gameplay the ending uses. Which is a shame.

And there are some parts I sang praises about but I still have issues with. Like, I enjoy the game messing with the way you play because you’re controlling androids. But when you have to walk somewhere and the game disables your movement, or you have to kill something and the game disables your combat. It’s mostly just annoying. I really love the concept, and I think it’s not THAT bad. But it’s still annoying enough that I thought to mention it. And while I didn’t run into this issue, the really cute and touching aspects of the finale. Are you just completely locked out of them if you can’t pay for online? That really sucks and kind of kills the vibe of that ending. Same with having to delete your save data to help others. It’s cute! But why is it there? It all just feels so antagonizing for no reason.

I also had a big issue with Story B. You play through nearly the entirety of Story A again as 9S. Normally, I love stuff like this. Sonic games come to mind right away for games I enjoy that do this. But for Story B, it is the exact same game and story with minimal changes through it. Sure the opening and towards the ending, it’s different. But mostly, it’s identical. And then there’s just small snippets of way more interesting stuff with the way robots became sentient lightly peppered in to break up the monotony of doing the same thing twice. This second playthrough should’ve focuses HEAVILY on the robots. Even if it’s from 9S’ perspective, more should’ve been changed to show the robots. The part with the singing robot was BRUTAL, and I LOVED it. But you get very few new scenes like that. Perhaps Story B should’ve followed Pascal or a random enemy robot instead of 9S. Considering you also play as 9S for a lot of Story C. Imagine how gut wrenching it would be if Story B followed a random enemy robot evolving and learning about life and free will, only to get killed at the end by 9S or A2 or something. Idunno.

There’s also some gripes with the story. A big one is the fact that, and this is a HUGE spoiler. But 2B doesn’t feel like the main character. It feels like the main character is 9S, who I like, but isn’t as cool as 2B by a long shot. You barely play as 2B or even A2. SO MUCH of the game feels like it’s all about 9S and I gotta be honest, I’m not that interested in 9S. I like him, but maybe we could learn some more about the robots and their interesting problems instead of just seeing more about how 9S is so smart and awesome and genius so he has to be killed a bunch. Speaking of which, I don’t think I care for that aspect of 2B either? She has to kill 9S over and over because he keeps learning the truth about Yorha. In the end, even 2B is just a part of 9S’ story. Maybe that’s just me though. I feel like that whole concept could’ve been removed, and you could’ve had 2B and 9S having to deal with learning about the truth together. idk.

Overall, my biggest complaint is just that the game spends a little too much time on 9S and not enough time on all the interesting aspects it skims over. Again, the robots, I talked about this at length but I really would’ve loved to learn more about them. How about the existential reality that androids and robots have been fighting a meaningless war for dead masters for centuries? WHAT THE HELL WAS EMIL? There’s so much cool stuff in the world of Nier Automata that feels like it’s all skimmed over in favor of stuff that just didn’t really need to be there? I think a lot of these are relegated to sidequests, but they should’ve been a part of the main story. Maybe it’s just me.

Final Thoughts

Well, even after all those complaints and nitpicks. I have to say, I liked Nier Automata. I think it’s a cool game that explores things I thought most people weren’t interested in exploring. Both in its world and its gameplay. Especially not from a big triple A title. Some of these are things I’d like to explore in my own games so it’s nice to see a game with an interest in the same weird topics as me. I’m certainly interested in this series. I only own Drakengaurd, but I’d like to give it and Nier a shot sometime in the future if I can.

I like the hopeful nature of the ending and I liked the emotions I felt through the whole playthrough. Even when the game was scary and sad, I still had a good time with it, and I hope somewhere out there in the multiverse, the characters are living a much better life in peace.

Thank you so much for reading, or just skimming through. Or just scrolling to the end! I appreciate it a lot! This is my first time really writing up my feelings about a game in a huge more organized way like this, and I hope you enjoy it. I’m certainly going to try and do more stuff like this in the future, maybe I’ll still make some of them twitter threads if I’m lazy or don’t have much to say lol. But, regardless, thanks for your time! I hope you have a fantastic evening! Play a video game that makes you feel something :)

[sapphixxx]

kino?

How I feel about this character

I have so much love for little Mx. No Tabi. They’re so close to being a blank slate kind of character, but they really do have a lot of personality and character that shines through in what they do or don’t care about in the places they travel to. Like! For most of the countries they travel to, in any other story the narrative would be about the protagonist fixing whatever fucked up societal shit they see going on. But here, Kino almost always just kind of says “Sorry, that’s none of my business”. They’re kind of coldhearted, but they’re in no way cruel, and they never go out of their way to try and justify themselves. Like it would have been really easy for them to turn into a kind of sneering individualist looking down their nose at the folly of man, or some kind of creepy libertarian who thinks all this suffering is just good and natural and shouldn’t be messed with. But instead, Kino is curious and open minded--they just don’t view themselves as being a ‘protagonist’ with plot armor thick enough to save the world one country at a time.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Honestly I’m kind of uncomfortable with shipping Kino with anyone. Partially it’s because their age is pretty ambiguous, but also like, they seem so independent and focused on traveling that I have a hard time imagining them ever getting connected to anyone. They’re like, one of the least sexual characters I’ve ever encountered.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

I can’t think of any characters that I really think of them having an ongoing friendship with, but I do like to imagine them meeting characters from other properties. In particular, I think they’d have a lot to talk about with Alpha from Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, or Nier from Nier.

My unpopular opinion about this character

A lot of people seem to ship them with the sword guy, and I just don’t see it! It really feels like they just want some vector to sexualize Kino and fit them into a heterosexual box, and I really don’t care for that. I don’t know if this is unpopular or not, but I also see Kino as being nonbinary.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Kino is the perfect character for crossover events, and it makes me sad that there haven’t been any, as far as I know of. But, then again, even if one did happen it probably wouldn’t be any of the properties I’d want. Part of me desperately wants to know how Kino makes their money, even just like a one-sentence throwaway line about it. But the other part of me kind of loves that they’re just inexplicably loaded with enough cash to travel the world without ever worrying. One headcanon I have is that they’ve charmed some lonely wealthy heiress somewhere in the world who funds their travels in exchange for writing letters and visiting once or twice a year.