#no im not going to play LOL or AOE

[beesmygod]

What is your ranking of the 'souls' fromsoft games you've played and why? I SUSPECT bludbornt takes the number 1 slot for reasons.

this is actually really really hard because while i love the bloodborne story, some of the structural and pacing issues can result in an awful gameplay experience. like if its your first time playing the game the last boss you're going to fight is mergo's wet nurse which is a huge wet fart of a final boss with a dogshit soundtrack. some of the boss fights are rank as well. like laurence is fucking awful. rom is a SLOGGGGGGG i dread having to fight rom every time bc its just a test of my patience instead of a skill check. defiled watchdog and amygdala are terrible. not fun. very bad. great dlc tho

it ties with dark souls 1 which i dearly, dearly love so much i could play it forever except once you play literally any other fromsoft game it is so hard to go back to. the quality of life additions in later games like "being able to fast travel without needing to complete half the game" and "being able to move at a reasonable pace instead of plodding around like the gravity on planet dark souls is stronger than earth" are completely absent. is...almost a little too mean. some of those boss runs are real rough. also great dlc. i love broken pyromancy so much. wait i just remembered centipede demon i hate that fight. fuck him. and fuck his ketchup kids

ds3 is a close second bc its ds1 but they gave it a bunch of quality of life fixes that make it much less frustrating to play. however, the pay off is that it has one terrible dlc and one thats just ok. i hate the final boss of the base game i think it sucks. nearly everyone disagrees with me so dont listen to me. but i think it's a stinker lol. the midir fight is grueling, unfun. ive done it and it was awful. i think there are too many "puzzle" bosses (wolnir, yhorm, ancient wyvern) that feel like they were imported from a zelda game. i do not like those at all. dont waste my time from! im here to kill monsters by the skin of my teeth!!! not play donkey kong!!!

i took a long time to warm up to sekiro and really disliked it until it "clicked" and then it became mind-blowing. i really hope they make more like this with this fighting system. maybe even a sekiro 2 (tomoe story PLEAAASSEEEE FROM. it was teased so hard...). it has an incredible plot, world, means of delivering its story, heart pounding battles, and the single best fromsoft final boss fight ever. bar none. sword saint isshin is an unbelievable experience.

but...fromsoft what the fuck am i supposed to do with all this currency ive amassed lol. they forgot to give me things to buy. you dont have this problem in souls games because you use them to level up, but in sekiro you have to fucking git gud. there's no level system and defense bonuses are tied to defeating bosses. if you can't defeat a boss you are absolutely fucked and have to throw yourself against the wall over and over, which can truly be a terrible grind.

some of the boss fights are h o r r i b l e. most fromsoft games have me chasing down minibosses to beat for fun but the headless are literally dreadful. i just skip them altogether now because if it wasnt enough that they cast a "remove fun" AOE spell, but the items they drop are worthless. i will never use these lol. what the fuck from. the second fight with the ape is stupid. im never going to fight the demon of hatred sorry lol. you can't put a fucking bloodborne beast in a game almost entirely revolving around human enemies.

never finished ds2

[warframestuff]

I'm sure someone's asked before, but I'm new to this blog and I absolutely love Warframe, so if you're willing to share, totally cool if not and feel free to ignore the ask, but who are your top three favourite Warframes and why? My favourites so far are Rhino, Octavia and Volt. Rhino is my go-to tank because of his steel skin, but I've turned Octavia into a pretty good build as well, though I do die a bit more with her. I got to try out Volt and definitely want him for myself because of the shields, speed boost, and electric AOE abilities. Happy Warframing! 💖

hello! please always feel free to ask me anything i love talking about warframe lol

my top 3 tend to usually be mesa, wisp, and hildryn with oberon usually being an honorable mention. i do love me some self-sustain bc i am not good at video games. with mesa i liked her design and her powers were easy for me to build for and still be contributing to the squad. wisp makes everything easy-mode with all the utilities her motes gives and her breach surge is so strong. hildryn makes me feel strong and i love her, plus it was neat to mod for shields instead of energy. oberon got me through the starchart as a new player (he's still technically my most played on my warframe profile) and i loved his paladin/nature aesthetic

edit: im an idiot and don't get asks often so i forgot to respond to the rest of what you said, sorry! i love all your warframes! volt is so good. i played through duviri with him and his shields made the defense and extractor missions so easy. octavia is so good and i love her design a lot so i wish i played her more! maybe use rolling guard if you have it for increased survivability if her invis isn't working well enough? also rhino's just all around great tbh

[sneakyscarab]

i think at this point i have crossed the event horizon and am a Certified Touhou Gamer™, cause the last few games have offered very low resistance to me schmooving on through. i literally downloaded this game earlier today and i've already 1cc'd it lol

nina's thoughts on Touhou 14 - Double-Dealing Character

another one down already! at this rate i might be able to play the newest touhou game before an english patch comes out lmao. DDC was one i was looking forward to, since i had been endeared to the grassroots youkai network through a lot of cute fan content. DDC was a fairly straightforward entry, which at this rate just seems to be the touhou cycle where it gets super weird and then chills out every 4 games lol.

life pieces and bomb pieces are back again, and once again their acquisition method has changed. now both types of piece are given out by the same method, boss fight phases drop a piece, and whenever you go to the top of the screen to collect items the game gives you a piece if you collected a good amount in one go. usually it gives you bomb pieces, but every 5th one procs a life piece instead, and you only need 3 life pieces for a 1up. besides that, no gameplay gimmicks in this one!

for the playable characters we got 3 options: Reimu and Marisa of course, and the surprising return of Sakuya as player 3! each has 2 moveset options, based on either using or not using a tool of theirs that is going haywire. interestingly, the unfocused shot doesn't change between the 2 sets, only the focus shot and bomb. Reimu has homing as a base, needles when focusing without the tool, and with her tool her focus shot is a giant spinning gohei that slowly homes in and does continuous aoe damage. Marisa has illusion lasers, magic missiles without the tool, and her corrupted tool is her mini-hakkero acting as a flamethrower . Sakuya has wide-angle knife throwing, a more vertical beam without the tool, and her corrupted tool is a series of posessed knives that stick into enemies and explode after a few seconds.

i tried out each moveset once, and they were all pretty fun, except Sakuya without her tool. after i tried each one once, i gave Sakuya's corrupted tool a second try, and got my 1cc right there. the homing from the possessed knives, the wide spread on the basic shot, and especially her bomb all made for a great moveset. Sakuya's bomb works similar to Nitori's from SA where you gain a shield for a few seconds and get a partial refund if you're not hit, but even better because the initial activation also gives you i-frames allowing it to perform double-duty in bullet-dense spellcards.

for the new characters, i mean i already said it earlier, but the grassroots youkai network is pretty cool, and really just all the characters in this game are neat.

Sekibanki is my favourite, something about her design just really works for me i dunno. the colour scheme, the cape, her tall collar hiding the fact that her head isn't connected, she's just cool. plus she's besties with Kogasa in other media, who im surprised didn't show up in this game considering how well she fits the theme.

Wakasagihime is also pretty cool, im surprised it took this long for any sort of aquatic youkai to show up, and mermaids are a great fit for the games theme of youkai trying to regain their scare factor. i like how for once a new stage1 boss character actually has connections to the main plot of the game, and isnt just someone Reimu and crew bumped into along the way, even being the reason Sakuya showed up in this story at all.

its tough to pick a third cause theres plenty of good options, but i think i have to go with Seija. her power suite of flipping things is simple but it has a lot of cool applications, i love how her 'lair' is a big inverted castle floating in the sky (sick symphony of the night reference?). her boss fight is probably one of the craziest in the series, her actual bullet patterns arent particularly rough, but she uses her flipping powers to break the 4th wall and flip the game screen horizontally, vertically, and a full 180 spin, which is super cool even if it fries my brain with the inverted controls. speaking of fight gimmicks, Shinmyoumaru also does a similar wild gameplay thing in her fight where she briefly turns your sprite HUGE and disables your weapon, making you dodge danmaku with an absolutely massive hitbox until it wears off, which is also really fun and bizarre.

Double-Dealing Character was pretty fun! the lack of a new big mechanic was surprising, but the base gameplay was still great without it, with the incentive to stack up uncollected items for a big collection run being enough of a mixup to keep it interesting. the boss fights were all pretty fun, and most of them had neat unique mechanics like Sekibanki's head satellites, and the aforementioned tricks with Seija and Shinmyoumaru. the characters are also really neat, and imo much more memorable than the ones from TD. if theres one complaint i have to give DDC, its WHERE DID SANAE GO? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER? IS SAKUYA RESPONSIBLE??? IF SHE IS IM GONNA- [it was at this point that the author was suddenly struck down by a silver knife that appeared in her room seemingly out of nowhere]

[gemstone-gynoid]

went through every lol character to see who im interested in playing as. installed LoL. generally going through abilities and stuff i seem to of course want to mostly play long ranged of course. i’ll update later on my mains or oshis or whatever you describe your fav champions

Mage=9 Ahri(mage and true damage attack) Aurelion-sol(AOE attack) cassiopeia (poison clouds, stun ability) elise (first strike as human, finish as spider) morgana (soul steal) orianna(ball, stacking damage) syndra (billiards attack) zoe(keep up spells, warp) zyra (autoplant, plants assist attacks)

Assassin=3 Akali (smoke screen) evelynn (mag debuff, healing) leblanc (clone dupes)

Marksman=9 Ashe(slow) caitlyn(buffed on trapped) corki(bombs) jinx(varied guns) kai'sa(stacking damage) miss fortune (guns, love tap) sivir(ricochet attack) vayne (bowshot, impale on walls) zeri (shield steal, wall penetrate)

fighter=5 camille(shield on attack) gragas (buff brew, bomb brew) irelia(stacking damage, healing charging attack) olaf (life steal, deadly strike) shyvana(dragon, quick attacks)

support=5 janna (general support) renata glasc (buffs allies, beserk spell, root) sona (support in aoe) soraka (lifeshare, attack heals self) zilean (time warp)

tank=1 nautilus (pull and anchor)

[elvesofnoldor]

im pretty sure there is a mod that can make your mage inquisitor unlock both knight enchanter and rift mage specialization, cause i saw someone using three spells from three different specialization trees in a video once. i desperately need this mod because finley lavellan is definitely both ok, mostly knight enchanter but also there is no way he doesn’t at all use rift related spells. 

[vixenofthemist]

SoulSilverShipping x Genshin Impact bc I missed drawing them and Genshin is my new fixation lol

Some brain dumping under the cut about like their weapons and constellations!!

[click for better quality]

I really debated over whether legendaries should dictate visions or starter/main pkmn should, and I’ve decided it’s up to the rule of cool lol. It’s a character by character basis xD

Originally Lyra had an Anemo vision and Silver had Pyro given by Lugia and Ho-oh, but I felt like with these two especially having their visions based off their starter Pokemon made the most sense? Since this game era focuses on having that strong relationship with your poke’s and Silver’s whole character arc is him coming to love his pkmn it seemed more right so I switched it last minute to be Pyro!Lyra and Hydro!Silver.

(Like I said above tho this au goes off the rule of cool so I’m thinking Dawn might have Cryo even tho no legendaries or starters would give her that but that’s beside the point rn ajdk)

ANYWAY some basic mechanics stuff for these two that is really basic bc I don’t think too much about game mechanics bc I mainly go off fav characters in Genshin rather then abilities aglhhs

Lyra

First of all: Lyra was made to be Genshin-ified. Like she’s already pretty close to Amber clothes wise so it was just really fun to play around and give her that Genshin feel!! She could absolutely be given more small details like Genshin loves to do but,,, small details are my weakness amdjsj

Weapon: Sword or Catalyst, tho I’m leaning sword bc she gives me Bennett energy play style wise!!

Constellation: Cyndaquill

Play style: I’m thinking, again, Lyra is versatile like Bennett where she can be built for either support or DPS, but her skills lean more DPS the more constellations you unlock to kind of emulate her becoming champion. Jokingly rn her Q is to hit a pokeball esq pyro sphere with her sword like a baseball bat to cause AoE pyro damage, but that may or may not stay LMAO

fun fact: her gloves are based off her Pokegear :>

Silver

Im not gonna lie. Silver was a pain.

and tbh I will probably change his design every time I draw it bc I am just. Not happy with it but also I have no idea what else to do ASJS his outfit is just so plain?? Like, wtf am I supposed to do with baggy pants and a jacket all the same color?? Lmao long story short I had the exact opposite experiencing designing silver then I did with Lyra lmao. Very in character xD

Weapon: Claymore, bc I feel like Silver wants to be a DPS Diluc so bad bc that’s like, the most powerful in his mind so ofc he’s gonna use a claymore to deal the most damage.

Constellation: Totodile

Play style: one things for sure: Silver is not Diluc, and at C0 he isn’t a good DPS at all and would actually be a good support or buff unit but he refuses to be bc that’s "weak" and he doesn’t travel with anyone so those abilities would be useless anyway lol. But as his constellation unlocks he DOES get better at DPS and his Q deals a lot of damage (bc it’s totodile line it’s gonna pack a punch) BUT it’s reliant on him buffing others with his E. I have no idea if that would actually work in game but story wise I like it a lot akdj

Fun fact: Earring :3

[gemstoneconstellations]

Hi~! I just found your tumblr and i absolutely love your fan fics! I just finished reading "Hero By Another Name", and i swear that was the best fan fic i read in a long while. It really took all my uwu's.. So i decided to try and maybe ask for a imagine/HC for Kirishima or Todoroki( Im not sure if you do more then one character per HC so...Sorry if you don't just pick one of those two lol) with an online friend/crush thats in the same country but different region? Sorry this is long~

Awww thank you! Happy you liked it!

I actually did both of them so enjoy! (I’m not confident in my Todoroki writing style, I tried tho)

 Todoroki Shouto

It was completely by accident how he met you. He was supposed to have a group video chat with his friends. Instead of clicking on Class A Group Chat, he clicked on A Group Chat. He didn’t even realize it as he entered the password, DekuisAllMightssecretlovechild. When he saw your face his first response was “You’re not Iida.”

You squealed, “You’re prohero Shouto! How did you get into my chat?!”

That’s how you started talking, sharing theories that the two of you had about his friends. Over analyzing Deku’s abilities with side by side references to All Might’s moves and abilities. Iida is part robot. Kirishima and TetsuTetsu are secretly long lost half fraternal twins who were separated at birth because of them having different fathers. 

He never really talked that much outside of his small friend group and family. No one really entertained his ideas and theories like you did. You would hop in with your own theories and gossip about friends he never met.

After a month of chatting online, he asked if you would like to have a conversation face to face at a cafe. Sadly, you were a five our bullet train away from him. He had to settle for getting your phone number.

Texting everyday was the norm. He would send you random pictures of things he found interesting; a stray cat that followed him on patrol, soba, selfies with his friends smiling around his stoic face, manga he bought, and soba.

He didn't realize it right away that he was falling for you, just that you were someone who understood his mind. He really wanted to see you in person.

“You know you're basically in a relationship.” Sero pointed out to him. “Good morning and good night texts, letting each other know what you are doing every minute of the day, all you need is cutesy nicknames and you’re dating.”

That night after talking to you, he laid in bed thinking about how badly he wants to see you in person, to hug you… He bought train tickets for his next day off.

Kirishima Eijirou

Kaminari introduced him to this awesome action MMORPG. He would play this game for hours when he didn't have to do patrol. It really helped keep him entertained while having some downtime during missions.

Once he got to a higher level and it was time for him to get the third class of his career, the quest started requiring him to do dungeons with teammates which is annoying cause you never know who you are going to group with. Lucky for him, he got partnered with someone who was competent the first time. Their support AoE character worked really well with his tank character. Turns out, both of you were doing the same quest and temporarily formed a party to make the quest go by faster.

After both getting your new class upgrades, he was surprised to see a friend request from that other player.

You became his permanent partner in the game. Every event, story quests, you did together. Sometimes after level grinding together, the two of you would go to one of the player resting areas and just sit there chatting.

He didn't know your name or what you looked like, but everytime he saw that green dot next to your user name, his heart did backflips. His fingers instinctively clicked on your name to start a chat. Soon you guys were talking about anything and everything, not just about the game.

It took a lot of courage for him to share his name, he practically slammed his head through his desk when you told him yours. He broke his mouse when he saw your number flash across the screen.

You guys were texting buddies now. When something was announced about the game you would tell him instantly. Even bought matching outfits for your avatars in the game. 

He was super excited to find out that you lived in the same country, not half way across the world. Too bad you lived practically a day away from him.

The face reveal was nerve racking. You are too cute for words. He felt like an idiot when talking to you on the phone. You laugh as he stumbled on his words and it just made it worse for him.

You told him that you actually had a work thing come up that was going to take you nearby where he lived and you wanted to see him. He was screaming into his pillow with excitement at the idea of seeing you finally! After months!

That’s when he made the realization, “Oh fuck, I’m in love…”

[ticklystuff]

I wanna try and clear 36 stars for the abyss and was wondering if I could get your opinion on how Childe performs? I was thinking of getting Hu Tao but I also heard good things about Childe too but his cooldown scares me LOL and I only have primos for 1

hewwo i feel like im the wrong person to ask this because of my heavy bias towards childe lol but if you were planning on pulling for hu tao originally then you probably like her more so you should just go for her

i will say that pyro dps are a dime a dozen and you get one of the best for free (xiangling) and mihoyo seems to have no problem releasing more whereas childe’s role as a consistent hydro applicator is rare (took them almost one year to release another after Childe) and is only shared by kokomi (useable but has problems and not great for vape teams) and xingqiu (mainly single-target). granted both are the best in their roles and both have a lot of benefits but from an investment standpoint, hu tao is more susceptible to powercreep whereas mihoyo would have to intentionally go out of their way to put childe out of a job due to how fast he applies hydro

another thing to consider is that hu tao is usually glued to xingqiu but a lot of teams want xingqiu whereas childe doesn’t need a specific unit to work, making him more flexible. childe’s best team does use xiangling though and xiangling is glued to bennett, so childe’s best team requires two top-tier units and hu tao’s best only needs one. also since dps in a childe team is more evenly shared between childe and xiangling compared to hu tao and xingqiu, this means childe teams require more investment

also childe’s cooldown is not that bad and i feel like is over-exaggerated and needs like two brain cells to manage. optimal play uses about nine seconds of his skill and you can either countdown in your head or do what i do and use his ranged burst before his skill and just use the burst timer as your timer for his skill. hu tao is way harder to play and requires more mechanical skill due to utilizing jump cancels at c0 and idk how it is on mobile and pc but doing jump cancels on ps4 is such a pain and i still can’t properly do them

as for childe’s performance, i really like his reverse vape team because it’s good for both single target and aoe floors which not a lot of teams can claim. his teams are really great and flexible for most floors. hu tao teams are the best at single target dps but she really struggles with aoe (possible with her though)

one last note: childe does not experience a power spike with constellations unlike hu tao’s c1 so he is more f2p friendly than her. i have him at c6 and i don’t even use the effect provided by his c6 lmao

anyway good luck on whoever you decide to pull! both are great picks

[windblooms]

answering meta/build asks i got over the past week below!

Anonymous said:

okay team comp help,.. I need your advice - I want to use diona, bennett, rosaria and childe on my team but I’m not entirely sure about rosaria’s mechanics... what do you think?

rosaria is meant to deal physical damage - of course she can be a cryo damage dealer, but just like xinyan, physical damage is more convenient with the nature of their skills.  it’s too early to definitively say what rosaria’s mechanics are, so i’ll just comment on your team’s elemental resonance and synergy: two cryo gives +15% crit rate against enemies affected by cryo.  bennett and childe is already a good combo, great for vaporize and big damage.  you also have a freeze comp going on sans bennett.  rosaria could be your dps whenever childe switches back into ranged form!  so i think so far your team is pretty solid :0 

Anonymous said:

I have a question! Are you familiar with the Genshin yourtuber Zy0x? I really like their videos, but do you know if they’re any good? Thank you!

i have heard of him yes!!  admittedly though i don’t really watch a lot of his content . . . all of the things i’ve heard about his videos, though, have been very positive!  in-depth and explains the nuances between different artifacts, weapons, etc.  i believe he’s (mid)core with how he explains things as well . . . ?  overall someone who i’d trust if i was lost on a genshin topic.

Anonymous said:

what artifacts/weapons would you suggest for a sub dps/support xingqiu? c5 btw

i would recommend support xingqiiu over (sub)dps xingqiu.

subdps: 

weapons: primordial jade cutter/skyward blade > sacrificial sword > festering desire.

artifact sets: 4piece heart of depth > 2piece heart of depth + 2piece noblesse. 

artifact main stats: hp flower, atk feather, atk% timepiece, hydro damage bonus goblet, crit rate/damage circlet

artifact substat prio: crit rate/damage > atk% > hp% > energy recharge.

support: 

weapons: skyward blade > sacrificial sword > festering desire.

artifact sets: 4piece noblesse > 2piece heart of depth + 2piece noblesse.

artifact main stats: hp flower, atk feather, hp% timepiece, hydro damage bonus goblet, hp% circlet

artifact substat prio: hp% > energy recharge > atk%. 

Anonymous said:

hello!! i’m not sure if you’ve already answered this type of question before but with the fact that childe’s potential is locked behind his constellation is he still worth pulling for a f2p? :0 he’s not really kind in that regard lmao so i’m still trying to decide who to pull between him or venti and which bow would be best for who when i have both stringless and rust sitting around unused ㅠㅠ

yes!  childe is still worth pulling.  let me put this on a scale, hm . . . if diluc is the best dps in the game, a 9/10 on the scale, then childe is like . 7.5/10??? even if he doesn’t have constellations.  his aoe (in my opinion) is actually more than diluc’s due to riptide procs.  he also has amazing synergy with bennett, even when not ulting.  my point with bringing up childe’s constellation lock is that there’s just so much more he can do with them than without - c0 childe and c6 childe are not the same character, unlike c0 vs c6 keqing (hahaha someone fight me over this).  

stringless is currently venti’s best gacha bow, besides skyward harp, but the new 5star weapon elegy for the end is looking to be venti’s own 5star weapon.  so weapon prio for venti would go elegy of the end > stringless > skyward harp > favonius warbow imo. 

for childe, skyward harp > viridescent hunt > rust > stringless, but only stringless if you build bennett!  explanation here. 

hopefully i helped clear any confusion. :0

liastark0:

Hey! I have a few questions, which is a better healer, Qiqi or Barbara? Also, can I be considered really luck if I get two five stars within thirty pulls (hu tao and qiqi), cause people are talking about getting a good five star in ninety pulls and im like “???”, I barely have enough primogems for a three ten pulls.

Istg, your such a good help when it comes to genshin.

qiqi is the better healer - 5stars have higher base stats than 4stars.  qiqi scales off of atk, while barbara scales off of hp.  qiqi’s skill can also apply the physical debuff superconduct because it’s electro, whereas barbara’s hydro skill cannot apply debuffs. 

same logic kind of applies with their ults, with the addition that qiqi can just quick cast and switch out to have her allies attack enemies who are marked, continuously gaining health until the mark wears off, while barbara’s ult heal value is fixed. 

and yes, you are really lucky if you get a 5star within 70 pulls - much less 30!!  and about the “people are talking about getting a good five star in ninety pulls”, this is true.  90 pulls is hard pity, and there is a chance to get a 5star between 76-80 pulls.  getting a 5star in less than 76 pulls is rare enough already, so the fact that you got 2 within 30 (when the pull rate for a 5star is 0.6% - not even a full percent) is amazing. 

Anonymous said:

Hi, could I have some Genshin advice please? If not, feel free to ignore! I currently have an r5 white tassel on Hu Tao as her weapon. I like the crit rate stat, but I feel bad having a three star weapon on her. I also have the favonious lance and a dragonspine spear, should I swap the tassel out for one of those? Thank you!

keep white tassel, especially if it’s r5!  don’t use dragonspine spear because the physical damage bonus on hutao is icky.  r5 white tassel beats out favonius lance on all regards imo as well, since the white tassel r5 passive increases normal attack damage by 48%.  yes, even if it’s a 3star weapon, i’ve seen lots of hutao players excel with it.  so it seems as if white tassel r5 is your best option so far!

Anonymous said:

Catch me looking at childe's complicated af playstyle and thinking "big brain time"

HSADLJFSDFD YEAH?  his playstyle doesn’t take long to get used to though :0 it’s just about counting your seconds or getting a feel for when you should switch him back to ranged form so your skill cd isn’t too long.  he also has a lot of repetitive terminology in his kit LOL thanks mhy ;; but i promise playing him is easier than it sounds :0

[mrpinchy]

5.3 MSQ IM VERY UPSETTI SPAGHETTI but in GOOD WAY

FINISHED 5.3 MSQ I went in soon as the servers came up and didn’t stop, went in completely blind from start to finish took about 7hrs? I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS 

SPOILERS FOR EVERYTHING:

holy shit jesus christ OKOK

so first of all I cried A LOT like, way more than I expected and NOT JUST CUZ IT’S THE LAST PATCH OF AN EXCELLENT EXPANSION but cuz like, damn it hits hard man lol

so Leon is my WoL but he’s never been leveled/geared enough to do endgame UNTIL YESTERDAY when I caught him up on all the patch content (my main is Sig but he’s not my WoL). it was A LOT OF FUN to go through everything with the “right” character sorta speak, just a lot of really cool stuff idk how to explain it lol

HELPING THE LIL KIDS!!!!!! OH MY HEART also I noticed Tiqi-Rio had sunseeker eyes AND MOONKEEPER FANGS nicenicenicenicenicenice GOOD I WANNA SEE MORE OF THAT

so the FIRST Exarch fakeout death with Elidibus and him at the watchtower LIKE???? WHY YOU WANNA GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK SO EARLY omg but honestly seeing him so crystalized and struggling HURT ME A LOT baby boi BABY BOI NOO

going back to Amaurot so Elidibus can force you to kill the Scions soon as you get there WOW WHAT A DICK MOVE LMAO and then all the other characters they brought back like, even in the background it was really cool to see them in Amaurot????? idk I think some people will call it hammy or too referential? but fuck it I loved it LAY IT ON THICK, YOSHIP god it hurt me to kill Aymeric tho

holy goddamn I was so excited when Y’shtola ripped into Elidibus YEEES GET HIM but wow like, Elidibus is essentially a primal then idk AGAIN WE COME BACK TO THE THEORY THAT WoL IS A PRIMAL anyway

HEROE’S GAUNTLET I went in with Trust so I could take my time and it was the right choice, I LOOOOOOOVED seeing the role quest NPCs helping at the end -- I loved seeing all the NPCs helping you but especially them lol ESPECIALLY GIOTT FUCK YEEEEEEAH

god okay the SECOND Exarch fakeout death when Elidibus is like, hey I need your corpse die lol I WAS READY FOR THE PAIN and then jk jk jk OR IS IT

running up the tower with the Exarch, seeing/hearing how painful it was for him to keep up with his failing body, how he had to send you away without him.. OH MAN i cried YOU COULD FEEL HOW MUCH IT HURT HIM he was so close to having an adventure with WoL ;v; also liek... damn that ESPECIALLY hit, the whole “failing body can’t keep up with my dreams” thing HOOOO I KNOW THAT FEEEEEEEEL

went in completely blind with a random group for the Elidibus fight, I went WHM (im bad but semi-geared) and we only wiped twice!!! figured out we had to use tank LB midway and then healer LB towards the end LOTTA AOE HEALING

Emet-Selch’s shade giving us a boost during the fight, BOY MY GROUP WAS VERY UPSETTI in like a good way CUZ IT WAS VERY UPSETTING in a good way lmao emotionally everyone was just POINTING AND YELLING THERE HE IS!!!!

Exarch using the tower as a big auracite IM SO GLAD that was really cool to see, also like........ god idk but I cried A LOT when Elidibus turned into a little amaurotine kid all scared and alone just playing with the soul crystals and talking to himself, AND CRYING and and MY HEART EXPLODED goddamn i cried. he tried so hard for so long that he forgot what he was doing or why he was doing it, why he was suffering so much, and damn if that didnt hit hard. was Zodiark’s heart just a lonely kid all along

saying goodbye to the Exarch like I KNEW WE”D SEE HIM AGAIN but it still was Emotional, I felt so sad for Lyna especially SHE LOST HER GRANDPAAAA

Alisaie crying after Halric spoke ME TOO ALISAIE 

holy shit Dulia Chaii’s parting words to Alphinaud WOW I CRIED A LOT and when he got choked up?? I CRY god the Chais love that baby boy so much IM SUFFERING

holy shit Seto............. ohhhhhhhh I cried SO MUCH

Thancred saying goodbye to Ryne and telling her how PROUD he is of her like damn that hit me right in the HEART goddamn

finally i must say

IM SO GLAD GRAHA IS A SCION NOW I KNEW IT WE ALL KNEW IT WOULD HAPPEN BUT IM STILL SO HAPPY AND EXCITED I YELLED SOOOOOO MUCH WHEN WoL STARTED RUNNING TOWARDS THE TOWER LIKE!!!!!! AND THEN WHEN THEY SHOW GRAHA AGAIN OHHH!! BABY BOOOOOOI!!! HERE COMES A SPECIAL BOOOOOOOOI!!!!!!!!!!!!

that whole cutscene with Alisaie at the table WAS VERY WELL ANIMATED the whole thing was noticably better animated than previous cutscenes I LOVED IT!!! IT WAS VERY GOOD!!!!!! also ALISAIE IS VERY GOOD!!!!!!!!!

ALSO I NOTICE that gwaha’s ears wiggle A LOT MORE im so GLAD thank u yoship

OH GOD I FORGOT ABOUT ALL THE GARLEMALD STUFF oh jesus CHRIST

FUCKIN

ASAHI?????????????????? OH GOD OH GOD 

no idea who Fandaniel is (henceforth known as Fandango) but I ALREADY LIKE HIM A LOT he’s so animated (also this cutscene was very well animated GOOD JOB FFXIV TEAM YOU’RE DOIN GREAT HONEY) I sort of wondered if maybe part of Emet was like... around...?? cuz he reminded me of Emet with his flair for the dramatic but WOW I WAS NOT EXPECTING ASAHI UNDER THAT HOOD holy shit I yelled

also idk if unpopular opinion but I FUCKING LOVE ZENOS HE’S A SCARY PIECE OF SHIT AND IM TERRIFIED AND EXCITED

ALAS........... the final chapter......... it sounds like the next expansion is planned to be the FINAL EXPANSION and honestly.. Im so sad but also I Respect that decision. I respect that they want to end things in a good place, they dont want to “live long enough to become the villain” etc. and yeah it means FFXIV WILL DIE eventually but yknow, maybe that’s okay. even knowing the game will end i’m still so excited to play it all the way through, whatever it may be. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO IT with all my heart and happiness

..im still SO EMOTIONAL lmao

[semi-imaginary-place]

finishing up my cf maddening but everyone is in a bad class playthrough and phewwww i finished skill levels but wow are their stats bad. like im doing the last 2 maps now and the enemies have like 40? 45? 50? attack and here i am at 29 attack on byleth lol.

for the tailtean plains i tried to blitz strategy to kill all the units that will transform. and.... i forgot about reinforcements. to be fair it has been over a year since ive done this. and the problem with high risk high reward strategies is that well sometimes you just get wiped.

tried a second time and repositioned some units and it went better this time. i was considering resetting to get a no death run (im playing on casual anyways) but eh keeping everyone alive was mostly for skill levels which i dont need anymore. so i made it through after losing some units to positioning mistakes. i was originally considering grinding the last 2 maps here for s support completionism. but ehhhhhh i dont want to do this again.

did the final map and well that was close one more turn and i would have wiped. i wasted a few divine pulses and then made a costly mistake i couldn’t turn back but i was like 2/3 through the map and didn’t feel like restarting. so it ended up being most of my team only dealt rhea like 10 damage but would die from the counterattack. so she kept picking off people and i got hit with the aoe.

is the cf credits theme different??

yes it is. cf has a different credit’s song then the rest of the routes.

i was originally also going to collect jeritza’s s support but mmmmmmmmm im not doing this all again.

[swordandcat]

Three is a crowd but Nine is a party: Ch 4.  Big Changes

(AO3 Link)

Chapter 4 of Book 2 of the Legends series!

Ships: YouYoshi, with KanaDiaMari, ChikaRiko, RubyMaru on side

((Alt Title: Yoshiko is a game addict and Yo is a dumb jock, but somehow it works and they kiss, i guess))

Water rushed around her. Her arms sliced through the water’s surface, bringing with them a slew of bubbles. There was a muffled drone as the pumps brought water in and out of the pool, and the waves lapped gently, but insistently against the poolside.

Yo closed her eyes and was silent for a moment, before she pushed explosively off the wall, her body falling naturally into an aerodynamic form as she torpedoed forward in a stream of bubbles. She could feel the flow of currents all around her as she scythed through the water, legs pumping like the tail of a dolphin.

Sometimes she just swims. It helps her think.

She crossed the quarter line without even realizing it, not even running out of breath yet, but she still surfaced, taking a breath of fresh air and starting to move her arms, transitioning from the push-off into a proper crawl.

I’m going to take a break from Immortal Legends.

Yo couldn’t stop thinking about Yoshiko’s decision. It came as a shock to her, of course, and Yo couldn’t help but feel a little left out that Yoshiko had made this decision without her. It was a selfish feeling, for sure; Yoshiko didn’t owe anything to Yo to include her in these decisions. But still, Yoshiko had promised that they would try their hand at the tournament together, even if in different level divisions.

Beyond that, though, Yo can’t help but be worried. Even though Yoshiko promises that it’s going to make things better, Yo knows how much the game means to her. How much blood, sweat, and tears she poured into it. Putting aside whether it was a healthy habit or not, Yoshiko’s life once revolved around that game. The fact that Yoshiko was willing to stop playing Immortal Legends was… concerning.

But then there was the other thing.

I’d like to spend some more time with you.

Yo felt her stomach flutter just at the memory of Yoshiko’s reasoning for quitting Immortal Legends. She’d been too stunned by Yoshiko’s decisions to properly react to that at the time, but now that Yo’s had some time to think about it, she was surprised at how forward Yoshiko was.

…Yoshiko was trying her best to make their relationship work.

Yo exhaled, trailing bubbles in her wake. Yoshiko was always the one who was trying, the one moving forward. You were always too busy stuck in the past. Stuck in the long-dead hopes that something will happen as long as she pined after Chika for long enough.

Yo felt sick. Self-loathing was a feeling rarely felt by her, but there was no other way You could describe how she felt these few days.

“Watanabe!”

She could only hear the voice of her swim coach vaguely through the water, but it was enough to jolt her back to reality.

She had a split second to slow down before she smashed face first into the side of the pool. She still did smash face first into the tiles, but at least she managed to brake enough so the impact produced little more than a bruised forehead and a wounded ego.

Bobbing up to the surface, Yo laughed self-deprecatingly as she looked towards her coach. “Sorry, Coach Masuda. I was… uh, distracted.”

“No, really?” Masuda sighed, kneeling down by the poolside. “You’ve got to get your head in the game, Yo. Official competitions may be on hold but that doesn’t mean you get to rest on your laurels.”

She gestured for a timekeeper to approach and looked at Yo’s times. She frowned and turned back to Yo with a disappointed look on her face. “Your times have gotten worse by a few seconds. Is everything alright? Have you kept up with training?”

Yo cringed. She didn’t think it would be that bad. “No, Coach. I’ve been training every week. It… it’s probably just not my day.”

Masuda breathed out, and nodded, reaching down and patting Yo on the shoulder. “Let’s hope that’s the case. You’re our team ace, Yo. The first and second years look up to you as an example. Take care of yourself, okay?”

Yo nodded, giving Masuda a sharp, “Yes, ma’am.” Satisfied, Masuda gestured for the next batch of swimmers to enter the water. Yo clambered out of the pool, gratefully accepting a towel from a junior.

“Thanks, Ayane,” Yo smiled at her, eliciting an excited squeak.

“Y-You’re welcome!” The girl said. There was a long pause as the girl glanced towards her friends, who nodded encouragingly. She turned back to Yo and started hesitantly, “Er, Watanabe?”

“Yeah?” Yo tilted her head.

“Um… if you don’t mind me asking…” The first year leaned a little closer. “What… er, rather, how do you know Tsushima Yoshiko?”

Yo blinked. She didn’t expect that question. “Uh… come again?” She asked, thinking she may have heard wrong.

“It’s just… my friends are saying that they’ve seen you hang around Tsushima a lot recently, and they’re curious why that is.”

“Oh! I see,” Yo nodded. She paused for a moment, thinking of what to say. “We played the same MMORPG, is all, and there’s an event in the game that’s coming up.” Not technically a lie.

“Oh. So you’re just, er, gaming friends?” Yo nodded, and the first year breathed a sigh. “I see. Okay, sorry for taking up your time.”

“No problem,” You smiled, and wrapping the towel around her shoulders, she walked towards the changing rooms. Having done her reps and benchmarking tests, she was free to leave.

Just as well, she had something important she had to do.

* * * * *

Yousoro: Tank on left

BigBOI: on it

Yousoro: 10 sec CD on AOE

BigBOI: k

GngsKhan: aight

Yo breathed out, her eyes trained on the monitor. On it was the familiar visuals of Immortal Legends, showing Yo and her party mid-raid. It was a grey, gloomy dungeon, with aged stone bricks and mist drifting across the floor. Yo’s character stood side by side with another devil in heavy plate and an undead lich against a towering skeletal dragon and its horde of zombified dragonlings.

On Yo’s command, the plate warrior ran to the left, blocking off the advance of a small cluster of the dragonlings. By themselves the mobs were fragile, but because the dragon boss kept spawning them it became an uphill battle to hold them off while Yo and the lich kited the dragon to grind down its health pool.

Yo remembered Yohane telling her that most undead enemies had large HP reserves but low mana - once she could bait its strongest skills, it would be a long while until the dragon could perform them again.

Yousoro: baiting the breath attack

Yousoro: khan, refresh necro shield

The lich raised his skull-tipped staff, and an aura of grey particles surrounded Yo’s avatar. She immediately darted forward, using Blink to bypass the front guard of dragonlings and launching a fireball straight into the large dragon’s ribcage, detonating it once it’s inside. The dragon roared in pain, and Yo knew she’d attracted its aggression.

As soon as the fire effect faded away, the dragon hissed and suddenly reared back on its hind-legs, seeming to inhale deeply despite possessing no organs. Glowing black spots coalesced in its maw, and then it suddenly lurched forward, a spray of inky black fire surging from its jaws towards Yo’s avatar in retaliation. She immediately moved to dodge, but even then, the spray had too much spread, catching the lower half of her avatar as she rolled to the side.

Thankfully, with GngsKhan’s shield buff, the attack only took off about a quarter of Yo’s health, putting her in the perfect spot to counterattack. Activating one of the macros that Yohane had helped her set up, her character immediately launched an unavoidable volley of flame-jets, stunning the boss just long enough to set up for the big hit - an orb of lava that consumed most of Yo’s MP. When it hit, though, it clung to the boss’ frame, continuing to burn away at its health until it was easily dispatched by a few sword swings of BigBOI.

As the model of the dragon dissolved into dusty particles, and the spawned dragonlings disappeared as well, Yo let out a deep sigh, typing a quick congratulation into the chat.

Yousoro: Thanks for the assist, guys.

BigBOI: np

GngsKhan: im not gonna leave her highness’ apprentice hanging lol

Both of her party members were acquaintances of Yohane, who agreed to help Yo complete a quest she couldn’t clear on her own.

BigBOI: btw

BigBOI: yousoro

BigBOI: rumor has it that Yohane is quitting

BigBOI: cuz she got beaten by the american champion

BigBOI: is that true?

Yo sighed. BB wasn’t the first person to ask her about Yohane. It was fairly common knowledge at this point that Yohane had taken Yousoro under her wing, so when Yohane went missing for a day or two Yo started getting private messages in the dozens asking about Yohane. Yo answered them in the same way:

Yousoro: She’s taking a break for now.

Yousoro: I’m not at the liberty to say anymore.

BigBOI: i getcha

BigBOI: well if you ever talk to her just tell her we miss her

BigBOI: the raid scene just isn’t the same without her lol

With that, her party members teleported away, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

Yoshiko was a legend in the community. Or rather, Yohane was. Her legacy was much more than just her player character. She’d pioneered raid strategies, inspired top tier players, influenced the beta development of the game, even had a location named after her in honor of a record-breaking expansion raid.

Yo wanted to believe that Yoshiko wasn’t so fragile that a single defeat could make her abandon all that she’s accomplished. She desperately wanted to.

Eying the greyed out entry of Yohane in her friends list, though, Yo couldn’t help but feel a deep unease. She was missing something from the picture, something big. If only she’d looked a little harder…!

She blinked suddenly, as a message popped up on screen.

SakuraSketch: Hello?

SakuraSketch… They’re new. Yo didn’t recognize the name. She clicked open their character profile. Level 1. A complete newbie. They were wandering around the starting town for devils. Sighing, Yo quickly typed up a private message while teleporting to Gehenna.

Appearing in the travel hub of Gehenna, Yo looked around the map for SakuraSketch. After a while, Yo finally tracked them down to the Main Street where all the low- to mid-tier shops and services were provided. Summoning a fiery steed beneath her so she didn’t have to walk the whole way, Yo made her way to where SakuraSketch was on the map. She stopped a few paces away from SakuraSketch’s avatar - a succubus type demon with long dark-red hair and delicate wisp-like wings floating behind her.

Yousoro: Hello.

Yousoro: Is there something you need from me?

SakuraSketch turned around to face Yo.

SakuraSketch: As you can see, I’m just starting out…

SakuraSketch: A friend mentioned that you knew a lot of secrets about getting a good start…

A friend, huh. Yo breathed out, thinking the situation over. Not to brag, but she was one of the better known mid-tier players at this point; not just because of Yohane’s mentorship, but also through legitimate achievements. If SakuraSketch’s friend was someone familiar with the speed at which Yo climbed the ladder, it wasn’t entirely unfeasible.

Yousoro: I see.

Yousoro: Well, I guess I have some time to spare.

SakuraSketch: Thank you very much!

SakuraSketch: Once I’ve gotten used to the game, if there’s anything I can help with…

You sighed, smiling wryly to herself. The student had now become the teacher. Would Yoshiko be proud of her?

Yousoro: It’s fine, call it a welcome package.

Yousoro: I myself was taught by a friend anyway, so… let’s call it paying it forward.

Yousoro: When you get to grips with the game, you go help someone as well.

Yousoro: Anyway, let’s start with the basics…

* * * * *

“Ah~” Yo yawned. She ended up not getting much sleep at all. Even after Sakura had logged off, Yo kept playing, smashing herself uselessly against a dungeon boss. It was one that she had easily taken down with Yohane’s guidance, but now she found it an almost insurmountable challenge.

She’d been relying too much on Yohane as a safety net, maybe.

Shaking her head, Yo tried to stay awake as the bus made it’s way down the road leading through Uchiura, the gentle drone of the engines acting like a lullaby song to her sleep-deprived mind.

“Ah, there she is!”

Yo blinked, just about to slip into a nap when an energetic voice roused her from her sleep. Chika bounded onto the bus like an overactive puppy, running over to Yo and crashing into the seat next to her. “What’s cookin’ good lookin’?”

Riko trailed behind her, looking much less energetic than her girlfriend. Her eyes were slightly red, and she was rubbing at them and trying hard to stifle a yawn. “Chika, if you say that again we’re breaking up.”

“Aww.” Chika pouted, crossing her arms sulkily. “Fine.”

A few seconds later, though, it was like she’d forgotten about the scolding already. “Oh! Yo, have you heard? Apparently, we’re getting a new school director!”

You tilted her head. “…We had an old school director?”

“Well, obviously. All schools have a director,” Riko pointed out.

“Oh…” Yo nodded absentmindedly. “Right.”

Chika frowned. “Hey, are you okay? You seem down.”

Yo suppressed a flinch, looking away from Chika somewhat guiltily. “I… don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m fine! Just… tired.”

Riko eyed her nervously, while Chika just frowned deeper. “How come? I thought you were being careful, what with the friendly swim meet this Saturday.”

Yo sighed. That’s right. There’s going to be a swim meet in four days. She’d almost forgotten. “Oh, yeah. That.”

“Are you really okay?” Chika reached over, trying to feel Yo’s forehead. “Are you sick? You look kinda out of it.”

Yo shrank away from Chika’s touch, suddenly feeling a twisting in her gut. “I said I’m fine, Chika,” She snarled, a lot more aggressively than she’d intended.

Immediately she regretted her decision when Chika flinched back, a look of hurt crossing her normally sunny expression. “Crap- Chika, sorry. I’m just… a little busy right now. That’s all.”

Riko put a hand on Chika’s, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I’m sure Yo’s got things under control.”

Begrudgingly Chika nodded, apologizing quietly to Yo for prying. Yo shot Riko a quick look of gratitude, which she just responded with a small encouraging smile.

“Anyway!” And again Chika seemed to recover within moments of being down. “The new director!…”

While Chika blabbered away excitedly at the possibilities (“A secret government agent, looking for talented students to recruit into their top-secret spy project!” “An evil stuffed toy intent on pitting students against each other in a surreal killing game!” “A wizard!”) Yo tuned the conversation out again, unable to maintain her focus.

Everything was a mess. Yo and Yoshiko had bonded over Immortal Legends. But even if they did spend more time together now, after Yoshiko had quit the game, she just felt more distant than ever. Despite Chika and Riko becoming closer by the day, despite Yo giving them her full blessings, Yo still couldn’t let go of the part of her that wished it was her in Riko’s place.

Yo didn’t know what to do. She had no idea what she even could do. Life used to be simple, easy to understand. Now Yo just felt…

Lost.

“Hey.”

Yo looked up. Chika was looking at her with a pensive expression. It wasn’t her usual energy, but it wasn’t accusing or upset either; just, thoughtful. Gentle. “If there’s something bugging you, you can always talk to me about it. You know that, right?”

Yo closed her eyes for a moment, breathing out slowly.

“Yeah,” She nodded. “I know.”

“Okay.”

Chika nodded as well, turning back to face the front of the bus.

Yo felt a little after that. Maybe. She put her hand on her chest, thumbing the Anchor pendant beneath her uniform for comfort.

* * * * *

As it turned out, the new director of the school was not a secret government agent, nor an evil stuffed toy, not even a wizard.

She was a foreigner.

“Hi everybody~!” Ohara Mari said, from the stage in the auditorium. “My name is Ohara Mari, and I’m going to take over the directorial duties of this school starting today!”

It was announced during homeroom that there was going to be an assembly during the last periods of school, where the new director would be introduced and their ambitions for the school explained. Yo didn’t pay much attention to the details, but she probably should have.

Mari was the girl that Kanan was talking to the other day. Also, the girl who beat Yoshiko. And apparently, now she was also the director of the school.

Yo’s head was spinning.

“Now, some of you might be wondering why a student is the director, to which I raise you - screw the rules, I have money!” Mari laughed, and it was so absurd that a few students even started laughing along before Kurosawa Dia, who had been standing behind Mari, fixed the assembled students with her steely glare.

“Your goals, Ms. Ohara.” Dia coughed into a fist.

“Oh! Yes, that,” Mari nodded, shuffling through what looked like a stack of cue cards before losing track of the card she needed and just tossing the stack aside eventually. Clearing her throat, she paused for dramatic effect before launching into her speech.

“As some of you might be aware, our school is suffering from a crippling lack of new students. As part of my installment as director of the school, I am to bring this academy out of obscurity and into the limelight as one of the forward-thinking and modern educational institutions in the region!”

Yo snorted. Ura Girls was many things, but ‘forward-thinking’ and ‘modern’ were definitely not words Yo would have used to describe the school.

“Which is why I’m going to start by adding a multimedia room into the school, equipped with state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment, and an array of custom-build computers optimized for the most high-end tasks. I have also drafted up a ‘digital education’ syllabus which we will be implementing on a rotational trial basis, allowing students access to this multimedia room during class time.”

There was a murmur of approval that went through the assembled students. One of the biggest issues with the school was how backward it seemed, especially compared to some of the fancier schools in big cities like Tokyo, or heck, even Numazu.

“Of course, this means there’ll be free wifi for everyone in the school.”

A cheer erupted through the hall, though it was once again quickly silenced by Dia’s unrelenting glare.

“And the other thing this school needs is publicity. Whatever we implement into the school, this is still a small institution in an insignificant region of Japan. We won’t get many more students coming in if we don’t get the Ura Girls name out. In fact… there is a possibility that the school will be shut down if we don’t improve our school’s prospects.”

A ripple of concerned whispers went through the student body, but Mari just smiled confidently and cleared her throat again.

“This is where I come in. Not many of you may know, I transferred here from America. In America, I was involved in a video game - an MMORPG - called Immortal Legends. I was ranked first amongst some 6 million players in the US alone. There are four servers active for Immortal Legends: the US, China, Europe, and Japan. In returning to Japan, I also transferred my Immortal Legends character to the Japanese server.”

Oh.

Oh.

Yo could practically see all the pieces fitting into place. All the disparate events she’s witnessed over the past month were starting to come together.

She looked around wildly, trying to spot Yoshiko in the crowd.

“Upon arriving in the Japanese server, which has a healthy 1.5 million odd player base, I challenged the #1 player in Japan to a duel. I won that duel. It has been less than a week since then, and I have already received more than thirty interview invitations, and have been featured in a dozen large-scale publications. An estimated 30% of the Japanese population now know my name. Imagine the possibilities if we put that publicity towards this school!”

Yo couldn’t find Yoshiko - the first and second-year classes were too far apart. Yo bit her lip nervously and turned her attention back to Mari, who was still continuing with her presentation.

“But that’s not all. Why stop at myself? There is an event in the game coming up, a national tournament that will also attract the attention of gamers across the globe. In it, teams of nine players will be pitted against each other in glorious combat. Imagine the news, when a team comprised entirely of our school’s students beats out the nation’s best professional players in their own game! Not only will it bring raw publicity, it will also showcase our school’s willingness to embrace the future, demonstrating our openminded school spirit!”

Yo glanced at Dia. The girl looked faint, staring at Mari in abject horror. There was muttering in the crowd, equal parts excited and doubtful. But ignoring all that, Mari pushed on.

“Everyone, we stand at the threshold of greatness. The potential is there, I know it. Everyone in this school can shine and excel in their own way, but only if they’re given the chance to. This tournament is that chance. So I ask you, students of Uranohoshi Girl’s Academy: are you with me? To protect our school? Or are you willing to see the school fade forever into history?”

So that was Mari’s game this whole time.

It was a plan that Yo couldn’t even begin to imagine on her own. As she stared at the girl on stage, her image started to overlap with the confident, extravagant avatar she’d witnessed in Immortal Legends.

It was wildly ambitious, a borderline insane gamble. But… it might just work.

Mari stepped back, allowing Dia to take the mic. She stepped forward shakily, looking at Mari with wide eyes, before clearing her throat.

“Er… that was our new director… Ohara Mari.”

At first, it was just a lonesome clap, awkward and tentative. But then more students picked up the call, and soon there was a storm of furious applause as the girls cheered and clapped for their new, innovative school director.

“Shiny~☆” Mari waved at the cheering students as she exited the stage, disappearing backstage. Dia glanced at her, then at the clapping students, and eventually sighed and allowed them to work off their excitement as she followed Mari backstage.

Yo, however, was too busy pushing through the crowd in search of Yoshiko to notice. She managed to cross over to the first year section, locating Hanamaru and Ruby, who mostly just looked confused.

“Ruby! Hanamaru!” Yo said breathlessly, managing to find a spot next to them. They turned and nodded politely at Yo, though their expressions quickly shifted to concern at Yo’s anxiousness. “Have either of you seen Yoshiko around?”

Ruby moved to shake her head, but Hanamaru seemed to think for a moment. “I think I saw her leave a little bit before the end, zura.”

“Okay, thanks!” Yo said, and pushed back into the crowd towards the auditorium exit.

After a great deal of jostling and trying to avoid the flow of girls now starting to migrate towards the exit as well, Yo managed to get ahead of the crowd and ran out of the auditorium, running out into the school courtyard. She looked around, out of breath, only relaxing when she spotted a familiar cascade of dark blue hair from behind a bench.

Yo jogged up to Yoshiko, who was sitting quietly on the bench, her expression focused and contemplative. After a few moments, Yoshiko looked up at Yo and smiled faintly. “Hey. Why the hurry?”

“I—” Yo hesitated. “I wanted to talk to you. About… that. Just now.”

Yoshiko’s composed expression flickered, and Yo could definitely spot a flash of a grimace before she managed to recover.

“What about it? I think it’s a wonderful plan. I couldn’t have thought of it,” Yoshiko said, diplomatically. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from the woman who defeated me.”

Yo shook her head. That wasn’t what she wanted to hear. “That’s not… what I want to talk about, Yoshiko.”

“Then what do you want to talk about?” Yoshiko looked at Yo. There was a level of wariness, a guardedness to her, that made Yo feel ill. Like she’d been kicked in the guts.

Yo breathed in to steel her nerves. “Are… are you going to compete?”

Yoshiko stiffened, a myriad of emotions flashing across her face - surprise, hope, apprehension, sadness, then… then just tired resignation. “No. I said I was going to take a break, and I mean it. I’ve already been beaten, anyway. What’s the point?”

“But—” Yo tried to argue, but Yoshiko just stood up, her hands balled up into fists. “I said no, damn it!”

Yo stopped, staring at Yoshiko. Yoshiko stared back, breathing heavily.

“I’m…” Yoshiko’s gaze slowly dropped down to the ground. “I’m sorry.”

“N-No. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed the topic,” Yo shook her head. She reached out for Yoshiko’s hand, tentatively, but Yoshiko just shied away from the gesture.

Trying to ignore the stabbing pain in her chest, Yo closed her eyes and turned away from Yoshiko. “So, um… are you going to come to the swim-meet this Saturday?” Yo said, clumsily trying to change the subject.

“Uh.” Yoshiko had to take a moment to adjust to the new topic. “Yes. Er, if you want, I can come.”

“Please do.”

“I will, then…”

Yo nodded awkwardly. Yoshiko nodded as well, just as awkward.

“I…”

Yoshiko picked up her back, which was on the bench next to her. “I need to go.”

Yo didn’t try to stop Yoshiko as she walked away, her head down, her posture stiff.

Yo felt like she was about to cry.

Everything was a mess, and Yo had no idea what to do to fix it.

[sneakyscarab]

alrighty, ive now caught up from my backlog of touhous that ive beaten, so the pace from now on is gonna slow down since i need to beat the games first before i write about them. who knows though, if they take as long as this one did maybe i can keep up this pace :P

nina's thoughts on Touhou 12 - Undefined Fantastic Object

so funny story, after Subterranean Animism took me like two weeks to finish, i went into UFO expecting a similar result, but i ended up clearing within a single day. twelve (12) attempts of UFO and i had already got my 1cc! im a bit impressed with myself tbh, but i think i was helped by the gameplay changes in UFO that make it a bit easier.

for starters, real bombs are back baby! no more trading attack power for survivability, full power bombs are here again as a seperate resource. life pieces stick around, but now boss fights only give one out when you defeat their last phase. you would think this makes life pieces incredibly scarce, but theres another entirely new source for them: the titular Undefined Fantastic Objects. some enemies now drop little ufos that fly around the screen that come in one of three colours. when you pick up a ufo it goes into a small tracker in the corner, and when you collect 3 in a row all of one colour, or 1 of each, then a Big UFO spawns on screen. the UFO sticks around for about 10 seconds, slurping up every collectible that shows up onscreen. for each item it grabs, a meter around the ufo fills up and at max it drops an item depending on the colour, and when destroyed it drops another item plus everything it picked up. rainbow ufos drop more small ufos, green gives you a bomb on full meter and a bomb-piece on kill, red gives you a life piece on both, and blue does… something? i don't know. i never saw any items pop out of a blue ufo, and i prioritized blue ufos the least. i can only assume they do something relating to points since those are blue, but i honestly have no idea cause i beat the game before i had to go look anything up about it. once i figured out red guys gave you life i basically hard-focused proc'ing red ufos as much as possible, going for rainbow or green when red wasnt possible. as weird as the ufos are, i have to say their mechanics are conveyed surprisingly well without any real tutorials or even words, just really solid ui design.

the last new addition to the gameplay comes in the playable characters, Sanae is here now! wooo Sanae lets go! obviously Reimu and Marisa are here too, each of them get 2 weapon options so theres still only 6 total. i gave each one a shot, although some of them i literally only played once lol. Reimu has the standard homing shots and needles, Marisa has her illusion lasers but a new secondary weapon that shoots in sort of branching V-shapes, with a couple shots going behind her as well as in front, which i didnt find many uses for in my brief experience with it. illusion laser is the only one of these that i played more than once, as i put most of my focus into Sanae. both of Sanae's movesets are pretty neat, her first one was my weapon of choice for my 1cc attempt. based on Kanako, she shoots out snake beams that fly vertically, and then if they see an enemy to their left or right they take a 90 degree turn, making for an interesting type of homing. her other set, based on Suwako, shoots out frog beams in a wide fan angle, or straight ahead when focused, that explode into lingering AoE damage when they hit a target, which is great at clearing out huge swarms of enemies. i really like how her movesets sorta play off of Reimu's homing shots and Marisa's piercing lasers, but in very different ways compared to the two of them.

for the new characters, my favourite is probably Kogasa. this poor umbrella girl just wants to be scary, but shes inherently too silly-goofy and struggles to do what she as a youkai is Supposed to do. she's trying her best though, and looks adorable while doing it. i believe in you Kogasa!

i wasn't expecting to be a Ichirin & Unzan fan, but they surprised me. Ichirin is basically a stand user, a buddhist monk who controls her partner Unzan, a old man wind spirit with a powerful beard and even more powerful fists. the spell cards involving Unzan are great, seeing his huge angry face show up and throw hands is just hilarious. the best one by far though is their final attack, what i would call the absolute funniest spell card of the entire series so far: Thunderous Yell 「A Scolding from a Traditional Old Man」. if the name alone didn't convince you, the visuals are also hilarious, with two massive Unzan faces appearing on each side of the screen and shooting angry eye lasers at you. just look at it. perfection.

it's become a pattern in these posts that i talk about three new characters, but none of the others in UFO really stood out to me. if i had to pick one id go with Captain Murasa, just cause pirates are cool, but i don't have much more to say about her lol. sorry UFO crew!

anyways i think its about time to wrap this one up. thankfully i kept this one short so we dont have another SA essay situation lol. UFO is pretty fun, if a little bit Too easy with how much free stuff you can get from good ufo management. the story and characters really didn't stand out to me, and with how quickly i finished this one i don't expect it to really stick out much in my brain once i finish the series. if anything from UFO sticks it probably will just be Unzan's laser eyes. can we play that back one more time? thanks.

[pantheon-god-of-war]

I am curious to hear your opinions on this. But what would you change in Pantheon's character/abilities if you had the chance? Maybe change his E to something else? A different Ult? What are your thoughts?

This one is a tough one actually. We need to figure out a certain few factors before we get into the actual skills. 

First off, do they want to keep him as this awkward assassin burster he is? Or do they want to take a more juggernaut approach with him? I would have to know what riot intends to do with him and in what category they want to stuff him. I see Pantheon as someone who would WANT to get into team fights, but also someone who is a terribly good duellist (I know that sounds op but well, he is the god of war)

What always kinda bugged me about Pantheon is that he is supposed to be this mighty paragon of battle with no peer in the art of combat, a celestial aspect of war that augments his host to the super human levels, but then in game you jump in and get insta clapped. 

If I were to rework Pantheon I would try to get away from the assassin builds even though I am guilty of rushing full lethality on him. Thematic wise he should be a warrior, something as durable as maybe Darius, Olaf and the sorts. By no means a full on tank, but certainly someone who cant take a licking and keep on ticking. 

(yes you can build tank pantheon as well, but its god awful because your willingly making yourself into nothing but a stun bot)

I would take away on his damage (yeah I know crazy right?) And give him more crowd control. I would take away the lock on stun he has. I know its what makes him viable because he can safe stun the carry and so on. But in this day and age its … outdated? Give him instead a leap with a little longer range that has a small area of impact in which he stuns his enemies. That alone will raise his skill cap immensely. People can dodge it, but good Pantheons will also be able to stun multiple targets if applied right. It also gives him more mobility for the jungle or roams. (Yes I know he has an ult) 

On the topic of his heart seeker. I dont know. I have a thousand ideas for Pantheon and his possible skills. I have recently thought about giving him a spartan kick that stuns when hitting enemies into a wall or another champion. a small dash the length of poppies Q with a stun at the end that knocks back. The ability can be recasted into heart seeker or a similar damage spell where he does something fancy with his spear maybe reduce armor/ cool down for number of enemies hit so he can spam his kick or something. Something to make him a viable disruptor in team fights. Pantheon would have to thrive in battle. I thought about things like hecarims aura that heals him for damage taken and dealt or something. Sustain in fights is important for someone like the god of war. Darius excels in long team fights, Pantheon needs to do something similar. I have been for a long time thinking about % damage to combat other warriors and tanks. But seeing as Rhaast is that very definition of tank killing bruiser I doubt they will do the same to Pantheon. For the area of effect I would make it more linear not as much of a cone. But as trade off you can activate the ability and move the line around to redirect the spear thrusts. If you have good tracking you will do immense damage by sticking on one target, if you miss well .. you give away a lot of potential damage. Keep the below 15% 100% crit chance, it makes him intimidating, maybe add some armor pen per hit as well. Because spear were made to pierce through armor. 

His Q is hard to say, people say it should be a skill shot, maybe something he can pick up again, but thats just to much olaf undertow for me. I personally like the lock on spear (obviously lol im a filthy panth main) But with the addition of the skill shot w and the new e where damage is now skill reliant his q could be the one thing that kinda saves it for the more casual players. (TBH I wouldnt care if they made panth all skill shots, I mean I would just sit down and learn the bad boy to perfection) But over all I think the Q will have to face some changers. You cant give him such crazy early game poke and dominance when he then also scales so well into the late game with his new cc and stuff. Another idea I had was make the spear a skill shot, but instead of using a spear Pantheon actually uses lightning (or a lightning spear) He throws the thing down it has a small AOE that gets struck by a thunder bolt a second later or something. (idea here is, throw the spear, jump to them and stun, wait for the lightning bang, then kick and follow up with new hss) Another idea I had which I also really liked is that he throws his spear, but it is attached to a chain wrapped around his arm/body. He gets movement speed while running towards you, you take a dot. Or he can recast the spear to pull you closer which he can then follow up with a stun into kick into new hss

Now to his ult. I have thought so long about this again and again. I think his current ult is a nice idea, but its crap. Smart players will most of the time always manage to get out of the ult unless your team really cooperates with you. Which is (lets face it) not to likely at times. I have thought about making his ult a blood rage where his skills get empowered, to give him more strength in team fights where he can go ham. I have come up with some funny three hit combos where he gets three attacks he can combo together for an instant kill if all three hit (kinda like urgot but thats taken now) Some sort of grounds slam in a cone that stuns and/or knocks up for initiation. Some sort of whirlwind dash attack where he blurs his spear and dishes out damage while shredding armor like fucking crazy. (against tanks)  I also have been contemplating a diana like ult where he dashes to a single target to follow up with his combo, the dash resets after a kill or something (kinda like irelia Q) Then because he is the god of war I thought about something gilgamesh like from fate stay night (or however you call those) Where he summons spears to his side which he hurls at his enemies form a farther range. Skill shot based, but maybe root his enemies as the spears impale them. Ive thought about something like a renekton ult where he grows in size, discards his spear and shield in exchange for two swords, or a sword and an ax where he then does true damage/bleed or something with his auto attacks (something you would want to nope the fuck away from) as last offer before I clog everyones dash I though about keeping the old ult, reducing the range, speeding up the leap to like .5 seconds and the descent as well to make landing faster and more reliable with the smaller ult radius. Something along the lines of Noc ult range. Additionally to the smaller ult radius he gets a larger radius than his old ult in which he and his allies are empowered (more movement speed, attack speed something along the lines of empowerment) because as the god of war, when he lands in all his might he would empower his allies with his presence alone. 

Anyway, I have a ton of ideas with him, some are quite out there, like a warrior who has floating swords that he can hurl at his enemies or do things with, another is where he can toggle between weapons like spear/shield sword and ax for different play styles etc. I just hope Riot puts as much thought into him as I do. (knowing myself and my unhealthy obsession with muscular spartan dudes that have crush on sun waifus that probably not the case, but heres to hoping)

[semi-imaginary-place]

so yes im still in heavensward. no msq progression because i am still in the 5 stages of grief. so in my mad materia grind i have somehow ended up with a meaningless grand company rank. bottom 200 sounds more likely than top 200 yet here i am.

oh the other thing. i tried pugilist super early i think it was between the 2nd to 4th job i tried and i gave up immediately because it was too made for me, someone who has never played an mmo and doesn’t play action games. but anyways since i’ve been playing all jobs (oh yeah got to level cap (60) is all jobs except blu) i picked up monk. and my rotation is minimize movement at the cost of dps because i refuse to move that much and yet i still consistently am doing the most damage in the party. also ive found that i love love love the animations for monk. i essentially have 3 rotations (9 total) on monk, aoe, flank, and back.

oh i might as well say how i liked all the classes since im at level cap. the astrologian quest line is probably my favorite in the game. too bad i dont understand how to play the class and have mostly given up. i do love the aesthetic. i understand why people are screaming over the dark knight quests but i didn’t love them they were ok but i was just tired of the whole thing. i dont like the aesthetic but i do like playing it since in dungeons i only have to press 1 button for aoe. i’ve actually been playing a lot of machinist this week. kind of busy but it doesnt punish me who is pressing the wrong button constantly. not sure how other people are doing it but during the burst phase im looking at my hotbar for like 10sec and often get hit. black mage. hw added a bunch of stuff and now once again i dont know my rotation. i keep dropping enochan too TT^TT. bards is weird because you have like 10 buttons to press at the same time at the beginning and then you spend the rest of the time pressing 1 button. summoner has this tight 30 sec cycle i keep messing up, pretty busy. i do it for carbuncle. white mage. i still dont know how to heal and ive given up trying. did you know you can run dungeons without ever casting a single healing spell. all i know is to press holy, a lot like dark knight in that way, one button. theres like 6 turquoise colored buttons and i dont know what any of them do. scholar is still great for pve. i keep dying doing alexandrite maps on other classes like machinist but never on scholar. i dont know what the ideal rotation is, but monk has some of the best animations so i just keep pressing buttons to see my character breakdance. dragoon does get an aoe until 40 lol. burst damage window of like 20 and then you are back to the 123. i still dont know the ninja ninjitsu stuff but im getting by on fire, lightning, and the buff. the warrior aoe is annoying because one is a cone and the other is a circle. paladin: hw added healing? so many buttons. also i’ll be honest i’ve been playing a lot of ranged dps because the aiming gear looks the best on aurele

I accidentally progressed “the greatest story never told”. what.

I really wish this game let me look straight up. *me grabbing yoshi-p by his collar and shaking* LET ME GO STAR GAZING LET  ME LOOK AT THE CEILING

saw a healer lb3 for the first time

[semi-imaginary-place]

mmm i probably play bard the most, but i like black mage too. its just that black mage is really hard and im very bad at this game... so i suppose another way to say it is that black mage heavily punishes you for mistakes and as someone who pushes the wrong button 30% of the time, this is a problem. where as bard is a bit more forgiving and while its utility scales depending on party size its dps doesn't which means as long as i have buffs and dots up it doesn't matter too much what im doing

for running around the overworld, I like bard because i can run away easily from aoes, and scholar because between the fairy and the chocobo I'm invincible and can tank anything. paladin's ok its hard to die, summoner is also ok as if things so south i let ifif-kun dps while i run around screaming and casting ruin 2. for dungeons and trials i again like bard because while the tanks if running i can keep shooting and i don't have to know anything, black mage because watching that hp drop is fun and in general the design leads a very satisfying payoff and its just better when things aren't attacking me and making me move, and paladin because of just running through a bunch of enemies. i am very bad at paladin and emmity control even with small pulls. so i end up playing bard most of the time, its actually my starter class too lol

summoner's actually got a pretty good movement toolkit, i mean you're sacrificing dps but at least you aren't dropping it entirely. problem for me is that summoner is a lot of busywork button pushing its got top damgage payoff but its very chaotic and don't quite like that style. and then i still don't understand how to move so im the absolute worst at pugilist. i think ive given up. in the overwold, white mage is fine i guess, works a lot like scholar with better damage but its easier to go down without the second healer so i don't really play it anymore.

oh so more on the blackmage thing, i've been everywhere from A to 8 on the enmity list just to demonstrate how much mistakes and bad timing costs me. if i can't even do damage what meaning does blm have???? only you can prevent teammate death, by killing the enemy before they kill the tank.

im probably going to pick up lancer a couple days after the 5.4 release

i was just thinking, they should change the visual effect for leylines, because with like in literally everything else in the game its standing in the glowy thing is good. maybe just make it a straight buff?

is ffxiv just a rhythm game????? no wonder i suck. i mean you have rotations just life you have motifs??? (idk music terms) in music. and they require precise timing otherwise you are off the beat. the global cooldown abilities ideally are being pressed at regular intervals just like keeping a beat.

me when the mini boss is at 8% health and I'm the last party member standing: shaking like a chihuahua

this happens more often than you'd think because as bard you are usually towards the bottom of the enmity list and you have the movement to dodge most aoes, so you're usually the last one to die. unlike black mage who is punished for moving so if you don't already know what's coming (me) then you die quite often. is black mage just the dark souls of ffxiv where you have to memorize the enemy patterns and its a lot of work (too much work)

tried to res someone yesterday. didn't work. so i still dont know how to res people. i clicked swiftcast and then resurrection while targeting the dead person, and i dont know why it didn't work. i then tried casting it again just to see but they warped to the start point instead of waiting so idk. i could see them and resurrection has a larger/equal range than all my other spells and i could cast those spells on them and the enemies at the same distance... so maybe i did misclick, except that I've never successfully revived anyone ever. i really dont know. luckily my squadron is finally rank 2 so hopefully I'll be able to practice some

I’ve had enough of this dude. why can’t i punch him. he doesn’t get what consent means. creep. and “ohhh my family is super rich” do us all a favor and jump into the sea.

here we go again

lots of little concerts today

so. good news. bad news. rememebr when i accidentally glamored all my starter gear and so had nothing to wear at level 1? well good news is that I do have clothes and thus gridania will not have to suffer through another cat boy running around in his underwear. bad news is that its this hideous mess.

didn’t you just say you’d rather have help from a sewer rat?

so with all the 2.5 content I’ve been doing, i got new boots

please I’m begging you. this is day 4

this dude’s a weirdo but there’s something kinda cute about it. and he’s not a racist!

why would you make me read that squeenix... the innuendo rate for this quest is like 3 per text box