#not that I'm super in love with just announcing stuff at demos like i was real anxious but still u know

[doppelnatur]

happy fight day women <3

[melancholy-marionette]

A Note On LOVESTARVED's Warnings/Triggers

(sound on to hear voice acting :3)

Okay, so maybe more like a ramble than a note, but still x3

I'm probably just being paranoid here, but I wanted to mention a side note on the warnings & triggers for LOVESTARVED because I worry somewhat that they make the content sound much worse than it actually is >.<

I mainly just wanted to say that while the story does contain horror elements within the romance, it is still, at its heart, romance.

Yes, it's kinda twisted and a little messed up, but it's still a love story that's got plenty of cute and cosy moments too x3

Heck, when I was trying to describe the atmosphere I was aiming for to @lazypolarbearart so that we could be on the same page with the writing and the art, I said to her that it was supposed to be cosy and kind of incubating. Like you're stuck somewhere dark, but you're almost not worried about it because it's like being trapped in a big warm bubble that you don't really want to leave because it's comforting and less scary than what's outside, haha.

I always have this fear that maybe that side of things doesn't come across very well in my announcement posts or the itch pages of the games that I make >.< 

If I'm being completely honest, I don't really know how to strike the right sort of balance between warning people about potentially sensitive content VS accidentally spoiling things + talking about horror-related content VS romantic content when both intermingle in the same project + just generally being caught between saying too much or holding stuff back. Everything seems so blurry and messy to me :( Like it's all one giant grey area, but no matter what I do to try and clarify things, it will be detrimental somehow.

For example, in the LOVESTARVED demo (and eventually the full game) it's possible to romance Erys in a way that avoids any horror-type scenes even happening! Things can be super sweet with the yandere traits appearing soft... or seriously screwed up with things being much darker. It all depends on the player's choices, and the mildly sexual content that's in there is completely avoidable.

(sorry, I couldn't resist x3)

That's what's so great about visual novels as a genre :D Your choices can change so much about what happens throughout the course of a story :3

It's just I struggle to know how to describe my games while keeping potential players safe and not putting people off x3

Content warnings should absolutely be there so that people can make an informed decision about whether or not to play, but my big worry is that they make things sound scarier than they are. It's like expecting something awful to happen & for things to be grim before even having a chance to form an opinion if you read through the big list of warnings >.<

I feel like that creates a double problem because: A - If you're a horror fan and actually looking for creepy content, the warnings might sort of oversell stuff in a sense, leaving you somewhat disappointed that half of the things listed were only briefly featured. Or if you decided not to read the warnings because you're confident you'd be fine, you might wonder afterwards why there was such a long list there in the first place.

B - If you're worried about 1 or 2 specific things but are generally fine with horror-related aspects, you might avoid something unnecessarily because it sounds so much worse on paper than it is in reality.

It's not a completely unfounded fear either, as I've had players say to me in the past that X game looks cool, but they read the warnings, and have decided not to play that particular one because it sounds too scary (The Hostage & Dawn of the Damned are the ones I seem to get that with most!), but then they've later changed their mind, decided to check out the game, and then told me that it wasn't anywhere near as bad as they were expecting it to be and they enjoyed it in the end :3

I would never want to end up accidentally hurting anyone with the stories I put out there in the wild >.< It's important that people are able to make decisions that can keep themselves safe. But it saddens me that sometimes having so many content warnings on horror-related romance projects can make them seem so much worse than they are.

Anyways, I'm probably overthinking things as usual x3 My stupid brain is messed up right now from the lack of sleep during the jam, but it's gone all hyper instead of calming the heck down >.>

I don't know if anyone will read this or understand where I'm coming from x3 but I just felt like I needed to get it off my chest because it's been bothering me every time I release a new game with a love interest that has yandere traits, haha.

I personally don't think any of my games are particularly scary! And in most of them that feature romance with a yandere LI, things are coming from a place of genuine love. It may be darker, deeper, more intense love… possibly not even the healthiest kind, depending on the character in question >.< but it's love nonetheless.

I just wish there was a better way to show that than I currently know how because right now, I'm concerned that some of my games look like horror games with nothing sweet in-store when really, a lot of them are more like romance games wearing a creepy Halloween costume x3

Feel free to poke me if you have any ideas/experience/thoughts on how to tackle this sorta stuff :3

[fraeuleintaka]

AAIC Demo Trailer

This is the 71st post in the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection Countdown: 10 days left until release!

Today's topic: the Demo Trailer for the Investigations Collection!

The official Ace Attorney account has blessed us with another adorable little trailer for the Investigations Collection. This time Miles and Kay talk about the demo that is availabe for the collection where you can play part of the first case of I1 and I2.

It starts with Kay bursting into Miles' office while he is relaxing with a cup of tea (I do get the impression that this is a frequent occurence as Miles seems not fazed even the tiniest little bit). Excitedly she announces that the demo for the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection just came out and that they have to play it right now. Miles tries to calm her down but Kay refuses as she's "beyond hyped to see her glorious Great Thief-ing self in action" (oh Kay, I love you 😄). Trying to correct her Miles points out that she doesn't appear in I1-1 and therefore won't show up in the demo but Kay, in a rare case of Miles not being up to date with all the info, confidently corrects him saying that the demo also includes part of I2-1 and therefore, she does appear in it and Miles gets to "watch her outmaneuver the bad guys and save the day in her super big role". Miles thinks to himself that he doesn't "remember her doing all THAT" but agrees to play the demo with her as long as she'll let him show her his glorious deductions in both games as well.

Kay's overwhelming enthusiasm meeting Miles' calm rationality is always a joy to see and this trailer is no exception! Of course Kay would be totally excited to see herself being awesome in the Investigations games and even more so when she gets the chance for some action before the game officially comes out. I love how she runs to Miles first before even playing because obviously he has to see her being awesome or it would only be half as fun 😄 Too bad Gumshoe isn't here for this interaction but that might be too many characters for what's supposed to be a short little trailer so I can accept it. But I'm sure that they called him up before starting the game so he can see Kay (and Miles) and himself being awesome, too. I also love that Kay gets to correct Miles this time, even he doesn't know everything about the release of his own collection. It sounds like Miles didn't even plan on playing the demo of his game which I can totally see. He's patient, unlike Kay, and can easily wait until the official release to play the whole thing. (Which is also what I plan on doing btw, I don't want to play part of the first case only to have to wait another two weeks and I definitely don't want to start on I2 before finishing I1.) But if Kay is this excited, of course he's willing to indulge her.

Speaking of things that are completely in character, Kay has a bit of selective memory when it comes to her own importance and what she did in the cases they worked on together. She's prone to exaggerate and hype herself up, as she does frequently in the games to make stuff sound more epic and frame it in the way of a superhero-like story, and that's exactly what she does here. Though it's not like she's actively lying, it's just that she takes life as a lot more exciting and is a lot more open about having fun "nailing the bad guys", or catching the criminals, than Miles does and is. And Kay did contribute significantly to the solving of I2-1 so it's not like she's entirely off base. Miles might disagree, and he's not wrong either that he definitely did most of the work, but he also lets her have her fun and keeps that thought to himself. And it's not like Miles doesn't love showing off a little either with his "glorious deductions", as he demonstrates right afterwards 😉 It's quite unusual for him to put it so bluntly, typically he resents direct praise or trophies of any kind though he does have his moments where he very much enjoys how impressed Gumshoe, Kay and others are of his logical reasoning. In this instance, he probably takes some inspiration from Kay in being excited about seeing himself in action, and to be frank, he should be. I definitely am!

[popculturebuffet]

Monthly Muppets: Bear in The Big Blue House Special (Share, Bear, When You Gotta Go, And a Berry Blue Christmas)

Welcome to big blue house, greetings from this large orangutan man. I'm Jake and this is muppets monthly, my monthly morsel of muppet madness comissioned by my good friend Emma. This months we're doing things a bit diffrently in two ways. The first is that this won't technically be monthly as we're doing TWO for you! This article and a suprise one i'll announce at the end of this one that's a big deal.

Neither however is what was previously announced in my last Monthly Muppets review: Follow That Bird. So for those of you who read these monthly, hopefully at least one of you but if not that's fine too, a quick explination: life happened while I was busy making other plans. And while normally that sets me back work wise and sometimes causes me to cancel reviews outright, here it was a good thing and a rare thing too: Disney actually put a show from the archives on disney+!

This is notable because while EVERY company hoards one or two shows and dosen't put them on streaming wether it's the plug another service, make money on tax writeoffs because their dickheads who somehow make disney look dignified, or

Disney is still one of the leaders in hoarding a decent amount of cartoons and a few other shows for no reason and has released them at a rate of

So when one finally happens, it's an event. Now to me this was neat, but not a huge thing, as while I love any muppet stuff getting published and this show had always seemed decent, I hadn't grown up with it the way many of you probably have and while I watched plenty of Nick JR as a kid even in elementary when nothing was on Cartoon Network, and geninely enjoyed some shows like Blues Clues i'm not ashamed to admit, I just never checked out playhouse Disney.

Emma however grew up with the show, and it was osmething she brought up any time I brought up the fact Disney realyl needs to pry open that vault. So since she pays for these I suggested covering a bunch of episodes, so I could experince the show myself since not being in the target Demo's never stopped me before. She agreed easily, and here we are.

For this I had her pick 4 episodes, since my usual going rate is 5 dollars an episode and since she was picking three (the equilvent of a movie) she got a fourth episode free. So I watched the Season 1 ep Share, Bear, the season 2 ep When You Gotta Go, and the Season 3 two parter a Beary Blue Christmas. What did I think of this very vibrant, mildly weird, show? find out under the cut.

Big Blue House Things

So before I get to the episodes themselves I wanted to break down my impressions on the shows style itself. I would break down it's history but I got VERY little: a little googling turned up nothing, and while the DefunctTV episode for Buzz Lightyear of Star Command was super helpful for that review, the episode for Bear in the Big Blue House, one of the few things I could find, only covered that it was made as part of Playhouse Disney, now Disney Junior's humble beginnings and was it's first big hit, and that the creator of the show wanted to make the show a calm peaceful place, the opposite of what he grew up in. So there you go.

Like most preschool shows, the show sticks to a very tight formula: after the very catchy theme song welcoming us to the blue house and everyone inside it, the titular bear, a kind, gentle fellow played by Noel MacNeal welcomes the viewer.. .then sniffs them

He then does something with one of the four children in his house. Naturally this being a kids show why Ojo the Bear (Vicki Ebner) , PIp and Pop future walter Peter Linz and Tyler Bunch) the twin otters, some sort of horrifying demon in the body of a lemur named Treelo who hangs out with Ojo lest it eat her soul,

Tutter (linz). I did far more thinking than is sane or acceptable on this topic to try and figure out who was actually living here, why they were all here if some of them have relatives, what the fuck Treelo is and if their going to kill me in my sleep while the last one will likely haunt me into madness, I did come up with the answers to

What's Bear's Legal Guardian Status For These Children

Ojo I assume is Bear's daughter, adopted or otherwise, who he shares custody with someone else, as she apparently sleeps over in one episode, so she dosen't apparently live there for whatever reason. Maybe he and her mother divorced, maybe she died and her grandparents take her on weekends, maybe hse does live there and they just played sleepover. I don't know, i'd have to watch more episodes. I"m going with Emma's suggestion for Tutter: that he just came with the house and while he does have a grandma and uncle, they may just not be able to take care of him full time or knew he was squatting in a big blue house, and let Bear adopt him. He is the only one fully confirmed to live in the house, as he has a tiny hole with a tiny toilet and everything. For the twins, I assume Bear simply looks after them: they do have grandparents who show up in the intro for the christmas ep and then in no other part of it and their otter pond is nearbye. My guess is since, according to wikipedia, the two run the town library, they need someone to look after their kids during the day and bear being basically jesus but a bear in both senses of the word, gladly does so. Finally we have Ojo, some ratty squeaky voiced nightmare. Picture elmos voiced but pitched up, on a mountain of cocaine and nigh incomprehinsible. If your not recoling in terror your stronger than I. Ojo I see as kind of like the collector from Owl House: a cosmic entity with the mind of a child. And as such while my reaction to her screeching voice and desire to take all things from everyone is

Bear is trying to raise her right so she dose'nt kill us all one day. He truly is our own personal jesus. Our star jesus given his parents are the sun and the moon. Don't ask questions.

Anyways after that cul de sac…

Back to the Formula

So bear usually visits shadow, a living shadow whose owner.. died I guess? I don't know, but she and bear are close friends and she might have a thing for him given she gives him a smooch in the christmas ep. We'll never know. Shadow usually brings a video for bear, they watch it , and she saunters off. I like shadow a lot being adorable, kind and energetic.

Bear will then get back to the topic/problem of the day, stuff sure does happen, then we end the episode with Bear visiting what I assume to be his mom the Moon as she's known him his whole life. Otherwise it's just creepy. He recaps the episode, they sing an adorable goodbye song and now you knwo the plot. IT's simple and while it got a tad repetitious after four times, though the christmas ep helped with it's serious overarching story, I get that younger kids LOVE repetition as much as Bear loves honey, and that this seris ultimately wasn't aimed at grown men. It's perfectly lovely to watch, having great puppetry, fun characters aside from that thing lurking in the dark waiting to summon it's brothers the lords in black, and beautiful music. It's just aimed at a much younger audience and wasn't made with multidemographic appeal in mind like most cartoons I watched. It was made to edcuate and soothe young children without talking down to them, with a calm wise mentor doing so. It does that excellently. As for what I thought about each episode and what dumb jokes I can make about each episode… let's see

Share, Bear (Season 1)

Share Bear follows Bear as he collapses finding out the tragic bloody history of Bear Sauske's older brother while he prepares to burn the world and Ojo, realizing she can't fix his bloody path, prepares to sacrifice herself ot kill him. Oh wait tha'ts something else i've been consuming. No this one follows the kids as they have various squabbles Bear breaks up through compromise getting them to share. The first is Ojo and Mouthface, the beast of a thousand nightmares, who are arguging as Green Machine wants to consume Snow Bear, Ojo's cuddly toy. Bear uses a game I swore he was making up but didn't, snow bear in the woods, to get them to share.. and to teach Ojo not to consume the innocent I assume.

Next up is Tutter who makes a big sandwich that sure looks good. Bear wants to eat it, but Tutter says no so like the cool dude he is, Bear backs off. Pip and Pop, being two little schemers, do not back off and keep pressuring tutter. Bear, not getting boundaries forces Tutter to share, but agrees to get Pip and Pop to share their apples. As you can see i'm not really fond of this one as while I belivie sharing is nice, sometimes your stuff.. is just your stuff. Like a sandwich that probably took you two hours to make because your a tiny little guy. It's okay to OFFER to share and good too, but you shoudln't force it on someone.

Finally he has to break up a fight between all four as they all want the attic, because to a kid the attic is either spooky as hell and full of crown molding spiders… or the coolest place ever and full of crown molding and spiders. Bear gets them to visit the picnic, all is well, this episode is pretty good. The next two are better but it has a simple lesson it mostly dosen't botch. It is nothing however compared to the next episode which is paticuarlly famous why…?

When You Gotta Go (Season 2)

BECAUSE THIS ONE'S ABOUT THE BATHROOM

… i'm not exaggerating. This one has Bear teaching kids about the potty. They use the term potty more than your average episode of Rugrats. It is everywhere. It's valid for the target audience and done with care, teaching kids not to hold it and that accidents happen to everyone. And look i'm not usually a big toilet humor guy.. but a bear singing about the potty for two minutes broke me. I suppressed a laugh so hard not because I had to but because my mother who works from home (and yes who I live with at 30), was downstairs and can hear it when I laugh loudly as this deserved. There's also Shadows song which is just singing about how good the potty is. This episode wasn't OUTLOUD hilarious but it's hard not to.

Like I said though the aseop is well done and relatable even at 30: Everyone's held it for stupid reasons, everyone had an accident as a kid (and sometimes as an adult when your sick), and it's valid to tell little kids that you NEED to just take a break and pee when you gotta or that if you miss the toilet it happens as long as you tried, and HOW to go about both things. It's not something that really takes a lot of depth and nuance from me to disect, but it's well done tv and I can see why this stuck with emma.

Despite the subject I can't even riff on it TOO much as it meant well and was trying to edcuate kids. Sure hearing that "your mom and dad" had a potty made me giggle like a child, but MOSTLY this episode avoids any sort of weird stuff.

That being said.. there is one thing we have to talk about in detail: Bear's toilet. Now he has a toilet sized for Ojo, for the otters, and one in tutter's mousehole. A little guy toilet. But as far as I can tell the rest of the bathroom is not sized for bear. And bear is well.. bear sized. Like the puppet is a guy in a full body suit. It's how he showed up on many things including hollywood squares, which I will HAVE to review next year as a clip of one ep he was on showed it also featured Macho Man randy savage. I never knew Randy Savage interacted with a muppet, but now I do it's all I can think about.

Point is he's a big boy. At best if he poops in this toilet it's going to cause a disaster that goes down in the history books and my therapists notebook. I get as Emma postulated he's probably too polite to make a fus about it but it's his house. Just install a fourth toilet bear. The cleanup isn't worth it. We all love and worry about you bear! Quit shitting on a toilet too small for you! You deserve better! your raising four children and the spawn of chtulu. GET YORUSELF A GROWN BEAR TOILET.

Or maybe he poops in the woods. I dunno. Solid episode. Could've used one more song.

A Berry Blue Christmas

Our last ep for today is a great one and a Christmas one. Yes it creeps in earlier every year don't it?

This episode got way more serious than I was expecting.. and it's not like say, the bear gets scabies and the kids all have to deal with the ramifications, it's more that it tackles an issue I didn't expect a show for toddlers to tackle, but one i'm glad it does and does so with maturity, grace and civility some shows meant for way older viewers lack on the topic: homelessness.

The episodes center around Jack, an elderly dog who Bear finds howling in the woods and takes in, and who turns out to be of course homeless. It's done well with the kids being confused and shocked and poor tutter being terrified by the idea, even singing a whole song about it complete with an utterly heartwrenching black and white vision of a homless tutter worrying if his friends can find him. Bear assures him of course he'll always have a home here, but it's still sobering and tackles what most kids probably would feel at that age realizing this is a thing that happens and it's horrible.

It's also nice just how much compassion the show has: not suprising, it's a very lovely show, but it shows that someone whose homeless is what they are: just a person without a home struggling to get by and who needs warmth and love. Jack consequently is a good boy, being kind to the kids, and fine they didn't get him a gift as gladly welcoming him into their home, feeding him and including him in thier activities is enough, and he even helps the kids make a present for bear as they didn't know what to get the man who has everything. The story was all out of alien dream plants.

Another thing I can give the show over MANY adult shows tackling the same topic… is that they DON'T just abandon Jack after this episode. While he gets a happy ending, Doc Hog, a local hog I swore was the show gaslighting me when they opened with half a dozen characters we hadn't seen before, many ff whom barely factor into the episode or in the case of tip and tup's grandparents, not at all, adopts him and gives him a home, he dosen't just vanish. Looking into it he shows up at least once next season running the fire station. Most episodes that do an aseop tend to forget the character exists for convivences sake but it took a show aimed at toddlers to realize "Hey people will notice this person vanished".

Jack is also played by David Goetz, aka Gonzo, and I had to look up who as while Goetz uses that voice a decent amount, I didn't know who did it exactly. I did recognize it from this threatning pig who lives rent free in my head though.

The special also welcomes all holiday cultures. While primarily about christmas, like most specials at the time it also covers Hannukah and Kwanza. I honestly miss that and wish more shows would do more than just christmas, with The Ghost and Molly McGee being the only one in recent memory I can think of. If you know more please feel free to tell me. Nothing wrong with christmas, as my usual holiday deluge of reviews will show, it's just said deluge also shows it's the most covered of any holiday and there are others like ramadan that have'nt gotten a special i'm aware of. The songs are both for diffrent holidays and it's nice.

We also have bears own bearcentric tradition the winter berry hunt, a hunt for one berry based on a bear long ago finding only one berry and splitting it. It's also how jack gets a home as the twins use their wish for him because he's a very good boy.

Some final notes the twins ask for millions and millions of clams in the christmas gift asking song. THEY NEED CLAMS, INFINITE CLAMS, CLAMS TO DROWN OUT THE SCREAMS AS THEY BUILD THEIR CLAMOCRACY. THE FUTURE. IS. CLAM.

Also the Goodbye Goodbye song includes, depsite it's joyful tone, homeless tutter and the kids worrying about not having a present for jack. I couldn't stop laughing

Finally we have our ranking as thanks to Letterboxd having this special, I can include it in our list along with the toilet episode since they both had vhses!

So that's goodbye goodbye from me, and i'll see you pretty soon I know… as next time we cover MUPPETS FAMILY CHRISTMAS. Muppets, Seasame Street, Fraggle Rock. All under one roof. Be there and thanks for reading.

[kosmikkrueger]

How Faithful SHOULD Video Game Remakes Be to The Originals??

Truth be told, this is a loaded question that I've been asking myself a LOT lately. It seems that video game remakes are the big thing to do in recent times, between the Resident Evil 4, Dead Space, and Silent Hill 2 just to name a few. Sometimes, that's a wonderful thing. It gives those who didn't get a chance to play the originals a chance to finally get their hands on them, and it also allows longtime fans a chance to playthrough their favorite games again.

HOWEVER, with that excitement always comes the age-long question of how faithful the new version should be to the original. In most cases, it should be EXTREMELY faithful. The storyline should remain the same, large plot elements should remain untouched, and characters should still hold the same personalities that we fell in love with the first time we ever saw them. Certain iconic one-liners should stay in the game, and quotes that the fandom have discovered help them through tough times should be stay right where they are.

Some things, though, are going to change. There's always something that people have found is problematic that should never have been put into the game that they want changed, or maybe it's a plot hole that people have discovered that's an easy fix. The graphics updating even changes the way certain characters look, and maybe it adds elements to their costumes that add more to the story.

Now. When I talk about this with examples, I'm going to use the Resident Evil 4 remake as an example. The reasoning behind this is that I played the original, and I'm SUPER excited for the remake. It's not out yet (6 more days!!), but there's a demo out that I've played several times, as well as a ton of trailers as well.

THE POSITIVE: From what we can see, the remake is doing extremely well with sticking to the important stuff. The police escort is killed in the beginning by a Ganado, the Ganados in the town leave Leon alone after the church bells ring, and even the iconic "bingo" line is in the game (or at least in the demo). They changed in the way the knife works to be more similar to the Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes, and they kept the way the game inventory works.

THE NEGATIVE: Here's where I personally start to get picky. I gotta admit, I'm not a huge fan of how some of the characters look. I understand that Luis is SUPPOSE to be greasy, but that doesn't mean the others are as well. The characters almost look shiny, and whether that was intentional or not, I have no idea. We also know they cut out a couple of lines, such as "No way, BRO" and "Your right hand comes off?" They also got rid of Luis' controversial "ballistics" line, which I understand, but also feel revealed more about his character. While playing the demo, I found switching between the gun and the knife without a prompt was far more difficult than I expected, though to be fair, that could just be a problem with the player. They also removed a few of the puzzles and button smashes from what I hear, but depending on your opinion of them in the original version, that could easily be a positive thing instead of a negative.

Now, is any of this to say I'm any less excited for this now than I was when it was announced? Absolutely not. In fact, I'm MORE excited than I was originally. It seems like it's sticking EXTREMELY close to the 2005 version, and honest? I hope video game remakes in the future take notes on how to stick with the original while enhancing the content and removing undesirable elements.

[foxstens]

played some indie metroidvania demos and i have Opinions

haak - the only one on this list that is actually out. this isn't super popular i think but i have seen it mentioned a few times on r/metroidvania as a game with amazing movement. yeah... i don't agree. i did like the music and the visuals but the game had too much dialogue, a confusing health bar, and the movement just felt okay, nothing special to me. the aiming grappling hook thingy i did not like at all, it's not very keyboard friendly and is ultimately why i don't want to try the full game. and the thing is you can make a keyboard-friendly aiming ability, ori did it 8 years ago lmao

paradiso guardian - this is coming out in a few days, it's apparently going to have both a sfw and nsfw version, and it has the lgbtq+ tag on steam - obviously i can't not play it. as for the game itself, it is very heavily inspired by the gba castlevania games, and while it has really nice music and art, it also has the problems those games had such as clunky movement, endlessly spawning enemies, no way to deal with enemies above or below you, at least in the beginning. the starting weapon doesn't really have range and it's very slow, so i hope they'll fix it in the full release. honestly i hope i'll end up liking this.

constance - easily my favourite of the ones i've tried. i didn't play a lot because the default key bindings are abysmal, but it looks incredible, the animations are extremely smooth, the music is wonderful, and the story sounds interesting. it seems like you'll be relying on one resource to do multiple actions which kind of sucks but hopefully they'll refine it before the full release. the dev also seems very open to feedback which is nice.

the last faith - i've had my eye on this game since back when i first played blasphemous, because visually it's very reminiscent of that game, but i wasn't really a fan of the demo. the movement felt weird, the voice acting was pretty annoying, and honestly it felt way too reminiscent of blasphemous for me. but it still looks like it has potential, so i'll be keeping it on my list.

nine sols - this one i've had on my list for a while as well since visually it's very reminiscent of okami, and i'm so mad it took me so long to find out it has a demo. this game is about as amazing as expected, even the demo supports four freaking languages and the keys are fully rebindable. it of course looks and sounds incredible, and its only flaw is that the dash doesn't work in the air and it has a long cooldown. that's it, otherwise perfection. i cannot wait.

awaken: astral blade - it's a bit rough around the edges, it has some of the flaws afterimage had but it looks and sounds great, and it's honestly a lot of fun. it seems to have flown under the radar but i'm really looking forward to it.

astra: fading stars - i can't say i loved the beginning of the demo and the movement of the protagonist is a bit... off for some reason, however it has beautiful music and the weapon you use is really nice. you can swing up and down and it has great range, i love it. the bar is on the floor when it comes to a basic weapon but it's surprising how few games even have this. very chill, i love it

aestik - it got some flak bc apparently it's too similar to hollow knight but honestly? i liked it. it seems to have its own identity imo and i had a lot of fun, and there's nothing wrong with games taking inspiration as long as they don't turn into whatever lotus knight wanted to be lmao.

there's a bunch of other games on my wishlist that don't have a demo or an announced release date so it's really only now that i'm in a ~shortage of stuff to play :/

the future of indie games seems really promising tho, especially for metroidvanias

[blackidyll]

TWEWY anon is accurate BC "brain empty only twewy" is basically my MO nowadays lmao. I'm glad you like my rambling about twewy though XD

DHDHHDHD SAME I was so hyper I totally missed the ending introducing the new twink the first time and only caught it when I watched a (calmer) repeat. I saw someone guessing it was older Joshua and I was like DID YOU EVEN SEE THE JOSHUA POSE EARLIER OFC NEW TWINK ISN'T JOSH. Also my brain SOMEHOW completely skipped over the demo announcement LIKE! I HAVE A SWITCH! I CAN PLAY NEOTWEWY IN TWO DAYS!! DOES NOT COMPUTE (it's out today and I'm boutta play it as I'm typing this lol, apparently there's a demo for play too) the hype carries over straight from the last ep of the anime which also came out today (did you watch it? I still can't believe Josh actually ADMITTED, OUT LOUD on HIS OWN WILL that he changed his mind BC of Neku) which is a smart strategy to keep the attention on TWEWY until the release date.

Tbh I'm more partial to Conductor Neku but Ur right in that Producer!Neku would be more likely to be able do stuff unnoticed...as much as the "Legendary Neku" can go unnoticed lmao, I can't believe he's basically a Reaper's Game legend nowadays XD I guess surviving the game three weeks in a row builds you a reputation of being metal as hell WHICH IS UNDERSTANDABLE NEKU /IS/ METAL AS HELL FOR SURVIVING THAT. Also I'm starting to believe that hoodie!Neku is not actually Neku and a different person BC although Rindo calls out to him as though he's Neku when DEFINITELY NEKU appears he's like "who are you" and I'm like AREN'T YOU TEAM WITH MINAMIMOTO?? HE KNOWS NEKU, GO GET HIM SO HE CAN CLEAR THIS UP FOR US!!! There's too many mysteries this month of wait is gonna END ME I swear

twewy anon it is <3 and i absolutely love twewy rambling and so your asks are such a joy!

[Obligatory THERE ARE LOTS OF SPOILERS AFTER THIS warning because the last episode only came out a while ago]

see that threw me off because THERE IS THE JOSHUA POSE but then they show that person (NEW TWINK is hilarious omg) and I'm like NO WAY IT IS HIM, but then the silver hair and the violet eyes and the dressing style and the way he speaks and also the fact that canonically the Composer always look younger when he's downtuned and not in his glowy form and Neku dresses differently so maybe Josh changed his hairstyle?????? It's not out of character for him to just casually break the rules and drop by and cryptically speak to Players? (my other thought after ten million bouncing between IT'S HIM/IT'S NOT HIM is that maybe that's the personification of Shibuya??? CUZ TWINK BOY LOOKS LIKE SOME MIX OF JOSHUA AND NEKU but that would be a weird direction to go...)

I'M SURE THERE ARE RED HERRINGS EVERYWHERE IN THE TRAILER but they could still both be Neku, if super glowy Neku saving Rindo is the first time they met, and only later in the game does the scene with Tsugumi and Neku's confrontation take place (so Rindo recognizes him from there). It kind of explains the clothing change too, like Neku (dressed in nice Gatto Nero) reveals his presence/identity to save Rindo, then has to change to these hoodies to go undercover until he goes to confront Tsugumi?????? (ALSO I JUST HAD A THOUGHT WHICH IS what if Tsugumi was Shinjuku's Composer??? who is now demoted to Player status, it would explain why she's so weird after her ward's been destroyed and maybe why Neku's going after her ANYWAY THIS IS FARFETCHED BUT WHY NOT SPECULATION IS ALL WE HAVEEEEEEEEEEE).

Also Minamimoto is just UNIVERSALLY UNHELPFUL TO OTHER PEOPLE like I bet if Rindo asked about Neku he'd just sprout a million math analogies that Rindo can't understand LOL

Conductor!Neku does absolutely make sense since he defeated Kitaniji; I'm mainly partial to Producer!Neku because I can't see Neku taking orders from Joshua XDDDDDD And I think it's great that Neku has legend status in the UG, because truly he's the main reason why the ward still exists LOL

and to answer your question YES I DID A CRAZY MARATHON TO FINISH OFF THE ANIME please indulge me I have a lot of thoughts about that last episode? I like a lot of things about it and usually I understand the changes that they made to the anime. But I really really really wish they included Neku's speech/soliloquy to Joshua after he is brought back to life and before going to Hachiko. It's such a huge and impactful scene in the game. Like, Neku's one "I trust you" line DOES NOT COMPARE TO THE ENTIRE SPEECH WHERE HE TALKS ABOUT HOW HE'S BEEN CHANGED AND HE CAN'T FORGIVE JOSHUA BUT HE TRUSTS HIM AND MAINLY!!!!!! MAINLY!!!!!!!! INVITES JOSHUA TO MEET UP WITH THE REST OF THE CREW. THAT'S ALL MISSING WHYYYYYYYYYYYY

Like during the Kitaniji fight I'm yelling "YOU ARE MISSING ONE OF YOUR PARTNERS NEKU" but fine I get why Joshua didn't show up (although I very much miss "Megumi, I'm back," and Joshua's final conversation with Kitaniji because there's a lot of mutual respect there but :( Kitaniji just gets Erased in the anime). The confrontation in the anime feels so much less personal on Neku's front - the game sets up that despite all of Neku's mistrust, he finds himself relating to Joshua and befriending him, and at the very end he couldn't kill his friend; in the anime it just feels like Neku's just being a typical hero and doing the "right" thing that he can't kill someone and chooses to trust them instead (that someone could be anyone), and that's matched by the fact that he does not consider Joshua AT ALL after getting reincarnated, whereas in the game it is super personal to Neku, and he is so emotional when he wakes up on the Scramble Crossing, and the fact that he ACTUALLY INVITES JOSHUA TO JOIN THEM shows he sees and treats Joshua as an individual and a person and a friend, as opposed to the Composer position/pedestal that everyone puts him on..........

I have a lot of feelings about Joshua, and Joshua and Neku's partnership in the game, and I very much hope that NEO is 100% based on the game and not the anime because the dynamics are so different :( Like I feel the anime HAD to spell out the whole "Yes I changed my mind because of Neku" for Joshua whereas in the game we didn't really need it explicitly said, it was ALL in Neku's actions and Joshua's reaction to those actions and...

BUT ANYWAY NEO:TWEWY IS A NEW GAME and i'm so excited for you getting to play the demo!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you are super enjoying it, it's been SO LONG since we've been waiting for a sequel and it's kind of blowing my mind that you can play!! it!!! and revisit new Shibuya!!! One month to gooooooooooooo!!

[thedeepdarktrashpile]

Ryden conspiracy theories/evidence/pls just be frens now...+ a short history of P!atd...(part 1)

DISCLAIMER I find all of this stuff on the internet so idk if it's yours just tell me and I will make sure you get credited anyways onwards...

Oh and another thing I don't hate Sarah. Sarah is a queen and Brendon and her are happy and I wouldn't want to ruin a happy couple cos that would be unfair anyhow oh and I also think it's important to have a bit of Panic! history that many people might not know about as it gives you an idea of the kind of time frame that im talking about also its intresting too.

And if u don't know what Ryden is (tbf idk why ur here but this will educate u) it's basically the ship name of Ryan Ross (ex guitarist and backing vocalist of panic!) and Brendon Urie (singer and last man standing)

Pre-Panic

Ryan Ross and Spencer Smith (ex-drummer of Panic!) have been friends even since they were little the photo below would prove this

They're so adorable 😊😊

In 9th grade they decide that they want to start up a band btw for reference Ryan and Spencer at that time attend (Bishop Gorman high school) and they invite Brent Wilson from Palo Verde high school to come and try out for bass along with another guy called Trevor they formed a band called Pet Salamnder this was when they were around 16 ish (They acctually still have a website for the band and you can go check it out if you want)

There some of the pics on the website but check out their bios as well because they made me laugh....

Here are some of their pics tho

Spencer and Ryan and the whole band together (Ryan😂😂)

Anyways don't really know what happened to Pet Salamander but in short they kind of lost Trevor (don't know correct me if im wrong but I think Trevor was the guitarist in the way things worked out it would make sense and I think there was another band they created in between these 2 bands but idk its not important) The band now needed a new guitarist. Brent who went to the same high school as Brendon told him he should audition for their band so Brendon did just that and became the guitarist. Orginally Ryan was meant to be the lead singer but Brendon then became the lead singer because they heard him do his singing and they though he was good. At the time especially Ryan and Brendon were having a hard time with their families and their education as they wanted to quit high school and as a result I think they both got kicked out of their houses . Brendon got a job at a smoothie shack to try and earn some money to pay for rent. He also would sing to people for tips. In other words they were hella broke.

Here is a screenshot from Ryan's livejournal (which he has now deleted) where Brendon would post underneath

I love ya' baby! wednesday. practice. be there of be....GAY!!

Brendon 😂😂

Anyways Ryan and Brendon started creating the demos for their album and Ryan decided to send them to Pete Wentz who was in the LV area recording under the cork tree with FOB. Pete listened to the demos and signed them up to his new record label decaydance after hearing them perform 2/3 songs.

I'm gonna leave you with some 2004 recording sessions this is filmed on a potato but is somehow high quality content of Ryan doing a this is our apartment tour its great

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So yeah that's cool and also hilarious in it's own ways (gay bars!! 😂😂)

AFYCSO era 2005/6

AFYCSO was released on the 27th September 2005 on that same day Ryan posted something in his livejournal (I'm not sure if it was just something to commemorate it being released or if he was acctually in a relationship at this time but here is what he put)

'Whisper babe...i'm as good as it gets in this town.whisper babe..i'm a fever you can't sweat out.These are my deepest thoughts and secrets under a microscope or spotlight.Forgive me if i'm not quite ready to give them to you.it's such a different feeling..when I see you smiling and singing back to me i'm still playing different pictures in my head that arn't so pleasent. I'm doing the best now to live in the song and not just the meaning.'

(Yes this could be about Brendon but when you read it again it dosen't sound like that at all it seems as if hes talking about the lyrics and the meanings of the songs of which have things he had to deal with in his childhood his dad being an alcoholic ect. But he tries to be happy with the fans who are smiling and singing and live in the moment not just the past)

Obviously AFYCSO became popular especially the song I write sins not tragedies came out but there's many different interviews and pic that i'm going to share below.

This is the one where Ryan says that Brendon washes his hair and he blushes red. It's adorable 😊

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Here is another 2005 interview by the same girl who thought Pete was called Jason 😂 but anyways it's old like just look at Ryan's hair he's in his troll phase still 😂

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This is another old interview that shows them acctually performing and only contain Brendon and Ryan talking about the band they're so awkward its adorable.

And here's a pic of them from a photoshoot

Idk but Brent looks so confused rn 😂

(Look at Brendon as well staring at Ryan...hmm..😉)

And here's an adorable pic of them together my bbs 😊❤

Look at them they're soo adorable ❤❤👌😊

Anyways 2006 is when it all became big for the boys who announced a tour and where becoming bigger than ever. At the end of 2005 to 2006 both Brendon and Ryan began dating scene queens Audrey and Jac. Pics below

Yup this is them together.

Idk when they breakup but they break up and some evidence that I've found online is very interesting.

Here is screenshots of chats that Audrey and Jac had online. The first picture shows that Jac is blaming Brendon for turning her bf (Ryan) gay

The next one shows kinda the same thing exept this time Audrey blamed Ryan for turning Brendon gay

Hmmmm... All very interesting I think....

(Note there's another conversation or so that I want to include in part one but it's way too long to put on this one post so i'm going to do a little post to finish off part 1. And also i'm obviously going to work on part 2 straight away but I just feel like the whole panic! and especially Ryden stuff needs to be updated abd i also find it super interesting as well. Also I feel I need to adress all the lyrics that could somehow lead to something to do with one another there's so much stuff out here and I need it all in one place cos im fed up of trawling the internet for all the theories and stuff never getting anywhere 😂)

[laneybug926]

I wrote this blog a while ago on my wordpress site. However, considering our period of quarantine, I figured this would be fun to share here. Please do not take offense if you happen to disagree with my thoughts for they are only my opinion and what do I know🤷🏼‍♀️.

The Sims Evolution

Disclaimer: Originally I was planning on sharing my thoughts on worthiness and some pretty emotional things. However, I chose to write about something kind of silly this week and share my thoughts on the evolution of my most favorite game. I hope you enjoy! Also I do not own the Sims franchise or any of these pictures/characters/names of games. All copyright goes to The Sims©.

It happened one day while out shopping with my family. Before the days of product keys, instant downloads, and torrents, many stores had rows and rows of computer games. Stuffed into boxes with colorful graphics of game play, they usually contained a disk(or several) and a lengthy user manual on how to install/play the game. As little me browsed the different titles, my eyes fell upon a very unique looking game. A game where you more or less played God creating families, houses, and controlled how they went about their lives. As a young aspiring storyteller, I knew this would be the perfect game for me and thus my obsession with The Sims began.

The Sims 1: The beginning of a new era.

The Sims 1 has a very special place in my heart. Not only was it the catalyst to some of the best and sometimes worst decisions of my life, it was unique and had a lot of charm to it. I remember the days when it was like roulette trying to get it to work on my old desktop 'games' computer. Due to all of the space it took to work, very often it'd load and then freeze. Occasionally when it did decide to work, you felt like we cheated the Gods of gaming and played very carefully.

Looking back, perhaps the graphics aren't great, but for the time it was amazing. Where else could you customize people and build houses? Where else could you 'try for baby' just by kissing? Where else did you miss the carpool to work and ended up getting fired? Where else could Mort Goth be a secret agent and be living with his assassin of a wife Bella? And this all happened before expansion packs came out and added more dimension to it. I used to love taking my couples to town using 'Hot Date' and being able to creepily micromanage their date by going into the restaurant with them. I used to love turning my ex into a frog via 'Makin Magic'. And who could forget when Drew Carey would crash super epic parties via 'House Party'. Sims 1 was very new to it's kind and while basic, it laid the foundation for the next 20 years to come.

Sims 2- My sister's favorite

I feel horrible saying this, but of the four games, I remember playing this one the least. I do remember playing it occasionally, but far less than my little sister. By the time we bought it, my little sister was old enough to start playing and take up precious computer time. Even though I didn't play it much, I do remember that it was far superior compared to it's predecessor. The overall graphics and customization of sims and lots was awe-aspiring. The sims actually had personalities, turn ons/turn offs, and could actually age. This set the scene for some legendary Dynasties. In addition, we received expansion pack after expansion pack and occasionally stuff packs to flesh out our game playing. I do remember having University, Seasons, and Pets, but that's about it. It was a lot of fun to play with cars, jobs, hobbies, pets, survival items and changing weather. Some faithful Simmers even insist that this was the best version of Sims of all time. Would you agree? Let me know.

Sims 3- Bigger could be better

As a writer and 'simmer', the one thing I didn't like about Sims 2 was the lack of hair customization. I'd often like to make likenesses of my story characters and sadly I was stuck with the five(or six) 'normal' hair colors. I guess the Gods of Games listened to my prayers, because Sims 3 fixed all of that. You want to make a character with pink and purple hair? Go ahead. You want a character who only wears leopard print EVERYTHING? It's done. One would think that having a big brother like Sims 2 would be kind of intimidating. Nope. Sims 3, in my opinion, was the best in it's ability to customize literally everything using a color wheel, patterns, and even stamps on dogs(if you're into that). You could micromanage and customize everything. This was not only the case with the sims creation, but the whole world opened up and you could creepily follow your sims everywhere. This game robbed me of my hard earned teenage/early adulthood money due to all of it's great expansions and exciting game play. Want to make a faerie witch who turns the world into zombies? Want to take it easy and ride a house boat around the sim world? Want to climb the celebrity ladder and play for millions? Want to exchange a kiss under the mistletoe with your next door neighbor crush? You can do all of that in the Sims 3 and far more. Most of, if not all, some of my great story ideas and characters came from this game right here. I have some of the best memories playing this game such as my Greyer dynasty that literally took over the neighborhood and/or telling stories via the capture the moment feature. Yes it had it's glitches and at times it would take 20 minutes to load a saved game, but it was worth it. I wasted so much time living vicariously through the lives of little digital people that I woke up and I'm suddenly 30 years old. Just kidding, as easy as it was to get hooked, I'd like to think I had a healthy work/life/play balance. You'd think they'd keep making expansions or even stop after the success of Sims 3. Nope, within a blink of an eye the sims team announced that they were creating Sims 4. What more could they possibly bring?

Sims 4-

I’m sure you've heard the saying 'quit while you're ahead'. Unfortunately the sim team didn't and we were given the Sims 4. With promises of multi-tasking and emotions, fans of the game, such as myself, had high expectations and sadly we were very disappointed. I do remember when the demo came out that I installed it, played around, and uninstalled it with a disappointed groan. In retrospect, I might have been a bit too harsh and have since given it a chance. Maybe it's due to me being older and not having as much time to waste, but it's nice to play in low doses. Unlike Sims 3, it's frustratingly difficult to create dynasties, you cannot create at least a family by family picture story, no open worlds to explore, and there is no more color wheel/customization. The good things...well there are less 'rabbit hole' locations, with mods I can make it more exciting, I do like the sims interactions with each other, and I guess multitasking. Seriously, the best thing about Sims 4 is all of the mods and custom content that has corrupted my game in the greatest way. I do like to play this game for silliness purposes and usually don't expect to have meaningful game play. On a side note Sims Discover University expansion just came out and it's been proclaimed by sims experts that it's by far the best Sims 4 expansion. Perhaps they will continue moving in that direction and learn from their successes.

In conclusion, the Sims franchise acted as a intricate part of my childhood and has lasted far into my adulthood to inspire new characters and stories. Seriously folks, at least 60% of my story ideas have started out with just a simple PC game. Moral of the story; not all video and computer games are harmful and useless. Everything in moderation, drink lots of water, remember self care, and you'll be just fine kids.