#seriously if a game has gacha mechanics

[teecupangel]

If we're gonna keep putting Desmond in as The Isekai Protagonist then we should whole hog and add in the iconic System or Gamer System 'gift' so many other Isekai/Tensei Protags seem to get like it's the New Age Syphilis.

But with my own little twist I once proposed when I was more into KHR (Katekyo Hitman Reborn!) fandom though it never really caught on. Desmond's Gamer System functions like some other games instead of the usual adventure RPG. Maybe its one, maybe its some, maybe its all of them- either way, it's certainly not something like Pokemon or the Final Fantasy series.

Instead, it's like an idle game, a match 3, a rhythm game, or a merge game. Hell, the one time he got a bingo game; he won Mega Bingo, almost got brained by the giant chest full of gold and jewels, and then it never appeared before him again.

He did like the idle cat games though. (The cats were very cute. A bit hard to explain all the cats though.)

“New Age Syphilis” lollol. Yeah, let’s give Desmond the geek-syphilis. XD

Okay, okay, okay.

If we’re going for other genres, my first thought is the scourged of the land, the anti-christ of the modern gaming world:

Loot-boxes/Gacha-mechanics

And it’s the worst kind. The kind that does not give pity ‘roll’ or have the ‘if you roll 300 times, you can pick one of these choices because goddamn your rng sucks wtf???’.

And that’s not even the genre, no, no, no.

That’s the “REWARD”.

Even if Desmond clears something via idle game, match 3, etc, he still has to do a gacha roll to get his reward.

And, to make it more annoying for him, the world he is in right now, everything has different game mechanics and it’s a whiplash at times. Sometimes, it feels more like minigames which is fine. The idle cat game is really just Desmond relaxing for the day and playing with cats.

But then, there are instances where Desmond gets a headache because…

Car chase? Boom! Racing game controls and gameplay!

About to assassinate someone? QTEs! QTEs everywhere!

Desmond gets his own land? He suddenly has game notifications and tutorials for town-building mechanics.

There’s supposed to be some kind of monster infestations? Welp. Desmond, your town-building mechanics just got pushed for tower-defense mechanics. Oh, and the shit you can build? You guessed it! GACHA ROLLS!

Want to fuck with Desmond even more?

The tutorials are just pages and pages of what he can do like someone from Koei-Tecmo made the damn thing.

You know what would be funny?

If Desmond realizes that some of the rewards he gets from the gacha rolls are his ancestors, they’re the highest USSR/6Stars reward with a probability of 3%. Goodbye slacker life, it’s time for Desmond to grind for those Isu shards just to get some sweet, sweet rolls.

(Nobody tell him that there are also Holiday alts that have a possibility of 1%)

……………………

It would be funny (in the worst possible way) if Desmond gets a final notification just when he has a very cozy life in this world and it’s:

“Thank you for playing [REDACTED]. Due to lack of interest, [REDACTED] will be ending its live-services at exactly 180 days. All data will be deleted and there are no plans to create backups. Thank you for understanding.”

And now the final arc of Desmond’s story in this world begins:

Desmond needs to find a way to create a private server from inside the game. XD

[idollandhero]

I think in a year we'll look back at our time with Idol Land and think of it like a weird dream. A time when there wasn't a Pretty Series show announced and everything was in limbo. A time where King of Prism was a dead franchise. A time when songs were performed at Pretty Series live shows that wouldn't premier in the anime for years. The game teaser in every single Pretty Series announcement only for it to be delayed again. The YEARS long gap between episodes 2 and 3. The DISASTROUS launch. When we realized it was just a reskinned version of the switch game. Or when we discovered that it was mostly made by some unrelated dev who had only made one failed mobile otome game before Idol Land.

The Pretty Series' pivot to focusing on AiPri & KinPri instead of Idol Land & DanPri makes the past few years of Idol Land content, and the past less than a year of Idol Land actually being out, feel like an illusion.

It's frustrating because the concept of a PriPara mobile game sounds fantastic! When I play games like SIF2 or Idolish7 or whatever I think about what could have been. Was it money problems? or time problems? Or some combination of both. Regardless I can't help but yearn for a game with a budget that this franchise deserves.

And the web anime was great! But only 12 episodes, and its own budget problems, plus the games delay keeping it finished and in limbo for 2 years! (+ the lack of any western fansubs picking it up, seriously how is do we still only have subs for up to episode 6) meant that it never got the place in the spotlight it deserved. Some people speculated that it was meant to air on TV because the episodes are formatted as such, but with AiPri starting in that slot the same month the show is ending that doesn't seem to be true.

It's hard to say where PriPara is going from here. It's the series 10th anniversary and the arcade game is being shuttered to push players towards AiPri Verse instead. Idol Land's anime finale is going to air to little applause because it's stuck on an app with less than 20,000 active users, and in the same month as the launch of the new series that's slated to be a real PreCure competitor.

Idol Land's EOS hasn't been announced yet, but the missing Nino birthday coord, the April monthly update with entirely rerun coords, and the fact that Idol Land is getting very VERY close to running out of content from the switch game. Well, if not EOS I expect this game to go into maintenance mode pretty soon.

Yeah idk what my point here was exactly, but man Idol Land really was a blur. Sometimes I think we understate exactly how inexperienced the devs really were. The game doesn't have any type of Google Play integration, and when the game launched the account recovery only lasted 15 minutes. I have a newer phone and the game isn't compatible with my hole punch front camera. There's just a black bar there. I only have this problem with older games, anything made in the last 4 years doesn't have this problem except for Idol Land. I honestly think the lack of region locking is because the dev doesn't know how to turn it on. Someone on discord reported that they've been buying gold, and then contacting Google and asking for a Play Store refund. It's worked multiple times and they are not banned. How is a ban for chargebacks not something they implemented day one. Also this game doesn't have any deals or discounts, ever. It's hard to believe that, like every game I've ever played has a buy two and get 50% off the second one bundle. But it's like the devs don't know how to implement anything past basic gacha mechanics. I could also ramble about how expensive the prices are, but I've done it before I won't do it again. Also the photo room, it's implemented pretty badly. You upload a photo for the background and it crops it weird and squishes it and makes it blurry. I didn't know this at launch because it was a paid feature for like six months. The pass itself was a horrible value unless you were buying it specifically to get the episodes early, you got exactly how the amount of gold you paid for. Why not just buy the gold then. But they either realized that, or were preparing for end of service; because they took it down. I'm rambling about things the devs messed up but I haven't even mentioned the first three months of the game. There's been so many points in this game's history where playing a promise was borderline impossible for one reason or another. This game didn't feel finished until that November update that included immediate promises. God there's so much more. The photo competitions just being about editing for some reason. Also they went away, so clearly those didn't work. The amount of coords they've implemented that were broken in some way. Sometimes it was the wrong coord entirely, sometimes the cylume didn't work. It's like the dev team is so small that there's no QA people. Also on that note, Open Dream Land was just fixed in the mid March update. The game went more than 6 months where one of its two unique charts was off sync. Also remember the voice bug, that lasted forever.

I'm sorry I just started rambling lmao. This is the problem when I write posts with speech to text, I say way too much. Ultimately I enjoyed my time with Idol Land, but it's existence feels surreal. Especially because 80% of the features from this game I can turn on my switch after end of service and play, and it's free because I already paid once and never have to pay again. I even have Waku Waku O'Clock on Switch. One day, probably soon from the way things are going, I'm going to wake up and not be able to play Idol Land on my phone ever again. But instead of reminiscing of this game, I will think about the game that could have been if Idol Land got as much love as Prism Rush did.

KASHIKOMA ✌️

[unrecorded]

guardian tales seriously has everything... its got:

women who are freaks

time loops

my precious beloved daughter-sister-liege who i would blow up this whole building for

really nice pixel art

1863 arc

toxic lesbian yaoi (not in main story sorry)

time travel

block puzzles (not sure if this ones a pro or con tbh)

running around maps looking for shiny rocks (pro tip: always check behind pillars)

bangin soundtrack

more time loops

themes, probably

[REDACTED PLOT SPOILERS]

driving sequences with intense drifting action

frequent opportunities to connect with friends by texting each other "THIS IS JUST LIKE ORV!!!!" while gnashing teeth and/or wailing

only gacha game where your archenemy has a character development arc involving becoming an alcoholic toilet scrubber

but fr i really do believe there would be greater overlap between orv fans and guardian tales enjoyers were it not for the fact that this game takes up to a month or longer of gaming, involving like actual hand eye coordination sometimes and engaging with gacha mechanics and shit, just to get to the parts where it starts kicking you in the ribs and kicking you in the ribs and kicking you and kicking you and kicking you

[space-wizards]

I've been playing Honkai: Star Rail, a few thoughts (particularly in comparison to Genshin Impact, the company's previous game):

Paradoxically, HSR copying the worse half of Genshin Impact makes the game gel way better, because the gacha RPG mechanics aren't competing for space with the massive open world.

I'm liking the combat more, too; the 4-character party in GI always irked me because I'd be forced to use a moveset I don't like, or worse, use them for puzzle mechanics. None of that here, and turn-stealing combat is very satisfying.

5-star characters, and gacha rolls in general, feel pretty generous; you get a 5-star for sure before you leave the first zone, which is a standard "beginner banner" thing, but I think I got enough currency to pity timer (which is 90 rolls) the first limited banner without paying real money. For reference, I didn't get a single 5-star in GI during the release window.

The main character being kind of a crazy person and committing to bits solely on the basis of "it was interactable" is hilarious. Seriously, they'd be right at home in West of Loathing. I need to commission art of them wearing the spittoon hat.

Having done some research, I've discovered that Mr. Welt Yang, one of your mentors and my first 5-star, has a backstory that would be a great light novel title: "I helped save the universe as the leader of the rival organization to the heroines and settled down with an office job, only to get pulled into a different crazy universe!?"

[icharchivist]

I don't mean to be offensive, but what the hell is that tiny green thing

don't worry, this isn't offensive. in fact, this isn't offensive enough. Start cursing.

don't let that inexpressive face fool you, it's the devil and you will never feel safe ever again once you fought one--

this bitch is called a Tonberry, and it's a nightmare.

don't let the fact it's small and slow fool you. if you let him too close, he will kill you in one piercing attack. he also has attacks to freeze you completely so you have to watch as it moves to you with his knife to kill you. And sometimes if you attack him, he will counter immediately, and, you guessed it, also kill you in one swift knife move. and you think taking your distances will help? Perish the thought. He will disappear to reappear right behind you and, you guessed it, kill you in one swift knife move.

It's a nightmare to fight those. I still have mental scars from having to fight a pack of them ambushing you in the darkness of a small cave when i first played Crisis Core when i was a wee teen who just seriously started to play video games. (because while the OG and the Remake have you fight this bitch *as a group*, in Crisis Core it's just Zack and his gacha mechanism against the world. being ganged up by those? Probably a worse fate than what Zack actually went through. This is my take.)

It's really the type of things that you have to play to believe. Any FF players will tell you "oh fuck this". This is our curse and burden. Sephiroth? Jenova? nothing next to those. You don't understand. You DONT U-- *icha gets carried away to calm her down*

ok im back. sorry about that. *coughs* so yeah! this bitch. Start cursing.

[falselyprofound]

Well folks, you're not wrong: Hussie is definitely to blame for some of this. But while I've got you here - did you know that his influence on internet storytelling started well before Homestuck?

Play-by-post community roleplaying games (or 'quests' as they're known in some circles, bc who has time to type all that) are actually a long-running internet tradition! The specifics vary depending on what site you're on, but the usual gist is that the author posts a comic panel and a short description of what's happening, and then everyone who happens to be in the thread voices what they want to see happen. And so on and so forth.

It's hard to say for sure who tried it first, but Hussie's Jailbreak is one of the earliest recorded attempts. The early parts of Problem Sleuth also took suggestions from the audience, but when the amount of suggestions got too much to handle, the author switched to writing it solo.

(There's a whole tangent I could have here about how Jailbreak and Problem Sleuth heavily utilise the language of text parser adventure games like Zork, but I already wrote a 6k+ word exegesis on the history of those for university and this post is getting long enough as it is)

Most of my experience with the genre comes from reading horror quests, but if that's your jam here's a couple I've enjoyed:

Ruby Quest, by TGWeaver: Possibly the first quest to take itself seriously, and a personal favourite. A survival horror puzzle game where an amnesiac tries to escape from a mysterious facility. Can the collective dumbassery of /tg/ get her free? (content warnings: body horror, medical horror, eye trauma)

Nan Quest, by TGWeaver: The spiritual successor to the above. A psychological horror game, where a mechanic finds herself trapped in a hellish hotel with a band of other unfortunate guests. (content warnings: body horror, attempted rape, religious horror)

The Book of Worms, by Toxaglossa: A pair of emergency responders get a call about a car crash in the desert. It seems the victim hasn't slept in days, and there's a strange book in his bag... (content warnings: body horror, insects, drug usage)

Also twitter has been doing this for years. While I don't use the site that much, did you know that rhythm game gacha twitter had a phase where they'd run jpgs of anime girls through killing games? And use polls to determine whether they survived? that was a) wild and b) actually really fucking clever at times.

(still my fave tweet of all time, don't @ me.)

Anyway I forget where I was going with this post but my point is: my fucking around is absolutely nothing new. If you like the Homestuck format of storytelling, why not check your local forum games section and see what crops up?

/tg/'s quest archive has some fantastic stuff (and some of the scariest shit of your life), and MS Paint Fan Adventures has quite a few stories that aren't Homestuck fanfic (and also Ke$hastuck). And Prequel appears to have it's own site now so that's great news for the furries battling depression.

Go forth. Be free

[beepborpdoodledorp]

guild update first impressions

It’s bad.

It really, really pains me to say this considering I had shit on the Lvl 70 raise, Ascension, and the Disney update, and I seriously don’t want to keep continuously shitting on new updates, but I’d honestly say this one actually has the biggest problems out of all of them. 

I’m in a really inactive Guild, it’s the same one I’ve been in ever since I started playing. I’m essentially the only person who consistently tributes to it, with one other person sometimes popping up to help me clear off a chunk of the Guild Boss’s HP. I don’t think the Guild Officer has logged in for like 90-something days - the Leader’s better with log-ins, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen them contribute to the Guild Battle or the Museum. Point is, I’m basically carrying my entire Guild on my back, which was very doable not even 72 hours ago when the only Guild Boss was the dragon.

Problem #1: The drastic level curve. The new Red Velvet Dragon’s Lvl 1 variant is equivalent to its old late-20′s Lvls. That’s insane. Its late-20′s Lvls are usually the point where my Guild stops, and I’m still typically able to solo them, but this just means we need to put in more effort for less rewards. And it doesn’t help that we can basically only do 1/3 of the new bosses. Speaking of:

Problem #2: Who at Devsisters thought it was a good idea to add two extra Guild Bosses? When I saw the trailer, I thought it was a neat concept, but in actual gameplay it drags the entire mode down immensely. I can’t even solo the Lvl 1 variant of the Living Abyss, which is really bad when you’re basically one of the only people who actually decently contributes to Guild Battles in your Guild. And the goddamn Avatar of Destiny? Do I even need to start of that? It one-shot my entire party within ten seconds and I only managed to knock off five percent of its HP in one attempt. That’s just ludicrous.

Problem #3: This update was obviously geared towards Guilds that are high on the leaderboard. The problem is that only like 10% of the millions upon millions of people who play this game are in those top percentage Guilds. For the vast majority of the playerbase who are in relatively laid-back Guilds, this update is a nightmare. And, for some of my own context, just as an individual player - I’m not exactly F2P. I always buy the Season Passes, I’ll occasionally get some packages if they offer a good deal - though I’m not a whale, either, I use the shop very sparingly. I’ve been playing this game for about ten-ish months now, have about 15 or so Cookies maxed out (sans Ascension), have 100% completed Story Mode and well on the way to do so for Dark Mode. I’m very well off in this game, and these bosses are still a frustrating downgrade at best and near impossible at worst. And, unfortunately, ever since Chapter 2 of Cookie Odyssey came out, that’s been a theme - the battles in Cookie Odyssey gave us really stupid restrictions literally just after the Lvl 70 update, which resulted in me still having not beaten the Chapter yet. Then we have Master Mode, which for some reason decided to use the extremely poorly received restrictions from Odyssey, and that gave us people needing to look up guides on how to beat bloody 1-1. And now, there’s the Guild Update.

With all that being said, I still think CRK is a good game. In fact, it’s a great game. I’ve said it a million times, I adore CRK - I adore the characters, the mechanics, the story, how Devsisters managed to steer clear from a lot of pitfalls the gacha genre has that gives it such a (pretty rightfully deserved) miserable reputation. 

But it is pretty obvious Devsisters is hitting a slump right now. 

[nihilnovisubsole]

@tobbycat replied to your post:

i follow so many arknights blogs at this point i didnt even realize it was you

the greatest tragedy of arknights is how good it is. it's been my go-to "keep me entertained while i exercise" game for months now. [standard warning still applies: it is a gacha game, so if gambling gives you trouble, i wouldn't recommend it. it's easy for me to avoid the slot mechanic for months at a time and only pull when there's a character i really want. know yourself.]

why?

the worldbuilding. arknights takes everything but the kitchen sink, throws it in hideo kojima's blender, and adds magical tech. i mean, i compare it to death stranding and metal gear solid as a joke, but i see a clear influence on both its writing and visuals. you've got reluctant soldiers fighting for the cure for a nano-disease. you've got a world marred by natural disasters, unethical science, and old wars. you also have dragons, eldritch stuff going on in the ocean, masquerade balls, and knight tournaments as a corporate-tainted sport. every corner of every country has something to dig into. half the fun of the story is seeing what they'll chuck in next.

despite what i said earlier about it being a gacha game, it's easy to stay free-to-play. i've never spent a cent on it. you earn the slot machine currency through ingame activities, and i'm told the odds are more generous than most others of its kind. [in fact, the game allows you to buy high-end characters outright with another free currency, which removes the gambling element.] if you're willing to save and be patient, you can still rack up a very comfortable roster of very powerful teammates.

but you don't have to. most of the game's stages are beatable with common, low-end squaddies, and if they're not, you're allowed to borrow a unit from the community. game articles tend to cite this as one of its biggest strengths. it feels like it wants you to win. the most punishing content is optional.

and, since it's me, the clothes. you can tell the artists are fashion nerds, because while most characters' clothes are fanciful, they look wearable. cosplayers say they're more comfortable than other costumes from that genre, and they'll mash up several aesthetics at once with interesting results. [seriously, if you've ever wondered what "knight sportswear" looks like, check it out.] there's even a teammate who used to edit a fashion magazine, which is a funny, meta nod to the game's cosmetic skins.

the "people with animal ears" thing is a little goofy for me, but like, i've watched anime before. i know the drill. i have no idea what the fandom is like, and frankly, i'm content. all i know is that it's fun and the girls are my sailor moon friends

[vegastarkiddo]

"Mechana, can we do it? We, Animal Mechanicals, can!"

Hi everyone! My name is VegaStarKiddo, and I am an autistic (mostly) self-indulgent editor who is 18 years old currently.

Although I accept up to 5 or 6 requests currently.

BYF, tho, one funfact: I usually roleplay with Gacha Club related apps in Discord. You've been warned if you don't like gacha club. (P.S, I don't do gacha h34t, tbh).

You fall under the basic DNI criteria over here, or support any of the things in the basic criteria.

You are one of the people who mock other people's interests just because of cringe culture (Context: I am a very childish cartoon lover ((from preschool cartoons to childhood shows)) despite my age, so seeing cartoon related interests or anything for children being mocked by them in a disrespectful way makes me go down).

You support whitewashing on black characters.

You support Omocat. (I am only fine with Omori fans if you like Omori but do not like the creator at all and know the stuff Omocat has done), Yandere Dev or other problematic creators.

You use dark humor to insult tragedies often.

You like Gacha h34t. Seriously, it's gross.

You are a NSFW account that has "minors dni" in the bio! This blog is supposed to be a SFW one.

Bold = Favorite.

Italics = Neutral. (As in, I either kinda like it but it's not a favorite of mine or I don't know much of it.)

Some things may be combined with both Bold and Italics. It means it's a favorite that I don't know much, but that I like it regardless.

Cookie Run, Animal Mechanicals, Tickety Toc, Octonauts, Homestuck, Love Live, Bandori, Noddy (The original one, not the reboot), Hololive, Pokémon, Style Savvy/New Style Boutique, Charlie and Lola, FNAF and other non-mentioned sources (but it depends on which source).

Steven Universe, Family Guy (More "neutral" on this, as I do not like the show but I find a few jokes and memes funny), South Park, controversial FNF mods, live action characters who smoke (Cartoon ones are fine).

NOTE: I probably might update the DNI, blacklist and whitelist when I can.

I have a Twitter, a Tiktok, a Comic Studio and an Instagram account with the same name as the tumblr.

I am an only child irl!

I also use Pony Town a lot!

Please use tone indicators with me often, since I struggle with the tone a lot.

Technically, I have two switch accounts: One called Oceanette (for general gaming), and one called VegaStar (For Miitopia alts). The Oceanette account's Friend Code is SW-1746-9222-1711 and the VegaStar one is SW-8411-2740-0146.

This is my Showroom code in Happy Home Paradise so far:

And finally, the promo!

Prepare for the tags, everyone:

@yukiiblossom @minosicle @sayaokos @catte-kins @mafuyupilled @lofipink @sweetisakii @razzthetic @anya-editzz @blubbols @ringoeditz @emulovebot @clockworkusagi @asukitty @angeliary @12512015 @1137 @editcore @dollie-luvs @twisted-lies and @ anybody else who would like to promo my own blog! :D

This is everything you need to know for now, good bye everyone! ^^

[canonical-transformation]

FE Engage thoughts, pre Chapter 11

(Please be courteous re: spoilers.)

...and so act 2 commences, and the first ten chapters are recontextualised as familiarising ourselves with the Emblem mechanics because we'll be needing to think about them a lot soon

Generally, I've been loving the map design so far.

The Ch8 defense map is nicely shaped so that incoming waves are manageable but there aren't any singular choke points to rely on

The Ch9 map's recruitable unit encourages you to spread thin in the first few turns, buying time for the enemy to beat you to the forts

Ch10 had such lovely final boss lair energy, bottomless pit and all, opening with a claustrophobic mobbing and then evening out into a back and forth along that huge vertical hallway, where— Emblem Lyn has how much range? Seriously!?

Also it looks like Ch11 is going to be a very fun paced map, the enemies spread out just enough to avoid the vanguard impaling themselves on them but with a lot of time pressure from behind. (oh gods the Sigurd oh god.) And also almost all of the lone enemies posing huge threats if not carefully approached.

Other thoughts:

I save scummed the gacha a few times because omfg you have to pay to merge rings? Really? That's so stingy!

Many video games would be improved by a small puppy that waddles up in your peripheral vision when you're not expecting it

Having a randomly chosen chef is going to get on my nerves, unless there's general stat buffs for the kitchen

I upgraded Anna to a Warrior and am vaguely surprised to discover they've drawn abs on her. But hey she's got gold accents now and all is right with the world :3

I'm in love with Anna's sweater

Oh yeah I lost Amber the very map I got him; sorry, good sir, you seemed like a fun guy

Finally, a female armoured class, I can practically run a full complement of ladies now ^_^ (Clanne and Jean can stay.)

Dear gods, the ladies love the taste of Clanne's pickles, don't they

[the-travelling-witch]

So I’m staying on anon bc I’m taking a hiatus for now but I just had to say something about the whole situation you posted about

My ‘friend’ is exactly the same and I just don’t understand the reason. Like, you think I’m a certain way because I play a game? That’s like me judging you and saying judgemental things about how you don’t have a life because you play something I don’t like, it’s ridiculous.

I don’t get this whole ‘only p**os’ play the game - yes, there are some really weird fuckers who sexualise the children and the majority of the fan base doesn’t agree with it and also don’t condone it.

Like are people just hating Genshin because it’s popular? It’s got some serious in game issues, it’s not perfect, but most people just don’t have a reason

‘it’s an anime game’ okay, and? It’s not to your taste, so what? doesn’t mean it’s better or worse than another game.

‘it’s gacha’ so is every game that’s popular right now, especially fps - like don’t tell me otherwise when you’re opening loot boxes which is essentially the same thing as pulling for characters.

My ‘friend’ got so offended when I said Genshin was a game I could see him playing - because he likes chill games and personally Genshin can be quite relaxing, especially when you’re exploring for the first time !! And he likes grindy games and hey, Genshin is pretty grindy to make a good character build, but he just says these half assed insults similar to the one that guy you mentioned instead of actually giving it a chance.

I’m not a man hater or anything but some guys are just brainless. They think their opinion is superior and if you don’t agree, your opinion is ‘mid’ or a ‘bad take’ like we don’t always have to agree, just respect the things I like and I’ll respect your interests.

It really is not that hard

- bunny 🐰 ( hi hollyleaf I hope you’re having a nice day apart from this <33 )

sorry you had to experience something similar but at the same time, why judge someone by what they play or just because you don’t agree with that choice

as you said, genshin has some actual issues you could talk about but most people who want to hate on the game don’t even look that far but pick the few weirdos (whose voices are always the loudest somehow) and use them as low-hanging fruit to drag the game and its player base

also the term ‘anime’ is so broad; at the end of the day league (because the guy recommended that) is also an animated game+ the artworks/ designs of the characters aren’t that much more realistic (someone pointed out the proportions on especially the female characters and i don’t think i need to say much about that)

most loot box systems only give you cosmetics too, he even admitted he only gets skins and new champions, which is the same as genshin more or less, so why hate on gacha when it’s basically the same mechanics just under a term you don use?

honestly, i can see why you recommended it, i probably would’ve done the same (i have, in fact, recommended the game to someone before); pretty rude of this guy to insult your interest like this though, i hope you didn’t take it seriously

ugh, not the fucking ‘mid’ response, please get out of here and let people enjoy things, jesus fucking christ; you don’t have to justify yourself with me, i know you’re not a ‘man hater’ because i use common sense to deduce that these statements don’t directly translate to ‘all men’; as i like to say it’s not all and not only men, women can be accused of this too, for both of us it just happened to be a guy and that’s all there is to it

and you’re right, it’s not that hard

(i’m doing good and i was hardly bothered by it, i just wanted to share with the class; anyway, i hope you’re doing well yourself <3)

[idiacide]

Hello! Could I request Idia, Leona, Ace, and Deuce with an easily attached or obsessed reader? If someone gives me more attention than I'm used to, I'll easily get attached to them. Though I'm ashamed to admit it, sometimes I do get a bit stalker-ish. If you are uncomfortable with this ask, just ignore it. Either way, thank you!

For the sake of this I’m going to write it as just, mildly obsessive as opposed to full tilt yandere. Like, maybe a little bad with boundaries, but not full tilt “keeping tabs on everyone you’ve ever spoken too in your life”. (If anyone would like more yandere. Just ask I guess)

Idia Shroud: In all honesty this might’ve actually been useful in the early days of nursing your crush. Idia’s not the easiest guy in the world to spend time with “naturally”, you’d almost have to stalk him if you wanted any one on one time with him. Breaking into his room seems like a little much, but slipping into the board game club is about as intimate a setting as one could hope for (once you get around the Azul shaped roadblock).

Its a little bit downhill from there, though. Idia’s paranoid. It honestly doesn’t take that many slips for him to realize you’ve been deepstalking his social media accounts. He immediately assumes hostile intent and starts avoiding you even more than he already was. It continues to eat at him though, as he finds he can’t even escape online without fearing that you’re watching. In the end, he conspires with Ortho to trap you in an empty classroom with a few menacing machines, his nervous hands fumbling with a tablet as he fires question after question at you.

What are you planning, to ruin him in front of the entire school? Expose the fact that he’s been playing both sides of a stantwt war through multiple sock puppet accounts? Report him to his gacha games for utilizing a fuckton of bots????? Its just for the ones he doesn’t take seriously, he swears!!! He’s a salt of the earth F2P on the ones he loves!!!

.....What do you MEAN you have a crush on him?!!

He kind of doesn’t know what to do with that information. Almost a letdown after weeks of agonizing. It catches him so off guard that he might even agree to a date before he knows what he’s doing.

The start leaves a lot to be desired. You get the sense that he’s still very jumpy around you, fully expecting the other shoe to drop at any moment. But...ultimately there’s something kind of convenient about having a partner that’s a little obsessive about him. He has to explain himself less, and you already have an exhaustive handle on his interests which makes conversation a little bit easier over all. Plus, if you’re already stalking him, that should mean a free pass for him too, right? Help take the edge off that insecure streak by following you around with cameras at every free moment.

Its not exactly...the HEALTHIEST dynamic in the world, but its one that’s surprisingly functional for the two of you. Both of you have a tendency to get overly focused on your area of interests, and both of you get insecure about your partner’s affections. Maybe some better coping mechanisms would benefit the two of you in the long run, but as it stands at the very least you understand each other and your weird idiosyncrasies.

Yeah...ok, maybe he could get used to this. Get used to you.

Leona Kingscholar: Well, at least Rook will have some company in the bushes.

Kidding, you’re not quite that far gone. But with that damn hunter hounding his every step Leona’s already on pretty high alert for people paying a little too much attention to him for his liking. It doesn’t take him long to notice you following him around, peeking around corners at him or sidling up to watch when he’s at Spelldrive practice.

He’s not shy about rebutting it either, immediately telling you off when he gets sick of being watched. Unlike Rook, though, you don’t just smile and slip away. You look legitimately hurt, and its starting to aggravate him more. Contrary to popular belief he’s not COMPLETELY heartless. Looking at him like a wounded animal makes his insides itch, like somehow he’s the jerk for telling you off.

Its not hard for him to pick up on the pretty likely culprit as to why you’re so clingy with him. Not exactly his first experience with this. A goodlooking prince, even a second born one, is gonna pick up his fair share of admirers. He’d normally just leave you hanging until you took the hint or got offended enough to drop it on your own, but....its different when he actually knows you. For once the onus is on him to have the emotional maturity to talk to you, walk you through the fact that he doesn’t appreciate being followed like this. He needs his space....but if you’re willing to meet him halfway then he’ll spot you a couple dinners, alright? Fair trade.

Getting into an actual relationship with him under these conditions is tricky, but not impossible. The more relationally involved you get the less the obsessiveness is gonna bother him. Leona expects a fair bit of free range to do what he pleases but as long as you don’t interfere with his sleep schedule, there’s something pretty gratifying about how into him you are. He’s absolutely merciless about holding it over your head too, how much of your world revolves around him and his habits.

Again, not necessarily the healthiest dynamic for either party involved. Ruggie may need to give you a few lessons in standing up to him. But after a lifetime of being overlooked...its kind of nice to have someone who’s beyond smitten.

Ace Trappola: There is a strong possibility Ace will never notice. Because entirely on accident, he’s exactly the type to encourage this behavior even if you AREN’T naturally the obsessive type. Follow him around to spend as much time as possible? He practically breaks down your door to hang out every free night he has anyways. Stalk his social media accounts? He was already badgering you to look at his posts anyways. Retain a lot of personal information about him? He’s a chronic oversharer and will barely notice that you remember a lot more of what he tells you than is usual.

Ace’s main character syndrome is kind of a godsend as far as you’re concerned. Of course so much of your time is spent focusing on him, what the hell else would you have to do with your time?? Study? Psh. At the same time, the fact that you remember so much of what he tells him and are so eager to spend time with him feeds his ego like nothing else. The two of you get romantically involved fairly quickly.

That’s not to suggest its all perfect. The only thing Ace loves as much as attention is acting like he’s too cool for attention. Being too fawning in front of his friends is likely to get you made fun of, and you may catch him making snide remarks about how you’d be hopeless without him. Don’t be shy about telling him off. For as much as his mouth gets ahead of him Ace doesn’t actually want to hurt your feelings, and deep down he knows he’s just as dependent on you as you are on him.

All told, probably one of the most painless targets you could pick for one of these crushes. Ace adores people who adore him back, and he’s ready and willing to meet you pound for pound on expressing that affection.

Deuce Spade: Much like Ace, Deuce is honestly more gratified by the attention than anything. Even if you are shy about things like compliments and praise, the simple gift of your time is already enough to completely overwhelm him. While he’s always been able to get friends, Deuce isn’t really used to being anybody’s first choice. At least not for reasons that are positive.

Showing up to his track meets in particular is a one way ticket direct to his heart. Deuce takes his sport very seriously, and showing up to offer your implicit support fills him up with pride and affection like nothing else. As for all the rest, he’s just oblivious enough to take it all as a lucky coincidence. Oh you like bikes too? Man, what are the odds! Come ride with him some time. Even if you don’t actually know that much he’ll just assume you must be new to the interest and happily explain everything about it.

Ultimately Deuce is too honest a guy to really expect much artifice out of other people. And considering that you’re not faking the affection, he’s perfectly ready to get just as attached to you as you are of him. Some things will occasionally give him pause. As he realizes how nervous you get when he’s gone he starts to get a little worried about you. But its never from a place of judgement. Deuce just wants you to recognize that you’re just as good on your own as you are with him. He doesn’t just care about you because you love him. He loves you, and he wants you to believe that too.

[sniper-childe]

okay okay okay

i know i've said this before but please, no matter how angry or frustrated you get, try to be mindful with your criticism. because the devs aren't the ones calling the shots, the executives are.

i don't know whether they have a board or it's the founders but i do know they aren't the ones who are going to take the brunt of the backlash. but rather the devs who are probably already stressed, overworked and underpaid.

seriously. if you want to have an idea of how harsh it is in the game development industry, i recommend this video for starters. it's an outsider's view looking in, so one could relate more. bonus points if you're also a content creator.

if you don't want to watch it (which is understandable tbh), tl;dr: corporations have time and time again exploited the people of their passion for their craft, being a gaming company notwithstanding.

just look at the community anniversary "rewards." there are a lot of talented individuals who love the game so much and would give hours and money into making fan content for it and well... you know what miHoYo is continuously doing about it.

but believe you me, canon content for it also takes so much time and talent to do. "but Genshin is just a gacha game!" are you kidding me? it's an open-world game -- with pretty complex mechanics, beautiful design, and layers of world-building and lore -- hosting millions of players and has a co-op mode. it's more than just a gacha game and people tend to forget that.

so when i say content creators deserve better, i mean fan and canon content creators. fans don't deserve to be treated with free to cheap labor. and devs don't deserve to be screamed at and to be called names.

and they sure as hell don't deserve to lose their livelihood over something they can't control. because really. what did you expect if the community actually manages to shut Genshin down?

that being said. i understand what lead the community to go on big leaps. miHoYo has been banning people in the other sites and they refuse to listen. unfortunately, i have nothing to offer as an alternative. but please. think about the implications and consequences of what you're doing.

[all-hail-trudos]

Girl's Frontline is absolutely wild. Other gacha games have crossovers with big famous anime shows, but GFL is off the rails. The closest thing we had to a sensible crossover was The Division. (Which I loved and never did a write up about). And that probably only happened because Ubisoft is busy trying to buy their way into the hearts of Chinese gamers. (Who, let's be honest, are still more likely to pirate every game involved in a crossover than buy them, so we'll see how that works out).

But possibly the wildest crossover of all has to be the one whose rerun sadly ends tonight. DJ Max is a rhythm game, with basically no story in sight except for what little we can glean from the music videos. So they take the rhythm game mechanics and stuff a little nod to them into a game that was clearly not designed for this, and they actually make it work. Some songs work a lot better than others, but it's just amazing how far they went.

What really gets me, though, is the writing. They took this series with no story (as far as I know), no lore, just music, and they went absolutely balls to the walls. Nods to the game's composers everywhere. A huge expansion on the two mascot characters and references to the few others who basically only exist in the manual. And just... A story that dives like a madman without a parachute into themes of game preservation, our love for video games and the joy they bring, the importance, even necessity, of protecting individual freedoms and personal agency. None of this is even an exaggeration or a heavy analysis. It's all a bit cramped, but it's very much in there.

Possibly the best part was the establishment of the ThunderxCalico ship. 90% of the ships in this game are headcanon. But these two girls have the real deal. Thunder is a shy abuse survivor who struggles to express herself or find meaning to her existence. Calico is a deeply insecure go-getter who takes comfort in rules and enforcing conformity. They have nothing in common, but they stick to each other at first because no one else will really take them seriously. Watching them open up and grow more comfortable being themselves, really genuinely true to themselves, is the stuff of fluffy romance fics, except it's right here in canon.

For a game about robot girls shoved into a war no one was prepared for, Girl's Frontline lives up to the grand sci-fi tradition of exploring humanity through inhuman characters, and does it super well while occasionally going insane. And I genuinely love it.

[aromantic-misguide-to-romance]

You know, I sometimes think what happened to the mobile otome and BL game market over the last 5 years.

There were so many games those few years ago, true, many were discontinued but absolutely available.

While Koyonplete died without any external help around the beginning of 2017, and NiNO released like one very fucked up game that was entirely ignored by the intended fanbase of dark content enthusiasts who then complained about not having dark topics.

I remember the huge game purge Apple and Play Store pulled on "too similar" games or some that didn't met the requirements regarding transactions or whatever other reason. Once big players on the otome market disappeared overnight like Abracadabra. They had so many games! Some of those games were quite bad but hey. Some could be good for fucked up romance fans but got ignored too. Seriously, they have a BL game where there's a sub/dom themed school and sub/dom are the second gender.

Okko moved entirely to Honey Magazine app but... well. The app isn't as f2p friendly and doesn't even compare to old games on the engine Arithmetic made. Also Arithmetic, another big player, nowhere to be seen now.

Favary disappeared for some time even before the purge but came back from the dead. Really they should be more known, the games are good.

SWD from Solmare suffered from the purge, survived but then slowly got pulled from the app stores some time after too. It's quite possible they struggled with difficulties before and having to adjust on long term was too costly.

But seriously... which of these names is known to the current otome fanbase? Probably only Solmare - because of their only active game now, Obey Me!, and nothing more. The Shall We Date series is entirely discontinued and even OM! that was initially "Shall We Date? Obey Me!" is just "Obey Me!" now, and it's different in terms of mechanics and the hype is gone too.

Voltage in terms of f2p doesn't really release anything and has a paid library app that introduced the Love Choice system that kind of... killed the hype? Other apps are basically left inactive. Court of Darkness was released and is continuing but just like AyakashiRR, it got very little advertising so I suspect that the games remain overshadowed.

Cybird exists and with new game released is probably the only one from the holy trinity (Cybird, SWD, Voltage) that maintained at least some of the popularity. Also they took over the Western release of A3!, but its fanbase seems to be a bit different from the Ikemen Series and doesn't really compare to the biggest players on the market.

Now we have Miyoho stray into card gacha otome, MLQC still works but I don't see much hype about it anymore?

But there are just a few active apps (AyakashiRR, A3!, OM!, Tears of Themis & MLQC, did I forget something?) in comparison to dozens of games (I had over 50 installed on my emulator!). Card gacha is pricey and time-consuming af so you can't really invest your time into many of them like you could with the prevous generation of otome. And the market is difficult it seems, considering that After L!fe died a miserable death despite a really promising story.

[theliterarywolf]

Okay I gotta know- what the *fuck* is this Cookie Run thing? And why are they dressing up anthropomorphized dough in a belly dancer getup???

Cookie Run is a gaming franchise owned and developed by the South Korean development company DevSisters. The IP originally took the form of Kakao Cookie Run, a Korean social-media platform. It then spread to Cookie Run: Sweet Escape Adventure, a now-discontinued version of the game made for the service LINE.

The core game now takes the form of Cookie Run: Ovenbreak, a free-to-play endless runner/platformer game that incorporates gacha mechanics and RPG-elements along with a story that initially started, back when the game was in its early stages over in Kakao, as 'oh, you have to help the cookies run away from the Witch who wants to eat them, ha ha' to its latest story elements that include murder, dealing with mental health issues, a long-standing feud between good and evil, the destruction of several kingdoms, gentleman thieves, existential crises, unrequited love, more murder, dead children, wars, time-travel shenanigans, and so much more that I could go into but not here!

... There's also quite a few side-games. The now-defunct Cookie Wars that dealt with the characters trying to survive a zombie-apocalypse, Cookie Run: Puzzle World, a much more cozy, cute experience that eschews the heavy story-elements of the core game for cutsey match-3 fun~, and Cookie Run: Kingdom where we see more in-depth development of the franchise's universe... That delves much deeper into themes of death, religion, destroyed kingdoms, etc.

Phew! Now that that's out of the way, we can talk about Lilac. Lilac is the diligent bodyguard of one Yogurt Cream

And the 'bellydancer'-esque costume is in the common viewpoint when discourse is mentioned, Lilac originally looked like this

The special costume he got upon being made playable (after so fucking long, DevSis, seriously) is meant to tie into the oasis motif of the current story campaign, since the original story campaign dealt with Yogurca (their home kingdom) being assaulted by blizzards.

Although, in my mind, all I can think of with Lilac's new costume is a scenario of Yogurt Cream laying in bed going 'Lilac~ It's Friday night~ You know what that means~' And then Lilac just silently leaves the room and comes back in his special costume.