#so maybe i'd like them better now? and the dlc looks like it might actually be good so...

[factual-fantasy]

24 asks :000

Sorry. I don't take art requests! And also trust me, I've seen it everywhere. Its a very bizarre series indeed.. <XD

(Also thank you! :D)

@multifandomjays

:DDD Thank you so much!! I'm glad you like my art! Also BIG thank you for the acknowledgment of boundaries, it means a lot <:}}}

@annathefenecfox

Actually, someone made a post discussing this. I cant remember who it was but they made a good point-

In Above and Beyond(?), Natquik is introduced to Tracker and they both act as if they are meeting each other for the first time. But in that flash back with Barnacles, Tracker was there.

If you look at Barnacles and Bianca compared to the other scouts, their outfits are different..

They put it all together and it looks like Natquik was there for Barnacles junior/younger years in the polar scouts. But at some point he disappears..? Then later on when Barnacle is a senior polar scout he falls in the ice. So it looks like in canon that Natquik wasn't there when he fell in the ice. WHICH would be wonderful angst materal.

Barnacles and Natquik are back together on an adventure and they fall in the ice. Natquik is fine but Barnacles is panicking. When they get out he tells Nat the whole story. Nat would feel horrible for not being there for Barnacles all those years ago.. :'(((

HOWEVER.... I'd like to think that Natquik was there through all of Barnacles polar scout years and saw him graduate. Where he eventually retired young to go and do research in the Antarctic. Hmm.. I'll have to think about this one <XD

Uhhg, yeah. The DLC lost me at Cassie. That was already complicated enough. And then the Mimic came around and the 3 other suits and the weird glitchy computer bunny thingggg

I mean don't get me wrong, I love all of FNAF to death but sometimes I wanna push it down the stairs XDD

@astrokea

XD Our army grows bigger and bigger everyday!

@cudlycorncornsworthcoberson

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! Right after posting that I looked back and cringed a liiiittle bit because I felt like maybe the angst was too much/unnecessary. So I'm really glad to hear that you liked it! It makes me feel better about having posted it XDD

@easterartist

Oh don't worry! The fact that you don't have a default pfp wipes you of any suspicion XD

Also thank you! Its always fun to hear about people getting into Octonauts because of my art! :DD

@gregorythechild

Also today currently I am dizzy and full of anxiety weee

Also I love the ',:) too funny! XDD

Sorry, I don't take art requests. That character looks great though! Also thank you! I'm glad you like my artwork! :DD

@worldsaskingmachine

That's an interesting thought actually. I imagine Freddy wouldn't really like to look at it too much. I have this idea that none of the Glamrocks really like their new forms. Freddy especially, he misses when he was shorter and softer. He was very huggable and it was very rare that a child was scared of him.

Now a days he's mostly just designed to look flashy, not really to hug. And his sheer height means that some of the little kids are afraid of him. :( So looking at one of the older model behind the glass- although its tall too, it'd probably make him sad and miss his old form. :((

@wolfie-777

XD They might fight at first, but then they'd be two peas in a pod.

Foxy: "Yarr, I cant believe it! Yer a REAL pirate!! I wish I could sail out on the watr' and be a true pirate too.."

Jack: "Yarr, sailin the seas don't make you a pirate, Its what's in yer heart lad! Yer just as much a pirate as me!"

Foxy: ":DDD"

@fallingbones

THANK YOIUUU!! I'm so glad to hear how I've inspired you!! :DD

Actually its funny that you mention Foxy's legs. Since I've designed Foxy, Bonnie and Roxy with those legs, I've been going back and forth constantly on whether or not it was a good design choice. I kept considering going back and redesigning all of them to have normal legs in my FNAF recap/repair. But I ultimately I kept them for reasons that will be explained later 👀 All in all- I'm glad you like them! :DD

XD Heck yeah! There's quite a lot of us here on Tumblr. Type #octonauts in the search bar and see for yourself! :DD

@problematicskeleton

THANK YOU SO MUCHHH!!! I'll be sure to take it easy <:}}]

That.. is a good question. I never really thought about it. :00 Also thank you! :D

@burningmusicfunnygiant

Mmm, I'm not so sure. Some older employees know that Bonnie and Foxy are down there. I don't think seeing him active again would make them bring him back to the stage. They don't have the authority to do that. They would most likely just shut him down again. Maybe even remove his battery so he cannot be reactivated..

Also if I were to make a Glamrock Bonnie design, personally I would keep him purple and make him look more bowling ally themed. <XD Maybe someday I'll draw that! :0

THANK YOU!! :DDD Of course everyone is free to do their own thing. But I personally got kind'a tired of the CONSTANT shipping everywhere. Its like some people think that fandoms cant be fun if the characters aren't romantically pinned together. Or like the most powerful kind of love is romantic. Which is just not true.

So I've just wiped away any and all shipping from all my fandom content. With a tiny select few of exceptions. I wanna show that these characters can love and care for each other, WITHOUT romantic interest being the motive.

@funkymonkeyzz

I have drawn him before actually, twice that I can recall!

Once here, and Here! Although if I were to draw him now? Or even add him to my AU? He'd look a lot different than he does in those drawings <XD

:DDDD Thank you so much!! :}}}

I've been drawing literally as far back as I can remember. So I'm not 100% sure what initially inspired me.. Although I did draw a lot of sonic back in the day so maybe it was that? :0

@paytonthefrog

AAAAA THANK YOU!! :DDDD

Hmm.. that's not a bad idea :00 Maybe I'll draw it sometime!

@pinkbomb08

XD Thanks for the reminder. I'm doing my best to take it easy while working on all these projects-

[gaymer-hag-stan]

A Tekken 8 Review That Nobody Asked for From a Longtime Fan Who Has Been Playing for Ages But Is Not a Pro - That Title Is Too Long

Having spent a little over 24 hours playing the game on my PS5, I feel like it's an appropriate amount of time to share my first thoughts on it. I will try to keep spoilers to a minimum so just skip the "Story" section and you should be fine.

General Thoughts

A pretty healthy roster, overall happy with who we got. I do wish Anna and Christie were here, and I also miss Lucky Chloe. With Eddy already announced and Azucena taking over the "cooky dance-y character" I unfortunately don't see Christie or Chloe returning, but Anna better fucking do!

They all look great, even the ugly ones, they look satisfyingly ugly, if that makes any sense. The girls still suffer from the Madame Tussaud's wax figure syndrome that plagued the entirety of Tekken 7's roster, but, maybe I'm gaslighting myself, I do feel like they look a bit less plasticky than some of the initial teasers? Most of the redesigns are great, the hair (Lili's hair has never looked better), water and dirt physics all finally WORK and I love how all the clothing animates with the wind effect, the Fallen Destiny stage is a great one to illustrate all of the above. We can see Yoshimitsu's fingers after three decades! I'd love to know the thought process behind this redesign lmao

I love that they finally, after so many years of other fighting games having it but being inexplicably absent from Tekken, they finally added Player vs CPU matches! FINALLY! Finally I can pick my character and my opponent of choice, pick their costumes and set a stage for them to battle. I'm so happy for this even though it might not make any sense to anyone.

Combo Challenges! We finally have combo challenge in Tekken! Another common fighting game feature inexplicably missing up until now.

Gameplay feels a lot of fun. I wasn't sure about the heat mechanic but it's actually a lot more fun than I initially thought! I tried out all of the cast and am slowly completing both their story episodes and an Arcade run for good measure. I am obviously still maining Nina. They have decided to simplify a lot of her combo throws and I am having fun terrorizing people online with them by breaking their bones! I'm also using Arcade Quest to learn how to play as Lili and Azucena, some basic moves and combos and whatnot. I wanna also do Zafina, Jun, Jin, Hwoarang and Xiaoyu as well eventually. I think these eight will be my main squad for the time being. As a side note, King and Steve feel extremely fun to play, I haven't picked either in ages, but with King I was really close!

The netcode is, surprisingly functional??? We did recently switch to an optic fiber connection type, but I'm still on WiFi and I am having zero problems!

Jukebox is thankfully back again! I literally spent an hour or more before playing the game at all to decide which song goes where lol

Something that scares me regarding upcoming DLC, is that I do not see a season pass being sold anywhere except the Deluxe Edition bundle that costs 40€... I'm sorry but I don't give a fuck about owning 32 identical gold costumes or Tetsujin or whoever the fuck as my Arcade Quest avatar... I only want Eddy and the other three (one of them better be Anna!) thank you very much!

Story

"The Dark Awakens"

Believe it or not I haven't even finished the main story yet as I'm trying to pace myself through all the modes and enjoy them, savouring every moment. At the moment of typing this I am almost halfway through and I must say, even though I am still firmly in the "Drop the cinematic NRS style story modes" camp, and I would much rather have had either arcade mode with proper, canon endings back, or a revival and repurposing of the Tekken Force mode, in an SF6 World Tour mode type of way, out of all of Bandai Namco's attempts at a cinematic story mode, from SCV to Tekken 8, this has been the most satisfying attempt so far. I love that they are fully embracing the overdramatic nature of Tekken along with its campy side and it's present from the very beginning, with Jin throwing his bike at Kazuya's helicopter! "A Fate Decided by Fists" were we actually get to choose which fighters advance through the first round was the biggest highlight so far! I did not expect to fight Azazel again in 2024! I miss his Tekken 6 design though, he no longer glows according to his remaining health or has his limbs crumble away into scarabs according to which parts of him you're hitting. Also, I do understand why they felt the need to overemphasize how "Jin was a good guy all along and he's not like Kazuya" to redeem him and attempt to portray him as a more traditional hero, but I think they went way too far. Literally every single cast member, characters who've never met him before especially, makes a point of how good a person Jin is. Also, I do understand that there were a lot of people complaining that most of the cast were ignored in Tekken 7's story mode and I appreciate that they tried to include more of them this time, but it's so half assed and superficial. Like, Lili, Asuka, Hwoarang, Leo (who finds their missing father, a forgotten plot point from Tekken 6 of screen without a single explanation) Xiaoyu, PANDA offer absolutely nothing to the story so far other than to just be there and tell Jin what a good guy he is. And I say all that as someone who is firmly on Jin's side and despises Kazuya.

Character Episodes

Thank god they have more than one single fight this time! I would have liked it if they found a way to make each of them be canon. Like, I think every single one of the Arcade mode endings of SF6 is canon, if I'm not mistaken, and most of them seem to take place before the events of the main story, as a way to give us a clearer understanding of why each fighter fights. I think Guilty Gear does exactly that too. Nevertheless, I do appreciate that each fighter has fights specifically tailored to them, with specific opponents. It's not clear to me yet if they're completely non-canon or not, as in Nina's she seems to have been hired by Lee to sabotage G Corporation and Kazuya, I pray to God this is true and she's not actually, willingly working for that asshole, like, I'm still in complete denial that they threw her entire character development from Tekken 4 to Tekken 7 to the trash can just to go "NInA WiLl WoRK FoR WhOmEvEr"... She's also suspiciously missing from the actual story like, she simply just appeared in ONE scene so far and then left without doing literally anything. She also seems to only have special interactions with Steve and Lee so far when others get a lot more. Her handling story wise in this installment is insulting, considering she's the most popular female fighter in the series and one of the most popular in the genre...

Offline Modes

Arcade Quest

It's cute... It's certainly a cool way to mask your tutorial and the avatars are kinda cool, but they're nowhere near as good as what Capcom did with SF6 and World Tour. I must say I prefer Tag 2's Tekken Lab over this.

Super Ghost Battle

Ghost battle, after five attempts is finally fun! Tekken 7's was by far the worst attempt as the game would automatically pick opponents for you, matching you with much harder ones if you were winning too much and much lower ones if you were losing too much so that you wouldn't climb the ranks as fast and it would artificially increase playtime. Now that Tekken has actual single player modes other that the story there's no need for that, and they made it work. You simply choose from a list, and the ones that contain unlockable (useless) customisation options for specific characters are actually marked so that you can attempt to get the item you want.

Arcade Battle

I love that they still included a traditional eight battle long Arcade mode, even though they could have just had the character episodes and call it a day. My slight nitpick, again, is that they're still doing this thing that they've been doing since Tekken 5 or 6 where the first few battles are characters in their default costumes and then a horde of Namco's customized monstrosities attack your eyes... This is a huge pet peeve of mine, I understand it in the context of Ghost Battle, and Arcade Quest, but I do not want to see goofy customs in other, "serious" modes. On top of that, the ghosts you get seem to be from the Super Ghost Battle's catalogue of freaks, and are therefore higher difficulty than most, which in turn makes them actively harder than the mode's final boss which I think is kinda hilarious!

Tekken Ball

I will admit, I only played a single match and never touched it again. It is actually challenging, I'll give it that, but I don't see the appeal. I'd much rather have Tekken Bowl again back instead tbh. Also I wish that stage was playable in normal modes too.

Customization

Avatar customization is kinda whatever, but it works well enough for Arcade Quest and I don't really visit the Tekken Fight Lounge.

Character Customization however is where I have an issue. While I've seen lots of cool customs of various characters from other games and IPs, including Shimbori himself dressing up Super Battle ghosts as DOA characters!, I don't really care for the customization options? My only real use for Character Customization in Tekken so far was to recreate past / alternate outfits. Like, in Tekken 6 I would buy the schoolgirl outfit parts for all the teen girlies, in Tekken 7 I recreated Nina's 2P outfit from Tekken 4 using her Blood Vengeance catsuit as a base, stuff like that. In Tekken 8 all I'm getting is a huge catalogue of Zara's apparel... And all the unlockable outfits are either their default look with less clothes on, or weird cosplays of other characters. Why? Tekken Character Customization peaked in Tekken 6, where every single one of the 40 (41 if you count Panda, who I think had some different options from Kuma) characters had his own personal selection of outfits and items, matching their personality and look. I don't want to play as Nina dressed up as Ada Wong or in a business casual for a 9-5 desk job. They made everything way too generic and bland and, on top of that, we don't even have trademark pieces like Nina's purple catsuit, her ponytail, Hwoarang's taekwondo garb, Xiaoyu's Tekken 6 battle costume. The Tekken 5 veterans should have had their Tekken 5/6/TTT2 costumes and hairstyles on top of their Tekken 7 ones.

Overall, I am very very happy with this game! It seemingly does almost everything right and I am glad to see it improving on, literally, every single thing over Tekken 7.

Score: 9 / 10

[gear-project]

Annon-Guy: What makes or breaks a Guest Character for you?

I know you focus on the main cast and all, but when a Guest does show up, how do you feel about them?

Feel free to use the Guests from Soul Calibur as an example. I know Link and Ezio are the most well received while Yoda, Dark Vader and Starkiller get shafted on.

Honestly, I haven't had much reason to complain about the guest characters I've been presented.

In Soul Calibur's case, we actually got VERY GOOD representation for a lot of guest characters (Bandai Namco and Project Soul were pretty skillful in that regard).

I'd argue that Spawn's presence in Soul Calibur is actually dwarfed by how he was presented in Mortal Kombat 11, to be honest.

If they managed to sneak Spawn in Guilty Gear, I'd go crazy... hahaha...

Samurai Shodown's Guest characters (i.e. Baiken/Warden/etc) were "simplified" to better suit the game's mechanics, and while that's something some people might complain about... in Samurai Shodown's case, "simpler is better" in a lot of ways. Even for Baiken in that game... she felt very solid in the game itself (well maybe not as versatile as she was in Accent Core or Xrd, but those are the peak of GG, and are hard to compare to).

I'd argue Soul Calibur IV's DLC wasn't the problem... the gameplay elements and mechanics were the larger issue.

Yoda is... well he's a mild amusement... Soul Calibur IV got mixed responses on a GOOD day... but people still loved Starkiller and Darth Vader regardless.

Yoda is the "Kliff Undersn" of Soul Calibur, if you can believe it... tiny character, awkward hitboxes, silly hits and combos... but DESPITE ALL THIS... he is very lore-accurate to the films that depicted Yoda in Combat in the Star Wars series (which is funnily ironic.)

I'd argue that they could've chose Boba Fett or the Mandalorian and got a stronger response, but that's Star Wars for you.

Honestly, I'm a huge fan of Jedi Survivor and Jedi Fallen Order, but that's a different story.

Soul Calibur IV itself suffered under its own mechanics and features, the Tower of Trials it had was some of the hardest content ever seen in an SC game, to be honest... not nearly as fun as Libra of Souls.

I'd say the character DLC wasn't the problem with that game... the mechanics of the weapons and the unlockables needed more to be improved upon.

In terms of visuals though, Soul Calibur IV is still one of the prettiest SC games (SC6 wasn't nearly as bright, but it also had a lot more stable features and played at a faster pace like SCII and SCIII are better known for being).

SCIV also didn't have an extensive museum/library like SC6 does, so that right there should tell you something.

Also SCIV had a ton of guest characters beyond the DLC and many of which looked nothing like standard Soul Calibur cast, some were straight out of an anime (Angol Fear), which was jarring to compare to at the time, since most SC characters look semi-realistic.

My standard for guests boils down to how well they fit in with everyone else in the roster... if they stand out like a sore thumb but can still scrap well in a fight, I guess that's fine for some people, but for me I don't necessarily want to be embarrassed by my friends when I decide to pick a character.

Angol Fear definitely stands out, however a character like Ashlotte was inspired.

It was Ito Ōgure who came up with her design, but as a result we got the Clockwork Doll character creation template later on in Soul Calibur 6... and many fans have appreciated it.

(By the way, Ashlotte is still one of my favorite SC designs as well.)

You could argue that 2B is the "next big step" in that aesthetic and genre, though in her case it's a bit more complex.

2B is also a guest character in Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising now, which is also nice to hear, I'd argue that Granblue is the 2D equivalent of Soul Calibur (and given the staff that created the game were former Project Soul Staff, that should be obvious).

Even if Harada once stated that Project Soul had to be disbanded in order to make a game like Tekken 8 possible, I still believe that everyone who was behind Soul Calibur as a series would love to work on something similar in the future... it was that great a concept.

Ultimately, when it comes to fighting games, you have certain themes you want to make present... and when including guests in to that theme, you want to make sure they mesh well overall.

Of course, that doesn't just apply to fighting games, but to every game that has that level of potential.

Despite the fact many might consider Soul Calibur dead and buried... MY SOUL STILL BURNS.

[tobiasdrake]

Fucking rude. Who pissed in that guy's miso? Oh well. Let's keep looking around Bamboo Creek.

Okay, this is clearly something. Looks more like an exit than an entrance, though. Based on the differently colored stone.

Bro, I'm gonna touch this cabinet every single time I come in here. Just because you keep telling me not to. I think we should both just settle into a comfortable status quo of me touching your cabinet.

To be fair, that's a strong goal to reach for. Devolver publishes a ton of great content for consumers to enjoy. You can also find a treasure trove of fantastic material published by Annapurna Interactive, while we're at it.

There aren't many publishers out there who can be relied on with great material like the Sacred Fable of the Moon Goddess Luana but if you look hard enough, you can find some true gems.

...sorry, shilling products for advertising revenue is part of my religion. You go on, I'll just kick back and listen while enjoying this warm, heavenly loaf of Garl-ic Bread, in stores wherever Warrior Cook Wares are sold.

It's actually addiction-forming, as a matter of fact. The deferment of happiness to a hypothetical future point in time is also the main problem with marketing hype. People can become so addicted to the cycle of looking forward to things that the actual product quality ceases to matter.

This is more or less what's become of the gaming industry these days, as preorder culture and live services and DLC roadmaps all keep people hooked, buying the promise of what the product might be someday instead of an actual product that they would enjoy having right now.

It comes out. It's disappointing. But it doesn't matter, because people are addicted to the promise and eager to jump on the next thing that might possibly materialize into something good some day.

Not to speak ill of Kickstarter since... y'know, biting the hand that feeds and all that... but crowdfunding also feeds into this same phenomenon. It's just that it's easier to put faith in small projects with individual names behind them than in large companies focused on maximizing profits above all else.

We see this in Big Tech spaces as well. Ideas like cryptocurrencies and AI-driven media get shopped around, not because there is anything of value worth investing in today, but because they insist that their product is going to be revolutionary eventually. "This IS the future, this IS where society is going, so you'd better buy in now."

Future happiness is highly addictive.

No, it was insightful. This was a good talk. I enjoyed discussing these advanced concepts with you.

If this is what it gets me, then I'll be sure to keep molesting your cabinet in the future. Anyways, what were we doing? Right, Bamboo Creek, we were....

WHY PLANTS. WHY ARE THERE PLANTS. EVIL HUNGRY PLANTS.

I should have known the forest would not be kind to botanophobes. I thought Luana killed the Botanical Horror! Are there more!? This isn't even the right island for it!

Unless we're in a different timeline. Shit, that's a possibility. Hell, all these Time Shards around imply we're in an active time loop but I'm trying not to think about that because it hurts my ninja brain.

You know, the bamboo construction here is extensive. I wonder who built all this? Did we build it, and the Koopa Kingdom took over after driving us from our lands? Or did they build it, as a fortress to stage their invasions from?

Shopkeep only said this was the closest thing to a relaxing place left on the island so maybe, once upon a time, this was a nice getaway spa or something. The trolleys that move by slapping them are weirdly fun and satisfying for reasons I'm not quite sure I can put my finger on.

Those spikes might be, like, relaxation spikes. You don't know.

No, but, for real. Jumping around from bamboo branch to bamboo branch is, like, a fun day in the park for a trained ninja. If it weren't for all the demon heads blowing in on the wind, I'd be having the time of my life. I think this was a vacation resort.

Plus, y'know, it's been a while since we fought the necromancer. And there was that weird statue in Luana's fable and all that. So. I. Kinda. Was hoping.....

Actually, come to think of it, that statue might have been Quarble. Huh.

...do I get to fight Quarble? 'Cause he's my bestie, don't get me wrong, but I'd love a sparring match with him!

There are a lot of things I wouldn't fight on my day off. Like that inexplicably fast guy with the halberd who stabbed me in the junk. That was not very relaxing at all.

...

But yes, I would like to fight a boss on my day off. Boss plz.

Well, if I don't get to fight a boss then at least I still have my unchecked lust for shiny fragments of concentrated physics violations.

If there's not a boss here then there better be something really good up ahead to--

MOTHERFUCKING HIGH DIVE WHOOOOOOOO!!!!

You win this round, ambiguous Shopkeeper.

Oh hey, a tunnel. Wonder what's down there. If this is the pool then maybe there's a hot tub--

Howling like "the wind howls" or howling like a wolf? Because those will create two very different sets of expectations for what, exactly, is coming to kick my ass.

That guy on the mural is definitely pooping. Weird thing to immortalize, ancient temple builders or whatever this place is.

Very well. At least we've clarified. I will adjust my expectations straight to the bottom of a ravine. Not unlike the one I descended to get here.

[eirenare]

Hi hi~! Life update here

Hi there!

Yes, I'm still alive lol, it's just that 85% of my social media time I currently spend it on Twitter (I refuse to call it how Elmo Muskrat wants the site to be called lol), and 15% I spend it on Bluesky (which, by the way, if you wanna find me there, I'm Eirenare too there lol).

I'm still very veeeeeery much in my Reylo brainrot haha, so yeah, you might see me posting or reblogging every now and then some of it, although I've been as well into some other stuff lately (Elden Ring for example), so you might see me posting about that too, so just a heads up there about it (and don't worry, everything I post here, regardless of what it is, as usual it'll have its tags and spoiler warnings, a "read more" if need be, etc).

My energy's been specially low for the past months though to be honest, so I can't guarantee I'll be very active around here (except for private messages, I'll be checking these every little time), just that every now and then I'll come here and post or reblog some stuff, probably Reylo and other things Star Wars or series/movies, life updates too, maybe will share in a bit of my Elden Ring brainrot and theories as its DLC approaches and I get more and more excited.

Anyways, here's some random life update stuff and anecdotes that I wanted to say before I log off for the night here:

I fell into the Kalluzeb (Kallus x Zeb, from Star Wars Rebels) rabbithole some time ago and it was, and is, neat, I love them so much

earlier today I had churros and hot chocolate as desert at lunch time and I was in cloud nine all the while I chomped on them

apparently my brain won't cease to come up with new Reylo AUs which is amazing and so much fun but also if I ever showed you guys screenshots of my Google Docs you might just faint because there are just so many things there between WIPs I'm currently working on that are already on Ao3, future things to go on Ao3, vague WIPs, AU ideas... and my energy is running so low and I'm working on various Ao3 WIPs so yeah lol I don't think I'll ever write even half of the fics I noted down

I watched Barbie at the cinema and it became one of my new comfort movies and one of my fave movies of all time

somehow I'm not as bad as I thought I'd be at Elden Ring even though I'm clumsy, a scaredycat and my tunnel vision goes lvl 100 when I'm playing videogames which usually means "good luck remembering to look at your stamina bar and using key items", so seeing myself not get too stuck on bosses was unexpected and neat (in fact, funnily enough: somehow this game even makes my anxiety lower at times and it barely increases it at all even when I'm fighting bosses, go figure lol)

I had the chance to buy Final Fantasy XVI at a much cheaper price than release price but because at that site I didn't see any warning that it was temporary, by the time I went to buy it, it had risen price again so now I'm awaiting once again for both better prices and for my wallet to recover

my brother bought a PS5 back in spring and a copy of Star Wars Jedi Survivor and, since we live in the same house, I did play that game and it was amazing asdfgffdgfjfb there were only a very few things I didn't like that much but holy shit was it good, some stuff even felt tailor-made for me in ways I wasn't expecting but that I enjoyed very much (and also the tears, the rivers of tears I shed on certain scenes lol) and now I'm super hyped for the 3rd whenever it is that it'll happen

the official Star Wars accounts at Twitter have been posting quite a bit about Reylo and the sequels and Ben for the past days (and I gotta say, the account from Spain even added some extra Reylo flavor in some tweets that other accounts didn't which is curious) and I'm clowning kinda hard, hoping that DLF finally realized most of the people actually like a lot Reylo (or don't mind it) and the ST, and hoping (always hoping, always dreading to hope too much, but hoping anyways) that we'll get Rey and Ben reunited in her movie

Anyways x2, enough anecdotes and thoughts for the night, see you around lovely people~! <3 Hopefully soon lol, but if not... *looks at 2024 fast approaching* if not, then I'll 100% be around to gossip and scream for when the Rey movie begins production and talks begin and all that stuff, lol.

Good night~! :D I hope you have a great day and/or a good sleep~! <3

EDIT: looooool apparently this was my 100th post in here and I got a free badge for my profile so yay, nice~ x) XDD

[dogydayz]

SPOILERS FOR SONIC FRONTIERS AHEAD!!!!

So i was playing Frontiers for a few hours today- okay most of the day actually. But like, i nearly fucking cried already??? And im not even at the end??????? Im at the last island though. It physically pained me seeing his idle animations slowly start to show him more and more tired, and how he looks in cutscenes too. The whole Tails quests have left me REALLY hoping we might get a Tails game, like one literally just based on him and his own independent adventures and shit like that. That'd be such a neat way to build off of what Frontiers has set up for him! The brotherly relationship between Tails and Sonic makes me so fucking happy too man,,, Like god fucking damn it, SONIC CALLS HIM "LITTLE BRO" LIKE THEY'RE ACTUALLY JUST BROTHERS,,, I played a lot of the fishing minigame stuff with Big and it made me really want a post-game DLC where you can keep the fish you catch if you wanna and like.... put em in a fishtank or smthn, like a really BIG fishtank that you can decorate and shit, and you could buy decor and details + space for it with the tokens you get (because infortunately it seems that Big's fishing spot stuff has little purpose after the story is finished). On the fourth island, Rhea Island, I nearly started to fuckin cry i was hit with so many emotions. The Ancients having to leave then being destroyed in the end, Sonic's idle animations showing the worst of his condition, the corruption taking over him more and more each tower.... AND GOD. FUCKING. DAMN IT. You start off the island before the first tower and are in a MASSIVE FUCKING FIELD OF LAVENDERS. Afaik that's one of the only places in the game with a lavender field???? So now im just begging SEGA to make the Twitter Takeover stuff about Shadow liking lavenders canon by referencing him in that area, like.... if you go back there after the story (since having Sonic randomly mention Shadow while he's about to fuckin keel over would probably ruin the moment entirely lmao). LIKE COME ON. It's SUCH a pretty spot too you better fuckin believe I'm gonna draw art of Sonic bringing Shadow to the Starfall Isles post-story and shit like that just to show him the fields and the sights. You absolutely know I am. The game overall just has such good fucking MUSIC!!! I'm like 90% certain that every mini-boss (big crazy battle enemy) has its own entire battle theme, which is ABSURD. There's none of the eventual monotony that BotW unfortunately ended up having, the enemies on every island differ AND they have features to them that actively prepare you for what you'll have to do in the future with the bosses and Titans. The game design, sound design, controls, designs.... It's all just so fucking amazing I can't even explain it properly. Every goddamn time I ran into another boss I'd be like "the fuck is this thing" and have to learn "new" mechanics that had ALWAYS been there, yet I'd just never used before. The world is INTERESTING, it's FULL and FUN to explore! That was one of the fanbase's biggest fears when the game was first announced, that the world would be empty and boring due to how Sonic needs space to go fast properly, but holy FUCK they nailed it!! They actually did it!! There are so many small locations that are just so beautiful. I really am excited for that future photo mode update, that's gonna be such a blast auuughh!!! I really hope they continue to add more through DLCs as time goes on. While I'd KILL for a "Dark Expansion" DLC that adds in Rouge and Shadow (or even Omega as a secret borderline OP playable character lol), I know it probably wouldn't be able to work into the story so I doubt it'd happen? Would be fun though, to get to explore as different characters during the post-game, hell maybe even have some characters explore together and interact in various locations somehow.... I wonder if someone would end up modding that or some shit lol. But yeah, the game is fantastic and I'm going crazy over it, I just hope we do get some good stuff for the post-game, even if in the future.

[dany36]

sooo i finally finished sonic unleashed. the main story parts, anyway. there's still a bunch of act 2 and act 3 stages i still have to do but from what i've seen, they're way shorter than their act 1 counterparts so it's fine. some junk thoughts below about this game!

now that i finally have a ps3 i'v been catching up on a bunch of games i missed out on when i only had the wii :y when i first started playing this game i was like wow, this isn't really that bad compared to what i had been hearing online about it! sure the werehog portions were kind of tedious sometimes, and the fact that they're twice or three times as long as the daylight sections isn't great, but i mean sonic adventure 2's eggman stages sure were slower and more tedious than the sonic/shadow stages, so i was like eh sure, fine, whatever. some of the later werehog stages were a pain and fighting the same type of enemies over and over was really starting to get on my nerves, but again, is this any different than the slow stages of eggman/tails in sa2? if i was able to A-rank all of their missions, then getting through the werehog stages isn't the worst. some of the platforming sections were actually entertaining but yeah, the fighting? not so much.

the daylight stages are hella fun to play through, although i don't know if it's the ps3 version but they seemed very ummm glitchy at parts, and the frame rate would slow waaaay down in certain portions of stages too. it obviously isn't as smooth as i would have wanted, but that was kind of my experience playing through sonic generations. i'm playing with a fat ps3 so i don't know if the experience is better in the slim version lol, but yeah, i'd love to come back to it eventually and try to S rank the stages since they're so fast-paced and just a blast to do. i don't think i'll ever bother getting all of the medals and 100% completing it since this game is just PACKED with content. on top of getting the medals, S-ranking, and the sidequests you get in the hub world, apparently there's hot dog missions too?? oh and there's DLC on top of that. so yeah, i'm ok with not 100% this like i did with sa2 or colors or generations lol. teenage me would have loved to do it though.

sonic games might not be your cup of tea but the music never disappoints. i had heard the unleashed OST way before ever playing the game and man, it was so good to finally hear the music along with the game. while i was out trying to collect enough medals to unlock the stages i don't know why but hearing the apotos night theme made me get all sentimental and nostalgic lol even though i didn't even grow up with this game at all. idk i guess it's just something about sonic games and their music that always hits home.

i know in my last post i was extremely pissed off at the last stage in unleashed and i said it brought the game down to a 5/10, but maybe i was a bit harsh lol. like i still think that level is atrocious EVEN FOR a last level, which you always know it's going to be a harder-than-usual level. but seriously that level design was just ridiculously long and stupid in every shape or form--the part that pissed me off the most was when you have to walk on these pipes as a werehog and in some parts you have to jump, but when you jump sometimes the fucking camera changes directions so because you're tilting the control stick a certain way, that would cause you to fall off the pipe and die. seriously, i don't think i've ever played a last stage in a sonic game that was as bad as eggmanland, so it's always interesting to see the comments on the youtubes defending the stage and how it's actually a great level. like ok sure lol.

i still say that the game forcing you to collect a ridiculous amount of medals to unlock stages was just not necessary. i thought i was doing a pretty good job at collecting them but i still had to look up guides to unlock the stages from chuu-nan onwards. like, just let me play the stages and get through the story, maybe make the act 2 and act 3 harder to unlock that way but not the main ones!

i actually have the wii version of unleashed that i had bought waaay back when but i never bothered to finish it once i learned that the stages are like watered down versions of the ps3/xbox360 ones, so i'm glad i waited to play it how it was meant to be played. the wii one also doesn't have the hub worlds i don't think, which i mean the hub worlds are actually pretty bad and add nothing to it gameplay wise: they will never be station square or mystic ruins. the way the camera moves around them is actually pretty bad and would make me feel dizzy at times lol. but still, i'm glad they exist because otherwise, we would have never gotten the absolutely gorgeous music that the night stages have (spagonia night theme is absolutely lovely and holoska night is the perfect listen for winter time).

overall, i'm glad i finally got a chance to play unleashed and see how this was the start of the sonic team getting the 3D sonic formula right (minus that terrible drifting mechanism, sorry!). generations is still one of my ultimate faves and frontiers brought back the sonic fever in me, so i'm excited to catch up on the rest of the 3d sonic games i missed out due to me being either a poor college student or poor fresh out of college lol. i'm thinking about buying sonic boom next, it looks very platform-y from the gameplay i've seen of it, so yeah! full on sonic mode and loving it!!

[mysmashplaythroughs]

Waiting with high spirits.

I figured I'd do an off-topic post once I finished all the entries for Gen1 (well I figured I might after doing Gens1-7 but now I realise how long that probably will be.) I've managed to get every single Pokemon on my list now with a lot of help from various people. I plan on crediting each person who's helped me in the entries for the Pokemon they helped me with so for now I'll just say if you happen to see this thank you once again. As for me, since I last posted off-topic, well firstly I spent a long time focusing on getting all the Pokemon I needed, to the point the only games I was playing for about three or four months were Pokemon. I enjoyed it quite a bit gathering every Pokemon I needed although I got very lucky finding help for the final three or so I needed. 2023 was probably the year I completed the least games and my backlog has grown a fair bit with games such as Pikmin 4 and Warioware Get it Together. This whole Pokemon thing however did finally make me focus more on my list again after mostly playing new releases. I will say now I have all the Pokemon I need and after also playing through all the DLC of Pokemon Violet I am already making a lot more progress with my list having played through more than half the amount of games I completed in 2023 already this year.

Speaking of games like Pokemon Violet, I definitely wasn't expecting to be adding new games to my list but in a surprise move four new spirit events have been announced. The first event was what I was hoping for with various recent Nintendo games represented which I want to play/have played anyway so I'm glad I can implement them directly into my list now, however the second was a big surprise with Hades, 13 Sentinels and WBSC eBaseball being added to my list. I'll admit the third was a bit disappointing, I was fine with Pokemon SV getting represented (especially as I've just played through it so was eager to add a couple of new things relevant to my list) but I wish it had been alongside other games such as Fire Emblem Engage and Kirby and the Forgotten Land. I'm curious at this point what the fourth and final one will be, especially as they seem to be putting it off a lot longer than the previous 3 were (which seemed to be biweekly).

I've also made a few changes recently, one thing is I'm currently between jobs which, is something I really need to sort out, I don't want to go on too much about it but I've left a field I've been in for 10 years so I have a lot to think about with regards to what to do next. In more positive news I've finally gotten a new PC, my old one which I'd had for maybe 11 years or so at this point was getting unusable with various issues it kept having so I decided to finally get a new one, it seems this new PC runs a lot better and allows me to possibly play some games I wouldn't dream of playing on my previous one, so it's definitely been a good investment so far. I've managed to transfer everything important over I believe to this new PC although until I'm certain on that I'm still keeping the previous one around, still eventually I'm hoping to give that one to my Mother as she's needed a new one for a while and hopefully the issues I had won't be as much of an issue for her.

That's mostly it, as you may have seen I've just finished every post for Gen 1 of the Pokemon on my list, I'm debating currently whether I want to go straight into Gen 2 or try doing another Fighter post next, if anyone actually reads this blog and has a preference feel free to say so in the comments. As for games, I'm planning on finally after all this time getting back to Tales of Symphonia, I have a bit more of a drive now to play through it following all my time playing Pokemon so I'm hoping this will be like Dragon Quest 6 was for me where my second attempt I get really into it. For games coming up, there's not a lot on the horizon I'm particularly excited for, Peach's Showtime is something I'm looking forward to and I'm sure will be interesting, Fantasy Life i is a pleasant surprise I'm hopeful for but admittedly have a couple of concerns about. I am however very very excited for Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door getting a remake, not only is it joint my second favourite game of all time alongside the original Paper Mario, but after how the series has gone I am so glad to see it getting another release, especially as this means I'll be able to far more easily get screenshots for this blog as I had a fair few things from that game for my list (including things such as the Putrid Pirahna and Mario's Wario and Waluigi colour options.) I'm also looking forward to seeing if there's going to be any additions given a Toad in the trailer who looks unique from any characters in the original game.

Really though, beyond that I'm mostly just hoping for various games, despite what people keep saying about 'too many remasters/ports', honestly some of my most wanted things are ports and remasters, I'm hoping for a remake of Fire Emblem Geneology of the Holy War (along with Thracia possibly as DLC), a port/remaster of Punch-out Wii with Doc Louis's Punch-out included (another of my favourite games of all time and something if it was on Switch I'd be throwing on whenever I want something to just mindlessly play) and finally I want to see Kid Icarus Uprising get a full on remaster with improved controls. I realise I'm asking a lot here, but I'd be ecstatic to just get one of these happen.

Finally, I suppose this will be the last month of the Wii U and 3DS online before it shuts down. Pokemon was the only thing I felt I really needed to get done before the shutdown, however I think I should have a look into anything else, I can play Federation Force and Triforce Heroes in single player, however if I can play online with others before the shutdown I would like to so I'll have to see if I can organise something.

[eri-blogs-life]

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth

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

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

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

The Digimon

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Story

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

fusion evolution is apparently gay as hell and i love it

The Cyber Sleuthing

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

Other stuff

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

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

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

----

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

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

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

In Summary

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

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

[cherryblossomstars]

I. Oxford (W. Ushijima)

Taken from my AO3 series of one-shots & reposted here

Pairing: Ushijima x F!Reader

Word count: 2,636 (oops)

Genre: Fluff/Kinda crack

Summary: Aoba Johsai's volleyball team has never been able to defeat the Great Ushiwaka of Shiratorizawa. Their manager, however? She can bring him to his knees in mere seconds.

Or, Ushijima Wakatoshi is helplessly in love with Seijoh's Ace's twin sister, and the Aoba Johsai VBC is not appreciative of it.

Next

"Oh, really? When's your next practice match? I'll try to make it." You talk into your phone and you practically send the hinges on your twin brother's door flying.

Hajime lays on his bed and looks up at you from his phone with an annoyed face. You ignore the threatening glare being sent your way, and flop yourself onto his stomach. He groans quietly, trying not to interrupt your call, and tries to shove you off. His efforts, however, are futile and he eventually accepts his death by his sister's hands (or, more accurately, stomach).

Oikawa, who was sitting on the floor of your darling brother's room, looks away from the video game he was playing on the TV to send you a questioning look.

"Friday. Can you go?" Your boyfriend, the eternal rival of the man sitting on the floor, responds.

"Mm," You hold the phone slightly away from your face, "Hajime, did I have anything planned on Friday?"

"How the hell would I- oh, yeah, movie night." He answers.

You scrunch your face up and put the phone back against your ear, "what time's the game?"

Oikawa and Hajime immediately groan when they connect two and two together, realizing you were talking to none other than the great Ushijima Wakatoshi himself.

"She can't go!" Oikawa yells, "movie night's actually gonna be all day!"

"Then... why is it called movie night..." Your boyfriend asks. You can practically see the tilt of his head and the furrow of his brows.

"Ugh, ignore him," you stick your tongue out at your captain and lightly push your foot against his head, which he was leaning against the bed frame.

I will bite you Oikawa mouths at you.

Fucking try it you scowl at him.

He purses his lips and instead turns back around to play on your brother's Switch.

"So, what time's the game?" You ask again.

"If you will be watching movies with your team, then-"

You sigh, "seriously, what time is it gonna be? If it's before it starts then I'll be able to make it. Might have to leave early, though."

"Four thirty." He responds.

You hum in thought, "hmm... Movie night's gonna start around six. Think it'll last that long?"

"Maybe."

"If you finish early, wanna join?" You bite back a laugh when you watch Hajime and Oikawa's heads snap towards you. Oikawa looks like he might pass out at the thought of Wakatoshi crashing an Aoba Johsai movie night, and Hajime is furiously shaking his head at you.

"I'm not sure your team would like that." Wakatoshi concludes.

You lightly laugh, "you're right, they wouldn't, but that's why I'm asking."

"What kind of manager are you?! Traitor!" Oikawa yells in distress. "Gimme that!" He makes grabby hands at your phone.

You hold him back by pressing your foot against his head, "I'll be there, Toshi. See you then. Love you."

"See you then. I love you too." Click

You put your phone down and turn your focus to your two toddlers boys. Oikawa has once again paused his game and Hajime isn't sure if he's willing to intervene the stare down going on between you and your team captain. You try to crack a smile, but he's still not impressed.

"Zumi-Chan..." He rests his chin on the edge of the bed and pouts at you, "why would you do that?"

You can't help but internally coo at the face he's making at you. You sit up, finally releasing your brother from death by crushing, and run your fingers through his hair. "Sorry, Oikawa, you know I didn't mean it."

He sits up and leans towards you, "finally gonna profess your undying love for me?"

Your eye twitches and before you can respond, a pillow hits him smack in the middle of his face and he falls back onto the floor. "O-ow! Iwa-chan... So mean..."

"Stay the hell away from my sister, Kusokawa." He threatens, holding up another pillow in preparation for another unwarranted comment.

He puffs his cheeks out, "I know, I know." He takes one of the joy-cons off and waves it in front of you, "in the mood for a round of Smash? Iwa-chan's trash." Another pillow comes flying at him, but he effectively dodges it. Hajime takes another pillow from his bed and, instead of throwing it this time, just whacks him with it. Oikawa is only able to let out a whimper and crawls onto the bed, situating himself behind you.

You can't help but laugh out loud, "Oiks, you only call him trash cause you're a really sore loser."

"Not true!" He hands you a joy-con. "Now, c'mon. Let's play. You guys bought all the DLC and I wanna play as Joker."

"Prepare for a shameful defeat." You smirk and choose your character.

"Isabelle? Zumi-chan, you honestly choose the most awful characters." He huffs.

You shrug, "yeah, I know. It's gonna be a lot more humiliating if you lose to Isabelle. Prepare to get your ass handed to you, Oiks."

Until your third year at Kitagawa Daiichi, your world had been blue. Kitagawa Daiichi's school colors had been blue. Your brother and Oikawa have always worn blue. Those two had been your whole life. Hajime, your twin brother, who you loved dearly. When you were born, you were literally born blue. Because you were a weak baby, the nurse had stuck your twin into the same incubator as you. This resulted in an almost immediate improvement in your health, and the both of you are rarely seen apart. Oikawa, your brother's best friend (and also therefore yours), whose soul cannot be described as anything but a bright, burning blue flame has never failed to be there for you, either.

Your world has always been surrounded by blue. Aoba Johsai's colors were white and blue for God's sake. It's a color you've grown to love. It was familiar, it had an all-enveloping warmth. When you thought of the people and the things you loved, you'd have to think of the color blue, too.

And then Shiratorizawa brought in their new cannon, Ushijima Wakatoshi.

Being a star volleyball player yourself, you had been too busy with your own games and tournaments throughout your middle school career to make it to a lot of the boys' volleyball games to support Hajime and Oikawa. You'd heard complaints about the Great Ushiwaka from not only Oikawa, but the whole volleyball team. The first time you'd actually seen Ushiwaka in person was on the court against your junior high in your third year.

With the third year of junior high came the great Ushiwaka, who crashed into your life and completely and unapologetically shattered your blue world. With him came a drop of maroon, and suddenly everything was different.

Kitagawa had lost. Oikawa was beyond upset, but swore he would defeat Ushiwaka one day. You waited at the gymnasium's foyer for the boys' volleyball team to finish their huddle so you could comfort your friends.

Shiratorizawa had finished their huddle first and began to leave. While most of them had already left the building, there you stood right in front of the gym's entrance and pointing a finger at the ace of the opposing team. Said ace still recalls this memory fondly, since it was the first time the both of you had met.

"You're awful." You had said with an accusatory finger pointed directly at his face.

The stolid face of Ushijima Wakatoshi had broken into one of shock. This girl, who was wearing a Kitagawa volleyball jacket and had to practically tilt her head at a ninety degree angle just to look at him, had just called him awful.

"I apologize if I have upset-"

You dropped your hand to rest on your hip. "Your spikes are ridiculous. It's obvious your setter was having a hard time keeping up with you. You need to be more consistent with your spikes. And your form needs some fixing too. If you're able to maintain your form, you're open to a lot more options while you're still in mid-air."

He tilts his head, "why are you giving me advice? I am your enemy."

You shrugged, "volleyball is volleyball. As a setter myself, it pisses me off when your spikes and your setter's sets aren't connecting well."

"You are a setter?"

You nodded, "yep." A smirk made its way to your face, "that said... You're actually really impressive. No, actually you're incredible. Especially in middle school. You've got more room for improvement, but seriously... I've never seen an ace like you before. Good job out there today."

"You are not upset I defeated your team?" He was normally confused in the manners of other people's feelings, but you were another anomaly entirely.

"You've got amazing skills. Sometimes it just can't be helped." You explained. "Don't get me wrong though. I'm upset that my team is upset. But as for the loss itself... it was a fair game. It's not like you cheated." You see Hajime and Oikawa enter the foyer. "Sorry, gotta go. But consider what I said, 'kay?"

"Yes." He nodded.

"Oh! I'm Iwaizumi [Name], by the way. I'll be going to Aoba Johsai next year."

He furrowed his brows, why was she telling him this? "I'm Ushijima Wakatoshi. I will be attending Shiratorizawa next year."

"Good." You begin to walk off, hands in your jacket's pockets, "I'd better see you at the spring high tournament next year, then. See you around, Ushiwaka."

Ushiwaka. Ah, so she's friends with Oikawa. "Set for me."

You spun around, "eh?"

"Set for me. You told me what I need to improve on and that my setter is having trouble keeping up with me. You said you are a setter."

"W-Well, yeah, but..."

"Then set for me. You want to improve as a setter, and I want to improve as an ace."

What Hajime and Oikawa don't know won't kill them. You held your hand out, and he gave you his phone. You quickly typed it in. "I'm usually free on weekends. I have morning practice on Mondays and Thursdays, so I'm free after school then. Afternoon practice on all the other weekdays. I'm out by six thirty on those days. Got it?"

He didn't, but he nodded anyway.

And thus, you were given the title of Ushiwaka's favorite setter.

Regardless, it was still hard to deal with the malice of Shiratorizawa when you went to their practice games. You were sticking out like a sore fucking thumb. You had come after school, meaning you were still in your Aoba Johsai uniform. You had gotten permission to be on campus, of course, but the intimidation just came with being from a rival school. You stood on the balcony, watching the boys stretch before their practice match. You gave a little wave to your boyfriend when you made eye contact, which he returned with a small smile. Tendou Satori watched him with confusion before turning to what he was looking at. When he noticed you, he excitedly waved at you.

"[Name]!" He yelled, a bright smile taking over his face. His exclamation caused not only the Shiratorizawa volleyball boys to turn to look at you, but the other team turned in curiosity as well. You mentally face palmed and felt your face grow red.

You gave a sheepish wave and the Shiratorizawa boys greeted you with glee before getting yelled at by Coach Washijo.

The first part of the game went well, but at the beginning of the second set the opposing team's setter landed the wrong way and hurt his ankle really badly. With him being the only setter, the opposing team wasn't sure what to do. Both they and Shiratorizawa wanted to continue, but without a setter...

"Iwaizumi, can you set?" Coach Washijo called from the floor, turning to look at you. Consequently, so did everyone currently on the gym floor.

"Eh? Me?" You pointed at yourself, "but... Um, I'm a girl."

"It's a practice match." He said matter-of-factly.

"I-Uh-I'm in uniform." You refute.

"You can't set in your uniform?" He asked.

Your eye twitches, "but... Why not make Eita-san set for them?"

"We need our pinch server." Ah, damn. You're out of rebuttals.

"Yeah, sure, I can set." You answer. "I guess." You mutter under your breath and make your way downstairs.

You strip off your school jacket, sweater, and tie and put on a practice jersey.

"Should you be playing in a skirt?" Tendou brings up.

"It's fine. I won't be jumping high enough for me to flash you guys, anyway. Besides," you smirk, "if you're paying attention to that, then your eyes aren't on the ball."

You turn to the team you will now be playing for, introducing yourself.

"Iwaizumi?" One of the players asks, "like the ace from Seijoh?"

"He's my twin brother." You explain.

"And you're a setter, huh? Good matchup. Did you learn from Oikawa, then?" He continues.

"Yeah, actually. I got into volleyball because of them. Everything I know about setting is because of Oikawa." You really hope your praise doesn't somehow make it's way to Oikawa himself. You didn't need to raise his ego any more.

"That's amazing! Let's do this, then." The team captain sets out the plan.

While Shiratorizawa had taken the first set, the addition of you on the opposing team had allowed your side to take the second set. Tendou had called you a traitor at the end of the second set. They had taken back the third set, anyway.

You were a few minutes late to movie night with the Seijoh team, but you shot the Seijoh groupchat a quick explanation before the third set began. Wakatoshi offered to walk you home, which you gladly accepted.

"You are my favorite setter." He says to you.

"Don't let Shirabu or Eita hear you say that." You joke.

"I think you have the same effect on me as Oikawa has on his own team." He explains to you.

You look at him in shock, "that's... that's a serious compliment, Toshi. Thank you." You've always looked up to Oikawa as a fellow setter. His skill was unparalleled. People could say he wasn't a genius or a prodigy, but he more than made up for it with the hard work he put into his career. Oikawa Tooru is what every setter wants to be. Sure, that first year from Karasuno (Kadokawa? You can't remember) could set with pin-point accuracy, but Oikawa's leadership skills and experience far outclassed his. Not to mention his charisma.

"Or perhaps it is because I simply trust you with everything I have." He brings up.

"Oh, so it's not because I'm a good setter." You jokingly pout, but when you gaze up at him he has a hint of a teasing expression on his face.

He simply hums in response and the both of you stop in front of your house. Before you can even open your mouth to say something, your front door bursts open.

"There she is!" Oikawa yells, standing in front of the doorway with the rest of the Seijoh team standing behind him, barely in view. His eyes narrow at the man standing next to you. "You."

You roll your eyes, "go back inside, Oiks. I'll be right there."

"You're already half an hour late." Matsukawa mentions.

"Seriously, do you have any manners? You even brought Ushiwa-"

"Maki, seriously? Right now?" You groan and turn to face Wakatoshi once again. "The band of idiots require me. I'll see you next time, Toshi. Love you." You press a chaste kiss to his lips.

"I love you too." He waves to you as you walk inside the house. When the door shuts, he walks off and touches his lips with a soft smile.

Fin.

[doubleddenden]

As much as I'm enjoying replaying DBXV2, I think it's time they just do XV3 already. There's only so much DLC you can add to a game my man

Here's what I'd want

1. Stop rehashing Z, we know the entire god damn plot of Z by now. You know what has hardly ever been touched? OG DB. For that matter, the Black Star DB saga in GT. The Other World Tournament arc in Z isn't even touched and its one of the better fillers. Hirudigarn, Bojack, Legacy of Goku, the DB retelling movies, man there's Super Dragon Ball Heroes with more interesting shit than anything Super has put out. For that matter, a true Tournament of Power arc with all or most of the contestants. Hell, why not an ORIGINAL plot that doesn't rely so much on rehashing? Fu decided to help Dr Gero and Dr Wheelo send Cell and Frieza back before Goku met Bulma. Raditz and Nappa decide to join the Z fighters, the Ginyu Force JOINS THE TIME PATROL, idk man something new. Like, is the SKoT the only SKoT or are there other SKoTs for other Universes?

That would make an interesting and fresh plot point. Having to help correct histories in OTHER universes with new stories for each.

2. More and enhanced transformations. I wanna embrace my ultimate dad bod by becoming Super Sayain 4. I want there to be a Super Sayain equivalent for Namekians without turning them giant. Majins get a better Super than just Kid Buu. And also better hair transformations.

3. Better customizations that has more body types for everyone and better fits. I want male Majins to be able to be like Super Buu, roided out Saiyans that are like 8 feet tall like Broly or Kale, shrimpy lads like Cabba, sliders for body parts, etc. Also better fits on clothes with adjustments maybe? And extra stuff like Code Vein to add abs resize. Plus letting us mix and match under and overcoats or capes, recolor everything to our liking, etc

4. More Characters that are overlooked. Yajirobi cut off Vegeta's tail, not Krillen. Why do we have Kefla but not Caulifla or Kale? The GT aliens during the BS arc, the Tuffle Androids from SDBH, Roshi, Chiaotzu, the wolf guys from Super, there's a ton to tap into without rehashing forms and shit

5. Fighting styles. I want to use swords like Trunks and Tapion, let me.

6. No more TP bullshit, just put everything in the in game store and let me buy things in game without using real money and without an internet connection, updated now and then obviously

7. Way more customization for Mentors. Why can I recolor Vegeta's armor but not his skin suit? Is it literally his skin? I can recolor Goku's gi almost entirely. Also, I'd like at least their other outfits as options rather than just 1 I can recolor or 1 special one. I would like to mix and match too or just replace their equipment, but that might be asking much.

8. More races. Beast people are a thing throughout the entire series. Kais, androids, off worlders, DB Fusions actually did this pretty good with a catch all race. Also, custom transformations for it would be nice.

9. Better lighting. Seriously my eyes hurt looking at the character creator screen and things get so saturated

10. Better audio mixing. People who have played the game need no explanation

11. This will never happen, but I want small crossovers, even if it's just costumes. Dragon QUEST would actually do very well since Toriyama did its art as well, and the two art styles would mesh very well. Plus Chrono Trigger, which I feel would mesh with the Time Patrol plot very, very well.

12. Please. Please stop. Letting. Goku. Hog. The. Glory. At least with XV 1 we could beat the final boss before he showed up. In XV3, I want it to be you and the other two time patrollers that came before you. That's it. No Goku. Maybe Vegeta for a change, or Trunks, but no Goku.

I don't look to see it happening any time soon given XV2 is still being milked dry, but a lot of my quieter interests have been getting news recently so uh. You know. Manifesting it.

[bemey]

[found this in my drafts] Skwisgaar, Toki, and Murderface in Tamriel

combining my hyperfixations let's gooooooooooooooooo

Skwisgaar Skwigelf

it's very obvious that as a Swede, his race in a fantasy universe would be that fantasy universe's version of our world's ye olde Scandinavians (aka, he'd be a Nord, duh) BUT i like to think if you gave him a pair of fake elf ears matching his skintone, he'd pass as just a really pale Altmer

he's beautiful, tall, slender, arrogant and talented, im sure he'd fit right in with either group, maybe even less so with Nords since Nord society values brute strength and high tolerance for alcohol, of which Skwisgaar has neither (I know he beat up that one guy with his guitar once BUT!!! he's absolutely the least violent fifth of Dethklok)

as a non-metal-musician in Tamriel im sure he'd have mastered a magic school instead of electric guitar, but i can't really figure out *which* school, *maybe* enchanting, *maybe* mysticism, but if i had to pick i'd settle on one of the schools governed by Willpower (alteration, destruction and restoration) because, let's be real, he's more dedicated (to his life passion) than he is intelligent >_>;;

the thing is, i'd make an argument that epic guitar solos heal people (not physically), so that'd be restoration, BUT if he was in a party of sorts I can't really imagine him as just a healer on the sidelines (that's Toki and Mface's thing hehehe), he needs something, hm...... Flashier. like fireball spells, but then again he's not really violent on the show and doesnt get into many fights (unlike SOMMMEEE people), so i'd say both Destruction and Restoration

BUT there's also Illusion magic, with which you seduce, make yourself shiny, paralyse, calm people etc and i cant think of a better analogy for guitar playing that stuns you and puts you into a trance because it's just so good

(also FYI nord males get a penalty in willpower and personality but i suppose he overcomes that, because i have trouble imagining him not heavily using skills governed by those stats)

and for the class- im forcing myself to pick from the set of 21 standard classes and looking at (this page) for reference because if i took custom classes into account it'd really complicate things-

an obvious answer'd be Bard, which makes sense because, you know, being popular and attractive, but in a gameplay sense it's more stealth and less magic (also if we picked bard just because he's a musician in the MTL universe, all other DK members would be bards too and that's pretty lame)

looking at the page i linked, the ''Healer'' class fits the bill, governing personality, willpower, destruction, restoration, speechcraft, and illusion. i wont lie, it doesnt sound the coolest (compare to a class desc like Nightblade, now that shit's awesome), but it makes the most sense to me

TL;DR nord by blood BUT looks and acts like a high elf, class: healer

------------------------------------------------

Toki Wartooth a nord as well but! i've met plenty of nord dudes in ES games who are really nice to me but kind of not too smart (think Thrud in Godsreach in Mornhould the city that came with Tribunal the DLC for TES3 Morrowind), and im not saying Toki isn't smart (he's educated enough, has geeky interests, knows a thing or two about model-plane building, i think he might be one of the smarter DK members actually) but a nearly-fatal flaw is his naivety which would unfortunately translate into a low intelligence or maybe personality stat in a TES game

when you have a low personality stat, NPCs dont like you as much, and (in Morrowind) whatever options you pick while Persuading an NPC are less effective, even taunt and intimidate)

but i wanna argue in the case of Toki in Tamriel, that low personality stat wouldn't come in the form of being an intimidating douchebag, because we all know Toki's really, really nice, and he has his moments of being a jerk on the show, but he's mostly kind and polite, especially to strangers, and *definitely* holds the title of ''Dethklok member most likely to agree to an autograph and selfie with a fan after a concert and then give them a friendly hug''

it's difficult for me to decide which attributes he'd govern, and a lowered luck isn't possible at character creation, but i'd lower it if possible

high strength, yes, i can imagine Toki with either a blunt or blade

high willpower, competent with restoration and destruction like Skwisgaar, but not as dedicated to the mastery, duh

high endurance- knowing the shit he's been through, might be pretty high

(''cheats death'' and ''unpredictable'' are both keywords i'd describe Toki by)

i have my eyes on either Crusader or Spellsword BUT I thought the class description for Scout fit Toki just perfect and I even made a little joke about it to my friend once

TL;DR nord spellsword or crusader, but i'd pick spellsword if i was forced to choose

------------------------------------------------

William Murderface

ive been so exicted to get to this one because, hear me out- khaijit pilgrim

Murderface's spirit animal is a dang tiger, man, and now it's true Murderface isn't very athletic or agile like a khaijit BUT listen, in Oblivion Khaijit get a daily power that let's them intimidate opponents because they're like, big cats, literally, like a tiger or lion and wouldn't you run if you saw one IRL? AND Murderface isnt very popular with fans, which I'd imagine would translate into low personality maybe, but Mface is dare i say pretty dang skilled at making people hate him or hate others or get into fights, aka using a high personality stat for bad (taunt/intimidate) not good (admire), which is why I instantly thought he'd be a Pilgrim (''They profit in life by bartering in the market, or by persuading the weak-minded.'')

look me in the eye and tell me lockpicking, sneaking and punching people arent things Murderface would love to do, also scamming merchants and stabbing people, and khaijit conveniently get a small bonus in Blade and you know who loves knives? M u r d e r f a c e

inappropiately urinating in places? cat. face like an inbred white tiger? cat. sneaky jerk? cat. also i just really want him to be a catboy, man

i did think of him as an Orc too because of the whole martial culture and being a race that was cursed with 'ugliness' (not always true, some orcs are pretty hot), *but* the martial culture orcs have isnt really the barfight kind nords or dunmer have, it's more organised and honourable is it not? they take fighting seriously

would you say Murderface'd rather practice like blunt weaponry all night and day, then go to war and die for his clan, *or* would he sneak in a tavern, steal shit, insult someone, then get into a bar fight? that's what i thought !!!!

fuckin obviously you cant appoint the latter to khaijit because that'd be racist and im not a huge fan of discrimination against beastfolk myself, an orc could be a thief too, but have a look at this:

(for orcs), and the minuses in intelligence is mostly what makes me think Murderface wouldnt be an orc because he's pretty smart

smart as in street-smart and smart with people, specifically at what makes people mad or do ugly things, and thats something I have to hand to Willy, he's cunning even if not always sucessful in that endeavor because of his bad luck and unattractiveness, but in terms of raw people-skills he's not so bad

and for his class- I know i said pilgrim earlier but i wanna consider some alternatives: rogue or thief

''a tongue as sharp as a blade'', and ''profits from the losses of others''? both Murderfacecore, but I might wanna stick with Pilgrim just because they're history nerds

TL;DR Khaijit pilgrim

------------------------------------------------

(this was an old wip i found in my drafts so i havent written Pickles's or Nathan's parts yet >_> sorry, i do have the ideas ready in my head though) (also feel free to share your opinions)

[indecisive-v]

NINJAMUFFIN DOING ANOTHER AMA ON TWITTER, HERE'S MORE SHIT FOR YA! keep in mind i'm just sharing the funkin related stuff, though i am including WAAAAY more than what i shared before 👍 go check out ninja's twitter profile for questions about stuff like ritz! questions in blue, answers in orange. if yall don't wanna read everything i MIGHT make a version of this post where i replace the answers with my own summaries of em (and if the questions are long, those too)

and here's a link to the ama tweet itself! dunno if it's still goin

Q: I figure the answer will be yes but do you have more plans to implement more guest appearances from people in the newgrounds community into FNF? Or are you all gunna focus on OG lore and stuff going forward

A: for guest appearances, I think we have always seen it as getting a healthy mix of both. PERSONALLY I'd like to lean towards having more OG stuff than guest stuff, BUT it's all a matter of what other boys think of that as well. I'm not the sole person working on game!

Q: Are you gonna release the full FNF game or are you gonna be releasing week after week? Like, are you gonna release week 8 or are we gonna wait some years until The Full Ass Game comes out?

A: Release plan for FNF right now is a few more updates or whatev to the 'demo' we have out right now, and then a long silence of probably no updates whatsoever until the full game is done (which will likely be a few years). That's partly why we made kickstarter for game.

Q: Hey so like, how much will Fnf cost after it's finished? And when will you ask the supporters what they want the game on?

A: It's all subject to change, but right now it prob gonna be standard 15-25$ lil steam indie game.

We will ask Kickstarter pledgers and whatnot what they want the game on SUPER close to when its released, to keep options open if we get onto anything like a console people want.

Q: 1. how was your day

2. are you releasing a week 8 song early like week 7, or are you goin full lockdown

A: I am doing GOOD today, and I think recently I've been good in general.

up to the mood, but so far we doing good about not having anything leak or whatev, so I think it'd be fun to have update come out with people not knowing what to expect at all. Build dat intrigue

Q: Will fnf ever get official plushies?? Seems like an untapped market

A: FNF plushies will prob happen some point, we have a lot of current merch stuff on our plates already though! (Mostly kickstarter type stuff, shirts, pins, posters, and all the physical OST stuff) Its a lot to sort out, but in time more and more stuff will happen. We r jus 4 boys!

Q: did you ever expect your game to blow up as it did? what was your first reaction to seeing it become super popular

A: FNF never had a humble moment, literally day 1 before the prototype even came out, the vid on twitter had like 5K likes overnight. Then when ludum dare version came out, it got 5K likes again, like it wasnt just a fluke. Was crazy, and def felt like somethin was different wit FNF

Q: Do you plan on getting other people to come in to help with the music? That seems like a lot of work to dump on one person, what with the erect mode and whatnot.

I guess the question could apply to all aspects of development. Will you be bringing on more people to help?

A: We definitely are getting help from other people. We are always keeping an eye on people for various different things. In terms of programming, already I've gotten 2 people (MtH and Geokureli) to help with certain Week 7 stuff (charting/polish, and loading stuff). Shit like dat

Q: Oh, also, will the Steam version be Workshop compatible? That'd really help streamline the process of downloading mods.

A: Steam version of FNF will likely NOT be Steam workshop compatible, because we want all the mods to NOT be spread out through different places. There WILL be modding support that is as streamlined as Steam workshop though. Mainly for non-steam versions of the game!

Q: Are there any chances that the game will have a physical release? Also any updates on a switch port? I remember one of you guys talking/joking about it.

A: Not impossible for FNF to get a physical release. We would want to see how far we could go with it though. I think it'd be super easy to do something wit people like LimitedRun games or whatev, but I think stuff like that can only go so far. I wanna see Funkin in mf Walmart!!!!!!

not that LimitedRun isn't going to be an option! Just we consider and pursue many different things! FNF release is years away, so we have time to think about everything. Whole mindset can be different just a few months from now.

Q: Out of curiosity, how are you dealing with all the popularity? It blew up so fast id barely be able to handle it if I was in your shoes.

A: The only way I've been able to handle it is having the other boys on the crew and being able to talk to them about all the overwhelmingness.

Part of it feels very lonesome, feels like NO ONE can come close to comprehending exactly how I'm feeling, except them. also other PALS!!!

Q: Do you own any of the bootleg FNF merchandise? Like any bootleg plushies or anything?

A: i dont, i genuinely think they r a waste of money, and I know any bootleg shit that gets made, we can prob go about and make it, and make it 100x cooler because we actually put effort into shit. bootleg shit just in it for the coin, so they aint gettin that from me

Q: How did you go about getting in contact with sr pelo for skid and pumps vocals?

A: Pelo i think was familiar and pals wit PhantomArcade a bit thru various Newgrounds things and collabs and whatnot.

pelo retweeted the first OG FNF posts first ever, and brought a LOT of attention to it. to pay him back, we put skid and pump in game! ask dave for more info prob

Q: what's the plan for having the full ass game open source if it's gonna cost money? couldn't people just download the source and compile the game for free?

A: when FNF is fully released, the full source code will be released as well.

the game will be DRM free so it will be way easier for people to redistribute the released/offical .exe instead of compiling it, so that's not the issue anyways. people will pay for things if they like it

Q: What are the chances of it getting on consoles like switch or Playstation, ps5 would definitely be my preferred way to play

A: it'd be a matter of hiring someone to build out backend stuff for those specific consoles. someone who knows their way around all the wacky code stuff, AND knows console hardware stuff. Then its just a matter of hittin up those console manufacturers (Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo)

the CLOSEST one is SWITCH. pretty much all of that backend is already made, so it just a matter of gettin all that access and shit.

i think in any case though, there's a lot of NDA stuff required, i dunno how much we'd be able to talk about it even IF we get that stuf sorted

Q: any ideas of releasing it on epic store or another platform?

A: Right now, the only thing that is 100% confirmed and WILL happen is a Steam version, itchio version, and mobile versions on respective app stores. Other storefronts aren't out of the picture though, but we don't want to spread ourselves too thin with it.

Q: Will you continue using HaxeFlixel to make the rest of FNF?

A: yes, because it is what I'm the most technically proficient in, and generally is VERY flexible. just a matter of ME becoming a better coder. It's ALL open source, so if I need something done a certain way, either I can do it, or we can hire someone to do it.

Q: have you seen game theory's videos on your game yet and if so, what do you think about them? (not talking about his predictions because i dont want spoilers. i like mystery)

A: it is always good silly fun to watch the Game Theory vids about Funkin with some pals, and see what matpat thinks of the game. i lov the vids, but wish he used my face less! Or at least used a cuter pic of me like this one!!

Q: Ok so: What does the future of FNF look like to you?

A: future of FNF is a rhythm game that not only exceeds every expectation that people have of it, but subverts most expectations and conventions as well.

Q: Do you plan on retouching on older weeks once the game is fully out? Like reanimating sprites, redoing some charting, updating the background, etc

A: retouching and probably overhauling certain aspects is almost definitely gonna happen. Everything is fluid and can be changed (and should be changed when necessary). i dont think anything should be too attached to, especially this early on in development

Q: I honestly do not care if the answer to this is vague as hell to keep surprises and shit lol but… Since Week 7 was the closest we’ll get to a playable girlfriend (still bf controlling tho), do you have plans to make girlfriend playable in spin-off things or just freeplay?

A: wouldnt be out of the picture for a playable GF, i don't think we've had some hard thing AGAINST it. just a matter of what we want out of the game, and what sort of story or whatev we could do with that concept

Q: How do BF and GF manage to meet famous newgrounds characters (such as pico, tankman and the others to come) like is this all in one universe/ timeline or are they being brought in?

A: i think they are all just there existing. i think there's a lot of wacky things in other media that try to justify crossovers, like MULTIVERSE bullshit or TIMELINE shit, but i dunno, its like subspace emissary. Captain Falcon and Olimar from Pikmin just hang out. Shit like dat

disclaimer that all lore shit is in phantomarcade head pretty much and maybe there is wacky dimensions or somethin

Q: Will the game have dlc?

A: its not too unlikely that we'd have expansions of some sort, but i mean right now we plan on packing in as much as we can into base game, and trying to make that as pure as possible.

if there is ANY dlc, i would personally want it to be 100% free updates

Q: How did you meet Phantom Arcade, Kawai Sprite, and EvilSker? And what do you think about the community and its controversies?

A: me and phantomarcade been fukin around NG for years so years and years ago we naturally crossed paths and became pals

about 2 years ago i found kawaisprites music on NG, and started talkin wit him, made Ritz wit him and we fell in lov

and evilsk8r i met cuz of FNF!!!

quik elaborate on evilsk8r, wanted artist for gamejam FNF was for (ludum dare), and OG person i asked wasnt available, so he referred me to evilsk8r, who I have never met or talked to before ever.

[someobscurereference]

fe anon here! Woah I'm actually crying your answer was so Intense and just So Much. Thank you! I love hearing your thoughts on their relationships. Out of curiosity tho, I sent an ask a while back about whether or not you'd be willing to share some more headcanons on how the Nohrian sibs+Beruka and Niles would interact with/react to the deaged awakening trio (and vice versa)? Bc I know u weren't sure you'd continue. Did Tumblr eat that? If ur comfortable talking about it I'd still love to know!

Oh, no, Tumblr absolutely ate that! My inbox is empty 99% of the time, so I definitely would have remembered something like that. If I don’t answer something within a few days, definitely feel free to re-send any asks because that means I didn’t see it!

As a whole, the kids would be wayyyy more wary of the Nohrians right off the bat, even if they’re told what happened and they believe it. They’d be like, “Really? A world without Risen?” and everyone else would say, “what the fuck is a Risen” and then they’d shut up real fast because these are Strangers. All three would probably be convinced they were actually in Plegia somehow until proven otherwise. 

Also, they’d still want to fight because that’s what they’ve been used to their whole lives, but the war is probably over at this point? So it’s just wandering packs of bandits and Faceless to take care of, and if one of the Royal Sibs or even someone the Trio knows goes out to take care of Faceless, the Trio wants to go too because they’re used to protecting their home and they feel restless and anxious to just be sitting around doing nothing. 

“No?” Literally everyone else says. “You’re like fourteen???”

“Yeah, and so’s Elise?” the Trio says, even though Elise is a few years older by this point. “It’s the same thing. But we actually have swords.”

“It’s different.”

“It absolutely isn’t.”

It’s uncomfortable for everyone. 

Also if they actually did sneak away and fight a Faceless, they’d probably be very efficient about it and work together really well, despite bickering almost 24/7 amongst each other in every other minute of every day. Risen are undead, so they don’t “die” the way most enemies would, and Faceless, though without souls, don’t work the same way? A Faceless is bigger but it will fall if you slice it enough times, unlike a Risen that takes extra effort and energy. So Faceless are actually a little easier to kill, but the fact these 13/14 year olds have so much experience fighting to kill would probably bother anyone that thought about it for 0.2 seconds. “Like. I know we grew up in Nohr, but that’s Not Good.” 

Fighting bandits is a different story, and I think if the Trio had to see actual humans hurting other humans, it would mess them up a lot because they came from a time where everyone who didn’t work as a group probably died already? Since lone figures cannot win against a pack of Risen by themselves. So humans vs humans is not anything they really think about until now. Laslow and Odin would probably take this extra hard because their moms were pretty caring and kind people (especially as healers/dancers, whose job it is to help and encourage people), while this would also fuck with Selena but she maybe got a talking to a little more explicitly from her mother or father before they left. (I’m taking this from Laslow’s conversation with Odin in…either the Hot Spring or Harvest Scramble DLC, where Laslow admits that taking his first human life after jumping through time nearly destroyed him because that wasn’t something he thought he’d ever have to do.)

Honestly, living is a peaceful world without fighting is probably the most important thing for their mental health. 

Odin

I’ve been lowkey thinking about this for a long time, but Odin would probably gravitate towards Elise a lot? Both because she has a very accepting and bubbly personality (she RP’d with Odin just because it was cool, and now they’re even closer in age so she’d probably do it again) and honestly she probably reminds him of Lissa. Straight up. Blond hair, pigtail style, youngest sibling, healer, cares a lot, etc. Even if he hadn’t recently lost his mom (which was probably semi-recently, since I hc Lissa being the last to go in the doomed timeline), he still would gravitate towards her. So they chill a lot. 

Leo is probably like lowkey jealous? Because Odin isn’t as interested in him anymore whereas he’d been totally devoted as an adult. He just wants to chill with Elise and other “cool” people and sometimes be by himself to fight imaginary enemies, so Leo actually gets a little more grumpy. Plus Odin uses swords now? Even though Leo had figured out Odin hadn’t used tomes all his life, it was still something they connected on and now this kid is insisting that swords and swordsmen are the coolest (like Xander) and Leo is very :/// about it. (Until maybe Odin sees Leo use Brynhilder and gets all starry eyed. Doubly so if you hc Odin’s dad as a mage. Leo coughs and blusters and pretends it’s not super strange to be the loudly admired person out of all his sibs for once.)

Niles would put on a big teasing front for Odin and probably follow him around a lot even though Odin probably is really distrustful of him, both because he loves annoying little punk kid Odin who takes himself so seriously and because Niles feels like he has to make sure Odin doesn’t run off and hurt himself. (Either Leo or Niles is always hanging around Odin, actually, or at least has someone they trust watching all three kids because magic is strange and they don’t want anything bad happening because the kids got spooked in this new world or something.) 

Actually Niles probably spends the most time keeping an eye on Odin because of that interaction they had when Odin was first de-aged, as Odin’s reaction was so uncharacteristic of his adult self. He’s actually concerned about the kind of world Odin grew up in, and he might not pry too hard, but he’s definitely keeping an eye and ear out for any concerning stuff. 

(Odin, meanwhile, thinks Niles is Evil because he’s a creepy guy who keeps following Odin around and he’s heard bad rumors about Niles and Odin’s brain is insistent that this guy Has To Be A Villain.)

(Maybe that changes, but they’d have to have some kind of heart-to-heart first. Maybe because Odin really does go too far and Niles has to pull him out of some trouble.)

Selena

Camilla probably wants to dote on Selena pretty hard, but Selena is Not Having It. 

“But this will wear off soon, and it’s not every day I get to see my darling retainer so young and cute,” Camilla coos. “Just enjoy yourself. When you’re an adult again, I’ll having you running errands again in no time.” 

Selena: “I don’t know you!! You’re not my mom!! Stop acting like it!”

Camilla, serious: “I’m absolutely not your mother and never will be/want to be.” (Back to cheerful) “But that doesn’t mean we can’t do X/Y/Z together.”

Basically she treats Selena a lot of the same way she treated baby Corrin, only Selena resists it a lot more. As time goes by and they realize through context clues that the Trio actually had a really rough life, Camilla maybe has a few conversations with her about what it’s like to grow up in a world where you can die at any moment and the whole world is out to get you (Selena via the Risen/Grima and Camilla via assassins/the other mothers of her half-siblings and Garon’s wives.) It’s a tough life, and Camilla gets where Selena’s need to fight and get better is coming from.

Beruka probably doesn’t really have any experience with children at this point? She doesn’t know what to do except treat Selena or the others like smaller adults, which Selena actually appreciates a lot but also maybe stresses her out a bit. 

When they first meet, Selena looks up at Beruka (probably not too far because Selena is really Tall for her age and also in general and Beruka is probably shorter than adult Selena) and says, “So you’re Lady Camilla’s retainer like me, right?”

“Correct,” Beruka says. Because it is.

“Am I a better retainer than you?” Selena demands, hands on her hips, and Beruka. Stares. Because it’s really driving home that Selena’s insecurities started Young.

(Also if Subaki is ever around, she probably hates his guts because he has red hair like her mom and is viewed as “perfect” because he strives to be so all the time and it makes her too uncomfortable and she Hates It. Niles loves laughing at this 13/14 year old girl chewing the hell out of this grown ass man just for existing.)

Laslow

Laslow is super short, worse about hiding his shyness than he was at twenty-something, and stumbles sometimes when talking to adults (especially beautiful people and people with a lot of power, so Xander is a double-whammy, but so is half the army), but by golly, does he try to flirt with anything that breathes. He’s not as smooth as his adult self, but sometimes he pulls off some okay lines. Even though everyone is like “You…are a child.” 

(Laslow gets that he’s a kid and he doesn’t even usually flirt seriously as an adult, but when people keep using that line on him even when he’s trying to do some good and fight, he gets really internally frustrated because he wasn’t a child when everyone died and he had been fighting a war where half the army was his age, was he? Lot of complex feelings there.)

Xander can Relate a lot because he was also super shy as a child and if this is how Laslow overcomes that in his own way (especially since this was apparently his mother’s advice, who Laslow values a lot), Xander doesn’t really want to be the one to stop him. But also he is Exasperated because he keeps getting complaints that this bratty 14 year old is flirting with half the women in the army and town and can he Not??? Can Laslow just chill for like two minutes?? Is there no better solution????

Sometimes he helps teach Laslow how to spar properly, just like he did for Corrin and his other sibs, and he respects Laslow’s apparent drive to protect others and sees somewhat through Laslow’s cheerful, flirty facade to the more struggling kid underneath.

Peri coos over Laslow a bit, but he’s not big enough to fight with her/by her side anymore and she doesn’t want to kill him, so there’s not a ton they can do together. She watches him when told to, though, and sometimes even withought even being told, and they manage to get a long surprisingly well. (She’s a great cook and sometimes shares her snacks with him, and they bond through that.)

All three kids probably interact the same way they did with each other as immature people, so they actually don’t get along very well? When not in immediate danger? Like Odin’s bffs were Cynthia and Brady, probably. He and Laslow keep getting into brawls, which is… mildly concerning, actually. Laslow keeps stealing his journals (”It’s not a diary! Give it back!” “It absolutely is, and no”) and Odin keeps insulting him. Selena and Laslow don’t get along because Laslow is too flirty and Selena thinks he’s just making fun of her. She’s a little better with Odin (who in their FE13 support I think was said to have still treated her with kindness, even when she was mean to him) but she keeps getting flustered and fed up with his antics and growing up?? Is so hard??? It’s so hard, and nobody understands. 

The difference between getting along as kids and how they get along as adults is astounding. 

(All three of them worry about their friends back home, even though they don’t say anything. Supposedly those guys and gals are all adults now too, but?? Who’s gonna walk Noire to the bathroom at night? Who’s gonna protect Brady? Who’s gonna make sure Gerome doesn’t become too much a loner and die???? They Worry.)

(If you wanted me to expand on something more specific, let me know!)

EDIT: Also one of the kids at some point definitely asks how old they were and get old “like 25” and they are all Shocked. Like. One of them (probably Odin, who also expected to die a heroic death by 16) says aloud “I made it to 20??!??” shocked.

Everyone else takes a moment to compose themselves and remind themselves that there’s a lot they don’t know about these three