#speedrunning all persona games ever

[faeriedoodles]

These two r sooo silly fr

This is what the drawing is based off of

[todayisafridaynight]

hi, it's the anxious y3 anon, long time no see! i really enjoyed your minedai art the you posted the other day, even though you mentioned you weren't a fan. i really like the way daigo is a bit dishevelled and totally enjoying himself and mine is still neat and collected and tense while obliviously quite flustered! i think it turned out wonderfully and in character for both of them <3 what i'm not enjoying is y3 lol. rgg really said we're going to give you one of the most interesting antagonists in the series but suck out all the fun from the game with broken physics and annoying random encounters while making it the most half assed remastered port you have ever played. you might disagree but i had to put it out there somewhere. sorry it had to be your inbox lol. anyway! i really wanna know if y4 and y5 are gonna have the same issues just to prepare myself and mb take a longer break before i go there

howdy hey AY3 anon long time no ask :] thank you for enjoyin the art, im glad you were able to appreciate the lil details bout it that i put in 🤭

and yeah. that's the common complaint for Y3 LMAO IM TELLING YOU DUDE JUST GRAB GUNS AND YOU'RE SET. if not uhhh just learn to grab ig- it doesnt work for every enemy but it'll work for the most troublesome ones. the random encounters ARE annoying tho, esp cause of the mini dialogue segment that happens every time. poor mine's trapped behind a frustrating game </3

if it's any consolidation, Y4 and Y5 don't have anywhere near as much of an issue with combat as Y3 colloquially does, so im sure you'll have a more fun time playin those two when you get to them :)

[yakuzacasual]

Game of choice

Round of rapidfire late-night thoughts based entirely in my own gaming experience of a european, and things i've gotten through osmosis.

What kind of games they play with Yagami, Kaito, Sugiura, Higashi, Tsukumo, Mafuyu, Saori, Hoshino, Kuwana

Yagami needs his mental stimulation, with how many cases of his end up being a literal wild goose chase. He would totally be into Layton games and maybe even Ace Attorney if we feel a little on the nose. Eventually falls victim to the Spike Chunsoft pipeline from Danganronpa, through AI: Somnium Files, to Zero Escape series. 999 is now his favourite.

Kaito only cares about multiplayer shooting games with his buds. Rainbow Six Siege, Battlefield, PUGB you name it - he probably tried it. Aside from CS:GO, he was banned from ever trying CS:GO by Sugiura. Got roped into Fortnite along the way and although he clearly enjoys it, he keeps complaining it's clearly for kids.

Sugiura plays pretty much anything popular - Minecraft, Fortnite, GTA, Valorant - usually just to kill time. He doesn't care all that much about having "experiences that will change the trajectory of his life forever", as Tsukumo puts it. What only a handful of people know, however, is that he is absolutely INSANE about Mirror's Edge. Go figure.

Higashi will let his history nerd run wild and will put his hands on anything samurai period drama adjacent. He's been through things such as Ghost of Tsushima, Ishin and will brave the toughest of challenges in Sekiro and Nioh for his dose of the good shit. Recently he's been even caught trying out Katana Zero and despite not being his usual kind of setting, he ends up loving it.

Tsukumo is a League of Legends youth survivor and years clean of the cancer that enveloped him. These days he's neck deep into jrpgs and visual novels of all kinds. Most notably, he is THE Xenoblade Chronicles fan and has played literally every entry in and adjacent to the Megami Tensei series. Refuses to talk about Persona though, absolute SMT truther.

Mafuyu is the absolute casual girly player, with hundreds of thousands of hours in between things like Fashion Dreamer, every Sims generation and a touch of Splatoon when nobody's watching. Was there back when Flash games were a thing, where she would spend all evenings on the dress-ups and Devillish Hairdresser. Probably played Stardoll or something.

Saori finds herself lured into the strange appeal of Cultist Simulator, which somehow escalated into her being insane about Lobotomy Company and Library of Ruina. I don't know either. Suffice to say, she enjoys card and management games, with a bit of weird fucking lore on the side. At times she emerges from her solo player cave to kick people's asses in Dead By Daylight - she can WRECK with any killer.

Hoshino was there for the Giant Dad phase and has, ever since, remained one of the greatest, most viscious Dark Souls PVPers. Bro used to have absolutely no mercy with his neigh beast skill in the game and if you squint, he might've won a DS speedrun competition once or twice. These days he only logs in to help in multi (think along the lines of Let Me Solo Her) and will not shut up about Disco Elysium.

Kuwana is yet to recover from Hotline Miami brainworms even though it has been literal years. He has tried his hand at similar recommendations like Superhot, Ruiner or Ultrakill but nothing has ever stuck quite the same way. Ends up replaying the games every year like a religious ritual. Might end up getting into Katana Zero, but ends up so pissed with the ending he vows never to give chances again.

[yeetus-feetus]

Clex fic idea where Lex Luthor is transmasc and Kon is their bio kid. But Lex got pregnant before he started physical transition and he left Smallville when he found out he was pregnant so Clark doesn't know about Kon.

Clark also doesn't know that Lex Luthor used to be the pretty redhead that he shared most of his highschool classes with.

The pretty part hasn't changed, actually, Lex is just pretty in a different kind of way now, with his sharp jaw, no good smirk, perfect suntan and defined muscle barely hidden under his crisp, expensive suits.

And there's definitely something familiar about Lex, something about his eyes. But Clark can't put his finger on it and it's driving him insane. No, that's the least of his worries - what's really worrying is the way he's falling for his arch nemesis and the most infuriating man he's ever known.

And really, unknown to Clark, he's already fallen for Lex once before.

And then one day, Clark wakes up after the end of the world, and there's a mini-me version of himself trying to help him save the world again. And the kid is calling him dad.

And this Superboy has very familiar eyes.

He finds out about this kids involvement with Lexcorp. And he immediately assumes this another clone of his- like the many other clones of himself he's had to face before. And he's ready to come down on Luthor with an almighty fury for cloning him, because this kid has the same clear grey-blue eyes.

Luthor has always wanted Superman's power, or at least control of it, and it's not a huge leap to assume he's made a clone so he can do just that.

But when Superman confronts Lex? Well, he finds out a lot more than what he was prepared to. And he wants to be angry, that his son was kept from him until now- but this is the first time he's ever seen fear in luthor's eyes.

And that makes a pit open up in his stomach, this sinking guilty feeling that Lex was scared all those years ago and felt safer running away than talking to him. That Clark hadn't felt like a safe enough person to tell all those things too.

Then it starts to make sense why Luthor's attacks had greatly decreased in lethality during that year leading up to Superman's death. Because Conner had developed his powers, but Clark was his other father, so the only possible conclusion was that the big blue boyscout is actually that dorky kid from Kansas that had accidentally blown up their middle-school science room that one time.

In the end, things work out and Clark and Lex try to go on dates as Lex rekindles the feelings he had from highschool and Clark falls all over again, as they stumble through their relationship and what this means for their public personas. And some cute, slightly sad stuff about Clark trying to catch up on all the years he's missed with his son, trying to find out what things he likes and how he's been doing with school and what his favorite movie/food is, and they stumble their way through father-son bonding time.

It's hard at first, because Conner likes a lot of things Clark is unfamiliar with, and he has no interest in fishing or sitting still long enough to play a board game or read a book. But Conner does teach Clark how to play Mario Kart and Clark sits through one of Conner's favourite shark documentaries on YouTube, he also gets introduced to TikTok dances and becomes familiar with the words 'rizz' and 'speedrun' and- during many missions 'yeet'.

In return, Clark teaches him about Krypton, takes him to the fortress of solitude, gives him a Kryptonian name, and takes him for a tour of the watchtower.

There a growing pains, yes, but Clark is just happy to know his son. Is happy to be getting to really know Lex, handsome and more confident in himself now, than he ever was as the redhead in the back of class.

Also wingman Lane Lane! She is the fun aunt who buys into Conner's mischief whenever she's got him for the weekend while Clark and Lex go exploring (ifykwim).

[blackmagickwolf]

in honor of the new LiS game coming out i think it's time for me to actually yell into the void my LiS Amphibia AU idea, bc fuck yes

okay so, it WOULD be easy to place Marcy in Max's place bc she moves away and Sasha in Chloe's bc rebel punk and all that... but we're NOT DOING THAT

HERE we're placing Marcy in Chloe's place, having been the one "left behind" and Anne being the one that moves away. That leaves us with Sasha. Sasha here is... (drumroll) Rachel Amber. DUN DUN DUN

SHE DOESN'T DIE THO! NOT IN THIS AU SHE DOESN'T!! NOBODY DIES!! (just some people that do need to die, but not our main girlies)

these dynamics would be SO tasty to explore mostly bc we have an angry, spiteful, defiant, punk-rock Marcy. instead of Joyce and David it would be Olivia and Yunan, and they're at their wits end (lmao) bc even tho Marcy's... behavioural issues are at the forefront of things with her most of the time, she actually never stopped appliying herself with school. if that, she actually became more applied (her escapism here is of course still her games and books, but also her schoolwork, bc then it means she gets to leave, and if Anne ever comes back and she's not there? well, it wasn't her fault now, was it?). in Blackwell Academy she would be focusing on digital art, for her webcomic.

Sasha as Rachel Amber i feel it doesn't really need to be changed a lot lmao. her dad is rich and her mom walked out and that ofc gave her ✨issues✨, and so one day she finds Marcy, maybe at the junkyard while they're both separetly trying to do some mischif (Sasha doing graffiti, Marcy chucking things into a fire) and they bond over her woes and the like. at Blackwell she would be focusing on music, writing and composition.

Now for Anne! i feel like she would want to go to Blackwell mostly so she could see Marcy again. those years she spent away she did make friends, but those friends weren't Marcy. she started to take up photografy bc she "wanted to show Marcy all the new things and places they could go when/if Marcy visited", and obviously that never happened but she ended up liking the hobby enough that she started to go pro, tho she likes using analog cameras the most. she's like her show self in the way that she's just adrift in life, her only real goal being seeing Marcy again, so she tells her parents she want's to study photografy and of course Blackwell is the best choise.

everyone is like their S1 selves personality wise at the beginning, but the inminent threat of the end of the world and time and space just fucking collapsing make them have their character arcs in speedrun lmao.

IT'S SASHANNARCY!!! and it's such a clusterfuck 💖

Marcanne love eachother v much but Marcy has now abandonment and anger issues to deal with while also wanting to hold Anne and never letting her go again, and Anne just feels so guitly for practically ghosting her childhood best friend, so they're walking on eggshels the most of the time.

Sasharcy truly try to bring the best in eachother, but end up bringing up the worst most of the time. they enable eachother a lot, but sometimes (just some) they do get the emotional mature brain cell enought to not just fall to pieces bc they love eachother so much they'd to several legally and morally questinable things for the other.

Sashanne, oof. Sasha wants to hate Anne. that's the person that caused Marcy so much hurt! but she just... can't. she is absolutely smitten and whipped for Anne (for Marcy too, but in a different way) and feels guilty about it bc she feels like she's betraying Marcy by not hating her. and Anne for her part at first feels jelous and intimidated by how strong of a bond Sasharcy have, and kinda doesn't like Sasha for her Head Bitch In Charge attitude/persona she puts at school, but THEN she sees her defending Kate (she's staying there as a character) from Victoria (she's also staying as a character), and sees her in a different light.

Sasha and Anne would see eachother more frecuently at first bc they're both in the dorms and Marcy isn't (but she stays over visits so much she might as well be. the dorm sign says SASHA in big bold letters and at the bottom theres a little "and Mar-Mar" added), but they all meet for the first time (as in Sasha and Anne meet eachother and Marcy and Anne see eachother again after years) in the dorms a few days before classes start, and just a couple of days after the move-in day (i feel i need to disclose that i am not a USA citizen so i have 0 idea how dorms work) enough that everyone is fresh in the dorm but Anne's parents are not there anymore.

I just have such the strong visuals of Sasha lounging on her bed either reading or on her phone, the door is open, Marcy is sitting like a gremlin on the little desk chair (you know, the ones with lil wheels) playing some game on her switch and she wants to show Sasha something, so she kicks the chair around so it moves and turns so she can show her something on the screen.

meanwhile Anne started to hang out with some of the girls and maybe Kate invites her out for tea or someone else invites her out of the dorm, and on her way almost out she passes by an open door and just hears

"Sashy!! look! godamnit you GOTTA look at this!!" followed by someone else's laugh

and she goes COLD. bc she knows that voice. it's been years and she will never forget that voice. so she literally backpedals and sees Marcy and a blonde girl she doesn't know. and can only say

"...Marcy?" still as a fucking statue and almost in shock

and Marcy, who was mid leaning in the chair trying to show some horny character design (she was playing Hades in her switch, i have just decided) to Sasha for them to joke about, just fucking freezes and as consequense just crashes in the fucking chair. Sasha catches her before she hits the ground tho, and is so focused on Marcy that doesn't even notice some is at her door until Marcy speaks

"...Anne??" and she sounds so incredulous that Anne is kinda hurt. Marcy for her part, thinks she's got a concussion, bc there is no way that Anne Boonchuy is right there, in Arcadia Bay and more importantly in Blackwell Academy.

at the moment of the fall anne also reacted but a bit slower than Sasha, so she's left with literally just a foot at the door and an arm mid reach motion. Sasha is confused as fuck and looking between Marcy and Anne as she connects the dots, dawning realisation making a tension so thick like a boba pear stuck on a straw. Anne then is about to talk when

"Anne! hurry or we'll miss the bus!" and the tension is broken. Anne backtracks out of the room and turns to the person calling and to Marcy in quick succession

"I-?... you??...gonna- later!" and runs away, following the calling friend "I'm coming!!"

Marcy proceeds to have a slight breakdown and ends up falling asleep with Sasha hugging her. that's the first time she stays the night in Sasha's dorm (the first of many)

by the time Anne comes back to the dorms, the door is closed.

[griffinsspike]

pinned post

I go by Ruki online. The name is a shortened version of the Bomberman character Rukifellth's. Griffin's Spike is a Buckethead song.

I speedrun video games from the early 2000s sometimes, but maybe not the ones you'd expect. Instead, I go for GBA racing games and arguable best of its category Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2.

If a game lets me play as the boss character, I'm probably gonna do it. Bonus points if they're one of those horrible projectile spammers. And if I can't play as a boss, I'm gonna pick someone edgy or annoying.

Sometimes I make music.

Here are some random facts:

My favorite color is purple. I also like orange, the color of gremlins.

Oh, and that green all the villains get.

My favorite Pokemon is Glaceon.

I also like Porygon and Porygon-Z.

We don't talk about Porygon2.

I'm a big fan of edgy aesthetics.

It's cool when people show me characters they think I'll like

My favorite music album is The Smile Sessions by The Beach Boys

More below, but here are some tags I try to use

#ruki's ocs

#ruki's music

#ruki's music listening

#ruki's favorite music

I play a lot of fighting games - here are my mains:

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax: Sho, the best pun dispenser

BlazBlue Centralfiction: Izanami

Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes: Kuon

Guilty Gear Strive: Testament and Chaos. Maybe Asuka if I get invested enough in the game to learn him.

Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2: Bedman/Raven

Melty Blood: Type Lumina: Mario

The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match: Iori/Chris/Bao

Ultra Street Fighter IV: Juri, but I think it would be neat to learn Seth if I ever get back into it. Move stealing is cool!

Puyo Puyo Tetris 2: Squares/Satan Dark Prince

Garfield Kart: Furious Racing: Every character is a good choice.

And some other characters I love:

Geara (Pokemon Rejuvenation)

Tieria (Gundam 00)

Taiga (Kamen Rider Ex-Aid)

Hajime (Kamen Rider Blade)

Also, some of my favorite albums:

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Flying Microtonal Banana

Steely Dan - The Royal Scam

Stereolab - Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements

Cortex - Troupeau bleu

The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle

Melt-Banana - Charlie

Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings And Food

Herbie Hancock - Hornets

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme

----

UP UP and AWAY!! SUPER WASHED Ain’t He??!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤷🏾‍♂️. Stay low and keep firing! The air up there is a tad bit different. LIVE.LAUGH.LOVE #striveforgreatness🚀 #thekidfromakron👑 #jamesgang👑 #bronknows

[idsfantasy]

While I think youre points for The Mimic not being Burntrap can still have some logic in them, I'd also like to bring up some simple but almost damming id guess i say? points that would point to the opposite and see your thoughts on them. 1: The Mimic has to or is the very least connected to Burntrap in some way simply because it knows what The Blob is, The Mimic would not know what The Blob/Tangle is if the books were simply parrels and it was already deactivated inside the pizzeria still, infact it would probably be destroyed when it tunneled out if it was still just deactivated in the safe room lol. Speaking of safe room, if it were still deactivated in there while say, Afton was Burntrap, it would remain deactivated, The only thing that could reactivate it would be someone else, otherwise once again, it probably would've been destroyed or never found and just left behind in the pizzeria without someones help. SPEAKING OF SOMEONES HELP 2: The Mimic has to be connected to Glitchtrap in someway, because it would never be free'd elsewise The Mimics physical body is shut down, leaving it in a state where it only exists as Mimic1, The Storyteller tree is removed, making its last virus location be that of the game, Its already incredibly likely if not confirmed The Mimics circuit boards were used in the game to help with the showtimes as they did before, which leads to a easy way for it to become Glitchtrap, and eventually use someone to get it to release it, while in here it takes on the Afton persona, which would lead to Vanessa freeing him and removing the off switch, which would lead to trapping Burntrap after the PQ ending (Just Mimic if Burntrap just isn't canon anymore thanks to Gregorys drawings), The Blob/Tangle then tunnels out and then it is in its state in Ruin. I do NOT mean this in some sort of "HERES WHY YOUR WRONG!!" way btw, i'd like to just hear your thoughts on some of the more points I see that heavily point to the 2 being one in the same lol

I think the Mimic MADE the Blob, so it would certainly be aware of it, particularly since it was probably sealed lower down in the FFPS location after the epilogues in Tales. Some time we're not aware of, it would be reactivated, and we see Gregory's backpack down in the area so it could've been him

I do think it's connected to Glitchtrap, though I don't think the Storyteller has anything to do with the Glitchtrap stuff since Gregory is the one who puts that in, not Fazbear Entertainment. Mimic's program was used for story creation and in an official capacity, while the circuit boards were for pathfinding and were stolen back. The only thing Mimic ever latches onto hard is a tiger and its programming, and William is not either of those things. Even after the Pizzaplex is built, it never manifests as a rabbit, and there's a heck of a lot of evidence for the actual William being involved

More or less I just don't see Mimic REPLACING William. Moreso just also being there. The franchise doesn't need to just have one villain at a time after all.

(Sorry if this comes across as rude/blunt btw. It's late for me and I'm trying to speedrun editing this video, but saw the ask and wanted to respond lol)

[bellshazes]

am now 45+h into P5R and if it's baby's first flashy persona game for mainstream newbies to the series I am literally the perfect target audience. started on easy and am using the camera straps (kinda broken, I do not mind) but have been on hard since after the bank palace. I did love playing web browser turn based rpgs on dial-up internet so rpg + low stakes for failure high reward daily life? and it's gorgeous and the music has not gotten old, as in I had behind the mask (all 4 versions for variety) on for 6h straight the other day. I'm using a guide for social links bc I didn't ever expect to play this again but now I'm planning my NG+ route as I go where I'll do it no assists. wish i didn't have to Google how not to date my teacher and other adults plural but I'm grimacing through it and also am making her do my laundry and make me coffee every night during summer break which feels worse somehow?

biggest accomplishment was stubbornly speedrunning the strength fusions - with the fusion calculator and two free dlc personal for unlocking a move only I completed it on 7/30 in game. you can imagine how much fun mementos is now that there are alarms

[noodles24601]

Top 5 games you played before you were 13

I'm gonna limit these to one per franchise, but I'll mention where other titles in a franchise were really good too.

5: Kirby Superstar. This one has definitely had the smallest lasting impact on me of all the entries on this list. I mean I haven't really played too many other Kirby games besides this and Air Ride (and one for gba I think?), but that doesn't change the fact that I have some powerful memories and emotions tied to this game, and I certainly would like to play more Kirby games. It was a game I'd play when visiting my grandmother, so it was really a sort of special occasion whenever I'd get to play it, and it was just the right length I wouldn't get stuck part way through after a weekend visit.

4: Civilization 4(heh). I almost certainly have well over 5000 hours in this game. I've been playing it since I was 9 I think, and it was my introduction to strategy games, still a favorite genre of mine. I've played a lot of 5 and Beyond Earth too (and a fair bit of 6), but honestly I've probably played 4 more than the rest put together. I've played it a lot with my dad, so it's just such a nostalgic game for me, and along with most other entries on this list, just kinda feels like home.

3: Ocarina of Time. It's the first Zelda game I ever played, and it took me a long while to be able to beat it but it still has such a huge place in my heart, as does the rest of the series. The only games I played more than this on my old n64 were probably the two pokemon stadiums (which had multiplayer). It's probably the first game I ever played that filled me with that adventuring/exploring spirit, long before I ever played Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3/New Vegas, or countless others. Hyrule is just such an easy setting to fall in love with filled with countless characters that are easy to fall in love with. There's a reason it's such a classic.

2: Romance of the Three Kingdoms 8. Another game my dad introduced me to. I also played a decent bit of 7, and have since played a lot of 10 and especially 13, but I have played so much Romance 8 that I have legit memorized what's probably at least half of the text in the game. Like I do not have to read the whole text box to know what it says. Idk if there are speedruns in this game but with how fast I can play it I should look into it. It also fueled my early passion for history and a hyperfixation on the fall of the han dynasty in particular that regularly resurfaces to this day. Like, I'm custom building a ttrpg system based in large part on this game. It's a bit of an obsession.

1: I mean its gotta be Pokemon, specifically Platinum (or Pearl depending on the exact timing of things, this was pretty close to my 13th birthday). I mean I've made and maintained several of my closest friendships ever in part through the series, and it's still easily one of my favorite game series ever. I've been playing since Blue and despite everything I dont see myself stopping any time soon. I also at that point had probably put more hours into Sinnoh than any other region, and honestly that still might be true, so I had to pick it.

Honorable mention goes to Persona 4, which I would have played for the first time around when I was 13 but similarly don't know exactly when it happened, however it did take the first hammer to the wall of my faux heterosexuality (though it would take another 4 years for it to collapse completely), so I felt it deserved a mention.

[dinoracha]

40+ hours into Persona 5 Royal, and I have a few thoughts

I think I'm nearing the endgame for Persona 5 Royal (we'll shorten it to P5R for brevity's sake) and despite how much I've been enjoying it, there's been a handful of design decisions that have been real head-scratchers. My biggest issue with the game so far has been the major boss fights. Don't get me wrong; I like the Paper Mario games and having gimmicked boss fights, but for an Atlus JRPG to have multiple gimmicked boss fights feels bizarre. It comes across like the game is testing the player to see if they've learned the combat mechanics in terms of baton passing and weakness exploits for example, but this is a JRPG; unless you're speedrunning or focusing just on the campaign, you're going to have more than enough opportunities to put these mechanics into practice. Compare that to mini-bosses that are more of a knockdown, drag-out fight instead of solving a puzzle? Understandably the mini-bosses aren't the finale of the palace so they can't be as long or as involved, but with how said finales pan out*, doing a puzzle fight instead of a 'fight' fight loses the effect for me.

This ties into my next issue of the game's script really, really, REALLY wanting you to hate most* of the targets you're meant to go after. The first chapter is especially egregious, hammering it home that the target is all sorts of horrible while not letting you actively do anything about it - Not until the game gives you the green light to hop into the palace and get started. While I can imagine the writers want you to get emotionally charged and full of rebellious vengeance, it gets dragged out to the point of being uncomfortable(*1). For there to be all this set up that the target is scum and needs to have a change of heart, having the big battle with their shadowy self boil down to a glamorous puzzle doesn't tie up the chapter in as neat of a bow of closure as I would've hoped.

Nextly, MAN. THE SCRIPT REALLY ENJOYS SEXUALIZING YOUNGER CHARACTERS. WHAT THE HELL, ATLUS? The problem, before you jump at me, with trying to play that kind of stuff 'for laughs' is that there needs to be funny punchlines and payoffs for it to work. A lot of it comes across as seedy which is a sentiment I shared with similar gags in Persona 4 (Rise's whole chapter comes to mind). Considering how this series is more or less a playable anime, I can sort of concede that these are story-telling/writing elements (I hesitate to use the word 'tropes') that are to be expected, but… Yeesh.

Ho'boy. Heaven help me if I ever plan to sit down and write a full review for this one. Any place where there's an asterisk (*) means there are spoilers if I were to elaborate any further.

I think I'm nearing the endgame for Persona 5 Royal (we'll shorten it to P5R for brevity's sake), and despite how much I've been enjoying it, there's been a handful of design decisions that have been real head-scratchers. My biggest issue with the game so far has been the major boss fights. Don't get me wrong; I like the Paper Mario games and having gimmicked boss fights, but for an Atlus JRPG to have multiple gimmicked boss fights feels bizarre. It comes across like the game is testing the player to see if they've learned the combat mechanics in terms of baton passing and weakness exploits for example, but this is a JRPG; unless you're speedrunning or focusing just on the campaign, you're going to have more than enough opportunities to put these mechanics into practice. Compare that to mini-bosses that are more of a knockdown, drag-out fight instead of solving a puzzle? Understandably the mini-bosses aren't the finale of the palace so they can't be as long or as involved, but with how said finales pan out*, doing a puzzle fight instead of a 'fight' fight loses the effect for me.

This ties into my next issue of the game's script, really, REALLY wanting you to hate most* of the targets you're meant to go after. The first chapter is especially egregious, hammering it home that the target is all sorts of horrible while not letting you actively do anything about it - Not until the game gives you the green light to hop into the palace and get started. While I can imagine the writers want you to get emotionally charged and full of rebellious vengeance, it gets dragged out to the point of being uncomfortable(*1). For there to be all this set up that the target is scum and needs to have a change of heart, having the big battle with their shadowy self boil down to a glamorous puzzle doesn't tie up the chapter in as neat of a bow of closure as I would've hoped.

Nextly, MAN. THE SCRIPT REALLY ENJOYS SEXUALIZING YOUNGER CHARACTERS. WHAT THE HELL, ATLUS? Before you jump at me, the problem with trying to play that kind of stuff 'for laughs' is that there needs to be funny punchlines and payoffs for it to work. Unfortunately, much of it comes across as seedy, a sentiment I shared with similar gags in Persona 4 (Rise's whole chapter comes to mind). Considering how this series is more or less a playable anime, I can sort of concede that these are story-telling/writing elements (I hesitate to use the word 'tropes') that are to be expected, but… Yeesh.

These nagging issues aside, I'm still going to see the game through to the end. It's a JRPG-ass JRPG, to be certain, and while seeing instant-kill spells return makes me roll my eyes out of my head, it took what I liked from Persona 4 and polished it brightly: Palaces are places to explore compared to repeating hallways, having shadows morph into familiar Shin Megami Tensei demons is fun, more tactical/team-building options available through social links… After burning out with Soul Hackers 2, hopping into P5R revitalized my desire to binge a JRPG for multiple hours-long sessions that I hadn't desired since - Well, my binging of Persona 4. A review of this game will probably do my head in. There's so much to talk about, and I can only write so much until carpal tunnel sends my wrists into oblivion.

(*1) There are implied sexual relations between an adult and teenagers that, combined with a self-harm scene, made the first chapter miserable for me. It's a dreadful note to start on.

(*1) There are implied sexual relations between an adult and teenagers that, when combined with a self-harm scene, made the first chapter just miserable for me. It's a dreadful note to start on.

Ho'boy. Heaven help me if I ever plan to sit down and write a full review for this one. Any place where there's an asterisk (*) means there are spoilers if I were to elaborate any further.

I think I'm nearing the endgame for Persona 5 Royal (we'll shorten it to P5R for brevity's sake), and despite how much I've been enjoying it, there's been a handful of design decisions that have been real head-scratchers. My biggest issue with the game so far has been the major boss fights. Don't get me wrong; I like the Paper Mario games and having gimmicked boss fights, but for an Atlus JRPG to have multiple gimmicked boss fights feels bizarre. It comes across like the game is testing the player to see if they've learned the combat mechanics in terms of baton passing and weakness exploits for example, but this is a JRPG; unless you're speedrunning or focusing just on the campaign, you're going to have more than enough opportunities to put these mechanics into practice. Compare that to mini-bosses that are more of a knockdown, drag-out fight instead of solving a puzzle? Understandably the mini-bosses aren't the finale of the palace so they can't be as long or as involved, but with how said finales pan out*, doing a puzzle fight instead of a 'fight' fight loses the effect for me.

This ties into my next issue of the game's script, really, REALLY wanting you to hate most* of the targets you're meant to go after. The first chapter is especially egregious, hammering it home that the target is all sorts of horrible while not letting you actively do anything about it - Not until the game gives you the green light to hop into the palace and get started. While I can imagine the writers want you to get emotionally charged and full of rebellious vengeance, it gets dragged out to the point of being uncomfortable(*1). For there to be all this set up that the target is scum and needs to have a change of heart, having the big battle with their shadowy self boil down to a glamorous puzzle doesn't tie up the chapter in as neat of a bow of closure as I would've hoped.

Nextly, MAN. THE SCRIPT REALLY ENJOYS SEXUALIZING YOUNGER CHARACTERS. WHAT THE HELL, ATLUS? Before you jump at me, the problem with trying to play that kind of stuff 'for laughs' is that there needs to be funny punchlines and payoffs for it to work. Unfortunately, much of it comes across as seedy, a sentiment I shared with similar gags in Persona 4 (Rise's whole chapter comes to mind). Considering how this series is more or less a playable anime, I can sort of concede that these are story-telling/writing elements (I hesitate to use the word 'tropes') that are to be expected, but… Yeesh.

These nagging issues aside, I'm still going to see the game through to the end. It's a JRPG-ass JRPG, to be certain, and while seeing instant-kill spells return makes me roll my eyes out of my head, it took what I liked from Persona 4 and polished it brightly: Palaces are places to explore compared to repeating hallways, having shadows morph into familiar Shin Megami Tensei demons is fun, more tactical/team-building options available through social links… After burning out with Soul Hackers 2, hopping into P5R revitalized my desire to binge a JRPG for multiple hours-long sessions that I hadn't desired since - Well, my binging of Persona 4. A review of this game will probably do my head in. There's so much to talk about, and I can only write so much until carpal tunnel sends my wrists into oblivion.

(*1) There are implied sexual relations between an adult and teenagers that, combined with a self-harm scene, made the first chapter miserable for me. It's a dreadful note to start on.

[spinji]

Quirkless AU where all of the villains are twitch streamers:

Shigaraki has a big following but is infamously hated, including by his own fans.

He gets trolled constantly and donation comments are almost always to mock him.

Because his reactions when he gets riled up (which is not hard) are pure gold.

Fail and rage compilations abound.

He mostly plays RPGs but occasionally gets tricked into playing horror games like DDLC.

He hates getting scared but refuses to stop until he finishes the game just to stick it to whoever recommended it.

Kurogiri will constantly walk into his room to check on him and ask things.

He hates that too.

Not because of Kurogiri inquiring if he wants some piping hot pizza rolls, mind you.

But because his chat will never shut the fuck up whenever Kurogiri peers into frame.

They call him Shadow Man because the shitty lighting in Tomura’s room makes it impossible to make out his features.

He eventually needs to cave and make a Kurogiri emote just so everyone stops donating just to say “are you winning son?” or “get the fuck out of my room I’m playing Minecraft”.

They still do it, even when they promised they wouldn’t if he made the emote.

Kurogiri eventually takes up streaming too, just for fun.

He goes live very rarely but most of Shig’s audience starts following him the moment they find out.

He’s usually very quiet and pretty much only plays tactical games.

Yet he gets more positive reception than Tomura.

He doesn’t have a webcam though, so his face is still a mystery.

Toga is a classic, unhinged e-girl.

Does her makeup before every stream, has a cute as fuck room, and a cat ear headset.

Only plays the most violent shit ever published.

Mortal Kombat, Hatred, the works.

If it’s gotten banned from Twitch for violence/gore she has still tried to play it live.

She has a merch line of pastel animal patterns, but the animals are all bloody, mangled corpses.

People love it anyway so whateves.

Absolutely sold gamer girl bathwater and she is making bank.

Easily the most popular out of the whole league.

Dabi is an overachiever fuckwit.

All of his streams are speedrun records, soulsborne games, or those old flash rage games that were specifically designed to be impossible or unfair.

The difficulty never fucking fazes him, and everything he does is impressive but he’s so calm and smug about it that it’s actually kind of infuriating to see him play so well.

In earlier archives you can occasionally hear Enji yelling at Shoto or Natsu in the background and he just lets out an annoyed sigh.

In his current streams, Hawks will occasionally saunter by the camera in just a tanktop and boxers, looking like a fucking mess.

It always results in a chorus of fried chicken emojis from chat.

Dabi never acknowledges it.

Twice plays just about anything. He gives no shit about what games are well reviewed or brand new.

He will pick up a mediocre licensed game from 2006 and it’s the best.

He just fucks around and has a good time.

Tends to start and end his streams very abruptly, catching one live is hard and very sought after by his fans.

He has a soundboard and spams it constantly.

He and Toga collab for silly co-op games a lot.

It’s the only time you can find Toga playing games that aren’t gory.

Spinner plays almost exclusively driving games.

Claims that these games are how he learned how to drive IRL.

He’s oddly proud of it when he really shouldn't be.

He’s also very passionate when it comes to his opinions on said games.

Gets really pissed if you even insinuate that every Forza game is exactly the same.

So of course he gets shit disturbers in his chat who do exactly that.

He goes on a rant and blocks them immediately.

He and every other league member has played the FNAF games.

Shigaraki is the only one that doesn’t love it.

Spinner specifically gets absorbed in the lore.

Maybe a little too much.

Compress is a V-tuber instead of using a standard webcam setup.

He has the most distinct persona separate from his regular personality.

His reactions to things are always so over the top and odd that you can’t help but enjoy it.

About a year into gaining a following, he started constructing a really convoluted lore around his character.

His fans love it and he’s constantly receiving fanart and watching theory videos about himself in his downtime.

It gives him a good chuckle.

Stain is still a creepy mother fucker.

He’s always rambling about purges and the blood of the weak.

But he’s weirdly really good at rhythm games??

He flips out if he misses a single note.

Most people only watch him out of morbid curiosity.

Any laugh you get from watching him is an uncomfortable one.

Overhaul is the one that seems like the most normal person.

At least among this weird group of loosely acquainted fuckwads.

He doesn’t have particularly strong reactions.

He plays most of the new critically acclaimed games and gives his thoughts on them.

The more interesting thing is his community.

That is absolutely convinced he is a serial killer.

There is a subreddit entirely dedicated to collecting evidence to support this theory.

Random banging noises caught on his mic.

Shadows of people out of frame even though he claims to live alone.

One time he needed to end a stream abruptly and didn’t say why and they went nuts over it.

Chisaki eventually needed to make a public statement to address the rumors.

No one fucking believed him.

Exposed videos are still trickling out to this day.

Gentle is mostly an IRL streamer.

A bad one at that.

But he sometimes shakes things up by playing solitaire on stream.

He has 12 followers.

La Brava is currently minting Gentle NFTs

[dystopiandilfs]

Is it a hot take to say. That Jackbox turned into cancel city because of how the groups chemistry was?

Like Feral Boys all used inside jokes and memes and never got cancelled but then they started adding other people and had to stop using inside jokes so people weren't confused which made it more inherently boring for them.

Like Dream only used pandering answering along with dirty jokes and manhunt or speedrunning jokes and references and the occasional joke about what ever thing he was being cancelled for and that was fine and he's the most likely to get cancelled for breathing.

For example when they did one with any of the BenchTrio they had to rely on DNF, DreamSMP, online persona references and dirty jokes which is fine and chill yet when they're with a group that isn't really in the circle of "being in call with Dream and George multiple times" they can't pander as much which is when people have to rely on shock factor answers and end up with the mindset of who can say the worst things.

Even when it was with closer friends like Corpse and everyone in that group it was still a completely different vibe because they have different ideas of jokes. Like the Feral boys think that sucking dick jokes are funny (🍒🍏🍉🍊) whilst the others went for references and Corpse song lyric jokes.

I think it was also down to the games. Survive the internet is funny if it's played by the right people like Dream was the best at it even when he's the one in drama 24/7 which makes no sense but okay.

Monster seeking monster was funny but only when it was feral boys because they already flirt with eachother (fuck you Karl for not wanting to play it. Dream and Sapnap my woof woofs you have taste it's a funny game)

The rap game was fucking boring in my opinion especially since it was the most rng based game because of it pre prompting your answers. Also I know a lot of people agree since the views always drop during it.

Quiplash is fine as a first game as long as people can pander because otherwise it's boring. Quiplash is the warm up game where you can figure out what type of mood everyone's in and what jokes are going to reappear for the stream. Quiplash is also the creator of most of the references during the stream.

The dragon's den style game is fine because you get your prompts written by someone else in call so it's always more pandering. Same with the presentation one.

In my opinion the best group to have for Jackbox was Sapnap's December one with Red and Ant. So my dream Jackbox group is any combination of Dream Team, Quackity and some PPSat people.

Can you imagine who chaotic Monster Seeking Monster would be with Dream "babydoll" wastaken and Velvet "Twitter and Priv dms with ant are the same" iscake

[calciumcryptid]

BNHA STREAMER AU

This alternate universe is set in a universe where the cast does not have their quirks.

|• Izuku Midoriya

Midoriya was constantly bullied as a child, so he would let himself escape by watching streamers. He was fascinated by the career in general, and while he was getting through school he started to study the trends.

He convinced his mother, presentation and all, to help jumpstart his hobby. After a while, he decided to choose the channel name Versatile (based on my alternate hero name for him).

Nervous about his Identity, he decided to remain faceless and started to play games completely out about the speedrunnimg strats and the statistics behind drops.

He decided to start speedrunnimg himself, and he found his first friend in the gaming community.

|• Iida Tenya

Iida is the younger brother of game designer Iida Tensei. Surrounded by games, Iida quickly began coding and trying to break the games his family would develop. Eventually he got his own job at the company test playing games.

He eventually decided it would be a great marketing tactic to start streaming so he began under the channel Ingenium. His start was easy given his family's reputation, so his career quickly took off the ground.

He met Midoriya by watching other streamers speedrun his family's games. At first he was very critical, but soon was endeared when Midoriya found new ways to break the game no one at the company was able to.

One day, after streaming, Iida noticed Midoriya was live and raided his channel. Midoriya was very flustered as this was the first truly huge raid he had ever received but was thankful. The two eventually became friends on discord after their fans wished for them to collab, and as they say the rest was history.

|• Hatsume Mei

Hatsume is a developing game designer. She learned coding when she was young and has an internship under the head game developer at Loading Power Ent. She streams under the name CodePink as a play on CodeRed where she showcases her mods and rough ideas.

She met Iida online when he wanted a mod, and basically used him as free promo with the promo built into the game. Iida was annoyed with this at first, but behind the scenes the two talked more and more until they grew a romantic interest in each other until they started to date.

The stream where Mei jumped on Iida while was streaming is still saved in many personal libraries.

Mei actually did not meet Midoriya through Iida, but charmed instead by the smaller streamer's murmurings. She asked him privately to play test a couple of her new mods with her, and he was nervous but thrilled to find another friend.

Iida did attend that livestream, and Midoriya found it about Iida and Mei's relationship through Iida bragging about his girlfriend.

|• Uraraka Ochaco

Uraraka knew that her family couldn't afford to much when she expressed interest in wanting to become a streamer so she started small with a YouTube channel instead. The channel Uravity was a blend between diys and gaming.

Her and Midoriya met outside of their personas one day at a cafe. The cafe was so busy that Uraraka was knocked into the chair across from Midoriya. He was surprised, but Uraraka noticed he was working on some new screens for his streaming. The two launched into a lengthy conversation about graphic design.

Uraraka revealed her channel, and Midoriya was nervous to reveal his channel but Uraraka didn't know he was but was impressed with the amount of followers he had.

The two exchanged numbers, and one day Midoriya found himself playing Smash Bros with YouTuber Uravity. Uraraka was beating his ass.

Midoriya let Uraraka have all the money gained from that stream so she could kickstart her own streaming career.

|• Asui Tsuyu

Unlike the rest, Asui is not a streamer.

She was simply a viewer of Uravity who gained the mod title so she mainly goes around through Uravity and her friends chats moderating and keeping the peace.

Simply known as Froppy, Asui gained a reputation among the forming Izucrew and was soon her name was in all of their mouths with thank yous.

Asui, feeling a bit confident, decided to get a bit more friendly in DMs and while it took a while the Izucrew happily welcomed her into their group. Uraraka eventually asked her out, and the two have been dating ever since.

|• Aoyama Yuga

A French YouTuber under the name Prince Charming who is known for criticizing fashion and reviewing style in media. He started to streaming when he found his newfound interest, and hasn't let go of it ever since. He even started to make clothes for his friends.

One day, him and his parents moved to Japan where he announced his moving with a vlog. Luckily Japanese was his third language with his father being Japanese.

He gave an apartment tour once their moving was complete, and was excited to show he has his own room to decorate for his art and designs.

Midoriya, fascinated by Aoyama's channel, bashfully sent art to his PO box (remember Midoriya is an art god) and Aoyama was so touched that he hung it up in the studio.

Midoriya squealed about it on stream, and word quickly got around to Aoyama. The two were soon in each others dms messaging back and forth until Aoyama suggested Midoriya come over for a video.

Midoriya explained that he was faceless, which gave Aoyama an idea for a video. Aoyama refused to tell Midoriya what the idea was, just that it was a secret. Soon a video was released showing Aoyama creating a face mask for Midoriya to wear using the green bunny aesthetic. Midoriya opened it on stream, and put it on. He commented it was very breathable and that he would be using it for any future vlog or content that required his body.

Aoyama and Midoriya eventually did the video together where Aoyama made Midoriya more fashionable while in turn Midoriya invited Aoyama to an Izucrew Mario Kart stream.

•| Closing Notes

That is it for now! I might write more tomorrow (which will contain Todoroki and Yaoyorozu), but for now I shall leave it at that.

[liaisun]

I am begging u tell me more about the streamer bfs au

HELLO KICKS :D thank u 4 asking <3 i ended up scrolling back thru a gazillion messages but it was absolutely worth it. please allow me 2 present the babes

streamer bfs is a very self indulgent kandreil au, pure fluff absolutely 0 plot in here. they live in a Streamer Content House™ with the other foxes. kandrew r dating and neil is in a queer platonic relationship w them !! there's two parts of it right now, the first being just streaming shenanigans and interactions and then further actual relationship development with neil :]

SO BACKSTORY !! we have andrew: a complete weirdo but likeable abt it? just a chill dude doing his own thing while gaming. sometimes he codes too (here is a beloved fic with absolutely feral robot maker/youtuber!drew). his channel name is nyandrew, it never gets Big big but its stable enough that andrew can do it for fun. he has The Cat Ear Headphones which he never acknowledges the existence of but still wears every single stream. king knocked over his camera once and that 10 second clip became his channel trailer forevermore

there's always someone in the back of his streams just . sleeping?  it's kinda hard to see, no one knows who it is and andrew never addresses it so everyone just accepts it as another quirk of his lives... until one day andrew streams earlier than normal and halfway through the door creaks open and they hear "...babe? i couldn't-- oh. can i come in" cue absolute CHAOS within the chat bc WHO IS THIS !!!!

this person is the one and only kevin day. he's a college student but lives at the house and usually pops up in the other's vids. he was helping dan (who started this whole operation) with moving in. that day he hung out with the foxes, who convinced him to stay for their first day sleepover celebration and then he never left :]

neil is a faceless streamer and a generally funky dude . he started out with silent walkthroughs/speedruns of puzzle games, and now he plays whatever while keeping up the most bizarre and unrelated commentary. he also runs the foxes' podcast. his 'quiplash/jackbox with friends' vids (prompt game where everyone votes on their fav answer) are his most popular because he always has the most brutal and funny answers and he's in top 3 every single time

he only shows up on camera in the other's streams as a hand or legs but once a week MINIMUM the mysterious neil comes into andrew's room and says "release the roombas" and then u hear meowing (this is also where the channel trailer comes from)

kev's always sleeping on lives because andrew streams at 2am (insomnia things)... kev has night terrors and sleeps better with someone else in the room, but andrew can't really sleep with another person on the bed so this system works 4 them

there's this mythical clip of neil coming in and like collapsing on top of kevin sleeping on the floor. they say something 2 each other and neil laughs and then leaves AND IT HAS TORN THE INTERNET APART FOR YEARRSSSSS nyandrew's biggest career drama is nobody knows what's happening between them

andrew is also generally such a gremlin about answering questions u will never get a straight answer from this man ever . and on this topic he is the Worst. (referring 2 kevin) "who's ur friend?" he's not my friend.   "okay. what's the name of the man in the room with you?" very funny guys. that prank won't work there is no one behind me . "u said u were an only child" i never said that. i said i grew up an only child    and so on

people make compilations like "andrew minyard (nyandrew) holding his bf for 10 mins straight (ft. neil)" [in which neil also holds said bf and chat exploded] "andrew ignoring chat for 5 mins straight" "5 minutes of nyandrew lifting anything but weights (ft. his bf)"

there's also my personal fav "nyandrew (ñandrew) cursing in spanish for 2 mins straight" yes andrew speaks spanish. the clips are from a stream he did with nicky and when nicky tries 2 mention an embarrassing moment andrew says "ah tienes cojones... él tiene cojones sí mi gente" (you have some balls.. he's got balls right guys) and nicky goes quiet SO QUICK KSJSKDKF. andrew's not Family Friendly but he definitely doesn't curse in english/express himself like he will in spanish (2nd language emotional things<3) and chat is FLOORED

this vid at (6:50-7:50) is drunk kev professing his love then saying "okay let's go :]" trying 2 get them all 2 cuddle and andreil are like  . Kevin We Are On Live Right Now. + from 3:00-6:50 is them describing each fox in one word and trying 2 match answers but kevneil start arguing about their answers and andrew purposefully says different ones to rile them up

when neil actually sticks around in a live - he's wearing a hoodie with the strings taut so it covers his face mostly. kev's passed out on andrew, andreil r bantering and flirting. andrew's like "i gotta go to the bathroom" and he just. hoists kevin up and puts him in neil's lap instead and NONE OF THEM BLINK and kev just curls a hand in neil's hoodie, looks up at him and hes like *squints* "ur hiding?" in a sleepy tone and neil's like ":] u don't like the look?" when andrew comes back he brushes neil's neck and all 3 of them keep casually talking LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED and chat is literally unreadable. it is going insane

in regards 2 ur post about lap sitting these 3 are EXACTLY like this tiktok. *caresses head* "can u stay for one game..." like !!!!!!!!!!!! i am gone i am deceased... it is them. kevin is the main lap stealer between them (imagining kev's 6'1 self curling into a ball 2 fit in the chair with either of them. sparks joy) and he is super clingy while andreil have little gestures like neil slinging his legs over andrew's on the couch. he sits upside down and andrew steadies him when neil starts to slide off. neil tries to go for a run at like 5am after staying up all night and andrew catches him in the kitchen, all bleary after a live and shoves him into a beanbag. (if he sits on top of him to make him stay and they have an intense mental conversation with unwavering eye contact then nobody's around to prove it)

at the end of the day (night? morning? what is time to them) they're tired and the walls and online personas are down. they stay up talking or sitting in silence, all squished together on a mattress or sprawled around the tv or listening to low music in the car.

and lastly, first kiss things:

[butwhatifidothis]

I did it! Finally fucking did it! I 100% the support log for 3H….Holy shit, that took longer than I was expecting, lol. 

(Long rant, so heads up.)

I came in thinking “Oh they finally time-locked the supports, so I don’t have to have the damn cursor mocking me every time I open the menu like in Awakening and Fates, hurr hurr”. No no no no no. At least for Awakening and Fates, it was on my dumb ass for pressing the S-support and saving when I knew I shouldn’t. First off, if they wanted us to regain supports for Byleth in NG+, why the heck are supports for characters like Edelgard, Rhea, Dorothea and Lindhart locked? I don’t mean time-locked like the post-TS supports in a regular playthrough, I mean deadass “you can’t buy this, period” locked. “Oh it’s because you haven’t advanced that far in the story yet”. I can buy post-TS supports for the other characters, what makes El and Rhea exceptions?! The only thing that would be lost is that I don’t have to replay their entire route to get their S-support twice. It’s not like there’s enough differences between Bylad and Bylass to warrant the supports being locked, none of the characters specify a specific gender in their dialogue, and as far as different models go, changing models during a cutscene is coded into the game, so that should be no issue.  

After going through the monastery option enough times, the hubworld is in this weird limbo state where it feels like it was made specifically for Byleth’s benefit (faculty training, recruiting party members, etc,) but the rest of the party seems to benefit from it instead (Instructions, Motivation points, etc). The Explore vs Battle options just don’t mix well, which feels like poor design choice. You can focus on auxiliary battles to raise your party’s level, but at the cost of potentially missing out on more party members. You can instead focus on the monastery to recruit party members, but at the cost of Byleth falling behind due to splitting activity points between recruiting and faculty training, and being in the monastery means less time grinding for levels. This isn’t as much of a problem in NG+, but if a game needs NG+ to lessen a design problem, then that’s more of a sign to me that the idea itself needed more ironing out. 

 As far as using the monastery to raise support points goes, the hubworld definitely needs a revamp. The only (good) options available are Meal Time and Choir Practice, with the latter being limited to once per week and the former making me think that the monastery must eat their own weapons to survive due to how fucking scarce food ingredients are. Getting meat and fish isn’t too big of an issue so long as you have enough money, but produce might as well be an urban legend. There were too many times where I had 60+ fish/meat, but produce was at fucking 1. I get that they wanted to be “realistic” in having seeds grow once per week, but if it’s at the cost of a gameplay element being nigh unplayable, then some more thought needs to be put into it. Sothis is a goddess of life and time, maybe her powers allow Byleth to make plants grow faster. Just something to make this section actually playable. 

The final thing I wanted to talk about when it comes to the monastery is that, for some baffling reason, it is entirely possible to lock yourself out of key events like S-supports or being able to choose CF, simply by skipping to the end of the month. I’m not sure why this is a thing. It’s not like the game was designed with speedruns in mind (I mean, it is possible to beat a route in an hour, but fuck me if I ever succeeded in that), and nothing happens like a prompt popping up that you have to explore the monastery during that month or even limiting your options to just Explore (which the game has done before). This is especially weird for the quest in getting Jeralt’s ring (how to access S-supports), since Byleth is supposed to be sad in this month, so not being able to do seminars or Byleth being undeployable during auxiliary battles would make sense. 

The option to choose CF is even worse though, because at least for Jeralt’s ring it’s a Red Quest that doesn’t allow you to finish exploring unless you complete it. For Edelgard, however? A dime-a-dozen quest prompt you can entirely look over and skip. No prompt by the game, no indication to talk to Edelgard, nothing. FFS, Rhea’s tea time quest was given more thought. At least her quest marker is a unique color. 

(End of rant…sort of) 

…So anyways, that was my experience with the game, lmao. Now you or someone else may be thinking, “nonnie, if you had this many problems completing the game, why did you bother?”, and the answer to that good question is…I’m not completely sure, lol. I know there’s more than one reason why, so bear with me here. I know part of it is due to sunk-cost fallacy (“I’m already this far into the game, I might as well fully complete it”), but I think a bigger reason is because I knew ahead of time that the routes were so similar to each other that there was little point in having a route split to begin with (except for CF, but who gives a fuck about that?). Despite all of my bitching, I do really like 3H even if I admit that it’s my least favorite FE game that I’ve played so far. I guess a part of me just wanted to like the game more despite my issues with it. 

Now that I think about it, maybe the main reason was for fear of future mainline games. People are fear to like whatever part of a game that they wish, but I do think that 3H introduced some fundamental storytelling flaws that I’d rather not see repeated in the future, with me focusing on 3 in particular: 1) The Monastery, 2) Route Splits and 3) Byleth. 

Aside from what I already talked about in regards to the monastery, if we are going to get another hubworld in the new FE title, have it to where it doesn’t conflict with how the rest of the story is presented. Is it better to simply tell us that the Western Church is xenophobic in an easily skippable side quest early on, or is it better to show us? Enemy Western Church NPCs going after foreign party members like Dedue or Petra more aggressively and calling them “animals” or the like, the map having Duscari NPCs locking themselves indoors for fear that the Western Church will persecute them, things of that nature. Is it better to tell us that there has been civil unrest in the Empire and the citizens revolting against Edelgard, or is it better to show us? Enemy Adrestian Civilian NPCs, assassins specifically going after Edelgard in a map, maybe one where a large farmland has been stripped bare. Things like that. 

I’d rather do away with the Persona-calendar/Monastery hubworld, but if they are here to stay then they need enough content in it to keep the player engaged for 20-odd chapters, because there isn’t enough content in Garreg Mach to even hold up 12 chapters. Speaking of more content, if there’s going to be another route split in the next title, then there needs to be enough differences in the routes that actually warrants having a route split. Fates already did this well in having the route split be early in the game, along with the plot and story maps of each route being different, you could even skip to the route split moment on subsequent playthroughs, so 3H’s approach in having to play the same 12 chapters 3-4 times just felt like a massive downgrade. Playing multiple routes should feel rewarding rather than tedious, is what I’m trying to say. 

Finally, and most importantly, I know that no one at IS is reading this but on the off chance that someone is - please, for the love of God, do not make another blank-slate/self insert main character like Byleth. Or at the very least, don’t have them be the focal point of the story, it’s a big reason why AM just works better than the other routes. For a game like FE, “self-insert” and “protagonist” goes as well as oil and water. Now, out of those three flaws listed, the Byleth one is what I’m hard set on. The monastery and route split flaws, my opinion might be flexible within reason, but the Byleth one…not so much, lol. If we really do get another self-insert doll for a main character, that alone is going to make the next game a hard sell for me, because seeing all the praise Byleth got (and has been getting) makes me fear that IS is going to take the wrong lesson from this and think they don’t have to put effort in making their protagonist anything resembling an actual person and their audience will still lap it up. It would be one thing if I just hated the character, but I don’t. I’m disappointed, which is even worse.

…With that said, it’s still better than whatever the heck Cap’n’Crunch is doing. Okay, rant over. For real this time.

—

I agree with a lot said here! But I do have a few disagreements, though they’re mostly my opinion than anything else lol

And this first one is probably like, extremely unpopular given how much shit I’ve seen flung at this aspect of 3H, but like… I actually really like the Monastery? Like yes, absolutely, it should have done more to not shelter the player from how bad the war is and it should change more with the world instead of being in this mostly limbo state where apparently seasons don’t real. I definitely also have those complaints, but to me, the Monastery was fine for the most part. A lot of the issues you brought up, like supports and Faculty Training and supplies for eating, weren’t a problem for me almost at all. My only real gripe is with how hard it is for Byleth to get training in Flying, Mounted and especially Heavy Armor without NG+ unlocking weapons ranks, since they don’t have access to Weekly Chores. I do believe I still managed to recruit everyone while only unlocking C in Faith on my Maddening playthrough of GD, but it certainly wasn’t easy. But I feel a lot of the problem people have with it are on subsequent playthroughs where they’re trying to do things like 100% any aspect of 3H, which yeah is gonna exacerbate the issues tenfold. Cuz like, while those three weapons ranks I mentioned are hard for Byleth to raise, on Normal mode you have unlimited auxiliary battles to help with all the other ones. 

Like, I wanted to get Claude’s Dex to the max amount right? Just cuz I felt like it. And in doing that I found out just how tedious it is to get levels once a unit gets to a certain point, just cuz while Normal Mode gives you the Retreat option that lets you keep exp so you can drop a unit down on a yellow spot and get a decent boost in exp… you can do that like, twice or thrice on a story chapter. Once if it’s auxiliary (and not the freebie one). And that’s if you even have internet. And using the greenhouse to get Ailiell Pomegranates was a pain because they weren’t really guaranteed even if I used nothing but the right seed - doing that is more consistent, but not always, and I usually only got one anyway. It was annoying! But I was also doing a specific thing that’s gonna heighten the flaws in the system that I never would have noticed - didn’t even notice - unless I did that. The flaws are still there, don’t get me wrong! The Monastery definitely still needs improvement, battles still need to be a little more streamlined for future playthrough, but the flaws can seem a bit bigger than they are once you do certain things outside of a casual playthrough, know what I mean?

But, for example, when replaying 3H on hard mode and looking to recruit everyone after my no recruitment run, I didn’t come across any dilemma over “recruitment or Byleth being good, pick one.” That was the run my Byleth was usable, in fact - my first blind run that was no recruitment (save for Shamir) had my Byleth be pretty much completely useless while literally everyone else was fine. Also never came across problems with supplies for cooking (or at least not any big enough to comment on). So like, while these (and the above stuff) can certainly be problems for players trying to do everything everything in 3H, at least from my experience I just haven’t come across them. The monastery itself definitely needed a better story implementation, but yeah. I could’ve just been lucky tho lmao

I don’t mind how they implemented trying to get on CF at all tho lol. If you’ve been playing the game like it suggests you do - supporting characters and exploring the monastery  there’s no reason for players to have missed getting on CF. If players wanted to ignore one of the biggest aspects of the game I don’t really feel that bad for them when they miss out on very achievable things. Plus, CF’s requirements are nothing in terms of FE’s madness when it comes to getting on a route. It may be more specific than any other route, but like I said, playing the game as the game tells you to would naturally land you in it (the only thing that might be a bit unfair is that I think if you talk with Edelgard at all that month you have to decide right then and there, and then the whole month is lost. Kinda ass). 

Binding Blade, for example, requires you to do specific things that few first time players would think to do in multiple, random chapters in order for you to get the best ending. With absolutely no warning as to when these chapters happen and what to do in them. And some of these requirements are not fun lmao, I’d prefer how they did it with CF than with how they’ve handled ~secret~ stuff before personally

Pretty much agree with everything else though! While 3H is actually one of my more favored games in the series, I’ll be the first to admit that its storytelling is in dire need of improvement. Having the story and lore of the game just be spat out in lore dumps and this or that NPC just isn’t that good. Or if they are going to do that, at the very least give some visuals to go along with it! Imagine how much impactful Rhea’s story would have been if it was in a visual format, like CGs and/or a cutscene. It still would be an info dump, but at least we can see for ourselves how horrific the Red Canyon was for her! And I do not want another avatar in whatever next mainline game we get, personality or not. We’ve evolved past the need for self-inserts that all the characters Just Like lmao

But thanks for sharing your thoughts!! And sorry that it took so long for me to get to answering ;w; 

[skullchicken]

On the 30.04.2021, Meinhart Bonifaz Brant, at that point an unassuming spindly 15-year old human reading Stanislaw Lem's "Star Diaries" on the living room couch, goblinized into a giant. About 50 years later, he would go on a few adventures under the street name "Alberich" (you see, it's very funny because he's not a dwarf).

In honor of goblinization-day, I'm compiling all of the art and (hopefully entertaining) stories I have of mah boi and the chicago shadowrun-group - so these are going to be some long posts. Everything under the cut so I don't clog up your dashboards and cut up into chunks. If you don't want to see it, blacklist "goblinization".

Part 1, the first mission:

So, why is Alberich? When I joined the shadowrun-group that would start my obsession, my english conversational skills weren't that great. Mostly trouble finding words and having a really thick german accent. Since I was a bit self-conscious about that, I decided to instead lean into it. Thus Alberich was a german-born ex-museum director turned shadowrunner since he did a Very Stupid Thing and had to leave the Allied German States for Chicago.

What did he do? He made a deal with a dragon. Specifically, he sold a forged piece of art to Lofwyr, CEO of Saeder-Krupp.

Alberich was introduced into the already formed group something like this: "At the entrance of the building, arriving punctually, you spot the biggest troll you've probably ever seen, looking very uncomfortable to be here and slinking as much as is even possible. All in all, he somehow doesn't look very threatening. In fact, he looks as if an art teacher had been stuffed with a 3 meter/10 feet tall horned giant. His face lights up as he sees you, though."

So the first thing he does is shake everyone's hand, politely assuring them that it's a pleasure to meet them and yes, he is Alberich, and who are you? Ah, yes, lovely names, very creative.

For reference, this is the average shadowrun-group:

Speaking of which, the gang's line-up did change a bit unfortunately, but the ones that stayed from beginning to end were:

Speedrun, street-samurai. An adrenaline-junkie who has styled himself after anime. Very much trying to be cool, to the point that he has adopted a deep-sounding voice that's rather obviously not his natural speaking voice. We pictured it as him talking with his head on his chin. Here he is, trying to impress the fighting adept shere khan:

Elf_Queen, decker and elf-poser. An elf-poser is someone who tries very hard to be elf-like - in her case, she wanted to actually *be* an elf. She ran away from home since her parents were metahuman-racists (Humanis policlub). Notably, her online and offline persona were very different. Online, she's very assertive and the guild leader of an mmorpg. Offline however, she's pretty much scared of anything. When Alberich joined the group, she hid behind Speedrun - you don't live with humanis for that long without picking up some xenophobia as well. And trolls aren't well-liked in the game world.

So the first mission: De-kidnap a kidnapped singer called Jericho. First we took a look at the bus-line she had last taken, a task for which Elf_Queen had to jack into said bus. Only three problems: A) She had to get behind a metal covering inside the bus B) her character sheet is min-maxed to hell and back, thus she has ONE measly point in strenght. Which wouldn't be a problem since she's in the presence of three pretty strong dudes if not for C) Massive Social Anxiety.

After looking around like a wet bunny for 5 minutes, Alberich (who has also cramped himself into the bus) finally catches on and goes "... can I help you, little lady?", pops the cover open and she can get deckin'. You might call this strike 1. You'll see why.

After visiting her appartment and some more investigation, we gather that Miss Jericho has been taken away into a bunraku (think brothel but with more brainwashing) to be re-programmed to the liking of her ex-boyfriend whose band she left to make it on her own (and quite successfully so). Which means we'll have to deal with Yakuza.

The bunraku turns out to be disguised as a night club. After I tried and failed to casually infiltrate the place (... I... er... wasn't a very good player at first?) we had to flee forwards, take out the guards at the door and make sure we get in and out of there as soon as possible.

In the club, almost before we made it backstage, Elf_Queen got held up by a guy bent on talking to her and froze up. Well, at least until Alberich very casually bent over the two of them and informed the guy that "she's with me". I tell you this, because this was strike 2.

Backstage, past a kitchen and into the cellar, we finally got into a room with two rows of plexi-glass cells - and in the middle, a bound spirit, a thing that feeds on negative emotions. Our muscle (Speedrun and Baba Yaga - yes, we had a John Wick in our midst. And yes, Alberich technically doesn't count as muscle, he's a mage. It's complicated) were outside, fighting off Yakuza. So it was up to EQ to hack Miss Jericho's cell open as quickly as possible and for me to make sure she wouldn't die while doing so.

After like three rounds of unsuccessful banishing (as I said... not a good player), the cell was open. But...

But.

There were the other victims.

What about the others?

Now, when I thought up Alberich, my core idea was "Daryl Whitefeather and Don Corleone having a mental fistfight". I tend to play good characters and this time around, to honor the setting I set out a morally grey character, someone who mostly looks out for himself and only indulges in kindness when he has the luxury to do so. Being kind and polite, if you think about it, is really just usually the easiest and most pleasant way to get people to do what you want. And if people are convinced you're scary by nature, seeming less so is just a smart survival strategy.

But then he looks at this little socially anxious nerd, who very much reminds him of himself, when he used to be a little socially anxious nerd, long, long ago and she says with big eyes "please! can you give me a bit more time? We need to save the others! We have to try!" and it's just... strike three. He's taken the little decker into his heart. So internally he goes "welp, I'm old anyways" and externally he shrugs his mana-burned shoulders, sighs "okay" and keeps trying to banish.

Unfortunately the spirit almost eats him alive. EQ fails to open any more gates, so they make it out once he as but 2 life points left, run into the elevator and evade the fast approaching small army of Yakuza on the way out.

Elf_Queen jumps into his arms, Alberich holds her like one might hold a chihuahua, Baba Yaga is trying to gauge their time and speedrun's reporting back from outside.

In the end, it was bittersweet. Because while we did save Miss Jericho, the brainwashing still took hold. Her last 1 1/2 years of life wiped away, she asked for her ex-boyfriend as soon as she woke up.

End of Part 1, thank you for reading this very self-indulgent text!