#the character design + character development + unexpected emotional impact she left on me is just too great for her not to be in my top 10

[courtesanofdeath]

Top 10 Favorite Gintama Characters: #10

✦ Tama ✦

[itsclydebitches]

Is it bad that I feel Penny’s 2nd permanent death has cheapened the stakes to me to such an extent I don’t care if the character’s life are in danger or even ended? Unless they die in a particularly gruesome manner…I don’t care. Penny’s death was cheap, tasteless, and I think sucked all the stakes to me.

I've personally had a problem with RWBY's death stakes ever since Weiss' injury in the Haven fight. Making that an episode cliffhanger when we all knew RT would never commit to killing one of the main four, using that as the means of unlocking Jaune's semblance, and then, importantly, never following up on how Weiss deals with a near-death experience felt quite cheap to me. It was a moment where death/grievous injury was used only for the week long shock value (similar to Oscar's disappearance in Volume 6) and a means of furthering Jaune's abilities rather than Weiss' emotional growth (particularly egregious in a show where 99% of the cast already has their semblances unlocked. Revealing them in a dramatic, life-or-death situation was never an expectation). The fact that it was such a departure from how the story treated Yang in the past — committing to her injury and allowing her time to come to terms with it — just made it all the worse.

However, though this was one moment out of one volume that fans might be willing to overlook for a variety of reasons, Volumes 7-8 just failed so spectacularly and so often that yeah, death has no real meaning in this show anymore.

Let's tally things up:

Clover dies in large part to Qrow's stupidity. This is never acknowledged.

Qrow instead swears vengeance against Ironwood. They never meet again.

Whether everyone agrees or not, this entire situation came too close to queerbaiting for some fans.

Clover's corpse/the environment is badly animated, leading to confusion about whether he actually died.

Oscar is shot off of Atlas in a move that would have been a killing blow if not for Ozpin's unexpected magic. He never works through this and likewise never even explains things to the rest of the group, adding to the secrets issue.

The councilman is randomly shot by Ironwood, signaling his fast-track towards villainy.

The Ace Ops and, more importantly, Winter all witness this, yet it has no impact on them remaining loyal until leaving him serves the plot.

Ironwood tearing the flesh off his arm to save everyone from Watts is treated as evidence of his lack of humanity and the prosthetic he gets carries is designed to highlight how Evil he is now.

Fria dies which has little emotional weight because we knew nothing about her. She was quite literally only a vessel for the powers and was treated as such by the story.

The Hound, introduced as an incredibly formidable foe, is done in by a badly developed power and a falling suit of armor. There's no interest in who that faunus was, only what this implies for Summer.

Hazel death is confusing af. He couldn't have burned to death that fast. Oscar's cane shouldn't have hurt him based on what else we see. Where's the body? All of this follows a split-second "redemption."

Vine sacrifices himself and no one cares because we knew nothing about him. Also it's kind of weird to frame his heroic suicide as, you know, heroic after a volume of telling Penny she can't do the same. It's just weird mixed messaging.

Rhodes was killed incredibly fast by his kid student and although I care a little about him, the general consensus is that this was a girlboss moment because flawed men trying to help are the worst, right? Far worse than a villain we established in Episode One.

Watts presumably burns to death off screen.

Ironwood presumably drowns off screen.

Jacques is blown up without any of his family knowing about it. He's blown up because Winter just... left Ironwood's gun-gun by the cell?

The community is still debating whether Maria and Pietro are alive. Was Amity still falling? Was there any way off? Why don't any of the characters worry about them, one of whom is Pietro's daughter?

Yang "dies" after a single hit and only Blake gets to react to that.

The rest of the group (plus Jaune) quickly follow, to the surprise of no one.

Penny is resurrected with little fanfare, is stripped of her cyborg nature, gears up to take on Cinder with Weiss and Jaune, is instantly taken out, and then convinces the healer of the group to kill her.

The Altas arc has so much death and grievous injury — clearly trying to be the next Volume 3 — and yet none of it has an (enjoyable) impact on me. Sometimes that's because RT is killing off side characters they never bothered to develop. Sometimes it's because the writing is so confusing idek if the character is dead. Sometimes it's because the circumstances induce anger rather than grief. Penny's second death definitely caused a reaction, but not the one RT was going for. I was frustrated with how badly constructed this suicide was, disappointed in how the circumstances leading up to this erased so much that's wonderful about Penny's character, and yeah, disgusted that we were right back to that Volume 5 Weiss scenario: here's the graphic death/almost death of one of the girls to forward his story. Only this time, instead of just getting a cauterized spear to the gut, RT thought assisted-suicide via sword was the way to go.

Penny's original death was heart wrenching. Pyrrha's was tragic due to how avoidable it was. Roman's was shocking and perfect for setting the new stakes. We didn't know if Ozpin survived, but back then that was the point — a mystery to reveal next volume — not because the scene was badly constructed, or the writing seemingly just forgot that characters existed. And again, flawed as it was in some respects, we got a story of Yang losing an arm and coming to terms with that. Now, we get the story of a man losing his arm and that makes him lose his intelligence and conscience too, I guess.

I'm trying to think of a post-Volume 3 death that hit home and I'm coming up short. But deaths like Sienna or Tock, while carrying their own problems, didn't really hint at the over-arching problem with character deaths the story now has. With the comparative wealth of fatalities we got in Volumes 7-8, I was finally able to step back and go, "Wow. Right...none of that did anything for me." And yeah, as one of the most shocking deaths, as a second death, and as one of the oldest and most beloved side characters, Penny encapsulates that best of all.

[book-dragon-etcetera]

Why Mantis and Loki should be a thing; fight me (please don’t I swear I’m nice).

What makes a good relationship subplot? Actually, scratch that – this is the MCU, we don’t go for mediocrity – what makes the best relationship subplots? It can vary, but my favourites, the ones that keep me digging and digging, coming back every time I think of a new angle (you’re in the fandom tags, you know what I’m talking about) always tie into the wider story. They feed character growth; allow new concepts to be explored; fit in with and in some cases represent the greater themes of a story.

In case you haven’t guessed, I’m going to be arguing that Loki and Mantis could be something along those lines. Something great. One of the best, most interesting relationships of modern screenwriting. I know, okay!! I know, it feels weird as anything – it’s taken me a while, too. But bear with me, and worst-case scenario, you’ll have a new take on a fascinating pair of characters.

Before I put the two together though, I feel like I need to do a little character study for Mantis. So far, she has had little to no clear development and without serious thought of your own, she seems entirely one-dimensional; two at best. In case you have not plugged hours and hours of thought into a character with barely ten minutes of screen-time, here are some of my thoughts, free of charge 😊. Incidentally, the interpretation I take to enhance my viewing experience (and add suitably crippling levels of angst :D ) ties her in perfectly with Loki’s story and character.

More Than Just a Bug: A Minor Study

What we know: Mantis has spent her whole life in servitude to Ego a massively powerful being, intent on taking over the universe, who sees all other life as inferior, insect-like (hence the name ‘Mantis’ – happenstance in the comics, derogatory in the films). Whether she has ever met anyone else is unclear, and until we actually see her talk about it, we’ll never know. Going by her comfort in talking to the Guardians, and also the fact that she anticipates the result of Ego’s meeting with Peter, I’m going to assume she has, but more specifically, that they were Ego’s other children.

Imagine this, if you will. Mantis, since her childhood, has been intermittently exposed to Ego’s offspring. They appear, are doted on for a few days, and then vanish as suddenly as they came. Not having been delayed by the Ravagers that collected them (as Peter was), they are all young children, with strong but changeable emotions. As such, they fit Ego’s narrative of universe full of mindless beasts, unthinking and impermanent. If Mantis were not an empath, able to feel their distress and confusion at the kidnapping, they would have no impact on her at all. As it is, they give her no epiphany, but rather a slow sense of unease that grows over time, as child after child is reduced to a pile of bones in a cave.

Her uncertainty must of course be hidden from Ego, who may be too narcissistic to imagine she could ever turn against him, but would certainly kill her if he saw her doubts, so she separates herself from the feeling. Her outer self remains uncomplicated and pliant, still attempting to please her adoptive father-figure, while her inner self languishes in steadily deepening turmoil. She dissociates to survive, until she almost believes it herself.

Now let’s try looking at her scene with Drax, where she touches his arm by the flower-filled lakes, through this new lens.

BEWARE. THIS SCENE WILL BECOME SIGNIFICANTLY MORE PAINFUL IF YOU ASSIMILATE THIS INTERPRETATION.

To recap: Mantis has spent her life in a state of slowly growing unease over the pain, suffering and subsequent deaths of Ego’s many children. Her only comfort has been his assurances that all other life is meaningless, and as such their suffering weightless. By Mantis’s own design, this inner struggle has been buried deep, totally inaccessible. Therefore, she goes into this scene entirely intending to allow Ego to kill the Guardians, and if Peter is successful, the universe.

Alright, here goes:

So, Mantis seems normal (normal??) for the first section. She reacts suitably when Drax calls her ugly, and then when he argues that it’s a good thing. When he mentions his lost daughter, she makes a joke (incidentally the sort of play-a-crooked-thing-straight joke that Loki might enjoy), but then Drax compares his daughter to Mantis, calling them both ‘innocent’, and she makes this face when he isn’t looking at her.

This is not a naïve look, and I don’t think it’s meant to be. The tiniest edge of that inner guilt, her natural empathy for the terrible fates of Ego’s children, is bleeding through against her will, brought to the surface by a father mourning the loss of his daughter. Wanting to understand, and partly in fear of what she might find there, she reaches for his arm.

When she feels his grief, she is physically affected, taking large gasps of air with glittering eyes. It’s easy to forget, but in some ways, Drax is the most emotionally developed of the Guardians. He had a wife, and daughter, and a home. He’s lived through what most of us would determine a normal life, and reached middle age. Quill, Gamora, Groot – they’re all younger than him, and therefore less emotionally developed. (I have no idea what age Rocket is, but at least by maturity he can certainly be added to the list.) This level of experience is where Drax’s moments of unexpected wisdom come from. He is a fully realised person with all the complexities and regrets that come with age, something Mantis has never felt in anyone except Ego. And he is mourning his daughter.

When she touches his arm, Mantis is feeling one of the worst losses, the deepest hurts that a person can ever experience, even dulled by years: the loss of a child. But for her, it’s even more than that. It’s personal. She realises in that moment that on the other end of every one of Ego’s children was someone like Drax, feeling what he felt. That they were still out there in the universe, mourning the sons and daughters that Mantis had met. It tilts her world on its axis, and we get a close-up to watch it:

This is her guilt, her worst fears validated. She can no longer use the ‘we’re just insects anyway’ justification to excuse the cavern of bones. Every tiny doubt she has ever had now has an explanation, and it means she has grown up complicit to atrocities she couldn’t even recognise. Upset, and guilty that he still believes her innocent, she turns immediately to Drax, knowing she can no longer stand by do nothing. They are interrupted by Gamora before Mantis can explain, so later that night, knowing she cannot bear being complicit yet again to murder, Mantis wakes Drax and betrays Ego, despite her fear and love for someone who has been (literally) her whole world.

Go watch the scene thinking about Mantis's guilt, I dare you. I did, and it hurt me.

By the end of GotG2, we have a Mantis still conditioned to serve the father she has now killed. His teachings have left her with crippling self-doubt, and a sense of personal inferiority that as of yet we have not seen her question, despite a truly incredible level of power (subduing first Ego – an actual planet – and then Thanos; I’ll go into her frightening Gamora later), and her own heroism. She is incapable of being righteously angry at Ego, because righteously implies right, something it does not occur to her that she might have. And she hides it all, because over the years she has built an unconscious self-defence mechanism which allows her to control people’s actions towards her by seeming harmless and sweet. The ultimate deflector of aggression.

What her motives and feelings might be now she has found her freedom, I also have some thoughts on, but that is a topic for another day (possibly a Loki including day, hmm?). I feel like it’s important to mention that, although this is a dark interpretation, that doesn’t mean I think Mantis is a dark character. There is inherent darkness in the horror of her past, but some of the best and brightest people in the world are people who have been to hell and back, and come back kinder for it. One day, when she has learnt some self-worth, and ditched the clothes that she wore as a slave to a monster, I think she could be one of the best, most impressive, and nuanced heroes we have ever seen.

[starline148]

who are your top ten favorite black bulls & ships? talk about them!

Hi Anon, thank you very much for the question. It's going to be a long answer so I hope you feel like reading.

Top Ten Black Bulls Members:

Since there are actually 14 including Yami, instead of making the Top10, I will include everyone. I will say now that I really like everyone a lot despite having to do the ranking, like everyone to me are sceptional characters that deserves de world.

N01. Asta: It might be typical considering he's the main character, but Asta really seems like a very interesting character to me and he's my favorite of the Black Bulls. His way of facing the world, wanting to fight to protect his beloved people but respecting and empathizing with his rivals came to me from the beginning. Thanks to Asta we realize that the bad guys are not so bad, that maybe they have their reasons (I follow the Anime, so I don't know if it will continue to be like that in the manga, I've seen something but I don't want to spoil myself). Honestly Asta is not only the member of the Black Bulls that I like the most, but he is one of my favorite characters of all the time. In Black Clover only Julius surpasses him.

N02. Gordon: This one might be more surprising considering he's a secondary or even tertiary character, he's one of the Black Bulls with less screen time and I still love him. He seems to me to be a very tender character and with whom I feel identified. In the end, all he wants is to have friends and protect them and that goes straight to my heart. The first time he appears he looks like he's going to be a cool, serious character, but it turns out he's a cinnamon roll.

N03. Charmy: I think people like Charmy in general and I admit that I fell into her “charms” too, she is a funny character without being grotesque or humiliating and at the same time she is super strong and great. I love her magic and her laid back personality. Charmy knows how to make people love her and I love the battle scenes she has. Also, the fact that she wants to share her food even with her enemies says a lot about her for me, she is a wonderful girl and I hope they show more development of her. 

N04. Yami: Yami is a magnificent character, I love his personality and the way he fights. The magic of darkness could have easily fallen into the cliché, but as with the other characters, Tabata manages to make him unique. His fights fascinate me, he is seriously a character that you would like to see and know more about. His story with Julius and William is very tender and the fact that he embraces those people who others reject because he knows how to see the true potential of people, in my eyes makes him the best leader of all. And honestly, I would love for him to be the one to become the Wizard King. Although of course, it does not fit very well with his personality.

N05. Noelle: Female protagonist who is useful, strong and made to fight alongside the male protagonist without any fear. Superb. I honestly love her. Her personality, her story, and her resolve to avenge her mother. The development with her family was unexpected (honestly, I really disliked her brothers until it shows why Nozel does what he does, was it the best he could do? No, but that's the great thing. People don't always do their best and that makes him more human). The only thing I don't like is that she attacks Asta out of shyness, I know it's comedy but hmm, well; It is sure to improve as her relationship with Asta develops (if at all). As a bonus, the Valkirie Dress looks amazing to me, I love the design of the armor.

N06. Magna: I adore Magna, I honestly think he is a great character. He is not as strong as his peers and everyone knows it, yet he still strives to train and not be left behind. His scenes seem very emotional to me and his character is very funny. He has the design that I like the most of all the Black Bulls and I love that his magic is based on baseball when it does not exist (or so I think) in that world. I hope they develop him more, because for now they have left their background a little aside compared to the others, although if they do not do it I will not complain either because for me Magna is the average character that makes you want to try harder and harder for your dreams even if your skills are not the best; and that as such makes him one of the best characters.

N07. Finral:

Finral is a lovely character, I like him a lot, he makes me very tender and makes me want to hug him every time he appears. His background touched my heart very much, his whole relationship with his family (his brother) and wanting to improve himself after having been lost and feeling worthless. I think he is the character with the most precious heart (aside from Asta), and I hope he can achieve his goal and be happy with Finesse. 

N08. Grey:

Grey is a precious baby, as a character she is so shy that sometimes she is exaggerated for comedy. But being a very introverted and shy person myself, I understand Grey perfectly. I adore her relationship with others and she is a character that I like to see in action to see how she surpasses her limits. Her magic is very interesting to me, so I hope I can see a lot more of her.

N09. Henry:

Honestly, his design was very curious to me from the beginning, when I saw it and nothing was known about him yet. But his personality is super sweet. I love his story and how Yami saves his life by bringing noisy people to his house. Despite his limitation and absorbing the power of others, he manage to deal with them and that is wonderful to me, their scenes are very emotional for me. Although sometimes I get stressed because he speaks very slowly (surely that in the manga I would take it better).

N10. Secre:

Her design is super super nice, I love that she has little horns because of the forbidden magic and her personality is so calm… It makes a lot of contrast with the rest of her teammates. Her magic is one of the most interesting in my opinion. But above all it is her story with the first Wizard King that shocks me, so many years waiting to be able to be in peace… I imagined that Nero would be important for the story but wow, she exceeded my expectations. Anyway it makes me sad that she can't go with Lemiel.

N11. Luck:

Luck, despite not entering the Top10, is a character that I really like, the problem is that I like everyone a lot, hehe. He is a character that I find funny and irritating at the saime time, which for me is part of his charm. I like his magic and his determination to get into any battle; although sometimes I would like them to give his character a little more depth and that is why he is at number 11. But it is just my opinion, and as I say despite that I love Luck.

N12. Vanessa:

I have to say that even though I understand her background and the reasons behind it, I don't quite like the idea that she's always practically naked and drinking. It is the only thing for me, and I equally respect and love her character; But it happens to me like with Luck, sometimes I see them somewhat flat personality. However I know that it is not like that and that she is a quite complex character, I really like when she enters battle, her determination and her love for her friends is really incredible (I really liked the battle of Vanessa, Finral and Asta against Vetto, it is one of my favorite battles)

N13. Gauche:

If he wasn't so creepy with Marie he would have the 5th position on my list ... I mean, I understand that they do it for comedy and that there really is no incest or anything, he is just an overprotective brother (and I understand his reasons because his story explains everything very good), but I think the way to carry that humor gets a little out of hand sometimes. At least it sometimes makes me uncomfortable even though I know that there is no bad intention or anything, he is just a boy who lost everything and who only had his sister to protect. Apart from that, I find him a spectacular character and I have a lot of affection for him despite being almost at the bottom of the list.

N14. Zora:

As they work on his development I imagine that I will like him more, but for now he is the member that I like the least. Still, I repeat, I like them all so ... on a scale of 1 to 10, it would be 7.5, which is high. Only the others are more. Zora is a very curious character and his magic is too, but honestly for now I like his father more than him, Zara is a character that impacted me a lot and deserved the world. Anyway Zora fighting for his father's dreams is precious too.

Top10 Black Clover Ships:

Let's see… I'm not so much involved in Black Clover ships but here are my favorites:

N01. Mars x Fana: I find them especially adorable, after their hard childhood and all they have to go through, I sincerely hope they can end up happy together. Super cute this couple.

N02. Yami x Charlotte:sincerely I hope that it becomes canon because they have a dynamic that I love, I hope I can see development of both and that Charlotte overcomes her panic about being in Yami's presence and that Yami is interested in her, because sometimes he has the sensitivity of a shoe.

N03. Asta x Noelle:

Although I adore Mimosa and I hope she can be happy with someone if she wants to, the couple that I like the most is Asta and Noelle, Asta really cares a lot about Noelle, I hope that little by little he will find out more about his love side and not just friendship, I know that Black Clover is a shounen and such; but hey, who knows.

N04. Gauche x Grey:

They're so cute, aw, when Grey says she wants Gauche to look at her more… she stole my heart. I hope they develop them and that they can end up together.

N05. Magna x Luck: Mm, I like this couple although I am fine whether it develops (which I doubt) or if they stay in great friends because friendship is also something precious)

N06. Finral x Finesse:

Until Finesse appeared I liked Finral and Vanessa, but aww, how can one not be moved by these two? Finesse is a heaven of person and Finral more.

N07. Lemiel x Secre: I suffered a lot when Lemiel "dies" leaving Secre alone and tells her to live and be happy because pff, wow. Without having to be a couple or anything, losing someone so important ... But hey, it's a couple that I really like. Maybe in their next life they can be happy together.

N08. Litch x Tetia: Although they don't appear so much, they are one of the main pivots of the first arc. I cried a lot with their background but they are one of the couples that I like the most.

N09. Fuegoleon x Nozel:

These types of relationships are one of my weaknesses, I really like their dynamics a lot and I wouldn't mind if they became a real couple; although again it would be rare for it to happen in a shounen.

N10. Yuno x Charmy:

I find this couple very funny, it's not that Yuno is one of my favorite characters in any case; but I love how Charmy interacts with him by giving him food.

[hellzyeahwebwieldingreviews]

Untold Tales of Spider-Man 06: The Doctor’s Dilemma – by Danny Fingeroth

An unexpected gem!

Dr. Bromwell grabs Peter by the arm and tells him he must talk to him about "his double life." But Bromwell hasn't stumbled on Pete's secret identity. He's talking about the dangers Pete gets into as a Daily Bugle photographer. He asks Peter, for May's sake, to give up the job. Although Peter has worried about the dangers himself, he stiffs Bromwell, saying "I'd appreciate it if you'd mind your own business, Doctor." Regretting every word, Peter goes into an unfair critique of Bromwell and a defense of his photography work. Taken aback, Bromwell gives Pete a new prescription for May and heads toward the door. Peter calls him back and apologizes. He tells him he has considered the dangers but still thinks the reward is worth the risk. Once Bromwell leaves, Peter changes to Spider-Man, eventually web-swinging to the pharmacy to fill May's prescription.

Back at his office, Bromwell can't stop thinking about Peter. Suddenly, he gets a brainstorm. He wants to give Peter a job in the sciences instead. First he goes to Metro Hospital and talks to Dr. Gordon, who saved May's life after Spider-Man brought in the needed ISO-36 (in Amazing Spider-Man #33, February 1966). Gordon reveals that, shortly after Spidey left, a beaten and bruised Peter appeared. Bromwell doesn't know what kind of deal Peter has with Spider-Man but he suspects the web-slinger is taking advantage of him.

Out web-slinging, Spidey comes upon "an eight-foot tall, four-foot wide gent in the green spandex suit" who is trashing an armored car. He is also "amazingly fast and as strong as the Hulk." When Spidey asks for a name, the giant comes up with "Impact," revealing that he volunteered for an experiment involving radioactive steroids (a combination just asking for trouble) for which he never got paid. Now paying himself in his own way, Impact slams Spidey against a wall and escapes.

The next day, Bromwell makes a house call and finds Peter all battered and bruised. He offers Pete a job in his own office helping with his research and lab work. Peter accepts. Aunt May overhears this conversation and is wracked with guilt for letting Peter risk his life taking pictures simply because they desperately needed the money.

So, Peter goes to work for Bromwell. There he researches steroids and finds out that Impact is Walter Cobb, a family man whose mind was warped by the experiment. As the days go by, Peter works at Bromwell's office, just missing catching up to Impact at his various crime scenes. Finally, Bromwell is called to the ER to help treat some victims of Impact's latest assault. As he leaves, Bromwell asks Peter to not go out for news photos. But Peter has to go out to stop Impact. Arriving at the scene,he finds Impact holding two hostages. The police bring out Impact's wife and kids to plead with him. It appears to work, with Impact releasing his hostages. Peter starts imagining a day when his work with Bromwell will lead to greater things than his web-swinging. Then a shot rings out and Impact goes on the rampage again. Spidey tries to calm him but he is too far gone. After pounding on the wall-crawler for a bit, Impact collapses. Bromwell is on the scene and pronounces the giant dead. As Spidey swings home, he reflects on it all. "Bromwell tells me that I should think about my aunt – like I don't do that enough. Impact shows me that there's a right way and a wrong way to try to help those you love. All these lessons! But...what am I supposed to learn from them? Where's the curriculum? Where's the syllabus?"

A great ending, right? But, oops, there's more! On his way home, Peter realizes that he could be as dead as Impact and decides to give up the webs. But at dinner, Aunt May tells him to keep doing what he's doing if it's what he wants to do. The next day, Bromwell waves the Daily Bugle at Peter, indicating the front page photo Pete took, and tells him he let him down, abandoning his lab work for the very work he begged him to avoid. He tells Peter that he has done all he can and that he's letting him go from his job. Pete can tell that Bromwell is hoping he will ask for another chance but Peter doesn't. He has come to completely understand that he does not become Spidey for thrills but to help people and that Uncle Ben and Aunt May would approve if they knew. Or, as he puts it, "Love the power. Guess I'll just have to live with the responsibility."

Had you told me that a Spidey story (and a prose story at that) about Doc Bromwell witten by Danny Fingeroth was going to be cracking I’d have never believed you.

Fingeroth’s body of Spidey work is a mixed bag to put it kindly. This is the man who wrote arguably the single best page of Mary Jane ever in Web of Spider-Man #6, eloquently summing up her emotional conflict regarding her romantic feelings for Spidey. But this is also the man who editorially mandated the creation of Maximum Carnage.

And yet here he doesn’t make a single misstep.

Okay that isn’t exactly true. His opening narration makes Peter sounds like a goddam psychopath. “Love the power. Hate the responsibility.” Er….that’s not exactly true, Peter has moments of enjoyment of his power and frustrations over the burdens it places upon him. But he doesn’t truly revel in his power and typically treats his responsibilities as simply something that HAS to be done moreso than something he resents doing. But that’s nothing compared to “…to take what I need. And to make anybody who gets in my way real sorry they got there.”

WTF dude! I was half expecting that the twist here was going to be that this wasn’t Peter speaking but it was. Fingeroth nicely bookends these sentiments by the end of the story but that doesn’t change the fact those sentiments shouldn’t be there in the first place.

You can maybe just handwave this as Peter being in a really bad mood and not believing what he is thinking. But I dunno, I suspect the real intent here was to clumsily set up something to BE bookended by the end of the story and more poignantly to smack the readers in the face with the central theme of the story. This lack of subtly rears its head again towards the end of the story when Fingeroth seriously spells out for us that Impact is a dark reflection of Spider-Man and the exact ways how. Everything the dialogue says is correct and Impact is actually a very good reflection of Spidey. But couldn’t Fingeroth have been a tad more subtle about it?

But other than that this story unto itself is pretty much flawless. I say unto itself because through no fault of Fingeroth the story’s placement withint he anthology is kind of weird. It clearly takes place after ASM #33 as there are very direct references and fallout from the Master Planner Trilogy. However the nature of the story also makes it highly unlikely to take place after ASM #39 because in that issue Peter is shaken by Bromwell informing him of just how frail Aunt May is. He pretty much tells Peter that if May learns his secret she will keel over dead. So this happens between ASM #33 and #39 but the Looter story clearly happens after ASM #36. Whilst far from inconceivable that this story could happen afterwards, because the last story with the Goblin was obviously tipping the hat to ASM #39-40 this story would’ve been better placed just before the Looter story. As is it’s oddly the THIRD story in this book to take place in this extremely small and specific gap of time after ASM #36 but before ASM #39.

Enough of the nitpicks though. I said this story was a gem and I stand by that.

What pleasantly surprised me most about this story was that Fingeroth seemed to be able to handle the prose format better than every other writer thus far sans perhaps DeFalco.

He wisely knows to emphasis the inner conflicts within the characters’ heads and play up the soap opera rather than leaning in on the action setpieces.

And yet there are two significant action set pieces in this story. Indeed the crux of the whole story REVOLVES around the physical danger Peter puts himself in by going into action. Fingeroth handled these deftly. The action wasn’t over explained and painted a clear picture in your head but didn’t linger too much. Sure you might feel things would be more interesting if you could actually see things but you aren’t drifting off as the writer belabors the combination of punches and kicks Spidey lands. It’s all very streamlined and designed to support the emotional arc of the story as opposed to the action being the point unto itself or simply the means to REACH a conclusion.

In this regard Fingeroth actually edges out DeFalco. Reading/listening through DeFalco’s story the action scenes can just be boiled down to Spidey fights some thugs, drags out the fight for pictures and then one them accidentally dies the specifics don’t matter even though we do get them.

Here Fingeroth forgoes the specifics to simply give you the broad beats to the fight (Impact throws a car, Spidey webs people to safety, etc) whilst ensuring he returns to Spidey’s inner thoughts and peppering in dialogue that is moving the plot and exploring the themes, even if it is simply lightly.

In a way this is a rare example of an action set piece that works BETTER in prose than it would visually. Sure Mark Bagley or Ron Frenz could embellish the fight scene to make it look cool, but the visions of a possible future Peter imagines are more potent and organic when we simply read his train of thought like this. Were it a comic such dialogue would come off as excessive or (if communicated through art) needlessly existential. Additionally as a villain goes Impact is fairly generic, but having him not have any visual presence mitigates that because his importance is more about what he is doing and why than having a dynamic appearance.

To go back to Bromwell, he’s developed more here than he’s been in over 55 years of Spider-History. Were he written like this in his appearances he might’ve become a more beloved character. What’s great is how organic his personality feels. We learn new stuff about him but it feels like a totally logical extrapolation of what little we saw of him in the 1960s. He is a quintessential doctor and Fingeroth lends him a surprising amount of nuance. He isn’t endlessly caring, he has his limits but even so the fact that he wanted Peter to ask him for a second chance at the end was a brilliant touch. It’s a small moment but it helps make Bromwell feel more multidimensional.

And because of this characterization the story earns the pathos of Peter letting him down. You feel sad for Bromwell and for Peter that things didn’t work out for both of them.

Aunt May is also done very well here. She is in typical Aunt May mode but Fingeroth chooses to make that the central conflict of the story rather than a background element. Refreshingly though the issue isn’t that May is on her deathbed, but rather the impact (if you pardon the pun) upon her if anything happens to Peter.  The story is almost a spiritual cousin to JMS’ opus ‘the Conversation’ in that it comes to a reasonable and positive resolution.

What in particular what holds this all together is the brilliant (yet rarely used) idea of treating Peter’s cover story as Spidey’s photographer as a metaphor for him being Spider-Man. It’s something that’s pretty clever when you think about it because the cover story means his loved ones go into relationships with him knowing he takes risks and potentially endangers them, just as if they knew he was Spidey.

Through treating the cover story as a metaphor Fingeroth is able to have Peter get a lot of feelings about being Spidey off of his chest. This chiefly comes in the form of his bookeneded confrontations with Bromwell, his angry (and highly unjustified) outburst at the start and his quiet resigned acceptance at the end.

Perhaps the best bi of narration in relation to Peter’s character was when Fingeroth spelled out that Peter might enjoy being Spidey but even if he didn’t he’d do it anyway because he was hooked on helping people. It eloquently emphasis the innate heroism and core of the character. And it does so in a nuanced way too as too often writers have Peter outright hate being Spider-Man or else cynically lean on the idea he’s a thrill junkie of some kind. Fingeroth gets that peter DOES like his work but that isn’t the reason he does it.

Nuance is actually the key word here. There is a lovely sequence where the story acknowledges that Peter might subconsciously be avoiding Impact out of a loss of confidence. It plays very realistically. How often in life has one bad moment shaken us up and made us hesitant to do things we previously did without even thinking about it.

Really I don’t know what else to say about this story that isn’t self-evident by just experiencing it for yourself.

Tiny issues aside it’s really quite excellent and highly recommended.

[tiergan-vashir]

Retcon and Rewrite: Personal Example.

Related to this post about how to reclaim your character after retconning out a hurtful figure.  This is an example of how I went about it for a personal case of mine. Keeping things vague for obvious reasons, even though I have no idea if the player involved still even plays.

The Background History:

When I first joined FFXIV, I gave romance RP a go with a person who played a fellow escaped-slave capable of casting magic.  This character was designed to be shy, submissive, demure, afraid to trust and fearful of being caught/sent back to their master, but ultimately also noble and working grow and learn to trust others in the big wide scary world.

Unfortunately if Tiergan did anything the character did not like, spoke to the wrong person, befriended the wrong person, did the wrong thing, said the wrong thing, went to the wrong place, went ANYWHERE without them (they wanted to be involved in all my RP, joined constantly at the hip) - their character would immediately respond that clearly Tiergan did not love them enough, did not care enough, and wasn’t trying hard enough to be a good lover.

They often threatened to return back to their master, citing “at least my master truly loves me.” - because they knew it was the fastest way to get Tiergan to break down and beg for forgiveness. Things eventually built up to the point of violence where the character electrocuted Tiergan in his own metal armor out of anger of him not being the kind of lover they expected out of him. It was clear after a while that the player was not intentionally playing an emotionally manipulative character, but simply trying to force me into the RP direction they wanted and trying to punish Tiergan (and by extension, me) for not playing our role as the big beefy sexy warrior lover to their liking.

The Retcon and Rewrite:

When we finally split ways and cut contact, and I decided to retcon, I carefully examined what events had the most impact on Tiergan that led to his overall development. What I discovered was something unexpected, but ironic: the most defining thing about all my RP with that person was the sheer amount of emotional manipulation the character bombarded mine with on a regular basis and the fact that someone who claimed to love him ultimately attacked him for not behaving as they wanted.

Those events triggered the true start to Tiergan’s crippling fear of romance and relationships that would eventually be cemented later on in the future.  Erasing all of it would essentially result in me RPing an entirely different character.   Even though going through it all was unpleasant to say the least, I still enjoyed RPing the person Tiergan became after: a far more complex, vulnerable man who yearned for bonds both romantic and platonic, but is absolutely terrified of them at the same time.

Because of this, I wound up developing an NPC - Zehvah Vhaukta - that was specifically designed to be an emotionally manipulative romance figure in Tiergan’s life. She came in with her own goals and motivations for why she behaved so and instead of a former-slave, she was a powerful Sharalyan mage, banned from the studium, trying to perfect various forbidden arts while staying ahead of assassins bent upon killing her for performing magic that was never meant to ever be performed again.

Perfecting her art required immense amounts of aether that often left her feeling drained and vulnerable, leading her to realise she needed a constant bodyguard.  Tiergan himself also became an ideal target for her for other reasons that I won’t go into, because this post is already super long enough.

By having her intentionally be malicious, I could maintain the aspect of Tiergan’s history I wanted to keep: his internalised fear around love, relationships, control, and why he often relates love with pain and being hurt or bad things happening. All of it reinforcing the tragedy that was already in his backstory.

The one major thing I kept from the original series of events was Tiergan being electrocuted in his own armor by the person who claimed to love him.  That was such a major, pivotal point in his development, that it was really hard for me to throw it away without losing a big part of him, but the circumstances for why she struck him with lightning were different from the original. (I actually can’t even remember why Tiergan was attacked in the original series of events other than his lover was not pleased with him.)

The NPC is still alive, and if I needed to, I could easily have her show up in one of my future plots as an antagonist. She’s a character I can do pretty much anything I like with - though for now she’s served her purpose which is the terrible fact that I wanted to maintain Tiergan’s emotional trauma in RP. :V 

I hope this example somehow helps give an idea of how you might go about this situation.

[theinquisitivej]

‘Hereditary’ – A Movie Review

There are countless factors that can affect how a film sits with you, but I often find myself narrowing down my overall impressions into two significant categories; the film’s narrative success and its technical execution. Does the story have an impact on me, and does it use the form of cinema to tell that story in an interesting way? Every film incites different questions that vary wildly from movie to movie, but more often than not, these two all-important questions are what my thoughts boil down to whenever I finish a viewing. The best films weave technical expertise and innovative use of form with their narrative to reinforce the story’s impact on the viewer. But then there are the films which excel in one area, but don’t quite measure up in the other category. That doesn’t stop such films from being praiseworthy, but it can lead to a nagging sense of missed opportunity. If a meaningful narrative with a tight script is saddled with by-the-numbers cinematography, or if stellar editing and camera work is being used to tell a narrative that just isn’t connecting with me, I’ll always feel some level of disappointment that the film in question couldn’t have come together as much as I believe it could have.

         Hereditary is one of the most noteworthy films of the year in terms of technical filmmaking, but its story falls short of the impressive creative skills that are on display in every other part of the film.

         The film’s plot has a strong start. After a striking first shot which immediately sets an unnerving tone for this horror, we get introduced to our family of characters, pick up on what has recently happened, and, through some intensely focused visual storytelling, are given ominous signs of what might be going on under the surface. If you’re interested and already set on seeing this film, then I’d say that’s more than you need to know, and you should go in to see what kind of movie it is for yourself. However, if you have seen it or don’t mind hearing more if you’re still unsure and need convincing, then please read on.

         The opening text tells us that an old woman, a grandmother, has recently passed away, and that her family will be attending her funeral soon. The text is formatted to look like the excerpt from a newspaper, and this is surprisingly effective at immersing you in the film’s world before it even begins, as well as subtly establishing an unspoken impression that the film itself is reporting on the events of the story, and you are the passive reader, taking in what’s happening but powerless to influence the events that are playing out. It’s as if all of this has already happened, and all you can do is observe what went down. A terrific opening.

         The opening act establishes the four family members that act as the main characters of the film, including the mother (Toni Collette), father (Gabriel Byrne), a teenage son (Alex Wolff), and a young daughter (Milly Shapiro). We can tell that the mother had an unpleasant past with the grandmother, and that the grandmother interacted in a strange, overly controlling way with the mother’s children when they were born. As much as some members of the family are partly relieved that this difficult relative is no longer around, the hole that the grandmother left behind preys on each of their minds, to the point where we start to wonder if what’s haunting them is really only psychological in nature.

         If it seemed like I was suggesting that Hereditary’s story is subpar at the start of this review, I’d like to stress that that isn’t the case. The first half has some compelling family drama that goes to painful places. Despite the extreme emotions on display throughout the film, the relationship between these characters and the reasoning for why they all feel the way they do about certain issues is consistently believable and grounded. Much of this can be credited to each of the four main actors giving standout performances. Collette has a lot of tough scenes on her shoulders and she meets each of them head on by pushing her emotional reactions to her limit without going laughably overboard. Byrne may get overlooked due to the impressive nature of the rest of the cast, but he plays a father that is way out of his depth in a sympathetic and measured way. Shapiro takes the archetypal unsettling young girl role that is so common to horror and injects more vulnerability into her than I was expecting. Finally, Wolff did very impressively as the teenage son. A great deal of the film’s drama and horrific tension rests on him being able to sell the film’s key moments through his reactions, and he nails all of them. While some have criticised how he responds to certain moments like he’s suddenly become a six-year-old child, it never bothered me. If anything, it just made the horror of the situation sink in even more, as it suggests that this person is so terrified that he’s reverting to a more vulnerable version of himself. All in all, the film’s first half has some great family drama to accompany the effective scares. The idea of a difficult grandmother leaving an impact on a mother that makes her feel cursed as she struggles with her own family and fears that she might be passing the curse on to them is a golden premise for any horror story, and the performances make the drama of this premise work.

         Then, after sowing the seeds that make you reasonably confident you know what direction this horror movie is heading in, it takes a sharp, shockingly unexpected turn. Suddenly, you’re not sure what the film is about, or where on earth it’ll head after this development. Granted, the family drama is still the driving force of the movie, and many of the same themes about struggling with how to process grief and live with your family during an impossibly difficult time are still there. But as far as where you think the plot will take you next, the film sweeps the rug out from under you, leaving you completely stranded. And that’s a terrific move for a horror movie. Certainty and familiarity are the enemy of fear, and by making you second guess yourself like this, the film leaves you alone in a dark, uncharted forest. I was more on edge after the significant turning point, making every scary moment get to me that much more than if we were treading along the predictable path.

         But as we approached the final act, the effect had unfortunately dissipated as the ultimate shape of the plot revealed itself. After a certain moment, the nature of what’s going on suddenly clicks in your head, and the all-important fear factor of the unknown loses its edge. After that, I was waiting to see if the film had any big last-minute surprise about how this was all going to resolve, but sadly, it runs its course in a way that’s still somewhat interesting and unnerving to watch, but certainly less compelling than the rest of the film. By the conclusion, I was left wondering what the film’s take-away was meant to be. It presents all these questions about grief, the trauma that a difficult family member can leave behind, and how old scars can push a family to breaking point, but then ends without really saying anything about these issues. It leaves the questions it raises to the audience, and while asking viewers to develop their own answer to what the film presents them with isn’t necessarily a bad approach, in this case it felt like the film created an interesting series of problems and then left before offering any unifying thesis statement on any of it. Horror should of course leave some questions unanswered, but like any decent story, I should be able to take more of a thematic point away than simply “yeah, that’s something, eh?” It’s not a disastrous ending, but Hereditary’s narrative doesn’t end as well as it starts.

         Having said that, I still cannot recommend this film enough as a technical achievement within the medium. Every part of the filmmaking process comes together to make Hereditary a superbly crafted cinematic horror experience. The cinematography never stops impressing, taking influences from The Shining with how it presents rooms, houses, and objects of focus. They’re often shot at a distance, with you being able to take them in all at once, much like the miniatures you see the mother working on. But then the camera will start to slowly creep closer towards key figures or objects, creating this uneasy tension as you take in more of the detail of what you’re looking at, and end up getting more intimate with the object of focus than you might be comfortable with. The editing makes excellent, creative scene transitions and connects the shots within a scene together in memorable and insightful ways. The film knows when holding on for an unbearably long time works for the atmosphere, and when to make a quick, unexpected cut to punctuate what’s just happened, or throw you off balance for what’s about to happen. The soundtrack provides some exquisite pieces of horror music, avoiding the cliché and overused sudden sharp violin stings in favour of steady, perpetually creeping atmospheric music which constantly fills you with dread. The sound design is on point, making seeing this in the cinema with surround sound essential. Isolated noises will pop out sharply and startle you with alarming effectiveness. This is Ari Aster’s feature directorial debut, and it’s a hell of an impressive one. Based on this, I’ll be very interested to see what he does next.

         Hereditary’s plot may not finish as strongly as I suspect it could have, but enough of the narrative still works for me to make me glad I saw it. When you add to that a whole host of impressive examples of cinematic form, you have a film that might not land well with everyone, but is absolutely one of the year’s highlights.

8/10.

Its narrative falls short of all-time greatness, but its presentation can’t be faulted. A terrifying and memorable time.

[recentanimenews]

Aesthetic Cyberpunk Bartending on the Rocks: VA-11 Hall-A’s Switch Port

  Bar, pub, saloon, tavern, dive. There are so many names for places where people congregate to drink, socialize (or not), find connections (or not), and escape from the world around them. They’ve been a fascinating part of media and culture for decades, if not centuries, with some historians even saying that early beer halls and public halls, and the creation of beer, are responsible for saving early Europe from dirty water and viral diseases. Shows like Cheers have put drinking culture into pop media for years, and there’s countless instances of bars appearing in video games, movies, anime, and more; in fact, most good noir and cyberpunk stories worth their weight in salt feature a bar prominently at some point. That said, there aren’t really a lot of works out there about actually being the one slinging drinks behind the bar, and the day-to-day life of a bartender in these worlds is not always explored. In VA-11 Hall-A, you not only get to explore life in a dystopian cyberpunk future, you also get to be the one serving drinks and making ends meet, creating one of the most unique gaming experiences in recent years.

In VA-11 Hall-A, players take on the roll of Jill, the bartender of the bar VA-11 Hall-A, a somewhat dour woman with a past and whose mundane life in the dystopian world she lives in may end up crossing into some unexpected and mysterious paths. Perhaps one of the best things about the game is the cast of characters you encounter, all of them unique and vastly different from one another, leaving lasting impressions on you as they come into the bar and ask for drinks and, of course, company, although that second part may not always be so obvious.

One of the interesting parts about VA-11 Hall-A is that you really don’t see much of the world outside of the bar and Jill’s apartment, except through textlogs that you can read. Unlike many other cyberpunk and visual novel games, you aren’t going to save the world or solve a mystery, or even bring about the end of your dystopia, you’re really just trying to make it through the next day of work and pay your bills. In this respect, the game is somewhat fascinating, because while the stakes are high, your agency isn’t, stopping you from becoming the savior of the world you’re experiencing. This brings one of the choices of the game to the fore: you don’t really make any dialogue decisions, and what choices you can make are limited usually to determining the ending you will receive upon completing the game. Aside from that, the player is experiencing Jill’s life in the passenger seat, seeing how she interacts with the various people that enter the bar, and her relationships with others that we get to witness developing.

The gameplay portion of VA-11 Hall-A comes from the mixing of drinks that Jill serves to customers, and is the main interactable function in the game. Jill has the ability to access a computer screen that tells her the components of every drink she can make, and then the ability to mix those drinks. Yeah, you can indeed screw drinks up, but overall the game doesn’t really punish you for this overtly, and the plot will still progress even if you serve the wrong drink, but it may affect things like a game over or the ending you get. Still, the drink mixing mechanic is unique and interesting, and the fact that you can actually mess up does mean paying attention matters. The game even offers you the ability to remake a drink if it notifies you that you’ve done it wrong, as long as you haven’t actually served it to the customer yet.

Other than mixing drinks, there really isn’t much else to ‘play’ here, meaning that the game is more of a visual novel than it is anything else, but one that asks for your input in the process of Jill’s job requirements. Personally, I enjoyed the drink mixing element because it made the idea of Jill being a bartender more noticeably important to the game, and drove home the fact that this is what Jill does for a living; there’s no swapping the bartending menu for clue collecting or other things, you’re here to make drinks and that’s exactly what you’re going to do.  

This limitation on what you can do, and why, does bring some interesting quirks to the game. As mentioned, the game has a bevy of interesting and unique characters, many of them with their own problems, struggles, and conflicts that you, as Jill, get to watch unfold from behind your bar. Jill has little ability to impact these character’s lives aside from a few distinct choices in the game that affect the ending, and there are instances where players are left guessing about what happened, and why it happened, to various characters. As mentioned, Jill won’t become the key hero to lead a rebellion against the dystopia, but the game is almost myopically personal at times because of the limit to what you can see and what that means.

For example, without much spoilers, there is a mystery around a key character in the game that appears very early on, but is never fully explained. Even after obtaining a relevant ending, the character’s fate, and overall meaning in the game, aren’t fully explained in a somewhat frustrating way. And, maybe, that’s okay; games tend to overshare frequently, providing far too much information to answer all questions literally, and don’t tend to leave a lot of room for interpretation or even mystery. And, sometimes, we have to admit that unfulfilling story beats might just exist because… the developers forgot about them.  But either way, the game is great, mysteries aside, and in some ways these odd story beat drops fit the fact that just one person can only know and see so much.

There's so much to love about the world VA-11 Hall-A creates that the unanswered questions it presents might be excused. Jill’s story is a simple, relatable, and emotional one, and the characters that orbit her are similarly interesting and will keep you coming back to the game for more, likely fulfilling special orders to get various endings in the process (there is something of a New Game + mode where money carries over). Something that makes VA-11 Hall-A stand out and worth noting is the representation present in the game, as the game is not shy about the fact that Jill is bisexual, and many of her romantic interests in the game are other women. Although some of the writing is a little odd at times in these segments, I think Sukeban Games did a great job weaving the identity of their character into how the game plays in a way that feels mostly natural and flowing.

Although boob measuring conversations don’t really happen in real life, everything else that Sukeban worked into this game feels absolutely authentic, and helps deepen the connection that you’re viewing the world through Jill’s eyes, rather than playing “as” Jill, and are instead seeing things from her perspective. The rest of the cast are as varied and interesting as Jill is, ranging from a shiba inu named Rad Shiba to a man named after a Seinfeld joke, and the majority of the women in the cast that Jill interacts with and can end up in various endings with sometimes nearly steal the show for how lovable and unique they are.

VA-11 Hall-A has a lot of other great touches going for it. The color pallette and themeing in the game really sells the idea of the aesthetic, cyberpunk future bar that you’re inhabiting, with various shades of black, purple, white, and pinks giving off more of a Blade Runner vibe than a Vaporwave one. The music in the game is absolutely fantastic as well, and the jukebox in the game allows you to let music play naturally, or simply find tunes you like and play them through your own fiddling. There are some ways in which this random music playing actually gives some level of atmosphere to the game, as characters talking to you while music that doesn’t match the mood plays in the background, rather than having specific sound cues and design. I would be lying if the game’s OST wasn’t stuck in my head, and believe me, the game is an overall better experience for the fantastic soundtrack than it would be with something different.

This is probably is one of the detriments of playing it on the Switch in handheld mode; you will absolutely want headphones, otherwise you’ll likely not be playing the game with the volume turned up and miss out on the great music! Although not a graphically intensive game, the overall presentation of VA-11 Hall-A is fantastic, and on the Switch the game looked amazing in both docked and handheld mode; I really can’t suggest either is superior to the other, a somewhat great feat when it comes to Switch ports sometimes. Other great touches involve the controls: you have the ability to use gyro controls (which I generally don't really like), touch controls, and stick controls. The touch controls worked perfectly, and I honestly found it my preferred way to play the game overall, as it made progressing dialogue a lot easier and less of a chore; when I got to drink mixing, I would switch to the sticks, and then resume using touch controls for the narrative. These are small, almost cosmetic additions, but they really do help make the Switch version feel fantastic and probably my overall preferred version of the game so far.

If you’re a fan of visual novels, or simply curious about them, I think VA-11 Hall-A is a great place to look for your next gaming experience. The game will feel right at home to VN fans, with an interesting story and unique twist on the way VNs play, and players who are less familiar with how those games work will probably find the drink mixing mechanic helps alleviate that idea that you don’t “do” anything in them. Either way, if you’re a fan of cyberpunk, bartending, or just cute girls struggling to exist in a dystopian nightmare future over a few drinks, there’s a lot to love here. So pull up a stool, order your favorite drink, and dive in to VA-11 Hall-A; we can promise you won’t need a hangover cure for this drink, cause it goes down smooth!

REVIEW ROUNDUP

+ Unique cyberpunk game that puts players in an unusual profession to play as.  

+ Switch port is great, playing well in both modes, and touch controls are awesome.

+ Lots of great characters, solid storylines, and well done narrative flow.

+ Great to see lots of positive, natural representation in this game.

+/- Some story beats don’t quite get explained, which can be puzzling, but ultimately your mileage may vary on if that’s a big deal.

-  Serving the wrong drink rarely affects the narrative, and feels like your choices, already limited, don’t really matter.

  Are you curious to order up at VA-11 Hall-A? Got a favorite drink to enjoy your games with? Let us know what you think of the game in the comments!

  ----

Nicole is a features writer and editor for Crunchyroll. Known for punching dudes in Yakuza games on her Twitch channel while professing her love for Majima. She also has a blog, Figuratively Speaking. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com