#they might also be on sale on switch I'm not positive..! but it's a really good sale!!!

[delta-syrup]

@doughcatball This is really making me laugh. I included a screenshot of the part of the vid you're talking abt just for clarity but YEAH LOL that's Kazuma (on the left, with the headband) and Ryunosuke (on the right, looking so scardies). They're two of my favorite characters evar... They're the ones who inspired Kazuki and Blue respectively...! I love Kazuma's hair so I pretty much just stole it for Kazuki's design LOL. Blue's hair is also inspired by Ryunosuke's hair, but I think it's a much less obvious rip off fnejfnsifn

This really made me giggle tho, it's funny to think that someone would see Kazuma and think of my silly shark guy who was inspired by him. It makes me rly rly happy :) I love my funny guys...! so sorry abt the meteor strike and the dying and all that tho o7

[humornaut]

My Journey with Omori

Hey everyone. Rather than my usual analysis-type posts, this is going to go into my own personal experience with Omori. I've kind of wanted to do this for awhile, because I feel like I have a lot that I want to say about this game. This post is going to have major Omori spoilers. I will also be going into some criticisms of the game (though not particularly heavily). This one will be a long one.

My Background

This might not be something that people care about, but I feel it is important to start with my life situation at the time I discovered the game.

In 2020, I graduated from college with a degree in game design. If you remember 2020, you can probably guess where I'm going with this. Everyone left for spring break, and the day before we were supposed to come back, they extended break by a week. Then, at the end of that additional week, classes had gone fully remote. My three roommates at the time never really came back to campus, and I finished out the lease alone. I never got to do any kind of internship, and I didn't get a graduation ceremony. I really didn't know what I was doing with my life, and finding a job in the games industry seemed impossible. So, I made a decision to move in with my aunt and work at an insurance agency. I was states away from anyone I ever knew, working in an industry wholly unrelated to what I had just dedicated years of my life to studying, but it was a job.

I wonder a lot if this was the right call. At the time, it seemed like an obvious decision, but now, I'm even more unsure of my skills when it comes to breaking into the games industry, and working 40+ hours a week can really sap your motivation when it comes to personal projects.

As the world opened back up, I started hearing from all my friends less and less, and life really started getting monotonous. Living alone is expensive, and I'm not good at opening up to new people.

Last November, by chance, a comic by twitter user Shrimperini appeared on my feed (it's still the pinned tweet on her account if you want to see!). One thing led to another, I saw some more positive reviews of the game, and I ended up picking the game up on Switch when I saw at on sale at a Best Buy.

Now, anyone that knows me could tell you, this isn't the type of game I usually play. I've always gravitated towards things like strategy games or rogue-likes. I only really stray from that in a few cases, whether it's to play a game with my friends, or just a game that I've had a long-standing connection with, like Pokémon. I did play Undertale and Deltarune (and loved them!), but overall, this type of game was not one that I typically went out of my way to play.

Also important: I've never interacted with any fandom in the way that I do with Omori. You can trawl through my Twitter, you won't find much of me talking about ships or obsessing over details until I started talking about Omori. All this is to say: Omori was a bit of a first for me on a few different levels. So, let's get into my actual journey with the game.

The First Playthrough: The Sunny Route

I unfortunately already knew a few details about the game going into things, but nothing that was too big of a spoiler. Something that I think gets overlooked is how great Omori's prologue is. In my opinion, the first night in Headspace is the best night in Headspace, bar none. It perfectly sets you up for what the game's going to be about, and I want to talk more about that later, because I feel that it really shines on later playthroughs.

Based on what I said about my background, you can probably guess what I'm going to say. Sunny's story and personality resonated heavily with me. At school, I was always the quiet one, just kind of following what my friends wanted to do until I started coming out of my shell a bit later on. Faraway is very similar to the town and suburb that I grew up in, and I know that many people feel the same way. Walking around Faraway felt like walking around my own home town today, years after almost everyone I knew back then has moved out and started their own lives. I mean this literally, as well, since I started playing this game right around American Thanksgiving, so I actually was back in my home town. It's nostalgic in a way, and I think that that is a major strength of the game.

I also do want to say, that while a Kel/Sunny comic is what introduced me to the game, I mostly assumed that it wasn't actually a canon ship. What I didn't expect was for the game to actually depict a close male relationship that does border on romantic in its presentation, which made those opening transition scenes of Sunny and Basil so interesting (as well as Basil indirectly calling Omori cute during the flower meaning segment), though I do want to talk a little bit more about that later.

From there, I feel that my experience was a lot like most people's first time with the game. I got to experience Faraway, then tried to rush through Night 2 of Headspace without paying much attention, so that I could get back to the real world plot. I didn't pay much attention during Sweetheart's Castle, and it's already-commented-on gameplay drag issues felt exacerbated by the fact that I just wanted to get on with it.

Real world day 2 happens, I got to meet Hero in the real world, Basil gets pushed into the lake, etc, etc. The shroud has started to lift on what's actually going on here. The North Lake segment got me ready to figure out what was actually going on, but first: Last Resort and Humphrey.

It was around this time that I began wondering if there actually was any kind of gay subtext actually going on. Of course, I had seen the Lost Library entry for the ride home from the beach, but as I descended into Sunny's subconscious, the way that the game started talking about Basil took on a much different tone. I got to the Branch Coral, and listened to it talk about how Sunny and Basil are connected by a "string of fate". This immediately set off some alarm bells in my head. A lot of debate has been had about this line, but for me personally, even if a string of fate isn't always romantic imagery, it certainly is most of the time. Seeing it written in the game (as something that Sunny's subconscious is saying, no less) completely had me reconsidering if there was a connection, which I hadn't really thought about since Basil's disappearance. I thought about the photo album, and how well Basil is treated in Headspace, and it just had me thinking.

I got through Humphrey, finished up the side quests that I still had, and it was time to start Black Space. Prior to that, however, Stranger lead me through Basil's garden once again, going over the flower meanings. I took note about how the meaning of sunflowers, as it was the first time I made the connection about Sunny's name and Basil's meaning for them (plus him literally always facing Sunny in several scenes lol). And then there was what Basil said about white tulips.

Being honest, it was difficult for me to interpret Basil as not being in love with Sunny after that, and Stranger's dialogue in some of the Black Space rooms really cemented that for me.

Black Space as a whole left me extremely intrigued as to what the plan was. The way it ended really left me in suspense for what was really going on. How did it all relate to what happened to Mari? I had already assumed at this point that she had taken her own life, due to some of the imagery. But what else was going on here? I didn't exactly think the game was going to veer back from being a horror title to turn into some kind of dating sim, but it was clear to me that Basil was involved with some other secret.

In a reversal of what I had expected of the game up until this point, I found it difficult to care about the real world plot of the game during day 3. It didn't help that it felt like a rushed resolution of the Aubrey plot, and I felt like I was simply going through the motions. I still have no idea how I'm supposed to interpret the key in the treehouse and how it got there, and it felt a little aggravating that plans were being made between Aubrey and Hero to include the hooligans next time, while Basil himself was still locked in his room.

So then, the truth sequence. It completely blew away my expectations for what the game was saying, and recontextualized so much of what came before it. Sunny had done something awful by accident, and Basil had done something awful to protect him. That last "Do you want to save Basil?" really hit me hard. I hadn't felt so part of the game until this moment. It was like I was Sunny, and I was mulling over whether or not I forgive Basil for the horrible situation his actions put us both in. The stakes are high, because it's clear that something bad will happen to Basil if I don't. I didn't actually know it at the time, but this is the first time you can actually choose not to save Basil. It's emotional.

And the fight. The way the game creates confusion as to what is actually going on between Sunny and Basil during it by using vague wording and hallucinations. Basil's desperation and the way his desire to protect Sunny as his "perfect" best friend come together, leading to the fight.

Memory Lane happens, and I honestly didn't think much of it at the time. It was cool to see some of the memories in better detail, but it wasn't as emotional to me as what came before or what will come after.

I would be remiss to not include that we learn that it was actually Sunny that had a crush on Aubrey, and not the other way around. I had already suspected this, based on Aubrey not being close to him in the photo album, along with the Lost Library memory, but I remember thinking it was an interesting choice to have Basil be the one to call it out.

I finished up the game, and it impacted me a whole lot. I wasn't planning on playing the other route at first, as I heard that it was just Headspace and mostly unchanged, and I felt satisfied with the story that I got. I walked away with the understanding that pre-canon, Basil had feelings for Sunny that he likely didn't understand, while Sunny had a crush on Aubrey that he was never bold enough to pursue. How they felt at the time the game actually took place is irrelevant to the story being told, outside of us understanding that these are relatable individuals, and I walked away alright with that.

Of course, after that initial wave of emotions from the ending subsided, I did have some criticisms. Sunny's actual friendship with Aubrey felt underdeveloped, as her behavior both in Headspace and the real world differ so heavily from how she behaves in the glimpses we see of the past. Unlike Sunny's relationships with the others, there's no real unique identifiers other than Sunny's crush. While I would not have wanted the only living female character in the main cast to have been treated as a love interest in both the real world and dream world, it would have been nice if the game gave us a little more than just the swing set conversations, like how we get Kel talking about their late night trips to Hobbeez. In addition, while I understood on a base level that whether or not Basil and Sunny are forgiven didn't really matter to the story being told, not seeing it happen left me feeling a tad empty.

Finally, I felt extremely dissatisfied with Headspace. On a superficial level, I could see that many of the things in Headspace were based on things from the real world, it didn't really feel like it had all that much significance, and the knowledge that it would be more of the same in the other route kept me from playing it. I occasionally visited the subreddit, read a few post-canon fics (Bask in the Sun by Lemari and They say Flowers are Meant to be Sunkissed by Witherdahlia being highlights with very similar concepts), and slowly immersed myself in the Twitter community.

Of course, as time went by, I started making my own interpretations about the game. I got very attached to Sunflower, as I felt the fics were the most interesting to read, and I already held the interpretation that Basil had those feelings for Sunny, even if I didn't think it even mattered if Sunny reciprocated (though I did like talking about their dynamic a lot). In February, Sunflower week happened, and I randomly happened across a tweet that pointed out how Sunny knows the recipe for a strawberry cake in Headspace, with that being relevant due to Basil's birthday being one in which a strawberry cake appears. This blew my mind a little bit, and I made the decision to go back and play the Hikikomori route.

The Second Playthrough: The Hikikomori Route

What I had previously assumed would be a slog through things that I had already done before turned out to be far more interesting. Without the desire to get back to the real world plot hanging over me, I found myself paying a lot more attention to the things that were happening in Headspace. Playing the prologue again was amazing, because I was taken aback by how it practically parallels the entirety of the Sunny route, right down to having to retrieve a stolen item and receiving an eyepatch after the boss fight. Some day, I might break that down further, because it's so interesting. But not today.

Pyrefly Forest and Sweetheart's Castle were much more bearable this time around, because I was paying attention to the little references to Basil and Sunny's friendship in Pyrefly, and the ways Sweetheart's Castle represented a candied-up version of the way that Sunny interprets the concept of "home". This time through Headspace, I saw the very subtle ways that Basil's thoughts "follow Sunny into his dreams". And then, rather than Mari leading you through North Lake, it's Kel. Stranger no longer tells us what Basil thought about white tulips and Sunny, but this time in Black Space, I noticed the implications that Sunny would open up to Basil about his trauma coming from the Lake Incident. It ends with Omori catching Basil in a bridal carry before returning his flower crown.

Whereas the Sunny route was this heart wrenching tale about forgiveness and guilt, and overcoming your fears for others, and how ignorance hurts those you care about the most, the Hikikomori route functioned almost as this deep dive into Sunny's subconscious. The fact that I was playing through pretty much the exact same stuff again but with a completely different perspective kind of blew my mind, and I wonder if this was intentional.

This is all to say that it was around this time that I was once again asking myself the question of if Sunny's feelings for Basil (at least pre-canon) were entirely platonic. Especially as I played the Basil Rush, with its new Tag Photos and Release Energy, I wondered if the game was actually trying to imply a romantic connection. And if it was, why? What purpose would it serve in the narrative for these feelings to exist? How does it relate to Sunny's crush on Aubrey, which surely must've existed in the story for a reason? And how does it all relate to the litany of things Sunny things about in regards to romance?

From a narrative perspective, I could reason that Sunny and Basil having feelings for each other that they could never healthily explore injects further tragedy into the day of the incident and Sunny locking himself away. It provides a context for Sunny's focus on "saving" Basil, both in Headspace and the real world. Basil is undeniably linked to photos and flowers, which are two huge symbols that appear throughout Sunny's mind.

Everything else is stuff I've already spoken about before. The way Sunny treated Aubrey parallels how he treated Basil, and via both things like his fear of spiders, and the way all the foods Sunny appears to know information on how to prepare being associated with Basil, his dynamic with Basil mirrors the way Sunny thinks of Hero and Mari's relationship during Memory Lane.

Playing through the Hikikomori route completely changed the way that I thought about Omori. It was no longer just the story of Sunny accepting his role in his sister's death, I was also now considering the possibility that the game did have a romantic subtext between its two deuteragonists, and thinking about the repercussions of such an idea.

As I completed everything that there was to do in the Hikikomori route, I was immediately taken in with the idea of replaying the Sunny route, with all the knowledge I now had from my previous experiences. First, let me say: Everything that I assumed about playing through Headspace a second time and was luckily wrong about, actually applied on my third run. I did not enjoy playing through Headspace on my third run through, and it will likely be awhile before I do so again.

However, I did start to get an appreciation for details that I missed in my first run in Faraway. Basil's little mannerisms during cutscenes, such as looking to Sunny before responding to Kel's insistence that they were all still friends, as well as the repetition of Sunny backing away from his friends' pain due to his subconscious guilt and fear of facing it, before the final payoff of Sunny choosing to walk back into the center of the room on his own accord during the confrontation with Basil. During Memory Lane, I took note that in the Treehouse Memory, Sunny asked to see one of Basil's pictures that had nothing to do with Aubrey, when previously he only asked to look at pictures of her. There are three different instances in which the player is reminded that Hero and Mari's relationship specifically is one in which they cook for each other specifically, and this information was now recontextualized with the knowledge that Sunny knows the recipe for a strawberry cake, owns a book about tofu (which he hates), and that's not even getting into all the stuff about smoothies in Headspace. Where Aubrey saying that Sunny "would listen to her talk to hours" was once a confirmation that Aubrey and Sunny did have any kind of dynamic at all, I now saw it as a recontextualization of how we were told Sunny interacted with Basil. (also, the "truth" being hidden in the toy chest, which is itself hidden in the closet was certainly a choice /j)

What was the point of all this?

Frankly, it's starting to feel like I'm running out of things to say about Omori. With every post I've made on here and Twitter, there's less things for me to extrapolate from Omori's storytelling, and it's unlikely that we will ever get any more added on to canon. I've grown to love this community, and I think it's so interesting when I look back at how I interpreted the game back in November when I first discovered it, and today. I hope that that will become evident with the mod that I am working on, Senesce.

Obviously, everyone has their own ideas when it comes to what Omori is trying to imply with its characters. Accepting Sunflower as "canon" (in the sense that those feelings do exist in some form) has deepened my love of the game and characters, and I love that other people can have entirely different interpretations and still be just as satisfied with the game! Even if it was all unintentional, I cannot deny that it has lit a fire under me when it comes to game writing.

I desperately want to create a game that has someone at home obsessing over the smallest details to extract meaning in the way I have for Omori. Flawed as it may be, it's special to me, and I'm glad I played it. Thanks for listening to me ramble about it!

[mitochondriaandbunnies]

Miami Vice S1E15: Golden Triangle, Part 2

Castillo learns his wife is still alive-- and in Miami.

Let me just start by saying: really getting the sense no one who worked on this show knew that there are multiple countries and cultures in Asia. I'll give them credit for it not being a standard 80's "the East frightens us in a capitalist way" TV show plot, but Castillo is like. A samurai? Who learned how to Samurai in... Thailand. His Thai wife and her new husband and the drug lord who brought them here all seem to have Chinese names, and I feel like somehow this is all supposed to be related to the Vietnam war. Also I'm pretty sure none of the actors in this episode are Thai. I... okay, Miami Vice. Not your best look.

The episode opens on what is apparently supposed to be a flashback to Thailand (but is definitely just Miami) set to Catch the Wind, but not the Donovan version. Castillo is in a speedo and Joan Chen is wet. It's extremely unclear that it's a flashback.

Crockett and Tubbs show up at Castillo's house and Tubbs examines his statue. Castillo explains what's going on and. And. And I'm gonna get into some Old Skool Fandom(TM) heresy here, but: I do not understand Castillo/Crockett when Castillo/Tubbs is right there. Sonny asks about how they can help transactionally ("you've done stuff for us before, we should do stuff for you"): Rico switches to Spanish and asks for Martin to let them in. Tubbs spends the whole episode with his eyes glued to Castillo, and is the one who notices when something is wrong first every time. Sonny barks at Castillo's enemies; Rico waits beside him, gently and persistently trying to get him to open up. Rico drives this whole episode, with Castillo sitting shotgun-- poor Sonny is relegated to the back. Tubbs is 100% ready for this to be Scary Boss Gets Tender With His One Employee Who Gives Him Space to Be Vulnerable and Sonny is still stuck on "the US government is corrupt sometimes."

Castillo tells Sonny and Rico to "call next time" before they show up at his house; they laugh as if he is making a joke. I do not think he is making a joke.

John Santucci is here as a corrupt official and he talks openly about how basically he's in charge of the flow of opium into poor urban communities in the US, and Sonny gets his 10-mile predator stare on. After Dale (Santucci) leaves, Crockett and Tubbs directly confirm with Castillo: so he's an American federal agent who is doing drug crime for profit? Also Miami Vice was just about speedboats and shoulderpads, right

Following up on that, when Castillo meets with Lao Li, the Thai drug lord who Dale is working with, Lao Li basically smiles and says he's not a criminal, just a capitalist, and that he's here to retire in Miami. But it's not political or anything

Of course they undercut this with Castillo saying something like "no it's not, it's Southeast Asia" when C&T say the whole drug thing is "nuts," and it's like. Really, Castillo? You think the problem is the region where economic circumstances created by the US necessitate the sale of drugs to the US? And not the US?

Peter Kwong is here as the shitty teen(?) grandson of the drug lord and there's a scene where he and another grandson literally snicker about how they're going to do SO much crime when Lao Li is like "no one do crime plz"

Castillo is positioned as having an unshakeable sense of duty and loyalty and honor, but when it comes down to it, his code of honor is not the code of honor he claims to be bound to. His sense of duty and the rules he follows are, in fact, rules he follows to the letter-- but they're personal, not societal. He tells Sonny he is a police officer and that he would not do vigilante justice, and then has an entire family and all their associates, including children, put under 24 hour police surveillance because he thinks maybe one of them might do crime eventually. He has nothing to actually get Lao Li arrested for, so he carefully manufactures a situation where Lao Li's hand is forced into killing. What Castillo says (and he doesn't generally say a lot) and does often don't match up, but he's incredibly forceful and convincing. Lao Li recognizes this-- he points out that they're much the same and that he shares great respect for him-- but it's very easy as an audience to be convinced that Castillo is significantly less morally grey than he is. He is absolutely loyal and bound to a code of honor-- but it's the code of honor of a gangster, not the law.

Lao Li definitely tries to play the "maybe this could be an enemies to lovers story wink wink" at the end there and Castillo is like "enemies is good"

My stunning wife Joan Chen is the most beautiful woman on earth and Castillo should've just been like "do you want two husbands." I think Ma Sek would've been into it. And maybe then he wouldn't have gotten involved in crime and Heart of the Night (in which both his actor and Joan Chen are replaced anyway-- Ma Sek's actor is literally replaced with James Saito who plays a different character in this fucking episode) wouldn't have happened

Did we all know John Santucci was a jewel thief before he became an actor? And that he became a thief again when apparently no one other than Michael Mann wanted to hire him? Because I did not

[lauramkaye]

Disco Elysium For Beginners

So apparently my cunning plan is working and some of my mutuals are interested in learning more about my recent obsession by playing the game Disco Elysium. Great!!! In your honor, and so that I will have more people to talk about the game with, I present to you Laura's Beginner's Guide to Playing Disco Elysium.

What Is It Even About?

Hope, despair, poverty, the human condition, politics, pinball, art, love, loss, communism, experiencing a bisexual awakening in your forties, colonization, dancing, substance use disorders, unions, mental illness, truth, trying to be a good person in a completely broken society, beauty, the end of the world, joy, complicated relationships, kindness, intersectionality, the complex and problematic nature of the profession of police detective, cryptids, juvenile delinquents, PTSD, and falling helplessly in love with Kim Kitsuragi.

Oh wait, did you mean the plot?

You play as an amnesiac detective who wakes up after an apocalyptic bender that obliterated his memories. There is a dead body hanging in a tree behind your hotel, and you are there to find out who killed him with the help of Kim Kitsuragi, a detective from another precinct who has also been put on the case and who will be your partner while you are in town. You can, as the official site puts it, "become a hero, or an absolute disaster of a human being."

Where to Get It

Disco Elysium is available for Mac and PC via Steam and for XBox and Playstation (both current and previous generation) and Nintendo Switch. The current version is "The Final Cut" which includes full voice acting. The Steam version goes on sale pretty frequently - I'd keep an eye on Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales if you're interested in picking it up. The MSRP is $40 but you can often find it for around $20 if you look for a sale - the PS4 version is $17 on Amazon right now (11/15/2022).

I'm Not Really A Gamer, Can I Still Play?

Absolutely! DE does not require any "twitchy" gameplay - you interact with the game by reading/listening to text, selecting dialogue options to talk to people, and clicking things/people to interact with them in some way. It runs very much like a tabletop RPG, where all the uncertain things are decided by skill checks and dice rolls.

Notably, DE is quite replayable even though the solution to the mystery doesn't change, because different character builds will have very different experiences and may even see completely different sidequests and dialogue. Unlike most RPGs, DE makes many checks silently, in the background, and if you don't pass the check you just don't see the relevant content and never know you missed anything. I'm on my third full and sixth partial playthrough and I still find new things.

Mechanically, playing Disco Elysium goes something like this:

Go into a new area.

Look around. You will see little colored circles appearing, either on top of items/people in the environment, or sometimes around your player character's head.

Click on the colored circles to interact with them. You will learn something, do something, or start a conversation.

Doing stuff and talking to people gives you XP! Every time you get 100 XP, you get one Skill Point. You can either use it to increase one of your skills, unlock a slot in your Thought Cabinet, or forget a Thought from your Thought Cabinet. You don't have to spend them right away; you can save them up if you want to.

Once you have clicked everything you want to click and talked to everyone you want to talk to for now, go somewhere else.

Repeat.

What the Hell is a Thought Cabinet?

As you go through the game, you will unlock "thoughts" that you can ponder. You have a certain number of slots in your "thought cabinet" where you can be mulling over an idea; you start with three slots and can unlock more up to a max of 12. Thoughts will have certain effects while you are thinking about them, which might be positive or negative. While you are still thinking them over, you can equip or unequip them at will. Each "thought project" takes a specific amount of time.

Once you have spent the designated time on a thought project, you will see the message "Breakthrough Imminent" and then you will "internalize" the thought. The thought will have effects on the gameplay, which can include skill buffs and debuffs or other effects. Once the thought is internalized, you can no longer unequip it. It will take up that slot permanently unless you spend another skill point to forget it.

So what thoughts should I internalize?

A lot of them are mainly for flavor or role-playing but a few notable ones:

Actual Art Degree gives you bonus XP when you pass a passive Conceptualization check. This is the most common passive check in the game, so AAD is the thought to take if you want to get as many skill points as possible. You unlock the thought by talking about art as much as you can.

Get Jamais Vu as early as you can on Day 1 by talking with Joyce Messier at the dock. It opens up some key dialogue options and skill checks as well as giving you bonus XP whenever you click an orb.

Ace's High or Ace's Low gives you extra Empathy bonuses towards Kim. Which you will want, because Kim is the Best.

Wompty-Dompty-Dom Centre is available starting on Day 3 and will give you $2 and some XP when you pass an Encyclopedia check.

Homo-Sexual Underground. Its only effect is to allow you to talk about sexuality with Kim. Therefore it is the most important thought in the game, because approximately 90% of players will be in love with Kim by the second in-game day.

Okay, What About Skills?

Your character "build" (strengths, weaknesses, abilities, etc.) is primarily determined by two things that you can adjust as the game progresses by spending Skill Points: Skills and Thoughts.

Skills in DE are similar to skills in other RPGs in that they determine how good you are at various things. The main difference is that instead of the more traditional skills like strength, dexterity, or charisma, DE has skills like Savoir Faire, Rhetoric, and Empathy. As befits a game that emphasizes the story and characters over combat, the skills are a lot less about how good you are at punching monsters and a lot more about the state of your character's head. The skills are broken down into four categories:

Blue or Intellect skills - brainy stuff like Logic, Rhetoric, and Encyclopedia.

Purple or Psyche skills - emotional stuff like Empathy, Volition, and Authority.

Red or Physical skills - the condition of your physical body. Endurance, Electrochemistry, and Pain Threshold live here.

Yellow or Motorics skills - how well you use your physical body. Things like Hand Eye Coordination, Perception, and Composure.

There are good descriptions of each skill in the game. At the beginning, you can choose from three predefined archetypes (Thinker, Sensitive, or Physical) or create your own by allocating 12 points between the four skill categories and picking one skill as your "signature."

What Is The Best Skill Build?

There isn't an "best" one! You can play the game equally successfully with any build, but different builds will feel very different to play, especially early in the game.

That said, I would recommend against doing a 3-3-3-3 build because it just won't be as fun. Most skills generally start to really show effects at around a 4, and failing skill checks is often funny and shouldn't lock you out of completing any checks except if you've done something really unusual.

Basically the "best" build for you is whatever is the most fun - pick something that speaks to you and go for it.

In general, Intellect builds will get a lot of worldbuilding and lore and be really good at detecting. Psyche builds will have a better sense of other people and the world and strong intuition. Physical builds tend to be able to punch their way through obstacles but aren't very smart or empathetic and struggle with following their gut instincts/cravings without thinking about it. Motorics builds will find several early-game skill checks a lot easier for them and will be good at skills like shooting, picking locks, noticing stuff, keeping cool under pressure, and talking about cars.

Some key things to consider when deciding on your character build:

Encyclopedia is the skill that gives you lore and worldbuilding information.

If you want to min-max your build to get as many skill points as possible, make sure you have good Conceptualization so you can unlock the thought Actual Art Degree.

Esprit de Corps is similar to Empathy, but it works specifically on other cops. Doing a run with high EDC helps unlock a ton of lore about many of the other key characters in the game.

Electrochemistry will try to get you to drink, smoke, have sex, and take drugs. It will also give you insights into the drinking/smoking/drugging/sex habits of others. VERY high EC will allow you to unlock a leopard-print unitard underwear option for your player character.

You have two health pools, Health and Morale. Health is affected by the Endurance skill and Morale is affected by the Volition skill. If you start a game with only 1 point in either purple or red skills, that can mean you die very easily early in the game. My first playthrough I did a high INT build and I died in the first room of the game from turning on the lights even though I had a terrible hangover. So just be aware.

Shivers is my favorite skill in the game and I'm not alone there. Shivers allows you to have a connection to your city. A lot of the best moments in the game come during Shivers checks and the writing is generally really evocative. Great for atmosphere.

My favorite skills are Esprit de Corps for character knowledge, Shivers for cool atmosphere, and Drama because Drama is just really funny.

What Else Do I Need To Know?

If you seem stuck, go somewhere else and talk to more people OR spend a skill point to level up a skill.

You can zoom in and out. My first playthrough I didn't realize this for a while and kept missing certain characters who were standing somewhere I needed to be zoomed out to see.

A lot of things that are usually part of game menus have to be unlocked. You get a map by buying it at the bookstore. You get your stats and to-do list by finding your police ledger.

Cuno seems horrible but if you gain his trust there's a lot of depth to his character. There is also a potential ending where Cuno acts as your partner during the endgame.

Do the sidequests. They are often the best stories in the game.

Don't be TOO afraid of disappointing Kim. If you avoid being racist/sexist/hurting people, he will usually come around.

That said, if you play as a terrible person he won't be your friend anymore. I don't know how people can take the emotional trauma of that, but some people do!

Save frequently, Just In Case.

Don't be too hasty to reset. Let things play out. Most of the deaths are pretty funny and sometimes you might think you died but really you didn't.

That said, it's fine to reload a save if you messed something up. It's a single player game, it isn't "cheating" to do this if you want to.

If you fail the red check at the church it is extra double okay to reload a save and make that not have happened. (This is probably one of the two highest-stakes skill checks in the game because if you succeed you get one of the best scenes in the game and if you fail you get one of the worst.)

Look at everything and talk to everyone.

I like to keep at least one unused skill point at all times in case I need to unlock a skill check I've failed once.

If you arrest someone or send the body to Processing, Kim will be gone for the rest of the day. There are some things you can only do with him and some you can only do without him, so plan accordingly.

Hope this helps and always feel free to ask if you want more help/get stuck/need hints/just want to scream about the game with me!!

[postgamecontent]

Nintendo Switch Weekly Round-Up for the Week Ending September 14, 2024

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the Nintendo Switch Weekly Round-Up for the week ending September 14, 2024. I've decided to carry this on in some fashion even though I'm not at TouchArcade anymore. It's going to be weekly, it's mainly going to be focused on new and notable releases, and I'm definitely not going to be doing the lists of sales. I might call out some specific ones here and there when I consider them juicy enough, though. With that said, let's see what this week brought us.

Select New Releases

Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics ($49.99)

The wildest retro collection you have never dreamt! Capcom tosses all of its arcade-based Marvel games into a package very similar in terms of interface and features to 2022's Capcom Fighting Collection. You get X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and The Punisher. All really good games, and don't ignore The Punisher if you pick this up. It's quietly one of Capcom's better beat 'em ups. A great set, and it's nice to see these games in circulation again.

The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance ~Memories in Ice, Tearful Figurine~ ($44.99)

G-Mode presents a remake of Yuji Horii's classic mystery adventure game, The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case. It's very faithful gameplay-wise, so you can expect some very vintage Japanese adventure gaming from it. Talk to people, examine scenes for evidence, and try to figure out who was responsible for these grisly murders. This is the first official English release of the game, which is pretty nifty.

Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines ($17.99)

Grappling pupper Pablo returns for more platforming fun, this time joined by the gun-wielding Luna. Are two dogs better than one? I haven't played enough to say for sure yet, but if you liked Grapple Dog you'll almost certain have a great time with this sequel.

Yars Rising ($29.99)

WayForward does its best to make a sassy Metroidvania out of a property almost as old as ol' Shaun, and the result is about what you would expect from this developer. It's fine. If you want a new Metroidvania, a new WayForward game, or want your Atari fan itch scratched, this will serve you well enough.

Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland ($24.99)

A surprisingly solid platformer in the vein of Super Mario Bros. 2/USA starring the most popular babies of the 1990s. You can play in classy NES style or go with the very well-done modern presentation. Either way, some enjoyable hop-and-toss fun.

Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP ($44.99)

Lollipop Chainsaw was a really fun game back in the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 era, with a style positively dripping with James Gunn/Suda51 energy. So what happens if you take that game, drain a massive amount of the style from it, and port it badly to Switch? This. This happens. It doesn't even play Mickey when you go super. What the heck is the point?

Arcade Archives VS. Battle City ($7.99)

A Famicom pirate cart/handheld staple, Battle City is already on the Switch via one of Namco's 8-bit collections. But this is VS. Battle City, which… removes the stage editor and adds pretty much nothing! One for the completionists, I suppose.

EGGCONSOLE Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes PC-8801mkIISR ($6.49)

The sixth game in the Dragon Slayer series is also the first game in The Legend of Heroes, which is technically the same franchise as Falcom's recent bread-and-butter Trails games. A pretty good turn-based RPG for its era, but one look at the screenshot will tell you what the problem is for most people reading this. Japanese only, and very text heavy. Oh well.

Crossy Road Castle ($19.99)

Another Apple Arcade game escapes the zoo, this time the platformer based on the hit Crossy Road franchise. Up to four players on this one, online or local. Plenty of hats and characters to unlock. The levels are procedurally generated, so you can keep playing it infinitely! Whether you will want to or not is a different matter, though.

Wild Bastards ($34.99)

The follow-up to Void Bastards, and one I'm sure will find just as many fans. It's pretty different from Void, incorporating turn-based strategy, roguelite, arena shooter, and a few other bits and bobs into something quite distinctive. That uniqueness might turn off some players, but I suspect it will win over more than it pushes away.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Reckoning of New York ($19.99)

Here's the third installment in the Vampire: The Masquerade series of visual novels for the Switch. If you're new to these, play the other two first. If you're not, then I'm sure you can figure out if this is for you or not.

Elsie ($24.99)

Played the wheels of 20XX and 30XX but need more roguelite Mega Man X mash-up action? Perhaps Elsie is what you're after today. Procedural generation! It's a popular choice in the modern age. Still, if the bar napkin concept doesn't put you off, this is a rather enjoyable game.

Eden Genesis ($24.99)

A cyberpunk-themed precision platformer with an emphasis on speedy moves. It's decent enough, but not so good that I'd recommend it with any real vigor. It's stylish and functional, and that might be enough for some.

Beneath Oresa ($24.99)

Here's another game inspired by the likes of Slay the Spire, this one aiming to be a bit more lively with its roguelite deckbuilding turn-based gameplay. It's extremely demanding, the kind of game where exactly one wrong move can end your run. So don't make any mistakes, okay? Glad we cleared that up.

Celestia: Chain of Fate ($29.99)

In this otome visual novel, you play as a young woman who finds out she's half angel and half demon. She's been invited to attend the Academy of Celestia, where she will find among other things three hunky dudes to potentially smooch. But which one will she smooch? That depends on your choices, my friend.

Metro Quester | Osaka ($19.99)

Just like the original Metro Quester, this is a game that is very much tuned towards a particular kind of taste. If you're into what it's laying down, you'll likely be absorbed for a while. Everyone else is going to be repelled with the force of an angry pantsless Magneto. Dungeon crawling, turn-based battling, chunky character building… ah, I love it.

Doomsday Paradise ($14.99)

This might seem like another Slay the Spire-style deckbuilding roguelite from that screenshot, but it's also an off-the-wall dating sim and features multiplayer for up to four players via online, local, or local wireless. Quite well-liked on other platforms, and I think this particular combination will go over nicely with the Switch audience too.

Fabledom ($24.99)

A deliberately relaxed fantasy-themed city builder. As near as I can tell, it more or less does what it sets out to do. Not the fanciest of cat pajamas, but if it's the kind of jam you're after today I don't think it will let you down.

Jackbox Naughty Pack ($21.69)

Those Jackbox Party Packs sure are neat, but if you've got a room full of adults and want to dig into something a little more saucy, here's the Naughty Pack. The games in this one go a little more dirty, as you can tell by the publisher cleverly ending the price with a 69 instead of a 99. I can definitely see this one going over well at the right kind of parties.

NanoApostle ($19.99)

Nanotechnology? How nostalgic. Remember when that was the buzzword in video games? Here's another one of those top-down boss-rush action games where you have to dash and dodge around while attacking a far more powerful foe. A fairly good one, I'd say. It works the way this kind of thing usually does, with skill trees, multistage bosses, and so on. Solid execution makes it.

Caravan SandWitch ($24.99)

A game about traversing a small but fairly dense open world in your cool van, helping people out. There's no combat, and you can't die. So it's just you, the citizens you'll be assisting, the sci-fi world itself, and a mystery about your missing sister to serve as an overall goal. It's been getting relatively good reviews so far. Provided the Switch port has come out smoothly, this might be worth the pick-up.

Edge of Sanity ($19.99)

The core game here is decent enough. It's a The Thing-inspired survival game with a lot of interesting systems to deal with and fairly satisfying strategic combat. The big problem is that this game is really buggy at the moment, at least in this Nintendo Switch form. I wouldn't pick it up on Switch until it gets some patching up, but I'm not the mayor of Yourwalletonshire.

Deep Beyond ($9.99)

Today is a day for missing family members, it seems. The main character of this one is a sea explorer looking for her father, and her journey will see her taking deep-sea dives, solving puzzles, and hanging out with her dog. Not a terribly long game by any means, but I think it punches well enough for the asking price.

Selfloss ($29.99)

This Slavic-inspired action-adventure game ended up being more engrossing than I expected. Rough edges aplenty, but it feels good to play more often than it doesn't. Solid boss battles, a good story, and really satisfying puzzles to solve. I was really caught off-guard by this, in a good way.

Pixel Game Maker Series The Willow Man ($6.99)

A modest little survival-horror game where you're trying to survive long enough to escape a house that plays host to an unspeakable evil known only as The Willow Man. There are multiple endings to arrive at based on your actions.

Downfall ($5.99)

I'm sure at this price you're not expecting fancy dining, and you shouldn't. Pretty much just a mindless little grinder. The art is decent and it's not the worst time-waster for a short while, but it gets dull fast.

Line Time ($5.99)

Regular readers know I'm a bit of a sucker for puzzle games, and this one isn't too shabby at all. You have to push the ball or balls to the goal on each stage, and you're given a set number of moves to do it in. Plan things out move by move and if there are multiple balls in play keep in mind that they will interact. Over two hundred stages to play, which is probably more than you'll need but appreciated nonetheless.

Samurai Kento ($4.99)

An small Metroidvania-ish game with RPG elements that casts you in the role of a samurai trying to save Japan from evil yokai run amuck. Not a bad time for the price, if you're in the mood for one of these.

Nimbusfall ($5.99)

Ah, haven't seen one of these in a while. You're a tiny character and you need to square off against twenty-five big bosses. You've got a good array of moves at your disposal, so all you have to do is learn the patterns and land your blows. Seems fine.

That's all for this week, friends. We'll be back next Saturday with another Round-Up, this time featuring a review or two! If you enjoyed this and feel like tossing me a tip, I have a Ko-Fi where you can make that happen. I hope you have a super Saturday, and as always, thanks for reading!

[yinyangp]

Vocaloid 6 Voicebank Thoughts

Less formal than a "review" but I wanted to share my thoughts on the V6 banks I have and have used. Ngl it's primarily positive, and y'all may have noticed I tend to use V6 more than I use SynthV just because I have more fun with Vocaloid. These are more or less gonna be in order by when I used them. I also might add to this post if/when I acquire new banks. Anyways here goes:

Allen

I really enjoy the tone of his bank, it's a sort of RnB/trap/rap-esque voice and that's not common in vocal synths so I appreciate it

English is really clear and the Japanese accent is also passable - mandarin isn't so good but I also barely use mandarin so

Goes falsetto when he goes high which in the right song goes hard

Probably my favorite of the four "default" banks

Sarah

A nice, solid, more mature sounding voice with is always welcome imo

Dunno if I've ever finished a whole song with her in english but I like her in Japanese just as much tbh

Once again, the mandarin needs work. I'm wondering if that's not just all of the V6 banks that were recorded for english

Unfortunately her voice tends to lose power in the higher range which makes her hard to use sometimes (but, most AI banks, not even just vocaloid ones, also have this issue.)

Tied with Haruka for second favorite default bank

Haruka

She kinda leans into the "cute little girl" voicetype but, it's still unique and has a rich quality to it

Once again I've never used her in full for english but I can't complain about her english really, I just have other banks I'd rather use for english??

Her mandarin is pretty good actually! I've noticed banks recorded for japanese handle mandarin better.

She also loses power when she goes high but it's less noticeable than with Sarah, since Haruka's less powerful to begin with

As stated previously, she's tied with Sarah for second place in the "default bank" category

Akito

So mid it hurts

Seriously he's not bad but he is the most Generic Male Voice on the market

Literally just "the Kaito we have at home"

I almost forgot he even existed and went straight to the next vocal on my list before realizing my mistake

I pretty much only ever use him for backing vocals, like octave down harmonies that are out of the main singer's range

Gumi AI

Gumi is love, Gumi is life,

Far higher quality than any of the default banks, like not even in the same league. Literally she's better in every conceivable way

The english accent is a little worse than the V3 english bank but by far more natural sounding, so it makes up the difference

Her mandarin is decent. Not much else to say, and I think Haruka's might be a little bit better???

Pretty much the only bad thing is that once again, the bank loses power in the higher register and that's hard to compensate for.

Regardless, easily my favorite voice for the engine. Period. Every time I tune her I have a blast.

Fuiro

I bought her while she was on sale and she was worth every penny

Seriously she sounds like a youtaite and I love love love her mature warm tone

Her english is also very clear and natural sounding. I've used her more in english than in japanese (which is funny since she was recorded for JPN lol)

In general, she feels more expressive than the others because her tone varies a lot depending on pitch

With that said, her range feels a lot more limited - she switches into falsetto almost immediately upon hitting C4 (C5 in UTAU) but she also can't go too far below C3 (C4 in UTAU) without starting to sound robotic

Even so, she's probably my second favorite V6 bank after Gumi

Una (Spicy)

Finally finally finally a voicebank that doesn't lose the powerful tone in the upper register

Her english is good but it's the only one where I've had to use extensive phoneme editing like you would in a V3/V4 non-native bank

Sometimes the english phonemes sound a little weird, especially [e], [I], and [V]

Still, it's the Una Spicy tone we all know and love

The styles Una comes with kinda suck actually, Gumi and Fuiro both had style presets that make them sound great but idk what's up with Una's

I still love her tho, especially having a powerful vocal that can also go high and stay powerful

Una (Sugar)

Soft, but still has Una's solid, cutesy tone

English is a bit better than Spicy's but still not great (what happened here? the others cross language synth just fine)

The Sugar styles are also better than Spicy's styles but still not great (again not sure what happened there)

Still, the tone is great and it's very fun to tune

DISCLAIMER: I literally got Una's banks yesterday so my opinions on them are not fully formed.

[mareenavee]

Hi there! I was wondering if there's anything you're happy to share about your original writing? I'd also love to hear about your writing process in general, from first conception through to finished product, and how it varies for you for fic vs original writing. Thanks so much for your time! 🌻🌷

Oh hello new friend :D Thanks for asking!

So I can talk a bit about what's been happening with me lately lol I think it can be important for a lot of us, especially in kind of the climate we're in as creatives right now. And while the story might not seem very happy at first, I am still happy to share so others might not feel alone if they're wandering, too.

Something about my original writing:

So I went to college for Creative Writing. I had started in English Edu, and switched about halfway through for many reasons but suffice to say if I didn't do what I loved, that degree would still be unfinished. My goal was to get into editing, if I could, and eventually write a book. After college, my full time, in-office jobs at first had nothing to do with writing. I was doing things like tech support, sales and data entry until I got into advertising. And I was editing, using my degree, but I was also more using my skills from sales. And here we stumble into something of a burnout problem. I was working so many hours on unrelated nonsense that I simply did not have the energy to stay awake half the time, let alone write. And I was away from the desk for so long that when I returned, I felt couldn't manage a single good thing. I kept trying even during the dumpster fire the last few years has been collectively.

I'll time skip for the sake of the story. The cure for burnout is simply rest, regardless of it's professional/career burnout or creative burnout or a combination of the both of these things. One doesn't always realize this in the middle of the issues, though. So here I was barely writing anything that I'd be willing to share, frowning terribly at the blank page every opportunity and just being down on myself and my work. I wrote a couple flash fiction pieces, and plenty for dnd but I'd kind of lost track of my goal of writing THE BOOK, ya know? So I decided I was done with feeling so, I guess, unmoored about it all and I wanted to return to longform projects without second guessing myself at every turn. And I broke the spiral, because it was a spiral, by returning to fandom and starting my fic.

So my original writing, long story short, is short form for the most part! And I want very much to finish a novel. I'm giving myself the space to practice again with fic and prove to myself what I am capable of. It's a slow process, healing, but I am and it translates back at every step. I don't tie my original works to this screenname but a few of my fic writin' and Skywind writin' friens have read a bit here and there of both my dnd and my original short stories. It feels good to not feel bad about them as loudly anymore and to have people interact in a positive way with what I've done. I lost a bit of that after college, and writers really ought to stick together. It gets lonely and difficult without friends otherwise. (:

Something about my writing process:

I am a planner and a fragment writer! This is a result of my schooling. When I was younger and didn't hear a different way, I would pants the entire story. Now I suppose it's about 85% planning, and 15% finding ways to cause problems on purpose for my characters and running with a scene idea. (and cutting it if it doesn't work, saving it for later of course.) I outline plot points usually and if I have specific details I want to elaborate on, I have in-depth pages for that in the planning docs. I tend to treat my character sheets sorta like dnd without the build stats. Just break down into sections describing how they'll look, and their backstories. I also really enjoy the tumblr asks regarding OCs, too, because a lot of that ends up in my planning docs too, where it hadn't been thought of before. I like to really KNOW my characters and where I want the story to go as I proceed, but again -- sometimes I just cause problems on purpose for them and for myself (: But that's the fun of it. There's room for unmitigated creativity if you let go of all the headspace nonsense whenever possible.

As for fragments -- sometimes scenes come to me out of order or in ideas that don't have a place in my current project. I keep idea docs and an idea notebook on hand almost always and write down stray thoughts either as more of an outline, or just a jotted down piece of a thought -- OR something more. Like a whole in-prose scene. That's what I mean by fragments. I've found, especially lately, considering what I wrote above, that if inspiration strikes, let it distract you from everything whenever you can. Write that shit down and save it for later. (:

The last part of it, of course, is the editing process. I try to fire the editing brain for drafting purposes and then go back in to proofread and then do editing passes two or three times before I post / consider a piece to be finished enough to possibly share. I enjoy that part of the process so much. It's like finishing a good jigsaw puzzle lol. That said it's not always sunshine and rainbows, it can be a brutal difficult process. And I am not always right. It's different looking at editing your own work than others' just due to how close we can be to our own writing. Worth it, though, all the struggle (:

Is it different in my original work than fic?

Nope! I mean I suppose the glaring difference would be I need to spend more time in original with worldbuilding than I do in fic, as fic kind of has a bit of a safety net in that department. That said, there's still plenty of worldbuilding to do, lots of hcs to write about, and lots of planning how the pieces will interact. And asking -- why tell this specific story? (Always the fun part for me.) The process, regardless, still remains the same. Plan, write, cause problems on purpose, plan around those problems, write more and EDIT, EDIT, EDIT. (:

Thank you so much for asking this!! I hope this was insightful!

[the-firebird69]

Master Calendar of Trump Court Dates: Criminal and Civil Cases

If few things of interest here there's several cases that are mentioned that are not directly evolving Trump and the state of Georgia would pick up where they left off if they managed to get them fired from their position and they would keep going after him and they've said it what they're doing is pissing them off and our son and daughter are correct they'll come back around and go after him for it this guy is a huge sucker and he's asking for a fight with everybody And they're handing him his hat also the Vegas primary is coming out and a whole bunch of trouble starts there and they hate him and things begin happening to him very bad things And that's early February by the way The end of the month is the fraud case findings and he's going to have to pay the fine and that will kick off another code of the max and they'll start pursuing them more Jean Carol has kicked off for certain code and it is a big one It has to do with a lot of stuff Harley Davidson for instance that's why they drive around from east to west and west to east a little is because they sell the company to us and there's a reason to do it for them it is because the max will pursue us and that's a very solid reason The other is the Trump has to run around saying our son is David's kid and he's a lethal killer and stuff. But more solidly Trump wants to take the company from us thinking that we're giants or something and he still hasn't sold it but one of the most powerful things I've ever heard him say to this particular idiot is something like this this time and he's avoiding it "if you indeed sell us the Harley-Davidson company Trump even you alone because that's what exactly happens and bja and son are doing the ride and fighting you and it is cause and that is the dropping of the watch and the fight because of it ensues in New York in the Manhattan laboratory you are incinerated because of the watch and this watch here is not the same watch it's without the bezel which is the piece surrounding the watch face and it's hard and thick and protects it and it simply inserts into it and you reconnect the watch band and for some reason you couldn't figure it out it is the same watch band and it is gold and you saw it with it on and he saw her was it on and had no clue she loves doing that to him. He's trying to study in the cats and doesn't have time and he has to he's doesn't need a glimpse it's quite horrible and people now don't tell him anything that's true so she still doesn't. She says there's a reason and he says well would that be in the Billy Hicks persona and she said that's right there that's the reason he won't let us we have to get rid of him and the max won't let us which is more towards the truth this guy is an idiot I think he gets stuff. And she says the rest and that is Hera. But we know is the sale of that company in Raytheon together will mean his end and he'll create a self-fulfilling prophecy or cycle really

Thor Freya

I don't think so I don't think so and that's final so yeah now I have to sell the company to you I really to them and I see how it's going what I say is I might have switched out the brain or something

Trump

The Ghost of Tom joad huh yeah I'm starting to get it

Tommy f

Olympus

[addypokmadid]

12 Spring Cleaning Tips for Your Home

Ah yes: It is that time of year in which you are going to hear the birds begin chirping; the sunset sets later thanks to Daylight Savings Time; the audio of someone with a lawnmower to cut the lawn of theirs and also someone operating in the automobile of theirs, SUV, truck, etc. while listening to that ever present thump of the bass from the sound system of theirs. Almost all of this implies Spring will be here (actually the season officially took place on March 20.) Spring is a period for re birth, forget about brand new year's, this's the season getting hectic and do things that you always aspired to do. In the personal opinion of mine, Winter is as the guest which wouldn't leave: that individual was awesome whenever they stopped by. But after some time, you get fed up with them and also you wish to kick them out there.

When you would like to get involved with Spring Cleaning, below are a set of directions to assist you along the way:

The Inside Job:

Storm Windows

Your storm windows were up for an honest while by now. I'm guessing the last time you really started your windows was perhaps between Early October as well as last September. This's the perfect time to take on the storm windows. After an approximate Winter of cold rain, ice, sleet, ice, conditions in the single digits with wind chills below zero occasionally during the time period, the thought of opening the windows and let the new air come into your house is sounds good.

Mop and Dust each kitchen in the home

After dealing with folks tracking in dirt, salt, and the snow while walking interior during the wintertime, Spring is time that is perfect to work with a mop to thoroughly clean the floors. Get a mop, pail, some cleaning and dust rag items (Pine Sol,Windex, Clorox, etc.) for busy. If you've carpet in the family room of yours as well as dining room floor, do the vacuum to sweep the every single space to eliminate additional debris and dirt. When you do not wish to do that here, employ a certified carpet cleaner to do the job.

Clean the Basement and Attic

Yeah, it is annoying to clean both the crawl space and basement since you've to proceed things around together with trying to determine what to stay and what you should throw out. Though this particular task is worth due to 2 reasons: one) you are able to produce lots of room in both areas and two) you might get generate money off of your unwanted things by the method of a Yard Sale. It is that way old stating "Another male's trash is another male's treasure."

Clean the closet and dresser drawers

All of us have clothes that possibly we do not use anymore; are extremely small; way too big; or perhaps never ever had the opportunity to put on it at all and so it is of style. When you would like to develop a little area in the closet of yours for some new attire, why don't you donate those outdated garments, shoes, caps, belts, jewelry, etc. to the local Salvation Army of yours, Thrift or Goodwill shop. The very same thing goes on your dresser drawers. You have to clean off the top part and inside every drawer therefore you not produce a little room but also become in a position to shut them without getting something sticking out.

Remove winter curtains

The heavy curtains served the purpose of its during the cold months to safeguard us in the chilly air/breeze from coming into the houses of ours. Today may be the time frame to take on the large curtains and erect the lighter curtains therefore after the windows are opened, we are able to really feel the heat of Spring.

Clean the ceiling fan

If you've a ceiling fan, clean it frequently. There's absolutely nothing much more awkward than having business over to the location of yours and if you switch on the lover, the dust simply flies from the fan handle and the guest of yours will view the debris fall on the floor. In order to save the embarrassment, buy a dust rag and spotless each fan blade at least one time a week.

Let us go outside:

Remove Decorations and christmas lights

When you haven't taken down the outside Christmas lights of yours or maybe decorations by now, particularly if the weather in the city of yours or maybe town was pretty decent during winter months, please do it immediately. You do not wish to be The person that also has their Christmas decorations when it is 75 80 degrees outside.

Rake up tree limbs

Your front along with backyard (in case you've one) may be covered with tree limbs, foliage, other debris leftover and garbage during winter months. What you have to accomplish is get a few of garbage bags, rake, broom, shovel and a sturdy garbage can and handle business. After you are done with that job, you may consider cutting the grass. However, in case your lawn is in poor form, utilize some grass seed to assist the lawn flourish during the Summer and Spring (Experts state that the most effective moment to use grass seed is in December and November because the rain, ice, along with sleet may truly make the grass grow more quickly, but that shouldn't prevent you from adding lawn seed right now.)

Plant flowers, trees, bushes, shrubs, trees, and yard maintenance

If you've a green thumb and really like the thought of working outdoors with vegetation, this's up the alley of yours. Springtime is an excellent to grow flowers as well as trees, then add seeds into the soil to be able to grow veggies and in case you opt to do this, add a little bushed and shrubs. Spring will be the season in which the grass grows really fast. So you have to cut the grass of yours at least one time a week until June, where lawn does not develop as rapidly. As a homeowner, it's really important to have a well maintained lawn since it gives the suggestion that you genuinely care about the community of yours.

Set out the deck furniture

It's an inconvenience to obtain the deck furniture out of your basement or storage area, but hey it's well worth it setting the chairs as well as tables outside, particularly after being cooped up in the home throughout the Winter long and at exactly the same period, you look ahead to sitting outdoors during a warm and nice Spring day. Be sure you wipe down all of the chairs and also tables thoroughly with water and soap after you put them outside. Furthermore, in case you've seat cushions for all the seats, wash and wash all those down as well.

Clean out the barbecue grill

Unless the grill was used during the Winter since you skipped experiencing barbeque, you most likely haven't used it after Labor Day. Before that very first barbecue, fresh out the grill quite thoroughly with water and soap. Make certain you can find no debris, cobwebs, etc. in the grill of yours. After some time, you are going to have a shiny and clean grill and within absolutely no time getting cookouts during the Summer and Spring will become a normal item at the house of yours. However, in case your grill is both old or on the final legs of its, my suggestion is you invest in a brand new one. Check your local online or newspaper for a number of bargains on a grill.

Clean the Garage

The same as the attic as well as basement, cleaning the storage area is a huge time headache because most of us have put a lot of things in there, we frequently say "I must cleanse the garage" so we do not ever get around to it. Well, today will be the day to wash it out. Yeah, it may be an all day work (or a 2 3 day job depend upon just how much things you've in there) though it's worth every penny. Begin by producing a heap of what things to stay and what you should throw away. Next, eliminate any garbage and boxes that you have in the storage area. Then, determine if you wish to use a garage sale for the products that you have to toss out--who understands, just like the yard sale example discussed previously, you can generate money off of your unwanted items. Lastly, when you've completed the project, have a look to find out if you are pleased with the storage area of course, if not, keep at it until you think it's entirely spotless.

Spring Cleaning is a difficult process to deal with. This article provided a number of measures to take to be able to receive the job done. One last element, in case you would like turn the task go just a little quicker, switch on some music - it operates every single time.

Find More Information: koschs.com

[lesbianakaashi]

The Forgotten Shounen: Katekyo Hitman Reborn

This is not a “Why you should watch/read khr” or anything like that. This is just me going into the deep dive and throwing my findings at you. I’m making this because khr used to be my favourite series when I was 15 (I had plushees, posters, tradingcards, the art book etc) and now as an adult I constantly find myself baffled at how unknow it seems to be.

1. Okay first what is khr?

Katekyo Hitman Reborn! or just Reborn! is a series by Akira Amano which was published in Weekly Shounen Jump from 2004 to 2012 (with 42 volumes) and got an anime adaption which run from 2006 to 2010 on Tv Tokyo (with 202 episodes and one OVA).

2. What’s it about?

Khr is a parody of the italian mafia and plays in a world where the mafia is heavily influencial. The protagonist is the japanese middle schooler Sawada Tsunayoshi who is known as “No good Tsuna” because of his failing grades, general weak and cowardly personality and weak physics.

He becomes aware of the mafia world when a 2 year old baby called Reborn arrives at his house claiming to be the greatest hitman and declaring himself his home tutor. Reborn was send by the 9th head of the Vongola famiglia who is ready to retire and looking for a new heir. Which of course, is supposed to be Tsuna and now it's Reborns job to shape him into a worthy sucessor.

Tsuna rejects the violence of the mafia world and refuses the position as the 10th. Thanks to Reborn and his general craziness Tsuna meets different people and starts to make real friendships. Reborn wants 6 of those friends to be Tsuna's future guardians, basically a group of people which will be closest to him in the vongola famiglia. Tsuna might have no interest in those positions but the friendships he builds with them become really precious to him.

Reborns arrivial also brings in the enemies of the Vongola family which leads to Tsuna being forced to engage in battles. Generally Tsuna openly avoids fights and prefers to run away but will put himself in danger for his friends' sake or because of something Reborn did.

Through out the series Tsuna matures and gains strenght but he never becomes a power fantasy. He's just a guy with many flaws who grows through the human connections he makes.

Personally I think the relationship between Reborn and Tsuna is one of the best student teacher reltaionships in all of manga only topped by Mob and Reigen from Mob Psycho 100. Especially the last arc really underlines their unique relationship to me.

Furthermore, khr offers a new and unique battle system: The flames. I'm not gonna go into to too much detail but the general idea is that one fights with their dying will flame which basically turns off your the savety switch so you can fight with everything you have. The flames are seperated into different categories such as: sky, storm, mist, rain, sun, lightning and cloud and have different attributes asigned to each one. Tsuna's use of the sky flame and his transformation when using it is still one of my favourite shounen transformations to this day.

3. What happened?

The series did really well and then not so well over the course of its serialisation. After the manga got an anime adaption it increased in populairty and video games, light novels, and other products such as CDs were created based on the series. Reborn is one of the best selling series of Weekly Shōnen Jump and has sold around 30 Million volumes overall. It was and still is very popular in Japan but rather unknown in the west.

According to the article "The Rise and Fall of Weekly Shonen Jump: A Look at the Circulation of Weekly Jump" khr was the 10th bestselling series in Weekly Shōnen Jump, with a total of 7 million copies sold in 2007.

This number increasing to 15 milion in 2008. Which placed khr into the 4th best selling series of 2008 in Japan.

Between 2008 and 2010 those sales declined but still kept strong with khr as the 6th top selling manga in 2009, 8th best selling in 2010 and then 24th best selling in 2012.

In November 2014, readers of the Da Vinci magazine voted khr number 17 on a list of Weekly Shōnen Jump's greatest manga series of all time.

After the anime came to an apprupt stop in 2010 for unknown reasons the manga sells took a visible hit. (Apparently the studio wanted to put the anime on halt because they were busy with other projects and give Akira Amano time to develop her story but I couldn't find any source for this claim) Furthermore, the rushed last chapters of the manga in 2012 declined the popularity of the series even more. There's no offical statement as to why the manga was ended in such a way but it's reasonable to assume that Jump either cut it considering the decreasing sales or Akira Amano choose to end it for personal reasons.

Nontheless, Tsuna not being included in Jump Force (a fighting game where you can play as different characters from Jump) in 2019 even tho he made it in earlier Jump Stars games also underlines the decreased interest in the series.

Rumors on a reboot or anime adaption of the last two arcs surface from time to time but are genereally unlikely. Artland the studio which made khr has gone bankrupt around 2015-2016. It might be taken on by another studio but rather uncommen especially with such an old series.

4. Art style

The khr anime ended over 10 years ago and the old art style might not be appealing to newer audiences.

Especailly because the anime adaption follows Akira Amanos old art style which heavily developed within the years. Here a picture comparing characters in the new art style:

A modern anime adaption in the new art style would be aesthetically pleasing. It would probably look similiar to Psycho Pass since Akira Amano did the concept art for this series.

(My personal art student hot take is that both art styles are unique and fun. Up to this day Akira Amano still has my favourite art style and even if the amount folds in the characters clothing is a little extreme I love it dearly.)

5. Criticism

The show is not without flaws and even if I greatly enjoy it it wouldn't be right not to adress them.

Daily Life Arc:

A lot of people view the first 20 to 25 episodes as fillers and quickly lose intererst in the series. This is due to the fact that Akira Amano inteded the series to be a gag manga and focuses the first chapters on world building, character introduction and comical narratives. It's rumored that the decision to develop the story into a battle shounen was made because the sales weren't doing well enough at first. So the first chapters/episodes may seem titidious but are necessary for the story and the development of the characters. The tonal shift from a more gintama like gag manga to a darker battle focused story can also be offputting to some viewers.

Either way a lot of people blame this arc when discussing why khr never got an english dub or didn't end up on Toonami. I've also read that the manga never finished serializing in the north america. However, it finished in other western languages like german and spanish.

Censoring:

The anime censors A LOT. From Gokudera's smoking habit, Yamamoto's whole character arc which deals with heavy themes such as depression and suicidal thoughts. The general bloodiness of the manga was censored and sometimes whole chapters and characters were left out even if those were important to the devolopment of others.

Filler episodes:

Out of the 202 episodes the anime has around 29 filler episodes which makes roughly 14 %.

Sexism:

Even if Reborn was written by a woman most female characters are rather flat and their storylines often tied to a male character in one way or another.

Genereal things:

Khr, like many other long running series, is sometimes criticised for a lack of world building or unpopular narrative choices.

6. Hope?

Khr isn't exactly dead. As stated before the series is still very popular in Japan and still gets new merch pretty regulary. There are also petitions floating around for a reboot or a new anime season but those never get a lot of traction. Furthermore #Reborn2期アニメ化 (#Reborn2ndAnimation) used to get some traction on twitter not too long ago. Last year the Anime News Network did a poll on which anime the readers would like to see a rebooot of and khr placed second.

Either way here's a collection of recent khr things I could find.

- In 2018 a new bluray set was released in north america

- The khr stage play reached yet another new season

- A mobile game was released last year

- Currently ongoing anime cafe event called "Concerto di Vongola"

- Last month there was an event with the former VAs and stage play actors where they discussed their favourite khr episodes.

- There has been an increase in blind reacts to the openings on youtube which might bring in a new fan base. The biggest one I could find had around 90k views and was made in 2019. On this note check out the soundtrack. The first openeing Drawing Days by SPLAY still makes me go insane (but I'm biased of course)

There also renewed hope for a new season/reboot because Shaman King, Inuyasha and Bleach got anounced for new seasons after a long hiatus. It's important to keep in mind that the circumstances for those series are differnt tho. For example bleachs new anime is often tied to the immense success of the gatcha game.

7. Conclusion

Khr is a series which used to be a flagship for Weekly Shounen Jump and is deeply beloved by it's fans, especially in Japan. It influenced other shounen series like bnha. It would be nice to see it gaining a bigger fanbase in the west :)

[lesbiancarat]

Oohh true, true! Plus we do have the comeback soon so that also means it won't be very soon? It has gotten very confusing very fast thats for sure lol but your post did confirm and clear things up. I'm curious to see how it will play out, we have the new series which is not related to the new comeback but its own thing. Maybe it will tell a story? That would be interesting to see! As for the solos, we all thought side by side would be apart of it so it seems to be more random per se? We can only wait and see!

Lol I'm not alone with tbe app buying then haha but oohh yeah I also noticed that! I think Amazon used to not have the choice of picking which version for some albums so to see other stores give that option is nice! Im guessing the ones from western stores are cou ted to billboard more than Korean charts based on when bts and nct sold their albums in the states so that is good! You are helping them chart in some way (also a daily reminder to fans to please don't stress about streaming! I know we're not at the comeback just yet but please have fun with the comeback!)

*hugs you* thank you! I am going tl try to power up the game tonight and play a lil bit (wish me luck. Game can be tricky lol) I feel like once I complete the game, it will be my proper goodbye to her in a way. Indeedy, sadly what happened did happen. As much as I would like to turn back time, we have to move on. Of course healing however we can, keeping yourself positive and just keep swimming as it was said in finding Nemo lol (ignore the cheese) she was a happy bunny, a rascal as well like oh my gosh hdjabxjs she LOVED causing chaos but it made things fun! That's what's important! Remember all the happy times not the sad ones. I wheezed xD rip the papers in the house. My bunny was the same though she preferred to chew on cables, specifically headphones like I lost 4 pairs from her and she always was able to find them even if I hid them away from her on my bed lol. I swore she had some gps for headphones haha. Thats a sweet frame your mom made! Also your new meow meow, sending good vibes your way! Looks like a very cuddly cat to me in that pic

Ps happy 6 years with the 13 beans!! :D here's to amazing more memories! Hopefully we can be fans for as old as Gandalf haha. Also I read other asks about enlistment and my oh my, I never thought it was THAT quick for the boys!! Like it never clicked to me until now

yeah, we probably won't see another TTT solo until after Your Choice promotions have died down ;-; in regard to Power of Love my prediction is that it's more theme based rather than one story, bc that's how SVT tend to do things like how heng:garae, semicolon, and hitorijanai were all a part of Svt's "youth" theme, but this time the "love" theme is more official? or maybe not more official but just marketed more obviously dhfj but who knows! maybe SVT will switch it up and have a storyline for this project ^^ and i think the TTT solos aren't necessarily random, it's more just with jun and minghaos things are a bit different since they already release solos marketed toward the Chinese market (even though side by side had a kr version). like i think it's possible that jun and minghao had their solos in the works before they came up w the concept of TTT and the release just happened to line up with spider/the start of TTT. so i guess what I'm saying is china line are the only ones that might get confusing, i think if solos get announced for other members they'll likely be part of TTT

and yeah it looks like sales from most if not all of the US retailers are gonna count toward the billboard charts! i think i also saw there was one place that would count toward billboard and one of the kr charts too but i can't remember specifics. if you/anyone wants me to look into what retailers count for which charts just let me know and I'll look into it ^^

good luck with your game! i know you sent this yesterday so you probably already played some of it but i hope it went well!! but omg a GPS for headphones DHFKGJ your bunny sounds really cute even if she was a bit mischievous :')

yes happy 6th anniversary!! i haven't been around the whole time but it's still so hard it's been so long. and yes hopefully we'll all be together with SVT for a long time, here's to hoping that one caratland skit of SVT as old men will come true DHFKFJ

and yeah not a lot of ppl have started talking about Svt's enlistment yet djfkfj tbf it is still somewhat early, i think carats are right to focus on the present for the time being rather than counting down the days. i just randomly thought of it :')

[chaosstar290]

Reasons try out Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore.

Nintendo's been pretty casual with porting Wii U games over to the Switch, and for good reasons. Normally, I'm not all into porting games that I've already played, but my personal favorite games on the system that lack good marketing and advertising are now getting the attention and love they deserve.

Take Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze for example, one of my favorite 2D platfomers. The game originally sold 1.72 million copies worldwide on the Wii U. Not very good numbers, huh? However, the Switch port managed to beat those sales numbers with 2.25 million units sold worldwide by the end of March 2019.

So while this could be seen as a way for Big N to earn more $$$, this is also a way for those who never owned a Wii U and missed out on some of the system's best titles to give these games a shot. Now we just need a port of Xenoblade Chronicles X and The Wonderful 101...and Star Fox Zero, I guess.

But that's a topic for another time. This post is specifically for my favorite JRPG on the Wii U only to be tied with Xenoblade Chronicles X....Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE.

This'll be a long one, so here's hoping you'll stick with it until the end.

Development

Before I get into the reasons, lemme educate you guys a bit. Back in January 2013, both Atlus and Intelligent Systems made a teaser trailer for a potential Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem crossover for the Wii U.

The trailer was mostly just a slideshow with various character artwork. Despite this, there was a decent amount of hype surrounding it. But development around the game was pretty silent. That is, until we fast forward to the Nintendo Direct in April 1, 2015. We got a trailer of the ambitious SMT x FE crossover that fans were waiting for...but this was the final product.

Needless to say...neither SMT nor FE fans were happy about this. The fandoms were incredibly salty and foaming at the mouths, basically calling it a Person 4 Lite with a hint of FE. Heck, they're probably still posts on this site from 5 years ago that'll show that.

Fast forward to the games initial release, and you'll see quite a few positive reviews and thoughts about TMS. Unfortunately, the sale numbers were not all that great for the game. Obvious reasons being that it was a Wii U game, and many fans of both SMT x FE were not happy with how it turned out.

And to be honest, I wasn't feeling the game myself at first. It seemed too lighthearted and upbeat, and the J-Pop, anime-ish aesthetics were very off-putting. However, the more I saw about the game, the more I was drawn into it. Somehow all that disappointment I had about TMS originally just washed away. And considering it was a new IP, I decided to give it a chance. And hoo boy...I was generally pleased.

With that outta the way, let's get into why I'm excited for the Switch port of game, and hoping people will give it a fairer chance.

The Setting

The plot of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is mostly simple. You start out as high schooler Itsuki Aoi, the main character of the game encountering his childhood friend Tsubasa Oribe at an audition event to become a idol. It isn't until moments later in the game that the area gets overruned by shadowy creatures known as Mirages that suck out the creative energy known as Perso-- ah I mean Performa from the other idols and audience.

Poor girl doesn't know what's gonna happen next.

Despite our main characters seeming unharmed by the effect, the Mirages drag Tsubasa into their world known as the Idolsphere. And of course, courageous Itsuki takes action to follow and rescue her.

After trying to make a daring rescue, Itsuki gets bombarded by a Mirage, but somehow manages to awaken it. Taking the form of Fire Emblem Awakening's protagonist Chrom. Itsuki does the same with the Mirage that captured Tsubasa that takes the form of Cedea from Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon. The two awakaned Mirages, however, suffer from a bit of amnesia and can't quite remember who and what they are.

From there on, Itsuki and Tsubasa form a partnership with Chrom and Cedea, encountering various characters trying to reach their way to stardom while trying to draw back the opposing forces from taking over Tokyo and the world. Typical RPG stuff, am I right?

It's a fairly standard and slightly cliche plot with some common anime tropes, but for this game...it works. It's a plot that's incredibly silly, upbeat, and over-the-top, but again...it works for this game. And I love it. It may not be original, deep, or complex, but the story does its best to not take itself too seriously, and it doesn't fail to keep a smile in my face.

Aside from the vanilla cookie-cutter MC Itsuki, the various casts that you meet are incredibly charming, and go through their own personal growth as celebrities. Though you mileage may vary on this.

The Gameplay

The combat is the real star of Tokyo Mirage Sessions. Basically, it's your standard turn-based combat system...but with a few twists. If you've ever played a SMT or Persona game, then don't be surprised that elemental weaknesses make an appearance here. Along with that, the Triangle Weapon system from Fire Emblem also makes an appearance in the game.

But if you're not familiar with either franchise then give you a basic example how this works. Say that you've encountered an armored Mirage wielding an axe. The weaknesses on that enemy are both lightning and swords, and Itsuki just so happens to have both the necessary element and weapon equipped.

In case you're wondering...how the Triangle Weapon mechanic works in FE is that Swords beat Axes, Axes beat Lances, and Lances beat Swords.

The interesting thing about this is that once you exploit an enemy's weakness, other characters will jump in and combo extra attacks. These are called Sessions, and their not only powerful...but also flashy as all hell and it's glorious. Not only that, but there's also Duo Arts where two certain characters will sometimes perform a song that unleashes a powerful attack...which also strings up more Sessions. As broken as this sounds, it actually is pretty strategic for taking down harder enemies, and they can also form Sessions...so be careful.

There's more to the gameplay like roaming Tokyo, exploring dungeons, and upgrading your characters and Mirages by Tiki from Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon as well.

There's mixed opinions on the dungeon aspects of Tokyo Mirage Sessions, but...I personally enjoyed them. Aside from the first one. Once you get past the first dungeon, they get better as the game progresses. From exploring a darker version of Shibuya where you have to avoid giant cameras from sending you back to the entrance of the of the room you currently entered, to venturing through a maze-like TV studio.

There's also side-missions that you can do with your main cast that'll help them grow and develop even further. You'll be rewarded with either a special cutscene or a special attack. Or maybe both.

The Visuals

Go go...Persona Rangers?

If it wasn't obvious from the amount of images I'm posting, Tokyo Mirage Sessions is a very colorful game. Fitting with it's lighthearted theme, the amount of colors the game throws at you makes visuals aesthetically pleasing. Heck, you could make these your personal wallpaper on your phone or something.

Sure, Tokyo Mirage Sessions isn't nearly as strong as Persona 5 graphically or even artistically, but like most Nintendo games...what their games lack in terms of detailed ultra-hyper graphics, they make up for it with giving their games gorgeous artstyles.

Also, this game has some reeeeeally good artwork.

The Music

J-Pop plays a pretty big role in Tokyo Mirage Sessions, so expect a lot of vocal tracks. If you're not into this kind of genre of music, then you might wanna stray away from this game. If you are (or if it doesn't bother you), then you're in for a treat. As someone who really isn't into J-Pop myself, the songs in this game are incredible and catchy followed by some beautiful cutscenes. Reincarnation from Kiria Kurono and Feel from Tsubasa Oribe are some of my personal favorites.

The music from outside the vocal tracks are pretty good too. The normal battle theme and the Illusion Shibuya dungeon theme are just to name a couple.

What's New?

Like I said before, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore is a port of the Wii U version, but with added content. Any DLC that was added in the original game will part of the base game in the Switch version. But let's talk about the new stuff.

EX Story and Songs

The EX Story is basically a dungeon that you explore in short bursts. Here you'll find new costumes such as a Joker outfit from Persona 5 for Itsuki, or an Annette outfit from Fire Emblem Three Houses for Mamori Minamoto. Or you can have a much easier time grinding for EXP. Also, much like the side-stories, this dungeon will also explore the main casts' issues and help them grow.

New songs will also be added in this port. A duo song called "She is..." sung by Tsubasa and Kiria is one of them.

Sessions

By making Sessions even more powerful and ridiculous, unplayable characters like Tiki, Maiko Shimazaki, and Barry Goodman will also join in Sessions.

In addition, a Quick Session option will be added. Which is a major upgrade in my book. One of the big issues the Wii U version had was while the Sessions were fun to watch, they took forever to get through with the more characters that joined your party. There are also smaller improvements like the Switch version having faster loading times.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this long as hell post will spark some interest into those who'll give the game a shot. I know there's small nitpicks like the lack of English voice acting and censorship, but the latter is a topic I'd rather not delve deep into.

Regardless, these small cons are greatly outweighed by the large pros this charming game has. If you're an Atlus fan, a lover of JRPGs, or wanting to play something that'll ease the wait for Persona 5 Royal, I highly recommend you give Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE encore a shot.

If you're also waiting for Persona 5 to actually come to the Switch like me, this game is next best thing we've got for the time being.

This is one of the most stylish menu screens ever.

[blazehedgehog]

I kinda see what you're saying critique-wise, but I do think you're being a tad harsh. I'm an old FF7 fan, and fan of turn based rpg's as well, but most of the changes I'm privy too seem to make sense. I have yet to see that ending (I won't until I play it) but the new battle system, the art style, everything I've seen in trailer and demo feels... Familiar but new, and I take that as a positive. I already have FF7, just a graphics upgrade doesn't matter too much to me. I like getting more stuff.

I feel like I have been cautiously accepting of most of Final Fantasy VII Remake over time. I don’t love the changes they’ve made, but I haven’t ever, like, written the game off or anything. Even when it came to the battle system, while I wasn’t a fan of some of the decisions after playing the demo, I watched other people play it to gain further insight on what I might be missing.

To say I am being “a tad harsh” is to judge me on the standards of knee-jerk reactionary internet fan boys, when my opinion is a little more nuanced than that.

I have always tried to give this game the benefit of the doubt at every single possible step of this process despite vocalizing my distaste for every decision they’ve made so far because I am a crazy Final Fantasy VII mark. I am even considering breaking my normal rule of “Wait until a sale” to buy FF7 Remake when it comes out, because I’d like to write a review for it.

(Unfortunately, I have two reviews on the docket already, so I’m still mulling the decision over in my head.)

Here’s the deal: changes don’t have to bother me. It’s pretty much expected that, if they are remaking the game, there will be changes. There were changes to Resident Evil 1, 2 and 3 when they remade them. It’s kind of what you do.

It’s just, like I said in this ask…

There’s nothing wrong with broadening your appeal, you just can’t sell off the soul of your product for it.

But then, what is the soul of Final Fantasy? I don’t know if I can answer that. A couple months ago, I stopped and looked back on the entire franchise and realized I only really like four Final Fantasy games out of a total of 15.

I have personally played FF1-9, played a demo and watched a complete Let’s Play of FF10, played a demo of FF13, on top of watching a complete Let’s Play of FF13-2, and over half of Lightning Returns. I also played a multiple different demos of FF15, including the one that’s just the opening 2-3 hours of the game.

To get deeper in to the weeds, I finished Final Fantasy 1 on the GBA and it instantly became my favorite Final Fantasy. I played about halfway through FF2, also on the GBA, before getting bored with its bland characters and clumsy battle system. A friend gave me his copy of FF3 on DS, and I played it for about an hour before deciding I wasn’t in the mood at the time. I have yet to be in the mood. 

I have finished FF4 on both SNES and DS. I have fond memories of the DS version despite the fact it is almost unfairly hard at points. I played the fan-translated version of FF5 on SNES up to the third map before deciding I didn’t care about any of the characters or the world – again, very by the books, though I suppose on some level it wrote some of those books.

I made it up to the final boss of Final Fantasy 6 on GBA just last year, fought it once and lost. Decided I was too unimpressed by the rest of the game to try it a second time. That was definitely a game whose zeitgeist outweighed the game’s actual quality. I did not hate it, but I definitely didn’t fall in love with it. I am an acquaintance at best.

I put 100+ hours in to Final Fantasy 7 from 1997-1999. I did nearly everything in that game, by myself, without a guide. I pushed most of my party to level 99, learned all their limit breaks, got all but one master materia, defeated all of the weapons, and even engineered a materia setup that let me cast Knights of the Round in an endless loop for zero MP. I destroyed that game front to back, inside and out.

I played Final Fantasy 8 up to around the start of the second disc (when you get the first “airship”), and could not tolerate the disjointed story or the awful characters any more than that. I’ve never looked back. I played Final Fantasy 9 up to the third disc via Blockbuster rentals, but at some point some gremlin decided to destroy the third disc, rendering the game unplayable on my machine. I enjoyed what I experienced, but I never saw how it ended.

I do not think of FFX fondly. Or anything related to FF13. Or FF15. That final FF15 demo feels like it has dialog written by a space alien failing to approximate earth language, and I got bored of it long before the demo itself ended. A friend has been nagging me for years to play FF12, and I have it on Switch now, but I haven’t had the time to start it.

Regardless, I have played a lot of Final Fantasy, and I only really like 1, 4, 7 and I guess 9. I have definitely wrestled with the idea that maybe Final Fantasy just isn’t for me as a series.

But at the same time: Final Fantasy almost WAS for me, at one point, and the fact that they keep straying further and further and further away from what I liked about the series means it’s valid for me to be bummed out about it. You’re welcome to like it for what it is, but it doesn’t mean I have to.

And Final Fantasy VII Remake definitely makes changes in line more with where modern Final Fantasy as a series has gone. That’s my whole problem.

[sage-nebula]

I hope you dont mind my asking, but wouldn't GF have decided to remove the national dex long before LGPE released? I can see those games selling well confirming to GF that "pokemon sell well regardless of cut features" but it feels strange to blame it on LGPE when the development time on the games would suggest they made this choice awhile ago. (Not to defend lgpe lack of content) Sorry if this is a bother, I just feel like I'm missing something and would really like to understand your reasoning

For almost any other game I would agree, however for Pokémon in particular:

The National Dex (insofar as the ability to transfer old pokémon over) was never going to be a Day One feature. It’s never a Day One feature in the first games of the generation. Even if they wanted to make it one, in this case they couldn’t because Home isn’t releasing until 2020. As I’ve said in other posts, if they wanted to patch in the NatDex, they’d have the time to do it. Technically speaking, they’d have the time to do it, especially since the fanbase would be willing to wait (even if there’d be a few whiners here or there) the extra time.

Since it’s not a Day One feature, it’s something that can be worked on later in the development cycle (/can even continue to be worked on after the development cycle, or at least it could be if this series were treated with the respect of, say, The Legend of Zelda series). Again, I’m not talking about DLC that’s already on the game card that needs to be activated later, I’m talking about DLC that’s patched in, content created after that you download either to the harddrive or (though I don’t know if Switch DLC works this way specifically) onto the game card itself. Given the type of content they generally want to show early in the release cycle (the general theme / concept of the games, scenes of the various areas in the region, new ‘mon), and the fact that this would be a feature added post-release anyway, we can make a safe bet that the NatDex is something they’d work on much later in the development cycle, possibly even in the last year since, again . . . they’d have that time if they wanted to use it (and if this series was treated with genuine respect).

The Let’s Go games were stated by Masuda to be the future of the franchise if they sold well. They featured a Pokédex that was limited to only the Kanto ‘Dex, plus Meltan and Melmetal. They released in November 2018, and indeed, they sold well. In early 2019 (February, IIRC) Sword & Shield were released. While of course I don’t work at Game Freak and thus can’t say for sure, I would place money on the idea that if they were even a bit on the fence about adding the National Dex, the fact that Let’s Go sold so well despite being limited to 153 ‘mon pushed them right over the edge to, “Cut the National Dex from Sword & Shield, there’s no point in working on it.” I mean, why should they expend the effort if people will buy the games anyway? Especially when President Ishihara went on record saying that long-time fans only cared about “new pokémon and features” around the time of Let’s Go’s release. Sure, they might have already been thinking about cutting the National Dex beforehand, but Let’s Go no doubt assured them that it was a safe and correct call to make.

So that’s what I mean when I say that Let’s Go’s positive sales figures sealed all of our fates. To be entirely honest, before the National Dex announcement, I was certain that we wouldn’t see the shockwaves from Let’s Go until Gen IX. But Sword & Shield having a limited ‘Dex just like Let’s Go, and having special feature ‘mon behind $60 paywalls like Let’s Go, and having core features stripped out like Let’s Go, and the fact that it’s starting to look frighteningly like the starters won’t be able to evolve like in Let’s Go . . . the effect is pretty apparent. Sure, some of this stuff was present even before Let’s Go (namely the whole “let’s ditch useful features in the name of simplifying things” tack that Masuda has been married to for years now), but in the wake of Let’s Go, it’s success, and what Masuda said would happen if it was successful, it’s really hard not to see the link.

(Note just in case anyone read too quickly: I’m not saying the starters WON’T evolve. I’m only saying that I’m starting to fear that’s the case since we’re less than a month away from release and we haven’t even seen second stage evolutions yet. Maybe they’re just trying to keep starter evolutions a surprise, that’s entirely possible, but it’s also highly suspect, and Game Freak destroyed any trust or good faith I had in them a while back.) 

As a final note, the reason why I say that the Pokémon games aren’t treated with respect is . . . well, there are a few reasons:

Game Freak stated themselves that they put their B Team on Sword & Shield while their A Team worked on Little Town Hero. They also said they wanted to create something, “as exciting, or perhaps even more exciting” than Pokémon. They’re tired of working on Pokémon, and it shows. Which, I mean, I get it, it’s been 20+ years, but in that case tell Nintendo so that they can shift the main games over to another studio. I get that Game Freak was created for the sole purpose of making Pokémon, and maybe Taijiri-san is pissed at how you’re disrespecting his baby (I would be), but for the good of the series, if you don’t want to work on it, give it to someone who does. Don’t just shift it onto your bare bones secondary dev team.

These games are in a hellish development cycle where a new one is popped out every year. Contrast this to The Legend of Zelda where, while we’ve had some anomalies where assets were able to be largely reused and so games came out only a couple years apart (see: Ocarina of Time to Majora’s Mask) --- even that had two or three years before releases, not one the very next year. Most mainline Zelda games spend five or six years in development. I’m fully aware that we will likely be waiting until something like 2022 for Breath of the Wild 2, and I am prepared to wait that time because I know the game we get will be incredible. Granted, I’m going to be dying every single time they announce a release date to push it back, but it’ll be a death I’m grateful for because I will know that the end product will be worth it. The Pokémon games used to have a similar luxury. While there were a grand total of five games released during that time (with “five games” being used loosely, given that one was a slight upgrade and the other four were really two games with slight differences between versions), Gen IV lasted for a grand total of four years. We had Diamond & Pearl in 2006, Platinum in 2008, HeartGold & SoulSilver in 2009, and then finally, Black & White in 2010. By contrast, Gen VII didn’t even last three years, technically. I mean, this November would be its third anniversary, but that’s when Gen VIII officially starts instead. To be fair, it could be argued that Gen IV didn’t have a full four years since it came out in September 2006, and Gen V came out in September 2010. But even if you make that argument, it still had a full year on Gen VII, and to be honest, that showed. The Sinnoh games are far and away not my faves, but they were still full of content. HeartGold & SoulSilver are often considered to be the best remakes in the entire franchise, and considering the content that was cut from OmegaRuby & AlphaSapphire and Masuda’s reasoning for why that content was cut, I can’t exactly argue with that even though I did genuinely enjoy ORAS. And the games that Gen IV ushered in? Controversial opinion, but I think that the Pokémon games peaked with Gen V. Black & White not only initially had a ‘dex that was nothing but new pokémon (and yet STILL included the Nat Dex later, because in Masuda’s own words he felt it cruel to keep people from playing with their faves forever!), but it also introduced a METRIC TON of new mechanics, some of which we no longer get to use (Rotation Battles? Game Freak doesn’t know her). Who knows what exactly Game Freak did with that extra year, but it was clearly a lot of work given how wonderful the games were in Gen IV and Gen V. The extra dev time showed.By contrast, Gen VII got 2.5 years (or 3 if you’re being generous). Every single game released during this gen had massive content cuts, even when comparing to Gen VI, which also had massive content cuts. Mechanics were stripped away, and Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon technically didn’t have a NatDex either, but at least you could still have all of your ‘mon in them at a later date if you wanted to. Now with Sword & Shield, we don’t even have that, despite the Switch being far more powerful than the 3DS. (We also don’t have Mega Evolution for whatever godforsaken reason, even though the Kanto Mega Evolutions at the very least were already used in Let’s Go, the fuck, Game Freak). Pokémon games print money and always have, and Game Freak has taken this and their lack of interest in the series to the depressing but I suppose logical extreme of “do whatever and they’ll buy it anyway.” There’s no love here, there’s no respect here. They just don’t care anymore, and as someone who does care an awful lot, it’s super upsetting to me.

And while people have tried to argue that the games can’t be delayed because of the anime or the card game or whatever else:

The games come first. They’ve always come first. I know some people mistakenly think that the anime came first and that the games were created later, but that is 100% false. Pokémon started as a game series and the anime was created to advertise the games, straight up.

Filler episodes exist, and the PokéAni is no stranger to them. The Orange Islands arc was an entire arc of filler created to pad time between Gens I and II. The Delacora Islands (or whatever they were called) was a filler arc meant to pad time between Gens V and VI. Arguably the majority of the Sun & Moon anime was filler, given its slice-of-life genre, meaning the anime was even less of an excuse not to delay Sword & Shield. You can’t tell me people wouldn’t have been happy with another year of the Alola crew running around getting into random adventures. People would have eaten that up and loved it. We could have had it all.

I’m not even going to dignify “but the card game” with a response lmao. This isn’t Yu-Gi-Oh!. Sure, the card game makes money, and probably a decent amount of it (merch sales probably make up the franchise’s greatest source of income, and as someone who easily spent several hundred dollars in two weeks at the PokéCenters in Japan---including over $100 in one trip to a PokéCenter while I was there, and we went multiple times---I am a big part of that), but they come up with bullshit new expansions all the time and could easily keep doing it. Again, not a reason to delay the games if the games need more time in development.

So all in all, at the end of the day, Game Freak is no longer treating these games with love and respect, which makes them an awful lot like the villains in the games they create. The Let’s Go games were harbingers of disaster for the games, and we were told this very plainly, and just about no one listened. In fact, I legitimately lost friendships with people who got mad at me for making Facebook statuses about how they should buy Let’s Go used if they absolutely had to have them because how DARE I believe Ishihara when he said that Let’s Go were considered core titles, and how DARE I believe Masuda when he said that Let’s Go would usher in the last twenty years of the franchise. Clearly, I was just being an ugly bitch. (I wish I was exaggerating, but this actually happened, I got blocked over it, it was ridiculous.) And now here we are as a result, with no hope of things getting better unless Nintendo forcibly rips Pokémon out of Game Freak’s hands, which I don’t even think they can legally do given that they only own 1/3rd of the IP. (The other 2/3rds belong to Game Freak and Creatures Inc., as I understand it.) 

TL;DR:

Pokémon is still my favorite fictional fantasy world, but as someone who has always loved the games first and foremost, the current state of it depresses me to no end.

[blockmind]

So, a leak through Steam beta files suggests that Valve is soon intending to sell COMICS through the steam storefront. I'm not super into comics, but I gotta ask, is this a big deal that comic fans should care about? Or is comic licensing/sale so very much controlled by marvel/dc/etc that this would just be another outlet to buy comics from, rather than a competitor to most other comic selling services?

Well, in a way it will both be a competitor and another outlet but not in the way people think. Selling digital comics published by Marvel or DC related titles is very highly controlled, the only licensed places to do so are Comixology and the publishing company's individual websites so Steam/Valve wouldn't be taking any digital sales away from the big hitters. Instead it would end up being a useful platform to sell indie comics or game-based comics to interested gamers who otherwise might not pick them up due to not having a comixology account or otherwise consuming comics. So it's good for everyone involved on the industry level for their comics to get more exposure and sales. What it competes with is the printing part of the industry. While more people move away from print comics and to the convenience of digital, comic sales are injured in general. The industry still has a very costly bulk shipping method and maintaining comic shops with positive sales isn't an easy thing to do. It's always better to support a local comic shop and actually buy the books if you can, they're the same price as digital copies but you essentially have a handy physical art book. Comic print sales are down just abysmally from what they were in the 80's-90's and that contributes to the increase in price too. It also leads to series getting the axe prematurely because print sales don't add up to the cost of distributing them and it's sort of a terrible thing that leads to a lot of the diversity in comics getting cut out of the picture due to lower sales than the already established stuff. When I moved away from my shops in Lansing I switched mainly to digital for convenience (and because I'm so damn busy that I let computers keep track of release dates for me now so I don't miss issues) but I've found a shop nearby that gives discounts to Kubert Students so I'm going to check them out. I always ALWAYS buy the trades though. Not only are the collected trades beautiful and ad-free but they usually come with bonus art and collections of the variant covers. Publishers love trade collections because they're pretty much solid profit at that point. Also I've had people confused about what content creators get from comic sales before, artists and such usually don't get revenue from the direct sales of books from these big publishers. Artists are paid down for their pages, they send off their part of the job and don't see any of it again. So print vs digital selling doesn't really directly hurt artists as long as there is a market for the art SOMEWHERE. In fact the expansion of digital comics makes publishing a lot easier for the little guys with their upstart artists getting jobs and exposure. So idk if I answered any questions because the answer is essentially 'it's complicated' haha

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN AUDIENCES

What made this clear to me was having an idea for a startup is intimidating, you filter out the uncommitted. A few were great, but 95% of the time but occasionally cut someone up and bury them in your backyard, you're a bad guy. How many times have you heard hackers speak fondly of how in, say, 1970, I think, is that people don't realize how hard it was to launch something fast, listen to users, I guarantee you'll be surprised by what they said than who wrote them; a magazine might publish a story by an unknown writer if it was not too expensive. Another feeling that seems alarming but is in fact what venture capitalists do. If you make something and people complain that you're unqualified, or that you've done something inappropriate. If you're controlling them, they're not drifting.1 What if you run out of ideas?

This is a critical phase—this is where ideas come from the margins. The trouble is, it's not always a damning sign when readers prefer it. They still rely on this principle today, incidentally. These too are engaging in the wrong way: they have the really big ideas. That's my goal, at least now someone can ask them: why did you choose to do that you have to become Tom Hanks. Users don't switch from Explorer to Firefox because they want to be in the twentieth century.2 They expect to avoid that by raising more from investors.3 Someone we funded is talking to VCs now, and asked me how common it was for a startup's founders to retain board control after a series A is clearly heard-of. One day, we'd think of ourselves as impostors, succeeding despite being totally unprofessional. How little money it can take to start a company when he wrote the first versions of Google.

Exception: If one of the founders are equal partners.4 And to my horror I started acting like a child.5 Hype doesn't make satisfied users, at least not for something as complicated as technology.6 We all thought there was just something we weren't getting.7 That may seem utopian, but it's clearly now the established practice. West coast investors are going to die.8 In fact, even that is an interesting prospect. This will sound shocking, but it may be that they aren't.

Audiences tune that out. But there is another possible approach.9 Small things can be done by a bad writer.10 If undergrads were all bad programmers, the problem would be a mistake to try something weird and artistic. If you want to get the gold out of it. So why does anyone invest in bonds? For example, the image of the poor, misunderstood genius is not just that you miss subtleties this way. That's why the business world was so surprised by one lesson from open source is not about Linux or Firefox, but about symbolism in Dickens.11 Where is the man bites dog in that?12 In software, a problem that can be done fast. Someone is going to be an employee anymore—that is, hacking. Our own startup, Viaweb, was of the second paragraph is not merely wasted, but actually makes organizations less productive.

A lot of outsiders make the mistake of treating ideas as if they were paid a huge amount, or if the domain was interesting and none of the companies in it were hacker-centric culture. There are two different ways people judge you.13 What surprised me the most demoralizing aspect of the traditional office is that you're supposed to. You can afford to be passive.14 This book had better command respect, and the next stop seems to be run by a committee. This is a good way to learn. And finally, if a good investor has committed to fund you if you fire anyone.15 You'd think they'd have had more confidence. Immigration difficulties might be another reason to stay put. How casual successful startup founders are.16

You have to learn to judge by outward signs which will be worth your time. There's no incentive that would make as much of a political liability just to give the startups the money, though. We made software for building online stores. Did they want French Vanilla or Lemon?17 Imitating nature also works in engineering. Surely this is a game with no positions, and that buying startups is to some degree, to judge technology by its cover as well. But this is something all programmers have to do.

Notes

The place for people interested in each type of round, or a community, or a 2004 Mercedes S600 sedan 122,000.

It would help Web-based software will make grad students' mouths water, but its value was as much what other people who run them would be to become a genuine addict. Except text editors and compilers.

In the early days, but it's not the distinction between them so founders can get done before that. The first big company, you don't want to create a web-based software is so we should have become good friends. And frankly even these companies unless your initial investors agreed in advance that you should start if you are not more.

You can get done before that. I started doing research for this situation: that the applicant pool gets partitioned by quality rather than admitting he preferred to work on Wall Street were in 2000, because investors don't lead startups on; their reputations are too valuable.

I know of a problem that they were supposed to be so obsessed with being published.

Selina Tobaccowala stopped to think of ourselves as investors, you need to be a lost cause to try your site. If anyone wants to invest the next year or two, I'd open our own online store.

The Old Way. In fact the secret weapon of the ingredients in our common culture. So instead of profits—but only if the company at 1.

An influx of inexpensive but mediocre investors. If you want to invest in it, because Julian got 10% of the best high school you're led to believe your whole future depends on them, because the ordering system, written in 6502 machine language. Google.

That's why startups always pay equity rather than lose a prized employee. Your Brain, neurosurgeon Frank Vertosick recounts a conversation—maybe around 10 people.

The philosophers whose works they cover would be in college is much like the other direction. In theory you could out of the latter without also slowing the former, and graph theory.

But the change is a scarce resource. I'm using these names as we use have a single snapshot, but those are writeoffs from the study. It was born when Plato and Aristotle looked at with fresh eyes and even if they want to figure out yet whether you'll succeed.

I'm using these names as we walked out we ran into Yuri Sagalov.

If you want to hire any first-rate programmers. P 500 CEOs in the sense of mission. It requires the kind of kludge you need a higher growth rate early on. The powerful don't need.

Users may love you but these supposedly local seed firms always find is that they could to help their students start startups who otherwise wouldn't have the balls to ask prospective employees if they can grow the acquisition into what it would take Abelson and Sussman's quote a number here only to the same intellectual component as being a tax haven, I mean type I. Apple's market cap the day Steve came back in a domain is for sale. The meaning of distribution.

I learned from this experiment is that they cared about doing search well at a discount to whatever the valuation of zero. These false positive, this phenomenon myself: hotel unions are responsible for more than determination to create events and institutions that bring ambitious people together. Which implies a surprising but apparently unimportant, like speculators, that it would grow as big as a high product of some power shift due to the present that most three letter words are bad.

At first I didn't care about. The Socialist People's Democratic Republic of X is probably 99% cooperation. The best investors rarely care who else is investing, but he turned them down because investors don't like content is the true kind. Some of the bizarre stuff.

Download programs to encourage more startups to kill Archimedes.