#tho man people were still jerks in the competitive scene even back when it was just local link cables

[freakxwannaxbe]

Alright here's the dream I said I was gonna write down, buckle down, its long and detailed, and big jerk Demon lad is in it

It started out very normally, I was out at a local pool with friends. I couldn't really tell it wasn't real at that point. Going to pools in my dreams always involves a lot of passing through buildings and hallways and gates, and a lot of time the concept of going to the pool is there, but I never make it to the actual water.

However, this time I did make it. Just barely, though. It was just a lot of the previously mentioned passing through buildings, before finally making it to the pool, and me going in and starting to swim.

And swim, and swim.

And suddenly, I was out on the street, somewhat dazed, like I blinked and was out of the water and in a different setting. I turned around, expecting to see the edge of the pool that I thought I just came out of, but it was gone.

So I started my thread back to the pool, up the street, towards where I assumed I just came from.

Surprisingly enough I did make it back. I was in front of the gate, a backpack in tow, showing off the man at the gate the little stamp on the back of my hand they'd give you at cons or concerts to be able to tell you've paid for a ticket (which is completely counterproductive to have at a pool, but I digress). He let me in, smiling weirdly at me, but then I reached the second gate. The man there demanded to see my ticket, so I crouched down and opened up my backpack, looking for it, all the while laughing and talking to the man. I found the somewhat water damaged ticked, showed him, and he let me in through there as well.

I continue on in and I swear to you, I could smell the chlorine and the very specific scent of dusty concrete and gravel baking in the sun.

However, as I am about to go in to a building, my mobile phone rings and I answer it, my friend on the other line sounding hushed and panicked.

“Hey, maybe you shouldn’t come back, something bad might happen. We heard some guys whispering about you when you left.”

As they said that, I noticed all the people were gone. The building I just went in to was empty as well. It was wrong, it felt eerie and dangerous; the “something bad” was absolutely happening.

I feel like some part of this dream was inspired by The Running Man, which I watched like 4 days ago, because the whole shtick of “battle royale tv show” was definitely present in a way. I was suddenly aware that I was lured to come here, and that there was a competition happening, and I was both the target and the prize? I was being hunted by...both things that are human and not so much. 

The “scenes” at this point would switch between the narrator/host who was speaking to an audience, the “hunters” coming for me and me avoiding them. However, it mostly blurs for me now, and I couldn’t describe specific scenes, even if I kind of remember them?

There were three hunters I got away from, not at once, each one at a time. Some were more human than others. I remember fighting them off, yelling, screaming, trying to make anyone stop this. I remember cursing out the narrator.

As I made it through the building more and more, I suddenly came across another hunter. I started yelling loudly and threatening to beat him with a wooden pole I found at some point, like a little animal trying to scare off a predator. 

He held out his arms defensively “Woah, woah, put that down, I’m not like the others!”

It was the Dream Demon, but he didn’t...look defined at first. He wasn’t familiar, but the more we talked, the more...his face cleared up for me? It was like cloudy at first, unrecognizable, even tho the features were always there.

“Do you really expect me to believe you!? I ran the fuck away from three guys wanting to do who knows what to me, and suddenly you’re not like the others?! You’re part of this sick competition too, aren’t you?!”

“Hey come on now I-” he stopped reaching out for me when I raised the pole higher “-okay, okay, stop that. I swear it, I’m here to help, okay?!”

He took a step back and took out what I knew was a communication device (like a tablet) that all the hunters had. “See this?” I nodded “You know what it is, right?” I nodded again “Alright.” he took it and snapped it clean in half over his knee. “See that? Can you please at least put that log down now?”

“No, but you can get closer without me breaking it over your face.”

The Dream Demon did come closer, slowly, his arms still held up in case I change my mind. “Trust me on this, I am trying to get you out of here. I’m your best chance to get out of here, you want me to win. You’re either coming out with me, or with one of them, and believe me, you don’t want to go with them.”

By the time he was in front of me, he did gently put his hands on the wood in my hands and pushed it down, so I wasn’t holding it in attack mode anymore, helping me lower my guard a bit around him.

“Why is this happening? And why me?! What kind of a prize am I?!”

“I’ll be real here, it’s really bad that you know about them.” he muttered “And more importantly, they really should not be knowing about you. They love human girls like you treading where they shouldn’t.”

“You knew about me first.”

“I’m nothing like them.”

After that conversation, things get more distant in my memory. I know we headed out together after that. The two ways for this to end was either he won, or I somehow escaped completely. For either of those to happen, we had to go through all the other hunters and either get me out of that place, or for him to emerge victorious and “win” me.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Hi, I am a fan of the ann/akira ship. I read about your post on the scene you mentioned that got played down in the US version, been wondering, which scene did you mean and what did she say in the Japanese version?Thanks

Sorry for taking so long. ;w; Ok yeah I’m freaking salty, I dunno if this is the whole “too many cooks in one stew” or what but god, why is it so inconsistent. Ahem sorry I’ll explain what I mean by that below, ok, so like just so you know I haven’t finished the english version, but I looked up this one scene, cause I loved the gd scene and cause I couldn’t wait and …..wow they ruined it. Also this is like in the very end game so like spoilers below (now’s your time to look away, ok? good? alright) and yeah I’m gonna compare it to this one other similar scene cause favortism on AtlusUSA’s part, incompetence, or the too many cooks in a stew and they didn’t communicate (I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt and saying it’s the last one). (also, haha sorry for being uber angry in this post, I try not to be angry or negative in ANY posts but alnfdslknfa I CAN’T hold myself back)

Ok so after the MC returns from basically jail/holding-whatever there’s a scene where everyone like looks at him and greets him when he comes back:

Ok so this is from the MC’s POV, he walks in and sees everyone! Awwww. And then the camera pans to each person, starting with Mako and Futaba where they smile, then to Haru and Yusuke who smile and wave respectively (also everyone is letting out happy noises like “haaa! :D” or “aha! :D”), then Ryuji (only Ryu not him and Anne, just Ryu) who also smiles and is uber happy as well…and then there’s Anne….As you can see she’s facing away…

The camera zooms on her only. And then she stands up and turns to the MC dramatically and says:

Okaeri….Aka, “welcome back/home” in english….WELCOME MOTHERFUDGEMONKEYING HOME! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OH MY GOD. THIS FREAKING BLEW MY MIND. It’s small and simple? Yes. Yes it is. But IT’s the fact ANNE says it! I thought if anyone it’d be Ryuji (cause first friend) or Futaba (cause family dynamic, dating or not they’re still close)…BUT NO IT’S ANNE! ANNE GETS TO SAY THIS! IT JUST BLEW MY GD MIND! I won’t lie, this is also a very good book end thing considering she’s the first one he met (and their nice smile/interaction during that time too ;w;). “Okkkkk Silly, why is this a moment? Other than her being the only one who says anything in the cutscene and makes it semi dramatic?” Well dksalnf;andf if “welcome home” as in “oh my god this is your gd home and we’re your friends and we’re family” isn’t enough heartwarming in just that phrase I dunno what is (and ANNE is the one who says that). Usually you say this when someone has come home….like in a family, parents say it to kids, kids say it to parents, siblings say it to each other, parents (or you know…. a couple who lives together ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) *wink wink*) say it to each other etc… So like….there’s those undertones too (if you want to look at it like that, YOU DON’T HAVE TO but it’s there if you WANT), and before you call me out on that just wait a second haha AtlusUSA you shot themselves in the foot on this one and I’m coming for blood. (I’ll say this, and I’ll say this now, the fact that this happened to Anne is not why I’m upset, it’s what they did to the MC and the meaning behind this word and scene and it could’ve been ANY CHARACTER who could’ve said it and I would still be mad. Tbh I think this scene should’ve changed depending on who you romanced, with that person getting to say the phrase, but considering Anne can be such a bro sometimes I guess it’s ok cause of ambiguity….but yeah…It’s not cause of Anne but it’s a salty smack to Anne/MC shippers’ faces :/)

Ok so why am I the most livid of livid? You wanna know how they translated it?  You wanna know what she says in the english dub? DO YOU WANNA KNOW? I DON’T THINK YOU WANNA GD KNOW! FINE THIS IS WHAT SHE SAYS:

(yes that was my freaking reaction)

HAHA EXCUSE ME?!  “Hey there”….”HEY THERE?” GOD CHRIST ON A CRACK I WOULD’VE TAKEN “YOU’RE BACK!” IN LIKE A SUPER RELIEVED, ALMOST TEARY EYED VOICE ATLUSUSA! I WOULD’VE BEEN FINE WITH IT! NOT THIS LOAD OF MONKEY BUTT! ‘HEY THERE’ HAHAHAHAAAAAA I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY DID THAT…MOTHER OF…THEY COULD’VE FIT “WELCOME BACK/HOME” IN THE LIP MOVEMENTS! THEY SHOULD’VE USED “WELCOME HOME!” IT’S NOT JUST THE ANNE MOMENT (christ anyone could’ve said it and I’d still be miffed, Yusuke could’ve said it and I’d advocate for the ShuKita fans that this was BS), IT’S THE FACT THAT THIS SCENE LOST THE “THIS IS YOUR HOME” MOMENT FOR THE MC! LIKE WOW GOOD JOB ATLUSUSA! 

No really what were they thinking here? “Oh maybe the mouth movements-” NOPE! They did “welcome home/back” (or in Kanji’s case “it’s good to see you senpai”) in P4G bonus ending, which proves you can fit it into the mouth movements (among countless other animes that have done it too), SO WHAT THE HECK IS THIS? And same with the reverse, tadaima/I’m home, they did that in PQ’s P3 Side ending! The MC says that! THIS ISN’T NEW ATLUS WHY IS IT JUST “HEY THERE”?! It looses the gd impact. So yeah “played down” is a bit of an understatement imo. ;w;

“Ok Silly, you’re upset, I get it. But maybe they just wanted to mix things up for P5 instead?” Ha…haha….HAHAHAHAHAHAHA EFF NO THEY DID NOT! They did this earlier in the game, but from what I could tell AtlusUSA decided to get creative with it (even adding to the gd romantic aspect, which they robbed for Anne shippers), ohhhhh some of you might know what I’m talking about this one right here:

Original Japanese:

Goro: Welcome HomeMC: I’m backGoro: You’re back pretty late.

Ok, fairly normal. I mean it is a common phrase in japanese and it’s not solely tied to a romantic aspect. I think Goro might have been joking around since Goro himself doesn’t live there (but I can’t hear any comedic undertones in his voice so…yeah…I dunno, it just feels matter of fact).

Oh…but what does AtlusUSA do?

English Version:

Oh…wow….WOWIE ATLUSUSA! SO YOU CAN TRANSLATE IT AS “WELCOME HOME!”  YOU JUST DIDN’T WANT TO DO IT WHEN IT WAS EMOTIONALLY HEARTWARMING YOU JERKS! NOPE WE HAD TO MAKE A JOKE HERE! EVEN THO THERE (most likely) WASN’T REALLY ONE TO BEGIN WITH!

Like, no this is not ok. You can have the gd haha Goro scene I don’t care, just why’d you have to screw with the freaking heartwarming team moment???? WHY ATLUSUSA?Ugh….they should’ve delayed the game, there’s so much going on with this game’s translation (mostly some word salad and some inconsistencies or small problems….among other things), I think they should’ve delayed the game one more time, like the more I talk with other people I think this delay from Feb was mostly cause of the other games that were coming out at that time and wanted to avoid competition rather than fixing the script. I really think they needed to go over the script a few more times, we probs wouldn’t have gotten the game till summer/late spring but at least I wouldn’t be judging this game to hell and back (I also blame AtlusJP for not giving AtlusUSA the game earlier/more time like…..c’mon man you have so much dialogue in your game you couldn’t cut them some slack and give them the game, or at least script, early 2016 or late 2015?) I really hope that if they re-release an updated version of this game it includes them reworking the script, kinda like the one SAO game that had a horrible script on Vita but then they redid it for the PS4 release (then again they’d probs have to redub some things so maybe they won’t). I’m sorry but I’m just very upset, cause this is also ruining my enjoyment of the game even tho I don’t want it to…and it just really sucks….yeah….

[tumblunni]

Also HELL YES FOR CASUAL PLAYER LOVE

Im so happy to hear that Let's Go is indeed INTENTIONALLY designed to be "more casual" and everything these super anti-casual conpetitive players are complaining about was intentionalky put in there cos the developers legit think its better. THANK YOU!

i dunno man it just seems like we NEVER heae about the developers doing anything for the fans unless its enablibg competitive play or iv breeding or whatever. Like those are the only definitions of "fans" that interviewers seem to care about. And Its hard to know what the developers really think when the questions that are asked leave out a huge componant of the fanbase, yknow?

And uhh.. I mean its just good to specificially know that theyre okay with casual fans existing, like not just "its for kids" but "hey you are not bad if you are an adult who also enjoys the game for its intended appeal points and not for a huge mega complicated mathematical metagame people made up to be 'more mature'". I was really surprised to see that written interview with masuda specifically mentioning IV breeding as the place where conpetitive goes too far and makes the game not fun anymore. "Pokemon wasn't meant to be a game about hatching eggs and nothing else." Like.. Playing competitively itself is not bad, i dont wanna sound like i hate hardcore fans and im a big ol jerk. I admire the dedication because it all seems so super unattainable and mathematically magical to me! Im not into that stuff but i can admire that you have to be a damn genius to achieve all that stuff. BUT i also get what he's saying. Because it sucks when you HAVE to be a damn genius to EVEN START PLAYING! Whenever high level competitive strats become the goddamn baseline it makes competitive completely inaccessable to everyone except the most hardcore of the hardcore, and its like damn man how do you even become that if you have no way to start practising? Iv breeding is so INSANE in retrospect! Like when you think about it, its wild that people even cracked the code for how to game the system and get the highest possible randomized stats for every ridiculously minor thing. Like how the fuck did they even figure out any of this?? And then all the further madness into figuring out how to attain it and how to raise odds of shinys and hidden abilities and how they keep figuring out new ways to do it with every new system each game brings out. And then people will spend friggin LITERAL DAYS OF REAL TIME running up and down the same road in the game, hatching thousands of eggs just to get the one mathematically superior pokemon from a confluence of random events. And this is treated as fuckin REQUIRED to play the game! You can't touch competitive if you dont do it. And these bad sorts of competitive players will try and force this requirement onto other non-competitive parts of the game, and shame casual players for not doing it even though its literally not what they want to play the game for.

Seriously, man! Individual values were just designed to make individual pokemon more random, so the play experience would seem more unique to each run. It was literally invented for a "casual" reason! It just really sucks that they implimented it in a way that had an objective "best" value to get, so people ignored the whole point of "adding personality" and just wanted that one. Tho i mean at least they patched out the early issue where gender and shinyness were linked to these values so you couldnt get certain types of pokemon as the "best" version and it was even more limiting. Glad that GSC didnt have online metagame yet, lol! (Tho it makes it possible for people to more easily predict which pokenon will become Shiny when transferred from rby to gsc, which is neat.)

ANYWAY WHERE WAS I

Oh yeah! I appreciate that each generation of games lately has made it easier to see your IVs and EVs and to get them to their "best" versions, with even the FUCK YEAH feature pf being able to "fix" bad IVs on level 100 pokemon. I carried my Sneasel named Reaper since RSE and he's been completely unuseable for so long and bottlecaps fixed that! Kid me just played the game like he was my starter and i loved him. I didnt know about IVs or EVs, so i took this terribly-statted dude with a bad ability and made him fight all the wrong pokemon because he is my best friend and he needs to win every gym battle and i will buy him lemonades afterward. Also he wore the Blackglasses item forever cos i thougjt itd be cool if you could put accessories on your pokemon. So yeah i did Everything Wrong and thus all the pokemon i actually cared about were made weak and useless by my love and i had to spend 48 hours running down a stupid road to hatch and abandon 1400 new ones just to get one that was "useable". Thanks to bottlecaps, this is no more! Decade old weasel pals can be revived! Tho still it sucks that i hit level 100 before this mon's evolution came out. Alas!

BUT

Like.. Even tho now its slightly less hard to make a "perfect" pokemon its still tedious as hell and really takes you out of the moment and you have to already know beforehand that its necessary. Kids are just gonna blunder in and not even know why they keep losing due to no fault of their own. Adults are gonna also do that. Seriously this isnt a "kiddy fans vs mature fans" or "non fans versus FANS" thing, this is just "fans who have one very specific skill for memorizing a bunch of numbers and steps and enduring hours of boredom doing it vs..people who think that kinda ruins the game". And even if nintendo fully streamlined the process into sonething easy, itd still feel like an unnecessary roadblock in the way of just getting to play the damn game. We really need to add some sort of hardcore/casual or iv breeding/no iv breeding thing to league divisions, as well as the tier lists. This is why im so hyped for the current "Spooky Cup", since it actually seems like a "just for fun" multiplayer experience, and its kinda dumb that we have to rely on nintendo actually programming limitations into a tournement cos the players refuse to allow anyone to just do it normally. I did a big whoop at "no mega stones" and "everyone gets a participation prize even if they lose"! And the limitations being a random event based thing rather than a skill cap! Yay ghost types!! Reminds me of the baby pokemon only tourneys in the n64 games. That was a kind of hardcore challenge that had a bit of creativity to it!

So anyway anyway what i'm getting at...

I'm just happy that the devs are saying "yes this is a casual game with more of what casual players want, and less of those hardcore limitations" and THATS NOT MEANT TO BE A NEGATIVE!! Actual developers sitting on a couch hugging giant pikachu plushies and saying this game is for people who just want a fun game about..well, hugging pikachus! They changed the way you catch pokemon because they wanted it to be more fun. They brought back following pokemon because fun. You get all these new features for your starter because they wanted you to really feel like a kid going on their first pokemon adventure and sharing all these special moments with pikachu! They talked about how the art style was decided upon because it was the closest to "how you imagined it in your head when you played pokemon yellow", and "if it was photorealistic it just wouldnt feel right". They picked eevee for the second option because they actually paid attention to the fans and which pokemon was the second most popular and had a similar "both cute and cool" appeal with all audiences. And they put the most effort into the visuals and the cuteness and making everything just feel like a good and fun adventure that recaptures everything you wanted as a kid playing the first game.

And they just act so unapologetically HAPPY about all these parts of the game! These are their favourite parts! They're the goddamn DEVELOPERS and even they say that they prefer the story and the characters and the relaxing childlike whimsy to the concept of refining gameplay to a ridiculous hardcore perfection and throwing out everything else in pursuit of that. And man, seeing them hugging the big pika and eev plushies in EVERY PROMOTIONAL VIDEO and just enjoying playing their own game so much!! And babbling on about dressing up your pokemon!!

God its just SO GOOD to see this as a fan who's been here since the very beginnibg and is starting to feel quite self concious about being an adult fan who isnt doing it "properly". Like man the pressure of hardcore competotive being the "only right way" started even when i was just 11, like seriously THE AGE THE ACTUAL TRAINERS ARE IN THE GODDAMN GAME. Before you even hit your teens you already got stuck up older kids telling you you were too old to just enjoy a game cos you enjoyed the damn game, noooo you have to make it as unfun as possible and only derive enjoyment from defeating other people. It took me until ORAS to actually even be able to try competitive at all, i found it so overwhelming until they added other methods to EV train. And even then i still felt like the blandness of the preparation outweighed any fun of playing these "higher level" battles. Like sure maybe some people like that stuff but it felt so dissappointing after all these years of being pressured to try it...

Sometimes its just good to enjoy a game cos you legit like the world and characters. Sometimes its just really validating to see the developers talking about enjoying making those things, cos it gives you permission to be less embarrassed about it. Sometimes its good to also see them hugging a hundred dollar giant pikachu while you hug your hundred dollar giant mimikyu. Cos seriously what is the point of being an adult if youre not allowed to buy these adult sized plushies? What kid could ever afford those! Im not letting my childhood dream pass me by just because ~maturity~ when im finally able to slap a fat wad of cash on the table and yell GIVE ME THE BIGGEST CHU

I will embrace all my pure childhood love and enjoy this game of just huggins and nothing else! And i really like this concept for the series, if they continue doing Let's Go as a spinoff so we'd have a set of games appealing to each of the casual and hardcore demographics. I always feel bad complaining about hardcore when really my actual opinion on it is just "its not for me" and im actually only complaining about the rude fans who tell me im not a real fan unless i like their genre of stuff. Dude i was three years old when pokemon came out, i think ive earned my right by seniority to hug a plushie or two! So itd be awesome if hardcore doods could get their super hardcore game too, and we could just argue less cos we'd each be able to enjoy what we enjoy. Tho i mean the main series games already have a pretty clear divide between story/fun being the main game and hardcore competitive being a postgame thing. And yet we still get all this fandom fightibg over "ignore the actual 90% of the game, skip the plotline and only play competitive" apparantly being the "real" way to play it. Like man im worried that attitude is still gonna stick arpund even if they do give us separate games appealing to each side of the fandom?

EHHH WHATEVER! Im just gonna sit here in my corner of casual hugs and work on my self confidence to be able to stop feeling bad about not being someone else's idea of a "real" fan. If real fans can't have pikachu in a little hat, then that is not the life i wanna lead!

LITTLE GODDAMN HAT, MY GUY