#which i have not played but i do adore the moveset of

[ghostsontelevision]

new ttrpg bundle on itchio!

this one’s funding trans rights in florida! get it here, $5 is a steal for even one of these games, let alone 505

[felikatze]

ISAT and Ludonarrative Harmony: Combat is a Storytelling Tool

Or: How Siffrin is stuck in the endgame grind, forever

Please Note: This is primarily aimed at an audience that already played In Stars and Time, because I am bad at explaining things, and it's good to already know what the fuck I'm talking about. I tend to only bring up game elements as I want to talk about them.

Spoilers for.... all of ISAT! Especially Act 5!

(image to show how i feel posting this and as an attention grabber over my wall of text)

To pull a definition of ludonarrative harmony out of a hat, game writer Lauryn Ash defines it as follows:

Ludonarrative harmony is when gameplay and story work together to create a meaningful and immersive experience. From a design implementation perspective, it is the synchronized interactions between in-game actions (mechanics) and in-world context (story).

It is, generally speaking, how well game mechanics work hand in hand with the story. I, personally, think ISAT is an absolute masterclass of it, so I want to take a look at how ISAT specifically uses its battle system to emphasize Siffrin's character arc and create organic story moments. I want you to keep this in mind when I talk here.

So, skills, right? If you've played any turn-based RPG, you know your Fire spells, your "BACKSLASH! AIRSLASH! BACKSLASH!" and the many ways to style those.

Well, what does casting "Fire" say about your character? Not all that much, does it? Perhaps you'll have typical divisions. The smart one is the mage, the big brawny one is your tank, the petite one's the healer. And that's the barebones of ISAT's main party, but it's much more than that.

Every character's style of combat tells you something about them. Odile, the Researcher, is the most well-travelled and knowledgable of the bunch. She's the one with the expertise to keep a cool head and analyze the enemy, yet also able to use all three of the Rock-Paper-Scissors craft types.

To reflect her analytical view of things, all her skill names are just descriptive, the closest to your most bog-standard RPG. "Slow IV" or "Paper III" serve well to describe their purpose. The high number of the skills gives the impression there were three other Slow skills beforehand - fitting, considering the party starts at level 45, about to head into the final dungeon. She's also the oldest, so she's the slowest of the bunch.

Isabea, the Fighter, has all his skills in exclamation points. "YOUR TURN!!!" "SO WEAK!!!" "SMASH!!!" they're straightforward, but excited. He's a purposefully cheerfull guy, so his skills revolve around cheering on his allies. He's absolutely pumped to be here, and you see that from his skill names alone.

Mirabelle, the Housemaiden, is an interesting case. She's by all means the true protagonist of this tale - She's the one "Chosen by the Change God," the only one who survived the King's first attack, the only one immune to his ability to freeze time, the only dual-craft type of the game - just a lot of things. And her skill names reflect that facade she puts on herself - she can do this, she can win! She has to believe it, or else she starts doubting. This is how you get "Jolly Round Rondo" and "Mega Sparkle Heal" or "Adorable Moving Cure." She's styled every bit a sailor scout shojo heroine, and her moveset replicates the naming conventions of "In the name of the moon, I'll punish you!"

Even Bonnie, the Kid, who can't be controlled in combat, has named craft skills. And they very much reflect that Bonnie is, well, a kid. "Wolf Speed Technique" or "Thousand Blows Technique" are very much the phrasings of a child who learned one complicated word and now wants to use it in everything to seem cooler than they are, which is none, because they're twelve.

Siffrin's skills are all puns.

You have an IMMEDIATE feel for personality here. Between "Knife to Meet You!" and "Too Cleaver by Half," you know Siffrin's the type to always crack a joke no matter the situation, slinging witticisms around to put Sonic the Hedgehog to shame. It's just such a clever way to establish character using a game mechanic as old as the entire history of RPGs.

This is only the baseline of the way the combat system feeds into the story, though.

The timeloop, of course, feeds into it. Siffrin is the only character who retains experience upon looping, whereas all other characters are reset to their base level and skills. And it sucks (affectionate).

You're extremely likely to battle more often the earlier in the game you are - after all, you need the experience (for now.) Every party member contributes, and Siffrin isn't all that strong on their own, since they focus on raw scissor type damage with the addition of one speed buff. (Of course it's a speed buff. They're a speedy fucker. Just look at him).

At first, the difference in level between Siffrin and the rest of the group is rather negligible. Just a level or two. Just a bit more speed and attack. And then Siffrin grows further and further apart. Siffrin keeps learning new skills. He gets a healing skill that doubles as an attack boost, taking away from both Mirabelle's and Isabeau's usefullness. He gets Craft skills of every type that even give you two jackpot points instead of one - thus obliterating Odile's niche. Siffrin turns into a one-person army capable of clearing most encounters all on their own.

Siffrin's combat progression is an exact mirror of story progression - as their experience inside the loops grows, they also grow further and further away from their party. The party seems... weaker, slower, clumsier. Always back at their starting point, just as all of their character arcs are reset each loop. Never advancing, always stagnant. And you have Siffrin as the comparison post right next to them.

I also want to point out here a change from Act 2 to Act 3 - Siffrin's battle portrait. He stops smiling.

Battles keep getting easier. This is true both for the reason that Siffrin keeps growing stronger even when all enemies stay the same, but also for the reason that you, the player, learn more about the battle system and the various encounters, until you've learned perfect boss clear strategies just from repetition. Have you ever watched a speedrunner play Pokemon? They've played this game so many times, they could do it blindfolded and sleeping. Your own knowledge and Siffrin's new strength work in tandem to trivialize the game's entire combat system as the game progresses.

(Is it still fun? Playing it over, and over, and over again? Is it?)

You and Siffrin are in sync, your experience making everything trivial.

As time goes on, Siffrin grows to care less and less about performing right for their party and more and more about going fast. A huge moment in his character is marked by the end of Act 3; because of story events I won't delve too deeply into, Siffrin has grown afraid of trying something new. And his options of escape are closing in. They need an answer, and they need it fast. He doesn't have the time or patience to dumb himself down, so you unlock one new skill.

It doesn't occur with level up, or with a quest, or anything at all. At the start of Act 4, it simply appears in Siffrin's Craft skills.

(Just attack.)

No pun. No joke. Just attack. Once you notice, the effect is immediate - here you have it, a clear sign of how jaded Siffrin has become, right at every encounter. And it's a damn good attack, too! The only available attack in the game that deals "massive" damage against all enemies. Because it doesn't add any jackpot points (at least, it's not supposed to), you set up a combo with everybody else, but Siffrin simply tears away at the enemy with wild abandon. Seperated from the rest of the party by the virtue of no longer needing to contribute to team attacks (most of the time. It's still useful if they do, though).

Once again, an aspect of the battle system enhances the degree of separation between Siffrin and the static characters of his play. You're incentivized to separate him, even.

Additionally, there are two more skills to learn. They're the only skills that replace previous skills. You only get them at extremely high levels, the latter of which I didn't even reach on both of my playthroughs.

The first, somewhere in the level 70 range, Rose Printed Glasses, a paper type craft skill, is replaced by Tear You Apart. It's still a pun about paper, but remarkedly more vicious.

The second is even more on the nose. At level 80, In A While, Rockodile!, a rock type craft skill, is replaced by the more powerful Rock Bottom.

I didn't get to level 80. If you do, you pretty much have to do it on purpose. You have to keep going much longer than necessary, as Siffrin is just done. And the last skill he learns is literally called Rock Bottom.

What do I even need to say, really.

Your party doesn't stay static forever, though.

By doing their hangout quests, side quests throughout the loops that result in Siffrin and the character having a heart to heart, all of them unlock what I'd call an "ultimate" skill. You know the type - the character achieved self-fulfillment, hit rank 10 on their confidant, maxed out their skill tree, and received a reward for their trouble.

These skills are massively useful. My favorite is Odile's - it makes one enemy weak to all Craft types for several turns, which basically allows you to invalidate the first and third boss, as well as just clown on the King, especially once Siffrin starts racking up damage.

But the thing is. In Act 3, when you first get them, yeah, they're useful. But... do you need them? After all, they're such a hassle to get. You need to do the whole character quest again, you can't loop forward in the House or you'll lose them. If you want to take these skills to the King, you need to commit. Go the full nine-yards and be nice to your friends and not die and not skip forward or skip back. Which is annoying, right?

Well, I sure did think so during Act 4. After all, a base level party can still defeat the King, just with a few more tricky pieces involved. Siffrin can oneshot almost all basic enemies by the time of Act 4. It's this exact evalutation that you, the player, go through everytime you return to Dormont. Do I want this skill, still? Would it not be faster to go on without it? I'm repeating myself, but that's the thing! That's what Siffrin is thinking, too!

I also want to take a quick moment to note, here - all skills gained from hangouts have art associated with them, which no other skills do. This feature, the nifty art, hammers home these as "special" skills, besides just how they're unlocked.

Siffrin also has one skill with associated art.

Yeah, you guessed it, it's (Just attack.)

At first, helping the characters is tied to a hefty in-game reward, but that reward loses its value, and in return devalues helping Siffrin's friends every loop. It's too tedious for a skill that'll make a boss go by one turn faster. You, the player, grow jaded with the battle system. Grinding experience isn't worth it, everybody's highest levels are already recorded. Fighting bosses isn't worth it, it's much faster to loop forward.

Isn't this what all endgame in video games looks like? You already beat the final boss, and now... what challenge is left? Is there a point to keep playing? Most games will have some post-game content. A superboss to test your skills against, but ISAT doesn't have any of that. You're forever left chasing to the post-game. That's the whole point - to escape the game.

As most games get more difficult as time passes, ISAT only gets easier. The game becomes disinterested in expanding its own mechanics just as I ran out of new things to fight after 100%-ing Kingdom Hearts 3. Every encounter becomes a simple game of "press button to win."

The final boss just takes that one up a notch.

Spoilers for Act 5 ahead boys!

In Act 5, Siffrin utterly loses it. His last possible hope for escape failed him, told him there's nothing she can do, and Siffrin is trapped for eternity. So of course, they go insane and run up the entire House without their party.

This just proves what you already knew - you dont need the party to proceed. Siffrin alone is strong enough. And here, Siffrin has entirely shed the facade of the jokester they used to be. Every single skill now follows the (Just attack.) naming conventions. Your skills are: (Paper.) (Rock.) (Scissors.) (Breathe.)

To the point. Not a moment wasted, because Siffrin can't take a moment longer of any of this. Additionally, his level is set to 99 and his equipment becomes fixed. You can't even pick up items anymore! Not that you needed them at this point anyway, right? Honestly, I never used any items besides the Salty Broth since Act 2, so I stopped picking items up a long time ago. Now you just literally can't.

Something I've not talked about until now - one of the main equipment types in this game are Memories, gained for completing subquests or specific interactions and events. They all by and large have little effects - make Odile's tonics heal more, or have Mirabelle cast a shield at the start of combat. For the hangout events, you also gain an associated memory that boosts the characters' stats by 30. It lets them keep up with Siffrin again! A fresh wind! Finally, your party members feel on par with you again!

...For a time. And just like that, they're irrelevant again, just as helping them gave Siffrin a brief moment of hope that the power of friendship could fix everything.

In Act 5, your memory is set to "Memory of Emptiness." It allows you to loop back in the middle of combat. You literally can't die anymore. Not that Siffrin could've died by this point in the first place, unless you forgot about the King's instant-kill attack. This one memory takes away the false pretense that combat ever had any stakes. Siffrin's level being set to 99 means even the scant exp you get is completely wasted on them. All stakes and benefits from combat have been removed. It has become utterly pointless.

Frustrating, right? It's an artistic frustration, though. It traps you right here in Siffrin's shoes, because he hates that all these blinding Sadnesses are still walking around just as much. It all inspires just a tiny fraction of that deep rolling anger Siffrin experiences here in the player.

And listen, it was cathartic, that one time Siffrin snapped and stabbed the tutorial Sadness, wasn't it? Because who enjoys sitting through the tutorial that often? Siffrin doesn't. I don't, either.

So, since combat is an useless obstacle now meant to inspire frustration, what do you do for a boss? You can't well make it a gameplay challenge now, no. The bosses of Act 5 are an emotional challenge: a painful wait.

First, Siffrin fights the King, alone. This is already nervewracking because of one factor - in every other run, you need Mirabelle's shield skill, or else you're scripted to die. You're actually forced to fight the King multiple times in Act 3, and have to do it at least once in Act 4, though you'll likely do it more. Point is: you know how this fight works.

You know Siffrin's fight is doomed from the outset, but all you can do is keep slinging attacks. Siffrin is enough of a powerhouse to take the King's HP down, what with the healing and buff skills they have now, not to even mention you can just go all in on damage and then loop back.

(And no matter which way you play it, whether you just loop or use strategically, it reflects on Siffrin, too. Has he grown callous enough not even death will stop their mission? Or does he still avoid pain, as much as he can?)

This fight still allows you the artifice of even that much choice, not that it matters. The other shoe drops eventually - Siffrin becomes slower, and slower. Unsettling, considering this game works on an Action Gauge system. You barely get turns anymore. The screen gets darker, and darker. Until Siffrin is frozen in time, just as you knew he had to be, because you know how this encounter works, know it can't be cleared without Mirabelle.

And, then, a void.

Siffrin awakens to nothingness. The only way to tell you've hit a wall is if Siffrin has no walking animation to match your button inputs. You walk, and walk, until you're approached by.... you. The next enemy encounter of the game, and Siffrin's absolute lowest point: Mal Du Pays.

Or, "Homesickness," in english. If you know the game, you know why it's named this, but that's not the point at the moment.

Thing is, where you could damage the King and are damaged in turn, giving you at least a proper combat experience, even if its doomed to fail, Mal Du Pays has no such thing.

You can attack. You can defend. But it is immune to all attacks. And in return, it does nothing. It's common, at least, for undefeatable enemies to be a "survive" challenge, but nope. The entire fight is "press button and wait." Except, remember the previous fight against the King? The entire time, you were waiting for the big instant death attack to drop. That feeling, at least for me, carried forward. I was incredibly on edge just waiting for the other shoe to drop. And, as is a pattern, Siffrin is, too. As Siffrin's attacks fail to connect, they start talking to Mal Du Pays.

But he gets no response, as you get no attacks to strategize around. The wait for anything to happen is utterly agonizing. You and Siffrin are both waiting for something to happen. This isn't a fight. It just pretends to be. It's an utter rugpull, because Siffrin was so undefeatable for most of Act 4 and all of Act 5 so far. It's kind of terrifying!

and it does. It finally does something. Ma Du Pays speaks, in the voice of Siffrin's friends, listing out their deepest fears. I think it's honestly fantastic. You're forced to just sit here and listen to Siffrin's deepest doubts, things you know the characters could not say because it references the timeloops they're all utterly unaware of. This is all Siffrin, talking to himself. And all you, all Siffrin, can do, is keep wailing away on the enemy to no effect whatsoever.

So of course this ends with Siffrin giving up. What else can you do?

And then Siffrin's friends show up and unfreeze them and it's all very cool yay. The pure narrative scenes aren't really the main focus but I want to point out here:

A) Mirabelle is in the first party slot here, referencing how she's the de facto protagonist, and Bonnie fills in the fourth slot left empty, which shows all characters uniting to save Siffrin

B) this is the only instance of the other party members having act specific battle icons: they're all smiling brightly, further pushed by the upbeat music

C) the reflecting shield Mirabelle uses to freeze the King uses a variation of her hangout skill cut in, marking it as her true "final" skill and giving the whole fight a more climatic feeling.

It's also a short gameplay sequence with Siffrin utterly uninvolved in the battle. You can't even see them onscreen. But... it feels warm, doesn't it? Everybody coming together. Siffrin doesn't have to fight anymore.

At last, the King is defeated. Siffrin and co. make for the Head Housemaiden, to have her look at Siffrin's sudden illness. Siffrin is utterly exhausted, famished, running a fever. And this isn't unexpected - after all, their skills in Act 5 had no cooldown. For context, instead of featuring any sort of MP system, all skills work on a cooldown basis, where a character can't use it for a certain number of turns. The lowest cooldown is actually Siffrin's Knife to Meet You, which has a cooldown of 1. In universe, this is reasoned as the characters needing a break from spamming craft in order to not exhaust themselves.

Siffrin's skills in Act 5 having no cooldown/being infinitely spammable isn't a sign of their strength - it's a sign that he refuses to let himself rest in order to rush through as fast as possible.

Moving on, Siffrin panics when seeing the Head Housemaiden, because seeing her means one thing: the end. Prior to this in the game, every single time you beat the King, the loop ends when you talk to the Head Housemaiden.

Reality breaks down, the whole shebang. It's here that Siffrin realizes - they don't want the loops to end, because the end of their journey means their family will leave, and he'll be alone again. The happiest time of his life will be over.

Siffrin goes totally ballistic, to say the least.

As it turns out (and was heavily foreshadowed narratively), Siffrin has been using Wish Craft to subconciously cause the timeloop because of their abandonment issues. It's rather predictable if you paid attention to literally anything, but it's extremely notable how heavily Siffrin is paralleled to the King, the antagonist they swore to kill by themself at the start of Act 5. The King wants to freeze Vaugarde in time because it is, in his mind, "perfect," for accepting him after he lost his home - a backstory he shares with Siffrin.

Siffrin has become the exact antagonist he swore to kill, and it's shown by how the next fight utterly flips everything on its head.

Siffrin is the final boss.

In a towering form made of stars, Siffrin looks down at their friends. His face is terrified, because of his internal conflict; he can't hurt his friends, but he can't let them go, either. The combat prompt is simply changed to "END IT!"

This fight is similar to the previous, in that you just need to wait a certain number of turns until its over. However, this time, it's not dreadful suspense. It's... confusion, and hesitance.

You have two options for combat: Attack your friends, or attack yourself.

And... you don't really want to do either, I think. I certainly don't. But what else can you do? It's Siffrin's desires clashing in full force. Attack your friends, and force them to stay? Or attack yourself, and let them go safely without you?

Worth noting, here - when you attack Siffrin's friends, you can't harm them. Isabeau will shield all attacks. And when you attack yourself, Mirabelle will heal you back to full. And the friends don't... do anything, either. How could they? Occasionally, Mirabelle heals you and Isabeau shouts words of motivation, but the main thing is...

(Your friends don't know what to do.)

None of them want to harm Siffrin. Both sides simply stare at each other, resolute in their conviction but unwilling to end it with violence. It's of note that this loop, the last one, is the only loop where the King isn't killed. Just frozen. And now here is Siffrin, clamoring for the same eternity the King was. Of course everything ends in a tearfilled conversation as Siffrin sees their friends won't leave him, even after the journey ends, but I still have to appreciate this moment.

Siffrin is directly put in the position with their friends as his enemies, forced to physically reckon that keeping them in this loop is an act of violence, against both their friends, and against himself.

It's a happy ending. But... what does it mean?

Of course, ISAT is obviously about the fear of change. Siffrin is afraid of the journey ending, and of being alone. However, ISAT is also a game about games. Siffrin is playing the same game, over and over, because it's comforting. It's familiar. It's nice, to know exactly what happens next. These characters might just be predictable lines of dialogue, but... they feel like friends. Have you ever played a game, loved it, put countless hours into it, but you never finished it? Because you just couldn't bear to see it end? For the characters to leave your life, for there to be a void in your heart where the game used to be?

After all, maybe it became part of your routine! You play the game every day, slowly chipping away at it for weeks at a time. For me, I beat ISAT in four days. It utterly consumed me during this time. I had 36 hours of playtime by the end. Yeah, in that week, I did not do much more than play ISAT.

And once i beat it, i beat it, again. I restarted the game to see the few scenes I missed, most specifically the secret boss I won't talk about here. I... couldn't let go of the game yet. I wanted to see every scrap I could. I still do. I'm writing this, in part because I still do. It's scary to let go.

Ever heard the joke term of "Postgame Depression?" It's when you just beat a game, and you're suddenly sad. Maybe because the ending affected you emotionally and you need to process the feelings it invoked, or you search for something that can now fill your time with it gone.

The game ends, for real this time, the last time you talk to the Head Housemaiden. But Siffrin gets... scared. What if everything loops back again? And so, his family offers to hold his hand. They face the end, together.

For all loops, including the ending, you never see what happens after. After they leave the loop for good. Because the loop is the game itself. It's asking you to trust that life goes on for these characters, and it holds your hand as it asks you to let go. There's a reason for Siffrin's theater metaphors. He is the actor, and the director, asking everyone to do it over one more time. He's a character within the game, and its player.

There's a reason I talked about endgame content. This, the way it all repeats, there's nothing new, difficulty and stakes bleed away as you snap the game over your knee - it's my copy of White 2 with two hundred hours in it. It's me playing Fire Emblem Awakening in under 3 hours while skipping every cutscene. Are you playing for the sake of play, for the sake of indulging in your memories, because you're afraid of the hole it'll leave when you stop?

Of note: the narrative never condemns Siffrin for unwittingly causing their own suffering. He's a victim of circumstance. It's seen as endearing, even, that Siffrin loves their friends to the point of rather seeing the world destroyed than them gone. But Siffrin is also told: we'll stay with you for now, but we'll part ways eventually. And one day, you'll have to be okay with it.

Stop draining the things you love of every ounce of enjoyment just because you're afraid of what happens next. I'm not saying to never play your favorite games again. Playing ISAT a second time, I still had a lot of fun! I saw so many new things I didn't before, and I enjoyed myself immensely, reading the same dialogue over and over. But... it makes me look at other games I love and still play, and makes me ask... is this still fun? Do I still need to play this game to enjoy it? Even writing this is an afterimage of my enjoyment, but it's a new way to interact with the game, to analyze it through this lens. Fuck, man, I write fanfiction. Look at me.

All of this, fanart, fanfic, analysis, is a way to prolong that enjoyment without making yourself suffer for it. Without just going through the motions of enjoyment without actually experiencing any. But one day, the thing you love won't be fun to talk and write and draw about. And it's okay. You'll have new things to love. I promise.

In the end.... I'm certain I'll replay ISAT one day. Between great writing, art, puzzles and unresolved mysteries, it's my shoe-in for game of the year.

But I won't replay it for quite some time. I've had enough, for now, so I let my love take other forms.

Siffrin is never condemned, because love is no evil. Be it love for another person, or for a game. And please, if you're overempathetic - it's still a game, at the end of the day. The great thing about games is that you can always boot them up again, no matter how long its been.

A circle within a circle indeed.

To summarize:

The repetitiveness of ISAT's combat, lack of new enemies, and Siffrin's ever increasing strength eventually allows you to snap the combat over your knee, rendering it irrelevant and boring. Though this may seem counterproductive at first, it perfectly mirrors how Siffrin has also grown bored with these repeated encounters and views them only as an obstacle to get past. The reflection of Siffrin's own tiredness with the player's annoyance increases the compassion the player has for Siffrin as a character.

Additionally, the endgame state of the combat system serves as commentary on the state of a favorite game played too often, much like how Siffrin has unwittingly trapped themself in the loop. Despite the game having no more challenge or content left to over, a player might return to their favorite game anyway, solely to try and recreate the early experience of actually having fun with it. This ties into ISAT's metanarrative about the fear of change and refusal to let go of comfort even when the object (here, your favorite video game) offering that comfort has become utterly bereft of any substance to actually engage with. Playing for the sake of playing, with no actual investment to keep going besides your own memories.

Later on, stripping away even the pretense of strategy for a "press button and wait" format of final bosses highlights the lack of options at Siffrin's disposal and truly forces the player into their shoes. Truly, the only way to win is to stop playing.

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

If you dont mind the ask, what are some of your favorite pokemon cards by moveset, design, and/or art?

Ooh, I like this ask, I think I'm going to dig in and make this my post for the day and put some work into this.

Electrode was the coolest Pokemon in the first generation because blowing up to what would become 2 of any Energy let some cool strats with otherwise slow Pokemon work. It's a shame that it was so weak to Energy Removal, but at least Lass existed to help.

Kabuto from Neo Discovery goes in the art category. Was the first of the clay Pokemon by Yuka Morii that I ever got, and those cards are adorable. I'm glad there was a series of these throughout the years.

Town Volunteers was one of the first Supporters, which was a very positive change to the game, but was also used for art in the Lumiose Museum in XY. I love that they used old cards in that.

This was probably the first deck I used that was really, really good, as I actually got all the cards together for a functional version of it. I couldn't go to many events for various reasons but I'm fond of it anyway.

Flygon here had a lot going for it. It was one of the Delta Species, which was a very cool concept and one I wish they'd go fully back to someday. Tera does some of that but misses out on the Weakness diversity within a type thing, which I know they're actively trying to avoid now. It also let you play with a variety of Delta Species at once with that Poke-Power, so it was fun to mess around with.

My favorite Pokemon may have never been good in the games (does ADV ZU count as good? Probably not) but got one of the best cards of all time. Any deck could use this as 2 of any color of Energy, though you had to return an Energy back to your hand so it worked best alongside things like Blastoise ex or Meganium ex. Those decks could just work with any Pokemon that needed 2 or fewer off-type Energy, so that translated to the vast majority of Pokemon in the game. It was still useful in decks without that to an extent. Oh, and it was also a starter Pokemon for basically any deck running a lot of Delta Species Pokemon, even if it was just the Basic versions to evolve into something else. Incredible card.

Crystal Beach isn't here for design or what it does, it's for story reasons. One person that could possibly read this will know what I'm talking about here.

I didn't get to play a ton in the DP era but I do remember this being silly. 90 for no Energy was such a fun concept, and it was actually pretty good at the time.

The attack is called Everyone Explode Now. What's not to like?

---

I think I should stop here for now, got out of hand a bit. I think I'll put out a second edition of this tomorrow evening with later cards since I rarely write anything after therapy anyway and that'll be a fun easy thing. Can go back to normal posts Wednesday. Thanks for the ask here, that was fun to do!

[epicspheal]

Hi! Congrats on making it through your first year of med school, I know that's hard to do so make sure to take some time for yourself 💜

I wanted to know if you could write something for Gordie? I'll take anything, but please take your time before doing this.

Hi there anon! Thank you so much for the kind words. Medical school has been an interesting challenge to say the least I also have to apologize for the delay in getting to this ask! When I first got this I was like "Oh Great, I'm actually working on a Gordie fic right now and I'll let them see this" Only school and writer's block got in the way So I'm going to bend my own rules for this an actually just do a character analysis for Gordie instead. So here we go... GORDIE NEEDS MORE LOVE FROM THE FANDOM Admittedly, I didn't know much of Gordie because I first played Shield. But since I loved SwSh so much I decided to go back and get Sword and there I actually fell in love with his character. He breaks the mold in a number of ways. Let's start off with his name. In Japanese his name is Makuwa which is the name of fruit called muskmelon (or just melon) which is very similar to Melony's name which is also derived from melon. So that's an easy tie between the two's familial connection. But Melons have interesting symbolism of their own as they represent prosperity, good fortune, and abundance in many cultures. And despite the rift between him and his mom, Gordie has abundance, prosperity and good fortune.

He's a major gym leader in one of the strongest gym circuits to date (minor gym leader if we're talking Shield but that's still huge), he has plenty of adoring fans, and his league card talks about how he's highly suspected of becoming a champion one day. Which is something that I don't see talked about much even in SwSh circles that absolutely should be. One for any trainer to be strong enough to considered a future champion is huge as there's only a handful of trainers who can even attain that rank. Even moreso as a type specialist. As we can see in the list of established champions in the series, the vast majority are multitype trainers with only a handful specializing in one type. And of those who specialize in one type only two of them (Wallace and Peony) that solely use Pokemon of their specialty while the others have at least one Pokemon not of their actual type. Gordie is a rock type specialist where all of his Pokemon are at least partially rock. And let's not forget that of the type specialist champions all of them are either Water, Dragon or Steel (yes Alder could count as a Bug type specialist but he's currently listed as a multitype champion). Rock however is often the specialty of the first or second gym leader on a gym circuit with so far only one trainer (Olivia) being representative of the type in the Elite Four. So for Gordie to be a rock type trainer who is strong enough to be considered a future champion is a huge accomplishment that I think bears mentioning.

Now let's take a look at his team. You can see while he does specialize in Rock types, only one of his Pokemon is pure rock while the others are dual type. The typings not only on the Pokemon but the moves he has are quite diverse allowing him to hit multiple types super effectively and cover 3 out of the 5 rock weaknesses. His team and movesets show he prefers an offensive approach prioritizing speed with Shell Smash, Tar Shot, Sticky Web and Coalossal's Steam Engine. In fact one of his in-game quotes alludes to the fact he prefers quick battles "I'll be bringing my matches to an end in a heartbeat—you'll see. No one who sees them will ever forget me."

He also heavily prioritizes breaking through physical defenses with Body Press and Wonder Room, as well as weather and entry hazards like Stealth Rock, Sticky Web, G-max Volcalith and Tyranitar's Sand Stream. It's a very solid set up that shows why in Sword he's the 6th gym leader challengers face and it shows how this team is very well designed to defeat Melony's.

As I've played through Sword at this point more than Shield (as I've decided for the purposes of cactusverse the Sword line up are canon) as I've gone through his gym, I really appreciate how encouraging he is to the player as they try to avoid the pitfalls in his gym. It's a nice touch to have him do that shows despite the fact he is a strict trainer he does have a soft side.

We know he does get frustrated after losing and unfortunately some people take that to mean he's a sore loser but he's not. Yeah he sulks in his locker and openly talks about his pride being bruised but there have been far better examples of actual sore losers in the franchise and he's not one of them. His fans honestly find his sulking sessions endearing and he even apologizes whenever he loses his cool.

"Sorry to lose my cool... I'll be sure to challenge you again."

And let's talk about the fact that he canonically is very popular and has a large fanbase. As a chubby character that's huge because unfortunately fatphobia exists and chubby characters are rarely portrayed as being popular, desired and highly skilled like Gordie is. Oh and he does backflips too showing his size doesn't mean he is unathletic? There are just so many positive subversions here and it's wonderful to see.

And Gordie cares a lot about his fans. He's stated to take the time to do autographs and meet and greets. He's seen in Twilight Wings opening fan mail in his hotel room. And a lot of what he discusses in Pokemon Masters EX involved him talking about how to best please his fans. It's obvious he cares so much for those who support him and it's heartwarming to see.

Now to get to the main talking point about Gordie...his strained relationship with his mom. I've seen people say that Gordie hates his mom but that's simply just not true! He's frustrated with her for trying to push her training style and preferred typing onto him. He wants to show he can succeed without her methods. But that frustration doesn't mean he hates her and quite frankly it's tiring to see how fandom portrays frustration as hate with Gordie and others. You can be frustrated without hating and I wish people would learn to use that nuance when talking about characters with strained relationships because usually when a narrative wants to display feelings of hatred...it will be very obvious.

In fact when Gordie does talk about Melony it's actually very tame. He mentions wanting to surpass her and how on Pasio the cold nights remind him of her. But nothing that signifies hatred. Sure they aren't on speaking terms but families sometimes go through rough patches. I'm sure at some point they'll begin to mend the rift. But yes, Gordie's a wonderful character that shows how even little details can signify so much. And once again I must say...Gordie deserves more love from the fandom!

[elendsessor]

hey update on the nocturne no fusion run: it’s gonna be on hiatus.

ik this is sudden especially since it’s lucifer time but i got insanely burnt out. the last few weeks haven’t been great (seasonal depression especially sucks ass) and though i’m finally climbing out of that slump, whenever something like this happens, i need to take a step back from whatever i’ve been playing so it doesn’t cause some sort of relapse. this goes for a couple other games i’ve been working on and have live-blogged about. this doesn’t mean i’m abandoning anything!!! i just likely won’t get around to it until much later.

i still have a lot of grinding and skill resetting to do and tbh it hasn’t helped much because it kinda just. made my brain more mushy than it already is. i’m all over the place in general so sorry.

since i’m not sure when i’ll finally finish what i started, i did want to share some thoughts because i’ve gained a bigger appreciation for nocturne all by running through it again.

first off i forgot how fun team building can be. maybe it’s because without fusion i can’t do much with the demons i can get, but dammit it highlights a problem with a lot of turn based rpgs being the very little breathing room with how you can set up your team.

look, i adore monster collecting games but god there tends to be a definitive “don’t use this unless it’s in a specific way” tier that applies to nearly every one of them. pokemon kinda avoids this problem because of hms/tms and the breeding mechanic but that takes significantly more time and a vast majority of the games are kinda fucking easy. challenging for a kid especially when you get to the stuff like the battle tower, but there’s no incentive to build a good moveset outside of competitive play, and trust me—as an ex-competitive player—it does ruin the non-multiplayer combat in a ton of ways.

but ps2 era onwards megaten somehow gets around this still via mechanics like skill mutation. it’s random and hard to trigger but there’s still freedom, plus the way the games have always encouraged team building and learning how mechanics work is so rewarding. rpgs (action or otherwise) are my bread and butter but so many of them do fail to understand the importance.

nocturne’s combat flavor is so weird. it’s broken. really broken. somehow that’s the fun in it? when people talk about bullcrap smt moments there’s a reason nocturne comes up because it’s designed to be bullcrap. it fits the whole “the vortex world is harsh and unforgiving” angle.

the story structure is something i appreciate a lot more despite how flawed it is. talked about it a ton in a previous post analyzing how it handles characters like chiaki.

there’s so many fun and unique shots and angles and general framework that tbh isn’t something any other megaten has captured since, assuming they try. for all the ones that do post-nocturne, dds is the one that got the most cinematic but it doesn’t play with colors nearly as much. i love the raidou games (especially 2) but 2 got rid of most of the cgs and you could tell both games had much less of a budget than other atlus projects during that era. 4 and 4a have beautiful art and do fun camera movements but the hardware limitations make it so there wasn’t a ton of actual proper cutscenes. 5 is also beautiful and is aesthetic af but camera angles aren’t played with during conversation scenes.

the actual general issue is that talking stuff. nocturne doesn’t have a lot of strictly talking scenes, and the ones that are there are so spread out that you kinda forget they’re there. plus, some of it comes from pov shots like when talking with hijiri which does help with perspective. not many games period actually take the time to play around like that, making a lot of scene set ups feel samey. megaten is no exception especially in the ds/3ds era, and it kinda got abandoned tbh. the portraits and art are good yeah but they can only carry scenes so far.

also gained a bit of appreciation for tde. no it’s not the best written ending—the “bad”/demon ending and freedom ending are definitely the winners here mainly due to thematic importance. yes, it’s really shitty that going for other routes gives you half the content. you can do the amala labyrinth and then back out after beating metatron (as long as you don’t get to the bottom afterwards you can go for any of the other endings), but that’s still tde adjacent. however… i love how morally ambiguous tde is.

it is promising in several aspects but the consequences of said actions are huge. there’s still manikins in the vortex world, an entire society being built from what remains of tokyo even after the whole fight for the right to creation stuff happens, but siding with luci means destroying everything they’ve worked towards. the demifiend can liberate his and other universes from the cycle of death and rebirth, but that’s only if yhvh is defeated and, by extension, the great will. the great will has appeared before in megaten and isn’t actually a being, more a concept, only able to be fought in a comprehensible state. it’s literally existence itself. who knows what’ll happen if someone kills off existence?

gonna be completely honest, this is probably my new favorite mainline game. there’s a lot to it that i keep discovering and loving. (also on like a fandom standpoint i haven’t had a bad experience with the nocturne side yet/haven’t seen much of the toxicity so i’m biased lol). actually fucking slaps. it’s not perfect and some of it is more learning to love than love at first sight, but dammit it’s good.

[prototypelq]

I needed some self-therapy this month, and my chosen method has been a monster-hunter genre game, cause I've been severely missing it for the last two years at the very least. This time, I've decided to bite the bullet and give Monster Hunter World a try, despite my very picky and allergic reaction to most of eastern titles, cause I had the feeling I could stomach some of my frustrations with the incentive of monster-hunting, and I was not wrong. (though some things still greatly frustrate me)

Here be my impressions of the first 10 or so, hours into the game (strictly solo experience for Reasons):

The weapon variety is honestly overwhelming for a newcomer to the series, but the katana, bow and insect glaive have definitely caught my attention. Their movesets are a joy to fight with, the glaive especially, plus you get a bug buddy))) and insane mobility options, what's not to love about it. From experience, I can guess that the chargeblade would also bring me much joy to fight with, but that is a weapon for more skilled players, I can see myself trying to check it out later.

(I think this gameplay is mh rise and not world, but all of these moves for the glaive still exist in world)

I can finally see why the fans were talking so much about ecology. Just watching videos is not enough to really show it, but you feel all the little things when you play the actual game. Before playing, I was thinking that 'dino-dragons that breathe fire do not exactly fit your standard ecology', that people just didn't know much of actual ecology to speak like that and at best, they meant that the monster design was influenced by irl animals. However, I understood what those fans meant when I saw that Anjanath, whoose pink and bald skin greatly resemble a vulture, mostly just patrols around and steals food from other monsters.

(watch me hang on for my life when he came around xD)

Pukei, the horrible trashchild that I grew to adore, is quite nimble and agile to fit through the dense forest canopy, which it HAS to do, as there are bits of the jungle where the hunters have to force themselves through tight vines, a dragon of larger size has to be flexible. The chameleon and gecko inspiration is very strong in this little bastard, and it fits perfectly into the jungle, where it resides. Also, the game doesn't have to explain to you that this guy changes the colour of his feathers when aggressive, and it works not just on a gamedesign level, but on the creature-design level too.

Barroth (?I think?) lead me to a large mud pit, in the lowest part of the map, down the riverbed, which, is, y'know, Logical, as water flows down the slopes. It fits so perfectly into that zone, it was clearly the monster's lair or favourite spot, as that monster has a few mud-related attacks and an armour buff.

These little things really ground the weird dino/dragon whacky designs and make the whole world really vibrant and come together wonderfully, they also make the that ecology aspect really shine. You don't normally see this attention to ecological detail in games, and it is clear that a lot of care went into making them.

(btw the binoculars are great, they also work as intended, because the colours of this game, while muted a bit, still are very distinct and bright, unlike otheR games that haD binoculaRs in them)

So yeah, I've been enjoying exploration and the world of this game a lot. On that note,

look at this toad. he is perfect. he deserves the world. I am very happy you can keep little guys in your tent (it's also the only reason to visit said tent)

I also really love that you can make your cat into a literal little gremlin. I adore him now, he too is perfect.

Now for the things that frustrated me.

Controls. The inability to remap inputs and clutch claw controls are atrocious. Apparently the game has walrunning, but I have no idea how to distinguish which surfaces it works on and which it doesn't. No manual jumping is very confusing at times, there are a few very specific places that I'm sure I should be able to climb, but the jump is automated and it didn't work, which just leaves me shrugging. That said, vine swinging is cool.

There are far too many menus with very overwhelming rpg stats, it's very hard to make sense or reason of any of them.

For the amount of tutorials the game just keeps Bombarding you with, which is annoying as hell, the weapon&armour upgrade and progression system is not explained at all. The upgrades seem to unlock at finding specific materials, but not All of them. This makes me feel like some weapons have better viability for new players, because they can be upgraded with materials from early monsters, and my go-to weapons apparently don't fit into that category, though I can't be certain of this. There are no perk explanations, so I gotta guess which perks are more useful and which aren't, though I'm not that far into the building anyway, so for a beginner it's not a big problem.

These are just inconveniences the new player has to deal with, but they are not gamebreaking in any way. The ten hours I've spent with the game have been very enjoyable, and I'd love to play more of it.

[theprecuresystem]

We've began playing Pokémon Insurgencelun!

We've been handling a playthrough where we only use the Delta Pokémonlun. I like the unique variant types each Pokémon has compared to their original selveslun! So far, we have a whole team of Delta Pokémon evolved quite well, and some unevolved Delta Pokémon remaining in our boxeslun.

This team has helped me obtain five badges so far, as well as take on dangerous legendary and mythical Pokémon such as Celebi, Kyurem, Kyogre, and an Armored Zekromlun! However, I do think the amount of specifically wet caves I've had to explore in this region is a little higher than most would typically likelun... Oyo...

This is our current team, but it is subject to some changes in the futurelun:

They're surprisingly powerfullun! Danny has a really amazing typing in that he's Normal/Ghost, so he's immune to Normal, Ghost, AND fighting moveslun! Three immunities is really helpfullun!

On top of that, Cotton Candy is capable of Mega Evolution into Mega Delta Venusaur, which has a fun appearance when she's the female formlun! Lucy is an absolutely adorable Gardevoir with her new Electric/Ice-type appearance and moves, being able to take down entire dragons, such as Armored Zekromlun!

I can't wait to continue trying to beat the following gyms, though I've heard Insurgence can be quite hard, so I'm really worried about the Elite Four and Championlun... If anyone knows more about Insurgence and Delta Pokémon, I'd appreciate teambuilding and moveset advice for the Elite Four and Championlun! It's been really fun so farlun!

[crystalelemental]

"books-are-my-life-stuff: Hell yeah! All of these are such fun choices."

Oh good, I'm glad. There was a lot of response, so under the cut for Dash space.

"I can imagine Stoutland is probably not the only dog Pokemon that Laios has, it's just the one he had in his team more frequently. Bet he would have Boltund too, and when it was still a Yamper Marcille would nag on him not to evolve it because Yamper is cute. Love the choice of Type-Null too, him liking Ultra Beasts and fascinated by them but is also aware of how potentially dangerous they are, like in the series."

There were so many dog Pokemon, but something about Stoutland felt right. I can't remember all the lore, but as I recall they're from a colder area, so I went with Stoutland because it's huge and fluffy, which felt like it would do well there. Laios would love the UBs.

"Tinkatuff for Falin is perfect, I love it. Hydreigon is a perfect choice too, add Fire Blast into the moveset as well to hint Red Dragon. Marcille being a Trick Room specialist is so cool as well. Love the utility Pokemon that Chilchuck has, and Senshi having Pokemon to help him survive, not really for fighting (they still can). I imagine Izutsumi would have cat Pokemon like Liepard, but she'll get some moments later that might help you build her character more later."

So, Izutsumi got me hung up because I also thought about going with the general cat approach, but then I thought...she doesn't seem the kind to appreciate company of other cats. Which then got me stuck on...I don't feel like I know enough about her to make a good decision on her team. Needs more data.

"Love how you assigned Gallade and Mawile for Kabru, love it so much. And Zoroark too, it's so cool. This is my bias speaking but Musharna is my go-to psychic-type whenever I replay Gen 5 games so I like that it's in his team as well. His One-Hit KO-centric technique is perfect too, as it is devastating but is very tricky and situational, which shows how his human-centric skill is mostly useful outside of dungeons."

I'm glad you like the Kabru set. I was pretty pleased with that team.

"Thistle having Yveltal is the coolest thing ever too, and Porygon-Z is adorable for him. Whenever you pick up the manga (or season 2, whichever comes first) I'm looking forward to how you might change the team to correspond to the events and what we know more about these characters later on, especially because there'll be someone new in the "main character" category as well and I'm excited of what Pokemon team you might assign to them."

I'll definitely announce when we get to the rest of it. I'm hoping for manga, but that depends a lot on getting through the summer and being in a good financial situation. We'll see how it all plays out, but once we're caught up, feel free to ask again. I'm sure I can come up with something.

[curetapwater]

Hey who's your smash fave? I don't play but I watch competitive streams of it a decent amount

I should start by saying I'm very much a casual ehe, I mostly play against CPUs and occasionally family members when I see them. But I have been playing some form of Smash since I was I wanna say 8 years old? So I don't consider myself especially impressive at it but I do have a lot of experience.

As a kid, my favorite was Zero Suit Samus because I had a crush on her lol. She's still my favorite to play as in Brawl, I just love how quick an nimble she is, and her plasma whip is so satisfying to get people with. But I don't like how they changed her in Smash 4 and Ultimate to have less focus on the whip and more on her rocket shoes, which are cool, but they aren't as satisfying to me. I do greatly appreciate that they made her accessible on the roster and not hidden behind normal Samus' Final Smash, and as a result gave Zero Suit Samus a new Final Smash that doesn't have me constantly avoiding the Smash Ball lol.

For a long while, my second favorite character in Brawl and my favorite character in Smash 4 and Ultimate was Kirby. I still consider him to be one of the best. He can jump five times in a row and his up special takes him up even higher (although it's a gamble unless you're certain it'll land you on the stage). His side and down specials are so satisfying to hit people with, and his updated Final Smash with the rainbow sword is fabulous and has so much reach ehe. And his copy ability is especially fun when playing against human players because then you get to tease people like "haha I took your power!" And he's also adorable!!!!!

But once I started getting into Sonic the Hedgehog in I wanna say late 2020? Well. Guess who my fave became. Like, objectively I understand his moveset to be lacking. He was a very late addition to Brawl and it shows in how many of his special moves are just different variations of "curl into a ball." But oh. It is so fun to curl into a ball. Not to mention he's just so darn fast that the strategy for playing as him becomes essentially to be as annoyingly confusing as possible. Hit and run hit and run side special and ram into everyone in front of you and remember to uncurl before you accidentally rocket yourself off the stage. His near-unamanageable speed is tricky at first but once one gets the hang of it he's a delight. Well. He's a delight for me. He's a menace to everyone I'm playing against lol.

It's especially funny because as a kid, Smash was a reason why I once reeeally didn't like Sonic as a character. I thought he seemed rude and annoying lol. I especially hated when he went "You're too slow!" in a mocking sing-song voice. But now that I've been exposed to so much Sonic media, ohhhh is he delightful. Especially in Brawl, in terms of characterization. They brought in Jason Griffith to record original lines for him and his face is so expressive and aa!! I wish in Smash 4 when he had to be replaced by Roger Craig Smith that they'd brought him in to record new lines too, instead of recycling clips from I believe Generations? But oh well. I just. He's so fun to play as ehe. When I play Smash with my cousin and little sister, they'll see me choose Sonic and immediately form an alliance against me. It's hilarious.

[arvoze]

I really enjoyed your last post where you talk about Mike's lore and character, so I wanted to ask if you could do something similar for Keith and Luwel. I really want to know more about them and I know we got a lot of information through your art as well, but I would find it very helpful to get it all in one post for each of them. I really adore them. Keep up the great work

thank u! since it's the two of them, i'll put it under a cut. i'll try and follow a similar format for the both of them. link to the mike answer. keith will have vague references to abuse so i'll put him last.

luwel (nuzleaf) is 34 years old, slightly older than mike. similar to mike, he originally lived in the wild village of apple grove, but now lives in verdant village.

both of his parents, tangrowth and shiftry, are alive. his father, tangrowth, was a civilised doctor (civilised = pokemon in towns, speak common etc, not wild mons), who came across an injured wild mon in the woods decades ago; he'd be quick to be accepted into the wild community for his actions and would slowly begin to introduce the language of common into apple grove (learning wildspeak in the process). both mike and luwel are bilingual (keith only speaks common). luwel would be raised with the intent of also becoming a medic/doctor of some sort -- he still retains a fair amount of knowledge, but ultimately didn't follow down that path entirely. he provides medical support for the team.

he lives with keith and mike in verdant village. originally, they live in guild housing, but luwel eventually retires from the team and works as a berry farmer instead; he doesn't buy the house or anything, because he works as a farmer under the guild. this means as long as he's providing food for the guild, he can keep his home & land. this is technically only luwel's house (and sune (floragato/meowscarada), his s/o's), keith and mike are just freeloaders who show up and sleep there sometimes, since they're always travelling around. sorry i forgot to mention he also has an adopted daughter called sochi (tinkatink/tuff/ton)

his moveset is based more around functionality within the world; careful, early bird. foul play, grassy terrain, razor leaf and leaf blade. he fights when he needs to, but doesn't usually get too involved. in "present day", he uses razor leaf as a means of mass-harvesting berries from plants, since he has good control over the move. instead of using leaf blade regularly, he channels leaf blade through a stick, forming more of a scythe than anything. i've never depicted him using foul play, but it's part of his moveset specifically in reference to the fact he's the team's tactician. it's relevant, trust me.

his link move is the combination of grassy terrain+leaf blade, which works both offensively and defensively. physically, it is the weakest of the three link moves, which checks out given that he's the weakest member of the team. leaf blade's half turns to controlling multiple blades of grass that function like tendrils, originating from the grassy terrain -- they usually aren't used for offense. instead, they're used as healing bandages or defensive walls. link moves in this manner, due to their power, will sap the strength of the user -- keith and mike can both typically stay standing after using theirs (especially since it's less resource-intensive), but luwel will almost always pass out when his link move has subsided.

as a farmer, he is also a merchant. he butts head with my other merchant, big mal (cradily), practically every day. just learned i don't even have mal's main ref image on tumblr! whoops.

luwel is autistic. he has the shortest fuse and is the quickest to snap, and is also quick to break down. he experiences sudden mood changes a lot. he's a little fucked in the head, in that if a dangerous situation becomes too stressful for luwel, he detaches himself from reality entirely and falls under the belief that he's currently living out a dream/fiction. there is at least two instances (second already linked) where luwel is in the presence of actual, legitimately dangerous individuals who kill, but his mind snaps from stress and fear that it becomes a fictional performance to him. the latter eventually leads to him losing an arm. he is commonly depicted as not being all there mentally, but he's actually pretty grounded, all things considered. a very large factor of this is his desire to eat bug pokemon, specifically ledyba, due to his general fascination with food (he will talk about preparing other pokemon, but exclusively in a hypothetical sense). it isn't considered cannibalism, because they aren't the same species.

he has some passive hobbies. luwel is an avid yaoi consumer. more often than not, he'll be depicted mid-conversation holding the local newspaper. he's always interested in what's going on around him, and will occasionally try to catch up on world lore & history if he's got the time. he'd consider becoming a history teacher, but it's not really something he wants as a job. luwel loves inventory management, so he enjoys setting up the team's inventory for jobs & setting up his own inventory for market sales. he is religious, in a very passive sense, believing that legendary pokemon do tend to towns and villages and the likes. luwel just barely falls shy from the agnostic umbrella, having a personal belief in xerneas, as he grew up with the belief that xerneas tended to the woods he was raised in. he follows particular beliefs regarding maintaining the forest's bounty. where most mons might be depicted saying terms like "oh, for arceus' sake", luwel uses xerneas' name instead. he has multiple outfits, but is most commonly depicted in his blue jacket, with luwel only wearing a black and green jacket as a means of images representing the timeline where he's still part of the team. luwel likes to climb around a lot. he usually climbs over keith.

he retires from the team as he is physically a lot weaker than his brothers. luwel makes the personal choice to not evolve into shiftry, primarily because he's rather happy how he is, and he quite enjoys having the use of hands. there is a What If au where luwel evolves and stays part of the team, becoming one of the heads of verdant village's guild (keith becoming the guildmaster). the two designs for mike and keith for this what-if situation ended up becoming their regular designs, because i preferred them in comparison to their previous designs (where keith only had a cape, and mike had nothing).

ok now i start talking about keith

keith, cacturne, is 33 years old, and is the youngest of his brothers. he originated from the sand continent, but travelled to the water continent alone as a young cacnea. he would get lost in the woods and be attacked by a group of pidove, at a similar time where seedot and shroomish (luwel and mike didn't have names) were straying almost a little too far from home. they fought off the pidove together, formed a very strong bond being just young kids and all that, and keith was taken back to apple grove, where he lived with wild pokemon for a few years. as a cacturne, he lives in verdant village, but he was a resident for a short while before his brothers were.

keith does not know who his parents are. his mother, cass (cacturne), exists within the world and lives on the sand continent, but i've never had much thought about his father. his mother's partner, butcher (spidops), would function as The Dad That Stepped Up, were they ever to meet. currently, keith and cass only cross paths once, wherein both him and his mother lack any emotional attachment to eachother. keith feels somewhat empty after this encounter, as he expected it to feel a lot more fulfilling. he concludes that he's most happy with his current family, and doesn't need to form a familial bond with someone who never felt like family to him before. his father figure is guildmaster rime (mr rime, design updated since last tumblr post), verdant guild's guildmaster. the two are incredibly close, with rime genuinely considering keith to be his son; keith is told that when rime retires, he will inherit the guildmaster title and responsibilities. despite coming off as stupid and reckless half of the time, keith is an incredibly level-headed leader and an excellent commander under extreme pressure, so he's actually the perfect fit for the job.

keith's drive to be part of a rescue team comes from his very early upbringing in the sand continent. as a young cacnea who never really had a home, he would wander around a lot, and get lost frequently. on one particular occasion, he would be rescued by an escavalier and galarian rapidash duo, who talked to him in such a way that inspired keith to want to help others as soon as possible. very early on in his life, he comes across silica (hatenna/hattrem; still uncertain on when they meet). she offers him a place in a "guild", which isn't actually a guild at all, but is in fact a bandit's group. under the guise of doing good for the "guild", keith is forced to commit a lot of crimes as a child. silica becomes extremely possessive of keith because he's so easy to manipulate; she berates him often as a means of trying to make him work harder. it is worth noting that silica's actions do get worse, and she is considered to be keith's abuser. however, i don't like to detail anything further in regards to what happens between them (there is NOTHING sexual, i personally would never depict CSA with characters). usually, when i draw keith and silica in the same image together, it should be somewhat clear that they do not have a positive relationship.

when meeting guildmaster rime, he recognises the bag keith brought with him (brandishing a symbol of the bandit group; rime's been around, he recognises these kinds of things). he knows keith is a lost and misguided child, and takes him under his wing to raise as his own. verdant village's symbol - a green diamond on a black background - is based on keith's existence, although keith never actually realised this, since it's existed for as long as he could remember. he always just thought it was coincidental.

keith's moveset is entirely offensive. naughty, water absorb. thief, pin missile, bullet seed, needle arm. keith's approach is to hit hard and worry about shit later. he's intended to be a ranged attacker to make up for his lack of speed, but it's physical strength and defences that he actually excels at (again, he's just slow, so he's not actually able to punch all that well in a fight). his link move is needle arm+pin missile, which is a deadly single-target link move. whilst mike's link move hits a whole room for large AoE damage, keith's link move is devastating for a singular target. it's essentially pin missile with incredibly large, dangerously pointed pins. if he intended to kill, it would drill large holes through another mon's body (undertale logic; moves will only cause serious injury if the intent is to kill, otherwise it's just an Energy Deal that makes pokemon faint). it's used as both a melee and ranged attack; ranged is shooting large pins, whilst melee is more or less having a spiked baseball bat for an arm (there's more spikes than a normal needle arm would provide). his water absorb is brought up often.

he's a kleptomaniac and alcoholic. keith can't help but get into petty theft often, and is heavily swayed by jewels and riches. he doesn't have much of a concept of risk when it comes to himself. most of his free time is genuinely spent hanging out at the local pub/tavern/bar drinking, which is where he'd meet his eventual bf, william (bisharp) (ignore my old dnd oc in the tag lol). one of keith's personal favourite gags is being unable to flip someone off and asking someone else to do it instead.

there is a period in which keith experiences near-death, which sets mike off mentally, resulting in mike killing another pokemon. keith recovers from this. he's not one to think before he speaks, so he'll sometimes make comments that can reflect poorly on mike, making mike feel horrible. it is worth noting that both of mike's brothers forgive him for the killing.

he is emotionally void. that is, specifically to say, keith experiences a lot of positive emotions, but he can't comprehend the idea of negative ones. he experiences true anger, rarely. keith does not cry or experience sadness: he only feels hollow and empty, unable to grasp what's wrong. it's incredibly difficult to get under his skin for this reason, unless you target his brothers. it takes him around 30 years to understand that he experienced trauma and abuse, and meeting silica again is the first time he's ever had his emotions unearthed - but he still doesn't know how to process them. his lack of negative emotions actually allows him to mega evolve with ease when the time comes; i am of the belief that mega evolution can be strenuous on a pokemon's mental state and can lead to sudden violent outbursts, however, keith can keep his "emotions" in check, so he has much greater control over mega evolution than others might.

he is unintentionally very intimidating. well, sometimes it's intentional.

i am missing a lot. this is like 2k words. oops! i might go back and edit mike's at some point especially with links, but no guarantees

[goldensunset]

heehee seeing your pokemon playing posts make me so happy, esp now that you're playing platinum :] one of my fav mainline games for sure

can we get a peek at your teams? 👀 and any favorites?

awaaawawaaaaaaaa i love knowing that a bunch of oldschool pokémon fans follow me and enjoy watching this rookie’s dive into insanity. like my joy is multiplied by y’all’s joy at my joy. it’s a virtuous circle. plus online forums have absolutely nothing on y’all as far as helpfulness

so as you’ve probably deduced i’m raising a male kirlia in the hopes of getting gallade bc i think the moment i got my first one in pla i immediately got attached. i love that guy’s design and his little chirpy cry and i love his moveset. the kirlia is almost at level 30 so i have to box him for now

you’ve also probably deduced i have an umbreon bc i won’t shut up about her. i’ve never really used eeveelutions before but i’ve always loved their designs esp umbreon. they were always like little collectible figurines to me. glad i have a good excuse to use one now

i have prinplup that used to be the classic overlevelled starter but then i kind of ran short of uses for a water type, surprisingly. so now it’s kind of lagging behind the rest of the team. but i’m very much a ‘taking your starter out of your party even for a second is a federal crime’ kind of person. as embarrassing as it is i have him on the exp share rn. don’t worry emile you’ll get your time to shine again

i have a staravia who’s also been super helpful. i’ve got secret power (hidden power? which one was it called) on it too for slightly better coverage. that thing has single-handedly swept 2 gyms for me now. yeah baby

i also am constantly making reference to ‘skibby’, the kitty i named as a shinx when i was sleep deprived. i adore skibby and now she’s my highest level mon and she’s been so helpful w her moveset. first fully-evolved three stage mon i’ve got in this game. luxray is so cool man. at this point i’m not even switching into mons with type advantages i’m relying on bite, leer, swagger, and spark from a mon w good stats to take care of everything for me

hmmm uhmmm so i haven’t really decided on my definitive six yet so i have a few more that i’m investing in but like. not too hardcore investing in. i have a machop that i kind of have to keep around as an hm slave and a fighting type rep until i get gallade, a crobat i’m really not sure what the plan is with yet, a bibarel i’ve pretty much stopped using, and… some other new mons caught at a high level. honestly i need to remind myself that i don’t need to hand-raise every single baby pokémon i caught on the first two routes bc catching strong wild pokémon later is a thing. but then i also feel most attached to the ones i’ve had a while. i don’t feel like investing in my ponyta tho i’m banking on catching a better fire rep later. for the time being i’m just going without fire. or grass. or.. well, a lot of types actually. i don’t have enough diversity in my team is the problem. but i like the mons i have…

tldr this pokémon strategizing thing is hard but i like that i’m being forced to do it. i really brute forced my way through both pla and violet bc leveling up mons and getting new good moves was easy then. now even from the very beginning of the game before the first gym i’ve had to make tactical decisions at every turn and i love it actually

[phantom-witch]

Phantom's Finished: Super Mario Odyssey (Replay)

On one random evening, I was chilling in call with @dayofpi as we gushed about Mario. Eventually it lead to me grabbing my Artbook of the game this post is about and adoring all the ideas and missed potential of the game, to the point for a few months I genuinely wondered if I might rank the game lower than I used to.

This thought lingered within me until I decided to finally start an important replaythrough of the game, and here's what I think...

Upon booting it up, I already felt an endearing familiarity to what a 14 year old Phantom felt in 2017. I wanted to enjoy this game mostly for what it is and not what it wasn't. Super Mario Odyssey is still one of the best 3D platformers of all time that is like a playbox of fun left right and centre.

Sonic: Frontiers is often compared to Breath of the Wild when I couldn't agree less. With the mini platforming and challenges, I would absolutely compare it more to Odyssey in that regard. Before I state what I say, let it be known that I really enjoy Frontiers okay? Okay!

Sonic Frontiers wishes it was Odyssey when it comes to it bitesize challenges, as they almost always serve for strong level design in enclosed or open areas that consistently interconnects. Sonic Frontiers has a lot of mindless points to its bitesize elements of "press/hold button". That's what Odyssey gets right, the constant thrill of platforming within the sandbox level design and the freedom of how different of an order everyone's experience can be. You can play the main story moons, or during that grab side moons, challenges and items.

Gameplay:

If there is one thing that always pulls me back into this game, it's gameplay. Odyssey is the perfect example for everything working around its base gameplay as a perfect core, that being the hat throw. the hat throw is integral to why moving as Mario in this game is so responsive and fun to master. Dive into the hat for horizontal air movement, use it to collect coins as you continue on your path, capture a vast selections of enemies and objects for a quick yet responsive gameplay change.

Speaking of, I love how the captures have a snappy switch up of gameplay whilst always limiting controls to two buttons for easy pickup for how many different things Mario can utilise. Everything is super responsive and it feels beautiful to experience the loop of this game. Every playthrough feels different due to how you can go for different moons each time, experiment with where I go and even get places I didn't know I could ahead of time! Its my favourite controls platformer in 3D (celeste being my fav 2D platformer controls)

However, I do feel the game sometimes lacks a bit in level design. A lot of the time it's really good! Sub-Sections are very good whereas I feel the Sandbox areas of the Kingdoms are inconsistent. My biggest issue is they often lack a level of cohesion with the rest of the world (New Donk especially is guilty of this) and I wish they covered a wider area a lot of the time as with Mario's moveset it is so quick to get through. I feel the best Kingdoms are ones like the Wooded Kingdom where there's multiple paths, elevation and it stretches a wide variety. New Donk for example does have that elevation but it's so simple to get up there it just kinda exists? I wish there was more interesting areas within New Donk to play around as it isn't as fun on replay.

Then there's the few Kingdoms that SCREAM missed potential with the Cloud Kingdom and the Ruined Kingdom. These two are literally just for a single boss and nothing else in the overworld, which is super disappointing with two really cool aesthetics, especially with Ruined Kingdom's unique artstyle.

Artstyle:

This is one of the trickiest part of the game to talk about. Because I both love it and have qualms with it for a lot of reasons...

Firstly though, this game has an insane variety of styles, setpieces and colours! From Bonnetons Nightmare Before Christmas inspiration to Bowsers Kingdom of Japanese traditional samurai aesthetic, the game constantly throws different visuals upon entering any new world. Odyssey thrives on this idea of different cultures and parts of the world for contrasting artstyles and it really works!

However... I feel this also is where my biggest criticism for the game lies. It's that these artstyles don't push themselves far enough when they could contrast even more! Bonneton for example, it has a fun Halloween vibe but why couldn't they have pushed that with the shapes of the environment being crooked and twisted and maybe have the shadows be sharper and stylised? That's what I mean, the styles still all fit into a mold they don't break out of that I wish the game did a lot more

And here comes the big one: New Donk City!This is where the game really conflicts me with its artstyle, as it tries to contrast in such a way that feels unnatural and uncanny. The realistic humans are extremely unnecessary and the artbook shows many better solutions they had in mind. The colours of this world are also lacking quite strongly which again the art book showed a bright bold bustling city with a lot of nods to the series. It feels they wanted this to be the contextualised version of Mario's origin home which makes sense when you consider all the donkey kong references and the fact Pauline is there!! This is considered the iconic local in the game when for me it feels like the one that could've been filled with beautiful fanservice and nostalgic feel. I don't like using the artbook as criticism but for New Donk City I feel it's kinda necessary due to how they clearly had a vision that wasn't able to happen and its one of this games biggest letdowns.

Other:

There's a lot I wish to get into that aren't as extensive due to how much I have to say, so it all goes into this last section!

Starting off with music, which is weird to me. There's a lot of really good music in this game! From Cascade Kingdom to the transition into the tech part of the Wooded Kingdom. However there's a lot of music that is just, average? A lot of music that isn't bad but nothing memorable, which isn't something I can say about most Mario Games' OST. There's also a lot of 8-Bit versions of music in this game which I really enjoy! But I do understand opinions that they should've used a better NES sound chip for it as it doesn't feel as perfect as it could be.

Next up is story and animation! Easily my favourite animation in a mario game with so much squash and stretch the recently released Mario Wonder seems to emphasise even more! I love Bowser and Mario's animation, and enemy animations are amazing too. However I feel characters like Peach could've had more stylised animation. The story itself is good! It's practically the perfect conclusion to the Peach being Kidnapped Saga, a full on wedding where Bowser takes it way too far. Obviously I don't like damsel Peach as she's a lot better when she's a participating role. However, in the context of her being a damsel this is her best one as she is actively seen throughout the game whilst standing her ground at the very end. I love how she doesn't reciprocate Bowser or Mario's feelings whilst Mario and Bowser have an amazing dynamic this game.

My favourite element of this games story is how it feels like an amazing conclusion to the traditional Mario story, whilst now we're getting new stories with Wonder, Origami King and even Peach getting her own tale. Mario stories don't need to be huge but it's important it still fits the themes and adds fun characterisation to them, alongside giving all of them amazing designs... speaking of

COSTUMES! Mario gets loads of cosmetics in this game through coins, giving them a purpose whilst having a very fun way to have different looks and fanservice. You can have a top hat fancy look fitting Cap Kingdom or a Samurai costume to befit the Bowser Kingdom. Then there's cool costumes that are just their own idea like skeleton, zombie or even underwear Mario! They range from cool, cute to gender and funny with so much to work with. I love this element of odyssey a lot, its one of my favourite things to do especially after I've beaten the game to run about it fun combinations (I love the Sunshine outfit)

Lastly is the postgame! A really fun fanservice Kingdom with the Mushroom Kingdom, and whilst I still criticise the level design cohesion like before, I still think this is an amazing world with a lot of fun to be had, alongside a really fun final level that brought me to tears with Cappys final like

"Thank you, Mario. For letting me walk a mile on your head."

.

This game is beautiful, I have my qualms but its still my favourite 3D Platformer of all time 💙

[spinningbuster98]

Here we finally are people!

Dante's portion of the game!

...and here start the issues...

Jeez where do I even begin with this...?

Ok so this is gonna be a long one, strap in.

So let's start with Dante himself!

From a pure gameplay standpoint Dante is....actually fantastic!

In fact DMC4 Dante, for the longest time, had sorta garnered a reputation as the most complex action game character ever due to the complexity and depth of his move pool, hell some experts still believe this to be the case and that he still beats DMC5 Dante!

So most of the gameplay features from DMC3 return here but with a couple of important additions!

The most important is the ability to switch to any of his styles on the fly without the need to go to a Divinity Statue. Words cannon describe just how massive this is for combos and variety, especially in the hands of experts.

Dante has 3 melee weapons and 3 guns

We have Rebellion, returning from DMC3 with much of the same moveset but with a couple of tweaks that make it even deadlier

We have Gilgamesh, this game's version of the gauntlets and boots. These are...ok, they're pretty much a mash up of the Ifrit and Beowulf gauntlets from DMC1 and 3 respectively

Then there's Lucifer which....yeah I'll talk about that one later

As for guns we have the usual: Ebony & Ivory alongside the Coyote-A shotgun but now we also have Pandora: a demonic briefcase capable of transforming into other weapons depending on your inputs, like a missile launcher, a laser gun or an airborne machine gun

Pandora's main gimmick is that for every successful hit with it you build up its disaster meter: when you use Pandora's moves in Gunslinger style that meter dictates how much damage they'll do, and these include turning into a flying missile station, an oversized bayblade boomerang and a screen nuke with a long windup animation

So as you can see Dante's arsenal is certainly more...minimal when compared to his DMC3 loadout, but it's still good stuff overall, with a couple of neat new features that plenty of die hard fans adore to this day!

.........

..............

......................

So when does the other shoe drop?

So......remember when I said that this game was very rushed?

Yeah about that......

Dante....doesn't have levels of his own....

or bosses (except one)

In fact the game itself...doesn't really have a second half per se....

Dante's levels are literally Nero's levels....in reverse and with annoying gimmicks tacked on in a flimsy effort to differentiate them

And these gimmicks are not only often really fucking annoying but they also contribute to one of the biggest issues with this game's second half

Remember when I said that this game was interested in wanting to be more beginner friendly? What with Nero's simpler style and starting with a literal tutorial?

Do you remember?

Because the game sure doesn't

The game throws you Dante, a remarkably more complex character gameplay wise, and tells you to git gud fucking immediately with his play style because he has the hardest levels in the whole goddamn game with annoying asf gimmicks to boot!

When you switch over to him the game even transfers all of the Proud Souls (this game's currency for moves) that you invested in Nero's moves to Dante so that you can already buy lots of moves right off the bat: the game WANTS you to already buy a good portion of Dante's moveset before you even start playing as him because it knows you'll have to give your A game immediately which only gives you MORE stuff to confuse you with.

And then there's the levels themselves!

You know how Sonic Advance 3 is sometimes criticised for how its level design doesn't really lend itself very well to teaching the ropes to the player? Especially with stuff like Route 99?

Well DMC4's Dante portion puts the entirety of Advance 3 to shame.

Dante's first level starts with two (2) rooms with regular enemies to get accustomed to his playstyle...

...and then immediately starts a goddamn countdown of 10 minutes or else it's game over!! And it starts throwing you tough enemies (granted I'm on DMD but even on normal it's not too different)

It's the FIRST level for Dante!

Then the second one has you going through a teleporter labyrinth which will have you focus way more on navigation and getting lost rather than on trying to grow accustomed to Dante's combat!

And it only gets worse from here!

And the worst part?

You can clearly tell that this game was NOT designed for Dante

This is Nero's game

What I mean by this is that every enemy and boss was pretty obviously designed to be taken down with his moveset

I've commented some times that Nero is pretty OP because almost everything can be taken out with liberal use of his charge shot and buster grab

Dante however has the opposite problem: because he doesn't have those moves he has a fuckton more of an awkward time dealing with even basic enemies than Nero does because it's clear that they were designed with the latter's moveset in mind!

For example: look at those ice lizards: Nero can just use his fully charged shot to destroy a good chunk of their ice armor. Dante doesn't have such an easy option and has to essentially chip away at their armor the old fashioned way

Or look at those knights with shields: Nero's gun can pierce shields when charged up and once you get behind them you can immediately and easily deal heavy damage by grabbing them

Dante's guns don't pierce shields, and his most damaging moves have long wind up animations that require you to use them when you know you won't be interrupted, which is how it worked in DMC3 but....

And look at that first boss! (Which was Nero's third boss but you fight her first as Dante due to how the game is set up which only further highlight just how the game wants to do everything in its power to prevent you from learning Dante), with Nero I had next to no trouble because I could mostly keep my distance, charging my shots as I dodged her long range attacks and then grabbing her when she got stunned. No can do with Dante!

It feels like what takes Nero just 1 simple step it takes Dante 4 or 5, it feels like you have to work around enemy design that was not meant for this character and you have to put in the extra effort which is not only bullshit in and of itself but also so fucking backwards!

Dante is supposed to be the stronger character between him and Nero! It's stated multiple times in this very game! The cutscenes all portray him as being way more competent and OP than Nero and yet he's the one who feels super clunky to use and master!

And look: I know that if you get good enough with him you can steamroll the game. There are plenty of experts out there who can do crazy things with Dante in this game: as I said before lots of top players adore him

And that's not even getting into all the exploits, like Distortion or momentum and other crazy stuff that players have had plenty of time to figure out in over 10 years

But here's the thing: I'm no expert, so maybe I'm just plain wrong about this, but I believe that there's a difference between mastering a game because it's hard and mastering a game because you need to work around its faulty design

I've rarely had this issue in DMC3. Sure there are a couple of enemies and bosses there that feel ill designed but for thye most part the challenges you face feel designed for Dante and his moveset. The game is hard as balls but feels fair in that regard

Here however you can easily tell that this game was designed for Nero and his gameplay style, with Dante being thrown in there comparatively at the last second without the time to properly balance things around him....or you know give him levels and bosses of his own

His Lucifer weapon is, in a way, emblematic: it generates energy thorns that stick to enemies but deal very little damage. However you can then detonate them: the more you stick in an enemy the more damage they'll do upon detonation. Moreover you can set them in the air as traps of sorts and even move them around the arena with specific commands.

99% of players never bother with this weapon because you basically need to have throughly mastered them to get any kind of use out of them.

There's this weird chasm of opinion about DMC4 between Mega Experts and more normal players

The Super Experts love the complexity and all the fun little exploits and are not bothered by the issues of enemy and boss design with Dante because they've gotten good enough at the game to trivialise them

While most other players tend to view DMC4 as an excellent combat system stuck inside a badly designed game

Now I have my share of fun with Nero's portion of the game. Not as much as DMC3, but pretty fun nonethell. But this is the point where the game starts dropping the ball big time for me.

And honestly? Wanting to master a game should come from a place of not only interest but also fun: I want to master a game BECAUSE I already have fun with it at a basic level

But needing to master a game JUST to have fun?

I can take a game being hard and requiring me to git gug: I love DMC3 and I've completed that game on DMD

But as I've already said: it's not that DMC4's Dante portion is hard, it's just plainly not designed for him

[mrslittletall]

Super Mario Odyssey Review: Alright, let's go over my usual points: Story

As a Mario game, there normally isn't much of a story. It surprised me that Odyssey actually had the most coherent story for a Mario game to date. Bowser kidnapped Peach once again, but this time he forces her into marrying him. Mario wants to save her, but Bowser's new tools defeat him and he loses. Mario then teams up with a little ghost named Cappy whose sister has been kidnapped by Bowser as well. Together, they travel the world hunting down Bowser. Each country actually has a little story surrounding their treasure. While it still is not much, for a Mario game this is nice and I liked learning more about the different countries. Visuals/Music

Beautiful and colourful. Smooth. They are a joy to look at. Comical Mario style with the expection of the New Donkers who look strangely realistic, but their 50ies clothes still give them the typical charm. The music is excellent. The OST ranges from beautiful to catchy to energetic. Each level has its own theme song and there are several sub areas who have like five different songs that can play in them. Also, if you enter an 8-bit-tube the music turns into an 8-bit version. Bosses have unique music too. There is no voice acting, but honestly, I always found Super Mario Sunshine to be an outlier with that, voice acting just isn't needed for a Mario game. Mario is voiced by his usual actor and he does a good job as always. Cappy also has an adorable voice and I love the cute little noises he makes. Gameplay The game SHINES here. Mario has his usual moveset from Super Mario 64, but they added the gimmick of Cappy. Not only can you use Cappy as projectile or hop off him to reach far away places, he can also "capture" enemies and NPCs and let Mario control them, which opens a whole new array of ways to design levels. You can capture bullet bills and fly over gaps or capture a goomba and build towers with them or a cheep cheep for underwater and each level has its own unique enemy with its own unique mechanic.

But that isn't even the best part. I learned one or two speedrun tricks in the game and woah, that changes EVERYTHING! Mario never felt so amazing to control. Thanks to Cappy you can do some insane jumps and around half the game I was like "Okay, I totally can jump there" and was really surprised when I found an invisible path that I could have taken instead. The game rewards creativity and you aren't forced to pick up the moons as the game wants. The game itself is a 3D platformer collect-a-thon. There are a lot of worlds in which you follow a storyline and then are just left loose to collect moons and purple coins. The levels aren't even that big, but they are packed chuck full of content, with up to 90 moons in some levels. I especially enjoyed to search the well hidden purple coins, which added new souvenirs to my airship. Each world has overworld moons and a ton of sub areas where you can find two moons normally, a normal one and a hidden one. It was a ton of fun to explore each world and find like a shit ton of moons only to overlook a really well hidden area. The game gives you hints though, you can pay a Toad to show you locations of moons on the map and you can talk to a bird named Talkatoo who hints at you how to get the moons (though only three at a time). Thanks to this, I didn't need to use the internet that much. The end of the game became a bit brutally difficult, so I stopped here. I might come back one day, but for now I am done. As usual, Nintendo is keeping the hardest challenge completely optional. Overall This game is excellent. Probably one of Nintendo's best 3D Mario games and one of the best games on the switch. It is packed with content, Mario controls beautifully, the story is nice and straightforward and there are tons of brutally hard optional challenges. I also totally get why this game has such a HUGE speedrun community. It is practically made for it.

[demonsfate]

To be that guy, Jun was never confirmed dead before Harada said otherwise, she always just missing with an RL reason to her absence being that she wasn't played all that much according to play data they had from Tekken 2's arcade machines, though that's clearly a questionable claim for Harada to make since they did consider for Tekken 3 at one point given there's left over data for her, including a VS screen image, so it's clear they weren't going to give a fuck about that at first.

Still, doesn't change how Heihachi coming back is just...sigh inducing at minimum for me, like what's the point of Reina part adopting his moveset if you're just going to bring the old fart back like this was Dragon Ball and "that attack wasn't enough to kill me, Kaka-erm, Kazuya."?

I'm p sure it was confirmed that Jun could be in TK3 but they decided against it later in development. (I have my own theories as to why that was) and like we all know now, never trust a word Harada said. And I don't think that is a true statement because we have Asuka since TK5, which was all the way back in 2004. And like... Asuka just plays like Jun so lmao.

Whilst Jun was never officially confirmed dead, but like... when you have a character repeating that she's dead (Jin) and no one, nor the lore, challenging that statement - then most fans will indeed take it as her being dead. Iirc, the first statement to officially state she was missing and not dead was in the Tekken 6 artbook, which was probs around 2009? So like... I'm just gonna say that's when they decided she wasn't dead for real.

We can't trust anything the devs say (Heihachi is dead except he's not. Or how they keep changing their statement on Jin being a villain lmao. First he was always planned to be a villain, then he was a character leaning toward the dark side, and now he was an "almost" villain in tek6 lmao) So I personally believe Jun was indeed meant to be dead. What happened in Tekken 4 was probs just Jin seeing her spirit / ghost (as that was something Jun could do, and was even had a similar experience where her father's ghost came to her to remind her who she was in TK2) and then it was around TK6's time when they started feeling they might use Jun again, and therefore, decided to "confirm" she isn't actually dead.

Not that I care because obvs I fuckin adore Jun and I am SO VERY HAPPY she's in the games again! But I'm just sayin', she's still another example of a character who was "dead" but not rly lol

Honestly, I don't even get the point of Reina anymore AT ALL. Like not just her adopting his moves, but also her even behaving like Heihachi a bit, having outros referencing him, and then her whole motivation of wanting to avenge her father. Like... what's the point of giving him a secret daughter that's just Mini Heihachi if... Heihachi is gonna return anyway? Unless it's so we can have a Kazuya & Jin vs Heihachi & Reina showdown, then... I dunno!

[sneakyscarab]

alrighty, ive now caught up from my backlog of touhous that ive beaten, so the pace from now on is gonna slow down since i need to beat the games first before i write about them. who knows though, if they take as long as this one did maybe i can keep up this pace :P

nina's thoughts on Touhou 12 - Undefined Fantastic Object

so funny story, after Subterranean Animism took me like two weeks to finish, i went into UFO expecting a similar result, but i ended up clearing within a single day. twelve (12) attempts of UFO and i had already got my 1cc! im a bit impressed with myself tbh, but i think i was helped by the gameplay changes in UFO that make it a bit easier.

for starters, real bombs are back baby! no more trading attack power for survivability, full power bombs are here again as a seperate resource. life pieces stick around, but now boss fights only give one out when you defeat their last phase. you would think this makes life pieces incredibly scarce, but theres another entirely new source for them: the titular Undefined Fantastic Objects. some enemies now drop little ufos that fly around the screen that come in one of three colours. when you pick up a ufo it goes into a small tracker in the corner, and when you collect 3 in a row all of one colour, or 1 of each, then a Big UFO spawns on screen. the UFO sticks around for about 10 seconds, slurping up every collectible that shows up onscreen. for each item it grabs, a meter around the ufo fills up and at max it drops an item depending on the colour, and when destroyed it drops another item plus everything it picked up. rainbow ufos drop more small ufos, green gives you a bomb on full meter and a bomb-piece on kill, red gives you a life piece on both, and blue does… something? i don't know. i never saw any items pop out of a blue ufo, and i prioritized blue ufos the least. i can only assume they do something relating to points since those are blue, but i honestly have no idea cause i beat the game before i had to go look anything up about it. once i figured out red guys gave you life i basically hard-focused proc'ing red ufos as much as possible, going for rainbow or green when red wasnt possible. as weird as the ufos are, i have to say their mechanics are conveyed surprisingly well without any real tutorials or even words, just really solid ui design.

the last new addition to the gameplay comes in the playable characters, Sanae is here now! wooo Sanae lets go! obviously Reimu and Marisa are here too, each of them get 2 weapon options so theres still only 6 total. i gave each one a shot, although some of them i literally only played once lol. Reimu has the standard homing shots and needles, Marisa has her illusion lasers but a new secondary weapon that shoots in sort of branching V-shapes, with a couple shots going behind her as well as in front, which i didnt find many uses for in my brief experience with it. illusion laser is the only one of these that i played more than once, as i put most of my focus into Sanae. both of Sanae's movesets are pretty neat, her first one was my weapon of choice for my 1cc attempt. based on Kanako, she shoots out snake beams that fly vertically, and then if they see an enemy to their left or right they take a 90 degree turn, making for an interesting type of homing. her other set, based on Suwako, shoots out frog beams in a wide fan angle, or straight ahead when focused, that explode into lingering AoE damage when they hit a target, which is great at clearing out huge swarms of enemies. i really like how her movesets sorta play off of Reimu's homing shots and Marisa's piercing lasers, but in very different ways compared to the two of them.

for the new characters, my favourite is probably Kogasa. this poor umbrella girl just wants to be scary, but shes inherently too silly-goofy and struggles to do what she as a youkai is Supposed to do. she's trying her best though, and looks adorable while doing it. i believe in you Kogasa!

i wasn't expecting to be a Ichirin & Unzan fan, but they surprised me. Ichirin is basically a stand user, a buddhist monk who controls her partner Unzan, a old man wind spirit with a powerful beard and even more powerful fists. the spell cards involving Unzan are great, seeing his huge angry face show up and throw hands is just hilarious. the best one by far though is their final attack, what i would call the absolute funniest spell card of the entire series so far: Thunderous Yell 「A Scolding from a Traditional Old Man」. if the name alone didn't convince you, the visuals are also hilarious, with two massive Unzan faces appearing on each side of the screen and shooting angry eye lasers at you. just look at it. perfection.

it's become a pattern in these posts that i talk about three new characters, but none of the others in UFO really stood out to me. if i had to pick one id go with Captain Murasa, just cause pirates are cool, but i don't have much more to say about her lol. sorry UFO crew!

anyways i think its about time to wrap this one up. thankfully i kept this one short so we dont have another SA essay situation lol. UFO is pretty fun, if a little bit Too easy with how much free stuff you can get from good ufo management. the story and characters really didn't stand out to me, and with how quickly i finished this one i don't expect it to really stick out much in my brain once i finish the series. if anything from UFO sticks it probably will just be Unzan's laser eyes. can we play that back one more time? thanks.