ultra-indigo

[ultra-indigo]

I shared it to Reddit, and I figured I'd share it here, too: Here's a big list of (almost) every villager!

I may still be missing the odd one or two villagers, but I can't imagine there's too many more 😂 That said, if you have someone who's not on the list, I'd love a screenshot so I can add them!

[ultra-indigo]

hey guess who was so bothered by the kids skin tones not matching that they learned how to mod guardians of azuma in one evening

EDIT i've added ikaruga's skin tone :)

[ultra-indigo]

Finished the main story of RF:GOA a second time and I’ve come to the conclusion that my main gripe about the writing is regarding redemption and a lack of accountability.

Now, I’ve seen Kaguya’s friendship events and I feel that she is by far the best written when it comes to this. They may have even laid it on a little thick iirc but it’s certainly better than the other two. All is taken into account. Her lack of agency at the time, her immense guilt over actions she couldn’t really control, the part of her that felt what she was doing was right, a more rational kindness towards her considering her circumstances, etc.

On the other hand, we have Ikaruga who doesn’t feel apologetic for antagonizing the protagonist and doesn’t HAVE to as I can’t imagine that being in character here but the writing never bothers to really transition him into living in Winter Village. Ikaruga just sort of lives there now after attacking the protagonist and the protagonist has zero thoughts on this matter. It feels like an interaction is missing or something. Maybe they could’ve added a cutscene for the next time you enter Winter Village so you could get the proper reaction from the protagonist.

Then we have Clarice who KILLS the main character’s childhood friend when they’re no longer of any use to her. The kindness of the protagonist and the gods of Azuma and Clarice’s desire to redeem herself post-game are all clouded by the fact that this is never brought up a single time after it happens. The childhood friend’s death is treated like some unavoidable tragedy—a natural disaster. And it’s simply ridiculous. There should’ve been far more friction if they wanted to make Clarice a believable marriage candidate. Or maybe they shouldn’t have made her one at all.

TL;DR The player may like Ikaruga and Clarice but does it make sense for the protagonist to?

[ultra-indigo]

All the other marriage candidates, Iroha, Murasame, Hina, Mauro, Ulalaka, Matsuri, Kurama, Fubuki, Kanata, Kai, Clarice, Ikaruga, Pilika and Cuilang!

Sourced from the official website and shoved through a webp to png converter

[ultra-indigo]

Child guide--

Edited note: some name the game gave the child base on their trait

Calm boy named Riku

Energetic boy named Umi

Loveable boy named Sora - short sword user

Lively girl named Hana - one-handed sword user

Mature girl named Tsuyu - dual sword user

Clever girl named Sayo - talisman user

[ultra-indigo]

wait a second...

a blacksmith... with silver eyes...

who's also a dwarf?!

ZAID DOUG GET IN HERE HOLY FUCK

[ultra-indigo]

Romance Differences Between MCs in Guardians of Azuma

Spoilers but basically I was annoyed at the differences between how the MC's are in a particular romance

I first played as Kaguya so I was curious what it was like as Subaru and did a run as him. This post will have spoilers for both their romances, so only proceed if you already did them or you don't care.

I was super disappointed with romancing Subaru. I love his design but a lot of the bond quests have him acting like a jerk or are just depressing. There is a totally not cool jealousy subplot with Tsubame, which is worsened by the fact that after you're married he follows her around and not you. Like my other LIs hung out on the beach with their kids and stuff, while Subaru worked at Early Bird Boutique all day...like they don't need two people to work there. All and all, now that I've done all male LIs, he's my LEAST favorite by far. He seems really immature and kind of bitter.

As Subaru you do act a bit annoying towards Kaguya but overall the bond quests are sweet and wholesome. If Kaguya has any flaws it's just she's a bit uptight. It made me feel like Subaru needed the growth he gets from being the white dragon rider. As a wife, she follows you to whatever village you and your kids are in.

All and all I felt like Kaguya players were done dirty. And if you like them as a couple it's more fun and cute to play as Subaru. If you like emotionally charged plots, I suppose Subaru is better though.

[ultra-indigo]

...Actually, let's look at those two side by side again.

Hmm. ☯️

[ultra-indigo]

RF Guardians of Azuma general tips (Spoiler-Free)

Copying my advice I made for reddit for any GoA community here too-

I updated it because reddit blew up my tips post for a few minutes and scared me lol

Story Tips

Kai, Ikaruga, Kanata, Clarice, and the other Protagonist are unlocked late in the story, so if you're having trouble raising Kai's bond, or you can only find him at night, you aren't far enough in the main quest yet. It seems like a few characters have bond levels locked behind this too, like Mauro...

The main quest expects you to level up towns once or twice before leaving, so you can get an early start before you hit that point, if you want. The 4 Villages are set up to encourage specific builds, from what I've noticed:

Spring - Farming plots

Summer - Shops

Autumn - Rice, Barns

Winter - Fruit, Fishing

Press the R3 button (right stick) or T-Key to switch to overhead view in building mode to make edits much easier.

If you hold down the button (A | X | Left Shift Key) after deleting an object in this mode, you can quickly delete anything you move the cursor over -Odd-Implement-7045

When you are in build mode, the day timer is stopped. Your RP still recharges when you're in build mode, so if you want to get some early levels for Drum Dance without eating food, you can.

When the quest says 'Pray at the Kagura Shrines' after the winter village, the shrines are on these turtle-shaped islands in the sky, not the village shrines. [Thanks AdDecent7641!]

Speaking of, monsters on islands with a tall red tower on them will be around 40-50, since they're involved with a quest later in the game.

There's some parts of the main quest where they'll stop you until you cook something specific or tame an animal. So far I've had to tame a Buffamoo, Cluckadoodle, and a Wolf.*

*You can use Fubuki and Kurama for that quest instead of the Cluckadoole and Wolf, apparently! They even have flavor text if you do -asteriuszenith

Bosses also have weapon weaknesses and elemental weaknesses based on the free weapon and divine instrument they gave you for the region earlygame. Think of it like a Zelda game; whatever tool you picked up, they expect you to use later. It's always possible to go against the flow, though the lost bonus damage is pretty noticeable this time. The weapon weakness (first icon) and elemental weakness (second) will pop up above the boss's health bar when they are hit by them.

Boss dark attacks will slam the party for big damage. I thought I was underleveled my first death, but no, it was the dark element alone blowing up my party. Maybe invest in Dark Defense equipment when you get close to level 50.

Perfect dodging an attack before attacking lets you deal big damage to enemies and boss stun bars. You also charge a lot of spirit gauge by doing them

Suzu is really easy to level bond up on and doesn't faint, so she's a great team buffer for most of the game.

If you're indecisive about who to party, I ran Suzu-Iroha-Ulalaka for almost the ENTIRE game and rarely ever had to equip them to keep up. In the lategame whenever Ulalaka was unavailable, I used Yachio as a substitute until she returned, but any healer is probably fine really.

You won't have access to Monster Barns until you complete Autumn Village, so you may want to chat your favorite characters to Bond lv1 and take them out for a spin until you reach that point. You can check their personal skills by switching to them on the Equipment menu and pressing Y | Square | X | X Key

On that note, when you unlock the 'back row' after Winter Village, the back row gains passive exp. Good for grinding characters and monsters!

Some decorations show random stats like STR, these will increase your stats when you place them in the towns! Later decorations can raise them like quite a lot, so they may be fun to experiment with. Each unique deco can only raise that stat ONCE, so duplicates won't raise the stat again. You can check what town it needs to be placed in, and if you already placed one by looking at the highlighted symbol in the crafting menu. -Haktarius

Speaking of- some decorations also need to be placed in specific villages to get their buffs. They show this with flower icons on the side in the crafting screen. -KainYusanagi

Try to pace yourself- the bond and character locks suck, but this game is deceptively long and easy to burn out on if you rush. To give you an idea- there's roughly 16 to 17 dungeons total over the course of the entire game. 4 for the seasons, 6 for the story after, another 4, then 2-3 more.

General Tips

A lot of recipes are locked behind Frog Statues, make sure you grab any you come across.

In later village levels, they'll unlock more fields for you to build on top of.

If you use the first person bow scope with the Summer Treasure equipped on top of a harvestable crop, it will sickle the crop without using any rp!

If you dash just before falling off a ledge, you maintain that dash speed through the air for GREAT air-time. This is especially helpful and fun when you get the winter sacred treasure.

Negative trait villagers will lower your town stats- evict the ones with only negative traits whenever you can.

A good time to evict negative villagers is right before the day ends- on the next day, if there's any empty slots, 2 or more new villagers will reliably fill them. -Alexaius

It helps to invest a little in logging and mining villagers early on to stockpile materials for builds later.

Fruit trees will always be a plain-colored, green tree. You can find Oranges on some cliffs around the Summer Outskirts and on that small island to the south, Apples behind the purple vines to the west of Spring Village [?], Grapes directly to the right of Autumn Village next to an ore, Chestnuts further to the right side behind all the vine walls, Bamboo shoots are to the right of the castle, and Peaches I don't know where in the overworld they might be, but I found some in a dungeon you unlock after getting Kanata. There's a traveling merchant from higher village levels that can sell saplings later, apparently!

Algester has a visual of my fruit tree directions Here!!

You can find most Golden Vegetable seeds off of islands in the sky, the mushroom master has some gold pumpkin seeds behind his house as an example. You can also buy them off basic seed shops later once a town is leveled enough.

There's a traveling merchant for every region! They will randomly show up next to teleports and appear as a white dot on the map -ego157

Onigiri holes ask for: Onigiri, Salmon Onigiri, Miso Onigiri, Tempura Onigiri, Bonito Flake Onigiri, Greatest Grilled Onigiri (Cook Together with Matsuri) -Haktarius

inkstainedgwyn is starting a Unique Dishes list! You can unlock unique dishes when you are Bond Level 6 with a character.

SEEEECRETSmuahaha has made a simple Gifting Guide for the romanceable characters! Big-Buzz-Jet recently made a more in-depth one Here!

Taming bees for their honey is a pretty good way to make money! Higher level monsters will give you higher level produce for more $$$ as well! -ego157

The DLC swim suits and the default swim suits are different! You can unlock them by reaching bond 2 and inviting them to the waterfall or beach.

Yukata outfits are unlocked on Summer 20th! You get them by attending the firework festival. They can be unlocked a little earlier on Summer 7 if you have Kanata. -Kisaell77, Haddock_Lotus

Higher bond levels also unlock some personal accessories, like Iroha's headband or Kai's mask.

[ultra-indigo]

Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma Bonus Thoughts and Impressions

Guardians of Azuma is finally here! I hope everyone had a good time playing over the weekend. Though we did our best to condense our thoughts into our reviews, sometimes things are hard to fit in or enter into spoiler territory that we want to avoid. That’s what this post is for! So here’s some more casual/off-the-cuff impressions and feelings into the new game from Ranch Story’s crew:

—————

I really can't stress enough how much I prefer the "hang out" system to the typical "give everyone gifts every day." It's just a much more natural feeling way to get to know characters. Only issue is that RNG has made some activities almost never pop-up. I used points to unlock that head-pat interaction and it has literally NEVER appeared.

RNG aside, put this system in Story of Seasons. Reimagine Rune Factory Frontier with it. It's fine if gifts stay an option, but I hope I never have to memorize a list of favorite gifts for everyone in town ever again.

—————

I also kinda like how farming is so different in Azuma. RF's farming always kind of just felt worse compared to mainline Bokumono, so maybe going in a new direction with the town management style could be something?

I still enjoy regular ol' Story of Seasons-style farming more though.

—————

There's still some LOD pop-in on Switch 2, unfortunately. Though it occurs on objects MUCH further away from the camera than on Switch 1, and the entire game looks better and feels smoother. Also, one of the most egregious examples of noticeable detail changes happening during a cutscene that was featured in our review has no issues now.

Nitpicks aside, there's an immediately noticeable, tangible improvement from playing on Switch 2.

—————

Having romance candidates as a day-one DLC doesn't feel right with me, even as someone who married Pilika during my review play-through. I really hope that this kind of thing doesn't end up normalized.

—————

I don't know if I missed it or what, but I didn't realize lock-on was a thing until I had almost finished the main story. Just press in the right stick.

—————

Using the bow as your main weapon feels kinda OP!

—————

It's kind of weird not being able to go into any houses. It's not like characters don't have their own homes outside development zones or anything either, since plenty events take place outside what is labeled their house. You just never get to go in. Seeing what else Hina brought with her from Rigbarth could've been fun.

—————

First person camera would've been nice. Let me get a good look at all these fun little decorations.

—————

There will be possible spoilers related to romance/story/postgame below the Keep Reading link.

—————

The duels on dragon-back are so cool! It's a shame they're not really a big part of the game.

—————

Pleasantly surprised that you can just say "I'd rather stay as we are" when asked about having a kid, instead of having that forced upon you as a matter of fact after getting married. I know some folks have voiced a preference to just not have one for past games in the series.

I hope that's a genuine choice you can make though, since part of the post-game dungeon's introduction involves your child. I'll have to test that at some point.

—————

Speaking of, your kid shows up REALLY fast. Pilika was found to be pregnant on Autumn 2nd and it only took until Autumn 7th to actually see 'em. There's a timeskip, so you get to see them as a grown kid right away:

Yes, the default names included Sora and Riku, I did not change those.

—————

While it took about 40 hours for the main story, it's probably worth noting that there's a bit more to do after that. After beating a kinda long post-game dungeon, my time is sitting at 68 hours, though I still have one last "???" under Adventure Log.

[ultra-indigo]

Alien hybrids round 3 (2 years later…)

[ultra-indigo]

Alien hybrids round 2

I’ll write a post later for the adoptions XD

Just 2 things: the ferengi/bajoran one is supposed to be Leeta and Rom’s daughter and the klingon/trill is Worf and Jadzia’s daughter too (someone told me it would be interesting and I had to draw it uwu)

[ultra-indigo]

I really enjoyed drawing these and I’ll draw more another day uwu. As always thank you for your ideas, you guys are the best! Hope you all like it ;)

Btw, if you want to “adopt” one of them, just tell me and it’s yours (give them a name and a story… all of that <3)

My favourite is the vulcan/klingon hybrid. I bet she’s super strong and disciplined (not all klingons are uncontrolled and violent for no reason) but very passionate and… kind of romantic.

I also have a problem with the cardassian/aenar one because aenars need cool weather, but cardassians need hot weather so ????

[ultra-indigo]

Hmmmm some futures are maybe not futures you’ll be happy to hear about… Ignis meeting his future self! From the FFXV time travel fic that @fallintosanity is posting to Tumblr. (Does it have a name yet?) This particular scene really struck me. Poor Ignis!

[ultra-indigo]

Picrews I use for online RPG

Got into online roleplaying? Your DM needs a character token and you want something else than google-searching random people’s art that may fit your character’s description? Or are you a DM looking for quick NPC tokens and portraits? Try these picrews!

(This is a completely personal post, my intention is to keep these as in-setting as possible so I’m omiting the overly simplistic styles and anime styles)

Humanoid characters:

Baydews avatar maker V. 2.0 - Supports characters in fantasy settings. Supports heterochromia.

Tiefling maker - Great for characters in fantasy settings, not only for Tieflings!

Djarn’s character maker - No clothing choices for fantasy settings, but it’s a very detailed realistic portrait maker.

Bright’s picrew hell - A bit more cartoonish but has a lot of options for humans and fantasy creatures. Supports heterochromia.

Cute D&D character creator - Something more lighthearted if you want to see your OCs as cute chibis.

Murmur Character Creator - Not many “fantasy” option but it’s good for creating a nice female character portrait.

Dragon Age elf/human maker - For fairly realistic female elves and humans

The Dragon Prince Elf creator - The Dragon Prince style, elves/elvish characters, has horn options too. No clothings.

Hadingley Hill maker - medieval/renaissance portrait maker

Fantasy Icon Maker - For fantasy characters. Supports heterochromia.

Fantasy icon maker - another nice maker with many options

Fantasy girl - elvish/human female characters

Fantasy Hero Creator - Simple maker with some nicely detailed elements

Female human&elf / Male human&elf - a detailed fantasy maker

Muscular female / Muscular male -  a detailed fantasy maker for buff characters

Fairytale duet M/M | F/F | F/M - Humans/elves, realistic skin tones only.

Mystical elf maker - Cute elf girl portrait maker

Elvish character creator - Elf lady. Limited realistic skintones but nice clothing and background choices

Non-humanoid characters:

Dracthyr Maker - For all your dragons and dragonkin

Dragon PNGtuber Base Generator - Dragon base/lineart only. 

DnD Frog Maker - Frog people

Catfolk Maker - Cat people

Dragonborn - dragon people

Wolf / werewolf designer - Wolf face portrait with many nice options

Werewolf - fantasy werewolf

Anthro character creator - Various animal people

Animals:

Wolf&dog - Fluffy friend custimizable with apparel

felidaze’s cool cat creator - Cats with lots of options

Wolf Maker - simple wolf creator

My Froggie - Fantasy frogs

Mouse Warrior - For all you Mouseguard/Mausritter players!

RATS!! - Realistic rat portrait maker

gay rat maker - realistic fullbody rat with apparel

Mouse Guard Maker - Creator for Mouse Guard characters

This is a resource for private online gaming between you and your friends, no commercial/advertisement usage!

[ultra-indigo]

[1] Color Zones of the Face [Tried to find source, I think it’s here ] 

[2] Navate’s Skin Chart Supplement – the actual tutorials are:  Section I: Skin Basics &  Section II: Skin tones

Two brilliant skin tutorials. Do not use flat colors for skin! Underpainting is important for realistic, vivid skin. Remember, underneath your skin is fat, muscles, red blood, blue veins, bones. 

Consider reblogging this to support the original artist. I recommend following them as well!

More Helpful links: Ask a Question/Request a Tut | Submit a Tutorial | Promote Your Art Commissions to +18.3 K Dashes | Stay Updated on DeviantArt! | Visit me @astrikos

[ultra-indigo]

Skin Color Palette for the Cliche Exhausted

Writing advice warns authors to avoid food comparisons in describing skin color. Part of the reason is the fetishization of people of color, and the other is cliche. The problem is we’re so used to food, it’s hard to think of alternatives.

A year ago I developed a rudimentary skin chart to stir up new comparisons.

You see that note at the bottom? It’s meant to indicate just how much I approximated the colors. Because, yes, the lighter ones are sort of yellow-ish. Is that better or worse than colorless milk and alabaster? Real skin has a mix of undertones, from reds to blues to yellows. Click here for a more thorough analysis by Writing With Color.

Describing color is all about context. No, you wouldn’t want to sensually lick up a sandy thigh. But how many times can we read peach before the word loses its impact? Furthermore, if we want to be equal, people of color should be described with the same nuance as white people, meaning we need a larger vocabulary of colors, even if they don’t fit every context.

Here’s my revised skin palette, just for you to see how varied colors are in real life. 

Because these are photographs, they’re impacted by the hue and intensity of their light source (e.g. limestone looks more gray-ish now). Additionally, I added wheat and olive to the mix. Olives, by the way, are not just black or green. Kalamata olives are very common and reflect the skin tone the word “olive” implies.