#AND FOR THE DEVS OF THE REMAKE TO ACTUALLY *GET THAT*

[randomnameless]

I know you love to call sothis the worst mom but I can't help but feel the only reason her (byleth too to a degree) gets shoved into never being able to take stance on anything is due to edelgard.

The multiple route systems and the devs trying (and failing) to make every side "have a point/reason". We can't let byleth (who sothis is stuck to) make choice by default to go against edelgard. Few characters are allowed to get pissed and stay that way with edelgard in both games. They shackle both byleth and sothis to "any route can be canon" so they don't get to react or remark to anything. No matter the route in hopes its the same for them. I wish they just committed to having byleth/sothis be the main villain protecting their family in hopes but they needed them both for marketing.

I don't see either character truly bad due to being underutilized and stagnant. The multiple-route system has to have them agree with all the routes regardless of whether it makes sense or not.

Of course anon!

That's the Doylist answer to Sothis being, well, nothing more than a plot device who has to follow the player's choice to side with X or Y, even when Y sides with Agarthans and swears to obliterate her kin.

Tru Piss is basically "fuck Sothis" route, but with a greater emphasis on Rhea because red herring and because "Rhea BaD", even if Supreme Leader is barking at the wrong tree!

And yeah, ultimately, all those characters are written in a doylist POV to fit with what the devs intended.

However, even if the Fodlan continuity is rife with, uh, writers and devs wanting to convey one thing but doing it in the most roundabout way possible so no one actually buys it - time and time again they could have written Sothis as a character who gives a fuck about her family, but doesn't.

Voice Line Anon (tm lol) is kind enough to provide me with a translation of her lines in Nopes, but basically yeah, the writers had her actually interact with her fam in an AU of an AU with NG+ on top.

And it would just be, annoying but okay-ish if a certain character's entire arc - as we're supposed to believe per the writers - is about meeting her again!

Mind you, even in SS (or VW), we don't see Sothis, fully aware, react to Rhea giving the most important infodump of all infodumps - answering one of Sothis's biggest questions after she woke up - and in the worst S-Support of the game, we're told they, uh, spoke while Rhea was flying in her half-berserk state and told her some words that made Rhea wonder if she should be happy not to have died.

We're not even in "any route can be canon", because Felix can be recruited to other routes than his own, but at least in AM Felix has plot relevance, has words for Dimitri and reacts to his dad's death. SS could have been the route where Rhea's despair, crying or begging for Sothis just to hold her once again, would amount to something... but no.

To give a parallel, the devs deliberately wrote Dedue as unrecruitable, but who participates in SS/VW to take down Supreme Leader. The same devs wrote Hilda as unrecruitable in Tru Piss - even if in Nopes she dgaf about Supreme Leader anymore and can join her team.

But the devs never bothered to make an event, less a line where Sothis talks to her children - especially to her heartbroken daughter - save for Nopes' AU of an AU. Heck, even in FEH they dance around it, and she looks even more callous because F!Rhea in her FB pleads for Sothis's presence and just wants to see her (even her lvl40 quote!) but Halloween!Sothis refuses to see Halloween!Rhea - when she knows she's the progenitor god!! - for some reason, and I'm pretty sure it's not one that is only tied to Supreme Leader.

Ultimately, yeah, I agree, Sothis is underutilised and stagnant, but both her apparition off-screen in SS and her S-Support in Tru Piss (any routes but Tru Piss takes the cake) really makes me wonder, did the devs really intended her to be a mc guffin but unconsciously wrote her to be the worst parent of the franchise - heck even Sonia looks better - ?

Nopes's NG+ lines really made me reconsider because gfdi she has lines she could have acted/reacted in the game damn it, they even got a characterisation for her regarding each of her relatives... but no.

At times I really wonder if the main crux of the game isn't the corollary to Hresvelg Tea - everyone should love Supreme Leader, of course, but "Rhea BaD" because if she's not "BaD" then what is the player even supposed to be/do? And as sad as it is, Sothis - in general - was used to fuel the "Rhea BaD" pyre more than, imo, the "Hresvelg Grey" uwufest, even if indeed, the two are closely linked.

#anon #replies #sorry I prepared something then TUmblr ate my reply #damn it #Worst mom #is her parenting looking like shit only because of the devs not realising what they wrote? #maybe maybe not #someone put it in better words than me #if FE4 gets a remake we will inevitably get the Lachesis discourse #but mothers being crap in fandoms is rare enough to be noted #and writing Rhea's main trait being desperate to reunite with her mom #while said mom knows it but doesn't pop up to say hello is just gfdi idk #shitty? I mean look at all those fanfics around #they could have turned tru piss as Sothis turning against her kid but being vocal about it #not 'btw idk what my daughter did but no worries about the crest stone let's get married uwu' #Is Sothis ending up like a shit mom only a result of the devs forgetting to code events in CF or not caring about her? #Or was it actually on purpose? #4 years later and I still can't make my mind

[vexenya]

I have the urge to publicly post about the Yandere Sim rewrite I've got going in my head (because there was potential) but I think we all know what happens to people who try to rewrite the game _ _ ;;

#Okay to be fair I know the people who remake it and get backlash are like #usually not the best people out there to begin with #and you could say their remakes are just what throws their actions into public light #but it has happened at least twice I believe and it feels like a curse at this point aha #and also I would NEVER even try to code an actual game based off of it #(The dev can have the game making as I'm not interested) #As a writer I think media rewrites are okay as long as you aren't trying to replace the source material haha

[onestepbackwards]

I've been following the Unity situation and its so fucking insane like holy shit. We have everything! - Absurd fees for devs! That may or may not be retroactive and illegal, but we won't say until you cause a stink about it! (We totally aren't shh we wouldn't break the law. Totally :) ) - Getting rid of one of their levels of subscriptions during all of this, The 'Plus Plan', and allegedly putting you on the more expensive 'Pro' subscription if you auto renew! - Insider trading! Selling their stocks not even a week before they released this new change in their company! x x They've since backpedaled from what their original plan was. Originally, they told everyone that every Install, reinstall, dlc, demo, and pirated copy would now cost a fee (with few exceptions, such as charity games and bundles) It's not hard to see how this could tank an indie company with ease. Mad at a dev/company? Just mass install/uninstall. Now they are apparently saying that 'nonono! We only meant the original install :)' Which also opens the door as to how they are tracking installs. They so far have seemed to be avoiding as to how on earth they are going to do that without breaching privacy on a computer. Especially when it could just be easier to make a fee based on purchases, but no. x

So you know, don't worry guys, they have their own 'proprietary data model.' But so far (As i type this, or am aware of) have not given details about how that model works. When asked about stuff such as Xbox Gamepass, Unity mentioned it would be Microsoft paying for the fees. As of now, I have no idea if Microsoft was even told this, and I doubt they are going to agree to it either out of nowhere. x Another fun thing, is if you change your Unity plan, you are added to the revenue threshold immediately. Interesting that this is after they sneakily got rid of their Plus plan, which a lot of devs seemed to use.

And interesting enough, they seem to contradict themselves from their QnA and their official twitter post regarding Demo's and Early Access, or at least tried to be sneaky about the wording?? x x

They won't charge for demos or early access, until they do, apparently. Or if the demo has data that can be transferred to the main game, anyway. Unity also claimed this would only affect 10% of its users. Which is funny when you look at all the Indie devs and studios who are coming out on twitter saying that this actually directly hurts them. Not to mention all the people that have spent years learning this engine, for themselves, or so they can apply to companies using it. And now all of that was just spat on by Unity themselves. There's also the games that have been out and are built on this engine, and can't just be tossed and rebuilt. Such as Among us, Genshin Impact, Pokemon Go and the Diamond/Pearl remakes. Overall, it's a huge mess. Unity majorly screwed up. I'd recommend looking into what games you like, and if they run on Unity. If you don't have them yet, you may want to purchase them so they are in your steam library, or whatever console you play on. With the uncertainty of all of this, I wouldn't be surprised if some companies delist their games on steam. If you buy from them now, you'll still be able to support the devs before Unity implements this new fee plan. Plus, since you paid for them, they will still be on your console/in your steam library. Please stay safe ya'll, and support your local game devs during this storm. They need it.

#unity #unity3d #indiegame #indiedev #game development #unity engine #video games #sorry for the long post #but i felt this was important #long post #zed.talks

[blazehedgehog]

My discord got me thinking about how Naughty Dog tried to do a Jak 4 and they were so obsessed with cinematic realism that they went "nope, this is too creepy" and backed off because they literally refused to do it any other way

Thinking of when Double Fine was still doing the Devs Play video series, and they had someone from Naughty Dog on there, and even though I don't think he worked at the company anymore, he still was so very clearly "cinematic realism" poisoned. Even when talking about Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot games, he was going on about how they were always trying to apply Hollywood techniques and make the games more cinematic.

And thinking about how much of the game industry is bleeding itself dry trying to replicate things we already have in real life. Across two generations of hardware, Naughty Dog has released two new games and eight ports or remakes. Some of which are double dips. When you think about Insomniac's woes over struggling to break even with Spider-man, one gets the impression from all these ports and remakes that Naughty Dog isn't doing much better.

Do you know how much money Lethal Company made? It has 260,000 reviews on Steam, and you can probably charitably double, triple, or even quadruple that number to get within the ballpark of what it actually sold. We'll reign it in a little and estimate it sold 600,000 units. That's $6,000,000 of what is very likely pure profit. People have retired on less. This kid isn't even 25 years old.

Meanwhile, for Spider-man 2, Insomniac had to sell 7,000,000 units just to start turning a profit. Spider-man 2 put them nearly FIVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS ($500,000,000) in the hole. For a game, by their own admission, people may not even be able to tell is any better visually than Spider-man 1. They talk about smaller side games like Miles Morales as a cheap way to reuse assets and buffer the astronomical financial drain these games are. They've got to make up ground somewhere.

There's rumors Naughty Dog's next game might be a remake of Uncharted 1. The well's going to run dry eventually. Then what happens to Naughty Dog when they're writing a one-billion dollar check for the next evolution in cinematic realism that is impossible for anyone to be able to cash? When does this all break down? Soon, right?

It sure feels like it's going to be soon. This is such a boring waste of money.

#naughty dog #insomniac #sony #playstation #jak #jak & daxter #uncharted #the last of us #crash bandicoot #spider-man #budget #cinematic realism #lethal company #graphics

[shuttershocky]

would you say that tsukihime is popular in the west?

Not really? Melty Blood is bigger than Tsukihime is and it's infamously the series whose tournaments had to be played inside bathrooms or in airports because they couldn't get space to hang with the big fighting games. I heard Type-Lumina actually got a spot on anime evo a couple years ago or something but I think it's going to remain firmly niche like the rest of the series.

That being said, niche doesn't mean it hasn't had an influence. A couple of western VN indie devs have cited Tsukihime as a favorite of theirs, and Arcueid's even made an (unofficial, so you know this was done for love) cameo in a VTM game under the name "Princess", so Tsukihime definitely has a fanbase in the West that's at least big enough to have visible fingerprints in Western games.

There's also going to be the official English release of the Tsukihime Remake in the West later this year. While I don't expect a visual novel to be breaking any sales records or anything, the success of Mahoyo on both consoles and Steam is a good sign that the Tsukihime Remake will enjoy a healthy release as well, even if it's more of the old fans supporting Type-Moon finally releasing something in English rather than new fans coming in and discovering the VN through word of mouth.

Fortunately when you're a visual novel you don't have to move the same numbers that an AAA game with a 300 million USD budget has to just to break even. So long as it does as well as Mahoyo and it gives its readers a great time (I have read the fan translated Remake Arcueid route, it is very good), the Tsukihime Remake will keep its fanbase alive in the West for many more years to come.

#tsukihime

[aislingyngaio-games]

Junon and Nibelheim Tifa symbolism through Rebirth lore

This tumblr post is actually further expansion from this twitter thread I made on the relationship between Tifa and Junon that I've noticed. Now that Rebirth is out.... hoo boy idk if I'm overthinking this or if the devs are just this big-brained. Spoiler alert for Rebirth, OBVIOUSLY. You have been warned.

Part 1: Phoenix, Deity of Junon Region

So to begin with, I'd like to draw your attention to what actually first attracted my attention to the possibly deliberate symbolism of Junon: the combination of the regional deity (Phoenix) and the regional chocobo (Belle the mountain chocobo).

As is obvious to any Final Fantasy fan by now, Phoenix is the summon of fire and life/rebirth, two themes important to Cloud and Tifa, both of whose childhoods "died" in the Nibelheim fire and massacre five years ago and yet "reborn", or rather survived, from the ashes of their fallen hometown because of their promise and bond with each other. They are each other's proofs they are who they are: Cloud and Tifa from Nibelheim. As a sea-facing town with an underwater reactor (even Under Junon is named "Sea Dragon Square"), wouldn't it have been more thematically appropriate to have Junon worship either the Leviathan (admittedly Leviathan is the guardian deity of Wutai in FF7 lore, but Wutai was pushed to pt3, and it didn't stop Leviathan from being a Chadley-earned summon in Remake either) or Shiva deities (which is the summon you get in OG Junon from Priscilla) instead of Phoenix, unless the switch was a deliberate narrative choice? After all, as I've posted in my original Twitter thread, Junon is the first place Real Cloud truly tries hard to "awaken" SOLDIER Cloud into speaking with Tifa. This is translated in Rebirth into Cloud and Tifa's reconciliation after their falling out at Kalm, and Tifa's relationship wheel being the non-optional, story-mandated dialogue choice in this chapter. The Rebirth-themed summon in the Rebirth-named game being set in the Junon region over all other regions? HMMMMMMMM. (And nobody better forget that Mr Dolphin <-> Tifa's limit break Dolphin Blow parallel either ;) )

Also, OG callback: Phoenix summon was actually obtained from Fort Condor in OG, and guess what huge ass creature immediately appeared the moment the party exited the Junon-side entrance of Mythril Mines? Aye, the Giant Condor. The protorelic sidequest in Junon is also linked to the Fort Condor minigame (a variation of the boardgame from FF7 Remake Intermission) that specifically chose to magick both Cloud and Tifa (as well as Barret) in to do battle. And of course, the "Dreaming of Blue Skies" Tifa-related sidequest in Junon region involves baiting the Giant Condor with bovine meat to take a picture of (and while waiting, they sky-gazed together at the clouds).

(Side Crisis Core tangent: Phoenix's materia is obtained from - guess where - NIBELHEIM WATER TOWER, as the first part of the Seven Wonders of Nibelheim sidequest)

(Side simulation tangent: The Phoenix simulation Chadley makes for the Rebirth team to fight can summon Bombs, which is one of the two bracelet charms Tifa is prominently featured with in the Retrilogy, the other being Chocobo, which usually symbolizes Cloud)

(Side LOVELESS tangent: The summon that Rosa calls to defeat Varvados looks amazingly like the Phoenix summon, and the resultant ending motif - the fiery destruction of Guardia, the mutual protection of Alphreid and Rosa, and the unpromised promise of fidelity and reunion - most resembles the destruction of Nibelheim, the mutual protection between Cloud and Tifa - Cloud as Tifa's physical protector & Tifa [being Cloud's motivation] as Cloud's emotional protector, and the fulfilled yet voluntarily continual fulfillment of the promise at the water tower between them)

Part 2: Odin, Deity of Nibel Region

Now what of the actual place of Cloud and Tifa's births? Well the regional deity is, appropriately, Odin, Norse god of death, while the regional chocobo is Selena Shirena (in JP romaji), the blue ocean chocobo.

Odin in OG is also obtained from Nibelheim (specifically Shinra Mansion), and interestingly, when linked with "Added Effect" materia on an armour piece, can provide immunity to instant death on the wearer, while if the same pair of linked materia is equipped on a weapon, it can cause instant death. This is a most curious and most pertinent symbolism for the birthplace of not only the only two people in the FF7 party to have ever tasted Masamune blade first and survived (rip to the other Nibel villagers though) but also, thematically tragically, the birthplace of Sephiroth, whose destructive powers with said blade are legendary. Not forgetting of course, that central in the stories of Nibelheim is "the other side of the mountain" being a local reference to the mythical/thematic land of the dead (remember which two characters are pictured on the Mt Nibel side of the two Rebirth Nibelheim keyarts?).

Part 3: Junon/Nibel Connection via Regional Chocobo Abilities

From Junon region, we have Belle the grey mountain chocobo (which btw, is a requirement to reach the Phoenix summon crystals that will both weaken the simulation fight and strengthen the summon materia), and a clearer parallel cannot help being drawn to Cloud and Tifa hailing from the village of Nibelheim located at the base of MOUNT NIBEL, where both share memories being on that mountain (once when Tifa was 8 and Cloud 9, and again when Tifa was 15 and Cloud 16 - SEVEN years apart). Similarly, the Nibel region chocobo - required to access the Odin summon crystal - is Shirena the blue ocean chocobo, making both Junon and Nibel chocobo abilities the diametrically opposite elements of their region's most significant landscape/towns - Junon the ocean-facing city with the mountain chocobo, and Nibelheim the mountain-shadowed village with the ocean chocobo.

(Side Costa del Sol tangent: Cloud's blue shirt swimsuit is named "Ocean Chocobo" which makes for it being the Nibel region Chocobo ability seems accidentally on purpose appropriate, as well as being the more "real Cloud" of the two swimsuit options for him imo, while the Wild Surf option seems too... Zack minus the sunflower, so basically the SOLDIER Cloud option)

So, let's now look at the symbolism of Junon and Nibelheim together, as both mirrors and opposites, as parts of a whole.

Junon and Nibelheim

Phoenix and Odin

Life and death

Mountain and ocean

East continent and west continent

Taken together, the bond between Junon and Nibelheim almost looks like the endless cycle of death and life/rebirth, which is very symbolic of how the Lifestream works (those who are born from the Lifestream return to the Lifestream). Just as Phoenix is both life and destruction, just as Odin can be both death and protection, it is the complementary, symbiotic love of Cloud and Tifa, at once opposites yet similar, at once separate but a team, both strong yet each having their own weaknesses that the other balances, that ultimately is most emblematic of the lifecycle of the planet.

It is no wonder then, that Tifa is the one chosen by the planet and the WEAPONs, both in OG when Sapphire Weapon caused the distraction that allowed her to both embody yet subvert her role as the Andromeda of Greek legend by enabling her to save herself from her execution at Junon with the help of friends, and in Rebirth when the Gongaga WEAPON choose to show her the true struggle of the planet that she might reach Final Heaven, and be the heroine who will save and stay by the hero's side till the end.

#ff7 rebirth #final fantasy vii rebirth #junon #nibelheim #cloti #tifa lockhart #cloud strife

[revletter]

In the SMRPG remake, Geno is still around for the postgame fights. Here's a simple and awesome way they could explain that.

(I SO hope they do something even loosely resembling this. I have so many feelings, I made gifs about it.)

Up to this point, we know that there'll be post-game content where you get to fight bosses over again. And look, our blue guy, there he still is!

From this, it's safe to assume that in the remake, after Geno leaves to repair the Star Road, he turns right around and comes back.

Which is KIND OF A BIG DEAL. Because in the original game, it's heavily implied that for all practical purposes, he's certain this goodbye will be forever.

(😭)

For some time, I've had a little theory. I kind of desperately hope for some version of it to be part of the remake. Here it is:

Due to the events of SMRPG, ♡♪!? gets a merit promotion. Maybe, at the beginning of the story, he's not a full-blown Star Spirit (or whatever verbiage). But - as the one little star guardian valiant and capable enough to go down to the world to help save the entire Star Road - now he's become one!

And that comes with more freedom. Just imagine him crashing back down to Earth like "Yo GUESS WHAT PEOPLE, now I'm a STAR SPIRIT (or etc.) and I set my own schedule!" He can go back and see his friends! It's amazing!

And it fits exactly! With not a single caveat I can think of!

IN FACT, you might even say it's supported by a little discrepancy in some 27-year-old pixel art:

Remember the difference between Geno's first appearance and his last? He goes from this tiny lil twinkle guy... to a much bigger 5-pointed star. This is never explained....

((( Read on for my rationale, more gifs, and even more feelings )))

(the doll being bigger is not explained either, but humor me)

(and yes that IS him lighting things up like the Main Street Electrical Parade. I noticed that almost exactly a year ago and it rocketed this fandom back to the front of my So Cal Disney Kid brain so hard that I can't believe it took me so long to make this blog)

(only fitting that he would also usher in the remake reveal after an end like this. :'''D)

... But to me, it seems plausible that the little star's gotten stronger and grown! 💙

In the remake trailer, because I'm the kind of dweeb who does this, I went frame by frame trying to spot any telling differences -

(^ the scene where he's possessing the doll - this could just be a homage to the little twinkle he looks like in the original. even if that's all, I love the devs for it)

(more five-pointy? maybe? rev, did you just superimpose all the frames where Geno looks most five-pointy just so you could not quite prove anything? ABSOLUTELY)

Make of that what you will; all I can say so far is that we only see him kind of blobby. But what I'm secretly hoping is, maybe that's on purpose, so they can make it clearer in the game for the purpose of some big reveal like this. 😀

Anyway...

Wouldn't this be such a fitting and meaningful thing for Geno's character arc? I know one of the complaints among people who consider Geno overrated is that he doesn't really have an arc. Of course, his fans (myself included) either aren't bothered by that, or straight-up disagree, since he's central to the entire plot and goal of the game, and also literally the Mario universe equivalent of an angel, and maybe he was so reserved because he was trying so hard not to get attached even though we all know he totally did,

and also if he got an arc anywhere near Mallow's he'd be so compelling that he'd basically be the main character and they'd have to call it Super Geno RPG BUT ANYWAY,

I can't fully express, no matter how long I make this post, how much I hope they take a narrative route like this. It would be the actual best. My nerdy little heart would never be the same.

#in this essay i will #geno #geno smrpg #smrpg #super mario rpg #smrpg remake #my headcanons #my wishes #gif #my gifs #please nintendo please #i made so many gifs for this

[terraxcloud]

A Few Many Things...

There are 5 or more timelines, and it's not worth counting them anymore.

Biggs dies in one (the middle) but Zack at the church immediately talks about him being alive (this is the Zack that meets Cloud in the final battle I believe). The first image is the last Aerith date and the Stamp bag is to the left. Johnny appears with a plushie of a dog to show it's a different timeline instead of using a bag.

The reason it's not worth counting them is due to what Sephiroth says:

In this scene the FF9 Terra/Gaia "two planets becoming one" thing is shown again.

They represent the timelines as worlds, but what they're showing is an FF9 thing involving actual planets. I'll look at DFFOO Act 4 Chapters 4 & 8 again to see what's up there. Of course, they wouldn't say it's planets because of the implications, but that's not to say these timelines aren't coming together...they just need a reason since most people just think the devs are changing things just to change them. Gilgamesh has already appeared in this game from his own rift anyway.

After the Temple of the Ancients, Aerith and Tifa aren't able to stop Cloud from giving the Black Materia to Sephiroth. The date scenes between Aerith and Cloud are more than likely for Yuffie than Terra, especially since we have no idea of Terra other than the main theme lyrics.

The descriptions Cloud gives about what he prefers and how he acts matches what they show of Yuffie's interests (chocobos, getting paid for jobs or acting like a merc, smiling, seeing Red XIII as a dog, staring at Cloud, the poses for the photo with Aerith, being pissed off, etc.

This isn't saying that Terra is supposed to be like this. Yuffie was always a reflection of "real Cloud", however, both Terra and Yuffie are similar to him (the whole "siblings" dynamic). It could be that the Terra we got in other games isn't the same as the one when FF6 was being developed before the main character vanished (Kefka may have sucked her personality away).

The thing that makes Cloud "regain himself" is remembering the flower Aerith gave him in the beginning of Remake.

I don't know if Aerith will find the "real Cloud" herself. Tifa represents that part, but it's clear they're changing things with her. Obviously, they're going to use the "dream" this time around, which is what Aerith represents (she already has a shared dream with Zack), not Tifa. They also put a small shooting star bit with Aerith instead of Tifa, but if Aerith's technically dead the only character that can do these things is Yuffie.

The dialog Yuffie gives immediately gives after Cloud wakes up before the Lost Capital is the hint. It couldn't be encapsulated in a small scene, so they just left Yuffie out of it. If she's not going to do anything, why would she say it immediately?

Another hint was after the Demon Gate boss when Cloud starts banging his sword on the wall to break through. The two characters they show reacting to him are Barret and Yuffie, but the camera goes towards Yuffie in particular. Before this Yuffie was shadow boxing with Barret, which is what she does with Cloud at the end of her date scene (it also happens with Barret after leaving the Mansion at Nibelheim before the final Roche boss fight).

I believe Red XIII represents the change Cloud has personality-wise ("you don't always have to play the badass") while Barret represents the anger he feels at Sephiroth. Having Yuffie shadow box Barret for fun while Cloud is going crazy for the Black Materia shows that Yuffie will have a big role in preventing Cloud from doing this in the 3rd game.

The Corel sidequest with Cloud Jr. shows Barret's change to being "softer" as he explains that he was always hard on others and going after everything that ticked him off, making others suffer in the process. It makes sense why they show him and Yuffie reacting.

The other sidequests that show this "anger" issue are the Chocobo Billy ones with Yuffie in Nibelheim and the last one at the Gold Saucer with Tifa. The Yuffie one is more about the anger issue while the Tifa one is more about learning what happened in the past.

If you think about it, the only thing Cloud doesn't "remember" is being a normal Shinra foot-soldier, the one with motion-sickness (maybe the memory of him defeating Sephiroth from Remake is gone due to the whispers? He does react to the tubes in the Shina Mansion a bit).

The dialog Yuffie has about Chocobos are also noteworthy (since if we go by the symbols, Yuffie is the Moogle and Cloud is the Chocobo).

Btw, these two scenes are kinda similar:

Another "Yuffie represents the Moogle" hint is made at the Gold Saucer intro. Cait Sith summons a Cactuar, a Tonberry, and a Chocobo, but what about the Moogle? It's Yuffie since the moogle is on her pop star outfit. These four on the orphanage chalkboard in Remake. With the characters we've seen so far it may be like this:

Cactuar - Zack Tonberry - Sephiroth Chocobo - Cloud Moogle - Yuffie

The Tonberry King boss battle has MAI dialog that sounds similar to Sephiroth's dialog when he goes insane in the mansion basement. It's kinda fitting that this is a Yuffie sidequest and you need to steal his crown.

The Cactuar thing is Zack due to the "pose" which Cloud, Yuffie, and Red XIII also do in the last proto-relic quest. People know that's something Zack has done.

Every sidequest has it's own meaning. The one similar to Cloud's Dissidia story is the Barret one in Gongaga with the weaponsmith.

#FF7 Rebirth #FFVII Rebirth #FF7R #FFVIIR #Cluffie #Clerra #FF7 #FFVII

[freelanceexorcist]

FFVII Remake spoilers under the cut.

So I’m probably as caught up as I’m going to be at this time, so here are some hot takes all in one place.

*So “the you know I killed her” line seems to have been spoken by a version of Sephiroth that Cloud is hallucinating, at least that’s what I get from how he just appears and disappears and no one else seems to acknowledge that he’s there. Yeah, Cloud's head is a dumpster fire.

*Seems like the dev team took a big, fat shit on Team Ore Sephiroth, hyping up what a great guy he used to be and making us hope he might have a chance only to make him even more cartoonishly evil than he was in the original game. Fuck you for that. I'm sure the purists are squealing with glee right now, though. Fuck them, too.

*The Glenn impersonation though? *chef’s kiss* Now that was awesome. Sephiroth dipping his toe in the political intrigue waters, declaring war on Shinra and verbally wailing on Rufus was a pleasure to behold. Poignant, too, that he’s taking the form of the first friend he ever had, a friend that Rufus cold-bloodedly shot in the back. You really are a little bitch, Rufus, and Sephiroth wants to make sure you know that.

*Yeah, there's bad blood between those two that goes way back. The way Sephiroth just seethed at Rufus and the way Rufus pumped bullet after bullet into the black cloak that was his meat suit, still pulling the trigger after the gun was empty. Yeah, Rufus doesn't have some noble goal when it comes to Sephiroth, he's just fucking pissed at him. It's personal on both ends of that one.

*Maybe the old man paid more attention to Sephiroth than he ever did to his actual kid and Rufus is mighty sore (and jealous) over that. Maybe he's pissed that the glory he craved went to Sephiroth instead, who didn't even want it (yeah, Rufus, we know why dictators throw massive military parades for themselves). Maybe Sephiroth is resentful of Rufus because, all things considered, he got a relatively normal childhood while Sephiroth had to suffer under Hojo and was chucked onto a battlefield when he was just 15.

*And I'm gonna need to know more about how the trooper that Sephiroth couldn't save in the river turned into Zack from Cloud's point of view.

*So why did Sephiroth save Cloud from the Midgar Zolom? Wouldn’t it have been in his best interests to let him die, then he could get on with his dastardly plan relatively unhindered?

*Tseng gets stabbed right through and just walks it off. Damn, son.

*Yeah, I'm disappointed that they just made Sephiroth a generic villain to be defeated so you can save the day. But whatever version of him is trolling the shit out of Rufus? I'd follow that one to Hell and back.

*Man, I’m really gonna need those Japanese-speaking folks to chime in on what pronoun he’s using at any given time. *lights up the Bat Signal*

*This confusing-ass story is giving me a headache. I’m gonna stop now and just say

#FFVII Rebirth spoilers #FF7 Rebirth spoilers #Sephiroth #Rufus Shinra #Glenn Lodbrok #no seriously what the fuck #Cloud Strife

[askagamedev]

This is more of a legal question than anything, But there is this old game that was on the gamecube that my brother and I played when we were kids, The developer and the publisher both went out of business, if I were to figure out a way to port the game to UE5 and release it for free, would I get in trouble or since I would be doing it for free would I be legally in the clear?

Standard disclaimer - I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice. I am only a game dev speaking from my experience as a game dev about a hypothetical situation.

Even if the developer and publisher have gone out of business, somebody probably still owns the rights to the game. If you remake an existing game using their assets and/or copyrighted material, you are still using somebody else's IP without the owner's permission and that's illegal. It does not matter whether you charge for it or not, you are still potentially causing damage to someone else's property. The recent hullabaloo about AI-generated porn of Taylor Swift wasn't a big deal because someone charged for it, it was because someone made and distributed it without her permission.

If you want to remake a favorite game, my advice is always to make a spiritual successor to that game - make the new game feel and play like the old game as much as you want, but don't use the old characters/story/world/etc. Somebody owns those and that owner would be fully within their rights to stop you if you use them... but they can't do a thing if you don't use them. Make your own thing. It's a lot better for all around - players will actually be able to play your game, you'll be able to showcase your game, and you can choose either to sell it to or use it to get hired by paying game studios/publishers.

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#legal implications #intellectual property

[silentstaresfanficandfanart]

friCK YES Dev log

Todays dev log is pretty good!

Remaking basically the entire code with friends help!

(frick yes shoutout to person <3) right now we have

a working points system (mostly)

a MUCH better day night system

RANDOM ChARACTER ENCOUNTERS AND EVENTS

actually FUNCTIONAL hp and energy system

FUNCTIONAL DEATH SYSTEM

NO MORE DECAPITATION

the game lasts over the course of one week!

but each time you play it goes a little differently

we have a battle system figured out (because hes fricking awesome he basically did the entire thing himself its SO MCUH better than my "get punched to death by a vampire in one hit" system honestly even if that was oddly charming) hes awesome and while ill have to do some chagnes to make it WORK the actual *functionality of the system* is the important thing (the thing he made) any changes will just be my goopin around with the codes he gave me, hes fricking epic, everyone say THANK YOU TO HIM PLEASE he's EPIC also hes the coolest so like *everyone better appreciate him*

He also taught me lots of codey things and things-

and he bought me yummy foods and other things so again, APPRECIATE HIm he is FEEDING your little TUMBLR COURT JESTER. he deserves APPRECIATION.

thank you again *PERSON THE COOLEST BOI*

[absolutebl]

Hi ABL! I was hearing about the GMMTV lineup announcement, and had a question. I know that “a thai trailer does not a series make” but how many of series of the lineup would you expect… like half? Less then half? a majority of the trailers? Does it depend mostly on the interest shown by viewers for a show to get a green light?

Also I appreciated your guesses for the GMMTV lineup, I think it’s cool to see what you were expecting, even if GMMTV has a way of being completely unpredictable. This feels like the BL equivalent of a sports player draft or something haha

Ha thanks, hold on let me check the numbers...

In the BL sphere we are still waiting on 4 GMMTV BLs announced for 2023,

Cherry Magic (Thai remake)

23.5 (GL)

Cooking Crush

Last Twilight

These all may still happen, or they might happen early 2024.

In addition to those they actually made:

Our Skyy,

Boss & Babe,

Be My Favorite,

Hidden Agenda,

Moonlight Chicken,

Never Let Me Go,

My School President,

Dangeruous Romance,

Only Friends.

So out of 13 announced, 9 got made at this date.

Let's call that a 70% completion rate (Our Skyy being kinda amorphous)

Now when I say "a Thai trailer does not a series make" that doesn't necessarily apply to GMMTV since they have the most will, the most star power, and the most money. They don't rely on sponsorships as much, or to put it better, their sponsors trust them to produce product that sells placements.

Also they make these very splashy announcements. So if they then don't satisfy, the fans get mean. Just imagine if Only Friends hadn't actually been made this year?

So, my "a Thai trailer does not a series make" applies more to all the other Thai announcements and trailers.

Thailand (in general) announced c.105 BLs for 2023.

As of now, we have approx 55 BLs announced for 2023 that still remain un-unmade (or at least still in dev hell). About half those had trailers.

To date Thailand has produced c. 50 BLs for 2023. (My Universe is mucking my numbers up a lot. With 24 eps I think I should just count it as 1 12 ep BL in 2023, 1 in 2024.)

To sum up:

Thailand has a c. 50% completion rate on BLs announced to produced. +/- 5%

So GMMTV beats the main easily with their 70%.

But we hold them to a higher standard.

#P'ABL plays the numbers game #a thai trailer does not a series make #gmmtv announcement speculation

[dogtoling]

wait could I get an explanation as to why inklings are technically immortal

In-game and thus in-universe the way being Splatted works is that when an inkfish is submerged in water, their body essentially explodes and dissolves. What you see in the game with their body blowing up and being reduced to nothing and their spirit flying out is very much something that's the intended Actually Happening sort of thing. Respawn pads just pick up their spirit and make them a new body out of ink. So essentially inklings can die and have their body entirely dissolved or reduced to atoms but as long as there's like, warm ink around, their soul can dip into there and get back up like nothing happened.

This is a mechanic we see in turf wars, in salmon run we can see just HOW POWERFUL it is given they literally don't even have fancy technology to do the revival, and in Octo Expansion we have dev confirmation that Agent 8 LITERALLY DIES if you get splatted in the escape phase because there's no respawn pad around. Which means that yes, they LITERALLY DIE when they're splatted and this is SO LITTLE OF A DEAL that they have a sport built around this. TL;DR inklings are immortal on account of being completely unbothered by freak accidents, like getting evaporated or eaten whole by a predator, or torn into pieces and then being splatted, or falling into the water and diluting into particles, and they are also capable of just remaking their body infinitely out of body fluid.

#mailbox #obviously i don't follow canon function of splatting for every reason i just listed but this is a thing #the way splatting works in canon literally DOES make them immortal and this is how #it is intended as such

[sapphire-weapon]

(1) Hey there! I've been totally engrossed in your meta analyses on RE. You've nailed everything I've felt about the Aeon ship but couldn't express. It's tough to share views on Aeon nowadays without backlash. Their dynamic always puzzled me, like I get the trauma bonding and that they care abt each other, but come on, she keeps being part of the world Leon swore to destroy and that's not enough of a red flag for him? (cont)

(2) With the RE4 remake, it looks like they're trying to change their whole relationship, and I'm here for it. It's obvious he's rejecting her, but people blindly try to convince themselves they're a thing. They will look for the dumbest or overanalyze things to prove Aeon is alive and well, but will ignore the devs' clear attempts to show Leon flirting with Ashley. Like it's right there. There's dialogue and everything lol (3) I've got a few questions for you, if that's okay. There are still some things about Ada I can't figure out (though I guess that's what makes her interesting), and I'd love to hear your thoughts. 1. Why does Leon let Ada take the sample? Do you think she knew he wouldn't stop her?

Just for clarity's sake -- you said later that this was about Remake, so we're talking about the Amber, not the Sample.

Leon lets Ada take it for two reasons:

He trusts Luis. And if Luis and Ada had an arrangement, then Leon trusts that Ada's not going to sell the Amber to someone who shouldn't have their hands on it.

He knows what happened the last time he got between Ada and her mission objective: she almost fucking died. Would've died if not for something breaking her fall.

I don't know if Ada knew that Leon wouldn't stop her, but I'd be willing to bet that that was the reason why she namedropped Luis in the first place. She saw the "for Luis" scene; she probably banked on Leon trusting Luis more than he distrusted her.

And she was right.

2. In SW, Ada shows concern for Leon, like her voice softening when she talks about him. She's clearly into him sexually, but do you think she'd want something more than just a physical relationship? (cont.) (4) Could this be tied to her self-perception, like maybe she's pursuing Leon to prove something to herself, maybe a sign of insecurity?

Still talking about Remake, just to be clear.

I'mma be real wit u homie: I don't see what you see here. I've played through SW a few times, but I never noticed her voice softening for him in this way. I saw her speaking at a lower volume because she's talking to herself, but that's because... she was talking to herself.

So the answer is no and no. None of Ada's sense of self is wrapped up in Leon. At all. She has some sentimental attachment to him because Ada gets sentimental about people and things (for reference, see: Ada being sincerely hurt when Wesker rejects her in chapter 3, also Ada honoring Luis's memory and dying wishes for the remainder of SW after he dies), but she has no real concern for him otherwise. He's just a Thing that she wants, and Ada goes after what she wants.

3. What future do you see for Aeon? How could their relationship evolve if it's not just about tension or hints of a physical relationship like in the OG timeline? Do you think Ada will have some character growth, especially in RE6? They tried so hard to show Ada had a heart, and Aeon seemed almost like a couple, but that didnt go anywhere... again lol. (cont.)

Still talking about Remake.

In order:

There is no future for Aeon.

Right now, there is no evolution possible for their relationship, because Ada isn't there yet as a character. She needs to be someone that Leon can actually trust, and she isn't. He explicitly pushes her away in 4 for that reason. Her character change in 4 is a good start, but that's all it is. Ada still has a lot of independent growing to do in order for Leon to even tolerate her, and I honestly don't know when they could possibly fit that into the events of the series. They would have to create whole-ass new games that take place in between numbered titles just for the Remake timeline, and I really just don't see them doing that.

I've said this over and over again, but: we need to see what RE5make does. It doesn't sound like Wesker's just going to let her betrayal go this time like he did in OG, and there's a real possibility that RE5make won't kill him off. It is impossible to speculate on RE6make right now, and I wish people would stop asking me to.

Don't forget that RE6 OG ends with Leon rejecting Ada, too. There's no point to building up Leon and Ada's relationship just to have him reject her again. He's already rejected her now in 4. We're past that. Moving on. There's a real opportunity for Capcom to do something completely new with Ada's character now that they've wrapped up the Aeon melodrama early, so let's just... let them.

(5) Do you think Leon being on his own in Infinite Darkness and Death Island, with no Ada references, means CAPCOM is rethinking the ship in the OG timeline? Could CAPCOM's preference for keeping characters single be part of this (if thats even true and not another random news some fans made up)? or maybe they don't know what to do with them?

RE6 ends with Leon rejecting Ada. It's already been rethought. It's over. It's done. It's been decided. The Aeon arc has concluded. The focus of Leon's character going into the end of his story is now his relationship with the government -- which is where it should've been all along.

If they go back on that rejection in RE9, that's bad storytelling. And I actually trust the current writing staff at Capcom to know that and stick to the script. But who knows, they could always make a fool of me in the end.

I also don't know where "Capcom prefers the characters to stay single" even comes from. I've never seen a source, never read a quote, never been linked to an interview. I'm pretty sure it's shit that fans made up because they're salty their ship isn't canon yet lmao

Thanks a ton for your insights. They've really helped me get more out of the games and improve my own analysis. I'll definitely support you on Kofi! 💖

<3333333333 I don't have a functioning Ko-Fi currently, but I appreciate the sentiment all the same.

#resident evil #leon kennedy #ada wong

[agonycrossbow]

Translation Discussion: Did the RE2make devs say that they were building up to a more realistic romance between Leon and Ada in an eventual RE6make?

To put it simply: No. They didn't.

The line of dialogue in question is:

原作に急にお互いを好きになりすぎてておかしいって話しになったんですよね。もうちょっと順番があるだろうってね

which has commonly been interpreted as:

"It wasn't realistic that Leon and Ada fell in love immediately. So, we wanted to make sure they had more interactions first."

Which... is close. But implies something about a long-term vision that was never actually said. @godtier was nice enough to go through the translation of this quote piece by piece.

At the time that I asked for this translation and we were talking about it, I didn't say anything about what I know personally about the remakes' development.

But in addition to this translation, here's some context that a lot of people in this fandom seem to be missing.

This was said in an interview specifically about RE2make just after the game went gold. And at that time, there were no plans to develop RE4make in-house. RE4make was originally going to get outsourced to M-Two. Capcom only pulled it back in after RE3make drew heavy criticism, because M-Two were the devs on RE3make.

To be specific, the quote from the RE2make devs happened in 2019. RE4make got pulled back in-house in 2021.

So at the time this interview was given, there's no possible way that the devs could have been talking about an eventual RE6make, because they did not expect to be the ones working on an RE6make, if one was even ever going to be made at all -- because they didn't even expect to end up working on RE4make.

Which is interesting when you see that the quote in question "seems like a post-mortem."

In fact, the RE2make devs very coyly omitted any confirmation or denial of Leon and Ada's romance still existing at all in the remake-verse.

This is why it's so important to look at the original Japanese before actually throwing around "the devs said." That's how games of telephone happen, misinformation gets spread, and really nasty fights break out.

This is something that RE fandom is guilty of a lot, as seen in the other huge misunderstanding with regards to Leon and Ashley's relationship in RE4make.

So be careful out there.

Just something to keep in mind.

#RE development history #aeon analysis #reisdent evil fandom commentary

[superthatguy62]

Things Final Fantasy III does not tell you about Final Fantasy III.

When it comes to RPGs, information that the player has is far from a guarantee. Some games will tell players practically everything about their systems and leave it to the player to use that information. Others will leave some mechanics in the background, quietly applying them without the player's knowledge. The Final Fantasy III remake falls into the latter category, as there are some mechanics that the player may not realize even exist unless they look outside of the game. Here are seven of them.

This is based on the Future Press Official Strategy Guide. As far as SGs go, it seems pretty close to the Japanese SE guide (baring at least one case).

Party Member Levels (Life of the Party)

While temporary party aren't directly controllable, they seem to have their own levels and stats. Interestingly the Future Press strategy guide states that they also have stats. Though I should clarify: At this time, I have yet to find these in the Japanese strategy guide, so I am not entirely sure that these are accurate. However, the FP guide in general is close to the Japanese guide in terms of technical information, so I am willing to accept that risk.

These are:

Sara: Lv 5 (Str/Vit/Agi/Min: 6, Int: 7)

Cid: Lv 3 (Str/Agi: 5, Vit/Int/Min: 8)

Desch: Lv 10 (Str: 15, Vit: 10, Agi: 14, Int: 7, Min: 6

Aria: Lv 25 (All: 25)

Alus: Lv 30 (All: 35)

Doga/Unei: Lv 50 (All: 45)

Some observations:

The guide notes that the characters stats are usually significantly higher than the main characters' at the same levels. This is especially noticeable with Alus (The party's base stats, by compare, will be: Str/Agi: 24, Vit/Min/Int: 20)

Cid is the only party member to be weaker than the character before him (Sara), presumably due to how little time the party spends with him. He does have an impressively strong hammer, though.

Despite being portrayed as a White Mage, Sara's Int (7) is slightly higher than her Min (6).

It seems that after Desch, the devs kinda gave up with making varied stats, so Aria, Alus, Doga and Unei have the same number for all their stats.

Coincidence or otherwise, Aria's stat number also matches her level.

Doga and Unei share the same levels and stats as each other, a distinction no other party member has. For extra fun, Xande is also level 50, although his actual stats are unfortunately but understandably different.

Alus, a 10 year old boy is somehow twice as strong as Desch, a grown man.

Mognet Details (Stampin' N Stompin')

Most of Mognet's discussion usually begins and ends with it being connected to the sidequests. Because of this, there are a few features of Mognet that go undernoticed.

One particular aspect is the cards: For meeting the Legendary Smith with a mastered job and defeating the Iron Giant, the party can get cards signifying their mastery.

(I have yet to defeat the Iron Giant. I apologize for being a fraud).

In the PSP and Steam versions, these cards are mostly just rewards. In the DS version, however, they can be used as stamps for Mognet. And while the Iron Giant is purely to flaunt your superiority over the beast, the job mastery cards actually allow players to help out other players: If a player holding a signed letter runs into the Legendary Smith, she will give the player the respective job mastery item without having a level 99 job. While it doesn't break the game, due to how late it is before you can encounter the Smith, it does cut down on the grind you'd need if you wanted those items.

Encounter Frequency (Fights in the A.M. P.M. F.M.)

In Octopath Traveler, a later game by Team Asano, entering a new location will usually show you a danger level, giving you a general idea of how strong the enemies in that area are. While the mechanic is visible in OT, it was actually deployed discreetly in Final Fantasy III: Each area has a level that the guides recommend the player be at. However, the game itself uses a more subtle method: If your party is below the recommended level, the encounter rate will be higher than usual. By contrast, the further above the recommended level that the party is (up to six levels), the lower the encounter rate will be.

For example: The Nepto Shrine has a Danger Level of 10. If the party made it to the Shrine at level 7, then they will likely encounter more enemies than they would at level 10. By contrast, at level 16, they will have a chance at encountering the least amount of enemies.

Attack Types (SMASH! SLASH! STAB!)

In Final Fantasy III, elemental weaknesses are clear and easily implied by the fact that Mages have themed spells. However, the game also has a second, subtle weakness system: Attack Types, the physical counterpart.

The four attack types are

Unhanded: Despite the name, Claws are also included

Blow: Weapons that focus on slamming or bludgeoning the foe

Cut: Weapons that actually cut the foe, like Swords

Stab: Weapons that stab or have a stab-like effect, like Arrows

Interestingly, some weapons aren't mutually exclusive: Axes count for both blows and cuts, Knives count for both stabs and cuts and Unarmed counts for both Unhanded and Blow.

Hands (The Hands of Fate)

The Hand stat is a secret stat that the game silently keeps track of for each character. The hand stat represents how many times a physical attack has been made with a particular hand, the hand getting 3 XP for each use. Much like job levels only one hand level can be gained per battle, regardless of how many points are racked up. Theoretically, if you can have hands of different levels, although given how much III encourages dual-wielding, it's unlikely.

The FP guide recommends using the Ranger's barrage if you want to build up the hand stat, as that is a multi-hit attack that nonetheless counts each hit for the hand.

Weight (The Weight of the World)

Weight is not a new mechanic to Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy V, in particular has the stat help to determine who quickly a character acts (i.e. how fast the ATB bar fills up). However, V is the rare game where the game will actively inform the player of its existence. Other games in the series have it, including III (at least, in the remake).

Weight, along with Agility, determines how soon a character will act during the turn, as well as how many hits a character does (alongside the aforementioned Hand stat). This is why a Warrior with an axe will generally hit less than a Warrior with a sword, despite having higher attack. Interestingly magic also has weight to it with spells having a specific weight/cast time to it.

Boss Scripts (Script Write)

Bosses changing strategy mid-fight has been a Final Fantasy staple since at least Final Fantasy IV (Zeromus, for example, only starts to spam Meteo when he's close to dying), so the FF3 remake isn't particularly new or original for using this. Still, it's something to be aware of in case you make a particular fight harder than it needs to be.

A likely candidate for this is actually the final boss: While the Cloud of Darkness uses Particle Beam (and spams it during the last phase), it actually doesn't use the move until it's down to 80% of its HP, using the less threatening standard attack instead. This means that a player willing to take some turns to lower the danger can focus on the tentacles, which are the more immediate threat.

#final fantasy iii #ffiii #ff3 #final fantasy 3 #final fantasy #Game Mechanics #Tips #Desch #Sara Altney #Cid Haze #Doga #Unei #Alus Restor #Cloud of Darkness #Square Enix #Future Press