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yaeggravate · 5 months

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Theory: Kaeya's Mom is a Scion of Nabu Malikata

you know it's funny how we've gotten zero information about the other half of kaeya's family… unless??

warning: slight crack

Kaeya: According to the merchant I bought it from, mysterious spirits called Jinn often live in lamps like this, and this lamp in particular once housed a very powerful Jinni.

in kaeya's hangout, we are gifted a mysterious lamp. kaeya says the merchant who sold it to him claims it once housed a powerful jinni. this lamp is called Mysterious Lamp of Fate Ordained. (remember this.) kaeya then explains what the jinn are as if he just discovered brand new information which is odd because kaeya has told klee a story about a jinni trapped in a lamp before.

aforementioned story is a reference to the story of The Fisherman and the Jinni from One Thousand and One Nights and also to the in-game book The Shepard and the Magic Bottle, a four star quest item that permanently stays in your inventory.

both stories concern a jinni being freed from a magic bottle upon which they grant three wishes. curiously, kaeya uses the last wish of the in-real-life story instead of the game's. in his version, the jinni gets trapped, in the book of the game, the jinni stays freed.

Kaeya: He said to the Jinni, "Wait, how could your massive body fit inside such a small bottle? I won't ever believe it unless I see with my own eyes!" The Jinni became angry, and said, "Mwahaha. Foolish boy, you dare question my powers!?" The Jinni then returned inside the bottle and the boy swiftly sealed it shut.

The Shepard and the Jinni The young man hesitated for a moment, and asked the last question. "What's it like to live in a bottle?" Seemingly having never heard of such a question before, the spirit was slightly surprised before she answered slowly.

strangely enough, it's not the first time kaeya has been connected to lamps. in the furniture description for Trusty Portable Lamp he went around telling children that the souls of fireflies are trapped inside lamps.

No thanks to the Cavalry Captain's jests, a rather morbid children's tale exists in Mondstadt concerning these lamps. The nuns have had to explain to the kids that no, these lanterns do not contain the imprisoned souls of fireflies.

furthermore, his ascension material is The Spirit Locket of Boreas. probably just another coincidence but nothing can ever be taken for granted when it involves this guy. perhaps all of these strange associations with imprisoned spirits is foreshadowing something bigger, who knows.

still, in the context of his hangout, kaeya's gift being a lamp is actually pretty random compared to gifts of other companions.

so i started thinking, the play and the intaglio showed us his ties to the alberich clan while the other routes showed his ties to mondstadt so it stands to reason that we should have hints towards the unknown maternal side of his family right? could this be the lamp?

before we dive into crack territory let me explain what the jinn are first. they're spirits born from night-blue water lilies that were nourished by nabu malikata's blood. jinn can take the appearance of blobs like dori's spirit or that of humans, and they can even reproduce with them as seen with everyone's most behated lamp, liloupar.

we have no idea how kaeya seemingly dodged the curse but what if he was blessed by a jinni? maybe someone made a contract with a jinni and this is how he's able to age normally. it could even be connected to his lucky coin that can land on any side he wishes. if guoba can be a stove god, it's not too far-fetched to think the coin could house some kind of spirit.

Kaeya: Of course, this whole arrangement hinges on a preexisting amount of trust between the two of us. I can't just get any strange coins to listen to me.

also, liloupar said something interesting about jinn being able to take someone's pain away from them:

Jeht: Can Jinn feel pain too? Liloupar: The Jinn have little need for a vessel, and even less need for senses. But should we begin to connect with others… Then we will take from them their pain… Even should we not comprehend the source of it.

who knows, perhaps this could even extend to a curse.

moving on to the good stuff:

these tcg cards show an unknown woman wearing the Vourukasha's Glow artifact set that is associated with nabu malikata. her outfit resembles nilou's outfit, which is modeled after nabu malikata's, but is noticeably lacking the horns nabu malikata was said to have.

the description for this card is Scions of Khvarena, which means that this lady is most likely just a follower or heir of nabu malikata.

(however, columbina, who is very likely to be a seelie survivor like nabu malikata, has bits of dark pink hair and is also lacking the horns, meaning we can't exactly determine that this woman isn't nabu malikata.)

in any case, the loading screen for khvarena is also called Scions of the Khvarena and it tells us something interesting: that khvarena can dwell inside humans.

Scions of the Khvarena Thanks to the nourishment of the Amrita, the Khvarena split apart to manifest countless forms. Some can find themselves dwelling within individual humans, while others might develop an awareness of their own…

khvarena are spirits that can purify abyssal corruption. they were created by nabu malikata. another interesting bit of trivia is that khvarena used to be localized as Soul Light.

taking a gander here but what if this lady and other human heirs of the khvarena are people who have the khvarena inside of them? i have actually speculated about this before that kaeya's mother might have had khvarena inside of her which ended up neutralizing or suppressing kaeya's curse.

you see, khvarena can reverse the effects of the abyss. and it was said that the oasis could cure all ills. though i should add, it probably isn't very effective on khaenri'ahns who are already cursed, as we've seen with dainsleif who was actually there recovering at the amrita pool but is still zombified.

(khvarena is green energy, and what i found curious is that the lamp kaeya gives you actually emits green smoke when you touch it. kaeya's favorite drink is death after noon, which is green due to the absinthe within. in literature, absinthe is known as The Green Fairy...)

to me, the most intriguing part is that khvarena is based on khvarenah, the divine royal glory.

Khvarenah is an Avestan word for a Zoroastrian concept literally denoting "glory" or "splendour" but understood as a divine mystical force or power projected upon and aiding the appointed. The neuter noun thus also connotes "(divine) royal glory", reflecting the perceived divine empowerment of kings. The term also carries a secondary meaning of "(good) fortune"; those who possess it are able to complete their mission or function.

when you read this, does it not remind you of kaeya's character? we all know by now that kaeya is associated with nobility/royalty, and good fortune (with his lucky coin and some of his dialogue).

Mona: Kaeya Alberich? He's a Pavo Ocellus. Destined for greatness and grandeur… and to hide ugly realities behind a layer of charm and elegance. He believes he has made a clean break with his past, but one day fate will catch up with him. When it does, he will have a major decision to make.

we don't know what kaeya's name is derived from, but it could be from the legendary Kayanians, who were also said to possess khvarenah!

anyway, back to the scions, i think it's possible that the following tribes are the scions of khvarena.

The matriarchs of the Tanit, Uzza, Shimti, and other tribes besides all refer to themselves as "Daughters of the Flower Goddess."

the Flower Goddess is nabu malikata who also calls the khvarena daughter of flowers, meaning these tribes are very likely to be the scions.

"My Khvarena, daughter of flowers…"

and like the lady on the card, matriarch babel of the tanit tribe has light pink hair.

(though, as a reminder, unbeknownst to her, babel was not actually born into the tanit tribe so we can't use her as a reference as she most likely did not have the blessing of khvarena, which is what i suspect is the reason she had to use poor JEHT.)

unfortunately, there's zero information about the other two tribes but shimti caught my eye here.

Ashima was a West Semitic goddess of fate related to the Akkadian goddess Shimti ("fate"), who was a goddess in her own right but also a title of other goddesses such as Damkina and Ishtar.

shimti means fate!!!

FATE!!

mysterious lamp of fate ordained!!!!

peacock accessories, gold accents and dead mom sidebraid!!!!

Traveler: I never knew you could inherit eye patches. Kaeya: My! (Traveler), how could you not know such common knowledge! This is no different from children inheriting their hairstyle from their parents!

kaeya last name shimti REAL you heard it here first-

ok you can laugh now but wouldn't it be nice if kaeya's mom turned out to be a pretty pink haired lady who is a descendent of nabu malikata? i think it would be nice 😌.

#.txt #lore bytes #kaeya alberich #who is kaeya's mom #where is kaeya's mom #WHY NO KAEYA MOM!!!

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dyedcomrade · 1 year

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Dark! Jack Krauser headcanons

i think after operation Javier he'd be so broken mentally and emotionally that at first for a long time he shuts off all human connections

but after some time he will latch onto anyone who shows him kindness and will want to get fullfillment by that one person he chooses as his darling - no other people, only his loved one

you can be a nurse or another kind of healthcare worker he met while going back for checkups. a shop assistant who was very helpful, a pizza delivery person who smiled at him. it will be just an everyday human interaction - but to him it will be so new after decades in the military. even on his free days he did mercenary work, because he tought he was a brute and did so many horrible things that noone would ever accept him back into society. he reeked of the blood he shed, it's just natural to isolate someone who is this violent, this dangerous.

but not you. you treated him like you would any other person. maybe even better? you had a good day or he was just an especially chill patient/customer/etc. and you were happy that for at least once someone isn't trying to make your work harder than it should be.

he is no stranger to covert tactics. means he will manage your kidnap smoothly. there will be no signs pointing to that it even happened. he will also take any personal item he thinks you will need in the first two weeks of your stay with him. that time is crucial in his mind for you to settle in.

he only recently bought his house after getting discharged. it's very bittersweet to him, as he always wanted the american dream, a white picket fence, suburban life - all his life unknowinlgy maybe, but he fought for it, physically and mentally as well. and he deserves it. after sacrificing everything he had, it's the least. he doesn't feel entitled to it, but he will be very confused and sad if you fight back.

at first you will be bound and in his basement - him with you almost the entire time. the place is very clean and polished. he tried to make it comfortable with a new matress, a portable heater and several pillows and blankets for you. you also have a little basket with food he tought you'd like. he talks to you every day. about his life so far, his interests and his intentions with you. even if you seem accepting at first he won't let his guard down. he makes sure you can no way hurt him or yourself or escape. he'd love for you to talk with him, but it's not always necessary. he understands it's a tough time for you.

if you are especially unruly he will forcefeed you sedatives.

while in this position he baths you every day himself and you really only have to call for him and every of your needs are taken care of. he will make you any food you ask for - for that time he brings you up to the kitchen, but don't expect to be able to move an inch he is kind of experienced in securing stronger and bigger people than you. also if he finds you can't be trusted with utensils he will feed you as well. he may just get used to it and want to do this for you after you get familiar with your new life and doesn't wanna push him away the moment your hands are free.

he is very sweet in all the things he does for you. after all he knows he has to kill this one with kindness. and he is in for the long game, the results are just simply better if he is patient and doesn't punish you yet for acting out.

if you take an especially long time to accept your fate he will get a breakdown. not an angry one, though. not many people have seen him cry, but you will get an exclusive version. ugly crying for hours. not to make you pity him, no strain of toughts like this ever crossed his mind. it's genuine and a lot. life is treating him so poorly and the only one he thoght could trust is treating him like a monster! is that all he really is? were you playing a cruel joke on him formerly? he will hold you close while trying to calm himself down. he still has someone he can protect, you are alive and he has a chance for normalcy. just like he dreamt of as a kid.

by this time it's impossible your stockholm syndrome, pity or compassion havent struck. and he will see it. the little signs of acceptance, the way you start to care for him. if you behave he will unbind you and lead you up to the living area, show you around his house. it's very tidy and cozy. clean as well aside from one room he just uses as storage. you can't go there though. it's locked tight too, even more securely than all the windows and doors that could possibly serve you as an escape.

he may show you once his old photos, medals and the dogtags of his fallen comrades if you ask. but please be understanding it's hard for him. you should reassure and comfort him after. the rest of that day he will spend cradled in your arms.

he put cameras in everywhere - not like his days aren't free to spend with you, just in case.

with the new freedom you have comes the possibility for you to have some entertainment. Jack will probably be in the middle of trying to find a new hobby and will be glad to try out yours. only indoor ones of course. you can also watch tv with him or play video games. he doesn't have a strong preference for anything, will watch anything with you - with the exception of any movies or games about aoldiers, and he would be nice if you played shooting games on mute. don't want to trigger anything in him.

he may get a cat or a dog if you like the idea too and aren't allergic. if you go with the dog option, his backyard is big enough for them to play in, but he'd love for the three of you to go on long walks as well.

full freedom can be achieved with him, as he wants to be somewhat delusional with his darling and the level of devotion you have for him.

but you don't want to leave him. he is a broken man with noone left to love. why would you be so cruel?

if he is sure you won't try to pull anything on him, he may let you back to your job and he will try to find one as well. staying for so long at home is boring. he may go back to mercenary work and at this point he may have contacted Wesker as well about his condition. although you can be a very big inhibiting force for him turning to terrorism. he doesn't want to lose you by getting involved in anything, and for sure doesn't want to get too far from the place you live in.

other headcanons, that may be too specific for some

he has an ambiguous feeling about kids. he would love some, but if you can't get pregnant or don't want to he will let it go. if anything would happen during the pregnancy to you or the kid that sure would be the last straw.

the first time he would mention sex is after you gain his trust and he lets you out to roam the house. he can arrange a marriage if it's something you feel is necessary before laying with him. he makes sure that he wears protection - he doesn't really know after fighting b.o.w.s what he may carry that he may be immune to but you aren't and he doesn't want to infect you. if you are a virgin and trust him with your first time, let alone first relationship, he will be stunned and nervous a bit. that is the only time he will be doubting this relationship. is he sure the guy to introduce you to intimacy? is he even good at it? he didn't have any long term relationship ever. he will, however, be very gentle and attentive the first time. it won't be forced and will encourage you to tell him everything on your mind, even if you think it sounds stupid.

#dark jack krauser #dark resident evil

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sonic7ischaos · 9 months

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Man, thinking about Dragonball's capsule tech, makes me wish Toriyama hadn't gone all powerscale-y on everything like he did. Like, even more than I already did.

I can imagine a version of the series where Bulma stays relevant, carrying around entire labs and workshops in her pocket, building weapons and augmentations for the group. Portable gravity rooms and exo-suits. Scouters for characters who can't sense ki. A version of the story where, like One Piece, Toriyama planned out the ending from the very start, and built consistently towards that with Buu, foreshadowing the whole time.

Like, I love Dragonball don't get me wrong, but it introduces some cool ideas and characters and then lets them stagnate. The original fighters from OG Dragonball should've been keeping up with the Saiyans to varying degrees. Bulma is Goku's first friend and now she's relegated to background support for the Saiyans, specifically Goku and Vegeta, most of the time. Gohan's missed potential as end of series protagonist stepping into Goku's shoes is well worn territory for a reason. Not that it's not good for Gohan as an individual that he got to retire from fighting and become a scholar, just that it's bad for the structure of the story as a whole that it gets set up that way, and then despite all the talk of passing the torch to future generations with Gohan, Goten, and Trunks, Goku and Vegeta swoop in at the last minute to steal the show, relatively speaking anyway, it's a long series, "last minute" is literal 10s of episodes.

Bulma and the earthlings, besides Mr. Satan, basically have no effect on the plot whatsoever after a certain point, but they should be getting transformations and new techniques too, always striving to keep up with Goku...until he's gone and then it becomes a way for them to carry on part of his legacy. Tien vs. Semi-Perfect Cell at least should serve as a wake up call and push the gang to catch up with all the Saiyans.

It even seems like he was setting something like that up in the Namek Saga by sending them all to King Kai's, where they too should be learning his techniques and catching up to Goku. Watching things unfold on Namek, maybe they adopt King Kai's techniques, and develop their own complimentary moves. Tien could improve the split-form technique and make it not divide his strength by modifying the Kaio-ken, as a literal off the top of my head idea.

Having them more or less be on Goku's level and STILL getting their shit kicked in by the androids, and having them play a greater role in the ensuing conflict would've made things that much more tense and dramatic. You could still have Tien's badass moment against Cell, a way to really hammer home how much danger they're all in if it's taking someone on par with Goku this much effort just to hold him in place and he's only in his SECOND form. It makes the Vegeta and Trunks leaving the hyperbolic time chamber all that much more a big deal because we're seeing just how much stronger than Super Saiyan the ascended form really is, by having the comparison to the fighters more or less on Goku's level.

Just...I dunno. I've looked for fanfics and fan comics that work to make Dragonball a little more cohesive and consistent, but I haven't really found anything.

Anyway, I digressed a lot here, my initial intent was to just talk about how fucking cool Capsule tech is, both conceptually, and in the ways that it could serve the worldbuilding and aesthetics if we were informed by the narrative of Bulma's loadout and limitations, make it more relevant to planning and fight strategy. Watching a reaction to Super, she pulls out a warehouse with a lab in it in Trunks' future and it got me thinking of how cool it'd be if she'd been able to do that sort of on the fly preparation on Namek y'know? Have someone who relies on tech rather than Ki to fight and get around factor into dealing with Frieza and his forces, outfitting Gohan and Krillin, and eventually Vegeta with armor and tools to help them overcome the power difference between them and Frieza's army, as an idea.

#dragonball #akira toriyama #worldbuilding #character writing #capsule corp #bulma #power scaling #storytelling #background characters #son gohan #son goku #vegeta #tien shinhan #yamcha #krillin #frieza #cell #majin buu

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inventors-fair · 7 months

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It's a Bird, It's a Plane - Commentary

Surprise! I actually did something on time (or at all) for once! Let's get zany and plane-y!

@wolkemesser — Shard of the Twelve Worlds Okay, so flavorfully I really like this. For those that don't know, the Shard of the Twelve Worlds was a byproduct of the Sylex blast that created a barrier around Dominaria and a few other planes that restricted planeswalking. However, restricting the planar die this heavily seems to me like taking all the fun out of the format. In addition, I'm not entirely sure why it has you sacrifice creatures to roll the die.

@aethernalstars — Rifts Unseamed So, here's where I have to come clean. With planechase, there are two main ways to play it. The first way is with each player having a planar deck that they own. The second way is a variant way, where there is a central planar deck. Admittedly, I've only played the latter, and I'm aware that the variant version is how most planechase players play. Because of that, and the fact I didn't take time to post a warning about the variant rule, I'm going to treat this card as if it said "your planar deck" or "the planar controller's planar deck," and apologize profusely. But anyways, I really like this card, as well as the flavor. Yeah, the second recorded instance of the MtG equivalent of a nuke would probably re-open some of the rifts that the first blast had. I love the way that this kind of nullifies some of the effects of planes, while amplifying others.

@salamileg — Vriox, Omenpath Ravager I really like the flavor of this, a rollicking satyr that was formerly a follower of Xenagos, acting upon an opportunity to follow in his footsteps. I think one thing to be wary of is that there's an impetus here to stack your deck with as many chaos abilities that tell you to planeswalk afterwards, so that a planeswalk puts up to 5 or more counters on Vriox. In addition, I think reminder text would really help on that first ability, just to make sure players understand when the chaos ability occurs.

@greensunzenith — Portable Beacon This is a wonderful design. Flavorful, well executed, and simple. I especially like how the loyalty ability is only rolling the die, while sacrificing the beacon is a definite planeswalk. The only thing I would maybe change is resticting the latter ability to sorcery speed, since there seems to be precedence in making sure planechase actions are all sorcery speed (without the help of outside cards at least.)

@little-red-rabbit — Cliffs of Ot For those wondering why this says "Plane Land," it's just because of limitations with MTG.Design. I love this, it's clear that you had a design motivation you wanted to follow, and I think having the telepathy ability goes well with the preestablished lore. A few things to note, I believe that the plane should be Alara, just because that's what the Bant, Esper, etc. planes have as a subtype. In addition, adding the cards in each player's hands is a lot to track. I would probably still play this though, just to steal my opponent's sol ring.

@flowrot — Hellrider's Canyon Hooooooooooooooooooo-wheeeeeee, this is playing on my biases so hard, and I love it for that. I'm super excited for Thunction, and I think that this plane making blood tokens is a perfect way to encapsulate a dangerous ride that could really help or really hurt. The one thing I would change is I would add a condition that gives each player Blood tokens, given that this card in a vacuum assumes you're the one that will be rolling chaos, and only does something on planeswalking to it.

@walker-of-the-yellow-path — Fractal Reality As someone who was ecstatic when The Master, Multiplied was revealed, this phenomenon excites me. In addition to any shenanigannery you can pull with this, it also plays on the multiplayer aspect of Planechase in a fun way. I really like the use of Chaotic Aether's wording too. The only issue that I see, is that this could just be a plane on its own? It would make more sense, and you would be able to add a chaos ability and maybe some planar flavor for Karsus or Xerex or maybe even Arcavios.

@grornt — Golos, Omenpath Explorer This is an amazing use of a character we've already seen, and it encourages playing into Planechase mechanics. A part of me worries that straight WUBRG without tap is a bit too cheap for a plane tutor, and I'd like to see that as a sorcery since instant Planechase-ing seems to be resticted to two-card combos.

@spooky-bard — Errant Arrester Oh Garleth, we're really in it now. This is super flavorful, and I think that it's good enough that it would even see play outside of Planechase. The ability makes you think twice about rolling, but the fact that it only hits a single target balances it out enough that I could see this in whatever the next planechase product will be (fingers crossed).

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes — Chaos Engulfes All I'm slightly torn on this one. Technically, this breaks the trend of single cards only doing Planechase things, which I'm against. But, it does it in such an orderly way that I'm not sure it matters? The bigger issue I have with this card it the second part, which would make it the third card that cares about next main phase without it specifying "this turn" or being an attack trigger. It's not something we see often, for good reason.

@lanabutnotdelray — Foraline, Royal Pilgrim I like this. It's not too exploratory, but it's nice and simple, perfect for newer players to explore Planechase with. Nice work.

@batatafilosofal — Planar Binding I like the idea of this card. An O-ring effect that's tied to Planechase mechanics. Love it. Not sure whether or not the "a permanent" is intentional, as that means it can exile those with hexproof. I'd also like to see a nonland clause in that, just because I can see a scenario where someone ramps into planeswalking to this phenomenon, and restricts other players from planeswalking away from it.

@genericaura — Deghir, Omenpath Rampager I think that this is really good. Technically not sorcery speed on the Planechase actions, but given it's tied to combat damage, I'm not worried about it. The body is really good, and the upside makes me think this should maybe just be a 5/5, but what do I know.

@just--a--penguin — Planar Scrying Interesting. Six mana is about where drawing four cards gets you, so that's alright. I also like the not-really-scrying of the top four of your planar deck. It helps you plan for the future, while also leaving room for something to go wrong (5/6 sides of the planar die are specifically not planeswalk, so).

@fractured-infinity — Omenpath Investigator//Interplanar Adventurer Alright, so I'm not so hot on the instant speed Planar die. I like the once per turn clause, but doing that on an opponent's turn is kind of iffy given how precence has been set. I like the methodical nature of this though. You're pretty much ensured to switch faces along with planeswalking and chaos ensueing. The growth spiral on the front is nice too, letting you ramp into more rolling.

@deg99 — Runestone Omenpath This is interesting, with the first and last abilities affecting the entire table. A very group-hug card, but with the added benefit of letting you planeswalk. I like it! Not sure why it's a legend though.

@snugz — Dack, Destiny Deviant Okay, so technically this doesn't meet the standards of the contest, since there's nothing on it that interacts with Planechase specifically. I still think that this is a really good card to put in a Planechase deck though, since it doubles up your dice abilities, and helps out with making sure you get either Chaos or Planeswalk when you need it. The grouphug +1 is also a nice touch, playing off the multiplayer nature of the format.

@nine-effing-hells — Pandemonium Cantor This is interesting. I'm not entirely sure what the point of this card is, but it certainly is chaotic. I think that the first ability needs reminder text that tells players whether or not the chaos ability of the former or latter plane triggers, and the second ability is chaos just for the sake of chaos. I think if this was at my table I might just kill it to make sure I can keep my chaos abilities.

@mmmmmin — Bottled Plane This is really cool, I super like the idea of taking a plane card coming up and either keeping it for later, or just shelving it cause it's not useful. I have a few minor corrections in terms of syntax. I would have it reveal cards, because I'm not entirely sure you can draw cards from the planar deck. I also would make the exile clause be like, "when this card leaves the battlefield, put all cards exiled with Bottled Plane on top of your planar deck in any order," and the sacrifice thing be the planeswalk. That way it's still functionally the same, but uses some updated wording to make it run a tad better.

@coolcoolcooltighttightight — Quintorius, Avid Explorer This is a really cool Quintorius card, and I love the inclusion of blue to represent his stepping in for Rootha during the Phyrexian Invasion. I also think the last clause is super nice, cause who doesn't want an Elephant lad as a commander? I do kind of think that the abilities are a bit much though. Like, there's the Planechase mechanics, surveil, and investigate all on one card. All of these together are a lot to take in. Technically all of these are deciduous (apart from the Planechase but shhh), but it kind of explodes in my face. Big ups on making the -3 abillity give incentive to rolling the planar die, as well as the "chaos ability" and +2 play off of Lorehold's whole schtick.

----

HOLY CRAP. This was a lot. I loved seeing all of your cards, and I hope that y'all are proud of what you made. In addition, I really hope that y'all enjoy the next contest, which was posted while I was typing this out. Seems like y'all aren't done planeswalking anytime soon!

Cheers! -@gollumni

#mtg #magic the gathering #inventor's fair #custom magic card #it's a bird it's a plane #commentary

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spookiestmothintown · 2 months

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Ok I have a dilemma and once again I'm turning to tumblr to make decisions for me.

I started playing Persona 3 a while ago when it was on gamepass, but they removed it. I want to download the game so I can keep playing, but there are so many different versions I don't know which one I should go with now. So...

Context for my preferences under the cut if you’re wondering.

The version I started playing was Portable. I was specifically playing as Femc. I started out playing as male mc but I didnt really like it so I restarted. I greatly prefer the Femc dialogue, social links, not being forced into romance, etc. Femc is Portable's main selling point for me.

Some background info:

I've heard FES is the most "complete" version (has 3D enviroments, cutscenes, etc) and also has an epilogue chapter where you play as Aigis. This seems like the "definitive" version of the game for all intents in purposes. Again, the only thing giving me pause is the lack of femc.

Please dont vote for Reload. I'm including it as an option for completion's sake, but if it wins I'm going to ignore it and play the runner-up instead. Frankly I think it looks like a cheap p5 knockoff and I definitely dont want it to be my first experience with p3. If I wanted p5 gameplay, I'd play p5.

I wasn't very far into the game. I think I was just past the part about Fuuka and the ghost story.

No spoilers please. I don't know anything about the story past what I've played.

#i have emulators btw so thats not an issue #i saw someone making a femc mod for FES but its nowhere near complete unfortunately #persona 3 #persona 3 fes #persona 3 portable #p3

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callmearcturus · 1 year

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What made you choose the odin over other similar game boxes?

GREAT question because there are a LOT of options out there, I even did a big post about them a while ago when folks were curious.

I actually started out with a Retroid Pocket 2+ as my first device. I hugely enjoyed it, played a bunch of DS games on it as well as a lot of PSX games. I think the current iteration of it, the Retroid Pocket 3+, is an excellent pick if you want a midtier device. At this point, the RP3+ is like a Odin Lite Lite.

My issue with my RP2+ was that I really wanted the ability to stream games from my PC, because I am a pirate yo ho ho and I wanted access to that much more robust library. Also, my interest in the Dreamcast/Gamecube/PS2 console generation is at its peak right now and that's the library I want to play comfortably.

So when I got a bonus from work, I bit the fucking bullet and got the AYN Odin Lite, because it also happened to be like 50$ off at the time.

(Oooh, which it currently is right now too, go figure!)

For the curious, I loaded my RP2+ with literally as many games as I could stuff into the things and I gave it to a friend as a gift.

I was worried that I wouldn't use the Odin enough to justify the purchase..... but then I immediately put like 20 hours into Pokemon Unbound and I completed Persona 3 Portable. And then I used Parsec to play the entirety of Persona 4 Golden and I am now 80 hours into Persona 5 Royal. And now I might spin up a playthru of SMT4 or the PS2 version of SMT 3 Nocturne, unsure.

Here's the reasons I like the Odin, even though its one of the pricier devices you can get:

Yes, it costs 200USD for the Lite model. But the Lite model does pretty much everything the more expensive Base and Pro models do with minimal compromises. Also for 200USD, you get extremely good components, very comfortable professional feeling buttons and joysticks-- like, this thing feels slightly better than a Switch Lite, honest to god. Unless you wanna dual boot Windows, you don't need more than the Lite.

It has Wifi 6 so it streams like a fucking dream. If the Odin itself can't handle emulating a game but my computer can, I can play flawlessly from Parsec. As I mentioned before, a few weeks ago I was sitting in a cute coffee shop literally like 25 miles away but was playing Persona 5 via Parsec. It also works natively with Game Pass streaming perfectly.

Even without streaming, this fucker is BEEFY. I personally love it for PSP games. Playing at 4x or 5x resolution makes the games look stunning.

My biggest problem with my CFW 3DS is the battery. I tend to play games for 4ish hours at a time, and then put the thing aside for a few days. With my 3DS, the thing will HAVE to be left plugged in or it will be dead by the next time I wanna play. This also means I can't just drop it into my bag to wait around for time to play, it'll inevitably be dead. My Vita and Odin can live in my bag for over a week before I have to worry about the battery. That is HUGE for me.

The Retroid Pocket 2+ very comfortably and ably played up to the DS and most Dreamcast games, but PSP was a crapshoot and even some PSX games weirdly could only run at x1, which was disappointing to me. The Odin Lite can play everything I want to play and as a bonus it can do what seems like half the 3DS library and about 40% of the PS2 library, which I would like to revisit.

Cracked devices and emulation are becoming a hobby of mine as everyone sans Microsoft works around the clock to make their enormous back catalogs fucking inaccessible. The fact the 3DS shop is closing soon pisses me off so much I can barely express it, I think that shit should be illegal. There are so many games and frankly works of art that are going to be completely inaccessible legally! FUCK THE ESA!

Point is, this stuff is important to me. I back up games I never intend to actually play on my external hard drive just in case. But out of all the devices I have played with, my favorites are easily the Odin and my cracked Vita. Both are miraculous, and I feel like I'm literally defeating my "hmmmmm what do I wanna play" indecision thanks to them.

That said, depending on your needs, I still think the Miyoo Mini and the Retroid Pocket 3+ (current iteration of Retroid) are excellent choices. As is a Vita! My god I love my Vita! I've never been a fan of any of the Anbernic devices and would avoid them.

#Anonymous #arc plays games #whoops long post

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novelcain · 1 year

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Hi, it’s me again, I had a couple of ideas, a couple are about possible bard reader, another is a musing for any reader, and the last is a general question.

1. Bards aren’t solely musicians, (from my dnd experience,) they also recite poems, ballads, and stories. So what if Reader tries to keep some of the more prone to boredom pilgrims by talking about various other myths and stories she might know? For example, she might’ve had an ancient Egypt or Greek mythology phase and still remembers a lot of those stories and when things are getting dull, she just goes like “Hey, wanna hear a funny story?” And then talk about Midas getting cursed with donkey ears. It manages to occupy the silence with something more interesting.

2. I’ve seen the Ruan being suggested as Reader’s instrument, but I wonder if anyone has considered the Xun. A xun is basically a small ceramic or wood instrument in the same family as the ocarina, but played slightly differently. They’re quite portable, and they could also make for a convenient “which one of these identical monkeys is Six Eared Macaque,” test. Nothing against the Ruan, just wanted to share. (Bonus: if the Reader likes the Zelda games, she could play some of those songs and most of them are either soothing or fun to dance to.)

2.5. Personally, I am an edgy girl, so if I chose to sing, it’d be like the early 2000s nu-metal songs from groups like Evanescence, Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, and all of that other stuff, so that’d be embarrassing.

3. How are she and Tripitaka going to stay warm in the winter? There were points in the book where it was stated to be snowing or at least very cold, and idk if Guanyin would give them coats or if they’d have to get one of the other pilgrims to beg for a couple of used old coats. If Guanyin did give them some, it’d be neat to see like a feather cloak or something along those lines as feathers (down) are very good at insulating and keeping one warm.

4. Given all of the times when Tripitaka either punishes Monkey too severely and/or kicks him out, I can imagine the Six Eared Macaque arc being the one where reader genuinely loses her patience and slaps the monk across the face. She doesn’t really even say anything, just turns to leave and if they say anything about how they need her to guide them, “well, you can figure it out for yourself, because I’m done putting up with your ‘holier than thou’ bullshit.” Then goes to find Wukong. Depends on if you want the one she finds to be the real one, trying not to cry, or if she runs into his doppelgänger. (Suppose we’ll have to wait and see.)

Have a good Sunday, Skittle!

-🌺 Anon

Hello again~

ok soooo i'm gonna admit that at first I had no idea what you were talking about but then I remembered that one of my followers did fanart with their version of Reader using a Ruan and I just wanna say that isn't canon it was just someone's art. anything that i post about ittw on here should be considered specifically not canon just for fun. i also won't answer any questions about what will happen in the future of any of my fics or au's (i know i'm a meanie😋). you can find all my ask rules on my pinned post 😊 (tho i might update them soon)

also everything about ittw was set in stone before i even began writing. nothing will change the plot even if i find an idea that i like (there was one idea from someone's fanart that i liked and i was thinking about using since it wouldn't effect the plot [after getting their permission] but i won't be doing that now because i don't want anyone to think i'm playing favorites or have a bunch of people try to get me to add their ideas as well. i've already had a bunch of people try to do that and it really stresses me out cause it's hard to stay nice in those situations) because of that (and i mean this in the nicest way possible i promise i'm not trying to sound like a jerk) i won't be taking any suggestions for plots unless i specifically ask for them🤗

I hope you have a great Sunday too, 🌺 Anon!

#🌺 anon #skittle answers

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seknots-izumimir · 3 months

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HOWS PERSONA GOING also i was wondering . if i should perhaps play these games . so which one would you recommend

I FORGOR TO ANSWER THIS BC U SENT IT WHEN I WAS EEPING AND THEN I HAD UNI im so sorry kai ily

persona is going good!!!!! im insane abt it as always.

OOOHHHHH YES YOU SHOULD IF THEY ARE A GENRE YOU ENJOY !! it's half life-sim and half turn-based combat dungeon crawler :) there's also an element of strategy cause you have elemental attacks and some enemies are weak to certain elements, which lets you act more on your turn <3

so !! you can start pretty much anywhere tbh? 1, 2:Innocent Sin & 2: Eternal Punishment (PLAYED IN THAT ORDER) are connected, but 3 4 & 5 are only connected by references to one another. (ie references to naoto from p4 and yukari from p3 show up on the news in p5, and a character is called "the second coming of the detective prince" and naoto was the first detective prince, but it's not stuff you need to know or anything)

so !! p1 and the 2 duology are. Old :) and very different. i'd say do Nyat START there but if you want to play them later on, feel free.

I'd personally say start with either 3 Reload or 5 Royal, just because both of those are the newest ones so they're the easiest to handle. HOWEVER you can also start with 4 Golden :) (you can also play 3 Portable or 3 FES but those are older and clunkier but i love them dearly)

also ! guide to game versions:

Persona 3 - base game p3, on the ps2 Persona 3 FES - "updated" edition of p3, including new personas, a new story segment, and some other QoL stuff, on the ps2 Persona 3 Portable - PSP version of P3, adds the female MC (minako i'll get you outta there) but makes the daytime/life sim sections flat and as i call it, "like a visual novel", but the dungeon is still full 3D, on the PSP, and also now on modern gen :) Notes: P3's dungeon is. annoying. and notoriously Very Grindy. also the bosses in it WILL wreck your shit.........

Persona 4 - base game p4, on the ps2 Persona 4 Golden - the "definitive" edition of P4, adds more to the story (you get a third semester), a new character(?? i think??) and some other QoL stuff, on the ps2 and now modern gen :) i got it on PC :3 Notes: The dungeons in P4 are a little more fun since they all have a unique theme, however they can also be just as annoying and grindy as P3's. tbh i disliked them more than i disliked p3's dungeon but alas

Persona 5 - base game p5, on the ps3 Persona 5 Royal - Updated P5, adds a third semester, more story, more lore to certain characters, NEW CHARACTERS, and a fuckton of QoL stuff. on the ps4 and xbox and pc now i think? Notes: P5R is the newest mainline game (excluding p3re) and is like. One Of The Best. the characters can be a little weak at times but i also adore them deeply :)

Also ! P3 Reload: Remake of Persona 3, makes the dungeon Less Annoying, puts everything in HD, adds more story and stuff, its soooo <3 i put this one separately bc it deserves its own league. also on the ps4+ps5. also xbox and pc i think?

#so. yeag. start with 5R or 3Re imo just because they'll give you the Best experience. personally my play order was 4 -> 3 -> 5 -> 1 so #i got 4 first bc it was the first one on pc; then 3 bc my dad had a copy of FES lying around and a backwards compatible ps3;#then 5 on the ps3 bc i was Obsessed with it; then 5R on the ps4 bc once again. obsessed with it; and now i have 3Re :)#also i bought 1 + P2: IS on PSP and have P2: EP on the ps3. i THINK.

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carlyraejepsans · 2 years

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hey, sorry for bothering you but i'm seriously considering starting to draw digitally (i have never drawn before except for when i was a little kid). i love your art so i was thinking if you would maybe give me some tips? about anything, really. like if i should at first just purely focus on the basis and nothing else, graphic program recommendations (preferably free or cheap ones since i'm not 100% sure if i'll actually keep drawing long-term), etc.

just anything that you think would be useful for me.

thank you a lot in advance

OOOH BOY where to start (｡・//ε//・｡)

it partly depends on whether you already know how to draw a little. I'm not saying you have to be good at it, but if you've already put some work into your traditional skillz it's going to help. oh also, if you do have some tradart background and you switch to digital? be prepared because with your first few drawings it's either going to be the best you've ever drawn or it's gonna feel like you're picking up a pencil for the first time in your life all over again. both of these stages are temporary, and generally settle on an equal middle ground in a few days, at least until your hand's gotten used to the medium

my FIRST chance at digital art? drawing with my finger on my phone. it's far from ideal, as you can probably guess, but it got the job done while i played around with the things only digital art could do. the next step, still on mobile devices, was getting one of those pens for writing on your phone. no pressure sensitivity, accuracy was still shite, but it did allow me to draw in a way that was more similar to how i drew traditionally. try to check if your device has compatibility with digital pen accessories, you might get one that's a bit more sophisticated than literally just a tube with a flat nib that works through normal touchscreen. i bought the sketchbook app back when it was still property of Autodesk. I haven't updated it since, so i have no idea how the new company is handling it, but it was a pretty solid app when i used it

if you already want to go full drawing tablet then DO NOT, for the love of god, DO NOT buy a screen tablet. i promise, drawing on a screenless one is in no way harder or more unnatural, you hand-eye coordination adapts to it very quickly. they're super cheap compared to screen tablets, more portable and better suited for a beginner. my first serius tablet was a wacom intuos back in the time when wacom partnered with clip studio paint, which was a DEAL because now i have a lifetime access to it despite having bought the tablet years ago and the PRO version of the program costing like 50 fucking dollars. definitely keep your eyes peeled if they do anything like that again because it's very much worth it, but if they don't you can also choose a cheaper brand. fuck wacom, go small corp.

for pc/laptop art programs your best bet in the open source scene is 100% krita. it has a couple of unique settings that make it weird to draw on for people who are used to "standard" professional art programs (which is the reason I don't go back to it anymore), but if you have no experience with any other art program, then absolutely go check it out, it won't be an issue. it's got a thriving community that keeps updating and adding stuff, so they're not gonna drop you off out of nowhere. as for the drawing itself? once again that's gonna depend on where in your art journey you are. it's been wayy too long for me to remember good videos for absolute beginners, but if you've got some of the bases down then proko and sinix design are some of the best teachers i can recommend wholeheartedly. i do have a couple more people on YouTube in mind, but I haven't seen their work in a while, so i wouldn't wanna risk sending you in the wrong direction.

one final tip that's worked out very well for me. y'know what's one of the best things you can watch? drawfee. animator vs cartoonist. pros animating in gartic phone. not only because karina and julia are the funniest motherfuckers on earth, but because seeing people's drawing process in real time (coupled with the sense of companionship of watching a group of friends have fun for your entertainment) actually puts you in the mindset to draw yourself and lets you study their work in a way that simply viewing the finished product never could.

trace trace trace, trace references, trace photos, trace art you like (but don't post it) and do it smartly ie try to figure out WHAT you're tracing, the shapes you're actually putting on paper and how they interact with one another and their environment. take your time, experiment with different techniques, take a break when you need to, watch your neck and back posture, draw from your your shoulders, not your wrist, those 30s "do this and this and this to draw this thing" style tutorials that don't explain the thought process behind those passages are a scam so fuck em, make mistakes make SO MANY MISTAKES, then learn from them, grow from them and make some more.

oh, and have fun, of course.

welcome to art :D

#ain't rereading all that so if you see typos no you didn't ✌🏻😗#good luck and have fun!#answered asks

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semi-imaginary-place · 6 months

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"what modern persona game should I play?"

Play both p3 and p5r eventually. P3 had better thematic execution and story, P5R is out right now, both are good games. I've been seeing P5R for half price over the last few months. I suppose it depends on how much you care about hype and trends, I don't and I've played P3 so I don't mind waiting a couple years until Reload is on sale. Between P3 FES and P5 Royal P3 is the better game, P5 has a bad habit of thematically shooting itself in the face constantly it doesn't know what it wants to say, P3 is much more coherent and has one of my favorite stories. Both have good casts, who you will like depends on you. P3 in tone is more somber and mature and that shows in the characters like even the jokey characters have something going on. P5 is more lively comparatively (though really I'd say P4 is the liveliest and youngest feeling). I like the character arcs of the P3 cast more as they are more integrated into the main plot. For p5 overall the writing quality is high and I found the story to be compelling so it has that going for it, but 3rd semester fleshes out Maruki, Akechi, and Yoshizawa so if you hate those 3 you might be annoyed at seeing them on screen.

On a note for P3, don't play Portable. If you are only going to play 1 version of P3, Portable is the worst one to choose. It has valuable content if you are already a p3 fan, but it cuts out the animated cutscenes which are the best directed cutscenes I have ever seen as well as removing the overworld which really takes away form the immersion and intractability of the world (it's replaced with a point and click image), it also makes some other changes that weaken the story and themes of p3. The animation direction of the og and FES cutscenes is a godly high tier art form and worth seeing. As of right now FES is the best version if you are only going to play P3 once. We will see about Reload but so far it looks to be promising for being the best version, for you I'd probably wait for Reload to play P3. (P3P makes sense for a switch port since it was designed for mobile platforms and the PSP but for a pc port i would have chosen FES. While i like the option for friendships on the female route, P3P also makes several changes that weaken the themes of P3.)

P4 is also a good game. I don't think Golden is that much better than vanilla since there's parts added I didn't like but it's not worse. P4 is my least favorite of the recent 3 main games. It hasn't aged well but if you look at it as a period piece for the culture of the mid-late 2000s it can be pretty interesting. P4 like P5 also has a habit of tripping over it's own themes and face planting into the ground.

The side games in general tend to be a step down from the main games (Arena, Strikers, Answer, Dancing etc. not sure about PQ just starting them). The Arena games and Persona Q both have spoilers for P3 so I'd advise playing P3 and P4 first. The stories to the Arena games were ok I guess but I didn't find them particularly compelling. The main concepts are fine but it takes a while to get to the juicy part. Arena is a split storyline visual novel sot hat's part of it. Really the draw to Arena is seeing the P3/4 characters which is a shame because they did some bizarre characterization choices, in general flattening/simplifying down their personalities, or like drastically changing characters personalities. Its enough that a good chunk of us ignore it as canon. The Arena games aren't that great storywise and some of the character writing is weirdly different than in the main games, like it is flat out bad. Strikers is good for a spinoff and is a good extension of p5 but it's not as good as and doesn't have nearly as much content as the main games.

#persona #p3 #persona 3 #p5 #p4

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hopeymchope · 1 year

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Persona 5 Royal musings after two months

For all both of you who are curious where I’m at in my first playthrough of Persona 5 Royal, I’m at the point where I’m extensively dealing with two of the most irritating “Confidants” in the game — Sae and Akechi. In other words, I’m at the “Casino”-themed palace.

It’s pretty wild that I’ve been playing this for two straight months every single night and still have lots left to go. I think I must’ve forgotten just how HEFTY these mainline Persona games are. They constitute a *commitment.*

Sae is more surprised to see her sister and colleague in the courtroom than she is to learn that the supernatural is real. Seriously.

Various thoughts at this time:

I really liked the structural and puzzle elements of the “Pyramid” palace the most of the ones I’ve experienced so far. I’ve gotten the most lost in the Casino — I wound up doing circles in one area like three times before I found my way out. And it’s interesting to me how the first two palaces had this whole “the closer you get to their treasure, the more distorted and insane the palace becomes” thing going, but they totally dropped that aspect after the second one.

I’m not really sure they justified the “space” palace very well. Every other palace has something to do with how the target perceives/interprets their location/reality, right? But there’s never any talk of that target perceiving his world as being in space or being a spaceship or anything like that. He’s just... really into space-themed stuff, and that’s it. *shrug*

Speaking of that palace, OH MY GOD THAT BOSS FIGHT. I had to attempt it four times, and I had to keep referencing strategy guides and tips online to optimize everything about it. I finally beat it on the fourth try with a whole 28 seconds to spare. Anyone who is coming into this game? I strongly recommend you look up how you can best prepare for that fight LONG before you reach it, because I had to spend a load of time creating special move cards, fusing various personas to reach perfect balance, leveling up specific characters to get them to have the moves I needed, etc. It SUCKED, but apparently this is a known issue with the “Royal” version among players. Evidently, he’s considered the hardest boss in the game now. So I guess it’s all downhill from here, at least... ? Maybe. (ETA: Yes, it was smooth sailing from here.)

Is it me, or do some of the lesser targets within Mementos really seem like they should have their own full-blown palaces? From a story perspective, that is. Take the leader of the “ADP,” the person you have to target for the “Fortune” confidant: This dude’s influence spreads pretty far, and he’s done a ton of messed-up things to lots of people over the course of numerous years. It sure seems like he’d be palace-worthy... he just doesn’t have one because he’s not part of the MAIN storyline. You get me?

Considering that they are now Japan’s Most Wanted, the Phantom Thieves sure suck at keeping a low profile. The team’s roster has grown to TEN friggin’ members with the addition of Jerky Akechi, and that’s not even getting into how everyone whose confidant I max out suddenly knows I’m a phantom thief... even if it doesn’t make any sense for them to figure that out. (I’m looking at you, “Sun.” There’s just no way, dude.)

Oh, good! I’d been worried that my disdain was one-sided.

Ever since the two protags of Persona 3 Portable brought us such distinct personalities for our heroes via their dialogue options, it’s been downhill for the series’ protagonists. P4′s leader - Yu Narukami - and P5′s “Joker” (a.k.a. Ren Amamiya) are basically blank slates as presented in the games. Their dialogue choices make it clear that they are both largely unflappable, but otherwise? Their personalities are pretty malleable. The subsequent spinoffs and (especially) the anime adaption of P4 helped shape Yu into more of a clear character, at least, but... Joker seems to possess the potential to be largely the same dude? His sense of humor is quite similar, at least, but I guess we can’t say for sure how much he uses those options. I’m just starting to watch the P5 anime — which I’m hoping will more clearly delineate who he is — but I don’t have any kind of handle on him yet. EXCEPT...

Mishima is a wonderful boy who deserves NOTHING but friendship and respect. However, more than once I’ve been handed a list of dialogue choices that are nothing but demeaning towards him. I seriously can’t even believe the outing to the theme park with Mishima, in which Joker is a) invited there by Mishima, b) comes across entitled pissant Shinya Oda, and c) promptly decides to ignore Mishima in favor of Oda. What the FUCK. This leaves me thinking that if Joker DOES have any clear personality, it’s “guy who treats loyal friends pretty shitty.” ........Damn. I guess you only get kindness and attention from Ren if you’re either actively helping him in the Metaverse or might potentially fuck him. Otherwise, he ain’t got time to care about you. COLD.

"Whoaaa! Looking like a dick, Joker!” - Morgana, probably

No matter what I may gripe about above, I’m still addicted to this game. Can’t help but still love the series in its P3-and-onward incarnation. And much like previous games, I tend to find the day-to-day choices of how to spend my time to be more addictive and enjoyable than the actual dungeon-crawling play.

Yusuke may not be a party member I use all that often, but as a character? He’s absolutely a favorite of mine. Funny and weird and delightful. And Ryuji is STILL a wonderful guy who deserves a ton more respect from his friends.

Yeah, so I opted to romance the sexy goth doctor who always calls me “my guinea pig.” ........... Don’t judge me.

#persona 5 royal #p5r #persona #persona 5

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ottspot · 1 year

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Remasters Shouldn’t Be Lazy, Broken Ports! Why Have So Many Been Like This?

When a new video game console releases, one of the inevitable questions that will be asked is "how the hell are the older games gonna play on this thing?". It seems that backwards compatibility is becoming less and less of a thing these days, but at least PlayStation and Xbox still embrace it (the latter WAY better than the former). But if there's some cases like the Nintendo Switch where backwards compatibility just isn't possible, what do you do?

Port your game over and sell it at an inflated price, of course!

...No, that doesn't happen ALL the time. In reality, when companies are put in a position like this, they take the effort in to port the game to newer hardware. They can take this opportunity to make it prettier, implement quality-of-life fixes, bump the frame-rate up, or even include some extra story content!

What happens when just the bare minimum is done, though? Well, you end up with some sorry excuses that don't deserve the "remaster" title. These are their stories.

I think it's best that we just jump straight into this, with the first game I would like to talk about: Persona 3 Portable.

A modern, playable version of Persona 3 has been speculated about and rumored for years. Some thought it would be a port of Persona 3 FES, the enhanced version on PlayStation 2. Others thought (and still think) it will be completely remade in Persona 5's engine. But what happened in reality is that the PlayStation Portable version, released in 2009/10, was the version ported to modern consoles and PC.

This is a very competent version of Persona 3, mind you... for the PSP. What baffles me is that this is the version Atlus chose, when they have shown that they're already capable of remastering PlayStation 2 games like Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. It may have a female main character and controllable party members in battle, but the game itself has been simplified to all hell to fit on the PSP. There's no FMV cutscenes or fully-explorable world, and all the cutscenes just play like a normal visual novel.

But something like this should be easy to port over, right? Well, they screwed a PSP game up, somehow. The audio is compressed incredibly hard, and backgrounds and character portraits look TERRIBLE. The latter in particular is especially unacceptable. It's like they put everything in an AI upscaler and called it a day.

This is a screenshot taken of one of the "explorable areas" in the game. You can see the poor job Atlus did at making the assets HD.

It's "playable" in a sense, but this should have been handled much better. A mod team is already working on remaking the assets in a true HD format, so I would definitely pick the game up once they are finished.

Next is a game I'm not as familiar with: Tales of Symphonia.

This game released for the GameCube in 2003 in Japan, and over the years has gotten ported over to the PlayStation 2 and 3, PC, and most recently- the Nintendo Switch, Xbox series, and PS4. There have been a few issues that popped up in the subsequent ports to newer systems, more notably the PS3 version. It seems that a lot of the bugs in this version carried over to the latest remaster.

It's currently rife with UI bugs, long loading times, jaggy character portraits, and skipping music. The remaster is even stuck at 30fps throughout the game, when the GameCube version had 60fps battles in comparison. Thankfully the remaster team has apologized for how poor the remaster has been, and promises to release patches in the future.

Something that our next game has done time and time again- and still ends up with a poor experience.

Life is Strange is a 2015 episodic story-driven game made by Dontnod that released for PC, Mac, PlayStation 3 and 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, along with mobile releases. It focuses on Max Caulfield as she tries to solve mysteries about a missing girl with her childhood best friend- and her new ability to rewind time. Its 2017 prequel, "Before the Storm", launched on all the platforms listed already, minus the PS3 and Xbox 360.

So when Deck Nine, who handled the prequel, decided to remaster the two games for those same exact platforms (minus Mac and adding the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series systems with the Switch coming later), this... confused me. It's not uncommon to see this kind of thing happen, of course. The Last Of Us Part I is available on a system that can already play the original PS4 remaster. But that's a remake with some enhanced controls, new options, retooled enemy AI, and an uncapped frame rate setting. These are quite literally the exact same games but just made buggier, on systems that can play the games in their original form just fine.

The remastered collection is full of animation bugs, freezing, missing subtitles, buggy audio, blurry visuals at certain points, file names being in place of subtitles, flickering textures, scenes that are way darker than the original game, and LOTS OF LOADING. ESPECIALLY on the Nintendo Switch.

Patches have been released many times ever since the launch of the PC, PlayStation and Xbox releases on February 1st, 2022- with the latest patch releasing today as of this writing: March 6th, 2023! It has been over a year since this collection released and it is still getting patches to try and fix this broken mess.

My question is- where in the world has the effort gone? What happened to developers taking their time with developing these remasters of beloved games, and not having their player base be their QA team? Atlus especially has had more than enough time to make their remaster good, and they just slapped everything in an upscaler and called it a day.

This isn't to just slander these poor jobs, this is a call to action- a call for developers and publishers to stop rushing things like this out the door for a quick buck. Don't promise to fix it later, have it already fixed by the time it releases! It disappoints the customer and does not give them hope for any future remasters being released.

I hope that part of the gaming industry will soon realize that, and put time into making sure that their products are in tip-top shape. A happy customer means more business yada yada yada capitalism bullcrap and whatever. We're all slaves to it. Go read a book or whatever.

Thanks for reading, everyone! I have hope that remasters will be good once more, but for now it seems not at all likely. Well, except for Metroid Prime. Good on Nintendo for that one.

Next up: Sonic Origins Plus Is Real!! Were My Predictions Correct?

#remaster #remasters #xbox #playstation #nintendo #persona #persona 3 #persona 3 portable #tales of #tales of series #tales of symphonia #life is strange #life is strange before the storm #before the storm

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blazehedgehog · 1 year

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Thoughts on yugioh? Or were you too old when it came out to care about it in any way?

I was kinda-sorta too old. I mean, in the circumstances I was in, I was still basically home and watching Saturday Morning Cartoons all the way up to 2005 or 2006. When the 4Kids TMNT show turned bad, that's sort of when I fell off caring about Saturday Morning stuff.

But in that sense I saw Yu-Gi-Oh as yet another mangled 4Kids dub. I didn't want to give it the time of day.

This was made worse when Viz launched Shonen Jump in North America around this time, and they started with a manga adaptation of Yu-Gi-Oh, including the part that 4Kids skipped -- before Duel Monsters took over the premise and it was more of a horror manga where a young boy was possessed by a trickster spirit that loved riddles and games of death.

And one of the very first stories is where Yugi and Anzu are held hostage by an escaped convict. The whole story is basically a laundry list of things 4Kids would never show on TV: guns, smoking, alcohol, references to gambling, etc. It ends with Yami tricking the convict with a riddle that causes him to immolate himself (and, presumably, die a horrifying, painful death).

I had enough money that I read this entire first year of Viz Shonen Jump, so I had this EXTRA hardcore sense of "Man, screw 4Kids." Without even knowing that even the "uncensored anime" version ("season zero") of this story also was also heavily sanitized.

I had some friends who were in to the actual card game, though, and to date, Yu-Gi-Oh is the only collectible card game I've ever gotten in to. My Mom bought me one of those huge starter gift boxes for Pokemon, but I never liked managing energy cards or anything like that there. Yu-Gi-Oh was a lot more simple to understand. I had YGO Virtual Desktop installed for a while, and some friends and I played a handful of games.

(Sidebar: It's killing me to see complete-in-box collectors prices for that Pokemon gift box hitting $300-$1000, given one of the last things I did before I moved away from Colorado in 2017 was break that box up and give a nephew most of the cards that were inside it. It had never been touched, otherwise. I kept some cards for myself, but it's not considered "CIB" anymore)

The most significant part of Yu-Gi-Oh in my life was the GBA game, though: World Championship Tournament 2004. This was the only version of the card game I ever truly "learned," and believe it or not, I still play it to this day. I bought an emulation portable and it's become something in my quick-play rotation.

I've put over 100 matches in to this thing. You just pick from opponents from a list of duelists, but the list expands as you accumulate wins. There's something like 40 duelists in this game and after 103 matches I've only unlocked the first eight, and I've been playing this thing for over a year now (I've put time in to it on other platforms too, mind you, but this is where I've played it most recently). Feels like the sort of game I could conceivably play forever.

(Actually, skimming the unlock requirements for new opponents, now I'm wondering if the game is glitched; I should have had more than just Weevil unlocked a long time ago).

There was a sequel, World Championship Tournament 2005, but they made the AI way harder -- I seem to remember even the most basic opponents cheat and could basically beat me on turn 1. In WCT 2004, it feels pretty fair and manageable to a YGO baby like me.

Never followed the game beyond this. To me, Duel Monsters is a game permanently frozen in 2004.

Nowadays, I appreciate the 4Kids dub a bit more. I think people sort of came around on some of their attempts at humor now that the anime community doesn't have such a chip on their shoulder about how all anime on TV is a censorship nightmare. It's easier to appreciate it for what it was.

Including how fun that Yu-Gi-Oh album was.

#questions #Anonymous #yu-gi-oh #duel monsters #world championship tournament #4kids #dub #anime

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akechi-official · 1 year

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What's your opinion on the different MegaTen soundtracks? Which series has your favourites? Do you think there are any particularly bad ones?

Ooh thanks for the question! I love listening to MegaTen, my favorite YouTube channels are PSC, which catalogues all of the Persona music, and Megaten Music, which catalogues all of the MegaTen music. They’re great because they include a lot of lesser known soundtracks like OVAs and bonus CDs.

As far as my favorites go, of the Persona tracks I listen to the Persona 2: Innocent Sin soundtrack all the time. My favorite songs from there is definitely Knights of the Holy Lance and Yukino’s Theme. Yukino’s Theme is a bop and Knights of the Holy Lance is THE most hype song in Persona. Fight me.

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I’ve also been listening to Persona 5 Strikers a lot lately, and I have to say I jam out to Counterfeit Phantom every time it comes on, it’s AMAZING.

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The Persona soundtracks are all so good I could talk about each one for hours but I won’t. I WON’T. I’m forcing myself not to. But one more, I really love the Persona 3 Portable soundtrack, I think it deserves more love. One of my favorites from there is Sun, it is a bop, truly. When the horns come in I can’t help but dance, it’s great.

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Switching over to MegaTen, SMT: If has a fantastic soundtrack that all of you should listen to. Tbh Old Enemy - Akira Volume might be the best battle theme I’ve ever heard. It’s so good, gosh. I feel like I keep saying that. Persona 5 had a remix on their soundtrack, which is also amazing, but here’s the original:

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This might be a Steaming Hot Take but also really like the Dx2 soundtrack, particularly Desolation feels like I’m ascending to another reality when I listen to it which is kinda jarring considering everything else about Dx2 is so lackluster but the music is SICK. It’s all on Spotify too, give it a listen if you haven’t.

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Also very much love the SMTV soundtrack, my favorite has got to be the Demi-fiend remix they did, it’s an absolute banger. But I also love Battle -origin- which plays when you fight Fionn, because WOW when I first heard that I was floored.

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Okay this is a recent listen for me but the Raidou game soundtracks??? The HORNS??? My goodness WOW I love it so much. I have yet to listen to the full soundtrack but the main Theme is amazing, it very much makes me think of like, jazzy heists like Great Pretender.

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Slightly veering off MegaTen for my “honorary” MegaTen titles, these are games that I consider in the same category as MegaTen but actually aren’t, but I still wanted to share anyway.

Trauma Center is such an enigma to me. I wish they would bring the series back, I think it’s pretty funny tbh. The series is just about dramatic doctors I think it would be hilarious if it was in MegaTen. Can you imagine. Anyway I love the soundtrack, there’s not really a good rip of it on YouTube unfortunately but like, unironically, they did not need to go this hard. Of course it was Shoji Meguro who composed it so who’s surprised? One of my favorites is Second Opinion, it’s very similar in vibes to Persona tbh. I think Vulnerability was a meme at some point, but I listen to that one quite often as well.

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Okay guys. Listen. Catherine? WHY DOES IT GO SO HARD? I love the remixes they did of classical music so much, I listen to them all the time. My two favorites are Ode to Joy and Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 14, Op. 27 No. 2 in C Sharp Minor. The former is a BOP and the latter goes INCREDIBLY HARD.

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I’m limiting myself to 10 so this is my last one, but I need you guys to listen to, like, the entire Etrian Odyssey soundtrack, from every game, because they are all on Spotify and they are all amazing. It would be impossible to choose a favorite but one of the bangers on my repeats is Tumult - Raise Thy Sword in Pride Nexus Version, because wow wow wow wow that’s all I have to say about that. Edit: Tumult - Crest of a Violent Wave [Arranged Version] also makes me want to scream it’s so good.

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I don’t know if there’s truly a MegaTen soundtrack I dislike, I listen to most of them quite frequently and every soundtrack has its ups and downs. The soundtrack I dislike the most would probably be the Persona 5 Dancing soundtrack, because I don’t think there’s a single remix on there that I like to the point of listening on repeat, and it’s a shame that the game didn’t include anything from Strikers or Royal by virtue of it coming out before them. It shows that Atlus really jumped the gun on those games and put out rushed and unpolished games that could’ve really benefited by just… waiting. And when the songs in your dancing game aren’t very good, that’s really not a good sign.

Anyway enough negative talk, I love MegaTen music so much, I have a playlist filled with 500 of my favorite songs you can listen to here:

I’m constantly adding more song to this playlist, it’s mostly persona at the moment because it started out as a persona bops playlist and then I started adding a bunch of MegaTen as a whole so I’m still in the process of evening out the ratio. But anyway, give it a listen if you want, it’s quite the playlist lol.

If you have music of your own to share, please do! There’s still a bunch of MegaTen I haven’t heard yet.

#ake-asks #persona 2 #persona 5 strikers #persona 3 portable #shin megami tensei if #smt if #shin megami tensei liberation dx2 #smt dx2 #shin megami tensei v #smt v #raidou kuzunoha #devil summoner raidou kuzunoha #trauma center #catherine full body #etrian odyssey

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majjiktricks · 2 years

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hi! youre playing the metal gear series right? what order do you recommend one should play it in? (by release order? chronologically story-wise?) thanks in advance!

hi !!! (apologies in advance. i went longer than i thought i would)

personally i enjoyed playing them in chronological order, which gave the games kind of a sense of continuity, but ive also heard it recommended (by most people on reddit who have answered this same question, at least) to just play them in release order, especially if you care about graphical/mechanical improvement. in terms of controls/visuals/etc, its kind of a shocker to go from mgsv to the original metal gear right after LOL it was definitely pretty tough to get used to the fixed camera in mgs1/2 after playing mgsv with its right-stick-controlled 360 camera

for reference, i played metal gear rising first because that was the one i owned first (even though its dubiously canon and the gameplay is COMPLETELY different from the rest of the mgs series. i enjoyed the game immensely and would play it for the soundtrack alone)

then went mgsv:gz > mgsv:tpp (because i also owned mgsv before anything else) > mgs3 > peace walker > watched portable ops (even tho PO is actually before PW. portable ops is also dubiously canon and debated as worth playing in some circles. i watched the cutscenes for the story and didnt actually watch much of the gameplay) > watched mg1 and 2 > mgs1 > mgs2 > and i have yet to play mgs4

the actual chronology goes like this (off wikipedia)

which is 3, PO, PW, mgsv:gz, mgsv:tpp, the original metal gear 1 (which was released twice, the second time with better art and assets) and metal gear 2 for the msx and msx2 (NOT the nes versions, which are actually completely different games not by kojima), mgs1, mgs2, mgs4, mgr

whereas release order was mg1-2, mgs1-3, portable ops, mgs4, peace walker, mgsv (metal gear rising came out in 2013, before mgsv, but again it is dubiously canon and happens after the events of everything else. so. do with that what you will.)

ive also heard people say you could play the solid snake-focused games in order first, then play the big boss-focused games in order. which would be mg1-2, mgs1-2, mgs4 (solid snake), then mgs3, PO, PW, mgsv (big boss). this way you still end with the most technologically advanced game and only shake up the order slightly to maintain protagonist continuity. (or do it big boss-games first and then solid snake-games if you want to understand big boss as an antagonist in the solid snake games)

that got... longer than i anticipated. uhhh. but ultimately the choice is up to you. i liked playing them in chronological order because it felt more like a coherent story that way :) whatever option you think would suit you the most, go for it!

#jazz noises #WHOOPS #inbox #anonymous #please let me know if something doesnt make sense here LMAO

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