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starrysharks · 2 months

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ZENO STARRYSHARKS BIG FAQ. YAY

this is gonna go over all the questions people ask me about my art, OCs, etc etc ^^ starting with -

ART QUESTIONS:

Q: WHAT DO YOU USE TO DRAW?

A: ibispaint x on shitty samsung. no stylus just my fingers. very occasionally (and not in several months now) i will use MS paint with a wacom tablet and pen!

Q: WHAT BRUSHES DO YOU USE?

A: main lineart pens are love pen and dip pen (hard) on a 60-80% opacity. when i do my pencil style i use hard mapping pen (bleed).

Q: HOW DO YOU DO THAT SCREENTONE THING?

A: this PNG.

you're gonna place the png over where you want to add a halftone, and then lasso that area. then, click "invert selection area", and erase over the halftone layer. it should only be left on the area you wanted it to be on. you can change the color with alpha lock.

Q: HOW DO YOU COLOR SO WELL?

Q: HOW DO YOU DRAW DIFFERENT BODY TYPES?

A: it's kinda complicated because i myself believe that i have poor body diversity when it comes to my original characters, but i'll try to explain myself. by a general rule, contrast is most important. top-heavy, bottom-heavy, larger lower limbs, smaller lower limbs, etc etc etc it's all in the contrast baybe. let's use nova (a skinny character), pins (a top-heavy character), and novocaine (a fat character) as examples. please ask me directly if you want any advice on other body types.

firstly, nova. she is very thin with a more scrawny build rather than athletic. to draw her, there are three parts (excluding arms) -

head, body and legs.

these are parts that almost every character has and the most important thing about them is their size. different characters will have different sized heads and bodies and legs as we'll see later, based on age, body type, etc... nova is only a teen, so she'll have a big head with big eyes to up the childish moe-factor of her design! other than that, she's pretty proportionate by anime standards with a regular sized body and long legs.

however for a character like pins a lot changes. pins is extremely top heavy, and larger than nova. he has a muscular build that's heavily unrealistic - while there's probably someone out there with a similar build to nova absolutely nobody can achieve the elusive pins build. because his body is so exaggerated, it must be the forefront, and he has small legs and a small head to compensate.

because i have few muscles in my oc roster, i tend to exaggerate the buffest characters. i would give another example but his existence is spoilers for the project he belongs to. ;;

when it comes to fat characters, i have little to say for dudes because i don't draw them often (sorry fat guy enthusiasts 💔). but novocaine is an example of how i go about drawing fat girls. namely it all comes back to contrast - rather than drawing her ankles and lower arms larger, i draw them smaller to emphasise the size of her thighs, hips and upper arms as when it comes to irl fat people, those parts are usually larger. i also added more examples from my dangan art.

Q: WHAT INSPIRES YOU?

otherwise the proportions are similar to the skinny teen model, just with shorter legs.

OTHER QUESTIONS

Q: WHEN ARE YOU GONNA BE OFF HIATUS?

A: when my exams are over i'll start posting personal finished illustrations again. so, like, mid-june!

Q: HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DRAWING FOR?

A: i came out of the womb with an anime girl drawing in my hand

Q: DO YOU TRACE?

A: nooooooooooooo

ok i'm tired please frequently ask me a question if you want me to answer it

#ask zeno #very long post #long post #qna #faq

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baratiddyappreciator · 6 months

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Giving the Baki Cast Massages (NSFW)

I couldn't resist, but also someone requested Chiharu get added to the roster, so like a good circus clow I'm going to jingle along and do as I am asked UwU. More long-form than the initial post because I like flexing my creative muscles when it comes to smut. NSFW under the cut, minors DNI, we don't fuck with you.

Chiharu:

You ask him if he wants a massage and it takes him a full three days to walk up to you and sheepishly admit that yeah, he would like a massage, actually. It would be really nice if you could do that for him pookie.

There's a lot of tension in his neck and shoulders, as well as his feet. He can usually deal with it just fine, the man is tough, but he really only thought about, you know, having himself be taken care of to get that tension released.

The second you get started, he starts moaning. The man is shameless, he'll just fully moan and whine. And much like Jack, one of the main struggles you'll face is just getting him to sit fucking still. Seriously, he'll wiggle the entire fucking time, while Jack might just sit after the first little bit, Chiharu will wiggle the entire. Fucking. Time.

Do you have to dig to get all the knots and tension out? Yeah. Are your arms going to hurt? Yeah. Is it worth it? Absolutely. He's your fidgety little shit and he greatly appreciates everything you do for him. Will he return the favour? He would love to! Should you let him? No lmao, he'll try very hard but he just will not do good, baby has no idea how to give someone a massage lmao.

NSFW ahead!

Baki: Initially, it had started with you sitting on his hips, your hands kneading at his firm and powerful muscles, which had tensed and relaxed beneath your fingertips in an almost rhythmic motion, had gone completely lax for quite some time. But between his humming and moaning and little wiggles, you'd gotten quite worked up yourself. He'd pretended not to know, of course, but when you leaned in, laying flat across his back, playfully humping him, he couldn't pretend not to know what effect he'd had on you anymore. So here you were, hands pressed against his chest now, kneading at the firm muscle beneath your palms as his cock repeatedly slid in and out of your sloppy hole, slick smeared across his hips and thighs as it dripped down his shaft.

He was bouncing you up and down on him like you were a doll that weighed nothing, and honestly, to him, you probably did weigh almost nothing, you knew that he was plenty strong enough to manhandle you like this. That was part of the appeal, wasn't it? His hips slammed into you, that sweet sticky spot that made you see stars was probably bruised, but it just felt so good. Most of you was simply propped up, even when you weren't doing the work, you were still getting the breath knocked out of you as he pounded into you from below, letting out short pants and grunts as his fingers dug into your hips.

"See baby? I said I'd return the favour!"

Kozue: Your hands had been working at her shoulders and neck for a while now as she worked on her essay. A few mistakes here and there that she hastily corrected, seeking out your advice in a few other spots, but once she'd finally had enough of working on her essay, she'd decided to put your hands to a better use, your fingers burried deep inside of her as she rode your hand and your thigh at the same time, the other cupping the base of her skull, her own hands gripping desperately at your shirt as she kissed you like her life depended on it, moaning and mewling softly. Your hands were starting to cramp from how much you'd been using them, but she wasn't done yet, surely would wouldn't leave her high and dry, right?

Her own hands slid up under your shirt to meet your chest, giving a gentle squeeze before she tweaked your nipples, her nails biting into your skin as she gently scratched down your chest towards your hips, her own rolling harder against your palm, your fingers scissoring inside of her as her walls fluttered around them, her orgasm clearly coming closer and closer, her soft moans growing more breathy, picking up in pitch and volume with each stroke of your fingers against the sweet spongy spot at the front of her cunt, slick practically pouring out of her onto your hand.

"Sorry about the mess, I just really needed a hand."

Hanayama: Very rarely did Hanayama let you grind on him this boldly unless it was the front of his thigh. You almost felt like you were committing a sin as you ground against his powerful back muscles, leaving a trail of arousal in your wake along his back tattoo, but he didn't seem to mind it at all, and it was doing more for getting a particular knot out of his back that your hands (and elbow) had for the past few minutes. He'd said to consider this a reward, and honestly, you would. How many people did you know that could get away with cumming on Hanayama's back? As far as you were aware, you were the only one that had had that special privilege so far.

He wasn't much help, simply laying there, glancing back at you out of the corner of his eye over his shoulder as your hand slid down your hips to meet your sex, deftly giving yourself that extra bit of stimulation as you ground harder into the spot that hadn't let up yet. He grunted, his hips shifting slightly, the muscle beneath you throbbing as your hips kept working. Back and forth and back and forth and back and forth, harder and harder, faster and faster, your hand working in tandem with your hips for just that little bit more, before you were coming undone with a whine, trembling just as the knot in his back finally released, earning a low groan from the man beneath you.

"Well, aren't you a little miracle worker?"

Chiharu: A mess. He was a mess. Fidgetting and wiggling around non-stop, could you really be blamed for getting turned on with his constant wriggling against you? He caused this problem, and now he can fix it. You were just trying to be nice and help him with all that tension in his shoulders, and now look at what he did. Stupid Chiharu and his stupid wiggling. Oh but you could tell that he was sorry as he eagerly took you with his mouth, licking, sucking, kissing. He was doing such a pretty job too, those big dopey eyes of his locked on yours, so expressive. It was obvious that he didn't know what he did wrong in the slightest, but regardless, he was very sorry.

His hips rolled again, seeking friction, but a simple click of your tongue and a shove at his hip with your free hand had him giving up on that just yet. For now, he could put his mouth, normally reserved for talking a big game and getting him into trouble, to a much better use. He pulled away briefly to press a kiss to your hip, and while he could apologies as much as he wanted to, you knew that he wouldn't learn his lesson. Until he did, it wouldn't hurt to give him another massage and see if he picked up on his mistakes.

"Baby doll, please forgive me already, I'm working hard here!"

Katsumi: Things started out playfully and innocently. You'd just wanted to do something sweet for him, a simple shoulder rub and a cuddle, and now he had you face down, ass up, one of his hands wrapped around your throat as he pounded into you hard enough to make you see stars and forget your name, hissing some of the filthiest words you've ever heard come out of his mouth into your ear, his other hand between your legs, his touch teasing you to the point of madness. His futon was a mess, blankets strewn about everywhere, one of his pillows was on the other side of the room, long forgotten and abandoned until later when one of you would go over and pick it up.

His hips rolled towards the end of his thrusts, and if you'd been supporting your own weight, your legs would have simply stopped working by now, pleasure coursing through your system as his hand teased your most sensitive area in focused, slow rubs. He was going to be the death of you. You weren't even able to appreciate all your hard work as he leaned over you, your face shoved into his remaining pillow as he pounded into you from above. And all of this because you'd pinched him.

"That's it sugar, take it, I'm just giving back what you gave."

Jack: Your knees were pinned to your chest, baring you wide open for the massive blonde that was currently using you like a glorified pocket pussy, his hips were ruthless in their pursuit of bringing you pleasure, the sound of your skin meeting his was accompanied by a wet clap. If you'd have known that this was how he'd react to you biting his ear while you were massaging his neck, you might have had him lay down somewhere that wasn't the kitchen floor. The only thing between you and the hard tile floor was his sweater, previously laid out so his chest wouldn't get cold as he'd lain on the floor, though he insisted he didn't need it.

Each plunge of his cock sent a wave of pleasure shooting up your spine, his breaths coming out in short pants and grunts, though just as you were getting used to this, he paused for just a moment, pulling your legs to wrap around his waist as his face buried into the crook of your neck, a deep grow escaping him, your nails sinking into his shoulders as he rocked into you hard enough to make you have some semblance of a worried thought, a vague impression that you'd have imprints of the tiles on your back, that your hip would have a bruise from where it had hit the floor when he'd flipped you off of him to pin you down. His teeth closed gently around your bottom lip before he kissed you hungrily, his brutal and relentless pace not letting up.

"That's it honey, let me make you feel as good as you made me feel."

Kosho: His fingers had snared over your hands, holding them firmly in place as his hips rolled against yours, the wall at your back. Had you known that massaging his hands for him would have had this effect on him, you might have done it sooner. Each slow roll of his hips into yours were driving you crazy, hitting just the right spot to make you want to claw the skin on his back off and maul him right then and there, but your legs were, decidedly, not cooperating right at that moment, so instead of doing any of that, not that you could in the first place, you simply leaned in closer towards him, and he pressed his lips to your forehead with a sly smirk. If you wanted him to go faster, you'd have to provoke him, and that wasn't going to be easy to do.

Each whine or plea to leave your lips was blissfully ignored as he slowly pumped into you, each stroke hitting a different spot that had you rolling your eyes and thrashing against his powerful grip, desperate to tangle your fingers in his hair and pin him down so you could get off, but he was determined to take his time with this, make things slow and sweet, to have you shaking and sobbing against him out of sheer relief. He didn't need to fuck you dumb, after all, he could take his time and make you feel cherished.

"Don't worry baby, I've got you, you just sit back and relax."

Kureha: That had been a dangerous train of thought that you'd followed up on. You'd known it was risky to just walk up to him while he was at work and start massaging him. And now look at you? Staring at the door, which rocked up and down with your vision as Kureha fucked you on his desk, bent you over it's hard wooden surface and made you remember that you were his bitch and his alone. You dreaded the moment that someone walked in and saw you like this, imagining what it could spell for Kureha's reputation if someone caught him doing this to you during work hours. A hand covered your mouth, but only loosely. He wanted you to make noise, you could practically feel his cocky smirk, his hair trailing along the desk as he bent over you, hips slamming against yours.

You knew that you were making a small pool on his desk, you had to be as he fucked you ruthlessly, hitting an angle that had your already weak feeling legs buckling, the only things holding you up being him and his desk, which rocked subtly with each thrust. You could see shadows passing through the frosted glass, being blurred slightly as your eyes rolled back, your body tightening and shivering as you came on his shaft for the second time, a breathless laugh escaping him.

"That's right, you've been so good taking the initiative, why don't you enjoy your reward?"

Retsu: He whined, writhing beneath you as your hips rolled against his, his cheek pressing against the hard wooden floors. You supposed it was a good thing that he'd just cleaned them, that way he wouldn't get all dusty, but it was a real shame that the two of you were making a mess all over said nice clean floors. Your hand squeezed his neck softly, enjoying the feeling of the powerful muscles flexing beneath your hand as your hips met over and over and over, his face flushed a bright red, warmth spreading from his forehead down to his chest, it was truly a sight, his hair messy and splayed out around him. It would be a perfect hand-hold, but you didn't want to risk pulling any of it out, that would be more of a shame than getting cum on the floor.

He breathed out pleas and admiration as you fucked him, because as always, he'd simply allowed you to take charge and do as you pleased. Apparently that involved you massaging his shoulders, earning an abrupt and startled moan, and then finding the sound to be so appealing that you decided to see how else you could get him to make it. A gentle smack on his rear? Yup! You tested another method by swiftly leaning down and sinking your teeth into the powerful muscles of his shoulder, earning another startled moan, much to your satisfaction.

"D-darling! Please, be gentle!"

Doppo: Smug old bastard, who the hell did he think he was? You'd tried to be nice, and simply wound up with him leaning into the nice gesture with a smug smile and a played up "ohhh, your hands are sooo strong!" from him. So you'd tried to be domineering, were still trying, actually, but his response to that was to pin you to the couch and go down on you like a man starved. Were you in control? Not really, no, he had full control over this encounter, much to your chagrin. Another pass of his tongue had you mewling against your better judgement, pleasure sending a shiver through your body, your toes curling. Were you genuinely mad? That depended on how much longer he'd wait to make you cum.

You couldn't even grab his head and force him to dig in properly, no, he'd wrapped his tie around your hands and you were still struggling to get it off, your arms stuck firmly behind your back. You couldn't even use your legs to pull him in, because each time you tried, he simply pushed your legs wide open against the couch and slowed down even more. A groan escaped you as his hot mouth came off of you, a smirk on his lips as he finally sank a single finger into you.

"Impatient now, aren't we sweetheart?"

Shibukawa: You'd never expected Shibukawa to throw you, of all people. You'd just put your hands on his shoulders to give him a massage and BAM, you wound up on your back, staring up at the ceiling, not knowing what the hell happened until a moment later when he'd cleared his throat, a mischievous smirk on his face as he prodded your lips with his cock. You were choking now, head bobbing up and down his shaft, still somewhat dazed and achy, but perfectly happy to comply, his hand on your head, not really guiding just yet, but you knew that if he decided he wanted more, he'd take more. His fingers gently patted the top of your head, soothing the spot where the back of your skull had impacted the floor, the only apology you were sure you were getting for the next little while.

Your hands were free to do whatever they pleased though, if he wanted you to stop he'd say so, so until he decided to tell you to stop, you decided to take your own pleasure. Fucking your own hand as the Aiki master fucked your willing mouth was how you wound up, your own spit smeared across your chin and lips, your eyes half-lidded as you looked up at him, whimpering and moaning around his shaft, which leaked precum down your throat.

"Now now, haven't I told you not to sneak up on me before dear?"

#baki headcanons #baki son of ogre #baki the grappler #baki dou #grappler baki #baki rahen #baki hanma #kozue matsumoto #hanayama kaoru #chiharu shiba #katsumi orochi #jack hanma #kosho shinogi #kureha shinogi #retsu kaioh #doppo orochi #shibukawa gouki

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gaymer-hag-stan · 10 months

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Ok so, with the Tekken 8 Closed Network Test now concluded, I'd like to share a few thoughts.

The game looks great, I love the new redesigns, I love the new animations and the fact that they got the entire cast to rerecord their battle grunts and win / pre battle quotes, it was especially weird to have certain characters use voice lines from different actors, some of whom weren't even speaking the same language 🤣

The redesigns are almost exclusively great so far, but I do hope we get alternate costumes. Yeah customization is there but I don't really care to have Nina in jeans and cowboy boots or Jin in platinum blond pigtails like... A lot of fighting games just have a palette swap as the second costume and call it a day, but from the very beginning all the way up to Tekken 6, Tekken had an alternate outfit for every single character. Not only that, but it was usually a more "casual" outfit too like, Kazuya's Tekken 1 1P was his karate gi pants but his 2P was a tank top and jeans. Asuka's Tekken 5 1P was her Aikido uniform and her 2P was her trademark shorts and tank top and so on. Tekken 7 originally went for the 2P palette swap, but at some point they added extra costumes, including classic looks, via an update, and I hope they are there from the start this time.

I played almost exclusively as Nina because she's been my main since 2005, with a little Jun, a little Xiaoyu and a little Jin thrown in. I also tried Lili's, Hwoarang's and Asuka's combo trials (nice that they FINALLY added combo trials, I don't know what took them so long lol) I gotta say it's extremely satisfying to see Harada CONSTANTLY shading Street Fighter on Twitter by saying that the base roster will feature a lot more fighters than our competitors an also Mortal Kombat by saying that they are focusing on legacy fighters before they even start considering guests. Like. That's a ball move and a huge reassurance for the fans. I also know it's in good faith and no harm is meant towards Capcom or Netherrealm but he's right and he should say it!

If there's one thing I hope they copy off of Capcom is Word Tour mode. Yeah NetherRealm Studios' cinematic story mode is fine... I guess... But World Tour mode is the best single player mode ever featured in a fighting game and Namco even have their own blueprint in the form of Tekken Force. We're probably still getting a cinematic-style story but there's still hope for Tekken 9, or maybe even a smaller-scale Tekken Force return, in the style of Tekken 4 or sth.

Arcade Mode needs a proper reintroduction as well, in Tekken 6 you only got 4 battles and you were done and in Tekken 7 you straight up got nothing at all out of Arcade mode and character endings were instead for the base game characters who weren't prominently featured in the cinematic story and you got them after a single battle... Very underwhelming.

Also hoping other "missing" modes like Team Battle return and maybe Tekken Bowl will be included from the get go this time? I've also had this request forever but I'd love to see 1P Vs. Com or Com Vs. Com fights be included in offline versus. Literally every other fighting game has it except Tekken and Virtua Fighter and I can't tell why. It shouldn't be hard to implement and honestly sometimes it's just fun to pick characters, costumes and stage and just fight it out with the computer, as a break from online grinding and whatnot.

Now, as for the battle system itself... It's lots of fun! There's tons of stuff going on at all times but it feels great to experience and it's not really overwhelming or anything. It's cute that they have included an "easy mode" for new players to ease themselves in the fun. I'm not a master player by any means but I've had almost two decades of experience in Tekken and legacy skill does play a big role in the Tekken meta so it's an interesting way to even out the playing field. Interestingly, they also seem to have simplified some of the more complicated commands like, I can pull off all of Nina's combo throws now with a total of like, four button presses at most? Crazy! The heat system feels a bit weird at first but it's a huge asset once you get into it which doesn't take all that long anyway.

Overall I am very satisfied with what I got to play and I feel like Tekken 8 is gonna be another huge chapter in Tekken's history as well as the FGC's as a whole and I honestly cannot wait! Hopefully I will have moved out of Greece by the time it's out because my internet connection was killing me 😭🤣

I also better see miss Anna and Christie in the game or else I'm rioting.

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sealrock · 8 months

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Character Themes

I was tagged by @dragonsongmakhali for this, tysm for the tag! :>

I'll be tagging @shroudkeeper @ahollowgrave @airis-ray and @thefreelanceangel (feel free to skip if you've already done this!)

I'm doing my main roster so everything's going under the cut since it'll be long, I added small blurbs to each:

What instrumental track would play in the background of your character's story during their most meaningful moments?

paris ; ff11 ost - recollection:

youtube

here's a track that doesn't match paris' aesthetic in the slightest, but it's meant to be a tear-jerker. I would go as far to say this would be paris' main theme as it shows a vulnerable part of them that no one gets to see. this is probably the only song that fits the question of this tag game

kirke ; silent hill 4 ost - silent circus:

youtube

it was between this track and a track from the cry of fear ost, but my love for silent hill won out. I always imagined kirke as having an industrial/trip-hop-based character theme, so this fits way too well for her. I wouldn't call this track 'meaningful' to kirke, it's a bit odd—then again she's an odd character. I imagine this plays during her more leisurely/playful moments

tauvane ; assassin's creed 2 ost - dreams of venice:

youtube

the elegance of this song is perfect for tauvane, it's regal and refined as it reflects her background. but what gets me is 2:07-2:45, the sudden change in tone and atmosphere shows you another side of her, something dangerous and cold. I would say this plays when achille meets her again after so many years spent apart

hector ; silent hill ost - only you:

youtube

this one is short, but hector's overall time in the story is short. it's overwhelmingly sad and there's a yearnful tone to this, a yearning for andromache to stay. but the piano is drowned out by a repeating 'droning' noise. it hints at something more sinister, aka halmarut. so this doubles a theme for halmarut as well

yves ; silent hill 3 ost: maternal heart:

youtube

something not bloodborne for once. it feels empty and haunting to me, just like yves himself. the name 'maternal heart' also calls back to cessair, yves' mother. like kirke, yves has a more industrial track that plays, but since he doesn't talk much I don't think this will be heard often

andromache ; assassin's creed revelations ost - byzantium:

youtube

this one fits andromache to a T. there's a strong sense of melancholy and vulnerability attached to this song that I think works well for her meaningful moments in the story as a character theme. the plucking strings, the haunting vocals, and the twinkling music box all scream 'andromache'

evander ; nier ost - his dream:

youtube

the tatlonghari brothers share similar themes, the difference between them is the title. this song, to me, has a quick pace, and a feeling of a childhood lost or something masked. it's ethereal in execution, but it doesn't match evander's personality or actions. this is intentional, as evander deep down is still a good person at heart, and this song reflects that, but he shows a totally different person on the surface

patroclus ; nier ost - this dream:

youtube

in contrast to evander, patroclus' is more slow, idyllic, and hopeful. it sounds like a song detailing a happy childhood. evander's theme is centered around him, but patroclus' is centered around those he lost—his parents most importantly. patroclus has a lot of meaningful moments I feel like, so this is very much a patroclus track

achille ; cry of fear ost - brandon:

youtube

here's something different, something modern. despite achille's positive and happy disposition, this song showcases his inner self and how much turmoil and pain he goes through daily. its singular guitar in the beginning accompanied by an almost underwater ambiance matches what he feels regarding his mother tauvane. this plays a lot when talking about her I think

azem (helen) ; assassin's creed brotherhood ost - echos of the roman ruins:

youtube

yet another AC song, I've had on repeat lately since I'm revisiting the games. this song in particular has a sense of wistful nostalgia to it, that feeling of a time that no longer exists once the vocals kick in. while this is too short for my liking, this is perfect for helen the more I revisit their backstory, flesh them out, and reinvent the wheel

#tag game #ty for the tag!#whoops it's all video game music #ngl i almost rolled off my bed when i got this tag #this was so fun #meta.#q.

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oveliagirlhaditright · 7 months

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Can I be honest?

I really do not care about Missing Link.

I'll admit that the most recent trailer probably made me more interested in it than I ever have been before, but even then I'm just kind of like... ehh.

And this is for a few reasons, I think.

A large one being that it's a mobile game. And I shouldn't have to explain why that's a huge reason as to why that's helping to kill my interest in this game, even though it looks like this game should be a lot better than KHUX and Dark Road, thankfully (but I'm also somewhat reserving judgement on all of that until we get it).

The fact that it's a game like Pokémon Go was also sort of ruining things for me, since I really can't walk well anymore. But according to the trailer and Nomura, it seems like that you don't really have to travel in order to do things in the game. So we'll see how that pans out.

But I guess I'm just getting to the place where some casuals were before, were--in some ways--if it's not about our main cast, I almost feel like I can't be bothered (and I do feel bad about that, in some ways).

I'm somewhat tired, I suppose, of having to play a million different games, in order to understand the next mainline installment. And I know this is just one between III and IV (if you don't count the Re:Mind DLC and Melody of Memory), but it does sort of feel a bit like "same old, same old" to me.

I also just... I don't know. Really feel like we didn't need this part of the timeline filled in? And I would almost prefer if that wasn't happening, so it could be a mystery and we could imagine it for ourselves? I feel like the only reason it's being filled out now is because of the Scala ad Caelum stuff in KHIII. And probably because this next saga is partly going to be saving the people from the KHX saga. But if we didn't get Missing Link, that plot point could have been delivered in another game.

Now we're just going to get more characters introduced, and clutter up the roster even more, and gah!

I know this game is surely to partly tide us over until KHIV, which is definitely nice. But IDK. I, personally, would have rather had one of the plot lines they teased at the end of Re:Mind as a game (Kairi's training with Aqua, Mickey in Scala, the Wayfinder trio in the Realm of Darkness, or Naminé looking for clues about Sora's whereabouts in Roxas and Xion's memories). Or waited a bit more and just gotten KHIV and then the Verum Rex game (both as console games, of course), because you know they have to be making both of these games right now.

I really don't mean to complain. Because I know a lot of time and work has surely gone into this. And it's something. And I'd rather take something over nothing (for the most part. Don't start giving me KH NFTs, Square). But unless something changes, there's nothing about Missing Link so far that's really grabbed me, personally.

And maybe it will. I'm sure it will, eventually. It won't take much to do it. But the fact it's a mobile game will always hurt it. It's weird to say, but I kind of miss the days of the handheld KH games. At least they were better quality. Oy.

Edit: And back to my one point, I feel Missing Link is going to add even more to the KHIV stuff now, when there's already so much it needs to conquer that I have no idea how it's going to do it all. Like, I was thinking that maybe some of the point of Missing Link was to flesh out this new saga... but there's already so much going on here.

Edit 2: However, Missing Link, and all the stuff with the story of Scala ad Caelum, seems to be a story Nomura-san wants to tell. And that is most definitely his right.

#like. i'll be honest. i feel like that my initial reaction when missing link was announced was 'great. another 'tween game' says a lot

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lostplay · 2 months

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Game 17: Blazblue Cross Tag Battle (Jan 2023)

Blazblue Cross Tag Battle feels like it's fairly uncooked compared to what the story and future roster ended up being. Boosting well over 20 additional DLC characters, and nearly none of them are relevant to the story makes for a lot of missed opportunities, and character interactions that we simply don't get. To say the least, it's about how much better the game could have been if it just waited a bit longer or added more story to it's original campaign. What's the point of having all these characters and just not really use them?

If you said fighting, then ya, I suppose you're right. This was a mainline Evo game in 2018, and I'm sure there were at least a few matches that wow'd the crowd. I certainly won't bad mouth Cross Tag Battles combat system. For what it is, it's a fairly simple one that gives players universal means to understand characters as well as a whole assist face button that works well into it's combos. Really the combat of Cross Tag Battle is just something I never meshed well with, and while I can't say I spent a lot of time with it, I can say it was fairly easy to pick up and play, but difficult to master. Although I don't dare go online as this game has a ton of touch of death combos just waiting to eat newbies. Still, if you and a friend are looking for a simple fighter to enjoy at a party, Cross Tag Battle certainly got a roster that's big enough, well if you have all the DLC characters, for everyone to enjoy.

Ya, honestly that's kind of my biggest problem with this game, is the amount of DLC it got over just how low the roster was initially. It doesn't just speak to my collector brain that we don't have the likes of Yang and Blake (from RWBY) on disc, but also the fact that the main campaign for RWBY in this game is heavily missing any real lines or dialogue interacting with Yang and Blake. The other 3 campaigns are fairly good though, and it's probably the biggest reason I'm so upset we don't get much interaction with the DLC characters. Even Crosstag Battle adding in an arcade mode, a staple for any fighting game really, would have been enough to quell my problems with story content.

Cross Tag Battles troubles really are just that it doesn't cater to a single player audience. Like if you enjoy this kinda of fighting game, there was a ton of DLC released and game changes that made you keep coming back. For people that are a fan of the characters in the game tho? We got next to nothing in terms of content to work with. Which I get in terms of marketing and cost would have problem been too much, but us single player types are already used to so little, it really wouldn't have been that hard to please us. Still, the game has plenty of good fundamentals for any fighting game fan, and really deep down that's just what this game is. Just don't expect anything more or less from it.

#lost reviews #blazblue cross tag battle #Blazblue Cross Tag #Arksys #Blazblue #Ragna is so good in this #I am sad that RWBY and Persona got so screwed in this #The campaign is pretty much 80% blazblue #10% Nights #There are some really solid jokes here tho

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m39 · 28 days

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Doom WADs’ Roulette (2009): Killing Adventure

Br1: Killing Adventure

Main author(s): Ruba

Release date: September 5th, 2009 (database upload)

Version(s) played: ???

Required port compatibility: ZDoom

Levels: 32 (30 + 2 standard)

Killing Adventure… confuses me. At first glance, it looks like a typical 1994 slop made by a twat who has more farts in his head than brain matter. But something tells me there is more to it than it shows. It might actually be self-aware Troll WAD made to piss people off.

Is it true though? From what I’ve heard about its author, he was definitely a troll in the community. But I must play this WAD to be entirely sure about it, so let’s get into it.

Starting with me, feeling like WADs from the mid-90s’ looked better than Killing Adventure. I do realize that the maps were done like this on purpose, but it doesn’t change the fact that they look overly basic, stale, dull, and other synonyms of the word boring.

I liked the music, though. At least half of it feels relaxing to listen to (MAP11 might have the best track), although, there are also tracks that are more blood-pumping.

I hope you like patience because this WAD will test it. Although the maps are simple and I don’t think you will get lost playing them, almost all of the maps seem to feature one, rather small square/rectangle/whatever-shaped area that constantly repeats itself and has the same roster of enemies in (probably) almost every single one of them. You might feel like you are running in circles.

Thankfully, there are maps that create shortcuts after reaching a key or some other important place. That’s always nice in a WAD.

Some of the maps tend to be more interesting than others. Jail for instance will kill all enemies in cages when you reach the end of it, so, if you want to, you can spice it up by ignoring everything on your path (except barrels of course) and just run to the exit.

Hundred Demon Fortress (I’m slightly changing titles to be written correctly) is basically a pun to the fact, that you fight one hundred Pinkies in the area next to the start.

Death Row Ultima, meanwhile, makes you choose the correct switch to open the door with Romero’s head, otherwise, it sends an Arch-vile squadron on your ass. Still a better ending for the WAD than another Icon of Shit.

There are also maps that use Keens either in the form of secret-hunting or just stagnating your progress until you kill all of them, with Column Shift Punch Halls being the biggest example of the mechanic related to them.

Also, three of the maps from this WAD use fans’ favorite – chess-moving floor filth.

vomit noises

sigh

I don’t think it’s worth talking about how funny this WAD is since it’s yet another case of LUL SOS RANDUMP crap that most of the Mockaward winners at this point did.

I’m gonna say it now, but Killing Adventure feels like Mock 2 lite. I only watched MtPain’s April Fools’ review on the latter, but I felt like the WAD was making fun of many elements that appeared in the Doom maps back then (hell, even now), focusing on one thing per map. This WAD, as I said earlier, most of the time is the same thing with one, small area repeating itself ad nauseam. Its joke, at best, became stale after MAP11. And I’m surprised that I managed to properly play these maps twice without falling asleep.

Most of the time, the WAD was rather easy, but there were moments when it got hard (not for a good reason of course). Arch-viles on Grey and Easy smell of lots of bullshit (I got lucky on my second try), and Pyramidal Hell might look like hell, but if you know how to get to the exit, you can just grab an invun and run there (secret exit is behind the regular one).

And, uhm… I think that’s it. Killing Adventure tries to be funny, yet now that I think about it, it fails to deliver on that. It fails as regular WAD, a joke WAD, and it’s basically a worse version of Mock 2 on every level. You might get a chuckle out of it when you play it the first time, but after that, there is nothing to laugh at.

Let’s hope that’s the last poor-quality WAD from 2009. Luckily, the next Doom map on the list promises something better.

Don’t read my next review if you are afraid of clowns.

#doom #doom wad #review #doom mod #doom 2 #doom 2009 #2009 #killing adventure #doom killing adventure #doom wads’ roulette #cacowards #mockaward

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shoppncarticles · 1 year

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SG Feature: Introduction

Well HEY there. Thanks for coming to my blog and checking out a new segment I want to run, the SKULLGIRLS FEATURE. A sort of offshoot from the Creature Feature, this will be a series of articles where I talk about all the wonderful characters and designs from Skullgirls universe, or at least as many as I feel like discussing in detail. Don’t worry, that’ll encompass a majority of them, since Skullgirls may have the highest concentration of unique and interesting character designs in a single series, in my opinion. There’s just so much detail and history here that I hardly know where to start.

Here’s an idea though, why don’t I get you a little familiar first? After all, I don’t expect nearly as many people coming into this article already having an extensive knowledge of Skullgirls and its world, or at least a general idea of how things work like I could with Pokemon. After all, there’s a crazy amount of worldbuilding going on here, and (almost) every character interconnects with the main story in some important way, so it’d probably help if you knew some of these things before I got to explaining the complexities of each character individually. Though, if you’re already pretty familiar with the Skullgirls world and story, you can probably skip this article since it’d just be repeating a bunch of stuff you already know. If not, keep reading!

As for a brief introduction of Skullgirls as a whole though, it’s a fighting game project created by artist & designer Alex Ahad, which started all the way back in the early 2000s as a Mugen mod, of all things. The first pre-alpha was made by Alex in 2005, before getting help from programmer Mike Z and other developers in order to create Skullgirls in full.

Compare these two videos of the game’s progression, five years apart, and see how far this passion project has come since its initial conception.

youtube

Just look at this wacky roster of characters from the conceptual stage! I’m sure they won’t be immensely polished up and redesigned during development.

It wasn’t until 2012 that Skullgirls finally saw a full release, with an initial roster of 8 characters. Support for the game would continue for a few years after its release, with new characters getting added through DLC until 2015, and for quite some time it seemed like Skullgirls was put on the backburner while its studio, Lab Zero Games worked on new projects. After some internal disputes though, which lead most of the staff to leave Lab Zero and form Future Club instead, Skullgirls resumed active development in 2021 with the addition of more DLC characters. The game would even land a spot at the competitive gaming tournament EVO in 2022, a full decade after its initial release.

The game has a crazy amount of attention to detail put into it, since not only is every sprite and frame for each fighter hand drawn and fluidly animated, but hitboxes are also extremely precise, matching some of the game’s other frame-specific mechanics. It’s also famous for having one of the most stable online netcodes of any major fighting game, which has been a huge plus in keeping it alive for so long.

Not every fighting game has this kind of luxury, you understand.

Complexity like that is what kind of gives Skullgirls a thick barrier to entry and prevents a lot of people from playing it comfortably. Hey, I don’t blame you, fighting games are hard to get into and Skullgirls can get especially tough if you aren’t fully aware of what you’re doing and what you’re capable of. But that’s why I’m here, to help you learn and read about the world and characters without having to go through the experience of learning the ins and outs of such a dynamically complex game. For whatever you might say about the game itself, I feel like all the care and effort put into it artistically can’t be overstated, because what we’ve got here is a real gem.

So, sit yourself down and get comfortable, because we’re in for the long haul on this one.

The Setting

The main setting of Skullgirls is the Canopy Kingdom. Ruled by the royal Renoir family, the kingdom itself consists of the regal capital Canopolis, the dense and lively metropolitan city of New Merdian, the smaller fishing village of Little Innsmouth, and the suburbs of Maplecrest, to name a few major locations. Inspiration for the Canopy Kingdom is kind of all over the place, so it makes placing a real world equivalent kind of difficult, but the developers have described its climate most closely resembling Northern California, while Canopolis visually resembles parts of central Europe. The devs have also admitted that they kind of just do whatever ends up looking cool in terms of design for the locations.

Honestly, that’s part of what’s special about Skullgirls to me. It does just about whatever it wants with its artistic design without sticking to one specific inspirational source or theme. For instance, while many environments and technology seen in the hands of average civilians may resemble that of 1940s-50s America, advanced cybernetics and arcane magic are also relatively commonplace in the Skullgirls world that no one finds them to be too terribly unusual. This extends even to the world’s inhabitants, since alongside normal humans, the Skullgirls world is also populated by animal-human hybrids called Ferals, fish-human hybrids called Dagonians, and monstrous giants referred to as Gigans. No exact explanation is given as to why these various species coexist with each other, and in my opinion none are necessarily needed. They just helps things feel much more varied, really.

Another important location worth mentioning is No Man’s Land - a war-torn wasteland on the outskirts of the Canopy Kingdom, lying between it and its neighboring kingdoms. There used to be developed civilizations here, but they’ve all been reduced to rubble in a devastating war that occurred seven years prior to the game’s main story. What little life does still cling to this area is easy pickings for the seedy underbelly of nearby city.

Speaking of, most of what happens in the various characters’ stories takes place in the city of New Meridian, its major strengths being its diverse population, renowned art and culture, and bustling entertainment economy. Things aren’t perfect in this city, though, since behind the scenes it’s being run by...

The Medici Mafia

The Medici Mafia are the ones who have proper control over the bustling city of New Meridian while the Renoir family are busy trying to manage the entire Canopy Kingdom. While the Medici have a pleasant reputation amongst the average New Meridian citizens, thanks to their organizing of several city facilities such as the River King Casino, their true nature is a bit more uncouth. Nothing will prevent the Medicis from dabbling in more unsavory activities if it helps strengthen them in some fashion, typically financially. Due to how much power they hold over the central location of the game, if there’s something that goes wrong in the Skullgirls story you can usually tie it back to them in some way.

The other major threat to the world, however, lies in...

The Skull Heart

The Skull Heart is an ancient relic, created by the divine creators of the Skullgirls world, the Trinity. Think of your typical cursed wishing treasure, and you’ll be pretty close to what the Skull Heart is. It can be used by any woman who gets their hands on it to grant a single wish, but if the wish is not pure the heart will twist that wish in a morbid fashion like a demented genie. In all of its centuries of existing, the Skull Heart has yet to be given a pure wish to fulfill, and thus continues to reappear every seven years to an unlucky soul. As per the developers’ words, wishes are inherently selfish and thus impossible to be completely pure.

What’s worse is that anyone who uses the Skull Heart ends up being cursed into becoming the Skullgirl, a god-like being of pure destruction and death that carries out the Trinity’s goal of destroying the world entirely. Why they couldn’t just destroy the world outright if they wanted to isn’t exactly known, but it is implied they’re quite entertained by watching all the chaos of the mortal world, so maybe that’s where the idea of a cursed wishing relic came from.

Of course, you could always not wish on the Skull Heart. It is actually quite fragile and can be easily destroyed if it isn’t currently empowering a Skullgirl, but nothing will prevent it from eventually returning in seven years.

Speaking on the Trinity, they of course haven’t been seen in person outside of some joke cutscenes, but are important not only for creating the Skull Heart but also making up the religion followed in the Skullgirls world. They can be seen here, visualized in the windows of New Meridian’s Grand Cathedral. Respectively, they’re known as Venus, Mother, and Aeon.

Anti-Skullgirl Labs

Given how much of a problem the Skullgirl is for the safety of the world at large - but specifically the Canopy Kingdom, since that’s where they keep appearing for the past few cycles - King Renoir started a project involving the Anti-Skullgirl Labs. These were a series of laboratories each specializing in a different field with the end goal of finding ways to efficiently exterminate Skullgirls before they can cause mass damage to the kingdom. The overall success of these labs are quite mixed, and after the failure to handle the previous Skullgirl before the game’s main story takes place, King Renoir put through an order to shut down all ASG Labs. Despite this, a couple remain active underground, continuing to produce technology in order to combat future Skullgirls. The most noteworthy of these is Lab 8, which specialized in Synthetic Parasite production. What are Synthetic Parasites, you may ask?

Parasites (and Living Weapons)

Parasites are another sapient species of the Skullgirls universe, but cannot survive on their own for extended periods of time and thus must continually bond with a host. Despite their name, Parasites are typically mutualistic in biology and work in tandem with their hosts rather than causing them discomfort or leeching off their body. Parasites also need to replace or take some part of their host’s body in order to form the connection, though not all Parasites are required to be physically connected. It’s said that Parasites were once revered as being very powerful and respected pieces of society, but have since become subject to discrimination and prejudice in the Skullgirls world following some ambiguous incident.

As I said previously, ASG Lab 8 specialized in Synthetic Parasites, specifically the creation of cybernetic Parasites in order to effectively give people superpowers which they could use to better combat Skullgirls and other potential threats. These Parasites typically do not resemble living creatures and are treated more like tools compared to the real Parasites, though there are a few exceptions.

Speaking of tools which may or may not be alive, there are also Living Weapons in Skullgirls too! Living Weapons are typically far less sapient than Parasites though, and none (with one exception) have been seen with individual personalities or the ability to speak thus far. They’re quite selective too, only certain chosen individuals are capable of wielding specific Living Weapons.

Got All That?

Alright, that should do it with all the preliminary info you’ll need to know before heading into these Skullgirls articles. I just want to make sure you’ll know what I’ll be talking about in these things, y’know? I don’t want you wandering around all confused and stuff because someone didn’t tell you what a Maplecrest was, or something.

Speaking of, I should mention how I’ll be structuring these articles. Things will be split into three major chunks, first, an intro where I give a brief synopsis on the character. Then, a story segment where I talk about the character’s history, what they do in the ‘main’ Skullgirls story (main in quotes since Skullgirls does have a central plot that it revolves around - but each of the character’s individual Story Modes are non-canonical What Ifs), and what happens in each of their Story Modes. Last, I’ll dedicate some time to each of the characters’ visual designs, talking about any clever features that may be apart of their appearance or their attacks. Trust me when I say that each of Skullgirls’s characters are ripe with detail and talking material, so these articles are sure to be quite hefty. I hope you’ll be looking forwards to it, because there’s quite a bit to go over!

[Skullgirls Archive]

#skullgirls #creature feature #creature design #character design

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fontasticcrablettes · 2 years

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Tales Sexyman Poll Results

The Sexyman poll is now closed! I did consider leaving it up for most of the 14th, since I originally said the poll would run through the 14th, but in the past few days, responses have significantly slowed down so I decided that anyone who wants to vote probably has already.

That being said! We ended up 260 responses! Wow! I'm glad so many people are invested in determining the sexiest dude in Tales.

32 people will be included in the final bracket. I decided to reserve the last 5 spots for write-in votes, because someone going out of their way to write a name in shows a lot of passion.

I'm not going to reveal the final numbers for the characters who made it into the bracket, because I think the voting will be more fun if everyone doesn't already have the numbers on who is generally more popular. But, I will give you the numbers for those who didn't make the cut, and some of my favourite write-in responses.

Those Who Didn't Make It

While I'm sure all of these men are very sexy in their own way, they just weren't sexy enough to make it to the bracket. In order, they are:

Veigue Lungberg (21)

Asbel Lhant (20)

Hisui Hearts (19)

Stahn Aileron (19)

Kongwai Tao (19)

Reid Hershel (17)

Ricardo Soldato (16)

Garr Kelvin (12)

Rassius Luine (12)

Karyl Sheeden (11)

Barbatos (11)

Eugene Gallardo (10)

Kunzite (9)

Will Raynard (8)

Gall Gruner (7)

Max (5)

Bruiser Khang (4)

Bisley Bakur (2)

Let's give them all a round of applause. Except Bisley, who remains Unfuckable.

However! It was pointed out to me that I completely forgot to include Heldalf on this poll. He definitely should have been on the list, because he is the final boss of a mothership Tales game, but I forgot. Despite that, poor Heldalf did not receive a single write-in vote, or a single lament in the tags of the post that they wanted to vote for him. I would say "It makes sense, because he's a cat person," but Eugene Gallardo is also a cat person, and he got 10 votes, so there is at least some furry representation here.

Based on this evidence I think Bisley may have to pass the crown of Least Fuckable Tales Man to Heldalf.

The Winning Write-Ins

103 people wrote-in suggestions to add characters to the poll. The five write-ins with the most votes have been added to the bracket. I may note, though, that a single survey response can only vote for a character one time. To my friends who wrote their faves names many times, I appreciate the passion but they still only got one vote from you lmao.

The 5 winners are...

Vicious (24)

Yuan Ka-Fai (14)

Richter Abend (12)

Julius Kresnik (8)

Peony (7)

Coming up close behind, the contenders who didn't quite make it are, in order, Aegis, Dist, and Wingul tied, Shigure, and Orwin and Shigure tied.

Largo, Philip Reston, and Gaspard Herbert all got 3 votes each. Jiao, Zephyr (Tales of Link), Yeager, Alexei, Raoul, Botta, Abyssion, Lucien Dufaure, and Edouard Rouquier all got recommended by at least 2 people.

2 people also voted for Mikleo as he appears in the epilogue, at which time he is old enough to qualify for the Sexy Man poll. I do have to wonder how the main results would have shaken out if I'd thought of that and added Epilogue Mikelo to the main roster to choose from! Perhaps someone in the future should run a Handsome Boy tournament to give all these teenage heroes a shot at glory.

I do not have the space to list every other character who was written in once, but here's a round up of some of my favourite responses:

Wonder Chef. Oh hell yeah, he is heating things up in your kitchen. I must know, though, which Wonder Chef? We might need a "Sexiest Wonder Chef" poll in the future to determine the answer!

Milla Maxwell. As the voter points out, she is not a woman! While "not a woman" and "man" are not the same thing, there really are not enough nonbinary characters in Tales to support a Sexiest Nonbinary Character contest, so you're right, anonymous voter. We should have the option to vote for Milla in both Sexyman and Sexywoman tournament as a compromise.

Victor Kresnik. I know it's not the same, but will it help to know that Ludger is in the tournament?

Lloyd Irving, DotNW era. Under the same rules as Mikleo above, this vote also counts. Good for you, Lloyd.

Reigen Arataka. Oh no. We are not doing this.

#tales of sexyman

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glassautomaton · 1 year

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Honestly, it's a silly question this time around! Will you ever use Han (SCP-2913) in DA? I think he would world wonderfully in tangent with the characterization you've assigned Alpha-9, and honestly, I'd love to see you write him.

Also, I think if him and Anne interacted, the whole world would collapse, in a good way. Who needs an egregore when a fellow 'your mom' joker is around?

He might be fun to write, that's true, but I'm unsure about bringing him in as much more than an occasional gag character. The reason for this is an issue I find coming up with a lot of tale ideas I have for the canon, that being that I don't want to make the Alpha-9 roster too bloated. Sure, I can think of a number of characters it might be cool to include, but base Resurrection made the mistake of adding in too many characters with no plan on making things coherent. This was largely due to allowing in a lot of authors each with their own ideas, but Devil's Advocate could end up the same way, the only difference being all the poorly developed characters fighting for screentime would be made by one person this time around.

There are a few more important characters I plan on bringing in (into the storyline, not necessarily Alpha-9) and I think I might already be struggling. For instance, I'm finding it hard to work Foxx into things.

I can use one-off or recurring characters well enough, like Sparkplug in Voices Carry (and some future stuff), but if I'm going to have someone on Alpha-9 that requires a certain level of narrative commitment. I've got plenty of ideas for things that would probably be pretty good that I'm just never going to write for this reason. Well, maybe not never, but I won't be writing them as part of the main series continuity, and I won't be writing them any time soon.

#scp #asks #devils advocate scp #resurrection #resurrection scp #Does Resurrection even have a tag?

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guilhem-png · 2 years

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Housamo events from worst to best

Aight so I was bored and decided to rank all the « event quests » from Housamo, from worst to best. As I’m writing this, 31 of them have been translated so far, most recent one being “Seaside Fashionista”. So like, I guess here we go. It’s going to be a long post, folks.

#31 Raiders of the Lost Isle

Let’s get this out of the way: not a big fan of shotas. Makes me feel uncomfortable to be honest. So an event centered around one is unlikely to win my favor – but even without that, Raiders of the Lost Isle is strangely boring. It’s not that I have an issue with the premise (though I will say that adding another layer of amnesia to a protagonist that was already defined by amnesia may have been a bit much), but the execution is surprisingly bland. So little goes on in this mystery island! Tangaroa is the most boring daddy this game has ever presented to me, and Dagon’s expository evil dialogue nearly had me falling asleep. Not much to salvage here. The music kinda bangs tho

#30 Black Snow on the Hot Spring Mountains

This one’s a mess y’all. It’s so long, too. Did it really have to be nine parts long? Usually with these event quests, the beginning is a little boring, but when they get to the meat of the story (quite literally in some cases), it becomes a lot more interesting. For this one, it was the opposite. Zao’s introduction as a mountain enthusiast was pretty fun, but then as soon as he gives up on you to fulfill his “mountain healing ritual” or whatever it was, the story completely loses all sense of direction. It’s just the poor MC climbing mountain after mountain, meeting with so many characters who have absolutely nothing to do there, and being attacked by an infuriatingly large amount of wyverns. The part with Hogen and the Tengu school of sword fighting (what) felt like it was ripped out of a different story entirely. I genuinely don’t think the MC could have had a worst day if he tried. At least they allow you to be rude to Zao, for the sake of Catharsis. And no, Life Wonders, seing Kengo in a speedo doesn’t make up for the poor writing! I did like the part with Chernobog though – but I think his later appearances were better handled.

Also (last point of contention before I move on), for an event solely based on the beauty of the mountains, I feel like they should have maybe worked a little harder on the backgrounds. Zao being like “Look at this beautiful sight” once you reach the peak, and then it’s just… a blurry picture or an ugly 3D model. Not a good look.

#29 The Afterschool Hero and the Fantastic Boyfriends

Gosh, what is even going on in that one. The concept is really not dumb; they had all those backgrounds, characters and soundtracks from Fantastic Boyfriends, so might as well use ‘em. But the issue is they have too much of it – and they don’t seem to know what to do with it. I think this event is probably a lot more fun if you’ve actually played Fantastic Boyfriends, but it really doesn’t work well on its own. My main issue is with the plot in this one, though. It’s too generic. It’s actually the most generic medieval fantasy story I’ve ever witnessed, I believe. That part at the end when you end up inside the protag’s mind was very weird, but not in a bad way. I think that’s what I liked the most about this event. That, and Sol’s attack sprite, hehe.

#28 Lil' Salomon's Golden Week

That one’s not… bad, really. But it’s not super memorable either, and also really short. I mostly remember that one exchange between Motosumi and Marchosias, about what it takes to be a good dad. Or the part where Licht and Kuniyoshi become friends. Like, it’s pretty sweet, granted, but it doesn’t go really far. No new characters introduced either, no new sprites, it’s not a very exciting one overall.

#27 Battle of the Valentines

You might be surprised to see such a recent event ranked so low on the roster. I think the issue with that one is that they tried to forcefully cram in as many characters as they could – but they went a bit too far, and the event feels unnecessary crowded. McRoich doesn’t really work as a character for me either. For one thing “Youth” is a bit strange of a gimmick to assign any character, and he repeats the word so damn much that past a certain point I wanted to whack him on the head with a broomstick so he would shut up. Also, the “oh no my sacred artifact doesn’t work properly” plot line had already been done (poorly) with Gullinbursti, so bringing it back felt repetitive. Same thing for the “oh no, a collision of world” plot point. Out of all the collisions we’ve had, this one was probably the least necessary.

#26 Embark! Summer Ocean Adventure

I’ll say, this one introduces some amazing characters, but almost all of them are better known for what they do in other events. Ganglie is amazing in Desert Journey, Benten and Typhon shine a lot brighter in the second boat adventure, Makara has this short yet hilarious role in the Seaside Summer School event (where he roasts Claude for wanting to marry the ocean, long story), etc. The beginning of this event is pretty crazy (MC thinking that Benten intends to take a suicide while she was just trying to take a dramatic-looking selfie, resulting in both of them falling into the water and being captured by pirates) – but then it’s a bit of a roundabout journey, with no clear objective, besides going home (which isn’t exactly compelling). Black Storm is a really low tier villain too. I wouldn’t say this is a bad event overall, but it’s overshadowed by its successor.

#25 Year of the Wildest Boar

The new year events are always short, which makes sense. They come right after the (probably expensive) Christmas events, so there isn’t a lot of budget left. Sometimes that works, others… eh. I can’t forgive Gullinbursti for being such a lame character, mostly because he represents an archetype I love (the loyal servant), but which works so much better on other characters, like Tadatomo, Shino, or Yasuyori. Also the end where he goes alone in a cave to sulk is kind of a bummer, honestly. Like, why? Did they fear the Summoners would get a little too crowded if a new member joined them every year?

#24 A New Year's Food Fracas: The Cleaner is on the Case!

I’ll say, I had absolutely no interest in the Cleaner before this event, but I warmed up to him a little. That’s something. I feel like reusing the slimes for the third time in a new year event was probably a bad call, though. Not much else to say, really. It was a decent event.

#23 O the Great Gendarme

I’ll say, I was very afraid they were just going to redo Black Snow on the Hot Spring Mountains, but this one really isn’t as bad. It’s not good enough to be called a redemption, but it’s still pretty neat. I liked Durga’s arc in this event, it was handled a tad more subtly than I expected. Also I was really surprised at how enjoyable the baseball match was. As absurd as it was to have a baseball match in the middle of a hike, it still worked very well. The villainess is forgettable, but you can’t win ‘em all.

#22 Gift from an apprentice Santa

Ah, the OG event. Not the best for sure, but still very charming. I love Yule, his earnestness to please, his insecurities, his cute little scarf, he works very well as a character for me. The Santa school is a really weird concept, and I LOVE IT. The more they add to it, the weirder it gets, and I have absolutely no complaints. Also this event makes use of all the kid characters in a strangely non creepy way (I thought so anyway – I hope it’s not just denial?). Absolutely love Ryota in the Santa outfit too. Now did they have to end every chapter with a fight? Absolutely not. It’s a good thing they toned it down in later events. Learn from your mistakes, and stuff.

#21 Valentine Panic

Valentine Panic is good, but it takes a while to get there. The feathers that make people fall in love with the MC is contrived as hell, but whatev’s. It’s fun. Having all the characters suddenly professing their love to the MC in the most awkward way possible was hilarious (big up to Gunzo’s declaration, I don’t think I’ll ever forget it). Sitri’s “cool cat” deal is annoying at first, but when you understand at the end that it all stems from his admiration for Kengo, it makes a lot more sense, and is consequently much more enjoyable. Bonus point for showing a side of Kengo that we don’t typically get to see.

#20 Clash of Floats

Just based on Nobuharu, I thought I was going to hate this event. Once again, shotas make me uncomfortable. But Tajikarao saved the event for me. His rivalry with Suzuka is believable and rather entertaining. They definitely cop out at the end though, blaming all the issues on a third party and not letting any side win the argument. Honestly I don’t think this event should rank this high still, and I was probably swayed by Gyobu’s waitsline. Yeah, that’s probably it.

#19 Seaside Summer School with you

Weird that they didn’t introduce a single new character for this one, huh? They were probably like “We need an event where every single character we have ends up wearing a swimsuit. ALL OF THEM.” And that they did. Well, almost anyway. To be honest, I played this one a long time ago, and don’t remember everything that happens in it. Love that they let me flirt with Ashigara though. Hate that they dropped the words “swimsuit contest” and didn’t let us see a second of it. Glad they corrected that mistake in Seaside Fashionista.

#18 New Year's Sunrise

More new year stuff, less slimes, and more ghost. That one was sweet. Hilarious that Gyumao and Wakan Tanka get an alt, but Shennong doesn’t, when it clearly seems like that’s what they were going for. Maybe they ran out of budget a little sooner than expected. I feel like gathering all characters that share a common trait in a single event is a pretty fun idea, and I wouldn’t mind seeing it again.

#17 Valentine's Extravaganza

Okay so. We all know that Life Wonders likes to cater to all their audience’s specific kinks. Mpreg with Temujin, vore with Marduk and his dragon buddy, foot fetish with Surtr’s giants, etc. And well, it seems like we each get a turn, cuz inflation is my jam (pun intended), and that’s what we get with Behemoth. So naturally I’m a little partial with that event (an event that must seem very weird to anyone who doesn’t share the kink, now that I think about it). I’m kinda pissed though, because there’s this whole mystery surrounding Behemoth, about what he can and cannot eat – they spend so much time trying to figure out the solution, and I don’t think the answer is ever revealed! Kind of a big oversight there. Big up to Nomad and his new dancing gig, he looks so happy doing it. Babalon’s whole deal about encouraging sin is also pretty great.

#16 Canaan – The Promised Land

This one is so interesting to me. Being a sequel to Raiders of the Lost Isle (must I remind you, at the very bottom of this list), I thought I was going to hate it, but it’s actually a lot better than the original. The problem is that it feels unfinished. Astaroth’s deal is never really explained properly, nor his relationship with Astarte. Like, I get that Astaroth is trans, and it’s great that we get a trans character in this game, but I don’t understand why he’s spiritually connected to Astarte, what he learned over the course of the adventure, or what he plans for the future. Transition is possible in Tokyo, right? But will he ever get there? Should I even be saying “he”?

With Canaan the promised land, they decided to tackle some very complex questions. The gender issue is already complicated enough, but if Canaan is supposed to be a utopia, that opens up a whole other can of worms. There’s also the end, where Bael threatens everyone with the ethical dilemma of fleeing Canaan at the cost of all its denizens’ lives. None of these issues are addressed properly, and the whole event feels very clumsy as a consequence. Still, as clumsy as it is, I really loved it. Astarte is such a compelling character, I really hope she’ll come back some day. But I don’t know if that’s something we can hope for.

#15 Valentine's Time Warp!

An interesting concept, certainly. I like time warps. I feel like the characters they chose for this event were intelligently picked. Three grown men which serve as surrogate dads to this shy little girl – one of them being an actual dad. Don’t know what to make of Herakles in this event though. I know that a lot of people love him, I’m kinda sleeping on ‘im to be fair. But whatev’s.

This one should have been a little shorter. At one point you begin to wonder just how many times Echo can even fail to express her feelings. But it’s a minor flaw I think.

#14 I ain't Scared a no Halloween

This one is great for the characters. Volos obviously, who’s just an adorable plant nerd, but surprisingly Alice too, whose work of costuming is actually fairly entertaining (love that they kept dropping fun facts about pumpkins, it tickles my nerdy side). Cu Sith dressing up as a werewolf for Halloween was the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen on a screen. Zabaniyya trying to let loose and relax in the most horrible way is always funny. Not sure what they were going for with Chernobog’s play at the end there, but it’s nice to see Chernobog having fun.

#13 Unfurl the Sails! A Golden Treasure Ship

This is actually the first event I ever tried out. I immediately crushed on Ebisu the minute I saw him. I wouldn’t recommend starting with that one tho, because if you don’t know who the characters are, it gets confusing really fast.

This one is obviously much better than the first boat adventure – at the very least they have an actual reason for going on a journey this time. The whole battle of the band aspect makes this event more diverse and is honestly really fun. Gives Benten something to do, thank goodness. Aegir is a slightly more fun villain than Black Storm, but not by much.

#12 In with the Ogres! Carpentry of the Heart

This one is short, but for once it doesn’t feel like an issue. Unlike in Canaan – the Promised Land, they seemed to know exactly how deeply they were willing to deal with their themes (racism, mostly). The answer is: not very deep. Which is not a problem, I think. Takemary hates humans, he learns that they’re not all bad after the summoners throw a special party for Setsubun. This carpenter guy is racist against ogres because he feels like they’re stealing his job, he gets hired, apologizes and all ends well. It’s simple, sweet and very heartwarming. That’s the kinda stuff I want out of my Housamo side quests. Minimal conflict, compelling characters who get to learn something over the course of a short story, and lots of moments that make me go “aaw”. This event had everything I wanted. I like how casual it was about revealing the new sprites (like, Motosumi is just sitting around with his kids, and they’re like “oh yeah we have this new sprite for him, might as well drop it here).

#11 Year of the Guardian Dog

That’s right! The best of the new year events is the very first one. Another instance of a simple concept executed flawlessly. Agyo wants to be a guardian dog, so have a little round up of all the guardian dogs. Garmr, Cu Sith and Xolotl all have very distinct styles – and though none might seem all that skilled from a distance, they’re actually more competent that they appear. This event is essentially all about making Agyo taste humble pie, but through the form of a nice stroll with MC and Moritaka. Also, letting Moritaka serve as a mentor of sorts was an interesting subversion of his character, he who usually ends up being the one mentored (either by Shino or Kimun Kamui).

#10 Desert Journey

Oh, we’re getting in the top ten now, huh? How exciting! Seth is another of those characters I didn’t expect to like, but I was proven wrong. Always had a tough spot for characters who act tough but are actually big softies. Love love love that they didn’t really focus much on the relationships between MC and the characters, but rather how the travelers interact with one another. It’s kinda similar to the Year of the Guardian Dog now that I think about it – they bring a new character who’s proud and confident, gains some allies he doesn’t think much of as first, but they end up teaching him quite a lot. I’ll say, I never liked Hanuman all that much, but this is the best they ever handled him. Ganglie was never this subtle either. He becomes a lot more interesting, without them betraying any of his character, or negating any of his flaws.

But I’ll be real with you, I don’t really get the Journey to the West parallel. Granted, I didn’t read the book, but I know a lot about it, and I was more confused than anything else by the parody elements. Well, it’s a minor detail.

#9 Valentine Jail!

Props to Life Wonders for coming up with a character like Aizen. He’s really really fun to be around; I always like a character who wears his flaws so ostentatiously. The fact that he’s really mean but also gullible and sensitive makes the whole event a catastrophe in motion – you know exactly where it’s going, and it’s amazing to watch it unfold. I love that the MC can tease Tadatomo for working for “the enemy”, if only briefly. Love how Hakumen doesn’t care about anything in that one, and is just proudly having her fun, walking around in BDSM gear. Oh the bisexuals must have been happy with that one! I also love that Aizen doesn’t change too much over the course of the event (which could have been tempting, but would have flattened his character considerably). Essentially Aizen carries this whole event, and I have literally no complaints.

#8 Let's Go! Hot Spring Jamboree

Ah yes, the REAL redemption for Black Snow on the Hot Spring Mountains. O the Great Gendarme tries, but this one succeeds. Third time really is the charm, huh.

This event does a good job of putting together characters who don’t really have any reason for hanging out in the first place. Moritaka, Shiro and the MC aren’t so rare to see together, but pairing them with Aizen and Kagutsushi is a bold move, and yet they make it work! I love how they all get a turn at the “character development” trick. It’s highly artificial, but I don’t mind. Papa bear Kimun Kamui is just adorable (and I don’t usually comment on this, but I’m amazed by his character design too), Wen Kamui adds a fun twist to a character which might have otherwise been a little flat.

Moritaka is the real star of this event, mostly because I think the way they handle his problem is actually pretty smart (it’s true that if you obsessively try to get better at one thing by training daily, you end up being highly predictable…) Also they didn’t think it was enough to make him fight his past self once, but twice, which is hilarious (poor guy). The ending in the world of Kamui Kotan drags a bit, but that’s my only complaint.

#7 Trick or Treat! Jiangshi Night

Man this event was so fun. Oddly enough, neither of the characters that they introduce for this event (Licho and Sanat Kumara) I liked all that much, but it doesn’t matter. First there’s that truly incredible scene where Tetsuox learns to deal with his survivor’s guilt through a theater play that rhymes, like how crazy is that? Then Babalon and Motosumi engage in a “child stacking contest” if I remember correctly, a real thing that actually happens. And at the end, everyone gets to perform in a live ranger show orchestrated by Krampus!! Having some characters that we love performing a role for a fiction within a fiction is a lot more fun than I would have honestly guessed, and Krampus looked so happy with his idea, it completely melted my heart. I rarely had as much fun as I did in this very moment.

#6 A Fluffy Nightmare in Ueno!

One of the only events to prominently feature the Beast Tamers, and it’s one of the best. The concept is both interesting AND well executed (I’m still looking at you, Raiders of the Lost Isle). Exploring the dream world is a common yet tricky trope. In the dream world, anything goes, which is both a good and a bad thing. But they knew how to use it creatively without making it confusing.

This one is also good because there is an element of mystery to it, that is actually resolved properly (looking at you, Valentine Extravaganza). And the more it goes, the more it gets you thinking. “Oh okay, we’re in a dream. Some people have all their senses, others don’t. We haven’t see Kuniyoshi and Benten yet, what the hell are they up to?” Really well done. If they were to recreate a similar event in the future, I’d gladly play through it.

#5 Make a Killing! The Beach House and Andvari Falls

This one’s quality is a lot more homogeneous than the previous ones. It’s just good, from beginning to end, without many drawbacks, or any particularly striking moments. It doesn’t have an incredible concept, but it plays to its strengths, and it does it well. Those beach events tend to attract a whole flurry of characters, and this one is no exception, but most of them are well handled. I recall there’s a part where you go diving with a whole bunch of kids though… yeah, I might have partly erased that one from my mind.

Love the joke at the beginning when Adnvari is asking for a resume, and the MC can choose to reply “My blade can sever gravity itself”, like it’s a perfect illustration of the shonen plot and the slice of life plot mingling in a really funny way, I wish they did it more often! Other than that, not much to say. Just go play it.

#4 Seaside Fashionista

I think to a certain extent, Life Wonders know that if they want us to love a female character, they’ll have to make extra efforts. Not that we’re all terribly misogynists, but we’re all super gay, and it’s harder to distract us from a character’s flaws with chiseled abs or tight clothes on a chubby belly.

It works most of the time, but it works especially well with Arachne. I love that her issue isn’t lack of talent, or ambition, but inability to understand what the people want. I love how she’s a workaholic who doesn’t listen to people, but also an incredibly kind individual, who will go out of her way to make you happy with just the most perfect outfit imaginable. I love how she’s curious about everything, and often puts herself in trouble because of that. Honestly, Seaside Fashionista had no business being this good, but it was. All the new outfits they gave the characters are amazing (I still haven’t recovered from Amatsumara’s suit). The fact that we get to see a side of Tsathoggua that we rarely get to see otherwise – awesome! And as I said earlier, we got our revenge for that swimsuit contest from way before. All is well.

#3 Battle of the Bells! An Ikebukuro Christmas

Top 3 now! This is getting serious.

Since it’s ranking so high on this list, you might be surprised to find out that I don’t care all that much about Tansgrisnir (am I even writing that name properly?). Like, he’s sweet and all, but there are a lot of characters I love more. No, what got me in this event is the concept. I think it hit me when Transgrisnir hurt his leg and said that he couldn’t run anymore – when he said that the MC would have to pull the sleigh himself. A human, a teenager no less, pulling a sleigh, and flying through the air. And then competing in a race, full of people running through the air and pulling sleighs too! Can you imagine it? That’s so incredibly specific, and just so strong of a concept, all on its own! And to top it all up, they complicated the race by adding this element where you have to take frequent stops and fight groups of people in different wards of Tokyo. Yoyogi academy, Roppongi, Aoyama, and Shinjuku – groups of characters teaming up to prevent the sleighs from moving onward. And who doesn’t love teamwork?

I think this is genuinely one of the best ideas they’ve ever had, and I think they should congratulate whoever came up with it.

#2 Me-ow! Happy Illusion! The Festival of Magic Hijinks

Genuinely surprised at how well this one turned out. Another of these events where they gave themselves a lot of work; introducing Cait Sith and Tvastar, giving Ryota, Tezcatlipoca, Furufumi and Licho a new alt, and consequently a tidbit of character development, tying it up neatly at the end with the collision of worlds plot and the magic show, and it all works! I think Tvastar especially is a brilliant addition to the Crafters, because similar to Arachne and Aizen, he’s flawed in a delightful way. “Why won’t you let me help you” has always been a favorite trope of mine, so I’m probably biased. Caith Sith’s theme is a bop, mini Tezcatlipoca nearly had me cry from laughing so much, I can’t believe a team composed of Miss Ziz and Shennong of all people won a FOOD EATING CONTEST, but I’m so proud of them anyway.

Also I like that they slid some discreet references to the main plot in there. The world representatives being shady, how MC interacts with Mononobe, it was so subtle in some instances that it was almost a little spooky. Really can’t overstate how much I enjoyed that one.

#1 The New Champion of Christmas

If you’re a Krampus stan like me, you were waiting for it, and you’re probably bouncing right now. I have nothing but love for The New Champion of Christmas. Krampus’ introduction is incredible, because it’s so silly in such a charming way, I mean have you seen what the guy wears? Military pants, this absurd, ripped santa jacket that covers his face, the cow bells around his neck, the chains, whoever his chara-designer is they’re completely insane and I love them for it.

I mean all of this event is silly, and it only works because they fully commit to the bit. The Santa school has a dark Santa course now, which is incredible, Krampus threatens to give the thugs a big spanking, like can you IMAGINE if this happened to you in real life?

But then beyond the silly, Krampus is actually an adorable and shy little dude, who just wants to make friends. His character development is compelling and well executed. And can we talk about Ryota for a second? I love that they allowed him to have a crush on Krampus, something that they rarely do, since all the teenagers in this game must inevitably fall in love with the MC at some point. Shiro says something that’s absolutely wild at the beginning of the event, regarding that. Apparently Ryota crushes on people easily and becomes briefly obsessed with them, but it doesn’t last. Like okay Shiro, I hear you. But then Shiro casually says “this is how our friend group ended up forming” and I’m like HOLD ON, this is huge, you can’t just drop this on me and then move on! What? Ryota crushed on everyone? Shiro, Kengo, Moritaka, even TOJI??? And then they just became friends???? HUH????

Oh yeah, also they tie it up with wrestling at the end, and I have no complaints. A wrestling gimmick is a no brainer for Krampus, but it forces Ryota out of his comfort zone, so it’s good for two different reasons. Over all, I’m ranking this event first because Krampus literally captured my heart, and I’ve never so badly wanted to be isekai’d so I could just fall into his arms. I rest my case.

So yeah there you have it, I would be deeply surprised if everyone agreed with me, but that’s my two cents on the question. If anyone feels like writing a similar “worst to best” article about Housamo, feel free to dm me cuz I’d be SO curious to know how you rank them (or the chapters in the main plot, why not!)

#housamo #tokyo afterschool summoners #long post #unpopular opinion #shiro #kengo #ryota #toji #moritaka #krampus #zao #arachne #tezcatlipoca

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stillresolved · 4 months

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the left hand ( meta: yohan. )

okay so this is probably a post i should have made about k when i initially added them to my roster ( summer 2022, wow time flies sdkljfs ), but…let’s just say when it comes to the relationship between yohan and k, i headcanon that k ( ga-ram ) has romantic feelings for yohan, has for a very long time, and still isn’t quite over him.

( spoilers for 'the de*vil jud*ge down below! )

main reason for this is that ga-ram was young and impressionable when they initially met yohan and bc yohan was the only person at the time who could understand & relate to that rage and need for revenge….and ga-ram latched onto yohan HARD. yohan basically taught them how use anger ( aka repression and put into the plan instead ). literally put him up on a pedestal and thought he could do no wrong for a certain period of time. and while in the series it’s shown that yohan is very charismatic and manipulative, i don’t think he meant to have his plan take up at least 10 years of ga-ram’s life.

But also in those ten years ( or more ) before ga-on came into yohan’s life, yohan probably saw ga-ram as much of an anchor as much as ga-ram did…there probably was SOME kind of a romantic relationship or at least a friends-with-benefits dynamic between them…the car ride scene where k gives ga-on the advice about not getting too close to yohan, that’s the advice k would have given their younger self. By the time series starts, i would say k and yohan have like…you know that situation where you're single, but you rebound with your ex bc it’s easier to have a one night stand with someone you already know than go and try to find someone new? Yeah that’s kind of what their relationship was like- by then, k wasn’t passionately in love with yohan, but they did love him, even with knowing all his flaws….which is the reason they still stuck around after chang-hee died.

this is all to say, in my interpretation of k, when they woke up after the fall, they didn’t take any of it well. Like for one thing, the system they and yohan were trying to change? Didn’t change a bit so that makes ga-ram feel like those last ten years were nothing. But also yohan up and running to switzerland and not even telling anyone where he was hiding for the longest time? Well it’s kinda like the main foundation of k’s life has just crumbled and while k does know yohan meant well, keeping this a secret, they can’t help but feel betrayed…yohan did have like a trust fund set up for ga-ram and technically ga-ram does get money ( a lot too ) from that, but they refuse to touch any of it. They refuse to talk to yohan or about him either.

( i will say, i think yohan probably also didn’t tell k for the longest time bc he knew k would follow after him and in yohan’s eyes, k deserves a chance to live their own life and the life would be healthiest without yohan there. )

#( meta. )#the left hand ( ga ram. )#meta ( ga ram. )#( verse: spades released. )#hahahahaha bruh they need therapy holy shit #no wonder they're so much of a lone wolf :'D #so they've got issues who knows if they'll ever work it out </3 #this is all to say....yeah k and yohan relationship probably wasn't very healthy #codependent but also enabling each other is probably the best way to phrase it #also k was probably jealous of ga on. ga on was a game changer for yohan #and k knew that & wished they could be that person for yohan #literally ga-ram is a hot mess when you get pass the stonewalling....#anger issues? doesn't open up about like anything?#...adjusting to a normal civillian is gonna be a struggle :/

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crystalelemental · 9 months

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I picked Raihan on the select scout as an alternative for Striker Perrserker (and because I avoid having Tech units since there's still Irida and SS Hau that I need to candy), he's 2/5 now and he'll be 3/5 soon. After that, I'm running out of options to give striker candies. The only limited striker units with less than 3/5 investment that I have are Classic Blue, SS Red, Diantha, and OG Steven.

Considering the game hasn't added that many striker roles in the 5* limited roster lately (hope I don't jinx anything by saying this), who do you think among those four is worth the investment?

Well, we can never be sure what they'll do next, so holding is a valid option. That said...

Classic Blue gets some benefit at 2/5, specifically in Sharp Entry (saves him a turn buffing) and Accuracy +10 on Hyper Beam. 3/5 is mostly sync related, so if you don't intend to EX him, 2/5 is fine. It's been fine for me, anyway. He's not bad, but Blue always felt like the last winner of the Premium Rock Strikers. Emmet had crazy Sandstorm game and a high flinch, while SC Hilda had great gauge management and surprise bulk. Blue comparatively doesn't do as much for a team. I think you had Emmet, so it's worth considering how often this Blue will be used. I don't get the best play out of him for Gauntlet, but he can function.

SS Red I feel like fell off over time. Like he still works but you know. 2/5 gets Sharp Entry, Solar Flare 2, and Haymaker, which is pretty much all he needs. 3/5 just adds Solar Flare 5, and some odd utility in Adrenaline 1 or Rejuvenate 6, neither of which are viable to obtain without giving something else up. The main argument against him is just how many Fire types we have. Like sure, High Score, but even with that mode in mind, there are plenty of alternatives.

Diantha is...look, do you have Bede or SS Wally? Great, she's good. Do you not have those two? I feel like you have better options. Diantha gains almost nothing of value at 2/5, since Speedy Entry 1 is nowhere near enough on gauge control. She really aims for 3/5 to get Devastation, which is a pain to set up, and only really worth aiming for if you have Bede or SS Wally as partners. And Bede necessitates a support that grants speed, they're painfully slow together. I've talked before about how I really like Diantha's 4/5 grid, I think Recharging Strike 9 and Satisfied Snicker are fantastic together for this Devastation approach. But I also admit that's a really high investment. Diantha can be good, but she takes a lot to get there. The rarity of a good Fairy damage dealer continues to work in her favor.

Steven's actually not bad as an investment, because Aggravation at 3/5. I know that's kind of a small benefit, but it's nice to have it on your main damage move. 2/5 gets him Recuperation and Tough Sync 3, which are fine. It also gets TM MPR, which means repeated application of Endure after he's mega evolved. Which can be clutch sometimes. I'd say he's alright, but admittedly, I...never use him.

To a degree I'd say it depends on your roster. If you're missing a type, none of them are bad for their damage type. I think Red offers the least based on oversaturation. Diantha's the highest reward but the highest investment for it. Blue is good and I like the kit generally, so he's pretty safe, but doesn't need more than 2/5 unless you plan to EX and sync with him. Steven's not strictly bad but his grid offers surprisingly little compared to what he wants. So like. For normal people, probably Blue? Lower investment for a pair that does a respectable job? I've used him with Roxanne and Lodge Steven for fun off-type Rock shenanigans at 2/5 non-EX, so like. He does alright for himself.

#books-are-my-life-stuff

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sneakyscarab · 9 months

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touhou 19 time! this game was literally not even released when i started this, so this is really fresh! this post is probably the closest i will ever be to a real games journalist lol.

nina's thoughts on Touhou 19 - Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost

the most recent touhou, coming out just a few weeks ago, so this review is hot off the presses! UDoALG (wild abbreviation by the way, this name is so long) is a pretty neat game, being a direct sequel to Wily Beast and Weakest Creature story-wise, and a sequel to Phantasmagoria of Flower View gameplay-wise.

UDoALG is another in the competitive-danmaku type gameplay, similar to PoFV but with a number of evolutions to make the gameplay more balanced and easier to control. i won't go over every little change, since theres quite a lot, but ill point out some interesting changes, mostly in relation to story mode. for starters, Ability Cards are back again from UM, although with a much smaller role. each character has 2 cards themed to them, and whenever you beat an opponent in story mode you're randomly given one of their two cards. the three animal spirits are added, but they work completely differently to WBaWC, now being stronger variants of the generic spirit enemies from PoFV. a change that i think is only in story mode is that a new win condition is added, where if you defeat your opponent's boss summon an amount of times then your opponent loses. this is also pretty much the only wincon in story mode, since the AI has insane dodging skills. i literally only saw them lose a life one (1) time across 19 characters' stories (if you're curious, it was in Chiyari's stage 1).

one really interesting aspect of this game is the storytelling. i usually don't bring up the story in these posts outside of how certain characters relate to it, the story usually is a fairly simple affair that just gives the characters a reason to fight, but UDoALG has a much more complex story, which im kinda mixed on. i'll start with the cool part: the story actually progresses as you play through and unlock various characters in story mode, every set of character unlocks represents a later time period of the story, so you don't get the full story and resolution until you play through it all. this is a super cool idea, and gives good incentive to keep playing different routes and see how it all plays out. its a cool idea that uniquely plays off of the large character roster and unlocking method of these competitive vs games.

unfortunately, in order to make this happen and make every character be relevant, the plot is needlessly convuluted, especially in the first couple campaigns. there are so many factions at play, all with their own motives and double-agents and subterfuge. by the end of the 19 story scenarios you will be absolutely sick of the phrase "this is exactly as i had planned", and yet i still dont fully understand What the "main villain"s plan was. i commend ZUN for trying something new with the narrative, both in doing a direct sequel with most of the same characters as a former game, as well as this way of unfolding the story over time through different character routes, but i can't say it was Good. maybe im just biased since it mostly revolves around the WBaWC cast, and that game already had pretty rough plot and characterization, but i dunno. i will say i liked the story more at the end than i did after doing the first couple routes, but some of that early confusion never really goes away, and characters like Ran and Tsukasa dont really get their stories resolved.

time to talk about the characters! UDoALG is furry city, pretty much every character besides the human incident resolvers is some kind of animal-person, plus a few Onis. for returning characters we have Reimu, Marisa, Sanae, Ran (from PCB), Aunn (HSiFS), Nazrin (UFO), Seiran (LoLK), Rin (SA), Tsukasa (UM), Mamizou (TD), Yachie (WBaWC), Saki (WBaWC), Yuuma (the 3rd Animal Realm leader, coming from a fighting game i think?), and Suika (also a fighting game, and SA). for the new characters, we have 3 new youkai who have each joined one of the animal realm families respectively, plus the 'main villain' Zanmu and her assistant Hisami. since theres only 5 new guys, ill just give them each a quick review.

Son Biten is a monkey youkai, based on Son Wukong, recruited to Yachie's Kiketsu family. she's pretty goofy, and has a really neat musical theme. i dont have much to say about her, besides that she has a cool inspiration, and some of her interactions are pretty funny.

Enoko is a dog-type youkai, loosely based on the idea of Cerberus, who was recruited to Saki's Keiga family. instead of literally having 3 heads, she has bear traps on her wrists that act as analogues to the jaws of two additional heads, which is a really neat interpretation of a cerberus concept, as well as having tons of comedic potential. i love all the jokes people make about her offering up a Totally Normal Handshake, dont worry about it. she apparently lived in the Forest of Magic as a dog before awakening as a youkai, so she joins the crew of Marisa's funny forest friends.

the third new Youkai is Chiyari, who is NOT a chupacabra, despite what everyone says. she's based on a Tenkajin, which is apparently an obscure youkai that sucks blood, obscure enough that i could only find a single source for it online, being a Japanese blog post written by who i assume is a youkai enthusiast. Anyways, nobody in Gensokyo knows what a tenkajin is either, so everyone calls her a chupacabra instead since its another bloodsucking creature who is 'pretty popular right now'. most of her interactions are her being annoyed by being called a chupacabra, and eventually coming to terms with it. poor tenkajin gets no respect. shes very funny, and also apparently completely broken in pvp. great character.

Hisami is a 'guide of Hell', who is also inexplicably based on grapes for some reason (or eggplants, depending on who you ask, but im in grapes camp.) she pretty much just finds people in hell and helps them find their destination, although 'their destination' is up to Hisami's interpretation, and multiple times in the story she leads characters somewhere else. apparently she does her job wrong because she wants Zanmu to notice her, and it doesn't work cause apparently that was part of Zanmu's plan all along, so she doesn't care. Zanmu is too busy playing 4d chess to give her suboordinate some attention, so sad.

speaking of, Zanmu is an Oni, and the 'main villain' of the game. i say that with quotes because, despite being the final boss in most routes, and being the chessmaster supposedly laying out the big plans and manipulating everyone, she also is simultaneously resolving the incident, kinda?? its a bit hard to understand her motivations. well i guess her motivations make sense, but its hard to understand how exactly she plans to get what she wants from this plan. like her plan involves getting beat up by Reimu multiple times? hello?? not a fan, and she doesn't even have a cool design inspiration to make up for it, shes just another oni.

alright, lets wrap this one up. i was surprised to see another VS type game come out, and it seems to deliver a lot more balanced and interesting combat than the first one (granted, story mode plays pretty differently from what i can tell). the story is weird though, and the roster doesn't really have many characters i'm excited to play as compared to PoFV, and the characters i do like are pretty bad. (Sanae in particular is really weak in this format, her homing snakes are a huge disadvantage against bosses since they turn as soon as they see an enemy, meaning they wont hit the boss unless every random spirit or fairy is dead first). complaints aside though, at the base level its still pretty fun, and im glad that this type of gameplay is being given another chance.

i said it in my PoFV review, and ill say it again here: if any of you reading this have UDoALG, and are interested in playing the PvP with me, hit me up! itd be fun to try playing this with another person (although i heard the online is rough so i dunno…)

thank you so much for reading, especially those of you that have stuck with me through each post! this is the end of the mainline series, but there's still a lot out there i havent done. im not sure where this will go from here, especially since my college semester just started so i'll have a lot less free time, but ive had a lot of fun working on this project, and i hope that youve had fun reading it! if i do keep going, i might do the PC-98 quintilogy next, or maybe talk about cool fangames like Luna Nights or Mystia's Izakaya, i dunno. whatever comes next though, i hope to see you again! consider this the end of 'volume 1' of my grimoire. farewell!

#grimoire of nina #touhou #touhou 19 #touhou UDoALG #unfinished dream of all living ghost #touhou project #touhou 19 spoilers

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