#i love how these go from basic usage of characters to specific vibes or ideas

[creativity-central]

Blog 4: Shapes

I can confidently say that shapes are one of my FAVORITE things about art! They’re also something very important in art, and with the right understanding, shapes can work very much in your favor!

By definition, a shape is just an outline, a geometric form. However, they often mean more than that! The common thing people learn is that round shapes give a fun, childish vibe. Rectangular shapes have strict, logical, supportive vibes, and triangular shapes are dynamic, energetic. There’s not much rhyme or reason for these vibes other than a bit of psychology and societal influence! However it can be noted that rectangles are associated with sturdy buildings, and circles relate to round, safe toys for children. The Bouba/Kiki Effect is sort of connected to this topic, and it’s something worth reading into, covering how shapes influence speech!

But enough about that, shapes have a history of portraying different emotions, different traits. Although, another reason I love them is for good old simplification! A lot of art is a simplification or alteration of reality, rather than the exact copy. Even then, basic shapes can be used as a foundation to build on top of with more complex structures!

Take this diagram of a leg for example. While the left is definitely more accurate, could you draw it? I could draw it, only by copying a reference, but say you had to draw that same leg in a different position? A unique position, that has no reference at all? That’s where the right leg gets into action. The simplification into basic shapes lets you concentrate on other factors like positioning and dynamics, rather than the accuracy of it all.

Speaking of dynamics-- Have you noticed those arrows? There’s a contrast between the front and back of the thigh, as well as the shin. The thigh is round up front, the shins are round in the back. This, for the most part, follows which area has more muscle leaves the bony side flat. Now, this is far from accurate! The body is rarely perfectly straight, but what this create is contrast, and contrast creates dynamics and energy!

There’s many references for the simplification of body parts, so try to look into those, and create a guide of your own! Many people will structure things with many different shapes, especially when the complexity of their drawings differ, so tell me -or even show- what kind of shapes you use to sketch a body?

This goes back to the talk about how shapes influence language and emotions. A round, chubby character might give off more cheerful vibes than a tall, lanky one. This isn’t a guarantee, but all sorts of media follow this pattern! Using shapes will give the viewer an idea of who your characters are before they even do anything, as well as adding some diversity to your art! Same Face Syndrome is a common word in the art community, and I believe it isn’t so much of a problem that your characters may look similar, but more that there is an untapped potential in giving them designs that match their personality!

Another example of shapes, used specifically for head shape! Don’t worry if it makes your style feel out of place in some ways though. Sometimes, you’re just going to have to make your style more flexible to encompass a diverse amount of shapes, but you can still preserve something unique in them! Disney is a big user of language in shapes, but look into any 2d animation of your interest! There’s sure to be some usage of shapes if you look for it.

Here, I’ll use a personal example of mine. Take the currently developing psychological horror rpg, Doll Eye! (That’s a mouthful). Doll Eye’s main artist uses shapes to a significant degree, and this can be clearly seen in this main cast, while still preserving a style!

There’s Alfred, the protagonist, as well as a very average, cautious father who only wants a bit of stability. Kao, the support character! Although, he’s mostly known for being a big softie and pacifist, as well as a bit clumsy in his work as a guardian angel. Finally, the antagonist, Dr.Mystery. The use of dynamic, sharp shapes can signal how they provide danger for the main cast, but also that he himself is a morally grey character. There is a striking difference in their shape language, as well as their silhouettes, that shows their personality, rather than having it told for you. Despite this, it’s easy to tell they’re from the same artist. If you wanna, you can dig the internet for some of this artist’s older style, which gave everyone the same body type, same head shape, etc. While cute, it wasn’t nearly as expressive as his current style, and portrays the emotions he wants it to in a much better way!

Got any commentary? Questions? Future blog ideas? Feel free to share them! But until next month, enjoy Thanksgiving!

#art #art blog #artist support #art support #art help #artist help #illustration #art design #artist blog #new artist #doll eye #creativitycentral #creativity central

[singularstiletto]

I get that Dib & Zim are perfect for imagining Touch-Tone Telephone but like there’s so many other Spirit Phone songs that’d totally slap using any of the characters as the muse. Like you could totally do-

Lifetime Achievement Award: Prof Membrane creating Dib & Gaz Cabinet Man: Dib making himself a cyborg/ creating a human compatible Pak No Eyed Girl: Gaz, that’s it just Gaz. When He Died: Zim disappearing & Dib going through the house  Sweet Bod: Dib dissecting Zim (I guess that one would be pretty gore-y though) Eighth Wonder: Literally Zim- jk, G.I.R bc trust me. Ancient Aliens: Do I really need to say anything? Soft Fuzzy Man: G.I.R. because he is the closest qualifier As Your Father I Expressly Forbid It: Again, do I need to say anything? I Earn My Life: Prof. Membrane but like instead of dying it’s just cloning the kids. Reaganomics: hm... could argue for the Allmighty Tallest/Control Brains on this one. Man-Made Object: Dib & maybe Tak’s ship, or Prof. Membrane again. Spiral of Ants: Zim and Invaders in general. Angelfire: the fighting dynamic between Zim and Dib plus the sibling dynamic between the Membranes all in some funky fast paced animation. Angry People: Gaz, easy. Cat Hacks: Gaz and gaming Crisis Actors: Prof. Membrane being clueless about Zim as Zim is obviously being the little gremlin he is. Geocities: basically that one little clip of Dib hearing a transmission just before Zim’s arrival but stretch it out into a whole thing. Gravitron: The Membranes as a household Kubrick and the Beast: Zim’s human disguise vibing as the world falls apart around him and Dib tries to catch up Moon's Request: Montage of Zim trying to live up to being an Invader but ultimately being more destructive than most can handle (basically Op. ID 1 but more) or Species Swap au as Dib wants nothing to do with his Pak programming or the empire Pizza Heroes: G.I.R., duh. Redesign Your Logo: Prof. Membrane & Dib You're At the Party: Zim learning the truth (EtF) or Dib & his interest in the supernatural overall

#ramble #invader zim #lemon demon #spirit phone album #some funky ideas #idk i'm just procrastinating #i love how these go from basic usage of characters to specific vibes or ideas #if anyone else has any ideas I'd deadass want to hear them #I don't read the comics bc i keep forgetting to so these are kinda limitted to what i rmember of the show +EtF

[beccarooni-watch-later]

A brief summary of some ocs

Sidenote: i have a lot of ocs. like a lot. idk I just really enjoy making new characters for things, and adapting old ones into new formats, and yeah this list may have a part 2 who knows because a lot of other ocs exist as their own thing. But, since I’m more known for marvel stuff, here’s those guys under the cut ;)

(This mainly goes out to @best-slash-fic-pls, who asked to hear more about them. But, anyone, feel free to send me asks about any of these characters. If you like I’ll even try and answer them in character! Idk, it could be fun)

So, at present, I have 3 main MCU based ocs

1. Tekran Opindoor

She’s part of a specific division of the Nova Corps that does deep space rescue missions. Think like a mountain ranger or something but….space

Her aesthetic and costume is kind of space nautical, very Treasure Planet inspired. Typical nova corps uniform but also a long ass pirate coat and big ol’ pirate boots

Attitude wise Tekran’s a sweetheart, very stressed out 27 though, but she likes to act like she has her head on straight

Usually very optimistic, likes to plan things out in excruciating detail and prefers not to take risks

She’s not a fighter, she’s a rescuer. And she’ll fight you on that (well maybe not fight, possibly a sternly worded post it note)

Has a big ass spaceship called the Prime Bacon - which Quill tricked her into naming after Kevin Bacon. She was not pleased.

Pilot-wise, she’s less of a speedster and more of a ‘this ship is so god damn huge I can just crash into stuff’ style of attacking - the very few times she does need to attack. The cannons on her ship are supposed to be for blasting stray meteors, but can occasionally be used to shoot giant purple grapes in the face

Sidenote: Her ship is styled to look like a big fish. I have no idea why, it just is. I do have a drawing of it somewhere that I’d be happy to share if y’all want

Her place in the MCU is basically that she helped the Asgardians get back to earth post infinity war

Before that she was kind of just doing her own thing, occasionally bumped into the Guardians

She has a lot of complex feelings about the Guardians / Ravagers, as she’s very lawful good and feels uncomfortable breaking laws, but she knows a good person at heart when she sees one

2. ‘Baxter’

Baxter isn’t her real name. Not a lot of people know what her real name is, because she’s got so many aliases that it’s kind of hard to keep track.

She’s not exactly good with coming up with the names though. Her fake identities are always called something ridiculous

Notable examples include: Chiffon Vanderghast, Tennessee Tallahassee, Sunny Skye, and Boulevard Williams

Her deal is she was originally a freelance weapons dealer, got busted selling stuff to hydra, and then decided to give a bunch of hydras information to shield in exchange for leniency regarding her sentencing

But of course hydra was in shield, and so she got quietly killed before she could get round to it

Double but, she had previously signed up for a trial experiment to replicate the captain America serum, and the experiment was deemed a failure but had the unintended consequence of bringing her back from the dead

She’s not got regenerative powers though, there’s just something in her that keeps her walking around. Kind of like a zombie but without all the zombie….ness….idk

Personality wise she’s kind of a huckster, very used-car-salesman kinda vibes

Her heart isn’t really in….anything, she just kind of goes where the most money is

Still she’s usually quite a good humoured person, doesn’t tend to hold grudges, sort of a hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy style of nihilism where everything’s gone to hell so why not make the most of it?

Aesthetic wise, she’s kind of grungey. Maintaining dignity is difficult when you’re undead, so she kind of just takes what clothes she can get which results in lots of mismatched options.

3. Akrit Tsosie

Dropout of the magic school academy whatever that Strange went to

He got so far in the programme but wanted to go home to be closer to his family, specifically his grandma

But, he wanted to continue studying, so attempted to self teach himself the last few bits which had some….interesting results

Basically his magic is a bit more fluid and messy than Strange’s, and a lot of it relies on pre-drawn symbols that he has on various parts of his body - kind of like cheat codes for magic

Favours usage of portals, background as an actor in musical theatre so favours the dramatic (as well as this giving him some gymnastic abilities)

Doesn’t usually use his powers much, aside from the occasional bout of laziness that I think we’d all succumb to eventually

Plot wise I haven’t figured out as much, I think he’d be more involved in endgame because of his limited time travel abilities? (Something something magic)

I had a sort of idea wherein he tries to resurrect one of his dusted family members using magic, but it goes wrong and causes a bit of a disaster that prof hulk has to help stop, and that’s when he’d then get involved

Attitude wise he’s quite laid back, doesn’t have his aspirations set very high but still likes to achieve them

He’s just very easy on himself I think, big on self care and taking a step back when he needs to - but sometimes needs a push to get into potentially risky action

Turns into a bit of a pessimist after the snap, but doesn’t go down a super dark route - just kind of sticks with what he’s got and stays a bit closer to the ground

Aesthetic wise, he’s quite casual with how he looks normally, but does love a dramatic flare to his ‘battle costume’ or whatever the heck he’s got going on

And there we go! Let me know if you want to know about any more of my ocs, or if you want me to elaborate on any of the above 😊

#ocs #oc content #character profile #kind of answering an ask i guess? #anyway here are my children #i love them

[bluekayanite]

Observations: Contradictions in “Familiar”

I’m not dead!  Life was just kicking my butt hard and kept me from having much in the way of spare time, and it sent me into burnout, anxiety, and depression.  I tried to push through and still work on blog stuff, but it seemed to have a pretty bad impact on the quality of my work.

I’ve had some time to recover now - just in time, too, because I’d hate not to get a theory/observation post out before Diamond Days releases.

(Yes, I know I’m cutting it close.  I’m just trying to get it at all right now.)

Okay, did anyone else notice that Familiar felt a bit off?

(Besides Steven, that is.)

To the point: Part of my main theory has long been that White has been using mind-control powers on everyone, including Blue and Yellow.  Right now, that includes the idea of making everyone think that Rose and Pink are the same person.

I expected to see at least one contradiction in this ep - probably while Steven talked to Blue or something - but really, this ep is littered with them.  Even if you weren’t actively looking for contradictions, I bet a lot of people still noticed something that was strange.

First, the most obvious one:

Yellow says that the sauna/extraction chamber is new, i.e. Pink and Pearl wouldn’t have known about it because it was made while they were away.  And yet...

Pearl somehow knows about it, and even knows how to help Steven prepare for it.

Perhaps the next most noticeable oddity: It’s pretty obvious that Pink is Blue’s favorite, to the point that she would sneak away to think about her, neglecting her duties.

Instead, Blue seems to now be neglecting “Pink” for the sake of her duties - a complete reversal.  In fact, she doesn’t even seem to bother drying off when she leaves the pool, like she’s in a hurry to get out of there.

In fact, you’d expect Blue to be the first Diamond to want to be with Steven, but instead, Yellow beats her to it.

My theory on that particular detail: You know how in LFHTH, Yellow said that Steven should let her do the talking?  And how she was more willing to approach White than Blue was?

I think there’s a good change that Yellow did talk to White shortly after Steven.  And as such, White affected her, before Blue, and Yellow was the first available.

Getting to more subtle notes, you remember this part?

This is the first one that really stood out to me.  Pearl never says “Thank the Stars,” or anything like it.  Instead, she seems to favor Earth expressions when exclaiming things.

I was even under the impression that she had abandoned Gem theology.  And yet, here she is, thanking the s/Stars.

(No, I’m not counting when Sardonyx greeted Steven.  Along with it being hard to tell how exactly personalities affect a Fusion, there haven’t been any non-fused references to the stars like that - from Pearl, Garnet, Ruby or Sapphire - so it’s not a good data point.)

There’s more moments where the Pearls seem to be out of character.  You probably remember this part:

I don’t think that Yellow Pearl would normally have a problem with something like a name.  She’s normally shown a lot of personality - i.e. not limited to a few tasks.

And she’s emoted at Steven’s nonsense before.

But now, not only does she seem to not realize that Steven’s being silly, but he somehow risks breaking her with it?

I’m pretty sure that she’d be able to handle something like a name, especially since Steven didn’t even make it complicated  Heck, part of her job seems to be working with names.

Blue Pearl also has moments.  When Steven heads to see Blue, I noticed this:

This is the first time we’ve seen Blue Pearl with her hands behind her back.  Normally, she keeps them clasped in front.  Having the hands behind the back is more of a Yellow Pearl thing.

I also wonder about her “Welcome back.”  I mean, come on, she was there when Pearl helped Rose make an attack at the Cloud Arena.

I know we don’t know her very well, but I still wonder why she’d welcome Pearl after that.

Also: Have you really listened to her when she says it?  It’s kind of creepy. o.o;

Speaking of which, if I’m not mistaken, Yellow sounds a bit flatter than usual when she talks.  Blue might be a bit off, too.  To me, they both give off a sort of “hypnotized” vibe, as do the Pearls (all three of them).

Regardless of their tone, they both seem too calm for everything that just happened, at least IMO.  Really, they go from “worried about dealing with White” to, as Steven puts it, “spa day,” in what seems like a matter of minutes.

I’m thinking that White basically told them not to worry.  In fact, it might be why Yellow laughs at the idea of failing to get White’s attention, instead of getting angry.

Pearl herself is also oddly calm, or even weirdly happy about a lot of... less fortunate things.

I know she likes Pink/Steven, but liking Pink and Steven is exactly why I’d think she’d be more upset about Yellow conquering planets, slaughtering countless people, and having Gems sucking the life out of the ground after the fact.  Not to mention the idea of Pink helping celebrate such things.

Speaking of, that’s another thing that Pearl probably shouldn’t know about: If the murals are any indication, Yellow probably only had nine colonies when the Earth colony was just started, i.e. the last time Pearl would’ve been in touch with Homeworld.

And now she has hundreds.  And the way Pearl talks, it sounds like she somehow knows about them all.

“Yellow Diamond oversees all aspects of Gem production on every single one of her colonies.”

On the other hand, Pearl talks about Yellow often being off with her army - singular - whereas Peridot said in Hit the Diamond that Yellow has control over “all the armies of Homeworld” - plural, and probably very many.  So it’s like Pearl knows about the newer colonies, but not the new armies.

And unless the Diamonds are normally friends with the Gems in their courts, it also feels like a stretch for thinking of Pink’s court to remind her to get Steven’s friends.

If you ask me, it seems like Pearl’s mind is so filled with active contradictions that she’s the Pearl most likely to break.

Maybe not too unlike a certain other Pearl that I bet White worked her magic on.

Anyway, since I mentioned odd grammatical usage, Blue has a couple moments:

Grammar is one of my strongpoints, and in this context, “you and I” is nonstandard, or even considered incorrect (I checked - it often comes with hypercorrection).  But more strange is how she turns down Steven’s suggestion to play a game.

I’d think that, now that Steven’s here, and White is obviously glad for it, the Blue would think that idea of playing the game again would be wonderful, and that it might be a good way for the Diamonds to get together again.  Instead, she talk about how no one wanted to come when Pink wasn’t there.

Okay, so either of those on its own seems like a stretch, but two odd word choices seem like a pattern to me - like a little hint that something is wrong.

And if you think about it, Blue doesn’t really answer either of Steven’s requests.  Along with turning to the past and not the present, she says nothing about talking to White.

Pearl also seems to have some odd responses to what Steven says, not always answering the real question.  (You could probably count Yellow, too.)  And there are a lot of oddly convenient interruptions.

Also, both Blue and Yellow seem to have a lot of focus on wanting to be with White, especially if they’re afraid of her.  It almost seems like White might want them to, well, want to be with her.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned, but I’ve long theorized that White actually fears loneliness, but is very selective about who she lets in.  This could be evidence of that.

I do suspect that the singing underwater game is actually canon.  It seems a bit too specific when White seems to be missing a lot of details.  It also suggests both intelligence and a degree of creativity on Pink’s part: things that would help if she wanted to lead a rebellion in secret.  I also think there’s a chance that the Pebbles can’t be affected by White’s powers.

Speaking of which: Why would the Pebbles accept “Pink,” but run from her Pearl?  Unless maybe they knew that she’s not actually the Pearl that belongs to Pink. ;3

Anyway, I know I’ve been all over the place with this post (esp. toward the end here), but there were a couple more things that I wanted to mention: You know the new “Love Like You” recording in the credits?  The one that doesn’t quite sound like it’s being sung by Rose?  I noticed that it was heading towards the line “What makes you think I’m so special?” and in Familiar, it got to that part.  Not only that, but it really emphasizes the word “special,” making it sound a bit strange.

I was thinking that it would make sense if they played that line right around the time of a “Rose ISN’T Pink” reveal, and considering that Diamond Days has its own trailer - one that’s on the dramatic side even - it seems like that ep is probably going to be important.

Maybe Steven’s going to find out that something is very wrong, and maybe even question whether Rose was Pink after all.

If so, then it would be sooner than I expected. 83

Connie also seems to be giving the CGs a somewhat-strange look, possibly on the concerned side.

Have they all been affected?  Has Connie noticed that something’s off?

I’m curious to find out.  I suppose that will be soon. =3

And yes, there is a lot more I could talk about here, but I think I’ll leave it at this for now. XD

#Steven universe #su familiar #white diamond's mind control #rose quartz wasn't pink diamond #su theory

[vjdarkworld]

NieR: Automata Review (SPOILER FREE! NO SPOILERS HERE!)

Score: Must-Play, anyone who loves videogames should play this as soon as possible.

// Read my Reviewing system for Context of Score

Nier Automata is Yoko Taro’s first game to ever get both critical and commercial success which he has earned it rightfully. For why I believe Automata is a masterpiece is because of the ending. As everything in the game builds up to one gameplay moment. And that gameplay moment is an emotional climax all because of a well crafted journey. Yes the game’s story is told through cutscenes, dialogue, music, etc, but when the climax of the story is GAMEPLAY it just reminds me why we play videogames in the first place. 

The Good:

Gameplay

Nier References

Art Direction

The Bad:

Unoptimized port for PC

Little support for PC version

The Best:

Music

Messages/themes

The Ending

Meaningful Sidequests

2B

The Good:

Gameplay:

This is a PlatinumGames game, so of course the gameplay is good. When it originally announced that Yoko Taro would be helming a Nier sequel with PlatinumGames it was an instant "hype" moment because the original Nier had quite simple gameplay. Pitting PlatinumGames expertise with fluid combo oriented hack n slashes with Yoko Taro's crazy storytelling and it was a match made in GAMERRRRRR Heaven. But how did they deliver?

Well they did deliver, in the context of this game. This is an RPG, so the game is story based. Thus, PlatinumGames decided to make this the most simple out of their hack n slash titles. Basically you can spam dodge and attack buttons and mostly cruise through the main story IF you really want to. But the combo system does actually have a little depth to it, and you can pull of some fun wacky stuff once you know some tricks.

Even a recurring simple minigame that will happen a lot throughout a playthrough was fine by me. Some people were bother by it, but it's an easy enough mini game that does have a major story payoff in the end so it's all worth it.

And to cap it off, the way that abilities and special attacks are unlocked is pretty unique. Effectively you’re doing ability item management, which has some limitations but it's a fun way to make it thematic with robots.

Which I think is why the gameplay is so good regardless of its weak points is because it was all made within the theme of androids. I'm not going to mention every cute detail but I will finish off talking about gameplay with one controversial design choice: no autosaves. Instead you manually have to save at save stations. Maybe it's because I have played all the From Software Soul's games but it didn't annoy me. Really the save points are frequent in Automata that it doesn't effect it that much. And just like in Souls games, the save points have a thematic purpose of "saving your data" to the in-universe network. Basically the manual save is there as a meta-element. And again there's many other examples of this but this is Yoko Taro's strong suits, metaphorical gameplay.

Nier References:

Nier Automata is part of a strange series that spans two different games. In fact, here's the series order:

Drakengard 3 -> Drakengard 1 -> Nier Gestalt / Nier Replicant -> Nier Automata.

Yeah, that's pretty wild. So it's understandable that you may be worried about going into Nier Automata without a clue of what's going on due to ~Lore~ reasons. "Do I really need to watch a Let's Play on Youtube of some niche game, or worse LPs of all the niche games??" Worry not, as you absolutely don't need to... well right away atleast.

To break it down, no you don't need to play the Drakengard as all the references to it are just cute references. 

Yes there are characters and side quests that are deeply connected to OG Nier, but they have no bearing on the main story being told. They are supplementary knowledge that helps both boost the main story and help provide additional emotional moments IF you have played Nier. But again, understanding what happens with the main characters is all self-contained within this game.

Now do I recommend playing OG Nier? Yes, in fact I believe that is another Must-Play game, but I specifically recommend PLAYING it. Watching a let's play on youtube will not do it justice.

To summarize, if you play Nier Automata without playing OG Nier you will be perfectly fine. You will be confused at first, but that is intentional and all will be revealed by end of the story. But, once you beat this game, you will probably get the urge to play the first game and THAT'S when you play it. Don't spoil the first Nier's experience, ya can wait it out.

Art Direction:

From the characters, to enemies, and locations the vibe is clearly of apocalypse, but there is almost a level of cuteness to it all strangely enough.

Our android protagonists, and the group they’re in called Yorha, are decked out in futuristic style gothic lolita fashion. The enemies almost look like the smartphone brand Android's mascot. With a round head, an oval body, dainty arms/legs, and tiny eyes they look quite innocent.

While there's the obvious ruined city, abandoned factory, and barren desert locations for a "post-apocalypse distant future" setting there's actually some surprise appearances. To not give too much away, two standout areas would be a 2001 A Space Odyssey rotating spacestation and a cheery amusement park.

All in all, the art direction is pretty nice. But, I need to address the elephant in the room. The 2B "controversy", specifically her butt.

Alright some context needs to be given to understand this stupidity, so bear with me. This timeline will explain it all, for the Western World specifically:

NieR Gestalt releases to little fanfare. It doesn't have much critical or commercial success, but it does get a cult following.

NieR Automata gets announced at E3 to little fanfare. The diehard fans are hyped beyond belief, but everyone else doesn't care. Though everyone is amused by Yoko Taro's antics with the emil mask.

A puzzle platformer on Steam gets greenlight and released by the name of Haydee. The title is the name of the games TITular protagonist, a robot that for some reason has huge breasts and butt. It gains a major following, spawning lots of pornography being made of this character.

NieR Automata's free demo releases on PSN. Because of the people going off of (and getting off on) the previous robot girl, people all of a sudden are extremely horny towards 2B (even though they didn't care about her for 2 years up until this point) A lot of pornography is created of 2B, most notable is a screenshot edit that starts the "controversy". An upskirt screenshot of 2B climbing a ladder is edited so that she has an asshole visible. People thought it was a real screenshot and went even more ballistic. Even after confirmed fake, people stayed horny for her.

NieR Automata releases. This time, because everyone regardless if they were horny or not, has seen the protagonist 2B all over the internet. Since everyone is hyped over 2B (and not because of the cult-classic series), NieR Automata has both critical and commercial success.

Alright, now that you are caught up, I can confirm that.... yes, 2B is cute. Yes, she has a butt. But, there's barely any fanservice of her in the game. If you’re not going up a ladder, you basically have to glitch the camera to be able to see under her skirt, and even then she pushes your camera controls away. If you detonate as her you will see her in the leotard but uhh Wonder Woman shows more skin than 2B so I honestly have no idea why some people are so pissed off at her. Some people even refuse to play the game cus of her which is really silly.....

I'm going to leave off on that for now. I will come back to that later, but let's finally get to The Bad.

The Bad:

Unoptimized PC Port:

You’re going to need a graphics card leading on the high end side if you want to see the pretty graphics.

Also, FAR mod is required if you want optimization. You’re going to need to look that up before playing.

Now I do put this in the bad category, and many people want to boycott PlatinumGames and Nier Automata for this unoptimized port, but that's going too FAR (get it). I'm going to give the context as to why this happened:

While I didn't play the PS4 version, I have heard reports of poor framerates at certain points. This leads to the revelation... this game was really only made optimized for PS4 Pro. Which I think it still lags there but not too much.

Anyways, so Square Enix decides that since Nier Automata is part of a niche franchise they might as well put it on Steam to get a quick extra bucks. So they have a quick port job happen by who knows what and boom it's on Steam.

So basically, the major problem here is Square Enix. It almost seems like they don't respect the game. No amount of "boycotting" by random people on Steam of a masterpiece game will make the company retract their thought process. SE has their FFXIV money printer, there is no incentive for them to fix a niche game. It's sad but true. And in fact, not buying the game proves their point that only FFXIV will make them money.

Now I don't condone a bad port job, this is why it's in the bad but.... the game is still perfectly playable even if you put all the grafix as low as possible, which is what I did. The only times the game crashed was when I tried to max out the graphics and resolution beyond what my PC could handle and made my GPU be at 100% usage for too long.

Little Patch Support:

This goes off of the other point. There's only been a couple of stealth patches for the DLC release, but nothing addressing the optimization. Again, it's sad that Square Enix isn't treating the game with the respect it has earned.

The Best

Music:

As the old saying goes, film is 70% audio and 30% visual. Of course that is an exaggeration, but it's trying to get across how important a soundtrack can be to making a movie iconic.

Now why am I talking about all that? Well. OG Nier had such a beautiful OST that it could be the sole reason why it got such a cult following.

Automata is no different, the music here is simply breathtaking. But listening to the OST alone doesn't do it justice, as the music is contextualized within the game perfectly. Every area has such a distinct song that I can FEEL that area when I hear the song out of the game. And without saying spoilers, the credits song makes me FEEL the ending all over again. Hell, even when I heard a song from the first Nier in this game I almost cried for real.

The music just compliments the moments within the game so well, that the music MAKES the game. And that playing the game makes the music more emotional. If you love music in games, or music in general, you gotta play Nier Automata.

Message/Themes:

As you probably know already, Yoko Taro is an odd fellow. You can lump him with other japanese videogame auteur directors ala Kojima and Kamiya. But what makes Yoko Taro different from Kojima's wacky metaphors is his consistency.

Right from Drakengard 1 Yoko-san established his auteur theme: Violence in Videogames. He explains that for a videogame protagonist to slaughter thousands of people, he has to be a crazy psychopath. The enemies in that game beg and plead to not kill. But, after 9/11 his view changed. So, in the first Nier he went with a different concept. That someone can discriminately kill without remorse if they believe their cause is Righteous. I can't say how this is achieved as spoiler, but you get the picture. Automata continues the violence theme off of the Nier idea.

There's other themes, but that's the main one.

The Ending:

The True ending is quite possibly why I think the game is a masterpiece. The entire game is building up to this climax.

Every sidequest, all the confusion is finally explained (albiet maybe too quickly). But that's just one of many twists. In which the final sequence has so many false finishes that I truly believed where the ending that the final moment caught me off guard. This last finale is what justifies getting through the entire game, regardless if you don't like hack n slash games. The trick done too is so simple that it being the emotional climax in my opinion proves it’s a masterpiece.

Meaningful Sidequests:

When going through the game, understanding what is going on is confusing. Hell even the prologue is confusing. This is intentional, because information is being kept from you. While The Truth is only revealed at the end, nearly all side-quests foreshadow the ending.

The side-quests are special in that each one has some type of twist to it. They all seem like some ordinary RPG fetch quest, but there's always a twist. Sometimes it's happy, sometimes it's sad, but they can catch you off guard.

But as I was saying, the twists of these side-quests don't stop there, as once you beat the game and know The Truth you will have a epiphany if you think back to side quests you have done. They give hints to the Truth, sometimes the events in the side-quests mirror what was revealed. It's quite awesome how well this was put together.

This is all most likely cus Yoko Taro creates stories backwards, starting with the ending and going to the start. And also why the ending is so good.

I've seen some people say they think the "twist" of the game is "practicable"... but considering the entire game is hinting at it, hiding in plain sight, I would say no... foreshadowing isn't practicability, it's good storytelling plain and simple.

2B:

I already talked about the controversy with 2B being cute and having a butt, but(t) to wind down I want to address something as my final point. The thing is I don't know if Yoko Taro is a puppet master genius, or how intentional was this but.... people's obsessive hype over 2B has a payoff as a moment within the game.

To give a little context, the lady from the previous Nier, Kaine was extremely scantily clad with purpose. It being to challenge body norms, and people fell hook line in sinker. People said she was way too sexy and only eye candy, and even barring the amazing character arc she has, there is a part of her body that's really only hinted at within the game. I won't spoil it, so Let me go back to 2B.

Now 2B is cute, and everyone loves how 2B looks or wanting to be knee-jerk contrarian cus of the annoying horny people. Here's the thing, this is addressed in the game. This obsessive of 2B is reflected back at the player in one moment. I have no idea if Yoko Taro knew there would be this fervor over the games protagonist but mannnnn,

I think we all got played, hook line and sinker. Ya got us good Yoko Taro.

Details of Playthrough

I played on PC, bought on Steam. FAR mod used as well. I had a pretty low/midrange spec going in, so i had to play everything on low at 900p, also using FAR mod to turn off lighting effects. Still, I had framerate drops at certain areas. Game crashed if I played on higher settings, but keeping it on low stopped that.

My Specs (at the time of playthrough):

CPU: i5-2400

GPU: Radeon R9 270 Sapphire

RAM: 16GB

#nier #nier automata #automata #no spoilers

[tl-notes]

Kobayashi’s Maid Dragon Episode 6 Notes

The first two cuts of the episode, and we're greeted with three different season words right off the bat. Kyoani is really making a lot of use of them in this show and I love it.

The first is the bird there, a swallow (tsubame 燕 in Japanese). Swallows are used as both spring and summer season words. In spring, they arrive back in Japan after their winter migration and start making nests and laying eggs.

In summer, the hatchlings have left the nest and are out finding their own mates.

The spring season word usage tends to allude to swallows' nests or chicks, and the summer spring word usage tends to refer to flying swallows.

Mmm, metaphors.

The second is the snail, which are especially associated with tsuyu 梅雨, the Japanese rainy season. The rainy season tends to mark the end of spring and beginning of summer—really you can think of it kind of like a fifth season, warmer than spring, cooler than summer, and rainy as heck. It usually lasts about a month and a half or so (and makes doing laundry hell).

The third is the hydrangea flower (ajisai 紫陽花 in Japanese), which like the snail is associated with tsuyu. If cherry blossoms are the spring flower, hydrangeas are the rainy season flower. Some people even go do flower viewings of them, though it's not as common a practice as it is with cherry blossoms.

They made an appearance in another fairly recent show, Amanchu:

Notice the pink and blue slippers off to the right? Those are to wear when using the bathroom—or rather, the toilet, since the toilet will be in a separate room from the bath/shower in most Japanese homes.

So there's probably something like this on the other side of that door there:

Darjeeling, as I'm sure you know, is a fancy kind of tea. The name comes from where it is grown: the Darjeeling area in India. Much like Champagne, there are legal branding restrictions in place such that only tea grown and processed in parts of Darjeeling can call itself "Darjeeling."

"Flush" refers to when the tea leaves were harvested. First flush means those leaves were part of the first harvest of that year's crop. It's a good thing.

The Japanese word for flea market used here is a literal translation, nomi no ichi 蚤の市. Nowadays it's more common to refer to them with the English loan word (furii maaketto), as nomi is a gross bug and English is cool.

So, that it was a nomi no ichi and not a flea market possibly implies it was more of an old school affair aimed at an older audience... and/or a pun, because nomi (飲み) can also refer to drinking/beverages.

Random fact regarding the loan word version of the name: flea and free are both furii フリー in Japanese. Some "flea" markets in Japanese are actually called "free" markets, as anybody is "free" to join and sell stuff.

...Making "free market" one of those "Japanese English" (wasei eigo 和製英語) phrases that Japanese people will use sometimes when speaking English that leads to confusion, since of course free market means something quite different from flea market in native English.

Vegetable Racer!

This is super minor, but I thought it was interesting (you might not; feel free to skip):

The way these are worded in the subs, to me, sounds like Kobayashi is either guessing at those facts (especially in the second one: "I guess [...]"), or just found out about them in the context of that conversation (especially in the first one: "So [...], huh?").

The Japanese nuance is slightly different:

ジョージさんって才川さんのお姉さんなんだって。Georgie-san tte Saikawa-san no onee-san nandatte.

ジョージはメイドに扮装してる時のニックネームだった。Georgie wa maid ni funsou shiteru toki no nickname datta.

The "nandatte" in the first line implies she was told that information by someone else (presumably Georgie) and is now explaining/telling it to Tohru and/or Kanna—more of a "turns out she was actually Saikawa-san's sister" sort of vibe.

The "datta" in the second line is a bit more of a solid statement than an "I guess"; following from the previous line it's a little more "...and the name 'Georgie' is what she uses when playing a maid."

So, again, suuper minor, but I thought that "seems to be inferring/guessing at those things" versus "heard them from (probably) Georgie and is telling them to Tohru/Kanna" distinction was interesting.

"Fanatic" here is "mania," a loan word often attached to things as a suffix in a similar way as otaku—in fact, a lot of people aren't really sure what the difference between the two is.

Basically, otaku is more "person who really likes X" and mania is more "person who is really devoted to X." You might think of it like "fan" versus "enthusiast."

Of course, otaku is also especially associated with anime/manga/games/etc., but both can be used for basically any hobby or interest.

Let's learn from this little frog and take a short break to enjoy the scenery a little.

-

She seems to have been mouthing "nameaiko 舐め合いこ," i.e. the licking each other thing she used to do with Tohru, if you recall from episode three.

So nothing lewd at all, get your minds out of the gutter. This is a family show.

This seems to be a translation error. Lucoa is asking dou? kore kara asobi ni konai? どう？これから遊びに来ない？, which is not asking whether she can keep coming to visit them, but an invitation for them to come visit her new place. Specifically kore kara basically means "now"—which makes sense, considering they go to visit immediately after that conversation.

You've probably noticed these riverside shots in a bunch of other shows; they really are that common in Japan. The Japanese government has long loved standardized infrastructure projects, and this is one example (another being: notice how all the anime high schools look really similar?). They're basically artificial mini-flood plains to contain the rivers in the event of heavy rain (esp. in typhoon season) or whatever, while also providing some public space for kids to play or people to jog or whatnot. They're quite nice.

Interesting how Lucoa and Tohru both do that thing with their hands as they walk here.

Why Venusian? In mythology, Quetzalcoatl is said to have become Venus (rather, the morning star) after the whole incident with the sister.

For reference, "Venusian" in Japanese is the kanji for Venus (gold + planet/star) and person—i.e., the standard set-up for "person from X" (American [person] is アメリカ人, Japanese [person] is 日本人, etc.). But, if you wanted to get really literal about it, could also mean "Venus person," which would be pretty accurate according to the myth!

Shouta is a perfectly normal name for men. A similar name happens to be Shoutarou, the young boy protagonist in classic anime Tetsujin 28-go* (which you may be familiar under the name of Gigantor) .

Coincidentally, Shoutarou got a lot of...adult... fan material made about him, to the point people into that stuff were said to have a Shoutarou Complex, which was abbreviated to shotacon.

That has absolutely nothing to do with this new character here, as this is a wholesome family show.

*The tetsujin in that title follows the same kanji scheme as above, iron (鉄) plus person (人). The -gou is something attached to numbers in a numbering scheme; for example, Apollo 13 in Japanese is Apollo 13-gou (アポロ13号).

Also, the phrase used for "fidget" here is the same one from Konosuba episode 5: sowa sowa.

Interesting that his color scheme has a lot in common with Lucoa's (hair).

The text in the bubble is kyun キュン, the sound effect word for your heart "squeezing" when you see something excessively cute and/or lovable.

That can be both platonic, like a hamster or other small animal, or romantic, like the person you have a crush on, but in either case the key is how adorable it is.

It differs from doki doki, the other similar heart-pounding sound effect, in that kyun tends to be an instantaneous thing, and doki doki is more a continuous thing. For example, kyun is commonly a reaction to a cute action, like a hamster falling asleep in your hand, and doki doki is instead more like a state you're in, a raised heart rate while in close proximity with your crush.

Though exceptions exist of course.

Another super minor thing you can probably skip. The Japanese line here is:

僕が帰る流れになってない? Boku ga kaeru nagare ni natte nai?

Nagare is like "flow" (it's actually a noun-ified version of the verb "to flow," nagareru), both literally (like the flow of a river) and figuratively. It's often used in situations like this, where you can tell the "flow" of the conversation is headed in a certain direction/to a certain conclusion. Like "I see where this is going." Or perhaps more commonly(?), used in retrospect when describing why something happened; "I just went with the flow" or "it just kind of ended up that way" kind of stuff.

It's a common opinion in Japan that Japanese people are bad at saying no* to things (there's a bunch of pop literature written about this in Japanese, it's not just a "wow Japan is so weird" foreigner opinion), so this concept comes up a little more frequently than you might expect.

*Random example that always seems to bug the hell out of foreigners, especially when dealing with people like bank, government, etc. employees: the employee will typically say "mm, that would be a little difficult (chotto muzukashii or something)" instead of "no, we can't do that."

It usually involves a drawn out argument, where the foreigner is thinking "well fuck if they won't do it just because it's hard, that's dumb, it's their job," and the Japanese employee is thinking "why isn't this person taking the fucking hint, if I could do it I would."

That's a bit of an oversimplification, but is fairly illustrative of the concept in broad terms.

Mini Japanese lesson part, skip if you want.

The word here is youzumi 用済み, which is less "useless," and more "already used [and thus no longer needed]" (though the difference is minor in this case). Basically the idea is that all he cared about was the summoning itself, and doesn't need anything else from her now that it's done.

This you 用 is an interesting word that you'll see pop up a lot in Japanese. It's similar to one definition of "business"; i.e. if you have something to talk about with someone, you have business(you) with them, or if you have something you need to do, you have some business(you) to take care of.

In that sense, you can pretty much always translate it as "business" and that will be accurate enough in terms of meaning—however, it's usage is far more common, and it sounds "natural" in a lot more situations, so it's another of those words you'll see translated in all sorts of ways depending on context. E.g. なんか用?→What do you want?, 用を足してくる→I'ma go see a man about a horse, ちょっと用があるんで→Sorry, I'm kind of busy right now.

Not to be confused with you 用 as a suffix, which means "for _____," like kodomo-you 子供用 meaning "for children" (e.g. medicine).

The word for "bad" here is taihen 大変, which is yet another word that can be translated in many ways depending on context; generally speaking it's an adjective/adverb that serves as an amplifier (like very or extremely) that often-but-not-always has a negative connotation. Here, I would say it's a little closer in nuance to "I noticed something crazy."

See, rainy season.

Anyway, a teruteru bouzu is a doll-like superstitious charm made and hung by the window to induce good weather. You'll often see it in slice of life anime on rainy day episodes, or sometimes in sports anime the day before a big match (in hopes the game doesn't get rained out).

Teruteru is a sound effect word for the sun shining (though it's not actually super common outside of "~ bouzu"), and teru 照る by itself is a verb for "to shine." Bouzu 坊主 is a word for a Buddhist monk, though through association it also refers to a bald/shaved head or a young boy (who traditionally often have shaved heads).

One theory on the origin comes from a Chinese myth about a girl who used a broom to brush away the rain clouds or something. Somewhere along the time it changed to a monk instead of a girl, and voilà? Iunno.

There are also some regional variations on the name as well, but you'll probably never hear any. I know I certainly haven't, at least not outside the context of wikipedia articles or a Japanese culture class I once took.

It's said you can hang them upside-down to make it rain instead—which makes them ame-ame bouzu.

Oh, Kanna is drawing something. Let's take a look.

Hmm, I wonder who that is?

...Oh.

This sequence is a reference to idol concerts. That jacket is a happi, traditionally worn by workers (like say carpenters or the people who runs the stalls at festivals), but also a stereotypical otaku thing to wear to an idol concert. Same with the headband.

The stick is a colored light stick, another (even more) standard piece of equipment for live idol events.

You'd know all that if you watched Gintama.

The color choice (pink here) is often based on which member of the idol group is your oshi 推し, the one you've chosen to dedicate yourself to in particular—most groups will have an assigned image color for each member.

It's also a thing for there to be predetermined "calls and responses", where the idol(s) will say something and the audience will reply back with whatever.

The little "dance" (spin/jump/posing) is reference to wota-gei ヲタ芸, intensely and purposefully cringe-y dance things people will do at these events. Some people take them a little further.

Wota is short for wotaku, an alternate spelling of otaku (ヲタク vs オタク). The difference between the two is up for debate, but at the moment the w- version is more favored by actual otaku I guess?

Personally I'd say wotaku is more like anime/game/manga/etc. nerds (kind of like what "otaku" in the English community means) while otaku can, as mentioned earlier, refer to a wider variety of hobbies.

Gei 芸 means like performance, art, or trick.

The word for "mild" is amakuchi 甘口, which in literal terms is more like "sweet." In practical terms "mild" is correct, but the fact that it has "sweet" (ama[i] 甘[い]) in the word gives it slightly more of a "lol that's for kids" nuance to it than "mild" has. I imagine the joke got across just fine anyway, but hey it's an excuse for me to write more words words words.

In case anyone missed it: lol even the rice was instant. These guys.

You are probably at least a little familiar with itadakimasu as the standard pre-meal "thanks for the food/amen" line, but there's also gochisou-sama deshita (the line here) that's the standard post-meal line. It basically means "it was a feast [that I was treated to]."

The word for "gaming addiction" here is netoge haijin ネトゲ廃人. Netoge is short for "internet game," basically MMOs (though technically any online game). Haijin is basically an invalid, someone too sick/injured/disabled to care for themselves—it's sometimes used to refer to people with severe drug addictions too.

Basically it's the equivalent of poopsocker.

The pronoun Takiya uses for "I" here is shousei 小生, a weird old one you typically don't see nowadays outside of some business emails—it goes well with his use of -dono instead of -san when in his weirdo nerd mode.

Who wouldn't be, it's got one section that's transparent! So convenient!

The word here is aiai-gasa 相合傘. Technically it just means "sharing an umbrella," and doesn't necessarily have any connection to "lover's." However....

Ai, with different kanji (愛), does mean love though. A combination of that pun and Japan's relative lack of public displays of affection ("a woman should walk three steps behind her husband" was a thing traditionally) led to the image of a couple sharing an umbrella being basically the gold standard for "couple" imagery.

You've probably seen this drawing before in another series at one point or another, with two names written underneath:

It's basically the equivalent of writing you and your crush's names (or initials) in a heart with an arrow through it—it's the thing you carve into a tree to be romantic or whatever.

They're in Akihabara here, because of course they are.

Going by the manga, Kobayashi's workplace is in Kita-senju, which is like ten minutes from Akihabara by train.

That's a lot of screenshots for two minor points, but here I go anyway.

First, the "on every person." Specifically he says ningen gotoki 人間如き. Ningen is human, and gotoki, when stuck onto the end of a noun like this, indicates basically condescension, in a "something of that [low] level" kind of way. For example it's often paired with "child," in a "they're just kids, don't let them get to you" or "I can't believe you lost to a kid" kind of way (from an adult's perspective).

Note that if you instead attach gotoki (or gotoku, same deal) using the no particle, it just means "like ____"—basically as a simile, no negative connotations.

For example, the series Hayate no Gotoku. Hayate means a strong gust of wind/gale, so the title basically means "like the wind." (Of course, the main character's name is also Hayate, so you've got that pun there too.)

Second: The last line there in the Japanese is "俺にとって人間は、住処に土足で踏み入り、宝を奪いに来るハズレでいい。Ore ni totte ningen wa, sumika ni dosoku de fumiiri, takara wo ubai ni kuru hazure de ii."

Basically the idea is not that it's better for humans to be trespassers who come to steal his treasure, but that, because it takes a lot of time to determine whether any one human is a "hit," and humans are beneath him anyway (see gotoki note), he's fine just saving the time and effort and assuming all of them are trespassing thieves.

The key point that distinguishes that from the sub line interpretation is the particle at the very end there is de instead of ga.

Basically, in these situations, de ii means "I'll settle for X" whereas ga ii means "X is actually what I want."

You'll hear those two lines paired together fairly often, actually. Especially with a character with self-esteem/confidence issues. Someone will ask them out, or ask them to join their team or something, and they'll reply by asking "Ore/boku/watashi de ii?" (You'll settle for me?/I'm good enough?). To which the other person will reply "Omae/kimi ga ii." (I'm not settling; you're exactly what I want.)

Oh there's those swallows again, the ones trying to find a mate.

By the way, swallows mate for life.

The word for fanservice here is teko-ire テコ入れ (for reference the usual word is "service/saabisu/サービス").  Teko means lever, as in the simple machine. Ire means to insert.

As a term, it originally refers to using leverage to overcome financial losses on the stock market. Your portfolio goes down, putting you in a bad spot, so you borrow money and buy more stock on leverage to try and make up for it.

From there, the term caught on in the rest of society with a broader usage: being in a bad situation and taking a gamble to try to fix it.

In TV (and thus anime), it refers to doing something new with a show (often some sort of gimmick, or changing directions) in an attempt to save it from bad ratings.

It's common in manga as well. Ever wondered why that slice of life romantic comedy series turned into a battle manga?

The "ratings" were bad, so they teko-iri’d it to try to save it before giving it the axe.

So if you assume this episode title isn't a joke (I'm pretty sure the ratings are doing fine, if not Kemono Friends level), it would be saying "honestly, our ratings suck, so we're switching gears and doing a fanservice episode to try to save them."

#kobayashi-san chi no maid dragon #miss kobayashi's dragon maid #maidragon #anime #translation notes #swallows mate for life

[mistedfence]

shlooting and rpgs, Celestialvania

so, looter shooters (shlooters) and rpg leveling were recent thoughts of mine for this little celestialvania game i had, which drew influence from bl2, pokemon, and hld for gameplay base, but with a more jojo-stand esque usage of teams/abilities. 

i’ve started to realize that pokemon combines the two: what pops up in rng encounters is what you can level and customize via moveset. bl2 takes the (more or less) opposite approach, the rng loot that you can find have static stats and passives; what you level is yourself as a character. generally, through the game, you level your character just based on what seems appealing, in terms of overarching gameplay style or just down one of the three trees for that sick capstone, and if you happen to loot some good rarity gun that fits your skill tree at the moment, then awesome. it’s really only lategame, where you’re starting to get the legendaries and legit loot, that you might consider respeccing your build around specific guns, shields, class mods, grenades, etc. Ok wow, I need to punctuate because holy shit. 

So I guess what I need to figure out going onwards is why exactly BL2′s system is so good. I think part of the reason is the need to constantly find new equipment as you rapidly outgrow it in harsher levels/environments, and there’s that sentimental point of finally replacing a reliable gear that carried you through a significant point of the game. I guess that’s really Pokemon’s strength, then, in that you’re supposed to become attached to specific Pokemon and never outgrow them, only deepen your bond as you level them to the last of the game’s content. We’re gonna ignore PVP connotations for now, because I don’t think a game with network connectivity or PvP is anywhere near what I’m able to do for game-making right now. So, loot shooting is kind of a different “badge” of devotion, of showcasing a rare as fuck loot that you can only get by farming untold hours, defeating shit hard bosses, or farming shit hard bosses. 

There’s also a reverse timeline of where the rng comes in. BL2′s is at the “end”, where either you get the drop or you don’t, and getting it marks the end of your struggle and the beginning of funtimes. Pokemon’s rng is at the very beginning, and is a lot less black and white with all the varieties of stats and their combinations affecting viability. Pokemon therefore has the problem where rng actually kinda fucks with the sentimentality they have going if you become the kind of person that catches tons of a Pokemon until you find one with the stats/nature you want. The most common solution to mitigating the bad feeling of having a bunch of captured nobodies seems to be sacrificing them towards your main a la Gachas (Love Live, Granblue Fantasy, Puzzles and Dragons), but that still just feels horrid (lol Pokemon Go).

So lets talk a short bit about my game idea, tentative name Celestialvania. (I came up with the idea after seeing a gorgeous two story wooden house at twilight (the dark, late, basically night, good kind) when out on a walk. It was actually hella close to my house, but I never noticed because it was so concealed by shrubbery and tall trees. Wanna say it had a Victorian style, but I’m pretty sure that’s wrong as shit, but idk what else to call it. Tall and woody with tall and thin 2nd story windows (really all i could see of the house) and a tall pointed roof.) Cosmic horror/occult naturey vibe. Context is a spaceship of sorts sailing to a distant location, but old and traveling enough to the point where it’s basically just a piece of Earth, suburban and foresty and all, with an artificial sky. Come some shenanigans, night permanently falls with the failure of the sky, and its up to you as some plucky racially and genderly ambiguous teen to band with your hot and queer and plucky and cheer squad to do shit, whether its meeting up in the Asian restaurant one’s parents own that’s conveniently the only store in the entire downtown that still has power, beaning monsters in the local forest, fighting a great beast / really tall trench-coated occult looking humanoid mf at the highschool football stadium, or realizing that the old local church is actually a really large elevator to the 2nd world under your own, where “stars” are just laid out in a flat grid and named as cartesian coordinates and they’re much more urban and casually high tech than you are. Also a sea that’s the cooling vat for the main power, but contamination of the sea with creatures that feed off this thermal and otheryadda power has lead to darkness and some shit developing in said darkness. Anyway the point is I thought of some damage types for rock paper scissors pokemony style, with planetary (default physical), gravitas, constellation, nebulous, solar, and nautical. The point is I want you to be able to assemble a “team”, like in Pokemon, but the combat is more like Hyper Light Drifter or dare I say it Dark Souls. While you still have an “active” team member like in Pokemon, the rest of the team still gives passives and gameplay affects to yourself. Hence “Jojo stands”.

The main issue I had earlier that I’m hoping to figure out, typing all this out now, is how to flesh out a design of capturing members for said team, as they’d be cosmic entities of varying creature-ness and cosmic type. Like as in, what would be the factors that’d be rng-ey. BL2 is rng in two factors, more or less: passive and stats. Rarity classifications/colors are basically just a tier system for this rng gear. BL2 stats are Damage, Accuracy, Fire Rate, Reload Speed, and Magazine Size. Oh I guess a 3rd factor is weapon brand, because each has special factors there too, from Torgue’s rocket ammo on assault rifles and shotguns to Jakobs lack of full automatic but fire rate limited only by manual trigger pull speed. I started thinking up type interactions, but that’s honestly probably another post because this one is getting long. Still wondering though if this answer will just come to me as I flesh out the interactions of the types more and more. It all feels like it can’t exist or begin development without other pieces already in place, but it feels like those pieces are relying on every other too.

But then I did raise a good point. Stats. What sort of stats does my game want? Shit, what stats does Hyper Light Drifter even have? Time to do some research. That’ll hopefully help a bit with my question of hitboxes. Dark Souls is sick because of how good the hitboxes are with swing timing and range in a 3D atmosphere. So many times, sick victories against enemies are pulled off by swinging and landing your hit while they’re also in the middle of a heavy ass swing. I’m not sure how to equate that in a top down pixel-ey game. I thought about “hard-coding” damage timing with animations of attacks, as well as actually just using 3D models but just stuck to a top-down view a bit like how 2D fighters like Dragonball Z Fighters and Guilty Gear Xrd do 3D. It might definitely be out of my scope for now though. Actually fuck that it very well might not be. Downloading a trial/buying permanent license of Gamemaker in a week, after apprenticeship deadline for Disney. Man, I gotta be working on my portfolio. Like, immediate one. I want to make this game work. I guess this is one new use for this blog, but random smarmy writings are always welcome. I just hope they come from a better place now, though we’ll really have to see if I can even reach my previous spot of self-authenticity to work on improving it while in a living environment with my parents. Feels like an excuse typing that out. Need to sleep and wake early and start fuckin animatinnng groaaar.