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simtanico · 3 years

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Hi! I don't know if this is an annoying/difficult question, sorry if it is, but do you have any advice at all for modelling sims based off real people? Your sims are SO crazy good. When I try to make them they end up looking... eh... Vaguely like the person? But there's a huge gap between that and some kind of 'spark' some simmers seem to manage to capture.

Hello! Definitely not annoying. Difficult, as in how difficult it is to answer? Maybe. I'm gonna go off on a couple of tangents. But I'm gonna try my best to explain the process. Which isn't really much of one sorry.

There's a handful of tutorials and tips out there regarding reference photos and like... proportions and all that so I won't cover that.

I use that as a general guide of course, but mostly I just save some photos of the person at various angles and focus on one feature or two at a time. Literally going back and forth between reference photo and my game. I think if you try to get everything at the same time, it really makes it easy to get frustrated with whatever your sim looks like at the moment. Making sims in general is a combination of a LOT of things depending on your style.

I can point out ALL the flaws with my sims based on real people. In my experience, it’s about getting the defining features of a person close enough to the real thing so that it resembles them. I don't think you need a complete copy to get the point across, however i do think some people and features are harder to emulate than others. I've been working on some sims for YEARS, and they still don't work out lol

and take a look at this progression on my sim based on Z4ne H0ltz starting back in 2015!

that first screenshot:

Personally, I get a little lost if I work on a sim too much all at once. I find some time away makes me less tired and frustrated. Just pace yourself :)

Also if you need any help, shoot me a message here or on discord. I promise I don't judge or anything.. it's sims who cares lol

TO START...

I suggest starting with the head and its shape. Starting off with a game-generated sim, the first slider I get to is head width. It's usually too dang wide for my tastes. And then adjusting the general position of the the features. You can always change things later, so you don't have to know exactly what you're going to do, but as I've mentioned before, sculpting sims up in CAS is just practice with sliders! Also in the long run, you may want to use Pu+Chi House's Smooth Face Normals slider! I attempt to explain and show what it does here. I've uploaded the slider here: https://simfileshare.net/download/984204/

This is gonna be a doozy sorry in advance if the read more doesn't work

SLIDERS SLIDERS SLIDERS

Big sliders like Pu+Chi House’s face shape sliders dramatically change the face shape, and it could save you a lot of time! I highly suggest using these to get rid of the weird large jaw sims can get.

Play with different sliders and how they interact with one another! Example: jaw width and Cheek Fullness affect the same area. if you need a wide jaw and don’t want cheek distortion, you can use cheek fullness, lower the jaw width slider and then edit the cheekbones from there

Knowing what sliders move what and how it can work to your advantage is key! I cover this in my reply post about noses.

For visual reference:

I start out with my nose but I want the nostrils to sit further on the outside

so i go in and use the nose width slider and raise it to widen the lower nose:

Then lower the nostril scale slider

Comparison:

as you can see, i kind of achieved what I wanted, but also widened the nose tip too! Welp, that takes another slider I have, Tip Width. And I'll adjust that accordingly! It's really just a matter of what you're going for and what you're going to have to compensate for as a result!

That said, our community has made some awesome sliders that open up so many possibilities and even eliminate the need to do that multi-slider tango. I wouldn't even know where to begin (wish I wanted to make videos because I could talk for an hour about sliders)

For example @pitheinfinite made sliders that can make sims look better and more realistic, I'm jealous at what they've achieved!

They have their Inner Corner to Nose slider that moves an area of the sim's face hat make eyebags and the shadows and lines appear farther out from the inner eye. It saves you from having to use cheek sliders to mimic the effect and thus ruining the face shape you have going

It's truly an INDISPENSABLE slider. One of many!

Since I make sliders, I usually just make some to specifically fix whatever issue I'm having. Granted they're made with general function in mind, which makes my cheater-y way of making things happen more useful in the future. I have about 50 experimental unfinished sliders in my game and can tell you that all my current sims use them for some reason or other. So I'm not working with nothing, I guess?

EYE SPY 👁

The best way to really get nice accurate looking sims is the eyes.

Pay attention to the slant of the eye, the shape and position of the upper and lower eyelids. you can use the game’s Eyelid Height slider, and AWT’s Eyelid width and height sliders (and many more)

and especially where the iris (green) sits relative to the eyelid. getting that shape and eyeball positioned correctly really makes a HUGE difference

I do suggest Bloom’s Eye slider (left and right) that rotate the eyes left and right. That along with their Lazy eye sliders can give your sims a less symmetric face and position the eyes to be FAR more accurate and realistic than the default.

I also recommend their vertical sliders (Eye lift or drop) to help with eye positioning.

I can't stress the importance of the right contacts or eyes for your sims. Of course it all depends on how you make your sims's eyes and all that. Take the last sim i posted about. It took forever and a half to find the right contacts that didn't need severe or intense editing to capture the same vibe the person he's based on. The problem is pretty persistent for me, and I am just speaking for myself when I say this is necessary. Iris size, shading, recolorability, detail, catch lights, and pupil position are things to consider for your play style and preferences.

In addition to seeing what eyes will do the trick, I do edit the catch lights in the screenshots to give the eyes a different emotion or look. (I use defaults that get rid of the game-generated catch lights, and supernatural eye glow.) It's nice when that's all it is and I don't have to go in and photoshop things in and out to make them look human lmao

Perfect, schmerfect

And just know that as long as you have the same vibe or look going on it doesn't need to be perfect! Things will evolve over time, and you can change and perfect things as you go along, but close is better than trying to achieve an exact replica. We are working with the limitations of sliders and the optimized meshes they work on! So yeah there might be jagged bits or the profile might not exactly match and some things might not be accurate, but that's okay! Considering what sims look like at their default, you should be proud! I use the same mf eyebrows on all my sims basically and I tell myself they're just placeholders (yeah, right), but I manage to make them work with what I have!

Sliders, Makeup, and Skins, oh my!

a good base skin is critical, but not the end of the world if you pick the wrong one. They determine kind of definition and types of features highlighted on a sim 100000% and you might lose a feature you like or dislike when you change them! Feel free to switch up between skins you have to find the best fit.

Makeup can be a game-changer though!!! Any details you can add and help make your sim look the most like the person you're basing them off can go MILES.

In some cases, I've actually gotten really interesting results trying to get my sculpt as close as possible to real life references so the makeup makes a difference but don't define the features by themselves. Still, though, I utilize makeup up a LOT. [remember that if you use Nraas, you can layer makeup. Right-clicking makeup will also remove it if it's applied :)]

Here's the last sim i posted about when removing makeup:

no nosemasks really replicates the face-claim's nose (too shiny at the lower part) but it'll do 🤷‍♀️

Freckles, eyebags, highlighters, face shadows, pores, nosemasks, etc are all great!!

The way you move your sliders WILL effect how these look, so don't rely on makeup that adds super-specific detail or goes over an area you know is a jumbled mess because of sliders!

I do have a mess of recommendations and wcifs for skins and makeup. replies tag | wcif tag

[also I love compiling wcif cc lists for my sims it's great]

Finally, I appreciate your comment about my sims, mainly because I know they're not ever really exact copies or as close as I want to be to their real life counterparts, so thanks!! I've seen fellow simmers get really good results without messing as much as I do and I love when people can make really good maxis match likenesses because it's just so damn cool! It's truly a talent. I'm not one of those lucky few, but I like to try my way at it anyway. After what feels like some good progress I'll post a pic here. Even after doing this forever I don't feel like I'm an expert or can get good results in a shorter amount of time, but it's just fun to see the progression (or regression) of how my sims look.

#long post #replies #no tutorials just rambling and vibes~~~~

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bill-beauxquais · 3 years

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Blogging my Bravely Default II Playthrough

Since I’ve been pretty involved in the fandom on this blog in the past years (you can check my 'bravely series' tag) I figured I would go an journal my playthrough of the long awaited sequel.

I will journal from chapter to chapter and I’m going abolutely blind (I played the two demos, and didn’t look at any media), so you will only get spoiled up to where I’m at each time.

Without further ado, here are my thoughts on the prologue chapter under the read more

Obviously, this will contain spoilers up to the end of the prologue. Please refrain from adding spoilers to this post, I wish to experience the game blind.

Overall opinion: It’s a positive surprise. I remember the miffed reactions to the demo and was myself not that much impressed, but I did hear the reviews had been mostly positive this past week. As this is only the prologue, I’m staying cautious, but the game was full of good surprises and looks promising.

Gameplay: Very fun to play, dare I say on par with the original, even maybe better. I will miss the old turn order, but this one work just as well, albeit differently. A lot more focus on the strategy and job synergy, and even right now, bosses demand a lot more diverse strategies, and it’s usually near impossible to know what to expect when you start a new fight.

I love how mure more rich the overworld is, instead of a badly textured world map, we now have actual terrain to explore, with hidden treasures (but like, better hidden than in BSel), and a lot of interesting, diverse and fun sidequests. Picking up the game, I actually need to ask myself “alright, what am I going to do this session?” instead of just blindly following the story. The addition of overworld monsters also encourage strategy (I’m literally beating a boss just with poison right now, because it just seemed to have way too high of a defense in both physical and magical) and will probably prove a precious ressource when grinding is needed.

There is a lot of variety in the common mobs, even in the very first area, which is a nice touch as well. If the rest of the game isn’t just recolors, we’ll be looking at a nice rich ecosystem.

I also like that the weaknesses aren’t as obvious as usual, and that not every flower is weak to fire for example. It mixes it up.

I welcome the return of sleep-mode play as well, even in this different form (although it seems we’ve all been naming Seth “Seth”, which looks goofy in the reports)

For now, I’m training everyone in every classes, but in general I try to avoid the “expected” roles (like, making Gloria into the white mage. I wanted to resist it for Agnès, I will resist it for Gloria). I would also like to avoid making a carbon copy of my BD team as well.

Writing: Nothing much happened in the prologue, I did hear the beginning would be slow paced, but I feel like the bases are there, and the writing seems more solid than the previous games. It’s hard to shake the feeling that it’s just the og_team.02, but I enjoy the characters for now, and they don’t seem to be slapped-on tropes like some other JRPGs

I really liked how the last cutscene of the prologue played (more on that lower). Even though it was obvious that it would happen sooner rather than later (op mentor can’t be babying us the whole game), I felt it was written well enough.

I am playing with japanese dubs, and I rather like it for now, especially Gloria.

Somehow, the dialogue and interactions reminds me of Bravely’s old universe, even though it’s a new one. In the themes and the vocabulary, it just feels Bravely still.

Writing - Theories: (Yes I will theorise the heck out of that game as I go).

Calling it now that Sloan isn’t actually dead. No body, no dead, no sirree.

From Dag and Selene’s redeeming blurb in the enemy sheets, I’m also expecting the usual twist where the asterisk holders are more of a grey area, and even turn nice guys at some point. After all, this time they do not always die after you beat them, and they even get their own freelancer design (which is an addition I LOVED in the demo already and that Bravely Asterisk’ lore needed), hinting that they will probably be reused in the story.

However, they *did* kill Horten on screen, so this time we might actually see the evil ones being punished, and the good ones being redeemed, instead of an “all or nothing” approach.

I WILL mention that I tried letting myself die during the Crystal Choice, and it just gave me a game over screen. Kind of ruins the “true” cutscene and shatters the illusion of choice, here. I’m expecting something like that to play into the 4th wall twist, if this game is anything like the previous two.

Graphics: Ah, the infamous graphics. To be fair, I have grown used to them by now, and I quite enjoy them. It is also to be commended that they’re doing way crazier cutscenes now, and the fact you can see your outfits at all time is such a nice touch. It feels a lot more dynamic, and as of now, it hasn’t looked ridiculous or uncanny.

The hand-drawn cities look beautiful and more complex (albeit slightly) than the old ones, which is also good.

Performance: (playing on a lite) Kind of surprised of how the game runs: the game struggle before each party chat and most cutscenes. Nothing game breaking or anything yet, but I do hope it gets patched eventually. It can also be very slow to load after a game over, or entering a town.

Music: I’m not quite as sold on the music as I was on Bravely 1 or Octopath, but I do like what I’m hearing for now. There’s no criticism here to be making, the tracks are good. I’m just kind of lamenting that they don’t stick to my brain quite as much.

#Bravely Default II #Review #Nintendo Switch #JRPG #Video game blogging #bravely series

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vegan-kaktus · 4 years

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Tutorial: How to default the penguin

@grilledcheese-aspiration asked me if I had any step-by-step tutorial on how I defaulted the penguin, but I had none, so I made one! :-D (beware of long post and many pictures beneath the cut)

Before we begin, this is a tutorial on how to default the penguin and add new meshes to it, not just a simple texture replacement. If you’re wondering why I’m making a tutorial on this it’s because the penguin has too many morphs and can’t be exported out of Milkshape, but I found a way around that :-)

With that out of the way, you have to have SimPE with NVIDIA DDS, Milkshape with the plugins and the seasons expansionpack of ts2 installed. It might be possible to do this with blender or any other meshing program, but I will only be showing how I did it with Milkshape.

If you know how to extract files etc (the basic stuff), you might want to start at Part 2: Adding new meshes, 4. I would say this tutorial is fairly beginner-friendly, since I did my best to show every single step.

Part 1: Extracting neccessary files

1. Open up SimPE, search for “penguin” in finder and click on start:

(bigger image)

2. Scroll down a bit until you find the files we need: penguin_surface_txmt*, penguin_tslocator_gmdc, penguin_untagged0_shpe and penguin-surface_txtr. Double click on them one at a time to open them, then right click - extract and save them somewhere (you might want to name them txmt, gmdc, shpe and txtr so it’s easier knowing what’s what).

*I use Nopke’s penguin fix so if you do as well and don’t want your added mesh(es) to the penguin to be covered in snow, extract the txmt from his fix instead of EA’s original.

(bigger image)

3. You’ll want to double click on the penguin-surface0_lifo file if you’re planning on editing the texture as well to get the highest resolution of the texture. You're not supposed to extract it though, just right click on the image and choose export and save it somewhere.

4. Make a new package in SimPE: File - New or CTRL + N if you use any of Chris Hatch’s updated versions of SimPE.

5. Right click somewhere in the middle of SimPE and choose “Add”:

6. A window will pop up. Locate your extracted files (txmt, gmdc, shpe, txtr) and import them all, then save your file and give it a name.

Part 2: Adding new meshes

1. In my case, I’m going to show how I added the hat, but it should be fairly the same for whatever you want to add to the penguin, the only difference will be the joint assignment later.

2. Open your accessory/whatever’s mesh (in my case, the hat) in SimPE and export the gmdc by right clicking on it and choosing “extract”, then save it somewhere. You have to extract one texture as well. Open up a recolor, right click on the image and choose “export” (like you did with the penguin lifo file).

(bigger image)

3. Open up Milkshape and choose File - Import - Sims2 UniMesh Import V4.09A, then a window will pop up.

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4. Now, if your mesh you’re planning to add to the penguin is too big/small, you’ll want to import that mesh first and use Tools - Scale All... (it’s the third option from the bottom) and play around with it a bit until you get it the right size. I usually do it like this:

import mesh, scale and then import the penguin mesh to see if it’s the size I want. If not, I undo the import (CTRL + Z or Edit - Undo) and then undo once again to get the mesh back to original size. Then I do “scale all” again and repeat the process until I’m happy with the size.

Why you have to do it this way is bc if you have both the hat (in my case) and the penguin mesh in Milkshape when you use “scale all”, everything will scale, including the penguin mesh.

When you import the penguin’s mesh it will ask you if you want to “Create Blend Groups?” and then it will ask you “Some Skin Weights do not total 100%. Do you want these corrected?”. It doesn’t actually matter if you choose yes or no, since we will not be exporting the penguin mesh anyway so you can choose no but I clicked yes on both options bc you never know.

5. To move your mesh around in Milkshape, go to the “group” tab and double click on your mesh group to select it (it should turn red) and then go back to the “model” tab and click on “move”, then use any of the three grey windows to move your selected mesh around.

When you're happy with the size and have put the new mesh where you want it to be on the penguin, click on your mesh group in the group tab and rename it if you want. I named my hat group like this: (click on rename after you’ve edited the name, otherwise it won’t save your new name)

6. Then click on comment. A window like this will pop up:

7. If you renamed the group, you have to write your new name at the top after “ModelName:” like seen in the image above. After ModelName: [insert your group name here] you should have something like: Opacity: -1 and NumSkinWgts: [a number between 1-3] like also seen in the image above. Click on OK to apply the changes. By now you’ll want to save the file as a .ms3d just in case something goes wrong. It’s always nice with a backup. You can save it by going to File - Save As... (or CTRL + SHIFT + S).

8. Now that you’re done with the mesh and has saved it as a .ms3d file, delete the two penguin_surface mesh groups and all their morphs if you clicked yes to the “Create blend groups?” (in other words: everything but your added mesh group). After that you’ll want to export it by going to File - Export. Export it as Milkshape 3D ASCII and save it somewhere.

(bigger image)

Part 3: Bone assignment

1. Before you can import the new mesh, you have to go to Extra - Preferences and check the "Advanced Mode" box then restart SimPE.

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2. After restarting SimPE, open up your .package file with all of the penguin extracted resources in SimPE and click on the penguin_tslocator_gmdc. Click on “import” and choose your exported Milkshape 3D ASCII mesh. It should then be added to the gmdc like this:

(bigger image)

3. Click on the groups tab, then select your newly imported mesh group. Now, you want to click on the bar under “Joints:”

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4. Then this list will pop up:

5. Now all you have to do is find the correct joint to assign your newly imported mesh to. It can be tricky to find the right joint, or perhaps it’s just me not being comfortable with joints yet haha :p I’m thinking the joints with “0, 0″ may be empty joints, in other words: the penguin doesn’t have/use them, but I’m not sure (but it makes sense, doesn’t it?). Anyway, when you’ve assigned it to what you think is the correct joint, click on “assign” and then click on commit to apply the changes.

Part 4: Creating necessary resources

1. Now that you’ve successfully added the mesh to the penguin, we need to create a txmt, add a txtr file and edit the shpe. We’ll start with the txtr.

If you want to edit the penguin’s texture, right click on “penguin-surface_txtr” and choose “Clone” so you get two of them. Open up your photo editor of choice, import the penguin-surface0_lifo_512x512.png and edit it (if you want to that is). When you’re done, save it as a .png, click on one of the two “penguin-surface_txtr”, right click the image, choose “Build DXT” and import your edited texture. Commit the changes. (These steps are shown down below if you don’t know how to import it.)

2. Click on “penguin-surface_txtr” and rename it to whatever your new mesh name is. In my case, it’s “penguin-hat_txtr”. After you’ve renamed it, click on “Fix TGI” (this is important since it gives your edited resource a new instance number so it won’t overwrite the original resource you extracted (or cloned it from). Right click on the image and choose “Build DXT”.

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3. Choose DXT3 or DXT5 (I never use DXT1, it completely destroys the quality. DXT3 is the one I use 99% of the time) click on “open” and find your mesh’s texture and choose it. Click on “Build” an then commit to save the changes.

4. Now it’s time for the txmt. Click on “penguin_surface_txmt” (remember you have to extract the txmt from Nopke’s fix if you don’t want your added mesh to be covered in snow during winter) and change the name to your new added mesh’s name. For me, this is “penguin_hat”. You’ll need to edit it in 4 places. After editing, click on “Fix TGI” and then on “commit” to save the changes.

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5. Now for the shpe. Click on "penguin_untagged0_shpe” and click on “add”:

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6. “Subset Name” is your mesh group name (the mesh group name in the gmdc) and “Material Definition File” is the txmt. For me it’s “penguin_hat” in both. Click on commit after editing to save the changes.

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7. And you’re done! Save the file, drop it in your downloads folder and see if everything’s working. If you use “boolprop testingcheatsenabled true” you can shift + click on the mailbox and under “Make NPC ...” you can choose “penguin” to force one to visit your lot. Simslice also has a penguin summoner here (<- booty link) it’s the “penguin_summoner.rar”. This is much faster than waiting for the penguin to randomly come by.

Help etc.

I think I’ve explained every step correctly, but it’s very possible that I’ve forgot something or made a mistake somewhere. Let me know if you find any! Also, if you can’t understand something, let me know and I’ll try to explain it again.

And ofc, if you need any help, feel free to comment, send an ask or message me :-)

#tutorial #ts2 tutorial

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shenanigumi · 4 years

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Hakuouki Question Meme

From this post! (I just don’t like reblogging lists of questions with all my answers attached, and I don’t wanna bother anyone by tagging for credit, but please do go check out the linked blog.)

1. Why/how did you decide to start playing Hakuōki?

I saw a post of KW/EB’s CGs (back in early 2016, long before it was localized—might even have been before Edo Blossoms was out in Japan) on @chibitorra’s blog and liked the post, so she was all excited that I knew what Hakuōki was. When she found out I’d just liked the post because of the art style, she showed me some more art and I fell in love and later bought Memories without knowing anything at all about it, including the fact that Hakuōki is historical fiction.

2. What routes and/or games have you played so far?

All routes, extra content, and DLC in:

Memories of the Shinsengumi (3DS)

Stories of the Shinsengumi (PS3)

Hakuōki Shinsengumi Kitan (iOS)

Kyoto Winds (PS Vita)

Edo Blossoms (PS Vita)

And as a bonus:

Warriors of the Shinsengumi (PSP)

3. What is your favorite character and route? They don’t have to be the same.

Favorite character… oof. Difficult question. Still the disgrace to all demon-kind that is Kazama, though it’s worth noting that my first impulse was to say Shiranui. But my favorite route is definitely Heisuke’s.

4. Is there a song that you associate with your fave?

Panic! at the Disco’s “Emperor’s New Clothes”, on account of that one not-quite-AMV I made, feat. HakuMyu!Kazama.

5. Who was the first route you played?

Hijikata’s, because Canon First, amirite? But it’s worth noting that because I went into it blind (and initially locked myself into a bad ending since I was playing on one file…), I actually ended up with the most affection with Saito at first. Thankfully, he and Hijikata were so close that I only had to load my last save to pick Hijikata’s option instead and put him in first place.

6. Did you go with the name Chizuru or did you pick another name? What was it?

At first, I used the name “Michiko” for no particular reason other than I like the name. Then I decided keeping “Chizuru” was better since she turned out to have a personality of her own and I wasn’t seeing myself in her situation. After that, for specific routes in Stories, I used “Chihiro” because that’s the name of my self-insert in that one dumb epic I can actually write now.

7. Is there a character that you just can’t get yourself to like? If so, who?

Iba Motherfucking Hachiro.

8. What characters (besides the player character) do you enjoy seeing interact the most?

Harada and Shiranui, for damn sure. I adore their rivalry-[b]romance and I wish there was a lot more of it. Other than that, Kazama and Sen for… fairly obvious reasons.

9. Is there a character that doesn’t currently have a route that you really want to see with one?

Nomura is the first that comes to mind, but really, I have mixed feelings. Given what they did with KW/EB, I no longer have a great deal of faith that Hakuōki as a franchise could handle more new routes in a balanced way, especially since there are so many reboots already.

10. Did you cry at any point during the game?

Who do you take me for, someone who isn’t 100% emotionally driven?

11. What was your favorite moment?

Wow, that’s open-ended… um… wow. How am I supposed to even choose?? There are so many different kinds of moments and so many favorites of each kind. But… out of everything, I think Kazama and Heisuke’s sass battle may rank the highest. That or Shiranui’s geisha route.

12. What is your favorite CG?

God, that’s a tall order too. I ran through my entire copious collection of CGs in search of whichever one spoke to me most and I think this one ranks highest:

(Coincidentally a part of the same scene as the one I chose for my favorite moment. And in my favorite route, too. Figures.)

13. Did you prefer the characters’ original outfits and hairstyles or their Western ones?

Hmm… it really depends on the character and, for that matter, the game. I’d have to say, overall, I’m a total sucker for the original/Stories Western wear, but the recolors and redesigns in KW/EB aren’t quite as good imo.

14. Thinking about your favorite character and route, do you think you could fall for and date that person in real life?

Uh… no, probably not. Kazama is a terrible person and I don’t want to be anywhere near him in any way, and Heisuke is more like a brother to me.

15. What is your opinion on Itou?

I think his presentation in the game is terrible and that he did, in fact, deserve to be assassinated.

16. If you found yourself at death’s door, would you drink the ochimizu and become a fury?

Yeah, probably. My reasoning would be the same as Heisuke’s, though—more out of fear than anything else—and my regrets would be comparable. Don’t really wanna think too far down that road…

17. Do you think the Ishida Powdered Medicine actually does anything?

Not knowing what’s in it, I can’t say for sure, but I think it’ll fix some ailments more than others. They probably exaggerate its healing capacities.

18. Do you want to see Sweet School Life or Reimeiroku localized? Would you buy them?

I’m actively interested in Reimeiroku and would buy that shit so fast you wouldn’t believe. But… as for SSL, the weird student/teacher dynamics prevent me from really wanting them to translate that one. I’d still buy it, though.

19. Did you watch the anime?

I did, all three seasons. But the Sekkaroku OVA is by far my favorite in so many ways.

20. What would you like to see in any future games?

I… don’t know. I don’t know if I even want any future games in the first place, given the number they did on KW/EB, retconning things that originally made sense into things that don’t make sense anymore. I think Hakuōki might have hit its peak, and I’m apprehensive about additional installments.

#asked #technically???#answered #pixels-poptarts-and-pluto #such a good question list thank you #personal

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derekscorner · 5 years

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Between KH2 and KH3, which game did you like more, both story and gameplay-wise?

Ah is this that KH2 vs 3 debate I hear is ongoing? Well if you’re in for a sit I can answer that.

Gameplay:

From this angle I quite bluntly find KH2 Final Mix more fun. I’m not going to argue what was arguably better or worse, gameplay preference is a matter of…well preference no matter how many wish to deny this fact.

Not that you do but I”m sure some lover or hater of one will see this and try to retort. o3ob

Anyway; I felt Kh2 final mix was more technical and “harder” if I had to describe the feeling. Like 3 KH2 is normally overly easy but when put on critical mode it’s technicalities shine.I had to learn tactics, I couldn’t spam X or △, and I learned uses for summons. Which I found ironic since the 2 summons are far more useful when you dont initiate their moves.

Like if I let Stitch wander the screen he’ll deflect projectiles and keep my MP full. Chicken Little is a great early Magnet substitute and Peter Pan+Tinker Bell gives you a Phoenix Down.This was an improvement to KH1 in which only Tinker Bell was a spell with decent combat use. 1′s other summons had more supplemental uses imo.

KH3′s summons were nearly win buttons I felt. Simba in particular, while damn spectacle, felt broken. I never bothered to learn them as I didn’t need them. Which I’m sure they have their own uses but I’m not really fond of many control schemes for them so I opt out of it.

In terms of the magic system I felt 2 and 3 were opposites. In KH3 magic is far too powerful, something many have noted. And while you dont ‘have’ to use it that’s not an excuse for a problem. You should choose not to use it not force yourself to ignore it for challenge.

KH2 on the opposite spectrum made magic nearly useless I felt. Many enemies didn’t stun nor have elemental damage. Fire’s AOE animation was good for early Critical game and Blizzard helps that first Hollow Bastion visit but many enemies shrug the base spells off later.In contrast, KH2′s Magnet and Thunder spells can be OP. Reflect in of itself is practically the only spell you’d ever need to use due to it’s nature.

So while many have long rants on either’s magic system I dont really think one trumps the other. each one is equally flawed with issues I dont see ever being addressed.

In terms of keyblade combat I preferred KH2′s because I felt like Sora was automated in 3. I spam X cause I’m a scrub at timing presses (DMC5 is helping me overcome that) and due to this I noticed real quick that Sora’s combos just felt really automated.

Like I’d press X for one hit and get three. In contrast, KH2′s combat is harder. Sora animates combos as fast as my lazy ass can spam X and I’m not floating around like a final fantasy god.

I’m not really sure how to put this feeling into words but I do feel Kh2 keyblades are funner or snappier to combo whereas in KH3 I’m playing a watered down FFXV with it’s hold/press X for combo string.

Both games are so similar outside this issue that I dont see no reason to list likes or dislikes. If anything, from here, KH3 had great quality of life changes. The menu system was easier on the eyes and I’d be a damned soul if I didn’t admit I like switching keyblades mid-combat.

I also really appreciate KH3 finally using Re:Coded’s keyblade ideas. It’s been there since that DS game yet no one every expanded on making keyblades unique since. It was a very foolish step backward to me.

I love that keyblades level up, I love that each one has a preference and the only way that could’ve been better is if they adapted Coded’s system entirely and gave each keyblade (or most) it’s own unique combo.

KH2 quite frankly just falls short in a hindsight perspective since keyblades were “stat sticks” and you only ever chose weaker ones for an ability. Which, back then, was a huge step up from KH1.

So KH3 wins in this area I also dont really hate on Kh2 for it since KH2 is a product of the era. This idea of keyblades growing with you didn’t happen till Re:Coded.

As for Shotlocks…I dont like them. I hated them in BBS and I hate them here. It’s not even a comparison to KH2 type of opinion. I hate Shotlocks, I never use shotlocks so I’m going to skip those.

I mean sure, KH2 had limits but the only limits I use are Knocksmash so I can’t exactly praise KH2′s half of that either.

And when it comes to Forms vs Transformations I think both have pros and cons the other lacks. For example, some Transformations are really cool, I love the hammer weapons or the dual pistols.

I also believe the staff transformation is what KH2′s wisdom form should’ve been in terms of how it does magic or basic attacks.

That said, I also really dislike many second forms keyblades have. I never evolve the pistols into the bazooka, I never turn the hammer into the drill, I have those second forms. It’s to the extent I prefer keyblades that have one form such as the staff.

I’m also not fond of the Kingdom Key’s 2nd form change. It’s a neat throwback and I love the outfit recolor but I dont find it fun to use.

Between the two games my favorite forms are Valor Form, Anti-Form, and the Staff Transformation. Odds are I wont use anything else unless I feel particularly bored.

I might use others more often if KH3 forced me to rely on them for tactics but as of right now it does not. This may change with 3 gets it’s Critical Mode DLC. Similar to how KH2FM forced me to rely on forms I hate like Wisdom or Final.

As a concept I will admit that I dislike transformations. I dont like the idea of keyblades becoming magical swiss army knives. KH3 pulled the idea off better than I expected but I dont like it all the same.

The only, and I mean only, thing I felt KH2 did better was tie forms to a meter. In KH3 the commands appear randomly (and often) and I dont gain consequences for using them.

In KH2 this was tied to your Drive Gauge. You had to plan what you used and this is an issue I felt KH3 had as a whole. Rather than shotlocks, I’d have preferred that Focus Gauge to be reserved for my summons and forms so that I could have better control of what I picked and to reduce how broken they are in-game.

The rest is miscellaneous opinions so I’ll rapid fire:

Gummi Ships: always hated them, BBS did Gummi Ships best. Point goes to KH3 here since I can at least skip most of it.

Minigames: I’ve never found a KH minigame fun. No one wins here

Worlds: KH3 wins this aspect too. World towns have actual people in them and when it uses original plots the worlds are quite good. I also appreciate the power to explore and soft platform again. It gives me a more immersive feeling than later titles ever have. (although I feel KH1 was still better than both here)(entirely because of how many small details/cameos/secrets a KH1 world had compared to sequels)

I dont really have a more technical opinion than that. I do however think Arendelle was a horrendous world and I hate to even be there. For a myriad of reasons….reasons that would be a rant post of it’s own.

Lil Chef: I never use the food. I dont care if it’s a good spot for ingredients. If I want to cook stuff I’ll do some irl or play FFXV.

Enemies: KH3 used nobodies more than KH2 did and I find that a damn crying shame. I also felt Unversed were underutilized. KH2 still takes the point here due to the combat points I mentioned above.

KH3 fodder is prettier and can be more elaborate but KH2 is funner to play and destroy them in so KH2.

The Disney Rides: I don’t use them, they break the game. I do like the choo choo though since it’s situational to specific battles. KH2 has nothing akin to these so there’s no comparison, I just wish the rides could be disabled or that they worked more like the train. (set to key fights)

KH2 vs KH3 Commands: Eh both aren’t that good. KH3 spams you commands to shift through and KH2 has so many for spectacles sake that the games get easy. There is no winner here, if anything KH2 should’ve restricted these like KH3 restricts the Train ride summon.

Final Fantasy: I dont like FF games but I consider the ones of Kh1 part of the main cast. Their alternate KH selves are important to me. The lack and fading of FF over the years is quite honestly something I dislike and 3′s total lack of them is inexcusable to me. KH2 takes this point since I got to at least meet Leon and crew again.

Then there’s the story.

Anyone that’s followed the blog or met me knows I strongly dislike the direction of KH’s story. It’s not a matter of things others debate, I do not like it. I hate it and I’m still teetering on quitting.

I wont even go into the points cause I’ve made a whole series of posts about my story gripes. I wont link them since this isn’t a shameless plug, I just want to iterate that my issues with the story has driven me to make 20+ tangents plus the older more angry rants.

Others liking it is fine I think, I get easily annoyed if someone tries to excuse something out of nostalgia or adoration, but generally anyone that likes it while admitting faults or agreeing to disagree is fine. (you do you folks)

If I had to rank them I feel KH2 is where a lot of issues started and I feel a lot of issues got worse after since the sequels tried to “fix” that mess. If left alone KH2 would’ve been a poorly written entry and a good stopping point for any disillusioned fan.

KH3 as a contrast tied up everything after 2 up til 3 itself. I do not consider the story good, the pacing is very jarring because it lacks a mid point, it’s weighed down by all the BS prior to it.

I do not feel attachment for the “trios” of the series, I find the repetition of them annoying. I find it a shame most have more dev time than the originals they’re cloned based on.

And I frankly dislike Xehanort as a villain. He’s not interesting, his motives seem to switch with several report entries and I dont eve get the satisfaction of ending him like I did Xemnas or Ansem.

I was entirely indifferent to the entirety of this game’s narrative as I played it. Something that worried my friend @blackosprey because I was so tired I could not even care enough to hate it.

I did fine the trios reunions well done. I dislike them for a list of reasons but they were coming back anyway, their fates sucked prior, so those were well done. I finally felt hype when the LW appeared (only to vanish, fuck you nomura) and in the final battle.

The ending was confusing to me. So many got a happy ending so I fail to see the logic of Sora vanishing. The Luxu reveal, which I found fucking hilarious, was the only sequel bait needed.To have Sora just up and die felt like a stupid decision and I’m sure many more found it insulting.

And when mentioning Luxu I dont mean it in a sarcastic fashion. I genuinely find him funnier in retrospect due to this retroactive change. Nearly every line or scene he’s said is now funny as hell because he’s this ancient troll. I consider it the first legitimately earned twist Nomura has made in ages.

Still, KH2′s writing and story isn’t great either. I could rant why, I have ranted why, but despite it’s flaws it was an “ending” to me.So if asked 2 or 3 I will pick 2. The writing in Kh2 is bad for lots of reasons but if I ignore the Ansem reports it’s no a story about Xehanort.

Ignoring one KH2 report let’s me live this simpler story of Sora and a scientist gone mad and the journey to stop him. It had a lot of stupid things or one of the worst “twists for twists sake” moments ever in the ‘two ansems’ reveal.

But still, I can play Kh2 and be in a KHverse where Xehanorts, Keyblade Wars, Ceremonies, timelines, sleeping worlds, data world abuse, and clones upon clones dont exist.

It’s not nostalgia so much as everything I came to dislike was post KH2. KH3 was all about these things I dont like. My favorite for key and nostalgic reasons is KH1, my pick of the question is Kh2.

KH3′s best assets that can’t be contested was it’s graphical evolution. I played KH3 three times back to back due to this, I came away from KH3 wishing KH1 or 2 looked like this. No game prior contests the look.

So all in all, as I reread this, it’s largely a mixed bag. Neither game is grand but I prefer KH2 because combat is more fun to me and it’s not tied down by a narrative and mythology I’ve come to hate.

I can play KH1, CoM, and KH2 and never be annoyed about something I loved going in a direction I hated.

#kingdom hearts #kh3

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yay855 · 6 years

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World of Final Fantasy: What They Did Right, What They Did Wrong, and What They Could Do Next Time

Every so often, I like to write out a post detailing a game I’ve recently played, and how I believe that future sequels could improve upon it. Well, as I recently started replaying World of Final Fantasy, I feel like I should start on that, now that it’s both fresh in my mind, and yet I’ve experienced it all.

First off, What They Did Right:

* The number of mirages out there is surprisingly large, numbering at 180 total (not counting DLC and unique mirages). And yet, each one feels rather enjoyable; either they fall under the same family (and thus, are excusably just recolors of a different mirage, as is tradition for the series), or they feel genuinely unique in look and use. In addition, many mirages can easily switch between multiple different families, allowing many to find further use even in an area where their element wouldn’t be that great.

* The characterization is great. Lann is a jokester who’s simple but lovable, Reyn is a braniac who gets frustrated at others but is also eager to join in on their fun, and there’s a lot of lively NPCs out there- like Vivi, who’s so eager to please and just so adorable. Many characters feel like actual people, even some that get little screen time.

* The skill trees feel so wonderful. Though they’re a bit confusing, and filled with a lot of “filler” skills (aka minor stat boosts), it’s still enjoyable to fill it all out, only to receive a special skill or major stat boost as a reward.

* Tama is a wonderful talking mascot, being adorable but not annoying, even despite her verbal tic. Her banter with Lann and Reyn is always fun, and she’s a very good battler as well, with very high stats.

* The encyclopedia entries are filled with little jokes that make them enjoyable to read.

* The game returned to an Active Time Battle System, something they haven’t done since Final Fantasy 9, though X had something similar, and the Active Dimension Battle System didn’t even have random battles or special battle screens. Still, the system feels good to use, and the UI for it really helps make it clear who goes next.

* The user interface is easy to use. It has a lot of screens to push through that each take a moment to pull up, but you never get lost in it. The only real issue is that it pushes that weird four-button-prompt UI at first, though it’s easy enough to switch to the classical style.

* The stacking system is an interesting way of both simplifying and complicating battle strategy, and makes you really think about what stacks you make. It allows you to even combine abilities together to make more powerful ones, which I enjoy.

* The AP system, while flawed, provides an interesting way of using abilities, due to it slowly regenerating over time, and even some mirages having abilities to restore it further.

* The Jiant/Lillikin transformation system is neat, and allows for more unique combat styles with the stacking system. Furthermore, many characters are admittedly suited for being so small and adorable, such as Vivi and Bartz.

* Mega Mirages are fun and enjoyable, and really make you feel their worth.

Next, What They Did Wrong:

* There are a lot of mirages that are difficult to find. This might not be much of an issue, if not for the fact that many elemental attacks are difficult to come by, especially Light. And Light-element attacks are almost necessary later in the game to beat a lot of difficult bosses. There are a grand total of two monsters you can find in the wild which can even use Light attacks, one of which a rare random encounter, the other an optional and easily missed boss, both in the exact same area.

* The Stacking System is 100% necessary for combat in almost every case. The only real use for it is in capturing certain mirages, and restoring AP quickly. But the former is extremely situational, and the latter leaves you weakened and defenseless. Stacking should not be a mandatory feature.

* Your two protagonists are forced to be part of the stacks until you beat the game- and there’s no New Game+ mode which lets you keep the ability to not use them. Maybe there will be with the upcoming Maxima expansion, we’ll see.

* The skill trees are rather unclear in terms of what does and does not carry over between forms. Is it all green-colored tiles, or only green-colored skills? Why would you have some skills and abilities not carry over at all? Why not just let all mirages have access to every skill you’ve unlocked on their family tree?

* Many mirages have limited skill trees, which don’t fully unlock until very late in the game. This ends up causing many of your more-powerful mirages to simply not be used, in favor of ones you can continue to upgrade, leaving them underpowered in the late-game. Furthermore, all new mirages you capture start at level one! And leveling is very slow in this game, at least until you reach the mid-end game.

* I’m personally not a fan of random encounters. I prefer Dragon Quest 9′s version, where the enemies are visible on-screen, and the player can avoid them if they want.

* There’s an area in early-to-mid-game where you lose all your mirages, skills, spells, and abilities... including skill trees. They give you new mirages to use, but you’re still forced to use melee and whatever damaging items you have on hand. Furthermore, in this area, they introduce the Eldboxes and Machines... and then don’t even bother using them again until much later in the game.

* The user interface, and even some of the dungeons and towns, can get laggy. It isn’t enough to make it bad, but it’s still unpleasant. Though keep in mind, I play on the PC version; I don’t know if others have a similar experience.

* You never get more AP. There are ways to get around that, but the fact is that your AP is always stuck at 4 per party member, with a total of 12 for a full stack. This is simply unacceptable; you end up having to rely on either Ethers, or specific abilities to get by; otherwise, you wouldn’t make it to the final boss of the dungeon with even half AP.

* Magic is almost necessary in this game. While there are a decent number of mirages with a melee focus, there are far, far more that use magic, and very few that use elemental melee attacks. And given that you can’t check your foe’s stats other than their resistances and weaknesses, this ends up making you steer towards magic for both characters. Furthermore, Lann is built for melee combat, and Reny for magic... except that they never explain that, and you can’t easily find their stats.

* So many characters simply don’t look good in Lilikin form. While it can be amusing in some cases, the fact is that characters like Cloud, Lightning, and others simply look ridiculous, and you can’t take them seriously.

* The ending cinematic looks terrifying. It has photo-realistic levels of detail on top of an almost storybook-type design on top of chibi characters; this causes an intense uncanny valley effect, where you’re forced to look away in disgust while these characters are singing and dancing in celebration. It’s fine in the game CG and anime visual styles, but that ending is just.... eugh.

* Mega Mirages are often not very useful. Even when they’re at your level, they tend to be overly specialized in one area, even though many of them have abilities in each category. But the end result is that, at least in my experience, Cerberus (which is the only XL-size mirage you can get until the mid-late game) has three different magic skills, and yet deals less damage with them than I would deal without using it in the first place.

* At the endgame, you are forced to play through multiple minigames to proceed. This might not be such an issue, if not for the fact that they’re all ridiculously difficult and poorly-explained. The Cactuar Mini-game has the foes disappear far too quickly to actually hit them, and so you’re forced to just attack one specific area before they even pop up in the hope that you get lucky and hit something; the Blitzball minigame has its shots fire far too slowly to be at all accurate; and the Figaro one is just minesweeper, something that the target audience of the game have never played, and it also has poor UI.

Finally, What They Should Do Next:

* Tweak the mirage rate, and add detailed explanations of where to find them. Or at least provide hints of where to find mirages of certain families and powers. Don’t make any one type difficult to get, especially if you have an area full of mirages weak to that type.

* Allow for up to nine characters in your battle party at once, making for a max of 3 full stacks.

* Change the stacking system in the following ways:

1. Make stacking a special ability tied to Joyride and Follow. Those with Joyride can have others stack on top of them, while those with Follow can stack on top of others who don’t have Joyride.

2. Stacking should cut the values of each stat (though not weakness) by 25%, save for Agility, which is determined solely by the mirage on the bottom.

3. High-topple attacks should be far more common.

4. You can use your turn to alter your stacks- not just stack and unstack, but to choose who gets on, who gets off, and who replaces who.

5. Show the exact effects of stacking in the menu. Let us see what skills we would gain by stacking certain characters together, as well as the full changes to our stats and resistances.

6. As a result of this change to the stacking system, Reyn and Lann won’t need to be part of any stacks in the party.

* Make AP a stat itself, similar to health. While it shouldn’t increase like health does, at least make mirages have a varying amount of AP, perhaps ranging between four and ten.

* Make all skills carry over between mirage forms.

* Instead of mirages being able to switch between different families, make it so that mirage families are completely open, perhaps with branching paths between each form.

* Replace random encounters with respawning enemies visible on-screen.

* If there has to be minigames, at least make them fun and optional, instead of overly frustrating and mandatory.

* Add in more elemental melee attacks.

* Add in multiple playable human characters who can replace the main protagonists, perhaps with each human character functioning as a different class. I understand that Maxima will add this, but it really should have been in the base game, instead of having Lann be melee-focused, Reyn be magic-focused, and neither one have any actual special abilities beyond what Mirajewels they equip.

* Increase EXP scaling for under-leveled mirages. If you’re going to add elemental-themed areas, then at least make it much easier for our mirages to get to the appropriate level before we hit the boss.

#world of final fantasy #woff #final fantasy

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dramarising-replacement · 6 years

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And now, a better version of http://dramarising.com/post/171472034768/and-with-this-announcement-my-annoyance-with-frs now that I’m not so livid and can jot my thoughts down properly.

So! Let’s get started here, this is just my opinion, and if you like how FR is currently, good for you! But for me, I’m done with how mediocre the site is (to me and others I know), and this is how I personally think the site could improve greatly. Expect comparisons to both Lioden and Tattered Weave, as they’re both I think shining examples of how to do good in the pet site world.

Drama Admin, if you could add a read more here, that’d be great!

First off, the Coli: It’s…. a game, technically? I honestly think as a basic feature, the coli is fine. It’s a bit boring but some people have fun. The issue however is how the coli is deeply rooted as being THE ONLY good, consistent source of treasure. This is honestly a bad thing I feel for multiple reasons, the major one being accessibility. If you have issues with your hands like carpal tunnel, it’s already very very hard to go through the motions for hours (Yes I know, it doesn’t always take hours). But hey, we have keyboard controls now, right? Right. It’s a step in the right direction, but the issue here is you… you can’t go to the next battle with keyboard controls. Or do the Captchas, I assume. This pretty much makes the keyboard controls a waste. And speaking of captchas, that is where the main problem with coli accessibility now lies. There’s already many people saying the captchas are extremely hard if you are visually impaired. This wouldn’t be too bad of an issue if they happened less often, but it’s what, every 5 battles? For those who REALLY coli, that’s nothing! It’s both a nuisance and a hindrance, to those with or without disabilities.

How would I improve the coli? First off: make it FUN. Make it an actual game! Add more variance to how enemies fight, and what we can do with our dragons! One suggestion I liked was making it more like Pokemon. The second thing would be making it easily accessible to anyone. Proper keyboard controls, the option for audio captchas, etc. Please FR, at the very least make there be different options for the captcha. Along with that, currently the most viable option for any coli team, the only thing that makes it worthwhile to earn treasure and level dragons, is eliminate- which has its own problems (Please fix the goddamn drop rate for it already- newsflash, when you add more rares to a venue, the chance of getting a specific rare goes down. I know, shocking.) Adding other viable options besides eliminate, even something as simple as a magic based eliminate or maybe elemental stones that are as strong, would be something that could be added to freshen the coli up just a bit without changing it drastically. Not only this, but it could make PVP something people actually want to do! Encouraging PVP could be a lot of fun, especially if rewards come from it. Let people be creative with their sets so we can see more than eliminate for every coli-trained dragon!

Fairgrounds: Alright, this is the big thing I’ll be complaining about. Fairgrounds, where to start…..

Okay, the main thing: we need more games, FR! It’s been YEARS since we’ve had any additions other than more jigsaw puzzles! Games are really important, especially since FR’s games can give treasure. If the fairgrounds was actually fun, we wouldn’t need to be so reliant on the coli, as we’d have two major ways to earn treasure.

This will get flak, I know, but I honestly think it’d be for the best if the 75k limit was removed. “But then you could get millions!” Exactly! A few dedicated people can too. There’s no limit on training dragons in the coli, or exalting, why should there be a limit to playing a minigame? The limit makes the fairgrounds even more useless, since there’s no point in playing once that limit is reached.

So, fairgrounds: It needs to update its games and fix any bugs in them. Add the option for choosing jigsaw puzzle perhaps. Make it a valid option of income.

If there were to be more games, i’d also like to suggest: Solitaire (TW added this, it’s one of the best games there) as it is actually a lot of fun to play and earn treasure with, maybe chess or checkers, even a flappy bird clone could be nice. Even taking a look at some of the popular neopets games from back in the day could give some inspiration- a snake game, something akin to meerca chase, would be a nice addition- A friend of mine used to love Hassee Bounce and Ice Cream Machine as well, which both seem like fun games! Even something like breakout? Lots of fun potential with tha, you could do anything from powerups to levels of difficulty with more balls to keep track of.Ultimately though, having a variety of games would make the fairgrounds so much better- not everyone will like every game, but having a variety of options you are more likely to hit something nearly everyone enjoys.

Lioden’s system of giving item rewards for its minigames could also be a fun thing to consider with FR too. No genescrolls or the like, but chests could be a great incentive to play. Hey, even festival currency!

Festivals: I didn’t really mention them in my mega rant, but I think it’s important to say something about them. Let’s be honest. The festivals are a boring event now where it feels like nothing exciting happens. They need to be spruced up! The current system of gathering hoping for currency and then, once again, going to coli or wait for ages in baldwin is just plain boring. Shouldn’t festivals be fun? A celebration of the flight?

In-game events tied in with festivals could be great. Some kind of quest, maybe? They would give festival currency and also provide lore! Looking at Lioden mostly for this, but if you aren’t familiar, Lioden has monthly events. These last the entire month. Midway through, an event NPC appears, and everyday you do quests with them in order to gain lores and get story. It’s a lot of fun and a great incentive to keep playing! FR having a feature similar to this would be AMAZING. It provides lore, makes festivals fun, and gives potential options to get event currency if Baldwin or the coli isn’t an option for you. Players already do stuff like this every month to try and make festivals fun. They’ve come up with some great headcanoned lore. Why not give them the opportunity to see these things become a canonical event? In general actually, the Lore could be improved greatly. FR’s base lore is great, I love it! But having more lore events every few months would be a blessing, rather than this once in a blue moon wave of new information. (Also, maybe it shouldn’t happen right during a flight’s festival, hm?) I was not around for when the Beastclans were introduced, but more events like that would create new content for old and new players alike to enjoy, and keep people playing. Taking from Tattered Weave here, along with Lioden’s monthly events. This wouldn’t need to happen every month, but perhaps bi-monthly lore events could be fun? From information about the NPCs at the trading post (Tell us about Tomo! About Swipp and Baldwin, and Pinkerton and Crim! We know nothing about them!) to lore about flights and dragons, this could be a lot of fun and keep players returning. So much of the playerbase of FR is in it for the lore, and it’s probably one of the biggest selling points. Adding more of it would be great! Even the return of Q&As could be great, that at least gives SOME kind of content and answers player’s questions. The suggestions forum. Alright, this is the big thing for me. I’m sure everyone here is familiar with the suggestions forum and its reputation. I’m not here to talk about that, but instead: FR’s admins need to listen to suggestions. They need to at least acknowledge they are being read. Lioden and Tattered Weave both very consistently listen to user suggestions. People wanted lesbian lionesses in Lioden’s february event as an encounter? A week later, lesbian lionesses were added! People wanted some recolors of apparel in Tattered Weave? It took a few months, but they got added! Listening to popular suggestions from users shows admins care, that they listen to their player base, and it gives satisfaction to the players. Seeing a suggestion you recognize become a real thing is amazing. So, the big suggestions that FR should REALLY be at least considering at this point: Pose change scrolls, the ability to rearrange battle stones (although this might be happening in the coli rewrite), layering skins and accents, uses for perma babies from skins and accents to the coli, locking awakened familiars in the bestiary, and lair tabs. All of these things range from creating fun content, to quality of life improvements, which would surely improve the site somehow. These final thoughts aren’t completely related to any one topic, but I think I’ve gotten my major gripes across with the above paragraphs.

FR, think of accessibility. Before doing a site-wide unannounced forum revamp, don’t use blinding colors. Don’t do captchas many people can’t properly see. Think of lore, how players want more and more often, and it’s one of the appealing things through the game. Think of actual new content! We don’t need more cluttered apparel sets and premium boons, we need new games and features! Just…. Flight Rising, you can do so so much better. You’re more than 5 years old. It’s time for some major changes I think, or your playerbase is simply going to become smaller and smaller on a site stale from lack of worthwhile updates and nothing to do without waiting a month. Be transparent. Host forums asking for feedback on certain topics. Tattered Weave does it with great success, Lioden does polls at the very least! Ask the players “Hey, do you want a forum revamp?”. Acknowledge bugs happen instead of deleting threads when people suggest you to fix rampant bugs. Looking at you, blocked users could still send friend requests issue! Maybe act less like robots. Respond to ‘Contact Us’ messages so players aren’t left in the dark! The admins are so important for the site. Lioden and Tattered Weave’s are both successful with being friendly with players and joking around with them, and listening to what they want. Why can’t Flight Rising at least try to be like this?

And for the love of god add a new breed, September of 2016 is too long a wait.

#economy #drama #coliseum #rant #flight rising #staff #festival #lore #confessions #submission #long post #like seriously #long

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fantroll-purgatory · 6 years

Photo

@47098

I hope you don’t mind how long this is!! I’ve been working on her for a long time!

Don’t worry, we always appreciate well developed trolls!

The left is before the game and during the beginning phases, the right is after some self-reflection.

Alternia or Beforus or some type of AU?: Alternia

Name: MAROUX RAURBE

Maroux- Partially from Marcel Marceau, a famous mime. the -oux is from another famous mime, Etienne Decroux.

Raurbe- I don’t exactly remember, I think it was from another famous Mime? I’m not too fond of this last name tbh

Oh I have a friend who absolutely loves mimes, he’d be very excited about this character. I love her a lot! I think pantomime performance in general is a good place to seek names for her… So I think I’m going to replace Raurbe with Pierot. The Pierrot is sort of the origin of the sad clown and was originally regarded as a fool, and typically played a servile background role, but evenutally developed into an everyman image fondly regarded by post-revolutionary people and misunderstood artists. I think it sort of echoes Maroux’s role enough to be an effective surname.

Maroux Pierot.

Age: 6.9 sweeps

Weapon, since I don’t use specibi: Jack in the box weaponry, where she pulls out a jack in the box and when it unwinds a random weapon or joke pops out. These can range from anything as useful as a gun or sword, or as useless as a bag of confetti.

That is SO cute and definitely applicable within canon. I hope all the weapons get fun punny names, like if a staff comes out calling it The SlapStick.

Inventory: CIRCUS, where there is a constantly spinning wheel that her items are spinning on. She has to wait for the rotation to reveal the item she wants. It also displays her joviality, whereas most inventory systems in my story show health (like HP).

Maybe you could add a Wheel of Death element to this. Place each item on a target and she has to use a knife to hit the target without damaging the item if she wants to extract it.

Blood color: Purple (she isn’t a mutant or anything, her color scheme is just bright. shes meant to stand out but maybe she stands out a bit too much??)

To keep her canon compliant I’ll have to bring her blood color down, but don’t worry, I’ll make sure she still pops!

Symbol and meaning: Her symbol is in the shape of a smile, almost. The loop in the center is supposed to be sort of reminiscent of her tricky nature, while the two lines on the side show her silence. I sort of came up with it on the spot, though.

A really cute symbol, but with regards to our newer rule I’m going to go ahead and replace it with.

Capripia. It has a nice similarly loopy design and it represents the dream planet and class assignment that you gave her- which I totally agree with! The symbol’s name is ‘the Brusque,’ which fits her actions more than her speaking habits (since her speaking habits are None).

Trolltag: silentComedian [SC]

I think corporealComedian [CC] communicates what you’re going for in a much subtler way. Corporeal Pantomime was a sculptural pantomiming artform that focused a Lot of attention on the art and evocation of emotion through gesture. Like Advanced Miming. It fits in well with her general theme and interests.

Quirk:

OuO? UnU hEhEhE!!! DuD (At first she only giggles or uses emoticons. Later on she speaks more. She capitalized Es and uses rhyme.)

Adorable quirk and very fitting for a mime character. I like the capitalized E because it feels like it provides a good creepy emphasis on that laugh.

Lusus: A dove, unnamed because it died extremely early in her life. A dove… hm. I can see why you’d pick that. But purples have a tendency towards aquatic mammal lusii, at least from what we’ve seen so far. I don’t think it’s impossible for the dove, so you can keep it if you want- especially because they’re associated with magical acts and all! But I might recommend a Hooded Seal. If only because their inflating nose is very clowny and very, very funny.

Personality: She’s super sweet, always smiling. She is extremely creepy, coming off that way intentionally. She thinks that her creepy attitude mixed with her odd interests and persona makes her comedy better, which it sort of does.

Extremely curious, she will read almost anything put in front of her. She enjoys books about or involving comedy the most, but she won’t say no to a good mystery or romance if it happens to pass by. She secretly loves them, but don’t tell anyone! Her curiosity leads her to have some extremely odd and sometimes nonsensical pieces of information in her mind, most of which is inconsequential because she can’t recite them. This leads to her knowing how to do things that others don’t, though, and that only adds to others interpretation of her as a mysterious and off-putting figure.

She has a vow of silence due to her involvement in the religion of the Subjuggulators. She was never really given much of a choice about her decision, mostly because she was sort of… born into it? Her lusus was murdered very early on, and she was taken in by them to become a sort of charity case. Their violent tendencies rubbed off on her, though, so she is incredibly strong and versitile in battle. She was an active member, seeing them all as her family, and would kill anyone they wished. She was essentially the reaper among them, the silent mime made to do dirty work. She had doubts, mostly because she reads a lot and learns about the trolls her group is bigoted against, but never had the guts to leave them. She also has some inherently bigoted ideals, despite her research into the lower castes. Even as the trolls she murdered would beg for life, she would offer them no mercy.

She does change later, though! Especially before she goes god tier.

I ADORE her personality and the detail and thought you’ve put into it. Her being in a role where she feels she has to listen to the cult and is influenced by them despite her research, and how she has to learn to be better… very compelling and a lot of development potential!

I do have to remind that purpleblooded trolls are known for being biologically predisposed to violent and unpredictable behavior, so you might want to scheme up a way to avoid such tendencies? Maybe her clowning around helps soothe her… Or maybe she just takes a good sopor nap.

Interests:

Clowning ?? BRIGHT COLORS ABSTRACT FORMS OF COMEDY THAT AREN’T NOTICEABLE UNTIL YOU LOOK CLOSE FUNNY DANCES squirt guns CLOWN IN THE BOXES (used as weaponry) ANIMALS

All so cute and good! Does she like interpretive dance, too? You should maybe give her a little interest in slapstick. But the whole abstract comedy thing is wonderful.

Title: Knight of Light

Her being overwhelmed with information makes this a very fitting title imo. She needs to learn to exploit and utilize all the information she has in her mind and how to filter out the lies and unnecessary bits and get things down to a functional core. She’ll be very powerful once she reaches her potential! Her inverse is Rogue of Void, which means she can passively redistribute mystery and secrets, too!

She is...an adorable clown KnightLight. That is all I came here to say thank you.

-TR

Land: MANSIONS and PURSUIT

Ooo, so a whole planet full of mansions? I wonder how that’ll work. Pursuit makes sense because her title implies a pursuit of truth and information…

Dream Planet: Derse

Sorry that that was so long! The personality segment especially. She’s one of my favorite fantrolls, and I really want to do her justice;;

Don’t apologize, you provided the perfect amount of information! I adore her! Now on to design stuff!

Hat/Horns: I loved the hat so much that I had to keep it around. I made it a darker purple stolen right from the pants and changed the outline, and then added a little stripe to add some extra visual interest. Her horns I changed to match the bend of her symbol, but also to fit perfectly inside her hat!

Hair: On her mime side, I felt like she felt a little bare without visible bangs. I still kept them pretty sparse, but I put a few more peeking out. On the right, I just gave her a few more flippy bits to fill out the body of her hair.

Eyebrows/Eyes: On the clown side, I liked the eyebrows really high because it looked silly and clowny, but I wanted to bring them down to a more reasonable height on the right. For the eyes, I wanted to add eyelashes to match the traditional girl troll rule. On the mime side, I also added a little mimey makeup!

Collar: I gave her ruffly collar an outline.

Shirt: Changed the symbol on both sides to reflect her new symbol!

Skirt: I wanted to give her mime side a mimey kind of overalls with gold snaps and some light stripes. Cute and fun.

Pants: I kept them the same on the right side to keep that pop of light color that she really needs, but on the mime side I recolored them to be blood colored with light spots.

Thank you so much for sharing her. She’s so cute and I love her to death!

-CD

#47098 #maroux raurbe #maroux pierot #purpleblood #review #redesign #cd review #submission

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natsubeatsrock · 6 years

Text

My Incredibly Unpopular Thoughts on: Nalu II

Consider this post an OVA. After three years of infrequent posts in this series, I’ve made 13 editions of the series, which, incidentally equates to the number of episodes in a seasonal anime. (And yes, that means the Naruto post all count as one post to me.) So, now that the series is over and I at least hope that someone is interested in seeing more actual analysis against Nalu from me, I’ve decided to bring back this for one more go around.

Keep in mind that the point of this series is that I have a really big post devoted to my thoughts on a subject that I’ll refer to so I never have to talk about it again. A lot of this has and involves analysis but, as the name should imply, it’s clearly and obviously biased. For the most part, I explain my biases but I don’t make it a habit to apologize for having them. If you’re unconvinced, there are plenty of people more popular than me for disagreeing with me.

This should go without saying but read “My Incredibly Unpopular Thoughts on: Nalu” before reading this if you haven’t already. I don’t think this post leans as heavily as many of my other series-type posts do. However, I think it’s important to have a basic idea of my thoughts on Nalu and its fandom before going into this post. Not to mention, it’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever written for this blog, so...

You know, I'm not even sure if I wanted to do this. If you can't tell, I've been pretty chill about Nalu and very transparent about why. I feel as though I shouldn't have to make too many more posts about Nalu considering I don't see it as canon. I've been wanting to retire this series with the previous edition focusing on my favorite character for more than a year. And to be blunt, I wouldn't make this if it were just me talking about how canon Nalu isn't.

However, I've seen a few things that, even though I've addressed them in posts since the end, have pushed me close to the edge. The thing that really set me off has been a realization I, and other Fairy Tail analysts, have come in rewriting the series I already said in an earlier post. And trust me, I’ll get to that soon enough. (read: it’s close to the last thing I talk about)

But let's start with an easy one; I don't care about Twitter sketches. I don't mean that in the sense that I don't find enjoyment from seeing pictures Mashima puts on Twitter. Many are really good and one of the main reasons I got a Twitter was to see his tweets. I've reblogged tons of them, both original sketches and recolored versions and his original Stone Age comic is one of my favorite things he's done for the series.

I mean that in two other ways.

One: The sketches mean nothing to me in regards to if the ship makes sense or is canon.

The fact that Mashima draws Natsu and Lucy in XYZ situation means nothing about them actually being in XYZ situation in the actual series. After all, the series is over and the sketches have little if any bearing on the series. Your ship isn't canon because Mashima drew them for fun.

And I know someone is going to respond with something like, “You wouldn't feel that way if Mashima drew one of your ships.” You know, despite the fact that I said literally nothing about the Pocky Day sketches which involves Graylu.

So, I'll use an example of one of my low-key ships: Natsu and Mirajane. Earlier, Mashima did a drawing of Mirajane and Natsu building a snowman together. And this past Valentine’s Day, he drew Mirajane giving a gift with Natsu giving one for White Day. You know what that means about their romantic prospect to me? Nothing! As cool as it is that he did it, the Natsu x Mirajane ship is still as out there as it would have been otherwise. I ship Natsu with Lisanna over her sister for a reason.

Two: I don't care about the sketches enough to bring this kind of thing up every single time Mashima draws Natsu and Lucy in the same picture.

Everytime Mashima draws them together, someone comes into my inbox and tells me how stupid the Nalu fandom is for thinking that whatever wacky situation Mashima puts them in. Look, I've been in this fandom for long enough to know how this works: Mashima does literally anything Nalu related and it's praised as proof of Nalu as canon. This was always the case with even stupid developments in chapters. Now that those are gone, I'm not shocked the fandom moved to the only thing Mashima puts out for the series.

These exact same things are my thoughts on the Nalu/Gruvia kids from the NYCC trip. There are three quick differences I wanted to add.

I get that Mashima didn't draw other ship kids but that's only because he wasn't asked to.

The kids where a was waste of an opportunity to ask Mashima a question about the series, as thegreatrhapsode has proven with his list of 100 alternate questions.

(I also came up with another 80 or so on some papers I can’t seem to find, though many of mine are more about Mashima and his works than about Fairy Tail.)

As a fun warm-up for rewriting the series, I’ve been working on a scenario for them to exist and meet which will come out eventually. And, as I reiterate multiple times in said scenario, it’s only a hypothetical.

Now, despite talking about this in at least three prior posts, I want to talk about the Nalu ending.

IT'S NOT CANON!

There is no clear and established relationship canonically proven to exist between Natsu Dragneel and Lucy Heartfilia. I can't believe that this is an issue for so many people. There was no confession. There was no kiss. Honestly, I don't even think Lucy thanking Natsu is or even should be considered romantic.

One of the annoying schools of thought surrounding this ending is that Natsu and Lucy are canon, but aren't in an explicitly romantic relationship. That they clearly love each other, but they wouldn't kiss or stuff because that would be out of character. I've even seen people say Natsu chickened out of a confession.

I'm sorry? Are we talking about the same Natsu? I don’t mean that in the sense that there aren’t times where aspects of characters aren’t up for debate. I mean that in the sense of “What convinced you that this was the right context for such a line of questioning?”

I don't think it's impossible for characters to be fearless and headstrong in some situations but timid and scared in another similar situation. I'm one of those people when it comes to performance versus public speaking. But Natsu hasn't been shown to be this kind of person when it comes to romance. Frankly speaking, romance isn't really an explored aspect of Natsu’s character. There are jokes about him and Lucy being a couple and Lisanna jokingly proposing to him, but that's not really grounds to believe he would be shy to confess to her. In a special edition magazine, it was even revealed that Natsu isn't even really interested in romance.

And then there's the other question from Comic-Con: Who do you think Natsu would end up with?

Again, this was a waste of a question. I know that sounds harsh and it’s a question that many people in the fandom may genuinely want to know. But was there literally anything more important that we could have gotten asked? Between two people, there’s a list of near 200 issues with Fairy Tail that were left unresolved at the end of the series. Even if it’s not about the plot hole ridden, contradictory, pseudo-success that Fairy Tail ended up becoming, you don’t want to know anything else about Hiro Mashima the person? I’ve read other works by him and I’d love to know more about Rave Master or Monster Soul or even the more recent Starbiter Satsuki.

That aside, as I said in the past, this was more conjecture than definite. This wasn’t, “Natsu will absolutely end up with Lucy later on in events after the end of the series”. If anything, this was “It’s most likely that, were the series to continue past the ending, Natsu might end up with the literal only female he could reasonably get away with forming a relationship with that isn’t Erza.” (I say even as I ship Natza. #multishipperprobz) He was later asked who Natsu would end up between Lucy and Lisanna and the answer was that it’s complicated. In other words, it’s not definitely in Lucy’s favor, as (and I only mention this because someone will inevitably bring this up if I don’t) it isn’t definitely in Lisanna’s favor.

But, let’s put all those actual facts aside for a bit and genuinely assume that the Nalu fandom is right about this. They’re not, but let’s assume they are. Mashima’s hilariously roundabout way of addressing the elephant in the room that is whether or not Natsu and Lucy are in a romantic relationship is outright confirmation that they are in fact a canon couple. I want you to consider how terrible this should actually be considered for the Nalu fandom.

Pretty much since I’ve been a fan of Fairy Tail, the expectation for Nalu was that they were definitely going to be canon in the series. There was near constant speculation of how and when this would happen. I even mentioned a few times Mashima could have made it canon if he wanted to when I broke down Nalu. The big one I remember, and one I even mentioned in that post, was when Natsu was coming back after the second time skip. This was right around when I started reading chapters of Fairy Tail weekly and actually seeing this made it seem like the fandom really cares about this ship happening.

Obviously, there was no confession at that time, obviously, that wasn’t the first time the fandom reacted in such a way and, obviously, the clamor for such a moment didn’t die down with time. There were plenty of instances where this thing would happen, pretty much up until the last chapter of Fairy Tail. Even going through old chapters of Fairy Tail, I can (only sort of) see where and when people who thought that Nalu was endgame would want a confession to be followed up.This was a big reason people were willing to put up with Fairy Tail despite knowing better. On top of all the terrible arguments used for defense of Nalu, the clear baseline assumption for a lot of it was obvious: “We [the people against Nalu] are all going to be proven wrong in the end”.

So, what does it say that the creator of the series comes out months after the last chapter and say that they end up becoming canon later on in events we don’t get to see? Shouldn’t that make the Nalu fandom seem mad? After 11 years worth of canon material, you couldn’t bother to give the fandom a proper, in-series ending?

In the last chapter, we got 5 pages devoted to Mashima’s Zervis AU, positive signs towards Elfgreen and even a shoutout to Kinabra (it’s probably not as bad as people might think), but Natsu or Lucy can’t even get a thought bubble alluding to their potential romantic feelings that “were totally obvious and you’re blind if you can’t see this”. Every other ship in the Big 4 got, at least, a step forward. Even if you want to argue that what we got from Gruvia or Jerza doesn’t matter considering the Century Quest is a serious step back, Nalu didn’t even make a step forward, to begin with. If anything, it took several steps backward.

This is an incredibly unfair comparison for multiple reasons, but let’s look at the end of Fullmetal Alchemist (or Brotherhood for you anime fans). One ship’s hilariously awkward statement near the end of the last chapter of the series before going on a long journey was definitely supposed taken to be a love confession. And, surprise surprise, it was actually taken to be a love confession in series. On the last page, there’s a picture of their family. (I don’t mention names because I’m trying to keep some mystery for those who don’t know.)

And, because I apparently need to beat this point into the ground, let's talk about Mashima’s plan for Nalu. I feel like I shouldn't have to make any more discussion about this. But I’ve seen someone who said that Mashima’s words on Nalu mean that his plan might be to make them canon later on. In a post a two months after the end of the series. So if you think I was jokingly making a stupid argument with that open letter, you're sorely mistaken.

First off, we found this out during the last arc of the series. There's no way he could have made Nalu any type of reasonable romantic development given that Natsu and Lucy weren't simultaneously conscious during the chapters the afterword in question came out. And if you want to go by what volumes were released around that time, the latest one in the main series had Natsu groping Lucy.

Again.

Keep in mind that assumes that there was enough for them to reasonably even end up in a romantic relationship with by the end of the arc anyway, which, of course, I don't think considering two months before, then I explained why Nalu was terrible in the prequel to this post. And of course, there was plenty of time for them to develop a romantic relationship in the five or six interactions they had in between then and the last chapter.

But consider that this is getting away from the main issue at hand: Mashima’s word on Nalu. He wasn't planning on writing them as a couple originally. And that isn’t just worried about how wasn’t planning on making more of the series past Phantom Lord. He said that their current relationship was somewhere between friends and lovers. That doesn't mean they'll go from friends to lovers. If anything, that means Natsu and Lucy have a relationship close to being siblings, where they care about each other a lot, but not in a romantic sense.

This is probably also a good time to beat my favorite dead horse again: “Natsu should (have) apologize(d).” Mashima is willing to admit that Natsu and Lucy have a really important relationship, to the point that his fans recognize that and want it to be romantic. Why would it make sense to cause a big break in that relationship, recognize that tension exists because of it, and do nothing about fixing it in any context? Now, consider how much of a failure this looks like when you're writing them as a close-knit relationship.

I’m sorry, how is this better than Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon or the Inuyasha ship, WatchMojo folks?

And none of this is even why I've decided to make this post. This is all just extra stuff I've had on my mind before and during the writing of other smaller posts about Nalu. Some of this even came up while I made this post. But those are all small fries compared to the thing that really tipped me off.

This past May, I started going through how I would rewrite Nalu. I figured that, since the ship wasn’t going to be canon anyway but was still popular, there had to be some way I could work them into a romantic relationship. While it was part of the reason I got into rewriting the series as a whole, I realized that I wasn’t going to get very far doing this well. Not because I didn’t like the ship in the original Fairy Tail. But because it would make no sense to put them together given their character arcs.

That’s right. Nalu works against the individual character arcs of Natsu and Lucy.

Look at it this way: if you’re going to focus on Lucy as a character, you should focus on her membership of Fairy Tail. That was her dream at the start of the series. If you're going to on Natsu as a character, you should focus on his search for Igneel. That was his dream at the start of the series.

You see the issue?

Now, this wouldn't be that big of an issue if this changed through the series to a point where they realize they want to be with each other. But in Tartaros arc, they double down on their individual goals. While Natsu’s dreams are dealt with later in that arc, the reason Lucy tracks the guilds whereabouts in the next arc is that she still wants to be with them.

I have more I want to say about how it was handled and how I'd fix it another post, but this is too important to leave for later. Not only was Nalu terribly undeveloped. Not only was it never meant to be canon. Not only is it not canon. Even if it was meant to happen, it would work against both of their supposed character motivations.

There are definitely more things I can talk about. For instance, there’s the double 180 the Nalu fandom pulled where the fandom agreed Natsu and Lucy are definitely in love and would have a kid, shifted to saying that romantic stuff like that would be OOC for them, and shifted into saying they’d have a potentially kinky physical romantic relationship within the span of a few months with no self-awareness whatsoever. But at the end of the day, what would be the point? You know, other than sharing my thoughts with the world? I mean, for all I or anyone else can say about how this ship utterly fails in multiple different aspects, people will still believe Nalu is amazing and canon. There's very little I or anyone else can actually do about it.

The Nalu master list is aesthetically nauseating, but it's more popular than the Nali one. Consider that my post about Nalu not being the original plan has only a fraction of the notes that other posts about that not being the right interpretation do. Many of the points I've torn apart regarding Natsu’s lack of apology are still being used as if they're totally fine. I’m willing to bet there are more posts about how Nalu is actually canon than there are likes/reblogs of my post about how Nalu isn’t canon. (For reference, the number is 12.)

This isn't a Nalu exclusive kind of thing considering I said similar things about Gruvia and Nali last year, but it's still annoying to see my least favorite thing in anime continue to be defended against all odds and reason. A while back, I even saw someone who made a chart about how much of Fairy Tail was pointing towards Nalu, as a teaser for a video they’re making. This series isn’t labeled “incredibly unpopular” for nothing.

I said this in an earlier post, but the anti-Nalu camp isn’t giving me much to enjoy either. I get it, I clearly still don’t like Nalu either. However, the way this fandom has been doing since the end of the series has been annoying. I get that the Nalu fandom is annoying, hypocritical and near unbelievable plenty of times. I’ve seen plenty of stupid with my own eyes and much of part 1 talks about my issues with the fandom. However, I’d love to learn more about why the actual ship fails for so many people then how so many people fail at convincing them.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that I’ll stop finding things to talk about Nalu-wise. A while back, I saw someone make a post about when Lucy could have fallen for Natsu. Next week, a list of 13 Fairy Tail chapters where I think you should have given up on Nalu happening (11 chapters which are in the main series and two special chapters) will be posted in the anti-Nalu tag in response. While some are obvious picks like 416 and 545, a few are places where Mashima could have helped Nalu’s case be more airtight but didn’t.

One of the big first steps to my rewrite of Fairy Tail is how to reconcile the aforementioned “Nalu problem” and I have a few things I have to get to before that. And with the final season of Fairy Tail coming, my own rereading of the series, and more rewriting of the series, I’ll definitely come up with more incredibly unpopular thoughts on one of the most popular things in Fairy Tail.

In Conclusion:

Nalu is trash. It’s not canon, it shouldn’t have been canon and be aware of anyone who would be willing to argue otherwise.

#fairy tail #anti nalu #anti nalu fandom #nalusgonnanalu #i'm back and i'm pissed off #at EVERYONE!#for the record #this only took two weeks to write #i spent months working on FITAGAPEOInTP #and it's about the same length #also happy holidays!#while you're here #i did see the twitter pics #and guys #come on #the series is over

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aharris00britney · 6 years

Photo

@agentwashsims said: I️ knew you wouldn’t disappoint on the curly hairs!

Thank youu! lmao it is a pretty basic edit but I'm glad you like it ;-;

Anonymous said: Could you convert the solid colored EA Cruella DeVille style for girls or tots?

Actually it has already been converted HERE (warning: she uses an ad thing :( )

@verdigreedy said: You're doing a great job! Thank you for sharing with us!

Thank you ;-; RIP imagine that there are cc creators out there that don't share ;-; how much cc are we missing out on

@simmiezoo said: I would love a flipped version of the Zoey hair - I usually use hairs that are flipped the other side. I don't know if it's easy to do. Just a suggestion! It looks great btw. :)

I can try! No promises though lmao it should be pretty easy but sometimes it isn't

Anonymous said: Brady hair won't show up. Do I need to have Pets installed? I don't have it.

Hey! @ayoshi tested it, Braxton, Jordie, and Zoey hairs for me and they all showed up fine for him. He does not have Cats & Dogs installed so that isn't the issue. I think you have to have the most recent game update.

Anonymous said: Hello. Can i find out what kind of lenses do you use on sims?💚💚💚

I actually updated to quartz V2 a few days ago, and recolored them in 20 more swatches! Jade is gonna let me post my non-defaults, I just have to finish the previews

@lizziesimmer said: The link to your post of the clumsy braids are gone! I don't know what happened to them but I need them back!!

Yeah, I had planned on revamping them ;-; I still do! Just haven't worked on them in a few months weeks lmao hopefully I can get them finished soon

Anonymous said: Thank you so much for not using Ad.fly and making it easy for everyone to just download your CC without having to go through an ad hell <3 Talented and considerate.. what more do we need :)

Aaaaah no problem!! There are tons of creators that don't use ad.fly! or at least give you the option of ad.fly or not

Anonymous said: Bless u for editing that middle part curly hair from cats and dogs. It made me feel like my sims was George fucking Washington.

rhfdncv omggg screaming it does look kinda like a George Washington hair

Anonymous said: Will u make a Arilee Hair without the Bangs ? That would be so awesome ❤️ Love u and the cc u make. Such an talented person u are. Lots of love.

Awe thank youu!! Yeah I am gonna finish the no-bangs version sometime this week and get it out <3

Anonymous said: do you know if anyone that has (or could you hehe) remake those toddler camo pants for adult sims

I don't actually :( and I sadly am not that good at cc clothes ;-; maybe another creator will see this and try it out

Anonymous said: I just wanted to say that you're my favorite CC maker c': I just adore your work and how unique your cc is! <3 You have so much talent and I can't wait to see more from you.

SO SWEET!!!!!!!!!! YOU GUYS R LITERALLY SO NICE AND JUST GOOD PEOPLE ;-;

Anonymous said: I think your Jordie Hair may have caused my game to bug, I got the never loading ring of death :/ Cute hair though

Hey! As I said before, @ayoshi tested it and my othe recent hairs for me, and his game was fine :( a lot of mods broke with the patch so it is probably one of them

Anonymous said: I love all the stuff you make! You're super talented!

Omggg no I'm not ;-; thank you though, I'm glad you like it

Anonymous said: Does your username mean anything?

A - Austin, Harris - my last name lolol, 00 - for 2000 aka the year i wss born, Britney - for the legendary Miss Britney Spears

@simnook said: You make the most amazing cc and it’s been cool to see how much you have improved since you first started. love your blog so much 💚

Thank you dude!! Literally I bet it was a journey to see my old cc previews vs now! Like last night I went back and looked at the previews for my Roseanne hair and i didnt fill in the area behind the '18 ea colors' all the way and just GOD I cringe at myself

@cowplant-pizza said: hi love! just wanted to ask if you are working on the middle parted curly hair from cats & dogs! its a tad flat imo, and i trust you more than anyone to do it justice!!! ily ♥

This was sent before I released my Zoey hair :P hope you liked that

@simsinsanmyshuno said: yooo i have a suggestion: can you make that one floofy curly hair from C&D (lmao the bigger curly hair for women) shorter i feel like it would look really cute like shoulder length

I think @wild-pixel is working on a hair like that actually!!

Anonymous said: the jordie hair is so cute!! thank you for everything you do for the community!

Anonymous said:Hi I was wondering if we have to pets for you newest toddler hair to work?

As long as the post/preview says BGC, it means it is Base Game Compatible :) I do think, however, you have to have the most recent update to the base game

@spideywil921 said: Omg could you potentially make a child version of the Half Up Do with the braids from Cats & Dogs???

I might if nobody else has done it by like Tuesday??

Anonymous said: Can you do recolors on some of the male CAS tops in pets? You’re one of my favorite cc makers and I love your stuff 😩😩

Lololol I am not that good of a recolor, I actually recolored 4 CC tops a week ago and have the post in my drafts still contemplating about posting them ;-;

Anonymous said: You should start a gameplay

rip nooooo

Anonymous said: So, I love shaved hair, so I checked out the hairs, and while looking for a hair, I came across Tae Hair, so long story short--- where can I download it? It isn't in the list.

It's in there :) just click the download and you should be able to find it

@deviants said: hey! this is super random but I’ve been watching you create content for a while now and tbh you've gotten so fantastic!! you’re one of my favourite CC makers :)

Aweeeee thank you so much <3 I'm glad you call me one of your favorites

Anonymous said: Hi, where did you get the scar eyebrow in your Rebecca hair? <3

Please check my resource page! It is listed in there on Lora's cc chart

Anonymous said: Hey I love your cc!! Are we able to download the sims you make? They're just so perfect. What's your origin id? xx

Thank you!! I am gonna work on getting Taylor and my male Sim posted this week :)

@itacorcoran said: I wanted to say your content is so amazing! It's the best sims 4 hair i've ever seen its unique and interesting and barely any clipping if at all :D I hope you're well i pretty much download every sim hair i see on here ^^

Thank you!!! My hairs def aren't unique but I appreciate it!

Anonymous said: Which did you prefer, likey or knock knock?

Right now I really like Likey but Knock Knock is soooo good I think it will overpower Likey later down the road. Same thing happened with Signal

@simskru said: I'm literally in love with you and everything you've created, just saying

TYSM!!! That is so nice ;-;

#asks #omfg #it hasnt been a week #stop showering me with compliments ;-;#<3

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gameridernews · 7 years

Text

Ex-Aid review: Heisei Generations

Time to review Ex-Aid's first movie: "Kamen Rider Heisei Generations: Dr. Pac-Man VS Ex-Aid & Ghost With Legend Riders". Long, long title. Since I've not done a review for a movie yet, how do I format this...

Well, for starters, some preliminary timeline placement: The movie came out when Kuroto Dan was still pretending to be sane, and there was still a bike among us. The Kamen Rider Genm spinoffs would tip you off to that since those take place after this movie. It's a nice early "In case you're new to Ex-Aid" timeline placement.

Also, since this is post-finale Ghost, Drive, Gaim and Wizard... I won’t hold back on spoilers for those shows!

This is a real treat, I tell ya. For those who don't know, I love crossovers in general. And when it comes to Kamen Rider, I usually get some kind of enjoyment out of the crossover movies. I say this because, well, they're not usually... logical. Due to trying to work in this show and that show with their crazily distinct styles and lore, it gets hard to make crossovers actually make sense.

But the ones that have come out since Gaim have been doing a better job of that. Generally I'm talking about the spring movies in this context, but what I should be talking about are the winter movies. These are typically movies where the current show gets its own plot, the previous show gets its own post-finale plot, and the two plots merge in the final act... or final 10 minutes.

Ghost/Drive did something impressive with this format: It ditched it entirely. Instead of having two shows meet at the end, this movie realized that a movie about Ghost and Drive should really be about Ghost and Drive having some adventure that affects both of them. I'm glad to see this movie follows that notion with Ex-Aid and Ghost meeting within the first few minutes, and even Drive gets to be involved in continuity with the aforementioned Ghost/Drive movie. I'll talk about the cameos as they come up.

So right away, things are falling into chaos as we meet our villains, Dr. Pac-Man and his three lackeys, who I'll call Robol, Dragol and Giril since that's easier to remember. This is because they steal the Proto Gashats from Kuroto Dan, along with the Bugvisor, and the lackeys use Proto Gashats to transform much in the way Graphite did to gain his black recolor form.

I appreciate that, from the moment this movie starts, you know that you're in for a wild time. The lackeys themselves all do some fun fighting even as civilians, in particular Giril who literally brought a sword to a gun fight even before getting a Proto Gashat. Dragol, the tall lanky one, also does a good performance. And Dr. Pac-Man... boy, that outfit and mask combo is so 70s it hurts. I can't hate it.

I should take some time to talk about Ghost, shouldn't I?

Yes, this is Ghost's return after the show ended, and to be honest? Not much has changed for this cast. Takeru is in school making up for the time lost, but everyone else... is about where they were when the show ended, which is fine. The monks and Kanon also appear briefly, and of course Makoto/Specter and Alain/Necrom, but I am disappointed that Javert didn't get to show up - I wanna see what his monk training has led to, man.

The Pac-Man Bugster Viruses end up taking away Takeru’s ability to transform for some reason... but then we learn why later! Pac-Man's weakness is ghosts! I shouldn't be surprised that was actually a plot point since that's a line in the trailer, but it's still absurd in a way that made me smile. Apparently Kuroto Dan is being trusted with his Eyecon to work on a new Gashat, which sounds like A VERY BAD IDEA but y'know, at this point Kuroto Dan was actually a trusted supplier.

The three lackeys go on to use Proto Gashats stolen from Kuroto Dan, transforming into what are essentially reuses of the Collaboss Bugsters from the show, sans the Gashat lodged in the head - ironic since they transform shoving the Gashat into their body ala Dopant Memories. With that and the white outfits I can't help but imagine this is Foundation X related...

The undersuit of the Collaboss Bugster is colored a bit differently, but to me the main attraction is Dragol since Drago Knight Hunter Z never got used this way in the show. It's a nice design, too! It's a thing that makes me go "Oh I should use that in fanfiction..."

The movie mainly revolves around a high school student who becomes infected, and in a twist I kinda wasn't expecting so early, they make a Bugster from a game HE created - a game not associated with Genm Corp, Hatesate Puzzle. Kind of a neat twist. They tie this Bugster's powers into the villain's ambitions in a way that is kind of nonsensical to me, though.

What I do like is the way they handle the kid. Sure, it's mostly an Ex-Aid plot, but Takeru's respect for enjoying life comes into play since the patient really enjoys making his game, and the two of them, despite some minor differences later on, both want to see him be happy once it's over.

While this is going on, we do get an interesting subplot with Dr. Pac-Man and crew. Takeru, Onari and Akari go to Shinnosuke/Drive of the Metro PD to find out who these villains are, and the plot thickens when he reveals that they were part of some shady business shrouded in rumors and mysterious deaths.

Shinnosuke's life sucks during this first half of the movie. It's become apparent to him that he can't be a Rider with his gear being put away and all, so he's feeling pretty powerless. It's a bit of a random stroke of luck how he is reunited with Belt-san to become Kamen Rider Drive again, but I will get into that once I talk about Gaim. Yes.

Hey, wait, I've seen that scene in the show recently...! Let's talk about this now even though they reveal more about it later.

Perhaps there were detailed synopsis' available way back when the movie came out, I dunno. It's hard to come across this stuff in English unless you follow the right people, and even then you might only learn bits and pieces.

But I did not know the movie actually reveals that Emu is patient zero AND Parad was created from his Bugster Virus! And I bet a lot of folks outside of Japan were not privy to this reveal either, since I'd always seen/received theories about Emu possibly maybe being patient zero. I even theorized it at the end of December when the movie had already come out. I feel dumb but at the same time, that's what happens when you can't be there to see the movie when it comes out.

I'm talking a bit out of order, but I will say that there's a double edged sword to this reveal. On the one hand, we the viewers learn about Emu being patient zero because Ghost's sporadic touch-someone-and-see-memories power triggered when he put a hand on Dr. Pac-Man. On the other hand... bro, you should've probably told Emu something this eerie. Perhaps not the best way to reveal it.

Anyway, just thought that was real interesting for a movie that contains the name "Dr. Pac-Man".

Back to the plot at hand, the new Hatesate Puzzle based Bugster causes some trouble for Takeru as it just about kills off Akari, or at least badly injures her. It's easy to say she was killed since it's Ghost. But we'll get to him near the end...

Oh yeah, Makoto and Alain show up around this time. Just... kind of slide into view during a fight since they read the script.

Sadly I don't really have much to say about them in this movie since their dialogue literally consists of saying "You'll pay for this!" in slightly different ways each time they speak. We do get to see that they and Kanon return to the Ganma homeworld at the end, so... that's still a thing.

The movie then proceeds to provide the kind of fight porn you enjoy from one of these movies. Giril, Robol and Dragol take on Specter, Necrom, Brave, Snipe and Lazer (cause hey he's still alive), all while summoning Bugster Viruses that are themed after their Gashats; Samurai, futuristic soldiers(??) and fantasy soldiers that may or may not be using costumes from Wizard's summer movie. Fact-checking is for kids.

And of course, the new Gashat from Kuroto Dan has arrived for Ex-Aid to use. After he and Ghost start working together to take on the giant CGI Pac-Man, Ex-Aid uses the wonderfully colored Ghost Gamer form while Ghost uses the uncanny Ex-Aid Damashii form he now has (an Eyecon obtained at the end of his show because crossovers), and the two defeat the giant Pac-Man.

The day is saved. Wait, weren't there more Riders in this?

Yeah, that shocked me when I was watching - we're only halfway through and we've gotten the big crossover fight out of the way! If I wasn't already so aware of what happens in the movie, I'd be left wondering what comes next.

But Emu is still affected by all that happened. The other doctor Riders came to help, and are even caring for the Riders from Ghost who are injured, but Emu couldn't save his own patient. Not only that, but the villains have said patient, and are using him to create a new form for Dr. Pac-Man. Standard toku movie villain stuff.

Is there any hope left for our hero?

No, but at least we have our donuts.

So this cameo is a bit out of nowhere for a couple reasons. One, it just kind of happens suddenly. Two, holy crap they got Haruto's actor to come back and his hair is perfectly on point. But alas, much like Wizard's show, his involvement here isn't living up to its full potential. He doesn’t say much beyond catchphrases and the fact he’s a mage, and doesn’t explain why he’s here. I have a way this could've worked, which will be addressed when I talk about Gaim. Yes.

There is also a kinda funny scene where he convinces Dr. Pac-Man into letting him be a bodyguard with no trouble at all. It was funny but not for the right reasons. He and Dragol also don't get along and that's funny because theming.

Once Emu, Takeru and Shinnosuke know where to go, they see the new bodyguard Haruto... who says he's here to escort them in - okay. The three engage in some fun out-of-suit fighting with Dr. Pac-Man's lackies, and arrive to a familiar part of this abandoned office set that led me to wonder how he was going to make his entrance...

Turns out he just kind of crashes the party and lands like a badass. I can dig it. Okay, so NOW I talk about Gaim!

Gaim's a glaring part of this crossover. Whether the actor was busy with another role, or disinterested in returning, he never appears out of costume and there's not even a voice credit.

Gaim DOES talk in the movie, and he sounds on point, but one thing you'll notice is he never says anything too specific. It's believed that his dialogue is just recycled audio from previous media, and sadly, as the resident Gaim fanatic, I could not even begin to find transcripts that would lead me to having properly spelled Japanese dialogue that would lead me to previous instances of said dialogue existing. Just wanted to explain how much dumb work I was doing for this one paragraph of the review.

But what I can tell you is this: Gaim has dialogue that’s real teamwork-y, so it’s probably from previous crossovers.

Anyway, I had two things to address with Gaim. First, they do a cute thing where Gaim retrieved Belt-san for Shinnosuke, to which he acknowledges that Gaim DOES have god powers that make it easy for him to just warp into the Drive Pit and snatch him up. That's a nice way of getting Drive to transform.

A shame they didn't think to have a flashback where Haruto is warned about Dr. Pac-Man by Gaim, thus explaining why either of them are here to begin with. I mean, Gaim's probably privy to movie villain plots, since he's got god senses.

As a real specific thing, I would have also liked if Gaim explained away his lack of out-of-suit appearance with "By the way, I'm on another planet right now, so this is just an avatar." If you don't follow Gaim then I'm sorry for throwing these spoilers out so crazily, but y'know. I gave the appropriate spoiler warning.

There's a lot of lovely fight porn where Wizard, Gaim and Drive each take on the lackeys and their Bugster Virus grunts, who happen to fit their motifs, going through their various forms while their respective themes play. It's beautiful. Also Gaim has a real out-of-place line delivery when he gives a final blow, lending credence to the theory this is recycled dialogue.

When Ghost gets insultingly overpowered by the puzzle themed Bugster, making his supposed infinite potential form look bad, Ghost receives an out-of-nowhere visit from the spirit of Nobunaga who decides to fight alongside him with two other rulers of Japan who unified the nation. Tenka Touitsu Damashii represents three historical figures, and I gotta say, I'm glad to see it get used in a movie.

A shame they gave it to Ghost since the toy Eyecon is literally only capable of playing Specter's standby music. But I guess I can't feel too bad for Specter since he got his own movie with a final form?

It's a nice idea, looks good, and the fact that it makes use of the three Riders' weapons is cool. Maybe in a world where Ghost made more Eyecons, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu would've been forms used by Ghost and Necrom.

Things are not so hopeful for Emu. He's been given a legitimately-painful-to-watch beating by Dr. Pac-Man in his new monster form, and is pushed to the ground. The kind doctor decides to give Emu a taste of what it's like to go through death by Bugster Virus by basically forcing Mighty Action X into his belt alongside Proto Mighty Action X (since Proto Gashats have been established to be deadly), which doesn't work out quite how he wanted.

Instead, Emu inexplicably (but we know why now) connects the two Gashats to form the Mighty Brothers XX Gashat - which appears to be lacking in some paint here for some reason, gonna guess it's an error. With a very ominous and emotionless persona overtaking him, he transforms into the separate Ex-Aids, Double Action Gamer Level XX.

It's a real interesting way of giving you a taste of what's to come in the show in a way that's different. Ghost/Drive did this as well with Ghost's Toucon Boost Damashii form, and there's also Hibiki which kind of... created its own crazy origin for Hibiki's final form which is completely ignored in the show.

Point is, I find it interesting the way they pulled it off. By the end of the fight, the villains have been defeated and Ex-Aid's double Gashat turns back into separates, with him having no memory of what he did - cleeeverly avoiding continuity problems with the show, I see.

With that, the movie is just about over, but wait! It's a Ghost movie where Takeru doesn't die? Of course not, that'd just be silly.

Yes, as the cast of Ex-Aid and Ghost are meeting up again, Takeru randomly passes out. Apparently all the beatings he endured today was just too much for him. It seems that he's really dead this time! No pulse or anything! Tears all around!

You know what's coming, though. It's a crossover with a doctor. In a scene that's strangely reminiscent of the fakeout CPR scene in episode 1 of Ex-Aid, Emu brings Takeru back to life. He then thanks Emu for giving him another chance at life, fulfilling Ghost's other requirement of being sugary sweet.

The credits roll as we see what everyone is up to now. Haruto is on a rooftop eating donuts just as you'd expect, and Shinnosuke is dealing with coworkers congradulating him on his new kid way too early... not sure if that's a Drive Saga 2 thing or not, since that's on my list of toku to watch.

And finally, the last scene has Parad with Kuroto, holding the Pac-Adventure Gashat that will be used in the Genm spinoff which doesn't make anymore sense now that I've seen the movie. Oh, and a nice shot of Perfect Puzzle's title image, teasing at Parad's future Rider status! Neat.

So... that's a lot of text I'm gonna have to edit. But that's also Ex-Aid's first movie. How was it?

Well, I generally enjoy crossover movies for the fun things that can happen, and within the last few years they have gotten really good at telling a story. Especially Ghost/Drive which I have referenced several times here, since it and this movie have its format in common.

That being said, this movie is kind of an oddity of its own. It gets the Legend Rider-y crossover form stuff out of the way halfway in, and goes on to do more stuff later that feels reminiscent of the spring crossover movies as of late - even using returning actors, and directly acknowledging previous crossovers to give a legitimacy to them. These 4 returning heroes felt like they'd met before and were reunited, which is probably the most pleasant surprise of the movie.

I know a lot of folks out there hate these kind of movies, or even ignore all the toku movies, but I think this is promising. Kamen Rider crossovers have been getting better at character writing with each movie, and I am excited to see the spring movie once it hits DVD.

With that all being said, I'll see you all in... a week maybe? With Ex-Aid taking a week off, I should use that as an excuse to catch up and actually talk about May's crazy bunch of episodes.

#kamen rider exaid #reviews #feed

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angstylittlecatboy · 5 years

Text

memories of my sprite comic nobody read

I'm not sure if I believe in the whole angel numbers thing anymore but I think they want me to reintroduce my sprite comic (saw 111 while thinking about it.) I just feel like talking about it, idk. I know nobody cares.

Barring a few standout strips I don't think Purrnout the Edgy Cat (covering my bases here, but the comic predates me meeting FP by two years, “edgy” refers to how stuff like Linkin Park and Shadow the Hedgehog is referred to as edgy) was a good comic, most of it's gags fall flat, the backgrounds and walking sprites were mostly ugly (if my more detail-oriented brother was downstairs he'd insist I do better,) and I could never get a story arc off the ground, but I only made it to kill the bore (in the description it said "updates whenever boredom strikes") and I had fun making it.

The idea was to be a sprite comic (believe me, I’d draw the comic if I were any good at drawing, but I learned my lesson from having DeviantArt) that was something of an affectionate parody of early 2000s sprite comics while avoiding a lot of the common complaints about them, also throwing in some punk/goth/emo culture. Specifically, all of it's characters were original, only one was a recolor (and his name was Recolor the Hedgehog, he was the deuteragonist and straight man, I planned to make him the only character who can't do cool superpower stuff for irony,) I didn't use backgrounds from Google Images, it didn't directly take place in the universe of something else (my idea was that it took place in a nonsense universe where every work of fiction is somehow canon, though I wanted to be pretty strict about seeing concepts and objects but never characters from other works, but other than showing Recolor losing rings, nothing ever came of it,) I tried not to mainly use reference or shock humor, and I tried to use a consistent sprite style for the characters and backgrounds (I confess to ripping effects.) I don't think it ever achieved parody of 00s sprite comics, I wanted to eventually make some stuff like DBZ-style sprite battles and teen melodrama, but I ended up making a gag-a-day strip mostly utilizing cringe comedy. At least, all the good or least bad strips are cringe comedy. I tried teen melodrama but it was mostly big lipped aligator moments that went nowhere, especially both aborted story arcs (though the latter was going to be less teen melodrama and more band melodrama.) If I reupload the comic, the arc comics won’t be reuploaded with the rest as I consider them non-canon since neither got past two strips and the first attempt would have honestly ruined the comic if it finished. I guess there were two continuous strips where Purrnout commited tax fraud (I think this predated the Yoshi meme) but I don’t see that as a story arc. Actually the first three comics were sorta a story arc but they mostly just introduced the main two, explained why Purrnout is living in an apartment (I think I needed to explain this as I intended it as a Chekrov’s Gun for a later story arc,) and made some obscure Green Day references. Maybe the arc comics could get re-added at a different place on the timeline if I felt like completing the arcs. A huge problem is that I didn’t make an outline for them tbh.

The style I settled on for the backgrounds and sprites was that of the Neo Geo Pocket Color. The panels were in either that system’s resolution or one close to it (they were tiny.) I ignored palette limitations, but so did most sprite comics.

I must admit that the title character is a self-insert fantasy to some extent, he was admittedly, like 16-year-old me but cooler. Well, not really cooler since the comic revolves around him being a loser, but he was an emancipated minor and a good punk/alt rock guitarist, both tying into my fantasies at the time, and he was a lonely emo teenager trying to not be mainstream. If I brought the comic back, I’d continue to write Purrnout as 16YO me and not as 18YO me. I’m still a loser, but my spiritual beliefs, dedication to kindness, and inconsistent attitudes towards life WOULD NOT mesh with the character. Purrnout cannot have reverence to things that control the world or talk about peace and love, he needs to be angry at the world and be a bit of a deliberately insensitive asshole to the people he doesn’t like. Sort of a much less extreme version of an incel (I identified as such at the time.) Wouldn’t call him a Mary Sue, though it’s not really my call to make since I’m the author and this is the only creative work of mine that can kinda be considered “completed” that I’m still fond of in a way. Maybe I’ll cringe someday, but not today.

There’s not much to say about Recolor the Hedgehog, he’s very much a pretty normal guy other than having nerdy interests and Purrnout as a best friend. He more or less exists to be a straight man. He was a composite of my brother and an ex-friend.

I might as well mention the comic’s other non-antagonist character since I’ve already talked about both Purrnout and Recolor. Love the Golden Retriever, a rich, smart, pretty normie girl with a Pollyanna viewpoint, a wish to heal people like Purrnout, and a crush on Recolor. She was based on a variety of girls who tried to become my friend out of pity and were nice enough but we didn’t connect. Purrnout finds her annoying, while she considers Purrnout a friend. I also introduced another one, but she was part of the first aborted attempt at an arc.

A third main character was planned as well, but she was supposed to be introduced in a story arc that I planned but never even tried to start. She wouldn’t make it into the comic if I start it up again, at least not without heavy modification, as I eventually met someone who was very similar to the character I had in mind. So similar that adding them now would look creepy.

The comic’s most common antagonist was a cat named Muffin. He was basically Chad Thundercock, probably the most shallow character in a comic that wasn’t long enough to get deep. I also introduced another character intended as an antagonist in an admittedly-hamfisted way named Felicity the Once-Golden Retriever, Love’s best friend who used to be a highly optimistic normie with a promising modelling career before Muffin cheated on her, and then became an angsty anti-society rebel who thinks cutting her hair and dying her fur darker makes her ugly. She hated Purrnout because she felt that Purrnout hadn’t suffered like she had and is moping for no reason, which annoys her. I think I was trying to do a straw feminist character minus the actual feminism, but don’t quote me on that. I had a third antagonist that I wanted to introduce, my favorite antagonist made for the comic actually, and he already cameoed, but I never ended up writing him. Maybe if I had my PC through Summer/Fall 2018 I would’ve made more (the last one was Spring 2018.)

But anyway, it doesn’t really matter. My brother was the only person who really read Purrnout, but I do remember him getting a chuckle out of it. I posted it on Tumblr (now deleted) and I got one follower, who was likely a bot. I never posted a link to it on my main Tumblr, partially because I wanted to see it gain an organic audience first (it didn’t lol) and partially because I was scared of it being seen as cringe. You may have come across it if you browsed the “sprite comic” tag on here. I know Tumblr is a bad place to host webcomics (at least if it’s the only place you’re hosting the webcomic) but it’s free, I was familiar with it, and I wasn’t making any plans to profit off of or take the comic seriously (it ran Summer 2016 - Spring 2018 and only had twenty strips.)

I’m still hesitant to bring back the comic because I honestly want to use the universe (most of it, obviously modifications would need to be made) for a video game idea I have, though that would be 10+ years in the future if I ever have credibility as a game developer since I couldn’t see myself doing that one without a team (”3D hack n’ slash platformer” is a lot harder than “2D JRPG.”) Hell, I originally made the sprite for a Zelda II clone I wanted to make with Purrnout using side mounted guns (because Shadow the Edgehog,) but for some reason, be it laziness (not wanting to re-learn Game Maker) or wanting to use the character for something more character driven, I ended up making a sprite comic instead. Another route I could do is redesigning and renaming Recolor, and removing all sprites ripped from other games, but I’m extremely hesitant to mess with Recolor’s design since his worried face is a running gag and if I did continue I’d still want to eventually make jokes that don’t work without him being a Sonic recolor.

Also, it wasn’t a furry webcomic, at least not entirely. “pet sized” (cats, dogs, wolves, foxes, etc.) characters would stand on fours while characters of much smaller or much larger stature (cows, hedgehogs,) than that would be anthropomorphic.

#journal #sprite comic #memories #purrnout

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elkian · 7 years

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whats up you memeloving fucks it’s time for more TLP

ch 20: Battle in Blaine

I feel I should point out that in Blastinus’ LP, this is one of the few -if not only- chapters where they had to do separate Plot and Gameplay posts.

I’d also like to mention that Writing is not Blazer’s strongest point.

This is legit part of the first opening lines:

“I assure you the information I have to tell you is important for you to know.” “Although I've already heard this, I feel I should be here to discuss it. This discussion affects all of us, after all.”

riveting

The first segment has, as I roughly estimated, around 1,000 words of dialogue. Then there’s a scene change to the antagonists. Then like four more scene changes. Keep in mind that this is all across dialogue boxes that can hold roughly two lines of 10 total words at a time.

tldr (can’t blame you): I skip the shit out of this part and go straight to play

The map is largely Wyvern Riders, Cavaliers, and Knights, with a few Wyvern Lords and Generals and a Physic Bishop too far removed from the meat of the map to really contribute.

Also, this. The Bloody Rifle is an upgrade to Blazer’s Rifle Bow, basically a Killer Longbow I guess? The problem is that, if you recall, no one in my army has any fucking Skill.

Blastinus’ helpful map. We left a word slog for a literal slog.

Here’s something neat: Halberdiers were introduced officially in FE9, meaning someone took the time to make this exceptionally nice class portrait. Their sprites are pretty obvious, especially in combat, but not bad - just not quite Intsys-like.

Hey, I just realized it skipped over 19x even though I have Rex in my party. Is my game just bugged?

The map is not kind to sword units, and I almost bring Shuuda, but there’s a buttload of Vuleraries and Elixirs for the stealin’

Our ultimate team. Remember Levion’s Dragon Axe way back in our first Kelik chapter? Yeah, it’s Mark’s now.

It says a lot that my Knight is more useful on this godawful slog that a Wyvern Rider is. Karina’s here to decide her benching or not.

this is Yue, almost certainly a Cardcaptor Sakura reference and also responsible for like a third of the 6,000-something words in the pre-chapter. He decides he needs to not only introduce himself fully but also explain why he is introducing himself. Not a great way to enter my good grace, bucko.

Howard, who we (barely) kicked the shit out of two chapters ago, only has two lines of dialogue before finally letting us fight. Also, considering how shitty my cavaliers not named Eduardo are, he’s probably gonna be a staple for a bit.

At the very least, I get a hyper-strong Paladin and an okay Shaman on a long, Wyvern-heavy map. They can make themselves useful, unlike, say, a level 1 shaman and an incredibly shitty Valkyrie on a desert map

Also this dude was in the starting village. (he has 7 Def and 4 Res, pretty okay for a level 8 Fighter.) He comes with a Dragon Axe (and C Support with Mark), too.

Zach hops into the Ballista

also here’s Yue’s stats

Lastly, he has this Amulet, which gives the holder +10 Hit/Avoid. Blastinus doesn’t think it’s worth taking up 20% of a unit’s inventory, but Blastinus isn’t completely Skill-screwed. Seriously, the Shaman has better Skill than like four or five of the units I’m fielding.

please note that if not for the Weapon Triangle, Ed would being doing as much damage with a Sword as these fools are with Lances (and have like +30 on their hit). I love Ed.

not entirely sure about that lime green lining on the bottom, but Yue’s sprite is pretty decent

So. Uh. If that second Wyvern had hit, Ed would be dead. -_-’’’’

this is the start of turn 2, and we’ve killed like two wyverns. You CANNOT rush this chapter - the Wyverns are just strong enough to overwhelm a unit if they pile on.

Kevin: Still awesome.

While everyone else is getting like 15-20 EXP from a kill, Rex is in the 40s. Not bad.

Mark gets our first level of the map, and it’s gorgeous.

does skill even matter when Ed can hit on a 68 but i have consistent misses on 80+?

I don’t think I really looked at Howard’s battle sprite before. It’s not bad, though part of the recolor on the horse’s tail is done wrong and looks off.

I piled like 3 units on this damn Paladin who kept dodging at 1 HP, but Yue, of all people, brings us home. (this is especially surprising because I stupidly sacrificed him trying to make a Nosferatu hit on the guy one loadstate ago)

Emma patches Karina up for a totally acceptable level.

good thing that was the last enemy in range

Anakin Motivates Zach to disappoint me.

Mark revisits his old friend Effective Damage.

So here is a fucking quandry. No one in range of this Wyvern Rider can OHKO them. Karina might be able to with the Killer lance, on a 75% hit chance, but if she fails she dies.

After some agonizing, she trades Zach for his Elixir (and to equip him with the Short Bow) and doesn’t attack. Everyone else in range can take a hit and most can counterattack, so worst case, they’ll go for Althares, who’s sitting at full HP on a fort (and wielding a Lancereaver).

I so want to do this but she would be murdered by all the upcoming enemies.

Howard is a great Panic Button for this mission - he’s not indestructible, but he can be alone for a turn or two without dying.

Oh Fuck(TM)

fortunately, between Zach’s lightning Speed and the weight of a Steel Lance, he doubles in return, but this was an unpleasant surprise. I’m glad the Wyvern Rider I was worrying about flew off to heal before this.

Zach and Karina double-team the Wyvern Lord (who Zach can double even with a Steel Bow). Karina apparently fears the bench.

So here’s something fun:

Emma, at technically the same level, has more Defense than Howard., Hell, aside from HP/Con/Attack Stat (and, for some reason, luck), She’s better than him in every way. What the hell.

I was gonna Motivate Zach to retreat towards heals before remembering that Anakin could do that. His Magic is so high that just a Heal staff is enough, too.

This rude-ass motherfucker whacks Mark, so Mark procs a goddamn 26 (before True Hit!) to nearly murder him in response.

FUCK

We make this happen again.

but not this :(

rude

Acceptable

I know Ace is on Forest, but look at that hit rate! It’s hilarious!

A GOOD LEVEL

I was trying to soften the Cav up for Lirin but Mark decided to proc both hits for an okay level. He’s getting a lot of mileage on this map - and I have an Animate Seal (basically Master Seal for non-Lord-likes) but I know there’s an Ocean Seal coming up.

I wasn’t expecting Lirin to dodge, so this is already going better than my pre-loadstate (>>)

I’d complain, but Defense. On a Peg Knight.

We put Sai to the test, and he works out rather nicely, landing both adn dodging the counter. I’m ambivalent about his spritework.

I had to reload several times trying to push this segment before finally going the patient route.

Sweet Jesus, that was close.

Sai apparently lives to impress.

So glad i put her on Forest. Cia’s Speed is nearly as hilarious as Ace’s, so she’s a great dodge tank if you place her right.

Even moreso now. What a great level.

That’s adorable

Sadly Sai is not strong enough to one-shot a Wyvern, but give him time.

We all pile on to the Wyvern Rider, with Zach surprisingly hitting on the first Rifle shot to finish it.

We’ve been taking potshots at this Physic Bishop for a while - to the point that he ran off to drink vulneraries instead of use Physic for like three turns - and Inanna finally puts him out of his misery.

I’m glad later FE games thought that Falcoknights should get Staves and Wyvern Rides->Lords Axes->Axes and Lances, cause the whole Sword thing just seems silly to me.

Goddammit Zach

Emma patches Keving up for a nice level. Aside from her frankly terrible luck, Emma is basically untouchable.

hey hey! Ace and Ed can support again! Since Eduardo is only second to Kevin in my physical-units heart, this is fine.

Like so. Ace’s Avoid should only be 45 ((17x2)+11) with the weight of the Javelin, Eduardo’s ((11x2) +12) 34, so both of them are gett +15% Avoid at B-rank. Not to mention Hit, crit, and Dodge

Ow.

Why is this random Knight so fucking strong

I feed Yue the kill for an acceptable level.

Not bad! Love to see some speed, but I’ll take this.

...speaking of strong randos, this cav- which is one of the weakest enemy types in this map - is meeting Sai’s damage despite WTD

Lirin chips at ‘em for a pretty great level, though that Speed is scaring me.

also there was a Secret Shop right above the village, so Inanna’s going shopping

except we can’t afford the one thing I wanted. oh well.

Anakin throws some Motivation at Althares for a pretty great level. Keep on truckin up that Avoid, bro.

lol

oh.

Sai unexpectedly procs a crit for his first level. Not bad for a Fighter, especially since he hasn’t doubled anything on this map.

Karina pokes this (weirdly healthy) Soldier, careful to stay out of Bloody Rifle range.

So Sai can Support with Mark but Mark can’t do the same - I’m guessing that Talk options fall under this menu.

considering my options. That bow weighs in at a whopping 12, so the Sniper can’t actually double Kevin. They can, however, crit him exactly to death.

Ed’s faster but has lower Con and Def, but higher HP and Luck. But that Defense difference means a crit will also kill him.

My best bet is probably luring over the other nearby enemies, then swooping in with high-Move and Motivated units and trying to one-round the bastard.

A Cav was pestering Sai, so I tried to chip em down only for Zach to crit on the first Rifle shot. And apparently he’s realized his precarious position.

----

So I went though.... a LOT of reloads before deciding that maybe I should actually act on that plan to draw out the Sniper’s buddies. They’re surrounded by Wyvern Lords with high-class gear, and I just kept losing Althares and Lirin to focus fire.

It’s kind of funny, because the object of my caution - the sniper with the Bloody Rifle - was NEVER the actual source of a game over.

It may be due to the support with Mark I just grabbed, but I like that Sai has a better hit chance despite the weapon types and WTD. He also dodges.

You know, I totally forgot about his Dragon Axe?

The fucker doubles Lirin with her Javelin disadvantage and misses twice. This particular Wyvern Lord was the source of at least four resets because they kept double-killing Lirin with that fucking sword. I don’t know whether to be pleased or pissed here.

Karina FINALLY proccing a Killer Lance crit almost soothes the pain of her getting no level.

oh, and also this. She has this now.

How did you MISS

Inanna cleans up for a- sigh.

Yue joins the miss club.

A big theme of this map is piling multiple units onto one enemy in order to kill them in one turn, lest they murder a weaker unit. Having such low Skill all around is part of the problem.

Lirin finishes this fucker off for a good level. Maybe now not everything on the map will double her.

So here’s Anakin’s base Avoid stats.

And here he is with the Amulet, in range of Ace, on Forest terrain.

In range of the Bloody Rifle Sniper.

This is the funniest fucking thing

How’s that 21-Damage 12-Crit working for ya

Ed didn’t ACTUALLY need to crit that Wyvern Lord, but he did anyways, because he’s awesome. I love you, Eduardo.

Ace finishes the Sniper for a pretty excellent level

Anakin gets hit on some amazingly low odds and decides it shouldn’t happen again.

can you imagine how sadlarious it would have been if that had hit

And now that it’s our turn again...

Aw yisssss. Look at those stat gains! 3 con! He can use Javelins without his ridiculous Speed going down.

A refreshed Sai brings down a Cav for a mediocre level. I’d like some Skill or Speed in the future, buddy.

good thing we fed Cia all those Robes way back when

you know, this is the second thing we’ve stolen with Althares all map? There’s just too many enemies and too little space to work him.

Zach somehow hits twice and finishes an enemy Halberdier. I wish I could show off the animations; they’re pretty good.

sure

Karina definitely fears the bench.

Sai gets what would be his second Hand Axe crit for... you know, I’m okay with this. He’s actually doubling people now.

Lirin chips at an enemy halberdier for this phenomenal level

Rex does the same, but better. Also, he has more Speed than the Peg Knight, at a lower level. We also grab his and Kevin’s C Rank Support.

Anakin Motivates Yue to actually do something useful, like get a good level. Goddamn.

Also, he still has more Skill than Ace

We’re finally down to the last enemies and the boss. The General has a Spear, and this Bishop actually has a tome, so we’re treading lightly STILL.

Sai borrows Mark’s Hammer.

aw sick

Sai is actually in the Bishop’s range, but not to worry - I park Lirin two spaces above him, blocking him off. Hilariously, Lirin (and Inanna) will only take 1 damage from that Bishop.

Said Bishop couldn’t even double Sai before this level. This Bishop is clearly a healbot.

Zach finishes the job for a decidedly defensive level. Not bad, but look at that fucking Skill! He has more Defense than Skill!

btw, here’s Lirin and Inanna’s stats.

If Lirin promoted right now, she would outdo her sister in everything except Speed and HP, and remember that we gave Inanna like 10 points in HP with stat boosters.

On the other hand, Lirin’s Speed and Con are so abysmal that I’m not sure I should be using her...

the boss, of course, hits like a fucking truck and has a unique 1-2 range weapon.

....and then Sai fucking OHKOs him with a Dragon Axe crit

I... yeah, okay.

Thank you, Sai, for putting this chapter to rest finally.

#elk text #4th #May #2017 #May 4th 2017 #Elk plays TLP #Elkian plays The Last Promise #fire emblem: the last promise

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