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arimiadev · 6 months

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why does aniplex want mahoyo to fail

I love visual novels. being a long time fate/stay night fan and only having heard of mahoyo from hushed whispers about its cinematography, I was super invested when it was announced to be coming to the west and I could finally play an official version of it.

however, a lot of people interested in type-moon works had never heard of mahoyo, let alone it getting an official english translation. but how? aniplex is publishing the game and they're one of the largest anime distributors in the world.

with the console release of mahoyo being almost exactly a year ago and the steam release being just 10 days away, I want to look over some of aniplex USA's bizarre and nonexistent marketing for one of my favorite visual novels.

let's clear up a few things, first.

mahoyo is the shortened form of mahoutsukai no yoru (not to be confused with mahoutsukai no yome, i.e. the ancient magus bride), which has been localized as witch on the holy night. mahoyo was a linear non-eroge visual novel released by type-moon in 2012, being one of the first scripts kinoko nasu (co-founder of type-moon) wrote back in 1996 and adapted into a VN many, many years later.

in April of 2022, a console remaster (switch, playstation 4) was announced with HD assets and voice acting, to be published by aniplex. notably, this console release would contain an english translation and was later confirmed in June to be sold in the west via online retailers. this was huge news, as this meant mahoyo would be the first type-moon visual novel (not including gameplay-oriented titles like fate/extella or fate/grand order) to be officially released in the west, as despite numerous fan translations, their more recognizable visual novels tsukihime and fate/stay night still had not received a localization.

type-moon is the developer behind mahoyo and aniplex is the publisher, meaning that type-moon made the game and aniplex is in charge of distributing (and marketing) the game worldwide.

timeline:

April 11 2022: Mahoyo rerelease announced for consoles (Switch & PlayStation 4), including English translation

July 4 2022: Aniplex confirms Mahoyo will be available to the West, localized under the name Witch on the Holy Night

October 14 2022: 2nd trailer released, more voice actor info announced

November 3 2022: physical pre-orders launched, demo version available

November 18 2022: Aniplex attends Anime NYC with Mahoyo

December 7 2022: Mahoyo released digitally on Switch / PlayStation 4 (Dec 8th in Japan, Dec 7th in America)

December 12 2022: Mahoyo reaches 110k units sold worldwide

January 27 2023: Mahoyo physicals release

July 5 2023: Mahoyo reaches 150k units sold worldwide

September 10 2023: Mahoyo announced for Steam via a now unlisted Aniplex livestream

December 13 2023: Mahoyo will be released on Steam (Dec 14th in Japan, Dec 13th in America)

some of the dates might be a little fuzzy, especially the release dates, as some sources go by japanese time and some go by american timezones, so just be aware of that.

now, let's talk a bit about mahoyo itself.

mahoyo is a masterpiece. it's a niche game not meant for everyone. its cinematography is top notch among visual novels. its writing style can be off-putting to people who want faster-paced stories. it's one of my most beloved visual novels I've ever played, and I've been in this field for almost a decade and have played well over 100 VNs.

mahoyo is a completely linear visual novel—meaning it has no choices or gameplay—that follows aoko, a high schooler mage trying to balance her perfect school president facade with her secret life as a mage, something she has to keep secret at the risk of death. this is one of the lesser known type-moon works but it's well beloved because of the care put into it.

if you've ever heard someone talk about it, it's almost impossible for them to not mention the visuals. mahoyo is one of the most visually impressive visual novels I've ever seen, with its inspired use of artwork and in-game animations. I cannot recommend this VN enough if you like modern fantasy and don't mind linear VNs.

before we dive into aniplex USA's marketing, I want to clarify a few marketing terms for people who don't market visual novels as a job. marketing is not just advertising—it's everything related to how a product communicates with potential users, including its branding, its packaging, its everything. when marketing a game, you have several different avenues: social media, press & influencers, trailers, store pages, and more.

today I want to show you how, based off what I have researched after a long, manic day, aniplex USA has failed mahoyo on all of these accounts.

so let's go back to its western release.

mahoyo has a few official english channels:

website

twitter

facebook

aniplex also has an official english twitter with almost 500k followers where they shared mahoyo very rarely—only 9 tweets about the game ever.

well, surely their other pages are more maintained right—

both accounts stopped posting July 10th/11th, with their last post being about mahoyo going on sale on consoles. let's look at their posts prior to this, though, starting with the twitter.

we can see that the twitter account was made in december of 2022. if we scroll down far enough (it's not hard, given they only have 33 tweets), we can see that their first tweet was on december 6th 2022:

let's go back to our timeline. can you tell me when mahoyo's remaster released digitally?

yes they made both of the english mahoyo social media accounts the day before the game launched

we can very easily add up the entire social media posts for the game thus far:

mahoyo english twitter - 30 tweets and 3 retweets

mahoyo english facebook - 27 posts

aniplex english twitter - 9 tweets

aniplex english facebook - 2 posts

no other english social media accounts were tied to the website, so these are the only ones I looked at. this means in total, there were only 68 social media posts for the console release of mahoyo by the publisher for english audiences.

but what about the steam release? after the game sold over 150k+ units on consoles, surely aniplex was ready to market it a bit more for pc users—

neither account has made a post about the upcoming steam release.

if we look at the twitter, they have 3 tweets since July that do talk about the upcoming steam release- however, these are retweets from the japanese mahoyo account.

we know that this twitter and this facebook account are the official social media for mahoyo as they're linked on the website, so they're definitely meant to be followed for game updates in the west. well, maybe the english aniplex twitter has posted about it—

none of the english aniplex or mahoyo accounts have made a single post about the steam release

that's right, the social media posts I counted above are the only posts for mahoyo on their english accounts, all dating back before the steam release was announced. since then, they have not made a single original post even mentioning the steam release.

meanwhile, the japanese mahoyo twitter has been hustling hard to promote the upcoming steam release—reposting trailers, character bios, and more almost every day with pretty good numbers.

in fact, the japanese mahoyo twitter did such a good job at marketing it that the aniplex USA twitter never mentioned the english mahoyo twiter, instead only @ ing the japanese one in tweets (despite the english one being linked on the website).

why they even bothered making social media accounts and then not running them despite being one of the largest anime distributors in the world I have no clue.

well, maybe they didn't need to rely on social media presence. maybe they were going for the in-person approach and marketing it at conventions.

mahoyo had basically no anime convention presence

the only reference I can find to aniplex notably promoting mahoyo at any western convention is this tweet of them at anime NYC. from someone who was at anime NYC, I've been told that they pushed the game heavily at their booth with TV screens promoting the game.

however, anime NYC is only one anime convention. you cannot hope to sell a game by just attending one anime convention. mahoyo might have had a presence at other american conventions, but I'm unable to find any images or news about this.

maybe they don't understand type-moon

aniplex is the publisher for fate/grand order, one of the most successful mobile games ever created. they're also the distributor for a majority of type-moon related anime, ranging from fate to garden of sinners to side series. aniplex's marketing team should have lots of experience with type-moon properties.

maybe it was promoted in other aniplex titles

I was also unable to find a news post in fate/grand order related to mahoyo's release, despite news posts for other type-moon series (namely fate but also things like melty blood) getting news posts in fate/grand order. I might've missed the news posts when looking back through FGO but I don't believe there was one.

maybe it sold well in other regions but not western ones

(I'm going to be referring only to the console release for these stats, keep in mind)

mahoyo released December 7th/8th 2022 with an english, japanese, simplified chinese, and traditional chinese translations. at the end of the release week, mahoyo's japanese twitter announced the game had sold 110k copies worldwide and famitsu reported that 66,344 of these units were sold in japan. this means we have around 43k units unaccounted for.

we know the game was available in english, japanese, and chinese languages but we don't know what regions. mainland china has a very large visual novel playerbase (I say this as someone who sells visual novels), which means if it were sold there then it's easy to say that a big chunk of that 43k units could be attributed to them—this also means it would be easy to believe that aniplex saw mahoyo selling worse in western countries and took this as a sign to not promote the game any more there.

but was it ever sold in mainland china? from what I could tell—no.

looking at pricing charts for the nintendo eshop and the playstation store, china is not listed on either. furthermore, searching the game's chinese title on the chinese playstation store does not bring back any results. it looks like the only predominantly chinese-speaking regions that were able to buy it are hong kong, taiwan and possibly singapore (the playstation store page for it doesn't look like it's available for purchase anymore).

so what does this tell us?

without any other numbers it's hard to tell how many of the 43k launch week sales came from english-speaking players, but even if we conservatively say that only around 20k of the 110k launch week units were from western countries, that's still almost a million in revenue (and remember, the physical limited edition of the game was available in english for $60, which is $20 more than the digital base version).

maybe the store page is so good they don't need to market it

here's a little secret: store pages matter a lot more than you'd think. there are entire job positions dedicated to tailoring store pages (like a steam game page) to make it perfect for the game's target audience. there's a science to it that includes the artwork, descriptions, tags, screenshots, and more.

let's see what aniplex did for the steam page of mahoyo.

A tale told with vivid colors and rich sound in a classic TYPE-MOON visual novel.

I don't know how to describe this short description charitably other than to say it sounds like a person who's never heard of a visual novel has been tasked with describing a visual novel.

this tells me nothing about the game other than it's a visual novel. I hope you know what type-moon is, because if you don't then you've learned nothing else from this. alright, well, let's look at the screenshots—

there's only 1.

currently as of writing this, there's 10 images uploaded as screenshots (no trailers, they keep adding and removing the trailers for some reason). 9 of these images are just the full artworks from the game while 1 is an actual screenshot.

I really hate this, as you're not actually shown what the game looks like unless you look at the very last screenshot. this will absolutely lead to some people not understanding what they're getting into. what's worse is that some of these CGs are spoilers, especially one in particular featuring my wife touko.

why are we spoiling people instead of showing them screenshots? why not show people what mahoyo actually looks like??

there's also absolutely no use of the announcements section on steam. each game on steam can post announcements related to the game, including upcoming releases, new updates, and more. it's customary to post a steam announcement when a game has a release date announcement. mahoyo's steam page has none.

well they probably released the trailers in english for hype

I wish I had that much hope.

on mahoyo's english website, all of the videos listed are from the official type-moon youtube, which is their japanese channel. type-moon went through the effort to translate these videos. aniplex didn't upload these to their own youtube, where they already upload everything related to the fateverse and nasuverse.

searching up witch on the holy night brings up no results for the trailer—aniplex never uploaded the trailer to their channel.

maybe they got influencers to play it

according to steamdb, the max amount of viewers mahoyo streams have had on twitch was 71 viewers.

furthermore, if we check twitch and look for vods attached to mahoyo, we only find 4 videos total, all of which were posted in the past week. it looks like they didn't even reach out to streamers to play the console release, much less pay them.

over on the press side, it does look like they reached out to at least a few reviewers. for example, on the review by noisy pixel, they clarify that a review copy was provided by the publisher for review purposes. we can add that to the bare minimum of marketing—reaching out to press.

however, they did get for some other influencers to share the game! ...twitter game sale influencers, that is.

there's actually a lot more of these types of tweets for mahoyo than I was expecting when I searched it on twitter. as a friend pointed out, just because it says "#ad" doesn't necessarily mean these were paid for by aniplex—a lot of these links look to be referrals, which means they're getting a cut of any purchases.

let's recap

mahoyo released over 110k copies in the launch week for it's worldwide console release despite very, very limited marketing efforts from its publisher aniplex. now that the game has proven it can sell very well despite being a lesser known linear visual novel, aniplex has done no marketing for the steam release- no tweets, no influencer outreach, no localization of trailers, no announcements via steam, nothing.

so why?

why does aniplex want mahoyo to fail?

even after all of this, I still do not know why. to me, it's clear that the marketing team at aniplex were (most likely) given no budget for this game and just couldn't do anything with it, deciding to spend what little money they had on press outreach and an anime NYC booth.

but why? why didn't aniplex give them a budget, even a small one? why was their budget so tiny they couldn't even afford to tweet? to RT more posts from the japanese twitter? to share the already translated trailers to their own accounts?

I've heard a few excuses like "type-moon hates western fans and probably caused it" but this doesn't make any sense either. why would you authorize a translation of your game and allow your publisher to sell the game overseas but specifically make them not market the game (and what publisher would agree to that)? I've even heard excuses like "they just forgot it was coming out", to which I ask "how does an entire marketing team (a company the size of aniplex absolutely has a team(s) for marketing and not a singular person) forget a release for a game that's already sold over 150k copies?". the only excuse I've seen that I somewhat buy is that they did not have much faith in the game and relied almost entirely on fans doing word of mouth marketing for the game.

I don't think we'll ever get an answer. while I do believe the marketing team at aniplex was most likely given no budget for mahoyo, it still begs the question of why. why did someone at aniplex not want to give mahoyo a marketing budget? why are the japanese accounts for mahoyo and type-moon the only ones doing the marketing?

I hope the information I've provided here is accurate—if it's not, I'll try to update with corrections. I don't want this piece to cast hate towards the staff at aniplex or anyone involved with this projects, I'm just trying to assemble the pieces on what feels like a game being left to word of mouth. I've tried to include as many links to my sources as I could so you could come to your own judgements about what has happened regarding mahoyo's worldwide release.

mahoyo is a visual novel that's dear to me and will absolutely sell well on steam—with an estimated 50-80k wishlists, it's going to have a solid launch despite the zero marketing for its steam release. if you love other type-moon works or want to see an absolutely visually stunning visual novel, please check it out.

— arimia

#visual novel #visual novels #mahoyo #mahoutsukai no yoru #witch on the holy night #mahoyosweep #type-moon #visual novel game #anyway please play mahoyo #my articles

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morsking · 10 months

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there has been a thematic thread linking marisbury's vision for humanity's future to kirschtaria's own desire to elevate humanity and protect the crypters, and morgan's own effort to protect the land of britain that contains the memories she made as aesc alongside the original tam lin and uther. this also reflects in artoria caster's existence post-avalon le fae as a simulacrum of the actual artoria caster that died in the lostbelt, preserved and embodied by artoria avalon so in some way the memory of that girl who remembered only sadness could be embraced by happiness. additionally, meltryllis in SE.RA.PH. breaching time and space to protect fujimaru is also a link in this chain. morgan's summer form, waking up after her spirit origin manifested her memories of being aesc, makes mention of the butterfly's dream: a philosophical thought musing that there is a transient boundary between dreams and reality.

the chinese philosopher chuang tzu once dreamt he was a butterfly, untethered and free to float in the air. he woke up questioning whether he dreamed he was a butterfly, or whether the butterfly was dreaming it was him. reality can feel like a dream, and a dream can feel more real than anything, underscoring how transience is an unavoidable part of the human condition. people will live their dreams and watch them end from the moment they are born to the day they die, and heroic spirits are the same because humanity lives every day chasing its dreams and heroic spirits are those dreams.

but starting with marisbury, we contend with the idea that sometimes, the dreamer does not wish for the dream to end. if dreams are transient because the dreamer must wake, then the only way to preserve the dream is if the dreamer fades away into the dream instead. marisbury seemingly committed suicide to preserve the animusphere grand order. meltryllis burned through the remnants of her existence to protect her memories of her timeline's fujimaru by saving them in their own. kirschtaria, already at death's door, stayed alive only to ensure his ideal and his friends could survive beyond his death, his soul being described as a bird taking flight with caeneus chasing in tow as he dies. morgan sacrificed being aesc so the land of britain could survive, and wiped her own memories of totorot and mash so they wouldn't be erased from existence for being time paradoxes. artoria caster used her entire life force to forge excalibur so the time she treasured could live on with her friends in chaldea as they fought to save proper human history, and themselves, from the rampage of cernunnos's corpse.

on top of all of that, there have been very cryptic visuals associating mash and butterflies since fgo's first opening. "shikisai" had the visual of a butterfly floating in ruins, and "yakudou" has a shot of mash's gaze following a butterfly flying into the sky. the butterfly is her guide, leading the way to the end of her dream. kinoko nasu himself once shared that cosmos in the lostbelt is a story about accepting that ends will come, and thus the butterfly is the lesson that she must take to heart to grow into a person who can claim what the purpose she chose is without shame or hesitation as the end draws near. this is something she did once saving fujimaru from goetia's ars almadel salomonis at the end of observer in timeless temple. and i would not be surprised if she did the same against marisbury at the end of cosmos in the lostbelt (which has yet to finish, as paper moon's trailer demonstrates having it be part of the chapter's title).

but what is the dream she is dreaming that is inevitably coming to an end that she will choose to protect at the cost of her place in it? if you've been reading this far, then the answer should be obvious.

but nasu wouldn't be much of a romantic if he believed an end is all you could really look forward to. the journey is far more important than the destination, because it's the only thing that can give the end meaning, as romani archaman rightly puts in his final conversation with mash. you can only extrapolate the significance of something after it's already over. not at the start, not in the middle of it, and not at when it's over, but at the moment that lies beyond the end of the dream.

and when a dream ends, that is the moment when another begins.

#long post #fgo spoilers

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medakakurokami · 11 months

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I finished over 100 visual novels, here’s a long post with some recommendations

Last month I hit 100 Finished VN’s over on the VNDB and I thought I’d shoot out some recommendations while the Steam Summer Sale is going on (even though some of these aren’t going to be on Steam)

I already have finished up some stragglers and caught some shorter titles so it’s up to 104 Finished, but all the better. I have been reading some VN’s since 2015, but it really became a hobby and a genre I was invested in during Covid lockdown in 2020. I had trouble getting into some of the popular titles, but a couple of games that were lesser known at that time really blew me away that year and I started digging more into the medium. I still have a lot to try out and other classics I’m still interested in trying, but here’s a top 10 I’m confident in recommending to most people, at least the kinda people that would follow this blog. A few of these recommendations are actually multi-part series, but hopefully accessible all around.

Planetarian ($10 on Steam and Switch, ~$5 on sale)

This is a very late entry onto this list but I think it’s an easy recommendation. This is a very short 2-4 hour visual novel that got a well received 2 hour movie adaptation in 2016, but it was strong enough that even while knowing the plot everything still hit hard. It is a story set 30 years after an apocalyptic event destroys most of the world, as a human junk-trader comes across a planetarium with a somehow-still-functional robot named Hoshino still performing her daily duties after 30 years without customers or coworkers. It can come across as a bit saccharine, but it is a quick, well made, and effective tearjerker.

Narcissu 1st & 2nd (Free on Steam)

Narcissu’s first two parts are pretty compelling stories to do with suicidal ideation within the scope of the terminally ill. Which is to say they’re also real tear jerkers, and pretty open about some harsh self-reflective emotions. They both have stellar endings, and can be quite immersive despite the very limited artwork (if the screencap looks weird, the game’s art exists within a narrow strip on the screen, with a sentence or two reading out the story underneath it). Maybe the least accessible on this list, but a $0 price tag makes it easier in some sense to get into.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni / When The Seagulls Cry (~$50 on Steam, $30 on sale)

Umineko you’ve probably already heard of, and here’s me recommending it. Umineko comes in two parts, on Steam referred to as the Questions Arc and the Answers Arc. Despite the split, the overall story follows the events of a certain day on Rokkenjima Island in 1986 as a family meets to discuss their inheritance and their family’s mysteries. Unbeknownst to them they are soon haunted, over and over again, by the revenant of the Golden Witch said to live in the woods of their family’s island.

I’m in the minority of preferring the Questions Arc, where well written and deeply human characters find themselves in deeply inhumane and nonsensical scenarios. The Answers Arc back seats some of that to start delving into an esoteric explosion of clues and backstories, and was still very entertaining even if I was more invested in the episodic stories than the overarching mystery. This may also be seen as inaccessible, $30-50 for a slightly older title and over 140 hours long on average playthroughs, but it is deeply absorbing.

Witch on the Holy Night a.k.a. Mahoyo ($40 on PS4 and Switch)

Mahoyo is me and Nasu’s marriage counselor, it really made me see the good in him. It follows a young witch co-habitating with her magic colleague and the puppy-like boy that unwittingly steps into their world at risk to his own life, just as unexplained apparent murders are witnessed in their town.

This could possibly be a higher level recommendation, though it was apparently intended to have sequels and you can somewhat feel that in the isolated feeling of its main conflict. Despite this, the game is definitely worth experiencing for its classy charm and extremely well made action sequences that at times make you forget you’re not watching a full anime film. It’s also a showcase of Nasu’s strengths in writing character interactions and comedy, and he finally lets Show take over and stops Telling you piles of mage society worldbuilding quite so often. It is also has some of the highest quality production value I’ve ever seen, second maybe to...

Marco and the Galaxy Dragon ($20 on Steam/Switch, less than $10 on sale)

Marco and the Galaxy Dragon is an explosive opera of art, energy, color, and of course music. It follows the orphaned Marco and her dragon compatriot Arco as they hunt for treasure across the cosmos, finding their way to Earth on the hunt for Marco’s mother.

If Umineko’s 140 hours seems steep, Marco has you covered with a quick 6 hour rundown of a rebellious orphan fighting back against her space alien menace to find her own sense of place and identity in the universe, along with ALL the friends she made along the way. If Mahoyo feels like an anime film sometimes, Marco actually just has fully animated FMV cutscenes that are fun as hell and have their own unique artstyle to the VN itself. Thousands of pieces of artwork and a 52-track OST fill the game’s short runtime with no cut corners and and overflow of passion from the devs. Honestly even if you don’t want to read it go buy it, it’s cheap and they earned it.

White Album 2 (You’ll have to be creative to find this one)

This is the only recommendation that’s currently only available in an adults only 18+ Rating for the English translation. That being said, it’s one of the few erotic VN’s that felt justified in its pornographic scenes. The story is split into two releases: Opening Chapter and Closing Chapter.

Opening is a short and powerfully delivered love triangle narrative following Haruki, Setsuna, and Touma as their hastily formed 3-man light music band falls into itself with feelings. It’s charming but gut wrenching and sweeps you into its drama very effectively before kicking you on your ass in the end.

Closing Chapter is a long and drawn out disassembling of their lives as they fail to heal from the wounds of the relationships seen in Opening. It, to great effect, takes the readers own experience with how fun and passionate the Opening Chapter was, and shows how trying to cling to halcyon days can make us so dispassionate about our present lives. Painful stuff! Good music, too.

The Princess, The Stray Cat, and Matters of the Heart 1 & 2

a.k.a. Noratoto ($40 on Steam for both, ~$15 for both on sale)

This is a very personal recommendation, and maybe one more easy to make on this blog where many of my followers might be receptive to sincere but slapstick ecchi comedy as art. Every route is highly different however and to me, some are pretty average for galge, while others stand out as amazing. The comedy writing as well feels like it was written by someone with actual comic writing experience, and not just regurgitating the usual ecchi manga jokes.

The general premise of Noratoto is the protagonist Nora, being transformed into a cat by Patricia the princess of the Netherworld, and he must reverse this curse via a kiss before it becomes permanent. A benign fairy tale premise, but one that somehow gives way to underlying stories about existence and finding purpose in families and where that leaves those without families or with abusive or divided families (it is from the same developers as Marco and the Galaxy Dragon, and the themes of finding identity without family match up very closely). Uniquely it is a visual novel written somewhat in 3rd person, narrated by a motherly voice as if the VN was being read to you as a bedtime story.

Like I said, it is dependent on route and some come across as your usual ecchi gal-game schtick, but some stick out, and if every route was as high quality as Nobuchina’s in the 2nd game, it would probably be my favorite visual novel.

The Original Ace Attorney Trilogy ($30 on most platforms, $10 on sale)

You’ve almost certainly heard of Ace Attorney already and have most likely played it. This is me telling any Ace Attorney fans reading that the original trilogy still reigns supreme (regardless of Turnabout Big Top). This is also me telling anyone who has held out on trying Ace Attorney to try it, and to start with the original trilogy.

Obviously this trilogy follows the Meme Man Himself, Phoenix Wright, as he defends the innocent and brings the guilty to justice acting as both lawyer and his own main investigator. While each case presents a unique mystery, the original trilogy has an underlying arc that reaches from beginning to end with a massive conspiracy that Phoenix has to breach to bring justice to the perpetrators and resolve the memory and regrets of his beloved mentor.

These games have some speedbumps as you may be banging your head against the wall trying to find the right evidence, but the experience that breaks through does so with gusto, succeeding on what it sets out to be: games that make you feel like you’ve brought justice to the world.

Utawarerumono Trilogy ($40/60 each on Steam, trilogy bundle $62 on sale)

Utawarerumono was my first proper visual novel, and it set the standards pretty high. I’ve posted about it several times in the last few years, and it remains one of my favorites. It is a labor of love on the part of the developers (the same developers as White Album 2), who developed the latter two games over the course of several years and have made this the spearhead of their company for the time being. Which makes sense, since it is about war.

The first game follows a masked man who is given the name Hakuoro waking up in a rural village with amnesia, confused about the strange population of beast-men living there. Despite not understanding his situation, his ingenuity brings the village prosperity. When the local lords try to put the village under their thumb, Hakuoro and the villagers are able to turn the tides against them. Their village grows into a kingdom as Hakuoro seeks the mysteries of himself and the world around him.

The latter two games pick up some twenty years after the conclusion of the first, and follow a man who is given the name Haku, waking up in the woods with amnesia confused about the... you get it. He is met by Kuon, a young girl on her way traveling to the capital of their nation of Yamato. Haku graciously accepts her help getting out of the cold woods, and decides to join her to the capital. As events play out, Haku finds himself under the direct command of the nation’s leader the Mikado, and carries out missions on his behalf as the nation continues to drag itself into war and conflict and Haku also seeks the truth of his identity.

These games are expansive in scope while still putting a large focus on the day-to-day lives of its characters. Around 100 hours across all three games it is impressive how much story it manages to fit in, but the pacing does bounce around between sweeping conflict and sleepy conversations. It is also in part, a strategy RPG game with the battles in the war being controlled by the player. These are decently made, especially well in the third game, but don’t ask too much of the player and the story remains the main focus and biggest portion of the runtime.

The House In Fata Morgana a.k.a. Fatamoru

($40 complete version on PS4/Switch, ~$40 main game + expansion on Steam)

I’ve gushed about this enough on this tumblr, I’ll keep it brief.

You are a formless soul who is led by the hand of a mysterious maid through the doors of a mansion on an unknown plane of existence. Through each door lies a story of the house in a different era, all following people bound together in ways that leave them cruelly and violently undone by the end of their stories. The connection between these stories, the mystery of the house and the supposed witch that resides within, and the mystery of You the wandering soul all slowly unravel in a bloody show of catharsis and soul. The game is dripping with traumatic poetic text, grating beautiful music, and all of its atmosphere geared toward being oppressive yet enticing. One of the best things I’ve read.

Honorable mentions:

Va-11 Hall-A and Endless Mondays get shout outs as some of the best Original English Language VN’s I’ve read, with cool artstyles and a mature cast they manage to be fun and relatable. Va-11 Hall-A delivers a great arc for its protagonist and Endless Mondays has great dialogue on the threat of automation of creative industries.

Grisaia Trilogy and Hatsumira are both absolutely raucous trilogies that are a lot of fun. Not wholly recommendable to all, Grisaia has some strong moments and a hilarious unique cast but is a mess overall (but we love Michiru). Hatsumira is a bit more consistent, a more stable and fantasy-oriented Grisaia.

A.I. The Somnium Files duology are detective games with highly divisive endings, but great comedy and characters that make them very easy to get through and enjoy the whole way to the end. It’s just a toss-up whether you’ll like that ending.

Sakura Wars games are finally being translated, and they are a great showing for anyone who wants to try some classic dating sim stuff but with some pizazz thrown in with the setting and mecha combat.

The Tears to Tiara duology by the same developers of Utawarerumono and White Album is also one to keep an eye out for. The first game's definitive version isn't available in English and the second game is stuck on the PS3 and no longer available digitally, but if they ever come out on Steam they are worth your time.

Nanairo Reincarnation and Kinkoi: Golden Loveriche are also two solid ecchi comedy galge. Both have surprisingly deep and genuinely heartbreaking underlying mysteries and conclusions.

I still have a lot I wanna read, Planetarian is the only Key novel I’ve read. On the docket are Labyrinth of Galleria, Little Busters, the 9 -nine- series, and Kara no Shoujo and White Album 1 releasing on Steam this year. Some classics I didn’t mention are Fate/Stay Night, Muv Luv, Steins Gate. Muv Luv I read Extra and enjoyed it, but never pulled the trigger on reading the rest, I may at some point on a whim. Steins;Gate I played through half of on PS3 and now my PS3 is in the closet, the VN is really good and has a unique atmosphere to the anime, buuuuuuut knowing the plot has made it hard to want to restart on PC or another console. Steins;Gate is good, if anyone is reading this far and hasn’t seen the anime or read the VN, do it.

#long post #i'll only tag the main ones #planetarian #narcissu #umineko #witch on the holy night #marco and the galaxy dragon #white album 2 #the princess the stray cat and matters of the heart #noratoto #ace attorney #utawarerumono #the house in fata morgana

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tainbocuailnge · 1 year

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it's a tragically common pattern among fgo players (and i'm sure many other series too but type moon is my house) that they'll see a design that deviates from what I'll unfairly generalise here as "common anime style" and immediately dismiss it as ugly. i just mentioned oberon but limbo is another example, a lot of people hated and still hate limbo for being "ugly" and a lot of the ones who don't anymore only turned around because of their fourth ascension. they're not ugly they just have an eccentric and unconventional design, one that the artist blatantly put an incredible amount of thought and care into. i've seen people call nightingale's art ugly. I've seen people call quetzalcoatl's art ugly. it's not, it just doesn't look like fucking genshin.

it's a shame because not going for a unified artstyle like idk love live or granblue (the only two mobile games off the top of my head that were relevant at the time of initial fgo development) was a conscious decision that, when you look at things like how epic of remnant was all guest writers with minimal supervision, or just the way nasu talks about his fellow creatives in interviews, was pretty clearly because he wanted to show off all these different artists that he loves. fgo is very deliberately a collaborative effort and artist showcase and maybe this is just a hashtag artist opinion of me but i think you're missing out on a lot if you're unable to deal with a game occasionally having a character in a slightly more unusual artstyle.

i feel like it's related to the more general dissonance between what fgo and fate in general are perceived as versus what they're actually like. it's got a titty game reputation so people who came in expecting generic titty game feel betrayed when it's like. not generic. it's definitely titty though. but like you know how the impression reddit gives you of every single fgo character is some generic waifushit trope and then when you look at her actual characterisation there's literally always something interesting going on? for some reason a lot of fgo players just hate when it does something interesting.

#anyway i love cuchulainn

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kaibutsushidousha · 1 month

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Mahoyo Collab thoughts and updated theories with the new info we have? You can just answer one if you think doing both would be too time consuming.

Definitely a top 5 event. Solid and mostly fair mystery, enjoyable character dynamics, really sweet effort with the screen composition, a showcase of a few characters in timeframes we never saw them at before, and most impressively of all, it put the Kino in Kinomi.

The "Mahoyo 3 is Gazamy" theory is something that I discarded in favor of "Mahoyo 3 is Aoko vs Alice over Soujuurou's mortality" somewhere along my playthrough (if you read my livetweet thread of Mahoyo, you can still find my defunct Gazamy ideas) but Nasu decided to call me silly here and now I need to rethink the trilogy's structure.

I talked three days ago how I feel about confidence in your story being better than its twists, and the event being explicit about Soujuurou's Noble Phantasm being a recreation of Mahoyo 3's climax is one of the most ballsy examples I could have possibly gotten there. Souj vs Gazamy is going to be BEAUTIFUL.

#type moon #fate grand order #mahoutsukai no yoru

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thatcryptidinthewoods · 9 months

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Commander Kido is a Dad, actually.

Tumblr has once again tried to limit me with a 30-image cap and once again, I cannot be stopped. Full version can be found here.

Okay, so hear me out.

When Kido's first introduced, it's as this cold, distant leader who hates Neighbours and is running a strictly military operation.

But for someone who really hates Neighbours, he has a weird habit of taking in all these orphaned, homeless Neighbour kids. At first it appears like Yūma is the only exception, but then there's Hyuse, Yōtarō, his sister Ruka and Cronin.

There's other agents to think about too. There's a lot of characters in Border who, when you really think about it, would not normally be accepted into that kind of organisation. For example: • Taichi; he's incredibly clumsy, which causes him to break or knock over all sorts of things - people included. • Tsuji; he can't interact with women without having a mental breakdown, which is incredibly limiting on his ability to work with other agents. • Nasu; outside of the trion body, she's disabled and it's mentioned that her health is ailing. • Chika; despite her insane trion levels, she's incredibly inexperienced - having so much power yet not knowing how to wield it can be incredibly dangerous and destructive, it's a very high risk. • Osamu; the exact opposite of Chika, his trion levels are so low he's outclassed by pretty much every other agent in Border. • Kageura; he's incredibly easy to agitate and quick to respond with physical aggression. • Hatohara; she cannot shoot people, no matter how hard she tries, and if Border was any other organisation they wouldn't have spared her a single thought.

All of these are characters who would normally be considered "problems" or "not worth it". But in Border, they're not only openly accepted, but given the environment and tools they need in order to properly grow and develop their talents.

If Kido only cared about killing the Neighbours, Border wouldn't be like this. It wouldn't be filled to the brim with a bunch of teenagers who, in one way or another, would be considered the "outcasts".

Kido is cold and distant because he's the commander, the very top of Border, and his job is to put Border first. He's the one who has to make the ultimate decision to sacrifice the one for the many, so he needs that emotional detachment. But that doesn't mean he doesn't care, or that he isn't invested in this hoard of teens he's in charge of.

This is a core part of his character, and we see it in the way he interacts with the main cast.

When Osamu is first brought before the Border Executives, he's in trouble for going against Border's rules on C-Rank trigger usage. But the reason he broke those rules was because people were in danger, and the nearest qualified Border patrol was miles away. He acted to protect people.

While the other directors discuss and argue these points, Kido sits silently and listens. He doesn't say anything until every side has spoken their piece and all variables are on the table. He lets Kinuta and Netsuki point out all the issues and flaws and he lets Shinoda defend Osamu's decision. He waits.

And then, when he does speak, he starts by acknowledging Shinoda's point about the benefits of Osamu's willingness to act. He acknowledges that yes, that is absolutely a good trait to have, especially in terms of being an agent of Border.

But Border comes first, and part of that is maintaining unity. He can't support an agent going rogue because, while it might be for the right reasons, it could cause serious complications in the future.

Yet even so, he gives Osamu one last chance to fall back in line. He gives him an easy opening for staying in Border.

Osamu could've said that no, he wouldn't do it again, and he might've been let off the hook. But he doesn't, because he's honest, and Kido sees that.

Then Jin interferes, and he provides a reason for Osamu to stay that directly benefits Border.

How does Kido respond?

He agrees without hesitation. This way, Border is benefited and Osamu can still remain an agent. He doesn't need to choose between the one or the many anymore.

Then he learns that Osamu has contacted a Neighbour. Does he revoke Osamu's status as an agent? No. He doesn't even mention it, even though he literally just witnessed Osamu lie to a senior agent about his involvement with Neighbours.

What does he actually care about?

That there's an enemy running rogue in Mikado City. That the city and its civilians could be in danger.

Which leads us to how he reacts to Yūma.

Yūma is a Neighbour. That's all Kido knows about him at this point. Yūma is a Neighbour, the Neighbours hurt people and Border's job is to stop them. So Kido must ensure that this Neighbour doesn't hurt anyone either.

The very next thing he learns about the rogue Neighbour is that he has a black trigger. That whoever he is, he is twice as dangerous as a Neighbour is normally.

(Osamu, again, gets in trouble for withholding this information. And Kido, again, waits for everyone to say their piece about it before commenting - even though it would make more sense for him to punish Osamu on the spot.)

Jin suggests they make the Neighbour with the black trigger their ally.

There is merit to this, and Kido knows that - but he hasn't met Yūma like Osamu and Jin have, knows next to nothing about him except that he's one of their enemy and in possession of an incredibly dangerous weapon. So he chooses the good of the many.

Side note: at no point does Kido claim, or even imply, that Jin was wrong to believe they could make an alliance with the Neighbour. Kido recognises that Jin's suggestion is valid, it's just that his and Jin's priorities are different, so their decisions will ultimately be different as well.

Yet he still assigns Jin to catch the Neighbour, because Jin has Fujin - despite knowing full well that Jin is taking the opposite stance to him.

Kido isn't a fool. He is a very smart, perceptive man. He knows Jin's go-to tactic is abusing loopholes, the guy's whole shtick is literally bullshitting the rules. Which is why he's the least surprised when Jin pulls an Uno Reverse and claims he can't take the orders due to Border's chain of command.

Kido respects that Jin does not want to kill the Neighbour, and so he provides an opening for Jin to turn down the order without being disrespectful. In fact, Kido only becomes confused and surprised when Rindō changes the order. At no point does he take fault with any of the agents present.

Back to Yūma.

The third thing Kido learns about the black-trigger-wielding rogue Neighbour is that he is, allegedly, Yugo Kuga's son.

Now, he has more to think about. There's more variables to consider. If it is Yugo's son, then Kido has just initiated a manhunt against the kin of his old friend. But at the same time, it's also possible that the Neighbour is lying.

So things have become more complicated, and you can see it in his expression.

To add to this, Yugo is now apparently dead. So the black-trigger-wielding rogue Neighbour is also, if he is to be believed, an orphan.

In the span of a few minutes, the situation has taken a nosedive into very delicate territory. Kido, as the commander, must make the ultimate choice. And as is his job, he chooses to put Border first.

What follows is a mad scuffle between the different factions of Border as Tamakoma aims protect Yūma while Kido aims to collect his black trigger.

Remember, Kido does not know that the trigger is what's keeping Yūma alive. At this point in the story, this is a fact that only Yūma himself knows until he shares it with Jin and Replica tells Osamu. So Kido's goal is not necessarily to harm him, it's just to retrieve the trigger. Likewise, the order he gives the A-Rank agents is "to secure the black trigger currently at the Tamakoma Branch" and "you must secure this black trigger by any means". He gives no order regarding Yūma specifically.

When this fails, the executives start infighting. The situation is rapidly deteriorating and things are getting out of hand, so Kido must be the commander again and force things back into order. And of course, he must make a choice: if he lets the black trigger go, the situation will calm back down, but then Tamakoma will have two black triggers and Border will be at a political disadvantage.

So he chooses what will result in the best outcome for Border over Tamakoma. He once again chooses to sacrifice the few for the many.

But then Jin swoops in and presents him with an alternative. He offers Fujin in exchange for Yūma's admittance as a Border agent and, after some arguing, reveals that his enlistment will be a direct benefit for Border later down the line. So not only will Border get Fujin, but letting Yūma join now will reward them with a net positive in the future.

And with minimal hesitation, Kido agrees.

After this, the tension dissipates and the dust settles. Things return to normal.

In chapter 41, Kido finally gets to meet Yūma fact to face. For the first time, he gets to see Yugo's son, the kid who caused so much drama and infighting just a few weeks ago. And what does he see?

He sees a well-meaning, genuine kid who doesn't hesitate to help. Which is why he doesn't lie when he promises Replica that Yūma will be protected under Border.

Plus, a minor but important detail here is that Replica only asked for Kido to guarantee Yūma's safety ("I would like the Border Commander to guarantee Yūma's safety in exchange for this information") yet Kido specifies that so long as Yūma is a part of Border, he will guarantee both his safety and his rights. He made the decision on his own to protect Yūma's freedom and independence.

#it's turtle time #world trigger #character analysis #commander kido #kido masamune #kido is a dad welcome to my ted talk #this is part 1 #link to the full version is at the start

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tokidokitokyo · 7 months

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栃木県

Japanese Prefectures: Kantō - Tochigi

都道府県 (とどうふけん) - Prefectures of Japan

Learning the kanji and a little bit about each of Japan’s 47 prefectures!

Kanji・漢字

栃　とち　horse chestnut

木　き、��～、ボク、モク　tree, wood

県　ケン　prefecture

関東　かんとう　Kanto, region consisting of Tokyo and surrounding prefectures

Prefectural Capital (県庁所在地) : Utsunomiya (宇都宮市)

One of only eight land-locked prefectures in Japan, Tochigi prefecture is famous for gyoza and strawberries. It is also home to Japan's oldest school of higher education, the Ashikaga Gakkō, and is home to the Tōshō-gū shrine, dedicated to the shogun who unified Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu, in the city of Nikkō.

Tochigi lies just north of Tokyo, and is accessible in less than an hour by bullet train. Nasu is the location of one of the imperial family's villas, and hot springs near Nasu and Shiobara mountains are popular resort spots. In the southeast of Tochigi, the town of Mashiko is renowned for its simple but highly prized ceramics.

Recommended Tourist Spot・おすすめ観光スポット World Heritage Site Nikkō Tōshōgū - 世界遺産・日光東照宮

Nikkō is closely associated with Tokugawa Ieyasu, who unified the country after a century of warfare and founded the Tokugawa shogunate. Ieyasu retired and then passed away in present-day Shizuoka Prefecture, and was laid to rest at Kunōzan. In 1617, his remains were moved to Nikkō and he was deified as the protector of the eight Kantō provinces.

Ieyasu’s remains were reinterred at the temple Rinnōji in Nikkō, and his successor Hidetada erected the Tōshōsha in his honor. The third Tokugawa shogun Iemitsu had great respect for Ieyasu and ordered the original shrine renovated, having the country’s most skilled artisans create the richly decorated buildings that stand today. The work was completed in 1636, and nine years later the imperial court bestowed the name Tōshōgū on the shrine.

Nikkō Tōshōgū boasts eight buildings designated as national treasures and thirty-four structures selected as important cultural properties. Some of these impressive cultural properties include the 9.2-meter-tall stone torii marking the entrance and the five-storied pagoda nearby, as well as the Yōmeimon, a richly decorated gate with over 500 carvings depicting fables and saints. This magnificent gate holds an ancient superstition, which said that completing it might lead to the collapse of the Tokugawa regime. To avoid this, the builders installed one of the twelve supporting pillars upside down, thus insuring that it remained incomplete.

For more photos and information check out: nippon.com

Regional Cuisine - 郷土料理 Gyoza Dumpling - 餃子

A statue of the goddess Venus wrapped in gyoza skin outside Utsunomiya Station (source)

“Utsunomiya Gyoza” is an important part of the culinary culture of Utsunomiya City. The city has over 300 gyoza restaurants, and queuing in front of your favorite restaurant or visiting multiple restaurants is quite common. The restaurants compete to create unique recipes in order to be recognized as the best gyoza in the city. You can even join gyoza-making classes led by top chefs. There is also a gyoza association called the Utsunomiya Gyozakai that holds an annual festival in the beginning of November.

Tochigi Dialect・Tochigi-ben・栃木弁

こわい　kowai　tired

「とうと登ってたっけ、こわいから座ってもいいけ？」 touto nobottetakke, kowai kara suwatte mo iike?

Standard Japanese: 「ずっと登ってたし、疲れたから座ってもいい？」 (zutto nobottetashi, tsukareta kara suwatte mo ii?)

English: "I've been climbing for a while now, and I'm tired, so can I sit down?"

いかんべ　ikanbe　it's good

A: 「こんなもんで、いがっぺ？」 (konna mon de, igappe?) B: 「いかんべ。」 (ikanbe)

Standard Japanese: A: 「こんなもんで、いいでしょう？」 (konna mon de, ii deshou?) B: 「いいですよ。」 (ii desu yo)

English: A: "Is it okay if I do it like this?" B: "Yes, that's fine."

いじやける　ijiyakeru　irritated

「あの店員の態度、すげ～いじやける！」 (ano tenin no taido, suge～ijiyakeru!)

Standard Japanese: 「あの店員の態度、凄くイライラする！」 (ano tenin no taido, sugoku iraira suru!)

English: "That store clerk's attitude, is so irritating!"

だいじだ　daiji　no problem

A: 「だいじ？」　(daiji?) B: 「だいじだいじ！」　(daiji daiji!)

Standard Japanese: A: 「大丈夫？」　(daijyoubu?) B: 「大丈夫、大丈夫！」　(daijyoubu, daijyoubu!)

English: A: "Is it ok?" B: "No problem, no problem!"

あかなす　akanasu　tomato (lit. red eggplant)

Standard Japanese: トマト (tomato) English: tomato

#japanese prefectures #日本語 #japanese #japanese language #japanese langblr #langblr #studyblr #都道府県 #栃木県 #tochigi

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versegm · 10 months

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A while back I ran numbers on my own fics right? Checking the hits/comment ratio. A friend of mine also did it for his own fics. Admitedly I don't remember exactly what my friend got but I think we got roughly the same results, ie: About 1% of the people who read a fic leave a comment behind.

This is mostly consistent across fandoms, though there are noticeable exceptions. I was personally extremely surprised to see that one of the worst commenting fandoms was Fate/Grand Order, which stood at a miserable 0,60% of comment/hit. Meaning that for every hundred people reading a fic, you're not even sure to get a single comment. That was doubly surprising because my Fate/Stay Night fics, which are part of the same serie, have a normal hit/comment ratio (actually much higher, 1,30% which is the highest of all fandoms I've ran this experiment for.)

I didn't really think much of it at the time, but recently I got chatting with a friend (who is like me a frequent filler for the nasu kinkmeme) about how there's a fuckton of fgo prompts, but very few people who actually fill them. So I had a theory, which I tested by running some numbers on random arknight fics on ao3. Spoiler: They also had an abyssimal hit/comment ratio (about 0,40%)

So my theory is thus: low level engagement/high demand for content is a gacha fandom issue. I sadly don't know enough about gacha culture to really hazard an explanation. Normally when a game is appreciated by normies who don't do fandom, that translates to a low hit count but the same percentage of comments for fanfics. Maybe gachas introduce people who don't normally do fandom to the concept of fanart & fanfic, so they don't know fandom etiquette yet? Maybe that's just the kind of culture normally birthed by games that encourage you to simp for a given character that isn't usually the focus of the story so you gotta outsource to find more of them?

I don't really have a point with this post, I just thought this was a very interesting fandom trend. Because the specific fandom behavior of "demands lots of stuff but refuses to comment or reblog or support artists" is one I've only ever seen before for like, kids shows, or generally demographics which attracts very young people who haven't grown up surrounded by "hey fic writers love comments you should comment" psa, so I find it really surprising to see that same behavior for a game where the target audience are adults with money.

Obligatory disclaimers:

I ran my arknights numbers on the top ten most read, english, non-crossover fics on ao3. If that didn't represent accurately the arknights demographics then whoops sorry.

These observations are made about the english-speaking side of fandom. Maybe people are more appreciative on pixiv fics idk I didn't check.

I am not a sociologist, I just notice trends and like to analyse them.

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luckythereviewer · 4 months

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What are your thoughts on Hakurin in CCC? I found their interactions to be cute, especially since Rin is a little more open about her crush

HakuRin gets the same treatment as a lot of other Extra casts that return in CCC: more depth. Rin's more upfront about her feelings for Hakuno, even if they fly over her poor head, and we do get more scenes with her and Hakuno. I still remember the screenshots of her commenting how cute Hakuno is in the Extra outfit if I remember correctly. Unfortunately, HakuRin, along with HakuRani, basically gets cast to the side and forgotten in favor of the ship with Sakura, BB, the Alter-Egos, and Hakuno's servants. Rin even gets done more dirty during the True Route as there isn't even a final goodbye moment with her after Kiara betrays everyone, absorbs BB, and Sakura, tossing Hakuno back to the top of the stairs of the labyrinth leading back down into the core, and tossing Hakuno's servant to the edge of the universe within the Far Side. All we get is a few words with Rani as the last interactions we get with the Student Council. It's frustrating because they do all this work to establish Rin and Hakuno's relationship in both Extra and CCC, only to then disregard it in favor for putting Sakura in the limelight only for that to not even matter moving forward with Extella and Link. I wish CCC had an ending with not only Rin and Rani but also Julius and Leo, as both of them were suppose to have endings in Extra but they were cut from the game, instead of just having all of them be shoved to the side for Sakura, who didn't even have a specific ending in Extra.

Let Hakuno somehow breed with Rin, Nasu! We need HakuRin babus to be cannon.

#hakuno kishinami #fate extra #fate extra ccc #rin tohsaka(extra)#hakurin #hakuno x rin #so much detail was given to this relationship #only to be cast aside and forgotten #jokes aside hakuno and rin's children would be very powerful i'd imagine #rin coming from the tohsaka family and having their magical knowledge and talent #combined with hakuno's high power ceiling and great potential and growth #their children would be insane #if not for the fact that the world of extra has no mana left #still would be worth it though

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shuttershocky · 4 months

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That previous TM post reminded me of something.

What really tells me the Koei Tecmo writers did their homework with Type-Moon is how Fate/Samurai Remnant slightly changes the TM theme of decay to portray that Iori has something wrong with him.

A common trope that Nasu likes to weave into his stories is how the people living today are living in the past's skeletons. Unlike a lot of media that tends to portray the past as some grandiose and magical time that met an untimely end from disaster, the past wasn't always great, it was just... Large.

A theme of slow decay permeates a lot of Nasu's works. Once, the Nanaya, the Ryougi, the Asakami, and the Fujou were fearsome, powerful clans of oni hunters, but over time they all fell to ruin slowly, with only the Nanaya really having a singular incident that can be pointed to for their fall. The Tohno were (and still are) an incredibly wealthy and influential family of oni in the guise of businessmen, but one cruel act out of line after another, and there's just an enormous, empty mansion containing a single Tohno, the family dead or scattered. Mahoyo's longest chapter takes place in a lavish, abandoned amusement park, filled with everything from a multistory house of mirrors to a giant rollercoaster where everything still works, but couldn't survive more than a few years, a foolish waste of a fortune. Kara No Kyoukai is about a rich girl that grows increasingly distant from her wealthy noble family until she leaves them to live in a completely empty apartment instead, the flashbacks to the Ryougi family showing no warmth or nostalgia despite the luxury.

Even Fate, the series all about digging up ghosts of the past and showing you how kickass these guys are, always goes into how heroic spirits are often filled with regret, having led bloody and tragic lives that caused them so much pain and yet meant that they would be remembered forever—literally removing them from the cycle of death and reincarnation to be put into another one where they are reborn and killed on a mage's whims.

The past was grand, wealthy, larger than life, and it rotted from the inside out and failed the people living today, who have to build new, simpler lives from the pieces, but might be happier that way.

FSR does something similar, though with an important difference. Just like in other TM works the past in FSR is larger than life, being the Sengoku period and the Shimabara rebellion, with both the incredibly cool sword saints and horrific massacres, but the people living today (1651) could not be happier about living in a peaceful, much more insignificant time and have no interest in what they left behind whatsoever. They're not living in the decaying remains of the past, they've rebuilt on top of it completely. You would have to be insane to look back even out of curiosity, because that would be staring into unimaginable bloodshed.

Nowhere is this better illustrated than Nasu himself talking about how the name "Miyamoto Musashi" is seen today, compared to in 1651 after Musashi had just died.

A sword-saint now, a legend, and at 60 duels with 60 wins probably the most skilled duelist to have ever lived, but for his contemporaries, he was a terrifying man that killed dozens to prove his martial skill. Nobody in Miyamoto Iori's time remembers him for being Musashi's son the way we do.

But Iori, Iori looks back. The first hint was that servants always have some connection to the master, and there's seemingly nothing in common with the king and god-slayer Saber and the humble Iori. The next was Saber's reaction seeing Iori's seemingly fearless behavior towards an enemy that could kill him in one blow (something you don't even need New Game+ to see btw, I haven't played NG+ myself lol), it was recognition.

There's a reason why Iori's main rival is Chiemon, a character whose only defining trait is being unable to let go of the bloodshed he experienced in the Shimabara Rebellion.

In FSR more than in any other Type-Moon title, the past is buried deep to the point where it can barely be seen, and yet inside Iori is the desire to dig it up. Study it. Surpass it. Find his father resurrected in his prime and kill him (her) again, to prove he would have been an even more terrifying monster than she ever was, had he been born just a little earlier.

There's something wrong with him.

#Fate Samurai Remnant #FSR spoilers

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