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doubleddenden · 4 months

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Decided to make some more trainer and card edits, this time using some slightly different methods.

The OC is named Silver, and he's been an oc I've been messing with on and off. I mainly needed to make his hair, but I'll admit that his outfit was something easily replicated by some of my past sprites. No biggie there, I like it and it was fun

Now the trainer card was a bit different because I wanted to use pokemon from the current era, but they stopped doing the menu sprites I used to like, so I had an idea.

I use this site often just for fun making teams for ocs or just to compile teams I have used for games, which uses Home portraits for the most part. I basically worked with that to get this style, which works I think.

I COULD have used Smogon sprites for this part, but it's hard to navigate trying to find them, so I just gave up and tried this method instead.

As for the actual design of the card, I have a tendency to style the cards like they'd be a key chain accessory, and in this case, it's essentially a card key chip. I imagine trainers in my pokeverse have a few varieties and styles they can customize, but this style in particular is used in Monochrome Academy. I imagine you use this like a thumb drive and a physical key to access your pc and to get in and out of certain areas, and it's also a "license" so to speak certifying you are a student there AND are allowed to battle and train with Pokémon. Your current party is displayed on the card as well, and updated when you swap out for a Pokémon in pc or at home.

So the extra lore and fan fic stuff under cut:

Silver, like many of my other OCs, actually has an original story of his own where he is the protagonist of his own story he has written that he is isekai'd into. At least, that was the basis.

My pokeverse Silver is... well, very different. Silver comes from a small country town and dreams of traveling the world, and is a pretty agreeable and amiable person who tries to make friends where he goes. He was originally not going to attend Monochrome Academy, as he's okay with not being the best- his childhood friend, Azura, however, ends up the victim of bullying by an actual teacher, facing expulsion because she couldn't beat a non regulation team (as in not approved by school board) that originally could take down a Champion tier trainer. She wasn't the only one, either, and the teacher was practically bragging about weeding out the weaklings to enforce both a highly restricted course limited to just a few Pokémon, and helping the school to cut costs instead of taking a salary cut.

Silver, of course, wouldn't take that lying down and challenged the teacher that he never met before that day using only pokemon he had had for most of his life, caught and raised around his farm at home- with the exception of his Hisuian Typhlosion, his starter. If he won, everyone the teacher defeated would be allowed entry. Tge teacher, thinking himself better than this country bumpkin, accepts and is ready to utterly humiliate him. Utilizing unique battle strategy that involves the field itself, some tomfoolery, and shenanigans one wouldn't expect to see in a regular battle, Silver wins and by default, everyone the teacher had defeated is allowed entry. Even when Silver had no intention of enrolling, his performance had impressed the headmaster and another teacher related to Azura, as well as the current 2nd year class champion, Karden. He resisted at first, even almost turning down a full ride, but the idea of being with Azura a bit longer ended up persuading him to stay.

From there, Monochrome Academy is a school settled in Nimbasa City in Unova, where the curriculum also involves sending trainers on missions to help folks in need, and Silver ends up going on a journey practically everywhere.

As for his team:

Cinder- Hisuian Typhlosion. Silver, Azura, and a third trainer all received Pokémon at the age of 11 from a certified breeder, of which were the Johto starters. Silver picked Cyndaquil, much to his family's fear of fire types, and the two have been best buddies ever since. The reason she evolved into a Hisuian variant was due to a school field trip to a science museum that happened to have exhibits on past regions, including a special candy recipe sourced from Hisui. Silver distinctly remembers himself, another kid with a Dewott, and a third with a Dartrix specifically being asked to help with an experiment by letting their Pokémon eat said candy- this was enough for Silver's Quilava to evolve the Hisuian variant like the others. Little did they know that those other two would end up becoming friends and rivals in Monochrome a few years later. Cinder herself has always been a bit laid back but easily matches the energy Silver has for anything, and she quite likes the positive attention she gets for being a unique variant.

Shiner- Shiny Umbreon. Before Silver's grandmother had passed, she left Silver a Pokémon egg from her own breeding on the farm, knowing her grandchildren always wanted their own Eevee for themselves. Silver's older brother, sister, and himself each hatched a shiny Eevee- nobody knew how old Paula did it, but Paula had a unique knack for shiny breeding in a way that would almost 100% guarantee a shiny Pokémon- her secrets went with her to the grave, and Shiner was the last shiny Pokémon ever birthed from this long held family secret. Shiner actually got lost in the woods once after running away as an Eevee, and Silver searched for him all day until he found it. It was dark and night time, but Silver kept Shiner safe and promised to always be there for him, which led to Shiner evolving into Umbreon. Shiner is a friendly Pokémon, but is rather wary of strangers due to unwanted attention. He does love a nice chin scratch, however.

AJ- Tauros. Being a farm boy meant being surrounded by Pokémon all of Silver's life, including common farm Pokémon such as Tauros. Silver hand raised AJ from an egg, and as a result, AJ is rather affectionate to him in sometimes painful ways. Perhaps a somewhat inconvenient Pokémon to have as a child to some, but to Silver, AJ has always been like a sweet giant puppy anyway.

Prince- Seismitoad. The small farmland area around Silver's home is crawling with a rich biome of Pokémon that call it their home, and plenty of relatives and neighbors often come to catch Pokémon for the variety available, with Azura included. During a fishing trip with his dad to one of the ponds, Silver caught a a Tympole that Azura would nickname Prince, in reference to old fairy tales. Prince is anything but princely, and after evolving into Palpitoad, it went through a rebellious phase where it would try to fight everything for dominance, not to mention try to eat other trainers' bug pokemon, including a beloved family Yanmega. In a heated battle between Cinder and Prince, Cinder won, and Silver even managed to pin it down in the mud to assert dominance. Although a bit rough and grouchy since, Prince respects and even likes Silver and the rest of the gang now, although it is brash and quick to a fight if Silver isn't around to reel him in.

Crow- Corviknight. Silver, Azura, and Silver's sister attempted planting sunflowers on the farm, when suddenly hordes of various bird Pokémon destroyed the crops. Silver eventually nabbed one of the culprits, a Rookidee. Although the sunflower garden dream was destroyed, a friend was gained. Crow was a bit persnickity but very intelligent, and between stealing shiny things from neighbors to incorporate into its armor and eating a lot of seeds from crops, it was both a menace and blessing. Eventually Crow became Corviknight, and is Silver's favorite method of transportation and quite clever in battle.

Franny- Leavanny. During the summer, bugs often overrun Silver's hometown, and caterpillar pokemon in particular almost overrun the farm once. For once, the family were happy Silver had a fire type starter to help deal with them, and one of them was a Sewaddle that had somehow gotten into their attic. Silver quickly caught it, but the rest of the family forbade any more bugs besides it or the family Yanmega. It would evolve rather quickly due to Silver being such a caring friend to her, much like he is to all pokemon on the farm, and Franny would eventually become of some use to the farm as well with her human like shape and her ability and disposition to make clothes for cold pokemon out of leaves and straw. Even now, it sometimes makes fancy hats and flower crowns for the team, and is excessively cheery and kind. She is the only pokemon that has ever outright scared Prince, despite this.

I imagine Silver has other Pokémon on call at home, such as Mudsdale, other forms of Tauros, Miltank, Yanmega, Poliwrath, Sawsbuck, and more appropriate to a small town farming area near woods and ponds. He doesn't really care for special training or social graces, but he is an expert at many Pokémon's particular eating and physical needs and often has treats on hand to befriend new ones. He is not unbeatable nor perfect in personality, however, as he is quick to fall for anger bait and sometimes acts rashly without considering consequences. Sometimes he OVER thinks things, and he is easily swayed by Azura's whims and words, or words from cute girls in general. Not to mention, despite his A+ battling, his school ethic leaves a bit to be desired with late assignments and C grades, even with particular effort invested in studying.

Still, if it comes to Pokémon, he's quick to pick up new details, and absolutely loves to visit and learn about new places first hand rather than read about them.

Anyway I might consider making more for other OCs. Unsure yet.

#pokemon #pokemon sprite #trainer sprite #oc #trainer card #Hisuian Typhlosion #Umbreon #tauros #Seismitoad #Corviknight #leavanny #arts and crafts with doubled #doubled32

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ilaiyayaya · 5 months

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:) I really like this game.

Tbf that playtime is wildly inflated because I like keeping games open while I'm not actually playing them, but nonetheless this game is really good and one of the most fun games I've played in a long time. (the actual game I'm talking about btw is Touhou: Artificial Dream in Arcadia but the title is too long and awkward sounding to naturally fit it into a sentence without it sounding weird)

I used to really like Megaten, and then I stopped really liking Megaten, because I realized that I really didn't like 90% of the Megaten games I had played and that in reality I just happened to really like that other 10%. I have not played any kind of SMT game in years, I had pretty much completely lost interest in the series after playing multiple games back to back that I fucking hated and getting disillusioned with a few of the games that I had enjoyed. But now I kinda want to try it again, at the very least SMT 1 and 2, because I never played those to begin with and this game is such a blatant copy of those games in every way, and I mean that in a good way, a very very good way. This is one of the most passionate indie games I have ever seen, it is so incredibly clear that the creator of this game is such a massive fan of both SMT and Touhou, like it just bleeds love, it so accurately captures the essence of what makes SMT enjoyable while still feeling unique. It's super impressive how well this game replicates the style of SMT 1, the pixel art, the music, even down to the design of dungeon layouts, it's all so uniquely SMT despite this not being an SMT game and also being developed by a single person who has never worked on an SMT game in their life.

Unlike with SMT, I know comparably little about Touhou, I've never finished any of the games, and I can only name a handful of characters. Playing this game with so little knowledge of the series it's based in, you would think would be a detriment, but in reality I think it made it a lot more fun, everything came off as new and interesting, and it's a surprisingly good entry-point to Touhou. I think a monster collecting RPG is possibly the best genre to put a series with hundreds of named characters in if you want to really quickly learn and remember most of those characters. Before playing this I could not name a single location within the Touhou universe, but now I know the differences between Hell, Old Hell, the Animal Realm (a location within Hell), and Makai (NOT Hell, but is filled with demons). Even without having a deep knowledge of Touhou myself, it's very obvious that the creator does, as I was playing I did some research into some of the characters that I thought looked interesting, and there is such a variety of allusions to Touhou as a whole, from forgotten mid-bosses from the 1st PC-98 game, to characters that have only appeared in obscure one-off doujin works. It's not a very dialogue heavy game but what is there displays so much personality, a lot of small lines are used really well to convey a lot about certain characters, and even things like movesets and stats sometimes feel like they tell a bit about that character's personality, or play into their visual design.

I almost completely forgot to mention the bullet hell negotiation minigames that are used to capture sleepers, which is odd because it's actually one of favorite parts of the game, I absolutely loved these short little shmup segments. Every single sleeper has their own bullet hell style that's unique to them, and these too say a lot about the characters they're associated with, like for example when you try to catch Yukari, she wants you dead, filling your screen with bullets and lasers, but then a character like Koishi doesn't really throw much at you.

There's so many memorable little moments in this game that I love, and I have little enough concern for cohesive writing that I just kinda wanna talk about a few of them. I really like how they often pair up encounters in areas with characters that are associated with each other, like for example whenever you encounter Joon, she'll always be alongside Shion because they're sisters, and there are a lot of cases of that, and I think that's really neat.

By far the lowest point of the entire game, and the only time I can really say I thoroughly was not enjoying myself was the teleporter maze in the Moon Palace. I don't know why, but every SMT game feels the need to include at least 1 overly long and tedious teleporter maze, the one in this game isn't nearly as bad as anything in actual SMT, but I still spent at least 2 hours mapping out the entire room, and I am comedically bad at navigation in video games, so it got really frustrating.

I know I praised the dialogue quite a bit, and it is generally pretty good, but there are a lot of times where it's humor can be kinda hit or miss. There are a lot of memes in this game, and occasionally they actually are pretty funny and do work, but more often than not they feel kinda forced. Like a decent portion of the achievement names are memes, and those are fine, but like, some of the inclusions in game are really out of place.

When I initially reached the end of the main game I was honestly kind of disappointed, the final boss wasn't really great, the 1st phase was against a clone of yourself and it was really bad, it kinda just felt like an RNG-fest, and the follow up fight against Yukari was fine but it kinda just existed, I don't have much to say about it. The stuff after the final boss however, is fantastic, the entire post-game takes place in Makai and it adds an extra 6 or 7 hours of gameplay with by far the best dungeons in the entire game. I love the aesthetics of Makai, all of the characters that appear in the location, the gimmicks of each of the dungeons, the music, it's all the best the game has to offer. The real peak of the post-game, and really of the game as a whole however, is the final boss against Shinki, it is a long, brutally difficult fight, but it is so satisfying to learn it's patterns and consistently counter every move she makes. The whole gimmick of the fight is that Shinki only has 1 weakness at a time, and that weakness changes every few turns, and on the turn that she changes weakness she also gives herself max buffs in everything, and max debuffs your entire party in everything. She also has 25,000 health, which means that it is a very long fight, my successful attempt took nearly 20 minutes, but that gives you a lot of time to learn and perfect a pattern of moves to make each turn, and after a while you start to notice a sort of cycle occurring between each weakness swap so she becomes more predictable and thus it becomes a much more manageable endurance test. I am not capable of conveying with text how much enjoyment and satisfaction I felt when I started understanding that fight, and especially when I finally beat it. It is now genuinely one of my top gamer moments of all time.

This is actually one of my favorite games now, it's so good.

#touhou artificial dream in arcadia #it's so obvious how much my writing style is influenced by what I'm listening to right now lol #finally I can start my Touhou hyperfixation phase and live for 3 more months >:)#what if reimu and marisa made out hamster dance style #touhou

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aria0fgold · 7 months

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Do you have any advice for writing a fanfic and/or writing in general?

Just write it! Worry about editing later. Take your time with it and to not compare your writing with anyone!

One thing I had to unlearn in my system is the constant need to edit the stuff I write while still writing it. You won't get anywhere if you kept doing that and end up frustrating yourself more.

Just keep writing it even if it ends up a jumbled mess, if there's a scene you don't know how it'll turn out yet just put stuff like this: (scene at a building with cracks on the wall, debris here and there. describe it later) and move onto the next parts!

If the scene is just dialogue then keep at that and just write another reminder! Like this: (character a is frustrated at character b. add that indicator later)

It's a first draft for a reason so let yourself be as messy as possible with it and polish it afterwards!

Taking your time with it cuz writing has no time limit at all, especially if you're a new writer. If you keep thinking about invisible deadlines, you'll end up stressing yourself and burning yourself out of writing, which will just make you not write in general.

Annnd the last one is something that helped me a lot to break outta my slump back then. Whenever you read a book or fanfic, you fall in love with the author's writing and think: I want to write like that. Just like with an artist's art and go: I want to draw like that.

In a way, if you're just starting out, you subconciously try to replicate that. But just like in any forms of creative expression. Writing has its style as well and every writer has their own style. It isn't noticeable at first cuz how can there be style when it's all just words and text?

Pick up a book, and pick another from a different author but the same genre. You'll start to see their own style in the way they form their paragraphs, in a way they show the emotion of the scene, one author may like to repeat words for emphasis while the other may only do it once but the impact of the scene stayed with you.

So don't replicate anyone's writing style.

Cuz everyone is unique and no matter what happens, what you write will always turn out differently than what other people write. Finding your own style in writing is as much of a journey as an artist finding their own art style so don't stress too much if you can't find your own yet! It's all about trial and error, and about appealing to yourself the most. So don't think about the audience, think about what YOU want.

If you write like this, will you like it? If you like it, then there will surely be people that like it as well. Will you hate it? If you hate it, there will always be people that likes it anyway. But doing what you hate is never a good thing. So might as well do what you love and have fun with it!

Oh! Also also, nearly forgot. Play around with perspectives. If you got stuck at a certain scene, switch the perspective to another character present or to a narrator to figure out how you want to incorporate certain details to what your current character can perceive. Or you can also just have multiple character perspectives in the story, just remember to show an indicator for the readers! (Like: Character A's Perspective at the very top of the chapter, or make it so that the monologue's 'voice' is different than the previous one)

#arianswer #anon #ohgod im the worst person to ask for advice #im a beginner-ish fanfic writer but i did get to learn buncha stuff despite it so hoping that can help you too!#also in the perspective part #that applies with stuff like: first person. 2nd person. 3rd person.#play around with it and find one that you like the most!#frankly i was a 1st person writer before i started doing fanfics where i switched to 3rd person #1st person was hard for me cuz how do indicator actions? my mc gonna sound like an insane person noticing the smallest of details #i still wanna try 1st person tho so im gonna get back to that in the future #so if one pov doesnt work out. do a different one and just experiment!#if nothing works out. rest! take a break! then try again later

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with-the-same-tattoos · 3 years

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what brush do you use for your lineart? it looks so good ;;

AAHDSHD;;;; TYSM FOR ASKING IK THIS IS A SIMPLE QUESTION BUT I WILL USE ANY CHANCE I GET 2 RAMBLE ABT ART TECHNIQUE & WHATEVER BC ITS MY FAVE FUCKING THING IN THIS WHOLE WIDE WORLD

My brushes r actually quite simple !!!!!!! I built them to compliment my very freehand/sketch style. If someone is interested, feel free to ask, I can check how to make them downloadable/whatever, but really I have just a couple things that I focus on when it comes to them!!!

Square tip. I use one in CSP called quadrado, I think its in the original set, I'll have to check that out later? But yeah I feel a square tip allows for some fun angular spots to really come through !!! This is also super popular in painting I think, angles & sharp edges r super important there

Shape dynamics. The super basic stuff. I have two main brushes; my basic square, which is for draw flow stuff, and a rough square, which i mostly use to fill in bigger areas / do some extra shading with. My basic square has more flexibility (a bigger range, a lower minimun value) and the rougher one is less flexable and most of the time chunky.

Density. I find density options more appealing to me compared to opacity, but I cant tell why? exactly???? yk???? But yeah. Again, basic square has more flexibility, and rougher less. I find the flexibility & range in my basic brush SUPER important, since i like sketching within my linework and erasing it away/cleaning it up. (difficult to explain- if someone wants a video feel free to ask)

Basically:

oSoOther settings go a bit more into semantics. I also use a blender tool to sometimes soften areas, and often my eraser is set to erasing on all layers so I can kinda build my linework ON my sketch layer and use it in the back as some extra flow.

My current style of drawing is inspired by som rly specific artists that I can talk abt if someone wants 2 hear. I do intend to experiment w stronger lines, im just a wuss and like all... squishy stuff ; v ;

U DIDNT ASK, but again bc i just loooove rambling abt this shit, some additional things that have personally helped me w linework!!!

Those super basic linework practices !!! Just drawing straight lines endlessly, drawing a squicle and trying to replicate it now w a slower stroke

Forcing urself to sketch fast; croquis !!!! I recommend croquis cafe for anyone looking to do this kinda stuff online, its GREAT. Just focus on the time, not how good the sketch is. Croquis is FANTASTIC. it helps u develop muscle memory for unique strokes, develop understanding of what u need to pay attention to (are you paying attention to shadow, light, where the weight of the body is, the squished parts, the stretched out parts, the skin, the muscle, the hair, etc) (ive personally done sessions just focusing on darkest shadow, midtone shadow etc, or light, or the stretched out parts, or just like, a few lines to give the idea of the pose ((eg 5 sec croquis)) ((tho i havent seen those in any web stuff, i had a class where we had those and they were fantastic))) anyways DO CROQUIS AND ALLOW URSELF 2 SUCK AT IT DO IT UNTIL UR HAND HURTS AND UR HEAD HURTS (dont actually do that please) (drink water, take breaks, stretch ur hand)

Warmups !!! before i take on a serious linework, I ALWAYS DO WARMUPS. Some lighter line stuff, flowier line stuff. I often do croquis for this. If i dont do this i get more severe hand cramps, because.... yeah

Traditional sketches w different pens. Preferably ones that u cant erase. Kinda similiarly to croquis, this is super good to just develop more confidence w ur lines. U cant go back and erase them so... U just have to learn to get them right. Im bolding this bcs this is probably the one tip i heard that has helped me the most. All my traditional sketches w pens r ugly as hell but they seriously have helped me so much to get some more freedom and have more fun when drawing & not worry all the time, and its made the process way more enjoyable !!!!

Also please take breaks and stretch ur hand !!! THeres a lot of good guides for artists to stretch their hands :> Seriously. Take care of urself.

#ask #anonymous #u thot u could just ask me for my brushes u wrong !!!#*infodumps*#i fucking #love art process #I k u didnt ask but this stuff is so exiting to me

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inkdemonapologist · 2 years

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I'm struggling to find my style to draw people. I don't know if I want them to look cartoony or more life-like, especially for batim. How did you find your style?

TL;DR Version: How do you find your style? By letting yourself experiment, drawing for a while, and never locking yourself into one way of drawing something.

Longer Version: My honest answer to the question "how did you find your style," I think, is that I didn’t. I kinda bounced around trying out anything that I thought looked cool, and eventually people started telling me that I had a distinct style because all the little pieces I had stolen over time added up to something that was uniquely mine. I can’t stress to you enough that 90% of my artistic decisions started with “Ooo, I like the way that artist draws hands! [tries to draw them the same way]” and then it’d just change over time b/c I wouldn’t be able to perfectly replicate it and I’d tweak it to match what I think looks cool and I’d end up with my own version.

More thoughts:

There’s a reason so many artists say not to worry about style, but advice that’s just “don’t think about x” is pretty hard to actually act on, so I think the advice I might try to give is to try things that look interesting, and keep yourself open to whatever is fun for you.

Like…. you don’t have to only draw one way to end up with a style. Some people shift their stylisation for every project or every piece, and other people do have one really consistent look to their work, but usually when that happens for someone who is comfortable in their style, it’s because that person has discovered The Most Fun/Satisfying Way To Draw for them. The way you find that is by trying different styles or elements that look fun or cool and absorbing the bits that work or make sense to you.

You can draw cartoony people sometimes and life-like people other times, and you can work on improving whichever one happens to appeal to you in that moment. If you draw a bunch of lifelike batims but then wonder if maybe you shoulda drawn them all cartoony instead, you aren’t locked in — you can try drawing them all cartoony and seeing how they look and find out if you like drawing them that way. You can switch back and forth, make them realistic for one fanart and cartoony for another. You can always try out shifting your style, and then draw with that stylisation again sometimes if you like it, and never do it again if you don’t. I think it’s actually good practice to try things that interest you — you may not use it, but you might learn something that can apply to other styles of drawing.

The truth is, I think, that style is a lot more than we usually think of. We think of things like proportions, or the specific abstractions we choose, whether we use thick or thin lines, exactly what shape we make eyes — but those are all surface changes. When you draw a lot and try out different choices and different styles, then there will also be choices that maybe you don’t even know you’re making — aesthetics that look cool to you, ways you’ve learned to compensate for your weak points, elements you put a lot of love into because they’re fun. And honestly? A lot of that stuff will shine through even when you change the surface qualities. You can draw cartoony and realistic and both can look like “your style” if you’ve drawn in both aesthetics so often that your personal choices and preferences and how you’ve made that stylisation work for you show up in both. The way I handle lineart is a big part of my style normally, but the lineless colour palette challenges I did are still in “my style.” If I drew with more cartoony proportions, it would still be “my style.”

That said, I also think it’s okay to happen upon a style you like drawing in and just, stick with it forever if that’s what gives you joy. It’s just that trying to FORCE that to happen, trying to Pick One when there’s many different styles that appeal to you, might just make you feel more and more indecisive, whereas embracing and developing any styles that you find enjoyable or satisfying might be what gives you the building blocks you needed to give everything you draw your own personal flair.

#i know you have questions you always do

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sage-nebula · 3 years

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Game Review — Neo: The World Ends With You

In 2008 I played a JRPG unlike any other I had played before, or have played since. It was a self-contained story and for the most part I was okay for it to stay that way, though I was always curious what more could be done in the world, and hated how Square-Enix kept teasing us with the promise of a sequel that it seemed would never come. But now, 13 years later, that sequel has finally arrived.

Overall Score: 9/10

My personal feelings on the story and characters aside, overall Neo: The World Ends With You lives up to its predecessor in terms of gameplay, writing, music, and presentation. Unlike other sequels which fall woefully short of their predecessors, Neo does a fantastic job of staying true to the spirit of the original so that older fans can enjoy it just as much as new fans do. For more detailed thoughts, head under the cut (and onto my blog for formatting purposes).

The Pros:

The writing, for the most part, is excellent. Again, I have more personal takes on the story and character beats that I’ll delve into on a different post, but in terms of how the dialogue and flavor text are written throughout the game, Neo has shown that the writing staff hasn’t forgotten what makes The World Ends With You spectacular despite it being 13 years. The humor is on point, the character of the fictionalized version of Shibuya that was created is on point. Even just playing the demo I could tell that the charm was still there despite this being written over a decade later and I couldn’t be happier with that fact.

The music is, of course, phenomenal. There are remixes of tracks from the original game that are great, because I’ll never say no to a version of “Transformation” or “The One Star” or “Someday”. But there are also original tracks that are just absolutely beyond fantastic, such as “Kill the Itch” or “Last Call” or “Bird in the Hand”. One of the things that sets The World Ends With You apart from other JRPGs is its music, and how it’s composed to be music comparable with what you could hear on a radio versus being very identifiable as video game music, and Neo delivered on that front yet again with both the remixes and the original tracks.

The gameplay is another area in which Neo shines. It would be impossible to replicate the battle system of the original game, something Square-Enix showed time and time again with their numerous ports and remasters of it. The original game was meant to be played on the Nintendo DS, and specifically the Nintendo DS, in that it was created with the dual screens in mind. As a result, the two partner system just didn’t work on the numerous ports and re-releases, and it wouldn’t be able to work in Neo either due to the fact that none of the platforms it’s releasing on have dual screens. As a result, Neo’s battle system is very different, but also very, very good. The battles are still real time, and you still control all of the characters at once (I don’t think there’s a way to let the AI take over like with the partner in the original game, but I could be wrong on that), but this time they’re all in the same plane of existence and you juggle up to six of them at a time. Instead of passing a light puck to power up a sync fusion, you’re instead bouncing combos in order to work up a Groove, which in turn lets you Beat Drop in what is essentially a version of the sync fusions, albeit not nearly as specific to the characters as the sync fusions were. There were times while playing that having to balance so many characters at once got a bit much, especially when trying out new pins with different reboot times, but overall the battle experience is incredibly smooth and is a perfect rendition of what TWEWY battling should be like on a single screen. Battles aside, there are numerous other areas in which the gameplay shined as well. Starting in Week 2 you gain the ability to move around the map more quickly in a way which integrates the BGM as well (which is important given how much thematic importance is given to music in these games), and in Week 3 you get an even faster method of travel via telewarping around the map. Pins are back, and with a story explanation given for why the characters can use any pins they please, you get different pins to use and elemental affinities to consider when picking out your decks. A new Social Network feature not only gives you additional information on various characters, but also grants you new abilities and can help you keep track of who is who, as well as who has a relation to whom. Little features like this definitely add to the experience of the game and make playing it feel fun, which is always of paramount importance when it comes to video games.

There is a ton of content, which again, is pretty important when you consider that this is a $60 game. Like the original game, there are three weeks of seven days apiece for the main story. In a way, this can make it seem like the game goes by too fast (especially if you binge play it like I did), but also like the original game, there is plenty of post-game content to do as well. For one, we once again get a light-hearted parody bonus chapter in the form of “Another Day”. For another, there are Secret Reports unlocked by completing special missions in each chapter that provide extra background information, as well as an unlockable secret ending as well. So although the main story can go by fast (especially if, again, you just can’t put it down), there is still plenty to do once the main campaign is completed and that’s always the mark of a brilliant game as well.

Speaking of, the game really is difficult to put down. Five hours passed by in a blink for me while I was playing, not only because the gameplay was fun, but because I just had to know what was going to happen next. There were times when I figured I would just start the next day and then put it down, but the next day began with something crazy happening and I had to follow up on it. For a heavily story-based game, this is yet another necessary strength and the developers pulled it off fabulously.

For the most part, the characters were all fantastic as well, newcomers and returning vets alike. The original game shined in how unique it made its characters, and Neo does this as well. The returning cast is (again for the most part) IC but with notable growth in their personalities and demeanors, and the new cast is equally as lovable (or detestable for those that are meant to be detested). Again, since this is a story-based game, having strong characters is a necessary requirement and Neo pulls that off just as splendidly as the original did, with few exceptions.

The game is also beautiful to look at, much like (at risk of sounding like a broken record) the original. The comic book art style has always been incredibly unique and charming, and they integrated the 3D graphics seamlessly with the art style to create a truly beautiful marvel to look at while playing. The character design is also worthy of a chef’s kiss, especially when wise decisions were made behind the scenes to swap the designs of certain characters (namely, Ayano and Kanon originally had each other’s appearance, before a smart decision was made to swap how they looked). All in all, this is a game you never get tired of looking at.

The Neutrals:

Despite there being a wide variety of pins to use (especially since any character can use any pin), there actually isn’t that much of a variety in terms of what the pins actually do. This is partially due to hardware restrictions; in the original game they could have sound based pins because the DS had a microphone, and the touch screen also allowed for different types of inputs as well. But current consoles don’t offer as much in terms of gameplay ingenuity, and as a result you get a lot of pins that are basically just clones of each other, which is a little bit disappointing when you compare it to the original (especially since I haven’t discovered many iconic sets yet, a la Darklit Planets or Brainy Cat etc).

While there are a ton of characters in this game, there is much, much less emphasis put on the citizens of Shibuya who aren’t involved in the Game, which in turn makes it feel like there are less memorable side characters than the last game. For the most part, the citizens of Shibuya are basically relegated to just being possessed by Noise, and that’s it. Whereas we saw their lives carry out over three weeks in the last game (such as Makoto’s evolution in both his social and professional life), here we don’t really get to see that, which is a bit disappointing as well.

The battle gameplay, while very fun and smooth, does feel a little less deep at times than it did in the original game. While in the original you had to learn to balance Neku’s pins with his partner’s psychs, here you’re basically button mashing in a rhythm in order to get the gauge up, which can get a bit tiring if you do a bunch of battles in a row. The fact that the Beat Drops aren’t unique to the characters like the Fusions were is another thing that, while not a huge detriment, still feels a little less special than the Fusions did in the original game.

Neo is a lot more plot-focused than the original, which was more character-driven. Don’t get me wrong, the original definitely had a plot as well, and Neo does care about its characters. But while the deeper aspects of the plot were discovered post-game through the Secret Reports in the original, here the plot intricacies are front and center. And while the first game spent way more time developing its characters and focusing on their inner struggles, here the character issues are mostly pushed to late game in order to focus on the plot. It’s not bad, but it is noticeably different.

You still don’t get to actually see the characters in the clothes you dress them in. While this makes sense (it would be way too much to program in), it’s still a bit of a letdown.

The fashion brands don’t really feature into the plot or world at all, with the exception of Gatto Nero because of who created it. Again, it’s not a huge deal, but I enjoyed how you could see which brands were most popular in different areas of Shibuya in the original, and how you sometimes had to boost the popularity of the brands via doing battle with those pins or clothes equipped in the original in order to clear missions. It made the brands you were wearing actually matter, versus just being fun flavor text.

The Cons:

The time travel mechanic, Replay, is probably the biggest con this game has to offer. While it does have consequences that I won’t spoil here in the very final act of the game, for the most part it completely negated the stakes for the vast majority of the game, because you knew that even if something terrible happened, Rindo would be able to go back in time and fix it. I was never worried about what the characters would encounter as a result of this, except for in a few instances where something bad happened after Rindo had already used his power for the day. This is a noticeable downgrade from the original game, where there were no Do Overs and Neku and the others had to live with whatever consequences the Game had in store for them, which made everything feel that much more dire. In addition to lowering the stakes, though, Replay also loses points for the fact that having to do the same events with slight changes over and over felt like padding. In particular, in the endgame there is a segment you have to go through about six different times, and it felt maddening. While I do feel like Replay was a homage to the Zero Escape games in that it works remarkably similar to Sigma and Phi’s SHIFTing ability (and Fret even calls the Game “the escape room from hell” which again calls to Zero Escape), for some reason it felt far more like a chore here than it did there, possibly because you couldn’t Jump at will here like you can in Virtue’s Last Reward.

I’m personally not wild about the adult/teen romances that were implied in the game, even though thankfully neither of them seemed reciprocated. Namely, Kanon viewed Fret as a kid given that she’s an adult and he’s a teenager, and Shoka never really thought about her relationship with Ayano that deeply even though Ayano seemed pretty in love with Shoka. But even though these relationships weren’t reciprocated, the fact that they were present at all is still something that I’m really just not wild about, and made me feel a bit uncomfortable while playing. (And yes, I know that Ayano and Shoka are said to be sisters in “Another Day”, but the subtext surrounding Ayano’s feelings in specific in the main story is so blatant it’s essentially overt text. I don’t want to get into it here since that delves more into spoiler territory, but I really just was not wild about it at all, especially since that’s the most blatant lesbian rep this series has given us thus far, which is disappointing to me, a lesbian.)

I don’t want to dive too much into this here because of spoilers, but: Neku. From his English voice acting to his writing, he was disrespected up and down in this game. Truly a massive disappointment in every sense of the word, and so he deserves a Con point all to himself.

There is a noticeable lack of minigames in Neo, as well as a lack of variety in the wall missions. We only had one instance of Reaper Review (that I encountered at least). There was no Reaper Creeper, nor was there Tin Pin Slammer, though both were mentioned. As someone who loved Tin Pin Slammer, I was so sad to see it not present at all in this game, and there wasn’t even a suitable replacement for it that we could play on the side, either. As mentioned above, the battles can get a bit boring after a while, so the fact that there weren’t minigames to help break them up truly feels like a detriment to what is otherwise a very fun game to play.

Fret’s Remind ability was a chore every time I had to use it. You had to hold the joysticks at certain positions and if you couldn’t solve it fast enough, you had to reposition them all over again. Maybe it’s just the Switch version that was having the issue, I don’t know, but I found it incredibly finicky and hard to control, which made me dislike every time I had to do it despite loving the little drawings that Fret conjured up when he used his ability.

In cases where Noise could interrupt your entire party at once, I found that I was unable to use pins a second or two before the interruption came. This was most notable with the elephant noise (fuck those elephants, me and all my homies hate those elephants, there were TOO MANY ELEPHANTS in this game) and the final final boss. Again, this could be a bug exclusive to the Switch version, I’m not sure, but it was annoying as heck regardless.

All in all, whatever complaints I may have, this game is extraordinarily fun and a wonderful sequel to an even more wonderful game. I’m incredibly happy with it and I’m glad that it lived up to expectations, particularly considering how long it took to arrive. Now we just need to wait 13 years for a third game. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m ready.

#neo: the world ends with you #neo twewy #neo the world ends with you #2021 game reviews #minor spoilers contained within though I tried to keep it as spoiler-free as possible

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vancampemily · 3 years

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Emily VanCamp teases the mystery of Sharon Carter on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Warning: Spoilers from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier season 1, episode 3 are discussed in this article.

There's more to Sharon Carter than meets the eye. A lot more.

Emily VanCamp returned to her Captain America movie role in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's third episode, which revealed the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent has been living under the radar in Madripoor after she was forced to go on the run from the U.S. government in Civil War for illegally aiding Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan).

She's since made a life for herself in this neon-soaked city filled with all manner of criminals, which formed her new outlook. As VanCamp tells EW, she's no longer the "young and idealistic" agent who "committed her whole life to the cause and the government." She now believes "the whole superhero thing is a joke." But that may not be all she believes.

After first saving Sam, Bucky, and Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl) from getting their heads blown off and then later assisting in their search for Dr. Nagel, who's been secretly replicating the super-soldier serum, Sharon gets picked up in a car — a fairly nice-looking one at that. She tells her bodyguard, "We've got a big problem," seemingly referring to Zemo shooting and killing Dr. Nagel. Is Sharon secretly working for the elusive Power Broker, the mysterious antagonist fueling the Flag-Smashers' mission? Is she the Power Broker?

"We could interpret that in so many different ways," VanCamp says. "There's still three episodes left so hopefully those questions will be answered. There's still lots of characters to come in and out. The problem could be many things."

VanCamp spoke with EW after the premiere of episode 3 to talk about Sharon's new life in Madripoor, crafting her character's unique combat style with the stunt choreographers, and Brühl's unique dance moves.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This feels like a very different version of Sharon Carter. Did this feel like it was a completely different character for you in some ways? EMILY VANCAMP: In some ways, yeah it is, but I think that was necessary. To bring her back as the same person she was in the films wouldn't make any sense. When they told me what they had in mind for Sharon, I was delighted that it was something very different and we were actually going to address where she's been, what she's been up to, how she's been surviving, and just answer some of those questions. We don't answer all of them but some of them, for sure.

Was there anything specific that helped orient you around who Sharon is now? She says it best in episode 3 that the superhero thing is a joke. That would never be something that Sharon would say when she was young and idealistic and this agent [who] committed her whole life to the cause and the government. She's from this bloodline of agents, so for her to say that is very indicative of where she's at mentally. She's still out there kicking butt and doing her thing. It's just her whole perspective and priorities have shifted because they've had to. She's been on the run and trying to survive in this lawless land for this crazy amount of time. It's understandable the resentment, anger, and frustration that she has when you meet up with her in Madripoor.

Did the changes to Sharon's character affect your approach to her? Absolutely. I think it changed everything from the way she walks to the way she fights to the way she communicates. She's all grown up and has a chip on her shoulder. She takes all that quite seriously, everything that happened to her. at this point in time, it's about getting that pardon that she's been wanting this whole time. It was great to talk to [director] Kari [Skogland] a lot of about that and just try to implement that in everything that we did.

It really seems like the government did her dirty. They did her dirty. It's true. I wouldn't have said it, but since you did. Yeah, the government left her behind. She's such a loyal agent. Even though she's thriving in this environment, it's still not where she would want to be, and not how you treat a loyal agent. She's become anti-establishment in that sense and stopped believing in all of the things she put her faith in.

When I think of Sharon Carter, I can't help but think of Peggy and all the morals and ethics she instilled in Sharon. Where Sharon is at this point, has she left a lot of that behind? I think it doesn't just go away, but I think she's cynical and jaded enough that a lot of that has been very repressed within her. I think she's left a lot of that behind. She's probably had to make some very difficult decisions and do some things she didn't want to do. You see her in that ship yard! There's no holding back. Unfortunately, the sad thing in Sharon's story is that idealistic young girl in many ways is gone.

At the end of episode 3, Sharon gets in a car. She's telling her bodyguard, "We've got a bigger problem." What are we to make of this? I don't want to say what, but obviously there are so many things. We could interpret that in so many different ways. There's still three episodes left so hopefully those questions will be answered. There's still lots of characters to come in and out. The problem could be many things.

Here's something you can hopefully talk about: Your big fight sequence. You mentioned earlier that this was your first time getting to develop Sharon's unique combat style with choreographers. Now that we know a lot more about Sharon, are there specific elements from her backstory that was most informative in the way that she fights? It was a very big discussion. What does Sharon's fight style look like in this world of Madripoor? Because we had to be sure to remind everyone that she has this technical background. She was a trained agent. In the comic books, that's her specialty. We struggled a little bit for a while with what weapons she's using. That shipyard scene was very unique. Does she come armed? What is that? We ultimately landed on she's using whatever she can find. That made it a little bit more brutal and gritty and interesting looking. It definitely made for some interesting fight sequences to learn. The training was very rigorous. She doesn't have any superpowers, so it really is down to the choreography. The stunt team is ridiculously amazing and helpful, and they spent all the time in the world with me. Every bit of free time I had I was there with them, and they were so gracious with their time. We just wanted to make it look as real and raw as possible, and the only way to do that was put the time in.

Well, I think you succeeded. Definitely did not come out totally unscathed. So, it was worth it. That makes me happy to hear. There were a lot of cuts and bruises and scrapes, but that's part of the fun.

I just spoke with Daniel earlier and he mentioned there's a longer version out there of him just fist-pumping in the club. What do you remember from that day on set? That day was insane. I think we had, for that whole dance sequence in that club, it was a very, very insanely quick, fast-paced day. But, oddly, they got a lot of great shots from my recollection of the boys dancing individually. Whoever has that footage should hold onto it closely. I remember there was a lot of dancing here. It was so funny and the boys are so hilarious. And Daniel's the best. I just love him.

source

#emily vancamp #sharon carter #daniel brühl #the falcon and the winter soldier #interview #*

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grimelords · 4 years

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So since the last time I posted one of these the entire world has changed dramatically and hopefully 4 hours of music will tide you over in quarantine for a bit longer. Strangely I’ve been busier than ever, and what started as a personal challenge to listen to a new album every day in February turned into me listening to 116 new albums in March and 124 in April. I’ve got a stacked google doc full of star ratings and dates now and it’s really been a lot of fun, I highly recommend trying it yourself. This is my March playlist, because I accidentally took a month off, and I’m thinking of either switching these playlists to weekly to make them a little more digestible or just dropping them whenever. Who knows. Let me know what you think and drop album recommendations in the comments please.

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0k1JjT8fXcUFO6VpM3kaez?si=gWSv88vdShKSnHhLJ_80pQ

If you’d like to receive these playlists in a more digestible email format, please subscribe to my tinyletter here: http://tinyletter.com/grimelords

On A Slow Boat To China - Bing Crosby & Peggy Lee: Ok first off it’s amazing this song isn’t more racist. I don't remember now how or why I came across this. I think I was just thinking about crooners and how as a genre it's now existed in common popularity as a nostalgic idyll of a mytholigised past far longer than it was ever actually popular which is interesting. The origin of this song, according to wikipedia, is also one of the most 40s ideas I've ever read: "I'd like to get you on a slow boat to China" was a well-known phrase among poker players, referring to a person who lost steadily and handsomely. The idea being that a "slow boat to China" was the longest trip one could imagine. Loesser moved the phrase to a more romantic setting, yet it eventually entered general parlance to mean anything that takes an extremely long time".

Fight Night - Migos: I saw that Offset had some new show on Quibi the extremely fake sounding streaming service and I thought "how did Migos get so world conqueringly large that they get to make 10 minute shows nobody will watch for a $2 billion venture capital funded app that will never make any money?" They seem to have this massive reputation without having much to back it up. The last thing I remember everyone talking about was how Culure II was two hours long in order to game streaming numbers and was simply not good. They seemed to have sort of settled into making background music for scrolling instagram. But then I remembered Fight Night and I thought: "oh wait, that's right, Migos are fucking great". Where their other big hits like Bad And Boujee and Walk It Talk It have this sort of laid back vibe where they've comfortably nailed the formula and relax onto it, Fight Night commands your attention. StackboyTwan killed the beat - it has this propulsive momentum where it feels like it's constantly ramping up, moving up from the sidesick and bassline in the verse, up to the claps on the beat, and the big gang chants on the offbeat once the full instrumentation kicks in - then it just goes around and around and around with the constant bassline the whole tim. It's a perfect all-rise production because it never actually explodes, it's all building tension held down by an unchanging bassline.

Do It Puritan! - El Hombre Trajeado & Sue Tompkins: I am extremely delighted to announce that Sue Tompkins of one of my all time favourite single album bands Life Without Buildings has broken a nearly 20 year musical hiatus to appear on this song by El Hombre Trajeado. It is so nice to hear how her voice has changed and her approach has stayed the same. Her style is so unique and so good and I don't think I'll ever get tired of it.

5 8 6 - New Order: Before 'the incident' I had tickets to see New Order at the end of March and so I embarked on a big listen through of their discography, which has now unfortunately made it feel even worse that live music is cancelled indefinitely.

Oom Sha La La - Haley Heynderickx: First of all I love songs where they talking about how they're writing a song halfway through. And I love songs that seem like a pretty normal singer songwriter indie thing where someone just starts screaming near the end. I love this song. A great staring at the wall and absolutely losing your mind because you haven't done anything with your whole life anthem.

Elektrobank - The Chemical Brothers: Can you believe I've never listening to a full Chemical Brothers album before this month? Can you believe big beat ever went our of style? It feels insane that we ever swapped this sort of energy for the beige algorithm of EDM. I think there's a real triumph in this album, and in this track especially of replicating the live feeling in studio. Giving it this much space to grow and change and get very hairy near the end is amazing, it feels like it was just recorded live.

My Mind's A Ship (That's Going Down) - Katie Pruitt: It feels very rare to me that this sort of extremely smooth Nashville prduction actually makes a song better. It has a habit of strangling the life out of a song and making it blend into a boring paste of soundalikes, but with Katie Pruitt it works amazingly. Her songwriting is so distinct and clear and her voice, especially near the end where it punches hole in the sky, is so strong and so her own that it doesn't need anything else.

Water - Ohmme: "What if Tegan And Sara were a noise band instead?" is a question I didn't know I needed an answer to. I love any band that has the guts to write songs like this that sound like pop from an alternate history, so off kilter and odd and noisy but with this undeniable pop heart that the duo vocals make sound like schoolyard clapping chants remixed by Lightning Bolt.

Lions, Tigers and Bears - SLIFT: A friend put me on to Slift and described them as French King Gizz and really, I'm inclined to agree. This is the traditional long last song at the end of their new album, and as usual I am advocating that every song should be the long last song at the end of the album. I love this style of jam where everyone else goes to space but the rhythm section just digs in and works hard as fuck for ten minutes. Then the whole last 3 minutes of the song are just fat drone riffs. This song's got everything.

The Pines - 070 Shake: This 070 Shake album is unbeleivably good and it warms my heart to see the dark energy of The Pines live on through another century in yet another permutation. I have more to say about it later in the Jackson C Frank version coming up but it feels like this 070 Shake album kind of came and went but I implore you to listen, it’s an aoty contender for sure.

Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On - Funkadelic: If you can stop thinking about the intro, which I certainly can’t (Hey lady won’t you be my dog and I’ll be your tree and you can pee on me.) there is so much goodness in this song. For a while now I’ve been thinking about how, for lack of a better word, ‘positive’ music is consistently underrated in the critical canon. Dance music, disco and funk especially are derided as empty sugar music, while every cookie cutter metal band absolutely demands to be taken seriously. In dance music this manifests as genres like tech house sucking all the fun and individuality out of music until it’s just an endless parade of producers working to a schematic of the barest essentials. It feels like you can’t have fun and be taken seriously at the same time, which feels like an obvious contradiction but shouldn’t be!

Spoils - Dry Cleaning: Dry Cleaning are my Lock Of The Month Band To Watch In The Future Because They’re Gonna Go Off. They have such a great sound and I’m desperate for an album because I just need more. This song absolutely knocked me down when I first heard it. I love any band where it sounds like the singer has just wandered in while the rest of them were rehearsing. There’s a very good talking-songs movement happening in the UK right now between these guys, Do Nothing and Fontaines D.C and i’m excited to see where it progresses. I might put together a playlist a little later to show you what I mean.

As - Stevie Wonder: I finally listened to Songs In The Key Of Life this month, which is an experience I would recommend to everyone. This shit goes for 21 songs over 105 minutes and absolute bangs the whole way. The original release of this album was a double LP plus a 7", which is yet another reason I am grateful for streaming that I don't have to buy a damn box set to hear this thing.

Sleep Now In The Fire - Rage Against The Machine: I am working on a very niche playlist called Songs Where The Guitar Amp Accidentally Picks Up A Nearby Radio Station For A Couple Of Seconds and it's only 3 songs so far. A Man A Plan A Canal Panama by The Fall Of Troy, Melody 4 by Tera Melos and Sleep Now In The Fire by Rage Against The Machine. In every single one of those songs it feels like a critical component even though it's just an accident that's been left in because it sounds good. Here it's the perfect ending as the rage dies down and the commercial world fades back in. Anyway, my other question about this song is about the great Michael Moore directed video where they famously shut down Wall Street for an afternoon. There's a shot of a guy for a second holding a sign that says Donald Trump For President in 1999. Which is odd but not out of the question, he's been famous for a long time and there's always been freaks. My question is why the fuck did he have that sign that day? Was he amongst the Rage Against The Machine Fans that showed up? A counter protestor? Was he, perhaps most chillingly of all, just walking idly around Wall Street with his Donald Trump For President sign like usual and stumbled upon this whole hoo-haa accidentally?

Applause (Purity Ring Remix) - Lady Gaga: Did you fucking know that Purity Ring did a remix of Applause? If there’s something I’d love to know more about and it’s Purity Ring’s forays into pop production. After their first album they did some production for rappers like Danny Brown in the great track 25 Bucks, which is a good fit really - their sound is witch house with the tempo pushed back up, witch house of course just being chopped and screwed reinvented by tumblr users. So it’s a natural fit to take that new perspective back into the world of hip hop. They also did this fantastic remix of Applause after their first album. Then, after their second album they produced 3 songs for Katy Perry’s Witness album, and one Katy Perry song for a Final Fantasy mobile game soundtrack (?) and feel like the long silence and delay between their second and third albums is because of more behind the scenes pop production work - but if that’s true, where is it? Is it, as I suspect, part of my own personal Pepe Silvia, Katy Perry’s scrapped 2019 album that has vanished into thin air? Or is it part of Chromatica? I think Purity Ring have solidified an interesting place in pop, paving the way for Billie Eilish and Kim Petras’ dark anti-pop and so i’m excited to see where they go after this new album now that they’re the architects of the new wave.

React/Revolt - Drahla: The smartest thing you can do is add a saxophone to your band. The whole first half of this song could go for 20 minutes of growling screaming saxophone post-punk and I wouldn't mind. Then when the second half of the song kicks in it's fantastic in the way this whole Drahla album is: it's tight and sprawling post-punk at the same time with a complicated structure that seems to just pile onto itself instead of ever circling back.

And I Was Like - Porridge Radio: I'm seemingly having a real thing this month for songs that open with a bizzare acapella chant. Between this and the Funkadelic one it's a genre I'm very interested in hearing more of. Isaac Newton was a virgin and it's important to recognise that. The thing I love about this song is how it's in 3 distinc sections: Isaac Newton was a virgin, she's a birthday girl in a birthday world, and mum no please it's grunge, and they all feel like the concentrated energy of a 14 year old's thoughts. She sounds like she's almost crying when she sings 'she's a birthday girl in a birthday world'. The concentrated confusing teenaged energy of this song is just overwhelming.

Dirty Mattresses - Mama's Broke: So much of contemporary 'traditional folk' either exists as pure nostalgia music or as music that's trying too hard to be 'authentic' and evoke a mythology of a bygone time, but Mama's Broke manage to make it feel new and modern but honest and authentic at the same time. The super close harmonies and modern approach remind me of House And Land who I also love, but the songwriting is in another class entirely.

Building A House - CHOPCHOP: I don't know if you've ever seen Bad Boy Bubby but CHOPCHOP feels a little like the band that he ends up joining at the end. A musical ensemble built to enable the will of a very strange man. I think the band is from the UK and I'm not sure where the singer is from, but he has this incredible deeply accented voice that brings such a gravity to everything he sings in the way that anyone speaking english as a second language accidentally brings new weight to common turns of phrase.

Universal Soldier - Jay Electronica: It feels fitting, looking back, that Jay Electronica finally released his album right before the world ended. It was literally now or never. Some how Jay-Z is the breakout star of this album for me. He's got some of his best verses in years on here and he's a great opposition to Electronica's flow when they trade verses. I would also, as an aside, like to know the origin of the kids cheering sample throughout this, because it's the same one from AM//Radio by Earl Sweatshirt and Wish You Were Gay by Billie Eilish. So what's that about.

Sticky Hulks - Thee Oh Sees: I've been very slowly getting into Oh Sees and I love them a lot so far. Their unweildy, huge discography spread across a lot of variations of the same name makes digging into them very rewarding as well. There's a great line on their wiki detailing all the times they've changed their name that goes: Orinoka Crash Suite (1997–2003), OCS (2003–2005, 2017), Orange County Sound (2005), The Ohsees (2006), The Oh Sees (2006–2008), Thee Oh Sees (2008–2017), Oh Sees (2017–2019) Osees (2019) to give you some idea of what we're working with here. Basically it's just everything you could want from a pychedelic band like this: a history and discography as shaggy as the songs themselves.

Knife On The Platter - BODEGA: In reading about Bodega I learned that they don't have a drummer in the traditional sense. They have someone credited as a 'stand up percussionist', and in listening back I realised that's they key to the groove in their music. He's not playing a kit he's just slamming at a tom and a snare on a rack, while one of the singers plays hi-hat here and there. So all the drumming has this barebones caveman feel to it and I absolutely love it. The band feels a lot like The Fashion, and that whole mid-2000s dance-punk movement that I've been desparate to come back so naturally I love it a lot.

Against Gravity - Horse Lords: Horse Lords are one of the most incredible bands I've heard in a long time. Somewhere between a more analogue Battles and Laddio Bolocko, they make a kind of churning math-jazz that sounds like huge intersecting squares of rhythm slowly overlapping. It feels like there's an infinite depth in these songs, you can listen and focus on a single instrument and see it shifting in and out of place with everyone else, before you lose it again and it retreats back into the swirling mass.

Plain To See Plainsman - Colter Wall: I've been listening to this Colter Wall album a lot, and it's really beginning to rank among my all time favourites. I grew up around the flattest place in the southern hemisphere, so I love the plains and it's very nice to have a cowboy song I can relate to like that.

The Nail - Sarah Shook & The Disarmers: Sarah Shook has so much character in her voice I completely love it. She is also a fantastic songwriter that manages to make outlaw country punk that sounds authentic and doesn't have the rockabilly posturing that a lot of the genre suffers from.

Inner Reaches 慾望的暗角二 - Gong Gong Gong 工工工: The best thing about Gong Gong Gong is you can listen to this whole song before you realise they don't have a drummer. They're a guitar and bass duo that play and sing with such a layered rhythmic intensity between the two of them that they really don't need one. A drummer would just clutter the space already taken up by their ferocious rhythm.

Country Pie - Bob Dylan: I'm a big fan of Bob Dylan's dumb songs. He has a lot where if it's the first song you ever heard from him you would be mad at whoever told you he was the greatest songwriter to ever live for trying to trick you like this. What I especially love about this song is how abruptly it ends, like dad just came home and everyone panicked cause they're know they're not supposed to be staying up that late.

You Did It Yourself - Arthur Russell: It seems hard to believe that I've only just found out about Arthur Russel. He seems to be a mainstay of Music Guy lists and somehow I've only heard of him this month. I've been obsessing over the Iowa Dream album, which is a compilation of a lot of different (mostly extremely high quality) demos from the late 70s to mid 80s and what really shines through other than the singular strength of his songwriting is how readily and easily he bends from country style folk to romantic piano ballads, to groovy post-punk like this. What I love so much about this song is it's a great lesson in songwriting: sometimes a song can just be a vague review of a middling movie and still have emotional resonance. Incredible. There's a great NPR article about Arthur Russel and the process of assembling half-takes and demos into complete recordings that you should read if you're interested. https://www.npr.org/2019/11/20/779721417/which-arthur-russell-are-we-getting-on-iowa-dream

The Dogs Outside Are Barking - Arthur Russell: I love this song because it's such a perfect distillation of a teenaged moment: trying to find a moment alone with someone when you have no freedom at all to create one. The song cycles through potential situations but leaves the problem unresolved, existing in the moment of nervous romantic tension preceding an unasked question and it's just beautiful.

Men For Miles - Ought: I love the vocal melody in the verse here so much. Spiking up unnaturally at the end of the lines like a nervous and strange version of The Strokes. Even the way he cramps his words in in the chorus is so good, switching registers randomly like he's impersonating someone else.

Mister Soweto - Lizzy Mercier Descloux: https://pitchfork.com/features/from-the-pitchfork-review/9828-lizzy-mercier-descloux-behind-the-muse/ Pitchfork has a great article about Lizzy Mercier Descloux detailing how she is continually undervalued and underappreciated. I found her though my Discover Weekly and became immediately obsessed with this album - a perfect mix of off-kilter 80s bass and brass that is so colourful and seems to move in a million directions at once like the songs can't even catch up with themselves sometimes. I'm excited to dig into her discography more and try to understand her more because she has a truly unique approach that I can't get enough of.

Sweden - Marilyn Crispell: I've been looking for a while for other pianists of Cecil Taylor's calibre, rare type that it is and I am so glad to have finally found out about Marilyn Crispell. She plays free jazz like Taylor, but in much less percussive and disonnant style. There's a New York Times quote that seems to follow her that says "Hearing Marilyn Crispell play solo piano is like monitoring an active volcano. She is one of a very few pianists who rise to the challenge of free jazz." and it's really very apt. She will move with seemingly no warning at all from mediative, colourful stokes to a mad descent unto uncertainty and beyond, then back again without a moments hesitation. Her music moves like a dream, linking a stream of unlinked images with an ease that only seems incongruous on reflection.

Twins - Gem Club: I have loved this song for a very long time and I come back to it over and over and appreciate it anew. What I appreciate about on listening to it this time is the strangeness of it's structure, following up the verse with an instrumental break, and then a long instrumental intro to the chorus gives it so much space to spread out and breathe, giving the beautiful gravity of the song even more weight. Then after the chorus it moves straight to a bridge and then the intro and first verse again. It's a fantastic song that makes it's small parts so large, where another songwriter or another producer would pare them down.

Grand Central - Paul Cauthen: Something I've learned in listening to a lot of cowboy music is that the number one thing that cowboys hate and fear is getting hanged. They hate it worse than cats hate getting sprayed with water. I found out about Paul Cauthen combing through Colter Wall's similar artists looking for more of this brand of new old fashioned country and I really found it here. Paul Cauthen comes from four generations of preachers and left the church to pursue country music instead, which feels like an extremely old fashioned position to be in here in 2020 but I guess lots of people in Texas still live like that, and thank god they do or we wouldn't have Paul Cauthen's big mournful Elvis voice to sing us songs about the railway.

Serafina - BAMBARA: I love this sort of spoken word leather jacket rock and roll. It's so extremely Cool in an old fashioned way. Like a more rock and roll version of Enablers.

So 4 Real - The Hecks: I love love love this song that sounds like a sped up Prince demo. The strange thinness of the mix and the way the vocals are buried just makes it sound so strange and great, like it was put together on some ancient 4 track recorder that can't handle the pure energy of the song.

In The Pines (Version 2) - Jackson C. Frank: There's a very good 3 hour compilation of Jackson C. Frank recordings that came out a few years called Remastered And Unreleased that I listened through the other day. It's just magnificent. This version of In The Pines is one of my favourite I've ever heard, the mournful vocals coupled with his churning rhythm guitar really brings out the darkness of it in a way I've never heard.

(Tumble) In The Wind (Version 1) - Jackson C. Frank: Another favourite from this compilation that is slightly hard to listen to. I don't know if there's a date on it but I'd guess this was recorded near the end of his life. It is so beautiful, but you can hear in his voice and breathing that he's unwell. In Horseshoe Crabs by Hopalong she sings a story from his perspective this song really seems to fit in the second half of that. "Woke from the dream and I was old / Staring at the ass crack of dawn / Walked these streets up and down / Looking for Paul Simon / All I found was myself, lost in time / I tried singing my songs / But I lost my mind"

Sludge - Squid: I'm thinking of putting together a playlist of all the great Black Midi-adjacent bands I've found out about recently and Squid is at the top of the list. This new breed of art-punk is so fantastic and goes in a million different directions. I'm just so excited it exists.

Straight Shot - Quelle Chris: I love this song and Guns is a phenomenal album but there’s one thing bothering me. The ‘who are you, what are you’ part at the end sounds so incredibly familiar to me and I can’t figure out why. As far as I can tell it’s not a sample, but googling reveals that the english voice on it is fucking James Acaster the standup comedian. So what’s going on? Quelle Chris himself is less than helpful: “Straight Shot is one of those ideas that reached out to me, we got along and I simply showed it around town. The chorus, poem at the end and basic piano progression literally came to me in two separate dreams”. Who knows. Great song though.

Levitation - Dua Lipa: What I really like about this song is that she says sugarboo. This whole album bangs and Dua is really reaping the benefits of being the only pop star with the guts to release an album while everyone’s in lockdown I also have a half-baked theory about the way this song is almost interpolating Blame It On The Boogie in the ‘moonlight, starlight’ part as a sort of aggressive takeover of Michael Jackson’s cancelled legacy. Which is smart really. The same way Taylor Swift is re-recording her albums, let’s just get The Weeknd in the studio for a couple of days and give the world back it’s bangers.

Another Crashed Car - Nine Inch Nails: I am so glad Trent Reznor put out another two volumes of Ghosts. Ghosts I-IV from 2008 seems to have been the bridge from his Nine Inch Nails work to his film score work, and now that he’s had such success with that it’s nice to hear him writing in this style without telling anyone else’s story again. It’s also interesting for him to go back to this project now that Ghosts I-IV has paid dividends in the form of the sample at the centre of Old Town Road but that’s neither here nor there. It’s hard to pick and individual track from these, because they work so effectively as long form albums and not individual tracks, but I chose this one because I put the album on as background ambient while I was doing some boring data entry at work and this track is the point at which I realised I was going out of my mind with stress from doing the simplest tasks because of Trent’s Damned Chords.

Lilacs - Waxahatchee: This is a perfect song. It makes me want to like, draw charts about it and go through it bar by bar to figure out how she did it. It’s perfectly put together. It feels like she uses every trick in the book and it just comes together flawlessly in 3 minutes. Amazing.

Cool Water - Hank Williams: I decided to properly listen to Hank Williams because his shadow stretches over so much of country music, and while a lot of his music really alienated or bored me, and a lot of his songs feel like they would read as novelty songs today (like Hey Good Looking), this is the song that made me understand why he’s so revered.

In My Bones (feat. Kimbra and Tank And The Bangas) - Jacob Collier: Jacob Collier generally irks me. He makes brain music for redditors that lose their mind when someone shows them chord inversions or odd time signatures. Youtubers whose whole personality is ‘y’all heard Giant Steps?’ But he killed it on this song. It’s great despite him. There’s still a lot of corniness to work through, mostly in the big yuck funky lyrics, but structurally it’s a kaleidoscope and a big chunk of its success I’m putting down to Kimbra and Tank who understand that performance is a bigger part of a song than composition in a way Collier maybe doesn’t yet. He can overload the bassline and stop-start the rhythms as much as he likes but without actual personalities driving it it’ll just sound like a Peter Gabriel midi played at 200%.

Earthquake - Graham Central Station: I learned something wonderful in researching this band. The leader, Larry Graham, who was in Sly And The Family Stone is credited with inventing slap bass. He himself refers to the technique as "thumpin' and pluckin' ".

Quand Les Larmes D’un Ange Font Danser La Neige - Melody’s Echo Chamber: Once again furious that I’ve known of Melody’s Echo Chamber for years but never listened to them until now. I have been missing out. This is a perfect sprawling psychedelic jam punctuated with a bizzare cut-up recording about shitting yourself when you die and being declared brain dead in the vatican. It’s got everything. I had to look up who the drummer was on this song because he’s just nailing it, and it turns out it’s Johan Holmegaard from Dungen which is really a perfect fit.

Murder Most Foul - Bob Dylan: I was thinking the other day about how Bob Dylan is doing in quarantine. The man who hasn’t stopped moving his whole life and who’s been on a never ending tour since the 70s is now, I assume, just pacing a hole in a hotel carpet somewhere and jabbering to himself. The strangest part of Bob dropping this 17 minute song about JFK out of nowhere is that he hasn’t put out any original music since 2012. So a gigantic song like this is an even bigger surprise. I, already a huge fan of gigantic songs and Bob Dylan, unsurprisingly love it. I love the slow stirring of the instrumentation, like he hired Dirty Three as a backing band and I love that nearly the entire second half is just listing good songs that he knows. It’s a remarkable song and unlike anything i’ve heard before from Dylan or anyone else. It’s interesting to hear Bob Dylan step into being the great chronicler of the 60s like he’s been told he already was his entire life almost 50 years later, finally accepting the fate foisted on him. The other thing I love about this song is the line when he for some reason praises Lee Harvey Oswald’s shooting “Greatest magic trick ever under the sun / Perfectly executed, skillfully done”

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0k1JjT8fXcUFO6VpM3kaez?si=gWSv88vdShKSnHhLJ_80pQ

#playlists

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babbushka · 3 years

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hey z 👀 i recently have the huge urge to start drawing but i'm so bad at it :( i always doodle in all my classes but they are literally so bad until today where i realized that artists are freaking cool and i wanna learn how to draw properly. i searched on youtube but... then i remembered your beautiful work and that stream you did once and i wondered if you had any tips ? perhaps a book or a video ? to get started on how to draw... 😶

Hello my darling anon! I am so happy that you’ve decided to pursue making art, and I’m honored you came to me! As someone with a fine arts degree, I can absolutely give you some resources that might be worth checking out, but please know this one thing: art is entirely subjective. What one person thinks looks good, another may absolutely hate. As long as you’re happy, and enjoying the process, try not to fixate too much on the outcome. And always remember that representational art is not the only kind of art that is valid or worth celebrating!

That being said, here are some things that I’ve learned are really beneficial to keep in mind, from my many years of drawing, painting, and sculpting:

(under a cut because it’s long lol)

RESEARCH! This is one of those things that I know may seem kind of counter-intuitive, but I fully believe that by surrounding yourself with art, you’ll be more inspired and informed and motivated to make your own. Browse through online galleries, learn about the different art movements and find ones you like, follow contemporary artists and really dive into the work that’s all around you! Notice the things you like most about the art you’re drawn to. Is it the style? The use of color? The textures or lack thereof? Is it the composition? What about the rendering? Are you drawn to more photo realistic work, or work that has a looser interpretation? You don’t know what you like until you start looking at asking yourself these questions!

Use reference!! I know there is a taboo in the online art criticism community for using references, but honestly? References are incredibly helpful. Every great artist you can think of used a reference, whether that’s a live model in front of them, a collection of sketches done beforehand, or a collection of photographs taken and collaged together. Use reference with wild abandon! If you want to draw a bird, you will not be able to do so without looking at a picture of a bird. If you want to draw a person, you have to know what they look like, so go do some research and get to sketching!!

Make studies. This kind of goes hand in hand with the reference. Find something that you like (an object, a person, a landscape) and try to replicate it. Notice the things that you manage to recreate successfully*, and the things that you might need to work more at. Then do it again, paying attention to the improvements. Rinse and repeat.

Time restrict yourself. Often we get so hung up on the idea that everything we makes has to be a masterpiece, and everything has to be fully rendered. I believe that this stunts our ability to develop skills because if we’re hung up on perfection, we’ll never get to explore. So, challenge yourself to quick gestural drawings. 3 minutes. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. Capture the essence of the idea without worrying about the details. See how many things you can get down on the page in that time frame -- it doesn’t have to be good, it just has to Be.

Now, onto books! These aren’t so much step-by-step guides (because really the only way to improve is to practice** but more on that later) but rather are aimed to help you open your eye to the idea of drawing.

Drawing People:

Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner by Claire Watson Garcia

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

Complete guide to drawing from life by George Bridgman

Anatomy for The Artist by Sarah Simblet

Drawing everything else:

Keys to Drawing by Bert Dodson

Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice by Mitchell Albala

Perspective Made Easy by Ernest R. Norling

Learning about the different art movements and their key players:

Art Through the Ages by Helen Gardner

The Story Of Art by H. Gombrich

Ways Of Seeing by John Berger

Isms: Understanding Art by Stephen Little

As for videos, I can’t say that I have too many suggestions other than searching for things like speedpaints or timelapses. I think it’s really informative to watch how other people approach drawing on their own projects, and I always tend to learn something about process when I can just sit and observe the way they go about their piece.

Clarifications:

* = When I say “successfully” I don’t necessarily mean photo-realism. I mean, when you are drawing, and when you’re finding your style, you should be conscious of how your work is reflecting that. Are you more abstract? Are you more impressionist? Are you more concerned with color and form rather than detail, or does detail mean the most to you? These are the things you have to keep in mind when determining if the work is “successful” or not. Is the piece evoking the feeling that you want it to have, is it going in the direction that you wanted it to, is it representative of your plans for the piece, etc. Successful =/= hyper-realism, unless of course, you are aiming for hyper-realism.

** = Practice is, undoubtedly, inarguably, the most important thing to get better at any skill, but especially art. And do not be mistaken, art is a skill, just like anything else. People aren’t just born magical artistic geniuses, it is the result of hundreds of hours of practice, learning muscle memory, learning color theory and relationships, learning composition. Artists work hard to produce the content that we do, and that hard work should be celebrated! You’re going to work hard too, so embrace it :)

TLDR; Your art is unique to you. No matter what anyone says online or in books, you have to create the things that make you feel something. Don’t be afraid to experiment with styles or aesthetics that are outside of your comfort zone, and don’t feel like you have to stick to the rules that the art world has put in place. Practice practice practice, work hard, don’t give up, and have fun :)

#Anonymous

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guerilla935 · 4 years

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My Favorite Games That Made Me Care About How I Looked

I’m very self conscious about the way I look in video games. Not only is it normally very easy to change an outfit or get a haircut in a video game it also says something about how I’d like to be perceived, especially in an online game. There are a lot of games that allow their players to express themselves in a lot of really fun and unique ways and I think that it’s really special when you get to celebrate a style that you would never get to portray in real life. These games that I am about to talk about are all games where I was able to look at my character and feel some ounce of pride at something that I had created. Some full disclosure for these images, I pulled them from official gaming outlets and developer blogs but none of these that you are seeing are my original characters. If anyone would like to request to see any of my characters from these games (or any other games!) I would be happy to go and grab screenshots of those characters.

Grand Theft Auto Online

This is a pretty easy choice for most people. I chose specifically GTA Online over any GTA game or Red Dead game because I think the really special part about this is its setting. Your image is not only your character and your outfit in GTA Online but also your car, your house, and your business. There are a lot of different places to choose to call home and there are a lot of things to get “invested” into. For example, my good friend mojo5 runs a night club and wears suits and spends a lot of time gambling at the casino. That’s a character that would be different than mine who dresses and acts like a street racer. It gives your character a kind of personality and back story that is hard to achieve in other games. I have always kind of considered Grand Theft Auto Online to be a modern MMO of sorts, a playground. And as much as it is a huge lobby where you wait to start activities, it is also a sprawling city-space where you can essential live, make money, create this fun fictional life for yourself. And as far as fashion goes, the outfits, the cars, and the real estate help you shape that fantasy. Basically, I can tell you that I spent way more time customizing my character than I spent in actual activities in Grand Theft Auto Online.

Saint’s Row Series

I love Saint’s Row. It is very similar to the last entry in this article but has this unique and goofy style that makes a lot of things okay that I would never do to my GTA character. In Saint’s Row I can have a neon blue Mohawk wielding a 10 foot melee weapon that is designed to look like something extremely unmentionable while driving a night rider space car that is also a tank and it’s totally fine because in the next cut scene you are about to fight Roddy Piper in Keith Davids nightmares. The games are incredibly wild and I love how I can let loose with a lot of different styles, and in the same way that I feel like I am creating my gritty street racer in GTA, I can make my goofy crime lord super hero secret agent in Saint’s Row. I think specifically in Saint’s Row 2 I took it a little more seriously because the tone of the game is a little more serious than the other entries however I have a specially place in my heart for how wacky each game allows me to be.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

You knew we couldn’t just not talk about Animal Crossing: New Horizons. With the current situation, the Animal Crossing community is insanely huge. I cannot avoid the heap of Animal Crossing videos and screenshots all over social media. On my island of Sandover Village, I am patiently awaiting the Able Sisters to set up shop so that I am able to put in codes from everyone else’s custom designs that I’m seeing on twitter. That is because I have on my phone a stockpile of sweatshirts, sweaters, robes, and hats that I am actually really excited to show off in game. I tried to create some of my own but I am not one of the gifted seamstress’s that there seems to exist on the internet. I am not very far into Animal Crossing but by looking at other peoples games I know that I have only scratched the surface of my options in the game. I have to commend Nintendo on the amount of individualization that the design pro feature gives to its players. I have never seen a game give players the option to design their own clothing and it makes the social experience of the game feel so fresh.

Dark Souls III

One of the most badass games that I have ever played as far as character design is concerned is Dark Souls III. When I put on a new set of armor I sit in awe of how it looks because I can see each tiny tear in the cape, every dent in the helmet, and the wear and weight of the armor. I was dragged through this game by some friends (because I could never in a thousand years have the patience to beat it by myself) and I followed them to every cursed swamp and death crypt because I wanted to see every weapon and every armor set. You look absolutely ghoulish in every armor set and I love it to death. This game allows so much in the way of customization and I think it helps that almost every gear set is good enough to get you through the entire game and that allows you to play with a lot of different looks and game play styles. This game is tough, really really tough, but you look really good even when you die.

Splatoon 2

Splatoon 2 is a really special online shooter. I think in the month that I played this game religiously the thing that kept me playing was coming back to the stores to see what kind of clothes were in stock and what kind of items I could steal off the players in the lobby. I think that the developers of Splatoon 2 knew that the players were in it for the threads because every reward for playing the game was most likely a piece of clothing. The clothing options kind of vary from academy prep to Patagonia camp wear to skater outfits. And it comes together in this very hipster overall aesthetic that blends really naturally. The game features a mechanic that I really like wear you can walk up to anyone in the online lobby and look at what their wearing and order it. By the time I logged on the next day I had (a noticeably weaker version of) the exact same item but it really makes you feel like anything you see, you have access too which is really cool. And the ordering of the items kept me coming back to play every day.

Final Fantasy XIV Online

I’ve heard it said many times that the real end game content of Final Fantasy XIV Online was the glamor and housing systems, and for most people they aren’t wrong. I will never stop being surprised at the outfits that players can put together in this game. I have seen millions of players in my 750 hours in Eorzea and I have not seen two characters look the same. The customization options are really limitless and I truly believe that. I played a healer mage and in my time at max level I had outfits that made me look like a cowboy, a thief, a fox spirit, a grim reaper, and even one that made me appear like a real healer mage. The clothing options throw a Final Fantasy twist on every kind of style that they set to replicate. So even though all the outfits can be wacky they never feel out of place in the world. If you want a game that you can make almost 50% just about customizing your character and taking it out to the town to show it off or in big raids to flaunt your style then this might be your game.

Pokemon Sword And Shield

Pokemon is still trying to get it right but Sword and Shield is Game Freaks best attempt at trainer customization. The clothing options in the game are very European, well, they have always been that way but they are ESPECIALLY European in this one. Probably the greatest customization offered is the hair which in the world of anime characters is the most important one. I loved designing my character in this game but it was just so brief because shopping in this game is so boring as most clothes in the actual stores are very samey which makes the act of shopping pretty boring most of the time. I would roll up to a new town really excited to see what kind of stuff they had in the shop but it was just new colors for the same weird duffel bag that your character had already. Note that the game is mostly about the Pokemon so they really didn’t have to put any trainer customization in the game to make it a good game but they did a half decent job putting this much customization in the game and I feel like it’s going to keep getting steadily better the more times they implement this feature into their games. Big plus, you can design your trading card in the game and it is the most adorable thing and feels like a huge payoff to have a cool card if you’ve put a lot of effort into your trainer.

Soul Calibur VI

So I haven’t actually played Soul Calibur VI, I bought the game and went immediately into character creation and started making my own roster of fighters that I ended up using maybe once or twice and moving on from. The character creator in this fighting game is really special. So the idea is that you choose a character that already exists and you keep their move set and fighting style but change how they look and immediately the things that came out of the community were hilarious. Some are kind of terrifying but they come shockingly close to being somewhat recognizable. For me it almost comes down to that being someone who is unfamiliar with the cast of Soul Calibur VI I cannot tell the difference between actual characters from the game and characters frakensteined together in the character creator. As on of the most fun character creators I’ve ever used I think it’s at least worth googling what other people have created.

God of War (2018)

The newest God of War introduced something that we never got in the older games and that was the ability to change out what Kratos was wearing. While it was important in the game to maximize his stats, it also made you look cooler and cooler as the game went on. I wouldn’t say that you have a lot of options of things to wear in this game but I always felt bummed when I picked up something with relatively low stats that looked amazing. Later on the armor sets become more like trophies for completing hard tasks. The design of each piece of armor is really intricate and amazing to look at and while you can’t just pick whatever you want, I really wish that you could.

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

In the Reaper of Souls expansion pack a new vendor was added to Diablo III that changed the way that I looted in the game. The vendor was called the mystic and she would make a piece of gear look like any other piece of gear of the same type. This meant that I could look amazing all the time without sacrificing strength. The way that the database of appearances you could pick from expands over time gave so many options that I couldn’t decide at some points. The coolest armor in the game was now accessible at any time. And the armor in Diablo III looks tight, sometimes I would argue that unless you pick some unique stuff it doesn’t make that big of a difference because of the isometric point of view in the game but it is really fun to have an added layer of customization in Diablo.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

So this is actually a section dedicated to Nexus Mod Manager because Skyrim in itself doesn’t actually have a whole lot of variations in the ways you can dress. But with the powers of modding you can now do absolutely anything and there are a whole group of 3D modelers out there getting you immersive and lore friendly items that make you look a whole lot cooler. The wonderful world of modding can turn kind of creepy very fast, a lot of very suggestive mods are out there and a lot of very inappropriate things so you know, a fair warning. It’s incredible when you can make it work and keep it from getting to the level of ultimate Skyrim. You can change and add clothes and weapons, add hair styles, and even add entire races into the game. Sometimes though I really believe that I like browsing mods a lot more than I like actually playing with them but I found that it is really satisfying to download a mod like Immersive Armors and see just how much it changes how diverse the selection of armors that not only you but everyone in the game now wears can be.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

So I believe that some other previous Zelda titles had the ability to change Links outfit but never to this extent. What I think is the coolest part about the clothing system in this game is that you wear certain clothes to survive certain climates but you can also forget all that and make a yummy meal instead that lets you be warm wearing the desert clothes in the snow. The amount of armors that you can amass in this game starts off kind of underwhelming but becomes really fun and interesting and serves all sorts of fun fan service for fans of the series. This game doesn’t have the versatility and variety of some of the other games in the series but any game that lets you cross dress to sneak into a city of warrior women is credited for its costume design in my book.

League of Legends

I have spent a shameful amount of money on skins. I hate League of Legends and I hate most of the business practices of Riot Games but their skins just look good. I can appreciate when someone I don’t like makes something good and they consistently pump out awesome looking skins that are frankly worth the money if you play the game regularly. Back when I played this game daily I put up way too much money, even I think about 18$ just on a skin that changed colors when you typed a specific command. Anyways that’s really all I have, there aren’t a lot of games where I like the skins, especially the fact that they are mostly behind pay walls but League gets a pass I suppose.

Destiny Series

I used to be really into playing a specific game mode in Destiny named Iron Banner. I played a lot of it in Destiny and a good portion of them in Destiny 2. When you played enough Iron Banner in a year you were able to collect an armor set to commemorate the achievement. Almost all the cool armor in Destiny has purpose to it. Not only do you get to decide how you look but it also is you showing off the fact that you completed a raid, were really good at sparrow racing, or kicked major ass in the crucible. Each armor was recognizable and everyone knew what it meant. I think that is what makes the customization in Destiny so rewarding, its that it is in itself an actual reward for completing hard tasks that not everyone will be able to complete.

Code Vein

Out of all the anime games I’ve played I think what stands out to me the most is that their character creators have all been really bad. This is where Code Vein really shined. Code Vein has this dystopian vampire aesthetic that is really unique and allows for a lot of ways to make cool characters that fit into the look of the game. I don’t think that what they’ve done here is completely new but they have this style that is exciting to play with. Making a revenant is fun and builds this anticipation for the rest of the game. I also respect the games decision to allow you to make modifications to your character after the game has started which is not something that most games would allow. Code Vein has these cape’s that you can wear to gain abilities and those are cool to add onto your outfit but I don’t think that it outshines what the character creator has done here. It’s a niche thing I guess but if you have always wanted to make your own anime vampire then this is it.

A Persona

I really like making characters for a reason. I think a lot of the escapism of video games hinges on me placing myself into the character on the screen. That’s why I love what you can do in games like Animal Crossing that is all about creating exactly what you want and Final Fantasy XIV Online where you get to exist and share in a world as a persona of sorts. Being able to customize a character in a video game does not make that game good or bad, but I think that when you are given the option the developer is given an opportunity to make it a very special experience and allow you to be unique within a community of people online. And the internet has made that sharing of characters really special, allowing everyone to see how unique of an experience you can have with a game by beating it with “your character”.

Special Shout Outs For Stylish Games And Characters

SSX series being dripping in 90s style

Also NBA Street Vol. 2 for the same reason

Persona 5 for being the most stylish game ever

Halo because space marines rock extra style points

Katana Zero for being badass and 80s neon will always be in style

Specifically Graffiti Mario in Super Mario Sunshine he had flair

Samurai Legend Musashi for having a stylish game case but being a horrible game

Devil May Cry just for existing

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jayie-the-hufflepuff · 4 years

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had a lot of fun working on the Squirrelflight design meme I did recently, so I decided to do another one. This time I picked Spottedleaf, since she has one of the most interesting written designs, and it's been interpreted in a lot of really cool ways by fanartists. The blank meme is made by @shebpaw on Tumblr.

I'm actually planning on doing another round of Spottedleaf designs, so feel free to send me your designs if you want me to use yours. :D

The artists that I used the designs for Spottedleaf are, in order:

1. Mine

3. @birdsong-warriors

6. @goldenflowersupportteam

I'm even happier with how this design meme turned out than the last one. :D These are some really cool designs, and I had a lot of fun drawing them and trying to get them right. Once again, I drew them all in my own art style because I find it easier to compare and contrast different colors and patterns when they're drawn in the same style.

There’s a lot of really cool Spottedleaf designs out there, I had a lot of fun picking out which designs to use for this. These are some of my favorite Spottedleaf designs, or the ones I feel are the most unique. The colors on meow286’s design are really pretty, and I love how soft and pretty she looks, and the little leaves by her ear. I love birdsong-warrior’s comic Redtail’s Choice, and I definitely wanted to include their pretty Spottedleaf design. Trying to get the expression right was interesting, but I like how she kind of playfully teases her brother in the comic and wanted to get her personality across here.

I was struck by how pretty Dovah-del-Norte’s design was when I was looking for some to include, and how interesting it would be to try and replicate. Not totally sure I got it right, but it was fun to draw regardless. ^^ I picked DragonWarriorCat’s design to draw for the same reason, I saw it and loved how pretty and unique the design was, and it looked fun to try and tackle. She looked pretty oriental-ish when I saw her, so I drew her as an oriental cat here, I hope that was right. I saw goldenflowersupportteam’s design a while back, and the mostly-dark tortie design with minimal white was a big inspiration for my current Spottedleaf design, and it’s such a beautiful design, I definitely has to include it. :D

Overall, I’m really happy with how this turned out. :D Merry Christmas, y’all. I got some video games and tickets to see Celtic Woman, and I had a really nice day with family. How about you guys? And don’t forget to send me your Spottedleaf design if you want me to use it. ^^

#Warrior Cats #Warriors #Erin Hunter #Spottedleaf #Shebpaw Design Meme #ThunderClan #Medicine Cat

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jewish-space-laser · 4 years

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Character Profile - M&BC

Look at this lovely character profile game that Anne created! Her mind... but really, thank you Anne ( @oh-honey-styles ) for constantly encouraging and engaging fic writers, you are a big part of the reason that being on tumblr is so fun. I’ve been tagged to answer a few questions from the perspective of the MC in Miles & Black Coffee, so here it is! Since it’s a self-insert story, the photos above just serve to match her general energy, not her actual appearance. Imagine her to look however you like!

Rules: Choose a few favorite photos/aesthetics of your tagged character, answer the questions below from their point of view, and tag some characters/authors you would love to see answer next!

***

1. How do you display affection? What’s your love language?

I actually have a really hard time displaying affection, even to the people I cherish the most. If I had to pick one, my main love language would be quality time, but it’s probably tied with acts of service for first place. Actions speak louder than words!

2. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I’d learn to let things go, and maybe stop caring so much about things (and people) that only serve to make me angry.

3. What is your ideal Saturday morning?

Saturday morning? You expect me to be awake before noon on a weekend?

4. What is your drink of choice? Nonalcoholic? Alcoholic?

Whatever is cheapest and will get me drunk fastest... but if money weren’t a factor, it would be nothing but top shelf whisky and expensive champagne. Live it up, right?

5. How competitive are you?

It’s always nice to win at something, but I’m not a sore loser. It really depends on who I’m playing with, though. If my sister beats me at a board game, it’s no big deal... if it’s H*rry, then I’ll be demanding a rematch immediately.

6. When did you last have sex? Feel free to describe if you feel comfortable.

It hasn’t been that long, despite what all my friends tell me... 🙄 My ex and I ended things fairly recently, and there hasn’t been anyone since. I’m definitely ready to get back out there, though.

7. What is your idea of a perfect date?

I don’t really care about the specifics, I just want it to be original and unique. I like being surprised, and I like dating people who can think outside the box. Take me on a date that couldn’t be replicated with anyone else!

8. What is your most treasured possession?

This is going to sound pathetic, but probably my phone 😬 It has all my music, photos, conversations with friends... I even journal in the notes app, sometimes. I’m trying to stay off of it for the week though, since I’m surrounded by nature and friends and all. It’s nice to take a step back and forget about real life for a bit.

9. Would you ever get a tattoo? Do you have any?

None yet. I want a tattoo so badly, but I have no idea what I would get. Just something small and simple and meaningful, probably on my hip. A few of the girls were saying that Harry has a tattoo gun laying around somewhere, but I’d rather launch myself into an active volcano then let him anywhere near me with that thing.

10. Do you believe in love at first sight? Have you experienced it?

I don’t really know how I feel about love at first sight. It’s a nice thought, but I haven’t quite experienced it myself. I used to think I was in love, but hindsight is 20/20.

***

This was so fun to do!!!! I’m going to tag Harper from Seed and Spark @idkthisisjustforfanfic, Gold Dust Woman MC @smokeinherperfume, ATOTO MC @emotionally-imbruised, Roni from Somewhere in Time @trulymadlysydney, LAH MC @gucciwoodnymph, Clio from Hell of a Life @alexandragramz, Kenzie from Matched @mrsmiresa... there are like 5,000 other stories I want to tag, but I’ll cut myself off here. If you weren’t tagged but want to do it, consider this your tag, and then tag me in it so I can see it! ♥️

#miles & black coffee #m&bc #character profile #tag games #also... pay attention to question 9... that may or may not be important :)

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endlessdoom · 3 years

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Doomer Boards Project 17: Alone

By the Doomer Boards Community

2019

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/d-f/dbp17_alone

MAP01: "Derelict" by vertigo

We started things off with a modest but incredibly environmental map that works perfectly well for establishing the overall mood. A great tribute to the obviously classic Alien, but also inspired by the classic Aliens TC. An empty, medium sized level that implores us to explore and makes us keep our nerves tight. Despite having enemies, we will realize that the real joke of this map is to create the environment. Nice introduction.

MAP02: "They Mostly Come At Night" by Phobus

If with the previous map we introduce the environment, with this the environment explodes and the action makes its scene. A short map with a good modest presentation that manages to establish good tribute to its source material. Here we welcome the new enemies of this map-set: the aliens (xenomorphs) and the facehuggers, both iconic aliens that need no further introduction.

MAP03: "Come Get Your Asses Kicked" by jawsinspace

We go deeper and deeper into this base contaminated by the aliens, going deep into the depths as we battle on this medium sized map that takes us on a simple path of progress through different combats. Nice, simple and solid.

MAP04: "A_TT__P26" by gaspe

Fantastic medium size map with an expansive and well varied layou that takes us through a gallery of scenarios and entertaining, balanced and fun meetings. All this under a solid visual that evokes a great feeling of loneliness and aliens.

MAP05: "The Goddamned Walls" by dmdr

The first large map and does not disappoint. With a quite expansive layout that allows a well adjusted progression but with a bit out of balance (the air dmg zones are a bit irritating) but that manages to maintain a solid quality thanks to its complex and adventurous layout as well as a great level design that promotes numerous combat through different areas that go from tight interiors to rocky exteriors. Fun, though a bit challenging.

MAP06: "Anywhere But Here Again" by Joe-Ilya

A simple semi-linear map with an entertaining and simple development that offers enough minutes of entertainment through a map without real problems but also with remarkable features but a good sense of progression and a well-done layout

MAP07: "Alone In The Shadows" by hardcore_gamer

Alone in the shadows manages to encapsulate quite well the general theme of this brilliant little map. A medium level with quite low brightness levels that are accompanied by flashing lights and metal corridors. The design is mostly focused on the ambiance, but also offers some nice well-constructed encounters thanks to the tension and suspense.

MAP08: "Game Over Man" by vertigo

Contrary to what the title says, we still have a few games to give! MAP09 is a big-medium map with a design that I could describe as semi-industrial with a touch of prison, mostly because of the gloomy atmosphere. The real gist of the map concentrates more on a heavy and constant action under different combat arenas, giving it a welcome touch of eighties action. All pulse rifles blazing. That MIDI rocks great too.

MAP09: "Alien Resurrection" by Big Ol' Billy & Glenzinho

If you thought that everything was finished with Game Over, think again because here we have the finisher of this set. A brilliant, complex and glorious map of great dimensions that takes us through a complicated battlefield where we will have to fight against the last alien/demonic forces of the planet. This is the end and here we have our piece of cake. Satisfying, fast, brutal and with a unique style that is difficult to replicate. Excellent way to bring this DBP to an end.

MAP10: "Cryosleep" by vertigo & Glenzinho

As usual, a small credit map!

The end.

Overall:

DBP17: Alone (2019)

By the Doomer Boards Community

By this point, we can all agree that the Doomer Boards Project really stand out for the originality and creativity. Each month a new map-set with a different visual theme that can be as fun and simple as some well-known trend and also as unique and imaginative as, well, a Cyberdemon colonoscopy. Yet in the very rare occasions, you can find some projects that may look-alike quite a bit. Not a bad thing of course, but it is something that actually brings something interesting that brings some nice retrospective in the general panorama of the entire series. Well, personally, Alone is, I think, that kind of a project and also something more, quite dark, quite… alone.

Alone is one special 10 maps-set with quite the interesting yet already used theme, that being the Alien/HR Giger inspiration for the creation of it and the overall visual theme. Aliens are bound to appear, yet the actual gist of it lies on the simplistic yet enthralling level design and linear layouts that allow for some fast yet tense action. Now, why do I say already used? Well, I believe, and I’m quite sure, the DBP already had one Aliens themed map-set, the DBP04: Xenomorph Base. Which is also part of the original 5, so one of the OG DBPs. Yet, the first one failed a little bit in some points, leaving me with a less favorable but still decent opinion about the overall project. On the other hand, almost a year later, DBP17: Alone is another story, and this one ends quite better.

As you might expect from an Aliens themed project, atmosphere and presentation are on priority list for the general design of the visual style in each single fantastical set, all creating together quite the moody set, and for that we also have to thank MAP01 by @Vertigo, also leader of this project and his leading debut in the DBP! Quite the success. MAP02 by prolific mapper @Phobus is where all the tension breaks down and the action burns up, introducing two new main enemies: The xenomorph, which you can imagine like a Pinky but more athletic and probably even more dangerous. On the other corner we have the face hugger, another classic Alien, uh, alien, that works like a mini-Pinky demon. Notice that I say Pinky because the Pinky is pretty much the only melee-only demon in Doom. Well, now thanks to these fantastic new assets we have two new demons/aliens that are actually very fun to encounter. But alright! Moving on. MAP03 by @jawisnspace is a more mechanical, almost tech-base like map with some dark encounters and interesting scenery that introduces a well-done presentation. MAP04 by @gaspe takes us into an adventure of interiors and exteriors, along some really solid visuals. Our first true big map comes from the hands of @dmdr in MAP05, a big, tight and dark level that brings a nice challenge. MAP06 by @Joe-Ilya works as a good intermission allowing for some rest while exploring a simple yet solid map. MAP07 is where things get quite creepy. A fantastical moody map by @Hardcore_gamer, delivering quite the darkly alleys of pure alien blood and some humans bodies here and there. @Vertigo comes back again and gift us MAP08, a big, broad and explorative map full of adventure and xenomorphs. Lots of those. Finally, if you thing the DBP sage wasn’t going to make and appearance, well think again cause @Big Ol Billy makes a comeback by co-authoring alongside @Glenzinho MAP09, the finalizer of this beautiful dark plate. A fully fledged adventure map that follows a complex combat system and quite the deep layout. Beautiful way to end a map-set! Well, of course we also have MAP10, a tiny credits maps that always brings nice feelings to my heart in each single DBP.

While Xenomorph Base felt like a good example that seemed to mimic the inspirations of Aliens TC or, obviously, Giger; Alone feels more like a complete tribute to the work of the people who strove to develop the fantastic dark art of Aliens. What we have here is a beautiful example of atmospheric maps that manage to capture a fantastic cinematic essence thanks to a good use of tracking and leadership. The maps are simple, mostly, but each one evokes the feeling of playing an official Alien game. Part of that is due, obviously to the moody level design, but also thanks to the introduction of the new enemies, skins, sounds and a MIDI that kicks ass. Meeting the first Xenomorphs is a fun, intense and exhilarating experience. But we take the rest of the new assets and we have a fantastic work that gives us a solid presentation along about 9 decent to great maps that try to give as much atmosphere as fun. Not only are these maps made simply to have that sci-fi horror movie look of the eighties/seventies, but they are also a clear Doom WAD that is as much fun to play with as it is to admire. A kind of futuristic visualization of what Aliens TC would have been if it was made during modern times, and also a path of redemption for the original DBP04.

The interesting object of the gameplay also lies in the introduction of the two new enemies mentioned above: The Alien (or Xenomorph) and the Face Hugger, or, well, hand-walker-with-strange-colors-and-terrible-appearance, as I like to call it. Seriously, look at him, that comes straight from hell. These two enemies are implemented in a very natural and dynamic way that manages to make a good set with the rest of the Doom's generic offspring (which also bring new skins) creating a good example of adjustment between difficulty and implementation. These new enemies stand out mainly for their method of attack: speed and high damage. Their HP is extremely low, but the high speed can take some time to get used to. They move like Pinkies in NM! which is quite an adrenaline rush. Lovely! Although, I do have to admit, while the overall enemy positioning is simple and solid enough to feel balanced, every once in a while we might get our assess kicked by these guys. These aliens.

Overall, all I can say is that Alone feels like a worthy Aliens-inspired theme; the new weapons, the new enemies, the level design, the sound, the atmosphere, the kick-ass combat and the frenetic gameplay. All these factors work together to deliver what is quite the enjoyable experience in this alone adventure.

#doom #wad #mapping #review #retro #gaming

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zukalations · 4 years

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88th Class Ties

This round-robin style talk with all the 92nd class members was published in the May 2017 issue of GRAPH, as part of a series on the more senior classes (those who have been in the company 10 years of more).

In case the tags don’t cooperate, the participants are: Kouzuki Ruu, Asaka Manato, Kagetsu Miyako, Sahana Mako, Kurenai Yuzuru, Hoshou Dai, Yugiri Rai

Kozuki Ruu, Kagetsu Miyako, and Sahana Mako are the only participants still current at time of posting, and Sahana will retire at the conclusion of Snow Troupe’s 2020 show Once Upon A Time In America.

88th Class Ties

Start!

Moon Troupe, Kozuki Ruu

“Alright, I’ll start this off~! Oh, I got Maa-kun (Asaka)!”

Asaka Manato is…

Calm and collected, yet flexible Ever since we were Lower Students she’s been calm and collected, and I’ve never seen her mess up, or seen her cry. But, when we all would get together to goof around, she’d join in, that kind of feeling. In any case, she’s really clever. Also, although she’s the younger one, she has an older-brotherly feeling of ‘Everything will be okay!’, and she’s a really reliable person.

A big eater Although her appearance hasn’t changed at all up to now, I seem to have an image of her eating a lot more in the past… I remember that she wouldn’t be affected by whatever went on around her at all and just steadily kept eating at her own pace… (laughs).

So fast at remembering choreography! Ever since she was a lower student she’s been able to memorize the choreography so quickly! It was the same way in things like Takarazuka Special, and recently when I asked her ‘So how do you learn the choreography?’ she told me ‘I don’t know, I just kind of look at the choreographer and my body moves’, so I wasn’t able to comprehend it at all (laughs). I think she comes by it naturally!

Cosmos Troupe, Asaka Manato

“Ahaha! (laughs) Did I say that about the choreography? I’m terrible, aren’t I! As for being a big eater, I must have been going through my growth spurt back then~ Also, saying I’m clever is going too far! But, Ruu-chan (Kouzuki), thank you!”

Kagetsu Miyako is…

Unchangingly a cute little creature She’s always been just like a little squirrel. Even as her seniority has increased that hasn’t changed at all, so no matter when I look at her I think ‘She’s so cute~’. As for her personality, she’s really laid-back but also has a bit of a mysterious side to her. I want to have a mysterious side, so I’m jealous of that part (laughs).

Sleeps with her eyes open When we were in TMS, she would really sleep a lot. But she wouldn’t close her eyes properly when she slept, so you could never tell if she was asleep or not (laughs). Nacchan (Kagetsu), do you still sleep with your eyes open~?

Suddenly turned into a great actress She’s such a great performer! What an actress! I was so moved by her in Grand Hotel, and her role of the grandmother in Spring Snow was so powerful! I was thinking ‘and that’s Nacchan…?’ I was able to talk to her in the dressing room about performing the other day, and as a senior actress she has such an amazing way of thinking about things, and she has really sharp perception. I’m so happy that the little creature from TMS became able to have such deep conversations! (laughs)

“Nacchan is so cute 💖 ”

Moon Troupe, Kagetsu Miyako

“This is really info you could only get from a classmate (laughs). But...I know I still sleep with my eyes open (laughs). I’ve always had people tell me I’m like a little animal… Maybe it’s because when I get flustered I’ll be like ‘Wa~h!’? (laughs) Being able to talk with Maa-kun after so long, we were each able to learn from each others’ experiences, so that was interesting. Above all, I’m so happy that she became Top Star!

Sahana Mako is…

Able to see things in such an incisive way She’s always been like this, but she sees things in just slightly different ways from other people. Ever since we were in the music school, I picture Kyabii as looking at things from her own point of view and laughing (laughs). Of course it wasn’t in a bad way at all. As we’ve been in the company longer we’ve gotten so close, so as we’re talking about different things, often I’ll realize ‘Oh, she must have been looking at things this way!’ and being surprised. She’s so fun!

Such a skilled actor I love Kyabii’s acting. Perhaps this is related to her unique way of looking at things, but when we were doing the Culture Festival, all she was doing was drinking something and scowling but she had a totally different atmosphere to everyone else. And now that she is bringing that to her current performances, so I really love that sense she has.

Feminine and kind I think she has an image as a really intelligent person, but she is also such a gentle and feminine person. I like that part of her too (laughs). She’s so considerate, like a really reliable older sister, and she’s also so kind, and always sees the good points in people. Basically I just love Kyabii (laughs).

Snow Troupe, Sahana Mako

“I think Natsuko (Kagetsu) is a really unique musumeyaku, so I’m really honored to hear this from her! As our seniority has increased we have gotten into the habit of talking about all kinds of things, and I wish I had something like Natsuko’s totally unique aspects that nobody else can replicate. But that spacey side of her is really healing too. We talk about anything and everything on or offstage, so our relationship has surpassed that of classmates.”

Kurenai Yuzuru is…

She has an odd way of looking at things When we were asked our reasons for deciding to try out for Takarazuka, she said “I want to paint the seats of the Grand Theatre red”. But...they’re red already.

Loves Takarazuka She’s a dyed-in-the-wool traditional Takarazuka fan. Back then [in TMS] she went and wrote in my performance notebook, where I would pour out my passion, that she loved Asazumi Kei-san. But, even though she said she really liked her, she wrote her nickname of Kayoko-san as ‘Kakoyo-san’.

Stoic in her own way Ever since she was a lower student, she would diligently practice the things she was struggling with. But since she was seeing her goal in a slightly different way to other people, it would have the opposite effect, she would end up running away with herself even further. As a result, to come all the way around she would put in even more steady work than anyone else.

Star Troupe, Kurenai Yuzuru

“Actually, at the beginning what I wanted to say was ‘I want to paint the seats scarlet [T/N: ‘kurenai’]’ but she came back at me ‘That means empty seats!’ (laughs). Running away with myself in the opposite direction… (laughs). That’s totally true! I never see what’s close to me. But, I think maybe it’s good that I’m that way (laughs). I’ve been good friends with Sahana Mako ever since we were in TMS. We would pretend we were in Masked Romanesque together and stuff (laughs).”

“Who will I get…”

Hoshou Dai is…

The top dummy of the 88th class! Our classmates always say that me and Dai-chan (Houshou) were about even in terms of being common-sense challenged, but they all say “If we had to choose, Dai-chan was the worst!” so just give up and admit it! (laughs) You’re number one!!

The calm before the storm... This was the day before a holiday, when we were Lower Students. One of the screws in her head must have come loose. She was goofing around on the train station platform, waving her hat around and cheering ‘Ya~y!’ Of course she was promptly spotted in that state by an upper student, and I’ll never forget watching her be scolded like nothing else (laughs).

More of an older sister type in TMS She was talented in Japanese Dance, so she would help you get your kimono on and look after you and such, but once we all entered the company her character totally changed. What’s with that? (laughs)

Snow Troupe, Hoshou Dai

“I don’t want to hear that from Kurenai Yuzuru! We’re equal, aren’t we? Equal! And then, that memory from TMS (laughs). That did happen, didn’t it! Why on earth did I do that, I wonder. Doing a rockette dance while twirling my hat around… Because of me, the commuter students all got horribly scolded...I’m really sorry about that!”

Yuugiri Rai is…

One of the 88th class band of goofballs Ever since we were lower students, Rai-chan (Yuugiri) and Kurenai and I would be the group goofing around (laughs). Although she has a diligent side too, she also has a lot of surprising aspects (laughs). The thing that left the biggest impression with me was when we were taking the entrance exam. During the ‘creative dance’ portion of the exam, she—she was in a volleyball club, you know—next to me she was doing a twirling serve receive (laughs).

So multi-talented! & she loves cute things! She’s so good at drawing, and really skilled at making things. When she was a junior actress she made slippers for a senior actress. She didn’t just put a simple picture on them, but she was so dedicated to making the design! That creative side of her is so cute, and it made me think she had a surprisingly feminine side to her too.

Her voice is the best!!! Ever since we were in TMS she’s had an amazing voice and such good singing skills! She did well in our classical voice class of course, but especially in popular music, her sense of rhythm was really impressive. “So that must be what it’s like to have natural talent~” I thought; it made me jealous.

Flower Troupe, Yuugiri Rai

“I did do that twirling recieve, didn’t I (laughs). Dai-chan, you see me from all different angles, don’t you. Even if you struggle at it, helping other people gives you energy, so I think picturing the other person’s happiness helped me do my best. I’ve always loved singing, so I listened to all different genres of music and learned them by ear. Daichan, do your best! I hope you will continue performing to the end with nothing to regret!!

Kouzuki Ruu is…

A star student! Ever since she was in TMS she had the top grades, and she’s the leader of all of us. Ruu-chan is so reliable, just having her there lets me feel comfortable! No matter what happens, she’ll calmly be able to handle it, and she gives off such a grown-up aura.

She’s just really nice I’ve never seen her being really grumpy or irritable. My strongest image of her is her smiling gently. Ruu-chan is so nice that I’m always ending up relying on her 💖

She loves Takarazuka 💖 She’s always loved Takarazuka, and she knows so much about it, so whenever we asked her about old times she would have an answer—she’s our Professor Takarazuka! I only had superficial knowledge, so she seemed to me like she was really my senior, a powerful individual who even back then had the otokoyaku aesthetics down and a real presence as a Takarasienne (laughs).

Back to Kouzuki Ruu…

Goal!

“I’m not that nice, though~ I have really major emotional swings (laughs). I hated being called a star student ever since I was a junior actress, and I really struggled to break out of that framework… Also, I don’t know about the whole history of Takarazuka (laughs). I probably just said things based on what I knew from when I started watching Takarazuka (laughs). But, the otokoyaku style and aesthetic hasn’t ever changed! I think Rai-chan’s strongest idea of me is from TMS, so if you looked at me now it might shatter the picture you have of me… (laughs). Thank you for saying I’m grown-up and a star student ✨ Please don’t be disillusioned by the current me either!

#takarazuka #article translation #mag: graph #sienne: kouzuki ruu #sienne: asaka manato #sienne: kagetsu miyaki #sienne: sahana mako #sienne: kurenai yuzuru #sienne: hoshou dai #sienne: yuugiri rai #troupe: hana #troupe: hoshi #troupe: yuki #troupe: tsuki #troupe: sora

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comicteaparty · 4 years

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April 6th-April 12th, 2020 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from April 6th, 2020 to April 12th, 2020. The chat focused on Adventurers’ Guild by Phillip MacArthur.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

Comic Tea Party

BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Adventurers’ Guild by Phillip MacArthur~! (https://adventurersguildcomic.com/)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace until April 12th, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Discussions are freeform, but we do offer discussion prompts in the pins for those who’d like to have them. Additionally, remember that while constructive criticism is allowed, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic! Whether you finish the comic or can only read a few pages, everyone is welcome to join and chat with us!

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 1

1. What did you like about the beginning of the comic?

2. What has been your favorite moment in the comic (so far)?

3. Who is your favorite character?

4. Which characters do like seeing interact the most?

5. What is something you like about the art? If you have a favorite illustration, please share it!

6. What is a theme you like that the comic explores?

7. What do you like about the comic’s story or overall related content?

8. Overall, what do you think the comic’s strengths are?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

RebelVampire

What I liked about the beginning of the comic was just the overall pacing. The comic really takes it's time to introduce the world to you and the first set of characters, and it kind of hits that right beat for me where there's a lot of information where I don't feel overwhelmed since the pacing slows to the right tempo to make it work. My favorite moment in the comic so far is probably the battle against Razoku. Without getting too specific, I love just how epic that fight was in general, and also that a character I didn't expect was down for the count for that fight, leaving everyone else to compensate. That is not something you see in stories everyday, plus I liked getting to see Jack do some work since Jack tagged along for the quest. My favorite character at the moment is probably Li, because I have a thing for enigmatic mysterious dudes who I know so little about. Plus, he's a sorceror and I always 1000% support magic classes. As for characters interacting, probably Klaus and Li. I love the hints that they really have some history here, and I like just kind of how they balance each other out. Like sometimes Li is dumb and Klaus is the smart one and then sometimes Klaus is dumb and Li is smart. And it goes on like this for a bunch of different traits, so I like that theyre both kind of on an even footing and that they have this bond and understanding the other characters don't have with them yet. So it's like this warm thing of comfort.

RebelVampire

What I like about the art is just kind of how well it emulates RPG pixel games. Especially how dialogue and other elements are handled to replicate the UI. It's a nice touch that really just kind of sells that whole game feel aesthetic. I liked that the comic explored the moral choice between helping someone vs. fulfilling your obligation. And the tangentially related "Is it okay to lie if it's a stupid noble who wants a thing for aesthetics and frivolous reasons?" Some pretty common themes, yet still important themes always worthy of discussion. I also liked how the noble knew the lie and still just accepted it anyway, since that was 100% now the outcome I was expecting. So it really takes the exploration of that theme a bit differently. What I like about the story is the same thing I like about the art: it really nails the game feel. Like I really do feel I've been watching just an epically long cutscene to some game, but as someone who does like games and RPGs, that really appeals to me. Honestly, I'd be excited to play this as an actual game so I could use Li and cast all the magic. As for the comic's strengths, game feel which I've already discussed. But in general, like the beginning, pacing. I've seen a few comics like this one, but for most the pacing usually isn't that great since pixel art really only allows for so much action to be depicted. So pacing for these things needs to be epically different than it does for most comics. I think this one really nails it, especially with combat. The comic really shows how the combat will be epic, but it doesn't try to pad it out either and just kind of embraces the limitations that come with this specific style.

warriorneedsfood

I am having a hard time engaging in the comic. The layout wasn’t very intuitive for me and it’s very small on my tablet. When I play old school rpgs I look past the interface to get to the story, but this comic embraces the format. It makes me wish the author made a game instead of the comic. However, I didn’t get very far on the first pass. I will be hunkering down with the comic later on this week to read it to get the whole impression of the story.

RebelVampire

Once I adjusted to the layout, I actually found it way easier for mobile personally.

Since I didn't really have to zoom or squint, and the panels were very responsive to touch controls

But it is definitely far from the standard so I can see it as a point of alienation

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Gotta say, never played this kind of game so this comic isn't really for me, but I did think the format was really unique and cool

I don't have any problems reading it on my phone

Feather J. Fern

I think this premise for the layout is really interesting. I actually think it would have done really well as actually an Instagram comic due to it's scroll, square shape.

I do also have to agree if this was an actual game done on RPG Maker or something, it would fit it a lot more. But I do love the feel it is giving me.

I do have to note that the font is making it hard for me to read, since that font isn't really good for me. My own personal problem though.

I can see why they went with that choice for the old RPG feeling

Comic Tea Party

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 2

9. Why do you think Myra came to Knolton, and why is she hesitant to talk to even fellow Nemians about her backstory? Additionally, why is Jack equally mysterious about his origins? How do you think the truth will change the characters’ relationships with each other?

10. Do you think Klaus will allow Kidd to join the party? If so, how will that change the current group dynamic? Additionally, how will Cedric’s secrecy effect how much trust the other’s put in him?

11. How do you think Klaus and Li met, and for what reason do you think Li joined Klaus’ clan? Additionally, what do you think Li’s backstory might be in general? Do you believe there are secrets that might change how the group sees him, or is it something more mundane?

12. Do you think the group will see Edmund or anyone else they’ve faced against again? If so, what do you think will happen? In general, how will the group’s growing fame affect them and the quests they take on?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

RebelVampire

I feel like Myra probably got exiled or something. If only cause Myra does not seem like she'd have come to Knolton by choice, and you don't conceal your backstory unless you've got embarrassing shit to hide. I assume Jack might be in the same sort of situation. I actually think if Myra and Jack talked about it, though, it'd bring them closer together, as well as the whole group. The truth sets you free and all that. As for Kidd, yes, I think Klaus will let Kidd join. Klaus seems nice like that. As for group dynamic, I think it will simultaneously make Cedric a better and worse member of the group. I kind of feel if push came to shove, Cedric would ditch the others to save Kidd, making him unreliable. But at the same time, if Kidd goes with, Cedric would probably have increased loyalty. As for Cedric's secrecy, I think it'll be a long time before anyone fully trusts him again. I get the impression that Klaus must of met Li when Li was down on his luck, and since Klaus was such a bro and a friend, of course he joined. As for Li's backstory, I actually don't have any theories, although I kind of feel Li is less secret cause of something to hide but more maybe no one asks. Though I'm sure there is at least one secret in there that will make the audience gasp. I do think the group will at least see Edmund again because Edmund seemed an important and noteworthy character who'd come back. I could also see silver lotus noble coming back for silver lotus part 2 only now its a gold lotus. Either way, in regards to Edmund, of course theyre going to fight, though I feel like someone will try to convince Edmund to join their part instead, which Edmund might be convinced somehow. In general, though, their group is definitely gonna attract big baddies and great evil, cause fame comes at a cost.

GuildmasterPhill

Hello, author of Adventurers' Guild here! Just want to chime in and say it's been a real pleasure to read all the analysis of my comic here. It's good to see some of you really getting into it, and I think this whole tea party thing is a wonderful idea. Adventurers' Guild's week is almost up, as I understand it, but I'll be around here for the last bit of it if anyone has any questions for me! (I'm REALLY cagey about storyline spoilers, though, so don't expect any of those!) Thanks again!

Comic Tea Party

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 3

13. What are you most looking forward to seeing in regards to the comic?

14. Any final words of encouragement for the comic?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

mathtans

Hi! Our modem died, so my internet capabilities are real limited at the moment. But I had a quick look at the start of the week and just wanted to say I think the format is really neat, since I see some back and forth debate about it. All the best with the comic!