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DeceptiBee

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I love SS but only as a contrast to the better, sexier CF

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Byleth in green is my fav 😍

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Let’s talk about RNG-based event triggering in RF4

Okay, this is a really unpopular opinion so get ready to be affronted… *Edit* Little late (sorry sorry!) but there is an implied spoiler in this. Be warned! */Edit* I LOVE that the developers of RF4 made event triggering RNG based. 

I know everyone always gripes about it constantly and yes, getting ‘memories’ to happen was a pain in the ass, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good decision to program the system that way in general.  Think about the previous games. You triggered events by accepting bulletin board requests. Not a bad narrative justification. I liked it. BUT it eroded the sense of world permanence. One of the best things about RF4 in the context of the RF series, in my opinion, is the sense of world permanence, meaning: As the player, you get a strong sense that the characters and world around you goes on whether you are witnessing it or not.  Here are some of the things that contribute to the sense of world permanence: >TONs of dialogue. I didn’t see a repeat line until year two in game. That is so impressive for this type of game. >NPCs wander about with procedurally generated agendas. Remember in previous games when they used to just trudge around on the same scheduled route every single day? Isn’t this better? >Objects stay on the ground where you put them. God i don’t miss  accidentally discarding valuable items into the void forever. >And YES… RNG triggered events.  I didn’t google a single thing about the insides of RF4 until the ‘postgame’ chapters and I was always delighted when an event triggered. It made the town feel alive. It made the characters feel more real. They weren’t standing around NOT living or developing their characters until I checked a box; their stuff went down whenever it went down and I was curious and intrigued and sometimes freaked out right along with them. Different players have slightly different experiences depending on when which events trigger. I think that’s fabulous. Yes, your favorite bachelor or bachelorette won’t propose to you EXACTLY WHEN YOU WANT, but that is more like life! That makes them feel more real to me. Maybe they’re nervous or waiting for the right moment. Thank goodness it no longer feels like they’re just robotically initiating proposal sequence because you filled enough cells in a hidden spreadsheet about gifts you’ve given them. In the end, that is still what they’re doing but by introducing a little randomness to it, the developers have masked that game-y-ness from our eyes a bit. And that’s what it’s all about, people.  My experience was: I googled memories event and how to make it happen and THEN for the first time I was frustrated with the rng because of an expectation that was handed to me outside the player experience. You can’t fairly expect the developers to cater to a player that googles every spoiler or is min-maxing from the start, especially to the detriment of the organic experience of a fresh player. That is who the game is made for, at least on the first level of depth.  Now, given that ‘memories’ is a post-game event, I would have liked it better if you could have triggered it by wistfully clicking on Venti’s old spot in the dragon hall. I think that would have had its own narrative justification. Plus by post-game, you’ve already exhausted most of the events and are just pooping all over Meg’s slumber party dreams every damn day. So yeah, this particular event didn’t need to be RNG. BUT, that doesn’t mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater. For a fresh player with no preconceptions about how the game should be built, this is a really charming way of going about it and I for one am really glad they went that route.  Feel free to disagree but you won’t change my experience and I won’t change yours. From here on out it’s just friendly discussion, agreed?

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OH WOW THIS IS BEAUTIFUL 

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Oof

The Elegy of Emptiness

Of all the songs learned in Majora’s Mask, this is a particularly unsettling one. When the King of Ikana teaches it to Link, he tells him that scaling Stone Tower requires the aid of soulless soldiers. Soldiers with no feelings, nor thoughts, nor free will. When the song is played, Link will leave a simple impression of whomever’s form he has taken, often with a blank, unfeeling expression.

Deku Link produces a small Deku scrub’s body, clearly meant to be the likeness of the Deku Butler’s son. It was never clear how he died, or how he ended up in the passage underneath the clock tower. Even more mysterious is how his soul came to possess Link’s by the way of Skull Kid’s curse. The most interesting part of this to me is that because Deku scrubs are so small and weigh so little, the Elegy produces a completely useless statue. There is no use for it at all. Whether this is an analogy of the powerlessness of the small or young in society is up to interpretation.

Goron Link produces a statue of Darmani. This is obviously because the Goron Mask is a physical manifestation of Darmani’s soul. Something of note is that the statue is adorned by the massive wound Darmani most likely died from. Works of fiction typically portray ghosts or spirits one of two ways. The first is of the deceased at the last time they were whole or healthy, but more commonly the ghost will represent the condition of the person at their death. Darmani’s ghost takes the latter, but it’s not just that.

The wound appears on his soul’s imprint. In what time passed between getting injured and dying, then as a ghost, the wound (or the weakness and shame it served as a reminder of) worked its way so far into Darmani that it actually shows clear on this shell of himself.

Zora Link spawns a likeness of Mikau. No other statue is holding any object. Mikau, however, is holding his guitar. This shows that down to the depths of his soul, he is a guitarist first and foremost. Even though he is considered a hero and celebrity by his fellow Zoras, at heart he was just a man with a guitar.

Hylian Link is probably the most disturbing of all of them. He isn’t dead yet, but he can still leave a soulless imprint. The appearance of the statue is unsettling at best. He has a blank smiling expression. Unseeing eyes, and smiling. The others are all fiercely negative looking, but this one is smiling. Also, the Deku’s statue has sadly-angled red eyes, Darmani and Mikau’s statues have purely white eyes, but Link’s has irises and pupils. The eyes might represent him still being alive, but that smile…

If the Elegy creates an empty, emotionless shell of its player, why is Link’s shell smiling? My idea is that, especially over the course of Majora’s Mask, Link’s interpersonal weaknesses are becoming worse and all he can really do is shut off his emotions. He puts on a fake smile, and by the time Link learns the Elegy, this facade of feeling has ingrained itself into his soul so deeply that it actually shows through on his shell. It is part of his shell. The smile isn’t really happiness, so that lets it appear in an emotionless statue.

This is further supported by what the Twinmold child on the moon says to him. Even though the children will only talk to Link if he isn’t wearing a mask, this child will accuse Link of still wearing a mask even when he’s not. “I wonder… the face under the mask… is that… your real face?” The child knows that Link is not showing his true self on the surface. Who and what he appears to be is a mask, and it’s impossible to truly tell what his true face is.

Do you think that it’s a coincidence that when the Hero of Time appears in Twilight Princess, he doesn’t have a face? Just a ghostly skull, missing an eye. It might just be how the design team made him look, but you never know.

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(▰˘◡˘▰)🌅🌅🌅 🌺🌺🌺🌺🌅🌅🌅

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Rune Factory: 13th Anniversary Celebration!

It’s been a pretty wild year for Rune Factory fans! First the remaster of RF4S coming less than two weeks away, and also the announcement of RF5. For real this time! And as luck would have it, the anniversary of the entire series is coming fast…and what else to do but to celebrate?

Welcome to the next RFWeeks event that celebrates the 13th anniversary of this wonderful series!

So here’s the general lowdown of the weekend: The goal is to create awesome content and talk about our appreciation of the Rune Factory series! Each day of the week will have themed days with prompts and general things to talk about. If you’re a content creator, feel free to use these prompts to create art, fanfiction, edits, playlists, or more. If you just want an excuse to talk about your love of the series, you can use the prompts as a stepping point to talk about your favorite aspects of the series or your experiences with the games!

Of course, I will be reblogging everything I see onto this blog so everyone can see a big collection of it by the end of things!

FAQ:

What can I make for the event? Anything, honestly! Fanfics, art, writing headcanons, making edits of official art…if you can think of it, you can do it for the event! Get creative!

Can I create…citrus-y content for this event? You’re more than welcome to create content of the…citrus variety, though I will not be reblogging any of that content to RFWeeks. Please make sure that any lemony-content is properly tagged just so anyone who doesn’t want to see that content can abstain. If you do create citrus content, please use the hashtag #LemonScentedRFWeeks so that it doesn’t potentially mix in with SFW content.

THEMES OF THE WEEK:

Sunday, August 18th, 2019: Morning

A crisp dawn, ready for a new day. Or, in some cases, not ready at all and sleeping right through it.

Monday, August 19th, 2019: Flowers

Countless blooms, all filled with their own certain meaning. Of course, they’re all beautiful in their own right.

Tuesday, August 20th, 2019: Treasure

Something you find hidden in a cave, or something you keep hidden away in your home. Anything can be a treasure, right?

Wednesday, August 21st, 2019: Beach

Nothing like a little fun in the sun while Summer is still here…

Thursday, August 22nd, 2019: Free Day

Whatever your heart may so desire goes here…

Friday, August 23rd, 2019: Magic

The fire at your fingertips…or the spark you feel between people. Or watching your local farmer teleport to their home repeatedly throughout the day. It’s all magic.

Saturday, August 24th, 2019, Rune Factory’s 13th Anniversary!!: Community

The people you see as you walk through town, the people who will shape your entire lives. All condensed into this small, wonderful town.

Sunday, August 25th, 2019: BONUS DAY! Ethelberd’s Day Out

What do you think that old guy gets up to between trying to take over the world? What do any other villains get up to? Let’s celebrate the real heroes of the series, the villains, with a nice little bonus day after the real party!

The hashtag for this event will be #RF13th, so please make sure to use that tag during the weekend so that I can reblog your post to the blog when you post it! Please also tag RFWeeks on your post so I am guaranteed to see it! Sometimes the tags don’t work on Tumblr so this helps me find your beautiful work!

PLEASE REBLOG TO SPREAD THE WORD, AND PREPARE FOR A GRAND CELEBRATION IN AUGUST 2019!

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Inktober day 12: Whale

Whale Island at night

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everyone who reads this post will get some big spicy joy within 24 large minutes (hours)

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It’s pretty shitty but here you go

Why you should play Rune Factory by yours truly 

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hi. tag urself im cheap hoe

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some quick rf4s

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entrapta!

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dude, c’mon, join the hive mind already

dude, c'mon, join the hive mind already