#(mostly due to Cap's name and also one or two of the screenshots being from S5)

[the-20th-century-girl]

The Ghosts and the meaning of their names on Urban Dictionary

[wiifactsplus]

Note: This post is adding on to a Supper Mario Broth blog tweet. Feel free to visit the attached link to view it.

Supper Mario Broth On the My Nintendo website, the user's Mii will be engaged in a random activity on the top of the page. One of them is painting; clicking the Mii will reveal one of 8 paintings that appear with varying rarities, 5 of which are related to the Mario series.

This is not where the Mario references end in the "Mii Stage", as the My Nintendo website calls it internally. (Since I could not find this section of the My Nintendo website referring to it by any specific name elsewhere, this is what I will be calling it from now on.) There are many more to be found in the activities acted out by the Miis. Of course, it seems many qualities of My Nintendo are based off the Mario universe - the logo is shaped like Mario's hat, the platinum points have a Super Mushroom on them, and the gold points have a Super Star on them. However, the references go deeper than that.

But first, you’ll need a Mii. If you do not have a Mii in your Mii Studio, this sign will be sitting in the middle of the Mii Stage, bouncing up and down occasionally. Clicking on it takes you to my.nintendo.com/mii, which redirects to studio.mii.nintendo.com, the Mii Studio. This event is called “Mii unset”.

Here’s the full sprite, extracted from the (US English) site data:

And now, from the original tweet that sparked this post, here are all eight paintings extracted from the website data, thus being the highest quality versions of them.

Additionally, a behavior in this activity that was not mentioned by Supper Mario Broth (due to it not pertaining to any Mario reference in particular) is that while the Mii is painting, they will stop and think every three to four seconds. And once they are clicked on and present their painting, they'll assume a proud pose.

And here are the sprites extracted from the site:

As mentioned, the "easel" activity is not the only one to contain references to the Mario universe. The next one is the most interesting, known as "game". This activity has the user Mii playing a video game on one of three randomly chosen systems (technically four, as I'll explain in a moment): a NES, a SNES, or a Nintendo Switch. The game they're playing is randomly chosen depending on the system. Clicking the Mii will turn off the game, and the Mii will turn around furious until you click again to turn it back on, where the Mii will resume playing. The possible games on the NES are Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, and Ice Climbers.

The games on SNES are Super Mario World, Super Metroid, and Super Mario Kart.

The Nintendo Switch only has one game, Splatoon 2, and unlike the other games, the image on the screen isn't a regular in-game screenshot, but a promotional screenshot for the game.

Unfortunately, due to how the files work for this event, I can not be sure there isn't some extremely rare game I simply haven't come across yet. However, I can say that I spent a good few hours refreshing the page and didn't come across any more, so I believe it's safe to say there aren't any.

Now, 7 games may seem like an odd number, but in fact, there are 10. Take a look at the extracted sprites here.

Notice how you can see all the available systems here - the NES, SNES, Switch, and one more: the Famicom. The images that appear on the Famicom's screen are exactly the same as the NES ones, but are still stored as separate images, bringing the total to a round 10. If you live outside of Japan, you will likely never encounter the Famicom sprites. They only appear when you're logging in from Japan, and the NES ones will then also not show up any longer. However, I am based in the US, and couldn't get these sprites to load. This isn't the first time Nintendo has done this NES/Famicom location-based swap, either. It's happened many times before, even in Wii Music with the NES horn instrument. Instead, an anonymous user was able to help collect screenshots of the Famicom using CPU Mii Abby.

Next is the balloon activity. Here, the user Mii will be tied to three balloons, and flailing in a panic.

Clicking them once will pop the blue balloon, clicking them a second time will pop the red balloon, and clicking a third time will pop the yellow balloon, and the Mii will fall. Once it lands, it will strike a landing pose.

However, on a rare occasion, the yellow balloon will be replaced with a Boo enemy.

The first two balloons will function normally, but clicking on the Boo will instead make it fade and float away instead of pop.

Another rare event can happen once per day. Similar to the Boo, the yellow balloon will be replaced with a platinum point balloon, along with a thought bubble containing a platinum coin, and popping it will reward the user some platinum points.

However, whenever they land, they will instead strike a different pose, and hold a platinum coin.

The stage will then fade to white and the user will be rewarded with 10 platinum points. Here’s the extracted sprites:

Next, we have the fishing activity. Sometimes when this is encountered, the user Mii will have a thought bubble with a platinum point inside.

Though most of the time, the Mii will not have the thought bubble.

Every now and then, the user Mii will make a surprised face. If the user clicks the Mii during this time, then they will catch something.

If the user clicks the Mii any other time, the Mii will attempt to catch something anyways, but will pull up with nothing. Clicking again will make the Mii put their line back in the water.

If the Mii catches something with a thought bubble over their head, they will catch 10 Platinum Points.

Failing to nab a successful catch with the thought bubble over their head will not result in any penalty.

Any other time, a randomly selected object from these four will be caught instead. The first object is a boot.

The rest of the objects are Mario-related, starting with the Cheep Cheep enemy.

The next is the Blooper enemy.

And the last is Mario's cap.

Here's a dump of all of the sprites.

And last for Mario references, the "plant" activity. This one contains the rarest event of them all, along with a Pikmin reference. The most common event for this activity is a basic looking plant.

You can click on the user Mii to water the plant as many times as you'd like, but nothing will happen. The plant will just bounce in a small animation.

Here are all of the normal plant's sprites in its animations.

A rarer event can occur in this activity where instead of a basic-looking plant, a red Pikmin head will appear instead.

Like the plant, you can water the Pikmin as many times as you'd like. However, whenever you water it, it will peek its head out for a bit, also spraying some dirt particles.

Here are all of the Pikmin's sprites in its animations.

And lastly, the rarest event I've seen in the Mii Stage.

This plant may appear empty, but once you water it...

...a vine from Super Mario Bros. will sprout out from the pot, and won't stop until it's off the top of the screen.

Here is the image used for the vine.

And here is a dump of all of the other sprites in this activity.

But we've made it this far. Why stop at the activities with Mario references and just talk about all of the Mii Stage activities? There's only three left, so let's get through them!

In this activity, your Mii will appear holding either a red or black 3DS. Clicking them will cause them to disappear in a puff of smoke, and teleport somewhere else on the Stage. This is seemingly all it does.

There's this one where your Mii will appear on a ladder wiping down the gold points jar with a cloth.

Normally, your Mii will appear behind the jar, but sometimes will appear in front of the jar instead.

This activity doesn't seem to do anything, as attempting to click on your Mii will simply bring up the gold points menu as if your Mii wasn't there.

And lastly, the first activity many will see that appears weekly. The user Mii will run from the left and right sides of the screen, chasing a rolling platinum coin.

Clicking it will reward you with your weekly sign-in bonus of 30 platinum points, and the user Mii will dance in place, holding a platinum coin.

Here is a dump of all the sprites for the weekly activity, mostly consisting of Mii (female, lime green) animation poses:

And to close this lengthy post out, here are the loading sprites for the Mii Stage...

...And my recreation in .gif form.

Thank you for reading.

[ruby3818]

I have something I really need to get off my chest that I’ve put off for years now but can’t ignore anymore. Under a read more so you can skip it and tagged #negative so you can block it. Maybe this might clear some things up or at least get my side of the story out there. Please read this before making any decision about me from what you’ve heard from someone else.

I am aware that Cap, who I used to be friends with but had to leave the friendship because of their controllive obsession with me is still saying lies about how I “abandoned them” in public forums. Even going as far as to ask my franticshipping mutuals to block me (how she knows who my mutuals are is anyone's guess since I’ve had her blocked for over three years now??). If you see her do this please stop enabling them!! Over the years people have made her feel ok to get aggressive about my very existence and tell her that they are “valid” for feeling jealousy. All it does is reassure her that it is ok to behave like that and not be held accountable for their actions. Cap does not need validation, she needs help.

I have begged her multiple times over the past few years to leave me alone and stop saying stuff about me on public forums but every time she promises to stop I hear from someone else that they're still doing it. Things like; making up stuff that I apparently said in a dream treated as fact, telling my mutuals to block me, saying that I’ve apparently replaced her, telling everyone that I abandoned her, etc.

Because of her I not only lost them as a friend but every single other friend I had because they either believe the lies or they're scared of upsetting Cap who flies into a rage at the very mention of me.

I really tried to help her and then when the jealousy, gas lighting, violent mood swings and controlling behavior got too much for me and everyone else who tried to help I had to do what was best for both of us and leave the friendship.

I've tried for three years now to be the better person and not talk about what should be our personal problems but it's just blown up in my face with no one believing me or wanting to get involved and everyone enabling them (which is triggering to irl experiences but that's another story).

And I do understand that maybe a lot of this frustration I feel is because of the pattern of people abusing me and then everyone around me forcing me to forgive them and be around them for the sake of their feelings leading to the same damn cycle of me being helpless and feeling like a burden for not putting up with it.. It just sucks that even online I have to deal with it when this should be a safe place away from all that. But I also know what emotional abuse looks like due to irl experiences and I know that this is not acceptable behavior. This is abuse. And the only way to stop an abuser is to get their behavior out in the open and have other people know what they’ve been doing.

It also really sucks that the whole reason I couldn’t stand being friends with her was because I wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone else and if I did they would blow into a rage and yet 3 whole years later I still am not allowed to talk to anyone otherwise I’m “replacing them” leading her to tell any potential new friends to block me (Somehow she is finding out who my new mutuals are on Tumblr, Twitter and Discord and dm’ing them to block me which is what some of these mutuals have come forward to tell me). She still has that control over me and I’m sick of it. I just want to move on.

I hate having to tip toe around the fandom not knowing what they’ve said about me to mutuals. I just want to be able to talk to people and have them know the full story and not some fabricated story of abandonment or random crap I apparently said in a dream of theirs.

As for what they did in the past, here’s my side of the story and why I had to leave the friendship;

They would always get jealous when I talked to other people and threaten to kill them self because "I'm just going to replace them". It became such a constant thing that I couldn’t even talk at all in a public server without there being a big drama about it. They even ended up being banned from Specord for their constant harassment of me.

Whenever I would bring this up and ask her (or beg) to not get upset and let me talk to people they would act like they had no idea what I was talking about and say that my depression is making me think crazy things. Even though other people saw it and I also had screenshots I still believed them because (being mentally ill) I really can't trust myself. I've been gas-lighted by people in my family my whole life so this was too triggering to handle on a daily basis so I needed out of the friendship.

She constantly suicide-baited me into taking her back and then made every conversation we had about suicide and self harm. Whenever she felt bad about something I said to her in a dream or if I talked to someone else she would tell me happily how she cut herself “for me” because it was supposed to show me that she loved me and that she somehow deserved it. The constant talk of suicide became too triggering to my own mental health and struggle with suicidal thought that I had to get out of the relationship.

For so long they would make up lies about how I abandoned them leading me to receive death threats from strangers telling me to kill myself, people blocking me and all my friends no longer talking to me so it doesn't upset them. So in the end they still had that control over me.

They even told me in our last conversation (over two years ago) that they were right for overreacting over me talking to anyone else besides them because I "shouldn't be talking to other people anyway". They even went as far to tell me that they hated how I was "popular" and basically wanted to be like me whilst also destroying me.

I know that I could of been a better friend but with my c-ptsd and her own mental health problems it just became a toxic mix. The very mention of my name or seeing my posts or comments at all just sends her into violent mood-swings. I couldn’t handle being emotionally abused on a daily basis and I needed out of the relationship. And I get that they still have friends that care about them, that’s good! They’re going to need the support if they’re ever going to improve as a person and move on from this.

So what is the point of this post? Well mostly just to get this pent up helplessness out into the open so maybe someone might understand. The other reason is that I am sick to death of having to be known as the bad guy just because I tried to do what I thought was the right thing by walking away. I want to be able to makes friends and not have to worry about Cap finding out and sabotaging it for me. I want the hate asks to stop. I want people who I thought were my friends to stop blocking me because of something they heard.

This is a selfish request but I also want people to stand up to her for once and stop her from spreading lies about me in public and feeding her delusions. I want her to know that she can’t bully, manipulate and emotionally abuse people in to a friendship and that she doesn’t get to decide who I can interact with. But mostly I hope that by getting this out in the open maybe this might finally come to an end and we can both move on.

Naturally she’s gone and deleted all of her dm’s with me but I do still have some screen shots that might help people understand. I won’t include any dm’s with other users but my DM’s are open if you need more clarification.

First off her finally agreeing to tell the truth (which she never ended up doing evidentely)

She always worshiped me as someone I wasn’t and thought that she had to be like me to be a successful person but it ended up blowing up into a full blown obsession around being me.

She always said she acknowledged that how she treated me was wrong but she still kept doing it like she couldn’t control herself... I kept thinking that maybe her therapy would help her and we could go back to how it was before but she just kept getting worse with her obsession.

This was the other Cap.. the one that wouldn’t acknowledge what she was doing at all and would tell me I was making it up out of paranoia

These are some screenshots that were sent to me of some of the stuff she was saying about me on other servers?? She would always treat the stuff that I did in her dreams as stuff I actually said but, idk how to control what I say in her dreams?? I would never in my life say this kind of stuff about anyone??

Due to the pic limit I will include other screenshots in a reblog.

If you need any more clarification or just want to talk don’t be afraid to ask. Hopefully this can be cleared up finally and I can be free from her control. She needs to be held accountable for her actions and she needs to move on for the sake of her own mental health as well as for mine.

[yourdorkiness]

More Fire Force Opinions That Literally Nobody Asked For (pt.2)

Guess who finished the manga~ Guess who finished the manga~ This gal~ I’m surprised that my Fire Force rant/essay meta was so well received by the fandom, thank you guys so much!!! Anyways, today I’ll be discussing some a lot of my ideas, opinions, thoughts, future predictions, and commentary on moments from the Fire Force manga.

Warnings: Spoilers for future Fire Force Season Two arcs, and for the Fire Force manga. Read at your own discretion! Now that the warnings are over, onwards! ヽ(ヅ)ノ

(I’m actually trying to order my opinions via arcs, but I feel that this is really important, so I’m putting it first.) 

1. There are no iPhones in the Fire Force. 

This is so sad? My favourite characters don’t know the joy that is staying up late, scrolling through social media, watching YOUTUBE, having MEMES, KNOWING👏THE👏GREATNESS👏THAT👏IS👏VINES!!!

I’m slightly disappointed that Vulcan, who is literally named after the god of forging himself, who can make frickin’ HOLOGRAMS, didn’t bring back any of the pre-Catalysm technology to recreate, improve, or experiment with. As an expert engineer (I say this 0.2% seriously, with the two years of high school engineering course experience under my belt), I would’ve been interested to see what kind of gadgets Vulcan could whip up. *insert ‘Inspector Gadget theme song*

Please have this very sad Jigglypuff to show how sad this is.

2. Sister Iris and Religion in the Fire Force Storyline

In the beginning of the Fire Force series, I’ve accepted the fact that Iris' role as noncombatant, meant to act as the religious and public face of the Eighth Company. I think it is a fascinating role, because it allows the story to explore the idea of religion and belief in depth, which I was really looking forward to. I was excited how the author would handle Iris’ character, but I’m somewhat disappointed that it took so long for us to see Iris and other side characters like Maki and Tamaki become more fleshed out (I’m not counting Iris’ and Hibana’s backstory in Season 1. I felt that was more backstory to flesh out Hibana’s character rather than Iris’).

Throughout Fire Force’s story, some of the things I looked forward to the most were the religious elements, motifs, themes, and questions that are sprinkled throughout the story, one of my favourites being the portrayal of the dichotomy of religion. In Joker’s backstory, we see the darkness of the Holy Sol faith, and what happens when any religious belief is taken TOO far, without any regard for human life or rights. This idea of viewing humans as a collective, no regard for the individuality and feelings of a single person in the pursuit of faith is embodied by the captain of the Shadow of the Holy Sun, Joker’s former captain and abuser. However, we also get to see the goodness religion and belief can achieve in Iris’ mini arc, which focuses on Iris’ internal struggle as she struggles with her faith after being informed of the Evangelist’s part in the founding of the Holy Sol’s religion. Shinra and Huo Yan Li, the bucket hat 1st Brigade lieutenant (Seriously, which is the correct way to pronounce this guy’s name? Huo Yan Li?? Foien Li???) interaction in the Iris arc really summed up the arc and Iris’ character beautifully. Religion and belief gives people closure, hope, and strength to keep on moving forward. Seeing the anime adaption was an amazing experience. Fire Force’s animation was the reason I decided to watch it in the first place (before staying for the intriguing plot and religious side plot), but this particular episode?? Pure art. The colouring, ambience, storytelling? So good＼\ ٩( ᐛ )و /／

Like, the little detail of the burning nun in Iris’ eyes? (lmao sorry for the extra trauma, sweet child) *chef’s kiss*

The importance of belief is also hinted in the Asakusa arc, where all the district’s inhabitants believe in Benimaru, and expanded upon in later manga chapters, when we learn that Adolla is linked to humanity’s perception and beliefs about the world around them.

I would’ve liked Iris a lot more if we got to further explore her character and the affects of religion on others more deeply, perhaps see Iris visiting the Infernals’ families and loved ones, trying to help give closure through the nation’s (mostly) shared faith in Sol. They mentioned offhandedly in both anime and manga that Iris visits the deceased’s families, and I felt it would’ve given the deaths more significance and depth if we get screentime of how families are affected by the death of their loved ones. It would have also given the Holy Sol’s religion more depth and meaning if we saw believers of Sol’s actions due to their religion, (also giving more impact when we learn surprise surprise! The Holy Sol temple is founded by the Evangelist!) since belief without actions is just lip-service.

I would have also liked to see how Iris’ prayers affect others in the Eighth company. We do get to see this, 140+ CHAPTERS LATER in the mini Iris arc does Shinra (finally) mentions how Iris’ prayers helps him not lose sight of why he serves as a firefighter and kills Infernal. I’m glad that we got this scene, because better later than never, especially since Iris’ and Shinra’s discussion and overall the entire Iris mini arcs shows the power of prayer, but I would’ve like to have this topic discussed sooner.

2. Obi’s Sole Flaw

I think that Obi was an okay character, but they kind of pushed the boundary of his “normalcy” when we saw him topple pillars and rip railways out of the ground with “brute strength”. There are limits to the human body, it is fragile, and it doesn’t matter how much conditioning or “going beyond your limits” you do. People do experience boost of adrenaline, which is probably what the very anime-like titled “Pressure of Death” is based on, since life or death situations can heighten your performance and strength. However, I do understand that this IS shonen, and it isn’t meant to be realistic.

What made Obi’s sole flaw (and a physical flaw, at that!) was his “normalcy” while surrounded by more powerful individuals then he, and having to make up for something he can’t help by working twice as hard as everybody else. Now, although I was disappointed that Obi didn’t have any character/moral flaws, what made Obi’s character mediocre to me wasn’t the choice of Obi’s sole flaw. In fact, I could see how this could be an interesting character narrative IF WE LEARN MORE ABOUT OBI’S BACKSTORY, THEREFORE EXPLORING HIS CHARACTER MORE!!! (We only know Obi was a regular firefighter, being decorated twice, and then having his titles revoked for prioritizing the lives of citizens before becoming the captain of the Eighth.) No, what I didn’t like about Obi’s character is that we never see him STRUGGLE with his flaw, how others were born “superior” to him thanks to there invulnerability to flames, how he lives knowing one day he could just burst into flames. There’s SO many interesting things about Obi’s character, that could explained further, making him so much more interesting!!!

On the other hand, Obi’s character is a great role model for what a “normal” person can do (while jacked up on adrenaline, and when they manage to overcome flight reaction in fight or flight). He works hard, training to the best of his ability, doing what he CAN do, pushing his limits so that he can go above and beyond, overcoming the “Pressure of Death”, and staying true to his ideals, something very hard to do in a world where you might burst into flames at any given moment. I know that if I were to wake in a world where I could die any second (I mean, I could die tomorrow in Real Life™, but what are the chances of that?), I would definitely find myself struggling with my faith, and staying true to the morals I admire and was taught by my parents, especially if I was putting myself in danger despite of this weakness.

3. Asakusa Showdown Arc and Shinmon Hibachi

The Asakusa Showdown arc. Yes. Just yes. I-

It was amazing, periodt. The art, the overall aesthetic, the storytelling. *Cue violent fangirling* I took SOOOO many screenshots of the fight between Benimaru and Hibachi, I’m pretty sure my camera roll is 95% manga caps now. I love how the author actually gave a (fairly) valid reason for the cool Japanese aesthetic of this arc, in that Adolla is slowly gradually colliding with the Fire Force universe, causing people’s perception of the fight to seep into the universe. Overall? It. Was. Amazing. Albeit not my favourite arc, (that honour goes to the mini-Iris arc) I think that the Asakusa Showdown arc is easily in my Top 5 Fire Force arcs.

The Asakusa Showdown Arc mirroring and showing the ideals taught in the Mini Iris Arc was quite clever, though I’m not sure if this was purposefully done Okubo, or if I’m just scrabbling at crumbs.

In the Mini Iris arc, we see how religion and belief gives closure; a stark contrast to Asakusa with its proto-nationalist/atheist values. In THIS arc, centering around Asakusa and it’s proto-nationalist inhabitants, we see what happens when there isn’t enough effort to emphasize or give closure in what happened to Hibachi, and his subsequent death. 

Shinmon Hibachi, as the leader of the neighbourhood fire watch, understood the significance of killing Infernals; of taking somebody’s life. But because of the unwillingness to let others (i.e. the inhabitants of Asakusa, that one kid who stabs him) understand the weight of killing Infernals and gain closure through understanding the reasons behind his harsh actions, Hibachi shoulders the consequences of both his and the actions of his predecessors’ ALONE, therefore leading to his demise. 

The kid who stabbed Hibachi was still a CHILD, and children don’t always have a comprehensive understanding of death and the consequences of responsibility (no matter how much that kid believes he was ready to be an adult and support his mother).

3.5 Extra Worldbuilding Questions About Asakusa

I also have so many questions about Asakusa in general! How is Asakusa powered without being supported by Amaterasu, which is the country’s (and isn’t that mind boggling, that a whole country is supported by one power source with no backup source or other forms of energy/electricity, because of patriotic pride in a machine that might one day shut down, cough manga readers where u at?) I’m assuming that Asakusa mainly use coal, candles, and lamps for energy and lighting, since we did see one example of lighting in Asakusa (an ancient oil lamp), but I’m not sure if that would be sufficient to support a whole district of people. People were able to do that in the olden days, but back then there was a smaller concentration of people, and power necessary to support them.

Is Asakusa a district that is mostly atheist or polytheist? Do the inhabitants believe in no gods, not just the Sun god brought by the White Clads and Raffles I, including the Shinto or Buddhist gods from before the Catalysm, or do they believe in multiple gods/ancestor worship and they just don’t want to worship the Sun God like the rest of the Tokyo Empire because they’re unwilling to accept the new culture, immigrants and religion caused by Amaterasu, wanting to keep up the old Japanese traditions?

4. Arthur Deserves Better Parents 2k20 (Hint of Arthur’s Secret Ability?)

When Team Vulcan + Arthur found Arthur’s parents in the sewers Nether... Honestly, I don’t want to touch on them much, since I want to be (fairly) logical in my opinions on them, not letting my personal feelings twist my hypotheses for what may happen in the future of the Fire Force storyline.

Putting aside Arthur’s parents obvious neglect and bad parenting, I’m curious if Arthur's dad is actually a prophet or did he just get lucky with his delusions. Is this related to how Arthur can notice the difference between dopplegangers and real people? Perhaps because Arthur’s delusions of knighthood are so different from how he truly is (an abandoned child who deluded himself as a knight), therefore allowing him to notice the difference between dopplegangers and Adolla, as they are created by people’s perception of a subject.

5. Let Sho Be a Normal Kid at the End of the Show 2k20

Please let the small child be happy at the end of the manga. I mean, being raised by a cult underground isn’t exactly a Hallmarks childhood. For example, in the beginning of chapter 231, look at how Sho looks longingly at those kids on scooters and was so happy when he got a balloon from the firefighter mascots! (bruh, same balloons bring me so much joy)

I hope that in the end of the manga Okubo lets Sho, Shinra, and Eighth have some quality time. In one of the early arcs (with the first speaking demon, Minamoto?) Shinra saw some kids going to school wearing school uniforms, mentioning that if Sho was still alive, he’d be old enough to go to school. I’d be so sweet if at the end of the manga, Sho would have the chance to go to school, maybe the Fire Force academy (if it’s still running if by the end of the manga they’ve discovered the reason behind Human Combustion), makes friends and beat up anybody who badmouths the Eighth.

6. Cool Combat Medics!

I’d love to see more of the cool combat medics from the Sixth! We only saw the captain, Kayoko Huang, in action with her Asclepius staff pyrokinesis, which, might I add is a fascinating and terrifying ability. Think about it, she’s controlling CELLULAR DIVISION!!! She could start creating tumors in the bodies of her enemies! Could disintegrate people cellularly and no one would know, because fire snake, so no fingerprints!

Anyways, that is all I have right now. Thank you for reading my opinions about “Fire Force”, and for the nice response I got when I published my first opinion piece! Bruh, it took so long for me to edit this... 😔 I’m thinking of doing another meta going more in depth with my theory on Arthur and how he’s able to distinguish the difference between people and their dopplegangers, but that’s for another day. Feel free to discuss about your own ideas or thoughts in the chat, or tell me what you think! I promise I don’t bite. Have a wonderful day!

[dilliebar]

The Story of Dinah: A TLOUP2 Theory

Hey guys! So during this quarantine I’ve been looking for stuff to do to keep myself busy, and among playing The Last of Us for the billionth time I also decided to continue analyzing the content we’ve gotten so far. Tbh I gave up a while ago trying to find out what’s gonna happen in TLOU2, but after one google search, though, I actually think I’ve found a pretty solid theory that explains a lot of what we saw in the trailers/screenshots/etc.

!!! Note that this does include content from the leaked gameplay videos and from the leaked screenshot that surfaced a while ago. only read on if you’re okay with knowing spoilers !!!

**Note: I was not raised around a specific religion and my only knowledge of the subject has come from what I’ve read on the internet and the information I’ve gained from different Jewish and Christian interpretations of the passages talked about in this theory. None of these are my personal opinions and please correct me if anything is misinformed. Thank you.

So the majority of us know that something is going to happen to Dina and/or Ellie, and the first question is, what?

Well, obviously what’s different from the original game and p2 is that p2 is going to have to do a lot more with religion, as Dina is confirmed to be Jewish and we also have the Christian group, the Seraphites. The theme of religion is pretty much the basis of this theory, and it all starts with the origin of Dina’s name.

Now when you probably saw the title of this post you were like “yo that’s not how you spell her name”, and that, my friend, is where you’re wrong. After digging a little bit into the origination of Dina’s name, I found that it stemmed from the Hebrew name, Dinah. The first famous holder of this name was a woman who had a small, yet significant role in one of the books of the Jewish bible (or the Torah, please correct me if I’m wrong). Now, I would’ve written this off as a coincidence, but after looking into the story of Dinah I noticed some similarities between her story and bb Dina.

The passage basically tells the story of Dinah, who ventures out to meet the people of the world, and while doing so is sexually assaulted by the prince of Shechem. When her two brothers hear about this, they’re enraged, and slaughter all of the men in the city and rescue her.

The reason this caught my eye is because Dina and/or Ellie being sexually assaulted is a pretty common theory among the fandom right now, and after applying this to the trailers, screenshots, leaked footage, and the leaked screenshot, it makes a lot of sense, especially with Dina being Jewish. So without further ado, let’s look at what this means for the story.

                                               I. What Happened

So if we’re following the original story of Dinah, the first thing that would happen is that Ellie and Dina head out on patrol the night after their kiss. Obviously this would mostly serve as a tutorial-like introduction, but it would also serve as the setup for the rest of the game. This is where the basement scene comes in, in which both of them are attacked and/or assaulted, and for whatever reason, they take Dina and Ellie escapes.

A lot of people have been speculating that the game revolves around the sole idea of revenge, and while Ellie’s clearly pretty jazzed off about whatever happened in the gameplay and release date trailers, it’s likely more of a “side quest” aside from her actual goal: to get Dina back. Naughty Dog games in the past, including The Last of Us, have always had a certain goal in mind that you’re working towards throughout the game. This also aligns with the story of Dinah, as she isn’t killed, but taken.

In addition to the supporting story, much of the leaked footage aligns with this, as well. For example, in the leaked gameplay in which Ellie wakes up bruised and beaten in a theater and calls out for Dina and Jesse, but why would Dina be there? If Ellie’s main goal is to get revenge on the group who wronged them, then neither Dina nor Jesse being there would make a whole lot of sense unless they all just want to have one big traumatic experience together; however, if Dina was taken, it would make sense as to why Ellie and Jesse would go after her, because they both have strong feelings for her, want to get her back, and want to seek vengeance. At the same time, by the cuts and bruises littering Ellie’s back, we can see that something clearly went down very recently, which was likely the rescue of Dina. We can also confirm that this wasn’t a dream or some wacky acid trip, too, because in the leaked screenshot we can see Ellie and Dina exploring Capitol Hill in Seattle together.

Now of course we all want to know that Ellie and Dina live happily ever-after, and this might (?) be true according to the story of Dinah, in which both of the brothers (represented here by Ellie and Jesse) return safely home with Dinah. Since this is where the story ends, is this where the game takes a twist? Possibly, but we’ll never know for sure until we play it. 

                                               II. Whodunnit?

Alright, so I’m gonna break this down into the two groups that are confirmed to be in The Last of Us 2: the Seraphites and the WLF. Though none of this is stemmed from the story of Dinah, the biblical meanings behind their names matched up pretty darn well with what we know about them already. 

Now, the thing is, after trying to look up the Hebrew origination of the word “seraphite”, I found that it wasn’t actually a word at all. What I did find, however, was the definition of the word “seraph” which is “of the highest order of the nine-fold celestial hierarchy, associated with light, ardor, and purity”, with another description being a “six-winged angel”. The Latin suffix, “-ite”, means to be a follower. In other words, the Seraphites see themselves as either messengers or followers of god. This description makes a lot of sense, as in the trailer with the mystery-woman, the Seraphites say to “clip her wings” in reference to Yara.

When it comes to the WLF, the meaning behind their name is much more simple. As we can recall from the gameplay trailer, we hear the Seraphites shout out “WOLF!”. In addition to this, poster released shortly after the mystery-woman trailer portrays a wolf shaped by flames. Thus, I decided to look up the biblical meaning of a wolf, as the two groups are likely at odds. Unsurprisingly, the term “wolf” is generally used to describe those who pray on the weak.

After looking at these two groups, I concluded that the culprit is ultimately the WLF for a few reasons:

1. The meaning of the wolf in a biblical context (which was first mentioned to describe one of Dinah’s other brothers, by the way)

2. In the release date trailer, we can definitely see the attire of those who attacked the two. They’re wearing jackets; the man who initially attacked Ellie is wearing a cap. If we look at the gameplay trailer, the Seraphites distinctly wear robes, and so they are likely out of the question.

3. In the release date trailer, Tommy says “you don’t know how large that group is; how armed” all the while displaying a group of men with guns, and one verrrryyy important dude that I haven’t really seen a lot of people talking about. And that is this guy: 

OK, I know, it doesn’t seem like that big of a revelation but take a look at this guy’s face, and then scroll back up to the beginning of this section. Look similar? They’ve got the same hair, skin tone, attire, etc. In addition, the people with guns in the photo also have similar attire and weaponry to those in the release date trailer. At the same time, in the basement scene, we can also see a man in similar attire and a similar skin tone holding Ellie down (though to be fair, we can’t see his face, and so this may not be the same guy, but the attire definitely separates them from the Seraphites). 

Did maybe the Seraphites get a lil’ chilly and decide to wear jackets if the attacked Ellie and Dina? Maybe, but my bet’s on the WLF.

                                   III. Patching Up the Plotholes

Alright, so this theory definitely leaves a couple of plotholes that I wanna possibly cover (though it should be noted that these are speculation):  

1. As we see multiple times in both the screenshots and gameplay, Ellie entered Seattle alone. Where did Jesse come in?

2. Joel is in multiple screenshots, and also talks to Ellie in the release date trailer. What does he got to do with this?

So first of all, answering the question of where Jesse came in is fairly easy to answer, and it’s that he followed Ellie. As seen in the release date trailer, about a handful of people in Jackson left to go out on patrol other than Ellie and Dina, one of them being Jesse. Given the incident that happened in the basement, I’m guessing Ellie didn’t decide to keep scavenging for supplies and returned to Jackson early in order to recover and spread the news, which means Jesse likely wouldn’t have been back yet, and didn’t hear the news and go after Dina until he returned to Jackson. Then the question of the change in seasons comes into play. If this theory is true, I’m guessing that the basement scene took place near the end of winter, while Ellie/Jesse going to Seattle took place in early Spring, or that Ellie/Jesse left as soon as possible and the journey took longer than expected due to multiple obstacles like what happened in the first game. 

Now, when it comes to Joel, I returned specifically to the story of Dinah. A while after the incident, when Jacob (the father of both Dinah and the brothers) is blessing his children, he expresses his disappointment in the two brothers as “in their anger they slew men” and “cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel”. Based on this, I believe that the multiple screenshots from the game are in the context of Joel expressing his disappointment in Ellie, as she likely went out of her way to kill more people than she had to in order to get to Dina. This also correlates to the reveal trailer in which Joel says “you really gonna go through with this?” and Ellie replies, “I’m gonna find, and I’m gonna kill, every last one of them”. 

                                                  ~Conclusion~

Alrighty, so that’s pretty much it. Again, I don’t know if a lot of the biblical stuff is accurate since I wasn’t raised in a strictly Jewish nor Christian household, but I was intrigued by some interpretations and frankly I really wanted to get this out and see what everyone else thought about it. Please, if you have any additional thoughts about this, correct something I said, or point out any other plotholes, leave a comment! I’m in desperate need for some TLOU2 action.

[thedenimdentist]

Role Club Engineers: Worth the Wait?

Introduction (Part I): History of Engineer Boots

Engineer boots are definitely a polarizing style of footwear within the heritage/amekaji boot community. For one, they utilize an ankle strap for fastening in lieu of laces, and second, their tall stovepipe shafts don’t integrate quite well with the slim tapered esthetic of modern denim/trousers. While often associated with motorcycles and bikers, engineer boots were actually designed as protective gear for firemen working on railway engines back in the 1930s. (Hence the name “engineers.”) Their minimal design and use of buckles over laces made them ideal for this line of work. The tall shafts provided protection for the lower leg, while the slip-on design allowed for quick removal should anything dangerous (such as hot coals or embers) slip down the shaft into the boot. This style of footwear lost some popularity following the introduction of lace-up combat boots during World War II, but would later be picked up by motorcyclists who found use of their insulating and protective features. (And there is your history lesson for the day, courtesy of Wikipedia. Lol)

Introduction (Part II): How I Got into Engineer Boots

I first got into more well-made boots back in early 2019. Like most boot n3wbs, I was completely infatuated by that lace-up service boot esthetic, and insisted on wearing them with the slimmest, most tapered denim I could find. My first boot purchase was (of course) a pair of Red Wing Iron Rangers, followed by three pairs of Truman service boots in pretty quick succession. That first summer was when I discovered @brianthebootmaker on Instagram and YouTube, and instantly fell in love with his Underdog design, which I later purchased in August 2019 and received in May 2020.

At that point in time, Brian’s popular Underdog boots fit perfectly within my slim service boot style. However, Brian’s most iconic boot pattern was (and is) definitely his engineer boots. I admit I wasn’t sold on them at first, but I was intrigued. Did they fit my wardrobe at all? Nope. Would they even fit under the 6.75” leg openings of my PBJ denim? LOL nah. Nevertheless, I found myself constantly going back to Brian’s Instagram page and browsing all the photos of his engineer boots. Eventually, I grew to really love the look of engineer boots, ultimately placing a second deposit with Brian for a pair of engineers in October 2019. I had no idea how I was going to fit them into my wardrobe, but I figured I’d make it work somehow. (Luckily, since then my denim preferences have actually shifted toward more relaxed cuts, just in time for the arrival of these engineers.)

The Ordering Process

For most customers purchasing online, Brian requires you to take a set of measurements on your own feet, which he uses to build your boots remotely. However, those lucky enough to live nearby can actually visit Brian’s shop in LA to be personally measured by the boot maker himself, as well as discuss any details or questions you have regarding your specific makeup. I was one of these lucky people who could actually visit him in person, and used those measurements to order two pairs of boots from him: first a pair of Underdogs, and now some engineers. Both pairs were built on different lasts (which I will discuss more later), and both fit perfectly. (For a more detailed summary of being measured in person, check out my previous review of my Role Club Underdogs.)

My Specifications

While you can’t really go wrong with any of Brian’s engineer makeups, I personally loved the design Brian designed for himself: brown CXL horsehide hand-finished black, a full leather outsole, and full woodsman heels. They definitely have a more western, cowboy, workwear vibe compared to most other engineer boots out on the market, but in my opinion these are one of the best patterns, with some of the cleanest construction to boot.

A few screenshots I took of Brian's engineer boots, taken off his Instagram.

I did make a few tweaks/upgrades from Brian’s boots when designing my own, which I’ve listed below:

Model: engineer boots

Shaft height: 10”

Upper leather: brown Italian vegtan horsebutt, hand-finished black

Toe track: yes

Upper stitching: black

Hardware: brass roller buckles

Last: 2307 last

Unstructured toe

Edge finish: black

Welt stitching: white

Sole: full leather sole, black heel cap

Heel style: full woodsman heel

Metal toe plates

Custom built-in orthotics (same as my Underdogs)

One of the biggest reasons I keep going back to Brian is that he’s able to use the orthotics I typically slip into all my footwear and actually build them into the insoles of my boots. Not sure how difficult this actually is for a boot maker, but Brian has absolutely nailed the fit on my ugly feet both times, and it’s super convenient to not have to worry about a removable orthotics.

Price, Lead Time, & Shipping

The initial deposit to reserve a pair of Role Club boots is $200 regardless of which model you are ordering, with the remaining balance due upon completion. I visited Brian’s shop in Los Angeles on 8/21/2019 and placed my deposit on 10/15/2019, with an estimated completion date of November 2020. However, due to delays in construction (including waiting for my custom metal toe plates to come in), my boots weren’t actually completed until 3/25/2021 (nearly five months late). Inconvenient, but it’s not like I was wearing boots and going out much anyway due to COVID.

When I placed my first deposit for my Underdogs in August 2019, the estimated wait time was just 8 months (April 2020). However, when I placed my second deposit for these engineers just two months later, the wait time had jumped to 13 months (November 2020). To be honest, I’m not even sure how long Brian’s queue is now. Last I heard it was sometime in 2023 or 2024. (Freaking insane. So thankful I placed my second deposit when I did, before his waitlist exploded.)

At the time I placed my deposit, the base price for Brian’s engineer boots was $1350. After a few upgrade fees (hand-finished leather, toe plates, etc.), the final price of my specific makeup was $1500. Minus my initial $200 deposit, my final payment for these engineers was $1300 + $20 shipping. I made this payment via Venmo on 3/26/2021, my boots were shipped the following Monday 3/29/2021, and I received them via USPS on 4/2/2021.

At $1500, these are not a cheap pair of boots by any means. However, for engineer boots this price is actually not unreasonable, as there are some other brands selling engineer boots at a higher price point in stock sizes with limited to no customization (i.e., Clinch). #perspective #itsallrelative (To be completely honest, I roll my eyes when people scoff at a pair of boots in this price range, claiming they’re “too expensive” or that they can’t afford it, and turn around and buy 2-3 pairs of average Vibergs instead. Just stop. Clearly it’s not the cost, it’s your personal values and priorities. #endrant lol (Also, not knocking Clinch or Viberg or anything. Just a few examples to prove a point.))

ANYWAYS. For those hesitant to commit to such an ungodly wait time, I will point out that the cost to reserve a pair of Role Club boots is just $200, regardless of which model you are ordering. In fact, you don’t even need to finalize your order at the time of deposit. You can continue to brainstorm, change your mind, and discuss with Brian about your specifications long after the deposit is placed. (I mean, you have like 2-3 years before he even starts working on your boots anyway, so you have ample time to decide. Haha) Also, should you decide you can’t wait that long (or you suddenly become more financially responsible, lol), I hear you can also use that $200 deposit for something else more affordable, such as a resole of another pair of boots. Either way, hopefully this knowledge makes the $200 deposit a little less daunting and scary of a commitment.

Unboxing

The boots arrived in a single standard shoe box enclosed in a standard plastic shipping bag. There was zero padding included, so the box did arrive with some dents and dings. Inside the box, each boot was slipped inside an individual clear plastic sleeve. Unlike most other brands, no extra padding, tags, or shoe bags were included. Just the boots. (Though, they are some freaking amazing boots. Lol)

“HFB” for Hand Finished Black.

360 Degree View

The 2307 Last

When trying to pick a last for these engineers, I was debating between his 1940s last and the 2307 last. Ultimately I picked the 2307, mostly because it had a lower toe bump. I do think that his 1940s last is his most popular for engineers, and the toe bump really doesn’t make too big of a difference once the unstructured toe collapses. (For a more in-depth summary of all the lasts/toe shapes Role Club toe has available, I will link you to Brian’s YouTube video.)

Profile views of both the 1940 and 2307 lasts. Notice the more pronounced toe bump on the 1940 last in comparison to the 2307.

I had my Underdogs built on Brian’s 100 last, which typically has a significantly slimmer, almond toe shape in comparison to the 2307 last. However, due to my awkwardly wide feet and bunions, the MTM 100 last ended up not being too dissimilar from my MTM 2307 last. I definitely like the 2307 more, as the outer sweep of the toe box has a more angular, elegant curve in comparison to my 100 last, which kinda just looks like a thumb.

As you can see, my Underdogs were supposedly built on the 100 last, but ended up being way more rounded than expected (which I’m happy about).

The Leather

Brian most often sources his leather from the Horween Tannery, specifically CXL horsehide and shell cordovan. Brian used brown CXL horsehide hand-finished black for his own pair of engineer boots, which has aged incredibly. Personally, I tend to opt for vegtan leathers whenever possible, as it’s more environmentally friendly and in my opinion tends to build a nicer patina than chrome tanned or combination tanned leathers. Luckily, Brian happened to have some brown Italian horsebutt lying around his shop that he was willing to offer me. At the time, Brian didn’t remember the tannery from which he sourced the horsebutt (which, according to him, no longer exists), but he was able to send me a few photos. I immediately said yes.

A few photos of another pair of engineers Brian made in the same Italian brown horsebutt. Loved the depth of color...which I had painted over. lol

I was hesitant at first to have Brian hand-paint black dye over this beautiful brown leather. However, I was pretty set on getting some classic black engineers, and I trusted that the black dye would slowly fade away in high abrasion areas, resulting in a beautiful black-brown pseudo-tea core finish. For horsebutt leather, there actually isn’t too much visible grain/marbling within the leather). It has a fairly smooth, consistent finish, which I don’t mind at all. Also, I can already see some browns peeking through, which gives me hope as to how the black dye will chip away as these boots break in.

Some of the brown undertones can already be seen beneath the black dye, which is most apparent on the vamps.

The Pattern & Stitching

I absolutely love Brian’s take on engineer boots. His pattern works perfectly with his lasts, creating a very well balanced, properly proportioned boot that looks just as good sitting on a shelf as it does on foot.

To my understanding, all of the boots in the Role Club Collection are branded with the same two markings: an embossed logo on the left boot and a sewn-on tag on the right.

The back stay is simple and clean. No extravagant stitch patterns or anything, just very clean, vertical lines. Nice, conservative, elegant. I like it.

I think of all the engineer boots I’ve seen on Instagram, the buckles Brian uses are some of my favorite. Flat, rectangular, roller buckles. Again, nothing gaudy. Some other brands choose to use more elaborate, bulbous buckles on their engineer boots, which kinda just look out of place. Maybe they’re too eye-catching, making it seem like they’re trying too hard. In contrast, Brian’s simple flat buckles are clean and minimal, allowing the pattern and construction quality of the boots speak for themselves. Less is more.

In general, I tend to like the look of 3-4 rows of stitching as opposed to just two. It just looks more substantial and sturdy. (Does it actually increase the quality or longevity of the boot? Probably not. I just like how it looks.) Also, can we take a moment to appreciate just how absolutely pristine this upper stitching is?

Perhaps my preference for 3-4 rows of stitching stems from my appreciation for higher levels of craftsmanship when it comes to boot pattern and construction. Having additional rows of stitching all perfectly spaced and parallel requires a little more attention to detail, and it looks amazing when properly executed.

2, 3, and 4 rows of stitching, all equally dense, evenly spaced, and perfectly parallel. Perfect execution. I haven’t found a single stitch out of place on the uppers of either boot.

Another little feature I opted to include on my boots were hand-crimped toe tracks running up the vamps of each boot. To be honest, I didn’t know too much about why it’s done or it’s benefits. However, here is an explanation I found on superfuture from Brian himself, posted by @beautiful_FrEaK:

The indentation you see on the boots is called a toe track. The reason a boot has a toe track is because the vamp went through the crimping process. It is used to get all the stretch out of the vamp because when a bootmaker needs to turn something that's 2D into 3D it is more work if the vamp is not crimped. Another benefit when a vamp is crimped is it keeps the vamp smooth without any wrinkles. The crimped vamp sits well on the shoe last.

There are different way to crimp a vamp. For example Buco puts their vamps into a crimp machine. It is a hot blade that folds the vamp in half and indents the leather. I wouldn't mind having a crimp machine (really expensive!) but I use crimp boards at the moment. It is the same process but more hands on. I last the vamp on a piece of board to get all the stretch out and it naturally gets the toe track.

Personally, I mostly chose to have the toe track for esthetic purposes, but understanding the reasoning behind it is pretty cool too.

The Heel

Unlike my Underdog boots, which have a low woodsman heel, I decided to go all out with the full woodsman heel on these engineers. I will admit, walking with such elevated heels will take some getting used to. It also definitely adds to the whole western cowboy boot vibe, but I dig it. Plus, the added lift makes me over 6 feet tall now. Added bonus.

The Sole

This is my first pair of boots with a full leather sole. Felt a bit risky putting it on such an expensive pair of boots, but whatever. They look great on Brian’s pair, so I wasn’t too worried. Plus, I live a pretty sedentary lifestyle in the California Bay Area. I don’t go on many nature hikes, nor does it ever snow here (or rain really, for that matter). Thus, I don’t really have a need for much grip or traction with my footwear.

The sole channel stitching is all pretty clean, minus one little wonky spot on the inside portion of the right boot (pictured above in the top left corner). Not a big deal though, as no one is ever gonna see it.

My biggest concern with full leather soles was the reduced durability/longevity from walking on concrete, specifically at the toe. To combat this, I asked Brian to add metal toe plates to my boots to prevent premature wear at the toe. Crisis averted.

Here’s a close up of one of the toe plates, cut into the leather sole as to be nice and flush. Apparently these had to be custom ordered to accommodate for the width of my foot, adding 4-5 months to my wait time. Meh. Worth the wait in my opinion, if it meant getting it done right.

The Welt Stitching

Similar to my Underdogs, the welt stitching on these engineers is all very clean and consistent. If I were to point out anything, it’d be that a little bit of black edge dye got on the white stitching in some areas, and there’s a small tuft of loose thread ends popping out on the inside of the left boot. However, if these are the biggest errors I could find on the whole boot, I think that’s pretty amazing.

If you look closely, you can see the spots where some of the black edge coat got onto the white welt stitching. Not the cleanest, but doesn’t bother me too much.

Here’s the small tuft of loose threads at the end of one of the 270 degree welt stitches. Again, very minor, and won’t keep me up at night.

Try On & Initial Thoughts

Being completely honest, I’m actually still blown away at how amazing these boots feel on foot. I can really tell that these boots were made to measure. I shouldn’t be surprised though, as the Underdogs Brian made for me last year fit amazingly. Although, being lace-up boots that can by cinched down with laces, they naturally are less prone to fit errors such as heel slip. Engineers, by comparison, are much more difficult to fit properly, but Brian did so masterfully. 

First of all, right out of the box I actually had very little trouble getting the boots on and off. I feel like this is often the biggest struggle in breaking in a new pair of engineer boots, but not this time. Sliding my foot down the shaft felt appropriately snug, until my heel snapped past the “pass line” and sucked down into the heel cup. (I actually didn’t even need to unbuckle the strap to get them on, which was double surprising.)

Once fully seated, I could feel the built-in leather-lined orthotics beneath my feet, and the adjusted width of the 2307 last comfortably fit my bunions. What I’m most shocked by is how little heel slip I have in either boot. Until now, I had just assumed that heel slip was to be expected with all engineer boots, and only with break in and wear would that slip maybe go away. Apparently I was wrong, as these engineers already exhibit less heel slip than some of my other boots and derbies.

In designing these engineers, I chose to try out a couple things for the first time: first full leather soles, and first full woodsman heels. I know it’s still early, but I’m already loving the full leather soles. They seem to breathe much more than half and full rubber soles, and they flex and move much more naturally with the movements of my feet. I feel as though I can “feel the ground” better, if that makes sense. I will admit that I can definitely tell these leather soles have significantly less traction than rubber/cork half/full soles. However, I knew that from the get go, so me and my sedentary lifestyle are completely fine with it. I haven’t slipped yet, so it’s all good. Second, the full woodsman heels on these engineers are by far the tallest heels of any boot I own, yet once on foot, I can barely even tell the difference. Even with the steep drop off from the full woodsman heel to the leather sole, walking felt completely natural.

The last thing I’d like to note is how nicely the Italian horsebutt is breaking in. I know it’s still early, but so far all the leather on the vamps and shafts seem to be nice and tight with very little grain break or creasing. Loose grain and unsightly creasing are definitely some of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to boots, so props to Brian on absolutely killing it on the clicking. (At least so far.) I can’t wait to see how this leather continues to break in, and for the black hand-paint to chip away to reveal that beautiful brown horsebutt underneath.

If I had to pick out one spot that may require a little extra break-in, it would be the top rim around the shafts of the boot. They bounce around while I walk, knocking and banging into my shins. I expect this is probably true for most engineer boots, but hopefully this break-in period doesn’t take too long, cuz it doesn’t feel great. Until then, maybe I’ll just have to rock some longer tube socks as shin padding.

(Note: I do my best to remain impartial and objective in all of my reviews. That being said, it was difficult not to sound like some fanboy trying to sell you on a pair of Role Clubs, but this really my honest opinion. I really just love these boots. Lol)

Conclusion

If you couldn’t tell already, I’m absolutely through the roof with regards to these new engineers. The construction quality and level of finishing are pristine, and the comfort and fit out of the box is surprisingly on point. In my opinion, I think Brian and Clinch design two of the most beautiful engineer boots (on Instagram, at least), yet at the same time they exhibit two totally different vibes. Brian’s engineers draw from more rugged, western, cowboy influences, while Clinch engineers are a bit more refined, fitting very nicely within the whole Japanese workwear esthetic. Both styles are very cool, with some of the highest quality construction available.

A comparison of Role Club (top) and Clinch (bottom) engineers, both new and worn. (Photo credit: top left: me, top right: @brianthebootmaker​, bottom left: @bsw_keisuke, bottom right: @partial2vintage.)

While I’ve barely owned these for a week, and already I can confidently say that these are one of my favorite pairs in my collection. With such a beautiful pattern and solid construction, I could pick them up and stare at them all day. Also, not gonna lie, the fact that Role Clubs are so difficult to come by these days does make me feel even cooler for owning a pair. Haha

Anyway, I’ll try to write a follow up review once these are more broken in. Until then, you can follow along my journey breaking in these engineers through my instagram (@thedenimdentist). Ttfn!

[vjdarkworld]

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

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

// Read my Reviewing system for Context of Score

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

The Good:

Gameplay

Nier References

Art Direction

The Bad:

Unoptimized port for PC

Little support for PC version

The Best:

Music

Messages/themes

The Ending

Meaningful Sidequests

2B

The Good:

Gameplay:

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

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

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

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

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

Nier References:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Art Direction:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Bad:

Unoptimized PC Port:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Little Patch Support:

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

The Best

Music:

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

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

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

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

Message/Themes:

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

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

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

The Ending:

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

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

Meaningful Sidequests:

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

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

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

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

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

2B:

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

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

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

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

Details of Playthrough

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

My Specs (at the time of playthrough):

CPU: i5-2400

GPU: Radeon R9 270 Sapphire

RAM: 16GB

[buffystylez-blog]

Teacher’s Pet

Australian air date: No idea. Christmas Eve 1997?

Directed by: Bruce Seth Green

Written by: David Greenwalt

Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendon, Anthony Stuart Head, Charisma Carpenter, and David Boreanaz

 Oh, hi. It’s episode four, in which Buffy gets a better jacket and an attractive new teacher is revealed to be a horrible paedophile/giant praying mantis.

This episode we get quite a few ensembles, but most of them are not on full display. And one is not technically Buffy’s style. But we’ll get to that. Now. Because it’s the first outfit.

  Outfit 1

We open with Xander daydreaming that he simultaneously saves the day, or night in this case, wins Buffy’s love and performs a killer riff. It’s sort of offensive, but ok, why not. Save Buffy in a terrible outfit.

 I couldn’t find a good screenshot that didn’t make Buffy look wholly at the mercy of a dude, which also sucks. The dress is… ok. There’s a lot of red satin. It might even be relatively conservative given it’s Xander’s fantasy. I never cared for it. It’s too different from what we’ve seen her in before. Get a clue, Xander. Much like Buffy is not your personal damsel, she doesn’t really dress like this. Well, she may do in the season finale. But that’s like, eight episodes away.

Outfit 2

In contrast to Fantasy Bronze Buffy, we have a light blue combo that is much more Buffy’s style. We’re back to the Pollyanna (I’m bringing it back! I’ve decided!), knee high boots and miniskirt.

This outfit doesn’t stand out to me due to the teacher being nice and obviously marked for death. It’s like she needs a jacket…

Outfit 3

Standard definition is a bitch. Standard definition on a television series shot at night is a real jerk. This is the first of two outfits this episode I can’t see properly. This stressed out my fifteen year old brain and strains my thirty-four year old eyes.

 Is she wearing a waistcoat? Sleeveless vest? Are there buttons? Who the fuck knows? This chiaroscuro aesthetic is really charring my face. There’s a skirt, possibly a lace one.

 But who cares when Willow’s hair is working this level of magic. She’s not a witch yet but she has cast a spell on me. That was bad. I’m tired.

 Xander is blah. I don’t even care.

BUT THIS IS IT. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. Buffy will get the greatest gift of all – Angel’s jacket.

She has to know she’s channelling Betty Rizzo right now.

 Again, a dude is essentially marking his territory through fashion. Her swag now includes a necklace, bracelet and jacket. But honestly, this jacket is such a vast improvement on her previous brown nightmare scape I don’t mind that much. Also, Angel’s biceps are… look, it took me back to swoon town.

Outfit 4

The jacket is dazzling in the warm California sun. So is Willow’s hair. Is she matching her hair to her shirt? Should I do that?

Buffy’s dress is thumbs up. Giles is heart eyes smiley face.

 Xander is sad face.

You may be asking, should Xander lose the shirt? Xander should not lose the shirt. To paraphrase Tim Bisley, he should burn it because if he loses it he might find it again.

 Teen shows from Dawson’s Creek to Pretty Little Liars and the new series Riverdale (side note: Archie does NOT look like that in the comics) feature a trope that I find utterly appalling: the hot, young teacher who has a relationship with a student. Sorry, Pacey’s teacher (can’t remember the name), sorry Ezra Fitz, and sorry Ms Grundy – you’re all gross and inappropriate and should be arrested. 

In Buffy, however, I do believe the message is that if a teacher invites you to their house, run away. similar to the mine subsidence commercials of my childhood in which Maury the Mole taught us about mine subsidence safety, if you see a totes inappropes teacher, don’t think they’re hot, run in the opposite direction and report your detection. Though the message is somewhat diluted by the fact that Buffy’s love interest is a centuries old vampire who was about twenty-six when he died.

 Back to the real issues – the clothes!

 Natalie French, casual teacher/monster/child predator, is not dressed like a teacher. Office manager maybe? She’s also wearing yellow eyeshadow. It may be yellow but it should be red. As in a red flag. I’m still tired. I couldn’t be bothered screen capping her outfits. Lots of black and white. Yellow eyeshadow.

 Outfit 5

Dark. So dark. I see a rushed ponytail – the fringe has been scooped up in the madness and is trying to escape. Pants? Boots? Some sort of jacket?

 While Buffy is tangling with a vampire who has what looks like a huge fork for a hand all I can think is, ‘wait – is that brown corduroy?’

 Ms French has a good coat. But also she’s disgusting.

  Outfit 6

Confirmed spiky headband sighting. It’s… look, I could never use them properly. I kept missing spikes all of the time.

When would scientists discover that nude t-shirt bras are best for white t-shirts? And when would we discover colourful bras look sick as hell under white t-shirts? Sex and the City I believe was 1998. So it’s a coming. It’s a coming.

I like the cropped shirt. I… don’t like the pants. And again – I would have gone with an Adidas Superstar. Cos y’all know.

And much like Backstreet, Angel’s jacket is back. Look, she wears it a lot. And why wouldn’t she? It’s amazing. And gifted to her by an amazing looking dude who is an inappropriate match and very unhelpful in the fight against evil.

What’s Cordelia been up to, apart from discovering the headless corpses of Biology teachers? Wearing hideous clothes!

What is this hellscape? I do like the shoes. But this dress can return from whence it came.

This is the outfit Buffy saves the day in. She rescues Xander from the praying mantis who’s a preying on vulnerable teens (again, I’m tired) and there’s some hijinks with bat sonar recordings and Giles’ personal memos. Hooray!

Outfit 7

JACKET. HAIR. LOVE.

Outfit 8

This one’s a real keeper. I enjoy the white, pink, olive combo. Would I wear the olive pants? Oh yeah, nah? But the white shirt looks great with the pink cardigan. I’m here for it. I was definitely there for it.

The eggs still lingering in the classroom remind me of these Jurassic Park toys that looked like the eggs from the movie and when you opened them they had a little dinosaur figurine inside. I used them for a Jurassic Park diorama I made in primary school. God, I love Jurassic Park. I might watch it now. No. I need to go to bed.

In summary, child predators are gross whether they’re actually shapeshifting insects or not, Xander is not that stylish, Buffy is mostly stylish, and Willow is stylish as hell.

 Et voila, friends! We made it through Teacher’s Pet! In the next episode Buffy dates a guy! And wears at least one cute dress! Also the Master is back! And we’re introduced to the series’ first super annoying child actor! Exclamation Marks!

Until next time, Slayerettes.

[ciathyzareposts]

Nippon Safes Inc. – Three’s company

By Torch

In my previous post time we took a gander at the manual and discussed the history of the developers, but not much was said about the game itself, so let’s get cracking (literally) on that.

I start off as Doug Nuts. (So no quiz-based character selection as of yet.) He’s underground in what looks like a sewer and has seemingly huffed and puffed his way through a brick wall and is now facing something that looks suspiciously like a bank vault.

Who exactly is this “BANK” sign intended for?

I bet you’re dying to see where this is going, but let’s pause for a moment, to talk a little bit about the interface. It’s fairly simple; When I press and hold the right mouse button, this menu appears:

I move the mouse to the action I want to perform, and release the button. The mouse pointer changes shape to reflect the selected action, and I can click whatever I want to perform the action on. The actions are from left to right: “Open” – “Look” – “Take” and “Speak”.

There’s no separate inventory. When you pick up an item, it’s added to the action menu, and you select it the same way as the actions. Oh and if I pick an action and then mouseover an area of interest, the name/description will only show if the action in question can be performed on this specific area. If I want to simply use an item, I click it on myself.

That seems to be all there is to it. For now, at least.

Having mastered the interface, I check my surroundings. Near Doug is a toolbox. When I open it, I find a pack of plastic explosives and a detonator, which I take. The bank wall has a conspicuously square-looking hole, that seems a great fit for my explosives. I insert them and try using the detonator. As mentioned, this is done by selecting it and clicking it on Doug. He’s not too keen on blowing himself up, so I move him into an alcove off to the left of the screen and try again.

Success! The wall blows up and leaves a big, gaping hole for Doug to enter. However, as I approach…

So my detonation precedes me

Fastest game over ever?

Well, that took all of 5 minutes. So how do we restore….. Oh wait, it’s not over.

You talkin’ ta me? Fuhgeddaboudit. And so on.

I’ve now magically ( or rather programmatically ) turned in to Dino, the discarded boxer. He’s looking for a job and has decided to try his luck in a fancy looking office.

May want to drop the lollipop when going in for a job interview. Also, please somebody decipher that Mitsushita slogan for me

There’s no way to interact with the door or buzzer besides looking at it, so I can’t get into the building, but a shady looking guy appears and starts ogling the sports car that’s parked on the sidewalk, for some reason. When I talk to him, Dino, not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, asks the man if he needs any help getting into “his” car.

I only dress like this to hide from the police. Did I say police? I meant the sun!

Long story short (ok, it wasn’t very long to begin with) Dino rips the door off the hinges and the world’s most over-the-top car alarm goes off. And as with Doug, the police in this town are either psychic or getting paid by the arrest.

I thought this was the kind of door that opens downwards

Either way Dino is taken away as well.

They took my lollipoooop!

I’m starting to see a pattern here. I’m guessing we’re off to meet Donna next.

I’m fairly certain she had more hair on the box cover. And less cane

But no! Just when I think I have the game figured out, it subverts my expectation like an episode of Game of Thrones. I’m not controlling Donna at all, but some old guy in a trenchcoat. Ok, let’s see where this takes us. I’m on a street with two nearby hotspots, the most inviting of which is the “Hot Sushi” venue. According to the poster on the outside, that’s where I’ll find Donna. As I enter, however, I’m violently kicked out again by Mr. T. or some relative.

We can’t all be as classy as you

For some reason this guy can only jump to move around. I guess the budget didn’t have room for a walking animation. Anyway, all attempts at re-entry ends with me being kicked out again, so I decide to check “Honest Chan’s” booth on the left side of the screen instead.

To Deano, who was wondering if the game would avoid racial stereotypes: That’s a nope

Honest Chan is running a pawn shop. He only has 2 items of interest to our guy, though: A rubber mouse and a tie. I really have no idea why I was kicked out, but maybe it would help if I was wearing a tie…?

Yeah, that green tie with yellow dots practically reeks of class

It’s quite possible that I figured out this next puzzle because there’s not much else to do at this point, but basically the tie costs 100 yen and the mouse is 200. My guy doesn’t have any money, but he is carrying an amulet. Chan won’t accept this as a trade-in for the tie, but he’ll give me the rubber mouse for it. By now I was plotting an elaborate scheme, where I would wind up the mouse and send it into the Hot sushi, making the bouncer chase it and then sneak in…. Ok, that wasn’t really very elaborate. But I the only thing I can do with the mouse is trade it in with Chan again.

What’s your business model, exactly?

So in other words, he’ll give me a 200 yen item for my amulet, but not a 100 yen item. And then I trade in a 200 yen item for a 100. Makes perfect sense… Regardless, my newly acquired green/yellow polka dotted tie has a hidden bonus modifier of +5 to class, which is apparently sufficient to enter the “Hot sushi”.

I feel a weird urge to take a pick to that middle square on the dance floor

The establishment is empty, which is really no surprise, given their very specific dress code requirement. I can talk to the bartender though, and try to order a drink or get some “informations”.

I just now noticed that the glass in my guy’s spectacles are different colors

More specifically, I can ask about all the members of the dynamic trio.

Who could they be?

If I pick the top 2 choices, the bartender will give me the names of Doug and Dino, but the third choice prompts Donna to come out on stage for a …. Ok, let’s be generous and call it a dance.

It’s mostly just walking back and forth on stage

After a short while, Donna announces that she’ll perform the show that made her famous: “The bottle show”. I don’t know what that entails, but it’s a fair guess that it’s not family friendly entertainment, because soon after the announcement

How did you get in without a tie?

So Donna joins the prison gang.

Gender stereotypes: Check

I guess this whole thing has been an intro/tutorial, and the real game is about to start. I’m presented with a sweet sequence of some guy drawing the characters, them coming “alive” and walking around the set of the development studio or something. It’s a nice addition, but I had to crank up the CPU cycles on Dosbox, because on the default setting the drawing process was excruciatingly slow.

Look at them go

Check the exhaust pipe on the computer. This must be Glorious Olga 35 (5 CAPs for the first commenter to get the reference)

Yes yes, we get it. They’re all stereotypes

After the intro animation is over, I get to the character selection screen

I think I just now realized that all their names start with a ‘D’

Now, I honestly don’t fully understand the point of this next screen. If you recall my intro post, I mention the quiz, where you’re supposed to answer questions to choose the character whose personality you most connect with. The responses to each question will yield a syllable, matching the ones on display in the screenshot. I figured if I put all my responses together, I could input a word or something, and the game would suggest to most suitable character (to start with).

On this screen, however, the mouse pointer is not displayed, and I can’t type anything besides the numbers 1-3. If I press one of them, I start that character’s chapter. So what’s the point of the quiz? Or this screen at all? If anybody knows how this is supposed to work, and I’m doing something wrong, please let me know in the comments.

For now, I picked Doug. Because reasons.

Sure I do. I just gave it 4 chains on Brigadvisor

I start with Doug having just been released from jail. His inventory contains a key, a letter and 1000 yen. So far I’ve found no way to examine inventory items, so I have no idea what kind of key it is. If I select the letter, I can read it by clicking it on Doug.

The letter is from someone who calls himself Dr. Ki. He’s apparently the one who posted bail to get me out of prison. He wants me for a “delicate” job that requires maximum confidentiality. Doesn’t sound like a recipe for staying out of jail for too long. Regardless, it’s an adventure game, so what else can one do but go check out what the guy wants?

Unfortunately, the prison is a long way from the city, and the guard won’t call me a cab. I can leave the screen to the east, which brings me to a highway.

Too bad that impenetrable fence keeps Doug from walking somewhere a bit safer

Walking along (or rather on) the highway, I find 2 empty trashcans and a payphone. Oh, and a road-sign.

So now it’s Tyoko again?

After 3 screens, I come to a dead-end.

Maybe the eye would see farther if you were standing up

I try the payphone, but it needs some sort of token to make a call. There aren’t a lot of hotspots here, so after wandering around these 3 screens (4 with the prison area) for over half an hour, I’m starting to think I’ve encountered a bug or something. Sort of by chance I suddenly discover that I can also go south from the prison. Duh, don’t I feel stupid? In my defense, the hotspot for the exit text doesn’t overlap too well with the graphics that look like they could represent an exit. Oh well. Due south I find an abandoned food stand and a trash can with some actual trash. I can pick up an empty soda can and its tab (the thing that you pull up to get to the soda). Thinking Doug – being a veritable MacGyver of the underworld – could perhaps work some magic on the payphone with this, I head back there, and jackpot!

I bet MacGyver would’ve just built a phone

Shortly after, a cab pulls up. The driver is a pretty mean-looking guy, who’s worried that I can’t afford the ride, and that he’ll have to put me in hospital like the previous customer who couldn’t pay. I assure him that I’m good for it, and we get under way. After all, I’ve got 1000 yen in cash. After a while, though, the meter passes the 1000 yen mark. I run to Google, and it turns out 1000 yen is only about $9 USD. Ooops.

I’m just wondering if your meter might be susceptible to modification by soda can tab.

After a while we arrive at a familiar place, and I’m now facing a 2500 yen cab fare. Under threat of serious injury, I try to bargain with the cab driver.

Brace for impact

It’s only a flesh wound

So he ends up punching me in the stomach, DOESN’T take my 1000 yen, then drives off. Big whoop… The old guy in Donna’s intro was treated worse for not wearing a tie. Ok, let’s head into the “Hot Sushi” then, and get to the bottom of this whole letter-sending thing.

Apparently the tie requirement isn’t a thing anymore

The letter was sent from a Dr. Ki, but when I talk to the bartender, Doug asks for a Dr. Woo. So far naming consistency has not been the game’s strongest suit. Maybe Woo is his first name, and Ki his second, so Woo Ki? Er… sounds like a there could be a lawsuit somewhere in there…

There’s a guy sitting alone in a booth to the right, and hey! It’s our guy from before. With the cane. And the tie. He doesn’t want to talk initially, but I show him the letter, which makes him change his tune.

The guys at the table are cameos from some of the developers. Totally meta.

Dr. Woo-Ki is by his own account a collector of sacred objects, mostly statues, idols and stuff like that, but he’s missing a rare jade Buddha statue and wants me to steal it for him. If I refuse, he’ll un-bail me from jail. I don’t know a lot about Japanese law, but that doesn’t sound like something that should be possible. Oh well, plot devices and their little games. The Buddha is in the Saku-Rambo monastery, wherever that is. Only initiates are allowed inside, and the statue is kept in a safe. Alrighty then. We have a purpose. Guess it’s time to round off for now. Next time I’m hoping to get to the bottom of the greatest mystery of all: What’s the proper name of the city? “Tioko” or “Tyoko”?

Time played: 1t 20m Inventory: 1000 yen, unidentified key, empty soda can.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/nippon-safes-inc-threes-company/