#...mostly. as it happens i missed a spot and didn't know how to progress lol

[flash-from-the-past]

Fairune

[bobzora]

more reload thoughts, this time on the characters, heavy spoilers under cut (for p3 content, and also spoilers on some of the new stuff!!)

akihiko and mitsuru got arena era characterization blasted it's actually really sad he is not protein. she is not a helicopter mom. they are equals and friends who respect each other. please get the memo. most of the others' characterization seemed fine but man they got the worst of it

it's really funny that akihiko has gone from best to worst party member. i'm thankful to be free from the shackles that forced me to use him. i beat nyx with junpei aigis yukari. ken and yukari i swapped between for other fights.

yukari is one of my favorites. and she still is. i'm kind of bummed they made her nicer though

this is my first time actually saving chidori. ok time to mention junpei's new english va did a banger job. most of the cast in general killed it. shoutout to yuko (strength sl) ? for an unexpected banger of a natural sounding voice? anyway junpei's second theurgy. goes hard.

i still dont care about koromaru nothing could make me care about koromaru he's cute. i guess. lol. i like that you can pet him.

i love you aigis! there's nothing notably new for me to say about her but i lvoe her i love her i love her. she matters so much if you even care. crazy how i actually used orgia mode in reload

KEN AMADAAAA. ken. ken. ken. ok FIRST of all he's usable now! yay! i love having non-instakill light and dark skills. SECOND of all oh my god the first couple ranks of his not-SL drove me crazy. i went Uh. Uh. Um. it's like awww he likes featherman :) oh. yeah. this ten year old is actively planning a murder-suicide. he wants you to look after his hamster named hamburger if (when) something happens to him. i have such a big soft spot for ken he is my favorite child soldier. jesus christ. slightly sad that they removed some relevant dorm dialogue. i dont have the fes screenshots on me those are on my old laptop. but trust that they are missed.

i'm not a true shinji-er, frankly i mostly care about him (and akihiko) just through his relationship with local justice kid ken. it was nice hanging out with him though...jumpscared by his smile. his last hangout event (the post-mortem one) was good. oh yeah he's such a strong battler i wish i could keep him around. his theurgy is over the top with the bloody tear but i love that lol.

ryoji mochizuki voice "I know I said I wanted us to be friends, but... I actually want to be something more."

not being able to say "same":

they actually fucking did it. dude. they actually fucking did it. throughout the hangout i was like okay which 5 royal writer was working on this because this is some pretty good bait. and as it progressed i was like there's no way they're actually going for it, right? man they went for it. ryoji makes good on his word that he would love mc whether girl or boy. love wins. or loses i guess. good fucking content. movie ryomina is still on top but well that is the movies and this is video game. and this is the first time minato and ryoji can actually hang out in a video game. i love you bisexuality

i prefer "that was my name for a time. i didn't mind it." over the version in reload but man that's just me being attached to lines lol. also nyx (avatar) gets he/him-ed. shoutout detransitioned ryoji ( :( )

i wish i could put aigis in a butler outfit.

i miss femc.

[laytonloztew]

I Played: Verloren, Living Playground: The Witch's Puppets

I've been meaning to play the games of some cool rpgmaker game devs I've met since making my own game, so today I played VERLOREN and LIVING PLAYGROUND: THE WITCH'S PUPPETS.

I literally own merch of one of these games, so I think its beyond time I give them a try. I thought I would post some thoughts + a recommendation to check these games/devs out too.

VERLOREN

Fav. Characters: Vladimir

Playtime: ~1 hour

Version: 0.03 DEMO

https://gamejolt.com/games/Verloren/486793

@choko-flan

Chris finds himself cold and alone in a void - but Vlad, self-proclaimed weirdo and straight-up LAD, soon accompanies on our quest for the key out.

While dialogue-heavy isn't my loaf of bread, I'm interested in seeing how Chris & Vlad's relationship changes over the course of the full game. I'm also looking forward to more locales like the dreamy (and tasty) sweets dimension.

I liked the arcade mini-game, especially how it resembled an actual arcade game. I let Vlad beat it for me to get the authentic experience.

While it mostly stems from my own impatience, I did feel some back-and-forths with Vlad dragged on a smidge. I think the planned character portraits will help a lot, as well with the difficulty in keeping track of who is speaking.

I find myself asking the essential questions: WHO is Vlad? WHY is Vlad? But what no one ever asks: HOW is Vlad?

While a short and unfinished demo, I'm looking forward to seeing more of Verloren in the future :) VLAD/10

LIVING PLAYGROUND: THE WITCH'S PUPPETS

Fav. Characters: Haze, STRONG PICKLE

Playtime: 2.5 hours

Version: 1.0.1

https://gamejolt.com/games/the-witchs-puppets/425031

@game-meak

I find myself asking the essential questions: WHO is STRONG PICKLE?

Not knowing anything going into this (and having not played the original), I was pleasantly surprised (with Verloren as well) that I was into it as much as I was.

Tony, Pablo, and Octavio (or as us Living Playground-heads would say: Slide, Swing Set, and Monkey Bars) are siblings in a world of witchery and geese. Two witches are really good friends, and our heroes are sent into pocket dimensions for stealing without permission.

I liked the game show section (maybe I missed references with the other contestants), I thought it was a fun bit.

I am kind of concerned that I saw the chalkboard and thought 'oh hell yeah, hangman!'

I could definitely tell at a certain point that this game's events were of/inspired by personal experiences, so I wasn't surprised to see that in the post-mortem. The contrast in theme over time is shocking, how a character treats the siblings differently as the game progresses. I felt that I had maybe brushed off earlier signs of this change, just like a certain character did?

I do think it would have been cool to pick a side in the conflict and get a different ending, but if it’s based off personal experience then I suppose that wouldn't quite work out.

When Pablo laid there like a peanuts character, I felt that - when STRONG PICKLE told me to wash my hands, I felt that.

The included walkthrough proved vital for my playthrough, because I'm an idiot. I searched it out after thinking I was stuck when placing gems on pedestals, not knowing I could remove a gem if it wasn't correctly placed and that I didn't need a gem for the middle pedestal.

I would have probably been stuck for ages looking for items if I hadn't checked with the guide occasionally, and for that I salute this pdf document.

I did get soft locked at a point: Choosing 'O' before 'P' in the hangman puzzle prevents 'P' from being usable. A typo in the eventing is the culprit, but of course I happened to run into it naturally.

I also was curious about the slide puzzle lag, so I looked into it. I always feel a slight guilt from opening people's games with the intent to fix things without being asked - but I can't help myself.

Each unsolved piece is checked each frame if it has been solved by comparing positions of the solution spot and the tile's current spot. What I would do is have each tile check if its solved only after being pushed. I went ahead and modified it myself just for fun (so I can get the speedrun world record >:]), but I noticed something about this puzzle while doing this:

I didn't notice while playing that the puzzle pieces can be pushed on top of each other. That's kind of weird. You can push the pieces out onto the water or stack them together (I did try to 'automatically' solve the puzzle by stacking them all up and pushing the stack into each space, can't be done lol). What an odd decision, right?

Oh.

I'm guessing the puzzle isn't entirely reset on pumpkin interact because it would be real annoying to mispush the last piece and have to reset the whole thing, but with this puzzle design it means it is possible to softlock when doing this piece last. I'm not sure if the lack of collision is meant as a solution to this exact issue, but I thought it was interesting. In my build I added collision to the tiles and just made it so one of the adjacent tiles to the inner one always gets reset.

With some minor bugs and issues abound, Living Playground: The Witch's Puppets surprised me. While I'm not very attached to the main 3, I did feel for the 2. I relied on the walkthrough a bit much, but I had a good time. STRONG PICKLE/10