#12+esrb

[munchboxart]

Part 2

Un-official masterpost for MOST (if not all) Splatoon 3 promotional artwork [PART 2]

Date last updated: September 12, 2023

[Part 1 link]

[Splatfest promotional art link]

5th Splatoon Koshien art prize NOTE: Ok so this is actually for Splatoon 2 [2020], but I'll keep this here because this is kind of crazy (cool) + I need references for art, but I will remove this once there's more Splatoon 3 art

Big Betrayal (with and without text) (JP version because it doesn't have the ESRB rating)

Splatoon 3 one(1) year anniversary

Daybreak Anthem

Splatoween 2023

That's all I currently have, I will keep updating if the JP Twitter account posts any more photos

[Part 1 link]

[Splatfest promotional art link]

[satoshi-mochida]

Inti Creates announces puzzle game PuzzMiX for PS5, PS4, Switch, and PC

From Gematsu

Inti Creates has announced PuzzMix, a new puzzle game coming to Switch on April 5, PC via Steam on April 19, and PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 on April 26. It will be priced at $3.99.

Get the details below.

■ About

Inti Creates has announced PuzzMiX, a new puzzle game available for download tomorrow, April 5. To celebrate the launch, PuzzMiX will be available for 10 percent off until April 18. In PuzzMiX, players will control falling “Lola Pods” to merge pairs into increasingly larger types. As the Lola Pods get bigger and bigger, the player will earn bigger scores as the chaos becomes even harder to control. Online leaderboards are included to show off the best Lola MiXers around the world. When players earn a certain amount of score, they’ll unlock a new song from Lola herself to listen to during the game. 19 vocal tracks are included in addition to one instrumental background music. This deviously simple puzzle game filled with upbeat melodies, PuzzMiX, will be available on Nintendo Switch on April 5 at 12:00 a.m. PT / 3:00 a.m. ET via the Nintendo Switch eShop. PuzzMiX is also planned for release on PC (Steam) on April 19, and PlayStation 4 and 5 on April 26. The price is $3.99 on all platforms. Play this exhilarating puzzle game to the beat of Lola’s songs!

■ Characters

Lola (voiced by Obake Pam in English, Mayu Mineda in Japanese)

A virtual idol known as “The Muse of Hope.” Lola is an ever-so-willful, boyish young girl. Unbeknownst to others, her true form is a collection of small “battle pods” that transform. She began her virtual idol career with music videos, but lately she has begun branching out to other content.

■ Game Rules

The basic rules are simple! As Lola Pods fall from above, match them with pods of the same type. Matching Lola Pods will combine and rank up to form a bigger pod. Keep making bigger Pods without crossing the line at the top!

■ Lola Pod Growth Chart

It’s rumored that Lola can get even bigger than this… You’ll just have to see for yourself!

■ Collect Songs

Grow your Lolas and get a score over 1600 to get a new Lola song! You can swap songs at any time to any you’ve unlocked. Jam to your favorite tunes as you puzzle it out!

■ 20 Songs Included

Looping versions of 18 different Lola songs from the Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX series, plus an all-new song “Sparkling Elation,” are included! “Sword of Destiny” from Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX is also included as background music!

The full song list is as follows:

“Beyond Probability”

“Chronicle Of Our Lives”

“Command Prompt”

“Countdown: 3-2-1-0”

“Curiosity = Possibility!”

“Igniter”

“Inner Alarm”

“Kindled Spirits”

“Love’s Sanctuary”

“Luminous Promise”

“Original Chord”

“Purification”

“Raison D’etre”

“Ready To Go!”

“Resonating Hearts”

“Sparkling Elation ♪”

“Sword of Destiny”

“The New World”

“Wordplay Magic”

“You’re Not Alone”

■ Online Leaderboards

PuzzMiX also features online leaderboards. Compete for the best score in the world!

■ Product Information

Title: PuzzMiX

Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, PC (Steam)

Genre: Puzzle

Rating: ESRB: E

Players: One

Release Dates:

Switch: April 5, 2024

PC (Steam): April 19, 2024

PlayStation 5: April 26, 2024

PlayStation 4: April 26, 2024

Price: $3.99

Official Website: English / Japanese

Watch the launch trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.

Launch Trailer

English

Japanese

[beevean]

The moral outrage over an AU of Sonic being tortured in captivity will always be dumb as shit. All of the marketing and promotional stuff surrounding Forces was showing the then-upcoming game as a more serious and darker story. But certain people are shocked to see other fans jumping right at something the game and promotional material was handing to them silver platter.

That would be like having a conniption from seeing a character like Erazor Djinn, a canonical abuser, being portrayed doing just as bad, if not worse than the shit he pulled in his respective game.

I really wouldn't put it past them to go more into the nitty-gritty of the darker elements in the series, if the Sonic franchise as a whole wasn't primarily aimed at a child demographic. Just look at what they did in Shadow's game with it just having the E10+ rating(which had just been implemented into ESRB rating system earlier that year).

Fun fact: I still have saved in my drafts a response to a post I found way back then (I will never publish it for obvious reasons, but I needed to vent lmao), and this part always fascinated me.

The fact that there are people who think that torturing Sonic for the sake of “story,” is okay - well it’s unnerving to me, and I don’t think anyone should willingly desire to make such a thing. Moreover, that there are adults participating in the content.

"It's unnerving to me, and I don’t think anyone should willingly desire to make such a thing". I love it. Pure anti logic distilled in one singular sentence. Art.

"There are adults participating in the content" is another good line. This implies that the issue is that the Encaged AU was written by an adult, and not a teen. The rest of the post is basically all about how Sonic is for children, therefore the adults in the fandom should always be mindful of the children.

I know that joking about Maria's death is now beating a dead horse, but yeah the series has had as a plot point the murder of a young girl that drove her grandfather to planet-destroying madness. If children can handle SA2 and ShTH (which in Europe had a 12+ rating, so higher than the usual 7+ but not exactly adult), or even '06 with Sonic dying in the Last Story, they can handle the presence of a vaguely grimdark AU.

[skaruresonic]

Twitter: Sonic 3 will reportedly be PG-12

The Sonic Fandom's reaction: oooooh the child is definitely getting shot now

These people I swear

Oh joy, here comes the entire fucking fandom clamoring for the onscreen death of a terminally ill child. What brand of love and light fuckery is this.

...Huh. I've heard of PG-13 ratings, but not PG-12.

Sonic 3 will reportedly be PG-12 rated according to a Slovakian film rating website : r/SonicTheMovie (reddit.com) ...Ah. That explains it.

Just did a quick perusal of Google to try and get a more accurate feel for if Maria's death may be included in the film, and so far, from what I'm seeing, the answer seems to be a tentative "possibly, though it's largely up in the air." There are a lot of mitigating factors, such as the differences between the ESRB and movie ratings, the fact that the presence of gun violence has increased in PG-13 movies over the past 35 years, and whether blood gets shown.

My common sense tells me that if they do show Maria's death, they're not going to be as graphic about it as fandom wants it to be. But it may still show up if they decide to feature her character (which, to play the faintest devil's advocate, there is a distant possibility they may not).

[four-loose-screws]

(Apologies in advance for the long ask, there was just a lot I had to say on this topic, and wanted to present my case as throughly as possible)

Hello there, first I just want to say thank you for all the hard work you do, I and no doubt many others truly appreciate it. Anyway, I saw your translation regarding Etie and Goldmary’s support conversations and it reminded me of a personal theory regarding it that I’ve had for some time. When I first heard of the differences between the Japanese and English conversations, one thing that came to my mind was a somewhat similar conversation that was also changed for presumably similar reasons, that being Tharja and Nowi’s Harvest Scarmble conversation in Awakening. Basically that conversation initially had Nowi admiring Tharja’s, umm … “boingy bits” but was changed to Nowi admiring her hair instead. Now this change was only made in the EU version while the NA version kept the “boingy bits” part intact, and the more I’ve learned about how rating systems in different regions tend to operate, I’ve begun to noticed certain patterns. In this case when it comes to places like Australia, they can be extremely strict when it comes to any sort of sexual content particularly when it involves younger looking characters, which in the case of Nowi is very evident thus offering a possible explanation for why that particular conversation in Awakening had to be changed. The reason I bring up Australia in particular, is that if you’re not aware they have quite the history of editing games and even refusing releases for all sorts of reasons, including the aforementioned “sexual content with younger looking characters”. If you want more information, here’s a link to the Wikipedia article that goes more into it with some examples: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_video_games_in_Australia

So what does all of this have to do with this conversation in particular you may ask? Well perhaps due to Etie being 17 there was some concern if this conversation could place them into a similar issue. Now yes the ages are strictly resorted to the data files of the game and whether Etie in particular looks young enough to raise some flags is debatable (especially since she’s not in the same camp as a Nowi per say), but the fact that it’s at all present in the game to some capacity might be enough to err on the side of caution, and even if that wasn’t an issue I still think it’s possible that it could potentially raise the game rating up in some part of the world or worse get the game refused for classification, since it appears that even T (ESRB) or 12+ (PEGI) games aren’t exempt from the latter. And as a result of the change, it had a knock on effect to the B-Support as now the original wouldn’t exactly flow all that well into the revised A-Support, essentially keeping the overall theme of the conversation as close as possible within the limitations. Of course this is purely speculation, as far as I know I could be totally wrong on this but I do find the discrepancy between the aforementioned Tharja and Nowi conversation to be worth bringing up. Perhaps the reason why both NA and EU received the same conversation is that since it’s now fully voiced, they didn’t want to go through the trouble of making an alternative and since NOA and NOE in recent years have more or less unified to have the same English script everywhere in contrast with previous generations where both of them would do their own thing, possibly as a result of games typically coming out on the same day everywhere now.

Personally I like to believe that the issue that the team ran into was the A Support for all the reasons listed above and thus had a knock-on effect to the B Support to make it flow better, as I don’t think they would’ve changed that on its own, maybe they would’ve reworded some things but otherwise keep it relatively close, especially since some other “spicy” stuff like Goldmary undressing in her support with Framme was kept intact, but perhaps the A-Support could’ve be seen as pushing it when it came to getting a higher age rating or worse banned. It’s tough to say since unless someone who worked on the localization ever talks about this, all we can do is speculate and unless something else comes up, this sounds the most plausible to me with my understanding of ratings and how it can affect localizations. But what do you think, have you ever ran into something that made you consider the possibility of tightroping rating boards, whether it be the ESRB or elsewhere, I’m really interested in hearing what you have to say. Once again thank you for all your hard work and I hope you have a great day.

This is great speculation, everyone please enjoy a good read! I don't have too much to add, but here goes!

I didn't think too much into why exactly Etie and Goldmary's supports were rewritten, just had some vague ideas like "them fighting over who's more attractive to men wouldn't sit well with a general audience nowadays." If my thoughts are too speculative, sometimes I'll just choose to keep them to myself, lest the inevitable game of internet telephone turns my vague ideas into some sort of fact or something. It just happens sometimes.

I can't think of any other specific examples right away where the localization team might have had to tightrope rating boards, but I'm sure I've seen some examples in the past. It's just not an angle that tends to come to my mind when doing my original vs localization work.

Your thought that the Etie and Goldmary change was due to rating board guidelines makes a lot of sense, I don't know why I didn't think of that! Everything you say lines up with the general trends I've seen over the years. The Tharja and Nowi convo is a perfect parallel.

While I choose to focus on a USA perspective in my posts, of course, because that's the one I have, I to have read a bit online over the years about what's "too sexy" and "not too sexy" in the US vs. JP vs. Australia. Plus I made several Australian friends while teaching English in Japan, so I learned lots of bits and pieces of cultural differences from them. As a result, I've seen lots of little signs that show Australia was one of the first areas of the world to start to crack down really hard on sexualization of minors (both real and media characters), starting the global ripple affect we continue to see today.

And it's easy to prove that English language localizations are being more and more centralized, because, well, that one's easy - you just don't see differences between NOA and NOE, etc. scripts as much anymore. So that can mean localization teams have to pass multiple rating board "checks" at once.

Is this all for better or worse, that video games are becoming more of a melting pot to sell on a global scale? That rating boards can have such an influence over media? Well, that's hard to judge as a general concept. The answer is different case by case.

In my personal opinion on Etie & Goldmary's supports, I overall like the changes the localization team came up with. Whether the decision to make the changes was made internally or due to an outside influence like the rating boards, I think the team still carefully read the original conversation before making their changes. Even with entire lines rewritten, the general flow is still the same. Localizers can't always keep scripts the same detail to detail, but they can prove that they researched, cared for, and understood the game they were assigned to localize!

And that's generally what I have to say about that. Sorry its not a little more detailed!

[beastdrive]

Beast Drive is a Bloody Roar fanspace for creative contributors and casual appreciators of the series alike, welcoming discussion of existing characters and story as well as sharing various fanworks. Engagement with the series on this blog can include general appreciation and celebration of BR canon, lore analysis (meta), character headcanons, and other methods of creative expression. Everyone is encouraged to not only share already existing fanworks but to also create new original works of your own!

Blog Navigation | Meet the Mod | What is Bloody Roar?

Since this is a new blog for a relatively quiet fandom which surrounds a niche fighting game that's old enough to drink, Beast Drive will rely heavily on assistance from followers to gain traction.

If you would like something showcased on this blog, then please read under the cut for Beast Drive's submission and askbox policies.

Recent Updates

[07/20/2023] - Pinned Post is our 100th post yaaay!

Disclaimer

Beast Drive is an inclusive space made for fans from all walks of life with respect to unique personal identities. To be explicitly clear, this blog is run in support of and makes room for marginalized people who are frequently pushed out of fandom and gaming spaces.

Content ratings must be consistent with the series:

PG-13 / ESRB rated T / PEGI 12 / CERO-B / etc

Check the "What is Bloody Roar?" page for content warnings.

There may be depictions of blood and violence, with special consideration paid toward any flashing gifs. Feel free to request certain warning tags be used for content or safety concerns.

Askbox

Since there is only one mod right now, this feature is mainly a way to reach out to me but you may also posit questions to Beast Drive's followers and other Bloody Roar fans!

Questions directed to the mod, rather than the community, might be answered privately unless requested otherwise.

Anonymous Asks are currently enabled!

Submissions

This helps showcase various fanart, fanfic, and other fanworks by fellow creators who love Bloody Roar! You can help fill the queue by sharing links to BR tumblr posts that you think deserve a reblog, provide information for promotional posts on fics and artwork, or host your work right on this blog. I'd also love to see any commissions you've received and give a shoutout to the artist!

Submissions are currently enabled!

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Beast Drive only accepts images that you have made yourself or that you have express permission from the creator to let me host. This is to ensure there is no accidental theft or misattributed credit. If there are any images posted in error, please let me know and I will remove them immediately!

Please also be respectful of non-English speaking artists. Many of them do not want their artwork hosted externally, even when given proper credit. Let's respect their wishes.

Community Activities

I'd really like to use this space as a sort of community hub to spotlight other Bloody Roar creatives! Some things I've considered implementing are art and writing challenges through weekly or monthly prompts to inspire thought about the series.

Check this page to learn more about community activities!

Credits

Bloody Roar is the intellectual property of Eighting and Hudson, now owned by Konami. Banner and icon are from BR2 & BR3.

CARAMEL MAMA Naochika Morishita is the lead artist for Bloody Roars 1, 2, and 3.

BLOODY ROAR WIKI The fandom wiki still maintains its own active community.

HYPERBEAST TV Catch recent online matches from loyal players around the world.

[fioras-resolve]

you know, video game rating systems are a bit weird. here in the states we have the ESRB, which uses the age brackets of 0, 10, 13, 17, 18. i never really questioned it growing up, until i saw the PEGI system that europe uses and was completely disoriented. 3, 7, 12, 16, 18. there's just something deeply wrong to me about hearing a 12 in a rating system, because like, at least in the states there's a lot of emphasis on being "a teenager." 13 just feels like a more reasonable threshold to me. and then i found about the CERO system that japan uses. 0, 12, 15, 17, 18. it's so weird to me, but it's all just different standards with different criteria.

but, having this much variety allows you to cover quite a few numbers. you can do

Everyone (All systems) Everyone (ESRB, CERO) 3 (PEGI) 7 (PEGI) 10 (ESRB) 12 (PEGI, CERO) 13 (ESRB) 15 (CERO) 16 (PEGI) 17 (ESRB, CERO) 18 (All systems)

so if you wanted to, you could cross-reference ratings of the same game to get a more precise age recommendation. you could even potentially cross-reference an entire series if you're a fan of that series and want to know what to recommend to a younger person. i'm tempted to do this with final fantasy, i've already got their ESRB ratings, but i feel like nobody would care except me. like, it is draining making an entire post like this to minimal reception. so do tell me if you actually want to see this, okay?

[teaveetamer]

I knowwww not to rain on anyone's parade and I 100% think people in different corners of the fandom should leave each other alone but god. Your recent post about the politics of 3H made me remember how some of the stuff portrayed as obvious in the fandom just makes me so. Hgggggghhh. Like "hey guys a war started by the literal regent of a disgraced empire is exactly the same as a revolution of the proletariat, right?" Tbf I completely blame the actual game for that considering it has a fucking child's understanding of politics. Doesn't it also literally use the word revolution at some point or did that get ingrained into my head from too much fandom exposure?

Like "AM is the centrism route" seems to be their favorite argument but that's just the entire game!! The whole game is so insistent on having every ending be totally good, please ignore all the weird implications in some of the paired endings everything is fine aha :) Just fucking centrism central. And half the time it can't seem to remember itself what the characters' political aims actually are, like I swear every ending card for CF implies something completely different from each other.

But idk I guess if you only play one of the routes and even then only once and then completely work off of headcanons forever then sure you can pretend the writers are totally 100% in agreement with you I guess. And AM isn't even my favorite route!!! My fave house is just the one that gets perpetually ignored and at this point I am 100% okay with that. This must be even more annoying to you folks. Sorry for the rant but reading your post made something click in my head

Oh I 100% agree that people can like what they want and we should all get to have our own little fandom corners, but yeah some of the pervasive sentiments in the fandom about 3H are honestly baffling. Also thank you for the ask, I love rants :)

At the end of the day, I just don’t understand where people are pulling this “deep political storytelling” from. It’s a mass market product designed to be understood by 12 year olds (it’s CERO B aka 12+, and ESRB T aka 13+) It is going to try to be as bland and inoffensive as it can be to maximize reach and profit, and it’s not going to contain anything too dark or complex for a preteen to process.

12 year olds are not stupid, and you can absolutely have some more mature things packaged in an age appropriate way (e.g. ATLA tackles genocide in a product aimed at an even younger target demo) but? A game aimed at 12 year olds is not going to have complex political theory. It’s just not. It’s never going to be as deep as you want it to be, and some members of the fandom need to just let it go. There are hundreds of pieces of media aimed at adults that tackle more complex topics of politics and morality if that’s what you want. You don’t have to try and force 3H into that box.

[poppy-playtime-lore]

Welcome and about:

WELCOME!

Masterlist of posts (ongoing)

This blog is all about the game Poppy Playtime! Run by two people!

This may include:

Lore you may have missed

Theories

Headcannons

Responses to theories

YOUR theories (asks are open)

much much more

Poppy playtime is categorized as a horror/puzzle game. Poppy Playtime features frightening images (including blood and death mention) and themes that are paired with child-friendly items. This may be especially upsetting to some as you should only consume this content with your own caution.

" It has been rated as suitable for 13 year-olds by ESRB and for 12 year-olds by PEGI. This includes descriptors for Violence, Blood from ESRB and Moderate Violence and Horror from PEGI" - https://www.forbes.com

ABOUT BUMBLEBEE ABOUT BUNI

ENJOY!

[tobiphoto]

Unityの料金改定でインディー企業キツイ（要約）

　Nintendo Directの話題じゃなくて申し訳ないんですけど、ゲームに関しては結構激震に近い話題で…。

　ゲーム開発などを行う時、利用できるプログラムソフトウェアでUnityというソフトがあります。驚くほど多くのインディーソフトを支えてきた本プログラムですが、今後は「販売したソフトの数に応じて料金を課金してもらうシステム」に料金支払いの形態が変更となり、今までは一定の売上利益の一部（儲けが少ない会社などは相談可）で使用を許可していたUnityが、今度は「販売数に応じて課金」に方針を転換したそうな。

　対象となる会社は1割とUnity側は説明していますが、中小企業ほど恐らくきつく、今もUnityに利益を支払えるか支払えないかのギリギリで粘っている個人/会社も多いのではないかと思います。今後がどうなるのかわからない中、 『Cult of lamb』開発元は「来年1月1日でストアから削除するよ」と発表、 『Among Us』開発元と『Papers, Please』のLucas popeも苦言、『カイロパーク』は「Unityで作っちゃったZE☆」バンドルセール開催。と何だかちょっとした狂気が蔓延しています。

　Unityでゲームを作っている人は恐らく多く、日本国内のゲーム開発状況も恐らくこのUnityに頼っている状態では、と推察できて、厳しい言い方をすると、この10年の間はほとんどのゲーム制作がUnity頼りだったと言っても過言ではない、つまり、現在Unityで開発していたプログラマーが危機に陥るということでもあります。

　今後今のようなペースで良作インディーソフトが発売になるのかも疑問です。昨日のダイレクトで発表になった『サガ エメラルドビヨンド』も「多分お前ユニティじゃね？」と疑っています。 　あと、色んなリメイク作品ってUnityの場合が多いんですよ…。

　それから、ソーシャルゲームが問題視されています。無料ゲームでもDL数に応じて課金されることになるので、収益化できない会社は早期サービス終了がこれまで以上に促進される可能性もあります。 　…でもこれに関しては一部ユーザーを狙って短期で金を稼ぐシステム文化を作って来たお前（ゲーム業界）が悪くない？　と思う部分もあり、ビジネス方針の転換とともに体力のない会社は倒れるだろうと思います。

　以下は上記で紹介したゲームのSteamリンクです。

【リスト】（ESRBレーティングはWikipediaを参考にしました） 『Cult of lamb』（ESRB:T 13歳以上推奨）https://store.steampowered.com/app/1313140/Cult_of_the_Lamb/?l=japanese 『Among Us』（CERO：B　12歳以上推奨）https://store.steampowered.com/app/945360/Among_Us/?l=japanese 『Papers, Please』（ESRB:M 17歳以上推奨 裸とかあるし…） https://store.steampowered.com/app/239030/Papers_Please/?l=japanese カイロソフト　作品一覧ページ https://store.steampowered.com/developer/Kairosoft

サガ エメラルドビヨンド公式ページ https://www.jp.square-enix.com/saga_eb/

[ablegaming]

Tactics Ogre Reborn accessibility review

Game title: Tactics Ogre Reborn (Let Us Cling Together)

Platform(s): Windows, Steam Deck, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5.

The original version was released on PlayStation 1 and then on PSP, and is also playable on the PlayStation Vita. It was also released on Super Famicom and Sega Saturn in Japan.

Languages: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and traditional and simplified Chinese

Age rating: ESRB T, PEGI 12

Genre/theme: Strategy RPG; Tactics Ogre Reborn is a turn-based tactical role playing game played on a grid overlaying the landscape. Characters choose to move, attack, or wait on their turn. Throughout the course of the game many characters of varying classes (and dragons) will rally to your cause, these characters can all learn a variety of skills and magic as they level up. The story begins with a brewing civil war following the king’s death; three factions (one of which you control) rise up to fight for dominance of the Valerian Isles.

Violence: Mild; fantasy violence including melee weapons, bows, and magic. Mild blood, but no gore.

Maturity: Mild language and sexuality. No nudity, drugs, or alcohol.

Phobias: Blood/gore: Mild blood, but no gore. Drowning: None Heights: The camera angle is a fixed position angled down from several stories up. Characters can drop down a fairly decent height to the lower levels of the battle terrain. Sharks: None Spiders: None Underwater: None

Multiplayer: None; single player only.

Difficulty modes: None; training mode allows you to earn experience points and level up before going into the real battle. This game has perma-death when characters fall in battle, so keeping them alive and healed is critical.

Complexity: Medium; requires tactical decision making, knowledge of weapon and elemental advantages/disadvantages, and turn order monitoring.

Instructions, saving, story recap, menus, & waypoints: There is no physical instruction manual in the case. The game begins by asking your birthday, drawing several tarot cards, and then asking you a few multiple choice questions. The tutorial section introduces you to Recovery Time (RT), and how units with the lowest RT move first. The move order is called Attack Turn (AT), commands such as Move, Act, and Use Skills can be selected during your turn. There are four categories of skills: Action, Support, Auto, and Special. Units learn skills as they gain levels, according to their class.

The tutorial also introduces you to the world map, where you choose your destination. There is a Main Menu available on the world map that allows you to save your progress, and you can also access the same options menu from the start screen. Tactics Ogre Reborn will periodically autosave, but it’s generally best to make use of multiple manual saves. You will only be controlling one character in battle for the first few missions before the game opens up to strategizing the actions of your entire team.

Character classes can be changed, this requires using a classmark. Each class can learn different skills and wear different types of armor. The “Warren Report” can be accessed on the world map screen for detailed information regarding characters, world lore, and battle techniques.

Subtitles: Yes; subtitles are utilized.

Text customization: The default dialogue text is a medium-sized italicized and capitalized black font on a white text window, it’s readable but honestly not the clearest text. Unfortunately there are no customizable dialogue text options.

Message Speed can be set to Normal or Instant. Automate Battle Messages and Auto Advance Messages can all be turned on/off. Additionally, Weather Notifications, Action Notifications, and Level Up Notifications can also be turned on/off. Charm Use Confirmation dialogue and Context Icon can be turned on/off as well.

Voice acting: Fully voice-acted in both English and Japanese.

Volume settings: Master Volume, Music, Environment, Effects, System, Voice, and Mouseover Volume can all be set from 0–100. Play Voices can be turned on/off.

Photosensitivity: There are flashing lights in the opening cinematic, this can be skipped though. There is a fairly bright splash animation effect when entering a level. Torches and the area surrounding them have a mild flicker effect.

Characters flash bright white when hit in battle. Lightning and ice magic attacks make use of intense flashing light animations, I had to look away immediately every time these spells were used. Auto Skill Animations can be set to Default or Simple; Simple has a less intense animation, but it’s really not a whole lot easier on the eyes.

The lightning weather effect was too much for me, and I ended up selling this game. If you’re medium-high photosensitive I honestly don’t recommend buying or playing this game, unless you don’t mind playing it on extremely dim brightness and low contrast settings.

These can be remedied a bit by playing in a well-lit room and adjusting screen brightness (TV & in-game), backlight (TV), contrast (TV), and color settings (TV). Additionally, wearing blue light lens glasses, tinted lens glasses, or even sunglasses may be helpful.

Motion-sickness and camera: The camera is a steady angled-down perspective, I didn’t experience any motion-sickness. Auto-Center Selection can be turned on/off, which doesn’t center the screen on the selected destination or target. Note that the background and character graphics are noticeably blurrier on the Nintendo Switch version than on other consoles and PC.

Colorblindness mode: None; color settings can only be adjusted in TV settings.

Controller rumble: Yes; can be set from 0–100.

Remappable controls: 100% fully remappable, all buttons can be reassigned.

Quick-time events: None

Physical impact: Light; can be played comfortably for extended periods of time.

Adaptability and input: Controls are simple, well spaced out, and can be fully customized. The majority of the controls are thumb input, so gamers with thumb or thumb joint struggles may have to set the controller on their lap and play using their fingers but this is definitely doable. Can be played one-handed or with feet.

Can be played with two Switch Joycon controllers, two controller-docked Joycon controllers, handheld-docked Joycon controllers, Switch Pro controller, USB keyboard (keyboard shortcut bindings can be set on console and PC), mouse (mouse sensitivity and cursor size can be set on console and PC), Gamecube controller, Sony Dualshock 4 controller (adapter required to use on Switch), Sony DualSense 5 controller, Xbox One controller, Xbox One Bluetooth Controller (adapter required to use on Switch), Xbox Series X/S controller, Wii U Pro Controller (adapter required to use on Switch), and Steam Deck controller. No touchscreen or voice control functionality.

The original version can be played (thanks to backwards compatibility) with the PlayStation 1 controller, PlayStation 1 dualshock controller, PlayStation 2 dualshock controller, PlayStation 3 dualshock controller, Sony PSP, and Sony PlayStation Vita.

To read more about how you can pair different controllers with the Nintendo Switch and with PC, check out my post on the topic: https://medium.com/@AbleGaming/how-to-use-your-favorite-console-controllers-on-nintendo-switch-and-pc-and-how-to-use-your-switch-64d7a7bc7b7f

Overall accessibility score: 2.8/5.0 (Please note that this score does not reflect the entertainment or enjoyment value of the game, it represents the range of accessibility for gamers who have specific limitations.)

Tactics Ogre Reborn is available to play on a wide range of consoles and controllers, as is also the case with its earlier versions. This new version of Tactics Ogre features a talented completely voice-acted cast of characters, in both English and Japanese. The laid-back nature of strategy RPGs allows for choosing your characters’ actions in your own time, which makes for a low physical impact gaming experience that can be enjoyed for lengthy sessions. Additionally, the controls can be completely remapped and customized. The angled-down camera perspective is steady and there are thankfully no motion-sickness concerns to be found.

Unfortunately, Tactics Ogre Reborn suffers from several regularly occurring photosensitivity concerns, and I honestly wouldn’t recommend purchasing or playing the game if you have medium-high photosensitivity. You may be able to play it with incredibly low brightness and contrast settings, but the screen would have to be very dim to counteract all of the flashing effects. Additionally, the default text font is italicized and isn’t super easy to read, with no customization options either. Sadly, these issues were too intense and too prevalent for me to be able to play and fully enjoy this version of Tactics Ogre.

My review can also be read and listened to (text-to-speech) on my Medium page at: https://medium.com/@AbleGaming/tactics-ogre-reborn-accessibility-review-78c0d4689c91

[agirlinsearchof]

Huh?

According to the Fire Emblem Wiki, the Virtual Console release of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War got a CERO rating of A (equivalent to the ESRB’s E rating or PEGI’s 3 rating).

Even though it’s one of the darkest Fire Emblem games.

Granted, this game isn’t really graphic, but still. Did nobody at CERO complete the game before rating it? I would have given it a B at least!

This led me to discover a few things about ratings boards.

CERO’s ratings of Fire Emblem games tend to be pretty lenient, tending towards A or B (the rough equivalents of E or E10+), with Fates getting the strictest rating of C (Suitable for ages 15 and up, equivalent to an ESRB T, though PEGI rated it 12). The ESRB is more likely to rate Fire Emblem games T, while the lowest rating the ACB has given is a G8+ (roughly equivalent to ESRB E10+ or PEGI 7).

The ACB is notorious for their strict ratings, so games that the ESRB rated T, they were likely to rate M. PEGI tended to rate the Fire Emblem games that got an ESRB T a 12.

[ya-ya-sestrahood]

3, 4, 17, 24, 28 and random selection uhhh 30 for video g g g ames

Hi Kat!

3. 1-3 games you’ve played in the past 12 months that you really enjoyed

Easy, Personas 3-5 just got rereleases.

Okay, fine.

Elden Ring - Maybe you've heard. It's good. Been a Fromsoft fan since Demon's Souls, but this is the only game with turtle pope.

Rogue Legacy 2 - Unbelievably addictive. The ultimate "just one more run" game. Sometimes you get a character with vertigo and have to play upside down. Nightmarish. 10/10.

Tunic - The game itself is a decent little Zelda homage, but the game beneath the game... Let's just say it inspired a lot of furious note-taking. Finally opening the mountain door has to be the gaming highlight of the year. Fez II was canceled 10 years ago. This is Fez II.

4. Do you like to get 100% achievements/trophies?

If it's a game I really like, it can be a lot of fun. Otherwise, I've learned to let go. Too many games to play! It was a lot of fun when Bobby and I would brag about our platinums to each other. Thanks, Bobby. :)

Also, there should be an independent, platform-agnostic organization like the ESRB in charge of achievements so we can all have one comprehensive list or WHAT'S EVEN THE POINT.

17. A game you didn’t finish but would like to get back to or restart someday

I keep restarting Children of Morta, thinking it's awesome, and then not finishing it. I'll finish it. It's awesome.

24. A game with a cool art style

Most recently, Pentiment. For a game where NPCs talk to you about Christianity and agriculture for 10 hours, it’s cool. There’s a slider to adjust the size of the heads.

28. Pick a series you like. What was the first game you played for it? Was it a good starting point? Would it still be a good starting point now?

It’s Persona time! Persona 3 was my first back in 2007, and it very quickly became my favorite game ever (sorry, Banjo-Kazooie). Persona 1 and 2 have their fans, but they’re different enough that they’re essentially their own series, and they didn’t grab me when I went back to try them out. 3 being the birth of the modern Persona format made it the perfect starting point. As for whether I’d recommend people start there now… probably not? The main issue is that there is no “definitive” version of Persona 3. The PSP version had a bunch of new content (female protagonist!) and improvements, but they also had to make some serious compromises to get it to run on the system. That’s the version they just re-released. I think it’s still fun as hell, but I don’t know how new players are gonna respond to having to drag a cursor around static images instead of being able to run around the city. But then wouldn’t it be harder to go back to after experiencing the free exploration of 4 and 5? I dunno, man. It’s a great game. People should play it. This answer was too long.

30. Game you think you’ll finish next?

I want to say Monster Hunter Rise, but I don’t know if you can really finish a Monster Hunter game. I’ll take a wild guess and say Hi-Fi Rush, which I have not played yet, but it’s on Game Pass and it looks cool.

Thank you Kat!

[studentofetherium]

what is k-12? are you saying a 13 years old would be less affected by the pandemic than a 12 years old? google says something about the esrb, is this a video game thing?

k refers to kindergarten, aka the first level of school, and 12 refers to twelfth grade, which is the last year of american high school. k-12 means the basic education that children get in the US as a minor

[bjsmall]

FlatOut is a 2004 racing video game developed by Finnish developer Bugbear Entertainment and published by then British game publisher Empire Interactive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlatOut_(video_game) FlatOut is known for its demolition derby style races, specular vehicle damage physics modeling and dynamic tracks which still look great today!

Here is the trailer for the game, featuring ‘Beat the Boys’ by LAB:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBKSGSCSUTs The player can choose between 16 different cars to race in. Each car has 5 colour choices and are rated as Bronze class, Sliver class and Gold class. I made a collage that shows my favourite cars from each class.

All the car models are Bugbears own as this avoids any licensing permissions on real car models.

To see all the cars available in the game, see video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4lMCUVCMaA The stages consist of forests, sand pits, race tracks, snowy tracks, small towns and rural stages, each with their own obstacle hazards and shortcuts. Each stage has three different track layouts for each race. This helps make the stages more challenging and interesting, some are in reverse as well. As you race through to the Gold stages, the opponents become much more aggressive and faster.

The HUD displays lap count, speed (MPH) gauge and nitro, damage level (Derby), stage map, lap time and race position. 

These can be configured in the game options.

The number of players on each track is 8. This includes the player and 7 opponents. The number of cars stays the same in FlatOut 2, however in FlatOut Ultimate Carnage, this has increased to 11, including the player, making it 12 cars.

The damage simulator in FlatOut is very well though out, as you can see in the screenshots which shows lots of damage to one of the cars I was driving, the damage is inflicted on wherever the car is hit and at what force. Each car model is made up of many polygons (damage points) which interact differently to different collisions, making the damage look and feel real.

Each stage has a large number of obstacles to crash into, knock over and some can be moved around. Hitting these and other cars will increase your nitro level.

These objects remain scattered on the track throughout the race.

FlatOut also uses ragdoll physics which features drivers capable of being launched out of the windscreen after high impact crashes.

The player can choose between a male or female driver when they first set up the game.

These ragdoll physics are used in various stunt mini-games that include: 

High jump, long jump, bowling, darts, curling and a netball style game in the form of a clown sculpture.

FlatOut was released on November 5, 2004 in the UK and Europe by Empire Interactive UK. 

It was released on July 12, 2005 in the US by Vivendi Universal Games. It is available for Windows, Xbox and PlayStation 2. A Linux version was released on GOG.com in 2014.

in the UK, FlatOut is rated PEGI 12 for violence and mild lyrics. 

In the US it has been given a ESRB Teen rating.

Here is a link to the Steam FlatOut guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1729793515 As the games system specifications are basic by todays technology standards, it performed very well on the built in Intel Iris Xe graphics card.

Here are the minimum system requirements for FlatOut:

Windows 98, 2000, ME and XP

(Steam version plays fine in Windows 7 and later)

1.5 GHz Pentium 4 or AMD Equivalent CPU

256 MB RAM 

DirectX9.0c

64 MB Graphics Card

1.1 GB of free storage space

Internet connection for LAN muti-player games.

On PC, FlatOut utilises 4 cores of the CPU for game play. 

This is unusual for many PC games, where complex tasks mean the developer tends to only utilise one or two cores in their games.

This is because the developer understands how computer processors handle tasks, whilst many developers are used to games console processors.

All FlatOut games in the Bugbear franchise deal with utilisation well.

As of 2014, Gamespy shut down its LAN servers for muti-player in all supported games. 

This affects online muti-player functionality in both FlatOut and FlatOut 2.

I am using the arrow keys on the keyboard to drive and steer the car. The game fully supports steering wheel and pedal peripherals as well as a Xbox game controller.

Bugbear started developing FlatOut in 2002.

One of the tasks included supporting different networking systems for LAN, Xbox Live and Playstation Network.

FlatOut uses both ‘Diesel’ game engine by Grin and Bugbears own ‘ROMU’ game engine. It uses the Lua programming language.

To develop FlatOut, Bugbear used software such as: 

Photoshop (2D graphics) 

3ds Max (environment and asset modeling) 

Lightwave (vehicle modeling)

Notepad and their own in-house software.

Source:

http://community.bugbeargames.com/threads/making-of-flatout-1.25/ Below is a video of FlatOut in action!

FlatOut in 4K: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-RqkqShWB4 The game contains music from bands such as No Connection, LAB, Agent Blue, Tokyo Dragons, Central Supply Chain and many more.

FlatOut was followed by two very successful sequels including FlatOut 2 (2006) (PC, Xbox, PS2) and FlatOut Ultimate Carnage (2008) (Xbox 360, PC). Following Empire Interactive going into Administration in 2009, the ‘FlatOut’ brand name went to two other games (neither developed by Bugbear).

FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction (2011) by Team6 Game Studios, which opened to extremely negative reviews. 

FlatOut 4: Total Insanity (2017) by Kylotonn which had mixed reviews.

Most recently the developer of FlatOut, Bugbear Entertainment released the FlatOut series spiritual successor, Wreckfest (2021) (PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch).

The rival videogame series to FlatOut are BurnOut by Criterion Games/EA Games and Crashday by Atari.

My verdict on FlatOut (2004):

I completed the game on the 22nd of January 2023, and unlocked all the stages and mini games and I also unlocked all the car classes after a day playing FlatOut!

I think that FlatOut is a brilliant racing game.

FlatOut really stands out nearly 20 years after it was released. 

The game looks and feels fun to play and allows you to upgrade your cars in the career mode.

Each race is unique, unpredictable and exciting as even when the same two races when played again the outcome of each race is different due to the players and the computer controlled opponents competing.

Also, this version of FlatOut is only version that allows you to fully explore maps without being automatically reset back on the track.

All versions of FlatOut can be modified by the user with game modifications and there is a large mod community for it.

Wikia link:

https://flatout.fandom.com/wiki/FlatOut

I bought the original FlatOut PC-CD game from PC World back in 2006.

The version I have came with two compact discs and Empire Interactives Xplosive launcher which provided web support and a PDF manual for the game.

I also had FlatOut 2 and its re-make, FlatOut Ultimate Carnage on PC-DVD.

See a short video below of FlatOut playing on my system.

[gravitycoil]

DREAM OF 12/5/22

mutilation / , gore / , IDK WHAT TO TAG BE CAREFUL

I was in a theater watching a movie that had just come out and everyone was very excited. There were no reviews or anything about this movie there was no warnings either, no ESRB rating. It started off with this man explaining there was a popular game that people were participating in that some didn't know they were even participating or even were aware of what was happening. The reward for the game was said to be grand and big yet no one really knew what it was. Some people speculated it was a lot of money while others thought it was something else. No one knew what that game was about to be- it was a series of mini games (Much like squid game this whole thing lol) The games did not ease into killing at all, I don't remember the first games but eventually the movie just kept getting darker and grosser and people started to leave. The people who stayed (including me) their theater chairs locked them in with restraints and started to shake people all around (idk why mine didn't I'm built different) and everyone was freaking out and screaming for help like they did NOT wanna be there anymore obviously. There was a really fucking tall dude who came into the theater dressed in all dark red, He had no face. It was pitch black. His voice was distorted and deep. He didn't really do anything or say anything other than like "You can't leave until you're finished." he walked away and at this point the 'movie' was broadcasting us. A lot of people were crying and screaming trying to break free. It started off tame where it was a bunch of memory tests but if you failed you were punished. The punishments added a certain percentage of chance that you would be killed next punishment so it was either, chance of death or guaranteed death. I remember the memory game was to memorize the color and number of an image you were given. I had forgotten mine and was so scared I honestly hoped I just died soon cause I fucking hated it there. But I survived.