#2d men are still better than 3d ones

[enkas-illusion]

Better Than Your 2D Men

Fandom / Pairing: Attack On Titan / Eren x f!reader

Rating: SFW / Fluff

Genre/Theme: Established relationship; non-titan au

Content warning: fluff, teasing, language, suggestive (?), they make out a little.

Summary: When you crush over your fav anime men, Eren gets jealous cause homeboy wants all the attention to himself.

Author's Note: Hello, here’s a short fluffy one-shot with my fav 2D man cause I wanted to have an ambitious crossover of my fav animes. Thank you for reading <3

~ Eren’s Birdie

Song Dedication: 3D (Alternate Ver.) by Jung Kook

“Baby… pay attention to me…”

You ignore your boyfriend's pouty voice as he lies across the bed, near your feet – instead, you focus on the laptop screen on your lap.

“How much longerrrr?” You hear him sigh and feel fingers caressing the bottom of your feet.

“You know I'm not ticklish,” you reply plainly, eyes still glued to the screen.

“Hmm, that's why…” you hear him mumble before you feel a set of teeth bite around your right foot toes.

“Eren, ew… what the fuck,” you cringe, pulling your foot away from him as you slide the laptop to your side, abruptly halting the anime you were watching to finally look at him.

Your boyfriend smiles ingeniously, proud of his accomplishment at finally getting your attention redirected towards him.

“So that’s what it takes for you to finally pay attention to what really matters,” he ponders as he crawls up to lie between your legs, tilting his head to rest his face on your right thigh.

“I was focusing on what really matters,” you roll your eyes as you grab your laptop once again to rest it on your other thigh. However, Eren’s quick to move further up till his torso is splayed over you, almost like a lizard trying to cover as much surface area of a wall it possibly can.

“Rennie, please let me finish these episodes, I haven’t had the time to watch them for like… weeks now,” you sigh as you try to move his heavy body to the side.

He doesn't budge but simply wraps his arms around your waist, tucking his hands into the gap between your body and the mattress, resting his cheek on your belly, “Okay, you can continue watching.” 

You sigh in defeat as you tilt your laptop screen, pressing play and focusing your attention back on the show despite the awkward position you’re in. 

It isn’t another 10 minutes into the episode before you hear your boyfriend speak again, “Sometimes I wonder if the only reason you watch this show is cause the men are attractive. There’s no way a slice-of-life person like you enjoys such violence and death.”

You don’t reply, trying your best to ignore his commentary and focusing on the fight scene.

“Oh my god, I’m right! Who is it? Do you like Gojo? Or Nanami? Or who– what are the names of other hot men in this one?” Eren chuckles in disbelief, looking up to scan your face to see if you give away anything.

“Shh, let me concentrate… it’s an important fight,” you mumble without looking at him and the scene is almost over.

“Yeah right,” he scoffs as he pauses the episode right when Choso enters the frame, “tell me, do you find this guy hot?”

“Eren, are you seriously jealous of a 2D character?” you counter, trying not to laugh at his actions.

“Well, if he’s stealing my precious time with my girl then ye–”

“We’ve literally been in bed the whole day,” you interrupt him.

“And is it so wrong to want to be closer to my girlfriend?” he gasps.

“Yes, you were lying around, scrolling on your phone… doing random shit the whole day but the minute I decided to watch JJK, you suddenly want my attention,” you roll your eyes at him.

“Don’t change the topic– who’s your fav among them?” he dodges your accusations.

A smile creeps up on your lips as you decide to indulge him, “Well, they’re all so hot, it’s hard to choose really. There’s this guy, Choso… and Geto, and Toji! Now that I think about it, all of them are equally attractive.”

“All brunettes,” he notes.

“What?” you ask, confused.

“All the men you just named have dark hair,” he states.

“Yes… so?” 

“I’m basically like the real-life version of them – I have long, dark hair, a good physique, handsome face–”

“Okay, Narcissus, chill,” you snort. Eren pulls away from you to move further up till he’s hovering over you, caging your head between his arms.

“No, my point being… if you have all of this right here,” he points at himself as he smirks, “why waste your time on some stupid anime?”

“I can have both,” you grin, pressing your palms over his chest.

“One is clearly better than the other,” he dips his head down for a peck.

“I seriously can’t believe you’re jealous of a bunch of sexy 2D men,” you giggle once again.

“No, I'm not… Can your 2D men do this?” he whispers, tilting your face and burying his face into your neck. He licks your skin before sucking on it roughly, causing goosebumps to rise all over your body.

“Can they?” he asks once again as his hand glides under your t-shirt to cup one of your breasts, playing with the nipple. Eren nibs at the spot behind your ear and you let out a soft moan. “Yes?” 

“No,” you huff, closing your eyes at the feeling.

“So, am I not better than your 2D men?” he whispers in your ear before biting your earlobe. His hand abandons your tit, instead travelling down to dip into the waistband of your shorts, pressing two fingers over your mound.

“Y-yes,” you sigh. He laughs at how desperate your voice comes out and you tilt your head to kiss him on the lips to end this awkward conversation. 

And Eren, being the good boyfriend that he is, lets you mask your embarrassment into his embrace – delighted at being the centre of your attention once again.

~fin~

[fantasygerard2000]

So, one of the lousy criticisms Wish gets is its use of too many references to movies that are better than it. This critique just feels heavily biased if i'm being honest. As much as I am fond of some of the older Disnsy movies, which are the reasons why I like Wish, I would exactly call them good. Youtuber Veridis Joe made a video discussing about how just because it's the first, doesn't mean that it's good.

Let's use an obvious example, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Wish takes heavy inspiration from Snow White as it makes sense for their 100th movie to revisit their roots. The saying that Snow White is better than Wish is a lie because, is Snow White really better story and character wise?

That's the kicker with some of these older Disney movies. Just because they're "classics" doesn't mean they're free from criticisms. Hell, people are criticizing that Snow White and Aurora despite the being title characters don't get to do crap and are overshadowed by their own villains and sidekicks. Just because Snow White was the first doesn't mean it holds up. It aged like milk and the reason why people like it is because it invented the classical tropes we associate Disney, people like it because it's "traditionally animated". They care more about the decorations than the foundation.

That's the thing with nostalgia and why at some times, it's not good. People grew up with the old movies and that's why they heavily favored them over reboots and live action remakes. Disregarding the things that are improved because their automatic response to things that are different is to antagonize them. And this is especially problematic when some people actually misremembered the thing they are nostalgic for. The insistence the crybabies on Tiktok insist that Rapunzel should be played by a blonde white actress even though Rapunzel's natural hair color is brown, they they be acting stupid by forgetting wigs and special effecfs exists simply because of a fan casting.

Back on the topic of easter eggs. While some can be groan inducing, most of them are harmless and something that Disney fans can go find. That says something that some of these critics don't watch the movie and pay attention to what it wants to convey and rather list down the things they wanna be mad about, like the songs, the quirky main character, the goat's voice, the scrapped draft and the villain.

Speaking of which.

While Magnifico is the highlight of the movie after years of lacking antagonists and underwhelming twist villains, people are still complaining over him not being a complete villain because of his motivation.

The main gripe people have about him is that be seemed reasonable and that his switch from villain is "sudden", saying that the book is just there as lazy excuse to make him evil and redeemable. This, is media illiteracy. As much as I don't like to bill this to takes I don't like, it's an accurate description.

Magnifico's villainy is applicable to influencers and social media personalities. And considering the age where some of these "celebrities" are outed for being and doing shady things, it fits to a T. You don't know a person is toxic until you found out. And like with Amaya, you don't know if your spouse/partner really loves and cares for you you until you see what they can do to you once they have enough power and influence.

Going back to the topic of previous Disney movies being "superior" to Wish, there's one movie I like to bring up. Princess and the Frog.

Princess and the Frog has many similarities to Wish. After a period of several experimental 3D animated movies that were passable but forgettable, sorry Bolt and Robinsons fans, PatF returns to the old formula of 2D animated, musicals, villains and romance.

Tiana is a great character and her story about working hard to achieve her dreams is in line with Wish's themes. Facilier and Magnifico are even comparable as both men "cheat" their way to get to the top by using magic that isn't theres and suffering the consequences for it.

And like I said above about how classics aren't free from any criticism, PatF has its own problems, mostly about Disney's first black princess being a frog for most of its runtime, and the convoluted plot revolving around technicalities to break the spell. What holds PatF back are these issues and some people dismiss them because they are too focused on the 2D animation, romance, villains, which aren't bad tropes, aren't enough to save your movie. Same way how even if Wish was 2D animated and had a love interest, people will still crap on it because it's Disney in 2023/2024.

Oh contraire, if any of the classical and renaissance films are made and released today as they are, they wouldn't be praised today as they were back then.

[vega-482]

My Stanley and Narrator refs (plus more info)

Stanley:

Probably born in america but has latine parents (don't ask me which country(ies), i couldn't decide)

He's latino mestizo/mixed race, but doesn't know much else besides that

He can physically speak but he stutters a lot, he's slightly more fluent in spanish than english but still stutters, which caused him to get bullied as a kid, which then gave him severe anxiety, therefore making him develop selective mutism. It became so severe that he had to learn ASL to communicate a bit better, but still has some problems when speaking to strangers 

Not sure if he has ADHD, is autistic, or both, but when he gets sensory overload gets very stressed, he freezes completely and cannot even sign to communicate u_u

Knows english, spanish and ASL

When he gets to know someone better, he speaks more to them and sometimes even without stuttering

Stims by pressing buttons and other similar stuff, he likes the clicking noises :y

Only expressive when he has strong emotions, otherwise his face is very deadpan

Knows he is sexually and aesthetically attracted to men and other genders, but has only had romantic feelings for men

Used to have piercings on his face but had to take em off bc of the dress code, still has some hidden ones tho

The Narrator

Because he's an immortal entity he doesn't care about gender, but in human terms he'd be a man, that's what feels right to him

He didn't know that he was trans (well he didn't ever consider that he was trans or cis) in his human form until he somehow accidentally transformed into human and found out

Doesn't need glasses to see, he just likes the aesthetic :y

Human form is weak (as much as an old man is lol) and can only make? some apendages that look like the adventure line(tm), kinda like weird tentacles, and phase through walls, but that transforms him back into his light form

Light form can be 2d, projected kinda like a shadow, or 3d, it can float and change size, he can be tinyy or big, but only in light form

Light form can grab objects and is usually solid unless he wants to phase thru walls, he cannot phase through organic stuff/bodies

He cannot alter his shape either, just size

His hands feet and head aren't attached to the rest of the body in light form

His glasses do the -anime glowy glasses- thing 🤔

Unsure about sexuality but is gay 4 stanley ahah

Can only shift to human <-> light  by phasing objects

When changing to light form and back, that resets his human body (can cure injuries, hunger, etc)

He's neurodivergent as a human, idk how it works as a god-like entity tho 

Can only read Stanley's thoughts in his light form, in human form he can't 

idk I’ll add more stuff when I remember

[yoonlattesworld]

🌸About me~🌸

Soooo I'm not the same person I was when I made the first about me.

So I figured I should make a new one because new me, new about me.

And it's also because my old one got lost heh

Welp I'm 19 and my birthdate is still 24th November and I'm still Indian.

I'm an Aries

But I'm not obsessed with Paxtan hall yoshida anymore (it was just a phase)

Instead I am now obsessed with books and book boyfriends

I've been single since birth because I prefer 2d men over 3d men

I mean no man in real life will be as good as a fictional man. And I've discovered a new hobby.

I now read books and novels. Romance and dark romance of course.

And although the plan of being a professor still exists, I'm also gonna start writing a book. I want to be an author.

I still love horror.

I'm in dire need of a fictional boyfriend who's willing to burn the world for me.

I also read mangas and webtoons. Again,no man is better than a fictional man.

so if anyone knows a good 6'5 ex navy man rhys larsen then kindly introduce him to me.

I would still love to talk with y'all so feel free to text me.

My back lab Oreo is about to be 2 years old and my eyes are still brown.

I'm still studying very hard to get rich and have a room full of books and BTS albums.

So that's the same ol' boring me.

🌸All my works~🌸

🌸Main masterlist🌸

🌸Yoongi masterlist🌸

[local-lamppost]

Feel free to ignore this, its just me gushing about how important Code Lyoko is to me.

I'm not one of those people who gets nostalgic and for multiple reasons, A) I'm very rarely emotionally sentimental towards media, B) I am a bit stunted emotionally, and C) due to a childhood/teenage years of a number of head injuries my memory is absolutely shot.

But through it all, Code Lyoko-the weird show from France with its stilted animation and repetitive plot-is what gets me. Not my favorite movies, games, or even other tv shows will do this to me.

Now, I started watching Code Lyoko when I was pretty young. I'm more or less a year older than it. So, when it was dubbed into english for the states, I was just old enough to catch onto the plot and some time later be enthralled with the later seasons/reruns. I have two older brothers and we all have vastly different taste in media, but for a solid part of my childhood we all agreed on a shared love for this show. We would meet in the den to watch the episodes every day and get along as only kids watching cartoons can.

When we moved states the subject I was most upset over was that CN for some reason didn't have Code Lyoko in this new area. Which, considering the move took probably about a day or two, really confused me. But for years this show lived only in my memory, not even my friends at school-in grades above or below-knew what I was talking about.

Some years pass, Code Lyoko is this shiny little memory that sits in the back of my brain, and I'm given a gen 1 iPad. It's slow, it dies quickly, I didn't even have my own headphones, but I didn't have to share with my brothers and had Youtube.

Now, for any young folk reading this for some reason (first off, good on you for getting into Code Lyoko) Youtube had been around for a few years at this point and had only really started getting traction circa 2008-09. The fun thing about early Youtube was that you could watch anything. Very few restrictions, no concept of enforcing copyright, it just had to be ten minutes or less and even that was beginning to change(I think). This was the era of watching a lagging anime in 3-4 parts an episode, and this is where I was able to finally watch Code Lyoko again.

I remember very specifically marathoning the show in the kitchen, sitting oddly in an arm chair, utterly engrossed in this show. It had action, it was 3D animated, the characters were cool and funny, and I would've done anything to have a hangout like the factory. Not to mention the intro was the best thing I'd ever heard and still is to this day one of my favorites.

But why do I love this show? Well a couple reasons...

Thing 1: Animation

Now I know the jokes and the jabs and the fact that its old and dated are what anyone unfamiliar with the show is quick to point out. If anyone has even passing knowledge of Code Lyoko its usually the weird character designs. If you watch the show you get used to it and sorta come to notice that it fits the characters much better in the 3D world more than the 2D and Lyoko is where all the cool action scenes are so.

And, I don't know if this is a hot take, but I like the 3D animation a lot. It looks like the ps2/3 games we would play as kids, and the premise is basically kids fighting monsters in a video game in 2003. It's an aesthetic that I appreciate for better or worse.

Thing 2: Stakes/Story

Code Lyoko is one of the few shows (cartoons especially) with the unique ability to be episodic in a serialized way. Things build up, connect, and whatever big changes happen in the past seasons continue on in the following. This was kinda insane to young me, shows were episodic or serialized, not both. Not to say there was nothing else (Teen Titans, Generator Rex, X-Men Evolution, Avatar, etc.) nor to say that Code Lyoko was the best at doing this, but no matter how repetitive the usual episodes are it more than makes up for with the stakes of those epidoes.

I don't think many cartoons put the kids in as imiment danger as Code Lyoko. Military satellites, Nuclear collisions, plagues of rats and hoards of wasps, using nano tech to give people amnesia that spread like the flu, being drowned or boiled alive, molested by plants, haunted by internet ghosts, Jeremy messing up a code so badly the antagonist needs to help the heroes out, feeling what it is like to be killed every time they are devertualized, having gravity turned off, having to deal with the fact that they are all months to potentially years older than their peers due to time travel, stressing over keeping everyone alive because time travel doesn't fix that, and so much more. Keep in mind they are all 13-15 years old and also in boarding school, on their own those are experiences that will deeply scar and change you without the cyber terrorism.

Thing Last: Characters

This is the real kicker and probably something I'll dedicate an entire series of things to talking about in depth, but for now.

Code Lyoko was the first show with characters I truly cared about. My young brain would be so absorbed in those stakes that I could forget that a cartoon for children would not kill any of its main characters(at least back then).

Individually, each character had something going for them. Jeremy was smart, witty, and made me feel better about being a nerd; Aelita was all that and more, being one of the kindest characters in media but still managing to hold her own both verbally and physically (no sequence was cooler to me than in season 1 when Aelita had to avoid monsters without aid and managed to kill a bunch using only the terrain); Yumi was the groups strength in the real world, a bit older and down to earth, it's weird she had no friends prior to the series; Odd, what to say about Odd? He is the only emotionally intelligent person in this whole cast with only Aelita coming close. He is happy, funny, proud, and kinda carried the team in the early episodes when Ulrich wouldn't go to Lyoko for whatever reason; Ulrich, my boy, the best fighter in Lyoko and a contender for best Lyoko design, my relating to him as a child was probably the earliest indicator I had mental health problems, but I will always remember him taking down Kolossus. Lastly, XANA. For a villain with maybe a line of dialog, XANA had a strange sense of character to him. He was a malicious, ruthless, powerful entity that wanted freedom for itself and the destruction of those who imprisoned him. XANA was meant to be a helpful AI, but it got out of hand and was persecuted by the men in black due to its capabilities, even scaring Hopper, his creator. XANA's death in the second to last episode is shown as a smoke being of him contorts in agony and dissipates; so close to being free.

More than anything, the Lyoko Warriors are friends. They goof around, get a virtual Aelita a birthday cake, know when to tease and when to just listen, they will do anything for each other through thick and thin, but they can also just hang out. A lot of stories have groups that feel like they only spend time together to achieve something, for a purpose, the Lyoko Warriors are friends who like being together.

To wrap this up.

Code Lyoko has numerous problems, most of which can be seen in Miraculous Ladybug the current popular French cartoon created by a former Code Lyoko storyboard artist, but it had heart. It showed me how far animation could go, how a world could be created. It motivated me to improve my writing and taught me that no story-no matter how good the visuals or plot-is anything without lovable characters.

More than anything serious, Code Lyoko was fun. It gave me time to spend with my brothers, an introduction into internet media/culture, and the first ending that I ever found satisfying as a child. I love this show, if someone came up to me and said 'if you quit your job and studies that your actually happy with and come make a Code Lyoko reboot/sequal' I wouldn't hesitate.

I love you Code Lyoko and here's to another 20! Let's live in a world without danger.

[blazehedgehog]

Thoughts on the Last Nintendo Direct for the Switch?

It was alright. A lot of people are very excited by what was shown but, I dunno.

A lot of modern Mario RPGs are pretty hit-or-miss, so Brothership isn't necessarily an instant win for me.

Nintendo World Championship could be interesting. It's probably a better take on the NES Remix idea than previous games, and the way they're doing online multiplayer could prove to be pretty cool. It's a shame it isn't live, but I suppose racing against ghosts means you don't have to worry about latency.

The thing is, with both NES Remix and this, I also want the option to just... play the full versions of these games. No timers, no competitions, just the raw games. But Nintendo's not going to do that. They'd also rather have you subscribe to their NSO service, too.

Fantasian is mostly interesting to me for the fact that a lot of the backgrounds are effectively pre-rendered -- but not using CGI. They apparently made realworld dioramas using actual model making material and photographed them. That's cool. The rest of the game seems like generic JRPG fluff.

I've tried over and over to like Donkey Kong Country Returns, both on the Wii and the 3DS, and it just rubs me the wrong way. I've said it's something weird with the controls feeling sluggish, but I think it's also the level design. It feels like it stretches some of its ideas pretty thin. Like we did not need a whole world dedicated to minecart levels. I'd hope the DKCR remaster is the version I'd finally enjoy, but I don't have my hopes up.

It's cool to see the "HD-2D" Dragon Quest games, at last. Those old phone versions they have on the Switch are awful. But also the only DQ game I've ever connected with was the demo for DQ8, so I dunno how much this tickles my fancy. But I've also never given a real one of these games a chance.

Hearing "timed exclusive for the Nintendo Switch" for Denpa Men is weird, given that was a 3DS game. I always thought it was first party. Is this also coming out on PS4? PC? Very strange.

Glad to hear about the Marvel Vs. Collection. I was just scrolling through my XBLA library on my 360 a few days ago and lamenting how I only own MvC2 and not MvC1, even though I like MvC1 better. Weird it's apparently only coming out for last gen; there aren't native PS5/SX versions of this or the Ace Attorney Collection. Just PS4/Xbone/Switch. With backwards compatibility I guess they don't have to bother with a native version, but still. Weird.

Zelda looks good and is a long time coming but I wish it wasn't so different. Like I have faith it'll be interesting but it does disappoint me it's going to be more puzzle-y and not an action game. After so many years of asking for the ability to play as Zelda, for them to say "well she CAN'T swing a sword like Link!" feels a little compromise-y. I'm sure it'll be fine.

That was not enough Metroid Prime 4. They picked the most unceremonious, least exciting way to show it, too. I actually thought it was them announcing remasters of Prime 2 + 3 like they did with Metroid Prime 1, because it's just generic "shooting nameless space pirates to metroid prime music" footage until the end.

Rewatching it, I can definitely see how people are saying it's a Switch 2 game, though. Like that Metroid Prime remaster seemed like it looked really pretty, but this feels like a step above what the Switch is normally capable of, at least as far as 60fps goes. Like compare for yourself. Prime remastered on the left, Prime 4 on the right.

Look at the ridges in her shoulder panels, and how they're a 3D modeled groove with inset detail in Prime 4. That detail is probably just a texture in the Prime remaster. And just, like, how much better the material work is overall.

I could see this being 1080p 60 on Switch 2 but only 30 on the OG Switch.

Also please show me new guns or mechanics or something next time.

[sabrina-gothic]

so I have watched all of Transformers Super Link and have come to a conclusion about it

a couple actually

1. This was not the show I watched like nothing of on Toonami, i have now confirmed that

and 2. It is not as bad as I was led to believe, I would go so far as to say that is is alright. NOW obviously the 3D animation is bad, anyone with eyes can see that, they do not move right it is as shrimple as that. HOWEVER i would have to disagree on the writing. In my opinion, I think that this show is written very well, with the exception being how quickly Kicker is willing to interact with his dad, but other than that i enjoy how this story rhymes with Legend of the Microns, it's exploration of what Unicron is, It's shifting balance, and it's characterization (as well as other stuff that i cannot think of the words for atm). I do think that it sucks about Iron-Hide/Demolisher, though in my opinion, i think the show is making a point about Galvatron when he brings back Iron-Hide as Iron-Tread, as well as the rest of his men. Galvatron, in this series, does not create anything himself, he forces others to create things for him. He does not make the Terrorcons, Alpha-Q and later Mega-Zarak does. He did not create Nightscream or Mega-Zarak, he just corrupted them. Even the colony's with witch to do a dropping, Galvatron forced Unicron to make (the first one was wholly made by Unicron and then the later ones forced out my Galvitron).

In Super Link, later in the show it is talked about how Unicron breaks down Cybertronians to there most Dominant trait and we can see that with the Reformatted Cons (and Night-scream) Iron-Hyde was Duty, Starscream was Honor, Shockwave was Love for Megatron, and Sandstorm was being a Jackass. Megatron, who was stuck inside Unicron for like 10 years also had this Happen to him when he came back, and his was Control, Galvatron NEEDS to have the last word on anything and everything the Decepticons do. He must have complete control over all aspects of his men, which is why, I think it is actually a good character bit that Galvatron Forcibly wiped Iron's memory, to exert more control over someone he knew was not fully committed. It is supposed to be tragic that Iron-Hide was this person who tried to accept peace and waited the longest to switch until Galvatron was right in front of him, that even after joining he was still trying not to hurt the people he cared about on the Autobot's side, and that would, despite clearly not wanting to have to make these decisions, make the sacrifice to save his beloved leader from destruction. And what does he get for that? He gets morphed into a parody of himself by Galvatron, because Galvatron only wants to control Iron-Hide and those decisions where not ones made by Galvatron. Iron-Tred, while being comic relief in the latter half of the show, is supposed to be a tragic character, along with Mega-Zarak in the latter half, and Nightscream, these are characters who have lost complete autonomy to Glavatron.

I do think that the Writing gets better as the show goes on and there are some good spots of 2D animation, but the show does feel like it was rushed out (idk if it was or not). I can understand why people would drag it for constantly being about Unicron, but Unicron is a known factor as of the start of the show, it could not be about anything else since Microns established that Unicron is basically the architect of the Cybertron Civil War. I do like the (kinda) characterization that Unicron gets and how he is talked about. And with the introdiction of the Super Energon in the Temple Deep Below Cybertron, it brings into question if Unicron (the Giant planet eater) was not someone like Megatron to begin with that wanted the power and control of the Super Energon and was taken over by Unicron (the force of Destruction).

this is a very large cast and i can hear same voices coming up, but I never had trouble distinguishing who was who, there is like one or two jokes i did not like but overall I would say it is alright. I would watch this show again 6/10 it would be much higher but the bad models bring it down alot.

now this is all about Super Link, I do not know how much can be applied to the Energon Dub so results may vary also i didnt even get into themes and stuff THIS SHOW HAS THEMES

also

i may have a biased perception of this show since I came into it with the lowest possible expectations but that is my abridged notes on Transformers Super Link for anyone to read I will now be cursed with the tag (Superlink Defender) for the rest of my Life, I have only done this to myself and I do not apologize

[game-boy-pocket]

Nintendo Direct Thoughts

I just woke up and had a look, not expecting much given this is one of those "we're at the end of the Switch's life" Directs but honestly I was surprised.

We start with a brand new Mario and Luigi game... we've been getting lots of remakes for Mario RPGs but this is a new one and honestly was the one I expected to get a new game the least out of all of them. To tell the truth I would have preferred a continuation of SMRPG or a new traditional Paper Mario over this, cuz a party made up of just Mario and Luigi was novel when Luigi wasn't appearing in as many games but now it feels boring by comparison. I wish they would do more with the idea of adding on surprise guest party members, like how the 2nd game had the Baby Bros and the Third game had Bowser, then Paper Mario, but after that it just a weird version of Luigi? idk man. This looks neat, I'm glad the franchise isn't dead. I'll think about picking it up. Probably not a day 1 purchase. I do hope other Mario RPGs have a chance at continuing too though.

I still think the Nintendo World Championships is pointless.

Not interested in Fairy Tail, I only ever read a bit of the Manga, I'd like to check out the anime but lisenced anime games are a hard sell for me. Wish they'd just make another One Piece Grand Battle style game.

Don't care about Fantasian, Nintendo Switch Sports has a bad reputation and I don't care about sports anyway so that's a pass, pass on Mio, pass on Disney, pass on Hello Kitty, give me a sequel to the Keroppi platformer for the NES and then we'll talk, It's weird to see Loney Tunes in a video game. That Porky Pig voice was rough. I don't have hopes for it, Don't care about Among Us or Farmagia...

Donkey Kong Country Returns... not a new game, and they didn't announce any new playable characters or features aside from levels from the 3DS version, and I wish they gave DK and Diddy more of a facelift, but i'll take it, a way to play DKCR on the big screen, hopefully without the motion controls, is a win... but please Nintendo.... give us a new DK game...

Dragon Quest III 2DHD. I am very mixed about the whole 2D HD thing, I don't think it looks good. Never have. This looks a lot better than Octopath to me but I still don't like it. Also, I respectfully disagree with Mr. Horii. Playing the games in chronological order is not the best way to experience the Erdrick Trilogy, and that's a pretty dumb thing to say. That's like telling someone to read a Murder Mystery but start with the final chapter. The big twist in DQ3 will be meaningless to those who haven't played, at the very least, DQ1... I'm glad all 3 games are getting the treatment. I am a big fan of the trilogy so even though I don't care for the whole 2D HD thing, I'll pick it up, and who knows, maybe the style will grow on me.

Funko is a fucking joke. I'm ehh about Luigi's Mansion 2 but I might pick it up anyway if I have extra cash burning a hole in my pocket and I really want a new game. Don't care about Denpa Men, Would prefer Traditional Metal Slug, Don't care about Darkest Dungeon, Don't care about NSO but it's nice that those games are now available for people, Phantom Braves has a cute art style but i'm not interested in the gameplay, Marvsl and Capcom arcade collection might be worth a look but idk, I'm no good at fighting games, so i'd only be in it for the beat em ups.

I tried to like Mario Party but I just can't get into that style of game. I want to like it because I love the Mario series but it's just not fun for me, either with friends or going it alone, I hate board games irl, making them video games doesn't actually help, and I think the minigames are just not fun and over too quickly.

I wish I was excited about our first new 2D Zelda in a long time. But Link has always been...ugh... I guess you could call him a "comfort character" for me. I never liked Princess Zelda that much, and I enjoy the combat in Zelda games a lot, so a game without Link and without Combat.... I am apprehensive. The one thing that might save this game for me is that it has hints of monster taming. Not like... real monster taming, you're creating copies, so it's not like your bonding with monster companions, but it's still monster vs monster, and that's something I'd love to see expanded on. Give me a full on Zelda monster tamer.... I hope this isn't "The new direction for 2D Zelda" the way BOTW is for 3D Zelda though. I was kinda hoping 2D Zelda would keep traditional Zelda alive while 3D Zelda continued being open air.

More headlines, I don't care about just dance, never was a fan of legos, stray was interesting when it was first announced but the novelty wore off after watching ppl play it, there's a lot of games like lately. Don't care about the Hobbit, and i'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know I don't care about a lot of things and I know t he franchise has a lot of fans but I just don't care about Ace Attourney. And don't care about Hunted Line, looks edgy. I know SaGa has a legacy, but I'd prefer to try an older game before thinking about checking out a new one.

Metroid Prime 4 looks interesting. We have Sylux with some Metroids following him around. We have orchestral sounding music. It's definitely Metroid Prime alright. Can't wait to play it for myself.

Despite how often I said "don't care" I'd call this a good direct.

TLDR, Metroid is the most exciting thing there, I'm happy for the DKCR remake, I'm apprehensive about Zelda but I'm gonna try it. Mario and Luigi i'll probably pick up some day.

[liugeaux]

The Best Games of 2006 | The 7th Gen is Here

In 2006, with the release of the Wii and PS3, the 7th console generation was officially in full swing. This list ended up having a nice mixture of all the consoles on the market, but 2006 began one of the most pivotal era of video games, and this top 10 is a vivid snapshot of the industry at the time.

As always this will be written as if it was written in December of '06 so any later commentary about these series will not be mentioned. Here we go!

#10 - Tomb Raider: Legend

The Tomb Raider franchise has always had a reputation of being a fun, yet arduous series. The puzzles were obtuse and frustrating and controlling Lara was a bit of a chore. This year, the team at Crystal Dynamics has finally gotten the formula right. With the transition from generation to generation it's hard to know which franchises will successfully make the jump to new hardware, and Tomb Raider proves Lara Croft has legs (no pun intended).

#9 - Tetris DS

Tetris is the best puzzle game ever made. It's the puzzle game on which dozens of other puzzle games are built. Tetris has seen a consistent flow of releases over the years and the quality has been shaky, but Tetris DS gets it right in nearly every way. The controls are tight, the gameplay is true, and like its Game Boy predecessors, the DS makes for a great pick-up-and-play Tetris machine. Even the touch-specific game modes are a welcomed detour, but the real star here is the presentation. Most Tetris games have a reverence for the Tetris method, but Tetris DS has a reverence specifically for the original Nintendo-published Tetris titles and that makes all the difference.

#8 - Resistance: Fall of Man

Ratchet and Clank developers Insomniac tried their hand at an FPS this year and for the most part, hit the jackpot. They created lore and a world engaging enough to explore and sprinkled in just enough Ratchet and Clank gun chaos to make the experience a unique one. Sure it has many of the issues you see with console launch games, but it lays the groundwork for both future Resistance games, and other hard-hitting shooters on PS3.

#7 - Gears of War

Last year's Resident Evil 4 turned out to be much more influential than I thought. Where RE4 established the over-the-shoulder camera as a viable 3rd person game mechanic, Gears of War has perfected it. Borrowing the fast-paced nature of the best FPSs, the over-the-top gore of a Mortal Kombat, and revolutionizing the cover-based shooter, Gears is a new franchise for a new generation. Sure, it's a bit repetitive at times and by the end, the chest-high-walls gimmick begins to feel flimsy, but like Resistance, this world is hungry for my action.

#6 - Marvel Ultimate Alliance

As the spiritual successor to the solid X-Men Legends games, Ultimate Alliance didn't have to be amazing to stick the landing. After being handed the keys to nearly the entire Marvel kingdom, Raven Software built an adventure that successfully translates the enormity of the Marvel universe, while still being an engaging Action-RPG. It even acts as a shortcut through the deep lore of the source material. I learned more about B-tier characters like Thor, Ghost Rider, Moon Knight, and Captain America than any other medium has been able to teach me thus far.

#5 - New Super Mario Bros.

Mario has been bouncing around 3D environments since '96's Super Mario 64. Outside of weird esoteric one-offs here and there, Mario hasn't had a proper major 2D adventure since Super Mario World. I don't count Yoshi's Island, that's a Yoshi game. New Super Mario Bros. is a glorious return to form. The simple idea of, let's make one of those old 2D Mario games, but with up-to-date graphics, seems like a no-brainer, and it turns out to be a winning formula.

#4 - Guitar Hero II

Better in every way, Guitar Hero II improves on its predecessor and proves the fad from last year is still in vogue. The only downside to Guitar Hero II is that it's a PS2 release. Moving the series into the new generation would have unlocked a lot of potential. Luckily Activision has announced it will be hitting Xbox 360 in the Spring, so maybe putting this game on the 2006 list might be a bit premature, but few other games have soaked up as much of my time this year as Guitar Hero II.

#3 - Okami

When a team takes an established formula (The Legend of Zelda) and attempts to make a stand-out game, they need to come up with something fresh and brilliant to garner respect and attention. With Okami, Clover Studio did just that. Like Shadow of the Colossus last year, Okami is squeezing every bit of power out of the PS2 that it can. Enough like a Zelda game to feel familiar, yet beautifully animated with stunning watercolors to make it stand out, Okami puts an exclamation point on a tried and true formula whose days might be numbered.

#2 - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Ever since Space World 2000 Nintendo has been on the hook to give us a more mature and realistic Legend of Zelda game. Windwaker, arguably the best game in the series, had its detractors, so Twilight Princess had a lot to live up to. Full of polish, and style, this game is the perfection of the formula established by Ocarina of Time. Its dungeons are the best the series has seen and while the wolf transformation mechanic may seem lazy at first, it pays off in both gameplay and story. Twilight Princess is what we've wanted from the Zelda series for a long time and it definitely lives up to the hype.

#1 - Wii Sports

Swooping in out of nowhere, Wii Sports is not only the game of the year, it could go down as the most important game of the generation. With the launch of the Wii, Nintendo has reset the market on what it means to be a gamer. It's hands down the most accessible game ever released and is far more than a proof of concept for the Wii platform. Bowling and Tennis alone are worth the price of admission, even if that admission is the cost of a Wii. Nintendo has successfully predicted the market and given us what we didn't know we wanted: motion controls. As with any new tech and launch there's a layer of jank here, but it's worth it to experience the action that has gotten millions of gamers off the couch and swinging their Wii-motes.

Notable Omissions

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - There are a lot of things about Oblivion that make it not a game for me. It's a heavy RPG, with a fantasy setting. Everything about that turns me off.

Bully - I might have enjoyed Bully, but since I hate playing GTA games, I stayed away from it.

Final Fantasy XII - This series has never been on my radar as it is WAY too anime for my liking. It being a heavy RPG doesn't help my interest either.

That's it! Next time we dive into 2007.

Cheers

[fantasiesnfairytales]

Mia Matthews

Name: Mia Matthews

Face Claim: India Eisley

Species: Mutant

Age: 24-28 (depending on verse) 

Personality: Introverted, slow to trust, kind hearted

Bio:

Mia’s life started as normal as most. She was a straight A student and kind hearted if not a bit introverted. She was pretty close to both of her parents, most of the time choosing to spend time with them verses going out with friends even as she got to that age where most teens began to rebel. There was one night where all this changed however. Mia never asking to go out to a party had been invited, and had begged her parents to let her go. They’d told her no, although Mia couldn’t understand why. She never got into trouble, she knew to be responsible, but the answer remained the same.

Mia was frustrated and felt her temper flaring, the fear in her parents eyes not registering initially. She hadn’t noticed the own shift in her irises from bright green to black nor the movement of the shadows as they inked closer to her parents. It wasn’t until one of the shadowy tendrils gripped ahold of her mothers leg pulling her roughly to the ground that any of it began to hit her. By then it was too late, the damage was done. Her mother was injured and the look in both her parents had gone from loving and concern to fear and hatred.

She ran upstairs to her room and could hear the muffled sounds of a phone call being made. Less than an hour later a convoy of vans and armed guards arrived.

The room was bright and white, far too bright for Mia’s liking. They told her it was to keep the shadows at bay. To keep her from harming anyone else, but it made her head throb just looking at it. Her mind was still spiraling from the events that had led her to be thrown into what was beginning to feel more like a prison than a facility to ‘help’ mutants. ‘Mutant’ that’s what the men had called her when they had showed up fully armed to her family home, as if they had expected her to resist. Some of them had even seemed disappointed when she’d gone with them freely. What else was she meant to have done at 13 years old when her own family no longer wanted her. Even worse, they feared her.

The tests had started off invasive enough, as terrified as the young teen had been she hadn’t put up a fight at least not at first. If it meant making her better, getting rid of the darkness that plagued her, where she could be back with her family again, she would do whatever they asked. As more time passed the ‘testing’ began to get worse. The drugs they used were painful and they often used violence to illicit a response from the mutant. They weren’t trying to get rid of it, to heal her, no…she was being used as a living experiment.

The mutant started to try and fight back, but it only ended up in more violent methods being used to keep her in line. She’d often black out from the damage done and wake up right back in the horribly bright room. She wondered if her parents had known what this place was and even if they had found out if it would matter anymore.

Abilities:

- Umbrakinesis aka Ability to control and manipulate shadows.

- Ability to construct 2D and 3D constructs using shadows. Varying degree’s of these abilities use much more energy and concentration than others. For example using a shadow to mask an item verses creating a shadow weapon that is tangible and cause damage. The latter takes much more out of her.

- Ability to teleport through shadows. Again, it takes a lot of effort and she isn’t at the point where she can control this aspect of her abilities well.

V. Patient – She is still in the facility

V. Darkness Running – She has escaped and is in hiding/on the run from the government

V. X-Men – Post Facility/she’s found the X-men and is trying to heal with their help

V. TBD

[icharchivist]

Not to be that person, but I think for all its faults, Gbf still has more body diversity than other Gacha games

One of the reasons I couldn't really get into Genshin Impact for is that they have a total of three body types and one of those looks like small children, which I'm not interested in

All the dudes are total twinks and all the women either come in small tits or big. It's annoying to me, which is why I'm not playing. No judgement on people who do enjoy the game

So imo Gbf is at least passing this bar, even though it is on the floor

And yes, they should do more in terms of muscular women, but at least we get buff men and not twinks exclusively. Or, thinking back to the four dragon knights with their different body types

Until then, Fediel will always have abs in my mind

oh no i agree don't worry about that

it's like, both "Granblue still falls under the trap of not trying more "risky" bodytypes" and "still, Granblue actually makes a lot of effort and care which is appreciated" are things that can coexist.

The comparaisons are with BG3 rn bc the anons brought it up but tbf those are such drastically different games in term of production and medium that it just highlights the general issues with any medium. i think BG3 could more likely be compared to other games of similar genres with what it tries, and doesn't try.

But Granblue should be compared to other gacha on that level and, on that level, Granblue actually probably puts the most efforts i've seen in a gacha game in term of diversity.

it just sucks because it still isn't nearly enough and it still falls into the common trap of some beauty conventions.

But it's still more efforts than a lot of others games.

Genshin's stuff is kind of in its own area for me bc it's stilla 3D game and 3D game requires new models for new bodytypes. Like i said in the previous ask, i still think it should be an effort to be made -- but it's also clearly at a disadvantage compared to games like say, Granblue, Arknights, a3, or stuff like that, who are fully 2D and therefore don't have to rely on any restrictions.

Granblue has a huge cast, and a lot of diverse bodytype. conventionally attractive bodytypes, but still more diversity than not.

in Granblue there's already the different races that already have some bodytype associated to them, which is especially visible with the men, so the bodytypes end up diversified just on this basis. Then, most of the time, at least for men, there is an effort to have the bodytype/the muscles placement to make sense with the era of expertise of those characters. Nehan barely has any flesh on his bones due to decades of abuse. Lancelot's body is slender and not too muscular because everything about him is about being nimble on his feet. Vane is a powerhouse because he's a tank. So on and so forth.

when it comes to women (who aren't Harvins at least), muscles aren't taken into account at all, which is peeving. There's diversities on different level, boob sizes, waist, thighs, all that jazz. It's eyeroll worthy that the diversity for women in Granblue is still fully based on conventionally aesthetic ideals. But at the end of the day it still means you can have many women with different bodytypes. Not *extremely* diverse one, but more than some gacha which have a same body size fit them all.

but there is other levels of diversity in appearance Granblue has an advantage on. while it's not the majority, there are dark skinned characters, from darker shades than some gacha would even dare to explore. There's the trans characters. There's different level of reading to it all.

it could be so much better, of course. Granblue's shortcomings are shared everywhere in the video games industry because of basically beauty ideals.

At the end of the day a Gacha especially is relying on people being willing to spend money for one single character. It makes them more scared to experiment with different type of characters because each character has to be bringing money in some way. It's different than a big AAA game that you buy once, and that shouldn't have to convince you to spend money at every character it introduces.

So the fact Granblue does take some risks is appreciated. It makes it one of the gacha that does try the most.

but it's still trying into a comfortable zone that still doesn't acknowledge """"""less desirable""""" features. Which sucks because it's not even true, and the less they're willing to take risk the less they'll be able to see that.

[kosher-martian]

Using this poll as a jumping off point, I'd like to discuss (in probably not the most coherent or comprehensive way) how different Star Wars movies and shows treat the Force.

What I've begun to notice is that how the Force is interpreted in a given medium is actually pretty predictable: The Force exists on a spectrum of unknowability & uncontrollability & infiniteness on one end and knowability & controllability & finiteness on the other, with the major stopping points along this spectrum being:

The Force as Miracle

The Force as Magic

The Force as Superpower

The Force as Science

The original trilogy walks the line between the Force as Magic (a thing you can actually control) and the Force as Miracle (something that you might influence, but more often than not you are just a spectator to).

I think there is an important distinction you have to draw here: the Force as Magic is something that, while poorly understood or only understood by a few, is something that can be understood. The Force as Miracle is something that really can't be fully understood, and has to be something you place faith in.

Other original trilogy media from before the prequels (mostly books and comics) lean into the Force as Magic, but specifically as some sort of ancient knowledge lost to all but a few practitioners. There's always an ancient artifact or force cult or other weird cosmic entity that ties into the force somehow.

The prequel trilogy moves away from this idea, half-heartedly attempting to quantify the Force (or as the poll calls it, "sciencing" it). They try to make the Force something you can not only understand, but something you can reduce to a numbers game: The Force as Science. The problem is that this takes all the "specialness" out of the Force and introduces several issues: If the Force is just midi-chlorians in the bloodstream, can I become stronger by getting blood transfusions from a Jedi? Are midi-chlorians genetic? Can you synthesize midi-chlorians? It becomes too problematic, and even Lucas seems to think so, given how half-hearted the execution is.

Other prequel media, even those that Lucas took a big part in, take a step back and re-mystify the Force only a little: The Force as Superpower. Midi-chlorians are still there, but they work more like X-Men mutant genes (that is to say "they just work, don't think about it"). Go back and watch Episode 2 and 3 again, then go watch the Clone Wars 2D microseries and Clone Wars 3D series: The Force is basically just a supped-up version of psionic powers. The less you think about it, the better.

As we move away from the Prequel era and start preparing for the sequel trilogy and our current era of obsessively orbiting the most profitable version of the IP (*cough cough* this is why any/all new Star Wars media won't leave the original trilogy alone *cough cough*), we see even more re-mystification of the Force. Filoni - throughout the later seasons of the Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels - starts returning to the Force as Magic, though he fleshes out the "magic system" a bit, what with the World Between Worlds, the Bendu, Mortis, etc etc.

Abrams too, with his Force Dyads and Princess Leia surviving the vacuum in space by using the force, returns to the concept of the Force as Magic but unlike the post-original trilogy / pre-prequel era, the Force is a magic isn't some lost ancient knowledge, but a widely-known but also poorly understood facet of everyday life in the galaxy. There are practitioners who understand the complexities of the Force, but these individuals have become rare (because of Order 66).

For my part, I like the Force as Miracle and it is unfortunate that more writers aren't utilizing this interpretation of the Force. I understand why: It can easily turn our protagonists into passive spectators, stripping them of their agency as they await a deus-ex-machina from the Force. But done correctly, the Force can become this terrifying and powerful cosmic ... thing. The Force can be an eldritch horror even Lovecraft can't comprehend, or the mighty hand of G-d coming in at the last second to save the righteous like some Cecil B DeMille biblical epic.

Anyway, that's just my two Republic credits.

pls reblog for sample size i am very curious!!

note: this poll is in reference to high midi-chlorian counts making an individual more strong with the force

[citrus-soda]

bit of a ramble but why why whyyy do the new pokemins professors look like generic airbrushed celebrities? They are so boringly conventionally “attractive” that there’s just no personality to them.

[hopeymchope]

Parascientific Escape: The sci-fi “escape room” visual novel-style series nobody talks about

I can’t help thinking that Parascientific Escape would probably have an active fandom somewhere on the Internet if it wasn’t TRAPPED ON THE 3DS ESHOP.

I mean, it’s an escape room-centric visual novel-style sci-fi Japanese game that is clearly inspired by Zero Escape and very anime in its style. There are endearing characters, including optimal waifus/husbandos, plus a gradual buildup of an interesting fictional world full of political intrigue, its own countries, its own companies, and of course... psychic powers. Because you can’t have a trilogy of Japanese visual novel-style games featuring escape room puzzles without mental powers, now can you?

But as I said... they’re trapped as download-only titles for the 3DS. That’s fucking brutal. 

Even so, there’s a pretty big 3DS/2DS user base still in existence. It’s not like they’ve never been translated or something, so at least we have the capability to play them. So if you look into them, what are you getting?

A basic overview: Parascientific Escape is a trilogy of anime-style games about solving escape room mysteries and tracking down evildoers via the use of psychic powers (obvious Zero Escape influences). There’s an overarching plot about a mysterious mastermind who believes it’s time for the recently emerged psychics of the world to take their place as the next evolution of humanity and get their own nation (obvious X-Men influences).

They don’t work very well as standalone stories; each story relies on information from the last one, culminating in a game that stars the protagonists of both parts 1 and 2 together as they finally unravel the motivations behind the events of the whole series and face off with the people behind everything. In addition, the escape room puzzles start out pretty easy in the first game build to be pretty frustratingly obtuse by the tail end of the third. And on top of all that, each game taken on its own only contains about 3-4 escape rooms. So when you bundle all three together, that’s when it all works as a single satisfying package. 

Don’t worry about burning a lot of cash to play the whole series, however. The three games are $5.00 US each on the 3DS eShop and are usually on sale for $2.50 each these days. I got the entire trilogy for $7.50 US!

So let’s break down the gameplay and setup in a little more detail. Don’t worry; I won’t give any spoilers that go beyond the first five minutes of any game in the series. The twists and turns are part of the fun here.

The first game is Parascientific Escape: Cruise in the Distant Seas. You play as  Hitomi Akeneno, a high school girl (because of course she’s a high-schooler) with the dual abilities of mild telekinesis and a type of clairvoyance that lets her peer past barriers or into the insides of objects. She finds herself trapped on a sinking cruise ship where some mastermind keeps systematically locking her into isolated sections while she’s trying desperately to escape. 

I really liked how you could look inside of an object with clairvoyance and then use her telekinesis to manipulate the various switches and levers within, gradually pulling some object you need out from within a maze. I also thought it was clever how the solution to a new escape roomight require you to backtrack to a previous escape room to investigate some object or area that wasn’t relevant to that previous room’s original puzzle. 

(One of the things I found most fascinating about this one is the ethical debate raised by Hitomi’s friend Chisono regarding how Hitomi got herself involved in all this. Chisono offers a perspective that is extremely unusual to see in most fiction. You can even say it’s pretty cold, but it’s not without having some merit to it. I don’t want to say too much about what I’m talking about, though; it’s better left as a surprise.)

The second title, Parascientific Escape: Gear Detective, almost seems standalone at first. You play as Kyosuke Ayana, a private detective and actual adult (!) who is 22 years old. A young woman shows up at his office and asks to hire him for protection. See, there’s a serial killer on the loose, and she believes she’s the next target.

We are swiftly told that Kyosuke was once in an accident that necessitated the replacement of his left arm and right eye. He volunteered to be a guinea pig for some very special prosthetics that granted him artificial psychic powers. As such, he now has “chronokinesis” — to the power to look back in time. However, he can only look back for five days, and he only has limited ability to move or manipulate the things he sees in the past. 

Naturally, Kyosuke’s investigation winds up trapping him within some escape rooms that require use of his unique abilities to solve. Some of the hints at the proper timestamps or exactly where you should be looking when you peer into the past are a little vague, though, which can cause momentary frustration. Because I like to always be making forward progress, I actually preferred Hitomi’s telekinesis/clairvoyance powers from the first game. Still, Hitomi had some pretty basic puzzles in her rooms. I can’t deny that these puzzles took more thought.

Outside of the escape rooms,  everything is undeniably a huge improvement. The first game presented strictly linear segments of storytelling between the rooms, but this one is more of an adventure game. You can choose where you go, select from a limited menu of things to do when you get there, and do all of it in any order you like. There’s usually a correct sequence order to progressing the story, but it’s typically pretty clear what the next step is, so it’s not like you’re just flailing about and trying a bunch of locations blindly. Besides, there’s no way to get stuck, so don’t stress it. There are even a lot of actions you can take that have no impact on story progression at all — they’re just there to generate additional dialogue that further develops the characters. 

The tradeoff is that you actually get fewer escape rooms overall. The first game had four, but the second only contains three. This is also the first game in the series to introduce multiple endings; you get a number of dialogue choices throughout, and unfortunately, it’s far too easy to trigger the “bad” ending. There are guides online to help you trigger the Gold Star “true” ending, however. Just hit up GameFAQs. You might want to use the guide on your first playthrough, because I can say from experience that it’s annoying to have to replay all the dialogue sections just to make the correct choices. (Luckily, you can skip over any irrelevant sections of each chapter — including the escape room puzzles.) 

In spite of my above whining, the second one is probably my single favorite story in the Parascientific trilogy. It’s a lot of fun.

The final game in the trilogy is Parascientific Escape: Crossing at the Farthest Horizon. Mysterious characters who were plotting offscreen for the previous two games are finally given faces, locations that were talked about extensively in both are finally visited, and the two protagonists of the first couple games finally meet and team up. It’s absolutely a culmination of what they set up in the first two.

The narrative jumps around from the perspectives of many different characters, but the most time is undoubtedly spent with Hitomi and Kyosuke. Sadly, there is no gameplay usage of Hitomi’s powers this time; the escape rooms are all done with Kyosuke, and they are more devious now than ever before. Personally, I found the next-to-last one to be incredibly obtuse and frustrating. I ultimately had to consult a video playthrough on YouTube for that. (The YouTuber in question didn’t seem to have the same issues figuring things out that I did. So I guess your mileage may vary.)

The “adventure game” segments make a return here as well, although they’ve also become a bit tougher to figure out. There are a couple of times when you might find yourself wandering the various location options, clicking on every possible action to try and progress. Luckily, there aren’t so many default options that you’re left flailing for very long. Even the longest period of clueless wandering lasted me a maximum of 15 minutes.

Once again, you have to make the correct dialogue choices if you want a positive ending. And once again, GameFAQs is your friend and co-pilot.

Ultimately, even the gated endings and occasional puzzle frustrations did little to curb my enthusiasm. I really had fun with these characters and their stories, I greatly enjoyed the majority of the escape rooms, and I was pretty satisfied with how it all wrapped up. The character designs/artwork get better and better as the series goes on. The selection of music tracks may be the same throughout the whole series, but I really dug on them, so I can’t complain. Do I have any other misgivings? Well, just one; the English localization is pretty sloppy. There are a pretty large number of typos, and the dialogue can sound stilted and awkward at times due to being a direct translation. It’s actually at its worst at the start of the first game. Luckily, after about 30 minutes of playtime, it settles in and finds its voice.

Seriously, they should really figure out a way to re-package these games for another system that doesn’t use the the dual-screen setup. Put all three of them together, and it’d easily be satisfying as a full retail release!

But for now, if you have a 3DS/2DS, they’re only $7.50 in total most of the time (and $15.00 at the worst). Do you like adventure game-style mysteries and visual novel-esque progression and, of course, escape rooms? You should give these a shot! And I hope these devs get to make games with bigger budgets and better localizations in the future.

[sorenskyhigh]

Ok... this boy in my school that I'm friends with and likes me can speak fucking Korean and it just does something to me. I keep telling myself that 2D boys are better than 3D boys but like I cannot help it (he is from fucking Ireland btw). Anyway, if you get where I'm going with this... Tendou, Aone, Kenma and a character of choice with a spouse who can speak a different language... be creative with the languages queen and go crazy. Also as a scenario :) THANKS BESTIE :)

Ooooo i love this! Yes! I gotchu! Need a reminder of the real good men, FICTIONAL

A s/o Who Speaks Another Language

Includes Tendou Satori, Aone Takanobu, Kozume Kenma, and of course my pick is gonna be Kuroo Tetsurou but just for fun I'm gonna throw in Hanamaki Takahiro

Tendou Satori

Satori loved being in France, the language, like any, was hard to learn. Still, he loved everything about the culture here. You being his language tutor was a big help as well.

Since most all of your conversations were in French, unless you were practicing your Japanese (you wanted to learn it for him), Satori never knew you were fairly fluent in Arabic.

Arabic is one of a few of the most spoken languages in France (next to French of course and contending with Spanish, German and couple of others), so a good many people could speak it but Satori had no idea you could.

The first time he heard you speak it when you were trying to give someone directions.

You both were lounging about in the grass in The Champ de Mars, the Eiffel Tower at your backs.

It was a day off for Satori and he wanted you both to have a fun lunch out. Satori and you had both worked and cooked up a lunch to take with you to eat out in the sunshine.

You both were munching on some food, his long arm around your waist as you leaned into him when a work friend of yours came up to you.

"Hey, y/n, can you give her directions? She's trying to find her hotel I think?"

"Sure," you said, before standing up and engaging her in conversation. Turns out she was trying to find the Pullman hotel, it was known for its great view of the Eiffel Tower.

She was an older women and had no idea how to use her maps on her phone.

You gave her some quick help before she was on her way. Your friend thanked you, telling you they had no idea what to do and were so glad they saw you.

With a goodbye you turned around to join Satori and his eyes were wide in cartoony shock. You chuckle a little.

"What?"

"I didn't know you could speak, well I don't exactly know what language that was but, that was really amazing!" With that he jumped up and wrapped his arms around you , kissing the top of your head incessantly.

"Yeah, there were a lot of people at my old job that couldn't speak French very well so I learned Arabic to help them out."

"Arabic? Is that what that was?" He pulled away to look at you in excitement, his eyebrows shooting to the stars. His smile was wide and ever so slightly crooked.

"Yes," you barely get out through your giggling.

"You sounded so beutiful!" You could practically see the hearts in his eyes as he stared at you.

"Thank you, it's been awhile,-" Satori cut you off before you could dog yourself.

"Oh, my dear Paradise, as always you sound lovely. No matter the language."

He proceeded to quiet your protests of how shit your thought you were in Japanese with a rather passionate kiss.

He always surprised you with these in public. Satori wasn't shy to show affection in public, he just doesn't show it like this much.

You had to stop him when his long fingered and boney hands slowly wrapped themsleves around your ass cheeks.

Aone Takanobu

Nobu never said it, but he loved the German nicknames you gave him.

He truly loved a of them. Like when you call him your Liebling (darling) when you're asking for him to grab you something you can't reach. Then there's Schnucki when he does something cute or sweet, like when he got you something you had been wanting for a long time for your birthday.

All of these and the many more you use are great, but his favorite is when you call him your Knuddelbär. He melts when you refer to him as your cuddly bear.

You tended to use it when, obviously, you two were cuddling. Like tonight. You both were cuddled together in bed, his big, strong arms wrapped around you with his nose firmly planted onto the crown of your head, taking in your scent.

You had your face securely settled into his broad chest. His large heart beating and rumbling through your skull. It was relaxing.

Nobu liked feeling your smaller heart as well. He's such a big guy that, it didn't matter how big you were, he was bigger and absolutely loved it.

You were mostly asleep as you intook a large breath before sighing contentedly. You were barely able to get out a mumbled, "Knuddelbär," before completely passing out.

Nobu was officially awake, his face red as hell, and his mouth stretched into a massive smile as always. He sighed lightly into your scalp as he squeezed his eyes closed.

His arms wrapped around you a little tighter as it always did. His lips barely forming a kiss to place on your head.

Nobu knew he wouldn't be able to sleep for awhile. He just loved it too much.

Kozume Kenma

You played game with Kenma all the time. And he loved it. His absolute favorite thing is when you get angry and start angrily yelling.

You'd always revert to Filipino when you'd get angry. Kenma didn't like seeing you irritated or angry per se. But he did love see you get angry at video games. Of course he wanted to be happy and live happily and comfortably, but he always at the very least, cracked a smile when you'd start angrily yelling about who knows what when something happens in a game.

Like right now. There was a level you both were trying to get through. Kenna kept getting a little behind because he wanted all the extra stuff in the level. You on the other hand were trying to keep the bad guys off his back.

It was always in the same spot. Seven tries now, where you had died and had to restart the level. You were so angry that you kept making smaller and more ridiculous mistakes as you both went on.

Well you had a enough. It started out with gritted teeth mumbles as you about broke your controller from the grip you had on it.

Kenma told you to wait for him but that just angered you more. You wanted to get through this level. Honestly it wasn't even that. You wanted to destroy that mini boss.

The idea consumed your entire being. It needed to be destroyed or you wouldn't be able to sleep or rest.

So you charged forward and were taking it on on your own and, well, you were obliterated, once again.

Your hands shook as you death-grip clenched the controller. Your entire figure was shaking with rage. You were going to explode in three.......two.........one........

Now you were angrily yelling at the game and controller in Filipino. Kenma just sat there, too. Oh-so-calmly was he, with is controller in hand. His back slumped with terri ke posture as his lips lifted ever so slightly into a smile. He tried to hide it, he really did.

Kenma knew all too well what it was like to be in this situation. He had raged on camera definitely more than once for this very same reason.

But he just couldn't help it. You were all worked up and angrily pointing your finger at the screen after you had just as angrily thrown your controller on the couch.

Kenma stood up and very silently pinned your arms against your sides. He looked you straight in the eye for a moment. He liked to see you get angry, but he also knew when you should calm down and relax.

"Puddin'," he said very calmly and quietly. You stopped, smoke practically spewing from your ears. He simply wrapped his arms around you, still holding your arms down. You slowly lifted your arms as much as you could, and hugged him back.

He very lightly kissed you on your cheek before starting to rock you both back and forth. Nothing was said; nothing needed to be said.

Kuroo Tetsurou

Tetsu loved hearing you speak Spanish. He loved learning about the difference in the Spanish spoken in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, and all the others.

You knew so much about the history of the language and how the culture in each country would change that slang so much. He loved when you would go on long tangents about it.

Tetsu especially loved when you sang in Spanish. His absolute favorite thing is when he get home from work absolutely exhausted and he hears you singing away as you're cleaning, making dinner, in the tub, or whatever it is that you're doing.

For example, on this particular evening, you were taking a much needed soak in the tub. Lovely smelling soaps and a couple of candles to give a nice dim light for a nice calm vibe.

Bubbles tickled your chin as you sang away. The noise echoing slightly against the walls around you. It didn't matter whether you had a magnificent voice, an average one, or a terrible one. You were just enjoying the moment.

You heard the front door handle jangle and knew Tetsu was home. You continued to sing as you heard the door open and close. The shuffle of him replacing his shoes with house slippers skitter down the hall to you.

You hear him coming closer, dropping his suitcase and then haphazardly throwing his suit jacket, more than likely on the back of the couch.

You continued to sing as his steps got closer. Then you heard a shuffle at the doorway. You opened your eyes and looked. There stood Kuroo Tetsurou, his black button up shirt stressed across his chest, his tie dangling around his neck.

He stood against the door frame, eyes closed as he listened to you. His eyes looked tired, the same as his small smile.

You continued to sing. You sang and sang until the end of the song. At the end, Tetsu smiled so happily. He opened his hazel/yellow eye to look at you. His smile quirked into a smirk as he took some tired and lazy steps towards you.

He sat himself on the edge of the tub. "Mmmmmm, my Spanish Siren. Trying to sing me a song to pull me under the depths to have her way with me, then leave my carcass for the sharks." He snorted a little at the end as he gave slow loving strokes to your cheek.

You hmmed in satisfaction before oh so calmly saying," Like this?" With that you grabbed his arm and caught him by surprise, making it easy to tug him into the full tub, water splashing out onto the tiled floors. His loud, raucous laughter as well as yours rang throughout your home.

Hanamaki Takahiro

You are his baby, his sweetheart, his lovely. Hiro loved you so much. Everything about you just amazed him. One of the many things that just amazed him, was how you sounded speaking Italian.

The first time he heard you, he was blown away. Your voice was so sexy, not that it wasn't when you spoke Japanese. There was just something about it though that he found incredible.

Hiro would urge you constantly to speak in Italian and even teach him a little. You spoke it so much that he, naturally, picked things up.

He always tells you that him speaking Italian just did not have the same ring to it as you.

"Kah-"

"Kah-"

"Mirrah-"

"Mirrah-"

"Day-"

"Day-"

"Laetto."

"Raetto."

"See, you've almost got it. Camera de letto. Try again." You say. Hiro had been wanting to learn how to say bedroom in Italian. He was having some troubles but he was surprisingly good with learning it though.

He sighed in slight defeat. "I just can't do it like you do, la mia gioia." He loved referring to you as is 'joy' but in Italian.

"Please, just one more time," you encourage him.

"I think i need a little incentive, la mia gioia," he looked at you with a small sly smirk.

You sigh before turning to him, "Quindi vuoi incentivi? Che ne dici se smetto di aiutarti?" (So you want incentives? How about if I stop helping you?)

"Oh, you sound so sexy," you cut him off with a loud laugh.

Im sorry it took so long to get this out! I've been feeling a little better and have been having actual ambition to write and wanted to do my best! Thank you as always for sending in an ask!!

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[hotcocosharing]

😍 my man with his bangs down

Sorry I can't see anything else

Kaga is making a big fuss over the plant that MC bring over. Refusing to help taking care of it.

But he still end up helping and saving it from a big downpour. Just because he don’t want MC to be upset. That is really very sweet of him. 😍