#A shield with a fantasy-inspired design

[mohashop123]

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[thecurseofcassandra-if]

[DEMO] [Last Updated: June 28, 2024]

"Hold fast, Child of Cassandra. Those who heed not your words will understand in time. What approaches cannot be contained."

You’ve been on the road your whole life. Orphaned at birth and failed by the systems meant to keep you in line, you’ve learned how to take care of yourself. After years of being haunted by strange visions that nobody believes, you stumble across the small town of Charity’s Cross - and everything begins to fall into place.

Play as a young wayward prophet, haunted by visions and cursed to never be believed. Inspired by mythology and ancient folklore, The Curse of Cassandra is an urban fantasy story about family, belonging, and the places we call home.

Explore the town of Charity's Cross, and uncover long-buried secrets that really should have been left untouched.

Run into a group of misfits, and become part of a family that accepts you flaws and all.

Queer joy! Just a whole lot of queer joy and celebration <3

No romance (sorry, not sorry). This is a game about love, but romance is not the focus. You're allowed to headcanon whatever you'd like about your prophet's sexuality, but your interactions with the cast will always be strictly platonic.

The Prophet - That's you! Human, but with a touch of bloodline magic that haunts your every step. In other words, you're cursed, and it's a real pain.

Daniel Weaver [he/him, 52yo] - Werewolf, kindergarten teacher, all around softie. Would do anything to protect his family, and that includes you.

Arthur "Art" Shields [he/him, 45yo] - Werewolf, caretaker, one of two people in the family who actually knows how to cook. The house is his happy place, and he makes sure it's welcoming and comforting for whoever may walk in the door.

Catrin Galanis [she/her, 49yo] - Gryphon, antiques dealer, gives hugs like handshakes. Once the guardian to a magic stash of treasure, she now guards her own treasure: her children.

Carmine Levesque [she/her, 137yo] - Vampire, fashion designer, the person that's always in the house despite not technically living there. That bat up in the rafters might not be her... but you'd better wave just in case.

Ari Galanis [he/him, 21yo] - Werewolf, college student, sunshine personified. He's earnest (perhaps a little too eager) to meet someone new and bring them into the family's dynamic.

James Weaver [they/them, 17yo] - Werewolf, high schooler, introvert extraordinaire. Getting them to participate in family game night is like trying to wrangle a cat into a bathtub.

Sadie Graves [she/her, 13yo] - Banshee, middle schooler, going through a bit of an angsty phase. She's not exactly the most pleasant to interact with sometimes, but her family supports her wholeheartedly.

Eleni Doran [she/???, 4yo] - Changeling, kindergartener, weird little girl. Nobody's quite sure anymore where she came from, or even what she is, but she's the one person that actually believes your visions.

[gilbirda]

Ghost Princess!Jazz design

So, since I'm posting chapter 24 of Friendly Neighborhood Vigilante, finally these will see the light of day!!!

Designs and drawing by the amazing @herbatahleb!!! I commissioned him these drawings so I could visualize the suit in my head better; and also so peeps could see what I'm talking about!

Thank you so much Hleb!

Alt version that was scrapped during the design process and me rambling about design ideas under the cut

So the Idea was that in this AU Jazz was trained by Pandora and the dead Amazon warriors in the greek afterlife.

Jazz doesn't use guns, not because of morality or anything, but because she sucks ass at shooting and is like the moment she hits the trigger it doesn't matter where she was aiming, she will cause an accident/hurt someone. (Weapons she doesn't have to actually aim are kinda okay, but you have to be ready for her blowing up something)

So she compensates and uses a lot of long range weapons, with her mom's staff being the one she uses the most. The staff has 2 settings: spear, which she uses for a more aggressive approach (think Okoye and the Dora Milaje from Black Panther)

and War Mode, with the War Mode is the one that is in the final design. I sent Hleb a bunch of reference pictures and the lance is based on Ares' lance in Destripando la Historia (a spanish youtube series)

My general idea is that Jazz is inspired by the war god because she herself had to become one for Danny. She's one of their best strategist but she is also vicious in battle and the best at hand to hand combat and most versatile weapons-wise.

Her suit is also red because it stands out in the Infinite Realms. She makes herself a target so she can attract her enemies to her, since she can't fly or doesn't have a means of quick transportation during battle.

Armor is made for speed and agility, and it's charmed so it enhances her natural ghostly abilities and physique. Her arm pieces can project an ecto shield for defense.

For the crown I had a few references, but mainly Wanda's headpiece in MCU

But also I wanted to include some kind of high fantasy crowns for her, because that's her crown as a princess. While Danny has the black metal one that's constantly on fire, Jazz would have this armor headpiece and only the "tips" would be on fire and then the actual crown appears out of thin air as a fire circle over her head.

For me this detail was important because it showed: first, how for Jazz her crown IS part of her armor and how deeply entwined being a princess is with being a warrior while Danny can be the king without the warrior; and second, to represent how "fake" as a ghost princess she is, since she's not actually dead-dead, because only 2 singular points are actually metal but the rest comes and goes and doesn't anchor to anything.

We also used a bunch of references of Kassandra from Assasins Creed Odyssey

For the boots and other details I really just sent Hleb a bunch of pictures from the Wonder Woman movie Amazonian armor design

Anyway that's all my rant. I'm very happy with the final design and Hleb was very kind to sit with me and let me be specific about what I wanted. Love you, darling!

[theresattrpgforthat]

I would really love a game about, uhm... the basic concept is playing enchanted weapons, and the people who bear them? Like, even if the human bearer dies, the weapon goes on, and you are playing the history of this item? does that make sense?

THEME: Enchanted Weapons

Hello friend! Have I got games for you!

Chronicles of the Lost Relic, by Worldmaker.

Everyone wants it, and most will try to take it. Yet, the Relic also seems to have a mind of its own. And it seems to be in control.

Chronicles of the Lost Relic is a fantasy journaling TTRPG about carrying a powerful relic.  You are the Relic Bearer, and you must complete your goal to bring balance to the world, or to satisfy your lust for power.

A weapon is just one of six different choices in Chronicles of the Lost Relic. You follow the story of this item over what could be hundreds or thousands of years, following it as it trades hands, enables quests, and may even corrupt things over time. From what I can gather, the game centres around the relic, but you as a player embody the people who wield it. As a result, you will likely find yourself picking up new characters over the course of play.

I think this mode of play can allow the solo player to not just build the legend of an item, but also a history of various heroes and villains, which could be a very rewarding experience.

Boyfriend Dungeon: Life on the Edge, by trumoi.

The cult classic shack-and-slash, in an all-new format. Boyfriend Dungeon: Life On the Edge is a tabletop roleplaying game that lets up to 4 players (plus their Master of Ceremonies) explore their inner psyche, confront their fears, and also smooch swords! Roleplay as your favorite lasersaber or make up your own weapon-person. Wield your friends, defeat your enemies, and level up your love… around the table.

Boyfriend Dungeon roots its mechanics in Powered by the Apocalypse rules, as well as Rhapsody of Blood, which takes a lot of inspiration from the game Legacy: Life Among the Ruins.

The NPC description on the store page reminds me of the antagonists in the Persona series - normal people whose actions or inner lives have turned them into monsters, who need to be fought in order for them to re-discover their humanity. I think that in this game each player embodies two forms: the wielder and the weapon.

If you want to explore the inner lives of spear, swords and axes - including their love lives - you might like Boyfriend Dungeon: Life on the Edge.

Artefact, by Jack Harrison.

ARTEFACT is a story game for one player, designed for contemplative solo play.

In the classic dungeon crawl, you follow the lives of adventurers as they overcome challenges to gain prestige and, most importantly, magical treasures. But what were those treasures doing before the adventurers came along? How many aeons have passed, in silent darkness, since they were last used?

ARTEFACT shifts the focus to the perspective of a single magical item, and its history as it passes through the hands of many different keepers. You’ll feel the weight of time as the item is lost or abandoned again and again, the dust & decay piling around it until it’s found again by someone new. There are many different magical items that you can follow across the span of generations in this game, but the two that will probably stand out to you are The Weapon and The Shield.

When you select an artifact to follow, you also choose a number of traits to describe it, and also draw the artefact to get a good idea of what it looks like. You’ll also have to answer a number o questions about the artifact, designed to fit the kind of item you choose. Then you’ll navigate the story of its life by filling out the keepers who held onto it, the time in between each keeper, and the actions that the item finds itself participating in, adding stories to its legend as time goes on.

If you want a solo exercise that can give depth to something that you might even want to drop into another campaign, you might be interested in Artefact!

You Are A Magic Sword, by beatingthebinary.

You are a magic sword, sleeping in your scabbard. Remember the hands that last wielded you, how they felt around you.

This is a business card game, and I think it feels more like a writing prompt than a fulll game. It falls in the family of sworddream games, which from what I can understand, is a movement that originated with in the OSR and similar spaces to invite diverse and passionate people into the space. According to the nine principles of *DREAM, these games value experimentation, anti-canon, emergent stories, generative worlds, non-violent play, and more.

You Are A Magic Sword invites you to create a story based off of a few small lines. I think it might be a good excuse for a writing exercise, or perhaps combined with some other small game-things to generate an interesting story.

Heartbearers, by Whimsy Machine.

It's a dangerous world of heroes and monsters. You play in pairs: a sentient weapon and their bearer. You go on thrilling adventures with other pairs. Be the greatest fighter pair through the ultimate feat of strength: making friends!

Long ago weapons realized that their bearers can get really hurt in battle, so culture shifted: the goal of combat changed to skillfully clash weapons, not harm bearers. Two weapons going head to head can show off their magic, abilities, and legends. Colors burst, sparks fly—it's intense!

Only half of the players in this game play as the weapons, as the game depends on relationships between the weapons and the people who wield them. While the interaction between weapon and bearer is largely a partnership, these partnerships can come in conflict with each-other, whether that be in the nature of some kind of rivalry, or perhaps a difference of opinion.

What’s interesting about Heartbearers to me is that the goal of the characters is to develop friendships with each-other, and the way the game centres that goal around combat. You don’t fight each-other out of a source of outright hostility - you fight to know each-other better, and get a better understanding of who your opponents are and what they want. Your characters are built up out of descriptive words as well as keywords, if you choose to play a weapon.

At the beginning of combat, weapons roll 2d12 and take the highest result as their points pool, with point expenditures allowing them to use special actions such as shifting form, casting magic, or highlight important moments the past. The Bearers of the weapons are authors of the reason behind the combat, and use the lower result of the die roll as their source of points, using those points to banter with each-other, declare personal opinions, or encourage their weapon in combat.

Other Notes

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[achillean-knight]

As stated can't draw kids LMFAO But I tried.

Charlies Design: I went with the overalls and baggy shirt because of like- one image that popped up and I thought it was pretty neat LMAO According to my Mum, fashion for kids in the 80's was like- Hand me downs, but idk, I don't think Charlie has an older sibling to give her outfits, maybe nicked Henry's old shirt or something lmao idk, but I like the design I went with, I think it's pretty neat. Also gave her short hair mostly to make a homage to little me who back when Pizzaria Sim released, didn't realise the sprite of Charlie had like, a ponytail?? And drew her with incredibly short hair. Also, I really like the hairstyle for her so! :D

Puppet design: For my AU in fact :> (Also whoops, ignore my signature being backwards, I didn't realise the thing was flipped when I signed it LMAO) My idea for her, is an entity that resides in the V.A.N.N.I mask. After Cassie obtains it- the puppet entity guides her to a place of rest, a tree in the deepest parts of the program for her to protect her. Like the deepest parts of the Balloon Boy minigame in FNAF 3 where you see the tree with the kids under it? Surely that wasn't programmed. The puppet entity hijacked the masks program, hence the nightmarionne plushies you see, but she recognised Cassie as a child and to shield her from the virus, she saves her and brings her to the haven. I have alot more ideas for the puppet entity... might make a little comic.

---------------------------------

INSPIRATIONS FOR THE PUPPETS DESIGN UNDER THE CUT

(for funsies lmao) Inspirations for design: Nyx - Persona 3 Crepera the Rogue - Final Fantasy 15

Lanky lass with a pretty sick as mask or face idk what's going on with Nyx lmao But yeah, I felt I should mention- both for fun because I really love these designs and also incase people find similarities along the way and its a small message sayin' "hell yeah man >:D Spot on!"

[crescentmoonsandroses]

Deltarune's themes of escapism and why they hit me hard

I was going to do some Deltarune art based around this and then just have the definition of escapism under it, but I can't think of what to draw, so I'm just going to ramble about it instead.

Deltarune, as I'm sure many many other people have pointed out before, has strong themes of escapism in addition to its themes of control, freedom, the narrative, etc. The Dark Worlds transform objects into people, rooms into environments, high school students into heroes. They seem to bring to life the sorts of games you played as a kid, with your toys and your friends, making up a story that played out in your mind, enhanced by your imagination. It's theatre of the mind, helped along by the toys and props and whatnot - like when you're playing D&D, too. This sort of thing is mainly in Chapter One, with the game pieces and cards and toys. I remember playing make-believe with practically everything as a kid - I made up stories with chess pieces a few times, that was fun. Castle Town and Card Kingdom are both reminiscent of a very traditional form of escapism: fantasy.

The Cyber World is a little different, but it still holds the same sort of idea - hell, we're all here on Tumblr, we know what it's like to bury ourselves in the internet, in videos and memes and posts, and forget the world for a little while. This is emphasised by Queen's commentary - I can't find the exact quote, but it's something about being worried that the Lightners will become depressed without the 'bliss' of the internet, which isn't currently working in Hometown. We also know that Chapter 3 will take place in Toriel's lounge room and seems to be specifically based around the TV (and, this is off topic, but I literally just realised Mike could be, like, mic, as in microphone, and Tenna could be short for antenna), which can also be a form of escapism for people. I know that my mum, for one, watches TV most nights.

There's also the specific characters who fall into the Dark Worlds - Kris, Susie, Noelle, Berdly.

Kris seems to be considered weird by most of Hometown, where they are the only human and don't seem to have many - or, well, any - real friends apart from their brother, who was the town's golden boy, who everyone keeps talking about and seems to hold in high regard, whose side of the bedroom holds trophies and pictures and colour while Kris' is bare and grey (they also have Susie now, but she only became their friend during the first Dark World). In the Dark World, however, Kris gets to be a hero, sword and shield raised, saving the world with their friends. Everyone in Castle Town loves them. The room Ralsei built for them has trophies aplenty. And then there's the matter of Ralsei, who looks so much like Toriel and Asgore and Asriel, who is so nice and so supportive of Kris, who has pink horns like maybe a certain red headband faded (yes I headcanon that Ralsei is Kris' old horn headband and will continue to do so until proven wrong).

Susie, who drinks milk from back alleys and threatens to eat people's faces, who didn't actually call home when she had a sleepover with Kris, who gets uncomfortable around the block of flats in Hometown, who doesn't seem to know how to react when shown kindness or friendship, who considers herself the 'bad guy'. Well, she gets to be that bad guy, strong and powerful and scary, with a big axe and sharp teeth and enemies to defeat. And then she gets to have friends, she gets to have food, she gets to be the hero and maybe that's not so bad after all if she does it alongside people she cares about, people who care about her. We can see how much happier she is in the Dark Worlds.

Berdly, who tries so hard to be perceived as smart, who loves videogames. I don't have as much to say about him, honestly, but his Dark World design is quite distinctively Cyber World when compared to the other Lightner's more fantasy-inspired designs, and being in the Dark World gives him the chance to be a hero, even if he's not great at that for most of Chapter 2.

And Noelle. Noelle, whose sister seems to be missing or dead, whose dad is in hospital, whose mum is the town's mayor and works a lot and has an icy personality. Noelle who searches for bugs and secrets in the games she seems to love. Noelle who wishes she had magic to heal her dad. Noelle who seems to feel powerless to help someone she loves, who doesn't stand up to Berdly or her mum. Once she's in the Dark World, she can heal people. She stands up to Queen, who is a sort of mother figure. She gets to spend time with Susie. She gets to see the city lights that Dess promised her.

All this to say that Deltarune in general and the Dark Worlds specifically have some not-so-subtle themes of escapism.

Now, the 'why it hits me hard' bit. Escapism has always been one of my main coping strategies, and even beyond that, I love fantasy, I love stories, I love burying myself in another world. It's much easier to be in a world where there's magic and quests and maybe there's struggles and strife and people still get hurt and mess up and go through bad things, but eventually there's a happy ending because that's how stories work, they don't have the constant uncertainty of real life. And, you know, if I could go to a Dark World, I would. I can understand why Susie likes the Dark Worlds so much, why Noelle and Berdly wanted to make another. Escapism is something that I can understand, especially after having struggled with my mental health for a few years (I'm a lot better now though). The world can be messy and complicated and hard, and wouldn't it be nice to be in a different world for a bit, one where you can be who you want to be and you don't feel lost anymore?

So, uh... yeah lol.

[frankiesmileshow]

Crystal Project Review

Ive been having a lot of fun with Crystal Project, a well made FF5-inspired RPG. The combat is very tightly designed and the exploration aspect is top notch. The art style put me off a bit at first, but I think it grew on me over time.

The game does a great job of slowly uncovering its breadth and letting you break its sequence through curious exploring. Lots of fun to search every part of its gigantic map for secrets. This is a game that loves hiding secrets within secrets within secrets. You might even occasionally stumble into a late game area, and exploring carefully could lead to finding items meant for the end of the game, giving your party a significant early game boost.

Exploring will often lead to surprise optional boss battles that are completely out of your league - but dying has few consequences in the game (you just lose a bit of money) and dying from bosses has no consequences at all, so you rarely feel truly punished for having explored too far, and its always worth it to have a peek at a boss battle.

Don't expect too much of a story. There is one, but it keeps a very light touch, this is mainly a game about exploring and fighting monsters. It does have characters and some personality, but dont expect something dense story wise.

It manages to avoid feeling like an open world game - it feels more like a linear game that just lets you break out of the confines of its intended path if you explore enough. It strikes a very good balance between having direction and having freedom. The world map just keeps expanding as you play, leading to many little shocks about the games' scope, a feeling you might be familiar with if you played Elden Ring.

The games combat uses a very well balanced, strategic system. Battles give you a lot of information to let you choose your actions carefully - you can see any enemies' next action in advance, and you even know who the enemy will attack next (notice the dotted lines in the screenshot above). Manipulating the enemies' current target is actually one of the fundamentals of the game- enemies choose their next target based on a "Threat" system which is entirely open to you as you fight, and many classes have abilities to help you manipulate this. Some class abilities also depend on the current threat state of a character - for instance, the rogues' many powerful skills only work if they are considered an enemy's bottom threat, and will otherwise always miss, which requires careful actions on your part.

The class system will be familiar if you played Final Fantasy 5 - you obtain new classes by exploring the world and finding large crystals, each unlocking a new one. The classes set a characters' stat growth on level-up, equippable items, main abilities and all have a unique "Innate passive" which are usually quite powerful (for instance, the base Cleric class receives a significant boost to all healing spells).

You can also add the abilities of a secondary class to your characters' moveset- like adding a clerics' healing spells to your Samurai. There is a lot of fun to be had mixing one class's abilities with anothers' passive boost - for instance, one class has an ability which makes the first action this character makes in a battle always target All enemies or All allies, allowing you to either massively boost your whole party or nuke the enemy party with a powerful spell usually meant for a single foe.

There are also passive abilities you can unlock from any class and assign regardless of a characters' current class, limited by a point cost system. These can range from a boost to max HP, to adding a poison effect to any weapon attacks, to allowing your character to equip a shield regardless of their class.

You can get very creative with the games' class system, there are countless ways to mix and match character abilities and classes to figure out some powerful strategy. The endgame has several challenges that might require you to make custom party setups just for them, turning the combat system into something resembling a kind of puzzle - though one with many possible solutions.

Boss battles have a way of feeling like a desperate struggle of improvising as your strategy falls apart - then winning by the skin of your teeth. This happens a lot. At least half of the boss battles for me ended with most of my party dead, and being one or two turns away from a full wipe-out.

I think the only real misstep is the games' analogue to chocobo breeding, introduced at the very end of the game. It feels tedious, I gave up on it after an hour of wasting my money on food for the creatures and not getting anywhere. Luckily it seems to be completely optional.

All in all I recommend it to anyone who likes FF5 and who likes RPGs that have a focus on exploring. Visually it might look a bit basic, but underneath that is an extremely robust game.

[roseartsandfics]

Tifa (OG) -- Rose

I'm baaaaaaaaack!

Golly, I hadn't even displayed anything for awhile, now ^^;. I've been busy, yes. First time back to displaying after the hiatus! Here is another rose artwork featuring my favorite FF character Tifa Lockhart, in the original FFVII, of course ^^

So wondering why I am not active as much? I was doing another virtual career camp. And I've been dealing with mental health issues for a while. It lasted for days, and I am still trying to recover, but I hope this helps.

Some spoils as I am about to say, for those who hadn't played CC, so yeah, be aware of that lol

I beat Crisis Core Reunion last month just before starting FFVII OG. So I managed to get up to the Minerva optional boss, and holy crap I could not defeat her 0_0. I knew she was going to be hard to defeat 0_0. One of my biggest mistakes is not getting the Genji Shield (which is missable to me, and impossible because I only mastered one Octaslash, and I was not going to take FOREVER to master three more), and possibly not having enough materia to convert to SPs, which I was losing due to the SP materia things I used to prevent more damage. Hey, Ziedrich and SP Turbo or Mastered works! They say Costly Punch works, but it made it a lot worse for my SP and getting damage and die every time without getting a Phoenix Down on time (no offense). Aerial Drain and Jump are slower. Surprisingly (prepare for what it works on her), Darkness works on her. HP wa getting low, but I can be fast on healing, and so I beat her! I gave her multiple tries because I am afraid of how other battles in other FF will be, and I don't want to lose the chance on beating them (Jevil from Deltarune I gave up because he was impossible to defeat XP)

Anyways, so I finished Tifa today, and did I little experiment on coloring and made more designable rather than make my coloring more crappy lol. It's been awhile since drawing her in the OG, and I've been playing the OG for a bit, and so here she is! I started using the Crayola Colors of the World pencils to actually color something more divergent and shadowing her hair and skin. I did her eyes differently because I don't feel like drawing her eyes in my style the way I always draw eyes (I am bad at drawing eyes lol). I am actually really happy how this turned out to be ^^. I actually liked how this piece turned out! ❤️ I just love her, and her characteristics as well in the game (and film) <3. I am still writing my fanfic, just hadn't gotten around to it.

We are supposed to have a tropical storm, so I can get this displayed before potential power outage. There… probably isn't going to be much gaming, unless I can play my 3DS and switch handheld, or write (which I can write my fanfics are awhile if the interent isn't wonky, or so, idk), or read, or draw, or whatever the hell I'm doing. I might be on hiatus again after the storm due to potential outage, so this will be the post before the storm. At least we are prepared, tornadoes are the ones I am worried about, but I'm watching. Stay safe and have a good night!

For those who don't know, any rose portrait arts are inspired by a friend of mine on Deviantart (still)! Welp, good night, and sleep well!

Tifa Lockhart and Final Fantasy VII ©Tetsuya Nomura, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yoshinori Kitase, Yusuke Naora and SQUARE ENIX

Artwork ©RosePrincessArts

No copyright infringement is intended

Used: Soho Studio pencils and colored pencils, Crayola regular and Colors of the World colored pencils, Cra-Z-Art colored pencils and blending stumps

[nitrosodiumrapidproto]

Making Enemies

I did most of this on Friday, but I'm posting it now because I couldn't send the image of my notebook to myself at college. These are eight enemy designs I have come up with.

The Hell Bat is a fairly simple creature - two wings, a tail, and a big cyclopean eye in the centre of the skull. Gameplay-wise it would be a 'horde' enemy, low health but high speed, and rushing you in packs. I was inspired by the Cacodemon from Doom, but I wanted to make it clearer that it was flying, so I added the bat inspirations.

The Scorpion is the same school of thought as the Hell Bat, but in insect form. It would fill the same gameplay position as the Bat, but just be a ground variant. It is somewhat redundant, however. I was a little inspired by the Brains from Hero Factory Brain Attack, a staple game of my childhood.

The "Orcoid", or what I would eventually just call an Orc internally, is meant to be the stock enemy type which would be encountered the most frequently. Orcs are a classically evil race in fantasy, so I figured it would make sense - but I also wanted to explore why they are evil. I also gave them a helmet resembling the Roman style, with the mohawk-like crest on top; and a javelin for a weapon to continue the theme. In fantasy settings you often get races being "coded", meaning they are based on real-world cultures, and something I don't see much of is Roman-coded orcs. Consider that the ancient Romans were expansionist, militaristic, and fairly brutal when you get down to it; all traditionally orcish qualities.

The Bone Giant is what I had planned to either be a very large enemy or the boss of the game. The reanimated skeleton of a giant, clad in the rusted remains of centuries-old armour, and holding a blade the size of a tree trunk. Lore-wise I had the idea that the Giants were employed by heaven to construct the Crucible, somewhat like the giants building Valhalla in Norse and Germanic myth. The forces of evil are then bringing their corpses back to life, to serve them. The actual design of a skeleton in rags is akin to the enemies in Sinister, which I didn't actually mean to invoke, but apparently did so anyway.

The "Glutton Orc" was another idea for a heavy yet slow enemy, but this one was decidedly less threatening. A morbidly obese creature dressed in nothing but a loincloth, brandishing a comically oversized femur bone. I was averse to this design for a few reasons, but one was that I already had an Orc enemy in the game, and I was going for variety above all else. The general shape was inspired by the boss Prince Chan from Serious Sam 2, but more orcish.

The Lizardman was going to be what I had called in my notes a "shock trooper" enemy; fast, tanky and damaging all in one. They'd show up infrequently as a sort of mini-boss, forcing the player to prioritise or die. Lore-wise I wanted them to be the captains of the evil army, commanding small squadrons of orcs. To explain their high defence and also hint to their higher rank, I gave them visibly better armour and a shield. Their look was inspired by the Lizardmen from Fear and Hunger, who can notably block attacks with their shields, and will skin you alive upon a game over.

The Rock Elemental was another tank enemy, but I also wanted this one to be a bit of a surprise for the player. Their idle sprite would be a big pile of rocks, the same as would appear inert in other parts of the map. But as soon as you got close, it would rise up as a golem and begin chasing you. My inspiration for this was a very old game called Bionicle: Quest for the Toa. As a kid, I remember going into the Onu-Koro section (caverns) and facing boulder monsters that formed out of rubble mounds.

Finally I designed Dark Dwarves. These would be identical to the dwarf sprite, but dark. The original Norse dwarves, mostly called dvergr (which interestingly also means dark elves) were black like coal, and were associated with maggots and other rotting things. In the Norse creation myth, the gods used various body parts of the titan Ymir to create Earth, and the dwarves were made from the maggots festering in his corpse. My thought is that they'd be either a rival dwarven faction, or the corrupted remains of the original craftsmen.

Because I didn't want to make loads of sprites, and also have redundant enemies in the game, I asked people what designs they thought were best, and what they thought were worst. I wanted them to form opinions very quickly, as that is how players would respond - they would swiftly end the encounter, by killing or being killed, and then they would judge on what they thought of it. Immediately people disliked the Scorpion as it was uninteresting, but very much liked the Lizardman. The other enemies were given middling opinions. Notably, the Bone Giant was derided as a generic enemy, but I think when sized up to a giant stature, it will be more unique. It's just harder to judge from a 2d image. In the end I chose five enemies: the Hell Bat as a rusher (high speed, low health, low damage), the Orc as stock (medium speed, health, damage), the Lizardman as a shock troop (high speed, medium health, high damage), the Rock Elemental as a tank (low speed, high health, high damage), and the Bone Giant as a boss (low speed, super high health, super high damage).

I did not manage to make the Lizardman or Elemental sprites on Friday, and as I do not have PhotoShop at home, I cannot make any more until Wednesday.

[mahoucored]

RWBY OC #1, Makka Shukumei of team MADR

Her name is taken from the Japanese word for bright red, ‘真っ赤’, and predestination, ‘宿命’, related to her allusion is the red string of fate.

Her weapon, ‘Foxglove’ is a pair of combat fans threaded with a red ribbon, that fold in to nunchucks, and can merge together to make a round shield (not pictured here because I still haven’t found a design i really like for it). She can adjust the length of the ribbon by pulling on the knot at the top of its base.

also included is some inspiration images,, one of my favorite things about RWBY is it’s urban fantasy setting and unique character stylization, and incorporating that into ocs is so fun, i treat my rwby ocs like little dress up dolls. For Makka, the main inspiration is designers like Vivienne Westwood, Miu Miu, Kenzo Takada,, traditional and contemporary Japanese fashion, and goth/punk fashion— see her alt outfit, directly modeled from a Wet Seal set. Red ribbon/ribbon in general is also a big motif in her clothing- in the place of buckles or zippers will be lacing instead

Despite her elegant appearance, she’s very hotheaded, blunt, and abrasive. She’s snarky and has low tolerance for bullshit. Her partner is Archan, she hates his high key guts.

[randomnameless]

Artbook stuff!

More devnotes (and my own rants lol) about some characters from Elheim : Rosalinde, Linharagos, Lydielle and the Celeste gang! (+ Amalia but I forgot her in the Drankengard/Drakenhold posts...)

Amalia first...

Sense of dominance or not, Amalia is towering the rest of the cast (at 2m30!) wielding a giant sword that is totes not inspired by a certain dark fantasy manga, and uses what is basically a door as a shield. Her strikes are wide (and wild) and she is basically introduced as what we would call a Gotoh unit in the FE fanbase in the chapter she's introduced in (basically coming handy in one of the few defence map of the game) however, unless you recruit her early by using cheese strats, by the time you can finally use her after defeating her in the arena (around early albion or late Bastorias?) she's not that impressive anymore : still a damn good unit, but not breaking the game in half

(especially since she can't access her beserk state)

Plot wise : she's a random who's looking to fight strong fighters, to actually manage to beat her and beat her berserk form (that is basically, her ancestor taking over her body to fight), she only accepts to help Gilbert'n'Alain during the Drakengard campaign for one map because Gilbert promised her that if they survive, he'll reopen the coliseum.

Alain's group can then recruit her by defeating her, and her berserk form, in the coliseum!

Design wise, the armored briefs is, imo, completely ridiculous especially given the otherwise okay-ish designs from Drakengard, but fwiw, I like her knees armor, even if I don't know what they're supposed to represent lol

On to Elheim!

I know, I added the image where she's damaged because we can't talk about Elheim and Rosalinde without sighing about, well, the sexualised designs and the overabundance of camel toes.

I know VW is known for its fanservice designs, but damn if Elheim was hit/designed with a "gotta make them sexy" hammer.

Rosalinde then - "deep brown skin" is used for dark elves in this game, it's nice to have some variation, especially when the "really tanned" persons living in the desert from the earlier setting were only... male.

Gameplay wise, Rosalinde might be one of the best units, an offensive nuke who can cheese the penultimate boss' gimmick even if she has paper thin defenses, imo she's basically a glass canon. I also really like her attacking animations with the lance (her weapon, even if she's a mage!), they're really fluid so while I know it's not really about "gameplay" it totes counts as to why I like to field her lol

Plot wise... Well, it's Elheim, and on paper, Rosalinde isn't that egregious, she's basically asking Alain (or more precisely Yahna) for help to save her country and her sister, who were both taken over by Zenoira - Rosalinde's seiyuu has a certain voice range (?) which really plays well in depicting her being worried and super pissed at Zenoira invading Elheim and brining harm to her people and beloved younger sister, but also manages to play her character being relieved when she realises her friend/retained who sacrificed herself to buy her time didn't die (and is ultimately saved by the party) while maintaining some sort of coldness/aloofness with the party, at least until her sister is safe because she doesn't trust humans (after all, they are the ones who invaded!) - after her sister is rescued though and her rapport convos are unlocked, we learn that she is a pretty playful person, who loves to tease people around, takes her duty seriously and wishes the best for her sister/wants to protect her, feeling like she let her down when she faced the Zenoiran forces alone.

That being said... Rosalinde is shoved in the "potential love interest who has a hands on approach" box and while it's only at the end of Elheim arc, the "love interest" angle really soured me a bit on the character, especially since, unlike Berengaria, Rosalinde can ditch her sister to marry Alain and become queen of Cornia, even when part of her arc has been trying to find allies to rescue her dearest younger twin and save her country :/

So plot wise I'm a bit meh about her, but gameplay wise? She's a beast!

Linaragos is our male elven archer!

"Sexy feel" of the design or not, at least on Pixiv, some artists are having a lot of fun about his lack of, uh, pants (and undies?).

While he looks serious, Linaragos can be playful and even entertains goofballs like Mordon, even if he plays the "only sane man" in their rapport convo when Eltrinde - basically the leader of the elves and a traditional "priestress" - ends up drunk by smelling his glass of wine.

Intimacy dialogue wise, in the loc version, Linaragos basically agrees to become Alain's object of desire so, uh, sure it's not as explicit as Alain and Berengaria kissing on screen, but there's that.

Gameplay wise, Elven Archers are basically support units - their conferal (adding magic damage to an ally's attack!) can be pretty busted, later on they can freeze foes with their arrows, and when they're healed, they heal the entire unit - but they need a bit of work to really shine, granted, given all the possibilities they open, I'm not surprised the game gives us three named characters in this class!

Plot wise, Linaragos leads a small army of elves trying to resist/fight back against Zenoira, but they're severely outnumbered - which echoes one of Alain's rapport conversations with, iirc, Hodrick, where they basically point out that Elheim's demography is quite poor compared to Cornia, which might be explained by the elves having a longer lifespan! - our army helps him, he recognises Rosalinde and agrees to help us free Elheim and save Eltrinde!

Lydielle (Ridiel?) is a half-elf who has the same "elven archer" class as Linaragos and Galadmir, but I liked how the devs apparently picked her haircut and hair color to give a contrast with the "pure-blooded" elves, and also her "cheeky and rebellious" phase, fitting since she's apparently 16 lol

Maybe her wearing red and orange also serves as a contrast with the other elven archers wearing primary green clothes?

I wonder what was the plot mentionned where she would have been one of Morard's agents - we know elves think bestrals (beastmean) are "unclean" which might echo the discrimination she faces by being a half elf?

Speaking of which, I really liked how her subplot - being discriminated against for being a half elf - while apparently being baseless since the playable elves never give her flack for not being a fully blooded elf, is actually illustrated by the NPCs! They are the ones who, for some, look down or straight up resent humans, consider bestrals "unclean" and, in her paralogue, rant about her not being an elf.

It's not given more attention because that's not what the Elheim arc is about, and Lydielle doesn't even have a convo with either Rosalinde or Eltrinde, but it plays with the general theme of "get rid of the common enemy and then rebuild the world to make it better than it used to be". I also love her recruitment conversations with Chloe - they become friends sure, but Chloe manages to convincer her that even if she might die and think her fight would have ultimately have been pointless against the Zenoiran invasion, her actions could still inspire people to take up weapons and even if she cannot be a knight of Elheim due to her half-elf status, she can still help people around.

Too bad she doesnt' have a lot of rapport convos, but fwiw, I like Lydielle.

Celeste is, much like Lydielle, someone who cannot become a knight of Elheim because she's not an elf.

Nonetheless, having been saved/raised by elves, she wants to help them and forms a militia, even as a mere human. Bar being the pure, innocent, naive etc etc human raised/saved/who lived with elves, what's most interesting about Celeste is that 1/she's another griffon knight and those units are busted 2/she actually manages to hire/join forces with former bandits we met, and who have a change of heart and accept to work under her orders.

Bar that, I don't have a lot to say about Celeste :(

Gammel!

Bandit 1, who was introduced in early Cornia, terrorising a village and slaughtering people - Alain'n'co defeated him and he begged for his life, saying that he had to resort to a life of banditry to pay for his sister's medical expenses, or some shady shit like that.

Alain can chose to put him in jail, or to let him go (and return to his sister) - the decision to let him go can be very controversial in fandom spaces, but plot-wise, it could be justified by Josef basically telling Alain that after Zenoira's invasion and ten years of them being in charge in Cornia, people are surviving and some might have turned to banditry because it was the only way to survive in this new world...

Alain's basically encouraged not to execute people, and it works with Gammel because, somehow, meeting a moron lord who doesn't execute him for doing bandit/thief things made him reconsider his life - Celeste apparently saved him and his sister and now he is part of her militia to protect, at least in the map when we recruit them all, elves from former members of his gang who want to sell some to make money. Emulating the moron lord who gave him a chance to start a new life, he doesn't kill his former allies, and instead hopes that they will turn over a new leaf, like he did.

So even if he looks like a traditionnal FE Bandit, Gammel really has a sister - and her existence is referenced in several of his supports, and even here, in the dev notes lol, good for him!

And I like how he continues, in the epilogue, to work with Celeste and Mandrin - judging by the notes, the trio "Celeste Mandrin and Gammel" was designed as some "do not separate" lol, if that "fantasy" (a headcanon?) of them hanging out with Gammel's sister is any indication!

Unit wise, he's a thief/rogue like Travis, aka supposed to be dodge tanks and quite fast, but... yeah :/

and Mandrin!

Gammel's childhood friend, who's also a bandit who attacked Sharon's church (earning Ochlys' eternal ire) and who also can turn over a new leaf if Alain spares him.

He joins in the same map as Gammel and Celeste and also became part of Celeste's group, and the epilogue reveals that he and Gammel's sister are getting along together, much to his chagrin.

Also I like his design even if I can't see the "scorpion" thing the devs mentionned :(

FWIW, I liked how he accepts that Ochlys hates him for trying to sack and pillage the church of Rondmort, even if personality wise, we're still on the "bandit with a heart of gold" thing.

I don't have a lot to say about those two, but Mandrin's class - Hunter - is cool and surpisingly useful - one of the few AOE attacks!

[ryuuka-balaen]

laying in bed bored brain has started rotating and prodding at a years old concept for a skirmish-scale miniature wargame I've been mentally moulding and never writing down which has been dubbed Delve.

bit o late night catbabbling ahead on that.

the concept of delve is something of a cross between an RPG and a wargame, inspired by an offhand comment someone made once that the two are different branches of the same family tree. played by 2-6 people each controlling 2-8 adventuring characters, those adventuring characters would each be built in the same way as an RPG character with the player choosing race, class, armour, and weapons for them to form their Adventuring Party, then throw them into a dungeon against the other players' parties of characters to compete over a goal such as classic deathmatch, capture the hill, escape with the loot, escape the city guard/jail, etc.

while the initial idea was to choose characters' races and classes to determine their traits and abilities, over the years I've become more and more fond of the idea of ttrpg systems which don't lock abilities by race of class and I think if I were ever to design a game properly and put it to paper I'd like it to reflect that, as such all character abilities and traits would be selected from a list of available bits and concepts like race or class would just be flavouring.

For traits and abilities, I'd figured that each character should have one that can be used once per game, once that can be used once per round, and two that are passive.

the general idea was that a character's weapon would have two stats for attack; speed and damage, and armour would have corresponding stats for defense; reflex/mobility and toughness. when making an attack you would roll your weapon speed against the enemy's reflexes, and the enemy would roll their armour's toughness against your weapon's damage. Ranged weaponry would have generally much higher damage stats and melee weapons would have much higher speed stats such that a light armoured character is tough to hit with a ranged weapon but easy to squish in melee, and vice versa

-this *is* mostly ignoring how combat and armour actually works, as arrows are not generally dodgeable in any universe and melee weapons are always just FAST regardless of size, but for the sake of Fantasy Pop Culture and Game Stats that's just how it's gotta be sometimes.-

Armour would have four weights; cloth, light, medium, heavy, and similarly weapons would be either melee or ranged as well as a weight category; light, medium, heavy, and superheavy.

Shields would be an additional armour option, coming in Small, Medium, and Large sizes, with each restricting the maximum weight of weapon the character can carry, and being not an option at all in combination with a Superheavy weight weapon.

Magic and spells would be selected as Trait/Ability options, some of which requiring the character wield a spellcasting catalyst which would prevent them from also holding a weapon of the Heavy or Superheavy categories.

Each weapon and activated Trait/Ability would have an Action Cost associated with it; characters would each have 3 Actions to use per turn, or 4 if they forgo half their movement, as well as being able to move an additional half their movement (running) for 2 Actions. Light weapons would cost 1 Action, allowing a character to use one after running, and Superheavy weapons would cost 4 to use, requiring that the character move half their movement in order to attack with it. Medium and Heavy weight weapons, accordingly, would incur costs of 2 or 3 Actions.

finally, just so that everyone's not all running just the same optimized character builds, each player would choose two Faction Abilities to use each game, one active and one passive, again from a list. Additionally, I would want to include a list of pre-generated factions, the Faction Abilities each would use, and four examples of pre-built common adventurer goons you might find in each.

most of that feels like utter jabbering nonsense to type out. questions and comments encrouraged. probably never going to actually write up stats to make the gamethoughts a reality so if anyone feels ~Inspired~ reading this and is good with numbers, be my guest. gobble up and re-use these weirdass concepts my dummy catbrain has sat on like a chicken egg for six years.

[hollowwhisperings]

Thank you for such an in depth response, I feel honored by it and that I was able to inspire you about the concepts and I agree. I had similar thoughts about the theming of Sora’s name and him being the void of space. Even had musings of how in primordial myths the heavens (sky) and the earth are considered the couple that brings about the first forms existence. Gaia and Ouranos and on the Egyptian mythos there was a love story of Geb (earth) and Nut (sky) although interesting enough geb and nut are kept separated by Ra (the sun).

But regardless, I’d say nomura is quite interesting and impressive to consistently yet subtly equate riku to that of deity so easily. Yes, I believe in riku being a dia in some sort. Probably kingdom hearts sending out an avatar to grow, or the king to kh reincarnated, or some other thing I can’t quite grasp right now but overall with the ending of the series hopefully not too much farther in our lifespan. This is why I enjoy reading and interacting with metas and theories especially about sora and riku and soriku because I said in a comment in a YouTube video that discussed the sleeping real theory and I said it feels like we have the right answers but just not forced into the right shape (a key perhaps 🫣) to unlock the final gate.

Riku has always had all those "subtle" visual shorthands used to denote super special celestia mystery powers (etc) but, like the Subtly OP antics of the Disneytowners (e.g. Donald casually casting the Boss-level spell 'Flare', Goofy tanking hits from Literal Deities with 1 shield & no apparent magic of his own), Riku looking "anime" gets brushed off as "standard JRPG aesthetic".

Naturally silver-haired youths in anime tend to be Plot-Relevant, typically having ☆Super Special Bloodlines☆, typically being Secret Royalty &/or related to Angels or Spirits.

(and it WAS suspiciously easy for Riku to just... BECOME Sora's Dream Eater, especially given what we know of the Chirithy spirits, their abilities to act as psychopomps, & whatever the Dream Eater crafting system in DDD may imply about Dream Eaters as a whole)

From what I can recall, the only naturally silver-haired characters original to KH are:

Riku

Ephemer

Xehanort (confirmed descendant of Ephemer)

Xemnas (Terranort)

Ienzo (taken in by the Always Sus Ansem the Wise, origins unknown)

From the Final Fantasy side of the crossovers, we have Setzer (who only appears in the DATA Daybreak Town, not the "real" one) and... Sephiroth.

For being such an "anime" JRPG, Kingdom Hearts is pretty sparing in its use of Anime Hair Colours. Aqua & Isa's blue hair aside, the colour palette is fairly "natural": pale blonds & yellows, oranges & pinks amongst the reds, browns & blacks. There aren't many characters old enough to have "grey" hair but the ones that do are ALSO fairly mysterious: Merlin, Fairy Godmother, Master Yen Sid, Zeus... Kairi's Mysteriously Knowledgable Grandmother (who i am, like, 75% convinced was a retired Princess of Heart). Even the "silver/white" House of Duck are all Very Suspicious: Donald is, canonically, the most powerful Black Mage of the FF franchise; Scrooge & Donald's Nephews casually worldhop for fun & profit as if they were Moogles or something.

So, yeah, even Riku's "anime boy" aesthetic is itself pretty Telling of Riku being Plot-Relevant. He's canonically part-spirit, after DDD, but his ability to do that at all IS unprecedented (just like his ability to Balance Light & Darkness within himself, like his Light being equated with the Sun, like his easy grasp on using Darkness...). Whatever the KH-universe equivalent of an "angel" may be, Ephemer & Riku seem closest to it. That Riku met JOSHUA (himself a kind of Gay Angel) in DDD does not seem at all a coincidence.

oh! there's also that whole [terra] sigil thing! Riku's costume/keyblade designs imcorporate it (i forget how) & THAT sigil is probably the in-universe namesake for Terra, the character. Rather than [earth] or [land], the [terra] sigil seems older & is likely referencing an "[original/first] earth" or mean "[land of origin]".

It makes me wonder whether Riku's parent/s were themselves Aware of Other Worlds? If he's a relative of Xehanort, it's plausible that Xehanort's Skuld-resembling mother learned about Xehanort's ending up at the Destiny Islands & their family possibly moving to the World in hopes of a reunion. Which... would mean they weren't just AWARE of Other Worlds but ALSO capable of traveling between them. This is probably going to Come Up in Missing Link.

[vinniehorrible]

I have a new sona OC!

I know I technically posted this guy here before, but I kept making changes and adding stuff, so I just thought I'd better post it here properly, rather than just keeping a 2am post around.

I really hope the text can be read, or at least zoomed in to.

What can I say? I love dragons, and have had them as a part of my online persona for ages, but things change, and one night, I just had a revelation. What if I just made my sona a dragon or at least a dragonborn-like creature? And well, here we are.

The guy is inspired by all sorts of IRL stuff. He's clumsy and injury-prone like me, a healer/wizard, which are classes I most often play in RPGs, and he's green, which is my favourite colour (If that wasn't obvious ^^; ). He also has a lot of clothes inspired by what I wear, just turned more fantasy-esque.

There is SO much lore and magic stuff around him. I mean, duh, he's a wizard. It's quite funny though, because most of this lore was added by my friends throughout the many years that we've known each other. Guess that explains why it's such a massive wall of text.

I also added shield magic, since protection and healing go kinda hand in hand.

And to make him seem a lot less like a Mary Sue type of character, I gave him some weaknesses as well. Most inspired by real stuff as well. Flashing colours can get him easily distracted, as do things like nasty smells and loud noises or music. These things overwhelm me a lot too and just take my attention away. That's why I don't go to bars.

He can also get easily tired, which we also share. I have a terrible stamina.

And then some magical weaknesses as well, to not make him sound like a perfect healer.

Overall, for a character born out of a 2am thought and ideas, he doesn't look half bad. I kinda like how the design turned out. Hopefully so do you.

Thank you so much if you've read it this far. <3 Hope you'll have a lovely day. ;)

(And if anyone would have asks about this or any of my characters, you'd have my massive gratitude 💚 )

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Peter Paul Rubens, Dance of Mythological Figures and Villagers (Antwerp, 1630–35.)

A group of figures dance to the tune of a flute played by a man perched on an oak tree, and to the bells that some dancers have attached to their lower legs. The scene evokes the dances that are part of Ancient Greek history and myths and the tradition that followed—the book Hypnerotomachia Poliphili includes a description and a woodcut of a similar dance. The painting also evokes the arcadian settings of pastoral lyric and drama inspired by Theocritus’s Idylls. In that tradition, and in Rubens’s interpretation of it in numerous paintings, the countryside is considered as an ideal place of plenitude, romance, and sexual fantasy for men. The setting is enlivened by the handling of brown, green, and blue paint. The texture builds on the panel support defining the folds of draperies, head buns and ornaments, and the areas where the light hits the trees. In the middle distance is a farm building with a Palladian motif of arch and lintel—if we were to take this literally, we would place the scene in the Veneto. Rubens favoured this style of sixteenth-century Italian architecture, as witnessed by his designs for his own palatial house and garden in Antwerp.

The dancing figures move their limbs and contort their bodies, an expression of the passionate feelings involved in dancing as it is described in Greek literature. Two dogs positioned as mirror images of each other emphasise the circular movement, and the flowing draperies also contribute to the sense of motion. Many of the figures seem concentrated on the mechanics of the complicated dance, as they try not to lose the hands of the others. In the centre foreground, one of the women appears to be upset by the proximity between a woman with a bare breast and a large bearded man with an ivy wreath; his lascivious attitude is intimidating. To the right another couple come close to kissing. Dionysius, ressed in his tiger skin and crowned with a wreath of leaves, looks back apparently pleased by what he sees.

Only the young Dionysius is clad in attributes that allow us to identify him; the exotic tiger skin alludes to his exploits in the Orient. The epic poem Dionysiaca by Nonnos is full of references to such animals. It also mentions a dance that was part of a celebration of Dionysius’s conquest of India: "The foot-soldiers of Bromios danced round with their oxhides and mimicked the pattern of the shieldbearing Corybants, wildly circling in the quick dance under arms". This is not to imply that Rubens is depicting that specific dance, but a reminder of the very frequent descriptions of such activity in Ancient Greek texts, including whirlwind-like ones similar to the one Rubens painted. The most famous is perhaps one of the scenes that Hephaestus designed on the shield he made for Achilles, as described by Homer in the Iliad: "And young men were whirling in the dance, and with them flutes and lyres sounded continually". Other than Dionysius, the identity of the figures in this painting is ambiguous. I see them as timeless, generic characters inspired by ancient texts.

The flute player takes on the role of Pan, the sex driven, pipe playing shepherd god, but he has no animal features. The other dancers bring to my mind the satyrs, frequent companions of Dionysius (but none bear their animal features). Silenus usually formed part of Dionysius’s train as well; perhaps he inspired the large bearded man between the two women in blue in the foreground.

Some women wear high end outfit and sandals, others are barefoot and seem more peasant like. In fact, none of the figures in the scene dress the way high class or countrywomen did during Rubens’s time (as they are shown in his own paintings and in those by Jan Brueghel, David Teniers, or other roughly contemporary Flemish artists). Necks, breasts, and shoulders are more exposed here than they would have been in contemporary society and their uncovered hair and bare feet are also evocative of a different time and place. What the women dancers resemble is a host of timeless allegorical and mythological female figures painted by Rubens throughout his life. They also remind me of some of the bacchantes and nymphs that Titian painted in his Bachanals, following descriptions by Philostratus the Elder—dancing was a favourite activity of both types of creatures, which had the form of beautiful women.

Text translated from Alejandro Vergara, 'Comentario' in: Pasiones mitológicas, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2021, p.110-113 nº10

[estercity]

okay sea of stars demo first impression if anyone care

i like it but idk if i like it enough to give it a go, since i'm already not a turn-based rpg fan.

beautiful sprites and background work, i love the personality the devs put into the animations and designs. i'm a little wary of the third party member being centred around food because he's bigger and the like... aloof moon woman vs the protag sun man but also its a classic rpg inspired game. idk what i expected. if the characters get more personality in the full game that's another story but the peak into them didn't do anything for me.

the colours and enviromental lighting look really good with the setting and i liked the resource collection + resting mechanic. i struggled to move around a bit because its not fully clear what can be climbed and what can't, and the foreground vs background confused me slightly but i'm sure i'd get used to it. i really hope the full game has some kind of quest log or s/t though

i can see what they're doing with the combat and i think it mostly works, by the time i finished the demo i had most of the timings down to hit my attacks and i appriciate the optional things like the auto-heal and visual ques for timing. i didnt love the like... randomised shield mechanic and by the end i was just spamming basic attacks until the boss died. other than that it's just... turn-based combat. it's simple or it's bad, and this is simple with a timed element. it also has what is i think my favourite finish minigame of any game i've played in a long time, which is saying something i think lol.

overall i really liked the snippet i got but as a demo... idk. the time jump out of the first area and the the npcs appearing and disappearing from the party threw me off, but i know the devs wanted to showcase snippets of the game rather than one straight section but that in itself makes me squint a bit because it's like... well does a straight shot through not hold up? but maybe im just nitpicking

i'm going to look at more reviews and maybe get it based on those. the thing is most people i've seen talk about it are being helped by their nostalgia for shit like chrono trigger and classic final fantasy... i haven't played those! so maybe that'll be my deciding factor