#BTW the colors always are different on every screen so if they look too saturated DONT COME AT ME its the only way they dont look grey to m

[kairennart]

And the first time that you kissed me I drank dry the river Lethe The Liffey would have been softer on my stomach all the same But you spoke some quick new music That went so far to soothe this soul As it was And ever shall be Unearth without a name

Hozier, First Time

[macaronnya]

So I just saw the announcement about the EN server shutting down or at least dicontinued (hopefully just for now) and I might just burst into tears 🥲 I want to put my thoughts or rather feelings of the journy up until now on here to come down but maybe also as some form of comfort for anyone who needs it? It's very long and might have some broken english as it's not my first language so do keep it in mind please 😅

Anyways, I started A3! last year on march 7th because I saw a youtube video of people cosplaying Sakuya and Sakyo. At taht point, I already knew of A3! somewhere in my distant memories back when it was JP only. I decided to try out the game since I was getting bored of my current mobile games and the few reviews I could find of it were relatively positive. I had no idea just what a big part of my life this game was about the become 🤧

Btw I'm listening to some A3! songs right now, specifically Sakuya's 2nd character song, and it's not helping me 😢 So at the time, lockdown just started 2 days ago, which left me with a lot of time playing it and, I kid you not, I gulfed the main story down like it was the last slice of cake at home. I have 2 siblings. I think I finished it in a week or so despite it being only unlockable through leveling up, and if my memory serves me right, you need to be around lvl 75 to unlock all 4 episodes. As one can see, I was VERY invested in the story. It was just so....nice? I don't know how to exactly describe it but I was surprised by how likable everyone was. Of course I didn't hold such strong feelings for everyone back then as I do now but I was intrigued enough back then of nearly everyone, which is kind of rather rare in such types of games, no? At least for me it is, although I haven't played terribly a lot (Love Live, MLQC, Mystic Messenger).

I really like how the story actually continues through the events and how it alternated between stories exploring certain characters more (show events) and stories focusing on just them having fun. Getting to know everyone bit by bit and seeing how everyone grows closer to each other, not only within their respective troupes but the whole theater, makes me really all warm and fuzzy and it's found family, what more could you want?

Also, I really like Izumi, our dear MC 🥰 Even though she's supposed to be our self-insert, I found myself really enjoying reading her thoughts, observing her reactions to other characters' shenanigans (like her 'I do not see' to the members plan of faking their identity to bail Citron out lol) and just....her personality. Trying not to digress here but she has a lot more personality than other MCs in these joseimuke games and it makes her interactions with others not only bearable but even enjoyable. I'm not saying that this is what a perfect MC looks like or that she's superior to bland self-inserts. After all, it depends on the story, gameplay and other things. It's just a nice bonus I'm very grateful for. I mean, I got really emotional when Izumi performed with the other staff members all of the plays the actors have put out so far for the first anniversary. Her realizing she gained a new dream for her lost one just really took my heart, broke it in thousand pieces and then mended it again.

I also love A3! songs ❤ I did wonder how they would work in this franchise since it's not about idols but actors, though I guess there was nothing to worry about. I really like the duets because it's always a different duo and hearing them singing together, harmonizing with each other, complimenting each other, just fills me with undescribable joy. Of course the songs also slap pretty much every time. Even by limiting my options to 1 troupe, I still wouldn't be able to pick only one favourite (I like the majority of Winter's song tho, like Shoutai is just 🤌 and my sibling blasted Unmasked non-stop so I can't get it outta my head anymore). Gosh, I was so excited for 'Double Solitaire' since it would complete trilogy of the Hyodosakas singing together. I was really looking forward to getting all the songs and I was even saving up for Summer Troupe's 6th play.

If I had to describe the game A3! in one word, it'd be "charming". Coming to game itself, there are so many little quirks, that on their own aren't anything groundbreaking or big but together give the game its own flair. Live 2D is pretty common to see nowdays in games because it brings the characters to life through movements like 3D models. But I think A3! is able to illustrate it just as well, if not even better with their 2D sprites. Citron moonwalked by flipping the image over and sliding across the screen, Hisoka appeared out of nowhere by coming from above the screen, they do a little jump when they're happy, they go down a bit when they're sad. And that's just things with their whole sprite. The little drops when Tsuzuru finds himself in an awkward situation or is worried, the little note when Sakuya is happy, the hearts when Kazunari is lowkey flirting with Izumi, it's so cute! Or Omi's O.O face, Taichi's crying face (the usual one, not his face when he cried out of guilt of betraying Mankai), Yuki's done expression, H O M A R E AHA! They each have at least one personalized expression and also quote. Can you hear Kazunari's Yoropiko~☆, Citron's humming, Taichi's loud ass whining and scream of terror, Tsumugi's awkawrd laugh? It's brimming with life.

But also the UI (?how it looks) is joyful. The main screen's background cascading shapes changes depending from which Troupe your current character is from, the loading screen has sakura petals and a bird, the colors are very bright and saturated fitting to the overall color palette of the whole game, the little notebook during practice showing all the necessary infomation and a little sketch by the characters. It's just really charming.

As frustrating as it was, not getting halloween Tsuzuru after 110 pulls or Valentine Omi after 120, it was my first time ever understanding why gachas are called hellholes. Through my strong connections to the characters, their cards automatically appealed to me more. But the art is also so good???? Azuma is always looking flawless obviously but Omi's unbloomed Wolf card, where he is standing in the sunset looking at his camera or Kazunari's Shinobi card, unbloomed all concentrated on his panting and bloomed all shiny smiling like the fireworks in the background? Breathtaking everytime. I also appreciate it not needing multiple copies to unlock the whole backstage story.

I think I'm slowly running out of things to say, which might be good for whoever managed to come this far. I have to say though, A3! helped me through the pandemic. Being a perfect distraction to the world's chaos and more importantly my crushing schoolwork and worries for personal future. I'm a very pessimistic person but seeing the characters overcoming their hardships through the help of their to-be "family" and just being happy doing trouble, gave me a little hope and light for a bit every day. I came to cherish everyone, even those I like the least. I haven't felt like this since Mystic Messenger, which was also a game, that helped me through a difficult time. I can only wish to a shooting star, that it's not the end for the EN Server yet. While yes, the JP server is thriving and I could just switch to reading fantranslation, through my experience, my enjoyment considerably sinks playing like that and I wish to fully enjoy A3!.

Anyways thanks for reading (maybe again). Sorry for all the possible errors on the way here. I'm writing everything directly without too much thought. If you want, you can also share your experiences in the comments. It's always nice to share good memories with others.

Edit: I accidentally posted it already but I wasn't actually done 😓 When I said I had a lot to let out, I meant A LOT

[literaphobe]

the whole shebang of gifs, if you don't mind :)

would like to start of by saying. that i am by no means an expert. and that easily someone could come on this post and tell me i am doing something wrong/stupid/pointless. but y’all wanted this. so let’s go. here’s how i gif (using she-ra as an example, so u can say this is a bit of a tutorial on how to gif an animated show? lmao)

first off ur gonna need adobe photoshop. if u don’t have it and don’t plan on getting a version of it then idk how to help u. u will have to find some other tutorial. anyway let’s start w the basics. to make a gif, you either need pictures or a video. we are doing a video —> gif tutorial here. so for me, i use quicktime player to take a screen recording. i tend to edit the clip to get almost exactly only the part i need on imovie so i don’t have to further crop the video clip on photoshop. once you’ve got ur video, go to photoshop, click file —> import —> video frames to layers. then click the video u want to gif, then open. something will pop up. click the box that says limit to every 2 frames, then select OK. ur gif frames will be created. then u gotta do 3 things:

group your frames. do this by selecting all frames (command + option + a) and grouping them (command + g) u should get a folder that says group 1

crop and resize your gif. now this depends on what kind of gif you want to make. you should adjust your crop ratios. click on the crop tool, a ratio thing will pop up with two numbers. number on the left is your length, number on the right is your breadth. for big gifs, i do 540 x 268. for square gifs, 268 x 268. for rectangular gifs that are meant to be two by two (lets say ur making 8 gifs w like text of a scene or whatever) i do 266 x 177. so once u have set ur ratios and adjusted the crop thing to select whichever part of the image u want in the gif, click enter. ur gif will get cropped. THEN, u need to actually adjust the size of ur gif. click on image —> image size. a thing will open up. enter the length number and the width number should be adjusted accordingly

change the gif speed. click on the triple line thing on the top right hand corner of your timeline. you should click on select all frames. when you’ve done that all the frames will be highlighted. click on one of the little numbers. see the 0.02 thing? yea. make sure not to accidentally deselect ur frames. when u click, you’ll get a pop up with some speeds. click on ‘others’. currently, the speed of ur gif will be 0.02. for me, that’s too fast. i almost always do 0.06. u don’t want ur gif to move too fast tbh. i think it makes it look weird and unnatural. we wanna either match the speed of what its like in the show or go a TAD bit slower. so like. if u wanna follow me just set it to 0.06 <3

anyway. that’s the basic stuff. after all that, your gif should look like this:

u can stop here if you want, but if u wanna make it like. different. u can continue on. 

now it’s time to color!

for me i do mostly 3 things. curves, levels, selective color. u can find these by clicking layer —> new adjustment layer —> the thing u want

let’s start with curves. disclaimer: i’m doing it wrong <3 i mean it’s not WRONG but i could probably be using this function a lot better than i have. when u click on curves, it comes out as a straight line. there will be a dot in the centre. what i do is i move the centre dot slightly to the top left hand corner. so it looks like this for this gif i made:

isn’t that so fucking stupid. i let a BIT of light into the picture. like that’s it lmao. i won’t even show u the difference between the initial gif and this. it’s too stupid

levels. ok this one has a bit more function. u have a number on the left that says 0 and a number on the right that says 250. by reducing the number on the right, the gif gets brighter. by increasing the number on the left..... i won’t say the gif gets darker but the dark parts of the picture will. get darker? more pronounced? it’s all about finding a good balance. here’s what I did for this gif:

now we move onto selective color. this is a… whole thing. sigh. ok. so in selective coloring, you have 9 ‘colors’ or sections. they are red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, magenta, white, neutrals, and black. depending on what colors there are in the picture, we will. mess w it accordingly. and in each ‘color’, there are four…. scales. ranging from -100% to 100%. and they are cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. i suggest u play around with these to see what they do on ur own. this is what i did for the reds in this gif:

what i do is i try to make the reds stand out. in this gif there’s only those 2 stripes but usually in adora gifs she’s wearing that fucking red jacket <3 and since she’s gonna do that we might as well make that red pop! make it sexy! so as u can see i made the cyans negative, while magenta and yellow are in the positives. i’m taking away the blues in the red essentially. and making the red have a more… yellowish hue? because the bluish hues for red are. ugly. in my opinion. all these things depend on the gif btw. seriously this is just an example. i might do something completely different for another gif. 

for yellows this is what i did:

as u can see i… made the yellows negative for the color yellow. i made the cyans negative too to like. take away the blue? but i made the yellows negative because i don’t want the yellows to be…. too yellow. i know this doesn’t make much sense. but when i make the yellows positive for the red section, the yellows in the yellow parts of the gif might get Too Much. so i gotta undo the Damage caused in the red section. i could do like a video tutorial to make this more clear but since this is not a video tutorial u will just have to take my word for it. basically when u color what ur trying to do is copy the colors in the source material but also… make it different. it makes no sense I know <3

anyway! adora’s wearing white in this gif. so i changed the whites too. it looks like this:

i essentially tried to make the whites…. Whiter? lmaooooo

and now i will show u my shameful cyan and blue sections. here is the cyan section. i don’t have to show u the blue section because i did the exact same thing:

yes i went 100% on the cyan and -100% on the yellow okay. what about it. what. fucking shut up. i also did something similar in the magenta section. wanted to make the purples blue... i guess

also as u can see from above the original color of the background is purple. i’m that fucking extra so for this gif i did an ‘extra step’. i added a hues and saturation layer. and I basically adjusted the hues so the purples became blue

see? also yeah the hue and saturation section is also separated into different colors. i adjusted only the blue section this time. after ur done, ur gif should look... hopefully nice <3 but i always sharpen my gifs. so i will show u how to do that, also

going back to the triple line button in ur timeline, click select all frames —> convert to video timeline. then go to the top of the page where there’s this thing called filter. click filter —> convert for smart filters. click it again. filter —> sharpen —> smart sharpen. this will pop up:

follow these settings. then click ok. u are done. u can save ur gif now. but if u are paranoid like me, u will click on the spacebar and play ur sharpened gif to make sure it looks ok. the first time u play it it will be very slow. wait. then click ur spacebar again n it will load faster aka the speed it is supposed to be. and there u have it. to save ur gif go to file —> export —> save for web. u will see how big ur gif is. hopefully its not too big. if ur gif has more than 100 frames that would not be great. if it has something like 200 frames or something that’s way too big probably <3 i try not to have more than 100 frames for this reason. gotta be safe <3 ur gif will look something like this if u do what i did:

idk how well i explained this. probably not super well. oh well. hit me up if u need a video tutorial

[dsrajawat]

Oppo F15 brandishes the conventional checklist parameters like the 48MP AI Quad Camera, VOOC Flash Charge 3.0, and an in-display fingerprint scanner. And once again OPPO reiterates style as its pitch with a “Flaunt It Your Way” tagline. However since its 2020 and the market is highly competitive where every other phone looks up to snuff, we all crave a consummate proposition. After all, if you spend money, you want the money’s worth, right?

Over the course of using the Oppo F15 as my daily driver, I have raked in some thoughts which will address this concern. So, without slacking any time, let’s get to the Oppo F15 review. By the end, you’ll hopefully know whether it packs the required punch for the price you pay.

Oppo F15 Box Contents

Inside the box, you get –

1 handset

1 charger

1 earphone

1 USB data cable

1 SIM ejector tool

1 Quick Guide

1 Safety Guide

1 Protective Case

Oppo F15 Price and Specifications

Model OPPO F15 Display 16.2cm, 2400 x 1080, 20:9, FHD+ AMOLED screen, Gorilla Glass 5 Color Lightning Black, Unicorn White Dimensions and weight 160.2mm × 73.3mm × 7.9mm172 grams Quad-Camera 48MP Quadcam: 48MP (F1.7) Main, 8MP (F2.25) 119° Ultra Wide Angle, 2MP Macro Lens, 2MP Portrait Lens Front camera 16MP, f/2.0 Core hardware RAM: 8GBROM: 128GB

3-Card Slot can support up to 512GB

Processor and OS MediaTek Helio P70 SoC with Color OS 6.1.2 OS Battery and Charging 4000mAh; 20W VOOC 3.0 Flash Charge Others In-Display Fingerprint 3.0, magnetic sensor, light sensor, distance sensor, gravity, Accelerometer, TYPE-C, USB 2.0 Price Rs. 19,990

Oppo F15 Review: Build, Design and Display

The phone comes in 2 color choices viz. Lightening Black and Unicorn White. Ours was the latter one. It looks like a block of flavored ice or marble, which elicits attention.

Due to its polycarbonate build and slim profile, it’s quite wieldy. The buttons on either side are easily reachable and they offer a good response. And it’s always pleasant to see a USB Type-C socket and a 3.5mm audio jack.

The facade is as familiar as one could get with a teeny waterdrop notch and mild margins engulfing the display. That said, I felt Oppo could’ve trimmed a little black off the chin. But overall, cheers to the design dynamics.

Coming to the display, the 6.4-inch AMOLED panel is impressive, be it in terms of color attributes, viewing angles, so on and so forth. Both in and outdoors, I enjoyed reading on this screen. A fingerprint reader sits beneath the screen which works quite well. Lastly, the phone’s DRM L1 certified which means you can immerse yourself into an ocean of high-res OTT content.

Oppo F15 Review: Performance

For some weird reason, F15 bears an antique MediaTek chip. Gee Oppo, using a chip of yore is a bore. Especially, when you can get another P70 phone for half the price or even less.

The oldie runs as you would expect, bolstered by 8GB of RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.1 storage. The experience is, even more, marred by the ColorOS. It’s still Android 9 and TBH, Oppo’s skin job on Google’s vision for Android is definitely not my taste. Can’t cut slack to late Android updates, the convoluted mess of the settings menu, and over 20 junk apps. Seriously, you would find three browsers and similar bloat, which begs the question – Why? Overall, it’s jarring, outdated and outmoded. If you’re wondering the whereabouts of ColorOS 7, sadly F15 has got no mention in the announced timeline.

Having let off so much steam, it’s time for the good things now. Yea, even with all the gripes, the Oppo F15 handled the day-to-day activities like Instagramming, Spotifying, Netflixing, and Googling with no fuzz. As for the gamers out there, this ain’t a heavy-lifter. You need not raise your hopes up. But, its Okie dokie for casual gameplay. In my sessions, PUBG and Asphalt 9 ran fine under HD settings or medium graphics.

For the number-seekers, here’s how it fares in different yardsticks –

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ALSO READ: Samsung Galaxy A51 Review

Oppo F15 Review: Photography

The Oppo F15 boasts a 48MP quartet as mentioned already. Its given company by an 8MP, ultrawide cum macro, 2MP monochrome, and a 2MP depth module at the fag end. Since we are talking specs, the selfie snapper is a 16MP unit.

Before we gaze at the shots, let’s skim through the camera app interface. After using several Oppo and Realme phones, I’ve got accustomed to the UI. And even a new user can easily get a hang of the app. It covers all the bases and the options are at your fingertips. The ultrawide toggle, HDR, filters, lighting, and the general settings are placed atop. To the bottom, you have the Photo, Video, Portrait, and the miscellaneous ones bundled in a hamburger menu. Mind you, there’s no dedicated 48MP mode, however. Humph!

On to the photos then –

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Timing is an essence in this and the following snap.

Kudos to snappy shutter speed on the Oppo F15

Ultrawide bestows a broader perspective

Dazzle mode makes the perspective more vivid

Dazzle off

Dazzle on

Details and sharpness are lost on the edges of an ultrawide shot

Dazzle mode off

Dazzle mode on

Normal Portrait

Portrait with background blur

Dazzle mode off

Red looks juicy whence Dazzle mode is turned on

Autofocus fails to focus on the center of the flower

Tap to focus does the trick

The Macro mode in play

Colors are natural and pleasing even indoors provided there’s good amount of light.

Dazzle mode off, but look at the details on leaves.

Dazzle mode on, have a look at the details

I can’t upload this on Instagram or WhatsApp due to the dearth of details.

In good lighting conditions, the snaps come out just fine, with a decent amount of details and natural colors. Having said that, there are issues like unnecessary artificial sharpening and a scanty dynamic range. Toggling Dazzle mode brings out brighter saturated snaps, but at the cost of the texture. The shutter speed is prompt. I wish I could say the same about autofocus. The ultrawide snapper substitutes for Macro mode too. Good! But, there is no manual toggle and when you go close-up, the auto-detection felt kinda spotty. Also, the details and sharpness are lost on the edges of ultrawide shots. Bad!

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Night Mode off

Night Mode on, look at the sky

Sharp, crisp with ample amount of details (night mode off)

Ultrawide sucks the fun, however

Night mode off

Night mode on: Bye bye shadows, welcome noise

Night mode off

Night mode on

At the end of the day, low-lit and night photography also matters. A phone camera shouldn’t stop you from soaking the moments after dusk. Using the dedicated Night mode, the photos get higher exposure at the expense of noticeable noise. But it does not add any extra life to the photos. Therefore, in most cases under sufficient lighting, I preferred point and shoot without turning on the Night mode.

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Normal Selfie

Portrait Selfie

Normal Selfie

Portrait Selfie

As for the selfies, they are softened making you appear plasticky. The portrait mode does add some details and depth to the subject with some rim blurs here and there. Even the face unlocking works alright, albeit with some lighting and angle adjustments.

In the case of videography, the primary camera lets you shoot stabilized FHD videos at 30FPS. However, don’t expect any miracle here. Tip: Ensure a good amount of light for optimum results.

ALSO READ: Realme UI First Impressions

Oppo F15 Review: Battery and Audio

Let me say this forthright – the 4000mAh offers a satisfactory mileage. You see that’s a genuinely liberating feeling to have. And when the phone asks for the charge, fill the tank using the in-box 20W VOOC 3.0 Flash Charger. It takes approx half-past an hour to go full.

There’s a mono grille that does a fine job in terms of loudness. Rest, there isn’t much to speak on the sound output. BTW, Bluetooth 5.0 is an absence worth noting.

Alright, time for the conclusion then.

Oppo F15 Review Verdict: Should you Buy?

Oppo chose a dog and pony show for the F15 launch, which might have curbed some of the enthusiasm, to begin with. Look F15 is definitely dressed to kill, but the MediaTek P70 chip turns out to be a buzzkill. It seems as if while putting together the phone recipe, Oppo missed the core ingredient. If you’re particular about gaming, anything with Snapdragon 730, 730G or even MediaTek’s G90T would serve you better.

Thus, Oppo F15 misses the OPPOrtunity to be a well-rounded sub-20k phone. In light of its uneven price to performance ratio, you may consider alternatives like the Realme X2, Redmi K20, Redmi Note 8 Pro, etc instead – which are all online-first phones.

If you prefer buying from offline stores, the OPPO F15 makes a lot more sense and is worth considering.

Pros 

Versatile camera features

Pleasing design

Satisfactory battery life

Appealing AMOLED display

Cons 

Garish UI

Dated chipset

Oppo F15 Review Oppo F15 brandishes the conventional checklist parameters like the 48MP AI Quad Camera, VOOC Flash Charge 3.0, and an in-display fingerprint scanner.