#DS game notes save me

[buwheal]

If it has a pen and a canvas spamton will be drawn‼️

Never finished the neo XP piece </3

Plus also my DS case !!!

Get turned into a sticker idiot (he looks weird though its been a month or two)

[elizaleclerc]

it was all by design 🌟

"what if i told you none of it was accidental?"

summary: hunter!reader starts to realize their feelings for xavier, but he's felt this way the whole time...

song: mastermind by taylor swift

word count: 2.1k

author's note: my first l&ds fic everyone cheer! / mostly fluff / workplace romance (i mean this is canon) / im new to this game don't judge / cheeky makeout sesh / he falls first and hard / sarcastic smug xavier (he's a freak) / sweet talk - nothing too spicy / barely proof read oops

It was simple day at the arcade. You and Xavier decided to take the day off from missions and relax with some fun at the colorful arcade machines. You had won more stuffed plushies than you could feasibly carry in your arms, so Xavier held one in his hand delicately, as if he knew how much those little stuffed creatures meant to you.

“Well I better call it a day, I don’t think I can carry any more of these little guys.” You chuckled as your arms began to grow sore, even with the stuffed creatures’ light weight.

“Yeah, you’re supposed to be resting your muscles and instead here you are.” He gestured towards your arms filled with plushes. You laughed to yourself, refusing to admit he was right.

The two of you walked back to your car and you dumped all of the plushes in the backseat. As you looked at all of the adorable creatures, a realization hit you. You had no more room at your desk in the office for all of these plushes to fit.

“What are you thinking about? Or are you just admiring your growing collection?” Xavier spoke from beside me. I turned to look at him for a few moments. The Xavier during missions was so different yet the same as the Xavier outside of work. You had come to know him as a close friend, and even shared some flirtatious moments. Most of the time, you pushed those moments aside and decided to see him only as a coworker. But flirtatious fantasies sometimes danced through your mind.

You envisioned his desk at the office. Completely barren; no pictures, no decorations. A piece of furniture completely devoid of any color or personality. You grabbed one of your plushes. This one was a particularly round tomato plush. “Here,” you started, “this won’t fit on my desk, so you can have it.”

Xavier took the plush in his hand and examined it for a moment, “What am I supposed to do with it?”

You shrugged your shoulders, “I dunno, it’s up to you.”

~

For some unknown reason, after the day at the arcade you spent the entire next day thinking about Xavier. During random moments of the day, memories between the two of you kept flashing back into your mind. You would be folding laundry and suddenly think back to his arms brushing against yours like they did during a mission in the forest. You both had heard and felt fluctuations and were on guard. He held your wrist in a swift movement to keep you close. You snapped out of it and finished folding your clothes.

Another memory flashed while you were cleaning dishes. It was a particularly risky mission, and Xavier’s Evol was dwindling. His life was at risk, but he was still willing to put himself in the face of danger in order to keep you safe. When you tried to resonate with him, at first he hesitated. He wouldn’t dare you spend any of your energy or power on him. But in the end, your decision to resonate saved his life. You both thought you’d end up losing the other that day, and the silent air of the aftermath sat heavy. You held each other close, your heavy breathing mixing together.

After your days off were over, and you thought you had finally gotten over yourself, you walked into the office prepared for whatever mission Jenna was going to send you on. But then, you saw Xavier across the room. He was standing talking to another hunter, and you just about lost your mind. He was standing with his arms crossed, clad in his hunter uniform, his head cocked slightly as he listened to whatever his coworker was jabbering about. God, he looked amazing, you thought. Why were you thinking of him in this way all of the sudden?

You had gone over every small interaction, every side conversation, every slight touch that the two of you had ever shared. Was there really something between the two of you, or had you actually gone mad this time. You walked over to your desk, placing one of your newest plushes on the shelf to complete your set.

Your eyes glanced over at Xavier’s desk, not expecting anything to have changed. You did a double take when you noticed something new. A small tomato plush sat next to his computer. That wasn’t the only thing either. A square photo was stuck to the hang wall that every worker had.

Trying to be inconspicuous, you squinted at the photo. It was one the two of you had taken before one of your most recent missions. You were both dressed in your uniforms, and he had his arm around your shoulder as you held bunny ears behind his head. He was smiling, and you were sticking your tongue out. It was the only photo the two of you had ever taken together.

Your head was reeling. This couldn’t be real. You were convinced you were trapped in some Protocore induced dream. “Do you like the new decorations?” Your body jolted as Xavier spoke next to you. You turned to see a smug smile on his face, his arms still crossed.

You were too shocked to speak, but finally decided to say something as Xavier waited for an answer. “Yeah, yeah…it’s nice.” Your voice sounded more exasperated than you’d like. Xavier seemed to read you like a book. Did he know the realizations that you were having?

“Are you alright?” He asked with a slight smile. He didn’t actually seem too concerned.

“Yeah- no, yeah, I’m fine.” You stumbled over your words, refusing to make eye contact with him. You saw a slight twitch in his bicep as he adjusted his stance by his desk. Your entire face went hot. “I think Jenna wanted me to look at something in the Archive room, I’ll um…be right back.” You hurried through your excuse to leave the main office.

Your breath had quickened, but you found solace in the empty archive room. Only tech workers were really needed back here to retrieve old files on specific Protocores or important history of Linkon. Thankfully the room was empty, the only sound being your heavy breathing. You sat yourself on one of the empty counters, the space usually used for examining documents. You put your head in your hands, get it together.

You heard the handle of the door slide open, and your heart sank. In walked Xavier, still appearing smug and moving like he rehearsed all of this. “Are you following me now?” You huffed, just needing some time alone to sort through your thoughts.

“Are you done lying to me?” He retorted, moving closer to you, now standing only a few feet away.

“What are you talking about?” You scoffed in a hushed laugh.

“You’re clearly not fine. What’s going on?” He still held that dumb smile on his face, and your brows furrowed.

“Are you actually concerned for me? Because you’re smiling. Do you know you’re smiling right now?” You asked in a rushed tone; you’ve never seen him behave this way.

He let out a deep sigh, his eyes rolling in exasperation. "Do I have to explain everything to you?" He took a step closer, his body now towering over you as you sat perched on the counter. He leaned down, his hands planted firmly on either side of your legs. Your faces were mere inches apart, and the intensity of his gaze sent shivers down your spine. “Do I have to explain why your face flushes when I get close like this?”

Gently, he reaches out and places his warm hand on your knee, caressing it with gentle strokes. With a slow and deliberate movement, he begins to trace a path up your thigh, his fingertips leaving a tingling sensation in their wake. Gradually, his touch becomes more confident and sure, sending waves of desire rippling through your body. “Do I have to explain how your breath quickens when I do this?”

He leans in, his breath warm on your neck as he speaks in a soft whisper only meant for you. You can feel the heat radiating from his lips, and the gentle brush of his words sends shivers down your spine. His breath carries the scent of mint and musk, enveloping you in a cloud of desire. The closeness between you is palpable, and every nerve in your body is electrified by his presence. “Or can you put the pieces together yourself?”

“Xavier…” Is all you can think to say. Your breathing was quickening, and your face was flushed.

He sighed, his lips just barely grazing the start of your jaw, “I’ve waited and waited for you to finally feel what I’ve felt for so long.” You take your hands and slightly push his chest away.

You analyze his face and his brows furrow ever so slightly. “You mean- you’ve felt this way about me all this time and never told me?” You brought one of your hands up to the side of his face, your thumb lightly tracing around his cheek.

“Of course, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I knew you didn’t feel the same way- if you would never feel this way…” He starts, and before he can continue, you speak up.

“But now you know…”

A smile tugs at the corner of his lips, “Exactly.” He brings a hand up to your jaw and slowly moves it to the back of your neck. “Can I kiss you now?” Your eyes felt dazed as you gazed down at his lips. He brushed a thumb over the bottom of your lip, waiting. “Please, your eyes are saying yes but I need to hear it from your mouth.”

You nodded, snapping out of the haze you were in. “Yes, yes, please.” As soon as the last word was uttered Xavier brought his lips onto yours. He started slow, his soft lips moving in rhythm with yours. He was still leaning on his hands, but he moved them to wrap around your lower back. You never thought he would feel this good on your lips. You let out a slight whimper, and that sent Xavier spiraling. Like a man starved, he quickened his pace and kissed you as if he’d never get the chance again.

“Wait- we can’t do this here.” You took a moment in between kisses to center yourself and remember you were at work.

“Ugh, I don’t care,” Xavier breathed out and went back to kissing you again. Once his lips found yours for the second time you didn’t care anymore either. You wanted this feeling, this burning desire for him to last forever.

You smiled into the next kiss, “Okay,” You moved your hands into his hair, your fingers tugging on the strands slightly. He moaned lightly into your kiss, causing your back to arch.

You almost missed the door handle opening again, and you immediately pushed Xavier off of you. He stumbled back, partially in shock until he realized why. Andrew walked in, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment from walking in on the two of you. “Um- Jenna is looking for you. The mission assignments are about to be handed out.” He cleared his throat and walked out of the room.

Your own face was flush pink, and once Andrew left the room you put your head in your hands. “Oh my god.”

“Okay, you were right. Maybe we shouldn’t have done that here.” Xavier laughed to himself. You had no choice but to laugh, really.

You hopped off of the counter, your legs feeling weak. You couldn’t even think about going on a mission right now, nonetheless with Xavier. “Well,” You straightened out your uniform, “I guess we should head back.”

“Yeah,” Xavier chuckled to himself, “until next time.”

Your face flushed at his words, because you knew there would be a next time.

[kinokoshoujoart]

is it really toxic yuri if she doesn’t demand you cut off your fingers for her happiness???

”You have given me gifts over 10,000 times. Congratulations!” haha happy wife happy life…. (my fingers are stumps)

as some of you may or may not have realized i am powerless to the siren call of the ultimate devilish blond Harvest Moon Scum Man, and given that the Japanese version of DS Cute gives you TWO saveslots and TWO hands and the ability to to be in a literal toxic lesbian best friendrriage with ultimate devilish mischievous blonde Harvest Moon Scum Woman i have no choice but to meet all of the Witch Princess’s super reasonable honey do list!!

so one of those fun little non negotiable requests from majo-sama is that you need to give her presents 10,000 times before she’ll even consider marrying you, even if you meet all the marriage requirements!

i don’t mean 10,000 items total— even if you give her a stack of 99 items, it only counts as +1 towards the “items given to witch” counter. you have to give her 10,000 items individually…

in normal gameplay (giving her 1 gift a day, accounting for the holidays when her house is closed) you’ll eventually reach 10,000 gifts!…in your 95th year!

you COULD give her 100 gifts a day every day and knock it out in less than a year, and this was my strategy at first! i quickly realized adding another tedious daily chore to a pile of tedious daily chores slowed the game loop to a crawl and splitting items out was really fucking annoying actually

on the other hand, in 5 IRL hours, you can just get it all done in one visit to her house and never worry about it ever again.

“wow, that sounds like a really great use of my limited time on god’s green earth! how can i too win my future wife’s heart through button mashing my fingers into a pulp?” you ask?

˚✧₊⁎optimized pro gamer technique for breaking your fingers yuri style!!٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶⁎⁺˳✧༚

you will need

dog (each time you show your pet, this adds +1 to the gift counter the same way a gift would)

the bottom screen should be the map screen (reduces loading time between conversations compared to having your rucksack open)

cast endurance on fingers (wait this is redundant, you saw yuri in the title…)

ideal but not required

sometimes when you enter her house, she’s facing the side and her walk cycle never starts. it’s great if you get this glitch because then you can just stand in place for the entire duration without having to look at the screen, and even like watch a movie or whatever while you do all this, instead of accidentally dropping your dog every time she walks to the other bookshelf

if you’re wondering “wait, doesn’t Witch Princess hate dogs and love cats? why are you showing her your dog?” you are absolutely correct! she yells at you to get that stupid beast away from her every time you show your dog to her! her FP goes down by 3 each time! however, since her response to the dog is shorter than her response to the cat, you end up saving like .6 seconds per conversation, saving over 1.5 hours total, so the dog is what she gets

anyway, in true Karen HM64 tradition, after being repeatedly harassed by having a dog she isn’t fond of shoved in her face ten thousand times in a row for like five hours straight, naturally this makes her want to marry you! who said good old fashioned courtly love is dead?!

* as a small note, if you care enough to keep track and give her an actual gift at the 10th, 100th, 1000th, and 10000th mark, you’ll get 4 of the limited Witch Photos early on, which each give you +1 sweet sweet farm degree points every day… honestly that’s not much, but the pain of being told “your hands are full soooo no reward for you lmaoooo sucks to be you” was too much to bear, so i kept track and used a normal present for the 10th, 100th, 1000th, and 10000th…

[messyzoranablog]

Zorana's Guide To The Poke Classic Network!

Do you want to connect your DS Pokemon games to the internet long after Nintendo shut down their servers? Do you wish to trade and battle with your internet friends who play the gen 4 and 5 Pokemon games? Do you have a desire to watch and upload battle videos like you used to years ago?

If you said yes to any of these questions then I have the thing for you!

The Poke Classic Network!

This is a fan server for Pokemon DPPT, HGSS, BW, and BW2 that's running with the help of the Kaeru WFC! Not only does it let you connect your games to the internet again, the site will let you see what Pokemon are up on the GTS for both the gen 4 and gen 5 servers!

Below is my guide on how to get this working for you so you can bring a new life to these wonderful Pokemon games. Also I thought this would be shorter but it's rather long, so under the cut it goes! Please let me know if I missed anything in here! I'll try my best to fix it if I can.

Getting Started:

Before you get connected, make sure you are using the device you plan on doing all of your online connections with! For some reason you are locked to one device for this stuff and using another one will wipe your PalPad, and assign you a new friend code. Since what's available in the GTS search function is based on SEEN Pokemon the most reliable way to get particular pokemon (without marking everything as seen via cheating) would be trading them from people you've registered in the PalPad.

If you only plan on using the GTS then you don't need to worry as much about this.

The Poke Classic Network works on ALL DS/3Ds systems!

I will note that the Gen 5 games are easier to set up if you're using a 3Ds since they can see and read the Wifi settings of the 3Ds and can just have the DNS swapped without additional set up.

Connecting DPPT/HGSS on all systems and BW/BW2 on the DS/DSi:

I will go over connecting via Emulator in another section, this section and the next one is for if you're PHYSICAL HARDWARE.

What you'll need:

The console of choice

The game of choice, preferably played to the point where you can access the GTS for testing purposes. --- In DPPT you can find the GTS building in Jubilife City. --- In HGSS you can find the WFC building in Goldenrod City. --- In BW/BW2 you can access the GTS in the top part of every Pokecenter. --- I don't remember when exactly the GTS is unlocked for the games unfortunately.

Some way to create a Wifi network point with a compatible WEP (password type) or just no password. --- The easiest way I've found is just using a hotspot without a password. --- I know some modern routers will let you create an extra network like this if you know how. I do not and it'd likely be different for each router anyways. --- There are also some programs that can make one using your computer. I've used one for a bit before it locked what I needed behind a paywall.

What to do:

The first step is setting up the connection!

Start up the Wifi network point so it'll show up on your system.

I recommend using a hotspot that doesn't have a password on it. Make sure you change the bandwidth to 2.4 GHz, since 5 5 GHz doesn't seem to work. DO NOT PUBLICLY OPEN YOUR HOTSPOT IN A PUBLIC PLACE! You do not want someone deciding to eat up your data while you're trading pokemon, so only do this in a place you know is safe to do so, like at home or at a friend's place.

Once you've done that you'll want to open your game and go to the Nintendo WFC Settings. The button will look like one of these depending on the game you're playing:

This will take you to the DS wifi settings that are saved to the cart!

Next you'll want to tap on the big blue button which will take you to this screen.

You may or may not have connections here already if you've played before Nintendo's servers shut down. Erase them now if you do as they will no longer work. Then you'll want to tap the None button for Connection 1.

I'll be demonstrating using Connection 2 myself, but stick to the first connection.

Tap on the Search for access point button. This will bring up a list of nearby connections that your system can see. You'll want to tap on the one you started earlier. It will test the connection and the boot you back to the screen with the big blue button. Tap the big blue button and then the Ready button that's now showing up for the first connection.

Now scroll down to the very bottom and turn off Auto-obtain DNS and change the primary DNS to 178.62.43.212. You can also change the secondary DNS to the same one as well or keep it all 0s.

Once you're done it should look something like this:

Save the settings, close out of the Wifi connections menu, start your save, and try connecting to the GTS!

If you connect to the GTS then congrats, you are now able to use the Poke Classic Network! If it doesn't work the first try don't worry and try again. You can also swap the secondary DNS to the other one you weren't using and try again that way.

Connecting BW/BW2 on the 3Ds/2Ds:

This one is super simple and doesn't require any additional set up! Sorry I don't have any pictures for this one atm. I may edit this to add a couple later.

What you'll need:

Game of choice

Console of choice

What to do:

Open the internet settings on your 3Ds and tap on Connection settings.

Tap on a connection you know is working, tap Change Settings, then go to the next page.

Tap on DNS and tap No, then tap Detailed Setup. Change the primary DNS to 178.62.43.212 and either keep the secondary one as all 0s or use the same DNS address you put in the primary DNS slot.

Save your settings and go start your game, then try connecting to the GTS.

If you connect to the GTS then congrats, you are now able to use the Poke Classic Network! If it doesn't work the first try don't worry and try again. You can also swap the secondary DNS to the other one you weren't using and try again that way.

Connecting any DS Pokemon game using MelonDS (emulator):

This method will let you connect to the Poke Classic Network if you don't have the physical hardware or can't connect your system to the internet for any reason and know how to back up your save to your computer.

What you'll need:

The MelonDS emulator [Link] --- Desume doesn't have Wifi functionality so you'll need to move your saves over if that is your primary DS emulator. --- If the latest version doesn't work for some reason try again with the second newest one.

Game of choice

What to do:

The steps are nearly identical to the first section once you have the emulator running! Instead of using your own connection though you'll be using the one MelonDS makes for you, so there's no need to worry about finding a way to make one yourself.

The access point will look like this when searching for an access point:

[kafus]

how to connect to wi-fi services in pokemon gen 4 (DPPT/HGSS)

it's still possible to access the wi-fi services of the gen 4 games after the official shutdown of nintendo's wii/ds wi-fi in 2013 due to fan efforts by changing your DNS settings in-game - this is called the DNS exploit. this is popularly used in gen 5 which really has no complications, but in gen 4 it's a bit more complicated because the games are So old that they can't connect to the internet through modern routers due to fancy modern internet encryption. the connection either needs to have no password, or have WEP encryption, which most modern routers do not support. i had some people asking me how to do this so here's a post lol

first, it should be noted i use the pkmnclassic service, and i think you should too. this gives you access to old mystery gifts as well as pretty much every other wi-fi feature. their website also allows you to view pokemon currently uploaded to either gen 4 or 5's GTS through your browser. once you get your wi-fi set up properly, connecting to the internet will be easy, but that setup comes first. below i am going to list all the options i am currently aware of and able to explain

option 1 - phone hotspot (easy/convenient, doesn't work for every type of phone)

some phone hotspots are able to use old WEP type encryption, or be password-less. if you have access to a phone hotspot, it's worth taking off the password if it lets you and trying to connect to the gen 4 wi-fi with it before trying any other method, since if it works it's super convenient, just turn on the hotspot any time you want to do something online in gen 4 and turn it back off when you're done. unfortunately this depends on the type of phone and what OS its on and i don't have a list of what phones or OSes are compatible, so good luck lol. mine personally is not, and i have a fully updated iphone

option 2 - guest wi-fi (a little less convenient but still easy if you have access to router settings)

in the same vein as phone hotspots, guest wi-fi hotspots can also work, and this is what i personally use myself. the catch is you have to have access to your router settings, so if you're a young person using a parents' router without access to those or some other situation like that, you may have to ask for assistance every time you want to turn this on/off, which could be a dealbreaker for some unfortunately. but if you're able to do that, simply make your guest wi-fi password-less and turn it on when you want to connect to gen 4 wi-fi and turn it back off when you're done. since these settings pages are so different per internet provider, i can't really give a guide on how to do that here, though mine through verizon fios is pretty straightforward. some guest wi-fi may not work for this but i think most should

option 3 - use an old router that supports WEP encryption (probably inaccessible for most, but only has to be set up once and then you're done)

i've done this in the past but i had my dad's help with the process, i cannot walk you through buying an old router lol. but yes if you purchase an old router and set that up you can have password protected gen 4 wi-fi permanently

option 4 - save backup + emulation through melonds (works pretty much 100% of the time if you have a hacked 3DS and some sort of PC)

MelonDS is a really great DS emulator that you can find here for windows/linux/mac: https://melonds.kuribo64.net/downloads.php

the basic idea is that you can backup your save file/game with a hacked 3DS using Checkpoint or TWLSaveTool (outside the scope of this guide but this is easy to do and you can walk through the steps here) and then run it through melonds, which can bypass all this WEP/encryption hell for you and simply connect to the internet. of course this is not very convenient if you have to constantly back up your saves to do wi-fi stuff but it's better than nothing if you have no other option.

unfortunately setting up the wi-fi can be a pain, and you also need DS BIOS files to run everything properly, which i cannot provide myself for legal reasons but they uh... aren't that hard to find lol, and you can back them up from an actual DS if you have access to the necessary tools for that.

if you use a windows PC, feel free to use my version of melonds which already has all the wifi shit set up, you'll just need to provide your own bios files under emu settings (it's a bit old but it works great for this purpose): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DQotaqFuBwXz1KYdQWiwxghtn3faLgj-/view?usp=sharing

edit: just found out right after posting this that the most recent version of melonds might work out the box without having to do any particular wi-fi setup? so feel free to try it instead of my version if you like

if you are using linux/mac or don't want to use my version, you'll have to use the melonDS FAQ/google to figure it out, i'm sorry!

by the way yes, this means even if you don't have a gen 4 cart and solely play over emulator, you can trade/battle/etc with people who are playing on DS - they connect to the same servers!

okay and NOW once you have one of those options set up, you can actually connect to wi-fi in game by doing the following:

(these screencaps are from my capture card, i am doing this on an actual DS, but you can also do this with melonds if you're using that option)

step 1: navigate to "NINTENDO WFC SETTINGS" in the menu where you press continue on your save file, in-game. in gen 4 you need to do it here and not in your DS settings.

step 2: tap "Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Settings" and pick any of the three connections here to start the set-up. if you already have some here, i'd click "erase settings" underneath to start from scratch.

step 3: search for an access point and pick your desired access point from the list that comes up, and put in a password if needed (this assumes you have set up your wifi properly at this point)

step 4: it will attempt a connection to the internet, and may or may not throw an error. regardless, the error doesn't really matter, you can just hit "OK" whether it's successful or not

step 5: go back into your new connection (the box that previously said "None" should now say "Ready") and scroll down until you see the option "Auto-obtain DNS" - change this to "No"

step 6: change the primary DNS to pkmnclassic's DNS, which is 178.62.43.212 - in layman's terms this will essentially let you connect to their servers instead of nintendo's, which are obviously down. as for the secondary DNS, either leave it at 0.0.0.0 or change it to the same DNS as the primary

step 7: now would be a good time for a connection test. tap "Test Connection" in the top right. there should be a successful connection. assuming there is a successful connection, congrats! save your settings and enter your game as normal. you'll need to go to the basement of any pokemon center and pick up your pal pad, then try entering the wi-fi club (middle NPC at the counter) to test it in-game and get your friend code.

if there isn't, try a few more times or get closer to your access point - sometimes it's not you, the service can just occasionally be spotty. if you keep getting errors, you can use this site to look up what the error code might mean. if you still can't solve the issue, you may have to try a different method of connection as listed above.

sorry i couldn't be more in depth but frankly i'm not an expert on this stuff either, i'm just doing my best. there are a couple other options for doing this, like taking the password off your modern home wi-fi, or bridging your connection to an old laptop/computer, but the first is particularly dangerous so i didn't want to include it in the list and the second is completely out of my league, i just know people have done it before

good luck feel free to ask questions but no promises i'll have answers. if you need troubleshooting help i'd recommend pkmnclassic's discord over me, they have channels for that stuff (yes i hate troubleshooting stuff moving to discord and not forums as much as the rest of you but it can't be helped lol)

[meeravandaseera]

Recently, I had sketched a fan-depiction of the Forever Blue or Endless Ocean crew, including the fellows of the first Endless Ocean, the second Endless Ocean 2 (Blue World) and the third Endless Ocean Luminous that came out in this year, allowing the sea-ries to surface from the depths of acknowledgments once more. The initial sea-ries was made by Arika on the Wii during the late 2000s and some even describe it as being part of the Frutiger Aero aesthetic.

This videogame sea-ries is one of my most beloved I ever got to witness. I had found it in the first tide in my local library and borrowed it to play on my Wii. My first experience was the second game. At first, I did not think too much of it, but then I was stunned by the fascinating aspect to free roam across the oceans and the sublime scenery, including the awe-inspiring music. The music is shrimply splendid and sparked my adoration for the Celtic Woman music group. For unknowing fellows, it comprises of very mysterious or glorious tunes. The game is as ambiguous as the ocean itself. Many situations are mysterious, scary or outright beautiful and triumphant. It really allows one to directly immerse into the story, especially with the amazing music. My first real encounter with this charm was in the Gatama Atoll upon encountering the Blue Cliff. It sent my mind to such a state in which I was both petrified and admiring it because of the music as if I really was seeing in it before my eyes in life. It was a rather surreal experience. Now, the story itself is deep and down-to-earth in many aspects, but I still wonder how they got to travel in one day across the planet to the other side in just one day with no troubles, dude. The well-made, magical cutscenes that are played often "out of the blue" contribute to the immersion and charm a lot like upon discovering some certain sea creature. All the story's fellows have their own amazing personality, enabling the story to become something utterly fin-tastic. I based the sketch of mine on the personalities of the crew, including how Gaston Gray is depicted by the side of Hayako since he would supposedly "jokingly" flirt with her ingame, which is not a direct reference here but only a note in order to allude to that. Nancy would perhaps not be part of the crew directly, yet I featured her since she provides them with essential equipment and helps out. Here she is holding a treasure which she analyzed from the player, perhaps a bar or small treasure box. Do not get me started on the whimsical comfort that it brings. Little details like the fellows saying something upon looking at a sea creature or just being able to play the guitar after finishing the quest enraptures me. The game surfaced my deep-found finterest in the oceans' life. While I had already adored nautical topics, this game ascended my expectations. It lit my liking for goblin sharks and siphonophores, for example. It was so educational and allowed curiousity to flourish. When my borrowed copy of the game had to be returned back then, I panicked because I did not know that the save file is not stored on the CD, but on the console. Mind ye, I once had borrowed an Ariel mermaid game for the Nintendo DS whose saves were stored on the chip and not on the console. I was also scared that my progress would be lost because initially I had lost some because I did not know that I had to manually save in Endless Ocean itself. While I explored and found the diving logbook, I originally did not think that it was meant for saving the game. In the first tide, I thought I would be able to write down notes for myself in that book. However, when I got a copy once more as a gift, I continued to swim through the waters of the game with optimism, relieved that the progress was not lost to the waves.

Depiction of Silvia the goblin shark from 2023, a friend of one of my original characters named Sirena/Serena/Searena who is a waterperson. Earlier Silvia was not a goblin shark, yet later versions were inspired by the goblin sharks in EO.

Anyhow, I would play this for days on end. My favorite aspect was to customize my diver to my liking and create stories in my mind. Their name was Lilija, a name I used to admire and would have liked to be called. At first, my standard diving suit would be pink and purple, my favorite colors at the time. Later into the story, I would select the diving suit with the purple and pink scaly pattern and imagine they would be a legged mermaid that could dive in the oceans and transform back into a human form. They would have a fish-tailed mermaid sibling visiting them on the Nineball island to communicate or deliver news. One of their other friends would be one of the dolphins or whales, living with them among the waves of the "endless" oceans. Lilija would ride on one of them. However, when I got the shark suit after I befriended the dolphins, I would imagine them to be an anthropomorphic shark who could shapeshift into a human ashore, similar to the Fijian Dakuwaqa or the dogfish-people from Haida mythology. The latest form of her would be the brown greenish scaled monster diving suit, reminiscent of the first one, but with the dorsal fin and gills of the shark. In all of these forms, my character would help out the diving service mostly, but other tides I imagined they would get caught by some divers and put into the aquarium.

"Human Shark" depictions from 2020, the latter used as a thumbnail for one of my videos on playing EO despite the design not being used. They used to be called Lilija and in ca. 2020 they were renamed to Shona, the human shark because I saw the prior name as not very suitable anymore.

I also loved all of the quests. It was flooded to the brim with finteresting ones that I sought after to complete. One aspect that bothers me would be the titles. Most of them are way too tedious and almost impossible to master without a guide!

After the second game, I got the first. That one's music was, if not, just as great. I loved that one almost as the second, but it felt more lonely and not as lively, especially because of the difficult-to-find sea creatures, areas and artifacts. It felt like an eternity to lurk around and find them, but this may also add to its stark mystery. The map is beautiful, but not as diverse as the ones from the second game. However, there is much hidden lore within the game. It's not as up-beat as the second game, but still as deep and finteresting. I adored the ruins, mermaid palace cave and the ship that one could get to steer around, including the ghost ship that would spook. That one was so mysterious.

Now, I never got to play Luminous and I do not really think I will. I had solely seen gameplay. It does not seem like a sequel to the prior ones, more like an finspired game, despite me having anticipated a third game for years. While it does account for the "endless" ocean unlike the preceding games with its maps that can be newly generated every tide, it is more just of a diving simulator with not too much of an immersive story to follow. Unlike the first games, it lacks the personality of the immersive feeling that the preceding ones portrayed. What the prior games lured me with was their magic and mystery in regards to their story. It felt like an established narrative waiting to be uncovered, but the third game feels a bit overwhelming, perhaps hollow since it only goes on endlessly. This third game in the sea-ries feels a little out of the tide, especially because it seems like those in charge may have not perceived what made the prior games what they were. Still and all, the newest installation feels somewhat commercial and made for profit instead. Its graphics seem more artificial and "cheap" in some aspects. The maps' generation can be quite random, while it depends on what kind of map one gets since some may be good, in general it feels more chaotic and less polished. While prior games may be more pixelated and early-made, they were more charming than the smooth and plastic graphics of the third installation for some reason, those being not as immersive and the lighting is a bit selcouth. No people can be directly seen, only behind diving masks and even the guide is an artificial intelligence. The diver cannot be customized as diversely, but the oceans can be explored more. Many new creatures can be discovered too that were not featured in prior games, but in my opinion, some of the mythical ones seem a bit overdone, but I still adore the sea creatures of extinct tides for example. Many creatures also spawn randomly outside of natural habitats from what I have heard. I am not very fond of icy waters existing directly beside warmer ones. Anyhow, I still like that the game goes into a different, more mystical tide. One element I really like would be the emotes. However, the animations seem a bit awkward and artificial. There is also some sort of lag. When the diver stops, the transitions are stopping abruptly, the diver being pushed back a little and it feels robotic unlike in the first games. All the turns of the diver look often weird and the idle looks a bit helpless contrary to the first divers who would look more grounded and stern, the third game makes the diver more cartoonish and playful. It reminds me of cheaply-made diving simulators on mobile that I would play and get disappointed from, unfortunately. Actually, the animation of the third game really resembles those mobile ones very much. The more global multiplayer aspect seems amazing unlike in the first games where only few got to encounter each other, if one knew someone with a capability of the wii wifi feature in the first tide. What I like story-based is the ancient tablet story as it seems finteresting to an extent, but one has to grind a lot just to unlock parts of it. One of my notes alongside would be the reference to the ancient civilization being named "Oannes", the merman of Mesopotamian mythology who brought civilization much knowledge. In the second game, the "Okeanides" civilization is based on the oceanids, the ocean nymphs of Greek mythology, female humanoid sea spirits. In spite of my view being more negative, the game is still good in its own tide. It can be enjoyed in its own tide absent of the classic games. Of course I do not have much of an acclaimed saying because I never played it yet, but this is just what I observed so far. Shorely I am more accustomed to the classic games and my personal expectations were just not met, residing in the past rather than the present.

In all games I adore the educational, mythology and folklore aspects.

Every game in the sea-ries is still great in its own tide and many should be enjoyed on their own! I am very grateful for the developers who made the sea-ries. Thank you for the Endless Ocean Wiki crew for having made the knowledge of the sea-ries accessible in order to help fellows find all knowledge of the sea-ries. Without it, it would not be very sea-sy.

May the new tide of life guide one well

[earthwormjimnocontext]

If this is my final post on Earthworm Jim No Context, I'd be fine. Because I'VE GOT A THEORY WITH SOME EVIDENCE I'M GONNA HIT YOU WITH! BACKED UP BY THE SCRAPPED FILES OF EARTHWORM JIM 3D! AND IF A CONCRETE ANSWER POPS UP FROM CONCEPT ART, AND I'M WRONG, I WILL SPEED RUN IT AS KIM.

Here goes:

Now as we could all piece together, Kim was probably not intended to be the trans icon she is, and was put in that final boss slot final minute. So what was she initially?

Earthworm Kim was originally Jim's mother!

Now I know what you're thinking. WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF IDEA IS THAT?! But, there's some evidence for this.

Evidence #1 Scrapped Dialogue

The following is a dialogue tree found hidden within the files of the PC version Earthworm Jim 3D:

004dd96c Gee thanks..Mr Super-ego

you've been a big help.

"Gee thanks..Mr Super-ego\nyou've been a big help.\n" ds

004de79c I think the swelling is

going down now. "I think the swelling is\ngoing down now." ds

004de79c I think the swelling is

going down now. "I think the swelling is\ngoing down now." ds

004de8e4 Hello EJ. I seem to have

had an allergic reaction

to this water. I hope my

mum isn't angry with me »Hello EJ. I seem to have had an allergic reaction to this water. I hope my mum isn't angry with me« ds

004de9c4 I'm learning to use an

opposable thumb. "I'm learning to use an\nopposable thumb." ds

004deb24 Hello EJ. I seem to have

grown a hand sticking out of

my head. Cool isn't it? I hope

my mum isn't angry with me. »Hello EJ. I seem to have grown a hand sticking out of my head. Cool isn't it? I hope my mum isn't angry with me.« ds

004df034 You've found my wig!

Here's an udder. "You've found my wig!\nHere's an udder." ds

004df1ec Thanks for finding my

family. Have a reward "Thanks for finding my\nfamily. Have a reward" ds

004df2c4 I'm missing just one

more of my kids - find my

child and I'll reward you. "I'm missing just one\nmore of my kids - find my\nchild and I'll reward you." ds

004df430 You've found one of

my aquatic squirts - now

find the other two! "You've found one of\nmy aquatic squirts - now\nfind the other two!" ds

004df4e0

Help me find my 3 children.

"\nHelp me find my 3 children.\n" ds

These text files are not used in the game, and tie into the scrapped hub world Childhood, where Jim would have saved a boardwalk in his youth from radiation poisoning, so the text most likely belongs to scrapped missions in that level. One of them requires the player to find an unnamed mom's kids, and one looking for a wig. Now these are cool, but how do these tie to Kim being the mother?

Evidence #2 Voice Lines

Kim has a total of three recorded lines, as so does every boss:

"Remember Jimmy, it's for your own good!" - Intro quote

"Ouch!" -Hit Quote

"I know where you hid those magazines!" - Defeat quote.

Take note of the first and the last quote, as if Kim was intended to be Jim's feminine side this entire time, then why is it in this cadence? All 3 lines are addressed in a motherly delivery (Quite possibly by Linda Wallem), and the last one especially sounds like a quote from a mom.

Evidence #3 The Paintings in Fear

According to the instruction manual, the manor used to belong to Jim's family before Professor Monkey for a Head took it over. So naturally there are paintings of Jim's family. (despite him being an orphan) Including this painting on the wall that I don't feel like taking a clearer picture of because I do not feel like playing Jim 3D again. She looks the most like Kim. Who is this painting on the wall? It never says.

Evidence #4 Star's Magazine Run.

I used to have an Internet friend named Starlight94, and she was the record holder for this game and Tonic Trouble, often going through the trouble of looking for beta content. One was from a magazine that she couldn't refind again that had a picture of Kim and the childhood level with the writer stating that she was Jim's... Girlfriend. I'm going to take a guess that this is a "Cowboy Bebop at his computer" situation because this Miswriting shockingly happens a lot. Especially my favorite: Bonus Bob! But once this page is found it is confirmed that Kim was originally in the childhood area.

Evidence #5 The boxart?

The PC box features this gag review from Jim's Mom, alluding to masturbation

Can't have Earthworm Jim without sex jokes in the marketing

But with this many references to a mother, AND the scrapped dialogue, AND her supposedly appearing in Childhood, it leads me to this theory.

Teddyroo12, Signing off Earthworm Jim No Context, until new content is made.

[marchy-emmet]

Pokémon White - The Battle Subway's Void

MARCHY... WRITING?!?!! Pppffff, aside from that... I wanted to write a little one-shot thingie in creepypasta format to explain in a lil' more detail what glitchy Submas are about. No gore or anything, only madness!! Without further ado, let us dive into this shitstorm...

And as a note: The player's opinion of Submas does not reflect my own, lol.

----

So… here’s the deal. I’m going to jump right into it – no sugarcoating whatsoever.

I’ve been an avid Pokemon fan for my entire life – way down from childhood and up till now, even as a broke unemployed college student. Generation 5 had always been my favorite, and though the attractions in Nimbasa City aren’t particularly pleasing to me, there was one place that had caught my attention – Nimbasa Gear Station.

Now, I am no rookie player… I’ve been through this subway time after time again – my favorite being the singles lines due to how quickly you can farm BP. And the doubles line was slower but gave you the same amount of BP, so what was the point? My copy of White was maxed out in money and time. No need to add more grueling tasks.

… Well, enough yapping for now – I don’t have much time, anyway. Let’s, once again, jump right into it.

Just a few nights ago, I had made my rounds with the battle subway again – but this time, I decided on choosing the multi lines. I’ve got barely any friends who play, so I ended up playing this with the NPC Hilda in the comfort of my own dorm room… If only I could play with sentient beings, I thought sarcastically to myself – no one being around and all…

It was unsurprisingly a typical, boring and usual sweep of the battle subway. A timid Hydreigon with max EVs in special attack and speed with dark pulse, flamethrower, surf and dragon pulse had done the trick. Way too easy!! We had a bit of trouble with a few NPCs here and there, but it was nothing terribly difficult.

Then came, of course, Ingo and Emmet with their usual cone stance. I never understood the hype around these two random NPCs… Sure, strange design and all – but what’s the deal?

With me already having dull feelings about the subway masters and their undeserved hype, the experience I was about to have this very night would ruin their image forever.

Aaaand the game crashes. What the fuck??!?! All of that hard work of grinding in the battle subway while mashing A had gone to waste. I am gonna fucking lose it… I thought. The only logical thing to do was to man up and suck it up and redo the entire thing over. So I rebooted the game, muttering profanities under my breath and waiting impatiently for the title screen to appear.

And it didn’t. At this moment, I thought, okay, obviously the game is fake. What is this shit? Perhaps I was a bit too irritable for no one’s good, because as soon as I had restarted it again, the title screen actually showed up with a bit of lag. But still… Something was off. Lag is a telltale sign of a fake game, right?

This thing’s cartridge was used, after all. I had no idea what the previous player had done to the game… In the back of my mind, I had hoped all my save data hadn’t been deleted. Fuck.

I eagerly waited for the game to boot fully and take me back to Gear Station as I hit the save file, but the performance of the virtual world only got lower and lower, steadily dragging itself back to where my character was standing. As per usual when you “quit” a subway battle, the employee was facing me in preparation to scold me.

… But he didn’t. He just stood there. And at this point I thought the game had frozen.

My heart kept beating fast as I frantically thought up plans of what to do with my save file. Transferring all of my work to another file was an option – but I didn’t have another DS or any friends who did. Again, fuck. At this point there’s no use in searching for resources online to find out if it was fake – it definitely was.

I took a deep breath and looked away from the screen for a moment as I hoped and prayed that the game would cooperate with me. The Gear Station theme was still playing, after all…

A few minutes later, and I simply gave up, rebooting the game yet again. And again, I experienced the laggy bootup screen and the strange pause at the employee. I dropped my DS, putting my hands in my face and releasing the most frustrated sigh to grace the earth.

This is when I suddenly heard an 8 bit screeching sound that had scared me shitless. I jumped up, removing my hands from my face and widening my eyes at the screen. Nothing was out of the ordinary, but the grating sound… ugh.

I reached for the DS’s power button and tried to turn it off – but to no avail. Okay, then let’s try holding it down for 10 seconds… Nope. Pressing all the buttons? Futile. Button combinations? Nada. And so I turn to Google – my attention now directed at my laptop screen – a terrible mistake, really.

After a few unhelpful searches, I turn back to my DS screen and jolt.

It was back where I was with Ingo and Emmet, but the background had gone completely black. How…? How was this even possible? At this point, I even considered that I had picked up a rom hack!

So, with all of the textures lost, I had of course entertained the idea that I was in generation 5’s “void” – similar to gen 4’s “void glitch” where you could catch Shaymin and Darkrai via the exploit. But I knew the walls of the battle subway were probably still around, and the only way of getting out would’ve been through the subway doors.

After a few moments of cautious reconsideration, I moved my fingers to the DS button’s arrows and pressed to go left. To my surprise, my character was actually able to roam around the void around Hilda, Ingo and Emmet!

Curiously, I approached Ingo and mashed the A button, attempting to speak to him. For a moment, this seemed to have frozen my game, until a text box popped up…

“What can I see after winning, winning, and winning? … Nothing – not without this fellow standing beside me.”

Huh. I had vaguely remembered the first half of this line from Ingo, but not the second half. At this point I was definitely convinced I had received some sort of fucked up rom hack in the real White’s disguise.

I spoke to Emmet, and his text box lagged similarly before he stated, “I am Emmet. I am a subway boss. And I am verrry angry. Too angry.”

When I spoke to Hilda, her text box was blank. No ellipsis or anything.

I… didn’t particularly enjoy the expressions the subway masters’ pixelated little faces were making. Dead, cold and glaring. But I had figured that’s how they always looked. Something was definitely going astray with their colors, because the more I stared, the bluer Emmet got, and the redder Ingo got. Their sprites were progressively getting freakier and freakier. What kind of fucked individual sat down and made this hack?

This is the part where a battle suddenly started without my knowledge or consent, despite my character standing far from their usual battle position. Uh… Okay then.

Subway masters Ingo and Emmet got into their usual battle position, backs turned before pointing… straight at me, as the player. This wasn’t quite right, I thought to myself, as I had remembered them pointing in opposite directions prior to this weird interaction. I did get a closer look at them, and their appearance was ever-changing.

They left the screen, and as per usual, Haxorus and Archeops were sent out first… Nothing was at all wrong with the sprites – except their eyes were missing? That and the fact that the battle’s background was white. A few blocky particles of what I call “glitch” were floating around the screen erratically. I also couldn’t help but to notice the Pokemon’s sprites weren’t animated.

I had a horrible pit in my stomach as my intuition was begging me to listen… But I persisted in thinking this was merely a twisted rom hack. The Pokemon still weren’t moving, and the screen was still struggling to load in the background with chunks of “glitch”. Colored particles were everywhere.

More possibilities floated through my mind… Was my DS broken? Was the cartridge dropped in water? Whatever the case might’a been, this was the most terrifying experience I ever had in a Pokemon game.

Unable to send my Pokemon out, I set the DS down and clutched my stomach a little, beginning to feel nauseous. My fingers tightened, rendering them paralyzed. I felt my whole body vibrate as I became deathly ill… Wasn’t quite sure why. There’s no way I was panicking so much over a video game.

As I stood up, I felt the room spin, so I sat back down. A distorted groan rang from the DS as Ingo’s sprite appeared back on screen, in the same pointing position.

His text box read, “The system cannot be shut off at this time. However, you could always offer reconciliation.”

Reconciliation? What the fuck was he on?

As Ingo’s distorted sprite faded out, Emmet’s appeared next – but he had black splotchy markings all over his body and face. I felt my heart beat faster again, and my breathing hastened as his text box popped up. It remained blank for a few seconds as Emmet’s round, soul-piercing eye revealed itself through his face’s shadow.

At this point I tried to shut the game off again by holding down the power button, but it was no use. Not even removing the cartridge stopped it.

“Do not try to turn the game off. Do not try to save the game. You cannot.”

How… How did he just break reality? I knew the funny business was over. This is real.

Ingo appeared again next to his Haxorus, who was melting into a glitchy mass. He began to speak again, his sprite’s eyes appearing in his face’s shadow. “I knew my partners wouldn’t make it through this – but I must protect what’s left. Why wouldn’t you play the multi lines for such a staggering duration of time, player?”

“I just did!!” I yelled back out loud, absolutely bewildered and jittery. I wasn’t even sure if responding to him would warrant a response, but…

Emmet’s Archeops began melting into a glitchy mass next as his sprite approached closer. Any light that was left in his eyes had died when he noticed his Pokemon partner was succumbing to the supposed reality break I was witnessing. His smile dropped for the first time. I’m pretty sure I had never seen that twin frown up until then.

“I am Emmet. This world is too limited. And I will break free. What you did was verrrry rude, player.”

“What did I do?!” I shouted back, feeling tears well up in my eyes. Not tears of regret or guilt, no – tears of confusion. Panic. My head was spinning at this point, and I had wondered if I was experiencing psychotic derealization. Something like this is much too bizarre to be real.

Another text box appeared as Ingo gestured to Emmet, Archeops and Haxorus. “Intentional separation is a sin that cannot be forgiven. Excuse me for repeating myself – but it would be kind of you to ask for reconciliation. I’m not sure how Emmet feels.”

I stared at my screen, my voice hoarse as I responded, “I… I’m not the one you’re looking for.”

I felt ridiculous responding to a video game character, but in my derealized mind this was logical at the time.

“Do not lie,” Emmet began, his sprite becoming increasingly glitchy, “I do not like liars. I do not entertain liars.”

I refused to press A past this point, instead reflecting on what could be happening. Are they feeling something? Is that why Haxorus and Archeops had died – due to a fatal game error?

“I’m sorry,” I say without really thinking, my thoughts racing with contemplating fear.

And Emmet responded again without me hitting A. “You said you are not the one. I do not like liars.” His sprite became bitter again, vibrating against the glitchy masses that were surrounding the twins and broken Pokemon.

I once again took a deep breath in complete disbelief, shutting the DS and dropping it harshly. I sobbed into my hands, unable to make out what I thought of this. Do I need psychiatric help? Was it real?

I felt as if something horrible was going to happen – as if these characters wanted revenge on me. And the game was still playing despite the fact that I had closed it.

Five minutes past as I rocked myself and wept, occasionally glancing over at the DS and putting destruction of the system into consideration. But before I could even formulate the plan, I noticed the DS was… vibrating. This just sent me back into the spiral of sobbing into my hands, but I kept my eyes locked steadily onto the DS. I knew a DS was not supposed to vibrate.

And then came what I can only refer to as a hallucination…

Something was pushing the DS’s screen back up – a finger covered by a black glove. The surrounding area erupted into glitchy fragments, and the gaming system was practically breaking itself and making crackling sounds as the plastic warped. Welp, guess my plan to destroy it was no longer needed.

Without a second thought I let out the loudest shriek I could ever release – and I had sworn the entire complex had heard it. Stood up and ran without hesitation. Not even going to stay to observe the scenery.

I made my way out of the dorms, speeding down the halls and immediately causing a scene. Everyone I passed just stood there, bewildered by my behavior. I was too scared out of my wits to even warn anyone.

I made my way out of the building and down the street, panting heavily and feeling my whole body cake in sweat. Pure fight or flight instinct. I knew then that someone wanted my head on a silver platter – video game character or not.

Eventually I was at my friend’s house, frantically knocking on their door… It isn’t my intent to bring danger towards them or their family, but it’s my only option at the moment. No way I’m staying back at that cursed dorm.

Explaining such a situation to my friend was uncomfortable, but they were concerned for my mental health and well being. And of course, they didn’t seem to believe my story, either… No one did. Everyone I texted, voice chatted with, and told in person always asked if I was joking, or if I needed some sort of help.

It’s been a couple of days since the incident, and I’ve missed plenty of classes – but they’re my last concern. Whether or not I come to find out if that thing was real, I need to hide for my own sake.

And I hope someone runs across this as a tale of caution (unironically, the reason I’m writing it). If you’re sold a game that’s advertised as real, and something strange begins to happen… don’t delve in further.

… Or you may end up like me – alone, just as the subway masters were. And possibly still being tracked down as I write.

[beardedmrbean]

I read something about the GOG version of Resident Evil and checked to see if it was true

I sent this before, Jill doesn't use ink ribbons to save, she can save freely

But it turns out that's only for Jill, Chris still needs ink ribbons to save. The GOG version is based on an earlier PC port that did the same, I can't test this for myself at the moment, but Jill not needing ink ribbons apparently only happens on the first playthrough, the second playthrough onward she needs ink ribbons.

On a side note, personally I found the best version of classic Resident Evil was the DS version, Resident Evil: Deadly Silence. It has higher quality pre-rendered backgrounds and subtitles in the English version too. The knife also doesn't take a slot in the inventory in that version, it has its own dedicated button where Jill/Chris will take out the knife no matter what weapon is currently equipped.

It also had some not-very-fun touchscreen minigames, but thankfully they were optional.

That is just weird and potentially sexist about the ink ribbons, knife thing always annoyed me in the OG games, it really should just be part of the uniform like it is in 4 and I think Dead Aim iirc, but that one was a one off game so it probably doesn't count.

They do the loading screens on the DS for continuity or no, probably wouldn't need them with a cart but it's still the RE thing so I imagine they did.

[madmanii]

Being isolated & mentally broken, literally video games have saved and continued to save my life & helps me cope— & before I had internet access, I played mainly brick tons of knock offs and ps2 games. My first solid introduction to DB's story was on ps2-- literally the song cemented in my brain cuz it was also my first PS2 game ❤️🖤❤️🖤 and also massively I was confused when I was waiting for Majin Freeza to show up in the show lo'

& As if DBZ has not been onto every console made possible, its how I got into it & into every other of my special interests (them being Mario, Tintin, and Severus)- by playing its game cuz playing games was the only thing I was allowed and had available, and now I try to play every DBz I could find, preferably if it had Freeza & shin c'x

The DS was my very first Nin- console and I had very much fond memories of mainly Mario bros RPG game and SwapDoodle— the literal first app to have drawing time laps I used and I ran it to the ground from how much I used it, hehe

im sad that the dang service is gone and I haven't swapped notes , whyyy D':

i just thought damn I didn't check if there's titles on ds/3ds and omg there isss: DB Kai ultimate butouden! I loved it so much— I loved the art style (I'm a sucker for low poly 3d models anyways) I loved how they made their faces and the animations aaa

and the way I found an English patch by passionate ppl JUST RECENTLY nd they still working on translating it?? They make life worth it all ❤️🖤

Just makes me want to, like omg I need to give this passion back and try to draw basically EVERYTHING DB-esk but I know I need to take it easy, cuz I can spend days not sleeping just to draw and am generally sleep deprived cuz sleep time is my only me time x'

I'll try Nd try, even with the looming reality of, ya know.. everything

Wish U well ❤️🖤

28.11.2024

[zephyr-bazaar]

hello!! i hope ur having a nice day!!

i'm willow and i just started playing harvest moon! you seem to be really well-informed about harvest moon, so i hope it'd be okay if i asked you for some advice? :O if not, feel free to ignore this! (also, i emulate my games, so if you're uncomfortable with emulation i completely understand ^^)

i'd like to ask what ur favourite nds harvest moon is! yesterday i started playing tale of two towns and i've been seriously enjoying it haha. i'm now a little bit bored though (i've been playing it for the entire day now 😵‍💫) so i thought maybe i should try the other games, but there are just so many i'm not sure which i should try! the sad thing is that i'm only able to emulate nds games (3ds ones are definitely out sadly, and i tried to emulate the wii and gamecube ones but they didn't work unfortunatelyy) so i won't be able to enjoy trio of towns and more 😔

i really like the social aspect of the game (even though i haven't been able to get married to any of the bachelors ahaha) but i like the farming aspect too! do you have any game in mind? (or just your favourite one!) thank you so much! im so sorry if it's rude of me to suddenly ask you this. i hope you have a great week ahead!! 😊

(folds my hands together and leans in) you have come to the right place.

I actually was having a replay of ToTT before Mistria came out! It wasn’t one I was fond of, so getting a new perspective on it and finding things to like was nice, even if I do agree it’s on the boring side. (Side note Gombe is the best character in the entire series and I wish he moved in with you too if you marry Nori/Nana.)

As for my favorite DS game, well, (gestures to my username). Grand Bazaar is one of my favorites. It’s actually the first game Dirk was from and his older brother is my favorite bachelor in the series!! (I also think Dirk’s ToTT version is a LOT better if you’ve played GB; it’s very nice to see his character development between the games if you see any of his GB heart events.)

A lot of the mechanics are more on the simple side (Iirc it was meant to be a beginner’s game), and since you’ve played ToTT you’re familiar with the hell that is the freshness system. (GB and ToTT are the only games with it; in every other game things never go bad. One of those experimental things that didn’t stick, which the DS games had a LOT of.) GB also has a mechanic where if you step on your crops too much their quality will go down, but as long as you switch from running to walking while watering them for the day, you should be good!!

The biggest mechanic change, and the one the game is based around, is in the name itself; the bazaar! You don’t have shipping bins in this game, and instead you sell everything at a weekly bazaar on Saturday! You run a stand with all your items set up, and ring a bell to attract customers. Generally if you’re focused and stay for a while, you’ll sell all your stuff. (The game’s goal is to earn enough at bazaars that you’ll be able to have it keep growing and become more famous, which also helps a LOT in the selling regard as you’ll get more customers the higher your rank is.) I tend to save all my stuff for the end of the season and sell all of my crops at once.

This is also where you’ll be able to buy everything; while Raul runs the general store in town, Enrique sells animals at the bazaar, for example. As it grows you’ll even have stands with characters from Island of Happiness and Sunshine Islands setting up shop!!

It’s also MUCH easier to unlock makers than every other game in the series with them, including the games before it. The other gimmick is town has 3 Windmills, all of which are unlocked automatically in your first year. I’m not quiiiiiite sure how they work on emu because they involve blowing to speed up production time, but doing a quick search for people playing Professor Layton and Ace Attorney on Reddit says it’s doable to configure, it just depends on what emu you’re using.

I’m not toooo familiar with animals because I never keep any (seeing this in the first game in the series I ever played when I was 11 traumatized the FUCK out of me and now it stresses me out to have them in any of the games that aren’t AWL LMAO.) But looking it up it seems to be standard fare, with the barn actually attached to your house to make it easier to reach them. You can’t sell your animals unlike other games, but besides that they’re functionally the same but with much easier access in the morning.

I also ADORE the cast so, SO much. Like I said, my favorite bachelor in the series is in this game. The entire cast is very colorful and charming. Both the art style and designs are, overwhelmingly, the biggest influence on my (chibi) art and overall character designs- which says a LOT about the series that made me start drawing as a child in the first place. It’s absolutely gorgeous. I don’t have a number one favorite mayor in the series, but a tie between 3. You better believe Felix is one of them. He’s SO good. Especially when ToTT Rutger if you chose Bluebell is very generic as far as bokumono mayors go. (Luv Ina/Irusa though)

Also it introduced tea leaves to the series which was the most goated thing to ever happen. Tea leaves are the best crop. I love tea leaves.

TLDR Please play Grand Bazaar I love Grand Bazaar.

(I also hope you can get other emus to work! All 3 of the 3DS games are the best in the series, Imo, and the Wii games are classics. If you have Steam you can also get Friends of Mineral Town (the best starter game imo), and A Wonderful Life (it’s a black sheep in the series but a VERY VERY beloved black sheep and the original GameCube version was a LOT of people’s first game.) I’m olivetownhater199x though)

I hope you have a nice week as well!! :) I have job interviews tomorrow and Tuesday so fingers crossed 🤞🏻

EDIT OH MY GOD I CANT BELIEVE I FORGOT TO SAY THIS. If you have trouble starting out Fogu’s Guides for the series are a godsend!! I still use them every time I play. (Even if she does also cover the bargain bin harvest moon games. Every game titled Harvest Moon from The Lost Valley onwards isn’t actually a part of the Bokujou Monogatari series, but rather games by the original localizers profiting off brand name when Marvelous switched to in house for translation.)

[aqueousablution]

Welp, I swallowed my pride and turned on save assist in ZX Advent¹ just long enough to get my first subtank and wouldn't ya know it, I'm enjoying the game a lot more now that I don't feel like I'm made out of wet paper!² I still really miss using Model ZX (and Zero, of course), which I've realized isn't just because of the melee attack but because it can switch freely between ranged and melee attacks (sorry Model H, I love the sabers but I needs me a buster). That being said, Ashe's Model A has been growing on me - her reflect laser charge attack is real nifty!

I was kinda surprised by how quickly you get your first two Mega Man copy transformations, and by how quickly after that you can get the other two (if you pick the right areas to go to once the game starts opening up more). On a related note, I do find it kinda annoying how two of the first three Pseudoroid copy transformations are super clunky to use outside of their specific purpose, and even Buckfire's a bit clunky (though he's at least good for mowing down certain midbosses). Hopefully the later ones are better, but I kinda suspect I'll end up doing what I did in MMZX and mostly just use the protagonist's biometal instead of the ones you unlock³, excluding when the game forces me to do otherwise (which ZXA seems more willing to do than ZX). Which honestly I think I'm fine with at this point, considering how Ashe's playstyle has grown on me.

--------

There's not really any shame in using it - it's basically just a toggle for the lives system - but I'd sworn to myself that I wouldn't use it because I wanted to play the games as I would have on the DS, since I own the original Zero Collection and the ZX games physically, I just never got around to beating ZX or playing ZXA. Ah well, at least I got through all of the Zero series and the first MMZX game without it. I didn't even end up needing it for the Ice Floe area, but it was nice to have as a safety net nonetheless.

... which admittedly tends to be the case for all the handheld Inti Mega Man games, not just this one.

3. ... Model ZX notwithstanding, of course. Once I fight Vent I might be hard pressed to go back to Model A, even if I do like Ashe's charge attack. There's a reason⁴ Zero 3 and 4 are in my top 3 favorite games of all time, and a reason I still like Zero 1 and am willing to put up with Zero 2 despite all their warts, and that's how fucking fun Zero is to control. And since Model ZX is basically just Zero (albeit with no EX-skills and the spinning air slash available from the start), my love for his playstyle extends to that, too.

4. Well, a few reasons, but Zero's playstyle is among the big ones.

[bumblekastclips]

KYLE CROUSE: [reading question from sheen] "Shifting gears over to her fighting partner, Silver travels back in time many times to save his future. Because of how time actually works, does this mean that every time he goes back in time to prevent a tragedy, he goes back to his own time just to see the next one? Has Silver actually ever experienced a happy world, not ravaged by Iblis, Eggman, or any third threat? Has every game he's been a part of happened in quick succession from his point of view because of this? If so, where did he find the time to come to Sonic's birthday party in Generations?" [chuckles]

IAN FLYNN: [chuckling] Some of this is attached to internal stuff that I can't get into right now, but, uh... as far as my understanding is, there is one future, and it's in general in good condition. Citation being Colors DS, uh... and how time travel works in every other medium, you kinda just ignore. Sonic is special and does his own thing with the time travel stuff. Uh, I would go further, but I honestly don't know how much I can really talk about right now, so... suffice to say, yes, Silver has known some peace in his future, I think? KYLE: [misspeaking] Every time Shadow goes- er, every time Silver goes back, he creates another multiverse. IAN: No, no, no, no, no... KYLE: [chuckles] Ha, he's got- he splits the timeline! It's Back to the Future rules! IAN: No... no, it's not... KYLE: Oh... it should be, damn it. IAN: [chuckle] It's not Back to the Future rules, it's not Avengers rules, it's not Hot Tub Time Machine rules, it's... its own special brand. KYLE: [laughs] It's Sonic the Hedgehog time travel rules, which is to say... what rules?

----- TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Please remember that nothing that is said on BumbleKast is canon! It's just some guys and their opinions occasionally spitballing ideas. If you don't like an answer, you don't have to take it as Word of God or anything like that. It's all just for fun! ----- Do you want a specific question transcribed and posted? Send the question and the episode date to my ask box! Or if you just want questions about a certain character, send me their name and I will see what I can do!

[kinokoshoujoart]

cora’s bad time hell simulation steps or how to play “sprite station for girl” “harvest moon ds cute” the wrong way

(all ways are wrong this game is Accursed)

ok so here’s what my disorganized “guide” to myself for harvest moon ds for girl (aka indecipherable notes i wrote to myself as i played and revised as i tested various things and restarted due to mistakes) looks like. at some point when i become a real gamer i will write a legible guide meant for eyes to look at but uhhh this is how i play this accursed game personally

i’m not sure if anything i wrote will make any sense since i wrote it as notes to myself so probably definitely use fogu and fc2 jonason wiki (may not work but some pages should be archived) instead

ALSO if you’ve never played or barely played the game it won’t make sense at all! hmds was my first harvest moon so i am used to various horrors!

my play style is probably not fun in general HOWEVER if you are a grinding hell goblin like me then it’s GREAT!!!! if not you may still find it amusing that the game gives you permission to play like this

(it’s a great background task game while doing like productive stuff but otherwise playing this way would probably be unbearable)

(image limit)

anyway after that the days go a lot faster, you’ll get the island on summer 1, so on spring 30 i put all my money into million G tickets and sell 200 of em, do the 5x money thing, and save the rest. so when thomas comes the next day to sell you the 900 million G island you can just sell 180 tickets and do the 5x money thing again with like ~600 million G tickets left over. it takes up inventory but you’ll get the shelf in a few days. basically you just need to remember to order from the TV shopping every saturday and place orders with gotz and gray whenever they finish stuff.

random tips

after unlocking the fuckass hot spring sprites (the ones that require you to spend a total of 700 1 hour sessions in the hot springs) i usually grind grazing points— if you put your animals outside for 5 hours you get a “Love Point”, but if you interact with them after they earn that LP then the timer switches over and you can get another LP after 5 more hours. if you wear the time ring the whole time it’s 2.5 hours. i’m not very good at explaining this but basically if you’re super efficient you can get way more animal LP than you realistically should, which is great because the touch glove petting minigame is Bad!!!!

i usually wait on getting the rest of the purple sprites (the ones that require you to hire the purple team and ask for healing) until i’m totally done with the indigo team, cuz i wanna get HG’s purple heart event asap, but you can switch the order if you want

by summer y1 you’ll basically have a feel for everything. aside from Skye, Leia, HG and WP everyone can be married early-mid autumn if you want

if you want to Gay (in the japanese version only) keira is the quickest to marry. leia is the quickest to max affection but it’s impossible to get leia year 1 because the bottle you need to fish up can only be caught in spring. you have to wait until at least year 5 for WP and iirc year 6 for HG.

[themissingleftsocks]

DARK SIDE OF THE MOON: Eyes

Word count: 1k

Authors note: First chapter of take two of a fic! I'm super duper excited because it explores a show I very much enjoy.

There’s a body on the steps of the church. Daniel Meyers, Forty-Two, father of a ten-year-old son. He doesn’t– didn’t know the boy. He lived with his mom, and she divorced Daniel when their son was only a year or so old. Next of kin is listed as his sister in Star City. The clock reads close to 11:45 pm. The blood is still there even though a drizzle casts down from the cloudy sky, coating the ground in a constant dew. This was recent, not too recent though because CSI and any decent detective or officer who got some look at the body, and has been around the block a few times when it comes to seeing dead bodies, knows that it’s in Rigor Mortis. This meaning, it’s only been between two to six hours since death. The blood is cold, but the body is still warm.

Gotham City Police Department Commissioner James “Jim” Gordon ducks under yellow tape, red and blue lights flashing across aging features and his long tan coat with the smell of cigarettes clinging to it. He’s been doing this job for too long, Barbra says he should look into retirement but Jim doesn’t listen. He’d carry the weight till his eventual death. They’d tried to put him out of the position before, but hell, it never worked. Some parts of him want to be done, but he still gets up for the odd hours each day and faces the night. His steps are even, subtle thumps on the concrete as he weaves through the people. The ones that aren’t busy part for him, everybody knows Gordon, and everybody respects the man enough to make way for him without a hassle. Lord knows he already deals with enough shit.

“No respect,” Jim murmurs, looking down at the body. The eyes are empty, staring up at the starless sky filled with too much light pollution and just general pollution for stars to be seen anyway. Daniel hadn’t been a bad person, just involved with bad people. It’s a song and dance he knows too well. Something had just finally gone wrong, and Mr. Meyers was caught in the blast. Hopefully, he got to meet God, seeing as he was dumped on the steps of his house. He doesn’t look all that bad, lying on his back and limbs spread. If it wasn’t for the blood and bullet hole through the skull it almost looked like he was asleep. There’s a new noise beside him after a pungent beat, the sound of aggressive clicking, and then an audible huff. It doesn’t take much effort on Jim’s part to know who that is. “Are you playing Animal Crossing, detective?”

Beside him, Kristen Bester looked up for only a moment before focusing back on the red DS in her hands. “It’s fucking depressing here, Commissioner. Give me a break.” Jim can’t help but chuckle. Kristen has only been here for a few months, not even a full year yet he trusts her more than he probably should. She’s young, twenty-one years old with messy bleach blonde hair, fair skin, and brown eyes that look creepy if you stare too long. Kristen is an oddball, too. Always carrying that damn Nintendo DS and the gloves– black leather clinging to her hands at every given moment. He thought she might be germaphobic, but he’d seen her rummage through trash for evidence. And, it’s been months since she joined the force, asking now just seemed so impolite. So, he leaves her be.

Saving the game and pocketing the DS within a trench coat pocket, Kristen kneels beside the body, eyes narrowing and head tilting just slightly as she looks over the bullet hole. “Done with a pistol is my guess, close up. This was personal.” She speaks, standing back up and turning to face Jim. It’s not a difficult assessment to make, he’d made the same one earlier. The question is who did it and why. Probably get the guy’s phone and– oh. Kristen is already ahead of him like she’d read his mind. She’s beside the body again, gloved hands prodding the body to find a phone. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Jim reiterates, surprised. This wasn’t just personal, this was personal and thought out. Kristen is pulling out her DS again, flipping open the screen as she walks, ducking under the yellow tape. Jim follows next to her, reaching for the pack of cigarettes in his coat pocket. He slips a stick from the box, exchanging the package for his lighter, and carefully balances the cigarette between his lips as he cups the lighter flame and holds it to the end, lighting it up successfully and depositing the lighter once again. Kristen gives Jim a side-eye, and he's pulling out the box again, handing one to Kristen. She doesn't light it, instead switching out her DS for an old Altoid container and putting it in there amongst others she's bummed off of others in the GCPD that smoked. Gordon doesn't know what she does with them exactly, but again, he doesn't ask.

“Nothing—” Kristen reiterates, shutting the container and slipping it back into her coat pocket. She stops walking away from the crime scene, turning slightly and looking over her shoulder, up at the church being soaked gently by the drizzling rain.

“Which means there's something more.” Gordon finishes with a sigh, looking back at the body. CSI had finished, and the clean-up crew was moving in to get it all gone by the morning. “See you back at the office, Bester.” He bids Kristen goodbye, walking away further, puffing on his cigarette. She only gives Gordon a hum in response, continuing to stare up at the church. Its facade is dark, like everything in Gotham, with simple stained glass murals visible, even though the street lamp is lit semi-dark. However, something isn't right and it's making her mind buzz in a way that isn't the normal cacophony of broken hums that she can't ever get to stop. Her eyes trace upwards, landing on another pair hidden in the darkness. Sharp, pale white, attached to a looming figure that blends in too well with the night around it. Kristen can only give a small nod, watching as Batman disappears soon after. A cold breeze nips at her face, and Kristen takes that as her sign to leave, hands shoved in her pockets as she continues on with her work shift.

[kafus]

hey, so i finally got around to dumping my gen 4-7 saves, and i'm dumping the pkm files with pkhex to make it easier to throw stuff into bank - i'm wondering if any of the mon files would be useful/interesting to you at all? i have a lot of old event mons - i think most of them for gen 3/4 i put them on a flashcard and traded them over so the same ones might be floating around the internet, but i know for 100% certain i went to this distribution and at least one toys-r-us one so there might be unique ones of interest i know i also have a bunch of ex-shadow pokemon as well as the ranch mew and phione

(and absolutely no worries if this isn't interesting at all - i just thought of your celebi story while categorising and figured i'd ask :) anyone else sees this who's interested just let me know too

gen 3 i'll have to look into if i can use my flashcard and an old ds to dump it or if i have to just pal park stuff but. might be cool stuff i didn't transfer...)

oh super cool!! i’m unsure if i have any personal immediate use for anything but if you upload the files for the event mons in bulk i’d be willing to do the manual labor of crosschecking with publicly available distributions and separating which ones are original to you and which may have been downloaded and injected from the internet. always very cool to have new event pokemon backups even if they’re from an already backed up distribution (like, different IVs and whatnot).

on the note of gen 3 backups, you can back up gba games pretty easily with a ds flashcard and an old DS or DS lite actually, i used to do it that way before getting my GB/C/A backup device. you can find a tutorial for that here if you need one: https://projectpokemon.org/home/tutorials/save-editing/managing-gba-saves/using-gba-backup-tool-r55/

i definitely think it’s worth backing up the whole save in its original form not just for the pokemon itself but i would check all your games for any interesting wonder cards or in the case of gen 3, mystery event data as well!