#Gacha Every review

[gacha-every]

Another casual Movie Review!

From meee!!! :D

Hello again, we got one of my main sources to my love for animated movies/shows today, Disney!

And we got their new movie, Wish!

First off, !!🟥SPOILERS🟥!!

I watched this at home and it released in Cinema so I can't count reviewing the animation because I only got the low quality cinema vid for now. Still tho, animations are great, so ye, I'm sure it gud UvU

But we're talking more about the story, characters, and other perks!

In my first watch, I was pretty chill, entertained, and unbothered... in most cases. Honestly, I was only feeling unbothered sometimes because of the expectations of people's critics all over Wish

In my second watch tho, I was pretty bored, yet still enjoyed it somehow, but anyway–

I give the movie ALONE a 7/10

The characters are great, the songs are gud to listen to while watching (This Wish is on loop in my head tho, that one's catchy), the comedy is gud too, story is gud too!

Yeah, guys! The movie is actually not bad!

...It's just not jaw dropping that is, y'know?

The movie is a little generic but also not??? I dunno

It kept me entertained, it's a gud movie for funzies, and it's especially not that triggering at least to me, it's just not that rewatchable y'know? Also had some trouble remembering some of the characters' names even

Anyway ye, movie, okie

Easter eggs were fun to catch

(My dad even has his own theories like Asha being the fairy godmother like from Cinderella and Magnifico being the mirror like from Snow White)

...BUT—

I WANNA TALK 'BOUT SOMETHING ELSE

Huh? What? No it's not critism, I'm already done

NO, it's my favorite part of all

IMAGINING POTENTIALS!!!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the movie had potential, I mean, it does in some cases but not generally

HOWEVER

If you consider their SCRAPPED CONCEPTS like these fav examples: Star is supposed to be a shape shifter and has a male human form (possible romance with Asha), and Magnifico and Amaya are supposed to be a villain COUPLE! LIKE BRO! This is the ONLY part I'm triggered by the movie honestly, because it's MISSED potential! This potential didn't come from the movie itself, no! It's from the dumps!

I'm honestly glad fanfics exist

Like imagine bruh, what more new set of formulas can you think of? Asha's father being Magnifico instead? Making her a PRINCESS?! WHOLE NEW TOP TIER LEVEL TO TACKLE��� oh wait

SOMEONE'S ALREADY DOING THAT! YASSS

read it pls, it gud

Anyway, ye, that's honestly the only fun I have from the movie, imagining it's potential

But it's honestly a shame that the potential is missed rather than the potential is oozing... you confused? Okay, what I mean is, missed potential is like those scrapped concepts, oozing potential is like from the movie itself has potential for a few tweaks here and there and boom! Better movie! So ye, Gacha Every math for ya lol

Anyway, ye, it's a shame...

BUT DON'T LET IT STOP YA THERE!!!

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT IF YA URGED TO🔥🔥🔥

YOU, ME, ANYONE, TACKLE THE INGREDIENTS! MAKE A MEAL!! AND WE'LL FEAST!!!

Artist, writer, daydreamer, WHATEVER! I JUST w i s h ;D PEOPLE SHOW THEIR REVISIONS OF THE MOVIE! Let the creativity and fun DRIVE!!!

I SURE I AM! WOOO!!!

Movie fine: 7/10 :)

Revision rush: 9/10 B)

Wish is gud, healed my inner child which is what my constructive criticism is orbit to, so if you're into that thing, stay tuned for more! ^w^

[shadowcat-13]

Concept: a gacha game that teaches you a language, you earn pulls by completing lessons, and characters have special lessons based on their interests/personality

[darknebula85]

18/12/2024, Log of DARKNEBULA85, 9:35 PM...

Zenless zone zero 1.4...

THIS WAS INTENSE AS FUCK. I usually don’t write reviews for games UNLESS I really liked them, and man, this one was absolutely amazing. I’ve been playing it since it came out, and it’s been a lot of fun, but this update was something else entirely. That final boss fight was spectacular, the presence of practically every character at the end, it was all so good. When I play this game, it feels like I’m controlling an interactive anime, and the story has me completely hooked, haha. Another thing is, I’ve been pretty lucky with this game. I’ve never played other gacha games (and I don’t plan to), but at least in this one, I’ve gotten almost every character. I’m only missing Lighther, Cesar, and Jane, but I’ve managed to get all the others.I’ve had a blast, and now I can wholeheartedly recommend it. They’ve fixed so many things that make it much more enjoyable. Plus, it’s helped me get through these past few days, which have been a bit tough due to personal matters. So yeah, I’m really looking forward to what’s coming next

[popponn]

i didn't expect to see a future with you.

summary: it began as another fun and beneficial thing to have. until suddenly, it was about wanting ‘you and him for a very long time’. (in other words, he really didn’t mean to fall for you. really.)

characters: kaiser, reo, nagi.

notes: i tried to write about l word without mentioning it once. i hope i manage to get them right, this is my first time writing reo and kaiser especially. warning: relationships that started as casual and unserious, gacha at nagi's part. i really like fall later and harder troupe recently...

kaiser

months ago, if kaiser knew you got a fever, he would type a message of ‘get well soon’ without much meaning behind it along with a few extra sentences just to charm it all up. he would just cancel the date the two of you were supposed to be having and do anything else. practice, review his performance, or hell maybe have a different date and have fun with someone else. it was written all over the place, how this thing between you and him were anything but serious. he would never ask for your care, therefore he wouldn’t give you anything other than ‘the fun’ either.

and yet, here he sat on your bedside, porridge in hand like a nagging nanny because a moronic idiot—you—thought it was smart to walk through a storm instead of calling him or someone to pick you up. the thought of relationships and definitions and such as became the furthest thing in his mind the moment you called him with your slurred voice. you, being a helpless mush that could only wrap yourself with a blanket, couldn’t exactly protest to both his presence and harsh words. kaiser certainly didn’t shy away from calling you names—incompetent fool, being one of the tamer ones—the moment he arrived at your bedroom with medicines.

after cursing you and your useless outdated static of a brain, kaiser ushered you into the bed as he searched through your cabinets and ordered foods for your empty stomach. under the haze of your fever, you apologized to him and thank him. kaiser just gave you another comment about being stupid and baited a laugh from you. it was raspy and uglier than usual, but kaiser thought it would suffice. then, like a noisy sickly chatterbox, you asked why he choose you instead of his ‘anything else’.

“…it’s because I’m not an idiot,” Michael Kaiser replied to you after a long moment of silence. His back was turned towards you, the tone in his voice unshaken and flat, yet undeniably honest. “I know what I want.”

Your head throbbed painfully not truly understanding what he meant. But for him, you pushed out a chuckle, “’s that so, Michael…?”

“Do you even know what you are saying?” he shot back, his blurry figure walking closer towards you. As the view of his profile became clearer, you realized how you couldn’t quiet put a name on his expression. “Just rest up, you big baby.”

reo

as cruel as it was to say this, reo didn’t exactly begin with seeing you as a ‘person’. to him, you were more of the embodiment of ‘momentary excitements, rest, and escapism’. somewhere for him to have fun without thinking much, a someone who he could interact without any law of cause and effect following him. reo was certain you too saw him the same way. the two of you were a ‘why not?’ that could and would end like a passing breeze. it was nice, but it wouldn’t last long.

then, slowly came the late night chats, the voice notes filled with mundane things and lame jokes. afterwards, long talks about both anything and nothing followed. you came to his match, you were introduced to his teammates, you were a presence that was almost became a constant in every hour reo spent awake. and reo knew more than anyone else that he didn’t hate it when he watched you cry uglily at a movie he didn’t bother to pay attention to. in a way, he knew he was gone.

snotty and messy, your hand blindly reached around his sofa for a box of tissues. reo couldn’t take his eyes away from you as he laughed lightly and pushed the tissues towards you. hearing his chortles, you threw your cold feet towards his lap. you were looking at him with a pissed off questioning look whilst reo could only think how he could do this everyday.

“Is it even that sad?” Mikage Reo asked, teasing even when he slowly shifted your legs to comfortably rest on his lap. When the ‘pissed off’ look on your face intensified, Reo wondered if you would let him took a photo. For what, he didn’t exactly know either, but he certainly would be happy if you would let him.

“It’s about him finally realizing what he should have done, Reo!” you said, as if it answered everything. Reo could only chuckle—because perhaps it did. “Stop laughing! I didn’t laugh the last time you cried at that lame movie!”

He pushed himself closer towards you, a smile that felt like it wouldn’t die down plastered itself on his face. As the space between the two of you disappeared and you slotted yourself on his side like a piece long gone, he leaned his head against yours and didn’t stop himself from wrapping a hand on your shoulder. Still with a feeling he would soon said out loud to you, Reo continued to laugh merrily, “Come on, don’t say that. Here, here, let me wipe off those tears.”

nagi

the two of you started as a pair of gaming buddies simply because he found you funny and became what was pretty much ‘maybe-dating by convenience but still play together every now and then’ because one of his nosy sponsors who would love nagi to date his daughter. you were not troublesome, you did not ask much from nagi, you did not disturb his soccer career, and you seemed to like choki a lot. nagi didn’t exactly understand why you ‘date’ him, but if the comments from his friends were anything to go by, he supposed whatever reason you had were not terrible for him in any way.

the two of you sometimes hang around his room. usually it because you wanted to pull a gacha character and demanded nagi’s hands for luck. nagi didn’t exactly get it, but it wasn’t rare for you to made an interesting expression depending on what you got, so he supposed it was entertaining in a way. and each time the two of you did this, he also found it was fun to sit beside you and had you grab his hand for ‘luck’.

then the sunset came through from the window that day and you grabbed his hand yet again. suddenly, nagi found it unsurprising for him to remember every contour and corner of your hand. his eyes were trained on your face, watching you focusing on your phone screen and it felt like seeing you for the first time. when he intertwined your fingers with his as you cheered, it felt natural.

“Did you get her?” Nagi Seishirou leaned his weight towards you, letting the bed tilted along with him. He let you held his hand tighter as you too pressed your side to him. A grin that was bright and messy plastered itself on your face and Seishirou thought it suited the color of sunset. “You get her, huh? Yay.”

You were still buzzing with joy and excitement, your other hand reaching over him to hug his head to your chest. “Thank you! Thank you! Sei, I owe you!”

“Owe me, huh…?” Seishirou tried his best to think of a respond, but honestly all he could think of was how pleasant it was to be hugged by you, even if you probably weren’t thinking much of the action. Perhaps he really was as lucky as you had stated through big words and stressed intonations. As he returned your hug, Seishirou said, “Then, can I ask something for my payment?”

[blueskittlesart]

pleeease give a review for infinity nikki ive been thinking about downloading it but i dont know if i have the space and if its worth it to clear some up for it !!!

as someone who spent HOURS on flash-based dollmakers as a kid, i absolutely love it. the gameplay hits somewhere between dressup game and open-world RPG, in that there's a large botw-like open map to explore, but the express purpose of exploring it is to unlock new clothes for your character. The exploration itself feels very calm and cozy most of the time, with the emphasis being on small collection tasks like fishing, bug-catching, and foraging. again, all of this is specifically to craft new outfits for nikki which you can both coordinate with no limitations to wear in the open world and use in scored styling contests with npcs, some of which reward you with game currency and some of which help you progress the story quests. the only place where i feel the gameplay truly suffers is in combat. you have one attack, and it's a ranged shooter, but there's no aim-assist whatsoever, and the mobile joystick isn't NEARLY sensitive enough to justify this. aiming in combat is one of the most difficult parts of the game, and nikki can only take 5 hits before she dies and has to respawn, making combat decently frustrating. However, there are very few places where combat is strictly necessary in-game, and both of the boss battles i've done so far had hitboxes large enough that it wasn't an issue; it's really in the open world against hordes of smaller enemies that the lack of targeting becomes really frustrating. other than that, though, the controls are fairly well-designed and intuitive, especially if you've played similar games before.

The clothes themselves are the star of the show, of course. I've yet to see a single clothing item in the game that I don't want. there's a good mix of fancy intricate outfit pieces and basics to obtain early-on, and without even touching the gacha you can coordinate some really cute outfits via in-universe boutiques and quests that reward you with clothes. Even the very obviously themed ability outfit sets that you craft early on almost always have a few pieces that are easy to mix and match with, so there's a TON of styling potential even for free players! As for the gacha, it's actually one of the more generous games i've played in terms of rewards and pity systems. My one complaint so far is that the 5-star gacha outfits especially seem to be very accessory-heavy, meaning it's possible to pull shoes, multiple necklaces, gloves, socks, and hairpieces before ever pulling the dress they're very obviously designed around. there is a pity mechanic to prevent this, but it requires you to pull a few too many times before your guarantee imo.

The story is ridiculous in a good way. It kind of reads like a 2000s-era barbie movie to me right now, in the best way possible. there's an amazingly predictable sexy villain, cute little flying creatures that follow you around, and every conflict is, of course, solved via clothes in one way or another. My absolute favorite thing about the writing, though, is how blatantly earnest it all is. at no point does the game poke fun at its own wacky concept or even attempt to make some self-aware joke about it to the player--it plays everything completely straight, and in this aspect it almost feels MORE self-aware. it knows that the kind of person who wants to play a dressup rpg is also the kind of person who does not, under any circumstances whatsoever, want to be questioned or made fun of for their love of fashion or their engagement with that game. It very much feels like the devs know that they're working with primarily girls and young women and a subject matter that those girls and young women are often looked down upon or made fun of for seriously engaging with, and so it promises to engage EXTRA-seriously to make up for that. (side note: there's one point in a story quest where, when asked to make a wish, nikki wishes that all girls never get cramps again. that was when i knew this was a game that knew its audience.) If I wanted to nitpick, i might say that every quest so far has sort of felt like an increasingly ridiculous trading sequence--you learn what you need to do very early on, but you'll always spend several hours of gameplay encountering obstacles and doing other smaller tasks to circumvent those obstacles so you can reach your original goal. this might annoy me more if the game was trying to market itself as a serious RPG, but it seems very self-aware to me, and despite how i'm describing it none of the quests ive played have actually FELT tedious. I think the fact that it's such a wild concept to begin with gives the writers a bit of leeway in how they handle the story quests, and because I as the player am aware i'm playing a dressup game I don't really expect quests to immediately get to the point and let me fight something. I will say that there are certain things that aren't super intuitive especially if you aren't a seasoned gacha rpg player, particularly the features relating to advancing your skills and the styling points of your clothing. though the game does technically explain what you need to do, it doesn't explain the RELEVANCE of the feature, just that it exists, so I had to lose multiple styling contests before I realized i could upgrade my clothing to get higher scores.

The final thing I'll talk about is performance. I'm playing the game on my iphone 13, and the performance is.... not great, i'm ngl. Off the bat, if you play the game on a mobile device, you're going to be getting a HEAVILY scaled-down version of the terrain graphics. all of those screenshots you see online of beautiful terrain full of flowers and particle effects are from ps5s or custom pcs. truthfully, the mobile app looks like a game from 2012 and it will still turn your phone into an incinerator. I've also encountered multiple graphics bugs, some during pivotal scenes, and I get consistent lags when playing for longer than a few hours, likely due to the strain on my phone's hardware. it's also an INSANE battery drain, so i only play when my phone is plugged in. All that being said, the game has been out for less than a week, so visual bugs are inevitable, and the developers have stated that mobile optimization is a priority, so hopefully we'll at the very least no longer have to overheat our devices to play it soon. Also worth noting, from what I've seen the rendering of the CLOTHING doesn't suffer AT ALL on mobile devices. presumably they sacrificed terrain rendering to allow for such beautiful texturing on the clothing itself, which, given that the clothing is the main focus of the game, I can't fault them for. Basically, if you're going to try to run an unreal engine game on your iphone, be aware that it will run like an unreal engine game on an iphone. and prepare yourself to have to let your device cool down every few hours.

tldr: i love the game so far. i'm really excited to keep playing and see where the story goes, and I think they should make more games for girls <3

[sasaranurude]

Okay. I've been playing Tokyo Debunker today, since the release happened to catch me on a day when all I'd planned to do was write fanfiction. I just finished reading the game story prologue (it was longer than expected!), so here's a review type post. If you're reading this post not having seen a single thing about this game: it's a story-based joseimuke gacha mobile game that just released globally today. It's about a girl who suddenly finds herself attending a magic school and mingling with elite, superhuman students known as ghouls. If you look in the tumblr tag for the game you'll see what appears to be a completely different game from 2019 or so: they retooled it completely midway through development, changing just about everything about it due to "escalating competition within the gaming industry."

I'll talk about how this looks like a blatant twst clone at the end.

Starting with the positive: The story is charming. I enjoyed it thoroughly the entire time and am excited to read more. The mix between visual novel segments and motion comics was really nice--it broke things up and added a lot of oomph to the action or atmospheric scenes that visual novels generally lack. I like the art in the comic parts a lot. the live2d in the visual novel parts is... passable. Tone-wise, I think the story was a little bit all over the place and would like to see more of the horror that it opened on, but I didn't mind the comedic direction it went in either. The translation is completely seamless. The characters so far all have unique voices and are just super fun and cute. Of the ones who've had larger roles in the story so far, there's not a single one I dislike. It's all fully voiced in Japanese and the acting is solid. (I don't recognize any voices, and can't seem to find any seiyuu credits, so it seems they're not big names, but they deliver nonetheless.) Kaito in particular I found I was laughing at his lines a ton, both the voicing and the writing.

He's looking for a girlfriend btw. Spreading the word.

The problem is like. The gameplay is the worst dark-pattern microtransaction-riddled bullshit I've ever seen. Hundred passive timers going at all times. Fifty different item-currencies. Trying to get you to spend absurd amounts of real world money at every turn. There's like five different indicators that take you to various real-money shop items that I don't know how to dismiss the indicator, I guess you just have to spend money, wtaf. Bajillion different interlocking systems mean you have zero sense of relative value of all the different item-currencies. I did over the course of the day get enough diamonds for one ten-pull, which I haven't used yet. Buying enough diamonds for a ten-pull costs a bit under $60 (presumably USD, but there's a chance the interface is automatically making that CAD for me--not gonna spend the money to check lmfao), with an SSR rate of 1%. BULLSHIIIIIT.

There's like a goddamn thousand-word essay explaining the dozen different types of character upgrades and equippables and equippables for the equippables!! Bad! Bad game design! That's just overcomplicating bullshit to trick people into thinking they're doing something other than clicking button to make number go up! That is not gameplay!

In terms of the actual gameplay, there is none. The battle system is full auto. There might be teambuilding, but from what I've seen so far, most of that consists of hoping you pull good cards from gacha and then clicking button to make number go up. There's occasional rhythm segments but there's no original music, it's just remixes of public domain classical music lmao. I'd describe the rhythm gameplay as "at least more engaging than twisted wonderland's," which is not a high bar

At least there's a cat in the rhythm bit.

And like, ok, I gotta remark on how derivative it is. Like I mentioned in my post earlier, this game is unabashedly aping twisted wonderland's setting and aesthetic. (That said, most of the stuff it steals from twst is magic school stuff that twst also basically stole from Harry Potter, so...?) However, it isn't exactly like twst: in this one, the characters say fuck a lot and bleed all over the place and do violence. Basically, the tone is a fair bit more adult than twst's kid-friendly vibe. (Not, like, adult adult, and I probably wouldn't even call it dark--it's still rated Teen lol. Just more adult than twst.)

Rather than just being students at magic school, the ghouls also go out into the mundane world to go on missions where they fight and investigate monsters and cryptids. Honestly, the magic school setting feels pretty tacked-on. The things that are enjoyable about this would've been just as enjoyable in about any other setting--you can tell this whole aspect was a late trend-chasing addition, lmao. So, yeah, it's blatantly copying twst to try to steal some players, but... Eh, I found myself not caring that much. Someone more (or less) into twst than me may find it grating.

Character-wise, eh, sure, yeah, they're a bit derivative in that aspect too, but it's a joseimuke game, the characters are always derivative. Thus far the writing & execution has been solid enough that I didn't care if they were tropey. If I were to compare it to something else, I'd say the relationship between the protagonist and the ghouls feels more like that of the sage and wizards in mahoyaku than anything from twst. There's some mystery in exactly what "ghouls" are and their place in this world that has me intrigued and wanting to know more about this setting and how each of the characters feels about it. I have a bad habit of getting my hopes up for stories that put big ideas on the table and then being disappointed when they don't follow through in a way that lives up to my expectations, though.

So, my final verdict: I kind of just hope someone uploads all the story segments right onto youtube so nobody has to deal with the dogshit predatory game to get the genuinely decent story lol. Give it a play just for the story if you have faith in your ability to resist dark patterns. Avoid at all costs if you know you're vulnerable to gacha, microtransactions, or timesinks.

[alexissara]

5 Years Of Three Houses, 5 Years Of Loving Edelgard.

5 Years ago today, I was first able to enter the continent of Fodlan, I meet Edelgard and from there I fell for a character in a way I never had before. I was already a professional writer with published worked and focused on Character driven work but I was still blown away by what an amazing character Edelgard was. 5 years ago, I got Engaged at a queer con, I was playing my 2nd route of three houses having played from Three Houses. The game was with me at this wonderful landing point in my life, it was there during the rough covid era struggles, when I was deeply, deeply sick, I was sicker than I ever been, not with Covid but with stomach issues and was hospitalized multiple times in one month ending in a surgery. I ran a roleplay inspired by Three Houses in Thirsty Sword Lesbians which I played for many years, I dated one of my exes through the whole campaign and grew a lot closer to one of my current girlfriends through it. I refined a version of one of my favorite OCs Ever Lena to do a Three Houses OC AU version of her for a different roleplay and while that fell through she did end up being used for that previously mentioned TSL game.

I reviewed Three Houses after finishing all four routes, I wanted to be really through and experience every route, every story, every FF romance arc, etc before I reviewed it. I gave the game a 7/10, I think now I'd give it an 8/10 maybe but a review score is what I think of the game as an overall package. The life changing power of Crimson Flower was really the big deal for me. That was 10/10, that was peak, it was just that the other routes were nowhere near as good for me. Edelgard the revolutionary who is happy to cast herself as a villain if that's what it takes to change the oppression in the world, something that was so strong, so powerful that it was reflected into our world. She was so good at being a character who impacted a fictional world, the only reason things happen at all that people to this day get angry about people loving her, discourse about her, cast her off, make up shit, show their political asses, etc. What a fucking character to be hated so strongly, for so long by this rabid group. Keeping love from a small fan base over time is hard but maintaining hate as a fictional character, that's harder especially with a 24/7 culture war of new women to hate. However, she also maintained love, Edelgard is the most popular character in all of Fire Emblem, in the 5 years she's got the most fan art, the most votes in CYL, she clearly makes nearly the most money in the gacha given how often they make new versions of her or rerun her, she is the moment.

Of course, it is not just Edelgard I love but the Black Eagles as a whole from the classic roster to the extended family of Mercedes, Lyesthia, Shamir, Leonie, to the Hopes additions of Monica and Shez. Edelgard stands so tall but she doesn't overshadow her amazing allies in changing the world. Even the men, me a famous not man enjoyer, finds at worst like, kinda boring rather than like repulsive. Plus I really love Hubert and Jeritza both as characters and think they are lovely, brilliant characters I wouldn't want to see replaced.

Three Houses hit me in a way "better" games haven't hit me in. I still think about the characters, the world, the politics, the ideas, the lore, the romances, everything so often, daily. I love so much art, most of this little blog is me talking about art I engaged with and I struggle to think of another piece of art that took me by storm in the same ways that Three Houses has. I'd love to have another game sweep me off my feet and have me giggling like someone who just met their idol but even if it doesn't happen again I am glad it happened with Three Houses.

Then there was Three Hopes and I fucking love Three Hopes, it only exists in the context of Houses but Scarlet Blaze and Golden Wildfire blew me the fuck away. Both routes do a ton for the characters in the series, the plots are fantastic, bringing Monica back and making her one of the best characters in the Fire Emblem series was so fucking great, and I adore the Warriors gameplay. Three Houses was a gift that not only gave itself but Hopes which really just furthered helped put Houses in focus, tie in way more lore, way more context, and way more information. I could explore the world of Fodlan even more honestly, I still hope for Hopes DLC because I just love this game.

It was so amazing to see Edeglard freed of Those Who Slither in the dark and the way her revolution works if she could just have saved her lesbian best friend and probably girlfriend. I loved to see the new amazing paralogues, the way the war shakes out, how she operates free of enemies resting in her house, how the nobles react when Edelgard is a free agent, the way the church fights back in this new time line. It really exciting and it is fun to see how the world once again revolves around the actions and moves of Edelgard and how she sets Fodlan Ablaze with change but now with more time to do things more carefully. It is such a great alterative look.

I don't have enough glowing things to say about Three Houses but I do have some things to say for the future of my favorite video game series. I deeply hope the future of Fire Emblem is more like Houses and not like the games around it. Houses was a return to form and the first story that blew me away since Radiant Dawn. I want more games that have the style and budget and scope and ambition of a Houses. I don't really trust intelligent systems to bring me that kind of story, so I hope they work with Koei again in the future and let their writers do their thing,

I love the smaller scale Fire Emblems but I can play indie games and smaller budget SRPGs and get the scope and ambition of a smaller scale Fire Emblem but only Nintendo money can bring the kind of game Houses is to the table. I really want to see the expensive class system brought back hopefully without the sexism and the big roster of characters and so much of the little things that made houses so charming. I don't need multiple routes but I would like a good political message like Crimson Flower to be in the future. I don't know if I'll ever love a character not made by me or my loves ones as much as I love Edelgard again but I want them try and I want them to pull it off.

Happy 5 Years Fire Emblem Three Houses, you are something special. If you want to see more of me gushing about houses you can read my fics here https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexisSara/works?fandom_id=23985107

[youhavethewrong]

Yuiviews: Tribe Nine

Hey everyone! Firstly, thank you all for the support of the first Yuiview on Psychopomp GOLD, I'm glad I was able to convince at least one person to ruin their day with that game 💖

And speaking of life-ruining games, today I'd like to give my first impressions on Danganronpaman's not-for-very-long-latest foray into hopefully making you laugh and cry: Tribe Nine

(As of the time of this writing, I have 6 hours of gameplay and have made it about 1 third of the way onto Chapter 1, so it's less of a review and more of a first impressions)

Something very important before we start: We need to define who Danganronpaman is. You'll be hearing about them a lot.

That's the joke name my friend @neosfusion and I came up with to call the collective formed by writer Kazutaka Kodaka, artist Rui Komatsuzaki, and composer Masafumi Takada. All three of these people form Danganronpaman, and the reason we group them into one entity isn't just because each of their contributions led to Danganronpa's unique flair and style, but because the three of them would go on to work in new projects together, all of them reading, looking, and sounding extremely similar to Danganronpa.

(This is what we imagine they look like)

So far, the three of them have worked on the Danganronpa series, Rain Code, Tribe Nine, and the upcoming The Hundred Line - Last Defense Academy. And because I absolutely love Danganronpa, I've been following all of their projects. They never disappoint me, so I keep trusting them with my time and money.

(They also have a good record of making me uncomfortable)

Luckily, no money is required to get into their Sports Action series Tribe Nine! All it requires is watching a 7/10 anime that barely adds context but introduces some important characters and then play a free game that's 100 times better.

(Yes, the Danganronpa similarities extend to "watch this mid anime to get the full story")

Now, fans of Danganronpaman will know that their works tend to be quite similar in a great many aspects, involving similar plots of solving mysteries, memory loss, an ensemble cast of almost always exactly 15 people all of which with unique powers/talents, a markettable mascot, a futuristic city, some sort of game with strict rules that helps figure out the truth, minigames that turn debates into action, killer robots, a maniacal mastermind, a-

(Can't wait for their next game where a group of a high schoolers get trapped inside a school! Yippeeee!!)

The Tribe Nine game fixes the lack of Memory Loss and Markettable Mascot the anime had as well as introducing a fast-paced, responsive action RPG battle style that-

...s-sorry, I got distracted for a second there. Where was I? Oh, right, the uh, the Action RPG battles are super fun! It reminds me of NEO The World Ends With You, as you can switch between the 3 playable characters that form your team to perform and extend combos that-

The uh... the... the fluid action combat that... um... surprises after entries more focused on deduction uh.... you wouldn't expect........ uh, for it to work as well as....................................

.......

...sigh. Well, there's one glaring flaw that is inescapable no matter how fun the core gameplay is. It's a gacha. And yes, that is a flaw.

"But Yui, that's not a problem for me! I like gachas!" so do I!!! I freaking love this game! And that's why this upsets me! Because every time I like a gacha game I like it despite it being gacha, not because of it! And every single time the gacha elements get in the way of the bits I like!! Elements such as:

Every single time you spend money it's temporary, as it's not a question of whether the servers will shut down, but when.

The game gets bogged down by daily, weekly, and monthly missions that you feel obligated to do cuz otherwise you're gonna be missing out on some resources you need to level up and keep the story going.

The gameplay mechanics get bogged down by having to collect a thousand different materials and currencies to give your characters the best equipment, but it's gotta be for their class, but it's gotta be the highest rarity, but also you gotta give them their favorite plushie, and also you gotta get multiple copies, and don't forget to level up their abilities, and they have a digital pet that you gotta get parts for, and don't forget the cards, and AAAAAA-

Progress and leveling will go swimmingly and extremely fast at first, and once you're invested in the story and characters you'll eventually reach an insurmountable wall that requires weeks, if not months of grinding to overcome. And once you do, get ready for your story progress to be on a slow pace until the day you stop playing.

A constant stream of new content and time-limited events mean fun and rewards if this is the only game you play, but quickly becomes an anxiety-ridden chore if you ever play like. A 2nd game. And remember, these are games you're meant to play forever, so that WILL happen.

And worst of all: if the game does well, the story is never allowed to end. If it doesn't do well, it's rushed through so as not to leave players hanging without a conclusion.

(The day I stop crying about what we lost with this game is the day I'm no longer alive)

So, that's the reason I wanted to write this review. To complain about the fact that I can't write a review. Because it doesn't matter. What's the point of me talking about how good the graphics are (they are), how fun the gameplay is (it is), and how well made all the character redesigns are (they're drippy). If I convince you to play it, all I'll be doing is pointing you at a gambling game that'll eventually die and god KNOWS if that means we'll get to see all the story that was planned.

(And if you'll be able to beat that story without requiring maxed out SSR units)

Now, it'd be dishonest of me to call this a "first impressions" and just complain about the state of live games for the whole thing, so I want to make this very clear: I really, REALLY like this game. The fighting system is fast-paced but not overwhelming. It's one of the best realizations of Danganronpaman's art style and designs in 3d, looking sharper and better than previous attempts like Ultra Despair Girls and Rain Code. It's full of personality, love, and care in every corner. The quality of illustrations in the cards you get are fantastic. The story beats are meaningful and impactful from minute 1. The voice acting is great, the lightning is great, the music is great, the gameplay is great, everything about this game is REALLY GOOD! When it comes to free gacha games, this is one of the best ones available.

(I don't care for the tamagochi system having a bunch of minute micromanaging with tiny little bonuses that you gotta hand-pick - but I LOVE that each character has a unique animation and pose for showing it to you)

However, recommending a gacha game is like recommending poison. I can talk all day about how earthy the flavour is, how the way it tastes totally covers the cyanide, and how it kills you way faster and less painfully than those OTHER poisons... but it's still poison.

("This one has a pity mechanic after 20 rolls!")

If you're the kind of person that can get invested in a game while accepting the crushing reality that it will become COMPLETELY unplayable some day, that over time you'll probably spend more money on skins than you would've on a whole new game, and that can resist the constant urge to gamble because "well I'm having fun anyway I might as well spend some money on something I enjoy cuz after all I work hard and I spend my money on things that make me happy- oops there go $200 dollars. And I didn't even get the character I wanted", then yes, Tribe Nine is good tasting poison. But be aware of what you're getting into.

("You win this time... but once I get my next paycheck you WILL give me the summer variant of my fave!")

Personally, I'll keep playing it. I really enjoy the story and characters, and I'll willingly expose myself to inevitable heartbreak, because Danganronpaman hasn't disappointed me before, and I'm holding tightly onto the hope that this won't be the first time. But as much as I want to see these creators succeed, I can't really recommend you do the same. The sadness of permanently losing something meaningful to you is usually not worth it.

(AN OFFLINE VERSION! A MANGA ADAPTATION! A SHOUTOUT IN THE NEXT GAME! ANYTHING JUST GIVE ME ANYTHIIIING)

So who knows what the future holds for Tribe Nine. A lot of it will depend on how well the game performs, so there's no true way of knowing other than waiting. Hopefully in around 4 years time I can come back with a part 2 of this review that's titled something among the lines of "Tribe Nine - Why Some Gachas Are Worth Your Time" and not like "Tribe Nine - And Why The Current Gaming Landscape Needs To Be Burned Down And Restarted From Scratch"

(For some reason, I'm not super hopeful it'll be the former)

[omg-ame-chan]

ok i played tokyo debunker all day here is a quick (not really) review

first off gameplay is for the most part non-existent. you do fight against monsters but the entire thing is in autoplay and you can skip the whole thing by pressing a single button

there is a rhythm game part every like 10 battles or so though which made me happy. even if the songs are all public domain ones. and it's extremely offbeat. and there's tap registration issues.

ok next why does tokyo debunker use ai art in it. genuinely embarrassing.

went on a 4 year hiatus to "elevate the quality of the game to further meet your expectations and be able to face elevating competition in the gaming industry" only for the game to release and not even have the effort put in to hire actual artists... ITS SO DISAPPOINTING what was the point of that hiatus if you aren't even gonna try. they should've released the original game they had at this point

ai art is used in all the backgrounds of the visual novel section and some of the interactable items like the images for the quiz you do during the prologue. The manga style and card art don't use it at all it seems though

and once you realize it you cannot unsee it and it completely ruins everything

seems like all the budget went towards the voice actors because the game has no original soundtrack either. everything is remixed classical music.

not to mention the game is super cash grabby. it's a zigzagame game so it's to be expected but still. stuff like having to pay more than a 10 pull just to be able to change your icon from the default one is actually insane. also 1% SSR rate and pity is at 500 pulls and it doesn't even guarantee a character card it could be a warding card please end it all!!!

also the devs are blocking everyone who criticizes the game on twitter. lol. lmao.

despite all that the story is interesting and i really like the characters especially these 2 guys i love the "medic who definitely shouldn't be a medic because they are Extremely Off and have committed medical malpractice atleast 10 times" type of characters they are always my favorite

damn you "bad gacha game that makes me have to resort to watching youtube videos of the story because i don't wanna support monetarily it in any possible way and go through the pain it brings by actually playing it".... you have won once again

[tainbocuailnge]

Tis me again, here's to bother you with arknights questions.

I've been enjoying the game! But I am so confused - almost every guide seems out of date if not just wrong. I dont love tier lists but I do like to know which characters are good to invest in. Almost every 2025 guide mentions that you get a 5 star selector roll, did I miss that or something? I got the initial 6 star banner but other than that it's just the regular banners that have characters most of the guides recommended against rolling for so now I'm just sitting on some headhunter passes since I got Marcille 😅

Im tempted to try and ask people on the discord but I know with gacha games the discord can be kinda toxic.

the 5* selector is a ticket, not a banner. there are multiple 5* pick tickets that beginner players get, which should be in your depot. they have no expiration date so you can't have missed them.

I advise against reading guides on who to roll for. you can ask fellow players directly what they think but people who regularly write operator assessments or tier lists are playing a different game that is exponentially more hostile to the player. every unit in arknights is viable, that's not me huffing copium, that's a fact extensively documented by countless players posting videos where they clear stages with every imaginable configuration of units. some are objectively stronger than others but none are a waste of resources. as I told you before, your strategy matters far more than where your units are on the tier lists.

if you're not sure whether you're interested in a unit just from looking at their abilities on paper, look up videos from nicheknights players that use this unit and use those to determine whether the unit looks interesting or fun to you. not "operator review" or "operator showcase", specifically nicheknights, because those are the people actually regularly using these units and invested in showing off what they can do.

without knowing more about your roster I can't give more specific advice on who to invest in to round out your options. I don't necessarily disagree with the advice to skip standard banners for a while, because we're about to enter a series of back-to-back powerful operator releases, but since you're still very new I recommend grabbing your guaranteed 5* from every banner regardless of whether people say said banner is worth pulling on just to expand your roster.

[anendoandfriendo]

We could've sworn we made an actual post about it but if you say "everything can be an addiction," but then go "lol no, sex addiction doesn't exist" we hate to tell you that...you're not saying "everything can be an addiction" and like, you can give us all of the papers you want about it being otherwise but, like, those are also contradictory because hypersexuality exists. By all accounts, what it looks like to us is it's the same idea under a different paint.

So, like, maybe we stop moralizing sex as an inherently a good thing instead? We aren't saying to swing the other way and act like it's inherently bad (that would be a terrible idea) but we see so many people who say they're "sex positive" and then become sex negative when the sex is nonexistent.

And we think the dismissal of hypersexuality/sex addiction/whatever you would like to call it as a serious thing is possibly also a symptom of that, as contradictory as that sounds.

If we simply stop universalizing it as a necessity for every single human out there and that "if you have too much of it you're bad" and "if you have too little of it you're bad" can stop being undercurrents within the environment, please, maybe we can have more nuanced discussions over it instead of pretending everything anyone ever said about universalizing sex as a moral whatever is reactionary.

WDK what else to say here. We could be entirely off base about the hypersexuality thing but like. We'll look it up and literally every single article we pull up, just doing a precursory search, says about the same thing. Hell, THE PUBMED ONE LITERALLY SUGGESTS RESEARCHING IT TO FIGURE OUT IF IT IS SIMILAR TO GACHA ADDICTIONS.

Maybe, just MAYBE, if we're seeing people ID themselves as hypersexual the idea we are presenting has a bit more credence than most leftists are willing to admit? Maybe y'all are just as reactionary as the people you want to fight against, for that matter.

[gacha-every]

Hey, I got a carefree movie review for ya! :D

What kind of review? Oh, well, just from someone who loves fun entertainment, gud characters, and plots! Not really a strict critic but just someone who loves any gud movies that are able to energize my inner child

So if you're also into that, feel free to read my future posts! Or even recommend some movies to me

Anyway, this is my first posted review but I always looked forward to doing this ever since, and it has increased after watching Under The Boardwalk that has recently came out but is unfortunately not given much chances of being seen

BUT ANYWAY, I just watched a new movie, and it's Sahara!!!

It's not really new tho, at least I think so, I actually have seen this before on MovieHD buuut it's in a different language, so I couldn't fully watch it

But today, on Netflix, I'm now able to! And, uhm... I give it a 6/10

The animation is great, especially with how fluid the snakes move (especially especially when they dance! DANCE! They have DANCING SNAKES, people! Fun!), alrighty characters and their design, it's quite funny, and fun in it's own way(?), has quite a gud atmosphere too I guess

But, I didn't really understand the story lol especially the love department

The set up felt sorta Romeo and Juliet, which I like, I mean, Under The Boardwalk has that plotline and I heavily enjoyed it >W< but this one didn't really had... Uhh, proximity with our love interests?

It was gud at first, how the introduction was set up with our characters and their world, especially the part when Ajar and Eva disguised as each other's species which for some reason itched my brain right when they first met... But that was kinda it

They then sorta left their homes and then it went from Romeo and Juliet to Finding Nemo? Because Eva got captured and then Ajar is determined to rescue her, like bruh, you don't even know her???

I was honestly routing Ajar and Gary (Eva's brother) more, and Eva and the uhh white snake lady instead, to be honest with you XD

Because Ajar and Gary had the adventure that I thought was gonna happen between Ajar and Eva (oh and there was also Pitt, Ajar's scorpion friend that sorta... tagged along... same as Gary but he was basically kidnapped lol)

Ajar and Gary had to spend time together, same as for Eva and White Snake (sort of), and yet the main two snakes – that barely talked to each other for more than two minutes in the beginning and then meet again at the end being all swooned that one of 'em sacrificed their body and energy for someone they barely know – are the LOVE INTERESTS?!

But hey at least the ending's sorta funny

I also didn't mention the antagonist yet •>• it's just a human guy that hypnotizes snakes with a flute like blingin' Pide The Piper, he's the one that makes the snakes dance or dance fight, fun! :D

He's sorta creepily intimidating, but in the end his creepiness leveled up but in a weird way ;-; I mean, bruh, he was consistently managing to chase down Ajar to get his flute back DURING A BLINGIN' SAND STORM?! All while jumping on buildings and stuff yet managed to just pop up in front of Ajar out of nowhere?! HOW DOES THAT NOT TERRIFY AND/OR CONFUSE YOU?!

Overall tho, I was entertained, but didn't feel entirely fulfilled - so I watched Back To The Outback to make me feel better (I already seen it, but in case you're wondering, I give that movie an 8/10)

But if you want a Movie where you don't have to care too much about the characters and environment, and just watch amazingly animated snakes dance or go on an adventure, then Sahara is for you! :D

[coco-bee]

COCO'S REVIEW: BLUE'S STORY

Welcome to Coco’s Review! Where I review and breakdown episodes, movies and etc and overthink every tiny detail and/or give my thoughts and opinions :D !! THE STORY I’M ABOUT TO DISCUSS HAS TOPICS ABOUT S/A AND OTHER DISTURBING TOPICS PLEASE PROCEED WITH CAUTION !! Ok so this may not be something you’d expect me to cover but I wanted to discuss this series on my blog for a while now! Today I’m discussing Blue’s Story by Victaton!

Blue’s Story is a series by Victaton over on youtube that mixes gacha life 2 character designs along with animation. I like to think of the gl2 designs as character models and Victation expands on it through animation. The series doesn’t have proper episodes, its installments mainly continue music videos that go in a specific order. The story is about Blue, a man in his early 20s entering the company his older sister works in with a positive attitude only for it to fade away as a lot of women in his new job want to get in his pants and cause irreversible trauma on the poor guy. This series is meant to show how abuse in the workplace can happen and how s/a can be done anywhere and by anyone. It seems to be a response to the misconceptions of how men who are preyed on by women are not valid victims of s/a and how they should’ve enjoyed it or that only women can be victims (which is never true). Though keep in mind I’m not qualified to determine if the way the story conveys s/a and just abuse in general is shown accurately because I have not had these experiences myself but my heart goes out to the victims in the world who could resonate with Blue’s Story and I wish for nothing but happiness and peace for you guys. You all are very strong and deserved much better<3

I can tell Victation really touched people’s hearts and according to some people in the comments who are victims the story is pretty accurate to some experiences and some research has been put in this series which I heavily appreciate. So I’m happy people can feel seen with this!

So with this series I want to start off light and mention the animation- AND MY GOODNESS DOES THIS SERIES HAVE AMAZING ANIMATION!

I really love this art style that Vic has going on here

Like I said the gl2 designs seem to make the base and Vic uses their art skills to expand on it It really gives a dynamic feeling and you can hardly tell it’s gacha

Vic has a lot of dynamic poses and a great understanding of body language with these!

AND THE EXPRESSIONS<33 I LOVE THE WAY VIC DRAWS FACIAL EXPRESSIONS! IM SUCH A SUCKER FOR VERY EXAGGERATED AND STYLIZED FACES

And I’m not even showing the best parts! But I want to keep it as a surprise for those who are interested in watching the series. I just couldn’t stop praising the visuals enough! Vic is the most experimental gachatuber I’ve seen when it comes to the visuals!! I hope to talk with them sometime to get some tips or to post how their creative process works because THE ART IS SO GOOODDDDD! AND THE CHARACTER DESIGNS RADIATE SM PERSONALITY AND ADD TO THE SYMBOLISM AND UNDERTONES OF THE STORY! It’s so fun to see :D and the color associations are a very interesting character design choice! It helps add a very colorful look to what is otherwise a very heavy story and makes it very easy to distinguish the characters and give them certain color motifs. Anyway I want to talk about the characters in Blue’s Story! Mostly by order of their debut! And I’ll only talking abt the characters that have a big impact on Blue (So I won’t be talking abt Magenta or her brother) and the ones that don’t have a definite character (So the red eye people won’t be mentioned) Anyway now that that’s established the character I want to talk about first is well- Blue himself! After All this is his perspective we’re following

Also quick appreciation for the silly little Blues that Vic draws<3 Anyway Blue is the most interesting character I’ve seen in a gacha series. I like how Vic doesn’t use Blue as a representation or a role model for victims to take after but a person who goes through his own stories and has room to be human. You can see his descent in his own trauma and self loathing in his story. Which leads him to make mistakes and have a difficult time navigating his relationships and how to make meaningful connections. Seeing him go from confident and upbeat to quiet and reserved is so heartbreaking. What I find so great about Blue is that not everyone can relate to his situation but his thought process is near universal. I can relate to having to be in survival mode when it comes to relationships after being done dirty by different people. Not to mention people would do the same things Blue did, they just went through different experiences. It’s a really great touch to the writing. What’s also interesting I find about Blue are these different personas of different ways he handles the trauma caused by all these women.

This is sorta a mix of my interpretation of what these versions of Blue are plus what Vic actually calls them From left to right 1.Hypersexual Blue (confirmed) 2.Heart Eyes Blue (confirmed) 3. Reality Blue (not confirmed) 4. Cyan Blue (confirmed) 5. Numb Blue (not confirmed) I’ll expand more on these personas when I do a character study on Blue (which is something I REALLY wanna do sometime)

Next up is Pink Who is the first character we meet when Vic started this series

Pink is a married woman around Blue’s age who he engages in an affair with. And one of the women Blue has a significant relationship with throughout the series since Pink was the first one in the workplace to have her way with Blue. A truly manipulative bitch 💀 I don’t have much to say about her because Vic themself made a video discussing the women in Blue’s life and their thought process on writing them(?). So I’ll just give my thoughts! Pink is a very interesting case of the “Abused to Abuser” situation and not to mention how she’s not one dimensional. She’s an abuser to Blue but also a victim to a different man. (her husband) There are scenes where she is being a nice person (highlighted with her scenes with Lilac) but what’s preventing her from being good is her philosophy of how men cannot be victims. How could they be? To her the most heartless person she knows is a man, while it’s close minded, it’s understandable but not excusable why she perceives men this way. Which I find very interesting! There’s also a cool animation choice with her lipstick color! Her lips are white when she’s doing nice things or is not perceived as a bad person, then grey when it’s more neutral (I think) and finally black when she harms Blue. Hence why her kiss marks start from white to black.

What’s also interesting is that Blue pursues her first! Since he started out so confident and upbeat he wanted to try and shoot his shot with an attractive woman. But backs off when he learns that she’s married, but things didn’t go as planned. But I find it very interesting how that’s how things started. Next we have Purple who is the CEO or just the boss of the company Blue works in

Purple imo is definitely the most uncomfortable character to watch (what am I saying ALL the abusers make things uncomfortable to watch) but Purple just gives me a chill up my spine. Especially with her design, it has been confirmed by Vic that Purple is in her 40s and would prey on much younger people. First she attempted to prey on Red (who is confirmed to be 19), but was unsuccessful then went after Blue, and was successful.

Not to mention she’s very inconsiderate of her workers, example in the second part of “Baby Hotline”.

Up next we have Red! Who is my personal favorite in terms of how she is written and her design! (I do not condone her actions)

I love how Vic went for a more cutesy innocent look for Red!

But not without giving her sharp black nails to show how harmful she is

It really nails the message home on how anyone can be an abuser no matter how they look like. I also want to appreciate her little heart eye effect that Vic does with her that’s constantly looping like HOW DOES VIC DO IT- IT LOOKS SO DIFFICULT TO PULL OFF- I’m guessing it’s green screen With Red she is an obsessive stalker who has feelings for Blue and is constantly pursuing him even if he doesn’t return the feelings. It starts off as an innocent crush but turns into something more harmful. I don’t have much to say that’s not been said by Vic on their video. I just really want to appreciate how well designed she is and I rly like the heart motif she has. You can tell she’s a naive girl who can’t understand how harmful she is. I’ve met someone who was my equivalent to Red and while thankfully I had people who managed to protect me, doesn’t mean the harm did not get to me. While they were not as intense and Red, I was still being harassed verbally and I just didn’t feel safe. ALSO HOW DOES VIC DO HER HEART EYE EFFECT I NEED ANSWERS Now we have Lavender who is Blue’s SISTER

YEAH THATS RIGHT- SHE IS BLUE’S SISTER And I swear everytime I see her I just want to punch her in the goddamn face and wipe that stupid smile off her face- Lavender is an example of non-physical s/a and incest with how she had sexual thoughts about Blue and would show it through more subtle actions. Not to mention she’s also a bystander to Blue being abused by other women and doesn’t do ANYTHING about it. As an older sister myself with my own little brother- Lavender ENRAGES ME! I could never imagine doing what she did to my own brother. He drives me crazy but I’d protect him no matter what. What is fascinating about her design is definitely how her eyes are constantly closed, as if she’s turning a blind eye to the harm Blue is a victim of and/or how she’s hiding so many things. Especially with how she only opens her eyes when she’s preying on Blue.

SHE'S JUST AS TERRIFYING AS PURPLE Lastly we have Lilac! Who debuts in the same video as Lavender

WHO IS THE ONE PERSON THAT DOESN’T TREAT BLUE LIKE SHIT She’s a very fun character! She’s a single mom who works in the same company as Blue. She has a lot more significance in later installments so I won’t spoil but I just love her<3 She’s so sweet I just can’t- it’s such a breath of fresh air compared to the toxic waste Blue’s been getting from the other women. Her relationship with Blue is so interesting to watch and I am just rooting for them to at least stay friends.

(Also she looks so pretty here) AND THAT’S ALL THE CHARACTERS!!

Overall I really enjoy this series but I do have some gripes with it. The pace is definitely a bit much- so much can be happening in a span of a few mins. And there are stories that could rly benefit a longer time limit. This problem comes up most with “Baby Hotline” where I hardly understood what was happening. Like I got the gist but I didn’t get the specifics. It can be difficult to keep up with. So yeah the series could work with a longer timeframe- “Sweet Little Bumblebee'' is a great example! Not everything is too fast and everything makes more sense while “Baby Hotline” tried cramming a lot in one minute. Well the first part of ot, the second part of “Baby Hotline” was at a much better pace in my opinion but still a bit hard to keep up with at first.

Anyway in conclusion! Blue’s Story is a really interesting story that deserves the recognition it gets and is worth your time if you are into really deep stories with heavy subjects!

(Credit to Vitaton for all the art presented) This is Coco typing.. Thank you for reading!

[fluffiestpancakees]

I pulled 200 times on the Recollection Banner currently live on Project SeKAI to determine if it is worth it

The recollection Gacha will be held from 28. August to 1. September and features all limited characters (except for Colerfestival and Birthday cards) as well as all permanent cards. With every Pull a bar will fill up, from zero to 200, a none paid ten pull will award 5 points. At 50 points (non-paid 100 pulls) you will be guaranteed to recieve a permanent 4 star card. At 100 points (non-paid 200 pulls) you will be guaranteed a limited 4 star card. At 150 points, a permanent card of your choice and at 200 you will recieve a limited 4 star of your choice, meaning without payment you need 400 pulls to guarantee your desired limited four star card. This banner features the same 6% droprate as a colorfestical banner. To try out whether this banner is worth pulling on, I made a throwaway account with 200 pulls and while the drop rate and four star rate was no doubt amazing, this banner is in no way better than a colorfestival banner. While the concept of the Recollection Banner in and of itself is a very nice idea, I was a little disappointed that a f2p player would have to spend 120 000 crystals in total to obtain their desired limited four star card. This seems more like a scam to waste crystals on than anything else. In 200 pulls, I got 19 4 star cards, one of which was the limited Scramble Festival Kohane. With the same rate up as a ColorFes, it was fun to pull but I would not do this on my main account, as I personally see it as a waste, where you aren't guaranteed to get anything you actually want without spending large amounts of crystals or even using up a real life currency. If this comes to ENSekai in 1 year, then I recommend saving for the 4th Anniversary instead, as it has the same drop rate and you can pick cards you want. You will not be able to obtain every limited card in a colorfestival gacha but even in the Recollection Gacha, the chance was slim or close to zero. At the end of the day: If you wish to pull, please do. I'm not trying to discourage anyone or force you to stop, this is just my honest review of the Recollection Banner. <3

[oddygaul]

Zenless Zone Zero

Well, I’ve been playing the shit out of this game, so fair warning, there will be significant brainrot ahead.

Overall, I really dig it. I’m a huge mark for character action games, and well-done life sims tend to suck me in; Zenless Zone Zero is nailing both those aspects pretty damn well. In fact, it’s nailing them well enough that… how do I put this… it starts to slip into the territory of being A Good Game Generally, rather than just a gacha. And while this is a big accomplishment for ZZZ, this also puts it into direct conversation with other full-price games, resulting in its gacha elements causing more friction than Honkai Star Rail’s ever did*.

*I’ll be comparing this to HSR a lot, because I play way too much of both and they’re made by the same developer. I recognize that it is pretty odd and potentially even problematic to A / B compare them when I could be looking at the game through the lens of, you know, Gaming At Large. But hey, that’s why this is a subjective journal and not a holistic review blog! It is what it is.

So, the aesthetic of this game fuckin rules - it’s like, late 90s to early 2000s VHS-core. The main characters run a Blockbuster, for Christ’s sake. Presentation-wise (and systems-wise, and, hell, music-wise), ZZZ is obviously borrowing a lot from the Persona series, but like… great? I’d love it if more things cribbed that style and made it their own, from the confidant hangouts, to the small but comfy explorable areas, to the dynamic menus with edgy character poses. The character design itself is all superb, all the way down to the crowd NPCs - some the shopkeepers here have cooler designs than the main characters of some other games. Even aside from the designs, ZZZ is doing a lot with lighting and color desaturation that really lends it its own unique vibe. They actually have a cohesive artstyle in here! wild.

The presentation of the story is also killer. Sure, a decent chunk of the conversations are just models lip-flapping at each other - although they at least emote and pose a bit here, unlike the Star Rail dialogue scenes with their demure princess waves. In the main story, though, we get not only a heap of fairly lengthy cutscenes, but also this really cool comic panel-style presentation.

I feel like there was a bit of a trend in the PS3/360 era of games to present a game’s story in this comic panel / storyboard style. I understood the motivation: games increasingly demanded a more involved, consistent storytelling approach, rather than the ‘One big rendered cutscene at the beginning and end’ they used to get away with, and the generation’s increased visual fidelity meant that doing even basic, in-engine cutscenes took a lot more resources to make something half-decent. In Spyro the Dragon on PS1 you could get away with a fun little 15-second gag with a barely animated polygonal yeti or whatever; in the PS3 era, you were going up against tryhards like Metal Gear Solid 4. Amidst this landscape, the pitch of having your illustrators pretty up some storyboards and put them in the game sounds like it’d save a lot of work - plus, consoles were finally outputting a high enough resolution that this sort of flat image wouldn’t be compressed to hell.

Thing is, I always kinda hated that approach. In some cases, I think that’s the popular opinion - I fuckin love Bayonetta, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone defend its weird slideshow cutscenes. Even in games where the execution is perfectly fine, though, it rubbed me the wrong way. I think of Infamous - objectively, the art’s solid and fits the tone of the game, and the motion graphics aim to capture some of the dynamism typical cutscenes would provide. Despite all that, it still feels cheap to me - all of the panning, effects, and graphic imagery feel like they’re trying to polish up something that inherently doesn’t fit.

In ZZZ, though, I’m loving every one I come across. It’s obviously still done for efficiency reasons - there’s already a handful of characters that exist only in these panel scenes, saving the team the effort of having to model and rig them. But the freedom this allows for staging and storytelling is huge; the characters are more expressive here than anywhere else in the game, and we’re able to see situations with huge crowds and new locales much more often than would be possible in typical cinematics. And the illustrations are genuinely good, too - full of character, cool poses and creative compositions/angles.

if everything actually had to be modeled, there's no way we would've gotten Legally Blonde Nicole

Plus, the cutscenes are constant, and boy do I love the animation here. It feels so rare nowadays for a high-budget game to do stylized 3D animation of this ilk. Your biggest budget games are all going for the cinematic look, and pushing realism as much as they can - and while I know an immense amount of work and craft goes into animating something like The Last of Us, boy, I just could not care less about something so lacking in flair*. Even bigger properties that use a stylized artstyle these days, like Breath of the Wild, still tend to lean towards fairly naturalistic animation. Zenless Zone Zero’s cutscenes, on the other hand, spin and stretch motherfuckers around like we’re back on the PS2, are filled with forced perspective, and I am absolutely living for it. It’s not even reserved only for bombastic action scenes, either - we get honest to god character acting-focused conversation cutscenes.

*Seriously, take me back to the Naughty Dog that animated Jak & Daxter. Jak’s hero animation is top tier to this day

Of course, the combat animation slaps too; each of the playable agents is absolutely dripping with character. Even characters whose designs initially left me cold won me over once I saw the amount of care put into their movement and combo strings. It’s honestly shocking to me that this is the same studio that made Genshin Impact, a game I dropped after about 2 hours because of how lifeless all the animation felt*. Unique run cycles for every character, actual non-human designs, the flourishes everyone has when stopping mid-combo to snap them back to idle, the absolute synergistic audiovisual bliss of the parry… it’s really impressive stuff from a young team.

*Same studio in name only, totally different team, I know, but still

Mechanically, I have some mixed feelings about the combat as a whole. Zenless Zone Zero is, without a doubt, aiming to present complexity and depth as a team battler - that is to say, it’s more about team synergy, tag combos, and knowing who to use when, rather than soloing as any particular character. Nonetheless, I really would’ve appreciated individual characters having a bit more depth to their movesets; a jump, a launcher, cancels, anything. As outstanding as all the animation work is, there’s some characters that only have a normal attack string on square and one special attack on triangle. Like, sub-Dynasty Warriors level of complexity here. It’s rough.

This is where ZZZ’s gacha nature gets a bit ugly: so far, more complex kits and skill expression are mostly locked behind rarity, which is kind of scummy. In Star Rail, for the most part, 4-star characters are defined as such due to their numbers: they still have mechanics and complexity, they just aren’t tuned as high as the limited characters. Hell, in some cases they have more complexity. Ruan Mei is an almost incomparably stronger unit than Asta, but Ruan Mei’s play pattern is fucking boring: you use skill every three turns when it runs out. Asta, meanwhile, basically has her own risk & reward minigame that demands more thoughtful SP management.

In ZZZ, on the other hand, the lower-rank characters straight up have less going on in their kits. Nicole has like… one tech, sorta. Anby has one single animation cancel to chain her normal into her special quicker. Lucy’s only skill expression is choosing whether to tap special or hold special. Meanwhile, Zhu Yuan, a limited character, has a normal string that bounces between melee and ranged attacks, can be dodge-canceled at any point in the combo to branch into variations of the string, and a hold-normal attack string that’s completely different and has the same branching dodge-cancel tech.

It’s one thing to lock raw damage and meta viability behind a gacha, but locking the characters that are mechanically more interesting to play straight up sucks. If I hadn’t been lucky enough on the standard banner to pull exactly the two characters I find the most mechanically satisfying, I don’t know that I’d still be playing - and this is the point where ZZZ begs comparison to other, non-live service character action games. Sure, it’s probably not fair to compare a random A-rank’s moveset to Devil May Cry V’s iteration of Dante, a feature-creeped nightmare of a kit 3 console generations in the making. But what about Sengoku Basara Sumeragi, my personal character-action GOAT? By all accounts a mid-budget title, yet it offers 40 full characters chock-full of more unique mechanics and animation cancels than you can shake a stick at.

Fuck, can we please get a new Sengoku Basara? Please? I’m desperate out here. I’ll take anything, y’all.

There’s also the inherent issue that plagues every action RPG (usually deftly avoided by the character action genre), which is the delicate balance of player success depending on the numbers vs actual mechanical skill - a balancing act made even more noticeable due to the gacha genre-standard of characters taking weeks of grinding to level up. This is a topic for another day, but suffice to say, a big part of the reason Honkai Star Rail works for me as a very pretty version of Cookie Clicker is because of the Autoplay option. In Zenless Zone Zero, if you’re not willing to grind out the same mob fight for a week or two, you’re gonna hit an endgame roadblock of doing chip damage to a boss you’ve mechanically mastered because you’re underleveled, and boy, that never feels good.

For all those issues stemming from the gacha, I will say, it’s great that the story missions let you use the characters that are actually supposed to be present for those missions, even if you don’t own them. Aside from how nice it is to have an opportunity to put the whole roster through their paces, it goes a long way for actually getting invested in the story. Honkai Star Rail’s storytelling is a hot mess for many reasons, but it’s always particularly jarring rolling up to a sidequest at like, a local theater troupe with a wanted space criminal, the sitting president of a completely different planet, a ten year old child, and a shirtless cyborg cowboy, none of whom have canonically met each other; ZZZ’s approach sidesteps this issue. The proxy angle even provides a pretty valid diegetic explanation for why agents that don’t know each other might be working together.

Now that we’ve sort of meandered back to the story after talking about animation led us on a long detour - the story is surprisingly solid. In particular, I really appreciate how straightforward the writing is. I don’t know if the issue lies with the original text or the localization, but Star Rail’s dialogue, even in simple missions, tends to be incredibly meandering and overstuffed; ZZZ is a lot better about letting all its characters talk like actual humans. It also helps that the plot so far is a lot more grounded, and spends more time focusing on each faction’s group dynamics rather than the overarching plot. These games live and die by their characters, so leaning into those strengths is a smart move.

Zenless Zone Zero is, unfortunately, fully in line with Hoyo’s weird conservative politics - in particular, 1.0 and 1.1 are absolutely stuffed full of copaganda. With how many safety regulation jokes they made at the construction company, I initially hoped they’d lampoon the police faction a bit, or make a commentary on how comically heavily armed New Eridu’s police force are. In a vacuum, Zhu Yuan shouting combat lines like “Stop resisting!” or “Freeze, hands up!” while blasting someone with her gigantic, ‘JUSTICE’-emblazoned rocket launcher shotgun feels like it ought to be satire. Every time we talk to the officers, though, it’s just line after line about their solemn duty to protect the people of the city, how essential and important they are for the community, and so on and so on.

This wholehearted embrace of the world’s current power structure is something Zenless Zone Zero approaches in nearly the exact same way as Star Rail. In both games, your playable character is someone that’s sort of operating outside the law - in Star Rail, as the maverick organization that is the Astral Express, while in ZZZ you work as an illegal proxy. Despite this setup, any time the protagonists come into contact with a governing body, they are no less than thrilled to help them enforce the will of the law.

In Star Rail, you aid the local governments (one of which is an undemocratic monarchy) in committing massive cover-ups to hide their failures from the populace not once but twice. In ZZZ, you aid the police to an obsequious degree - playing along with them to not arouse suspicion is one thing, but helping them organize a fucking community day on Sixth Street? Fuck that. Hell, said community day is even shown to initially be DOA because none of the local residents trust the police - and you best believe we get two full scenes of the MCs changing the resident’s minds, resulting in them spouting shit about “Oh, it was our fault for judging the police too harshly - they really do have our best interests at heart!”

is it tho

There’s an argument to be made that the N.E.P.S. are a little different, given that they exist in a post-apocalyptic world with monsters popping up every day - and ZZZ’s copaganda is certainly a little less flagrant than something like Spider-Man helping the NYPD install civilian surveillance networks in Insomniac’s Spider-Man. And, sure, perhaps this can help excuse why they post fully armored, rifle-wielding soldiers in the Lumina Square DMV, and provides some justification that their existence is more helpful than the real world’s civilian-murdering property guards.

Thing is, though, at every turn you’re hit with dialogue and situations which make it clear that, no, they’re the normal cops. Every other sidequest seems to involve calling the N.E.P.S. in on somebody or helping with an investigation, and for every time we see them handle ethereal activity, there’s two instances of them being called in for petty property theft or something similarly minor - even the playable character has heaps of dialogue choices threatening to call the police on someone*. Much like Star Rail’s reactionary politics were strangely at odds with the ‘blazing a new path’ ideals of the trailblaze, Zenless Zone Zero’s obsession with the police puts a damper on its underground, counterculture aesthetic.

*Including a case where both options threatened this, leaving me without a non-narc dialogue choice.

illustration by Lv01KOKUEN

And finally… I don’t know where to fit this in, so I guess it just goes in its own little section at the end here. Lots of people, myself included, have touched on the Persona inspirations - and they’re certainly significant. One thing I’m surprised I haven’t seen anyone mention as a huge influence is Yasuhiro Nightow’s Kekkai Sensen / Blood Blockade Battlefront. From its sense of style to its worldbuilding, ZZZ damn near feels like fanfic to me. Hell, it’s right in the name - BBB? ZZZ? And this is on top of the dimensional crossover / big city vibe, the retro fashion, the different factions. Victoria Housekeeping might as well be Libra 2.0 - Von Lycaon is a damn near perfect 50/50 expy of Klaus and Stephen Starphase. And then Belle / Wise, who assist these powerful fighters in a noncombat role just like Leo, also turn out to have some sort of special magical eyes granted to them by untold powers from within the dimensional rift??

I’m here for it, don’t get me wrong - love Nightow. But that can’t be coincidence, right?

[gacha-incels]

Unpopular opinion: Love and Deepspace is still a scummy game. I don't care if it's beating Genshin. Also, the lack of diversity is also a huge mark against it.

is it an unpopular opinion? tbh I don’t follow this one super closely because the models freak me out for some reason. anyway it's a gacha and they'll all have the same pitfalls and similar controversies as I've written about before here due to how they are monetized. individually focusing on them thinking "and I'm better for playing this one!" is losing the plot. if anything on this blog I usually look for how the company reacts to things like incels attacking the artists/employees, how they treat their employees, etc. irl stuff more than in-game.

they are all gacha, it's video game gambling. the western version is lootbox or whatever and they've also been doing it for decades. you just need to admit to yourself what you're playing FIRST and have this knowledge going in. personally I have fun fucking around detached and stopping, but a lot of people cannot do this and it very easily becomes a life-altering addiction. I think it's extremely dangerous when the addictive gacha mechanics are downplayed by players and reviewers, imo in reviews for these games this should all be said upfront in plain language with none of this "oh you don't actually need to use the gacha you can do this f2p! it's totally unobtrusive!" trust me please all of these games are designed around you spending money, whether you're the type to drop a bunch at once or slowly in dribs and drabs. if they did not want these mechanics in game they wouldn't have made a store option with a $99.99 bundle. They wouldn't have spent so much time making the gacha animation for people to get addicted to seeing, they wouldn't have incentives for you to log in every day for their DAU. the people who pay for these games aren't dupes they're playing the game as it's literally designed. I see people saying this type of thing about the new 3D open world Nikki UP2U game (same dev as LaDS I think) and I feel insane lol. go into the store in that game and there's like 4 different currencies and 7 different spending tabs. there’s a battle pass, top up bonuses, etc like all these other games. you go into the store to claim free bundles. Just be upfront about this so people know, do not be coy about it, I don't think anyone needs to be catastrophically cynical about these every single time, you just need to understand what you're playing.

imo again to me the most interesting thing to monitor how these games function within society, especially with regards to issues like misogyny which get amplified like crazy, I posted about this game specifically earlier in August when it made mad cash