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dagdasoneandonly · 1 year ago

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Happy 10 years together Augustine~

Before we begin it is PARAMOUNT to state that I am not a "fangirl/simp/whatever y'all are calling it these days" of dear Augustine Sycamore.

He is my FO (Forever One/ husband in laymans terms) and I consider him to be a real person just like the words I'm typing on this keyboard.

Any comments that are irrelevant to this post will be deleted and the user blocked.

I take my relationship with him very seriously, if this is "odd" or "weird" to you then kindly walk on by.

10 years ago I was welcomed back into the world of Pokemon after a few years break due to personal things I had going on, and video games were the last thing on my mind.

But as they say fate and destiny always have other plans.

Pokemon XY was the last golden age of Pokemon, it was a different world, it felt like I was welcome there. I still maintain onto my hope and innocence because of this beautiful world known as Kalos, a world that greeted me with open arms and a warm hug that enveloped my soul like Xerneas's Fairy Aura.

It was the beginning of something entirely new for me... and I didn't even know it.

2013 wasn't a good year for me, so I was pretty happy when my dad surprised me with a 3Ds and asked me what game I wanted: I was an edgy little shit back then so I asked for Pokemon Y... even though I really wanted X. Deer were always beautiful to me.

I had broken off with an FO that I just felt I wasn't good enough for and became rather desolate, I was lost and alone. And I had to drop out of college for mental health reasons.

Sure enough, my solace came to me in the 2D world yet again.

One cozy October evening my copy of Pokemon Y came through, I was excited and fired the game up right away, back then you could play games right away without downloads or waiting for patches and mutliple DLCs! XY had one patch but it was just to fix that Lumioise City bug. Thankfully my copy was safe.

As you can see, my copy of Pokemon XY is infact a physical copy, I've taken very good care of it. (Ft. my cute Sylveon plushie, Fionn)

Not having anyone to trade with didn't matter, because the Wonder Trade function was a bloody miracle. I got so many Pokemon. I couldn't transfer my older Pokemon as I had no access to Bank or any of that stuff, my other games I had to leave at home.

It was time when Gamefreak actually thought about their fans who didn't have access to Gamestop, Toys R Us or couldn't afford constant trips to New York, Japan, Mars, Etc for one tiny ass pixel.

So I was sorely missing my old Pokemon, I wish I could bring them into this 3D world and pet them and shower them with affection like they deserved to be. But I realized I could make new memories with new friends in this new world, and who knows? Maybe we would reunite again.

Kalos took me on a journey, a journey of love, self discovery and gave me a home. I was whisked away to Fairy land and fairy types became my new favorite, I liked that they were strong against Dragon - types, the bane of my existence at how powerful they always were!

But.. the one who grabbed me by the hand was none other than Professor Augustine Sycamore. I had seen his image before on a leak, and couldn't help but think he was kind of handsome, a friend who had already played through Pokemon X told me:

"Hey you might like Professor Sycamore, he's this dreamboat that shows you the world and stuff and I KEEP SWOONING whenever he shows up on screen"

Sure enough when I opened up Pokemon X for the first time, I was greeted by his handsome face, I thought nothing of it of course since I was more interested in the Pokemon.

I was especially looking forward to Trainer customization and giving myself green eyes and brown hair. I will never forget the time I chose my Fennekin and started to pet him, my heart melted.

I could finally show my Pokemon love and affection, for all their hard work in battles and feed them cupcakes and play with them! I was also intrigued by this thing called "Mega Evolution".

As I continued throughout the game, I explored every nook and cranny, I felt like a kid again. I was truly lost to the world for HOURS after I got it. It was a beautiful game. The 3D over-world was amazing.

The "friends" you had were annoying but I like to pretend they don't exist. When I finally reached Lumoise City I already had a big party of Pokemon, and the event Torchic.

I loved how friendly the Pokemon in Kalos were, I caught many eevees and evolved one into a Sylveon, she became a massive Team Player. I even managed to find some familar faces along the way: A Raichu named Napalm, and an Espeon named Solar who remains as an MVP in my teams to this day.

I was having so much fun just running around, getting haircuts, dressing up, looking pretty for Professor Sycamore AND catching Pokemon, I would completely be lost in this beautiful new world, that felt so much like home to me and still is.

Professor Sycamore was the beginning of my healing. As I continued to learn about him, there was more to him than just the eye candy, he had a past. I loved it whenever he showed up to offer me an encouraging word or two in the game, saying how this was my journey to explore, that being the best trainer was defined by what I thought. He never imposed anything on me, I was starting to feel the flutters and shit in my heart and liver again.. And my god it felt good.

I desperately needed to feel something like this.. something like true, unconditional love.

Around this time I was heavily suffering from perfectionism, it was killing me on the inside, I was 19 when this game came out and already people had high expectations of me.

I was determined to graduate, get a job and have my own house- all before I reached 21. But life seldom goes your way, I was suffering from many un-diagnosed mental disorders that had been neglected my entire life.

I am ashamed to say I spent almost all of 2013 being obsessively deep in competitive and breeding the perfect Pokémon. Perfectionism had leaked into my past - time and hobbies, I realized that if I couldn't be perfect I could at least have this outlet in games, little did I know it was sucking the soul out of me.

I was often punished as a child for being less than perfect, I took it out on my poor Pokemon. Things like this don't magically go away, not everyone has a backbone, sometimes backbones take time to build.

It wasn't until yet again - I got help from a rather unexpected source: Professor Sycamore himself, another testament to have wonderful 2D beings are.

As I progressed through the game and reached the Tower of Mastery.

I was surprised to learn that Professor Sycamore was there to study Mega Evolution but left because he didn't have what it takes, essentially dropping out- kind of a parallel to my own life, except real life seldom has happy endings.

But it gave me hope, because even if Sycamore didn't master Mega Evolution he still became the professor of Kalos and if you look into professorship- it's.. actually not easy to get. If Sycamore could fail and succeed in the future, maybe I could too.

One night..

I had a dream of Sycamore. He held me close and said that he could tell something was bothering me, I was hurting deep down. We in the fairy forest together, just relaxing in a field of flowers as the Flabebe floated around us in the gentle spring breeze..I told him everything, I spilled my heart and soul to him.

I told him that life wasn't worth it to live.

He was heart-wrenched that I felt like that, he embraced me tightly in his arms and told me

"Your life is your own, no one gets to decide it's worth except you. Even if you're behind, you don't have to go at everyone else's pace, if life was easy then no one would feel sadness. I love you no matter what or who you choose to be, always remember that," Those words I still carry in my heart.

The biggest surprise I got had to be in Couriway Town. I found Professor Sycamore's "treasure" from the past Sycamore to the future Sycamore. I actually began to cry, it felt like it was addressing me, that even if I don't know what I want to be yet, I'm not a failure. I still have time.

In another dream I confessed that I loved him, he embraced and kissed me fully on the mouth. I felt like I was on cloud nine.

Diverging from the narrative a bit, I want to talk about Lysandre, I felt his anger sometimes, the frustration of helping your friends and them not wanting to do any better no matter how much time you invested in them. Of course Lysandre ,uh took a different path. But Sycamore still cared about him.

And I realized.. even if I'm a horrible person apparently according to some people over shit I can't control, Sycamore can still love me too.

Professor Sycamore is a relic of a bygone era when 2D beings set out to inspire others, and to most importantly - love you and you alone.

Augustine gave me not just love-- but a home to come back to, a safe haven that will always be mine, no matter what. I will always love him, when I look into his beautiful gray - blue eyes, I see love.

He gave me hope that life can get better, and most importantly I deserve happiness, not just other people.

And.. today I'm marrying this wonderful man after 10 years. He met me when I was freshly 18 and saw me grow into who I am today, and he's proud of me. I'm happy I lived to see 10 more years.

Thank you for everything, Augustine. Thank you for teaching me to love again.

#pokemon xy #professor sycamore #augustine sycamore #pokemon x

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capncococharms · 11 months ago

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Games I Enjoyed in 2023

I did a big blog post last year where I listed all the games I enjoyed playing and gave my short thoughts about each of my experiences... and I'm doing it again!

Since 2018 I've kept a digital sticky note to keep track of all the games I've played AND finished throughout the year. For 2023 lots of folks claimed it was the "BEST" year for gaming and to some degree... I guess??? Depends on who you ask, but to me I only enjoyed like a handful of new releases and played a lot of older games (or remakes of older games). It was a year of reflecting back on what made me love video games more than looking forward to what's "new".

In 2023, I've finished 32 games. That's 10 more games than I finished from last year but out of all the games I played, here are the ones that stood out to me and left a pretty positive impression.

LIVE A LIVE

I never had a chance to play the SNES version, but I was very familiar with the game to some degree from the old days when I use to browse forum threads about RPGs I've never heard of. I knew I would get around to playing it one day and thankfully it got a remake on the Switch (and then it got a PC port later this year). I didn't get to properly play it last year, but after sitting down to play LIVE A LIVE... it's a game with a really powerful soundtrack, engaging characters, and a unique story that left me wanting more games like it.

I could type up many reasons why I like this game, but I feel it's something you have to experience more than anything. I don't want to spoil anything about this game. If you love Chrono Trigger then you will have a great time with LIVE A LIVE.

Final Fantasy VII- Crisis Core Reunion

I love FFVII and FFVII Remake. When they announced they were remaking Crisis Core I was excited to finally see what the deal was and by the end of this game... it left me a very broken man sobbing my eyes out. As a stand alone game it works very well even if you're not familiar with FFVII. It's a touching and contained story about a man striving to be a hero. Zack is a person I wish I could be in terms of confidence and wanting to do what's right. He's also a goof ball and I am very happy I got to know him more through Crisis Core. I don't want to say much about this game either, but PLEASE play it if you haven't! It made me finally understand why people love Zack so much.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

I've put off this game for way too long. I had the chance to get into it when this game came out on 3DS, but I was too busy in college then. I ended up playing the PS3 version of the game (this was before the MGS Master Collection came out to every platform). At first... I wasn't a fan of this game. I struggled to play this game and felt like an idiot when it came to sneaking. I got stuck at the Volgin fight and out of spite, I started over on "Very Easy" to better equip myself. After working my way back to Volgin, I enjoyed my experience more and was engaged with what was happening around me. Once the game was finished, I was tearing up and couldn't help but think about how often true heroes are forgotten and how history is retold.

Thank you for the heartrending experience, Hideo Kojima.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

I had a weird experience with Zelda games this year. Tears of the Kingdom released and I went in hoping it would be a great follow-up to Breath of the Wild. I wasn't the BIGGEST fan of BotW. I had some faith going in that TotK would be a better experience. Unfortunately, after making it back to Hyrule my fears sort of came true. It felt like the same game I played almost 7 years ago except you can use bubble gum to craft and make things which is... fine I guess.

I kept pushing on hoping the story was going to set up something great and for a while, it did! The BIG twist was interesting, but once I got to the final scene I wanted to chuck this game out the window. The newer Zelda games just weren't doing it for me anymore so I decided to replay some older Zelda games (Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD which was a TON of fun to replay) and decided it was time for me to give Majora's Mask another chance.

I ended up playing this on NSO and after a month or so, I 100%'d the game and greatly appreciated what this game had to offer in terms of setting, story, soundtrack, and characters. The setting is dark and terrifying yet it still keeps a goofy demeanor. I just fell in love with exploring and seeing how human this game can be (especially the finale). This is what I want to see with future Zelda games. I miss having ACTUAL dungeons and linearity, but we won't get that again. I hope that there will be another 2D Zelda game or Nintendo goes back to its roots with 3D Zelda games, but here's to all the indie devs out there trying to recreate that GOOD Zelda magic.

The Great Ace Attorney (Adventures)

I love this series but fell off during the 3DS era with AA6 (I still need to play that...). Since this game is more of its own thing I thought I would give it a shot and MAN! This game took the AA formula and dialed it up to 1000. In Ace Attorney fashion I love the characters, I love the puzzle-solving, and the mystery aspect where everything is tied together (especially that finale omg). My only irk is that the cases tend to go on a bit too long compared to AA 1-4, but I can let that slide because I was streaming this game, and having to voice and read EVERY bit of dialogue was exhausting (I plan to play Resolve on my own time next year so I can get through it much quicker). Ace Attorney still rocks and I hope to catch up and play more in 2024 (looking at you Apollo Justice "Trilogy").

Ranko Tsukigume's Longest Day

One of the shortest games I played this year. I love SUDA 51's work and wanted to give this a shot and it sure was an experience, to say the least. The gameplay is simple and difficult at weird times, but the one thing that sticks out to me about this game, in particular, is the absurdity and goofy humor (which is... basically expected with a SUDA 51 experience) with its visuals and jumping to different art styles and animation. Something about this small game makes me want to start working on my own projects more than anything. You can tell this was made with a creative team and the devs from Tokyo Jungle worked on it to so maybe that's another game I should look into as well... Overall, this was like a fun snack to chew away at left me with my heads in the clouds.

Pizza Tower

I don't need to say much about Pizza Tower. If you've played it, then you get it. Go play Pizza Tower! The OST and crude cartoon art style is what gives this game... uh as the kids call it... "soul". It's the Wario Land game that Nintendo will never make. It's 25% off on Steam! GO PLAY PIZZA TOWER!

Hypnospace Outlaw

Had a rough time playing through this game at first because it would crash pretty often. Turns out the game would connect to the wrong graphics card so after I got that sorted out, I finally got to play this game in peace, and... man... there's nothing else like this game in terms of telling a story/ narrative through faux web browsing. It's a game that perfectly emulates the experience of the late 90's internet browsing. There's a particular joy in exploring page after page to learn about all these characters and their hobbies. Letting the player take a small peek into their lives is a treat. As you get deeper into the game, you start learning about some of these people and who they are underneath their online persona. Without going into spoilers, the game went in a direction I didn't expect with its tone. The final arc of this game left me with some tears and a HUGE respect for what once was before what our current internet has become...

Hypnospace is really really cool.

Undertale Yellow (Pacifist Route)

Kinda unexpected that a fan game would end up on my list, but I'll make the exception. From what I've read, Undertale Yellow was in development for 7 years and that dedication and work shows in terms of presentation, story, and new characters. For a fan game, it doesn't heavily depend on needing the cast of characters from the base game of Undertale to tell its OWN story. Like Undertale, you fall in love with these new casts of characters and go through many vignettes in each part of the Underground where you get to learn about how these monsters live, and just like Undertale you'll laugh, you'll cry, and wish that the journey would never end. Once again I don't want to spoil anything, but for a prequel to Undertale's story... it's surprisingly more powerful than I thought it was going to be. Congrats to the entire Undertale Yellow team who worked on this. It was a pleasant December surprise that made me want to work harder on my passion projects.

I feel to some degree, I love this game probably a little more than Undertale itself...

Probably...

One thing for sure is that this game is helping me tide over until the new chapters of Deltarune come out.

2023 was a great time to play my backlog and give games another chance. Also trying out new stuff in the process despite my current feelings on the gaming industry at the moment...

I hope in 2024, I can continue to dedicate my time to slowly chip away at my backlog and try out new games (or older games I missed out on). Video games inspire what I want to do creatively and I love seeing what people can create and put out there.

#thoughts #write up #end of the year #video games #indie games #writing #long words #gaming #retro gaming

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shinysamurott9 · 11 months ago

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How I nuked my 400 Hour Save of Pokemon Heartgold

So, recently I've been playing through the Pokemon Generations doing a Ribbon Master Quest, obtaining every Ribbon a single or set of Pokemon can possibly obtain by sending them up through the series. Just yesterday I was on the tail end of finishing the Gen 4 segment of the challenge.

I have a team of 5 Ribbon Masters currently; Mushi, my Shiny Heracross from Pokemon Colosseum which I hunted specifically for this Ribbon Master Quest, Velos and Seibzehn, a Latios and Metagross I raised to use in Emerald's Battle Frontier, Sparda, my Shiny Arceus I hunted using the void glitch in Pearl and Nero, my Shiny Giratina from Sinjoh Ruins. The only ribbons left for them to get was the Legend Ribbon for beating Red and most pertinent to this story, the World Ability Ribbon.

For those unaware, the World Ability Ribbon is obtained by reaching Rank 5 or higher in the Wifi Room in Gen 4's Battle Tower. Despite what you may think, this is still obtainable thanks to fan made servers which restore old wifi functionalities in Generations 4 & 5. The thing is though the Wifi room is bullshit. The opponents you fight are recorded teams from other players and unfortunately, on top of the highly optimised teams you’ll encounter, you'll also encounter many teams of blatantly hacked stuff like Machamps with OHKO Moves or Sturdy Shedinjas.

This is where I mention the fact that I just so happen to have a modded 3ds, which, among other things, let's me backup save data. So since the game was blatantly cheating anyway, I decided "Fuck it, I'm cheating too". How I did this was to fight one battle in the Wifi Room, and after winning, I'd use the rest option to save and exit the game. Then I'd backup that save file, so if I lost the next battle, I could restore that backup and try again, letting me continue my streak. A slow process but it would mean eventually, I would be able to climb the ranks high enough to get the World Ability Ribbon.

As you can imagine though, I was doing this process of reloading and backing up a lot, and at one point I restored a file incorrectly, taking out the game too early, causing the file to go blank. No problem I'll just restore the file again and if I was competent, that's wherethis would have ended. But, because of how much I was using Checkpoint, my muscle memory got a lite crosswired, so instead of restoring my file, I made a new backup over it, effectively erasing the entire thing.

For reference this included:

400 hrs of Gameplay, A Pokedex roughly 2/3rds complete, A fully developed Safari Zone, Several Pokemon from my various Gen 4 Playthroughs over the years, Every Arceus Plate, (Which are actually pretty difficult to get in HGSS), All 5 of my Ribbon Masters

And perhaps worst of all, my entire collection of Gen 4 shinies. This included:

My near back to back Shiny Luxio and Luxray from Platinum,

A shiny Darkrai and Shaymin I hunted with the Void Glitch

Several Radar and Safari Week Shinies

And a shiny of each Sinjoh Dragon.

Needless to say I was both pissed and devestated. There was some consolation, since I had backups of Gen 3 and Platinum, my Ribbon Masters and Battle Tower mons were safe. Everything else though, initially I was resigned to either losing them forever or trying very likely in vain to recreate as much as I could in PKHex which has it's own issues both logistically and ensuring they were legal, not helped at all by how bad the legality checker in PKHex actually is.

BUT

There was, one, just one saving grace. Fucking POKEMON BATTLE REVOLUTION

The way that Battle Revolution works is that you connect a Gen 4 Save File and it will make an exact copy of your boxes so you can use them in BR's various Colosseums. And of course I just so happened to have copied my boxes from HG a few months ago just after Safari Week meaning every pokemon I had nuked still existed! I had to hack my Wii U to dump the save file but because of that I was able to completely restore almost every single pokemon by copy pasting them back onto Heartgold.

Obviously still lost a lot in other areas but I really can't complain considering what I managed to restore.

As a sidenote, there was a similar incident way back where I accidentally erased my friend's Ruby Master File no shinieswere lost just a lot of progress. I think his reaction speaks for itself.

#Fuck up of cosmic proportions #Pokemon #pokemon heartgold #pokemon battle revolution #Pokemon gen four #ribbon master #This will hopefully never happen again

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jeannedarkterraguard · 1 year ago

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HoloAdvent Debut Reactions

So we're finally getting another HoloEN generation and Lisa and I decided to fuck up our sleep schedule (I mean not that there's gonna be much of a sleep schedule left once BG3 comes out next week) to watch the Debuts live and I'm gonna write down my thoughts about them so lets get to it...

first up Shiori Novella

-this loading screen is somehow comfy and spooky at the same time... weird

-wow... not the voice i was expecting from that model

-"Age: eye-don't-know"... oh god we have another Ina

-well that was... certainly a story...

-i literally never heard of any of these books... but to be fair i only ever read like 15 books if you don't count the ones that i was forced to read in school

-hey, i recognize some of these cartoons... well i recognize blues clues... and I've heard of courage and south park

-so she likes harvest moon huh

-i also don't recognize any of her husbandos, anime or games... am i old or are these just very niche (I'm old... the answer is I'm old)

-eating with scissors... why?

-story-driven games... that's interesting could we finally have another Kiara?

-would you look at that... my phone finally got the notification that her debut stream is starting... thanks YouTube...

-Lisa: "oh god she dresses like me when i was 16"

Me: "well, let's be real you tried that for like a week before you decided it was too much work and went back to wearing sweatpants and t-shirts"

-everything at 9pm CST... sometimes i hate living in Europe...

Koseki Bijou

-so will Shiori do the intros for all of them?

-she already sounds like a gremlin

-okay, cool little animation

-140cm? So we continue the tradition of every hololive member being short...

-dislikes mushrooms... i can relate

-what the fuck is interactive food?

-oh ok she means annoying food...

-man i really have no idea what any of these anime are... then again i haven't watched any anime that hasn't aired on TV here in Germany... and we only really got the absolute most popular ones like one piece, dragon ball and naruto...

-long streams... by what metric? Kiara long or Kaela long?

-oh 3+ hours... that's... just regular hololive numbers

-play as herself... pretty sure holocure will take care of that

-okay I'll admit it... i don't get this joke... are gems one of these things that people want to eat despite them being non-edible like cattails or sea-foam?

-interesting segment...

-those times are not better... why can't we have someone in hololive stream at European times?

So those two were pretty fun now back to sleep and then the other two Debuts tomorrow...

Nerissa Ravencroft

-okay I like her voice

-is it just me or can her model turn around pretty far compared to other vtubers... it almost seems like that already is a 3d model

-175cm... we have a new tallEST Hologirl... we still don't have a TALL Hologirl...

-pepperoni + pineapple pizza... i'm okay with either of those on its own but not both of them together you should never mix savoury, sweet, sour AND spicy (wait I just remembered americans mean salami when they say pepperoni... that's fine)

-doesn't like underwear... artist are gonna have a field day with this...

-doesn't like mushrooms... likes Zelda, Mario, FF7... she's quickly becoming my favourite

-she's also the first one where I know at least two of her favourite anime, Naruto and sailor moon

-i mean who doesn't like binge watching (if I have to wait a week for the next episode I will forget what happened in the last one)

-500.000 subs... well she's already halfway there...

-ah Keffiy-papa should have known

-aaaand there it is... 7 pm CST...

The Twins

-not sure about these overly cute voices

-okay maybe it's the sleep deprivation but i'm having a hard time following what they're talking about

-fuwa likes cute girls... I can relate...

-mococo also likes cute girls... oh and black licorice... again I can relate

-IT'S THE BGM! THE BGM IS TOO LOUD! That's why I can't understand them...

-okay what's a pon-de-ring?

-nice song... but that's all I can really say about that... i'm not really a big music girl

-wait 16:00 GMT... that's... almost a good european time... no wait that's just their morning streams not their main ones... Fuck

Well that was fun. Out of all five girls I think nerissa is my favourite but we'll see how that works out in the future... kinda hard to tell in just 45 minutes... anyway i'll need to get ready for work now so I can't write anything more detailed...

bye

#vtuber #hololive #hololive english #holoadvent #jeanne watches #jeanne watches hololive #nerissa ravencroft #koseki bijou #fuwawa abyssgard #mococo abyssgard #shiori novella #jeanne watches vtubers

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kitchfit · 8 months ago

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Year In Review: Viddy Game Pt 4 (Happy Mario Day!!!)

Oops! All Mario! To prepare for the release of Super Mario Wonder, I wanted to play through as many of the Mario games I never played before as I could. There are a few wayward titles I missed, but I’m sure I’ll end up playing those sometime in the distant year of 2024. Damn that sounds like a fake year. I hinted in earlier reviews that this was something of a nightmare to accomplish, but that was just me being silly. They’re Mario games! All of these were pretty fun.

Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga

I started out my Mariothon with the story-driven series I had never actually touched. I’ve played all the (good) Paper Mario games, but I’ve never touched the other side of the plumber’s rpgs. The combat was a refreshing change of pace after all those Final Fantasy games. It’s almost as much of a rhythm game as it is turn based, which makes it very engaging. I also like what it adds to the Mario World. Luigi has been characterized in several of the RPGs and his own spin off series, but having him along for the entire ride in this story driven game makes him somehow more endearing to me than he was before. I like to imagine this takes place right after Super Paper Mario, and Mario is making sure his best bro is safely right next to him after the shit he went through.

The Bean Bean Kingdom feels like a suitable alternative to the Mushroom one we’ve grown familiar with. A lot of the older games had introduced other Themed Kingdoms, like the Jewelry Kingdom in Yoshi’s Safari or Sarasaland in Mario Land, which is based on types of tea. And Mario Odyssey would assert the entire world being organized into these Kingdoms, so Bean Bean fits right in! It’s super fun to explore the fresh areas with a familiar aesthetic. I only wish these Bean characters would make more appearances outside of this game. I guess they show up in the other Mario and Luigis, but Reggie knows what I mean. Put Prince Peasley in Mario Kart, coward!

New Super Mario Bros

When this game released I had no idea that 2D Mario had been put on hold for ten whole years. From my perspective Super Mario World had only been released earlier that year in 2006, on Nintendo’s brand new console, the hand-me-down Game Boy Advance I got from my cousin. So when my friend showed me New Super Mario Bros. on his Fancy DS Lite in 2009, I wasn’t that impressed. This one didn’t even have the cape, or the Tanooki suit from Mario 3! I was not impressed. What it did have was a fun as hell competitive mode that I could play with my friend via DS download play (which is an awesome system they should bring back), so I never felt the need to seek out a copy.

Playing it now, the game is a lot more distinctive than I gave it credit for. While the world themes are based around the generic grass, ice, fire, etc. themes the Mario games always recycle in some way, the level designs give a good sense of cohesiveness, and the new power-ups: the tiny mushroom, Mega Mushroom, and Blue Shell significantly alter how you approach the level. When you’re tiny, you get a higher jump and can get into hidden paths, but touching Anything Will You, while Mega Mario can ignore everything and cause as much carnage as possible. The Blue Shell lets Mario continuously slide and kill anything in your path provided you keep whatever initial momentum you started with, making this game the singular moment the red plumber stole something from the blue hedgehog. The low-res 3D artstyle felt dated when I first saw this game, since I wasn’t enjoying the industry norm of changing every franchise to 3D. “Give me my pixels, damn you!” said 8-year-old Kitch. I now find it really charming, especially compared to the later entries in the “New” series. There are a lot of original enemies in this game that never show up again. I need everyone to look at the Snailicorn immediately.

Super Mario 64 DS

I was always told this was the inferior version of Mario 64 due to the limited control scheme. Instead of full 360 movement, you are now cut down to 8 directional movements cycled on the d-pad. However, I played this game on the 3DS, and the analogue stick made those 8 directions flow seamlessly. The other change is the addition of a Run Button, one that I was not aware of until futilely trying to race against Koopa the Quick. That’s right, for the entire fight against King Bob-omb, I had just assumed this game ran like shit, or that Yoshi was intentionally designed to be extremely slow until I happened to hold down the b-button as if this was some kind of. 2D MARIO GAME? In 3D??? It’s a sensible change, but one that is only communicated by experimenting with the controls, which someone who has already beaten the original game 3 times wouldn’t really think to try. And since there’s little need to ever Not Run, holding that button down for the ENTIRE GAME started to get annoying towards the end.

Otherwise, it was really nice returning to this classic. The calm atmosphere in exploring the Mushroom Castle and revealing its little secrets makes it genuinely unmatched as a hubworld, and the levels, while mostly generically themed, cram tons of personality into such small areas. Realizing how tiny levels like Cool, Cool Mountain and Big Boo’s Haunt are actually startled me, since I spent so much time as a kid exploring the nooks and crannies of those areas. There are also a lot of new stuff hidden across these levels that either unlock or are accessed by the new playable characters. Each of them have their own movement speeds and abilities, but none of them really play as well as the Mario Himself, so changing into them was mostly situational. I loved the new boss fights that unlocked them, though. Adding Goomboss from Paper Mario into the OG 3D Mario made me really happy. I’ve still never 100% this game, but if I go back, I might actually make sure it’s this version I complete.

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

The awaited sequel to the GBA game, I hear absolute jackshit about this game when people talk about the Mario and Luigi series. I assumed it was the runt that came between the beloved classics of Superstar and Bowser’s Inside Story, but that isn’t true at all. In fact, I think I like this game more than Superstar. Since it’s on the DS, there’s a naturally higher fidelity with the pixel art, the premise is more interesting, and it adds a new layer to both the combat and overworld movement in the form of the BA-BIES. Since there are two new X and Y buttons, you get Baby Mario and Baby Luigi as additions to your playable characters, meaning at any one time you are juggling Four Whole Mario Bros. all for the price of One! The game is noticeably more difficult than Superstars, nothing too crazy, but I did die a lot more. Or I am just Bad At Games.

Like the previous entry, this game is oozing charm out of every bodily orifice it has. Mario and Luigi are characterized extremely well as they step up as babysitters. It warmed my heart everytime Luigi purposefully goofed up to make the babies laugh or whenever Mario shouted “BA-BIES” in concern whenever they were in trouble. It may be the most overt personality he’s ever really shown. The time travel mechanic isn’t super in-depth, the present time basically acts as a hub world, but we get some more of that Sweet Mario Lore as they explore the Days of Mushroom Past. Autocorrect wants me to say Pasta. We get to see Baby Peach and Younger Toadsworth at some point after Yoshi’s Island, an E Gad pre-ghost fascination, and also these alien freaks who look suspiciously like Fucked Up Toads. What does this mean for them? Are Toads themselves descended from aliens, or vice versa? Will we ever get to see “Toads In Space?!” Some kind of… “MARIO GALAXY???” Only the future can tell.

Super Mario 3D Land

Nintendo was able to put a 3D Mario on a handheld in the last generation, so I guess the new hurdle was an ORIGINAL 3D Mario on the Three Dee Ess. This serves that purpose well. I could honestly end it there. The level design is well executed around the controls that are based on Galaxy, and it translates really well. They brought back the Highly Acclaimed Tanooki Suit that lends itself nicely to 3D platforming, and also seemed to be a selling point of the game? A lot of the Goombas and Koopas are now wearing the tanooki suit, and even Peach gets to show off the fit at the end of the game. You can’t play as her though, it’s just there to tease you. Luigi is an unlockable character with his own set of remixed levels, but that’s really it.

And that’s the thing, this game is fun, but it’s also kind of… Nothing? If you’ve played 3D Land, tell me: Where does it take place? The Mushroom Kingdom? That’s probably a good guess, but there’s nothing that really shows that, is there? There’s little to no cohesion between the levels. The level select is a linear screen with a multicolor background. You’ll be playing a water level immediately following some weird toy-themed level with absolutely zero context. Where are we? What’s happening? No one really looks for a story in a Super Mario game, but the lack of any real context makes this game super forgettable to me. It’s just a selection of random levels, and a Lot of the levels are repeated with slight differences. Why? TELL ME REGGIE. At the very least we get these cute letters from Peach showing her own adventure escaping Bowser. That would’ve been a fun to play, but this game won’t let you go Girl Mode. Oh well.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

This is one of those “underrated Mario gems.” Maybe the only one. Super Mario Land is pretty mediocre, so I’m not surprised its sequel fell by the wayside. It’s super creative for a GB game, and because of the power of Cool Internet People, I got to play this in color! Lucky me :) The whole game takes place in a magical theme park that was maybe created at the end of one of the Mario Parties. Did anyone else make that connection? I know one guy did. They go ham on the level designs: an area that makes you tiny so Mario is battling ants, a bubble ride that takes you into space to fight Pig Creatures, a mechanical Mario; at one point you go inside a whale. It’s wacky! The enemy design reflects this too, there’s a bunch of Weirdos, like the Pig Creature:

The goal is to find those 6 Golden Coins in each world to unlock the Mario Castle, with the caveat that Mario will lose all his coins upon a game over and have to track them down again. You only have to repeat the boss fights however, so it’s not a complete wipe. My Boy Wario is introduced in this game, and he really does come across as this supernatural, corrupted parody of our portly performer that the commercials for this game made him out to be. But the official word is he’s just Mario’s childhood rival that was upset they didn’t name a castle after him. Don’t worry, Wario! I’m sure you’ll get yours soon.

Super Mario 3D World pt 1

This one is just stellar all around. It makes 3D Land look like a tech demo in comparison. Every level showcases a degree of creativity on par with Galaxy while keeping 3D Land’s linear design. Every part of this experience is just so damn satisfying, the new power ups, targeting the tops of the flagpoles, riding on Yobbo the Swimming Yoshi, and you can go GIRL MODE. My biggest complaint about 3D land is that they teased a playable Princess Peach without actually ever giving it to you, and now I refuse to play this game as any other character. Except when the game makes me play as Mario or Toad to get all the Green Stars. Also the GREEN STARS.

The secondary collectables have never felt as necessary as it does in 3D World. They add an incentive to explore the levels or find an extra challenge that are actually Worth searching for. I don’t remember if they really gave you anything, but I still liked finding them.

Also the MUSIC, the ost slaps so hard in this game. We’re moved to a new setting in 3D World, and the soundtrack and aesthetics match that vibe. It’s unique, it’s bOMBASTIC. There are two new power ups in the form of CAT and CHERRIES. The cat can run up walls, while the cherries can make a double of your character. The former is generally the best playstyle for most of the game a la the Tanooki suit, while the latter works as a fun challenge that gets really creative with its limits as you control two or three or six characters with one controller. There’s even a bonus mode at the end based on Galaxy where you can. Guess What? GO GIRL MODE EVEN HARDER. I haven’t done it yet but hey. I Am Going To.

Bowser’s Fury

This is one of the few I actually 100% completed. I was on a Dollywood trip with some friends and after the festivities ended at Guy Fieri’s Shitty Arcade and Ripley’s Wacky Wonderworks we stayed in the cabin and chilled out. I didn’t have a ton else to do while everyone was resting so I got really into Bowser’s Fury. Our first taste of what may be Open World Mario. It’s fun! Mario is stranded in the middle of a lake with wildly clashing aesthetics that somehow just works. Light blue dominates the eyes hampered by the slimy black of the magic ink polluting the water around you. There are small yellow islands dotting the lake and floating in the air. And when you get to these islands? Cats! They’re all cats! There are cats on the ground, cat ears on the goombas, Cat Koopas, Kitty Boombooms, everything is a cat!! Even the grass is cat fur! You have cat to be kitten me, right meow! It’s a place so suitably weird for the Mario universe, I could easily see Lake Lapcat being introduced in one of the earlier Paper Marios.

Gameplay wise this is just a big Mario Oddysey world with more… direction? The lack of a real swimming mechanic in Bowser’s Fury makes the ocean a fun place for movement and little else, though there are occasional challenges for Yobbo the Swimming Yoshi to run through. It makes Lapcat feel like a massive hubworld of sorts, with no divide between it and the level, It’s as if in Mario Galaxy you could walk straight from Rosalina’s Observatory directly onto a new planet without going through the Domes, if that makes sense. It’s short, but super fun for what it is. You get all the power ups from 3D World to play around in less linearly designed levels, and it lets you stock up on them through an inventory system. Bowser Jr. follows you around and acts cute! Mario and Bowser turn into Kaijus and you have a Godzilla vs King Kong style boss fight. I guess Mario would be King Kong in that analogy… Nintendo may need the help of John Kirby once more…

Super Mario Sunshine

I had never heard about this game’s existence until I was like 15. My friend told me it was one of her favorite Gamecube games growing up, and I did not believe her. Every description she gave about Super Mario Sunshine sounded like she was messing with me. “Oh yea it’s the game where Mario goes on vacation and he like, gets framed for vandalism? And you have a water gun and you clean paint.” Fuck off with that, you’re not getting me! I thought it was a running joke she had until I looked closely at Mario's trophy in Brawl that referenced the same name. Huh!

Anyways this is my first time actually playing it on the 3D All-Stars collection. I started it when it was released, but I reached a point where I had no idea what I was supposed to do until my cousin who grew up with it told me I needed almost every shinesprite to beat the game. ALSO WEIRD. The other 3D Marios let you go at your own pace and pick and choose which levels you want, but here all but the last levels are required. I guess this is because Sunshine is more “narratively driven” and they want you to watch how each world changes through your actions. I can appreciate that! Mario 64 experimented with that a bit, like the tower appearing at the top of Whomp fortress in Star 2 or King Bo-bomb’s corpse appearing at the bottom of his battlefield after you coup de tated that fucker. Sunshine, however, has levels like Noki Bay where each level has Mario tackle the source of the pollution, or Gelato beach where you make sure a hotel is suitable for reopening and even get to celebrate at the end.

The controls on the other hand. My cousin described them as “lovably janky.” Mario no longer has the long jump, which startled me every time I tried to long jump, which was a lot cause I have the memory of a housefly. Wall jumping is harder to pull off as Mario does not automatically turn towards the wall like other Mario games, so you have to time it perfectly, and Mario’s overall movement is very awkward. I never felt like he jumps the exact distance I expect him to go. This is probably to make the player more reliant on Fludd, the aforementioned water gun that can let you hover as well as two other fun, but useless abilities. Fludd is very fun to use, but they take it away from you during the platform challenges and it reveals just how janky Mario is in this game. I guess it also makes them more satisfying to complete. Still, since these levels are required, I probably would have given up ever beating the game if I played it as a kid.

New Super Mario Bros 2

This is a similar case to 3D Land. It seems the goal of this entry was “put a 2D Mario on the 3DS,” which was a less impressive goal given the OG New Super Mario was already playable on the 3DS. It’s much prettier, I guess. The big name of this game is “Coins.” Coins are everywhere in this game. There’s a new power-up, the Golden Flower, that lets you turn blocks and enemies into coins. Another power-up that gives Mario a coin every step he makes. There are Golden Koopas that produce coins when thrown. There’s a counter on the home screen that shows how many total coins you’ve got, and the game notifies you every time you reach a “Coin milestone.”

Yea I’ve never cared about collecting coins in Mario games. It’s not like they unlock anything that matters in this one, they just congratulate you every three minutes and if you get One Million coins you get a new title screen. That’s kind of cool, but not something I would actually care to try and get. What I’m left with is the most standard 2D Mario game to exist. The Tanooki suit is here, but like 3D Land, you still can’t go Girl Mode. Unless you count Luigi. Genderfluïd King. Despite this, I do find myself coming back to this one quite a bit to carve out some of the bonus worlds. It’s slightly harder than the other games in the “New” series. Maybe if they leaned into that, like the OG Mario 2, it would be more memorable. Wait, this is the 3rd New Super Mario game. Why is it called 2? The hell?

New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe

As the final entry in the “New” series, it makes sense that this is the most polished version of that game style. The world designs are still based on the tried and exhausted Grass, Desert, Snow, etc. aesthetics, but here there are a lot more unique level designs or some that are SO COOL aesthetically, like the level based around a Van Gogh painting. I wish there were more levels like that, but in THE LEAST, this is the first New Super Mario game to introduce CONTEXTUALIZATION. This is something I’ve been complaining about with these new mario games. Super Mario World (the best one) has a beautiful map level-select. When you’re in Donut Plains on the map, the level reflects that design, taking place on a field, and when you go in a cave, THE LEVEL TAKES PLACE IN A CAVE. Imagine that. It’s such a simple thing that adds so much to the experience. You are actually traveling through a world, not just choosing random shit off a menu. U Deluxe’s map isn’t as cool as World’s, but it was still immensely fun to discover all its little secrets, and made me realize how much I missed World’s map design. Maybe I should play that game instead.

There is one unforgivable sin in Mario U specific to Deluxe. There’s an original playable female character in the form of Toadette! Girl Mode! Finally! And it SUCKS! It’s not actually that bad, but playing as Toadette gives you access to Peachette, whose existence replaces all power-ups in the game while playing as her. So Girl Mode is actively worse to play than any other mode, except funny rabbit mode. But that’s only if you want to be a funny rabbit. She’s meant to be “easy mode,” which is a bit demeaning given she’s the only female character, but I get the desire for an easier way for kids to play the game, I just wish it didn’t lock you out of all of the power-ups. Speaking of which, there are a Lot of power-ups in this game, but a lot of them are hidden for some reason, like the Propellor Hat and Penguin suit, which I found 1 and None of, respectively. Why are they in the game if I can’t use them? These aren’t collectors items, they’re funny little costumes that are supposed to be FUN. WE’RE ALL HAVING FUN HERE.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

FINALLY they’re letting Mario be WEIRD AGAIN. The artstyle of the New Super Mario Bros. games got heavily criticized after this one was announced for being “soulless” and “boring,” but I wouldn’t say that. Because I don’t think it’s true! They’re vibrant and colorful games with an obvious ton of talent and heart put into them. I would, however, describe them more as “corporate.” Homogenized and Marketable. Mario and Gang have been kept to their models in every game since the DS and everyone has clearly been exhausted by it. Wonder is breaking the trend, and Mario looks fucking Weird.

He’s so much rounder, his clothes have a different texture, and his eyes are bigger and brighter. His eyebrows are clipping through his hat! He looks like a plastic toy brought to life, which is not an insult. All of the characters are brilliantly animated to pull off this new look, and I refuse to try out embedding videos in Tumblr so you just have to trust me. It’s not that I want Mario to stay like this, but I DEFINITELY want them to Keep Being Weird Like This.

The weirdness doesn’t end at the artstyle. There are three new power-ups, the Elephant Apple, Bubble Flower, and the Drill Shroom, the last of which is carried over from Mario Galaxy 2’s Spin Drill in terms of gameplay. The Bubble Flower lets you capture things in Bubbles and lets you jump on them for extra air time, and the Elephant Flower turns you into a Fucking Ele Phant. Twice as big, can swipe things with your trunk, can carry WATER in your trunk. Truly the Mario experience we’ve been missing. There are also the most playable characters than there have ever been in a mainline Mario game. Peach, Toadette, AND Daisy in her first playable appearance. THREE FORMS OF GIRL MODE. Nintendo knew what my main Mario complaint was before I ever thought of it.

The main draw of this game, however, are the additions of the Wonder Flowers. There are no levels that stand out against the other, more standard levels like the New Super games, because literally every level in this game is FANTASTIC. The Wonder Flowers are an extra challenge midway through any level that changes it into something WEIRD AS HELL. Maybe the level speeds up and slows down rapidly, maybe you have to dodge walking Piranha Plants as they sing an acapella stage performance, maybe you turn into a Goomba yourself and have to avoid being eaten by a predator. It can be literally ANYTHING. Every level is exciting to go through because you want to see what NONSENSE those crazy bastards have come up with.

Not to mention the world design. The Flower Kingdom is BEAUTIFUL and similar to the Beanbean Kingdom in terms of cohesion. There’s another country right next to the Mushroom Kingdom with a new botanical aesthetic we’ve never heard of before? That makes sense! It feels perfectly natural for it to be part of this universe. This is another of the three I went to the effort of 100% completing, and some of those last levels are HARD. I gave myself a migraine on the final badge challenge. Also BADGES. They’re cool. Some provide an extra movement option and others make movement actively worse as a way to challenge yourself. Some are just fun! It adds a neat level of replayability to the game as you experiment with them all.

You also get a fantastic reward for completing all the levels. It is. SO Stupid. Extremely dumb. And I have never been more satisfied with a completion reward in a Mario game.

Super Mario Galaxy

To end out my Mariothon, I celebrated with another playthrough of my favorite game featuring a space-faring plumber, Super Mario Galaxy. This was the game that made me fall in love with the series, and in my eyes, still has not been beaten by other Mario titles in terms of atmosphere (PUN). It is just so fun to exist in the levels in these games in a way I can’t say about other Mario titles, except maybe Odyssey and 64. I could follow the objective, climb on the honey walls as Bee Mario, or hop across apples and pears so large they’ve become planetoids and have a great time, fantastic even. But I could also walk around Honeyhive and Deep Dark and look around the scenery and play around with the controls, which are restrained, but refined compared to the previous 3D Marios. Most of the purple coin levels are designed to do exactly that. Galaxy is by no means a sandbox game, but it retains those elements from Sunshine and 64.

Maybe that feeling just comes out of nostalgia. This was at one point the only game I would play on my wii for months on end. It’s like comfort food to me. One time I heard a local cafe play the Galaxy main theme on the speaker as I was walking by and I just. Paused for a bit, leaned against the brick exterior and soaked in the vibes. Listening to that pristine orchestral track whilst watching people come home from a full day of work, or following the actions of a cat decided whether or not to eat a bug running for its life. There’s probably a copyright issue they were violating, but who cares, Fuck Nintendo.

There is one thing that I know isn’t just nostalgia. The older I get the more I appreciate the storybook section of Galaxy. Every few worlds you complete, you’ll get a notification that Rosalina has a story to tell you, and you’ll hear a chapter out of her children’s book detailing her past. It has a melancholy vibe and it’s a genuinely beautiful and heartfelt story with a gorgeous handpainted artstyle:

Supposedly, Koizumi (co-director on the game) snuck this feature in without Miyomoto’s knowledge, and he hated it. When he discovered it after the game was released, he was upset enough that to this day Nintendo has not let Koizumi direct a big release. Apparently, he thought it ruined the game’s tone. I don’t know if I believe that, and I don’t feel like fact checking that shit, but if so, I’m glad Koizumi got it past the guy. It elevates the game’s overall story to an absurd degree in my eyes, providing Galaxy with one of the best endings in any video game I have played.

My ONE criticism. MY singular gripe. Is the title itself. “Galaxy” has always bothered me. “Battlerock GALAXY?” “Loop de Loop GALAXY???” Miyomoto sir, those are SOLAR SYSTEMS. And tiny ass solar systems at best. Sometimes just singular planetoids. But obviously Super Mario System or Super Mario Tiny Ass Planet isn’t as Marketable as- What the fuck was that? Wait, hold on. Sorry guys. Computer, ENHANCE.

What the fuck is this? I’ve always noticed it there in the background, but… I’ve never considered… is this Earth??? The surface of the Mario Planet? Are you telling me all of these “galaxies” are simply a collection of stylized MOONS??? Do we ever actually leave the outer atmosphere? Well, maybe. Looking at the skyboxes of a few more worlds, it seems we do actually bounce around a few other planets, but they’re nearly always there, holding our bee-themed satellites in rotation of itself. That makes more cosmological sense, I suppose, but I’ll stand by that Super Mario Satellite wouldn’t have been too horrible of a name if Nintendo wanted some fucKING ACCURACY WITH THEIR TITLES. HAPPY MARIO DAY EVERYONE. The big MAR10. I totally planned for this to release exactly today, and it’s not just because I put this whole project on the backburner while I focused on my Real Life Job. Thank you to everyone who has been reading these (I see you). I’ve repeated before that these reviews are mostly for me, but the few people that have been leaving likes did motivate me to keep going. I’ll be posting more things on this blog in the future, but I’m not sure I’ll do the Year in Review thing in this manner again. Look forward to more of my ramblings! Or don’t! Skim them in mild interest! Don’t read them at all! Either way, wahoo! Yippee! Yahaha! And Have A Blessed Mario Day.

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furballfaggot · 10 months ago

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my buddy convinced me to make an animal jam play wild account since it actually still gets proper updates and so far my feelings have been. mixed. overall i havent done nearly as much as anyone else bc my account has existed for maybeee 2 or 3 hours? so this is just my first impressions. im also kinda biased bc ive been playing animal jam classic for years and years and YEARS. back when 9 + 10 = 21 was still unironically funny and every cool kid in class read warriors. might update this post with extra thoughts as i go along! all opinions below the cut bc this is an absurdly long post

ive only played a few levels of overflow (and it might be because i played on expert because i Definitely have no overbearing hubris casting a shadow upon my better judgement) but the gem payout being higher than AJC for each level you complete is a very welcome change (2 gems times X number, seemingly determined by how long your path is, vs AJPWs i think it was like 5 gems times X number determined by how long your path is? either that or like 10. idk i blew a whole half hour on overflow alone and it was almost 6 AM by the time i finished so my brains kinda muddled)

also, membership has become far less of an overbearing nightmare monster for AJPW in comparison to AJC! thats a good thing! personally i think that membership just Shouldn't but thats because i think any monetarily-accessed subscription anythings just Shouldn't especially in this day and age. i got to go to the clothing store and buy things i liked and i didnt just have to longingly stare at the paywalled options like a maiden gazing out to sea and it felt great

dont like how theres so many fewer options for shopping for Like Everything but its a far more ambitious game than AJC what with everything being 3d modeled, and its got a younger target demo and theyre usually happy with whatever looks cool, so it checks out. haha. funny pun that was intended definitely. whats there is also pretty great and the den item options you get started off with are both way more cool and way more More than classic in its hayday. idk about the ajc starting den items now though i dug my old account from the ashes of who i once was when i decided to pick classic up again. i dont actually remember if you start with any den items in ajc now that i think about it i might be misremembering. that still means play wild has that point against classic though. shame theres no water animals but they could maybe possibly be added in an update pretty please wildworks if by some miracle youre reading this i am begging and pleadi

really my main issue so far is with how many things cost real-world money. theres next to nothing that requires a membership to even be bought aside from one members-only map location my buddy warned me about beforehand -- which, as a reluctant f2p since literally like 5th grade, ive been playing this game for Far too long, i do genuinely appreciate -- but boy oh boy you can sure tell this was mainly developed as a mobile game. there is so much pay-real-money-for-trinkets stuff and you just Cannot disable that menu. at least let me get rid of the little button that tells me i can spend the hard-earned bucks on moms credit card to get 1/4th the amount of animals of AJC man thats all i ask of this part

also this is largely unrelated but can i just say i DESPISE how many things are like "hi heres a welcome bonus :) oh but you need to pay like 3 bucks for it. yeah its usually 5 but for a Special New Player Like You? its a steal!" like thats not a welcome bonus thats an entry fee. i know thats like a paltry amount of money compared to most things Just Ever but its also coming from a guy whos family usually has zero money to spare

#champ talks #animal jam #animal jam classic #animal jam play wild #wildworks #aj classic #ajc #aj play wild #ajpw #im the worlds number 1 overflow fan btw can you tell

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game-boy-pocket · 2 years ago

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Broke in the everdrive with Mario, following it up with Zelda only seemed natural. No deaths, naturally... though I came pretty close.

Much like with Mario though, I didn't play the vanilla game, I played a rom hack. This one is called The Legend of Zelda Redux... it changes a lot more than what Mario did, but unlike Mario, it also ha a lot of optional patches. You can even undo some of the changes the hack makes if you don't like them.

For example, this hack makes all the bomb-able walls and burn-able trees visual cues so you can spot them easily. I don't like that, and there's a patch to keep the secrets hidden. The game has new graphics, but you can choose to keep the original graphics, which I did. If you think the low health beep is annoying, you can remove it, or replace it with a low pitch heartbeat sound. There's lots of options.

It also adds a new diagonal slash move like how the sword works in the gameboy, instead of just having the single thrust attack... I was skeptical of weather it would work with the game, but I actually think it works very well. It doesn't leave Link wide open, it doesn't feel too broken while still enhancing Link's attack... I really like it.

If someone has a hard time getting into the original legend of Zelda, this hack is the best chance of winning someone over to the game, but I still don't think it's a sure fire thing that it will win over young/new fans of Zelda who grew up with the 3D games or are just getting into it.

I have one more major enhancement of an NES game to play but I've got work tomorrow and it's 1AM. But i'm very happy with my NES and Everdrive... promise i'll play something new again eventually, but... probably not soon, lol, gotta revisit old faves, still wanna beat BOTW and that Zelda 64 hack, and then i'm gonna lose myself in Tears of the Kingdom.

#pocket plays #the legend of zelda #nes #nintendo

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beardedhandstoadshark · 1 year ago

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I've never owned a DS before and I'm really interested in purchasing one but I have no idea which one I should go with. I know there's the regular, the 3ds and the XL, so which one would you recommend?

Depends on your preference! I‘m gonna go a bit into detail here so you know what you’re buying, and there’s a TLDR in bold at the bottom, but if it’s still too muddled please don’t hesitate to ask!

Also, disclaimer, whenever I talk about pricing it’s from my own perspective, so for all we know, I could buy something super cheap that’s really expensive for you and vise versa, so it’s better to check it for yourself still.

For starters, there‘s quite a lot of different versions of the console, with the og DS and 3DS even counting as their two separate lines.

Generally speaking I’d say go with a 3DS, as they can also play every DS game on top of their own (which doesn’t work the other way around) and the hardware’s only half as old, so it’s less likely to die on you in the near future. However that makes them more expensive, too.

XL just means bigger screen/console. It’s just like when a phone comes out in regular and big size. For some folks the added space is too much to properly hold it anymore, for others the regular size is too small to do anything. Depends on your preference. For comparison:

The DSi and New 3DS are both kinda like "upgraded“ versions of the DS/3DS, respectively.

Left is a DSi, right is a New 3DS XL. They both have the same sizes as their normal counterparts, so the size comparison still works. (Ignore the low screen light on the DSi, I just didn’t bother changing it back lol. On Max brightness they‘re the same.)

If you don’t plan on playing any Gameboy Advance games, absolutely go with a DSi instead of a regular DS. They go for the same price (at least here) but the DSi has better hardware and way more functions, while being way less of a brick compared to the og DS. Apparently the max screen brightness is also higher than the og? Idk tho.

Theres also the DS lite, which is a DS that looks like a DSi, but again. Same price, might as well go with the upgrade. In any case, they’re also both harder to accidentally snap in two than the og model lol.

The New 3DS only has better hardware but no new software compared to the regular 3DS. But it’s got extra buttons! Very rarely used, but they exist. It’s kinda like 60 fps vs 30 fps, if that makes sense? The hardware difference is noticeable especially right after you switch, but you can also live without it, and sometimes it doesn’t make that big of a difference.

Like, if I play Hyrule Warriors, the regular 3DS is barely holding it together on 20fps and can’t even do 3D while the New one‘s playing pretty smooth and lets you play with 3D. And only THEN does the N3DS goes down on the same level as the regular 3DS because it’s essentially playing the game in double for the 3D effect to work. Meanwhile Mario Bros 2 plays the exact same on both of them.

What you could also do, is get a 2DS. It’s like a 3DS, but in 2D. All the features of a 3DS except for the whole 3D gimmick, so it’s basically like the Switch Lite. You also can’t fold it like the other ones, unless you get a New 2DS XL, which is foldable again, but that ones‘ price range is all over the place. The normal 2DS seems to sell generally cheaper than all the other 3DS consoles, at least.

TLDR: your options are a

DS Lite

DSi

DSi XL

For the regular DS line, and for the 3DS line a

3DS

3DS XL

New 3DS

New 3DS XL

2DS

New 2DS XL

If you only have under 100 bucks or don’t care about 3DS games,I‘d say go with one of the DSi. All consoles of the DS go for more or less the same price, and it’s got the best hardware and features of them.

If you’ve got extra pocket change, go with any of the 3DS consoles instead, as there’s just more games for it on top of a better hardware and less age. Your cheapest option is a 2DS, but a regular 3DS isn’t that far off either. They might even go for the same price, if you’re lucky? If you wanna, you can go also with a New 3DS if it’s a lot of pocket change.

And if you vibe with a bigger screen, take the XL version of whatever line you chose! Except for the 2DS XL, somehow its 3D counterpart is cheaper than the 2D XL again.

Also, ALL of these consoles come in multiple colors!

TLDRTDLR: DSi for price or any of the 3DS line for more games, imo

…and if you get any of them and the shoulder buttons are broken, that’s completely normal. You can drop them 100 times and the console is fine, but play Mario Kart too often and the shoulder buttons stop working lmao.

#another anon ask #The DSi and all 3DS‘ are also the best for modding #but I doubt that particular thing is gonna be much of an influence here is it XD

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iamgrowingstronger-blog · 1 year ago

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Cloning Clyde

Hours played: Around 10

Completion: 100%'d

I believe this was among the first wave of games for the Xbox 360 marketplace, and man, I remember playing the shit out of the trial version of this game as a kid. I don't think I even knew what the concept of trial version meant, but that didn't stop me from replaying the game again and again. Recently, I saw it was cheap on Steam and decided to buy it and finally see once and for all what was in the full version of the game.

The biggest thing I love about the game is its graphics, honest. Everybody has some old video game artstyle they really love, be it the beautiful pixel art on some of the titles on the PC-98, or the early uncanny stages of 3D on the PS1. For me, it's gotta be the specific kind of 3D in this game that I can't find the words to describe (maybe when I get better at writing). Combined with the surprisingly animated Clydes you control, and the game has this style that, while old, does not feel very dated. I absolutely adore how this game looks.

Anyway. You control the Clydes in individual levels, defeating security robots and exploding chickens to reach the goal while using various switch mechanisms, using animals to get further, and combining your Clyde WITH an animal to gain new abilities. The game only really has a handful of assets: just four or five level types, the aforementioned enemies are the only enemies, and the number of different puzzle-related objects are probably in the single-digits. Despite that, I never really got tired of the game's small handful of assets. I always enjoyed kicking the crap out of the security robots or jumping around the map riding a sheep, or pulling a random lever to see what happens. What the game has is charm.

However, the game does have a big weak point: the level design. Aside from the occasional puzzle that made me think a little bit, most levels can be beaten while functioning on autopilot. If you're going for 100%, the levels can just feel tedious, since some of them have 15 or 20 Clydes that you have to control and have escape individually, one at a time. Other times, the levels just get questionable, like how there were a couple levels toward the end that were very, very spacious for seemingly no reason. I didn't hate it, but it felt like instead of doing something new, they just took a level and spread it way out. GImmicks get reused, objects get used in the same way, and thus, a lot of the game's 30 or so levels blend together. There were a couple that stuck out, like a neat catapult puzzle that made me have to think for a minute, or the penultimate level, which was this absolutely massive sprawling course that felt like this game's The Great Maze from Brawl, but generally, most were forgettable.

Another gripe is the lack of background music. You'll get a little melody at the start of levels or for defeating every security robot in a level, but otherwise, it's just silent. In a game like Frogger Returns, I'm focused so much on not dying that I don't notice as much, but in a more explorative, relaxed game like this, it really bugs me.

For what the game has, I still really like it. It pretty much was what my childhood self remembered: this fun, jank little game with funny little character animations. I really, really wanted to give this game a 7, but it just doesn't quite reach that bar. Too much of the game just doesn't feel like it's pushing what it has to the limit. It's not the lack of assets that's the problem, it's that they mostly get used in very surface-level ways. Most levels in the game you could stick at the beginning and few would bat an eye.

Overall score: 6/10. Can recommend, was a fun experience. If you're an achievement hunter-type, this game is pretty easy to 100% on top of being relatively short.

#game review #cloning clyde

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sapphoslavender · 2 years ago

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starting a new AC:NL town! DAY ONE!

hi everyone! today marks a new beginning: a new AC:NL town! i've had this game since 2013, and i've made dozens of towns since then. i really want to make a new AC:NH island as well, but i can't bear to delete my current one, and i don't exactly want to buy a whole new switch just to play animal crossing (nintendo, please, i'm begging you, let us make multiple islands!! or else i will cry).

i'll be honest: i have no idea what i'm doing. i haven't played since 2020. i always give up on new towns and don't even end up getting my first house before i reset! i have commitment issues, ok?? but i'm gonna try this time. can't promise that it's gonna be pretty at all, but...

side note: i'm not gonna be hacking anything. mostly because i don't know how and don't want to accidentally kill my 3ds. i wish i knew how, but :P oh well. i also won't be doing time travel because i don't really want to lol.

ANOTHER note, my 3ds is old and kinda crappy, so there won't be any photos....for now. just my thoughts n stuff. that's it!!!

first thing's first, creating the town. this will be mayor lavender, in the town of sappho!

my native fruit are pears, and my current villagers are wart jr, sally, hamlet, opal, and rosie! i was excited to get rosie because, i mean, of course. i also loved meeting opal, she's really cool! and hamster villagers always give me such nostalgia, because in my first ever new leaf town, i had two of them. but still, i'm not sure if i like hamlet yet. same goes with wart jr and sally. we'll wait and see!

after setting up my tent, i started on the basics. getting a feel for the new town, getting money. i started plotting out my pathways and blocking off areas i dont want villagers to move on. does that trick still work, using paths to block areas? i'm a little rusty on this game, lmao. i hope so. after that, i put in my down payment for my house, and got started on isabelle's tasks. i started my flower farm down on the beach - it's just red and white roses for now, since i forgot about all the color combos...i'll google that later. and finally, i talked with all my villagers, paying more attention to rosie and opal because i love them.

there's not much to do on day one of a new town, but i hope there's some new stuff tomorrow! i also hope my sibling will move in after they make their own town. maybe i can even convince them to write a post....

that's all for now! see you all tomorrow :) i'm currently trying to figure out how to send screenshots from my 3ds to my other devices, but the 3ds internet browser isn't really working right now. i'll try again tomorrow :(

#acnl blogging #acnl #acnlwa #animal crossing new leaf #animal crossing #new leaf #welcome amiibo #nintendo 3ds #tales of sappho #girlblogging

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aamethyst000 · 2 months ago

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feeling so blue right now, i feel kind of stupid about it lmao - july 2,24 - 7:12pm

Dude, my 3DS fricken broke a couple of days ago and ive been sad about it ever since lmao i was almost done with my master quest on OoT!! how abosultely frusturatingg is THAT?! i was at the last temple, getting to the very last sage before finding out who sheik's other identity is. i didnt even get to start over on majoras mask or kirby. Now im on the look out for a new DS, whether it be a 2DS or a 3DS again i'll decide that when i know i have enough money for it. which will take a long while because i still dont have a goddamn job EVEN THOUGH ive applied to 3!!!! other jobs this year but absolutley no one has answered me. i fucking hate it when they just ghost me like that. i'd rather have them telll me striaght up that im not "fit" for the position i apllied for, or simply just not hired. that's all i want! not this no answer IS an answer bullshit. anyway, hired or not, im still going to be without a handheld concol for a good couple of months. maybe. it depends. i Just started decorating my 3ds with pretty stickers :( i literally wanted to go cry about it, only to be slapped with reality, about how old my 3ds is, that just made me mad lmao because my older brother's dsi is lasting LONGER and it is F I V E years OLDER than my 3ds!!! like, fuck off xD oh well, nothing i can do about it now, considering i dont even have enough money for just the repairs alone. so, im just going to buy a new ds instead. i know that is not any cheaper, but i'm impatient and i really want to finish my file on the master quest!! dammit!!

9;25pm - i just found out i cant play any gamecube games on my laptop :( the emulator is slow and laggy which kind of sucks but i am able to play them on my phone! ive finished twilight princess three times now and im on my way to finish wind waker now, which is taking a bit but only because this is my firdt time finishing on my own with out my older brother lol its okie, im an adult (with a short temper but thats besides the point) i can do this just by looking up the quest part on either youtube or wikihow, ive done it for the heart collections on twilight. i can do it for the wind waker playthrough. which i have about 3 times so far. and i think i am doing pretty well! for my first play through by myself. i can see why i had little to no interest in it when my family actually owned the game. i only remember my older brother playing WW, the others played mario sunshine or smash bros (both are the best btw). so, i dont blame younger me for not having too much interest.

july 5,24 1:11am - SSOOOOOOO UUUUHHHHHH.......shit just got a bit chaotic today! we just found out that my brothers school isnt going to continue high school classes. so they will have to go sign up for another school, IN ANOTHER TOWN BY THE WAY. my mother and i have been mulling it over almost all day today, she says that she doesnt want my younger brother to be staying with any of our family members and i agree with her. lemme explain, one aunty of mine tends to be agressive, some times downright abusive, another aunty, emotions fly like a humming bird who drank nothing but espresso, on of my cousin has a child of her own to look after, same with my cousins sister and she has two kids, all of which my brother does not know very well and will be shy like me and not talk for a long while. make him feel like being comfortable but shy and quiet about it is bad. anyway, my mother is very iffy about sending him into town for his last year of school and i get it. the last time she did that with my older brother and shit hit the roof with him. he moved in with one of our aunty's place, stayed for a few months before finally moving out because said aunty was trying to take advantage of my brother temporarily looking after our spoilt ass nephew who looked and treated his cousins as literal maids. not only that, she tried to start a fight with him and our cousin fucking did nothing but make it worse. so yeah, i get why my mother doesn't want to send my little brother into town. why is my little brother's high school life so chaotic and none of it is even HIS fault?? like DAMN universe!! fucking take a goddamn chill pill when handling my litlle brother THANK YOU!! and for my older brother, FUCKING LEAVE HIM ALONE HE HAS BEEN THROUGH ENOUGH ALREADY OR I IWLL THROW HANDS

anyway, this year has been one fckn crazy year for us, thats for goddamn sure.

july 8,24 6:35pm - i keep trying to play on the family dsi, i cant seem to stay on it long like i did with my 3ds. and i really miss my 3ds, i cant believe i have to buy another one and fucking save up for that. im planning on getting a screen protector, case and a little game case for the handheld consol. be more prepared this time and all. im just so mad the dsi is lasting longer than my fckn 3ds!! lmao just fckn RUDE! anyway, what i have in my little cart on ali express says it costs up to 205 for those things all together, i was going to look on amazon but i have doubt with their electronics and such, and it is more expensive as hell. so no thanks. i think i can wait until i have enough to buy those things for my new 3ds. i just keep onn looking at my old 3ds all sad that i cant play on it for all hours of my day. oh well, i can save up money for myself, so i can save up to get a replacement and possibly other accescories for my new ds kekekeke

i forgot to mention that i went to go hang out with my friends the other day, we had shrooms and edibles for the night, it was fckn fun and kind of upsetting lmao there were certain situations where i was questioning a lot, and other situation i just straight up did not like. other than that it was quite fun tripping pretty hard like that, however sleeping was freaking difficult lmao i was literally arguing with myself in my own head about getting to bed and sleep, i just flopped around and fucking giggled at myselef like, what the hell lmao

11:23pm - good this i double checked the 3ds for anything else that i am missing and now that ive done that, it wont turn on at all, itll just lightly beep at me almost like a whisper and then itll just shut off without the screen turning on. im even more sad lmao i cant wait till i have enough for the 3ds and the cases, i really want to finish my master quest on ocorina of time. this itch wont go away until i do. i should clean my room and start on the towels soon. the house is starting to look like a tornado went into our house and i so can tell that none of us are liking it so i am hoping that one or all of us finall gather our energy to clean up the house again. we need it and the pets really need it too. i know that the messyness is affecting us all to the point we \re getting cranky. so, yeah, we need to clean up. this will help my brain get over the guiltiness of buying myself this new handheld consol and the fact that i am using a little bit of my savings. i already have cashed out a couple moolas from the band office but no more than that. i still do not trust my little brother around my savings still. so ill be keeping some in my bank while slowly cashing them out when he doesnt know that i am going there or why. to which i only go to the band office during school days. speaking of, i still dont think that he wont be able to go and graduate on time unless i move to rupert. and if i do that, that may mean that ill have to talk to my alchoholic "dad" about helping me move to an apartment and then sign my little brother up to the highschool but the thing is, the school education there is way different than the one he is used to and grew up in. which sucks cause i was excited for him to gradutate. he only has one more year to go too! it sucks so much i wish the school is starting to get their shit together during this summer cause MY GOD!! this is ridiculous. almost no teachers in highschool? i stilll cant get over that!!! any way this will be the last journal entry for a bit, good night/day readers!

#lgbt #2spirit #happy #journalist #they/them #lgbtq #journalist amethyst000 #journal #journal entry #queer #3ds

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aotopmha · 5 months ago

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The Shadow Generations addition to Sonic Generations frustrates me because it does the thing Sonic Superstars did and feels way too overpriced for what it is going for.

Part of the reason I've yet to play Superstars is because everywhere I look, it's still priced at full and as far as I know they've done nothing to iron out the frustrating and inconsistent aspects of the game.

Doesn't help the Sonic re-releases have been absolute messes, from Origins to Sonic Colors.

Currently I see plain Sonic Generations sold for half (or in fact less) of current full game price and I think that's the perfect price for that game, but Shadow Generations + the original game is once again (almost) full price.

The footage they've shown of the Shadow gameplay is great, but will it be worth that (almost) full game price?

Frontiers has some cool stuff going for it, but it also had so much mess in it.

And yes, that's the entire history of 3D Sonic. But it's the wierd sll-encompassing messiness of the recent releases that gets me.

Inconsistent music, odd graphics, as well as massive amounts of bugs. As frustrating as Sonic Heroes was with its controls and bugs, it wasn't inconsistent in terms of literally everything else as well, so I could enjoy a bunch of it despite the issues I had with the game.

They make new games that are messes and old, cool games worse.

And I think it's finally getting to me as a fan after all of these years.

The last 3D Sonic game I truly loved and absolutely played to pieces was Generations.

And the last 2D game I loved and played a bunch was Sonic Mania.

The two each released in 2011 and 2017, 13 and 7 years ago respectively.

And since then every Sonic game has either looked like a hyper-product-y/hyper-inconsistent mess (Forces, Lost World, Colors Ultimate, Origins) or something potentially super neat buried in massive amounts of frustrating gunk with also pretty product-y elements and massive inconsistency (Frontiers/Superstars).

So I'm left waiting for Frontiers 2 or Superstars 2 because they finally seem to be somewhat serious about having another formula and refining it, as they promised with Sonic Unleashed back in 2008 and now after Forces in 2017, with Frontiers being the first step.

There are other ways to get games, of course, and considering those ways, I would probably have a decent time with the latter two (Frontiers/Superstars), but I just want a game that's just good (not even great) all the way through.

Or at least looks that way for me to want to try it based on footage and reviews.

And Shadow Generations actually does look like that!

Just building upon boost formula while incorporating lessons from new games.

But it's also another one among the (almost) full price re-releases/remasters, which at this point have an absolutely horrendous history in terms of actual quality.

Maybe, just maybe the movies doing great and Frontiers doing well enough will finally show itself in the quality of the games themselves.

I've technically been a passive fan since I got into the series with the Advance, Classic and Rush series and from there loved the Adventure games + Heroes.

And then the boost games – Colors and Generations.

But I just want something solid like that again that might even have sometimes very frustrating issues, but was a complete, consistent package.

And right now, the recent history is just really bad, in fact, it's bad to the point where people are amazed when we get actual level design from levels and I feel like that's not a very good place to be for a platforming game series.

Shadow as a character has always been that "teenage uncool" kind of "cool", but still kind of fun edgy character that I can see 13-year-olds absolutely loving, but I at most just kind of liked like any other character, while my faves back then were always Sonic, Amy and Tails, with Knuckles as the fun fourth friend.

But I think Adventure 2 did what Shadow's character was going for really well and Shadow 05 did that same thing really badly; in this case, though, Shadow is really just used to make more boost levels in Generations, which I welcome.

Loved actually playing Shadow in Sonic Adventure 2 because it was just more speed levels. I must've played those levels hundreds if not thousands of times because I had so much fun with them.

And that's basically all of Generations except maybe the last level.

So if they just make some really solid additional Generations levels, that's all it takes for this to be good.

But as said above, this is a Sonic game remaster being made in 2024, so there's a pretty big chance it's a massive mess on all fronts.

But I'll wait for lower prices and sales and hope for the best.

#Sonic the Hedgehog #Sonic X Shadow Generations #Sonic Frontiers #Sonic Superstars

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noxmachinimafr · 7 months ago

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Corrupted Tzen armor - 3D Model

Hi, It has been a while, once again! Sometimes, I am not sure what to share on Tumblr. I will try to keep sharing about my 3D journey. The next episode of Untold Tale of Pandaria (Pandaria Monogatari) is running well. The progress has been a bit slower than expected because of the sleeves that are custom and a nightmare to animate.

Talking about "nightmare", we finally arrived at That part that I wanted to give a try for a long time: a short horrific Japanese ghost movie! I am a huge fan of the Fatal Frame game series, and I also really enjoy the tones of Asian ghost stories and movies.

(Note: This gif features a yokai, not a yurei or an onryo. But it is the less scary I found) In the machinima, I feel like I have the unique opportunity to play around with this! The whole scene in this Kaiki eiga style will be released apart to not scare the audience. Also, from the lesson learned from the prologue, I need to avoid multiple intrigues, to keep the narrative flow clear enough. So we will briefly see ghosts (many more elaborated and diverse models than below), and see later whom they torment and how they proceed.

This long digression being done... Let's talk about the new model I made and its lore! (Finally) I have had the draft idea of this armor for a long time! In the lore of the machinima, the Tzen armor is a centuries-old artifact of the eponymous clan. It is thought to have been partly destroyed, just like most of the belongings of the disposed clan. The last warrior thought to have owned and worn the armor was Tho's father. Although Mei-Phang claimed that they saw it, altered but complete, in Tho's bedroom, during their teenage years (so about a decade after the execution of all the Tzen patriarchs). The armor is considered an artifact because it changes with the owner's will and absorbs the chi around, accordingly. The Tzen identified themselves with the Mountains of the South that can bring prosperity or devastation. The armor thus "embodies" that ambivalence.

In the prologue, we could foresee that Tho chose a path of destruction, realizing way too late the disaster he'd caused.

But this had consequences. And notably on the Tzen armor. In the "Notes about the Untold Tale" (written by one of my lorewalker OC, Wen-Long) states that the Tzen armor got corrupted with so much bad chi that it started wandering by night, more likely seeking for revenge. Older Mei-Phang would have to relocate their students, when the armor started causing a big safety concern. Yet, the armor never attacked Mei directly, unless they wear the official kimono of the Zhu clan.

The customization work on this armor was pretty simple and straightforward. I started from an existing Huojin sentinel model that I rediscovered while playing (Han-zhu) on the PTR. (On the screenshot, you can see a hint regarding one of Han-zhu's first names, btw... :D).

The original mesh of the model had few refinements to attenuate the plate-looking style. I then worked on the main additions: -add a wakidate on the kabuto (helmet) -refine the sode (shoulder pads) - add a kusazuri and a haidate (lower part) These additions were very simple but they gave a nice silhouette. I improved my retopology and seam marking, so the work on the kusazuri/haidate was much less painful than on Han-zhu's samurai armor in the prologue! The main work on this armor was the texturing that was almost completely remade from scratch. First I wanted Tho's eyes to be visible beyond the menpo (mask), but it looked like he was squinting, like, way too much! And it really messed up the frightening aura of the armor! XD

So I decided to keep the eyes red-glowing and add Tho's "emblematic" red scarf, instead.

Cannot wait for the next episode (and little Kaiki eiga spinoff) to go live soon! Hope you enjoy this long post! Thank you if you read everything!! P.S. If you don't know yet about this machinima project, here is the trailer.

youtube

#pandaren #blender3d #3d model #samurai #world of warcraft #warcraft oc #digital fanart #pandaria #Youtube

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kieuecaprie · 1 year ago

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KieueCaprie's List of Games Finished in 2023 Entry 9

#21: Pikmin 1

Finished When? 21/6/23

What's Finished? All parts

Platform? Nintendo Switch

Pikmin is probably one of my favorite Nintendo franchises that I thought was pretty much dead (along with F-Zero and Star Fox) when they decided that, as a prank, they release a 2D platformer for the 3DS that got amazing reviews, so amazing, in fact, that nobody ever spoke of it again and Nintendo decided not to give it any more attention until Niantic dug up its grave to parade its corpse around.

Now that the corpse has gained new life with Pikmin 4 and the news that Pikmin 1 + 2 has been ported to Switch had hit, I decided that it was time to go back to the two gamecube games that occupied most of my time with the console (the rest were Mario Party games... which I mainly played by myself with...).

I actually did finish Pikmin 1 before back when I was a streamer, so routing my way through the game wasn't a terribly difficult feat. The game's fun but it's quite easy once you know what you're doing and it does suffer a bit from a disease called Tech Demo-itis. It's still good, mind you, and I love it to pieces.

#22: Unreal Tournament 2004

Finished When? 25/6/23

What platform? PC, Steam (Much like UT99, this game is unlisted, but I have it on Steam AND GOG.)

What's finished? Campaign, Experienced (apparently listed as Masterful in the high score table (but why????))

Initially, my impression was that UT2K4 > (only just) UT99 >>>>>>>>>>>>> UT3 but after suffering through an Experienced difficulty campaign, I can say that I think I prefer UT99 a bit more, at least the bots in the latter game used a wider variety of weapons over slapping the Link Gun button and W+M2-ing their way to victory.

Double Domination is... a complete slog, I'm sorry, it gets very stalematey REAL fast and if I have to hear "RED TEAM IN C-- *weird synth noise*" or "5... 4... 3... 2.. o- LAST SECOND SAVE" one more time, I'm going to throw my PC out the window.

Bombing Run is interesting but it started getting tedious as I climbed through the maps because the bots got more and more aimbotty as you go, to the point where your teammates (who are also bots) started sucking more. I like the idea and I kind of wish there was a modern arena shooter that implemented it in some form.

CTF was CTF. Against bots, the age-old strat of grabbing the flag, throwing the translocator somewhere where they won't path, going back to base, capping, teleporting, and repeating the same thing three to five times is always valid.

Assault is probably one of the few things UT2K4 has over UT99, what with vehicles, a pointer to the next objective, and actual respawn times. It was great playing through AS-Convoy again after all this time.

The final deathmatch against Xan was... tedious, mostly due to how large the final map is in comparison to its UT99 counterpart.

All in all, I liked UT2K4 but I think UT99 is about equal to it in terms of my preference now, partly because the latter has less reliance on double-tap dodging which is a neat idea in concept but the number of times I "dodged" off a cliff is too damn high, even after changing the double tap time.

#23: Pikmin 2

Finished When? 25/6/23

What Platform? Nintendo Switch, the inferior version

All Treasures

Finished When? 10/7/23

Man oh man, when I was much younger, I seriously anticipated this game when I first heard about it and it did not disappoint. After trying and failing the first game, finding out that this game had no time limit was a breath of fresh air for me back then. Does this still hold up now that I know how to clear Pikmin 1?

Yeah, I'd say so, I still love Pikmin 2 even though now that I am more experienced, the game has a lot of what some people would say bullshit (and others would say FUN ), what with falling enemies, falling rocks, falling EXPLODING rocks, and Waterwraith (which... I didn't have any trouble with this time around lol).

The game is still great to play, I loved splitting jobs between two captains and managing my army of pikmin as we scoured the landscape for every last bit of treasure we could find and then some. And although some of the bosses that used to be "hard" feel disappointing to me these days, I still liked playing through it.

I can honestly say that this is probably my favorite game in the series... unless 4 can topple it over, of course.

#24: Road Trip Adventure

Finished When? 3/7/23

What Platform? PS2

I was introduced to this game last year (or was it the year before) by a friend and despite it looking and playing like it belonged on a PS1 (which is funny considering the games that came before it), I actually had a ton of fun going around on a Road Trip Adventure around the world, exploring, racing, and gambling. Also, the story is about the biggest excuse that you could get: President Forest is sick of being the president so he's holding a World Grand Prix to find the next president. Yes, it's as stupid as it sounds, but it's motivation for the player character to go from living in Peach Town to becoming the President of the world.

I'll get some proper screenshots in future, maybe. Someday™.

#25: Arcade Paradise

Finished When? 6/7/23

What Platform? PC, Game Pass

This game caught my eye when I first saw it on Game Pass. Run a laundrette that was owned by your player character's father, Gerald, who happens to be voiced by the voice actor who voiced Geralt of Rivera, and secretly run an arcade in the back while expanding your premises to "fit more washing machines in" because "gaming will never take off" because the game is set in the 90's (even though I'm 100% sure a battery-backup RPG puzzle arcade game wouldn't have existed back then but what do I know?) with all the aesthetic and feel to it.

The game's pretty great, albeit very slow at times when you have to grind for things and it can be a total slog. It gets worse towards the end when the game starts asking for exhorbitant amounts of money for one arcade cabinet to match your pace.

On top of that, the business management side is... very basic. There's no failstates, there's no consequences outside of not making as much money as you should have, nothing, and the laundrette starts becoming incredibly tedious in the late game (although I feel that may actually be the point since, at the beginning, you tell your father that the arcade has the potential to make more money than the laundry).

Some of the games are pretty good and I can easily pick out MOST of the games they're riffing on such as Strike Gold being Dig-Dug, Racer Chaser being Pac-Man (with an interesting gimmick of having to get back to your car before you get caught by the cops if you happen to crash into one of them), and later on getting a DDR-like cabinet with an incredibly simple "rhythm" game.

The story is fine, it doesn't really get in the way all that much nor does it really need to be when the main attraction is the arcade games. One thing I will say though is that I really liked how they portrayed the father, I won't really say much about it, you can experience it yourself if you'd like. Plus it's free on Game Pass, so you aren't losing much by doing so if you're subbed to that service.

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#kieuecaprie gaming #kieuecaprie gamer list 2023

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unknownmousezoe · 1 year ago

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Well since Twitter is fucking dying (again), I guess Imma post my media watching stuff here now. Imma tag it with Cherry'sMediaWell so like if you do not wanna see it, mute that. Also gonna post what I done so far this year under a read more. Gonna post basically any media I consume that takes more then a hour except for youtube videos.

Jerma & Otto: The Curse of The Late Streamer- ... technically the first real game I sat down and played this year... as a fan game it was fine if not unfunny , as a point and click its reallllly bad 2/5

AI Sommnium Files: Nirvana Initiative- Finally got around to playing Nirvana Initiative, I am a little conflicted as like there was plenty I was not a fan of this time around, some odd plot beats here and there really muddled it. But when it got good it really got good so like ultimately a strong recommend if you like the first one , but understand it is in my opinion not as good. Still worth the time but missing something sadly from being a stand out sequel. Still is a 4/5 tho.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog- This was something alright, as a April fools joke game I really could not have lower expectations but it was really solid. The story was fun and lighthearted and did not fall into the 4/1 trap of just being zany for zany sake. Genuine great time 4.5/5

Class Action Park- An "okay" doc, it didn't shed any new light on the subject. The animated segments where unexpected and honestly unneeded. Still a really interesting subject that is fun to hear about. I liked how they went though each rides history 3.5/5

Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County- A goofy old fake horror doc. As a horror movie its not the best, but it is fun to watch now just to kinda peek into alien mythos. 3/5

One Killer Punch- a really short 45 min ish doc? While the first two cases made me go "huh that's interesting" the last case really made me feel emotions, def worth a watch at the short time length 4/5

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line- Played this one kinda worried at first cus I loved the original on 3ds and thought it couldn't be adapted. Really fun and loads of songs to play with only real complaint is wish more enemy variation. 4.5/5

Mario Warfare (rewatch)- still peak cinema (10/10)

FE Engage: Fell Xenologue- Kinda weird beating and ranking this before the actual game but what can I say I wanted the units. Honestly I feel I am way more positive on this then I was for the Cinder Shadows, I just was way more invested in the story here then in there. the plot actually made me curious where it was going, I liked the twists and turns for the most part, and enjoyed its darker turn. Of course I can not talk about the dlc without talking about the maps, I played on normal which I am thankful for because god I would have raged quit on higher difficulties. 1-3 where pretty normal if not kinda bland maps. 4 was a really neat concept for a map (well neat for engage its been done in other FE games). 5 just SUCKS tho def would not play it on higher difficulty. 5 was fine on normal honestly just kinda eh. I liked the characters and stuff so idk I enjoyed my time with the Fell. Nel is prob one of my fav engage characters... while Nil is one of my least lmao

Fire Emblem Engage- Story wise was not a huge fan, felt like a big downgrade from 3 houses story (not saying 3 houses story was prefect but). The two things that really save this game for me is the later game units and the gameplay. Love almost all the later game units they add a lot of flavor, which I am glad for because early game units for the most part did like nothing for me and I was worried the whole game would have been like that. Map wise one of my favs, loved all the fun gimmicks and spins on maps. ultimately still had super fun (4/5)

Spookware- I went in really wanting to like this one. I love wario ware and funny/spooky games but dang this disappointed. Biggest issue was how damn buggy it was, constantly got bugs that made me loose levels some broke the game entirely. Episode 2 mircogames where all just GOD awful like I almost put it down multiple times. It also felt like they just ran out of clever mircogames and plot with episode 2 its weird cus it was just such a massive down grade. Plot started out interesting and fun but just ran out of steam super fast. Sadly to me (2/5)

Necrobarista- I REALLY liked this one. The constantly changing perspectives could be a real turn off for some but I thought it was fun. Story was really interesting/fun, liked the characters a ton. Only real complaint is I wished it was longer and a little more fleshed out 4.5/5

Jurassic Park Dominion- RE6 did the plot better 2/5

Fostering Apocalypse- Reaaaaaly short vn, that was hella cute with great art. Honestly so short not much to say, was not a huge fan of how mechanics work around endings but still a good time 4/5

The Spirit & the Mouse- This was great, a fairly short but really enjoyable experience. Kinda a walking sim, there is no really challenge or anything but I don't really think there needs to be. The story it tells is unique and makes me smile. 4.5/5

Idol Showdown- idk not really that big into idols but for the low price of free this is a pretty fun 30 mins or so with friends atleast. Again this game is NOT DEEP but like its a free game what do you expect lmao 3/5

Spawn HBO show- Overall really like this show... but it has some problems esp season 3. I think I liked the concept more then the actual story but like still was a fun time. Glad I saw it either way. Twitch and Burke are the best in this. 3/5

Wandersong- Honestly do not think I can put into words how this game made me feel. Back half of story was fantastic, story was well written and fun. Game play was really fresh without feeling tedious. Design and everything made me really happy. Honestly easily a 5/5

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special- Decided to finally watch this since vol 3 came out... its fine. Animated segments where awful like wow, and the plot was really meh. It was nice to see more of the guardians interactions tho. 3/5

GOTG Vol.3- I may be a little crazy for saying this but this was an amazing send off to the best franchise in the MCU. Story was great, and like the first two movies the characters all played great off each other. The high evolutionary was one of the few great mcu villains 5/5

Please Be Happy- Sadly I did not like this one as much as I did the other two vns I played by the same devs, Idk just seems the weakest of the bunch. That being said still really solid, if this is their low , then the bar is still pretty high. 4/5

Mario Movie- Yeah it was fine, nothing amazing but did not really expect it to be lmao. The references where fun at times. No where as good as Mario Warfare tho. 3.5/5

Evil Dead Rise- A really enjoyable horror movie actually. I honestly do not have much to say it was just a well put together experience. Evil Dead continues to be one of the most solid long standing horror franchises. 4/5

Gunbusters- Like other Hideki Anno works I started off not feeling it, but it got so so fucking good in the second half. I really love the actions scenes and it did make me cry at the really end. Makes me want to get more into mechs cus this is great as fuck. 4.5/5

Diebuster- You can TELL they went on to make Gurren after this, honestly I did like gunbusters more overall but this is a solid af followup. 4/5

Soul Hackers 2- Kinda conflicted here, REALLY liked the characters and concept... but like the pacing is not really up to par. Wished there was more here. Also people where not lying there is some REALLY awful dungeon design here. Still Ringo and gang are great imo. 3.5/5

Transformers- Some fights where okay actually, but god everything else was abysmal writing was laughable bad wow. 2/5

Batman Soul of the Dragon- It is weird cus like, it is clear the makers of this movie really wanted to make a fun campy 70s kung fu movie but it really just fails at it. Movie also just REALLY did not need batman, like if you took him out nothing would change, felt forced 2/5

Spider-Man:Across the Spider-Verse-Going in I actually had mixed expectations. I knew people love it but the trailers really turned me off as it just seemed.. worse then the original. Glad to say that is FAR from the case, a huge improvement on something already amazing. Easy 5/5

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen- I went in remembering this being worse then the first.. but actually it was better. ITS STILL AWFUL but like the bar was low as fuck. I am scared for the next one as this is where I stop watching as a kid 2/5

(part two of recap coming soon)

#Cherry'sMediaWell

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