#I like the designs we got don't get me wrong but the variety we used to have...

[midnightwind]

man Inquisition's demon designs went hard

[hummingbird-games]

2024 in Review (Indie Games)

2023 | 2022 | 2021

Helloooo gamer friends!!!

I'm so tired.

Lol.

Anyhoo, y'all don't care about that!!! Y'all are here to see what games I played and what the heck I have to say about them! Reminders: I don't bash games I didn't like, and I try to post more in-depth thoughts and reviews and general yapping to Gem's Game Gems.

DEMOS

When Stars Collide - I am by no means a sci-fi girlie. I need a HEAPING dose of fantasy or fantasy elements to help me out. That said, y'all might remember how I went feral for Gilded Shadows, so I am locked in for this journey with WSC. It's just as mysterious and lore intense as GS, but also just as intriguing and engaging!

Love Me, Love Me Not - I looooove when a game charms me to pieces??? Our MC Addie, the introduced LIs, the story, the art??? Where do I begin?? Anyway, please check this one out y'all! I'm impatient for the full game (shocker, I know).

Threads of You: Beyond the Bay - So my thoughts and reactions for this one are on the side blog, but I really enjoyed the demo and I have eyes for Chris, Vince, and Alex hehehe.

Lost in Limbo - While I'd been keeping tabs on this game for what seems forever because of the character art that originally caught my attention, I almost didn't finish the demo because it was lowkey disturbing (I'm a wimp and not all horror is made equal). But!!! BUT!!!! I push through to the end, had a good time, noted that I need to play the full game in the daylight with the music turned down low. And I absolutely adore Ara and Xal so, so much.

A Simple Twist of Fae - Absolutely no one cares, but I read a lot of manga this year. Like, a lot-a lot. Like, ~180 books and 1/3 of that was manga. Anyhoo, When JMB announced she was cooking up this game, I was impatient to get my grubby hands on it. AND THEN I PLAYED IT AND IT WAS THE SHOJO INSPIRED GAME OF MY DREAMS?!?! Like.....I wish I could both have it on my computer and also on my bookshelf. Final build dropping when??? (Also the UI design is utterly delightful, I cry.)

The Summit Library (FULL DEMO) - The last time I reviewed this game, we got chapter 1 as a taste, and I was. Locked! In!! The full demo gives us the first 2 chapters as well as the previews for all the romance routes and while giving everyone a whirl I'm *still* undecided on who to go for in the future, I must mention this: TSL is so aspec friendly???? I do love a game with smut, don't get me wrong looks at College Craze but sometimes I have my moments of being overwhelmed/sliiiiiiightly repulsed and the variety of options you have to choose how you react and interact with the various LIs in this game is amazing. (I have more thoughts on this, so I'll try to remember to post to the sideblog, but please understand that this game is totally worth your attention and time imo!!!)

Fully Released & Played (at least 1 playthrough)

Rabbit Trail - This. Game. Is. SO. Cute. *punches the air* 😭🥹(Copy + paste of my review on the itch.io page -> This was so charming, so fluffy, so cozy, just delightful all around??? I've only reached one ending so far, but René is just the cutest protag to play as, and his interactions as he delivers his mail made me cheese so dang hard! (Also, I wanted to fight his parents for not properly appreciating their kid LOL))

Stuck by Design - I checked this game out because I was looking into games that fellow programmers had worked on, and this cozy game stumbled onto my lap. The music was perfect, the UI is beautiful and clean, and I thoroughly enjoyed the performance of the VA for the LI, Yuki.

Wake Me Up If You Need Me - I called this game older!HSDJY MC x Ryan coded and I'm still right. The voice actor MAKES this game, and the interactions the player has with Reed is so flippin' delightful?? All my love and adoration to the game developer. May they make more beautiful games.

CTRL FREAK - The developer team brought us The Faithfulness of the Universe which is a banger in its own right, and CTRL FREAK is the team's commercial, finished project that I also found delightful. The soundtrack and the animations are chef's kiss ���

Breathless Winds - Ooo, baby, ooo. So. If there is only one game you play from this list and you have some spare cash to spend (at the time of writing, the game is on sale!!!) please, please, check this one out. It left me absolutely spellbound, both the orginal demo, and then the full game. While I didn't get to blog fully about this one, and I only tackled 2 of the 4 routes, this game is absolutely everything. This is my indie game of the year. Poppy and her journey resonated with me, and between the music and the art, everything just came together so perfectly.

Wake Up Magical Girl - Listen TF up, if miseri creates it, I'm gonna play it, idc, idc. That being said...this game had a kick to it that when I finished my first playthrough, I had to stare off into space and gather myself. It takes the concept of magical girls and heroism and gave me a teeny tiny existential crisis, but other than that, I'm fine, it's fine, play this game, thank you.

Sleeping Under Spells - God, I love me a game where I get to argue with a LI. I love it. Bonus points if it's lowkey stupid stuff we're bickering over LOL!!

Our Wonderland - Yeah, uh huh, you thought you'd escape me talking about this game this year, didn't yah???? Too bad. The fifth and final arc dropped this year and I played it and I cried and felt for the briefest moments that life was okay. To say something different than my review of last year, I love that this seems to be the game that helps fellow ace devs find and flock to each other, I'm not kidding 🤣 so thank you Carrot for helping us fellow aspec peeps feel seen and validated and understood!

I Watched a Full Game Playthrough and Highly Recommend

Replay Boys - Okay so technically at the time of posting, there's still one more video I'm waiting to watch (Naja of BlerdyOtome uploaded her stream to YouTube) but my Godddddd. I've had my eye on this game for FOREVER but I was lowkey waiting for it to move to itch.io (I'm still a lowkey Steam hater 🥹) anyhoo, watching this absolutely wild game made me go ahead and buy a copy for myself to replay at a later time, but it's just great. The summary only scratches this surface of what the game entails 🤣

Gemi’s Gushies

(a list within a list of games that have devs trucking along in the background and I want to spotlight for y’all)

Save the Villainess - Life got away with me and unfortunately I never finished my play of the demo BUT what I have played was fun and I hope to return to this in the new year!

Woman of Xal 2 - Plot Twist Studios is on that Sequel Train with the next installment of WoX!!! Which I'm VERY excited for!!! I've unfortunately only completed one playthrough of this game, but the first game is definitely a masterclass in replayability, and I hope next year I'll be able to do a second playthough as I wait for game 2's Kickstarter!

...

And that's 2024! Any shared favorites?

- Gemini 🫶🏾

[bloodreddemons]

All Hazbin Hotel Fashion Ranked w/Roasting | (imo)

(Pilot to Present)

#20 Valentino | He literally looks like he smells of alcohol, smoke, and piss. How tf has Velvette not fixed him yet?!?! This gawdy wannabe gimp getup is NOT OK... He just strolls around naked under that Santa Claus/Zebra printed Nightmare....🤡 (I like his glasses tho imma rob him)

#19 Adam | Dude be fucking having that moo moo dress ON. I find it hilarious that his army is dripped out more than he is. I mean his final battle moo moo dress was a bit better than the original but he really just walks around like a certain Ice King from one of my fav Cartoon Network shows lmfaooooo. ✝️

#18 Carmilla Carmine | Lackluster. I wasn't really wowed by either two of her looks all that much I guess. There's just absolutely no color I kinda wish they incorporated maybe more purple or something in her. Carmilla also got some BIG ass hands. Idk her design just kinda throws me off. It reminds me of something abstract.

#17 Vox | I really like his coat and just the overall palette of that electric blue situation but his shirt low-key is giving me Freddy Krueger tease lol. As well as Pyrocynical and that dude from the show "Villainous". I hope in Season 2 Vox serves us more looks and variety. He's not bad, he just obviously doesn't compare to others.

#16 Katie Killjoy | She got only like one outfit but man does it EAT. A bit cliche for a reporter but it's just still too cunty to turn down. The pearls, the cut, the makeup, fucking slay I guess. Miss Bryce Tankthrust still serving in hell is a MUST. 📣

#15 Lute | Ngl I was just shocked how pretty Lute was. That fucking face card and you hide it under a MASK?!?! Her eyelashes/eyes and that bob is just chef's *kiss* honestly and I actually really do think the angel uniforms are pretty hot as well. You just can't go wrong with a thigh high BOOT. Girls really get it done. 💯 (Keep the mask OFF!!!)

#14 Mimzy | I hate Mimzy with a passion but I can't deny flapper dresses are beautiful. Mimzy you absolutely devoured and the body is bodying Cheers, you're timeless lol. 🥂

#13 Husk | Please don't hate me guys. I love Husk and all, but ever since Alastor stole his soul he also stole his swag. Man's hasn't worn a fucking shirt since that day lmao. 🤣🤣 Like where DID his suit go??? I would be depressed and wasted too if I was him. I don't hate his design or outfit, I just think it's a bit too simple compared to the other main characters. His personality and Keith David 100% make up for it tho. ♠️

#12 Rosie | Just like Mimzy but like, tripled lmao. Just timeless beauty that never dies. Mary Poppins WHO???? My favorite is honestly probably her hat, that thing is like the crown jewel. Color palette is also kinda satisfying, I stan the pink and mauve. 🌷

#11 Emily | She's like a breath of fresh air from all the red and pink tones. The baby and periwinkle blue is so beautiful and so are her features. Them big ass eyes, the freckles, & whimsical hair. I liked her dress too. Big W's for Em. 💙

#10 Niffty | Cutieeeee. I really like her redesign compared to the old one. 1950's style of fashion is also still very appealing to me as well. The pink dress she was wearing was so fucking adorable I almost had a stroke just to see it in person. She's also weirdly gorgeous covered in angel blood. 💄

#9 Charlie Morningstar | Ngl...a lil disappointed in our girl. As the main character....to have so many just similar looking outfits with not much variety is kinda the most unsatisfying thing ever. It often feels like her fanart and photos that we rarely ever see contain better outfits than the ones that repeatedly appear in the show. However there's nothing really wrong with her final design I just sometimes really miss the old one from the pilot. I think her rounder features and the lighter pink suited her better. Final battle outfit was her best look so far tho in my opinion. 💋

#8 Sir Pentious | Sir Pentious style sorta never changed, he's still rocking that snake do-rag and that suit top that's striped just like everybody else's. 😮‍💨 I really wish they would've made Pentious' suit a floral pattern. I know stripes might have been popular in the 1800s but floral was very popular too and it'd be something different that'd still completely match his Era. I love his steam punk style and his other creative looks but his HEAVEN outfit was just the best. Saint Pentious > Sinner Pentious!! 🤍

#7 Velvette | Thank LUCI they changed and upgraded this girl bro. She was lowkey a hot fucking mess in my opinion before. Man did she come out SWINGING. Not just with looks but also personality I was floored. She's literally the Queen of hairdos and assembling, not many people can pull off that many patterns. Unique and trendy with the energy to back it up. Velvette you'll always be famous!! ❤

#6 Lucifer Morningstar | 6.6.6!!! Very few outfits but I never seen a moment where this man did not serve!! He's always got that fire ass coat on and he gives you the hatsssss. They're stylish while also telling you exactly who he is. It's like regal as fuck while also kinda simple. You don't have to think too much while ogling to just know that he's a dapper ass cHaD. ❤️‍🔥🍎

#5 Cherri Bomb | Loved all of Cherri's outfits. She fucking devoured and blown away over half the competition. She is Kesha vibes. Mama is Avril Lavigne vibesss. She just gives it to you with her punk rock, y2k, fashion. (I know she's supposed to 80s Era but still lol..) Always loved her base look but the final battle outfit and the one from the addict music video were amazing. 🍒

#4 Vaggie | Vaggie the fucking queen you areeee. Talk about versatility. She can really pull off a lot. I noticed that she experiments with her hair a lot like Velvette and I LOVE THAT. The fucking bob?!? High ponytail?!?! Great bangs and great length?!?! Vaggie teach me your wayssss. I always liked her bow and a lot of her outfits. Most of them are sexy without trying too hard. I don't think I can even pick a favorite but I'd probably go with final battle outfit and also her angel gown because that is just too cute lol. 💅🏼

#3 Alastor | As soon as Alastor popped up on scene he was fucking slaying. Literally definition of "pink is cute but red is sexy". He got those sharp ass acrylics ON and his coat is fabulousy spooky lmfao. He also went from being bed bug red to....even more red and sharper (because that was some how possible) lol. Red and black is always an amazing combo and his deer-like appearance is kinda appealing even tho it's a demon lol. I'd venture to even say he's probably one of the most fashionable Overlord's. He's just eye catching and has that AURA. Maybe it's because he's an ancient relic with very peculiar cLaSs but it's really working for him. Keep going you psycho I will see you in hell lmao. (Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka called 🍓💀)

#2 Angel Dust | FUCKING KING SHIT. He just serves every time without fail. He has a whole wardrobe and they all fucking bang. The clothes are sexy, the makeup is sexy, the AURA is sexy. AND IT SHOULDN'T BE TRIFLED WITH!!! It's really sad because he spends so much time to "get pretty" for pieces of shit, but it doesn't take away Angel's talent to pull off so many gorgeous and hot things. Angel will always be a standout icon and I bet Heaven will look SO good on him. 💗

#1 Lilith (Probably lol) | We barely seen her, but I just KNOW she'd devour. Point. Blank. Period. lmfao. 👑♀️

[carlyraejepsans]

i feel like uty improves on things undertale did but it doesnt have the same strong foundation as the original. like all the qol tweaks and secret shit and meta flowey are all super impressive but as a whole i agree i didnt find it cohesive or consistent

eh, sorry but i don't really think UTY "improves" much of... anything from Undertale? you can make an argument for the visuals, which are more detailed and certainly better animated, but i would argue right back that undertale's rougher, retro, "kinda ugly" graphics are a deliberate design choice on Toby's part that he stuck to for a reason. not to mention, even in their ugliness, the original main cast managed to display more variety in shape language and size than the entire UTY one, which seemed unable to break past the "tall, skinny, anime proportioned humanoid" figure for anyone beyond the occasional side NPC (which, credit where it is due, DID have some really creative designs).

the secret shit is part of my critiques, actually! while conceptually cool, i don't think they appropriately distributed their story and lore at all. i feel like if we got to the end of the pacifist run and were wholly confused as to why dalv was even a character in the story, the whole "human attack" backstory was... not delivered properly. now, there's no problem with having secret lore, gaster is right there. but if you DO have it then it shouldn't be... yknow... tied to the main backstory conflict that literally set the story in motion? lol? it felt like a game with dataminers in mind, rather than players. which was unavoidably detrimental to its storytelling.

the bullet patterns and attack designs were very visually creative but what they improved from the original in their cleverness they tanked with their execution. WAYYY too unfair, counting too much on memorization and giving you no time to accustom yourself to the mechanics (shout-out to the gun tutorial that... didn't teach us how to shoot. at all. we figured it out on our own in the axis fight LMFAO)

the meta flowey stuff was a fun idea that only really delivered in the neutral run and didn't amount to enough anywhere else to justify his presence in the game imo. like, i lost my shit during his fight too, don't get me wrong, i like when fan stories let him be a little FREAK. but everything else was just so... wasted? i almost didn't see the neutral ending at all because the way pacifist handled flowey disappointed me so much.

uhhhhh running was a good addition and the music fucked hard. can't say anything against those two, nossir. not sure it'd go so far as to call them improvements tho, just nice touches

[featherwingfae]

So the nonhuman theme of the day that I've been seeing on the Internet seems to be self doubt both due to internal and external influences.

My response to this theme is this. You are who you are. And no one can tell you who you are but you. (The rest of the post is pretty much just this^^ in way more detail than necessary. You have been warned lol. Buckle up this is gonna be a long one. Literally took all day to write 😅)

Most of us live in a society where we've been told since infancy who we are are and what we must be, and if we don't fit in the predesignated boxes then there must be something wrong with us and we just need to be forced into a box. But just think about the vastness of life for a second. From macro to micro there's just so much to everything it's breathtaking. Everything is layered. Why should one being's existence be any different. There is what is seen and then there is everything else. Some thing's don't need to be understood by others, because they are not there for others. They are simply there. Wether we understand them or not. And that in itself (I think) is quite lovely.

I am Fae. Not just because of ______. I am Fae because it is simply what I am. It's what feels right.

It's ok to just exist. It's ok to live without ever fitting into boxes or labels. And if you find a label or box that fits you, that's ok too. It's your existence. Do what makes you happy. I've also found that sometimes, finding that feeling that you fit somewhere, comes first and the reasons why come after. Be patient. I know it's maddening sometimes when you've got a million questions bumping about in your head, or even just one or two burning ones, but life is a journey. A mystery to uncover through experiences.

I could give you a whole laundry list of reasons why I can call myself Fae. But at the end of the day, the only reason I need is that it feels right. I don't need to act like the stereotypical Fae (from folklore, media etc), I don't need to have magical experiences, I don't need memories. Keep in mind that your nonhuman identity does not need to match anyone else's.

If you're a Fae who loves technology and finds the modern age fascinating. Guess what? There's nothing wrong with that. (I LOVE Minecraft 😁 Though that may or may not have to do with the fact that I get to fly around and build whatever I want from nothing. Yes I'm obsessed with creative mode 😅 I usually get bored in survival)

If you're a Therian who's never enjoyed being on all fours or who doesn't like gear. It doesn't make you any less Therian. Do what makes you happy 😊.

If you're some ancient entity and you use an ungodly (hehe) amount of emojis and/or abbreviations (ex. Lol, omg, etc) it doesn't make you any less ancient or awesome. Do what you enjoy. You are too old to not be having as much fun as you can experience. I'm also an ancient creature, you really think I want to spend my time not doing what makes the happy chemicals 😊✨👁️🪽😁.

If you're an Alien who's not obsessed with space stuff. That's ok. Human portrayals probably don't do it justice anyway, and there's so many other things to be interested in. Like have you seen mushrooms? Those funky little guys come in so many varieties it's absolutely delightful 😊🍄✨.

If you're a vampire who can't stand the sight of blood. Don't worry about it. I can almost guarantee you're not alone (plus there's a lot of different types of vampires. If you know you are/were definitely sanguine then you're still valid 😊).

If you're fictionkin and you're absolutely nothing like your fictionkin type/character. That's ok 😊. People often change with their experiences, it doesn't make you any less yourself.

That last one applies to most nonhumans identities in general honestly 😅.

If you're an angel that doesn't/didn't have big feathery wings. You are still an angel. The universe is filled with too much color and variety for me to believe that all ______ have the same or very similar designs. I've never heard of an angel with dragonfly or beetle wings. That doesn't mean they don't exist 🙃.

You can be a plant who loves salads, a placekin who hates going outside, an objectkin that doesn't use it/it's pronouns or is super expressive, a vampire who adores sunbathing or just sunlight in general, a carnivore that doesn't like meat, an avian that's afraid of flying or heights, a demon with a heart of gold, a deity with social anxiety and/or low self esteem, an herbivore that loves going hunting, a dragon who prefers minimalism, an aquatic creature who doesn't like water, a void that's constantly overthinking, you can match all the known stereotypes for your nonhuman identity or none at all. You can have phantom shifts constantly or never get any, you can have countless identities, you can have just one, you can remember your past life/lives in detail or remember nothing at all, you can believe in past lives and souls, or not, your identity can be psychological, physical, spiritual, etc.

It's s your identity. No one else's. Just because you choose to share yourself or your identity with someone else does not mean they own you or your identity. It is, was and always shall be, yours. (Btw please please please, be careful who you share your nonhuman identity with. Not everyone is going to "get it". And not everyone is going to accept it. Stay safe, mentally, physically, emotionally etc.)

They say names have power. They also say not all things are what they seem. Whatever your nonhuman identity looks like, only you can know what it truly is. Understand that I am not saying that the appearance of one's nonhuman identity should be dismissed altogether, especially when one is still questioning. I am saying, that we shouldn't rely solely upon appearances. If your nonhuman identity fits in the category of x as far as appearances go but x just doesn't feel like it fits, then chances are, you're not x, or there's more to it than just x. I've known I was Fae since right around 2019. However I doubted myself for a long time because as far as I knew Fae were "supposed to have insect wings" and on top of having big feathery wings, I have a lot of them. In fact many of my nonhuman features could be considered angelic. However I've never felt particularly comfortable identifying as an angel. It just never felt like the right fit. It took awhile but eventually after I'd already accepted that my "angelic features" didn't make me any less Fae. I remembered why I had those features to begin with, and it all just clicked into place.

It's ok to not have all the answers or even the correct answers right away. Life is experiences. From moment to moment you are who you are. Things may change, new truths may be revealed, that doesn't make you or your identity any less real. You are whoever you are right now. Wether that is someone/something from everything you have ever been or ever shall be or just one thing right now, unconnected to anything else. You are not fake for changing. You're not fake for not changing. Most have doubts about themselves about all sorts of things. To the point where it seems like doubt is just part of the human world experience (not saying it's only a human world experience, just that everyone here seems to doubt themselves about something or other) and perhaps working through our doubts is a lesson of this place, then again maybe not 🤷. In the end what you believe is up to you😊.

Now, I'm not expecting that this single post from a total stranger will erase all your doubts. Not at all. I didn't write it to erase doubt, but rather to give it a little bit of something to fight against. To plant just one more seed in the hearts and minds of others who might need it or whom it might help in any way. This post is far from the only one out there, fighting doubt in its many forms and faces. And what I've said has already been said in many times and ways. But it's my take and not everything will click with everyone. If this post helps even just one being, then it has served it's purpose. Each and every single one or plural of us is unique in our own ways. And I truly believe that's one of the most wonderful things about life as a whole.

If you've read this far, I apologize if I got a bit carried away and made this post longer than necessary but it means a great deal to me and things that matter to me are very difficult to "sum up" 😅. And if you follow me. I warn you now that most of my posts will probably be a bit lengthy if not extremely so.

And now my dear creatures, crawlers, beasts, beauties, hellions, heavenlies (no I don't care that that's not a word it is now lol), magicals, marvels, wonders, wanderers, wildlings, winged things, whimsies, and whatsits (and everything beyond and in between) I wish upon you a most wonderful day/night. May you always know/remember that your existence makes the world a more magical place. 🌍✨ (And in my opinion we could use all the magic we can get 😊)

👁️🪽✨🍄🍀🪻🌱🥀❄️🌟✨

Till next time.

[terasumono]

I translated Ushio's initial SSR card story!

**Please don't use my translations for bots or claim them as your own.**

Feel free to let me know if you catch any mistakes!

Man Proposes, God Disposes (First Half) 

MC: (The new travel bag sure looked cool. That shop always carries a lot of designs that resonate with me...hm?) 

??: Haa? This is a scam, right? They’ve got to be manipulating the results behind the scenes.  

MC: (Is that Ushio-kun’s voice? .....Ah, I thought so.)  

MC: Ushio-kun? 

Ushio: Geh. Why are you here...? 

MC: There’s a store I like here...what about you? 

Ushio: Where I am and what I’m doing has nothing to do with you, does it? Are you infringing on my privacy? 

MC: S-Sorry. I’ll be off then.  

Ushio: Wait. I’m sure you have nothing better to do anyways. Aren’t you thirsty? 

MC: Huh? Well...now that you mention it, I haven’t had anything to drink yet so I am a little. 

Ushio: Then...cola, chocolate, and matcha—which do you prefer?   

MC: No way, are you going to treat me?  

Ushio: I am always under your care. So, which will it be?  

[Cola] 

MC: Then, I'll go with cola.  

Ushio: “Shouta’s Passion-filled Spicy Craft Cola”, yeah? 

What, so this means Chief’s oshi is also Shouta... 

MC: Eh? Oshi?  

[Chocolate] 

MC: Then, I'll go with chocolate.  

Ushio: “Sweetly Melting, Reito’s Popular Choco Milkshake”, is it. Huh, didn’t expect that.  

MC: What are you talking about...? 

[Matcha] 

MC: Then, I'll go with matcha. 

Ushio: “An and Kazari’s Double Heroine Matcha Latte ~Garnished with Candy Art~”, yeah? 

You have surprisingly refined tastes. 

MC: Yep, I feel like drinking some every now and then.  

Does this one come with candy as well? 

Ushio: ......It doesn’t matter, does it? I’m going to go buy it so twiddle your thumbs and wait here.  

MC: Ah, okay... 

MC: (Ushio-kun can be hard to grasp...) 

MC: (At any rate, this cafe is really bustling with people...) 

Female A: It’s no good~ They said today’s reservations are full and there've been no cancellations either. 

Female B: Seriously? I wonder if we’ll be able to make a reservation during the event period. Let’s give up on the food and just get drinks today then. We should be able to get take-out for the drinks at least.  

Female A: Yeah...Hey, if I order my oshi1’s drink, do you think he’ll come home after all?  

Female B: It’s random, so it'd be super exciting if a miracle like that occurred...! But wouldn’t you be moved if you ordered your ship’s other half or the rival instead and he still came out?  

Female A: True! It’d end up feeding my delusions...!  

MC: (I don’t really get it, but they seem incredibly excited... 

This seems like a limited-time cafe, so maybe there’s some kind of bonus with each purchase? If I had to guess, that’s probably what Ushio-kun's after too...)   

Ushio: Thanks for waiting.  

MC: Thanks...huh, wait? There’s two?  

Ushio: I felt like drinking something too. Now then... 

MC: (He turned around...and is clearly doing something secretly...) 

Ushio: Tch... 

MC: (He clicked his tongue...? I wonder what’s wrong.) 

Um... 

Ushio: You want seconds? 

MC: Huh? 

Ushio: If you’re still thirsty, they have a variety of different drinks—— 

MC: I'm happy for the consideration, but it’d cost money so this is more than enough.  

(I couldn’t possibly allow Ushio-kun to pay for everything either.) 

Ushio: ......ttle. 

MC: Huh? 

Ushio: It’s because this is....a battle.  

MC: Hm?? 

Ushio: There’s value in things you can’t buy with money...it’s just like travelling, don’t you think? 

Giving up just because it hasn’t come after a few tries, when you haven’t even done all you can....Isn’t that way more of a loss?  

MC: Y-Yes.... 

Ushio: That’s how it is, so just wait here.  

MC: ...... 

(He was so enthusiastic that I couldn’t turn him down...) 

(This is the fifth one...At the rate he’s going, we’re going to go through the entire menu...) 

(I know he’s buying the drinks because there’s something he wants, but...) 

Ushio: AH——! Geez! How many has it been now?! If this is how it’s going to be, I’ll put everything I have on the line to settle this...!2 

MC: U-Ushio-kun, I can’t drink anymore...my stomach is going to burst... 

Besides, the thing that you want is— 

Ushio: ...Washroom. Once I get back, we’re going another round. 

MC:  Eh, another round?! Wai—Ushio-kun! Hey, Ushio-kun! He’s gone... 

(To think that there’s something he wants so much that he’d become so dejected... 

I wish he would have the same amount of passion when giving hospitality3. In order to do that...) 

...Okay! We’ve come this far anyway—one last try won’t hurt! The line is...over here.... 

Shop Clerk: Thank you very much~.  

MC: (Every drink comes with one silver bag.  

So this is what Ushio-kun's been opening since earlier. Let's see, inside is...) 

This is... 

Man Proposes, God Disposes (Second Half) 

MC: This is...a coaster? 

(It seems like a paper coaster. I feel like the character drawn on it resembles Nanaki-kun somehow...) 

Female A: E-Excuse me...! 

MC: Ah...yes, what is it? 

Female A: If it's okay with you, would you be willing to give Reito...give that coaster to me? I’ll pay for the drink.  

MC: (It’s the person who was in front of the cafe earlier... I wonder if this person was also after this?) 

Reito? 

Female A: That’s the character’s name! 

...I can’t believe you don’t know Reito, are you a bandwagoner? 

You aren’t qualified to have him, so I think it’d be better if you handed him over to me.  

MC: H-Haa... 

Ushio: My bad, the washroom was full... 

?!  

(If I remember correctly, they’re that ReiShou shipper...!) 

Female A: (They’re that ReiOu shipper..!) 

MC: Is this character really that popular?  

Female A: That’s right! *rustling noise*  

MC: Wah, it’s a bag full of Reito (?)-kuns... 

Female A Whose Life Has Been Taken Over By PatiBato4 : This is the limited gacha can badge they sold at this year’s PatiFes. Reito’s character tax is high so it was hard collecting these!  

Ushio: <......One’s love for their oshi isn’t something that can be measured in numbers.> 

Female A Whose Life Has Been Taken Over By PatiBato: Ahem! Reito is a character from a series known as “PatiBato!”. “PatiBato!” is an unprecedented shounen manga that combines sweet confections and hot-blooded battles!  

MC: I-I see... 

Female A Whose Life Has Been Taken Over By PatiBato: At a super difficult-to-get-into technical school for pâtissiers named “Framboise”, everything is decided by battles between fellow pastry chefs...just like a Sengoku Period5 of sweets! 

Ushio: <Ha, someone who looks like they’ve never even made sweets before doesn’t suit it at all.> 

Female A Whose Life Has Been Taken Over By PatiBato: The main character is an energetic boy named Shouta who excels at baking, and Reito is a scholarship student who specializes in chocolate sweets, and is Shouta’s first rival, as well as the object of everyone’s admiration!  

Ushio: <Can a ReiShou shipper with zero reading comprehension please not speak about Reito?> 

MC: (Why is this turning into a heated argument...?!) 

T-Thank you for the explanation...!  

I see, so he’s a character from such a popular series.  

Female A Whose Life Has Been Taken Over By PatiBato: That’s right. So give Reito to...  

MC: I’m sorry, I can’t give this to you. 

Female A Whose Life Has Been Taken Over By PatiBato: Huh?! 

Ushio: ...! 

MC: (This might be the coaster Ushio-kun wanted after all...) 

Female A Whose Life Has Been Taken Over By PatiBato: .........Fine, I get it. Make sure you treasure him.  

MC: ......haah~~! That person was super passionate, wasn’t she! She seemed like an acquaintance of yours, but do you know her? 

Ushio: ...You think I’d be acquainted with a sinner who ships ReiShou? 

MC: (He definitely knows her...) 

Ushio: ...That coaster you were holding earlier—I wouldn’t mind throwing it out for you. 

MC: Ah, right. Was this what you wanted?  

Ushio: ?! I didn’t mean it like that, it’s just that a coaster from a series you don’t even know may as well be trash—    

*phone ringing* 

MC: Sorry, it’s a call from Kafka. Yes, hello— 

Ushio: ...... 

MC: That was a collaboration cafe for “PatiBato!”, wasn’t it? 

Ushio: ... 

MC: I can see why Reito-kun would be popular~.  

He looks kind, and he’s certainly got the good looks.  

Ushio: ... 

MC: You like the character named Ouji-kun as well, don’t you, Ushio-kun? 

The pudding milkshake inspired by him was also delicious—! 

Ushio: ...Hey.  

MC: Hm? 

Ushio: T-That coaster from earlier, I wouldn’t mind receiving it from you.6  

MC: Eh... 

Ushio: No, that’s not it...What I mean is...uh... 

MC: Oh, that’s right! Sorry, here you go! 

Ushio: ...Huh. 

MC: You wanted Reito-kun's coaster, right? 

Ushio: ......puya7...y....yeah..... 

MC: (Thank goodness. He seems happy.)  

Ushio: ...W-Well, you did accompany me in getting those drinks and all. I wouldn't mind taking your request the next time I bake something. 

MC: Eh, are you sure? Hehe, I’m looking forward to Ushio-kun's homemade sweets~!   

Ushio: You’d better look forward to it.  

MC: Yup! 

Ushio: (What a weirdo...But, well, I was able to get Reito’s coaster...) 

...Heh. 

TL Notes:  

1. One's favourite (member of an idol group, character in an anime, player in a team, etc.) –Jisho 

2. 「こうなったら泣きのもう一発を…！」I wasn’t sure how to translate this but I believe it comes from「泣きの一回」, which apparently is a term used in sports when you’ve lost against an opponent and would like to request another match for a chance at victory. The 一発 that Ushio says instead comes from 一発勝負, which changes the phrase to mean “to bet everything on one final contest/bout for a complete reversal of the situation”.  

3. The urge to just leave this word as “omotenashi” is as great as the urge to leave “Chief” as “Shunin”. 

4. Likely short for “Pâtissier Battle”.  

5. The Sengoku period, also known as Sengoku Jidai (lit. ‘Warring States period’) is the period in Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. –Wikipedia  

6. He makes it sound like he’s doing us a favour by accepting the coaster from us lol.  

7. Ushio has a speech tick where he acquires a lisp (?) of sorts when he’s surprised. I think his “puya” here is just him expressing he’s happy, and I’m going to leave it as is, as it’s very cute. 

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (December 3-9, 2023)

I made a frame from this shot Wikizilla's Image of the Week. No regrets. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, I love ya. When I was a teenager, explicit queerness was anathema to most big-name franchises. Those dominoes have been slowly falling, often in lower-profile tie-ins first, and to me this is a huge one: 69 years without a queer live-action Godzilla character are over. And Cate's the main protagonist of the show! I'm not under the delusion that media representation will cure all society's ills, but it sure doesn't hurt. Now, the non-Tumblr parts of the fandom are being completely normal about this, right? Right? Whatever, that's why you'll never get rid of me here. Cate had a couple more sweet moments with May in this episode, and Mariko Tamaki wrote episode 7, so don't expect her to stop kissing girls. Hopefully she's learned a valuable lesson about cheating though.

"The Way Out" is also another gift to those of us who have always wanted to see more of the ramifications of a world where Godzilla exists, from underground towns for the super-rich to ruined cities where federal troops shoot looters and harass people experiencing homelessness. And the show continues to find ways to use kaiju to talk about COVID, from Cate and Kentaro's exchange about San Francisco truthers ("It's easier than waking up every day and thinking, at any moment, the same could happen to you") to the blink-of-an-eye speed at which the threat went from on the news to her front door in the flashbacks.

As I foretold, we got a Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire trailer, an amusing contrast to the weighty Toho flick and Apple show already fore of mind. It's Adam Wingard unbound, that's for sure. The human cast seems pared back, a longstanding Monsterverse problem, and the kaiju fights were far and away the best part of Godzilla vs. Kong, so hopefully this approach will play to his strengths. But that movie also had excellent VFX, and some of the shots in here are rough. There's time to fix them, at least... which probably can't be said of Godzilla's design. I like that he's pink (did some Warner Bros. executive take the wrong message away from Barbie?) and sporting a thagomizer on his tail, but his proportions are uncanny. And I see Kong found the Infinity Gauntlet; good for him.

I am, of course, not done talking about Godzilla Minus One. It added over 200 screens and made $8.3 million in its second weekend in the U.S., a minuscule drop considering that its $11.4 million opening "weekend" spanned five days. Almost a third of all tickets sold this weekend were for Godzilla or Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron, remarkable in a market so allergic to foreign imports. That brings its total to $25.3 million (more by the time you read this). With an avalanche of Christmas blockbusters on the way, its grip on premium-format screens is about to slip. Still, I see it hanging around theaters for a while. I have never seen the fandom so united in praise for a film before, and it's making plenty of new fans.

Some of those fans are in high places. Variety leaked that it's on the 20-film shortlist for Best Visual Effects at the Oscars (to be narrowed to five nominees), something I, again, never expected to read about a Toho Godzilla film. Alas, it's locked out of this year's Best International Film category due to the quirky nomination period.

Much has been made of how great the film looks on a $15 million budget. I have two caveats, one in each direction. No one is quite sure where the $15 million figure came from; Yamazaki said at a recent con appearance that he only wished he had that much to play with. (He has yet to divulge the actual budget, just that it was above ¥1 billion.) Now, unions in the Japanese film industry are much weaker than in Hollywood, so a given production budget goes a lot further in Japan. All the same, I doubt that alone explains Minus One looking better than most superhero movies made for twenty times the cost. I'll offer a couple more reasons: Yamazaki has extensive visual effects experience (he's been the VFX supervisor of all but one of the live-action films he's directed), and the film's big effects scenes aren't as busy or lengthy as many of the Hollywood counterparts. I don't know if Disney will ask Yamazaki to direct the next Star Wars movie (that would require there to be a next Star Wars movie), but the studios here should be taking notes.

the sphinx, a blog with a ton of American Godzilla rarities to share, has outdone itself—behold a continuity and dialogue script for the U.S. version of King Kong vs. Godzilla! Included in the download is a detailed comparison with the film. No huge differences, apart from the script giving the secretary added to the U.S. version a name, but a fascinating piece of history all the same.

The Minus One incarnation of Godzilla (MaiGoji?) has joined Godzilla Battle Line, accompanied by [SPOILER]. To be honest, my enthusiasm for this game has been flagging, and I'm not caught up on the strategies developing around these two, so I'll just refer you to Sir Melee's channel as usual. This Godzilla's also doing a collaboration with the Japanese mobile game Fleet of Blue Flame.

Tiffany Grant, Asuka's original voice actress, will narrate the audiobooks for the Neon Genesis Evangelion: ANIMA light novels which explore an Instrumentality-free path for the show. Seven Seas Entertainment published them in English from 2019 to 2021, which, to be honest, was also news to me.

This one's for my fellow library workers: the obscenely popular Who HQ nonfiction series for children is publishing a book about Godzilla next June. I don't know if this will have quite the same impact on today's young Godzilla fans as the Ian Thorne tome had on Gen Xers and Millennials, what with the Internet and all, but it's certain to be more factual. Expect illustrations instead of licensed photos, and not just because of Toho.

I can finally talk more about the Godzilla x Kong: Titan Chasers mobile game without fearing a DMCA. Not that there's much to talk about; it's freemium through and through and I'm not sure I know a single person who's excited for it. Interesting to see some critters from the comics break into another medium, at least. Here's the trailer.

[britt-kageryuu]

The guys are sitting around a large table that has a long grill through the middle, with a couple metal plates on some parts that act as griddles. The table seems to be on a rooftop somewhere, but the skyline is blocked by canvas sheets painted to look like a New York City Skyline.

The guys are all dressed in color coded shorts, their masks, and shirts with different graphics on them. Raph = an Aligator Snapping Turtle holding a barbell in its mouth wearing sweatbands, Donnie = Reboot Process Interrupted Current Mood: Murderous, Leo = a turtle covered ing glitter with a unicorn horn on its head, Mikey = I have a Psychology Degree and am Eager to Use It! (Threat).

They were having Yakiniku, with a few other things on the grills and griddles, chatting among eachother, and answering questions from the chat. On one end Mikey was experimenting with 'steam baking' a cake on the griddle.

Shelldon is flying around the area announcing the questions, while River is in stand-by/sleep mode on a box in the back charging. Shelldon is also acting as a speaker playing music as he floats around.

"So we had to send someone to grab some more ingredients, the poor new guy was so confused by the list, so I volunteered to go with him." Mikey says as he checks his experiment, "This guy apparently never went shopping in the marketplace before, and I swear he almost overpaid on ingredients, so many times. Senior Hueso gave us a budget, and I wanted to make sure we stuck to it."

Shelldon swerves around next to Donnie, "Hey Dad, TechnoTurtle, wants to know how you have so many 3D models in such a short amount of time. Got any answers Dude-Dad?"

Donnie was in the middle of eating so it took a minute for them to answer, "Well to be honest, I have planned to make numerous games with 3D models in the past, and then lost interest for various reasons. So I had all the Models saved on a spare memory bank." They pause to take a sip of their drink, "And before we get a question about the many outfits, I left some odd videogame clothes/costume data attached to the models so it's very easy to add new outfits. Think of our Models as videogame avatars instead of VTuber models. Also I don't know what programs others normally use for making VTuber models, Mandarin and I have been using a mix of my programs, and some free to use art programs."

Mikey is seen moving his cake experiment to a counter near the table to cool under a netted cube, "I may have made our original model concepts, and done some minor rigging for them, but once we discovered the mix of programming we use now, yeah definitely better for us. I may love doing art, but making models for VTubing was more complicated than I wanted to deal with." Mikey quickly grabs a few pieces of meat and veggies from the grill with tongs, "Heck, once I told everyone I designed our models, I had to emphasize on my commission page that I don't do models. But I have been making 2D, 2.5D model Assets, with a wide variety of skin tones, and even different species variants." Mikey says with some pride in his voice.

Leo was about to say something, but stopped to stare as Donnie starts to eat a sandwich, he made with grilled meats and veggies, whole. It wasn't an unusual sight for the guys, but it's been a while since he last saw Donnie do this. And that's not to mention the audience who are all very confused and concerned by this.

"I don't know why I'm surprised to see you eat like that Dee, but Wow. I forgot you could-" Leo paused for a sec, "That almost came out very wrong. And not in a way I would want to say."

Sadly some of the audience was able to pick up on the almost innuendo, thankfully they didn't mention it in chat, but they did make memes out of the clip.

Donnie looked at Leo with great offense after finishing his sandwich. "Annoyed Huff. Rude. Dear Brother, you can not fault me for my softshell instincts!" They say with a huff and crossed arms. Their tail seen whipping around behind them.

Raph just lets out a sigh with a shake of his head. "You two are always so chaotic with eachother. But you're my knucklehead brothers." He uses some custom chopsticks to flip the meat he put on the grill before eating it after a few seconds.

The stream goes on with more chatting, and eating, though after a bit of time they're joined by April, Cass, and CJ. With a note that their Dads are on vacation, to get away from some the guys chaotic antics recently.

The chaotic antics in question were not mentioned, much to the audiences great disappointment.

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

Masterpost

This was at least partly my original idea for their 4th of July post, but I decided that the guys would rather just enjoy the festivities instead of streaming the entire time.

And yes Donnie is swallowing the sandwich whole. I just realized how wrong/weird it sounds to describe that hence the 'unspoken innuendo' line.

[whatareyoudoingwithamaserati]

yessss, two friends showed me jennifers body a couple years ago! the movie deserves every single bit of hype it gets, i had so much fun, it was delicious!

(if you have more recs? 👀👀 I love literary/audio horror but ive been too... idk, scared? because i don't know what i like when it comes to visuals?)

LET’S GOOOOO!!! I put off watching Jennifer’s Body for so long because I was worried it would not live up to the hype but MAN was it worth it. They have been plaguing my thoughts ever since. I am especially a massive fan of the costume design because they NAILED that shit!!

Admittedly I’m more into horror movies than novels (it is . So hard to read these days) and podcasts have never caught my fancy, but it would feel wrong to not recommend sign here by Claudia Lux and the ever infamous American psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. I actually haven’t finished American psycho because it is a dense read but my god it’s a beautiful masterpiece of a book and I did not expect it to be as hilarious as it is

Movie wise I tend to jump all over the place and watch whatever catches my fancy so this is. Not a very cohesive rec list and not full of very many older homoerotic movies but. I plan to watch more when I can

First and foremost I am an absolute die hard fan of house of 1000 corpses. I cannot put into words how much I love it in all of its weirdness. It was made by rob zombie of living dead girl fame and you can TELL in the best of ways. It’s got fun colour grading, excessive swearing, weird ass characters, and such a fun setting. I’d say it’s on the medium-heavy side of gore with a couple of body horror scenes and a good bit of blood and mutilation. The seocnd movie is good, third eh, but you don’t actually need to watch those two. They take the camp of the first movie and turn it into a more gritty realistic energy that is almost meanspirited in nature

I’m a HUGE cabin fever fan and I will recommend it at every chance I get, BUT! There is a caveat and that is that it is not only significantly gory but also that it is weird, campy, kitschy, and a real big fan of slurs, LOL. I think we hit several n-words, an r-word or two, and some use of faggot. Some of the later scenes are downright WEIRD but despite it all it is one of my favourite horrors with some really haunting scenes

Hellraiser in general is a wonderful franchise, I love Clive Barker’s choice to base the cenobites around a mix of BDSM and gay culture and how he characterizes pinhead, even if the later movies fuck it up a little. The 2022 standalone is a huge favourite in particular, I love the imagery and the cenobite redesigns that lean heavier into body horror as well as the cinematography. Jamie Clayton’s pinhead is fucking INCREDIBLE to boot

If you like erotic horror, X is definitely a good one to watch - the plot centres around sex workers determined to make an erotic film and make it big, with some immaculate commentary on desirability, beauty, and aging. Good bit of tits and ass in that one, as well as medium level gore. It also has two sequels, Pearl and MaXXXine, which are set in the past and future respectively. Pearl was secretly shot at the same time as X in the same location and focuses on the lust for fame, the need to make it big, and a youthful mania of sorts coming from Pearl. MaXXXine I haven’t actually seen yet so I cannot say much about it, but I hope to get to it soon!

The fear street trilogy is also a remarkably well done series that seamlessly covers one long tangled mystery throughout three different timelines, using the same handful of actors for each one! The use of setting and cinematography is so fuckint cool, the eventual mystery reveal is absolutely wild, and there’s even a canon queer relationship! The gore isn’t too bad, I’d say light but there are some moments that push it to a medium at best

Ready or Not is a movie I enjoy for a variety or reasons (I think the iconic shot of Grace in a ripped and bloody wedding dress is pretty big on the internet), from the setting to the storytelling to Samara Weaving’s fucking banshee screams, with medium-light gore (though the bits that do show up are impactful as all hell. Cabin in the Woods is fun as a deconstruction of the horror genre (and a story that theoretically makes every single horror movie made canon, wow), though it’s also just really fucking funny. Another medium gore!

Candyman 2021 is a brilliant take on an old legacy of movies (again, no previous ones need watching) with a wonderful exploration of gentrification, black trauma, and what makes the candyman the candyman. I know I keep talking about cinematography but holy fuck, the multimedia use in this film in particular. Immaculate. I feel practically obligated to recommend Deathgasm, which is an indie horror with some pretty wicked gore, if not just because the main characters are all metalheads, and as one myself, it’s SO COOL to see us as protags in a horror movie

Last but not least, Prey 2022. Holy fuck, Prey is an utter masterpiece. It’s the latest addition to the predator franchise, another one of those ones you don’t Need to have watched in order to watch prey, but havint seen them gives the watching experience a good bit more depth, with iconic lines being given a new spin. It’s technically a prequel to the first ever predator movie, focusing on one of the first few appearances of a predator on earth (ehhh debatable considering the canon of aliens vs predator but I’m ignoring that for the sake of conciseness), giving it more a more basic appearance and weapons, while also letting it kick absolute ASS. The plot is incredible, the cinematography is incredible, the CGI animals are so much better than ever expected, and it’s also the first ever feature length film to ever have an official Comanche dub!!! Holy fuck!!

As a bonus, though I haven’t seen it, Doctor Sleep also seems like a really well done movie! It’s based off of the Stephen King book set after the shining, reprising and revisiting a lot of iconic moments to tell a new story with fucking incredible visuals that put their own spin on the shining

[tezzbot]

I know literally nothing about Trolls, so I’m curious. Was there anything specific that got you into the franchise? A trope? a character? Or was it just a variety of things that only coming together made it into something special?

I want to know if I should watch the movies since you’re the first person on the internet I’ve seen to have a positive opinion on them.

So, my first introduction to the franchise was way back when just the first movie was out. It was my little brothers favourite film for a LOOONG time so it was on repeat in our house for a while lmao it took me a while to actually pay attention to it but once I did I was like yeah! Good movie :] it establishes the world and characters well, and it's just an all round fun time with cool designs fun ideas and yknow I'm always a sucker for colourful singing fun little guys. A lot of people misunderstand the messaging of the first movie which frustrates me A Lot lol but yknow. It's a cute and silly and fun time and you can't go wrong w that. Singing Killed His Grandma<3 lol

The second movie is also very fun to me and expands the world in a really cool way, with new genres of trolls and the differences between them, each troll tribe has it's own unique setting I loooove the backgrounds in these movies you can tell a lot of thought was put into them, everything looks crafted in it's own unique way that represents the creatures that live there soo well augghgh yum. I personally think the second movie, for a children's film attempting to be an analogy for colonialism and historical revisionism lmfao, does a fairly decent job at tackling the themes in a way kids can kind of understand I think?? obviously it simplifies it all but, yknow, kids movie. And the individual character arcs the main characters go through are really interesting and fitting to the characters imo.

I also really like that they don't change Branch after the end of the first one to just be back to a peppy pop troll, like he's still a grumpy anxiety ridden little guy, like it shows his recovery from being grey isn't linear but he's improving, and it continues into the third movie as well as he slowly regains colour bit by bit, I really like Branch as a character :]

And the third one adds so much to Branch's character as well, delving into his backstory and making him like even more tragic which is so funny to me. We again, get an even more expansive look at the world outside of Bergentown, Pop village and the other troll genre territories and we get to see even more creatures from all over. And is also just one big Justin Timberlake Used To Be In a Boyband joke its great JHJGFH

I think it's very much a big mixture of things that's got me hooked on this series, among them is the clear love you can tell the creators have for it the world is so vibrant and interesting, the characters are honestly engaging and fun to think about since the movies are short snippets we get of their lives and realtionships and what have you I'm always a sucker for open to interpretation character relationships as well lmao, for me the jokes hit pretty well, and they're just Fun to be so honest, it's okay to have fun sometimes and they just make me happy so I am going to continue to play my tuoys smile

[ruckis--rookie]

If you're seeing this, this means I've finally completed Mario & Luigi Brothership! 🎉🎉🎉

And that also means that as a vet and long standing fan of the series I get to critique it as such! Hooray!!!

I'm going to leave my thoughts under the read more, since I don't feel like dividing up any potential spoilers with non-spoilers, and so that people can read at their leisure. That said:

DISCLAIMER!!! WARNING!!! These are wholly my thoughts and feelings and do not reflect how I think other people should feel! I am not here to debate my opinions on it and I am not here to preach to, make fun of, or force my views onto someone else! This is strictly just to share my experience!!! Basically meaning like... please don't type a mile long paragraph on my post about why you disagree with me or be weird about it and vaguepost. I wont read it and I won't acknowledge inappropriate behaviors towards a simple request. If a comment has either "but" or "except" in it you've already failed.

That out of the way, I know it's a miracle that this series even got a new installment and that a new company is handling it, but if you're going to put "Mario and Luigi" in the title I'm going to judge it just as I would any other installment of the series. Said company allegedly had old developers from Alphadream on the team overseeing the project so its hardly an excuse. I am not this hypercritical when it comes to many other series, just this one and a few others. It stems from a place of extreme passion and love for the game.

Be prepared for the nitpickiest of nitpicks and high praise over the most simple of things! HERE WE GOOOOO!!!

The things I like about the game:

The Charisma. The writing is so freaking cute, the characters are extremely likeable, and even the cutscenes have so much personality. I was so worried it was going to be as stale and tired as Paper Jam was but I was thankfully proven very wrong, and for that I am grateful

The battle plugs are a really fun addition! I adore the variety and freedom to experiment. I was initially very iffy about it because some of the seemed very cheatsy and hand holdy (cough cough easy counter/auto excellent/auto luigi) but I was swayed otherwise with the compromise of it having limited uses and needing to charge back up.

Speaking of. THE BATTLES. OH MY GOD THE BATTLES. The input flows so nicely it doesn't feel delayed anymore (to me at least). The bros moves are fun and badass. I was on the fence because the way the bros attacked are different than in most of the installments, but it grew on me. Heck even the boss battles have their own personality and I love it

Hatch me if you can. OMFG. AS A YOSHI FAN IM EATING SO GOOD. I AM FEASTING. HE LOOKS SO BADASS. IHFHFHSJG but yea I really like that bros move

Also DORRIE. DORRIE IS IN THIS GAME? OH MY GOD YEESSSS.... 🥺💖 I also find it funny that the islanders reacted with very reasonable terror. They're like "OH MY GOD A GIANT FUCKING DINOSAUR STAY AWAY KIDS IT MIGHT EAT YOU" and the bros group is just like "Nah its chill this is our good friend she dont bite" HDHFHGHDS

The reefs are a very cute addition and as an artist I adored Rumbla island with all my heart. I love Maykit and I love Issarock. I love Twistee Island, and Dyode, and auuuughhghgh <3

The enemy designs are freaking amazing and adorable and oiugh 💞💞💞 I love that Capnap made a comeback unironically one of my favorite enemies from DT, and Krode is such a clever dericitive of the Treevil enemy.

Optional expert challenges that are actually difficult??? Yes. YES. YESYESYES. I FEEL HEARD.

Bruuuhgh the little rhythm games make my entire week. I love rhythm games and I love music and I love dance ajhdjajfjs it was appreciated even if it's a very minimal part of the game.

I kinda loved the Shark Bone encounter on Allsand Island? I love enemies that force you to run away. Honestly it gave me a well needed reality check haha, I was getting too confident in my abilities. It was the first and only time I had a game over.

I originally started out disliking the UFO field maneuver in place of the brother's flying twist, but once it got its secondary function I honestly couldn't stay mad at it. It had the same charm and brand of ridiculousness that made me fall in love with the Yokai Watch series so I couldn't help but laugh.

Glohm as a status effect is actually ingenious. I was legitimately thinking to myself "why don't they just do that to the bros and make them ill-cooperative. It would take apart their dynamic entirely". I was pleasantly surprised when it became the case later in the game, and it does just that. Their strength hinges on their bond, so destroy that bond, and you hinder the bros immensely. I genuinely love how genius that is, that's scary. But in a good way. I was slack jawed for a whole two minutes during the fight with Zokket when you're basically pitted up against your Glohm possessed brother.

The main villains are scarily efficient. I know that it's 100% on purpose, but you don't realize just by how much until you think about it. Usually it's normal for the bros and co. to be 1 step behind the antagonists and know exactly what their next move is. But not the Extension Corps. You're almost 5 steps behind them at every moment and you have NO clue what they're doing throughout most of the game. When interrogated about their plans they're literally like "why tf would we tell you" AND I LOVE THAT OMG I LOVE SMART VILLAINS... The trade off is that they have no sense of foresight which is understandable when you act so quickly you don't worry about consequences. as someone who has a villain OC who is absolutely hellbent on saving time and being as efficient as possible, so much so that it influences him to be very opportunistic in nature and utilitarian in terms of strategy, who lacks foresight completely, the rep is very appreciated here.

Speaking of the villains, the main big baddie is... hollly shit. I wasn't expecting some evangelical psyche horror. This is quite a few more echelons above the Dark Star, heck, as much as I like the guy Fawful has NOTHING on Reclusa. Not even the Shroobs were quite as deranged. They were just looking to cultivate. Fawful was just conquering for the sake of getting the adoration he deserved. But nah, Reclusa is hellbent on destroying the world through a slow burning rot as everyone is forced into isolation, into their own little worlds, blissfully unaware of what's happening around them. Forced into a position of helplessness where they are none the wiser. Saying Reclusa is basically a primordial god of sociopathy and isolation isn't even an overstatement. Not for revenge or anything, no, but because of his nature of being the embodiment of hatred skewing his view of an ideal world and forcing that belief onto other people. Hell, he even manipulates the one of the few people that could stand against him by using her care taking nature against her. It basically turns into Persona 5 the Mario game and I am so here for it.

It takes you like 3 tries to actually confront Reclusa just to fight him and almost lose. Once you DO square off, there's like... what, 4-5 different phases? That's crazy to me. Not to mention Reclusa nearly SUCCESSFULLY downed the bros FOR GOOD. the only reason they're alive is because Connie showed up just in the nick of time and that ALMOST DIDNT EVEN WORK because she showed up moments before it would have been too late. All of this happens within the game that Reclusa debuted in and that counts for a lot considering it took Fawful 3 games of buildup to get where he was. But Reclusa did """Die""" in his starring game so minus points for that one chief (/hj)

Holy crap they made it so the normal Magikoopas wear orange to distinguish Kamek. I'm not sure if it was THIS game that made that change, but I've been wanting it for years and it's a trope I hope continues because honestly magic turtle gramps is so underrated and badass.

ALSO HIS INTRO WITH BOWSER IS... CHEFS KISS. I was slackjawed watching that entire cutscene. Offandon Island too, the interaction with Buddy as he runs off, only for you to discover the flag with Bowser's coat of arms... MWAH. Legit made me gasp. He comes in SWINGING.

There's so many animations and so much tiny attention to detail that it's incredible. Legit has me floored as an artist. Even the title screen changes towards the end of the game. if ykyk. Reclusa searching and the screen going 👁️ 🇲 🇱before popping up and laughing at the player.

I appreciate Starlow got more positive limelight this time around. Honestly people misinterpret her so badly. They mistake her love language in the form of playful bullying for malice and its disgustang. She's a bit brash and standoffish at times yeah, but she's gone out of her way to apologize or acknowledge that she was wrong, humbling herself when need be. I blame Paperjam for doing her a massive disservice, the dialogue in that game was SO mishandled. Heck, she still "makes fun of" Luigi by not acknowledging his name. OR. so it would seem at a glance. But when things get serious and someone does get antagonistic towards the bros she acknowledges him by name pretty quickly and jumps to defend him. Showing that YES, THIS IS DONE ON PURPOSE, BUT ITS IN GOOD FUN... And her just waltzing in and visiting Bowser to give him a get better gift as a "friend" while he's still injured, despite the fact that he claims he doesn't like her, is a good reflection of her personality. Having the gal to place a meaty piece of spicy chicken on his head TO HIS FACE so playfully just like "boop!". C'mon thats endearing asf. If you honestly hate her for having a distinct personality you must be really fun at parties.

I love how we get to see more of Bowser's good nature shine through here. He's one of Nintendo's best and most classic villains because he's... not really a villain. He's a conqueror at best. Sure he's selfish and hot tempered. He's a tyrant and goes about getting what he wants the wrong way. But we see in SMRPG and BIS that he's a loyal leader who cares about his minions. In most Mario Party games he doesn't take from someone who has nothing, rather he donates to those in need. We see in this game that he's a loving father, marching straight over to Zokket to beat his ass for kidnapping his kid even though he himself was mortally injured. We see him and his minions actually caring for an island that was in trouble, giving them food and very adamant protection against Zokket's forces. We love to see it.

I love the entirety of the bros get VRd sequence. Like, it's clear from the get-go something is wrong. Through subtle dialogue text you can tell that the bros want to go back to Concordia, and that they aren't happy they're back in the Mushroom Kingdom. NPCs making comments about Concordia and how nice it was, the insistence that you smile for everyone, the urging you to continue forward with the programmed illusion, the manipulation into trying to get you to stay there with them forever. It gets even worse come the second sequence. You go into the castle and it starts all over again. You don't even see the castle's interior. It's planned laziness. laziness in a way I can accept from a development standpoint. They COULD have made the interior of Peach's castle, but they made it so much more freaky with the groundhog day vibes. It also adds to the slightly outdated tech feels. Supposedly Reclusa is ancient, but modern VR can harbor hundreds of massive maps. Reclusa could only muster the one liminal space for hundreds, possibly thousands of individuals. Not to mention its what little of Mario's world Reclusa must have seen given thats where one of the few portals opened. But anyways, the dialogue becomes progressively more stale with each sequence. You can feel Reclusa's impatience in them. They start mentioning Concordia less and less as Reclusa fights it, pushing himself to the point that the simulation starts to break down. NPCs start getting progressively more out of character until you're able to basically activate debug mode and hunt Reclusa down. Even the hidden items felt like a nod to off-map items that just haven't been loaded yet. You corner Reclusa until he's finally had enough and ushers you to enter the castle, where you're met with an empty void, a spiraling red carpet to freedom with the only thing standing in your way being a hollow mirage of you dear princess begging you to stay... I feel like they should have included a game over if you said yes but I digress, absolutely amazing part of the game.

The things I care too much about™:

The pacing is ABYSMAL. And this is coming from someone who enjoyed Dream Team as a slow burner. It takes way too damn long to get the first bros move, and the time between getting each bros move is also wayyy to gd long. There are moments where it feels like there's just. Nothing. There's too much nothing going on. It's monotonous and not in a good way. At the very least, progressing and getting to see the next cutscene or character interaction is enough to keep me engaged... just barely. My ADHD was struggling w this game ngl.

It's way too handholdy. Yeah, a grown adult is griping about a kids game being too easy, whomp whomp. A tale as old as time. And it wouldn't be an issue if they weren't very clearly trying to pander to their original, older audience as well with references and nods to past games. Honestly this is a gripe of mine that isn't exclusive to this game, its happening to a lot of modern games. At the same time it's as simple as adding a difficulty setting towards the beginning of the game that changes some of the functionality. Similar to what Dream Team did. I'm also under the firm belief that kids deserve better. We shouldn't be dumbing down video games. Kids aren't dumb. A game being difficult is so much more rewarding when you finally beat it. Volo's battle as well as Drayton's battle, Gigantamax layers, and 7 star raid dens are some of the most genuine fun I've had in a Pokemon game in a loooong while for that exact reason. Meanwhile, I've still just barely had to buy any items from the store. Get rid of that stupid fucking heal block so I can actually enjoy the charm of getting a back massage. Is that so hard... at the very least I do appreciate the fact that it ramps up in difficulty towards end game and they include the DX Glohm fights.

Not the biggest fan of the choppy animal crossing esque voices? I know for a fact it was definitely due to time constraints because Starlow as well as some of Bowser's minions don't even have anything like that 😭 but tbh they should've kept it simple, like what they did for TTYD remake. It would have been less disjointing. Or at the very least they could have taken the BIS samples and put a reverb over it, even that would have made it better.

I'm... honestly not the biggest fan of the red shell attack being able to hit flying targets. Do I like how quick and smooth it is compared to the green shell? Absolutely, I do, but it could have just as easily been applied to the green shell as well. Heck, I kinda like that it mirrors the respective bros' fighting style. It's meant to add more variety I know, but... that shouldn't be the case. Functionality wise they're supposed to mirror one another. That's how its always been. And for them to need to change the red shell to hit arial foes does more harm than good, because it speaks volumes about just how long it takes to get a new bros move to serve the same purpose. It would have been so nice if the red shell just swept in from the other side of the screen similarly to Luigi's green shell, but on the opposite side.

I don't like the copius amount of nostalgia catering. A little less than half of the bros moves being returning bros. moves from past games make me sad in a mournful sense. The one bros move that should be an exception to this they managed to mess up in my eyes. The returning moves did grow on me a little because they're genuinely fantastic recreations for this game, but I really wish they stuck to making more original bros moves. The ones that DID stem from this game I thought were genuinely outstanding. The amount of references just... it'd be fine if it were few and far in between but it's like a quarter of the game and it makes me wanna vom after a while. It's like trying to forcefeed me copius amounts of bitter sweet sugar.

Why. Why God why, Luigi's select button not the B button. WHY is it the A button. It took be a while to get used to it and even towards the end of the game I STILL fudge the attacks on occasion. Years of muscle memory down the shitter. Nuff said.

THEY TOOK MY FUCKING LEVEL UP ROULETTE BONUS >:( I know it's such a small thing to gripe about but there should be NO REASON that it's gone! It's been there for every other game, so what the eff!!!

I hate that there's no penalty for holding up your hammer forever while defending. This isn't recent, I think it's been a thing since BIS or DT...? I can't remember at the moment. But its always been something I disliked because you can already cheese the jump dodges by pressing both buttons at the same time. Having the hammers break as consequence felt like an appropriate buffer to level it out. They could have just as easily made that a feature of the easy counter plug instead of making it standard.

There's also no penalty to getting surprise attacked from behind in the overworld. Given you can still do the attack of opportunity in the overworld for some extra damage, it feels cheap as hell. You don't get stunned, you don't take damage, nothing. Perhaps the most damning thing is Luigi doesn't even count as an overworld hitbox for you half of the time >:/ a chunk of the time Luigi being run into by an enemy just. Doesn't count because of the jank semi-automation.

Luigi being semi automated is a load of garbage tbh. It messes with the platforming and the flow of things. I honestly want to know how hard it would have been to swap the model's properties. Like have him be connected to Mario normally, and when a section comes up where you need Luigi to branch off, just have him disconnect and do the thing he's deliberately programmed to do, and then have him approach and snap back to Mario when he's done! Him being fully semi automated feels so obstructive for no reason. Esp when you're exploring and Luigi gets caught on something, so you have to backpedal during a very important platform segment because of something beyond your control.

This might actually be a surprising one given I adore the tall green bro but... I. dislike. To put it nicely. The fact that the game is so luigi centric. He deserves his time in the spotlight, but not like this. It feels so shoehorned in like. Dream Team was an exception because it was deliberate and it was the Year of Luigi. It was expected. It's called Mario and Luigi BROTHERship for a reason. It's not "Luigi and Luigi Luigiship". The charm of the Luigi logic wears off quick. It feels so forced to me. Like, we've done silly solutions and hijinks like this in the past, but they always did it together as a team. They put their heads together and came up with a solution. It never was just Luigi's logic, it was the bros logic. Which would make sense, because it's CALLED BROTHERSHIP. ITS ABOUT THE BROTHERS! ITS ABOUT BONDS SHARED WITH EACH OTHER! AUGH!!! I don't want to see the same 10 second cutscene just to watch Luigi push some chubby kid through a hole in the wall when it would be just as charming, if not moreso without it! To this game's credit though, Mario fucking killing a guard on Onandoff Island with a barrel being completely his idea was a refreshing and hilarious change 😭

I hate the fact that there's still no penalty for running away, and in some cases the game even encourages you to do so. On top of making battle skill redundant, it takes away from moments like Allsand Island. When you're practically forced to run away because of the Shark Bones? Even having something as simple as dropping coins as your punishment, which the game puts a lot of emphasis on with rare and expensive items, would be good. As much as I like my fleeing to be involved and engaging, even just the chance to fail alone without doing anything else would be better.

It's good to see the bros ball making a comeback but it... feels horrible to play? It's very slow in the overworld which defeats the purpose it had in Pit. You shouldn't have to wait to get a faster option. However, I'd like to think these are foreshadowing a remake for a certain game that deserves it but... with how sales have been for the game I'm not sure that'll happen soon.

The battles play well enough at the expense of the overworld feeling empty and playing slower. At least half of the time they do, the hitboxes are jank asf. Sometimes the enemy's moves are too merciful, sometimes they're merciless. Some of the timing is dreadfully slow so that the Glohm enemies can have more normally paced attacks that you can actually dodge. The balance is very poor overall.

The fishing kinda sucks. Ngl. I'm someone who adores fishing mini games. I got very excited to see a fishing game in Brothership. I was quickly let down. I sailed across several different seas, interchanged between both bros as well as bait. Hardly any variety in fish like I was promised. And I did this DOZENS of times. Not only does this one feel highly confusing with not much direction, but it's the least engaging fishing mini game I've ever played. Even the cartoon Sims fishing games are more fun. I'm saying this as someone who enjoys chainfishing in PKMN XY. At the very least, it was neat to see it utilized as a side quest tool, but that's not saying much. If there is something unique you can get while fishing I'm not sticking around long enough to find out. The game itself is already 30-50 hours long.

Even with the fast travel that you get for Shipshape backtracking can still be extremely sluggish for much longer travels. It's not too damning, just means I can put my Switch down and focus on something else for about 3 minutes.

Not sure how I feel about the strangely anti anti-social propaganda? I know WHY it was done obviously what with the game being "the power of friendship tm". This is such a minor gripe of mine and I'm absolutely overdramatizing it but I found myself relating to Reclusa in SOME cases. I say some cuz uhhh yeah Reclusa is (purposefully and thematically) a complete sociopath. But his final words being "UGH. People." had me laughing and shouting "SAME". The sentiment that having to worry about other people is just too exhausting had me nodding. That's why I drift towards stronger, more independent people or people who are introverted and reclusive like me. I'm not mad about it I just found it funny.

I wish we saw/got to know more about Gorumbla and the extension corps. Gorumbla has a very mysterious backstory as a character that we just never tap into and the Extenshun Corps is kinda just like...??? why did they join Zokket to begin with? Even in one of the journals Zokket wrote he was like uhhh idk. they will die by my hands tho. It was explicitly stated they just joined for some reason. They weren't created like the other troops. And then after all the trouble they caused they go back on it and help you fight Reclusa before turning a new leaf. So what was. the point?????? HUH. And why do they look drastically different than everyone else? Why does Gorumbla look like he comes from a different world entirely like the bros? So many unanswered questions... And unfortunately I only speak English so I can't read flavor dialogue from other games even if I wanted :(

Adaphne. She's successfully passed Broque and Bedsmith on my disliked characters by a landslide.

Other thoughts and overall opinion:

I started out heavily disliking the game, but I desperately wanted to enjoy it so I stuck with it. Maybe it was because I was still mourning the death of the past gen's developer team. Maybe it was because I had grown oh so slightly resentful towards the series from personal reasons. But regardless I gave it the chance it deserved and I'm glad I did. It's an excellent addition to the series. I'm not going to pretend like its not an attempt to revive the series for future cash grabs. It only happened because of the recent successes of The Mario Movie and the remakes for TTYD and SMRPG. But for what it is, its an absolutely amazing game.

I wish they would have continued development potentially until the release of the next console. Not only would it have given them more time to refine what they were trying to build, but they would have had better hardware to work with. That isn't to say that it doesnt already have a lot, by god it does. I'm actually really impressed with how much content it has. But there were very small details that felt like they wanted to do a lot more with but didnt have time. Overall I want to see the series continue to thrive, but the market for M&L games is niche as is. Traditional RPGs are past their prime time with the ever dwindling attention span. Brothership kinda flopped on release day, so if this series is to see a resurgence... only time will tell. I hope with Christmas on the way it'll see more attention.

Also I know another complaint was that the game has "too much dialogue" and I find that funny. I'm sorry but if you complain about an RPG having too much dialogue you immediately lose all rights to critique it lmaooo "Role-playing" is literally in the name. My gamer in christ do you know, by definition, what that means. 😭

In conclusion If you love saccharine sweet character interactions then the game is for you. Ironically my complaint isn't that there's too much dialogue, its that there's too much in between just to get to the meat and potatoes. A lot of my dislike towards it came from the game having a chronically slow start. It isn't till the near end where you really get into the good stuff. And when it gets good, it gets REALLY good. If you have rampant ADHD like me you might be better off watching a lets play and forming your own opinions, But I encourage you to push on because to say the ending had me sulking is gracious. It had me ugly crying throughout the entire credit sequence.

[thedistortionsno1simp]

Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss hatepost cos I hate these things with a burning fucking passion cos the Internet keeps telling me about them against my will

Here I list everything I hate about everything Vivziepop touchs with her sticky transphobe fingers

1. Bad LGBTQ rep

'But how do you know that if you haven't even-' I have seen Angel Dust's stupid ass femboy stereotype design. I have seen how she treats Alastor as an aroace RELATIONSHIP REPULSED character. She is also a TRANSPHOBE. I feel like I have enough evidence that whatever rep is in that show is bad. It does not calm me how Charlie strangely looks like the stark example of what is the most butch lesbian any social media can handle.

Also, gonna say this rn, if you relate to any of the characters in this show, you're not doing being lgbt wrong, cos you are more three-dimensional than they ever will be and relating to a character doesn't mean all criticisms to them instantly apply to you.

2. Bad character design

No. It's bad. 'But professionals worked on it and they're better-' One) I do character design, not on this account, mind you as I don't want ppl connecting this silly place to my art. I have pretty good designs (nothing pro but still moderately pretty), and I know basic concepts, and even if I didn't, I could tell you it looks bad, just not why. Two) Bad designs are never really the fault of the design department, but the executives who either force those bad designs or rush the designers.

Now, let me explain what is bad about these designs:

- Same body syndrome. (Yes, I'm aware Mammon is a character in the show that doesn't make it better that everyone else is so thin. I'm also aware this is something many shows do, but the reason it's on this list is because it’s still bad, but other shows mitigate it, but Helluva and hazbin don't)

See how only Asmodeus and the wolf guy are the only ones with different body shapes in these lineups?? THREE FUCKING LINEUPS FROM TWO DIFFERENT SHOWS???

2) Same outfit syndrome. This is a problem I exclusively see in Hazbin and Helluva. Like ONLY Hazbin and Helluva. This is not something I see in many other places. Everyone is always wearing a suit or croptop and ripped pants or skirt combo. Like I get it, suits are cool. Croptops are FIRE, but like THERE ARE OTHER ARTICLES OF CLOTHING. Like I thought ppl were exaggerating with the suit thing but LOOK. Why in the main line up of Hazbin are there only THREE characters with different clothes?? Why, huh? And isn't Angel Dust a striper or some shit?? Wouldn't he be the one character where the croptop and ripped pants combo makes more sense???

3. Colours. Why is it that these shows' executives are so utterly HELLBENT on either using either the monochrome and red colour pallette or random colours that barely look good together?(Like Beezelebub's colour pallette is one more tiny extra colour away from being atrocious) This is not to say a limited colour pallette is bad, Welcome Home is a great example of how this is done well :) and other shows do this as well. The problem with Hazbin is that too many colours are in the same place for many characters (red and white for the faces, black and white near the chest, etc, etc)

Welcome Home puts in plenty of variety of where the colours go, thus giving us a better overall look when everyone is together.

This is also not to say that many colours are bad. Like, just look at hypercore art(not putting that here cos I don't wanna bother with an eyestrain warning). The show just didn't manage the many colours WELL and it got all over the place.

4. No immediate purpose or meaning to the designs.

Rule no 1 of design is that is that upon looking at your characters, we can get a good idea of who they're supposed to be. It draws the audience in and works pretty well for shows. E.g. you can instantly tell Steven Universe(S1) is a friendly sweet child. Helluva and Hazbin barely follows this rule. Like who's actually supposed to be the demon of Lust? Asmodeus or Angel Dust? Cos Angel Dust looks a whole lot more suited for the job!! Beelzeebub- like who is she supposed to be??? What does she represent? Her character design gives me so little to work with other than 'She's supposed to look cool'. Alastor, the radio demon that barely looks like a radio demon, has the same problem. And why is it that all his lore (Serial killer, Lived in New Orleans, Black) is NEVER communicated through his character design??? I'm not saying I have to know all this the minute I look at him but GOD at least communicate the blackness in his skin or little hints to the era he's from in the make of his suit or make him muscular to show he's a strong character or if he's a cannibal, make him sickly and disgustingly thing, instead of the skinny queen build he has now.

So overall, just bad communication in the designs which is what design is literally made for....(God I hate how this might actually go down in history as a big part of lgbt cartoons or indie cartoons in general...)

Gonna put the rest in another post cos God are my grievances long and numerous

[otakween]

Digimon Tamers: Battle of Adventurers

Eh...gotta be honest, I found this pretty underwhelming. It had its moments, don't get me wrong, but the plot felt pretty generic and the ending was rushed. Still had fun, but the emotional investment was lacking.

Notes:

Reddit told me to watch this after episode 18, so I got the timing a little off, but I felt like it'd be good to watch prior to the digiworld episodes. The only timeline wonkiness is that this takes place before Culumon's kidnapping, which I've already seen, but that's fine.

In another moment of ~fate~ the movie begins with Guilmon dying of heat (not literally lol) and it was "feels like 101" where I am today so...can relate.

I was a pretty sheltered kid, so IDK how I would react to my parents making me travel by myself at 10...not that I'm against that, I just know 10 year old me woulda been a big crybaby about it.

Kinda weird that they gave us 2 title screens for this, one of which was just ripped from the TV show. The whole vibe was kind of a mixed bag in this, sometimes the animation felt pretty much the same quality as the show and sometimes it felt like they were stepping it up, not super consistent.

"Battle of Adventurers" is a pretty uninspired title. I feel like they could have either put something about Okinawa or the v-pet virus in the title instead so it would stand out a bit more...

Speaking of the V-Pet, I thought it was super charming with its crappy CGI lol. I totally would have fell for it in 2001. Kinda hard to believe that literally everyone downloaded it though (doctors, pilots, etc.) Or was it more like that one U2 album that was automatically distributed to everyone?

Guilmon begging to get out of the suitcase was stressful! How did he not suffocate? D: (do digimon even need to breathe?)

They really did the movie-only character (Minami) dirty this time. She had to be re-traumatized about her dead dog so many times! Just felt cruel...

All of the Okinawa cultural stuff was fun, especially the Okinawa-inspired digimon. If Digimon Go was a thing, you know they'd be region specific.

When Ruki's mom was like "oh, it's so comfortable flying on the plane!" I was like "okay, rich." That's the only explanation because flying economy is always a bad time.

Although a lot of the character animation was kinda meh, the battle animation is where this movie really shined. It was like little pockets of hype and there was a really good variety of enemy digimon. I was especially excited to see Anomalocarimon cuz it's been a minute and there was a lot of attention to detail with his bit.

Siesamon's design was really pretty, but I don't like his resting angry face. I wish they would have made his face more emotive because it kind of diminished some emotional moments...

There was one scene where it showed some buildings blowing up (because of the virus) and one of them suspiciously looked like a power plant...hopefully I'm wrong cuz oof...

Loved Mephismon's design, but with Gulfmon they did that thing that they did with VenomVamdemon where he has a second face by his crotch area...don't like that (although he is a centaur, so not technically his crotch)

There were some legit scary moments in this! The car crash scene was pretty violent and Minami screaming as she ran from the lasers also felt pretty intense for a kid's movie. (I haven't peeked at the dub yet, wondering if anything was cut)

I thought the final battle was weak as heck. Phase 1 took like 2 seconds and then phase 2 just felt kinda arbitrary like we were going through the motions. We did get a new attack though (trinity something or other). It felt kind of weird for them to just show that without any acknowledgement, but oh well. I'm sure it'll come back at some point. I was a little disappointed tbh because I thought they were doing some sort of 3-way jogress fusion

The shot with 3D MegaloGrowmon and 2D Rapidmon and Taomon was a glorious 2000s moment

IDK why but it gave me Power Rangers vibes

Yeah so this felt pretty disposable, they tried to kind of tie things to Digimon Adventure with Omegamon and Apocalymon, but the connection was pretty vague and forced. I rather Tamers just be separate without the callbacks

While I'm a big fan of short runtimes, I do wonder if this one could have benefitted from being a little longer, just to let things breath more

[ryosei-hime]

What merch do you think has improved in quality over the years? Is there any merch you think could still do better be it in terms of design, quality, production, or any other aspect?

I probably have more complaints than praises, honestly. I think the variety of types of merch and types of pins they've tried has been nice. It doesn't always work out the first time or at all, but I like that they try new things. Quality-wise, the pins have definitely improved from when they started. Earlier pins were soft enamel instead of hard because it was cheaper and sometimes the colors weren't quite right. This pin, for instance, I've heard is very orange in person lol.

Other than Striker's skin tones always being off, they've gotten a lot better about the color selections on the pins.

I do like when they do mugs that aren't just the ZLLM chibis. I think ZLLM's art is very cute but there are only so many chibi mugs I can see before it gets boring. I'm glad they've let other people take shots at non-chibi mugs. I really enjoy KStone's chibis being thrown into the mix as well. Even though they're also chibis having a different art style of chibis helps with the monotony.

I think the biggest improvement in quality is in the plushies because the early ones are SO wonky lmao.

2. I think they struggle with the spinning pins. They don't really do the level of quality control it takes to be certain that the spinning elements work properly. I'm still waiting to receive my Keep Waiting pin from the Apology Tour drop which I got primarily to see if they've improved on that!

I think in some ways they've stagnated for a while on the designs themselves. I think there's an overabundance of pinups that drowns out other more creative ideas that could be used in regards to pins and standees especially. I'm a big fan of the earlier pins which felt more interesting. Now it's become a bit more formulaic and I think character personality has been lost to generic sexiness. I don't think I'd mind the pin ups so much if more of the character's personality were injected into them. Like Loona's first pin up/summer pins which feel very in character vs the newer ones.

This is largely personal preference though. I know a lot of people like the generically sexy pinups. And sex does sell so I get why it happened. But as the person inputting these things into a spreadsheet each drop, I've come to expect very specific formulas in what's released and I'm usually not proven wrong lol. So, maybe the formulaic releases are just boring me personally as a data entry person.

I also think their shipping has become kind of atrocious recently. A lot of people received the poster portrait pins in horrible condition due to the way they were shipped. It's been a big issue. It seems after some complaints, the shipping has already improved with those pins though. I think they could still pay more attention to their shipping quality in general but that's on shark robot.

My biggest complaint at the moment isn't quality so much as the aggressiveness of their drop rates. This year the rate of merch drops has been staggering. They've moved almost everything to pre-order and are dropping merch near constantly. We have the seasonal drops, the episode specific drops, drops for shorts, plushie drops, A24 Hazbin Hotel drops. It's getting a bit overwhelming. With the seasonal drops, there were a couple of months spread throughout the year in which collectors could be assured they'd have time to recoup and save for the next merch drop. But now there's no breathing room and honestly a lot of people are getting burnt out and are actually starting to fear the drops because they might end up missing something they really want. And the merch is a business thing, I know. They want your money. But the seasonal drops used to feel a lot more considerate of the consumer/audience and that was nice. I miss that.

[virgilboy360]

Too loud.

Hey everybody, today's post, as you can see here, It is in the middle of wheatley's taking over, and the others are panicking, and I like to present you the first ever appearance of heavy metal core The guy at the end that is looking at the flames, And Curiosity core Which is the child that James is holding hands with, I decided to name my heavy metal core Thomas or Tom for short, and the curiosity core name is Maria, by the way the person that virgil is carrying is V.B aka me, And because of my disability, if most of you don't know, involves, well, having irritations to loud noises, for instance, the sirens going off in Aperture, in the game it's not that loud, but in person it's probably is, And I got this idea from my college when the fire alarms went off twice, the first one was meant to be a test, but the second one just came out of nowhere, so, yeah, that day was pretty stressful, We didn't get any work started, but it didn't help that we were finishing at 12:00pm, so I had half a day.

never mind about the help with the whole blog thing, the name for it, Basically, I do have a name for it, the question is when i'm going to release it, and I know i'm asking the same question, but who also ships Virgil and Grady, am I the only one because I literally think I am, But I might make another post about some ships that I do, Like ships that I see, ships that I rarely see, Ships that have been rarely heard about, and ships that haven't been created yet, Because I noticed throughout some of the hashtags there has been no Raingil ship names, Maybe people just forgot about it, Or it's rarely been said, But if you're wondering what ship this is, it's the Virgil and rainbow core ship, So if you designed a picture with these 2 characters, do you mind if you could put the #Raingil in the thing please, Because I literally follow the Raingil # thing, that's only if you guys want too, if I said anything wrong in this post please point it out, I'm not the greatest that spelling, Stupidly I'm using speech-to-text, So if anything sounds wrong or rude or bossy or in any of that variety, please point it out and put in the comments, because I will fix it.

So you guys have a lovely day or night depending Wherever you are in the world you have a lovely whatever.

and I will see you next time. ^w^

[gamergirljournalist]

Is the keyboard hobby dying?

The year was 2021.

I was doing some online classes and I've received complaints that my gaming keyboard was too loud when used in class. I did try to type softer but my classmates can still hear it.

So I've embarked on a journey to create my first custom keyboard. My first board was a silent keyboard, using parts I got from Ali Express. It took at least a month for everything to arrive. From there, I stumbled down a rabbit hole in the keyboard hobby. I have to say, this has to be the most expensive hobby I've ever entered, especially when I began to seek higher quality products.

Two years later, I've collected 24 keyboards, with some still being made due to manufacturing delays. But ever since I joined, I've noticed the landscape has changed. For starters, there are more extras for keycaps unlike before. Also, the amount of group buys that have entered the market somewhat reduced. Meanwhile, the WTS pages on Discord tend to be filled with the same listing, with some announcing that their departure was the cause of their sale.

Are people now getting sick of keyboards?

Let me set the scene.

The year was 2020 and working from home became somewhat the norm. At the same time, there was a pandemic happening. People decided to play video games since they couldn't go outside. So building a custom keyboard makes sense since it is an item that we use a lot at home. There were videos where the things that we typed on made really cool sounds. Also, there was the retail therapy aspect of it, where you'd spend hundreds of dollars for parts, only for it to be built a few months, and in most cases, years later.

If there is one phrase that people in this hobby are aware of, it's the term "Group Buy." For those who don't know what it means, it is essentially equivalent to a "Kickstarter Pre-Order." Designers would ask vendors to host these group buys to determine if a product like a keyboard or keycap would meet MOQ (minimum order quantity). Once it hits, it can begin the manufacturing process, which could take months, and in most cases, years.

An example is the keycap set, EPBT Dreamscape. This set entered Group Buy in mid-2021, but it began shipping in mid-2023. This was a two-year wait for plastic. It's no wonder why some people resorted to buying clones (which is a whole separate can of worms).

Fortunately, vendors would list extras and the price would be somewhat higher than the initial group buy listing. However, I've noticed lately that some sets were unable to leave the shelves. An example is GMK Dracula V2.0. The first version was super sought-after and would sell out within minutes. Now, it seems like not everyone is interested in buying this set, at least in the Australian market.

I spoke to some community members about this on Discord, and they told me a variety of reasons why extras aren't being sold as heavily as before. For starters, the hobby has slowed down lately. Also, we're in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. Hobbyists are now being careful about what they're purchasing. But one major reason why not many people are buying extra keysets, at least for GMK, is the quality and how people received terrible and "funky looking" sets after years of waiting. Now, people don't want to wait another five months for replacements.

The reason why there is a lack of in-stock products is due to the MOQ. Producing custom keyboards for the market is very expensive and if something goes wrong, the designer would be out of pocket. Sure, there are a few in-stock items, but they're usually cheap and not as high quality. Fortunately, as time went on, more HQ in-stock items entered the market. However, the concept of Group Buys may have caused people to bounce.

As mentioned earlier, Group Buys are done through vendors. These are your online stores where you can buy parts and extras. If you're lucky, you could still get a keycap set that was first sold last year. However, it was reported during the past few months that some became shady and have closed due to the mismanagement of funds.

Keyboard YouTuber, Taeha Types released a video that goes into excruciating detail about this type of situation and how many people were heavily affected and were worried about their orders.

As someone who's been in the hobby for two years, these factors were the reason why I stopped participating in group buys. Sure, it was cool to get a fancy bespoke board and really cute keycaps. But when it took two years for my orders to be produced, and it's taking longer for some of them to ship due to regional issues, the waiting game started to get boring.

Also, I joined two group buys that were either cancelled or heavily delayed due to a vendor's mismanagement. Fortunately, the Asia-Pacific region isn't heavily affected. But when you see the designer announce on Discord that a group buy re-run would put them under the red, that's not good.

We live in a world where we have one or same-day shipping with Amazon. How items will arrive within a week or so. And when they do arrive, it usually isn't that bad. Meanwhile, we have custom items that are taking forever to come out, and when they do, the quality is shit. By this point, you're better off buying cheap alternatives.

But are these issues enough to kill a hobby?

Not exactly.

As of writing, not many products have entered the group buy stage. However, manufacturers are slowly trying to release more in-stock products. An example is KBD Fans with PBTFans collection and Osume and its releases. Hobbyists will be able to purchase decent keycaps that will ship immediately. If there is an issue, it is usually resolved in an instant.

At the same time, designers like HIBI.MX and Mode Designs are releasing more in-stock keyboards for those who want something high quality but without the 1 year waiting period.

While more people are trying to downsize their collection, the hobby has changed since it rose in popularity. In-stock items have risen in quality. Sure, they are still cheap plastic keyboards. But we're also seeing some aluminium builds for less than $100. This means that selling an old $90 acrylic keyboard may be difficult now due to the amount of options there are in the market.

While it is sad to see people announce their departure on Discord and Facebook groups, as well as see people struggling to downsize their collection due to lack of interest, it is important to know that the hobby is changing. Sure, it may look like it's dying, but perhaps it's going through a long and well-needed change. This is no longer 2020. And as long as there are those interested in creating these amazing builds. Don't expect this hobby to die out anytime soon.