#I can't even figure out which fe game this is

[these-detestable-hands]

it cost me nearly all of my gold but most of the army has solver weapons now!!!!!!

hope the paralouges I have coming up pay well because good goddess I am poor

Huwha-

[pink-amethyst-tarot]

Have you given up on love? This is for you - Pick A Pile

take a deep breath and choose which pile you think is the best for you

I know I channeled these songs but I'm pro-boycott

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P I L E 1 ~ P I L E 2 ~ P I L E 3

P I L E 1 - Go Through Something To Get Somewhere

Three of Wands, Page of Cups, Four of Wands, The Lovers

Signs this reading is for you: 111, 11:11, classic books, jewelry (especially rings), money/coins, coffee, tea

You about to be mad at me.... Thing is, this big love you're looking for can't come in right now. It's being blocked because you still need to work on yourself. I feel like some of y'all already knew I was gon say that anyway! Fall in love with yourself and not for the sake of getting closer to falling in love because then your effort is meaningless. Do it for you and if you don't want to do it for you, figure out why. Do the shadow work. You need you more than you know. Figuring out what is so lovable about you will show you what you really deserve in a relationship, not what you have always thought that you deserve.

Once you do, it's going to happen when you least expect it and when it does you will be swept away in this amazing love. The kind of love that changes you for the better. The kind of love that you grow old with. The kind of love that you have always wanted but never believed that you were good enough to have. This person is your soulmate and they want to be with you just as much you want to be with them. Don't let something good pass you by and then you have to wait another entire lifetime to get it again. The first step starts with you.

Also, you cannot be afraid of change if you want this to work. You can't expect thing to change while everything stays the same. Accept that change can be uncomfortable, challenging, and sometimes, downright hellish. You have to go through something to get somewhere.

Channeled Song: End Game by Taylor Swift ft. Future and Ed Sheeran

I wanna be your end game // I wanna be your first string

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P I L E 2 - It's Gotta Get Bad Before It Gets Good

Wheel of Fortune, Six of Pentacles, The Emperor, King of Cups, Eight of Swords

Signs this reading is for you: Heart Chakra, 222, frogs, owls, hearts, butterflies

You're heart is still broken from your last relationship and you're convinced that there isn't anyone who will give you the love that you want or deserve. There is someone for you who want to take care of you and be your rock. This love that wants to come in is very mature and long-lasting but it can't come in if you don't try to move on. I know it's easier said than done but at some point you have to choose yourself; at some point you have to choose your happiness.

You could also be someone that is trying to ignore how you feel about the end of a relationship so that you can get to the good part. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but, it doesn't work like that. You have to go through to get through it.

All in all, you may feel stuck or trapped by your emotions but the way out is more obvious than you think. Maybe not easy but definitely obvious. Once you get through the bad part, there is good ahead for you.

Channeled Song - Better In Time by Leona Lewis

thought I couldn't live without you // it's gonna hurt when it heals, too // it'll all get better in time // and even though I really love you // I'm gonna smile 'cause I deserve to // It'll all get better in time

P I L E 3 - You're not looking for love but love is looking for you

Ten of Wands, Three of Pentacles, Knight of Wands, Nine of Cups

Signs this reading may be for you: pink, boy bands, joking and laughter, pickles, oranges, Vaseline weird dreams

So, off the bat, this reading feels different from the other two because it feels like it doesn't matter what your reason for giving up on love is because love is coming your way, whether you like it or not! You have probably been through a lot in love and in life but you never gave up. You have always keep going despite what you have been through but that may have led you to feel that some things just can't have your attention right now because shit needs to get done. Great news! The shit is done! You're ready! This person is coming in quickly and is someone that supports you and wants to be the person that you come to when life is hard. This person is a dream come true. You may have not be actively focusing on what you want in a person, but sometimes our hearts speak louder to the universe than we do. I can see your guides kind of seeing you get this and you being surprised but your guides are looking all smug like "hah! bet you didn't see that comin did ya!?" Even though you're reading this, you may still be surprised when it happens because you may not 100% believe this reading. But it's true and it's yours! Love is on the way, baybee!

Channeled Song - Case 143 by Stray Kids

why do I keep getting attracted? // 자석 같이 끌려가 // I cannot explain this reaction // 이것밖에 one-four-three // Why do I keep getting attracted? // 네 모습만 떠올라 // I cannot explain this emotion // one-four-three I love you! //

translated lyrics:

why do I keep getting attracted? // I'm drawn to you like a magnet // Why do I keep getting attracted? // you're the only one on my mind // I cannot explain this emotion // one-four-three, I love you! //

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LEGAL DISCLAIMER: FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. THESE READINGS ARE FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. no guarantees are implied. These readings are not a substitute or replacement for any professional help or services. My readings are not a substitute for any form of professional legal, medical/psychiatric, relationship, religious/spiritual or financial/ business advice nor consultations. You should always see a professional legal/trained adviser for help in any matter. I am not responsible for any decisions/ actions you take.

[crystalelemental]

I've been hitting a mild rut with Pokemon, while simultaneously retreating into familiar comfort games that won't really challenge me much, but I'm also feeling kinda stagnant.  My initial thought was "I should pick up another Etrian Odyssey game!"  And then I didn't.  But while looking for options, I realized...while I'm doing better with the Switch, I really do not branch out at all.

For clarification: the entirety of both my DS and 3DS library of physical games?  Pokemon, Etrian Odyssey, and Fire Emblem.  That is literally all I own, barring like two games.  Even the GBA carts are all just Pokemon Gen 3 and Fire Emblem 7.  I barely owned Wii or WiiU games, with most of them just being Zelda.  I think I have maybe five WiiU games total.

The Switch catalogue has a lot more variety going for it, more than I've probably ever had in my life.  But I still find it hard, sometimes, to branch out.  Part of that is finance, I don't necessarily want to spend on new games.  There was one that the art caught my attention in the news, and when I went to check it out it was fucking $80.  I am not paying that for a game.  It also went on to talk about your male protagonist despite all the box art being female characters, so honestly just fuck that.

With Echoes of Wisdom, I do think I've kind of identified part of the problem as "not wanting to feel stuck."  One streamer I watch talked about how the mobile market and console games competing directly with them has led to a higher rate of instant gratification and people can't sit with discomfort and frustration anymore, and...there may be some truth to that.  Granted, I was never particularly good with it, but I can feel when I'm playing an unfamiliar game and encounter something I don't immediately understand, my instinct is to jump straight for the guide.  I did that around four times with EoW, but there was one situation where I didn't and figured out the puzzle and felt super clever.  It's more rewarding, but it's time consuming, and I am covetous of my time, even if I don't do the most with it.

And what this results in is an aversion to trying out something new.  That's potentially going to eat a lot of time and what if I don't like it?  I wasted my time then, didn't I?  Because that's never happened before.  I certainly didn't have a phase playing and reading stuff I knew I would hate just to get mad at it.  So what's the issue taking a chance on something that might be good?  It is the lack of assurance?  If I know I'll hate it, at least I went in knowing what to expect, I guess.

In another direction, part of the issue is not really knowing what I enjoy.  Genre in games is already hard to define, but it makes it incredibly challenging to know how to articulate what I like, and what might land well.

Like, okay, I like Pokemon.  Maybe other monster catching games are good?  Nexomon was a knockout success (though not entirely because of monster catching), but I didn't care much for Cassette Beasts, and every Digimon game has been a resounding miss for me.  Nexomon was just a fun story, and Pokemon is nostalgia so it succeeds in spite of its horrid flaws.

But hey, that streamer calls Pokemon an adventure game primarily.  Maybe what you need is more adventure games?  Maybe.  But that's Zelda, and modern Zelda I do not like at all.  The open-world approach isn't fun, and I don't actually like tricky or punishing combat systems I have to be good at in real time. I wouldn't know what else to look for, considering my dislike for active systems in most scenarios. Do not test my reaction speed, it is bad.

Well, what about Fire Emblem, then?  Maybe you really like tactics games?  Maybe.  But if it weren't for Unicorn Overlord, I'd say the entire genre outside of FE sucked.  Triangle Strategy was awful in pretty much every direction, and even Tactics Ogre, which I had on good authority is one of the Big Names for strategy, felt so slow and offputting that I put it down after maybe two hours.  I know the ongoing joke is that FE sucks and even its fans hate it, but I legitimately think they're the only tolerable strategy games to me.

So okay, what about Etrian Odyssey?  Maybe you like dungeon crawlers?  This...might actually be the dead ringer, depending on difficulty.  I haven't played many, but I really enjoy EO (games 3 onward, anyway), and the one attempt at another in Class of Heroes did land favorably for CoH2, at least, despite some chatter about how the games don't get tolerable until 3.  I dunno, I thought it had personality.  I'd play 2 again.  I think it's just a question of how difficult others would actually be, because consistently, I hear feedback of "The game is super hard and will kick your ass," and I am admittedly easily intimidated by the prospect of difficulty I can't adjust.

But there are other aspects.  What about the Atelier games, you loved them even if you fell off after Shallie.  Ryza is rare and expensive so I've had some trouble there, but we tried Rune Factory 5 and it was...fine?  More importantly, the structure of these games gets me so obsessed that I'm in an actively worse mood when I am working.  I can basically only play them during breaks, or I am Miserable.

What about Final Fantasy?  Maybe you need more story-centric RPGs?  ...actually, maybe I do need more story-centric RPGs, post cancelled, anyone have Switch recommendations?  Bonus points if it's a female lead.

I think I just.  Struggle.  Sometimes.  To find things that I feel like would be to my taste.  I want to branch out, but I think I am often intimidated out of trying.  I don't really know what I want.

[teaveetamer]

I am curious, I've been watching the discourse going on for a bit without getting involved and at this point I feel like I have to ask.

What is the desired result here? Why are you engaging in the discourse at all? Clearly this is not a discussion, so what do you gain from interacting at all?

(I will send this to several people, just out of curiosity)

Alright anon allow me to explain what's been going on with me on my end.

The year is 2019 (yes, we're doing this). FE3H has just come out. I play it and rather enjoy it actually. I've got a couple of ships that I'm into, some fanfic I want to write, etc.

I go onto Reddit to chat with people about the game. Now I don't really like Edelgard, but I'm chill, I'm open to discussing the game and getting alternate viewpoints. Initially it's more or less fine.

Then some posts start coming up. People start getting really aggressive about this. I'm trying to have a conversation, but it feels like their goal is just to shout me down. I get in arguments, I get in fights, I get misgendered, I get called a bigot, I get frustrated, I get ablest rhetoric spewed at me, and I waste my life.

Stop. Take a look at myself. I'm literally sitting here arguing about Edelgard von fucking Hresvelg for hours of my day. I'm annoyed, I'm irritated, I'm always in a bad mood. Ugh.

Now it's 2020, early times I think. I resolve to stop looking at Reddit so much with regard to this game. It's not worth the hassle and the frustration. I should be, like, out doing things and having fun not wasting my time arguing with a bunch of weirdos on the internet. I want to have fun again, not be angry. I delete the Reddit app from my phone and install a blocker on my web browsers, even.

Start using Tumblr for more than just shippy stuff, and find people who agree with me, who are saying the things I've been saying. I stop feeling crazy for liking the game the way I like it. I make a few posts on my main blog but you know what, I don't really want my main blog embroiled in this shit, though I want to add my voice to the conversation. So I make this side blog.

Make some posts. I get flooded with asks from other people about the game, saying they agree with me and they're thankful that they aren't the only ones who think the way I do. I think within like a month of existing this blog had double the posts of my main blog (which has existed since 2016, so for four years at that point), most of them from asks.

The blog was initially for me to vent and throw in my two cents here and there, but I figure I'll keep it around in regular use because people seem to be benefiting from it.

Early on I tried to establish a rule for myself that 1) I wasn't going to go looking in any main tags (e.g. the Edelgard or Edelgard Positive tags) for stuff to reblog or talk about, and 2) I wasn't going to go into any Edelgard specific spaces looking for stuff to talk about (e.g. r/Edelgard or even Dimitri-critical tags). However, anything maintagged that was looking for a fight (e.g. a Dimitri-critical post in the main Dimitri tag) was fair game.

I'm not perfect, but I did try to stick to that rule. I talked about things that happened on the main FE Sub or FEH sub. I did my best to encourage my anons to not go seeking out stuff to bring back to me from Edelgard spaces. After all, this blog was meant for venting and having my own personal space where I could talk about my views without getting accosted. I thought it would be petty for me to go bring back stuff from other places.

Moving into 2021, I was kind of done with 3H. I was still getting like dozens of asks a day about 3H discourse. I'd answer one and five more would pop up in their place. By now we're like, well beyond 3x or 4x the amount of posts I have on my main blog. I'm getting kind of tired of it. It's a lot of the same points over and over and over. We're in pandemic times, so I can't even walk away from it and do something else IRL for a while before coming back to it. I feel like I'm wasting my life again. I feel like I've said anything and everything I could have possibly said about the subject. I ask people to stop talking to me about Edelgard. Eventually, everyone mostly obliges.

I still chat about it here and there, but I'm chatting about other stuff too. This blog is still about venting just about venting about more than 3H. A lot more petty fandom shit in general.

Now we're in, like, 2022. I don't remember exactly, Pandemic Time makes some of this a bit of a blur. I notice a new kid on the block, doing basically what I'd noticed happening on Reddit. Going into the wrong tags. Picking fights. Posting things in the wrong tags. Picking fights.

I'm over it, I'm done, I don't want to deal with this shit anymore. I block the dude. Most people I know block the dude or ignore him. We figure he's new here, he just hasn't learned the etiquette.

He gets increasingly hostile. I'm not really paying that much attention, just getting info about it from the fringes. Again, we figure eventually he'll just go away if we ignore him.

Then Nilsh gets harassed off the platform.

My mutuals are getting increasingly hostile anons and combative reblogs.

At this point I'm relatively unaffected. I guess because I don't tag anything, so he didn't find it.

And you know what? I'm still like "he'll get bored. He'll leave eventually." We were all like "just ignore him, he'll leave eventually."

People try to explain tags to him. Try to help him curate his experience so he quits arguing with people who don't want to talk to him all the time.

Then Moonlitboar gets harassed off of the platform. They take the URL. He's bragging about having done it. He's spreading this vitriol to other platforms and convincing others to join in on the harassment.

And I'm like. Okay. This dude isn't leaving. This is what he wants. His goal isn't to talk about this game—his goal is to hurt us.

I unblock him and respond. We go back and forth. He stops... for a time.

Here's the thing. I didn't re-block him after that, and I didn't do that for a couple of reasons. First, because at this point I'm still hopeful that he's just unaware of what he's doing, and that he'll acknowledge how messed up it was and apologize. I'm all for second chances. The second, because he's dangerous and I'm worried that if I don't keep tabs on him, he's going to try to hurt me.

It's not long until he's doing the same shit again. He tries harassing BWIIDT, he tries harassing FantasyInvader, he tries harassing Ezra, he tries harassing RandomNameless, he tries harassing Emblemxeno, he tries harassing Gascon, he tries harassing people I've literally never even heard of. I keep calling him out, and he tries harassing me. He calls me hysterical, accuses me of acting like a victim. Tries to make me feel stupid and small by saying I don't have anything worth his attention to respond to.

(By the way dude, my point about that was that you were being misogynistic but treating discourse like it was only worth responding to if it came from a man. See, I noticed that you only liked to attack people you thought were cishet white men like yourself, even if we were saying basically the same things at times. The fact that you continue not "debunking" any of my posts doesn't upset me; it proves my point)

He blocks me. I can't say for certain why, but my bet is that he realized people were actually listening to what I had to say, and having a queer woman question the actions he purported to be for the benefit of queer women wasn't a great look for him.

He's still trying to harass me. He's taking screenshots, he's using my name, he's @ ing me. He's casually lying about me. He's using sexist rhetoric implying that I shouldn't be listened to because I'm just too ~in my feelings~ and he's the true victim of my hysterical victimized martyr complex (geez, you sure a a feminist ally for that one, aren't you?)

You know, I did actual research when one of my anons accused him of being a trump supporter and tried to lie about him? I burned an entire evening on that, because I didn't want to be spreading lies about people. Meanwhile he lets his anons casually and repeatedly misgender me without so much as a passing correction, and he hangs out with people who spread lies and slander accusing others of heinous crimes.

And you know what? If I knew it was going to be like this? I'd still waste that evening and correct that anon. It's not about getting a petty win or convincing people he's a bad person for me. It's about being respected.

So to get back to your question. Why am I doing this? Because I have to. Because I know that if I don't he's going to hurt someone else, just like how he hurt Nilsh and Moonlitboar. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, after all. We ignored him and he didn't leave, so now we have to say something.

What's the desired result? I want to be respected, like I've tried to respect them for almost the entirety of this blog's existence. I want my boundaries acknowledged. I want him to stop hurting people for no other reason than to hurt them, because they don't agree with him.

When will I stop? When he stops.

[dolphs-world]

Justice for Ganondorf

Sm4sh's roster is the 4th best (XD) meaning the weakest if not for Melee. Making Sheik and Zero Suit distinct was great but only Charizard was lame. I'm glad the Trainer is the only character with that gimmick remaining. But the Master Ball is cool. (Also, quick sidenote: the new items in Ultimate are also really cool. I didn't know where to add it so here it is whilst I think of it). Honestly, the newcomers are all decent, highlights being to Palutena and Pac-Man, but the rest just aren't that fun to play as. Also, who they cut out weakens this one. And remember, this was before Echos so Dark Pit and Lucina were the worst characters until Ultimate. And the DLC. I'll start this off by saying that Ryu and Bayonetta are great (although I can't play them) but I don't really like the more realistic looking 3rd party characters, they don't gel well. Besides Snake, Snake is so realistic that he circles back. He's also Snake. But this is why I've never had a problem with the anime sword fighters, I think they look quite good along the more cartoony characters (anime and cartoon solidarity). Cloud is great. Corrin is not. This is the game where FE overstepped their boundary. Marth was good, Roy sucked, and Ike was a great replacement. Robin was good and unique but another clone of Marth? And then DLC for the 2 worst FE reps? Get out of here. If Lucina and Corrin weren't in Smash I think people would have responded more positively to FE. And Byleth should have been in the base game of Ultimate, even if that's impossible. And the rest being characters already represented in the game? And Roy? I am so glad for Ultimate. And I am so glad for Luigi becoming a unique character So: Brawl > Ultimate > 64 > Sm4sh > Melee. Justice for Ganondorf. (Subspace Emissary/Nintendo Sci-fi, 3D All-stars, Sonic/Metal Gear, Tennis, Nitro Kart Planets) Another thing I thought about is the representation of women in Smash. I forgot that Ken was new in Ultimate and whilst great, and the most unique echo, Chun-Li would have been better. And again with Terry, Mai Shiranui is more iconic. Some may say that she's too sexual but that's a load of bull, Bayonetta is in Smash along with Pyra and Mythra, sadly. And people like Mai's sexuality. Sexuality isn't the problem, it's the lack of male sexuality. The closest we get is Sephiroth and Snake. Recently, I've been playing a lot of CTR Nitro. Best kart racer on switch and best roster from any game bar none, the only characters not referenced in that game from Crash's history are Farmer Earnest, Willy Wumpa Cheeks, and Viscount. But out of 55 characters only 10 are female. 7 are bandicoots, 5 are sexy bandicoots and another one is a baby version, and you are only left with 3. Even if you add all the genderless characters, like we do in real life, there are only 16. The most unique female character is Nina Cortex, the rest are either cute or sexy animals. In Smash, there are 19 characters out of 94 that are female (including echos, Alex, and secondary characters like Luma and Kazooie) one of which is Sheik. 35 if you include Pokemon, animals, and characters that can be either or. Back in 64 Samus was the only woman and they had to put her in twice to boost the numbers. Chun-Li and Mai Shiranui would have been great female reps that are both strong, capable, and present different and somewhat realistic beauty, more so than Pyra/Mythra. So maybe I was too harsh on Isabelle. (I can't figure out how to add back the title for my last post) But I haven't answered the question, what is my ideal roster? Best most unique characters: Mr. Game & Watch, R.O.B, and Piranha plant. Duck Hunt and Ice Climbers can suck it, being from the NES does not increase your importance. But those three are good starters for inspiration. Best Team in the Subspace Emissary: Samus, Pikachu, Captain Falcon, Olimar, DK, and Diddy (honourable mention is R.O.B). Dedede, Ness, and Luigi come second. Best Series reps as a whole: DK and Kirby. So how do we make the other series feel as whole and complete as DK and Kirby?

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

literally why is she a commander though? this is the actual worst command from a commander i have ever seen given in literally any fe game. i would have to guess edelgard gave her the position because i can't imagine why else she'd have it (and i forget if it was ever mentioned why she's in the position); but then like, why would edelgard put her in that position knowing what she's like and that she's not commander material?

either edelgard put her in that position because she's for some reason too dumb to realize it's a stupid choice and is not good for her army, or it's because bernadetta is a noble... which has unfortunate implications in any direction.

either her goal is to send the nobles into battle as commanders to kill off the current nobles because she doesn't like them/they didn't support her claims/war efforts (i.e. the nobles who didn't agree with her could be getting forced to fight to be killed off so it's less of a problem for her down the line, which i feel like wouldn't be the case for bernadetta since she seems very pro-edelgard/pro-empire in hopes? might not entirely be the case but it's the vibe i get from her various exploration dialogue, particularly in ag), her army is so badly off that she doesn't have enough capable commanders and has to send anything she can get, or the nobility problem in adrestia is so bad that nobody will listen to a non-noble as a commander... which is in stark contrast with the entire rest of fodlan and also means she's making her country's problems sound like they're everyone's problem.

just, all in all, bernadetta being a commander does not work unless:

edelgard is intentionally trying to get her killed/is just using her as fodder to keep her proper commanders alive longer (which considering she set her on fire at gronder in houses, even if she's not explicitly doing it to kill her, she definitely uses bernadetta as fodder to be discarded in vw/am, which checks out with her any sacrifice is a good sacrifice for her goals mentality)

edelgard is just stupid (the most unlikely situation here, especially because even if she did something counter productive to the war effort, Hubert would help and course correct)

her army is so bad off that she doesn't have enough capable commanders who can get respect for being a good commander whether they're a noble or not (this isn't sb, so shez doesn't count)

which like, edelgard doing something stupid would fall to the writers doing something stupid because edelgard in and of herself isn't brainless. typically she has a reason for doing something, especially in regard to her war efforts, so i can't see why she would just send bernadetta of all people willy nilly. it makes me think it has to do with nobility specifically and she was likely limited in her options, but the game never explores that.

bernadetta could have been a recruit that started out as an enemy for game mechanics, sure, but as a commander? like, is it really just her status as a noble that she's a commander for? because again, why would she put someone like this in such an important position while aiming to win a war? i feel like if she just picked whoever/her weakest commander link because she had the death knight there too (so in this case possibly figured it doesn't matter who is commanding with his strength present, so even if they weren't well commanded wanted to believe they would get by on pure strength alone), that's just incompetency on her part.

generally speaking i feel like bernadetta is more neutral on the war itself but more in support of edelgard in general in hopes, and i can't see her ever causing edelgard problems down the line, so i don't feel like edelgard would send her off to battle expecting/hoping for her to die in the belief that it would benefit her/prevent issues later. i also can't see why, knowing bernadetta, edelgard would leave her in command of... anything at all to do with the war. if she wants to win the war, why would she have someone who can barely leave her room out of fear of people command units in a war?

so that just really makes me think she had no other options, which like... what was she doing the previous two years then? planning for war obviously, but she still ended up with this? she still couldn't get her army to a better point? was it because if she tried putting a non-noble in charge of anything that people still wouldn't fight under that person's command?

in faerghus even if they don't like it, they'll do it if they at least know the person is commander material. is it meant to reflect how opposite their situations are? how planning for war for two years made this kind of difference from improving the country itself on top of its army for two years?

bernadetta as a commander is just so wtf for me. could the writers not think of anything else to do with her? she could've been a recruitable enemy, but the commander angle just feels weird.

[crabknight]

Crabs top 10 video game soundtracks

This here is a list of my top 10 favorite video game soundtracks from games I have played (for the purposes of this ranking, franchises will only have one spot on the list so I can't just fill the whole list with fire emblem)

10. Deemo

Deemo is this little obscure and niche rythm game that I have played on and off for many years now. The entire game is just a vibe, but the songs are all very awesome and there are SO MANY to pick from, it's honestly pretty surprising just how many bangers there are, taking into account the sheer amount of songs. My favorite will always be "Metal Hypnotised" even if it doesn't really match the vibe of the rest of the game.

9. Sly Cooper 2

Sly Cooper is a series from my childhood, I played this a lot back in the day so I have a lot of nostalgia for it. My favorite game in the series just so happens to be the second game which is filled with so many great tracks, ESPECIALLY the paris level. That's where all the good stuff is at, "Paris rooftops" especially is great for a nice chill theme, but I cannot deny that all the versions of the "Nightclub" track including "Nightclub", "Dimitri Battle" and "Following Dimitri" just cannot be beat.

8. Hollow Knight

Hollow knight has some great music, especially for the bosses in the game. I really like the orchestral vibe and a lot of the boss music fits the fights very well. I really like that the music for the titular Hollow Knight has a bit of a sad vibe, it's a great song and it gets even better when you learn the lore of the guy. That said, I gotta shout out my guy Grimm with his awesome battle music "The Grimm Troupe" It just goes so hard and is so extra in the best way.

7. Splatoon 2

Splatoon 2 just has some great music in general, especially octo expansion, which I have been playing a little bit on and off recently. It's all just so unique and I haven't quite heard anything like it. It really is almost just it's own genre. Always gets me pumped and is very hard not to bop to. My favorite track is probably "Fly Octo Fly" but the others like "Calamari Inkantation" and "Bomb Rush Blush" also just slap so hard.

6. Dark Souls

Every game in the Dark Souls series has great music, including Elden Ring and Bloodborne, but I have chosen the first game for my list because all of the music in that game is so iconic. The tracks are all so hauntingly beautiful and all fit the vibe of the game so well. It's all so melancholic in the best way. While "Gwyn, Lord of Cinder" always hits the feels and "Firelink Shrine" always makes me feel safe and nostalgic, I have chosen "Dark Sun Gwyndolin" not only because I love the guy, but because the theme itself is just so calm and haunting in a way I really enjoy.

5. Child of Light

A quaint little rpg with heavy fairy tale vibes, and the music heavily reflects this. It is such a beautiful soundtrack and I just can't help but love it, even if a lot of the melodies are the same. But come on! People have won figure skating competitions to these songs, you gotta love them. My favorite is definitely "Off to Sleep" that plays at the end of the game but "Final Breath", "Aurora's theme" and "Pilgrims on a long journey" all slap also, the last being the before mentioned figure skating song.

4. Fire Emblem

Now, am I cheating here by not picking a specific game? maybe. Do I care? no. Do you care? probably not, and if you do, bugger off! Anyway it had to be here, it's my favorite franchise ever and the music is great. My biggest problem is that it isn't on spotify and that I wasn't into fe when I listened to music on youtube and that's why it isn't higher. The music in all the games are hype as fuck but the highest points in the series are probably FeEchoes and Fe3h. My favorite track of all just so happens to be from echoes, that being the theme of the one and only Berkut, known as "Pride and Arrogance" It just fits him so well and it just goes so hard I cannot deny it it's spot here. "Lady of the Plains" is a classic tho and "Fodlan Winds" go hard as fuck.

3. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Now, all the shantae games have fantastic music, but Pirates curse is just a cut above the rest imo. The vibes are great, they're mostly upbeat and are all fantastic, especially all music from zombie island. I also have a lot of old great memories with this series which also helps quite a bit tbf. I mentioned zombie island and that's because they have three great tracks in "Rave in the Grave", "Run, Run Rottytop" and "Rottytops", while I love all, I am choosing rave in the grave here, but do feel free to listen to the others, and also just the rest of the ost, they're all bangers.

2. Katana Zero

An absolutely fantastic soundtrack to an absolutely fantastic game, the general vibe (idk what to call it, synth maybe? for most of it?) is just fantastic for this game specifically and there is just such a wide variety of emotions and vibes that this collection encompasses. My favorite however that I keep coming back to however is "Rain on Brick" the title theme, it is just so fantastically melancholic in exactly the way I need it to be, I will however also recommend you to go listen to sneaky driver, that is also a great track.

Oneshot

And it's not even close, this soundtrack is so damn good it's the only thing I listened to for, like, at least a week after I finished the game and I still listen to it regularly. The whole album for the soundtrack is my go to study music, my comfort playlist has 32 songs and 6 of them are from oneshot and I could definitly add more AND I'm pretty sure that the track called "Niko and the World Machine" is in my top 3 songs listened to of all time, that said the song I have decided to show you is the song called "Eleventh Hour" which is also very great.

[eemamminy-art]

🖊 Post a snippet from a current WIP. 🌙  What time of day do you prefer to write? Why? 📝 What is one growth area you have for your writing? 💚💚💚

I'm gonna answer these a little out of order so I can hide the snippet under a cut at the end!!!

-

Fanfic ask game

-

🌙  What time of day do you prefer to write? Why?

I answered this here!

📝 What is one growth area you have for your writing?

Hmm I can't imagine I can be self deprecating and be like "all of it? 🤪🤪🤪" gdshkgkdhs

I think for a real answer though, finding ways to more naturally and smoothly work in metaphors. My writing style is more literal, like, it's plenty verbose with descriptions and emotions and stuff but it's not very subtle. Which maybe isn't a bad thing, but it's certainly something I feel self-conscious about!!

🖊 Post a snippet from a current WIP.

I haven't touched any of my other wips in like 6 months or something so this is a snippet from my stardew valley fic! It's from a later chapter, from the POV of some of the other young townsfolk. Sebastian has some kind of beef with Mal that not even Mal can figure out, and he's kind of trying to pull the others onto his side while staying vague about it. It's just a fun bit of dialog that I really like, and I've been trying to finish the rest of the chapter recently! It's quite a ways out though, this is from chapter 19 and I'm posting chapter 6 tonight, to give you an idea. They're at the Luau which is a little summer barbecue potluck festival in the game, basically.

“Here, I got plates for each of you!” Sam declared excitedly, a proud grin on his face as he somehow balanced three fully loaded paper plates of barbecue food, carrying three ice cold Joja colas under his arm.

“That really didn’t take long, did it?” Sebastian said flatly, his arms crossed petulantly. His eyes were fixed on the far end of the beach. Abigail followed his gaze, while Sam was more focused on the food.

“Huh? I mean I guess so,” Sam agreed, tilting his head slightly as if he didn’t quite follow. “Gus is a real wiz on the grill.”

“Not that,” Sebastian sighed, taking the plate and offering a forced, small smile, “Thanks though.”

“What, Mal and Alex?” Abigail asked, prompting Sebastian to click his tongue irritatedly.

They were on the far side of the beach, easily over a few dozen yards away but shouting and whooping loud enough that their voices could be heard from the pier. Running around, tossing a gridball back and forth, tackling each other into the sand and all around just roughhousing— acting like a couple of children, despite being the tallest men in the whole town, save for maybe Demetrius.

“It is kind of a weird match-up. If anyone could put up with Alex though, it’d be Mal. He’s too nice,” Abigail mused, talking with baked beans in the corner of her mouth.

“Did you forget how annoying they used to be?” Sebastian reminded, taking a bite of his hot dog rather than elaborating.

“Oh yeah, now that you mention it…” Abigail agreed, swallowing her bite. “Alex was always following him around like a little puppy, right? He was kind of a wimpy kid.”

“You’d know something about following someone around like a puppy, Abs,” Sam teased, ducking as Abigail threw a roll past his head.

“At least I didn’t grow up to be an asshole like him!” Abigail retorted defensively, swiping Sam’s roll now that she’d tossed her own into the ocean.

“Hmm, I wouldn’t say that,” Sebastian teased dryly, a smirk tugging at the edge of his lips. If anything could pull his attention away from Mallory, it was Abigail.

“You too, Seb?” she cried out, exasperatedly.

“Aww, but you’re our asshole, so it’s fine,” Sam cooed, pulling Abigail into a side hug and kissing her cheek.

Sam turned his attention to the two on the far end of the beach at last, taking a few thoughtful bites of his food as he thought about the past.

Before Abigail, it was Mallory that rounded out their little trio. He was just as close to them as they are to each other now, and Sam couldn’t help but feel a pang of melancholy watching him frolic and play in the sand with Alex.

“Why did Mal stop hanging out with us, again?” Sam asked suddenly, looking to Sebastian. Abigail was silent, watching them both.

“He ditched us for Alex,” Sebastian answered flatly.

That made sense, seeing them now. Yet… That didn’t feel right. Sam couldn’t place exactly what it was, the memory felt locked away just out of reach.

“Oh yeah…” he decided to accept Sebastian’s answer, at least for now.

[voolfman]

Bring Out the Dead Man

Sctir fanfic multi-chapter fic posted on ao3 by voolfman

Chapter 3

"You want to go out for a walk?" Kim Sunghan looked down at his Guildmaster's older brother with his mouth set in a stern frown, seemingly entirely unimpressed with Yoojin’s own personal idea of rehabilitation.

Yoojin just smiled and scratched the back of his neck as he leaned against one crutch. He figured for this request, silence may indeed be the better part of valor.

Sunghan was not at all swayed by Yoojin's valor. "The other day, instead of staying in bed, you decided to make stew for Yoohyun before you were well enough, and in the middle of it, experienced some rather intense vertigo, tripped, split open your forehead, and spilled a full container of milk all over the kitchen floor."

"...that wasn't my finest moment, I'll admit." Yoojin readjusted his backpack and placed his weight back onto both crutches, "But I have to go to the hospital anyway for my final checkup, so I figured I'd get a little exercise in beforehand." And maybe try some of his skills on people other than Yoohyun and Sunghan. Not that he'd ever say his new, and rather unfortunate, keyword on anyone. Especially Sunghan, unless it would help Yoohyn, then maybe. Only then, though. He'd do it for Yoohyun.

If possible Sunghan's rather unimpressed frown grew even deeper and he crossed his arms. "The Guildmaster believes you need more rest, and I answer to him, not you."

[Fear Resistance Activated]

Yoojin almost blinked in response to the passive skill that activated. Almost, but now, instead of fear crowding out his other feelings, he was annoyed enough to scowl, "You can't keep me locked up in here! I'm not asking to go anywhere, just to get some exercise on the way to the hospital for the appointment I'm going to anyway."

"The answer's still no," the significantly larger hunter drew himself up to his full size and crossed his arms, entirely blocking the only exit (besides the widows) for Yoojin to escape from. "Now sit in there and wait."

Well fine, Yoojin could play this game. "Then in protest-" and Yoojin did not feel guilty in regards to this as Yoohyun went into a dungeon last night, "I will- I will..."

"You will what?"

Stalling and collecting his thoughts, Yoojin flopped back onto the couch and haughtily crossed his arms. "I will…walk slowly."

Sunghan did not deign this with a reply and instead closed the door to wait until it was time for Yoojin's appointment.

And Yoojin did indeed walk as slowly as he could and there was absolutely nothing Sunghan could do about it, for the sole reason that not even Kim Sunghan could get away with telling a crippled guy to move faster. Even if said crippled guy was one of the most hated hunters out there. Therefore, Yoojin took his sweet time making it to the car, which did provide him with the time to use the Seed Leaf skill on a couple of the employees he passed. It was a little frustrating how little mana he had, though, Yoojin thought grumpily on the ride to the hospital as he pulled up his facemask and lowered his baseball cap. He could probably only safely use Seed Leaf skill one more time on the way into the hospital before his mana started to get dangerously low. He slid out of the car and dragged his crutches to where he could easily utilize them and activated Seed Leaf for his short, but slow, meander into the hospital. Yoojin smirked as he could practically feel Sunghan roll his eyes behind him. Let's see then, he thought as he glanced around at the passing pedestrians. FE, FF, FC (not too shabby), ED, FF, FF, FF, FF with an unlocked SS skill…Yoojin's eyes shot open like a pair of saucers. A SS skill! And unlocked as well! Master of the Golden Smithy, it seemed the requirements were still left unfinished, poor sod had to sharpen 10,000 knives and had only gotten through 8,981.

Yoojin finally tore his eyes away from the stats and skills to their shambling wreck of an owner, Yoo Myeongwoo. Bent low with long stringy hair that drooped along a grungy black band tee-shirt that looked like it had been fished out of the gutter, the man, or at least that's what Yoojin assumed, shuffled with barely any forward motion, swaying in a nonexistent wind as passersby rushed around. Despite all that, it was the single split second glimpse of his face, thin and wan and so achingly lonely, that had Yoojin rushing forward without a second thought.

"Where do you think-" the back of Yoojin's jacket was quickly snagged "-you're going?"

"I'm-" he started to hiss until he saw the man stagger dangerously to one side. Not bothering to finish his sentence, Yoojin dropped his crutches and tore out of his jacket just in time to sprint forward and catch Myeongwoo right before he fell. Well, catch him and then cushion the rest of his fall, as Yoojin could barely hold himself up, much less him and someone else.

"Oof! Buddy, you're not that heavy, but still.." he grumbled to himself when suddenly he realized that the tee-shirt was warm and slick in his hand, a sensation that Yoojin was horribly, recently familiar with. Without even taking a moment to collect himself, as this hunter may not even have a moment, Yoojin checked his hand and it came back slick and scarlet. "Shit."

Heavy thudding footsteps raced up behind him. "Han Yoojin-" Sunghan paused, and crouched beside the pair on the ground that was quickly gaining attention. "What's going on?"

"This man needs help. Now! Take him into the hospital and I'll follow you as fast as I can!"

Sunghan placed the crutches beside Yoojin and swiftly snatched the unconscious body, bounding into the hospital but being careful not to jostle the injured F-class too much. Gathering his crutches under his arms and stumbling to his feet, Yoojin followed behind the two as quickly as he could, only tripping occasionally due to his blood-slick hands having a difficult time finding a purchase on the handles. When he finally made it to the reception area he only got to see Myeongwoo get wheeled out to the emergency room area with Sunghan intensely watching them go.

"Well, that was certainly…exciting," Yoojin panted as he stood next to Sunghan leaning heavily on his crutches as they stared at the Emergency Surgery Area doors.

Something akin to a snort from Sunghan surprised the younger man next to him. “You should get cleaned up before your appointment. I'll let them know you're here.”

“Thanks,” before Yoojin made his way to the bathroom, he turned around, “Do you mind if we stick around afterward to make sure that hunter is alright?”

“Sure, I think we can make time for that.”

[theoneprecioustome]

Aikoto Moments Masterlist: P3P (Makoto Route)

Now that I've finally played P3P for myself, I figured I should replace the old Masterlist with an updated one!

As usual, lots of images and SPOILERS for the entire game below the cut!

Since we already have a P3FES Masterlist, I'll only be focusing on the stuff that's different between FES & P3P.

I won’t include Aigis’s S-Link, since it’s optional and I want to focus only on the non-avoidable Aikoto moments.

I organized everything chronologically.

Most important ones are in Bold.

Additions

✤ The game makes a big deal about Aigis hugging him, it won't stop mentioning it. She hugs him for way longer here than she does in FES, where she stops hugging when Ikutsuki shows up.

✤ For the summer festival, Makoto can actually go with Aigis and Mitsuru. He also gets to hold hands with Aigis. Most importantly, this is the default route: the one that happens when you have either rejected every other invitation or have received none. In fact, it’s the only one the player CAN’T reject.

✤ When Aigis visits his room, she sits on his bed rather than on the floor.

✤ During the Ikutsuki betrayal, Aigis says “Makoto-san…” as she fights to regain control of herself.

✤ They make it even more obvious that Aigis wanted to be assigned to the same room as Makoto during the Kyoto School Trip.

✤ Nyx Fight: Aigis' calling out to him is the last thing Makoto hears before he falls unconscious.

✤ Aigis is the one to notice Makoto coming back after sealing Nyx. We also get a sprite of Aigis crying.

✤ Rooftop scene: This short description was added before Makoto ultimately closes his eyes.

Omissions

Since P3P has no cut-scenes or character models, a lot of things are missing Aikoto-wise. Much of Aikoto comes from Makoto reacting to Aigis and interacting with her outside of player input, which is sadly missing in P3P because Makoto either becomes a dot moving through the map or simply isn't visible on-screen lol

✤ Since we can't see the models, we don't see any implication that Makoto is attracted to Aigis at first sight just like Junpei and Akihiko. There is no heart, no disappointment at not being able to approach her first, etc.

✤ In FES, Junpei and Akihiko are disappointed that Aigis is a robot and Makoto isn’t. In P3P there is no contrast because the only one shown to be disappointed is Junpei.

✤ During the Ikutsuki betrayal in P3P, we get a description saying that Aigis looks at Makoto. However, there is no mention of the fact that Makoto is looking back at her and that it's this silent exchange that snaps her out of it.

✤ During the 11/30 scene we lose Makoto hanging back looking at Aigis as everyone else leaves. In P3P, the description just says "Your friends have gone back to their rooms".

✤ 11/2 Scene: He takes her hand on his own too and we do get a description for it (one of the only times Makoto is allowed to do anything on his own in P3P). However, we're missing the bit where he reaches out to touch her head.

✤ During Koromaru's last walk, Makoto is with Aigis and Koromaru but P3P doesn't say this. So, we miss the part where "making the most of this moment" for him involves hanging out with Aigis.

✤ Since there are no cutscenes, we don't get to see Aigis looking at Makoto and trying to draw the strength to stand after doing so. We can't see her reaction to Makoto levitating towards Nyx either, all we get is her "Don't go!"

✤ While Aigis is the one to notice Makoto coming back in P3P, we aren't told that Makoto gets emotional when he sees Aigis cry.

✤ In the rooftop scene, everything that comes from Makoto is pretty much gone. We aren't told that he wipes her tears away and that Aigis holds his hand in hers, etc. Instead of laying on Aigis' lap, he is laying on the bench with Aigis sitting by his side — in the English translation, at least.

The Japanese is more ambiguous (>枕元には、寄り添うように アイギスが座っている…) and while it does say that Aigis is sitting near Makoto's head, it also uses vocabulary that means 'cuddling close together'. So, in the Japanese version at least, the Rooftop scene is likely meant to be the same as it is in FES.

✤ The final cutscene didn't make it to P3P, either, so we're missing Makoto's gorgeous smile and Aigis being depicted without her mechanical parts.

✤ In P3 and FES, the ending credits open with Makoto and close with Aigis. In P3P, the ending credits just follow the order in which everyone joins SEES... Somehow, they still managed to have Aigis show up during the first "I'll never leave you."

Extra

✤ When you become lovers with one of the SEES girls and go to Tartarus with them, they have have special dialogues. Here is Aigis:

“When I’m with you, Makoto-san, I feel… like I’m in pain. I don’t know how to describe it well, but it’s like my heart is full… This must be what it feels to have your heart pound.”

✤ In the NG+, the game allows the player to choose who they want by their side in the rooftop scene. In Japanese, this person is the player's 'precious person' (same words Aigis uses to describe Makoto). This, coupled with the fact that two out of the three possible options (Yukari and Fuuka) pretty much quote Aigis' lines to Makoto, says a lot about how meaningful it is that Aigis is the True Endings' default choice.

✤ To add to this, in Kotone's (FeMC's) route the player is given the option to remain friends with the social links. The only exception is Aigis, who automatically locks onto the romance route. It is safe to assume that if they had gone back to modify Makoto's social links, the same thing would have occurred there.

P3P Remaster

✤ It’s worth noting that the lines missing in translation are, sadly, still missing in translation.

[waywardsalt]

this has been a good year for new games for me, ironically bc i had a shit time with totk and was able to better recognize what i like. totk is a game i have not touched since beating it, while every other game i have played this year have be considerably better and just. idk good experiences

so some reflection on the games i played for the first time this year that i really liked!

i played fire emblem engage this year- i literally forgot that that happened this year, i've only been counting games since totk, and i've played some good fuckin games after totk, but i honestly had a good silly time with fe engage. the music is great, the story is a bit flat and hammy at times but was still engaging (hah) and i was pleasantly surprised by the development of the main character, and it was pretty hard even on an easy difficulty, which each map sometimes taking an hour to get through as the story progressed. plus i can't deny that the referneces to other fe games with the emblem rings was a cool selling point, i'm not too familiar with the other fe games and it was interesting to see some of the characters from them. loading into lucina's paralogue and instantly recognizing the map layout and music got to me pretty good as someone who was introduced into the series by awakening. it was great!

i played persona 5 royal after totk and. what a fucking palette cleanser it's one of the best games i have ever played and i've... somewhat liveblogged my first playthrough and snippets of my second, it's fantastic (not flawless tbf) and just a lot of fun. the music is great holy shit and it was also just a great story to experience, with some interesting messaging throughout with the confidant stuff and the things brought up by the third semester. i didn't even initally get persona 5 with the intention to play it myself, it was for my sibling, who played it once and put it down and hasn't touched it since while i picked it up on a whim and was hooked by the music and style and gameplay and... holy shit it's so good. i don't even mind okumura's palace too much.

i managed to get myself a copy of kid icarus uprising (and also got the guide book by accident, don't ask, it's helpful anyways), and... they sure did make a third person shooter on the 3ds and it sure does. Handle. in all honestly the controls are kind of a mess but the game feels really good to play when you get a handle on them, even if i keep accidentally sending pit falling to his death in the ground segments because just moving him is a bit rough. the game is also surprisingly hard, and i wouldn't just chalk it up to the controls, and the music (esp the tracks for the air segments and the way its timed to the game events... ugh) is fantastic, and what i've seen of the story and characters so far is charming! i have only gotten up to past chapter 9 out of... 30? because each chapter is fairly long and... those controls. it's great!

i also managed to get my hands on shin megami tensei iv! i first found it through the fantastic soundtrack, played the first through hours after it failing to boot a few times and getting fucking destroyed by the earliest enemies because holy shit this game will beat you into the ground if you try, and was like 'hm i wonder why they went with that specific sound for a lot of the ost' and then got to fucking tokyo and i. i do not know a lot abt smt iv's story and i'm grateful. getting to tokyo was a bit internal 'holy SHIT' moment and i am so desperate to figure out what the fuck is going on with this story and world it's really fascinating. i haven't progressed the story in a while even through i know where to go just because i'm trying to level flynn and my demons and do side quests because i am not going to underestimate any new encounter ever it's fantastic.

did i start playing clangen this year? i might have. it's good. it's fun. i've played it on voice call with my friend a few times. i'm currently hooked on starting with 1 apprentice and 1 kit like a lot of people are doing on here, building cool stories based on it. it's neat.

that's (probably) all of the new games i've played (and enjoyed) this year so far, but i found out that fallout: new vegas is ten fucking dollars on steam (20 with all of the dlc) and i might have to give that a shot after tracking down a bunch of mods to keep it from crashing, and just from what i've seen of people talking about it, it sounds like a game i really need to try either this year or sometime next year. i'm mostly still just floored that it's less than thirty dollars.

[mbti-notes]

Anon wrote: Hello, I would like to ask you for help in assessing the type. I settled on ENTP, but I would like to know your opinion.

To begin with, I would like to mention the problems I have encountered and, as I think, what they relate to. After that I will write about each stack function separately.

I feel stuck in life. Because of the problems I have faced in the past and have not been able to cope again and again, I now reject the opportunities I encounter because I am afraid of repeating past mistakes. (Si)

This, to a greater extent, concerns relationships with people. I regularly faced problems in close relationships, which is why now I limit myself, not allowing me to start a close relationship with someone. Friendly and romantic. It's like self-punishment. For the fact that I used to behave in such a way that it hurt people, in fact, playing with their feelings, I no longer allow myself to enter into them.

I used to flirt a lot before, but I didn't want to take responsibility for the consequences that it could cause. That is, romantic feelings and desires to enter into a romantic relationship with me, from other people. In fact, I liked that people loved me and I liked the dynamics of such relationships, but at the same time, I didn't want to create restrictions for myself. I wanted to be able to make such connections with more than just one person. (I assume that the desire for such a relationship is a problem of tertiary Fe, not wanting to take responsibility is a lower Si and unhealthy Ne-Fe dynamics)

On the one hand, I reject all possibilities and put an end to my life, so that the mistakes of the past determine my future (Si), but at the same time, I can't stop hoping that things can get better (Ne).

But even so, I still really want to hope that things can get better. This hope is what helps me move on. Helps me to live. I can't imagine that I will ever stop hoping. I can't imagine that I'll ever stop and, in fact, accept it. If that happens, it won't be me anymore. (dominant Ne)

(Ne) I need a sense of hope and a belief that things can get better. I have a sense of hope, hope and faith in the future. Nothing definite, I just feel that things can change for the better.

I really love and believe in the beliefs that were promoted on Disney. "All dreams can be fulfilled if you want and try"

Most of my life, I adhere to the concept of "everything is possible". I don't want to admit that there is something impossible in this world. As long as we can imagine it, it is possible. The possibility that this will actually appear in the world may be extremely small. Even zero whole and some six thousandths. But it will still be there. That's more than zero. And, as long as it is more than zero, I will not accept the fact that it is impossible.

Now, the part of the time I spend alone with myself, I feel depressed. And I feel like I have no room for change. I'm just afraid to believe that they exist, because it will mean that it's time to take responsibility for your life.

(Ti) I can't do something just to do it or because someone wants to or I want to. There must be a reason for everything. And, at the level of what I mentioned earlier, I also adhere to the idea "Everything has a reason." This applies to everything and says that if there is a reason for this, then I will be able to figure it out and work with it. For the most part, I derived this formulation in relation to people in order to learn to treat them more loyally. I'm still struggling with it, but I'm trying to accept the fact that people are not just stupid, they have reasons why they behave this way and, therefore, they should not be judged for stupidity.

I really like to find solutions to problems on my own. As an example, this is an independent analysis of riddles in the game and the use of artificial intelligence for learning or searching for information. I came to the second one myself and learned how to use it effectively.

Sometimes I have problems using Ti. When I have some thoughts, but I haven't checked them for fidelity myself, and people are already challenging them, my first awakening is to search for information from familiar sources so that they confirm and prove for me. But, lately, I notice it and slow myself down. I'm saying that I'm not ready for a discussion on this topic yet and I'm continuing to collect data.

In fact, it's more about the fear that a person will move away from the big picture to the actual evidence that I still don't have and therefore I won't be able to answer anything. As far as I know, it's more about high intuition and low sensorics.

(Fe) I love praise. In fact, I really like it when they praise my intellectual skills. But I love it only when, in fact, I myself think that I have shown it well. That is, when I, in fact, intentionally use critical thinking and spend time thinking so that the thought I will express is of high quality.

As I mentioned above, in stress I want to use information that is considered authoritative only to confirm my opinion. At such moments, I also forget about the qualitative use of critical thinking, instead adjusting the facts so that they correspond to my idea.

I didn't describe Si separately because I thought I mentioned a lot about it at the beginning.

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

As a general note, trying to assess your type during a "down" period of your life usually makes the process more difficult and complicated. You seem to be describing Si grip issues. However, I would be a bit careful there, because withdrawal from life due to having made too many mistakes out in the world is generally characteristic of inferior grip for all extraverted types. There has to be much more to the story in order to prove that it is specifically **Si** grip. You actually haven't said enough about what role Si generally plays in your life (apart from inferior grip) and what role it played in getting you to this point (not just in terms of relationships). This is a crucial piece of the puzzle for ensuring that you properly distinguish ENTP from common mistypes such as ENFP, ESTP, ENFJ, ESFP, or ENTJ.

The instructions state that you should do a comparison between at least two types. It isn't enough to just confirm the type you think you are, because that makes you vulnerable to confirmation bias. You must also examine the other types enough to rule them all out. You say you've "settled" on ENTP, which implies that you've already done the process of eliminating all the other types on your own? If this is the only type that seems to fit you best, then chances are you've arrived at the right answer. Did you just want me to double check for you? There's nothing in your description that seems to indicate you're not ENTP. But this doesn't mean I can say with absolute certainty that you are ENTP and not some other similar type, because I didn't witness the process of how you ruled out all the other 15 possibilities.

PS: Perhaps you should look into the possibility of polyamory. It's not necessarily a bad thing to want many close and loving relationships. The issue is whether you're able to do it considerately and ethically. The right way to confront your past mistakes is to learn from them about how to socialize better rather than to just stop living your life.

[poppies-on-fire]

Munday Survey

(Tagged by @lightwxrden, sort of– you said You, and I felt called out.)

Name/Alias: ru

Age group: 30+

Pronouns: she/her

Favorite color: yellow, and all colors of the sky honestly. (it's beautiful, don't blame me)

Favorite food: lasagna, chocolate (yeah yeah ik)

Tattoos/piercings?: 2 / 5

Current song stuck in your head?: Fleurie - Love and War

Pets?: my cat girl who's almost a cat grandma really, 2 bunnies (they're sweet beans)

Favorite book?: has been tainted by its problematic author, but it's Felidae

Do you have a 'prized possession'?: my car, probably, which is extremely subjective (16yo and not really up to date)

Dream job: my current job, probably, but with less hours. running a small freelance writing job on the side, or something gardening/flower related. is that realistic? probably not. but that's what dreams are for.

Tea or coffee?: coffee by morning/early day, tea by afternoon/evening! i can't sleep if i drink coffee late :<

Hobbies: games, sleep, food, baking, writing, spending time with loved ones and pets

How long have you been role-playing?: oh man. a long time. like, long. started in my teens, so go figure.

Who is your most active muse: hmm. thanks to the platform, joshua rn. not too long ago I would have said claude von riegan (FE) and gaku yaotome (i7)!

Significance behind your url?: the fire is self-explanatory, i believe. poppies are, in their wild form, red, and my favorite flowers of all time, so it's a double win

(Tagging: anyone who hasn't done this yet! it's interesting honestly.)

[ashes-of-ailell]

*Cracks knuckles*

Time for propaganda!

Ok so. I love FE 8. Not for the plot (its good though). Not for the gameplay or any mechanics. I love it for these two.

Franz and Forde. Best siblings in FE history. You cannot change my mind. I have so many feelings about them.

Why do I love them so much you may ask? They are SO wholesome. Forde raised his younger brother after their parents both died when Franz was still very young. He was devastated because he loved his parents. He was still a child/ teen and had all of these new responsibilities. He probably didn't even know what to do. But he figured it out. For his brother. So that he will have a happy childhood. There is nothing more important to Forde than Franz.

And like they know each other better than anyone else. Everyone describes Forde as lazy and carefree. When he isnt. He is canonically a great fighter (even though this does not translate well in the game xD) but he is sleeping or painting on the battlefield. As you do. And no one gets why. It's stupid. It's dangerous. He has no reason to do so. Wrong. He isn't in danger when sleeping because he has a modified saddle so he won't fall off. And he is painting to study the terrain. Bro is smarter than anyone gives him credit for. And apparently Franz is the only one who knows this/ figured it out. Because Forde doesn't take any credit for it. He wants everyone to think he is useless, carefree and clumsy. To make them laugh and lighten up the mood during a war. He doesn't want others to be sad because he knows how horrible it is. And he has always been like that. When their dad was gone because of some missions or whatever and Franz was sad about it he tried to cheer him with his drawings.

What about Franz though you may wonder? He is SUCH a cute little bean. He wants to be a great knight like his brother and Seth. He is better than them gameplay wise. At least by far better than Forde and at least on par with Seth. He is helping everywhere he can. In every last support of his he just so *vague hand gestures* so adorable. Not a single mean cell in this boy's body. He literally recruited Amelia who was fighting for the enemy because he thought she somehow got caught in the battle and wanted to help her get to safety. (Kinda funny conversation btw) And then in their supports proceeds to teach her how to actually fight. They also have a paired ending togetehr. Puppy love at its finest.

ANYWAY I love Franz and Forde so much you can't even imagine. Faerghast made a half an hour long video about Forde btw. Like he such a well written (but sadly irrelevant and growth wise pretty much useless) character.

Here is the link in case youre interested: https://youtu.be/rairchPLY30

Ok enough propaganda. Have a nice day! 🙃

Hi there!!

This was such a delight to read. I can really tell how much you like these characters and it's lovely.

While I haven't played the game these two are from, reading about them has made me genuinely rather interested. It sucks that Forde may not be the best unit wise, which I imagine must limit chances to use him in battle, I'm glad his supports and the like seem to be quite good.

Will definitely have a look at Franz and Amelia's paired ending, it sounds incredibly cute. I'll also try and have a look at the video you linked, it sounds interesting and will allow me to learn more about Forde. They absolutely sound like incredible characters!!

I hope you have a lovely day too!! :3

[sage-nebula]

I finished Persona 4 Golden last night, so like I did with Persona 3 before it, here are my overall thoughts on the game now that it's over. (And yes, I did go through Marie's dungeon, so I did get the full and complete True Ending.)

Overall Score: 6.5/10

The Pros:

— The gameplay was good, which isn't a surprise since it's the improvements in P4 that translated over to P3P. Unlike with P3, I had the option to control my party members on from the get-go, and I also enjoyed how Rise's scans became increasingly more OP the more you completed her social link / leveled her up. It's nice to not have to play a guessing game with enemies to figure out what their weaknesses are. Although all the yellow on the UI hurt my eyes, the menus were still easy to navigate and weren't too busy, something that I unfortunately can't say for the sequel yet. — As far as the murder mystery element goes, they did a good job not making the actual culprit too obvious, while also sprinkling in some red herrings here or there. That's not to say the murder mystery element was handled perfectly (it really wasn't), but they did well not making the real culprit too obvious from the outset, which was one of the flaws that P3 had. (Although, P3 wasn't trying to be a mystery, so there is that to consider.) — The characters that were good were really good. I enjoyed Naoto and Kanji the most, but Yukiko, Rise, and Nanako were also really good characters. Even Chie grew on me, even with Erin Fitzgerald's tendency to hurt my ears with all her screaming. — Being able to work on schoolmate social links outside of school was a huge improvement over P3. I had a very hard time both finishing the SEES social links and also having stuff to do near the end of the game because of how schoolmate social links couldn't be worked on during off days. That not being an issue in P4 was a huge improvement. — At first I didn't like that we were staying with family instead of in a dorm, but the Dojima family really grew on me and I enjoyed their social links. I managed to max both Dojima and Nanako's social links before shit in the fan later in the game, and it made everything have a heavier impact. — It's cool that the party members you don't bring with you can come in as calvary units sometimes. It makes sense that they would, since they're ostensibly all going on the missions with you even though you can only have four party members at a time. — Being able to change costumes without having it affect armor is another improvement over P3. Sometimes I want to look cool without having to sacrifice defense for it, ok. Lemme be fashionable. You can't save the world if you aren't cute etc. — I did enjoy the visual novel style of P3P, but also I liked being able to see the characters actually interact with each other in the real world too (which I knew FES had, so it's not as if that was never a thing for P3; it was just P3P). Maybe someday we can get a version of P3P that fully utilizes the updated hardware it's ported to. — Some of the music was really catchy. — I loved being able to visit Tatsumi Port Island and Gekkoukan High again . . . just like I love how Inaba itself is a place that we visited briefly in P3, and Yukiko is a character we'd met previously when she was in junior high. I LOVE continuity like that, it makes my heart so happy.

The Neutrals:

— My feelings on Marie are really mixed. On the one hand, it's interesting to have a character that is a through-line for the plot; she's the third person that Yuu meets upon arriving in Inaba (because she picks up that paper he dropped and gives it back to him), she's almost constantly in the Velvet Room, and ultimately she's kind of the final boss, in a way. Like she's a part of the final boss. Her theme music is also pretty and some of her interactions were fun.

On the other hand, it's 2023, so tsundere characters aren't really appealing to me at this point in my life and it was aggravating as hell to go into the Velvet Room and have to button mash through another stupid poem when all I wanted to do was fuse some Personas so I could get on with the dungeon. Marie getting upset ten times in a row because I was forced to read her stupid poetry did not endear me to her character. Ultimately I don't hate Marie, but I think that she could have been better implemented, and her shtick of being tsundere hasn't aged very well. — Similarly, Yosuke was really hit or miss. For a lot of the story he worked well as The Leader Who Could Talk since Yuu is basically a silent protagonist. He kept the group focused and on target of solving the mystery, and had a personal stake in it from the get-go given his crush on Saki. But on the other, his homophobia toward Kanji was fucking rank, as was his perversion toward the girls, particularly the scene where he tries to guilt-trip them into changing into the bathing suits he bought them. Ultimately Yosuke is not one of my favorite characters in the game, but I don't hate him, either. There's worse characters in the game that save him from the scrappy heap. — I understand that this is a game series made by a corporation, and so it makes sense that it's not going to go gung-ho against the anti-capitalist message, but it still is disappointing that the very realistic plot of "big box store comes to small town and ruins their small businesses / gentrifies the area" was not only never followed through on, but also had its teeth completely ripped out in the ending scenes where Junes is playing nice with the small businesses by allowing them to set up shop in the building. Again, I understand that this isn't Night in the Woods, the anti-capitalism / anti-gentrification message isn't the point, and so it's not the biggest deal in the world. But it still was a little disappointing. — This game suffers from something a lot of JPRGs suffer from, and that something is The Illusion of Choice. It's something where you're given multiple dialogue options to choose from, but no matter what you choose the end result—sometimes right down to the dialogue—is the same.

Again, this is a standard of the genre; JRPGs by and large don't have multiple endings (or at least not ones that are determined by your response), so The Illusion of Choice is something to expect when picking one up. But still, something that would be fun for Atlus to consider in the future would be something akin to what you see in WRPGs, which is a party member approval system. If I act like a jackass to my party members, they should treat me accordingly. The social links I build (or don't) should have at least a minor effect on the plot (like Dojima's treatment of Yuu after the warning note should differ depending on whether you bonded with him or not). Again, it's not a make-or-break thing, it's expected in the genre, but it still is a little disappointing. — The whole sequence with identifying the target —> asking around for info about the target —> go into a reskinned dungeon to find the target felt very repetitive after a while. As did hearing the "oh noes don't say it!!" re: the "you're not me" scenes, which felt forced at times. This is a minor nitpick, because it wasn't a huge detriment to the game or anything, but it was just a little repetitive is all. — I have complicated feelings on how Naoto's story played out. She's one of my favorite characters in the game, easily. But everything about how her Shadow was presented made it seem as if she was actually a transboy, only for the game to play it as "she's not trans, she just has internalized misogyny." Which, okay . . . but even later in her social link she's saying again that she wishes she could have been born a boy? Only to walk that back again? But she also has no issues with she/her pronouns and dresses more femininely in the epilogue. I don't know. I don't want to misgender her, which is why I use she/her pronouns since that's what she uses in the game after the gender reveal, but it's just a very weird and complicated situation, particularly since it was written with a Japanese audience in mind rather than an American one. I don't know where I stand on it.

The Cons:

— The anti-queer bigotry in this game is . . . immense. From the stereotyped way that Kanji's Shadow behaved, to Yosuke's homophobic treatment of Kanji (right down to lowkey accusing him of being a rapist during the camping trip), to the transphobia surrounding the drag show (both in how everyone reacted to the male characters dressed in drag, to how the male characters acted toward having to do it) . . . it was bad. I've seen some things that say that P4 was progressive for its time in letting Kanji be a main party member, and I can acknowledge that perhaps that's true. But it didn't make it any easier for me, a queer woman, to sit through in 2023. It was super gross and severely lessened my enjoyment of the game. — There's also a lot of fatphobia and . . . uglyphobia? . . . I don't know what to call it. But like, Kubo was creepy looking, and he turns out to be a murderer. Morooka-sensei is a horrible teacher and person, and he was designed with massive buckteeth and bad hair. Hanako is cartoonishly obese and an awful person, and her weight is turned into a joke when she breaks Yosuke's scooter by just sitting on it, and so on and so forth. The game basically holds the idea that, "If you are ugly and/or fat, you're a bad person," which again, is not funny nor good, and I don't think is even a "fair for its day" thing. It's just really distasteful, especially since there are scenes with these characters that you can't avoid. — I really hated a lot of the sexualization when it comes to the female party members. The biggest offender here is Rise's Shadow. The whole strip club thing was bad enough, but you could try to argue that, hey, Kanji's was a bathhouse, so it's fair play. But during the battle against Shadow Rise, when she uses her ultimate attack, her Shadow literally humps the stripper pole and lets out a loud, sexual moan. That's vile. Rise is a sixteen-year-old girl, and even though that was her Shadow instead of her . . . the Shadow is part of her, and the Shadow is meant to be like, sixteen-year-old girl but monster. I understand these games are made with a teenage audience in mind, but it's still super gross and I was disgusted and super uncomfortable by it. — In addition to Shadow Rise, there were multiple strip tease shots of the girls in bathhouses; female characters who were introduced by the camera panning up their legs and over their bodies; many, many, MANY jokes made about Teddie and Yosuke trying to peep on the girls, etc. These "jokes" would also go on for unbearably long at times, be in animated cutscenes, etc. It's not funny. The humor didn't land. I didn't enjoy it.

— Speaking of Teddie! I fucking despise him! I hate literally everything about this stupid fucking bear. I hate his voice. I hate how perverted he is, and how it's played for laughs or played as charming. I fucking despise how often he flirts with / talks about hitting on Nanako (like when he wanted to greet her with a kiss when she came home from the hospital? Nanako is SIX YEARS OLD you filthy fucking creep, stay away from her!!). His scenes are not funny. His character is not cute. "I was a Shadow that somehow gained sentience" isn't a plot thread that was handled in a remotely interesting way, especially with everything else going on; it just felt distracting and pointless, since I hated Teddie so much by that point that the only reason I maxed his social link is because the game gave me no other choice. I was so excited when it looked like he died and so disappointed when he was brought back. I hate him more than I hate the main villains of the game. If I could light his stupid bear costume on fire, I would. Worst character by far, bar none, this is a Teddie Hate Blog. — Speaking of plot lines being handled poorly: while I'm glad that ultimately she didn't die, Nanako being temporarily fridged for the drama is not something that I appreciated or liked, especially since how she came back to life was never explained and made no sense. I mean, she was dead for a while. Her brain was without oxygen for a long time. As someone whose mother died from her brain being without oxygen for too long, it's just not realistic nor possible for Nanako to have come back from that without severe brain damage. I get that there are a lot of unrealistic things in this fantasy game, but still. Made no sense, was done for cheap drama, and ultimately shouldn't have been. Either stick to your guns and actually kill the child, or just don't have that enter the equation at all. — I also feel that there was just too much of a Guide Dang It element to getting to the True Ending. Like I was reasonably suspicious of Adachi by that point in the game, but I still needed to look things up beforehand to know that not following through on the revenge impulse against Namatame was necessary in order to avoid the Bad Ending, and I feel like a lot of players would believe the game telling them "yeah Namatame did it, he confessed to doing it, he's not sorry for doing it" and be tricked into the bad ending therefore. Then there's everything with Marie, and hunting down Izanami . . . I had to look up how to trigger the real ending by going to Junes a second time since there was nothing in the game telling me to do that. Kind of frustrating how missable things like that are, and not the best game design. — I know they couldn't exactly repeat the whole thing with Tartarus and the Dark Hour (or at least they wouldn't be able to without some serious plot explanations of Persona 3 and why what was done at the end of that game was undone or whatever), but I was never able to take the "we went into the TV!!" thing seriously. It sounded stupid from beginning to end. And while I understand wanting to have this game accessible to people who didn't play the third one (like how the third one was accessible without having played the first two) . . . I kept trying to rationalize this "TV world" with Tartarus and the Dark Hour and I was never able to connect the dots to make it seem like cohesive worldbuilding. It's like they took the worldbuilding from the first game and just chucked it out the window. Which would be fine if this was a different universe, but with characters like Yukiko being in it, it's very clearly not. It kept taking me out of the game over and over again and I wish they had built the story of Persona 4 to better mesh with what was set in Persona 3.

— Lastly, I think they tried to cram multiple plots at once into this game, and it just did not work. If the game focused solely on the murder mystery—nothing about Teddie being a Shadow, Marie being a fragment of a goddess, the goddess herself having beef because her ex-husband was a jackass—then they could have really beefed up the murder mystery and made the whole plot feel more cohesive and grounded, even with the lunacy of traveling into another world via TV sets. As it stands though? The goddess plot felt wholly separated from the murder mystery plot, and as a result felt a lot like a "plot twist" that was tacked on at the end just to pad out the game and make it longer. Yes, Edogawa-sensei told us the story of Izanami and Izanagi when we were at Gekkoukan High; but I got rid of Yuu's original persona so early that I forgot his persona was even called Izanami to begin with, so again, it felt out of left field to me. They just tried to do too many things with this game, and as a result ended up making all of them pretty lukewarm. In the end, this game was okay. I will probably never play it again, because I think P3P was much better and I would rather replay that one if I was going to replay a Persona game. But it wasn't completely awful, either.

[icharchivist]

Orologia has tits now? Wake up babe, new GNC waifu dropped

yeah holy shit. Genderfluid Nonbinary Orologia here we GO

tho ngl i really am not fan of the fem!design, it really is just waifu shapped 😭 the masc!design is so wetcat shapped and pitiful i genuinely love the idea, but for the fem!design it really feels like "no we can't make a pitiful girl we need boobs :(". On a Doylian perspective (taking into account the designers's opinions) i dont really like it (and if they make the fem!design playable over the masc!design i think i'd be so sad. Best of both world: both design appears on their unit.)

on a Wastonian perspective (forgetting the designers and taking it as the character's idea) i think it's great Orologia managed to figure out what were the two forms that fit them the most. Some days you just want to be a wet cat, some day you just want to look cute. I can respect that.

That being said, i think it was mentioned none of the dragon really had a gender anyway? They're all basically experimenting with gender now as they're taking "humanoid forms" and they have gendered pronouns that go with it, but all the gang, Fediel, Wilnas, Lu Woh, Galleon, Wamdus, Ewiyar... They're all Nonbinary, technically speaking. Their genders are even listed as "Other" in game. Literally nothing stops them from doing just like Orologia and getting forms that'd reflect that down the line.

And apparently, according to Wamdus's FE, it's Orologia who gave them the potions to change their shape to start with, they're literally the Hrt/T distributor of the gang.

(though i love how it means Ewiyar, who's presentation is "Cat", who's gender is filled under "Other" in gameplay (which really shows Ewiyar really went to it going "My Gender is Cat."), still uses she/her pronouns, or more like, people use she/her pronouns for her and she doesn't mind. Gives me the vivid idea of Ewiyar considering "would i get better worshipping out of being a female cat you think? I'll say yes. She i come.")

So i'm just glad Oro is just as Nonbinary as the rest of the gang and decided to drive it a step further, since people can forget easily the rest of the gang is Nonbinary, by going "no, you will stare at my waifu form as well. It's the full package."

Thank u Granblue for the genders.