#I can't wait for the people who skip dialogs

[another-goblin]

The tragedy of Dr. Ratio as a character is that all of his major appearances are very deceptive at first glance (allthough I suspect he actually prefers it this way).

On Herta station: Oh no, this rude asshole wasted valuable time interrogating poor TB who knows nothing instead of helping. Actually, he already saved everybody and tried to help TB realize what's going on so that they could defeat the culprit and take all the credit.

The Final Victor: Oh no, this murderous prick threatened Aventurine with a gun! Actually, he tried to wrestle the gun out of his hands to prevent him from shooting himself.

Penacony: Oh no, this jerk was so mean to poor Aventurine and then just betrayed him! Actually, they've been working together, and all of it was a part of their plan.

On the Radiant Feldspar: Why is he even there, just to whine about how he detests noisy gatherings? Actually, he's been helping Screwllum with Divergent Universe.

[catherinelid]

Happy (late) V-day!

This is my second fic inspired by @htsan (and the song "skies forever blue")

Summary: This is your last Undertale playthrough. You are determined to free the monsters not only from the underground but from the resets as well. But it was never easy, was it?

A mess-age

You're standing in a painfully familiar hallway, the golden rays of the setting sun gently warming your cheek. Or rather, not yours. You're still not really there. It's your vessel who's feeling all the warmth. It's your vessel who went on their last journey through the Underground. You're just helping it happen.

And it's you whose heart skips a beat every time you see a certain skeleton.

*…

*wait a second.

*that look on your face while i was talking…

*you’ve already heard my spiel, haven’t you?

*i suspected something like this.

*you’re always acting like you know what’s going to happen.

*like you’ve seen it all before.

*so…

*i have a request for you.

*i kind of have a secret codeword that only i know.

*so i know if someone tells it to me…

*they’ll have to be a time traveller.

The dialog box changed for a second. It seemed to you, that instead of 'a time traveller' it read 'the one i'm looking for'. But that's absurd, right? The game cannot change spontaneously. It must have been your imagination.

*crazy, right?

Sans’ winking image looks straight at you.

Huh?! Oh, it took you a moment to remember that this was a continuation of his standard dialogue. Or should you say monologue? In the end, you can't answer him.

*anyway, here it is…

*(whisper, whisper)

*i’m counting on you to come back here and tell me that.

*see you later.

As always, you returned several times to tell all the super secret passwords, after which Sans gave you the key to his room and went out. You've always wondered why you can't hug him goodbye, even if just though your vessel.

When you got to his basement, you found in the drawer something... interesting. Something new. A letter.

There was a piece of paper on top of the envelope that said, 'if you found this, you must be the anomaly i'm looking for. or, if you're not the one but happen to know them, please give them this letter... if you can, of course. but in that case, don't read it, it is... pretty personal. you're a good human, and you won't read other people's letters, right?'

Open the envelope?

❤️Yes                        No

“hey.

starting this is not as easy as i originally thought.

…

i just wanted to talk to you.

this is the last time we'll see each other here, right? you're going to ask me how i know that? just a hunch.

…

i'm sorry i didn't come to talk to you in person, i hope it doesn't bother you too much that i only communicate with you by text. after all, when you're reading this, you're probably imagining my voice in your head. heh.

but i won't stall any longer, i don’t have much time.

i... care about you. more than anyone else. maybe i care about you more than just a friend.

…friend, hm. yes. a friend.

don't consider it's weird. do you think i can't love? but i'm just like you, i'm alive. not only can i love, but i exist because of love.

i live in every game you play, in every comic and picture that you see, in every... fanfic? is that what you call it? you know, the thing that you are reading right now. yeah. in every song that reminds you of me. everywhere. i'm here.

maybe some of them were even created by you personally. i'm still alive because of your love. i'm alive for as long as you remember me.

…you are going to remember me, right?

it's all so unfair. you can see me, but i can't. oh, how i wish i knew what you really look like.

you're not really here, there's always some kind of wall between us. it's funny. you don't even cast a shadow in this world, but you can control it. i've always wondered where i live. you call it a "computer," but for me it's my home and my universe.

…

you know, at first, i wanted to keep everything to myself. but, uh... now it's becoming impossible.

do you know how much i look forward to meeting you every time? to talk to you, even if the only things you say are ‘yes’ or ‘no’. to see you for a moment, only for you to disappear again.

why did you visit us? if you hadn't done that, i would never have known you. and you wouldn't have to suffer in your own world. but now we both long for each other.

well, as they say, what's done is done. not that i'm seriously complaining. you're a wonderful person. don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

sorry for such a mess-age. heh.

anyway, my fate is in your hands. i believe that you'll take a good care of me.

i'm waiting for you wherever you go next.

i love you.

your greatest friend”

And that's when your computer suddenly shuts down.

[zombeebunnie]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello and welcome new followers, it's been a while but I am here with another update! :]

Firstly, I just want to keep things transparent and catch people up to date for those that might not of seen my previous explanation for this delay and/or are new here.

I was very hesitant on making any new update posts because I wanted my original play tester who's been here since the beginning to look at everything first so I patiently waited. I didn't want to give out false expectations and add bunch of new content/concepts in update posts only to take it out or change it entirely if I couldn't make it work. In the end, my original play tester just couldn't make it so I recently asked someone else. Everything went really well, I had a lot of fun with how they played the game and they were very understanding. Their feedback really helped me when I needed it and I learned a lot from this experience, I am never waiting like that ever again. :]

Anywho, here's how things have been going as far as game development goes:

In my last update post, I was talking about a certain goal point I wanted to achieve and the game got a pretty big update!

I finished all of the morning settings/routes that now lead into day 4, this took a lot of writing and time. There is one specific route that I'm fixing because when my new play tester and I played it straightforward twice, it took a very long time to get through and we still weren't done before we took a break. :,]

There were two new paths that I also finished during all of this. For the first one, I decided to push it later into the game due to certain events happening too early and the second one is an ending which is slightly hidden somewhere. :]

All that'll be needed is minor adjusting, etc because the variables need to line up correctly since some routes can have different outcomes. I'm up for this challenge but it's going to take time to organize.

Here are some of things I fixed along the way:

Slight adjustment to an ending that required a certain trigger

Adjusted certain visual effects happening to early

Cleaned up various grammar mistakes

Fixed certain routes jumping into other routes

Minor fix to backgrounds appearing at the wrong time of day

Adjusted the volume of different background SFX's / Music

Here's one of several things you can eat in the game, can't survive on an empty stomach after all! :]

When it comes to CG's that involve food, my style approach will be a bit different. I was originally going to do realism but those take a very long time to do and after the first few, I got pretty burnt out from them.

Along with that, sometimes you might find things that will aid you along the way! This key is just an example, I don't want to show the other items just yet. :]

I'm also still testing this but I thought about adding a visual effect that appears on your screen when something is causing you to rapidly lose health(?) It's not in full effect right now, just brainstorming it.

Lastly, another thing that's kind of been on my mind once I looked through the routes again is how long they are, I'm not sure how people feel about long visual novels since I consider this one to be a slow burn game. I don't want you to feel as though you have to skip through a lot of the dialog unless you've already seen it, I want it to be fun and not feel like it's dragging on. I really would like to hear people's thoughts on this because I honestly don't know.

I think I reached the max I can type here so I'll post the rest in the following update post next week but overall,

Thank you guys for being patient and understanding. I wholeheartedly appreciate the support and encouragement! :]

[maguneedsalife]

T'zekhwalker - Final Zenos Fight

i spent so much time here it needed its own post. i'd be lying if i said this one scene wasn't a main reason i pushed t'zekh through the main story (the other was i wanted him to get to 90/get the rdm artifact gear so he could wear his canon glam but you know)

so, some background for folks who are new here: t'zekh was the main wol for stormblood. he was the one zenos became obsessed with, and he has spent most of endwalker trying to get zenos to leave him alone. he knows zenos desperately wants t'zekh to kill him--to come at him with fire and rage and bloodlust--but t'zekh refuses to kill anyone no matter how much they deserve it.

i had been waiting so long for t'zekh to be able to do this dialog choice and the answer i had envisioned for him actually changed from the time i did this with aoife. originally i'd thought he'd go with option 2, but by the time i got here, 3 was more his style.

which ended up being a good thing, because zenos's response to that answer was fucking perfect for t'zekh

small aside--it drove me bonkers back when spoiler embargo first lifted and ppl (mostly on twitter) were INSISTING that answer 1 was the only possible canon answer and if you picked any of the others you were clearly playing the game wrong. even despite yoshi p confirming that there was no "correct" answer and the team had tried to write it so that players could respond to zenos the way they felt best reflected their own character's experience. people were STILL out there like "sorry but if you didnt pick option 1 you're just wrong"

so to see the text validate my choice and my hcs so perfectly has me feeling vindicated in this chilis. it is okay for people to have a different experience of the game than you!!! (i'll get off my soapbox now)

option 3 was perfect for t'zekh because he is finally fed up enough with zenos that he's finally willing to cast aside his moral opposition to killing in order to make sure zenos can't hurt anyone else in his name.

and zenos caught on to that and responded in kind.

anyway then i took a fucktillion pictures in the instance (most of which i'll put on my wol blog)

it was so hard to get them in the same frame lmao

and then i did the solo fight! not too bad on red mage, surprisingly enough - was very thankful to have vercure though lmao

this punch is still just as satisfying the second time

On my way to the last credits sequence i learned that you will actually fuck up the music timing if you skip or speed up the credits. it was playing revenge twofold when it was supposed to be playing flow together. that was very jarring. i don't know why they haven't set it to just start playing flow together for that sequence. dont skip the credits folks

and that's a wrap! i uhhh might have abandoned him before finishing out the quest so i could go farm memoria misera with aoife but im very happy to have (technically) beaten Endwalker with him before the year ended, which was one of my goals.

I think I started main story with him in January, so it's taken me about a year to get through... mostly what set me back was i had to make time/build emotional strength to make progress through parts I knew would be difficult emotionally. But I committed to not to skipping any cutscenes and just pressing on through a second read, and I'm glad to have embarked on this journey.

as soon as i finished endwalker the first time i knew it was going to be equally aoife and t'zekh's story. they both ended up having stakes in the plot in different ways, and getting to play through and see things from t'zekh's perspective was so much fun.

i still keep thinking abt the version of the ending in my head, wherein t'zekh is lying at the edge of the universe and all he can think is "i want to live, dammit!!"

and he hears a voice calling out to him.

"there you are!" aoife shouts, "I was looking all over for you!"

T'zekh has spent so much of the story kind of in aoife's shadow, grappling with what it means to be a "hero" in his own way. he spent a lot of stormblood resenting her absence.

but by the end of endwalker… i think they end up really close friends

---

Next, it'll be Banri's turn.... skipping as many cutscenes as possible so i can get him through before Dawntrail!