#I feel like I’m watching the shibuya arc in real time

[stitchsnintendoswitch]

Currently drawing to cope with the state of the world today…I think it’s working I dunno

[scryarchives]

𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫 - 𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐢 𝐲𝐮𝐮𝐣𝐢 | 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟓

"i miss her, even if she's everywhere. mother, come home."

masterlist | previous , next !

–pairings: itadori yuuji x oc

– warning: mentions of death, mentions of abuse, hurt-comfort (?), canon divergent, pre-shibuya arc

– author’s note: i really disappeared for a long time, im so so sorry. and i promise this is becoming more yuuji-centric eventually–

disclaimer: i’m not of japanese descent and am unfamiliar with japanese honorifics, etc. feel free to correct me!

“Okaa-san.”

Her eyes crinkled at the title. She stood there patiently, and I steeled myself to move closer towards her. The cold air didn’t bother me, the warmth from my mother was all that kept me grounded.

Her arms wrapped around me, but I couldn’t feel anything other than the slightest air brush against my skin. I felt her love and that was enough. When she pulled away, I saw recognition fall upon her kind eyes.

“I see you’ve settled in nicely in Jujutsu Tech,” She hummed, eyeing the dirty dishes in my sink.

“Ah, Nobara came over with some of her… friends.”

“I noticed,” She turns to me, a look of pity in her eyes. “Tsubame, is Nobara still your only friend?”

“No… Fumi and I are still in touch,” I mumbled.

“My girl, you need to open up, I know my passing had affected you but–”

“Okaa-san, I know what I’m doing,” I couldn’t help but cut my mother off.

I didn’t like how she knew exactly why I had such high walls around my heart. I didn’t like how she knew what I was feeling, but she knew that I was stubborn, and she knew me like the back of her cold, dead hands.

“I don’t need new friends, I don’t need to let my guard down because I can be stronger, I can protect those I’m close to!”

My mother watched me in silence, everything that needed to be said in her black eyes, a flicker of lilac glowing, as though she had hope for me, and I wished that it would die out just so that I didn’t the reality of disappointing her falling over me like cold water.

“Okaa-san, I’m not here to make friends, I’m here to become stronger and defend those I love.”

My fist clenched in my hands, and it was as if I looked at her, the tears would all come pouring out – as if just the sight of my dead mother would break down everything I built up.

Everything felt amplified when she placed her hand on my chin, lifting it so I could look into her dark eyes. In that moment, everything felt real. Like she was real. Her touch felt so warm, and in the back of my mind I knew my body was tricking me into thinking she was truly here, but I couldn’t help but sink into the feeling again. 

“I know that life isn’t easy for you now, my dear,” She whispered, cupping my cheek, and I leaned into her touch, letting myself believe her lie. “But sometimes, you have to lower the walls you’ve built to let yourself heal. If you just sit around with a broken heart, no one can be there for you, no one can truly help you fix it.”

She wipes her hand over my tears, and it feels as though all will be right in the world.

“My dear Tsubame,” She mutters. “You’re too hard on yourself. It is time to put Tadashi to rest.”

Her hand sweeps my hair out of my eyes, “Your hair is getting long too, my dear.”

“Right,” I laugh a little a sniffle escaping me. “Yeah… I’m planning to cut my fringe soon. Or cut it all short…”

My mother sighs and I know what she’s about to say. There’s no point in avoiding the topic, after all, my father would always be a part of my life, whether I liked it or not.

“Tsubame, your father…”

“I know, I should forgive him,” I mutter, but that doesn’t stop the bitterness lacing my voice.

“No, that’s not what I wanted to say,” She strokes my cheek gently, her gentle eyes holding so much love. “What your father did to you was wrong. He should never have raised his hand to you…”

She brushes my fringe to the side, revealing the little bandage across my left eyebrow.

“He’s lost his way. And I understand why you left, my dear. But please, know that even though you’ve left that life, the path ahead of you is much more difficult. Being a jujutsu sorcerer has its risks, and some you will regret for the rest of your life. Are you sure you are willing to take those risks?”

My eyes meet hers and I feel myself nod in determination, “I am. I’m ready to do anything to overcome those risks. I’d do anything to make sure that what happened to you will never happen again.”

My mother’s eyes held a drop of sadness, the lilac specks in her eyes glowing. She gently kisses my forehead, and I let her hold me, missing her embrace that would protect me from my darkest moments.

“Then be strong, my girl,” She smiles, pulling away. “Maybe try to open up, okay? Just give it a shot. For me?”

I wince slightly before letting out a small sigh.

“...I can try…”

“Good,” She smiles, pulling me into a final hug. “Why not start with that Itadori boy? He seems very sweet–”

“Thanks, Okaa-san!” I can feel my cheeks heat up violently. “B-But I don’t need advice for who to make friends with–”

I heard my mother chuckle, pulling away from me as she began to laugh harder at my now-red cheeks.

“My dear, I see it all. I was there when you met. You like him, don’t you?”

I frown, and I struggle to get the blush down from my cheeks, “I know nothing of liking anyone. Or romance in general.”

“If you insist, my dear. But I mentioned nothing of romance. I simply meant that you liked him as a friend.”

I freeze, feeling my mother’s teasing smile, but the moment I look up, she was no longer standing before me. The lights no longer dimmed, but now the warm yellow of the lightbulbs. The air was no longer cold or still, but my cheeks still felt warm.

“...I don’t like him. At all,” I huff, narrowing my eyes where she used to stand.

It was all silent as the wind whistled, entering through the now-opened window – the sliding door that I hadn’t opened. The wind suddenly sounded like her laugh as she made me aware of my reactions, a maternal reaction of amusement in the wind.

gif by @heycaz

taglist: @mooncleaver @underwateredwrld @mcmisbehaving @neteyamrealgf @khany2026 @tinkerbelle05 @iheartamajiki @sad-darksoul @yunymphs < comment/dm me if you’d like to be on the taglist! >

[banjjakz]

Oh, Gojo is indeed a very interesting case to me. I’ve been trying to write something with him but it is so ridiculously difficult you can’t imagine.

Because my main technique to get into writing a character is kinda like method acting. I try to crawl myself into said character’s brain and heart, immerse into their psyche to get their thoughts and feelings right. In some cases it’s easy, especially if I find any kind of similarity between me and the character. There’re some drawbacks to this technique though. Sometimes it’s rather draining, or hard to get into character because they’re so unlike me.

I thought that I can hone Gojo’s abandonment wound to finally start writing him but I was so wrong. There’s a wall between me and him, he doesn’t want me to explore his soul. None of my fave characters ever closed themselves from me before. And it’s terrifying and fascinating at the same time. And almost funny because writing Geto is much easier, both with my oc and a reader.

And I’m not even intimidated by the fact that he’s the darling boy of the fandom though I’ve seen some mischaracterizations because of that. Nonetheless I love my Gojo silly goofy, apeshit and feral and you absolutely nailed it with that secret ending <333

oh boy, can only imagine the mental gymnastics required to try (and fail) to crack open satoru's skull... aside from plot mechanics and the laws of the canon universe, i guess there was a good reason why kenjaku couldn't infiltrate...... //terrible joke //shot

this Gojo Discussion(tm) hits especially hard for me as i am currently in the process of consuming s2 (im super late... i know....... please.......) and what stands out to me the most by way of his characterization is not his portrayal during hidden inventory, but rather, how he's cast during the first half of shibuya arc. absolutely obsessed with his mode of operation during the jogo/hanami kerfuffle. watching the Fated Encounter between gojo and fake!geto in real time, rather than taking it in as black and white lines on paper, was life-changing, truly. and i don't even fw stsg like that (lying)

i wonder what your thoughts are on s2? has the anime lived up to your summations of his character? anything you would change? or applaud?

[missmeinyourbones]

just read your drabble about gojo not having eaten this whole time, and i’m so glad i wasn’t the only one thinking of that 😭😭

i wonder what kind of thoughts he’s having :’(

the urge to spoon feed him only the best food in the world is so strong :’

as sad as it makes me think, i also like to think about the reunion 😋 hehe what do you think a reunion with unsealed gojo would be like?

aaaahhhh thank u for asking this!!! ive been thinking about it lol T-T that drabble makes me so sad, so i've been wanting to elaborate on it regarding the reunion (super rough and not proofread or edited but enjoy the crumbs <3)

a/n: part two of this, spoilers of shibuya arc, not proofread or edited

…

you weren’t there when it happened. 

when he was released, you were home. truthfully, you didn’t leave home often anymore. there was no want for it, no need—besides checking in on megumi and the rest of jujutsu high, you stayed inside. 

the apartment remained untouched for weeks. satoru’s dirty laundry that still smelt of him stayed sitting in the hamper. the bedsheets, unwashed since he last slept spread across them. the meal you’d made, the one he never got to try, remains packed away in tupperware in the back of the fridge. 

it all happened so fast. 

after being released he was immediately taken to the school. he was quickly checked out by shoko for any damage or harm. he was debriefed on everything that happened, of all the carnage and wreckage. it didn't feel real to him. he couldn't think straight, couldn't sit still, couldn't do anything. until he was back home, with you. there was no phone call, no warning or update. suddenly, he was just there.

teleporting into your living room within a split second, he stands shaking above the couch where you sleep. he admires you—skin sickly pale, under eyes dark from lack of sleep and constant tears, body frail from not eating, not taking care of yourself. 

and still, as satoru whimpers and sobs admiring your sleeping state, he thinks you look as beautiful as you did the day he first met you. 

his sniffles and ragged breaths are what wake you, and you think you're dreaming. hallucinating. because he’s here, in front of you, when it shouldn't be possible. when he should be in that box, rotting away like a forgotten memory. 

"satoru," you call out, but it’s more of a question, one of is it really you? or am i imagining this?

and his voice weakly falling from your lips is all it takes for him to be smothering you, gripping you as tightly as he can. he cradles your head and feels your arms, hands, neck, any piece of you he can grab. he feels for your breathing, forgetting his own as he gasps and shudders through tears. 

"i'm here, oh my god you're here, i'm here. i'm sorry, i love you. i'm so fucking sorry," he babbles and cries, kissing you, touching you, desperate and pathetic as he needs to know that this is real. not a cruel trick from the seal or an everlasting purgatory. 

"we're here, we're okay. i love you, we're okay," you shakily reassure him. you feel his hair tickle your fingers like it used to. you feel his teeth graze your ear like they used to. it’s him, undeniably and in the flesh. 

"oh my god, i'm so sorry—”

"why are you apologizing?"

"i'm so sorry, i'm sorry, i'm so so sorry," the apologizes rush from his lips like a river flowing downstream. he can’t stop himself, he’s out of breath, sobbing and shaking as he continues. 

"hey, satoru, look at me," you hold his face in your palms, but his eyes are insatiable. scanning over your frame manically as he continues to pant and hyperventilate. 

you try again, "there is nothing to be sorry for, satoru, none of what happened was your fault."

"i'm sorry i—" he pauses, finally looking into your eyes, "i didn't get to eat dinner with you, didn't get to taste it—"

"i'll remake it.” you assert, desperate to calm his fears in any way you can, “i'll make it again, okay?" he tries to follow along, taking a slow and shaky inhale as he watches the way your lips enunciate the words, "are you hungry?"

satoru looks at you, drinking all of you in, as if his eyes can’t move over your frame quick enough. as if he’s searching every freckle, scar, blemish, scab, to see if there’s anything new. to see if he’s missed anything. if you’re the same you. 

with tears silently spilling from his eyes and down his cheeks, into the crevices of his neck and your fingers, he nods. 

"m'fucking starving."

his response has you laughing through your own tears, and then suddenly, he’s laughing—because you’re laughing. and the two of you stand in your home, holding onto one another for dear life as you cry out of far too many emotions—grief, comfort, want, need. 

"okay," you nod, drinking in the blue of his eyes, "we can eat," you promise. "can you help me make it?" you ask, and it’s a simple question, one that’s supposed to ground him, distract him from his uneven breathing and the heavy mourning that is soon to set in with reality. 

"okay." he’s quick to nod his head at your words, "here,” he clarifies, as if he’s reminding, convincing himself that yes, he’s here, with you. he kisses you once more, it’s shaky and wet and yet there is so much love in it that you think you might suffocate, 

“yeah, okay," he breathes life into your lungs. he’s here, with you. 

[tempenensis]

Chapter 136

Just... what the everloving fuck is this chapter. That is a huge twist. I mean I since long have a feeling that Fushiguro’s sister will be a pretty important plot point, but to think that it comes up now. God, this is a downright a set up for pain and heartbreak and I... I need to lay down but I need to write...

The brain, the soul, the cursed technique, the not-Kamo actually has lived maybe more than a millennial ago. So many things I have thought before dumped and packed into one single chapter. Gege, what the everloving fuck 

Under cut is very long.   

Two special-grade jujutsushis, on different ideals, clashing. This can’t be good. 

So, Tengen’s barrier acts like some kind of amplifier?? To make human that can optimize the use and to ‘concentrate’ cursed energy.

Kusouzu is possibly a kind of experimental failure for him, trying to make non-jujutsushi into jujutsushi??

And he actually wants to absorb Mahito and co from the beginning - and that’s why he is cooperating with them. Mahito especially.

So, he will make a true natural selection for human jujutsushi, huh? The strong will win and the weak will be eliminated. Darwin will be proud of you.

This is direct contrast to Original Getou during his youth, who said that the strong exist to protect the weak. But also aligned with strayed Getou who want to make a world exclusive for jujutsushi. 

WHAT THE HEEEELL???? Goddammit, Gege to make a villain this good??? I never read a mastermind character as well written as Getwo before. I’m amazed and scared 

TSUMIIIIKIIIIIIIIII ONEE-SAANNNN 😭😭😭😭😭😭

Just this one page makes me crying so hard. I can’t even begin to imagine the heartbreak and the pain Megumi will have to face in the future. The possibility -- Megumi will have to kill Tsumiki, or Megumi watching Tsumiki and Itadori fight; the two persons he most cared for. 

I’m--- I’m.... GODDAMMIT GEGE  

Another interesting thing to be noted. I once talk about how soul are probably located in the brain -- and it has a central play on how someone able to sense curse and manipulate curse energy. And look at Tsumiki’s curse mark - on her forehead -- right on the direction of forebrain. One of the main function of forebrain -- more specifically cerebrum -- is for emotional processing, and cursed energy is said to stem from emotion.

And then this chapter happens. So yeah, ‘soul’ probably is centered in the brain.

Part of his plan is to probably to use Getou’s curse manipulation ability to extract cursed technique, then imbued it onto a non-jujutsushi person using Mahito’s technique. And that’s why he want to Getou’s body and Mahito. 

(Wait, when and how even Mahito and co appears for the first time? For him to be able to manipulate human to this extent, Mahito must have had to be appeared for a while. At least during the duration one or two years ago)

OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK

The chaos of Shibuya is really nothing compared to this. The real chaos is beginning now. 

So yeah, he has live for more than a thousand years ago. It is possible that he has known Sukuna before Sukuna is sealed. 

First of all, is his plan aligned with Sukuna’s - if we assume that both of them have already meet before Sukuna was sealed. But then again, Sukuna is not one to cooperate with others - in a win-win sense - so, it’s most likely Sukuna’s plan is different altogether.

Then secondly, what is he expecting out of Itadori? It’s all very foreboding.

At least we know that he expects Itadori to be able to ingest all twenty of Sukuna’s fingers. But what about after that? Is it possible Itadori is his ‘main sample’ in this wild, overly chaotic experiment more than a thousand years in making? Damn, my brain is going haywire from overthinking.

Wait, COULD HE BE THE ONE WHO MANIPULATE ITADORI’S BODY SO ITADORI CAN HOUSE SUKUNAA??? Itadori has already heightened physical strength before he ingested Sukuna’s finger, so it is very possible that his body was also ‘tweaked’. And he also seemingly knows how Itadori’s body work to be able to incarnate and suppress Sukuna.  

And finally: 

A goddamn great chapter. Can’t wait for next chapter! 

Goodbye for now, Gojo-sensei. Releasing Gojo from his box has now become a key to end this madness. We’ll see on the last chapter of this arc next week. 

And I’m basically just Kusakabe:

[prettyboykatsuki]

hi! i just saw ur tier post and i’d love to hear more abt why you feel like gege doesn’t care about his characters/gen /nm. i genuinely love jjk so much, but this current arc (after shibuya) is kinda… idk. i’m not loving it but maybe that’s cus i’m not understanding it, however i don’t feel as “harshly” towards it as u do. it’s very interesting to see ur opinion though, i love discussing things like this.

as for bnha… i am very close to dropping it entirely. i’m anime only, so i cannot judge what’s going on in the manga, but how i don’t like how it’s currently going at all. the pacing is fucking awful. the entirety of s5 feels like a filler to me, i haven’t made it past ep9 bc it’s just so boring to me. i feel like for the last two seasons (so szn 4 and 5) nothing has REALLY happened. and ik that’s not true bc of all the stuff that happened with eri and overhaul, but it feels like nothing’s happened. and it saddens me because i grew really attached to the characters but i’m not sure i can continue the anime if it continues like this.

im gonna put this under a cut! please remember that these r my opinions and im not looking for a debate! we are just vibing here

it's pretty much confirmed that gege doesn't care about his characters cause he seems to hate so many of them. my biggest issue and why i feel this way / what confirmed this for me was personally naoya's death. i think after shibuya arc - watching shit hit the fan and seeing things progressively become worse was a pretty natural next step in the story

but the further we go into it, the more it feels like the story loses direction. it's tragedy for the sake of tragedy. it's hard for me to attach meaning to characters and their deaths when we really don't get a chance to garner feelings for their story in a way i feel is necessary.

i think the jjk story is heavily centered on despair - but to execute that, you have to display hope. despair exists in the absence of hope but if there's no hope at all than it's travesty for travesty sake

naoya is an asshole but the way he died was so... lackluster. his final moments were so pathetic and in my opinion uninteresting and i think that's a real shame because if he had a little more time, and wreaked a little more havoc - it could've been so cool. it didn't feel fleshed out to me and i think that's my issue with the story as a whole ig. a lot of the things i feel could be fleshed out really aren't

I DO LOVE JJK THO!! i love the characters and the concept and a good bit of the story, i just think more could be done yk

also with bnha - i don't particularly mind the slow pacing and i completely understand it being boring. a lot of people i know irl who are anime only have dropped it and i don't blame them!

if im not mistaken - this entire season will feel pretty empty up until the last few episodes if the anime tightly follows the manga. i wont tell you to watch though since i completely understand if you find it boring LMAO

in terms of shounen, the mha pacing is definitely not for anyone who enjoys more action heavy stories / plot heavy stories. i do think the story being so... boring right now though is 10000% on purpose because shit hits the fan very, very quickly.

i don't want to spoil anything for you since you are not reading the manga but i promise you things will not stay boring if you're curious. i think hks intent with the first few arcs was to demonstrate how uninteresting and calm things are before... shit happens!

shit will happen though and when it does, it's gonna be insane so it won't stay like this forever. in that case, it might not be worth dropping

given how the manga is im actually really grateful for how uneventful this season is genuinely. i almost wish things could continue like this forever

[fonmythenmetz]

My atsuhina/msby-stan take for what happened after msby vs adlers match.

Hinata wanted to join Asas for the world championship, right.

Atsumu figured that Hinata’s ‘hunger’ was pushing him forward, to go further, to climb higher; he was frustrated and angry - same goes for Sakusa and Bokuto and the others, just maybe not as intense as in Atsumu’s case - (and he couldn’t really explain why, maybe because Hinata didn’t see them as good enough players? They all worked their hardest), so before Hinata’s departure he made another promise - something along “if you’re struggling to fight with the best and play with the best, then I’ll make this place the top of the world and you’ll come back”. That’s why his phrase in Olympic roster (2020) is “i will become number 1”. By the way, when the Japanese volleyball season started, jackals were absolute beasts (maybe they shared Atsumu’s feelings). In the olympic team interview (2021) Kageyama - who doesn’t even play in Japan anymore, he’s an international player now - says: “Results-wise, I’m still behind Atsumu-san”. Since there’re only 2 setters in the national team, there’s no one better then these two. So by 2021 Atsumu is #1 Japan setter.

Hinata is ready to go to Brazil for the second half of the season (2019/2020) with the best recommendations from Volleyball Association, but then pandemic happens.

I assume that japanese olympic team in haikyuu is formed according to generations (there was no one younger/older then them, only Hinata’s ‘generation’: previous third, second and first years), so the next olympic roster will consist of another generation; after 2021, coach Hibaridai and his colleagues saw no profit in investing in Hinata.

However, coach Foster and coach Banjou did not approve this, so they concluded a truce (for a short period of time! They’re rivals after all.

Spoiler: they grew fond of each other and want to be friends, but they’re both awkward, and coach Foster talks in his own language (a mix of English & kansai-ben & pantomime) which only msby can fully understand). Together they find a friend of a friend of the Asas’ head coach. Somehow with the help of google translate and Hinata they arrange a partnership programme between Black Jackals and Asas. Kuroo gets enthusiastic about it, so when the quarantine is over, msby flies for their first practice match with Asas São Paulo. It’s august 2020.

When they arrive, it’s late night; Atsumu locks himself in a hotel room, conflicted about how he feels - he can’t decide if he’s angry at Hinata for underestimating him and not acknowledging his life-long struggle, or happy that they will play the practice match together - well. He likes playing with Hinata. What’s wrong with that? It’s not like he missed him or anything. It’s about volleyball, alright?

Hinata has high school flashbacks; he remembers what Takeda-sensei said - “it is all about volleyball”, and he wonders where volleyball even ends. In Karasuno his closest friends were also his teammates, and all their activities were focused on volleyball. Karasuno - and rivalry with Kageyama - taught him to never look back, always look up and never slow down - because he had nothing but his jump and speed, and if he ever allowed a pause, he’d be defeated and left behind completely alone. Msby is the polar opposite of Karasuno. Sure, they stick to their diets; but on cheat days they are the main cheaters in the world and eat whatever gods send them. They are unorganized and every day with them is a blockbuster. They get into fights with neighbors’ dogs, they steal chopsticks from Osamu’s to build a miniature Skytree. They’re lazy and laid-back, they don’t do plans - it’s a principle. They have other jobs. But they’re passionate about volleyball, and when the moment comes, they always give their best shot. Hinata wonders if this, what he feels towards them, is solely about volleyball and great teamwork. Wait a minute. Maybe Karasuno was also not only for volleyball?..

Anyway, the more he thinks about this team, the more attached he feels, and it is suffocating.

He has to be free, he cannot allow to be restricted, or he’ll be left behind and forgotten. He knows that. Everybody said that - “you’re only good because of Kageyama”, “if not for your jump, you would never even sniff the ball”.

He doesn’t have to read the language of Atsumu-san’s tosses: this one is fast and close to the net - “smash them!”, a high one, drawing a beautiful arc - “play as you want”, tentative, with the warmth of his fingertips still on the leather - “let’s take it slow, their blockers are good...”, and that laser accurate, flash-fast, faster then ever - “go wild!” Everybody on the team can understand it - their ability to unite and read each other’s mind is almost paranormal, or animalistic, like they’re a pack of wolves communicating through scents and touches and small noises and grunts, on and off the court. Hinata wants them to win together, then go home and watch an episode of the Office, or do yoga, or play twister, or maybe even yoga twister (Omi-senpai always wins), then tuck his head under Inunaki-san’s elbow and beg him to caress his hair, almost feeling a pair of tall jackal’s ears atop of his own head, quivering from pleasure and support and acknowledgement, expressed in their unique inner fashion.

However, if he stays with msby, he won’t move forward. He’ll be overpowered and defeated, he’ll lose recommendations and his chance to play as many matches as he wants. Just like Karasuno, msby is a step in his development. When there’s a chance, he must go further.

So Hinata sits in the hotel lobby and thinks his strange thoughts, and there’s a delivery guy with a huge green bag waiting for someone. He’s in his early twenties and is stupidly tall, and judging by the sounds coming from his little tablet, he is watching a volleyball match. Hinata peeks at the screen and freezes: it’s a close-up of Omi-senpai. It’s a game that he doesn’t remember; well, after signing a contract with Asas he didn’t watch many of the Jackals’ games, focused more on South American League.

“Musubi Black Jackals”, - the guy explains, Japanese syllables clumsy on his tongue, noticing his awkward and almost starved glances. - “Antes do covid.”

Apparently, it’s Jackals’ last match before the quarantine. Hinata sits and silently watches. He is amazed to the core and maybe scared of them.

It’s almost five in the morning when Meian crawls out of his hotel room. There’s Oliver sprawled on the floor, futon miserably stuffed under his left knee, like a cloud that fails to cover Telamon’s body. He probably likes futons way too much for someone who can’t ask in Japanese where is the closest toilet. Meian sneaks into the street and looks for a vending machine. He remembers seeing one in the evening.

There it is. There’s also a man crouching before it, taking out his purchase. Meian politely stops several feet away and waits for his turn. The man does not move away. He looks like he’s fishing for something inside the vending machine. He’s rather tall and has an awful hairstyle.

The man looks at him, visibly irritated, and moves his hand. That is when Meian realises.

- Yer stuck? - he asks, then remembers that he is in damned Brazil where folk speaks damned Portuguese. The guy gives him a deadpan look. Meian looks up - there’s a beautiful can of cucumber flavored soda staring right at him, and he isn’t a quitter. Maybe Hirugami could quit here, but he’s a captain of Jackals and he gets his soda when he wants it. Fifteen minutes later he’s sweating like after a good game, having been waiving his hands and giving directions like a pro adjuster at Shibuya Crossing. The guy is free now. He pulls out a can of guarana drink and even smirks at him in a gesture of prickly gratitude, though it cannot fully hide the humiliation of being caught with your hand stuck in a vendine machine at five in the morning. Meian throws in money, watches his cucumber soda gracefully plop down, stuffs his arm in the drawer and tries to pull out. He’s stuck. The guy watches him from the side, leaning on the wall with his left shoulder, and Meian tries to act like he knows what he’s doing. Why hasn’t this bonehead left anyway?

After another fifteen minutes they’re both tired and both free. Meian clenches the can in his fist, refusing to look at the guy, but they simultaneously nod in a sense of solidarity before parting ways.

Later this day he wonders what kind of wicked fortune is that, standing in the centre of Asas’ main court and looking straight in the bonehead’s eyes. He’s introduced as the Asas’ captain.

Inunaki suspiciously glances at him.

- Have you two met before? - He asks with a hint of politeness, but there’s that ‘lie to me now and I’ll tell your pups that you drink cucumber soda at five in the morning” subtext. Kotarou, Omi-chan and Shouyo stand right here, so the threat is very much real.

- No, - he lies anyway, and everybody on the court knows he’s lying, including Inunaki, Kotarou, Omi-chan and Shouyo, and maybe even the Asas’ captain with his stupid blondie hairstyle.

- He drank cucumber soda at five in the morning, - Thomas says. Omi-Chan and Shouyo both snort, but Kotarou, the marvelous oldest pup, launches at him and whines: “Where did you get one??”

Asas’ players watch them from the sidelines. They’re already amazed and irritated, and Meian can’t wait for it.

Of course it doesn’t work as a one-time thing. Of course Shouyo is accepted. One day Meian walks in on Inunaki, Thomas and the Asas’ middle blockers singing Funky Town in their hotel room (outsiders are not allowed in hotel rooms. How did two guys over 6’5” even get here unnoticed?). When it’s time to leave, Asas’ captain - his name is Paulo, talk about coincidences - insults him in Portuguese for five minutes straight and tells him to get lost already.

- Let go of my sleeve then, - Meian says. Sometimes he thinks they have the same telepathy that Shouyo and Omi-chan share, because after two weeks of hunting for crabs and practicing volleyball and playing on the beach he can tell if Paulo talks shit about him. Apparently, it goes both ways.

- Release my jacket first, - Paulo says (Meian supposes he says it - he’s still not good at Portuguese, except maybe for curses). - Cucumber soda tastes like shit, - Paulo adds in a very very bad Japanese. Meian is nearly flustered, because the bonehead must have asked Jackals how to say that and then has been practicing. He grabs him in a headlock.

- Listen here, - he makes a serious face, - if Shouyo gets as much as a scratch, or complains about ya being an asshole, I personally come here to kick yer in the head. Understood?

There’s no point in worrying about Shouyo, though. He’s already made friends with everybody in Asas, especially with that tall libero boy who works in delivery. He stands there in the airport lobby with his new teammates, visibly forcing the corners of his mouth upwards. He’s clinging to Omi-chan’s sleeve like his life depends on it. Atsumu looks anywhere but at him.

- Atsumu-san, - Shouyo suddenly says, - I’m watching you. I won’t skip a single match, I promise.

Atsumu flinches and freezes in place.

- O-okay, - he declares, frowning.

- Watch us, - Bokuto corrects him, hugging his number one disciple one last time before the airport stuff snaps and shouts all of their names through speakers. That’s a brilliant departure show.

When Jackals win the championship, no one is surprised. Paulo has the decency to make an “omg, really?” face only because Meian can’t hit him through videochat. Asas are also terrifically strong. It’s late spring, Brasil Superliga is not over yet, so they fly to Rio, occupying Asas’ gym and playing on the beach and going to watch games for free. (When coach Foster and coach Preto finally met, they knocked over a trolley with suitcases running to hug each other like a pair of middle schoolers.) (So did Shouyo and the msby.)

Apparently Shouyo feels better now; he’s almost run out of sunscreen and worked on whatever complicated issues he had, so he’s ready to come back. Atsumu looks like he’s already won Olympics. So do Bokuto and Sakusa and the others, and maybe they missed him a little, or maybe they missed him very very fucking much.

One day (it’s a good day, it’s sunny and hot and there’s a wonderful fat thundercloud crawling at Copacabana from the seaside) a group of tall Spanish tourists occupy the beach courts. They argue and bicker and throw sand at each other. One of them accidentally catches a ball to the head (what the heck was he doing on this court anyway? Bokkun and Atsumu were in the middle of the game against Heitor and Carlos). Now they’re all arguing. They have no idea what the Spanish guys are saying because they don’t know Spanish, and still they somehow agree on a match. Atsumu hits five service aces, which is very sexy of him, and it seems that the Spanish setter (who hits four service aces) is not immune to a good server’s charm. After the match (Bokuatsu get 21 against 13, the Spanish wing spiker moved like a fish in the sand) he approaches the net, adjusting his flashy sunglasses, and tries to introduce himself in not-very-fluent Portuguese. His name is Oikawa and he is from Japan. Where are you guys from? - he asks. - Are you professionals or something?

This is how the whole Argentinian team Club Atletico (2020/2021 Argentinian championship silver medal - the year before covid they got first place) ends up in the Asas’ gym. Coach Blanco and coach Preto are old rivals, and they challenge each other to an arm wrestling competition, but then somebody jokes about holding hands (it was coach Foster) and they suggest volleyball instead. They schedule a practice match. It’d be impolite to leave msby outside of the party, so there’ll be three practice matches between Black Jackals (with Shouyo this time. Finally), Asas São Paulo and Club Atletico. All of them are high-ranked teams. It’d be so cool if they could get involved with each other more often, - someone says (it’s coach Foster). Nobody seems opposed to the idea, especially Shouyo, Sakusa, Bokuto, Atsumu, Oikawa and Oliver Barnes, who are already playing air hockey in the Argentinians’ hotel. How did they even get there? Anyways, Oliver wins and gets a huge hazelnut ice cream for his cheat day. In the evening, after defeating Heitor and Carlos (again) and losing to Santos and Fernandez (again), they shower in the beach stalls. The stalls don’t really have anything resembling doors, so one has to hold a big towel or something, guarding the way, while the other gets to shower. Shouyo asks Inunaki-san to hold a towel for him. “Sure”, - Inunaki-san says, and then catches Atsumu: “Sugar, could you please hold this? I want to help Adriah and Paulo with dinner”. Atsumu does not refuse - he’s not that busy and he has no idea who is inside the stall. After Inunaki-san leaves, he takes a glance over the towel.

Ten minutes later Oikawa approaches him with a huge alien-themed towel in hands.

- Are you okay? - He asks with uncharacteristic concern, because Atsumu looks like he has been simmered on the surface of this ugly beach shower stall, and - are those tears? So Oikawa calls out to whoever is showering there, assuming that Atsumu is just tired and maybe has got sunburn all over his body.

[defiant-firefly]

Yo! Do you have any headcanons for team interactions and such in your p5r labby au? I'm really interested in the little things of how she meshes with the other characters

I do! Though everything is likely to change cause my mind is always a muddle till I actually ya know... Get there

Labrys strikes me as the type that will love literally anything that's not related to her past so I'm gonna take that and run a bit

Haru probably has the best relationship with her since she's around the longest in this AU aside from Yoshizawa. Labrys helps her out with her gardening and stuff and Haru has the patience of a saint with her and all her questions on how plants just grow. She likes showing her all these pretty flowers and stuff and they trade tips on axe wielding and stuff. Jdkdn they walk into Iwai's and Labrys is like 'so what kinda gun ya want?' and Haru points at the most explody thing she can see like 'that one.' and the second she first uses it she has the stupidest smile on her face and now Labrys wants one too.

Morgana is the one that wisely banned Labrys from using guns. She can't aim for shit and she nearly shot his tail off once so he makes the call that she's not allowed to shoot unless everyone is at a large, safe distance. He's encouraging towards her when it comes to making infiltration tools and he likes to bounce between staying with the different members of the team rather than just one. He absolutely abuses the fact Labrys doesn't have much of an understanding on what animals need to eat and will have sushi or curry or anything he can convince her is necessary to his health. Sojiro is like 'just give him cat food?' and then turns around and gives him curry and Morgana is loving it. Labrys is always fussing over him in his cat form though and while he pretends he hates it, he adores all the attention she loves giving him.

Makoto is a fun one. As student council president, Labrys looks up to her a great deal especially at first. Makoto's arc is a bit different in this AU but she becomes Labrys' go to when it comes to questions about how the world works. The team like dragging her into their shenanigans and whenever Makoto doesn't know the song they're singing in the Monabus there's a bunch of scandalised gasps and later Labrys spams her texts with all the songs she didn't know and all the new ones they're getting into. It takes ages before Labrys starts calling her by her name instead of 'Miss President' and it kinda irritates her but she kinda gets it.

Futaba introduces Labrys to Featherman and they maybe get a showtime where they imitate Team Rocket or something with Morgana. Once they get to know eachother, they bully eachother just a little bit in good fun and Sojiro just watches when these two get started with their little bickering matches like 'ah shit here we go again'. No one ever wins it usually ends with them both laughing about whatever dumb thing the other said last. Futaba likes to joke that she fears nothing since Labrys has the ability to talk to people and she doesn't and you can't tell me Futaba isn't a bad influence. At some point she's sat there trying to get Labrys to say 'fuck' and the next they've invented a coffee called 'Cyanide' so if anyone asks what they recommend they can say 'For you? Cyanide.' Basically: these two are chaos incarnate. Do not start a prank war. Futaba the master strategist will lead them to victory.

This is turning into a long post huh? But uhh Ryuji starts singing in the Monabus and suddenly these two are best friends. She helps him with training where she can and they hang out at the arcade sometimes building a hoard of tickets to get the biggest prizes possible. Labrys kinda gravitates towards him when she's feeling a little low and his persona's natural electric abilities are to blame. They leak out into the real world a bit and charge his phone a little and stuff so when Labrys is near she gets a little boost too. Ryuji uses it as an excuse to hug her. Futaba ships it but doesn't complain when they both hug her and her wireless headphones charge back up. He's kinda protective of the team, but especially with Ann and Labrys. He will not let her live down how she forgets she could yeet a train across the whole of Shibuya whenever she asks how he forgets his homework or something. He also probably loves the short jokes.

Ann uhh... Is Ann I guess? She's one of the ones my brain struggles to visualise doing stuff honestly. Maybe they go shopping together and just try on all the silly hats and stuff they can find. I have a few ideas for things they can do but they're spoiler heavy so I'll skip over those. She also forgets about Labrys' super strength and is amazed by it every single time she effortlessly lifts something. Maybe the one to explain sexualities to Labrys? I dunno I've not messed around much with her arc yet.

Yusuke is... Uhh well he's very spoiler heavy. They're both people watchers and just like vibing in eachothers company. They're very protective of eachother but don't necessarily talk much. He does become her curry taste tester though. She's determined to make sure he doesn't go hungry just like the rest of the team is. I dunno, they're vibers. Could both probably turn into theatre kids at the drop of a hat though

Yoshizawa is a fun one. Labrys isn't exactly human and Maruki didn't account for that and her already decent knowledge of illusionary abilities so Labrys is constantly getting her name wrong until they come up with a nice nickname to use instead. It kinda freaks Yoshizawa out but she sees Labrys calling Makoto 'Miss President' for ages and assumes she just sometimes has problems with names or something but being called her dead sister's name is weird as hell. They're relationship is a bit strained at first thanks to all that but it gets better. They're constantly supporting eachother and building eachother up. They do it with the rest of the team but when they do it with eachother they can be going back and forth for a while. Everyone outside their group assumes they're together. Whether they are or not is anyone's guess at this point though. Yoshizawa can and will eat as many Big Bang Burger kids meals as it takes to get Labrys all the spaceship toys and Labrys will practice for hours the gymnastics stuff she's been taught so she can get it right the next time they hang out. They will kill you with nice words and sunny smiles and feel no remorse and Akechi wonders how the fuck he's survived in their presence for more than five minutes. They're innocent oblivious beans and they get along so well singing showtunes with Ann and Ryuji in the Monabus.

I plan to give Akechi an overhaul I've not yet worked much on yet so I'll skip on him for now. And Akira has his own arc and stuff now that I don't really wanna spoil too much but he is sucked into what the school are now calling 'The Gardening Cult' with all the others.

I spent maybe too long on this but I don't care it was fun thanks for asking buuuud ^-^

[chromsai]

Rules: List your five favorite anime characters and tag some people.

Tagged by @pendulum-sonata (thank you dear!.... sorry for this being hella late OTL BIG GOMEN)

So I had like half this post typed up last night weeks ago but my dumbass accidentally deleted it so here goes take 2...

Also I just wanna take this opportunity to gush about my absolute favorite characters so I’m gonna cheat a lil bit by using some video game characters if y’all don’t mind...

Now, without further ado...

1.

Chrom - Fire Emblem Awakening

So, I love Chrom a lot, I figure y’all know that by now right? Chrom is admittedly, como se dice, not the most complex of characters. He is a simple man, really. Prince of Ylisse who doesn’t know much about life outside of leading his rag-tag Shepherds into skirmishes to protect his kingdom, family, and friends, or breaking a few things here and there (because he’s a total klutz). He doesn’t really know how to dress himself properly, as you can see (no, Idfk what he’s wearing either), and he’s terrible at diplomacy (he said so himself). Yet, despite his hopelessly dorky but somehow handsome appearance, he’s also incredibly stubborn and hard-headed, ignorant sometimes but not naiive, extremely loyal, and sometimes even awkward, but he’s always, always seeking to learn from his mistakes and the world around him. He may struggle against his own impulses, but he’s aware of this fault of his and, despite it, fights fiercely for his comrades and works to be someone reliable for them. He’s the man you want by your side because he won’t allow you to drag yourself through the mud, and if you are dragged, then he’ll drag himself right along with you just to make sure you’ll have someone to lean on when you’re struggling to stand right back up again.

Chrom is so unapologetically himself in any situation, be it formal or informal, and it’s inspiring to me in ways that words fail to describe because just watching him go about his life simply being himself and urging you to do the same reminds you: maybe you don’t have to be perfect, and that’s just perfectly fine. He is a reminder of what unconditional love is supposed to look like and it’s a simple thing but it’s always appreciated.

“Remember that you are yourself before you are any man’s son/daughter,” he says to you. I know that he doesn’t think of himself as being very charismatic but everything he does and says would claim otherwise.

1.

Yuya Sakaki - Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V

He’s also my number 1 and that’s not a mistake.~

I’ve been a fan of YGO since the anime series debuted in the States (DM). Since 2001, I’ve followed each subsequent entry in the anime franchise and, although I’ve loved this franchise overall, I’ve never really been attached to any of the characters from any YGO show enough to go “Omg I love them.”

That was up until Yuya.

Yuya’s personality resonates with me a lot in various ways. For example, I’m not quite sure how obvious this is to people but I LOVE to make others laugh and smile. It’s one of the best feelings in the world. Life of course unfortunately isn’t just that, and, for better or worse, Yuya knows life’s wide range of emotions all too well. The trajectory his development took from day one all the way through episode 148 was one that touched, broke, and mended my heart on a level that I haven’t felt before or since (and one that, to be quite honest, I’m afraid to experience ever again).

I call him my son because he is truly precious to me. His story changed me and my views on life, all for the better. Lastly, his persona is not only one that I love, but also one that I admire; Yuya Sakaki’s kindness and philosophy is goals. I love him eternally.

Bonus: He is just a damn well written character and has one of the best developments I’ve personally witnessed. He’s raised the standard of what I expect a great shounen protagonist to be.

3.

Lelouch - Code Geass

Look at this asshole.

You don’t know how refreshing it is to view a story from the eyes of a character who is, without a doubt, very morally grey. Like, sure, I’m sure there have been more stories since (and even before) that try this approach but I haven’t ever really found any other characters like him to be quite as compelling. Half the time you really are on his side, and the other half you wish he would just drop dead (not because you hate him, but because you know that’s just the right thing he should do). I know to a lot of people that haven’t seen this show he seems like a basic edge boy, but I assure you he’s quite an idiot. A smart idiot, but still an idiot. With a terrible sense of humor. He very much deals with the consequences of his actions throughout the story and sometimes it’s satisfying (because, yes, he’s a jerk), and other times not so much (because he ultimately does have a heart of gold). He’s just a little tsundere and stubborn and he has very exploitable weaknesses (read: very) so it really does help that he has a flair for the dramatic. Anyway, Lelouch, his wide range of emotions, and his story are extremely entertaining to watch and I love his stupid sassy face.

4.

Neku Sakuraba - The World Ends With You

I love this kid.

So Neku is another character that looks edgy as hell, admittedly, but I assure you he’s soft. Or at least not entirely at first. Yes, he’s also a jerk, but he has his reasons (teen angst, what can I say) but watching the process of him opening up slowly in real time is just *chefs kiss* amazing and heartwarming and gives you hope for the youth of the world. I’ll admit, I first played this game when I was like 14 or so and going through some of my own teen angst, so I found the jerk side of him to be somewhat relatable back then, but the moral of his story didn’t fly by my head even then. It made me happy and it was something nice to learn at that age. Years later, I’m back here playing this game again and I think the lessons Neku learns throughout his little journey in Shibuya really hit you right in the feels, perhaps even more, idk. He’s really inspiring and, like I said, heartwarming and ultimately brings a smile to my face every time. God. Bless this kid. Please.

He needs it.

5.

Rosalina - Mario Series

Did y’all know I fucking LOVE Rosalina. 

She’s not a terribly revolutionary character, but her backstory was so touching to me and I love her character design (f me up she’s fucking gorgeous). My reasons for loving her a pretty simple like that, though on top of it all I relate to her; What with her tendency to adopt cute lil Lumas and giving up everything for them (but also using them to hurt others), Rosalina gets me. She’s also just so cool and calm but she has a fun side to her too. Simple as my reasons are, she’s up there with my favorite characters ever. God I still remember booting up SMG and meeting her for the first time yeah I fucking loved her immediately. Damn. Can’t get me enough Rosalina~

I love her relationships with her precious Luma children so much, I named my car Luma lol

okay, done! Again, thank you for tagging me Rose! Sorry I took forever~ thanks for letting me gush about my faves for a bit, it was very relaxing~

I’m tagging: @dancerladyaqua @pxiao @yutoknight @entermates @skittymon @theabcsofjustice @blueeyeswhitegarden @heliosknight @orasforlife @lilias-amell@moshimichi @timahina @seasaltmemories and @cypsiman2 and anyone else who wants to participate~ you don’t have to if you don’t want to!

[kaimaciel]

Q: In terms of the story in the Pixar worlds, it was a continuation of the stories in the movies, which surprised me.

A: Well, originally, the KH series has always seen Sora and his friends experiencing the [same] plot of the original movies as its basis, and [the worlds of] Tangled and Frozen are like this, too. However, in the cases of Toy Story and Monsters Inc, we were requested to show the "authorized history" of what happened after the events of the movies. Whichever [story] pattern the worlds have was largely influenced by the ideas of the creators and producers.

Q: Included in the worlds that appear this time is Olympus, which is a fairly "regular customer" at this point; do you have some emotional attachment to it?

A: Honestly, there isn't really a special reason, it's just by chance. It appears in KH3 since Sora has lost all of his powers and needs to get them back, and there was once a hero who regained his own powers in the same way, so it was a perfect fit for the start of the journey. If there's anything I have an emotional attachment to, it's that I wanted to include Hades. Hades is a fun character, so you kind of want to watch him [do things].

Q: On the other hand, The Caribbean [in terms of graphics] looks incredibly like real life.

A: In a sense, the high image quality of that world was already decided. Around the time development started, in the video that was prepared for the in-house presentation meeting, scenes were created showing Sora diving in the ocean and riding enemies while flying in the air in The Caribbean. Additionally, the experimental reproduction of certain scenes from the movie [that were included] were so well made that they might as well have been the highlight of the meeting. From that point on, around the beginning of development, it was felt that that world would be quite high-level. By the way, the coat Sora wears in The Caribbean is actually based on one of my own personal coats that I gave to the staff with instructions to include it, but I feel like they don't want to give it back yet [laughs].

Q: Talking about Sora's appearance in the various worlds, the way he looks in Monstropolis is pretty daring.

A: At first, I was thinking about something similar to the monster costume Boo wears in the movie, but Pixar gave the idea to actually change [Sora] into a monster. In Monsters Inc., there are a lot of detailed rules concerning character design, like the colors that can be used or the shape of the eyes, so after the design that was made to obey those rules was checked, I went and did the fine-tuning myself. Particularly, at the beginning, I couldn't give Sora's body a smooth feeling, so I covered him with fur, but Pixar pointed out that I shouldn't make him look too much like a cat, so trying to find middle ground was a struggle. That's why, although it looks like Sora has cat ears, those are actually horns [laughs].

Q: For example, it was shown in KH2 that the Ansem that appears in KH1 wasn't the real one, but was this decided ever since the beginning?

A: When I wrote the scenario in KH1, even I was thinking "Ansem calls himself wise, but doesn't he seem like a bad guy?" [laughs]. With that feeling as the catalyst, the scenes after KH2 reflected that. Q: Xigbar, too; when he appeared in KH2, we had no idea he would be such an important person.

A: A lot of people say this, but at the time I wanted to show that "Xigbar is a character with a very special role" by giving him a suspicious way of acting. When we were doing dubbing for KH2, I listened to Houchu Otsuka (the JP VA of Xigbar)'s voice and thought, "This guy isn't just some organization grunt, there's definitely some hidden side to him", so the creation of the current situation evolved from there. It does sometimes happen that I get inspired to change the circumstances because of the voice actors' voices. 

Q: The Final World, a place very important to the story, appeared in the game, but what kind of world is it?

A: It is a place where those just a step from death arrive, connected to the Station of Waking. Up until now, the Station of Waking was always a dark place where the floor was made of stained glass, where the condition of the inside of one's heart could be shown, but in this case I made The Final World a place where I could show [that] more concretely, a place similar to a portal to [people's] respective hearts. Within the game, it's said that sleep and death are intimately linked, so if one's heart were in a state of sleep and they found themselves in the Station of Waking, the idea is that if they moved on from there, they would find themselves in The Final World. 

Q: Halfway through the epilogue, we see that there are seven black pieces being used in the new game [of chess]. Are six of these supposed to represent the Master of Masters' six apprentices?

A: Yes. 

Q: I see. Then, continuing on, I'd like to ask about the secret movie; is the location connected to the ending? A: Yes. After disappearing in the ending, Sora arrives in the world shown in the secret movie. Q: Is the place Sora is in the same world as the one in The World Ends With You?

A: It looks that way. However, rather than saying Sora has gone to the TWEWY world, the meaning is that it's not exactly Shibuya, but ~Shibuya~ (note: this is hard to explain in English, but instead of it being written in kanji, the name for "Shibuya" is written in katakana here. This basically means it's not the same Shibuya as in TWEWY or in the real world.) Also, although Sora promised Neku and his friends that they would meet again in Shibuya, this video is not connected to that.

Q: The world Riku is in also calls up past memories with its thrilling background scenery. The man looking down from the roof looks like Yozora, who we saw in the popular game "Verum Rex" in Toy Box...

A: Yes, it is Yozora. Q: So, is this the world of "Verum Rex?"

A: It will end up being. Visually speaking, I'm sure there are people who will think it's the same as a previous title I was once planning, but it's not. Since it's a plan that was never released out into the world, there are parts I was saving that will end up overlapping, but "Verum Rex" is a completely different creation. The plan that was never released is still unknown to everyone, and "Verum Rex" doesn't exist yet, either, so I'm sure everyone is wondering what it means, but what I want to make clear is that it's not the same thing. (note: obviously, he means FF Versus XIII)

Q: How is the development of the planned DLC going?

A: Currently, I gave a list of things I'd like to have done concerning battles to the staff, who are in the process of going through it. As for additional scenarios, I told you just before that the final battle in the Keyblade Graveyard came to be [the way it is] because of a certain intention I had, so I think that's going to be the main focus. I'm hoping that it will be completed as soon as possible, but because development is happening alongside the preparations for the next project, I can't say with certainty when it will be released. For the time being, it's planned that instead of splitting up all the parts separately, everything will be released all in one pack together. Q: Are you not planning to release a "Final Mix", as has been customary for the KH series until now?

A: There aren't any plans for a "Final Mix"-type package (sold separately). If I do make one, it would be in the form of DLC that included an English mode you could switch to. Additionally, we took recent player trends into account when we created the battles [for KH3], so we held back on the difficulty level, but there have been many requests to fight strong enemies, so I'm thinking that the priority would be on releasing a critical mode in the form of free DLC, and making the addition of strong enemies, the sort that would appear in a "Final Mix", paid DLC.

Q: Now that the Dark Seeker arc has concluded, there's a pause in the KH series, so now what is your attitude mentally?

A: I thought I'd feel relieved once it was over, but I don't feel that way at all. Now we're right in the midst of developing DLC, and it's coinciding with [the development of] a few other titles. I want to hurry up and start on the next project, so I don't feel like there's a pause. Q: Fans are curious about what's to come for the KH series...

A: Nothing has been officially decided yet, so at this point in time, I can't say anything. Right now, the top priority is on making DLC for KH3, and a huge update that's coming to KHUx. As far as the developments to come, I currently have two ideas, and something that requires me to think about it separately, so the next project will actually have to be two, I think. Even if we're talking about a hypothetical "KH4", there's something that must be written before it, so I'm looking into the possibility of sandwiching it between works. To all the fans: to realize the first step beyond the Dark Seeker arc, I thank you for your continued support. 

[metronomeihear]

Rules:

1. Post the rules 2. Answer the questions given to you by the tagger 3. Write 11 questions of your own 4. And tag 11 people

I was tagged by @onceabluemoonwrites

1. What is your second favourite fandom?

Umm.... I’m not certain? I don’t really rank the fandoms I’m in, so I don’t have a “second favorite”. I have several favorites, each of which hold a special place in my heart, but I wouldn’t be able to rank them.

2. Any lesser known shows/manga/anime/books everybody needs to know about?

GHOST HUNT AND NURARIHYON NO MAGO.

Ghost Hunt has to be my favorite supernatural horror anime ever, bar maybe Tokyo Ghoul. It follows the story of Taniyama Mai as she becomes the assistant to Shibuya “Naru the Narcissist” Kazuya, young psychic researcher and professional Ghost Hunter. They, along with a wacky cast consisting of a medium, a pritest, a preistess, a monk, and an omnyouji, solve a variety of different cases of the supernatural. It’s an awesome show, and the amount of research the author of the novels put into everything is crazy. Most of the show is accurate to real life psychic research, which is something that really impresses me. It’s not afraid to touch on issues that other shows wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, either. All in all, I highly recommend it, and send you off to watch (or read!) it, with a warning to stay away from the dub. Mai’s voice in the dub is really annoying.

Nurarihyon no Mago is another really awesome one that I really wish people would watch. It follows the story of Nura Rikuo, the mostly human grandson of the yokai Nurarihyon, and heir to Nurarihyon’s clan, the largest yokai yakuza in all of Japan. The issue? Rikuo wants nothing to do with his yokai blood, preferring to stick to the human side of things. Through a series of events, Rikuo learns to accept who and what he is. It’s an awesome series with lots of references to japanese folklore and traditions, and I wholeheartedly recommend that you read it as soon as you can.

3. Ghibli or Disney?

Ghibli all the way.

4. Why Ghibli/Disney?

I’ve always loved the way that Ghibli animates things. Their movies are always so beautiful to see, it’s like watching a work of art in motion. But more than that, the type of story they animate appeals to me more than Disney. I would much rather watch a movie about a young hat maker cursed into being an old woman fall in love with a wizard than watch a movie about a princess. Disney movies are great, I’m not going to deny that, but they’ve always been aimed more at a younger audience, which makes them awkward to watch now that I’m older. Ghibli movies have never had that stigma for me, and since their stories are the ones I tend to like more... Well. There’s not much more to say, is there?

5. Favorite flower?

I don’t have one? I don’t really have favorites with that sort of thing, but if I really had to pick, the I’d say chrysanthemum.

6. What makes you ship something?

Ohhh that’s a difficult question to answer. I ship different things for different reasons, usually becuase someone made me see that their dynamic works in a relationship. I don’t ship that many things, actually, and there are only two ships I can think off of the top of my head that I ever had a moment where I went “Wow. Those two. I ship them.” Those ships were 1827 and TodoDeku. 

I had a moment, when reading the manga for KHR, where I was reading that scene in the Shimon arc where Hibari was fighting Adel. Tsuna was asking Hibari why he was fighting so hard, for Tsuna, and Hibari’s response is what made me ship them. “It is because there is a sky that the clouds can float freely. And someday, I will bite even the sky itself.” It just... hit me. Tsuna gives Hibari a home. He gives Hibari a place to come back to and rest whenever Hibari gets tired or bored of wandering around. Tsuna doesn’t try to constrain HIbari, or try to tell him what to do. He respects Hibari and his boundaries, and that line-- I’m not sure how to explain it. It just clicked, and I’ve shipped them ever since.

TodoDeku was the second ship where I had a moment like that. Before the sports festival arc, I never really noticed Todoroki. He was just one of the background characters, and I wasn’t even able to remember his name half the time. I was too focused on other things to pay attention to him. Then the sports festival arc started, and he came to the forefront of things, and I learned more about his past, and that’s when I started liking him. I didn’t ship him with anyone, but I liked him. But then-- “It’s your power, isn’t it?” That line. That scene. With the flashbacks and the fire appearing and Endeavor in the background and Izuku’s expression and Todoroki’s reaction--All of it. It was glorious. And that is what made me ship TodoDeku. Even more so with the interactions they had after that--with Stain’s fight and everything else, I just--adkfgfksyfef.

I have other things I ship, too. I ship HashiMada because that’s the way they’re written, really. It’s an epic bromance that borders on romance, and it’s not hard to believe they could have been lovers. I ship KaneHide because they support each other and help each other and mean so much to each other. I doubt there are very many things they wouldn’t do for one another. I ship Rikuo and Kana. I ship Meliodas and Elizabeth. I ship Madoka and Homura. I ship Kaito and Shinichi The main theme in all this? I ship healthy ships. Ships where they build each other up and support one another and help each other overcome their fears. That doesn't mean I don’t have unhealthy ships too. I’ve shipped things for no other reason than the dynamic is fucked up, because those ships are real too, and sometimes I like indulging that dark part of me. But for the most part, the reason why I ship something is because it’s healthy.

7. Or WHO makes you ship things?

@blackkatmagic has made me ship things. They introduced me to the ship that is MadaTobi and I haven't been able to drag myself away from. @onceabluemoonwrites made me ship DinoXanxus. The author of “Stranger with a Gun” (I can’t for the life of me remember who that is) made me ship 8018. 

8. Favorite book?

Difficult to say! I love the Harry Potter series, because that was pretty much my childhood. The Hobbit holds a special place in my heart because my dad used to read parts of it to me before I went to bed. I love the Dresden Files for it’s weird sense of humor. I love House of Many Ways, and the Anita Blake series has some really good books in it, too! I’m not sure which one I would call my favorite.

9. Most Annoying Sibling Award?

I have two siblings, a younger brother and a younger sister, and out of the both of them, I’d have to say my sister is the more annoying of the two. I get along fairly well with both of them, but my sister is the more outgoing of the two of them, and thus the more likely one to come annoy me. I still love them both, though.

10. Wooden floors vs. linoleum.

Wooden. More because it’s familiar than any other reason.

11. Who are you in the Cinnamon roll meme?

I’d be stuck somewhere between looks like a cinnamon roll but could actually kill you and looks like a cinnamon roll and is actually a cinnamon roll. I’m general a nice person but if you go after anyone I care about then no one will find the body.

I never know who to tag for these sorts of things.... Lets just say I tag anyone and everyone who sees this post. If you feel like doing it, just say I tagged you!

My questions:

1. Dogs, Cats, both, or neither? 

2. What’s your favorite Pokemon?

3. You have two weeks until the end of the world. What do you do?

4. Who was the worst teacher you’ve ever had?

5. What was the most frustrating thing you’ve ever had to do?

6. If you had one wish, what would that wish be?

7. What’s your favorite movie?

8. What’s your least favorite game?

9. Flying or super strength?

10. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

11. What’s your plan for the Zombie Apocalypse?

[krustentier7]

The games I played in 2016

You’re probably expecting the first paragraph to be about what a shit year 2016 was in general, but that’s so played out and I don’t really want to waste too much time. With video games specifically, I can say that this year at least for me has seen a massive drop off in quality compared to last. We did have a few pretty monumental releases that were a long time coming, but really nothing as legendary as any of my Top 5 placements of last year.

That said, I went over the list of game releases in 2016 last night and god damn, I played (and beat!) a lot of fucking games this year. In fact, while the number of games that I was interested in and didn’t get a chance to play is still pretty high, I managed to play *more* games than that. I keep feeling myself being increasingly strapped for time, and yet I still managed to play a lot and be part of the conversation, which I’m really happy about.

Still, I want to give you a list of titles I was interested in, but didn’t get a chance to play much of (despite even owning some of them) before we really kick things off: Owlboy, The Silver Case, Severed, Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator, Odin Sphere Leifthrasir (own that one), Dragon Quest VII, Thumper, Rez Infinite (mostly for Area X but fuck paying $30 for an HD remake of a Dreamcast game, even if it’s Rez), Amplitude, Salt and Sanctuary, Pokkén Tournament, Enter the Gungeon (another one I own), VA-11 HALL-A, Let It Die (first impression was pretty bad, but I dig the concept, so I want to give it another shot when I have time), Grow Up (own this one too), Steins;Gate Zero, ReCore (it’s on my hard drive), Darkest Dungeon, Gunvolt 2, Gears 4.

See, I did a similar thing last year and a lot of the games I mentioned there I still haven’t played, soooooooo… yeah… just thought I should mention them before anyone wonders where they are, let’s move on.

I’m also vaguely interested in Dishonored 2, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (which I actually own since I’m bad with money), Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth, Watch Dogs 2 and Pokémon SuMo? Mostly because I’ve heard good things about them and less because actual personal desire to play them.

Now, one thing I want to do that I didn’t last year is talk about a few games that I played that didn’t come out in 2016, they’re pretty noteworthy titles that I’m glad I finally got around to and mark some of my high points for this year.

Earthbound and Mother 3

The best roadtrip games that I played this year. I tried getting into Earthbound countless times over the years and always stopped not very far in for various reasons, but when it was released to the 3DS’s Virtual Console earlier this year, I knew that now was the time. It’s a great game to play on a handheld, the fact it took me months to complete (I played it on and off before Summer and then started dedicating entire days to it as I was closing in on the finish line) kind of added to this feeling of going on a huge journey in a way. I love that Earthbound doesn’t hold your hand too much, the environments have so much detail and personality crammed into them and are really fun to explore. The RPG gameplay is fairly basic, but there’s enough room for experimentation to allow for clever and fun strategies, and the limited inventory really keeps you on your toes. I really didn’t expect to like Earthbound as much as I did, it holds up so well both as an experience *and* as a game.

Mother 3 on the other hand is a pretty different experience! It’s a much more linear and guided journey that goes all-in on its more personal and literal story. While Earthbound was all about the adventure with all its ups and downs and less about a larger story, it’s the complete opposite in Mother 3 – and while I ultimately came to prefer Earthbound, this approach does have its merits. It’s become such a meme over the years, but Mother 3 really pulls at your heart-strings, and some of the game’s darker moments I’m really unlikely to ever forget. The story wouldn’t work as well as it does if it weren’t for all the streamlining and hand-holding, and I think as a counterpoint to the first two games in the series, it was a worthy sacrifice. I do think a lot of the RPG open-endedness suffers in this transition to a much more linear journey, and while I do really like the rhythm combo system, I think purely as an RPG, Earthbound is the better game. Side note, but I gotta say that I vastly preferred Earthbound’s more isometric style and open environments to Mother 3’s top-down perspective and extremely linear progression. Both are totally worth playing though and I wouldn’t want them to just be the same thing, it’s good that they’re so different. The Mother 4 fan game is looking to combine aspects of both titles into one, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

Final Fantasy VII

That’s right, I literally *never* played Final Fantasy VII for longer than ten minutes before it came to PS4. It’s hard to say how much the extra features of that version enhanced the experience for me, turbo mode and toggleable random encounters definitely make this game much more palatable. Overall though, I’m extremely happy to report that the game completely holds up and is *not* overrated.

It really encapsulates what I think RPGs are good at: thirty, forty, fifty, sixty hours, that’s time that is rarely afforded to a story. When I think about Final Fantasy, I think about huge long ass journeys, with so many ups and downs and so many different little arcs, worlds that feel massive and alive, mysterious heroes and grandiose villains, twists and turns, revelations and dramatic high points… that’s Final Fantasy and that’s what VII offers. You really come to love this ragtag group of friends and exploring Gaia (I really love how many different vehicles you unlock by the way) is an absolute joy. Beyond that, I love the Materia system and how flexible it is. I usually only expect that kind of open-endedness from games like SMT, but FFVII has so many wacky combinations and ways to play that it’s almost mesmerizing. Just a wonderful, wonderful game.

The World Ends With You

TWEWY is a game with so many unique ideas crammed into it, none of which I’ve seen before or since its release, that somehow manages to make it all work. It’s easy to forget that games like Persona weren’t nearly as popular then as they are now, so the sheer novelty of a Square Enix RPG set in the modern day that really feeds off Shibuya teenage fashion culture was really something to behold. You eat food and need to wait for it to digest to get buffs, you need to set trends and wear appropriate clothing to raise your stats, YOU FIGHT ON BOTH SCREENS AT ONCE… it shouldn’t all gel together as well as it does, but, well, it does. When the combat and the music completely click, you get one of the most exhilarating and fun RPGs ever made, and the story handles contemporary themes like identity and adolescence with a lot of confidence and vigor.

That doesn’t mean that the game is without flaws though, far from it. I feel like the team spent a lot of time polishing the combat and the presentation (it’s really one of the most stylish games you’ll ever play) and put a lot of thought into its story, but the overall structure feels like a complete afterthought.  You’re constantly asked to run back and forth through a tiny game world, story progression is often gated off behind menial tasks. The combat is so much fun and the learning curve so steep that it really carries the experience, but if they ever decide to make a sequel (MEME), this is one area that really needs to improve. Beyond that, a lot of important abilities that really round off the combat and make it actually feel fully playable are locked behind story progression; you feel artificially gimped for way too long. The game has problems differentiating between similar touch inputs at points, having to drag Neku across the screen to move is tough to get used to (I realize there’s no real way around these problems though), and the dual-screen gameplay can vary wildly between a tightly choreographed ballet or a button-mashy mess.

All of these flaws are easy to forgive though when TWEWY pulls off so many unique ideas with such confidence – it’s a game that’s impossible to hate.

Doom

In preparation for the 2016 sequel, I finally played the original Doom and it’s fucking good? I love the emphasis on high-speed movement and exploration, the gunplay is still insanely polished after all these years and every encounter feels completely hand-crafted. Not much else to say, a total classic.

Max Payne

The original Max Payne is banned here in Germany, but my girlfriend gifted it to me through Steam (<3) and I finally got a chance to play it. It’s really good! Recoil and sound effects on every single gun are spot-on and bullet time/shoot dodges really never get old. I do think it’s a bit of a contrast to Doom, it made me realize that shooters designed around hit scan weapons aren’t really my preferred type of game, but that does little to blemish what’s here.

Resident Evil 4

My last RE4 playthrough had been a while ago, the only reason I’m mentioning it now is because I somehow spent thirty hours replaying this game I know front to back on Professional?? I dunno how that happened, I just know it was fucking GOOD.

I just realized how much time I’ve already spent writing about games that didn’t even come out this year, so before I waste any more time, let’s move on to my honorable mentions, games I played but didn’t make the Top 10 for whatever reason:

Furi

The most impressive thing about Furi is that it’s a great display of working smartly around a tight budget. Crafting a deep action game moveset and then building a game around it that takes advantage of it is nigh-impossible on the scale of a $20 downloadable game (see Platinum’s Korra game for what an attempt at that looks like), so what they did instead is give Rider, Furi’s protagonist, a very limited number of moves that all have purpose and make every single combat encounter in the game a full-on boss fight.

Every boss has a number of unique gimmicks and mechanics for you to figure out, and the game remains engaging and, dare I say it, hype for its entire runtime. The only real problem with Furi is that it’s fundamentally a game about reacting to your enemy and executing a strategy rather than player expression and decision making, the latter being what defines action games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta. The main innovation of DMC1 was the game’s ranking system: there’ve been countless other games were you run around and kill enemies before it, but DMC1 incentivized you to also try and look cool. That element, playing around with your enemies and exhausting your character’s potential, is what gives these games their staying power, and it’s sorely lacking from Furi. Again, this was really the optimal and only way for this game to be made with the budget that it had, but it sadly fails to offer a lot of the satisfaction that I expect from games of this genre. That’s also why I haven’t gone back for a replay, it’s nice that enemy patterns are mixed up on higher difficulties, but the way I react to them is always going to be the same.

Street Fighter V

I don’t really agree with a lot of the backlash against Street Fighter V, while the relative lack of modes compared to other fighters is pretty baffling, I don’t really know why anyone would purchase this game if not to play 99% online, which is decently robust here. The game has a lot of structural issues, big and small, I think the currency system especially is so incredibly stingy that it might as well not exist, but it’s really too much to get into right now.

The reason Street Fighter has always been my preferred fighting game is how grounded and based on fundamentals it is. I really do get the appeal of games like Marvel, but spending hours upon hours in training mode to learn combo execution is way too daunting for me. Street Fighter gets to the, to me, interesting part of fighting games almost immediately, you can have small mind games and strategies even on very low levels of play. Street Fighter V makes great strides to emphasize this aspect even further: combos are easier to understand than ever, every single character is unique and the V system really helps bringing their strengths to the forefront. You immediately understand what any given character is about and how to play them, which makes finding the right character for you easier and more fun than ever.

I will admit though that there’s a bit too much overlap between different V-Skills and V-Triggers, and the latter generally don’t have as much utility or change the game up as much as I would like.

I have to say that I kind of hit a personal wall with the game, and a lot of the Season 2 changes are looking… questionable. Still, I really can’t deny that I had a great time with it, generally.

Fire Emblem Fates – Conquest

I was pretty burned out after beating Conquest despite enjoying it a lot, which is why I still haven’t gone back and played the other two parts that make up the whole of Fire Emblem Fates. There’s really not much I can say without going super in-depth, I know saying how great the map design is without explaining why is just really blegh but you’ll have to trust me on this one. Every map uses some unique layout and gimmick, your troops complement each other extremely well and you it feels really rewarding to figure out the best positioning and approach for any given situation. My only major misgiving is that Awakening’s relationship mechanics feel very out of place in Conquest’s more linear structure, they incentivize you to play differently from how you actually should and I found them to be really distracting. Other than that it’s an excellent entry into the series.

The Witness

The Witness is really good but I still haven’t beaten it (198 puzzles solved?). I kinda just want to leave it at that but there’s more I can say about it.

While the island the game is set on almost completely disconnected from the actual challenges you encounter, it lends the game an air of mystery and discovering how all the locations are connected and intertwined is really engaging. The Witness has been criticized for this disconnect a lot, every puzzle uses the exact same interface, but I think this approach has a lot of advantages over games like Portal, Limbo or Jonathan Blow’s own Braid. It’s always immediately clear when you’re on the wrong track, and there’s basically no real execution required – any person can draw a line on a grid, the only thing that matters is having the brain power to figure out how to do it.

Two annoyances that I can think of: you have a map of the island, but you can only look at it when you’re on a boat? And some of the puzzle mechanics really didn’t make a lick of sense to me, even after begrudgingly checking a guide. Like, I know I would’ve never figured some of the puzzles out myself because their rules were so arbitrary and hard to understand to me.   Uncharted 4

The action and combat sequences in Uncharted 4 are honestly some of the most breath-taking and heart-pounding I’ve seen in any game, I had moments where my jaw literally dropped to the floor and I was in genuine disbelief at what was happening on my TV. This stands in stark contrast to basically the other half of the game which mostly consists of slowly walking through linear environments, listening to dialogue and pushing crates. These moments served as pace breakers in earlier Uncharted games, but here they’re almost the main focus; it’s no coincidence that, for the first time in the series, there is a menu option to select and play every combat encounter (and just those) after you beat the game once. Some of the climbing and puzzle mechanics were expanded, but not to the degree that they can really stand on their own. I enjoyed exploring Madagascar on the jeep or riding the boat and exploring different islands with Sam (because here we get to do *actual* exploration of sizable environments), but so much of the non-action in Uncharted 4 is barely interactive and, well, boring.

What’s baffling is that the gunplay is so insanely good now that the game really didn’t need hours and hours of unengaging simple ass platforming or walking down straight lines. I love how the little dot inside the aiming reticle moves and twitches offset from the cross, the way enemies and their clothing react to bullet impact. I also find it almost offensive how utterly convinced Naughty Dog seem of their new direction: I think a lot of the quieter moments in The Last of Us were justifiable, but it annoys me that people are under the belief now that walking in a straight line and listening to dialogue is good storytelling. Watching the PSX demo for the upcoming DLC honestly had me burying my face in my hands in disbelief. Storytelling seems to be the only thing they’re passionate about anymore, and it’s to the point that you can just tell how bad Uncharted 4 wants to be a movie instead of a game.

Monster Hunter Generations

I love the Style system and how seamlessly it ties into with the existing weapons and mechanics, not every combination is a winner and you’re required to experiment and find what works best for you. Beyond that though, I found Monster Hunter 4’s story structure to be a huge leap forward for the series, and Generations basically takes all that progress away in favor of barebones quests with next to no context. So many of the Village Quests are based on gathering and mob hunts, you still can’t see Key Quests, and the satisfying progression of unique and charming hubs that defined MH4 has been done away with; hubs are pretty much completely meaningless now and merely serve as nostalgic throwbacks.

I’m making the game sound awful now, it still has everything we’ve come to know and love about Monster Hunter and I would recommend it to anyone, but compared to the evolution that MH4 was, it feels like a stop gap before the series (hopefully) moves on from 3DS. Final Fantasy XV

I plan to talk more in-depth about XV later down the line, and if it weren’t for me tempering my expectations to such a degree it would probably fall under disappointments rather than honorable mentions. I did enjoy my time with it, no doubt, it really nails the feeling of going on a journey and traversing an entire continent mainly through its impressive use of scale and some really cute mechanics like Prompto’s photos or camping. The game can have a really satisfying pull of exploration and combat that, when it clicks, it *really* clicks. It’s clear though that a lot of it doesn’t hold up under scrutiny, and I want to examine it more closely and explain why hopefully in the near future.

Oxenfree

I think what annoyed me the most about Oxenfree is how on-rails it feels? You’re trekking through the woods and Jonas warns you to not get lost, and I just sat there wondering how I’m supposed to get lost when I’m quite literally exploring on rails. That’s mostly what is making me hesitant to play through the game a second time, I really see it becoming something of a slog on repeat playthroughs despite the short length. The story is cute, but it fails to give you a tangible sense of danger or ever really raise the stakes significantly. I think it really could’ve used some puzzle/action moments to inject some variety and engage the player more.

What I’m really impressed by is the dialogue system and how the game really goes all-in on it: conversations and dialogue choices happen without any sort of interruption and feel completely seamless, the dialogue choices themselves almost never follow any discernible patterns or fit inside a box, and the resulting branches and outcomes feel real and natural. I love how talking is really the main bulk of what you do in Oxenfree, and it’s something more games need to try in this fashion.

Overwatch

Overwatch is really good and I think it’s amazing that a multiplayer-only FPS can have such a fleshed-out world and a colorful personality like that, but I don’t really care about objective/team-based games for various reasons and I wish it had a singleplayer. I also haven’t been wanting to dedicate time to games where I don’t make “real” progress lately, and if you take one look at my backlog you’ll know why.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan

I like that you can play levels out of order and a lot of the mechanics kind of start to make sense once you get to the boss fights, the open level structure is also interesting (though not as well executed as Anarchy Reigns or MadWorld), but everything else is pretty much as blegh as you’ve been told on the internet. Mob fights especially are such an incoherent mess that I wouldn’t even know where to begin.

What’s puzzling is that the game really doesn’t seem to lack polish in any way, I don’t get the impression that lack of time or money is the culprit here. That’s pretty disconcerting and I hope it’s not an omen of what’s to come out of Platinum going forward.

Quantum Break

Quantum Break has cool gunplay and a nice little story, but I instantly forgot it existed once the credits stopped rolling. I think a lot of shooters limit their enemy design by choosing a realistic modern day setting, and that issue is on full display here: the number of generic soldiers you mow down just completely washes over you after a while. It’s also easy to draw comparisons to another third person shooter, Vanquish, and one thing I realized when I thought about it this way is that powers in Quantum Break almost never combine in meaningful ways and have too many similar applications. Slowing down time after a dodge, stacking bullets into one big cluster, doing a melee takedown after running – these moves all serve to either buy yourself more time to do damage, or to do a lot of damage at once.

In Vanquish, you can slow down time at basically any point; after you jump over cover, during a dash, after a roll, after you launch yourself in the air with a drop kick or certain melee attacks. From these examples alone you can already see different actions intertwining to give you much more utility than is immediately obvious, but it goes even deeper with things like boost dodging or SHOOTING YOUR OWN GRENADES.

Quantum Break lacks that kind of depth and, while the gunplay is as polished and exciting as you would expect from Remedy, it’s what makes the game rather forgettable.

Disappointments

Games that came out this year and not only didn’t make the Top Ten, but ended up being very disappointing to me personally for various reasons. I do have to add that the three following titles aren’t bad, in fact I’d argue they’re better games than a lot of the honorable mentions; I just happen to be particularly attached to them, emotionally, which obviously creates certain expectations, expectations that weren’t exactly met.

Zero Time Dilemma

The conclusion to the Zero Escape trilogy, it’s kind of hard to talk about what made Zero Time Dilemma disappointing without going into spoilers. I did have a really good time throughout most of the adventure, even though there were a lot of structural aspects to this story I wasn’t entirely on board with (without saying too much, I feel that a lot of events lack lasting consequences and end up falling flat for me and sapping away a lot of the tension). It only really falls apart during the final act, we’re served up ass-pull upon ass-pull (a lot of which have become memes, understandably) and it completely fails to tie up the loose ends of the previous two Zero Escape games. None of the burning questions that VLR left are even remotely addressed, instead Zero Time Dilemma feels very much like its own story, and it isn’t a particularly satisfying one. This trilogy had been such a journey up to this point, and ZTD really had the potential to deliver a massive payoff for all those who stuck with it over all these years, potential that sadly just wasn’t acted upon.

Most of the smart and praiseworthy aspects of this game were already present in VLR (how game progression is closely linked to your understanding of the story) and it’s hard to replicate the same wow factor by just repeating old tricks again. Beyond that, the move to fully animated 3D visuals is well-intentioned, but uh… just look at any of the trailers, really. I’m fully aware that 3D modelling and animation is much easier today than sprite/pixel-art, but I’m finding it hard to believe that they couldn’t just have hired a bunch of artists to draw a few dozen character portraits and environmental backdrops in the vein of 999 with the same budget. I think that’s something a lot of people would have preferred, and it would’ve been an artistic choice that is much more conscious of the team’s capabilities and the available resources.

Not only would that have made the overall presentation much tighter, I also think the game in its current form has a harder time handling exposition and info dumps than its predecessors. You can hardly have a ten minute exposé on Ice-9 within the confines of what is essentially filmic storytelling. There are certain rules animated cutscenes must adhere to: pacing, frequent cuts, length. A huge storytelling advantage games have over other forms of entertainment is that they can have lengthy dialogue sequences using text boxes and the like, without the player becoming unengaged over time and on a much tighter budget. This is something 999 and VLR reveled in, but ZTD’s move to animated cutscenes means that that isn’t an option anymore. These ass-pulls I mentioned earlier are so much harder to buy into now that the world and its rules aren’t as fully established as they were in the previous Zero Escape games.  

Dark Souls 3

I don’t really know what to say about Dark Souls 3. I’ve talked about a lot of misgivings in terms of level design in recent Souls games previously. One thing I would definitely like to add is how mishandled hubs have been in the series ever since Dark Souls 2: in Demon’s Souls, the Nexus was a necessary compromise since From Software weren’t yet able to connect all the areas seamlessly. The game managed to make this into a strength, however, by having the hub constantly change throughout the adventure and giving the player the option to tackle levels in any order. Items are places so deliberately throughout every single level that, on repeat playthroughs, the player will have a deep understanding of where to go early and how to give themselves an advantage through sequence breaks.

Dark Souls doesn’t have quite the same flexibility as Demon’s, owing to its move to a seamless world structure. I still think it’s a great trade-off though, because the feeling of knowing a game inside out and having the wit to figure out the perfect order in which to do things is so much stronger now that the game world is completely interconnected and requires you to map everything out in your head. Figuring out that you can go to Blighttown early or fight Pinwheel as your first boss is so much cooler when you actually physically have to perform these leaps and sequence breaks instead of just using a level select like in Demon’s Souls.

Firelink Shrine was an important piece in this puzzle: Lordran’s layout is so smart that just progressing through the game and using shortcuts as you normally would meant you had to return there frequently, and every time you would discover some new interesting change that further informs your understanding of the game world.

Now, two things: first, I think warping from the start of the game is a huge mistake. It completely removes the need for shortcuts and an interconnected game world, and it compromises this feeling of understanding and getting to know your surroundings. Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne both have branching points where you get to choose which area to tackle first, but that’s really not the same as figuring these connections and branches out yourself. Even so, while both games have very wide and expansive areas, game progression is almost entirely linear compared to Demon’s or Dark Souls. I think 3 is a better game than 2, but I would honestly go as far to say that Dark Souls 3 is the most linear Souls game yet.

Second, it’s obvious that From Software recognized fundamental flaws in this design approach: if you can just warp anywhere and the world isn’t really interconnected, it means you’re not naturally going to return to your hub like you would in Demon’s or Dark Souls. And if the player doesn’t do that, they’re going to miss out on important NPC interactions and it makes it impossible for the designers to reset the player’s focus when they want to.

Their solution to this was to remove the ability to level up at any bonfire; the only way to do that in post-Dark Souls titles is to go back to the hub and speak to an NPC. I think the fact this change had to be made just shows that the whole idea of warping from the start was ill-conceived. Whereas the hubs in Demon’s and Dark Souls had purpose and a reason to exist, they’re nothing more than a contrivance and old baggage here.

To talk more about Dark Souls 3 specifically, a few rapid-fire points: the bosses are really great and varied and unique, and I like the weapons a lot (even though Weapon Artes didn’t live up to their full potential). I’m extremely conflicted on the amount of references and callbacks to other Souls games; every moment that I found hype or memorable was thanks to my experience with every other Souls game up to that point, which just makes me really sad thinking about it. I also think the way some of the open questions that Dark Souls left are answered so lazily here that I honestly wish they hadn’t bothered and stayed away from the first game’s legacy. Final point: god this game looks so much like Bloodborne that it’s uncanny, I genuinely can’t tell the two apart sometimes. That’s all the more upsetting because Bloodborne was a much, much better game with a lot more creative energy behind it. WHICH BRINGS ME TO...

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse

This game is fucking shit and I’m legit not joking when I say that I have not even the faintest as to why anyone would think it’s better than the original.

Actually okay, let me back up, this game has all the trappings of any good SMT aka monster collecting/fusing and fast-paced high-stakes combat. On that fundamental primal level, Apocalypse can be pretty fun, I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy min-maxing and planning out how I’m going to build my party. Some of the balance and system tweaks I’m also on board with (Skill Affinities and Demon Negotiation, namely), but everything else is such a far cry from the original SMT IV that it’s honestly hard to believe. I know I’m gonna go more in-depth with this game in the future, so I can’t go into full detail about my complaints just yet, but needless to say that, seeing how much I loved and appreciated SMT IV, this is easily my biggest disappointment of the year.

On that note, I am very curious if some of the mechanics on display here are going to find their way into Persona 5, which is not something I would be against.

And now what you’ve all been waiting for, here are my ten favorite games of 2016:

10. Superhot

Superhot was really cool, but I kind of just instantly forgot about it when I beat it. Crazy potential for a sequel and I would definitely play it again and again if it weren’t for me trying to avoid replays in favor of working on my backlog.

9. Hyper Light Drifter

I really love the combat, the aesthetics and the approach to tone and storytelling in Hyper Light Drifter, but I think it didn’t quite live up to its full potential. I keep seeing people comparing this to the original Zelda (a game I am very fond of), and while I can see where they’re coming from (both games are comparatively minimalist and open-ended to most games out there, and they emphasize combat and easy-to-understand challenges over puzzles and the like), it’s really not on the same level for me. While there are plenty of secrets tucked away in HLD’s world and the order in which to tackle every area is up to you, it still follows a very basic, formulaic structure: here’s your hub, here are four areas connected to it, every area, while expansive, is its own completely separate challenge.

Compared to games like Dark Souls or yes, the original Zelda, item placements also don’t feel as deliberate, the world’s layout doesn’t seem to reward knowledge and efficient replays very much. Important, powerful items are often either rewards for completing story tasks are upgrades you buy with points from a shop in the hub. I think this basic four-area structure and the fact that everything outside the hub is very much challenge-focused (meaning you’re not gonna encounter NPCs or special shops like you would in the other games I mentioned) is a real missed opportunity.

What also put a damper on my enjoyment of the game are a lot of the technical problems I had with the PC version, which have been largely fixed over time, making me wish I had waited a bit longer to play it. I am really excited to revisit it though.

8. Super Mario Run

I’ve tweeted about this before, but what I like the most about Super Mario Run is that I’m not punished for running through every level as fast as I can. That’s the most fun way to play 2D Mario to me, stopping my forward motion to look for secrets just isn’t something I’m really into. Thankfully, 100% completion and fast-paced platforming aren’t mutually exclusive in Mario’s first mobile outing. It’s impressive how Nintendo’s designers have managed to cram clever and varied optional challenged into the confines of an auto-runner, and watching Mario vault over enemies and do a turn after every walljump is an absolute joy; he hasn’t felt this acrobatic since Mario 64. Super Mario Run is proof that control or hardware limitations can sometimes open up completely new gameplay possibilities, and I think it’s something future 2D Mario games can definitely draw from.

7. Titanfall 2

Why is this game so good?? I don’t think anyone really saw it coming. I have a lot of fundamental issues with military-style shooters (two-weapon limits, a lot of weapons fulfilling the same purpose, emphasis on hit scan enemies, regenerating health, sprinting meaning I can’t shoot while I’m moving at top speed), and while Titanfall 2 has basically all of those same trappings, it adds enough on top of the formula to somehow make it work. You have a staggering amount of movement options, most of which allow you to stay on the offense while traversing at high speeds, and the expansive environments mean you can approach any combat situation as you please without being forced into cover very much. So many times I would let off shotgun blasts while sliding along the ground or detonate C4 charges in mid-air, and the mechanics are so insanely polished and versatile that they wouldn’t feel out of place in a Platinum game.

I also think that the idea of Titans is such a smart addition to the formula that I’m surprised other shooters haven’t come up with it before. It injects gameplay variety and means the player has to be competent at two completely different styles of movement and shooting, which also intertwine in logical and cool ways (lots of opportunities to switch between Pilot and Titan gameplay on the fly). I love that you can change between so many completely different Titan loudouts at any time (not having all of them unlocked from the start for New Game+ or something of the sort is a huge missed opportunity), and they’re also an amazing way to have boss fights in this style of shooter. That also ties into how well the game expands on this idea for its story, every opponent you face throughout the adventure has their own personality and mechanics to come to grips with, and the bond between you and BT feels tangible. It’s unbelievable how this game was sent out to die by EA, they really didn’t know what they had.

6. Doom

This game is so insanely talked about that I struggle to add anything to the conversation, so just trust me when I say it’s good. I love how smartly it bucks a lot of recent FPS trends with its movement and health mechanics, with how every weapon feels like a meaningful part of the adventure and enemies don’t use hit scan, rewarding constant movement and awareness of your surroundings (which reminds me a lot of Metroid Prime somehow?). Every part of your arsenal has some limitation on how often you can use it, and later stages of the game especially become all about planning ahead and thinking constantly about when and where to use different abilities.

Glory Kills especially are such a fantastic mechanic and accomplish so many different things, and I love how your position/camera angle relative to the enemy affects the animation you’re going to get. Small thing, but too often I would trigger a Glory Kill only to watch Doomguy turn a demon into mush with a single half-hearted punch, I know they were made shorter after some feedback, but I actually prefer what they used to be like I think. The level design is very wide and vertical and encourages exploration, but that is sadly mostly limited to optional secrets; you can crit path your way through Doom very easily, the main story doesn’t require you backtrack and learn the layout of a map like the original two games or 64 did. That’s probably my main gripe with the game, but it’s still an absolute blast and something everyone has to play.

5. Inside

The only thing I really want to say and praise about Inside is that it’s a game that is not afraid to be completely and utterly disgusting in its imagery, but also paces itself and builds suspense so well that it never feels like shock value. Inside really delivers on the curiosity it creates inside the player’s mind from the word “go!”, and it feels so confident in its execution that it makes Limbo look quaint in comparison. The move to 3D visuals really elevates the experience in ways you wouldn’t expect. I honestly just don’t want to spoil anything, just go and play it.

4. The Last Guardian

I said everything there is to say about The Last Guardian in my recent post on it. All I can say now is that I hope the fact it trumps so many excellent games on this list is what’s going to give you all the urge to play it.

3. Star Fox Zero

I’m not fucking sorry.

I know I look like a crazy person, but hear me out, I’m even going to start with the bad if that makes you happy. I think rebooting the Star Fox story was very much necessary with how every attempt to move it forward has resulted in.. well, you know. The fact that it is the Lylat Wars again and that Andross is the villain really isn’t an issue to me, it’s more that this game really had the potential to elevate the story telling in the series to the standard of something like The Wonderful 101. I’m not sure if Miyamoto would’ve focused his efforts on that front if he had been given more time (I doubt it) and it still makes me yearn for a Star Fox game directed by someone like Hideki Kamiya.

This directly ties into the game’s other big shortcoming: it could REALLY use more levels. I think the length that is here is perfectly fine for a Star Fox game, my issue is rather that it never seems to be able to fully spread its wings and unleash the complete potential of its gameplay. With the Wii U suffering a less than peaceful death, I doubt we will get another attempt at this, and I have to say that if we ever get another Star Fox game, I’m really going to miss these controls.

Yeah, you heard me. I LOVE Star Fox Zero’s controls.

Just the ability to aim independently from your ship’s movement affords you a degree of control and precision that just hasn’t existed in the series thus far. You can draw comparisons to games like Kid Icarus Uprising and Sin and Punishment 2, but what makes Star Fox an interesting case is how your ship always moves forward; these other games use a setup where you move your character across the screen while the camera shifts and pans dynamically to capture different sensations of movement. In Star Fox Zero, the camera is always (mostly) behind you and you’re always in danger of being hit by whatever is in front of you. The idea that I can now aim anywhere no matter where I am on the screen gives you so much more freedom in how you position yourself and approach any given situation, and that’s what makes it such a great addition.

This all also means that there is another layer of skill involved with aiming that you don’t get in other games. For example, certain targets are harder or easier to hit depending on your Arwing’s vertical position on the field, and the fact you’re moving forward constantly means you have a limited window in which you can even attempt a shot. What you can now do is morph into the chicken walker (which halts your forward motion), use the thrusters adjust your elevation and hit your target. The game is full of little tricks like that and I haven’t seen much else like this in other shooters of this nature.

The dual-screen aspect of the controls is such a cool and interesting idea that I would love to see expanded upon in future titles, because it’s clear that it sadly never unleashes its full potential here. It still really elevates the experience though, mostly during All-Range mode where it perfectly intertwines with another new mechanic: Target View.

Holding ZL will make the camera pull back and center on an enemy, giving you a much better view of your surroundings than was previously possible in past Star Fox games. The reason this could be implemented here IS the second screen: if you put Target View in Star Fox 64 with the exact same controls as before, it wouldn’t be of much use since you a.) can only shoot at what is directly in front of you and b.) YOU WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO SEE WHAT’S IN FRONT OF YOU SINCE YOU DON’T HAVE A SECOND SCREEN. This addition makes Star Wolf especially so much more fun to fight since you can constantly stay on the offensive and react to your enemy’s movements immediately, frantically shifting back and forth between both screens. A lot of bosses will also use attacks that would be impossible to dodge without something like Target View, which makes them much more varied and interesting than bosses in previous Star Fox games.

I love how you can basically pick a flight path on the TV, then shoot from the gamepad to go on a sort of bombing run. I love how the gamepad expands the field of view, letting you shoot targets you’ve already passed by and creating opportunities for hidden targets in most stages.

By far the cutest thing about the controls is how the right stick is used to manipulate your Arwing’s movement. Tilting the stick left or right will make the Arwing gradually bank in that direction, giving it a quick rattle results in a barrel roll – it just feels so tactile and *right*. That’s especially true when you use it in conjunction with the left stick to adjust your turning speed (I do wish you could turn off the Somersault and U-Turn stick commands and just use the B and X buttons) or smoothly go into a boost or pull the break by pushing the right stick up or down, which also just feels right.

There’s more I could ramble on about, but this whole thing is way too long already and I mostly just wanted to address the main sticking points everyone’s been up in arms about with Star Fox Zero. Everything else is mostly the Star Fox you and love: frantic, fast-paced action with a satisfying learning curve and plenty of incentives to keep playing after the credits roll. The Wii U and maybe even this series might have died an unsavory death, but I’m glad I still got to experience Nintendo and Platinum to take on one of my most dear and beloved franchises in such a bold and innovative and exciting way.

2. AM2R

By far the best Metroid game since Zero Mission (maybe even better than that? I need to replay Zero Mission and Super) and in fact so good that I really don’t give a shit it’s not made by Nintendo. A few rapid-fire points:

Biggest and most varied array of bosses out of any 2D Metroid game.

Expansive, vertical areas with tons of different layers and great shifts in pacing and progression.

Controls like BUTTER.

Unlocking areas in chunks makes it a bit more linear than I would like, but there are still plenty of opportunities to get lost, do things in different orders, explore and sequence break.

More to that point, I think the idea of hunting down Metroids and unlocking chunks of world in set intervals makes for a slightly different and very enjoyable pacing compared to most Metroid games.

The visuals aren’t an exact copy of either Super Metroid’s or Zero Mission’s art styles, instead they try to adhere to and recreate the GameBoy original in a 16-Bit style. A lot of the tiles and surfaces have a rougher, flatter look to them than what you’re used to in these other games, and combined with the way color and space are used, it creates a style that is completely unique and extremely faithful to the original game.

I don’t want to get too upset about Nintendo taking this game down and denying it any sort of recognition, it’s their IP and they can do what they want with it. I personally just have to question if this was really the best way to handle the situation, and it’s sad to see such a phenomenal game be dragged out of the limelight. Coupled with Metroid as a franchise being basically dormant at this point, it’s an unfortunate state of affairs all around. None of this can diminish the quality and the value of what’s here though, and I urge everyone to give AM2R a try.

1. Dragon Quest Builders

I think… a discussion as to whether or not it’s alright to praise Dragon Quest Builders as much as I have and will continue to do when it rips off another game as much as it does is absolutely worth having… but this is not the time and place for that right now, because right now I have to gush over this beautiful, jolly, wondrous game.

Dragon Quest Builders has given me a sense of adventure and wonder unlike any game I’ve played this year. As someone who hasn’t played a lot of Dragon Quest, what always drew me to the series is how it radiates joy and manages make things that could be seen as menial or pedestrian in other games feel exciting and meaningful and sincere. All of that is true in spades for Builders, I just have to watch the CGI intro every time I boot up the game because just seeing that stubby little anime boy flash a cheeky grin or take a bite out of an apple puts a smile on my face.

Dragon Quest Builders takes everything that makes Minecraft great (building stuff and complete freedom in how you do it, a world that has a sense of vastness and randomness and mystery) and adds structure and characters with unique personalities and desires into the mix. I love that everything I build has a distinct purpose: this is my smithy, this is my Inn, this is that person’s bedroom. What’s brilliant is that while the story doesn’t take place entirely in your head like it does in Minecraft, you not only still have the potential to bring in your own creativity, you’re very much encouraged to do so.

What I mean is this: even though I don’t technically have to, I feel much more inclined to decorate a private bedroom according to the owner’s personality than I normally would be if I were just building it for myself. The game never asked me to put a cute little table in Pippa’s room, I just thought it would suit her. This gets to the point where you design your entire town with its residents in mind, and it’s an element that is sorely lacking from other building-type games.

The game is very smartly designed in that it frequently shifts between vastly different tasks that not only satisfy a lot of different urges, but also take great advantage of the existing mechanics. Often, you’re simply asked to raise the level of your town by building whatever you desire in it, and I had the bar well maxed out halfway through the first chapter (every chapter is its own story and long enough to be a full game). Sometimes, the game will give you rough outlines, saying that the structure you’re about to build must meet certain conditions (this many tables, this many chests, a window, etc.), but besides those you’re given free reign in how to approach your creations. Other times, you’re handed exact blueprints telling you what to build, the challenge being more about gathering the necessary materials, which results in frequent and satisfying bouts of exploration.

These portions of Dragon Quest Builders aren’t all that special on the surface, there isn’t much to combat, and yet the fact that I can dig into the world at any point, how huge and imposing everything feels, how varied and fun the enemies are, how resources are limited and that you need to pay attention to hunger and health at all times… it creates such a great sense of adventure that makes me yearn even more for Breath of the Wild than I already am. I love the sense of immediacy you get from finding little caves and dungeons, how every treasure you find feels real and earned (the fact that the game doesn’t shove a mini cutscene down my throat every time I open a chest and presents its spoils at face value is something I really appreciate) and just how idyllic it feels to mine the earth and  gather resources as you watch the sun go up and down, its reflection drifting softly along the calm water.

It’s also incredibly refreshing to see Dragon Quest Builders making crafty changes to Minecraft’s formula when necessary: placing blocks below and above you is so much easier thanks to the use of the shoulder buttons, you can smoothly draw entire lines of walls without any hassle, and I love how you can essentially upgrade the materials of any structure you’ve already built after the fact (you can craft an item that lets you change a wooden wall into a brick one, for example).

This game is simply incredibly, and I really urge anyone to try it, even if it doesn’t look like your kind of thing initially. It wasn’t on my radar at all before, and yet here I am, proudly declaring it as my favorite game of 2016.