#I love my melee brawler boy

[pushing500]

This crazy dinosaur doesn't know not to attack the guy with the brawler trait, kickass melee ability, and the magic hammer.

And Irwin is not clever enough to realise that when his toes get bitten off, he should maybe prioritise going to the hospital over eating his lunch. Silly boy.

I wonder where he keeps Xanxalbur when he's working? I just imagine he does the Animal Crossing thing and pulls it out of nowhere with that cheery little jingle.

I can't draw dinosaurs I'm sorry

Not sure how the genetics of two baseliners makes one yttakin, but I don't feel like questioning it right now. Anyway, turns out Wendy and Kawoo are related. That's kind of fun. Also, Wendy's dad is named "Liquid Science", which is the coolest name ever.

The flu has taken my sweet babies :(

This was just an excuse to draw Zonovo with his hair out, and Kaz looking after baby Andy (because despite being sick himself, Kaz is still one of my more competent doctors and decided to look after the kid before himself and I thought it was adorable).

Also, today I had a flat tyre and nothing to do but draw while I waited for it to get patched up, so here's what I accomplished with the sketchbook from my car (I have hidden sketchbooks everywhere just in case) and a felt pen I had in my bag. I liked it, so it gets to go on the blog. Enjoy!

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[nekobakaz]

Meet my Characters

at least, my RPG characters. Well, the ones I love to play the most.

Sparky, the Kender Sorcerer (originally DnD 3.5): my first character, Sparky Catt is a kender that was raised by humans after being found floating in the river. She has memory problems, suspected from hitting her head while in the river as a babe. She... she managed to find a portion of the Deck of Many Things and level up a couple times beyond the rest of the party. She is said to be "a great smitter of justice" which is hilarious cause kenders are chaotic. I've ported her to Pathfinder and 5e games. (general hiatus)

Fluffy, the snowman Paladin (a la Marshmallow from Frozen). We have a Disney Frozen 5e game. Fluffy is one of the baby snowman from Spring Fever. She uses whatever pronouns, because "water is fluid", and her war cry is "FOR MOMMY!!!" The party had a discussion at one point on whether Fluffy counts as a princess (it was decided that no, while recognized as creations/children of Elsa, the snow constructs are not in line for the throne, and thus are not royalty). When our usual Party Face is not there, FLUFFY is the Face of the party. And she... doesn't quite understand how money works. (general hiatus)

Orsolya "Ula" Dovkin is... a bear. An albino Asian Black Bear, specifically. This is what our group calls the Eshia campaign, a complete 5e homebrew that's anthropomorphic. So yeah, albino black bear fighter. Who was raised by elephant monks and is actually kinda smart, yet has yet to clue in that she's a Prophet (everyone else knows; she has monks and priests following her around, but nope, doesn't notice). Also, she LOVES noodles. (and yes, I did name her "bear" multiple times) (general hiatus)

Cordelia Clanofnone, esq, Tempest Cleric and Champion of Kord. So, she's my first character for "the evil campaign". I was literally asked to join the game the night before because they needed a tank/healer to keep the sorcerer alive. So I threw Cordelia together. She's a hill dwarf who grew up in an orphanage (... are you seeing a trend?) who then ran off to become a sailor and see the world. And then Kord was like "hey, I want you to be my cleric," and she was "ah FUCK!!!" She and Kord have an interesting relationship. and she's a terrible cleric. But somehow is his champion. she hates it. (retired)

Janna Howard, necromancer of little infamy. My second character for the evil campaign. We got a few more tank characters into the game, so my DM let me pull Cordelia out and bring in Janna. Janna is inspired by Johannes Cabal, a character and series by Jonathan L Howard. She's an aasimar who was SUPPOSED to become a cleric, but decided to write a thesis instead. And murder her way to her research materials. Janna does things like burn down fake libraries, summon Orcus to call him a bitch, murder whole cults (for their books), steal from incubi, and trap her angelic guide into an amulet. She may or may not have accidentally endeared herself to Lolth. Most of the time I play her, I'm sipping tea and making judgmental comments in my notebook. (hiatus due to baby)

Feri identifies as a Murder Cupcake. She's my current Vampire the Masquerade LARP character (Sabbat setting). She's a Brujah brawler with amnesia, whose memory starts ~100 years ago and doesn't remember being human at all. She's strong, she's sweet and social, and she's not very smart. However, she's literally walked across an underworld (sort of, she was carried for a bit) and back into the material plane. Her interests are pretty pink (lolita) dresses, and M U R D E R. Her current pack is Les Fées Vertes, which is... mostly Toreador, so it's very pretty. For a while, Feri was the only girl, so I joked that she had a boy band. Hm, and Feri tends to assign a familial relationship title to packmates and... pretty much everyone who isn't "meat." (pandemic hiatus)

Kwami, Lashunta Solarian. Starfinder game. Okay, she doesn't have much personality. But she's the only melee fighter in a party of ranged fighters and spellcasters, so she's fun. Also, she's a solarian, so she gets a star sword :) (general hiatus)

MYSELF. We're playing an isekai version of Curse of Strahd. So, we're basing our initial class and race on one of those personality quizzes. We point-bought our status "so the module has a chance to kill us." We have made. So. Many. Jokes. Including the fact that we're mostly spellcasters wielding staffs, so we should challenge Strahd to Quidditch. *I* am playing a Divine Soul Human (variant) Sorcerer/Paladin. And like most of our party, I'm Chaotic Good. Yes, I've almost died several times. Usually my own fault. There were shinies.

[belliesandburps]

Non-Kink:  Top 12 Best Stealth Action Games

I was inspired by my dear pal, @twistedtummies2, to share a lil bit of non-kink related stuff about myself with’chall.  One thing to know about me is I’m a huge lover of video games.  I may not have as much time to PLAY ‘em much these days, but dammit if they aren’t one of my biggest joys beyond writing and the great outdoors. 

And my favorite genre in all of gaming is the stealth action genre.  Anyone who knows me knows that I adore the Metal Gear Solid series, but I also love a whole bunch of other stealth action games because, to me, this genre is the one with the most meat to come back to.  Stealth action done right is you being put in a room or outpost or whatever with a bunch of bad guys, and trying to carry out an objective without engaging with the enemies.  OR, it’s picking off the bad guys one by one, quickly and quietly.  Oooooor it’s you try to be sneaky, get caught, say fuck it, and wage war with an armada of Russians because isn’t it always Russians.  XD

I love that so many stealth action games can play out so many different ways.  And the feeling of escalation, like trying to be sneaky, and being overwhelmed when you’re caught and having to escape a hectic situation?  That, to me, is more thrilling than ANY set piece or scripted, linear mission from any game I’ve ever played.  It’s why I’ve replayed many of these games time and time again, and haven’t even THOUGHT about most of the biggest AAA blockbusters upon beating them.

Now, this list is subject to change.  I have a few games I need to play and they may beat out a few on this list.  But for now, here’s my Top 12 Best Stealth Action games because on top of being a thirsty old bastard, I loves me some espionage and bandana action.  :P

12) Batman: Arkham Origins (2013)

This game gets a lot of flak, but believe it or not, it’s actually my favorite in the Arkham series.  It’s City with a new coat of paint and a few more bugs, but City was still awesome, and so is this game.  It had plenty of clever predator stealth sequences, with more enemy variety to shake things up, that always made wiping out the bad guys swiftly and silently deeply rewarding.  AND it had more stealth action boss fights.  City had Mr. Freeze and a single predator fight rehashed twice with Two Face and Harley.  Origins had Mr. Freeze again, but with new additional options, and a pre-fight stage where you had to stay outta sight.  It also had Deadshot, the best of the three basic “predator boss” types, as well as TN-1 Bane as the final boss, and damn if it wasn’t intense.  With more gadgets and clever ways to mix and match, I think this game would be higher, but it’s still a great one for lovers of more approachable stealth action paired up with excellent brawler combat.

11) Assassin's Creed (2007)

The other AC games may be better, but AC1 is the only game in the series to stay consistent and simple with its design philosophy.  Here are targets for you to assassinate, here are bolstering crowds with beautiful cities to Parkour across or hide within, and at every turn, there are hiding spots but also enemies, making situations escalate organically and entertainingly with each assassination.  Hence why, despite most people regarding AC1 as the weakest entry, it's my personal favorite.  It's the one I replay the most and the one that just stays consistent with what it advertises.  No more, no less. 10) Hitman (2016)

I've yet to play the other Hitman games, and by accounts, each sequel is better than the last.  But you've seen the Jackie boy vids.  What more need be said?  :P

9) Death Stranding (2019)

Death Stranding's kind of a jack of all trades in the stealth action.  On one hand, you have conventional stealth action where you're infiltrating enemy camps and can either pick off all the bad guys one by one or go nuts and fight everybody head on.  On the other hand, you have BT's, whom you sneak around by holding your breath and moving slowly, lest these ghostly monsters drag you out to a tarpit for a boss fight.  The stealth is fairly simplistic but functional.  Combat as is would be fairly shallow, were it not for the sheer quantity of options you have in any given battle.  Seriously, you have a sticky gun that lets you snatch cargo straight off a bad guys back then immediately bludgeon him unconscious with it, and snatch HIS cargo to smash his BUDDY out cold with that in one fell swoop.  The way situations can organically just bleed from stealth to action and give you options for both makes it a blast.  And the boss fights against Cliff and Higgs are almost all I could ask for from stealth action battles. 8) Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020)

I DO wish the game had some stealth action boss fights, but far as superhero games are concerned, no game has better stealth action than Miles Morales.  It hits fast and is deeply gratifying.  You have corridors with as much as twenty plus bad guys, and you can clean it out in minutes thanks to being able to hide in plain sight through invisibility.  Venom Takedowns with let you wipe out a chain succession of enemies all at once.  Corridors have TONS of environmental advantages to wipe out a bunch of bad guys with one move.  And unlike Spider-Man or Arkham, if you're caught, just go invisible, flee, and go right back to picking off baddies in seconds.  It's like playing a predator sequence in an Arkham game on steroids...and in fast forward.  And the sheer volume of enemies you're often up against keeps it from feeling too easy. 7) Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (2019)

This game SUCKED at launch.  Like, it was actual trash that became a chore to finish when it first came out.  But fair's fair, Ubisoft stuck with it and the end result is one of the most customizable experiences I've ever had in gaming.  Like, this game is straight up now designed to let you change the entire experience simply by pausing the game and flipping a new options on and off and have it immediately go into effect.

I hated the injury mechanics of the first game because it slowed you down and led to a lot of random, unfair deaths because you could never predict which attacks would be critical and which wouldn’t.  So now, I can turn them off.  I thought bad guys were brain-dead.  So I can make them smarter.  I thought constantly slowing down when I'm running from bullets was detrimental, so now, I can make stamina limitless. 

I thought some areas had way too many guards to viably take out without co-op buddies...soooo I can activate an entire squad of AI partners all throughout the game with me and there's a lot of coordination you can do with your team for really covert missions...and you can even customize their look to create a team that looks as cool or goofy as you want.  It’s a really dorky thing, but I LOVE customization in shooters and being able to fully customize, not just yourself, but your team to look however you want in missions is really fun.

And if you think the enemies are too easy to take down?  Turn on Terminator mode and have T-800's storming the place.  Yeah, freakin’ Terminators.  XD

The game gives you literally all the options you could ask for to have an experience perfectly tuned to what you WANT to have.  And the options you have make it so the game can feel like an entirely different, borderline strategy game instead of a solid third person shooter.  You can activate a drone now to coordinate your three AI buddies to stop and go where you want, mark targets for them to eliminate and have your eye on the entire battlefield.  It's honestly staggering how many options this game has.  And were the missions not so boilerplate and were the boss fights actual boss fights and not just reskins of basic enemies, this would be one of the best games ever.  As is, it's a genuinely impressive comeback story!  6) Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016)

Mankind Divided is the game Cyberpunk WISHES it was (Spoiler Alert: Cyberpunk isn’t very fun or responsive yet).  It's a game with some spectacular level design where there are dozens of ways around any given enemy and tons of options for any mission.  You have a wide assortment of augmentations to let you sneak or fight your way through any scenario and they give you the tools to use your robot powers in really clever ways for navigation purposes.  This is a game where even the simplest side mission has about a dozen different outcomes, and most of them are wholly organic.  What it needed was more...well, GAME.  After all, MD is a third of the game it was meant to be.  But it IS a marvel of stealth action goodness. 5) The Last of Us: Part 2 (2020)

I have a BUNCH of issues with this game, but on the subject of stealth action, TLOU2 is one of the best in the genre.  Every single encounter is highly difficult, but has dozens of variations.  The levels are all designed with tons of varied cover spots and hidden paths to let you navigate as you either pick off the bad guys one by one, or sneak past them.  The enemies range in their weaponry, but possess self preservation, so they aren't just standing around shooting aimlessly. 

And on top of that, combat is brutal.  Every bullet counts, and you feel the impact of every shot fired.  The melee system is simple but complements gunplay fantastically.  So if you wanna save bullets, you can shoot someone in the leg, and as they stagger, you can bumrush them, grab a hammer or brick you find on the ground as you're running and bludgeon them to death to save bullets.  The game also has a great lil "MGS4 Battlefield Stealth" system.  Several encounters have humans and infected, and you can pit the two against one another and either sneak around the carnage or use it to pick off the harder enemies.

The game also has a FAR better predator fight that's basically David's fight in the first game, but with way better mechanics.  The boss increasingly upgrades their weapon each time you attack them, the environment is perfect for this fight, and if you're caught, you aren't just dead, you have a means to escape a hairy situation.  TLOU2 may have been deeply polarizing, story-wise, but as a GAME, it's terrific.  And best yet, once you beat the main game, there's an encounter mode that lets you skip all the BS and just jump right into every single stealth action encounter and boss fight throughout the whole game risk free.  What's not to love about that? 4) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD (2004 / 2010)

MGS3 is the first really great linear MGS game.  It ditches that terrible fixed camera, simplifies the controls, and has more than ten rooms where you do any sneaking.  Its best moments are proto-MGSV outposts, where you have an area with tons of guards and multiple paths to your objective, and a whole lot of opportunities to get creative.  It was also the first MGS game that made combat just as viable as stealth.  You CAN actually just punch your way through the bad guys now, and the end result is shockingly fun thanks to all the weapons and more intuitive controls.  But the real star is the boss battles.  MGS3 has some of the best bosses of any video game I've ever played in my life.  And MOST of them incorporate stealth beautifully.  To the point where you can eliminate half the bosses with any of 'em ever even knowing your location, and giving you a plethora of variety in the bosses themselves AND the means in which you fight them.

3) Splinter Cell: Blacklist (2013)

Splinter Cell's an odd series.  The story is nonsense yet also pretty drab and simplistic.  Sam Fisher REALLY isn't an interesting character, none of the characters are except the villain and anti-hero scumbag.  But as a VIDEO GAME, Blacklist is the peak of linear stealth action.  MGS3 had boss fights, and THAT was the biggest mark for the game.  And Blacklist only has a single boss fight, which is basically a slightly elongated version of Deadshot's "fight" in City. 

But the moment-to-moment gameplay is out of this world good.  You have brilliant level design that makes sneaking from A to B deeply gratifying, but you also have insane mobility that makes you feel like the biggest badass when you play.  There can be a room full of guards.  And like a game of chess, with the right moves, you can end them in seconds, which requires skill to pull off, rushing the first guy and taking him down, shooting his buddy, then using execute to auto-kill up to three guards you've marked who were in range.  It's about using the systems the game gives you to maximize efficiency on the field.  And you can pick off bad guys using your environment, or climbing a plethora of terrain. 

The game almost plays like Arkham half the times when you're climbing walls or pipes and dropping down on bad guys or shooting them from overhead.  It has a huge variety of gadgets to aide you as well, and combat is incredibly difficult but doable.  Sam can only take a few hits before he's dead, but the means to shake off enemies is fair, and recovering from a slip-up is more fun than it is frustrating.  The campaign has several excellent missions which would satisfy a person as is.  But it also comes with over a dozen bonus missions you can access from your allies, each one taking place in entirely new settings with new enemies and storylines, each one with simpler and more streamlined objectives (perfect stealth, predator missions where you kill all the enemies, and survival waves where you have to fend off increasingly harder enemies).  AND it has the best kind of co-op.  Like Peace Walker, you can play any side mission with buddies.  But it also has missions exclusive to co-op, designed to be fully embraced with a buddy you can play with on the couch or online.  It's a game with tons of content, and all of it is mostly excellent. 2) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015)

MGSV is the best game I've played.  That's because it's a game that hits all of my buttons.  The outposts are examples of perfect level design.  Each one is designed with a huge array of cover spots and multiple paths, direct or secret, to an objective area.  As a result, every mission allows you to get in, carry out your objective, and get out without raising a stink.  And when you screw up, it doesn't feel like punishment, because the combat of this game is fantastic. 

Everything is highly responsive, so your inputs happen with no delays.  You can go from diving to shooting from the ground in a tenth of a second.  And combat lets you seamlessly go from shooting, snatching guns from bad guys and blowing away with it, to taking breathers behind cover or with a human shield.  The enemy AI is the best the series has ever had.  They have way more self preservation, they're liberal with grenades, have way more variety in their weapons, and actually use turret guns and mortar cannons now. 

The missions themselves can be resolved tons of different ways.  Assassination missions play out like small-scale Hitman missions, without the frustration of screwing up and restarting because missions are so short, you just roll with the punches.  And the overall feel of a mission changes dramatically, depending on your loadout, the paths you choose in the level, your playstyle, and the time of day you select when you start a mission. 

There are only a few major downsides to the gameplay.  The bosses lack variety, like, I REALLY wish MGSV had more XOF assassins like Quiet to confront along with the Skulls and MoF.  Some missions are a bit too samey, and there aren't enough larger scale outposts.  Some more enemy variety wouldn't have been remiss.  And finally, the open world itself is pretty lifeless.  It works to complement the missions, like giving you a whole stretch of land to carry out ambushes or battle the Skulls anywhere you please.  But open world games are best when they have more to react to and engage with, or secrets to find.  Oh yeah, and the main villain should've had a boss fight, a stealth action shootout at that because that’s what the OG plan was until Kojima decided to be slightly more pretentious than usual. 

But beyond that, this game is a freakin' masterpiece.

So why is number 2 on the list even if it's the best game I've ever played?

Because this game exists... 1) Deus Ex (2000)

Deus Ex isn't as mechanically good as MGSV.  It's even that good mechanically, like, playing it now, it feels pretty clunky and not the least bit smooth.  Still fun, but you feel the age.  So why is it number 1?  Simple.  Deus Ex is the most open-ended video game ever made.  It's a stealth action RPG where every, and I mean, EVERY single level has dozens upon dozens of different paths to choose and make your own.  It has class specialization, meaning the build you create gives you a whole ton of new paths and strategies to use for hacking or flexibility. 

Every single mission takes place in a sprawling area.  You have an objective, obstructions blocking your way, and a whole bunch of guards.  You can blaze right to a solution, resolving a situation in minutes.  Or, you can take your time and find any number of different paths to your goal.  And all throughout each mission, there's tons of things to find as you explore.  There's entire other side missions with their own plethora of options.  Lots of really clever flavor text.  Upgrades to bolster your augmentations.  And really ominous messages you can find that'll come into play later. 

The bosses may lack variety but each one is a perfect stealth action battle where you can choose any number of options against the bosses, right down to running away from them and the game outright acknowledging that the boss enemies weren't killed.  Best yet, it's a game designed to be broken.  Unlike Human Revolution, all the bosses are recurring characters you spend plenty of time with.  But you can outright blow them away WELL in advance and the game will acknowledge their deaths and keep going anyway.  If you engage in a boss battle during a designated boss fight, but avoid them or run away, then that boss will turn up again for a rematch later. 

This is a game where you can create your own cover spots or platforms by gathering vending machines and dumpsters and piling them on top of each other.  Where specialization changes the entire feel of the campaign and incentivizes repeat playthroughs just to come up with different builds and experience missions in whole new ways.  And best yet, this is a game where when you're in a hub, whatever you see around you, you can interact with.  If you see buildings in the distance, you'll be able to go in and explore, and there's always something to find. Deus Ex is number one because there will never be another game like it.  It's debatable that no other game will ever be as FUN as MGSV, but no other game will ever be as open ended as Deus Ex because it's literally impossible.  The game is clunky and cheap looking because the engine it was built on was a low-memory one.  They traded in graphics fidelity and more impressive flow for the sake of creating a vast video game with an impossible amount of content to constantly stumble upon.  And unlike all the other games on this list, that open endedness actually DOES translate into the story, giving you dozens of different branching paths to the story, and sadly, only three fairly weak endings, but damn, if the journey up ain't a blast.  

I have a whole slew of other lists I’ve been meaning to post for the better part of two years, and honestly, they’re fun to write.  So, who knows?  Don’t worry though, they won’t get in the way of bellies or burp content either.  XD

[bssaz97]

What jaune ships do you like?

Ok, so now to talk about the Jaune ships I DO like, this should be nice! Also I just want to reassure you guys, just because I like a certain ship doesn’t mean I’m calling anyone’s favorite ships inferior or anything. (That’s not what I like to do here) Already let’s get started!

10. Jaune x Penny or Circuit Breaker

I think it’s cute, gives off a robo girl likes boy feeling. Honestly reminds me a bit of the Life as a Teenage Robot cartoon I watched as a kid.

9. Jaune x Glynda or Arcwitch

The only reason I kinda dig this ship is because of my experience reading Professor Arc by Couer Al’ Aran. (Which is a super funny set up and story) Although I would only ship this if it’s in an AU where Jaune is older than his canon self.

8. Jaune x Velvet or Scarlet Knight/Bunoculars

I’ve seen a lot of fans ship these two together and I honestly don’t blame them. Usually stems from nice guy helps out bullied girl or shy girl set up. Also it makes for cute interactions.

7. Jaune x Cinder or Knightfall

I gotta say I was suprised that this ship got rated as high as it did. I’ve seen a few writers make this ship work in a redeemed Cinder story or Cinder is Jaune’s wife while also being a servant of Salem in secret. (Yes I’ve read A Monster’s Marriage, and I loved it)

6. Jaune x Nora or Nora’s Arc

This ship honestly doesn’t get much love, and it’s not hard to see why. (Renora being a staple ship for the canon series) I love to see this sometimes because it comes from how well Jaune and Nora get along. They form a very close familial bond in the series and it would be fun to see how this power couple would do.

5. Jaune x Blake or Knightshade

I like this ship because of the chemistry that fans have created for these two. We never get to see much of them interact for the most part but the fan base more than makes up for that. Plus it’s heartwarming to see this as one of the more healthier relationships Blake could have.

4. Jaune x Weiss or White Knight

Ah the classical ‘guy gets the girl of his dreams’ ships that in a way. Weiss is one of my favorite girl characters of the series and I adore how these two have grown since how they interacted in Volumes 1. This shows how much the two have matured throughout the series as a whole, in which Jaune becomes more mature and more considerate of people’s space and Weiss becomes nicer and more tolerable of his shenanigans. So good ship overall.

3. Jaune x Pyrrha or Arkos

.....Honestly looking at this ship still hurts. Because of what happened to this one was nothing less than a tragedy. I really liked this ship and was my second favorite for awhile (Still kinda is because this and another ship were battling for #2 spot) and still carries a great following. I loved they way Pyrrha was in a sense that Aerith archetype character where they were supportive to Jaune and loved him unconditionally. The bond they have is powerful and still stands when she’s gone. (Let’s get this going before I start crying on the inside)

2. Jaune x Yang or Dragonslayer

Honestly this one was a weird one for me, normally I didn’t see myself liking this ship way more than I thought I would, but I do. It mixes the nerdy kid meets cool girl, and their personalities fills in gaps where the other is lacking and works well. Where Yang is a act first, think later kind of person and where Jaune is a think first, act later type of guy. Plus their fighting styles polar each others in a fun way (Yang=Melee/Brawler vs Jaune=Support/Tank) and have the potential for great chemistry.

1. Jaune x Ruby or Lancaster 💛❤️

Now I’m sure a lot of you aren’t that surprised that this one is my favorite ship. (Icon is a dead giveaway lol) I love both of these characters dearly and they have natural chemistry because of their similar likes and goals. The way their dynamo works is very fluid and often they can trade roles almost flawlessly. The way they interact is one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen and they scream couple potential.... even if it doesn’t get shown a lot, but when it shows it SHOWS! If I had to say which ship in my opinion was most likely to be canon, if would be this.

Hope you guys liked the post, and if you have any questions to ask me feel free to ask. Be good people and stay safe out there!

[parf-fan]

2019 shows have been posted!

Queen's Court

The town gathers to officially welcome Her Majesty as she makes her first visit to the Shire of Mt. Hope. Her glorious court will be introduced, and the Queen herself shall pass judgement on petitions submitted by the townsfolk. 'Twill be a merry gathering that sets the tone for the rest of the festival day!

The Irish Revels

The O'Sullivan Quintuplets, a touring sibling band from the Emerald Isle, who have just lost their lead musician to a new position in her Majesty's court, are now down to four. Join this misfit family as they pull themselves up by their bootstraps with their impressive music chops and delightful chaotic energy. [I’m so bloody pleased this group is still a thing.]

Boarshead Brawl

Mistress Quickly is hoping for a smooth grand opening to her new establishment: the Boarshead Inn. But as two feuding local families encounter each other, the tension threatens to boil over into a violent fray. Watch as Mistress Quickly defends her tavern against brawlers, swordmasters, and worst of all…playwrights. [THE BOARSHEAD BRAWL IS BACK YOU GUYS YASSSSSS! Don’t get me wrong, I adored the Melee, but the Brawl was the first in-house show I ever saw at the Faire, and it holds a very special place in my heart. Also, the stage was (and presumably now will be once more) cool as heck.]

The Sirens

Four pirate captains, members of The Order of The Relentless Contessa (Heave Ho!), have land-sailed far inland to hammer out the details for a new accord. Join these fearsome females for many sea shanties and a healthy dose of filthy pirate humor. [OH MY GODS THAT’S WHAT ORC STANDS FOR HOLY FUCKING SHIT look, you don’t understand, okay, when I saw that I squeed at such a high frequency that I’m surprised the windows didn’t break, and I couldn’t stop hand-flapping for like a solid ten minutes. I’ve never been happier.]

Trunk Shows

The citizens of our shire have been tasked with providing family-friendly entertainment for our guests! Witness the Story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf like you've never seen it before, learn the tale of Doctor Faustus, and witness one of England's oldest tales: The Legend of Black Shuck! Join us at the Discovery Stage for some entertainment that everyone, young and old, can enjoy!

The Boy who Cried Wolf Sheriff Perry has apprehended one of the shire's most devious ne'er-do-wells and as his community service, the good Sheriff is making him do the hardest task possible: entertain nipperkins with a morality fable!

Faustus Christopher Marlowe has entrusted some of our shire's citizenry with producing his most famous play: Dr. Faustus. Unfortunately it is REALLY long. It's up to young William Shakespeare and his friends to condense the tale on the spot. Is the young glover a good enough writer to pull off such a feat?

The Legend of Black Shuck England's most haunting creature has never felt sillier. Learn of the demon dog that prowls England's countryside, and decide for yourself if he is really a bad dog, or just a misunderstood puppy.

The Rakish Rogues

Sterling Armstrong leads this band of terrifying and dangerous highwaymen...or at least that is how they think they appear in their heads. Join this merry band of misfits in celebrating a successful sting with song, filthy humor and a touch of bumbling charm. [I’m still shocked that it took us this long to think of highwaymen for the Rogues, because it’s friggin’ perfect.]

Trial and Dunke

One thing Sheriff Jacob Perry loves about festival days: they make a great excuse to execute mob justice. He's acquired a brand new dunke tank and has assembled some of the shire's most devious criminals so that he may deliver their punishment. So what if they insist that they are innocent? That's what they all say! Come and see cold wet justice served. [There, all ye patrons who do nothing but gripe about changes, here’s one of the old shows back.]

Midday Revels

The Queen and her court are offered the best music and talents the Shire has to offer! Join her Majesty in the entertaining merriment! [From what I understand, it’s like Music With Her/Their Majesty(s), except it’s just the invasions by other groups. A bit variety-show ish.]

Human Chess

A dispute between two Mt. Hope families shall be resolved in traditional fashion: with a game of Human Chess! Witness the clash of steel and the thrill of melee combat as the citizen of Mt. Hope fight for their respective sides before the watching eyes of Her Majesty and all her court.

The Rogues and Sirens

These two groupings of highwaymen and pirates have joined their thieving forces to perform filthy pub songs for the good people of The Shire. Buy an ale and spend some time singing along with these delightful criminals. [Y’all, this is gonna be hecking rad.]

Disasterpiece Theater

Young master William Shakespeare has a day away from the glove shop, and he's been dying to try his hand at playwrighting. He has assembled the best performers the shire has to offer (and that he can afford with his meager budget of beer and the mysterious currency "exposure"). Presenting a different modern story with a 16th century twist every weekend of the Faire, only one thing is for certain: it is sure to be a Disasterpiece! [One: YESSSS IT’S BACK IT’S BACK IT’S BAAAAAAACK!!!! Two: having young William host this is a stroke of genius. Three: exposure tho, I’m gonna shit myself.]

Ultimate Joust

Knights both good and evil gather to joust for honor, glory, and the entertainment of all the people of Mt. Hope. Elizabeth hopes for naught but a bit of rousing sport, but some of the villainous knights may have other ideas…An epic conclusion to a thrilling festival day that is not to be missed!

Finale in Song

The time hath come for Her Majesty's royal coronation before her court and all the good people of Mt. Hope. But though 'tis a sacred ceremony, Elizabeth sees no reason why it cannot be accompanied by song, dance, and celebration! Become a part of the village of Mt. Hope, and end your festival day with merry music, and joyous laughter.

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

Also, Friday Knight Improv is here still, and though it’s not listed, I presume that Tournament Joust is still a thing.

It appears that Bloody Best is no more, though, which does sadden me, for I enjoyed the heck out of that show, but believe it or not, the Faire’s still gonna be great.

I’m so excited. This is gonna be fantastic.

[alteredphoenix]

Some random WoW/Fire Emblem: Three Houses X-Over I came up with on the fly (WIP)

A/N: I’ve never played Fire Emblem; seeing the characters appear in Super Smash Bros. Melee onwards always felt like an inclusion - at least, to a younger me - that felt peculiar at the time. (Also, I am quite awful at RTS games that aren’t online hero brawlers, and it’s the one reason why I haven’t touched Stronghold HD in years, but that is beside the point.) I never caught on with the games as I grew up, my interest was that ambivalent.

But then I started taking note of all the fan art of Three Houses on Twitter over the past month and became curious. To me, this game seemed - and would eventually, given its reception - as if it would be the most notable in its franchise. I don’t have a Switch to access it (and would rather not have to cave in and just hit up YouTube for a quick fix), but I had felt compelled to write something even if there is a good possibility my characterization might be off the mark.

So the first thing I decide to write - but certainly not the first: that’s reserved for FE3H fic where dogs are endangered species, the houses have to sponsor one breed to get them repopulated, and Edelgard decides to set the fucking world on fire just so she can gain fem!Byleth’s love by acquiring the fantasy equivalent of a Siberian Husky (because Byleth adores huskies and carries a tin full of husky/wolf figurines as tokens of good fortune, but said huskies are allegedly presumed extinct, so Black Eagles are the only house to be universally ridiculed for sponsoring an animal that may no longer exist) - is fem!Byleth winding up in World of Warcraft during the timeskip, becomes a fisherman, and inadvertently becomes the Pack Leader of all the hunter cats in Booty Bay because she feeds them bear tartare, raw fish, and kitty kibble on a daily basis, as seen through the eyes of a pair of human and goblin OCs running a fishing shack.

There was slightly more to this than what you see here, but the power got knocked out due to a strong thunderstorm passing through my area so consider this piece very WIP. (I still think about the “Vereesa embraces her inner troll and murks an innocent blood elf during the Purge of Dalaran” fic that got completely nuked a while back, and feel remorse for not saving the damn document.)

-

“Hey. Brody,” Melanie’s voice called, and when Brody looked up from where he sat at the desk it was to her stepping into the tiny office with a box full of bolts of cloth and other materials she had acquired all over the Bay. “Brody.”

“What?”

“She’s coming ‘round again.”

“Who?”

“You know.”

He blew a sigh upward, sending his long locks flying uselessly and getting in his eyes. “No, I don’t. When you say ‘she’, you could mean anyone.”

“Brody, you know exactly who I’m talking about!” Melanie plopped the box on the floor, put her hands on her hips, and leaned forward for extra emphasis on what she said next, in as diplomatic a tone as she could muster: “No-Face is coming.”

“Oh yeah,” Brody said, lazily twirling the pencil in his hand. “No-Face.”

-

This was how Brody Hookbane and Melanie Hampton’s conversations started off, ever since the woman Brody had come to dub as ‘No-Face’ strolled through Booty Bay three weeks ago. The war between the Alliance and the Horde over the azerite wounds popping up all over the planet had driven Baron Revilgaz to ramp up security and make the official declaration that – once again – no matter what faction colors you wore or what flag you flew, you still had to abide by Booty Bay laws; if you wanted a fight, why, it was better to take it outside and die like the dogs they were. This made flight schedules from Kalimdor Airlines and Southern Skies Platform extremely contentious for the first few months, once word about Teldrassil and Undercity got out, and it was when the fights spilled out from the bars and rival adventurer guilds tried to wrest control of the docks and the entrance from the guards did the Baron sic the Blackwater Raiders on them and declare martial law. If you wanted in on Booty Bay, then you had to say what you wanted to say and keep your hands to yourselves. It was only until just recently, some time before Old Man Heming tasked Brody and Melanie to run The Happy Bobber while he was away at Mechagon Island to ‘cull the population’ of ionized minnows that the imposition was lifted, and people from all walks of life were allowed to come and go as they pleased so long as they went by the rules (which, in all seriousness, the rules were no different than when Azeroth’s superpowers were butting heads, and that in itself was an everyday occurrence).

No-Face was not Alliance. She was not even a hired hand of the Horde, as much as Brody had heard the stories of Thrall employing human sellswords to inform him of events happening in the world as he managed affairs in Orgrimmar. In fact, Brody had learned, from a friend of a friend (who learned from another friend’s cousin, who heard it from that cousin’s third cousin on his third mother’s side of the family), that No-Face did not know there was a war going on. “Don’t know how she got here, she says,” the friend said. “Just shewed up in Stranglethorn and started walkin’ south, lookin’ for answers.” That had been three weeks ago, and seeing that she was still hanging around Booty Bay and the wilderness, Brody and Melanie made the obvious connection that No-Face still hadn’t found the answers she was looking for.

“Maybe she’s an alien,” Melanie said, one day. “You know, like the draenei and the orcs.”

“Nah,” Brody said. “She looks too plain to be an alien. You could put her in a room full of humans and she’d fit right in with all the bluebloods.”

“How do you know she’s a blueblood?”

“I dunno, she’s got the look of a blueblood. Big Nose McGee in Stormwind looks more like a member of a boy band than a king.”

“Maybe she’s an adventurer.”

“She can’t be. Most adventurers I’ve seen wear slutmogs.”

“You call a badass coat a ‘slutmog’?”

“No, the rest of her is all...Look at her. She wears fishnet stockings, Mel. Fishnet.”

“So?”

“So?! That’s something you don’t see your average female adventurer wear! They dare to go bare; that’s the slutmog way! It’s all skin with the low-cut breastplates that are one inch away from having those puppies come out, and-and-and those really thin G-string plates that make their asscheeks look like a pair of balloons you gotta pop at the Darkmoon Faire!”

“All that talk of women, and no men? Have you seen the night elves? They’re wearing thorns, Brody! Thorns!”

“Bah, thorns, shmorns!”

“At least thorns are creative! Someone could try to get up close and personal and, and, I don’t know, maybe they’d get pricked just touching them. Because nothing says distraction like having your eight-pack abs and your noodle jammed in an overstuffed speedo on display for all of Azeroth to see.”

“That’s because you see barely see guys strip down to their birthday suits and use that to seize the day! Women have a more profound effect because it’s expected of them!”

“But now you have all the guys coming off the boats looking like they came out of Uldum, with their fancy feathered helmets and half their chest sticking out from their girdles and skirts. It’s a step in the right direction!”

“And I say good for them! It’s a step in the right direction! Sometimes less is more, Mel. Sometimes you just need a little glitz to make yourself stand out! Not,” and he had waved his hand around, “you know, like that.”

“There’s no shame in looking like that! Everyone has their own way of utilizing sex appeal to their own advantage. Oh, by the way, she has a belly window, too.”

“Ya see what I mean?!”

Melanie did, and they had bickered back and forth on this very topic, as well as the topic of her hypothetical bluebloodedness, for every day No-Face was in town, and preferably once she had her fishing supplies together and was way, way out of earshot.

[incorrectsmashbrosquotes]

O, great one, I offer you the blood of 10 melee fans who think that Sakurai is "ruining" the series by updating it and fixing bugs, so that thou may present us with some Shulk x Robin!

Ah yes, feed me the salty blood of the toxic fanboys!

Robin:

Ooh, ooh!

I do, I do, I do, I doooo!

Heeeeey!

Oooooh, 

I do, I do, I do, I doooo!

Boy you got me helpless!

Look into your eyes and the Sky’s the limit,

I’m

Robin with chorus:

Helpless! 

Down for the count and I’m,

drownin’ in em!

Robin:

I have never been the type to try and grab the spotlight,

we were at a brawler with some Smashers on a hot night!

Laughing at Zelda as she’s dazzling the room,

Then you walked in and my heart went BOOM!

Tryin’ to catch your eye from the side of the ballroom,

Everybody’s dancin’ and the band’s top volume,

Robin with chorus:

Grind to the rhythm as we wine and dine!

Robin:

Grab Zelda and whisper:

“Yo this one’s mine!”

Zelda makes her way across the room to,

yo~ooooou!

And I got nervous thinkin’ “What’s she gonnna 

doo~ooo!”

She grabbed you by the arm I’m thinkin’ “I’m through!”

Then you look back at me and suddenly I’m 

HELPLESS!

Oh, look at those eyes (Look into your eyes)

And the sky’s the limit

I’m helpless

Down for the count and I’m drownin’ in ‘em!

Helpless!

I am so into you! I am so into you!

And the sky’s the limit, I’m helpless!

I know I’m down for the count and I’m drownin’ in 'em!

Shulk: Where are you taking me?

Zelda: I’m about to change your life.

Shulk, flirtatiously: Well then, by all means lead the way.

Robin, bustling up to meet them: Robin, It’s a pleasure to meet you.

Shulk: Robin is it?

Zelda: My dearest friend.

Robin, nervously: Thank you… for all your service.

Shulk: If it takes fighting a war for us to have met it will be well worth any cost it may bring us. *kisses Robin’s hand*

Zelda: I’ll leave you too it!

Robin, and chorus:

ONE WEEK LATER,

Robin:

I’m writing a letter nightly.

Now my life gets better every letter that you write me!

Laughing at Zelda ‘cause she wants to form a harem.

Zelda: I’m just saying if you really love me you would share him.

Robin: HA!

Robin and chorus:

Two weeks later! 

Robin:

In the living room stressin’,

My father stone faced as you’re asking for his blessing.

I’m dying inside as you wine and dine!

And I’m trying not to cry cause there’s nothin’ that your mind can’t do~ooo.

My father makes his way across the room to 

you~oooo

And I panic for a second thinkin’ “We’re 

through~ooo”

But then he takes your hand and says 

“Be True.”

And you turn back to me, smiling, and I’m

Robin and Chorus:

Helpless!

Look into your eyes and the sky’s the limit I’m

Helpless!

Down for the count and I’m drownin’ in 'em (hoo!)

I’m helpless!

hat boy is mine, that boy is mine!

Look into your eyes and the sky’s the limit

I’m helpless

Helpless, helpless

Down for the count and I’m drownin’ in 'em

Down for the count and I’m DROWNIN’ IN EM!

Shulk:

Robin, I don’t have a dollar to my name.

An acre of land, a troop to command, a dollar of fame,

All I have’s my honor, a tolerance for pain, a couple of college credits and my far-seeing brain.

Insane!

Your family brings out a different side of me.

Peachy confides in me, And Zelda tried to take a bite of me!

N- no stress!

My love for you was never in doubt.

We’ll get a little place in Smashville and we’ll figure it out.

I’ve been living without a family since I was a child.

My parent’s dies, my guardian lied, I grew up running wild!

But I’ll never forget when I saw your face, that was real.

And I swear to Monodo you’ll never feel so

Robin and Shulk:

Helpless!

Robin:

I do, I do, I do, I do~oooo!

Shulk:

Robin!

Robin:

Helpless! I do, I do, I do, I do~oooo!

Shulk:

I’ve never felt so-

Robin:

Helpless!

Hey, yeah, yeah!

Down for the count and I’m drownin’ in 'em

I’m down for the count, I'm—

Helpless!

Shulk: 

My life is going fine ‘cause Robin’s in it!

Robin:

I look into your eyes and the sky’s the limit I’m-

Robin and chorus:

HELPLESS!

Down for the count and I’m… drowning in em!

Chorus:

In Smashville you can be a new man,

In Smashville you can be a new man,

In Smashville you can be a new…. maaa~aaan…

Robin:

Helpleee~eees….

[lowtldes]

GUN FOR HIRE OC  ↠ Tristan Ong

MELEE / “The Up-Close and Personal” / Fights because he doesn’t want to move. Again.

AGE: 27

HEIGHT: 5′8″

SPECIALTY: The Brawler

WEAPONS: an engraved 1911 / his fists

OCCUPATION: Freelance Photographer / Fall’s End General Store Employee

LOCATION: Fall’s End, standing outside the General Store

SHORT BIO:  Tristan is a freelance photographer, new to Hope County. Tristan’s spent the last few years of his life moving from couch to couch, place to place. He needed something stable, so when his younger sister Thea got a job at Hope County Police Department, she suggested he move there with her since they could both use a change of scene. Tristan didn’t have to follow, but after their mother died and their father abruptly moved back to the Philippines, he wanted to be close to the only family he had left. He got a part-time job in the General Store at Fall’s End, which gave him a lot of time to hike around the county and pursue his work in photography. Then, barely two weeks after moving to the county, the local cult got violent. He hasn’t even unpacked all of his boxes, and now he’s getting into fistfights with every cultist that crosses his path. When Tristan wanted a change of scene moving to the county, he never thought it would have meant getting into fistfights with crazy religious cultists. Makes for good pictures, though.

RECRUITMENT MISSION: Shutterbug -- Help Tristan get his camera equipment from Deep North Irrigation Reservoir. [Talk to Tristan / Follow Tristan / Eliminate all Peggies / Pose for photos / Talk to Tristan] "Hey, I’m Tristan. Still new in town and boy is shit crazy right now, huh? I used to work at the General Store... well, I worked there for like five days and now, ah, I think my boss is dead so does that count as working there? Never mind. You look like you can fuck people up. I left some of my camera equipment on the roof of Deep North, could you help me get my shit back? The place is crawling with Peggies. I got some money from the register I could give you as a reward, just don’t rat me to my dead boss, heh... Oh, and I can snap some pictures for you too if you want.”

SPECIAL ABILITIES: MEAN SWING -- Glass jaw or not, if Tristan gets close enough he can down enemies with a single punch. Angels? Three punches. His hand wraps are always bloody for a reason. CAMERAMAN -- Tristan will randomly snap photos while he travels with you. Yes, even in combat. [pictures are located in the same folder as screenshots]

RELATIONSHIPS IN HOPE COUNTY:

Mary May -- He tried to apply for a job bartending at the Spread Eagle, but Mary May laughed at how terrible his bartending skills were. She still wanted to help him find work so she pointed him towards the General Store.

Jerome Jeffries -- Complimented Tristan on his photography once and Tristan was head over heels for the guy for the next three days. A little guilt about it too, the man’s a Pastor, after all.

Joey Hudson -- Tristan admires her, she’s a survivor. She’s pretty hot too, but he’s not gonna comment on that or try to ask her out. She looks like she just needs space, and Tristan steers clear.

Nick Rye -- Tristan thinks the guy’s okay, Nick won’t let him take pictures of Carmina, though.

Sharky Boshaw -- Tristan sees him set a guy on fire and thinks yeah, i’d tap that. Then Sharky opens his mouth, says something dumb and becomes another person Tristan is kind of in love with.

Hurk Drubman Jr. -- Same as Sharky. Turns out Tristan likes jolly idiots, Hope County is truly taking him through a journey of self-discovery. He’d join Hurk’s Gate.

Jess Black -- Scares Tristan a little. But she’s a great photograph subject, it takes him a long time to convince her to let him take photos of her.

Grace Armstrong -- The second Tristan saw Grace, he was fucked. Totally in love. She’s so awe-inspiring, and he’s pretty sure she isn’t interested in him at all.

Adelaide Drubman -- She looks like a blonde, slightly younger version of his mother. Nope. He stays away from that.

AMBIENT QUOTES:

[getting into cars] “Fuck yeah, let’s Mad Max this shit.”

[picking herbs] “Dude, I don’t think you can smoke that... but you do you, I guess.”

[in a church] “I grew up Catholic. Sunday pants and everything. Now I don’t know if I believe in God. If he’s real, he definitely doesn’t give a shit.”

[getting headshots] “What are you, an aimbot? God. I miss video games.”

[blowing up stuff] “Ah, it’s moments like these that make me miss Vine.”

[looting bodies] “That guy shat his pants and you’re going through his back pockets? Brave. I respect that.”

“Hey, can you kill that guy again? There was dirt on my lens.”

“God, I wish I could post stuff online. My photos about this war crap would get so many hits.”

“I really don’t know shit about guns. Seriously, if you even ask me what kind of gun I’m holding right now, I have no idea. I just took it from the store because I thought the engraving was pretty. Pretty. I don’t know shit. But hey, as long as I can shoot it, right?”

“All the Seeds are kind of hot, don’t you think? Crazy, of course, but hotter than they have any right to be. Except for Joseph, though. I mean I can see that he’s hot too, but the whole Jared Leto look doesn’t do it for me. That’s just me, though. If you think he’s hot, I support you.”

“You know, when my sister and I moved here, I really thought I was gonna be bored. I was scared I’d turn into a farmer or something. But nope, now I do murder. Life’s funny. Really makes you think.”

“I wonder if this shit’s made it to worldwide news. I wonder if my dad thinks me and Thea are dead. Dunno if he’d care, to be honest. That’s not who he is now.”

“Well, will ya look at that? My hands are shaking so much I can’t hold my camera properly. Maybe I should stop punching cultists in the face for a while, it’s really hurting my artist hands.”

QUOTES IN JOHN’S REGION:

[at Fall’s End] “Ugh, just thinking about unboxing the rest of my shit from the move makes me wanna take a nap. Seems pointless too. Why would I bother unpacking when there’s a war going on? Yeah, I know I’m procrastinating. But God.”

“John Seed. Sadistic motherfucker, isn’t he? Hot though, I’ll give him that. Definitely the kind of guy I’d blow in a nightclub bathroom stall and never see again.”

“Dude, we gotta stop that John Seed. Let’s blow up some silos and shit. That’ll get him pissed. Maybe he’ll tattoo us. Which I’m... definitely not looking forward to, I mean. Shit is fucked up.”

“So John was a big city lawyer, right? Why the fuck would he come all the way here? It’s just... cows and shit. But--ah, yeah, I can’t say shit about that though, can I? I moved here from the city too. I’m a dumbass.”

QUOTES IN FAITH’S REGION:

[at Hope County Jail] “Time for some prison photography, I guess. Never thought I’d get here.”

“Oh, you know that guy Tweak? Wonder if he’s alive. He gave me some good weed my first week in town. Don’t tell my sister.”

“Um, I’m not the only one seeing hippie Seed frolicking in the grass, right? Right?”

“Faith Seed is what happens when you go through your pretty princess phase and zombie apocalypse phase at the same time. Next thing you know it’ll be an emo phase.”

“Let’s run through some Bliss fields! The flowers would be beautiful props for portrait photography. Though, I wonder how good my photos’ll be while I’m Bliss high. The angles and focus would probably be all wrong. Yeah, never mind let’s not. The composition in my head will get so fucked... Actually, fuck, let’s do it.”

“Those angels, man, I swear I clocked one in the face and she bit my hand. What if it spreads like an actual zombie disease? Promise me you’ll kill me if I ever go bald, Deputy, promise me.”

QUOTES IN JACOB’S REGION:

[at the Wolf’s Den] “Is there only one bathroom here? Do they all share the same bathroom? That’s a lotta people for one bathroom. Eugh.”

“Oh god, we’re hiking this place, aren’t we? My legs are gonna kill me tomorrow. The things I do to keep my ass tight... And save civilians, yeah. That too. That’s also important.”

“The views we’re gonna see up here, oh man. I hope my camera’s got enough battery for today because I am not putting this bad boy down.”

“Jacob Seed is a goddamn fool. If he wants to put people in cages, he doesn’t have to kidnap them. There’s a whole community for people who are into that, someone’s gotta tell him. Not me, though. I like my balls where they are, thanks.”

“I think my sister’s kind of into that Jacob guy. Which is fucked up and stupid, but I’m the self-destructive idiot in the family so she’s not gonna listen to me. As her big brother, should I be worried? I can’t threaten that guy, I’m pretty sure. I think I’d die, but shit, I really feel like I’m supposed to have some kind of brotherly obligation here.”

“Those wolves--those Judges--that shit is so wrong. If we run into one I’m gonna piss myself. I can’t punch a wolf, can I? Oh wait, I have a gun. Right.”

[lewisibarra1512]

The true reason how and why I quietly quit Super Smash Bros. (A warning rant)

(NOTE: The following post you're about to read after the jump is based on my frustrating relationship with the Smash community and their current state, including the former president being involved for wrongly accusing one of my favorite Nintendo villains King K. Rool. If you're easily offended, please do not attempt to reply to this post while acting harsh. I don't want to have to see or hear stuff people are doing nowadays.)

This is something I've never been able to explain since my return to Tumblr, let alone coming out as to who or what I currently am. But to tell you the truth, I wanted to get this out of my chest and set the record perfectly straight: I am an ex-Super Smash Bros. player. I know what y'all are thinking "Why'd you quit?" "Where the hell were you?" Or "Did you missed out on EVERY character reveal that made my wallet empty just like magic?" Just consider the following: I was never big into the community ever since I've been a blacksheep for so long. Especially since the latest installment alone became a downgraded kid's party game that doesn't look entirely like a real fighting game in general. I'll go on ahead and share my frustrating relationship with Smash and what made me quit the Smash scene.

I wanna take you back to the year 1999 when Super Smash Bros. originated on the Nintendo 64, the first console that introduced me to gaming with the likes of Super Mario 64 as a primitive source of open world environments. It was basically a four player brawler where instead of original characters, they'd have Nintendo All-Stars come together and beat the crap out of each other in a more lighter tone of every Godzilla movie. Then there was this commercial where Mario, Donkey Kong, Big Nose and Japanese Michael Rodent were frolicking through the flower field until suddenly, they get into a fight. It was unexpected at first, but it was funny. Even though it was a best seller, it didn't pave the way of being catered to competitive players until the late and great Hiroshi Yamauchi's final console release under his watch was the Nintendo GameCube. Two years later while the latter was around the corner during launch, Melee arrived on the scene, introducing a fast paced mechanic with wave dashing abilities. It gained even more stages than its predecessor, as well as an adventure mode and special events exclusive to single player matches. And it also saw its first foray into female representation such as Princess Peach, Zelda and Mewtwo (I prefer a female variant more, so don't try testing me on it). Super Smash Bros. Melee, after it was unveiled, achieved over 7.41 million copies, making it the best seller and would later appear in tournaments. Both the GameCube and the Game Boy Advance were two of the last consoles made by Yamauchi before his retirement in 2002 due to his age, until he was replaced an imcompetent con-artist turned money grubbing scumbag. I'm not gonna get into detail as to who he is, so let's say his name is Lans G.

Before Lans G. took over Nintendo, there was a certain villain that caught my absolute attention by surprise. It's not Ridley, Ganondorf or even King Dedede. It's King K. Rool. He made his first appearance in Donkey Kong Country circa 1994 when an overrated system was released four years prior. I loved his design and physical appearance, as well as the ability to turn his crown into a boomerang; use a blunderbuss to shoot enemies; fly around with his trusty propeller pack and even participating in a game of boxing. Right next to an overweight orangutan named Diddy Kong, who also originated on the same system, K. Rool is considered a shoe-in of having no super powers. Who needs them when you've got the muscles and the belly to keep all crocodile lovers like me company? Although I never owned the game and the overrated system during the 90's (despite having to own a NEW Nintendo 3DS XL in 2016), I quickly fell in love with him. And after making appearances in Diddy's Kong Quest, Dixie Kong's Double Trouble, the Land series on Game Boy and Donkey Kong 64, it was the day I became a full on supporter for King K. Rool only.

From then on, I started to fully support K. Rool into returning to the world of Nintendo, just to see if he could make another appearance. But to my utter disappointment, I noticed there was no sight of him. Only a series of bland tiki mask enemies who were featured in Donkey Kong Country Returns. Then I tried again in the newest installment, simply known as Tropical Freeze. Same thing, but with Lord Fredrik and the animal vikings involved. Both the Donkey Kong Country games made specifically for the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch respectfully without the disastrous use of motion controls were entirely developed by RETRO Studios, a company based in Texas. They were ordered by Lans G. to eradicate any mention about King K. Rool, so he can force Donkey Kong and friends to be better off without him. And that alone broke my heart. Finally, came Super Smash Bros. 3D. Or just Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS due to the popularity of handhelds. Smash 3D was the first of its kind to be developed on a portable system to allow players fight anytime, anywhere. That's their unique marketing slogan: Fight anytime, anywhere. I tried unlocking every character from reveal trailers and those that weren't featured on the 3DS' negatively received counterpart and, just like Returns and Tropical Freeze alone, K. Rool was STILL nowhere to be found. I was completely devastated and hurt by how the Smash community started treating K. Rool as if he's nothing but an "irrelevant" and "less iconic" Nintendo villain. I knew that if they all found out I was an avid K. Rool lover and supporter, I feared they'd start jabbing me right in the cheek and beat me up! But then came my final chance to redeem myself: the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot.

When the site was launched, I got lucky enough to cast my vote for K. Rool to be playable in Smash 3D, so I can enjoy buying his merchandise and show those self entitled weeaboos who's the REAL boss around here. After filling in the vote, I was all set! I felt glad and happy to realize there were other players out there who disliked the weeaboo culture that also casted their vote for K. Rool. I could imagine myself playing as King K. Rool in Smash 3D, where I wouldn't have to sit through another Smash game involving another generic anime fighter. But when I heard the unfortunate news about him, my victory was short lived. Lans G. decided to troll me and the fans of giving players a King K. Rool Mii costume for brawlers. I looked at it in silence, then felt like I was dead on the inside. Momentarily, I got angry. Having a K. Rool costume for Mii brawlers meant it was nothing but a slap in the face for those who voted for him, because Lans G. knew how popular he was just before he died. And months later, after a web show they should have cancelled was brought back, they publicly announced Bayonetta was unveiled as the new winner of the Fighter Ballot. And then started to give players Cloud Strife in the middle of my birthday. Really? A Final Fantasy VII character? I'm going to cause a major uproar, but I certainly hate Square Enix. I mean, what even is the point of comparing Final Fantasy to Sonic the Hedgehog if we never have gotten VII on the SEGA Saturn? If it were up to someone who had the heroic efforts of porting it over without pirating it, we never would've had to stare at a 24 / 7 picture of Bernie Stolar on literally just about anything.

After DLC was wrapped up, and all the Fire Emblem characters were pretty much overrepresented, I decided to look up on who was responsible for making every Fire Emblem game to date. Not only was the game developed wholly by Intelligent Systems, but much to my rage, dismay, frustration, irritation, humiliation and fury, it was indeed Tohru Narihiro, being the co-producer of every Smash game while he brought Marth and Roy to Melee. It was at this moment my chances, dreams and hopes of supporting King K. Rool were brutally shattered into millions and millions of pieces before they suddenly disappeared. By that time, I was at the breaking point of renouncing weeaboos, anime, generic human characters and first party game development. If Lans G. could've brought King K. Rool back from the dead, let alone have him return to the world of Nintendo for a brand new Donkey Kong title, then all was lost. My wish was to see King K. Rool make an appearance in a brand new Donkey Kong game, and yet it was all for nothing. Over an entire decade without King K. Rool's glorious and official return, everything was on Narihiro. Since I realized it was his fault, he was the one who started this hate, drama, controversy and scrutiny, and call me crazy, all because he was nothing but a big, fat, stupid bitch! Yes, I know. I know. Everyone hates it when I say that, but I needed to get that out of my chest. After I sold my copy of Smash 3D and earned some money, a new president Tatsumi Kimishima rose to the top and unveiled the greatest thing he only created while destroying the so-called legacy that was Lans G.: the Nintendo Switch.

Originally known as Nintendo NX, it was the go-to source of two different ways: At home, or on the go. I chose the latter, since I'm into handheld gaming. It was a breakthrough console that received so much love by third party publishers and indie developers (me included) they made amends to port so much games that Lans G. made Nintendo miss out on, such as Skyrim, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Mega Man, Sonic, DOOM, Shovel Knight, Freedom Planet, Shantae, Yooka-Laylee, Gunvolt and so many more. Then there were highly acclaimed hits exclusive to Nintendo such as Breath of the Wild, Kingdom Battle, Super Mario Odyssey and Cruis'n blast. All four games that were released on the system were produced and handled by Kimishima himself, and nowhere did it say "it stinks"! However, the Switch wasn't the biggest saving grace. Around 28 March 2017, a game called Rivals of Aether was the true reason it made me quietly quit Super Smash Bros. forever.

Rivals of Aether is regarded as a true spiritual successor to Melee, except its roster heavily consists of anthropomorphic animal champions from warring civilizations, as well as having a story mode, rollback netcode, unique controls, stunning graphics, animation and a killer soundtrack to listen to. It even boasts guest characters such as Ori from both the Blind Forest and Will of the Wisps, and the eponymous Shovel Knight. Really, who wouldn't love everyone's favorite anthropomorphic fish in disguise as a valiant warrior holding up a shovel? The game originally came out on PC 28 March, and again on XBOX ONE X 22 August and quickly received critical acclaim, claiming it was the biggest indie answer to Super Smash Bros. The result was that a company known as Aether Studios, founded by former Microsoft representative Dan Fornace, implemented a successful use for GameCube controllers and the revival of wavedashing. However, in terms of this, no shields or ledge grabbing were involved. Instead, hardcore gamers and players of Rivals would instead rely on wall jumping back on the stage and parry against incoming attacks from opponents, and that's a nice thing about it too. And when the definitive edition was just around the bend, it also added in the Milestone System (because it's free) and Tetherball Mode, as well as forthcoming characters in alphabetical order like Hodan, Mollo, Olympia and Pomme. But, out of everything that there is, there was one character whom I adore a lot: Ranno. When he was the first DLC character introduced at Super Smash Con (and then one year later with the successful inclusion of Shovel Knight), my mind blew me away as to why no one ever thought of having a frog chracter apper in a Rivals game. So I smiled with no regrets and tried the game out on Steam, and it worked. I even took home a few plushies that were themed to Rivals and made by Symbiote Studios, such as Ranno, Shovel Knight and Clairen. Out in the middle of nowhere, the former of the two would make guest appearances in games like Brawlhalla, Fall Guys and M.U.G.E.N., where I find it heartwarming. Speaking of heartwarming, Rivals of Aether also has a stunning community full of fun and exciting people to see and let them compete for cash and prizes. Afterwards, Aether Studios decided to retool the community safety guidelines in response to all this negative BS that's been circling aroudn Massy. After Rivals became a huge success, Dan and his team decided to bring the game over to the Nintendo Switch and called it Rivals of Aether - Definitive Edition, so I would start playing it anytime, anywhere. I do enjoy the idea of having four elements come together like fire, water, air and earth and then start beating the living hell out of each other. Ranno, for example, was the reason I began to love and support while entirely making fun of the other guy. It's not Zetterburn, Orcane, Wrastor, Kragg nor anyone else, but it's Massy's favorite final evolved water starter. Then there's the Steam Workshop where players can customize their own fighter and be able to upload them to Rivals only, unless they have a pixel art themed animation software. If Massy or Lans G. can't bring K. Rool back, let any fan do it! Outside of Rivals, Aether Studios also created Lovers of Aether, where the player can decide who will go to the prom instead of the Ding-Dong Tree as a date; Creatures, a mobile based card game similar to Hearthstone and the Elder Scrolls Legends; Dungeons, a roguelike RPG action adventure spin-off where players assume the role of Fleet as the main hero who is on a mission to embark on a journeye to find Julesvale herself, and a new 3D Rivals game I'm certainly looking forward to. Oh, and did I forget to mention they also made a comic series?

Fast forward to today, I've been with the Rivals community for about several years since Ranno swooced right in and guided me out of the dumpster fire that was Smash. Originally, I was considering buying Rivals on the eShop during a Black Friday Sales event in 2020, but then Limited Run Games made a physical release and became a full on sponsor for fighting games. Eventually, I did. After two years of being among the first GameMaker game to hit Switch around 24 September, I connected my Nintendo Switch GameCube Controller adapter to my Multiport USB PlayStand, I bought the game and started playing immediately. So Nintendo gave Dan and Aether Studios the OK signal, and Rivals was definitely the reason I quit Super Smash Bros. entirely. They let it happen, because there were so much indie support being given. Playing as Ranno felt like I relived the days of Smash for 3DS, but on a better selling system. And I was never able to put it down, considering why 64 and 3D condemned any wavedashing mechanic nor fast gameplay. Of course Aether Studios would oversee the popularity of the Switch and be all "Breath of the Wild and Odyssey became highly acclaimed titles, huh? However, it's missing something. What exactly would it want? Well, our opinions had been validated so many times lately, and the fact we admire our faithful newcomer Lewis over supporting Ranno and Clairen because they make the best couple, so we decided to come out and state... 'Screw it! Let's beat Sakurai and release Rivals of Aether - Definitive Edition on the Nintendo Switch while we do some damage, Rivals style!'" Unlike myself who's more of a full on supporter for third party publishers and indie developers, Nintendo fans just wouldn't wanna bother playing it. Much to my delight of course, since I already renounced first party games in 2016.

While I had the pleasure of playing Rivals on the Switch, I couldn't bring up the fact Massy went out of his way and made it unacceptably clear Super Smash Bros. is for "good boys and girls". I have a translation to that remark: it's for kids. FOR. KIDS. People couldn't expect high tier fan requests for characters like the DOOM Slayer, Liu Kang, Mai Shiranui or even Phoenix Wright to be in the roster, because it's targeted for a younger demographic! But the worst part about the Smash games is its dreaded community. There were a lot of people wanting characters like Crash, Geno or Travis to show up in the roster; whining and complaining about Waluigi not being playable twice due to assist trophies; not being able to shower or put on some deodorant; causing a fight over losing and even claim that it's a real fighting game instead of being catered to children as a party game. And then, as reported by Reddit user JFMV763, there were over 103 top Smash players who got away with sexually assaulting victims and minors before they got kicked out, leaving the community crumbled to pieces. I, as an ex-Smash player / fan, felt deeply shocked and surprised by the fact this unexpectedly happened, mainly because all of the players who wound up becoming sex predators were a part of the Weinstein effect. I wonder if Miramax managed to buy all four Pokemon movies after Spell of the Unknown? Maybe who knows, but that's just me.

If I'm going to review Smash Ultimate, I'd give it a -10 / 10. Why? I can't say. Besides, even if Rivals of Aether wasn't developed by Fornace nor Aether Studios, I would've given Ultimate a chance. But unfortunately, I highly doubt that. Hell, it's incredibly unplayable it'll wind up being sent back to various game stores so no one wants to go through the same old stuff over and over again. I for one don't wanna blow $130 for both the game and its expensive DLC. This is coming from a 90's kid turned cartoonist who welcomed third parties / indies as better alternatives.

As for Lans G. himself, think about it: the Wii branding, motion controls, getting rid of King K. Rool, glorifying weeaboo culture, shunning furries... what made you think he was gonna do for you, bring a negative impact to your life so y'all should feel happy for his bullshit excuses? Apparently obvious. You can always leave your complaint in the complaint box, but I don't check that shit.

That aside, I want to address what completely happened around July 2020. Now, I'm not a doctor, but I will share some advice: you're single. And you want to go on a date with someone, that's fine. And then you wanna get married before having a baby, so that's alright with me. But the thing is, as I've mentioned over qutting, there were so much assault towards underage victims who spoke against so-called Smash players like Cinnpie, Keitaro, Sky, D1 and ZeRo before e'rrybody else dropped out of its scene forever. Please remember: Don't sexualize kids. Don't engage in a relationship with them. And never, ever, under any circumstances, rape them. Either way, you're completely fucked.

So, yeah. Rivals of Aether was presumably the reason why I quit Super Smash Bros. over knowing it had become. Especially since Massy failed to address the allegations against players while becoming relentless. I'd rather be spending the day off at the Swampy Estuary talking about how real frogs are the best and why they're absolutely important in my own daily life.

Alright, rant over. I'm gonna go wash my hands and drink water before I do something else...

[twilighteve-writes]

Weaponized Cuteness

Summary: Everyone in U.A knew that Midoriya Izuku was the epitome of adorableness. That was why they never really talked about it. You don’t really argue against indisputable fact that everyone knew about.

Others, however, couldn’t say the same.

Or; the 1-A kids find ways to weaponize Izuku’s cuteness.

BNHA fic. Click read more, or you could read it in AO3 or FF.net.

Everyone in U.A knew that Midoriya Izuku was the epitome of adorableness. His level of adorableness was probably on par with (or even higher than) a baby deer or mewling kitten or some next-level cute baby animal of sorts. It was something they all knew. It was a fact; just like how water is wet and people need oxygen, Midoriya Izuku was cute. Indisputable fact, period.

It was why they never really talked about it. You don’t really argue against indisputable fact that everyone knew about, so everyone affiliated with U.A just agreed with it silently and went on with their lives. They knew this, after all.

Others, however, couldn’t say the same.

It was a trend 1-A kids had started to notice. When Izuku smiled, the cuteness level went off the charts and he was pretty much able to bring anyone to their knees without even realizing why, bless his dense but loving heart. This, however, had the unintended side effects. People react to cute things differently, after all. Some people coo at them. Some would want to hug them. Some would do anything to keep them safe and happy.

Some preferred to punch them because they were too damn cute. Some would stab them. Some would, without question, want to mush them into a sorry imitation of mashed potatoes made out of flesh and blood.

Fortunately for Izuku, most people tended to want to coo and hug cute things. Few of them would want to hit and hurt the cute things. Unfortunately for him, those few were usually the more vicious villains, who Izuku would soon deal with on a daily basis.

(1-A kids had agreed at least some of them would join the agency Izuku would be joining. Iida and Yaoyorozu had come up with contingency plan to it, a contingency plan to that contingency plan, and a contingency plan to the contingency plan to that contingency plan, plus possible options on how to react to certain situations that Todoroki had helped provide based on Endeavor’s trainings for said certain situations. One could never be too prepared.)

That didn’t mean they couldn’t make use of Izuku’s cuteness, however. Villains may be villains, but most of them reacted to cute things the way they would; by not wanting to hurt that cute little thing. Bakugou, the one most exposed to Izuku’s sunshine smiles and sparkling eyes, was the first to have the thought of might as well use this occurring to him.

It was in the middle of a two-on-two battle. Aizawa, seeing Bakugou and Izuku’s relationship having improved, decided to pair them to see how they would work side-by-side. The ones battling them were Iida and Todoroki, who worked well together. Bakugou and Izuku were pretty much neck to neck with them, and it didn’t look like one of the pairs would be winning anytime soon.

Bakugou was apparently tired of having to deal with it, so he shoved Izuku forward and yelled, “Hey, Deku, go smile at them!”

“Wait, what?” Izuku turned to him in confusion.

“Just do it, you nerd.”

Hesitantly, Izuku did. He turned back to Iida and Todoroki and hesitantly gave a soft smile while the two charged ahead to attack.

The effect was immediate. Iida’s Recipro stuttered and coughed up smoke as he ground to a halt, while Todoroki slipped on his own ice and fell on his butt. Bakugou, who was safely behind Izuku, cackled loudly and stomped his way forward and pulled Izuku back before blasting their opponents with controlled explosion from his palms.

Aizawa sighed. “Team Bakugou-Midoriya wins,” he said, sounding even more done than usual, while the other 1-A kids chattered their comments on the fight.

“Why did I never think of that before?” they heard someone lament. All of them knew they were referring to using Izuku’s cuteness against foes. None of them commented on it.

Uraraka was the one to use it next, and she would shamelessly use it again and again unrepentantly and without regrets for the years to come. (Everyone would wonder how, at that point, Izuku still failed to see the power of his own cuteness.) They along with Tsuyu, Iida, and Todoroki were hanging out together at the café near U.A, sitting at the outdoor patio and drinking their preferred drinks when some jerk with his group rowdily joked and shoved each other, unbothered by the convenience store drinks they had in their hands. One of them shoved a boy with long bleached hair too hard, and he bumped into Uraraka’s seat. The coffee cup he was holding slipped from his hand and fell, and Uraraka reacted by touching it and activating her quirk to float it safely.

The thing was, she touched the coffee cup. The still-hot coffee still spilled over her chest and stomach. She squawked in surprise and pain, jumping to her feet so fast the chair she was sitting on toppled to the ground, and the boy who spilled coffee on her tripped on it and fell.

“Hey, what the hell?!” one of the fallen boy’s friends demanded. “Who do you think you are, tripping our friend like that? Apologize to him!”

Uraraka’s temper was lit instantly. “Excuse me? He practically dumped his coffee on me!”

The fallen boy clicked his tongue. “It’s your own fault for sitting on my path, you bitch.”

Uraraka’s jaw dropped in rage. Iida shifted in his seat, though it was unclear if he did it to restrain Uraraka or to deck the boy in the face. Frost started to cover Todoroki’s cheek. Tsuyu’s unnervingly unblinking gaze zeroed in on the boy’s face. Izuku shrunk into his seat, not sure what he should do. He knew he should try to stop this before the tension snapped into a fight, but years of being bullied made him reflexively avoid confrontation unless he absolutely had to face it.

“Sitting on your path – “ Uraraka repeated. She huffed in disbelief. “You people were shoving each other like some kind of cave dwellers! You should have stayed on your lane and walk like civilized human beings!” She pointedly whirled to Izuku. “Deku, back me up here!”

Izuku let out a meep when the boy’s group glared at him. He shrunk further into his seat before Tsuyu poked him and stared at him unblinkingly with a look that loudly said straighten up, you’re alright without any word. He shuffled in his seat as he straightened up and looked at the fallen boy hesitantly. “I, uh. I think she’s right? Um, it’s clear that this is an outdoor patio and the seats are there and you were just shoving each other into one of them, so…”

The boy shot into the air like there was something pulling and pushing him, and Izuku’s inner analyst wondered what the boy’s quirk was before it was silenced as the boy loomed over him and jabbed a finger at him. “Are you saying it was my fault I fell?!”

“I never said that!” Izuku squeaked. He missed how his friends were glaring daggers at the boy as if they could murder him with their gazes. “It’s just that… you should have been careful…? Especially in public space like this?” He gave a smile that he hoped came out as placating instead of bone-rattlingly nervous like how he actually felt.

Immediately, the boy froze. He slowly drew back while staring at Izuku wordlessly. Izuku’s smile wavered.

Tsuyu cleared her throat and the boy and his squad jumped. “I think,” she began, “that you should apologize to our friend.”

The group looked like Tsuyu had just suggested them to strip to their underwear and dance in the streets. One of them opened their mouth.

Todoroki elbowed Izuku right then. His wavering smile widened a fraction from nervousness and he added Tsuyu’s words with his own, “Um, I agree… sort of? I mean, apology would have been… nice?”

The boy looked away. “Fine. Sorry.”

“Try not to do that again,” Iida chided, “you could get someone in danger.” Beside him, Uraraka grinned a wide, wide, shit-eating grin.

The boy looked about ready to bite Iida’s face off, but Todoroki elbowed Izuku again right then and Izuku blurted a meek “please?” in response, the wavering smile still in place. The boy sourly glared at Todoroki, suppressed a scream, and nodded in defeat.

As the group left, Uraraka held out a hand to Iida, which he promptly slapped in a satisfied high-five. Tsuyu let out a pleased ribbit and Todoroki patted Izuku’s head solemnly as he looked around in bewilderment.

The next time Izuku’s cuteness was used was a little bit more… extreme.

There was a villain breakout. U.A’s heroics department students, having already had their provisional licenses, helped out to subdue the villains and bring civilians to safety. However, it turned out that the breakout was a massive one and the heroes on site were getting overwhelmed. The villains knew this and, in a completely dick move, started dealing in collateral damage. One of the students swore they heard Cementoss loudly and very passionately cursed the villains.

They were at the very least easy to track. One of them was pretty clearly the boss in the villains’ ranks and many of them clustered around him. The heroes could probably take him down and his main posse that lurked around him and just deal with stragglers later. With this in mind, most of them heroes headed to where the boss was happily sitting and drinking coffee from a paper cup, with the melee brawlers at the front lines and the ones with quirks that worked well from a distance and other support-related quirks right behind them. Some people hid in the shadows, ready to pounce and provide backup if needed, such as Aizawa.

The good news of this plan was that this was a pretty solid plan. The bad news was that the villains saw this coming and had a girl hostage to ensure their safety and freedom. For her part, though, the girl just looked wholly unimpressed and done with all of this, and one of the heroes with enhanced senses reported that she asked to “go home and catch on some sleep because part time work and university assignments have been harsh and I’m running on three hours of sleep”.

“Stand back, heroes!” the villain who apparently who was the head of the pack yelled in smug triumph. “We have a civilian here! If any of you do something I don’t like,” he activated his quirk and changed his hand into a rotating blade, “she’ll lose her head.”

The girl sighed something that sounded suspiciously like I wouldn’t mind dying but can’t you do something that’ll give me an open casket funeral while taking a full cup of steaming coffee from the coffee table, where her ankle was chained to using shining chains that looked suspiciously like it was made from a quirk or at least strengthened using a quirk. She downed the coffee in one go.

Present Mic stepped forward and yelled, infusing a bit of his quirk into his voice so it would carry farther, “Can’t we talk about this? Let the girl go!”

“Well leave us alone and we’ll think about letting her go!” the villain brought the rotating blade to life. It whirred ominously, and he held it closer to the girl’s neck. She warily stared at it and inched back.

“It’s useless! We’ve got you surrounded!” Present Mic yelled again.

“Well then clear us a path!” the villain jerked his hand to the girl. She flinched when some strands of her hair were cut. “Do it now, or I swear this girl’s head will be rolling soon.”

The girl sighed. “You couldn’t just do poison instead? If you want to behead me at least have the decency to give me anesthesia beforehand.”

The villain glared at her. “You know, I’ve had had it with you. Do you honestly want to be beheaded for real?”

The girl scowled and glared back. “You know I can’t do that, asshole! You say this as if you weren’t blabbing about your childhood sweetheart just ten minutes ago!”

The villain sputtered. “I wasn’t blabbing!”

During this exchange, Bakugou had nudged Kirishima and gestured to Izuku the moment he looked at him. Kirishima had stared for a moment before his eyes lit up in understanding. He lifted a brow to Bakugou and pointed at him in question, to which Bakugou responded with a shrug and a soft shove. Understanding the request, Kirishima nodded and crept closer to Izuku.

Todoroki grabbed him by the arm before he could tap Izuku’s shoulder and frowned his question. Kirishima simply pointed at Izuku and then at the villain. A considering look passed Todoroki’s face before he nodded and joined Kirishima’s track.

When Kirishima got to Izuku, he tapped the green-haired teen lightly on the shoulder. He turned and stared at Kirishima, question in his eyes. Kirishima simply gestured for him to follow, and Todoroki followed behind the two to stop Izuku from bolting away the moment he realized what their plan was. Kirishima led them to the front, straight to where Present Mic was taking in a deep breath to yell out another attempt of negotiate. Kirishima’s tap on his shoulder stopped him, and he stared at Kirishima. “What is it?” he asked, voice low and tightly controlled.

Kirishima waved for him to bend down a little so he could whisper something in his ear. Present Mic’s eyes lit up at Kirishima’s suggestion, and he readily nodded.

“What… is going on?” Izuku asked nervously.

“Don’t worry about it,” Todoroki patted his shoulder in reassurance. “We’re just making sure things will wrap up as soon as possible.”

“Uh… why do I have to be here then?” Izuku asked again. “I’m better as a melee brawler… I’m not sure how good I’d be at negotiation.”

Someone let out a loud, almost giddy oh from the crowd of gathering heroes. It sounded suspiciously like Uraraka, and she sounded suspiciously anticipative.

Todoroki, for his part, simply offered more pat. “Don’t worry. You’ll do great.”

Izuku whipped back to meet his eyes, panic bleeding in his own green ones. “Wait, don’t tell me you want me to negotiate?”

Todoroki didn’t have the chance to answer, because Present Mic’s voice rang out to call Izuku then. Izuku jumped in his spot, ready to flee, but Todoroki readily seized him by the shoulders and pushed him to Present Mic.

“Wait – Todoroki – “ Izuku stammered in an attempt to dissuade Todoroki, but the other teen simply looked away even as he got him to face Present Mic.

“Present Mic – I – Sensei, please let me get back to the group I’m better at a brawl don’t tell me to help negotiating oh god I’ll end up getting the hostage killed and having them shooting at us,” Izuku rambled as soon as Present Mic was in front of him.

“Don’t worry, Deku, this will be the perfect job for you,” Present Mic assured, but his smile was a tad too wide, and it was probably just Izuku’s imagination but it almost looked expectant. And also savage, in a weird way. “You just need to go as far as you’re comfortable with, give this tiny little smile at the villain, and politely ask them to give up. Just that! We’ll handle the rest.”

“B-but – “

“I can accompany you there, if you’d like,” Todoroki offered. “I’ll be right behind you. You’ll have to do the talking, though.”

“I’m sure there are others who will do a better job,” Izuku hedged. “Shinsou can – “

Present Mic cut him off by putting a finger on Izuku’s lips. “Shhh, don’t say that so loudly,” he whisper-shouted. “There are many reasons why we can’t let him do it. One, he’s not in hero course and he doesn’t have a license. Two, the less people know of how his quirk works, the better. He’s announced it loudly enough during the sports festival.” He paused and smiled. “You’ll have to do.”

Izuku opened his mouth to slip in some more protest, but Present Mic simply nodded to Todoroki. Todoroki nodded back and, again, seized Izuku by the shoulders and pushed him out.

A hush promptly fell, blanketing the crowd of villains and heroes both as the two young heroes walked out and stood in the very middle of it all. Izuku looked around in borderline panic, breath catching in his throat. Todoroki squeezed his shoulders and he relaxed a fraction, but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t nearly enough.

“What is this kid doing in here?” the villain with rotating blade for hands asked.

Todoroki nudged Izuku, and he jolted. “I, um.” Izuku licked his lips. “I was just, uh. I’m hoping that you’d stop this? And maybe let her go?” He forced a hesitant smile onto his lips, which wavered uncertainly but held somehow.

The effect was instantaneous. The rotating blade villain lowered his hands as he stared at Izuku. Some other villains let out a strangled noise that sounded like a dying horse. Some others squealed. One villain came out to the rotating blade villain and pulled on his shirt, wringing her sharp clawed fingers together. “Boss… Boss, can I claw this one in the face?” she asked, staring blankly at Izuku, which reminded Izuku eerily of Toga Himiko.

“How are you even able to think about harming this woodland creature?” another villain asked.

“Woodland creature?” yet another echoed, sounding hilariously offended. “He’s a kitten!”

“You tasteless cretin – “

Just like that, the crowd of villain began arguing among themselves, quirks flaring. Some of them had gotten into fights with their own. Some rushed ahead to attack Izuku – or maybe the heroes, but Izuku stood smack dab in the middle of the two groups so really he was right in the line of fire – and others still grabbed them while indignantly shouting about “immoral beings who hurt cute critters”. The hostage blinked, looked around, noticed the quirk-made chain around her ankle had disappeared, dropped to her knees, and started to crawl away.

“Welp,” Present Mic said, suddenly appearing beside Izuku and making the teen jump. “This certainly wasn’t the result that I was expecting, but this works.”

“What were you expecting, Sensei?” Todoroki asked.

“I dunno, I guess I was just going along with others’ ideas. It worked, so I’m not complaining.” Present Mic rolled his shoulders and grinned. “Now, kids, better cover your ears. I’m gonna use my quirk.”

Both boys didn’t need to be told twice. They clamped their hands around their ears and flinched back. The fleeing hostage, who had been glancing at them every now and then, saw this and followed suit.

Present Mic screamed. The damage of his quirk was instantaneous. Most of the villains tumbled down trying to block out the noise, the ones with more sensitive hearing writhing in agony on the ground. Tables flipped, glasses were blown, windows shattered. The pro heroes surged in as soon as Present Mic began screaming, and once they were on the damage radius Present Mic stopped it. The few villains who were still standing were soon subdued. The hostage had managed to get out of the damage radius, but the noise still obviously affected her, as she dazedly rubbed her ears while being led away by the heroes.

Present Mic clapped his hands in satisfaction. “Well, I’d say that was a job well done. Good job back then, Deku.” He clapped Izuku on the shoulder and turned away before Izuku could respond.

Later, the 1-A kids would file into their dorm, battered and exhausted but proud of themselves, bickering about dinner and laundry and whining about having to deal with washing their hero suits. They couldn’t just chuck the suits into the washing machines and later on the dryer; nooo, the special properties in the cloth meant they had to wash them by hand, what a pain.

“I still don’t get why I had to be the one talking with the villains,” Izuku piped up after a while. “Mic-Sensei seemed to have it handled. And why did they end up fighting amongst themselves? I guess they weren’t that good at coordinating with themselves, but still – “

Bakugou cut the stream of thoughtful mumbling with a loud, sharp “You dense motherfucker,” before storming into his own room.

Izuku stared at him in confusion. “Was it something that I said?”

“Don’t worry about it, Deku,” Uraraka assured. “You did nothing wrong.”

[aion-rsa]

The Nintendo Fan Games That Tried to Revitalize Pokémon, Metroid, and Super Smash Bros.

https://ift.tt/331g4Zh

In 2016, Milton Guasti’s Metroid 2 remake (AM2R) was released online after a decade of work. One day later, Nintendo sent DMCA takedown requests to the websites that hosted it. Many fans were shocked by the decision. Guasti seems more surprised by the efficiency of it.

“Throughout the years I started seeing that [a takedown] could be possible,” Guasti recalls. “What I was not expecting was that it happened so fast.”

New fan-made gaming projects are developed and distributed all the time, and often embraced by studios, but as those in the creative community know, Nintendo has historically been adamant about protecting its properties and taking down fan games. From novelty game mods to NSFW art of Bowser, there’s no guarantee that fan creations based on Nintendo games will survive online for long.

So what makes someone spend years on a game that may only be widely available for one day? For Guasti, it was the chance to learn programming within a fascinating framework.

“I decided I wanted to practice a little bit of programming, so I downloaded GameMaker and did a couple of mini-games here and there just to learn a little bit of how game logic and design are done,” Guasti says. “Since most of the effort in designing something is getting the first couple of decisions, remaking something that’s already done seemed like a good idea to save time. I had recently played Metroid: Zero Mission on the Game Boy Advance [a remake of 1986’s Metroid], and since there was no similar treatment for Metroid 2, I said, ‘Well, this is a black and white game. Whatever I do with ripped sprites might be better than this. So I guess I can make a Metroid game.'”

For Guasti, the appeal of making his own Metroid game was more about the design of the franchise than his overwhelming love for the series. He described himself as more a Metroid “enthusiast” than a “hardcore fan” when he started working on the game. For others looking to learn how to develop and design games, the choice of which game to use as a starting point comes down to franchises they’ve always loved.

“It was my childhood dream to make my own Pokémon game,” says fan developer Involuntary Twitch. “Thus began my nine-year journey with fan game development as a hobby.”

That hobby became Pokémon Uranium, a Pokémon fan game the size of a major franchise installment. Involuntary Twitch wanted it to feature all of the things that she loved about Pokémon games: “pixel art, exploring, discovering new creatures, and uncovering mysteries.” For the many ways that Uranium was designed to be an homage to Pokémon, there was at least one element Twitch hoped to improve.

“I have been my entire life saying that Pokémon can and probably should do a little bit better with the stories,” Involuntary Twitch says. “I don’t think Pokémon needs to tell this grand, epic story with all these plot twists and betrayals and darker themes…but I think that what makes a good story is just the feeling that your actions actually matter, that the things you do are instrumental to the outcome of the plot.”

As the tale of a young trainer whose mother was lost in a nuclear accident roughly 10 years before the mysterious appearance of radiated Pokémon coinciding with the construction of a new power plant, Uranium‘s plot is darker, more complicated, and perhaps a bit more mature than what many of the games in the Pokémon franchise aim for. It’s also a big part of the reason why Uranium was widely hailed as a breath of fresh air for a franchise that largely sticks to the same formula put in place in the ’90s.

Yet, the story of Uranium that many more people are familiar with is what happened after the game was released. Much like AM2R, Uranium was hit by DMCA takedown requests issued by Nintendo shortly after the project’s 2016 release. After over nine years of work, Uranium‘s widespread availability could be measured in hours. Once again, the move did not come as a complete surprise.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

“I think our mentality was that we’d already had multiple playable releases out of the game, and so whatever its ultimate fate may be, we owed it to ourselves,” says Involuntary Twitch of the decision to continue working on the project despite the likelihood that it would eventually be taken down. “This is the single biggest project that any of us had ever done in our entire lives…So, we owed it to ourselves and we owed it to the people who were excited to see this game fully realized to see it all the way through the end”

So why didn’t Involuntary Twitch and her creative partner JV just make a copyright-free clone of a Pokémon game? 

“I did consider it, but I mean, at that point, we were in too deep,” Twitch says. “Literally every single part of the game would need to be thrown out and reconstituted to the point where it would be unrecognizable. And in exchange for doing that, we would get way less exposure, and we would basically just be filing the serial numbers off something that’s meant to be our love letter to a franchise…I feel like doing that would’ve drained what drove us to make this game in the first place, which was our love for Pokémon.”

That certainly seems to be the dilemma. Many Nintendo fan creators are often inspired by their love for Nintendo games, but there are times when Nintendo can be hard to love. The company will go years without even acknowledging beloved franchises but it’ll immediately litigate when fans pursue the projects and ideas Nintendo won’t. 

Those bespoke projects are often designed to appeal to a section of the fanbase Nintendo has sometimes ignored. Uranium featured a more mature story not commonly seen in Pokémon games. AM2R focused on one of Nintendo’s most complex (and often ignored) franchises. And in terms of notorious Nintendo fan projects designed to address something that was missing, few titles are as compelling as Project M: a Super Smash Bros. Brawl mod designed not to reinvent the wheel but simply make that game feel closer to its predecessor.

“Brawl took away almost everything that many people enjoyed about Melee from a gameplay design perspective,” says former Project M webmaster Taylor “Warchamp7” Giampaolo. “The floatier gravity, the slower gameplay, the removal of many character control nuances like dash dancing and wave dashes, and random factors like tripping that took control away from the player all contributed to a game we found less enjoyable. Project M‘s main goal was to bring back the elements of Melee that we all enjoyed like the faster pacing and balance of risk/reward.”

On the surface, a mod like Project M probably comes across as the work of a fanbase that felt Nintendo had gotten it wrong. Yet, that’s not necessarily the case. If anything, the game is more often talked about as a kind of “What if?” scenario designed to explore what may have happened if the competitive community that embraced Melee had become the primary audience for future installments.

“Project M is definitely our alternate take on what we’d like the series to look like,” Giampaolo says. “Melee‘s competitive nature is sometimes considered a happy accident, and I’d say Project M is a deliberate execution of those competitive aspects.”

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Melee‘s expansive multiplayer modes make it clear the game was intended to be played competitively between friends, but what many believe Nintendo did not necessarily anticipate was how the game would be embraced by more “hardcore” fighting game fans. What was essentially conceived as a Nintendo mascot brawler became a mainstay in the competitive fighting game community, and some of the things that made the game so different are also what made it popular among the genre’s most dedicated fans.

“Melee‘s mechanics offered an extreme freedom of movement that provides limitless options in various situations,” says Smash Bros. modder Dan Salvato. “I think most notably, simply moving your character around on the screen is extremely fun in itself. Most fighting games are balanced around what you can’t do in any given situation, but Melee kind of rips out the brakes and hands the keys to the player. You might get a lot of Melee die-hards giving you a list of reasons that Melee is ‘better,’ but I think that it just provides a different experience that captures a different audience of players.”

As a look into a kind of alternate reality for the Smash Bros. franchise, it’s easy to again wonder why the Project M team simply didn’t create their own Smash Bros.-like game based on Melee‘s mechanics. Much like with Pokémon Uranium, the decision to stick to the Smash Bros. name and the many copyright conflicts that come with it can be attributed to a combination of love and logistics.

“Everyone on the Project M team was incredibly talented but a lot of members had skill sets that were specifically tailored for modding Brawl,” Giampaolo says. “Some of the people that did programming on the team didn’t know any normal programming languages; they only knew assembly and had learned it through modding. Some of the animators didn’t have any experience with industry animation tools; they only knew how to use the community-created ones designed for Brawl‘s file formats. I consider their work even more impressive because of that but it means they wouldn’t have had an easy transition to making a ‘real’ game at the time.”

The Project M team was aware of the risks associated with the game they were making, and, as such, decided to institute a series of rules that they hoped would help protect the game against an immediate takedown. For instance, they encouraged people to play a “hackless” version of the mod that still required them to purchase Brawl, and they didn’t add new characters to the mod that weren’t already present in Brawl in some way.

In a way, the guidelines worked. Project M wasn’t hit with an immediate takedown request, but the constant threat of future legal actions and the desire to start on an original project accelerated the end of its development. But before that happened, Project M was embraced by the Smash Bros. competitive community who began using it and other modded versions of Smash Bros. as the feature attraction in many tournaments.

It doesn’t seem many of those fans expected Nintendo to embrace Project M or officially support any Smash Bros. mod. However, many of them wanted Nintendo to at least recognize their passion for the series’ competitive elements and how many felt Melee, in particular, best represented those qualities. There’s a degree to which the competitive Smash Bros. community lived in that same “under the radar” territory that Project M tried to exist in, and there’s a degree to which the competitive Smash community just wanted to be seen as fans who built a tournament scene based on love and shared passions. When Nintendo finally noticed them, the real trouble started.

“Over the years, the most community backlash hasn’t come from Nintendo not caring, but it has come from Nintendo interfering,” Salvato explains. “I think a decade ago, the Smash community felt more desperate for Nintendo’s acknowledgment…but once Nintendo stepped in, though, all of their regulations followed, and the Smash community started to question whether they actually wanted it.”

In 2020, Nintendo sent a cease and desist letter to a beloved Smash Bros. tournament that planned to use a Smash Bros. Melee emulator to host a digital event during the Covid-19 pandemic. The letter even targeted the event itself, which meant the hosts couldn’t simply feature the latest Smash Bros. game instead. After years of being ignored, the Smash Bros. competitive community was dealing with the fallout of being seen. While Nintendo has helped event organizers in the past, it was that lingering threat of things quickly going the other way that so often made the relationship uncomfortable and, at times, impossible.

Guasti can tell you more about Nintendo’s history of acknowledging the work of fans in their own strange way. A year after shutting down AM2R, Nintendo revealed and released an official Metroid 2 remake for the 3DS called Metroid: Samus Returns. Given that the franchise had been dormant for some time and that an unofficial remake of that same game had just been taken down a year before, the reveal of Samus Returns came as a shock to many, including Guasti.

“It was quite a surprise. Nobody saw it coming,” Guasti recalls. “Once I finished seeing the trailer, it was like, ‘Hmm, so that’s how the Metroid fights look with a budget.'”

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Samus Returns and AM2R are actually quite different in terms of their visuals and mechanics, but in a way, the differences made the speed at which the latter was taken down before the former was released that much more surprising.

“If you think about it, it’s super fascinating,” Guasti says. “These two points of view of the same story have been developed in parallel. At least one of the parties didn’t know that the other existed. Even if there are a couple of elements in common, the way that they conveyed the game feel and the whole environmental design, how Samus moves around and all of the elements in the design are completely different.”

Maybe there’s an alternate timeline where the differences between the two games meant both were allowed to exist, but Guasti doesn’t seem to dwell much on that. As strange as it may seem for someone who spent so many years of their lives on a project they couldn’t profit from, Guasti seems satisfied with how things worked out.

“I can’t be mad,” Guasti says. “I reached the audience that I wanted to reach. I learned everything that I wanted to learn from that…I’m really happy how that stage in my life turned out.”

Considering that Guasti’s work on AM2R helped him find a job in the video game industry where he later worked on the Metroidvania title Ori and the Will of the Wisps, you may think that the fate of AM2R is only easy to accept given that it led to a career and all of the benefits that come with that. Yet, there are many creators who share the belief that the real value of their work was the chance to share something with other fans like them.

In fact, some wouldn’t even mind if Nintendo essentially released the games they worked on without even giving them direct credit, much less a check.

“I would be ecstatic,” Giampaolo says of the possibility of Nintendo releasing its own Project M without acknowledging the mod’s creators. “We created Project M because it was the game that we wanted to play and it is, to date, my favorite entry in the genre. I’d love nothing more than for more players to get to enjoy that.”

Of course, Project M is a mod to an existing Nintendo game, and its creators were always aware of the fine line they were walking when working on it. They also got to end it on something closer to their own terms, and the mod is still massively popular among its intended fanbase to this day. But what about Involuntary Twitch whose project was hit by one of the swiftest and most complete takedowns in fan game history? How would she feel if the next Pokémon game was essentially a copy of Uranium but she received no credit?

“I’d be thrilled,” Twitch says. “I wanted to play one of my own games on a Nintendo handheld my entire life. And even if they didn’t put my name in the credits, I would still know that I was there, that I had inspired some type of its DNA. That, to me, would be enough. I mean, I am not here to chase clout. I don’t make fan games for attention. I make it because I like to do it and it’s a fun hobby for me.”

While there is something exceptional about those who create to fulfill a vision and share it with the world, this mentality seems to be the lifeblood of the fan game community.

“The modding mentality is that you have a community that loves a game so much that they want to extend its lifespan and help each other enjoy the game even more,” Salvato says. “In my experience, mods are always full of a lot more love for Nintendo than they are of disappointment. Modders are proud and passionate, and they love what they do.”

You could argue this love is rarely reciprocated by Nintendo, but some creators suggest we may need to change our perception of success by recognizing that completing and sharing these projects can be more important than profits and fame. 

“I hope that it brought them some joy because, to me, creating stuff is something that defines who I am,” Involuntary Twitch says. “I hope that it can help other people to find out who they are and develop their skills and find a place where they belong.”

Why does someone spend years of their lives on a project that can’t make money, will probably be shut down, and will never be embraced by the company that inspired them? The answers vary but seem to often come down to a surprisingly simple philosophy. You can spend years waiting for Nintendo to do make something, or you can spend that time doing it yourself and letting the memories, the love, and the quality of the games justify it all.

The post The Nintendo Fan Games That Tried to Revitalize Pokémon, Metroid, and Super Smash Bros. appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[doneses]

Final Fantasy Influences in RWBY

So it’s no secret that Monty Oum was a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series. As someone who’s also a huge fan of the series I thought it’d be fun to explore a lot of the things I think RWBY drew inspiration from. There’s not really much of an order to this, just various things I’ve noticed. This is also just my opinion on things so don’t take it too seriously. (I won’t be including stuff from FF15 since that was not out yet at the time RWBY was started and the stuff similar to it are most likely coincidence.I’m also only counting the stuff from the core series as those are the ones I am the most familiar with.)

Gardens/Seed- Academy/Huntsmen & Huntresses

In both FF8, and in RWBY, the main characters start their journeys at an academy that specializes in the training of powerful mercenaries: SeeD and Hunters. They have a similar age range (15-19 in FF8. 17-21 in RWBY), and both schools have rigorous and dangerous exams that the main characters have to survive and pass in the beginning of the story. They both also have a dance in the relatively beginning of the story. They also both have a uniform that the characters wear on occasion.

Shinra Electric Power Company- Schnee Dust Company

Now I actually noticed something neat that I never noticed with Shinra, that they can be abbreviated to SEC, similar to how the Schnee Dust Company is commonly abbreviated to SDC.

In both RWBY and FF7, these two companies are powerful and villainous and have made their fortunes by mining a natural resource that is used for fuel, and to give people magical abilities. Both the SDC and SEC engage in military action (Turks and SOLDIER with the SEC and providing/developing mechs for the Atlesian military for the SDC), and experimenting on monsters (the Armored Gigas in the White trailer being a Geist Grimm experiment according to the manga).

Materia- Dust

It’s a naturally occurring resource in the world that is used to give the characters magical abilities and is crystalline in design. Materia is name dropped by Monty when explaining what Dust is.

AVALANCHE- White Fang

A terrorist group with a white and red banner that has a history of warfare with the evil megacompany of their worlds. Main characters from both series are members (or former) members of the group, and both had/have a large burly man as their leader. Only major difference is AVALANCHE is an eco-terrorist group and presented as heroes while the White Fang are a racial terrorist group and presented as villains.

Crystals- Relics

Four powerful macguffins that the protagonists and antagonists are both after that can give them a ton of power and can change the world.

Al Bhed/Viera- Faunus

Al Bhed are a minority group who face persecution and have a unique genetic trait. In FF10 and in RWBY one of the main characters is secretly of this ethnic group and has to deal with racist behavior from one of their team mates.

Viera are literally bunny girls. While the al bhed have more in common with the faunus in story, the viera are closer in appearance.

Summoning- Schnee Semblence

Now there are a lot of Summoners in FF but Monty was known for his love of FF10 and of Yuna and I think that’s who’s summoning ability Weiss’ abilities are based off of. Yuna is capable of summoning dead spirits that take the form of Aeons and uses them in battle. Weiss, and other Schnees, can summon enemies that they have killed and have them aid in combat. Yuna’s summoning and Weiss’ also seem a lot more of a closer bond then say, Rydia or Eiko’s  were or the ones were summoning is just a job class.

Aerith’s Death- Pyrrha’s Death

An extremely shocking and brutal death scene of a beloved female character that is used to spur the protagonists to action and kick start the larger segments of the story.

Sin-  Ancient Grimm

Not a lot of similarities, other then they ‘shed‘ smaller enemies and are huge and capable of decimating cities if they want to.

Uncomfortable Laughing Scene

Yeeeeeaaaah, those scenes are cringey. I took from it that Ruby was struggling to keep her composure at seeing something that reminded her of Pyrrha after watching her die and started to laugh obnoxiously to cover up her issues, similar to how Tidus had his uncomfortable laughing scene to cope with his own issues. Or maybe that Ruby scene was meant to be funny and bunny jackets are hilarious, who knows.

Auron- Qrow

Red and gray color scheme, drunks, and a father figure to the main character, alongside using a similar weapon as the character they watch over.

Tifa- Yang

A bare knuckle brawler who’s a childhood friend of the main protagonist, is the team mom, and objectively considered the ‘prettiest‘ character of the main cast. Both are also fans of butt capes, given Yang’s timeskip outfit and Tifa’s Advent Children outfit.

Kefka- Tyrian

Now this one’s a bit of stretch and I really hope they don’t pull a Kefka with Tyrian late on in the story but here we go.

They’re both the insane right hand of the (apparent) big bad of the story, both have a flair for the dramatics (Tyrian’s theatrical behavior during his fight scene and well, just look at Kefka). Both also have an insane laugh and boy do they like to laugh.

Quistis- Glynda

A blonde, glasses wearing combat instructor at a school for specialized mercenaries. Both wield a bdsm style weapon (whip/riding crop) and are proficient mages.

Zidane- Sun

A blonde monkey man who breaks the law a lot, has a sunny personality, and fights alongside a dark haired princess.

Ruby- Iris

Now I said I wasn’t going to bring up FF15 but this is a unique case. I think this is an instance of RWBY serving as inspiration for FF.

FF15 was in production between 2006-2016. Red Trailer came out in 2012, with Vol1 coming out in 2013. RWBY is very popular in Japan, and I don’t know if there is a way to learn when Iris was added to the game’s production.

Iris is the younger sister of the stronk fanservice character of the game, wears black and red, has a red hood, short black hair, is 15 years old, and grows up to be a famous Hunter; a daemon slayer after the time skip. She’s cheery and happy, and has an interest in mechanical things (her fascination with Lestallum and how it’s maintained). Iris is a hopeless romantic and fights with her fists.

Ruby is the younger sister of the stronk fanservice character of the show, wears black and red, has a red hood, short black hair, is 15 years old, and dreams of being a Huntress; a Grimm slayer. She’s happy and bubbly, and is mechanically inclined, alongside loving weaponry. Ruby doesn’t have an interest in romance and can’t fight without a weapon.

Weaponry

Weiss literally uses a gunblade, and Raven has an odachi. But other then that, most of the weapons in RWBY line up more with Lightning’s style of weaponry in FF13; a melee weapon that transforms and can take a gun form and also collapse for easier storage.

Costumes

Both FF and RWBY thrive on amazing looking costumes that are hella impractical and use way too many belts for a rl person to wear. But damn do they not look amazing.

Setting

Both RWBY and (most) FF have a science fantasy setting, with continents that look really silly.

Soundtrack

Both RWBY and FF love their hard rock and piano’s, and have amazing scores and soundtracks.

Fight Choreography

Saying Advent Children was a big influence on Monty would be an understatement. RWBY’s fight scenes are fast paced, hectic, and make gravity and the laws of physics its bitch. This is hard to explain in written format, so I’d recommend watching a fight scene from Advent Children and then compare it to one from RWBY to see what I mean.

Light v Dark Themes

Recurring theme in a lot of the older FF games, the forces of Light against the forces of Darkness. RWBY has the Light and Darkness Brother Gods myth, and they will most likely play a larger role in the future.

Party of Four

FF games traditionally have 4 (or 3) party members and oh hey would you look at that, RWBY has 4 members. Iirc Monty also said he based the team’s fighting styles off of his preferred rpg team line up. (If anyone has figured out what class Ruby is, let me know ^^)

Strong female characters

I think it’d be easier to name FF female characters who aren’t strong in their own ways. And the entire premise of RWBY is four strong women living their lives and stopping evil, alongside the slew of other notable female characters in the show.

Moon

The moon plays an important role in the stories of FF4 and FF8, and although the moon hasn’t done anything of plot importance, the fact it’s shown so frequently in scenes and is a prominent image in RWBY (alongside how its brought up space travel is still being developed in Remnant) I’m pretty sure it will play an important role in the future.

Parent Issues

A lot of the characters in FF have really bad parents, parent issues, or are orphans. A lot of the important characters in RWBY have really terrible parents, and their issues with their parents playing a role in each member of Team RWBY’s personal storylines. Jecht and Tidus’ relationship being the most famous example from FF of a strained child-parent relationship, and given Yang’s obsession and hatred of Raven, it seems the most likely place of inspiration (alongside Raven and Jecht being antagonists and being involved in the Deeper Lore of their respective universes, and of being members of a team with the parents of one of the other main characters).

So yeah, those are my thoughts about all the stuff I‘ve noticed in RWBY that could have been inspired by Final Fantasy. Hope you enjoyed reading this ^^.

RWBY FF style poster done by digitaleva- https://digitaleva.deviantart.com/

[thomcoldman-blog]

My 10 Favourite Games Of 2017

This list was originally posted on the forum Resetera, but I felt like putting it up here too, with a little more insight into why I liked these games so much, and so they don’t get lost in the muddle of forum posts. Enjoy!

10. Snake Pass (Sumo Digital; Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC)

Sumo Digital has been a developer I've admired for years, particularly for their work on the Nintendo-tier kart racer Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Snake Pass is their first independently-produced title, and it has a great hook - the player controls a snake in much the same manner as a real snake might move. There's no jump button, no Earthworm Jim spacesuit, just the power to raise one's head and the strength to grip tightly to any object you've coiled around. There's no timer or enemies; Snake Pass is content to let you explore its levels at your own pace, letting you getting used to its unique feeling and take in the calming David Wise soundtrack. It's a game that feels like learning to ride a bike again, and the progression in ability over time is such a pleasing sensation that it earns it its place on this list by itself. The good use of collectables and generous helping of levels is icing on the cake.

9. Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus (MachineGames; PS4, Xbox One, PC)

B.J. Blazkowicz returns and he's lost all meaning of subtlety whilst he's been out of action. Wolfenstein 2 shoots all of its shots - the action is bloody, explosive carnage, and the subject matter isn't satisfied with just skewering Nazi idiocy and narcissism, taking time to shine a light on White America's love affair with sitting back and reaping the rewards of compliance under fascist rule. Whether it's exploring B.J.'s broken psyche, giving Wyatt a crash course on hallucinogenics or putting you under the spotlight in a terrifying audition, MachineGames refuse to pull their punches, each great moment coming swinging like B.J.'s Nazi-reprimanding fireaxe. The combat encounters are far from polished, with stealth being heavily nerfed from The New Order and the half-way shift in tone from borderline-satirical diatribe on mortality and American race relations to comic-book capers is incredibly stodgy, but Wolfenstein 2 leaves a hell of an impression all the same. Shame about that credits music.

8. Gorogoa (Jason Roberts; PC, iOS, Nintendo Switch)

A good puzzle game can make a really strong impression, guiding you subtly by the hand to make you feel like a member of MENSA just for pressing a few buttons or prodding at a screen. With Gorogoa, I can't even begin to describe how the puzzles actually work. Imagine a window segmented with 4 panes of glass, and now imagine you can drag elements out of those panes and into other panes, or over where there isn't a pane to create a new pane... See, it’s hard! In as simple terms as I can muster, it’s a game about taking the world apart and putting it back together again to create paths and progress for your anonymous young hero. It’s intensely abstract, yet the South Asian aesthetic feels like a living locale, an exploration of a boy's days-to-come. It's a short experience, but with each puzzle solved making me feeling smarter than Albert god damn Einstein, it's one that will stick with me for a long time.

7. Splatoon 2 (Nintendo EPD; Nintendo Switch)

Like pretty much everyone, I didn't own a Wii U, but the sting of that decision never really happened until the arrival of Splatoon - Nintendo's first proper new "core" universe since what felt like Pikmin. It instantly looked like sheer fun - and as a big fan of both Jet Set Radio and The World Ends With You, it was clear as day Nintendo's younger designers were picking up the Shibuya fashion torch those games dropped behind them. Put simply, it's totally my shit. Splatoon 2 confirms my suspicions and then some, being the first multiplayer title I've enjoyed online in forever. I can't get enough of the soundtrack, the sound effects, the amazingly catty banter between Pearl and Marina, and just the feeling of dropping into ink, strafing around a sucker and blasting them straight between the eyeballs with my N-ZAP '85. 20% of Switch owners in the US can't be wrong.

6. Yakuza 0 (SEGA; PS4)

The only games I've played previously by SEGA's Toshihiro Nagoshi are the brilliant arcade/Gamecube bangers F-Zero GX and Super Monkey Ball 2, plus his one-off PS3 sci-fi shooter Binary Domain. Loving those 3 wacky games, I always felt a little put-off by his regular gig nowadays being a series about Japan's most decorated crime organisation, and a bare-knuckle brawler at that. Yakuza 0, the 80s-set series prequel that serves as a perfect entry point for series newcomers, proved my suspicions ill-founded. It's a game which instantly casts the majority of the yakuza as control freaks and bullies, pits its protagonists Kiryu and Majima as their unfounded targets and pawns... and then lets you fight your way out of hell via brutal finishing moves, bizarrely complex business management sidequests and, if you're so inclined, a gun shaped like a giant fish. It's that kind of game that always keeps you guessing whether or not you should take it seriously, and so it wins you over with its best-in-class action choreography, astonishingly good direction and a never-ending deluge of sidequests, minigames and challenges. Don't sleep on Kamurocho.

5. Sonic Mania (SEGA/Christian Whitehead/Headcannon/PagodaWest Games; Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC)

If you’re reading this, you probably know I'm a Sonic apologist. I don't really stand by the 3D entries - bar Sonic Generations, which I genuinely love - but the narrative that "Sonic was never good" is some ridiculous meme that I can't stand. They were genuinely fun games, albeit far from perfect; every game can use some improvement. Sonic Mania is that improvement, spinning the level themes and gimmicks from the original Mega Drive (and Mega CD) games into vast new forms, with myraid routes, tons of secrets, an astonishing sense of speed from beginning to end and fairer, more agreeable, more exciting level design. Old locales, new levels - oh, and some new locales as well, one of which (Studiopolis Zone) is an instant classic. 16:9 presentation, all new animations and crazy levels of animation detail, and a mind-blowing soundtrack by Tee Lopes - Sonic Mania is the perfect Sonic game.

4. NieR: Automata (Square Enix/PlatinumGames; PS4, PC)

For my first foray into the sunken mind of Yoko Taro, he couldn't have left a better impression. NieR: Automata uses Platinum's engaging-at-worst, thrilling-at-best melee combat as the language to tell his new story of how pointless it is for anyone to even bother throwing themselves after ideals of society or humanity, and why it's worth trying all the same. Every inch of this game feels crusted in Taro’s sensibilities, with the no-bullshit 2B and her curious whiny partner 9S running into robots waving white flags, avenging fallen comrades, establishing monarchies, throwing themselves to their deaths, and coming to terms with their crumbling existence in apocalypse.  It's crushing, it's raw, it's often dull, but its uniquely bleak vision of AIs breaking free of their programming has a grip as powerful as a Terminator's. And when it’s ready to let you go, it has you send it off with the most memorable credits sequence in history. Glory to Yoko Taro, glory to PlatinumGames - glory to mankind.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD; Nintendo Switch, Wii U)

Standing in the centre of a bridge connecting Hyrule’s broad, emerald green fields to the desert mountain approach, a bridge overlooking the still Lake Hylia, I fire an arrow into a lizard bastard’s head, or at least I try to. He dodges it and rushes me, forcing me to jump away and retaliate with my claymore. Out for the count, I resume looking for the lost Zora wife I’ve been asked to seek out, who apparently washed all the way downstream in a recent downpour. I can’t see any wife - my entire view is dominated by the giant green dragon snaking across the night sky above me. The wind picks up, but I am too awestruck by its presence to take note that I could glide up to it and shoot off a valuable scale. Instead, I just stand and stare, this utterly unexpected moment happening before my eyes. Friend or foe? A boss monster, perhaps? A vital story element later on? The answer ended up being none of the above: in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, there be dragons, and that fact in and of itself speaks volumes about what this game is about. After 30 years, Hyrule finally feels alive.

2. Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall; PS4, Xbox One, PC, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS)

Very few games instil a genuine emotional response within me, but the story of Mae Borowski's no-fanfare return from college to suburban gloom resonates hard with me. It's an expert at the little touches - the needless-yet-fun triple jump, the not-so-starcrossed rooftop musicians, the impulsive reaction to poke a severed arm with a stick - and woefully precise with its big swings, like an upsetting cross-town party, a wave of violent frustration amongst the townspeople, and the inability to just lay it all on the table with friends and family when you need to most. In the cosmic dreams of shitty teens, Night in the Woods finds an ugly beauty in depression. 

1. Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD; Nintendo Switch)

It’s impossible to deny 2017 has been the year of Nintendo. There’s plenty of celebrate elsewhere, but the Switch’s rise to prominence as the machine to be playing ideally everything on, and the amount of absolute smash hits Nintendo has producing this year makes it hard for the narrative to focus elsewhere. The epitome of all this is their final killer game of 2017: Super Mario Odyssey, the grand return of a more open-ended style of Mario platformer. A true blue achievement in joyous freedom, it brings together everything from Mario's history of 3D platforming - 64's freedom, Sunshine's other-worldliness and sky-high skill ceiling, Galaxy's spectacle, 3D World's razor-sharp platforming challenge - and throws into one big pot, creating a Mario where both the journey and the destination are one and the same, and exciting to the very end. In a year of amazing games that hit upon horrid, upsetting themes with delicate, pinpoint accuracy for tremendous success, I’m not sure whether it’s a shame or an inevitability that such an unapologetically surprising, happy game made the biggest mark on me this year, but either way, I’m welcome to have Mario be truly Super once more.

[tostitokid]

The Fractal Reworks Are Amazing!

Okay, you can kill me because I haven’t done Twilight Oasis yet, but I’ve done the new Mai Trin and Molten Boss fractals. They are definetly huge changes/improvements that make them more interesting than just “Hit me!”

Mai Trin:

Horrik now places an indicator on a player (I think it’s the one furthest away from him) that determines what shot he fires at them. If it’s a cannonball icon, it’s his regular shot. If it’s an electric ball, it’s the electro-round that removes Mai’s shield. There’s a few seconds between the icon appearing and him firing. There’s also two different orange circles based on what shot is fired that make them easier to see.

Mai Trin is about the same, but now when she does her teleport-shot, her target she’s aimed at gets a target icon over their head. If the bullet hits, that player becomes fixated. It’s worth trying to coordinate with the other players who are getting electro-rounds aimed at them to try and hold Mai on a spot where she will get hit by them. You can still reflect or destroy the bullet, and block it too I think, but you definitely can’t dodge it!

During the cannon phases, Horrik no longer goes up with Mai, it’s just Mai. The cannons from the Aetherblade fractal, you know, the reworked ones, are now the ones used. Easier to avoid if you’re careful. A bunch of aetherblades do spawn though, and you’ll want to kill them to end the phase faster. Do be warned, the cannons will STILL be firing even after the phase ends, at least for a bit, so don’t stop!

When I did the fractal yesterday, Horrik somehow died. I was expecting him to be revived and Mai to get all of her shield back, but that didn’t happen, strangely. She was below 25% though, so, I’m not sure.

Bring condi-cleanse!

Molten Boss:

Remember the rest of the Molten Facility? You did the first chunk of it in the Molten Facility Fractal and stopped after the weapons testing room. The previous Molten Boss fractal just placed you at the end of the dungeon, right before you get to the Molten Duo. Well that’s gone now (and with it the 40-fractal farm, RIP). Now you start right outside the Frozen Hallways in the dungeon, and from there work your way down to there in the Molten Facility.

There’s a lot more adds than previously (I’ll be honest, I LOVE fighting the Molten Alliance), and some have special abilities and skills they’ll use to fight you. There’s this shaman on a bridge that bombards it with fire from a nearby lava-fall, and I THINK you need to break his bar to stop him, at least for a little bit. You can still run across the bridge, not gonna stop you.

The effigy got an upgrade. A BIG upgrade. There’s a ton of adds with him that I believe respawn during the fight, so try and deal with them first if you can before the effigy, since they do more damage. The only new ability I can remember off the top of my head is him smashing the ground, staying there for a moment, and then releasing a flaming shockwave from the spot. You’ll want to dodge/jump it to avoid it. Other than the tons of adds and the shockwave, the effigy itself is about the same.

They removed that little tower in the big chamber. I dunno why. I mean, I get it was useless but come on! They also darkened the place some for more spooks.

The new boss fight is pretty great! Okay, it’s about the same with a few differences. One, remember that cutscene with the two appearing? That no longer happens. They still do their cool entrances, which you now see first-hand. Players who haven’t done the fractal at all before will now be MORE surprised when they see a huge blue charr smash through a wall! Speaking of him, before the fight starts, he unleashes two shockwaves, a ground one and an air one. My guess is that’s to familiarize the players with the shockwaves. Other than that, about the same as before.

Everyone still kills the Berserker first, that’s mostly a fact, the exception being those who need the achivement. I did notice something new about the second part of the fight, where one of the bad boys power up. During the fight, the Firestorm in this phase by himself summons some dredge mining suits to attack your party, and they have some unique buffs to them. I can assume the same would apply if the Berserker powered up, but with the Brawlers appearing instead.

You know that annoying outer-ring thing Firestorm summons when he powers up? Yeah, it used to knock you back hard off the ledge if you weren’t careful in it. Well worry no more, because they made it more forgiving! Instead of doing hard knockbacks, it now gradually pulls you off of the ledge subtly, slowly, like you’re being slowly pulled on by a magnet, but you can still do everything you could do before, and even run against the pull/push back into the ring if need be! Melee-folk don’t have to worry anymore! I think they took this mechanic from the new enemies in the Crystal Desert, especially those ones who make those huge swirling sandstorms that end with the massive explosion on them.

Okay, that’s about that. I dunno, I just felt like posting and letting Tumblr folk know what’s new in the fractals.

[kamizite]

Tazed

So a Long time ago i sent in an Innocent piece of Fan art to a web site: Taralynn’s Desk and in the process ended up making a friend I’ve had for closing in on a decade.  From that Me and Tara Really struck up our friendship and worked together on developing a world and a group of super hero characters. Now nothing really came of this comic we were creating, got about 10 strips in and real life got in the way but i always thought these were great characters and this was a great setting. 

So Recently i have my dearest of friend @lothwolf-run redesign and re imagine these character looks because i might try and write them again. So here are the Characters of Tazed and a Back’s synopsis of them each.

Tazed is a commercial Hero group that was formed to deal with the rising meta-types in the world. they are a mixture of Older more experenced heroes, and younger new one. On their first mission a magical accedent happened and left the younger half of the team transformed.

Now the Idea for the team, was a sponsored team; either corporately or by the government at first to be heroes. the heroes and team are marketed for popularity and much like other things of this sort would promote brands sfor their operating costs. 

Backlash

Real Name: Zephan “Zee” Two-Feather

Powers: Energy absorption/Self Attribute Bolstering.

Zee is the Field Commander of Tazed, Perhaps also the one most suited to a combat group traveled a lot young and enlisted in the army becoming a Ranger and learning advanced combat Techniques.

His background is that his parents were killed in a car Accident. He and his sister were taken in by the Reservation's Shaman, and was what’s called an Angry Child.  He knows Elizabeth and Midori pre-Tazed and had been broken up with Midori for a little over a year when approached to come and work for Tazed.

In the original incarnation a joke would be inserted here that when presented with his costume that he had those tassels that seemed to be a stable in the 90′s for any native american character. Zee is closer to a cowboy anyway playing guitar and and spending his off time in a dive bar drinking. He’s a bit of a brawler also.

Zee was a character i had previously made for a Heroes Home brew game i was playing with Scaled back a lot for this setting i got to keep a lot of his back ground traits.  Looking back on it now i can see why Tara thought he was overpower to start. The original Game concept of him put him on par to fight Syler and Peter Patrelli.

Not much of a redesign just streamlining the original picture

Hex

Real name: Elizabeth Wellington

Powers: Advanced Magic

Elizabeth is the youngster of the older set but from a rich english family. She is an accomplished magic user and draws her powers from the celtic goddess the Morrigan. she is the exact opposite of Zee, patient an pragmatic, sensible and rational until her powers really get going.

She is the Team leader outside of combat and is one of the funders of Tazed with her family’s fortune. 

while Megumi is her best friend, she’s harbored a secret crush for Zee for a while. It’s definitely a case where opposites attach as the two are constantly in disagreement as to how to go forward

In the early days of development Hex was the biggest cause of contention for the Same reason as Zee. I felt she was over powered. We butted heads on her role in the over all story line and that dictated her level of power. I was never happy with my original Design for her so Lothrun helped me out majorly where she picked up the connection to the Morrigan, got back a bunch of her power and even has a long lost half sister. 

Seer

Real Name: Midori Inoue

Powers: Telepathy, Empathy, limited mental effects she can project. 

The third of all the “adults” She is the balance between Zee and Liz. she is practical but not stuck up, Fun loving but not impulsive. A skilled melee and unarmed fighter her mental powers allows her to be the perfect Stealth Solider. She can with her telepathy listen to thoughts, feel emotions but also create blind spots in peoples minds to her presence for short periods of time. 

She and Zee never reveal why the broke up but it was messy. It’s not suppose to come up in story mostly because i never figured out what happened and Tara said we could skip it and come back to it.  

If I’m honest she was the least developed of all the group, but I've always liked her concept. A telepath that’s not Jean grey/Emma frost levels of ZOMG but using it for practical implantation. 

Seer was another one i could never figure out so the redesign tickles me pink as she looks so good. 

Radiance

Real name: Aurora Lightheart (Formally Aaron Lightfoot)

Powers Light control/Manipulation

Ah Radiance, so on the first mission there was an accent that gender flipped all the “kids”. 

Radiance, Formally Beacon, was a aspiring hero that was laid back but always did the right thing. Pre change she was classified has having all the potential in the world if she could just apply himself. His powers could do some limited illusion work as well as lasers for range and distracting lights to blind her opponents. After the Accident she threw herself into the job and became one of the more recognizable figures n the team.

She probably was the most well adjusted to her transformation taking on this Girl next door aura. It was implied That she would one day be the leader of the team as she seemed to be the most level headed of the “kids”

Radiance was Tara’s baby. the one none negotiable character and i understood why.  I always liked her as a character this care free and she proved stark contract to the other three kids as her transformation doesn’t seem to bother her for long as she adapts well.

Not much of a redesign here just really taking the existing material and modernizing it a bit more. Radiance’s picture remains Tara’s favorite among the set.

Amp

Real Name: Marina Diaz (formally Marcus Davis)

Power: Lightning creation/Control/Manipulation limited speed bursts.

Amp was the first character i made on my own for this project. He was a boy from a military family that ended up developing lightning powers. Under the name Surge he became a hero and was eventually selected to join Tazed.

After the accident she ended up taking more traits of her latin-american mother and became the focus of Tazed Marketing department with her multi cultural appeal and sex appeal. 

now this was admittedly going to lead to some pretty dark places and be the catalyst for a story line well down the line. I enjoy the Redeisgn so much because it doesn’t change much but still looks fresh and much better then my original Psyloche type design.

Piledriver

real Name: Micheal Lindon (Lanna Michealson)

Powers, Enhanced strength and invulnerability when Aura is turned on.

Here is the second least developed of the group, before she was Lanna Michealson who could summon an aura for make her stronger and nigh-invulnerable. She and Radiance hit it off pre-accident and that continued post accident.

 going from a petite girl to a large beefy dude was like whiplash for Her as suddenly she was given more responsibility and was looked upon more to take a leadership role over the group. things he secretly loved.

In truth Rad is able to stay so grounded after the change because of PD and them supporting each other. this was another on eon the “always hated the original design” Lothwolf proved simpler is better her. 

Raze

Real name: Nadia Taranova (Nikoli Taranov)

Powers: concussive blasts, limited earth control

Raze was a villain when the accident happened, getting caught in the magic back blast with the others, she was captured and brought back to Tazed and given a choice. join Tazed and avoid jail time or go to super max for a very very long time. 

What’s worse her Russian accent really came thru after the change. She stuck in this weird spot where no one really trusts her but she can’t go anywhere because she’s technically in custody. In the early days no one gave her a chance save Midori. Obviously the others her age blamed her for their change and Zee and Liz were always suspicious of her being a villian.

  She also had an intense rivalry with Amp is memory serves.

I love the redesign so much here because it’s a better use of the colors. There is also a plot thread she’s half brother to Lanna. but we go back and forth on it. She would also be the one to catch the shady stuff that would have happened with Amp.

And that’s it. the first project Taralynn and i ever had and these collection done to celebrate that. Lothrun-wolf did such a wonderful job on all these i can’t talk enough about them.

So a secondary reason for this also is because i might try to write their stories or draw them a little here and there. I hope you all enjoyed them. 

[spicynbachili1]

R.O.B. is my favourite member of the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster, who is yours?

Are you able to grasp R.O.B., the video robotic?

So we lastly have an entire launch roster for Nintendo’s remaining main launch of the yr (arguably their largest launch of the yr) Super Smash Bros. Final. Shantae did not make the minimize, the one character I hoped for, however its high-quality. These items occur, and I am not about to lose my thoughts on the web about it. Life’s too quick and there is a thousand extra critical issues to deal with within the tapestry of existence.

I will let you know who else I like, apart from the half-genie hero, and that is R.O.B. the Robotic Operating Buddy. A giant a part of it comes from nostalgia, I bear in mind R.O.B.’s launch and the actually thrilling commercials that includes the “video robotic”. It appeared like gaming was getting into a complete new world, an age of know-how that was going to blow our minds. It was gonna be all robots, on a regular basis.

Okay, we all know now that it did not actually work out that manner in any respect. R.O.B. and his disc spinning abilities had been primarily good for one sport, Gyromite (he was additionally appropriate with Stack-Up, however I by no means got here throughout that). In a short time, R.O.B. was consigned to the museum of gaming, the little robotic that would, however did not.

Making spot cameos within the following years, R.O.B. finally burst again onto the scene as a playable fighter in Smash Bros. Brawl, scoring his personal amiibo and even that includes within the Subspace Emissary story mode. However what actually mattered was that he hadn’t been forgotten, he may nonetheless be related within the fashionable gaming world, regardless of his age, obsolescence, and lack of any sensible use… Self-projection? By no means heard of it, pal.

So, who’s your favorite character within the Tremendous Smash Bros. Final launch roster? Let’s have a look at what a few of our beloved employees needed to say on the matter.

Marcel Hoang

Whereas there are loads of new characters to think about, this listing is about our favorites on the roster, and for me, it is Little Mac. The boxing underdog manufactured from quick stuff and iron fists performs in contrast to anybody else on the solid. Any common character made for Smash has some floor sport, some air sport, and a few restoration, with various traits between these. However Little Mac goes all-in on floor sport, to the purpose the place he is wildly unbalanced relating to any scenario the place his toes aren’t planted on the ground.

Punch-Out!!, and all of the video games earlier than it, are about enjoying as a tiny underdog who takes on a boxing championship’s value of racial caricatures and, except for Mac’s pretty well-informed boxing stance, his underdog standing additionally interprets to the sport as effectively. Mac dominates on the bottom however any time he is within the air, which is inevitable for Smash Bros, he is instantly in bother. Greater than half of your time combating is spent within the air and Mac sucks at that. Thus, he is an underdog relating to competing within the sport.

In fact, I like Mac mechanically too. His floor assaults are so sturdy, I get a hoot making use of fundamental spacing and footsies whereas strolling in a sport the place most gamers will run and bounce into melee vary. Wacky combos like down tilt to facet tilt or impartial regular to twister uppercut towards unsuspecting gamers. It’s going to be an thrilling time in Final for Little Mac to have his facet B buffed to permit for extra restoration afterward as a substitute of going right into a helpless state.

Chris Hovermale

I’m most likely dishonest provided that he’s not fairly a launch character, however he’ll be launched without spending a dime to everybody who will get the sport at launch, soooo I’m gonna see if I can stretch the definition. Apart from, I can’t deny the truth that I’m extra excited to play as this boy than anybody else. I imply… he’s a freaking Piranha Plant. A Piranha Plant!

I’ve all the time had a mushy spot for mooks and “generic” characters ascending to the identical stage as iconic heroes, if not above them. It’s one thing I like about Paper Mario companions, about Disgaea’s class system and limitless grinding, about collectible creature video games like Pokémon, and so forth. It’s a bizarre trope I like as a result of I simply suppose it’s superior and provoking, very similar to the traditional story of the underdog claiming victory over the frontrunners, or the not-so-classic tales of moths suplexing dragons. And whereas Smash sadly nonetheless lacks playable insect folks, Piranha Plant occurs to hit the almost-as-rare area of interest of playable vegetation!

His reveal trailer was the spotlight of Sakurai’s trolling profession. His moveset is filled with long-reaching strikes in a combating type, in contrast to most different characters. His animations are extraordinarily expressive. He’s so comfortable to be right here. He’s doing his greatest. He’s an excellent boy.

Not related to this query, however as a bonus — now no one can say that Bandana DeeLC is unattainable.

Jonathan Holmes

That is robust. The paternal facet of me desires to choose Pichu, as a result of I’ve nothing however love for somewhat child who’s courageous sufficient to combine it up with the massive boys. The outdated man in of me desires to choose Mr. Sport & Watch, as a result of I completely love that within the midst of one among gaming’s most heated eras of tech competitors, Sakurai determined to incorporate a fighter in Melee that was monochrome, two-dimensional, and rendered with single-frame animations. My sentimental facet desires to choose Lucas, who towards all odds managed to make it to Brawl, regardless of the various forces (each in his sport and in the actual world) that had been working towards him. 

Since I’ve to choose only one, I will go together with Toon Hyperlink. Like Pichu, he is a baby who’s keen to go toe-to-toe with anybody, regardless of their weight class. Like Mr. Sport & Watch, he went boldly summary when the remainder of the trade was pining to be extra advanced and reasonable. Like Lucas, he is a industrial underdog who was misunderstood and even hated at first, however who’s simple coronary heart eventual received over even essentially the most Grinch-y of curmudgeons. 

Additionally, in his final sport, he may costume up like a cheerleader, Tingle, and even Zelda herself. I can solely hope that a few of these distinctive seems from Tri Pressure Heroes make their manner into Final in some kind or one other. 

Peter Glagowski

I’ll stage with you all. The Legend of Zelda is my favourite sequence of all time and Hyperlink is the rationale I found loads of different video games. I might have by no means gotten into Soulcalibur if Namco Bandai did not suppose to incorporate him within the Gamecube port of Soulcalibur II. I picked up Monster Hunter four: Final solely as a result of there was a Hyperlink costume. When Nintendo added Hyperlink to Mario Kart eight, I used to be over the moon.

Ever since I performed Ocarina of Time after I was 10 years outdated, Hyperlink has been my favourite character in all of gaming. If he’s current in a sport, likelihood is I will choose him. In Hyrule Warriors, regardless of having a whole solid of characters to pick from, I’m going with Hyperlink. After I was a child, I begged my mother to purchase me that shitty Hyperlink determine at Toys R’ Us simply because I needed to have it.

In each Smash Bros. sport, I tinker with different fighters however all the time return to Hyperlink. He was my authentic primary and he is nonetheless the one I am the most effective with. He would possibly suck in additional than half of the sequence, however I’ve grow to be so expert with him that I can take out my pals with ease. At one level throughout our many battles in Brawl, I earned the nickname of “The Inexperienced Monster” for surviving fully insane odds.

It could be somewhat cliche since Zelda is a extremely regarded Nintendo franchise, however I simply love Hyperlink. Wherever he goes, I will comply with.

CJ Andriessen

So if we’re speaking characters then clearly the character I’m going to play as most could be Daisy. Peach is my present primary and I need to see what forms of modifications she has as an Echo Fighter. I’m not precisely an enormous Daisy fan – although I like her cruiser – but when she’s a greater model of Peach, she’s my new go-to lady. I’m a fan, nonetheless, of Chibi-Robo.

I’ve been stanning for the robotic since earlier than I even performed one among his video games as a result of I’m that sort of individual. I personal each Chibi-Robo title, not less than those launched in North America, and have been fairly unhappy and somber that he might by no means get one other large journey sport. Seeing the character as a Spirit in Final actually raised my hopes, however after I discovered he would even be a fancy dress, effectively, out of the blue my most anticipated character turned the Mii.

As excited as I’m to cosplay as Chibi-Robo in Smash, I’m not precisely trying ahead to creating my abilities with a model of fighter I don’t significantly want. I don’t play as Samus, or Fox, or Falco, or actually any of the shooter characters within the sequence. I’m extra of a brawler sort myself, in order comfortable as I’m on the considered sporting Chibi-Robo’s flesh over my very own, I actually want he was both of the opposite two Mii Fighter varieties. Boy, now that I’m studying all this again to myself, I don’t sound a lot elated in any respect to play as Chibi-Robo.

Huh.

Properly, nevermind then. Daisy it’s!

Pixie The Fairy

As a lot as I could be trying ahead to the return of Stable Snake, dancing as Bayonetta or whipping of us good as Simon and Richter Belmont, or Zero Swimsuit Samus, combating video games are all about memorizing inputs and relearning the wheel, as a result of characters get rebalanced over time and from one sport to the following. Soulcalibur took that too far for some time and it put me off for 3 entries, now that Ivy has a a few of her SCII moveset again in SCVI, I am a cheerful camper. 

Fortunately in Smash four, they added a man that I by no means, ever must relearn, so my default will usually be the traditional World Warrior; Ryu.

Shoryuken, Hadoken, Hurricane kick — these are issues I do know by coronary heart and I’ll try to unlock Ryu as quickly as I can. After that, I can determine all the opposite characters later. As a bonus, Ken can be in Final as an echo fighter, so there’s two characters I do not actually must relearn in any respect!

And actually, the truth that Ryu and Ken have the inputs they’re well-known for is simply a kind of issues I like about Smash – each character actually is in-character, whatever the sport they hail from. That is a stage of dedication that makes Smash a love letter to all online game followers.

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