#I really love the animation stuff we got for the initial trailers ^^

[kuramirocket]

[the-interidiot]

MCSM REMAKE ANALYSIS

god I’m so UNWELLLLL ABOUT THIS‼️‼️‼️ /POS

I just wanna state beforehand the trailer looks AWESOME, I have some criticisms but I’m MOSTLY excited! I haven’t played the game in years though, so a lot of my info is pure memory and the power of hyperfixation . It MAY be inaccurate and if it is, I do genuinely want to be corrected!

[WARNING: LONG. I YAP A LOT BELOW CUT.]

Male!White Jessie is the poster child, which makes sense as he is the most recognizable. As much as I LOVE female Jessie sm, I definitely recognize M by first glance.

The animation looks MUCH nicer, though it’s not shown in this screenshot! It’s got a raised FPS from the original, and actually doesn’t have a ton of lighting errors anymore!

They’re adding newer blocks, which I like a lot - though it does lead to one of the first major criticisms I have. They need to TREAD CAREFUL with new stuff. The amethyst looks great, but I guarantee 90% of people are going to play/watch Block by Block for nostalgia, and an OVERLOAD of new stuff will take away from this.

PETRA!!!!! She looks COOL in this shot, and in general! The lighting is GREAT, and I appreciate her getting an action shot! The shadow is a little intense, but no complaints here.

Olivia and Eligard using redstone lights is a nice touch, and connects the characters well. :)

It also begs the question of if Olivia (in that screenshot) is pre-witherstorm or post-witherstorm, as she WAS always a Redstone engineer but she got a lot of her inspiration and materials from Redstone City.

THE CREW! This is a GREAT starting shot, though I will unfortunately tripe that I wish the shading was less heavy here. Lucas looks great, and I’m happy to see him! He was always one of my favorites. :)

Alex and Olivia having a conversation, while Jessie and Lucas just separately enjoy the situation. Lucas doesn’t look super pleased here, but he isn’t really happy for most of MC:SM, so…. (Free my boy, he needs therapy) /j

I can’t tell if Gabriel is going to die or not, unfortunately. This scene looks like just adoration for his hero, but it also reminds me of the choice to take Eligard or Magnus’s armor, which worries me. Gabriel dying doesn’t seem too likely though, as we see him in shots that take place presumably later.

I’m not sure, but I THINK the first place here is Mobcity! If it is, WOAH. It looks INSANE! (/POS) I loved Mobcity so much when I first played the game, and seeing it again made me giggle a little bit.

The second and third locations are clearly Redstone City (Redstonia? I don’t remember the name, sorry!) And Boomtown. I personally always chose Boomtown when I played, but I watched people play Redstone city! They both look nice, and the more terf-war style chaos of Boomtown looks nice - it almost looks like something Fallout reminiscent to me.

I have a FEW thoughts here. First - the obvious, I can’t tell what the drones are. I’m likely forgetting something story wise - but I can’t identity where they come from. BUT, the lights in the background look a lot like White Pumpkins mansion zoomed in, which excites me.

Except…. I don’t think those are from White Pumpkin.

THIS shot interested me the most of the whole trailer. Red arrows shooting in a snowy forest. This appears to be the same location as the previous shot, and initially I thought these arrows were from PAMA. But that doesn’t make sense, she’s in the desert.

These arrows look like ROMEO. Sure, it’s a possibility they’re the poison arrows from the Mansion, but they’re glowing too bright and in addition to the drones from the previous shot makes me think them to be The Admins.

So how is HE, HERE? And why was only one drone blue? (Also, keep in mind I DO know the difference between the drones and phantoms).

Speaking of PAMA. HOLY. JEBUS. /POS

This looks TERRIFYING. I love this shot because it’s nailing in a concept the original kind of failed at, that this robot is ENSLAVING EVERYONE. These people are drones - pawns to the perfect system. And some of the armor here is detailed, making me think some of them are named characters. I don’t remember if any named characters get taken over in the original, but probably.

The Temple! It FEELS big just with this shot, which amazes me. 10/10, no comments.

This is the one shot I took a while to identify. I first thought this was the Spleef area for some reason, then I thought it was the Mob Grinder due to the downward shot, but it seems to simply be the cart ride near the beginning of the game through the nether. (Which is a shame, because I would LOVE to see the mob grinder in the trailer!)

The Piglins concern me a little for the same reason as the amethyst, so I restate - PLEASE don’t rely on new stuff. This is justifiable, as Pigmen are gone, but just a quick warning.

I CANT tell who the person on the left is, but I have a few theories? This is a snow environment, so my brain thought is that it’s somebody from the White Pumpkin area. But it looks a lot like (from memory) Ivors ninja costume. I’m sure there’s an obvious answer one google search could tell me, but I’m dumb and don’t wanna google stuff.

It could also be an anti-PAMA person? I don’t remember that plot too well, but wasn’t there also a blue headset used to see through the red ones?

AND FINALLY. THE ONE. THE ONLY.

THE WITHERSTORMMMMMMMMM!!!!!

I have SO many good things to say, as well as a few criticisms, but they’re so small I’ll knock them out now. The roof doesn’t really look like it’s glass being shattered, it looks too thick. And the color contrast is a tad too high.

That’s it. The whole criticism. NOW, it’s so BIG. It feels consuming, like it’s not just eating its environment but also growing too fast for even the camera to catch up with. One of my hopes is that they don’t have as many full-body shots of the creature, because shots like THIS - where it’s so large you can’t even SEE THE END (no pun intended) amaze me. I love these shots.

Anyway this excites me very much and also gave me motivation to crawl my MC:MS oc’s from the grave and look at their dirty, cringy asses again. I might remake them TBH, those concepts were fire. 10 year old me COOKED.

[baku-usagi]

OK just finished the new dragon age gameplay review and heres my initial thoughts so far:

sooooo much better then I was thinking it would be after the trailer.

Whoever did that trailer did a truly horrible job. While minrathous is a little scifi esque, what we've seen does still at least have some of the general dragon age vibe so my interest is piqued again!

The vibe feels flatly inquisition though.

It makes me really really sad that fans have for over a decade now been begging for the games to return to origin roots, and been continuesly ignored.

I had hoped against hope that the success of bg3 would have opened up was EAs eyes to how absolutely needed a good dialog bar was, and a silent protagonist (especially since fans have been quietly complaining about the wheel and voiced protagonists since dragon age 2)

But alas, that is not a change that happened. It does look fun even if it is leaning more and more into the action adventure stuff for combat. God I miss my origins tactile system though :(

I'm excited so see the new companions in action, they're the least concerning part of everything so far. They seem lively and interesting.

I do think certain things just don't bode well for the lore and universe. Dragon age has been experiencing weird little retcons and simplifications of hard topics since inquisition, and it feels like veilgaurd will continue that legacy.

My biggest complaint is actually this:

We are immediately seeing very very small choices to be made. Unlike in bg3, where the dialog wheel serves not just to give you choices but to help create the personality of your character, this wheel has had the standard bland and tasteless three ish options that leave our rook as uninteresting as the voiced companions before them. I felt deeply disconnected from my inquisitor because there was not really much to connect with, and it seems rook will be the same.

We see no immediately consequences for our choices either besides approval of course. Which again after balders gate 3 is hard to swallow.

I don't think it's gonna be a bad game anymore thank God. But I am sad because i was reallly hoping for more on the actual choices matter rpg front that I can immediately tell is not going to be there.

That being said, some positives too!

As much as I'd like the return of tactics based, I think the hack and slash seems fun! I love the animations especially for rogue because I tend to play mages and rogues.

There is so much more nostalgia to yet be had as we get to continue meeting old friends on the way. I actually really like the game animation (nervous about it having the same eye problems Andromeda had tho 😬😬)

And I think varric and Harding have aged beautifully!

All and all I went from feeling like this was the worst it could get, to feeling like it's gonna be mid, but hopefully still worth playing! And hopefully my mind will continue to be changed. I hope. Bioware somehow managed to make me eat my socks on the critiques lol

(EDIT****

I AM SO HAPPY FOR THE SKIN TONE WERE SEEING IN THIS GAME. THE ROOK USED FOR THE GAME PLAY REVEAL WAS BEAUITFUL AND HIS SKIN LOOKED LIKE A ACTUAL PERSON AND I'M SO GLAD BIOWARE FINALLY GOT THE DARKER SKIN TONES LOOOKINH HUMAN AND GOOD HOLY SHIT. I'M SO EXCITED FOR THE CHARACTER CREATOR IN THIS GAME IF NOTHING ELSE)

[miicycle]

Just something I reflected on

The last 2–3 posts I've made have been extremely discouraging and upsetting, and I just wanted to reflect on why I'm so negative suddenly.

Below the cut:

Initially, when I watched the trailer for Kung Fu Panda 4, I was super excited. Sure, I saw Zhen and instantly felt off about her, but the rest was too good to be brought down by her. Though, as I went on Tumblr, I got onto the KFP4 tag to check out some fan art for the Chameleon, but was met with a barrage of negativity. I'm not blaming anyone, but it does affect opinions when there's genuinely good points.

This phenomenon has happened frequently, as I usually wish to see fan art and am met with critique that I end up reading (which is still entirely on me), which in turn makes me wonder if I really should like the media I consume.

The reflection I did today did aid me in coming to a proper conclusion about my stance:

I'll like what I damn please, even if it's literal shit. The jokes can be awful, the story can make little sense, the cinematography can be abysmal. I don't care. I watched through the entirety of The Untamed, for goodness’s sake. Yeah, maybe DreamWorks should do better, and yeah, perhaps it's stupid that they made some new character to take up screen time when we could've had the Furious Five. Yes, DreamWorks, do better, treat the furious five better, make a compelling movie twice in a row challenge impossible.

If I end up loving it based on the few good things in it? Then so be it! I like Hotel Transylvania 3. NO ONE likes Hotel Transylvania 3. But I do. So, people may be critics, but I'm genuinely tired of being a critic and I'm going to be a silly guy and go "ohh. animation prettyy omggg tai lung hiii tai lung wydd <33" even if the story isnt living up to the past movies. I watch movies, shows and consume books and media to feel, not to nitpick and be all professional. I watch stuff to have a good time. So if KFP4 sucks, I hope for it to be bad as an enjoyable time and not a waste of time.

[tresenellaart]

The Big Life Update!

Um, hi everyone! Long time no see huh? In fact, it’s been a very, very long time. 5 years ago I nearly dropped off the face of the internet, and while some of you might have caught a glimpse of my work here and there, I've been almost completely offline and I've kept away from all social sites ever since.

Around 2017-2018, I found myself very lost artistically. I hit a hard wall where I wouldn’t know where to go next, what project to embark on. I had many ideas, but all of them seemed to evaporate into nothing the moment I sat down to flesh them out. I felt extremely apathetic creatively, eventually stopped uploading any art, and sank most of my time into gaming or mindlessly watching videos and streams. My partner at the time helped me gather the strength to look for a job, but without any formal education or previous jobs I could refer to, I tried my luck on Fiverr.

My experience on Fiverr was… mostly terrible. Being paid very little for a lot of hard work, and having to deal with some problematic clients and tight deadlines, really took a toll on me. My time there did send me on a path that I wouldn’t have expected though. I was contacted by a game dev to do a character design for a little wizard character. This person was quite pleased with my work, and continued to ask me for art for a second character, then some test animations… And soon I found myself handling all the art and music for the game, in what’s been my job for 5 years. The game is called Enchanted Portals, and it’ll be releasing later this year!

It’s been… a wild ride. The game’s very heavily inspired by Cuphead, with very similar art-style and gameplay. My boss, being an avid fan of the original, was very passionate about creating his own take on the genre, but maybe not surprisingly, the initial reaction to unveiling the first trailer was one of mass rejection and hate towards it. A useless ripoff! An inferior clone! I hope they get sued for this! Instead of the love letter from a fan that it actually is, it was mostly seen as a ploy from some greedy studio to make a quick buck. Didn’t help that the trailer reached a lot more people than we could’ve ever anticipated.

I can’t really call the game mine in any way, as I’ve mostly just been hired to make art and music assets for it, but the wave of hate was still quite overwhelming and soul-crushing for me. Is this all I’m gonna be known for now? Is this hate going to follow me forever? That creative black hole I had found myself in before, grew even bigger. I didn’t want to be public online again. I wanted to disappear. I couldn’t work on anything creative outside of my job anymore. I was burnt out, scared of the world, feeling completely defeated.

I was very fortunate to be contacted by a long time friend from my early DeviantArt days, someone that, despite my lengthy online disappearances, would make an effort to send me a message from time to time to catch up. We started talking very regularly, and she got me interested in a project she was part of, a fandub of the webcomic Rain by Jocelyn Samara D. (that I’m sure a lot of you know already). We toyed with the idea of upgrading the project into a full animated series, a pretty ambitious task since I’d be the only one animating, but my creative spark was immediately reignited. Working on Rain was such a joy, and a rekindling of everything I love about creating art. The project hit some serious bumps along the road, but it’s still going strong now, and while it’s been really slow working on it on top of my job, it’s been the best artistic experience I’ve had in a very long time. If you want to check it out, here’s the Rain: TAS Youtube channel! We just released a new short!

This long time friend has since become my girlfriend, and we’ve embarked on other wonderful projects together. If you want to check out some of our other stuff, we have a wonderful world of gay fae bugs in the making too!

Despite all of these exciting new personal projects I’ve embarked on recently, coming out of my bubble has still been a huge struggle. Posting on my own accounts, drawing new strips for my webcomic, uploading anything that's more personal, still fills me with fear and anxiety. I really want to get out of my comfort zone and start posting again, being more active online, reaching out to new people, sharing my art with others once more. I miss it all dearly. And I know people have been missing my art too, and some have even been seriously worried about my well-being. I sincerely apologize if I made any of you worry too much! ^^;

I hope this post is the first step in a long new creative journey for me. I’ll do my best to leave my shell, and to build myself and my art back up again. There’s so much wonderful stuff I want to do, and to show to the world! Stay tuned!

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Kind of an add-on, but I've been observing the response to the INSIDE OUT 2 teaser.

I haven't seen this kind of response to an upcoming Pixar movie in a while. Where it seems like the film/toonsphere on the internet is united in anticipating a Pixar movie... Because ELEMENTAL, LIGHTYEAR, and TURNING RED got all kinds of jeers from various (and largely toxic) swamps of the internet. But it seems like there's no complaint about INSIDE OUT 2...

Anxiety seems to be the film's Grogu. People are already falling in love with the character and especially her funky design. I see praise for a female Pixar character that isn't all perfect-looking or overtly "feminized", a man's idea of what a female character looks like vs. a funkier-looking male character. I think Anxiety's design, and what we saw in TURNING RED and such kinda steer us away from Lasseter's very "boys' club" Pixar, or as one person on twitter once put it, "For dads, by dads".

Also, a lot of us suffer from anxiety, myself included, so for a lot of people this character will be super (forgive me for using this word) relatable. First film was basic primal emotions: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, Fear... And in this film we have a literal mental illness with Anxiety.

This film will singlehandedly cure Disney's animation box office blues. WISH is also apparently tracking very well and will likely outgross ELEMENTAL domestically and maybe soar above it worldwide, too. It costs around the same amount, so $500m should be the floor here. ELEMENTAL just barely missed that, but Disney top brass considered it a success while the praise lauded its leggy run as a "comeback story".

INSIDE OUT was massive back in 2015, and made some incredible numbers for an original movie not based on any pre-existing IP. Performed similarly to the likes of FINDING NEMO and THE INCREDIBLES, made well over $800m at the worldwide box office. With the 9-year wait and the astounding amount of trailer views? Easy billion right here. Perhaps Disney and Pixar knew what was on hand, and probably delayed ELIO - previously set to open this coming March - all the way to summer 2025 for that reason. (That, and - supposedly - to have some time to fix its story troubles. Post-strike, they can get the voice cast back now. Again, if that's all true.)

While box office is largely silly, it'll be cool to see a Pixar film not "flop" again. ELEMENTAL barely checked out, so INSIDE OUT 2 will be their first bona fide smash hit since... TOY STORY 4 all the way back in 2019. A sequel, no less. Hey, remember how the surprise appearance of Forky in the TOY STORY 4 teaser had the internet a-blazin' for a brief bit? Anxiety gives that kind of energy. Maybe a good secret weapon is a neurotic, jumpy character? (Thinking back to it, that TOY STORY 4 teaser is *brilliant*.) It's why people tend to talk about panic attack scenes a lot. I think the generations from millennials (mine) on down are more upfront about their mental health struggles, and the lot of us love to see it represented in some way or another.

From the teaser, I can't quite say much about Anxiety other than love that incredible design. I wonder if its portrayal will, in some way or another, really hit me hard.

As for later Disney-released theatrical animation, I'm going to be curious to see how they go about original stuff. ELIO would've given us an idea of that if it had come out in March 2024 as initially planned, but now post-WISH, we'll have to wait 'til Disney Animation's presumably-original movie comes out in November 2024. It'd be a little disheartening to see only a bunch of sequels (this, TOY STORY 5, ZOOTOPIA 2, and FROZEN III) do well while the originals have trouble.

Worth noting that the biggest animated movies domestically are largely franchise favorites or adaptations of beloved properties. Illumination's SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE reigns supreme with over $570m followed by SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE and MINIONS Deux, both of which made over $360m respectively... And then well behind that is PUSS IN BOOTS Dos with $185m, and then SING 2 above $160m. ELEMENTAL is the biggest original so far with $154m. Worldwide's a different beast, as ELEMENTAL outdid PUSS IN BOOTS 2 in overall global gross, for example.

But WISH doing good (with, say, $180m+ domestic and $600m+ worldwide) followed by INSIDE OUT 2 easily breaking the big billion will make for a nice upward trajectory for Disney-released theatrical animation... So that would make WDAS #63 the interesting one to follow. Does that repeat WISH's success? Does WISH's box office inform WDAS films going forward? We shall see.

[survey--s]

690.

Who will you be spending Christmas with this year? Christmas Day will be with my husband and the animals, but we'll see my parents and Mike's parents at some point over the holidays too.

What time do you usually go to sleep at night? I normally go up to bed around 9ish but I don't tend to sleep until nearly midnight.

Did you go to high school with your current best friend? No.

Have you ever wanted to be vegetarian or vegan? I was vegetarian for a few years as a teenager but I'd never want to do it again. I definitely couldn't go vegan.

Do you park your car in a garage, carport or just in a driveway? Either on the driveway or on the street. Our garage is full of crap and carports aren't a thing here.

Have you ever been a passenger in a semi-trailer truck? Nope.

Have you felt sick today? No.

Whose was the last funeral you attended? I've never attended a funeral.

Have you read The Hunger Games trilogy? Yes.

How many times a week do you wash your hair? Everyday. I work an active job so it's not really optional.

Do you need to wash your hair right now? No, I had a shower a couple of hours ago and my hair is still damp from that.

Do you avoid using public restrooms? As much as I can yeah, but I’m not going to let myself suffer instead of using one.

What is your boss’ (or school prinicpal’s) name? I run my own business. My last boss was Nick.

Have you seen any extended relatives in the last month? Nope. They all live overseas.

Do you like eggnog? I've never actually had it but I like eggnog flavoured stuff.

Is there anything important you need to do today? I have another load of laundry that I need to do this afternoon.

Who is the person you dislike the most? Nobody in particular, really.

Girls, how old were you when you first got your period? Twelve. It was the day before I started year 8.

Do you take part in paying the bills for your household? Yeah, we split household bills proportionate to our income, and I also pay for all the animals and obviously my car and phone etc.

Have you ever properly listened to classical music? Did you like it? Yeah, but it really doesn't appeal to me.

Do your parents know how to text? My mum does. My dad has never used or owned a mobile phone.

Do you text your parents often? I message my mum on Messenger most days but my dad and I aren't particularly close and we rarely speak.

What letter does your middle name begin with? C.

Do your initials spell an actual word? No.

What will you do when this survey is over? Probably a different survey, or sort the laundry if the dryer is done.

Do you know anyone with celiac disease? Yeah, Susie does.

How many siblings do you have? Are they all full siblings? None.

What’s the weather like today? Cold, wet and pretty miserable to be honest.

Have you ever eaten a cinnamon donut? Yep. I love them, especially if they're the apple cinnammon style ones.

What is the longest relationship you’ve ever been in? Seven and a half years (and counting).

How many times a day do you brush your teeth? Twice, occasionally three times.

How do you usually celebrate New Years? We stay at home with the dog as he doesn't like fireworks, lol.

Is the place that you’re in right now quiet or loud? What can you hear? It's quiet enough but I can hear the dryer, my own typing and the TV.

Do you currently have any alarms set? Not at the moment.

How many cars can fit in your driveway? One.

Do you like whiskey? Honey JD is quite nice but otherwise it's not my drink of choice.

When was the last time you ate, and what did you have? I had leftover pizza and a cold sausage for lunch, lol, plus some chocolate wafer things.

[cloverthirteen]

unsorted (and spoilery) mario movie thoughts under the cut since I saw it today

first to get it out of the way: critics apparently complained about the plot being too simple and straightforward, none of the characters changed that much, too much stuff being thrown at you and too many references...it's a mario movie. this is basically what the plots of the games are. if anything these things helped the movie by making feel more like the games!

for my personal issues: first half of the film goes at an absolute breakneck pace and luigi doesn't get to do nearly enough. mario and luigi also spend way too much time apart :(

otherwise, though, THIS MOVIE IS AMAZING. it was clearly made by fans and caters directly to fans, the amount of easter eggs and references is enormous.

THE MUSIC. nearly all of it is BEAUTIFUL orchestral versions of songs from the series and it's everywhere and in the most unexpected places. underground theme in the sewers, bowser's castle theme as his fortress is approaching, super mario 3 athletic theme (I think?) when mario gets the tanooki suit, mario kart menu music in the kart garage, LUIGI'S MANSION MELODY WHEN LUIGI FIRST ENTERS BOWSER'S KINGDOM? I am kissing all of the orchestra members and composers DIRECTLY on the mouth for their work. and if we're talking about music...

DK RAP BABY!!!!! the crowd loves that guy! they even name-drop diddy kong during the scene!

there are also a few pop songs in the movie, though take on me during the introduction to the jungle kingdom is the only one that felt really out of place

the bros' path to their first job being a recreation of world 1-1 complete with a castle-like building at the end...that scene was totally there to show off but it's very neat

MARIO AND LUIGI ARE BEST BROS...mario gets to protect luigi from insults and luigi gets to say that any princess with good taste would be into mario...their relationship is the BEST and I'm so sad we didn't get to see them directly interacting more...

somehow I wasn't expecting bowser's plan being to marry peach since it was left out of the trailers...but it's hilarious seeing bowser plan it all out and they even got bowser's and peach's wedding outfits from odyssey, so it was perfect

I was a bit worried that they would lean too hard on peach being a do-anything Girlboss™ but while she's tough she's clearly got her kind side too! protecting her people is her biggest concern and it's even exploited by bowser!

bowser gets to sing a love song for peach with bisexual lighting and everything. you can tell jack black was having the time of his life

speaking of the voice cast, they all did really well! I didn't have many doubts as a whole but even chris pratt was great as mario. didn't think I'd ever write that sentence but it's true

kamek was such a proud dad to bowser despite his limited screentime. love it

I'm not sure why spike was part of the initial advertised voice cast because he's barely in the movie lol

out of all the powerups I expected to return, I was not expecting the mini mushroom and ice flower, but they were incorporated very well!

other things I didn't really expect: mario and dk having a rivalry that builds into a friendship was cute. also they straight up get swallowed by the mario 64 eel

princess peach backstory?????? at least in the movie canon she isn't from the mushroom kingdom and just arrived via warp pipe from...somewhere as a baby. also using the baby versions of peach and the bros for flashbacks is incredibly cheesy but also cute in its own way

there were surprisingly few cringeworthy or self aware jokes and no awkward overly long gags, which must be some kind of first for illumination based on what I remember

the animation was spectacular as expected. rainbow road looks fucking gorgeous and the character animation was fun to watch

no really romantic moments between mario and peach unfortunately, though we did get a lot of very nice interactions between the two overall so I hope they build on their relationship in a potential sequel

so yeah...it's good and very fun. go see it if you haven't already!!

[frogs-in3-hills]

oki oki a short reflection on dgs case one because i like doing these and recording my initial thoughts so i can look back on them

this was a pretty solid 1st case! ryuunosuke had a really satisfying little miniarc of becoming more assertive and i am very proud of him ^_^ he is soooo autistic btw. he struggles to get the right words out because he’s trying to conform to societal conventions that he doesn’t actually understand?? check. he’s constantly asking clarifying questions like “what do you mean by that?” when people try to imply stuff or otherwise not say exactly what they mean?? check. and a little cliche but that photographic memory though. hmm. am i projecting or is this real

the pacing wasn’t stellar imo, i thought a lot could have been expedited/cut out and it would still be satisfying, and as a traditional mystery i thought it was on the weaker side, i didn’t feel like the trial really flowed from point to point, instead it just kind of tangented and tangented until it reached some semblance of a point that didn’t seem to disprove ryuunosuke’s guilt at all until the very last minute. ultimately though i still enjoyed it and quite a few story beats really caught my eye and are making me really excited to see what comes next!!

first of all asougi is a delight and i love him, he’s is definitely servings some “lawful paladin type chooses the path of self-destruction” vibes especially with the stuff about how his sword guides him, is the spirit of his clan, he will use it to cut through any opposition, etc…. not to mention he’s obviously very ambitious. not gonna lie he’s kinda wearing the shirt though….. he feels very mia fey to me and then he offered to go out to get food with ryuunosuke just like mia offered to get drinks w/ nick……… hi hello do u remember what happened to mia after that. SHE GOT BONKED. i’m just saying IT COULD HAPPEN he seems like a sweet friend though i can’t wait to see what kind of emotional crisis he will be having in this game <3

liking the specific setting and implied cultural influences a lot!! can’t quite say what i think is going to happen with that bc i honestly have no clue, but i do love some political intrigue so i really hope we see more of this kind of stuff in the story! ik the mainline second trilogy likes to tackle themes of systemic change and stuff which would be awesome if they could just stick the landing, so hopefully those kind of thing will be handled in a more interesting way/it doesn’t fall flat in this game

i have never hated the animation in the 3ds titles but i think i like the general look of this game more than like, dual destinies, the way dgs plays with camera angles seems more natural than it did in dd, which kind of made it feel like they were throwing in new angles just because they could even though they didn’t look that great. though i would like to see more characters and sprites that take advantage of the increased capabilities of 3d models etc etc, since that was something i thought dd did really well.

also is ryuunosuke going to get accused of something again?? because i saw like a screenshot in the trailer of susato watching him and he’s wearing handcuffs which i was expecting to happen in the first case. but it did not. so hopefully we will not have to defend ourselves again acsjhdj i do like the concept as a story beat but i think aai-2 poisoned me against that one a little (despite this is still think athena should have defended herself in turnabout for tomorrow but whateverrr whatever. whatever)

probably not going to get too far but yeagh i think im gonna continue to the next case and see what’s up. cheers

[popculturebuffet]

Quick Thoughts: Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl Reveal Trailer and Initial Roster

Whelp I didn’t expect to be doing another one of these so soon but welcome to quick thoughts where I give well quick thoughts on stuff instead of the longer form reviews I usually do. 

So as longtime or even short time readers of this blog might know I love NIck. I don’t review shows from it as often as Disney or Cartoon Network, but it was still a beloved part of my childhood and still makes great shows today such as the Loud House, Harvey Beaks and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It’s horribly mismanaged, which is why two of those shows are no longer with us and the last of them is weirdly missing from this game, and have a long and storied history of screwing things over.. and i’m not exagerating when Mr. Enter, no matter your opinon of him now, did a whole marathon of every nicktoon almost every entry included the fact the show had been screwed over in some way. 

But as anyone who knows my history with Disney will tell you just because I don’t sugarcoat a brand I like’s fuckups dosen’t mean they aren’t near and dear to me at the same time. I”m a grown up: I can have complex emotions towards a chlidren’s tv network. So I love it’s varied shows some of whom (Avatar, Harvey beaks again, Danny Phantom, Hey Arnold) are among my all time faviorites. 

Now something readers of my blog probably WOUDLN’T know is I love Nintendo, they have their own fuckups like weird release strageies and never doing a remotely decent discount like the competition, but their still a company I love and since I only play handhelds most of the time are my primary source of good shit. So naturally Smash Bros is my faviorite franchise of theres. I love the idea of fighting games but often struggle with the combo heavy nature. So Smash Bros, having a roster of some of my faviorite characters ever, a plaformer style control scheme, and a deceptivley simple style that’s easy to learn and fun to master with the right character, is my shit. Sure I won’t rush out to buy every dlc character, but you better belivie I played the hell out of Ultimate, will likely go back to it again some day, and did buy Banjo and Kazooie because fuck yeah. 

So yeah I needed to talk about Nick making their own smash bros clone. When I heard the rumors I wasn’t sure, mostly because Rumors can be just that.. but nope this game is happening and i’m all on board for it. This isn’t Nick’s first crossover rodeo in recent memory either also making a pair of Kart Racing Games: one I KINDA wanted to play till I looked at the roster, had a good laugh and lost that i want, and the other I really want to play as it seems like the first game if it were you know an actual game with a decent track selection, a deep character roster and an actual love of it’s properties. 

So making their own Smash Bros was a logical step and one i’m here for. We haven’t had any of the big cartoon networks make one since well.. Cartoon Network, and Nick has just a deep a bench to pull from, one that will hopefully get CN to get their cast to throw hands once more. 

For now though the idea of the vast history of nick all throwing hands with each other is amazing. Look i’m honest with myself: this looks like a decent smash clone,functional but nothing specail, but with the expressive character animation and solid roster you need for a game like this. I know going in i’m not going ot get Smash Ultimate quality of brawler, but i’m probably going to have fun with it. 

The only downside I see so far is , like the Kart Racers, theyd idn’t seem to get ANY voice actors for this which smacks of laziness, especially since most of the voice actors for these characters are still active, and in some cases like Spongebob or Loud House are still working with you. So you have no real excuse for this, shame on you.

But yeah the game looks good.. despite the trailer being pretty bad. It’s just some generic music set to “LOOK WHO WE GOT”. And granted look who they got is really spiffy and i’ll be diving into that in a second, but it dosen’t give any of these characters a reall chance to show off how they play or how awesome they are. It’s just a bland montage of whose in the roster in the same 2 or 3 stages. And when you have 15 stages overall to show off that’s not excusable. Again i’m not expecting Smash level quality revelas, this game dosen’t have the marketing budget, but you have a really great concept and roster here, you coudl’ve revealed it better and this game better. The Kart Racers 2 Trailer was also mildly bland but it did show off the game better, showing off several tracks and how VASTLY improved the roster was, so you CAN make a good trailer you just didn’t. It felt like they thought the poitn of all the smash reveals trailers was here’s a character and missed all the style and substance to them. 

That being said while the trailer was weak.. it was boyed by the fact this roster is REALLY damn good. Let’s face it I woudln’t even be talking about this game if the roster wasn’t this minty but they clearly learned from Kart Racers not to half ass it and while they learned the long lessons from Smash in how to promote the fighters they have, they learned the right lessons in having a nice mix of crowd pleasing faviorites for kids and vetrans alike along with a few deep cuts for said longtime fans. And this is JUST the intitial reveal roster: Given the Box Art isn’t out yet, I feel there’s more to come, especially since despite being perfect for the game there’s no one from the Avatarverse yet, but I also feel that Nick is saving that for a second trailer to announce the release date. But I can and will go into who i’d LIKE on the roster in another one of these sometime soon. -

Spongebob, Patrick and Sandy (SpongeBob Squarepants): I’m getting these three out of the way as their essentially to this what Mario and Co were to smash: necessary and inevitible.  As for who was chosen.. it was as obvious as putting spongebob himself int he game. Sponebob is Nick’s mascot, Patrick is nearly as iconic and Sandy is well loved as well as the spongebob character most associated with buttkicking. Being an expert martial artist is both part of her character and a cerntral part of her character and relationship with Spongebob. So yeah not a lot ot say here: it was ineivible but I don’t mind at all having grown up with them and with my niece and nibling being huge fans. 

87 Leo and 87 Mikey (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles): This one i’m mixed on. Not on the turtles being here: i’m a MASSIVE TMNT fan and i’td be stupid to leave them out since Nick Owns them, made the last two series, and they fit this kind of game like a glove, even having had their OWN smash clone to themselves once. 

No my issue is obviously in the version choseN: The 87 turtles. Again I have no beef with the guys themselves, I haven’t seen much of 87 but I want to and they look really gorgeous and nicely cartoony. It’s just a REALLY weird choice. The 87 turtles have never been on a nick network due to rights issues, have never been associated with nick, and aren’t the ones most kids of EITHER DEMO would be familiar with: Grown up fans of nicktoons from the 90′s like myself would be more familiar with 2003, and kids and teens from more recent eras would be more familiar with 2012 and rise, which REALLY should’ve been the rep. I mean their weird shame of rise bothers me enough on a good day but not using EITHER show you actually made bothers me, it bothers me a lot. I’ll still probably play Mikey, i’m not made of stone and as I said I have no beef with the 87 turtles, I just wish nick had used the others or hell just gone all lin and used one turtle from each cartoon. I mean if your going to use stuff you’ve barely aired why not give me some 2003 nostalgia too huh? Though it could just be that since, unlike the rise and 2012 turrtles the 87 turtles have the same body type and colors it was easier to just do all 4 and just give each unique facial expressions. Who knows... I knows it was probably that. 

Lincoln and Lucy Loud (The Loud House, Duh): Another pretty obvious one as The Loud House is currrently nick’s co-flagship show with spongebob. Still waiting for my diffrent world spinoff with Bobby and Lori guys. So yeah Lincoln isn’t a suprise and Lucy is only minorly one as it was a matter of “which sister”... and Lucy is one of the most popular. Neither really fit a combat setting.. but given this is a fun crossover game, that really dosen’t matter and in fact is kind of the fun: taking just the most insane matcchups imaginable and mashing them together. I mean this is a game where Lincoln and Lucy can beat up Leo and Mikey, why wouldn’t I want that kind of crack on my nintendo switch? I am hoping for Luna to make her way to the stage next as she was absent from Kart Racer 2 and would be really fun to play. Plus having ANOTHER bi fighter in the mix if korra gets in there would be awesome, let alone letting the two beat up or punch each other’s face. But again I could and probably will mak ea whole article about other possible fighters i’d want. 

The Plesant Suprises: Nigel Thornberry , Oblina and Powdered Toast Man (Wild Thronberries, Ahhh! Real MOnsters1 and Ren and Stimpy) : Yeah while only one of these cartoons was a faviorite as a kid (Wild Thornberries)... I have nothing but respect for these choices. One of the funnest things about Smash is while you can see some roster members coming sometimes you get utter curveballs like Mr. Game and Watch, Pirana Plant and MInecraft Guy. They also go for more cult franchises like SNK or Earthbound (the latter of which is fucking awesome localize mother 3 already dammit) too among the big heavies, making it feel like a true tapestry of Nintendo’s history. 

Nigel is the only one of these three that’s really obvious. He’s a meme, he was the best part of his show.. but it’s still just uniquely batshit to put NIGEL THRONBERRY in a fighting game. You better belivie he’ll be one of my mains. 

Oblina is more a suprise because I thought they’d go with Icket, but instead went wtih the character who was more popular and had a really unqiue and cool design, so i’m pleased as punch to have her. Finally while I don’t have any real attachment to ren and stimply apart from Log, and really it’s hard to gain any now knowing i’ts creator was a pedophile piece of shit, the franchise is still a cornerstone of nick history, the rest oc the crew didn’t abuse power or not make deadlines or be a com plete piece of shit, and powerded toast man is genuinely great. I”d love to see Really Big Man too, clash of the weird superheroes, I love me a weird as hell superhero. This also speaks promisingly that w’ell get some real weird curveballs to come and i’m here for it. 

The Rest: Helga, Zim, Danny and Reptar. (Hey Arnold, Invader Zim, Danny Phantom and Rugrats! ): Note i’m not lumping these together because their bad: their all graet nostalgic picks from timeless shows and with the rugreboot currently running on Paramount+, it’d be weird not to represent them. 

And since I brought it up reptar is a fun chocie, another oddball but one more understandable as no one wants to beat the shit out of a toddler. Or rather no one playing the game would care you could because it’s a silly fighting game and a 12 and 8 year old are also beat upable, but someone would probably throw a fit somewhere. Plus again it’s a game where you can have danny phantom fight reptar. Shut up and take my money. 

The rest are all great choices if ones I’m not suprised by: Hey Arnold’s an all time classic and being tough is a lot of Helga’s character, and again I can have her throw hands with nigel thornberry, reptar and a ninja turtle in the same match. Zim is another fan faviorite and fits the game like a glove and Danny Phantom is the one out of Nick’s three suprehero classics it actually still cares about so my boy getting in there isn’t a shocker, though his attacks lookw eird. Hopefully they green them up before the final prduct. 

So yeah overall it looks really promsing and really fun and i’ll probably check this game out if I get enough money when it comes out or more likely put it on my christmas list. But I will get it somehow this i swear.. speaking of which put manny in the roster dammit. If you liked this.. thing consider joining my patreon for a buck a month fo exclsuvie reviews and ot help me review tuca and bertie, amphibia and more as part of my memebership drive. 

[nekky-nek]

Disney Movie Marathon #58 Frozen 2 (2019)

I'm not gonna lie I was hyped for this movie because of that initial teaser trailer. There was so much mystery and intrigue and what is happening!? Are there multiple magical children for different kinds of seasons!? No... not quite. It was a fun time and I saw it twice in theaters and enjoyed it way more the second time when I knew what they were going for. It's a weird one though because things are happening and they're happening fast. Not sure if it's better than the first one or not.

Story: Welcome to pretty visuals the movie. We jump to conclusions quickly that somehow turn out to be correct but that doesn't matter because we look great while doing it. Up until Elsa claims to have "woken the spirits" I was into it. When I initially saw this movie I thought something was going to come out and hurt/kill Elsa, which I guess sorta happened but not really, because everything was coming together too easily so I thought something malevolent was pulling everyone whichever way it wanted. No, things just worked out in the end. I'm even more confused on how Elsa's abilities work. I'm still not sure how I feel about the spirits of the forest. Individually I think they're cool but I liked them more collectively when I thought it was literal forces of elements coming to life and not wind, fire lizard, water horse, and rock giants. Obviously still magical but they're all so different. You know that lizard was made for toys. And that subplot of Kristoff trying to propose while Anna misconstrued everything he said was... not fun. We could've scrapped that and focused on the relationship between Elsa and Anna's parents and how they became the bridge between the forest and Arendelle. Maybe even a flashback of them going to the north to find Ahtohallan right before the waves sink their ship and cut back to the girls finding out why they left. I will say it warmed my heart when Anna called Elsa a gift given to their mother for her kindness for saving their father. That was sweet af.

Characters: Look what they did to Anna my sweet girl they massacred her, taking her naivete and making her dumb. Anna isn't stupid but the way this story quickly jumps to conclusions is just like how she jumped to conclusions with Kristoff's words. Incorrectly but she was jumpin. They also throw Kristoff away for reasons? Like his whole thing is to propose and it keeps going wrong then he's just not in the movie till the end. I still like Olaf but he was not as funny in this one as the first. He got a couple snorts out of me but not a laugh. I don't have much to say about Elsa because they didn't give her much to begin with. Her interactions with Anna are fun and that's about it aside from watching how pretty she is doing all her magic stuff.

Art/Animation: This movie is gorgeous. The costume design! I was a fan of the original looks but these are it. The part where Elsa is fighting the water horse and the "Show Yourself" scenes are so good they are so cool and fun to watch. Graphically this movie is amazing. Because of the animation you know what emotions you should be feeling but you don't really feel for these characters but the animation is so good you know you want to. And just like the visuals, how everything moves in this movie is really nice. This movie is a treat for your eyes. I love looking at gifs of this movie.

Songs: Right under the visuals would be the soundtrack and score. All except "The Next Right Thing" I liked. That song had a nice message, and I get why Anna is crying but I felt like there was disconnect between her voice and the music. I wish there was reason for "Lost in the Woods" because I like that song a lot. Everything else was either yeah it's fine to oh I can keep replaying this. There were also moments in the score where I thought oh that's beautiful do that again.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #437

“you get what you pray for  /  you don’t get anything”

Do you tell your mom and dad everything? No. Who was the last person you talked about something that was bothering you with? Most likely my mom. What’s your favorite musical? I don't like musicals. Who did you last share a taxi with? I've never been in a taxi. If you’ve ever tried drugs or alcohol, what was your reason for first trying it? I've never done drugs, but the first time I drank was actually an accident. I'd come in from a long, hot walk, and I desperately needed water, and Mom offered me what I thought was just pink lemonade. Turns out it was a Mike's Hard Lemonade and I CHUGGED it before everyone around me was like "NOOOO!" because it was alcohol lmaooo. If you were far from home and needed to sleep for the night, would you choose to rent a crappy motel room for $60 or sleep in your car for free? I'm sleeping in my car. I'm afraid of things like bed bugs. Is there a situation where you caved into peer pressure and regretted it? I don't think so? Have you ever rolled off your bed in your sleep? Pretty sure no. What is your favourite planet? Saturn! Do you enjoy Mario games? Not really, honestly. They're just not my style. Mario Kart is fun every now and again, though. What flavor fruity drink is your favorite? Strawberry, in most cases. Ever done a keg stand? No. Who is the last person you lent money to? My mom. Do you have any health problems that are unusual for your age? I have carpal tunnel in my wrists from typing so much, but I'm not sure how "unusual" that is for young adults nowadays... I feel like there's something else, but it's evading me right now. Do you bite your nails? No, I pick/peel at them. :x What’s the longest nap you’ve ever taken? Oh god, hours. To the point it no longer really qualifies as a "nap." When people ask you about school, what is your usual response? Do you enjoy talking about school? Why or why not? I get all awkward and just reply that I gave it numerous shots, but my mental health couldn't handle it. I hate talking about school because I feel like a failure. Do you know how to fill a car’s tire with air? Have you ever had to do it? No to both. Do you like your best friend’s parents? Why or why not? Omg I LOVE them. They are spectacular people with massive hearts. I especially am drawn to her dad, whom I find incredibly inspiring. Both her parents are just great. I miss 'em. What do you like in your hot cocoa - marshmallows, whipped cream, candy canes? Do you even like hot cocoa? I loooove hot chocolate. I really just prefer it plain, but you can toss a few marshmallows in there. Which do you have a problem with: over-eating or under-eating? I'm way more likely to over-eat than under-eat. A girl likes her food lmao. The last boy you kissed, good-looking? He's by no means ugly, but I wasn't physically attracted to him personally. Do you love him? Not romantically, but definitely platonically. Do you like cherry Pepsi? I like cherry Coke. I don't like Pepsi. When was the last time you were given flowers? Ummm... I want to say the last time was many years ago when Tyler visited for the first time when we started dating. What do you want to name your children? I don't want kids. But hypothetically, Alessandra and probably Damien. Would you ever write a letter to someone you haven’t met yet, like your future spouse? No. I'd probably get too emotional anyway. Do you carry a mirror in your purse? No. Do you believe that there is beauty in everything? I've always thought this was such a stupid idea that tries to make reason out of life and its tragedies. Like yeah, cancer, rape, murder, etc. are definitely "beautiful." There is absolutely no beauty in a vast plethora of things. The first time you smoked, did you cough like a fool? I've never smoked before. When you were younger, did you have a Neopets account? Oh, yes. I loooooved Neopets, but not quite as much as Webkinz. I've actually remade a Neopetz account multiple times because I'd forget my info, ha ha... Who was the last person you got in a fist fight with? I've never been in a physical fight. Did you and your mom ever have a big fight that caused you to move out? Not "move out," no. We did, however, have a fight where I stayed with Dad for I want to say a week, maybe a bit less. Do you dislike anyone? Why? Well, yes. I don't know anyone who doesn't dislike somebody. There are a few people, in my case, that I'm not going to spend time going through and pointing out what I don't like. Do you think you will be in a relationship 2 months from now? No. Do you always feel like you’re making mistakes? Like constantly. Does your animal sleep with you? Roman usually does, yeah. Do you have any baby pictures of yourself on your computer? No. Mom has those in photo albums. What kind was the last chip you ate? I want to say traditional Lays? It was at my nephew's bday party. Do you eat onion rings? No, I'm not a fan. What was the last thing to disgust you? I think it was some thumbnail I saw on YouTube, even though it was (weakly) blurred. Where do you see your ex in 5 years? "The" ex, I don't want to think about it. Probably somewhere great for him, but would break my heart if I knew. Do your parents swear? Dad swears big time, while Mom tries to hold it back. You won't hear her say something like "fuck" unless she is SERIOUSLY upset. Do you ever drink warm milk? Warm milk sounds literally disgusting. Would you be really upset if Facebook ceased to exist tomorrow? No. I literally just came back from my break from it, so it'd be more funny than anything. The universe's way of telling me "nah, son." Who do you know that wears the most makeup? My friend Summer, but then again she's a cosmetologist. Have you ever had bronchitis? No, thankfully. Jason had it BAD once and I will neeever forget that cough, good Lord. Do you like to wear makeup? I hate applying it more than anything. Like, I love that it can help me feel prettier, but I pretty much never wear it because it's just a pain to put on, especially by myself because I have bad tremors in my hands. How many times have you been to the ER? Way too many times for being suicidal. How often do you feel lonely? Honestly, pretty much always. When are you most uncomfortable? I dunno, man. I'm always uncomfortable about one thing or another. Has anyone ever revealed a secret about you? Not that I remember... Have you ever revealed anyone else’s secret? No, that is such a shitty thing to do. Have you ever had a family member/friend that was hospitalized? Yes. Have you ever been in trouble with the law? No. Is there anything you want to experiment with? I mean, nothing that quickly comes to mind. There are things I want to try, but nothing major. What do you hope happens to you after you die? Mixed feelings. Sometimes I hope there's some sort of nirvana-like state we experience, I think it'd be wonderful to be reunited with loved ones, but I also sometimes think it'd be best if we just... stopped existing. Consciousness just stops. I dunno. I'll find out eventually. What is the most disgusting thing you have seen in person (not on TV)? Probably a maggot-infested deer corpse that I faintly remember from where I used to live. I thought it was the sickest thing ever lmao, in both senses. What is something others make fun of you for? Always holding some sort of technology. Just don't fucking comment on it. It makes me self-conscious as hell. Is your life turning out like you pictured it would? QUITE THE FUCKING OPPOSITE. Do your initials spell out a word? No. Has anyone ever given you roses? Yeah. Last baby you held? My older sister's youngest daughter. Whose wedding were you in the first time you were a bridesmaid or groomsman? My aforementioned sister's. What is something you would never do to your body? I mean, there's a large number of things. There are certain piercings and tattoos I wouldn't dare to get, I plan on taking care of my hair as best I can to avoid ruining it despite wanting to dye it a lot... *shrug* Stuff like that. How are you planning to decorate your house for Halloween? I don't know if we'll decorate. We haven't really for a few years now... I don't have the motivation to do it myself, and now that it's just me and her and I'm grown up (I know, I'm laughing too), Mom doesn't really bother with doing it. I know I DO want to carve pumpkins this year, though. Dunno what, but I'll figure it out. Ever lived in a trailer park? No. Do you like salsa that has fruit in it? NOOOOOOOOOOO Can you count in binary? No. Do you like hard or soft pretzels better? I'll eat both, but I have a strong preference for soft ones. When was the last time someone kissed you on the cheek? Who was it? I'm sure that was either my niece of nephew when I was leaving their house when I last visited for Ryder's birthday. What kind of ice cream did you eat last? Where’d you get it from? It was chocolate. I had a scoop at the aforementioned birthday party. Do you like flowers? What is your favorite kind to receive? I love flowers. I don't have a favorite to receive, really. Have you ever unblocked someone that you blocked before? Yes. Has anyone slapped you across the face before? If so, why? No. Do you prefer to have more or less in common with your significant other? I like to be pretty similar. Would you take a shot of heroin for a million dollars? No. I don't fuck with that, even for that much money. Why don’t you talk to your ex anymore? He wants nothing to do with me. Do you think it is okay to drive while high? Obviously not...? Do you find Halloween or Valentine’s Day more exciting? Halloween. Has anyone you know ever had serious surgery before? Yeah; my mom immediately comes to mind in both instances she had cancer. When she had kidney cancer, the tumor was larger than the kidney itself, and she lost the entire organ. When she had ovarian cancer, she had to have a complete hysterectomy because the cancer was EVERYWHERE along her reproductive system to an almost fatal degree. My mom's pretty metal. If you had the last person you kissed’s Facebook password, would you go snooping through their stuff? Why or why not? No, because that's a violation of privacy? You don't do that shit. Have you ever fainted? If so, when was the last time? If not, have you ever came close to? Yes. The only time that I remember was maaaany years ago, like, maybe '14. I've nearly fainted plenty of times since then for various reasons, but mostly just from low blood pressure. Ever take a keyboarding class? Do you type using the skills you learned in that class or how you used to before you took the class? Yes; I believe one course was mandatory in middle school. I type the proper way, yeah. Ever cut your hair (the entire thing – not just the bangs or a little part) yourself? Noooo. Would you ever open your own business? If so, what kind of business could you imagine yourself having? Well, I'd like to be a freelance photographer, but to be real, I'm starting to loosen up on that dream. It's been too long, I just don't see it happening anymore. Baby steps are one thing, but I've barely managed any of those in forever. Ever meet and talk to someone from an online dating site? No. Would you date someone you weren’t physically attracted to? Why or why not? Yes; I've done it before. I just care way more about emotional chemistry. Besides, historically, me liking someone for their heart has made each person a lot more attractive to me as a whole. Last person to hang up on you? I dunno. What’s your favorite scary movie? The Blair Witch Project. The second one is great, too, plus The Crazies. Which urban legend is your favourite? Oh man, you can't ask me this. I LOVE cryptids and conspiracies 'n shit. Are any of your fears completely irrational? Yes, like whale sharks. A whale shark ain't gonna hurt u boo but I see that mouth and am like no thnx Where is the light switch in your room? Funnily enough, I don't have a light switch; there isn't a ceiling light in this room. I instead have two table lamps that I can turn on on either side of my bed. Would you make a good lawyer? Hell no, I cry when I argue lmao. It's funny tho because I remember in TWO instances, in-depth surveys recommending jobs for you brought up me being a lawyer, and each time I was just like,,,,, no???????? Why did your family decide to live where you’re living now? It was more necessity than anything. Our old house had a LOT of issues to it, and with Mom's cancer diagnosis, she needed the cleanest environment possible, and that was NOT our old place. The house we live in now is owned by a family friend, and when the previous owner died, the timing just... kinda worked out to where that family friend I mentioned helped us pay our way into here. We really don't like this place because of the location, but it had to work. What was the best pet you've ever had? All things considered, I have to hand it to my boy Teddy. That dog was someone special. Very, very special. If you were allowed one murder without punishment, would you do it? Nah. Name one song you can play on an instrument, any instrument! I can probably still slam out "Hot Cross Buns" on a recorder. \m/ Have you ever ridden on a motorcycle? Noooo, I'm scared to. On the opposite sex, do you prefer muscles, average size, or scrawny bodies? It depends on the person, ig. I can be attracted to any of those. Just not EXTREME muscle. Not my thing at all.

[stry-someone-to-remember-you]

Plan(ed) to Have Something Ready, By The Ball Drop &/or Tomorrow!!! If Everything Works out...

Hey Everyone, 

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE!!!

Wow, this is the second message without any art added or anything... LOL... Seems odd really to do this without having something up by now... By the way, yes the current avatar pic is related to the comic as you’ll come see soon. It’s and early sketch so some kinks aren’t worked out in the current image. But it was the one I was ready to have when I made this blog so there was at least something...

So as you probably can see by this title, I do plan on having something posted... I just don’t know to what extent. Due to some family drama, and continually piling on work I wasn’t able to get my Christmas Pic out to you guys, which was just a static scene with a few of the characters to get us started here. But... well family got in the way, continually decorating till Christmas day... a lot of things going on, bickering (though we all love each other) it’s just... you know life. I fully expected this as well, which is why I promised something before New Years, but didn’t specify as to what.

I postponed that idea to be released today or tomorrow, after seeing how I was completely unable to get to the work by Christmas Eve. But, by the looks of the progress I made on it and my families continually need of me till we get some things done in this house (that always has something to be done in it... LOL, at least things are coming fairly together).  So lets just say, I may not have anything out by tomorrow. But with hopes I want to have something out. So We’ll see. I could release early the character sketches. But I want to keep this blog clean as possible, so I feel releasing the character profiles, cards and blogs together prior to the Prologue, would fit better and keep this page having a cleaner look to it at the start.

 Maybe even by midnight tomorrow PST I could have something... But that again depends. I need to clean stuff for the internet/cable guy and I’m seriously allergic to dust... So the next few days I may be in an almost sickly comatose state regardless of the precautions I take. If dust gets kicked into the air at all and isn’t properly vacuumed up, than I’m often sick for days... I feel like all I’ve been doing the whole month is cleaning or working story wise on this comic... Mostly cleaning if you ask me, but at least after Saturday things should be more relaxed and I can have a better work schedule planned out. So yeah, that’s my life...

But DIDNT’ WAN TO LEAVE YOU HANGING with this Negative Nancy Talk ;D ;P ;D lol....

I want to tell you what I have so far:

I have the Christmas Image at least with the basic building blocks to complete it. Like I’ve drawn where I want things, but not detailed anything... So that’s why it may be a day or so... Technically its a Happy Holidays and New Years piece, but with the Christmas Tree in it I have the habit of calling it such...

I may have plans to detail it a bit more then I plan on having the comic, but that also depends on things. I may just leave it in the same style and not fully decked out to make it easier to finish...

~Several Characters for the beginning have their final forms created. These are major characters that will be scene in the prologue. I’m just having to figure out out little things with background characters in some instances.

~The prologue is almost completely written out. I had a change of heart a week ago on some things and had to change it around, which is why the written format for the prologue isn’t complete as it initially was. I just felt some things didn’t fit, so I added and took away some things so it flows better and also works both fanfiction wise for the story, but easily mixes for the Ask AU... I also have at least the beginning portion of the Intro script written, the parts unaffected by the changes. However, parts of the intro will be written out, depending on the questions you ask the characters in this prologue so these portions I’m leaving open on purpose. It’s the plot driven portions I’m mentioning that I’ve changed slightly. ;) I have fun plans for the prologue. Remember this story has a clear direction I’m taking it with plot. But the Ask portion will be a part of it, I have such a fun way of Ask’s being tied into the plot driven story, and it will change depending on the context, person and setting which makes this really fun to plan out. 

                   -With that said, here’s an early heads up, that for Ask Questions, I will allow any sort of asks, but if it has potential to spoil a part of the story, then I won’t answer it. Alongside this, I’ll allow Anon magic to a small degree. I won’t include Asks that like spoil something for a character, or tell the character where someone is, give away what someone else is doing to another character, etc... Unless it may fit the context, but generally I won’t use these types of asks. I will allow Anons to appear occasionally rather then just be unseen voices, as I have fun ways of incorporating Anons into the story that also works with different points in the plot. I will accept things like... say a dog or cat to appear for ex. amount of asks. I already know who they’ll be and have been planning out their designs, but I may draw the line at other animals (e.g. horses, fish, racoons, squirrels, lizards, etc.) Although, I do really love rabbits, I chose to make it concise to just two animals that if asked could appear. It’s not because I can’t draw them but I don’t want things getting out of hand. Types of anon magic I’m not going to use if put in the Ask portion, are things like giving people certain powers or items that may completely effect the tone or plot of the story, accept maybe if I did a non-canon AU to this au for fun one day. I will go more in depth in the general rules later. In no way is this to discourage anyone from asking such things. I may set reminders at times if I get to much of something. But, in general I’ll do what I can to make this a fun Ask blog all the same.

~The Larger Summary, I promised like a trailer would be in the comic form I have rendered the Script for, and have two slides so far drawn out, just not completed. (for the time I didn’t have around the Holidays compared to normally I actually surprised myself with this)

~The story itself is really coming together, I already have a starting and stopping point (which I had prior to this blog) as it will have several Acts and Arcs, some which have greatly changed and take on new depth since the point I started this blog. The themes and story in general are drawn out pretty well.  I don’t have all the chapters I’d want fully written. As I have my plan, but I also want to get the prologue in first, just to see if there’s anything I should change with my concept. It’s just a precaution, something I’ve learned well when taking on something new. So I don’t have things that are written in stone and hard to change if the form I’m hoping to take doesn’t work out and needs to be retooled or something. But these are minor and shouldn’t change the overall scope and plot I’m taking this story on either.

~I’ve created several of the character bios, many in fact are already written in true Henry Stickmin fashion. But as I took inspiration to make this into a AU as well, I will possibly make both the bio cards and show a static shot of the characters alongside it or something... It’s an idea, but I want this to also be the easier comic. But, considering that I’ll always have a static shot I use as reference for any character I make, this is what makes this more realistic to occur as well. ~I’ve nearly drawn out all the characters for the intro portion. And already know how I’ll handle Anon’s in the story. In the Prologue itself, I’ll actually have you Anon’s being referenced as audience members in a conference of sorts. Think of it like those conferences when a new Apple or Microsoft product is first advertised as something new to the news conference, those big rotunda’s where someone's being interviewed and presenting the hot new item. Think of the opening to the prologue being something like this scenario. So the questions directed at the character in there, who... *cough* I will introduce later after I fully render both their character profile and have their character bio(s) fully done. Which considering how fun and easy it’s been to do this so far shouldn’t be to long now... Although to keep from getting questions to soon on them, I may hold off on posting the Characters and Bio’s till I have that Intro/Trailer completed... I’m still considering which to do first actually. But top on my list out of all of these is having my cover art for the top completed. That’s something I admit though I have the layout I have hardly started on and should focus on first.

~I’m also taking close looks at how to properly make the rules for this group. When I posts either the Character Bios, Holiday Pic, OR the Trailer Comic... Maye even just the cover art... Then I will try to have out an official Rules list. The one I have on the group posts is just general stuff... But I’m reconsidering some rules I already wrote... Basically keep things family friendly, be kind an courteous, nothing vulgar or disturbing. 

I may change this from a PG-13 comic to maybe PG-15. I’ve realized recently, there are some points that some characters do swear... sometimes more then once. I’m not someone who talks with vulgarity myself, but I sure can write characters with it.... Let’s just say I’m going to see if in those scenes I might just bleep out words and see if the dialogue still comes through. But, I dunno... LUCKILY, we don’t have to worry about many of those scenes till way further into this comic. So lucky for either of us, this isn’t a major concern at the moment. And on the plus side it’s not the crudest words I could have chosen so... it may still work as a PG-13 work... I’ll make this decision soon as possible. 

Another reason for the sudden change, came as I realized as the story goes, and even in early chapters there will be scenes where blood is shown and physical mortal danger and peril is experienced by the characters. I do have heavy theming sometimes, later on it may seem constantly about. As this story is heavily Drama/Mystery and some suspense based. As the story progresses it will become less Drama/Mystery and more based around the drama/suspense itself. This will obviously be some more intense scenes that showing less blood would allow me to make PG-13, however I also don’t want to undercut the certain tones using representations of a mortal wound would bring. I also want to look at things like these future scenes realistically. Which is why I’m mostly considering changing this story to a PG-15 or at least more certain I am. I just don’t want people shocked that I’m doing this. I don’t feel this story will be R, there was a time where I heavily considered it. But for once I decided no, I didn’t want that. I just didn’t want to open the door for scenes I didn’t intend to have in this story. There will be heavy themes that my have TW for some people. But I didn’t want some TW’s  that having a R rated story could potentially have. I mean certain themes people are free to write fanfictions for, and depending on the content can make art for. But again this will be family friendly group... As You can see I’m considering more then a little here when it comes to the official rules. These details will be followed up on the official rules post.

~~~~~~

Now I apologize for the length.

The structure of this and the previous Authors Notes will probably fall under their own category for length. I’ll work to make sure posts in the future won’t be so long and hard to read. It is early morning for me when I woke to write this, and I found once much of the day passed that I still wanted to include the stuff I did into this update.

I have more to tell you, but I think this post has spurned the energy in me out. Anything that I missed in this post, I’ll try to remember to update in the next post (hopefully after I get some art on here). What I can’t do at the moment is promise dates right now till I’m more certain of schedule to work on this or can promise that my general allergies won’t cause me to delay this at all. But I can confirm that I should have several things coming out this next month, including the comic Prologue I hope. Depending on the traction the comic and fanfic gets, I may try to work on it quickly, or take my time with it. I may do a mix of both as my perfectionist self won’t let me just shoot something out without giving it my all first. I’m shushing that side slightly so this comic will be easier on me then the more detailed one I have planned. All the same, I’m planning to work on this one more at the moment till I can get an idea of my work flow. Sometimes the easiest route of work is better for planning, rather then diving head first into the deep end right away. You don’t learn to swim by jumping head first into the ocean. Piece of advice that it took years for me to learn myself ;). Anyways, I figured since I did promise something hopefully by today or tomorrow, I’d give you a formal update... Also... Well I can’t promise that updates won’t be like this in the future. I’ll try to keep them concise. But as people who know me, well have learned when it comes to personally talking I tend to write or talk out epistle. So... When I give updates, I may have lengthy ones... I’ll try my best to keep this side of me out of updates, if I can help it. Anyways Happy New Years Everyone!!! I hope everyone's Christmas and Holidays were extra special, despite the state of the world!!! 

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE AND DAY!!! Sincerely, <3 (Mod) Sweet Heart Blaze

[sepublic]

The First Day!

           …Honestly, where do I even BEGIN? This episode had SO much in it, I really feel like the writers were trying to fit a lot into this episode and I appreciate that!

           I suppose I’ll go from the start; I’m a little confused by the beginning, and how we see Luz with her multi-track uniform, even though she gets it at the end of the episode? And when she DOES appear seconds later for her entrance exam, she’s wearing regular clothes? I’m just going to assume it’s an animation mistake for now, but that probably won’t stop me from coming up with the most convoluted explanation for it! Maybe Luz had an ideal uniform prepared beforehand as part of her presentation, but then decided to just do it in her regular outfit, I dunno…

           I love Eda! She’s amazing and great, and what little we got in this episode was very sweet to me! I really appreciate how she legit threw her hand at Luz, just because she wanted to rub her head and say goodbye! Eda’s being such a mom and it’s amazing…

           Amity! Amity is happy to see Luz and now open about it; I really feel like the actions of her Abomination in regards to others tends to display how she REALLY feels about someone… It’s sweet seeing her basically make an inside joke with Luz, and so confidently as well, without fear of Luz getting upset or judging her…!

           On another note, it’s pretty obvious that when we see Amity talking to herself, it’s about her confusion about being in the same class as Luz, and what that means! Not gonna lie, I remember wondering if Amity would have more of a reaction to Luz being in Hexside with her, and I was right! It seems that Amity hid her initial reaction during Adventures in the Elements (she’s reserved a bunch like that), but it’s clear that in reality she had a lot of thoughts on it… I love this show’s writing and how a viewer can deduce this sort of thing, and then have it confirmed afterwards!

           It was pretty neat to see what looks like our Potions and Oracle teachers respectively, and I’m grateful for the look at Oracle magic we got! I love the cut of Luz walking away, only to practically teleport- That’s comedic timing and I loved it again when used with Gus! Speaking of Gus, is it me or did his voice sound different? I don’t know how old his voice actor is, is he going through puberty? If so I’ll miss his old voice, it was honestly sounded youthful and endearing!

           We learn that the nine (technically ten, we see two for Illusions but that could ALSO be an Illusion) witches depicted on the banners are the main ‘heads’ of the major covens; Given the way Willow phrases it, I’d assume that this means they’re currently active! Given Bump’s line about three-hundred more years until retirement, I have to wonder how old these heads actually are… Were they around since the beginning of the Coven System? Or are they the latest leaders? It definitely makes one wonder how old Belos is…

           (On another note, it makes me wonder if the Abomination Witch really IS a Blight… Because if so, how must that be for Amity? Could that actually be her father- His hair is in a bun but in the trailer, Amity’s dad has his hair like Edric’s.)

           I do have to say though… That was unreasonably harsh on Bump’s part, immediately putting Luz into the Detention Track just for looking at the crystal ball once. I guess I can sort of see why- He really wants the funding for the school, and he’s already breaking some huge rules by having the associate of a wanted criminal here. I can see why he’s really nervous about keeping Luz’s involvement in Hexside as minimal as possible, but come on man- Give her another chance! Or at least let her back AFTER the Inspector has left!

           That’s the interesting thing about Bump, it’s that I think he DOES know about the validity of his rebellious students’ concerns and is considering them… But a part of him is in a role deeply-entrenched with maintaining the Coven System. I imagine that he really does want to do what Eda and others suggest, but he fears the Emperor’s Coven… But it seems like he’s beginning to just say ‘Screw it’ and do what he wants! He’s clearly a principal balancing his students’ interests with the obligations of his role. On an unrelated note, I noticed that the Trouble Detectors are gone- Given the aforementioned budget issues, it seems Bump could no longer afford them!

           Viney, Jerbo, and Barkus! We needed more of them, I loved them from our small clip and I’m sad we didn’t get more! Hopefully they’ll return… I like their schtick of being outcasts like Luz, and I love how self-conscious Luz is about the effects she has on others! Like how she checks up on Amity after the Covention duel, she really does have a tendency to reach her hand out- Again, I’ve said it before but Luz is KIND. She’s such a lovable dork!

           In general, I really appreciate how outspoken Luz is getting about her own views towards the Coven System! She obviously wants to give Hexside a chance and all, but it’s clear that Eda’s own teachings –and Luz’s OWN personal ideas- are really coming into play here. I respect Luz a lot for refusing to take advantage of a circumstance if it means that others don’t get to reap the benefits alongside her- She’s incredibly fair-minded, and I can only imagine Eda being SO proud once she hears what happens! In conjunction with Luz talking back to that one apathetic teacher, I have to wonder- Was she always like this back at home? Or has her recent adventures taught her to be more outspoken towards standing up for others- Especially after the Conformatorium breakout?

           Either way, I gotta love Luz for sticking her neck out for others. She really could just quietly let it go, just turn a blind eye like most… But like Eda, such apathy doesn’t resolve with her conscience well.

           Speaking of Eda, let’s be real- We all knew it was her the moment that painting showed yellow sleeves and pale skin! Her portrait is adorable and I have to wonder who made it… Also, did Eda make the series of shortcuts throughout the school? Or did she just find them… If so, who made those shortcuts? We know Bump was a young student when Hexside was built on the bones of a rival school… He doesn’t know about it until later, but again- Students don’t tend to supervise the construction of schools anyway, even if they attend them.

           And amidst the signatures of Viney, Jerbo, and Barkus, we also see names such as Sabrina, Rad Maddie, Chris, and Emmy! I wonder if we’ll ever get to see these people again, and if one of these names belongs to the lunch-money thief that Lilith and Eda teamed up with during childhood? Regardless, I hope that after this episode, Luz got the chance to write her name on the wall; Although given that Bump now knows about the shortcuts, they’re PROBABLY off-limits now, or being converted into official hallways. Combined with Eda’s cleaned painting, and that wall of troublemakers is probably going to be wiped- Alas!

           I have to feel for the Detention kids as well… I can understand not being sure what to choose, although in their case, and I low-key resonated with Luz’s fear of being locked into something she ultimately wouldn’t have the passion for. I feel like it kind of describes a lot of kids’ anxieties in high school and college, and it really shows how messed up the Coven System is in desiring total order. Amidst the rule of no track-mixing, and it’s clear that Belos wants to separate Witch society into highly-specialized groups, with the Emperor’s Coven at a natural advantage…

           I can only imagine Eda watching the lessons from other classes from afar, too- I wonder if that’s contributed to her skill as the Boiling Isles’ most powerful witch? Bump mentions that Eda never got to be offered the chance to do multiple tracks (given it just became available that day), so I really have to wonder what were the exact circumstances behind her dropping out… In general, I like the point this episode makes about how students like Eda, Jerbo, Barkus, and Viney aren’t bad at school and don’t dislike it; They actually LOVE to learn and are very innovative! But the specific system of school and the way it’s structured is just not conducive as a learning environment. It’s definitely a nuanced take on the subject, I like it!

           Also- With how boldly Luz is standing up for others, it’s only a matter of time before she personally challenges Belos! I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, she literally challenged Amity once for King’s honor… She cares about others, and FIERCELY, too! It was adorable seeing how delighted she was to have her name on the troublemaker wall- She really does want to be included and while there is the benefit of learning all magic (technically against the rules), I appreciate how Luz embraces the comradery of being misfits!

           Onto the Greater Basilisk! I saw that ‘inspector’, and let’s be real we ALL recognized her- Oddly enough, she seems to have teleported in. Having absorbed Magic, can the Greater Basilisk utilize it? Or is it a non-magic illusion, similar to the ones that Adegast has? Either way, I’m REALLY fascinated by the implication of a demon(?) that can absorb magic and feed on it; I’d wondered about this and once again, the show delivers!

           What’s interesting to note is that the Greater Basilisk can’t seem to digest Luz’s spells; Maybe Light just so happens to be potent, but the implication seems to be that glyph-magic is immune to her absorption! Which in turn, would imply that the Greater Basilisk specifically feeds on bile… That’s VERY interesting and really piques my interest on the stuff. The whole concept of someone absorbing witch bile, only to be foiled by Luz’s glyph magic, reminds me of this idea I had a while back… Once again, this show offers, and then delivers on implications and possibilities!

           Another thing to note is that Greater Basilisks were thought to be extinct- Obviously I can see Witch society having worked together to eradicate them. I have to wonder if the show will later touch up on this anomaly, or if it’ll be a one-time thing. What’s weird is that the Greater Basilisk was able to forge a letter from the Emperor’s Coven, to pose as an inspector… That, or she took the place of the REAL one. Bump mentions the EC not knowing about the Basilisk, does that mean she had infiltrated the group as an inspector from the get-go? It’s a lot of questions, but either way that lady was FREAKY, we saw Puddles bleed because of her! I wonder what happened to her afterwards- Was she imprisoned in the Conformatorium, or did the Emperor’s Coven make sure to, y’know…confirmthe species’ extinction?

           (Also, I guess Glandus will still have that Grudgby match, huh? I was wondering if the forfeit would lead into Wing it like Witches, but apparently not.)

           I really loved that Magical Girl transformation sequence for Luz- She deserves it! I can imagine Bump planning to include nine colors for all nine tracks, but then he realized that Luz only had four sleeves and was like, Shoot, which ones should I choose for her? Either way Luz is a fashion disaster, but she OWNS it- She’s so weirdly proud of her bizarreness, it’s incredibly endearing.

           Finally, we have King doing his own thing as a substitute teacher! Not much else to say here, but I do love the gags they had with him, they were great! Overall this was another fine episode, and I can’t imagine how overloaded my mind will be when we get TWO new episodes at once, next week!

           (One more note, I like the clever background-reference to Mattholomule being in charge of the HAS now, that’s a pretty neat call to continuity! And look- Glandus outfits!)

[futuresmashmemes]

In complete curiosity, can you tell me what your favorite Smash reveal trailer of all time was?

Like, actually, real shit, stuff that’s already happened in this timeline?

Nothing will ever top Smash 4’s reveal for me. I was really into Brawl as a kid, and after Brawl came out a lot of people spread the idea online that it would be the last smash game (hilarious in hindsight, I know). Me, being the dumb kid I was, took that at face value. I also wasn’t really into following leaks at the time. I was also 12, almost 13 when 4 was revealed, keep in mind. I just sort of accepted that smash was done.

I vividly remember when I first saw that reveal trailer. We were in the middle of bumfuck nowhere for my sister’s soccer game. I was sweaty, hungry, and my phone was running out of battery. I managed to convince my mom to let me stay in the car for the rest of the game, where I promptly began charging my phone and went onto YouTube to pull up some music to listen to (knowing me at the time, it probably would’ve been an Evanescence song). And there, at the top of my recommended feed, was that trailer.

It almost didn’t feel real. I was so convinced that Smash was over, I almost thought that the video would’ve been a fake. Some shitty mod or whatever. But I clicked on it anyways, because, y’know, Smash Bros! Boy am I glad I did. Instantly, I was enthralled by the idea of Smash on the go. I didn’t have a 3DS at the time, but I played on my DS like I was getting paid for every second the screen was on. Having a portable smash game was a dream come true! And when they got to the Wii U part of the trailer, I was drawn in by the visual upgrade compared to Brawl. I was a dumb kid who didn’t know anything about graphics watching this trailer in 480p on a shitty Windows phone, and even I could tell how much of a graphics upgrade it was compared to Brawl. I didn’t have a Wii U at the time either, but I was still excited.

The new characters announced were just the icing on the cake. I love Animal Crossing, but I never expected an Animal Crossing rep in smash because I read that Sakurai had previously said that Animal Crossing characters were unsuited for battle. So when that trailer opened up on a shot of the Villager opening the now iconic envelope, my hype levels instantly shot through the roof of the car. Really, I should consider myself lucky that I was watching this trailer in the middle of an empty parking lot in the middle of nowhere and not, say, on the bus ride home from school, because after that point, I was visibly freaking out throughout. I would’ve been perfectly satisfied with just Villager, but then the trailer continued. The videos online right now show these two as separate videos, but I definitely remember watching them as one big trailer.

NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHING!

Oh boy, who could it be? The gang looked up at a cliff to see a boy with distinct spiky hair.

“No. There’s no way it could be him. There’s just no way! I read online that he couldn’t get in, so it’s not him.”

Blip!

“OH MY GOD IT IS HIM HOLY SHIT IT’S MEGA MAN FUCKING MEGA MAN HOLY S H I T!”

It didn’t feel real. It felt like a dream. But I was loving every second of it. And even better, the next video in my recommended feed was the trailer for Wii Fit Trainer. What? Why? Who asked for this? I was dumbfounded, but all for it.

I think that those three characters made for the perfect holy trinity of character reveals. The anticipated first party/character Sakurai previously said no to, the third party, and the character that nobody saw coming. Smash 4’s initial reveal had it all. I probably rewatched that trailer for the rest of the soccer game. I texted all my friends about it, and they were all nearly as excited as I was. I would’ve told my mom and sister all about it when they got back in the car, but I wasn’t supposed to be using data at the time, so if they knew that I had used it to watch a silly reveal trailer over and over again, mom probably would’ve had a heart attack (this was before unlimited data was more standard). But you better believe that I exploded on about it as soon as I figured it was safe to.

Even after all these years (and all of the timelines I’ve looked into), no Smash trailer...no, more like no trailer period has ever gotten close to capturing the pure excitement that I felt when I first saw the Smash 4 trailer, and I doubt that there ever will be one. I’m a jaded adult now, and everything is more exciting through the rose-tinted glass of adolescence. The “Everyone is Here!” trailer for Ultimate came close, though. Smash 4’s development was also something of a turning point for me when I became more active in following the development of new games online. I think it was for a lot of people, I think that a lot of that can be attributed to Brawl’s success (and the Wii as a whole) at capturing a wider demographic of gamers compared to Melee and 64. Smash 4 feels almost laughable to go back and play now, but I can’t deny the impact it had on me.

As far as other individual reveal trailers go, here are my favorites:

Little Mac and Palutena-both for the same reason: THAT ART STYLE. Their trailers also convinced me to play their respective games. Uprising was one of my first 3DS games and Punch Out is the last game I remember renting from Blockbuster.

Greninja-As laughable as this sounds now, getting a new Pokémon rep was really hype for me back then. I was beginning to get into competitive, so seeing the ninja frog that had taken over the competitive scene at the time get into smash was cool, even if I was Team Fennekin. Confirmation that at least Charizard had survived the cut was also really cool.

Robin and Lucina-I didn’t know anything about Fire Emblem at the time, but Robin looked cool and I was digging the 3D anime artstyle from Awakening that the trailer was rendered in. Another trailer that convinced me to buy the game that they were from, and good god now I’m an insufferable Fire Emblem fan good lord I was so innocent back then. “Girl Marth” jokes were rampant amongst my friends. Also, CAPTAIN FALCON!!!

Lucas-Funny story, my sister absolutely despises video games with a burning, visceral passion now, but back when we played Brawl together, her mains were Lucas and Snake. You can imagine the pain and agony she felt when Smash 4 initially came out. Lucas’ DLC came out around my birthday, so her gift to me that year was a $10 eShop card. She just told me: “you know what to spend it on.”

Cloud-“Hey guys, you know what would’ve been awesome? In Brawl, if, like, they put in Cloud from Final Fantasy 7?”

Corrin-At this point I was a big Fire Emblem fan riding hot on the hype train for Fates, so I was very excited for Corrin. The dragon-inspired moveset also seemed really cool. Funny how times have changed, and when Byleth was added in I was very lukewarm compared to when my reaction to Corrin.

Inkling-Similar story to the Smash 4 reveal trailer, I was absolutely not expecting a Smash announcement that day and I saw the video was in my YouTube recommended feed while I was at my internship of all places. Unfortunately, none of the other people there were gamers (let alone Smash fans), so they couldn’t share in my hype.

Everyone is Here/Ridley-I can’t properly give this one the justice it deserves in a short amount of words and this post is already getting really long, so I’ll save this one for a later day if you guys are interested. To keep it short, let’s just say that I was very much a part of the Ridley gang and I was very happy to see him in.

Belmonts and K. Rool-I got up at 7 in the morning to watch that trailer and loved every second of it. Keep in mind that I am not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. The only thing that sort of spoiled it for me was that the Smash teams themselves leaked it the night before by releasing a track titled Bloody Tears/Monster Dance

Ken and Incineroar-Nothing against these two, but at the time I was crushed when I realized the Grinch leak was fake. Now I can look back on it and laugh at Little Mac getting yeeted through the billboard and Villager’s stance at the end of the trailer.

Sans Mii Costume-Pretty sure I’ve already mentioned this, but when I first saw that trailer I legit fell out of my chair laughing. I’m not even an Undertale fan, but seeing funny skeleton man on my screen just broke me. The fact that Toby went to Sakurai’s house and beat him in Smash made it even better.

Banjo-I’ve never actually played a Banjo Kazooie game before, but I’ve seen enough videos about them over the years that I almost feel like I have. They’re ingrained in my childhood due to that in a weird way. Plus, it felt so good to have a victory over the Steve fans. I felt the weight of that Jiggy that bounced on the floor.

And that’s about it! If you guys want to hear my thoughts on the Everyone is Here trailer, please let me know and I’ll do another post like this.

...Upon rereading this post for spelling errors, I realized that you probably were more asking about my favorite reveal trailers throughout multiple timelines. Oops. Let me know if that’s what you wanted and I’ll answer with my thoughts on my favorite future reveal trailers.

[chaosstar290]

Reasons try out Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore.

Nintendo's been pretty casual with porting Wii U games over to the Switch, and for good reasons. Normally, I'm not all into porting games that I've already played, but my personal favorite games on the system that lack good marketing and advertising are now getting the attention and love they deserve.

Take Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze for example, one of my favorite 2D platfomers. The game originally sold 1.72 million copies worldwide on the Wii U. Not very good numbers, huh? However, the Switch port managed to beat those sales numbers with 2.25 million units sold worldwide by the end of March 2019.

So while this could be seen as a way for Big N to earn more $$$, this is also a way for those who never owned a Wii U and missed out on some of the system's best titles to give these games a shot. Now we just need a port of Xenoblade Chronicles X and The Wonderful 101...and Star Fox Zero, I guess.

But that's a topic for another time. This post is specifically for my favorite JRPG on the Wii U only to be tied with Xenoblade Chronicles X....Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE.

This'll be a long one, so here's hoping you'll stick with it until the end.

Development

Before I get into the reasons, lemme educate you guys a bit. Back in January 2013, both Atlus and Intelligent Systems made a teaser trailer for a potential Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem crossover for the Wii U.

The trailer was mostly just a slideshow with various character artwork. Despite this, there was a decent amount of hype surrounding it. But development around the game was pretty silent. That is, until we fast forward to the Nintendo Direct in April 1, 2015. We got a trailer of the ambitious SMT x FE crossover that fans were waiting for...but this was the final product.

Needless to say...neither SMT nor FE fans were happy about this. The fandoms were incredibly salty and foaming at the mouths, basically calling it a Person 4 Lite with a hint of FE. Heck, they're probably still posts on this site from 5 years ago that'll show that.

Fast forward to the games initial release, and you'll see quite a few positive reviews and thoughts about TMS. Unfortunately, the sale numbers were not all that great for the game. Obvious reasons being that it was a Wii U game, and many fans of both SMT x FE were not happy with how it turned out.

And to be honest, I wasn't feeling the game myself at first. It seemed too lighthearted and upbeat, and the J-Pop, anime-ish aesthetics were very off-putting. However, the more I saw about the game, the more I was drawn into it. Somehow all that disappointment I had about TMS originally just washed away. And considering it was a new IP, I decided to give it a chance. And hoo boy...I was generally pleased.

With that outta the way, let's get into why I'm excited for the Switch port of game, and hoping people will give it a fairer chance.

The Setting

The plot of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is mostly simple. You start out as high schooler Itsuki Aoi, the main character of the game encountering his childhood friend Tsubasa Oribe at an audition event to become a idol. It isn't until moments later in the game that the area gets overruned by shadowy creatures known as Mirages that suck out the creative energy known as Perso-- ah I mean Performa from the other idols and audience.

Poor girl doesn't know what's gonna happen next.

Despite our main characters seeming unharmed by the effect, the Mirages drag Tsubasa into their world known as the Idolsphere. And of course, courageous Itsuki takes action to follow and rescue her.

After trying to make a daring rescue, Itsuki gets bombarded by a Mirage, but somehow manages to awaken it. Taking the form of Fire Emblem Awakening's protagonist Chrom. Itsuki does the same with the Mirage that captured Tsubasa that takes the form of Cedea from Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon. The two awakaned Mirages, however, suffer from a bit of amnesia and can't quite remember who and what they are.

From there on, Itsuki and Tsubasa form a partnership with Chrom and Cedea, encountering various characters trying to reach their way to stardom while trying to draw back the opposing forces from taking over Tokyo and the world. Typical RPG stuff, am I right?

It's a fairly standard and slightly cliche plot with some common anime tropes, but for this game...it works. It's a plot that's incredibly silly, upbeat, and over-the-top, but again...it works for this game. And I love it. It may not be original, deep, or complex, but the story does its best to not take itself too seriously, and it doesn't fail to keep a smile in my face.

Aside from the vanilla cookie-cutter MC Itsuki, the various casts that you meet are incredibly charming, and go through their own personal growth as celebrities. Though you mileage may vary on this.

The Gameplay

The combat is the real star of Tokyo Mirage Sessions. Basically, it's your standard turn-based combat system...but with a few twists. If you've ever played a SMT or Persona game, then don't be surprised that elemental weaknesses make an appearance here. Along with that, the Triangle Weapon system from Fire Emblem also makes an appearance in the game.

But if you're not familiar with either franchise then give you a basic example how this works. Say that you've encountered an armored Mirage wielding an axe. The weaknesses on that enemy are both lightning and swords, and Itsuki just so happens to have both the necessary element and weapon equipped.

In case you're wondering...how the Triangle Weapon mechanic works in FE is that Swords beat Axes, Axes beat Lances, and Lances beat Swords.

The interesting thing about this is that once you exploit an enemy's weakness, other characters will jump in and combo extra attacks. These are called Sessions, and their not only powerful...but also flashy as all hell and it's glorious. Not only that, but there's also Duo Arts where two certain characters will sometimes perform a song that unleashes a powerful attack...which also strings up more Sessions. As broken as this sounds, it actually is pretty strategic for taking down harder enemies, and they can also form Sessions...so be careful.

There's more to the gameplay like roaming Tokyo, exploring dungeons, and upgrading your characters and Mirages by Tiki from Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon as well.

There's mixed opinions on the dungeon aspects of Tokyo Mirage Sessions, but...I personally enjoyed them. Aside from the first one. Once you get past the first dungeon, they get better as the game progresses. From exploring a darker version of Shibuya where you have to avoid giant cameras from sending you back to the entrance of the of the room you currently entered, to venturing through a maze-like TV studio.

There's also side-missions that you can do with your main cast that'll help them grow and develop even further. You'll be rewarded with either a special cutscene or a special attack. Or maybe both.

The Visuals

Go go...Persona Rangers?

If it wasn't obvious from the amount of images I'm posting, Tokyo Mirage Sessions is a very colorful game. Fitting with it's lighthearted theme, the amount of colors the game throws at you makes visuals aesthetically pleasing. Heck, you could make these your personal wallpaper on your phone or something.

Sure, Tokyo Mirage Sessions isn't nearly as strong as Persona 5 graphically or even artistically, but like most Nintendo games...what their games lack in terms of detailed ultra-hyper graphics, they make up for it with giving their games gorgeous artstyles.

Also, this game has some reeeeeally good artwork.

The Music

J-Pop plays a pretty big role in Tokyo Mirage Sessions, so expect a lot of vocal tracks. If you're not into this kind of genre of music, then you might wanna stray away from this game. If you are (or if it doesn't bother you), then you're in for a treat. As someone who really isn't into J-Pop myself, the songs in this game are incredible and catchy followed by some beautiful cutscenes. Reincarnation from Kiria Kurono and Feel from Tsubasa Oribe are some of my personal favorites.

The music from outside the vocal tracks are pretty good too. The normal battle theme and the Illusion Shibuya dungeon theme are just to name a couple.

What's New?

Like I said before, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore is a port of the Wii U version, but with added content. Any DLC that was added in the original game will part of the base game in the Switch version. But let's talk about the new stuff.

EX Story and Songs

The EX Story is basically a dungeon that you explore in short bursts. Here you'll find new costumes such as a Joker outfit from Persona 5 for Itsuki, or an Annette outfit from Fire Emblem Three Houses for Mamori Minamoto. Or you can have a much easier time grinding for EXP. Also, much like the side-stories, this dungeon will also explore the main casts' issues and help them grow.

New songs will also be added in this port. A duo song called "She is..." sung by Tsubasa and Kiria is one of them.

Sessions

By making Sessions even more powerful and ridiculous, unplayable characters like Tiki, Maiko Shimazaki, and Barry Goodman will also join in Sessions.

In addition, a Quick Session option will be added. Which is a major upgrade in my book. One of the big issues the Wii U version had was while the Sessions were fun to watch, they took forever to get through with the more characters that joined your party. There are also smaller improvements like the Switch version having faster loading times.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this long as hell post will spark some interest into those who'll give the game a shot. I know there's small nitpicks like the lack of English voice acting and censorship, but the latter is a topic I'd rather not delve deep into.

Regardless, these small cons are greatly outweighed by the large pros this charming game has. If you're an Atlus fan, a lover of JRPGs, or wanting to play something that'll ease the wait for Persona 5 Royal, I highly recommend you give Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE encore a shot.

If you're also waiting for Persona 5 to actually come to the Switch like me, this game is next best thing we've got for the time being.

This is one of the most stylish menu screens ever.