#I still plan on adding minigames at some point

[blank-house]

If funding and time wasn't an issue, what would you add into the game? What features/ideas did you guys have to cut because it just didn't seem feasible? I'm really curious what your guys' "ideal" version of the game would be.

Honestly? My ideal version is already happening or uhh i.e none of the super important features/ideas I wanted in game have been cut yet! So I’m optimistic (and delusional) that that will remain the same as we continue development.

That being said— we did have to cut like three minigames from the spring demo because it was a programming and art effort that didn’t really net much gain?

For example, in the rainy event— I wanted to do a cooking mama segment where you actually did have to chop, season, and stir the pot to make the soup. But from a development perspective, it didn’t add anything to the narrative and it ultimately would’ve been a waste of our time since it wouldn’t be reused.

Soooo bye bye it went!

[flamingpudding]

Oh yes new crack au the Nightingales I think that's spelled right.

Are a big family with a lot of people in it we're all related by chance they all have a family reunion though in the infinite realms imagine Batman Surprise when you get the invitation in the mail to invite him in the Justice League to the Nightingale family reunion

Turns out that Klarion and Martha Night (what her name used to be before she married Thomas Wayne) share the same deadbeat mother the same one he slept with Klarion's Mom and the same one who had Martha Night with Martha's dad

Just a dumb crack idea of Morpher and Clarion being half siblings and Bruce having to deal with that and many other cookies are like half cousins removed are like aunties and uncles that don't visit a lot because of family drama

Just imagine a big old family reunion hosted by Danny but family games everyone bringing something to eat weirdly planning plans to murder their enemies sometimes but help from younger relatives that understand things more

Teaching your family how to use is technology that they had no idea existed cuz they were born no technology zone

Goofy thing Martha and Klarion Bleak literally being comparative half siblings who win every minigame during the family reunion over here styling out children and jump rope just because they can

Love this idea. I modified the Half siblings origin in for my bit a little to something that felt would make it a little funnier. Also Thanks so much. Your ask came at the right time with my vacation and rekindled my passion for writing. I got a lot of stuff to catch up this vacation!

I was playing with the thought of adding this to my ghost king is my uncle AU but decided against it. This family constellation created for this Family Reunion AU feels better suited for it and funnier in a way.

Either way, i think I drifted of a bit into the crackish space and maybe also went a little ooc at some points... but please enjoy.

[Also an edited and probably a bit more flashed out version might get uploaded to AO3 at some point...]

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

A Nightingale Family Reunion

Bruce blinked and stared at the glowing floating eyeball before him. That thing had appeared in the middle of a meeting with the Justice League, directly in front of him. A waspy green tail curled around a envelop, decorated with a small ghost and addressed to his a name. His actual name. Not "Batman" but "Bruce Wayne".

Now it was lucky that identity reveals had already happened with all the core members that were in this meeting. Yet it was still unnerving that someone sent him this creature, directly to him while he was with the Justice League as Batman.

It took him a moment to realize that he wasn't the only one that had a floating eyeball before him. It took only one glance to the side to see that Wonder Woman, aka Diana also had one floating before her. Though compared to him she appeared to have expected it. Thanking that creature for the delivery of an 'Invitation'.

Bruce's eyes flitted back to the eyeball before him. It stared back at him, unblinking, of course not something it could do without eyelids. Unlike Diana he had not yet reached out to grasp that envelope from the creatio. Rather contemplating what could happen if he took it and what all could result from that action.

Deep in his thoughts he did not notice how Diana approached head shaking with a smile. "I didn't realize you were part of the Family. You shouldn't keep it waiting, The messengers have jobs to do."

She didn't hesitate taking the envelope from the eyeball for him, thanking the creation before pressing the envelope into his hand. He reluctantly accepted it, determined to question her later more about this as she appeared to know more than he did about this… phenomenon.

And he wasn't disappointed.

'Later' as he found out Diana explained to him how 'the family' had a get-together every 100 years. A family Reunion of sorts of the entire family in a place called the 'Infinite Realms'. Bruce had wanted to question her more on this but she only patted his shoulder, explaining that not all 'mortal' family members got to take part of this event during their 'live-time'. That some would even either be too young to even remember ever taking part in one until they died.

An unsettling statement. Especially when she implied that one could still take part even after death. It was very unsettling but for now Bruce accepted that explanation. He would still try to press on more questions. His children, who all apparently also got invitations delivered by that eyeball creature (including, even Alfred), weren't much better. While some took it in stride, others went into full on investigation mode. (He stopped counting how many days Tim forwent sleep to deep dive into information about the Infinite Realms.)

And then the day of the 'Family Reunion' came.

Diana had decided to accompany them into the Infinite Realms. Helping by being their guide, his stomach sunk as a green vortex opened before them, an eyeball with a bow tie floating before it, moving like it bowed to them. He worriedly had glanced at his second oldest son, hoping this was not going to be some kind of PTSD trigger, but Jason had appeared surprisingly fine.

So despite not feeling alright with it but encouraged by Diana, that this was harmless, they stepped through the portal.

On the other side they came face to face with a giant foyer, even bigger than the one his children knew from Wayne Manor. Bruce blinked as he stared, schooling his expression into his usual stoic one as he surveyed his surroundings. Several blue skinned or greenish…. people mingled with each other. Some having two legs, others something Bruce could help but describe as a ghost tail.

Then his usual stoic expression dropped as his eyes visible widened and he saw the Ghost of his mother arguing with the Witch Boy Klarion in the middle of the foyer, surrounded by others cheering them on as they apparently were holding some sort of competition and not arguing as he first thought. His children weren't fairing much better considering they knew what Martha Wayne looked like from Portrays.

Alfred appeared to be the least one faced as the older man shock his head fondly as if that wasn't an unfamiliar sight to him.

"DIANA!" A cheery voice shouted that ripped Bruce, as well as his children out of their shock as they saw a blur of black and white approach. Bruce hand instantly went to the hidden batarang in his pockets. But they could only blink as they watched the Amazonian Woman get engulfed in a bear hug that would put Dick's octopus-like hugs to shame.

"My Little Niece! So happy you made it! Oh and I see you decided to help Martha's little one to get here safely!" The white haired man grinned brightly. "I hope you're ready Dan really wants a rematch with you, you know?"

"Uncle Danny. Of course I would come, I would never miss this." Diana smiled, and Bruce decided then that this man likely wasn't hostile and let go of the batarang. Though he only relaxed slightly. "Besides I definitely didn't want to miss this one considering this is their first time."

Danny, as Bruce had noted the name, nodded sagely as he let go of Diana. "I know but it is so hard to organise a get-together with everyone. Every 100 years is the easiest to do this."

Bruce took note of that information also. His eyes darting back to his children that were now curiously watching the crowd, more interested as they judged the situation as not dangerous for the moment. But before Bruce could decided what to do, the white haired man Danny hugged him.

"So glad you could join! I was so eager to finally get to meet my grandbaby! I remember when Martha first showed you off to me! You were such a sweet little thing!" To say Bruce was shocked was an understatement. Dick and the rest of his kids started snickering when they saw how Bruce's face morphed from stoic to something akin to shell shocked for the bat.

As if on que a voice he hadn't heard in years called out "BRUCIE!" And a moment later the man was in a group hug, sandwiched between the man with white hair, claiming to be his maternal grandfather and the ghost of his mother.

"MARTHA! I WASN'T DONE WITH YOU YET!" Another familiar voice shouted. Less considered family but still shocking as Klarion marched over arms crossed as he the witch boy glared at Martha. "We are not done yet sister!"

"SISTER?!" The batkids shouted in chorus. Bruce was pretty sure this was the moment his brain blue screened.

Alfred on the other hand seemed rather amused. Though before Bruce could even give a semblance of a reaction to… just everything another very familiar but also strict voice shouted across the entire foyer.

"BRUCE THOMAS WAYNE!" The reaction was instant, as if it hadn't been years Bruce stood straighter, eyes darting to who shouted his full name. Wide eyed he saw the ghost of his father Thomas Wayne approaching…. with a Sandale in hand.

And while his brain was currently too overwhelmed to recognise the shock of first seeing his parents (even as ghosts), and also the chaos of whatever kind of family reunion this was. A in -trained reaction was the first thing that got his body in motion, as memories of his childhood flashed across his mind. Not even his own training could have prevented this kind of reaction.

The Bat-kids on the other hand watched stunned as there was only a second of Bruce seeing the Ghost of Thomas Wayne with a stern expression and a sandal in hand before the man they knew as Batman. Stoic, unmoving and unphased, emotionally constipated Batman. Hightailed it and ran, the expression of a child getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar plastered across the running man's face.

Klarion bursted out laughing, Martha chuckled amused, the smile of a caring mother hidden behind her hand and Alfred he looked even fonder, openly chuckling. All the while the ghost of Thomas Wayne chased after his son shouting of "WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE ANCIENTS WERE YOU THINKING DROPPING OUT OF MEDICAL SCHOOL! WHAT KIND OF EXAMPLE ARE YOU FOR YOUR OWN CHILDREN! ONE OF THEM IS EVEN A HIGHSCHOOL DROPOUT! EVEN HARVEY AND HARLEY HAVE A DEGREE!"

The other guests of this reunion didn't seemed bothered at all and even Diana shook her head as she excused herself in search for her Uncle Dan that apparently wanted a rematch. It took a moment for the Batkids but once the shock settled their attention instantly got drawn to their grandmother starting arguing with Klarion about some game they had to finish.

"Uh…. how are you two siblings?" Jason, the brave soul asked, while his sibling seemed to still try to catch up with things. Maybe Jason was just better in these pack that thought for later moments, to recover the fastest.

"Oh this is your Great Uncle Klarion my dears. My halfbrother." Martha smiled at them as she warped her arms around Klarions shoulder, pinching the Witch Boys cheek. Which looked comical in a way as Martha appeared as a full grown adult while Klarion… was well Klarion.

"Stop that." Klarion hissed swatting at Martha and Danny laughed at his two children.

"Yea but… how?" Tim finally stammered out finding his voice once he logged a lot of his thoughts away for later. There was just too much to unpack at once.

"So well…" Martha starts before pausing. "This here is my mom. Danny. Yes Mom, the entire family calls him mom because of his tendency to mother hen over us all."

Danny had the gall to look offended and was about to interrupt his daughter before a hand clapped over his mouth a woman that looked a lot like him leaning over his shoulder grinning mischievously. "Oh, are we explaining family relations? I am Danielle by the way, your great grand aunt. You kids can call me Ellie."

Dick's mind was starting to spin but he nodded, sharing a look with his siblings.

"So Marha is the daughter of Danny's wife. The one he fell in love with and married when he chose to give a mortal life another chance. And Klarion? Is also Danny's son but well..." Ellie smiles mischievous like she knew a conspiracy they didn't. "...some things appear to be very much in the family."

"What does that imply…?" Damian ask eyes sharp as he noticed the glance towards him.

"Well Klarions birthmom is a deadbeat, somehow got Danny to sleep with her and then dropped Klarion off with him years later when he had just married again and had Martha." Ellie grind and suddenly the entire Batkids started with a strange feel of Deja vu, while Danielle grinned widely. Martha chuckled amused too and Klarion just shook his head.

Damian coughed awkwardly. The parallels to his own mother and Bruce were not lost on him. Then Jason suddenly broke out laughing, "You telling me Demon Brat isn't the only kid in the family that has a background like that!"

To their shock Martha broke out laughing now while Klarion glared at her. "Oh my! My grandchild and brother are even sharing a nickname!"

"Wait what?!" Tim spluttered, as he stared openly at Klarion. The witch boy. Someone he had fought several times by now. Who apparently was in his family also known as Demon Brat.

"Excuse me! My birth mother was at least an actual demoness! My grand nephew's mother doesn't compare to that at all!" Klarion protested, apparently offended for some reasons as Martha only laughed harder.

The bat kids could only watch in shock as Klarion and Martha started to argue like siblings while Danny ended up wrestling with Danielle to get the hand of his mouth. Meanwhile Bruce was still getting chased around by Thomas Wayne for dropping out of medical school and Alfred watched Klarion and Martha with a nostalgic fondness none of them could explain as of right now.

But one thing was clear, this family reunion, that apparently happens every 100 years would hold a whole lot more shocking reveals for them….

[pallisia]

more batch asks

thank you every. cut for spoilers

Anonymous asked:

I know you've made a lot of jokes about "you have to be nice to me" and "you've signed the contract" but I am honestly so happy to see a dark, truly cruel character like ysme portrayed in the way you've written her. when you think she won't go lower she sweeps you from a hole under your feet. the swap between perspectives and how others view her makes her actions that much more shocking and enthralling. it's a complete blast to read and makes her such an interesting character. in a time when it feels like more and more writers are wary of making characters too "mean" and the demand for mass appeal can lead to creative limitations to keep viewers engaged, ysme is a breath of fresh air. I love evil girls but even my jaw was on the floor.

thank you very much. but the contract is still in effect

@adair-trashart asked: i have the new soulsov update downloaded im planning on showing it to my other adult friends once our schedules line up >:33333333333

yay! i hope you all have fun.

@braveswordwielder asked:

Hey Soulsov 2 good Thanks for breaking new ground in the talking animals genre

thank you very much. i don't know if i'm breaking new ground exactly, but i'm glad you enjoyed.

Anonymous asked:

I love how past some point ysmé is the kind of person that's exactly the kind of person she says she is, and both her words and actions reflect that, yet still some part of me like Loic wants to see something that most likely is not there. I love every time this happens she rips my heart out and laughs about it. and then it happens again. I love soulsov.

thank you. please look forward to it.

@mobi-gg asked:

Ok I know I signed the contract so I have to go thru with it anyway, but I really do like how you are writing Ysme and her dynamic with Loic. Like she's done some very cruel shit this chapter, but I want to know why she's like this. How much of it is her true nature, how much is a facade or her strategy for rebelling and getting what she wants. Is there some kindness underneath it all in the end? Is it foolish to hope for such a thing? Truly I am acting like Loic rn. As for the rest of the chapter. Amazing. Everyone is so charming and lovable (even Ysme with her.. everything). The music and art were delightful and the pacing??? wow.

thank you so much. i love that this is the same sentiment as the previous ask. i'm glad she's compelling in spite of everything.

Anonymous asked:

Not only am I not mad, I am absolutely delighted by the contents of chapter 2. Good and “bad” alike, the writing is exhilarating, the chemistry between the characters is unparalleled, and adoration of all the art easily doubled my read time. Every time I see the New Friend I spend a solid minute on the verge of tears for my love, I am hoping Ysme gets even worse, I’m ready to see Loic be broken, and also additionally when I got to the “fishing” I thought it was a reference to the World of Ruin fishing mechanic in FF6 and I was TERRIFIED by it but it WAS really funny

thank you very much. i should have added an invisible timer that killed loic offscreen if you took too long.

@notactuallyahat asked:

Chapter 2 was fantastic, thank you so much for creating it! The 'if order has no place for you' line made me tear up a little, and I am amazed how Ysme continuing to be herself and behaving in exactly the way she has always said she will still somehow felt surprising and was very much an emotional gut punch. 10/10, can't wait to reread it also I didn't realize the fishing minigame was just a fishing minigame so my first response was to immediately save in a mild panic

thank you. see! without a fishing minigame, when else would you think to save. it's game design baby

Anonymous asked:

chapter 2 was great. thank you as always for sharing. the tonal shifts between ysmes omnipotence as sexy and fun vs utterly abject are really affecting. very much looking forward to the future horrors. cheers!

thank you for reading!

@fluffycattens asked:

Ysmé......... I thought she was a fun character after chapter 1 but now that I've finished chapter 2 I'm rotating her in my mind, what a cool and normal woman (she's awful and I love her) Thoughts and theories and impatience to learn more about her and the world, your storytelling and in particular your worldbuilding is so good!

thanks so much! please continue rotating her. i will do the same.

@rarmaster asked:

finished chapter 2 and immedaitely sent it to my friends who LOVE women's wrongs. also: wow this was great. i am fondly rotating the prose and dialogue around and around in my heart. your words are just so very good and i like to read them. i also love to see your art, too, of course, so every CG was a treat. ball………. also oh my god (had no idea about tutu's everything and am really basking in it right now) Oh My God.

thank you! i kind of spoiled tutu for longtime followers by posting art of her years ago, but i'm glad she ended up being a total surprise for a lot of readers. i'm glad she is loved.

Anonymous asked:

i don't think i'm going to see the phrase "unrequited love" the same way ever again. masterful stroke with the prose descriptions of pansies and specifically witchgaze: flower that means forcing heartbreak on someone. flower that means forcing shame and obedience. flower that cracks your brain open and pours in self-hatred.

thank you. the witchgaze's meaning went through a lot of different iterations before ending up there. not that we'll ever see it again or anything lol, but if we did i'd say "please look forward to it"

Anonymous asked:

flower that means you broke my heart... flower that means i got really attached to loic and his former [spoiler character]... flower that means kiss him gently he deserves so much better than what he has right now... flower that means i signed the contract and i'm already excited for chapter three!

flower that means yay

[styrmwb]

I Beat Yakuza 4 Remastered

I gotta say. It's fantastic. Say that again?

With a MUCH MUCH smaller gap than the last two, I have added another Yakuza game to the pile of completion. Rather than the 3ish years between Kiwami 2 and 3, it's only been around half a year; so the memories are a lot fresher this time around, which leads to more accurate comparison and growth. In the case of 4 here, I think that it's both a blessing and a curse that 3 is still in my mind. Yakuza 4 (at least the remastered versions) feels like 3 Deluxe, in a way. It's a VERY similar game, which leads to some burnout, but also seeing the bits where they improved on some of 3's flaws was nice. Lemme dive deeper into everything, as I do.

Part 1: White Tiger's Gameplay 第1部：白虎のゲームプレイ

To start, the best thing about this game is the 4. I'm 5 games in now, but timeline wise you got 3 straight Kiryu only games, all featuring Kamurocho. 4 doing the twist of have 3 additional characters gives this game the twist it needed to feel interesting, to avoid maximum burnout; cause Yakuza is a very samey game as you play it. It's both the strength and the weakness. All 4 characters have their own movesets, their own stories, and even their own side distractions. This basically gives you 4 mini Yakuza games to play, which I loved.

Akiyama's my guy. His moveset is fast, spammable kicks; but his side content is some of my least favorite. Talk to people to make them your ally which gives a buff if you're nearby, and that damned Hostess Maker minigame makes a return from 3 (it's still not interesting or fun).

Saejima is a powerhouse; he feels stilted at first, but once you get him leveled up, nothing can stop you from sending out a huge charged punch or throwing guys. He had some of my favorite heat actions in the game. I didn't really put much time into his Fighter Maker for reasons I'll go into later, so his side stuff just didn't really do it for me. I do like how the presence of cops makes him navigate the map differently though. Not super fun, but very creative.

Tanimura was a slow burn. Very strange moveset at first, but as time went on, I REALLY liked played as him. The heat actions baked into the combos, the really fun grapples; he's a weird character, but a joy. His side stuff being random police encounters felt non intrusive, but just enough for you to plan your travels differently.

Kiryu is a classic. The dude felt like a reward after 3 new guys; you get the long-running lead, with a lot more power baked into his learnset from the get go. He felt like his city was the most wide open, but not much in the line of unique side stuff. It's just differently flavored encounters.

I mention side stuff; and I think that's the weakest point of the game. Purely because, a lot of it is repeats from 3. Minigames are just full of the same things, and there didn't feel like a twist. The real kicker here is there WAS Pachinko but it got taken away in this release so I don't even get that. I mean, the minigames aren't bad. But when you have a game like Yakuza, you get a little burnt out of playing a bunch of pool when you basically did the exact same thing last game. The Hostess stuff just. Isn't my favorite. It's a lot of button mashing, money wasting, and time consuming. The coolest thing they did with it though is have the ones you train as Akiyama be available for Tanimura and Kiryu. I did think that was neat. If it wasn't for the split between characters, I don't think I would have been nearly as motivated to play as I was. That really was the sauce the game needed.

Shoutouts to 4 being my first real dive into Mahjong, as well. I was lucky enough to catch CyricZ, the guy who writes all the GameFaqs guides, do a panel at this year's MAGFest about teaching how to play Riichi Mahjong (more for the usage of LaD and FFXIV), so I finally used that knowledge. Mahjong is an abusive relationship that hates you and makes you lose for no reason, but there is something really satisfying about it. I'm not opposed to playing it more. I'm somewhat opposed.

In regards to carry over from 3; the enemy AI felt a lot better this time. I felt like I could actually play the game properly, do heat actions, do grabs, and use the options given to me (and those options are FUN). Semi-connected to that, the Coliseum being completely unlocked from the get go (at least for Kiryu, I didn't mess with it much with Saejima) just kinda feels like "yeah we know you did this already. Do it again but we'll make it easier on you."

Finally, I liked the leveling here def more than 3. The selection of upgrades with soul orbs felt like I was getting moves more often than not, like I felt with 3.

Part 2: Vermilion Bird's Story 第2部：朱雀の物語

Something about Yakuza writing just feels like it started improving way more after 1 and 2 (counting 0 where it belongs I.E. after 5). While I don't think the story this time tops 3 for me, it's still really good. Again, the biggest strength of the game is the characters. The main 4 (the Yakuza 4) are all just really enjoyable, and they make the story worth going through, even if the actual plot lines might fall flat. There's a lot to go through here. AHEM:

Akiyama was the perfect character to start off with. Nice and charismatic, interesting concept of a stupid rich moneylender that just aims to help; I felt like I was just kinda waiting for the shoe to drop on him, but other than him debatably being a little bit of a scumbag (who isn't in Kamurocho), he's just a really nice guy who I wanna see succeed.

Saejima was one of the best depictions of trauma I've seen in this series so far. That scene of him recounting his pain in the Coliseum was incredibly powerful; only to be followed by him reuniting with his old boss. Emotionally amazing. I wish he was present a little longer, but I'm really excited to see where his story goes in the future.

Like his gameplay, Tanimura was a slow burn. Something about the dude I just liked more and more as time went on. A cop who doesn't give a shit about the rules, is kinda an asshole, but still has that heart of gold. I liked his bit of being in the foreign community, that was neat. I'm glad he got the final fight. It makes me sad knowing that he still hasn't come back in the modern day. I miss him already.

Kiryu is Kiryu. We love Kiryu. I wish he would stop falling into this damned city's nonsense. Something I really liked about his part of the story is how it felt very celebrational for the series. All of his substories referenced the past in some way, which was really cool.

Yasuko was great, especially once her connection to Saejima was revealed. I'm a sucker for sibling relationships in media, as I think I've said before. Her death felt a little goofy, but in the same way I felt really invested in it, and it was like "I've been living my life dead already. Might as well keep going a little bit for my brother."

Hana!!!!!! The team of Akiyama and Hana was amazing, especially for opening the game up with. I do think there was just a TAD too much focus on her eating, but still, beyond that. Having a plus-sized character, ESPECIALLY a woman, be more than just a walking joke, is amazing. She still felt like a person. I can't wait to hopefully see more of her. I hope.

Hamazaki???? He's. I don't know how I feel about him. On one hand, I'm glad his last minute resurrection was used well. A really good turn of character from a villain to a man who's learned to trust and love. I do really like him in that end. On the other end; why doesn't he die. Like, he died. He dies. A lot. He died in 3. He died in the start of the game. He died in Kiryu's chapter. This is like FFIV with the amount of fake death.

Majima didn't get as much appearance as I would have liked, especially for the game that shows his sworn brother, but he's always a joy for a reason. I liked how he felt more down to earth, more sorrowful here. Little more like how he was in 0; I'm starting to really see the full connection of the dude here.

Kido felt like he was gonna be Rikiya 2, in a way, but I'm glad he wasn't a 1-to-1. I didn't really understand his heel turn for the most part, but I think I picked it up at the end. He was going balls out. He was gonna take the opportunity to go big. Cool guy, not S tier.

I do like Daigo, generally. Here, I understood his motivations, but I feel like he was shoehorned in to give Kiryu a final battle. I dunno. Poor guy is just getting the shaft compared to other mainstay characters.

Katsuragi was a neat villain. He doesn't have anything that stands out to me, but he served his purpose very well, I think.

Sugiuchi on the other hand, I liked AND he had a little sauce to him. Initially I thought he was gonna be the rough man yet still an ally, but they instead went the villain route. The reveal of being yakuza undercover as a cop, yet still finding some kind of meaning IN fighting crime; it was neat.

To continue in the police, I'll always find catharsis with taking down a corrupt official, which is what I got with Munakata. I think he was introduced at a good point to not feel like a last minute "man behind the man" big bad, and he felt satisfying to take down.

Finally; Arai. I. I don't think I like Arai. I didn't understand him, his motives, what his role was. Out of everyone who ended up being a final force, he was my least favorite, and I wouldn't be upset not seeing him ever again. He wishes he was Mine good.

The villains of this game were weak, in my opinion. Probably the weakest of the series so far. But the allied cast in this game was strong enough to balance them out. There were a couple people I didn't mention but to quickly put them down: Fuck Saito. Hate him. Haruka is daughter. Love her. I got to see the kids again. Yay. Date got more appearance and a little bit more story which I loved. Shibata is there.

To move away from my usual character break down, I do like how this game still feels more put together than the first two in the series. I saw a lot of complaints about rubber bullets online, ridiculing them, but like; while ridiculous, that plot point didn't bother me that much? Something about Yakuza reminds me of Professor Layton. You get a lot of mysteries that all (ideally) get tied together at the end, and it's really satisfying. The mystery of what happened 25 years ago, everyone's personal arcs, the Ueno Seiwa, the Tojo, the Police all intersecting for power, and the people heading this; it's fun.

Also, the substories in this game???? Dude. I loved them. Where 3 was filled with a lot of heart, 4 gives a lot of important feeling character expanding on our main cast. Sure, there's a couple silly ones; but when you get 3 new guys, you gotta get them up to par with Kiryu, and they succeeded with that. Akiyama gets a lot of viewing into his business, Saejima visits his past through the lens of protecting a kid, and Tanimura learns about his father and solves a big crime ring. I loved that they had these big stories that you could follow over several substories. Probably my favorite part of the game, there.

Part 3: Black Tortoise's Music 第3部：黒亀の音楽

I gotta say. Yakuza music is good, but doesn't always stick with me, beyond like, karaoke. I'm a big nerd who downloads video game music to listen to in the car, and before this, I really only had Outlaw's Lullaby from Kiwami 2 on the listen list (again, excluding karaoke). Yakuza has a lot of good intense techno, but 4 here. Dude. Music DRASTIC go up. A lot of big band, unique instruments, cool melodies; it caught my ears far more than in the past. Loved the wind sounds of Akiyama's battle theme, the intense and creepy moments like Whiskey & Rhapsody, the substory battles sometimes being met with the spicy brass squad song called Spicy Brass Squad, the absolute banger that is Tanimura's battle theme, as well as the Sugiuchi battle??? Similar to the story, only the final battles really unimpressed me with how GOOD the rest of the game is full of. Probably my favorite soundtrack in the series so far, I HAD to make this one of my sections that I limited to 4 just for the bit (I'm admitting it here)

Editor's note AKA Styrm going back through his thoughts to make sure they're coherent: HOW DID I NOT MENTION MAJIMA'S BATTLE THEME??? RECIEVE AND BITE YOU GOES INSANE WITH THAT OPENING

Part 4: Azure Dragon's Finale 第4部：紺碧の竜のフィナーレ

Yakuza 4 is a good game. I don't think I'd like it nearly as much without its main gimmick of 4 main characters. Luckily, it has that gimmick, and it does it well. You can only have so much solo Kiryu in the series before you hit burnout. I'm still craving a little more innovation, mainly in the side content, but I think this direction is exactly what the series needed. Luckily, I do have the benefit of "being in the future" and knowing where the series is going, so I'm looking forward to Most of it (I'm iffy on what I know about 6).

If I had a game with the story quality of 3 and the good feeling gameplay + multiple characters of 4, it'd be amazing (wait isn't this what I remember 0 being (it's been like 5 years I might have rose-colored glasses I need to replay it)). Still; like I said. Yakuza 4 is the right direction for the series. Just needs a little more to not feel like the same stuff that I just did last game.

7/10. Wonderful concept of a multi main character cast, but maybe just a little too similar to the game before it to excite me. Half the character writing is amazing, and the other half is the villains.

[slasheru]

Slasher U Update Roadmap: End of 2023!

Holy crap, it's been a hell of year, hasn't it?! Slasher U Act 1 came out at the end of April 2023 and there's been SO MUCH that's changed!

Things that were added in post-launch Slasher U Act 1 updates:

Sawyer's entire romance arc, storyline, and hookup/makeout games

Outfits

Bartending

The ability to talk to Dark Tate post-coitally

Butterflies and crows (fighting crows used to crash your game)

The entire good UI

Characters including Cliff, Stitcherella, Jennykind, Paisleigh, Tanya, and I'm pretty sure Kennedy was a very early addition, too

And that's not counting the tweaks, fixes, and content! In the interest of continuing to Ship of Theseus this game into the best dating sim ever (no biggie, right?), I have the following updates planned before the end of 2023 for Act 1!

Accessibility settings: A way to opt out of minigames with a random roll based on your personality stats (different stat per minigame as appropriate!)

Refining the places you can get personality points in Act 1

Customization: Cane accessories! These will run on a different band than outfits so you can mix and match them/equip them alongside outfits!

Finance: I made everything in the game on the pricey/"realistic" side and the money you get from gigs relatively low because A) college and B) i kind of thought it would both be funny/reflective of shitty college jobs AND a nice incentive to grind some minigames but. I think the economy needs a bit of a fix, right? ;) (in the meantime, try typing InfiniteMoneyVent with the caps correct in the Cheat Codes menu when you're in-game! Your wallet will be a little fuller!)

There are 27 major bugs left in the list for me to tackle as of now, most of them are routine but there are 3 or 4 harder ones to tackle (naming save files is being a beeeetch specifically because afaik Wolf wipes any additional system string variables even if you specify a larger variable count list? My engine just is like "naw actually I'm not saving that"?)

Prior Planned Quality of Life Stuff: Either a way to name your save files OR a way to make your character name appear under your save file (this used to happen but there was a bug where all names would default to your last used character name)

WHITE WHALE HOLY GRAIL I'm still trying to fix the text box bug! This actually isn't borked in the vanilla version of the WRPG engine but I can't fucking figure out how to fix it with the way I've set up the UI (I think? I THINK?!). This is realistically the last bug to get fixed due to my own ineptitude, so I'm hoping to A) make autosaves automatically turned on and B) making Data 1's save slot unusable so it's reserved for autosaves!

There's ALSO a couple content updates for Act 1 still (nothing major, except for, uh, ONE MAJOR THING, haha):

The Truth or Dare minigame/scenario is now going to be included in the Act 1 game, but take place after the Act 2 bumper (post-murder-attempt)

This is already in there but the preamble for Dark Tate's continuing storyline, and Laila's Act 2, activates after the murder attempt

I'll be adding Hex, Juno, and Sawyer's Act 2 lead-ins, plus regular Tate's lead-in, as I work on Act 2

Resolving the storylines (or, if you're being a Chaotic Evil type of player, ruining everyone's life) with story choices/quests for non-dateables: Act 2 will include more Sawyer/Horsemike story, and personal quests for Melyssa, Professor Plutonium, and partially Veronika/Archibald (theirs will continue into Act 3)

Maybe I'll let you fight crows again. MAYBE.

I'm ALSO working on Act 2, which has a lot of new features (notably permanent cosmetic upgrades like a piercing system and tattoos) as well as new content (obvi lmao), but I really want to find a way to offer early access passes to folks who didn't make it to the Crowdfundr (maybe via Patreon)?

Here are some Act 2 features that I'm excited to include/are already being worked on (you'll recognize a lot of these from fanvotes!)

Piercing/Tattoo Parlor

Headless Horsemike one-off hookup minigame

Tate's movie date (yes it's scripted and implemented, it'll be in the next Act 2 update lol. I KNOW I KNOW :D )

Being able to run the speakeasy/sex dungeon as a little moneymaking game in and of itself (well. More for the speakeasy. The sex dungeon is mostly for sex. You're welcome, Sawyer Enjoyers)

Being able to gift outfits to dateables

I'm personally super hype for Tate's storyline (which also involves some other students?? ooo????) and how that's going to mechanically shake out, PLUS, tattoos. Oh my god. TATTOOS GUYS. Plus, the piercing system works like IRL-style - you have to get pierced, then buy jewelry for your piercing if you want to replace your starter/healer gear! I'm a big fan of body mods IRL and having a more realistic piercing/tattoo system was important to me!

Can't wait for next year AND to bring y'all more Slasher U!!!!!!!!! Making video games is literally my favorite thing to do in the whole wide world and I can't imagine doing anything else with my life :')))) (one day I'll be able to do this FULL-full time instead of on top of reviewing medical documents and drawing IP comics for Big Corpo)

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE BEST FUCKIN' 6 MONTHS OF GAME DEV I COULD EVER FUCKING ASK FOR!!!!!!!!!! You guys rule :')))))))))))

xoxooxoxoxoxox, Professor Plutonium

[kooldewd123]

one of the smaller leaked details from the teraleak about plza got me thinking about what i'd like to see in terms of shiny hunting mechanics, and i ended up going down a rabbit hole and ranking the games by how much i enjoy shiny hunting in them (roughly ordered within tiers):

reasonings beneath the break, i've got a LOT of thoughts to infodump:

SM/USUM: sos chaining is my absolute favorite shiny hunting method. there's a really fun element of preparation to it that i think most other methods lack - researching your target pokemon, looking for any recoil or status move that may be an issue, figuring out how to plan around it, etc. it's a fun planning game that can easily make individual hunts much more memorable than simply “wow this one was so quick/long” when you see your plans come to fruition. usum improved it even further with some small mechanical tweaks, plus an expanded dex to hunt through. also in usum is the ultra warp ride. the wormhole shinies are honestly so easy that their allure wears off super quick, but the actual minigame attached to them is pretty fun. that said, the real star of the uwr are the legendaries and ultra beasts, all available through soft resetting. i love soft resetting for mostly the same reasons as sos chaining: you've got one chance to catch this legendary, so you better go in with a solid game plan and make it count once you finally see those sparkles. or if you want a different sort of challenge, you can always go for one of the gift pokemon instead: poipole, type:null, and ash cap pikachu. no battle required, but no shiny charm, either, with the added clout value that their shinies haven’t been available since. alola was my gateway to shiny hunting, but even trying to account for nostalgia, i still think it has some of the most engaging hunts to this day.

XY: i feel like kalos is really overlooked nowadays when it comes to shiny hunting, but it’s one of my absolute favorites. friend safari is always one of the first things that comes to mind whenever i think about shiny hunting. it’s a really cool community-driven shiny hunting experience. i spent so much time just exchanging friend codes to find the shines i needed, and i was always able to find a thriving friend safari community all the way up through swsh’s lifespan until i finally caught every possible shiny i could from it (i wonder how they’re doing now that the 3ds servers are shut down?). this is also the best region for fossil resets - most of the fossil are readily available in large quantities, so you can stock up as much as you'd like and revive them all at once to see if any surprises pop out at you. between friend safari, fossil resets, and horde hunting, xy has a lot of good mindless shiny hunts. a lot of the time, shiny hunting is just something for me to do with my hands while i’m bored, and xy excels at that. oh yeah, there’s also pokeradar in this one, too. i could never quite figure out how to work it.

SWSH: swsh gets massive bonus points for being the only game where masuda hunting is actually fun tbh. the fact that zl can be used as a replacement for the a button means that you can just gather up eggs one-handed at the route 5 nursery, then you can use the 3d camera in the wild area to easily spin in circles to hatch them without even needing to return to a pc box every five minutes like before. as for the rest of the shiny stuff in this game… the intended shiny hunting method is laughably pointless and dynamax adventures, while a neat concept, are only fun if you actually have friends to play it with. otherwise, you’re stuck dealing with either braindead npcs or even more braindead randoms. like i said before, i love planning out big hunts, but in dynamax adventures, so much of it is out of your control that it’s just completely unfun to me (at least we got the regis and swords of justice huntable through run aways. those are some really fun hunts as a consolation prize). honestly, i’m definitely placing these games several spots higher than they probably should be, but sword is possibly my most played game ever due to the sheer amount of masuda breeding i’ve done in it, so that has to count for something.

GSC: okay i know these are a curveball compared to everything else on the list. when these games came to the 3ds virtual console, i did some rby glitching to get a shiny ditto into them and honestly? probably my second favorite game in terms of breeding after swsh. because shininess is determined by ivs in these games, a shiny ditto parent gives every child a flat 1/64 shiny rate, balanced by the fact that the oval charm and flame body don’t exist yet. what you end up with is a situation where you get eggs much more slowly, but with hunt times still comparable to modern-day masuda hunting, and i personally found something about this arrangement really satisfying. every egg has so much more build-up to it, and so despite the slower pace, it somehow still felt more consistently exciting than perhaps any other shiny hunting method. crystal has some additional shiny fun with the odd egg if you feel like doing a bit of save manipulation with it (plus obligatory shiny celebi comment).

PLA: i know this is a very niche and odd opinion to have, but pla handles loading pokemon into the overworld better than any other game with overworld pokemon. the format of having distinct separate regions that you can load and unload at will, with pokemon (even those not yet spawned) being preset at the moment of loading and persisting until being forcibly unloaded, is something that i truly hope carries forward into future entries. it creates a world that feels much more natural, and yet is also highly exploitable on a gameplay level. resetting the regions until you find an outbreak, and then traveling to that outbreak to search for shinies, is a compelling gameplay loop that implements very video game-y elements in a way that i particularly enjoy. the differentiation between mass outbreaks and massive mass outbreaks also adds a fun trade-off into the mix: do you target a specific pokemon at lower odds or do you go for a grab bag of random pokemon at higher odds? i do have one big complaint, however, and it’s gonna sound kinda insane. it is nearly impossible to actually fail a shiny in this game. they persist through saves, they don’t respawn when you run, they even give off a distinct jingle when they’re in your vicinity. if there is a shiny near you, you are gonna find it, and you are probably gonna catch it. and personally… i don’t really care for this arrangement. the risk of failure is an integral part of shiny hunting. making it too safe makes the accomplishment feel a bit more hollow to me. i wish there was a way to disable the shiny sound. i feel like if they weren’t so blatantly telegraphed and were still a bit harder to find in the first place, it would balance out the safety nets the game gives you somewhat.

LGPE: i feel like i’ve come to appreciate lgpe a lot more as time has gone on. the catch combo system is a nice simple numbers game - just keep catching the same pokemon and shiny odds go up. simple, elegant, satisfying. the big drawback is the fact that the motion controls are uuuhh. less than ideal. but it’s easy enough to build a combo back up that it doesn’t usually feel like too big of a setback if something goes wrong. also the fact that you can use the in-game trading mechanics to hunt the alola variants is pretty nifty! i should get back in and try one of those hunts sometime.

BDSP: after not being able to get into pokeradar hunting in xy or the original dp, i was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable i found it in bdsp. it has a really good sense of risk and reward as you try to map out the safest path you can, which makes it super gratifying when your skills and luck are good enough to bring your chain all the way up to 40. honestly, the fact that the shiny charm doesn’t work in this game is a complete nonissue for me, because the pokeradar doesn’t even need it. of course, this game also has the added fun of not shiny locking anything except some tie-in bonuses. you can shiny hunt any legendary from the first four generations, and you can even go for the sinnoh mythicals as well (the event to get their items is over now, but i believe it’s still possible to glitch your way to them anyway).

SV: sparkling sandwiches are probably the shiny hunting mechanic i’m most split on. once again, there’s a really good strategic element to it that i enjoy: trying to figure out where on the map you can locate your target pokemon with as little type overlap in the surrounding area as possible, and then once you’ve begun your hunt, finding the best path to spawn them in as quickly as possible. on the other hand, however, probably my biggest hot take of sv is that the sandwiches bump the shiny rate up way too high. in my first shiny hunting excursion of the game, i found five shinies in the span of two sandwiches, and as a whole, that’s been more the norm than an exception. most shiny hunts in this game are over so quickly that i don’t feel all that rewarded for accomplishing them. the process of acquiring herba mystica is a good bottleneck keeping it from spiraling entirely out of control, but it feels so distinct from the actual shiny hunting process that it doesn’t help alleviate those feelings for me.

ORAS: i don’t hate shiny hunting in oras or anything, but i don’t think it does anything exceptionally well, either. horde hunting is just as fun as it is in xy, although it’s fairly easy to exhaust the catalogue of huntable pokemon in both games. soft resetting legendaries is here, although for some of them, they require lengthy trips to the encounter point each time and you’re better off sticking with usum or even bdsp instead if you wanna hunt them. the standout is dexnav - frankly, i’ve warmed up to it a lot over the years, but i think it’s still the roughest chaining mechanic. the search function is simple to understand, and the mirage spots and hidden pokemon inject a bunch of new encounters to hunt for. that said, i think the sneaking aspect of it never feels quite right with a 3ds circle pad, and having to constantly swap between battles and sneaking means that it’s hard to stay in a groove. i don’t mind dexnav, but it’s rarely my first choice.

[mixing0]

Ideas for a potential (and ideal for my tastes) Kirby Party game!!

This'll be long, obviously, so I'm leaving everything under the cut.

At its core, the game is a literal copy-and-paste of classic Mario Party. Everyone moves around the board, gathering more of a select item than their competitors to win, with minigames sprinkled throughout. No differences there. The difference comes from what the objects are, in this case.

On the topic of stars:

Here, stars are replaced with food items, given out by Kawasaki who replaces Toad. Whenever Kawasaki is moved, through any means, he prepares a new, unique food item.

When you get to Kawasaki, you can spend 20 point-stars (the Kirby equivalent of coins) for whatever he offers. Or you could spend 25 point-stars to get a different food selected at random.

Why does this matter? Because you can eat these food items for special bonuses, offering a nice helping of strategy to the established norm. Eating them means you lose a point, however, so it should be used very carefully to be effective.

Outside of those, at least one food is offered that has no stat effects and is just your bog standard.

On the topic of items:

Originally, I had planned for most of the items to come straight from Mario Party 2, but after looking more closely into the item system of Parties 5-7 (mainly 6 because it serves as another big influence on the project), I fell in love with the nuance and strategy that could be employed.

With that in mind, I was thinking about revamping the item system and number of items to better fall in line with this style. However, I'll still share the old item lineup, just for personal reference:

Wheelies act as mushrooms, letting you roll two dice blocks, while Rex Wheelies let you roll three.

Warp Stars act as, well, Warp Blocks, letting you swap places with a random player.

The Dimension Mirror allows you to move backward along a board when used. (And this will be more costly, so as not to be absolutely broken like the Reverse Mushroom was.)

The Vat-luck moves Kawasaki to a different space.

The Noddy Network calls Nightmare upon a player of your choosing.

The Enticing Cheese calls Daroach, while the Stinky Cheese prevents Daroach from stealing from you.

The Dinner Bell warps you straight to Kawasaki.

The Invisibility Stone lets you walk through alternate pathways.

The Nebula Chest steals a random item.

The Dueler's Sword... is self-explanatory.

On the topic of boards:

I conceptualized 12 main boards for the game. At the moment, they are:

Augmented Area (Technology-themed.)

Foody Feilds (Grassland, Food-centric theming.)

Corruption Cavern (Mining cave theme.)

Dusky Drawings (Spooky Mansion + Art theme)

Basalt Boulevard (Fire/Lava theme)

Royalty Ring (Castle theme)

Headstrong Honky-tonk (A casino in Merry Magoland.)

Galvanized Garden

Sanguine Sands (Western theme)

Mauve Mountain

Impeccable Iceberg

Nightmare's Nexus (Space Theme)

I may end up removing some of these, adding more, or changing a few of these ideas around.

On the topic of characters:

The roster includes:

Kirby

King Dedede

Meta Knight

Bandana Dee

Marx

Gooey

Adeleine

Ribbon

Magolor

Taranza

Susie

Elfilin

With the following making an appearance as non-playable characters:

Kawasaki (as the host.)

Nightmare (filling Bowser's role.)

Escargoon (who owns the bank.)

Daroach (filling in for Boo.)

Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright (who operate the day/night cycle.)

and other well-known enemies (who serve the other roles as needed.)

Each playable character will have a unique outfit for every board except for two. No one will have a unique outfit on Basalt Boulevard, and everyone will have a unique outfit on Nightmare's Nexus.

The character that does not have a unique outfit on the given board plays an integral role at the end if they lose, triggering a boss fight that acts as a final minigame (sort of similar to the boss minigames in Mario Party 9).

And that's everything I had! I hope you guys like my ideas!

Oh, and be sure to look out for the art I'll be making for this in the future. I've already made a few things for it, but they're all so old now that I feel like revamping them.

[theunwellkingdom]

Design Deep-Dive #4: Lands Week - Designing the Illusory Palace

One big takeaway from researching set cubes is that mana bases in an average MtG set have a tendency to be very weak, to the point that many cubes will pad out the quantity and quality of mana-fixing lands from other sets.

For the Unwell Kingdom to remain self-contained, I knew I'd need some solid lands... but I also knew that each card in the set is precious, representing hours of work for me to design and illustrate! I wanted to find a way to make color-fixing consistent without devoting a huge chunk of the set list to do it. To solve this, I looked to real Magic cards, hoping to find some insights...

What Would Wizards Do?

Two existing lands stuck out to me as potential solutions, though each came with caveats.

Evolving Wilds is a quintessential fixer that gets reprinted constantly. It's simple, familiar, and flexible -- not strong enough to see much constructed play, but a welcome sight when building a limited deck! However, in this set cube environment, even Common cards only exist as 4 copies total. That alone wouldn't cut it, but printing more might enable greedy decks with too many splashed colors!

So I turned to a set designed for high-powered draft play: Double Masters. For those draft boosters, WotC tried something bold: a land guaranteed in every pack called Cryptic Spires. The Spires function as a tapped two-color land, which is nothing special, but this time there was a twist! Before shuffling up to play, you could choose the colors on each copy by physically marking the cards.

This proved to be an elegant solution with some serious pain points. Obviously, I don't want people writing on my cards in a set that's meant to be replayed. My solution couldn't be single-use. Second, it could be tricky to tell which colors were picked, since the art stayed the same. And lastly, it introduced a minigame to deck building that seemed more fatiguing than fun... Adding even a simple choice to a card can take precious time away from more pressing deck building decisions.

By combining aspects of Evolving Wilds and Cryptic Spires, I found my answer:

Introducing: The Illusory Palace

The Illusory Palace is both a single card and 10 unique ones -- one for each color pair. It will be the 16th card in each Unwell Kingdom pack, a guaranteed extra slot!

It has two functions. You can sac it like an Evolving Wilds to grab a basic land from your library, with the restriction that you must stay within its color pair. The land enters tapped, so it's a bit slow, but thinning a land out of your deck never hurts!

Alternatively, you can use it right away as a filter land, paying a mana in to get a mana out in one of its colors! This still nets you one fewer mana for the turn, but it can allow you to tap into that color pair the turn you play it! You can also use this side of it if you can't decide which color basic to commit to, and keep paying extra for the flexibility.

My hope is that Illusory Palace will make it much easier to play two- and even three-color decks without ever feeling like the star of the show. Guaranteeing one in each pack should make it feel like a solid backup plan in case you don't find some of the more powerful lands lurking in the set...

Tomorrow on Lands Week! Tri-Lands of the Unwell Kingdom

UWK Lands Week >Designing the Illusory Palace The Tri-Lands Discard/Sac Lands Utility Lands Back to Basics

[rosieuv]

Yet another fangame idea (this time Danganronpa edition)

Okay so this is a lot more all over the place as I'm still coming up with the basic plot.

So this takes place after V3. A fan of the TV show is annoyed that it's ended and also has comvenient acess to a time machine, so they go back in time to the 2000s where the dispair thing hasn't happened yet, and takes over an international private school somewhere in england to create a killing game that they can participate in or something. None of the ultimate titles are official in the sense that they're from hope's peack, but the mastermind added them for authencisity.

The game will be much, much shorter than a regular DR game and it'll not really stick to the formula of the official games and sorta do it's own thing. I have a plan at one point in a trial, this dutch ballet dancer pulls out 2 guns and starts to shoot everyone so that only they survive and so the killing game forcefully ends. They fail.

Another idea I have is that the mastermind (ie the one controlling whatever the pound shop monokuma of this game will be) is in the game themselves and is in full control of everything (like if the real junko enoshima was in the first game from the start as one of the students, not like tsumigi who's more of a pawn for monokuma and the other show people) and towards the end they get murdered but the "a body has been discovered" doesn't play (cause they're dead) and the last 2 people spend the last chapter trying to figure out what's going on.

Deaths! I have a few in mind. There's this post about Kyoko's original death being her chopped up and cooked into the food in chapter 1. I'm taking that idea, making the blood red, and the "a body has been discovered" announcement plays when they're all eating stew and they're all confused as everybody but the dead person is here in this room so how could a body have been discovered? Then someone finds the leftover corpse with blood, skin, bones etc on the floor in a cupboard somewhere. Another one is for the execution of a pastry chef where they get their blood drained, chucked into a massive mixing bowl, other ingredients get added, and then the electric mixer turns on and you can imagine how that goes. Also the blood from earlier is for the icing. I'm not sure of the other details but I want a garderner to be eaten by a massive venus flytrap.

My idea is that it's from the perspective of one of the NPCs, so it's a lot more visual novel-y (thankfully, all those trial minigames would take me years to code) and could possibly have multiple endings?

The ideas for the ultimates:

The role of the protagonist: ultimate physician

ultimate gardener

ultimate spy (mastermind disguised as a diffrent ultimate)

ultimate pastry chef (fancy baker)

ultimate ballet dancer (the unhinged one and possibly the controlable character? I came up with their character like 5 hours ago but I can already tell they're going to be my favourite to write)

ultimate geographer (also australian cause why not)

ultimate critic

some others that are based on cultures and stuff around the world

And yeah that's all I have at this current time.

[ninjakittenarmy]

There was this one show called Defiance that was all in all a very solid sci-fi series with the glaring exception of the fact that the show seemed to be on a mission to find any excuse to have as many characters fuck as possible regardless of whether it made any sense or gelled with any previous characterization. There was this arc that lasted maybe three episodes of someone sleeping with the main character, who was many years her senior, to get back at her ex, despite there having been zero instances of sexual tension between them. This is portrayed as sexy. This sort of thing has multiple times in the show. More than I could sum up.

Agents of SHIELD had an issue where they did a thing where two agents started sleeping together. These agents never expressed attraction to each other before and the whole plot was going on for like half the season, but only got mentioned three times if that and immediately ended once one of the agents turned traitor. There was a fair bit of drama with the traitor thing but this relationship was dropped immediately and only ever brought up once as mid-fight banter. This is the main example from that show, though there were some others.

There was this one but in The Walking Dead back when I still watched it where Glen and Maggie were supposed to be keeping watch together. You know, because there’s a crazed warlord planning to attack them, and also the hordes of undead, and they for some reason decide that rather than do that, they’re gonna bang in the prison watchtower. This has NO effect whatsoever on any events later. Their abandoning their post doesn’t lead to any negative consequences. It’s just really dumb.

God of War is pretty infamous for this. Gratuitous sex and nudity is something that series is infamous for. There’s at least one character (an oracle I think) who wears nothing but see through pieces of fabric while giving completely serious exposition. One of the games has a sex mini game with Aphrodite which yeah, that’s in character for her but what the fuck is the point of having an offscreen sex minigame represented by a series of quicktime events?

There’s Quantic Dream’s games. Fahrenheit has two of the main characters have sex in a subway box car after like, 5 lines of dialogue between them max. One of these characters saw his ex wife (whom he still loved) fall to her death literally a day ago and has also been reanimated. He is noted to have no body heat. Heavy Rain meanwhile has two of the four main characters screw in a motel room. There IS buildup romantically to this but they’re kinda looking for the guy’s missing son, who has very little time left to live if they don’t hurry, and while he needs to rest too, he’s also covered in countless horrific injuries. And that’s to say nothing of the random shower scenes the dev is obsessed with adding.

There’s Metal Gear Solid V which has Quiet, a character who inexplicably has to be almost naked to breath through her skin because she was burned to near death and healed with photosynthetic parasites that somehow allow her to photosynthesize in lieu of breathing. I shut you not. Despite this her outfit uses tights. There is a scene of her naked in the rain so she can absorb the water. For context, the first character with these parasites was a hundred year old man. He did not need to be naked for them to work. He wore a full ghillie suit.

This is notably NOT an exhaustive list of media I have seen where sex scenes impeded the story, pacing, or characters. It happens far too often for me to cite every example. I legitimately have no idea how you hear “this is a big problem” and think “cite every single example that you’ve ever seen” is a sensible request. If I could list every example off the top of my head, it wouldn’t be that big a problem and we wouldn’t be having this discourse in the first place. Nonetheless, they are the most egregious examples that come to mind at the moment.

my advice for the sex scene averse crowd ultimately is the same as my advice for the long movie haters: just don’t fucking watch it man idk i’m not your mother

[tribaloflight]

((Just for my own personal satisfaction, I want to give some of my thoughts on Rebirth after having finished most everything in the game save for the superboss and some side stuff and dumping over 100 hours into the game. These are really in no particular order, but I'm numbering them out of habit.

Spoilers, naturally.

First, I'm kinda disappointed Deepground didn't show up at all after being brought back in Integrade. I figured that if they were going to show back up in the plot, that Scarlet, Rufus, or someone would have sent them after Cloud and company instead of just constantly relying on Rude and Elena. Only time any of the Tsviets shows up is in yuffie's 'trial' at the Temple of the Ancients where she relives her trauma of seeing Nero murder Sonon. Really hope they actually use the Tsviets in the third game otherwise having them in Integrade was kinda pointless.

Second, the minigame overload. I obviously expected a lot of holdover from the original like the gold saucer, fort condor, etc. But they added a lot more and actually trying to 100% them with my mediocre skills became so tedious that I just gave up on it towards the end to actually enjoy the story. I highly doubt I'll ever finish everything with Johnny because of that. It's just way too much of a grind.

Third, their handling of Cid, Vincent, and alterations to story content. Being absolutely honest: Cid and Vincent feel totally wasted here. Not only are they not playable characters, they are barely characters at all here. I get with how the game being based around disc 1 of the original that wouldn't give them much time to be usable given how late in that disc they joined, but they feel more like props than anything. It doesn't help that they completely cut out Rocket town for Cid which helped establish his character. Currently, I'm not even sure if that part of his backstory is even still canon in the rebirth continuity. Another thing is removing most of the northern continent stuff. Sure Icicle inn and the glacier didn't do much for the story save for visiting professor Gast's old lab and getting the info about his and Ilfana's relationship/Hojo murdering them but it's still worldbuilding they dropped for reasons of pacing. And to that, it's also incredibly weird how they literally moved where the temple of the ancients was, changing it from an island in the southern sea to RIGHT OUTSIDE THE SLEEPING FOREST. If that doesn't scream 'convenient', I don't know what does.

Finally, the ending. It really reached Kingdom hearts levels of confusing.

I get Sephiroth's new plan. He wants to make a reunion of all separate timelines of Final Fantasy VII into one where he controls all. Clearly the efforts from the first game created a new one where Zack lived. Also from the scene at the capital, there's likely at least one where Cloud had saved Aerith from Sephiroth and she IS still alive. The only thing is whether or not it's in the current rebirth timeline. Yes it looks like she is probably dead given only Cloud can see her, but it's not like they haven't made retcons before. The entire beginning of rebirth was one to the scene from Integrade. The plot point for the final game is set: Zack is going to work to try and find a way into the Rebirth timeline to help Cloud and the others stop Sephiroth. Hopefully this includes bringing Aerith with him, because frankly him living and her staying dead really reads as a cruel joke. Same if he ends up dying in the next game trying to protect the others.

And that's my greatest concern for the sequel. They make all these overtures about changes and expanding the lore, only to have the end result still be the same? If Aerith and Zack are still dead by the end of the final game, then I can't see the trilogy as anything but pointless. They expanded the story so much only to reach the exact same conclusion. I would be fine with that, but if they were going to do that, they could have stuck with a simple remake and made it a single game, instead of a trilogy that spans what will likely be nearly a decade of game releases. There's legit potential here but if they play it too safe then I think it's going to rub a lot of fans the wrong way.

Finally, I am happy that they made Gilgamesh a big side character. He's a beloved series icon, one of the best parts of V and I've always enjoyed his involvement with Hildibrand stuff in XIV but I really don't like that they put his level at about 20 past what endgame was on average, meaning if I want to fight him I have to do an ungodly amount of grinding.))

[introdemodev]

How’s da game going?????

Here’s an update on how things are going. It’s three pages long. Cool.

Update 1.0.4?

As of now, I’m deciding not to proceed with the update anymore. I don’t want to rush through anything and I want to focus on the full game. I am still planning on a Fall/Winter 2022 release, but it’s possible that it could be out by the beginning of 2023 instead.

1.0.4 was supposed to focus more on accessibility features and update some older artwork. With the former, I want to spend as much time with implementing those features and figure out what needs to be added. Which segues me into…

Accessibility Features

I was just talking about this!

Some lines of dialogue do not sound right when read with a voice reader, so I need to figure out how to have it read properly when that feature is enabled. I also want the player to be able to toggle captions for sound effects, music, and cues. There are minigames that involve decrypting a made-up alphabet, so I need to find a way to make that more accessible.

I don’t believe anything I listed above in this section is impossible to do, but it will take me a while to implement properly. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around coding and I have a hard time grasping things that are more ‘technical’. I find these features to be very important so I would rather not rush through them.

These features will be in the full game at launch (along with some others) and you will have the option to toggle them on and off.

Art

There’s a lot of artwork in Introdemo, which is one of the reasons why the file size for the demo was so big. That, and some music files. 

I’m trying to figure out ways to not make the final size for the full game be 100GB. Saving images as pngs, then optimizing the images in png gauntlet, then saving them as png-8s cuts down on a lot and there’s no quality or color loss either. Moving forward, I plan on working with a more limited color palette, utilizing webms more, and….I dunno, I’m still thinking of other ideas. 

I also plan on updating some background art + sprites, but this will be saved for last. I learned the hard way not to update sprites in the middle of development, haha…..

Writing

I was about to make a spoiler joke, but actually, I have a few things to say here.

In the survey, a critique that came up a few times was that there were some scenes that went on for a little too long. One scene in particular was when Fennel meets Clyde in the hallway. There’s a lot of fluff that needs to be cut out. I do like long set-ups, but it’s incredibly difficult to pull off. Also, I’m kinda rambly and I think that reflects in my writing. This post is two pages long so far. Wow!

There were some scenes I didn’t have time to put in the demo. For example, the bathroom scene plays out the same, no matter what. I always wanted that scene to be a ‘checkpoint’, if that makes sense. If you had more bad boy points than good boy points, it plays out differently. It should give you an idea of what choices you should be making if you want a good or bad ending.

Also, proofreading. I will make sure to proofread everything thoroughly this time. Until 1.0.3., I did not think to use writing or proofreading software to catch my mistakes. Very stupid, I know. Of course, a program isn’t going to catch all of my errors so I’ll try my best to look things over and maybe look into getting a beta reader.

Gameplay

Introdemo is primarily a visual demo, so there’s not much to say about that. You read. You click to advance to keep reading (or hit the spacebar or enter key). The end.

Though, there are minigames throughout Introdemo. You do have the option of not playing them and you will not be penalized for doing so. Though, you are rewarded for playing them (sometimes). Choosing to play or avoid minigames reveals different information about the story and characters.

Anyways, I’ll try to talk a little bit about what I have planned for the minigames….

Look it’s Fridge and Bear from Fridge and Bear! 

What does throwing eggs have to do with Introdemo????? I wanted to test out a drag and click feature since it’ll appear later in the game.

Darcy’s minigame will be getting revamped too. 

Concept for it was helping Darcy brainstorm ideas for his romance novel. Mad Libs, but with decadent vampires. It’s a fun idea but it doesn’t add anything to the game or to the story. Instead of allowing you to type whatever, you’ll have a set of options you can select now. The minigame will still be about helping Darcy brainstorm for his book, but it will be relevant to Introdemo’s story now.

I’m still working on how I want the decryption minigame to play out, so there’ll be more info about that in a future blog post.

I also want to add an inventory list to Introdemo. Fennel doesn’t use/carry enough items to justify a complex system, but I believe having a list will come in handy. This game will be long so the reader might forget what Fennel is in possession of.

Other Stuff…

The reproductive health drive is now over, and I want to thank everyone who contributed to it. Some money went to itch.io, so I will have to wait until my fees are processed so I can give you guys the final amount. I will also be pitching my own money in too. 

The art book will continue to be worked on alongside the demo and will be released with it.. Another thing I learned: you cannot create a book overnight, did you guys know that??? I didn’t, and I spent a week working on that rough draft trying to figure that out. 

The full will still be free but the art book will be NYOP (as long as it’s a dollar or more).

That’s it for now. I’m sure there are a few things I missed, but I’ll cover it later. I just wanted to catch everyone up on how the game is doing. I’m just starting to work on it again after taking a couple months off from it. 

I want to thank everyone again for playing or checking out this blog! Thank you thank you thank you.

[skeletoninthemelonland]

Hey everybody!

I forgot to post this message before :P

I saw what's happening in the FNaF community right now, which is really serious (originally saw it on Twitter, certainly it was a bad idea). But I'm not bringing that up. I think we had enough of it, so don't ask me about it.

I wanted to clarify that I'm not leaving this Tumblr. Just got some personal trouble going on and had to take a looong long break. I don't know when, but I will probably start posting art very soon! (I have said this before? I can't remember...)

So, I won't take any longer here trying to make this announcement, but I've been planning too many ideas at this point. I want to show you what I have been doing lately, so here goes a big, BIG post. It's your decision to continue to read it. AAAAND I already apologize for any english mistakes.

You ready? Okay then, let's go!!!!

Back in 2019-2020, when I started getting into fnaf again, I started writing a story for a webcomic called "Familiar Trace". Something about a girl using the animatronic's plushies she finds while working in a horror attraction to get back in time to try to save the lost children, and in the end *boss music starts playing* Springtrap is her last enemy! But then I realized the story was too long and EXCESSIVELY DETAILED and I wasn't completely satisfied with it... So I wrote another one, a simple one, about children that, whenever they used the animatronics masks, could enter a minigame and help Mangle, Fredbear, Ballon Boy, Chica and RWQFSFASXC to save the lost children AND ONCE AGAIN!!! the idea got scrapped :')

I gave up on these comic projects because I saw I would not be able to keep up with them (I was really overwhelmed with school and with the pandemic at the time, ᵃⁿᵈ ᶦ ˢᵗᶦˡˡ ᵃᵐ ᵇᵗʷ) and other relevant factors.

And then, one mediocre night, I went to my room to play Ultimate Custom Night, added too many characters, panicked, got jumpscared by Springtrap and... wait a second.

Is this a train of ideas I hear? And it's going at full speed, about to struck me??? OH, OHOHOHO BOI IT IS

The next second I was thinking about every plot possible, and I saw so much potential in it that I couldn't stop myself from creating new ideas.

This is a project I like to call "UCN: Behind the Codes" and, originally, I was planning for it to be an animated series that I'll be posting on Youtube (which isn't a scrapped idea). The story isn't finished yet, but I can summarize what's about — Springtrap will be the main protagonist, and we will watch his journey inside Ultimate Custom Night, trying to escape the files into the real world. Yet, he still has to face many dangers, ally to the animatronics, and discover all that's hiding inside the game files in order to do that. Along with him, his best-ghost friend Tom and our beloved old crew, with Freddy, Chica, Bonnie, Foxy and so many others!

It's basically a "behind the scenes" alternate universe (which I think someone has already done at this point).

I'll be posting some art concepts any time soon. Feel free to ask any questions, I'll try to answer them without giving spoilers/unsteady ideas that may or may not be scrapped.

Also, thank you much to everyone that messaged me in my inbox asking if I was okay. You guys are really caring... You are amazing!!! 💞💞💕Thank you for your patience!

See you soon! Here, have some pizza~🍕💖

[llatimeria]

for all the flack it gets, bdsp is the most fun ive had with a pokemon game in a While? my mom got me the bundle for my birthday and at first I was like 😬 but since they're 1:1 remakes of diamond and pearl theyre still like. pretty dang fun. its def Easier than the original dppt but thats less due to handholdy mechanics and more about quality of life changes, like showing type effectiveness in-battle and always having the exp share on by default.

as much as I wish i was being challenged a teeny bit more I never actually finished any pkmn games when I was a kid (...without cheating) because i'd always get hung at a part where I'd need to lvl grind my whole damn team and it was so slow and tedious and painful that I hated every second and while grinding mechanics aren't inherently bad . it Sucked in the early gen pkmn games and you can't change my mind. removing some of the grinding has made it so I can just... have fun playing the game. still though ilca theres a balance to be struck here with reduced grinding and not ohkoing all the gym leaders . i'd like both please. ilca please . ilca

and wrt handholding . again bcus 1:1 remake it feels like a Return To Form for pokemon to me. When I was a kid like 90% of the appeal to me was not actually doing the gym quest or battling (i avoided trainers on routes like it was a stealth minigame and nearly Always had repels on), it was just. getting to vibe in this really awesome and unique fantasy world and make friends with every animal I saw. i gave very few fucks about the plot. I just wanted to run around and look at all of the places and find all the creatures.

im a stalwart defender of sumo overall and still had plenty of fun with it but god I wish it had more opportunities to just Vibe before the postgame. Time Pressure was always a Thing in sumo, someone was Always waiting for you Somewhere and it was Urgent so you Couldn't Dilly Dally, and then like. when i was released into the postgame I realized I hadn't explored a lot of the places that weren't directly on my path between Plot Locations and then subsequently realized there weren't that many places left to explore.

but in bdsp it's just like. heres a world. you're a kid. you're doing the gym challenge. go on an adventure. and its just.... SO refreshing + nostalgic. instead of "ill be waiting for you in the next town be sure to arrive soon so the world doesn't explode" theres a lot of "hey, you should head towards this place. it could help you on your quest :)" which is Sooooo nice

anyways probably the most Handholdy mechanic they added to bdsp is that on the pause menu they added a little text box that points you towards your next goal - i.e. "defeat the pastoria gym leader" or "head towards lake valor" or whatever. which i think hits the spot Perfectly, at least for me personally, bc I know I just. straight up would forget what I needed to do when I was a kid (less so now. but still a little now) without dragging you from place to place by force yknow

also the chibi art isnt that bad. the game looks... fine. could definitely be better . definitely IS better than that first trailer. definitely still prefer the pixel sprites and definitely still clinging to my pet theory that being forced to switch to a 3d art style instead of continuing to build on the pixel sprite style was a stumbling block for the franchise and they have yet to recover. but it doesnt feel like the chibi style is at fault here

anyways ive been having a good time playing shining pearl and really missed this pokemon playstyle more than i realized and even though i was planning on skipping them im glad they were given to me bc im enjoying it. thank you for coming to my post

[daughterofmyth]

Finished Kingdom Hearts 3

The plot is completely incomprehensible and moved along by everyone but Sora. While I was fucking around in Toy Box, Riku and Mickey found Aqua. Every character we gained was saved by SOMEONE ELSE. 

Every villain was coming to tell me their evil plans???? And I still don't know why? 

There was a subplot about some Organization members betraying the others, which came to absolutely nothing 

The graphics were pretty enough that all of that can be forgiven. Also, all the minigames and stuff. And building the Gummi Ship 

Choices of locations that Sora can visit is... odd. He can go to Arendelle, but not actually... into Arendelle. Or Elsa's castle. Can't go to Hallow Bastion, Yen Sid's Tower, or Destiny Island despite cutscenes happening there. That was pretty frustrating. Also, Twilight Town was downsized to two areas. 

 Has Roxas and Ventus so everything can be forgiven.

There was absolutely no reason to include the music from Frozen if they weren't going to include the music from Tangled. Especially during the exposition. 

WE NEVER FIGURED OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO ANDY???? WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THE WHOLE TOYBOX PLOT?

 The Carribean world was the best. Fight me. I am a pirate.

 KAIRI CAN'T BE USEFUL FOR A SINGLE FIGHT?? WHAT HAS SHE BEEN TRAINING FOR??? Merlin sucks as a teacher. Why didn't Yen Sid train her?

Oh, also Winnie the Pooh was completely unnecessary and added nothing to the plot. Merlin really needs to stop putting Pooh through shit.  DOWN WITH MERLIN!

11/10, a pleasure to suffer through

[darklightescape]

my personal assessment of the mysims games

MySims: personally i think this is a good alternative to animal crossing for people who like the town-building + friend-making aspect but could do without the real-time stuff. constantly being stuck with unreasonable essence requirements (seriously, half the mid-to-late-game sims ask for like 60 essences on an item whose most intricate blueprint is six blocks) is infuriating though. solid start, kind of wish there was a remake or true sequel that ironed out the gameplay wrinkles and added in the characters from later games. 8/10 MySims Party: i didn't play this. 7/10 because i mean, it's a party minigame compilation, the sole requirement is that it's playable and i trust it to be at least that MySims Kingdom: this one marks the first instance of the series flirting with the idea of having a plot. since you no longer have to build every single item you use from scratch it's usually less grindy than its predecessor, which is good. unfortunately it did take out some of the mechanics i liked from the first game even if they weren't huge game-changers, like certain sims giving sad or scary essences instead of happy ones if you were nice to them. i have a meme in my head that's like "royal academy likers vs spookane enjoyers" because i am too old and too gay to have any sort of investment in hetero high school love triangles and CANNOT relate to anyone who says royal academy is their favorite island. 8.5/10, with the half-point being deducted because why the FUCK was there so much herding MySims Racing: karts! basically just a fun little kart racing game. fast/10. MySims Agents: genuinely i think this is the best game in the series and also just an excellent game in its own right. it kind of gets away from the original series concept but when you take everything else into account it’s hard to care. has a slightly more mature (think going from 4-8 geared to 8-12 geared) plot without going fully over the deep end into “why did you make me watch justice imply dr f committed a war crime” like sky heroes does. my only complaint is that the ending comes so abruptly that i had to check and see if there were any confirmed problems that resulted in something being scrapped and wouldn't you know it, not only were there some levels scrapped there was an entire sequel planned but shelved. no word on why but judging by the release dates i think EA made the (incorrect) decision to focus on sky heroes instead. we were ROBBED. 9.5/10, half point deducted for the abrupt ending. MySims Sky Heroes: it's not like...BAD. i just cannot for the life of me take lines like "diplomacy!? the enemy's guns aren't loaded with conversation, selena!" seriously when the character saying them was just a "cartoon bully who still thinks 'oh yeah well your FACE is whatever you just said!' is the most devastating insult ever" trope in the previous game. also playing these games where he's a real actual threat just makes me miss the og and kingdom versions of morcubus where he's just kind of a hammy weirdo who talks a big game about being a dastardly villain but never actually does anything. air combat seems fine to me I’m just not very good at air combat in general. 7/10 because the gameplay isn’t bad I’m just kind of baffled by the decision for the little cartoon chibi people to have seen the horrors of war