#I’m loving how they’re slowly adding more complexity to the gameplay

[cosmicseapop]

The new martial art class is giving me war flashbacks from when I was trying to learn ffxiv monk from how the design notes describes it

[natolesims]

Same anon here, thank you!!! Do you have any specific worlbuilding in your story? Are you only playing with the disney princesses or do you have other disney characters mixed up? And I loved how you made this HUUUUGE plot twist with Cinderella! Are you doing the same with the next princesses? And about the side stories!! Are there more to come? I'm sorry if I'm being annoying, but I'm so loving all you do!!

My, these are important questions xD This is way too long to answer normally, so I'm writing all you want to know under the cut! I'm sorry, It is really long. I apologize in advance :')

If you have some spare time and are curious about this stuff of my legacy story, check this out. It my explain some things, hehe.

1. WORLDBUILDING

There is a "complex and connected" universe in this, yes, but I do not limit a story to the same sim world. I imagine certain game worlds as specific areas with their own social problems, forms of government and characteristic population. Still, I jump from world to world using specific lots or scenery places thay might complement the current chapters or, if I happen to need it, I'll rebuild the whole world again for upcoming generations if I'm already done with the previous ones.

For example:

In Snow White (the H.E.A. founder) the story developed in Windenburg and Windenburg only. Not even the whole world was used for the story, only three lots (The White Manor, Eis' cottage and the flower shop).

Cinderella and The Princess and The Frog develop in Willow Creek, but it's not the same Willow Creek. The only permanent lots are the royal palace and a couple of residential lots (the Tremaine and Bonfamille manors), but I redesigned the whole world for each arc. Ella's story took place in a more high-class victorian part of the kingdom, and Tiana's will be in a New Orlean-ish, humble zone with some vip spots. The townies are different and the social situation changes as well. I'll be also using specific locations from Windenburg, implying those scenes are still having place in some other unknown part of Willow Creek.

In some upcoming generations, I'm merging worlds into a whole area. In Rapunzel and The Beauty and The Beast, Glimmerbrook, Granite Falls and Henford-On-Bagley, as well as specific Windenburg areas, share the same territory.

This is a bit confusing, but it works for me :'D So far, this is how I've organized the story world in the save (mild spoilers):

Willow Creek + Magnolia Promenade: Kingdom ruled by a strong monarchy. Population: Humans and Hybrids** Connections with: Britechester, Newcrest.

Oasis Springs + Strangerville: Emirate and local mayoralties. Population: Humans, spellcasters, undercover aliens. No near connections.

Brindleton Bay: Mayoralty. Population: Humans and Hybrids. Connections with: Henford-On-Bagley, San Myshuno (not that close, but reachable).

Mt. Komorebi: Parlamentarism. Isolated area of the mountains. Population: Humans. Connections with: Granite Falls (veeeery lightly).

San Myshuno + Del Sol Valley: Presidency and Mayoralty. Population: Humans and undercover occults (Gods**, Spellcasters, Hybrids). Connections: Newcrest.

Windenburg: Parlamentarism. Population: Humans, Hybrids, Vampires. Connections with: Henford-On-Bagley, Glimmerbrook, Granite Falls.

Sulani: Principality and local chiefdoms. Population: Humans, Mermaids, Gods. No near connections.

Forgotten Hollow: Mayoralty. Population: Vampires and Spellcasters. No near connections.

Selvadorada: Republic. Population: Humans, Hybrids and Spellcasters. No near connections.

Evergreen Harbor: Mayoralty. Population: Humans, undercover aliens, cyborgs. Connections with: San Myshuno. If there is ever a future-like pack, it will be related to this area.

Britechester: Grand Duchy. Population: Humans. Connections with: Willow Creek, Windenburg.

2. CHARACTERS

I will mainly play with the "princesses", yes! I'm following these Disney Legacy Challenge rules as a main guideline, so the heirs are related to that. Even so, they won't always have the same looks or gender like the cartoon ones, nor the spouses. Since I'm a nerd, I try to surround the heirs with familiar characters from their stories, but they might be ooc or don't have the same role as they do in the movies. I just want to create the vibes, but give them my own twist!

I thought it would be fun to create a Disney movie themed save for this challenge, and I'm stil adding recreations of a lot of characters thay may fit in the world. Since I really enjoy rotational gameplay, I thought it would be fun to create mini challenges for certain households and play them aside from the main legacy to have a little change and relax. Buuuuuuuuut every single time I play this game a story pops up in my head, and yes, so far there is one side story with some of the minor characters. I'm afraid my save has turned into a graphic feverdream disney fanfiction, but here we are :'D It is important to say I also play with the EA premade townies, so this is a weeeeirddd mashup :')

Since I have the characters roaming around freely, they also interact with the main legacy and, in some cases, they even gain some importance. In Cinderella's case, I never planned Mr. La Bouff to become Ella's friend. My original plan was to have Tia and Lottie meet at university. Also! I created two fake occults: the Hybrids (think of were!Sims. Like Werecats, Werefishes, Werewolves, Werebirds... you get the idea... it'll be properly explained in the future. No, they don't turn into animals.) and the Gods (squish vampires, mermaids and spellcasters together. Now make them OP and immortal).

So far, I've included characters from:

The Aristocats, Finding Nemo, Peter Pan, 101 Dalmatians, Tarzan, Robin Hood, Alice in Wonderland, Coco, Pinocchio, Big Hero 6, Lilo & Stitch, Hocus Pocus, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Jungle Book, Toy Story, Cars, The Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis.

I had the intention of presenting them all and giving them out for download. I've been slowly makeovering them, so I hope I can manage to do so in the near future.

3. STORYTELLING

The plot twist was kind of a happy accident xD It wasn't planed at all! It's just I find it not-that-exciting to retell the same old story again and again. Cinderella is poor and mistreated, but then marries the prince and she's happy. We all know that, right? I don't intend to follow the same path... I need chaos to keep me entertained in my own game xD that's why I went like "welll.... what IF the prince is a bit of an ass?" I didn't see the whole load of drama that would come.

In the upcoming chapters, things are being similar. I don't say everything is going to be bittersweet, but I'll take elements from the main story and shape them differently. I'm taking a lot of creative liberties here!

4. SIDE STORIES

Im so glad you like them!! I get attached to my characters as soon as I start playing with them and can't help myself from giving them a story, even a little one. It's like... they're in my save for a reason, right? Not only as townie fillers, even if that was the main purpose in the beginning. It's safe to say there is one WIP side story with the Tremaine descendants involving some of the characters I mentioned before. I have another one in mind, but since it is not related with the main legacy at all I'm still not sure how to include it... but I'm working on it.

You can bet I'll keep telling these silly little stories because I really can't help it, hehe.

Thank you so much for asking! I'm really sorry for writing a lot, I hope this is what you were looking for!! And I'm so glad to have you as a reader ^^

[hilltopsunset]

4 Ways to Breathe New Life into the Pokémon Franchise

I love the Pokémon franchise. It’s because I love it that I truly want new installments of the game to feel meaningful, to make an impact, and to provide players with something new, different, and worth coming back for without relying on complexities that could turn away new players.

As I will talk about in a later blog post, Game Freak seems afraid to stretch Pokémon’s creative muscles any further; meaningful innovation has been petering out since the end of Generation IV in lieu of minigames like Pokémon Contests and Super Training alongside inconsequential time sinks like Secret Bases and Poké Pelago. While I do enjoy the inclusion of things to do outside the main storyline, these additional events and sidequests should not be the only significant additions to new generations of main-series Pokémon games.

The main attractions of recent generations have provided slight twists to gameplay with the addition of mega evolution and Z-moves, but these changes don’t fundamentally change or challenge the way players experience the game on a moment-to-moment basis. And despite the graphical and processing power of recent gaming devices, and even the long-awaited shift of the franchise to a main console, we are still getting the same low-effort and outdated battle animations we’ve been seeing since X and Y. We are continually denied a more genuine battle experience with Pokémon physically interacting with each other through animations that more appropriately suit each Pokémon’s unique identity.

So what can be done? Here’s a short but detailed list of 4 things I would like to see in a new Pokémon game, in no particular order of importance.

1.       Let the Player Character Be an Active Part of the Story

When has the player character ever been a consequential part of a Pokémon game? They never speak; they never have any personality whatsoever. They never experience any growth, regardless of NPC’s trying desperately to iterate how much the trainer has grown over the course of their journey. Certainly the Pokémon carried by the player character have some impact on the story, but the trainer?

Let them speak! Let the player character actually interact with NPCs in meaningful ways rather than just listening at all times. Give the trainer a personality of some sort. Don’t just slap a never-changing pleasant face onto the model regardless of tense, frightening, or sinister scenarios (I’m looking at you, Sun and Moon). 

Giving the player character a more active role in the story provides intrigue—as a player, it doesn’t feel compelling being pulled from one place to another; it’s not interesting when the only thing pushing me forward is NPCs telling me I need to get the gym badges, or stop Team Rocket. It would be much more interesting if the Player Character had some imperative reason to pursue these endeavors, rather than get involved simply because “it’s the right thing to do” or, worse, “it’s the ONLY thing to do.” I want to watch the character I’m controlling grow as a person and make choices that have positive or negative consequences on people they care about and the places they visit, rather than be a perpetual observer of events with no real stake in the game.

2.       Trainer Levels

Speaking of the player character, create a leveling system for them. There are so many possibilities for a system where the trainer more actively impacts gameplay. For instance, there could be a class system and each class can have unique skill trees that provide access to passive and/or active abilities that improve how the trainer interacts with the world throughout the game. It could be required to choose your path at the beginning of the game, or perhaps you can access them all throughout the game, but can only have one active at a time.

Here’s a list of example possibilities:

Explorer: The explorer class specializes in travel, as well as tracking and catching new Pokémon—this tree can be subdivided into those paths: Travel, Tracking, and Catching. This tree provides skills that assist them in accessing otherwise inaccessible locations, increasing encounter rates with rare Pokémon, and specializing in different types of Poké balls to improve catch chances. Experience for this class is gained through catching Pokémon, encountering rare Pokémon, and exploring (walking in new places, finding treasure, accessing hidden areas, etc.).

Combatant: The combatant class excels at offensive battle prowess through its three branches: Type Affinity, Commands, and Reputation. This tree allows a trainer to specialize in certain Pokémon types (up to 2) to improve their STAB damage. Eventually, you can get a skill that provides STAB for your specialized types even for Pokémon not of those types! You gain access to in-battle shout commands that provide momentary buffs to your party, like improving damage, resisting a big attack, or improving critical hit ratio. A strong reputation will allow you to avoid battle even with trainers who have caught your eye; and in battle, an enemy Pokémon may flinch due to your intimidating presence. Experience is gained by knocking out Pokémon, winning battles, using moves of your type specialization, and issuing commands.

Breeder: The breeder focuses on developing deep relationships with their Pokémon. Skills of this class can be divided into the Breeding, Bonding, and Healing branches. Through this tree, trainers can hatch eggs more quickly, improve high IV chance from newborn Pokémon, develop friendship levels more quickly, etc. Bonding provides Pokémon with beneficial defensive capabilities during battle, like providing a chance to survive an attack that would otherwise bring HP to 0, and having a strong will to resist abnormal status effects like paralysis and confusion. A Breeder’s knowledge of caretaking allows for healing outside of battle, and can even teach Pokémon how to slowly recover in-battle. Experience is gained through hatching eggs, developing friendships with your Pokémon (through feeding/petting, etc.), participating in Contests/minigames, and having Pokémon in your party with whom you have developed a close relationship.

The establishment of a class system like this, where experience is gained through different means relevant to each class, incentivizes players to participate in those aspects of the game, and provides extra rewards for players who already want to get involved. It makes the trainer feel like a relevant and impactful part of the team, rather than a hollow vehicle strictly used to lug the real heroes—your team of Pokémon—from battle to battle.

And for those who think the inclusion of such a mechanic would trivialize the content, I have several suggestions: first, they could easily make the game content more difficult to compensate. Second, they could mitigate the strength of these class skills during key battles like Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, the Enemy Team (Rocket, Galaxy, etc.). Third, NPCs (especially the aforementioned key NPCs) could have access to these skills as well. Remember, I’m asking for significant changes, and this would provide something new, interesting, and impactful.

 3.       Battle Animations

Update them. It’s that simple. Let Blastoise shoot water out of his water cannons rather than out of his face. Let Scorbunny run up to its opponent and give it a nice kick! Get rid of the old, outdated animations of a drawn foot—we now have well-rendered 3D monsters on gaming systems capable of handling the graphical processing necessary for this to happen. Give each Pokémon a more unique identity with their animations; make them feel like they’re actually in a battle with one another. It’s time.

I acknowledge that providing significant animation updates for the 800+ models is an enormous undertaking that would require a massive amount of time and manpower to make possible. To this I say: spend the time doing that rather than developing Dynamax or whatever. Spend the time on more significant animation development instead of wasting that time on another gimmick that isn’t going to significantly impact gameplay anyway.

To be honest, this point alone would be enough to convince me to buy a new Pokémon game.

 4.       Populate the World with Pokémon

I know that the Let’s Go series and Sword/Shield did this a little bit, and while it certainly wasn’t executed perfectly, it was fun running around and actually seeing all the Pokémon that inhabit it. Spawn rates in both games were often a bit too high, resulting in cluttered areas. Adding aggressive Pokémon would further enhance the immersive experience—being required to sneak around certain stronger Pokémon could be a really fun mechanic and provide tension; it was a bit too easy to avoid Pokémon in Let’s Go and in the Wild Area. While it was nice to get through Mt. Moon without encountering a single Zubat, imagine instead running through a section of the cave with a trail of 15 Zubats on your tail? Make me work for it a little!

Ultimately, I want to see Pokémon behaving more naturally in their habitats, and not just in sections of the world that I can’t get to. I want to run into a Caterpie hanging from a tree, or a Fearow fishing for Goldeen, or a Pikachu grooming itself. I want to interrupt Pokémon from their lives, not run into a giant gaggle of automatons circling tiny areas for no reason.

So there it is: a look at just a few things Pokémon games could include to make things more interesting and breathe new life into an aging franchise. These changes would require work, but any new game should—I would hate to see Pokémon continue the troubling trend of easy and/or insignificant content when there is so much potential to do so much with what they have.

With all that said, I do want to offer a bit of praise—Sirfetch’d and Galarian Ponyta are pretty awesome, and Galarian Weezing is perfectly ridiculous. But I ask that you keep in mind what your money is telling Game Freak when you purchase their games: it tells them that you don’t mind the severe lack of innovation and improvement. It tells them you don’t mind Scorbunny hopping in place as a giant, orange, human foot strikes its opponent. It tells them that you’re willing to fund their copy/paste animations from 6 years ago, their uninspired gameplay updates, and their ever-increasing focus on gimmicks and minigames.

As for me, I will continue holding Pokémon to a higher standard and hoping that, eventually, Blastoise will fire water from his cannons.  

[tumblunni]

A random game idea I had! It could be really cool to have like a survival RPG where you play as a wild animal trying to survive in the world. Seriously there are barely any games about the coolness of nature from the perspective of the nature, and the only one I found was just a platformer/walking simulator type thing with not much appeal to it. Still worth wasting my money on it just so the universe can see there's a market for this genre, tho! So yeah anyway, random thoughts for this game idea!! * I was thinking it could be a bit more fun if you're exploring an entirely new world of magical creatures instead of a super realistic documentary on any real animal. Plus that's just more flexible for me to do whatever I want with how things work for this species. * My first thought was maybe like a very unusual 'dragon' that's more insectile in design. Like a long Asian dragon crossed with a fluffy caterpillar. Lotsa legs, and a sweet lil face! There's even that one species of Japanese caterpillar that has the big head with horns and an EVEN MORE sweet lil face, that would work perfectly!! And I was thinking maybe it can charge up and shoot electrical blasts from those back horns? Its still very much a small underdog creature in this ecosystem tho, usually all it can do is issue weak zaps to scare predators away but not really fight back all that well. And your lil babies can't zap at all until their horns grow in, so you need to be very strategic to choose your battles carefully and keep your family safe. * also I was thinking maybe the babies could kinda be your lives system? It'd be hard to finish the game while keeping them all alive, and if you lose them all its a game over from despair. And also they follow you around and are cute and helpful and love u lots! And ypu can see them grow up if you keep them safe for the whole game, you can watch them leave the nest in the end and be so proud! I want them all to have their own lil personality, I want the player to get goddamn attached to their lil monster fam!! * alternatively maybe you start off with just one baby and then gain more as the game progresses? Cos I'm picturing this as you playing as a single animal, you're a solo mama lookin after the babs. Maybe your previous mate died tragically in the prologue? Or maybe you just don't have one and you're just a sweet lil dragon who adopts abandoned eggs you find along your journey. You could go on quests to find all the hidden unlockable children around the world map! And maybe they could be a big ol variety of patterns, and different special powers. Multi talented bebs! * another idea for adding variety to game is 'what about customization?' Let's defy all laws of logic and have the player be able to choose the course of evolution for these critters! Your skill tree could be growing extra legs or fangs or becoming an omnivore all of a sudden. Who cares if it makes no sense! Tho that would kinda lend itself better to a plotless game with intimate amounts of generations, so we could at least make the evolution semi realistic. Inheriting traits instead of just abruptly mutating a million things within the same generation. But I kinda wanted this to be a more emotional journey of a single family surviving a small lifetime together. Just a lil warm and soft snippet of life in this world. Just a lil family that you can keep safe. * a random idea I had for a helpful NPC was a big giant scary monster of another species that you end up forming an unlikely friendship with. Big scary is only scary cos they're protecting their sick child, you can find out about this and help find the rare herbs they need to get better. And now you have won a very large friend's undying gratitude! Maybe they could remove an obstacle in your path by fighting off a giant unwinnable boss fight for you, so you can get to the next area. Or maybe you can ride on their back so they can carry you further away from your nest than you can usually reach. I'm imagining the player character being like the size of one of their eyebrows, lol! Oh, and maybe they could even help dig stuff so you can do bigger renovations on your nest? I was thinking it'd slowly upgrade as you gather more skills and materials throughout the game, and you could have a super complex luxury lil meadow grove by the end. * oh and a random other optional side quest idea! One of the various biomes you explore could be a wintery area, and you could find a prime spot where you can store your supplies and have like rudimentary refrigeration. Storing up food supplies in prime cache locations around the world would be a big gameplay element if you're playing as a herbivore, and this would be a gamechanger cos now meat can be cached away too. And I was thinking the Large Friend could also be a useful way to make the game equally playable whether you picked herbivore or carnivore. Herbivore players can trade meat to the Large Friend and thus still gain some benefit from defeating enemies. Large Friend can probably bring you cool exotic fruits from high up in trees you can't reach. Yay! * oh and I've kinda been calling those characters The Bigman and Bigman Larva. Cos I thought it'd be funny if this is some large mammal and the protagonist doesn't really understand the difference. Their babies totally come from eggs too, right? When's the lil guy gonna spin his cocoon? * ...it'd be even funnier if they actually did spin cocoons. I mean, its a magical world! I can make anything I want! Mice hatch into bats in the spring~ * also I had a neat idea of how to maybe handle 'dialogue' in this game. Cos it'd be a bit lame to just translate all this animal talk into English, and it'd be hard to have an RPG if its completely 100% silent. I don't have enough confidence in my abilities to say I could pull off the awesome nonverbal storytelling of Journey! So the idea I had was that maybe it could be.. A nonverbal language? You see your protagonist's thoughts as lil dialogue bubbles of images. Lil semi-complex rune type icons that the player slowly learns as they play through the game. Starting just with very basic representations of the actual gameplay commands like 'run' and 'hunt' and 'small larva whom I love and protect', and then by the end you're able to hold entire simple conversations with friendly NPCs. * also I thought it could be hella neat if you could acrually name your babies using this system! Pick two or three runes to combine into a lil squeak you shall squeak towards this particular ball of fluff. "I love you [FIRE] [FRIGHTENED] and [BRISTLE BUSH] [ACORN] [TAIL]" * also I was thinking a cool way to organically teach this language to players would be to kinda compartmentalize it? Youd start off with a library of basic words and then everything would be introduced using those basic words. Like 'predator' is [RUN]-[EAT], displayed with those two symbols when you first encounter this problem. But then after its become more of a common part of your life it'd be smooshed down into a new rune symbol that combines those two, and that's added to your dictionary. And now you're able to say things about that predator, and use the word predator as a modifier to other stuff. Like 'coyote' might be introduced as 'fast predator' and then if you spend a lot of time scavenging in the coyote territory and fighting them, 'coyote' would become an actual word too. And it could be kinda oddly satisfying to name your newest child after a word you didn't have the last time, symbolising how you've mastered evading that particular predator. Hold your head high, [COYOTE] [FEET], my new and prosperous son! * Also, hmm, it could probably symbolise 'this shit is wrong and terrifying' when something breaks the naming conventions and reminds you of the components that first made that word. Like every other predator is just [adjective] [RUN]-[EAT] but then a griffon is [SKY]-[EAT] and a snake is [LUNGE]-[EAT]. Hell, to someone who's literally never seen a flying creature before, they might just be classified as like.. 'Jump' creatures. It'd be a giant shaking up of the whole world for our poor protagonist who only sees things as a collection of running or not running! And humans would be even more terrifying cos they're the only predator that isn't 'eat'. Why on earth does this thing kill us and just leave the body there?? Thats TERRIFYING! Protagonist might even have nightmares of their poor kid's soul being unable to rest cos their empty shell was never returned to nature after they died. They don't have the capacity to understand that humans hunt for sport or exterminate things they see as pests... And man, I can imagine that scraps of human materials could be super useful rare objects along your journey and like.. HOO BOY its a good thing protagonist will never know how exactly humans make those things. 'Wow this weird human thing called a clothes is useful nest lining material!' she says, as she sits on a dragon skin coat. 'Odd how it reminds me of my grandma!' * anyway lol I have a bunch of ideas but they're not very organized so I apologise for this rambley post

[easythingstodrawtutorials]

How to Draw Splatoon Squid - Easy Things to Draw

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How to Draw Splatoon Squid - Easy Things to Draw

How to Draw Splatoon Squid – Easy Things to Draw

This is a video dedicated to drawing the squid from the Nintendo Wii-U game, Splatoon. This was a game that I was addicted to for a good while. I was so far into it. I love the art style and really enjoyed the gameplay.

Also, don’t forget to check another tutorial How to Draw Monster Hands – Easy Things to Draw

Hi guys, how are you, I’m Enrique and welcome to Easy Things To Draw, hopefully, you’re having a good day. Today I’ll teach you how to draw Squids from “Splatoon”, this game is absolutely one of my favorites, I’ve been obsessed with this game for almost four months and that’s what brings us to today’s tutorial.

  Today I’ll teach you how to draw and ink a squid. What we’re going to need to do this are a regular pencil and a pencil brush. The pencil that I’m using today, it’s from a Japanese brand, but this does not mean that you need this exact same pencil to draw, you can always use a regular Micron and it will be fine.

The only thing different with these pencils is the tip of the brush, with the one I’m using for this drawing, I will get more variety in the lines, but you can definitely do it with a regular one. Also one more thing before we start, if you want to learn how to draw different cartoon characters, portraits, backgrounds with perspective and all that stuff, I recommend subscribing to my channel “Easy Things To Draw 101”, and press the little bell icon, that way you’ll be notified every time I upload new content.

  If there are many interested in this game, maybe I could make the other characters, you know, the humanoids and that stuff. Now with all that said let’s start with the drawing, I start with the pencil pretty light, I don’t want it to go too dark with it, the stroke I’m making is barely visible, I’ve talked about this before and it’s called ghosting. What I do now is, I mark the base so I know where to put some details with the ink pencil later. I don’t add many details, in this step, I only have to mark the shape that the squid will have.

  Once this is done, I start to mark with my pencil brush. The first thing I marked are the eyes, the shape of these is quite simple. The design of the Squids is really simple because they are made of Play-Doh, so everything is composed of simple shapes, like for example, the eyes, actually it’s very similar to the shape of the eggs, which in general is a simple form. I am quite confident with my pencil brush, as I mark this because as I said before, squid usually has a very simple shape.

Then I add some shadows, add some quite simple shadows in the tendrils of the sides, and I’m doing this slowly, little by little. if you want to buy a pencil brush I would recommend the Pigma brush from Micron, I like that and also is very easy to get. Then I go on with the tendrils in the middle, the squid has the tendrils more long on each side and shorter in the middle. As I said before, everything is composed of very simple forms, even the tendrils, If you look at them, they look very much like an egg stuck in a sock or also like a balloon.

  I continue with the tendril on the other side and add this shadow pattern, which is quite simple, I also make the lights come from above, if you need more information on how to shade, I have a series of videos on this topic on my YouTube channel, you can find them with the name of “Shading 101”, I recommend you to go see them. 

  Then I add little drops of water like if they’re jumping out of this, even though these characters aren’t really in the water, they jump out of what I think is paint.

   Now I’m trying to see where the dark is going to be, but with a figure like this it’s pretty easy to do, usually when you’re working with more detail or complexes drawing, it’s much more work and harder to do, although that can also be easy if you know what’s going on and have more experience doing it.

  I keep adding shadows, now I’m doing it between the eyes, making the line between them thicker, and the outer shape of the squid is almost done at this point. What is left to be done now, is kind of pulling out the form, like for example, in the middle part of the head, the squid have a simple form, so I throw a final line, to kind of express that form and show what kind of shape I was making,  it turns out to be a corner.

  Then I add a little more of this Blur-be thing, and this I’m expressing it with dark, and this looks more like a squid shooting ink than jumping out of paint. I also want to add a focal point in my drawing and I will do it in the eyes of the squid.

Also, another thing that I do, is that I’m very careful with my brush pencil when it comes to inking, you know, I put a little shade and I think if I need more or if I need to fix it, and I do that because the ink is permanent and if I make a mistake there is not a way in which I can erase it.

  I also try to make the ink a little bit random, this is one of the things that I like to do, and another thing that I add is a few small line patterns, I don’t want them to look identical like as if they were a robot, I want to them to be random. Right now I’m just looking at what parts of my drawing, I feel I can add some details and that’s all.

  As I said before if you want to learn how to draw cartoon characters, anatomy, robot and other things you can go to my YouTube channel “Easy Things To Draw” where I will teach you how to draw step by step. The videos I upload in that channel, it’ about drawings for beginners, but if you are someone with more experience you are totally welcome to see them, goodbye and we see in another tutorial on how to draw easy things.

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Also, don’t forget to check another tutorial How to Draw Monster Hands – Easy Things to Draw

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Hold it!! Ace Attorney is Back, and We’ve Updated the Court Records!

  When Capcom offered me a chance to review Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, I have to admit that I did a little fist pump at my desk. Ace Attorney is a series that’s very dear to me, and in many personal ways is responsible for where I am today; without it, I would have probably never met many of the important people in my life, or maybe even be working here! So it was with excitement that I jumped back into the original trilogy of games on the PS4 to take a look at how the games have held up, as well as what this trilogy edition brings to the modern console market. The Ace Attorney Trilogy is itself a bit of a re-release, having originally come out on iOS in 2012 and then 3DS in 2014. This new version contains the same updated art that the previous versions had, and spans the entire first 3 games, including the extra 5th case added to the original game back when it came out for the DS. But how does the game hold up today, and does the new trilogy really offer anything that we haven’t seen before? Well… the answer is a bit complicated, and just like any good court case, we’ll have to take a look at the facts as they come!

The games themselves have aged pretty well—the mechanics were always simple and intuitive, and although no longer guided by a stylus or touch control (at least, except on the Switch), the game has few menu options and controls to really confuse the player with. In many ways, the Phoenix Wright games are visual novels with some added adventure game elements, with the slightly nice bonus that the games are somewhat easy; the only real way to fail the game is to incorrectly object in court room settings over and over. By today’s standards, it would probably be true to say that the games have limited gameplay at all, and the later games in the series were the ones to introduce more complex mechanics into the investigation procedures. But that was never the true charm of the series, instead placing the emphasis on character interactions and the pleasure of presenting just the right contradiction at the right time to nail the criminal for their false testimony. And in that regard, there really is nothing like Ace Attorney.

The magic of the Ace Attorney games is seeing each individual character reveal their personality and quirks over time, whether they’re one-shot characters or returning protagonists, each and every character in the games oozes life and vivid personalities. As I was replaying the games, I was shocked by how much of it I immediately started to remember, or certain character quirks that I had forgotten that immediately burst back to life in my mind. The game especially hinges on the depiction of Phoenix Wright himself, and the writing of the game does an amazing job making Phoenix into an intimately reliable character that you want to see succeed, bolstered by the equally amazing Maya Fey, with their banter really driving home the charm of the game and making both endearing characters.

Each game is broken into chunks, episodes usually given a title that starts with “Turnabout”, with the first and third games having 5 cases, and the second game having 4. Each of these episodes are somewhat self-contained, in the sense that you play each case from start to finish and nothing really carries over from case to case in terms of gameplay. However, character arcs progress over time, with each case giving more and more of the dynamic picture of the Phoenix Wright universe, meaning that details from the first game will slowly become more and more important in the later games, with some of the biggest, most rewarding reveals coming in the third game, calling all the way back to the very first cases of the series. Even taken on their own individual merits, all of the cases have memorable, unique one off characters that make you fall in love with them.

These games live and die on their ability to tell their story, so some may find the lack of challenge a bit odd at first; there really isn’t any way to ‘fail’ the game, like missing specific evidence or needed clues. There are ways to “lose” during trials, but these generally just result in you reloading the game (with a few exceptions that can lead to a “bad ending”, but still results in you reloading the game). One thing that becomes a bit odd if you play the games in marathon style is that every one of the games has a “tutorial” case, which is due to the fact that the original games came out years apart from one another and needed to teach players how to operate the game’s engine. Here, it just sort of becomes routine, and thankfully the cases are actually important and entertaining the storylines, so they aren’t a big deal, but it is worth mentioning that you’ll spend at least 3 of the 14 stories learning how to play the game again (with no real changed mechanics).

This is only really an issue in the second game, which has 4 cases, meaning that 1 of them is a tutorial, and the other is… Turnabout Big Top, which is quite frankly the worst case in the entire series. I won’t spoil anything and your mileage may vary here, but personally I found this case so stilted, slow, and annoying that when I originally played this game on my DS I nearly quit the game for good. Here, is isn’t so bad because there are so many cases to play through, but even still I found myself groaning—and not just from the script’s legendary puns—as I chugged through this case; of all of the trilogy, the second game is by far the weakest, so just be forewarned. That said, the games as a whole are an amazing set of fun storylines and good writing; the Ace Attorney games have had some memorable localization changes to make the games accessible to non-Japanese audiences, and they actually do go a long way to make the games stand out instead of just straight translating a series filled with language jokes that wouldn’t make any sense in English. Some of the most obvious are puns, but the English writers need to be given some real props for making the game as memorable and charming as they did, jokes and all, giving the characters depth and charm.

You’ll want to turn your speakers up too, because the music in the Ace Attorney games is perhaps its most unique, secret charm that tops off the entire package just right. The colorful characters (both in personality and in art design) fill your screen with their personalities, and the audio that accompanies each scene of the game does its best to keep up with that level of engagement and personality (the Steel Samurai theme is still stuck in my head after all these years, as well as the tune of a certain coffee loving prosecutor…). All of the tracks are enjoyable and they add a certain sense of completeness to the overall game. You’ll become uniquely acquainted with certain tunes as you play through the three games, and each one brings a certain sense of familiarity and comfort with them. And then, of course, is the high-strung courtroom music, which always hits at just the right time as you present that case winning contradiction or piece of evidence, making Phoenix’s victory feel all the sweeter.

If anything, I would say that I’m maybe a bit sad that this version of the game didn’t get a fully reworked or updated soundtrack and sound effects to go with it, but the original music score is so solid that it isn’t a huge problem. The somewhat dated soundbites for the “Hold it,” and “Objection” portions of the games do stick out a bit in their weird, mono audio quality, sounding a bit out of place on modern systems. Don’t let that bother you too much, though, as it isn’t a huge problem, but it did stick out to me enough that I felt like it was important to mention. Although the games are approaching nearly twenty years in publication.

And, really, that does bring us to some of the problems with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy: there really isn’t anything new here for returning fans. The games do have updated graphics for all of the characters, but if you played the 3DS or iOS versions of the Trilogy, you’ve already seen those before. There aren’t any real bells and whistles to the game, with nothing new to unlock or see; as far as ports go, it is pretty bare bones, simply providing the games as described and not much else. This is only a problem depending on how you look at the issue: if you’ve never played the Ace Attorney games before, this is absolutely the best way to get into the series, and if you have played them but not for a while, you’ll have a great time going back through them. But if you’re a die-hard fan that replays the games often, you won’t really find much new in this release that you likely don’t already have at your fingertips.

Also, I will say that the console versions of the game look great on a TV, but the games were originally made to be portable, and in many cases I feel that the Switch version wins out a bit on the other releases in this regard, still allowing you to take Phoenix and Maya on the go with you, and coming and going from play sessions with the game much easier than the console versions. This isn’t really a negative, but it is worth mentioning; it’s probably worth considering how you’d like to play these games before deciding on which version to purchase if you have options.

Although there isn’t much new in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, what is here is weighty enough to justify a purchase and playthrough, especially if you’ve never experienced the games before. Seeing the memorable cast back in action again made me fall in love with this series all over again, and I honestly can’t recommend the experience enough to people who enjoy visual novels and mysteries, and frankly I’d say that anyone who enjoys good characters and storytelling would probably find a lot to love in the Ace Attorney series. Ironically die-hard fans might not find anything new to attract them, but at the same time those same fans are probably just as excited as I was to revisit the beginning of the Ace Attorney series again, so the game is pretty easy to recommend to everyone. If you can tolerate some of the obviously dated aspects and somewhat bare presentation, you’ll find three games filled with charming characters, tense stories, and the best courtroom action in video games. I’m already looking to dig up my copies of the future games to play through them now after this review, since I’ve rediscovered my apparent love of judicial activities! So, with that said, go get yourself a copy of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, as court is adjourned!

REVIEW ROUNDUP

+ Amazing characters and storytelling make this series shine with charisma.

+ Simplistic play mechanics put all of the focus on characters and story, keeping things moving.

+ Games 1 and 3 are amazing, having some incredible emotional payoffs for character arcs.

+/- If you already played these games, you may not find much new to be interested in, as there aren’t any extras or new content.  

-  The Circus Case.

  Are you an Ace Attorney fan? Curious to try the series out of the first time? Which game is your favorite one? Let us know what you think in the comments!

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Nicole is a features and a social video script writer for Crunchyroll. Known for punching dudes in Yakuza games on her Twitch channel while professing her love for Majima. She also has a blog, Figuratively Speaking. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries

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