#IDK how this would work in game maybe a kind of boss fight

[muffinrecord]

Magia Exedra negativity I guess?

Something I was thinking about is that getting a new character is kind of disappointing in this game compared to Magia Record.

Let's say I finally actually got Kaede. In MagiReco I could spend AP and start working on her episode levels, go to labs and spend AP to level her up, get her materials. I could farm old bosses to get mats. Every time you leveled up her episode level you also unlocked quotes. You can put her on the homescreen and see all her little animations, what different outfits she has (if she has any).

In Magia Exedra you can use her in a fight. If you have heartsand saved, you can level her heartphial but if you don't then... that's kinda it, isn't it? And even if you have sand, it's not like you can read all of her story right away. You can't even look at half of her quotes right away like you can in magireco. You just kind of get her and the only difference is if you can use her in a fight or not.

And if you're an idiot who has defeated all the nightmare fights in the game then... well what do you do? I guess you can redo them if you want?

There really isn't any endgame at the moment. You log in and complete your dailies and then... well, that's kind of it. You can argue that maybe Magia Record was like that too, but you still had stuff to do. Like, there were so many characters you could work on and farm materials for, you could work on episode level, you could work towards doppels. If all else failed then you could farm SP to get memoria lol. Rainbow orbs were a bottleneck sure, but you could farm labs for the rare chance at getting them (seeing a rainbow orb as a drop in a lab always got me so fucking happy haha, it was like an instant boost of serotonin, even when they became really easy to acquire).

Man and what I'm gonna say is controversial but the SKIP function is both a blessing and a curse. I kind of feel like I shouldn't even complain about it, because I know I'm in the minority here. Cause AUTO in magireco isn't exactly good gameplay either? But it's kind of depressing to just skip all the farming. IDK. Maybe I'm just old.

I log on to my account and want to do stuff and there's just not really a whole lot to do.

I used to play mirrors endlessly when I was bored by refreshing BP and using strange weird teams and just having fun, but that doesn't work for Magia Exedra because you have to spend fucking magica stones to do so. And it's auto. And you really can't get away with using silly fun teams because that'll drop your ranking and your pvp rank is tied to tangible rewards?

...

Yeah I just kind of miss having things to do.

The JP account is fun atm because I'm playing through it more slowly but I dread the day I hit endgame because like. then what.

And another thing-- I will say that Magireco had some issues with how easy it became towards the end. I remember when NA first launched and we were all strugglin' with the waiting horse boss' poison. But at the same time, I really appreciate that you could use almost any character you wanted. Like uhhh I dunno. Two-stars and three-stars who weren't uncapped yet. You could still use them. Not in the hardest Scene 0 fights, but like. You could use them. But here...? Who the fuck is gonna use 3* Kako? Why doesn't Kako have a 4* version? She doesn't even get a personal portrait.

And that's another thing. 2* and 3* weren't better than 4* (most of the time) but it didn't feel like a waste to put work into them, even as a whale, you know? Because they can get uncapped. But like. Who is gonna invest in 3* Kako? Why would I work on 3* Masara if 4* Masara exists? What if I put a lot of effort into 4* Masara and then she gets a 5* version years down the line?

I guess you could argue that it's the same for when variants come out, but like... at least variants might look different from one another, you know? But this is just Masara. And at least with variants I can make a fun mirrors team of 5 Mamis and not feel penalized for it.

I like Magia Exedra but I miss Magia Record. I would trade Magia Exedra for Magia Record in a heartbeat. Even with all the Oriko content that I have devoured.

Edit: oh and I liked the small amount of customization we got too. Even as small as something like picking what card art to use on a character. I liked Tsuruno's 3* card art best. I liked choosing if the battle screen would show their chibis on the attacks or their card art. ...yeah that's a really small thing. I dunno.

Oh and picking backgrounds... and music...

maybe the game will start to implement more changes, maybe it won't, idk.

[beesmygod]

what bloodborne bosses do you think could be imported into night reign easily? amygdala feels like it would be a blast in elden ring and blood starved beast seems like it could fit in as well

ok i can finally think about this properly. first i agree with you. absolutely amygdala. astel and amygdala are similar enough in scale and behavior that it would be a perfect fit for the combat mechanics of elden ring. the biggest change to consider is the amount of verticality so as long as we choose bosses that aren't instantly wrecked by jumping it should be good.

THINGS I DO NOT WANT TO SEE:

i never want to fight the cleric beast ever again in my life. that includes laurence.

amelia is a boring fight.

the celestial emissary is easily one of the more boring "mob" bosses made by from and should be skipped.

the shadows of yharnam are just three guys. i hate fighting rom unironically.

witch of hemwick is interesting to fight once and after that its just gaming the gimmick to get it done asap.

the one reborn sucks ass.

sulyvahn is the more interesting version of mergo's wet nurse. i would rather see him.

there are more interesting wolves in other games other than paarl.

the living failures are also not good.

DO NOT PUT THE UNDEAD GIANT IN. DONT DO IT

MAYBE:

i would love to fight ebrietas more but since metyr, mother of fingers already exists in the game they might as well stick with her.

gascoigne is like. one of the best bosses in bloodborne, but he's kind of custom-tailored to be a skill check for that game's mechanics specifically. i just don't know if he would have the same sauce without the fight revolving around parrying mechanics.

i don't know if logarius would work. jumping makes his projectiles way less intimidating and you would be able to jump into the sky with him like its a DBZ battle lol

LET'S GOOOO:

i think the blood-starved beast would make an excellent addition to the boss roster because it is fast as fuck and highly aggressive.

gehrman is just a solid fight. no problems with him

same with lady maria but it looks like we're getting a lady maria expy character as one of the player characters. hoo hoo! neat!

lugwig is a really good fight. no reason not to include him. if they can dodge the golden hippo or the fallingstar beast, they can dodge him.

MOON PRESENCE!!! MOON PRESENCE!!!

fuck it, put the orphan in. he's a good fight but idk how he'll translate to a sword and shield game. i beat him with pure parries lol.

yharnam please. i miss her so much.

actually both of the pthumerian descendants too. i miss those guys once they're gone. they're really fun.

the bloodletting and abhorrent beast are fine. they can come too.

COMEDY OPTION: micolash

[rolameny]

i played through nine sols a second time and now i am going to talk about it. full spoilers!!

this is one of those works that tells you a lot of things about its world from the jump, only without giving you the context to interpret those statements. it makes a second visit so rewarding. going back through and knowing exactly what each monument means / the things yi is talking around.... really really good.

heng is fantastic on a replay. the first time around till you get the final message i thought yi was haunted. i also thought the ji reveal would be that he was heng and not an adult man

"neither of us made a mistake. we both made different choices" says yi, a man who has made so very many mistakes

game so good it makes you go "man i should learn more about taoism so i can better understand its themes"

it's wild how much this game draws on hollow knight and yet stands on its own as a totally different thing. like, mechanically, the jades are charms. the charged attack is a great slash. the full movement kit is monarch wings and mothwing cloak. the geo/artifacts economy. and you're a little guy who can't quite manage to die fighting your way through a series of bosses and some brightly hued corruption to sacrifice yourself at the end. it's just straightforwardly true that RCG pulled a great deal from HK, and it was enough to make me go aha!!! in recognition many times, but it's completely its own thing. own gameplay feel, own world, own story.

own protag: i love the silent protag in hollow knight but yi is such a lovable bitch [affectionate/derogatory]. guy who sucks so bad. guy it took over five hundred years to internalize a single social-emotional lesson.

it's so fascinating watching him react to the different sols. who does he get angry with. who does he make an offer of mercy to. because kuafu is so much the guy who is there i forgot yi also considered lady e the other reasonable person on the council, right up till he namedrops her when yelling at eigong.

the anger and spite to treat goumang as he did!! and even in the true ending you see neither he nor kuafu thought about her. there are some gaps of consideration in the true ending that i think of as "well we don't have time for that but you get it" -- any other potential apemen on new kunlun (peach blossom village is the 95th livestock pen. girl where are the others), the like 300-odd of 100k solarians left remaining in cryosleep who might like to at least live a little on earth before dying. imo the narrative is just skimming over them, we reach the emotional point of it with the people we know (kuafu and the gang). and it would be a whole narrative diversion to grab her. but the true ending makes sure to show us that goumang is still down there, rather than skimming over her fate. even when he grows a little yi still sucks so much dude [affectionate]. and kuafu's passivity coming to the fore here as well!

kuafu is so compelling because he is The Nice Guy but he is absolutely not necessarily The Kind Guy as well. he was just chill with the whole council plan and didn't do anything except be kind of bummed when yi died. (iirc he does just think yi's head did that. could have thought that one through a little more.) at the ending he pushes back against the idea of saving the apemen!

lady ethereal my beloved elizabeth holmes as a lynx furry. there's a fight that made me nod sagely and go Ah, Nightmare King Grimm. here's a place where i felt a little dissonance -- the full screen huge face digital flashing between normal/happy and manic evil laughter is a horror classic but it didn't quite hit it for lady e imo. huge face crying or snarling would have worked better i think, which i say even though i get the manic laughter through panic beat. idk. i love that in her bossfight she is presenting herself as the villain she thinks she is -- she gets out her heaving-est pushup bra for this one. sorry about it, girl. maybe next time if you know you're consigning a hundred thousand people to slow madness within their cryochambers maybe speak up about it.

speaking of people who learned no lessons. ji like okay well i've seen a lot of horror and so i elect to do nothing about it except contribute my cells to possibly the worst cause on earth. i will continue to wander this grotto for five hundred years while it gets worse. 👍 i'm having meaningful discussions about the tao with your man in the tentacle hole and i am not sorry, ji.

i understand the anglo readability argument for transliterating li er as lear but i, the anglophone in the room, did have to look at the fanwiki to understand that we were not dipping into shakespeare for a single guy. 😔

kanghui is such a fantastic element of this game. you get just enough about him to add to the horror of what eigong was doing, and what the jies are doing, and what the fuck is up with penglai to begin with. his inclusion makes ji make more sense to me as well. it's not that ji is a once in a millennium impossibility. it's that penglai is so so so weird. ji and yi pull up little chairs in front of kanghui's torture contraption for immortality group therapy.

like that one post says. CHIYOU best character CHIYOU

the siscon stuff in this game is so funny. [looking at the fengs] gang what's wrong with you [looking at yi and heng] gang what's wrong with you. congrats to the other characters on not having siblings and therefore having slightly more normal psychosexual hangups such as "getting off to body modification and torture."

RCG funding for one million years please 🙏🙏🙏 i know they said it took them five years to make this one but even with that timeline it's crazy that they went from narrative horror game to a genuinely best-in-class feeling Sekirollow Knight. they are so good at this shit.

okay. i have exorcised my thoughts and feelings about this game. playing a twenty-hour game twice in like 2-3 weeks is normal right.

[astronnova]

please tell us about deep sea expedition

yes.... finally......... i can SHILL..........

basically, deep sea expedition or WHATEVER it would be called would be the salmon run dlc. wave THREE of splatoon THREE's dlc waves. you feel me?

so i've done just two posts before about this idea, but it would star agent 4 as our player character. reasons why?

agent four and agent 8 both having dlcs in splat3 would be a great way to pay homage to splatoon 2, since both were the protagonists of that game

grizzco and salmon run were introduced to the series with splatoon 2, might as well have the protgaonist of that game be the one to end the salmon run story line since return of the mammalians focuses more on mr. grizz himself instead of the salmonids

the basic idea for gameplay i have for this DLC would be a mix of a more open world approach (think security breach: RUIN) alongside a the PVE horde gameplay from salmon run. agent 4 would have to fight through hordes of salmonids and other deep sea creatures to descend deeper to reach a sort of salmonid capital. think maybe like... sparta? since the salmonids are inspired by that. maybe a giant ass collesuem (i know thats in rome i do not care).

point is, you start near the surface and have to descend to defeat the bosses (ha get it. cus side order has an elevator where you go up? im clever i think sometimes)

actually this sounds a bit like doom. oh well

i'd like to think there's some sort of phenomena of like... underwater air pockets. like underwater caves? where a bunch of civilizations are maybe? would be pretty neat to see all the stuff where salmonids go when they arent doing the salmon run part, among other species that could live in these areas considered the deep sea metro

(the naming coincidences are not lost on me but i have no idea what else to call this hypothetical salmon run DLC)

story? agent 4 has been stranded in hostile, salmonid territory with no backup, a faulty pair of grizzco (tm) dualies, and her wits. 4 meets a goldie salmonid, named chrysos, who takes 4 under their fin (ha) to help them find a way home. 4 and chrysos must explore deeper into the heart of the sea to find enough super golden eggs (name and idea pending) to have enough power to send 4 home.

thats the working synopsis anyway, excluding major spoilers and all

apart of the open world sections of the DLC would have the player controlling 4 and chrysos in a kind of open world diving situation. four is equipped with a prototype pressurized underwater scuba gear that makes it safe for ink-based people to go underwater! its grizzco brand and needs many upgrades (that could be acquired thru out the story).

im thinking for these sections you'd be timed to find an air pocket or new treasure of sorts? and if you run out of time idk 4 runs out of air or something and gets splatted. dw they have a life preserver which chrysos would reactivate to save four, basically restarting the level from the beginning.

chrysos would be a very straightforward character with a dry sense of humor and a natural curiosity for all things from the surface. they're helping 4 out of the goodness of their heart and to satiate that curiosity of what inklings are like, among other reasons.

they pluck one of their scales at the beginning of the story to help power up the faulty grizzco dualies, which would also be a tutorial on how to like.... level up? get upgrades? not sure

this was long! if you have any more questions feel free to ask. i love the salmonids and i love agent 4. mwah

[driftingballoons]

@heinousactszx my clumsy fingers accidentally deleted your ask about potential changes I’d make to an explorers remake, so tagging you and making a new post! Sorry about that 🙈

Plot-wise, I think my biggest gripe with the original is how they handled Darkrai. I think with some foreshadowing throughout the game, both in the main plot and the initial parts of the post-game, could really have added to his reveal later on. As a villain, his motivations were….well. After having a villain like Dusknoir, he kind of fell flat imo. I feel exploring a little more of why he was doing all that could really help build his character. Finally, I would want to change how they deal with him after everything. Ending it with “it’s ok, he’s got amnesia :)” felt like something of a non-ending. Maybe having one more post-game arc or special episode where you find him, he slowly regains his memories, but maybe through exploring with you he learns to appreciate the world as it is and finds his place in it—an ending where he’s rehabilitated and the threat to the planet is well and truly dealt with—could have made the game feel properly finished. 

Another thing I would LOVE to see is more world building of the dark future. It’s such an interesting idea, having you and partner run around in the future, and I feel like it could have been used to give more characterization to dusknoir/celebi/grovyle. Like, instead of just running back to the past and having dusknoir confirm that we’re in fact grovyle’s partner, what if we got a side plot where he takes us to the planetary investigation team’s base, hear them talk about grovyle and his “partner,” and maybe even have a dimensional scream or sudden memory showing that you actually belong there? Might have been an interesting way to interact with the future a little more and give the player a sense of the weight of erasing an entire reality when dusknoir gives the reveal later on. Plus, it would make it a more interesting setting than just a series of mystery dungeons and boss fights. 

A final thing I think could be a valuable addition to the plot is some conflict between hero/partner. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the soulmate style relationship (whether platonic, romantic, etc) they seem to have, but feel like overcoming some kind of conflict between each other could help strengthen that. Imo, the best way to do that could be using dusknoir—what if hero was suspicious of him as a bit of foreshadowing? What if they had a dimensional scream about him, confided in partner, and partner, being completely enamored with him, refuses to believe it? Could be a conflict that starts small, eventually building up and boiling over when they’re in the future, partner being a combo of angry that hero was right, and feeling guilty that they didn’t believe them. Maybe they’d even lash out after escaping the stockade, run off by themself, and need rescuing by hero/grovyle. Idk, I just feel like there’s a lot of ways you could work something like that into the plot, and it would show that even though they don’t always necessarily see eye to eye, they can overcome it and come out stronger. Add an extra dimension to their relationship, instead of having them be on the same wavelength all the time. 

[dergnblaze]

Finished Dragon Age Vielguard.

Here are my thoughts... spoilers ahead. I romanced emmerich. he became a lich.

You could REALLY TELL they fired all their writers.

I loved how beautiful everything was, the combat was delicious. But so much of the game felt filler or forgotten.

There were many many opportunities to make compelling story moments that were just lost to happening off screen. Like they were afraid if they tried to animate them they would get made fun of if it didnt look right or something. But just lost all their power bc we didnt SEE them happen.

Lots of moments with bards in the environment that I think SHOULD HAVE HAD music! Maybe not voiced music! But a musical change would have been nice. Hell I would have been happy with the music from the inquisition even.

Its also the shortest Dragon Age game I've ever played. And I hate that. I hate it.

I agree having a tightly wrapped up story is better to ambiguity and lots of moving parts makes things confusing, but everything felt rushed and nothing had room to breath.

I loved romancing Emmerich, and would have loved to see all of the companions have more reactivity with your choices and the enviroment. After every big choice in inquisition you got a scene with the companions it effected the most.

The ending of the game was done very well. I thought the lead up to the big boss fight was well paced, engaging, thrilling and satisfying. But I couldnt help but keep thinking 'Wow I wish the rest of the game got this level of care and attention.'

All the dragons were a mess. We need a big boss fight? Ok here is a dragon. Thats a cop out. I dont like it.

I like all of the companions a LOT more than some of the other games. In Inquistion I only really cared about like, three of them. And how hard would it have been REALLY to bring some of what you did in Inquision into this game? The Divine choice could have been an easy way to satisfy us with a line or two of dialogue, but just nothing?

I liked that there were bodies in the tentacles, that was cool. Belarra being all gross and blighted was cool. It was dark when I needed it to be, so Im happy with that. Elgarnan looked sick as fuck at the end of the game, and so did Solas for that matter. I really like that Emmerich was in lich mode the entire end game. That was hot. I'm sad Lucanis died in my run. I feel like other games would have had a funeral for our lost companions or something, but Harding and Lucanis didnt really get anything.

And Mythal just being some white lady elf was lame. She was an elven god! You CLEARLY have some amazing animators and designers working on the game, its beautiful. It would not have been hard to give us a large, beautiful, ethereal elven goddess instead of just this random white lady ghost. Just feels thoughtless.

SO much of this game felt thoughtless. Like, just the care and attention wasnt given to it that the other games had.

And I shouldnt compare it to Baldurs Gate 3 bc that game is like, magnificent.

But how can I NOT??

They are the same kind of game!!

idk, I feel like the studio maybe gave up on it. I love this IP but after this I doubt it has the legs to keep going. No hook for the next game in the epilogue. No real epilogue for Rook and their partner. Just them standing with their hands on their hips while like four people cheer for them. Lame.

[memphishing]

Dear Kinjomae Santa Claus.

This year, I would like headcanons of Kinjomae playing roblox.

Or to be more specific, Yuki forces Kinjo to play roblox. And Kinjo questions his life choices on games like mm2.

It would also be hilarious to imagine Kinjo playing a dress up game... maybe like dti.

Idk if you know much about roblox games. Or roblox in general, but I'm just assuming you know the popular games.

From anon

PS: I haven't been good at all this year, but can I still have the Kinjomae :3

oh ho ho 🎅 worry not dear anon... memphisanta forgives your sins and will deliver the kinjomae anyway!!!

I DO KNOW ROBLOX! Over ten years ago, I made an account... all the bad bitches should add me, I'm Memphis624 on there... yes I have historically been called memphis on like everything. But my roblox knowledge is mostly limited to work at a pizza place, royale high and regretevator. So i had to do a bit of research. but i discovered i have played those games, just don't know the names!

Yuki drags kinjo to the computer one day deciding he needs some whimsy in his heart (plus Yuki has probably been playing more roblox with friends) and does puppy eyes at Tsurugi until he makes an account. Tsurugi stays with the default avatar because he insists that spending money on this app would be really stupid. Meanwhile Yuki's just got several decked out anime girl fits.

Of course he'd be an asshole playing murder mystery- he'd probably use the time between rounds to lecture Yuki about how this is no joke. Anyone could become a murderer, even the best seeming, even close friends, malice is invisible sometimes. This stupid game is making a mockery of a real issue through its stupid pixels and its stupid... cheeseburger and its stupid /e dance. they wouldn't be playing that one for long

So Yuki changes his focus. they play themselves some royale high. Tsurugi is incredibly irate with how stupid this is, and why exactly is yuki so good at the minigames? why does he have so many diamonds and the frilliest skirts coming from actual collections???? they go to the ballroom, both probably announce themselves as sir. someone goes over to yuki because he has a fancy avatar and flirts with him, tsurugi begins tearing through them through chat. writing whole ESSAYS about how they will NOT steal him. Luckyboi665 is HIS boyfriend actually.

So after they get banned from royale high Yuki goes through dti. He's not great at this one either (yuki has no style we've established this... his godawful ballroom outfits...) but he loves putting on colorful clothes and the whole fashion show aspect of it. kinjo kind of just stands there initially... he doesn't know how to deal with this, then just goes to do the most literal, stereotypical versions of the word. he ends up winning several times just because he forgot to change his stupid man default hair and it looks iconic.

they do some work at a pizza place! tsurugi would spend the entire time getting hit on in voice chat by similar shitposting teenagers and yuki is trying not to laugh. yuki shows him his really cool ornate house with all upgrades unlocked. kinjo becomes manager, and camps out in the vote manager button. he begins to run things down to the wire. he has a mini tyrant moment and becomes the boss fight. "me? a subpar manager? hah. do you even know who you are talking to? do you know who i am in real life? shameful. you are shameful, sitting behind your computer screen, worsening the progress of society. do you further progress in your community? or are you simply a rotting piece of flesh-" however, the shitposting teenagers simply respond with "ooo you want me so badddd-" and tsurugi only doubles down on being an awful weirdo-

so yeah they go and play some tycoons for a while instead. tsurugi goes mildly reptile brain and gets incredibly into them, even if they're stupid because he loves watching the numbers go up. he also advises yuki about the best financial decisions- to wait for the better upgrade, or to settle for the lower one? how to factor in aesthetic approval? yuki encourages this, he's super happy because tsurugi does seem to be enjoying this in his... particular little way.

they also play some obbies, which are yuki's strong suit, he'd have great reflexes! tsurugi would not. he'd dive into the void like thirty times at the same spot completely unintentionally. yuki would start to jump in circles around him just while waiting for tsurugi to progress, retreading his progress over and over again while cheering for his darling, which tsurugi sees as patronizing. but every time yuki seems to manifest tsurugi reaching a new checkpoint, it actually happens. tsurugi is mad af though when he discovers at the end of all that suffering is just a powerup you can buy for robux. THE PAIN, WHAT WAS IT FOR? MORE MICROTRANSACTIONS???

i think tsurugi would be stellar at survive the disasters though. because of his police experience, he'd be jaded about the whole thing being gamified, but also very good at it! he'd pull along yuki like a puppy, and they'd both survive every time- between yuki's luck and his strategy, they're climbing the scoreboards in no time.

the second yuki tries to get tsurugi in on those family RPs though, adopt me and such, he's dropping out because he doesn't like all of these stupid babies and animals crawling over him while he is merely trying to take a nice walk to the shop. but overall, they had a good time. yuki takes tsurugi out for dinner in real life afterwards, and quietly says at least one "mmmm chezburger..." before laughing his ass off as he gets an incredulous stare from tsurugi. tsurugi can't help but smile a bit though, at the end. these ridiculous, pointless games- for some reason, they have meaning to Yuki. and he's beginning to see the appeal.

when they arrive home, tsurugi plays tycoon autistically and loses track of time due to a game for the first time in his life.

[quailfence]

Finished Deltarune chapter 3, gonna play ch 4 tomorrow cos I think that's what Toby recommended? Anyway some random thoughts/emotions/theories below the cut, proper review to come when I've finished chapter 4 it turned into a proper review lol

(also no ch 4 spoilers in replies/reblogs pls!)

Is the knight thing that took Toriel Dess? Or maybe Rudy? Not super likely and mostly based on the horns + I was randomly thinking about Noelle when they turned up

Also, weird that Noelle seems not to have been mentioned at all in this chapter - wonder if that's a consequence of Toby having to write around Snowgrave, but trying to work around diverging routes by ignoring them isn't Toby's style

Also Undyne!! The music when she turned up didn't sound like her at first but it became more familiar as it went on, not sure what it's reminding me of

Speaking of music, even if you didn't know the Word Of Toby saying that Mike was part of Spamton's backstory, Tenna's boss music (+ also the 'heart on a string' in one of the boss minigames) makes it really obvious that him and Spamton are connected

Overall Tenna seems like a combination of Mettaton and Spamton, I think I like him but I'm not super obsessed with him - can easily see why someone(/Tumblr) could tho

His boss fight was HARD, easily took half a dozen tries i think

The cooking/serving minigame was also really tough, took me like 4 or 5 tries and even then only by the skin of my teeth, mostly cos I kept getting the controls mixed up

Reappearance in Tenna boss fight was super easy though, by far the easiest of the minigames in that fight

Rhythm game was also fun and pretty easy, took me like two tries. I wanna look up the lyrics to the song cos the little I caught was a wild mix of silly and serious

I guess this is turning into a review so quick speed round of the things I didn't like:

I was probably kinda getting my hopes up but I wish Elnina/Lanino/Rouxles had stayed together

The format of boards 1 and 2 wasn't bad per se but it was kinda weird and it was a relief to go back to something more normal for 3 - do like how it furthered the Themes tho, in particular I'm thinking of the bit where everyone swaps controllers and so Kris (and by extension, the player) is controlling someone else/someone else is controlling Kris

Also there really needs to be save points in them - my laptop died right after my first attempt at the rhythm game so I had to replay the whole of board 2

aaaand finally Toby isn't really the kind of guy who would do this + as I said I do like the character but it sorta seems like Tenna is trying to recapture Spamton's popularity? Though now that I've written that down it kinda seems like it might be the case in-universe/there's some other in-universe explanation for that but idk if/how much it'll ever come up in game

Okay back to speculation/positivity but I kinda get the vibe that Ralsei isn't gonna be a player character in chapter 4, mainly from the trailer bit + something about the end bit in the LIght World? IDK how to explain it

Oh yeah I think I'll have to rewatch the ending cutscne (specifically Susie's speech to Tenna) cos my audio cut out for some of it + when trying to fix that I accidentally skipped a few textboxes

aaaand addressing the beginning at the end - the start hit me with Susie/Ralsei feels (note to self, reblog some art of them when I'm done with chapter 4), but I was also hit with Ralsei/Susie/Kris feels which suprised me cos I wasn't into the ship from ch 1+2 and yet all of a sudden I was?? not complaining tho, new ship acquired I guess lol

I don't think I ship it as a triad tho, I think Susie dates Kris and Ralsei and Ralsei has an unrequited crush on Kris

Other ships aquired: Rouxles/Westherpeople (as mentioned above), Tenna/Mettaton, maybe Tenna/Spamton

OH YEAH Rouxles is confirmed bi and poly, happy pride

Also one of the quizzes confimed Kris' last name as Dreemur, before I was one of the "well it's not explicitly stated" people but now that it has been I'm now wondering why I thought that/why their AO3 canonical isn't listed as that? Either way that tag's gonna have to be updated

I think the secret boss was found by sailing for a really long time to the left and up in board 2, and Susie might be the victim of this chpater's Weird Rout if there is one (due to the aftermentioned contoller swapping), but otherwise I have No Idea who/what they might be I wouldn't be very surprised if I'm wrong

uhhh I guess that's it, see you tomorrow or the day after for chapter 4 yelling

[songsofreason]

kingdom hearts verse notes!

i think it'd be fun to treat vergil like how KH treats the FF characters who wind up in the series. so he has more or less the same backstory and motivations as canon etc., still part devil and all that.

vergil is like roughly 32 or something for the main point of this verse's writing. for no real reason other than i feel like if dante were in KH they'd use his DMC1 design and portrayal since it's the most iconic and representative of the character, so vergil would also have to be that age.

after the events of the KH version of DMC3, maybe shortly after terranort gets picked up by ansem in radiant garden, vergil intends to fall into the demon world of course but somehow winds up in the realm of darkness instead. don't ask me how, it's kingdom hearts, anything can happen.

after wandering the realm of darkness for a while, he eventually stumbles across terranort who uses his darkness-corrupted body as a vessel to turn him into nelo angelo as an experiment to see what he can do further in his studies of separating heart from body before xemnas and ansem and the nobodies are created. vergil lives as nelo angelo for a while as a study into what the darkness can do to someone. again idk the specifics of this or anything it's tumblr rp just bear with me, i'll edit it later or come up with more consistent lore later or something

at some point (maybe like early-KH2?) sora because it's kingdom hearts :) finds nelo angelo and beats him up, freeing him from terranort and the darkness's control. move aside lingering will

vergil uses the yamato, which is a keyblade in this verse, to split himself into V and urizen for some time; V is kind of like vanitas and travels the worlds trying to find a way to restore himself with urizen who can be like. a super secret boss fight or something. V can usually be found doing research into the nobodies and org XIII's prior work during this time, mistakenly believing himself to also be a nobody until he learns about vanitas.

sora eventually helps V return to urizen and then beats up vergil again in HIS super secret sephiroth boss fight to mimic the end of DMC5. if this were a video game for real i feel like this would be the point you get the yamato-keyblade in your inventory lol.

after being restored, vergil returns to his home world of red grave, which i'm treating like hollow bastion/radiant garden as a world that was destroyed by the heartless etc., and can usually be found there training to become stronger etc.

like i said the yamato (and rebellion) is obviously a keyblade in this verse and it excels at separating darkness from light in the heart and the body in a rather literal sense.

[joanelectric]

What year does NSR take place in, anyway? (theory)

I've had this question for a bit, and I came up with a theory, like, nearly 2 years ago by now, so I figured I'd share it here......

There are MULTIPLE OPTIONS I came up with.... here goes,,,

For starters: how do we even start? There's no indication of a year anywhere in the game! Nuh uh... there is!

Let's start by process of elimination: in one of the AMAs, one of the devs (I think it was Haz?) said that NSR does not take place in 2020, and in not in a post-pandemic world. So the maximum year is 2019. (They've also refused to actually answer on another occasion, though, so I'm not sure which is accurate.)

And, in one of the areas near the Mamak, Zuke notes how there hasn't been a specific music award since the 90s

So we know for certain (ish) that the game takes place between 2000 (if Zuke was referring to the early 90s) and 2019.

There's also a canonical date that the audition took place:

Monday, on the 7th of August. Because 2023 also has this date, we can see the previous years this specific day and date fell on.

The only years this date falls on are 2000, 2006, and 2017. (Now, I know that this is probably some random date, but I'll do what I can bro!!)

There's another clue to the setting: Neon J. He specifically mentions having served in the military in "'67", which can be from any century or millennium, but if we assume he meant 1967, we have to possible outcomes: 2000 or 2017.

We have little to no information about Neon J, but we do have some facts that can help us: the minimum age for serving in the military in Malaysia is 17. Let's say that Neon J was referring to his first serious mission when ranting to b2j about the azkar faction. That would mean he was 17 in 1967, making him 50 in 2000. Now, I know the devs said he was around his 40s, so we can use birthday logic and cay that maybe he is 49 now, and turning 50 later in the year. Kind of shaky, but I do like how it reflects the rise of EDM over Rock in the 2000s, and it fits with the fact the game is based on lots of early/mid 2000s media. As for the technology being so advanced for 2000, they have a giant nuclear reactor that turns sound into power in the middle of the city. I'm pretty sure they're much more technologically advanced than we were back then. As for the 2017 theory, we can also say that maybe Neon J died or was comatose for a very long time starting in his 20s, and was resurrected as a cyborg shortly before NSR was founded. That means he'd have been born over 40 years ago, but wasn't alive for a lot of it, so he was frozen in time for bit, like Aang in the iceberg. That, or he died in his 40s and it stuck in that mentality. Who knows!

There's also the possibility that Neon J meant, like 2264 or something and NSR takes place in the very far future, but idk I don't like that as much for some reason.

(p.s., just remembered that this is on those toy frame thingies in sayu's boss fight. this either means sayu was made in-universe in 2018, or this was simply when the modellers/painters worked on this specific model)

TAKE WHAT YOU WILL FROM THIS..... THANK YOU FOR READING MY THEORIES....

(Edit: thinking it over, I could see it being 2006, as a compromise between 2000 and 2017)

[smiledoggy]

I hate how people treat phobia mods. I can only speak on this from an emetophobic perspective but the number of games that my enjoyment of is severely impacted by the presence of an enemy or game mechanic or a character trait that really does not feel all that necessary is far too high.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is an entire section of re8 I cannot play. It's one of my favorite resident evil games, I love every single aspect of it, I want to replay it more! But there is one entire boss fight I cannot do. I play on console, so I can't mod it out, and I'm fairly certain that no mod even exists. Just changing the color and removing/replacing the sound would be enough to fix it for me, but "it's a game mechanic" so.

Same with Lethal Company-- the masked got added the literal week that I had bought the game and was waiting for the weekend so I could play it with my wife. I had to drag my sorry ass to the reddit to ask because Nat had given me the heads up. I'm lucky that people were kind because it was the same update that introduced arachnophobia mode and as expected people who have never had a phobia before in their lives were clowning the ever living fuck out of people who needed the completely optional toggle. I'm lucky that the masked's attack animation doesn't tick the boxes to trigger me usually (color/sound) but there are times where I simply just don't want to deal with it. So just having a mod that removes the particle effect and changes the sound could work for me-- but ofc this doesn't exist. If it does, I haven't found it. I did find a general phobia mod, but ofc it doesn't cover emetophobia.

R.E.P.O is a game I enjoy. It is a game I have fun with. I love playing it, it's so silly, it's so stupid, I love the enemies. Except one. There is one enemy I do not like at all. Said enemy is the reason watching a REPO video feels like handling an active bomb because idk if it's gonna be there. Last time I played with a group, it wasn't until the very last round for the night that one showed up, so I figured it was a pretty rare spawn. Played with the same group yesterday and we got multiple round one. But this one's different! There IS a mod that removes it! Just gets rid the enemy entirely. It's just an issue of having to negotiate with whoever is hosting to install it and use it because ofc there's always the risk of "but it's a game mechanic we can't get rid of it." like THAT'S. I UNDERSTAND.... but I don't need an enemy that triggers me to lower the value of an item I can do that myself by being bad at the game.

Don't even get me fucking started on l4d2 how are there five million replacement mods for sound and color for special infected and yet none of the ones for the Boomer are good. At the very very least they're cartoony and exaggerated enough that it doesn't bother me much and I often don't see the action being performed do that helps. But hhholy shit you ask for like "hey are there any emeto mods" and people act like you're asking for aimbots. Like jfc man I just want the idle sound to be changed the idle sound triggers the absolute fuck out of me, maybe even a mod that removes/replaces the words said by the survivors because I use bile bombs often. but like. auguuhghg oh my godddd.

[psychologeek]

Not-Yet-Written-Fics Game

So, uh, a month ago @byrambles has tagged me about it.

(of COURSE I started writing it, then got distracted, and only remembered now.)

Below are fics that I don't-currently-write (,which includes unwritten ideas, but also fics on hiatus.)

(feel free to tell me if you find something interesting, or you'd like to hear more about it. Who knows? It might give me serotonin and make me write it!)

Fandom: Batman, Superman, DP*DC

Batman

Sweet Dreams 3 - Keep Your Head Up (movin' on):

What happened in the Bad!verse before and after the kids were taken.

Include bb!Jay's background, Shadow, Quizlet, Renegade, and more.

Sweet Dreams 4 - Travel the World (and the multiverse):

the end of the series, in which some characters move between universes, others don't, some misunderstandings are solved and there's a lot of found family.

Baby Bird Search& Rescue (BBS&R) -

maybe, one day. I love the idea, I have some clever and funny scenes, but who knows?

Belonging - M/E rated, tw: csa, underage prostitution (mentioned) and LOTS of Trauma.

one day, things would get better for Timmy.

(When Jason attack the Titan's tower, the replacement doesn't fight back. Some things are not as they seem. This must be some mind game, right?

Right?

Or: a story of the in-between. What we remember (or don't), choosing to look away (or act), and a lot of trauma.)

maybe - part 2 of "17, 42" ? (Tim in a Tim loop)

He isn't the only one in the time loop.

(none of them know it.)

This is about to change.

DC (Superman)

We keep our love in a photograph (temp. name) - M for grief and death of (oc) children.

A character research of Martha Kent's character.

What kind of person takes in a baby alien and doesn't tell anybody?

How could they do that? What was the community's reaction to a surprise baby?

For that, we need to start 16 years earlier, on their wedding, and watch the pain and beauty in Martha and Jonathan's life and marriage.

(this fic contains a lot of minor characters' deaths, including death of children, dying kids, stillborn and miscarriages.)

Dp*DC:

Core Skills (chapter 9-12)

One day I'll get there. Things are just... not so well rn.

Lost& Found series

Lab Rat -

Jazz's parents found out about Danny. Few days later, she finds her brother bleeding in their lab.

This is the worst case scenario, and as they run for their (half)lives, she call the only person she can think of.

Jason, freshly named Red Hood, just wanted to beat up some sense into the Replacement (and get the clown killed).

He didn't expect a call from an old friend.

Not Broken (just bent):

Jazz managed it.

Finally, she got to college and moved out of that house. She got her siblings with her, by blood and heart - they have a small apartment in a not so good part of this city, but they are OUT. Dan can exist as a person. There's no need to hide Ellie anymore. They can live.

It's hard, but things are always hard. This is just how it is.

And maybe money's tight and she's working double shifts and she feels like she's a step away from the edge - but that's life.

(Jazz is not okay. A mysterious costumer, a long lost friend, and a scholarship might change her life.)

The Red Parade (series)

Following the Batarang Incident TM.

In which actions have CONSEQUENCES, Red Hood's goons make a deal with... (A god? A demon? A Fae? Idk Jeff, that's what the boss said to do!), and Danny is a very reluctant king.

Months later, Dick is Not OK, but there's a world-ending thrreat, and the watchtower need everyone as they summon the King of the Dead for help.

(The Red Knight is not what they expected.)

Tagging:

@gilbirda @muffinlance @Gghost-bxrd @a-witch-in-endor @enigmaris

@envysparkler ? Only if you got time for it, of course!

[fabdante]

Keep picturing reboot Dante as a line cook, or a dishwasher, or a busser before meeting Kat. Maybe a stock boy or janitor. (When he was trying to stick to legal work, anyway. I could see him being a mercenary like preboot Dante, I'm just not sure what that job would entail in Limbo City.)

Just- something shitty that pays cash and let's you buy food at a discount or "steal" it, y'know? He'd probably be a horrible server, unless he just stuck to side work and never waited tables, but at that point, you're better off just taking a position washing dishes and/or bussing tables.

And, of course, a lot of his managers and maybe even some fellow co-workers were probably demons, and that's probably how he lost those jobs, but at least if they paid in cash, he'd be harder to track down.

Idk, just trying to think of what jobs reboot Damte could do before meeting Kat. What do you think?

I have definitely joked about line cook Dante, he does have a line cook vibe about him! (I also definitely had an AU once with my girlfriend where the Sparda twins were part of a family pizza shop which is very specific)

I have a fic Im working on cleaning up right now in part about this, actually!! (It's a post game fic where Kat and Dante are making dinner and Dante has turned it into 20 questions to keep Kat from skulking in her room)

My go to job for reboot Dante pre game is definitely highly illegal. I just kind of always assumed he was a drug dealer up until like...recently (largely inspired by the implication from Bob Barbas during his boss fight that Dante was involved in drug peddling of some kind at some point which like, we have to take all Bob says with a grain of salt but that seemed a bit more substantiated). At least up until whenever he moved onto the pier and then from there he just kind of was an under the table worker there, probably doing maintenance and maintaining the place off season (as it seems to be a tourist spot). Plus he probably gets to park the trailer for free there as a trade for being there all the time.

[palettepainter]

Not sure if you're still answering these type of ask. But do you have any Clifford headcanons? 👉👈

Maybe some about what Clifford and Zee's relationship was like???

my askbox is pretty much always open so people can ask for headcannons anytime! A heads up to longtime Clifford fans I've gotten a general idea of his character through watching episodes/clips from Muppets Tonight, so idk if theres other videos of him

-I did a post a while back with some Clifford headcannons so you can read them here: Palettepainter101 — Got any headcanons for Clifford? (tumblr.com)

-As for him and Zee overall they where a pretty normal, but fashionable, couple. From watching Muppets Tonight Clifford strikes me as the type of guy who is just trying to do his job, get paid, and put food on the table. If he's not dealing with some dumb shit backstage then he will be later. I kind of love him for that, he's just trying to run a show, let the man do his job.

-When they met Zee was just a singer and hadn't started her teaching career just yet. Zee sang at different joints more or less as a very passionate hobby, she was paid well but the gigs where far and few, so she wanted to get a fulltime job to make ends meet. She applies for a job at the Muppets Tonight studios for an actor, with her career as a dancer she was used to a stage and working alongside other muppets was a new change of pace that sounded fun to her. Since Zee was already a singer and proved to already have experience on a stage she got hired relatively quickly

-Zee had always preformed alone, so while it took a bit for her to adjust having acting partners she soon made quick friends with some of the other actors on the show. Being one of the oldest cousins to Zoot she's also naturally the mum friend of their group, so isn't afraid of rolling up her sleeves to get stuff down. Her and Clifford where pretty close by this point, since Zee was good at keeping a level head and people seemed to listen to her Clifford trusted her with a lot of other things he didn't have the time for.

In some bloopers for Muppets Tonight there's this one where Clifford gets into a fight with Johnny and his chimp Sal. I think it'd be funny if Zee see's this going down and naturally goes over to see what's wrong, manages to calm Sal down with nothing more then a few calm words and a smile, and the pair go on their way, before she turns to Clifford and probably asks "You good boss?"

-During the time when the two where starting to crush on each other there was a lot of flirting/playful teasing. Zee and Clifford could match each others energy, and their impeccable fashion tastes, but it took them ages to actually start dating. A lot of people on the show assumed they where dating long before they actually where because the back and fourth flirting game went on forever. The day Clifford actually went to ask Zee out stuff kept getting in his way, in typical, comical muppet fashion. Whenever he got round to talking with Zee something else would pop up, or Pepe and Seymour would interrupt him, then Zee would be called over by somebody else and he'd loose his chance. It wasn't until the end of the day when Clifford flops down in his office chair does Zee pop by with a coffee, probably with a "Sheesh, you look rough creampuff" comment (not unkindly). Clifford sighs, saying something about how the day was so hectic and how he looks like a mess. Zee chuckles, saying that he's still got his looks, and then Clifford asks her out

-The two where already flirty before they began dating, so adding dating to the mix felt totally natural for them. With Zee as his girlfriend Zee helped out a lot more with the operations of running the show, the stuff Clifford often handled alone with occasional help from Pepe and Rizzo. Zee's singing career had been pretty popular, but Muppets Tonight was really when it started to take off. Clifford made space for her to sing songs in-between acts to warm up the audience, and Clifford loves to hear her sing. The two where still very flirty even after dating, and might have snuck in a few make out sessions in Clifford's office during commercial breaks.

I want to say they dated for a handful of years, perhaps the two had started to share their own space (perhaps rumours of the two buying a new place together and settling down, only Zee and Clifford know for sure). But Zee was eventually approached by a business man to give her a brand deal with her singing, only issue is Zee would have to move. Clifford and her had a long talk about it, and at first they tried to make long distance work, but in the end neither wanted to hold the other back and decided to remain friends

[pochapal]

1. Congrats on the kinda blown up post!

2. This is a really weird, kinda stupid ask, but out of the Umineko characters u know, who seems like they’d be the most fun to play in a ttrpg? I ask because I know multiple people have done this one character and, for spoilery reasons, I have no clue how.

1: thank you i guess! feels weird to have a post gain traction among people beyond my usual follower circle lmao

2: now the first thing you need to know is that i don't do ttrpgs or understand anything about them in any meaningful way so this is very hard to consider. i do think the dice rolling factor of certain tabletops plays nicely with the whole "demon's roulette" angle of umineko except for the part where umineko only pretends like it's a series of random chance events and not a thoroughly premeditated script but maybe chance vs control could thematically translate into a good ttrpg character basis maybe? i guess the hard thing with umineko is that everything including its characters was not designed for a rng roll one outcome of millions scenario but instead deliberate consideration and understanding - idk much about ttrpgs but i feel like needing to take a 3000 word break to painstakingly sketch out a deeply biased account of a character's tragic backstory in order to explain the relevance of the morally questionable action they have just taken (the explaining of which being as plot-critical as the actions themselves) isn't the most friendly thing you could mix in with a ttrpg formula.

as character archetypes i think a great deal of umineko characters ire fun and engaging to explore on their own terms, but ttrpgs often have a growth/power fantasy element baked into them that isn't entirely congruent with the grounding theses of most of the cast. natsuhi is deeply fascinating as an individual but "powerless woman who is snared in the twin nets of pride and desperation and whose only agency is whether or not she can uphold a conspiracy to people who can leverage all kinds of abuse towards her" doesn't really work in any kind of rpg sense. if natsuhi were to get "stronger" and "advance" this would lay ruin to the underpinning tragic essence of what makes natsuhi *natsuhi*. same goes even for characters like battler who you'd think would click more with this formula - even a hypothetical mystery-solving based ttrpg could not accommodate battler as the inherent gamification of the narrative necessitates truths and evidence being revealed on a diegetic level in such a way that battler could actually figure out, and at that point what we're talking about is basically danganronpa instead of umineko.

i think in this way despite being a vn and thus a form of video game so much of umineko is heavily resistant to being "played" in the traditional game sense. there is a game going on in umineko between writer and reader, but this is a game of thinking and interpretation and understanding and not something that can be broken down into quantifiable Progression Units. the only "final boss" of umineko is your own lack of understanding and this fight is waged in your own head and not within the fabric of the story - even if in umineko proper battler "figures out" the mystery, it won't end up in a climactic final fantasy-esque showdown with beatrice on rokkenjima. gamification is kind of like "fantasy" within a narrative context (this is something i have/will talk about more in the writeup so forgive me if this isn't clearly defined yet) in that it's an embellished obfuscation of truth in the Romantic sense where you get lost in the process rather than the results - in theory, battler cornering beatrice during the denouement and saying definitively "this is the truth behind everything" is as a decisive an action as battler using the power of anime and friendship to energy blast beatrice into ash. the difference is the former keeps the mystery and tragedy front and center, while the latter out of necessity makes it specifically about battler as the center of the narrative universe.

this goes into the territory of mystery fiction and whether or not the designated Detective (capitalized in the stock archetype way and not the literary analysis dichotomy way) character must also occupy the traditional role of protagonist in the Hero sense. battler is the central character in umineko and the most crucial information is filtered through his lens, but battler is not the Hero of umineko - he is a passive witness to the tragedy who can only grow more desperate and powerless as the atrocities continue to pile up. the troubling thing about a lot of mystery is how you make a Detective that isn't basically just a cop - there is a certain power tension in mystery where through uncovering the truth the Detective takes the obfuscating "power" held by the Culprit and redirects into a clarifying force of their own. a denouement is when the Detective has, after a sort of hero's journey, acquired enough truth/power to unmask/dominate the Culprit, and as a "reward" is able to use the power structures of society (police, carceral punishment, "Just" murder) to get their way (return to a status quo) where the Culprit was previously able to use the power structures of mystery narratives (tricks, unreliable perspective, misdirection, "Unjust" murder) in order to get theirs (subversion of the status quo in accordance with their motive). all of this very easily feeds into copaganda-esque regurgitations of power dynamics and grows more prominent the more physical agency a Detective-Hero has in their given narrative situation.

bring those elements to a gamified stage and what you're left with is more a simulation of dominion through your character's power biases than a nuanced understanding of the social conditions that led to the formation of these events in the first place. you could of course perform a complete dissection of the Events and Circumstances of a ttrpg's setting, but is producing a diatribe on social structures and reinforcement of power akin to "playing"? i think maybe an umineko character might work in an undertale/deltarune-esque manner where there is an explicit conflict and tension inherent to the non-neutral action of "controlling" a character, but i don't see how that easily fits into the dna specifically of ttrpgs. there is an element of roleplay in ttrpgs where there is a meeting of the player's self and the character's self in order to produce the performance of the game-narrative in accordance with the structural rules. laying out like that i guess there's overlap between the premise of a roleplay-focused ttrpgs and the Witch Narrative, but both have different causes and different end goals. in a ttrpg no matter what in some form your goal is to "win", to attain something and move on to the next thing - everything in a ttrpg/game serves more as a vessel to enable the player to both achieve and experience a victory-state. there are ttrpg types that could interrogate these elements in a satisfying way, but nothing in umineko is directly about these things and thus a translation in this form would be to lose something in the process.

you don't come to umineko to "win" umineko. or if you do you'll quickly figure out that that is something not possible within the story's verbage. mystery and horror and tragedy do not produce victory in the conventional sense and any story in those genres that uncritically ends on a "victory" is dubious at best and incompetent at worst. in these worlds and fictions, how is it that something you could call victory can be attained? what sort of person would you need to be in order to strive for this victory? if any of the umineko characters were capable of this trajectory then they would never have ended up in the situation that they are in. to not only be concerned with powergaming but also to have the ability to do so fundamentally changes an individual's position within a narrative - for the premise to exist it implies a way out of any potential hardship, that if you're good enough at [power verb] then you can attain autonomy/power/dominion. nobody on rokkenjima ever had any of these things, which is why this is all happening in the first place. i don't think you can ever satisfactorily separate umineko characters from their disempowering material conditions like that.

the silly answer to this question, of course, has to be beatrice who has already been roleplayed by half of the cast of umineko at this point anyway. beatrice "exists" and beatrice is a vessel for power so in this way beatrice is already kind of a ttrpg character in that sense if the ttrpg's goal is desperate slaughter through at least two layers of metaphor and obfuscation. the important thing to take into account is that a playable ttrpg character "exists" and so maybe if more people on rokkenjima were into roleplaying none of these horrors would be happening lol.

[demonsfate]

Idk why people insist on Kazuya being a protag in this game when it's clear as day this is Jin's story + his mother coming back. I also feel like they want to see Tek6!Jin again for some insane reason but thankfully that train wreck won't happen this time.

Harada was the sole one who wanted Jin to be a villain. Literally the writers all argued against him. It's one of the reasons why his depiction in Tek6 is so sloppy and inconsistent. (Him being unnecessarily cruel to Alisa and then moments later saying "I did it for the greater good :(") - due to creative differences, and both Harada and the writers couldn't agree on what Jin's character should be and it forced them to come up with this awkward compromise that doesn't work at all. And even now, it's clear Harada realized what a mistake it was to make Jin a villain. Maybe because of how awkward Tekken 6's writing was, but mostly because of the backlash this decision received. Like the writers, most fans agreed Jin shouldn't have become a villain because it's boring (rehash of Kazuya) and also goes against what Jin's character was.

And Tekken 8 has been REALLY hammering that Jin's the good guy again. Not just with him going against Kazuya who's literally destroying the streets - but also just some of his win animations. The way he looks at the camera and say "I shall never stray again" and telling Lars, "I'll take it from here" (a direct reference of Jin becoming the main protagonist because Lars was once his replacement.) Even if Jin may have moments in the game where he nearly loses himself over the devil gene, they're definitely not gonna do a switcharoo in the end. Hell, it's far more likely that Azazel will be the final boss than it would be for Jin. Especially because if they had gotten backlash for Jin in Tekken 6 (as Harada had even acknowledged once) - they're not gonna risk backlash again.

I think a lot of certain fans want to see Tek6!Jin again because that's the biggest scapegoat / strawman that toxic Kazuya fanboys could use. The ones who desperately want Kazuya back as a protagonist would always point to Tek6 to show that Jin is actually "worse" than both Heihachi and Kazuya, and then say how it makes him the true antagonist, and how Kazuya should be the protag again. Now that Tek8 is making Jin a good guy again (and HOPEFULLY will retcon a lot of Tek6) - they don't really have that argument anymore. Jin being Tek6!Jin is the only way they can have Kazuya be the more "morally correct" one in this situation. (Which everyone missed the point if they were rooting for Kaz in Tek6, too. Kaz may have not started the war, but he certainly wasn't opposing Jin out of the kindness of his heart.)

And like, Kaz can totally be "redeemed" in the story by Jun still without making Jin Le Villain. I've even seen ppl say fucking Hwoarang should help Kaz fight Jin and I'm like what????? Why???? (The excuse is usually because of Tekken 5 / Tekken 6 events) and it's like. There's already been implications that Hwoarang doesn't see DJ as Jin, thus doesn't blame Jin. And like yeah... there's the Tekken 6 shit. But even fucking Lars is acting buddy-buddy with Jin in Tekken 8. So it could be like what I'm hoping for, Tekken 6 is gonna get retconned to some degree. (In a way that doesn't put Jin at fault. By either doing my excuse that the Devil was indeed in full control and Jin wasn't aware, or Azazel was brainwashing him)