#Overall the vibe is there just not completely the execution lol

[sysig]

What your fave says about you: Sona/Undertale edition (Patreon)

[mikuni14]

4 Minutes - Ep 1-2

I haven't had much free time to keep up with all the series lately, I was planning to catch up and influenced by @my-rose-tinted-glasses enthusiasm I decided to watch 4 Minutes first 😘

So, ok. I love it.

First of all, I'm writing this before diving into the 4 Minutes tag, so I have no idea about the most popular theories. I have a few of my own working theories, but I don't feel like writing about them right now hehe. I will write what I like tho!

very good execution, but it's BOC, so no surprises here

aesthetics, actors, everything is 💯💯

I really like the mystery, suspense, crime, ambiguity, confusion, slow discovery of new plots, a certain kind of darkness that already created the delicious vibe in DFF ✨ I also like the pleasure and satisfaction I feel as a viewer, when I see something that I suspect might happen, it happens and the series doesn't force the opposite, doing stupid, illogical or ooc things, just to shock and surprise me (looking at you GoT). For example, I knew that Title wasn't found dead in this field, and when it turned out that he was alive, it didn't take away my pleasure from guessing it in any way. I love it when a show lets viewers guess what's going to happen and respects their intelligence

no matter what universe, Jet plays a complete dick who is in conflict with Mio's character ✨

Mio, Mio, Mio, Mio!! 💖💖💖💖 I gasped when I saw him, I'm literally conditioned to love this guy. He's ruthless and uncompromising again, gosh, my heart 💖💖💖(fair warning: I'm going to be insufferable about him, so be prepared 🤡)

the sex scenes are as bold and high-quality as ever

traditionally for BOC we have a juxtaposition of rich and poor, corruption, tragic choices caused by poverty, exploitation, overworking, fulfilling the expectations of ruthless parents, wealth as well as poverty being the source of crime

Bible plays a poor rich boy, which I really like. I also like his pairing, which wasn't at all predictable and obvious, because I'm probably the only person in the world who can't stand his pairing in KP (please don't hate me)

luckily Bible is a Cat Person and it shows, because he uses a Special Voice to talk to the kitty. The cat is relaxed, which is an exception in BL series 😑 (isn't that his cat? they seemed close 🥺)

of course I must comment on the BL in the BL series. So… yes! It's good! Bible as Great is wonderful but then again I didn't expect anything else from him. Tbh I was worried about what his partner would be like, whom I didn't know. Jes turned out to be sensational, first of all you can see his experience, he's 32 years old (!), as Tyme he's an absolutely captivating mix of an intimidating professional at work and adorable baka when he's just some dude liking a guy 😄 I really liked how the series is serious for the whole 1st episode, most of the 2nd and then suddenly there's a scene of Tyme smoothing out his feathers in a peacock mode, emphasizing his figure and shapely butt to look nice for his crush, it was so funny and cute. Also when he awkwardly tried to flirt with Great, the faces he made when he realized how clumsy he was lmao. I love the kind of men in BL shows who are strong and masculine but who turn into fluffy, awkward teddy bears 🐻 in the presence of their loved ones. When I saw Tyme in ep1 I thought he was going to be a stereotypical seme and I'm so glad the show lets him be a normal person.

It's interesting that Great gets a second chance every time he does something wrong 🤔 And I wonder why he sees a future with Tyme? This kind of future? Hm.

Overall I love 4 Minutes, I'm officially hooked. It's very interesting, intriguing and spicy, there are a lot of plots that are starting to overlap and connect, the series has actors that I like (some I even like a lot! just seeing Mio and hearing Bible speak English accounts for like 74% of my enjoyment lol), it's not afraid of controversial topics, the series doesn't treat viewers like children, the execution is at a very high level, Jes and JJay show infatuation at first sight in a very convincing way, the romances started very interestingly and I've watched the Tyme/Great scenes a few times already.

That means 3 series to obsess over in a week! Lucky me! ✌

(I might edit this post by adding some gifs later)

[genericpuff]

welp, i finished the Dawntrial MSQ last night

it was

uh.

i actually enjoyed a lot of the things people were complaining about in the beginning, because while i could understand their criticisms, to me its flaws felt like something it would grow past as it was establishing a new foundation for a new story, which was what was promised to us, and obviously that's gonna require slowing down the pacing and lowering the stakes, which is fine!

but then the second half of the MSQ hit and i just-

on paper it should have been amazing

on paper i should have fucking loved it

but in execution, i stg trying to finish the lvl 98-100 MSQ took years off my life, even tho the majority of them took me a single night to beat, it still felt like it both overstayed its welcome and also did way too little with what it was trying to present us with

i know this is vagueposting because i don't wanna spoil, but man. "divisive" is definitely a word to describe the Dawntrail MSQ with, especially considering how many people were telling me "it gets better in the second half!" and again, I thought the first half of it wasn't as bad as people were saying, so I was HYPED for the second half, and instead I was brutally disappointed by what I got instead u.u

that said, the dungeon and trial gameplay mechanics are great, when the expansion remembers that it is in fact a video game it does it really well, it's just unfortunately not often enough for it to make up for the sloggy pacing of the story

the music is a bop, there are a couple tracks that i was a little eeeh on because they just felt really saccharine in a way that just clashed entirely with the tone of XIV and made me want to throw my headphones in the garbage, but the majority of the soundtrack was otherwise really well done, soken was really channelling his inner david wise here with the donkey kong vibes LOL but there are some somber tracks that are great too, there's a lot of range here in the soundtrack that should be appreciated despite the odd cringe track

environment design was solid, there were some zones that were questionable in their design because some of them felt pitifully empty despite promising bustling populations (looking at you, Tuliyollal and Solution Nine >:x)

but man , the last zone was brutal and that sucks because again, on paper, the concept SHOULD have been awesome, but ultimately it's still relying on the exact same plot devices in the past (insert lost civilization whose previous inhabitants/rulers are hellbent on keeping it alive even at the expense of current civilizations here) and the gameplay itself deadass forgot it's a game because there isn't a SINGLE instance of necessary combat or gameplay during all of it and so when the final quest (as per tradition, named "Dawntrail") finally pops up, it's like wait what ? that's it?? thankfully the last quest has both a dungeon and trial in it but it feels less like thought out design and more like the game devs remembering they had to actually include some gaming in their video game at the last minute LOL

i think the extra burden of directing FF XVI definitely caught up to Yoshi-P on this one, as well as the budgeting problems that still exist from COVID, and the fact that much of that budget clearly went to overall QOL changes like the graphics engine getting an almost complete rehaul (even in the previous expansions which is. a lot of work. like they want to re-texture ALL of the gear in this game and THAT'S A LOT, literally thousands of items!). where this expansion wins, it wins big, but those wins aren't enough to carry an overall lackluster experience that drags itself out way too fucking long for its own good. the story could have absolutely used a few more rounds in the writing room, if they couldn't afford more voice acted scenes then they should have simply just cut down on the amount of cutscenes, and i think the devs need to seriously ask themselves if the Trust system is worth dragging the Scions back into every adventure even when they have nothing to do (and it shows). like idk, just spitballing here, but the Trust system might be a good chance to re-introduce the GC squadrons, no? maybe go back to the roots a little bit and buff up the stuff that could still have a lot more life if given a chance?

anyways my experience with DT has been about a 6/10 and that score in the end will depend on how the patch quests go over the next couple years, I still prefer it over Stormblood (fr fuck SB lol) but it definitely feels like it's trying too hard to be like EW and ShB while missing what made EW and ShB so good in the first place (or acknowledging why its flaws were forgivable within the context of their respective designs, like yeah EW's pacing was iffy too but it at least had a lot more going on in it to justify it, DT is just grasping at straws by comparison). and in that sense it winds up being a lot more like ARR, where it's just kind of lost in what it's trying to do and creates a worse experience by the end. hopefully like with ARR back in the day the devs will figure out it's time to shake things up and try something new without using the old as a crutch.

[gunsatthaphan]

🏆 Top 10 of 2023 💫

a few anons have requested this and I was also kind of indirectly tagged by @blneobin, @elizabethsebestianhedgehog and @khaotungsfirst for slightly different posts but I decided to just combine them all into one 😄 hope that's fine with everyone ✌🏻

My watchlist wasn't very extensive this year due to time reasons but here are my personal highlights:

Don't think I have to explain much about this one lol (she says as she proceeds to write a whole paragraph) After the masterpiece that was The Warp Effect and the disaster that was Never Let Me Go, I was nervous about what Jojo was gonna cook up with this one lmao but luckily my fears were unjustified. The watching experience was absolutely insane and it turned me into a different person in the time between August and October lmao. It wasn't perfect, I got annoyed at times but overall it's undoubtedly my number 1 this year. SandRay my loves, my babes, my roman empire lmao. I loved their story so much, they were the main characters for me lol but it was such a good ensemble in general and each cast member was the perfect fit for their respective characters, including Mond as Boeing who was the cherry on top of all the madness and also my boy Mix as the first Only Friends Stay guest, leaving room for imagination lmao. It was raw, real and unapologetically chaotic aka my favorite kind of plot. pure perfection. Jojo outdid himself once again. 10/10.

No words just vibes. It went by SUPER fast and I'm still mad that they chose to air an 8 episode show twice a week like whose idea was that?? To air a treasure like this in the course of 4 weeks is more homophobic than Jim's family lmao. But anyway. Doesn't change the fact that it was an incredible production, so visually stunning, so carefully written and so well executed down to the tiniest detail. It deserves every single award it won because what a masterpiece. It made me extremely emotional but in the best way. I'm still in awe. amazing. life changing.

I kinda hate to admit this bc it was SO full of crack lmao but it was SO much fun?? I had low expectations but I had the best time from start to finish. It made me laugh so hard I frequently dislocated my lungs lmao, the overall watching experience was just incredible. Story-wise it was sprinkled with the typical Domundi nonsense, the surreal cartoonish vibes were dominating and it was overall another show where I couldn't tell you what the plot was afterwards lmao - but everyone who lived through the Cutie Pie experience wouldn't expect anything less from these people lol. I loved it.

We're only halfway through but I'm so obsessed with it that I'm including it lmao. It's SO adorable and pure, offgun are back with the puppy honey vibes in all of their fully evolved glory lol, the writing is excellent imo and it's the perfect balance between silly, cheesy and honest emotions, good communication and the notorious offgun magic lol. Whenever I say I want a good romcom, this is what I mean. I was so annoyed when it was announced as I was convinced it was gonna be a downgrade from Not Me but it's really not. It's just another show where OG can showcase their dynamic in a completely different setting. I love it.

I'm still having mixed feelings about this one due to obvious reasons but looking at it from the outside I have to include it because objectively speaking this was an excellent production. The narrative was intelligent and worked so well, my boy Gawin was shining so much as Pisaeng, I still can't believe he wasn't the first choice because he's literally the perfect fit for this. I loved the symbolism, the blossoming romance and just Pear. that's it. just. Her. she was incredible. G&K had good chemistry, I was struggling with K.'s presence but the show was just so good that it overshadowed the rest. Loved it.

This show got a lot of hate which I sort of understand as it was low budget, cheesy and with heavy lakorn vibes but on god it really hit the spot for me lmao. JaFirst are my runner-up babes lol, I love their dynamic so much and seeing them make their comeback in this with completely reversed roles had me squealing lol Punn was the most adorable cookie, others cringed, I blushed lmao I loved the setup so much and him and Achi were everything. period.

Another show that's still airing but I'm really liking it so I'm including it as well lol. It's surprisingly well written and Pavel is doing fantastic in his comeback, I had lowkey written him off after the disaster that was Coffee Melody but he's back stronger than ever. Love that for him. The rest of the cast is very solid too, a lot of familiar faces who all stepped up their acting game since I last saw them with a special shoutout to Thanapon who is doing amazing. The story is super interesting and goes so far beyond just the racing stuff which was my apprehension when starting it. And even the omegaverse stuff is not as bad as I thought (so far.. don't wanna jinx it lmao). It's overall doing very well. Love it.

This one also got a lot of backlash lol but I loved it!! JoongDunk are my second FirstKhao lmao they're very dear to me, their on-screen dynamic is good actor carries weak actor and I'm aware of that lmao but to me they just work so well. Idk what it is. Even though Dunk's acting leaves room for improvement, they have a ton of chemistry and they're mastering the secret crush plot. This was fun and light, not too serious and I found it very enjoyable. the only thing that irritated me was the butchering of AouBoom like what in the world was that. Tee probably added them because he had to and disregarded them in the process but their story was abysmal. But putting that aside, it was a very nice show.

This was very brief for Mame standards lol and I was considering dropping it after episode 2 but then it surprisingly picked up, I started to really get into the story and SunnyPak worked very well for me. I was surprised that they just disappeared afterwards as I was expecting MMY to milk them like the rest of their couples but oh well. Mame made her GL debut in this which I appreciated but I wish they had casted someone else as Marine because sorry sweetie but she was terrible lmao rip. Yiwa was a very sweet and likable character and she deserved a better partner. That plus the special episode being stupid as hell, It's getting raking #9 lol.

This whole season was... a very wild rollercoaster ride lmao. I would say it was a 50/50 for me, half of the episodes were fun and the other half were horrendous lol. My personal highlight were The Eclipse episodes, they were pure fluff and adorableness, paired with some minor dumb fights but overall this was exactly what I was craving after the ordeal AkkAye went through in The Eclipse lmao but also I could easily sit through 10 episodes of Akk and Aye just being cute and cuddly and doing absolutely nothing else because duh. They're my comfort couple 🥺 I also quite enjoyed the ATOTSxBBS crossover and also surprisingly the ABAAB and NLMG episodes were a lot of fun!

thank you 2023 for - once again - giving us good gay food lmao. here's to an even better 2024 🧡

[gggoldfinch]

what are your thoughts on romulus in general? and specifically on the alien baby

HOHHHHH BOY IM SO GLAD YOU ASKED because i am THE avp universe junkie around these parts and this movie CHANGED ME AS A PERSON!!!!!!!!! i screamed my whole way home from the imax theater. I’ll put my scatterbrained thoughts under the cut so anyone who wants to avoid spoilers can!

First off: it’s immediately top 3 Alien franchise movies for me. Alien, Aliens, Romulus; That’s my new top 3 list. I like the story of Rom more than Aliens but I’m more attached to the characters in Aliens than Rom so in that way they’re kinda tied for my #2 spot.

Honestly I thought it was the best sci-fi and/or horror that’s come out in fucking eons!!! I was thoroughly on edge throughout the runtime and even got genuinely scared a few times. I spent the whole movie with my hand over my mouth in shock, no joke. The suspense KILLED ME!!!!!!!! The build up to each event was just phenomenal and just when you thought it was about to get better for the characters NOPE! I went into it completely blind, no notion of the plot whatsoever, and was SO thoroughly pleased with the outcome.

CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE SET DESIGN AND PRACTICAL EFFECTS???? Such a breath of fresh air after TOO MANY movies lately have been relying solely on cgi, including the most recent installments in the Alien franchise. It’s so nice to watch a character react to a thing that’s actually physically right next to them. And all the scenes of the space station reminded me of Alien Isolation, which I really enjoyed. It truly brought the game to life and with it that grand, expansive, yet claustrophobically contained sense of dread that comes with being stranded on a Weyland-Yutani space station. It looked SO convincing. And of course I’m just forever in love with the retrofuture 70’s aesthetic of the franchise and am so glad they keep up with it (almost) every time

I was also delighted we got to see the inclusion of an on-world setting. The mining colony scene in the beginning was really what sold me that the movie was about to be fantastic

HR Giger would have been proud of all the gross imagery. Truly. During the wall womb thing scene I leaned over to my best friend and went “that’s a PUSSY bro” because I mean DID YOU SEE IT. Rom really returned to its roots, it reminded me SO MUCH of the original in its overall vibe.

The one single thing I did not like was the zombie ai deepfake of Ian Holm (who has been dead since 2020 if you didn’t know). That was a little uhhhh ummm yikes. Not to mention the cgi on “him” was ROUGH at times. I get the idea of using a time period relevant synthetic (since from what I understand Rom takes place less than a year after the events of Alien, given the whole Nostromo salvage arc) but they could have easily cast someone new as a different model, or even brought in Michael Fassbender as an “older” model. Canonically Lance Henriksen (who would have to be de-aged up the wazoo) being brought in as a Bishop model wouldn’t have made sense (since Bishop’s model was manufactured shortly before Aliens, according to the Xenopedia) but I mean hey. they retcon canon all the time who cares lol. However as a diehard I do get how his model was canonically relevant to the time period and scenario, so I understand the thought process tbqf. The execution was just… questionable.

I’ve seen a lot of people with braindead takes that the references and callbacks to the original movies fell flat or were unnecessary, but I thought they were very well placed and tied the stories together wonderfully. Who could hate a “get away from her you BITCH” line?????? Clearly these people aren’t diehards LOL because everyone in my theater LOVED that

I loved Rain and Andy SO MUCH. They were so sweet, and I love the concept of treating synths like real people/ family members (i’m a sucker and am Blade Runner brainrotted). They were the only characters I really felt anything for, other than Kay as her story progressed. The others felt a little one-dimensional, but admittedly there really wasn’t a lot of opportunity to flesh any of them out that much. I am of course a sucker for sweet synths and Andy’s character reminded me of Bishop in a lot of ways, which I think may have been intentional in some aspects (i.e. his desire to be referred to as an artificial person). I won’t really go into analyzing the characters since I don’t really care enough about them to do so (I was more into this movie for the story, unlike some others in the franchise), but I did enjoy a couple of them so that’s good enough for me.

My best friend asked me whose death was my favorite and honestly it was probably Tyler’s— a truly classic way to go out in an Alien movie (I gasped when the other xenos were revealed during that scene). I also made the point to him that the chestburster that came out of Navarro came out of her upper chest region rather than lower down by the bottom of her ribcage (which is traditionally where they come out of, based off the original writer’s intention for it to represent the pain of a Crohn’s disease flare (which I can attest to)), so I’m hypothesizing that they removed the facehugger before it was finished implanting the embryo and it grew in her esophagus rather than her stomach. Yes? Yes. Brutal!

AND THE OFFSPRING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When I tell you my entire crowded theater bristled and gasped in sheer unadulterated HORROR! I think I was the first one out of 50 people to audibly go “oh god no” then like 15 others followed LMFAO it was a group trauma experience for all of us; my best friend looked like he was going to fucking sob. I was anticipating something with how Kay’s story progressed, but I did not fucking expect THAT. I thought it was gonna be something with her after that shot of the rat mutating, not her baby. My first thought (after recoiling in horror) was how it fucking LOOKED LIKE AN ENGINEER!!!!! Consider: the engineers made humans in their image, therefore logically evolved humans would begin to look like the engineers. Perhaps if the method had been perfected the offspring would have looked more engineer and less… xenomorph-human-engineer-bastard-spawn from the deepest pit of hell. Horrific. I FUCKING LOVED IT AND I WAS LITERALLY PETRIFIED. It was a nice tie in with all the wacky shit we saw in Prom/Cov. I also thought it was somewhat of parallel with Alien Resurrection too, even how the thing looked a little bit.

All in all, I personally would give it a 5/5 stars. I’m going to see it again sometime this week. I fucking LOVE this franchise.

[adelle-ein]

so i've finally read through virtue's last reward, and overall i think my feelings are about what i expected them to be, plot got a bit too ~grand scale~ and bogged down by itself and the character connections ended up being much weaker (and god aini really just. stole half the plot from this game and then did it worse, didn't it). i think they came so close to executing sigma's arc really well but a few bits just didn't land for me. imo i feel like the zero escape games might have benefited from just being in the same universe/thematically connected a la fire emblem, not trying to be direct sequels. frankly having clover and alice felt totally unnecessary and just bogged things down overall, although i DID like the stuff with junpei and akane, a lot more than I thought I would. so that was an upside. overall didn't dislike it, would say i liked it okay? i think it would have landed better pre-aini lol (uchikoshi shut up about your suicide plagues). 999 is much more my style, though.

but damn as Time Travel Meta Game Gal i really loved another time. and yeah i know it's gonna get completely thrown out the window in ztd but goddamn the conversation with junpei is so good. i don't think i understood the end of it at all and google didn't help but it's fine for the junpei convo alone lol

letsplayarchive has a playthrough of ZTD up, and I really do wanna witness that whole mess, so probably going to read it on there- feels like a good compromise since i don't want to watch all those fucking cutscenes and don't expect to really like the game lol. i know how it ends and i think that's just a layer cake of bullshit, not to mention the tryhard edgy vibes. but i do want to see the next part of akane and junpei's divorce proceedings, and frankly i think i will be entertained at least (My Motives Are Complex!!! makin' babies in the fallout shelter! etc). have already accepted that there will be no real satisfying resolution but i wanna see the trainwreck now. in too deep

[coldgoldlazarus]

Do you have a favorite of the metroid games (including pinball)

Despite the temptation to answer with Pinball for the meme, tragically I must admit that I have not played Pinball. I am sure that if I did so, it would take top rank, but alas. For now, my loyalty is to Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Which isn't really an unpopular opinion anymore lol, I understand it used to be the least favorite, but now has been reconsidered and has plenty of defenders; for better or worse I came to the party late and uninformed and just like it based off my own experience with it.

I honestly think it's tied with Metroid Prime in terms of overall quality, though it has different strengths and weaknesses, and is kinda a more uneven experience overall. Soundtrack and aesthetic isn't as great and memorable, but they're more consistent in selling the atmosphere while still managing to achieve a few good wow moments here and there. World layout/progression/narrative delivery is more linear and direct compared to Prime, in both good and bad ways. (Though still less so than Corruption at least, lol) Story branches out from Metroid's usual subject matter and recurring motifs, but also feels kinda disconnected as a result. Bosses are bigger and better, and the Spider Ball gets its dues here, but there are also plentiful frustrating QoL-related decisions scattered throughout the game as a whole, one of which turns a potentially great boss into the absolute worst. (Spider Guardian Phase 3 my beloathed) Chozo Ghosts vs. Dark Pirate Commandos. Beam Ammo. (Which I had no problem with personally, but I've heard even other defenders of the game apparently tend to dislike.) From an objective standpoint, I think Echoes is on par with Prime, building off of its foundations well, but also liable to be a more frustrating experience in a bunch of little ways.

But from a subjective standpoint? I just love it a bit more despite its flaws, all thanks to Dark Aether. The creepiness of the dark world and overall moodier atmosphere, and how the game handled difficulty in a way that I really appreciated, make me able to look past its shortcomings in other areas and choose it even over Prime's overall smoother experience.

---

The vibes throughout are simply impeccable, and I love how little touches like Samus slumping exhaustedly in the save station animation, and the frequency of Luminoth corpses littered throughout the world, really help to sell the severity of the situation. Not to mention the opening investigation of the missing Federation troopers, and how their eventual fate (and the sobering realization that they never even met the Ing proper) really sets the tone powerfully right off the bat.

And it's not all gloom and doom, either, I have just as much love for the bright and sunny Temple Grounds and the associated banger of a theme as for the darker stuff. The environmental design is gorgeous throughout, and I love how bits of Luminoth decoration and artwork are visually echoed (heh) later on in the Light Suit. But even then, it doesn't feel like a complete break in tone, light to offset the shadow and make it darker by contrast.

On that note, I just adore Dark Aether, with its swirling purple skies, the twisted versions of parallel rooms, and eerie distortions of the light world area music; just mwah, chef's kiss from me. Plus the fact of constantly taking damage while outside the light bubbles, further underlining the grim atmosphere and adding an extra layer of anxiety to both exploration and combat.

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Which brings me to my second point; I really enjoy how the whole concept of Dark Aether's toxic atmosphere provided a compelling challenge that is like, the kind of approach to difficulty that I actually like. AM2R, much as I love 99% of it, I wound up giving up on at the finish line, because the last two Shinespark puzzles demanded a level of pixel-perfect timing and precise execution of several consecutive, individually tricky actions within the space of a second at most that I simply could not pull off, which kinda killed my motivation to continue despite being right on the Metroid Queen's doorstep.

With Dark Aether, there isn't that same demand for perfect execution, but instead an ever-present source of danger; that emphasized, (for me at least) a fine mixture of thinking ahead by using knowlege of the light world's layout to navigate the dark, and a need to be willing to take risks and go into areas without the light-bubbles. Sometimes that risk would pay off, and sometimes it wouldn't and I'd die; but either way I'd be getting something out of it, whether the reward of success or the reward of learning.

Similarly, I think I died once or twice during the Chykka fight, to the atmosphere instead of the boss itself, and it felt like an entirely fair outcome for playing very haphazardly on that attempt. So to get back to the point, I like how it didn't demand flawless timing and execution, but still forced me to play well, and employ a fine mixture of cautious planning and calculated gambles to make my way through both exploration and the boss fights. Even if not done through the same means as Dark Aether, this is the kind of approach to difficulty I would like to see more of from the series in general; fingers crossed for Prime 4.

---

Like I said, I think Echoes isn't as smooth or polished an experience as Prime, and replaying it is as much a reminder of all those little frustrations as a reinforcement of my love for it, but I still think that the fantastic execution of the tone and tough-but-fair approach to difficulty keep it my personal favorite despite the flaws.

[cherrymoonxx]

Hii ✨ I’m so glad you’re doing readings, i have absolutely LOVED pervious ones I’ve had from you! You have such a beautiful way with words, they are like little magical letter into a glimpse of your future 💭🪄🌠

I think a memorable moment when I’ve felt truly happy is just simple times when I have all my family around, just chatting and laughing and sharing delicious food 🥰

I’d like to choose Cupids Arrow please!🏹👼

Thank you so much! I truly appreciate your time and energy 💘 x o

E D B

Hello again! Omg thank you so much🥹 I know it’s been a while since I’ve done readings and I’ve kinda been feeling a bit insecure about my readings but this was such a nice message to receive so thank you!!

Also, those sound like wonderful memories! Sometimes the simplest moments are the best ones 😊

Alrighty, on to your reading!

Hmm okay, first thing I’m seeing is a chilly night. It’s quiet, except for the gentle whispers of the wind. I see someone looking longingly outside of their window. Seems like they’re wishing for something better. And maybe thinking about a specific someone. I heard this song in my head as well:

So for your future spouse, I’m getting very quick energy. Makes me think that this is someone who lives a fast paced lifestyle. Always on the go, has a billion things they have to worry about, and maybe rarely ever has time for themselves. They seem like someone with an important job (like a director/executive of a company). Their energy reminds me of caffeine and just an overall jittery kind of vibe.

I’m seeing this kind of scenario where they’re rushing in the morning to grab their usual cup of coffee from the coffee shop before they go to work. And they’re not necessarily in the best of moods (definitely kinda cranky because of all the work stuff they got going on). So they are super annoyed to have to be waiting in line for their coffee. But whatever, they need their coffee to get through the day, so they suck it up. After like 15 minutes, they finally get their coffee and are practically running out of the coffee shop. They’ve just made it to the door when they end up crashing into someone, completely spilling their coffee all over the both of them. This person is you lol. So by this point, they’re super annoyed and don’t even apologize because they’re already running late. They end up just running out of the store leaving you completely dumbfounded like “did this just seriously happen???”

So of course the meeting doesn’t have to happen exactly this way, but I feel like you guys will meet under similar circumstances, in which your future spouse is running late/rushing somewhere and you guys end up bumping into each other or something along those lines… But to continue off of this little coffee shop scenario (cuz now I’m super invested) I’m seeing that you guys may actually end up being coworkers. And after all that chaos, they see you walk into the office meeting and they’re just like “well, shit.” lol this reminds me of a kdrama trope.

I think over time your relationship will obviously blossom into something more. Could be a kind of “enemies to lovers” trope in which you guys don’t necessarily like each other at first. Even though you don’t like each other right off the bat, you are both professional with each other. So if you have to work together, you won’t be rude or disrespectful towards one another. I think over time, they start to realize that you are a good worker and you have a lot of great ideas and this really draws them to you.

I think you guys eventually end up becoming really good friends before becoming lovers. If you’ve watched Ugly Betty, I’m reminded of Daniel and Betty’s relationship. [Maybe you could even work for like a fashion magazine like they did]. It feels like you both have been through a lot together at work but make a great team. Even everyone at the office acknowledges that you both are a great team. You’ve proven to your future spouse that you are a valuable asset to the company with your ideas and passion and this is something that they come to really admire.

I think your future spouse realizes they love you while you guys are at work actually. It could be in the morning and you guys are going through your usual routine at work when they just become hyper aware of you. Like they think to themselves how smart you are and they’re so glad they get to work with someone like you. And they start to notice little things, like your perfume. And in their mind they’re like “did you always smell this good?” Or they’d look at you and think, “were you always this beautiful?” And that’s when it really hits them that they really have deeper feelings for you.

Omg sorry that was soo long! I was trying to relay everything I was seeing but it gets so wordy sometimes.

But anyway, thank you for your patience! I hope you enjoyed this reading! Thank you for participating 💞

[scourgefrontiers]

bro im feeling some crazy emptiness inside of me rn.

i drew that fu, right. bc i was feeling like drawing something that would be easy, in my comfort zone, nice and simple to draw, something i enjoyed no matter what.

but like...i feel so empty after drawing that. its like a derived zero joy from it somehow. what the fuck.

i didnt feel happy about the way i executed the style, i wasnt 100% happy with the posing, the overall vibe of it was just...idk. it didnt hit me like it normally would. i feel like something was majorly missing from it?

part of me feels like its like...hm. almost like im trying to pick up where i left off with that art style, before i tried out a different style, but where that toony style left off is now behind in terms of my skill level??? if that makes any sense???

but thats also crazy to me bc i was looking at older art and there were some pieces i made that absolutely SLAPPED and i used a toony style w them! like that desarm redraw or that one pic of gouenji using bakunetsu storm. those two were like..peak style for me so far. so im not completely sure that was the problem

maybe instead of me "picking up where i left off" with the style, i still havent quite relearned how to do it? b/c yall know after i got that one critique i felt real bad about using that style and tried to go a different direction, and i think it got to where i sort of unwired my brain from that style entirely. now that im trying to rewire it to use it again, im not quite getting the wires in the correct place, so i cant quite get to where i want to be again just yet..??

idk. it could also be that i havent been able to take antidepressants for at least a week now so that could also be part of the problem. who knows for sure lol

[shadowed-dancer]

Thoughts on Episode 123 (S6 E10)

Visceral vestiges, meddling mentors, and Toga’s trick. Let’s talk about it

Spoilers for the episode but no spoilers for the manga

Apparently this whole episode got leaked yesterday or something? Idk I wasn’t paying attention (I thought I had a whole day so I wasn’t checking anything related to the anime). Either way, today was my first time seeing it

I liked seeing the Bakugo-impaled scene from Deku’s perspective. Very nice

That being said, the first and second halves felt like two complete different episodes, both in content and execution. I’m sorry, but the first half just didn’t get me

I found it really dragged. I knew the exposition dump was coming, but I still felt it got really messy. I also don’t know if it’s just the way the translations were for the subtitles, but I feel like everything was so convoluted that it was hard to tell what they were saying. I hope the dub makes the point a little clearer, and I hope anime onlies are still able to grasp the plot

Also was it just me or did AFO look off model? I didn’t know it was possible for a character without a face to look wrong, but he just did. It was unnerving, and not in a good way. His scars were so flat

Meanwhile, Nana was standing there being the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in my life. Take a wild guess who the animators enjoyed drawing more lol

I will say this, the delivery of “look, Tomura! A dead person!” Actually made me chuckle

The random higher-ups in the observation room are back! Not that I missed them, but since they added them in the first place it’s important to check in once in a while. If they just disappear forever without a second mention, I’ll be annoyed cause like… you dragged these “characters” into existence

The second Toga appeared the episode got 1000x better, both animation wise and just the overall vibes

Her shaking Compress was so funny. That man is a dad and I love him for it

Dabi went :D and so did I. They’ve done his ridiculous panels so right this season

The suspense when Uraraka was in the house and it was all dark actually got me. Beautiful use of tension, and yes I jumped a little when Toga popped out

Overall, very mixed feelings on this one. First half was meh, second half was fantastic (all my opinion, of course)

Regarding next week, I am unfortunately going to be away but you’d best believe I will be watching that episode. I’ll do my best to write and post a review like I always do because, like I said when I started, this is a fun way for me to keep track of my thoughts

I’m also very excited for next week. Hoping and praying they do it justice

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Bimonthly Media Roundup

- Coraline (Movie) - Not much to say about this as I kinda only half watched it, it's a very visually stunning movie I just happened to be unusually tired that day. It's always nice to see stop motion and the other mother has a great design.

- Frieren (Anime) - Correctly assumed my sister would be a fan, so I did a re-watch with her. I talked about it previously this year and everything I had to say then still stands: Fern and Frieren's relationship is wholesome and adorable as is Fern and Starks, The exam arc is really good with a lot of interesting obstacles and characters to show off the simple but engaging magic system, the animation and music is great, and the overall themes of appreciating the small moments and every encounter/ relationship in life are nice and well executed. It's honestly a very pleasant watch that I would recommend to most people. That being said, I do feel that it's an exaggeration to put it on the tippy top of most best anime ever lists as it's frequently been. For one it's incomplete, so it's too early to say if the story will stand the test of time. It also can be a bit clumsy with it's use of flashbacks - I understand using Frieren's past and present as parallels to show how the people she loved had changed her, but they are often way too on the nose, literal, and frequent that they become a bit comical after awhile. Girl is like a sleeper agent that goes into That's so Raven flashbacks whenever someone says anything that she said to Himmel at any point lol. I also don't quite understand the reactions to Frieren and elves in general in this world, I understand that they don't want to waste time having people shock and awe every time she shows up but given how rare elves are and how famous she is the sheer nonchalance of the populace towards her is just strange. Also this is a nitpick but, man, Does Frieren really never get a single new outfit in like 100 years. Everyone else could get one too honestly, I want to see it. Anyway looking forward to the 2nd season, 2025 seems like it will be rather stacked.

- Over The Garden Wall (TV) - Annual fall re-watch of OtGW. This was also just on in the background but I've seen it enough to wholly recommend it. The vibes are spooky and pleasant and wholly unique, the soundtrack is great as is the voice acting, the stories are strange and memorable with really good character designs all around, and the length is just right for the story to feel complete without overstaying it's welcome. Go watch it.

- Jujutsu Kaisen (Anime) - Uh oh, We had a good run but alas, the hyper-fixation is slipping away. I'm sure I'll watch the next season when it comes out, or at least try to, but I can't say the latter half of the story seems all that interesting from the spoilers I've seen of it. Most of my favorite characters are out of commission and the world building is kind of laughably bad, uh but hey the past arc and thinly disguised homosexuality was fun.

- Malevolent (Podcast) - Officially caught up, I've definitely been having a lot of fun with seasons 4 and 5. I stated before that I was glad to get some more secondary characters, which is true, Noel and the Butcher and Oscar where all fun editions, to say nothing of Kayne and the sheer chaos he provides. The first few seasons where fun as well but I've really liked the heavy emotional storytelling and more involved plot-lines of the later seasons, as well as the fact that Arthur and John are finally more or less on the same page. Season 5 especially has included some much needed levity as well as a cool location switch, with some great John and Arthur moments already. Also the Christmas special was hilarious and the reveal of what was actually happening during it is a really great use of Kayne's character to make something absurd and sinister at the same time.

- The S Classes That I Raised (Webcomic) - S Class is one of the few things I tend to keep up regularly with but with all I've had going on lately I did get a bit behind. Catching up has been nice as it's always great to spend more time with this cast; I love the recent Han brothers scenes as well as the yuri-fication of Kang Soyoung upon discovering the hot playgirl dragon lady that is Riette (Girl me too). Jellyfish has a cool design so I'm interested in getting more of them, and it's nice to see Han Yoojin utilizing his pull over the gods more. Man I hope the ORV anime goes well and they give this one a chance, It's way to good to be as overlooked as it is.

- Dandadan (Anime) - Only two episodes in so not too much to say yet. For positives I love the main girls design, the bizarre premise, and the fact that the leads have pretty good chemistry even this early on. The animation is fun too, with the silly expressions and good action shots. For negatives I'm not thrilled that both the ghosts and aliens main motivation is committing sexual assault, particularly when it's played for male-gaze-centric fanservice at the expense of the female character. Hopefully that's just a one off thing as I do want to like this show, but we'll see how it goes.

- Dungeon Meshi (Manga) - I was putting off finishing this as I knew I would absolutely adore it. When I picked it back up though I gave in and ended up binging it straight to the end, because as I expected I absolutely adored it. I'll probably elaborate on it more later but for now, the art, characters, themes, world-building (specifically in the speculative biology vein), comedy, relationships, character designs, plot, and ending are all really stellar, and I can't wait to see the rest of the story animated. Most of the negatives for me lie in missed potential, as the series was a good length but I do feel some of the characters and plot elements (ie; Kabru and the Canaries) could have had more time to shine or been worked into the latter half of the story better. A lot of my favorite elements of the story such as the antagonist and character motivations are pretty big spoilers, but I can say they are very well done. For non spoiler compliments I adore the monster designs and how much detail went into working them into a believable Ecosystem. Falin in particular of course looks amazing and outside of her design her, her brother, and Marcille are all top tier characters that do a great job carrying the story. I do understand that the begging can be a little basic to get through especially for anime onlys, but I really urge anyone to stick with it, I promise it's not just a silly cooking show with stock characters and no consequences - the characters have a lot more depth than it appears and oh boy are there consequences.

- Genshin Impact (Video Game) - Since I have Navia I wanted to try to go for Xilonen once she dropped, as a geo healer is perfect for that team. Shockingly I got her on my first try, the first 10 pull, despite getting 2 five stars the last time I pulled (Alhaitham and a 2nd Keqing). In general I seem to have really good luck with Event banners but still, insane. I haven't leveled her up enough yet to be truly useful but I like her roller skates and voice so far.

Listening To: Dial Drunk by Chloe Breez, Rule #18 - Lion by Fish in a Birdcage, Let Me Love You by Alex Goot, The Killing Kind by Marianas Trench, Hear You Me by Jimmy Eat World, Feeling Good and Stick Season by Reinaeiry, Break My Heart by Hey Violet, Could Have Been Me by The Struts, The Main Character by Will Wood, Rabbit Heart by Florence + The Machine, Bittersweet by Panic! At The Disco, HOT TO GO! By Chappell Roan, Tongues and Teeth by The Crane Wives, Taste and Please Please Please by Sabrina Carpenter.

[nono-bunny]

Wow, ML:The Awakening is such a disjointed mess and I LOVED it! I'm just gonna jot down my thoughts before going to sleep now, but I've had a great time watching it, tldr it's a bad movie but great fun for a cynical ML veteran

The songs were, overall, truly the worst parts of this movie and taking them out would've 100% improved the movie by virtue of giving things room to breathe and develop organically, but! As a longtime fan turned hater of the show, this movie nevertheless felt very cathartic. It was a mess, but it's actually clear that for once with ML, it's an issue of not enough time rather than too much. In a single movie they delivered what the show STILL never did, even though they're supposedly both done with the first arc of the ML story... Only one of them feels like it was deserved and earned, which is strange considering how rushed both of their conclusions were, but ig it all comes down to which one had the better idea for how to end things

Overall I genuinely do wish that this version was the one that got the time to be the long running TV show, because even though it was cheesy as all get out it also overall got things right much more than the show ever did, like. Most of it felt like it was taken straight out of fanfics I've read, which to some degree has been the case with ML since season 2, but like? Weirdly enough it felt like the movie actually GOT IT, like, it understood what it was about all of this stuff that people found appealing and made an effort to get it right rather than just steal the idea and completely screw up the execution.

This movie felt like a mash up of scenes I've read in fics brought the life, and there wasn't a lot of connective tissue between them, but like??? The VIBES were all correct, which is so much more than I can say for the show...

Anyway the final confrontation was genuinely beautiful and SO satisfying to see after hearing about the shitshow that went down in season 5, it was pretty much everything I could've hoped for and expected to see back in the first two seasons. In general Gabriel was handled SO well imo! One of the most memorable final confrontations I read in fics was one where Gabriel was released from the hold of the butterfly miraculous, which was cursed or something (its been literal years since I read that one so I don't remember the specifics) and was essentially responsible for him spiraling into abusing its power, and the way Gabriel acted in this movie felt extremely reminiscent of that in a way I really appreciated. He truly embraced being a villain while at the same time very clearly losing his grip on reality, and I liked that that's the way they chose to make him sympathetic. He was just... A truly desperate and grief stricken man, and even when he went full villain he still never lost sight of his goal- his villainy and his motives fed into each other in a really beautiful and devastating cycle that the original show never manged to accomplish, and it made him so much more interesting!! He also managed to be actually terrifying and intimidating, not because he was clever (which he isn't, despite what the show would try and have us believe), but because his determination to succeed properly mirrored the hero's determination not to let him. He was fully aware that he was losing himself and Adrien, but since he was already in too deep before he even began, he just truly spiraled into madness over time. Seeing him lose it was the truly scary part here, because the very start shows him being ACTUALLY competent and held in high regard, which just further drove in how low he sank.

I genuinely really loved everything about Gabriel's depiction here, it's pretty much everything the show tried and failed to accomplish done RIGHT. Highkey the highlight of the movie was just seeing the worst villain ever written get a writing redemption lol. Also, Natalie!!! I loved seeing her stand up for Adrien, and ngl if there's a sequel I hope she kills it as Mayura, regardless of what her motives end up being (gay for Emilie? Gay for Emilie.

Chloe my girl!!! She was wonderful in this, my Chloenette heart was so happy to see these two finding their way to becoming equals. Also Chloe had her own minor arc in the background, over time she became more protective of Sabrina and I LOVED to see it, fingers crossed for a Queen Bee appearance in the possible sequel!!!

Oh my god Alya was so gay for Marinette istg wtf was up with that sexual tension lmao I felt so bad for my boy Nino! They do seem to get together at the end though so good for them!

Mari was really cringe, but I was surprised to figure out that it was like... Pretty exclusively during the songs (and the truly terrible scenes with her parents, wtf was that about it was weird)! Overall she was much more relatable, she had believable reactions even if she sometimes jumped between emotions when changing scenes because the movie lacked connective tissues, and I liked how we get to see that a lot of her "not having any friends" thing which was a weird loophole in the show here was a matter of not letting anyone get close to her (which was a cool mirroring of what Chat ends up saying later!!) and how it was partially influenced by a pretty debilitating social anxiety WHICH WE GOT TO SEE HER EXPERIENCE RATHER THAN HAVING IT TOLD IN A FLASHBACK, SEASON 5!!!

Personally I like Marichat the most and Adrienette the least (it tends to be either boring or unbelievable, which is something this movie wasn't immune to), but I found the focus on Ladynoir really fun!!! I liked seeing their friendship and how they're actual partners here to the core, it was great and the developing romance (not Chat's weird immediate crush, why do they keep doing that in ML) was probably the most believable I've seen in canon ML!

All of the lore changes I've noticed were pretty much without exception for the better, and it was really neat to see them!

It was cool seeing the class just chill together in various combinations, it was a good way to keep them there and show that Mari 100% has a place there as soon as she chooses to take part

Why was Mylenne's dad in jail,,, did he do pretend crimes,,,,

Also the movie was really pretty. Liked watching it just for that tbh

[mono-blogs-art]

SOLVED VERSION BELOW!

Full spoilers ahead! (we got a bingo ... kind of???)

here are some notes! (keep in mind that my JP is really bad so it's possible I missed a lot here, so this isn't necessarily the final version)

song from a previous play reprise but differently: yes, this happens a lot actually, and I loved all the throwbacks and new versions!!

Kukugumi post-HS scene: no, all of it takes place before up until the day of graduation (though maybe i missed some of the context cuz they jump around in time a lot)

Momoyo Solo Slay: #MOMOYOSOLOSLAY SO REAL. LITERALLY THE REALEST OF IT ALL SHE SERVED IT ALL A FULL FEAST

someone confesses but chickens out last second: nope, though that one MYKR scene gave me some vibes, but unless I have a clear translation I won't count it

Karen loses a revue: no, by God, the exact opposite of this happens lmao. #KARENSWEEP

Maya loses a revue: our first "yes, technically"! Maya is on the "losing" side of the Climax revue so I'm kinda counting this one.

video message: doesn't happen (though I wish it did, Koharu&Suzu would have been cute!)

Souda-sensei cries: ok, this one is admittedly a stretch. But she gets very emotional a few times, even more than usual, and although no one acknowledges it, I am going to say that it's a valid interpretation. Half points, I guess

Gekijouban parallel: yes. Like, so so many. I guess you could say Climax is the real "gekijouban" of the stageplay-verse. There are a lot of parallels but the execution is very different. I loved it!!!

HUG: in my dreams.

Junna unhinged moment: this was free space; this is just what happens when you put Sato Hinata on a stage.

parental pressure angst: to my (lousy) jp knowledge, this doesn't come up in conversation at all. (to be confirmed later)

you cried: i sure did!

AkiMichi & KareHika parallels: YES. THEY EVEN HAVE MICHIRU SING A MELANCHOLIC SOLO ABOUT IT MY GOD.

Claudine therapist moment: Yes! I was so happy about this. One of my favourite scenes. Claudine consoles Futaba.

KareHika flashback moments: they show some scenes of them from the anime on screen, so I'm counting it (still a stretch though)

AkiHisa duet: didn't happen, Akira and Hisame were on very different lanes in this one. And I kind of didn't mind, it felt very natural. Akira should be the funnyman more (insert joke about Edelight here)

2+ hour length: nope, it was 90 minutes long.

perform off-stage: didn't happen in the stageplay part.

Mahiru wins a revue: *sigh* alright, you guys win. I predicted this one wrong, very wrong, and I was sooooo convinced it was her time but it wasn't. She won some fights, but not overall, as there was only 1 sole winner of the entire revue this time, not a bunch of smaller revues.

Junna VS Hisame revue: another "technically yes" as they were on opposing sides of a large group revue, but didn't really go 1v1. Half points. Still predicted a totally wrong direction tho lol

B-gumi appreciation song: Nope, B-gumi was almost entirely absent from the play (as their B-gumi characters), but many of the B-gumi actors AKA the Starlight Ensemble played a bunch of different, more important side characters, which I loved!!!!! They're all such good performers!!!!!!!!!

KISS: in my dreams, always and forever, I'm never giving up

FutaKao least angsty divorce: I was surprised that this wasn't the case, though it was still quite mild, there was just a lot of Futaba angst because she was a more central character this time. The award for the least angsty divorce this time goes to, and absolutely no one expected this: JUNNANA, OF ALL PAIRS ?

a capella song: Maya sings part of a song completely without any music. It's just partly, but it was unexpected enough that I'm giving myself a full point here lol. Also ofc #MahoSlay

it's #4 Climax week so here's my totally serious predictions (also feat. suggestions by the besties @transimailisa & @flibbityflob) (i will never give up on the possibility of an on-stage kiss)

please feel free to share your own predictions !!!

[gunsatthaphan]

Hi! I just remembered like two asks you received some time ago, i wanted to squeeze in but I forgot 😅 It was about My Only 12% and the work of New and Wabi Sabi in general… Lmao.I so agree with you. This is not a read, but I am not a fan at all. And even of Earth k either. Nothing personal but all of those things mentioned don’t have any… spark. And so when I saw your anon saying they liked New’s produced shows I was shocked bc it is very often not the case, but it’s nice to see there are shoes for everyone (... is that even a saying??)

And about Between Us, I’m not excited at all tbh but ig it’s a good thing. That way I can be ‘surprised’ by it. But UWMA was soooo long ago. I loved it! back then, but since then I changed my ‘views’ you know ? And my liking of certain types of shows. Like if I watch it now… I think I’ll somewhat like it but really I will see just the negatives. I guess it really is about the production of it all (BUT not JUST that obviously. Not everything is bc of ONE man). And I know I’m probably THE ONLY ONE on this but, I get tired of seeing the same pairings over and over and over again. Like Fluke and Ohm, or Boun and Prem. Like it’s kind of always the same… atmosphere to the ships. To be clear, I didn’t see Win and Team in Even Sun, but they kind of have the same… monotony, and same with Ohm and Fluke. The more they have a series together, the less I feel it.

And I only feel that with that studio I realized. Bc I like Jimmy and Tommy, they acted with different vibes in remember 15. And also Off and Gun bdhcnd NOT ME! Need I say more haha.

So what I got from this is that I don’t like wabi sabi studio in its entirety, at all 😂😂 That's sad but yeah. They used to announce stuff and I'll get excited. But after 7 project ...😬 And I tried again with M12% but hm:/ So I guess I'll keep clear of this company. They have good premise but bad execution in my opinion.

And please I’m not trying to be rude, I’m sorry if I come off that way. I’m not the acting or prod. police. But I just see people from time to time talking abt (some of) it, but never really do it. So I just shared my opinion with you bc you seemed to have shared opinions with me. And obviously it’s totally fine if you agree just 2% of my GIANT rambling. 

It’s okay if you don’t engage with this <3 

I think you’re coming back soon from Thailand right? Enjoy the rest of your trip <33

hi anon!

lol that's okay. and I completely agree with everything.

for me wabisabi is just kind of a homogenous soup of cringe lol idk. uwma was good and everything that came afterwards wasn't. Their shows are all the same at this point and as long as New is directing them, it will stay that way lol. Not a fan of his directing style at all, which worked back in 2018 but not in 2022. The only reason I liked star and sky was the cast + plot but it definitely could've been better with a different director. But that's just my opinion.  

The issue with them recycling their actors and giving them the same roles over and over again definitely goes hand in hand with that. Now I know gmmtv kind of does the same but the difference is they have a much bigger range of shows and actors so you can't compare the two imo. BounPrem definitely have that monotony issue you mentioned, more than OhmFluke. Fluke has a big range and is doing well, Ohm not as much lol. But for me, they still work better than BP overall. Like Even Sun was weird enough to be funny but BP were the same in that too. Comparing them with mii2 and offgun is a lost battle because they're polar opposites lol.

And I agree, my views and preferences on shows have changed over time too. I think that's normal. In 2018 I thought LBC was high cinema which......no comment lmao. And I still consider uwma good today but definitely not as much as back then. I guess the more shows come out, the more picky we get which is fine.

But yeah all in all I don't think I'll ever watch a wabsabi production again unless they change their concepts lol. I'll take a look at between us because who knows, but if that sucks then bye bye. There are shows out there that deserve more attention than them. 😬

xxx

[lazzledazzler]

Lazzle's Rune Factory 5 Review

Alright so here are my thoughts and experiences with RF5! This is a big boy so buckle in earthmates...

Obviously this review will contain spoilers, read at your own risk.

Initial thoughts upon playing...

Great opening! I enjoyed the jazz music~ I did feel like it leaned a bit more towards the male player though. It definitely feels like a rune factory game. It's familiar, and controls are easy to get accustomed to for the most part. The mold is there and rf5 doesn't stray too far from its predecessors which is comforting for veterans. That being said, I'm not going to pull any punches and will critique this game harshly. Keep in mind as updates for the game are released not all things discussed in this review will be as relevant overtime!

Let's hear some thoughts on...

The story/plot. The plot is enjoyable overall. I'm not crazy about the whole Seed organization thing but it was a neat idea. They address the Sechs Territory and it is confirmed that the game takes place some decades after RF4. But by the end of it, I didn't feel like I really accomplished anything because it felt like I barely did anything really. Also they left a lot of stuff unanswered. I'm not even sure I understood the message they were sending, if they were trying to send a message at all. The main story is too short, and it doesn't involve enough of the townsfolk. You're basically doing everything yourself in secret the whole time and the townsfolk barely know what's actually going on. Out of the love interests, Lucas plays the largest part in the story, followed by Priscilla and Scarlett. The story feels targeted at male audiences--at least that's how I felt. You, the player, have a larger role in the game, much like in RF3 and I was glad to see this. As of right now there are only two arcs. Praying for DLC 3rd arc...!

Protagonists. The latest protagonists to join the crew of Earthmates are...decent. Their designs are nothing special unfortunately, though I appreciate Alice's more than Ares's. Appearance-wise they lack personality and creativity. Personality wise I am pleasantly surprised with how sociable they are. They're not exactly quick witted and sassy like Lest/Frey were in rf4, or as endearing as Micah in rf3, but they have a certain realness to them that makes their reactions to things believable. I'm certain Xseed will see to making them a bit more sarcastic in their localizing efforts, so let's all look forward to that. Overall though, while I appreciate their mannerisms, they don't really measure up to all the previous amnesiacs we've grown to love over the decades.

Characters. Overall I enjoy all the characters introduced in Rune Factory 5! I feel like there is someone for everyone in this game on some level. The voice acting was pretty good for every character. The designs are very much Rune factory. Like OG runefa, compared to rf4 ( 4 kind of strayed from their usual style) which I like. Characters still have their own signature quirks that you find endearing. Although I would have liked to see more variety? Like we've had mermaids, univir, half monsters, vampires, etc in previous titles but rf5 only gives us the usual (half) elf, dwarf, and then a succubus (physically she doesn't have unique features aside from the ears and heart eyes), and some were-people. I was hoping for something more unique to really give that classic runefa vibe.

Dungeons/Battles. I'm pretty split on this one. On the one hand, the dungeons have more depth due to the 3D aspects. They've included more contraptions that are very fun to see even if they aren't executed that well. So I'm grateful for that. On the other hand, the dungeons are insanely short imo. It doesn't take long at all to get to the boss. The puzzles are also pretty subpar and few compared to RF4. Fighting monsters is similar to the other games. You can lock on now but I only use it when I'm trying to use my Seed Circle. The lock on feature is actually counter-intuitive and makes it harder to dodge. Weapon mechanics have shifted a bit. There’s a feature that makes you invincible to damage if you time the R button dash correctly. Axes and Hammers are significantly slower than in older games? Like. I thought I was in slow motion it was so slow. Lances are also harder to use as well? I'm questioning my sanity here. I don't know if it's a bug or intentional either.

Farming. Not much has changed from previous games mechanics wise. They added new types of special crops which is neat. The camera view changes to overhead when you go near your fields though, and it can make you dizzy/uncomfortable. It actually makes it a bit difficult to see at times so I wish there was a way to adjust the angle. If you are tilling corn or dried weeds to improve the soil, you need to place them separately if you don't want to use the entire stack. Otherwise, it will till the entire stack on the land if you place them all down at once. The flower shop is unlocked late in the story. Weird thing to do considering you need flowers to make medicine. Not to mention the fact that you wont have access to the fertilizer that increases defense against typhoons? During typhoon season? Thinking emoji...

The town. I have to say Rigbarth's design is poor compared to Sharance, Selphia, etc. It's too big and it takes too long to get around. Everything is too spaced out and there aren't enough warp points to make it easier on players. I don't want to walk an entire mile up a hill to talk to one person and then walk all the way down to the beach to speak to another. It doesn’t really feel like a ‘town’.

OST/BGM. Music was good, though nothing really stood out to me where I'd go "damn this slaps" or something. I think they might've had some old soundtracks from rf2 or something because it felt really nostalgic at times.

We need an exterminator. (Bugs Bugs Bugs)

Marvelous, I don't know how to tell you this buuut...your customers are NOT your testers. When you release a game, you need to make sure it's not littered with glitches because customers don't enjoy dealing with them and will drop the game!

Here are some of the types of glitches I encountered:

Crashing. Game would randomly crash or freeze and close at any moment. Sooooo frustrating! Sometimes you get lucky with the autosave feature, but the autosave only activates every morning at 6am in your room and then when you warp to a dungeon level/floor. So when you're in the middle of your daily tasks in town and it crashes, you have to start all over. Marveloussss no one enjoys losing their progress in a game I promise you that much.

Lag. The dialogue bar is seriously slow, especially after loading your file. Crafting/Cooking screen lags. When you press the Y button to skip through dialogue it lags like hell. Pretty much after every time you load the game will lag, the audio will lag if you're in a battle, everything is just. so. slow.

Repeating dialogue. So if you close your game entirely (or if it crashes) naturally you'll reload your file to continue where you left off. There's a bug that will cause all NPCs to repeat the last dialogue that occurred from whatever plot related thing you did last. So for example, if the last thing you did in the story was unlock Ludmilla, everyone in town will naturally have some dialogue about her. But even after seeing all this dialogue and even saving, if the game is closed and reloaded you'll have to read all that dialogue again from townsfolk. It got really annoying after a while.

Monster taming. One time I tamed a monster but once I named it and hit 'ok' the monster never showed up in my barns? Just. gone. Okaaaay then...? Additionally, I expanded one of my monster barns but all of the monsters I tamed wouldn't appear in the added room. You get 4 monsters for each room but the monsters I tamed would show up in the original room. Meaning I had like 7 monsters in one room! I tried to bring them into the newly added room but they would just warp back to the other room. Sad.

Pond Glitch. I fished in the pond located in Sasayaki Forest and left the fish I caught but didn't want laying around the water's edge. If you leave fish around the pond's edge and go to sleep, the next morning you will be teleported to the pond and trigger the fairy dialogue as if you had thrown all of the fish into the pond??? So the dialogue of her telling you she wants 'X item, not this!' will trigger over and over for all of the fish you left at the water's edge. RIP.

Party member Bug. I had Martin in my party and I made him leave. Then when I went into my monster barns to get a monster pal to join me instead it showed me Martin's portrait???? Also I've encountered a bug where I can no longer ask anyone to join my party for some unknown reason. The R &L button prompt was just gone when I reloaded.

Errors. When cooking or crafting, the dialogue box shows up sometimes...

Typos. Random average typo here and there. Not a real biggie but there is one instance where the heroine will use the japanese male pronoun "boku" instead of "watashi" which really convinced me that this game was completely intended for men lol.

Let's talk about Pros

The good stuff. The stuff that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside.

Plot Advancing. Now I'm gonna put this as a pro because I'm certain the average player will enjoy this even though I do not. There are now markers on the map to show you where to go to advance the plot. This is all well and dandy, but it also made the story less appealing for me because you don't need to go around town and speak to residents for clues or assistance to advance anything in the story.

3D Graphics The 3D models are all amazing. The interior designs of the houses/buildings are also incredibly detailed and realistic.

Collecting items. Now there's a feature that will allow you to collect items into your inventory just by walking over them. This is pretty neat and welcome for the most part. Once the item is sparkling, you can walk over it and it'll go into your rucksack automatically. This also makes lumbering and mining go much faster. Yay!

The miraculous L pocket. Now you can customize the categories that appear in your L pocket by going to the rucksack tab in the menu. This is a super neat feature that makes things easier on players who want to manage their items in a format that suits them.

Weapon/Tool Toggling. You can now toggle between your equipped weapon and tool by pressing the left or right buttons on the trackpad.

Collecting lumber/material stone. Oh lord this is probably the most welcome improvement moving forward from the previous game. You can now put all of the lumber and material stone from your inventory into its storage at once. This also applies to fodder for tamed monsters. Well done Hakama.

Autosave. This feature is a welcome addition to the series. The game will save your data every morning and every time you enter a dungeon. Autosave has really saved my ass a few times when I made a huge error in judgement so I'm incredibly grateful for this feature. And it doesn't save over your actual save file--there's a separate autosave file at the very top. So if you messed up something but already saved on your main file, you can still salvage your mistake by reloading the autosave! I just wish it activated a bit more often sometimes.

Warping. Now we can warp to each level in a dungeon as well as certain places on the map in town. It's pretty convenient for the most part.

Increased party members. Now you can have up to 3 members in your party! Hooray! Party members act more intelligently than in older games. Scarlett can use the Seed circle to assist you in fights. I think she also tosses healing potions at you occasionally. So far, no one has tossed a dish at me if I haven't eaten like Kiel and Clorica did in rf4. But I have been hit by a failed dish (from reinhardt?) and a healing potion (from scarlett). Scarlett, Priscilla, and Reinhardt are the most helpful when dungeon crawling in my experience. Some of them however, (looking at you Doug) don't shut the hell up with their one line of dialogue they have and repeat it constantly.

Seed Circle. This neat feature allows you to capture monsters. By charging it and releasing you can capture monsters for the bounty system or add them to your party temporarily. If you throw it without charging it, you can stun monsters in place momentarily or grab things from far away. When stunning monsters, it can also give you the monster's drop item occasionally. Unfortunately it uses a lot of RP so it can be difficult at times.

Combo attacks. This is a neat feature that I appreciate and use often for boss fights. They do some serious damage so it's good to save them for the bosses. The actual cutscenes aren't that impressive, and feel kind of subpar when you get down to it but I think it's a start in the right direction.

Farm Dragons. I'm listing this as a pro although I really just see it as a new feature. Farm dragons have fields on their backs that you can place monster barns on and farm on. Giving them certain crystals will give your fields boosts in certain criteria, like length of growth, soil quality, you get it. I personally don't use the crystals because I couldn't give a shit lmao I have men and women to woo here. But if you're into this kinda thing then it's a pro.

Storage. When opening your storage box, fridge, etc. you can actually hit the R & L buttons to switch between ALL of your other storages. Looooove thissss. Great addition. So much faster to put items away in their respective places.

Crafting/Forging. Now we can also use the R & L buttons to alternate between the different weapon types/accessory/gear types instead of having to exit the menu and going back in each time you want to make something different.

Cooking. More recipes have been added. Yay!

Days are longer now. More time to get shit doneeeee ayyyy

Fishing. They've added many more fish to the game! Now the player will shout something when you get a bite, making it easier for you to hit B at the right moment. Nice. Also if you fail or press B too early, the fish doesn't vanish most of the time. Also nice. There is now a feature to fish with another person's assistance. Once a day you can investigate the sign near the fishing station and someone might offer to lend you a hand. Press the B button at the right moments on the slider and you can get a rare fish that can't be caught normally.

Monsters. New types of monsters! Love the designs. Even the monsters that are the same but just have different skins are really neat. They look great in the 3D format too. You can even ride with up to two people on certain monsters! Some bosses had awesome designs while others...were bad.

New Types of Furniture. The carpenter store has a wide arrange of furniture you can buy for your home. It also has wallpapers and stuff which is really neat. Though unfortunately you can't even sit on some of the furniture so that's a shame.

Events. Now there is a system where events are triggered by approaching an icon on the map. This is probably an improvement to RF4's randomized system, though personally I found it annoying because it meant that I had to see the events before I could just enter a building normally. Sometimes I just wanted to get shit done and not have to read through walls of text for someone's love event when I just want to buy something.

Voiced Lines. The protagonist seems to have more voiced lines, as do other characters. Good!

Let's talk about Cons

Not including glitches. Oh boy. So many cons. Where do I start?

Dialogue. Probably the most notable con in the entire game. The dialogue is drastically minimal in comparison to previous games, especially rf4. There is probably a quarter of the amount of dialogue compared to rf4's insane amount of content if not less. Townsfolk repeat themselves. Often. Too often. Am I playing Harvest Moon? Originally I thought it was because the dialogue is randomized, but I think it's actually because more dialogue is unlocked as you raise townspeople's FP. Despite this, there's no linear build up where you start off as acquaintances and eventually become very close like in rf4 because of how sporadic the LP/FP is. Townsfolk don't even talk to each other. One of the greatest perks about runefa is the conversations townsfolk can have with one another. Residents randomly gathering in small groups to talk about anything. Previously you could add someone to your party and sometimes a dialogue will occur if you speak to the right person at the right time with that person in your party. This is nonexistent now. The only time they do this in rf5 is during the festivals. But, it will only trigger if you have unlocked all the characters in each marriageable lineup and they can't be in your party. The residents will talk about one another but that's pretty much it outside of town events. They got rid of all the minor dialogue that occurs too. Trying to sleep in someone's bed while they're right there? They wont comment. Inspecting objects in stores while the shopkeeper is present? Wont say anything. Take a character with you to a dungeon/boss fight? Their lips are sealed. Where's my sense of community? :(

FP/LP This ties into the dialogue issue. The rate at which LP/FP increases is sporadic as hell. You can go from 1FP/LP to 4FP/LP just by giving a gift sometimes. I wouldn't even speak to people and their affinity increased by like triple for no reason. Then it increases by like 2% for the longest time. Argh!!!

Graphics. I don't consider myself very picky when it comes to graphics. I don't really mind that the foliage and scenery are at the level of a ps2 game at best. I tried playing on my television initially, but the lag and camera operability was too much so I fully switched (haha puns) to handheld. One thing that sucked is that I literally cannot tell the difference between medicinal herbs, antidote grasses, and green grasses without the captions because the graphics are so indistinguishable. So when you're trying to pick up multiples of those items by holding the A button, you're just randomly walking over anything green in the hopes that you'll get the right ones...

Lack of Sound Effects. Something I noticed is they got rid of the sound effects that will play when you complete a puzzle or add someone to your party. When you try to brush a monster there's no sound for the '♪' they make when you successfully brush them. So it was hard for me to tell if I had actually brushed them or not. I was a bit saddened by the lack of cute sounds.

Too much free range. From the very beginning of the game, you're allowed to go pretty much wherever you want when leaving town. It was too easy to stumble into high enemy level territory without knowing, so when I was like level 5 so I got KO'd immediately.

Artwork. The portraits seem to be lower in quality somehow. Runefa has always had shitty portrait art imo but this time it's even worse. Many character's eyes looked fucked up. Though the 3D models are insanely good for mostly every character except Terry. Terry's 3D model looks Terryfying and I prefer his portrait.

Festivals. They've added some new festivals. Some I enjoy. Some not so much. They changed the format of the eating contest. It's horrible. Good luck with that one.

L pocket + R button? They got rid of the feature that lets you skip to the other end of your items when opening the L pocket by pressing R button. I really liked that feature because it made it faster to reach my items so I was bummed that they got rid of it.

Gotta go fast. Now when you speak to someone, it doesn't 'stop time' as you might say it did in previous games. So people are still moving about as you speak to someone, making it harder to catch up to people! Annoying!!!

Catch and release? Not in my farming simulator! Say goodbye to being able to toss a fish you caught back into the water. In fact, say goodbye to tossing anything you don't want anymore into the water. Now you just have an army of fish flopping on the ground around you. And with the auto pick up feature, they're probably going to end up in your inventory anyways once you try to move. There are still certain ponds with fairies that you can toss stuff into, but you'll have to deal with the fairy harping at you for giving her something she doesn't want.

Shop Hours. Oh god. The shop owners don't even open their stores at the correct hours? It says open at 9am. If you speak to them they won't open their store until like 9:07??? But Priscilla and Lucy will show up to work their part-time jobs at around 8:30am and you can buy stuff through them before 9am. So the actual shop owners (for the bread shop and general store) are pointless usually. Additionally, if the store is empty (but open) you can no longer add a shopkeeper into your party and then enter their store with them to buy things from them. Why. Just why. When you want to buy something that only a specific person sells (Only Hina sells fish, only Heinz sells misc items) you have to wait for them to finally decide to work in their own store. Wonderful.

Monster Item drops. Maybe I'm crazy but the monster drops are seriously a lot harder to get than in previous games. Especially boss drops. It's almost impossible to get the rare drops now. I don't even want to try anymore. And as far as I know, the only place to buy monster items is through Heinz, but his items are actually misc. items, not specifically monster drops. So you'll be lucky to check his store (whenever tf he decides to actually work) for any monster items you might want instead of farming for the drops. Sighs.

Difficulty. This game is too easy. There is little to no challenge whatsoever. I had to increase the difficulty setting to hard mode and it was still too easy. I beat it at level 139, never once did I need to grind or level. In fact, your character levels up way too quickly for the pace of the story. I had zero trouble with any of the bosses and even the final boss was a breeze. Quite sad. Though because I am not new to the franchise, it's likely that newcomers would have some trouble in the later parts of the story.

Fishing cons. Idk how you fck up fishing but they sure did. You have to stand further back now because the pole is so long that you'll miss the fish you're aiming for. In fact, it's seriously hard to aim period. You'll end up recasting more often than not. Fish come in the various sizes but they don't seem to have the darker or faded characteristics that can indicate whether it's a rare fish or not. The graphics make it hard to tell. The pros that i've already mentioned are welcomed but it doesn't negate the fact that I do not enjoy fishing like I did in previous games.

Mining/Lumbering Cons. You can no longer strike three times consecutively when mining/lumbering. This sucks lol. Even when you upgrade your axe or hammer, powering up the tool does nothing for getting wood and material stone--it only expands the area of your strike. So it takes longer to get wood/stone from stumps and rocks now since you have to strike the full 9 times but it's not too bad. It's also harder to aim now as well so that's also unfortunate.

Seasonal Fields? Kiss them goodbye! That's right, there are no seasonal fields in rf5 because devs are insane! You instead have the farm dragons that seem to look seasonal based on the fact that they are designed after elements like earth, water, and fire. But no, these dragons are simply extra fields for you to use. Here's a spoiler: you're not going to use those fields. You're just not. They're kinda useless unless you're obsessed with farming. Now you have to grow your crops out of season like the sad farmer that you are.

Farming cons. Seeds no longer tell you how long it takes to grow the crop. Why. As of June 29th, they fixed this with an update. But I still had to play the whole game without it so fuck you marvelous. The joystick is really sensitive? So when you're trying to use a fertilizer or something on your field you're likely to place it on the wrong 4x4 tile, wasting your fertilizer. So it’s best to hold down the R button when farming. Also the crops look uglie as hell.

Sleeping and warping cutscenes. Just like in rf4 there's a cutscene when you go to sleep that can be skipped easily by pressing A. In rf5, there's a cutscene to sleep and a cutscene when waking up. It takes a bit more than a second to skip these scenes so it gets annoying after a while. Warping is this new feature that replaces our beloved escape spell. Overall I appreciate the feature but I hate it for two reasons. One: there's an annoying ass cutscene for it each time you use it that could be much shorter. And Two: townsfolk now use warp even when inside the town. In previous games, someone exiting your party in town would just manually run to wherever they need to be. So you could easily chase after them if you need to talk to them or give them something. Now, party members use warp regardless of where you are at the time. So say you have someone at 7 hearts and you want to try confessing to them. You would have them join your party, save your game, and then have them leave your party and immediately speak to them and confess before they can run off. If it doesn't work you reload until it does. In RF5 this wouldn't work anymore because they will warp. Now you would have to save, run around town trying to find this person and hope they accept the confession. Otherwise you'll have to play hide and seek again because reloading your file will randomize the resident's locations (if they are not working in a shop)!!!! I often just waited until a festival day because then they will be at the plaza for most of the day and it has a warp point there.

Crafting/Forging/Cooking. They've removed the feature where you can press Y on the ingredients in the menu to add more of that particular item. I miss this feature :'(

Lacks incentive. There is no trophy room from my knowledge. The final dungeon that is meant to be like the sharance maze/rune prana isn't that hard to beat for skilled players and is only 20 floors. After you beat the main story and this dungeon there's not much else to do really.

Request Board. Unlike in rf4, you need to make sure you have accepted requests before you complete them or else it will not count. Previously, you could complete all sorts of tasks and Eliza would still recognize your work even if you accept their request after the fact. ie, shipping goods, harvesting crops, etc. So make sure you don't harvest your special crops before accepting the request it's for!

Return of the "Loli" Dragons... Yeah you read that right. We got more dragons in children's(???) bodies with skimpy clothes. I don't know anymore????¿¿¿

Can't marry the Milfs or Dilfs. Tragic.

Still no homo. Grow up Marvelous.

Reverse Proposal? Reverse Uno card-- Laid low by the patriarchy. You now have to buy the double bed and craft an engagement ring to propose to your man if you're playing as Alice. Marvelous this isn't what we meant when we said we wanted equal rightsssssss This can be seen as a pro if you're a softhearted babey who doesn't like rejecting bachelors' proposals because you feel bad :'( But this is a con for me because I don't want to spend money and materials on a double bed dammit!!!

Misc. Still can't stack dishes or fish. There's no green elemental fairy???All the other elemental ones are there except the green one? why??? Still can't tame the giant Wooly. Some bosses that have insanely awesome designs cannot be tamed and makes me wanna eat glass.

Let's talk about Love~

Relationships. We want them. And half of us only play these games for them. I've only played as the female heroine so far but I'll be updating this review as soon as I finish with the bachelorettes as the male hero.

Confessions

As usual, we must raise the love points of our beloved to 7 hearts before we can attempt to date them. However unlike in rf4, if you fail at a confession once, you will need to raise the LP up an entire level before you can try again with any chance of success. It's imperative you save before attempting a confession now.

Love Events

Each love interest has two love events that must be seen before you can date them. They're reminiscent of older game's style but I felt they could have been a biiiit more interactive or so? Or involved the town a bit more for some of them.

Dating

Once you get your honey to be your bf/gf, you get to choose the nicknames as usual. Then you can go on dates. The first three (non-festival) dates are actually events. You need to see all three events to get married.

Marriage Event

The final event you need to clear before you can marry your sweetie. In my honest opinion, so far for the boys, these events were rather disappointing. They lacked the drama and angst that sort of 'test' the love between the two when compared to rf4. Also this is a huge con for me personally and a minor spoiler but there are no special cutscenes at the end of the marriage event like in rf4. Instead, the cutscene takes place during your actual wedding. I was saddened by this because it took away the depth from the marriage events and the actual character? As it is just a cut and paste type of thing instead of an original cutscene for each person. They lack individualism this way. Also it kinda felt like a way for devs to avoid gay relationships and cut corners :^/....sus.

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes...

Children!!!!!! This is actually one of the coolest additions in the game. Just like in rf3, you can have up to 3 children again! Your first child will resemble you, and you will have the option to choose its gender as well as its personality. There are 6 different children, (3 boys and 3 girls), all with different hairstyles, mannerisms, and seiyuus. Your answers will determine which child you get. A year after your first child is born, you will get the option to have a second child. You'll end up with twins, both resembling your partner. You won't get to choose the genders (it will be a boy and girl) but you will get to choose the personalities once more. The children all have canon names too and each kid is incredibly cute. And of course, you're still able to take your kid with you in your party~ ...Though you can only take one kid with you at a time.

So is RF5 good?

Yeah it's a fun game! My theory is that Marvelous forced the devs to release the game earlier than they were ready for, and that's why it's so lacking. But that doesn't mean it's not worth playing! I'd rate it 3.5/5 stars hehe. Not nearly as good as RF4 (full stop 5/5), or RF3 (4/5) but enjoyable nonetheless. I wouldn't recommend it as a first game to play from the series for newcomers though, I feel it's best for vets who can overlook all the cons thanks to loyalty and nostalgia. By the time it’s released in the West, the bugs should all be dealt with too.

So! Definitely buy this game! We want the series to continue and we want RF6 to be better than this--and hopefully Marvelous will make sure of that next time. If you're not a picky person I think you'll enjoy rf5 a lot. If you're like me and have high standards then, well, still pick it up and let it run its course. Then dust off rf4sp and cleanse your gaming palette >;^)

[beepboop358]

St unpopular opinions?

Alrighty here we go, also please don't attack me if you disagree with any of my unpopular opinions, I totally understand everyone wants different things to happen in the show.

1. When the series ends, I want Eleven to make this big heroic sacrifice for the "greater good". Whether that's saving everyone from an upside down monster, or defeating the lab for good, or stopping something horrible about to happen, or just saving her friends from their own deaths.

I talked in depth about this in my byler proof master slides (145-147), but Eleven was not originally intended to survive in s1.

In the show’s original pitch the Duffers wrote, “If Mike is the Elliot of our show, then Eleven is our "E.T.” It was planned for her to make this big sacrifice for her new friends, and mainly for the person who took her in and has bonded with (Mike, just like Elliot does with E.T.) I think it’s highly likely the Duffers will want to complete this E.T. parallel for Eleven in the show since it was part of their original plan.

There's one reason they might not follow through with this parallel, and it's that Shawn Levy has recently talked about how they "have the end of the show in sight" and they"know where the end is", but that they are aware there is interest in spinoffs. I've heard some rumors about an Eleven spin off series being possible, so if they were going to do this, they most likely would not kill El off.

Shawn Levy's actual quote:

“…What’s been made clear is there is an interest and a real voracious appetite for any offshoot, any other iteration format or extension of the franchise, the characters, the mythology,” Levy said. “Certainly those conversations are hardly evolved, but they're also not non-existent,” he added, cautioning that all this spinoff talk — at least for now, is just that: talk: “And you cannot take those words and turn it into a headline, that's like 'Stranger Things, executive producer, Shawn Levy confirmed spinoff' because I didn't do that"

2. I kind of don't want Steve to get a serious girlfriend.

I see a lot of "Steve deserves a girlfriend", and "Steve deserves to be happy" and I agree that I want Steve to be happy, but he doesn't need a romantic partner to be happy. He can be happy without one. It's not that I don't ever want Steve to fall in love, I wouldn't be upset if Steve did get a girlfriend, but I really love the idea that Steve can find true happiness in the show without being in love with someone. He does have love in his life, love from his friends, he doesn't need romantic love to be fulfilled. And honestly I think Steve's arc of self-acceptance and learning not to do just do what's considered "cool" fits into this idea. He needs to grow and learn about himself, and figure out what it is that he really wants from life, before he is ready to be in a serious relationship with anyone. Steve will most likely be flirting with girls who come into the Video Store in S4, but I really want to see Steve continue to grow by being around the others and Robin before anything seriously romantic happens for him.

Steve's death is rumored this season, (I talked about the evidence for it here), and if he does die, I don't think the show will introduce any kind of serious relationship for Steve if this is true, it just wouldn't make sense.

3. Murray is underrated, I really love Murray's character. (maybe this isn't unpopular LOL)

4. It was really sad when Barb died, but she was designed to die :(

5. I don't think Jancy will be endgame (there's lots of good theories on this out there)

6. The exploding rats in s3 were not my fav, I really liked the season overall, and I understand they were trying to have the monster represent puberty by literally making it out of flesh, but at times it felt like they were trying to go 'too big' almost like jumping the shark? Idrk how to describe it, but this is a fear of mine that they'll do the same thing in future seasons and try to do too much and go too big, and the characters storylines and overall vibe will get lost in the extreme action and gore and it won't feel authentic.

I'm sure I have other unpopular opinions but I can't think of them right now LOL

Thanks for the ask anon!