#THIS WAS LIKE THE ONLY OTOME GAME I LIKED WITH ALL GOOD CHARACTERS AND GREAT STORY

[kaitlyn-pink]

I wanna delete arcana twilight off my phone the amount it has me crying is NOT OKAY

[my-current-obsession]

Winter’s Wish: Spirits of Edo - Final Thoughts

HEADS UP - below the read more, I’ll have spoilers for EVERY route in the game!

I enjoyed this game quite a lot, though I don’t absolutely love it by any means. PERSONALLY I’d put it at about the level of Olympia Soiree - so it’s pretty good and I’ll come back to it occasionally, but it doesn’t measure up to my favorites.

That said I liked the unique elements of the story - vessels, formfolk, blightfall - and how they were handled... for the most part. I feel like the story somehow hits both ends of the spectrum in being VERY logically thought out/developed and making good use of foreshadowing... and yet sometimes there are things that don’t make sense at all or seem contradictory. There’s also a bit of a consistency problem in how certain characters and issues are handled depending on the route. I’ll get into that a bit in the spoilers.

My play order was Genjuro > Kinji > Kunitaka > Tomonari > Yoichi > Ohtaro.

Common Route(s): While I was partially disappointed to have to immediately narrow down my route choice to two guys (or rather, ONE guy except for Castle Town due to two routes being locked initially), I did enjoy seeing the different stories play out and how Suzuno was utilized differently each time. The “pre” route split also gave the story more time to get her closer to each love interest, IMO.

I appreciated that she was taught to fight in the Castle Town route, which then carried forward to her contributing a bit more in battle for Yoichi and Genjuro. It’s a shame she couldn’t fight in the other routes, but thankfully they found other ways for her to be useful anyway.

I’ll admit the Entertainment District route frustrated me a bit, since the conflict was so... avoidable. Yabuta cast suspicion on himself by not revealing his connection to the case and then had the audacity to get upset when everyone confronted him about after finding out the truth. Thankfully this stupidity IS pointed out at the end and he basically says he won’t make the same mistake again... but honestly an apology or acknowledgement that HE was in the wrong would have been nice, instead of treating him as justified for being secretive and then upset at the consequences to HIS OWN actions.

The Samurai Town route was surprisingly funny. The epic music and tension given to Suzuno just trying to impress the ladies and get an in with them was hilarious, as was Tenichibo immediately falling for her and outing himself as a mostly harmless loser. This route also showed another, sweeter side of Kyoshiro, which was lovely. It’s a shame that only carried into Tomonari’s route and not Kunitaka’s.

Genjuro: This route was a sweet and wholesome slowburn. I could really tell they were getting closer as time passed, and it was clear Genjuro was starting to open up and depend on Suzuno for guidance. I also think this route probably handled the vessel issue the best. More than anyone else, Genjuro starts out like what I expected a heartless, memory-less person to be - aloof and focused entirely on his mission. Several other vessels just seem too... emotive, right from the start - and to be fair there ARE reasons for some of those (which I’ll get to) but in some cases I can’t figure out where their depth of perception and emotion is coming from.

Meanwhile you can SEE the transition with Genjuro from being focused on his work (while still devoted to the people of Edo) to starting to feel more. First comes the reveal of how much time and effort he’s put into interacting as casually/normally as he does with people - and to be clear he’s still pretty awkward, showing that despite his progress he still has a long way to go - and then he slowly gets anxious and upset about essentially being on house arrest, but as a vessel, he needs Suzuno to RECOGNIZE what’s he’s feeling and help him understand and work through it. Long before his seal breaks, you can see he’s slowly starting to feel and certain emotions are bleeding through.

If I have one complaint, it’s just that he could have used one or two more “romantic” scenes to justify the ending. I feel like their relationship jumped from around 60 to 100, really quick. Even just giving them a few more minutes to interact after the seal on his heart broke and indicating then that he DID have feelings for her (that he hadn’t fully felt/recognized until now, of course) before Hanzo showed up would've been enough. As-is, I personally found the big romantic declarations of love and wanting to be together forever to be just a tad unearned.

Kinji: So this seems to be a bit of a hot take but I didn’t really care for his route. Or at least, I didn’t like his relationship with Suzuno. Something about the way he interacts with and treats her just feels condescending to me. It feels like he “likes” her because she amuses/entertains him, which... I don’t find romantic. And on her end, while it’s VERY clear that Suzuno is attracted to him, it seems purely physical. She’s into his looks which is valid (he’s 100% the hottest guy in the game based on appearance alone), but it’s hard for me to take her falling for him seriously because it just feels like they haven’t bonded at all. He teases her, she gets flustered, this repeats like four more times... and suddenly she realizes she loves him. WHY?

They don’t seem to have opened up to each other at all so it doesn’t feel like there’s any reason for her to like him more; she’s just infatuated with him. I DID like him outright telling her to make him fall for her - that felt good and I thought at least his half of the romance might feel earned. But it seemed like in no time at all he was reciprocating - or rather the story suggested he was ALREADY into her by the the time he made that suggestion. And again I couldn’t see it, because to me it feels like he’s toying with her rather than CONNECTING with her.

Outside of the romance that I couldn’t get behind, I DO like other aspects of this route. I liked the espionage/spy angle of Suzuno infiltrating the brothel, as well as the makeover that came with it. And I liked Okuni quite a bit. This route was also like the only one to have a red herring for the antagonist unless we’re counting the Man Behind the Man, the true Big Bad for every route, which I’m not at this point. It was nice having to try and solve a mystery instead of having an obvious conflict to overcome from the beginning.

Kunitaka: In isolation, I think his route is very solid and I like it. Taking the entire game and other routes into account though... I have several issues. First of all, Kunitaka gets SUCH a raw deal. Even though it makes sense for the Oniwaban to doubt/suspect him considering the evidence, they take it too far - at least compared to other routes. This is where the consistency issue pops up.

In other routes, characters are trusted or forgiven for FAR WORSE considering there is NO doubt in those circumstances that they’re guilty. Yet Kunitaka is merely suspected, with NO concrete proof, and literally everyone turns on him and is ready to kill him basically immediately.

What really bothers me is that logically, this makes SENSE from the vessels at least - they wouldn’t have the hearts to truly care about/trust him, so they’d be ruthlessly logical about it (which makes their quick turnarounds/trust in OTHER routes that much more grating). As the prime suspect it makes sense to take him out. But even the HUMANS in the Oniwaban don’t give him the benefit of the doubt. This is PARTICULARLY frustrating with Yabuta, considering he’s a damn hypocrite. He suspects Kunitaka and wants to kill him WITH NO HARD EVIDENCE, yet he had the gall to be upset that the Entertainment crew was suspecting him AFTER HE WITHHELD INFORMATION from them.

Even Tomonari, who should know him best, doesn’t trust or care for him at all and ONLY joins him due to his trust in SUZUNO. It was so frustrating playing this route and having everyone doubt Kunitaka. What’s worse is that there was an opportunity for Suzuno to be (RIGHTFULLY!!!) angry towards everyone on his behalf, but instead she was just... sad and didn’t know how to think/feel about everyone. Honestly this route would have been ten times better if Kunitaka and/or Suzuno actually HELD IT AGAINST the Oniwaban instead of instantly forgiving them. Since the trust and relationship was BROKEN, they needed to EARN it back, and that didn’t happen.

My other huge issue is just that I struggle to wrap my head around Kunitaka as a vessel. Genjuro and Kinji actually do seem initially aloof/detached/etc. before they start emoting more throughout their routes, and the other three have good reasons/explanations for why they’re so emotive. But how/why is Kunitaka so emotive and perceptive? I understand that a lot of his personality is inherited from his owner, but even if he’s compelled to live a similar lifestyle I just struggle to think that without the capacity to feel and understand emotions, he’d be able to act the way he does and even more, be such a good teacher to children.

It’s also odd how... back-and-forth he is in regards to Suzuno. Sometimes he can tell what she’s feeling (such as when he deliberately tries to shut her down so she’ll stop loving him, since a relationship with a vessel wouldn’t work) but other times he’s completely dense and has to be told what she’s thinking.

Finally I have a minor nitpick - Kunitaka’s relationship with Genjuro is a fairly important part of his character and route, yet doesn’t have ANY role or importance in Genjuro’s route. Just one more way in which the poor guy is shafted.

All these complaints make me understandably ambivalent at best about Kunitaka’s route. That said... I actually DID like the romance here! Yes, it was a bit rushed in the beginning, but it made sense - due to the accidental kiss and Suzuno’s lack of experience, she fell fast and hard. But the route took a turn I’d never seen before when Kunitaka NOTICED and shut her down since he didn’t (and couldn’t) feel the same.

I genuinely liked Suzuno a lot in this route. It took a lot of determination for her to turn against everyone else to support Kunitaka, especially when she was suffering a broken heart at the time. But she KNEW it wasn’t him and she trusted him, so she willingly put herself in a painful situation to support him.

She shoved her love aside to be there as his FRIEND, and then was confident and spunky enough to reject HIM when he confessed to her. Because he’d broken her heart and she was trying to get over him, she issued him a (justified) challenge to win her over. What followed was basically a role reversed version of what I’d wanted/expected from Kinji’s route, where Kunitaka clearly started making moves and she was into it even as she tried to force her feelings down.

So yeah, I really liked the romance in this route. I also loved Tenichibo coming back and playing a big role. He’s easily my favorite non Oniwaban character. It’s a shame about... everything else.

Tomonari: Yes, I played his route before Yoichi despite him being the intended penultimate route. I actually blindly ended up on Tomonari BEFORE Kunitaka, and got pretty invested in the beginning of his route before I was forced onto the early bad end. So I was eager to get back to him as soon as possible.

By design, this route was darker than the rest. The pressure to use her power to contribute and catch the murderer BROKE Suzuno in a way nothing else in any other route did. It’s interesting they chose the poster boy’s route for her to be so weak/helpless, but it’s clearly intentional as she and Tomonari have clear arcs on this route where she has to accept what’s happened and just try to do what what she can while he has to learn to LET her try instead of sheltering her from everything and everyone that might hurt her.

Tomonari is interesting in that’s he’s pretty cold/aloof... towards literally everything except Suzuno. But his soft spot for her is clearly explained as a result of their shared past - even with his memories sealed, on some level he recognized and loved her from the start, and wanted to do everything he could for her. I appreciate that this is present in basically every route too - he consistently puts her wants and well-being above his duties in the Oniwaban, which is very NOT vessel-like behavior.

The romance is pretty well-written and believable in this route, but it IS a bit uncomfortable with the context of them kind of being raised as family. I know that physically/mentally/emotionally they’re the same age NOW but it’s weird to think Tomonari existed pretty much at the same state he is now when Suzuno was a child, and he was essentially her older brother (considering in Ohtaro’s route he explicitly calls Suzuno’s parents Mother and Father, indicating they were HIS parents too).

I also don’t know how to feel about the fact that he occasionally comes off as yandere-lite. Outside of the bad ends, his moments of jealousy/possessiveness are minor and played funny/cute enough that I can accept them, but I still recognize on some level that it’s not... good. And if he weren’t literally about to die in his sorrow end I’d be freaking out more about the way he’s rushing into sex with her as a way to “claim / leave a mark” on her”. It’s not explicitly said but I have to wonder if the implication is he’s wanting/hoping she gets pregnant (since the scene very much had a vibe of him wanting her to remember him forever, and that would leave her a lifelong reminder). If so, ironically his other bad end debunks the possibility.

On that subject, can I just say RIP Genjuro’s good ending. Since Tomonari’s bad ending heavily implies that vessels can’t reproduce, that means the desire to have kids/a family the Genjuro expresses in his good ending won’t go anywhere. This theoretically isn’t an issue for Kunitaka or Tomonari in their good endings since they turn human, but Genjuro is explicitly still a vessel since his memories are still sealed. Kinji and Yoichi are too, but at least neither of them outright says they want kids and might not get to have them.

Not to harp on my issues with Kunitaka’s route again (and I’ll do it AGAIN in Ohtaro’s route), but the Oniwaban is very quick to forgive Tomonari and Suzuno for running away. Even worse is that Yabuta specifically apparently was concerned for them and vouched for them to the shogun - even if you chose NOT to run away and thus Tomonari took matters into his own hands, which leads to a confrontation with Yabuta as opposed to him just letting you go peacefully. Once again, Kunitaka got a raw deal.

One aspect of this route I really liked was the relationship between Miharu and Kyoshiro and how they were basically a beta couple. The two are VERY different and have a long way to go towards understanding each other, but just seeing the baby steps (and comparing their strained, bickering relationship with how easy and loving Tomonari/Suzuno is) was satisfying. THAT SAID, Kyoshiro coming back to life at the end was... convenient, to say the least. He was the ONE major character to die in every route (not counting bad ends), and it got undone.

While it was emotional and I’m glad to see Miharu and the shogun so happy... his death was a very important moment for Suzuno and something that should have weighed on her forever. It’s something that she and Tomonari were partially overcoming when they defeated the blightfall, so having it just undone felt cheap. Especially when it was explicitly stated there was no chance he’d come back.

Yoichi: I ended up liking the relationship and dynamic he had with Suzuno a lot more than I initially expected. Especially since the route started on a trope I’m NOT fond of - fake dating.

Thankfully that was only a small part of the route, and even while pretending to date, the two got to have several REAL conversations. I appreciate Yoichi’s blunt and straightforward attitude, and how he helped Suzuno grow.

I really liked the twist of his route and how it sets him apart from the other vessels. Because Yoichi had his memories from the start, he can fall back on that knowledge/experience to better interact with people. Even if his own feelings are muted, he REMEMBERS emotions enough to be able to recognize (and even manipulate...) them in others and fake them himself. Even retroactively, I feel like applying what I learned about him here helped me understand his actions on OTHER routes.

When it comes to Yoichi’s feelings... that’s where the water gets muddied in the context of the game as a whole. Even at the end of the route, Suzuno can’t see his threads, which suggests that his heart is STILL sealed. However, Yoichi gets offended/upset when she suggests he can’t feel and is pretty insistent that he CAN. Also, considering how... besotted he gets once he and Suzuno actually get together, it’s hard to deny that he’s feeling something. It’s too radical a shift, and there’s no reason for him to be lying at this point.

I can understand and sympathize with the idea of “whether I have a heart/feelings is up to ME”, but when it directly contradicts literally every other route, which clearly shows the threads as an indication of having a heart, it leaves me feeling confused.

Ohtaro: My first playthrough of his route, I was ambivalent up until The Reveal, for reasons I will shortly explain. After that, though, my primary emotion, for QUITE some time, was... vindication.

I’d been suspicious of Ohtaro for quite a while, for several reasons. Some meta reasons (his route ONLY unlocking after Tomonari, who already required completing 3-4 others, was obviously notable), some legitimate foreshadowing that I caught, and some things I was actually just wrong about (in the extras menu, I was CONVINCED his flower was a spider lily, which I know is associated with death. I was surprised and embarrassed when I beat the route and discovered it was a freaking DANDELION).

I figured there had to be some reason Ohtaro’s route came AFTER the poster boy, who in games with locked routes is almost always the final route. So I knew there must be big twists/reveals, and him being a twist villain made sense. So even before hitting his route, I was on the lookout for suspicious behavior from him. I actually caught the line in the Entertainment District common route about “black threads”, but it was so brief I wasn’t sure what it meant. Since the game moved on immediately I assumed it meant everyone saw Suzuno’s power (which is true) removing the threads (false).

I found it curious that in most routes, Ohtaro just LEAVES in the good ending. I thought his behavior in Tomonari’s route was ultra convenient - pitching a fit about being tired so he could leave just before shit went down. Being “useless” against the Divine Blightfall (which the others even call out!). I was primed and READY to catch him as a villain, and by the time I actually started his route I might have been disappointed to be proven wrong.

But I WAS still second-guessing myself and open to being wrong... up until he mentioned emotional imprints. It was then that I KNEW he was hiding shit and I was READY for the reveal. And it didn’t disappoint!

I’ve never seen another otome where one of the love interests is a twist villain big bad. I’ve seen twist villains (but not the main antagonist), and I’ve seen villain love interests that weren’t hiding that they were the enemy, but this was a first. The sheer novelty made this route enticing for me.

More importantly, this reveal retroactively fixed a huge issue I’d been having with his route - namely that the relationship/romance was moving VERY FAST on his end. But that was intentional, because he’s been purposefully trying to seduce her into joining him.

And at first I couldn’t reconcile WHY he wanted her on his side so badly, since it was clear he was manipulating her into joining him rather than actually being in love with her - but why would he care so much about her joining anyway, unless he DID like her? But there was a well thought out answer for that, too. Just like Tomonari, Ohtaro is deeply connected to Suzuno, except through her mother rather than her father. And he wanted her on his side because of that connection.

I think the sorrow ending is VERY helpful/informative on this route. Even after two runs of his good ending, I couldn’t quite accept his sudden shifts in mood and how he treated Suzuno. But seeing a good chunk of his route from his POV clarified a lot. Suzuno was actually RIGHT ON THE MONEY when she asked if he wanted to be stopped long before he was willing to engage with the idea, which is why he divulged as much information as he did and why he was so easily persuaded to give up revenge. And seeing when he started to genuinely like her made the progression of their relationship work better for me too, since from Suzuno’s perspective, there is a DRASTIC shift between before and after she rescues him from the Oniwaban that was a little too sudden for me.

But knowing that he was ALREADY struggling with figuring out his feelings at that point, knowing that he DID like her - and might have thoughtlessly kissed her because HE WANTED to rather than because he thought it was what she wanted, and thus he felt rejected when she bit him - made his falling to pieces when she saved him less abrupt and more believable.

The sorrow ending also just hits really hard in a good way. It fires Chekov’s Gun (which was brought up and NOT fired in the good end) with the netsuke being broken. Tomonari’s call out to Suzuno was SO GOOD and directly points to what DOES happen in the good end where the “correct” way to love someone is not by accepting and going along with your love’s sins but rather by addressing them and trying to do better. The CG of Ohtaro literally dying while he finally acknowledges his feelings and how he wants Suzuno to be free rather than carry on his revenge is painful in the best way. And Suzuno not even realizing she’s become a blightfall (paralleling Hibie, since both turned blightfall out of losing their love) and carrying on Ohtaro’s revenge anyway without meaning to, as she searches for him. God, that ending hurt and I loved it.

Ultimately the game handled basically everything with Ohtaro REALLY well. There was plenty of foreshadowing to his “true nature” and then again there was some foreshadowing in his route of his ACTUAL true nature and wishes. The Oniwaban’s behavior also made sense in this route. Again, there was subtle foreshadowing about them learning/suspecting the truth - there’s a great moment where after Ruriko talks about feeling a pain in her neck, which the vessels assume is important, and we get a text box of Kinji saying nothing, looking concerned. Since vessels have perfect memory, he’d remember that Ohtaro touched her neck and thus would suddenly have reason to suspect him.

The Oniwaban covertly planning and attacking him out of the blue makes sense - they wouldn’t show a blightfall any mercy. I also appreciate that Kyoshiro shuts Suzuno down when she tries to defend Ohtaro or get him to allow her to talk to him again, but then he’s convinced through a logical approach - getting information about Hibie. And it makes sense that Tomonari would help her since that’s in character as I previously established. And while I still think Ohtaro gets forgiven/accepted a bit too easily (especially compared to Kunitaka...), again the story is careful to have it make perfect logical sense.

Barring Tomonari, the rest of the vessels decide to give Ohtaro a chance only AFTER Suzuno’s conversation with him. And notably in that conversation, the concept of the cycle of revenge is brought up, as well as Ohtaro clearly leaning towards accepting Suzuno’s request to stop fighting. So the vessels ONLY give Ohtaro that chance because they don’t want to continue perpetuating that cycle and they know Ohtaro is similarly willing to stop. The shogun similarly chooses to spare his life for those reasons. And again, Yabuta is specifically noted to care about/vouch for Ohtaro, because he’s similarly a “redeemed criminal”, which considering this route FOLLOWS the Entertainment District story, makes sense. Having been forgiven for the trouble HE recently caused, he’s paying that forward.

(I’m still bitter he’s so quick to doubt and try to kill off Kunitaka though).

I’m quite torn on how I feel about what went down in the past as revealed in this route. It’s a messy situation where no one party is entirely guilty... but nor are they innocent. The story certainly tries to frame Suzuno’s mother Setsu as an innocent victim... but at the same time I can’t help but feel she should have tried harder to compromise with the clan or convince them of her way. Hilariously Hibina was kind of right when he called her out for making a bunch of radical statements simply because she wanted to marry an outsider. It doesn’t help that I really don’t like the idea of her praying for a god’s help (basically magical intervention) to ensure she marries a guy she JUST MET. Is that not like... the fantasy version of drugging the guy? And she chose to do that at the expense of EVERY other relationship she had.

I do appreciate that there is very mild pushback to her decisions/actions in how Suzuno does things DIFFERENTLY. In the good ending, she DOES NOT abandon everyone for love - rather she does what her mother failed to do and convince both sides to come together.

There are SO MANY ways the tragedy could have been prevented. If Setsu tried harder to convince the clan; if Hibie hadn’t favored her so strongly; if Hibina hadn’t changed his mind; if the clan had been more open to change. And maybe that’s the point, that this was so preventable, but I’m left frustrated.

The situation is genuinely complicated and I can’t tell if the story is trying to lay the blame anywhere specific or if we’re meant to come out of it with our own interpretation. Personally I align most with Hibina; the gods never should have gotten so involved with humans. He only granted Setsu’s wish before because he was swayed by Hibie, who loved Setsu too much, so it’s tragic that him deciding to reaffirm his stance partially led to everything that happened.

It took me quite a while and I’m honestly still kind of iffy on the middle of this route, but I LOVE where Suzuno and Ohtaro’s relationship ends up. While I *personally* would not have been able to give Ohtaro the chances that she did (I don’t think I would have outed him, but I would have probably stood back and let him die when the Oniwaban ambushed him, reasoning it was for the best), their dynamic by the end is very much up my alley. I like that Suzuno is the one who is confident and in control, while Ohtaro is easily flustered. I like that while he’s not AS cheerful/energetic, it’s made pretty clear that the “act” he had been putting on all the time isn’t so far from his true personality, especially when it comes to his interactions with Suzuno. It means that even while he was trying to seduce her there was a kernel of truth to their early interactions and it has a nice “full circle” feeling.

It’s also quite amusing how prior to his route, she’d been so embarrassed at Ruriko and Tatsu being lovey-dovey in public and couldn’t understand it, yet more than any other route, she’s very open and public with her affections towards Ohtaro.

Finally, this route is clearly something of a “golden” route, and it’s one of the few examples of such that I like. Typically, golden routes try and quickly address and resolve the conflict of all the other routes, which feels rushed and also lessens the importance/impact of those routes. Here, while basically every character (except Hanzo oddly enough) from every route makes an appearance, the conflict is unique. Instead, the other conflicts are resolved by realizing that Ohtaro was behind the issues in every route (he outright mentions he was considering things like fusing Hibie to other powerful blightfall (Genjuro/Yoichi) or sealing Hibie in a cursed object (Tomonari)), so there’s no risk of those issues happening in this timeline now. Meanwhile every other route technically deals with Hibie but Ohtaro is still potentially a threat; it’s possible he’d give up on revenge with Hibie gone, since deep down he already wants to, but who knows whether he’d be able to take that step without Suzuno’s influence.

In terms of my feelings on the routes as a whole, from best to worst:

Ohtaro > Genjuro > Tomonari > Kunitaka > Yoichi > Kinji

My feelings on the romances/relationship with Suzuno:

Genjuro > Ohtaro > Kunitaka = Yoichi > Tomonari > Kinji

[tbaluver]

What Video Game/ Genre The Hashira's Play- Demon Slayer

a/n: just a silly idea bc my head is filled with gaming brainrot esp dress to impress

any likes and reblogs are always appreciated! enjoy! <3

genre: silly

⋆｡‧˚ʚ♡ɞ˚‧｡⋆

Giyu:

He's honestly a chill gamer and mostly just there to have fun and make friends. But never really chats with anybody unless someone talks to him first.

He duo's with Sabito a lot on games. Whatever games Sabito recommends to play, he'll play it. Sabito mostly carries him in FPS ( first person shooter ) games.

One time Sanemi and Obanai were on the enemy team and they won. He would be confused on why they would curse him out every time in the chat saying he was to 'easy' or that he sucks.

Sanemi:

Plays a lot of video games especially during his childhood. He would share his DS or Gameboy with Genya a lot during their childhood.

Mainly plays FPS games or any combat games. Literally anything competitive.

Mostly duo with Obanai in FPS games. He would curse Giyu out with Obanai anytime they would be on the opposing team.

Tries to play with Genya and he tries his best to not rage but eventually he does either at the game or at Genya. Ironically tells Genya not to play games like that anymore because people in the lobby can be toxic.

Would get in trouble a lot from yelling so much at the game at night.

Obanai:

Has played Overcooked with Mitsuri many times. He does not yell at her at all and is super patient when they do not get any stars on the hard levels. They would plan strategies together on how to defeat a level.

Sometimes plays FPS games but only when Sanemi asks him to get on. Will type mean things in chat with Sanemi whenever he sees Giyu on the opposite team.

Misturi:

Has so much fun playing overcooked with Obanai and they are so close to finishing the game. Would make comments about how if she were to drop food in her restaurant she would not serve it to her customers or how she would love to make a recipe like that in real life.

She would play cooking games like Cooking Mama or Good Pizza, Great Pizza. Would literally give a generous amount of toppings on Good Pizza, Great Pizza and would already have 5 stars in her restaurant.

Plays other games like Episode or The Sims or Just Dance. Would have the cutest family in the coziest home that she made on The Sims. She would also be really good on Just Dance.

She would also play Otome games because men irl suck and Obanai won't confess to her yet.

Tengen:

He would be really good in Osu! or any rhythm game. Has also played Fortnite Festival and has the top score in all his friends lists.

Duo with Rengoku often in FPS games. He would also have a big ego when playing any competitive match. "I'm a god in this game"

Rengoku:

Plays a couple FPS games and duos with Tengen.

Plays with his little brother and helps carry him in any game he needs. Usually just loves to spend time with his little brother and plays whatever game he wants.

Played with Sanemi and Obanai a couple times. Sanemi would yell in the mic and have his ears ringing so Rengoku wouldn't notice how loud he actually talks on the mic until Sanemi yells at him.

Shinobu:

Not the biggest fan of playing video games on her free time.

I don't know why but I think she could have fun playing horror games or likes playing chill games like Stardew Valley.

She tried to play an FPS game and played the role as a healer and never picked up the game ever again.

Muichiro:

Would have a hand me down of a DS or gameboy and have loved video games every since.

Have played a lot of video games and plays a lot of games that are trending.

Right now he plays a lot of Minecraft and Roblox.

Teaches the Kamaboko Squad on how to play. They would have a realm and try to beat the enderdragon together.

Gyomei:

He's blind but I feel like the kids would include him in an game they play. I feel like he would like playing story games where choices matter. He would carefully pick the choices and actions so he can save all the characters.

[cheapshrimpysheep]

Obey Me! may not end BUT...

Hi, I just want to clarify something about Obey Me.

In fact, saying that Obey Me will end completely is technically wrong since they said they have new projects. I admit that.

I'll speak for myself, but from what I've seen I believe I'm not the only one in this situation. The thing is, we don't care about what's outside the game.

I can't go to the events even if I wanted to, I would have liked to have bought at least one sheep plushie but the shipping costs is extremely expensive and, quite honestly, I have no interest in Obey Me mangas or animes.

I started playing it because it was an otome game, if I can't play a game where I'm the protagonist and can make my own choices, then I'm not interested. I love the characters, but I learn to love them with us, interacting with us in the game.

The anime and mangas are good complements but I think they should stay like that, as just complements to the main thing that should be the game.

That's why if there's no more story in games, I'm not interested and Obey Me will be over for me, because they'll be taking away the only thing I kept playing for: an interactive story with me.

Another thing is that I love MC and being that MC. We have a strong role in the game's story and we're not just "damsels in distress" who need to be saved. We are the protective heroes who became powerful thanks to the people we love and that is awesome! And I also miss the heavier themes that were there at the beginning of the story.

Maybe Obey Me won't end yet, but if a lot of us started playing because it's an otome game and we want to insert ourselves into the story and be the main character and they take that away from us, then it's inevitable that we'll stop supporting it because there'll be no reason to. I'd try to support things outside of the game to help the game, but if there's no game then I won't have anything to support.

If I'm here for the game and there's no more game, then there's nothing left for me.

If you like everything they do and will continue to follow and support them, great, be happy. But I'll leave if there's nothing there for me.

This is not an attack on people who are happy with what will continue to be done, it is just an attempt to explain the other part of the fandom and why we are sad. And why the fact that they have more projects that may not be a game do not satisfy or even interest us.

Again, this is not an attack. We are all fans. It's just that we gamers/players are just dissatisfied, disappointed and sad fans. 💔

💙💛🧡💚🩷❤️💜

P.S.: The fact that the devs are posting goodbye messages doesn't help either, quite the opposite. 😅

[zachdefense]

can't stop thinking about how Gnosia is the absolute weirdest game I've ever played from a design perspective (complementary). How did they ever make a single-player social-deduction roguelike visual novel with rpg elements? How did they make it so good?

It's a classic Werewolf/Mafia game in space. The roguelike nature means it's actually a puzzle you have to figure out each time, instead of just picking up on story hints and foreshadowing. And you not only get to learn things about the other players, you have to get to know them to know how to read and manipulate them. Where other games need you to learn "After you dodge twice, the boss is open to attacks", Gnosia needs you to learn "Jonas will always trust Kurushka, so if you're suspicious of her then you should make sure he doesn't have many allies either" or "People really like Otome so don't accuse her of anything before building up some goodwill of your own". It's been a couple years since I played it but I still remember all of these character interactions because they're not only fun characters in the story, but understanding them is integral to the actual gameplay.

And speaking of gameplay, the rpg elements are just perfect. Your stats are things like "Draw less attention from the imposters when you're outspoken in trials" and "People trust your accusations more". By putting those things in plain text as stats they can be changed, it makes the player keep them in mind as game mechanics. If you get killed off early, it feels less like "wow the rng sucks" and more like "maybe I should accuse people less and so I don't get targeted, even if it means more people getting killed". It's a great way of making sure that these mechanics aren't just tutorialized once and forgotten, but that they're top of mind as solutions to problems.

They made it all mesh together so well. And I haven't even talked about the story yet, the story is also real good, but the design is just *chef's kiss*

[somerandomdere]

Yan! reader x second female lead! darling

warnings: implications of suicide, slight angst, mentions of reader's obsessive behaviour, worried its too long so I split it into 2 parts I know I'm supposed to be working on requests but I can't get this idea out of my mind :(

You have reincarnated into a world of your comfort otome game, The Wind Falls. You played this game over and over in your previous life, not because the storyline was great or anything, but because of your favourite character, the second female lead, Aleena.

She's everything you'd dream to have in a girlfriend. Kind, diligent, loyal and warm. You just couldn't understand why the main character never chose her. However, no matter what choice you pick, you never ended up with her.

This caused you to obsess over her, filling your bedroom with her pics from ceiling to the floor, praised her in every forum you are in, psycho analysing her personality and micro expressions to everything about her. She was your comfort character, your warm home, everything to you. You wish someone like her will come to you in real life, so you could escape from this hell.

Every time you went home and got beaten up, you played your favourite scenes of her. Every time you got bullied at your school, watching her made you forget about your bruises and pain. On your darkest days, she was your light.

But you know she will never appear in real life, for such an angel does not exist in this society.

So you decided to go to her.

By jumping in front of a speeding truck.

"Fuck..." You opened your eyes, and found yourself in a classroom. The sun was blazing, the rays blinding your eyes. Your skin was sticky, and you were sweating all over. You feel your muscles aching, did this body run a thousand miles or something?

You lent another student's pocket mirror to take a good look at your appearance. You possessed the body of an athletic student. No wonder you were sweating so much. Fit, slim and muscular, this was the body type you were constantly praying to have in your previous life.

Maybe you can start over.

After returning the pocket mirror, you scanned the people in your class. When your eyes landed on Aleena, it felt like the world slowly came to a stop. Your angel was in the same universe as you, and she was even more beautiful than in the game! Dark, cascading curls fell over her shoulders and her long eyelashes fluttered as she revises her homework she had to hand up later on. You were in ecstasy, even drugs could never replicate this happiness and love you felt for her.

"Quiet down class! I have an important announcement to make. We have a new student who came all the way from the UK! Please introduce yourself!" You snapped out of it and returned your attention to the teacher, even though your heart was thumping.

A boy about the same height as you, wears a frown on his face as he introduced himself as Elias. He was dark, brooding, mysterious, definitely would be male lead of any novel he's in. And as you guessed, his name sounded very familiar. Elias, the male lead of The Wind Falls, also the character you play when playing the game. To be honest, to you, he looked really overrated. Your heart only belongs to Aleena and no one else.

Looking at Aleena, you could already tell she was smitten by him. Her pupils turned into a heart like something out of a cartoon, and she was blushing intensely.

But of course, as the second female lead, she never had a chance with him. His assigned seat was beside the snobbish, rich and tsundere girl, Angela, also known as the female lead of the game.

You realised you never had a chance with Aleena as you were just a mob in this game realm. Yet you wanted to see her smile. you didn't need her to reciprocate your feelings, as long she's happy, you're happy. And you will do anything to achieve this.

A few days later, Aleena tries to win Elias over with some home cooked food, but unluckily for her, Angela thought of the same idea. When Aleena was trying to muster up the courage to give Elias the lunch, Angela cuts in and with her usual arrogant look, sets down her 9 tier lunch in front of him.

Watching from afar, you could tell Aleena felt defeated looking at that glamorous lunchbox. You honestly wanted to permanently get rid of Angela so Aleena and Elias could have their happy ending. Elias, opens the glamorous lunchbox, and the food inside...was so unlike the outside. Burnt to a crisp, the food didn't look appetising at all. Nevertheless, Elias told Aleena he will eat hers another day and chose Angela.

You were boiling mad. Doesn't he see how much effort Aleena had put for him? Didn't he see her hands that were covered in band aids? Doesn't he know how early she must have woken up to prepare the lunchbox for him? While Angela dared to feed the one she supposedly loved with burnt food that was pretty much charred and could possibly cause food poisoning, Aleena gave her all and only gave the best to him. Yet he chose Angela over Aleena. He doesn't deserve her, you thought.

At this moment, Aleena runs out of the classroom, and Elias didn't even glance at her. Worried about Aleena, you chased after her.

"Hey...your lunchbox looked pretty good. You don't mind if I finish it for you right? It's bad to let food go to waste. Besides, I forgot my wallet today and I'm pretty hungry." You pretended to nonchalantly start a conversation with her.

Targeting her kind heart was foul play, but it worked. She gave her lunchbox to you her hand her hand her hand and both of you headed up to the roof together. As you ate her lunchbox, you could feel the warmth and love she had for Elias. All of Elias's favourite food, nice prepared in an elegant manner he would love you wish it was for you. As Aleena cried about how Elias will never look her way, you didn't want to discourage Aleena and wanted to resist the temptation to kill Elias, came up with a plan. You will set Aleena up with Elias.

There's a reason why you're a yandere. Anything for your darling

reference from the manga oneshot Make Heroine wo Katasetai! taglist: @suiana @forbidden-sunlight @allurilove @mightypossibly @hana-no-seiiki @yxami @maleyanderecafe @moyazaika @losersiren @faux-ecrivain @oct0bra1ns @lizzaneia-elizalde @misstycloud @purerae @puripurin @darling--core @heartfullofleeches @godnectar @yandere-writer-momo @lovverletters @loveydoveysunray also tell me if you want to be tagged. I got this idea from other writers :)

Guys, I'm working on part 2 of yandere actor x crew reader and some requests so don't worry! It's my break now, I finally have time to write.

Also, notice how I bolded every mention of Aleena because reader is obsessed with her. And they never bolded their own name because Aleena is much more important to them than anything else.

Also, I appreciate feedback! PLS PLS PLS GV FEEDBACK

[luxiaosh]

" we will do our best to deliver a story every month so that users who do not participate in or cannot participate in guild PvP (player vs player) can enjoy it. after episode 7, there will be an episode with seasonal elements, followed by the Season 1 finale. the production of season 2 has also been decided. thanks to all of you. thank you very much.

we have heard requests for a loop-type story event, but with the current system, we can only produce one episode per month while maintaining this quality. we don't even have the capacity to supervise other stories. in the future, we may have more time as we accumulate know-how, but for now, we would be happy to do our best with the current policy. we apologize for our lack of ability, and we appreciate your understanding. " okay, i think this is a more accurate translation that i took from twitter.

anyway, this ad really got me. i always wondered how they would continue the game's story after the end of episode 7 and if it would be the kind of arc for each character like most otome games try to bring. but as said, tokyo debunker is still developing and until april i thought it wouldn't be as big a deal as twisted wonderland, obey me ! and even lovebrush chronicles, but man, i can say that it exceeded my expectations in terms of design, choice of voice actor's ( i can hear jade and tohma ), construction of the characters and the mc, and the manga / comic panels, which is my favorite part of the game.

and, in fact, i really believe that tdb has great possibilities for growth even with its flaws such as the use of artificial intelligence in most scenarios, but what i want to say is that yes, i am happy that there will be a continuation of a 2nd season because we know that tdb and all its elements is really great that it deserves a continuation and to give us, fans of the game and those who are part of the fandom, answers to our speculations and our favorite characters.

whatever comes, it's good to see that the industry is doing its best and i'm looking forward to pvp and more recognition being added to this game that has since held a special place for me ! ! <3

[mifluffy-thoughts]

MLQC & LaDs Comparison: Sylus and Gavin

This is the first post in my planned series comparing the LIs of LaDs to the ones from MLQC. I am doing this as InFold has already shown they have a few things they tend to gravitate towards in their writing, and common themes between the two stories can help better understand both and possibly even come up with theories. Originally, I planned to do a comparison between Sylus and all the MLQC LIs, but I just had too many things to talk about with these two so I'm going to do it one by one. For clarity's sake, the MLQC MC will be referred to as P!MC (producer MC) and the LaDs MC will be referred to as H!MC (hunter MC).

MAJOR SPOILER WARNING FOR BOTH GAMES

General Stuff

Sylus and Gavin are practically polar opposites if looked at from afar. Sylus is a criminal, Gavin is a cop. Sylus loves fancy suits, Gavin absolutely hates them (even if he looks great in them :3). Sylus's main colors palette-wise are black and red, Gavin's are blue and white. Sylus has very particular tastes and will barely touch anything he finds to not be "good enough" (you will not catch this man wearing Shein) meanwhile Gavin just wants his stuff to be functional. Sylus does not have the best musical abilities, while Gavin can play the guitar and sing on-tune. I could go on and on about the things they are complete opposites in, and they are on a surface level, but there's a lot more to look at with these two. Dates and Birds

The first thing that came to mind while I was thinking about this is the fact that they have dates that are terrifyingly similar in concept. When I was reading Sylus's Nightplumes memoria, my jaw hit the fucking floor. The concept is fairly simple. H!MC finds an injured dove and asks Sylus to take care of it when she has to leave Linkon. When she returns, they have a cute romantic moment when they meet up and when they free the dove.

Now, let me tell you the concept for Gavin's Brilliant Date. This date is attached to a card from an event in which the player had to log in daily and do a small task to eventually get the free SSR card. The story behind the event is this: Gavin finds an injured dove and begins taking care of it, however he gets a mission and has to leave, so he asks P!MC to take care of it. The date attached to the card shows their meet up once Gavin comes back and the romantic moments that takes place before, during and after they release the dove.

Sound familiar?

While the romantic moments that take place in the dates (as in, the scene with the snow and fireworks for Nightplumes and the window and rooftop scenes for the Brilliant Date) are very different, the overall concept is practically identical, the roles are just switched. And listen, I don't know if "nursing an injured dove back to health while the character who first found the bird is out of town" is a common trope in Chinese VNs (I have only played LaDs and MLQC. I tried Tears of Themis, it wasn't my jam), but in all other otome games that I've played, and I've played a lot, I have only seen this happen in these two occasions. Please correct me if I'm wrong, tho.

Now, what does this imply about the connections between these characters? Well, I feel like this was mainly just to strengthen both of the characters' bird connections, as they are both associated with birds. Sylus's bird association is much more concrete, with the crow imagery basically being yelled at us every other second. Gavin, on the other hand, is much less connected with one bird but rather all birds (that can fly). Gavin acts a lot like a bird- he eats everything with little complaint, he prefers to enter P!MC's apartment through the window, he is very curious and often gets into shit he shouldn't. As such, these two dates serve to highlight these two characters' "birdiness". Tracking MC and Protectiveness

You read that right, both of these characters track MC (with her consent, ofc), albeit in different ways. Sylus tracks H!MC via Mephisto and Gavin tracks P!MC using his Evol (although at first he tells P!MC it's through a GPS tracker in the bracelet he gifted her, probably because this was only a few hours after she found out Evol existed and didn't want to freak her out even more and to have a easy way to identify her). The reason they track MC is the exact same, to keep her safe. Both of them know their MC is being targeted by dangerous forces, and they are unwilling to risk her getting into danger.

However, there is one major difference in the ways they track MC that show a key difference in their protectiveness. Due to Mephisto having a camera and microphone, Sylus doesn't just know where H!MC is, he also knows what she's doing and what she's saying. This gives him a perfect image of what she's up to and, more importantly, who's around her. Sylus knows H!MC is in extreme danger not just because of her Evol and the aether core and whatnot, but also because she's involved with him. She's a target for countless of people. Not only that, she's a hunter. Her job puts her life on the line constantly as she fights to protect Linkon from wanderers.

Sylus knows how reckless H!MC can get if it means saving others. He's experienced that first hand. He knows the lengths she went to just to save him. Of course, we all know how that ended, since he was willing to do the same. But H!MC way back when they first met didn't love anyone aside from him. Now, there's so many people she loves, and he's terrified of that being used against her in any remotely similar way to how it was used in the past. Gavin, on the other hand, only knows where P!MC is. From what I gather, his Evol lets him "feel" what's in the wind. The bracelet was probably just a way for him to easily know that it's her since it's one-of-a-kind. Once he got used to how she felt, he didn't need it anymore. And while he may be protective of her, and he may be terrified of what could happen to her, he has much less to fear than Sylus.

Unlike Sylus (so far), Gavin knows he's not the only one looking out for MC. At the bare minimum, he knows Lucien will protect her, and implications from chapter 18 show that he might also be aware that Victor and Kiro are also looking out for her. And those are just the strongest. Minor and Anna are also keeping her safe in their own ways. Gavin will protect her the most he can, and is willing to go to any lengths to keep her safe, but his worry is much less about who could be a danger to P!MC, it's about what. When P!MC is about to get shot, who saves her? Gavin. Because he knew where she was and he could feel both the sniper and the bullet. And this happens twice. When P!MC is falling from Loveland TV Tower, who saves her? Gavin. Because he could feel her falling and could save her quickly. And in all but one of these situations, Gavin isn't the only one keeping P!MC safe. The first time someone tries to shoot her, Lucies further protects her with a force field. When P!MC is falling, Kiro is making sure Black Swan doesn't get to her.

So yeah, this is something where they are both extremely similar and also very different.

MC Saving them Through Music

The way Gavin's Evol awakened is pretty iconic (if you're in the MLQC fandom). For those who are unaware, Gavin fell off the roof of his and P!MC's high school. Unless something miraculously broke his fall, he was going to die. But then he heard P!MC playing the piano. Something about the tune she was playing awakened the Evol within him, allowing him to fly by controlling the around him. This made a ton of gingko leaves fly around him, and he was able to survive. Had it not been because of P!MC's song, he would have died.

Then there's Sylus. The way her song saved him is in a much less physical sense, but it was because of her song that he was not only able to begin understanding human emotion, but also get the will to survive for long enough to save H!MC. When he first hears the song on the organ, he is genuinely moved. Up until that point, he thought he was basically unable to feel anything aside from desire. Whether it was the desire for acceptance, the desire for gold or the desire for revenge, that was all he knew. But the song made him feel something different. When he was injured to near-death, it was that song that gave him the will to live. Of course, we all know how this story ends.

Honestly, both of these moments are extremely heart breaking. Neither Sylus nor Gavin really cared about their own lives. Sure, Sylus pretended he was happy just collecting treasure and getting revenge on those who trapped him, but he was absolutely hated by everyone. As soon as his horns started growing, his world fell apart. Everyone attacked him, everyone thought he was a monster and he hated it. And then Gavin was made to feel like dirt by his father. The only reason Gavin was alive was to protect his mother and his brother, but eventually he lost them both. And as soon as his father saw any potential in him, he became just another pawn in his games. Music reminded both of them that there's more to life then just surviving.

Other Stuff

To wrap it all off, I'll just list some other things I noticed about these two that are worth mentioning but don't have enough juice for me to write paragraphs and paragraphs of.

Both of them went through some kind of "rebirth". Gavin had his rebirth with his Evol awakening (keep in mind he thought he had no Evol as far as I'm aware) and Sylus had his dragon rebirth

Both of them learn that justice isn't as simple as it's made out to be in the worst way possible. Sylus through how he was hated by everyone due to being a dragon and how P!MC was tried in court and Gavin through basically his entire arc in S1

Both of their backstories are heavily linked to a plant. Gavin has the ginkgo while Sylus has the datura

Both of them are often perceived to be cruel or monstrous by others, especially when they were younger

Both of them have several occasions where their MC has to patch up their wounds

And that's it! Hope you enjoyed this very thorough comparison. Up next will probably be Zayne and Gavin because I just cannot stop thinking about their similarities. No promises, tho! -Fluffy

[tianasficrecs168]

Kimetsu no Yaiba fic recs

Some of these are juvenile and silly (case in point: "Right here, on my phone", Zenitsu uses flirt: it's super effective!) but I like them.

Also, any reader stuff you see that's on my list is quality - as in, the character that's supposed to be the reader (us) has just enough of a personality that I really just consider this an OC fic with weird pronoun use.

On a completey unrelated note, I'm going to strangle Surveycorpjean specifically. Their fics are so fuckin good omg, I lose my shit every time.

Anyway, you know the drill.

A black dot • means it’s a one-shot

A heart ♡ means it’s focused on Sexy times (it’s pure filth PWP, or like, a plot focused on getting to the porn part lol)

Brackets (…) means it's still being updated/not done/WIP – and I'm paying close attention to it

Esselle: “Fuwafuwa” (Tanjirou/Inosuke) • Inosuke likes it when people tell him he's great at things, because it's true, and they should all acknowledge how powerful he is. But whenever Tanjiro does it, it makes him feel… weird. -- ふわふわ (fuwafuwa) can mean several different things: 1. Fluffy; soft. 2. Light and airy. 3. The way Tanjiro makes Inosuke feel.

Perliegrimm: “Tempura” (Tanjirou/Inosuke) • Inosuke’s habit of ranting to Nezuko is one borne out of the available knowledge that she can’t gossip to anyone- thus making her the perfect confidant in aiding (and concealing) his secret feelings for a certain swordsman. At least… That’s what he thinks. (Not that Inosuke necessarily thinks.)

Horae: “The Boy in the Box” (Tanjirou/Zenitsu) Nezuko didn’t think much of the boy sobbing in the road, until he protected Tanjiro. Tanjiro knew Zenitsu was different when he first met him, and couldn’t help but chase the scent peaches and kindness, literally. It’s only fair that he take care of Zenitsu, after he got hurt protecting him, right? Role Reversal AU: Where Nezuko is a demon slayer and Demon!Tanjiro immediately takes an interest in Zenitsu. Takes place from Nezuko and Zenitsu’s meeting to the gang's recovery in the butterfly estate.

Kinyve: “Right here, on my phone” (Tanjirou/Zenitsu) Zenitsu has a magical device that keeps track of his relationships in real life with cute hearts, kind of like an otome game! Wait, why does Tanjirou have bombs? what do the bombs mean does Tanjirou hate him oh fuck Tanjirou hates him wh-

Kinyve: “Lean on” (Tanjirou/Zenitsu) • Zenitsu's about to get a stiff neck if this guy doesn't get a move on.

 Kinyve: “The Transmigration of Kaigaku Inadama” (...) (SI!OC/Rengoku) Kaigaku thought that was it. After jumping off the bridge, he’d be dead. Or at least, he should be. Instead, he woke up staring up at a dazzling blue sky, the sickeningly sweet scent of peaches wafting through his nostrils, and his head on a particularly sturdy rock.

Bonsaiy: “Worship the flame” (Sanemi/Giyuu) •♡ Sanemi encounters a demon with a pesky lust-related Demon Blood Art in the south of Honshu, and heroically exterminates it before it can make prey of anymore innocent humans. This fic is not about that. This fic is about the aftermath, and about Giyuu finally becoming closer to Shinazugawa. Just... not in the way he probably first thought about.

Bonsaiy: “The troposphere in his eyes” (Sanemi/Giyuu) • Shinazugawa Sanemi, Tomioka Giyuu, and approximately 25 cliché fanfiction tropes.

Grenades: - “So full of love (I could barely eat)” (Sanemi/Giyuu) • “...Do you think I’m a bad cook?”  A gust of air pushes its way through Sanemi’s open mouth. “What?”  Tomioka flushes- no, he blushes, ears and cheeks dark- and looks away. “The ohagi. Was it bad?”  Sanemi was expecting Tomioka to kill him, or mock him- but this is so, so much worse.

Bloodsbane: - “Warm Body, Soft Breath” (Tanjirou/Inosuke) “What are you two doing?” “It’s just cuddling, Inosuke.” The strange eyes of the boar mask tilted back in the Kamado siblings’ direction. “What’s cuddling?”

Novashyperion: “There’s Room Here For Two” (Inosuke/Zenitsu) • Inosuke has no sense of personal space, and Zenitsu learns that the hard way. It becomes a lot easier as time goes on. - 3 Times Inosuke used Zenitsu as a bed/pillow, and 1 Time Zenitsu did the same.

Glueskin: “They say there’s good grief” (Sanemi/Giyuu) but how can you tell it from the bad? or, giyuu begins the painstaking process of trying to remember how to be a functional human being.

Favspacetwink: “Peace in your violence” (Sanemi/Giyuu)♡ • “Mmnh - mmnh - mmnh-” “Better keep it down, Tomioka,” Sanemi breathes in his ear. Giyuu groans into the hand covering his mouth. “What did I just fucking say?”

JuniRiceBall: “Rip and tear” (Sanemi/Giyuu)♡ • For a mission, Tomioka Giyuu has to borrow one of Shinazugawa Sanemi's yukatas. Too bad it causes one of them to overheat.

Neoqueenserenity: “Jealous of the Moon” (Sanemi/Giyuu) • "Shinazugawa, I'm not taking your last name unless I'm getting something out of it." Before he realized what he'd said out loud, he noticed the wind pillar's face contort in rage. “WAIT NO THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT—” He ducked on instinct, barely missing the fist aimed for his skull. Or: Giyuu and Sanemi are sent on a mission together to take down a demon who targets brothers, and they pretend to be siblings. It does not go well.

Orenji: “Home is with you” (Sanemi/Giyuu) • Sanemi’s face crumples. “Fuck,” he says, huffing out a short laugh, throwing his head back. “You’re gonna make me cry. I hate you.” “You don’t,” Giyuu says, confidently, fondly. “You love me. Just as much as I love you.” (Giyuu has never believed in fate, but meeting Sanemi again hundreds of years later seems like the Universe is giving them one more shot to get it right.)

Pinkichor: “Comfort of a Storm” (Tanjirou/Zenitsu) • Zenitsu’s entire body seemed to drop like he was exhausted without the will to take another step. “Tanjiro...doesn’t your blanket smell good enough? It’s certainly less weird.” Tanjiro wrapped his arms around Zenitsu, shaking his head, pulling cloth with the movement. “This is better.” Zenitsu tried his very best to walk forward with Tanjiro affectionately attached to his back, but Tanjiro picked up his feet when Zenitsu did, and the only thing he succeeded in was bringing Tanjiro to his chosen futon.

Frogsterz: “To be special” (Tanjirou/Inosuke) • “Shut up!” Inosuke wants to scream, but then he realises Tanjirou absolutely must not wake up and settles for a death hiss, hands curling against his sides. Stupid thinking stupid foresight stupid— “I don’t think about those kinds of things! They’re a waste of time! And pack means family!" “Well a pack doesn’t have to be blood-related, I don’t think,” Zenitsu flops onto the grass and stares at the sky. “I think having someone to love would be a very nice thing to have, you know. The whole—not being alone thing, not being given up on thing.” (Or, Inosuke is special to Tanjirou. Tanjirou is special to Inosuke. They've really got to work on their communication.)

 Frogsterz: “Christ, just hold still” (Sanemi/Reader) There are many things that after a year of being in the Demon Slayer medical corps you’ve gotten used to. The stench of ash and blood in the air. The sight of half-eaten, half-chewed bodies strewn across the floor. Applying tourniquets, lopping off limbs when they’ve been beyond saving, patching up the lightly and the grievously injured. You can handle just about anything now. But this? This asshole who keeps running away from you and your attempts to stop him from fucking bleeding out in a forest? He really pisses you off.

Kenmagoesblep: “Human manners 101” (Tanjirou/Zenitsu/Inosuke) • Being an uneducated feral boy, Inosuke gets thrown off, confused and overwhelmed over the smallest, stupidest things. It’s really embarrassing. So, while they’re not obliged to do any of this, Tanjiro and Zenitsu have this nonverbal agreement that they’d do their best to teach Inosuke some basic human knowledge. Building pillow forts, however, doesn't qualify as such, yet here they are.

StrawBunni: - “Zenitsu uses flirt: it's super effective!” (Tanjirou/Zenitsu/Inosuke) Sensing that the conversation is done, Zenitsu pushes away from the door and continues heading towards the roof, thinking through what he just heard. Flirting to get what you want, huh? Would that actually work for someone like him too? or High School AU where Zenitsu decides to try and use flirting to get Inosuke and Tanjiro to follow the dress code and ends up with two boyfriends instead, which for some reason he didn’t see coming.

Redyarns: - “Acoustics” (Zenitsu/Tanjirou) • “Well,” Zenitsu sighed, finishing the wrap and tucking it with a good pull. He needed to thank his Gramps for teaching him how to treat minor wounds. “Be more careful, okay? You’re the best one out of all of us, we can’t lose you to a minor demon.” “I love you,” Tanjirou said, and it came out breathy, like he hadn’t meant to say it. Zenitsu snorted and gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Love you too,” he said sarcastically. “Huh?” Tanjirou said. “I love you too?” Zenitsu repeated slowly, now getting confused when Tanjirou’s sound became sour with disappointment. “Uh, right? We’re friends? We are friends, right?” He said, suddenly nervous. “Yes, of course we are,” Tanjirou said immediately, and though there was still that sharp twang of sourness in his sound, at least he was smiling. Weird. *** Five times Tanjirou confessed and one time Zenitsu got it.

Kagshina: “Ignite” (Tanjirou/Zenitsu/Inosuke) • Inosuke’s chest clenches without explanation. Whatever this feeling is, he doesn’t like it. Tanjiro’s not supposed to cry. Tanjiro’s supposed to be strong, like him. He punches Zenitsu’s shoulder. “Why the hell is Tanjiro crying?! That’s supposed to be your thing!” (In which Inosuke witnesses affection and there’s lots of crying.)

xtwilightzx (blackidyll): “Daybreak” (Tanjirou/Giyuu) • Giyuu is asleep on his side, head turned towards Tanjirou, close enough that Tanjirou would barely need to stretch to touch him. Tanjirou just looks— —and the wonder sets in slowly, like dawn gradually seeping colour into the darkness of the night.

Surveycorpjean: “Killer Downpour” (Inosuke/Tanjirou/Zenitsu) Once again, the world feels so small, and Tanjirou’s heart feels so big.

[projectcrimson]

WHB Characters

Now, I know that WHB is still an underrated game, but, there is a reason why OM is better. The reasons are; the world building, the flaws of the characters, the NPCS, and the lore.

What I'm going to focus on this post are; their flaws.

Because they are Demons, they should be flawed and treated as such. Before the brothers discovered that we were Lilith's Descendant, they had shown the flaws of their sin they represented beforehand, once they did, they would try and work on their flaws but not the title of their sin. Because it adds on to their character personality and, character wise, they are born with it.

Exs;

Mammon is Greed, before and after he met MC, he's in debt and poor because of that and is possessive towards MC cuz he's greedy.

Lucifer is Pride, I'm not good at explaining but, he isn't good at communicating his feelings towards his brothers other than annoyance, anger or any other emotion that would seem like he isn't concerned about them. That's why MC is there.

Satan is Wrath, he knocked us onto a bookshelf, disagrees with Lucifer on the daily to either piss him off or doesn't want to be proved wrong, anger issues (obvi). He acted worse before he met MC and is working on to keep his temper in check.

Beelzebub wanted to eat us, Asmodeus didn't care about us, Belphegor hated us for being human and killed us. Diavolo saw us as nothing but insignificant because we are only human and not a sorcerer like Solomon is.

All of them are interesting because of their flaws.

we have different character dynamics depending on which demon, human or angel we interact with. In my opinion, that is the reason why the Otome game is unique compared to other games.

What makes us important to them other than being Solomon's Descendant?

How does our relationship work?

What is our role in their life?

What makes our dynamic unique? Ask this type of questions when creating an Otome game before creating the lore.

Because why care about the story if we do not care about the characters?

Now, do the main Demons have any flaws? The most flawed character I've seen is Leviathan, which makes him interesting in my eyes, probably Lucifer as well. Fan service is great 'n all but, it can only get you so far until your audience dwindles because you only focus on how hot the demons are.

I can't say too much about the Lore and the world building since I'm only on Chapter 2, so you can go ahead and tell me I'm wrong so that I can learn more about WHB! I still love the game regardless. ^-^

(The company needs to hire a better English translator though :') )

[journalsouppe]

The Touchstarved DEMO by @redspringstudio! I had so much fun replaying this DEMO over and over, I truly cannot wait for the full release. The art is gorgeous, the writing is excellent, and I am surprised at how much I really loved each character, I expected to at least hate one or two of them like with My Next Life lol. I highly recommend checking out the DEMO if you're a fan of otome games or gothic stories!

The DEMO can be found here on itch.io or here on steam! All the stickers are from different Hallween stickerbooks from Michael's Art Store ^^; (ngl I think this is one of my favorite spreads, I even did do some studies of the color/rendering fhdjsf)

Writing typed below! (plus extra notes)

Rating: 9.5 (demo score - great demo) Played: Sp 2024 Port: itch.io Play full? Y YES!!!!!!

Comments:

First Route: Origin - Unnamed. RO - Leander

love you have a choice of 3 origins

GORGEOUS ART!

this game made me realize I do really enjoy otome games and not as a joke or for irony lol fjdkfal

from initial appearances I like Vere and Mhin ^^;

all the gold on the angel doctor is so gorgeous

killer music

okay I thought I wouldn't like Leander but holy shit --

LMAO NOT HIS SEX ROOM

LETS go I got the special Leander option on the first try

I need to do studies of this art oml I need my art to look like this <3

DAMN, now I'm bummed I missed the kickstarter, I would LOVE the art book

I need the stickers too esp for when I journal the full version

not only do I like the art, the writing is very good too

Vere is so pretty...

I LOVE all the fun marketing lore and illustrations on the Red Spring Socials

ooo damn does Vere have a red option or did I do his route right without one

only three red choice dialogue. 4 recently for Kuras (no Vere)-- Vere has one now!!! Kuras and Vere should have them whenever the DEMO gets an update ^_^

I'm learning I'm good at making the correct decisions lol

I honestly didn't know you could die until after I finished Vere's route (2nd route I did correctly -- 1st was Leander) and was curious what submit surrender did (aka I didn't die initially but went back to see what would happen(

LMFAO NOT MHIN BLUSHING WHEN I TELL THEM OFF pfft

LMAOOO and now Mhin is scolding me

amused with who has slept with who

deathly curious on how fucked up Leander will be

Kuras's nose!!!!! <3

I love the concept designs of Sen and Elyon, I can't wait to meet them

LMFAO 'BASTARD'

ngl I love Ais's mullet

This should not have been one of my first otome games bc now my standards are so high, esp in regards to character design

I wonder if the flashing soulless in the title screen means we'll see more soulless in the full game (than just the one)

okay damn I also really like Ais, these are some really well written characters

LMAO I was not expecting this music for Kuras

oh interesting I didn't realize Mhin's red choice was during your first encounter if you're an alchemist

okay Kuras is very silly and goofy 10/10 guy

ooo good theories about Ocudeus and control on tumblr - "obedience" -- reference to someone thinking the "obedience suits you" line on Ais's character card was actually from Ocudeus not Ais

Summary:

I thought when playing more otome games it would be really hard to beat My Next Life, simply because I am a huge fan of the source material that preceded the game. But wow, with the way this game is setting up plotlines, the full version of this game could easily make it onto my top favorite games list. Otome games are all about replayability, and the way just the DEMO is so rich with content and alternating paths makes me so excited and hopeful for the full game's release. I am bummed I got onto the Touchstarved train late and missed the kickstarter, but hopefully a shop will open around release bc I'd kill for an art book. The art is just so gorgeous and I cannot wait to do some studies, especially with color and rendering. Before playing otome games, I like to look at the character profiles beforehand and predict who I'd like and dislike. And I am very delightfully surprised that any initial dislike I had of characters all but vanished because the writing and personalities of these characters were so well made. I thought I was going to hate Leander but he ended up being the character I'm most curious about. Although I would say my least favorite is Kuras simply bc I'm not a fan of romancing doctors, I am still curious about his background story and connection to the others. In other words, great character who is just not my type. I am also delightfully surprised at the "vulgarity" in this game without being overly explicit -- I have grown so tired of how sanitized a lot of games and shows have been that it's always really nice seeing indie companies play by their own rules. I am so glad I stumbled across this game!! At this point I've done every route favorably but haven't tried all the "wrong" options -- more to play whenever I think about how excited I am for the full game! I've also seen the sneak peaks of an upcoming update ^_^. Highly recommend the game!!

[harocat]

As a huge love between fairy and devil lover whose favorite couple of all time is XLH and DFQC (love you header btw) I want to watch eastern fantasy what can you tell me about it? All I know is she goes into a game or something? How's the otp? I know nothing can be as good as those two but is it at least the same trope of how much they both adored each other and were willing to sacrifice for each other?

YES you should definitely watch it!

So Ling Miaomiao is a modern woman and the fan of a famous novelist, who just released his newest work, Catching Demons. She speed reads it (she's even listening to the audio of it while in a meeting at work yes queen), and realizes she... hates it. Completely despises it even though she really loves this author's work most of the time. Naturally she gets online to complain about it, and as she's doing so, she gets sucked into the world of the novel where she's in the body of the second female lead, the cruel, sinister, and doomed to die Lin Yu. 'The system' (a nebulous mysterious force that brought her in) gives her two tasks:

Survive the novel to the end

Make the second male lead, Mu Sheng, fall in love with her.

Mu Sheng is the second male lead in the novel, and not only does he end up as an antagonist, but he's literally the one who kills Lin Yu. So it seems an impossible task.

Of course though, it turns out Mu Sheng is rough with a gooey center; a true tsundere. He's love starved and lonely. He has a huge secret that he has to hide from everyone around him, including his beloved sister. It doesn't take much, just a lot of being herself, for him to start falling for Ling Miaomiao.

The game mechanics are the way 'the system' presents the story, so LMM has to try and get Mu Sheng to an 100% approval rating toward her, sort of like an otome game. There's lots of cute little jokes playing on this story mechanic (LMM commenting on 'how good the special effects are', using modern terminology and confusing people).

The rest of the plot is fun too! It indeed involves a lot of 'catching demons', as well as an overarching storyline about a powerful demon who 'cracked the sky' nine hundred years ago and is returning to try and end the world again. The costumes are wonderful, the effects are solid, and the acting is strong. There are lots of found family vibes among the main group and a child character who is not annoying.

Comparing it to LBFAD, LBFAD is more interested in diving deep into the characters and giving them pretty drastic development arcs. You are not going to get quite the character depth DFQC and XLH had, nor really, the relationship depth. And that's okay. LGIEF moves pretty briskly, and it is just a little lighter on the whole (though I know it will still break my heart like LBFAD did). It probably won't totally change your life and rewrite your brain chemistry like I'm sure LBFAD did, but you will have SO MUCH fun and the ship is super lovable and has eaten my brain.

Esther Yu and Ding Yuxi have GREAT chemistry. Esther is absolutely adorable at all times; funny and charming and looking the prettiest she's ever looked in one of the best Cdrama wardrobes ever. Ding Yuxi has puppy dog eyes on LOCK. He's brusque and sad and angry, but he is marshmallow sweet and so earnest as he experiences his first love. They are SO soft, and absolutely, they'd die for each other. So yes, WATCH IT.

[mistyscenter]

Is like….1 am but whatever

KEYFRAMES MCs!! but why yes dear viewer, I have reused my Our Life MCs, but jokes on you these three are their own original characters in their own original stories because making AUs of your ocs is fun!! Anyways here's some fun facts about them:

Taliyah:

They went into law because their mom used to be a lawyer, she passed away when Taliyah was 17

Taliyah is the middle child of a triplet

They have diagnosed Autism and GAD and because of it they're allowed to have an Emotional Support Animal

Her name is Mooncakes, she's a calico, everyone loves her

They're a pair skater

Their dad is Black American while their mom is 2nd generation Sudanese immigrant

Minoring in English Literature

Kaavya:

Child of divorce, doesn't speak with their mom anymore

In high school they were known to take as many clubs and extracurricular as they could, no one knew how they managed...everything

They've actually known Mateo since high school, they're best friends

Went into law because of the money and also trying to help people

That's what they tell people, but is half a lie the main reason why is Ace Attorney

Not the most athletic type but can run pretty fast and has good reflexes

Them and Deja have the same exact spice tolerance, they both had a few competitions over this

Indian American, 2nd generation immigrant

They do not know how to use social media, the only apps they have on their phone are the messenger app and otome games

Mateo:

Biggest hater you'll ever meet /j

He's actually super nice and kind, great with kids and a great friend to vent to, it just takes them a while to open up to people

Goth, will fear 3 layers of clothing in summer, they dress to impress

Slowest fucking slow burn with Percy, he doesn't realizes their feelings for him until the end of summer

His family is composed of their parents and little sisters: Marigold (15) and Clàrissa (5), their sisters are the most important people in the world to him

He has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, uses a cane most of the times to get around campus but they do own a wheelchair for bad days

On that note in the rainy day moment the boys actually go visit him after Deja told them (in the vaguest way possible) why Mateo wanted to come but couldn't

Picked law for the same reasons as Cam, is also minoring in Art History

Afro-Mexican, 1st generation, family moved in the US when he was 3

With all of that being said I'm very much enjoying keyframes and will draw more of the gang, Deja by far is my favorite character and Elio is my favorite LI, I will make a more proper post for these three but this is all you'll get for now. goodnight y'all

[strunmah-mah]

So I saw this interesting post discussing the bashing of otome heroines, and the person i saw it from had some tags comparing the OBSCURA and Touchstarved mc's and the different fan response to them. Which go me thinking, but reposing to it there felt like it would have derailed that post, some I'm putting my thoughts here instead.

Basically the tags were an observation that OBSCURA's mc gets treated as their own character (Vesper) whose popularity is comparable to that of all the different love interests. Meanwhile Touchstarved's fandom doesn't seem to rally around one singular MC with everyone having own OC instead. This despite the fact that their both gender neutral blank slates you never even really see.

I'd noticed that too and got thinking of why that is, so here's my theory.

Name. Notice that I referred to OBSCURA's mc as Vesper, but didn't give a name to Touchstarved's mc? When asking what your name is OBSCURA auto suggests a name. There's a not insignificant number of people that when given an auto suggested name won't go to the effort of changing it. (ex My first time playing a Legend of Zelda game it didn't even occur to me to change Link's name despite it definitely being an option.) And despite still being a reader insert just the act of giving them name makes Vesper feel like a more defined then Touchstarved unnamed MC does.

Origins. Vesper is Vesper. Who they were before the start of OBSCURA doesn't really matter, no matter what you might hc they were like before the start of the story, they still enter the mountain with the skill set no matter what. Touchstarved's mc is deliberately fluid. They have three different possible backgrounds and which one you pick does effect the mc's skill set. Make your own oc is literally built into the game.

Presentation of information. Touchstarved is very upfront about their mc's motivations. You are cursed. It's very isolating and has caused you to hurt others unintentionally. You are looking for a cure. What your curse is is never really a question. That's a very different experience from playing OBSCURA. The games hook is "people don't go under the mountain unless they have a good reason, unfortunately you have a great reason" it does not say the reason, it's a great hook. So you play the game, you go under the mountain and you find out what you're looking for is . . . blue moon ichor. You have no context for what that is, it's not initially explained, but it makes people pity you. It's not until you meet one of the LI's that it's revealed you want the ichor. You only only learn about Vesper's motivations as they chose to reveal that information to others. It's an interesting story telling choice. For me, it was more engaging to have Vesper being just as much of a mystery as everything else, than Touchstarved approach of giving that information upfront, but it comes at a cost. The MC's are both supposed to be self inserts, but hiding that information puts distance you and Vesper again making them feel more like their own character than a self insert.

Choice. Atleast as far the demos go Vesper's choices matter more. Your choices change who you meet, if you get a partner to help you face the future, or if you fail to achieve your goal chapter one. The Touchstarved mc makes choices too, it gives you slightly different dialog and you then you move on with your day. The TS MC is a vehicle to meet that game's LI's, your choices change what side of them you get to see. In Obscura your choices affect Vesper first and fore most, which again gives Vesper a stronger sense of character.

Just to be clear, I don't want this to sound like me dunking on RedSpringStudios and say they can't make good characters. Boy can they! All five of their love interests are full of character and intrigue. It's like I said in point two, the "build your own oc" approach seems very purposeful. It's a fan response they've encouraged, even releasing bio templates that match the official bios of all the LI's. This is what they wanted.

What amuses me is that RottenRaccons did not seem to realize what they had done. They seem very surprised but pleased by how much fans are latching onto Vesper as their own character.

[variouspolltournaments]

Anti-Propaganda is not allowed. Please only give reasons to vote for something and not give reasons to vote against something.

Propaganda

Hiyoko Tosaka: human girl dating birds. extremely strong. the way she speaks is also hilarious. i love her.

Lucette Riella Britton: I really like her as a protagonist because she's not your typical romance visual novel mc girl just ready to fall in love once the initial conflict has been sorted through (which I'm not shitting on btw, I love those MCs too). I like an MC who is headstrong and independent and it takes them a while to fall in love because they're too focused on their goal to worry about romance.

And that's what Lucette is but it's so much more than that because she's genuinely a horrible person and she doesn't actually believe that she or others are capable of love. She was brainwashed and gaslit as a child into believing that literally everyone in the world except for her mother would only be kind to her (even down to small things like smiling at her) if they wanted or needed something from her. By the time she's 17 and the game has begun, she's fully internalized that lesson and she's cold, rude, and all around pretty heartless.

And I really really like that Lucette starts out with those traits because I feel like so often in visual novel games, the MC is kinda this vague character that nearly every player should be able to relate to, but Lucette has a personality, and it's a bad one, and that makes her so interesting! Especially since you get to see her grow and change into a kind, loving, and trusting person throughout the game.

So often hero's quests are about good people who want to be great, but Lucette's quest is awesome because her whole story is a unique, beautiful, and interesting redemption arc about a bad person trying not to turn out worse than she already is and dooming her kingdom in the process.

[trashlie]

Love and Deepspace Thoughts

I promised some thoughts about Love and Deepspace and we're a week into the game and I think I can finally ramble about it for a while. I've been immensely enjoying myself and screaming daily with my friends lol and I think I've been able to formulate my thoughts pretty well! Idk how many people actually wanna read this, but I always love to have a record of my thoughts - especially something this early in game, because knowing papergames, there's going to be so much angst, so many twists and turns, and I'm already seeing a lot of threads of how things could play out and I like to be able to look back and see how wrong I was lol.

I play on the North American server and have completed chapter 7, so this will be full of spoilers for story content, as well as a lot of spoilers for anecdotes, tender moments, and some of the myth stuff - I'll try to denote where I'll mention certain spoilers in case you're trying avoid certain things, but it'd be impossible to write all of my sincere thoughts and capture all of what I really love and am looking forward to without spoilers, unfortunately.

Below will have a lot of thoughts on the current LIs as well as speculation about the 2 coming LIs, as well as their dynamics, and further speculation on where I think - or maybe just would like to see - the story could be going. To be clear, I have not cleared all anecdotes or myths, as I'm trying to savor things and good lord I cannot pull all those cards; a lot of this is compilation between my experiences as well as @poisonheart and further things I've read and discussed in the server. I will also be approaching this as a longtime player of MLQC, papergames' other otome game, because I cannot help but see the comparisons between the game and sing the praises of where I feel like they've grown and refined, but I don't think you'll need to have played MLQC to read this - you can honestly just ignore those bits lol >A<

What I can outright, sans spoilers, say is that I'm really enjoying Love and Deepspace so much and I think that it's come at a really good time for me, personally, as a MLQC player, because there's so much in game that's been completed and we're basically going through the motions doing our dailies, waiting for our new chapter events or participating in the occasional events (if you aren't hoarding resources for SP wish tree events) so it feels SO refreshing to dive into a new game that takes place in the same universe/world but have so much new stuff to uncover, so much new lore, new characters to meet and get to know. In MLQC I have a very clear favorite, but so far in LADS, I find that while I think I might have a favorite, I really enjoy all three LIs so much and I don't feel bad when I pull someone else's card, because it means I get to gobble all the lore! I don't feel like "UUUGGHH THIS GUY" when we get to X's chapter route. Perhaps it's just that LADS really caters to specific tropes and cliches in a way that I enjoy, but I feel so much like they've done these characters great justice! This goes for the MC, too, who doesn't feel at all like a cookie cutter MC meant to be a stand in for our own self-insert, but rather has a lot of personality of her own, is feisty and discerning.

Also, I gotta give a lot of props to the character customization features. I understand why people are upset that you can only change your hair and hair color in the photobooth function, but we rarely see MC out of that feature - so much of the game is in first person POV - and the times that we do see her, she's seen from the back, so maintaining the same hair for all characters allows them to keep something they can use for her stand in in such scenarios. But the customization is legit nuts! You can do so much with it, I spent so long tweaking mine the day before the game launched! I want to make side accounts I will never play just to play with that function lol

But let's get into the good stuff!

I really cannot sing the praises for the LIs enough, and that's going to be the bulk of what I'll talk about, because even this early in game, there's so much nuance to the LIs in both their characters as well as their dynamics with MC. Everyone brings a little something different to the table, and with what little we know of the upcoming LIs, I think even if for some reason the current LIs don't work for people, maybe the new ones might? But personally, I am so invested in all three of them! While I think I have a definite ranking in favor forming, it's not like it means I dislike any of them at all, and I'm always so eager to learn more!

One thing I'd like to mention before getting into it is that I love the inclusion of the myth cards, and though they are treated as alternate universes, I think it's more like they are previous or parallel timelines, but I'll try to get into that a little more as I talk about the characters!

From what I can see so far, I think Rafayel is one of the more popular fans with the North American/English-speaking fanbase - and it's not hard to see why! He's sassy, provides good comedy, he's fun to bully, and he's really pouty. I had a feeling he would be my favorite from the get go, just because I tend to have a thing for really pathetic men lmao and I have SUCH a fondness for him. I said I think I have a ranking forming, but it feels WRONG to rank them because that's how much I really like them, but if I had to, Rafayel's #2 position is really, REALLY close to #1! But the thing is, it's not just because of all of those traits above. I'd argue that he's one of the characters who has a lot of iceberg depth, as in there's a lot of depth to him that may get ignored or glossed over because of the sass and brattiness that accompanies, or even masks, it. As poisonheart puts it, the comedy hides the pain - and Rafayel comes with a LOT of pain! There's a delicious complexity to him where he is one part needy and clingy, but also one part resentful and hurt. MC made a promise that she doesn't recall - whether it was in this life or another - and you really get the sense that Rafayel wants to settle the score, but at the same time his feelings get in the way of those bitter, hurt feelings, and I really enjoy this complexity a lot! I think it elevates all of the sassiness, gives it a purpose and meaning.

Take his Nightly Stroll Bond: on the one hand it comes across as comedic and even manipulative -and it is! But when you get into it, you understand why. That's not to say if I think there's justification for manipulation because that's not what I'm here for; I'm just here for a good time and a good time I'm having. But when Rafayel says "It's been 800 years!" I don't think that's an exaggeration - he just isn't talking about just the day that he waited. Is faking an injury/illness and checking himself into a hospital overkill? Sure lol but that's what makes him so delightful to me. There's all of this hurt and unaddressed resentment, but as much as that, there's all of these feelings! Because even though he's hurt, he CARES about MC, SO MUCH. That's the problem! It would be easier if he didn't care, but he does. He's so needy, so clingy, he wants her attention because he's waited for so long while she was off, having forgotten him, living a life that abandoned and left him behind while he waited and waited and listen ;~; my stinky fish man I'm so sorry I cannot wait for her to learn the truth. I want to know SO BADLY what happened! When did they meet, anyway? He makes a comment on the homescreen when he's sulking lol about "See you in three months... three minutes, landlubber"

HOW LONG DID HE WAIT FOR HER IF ONE MINUTE IS ONE MONTH TO HIM?!

And listen, idk what anyone else thinks, but the end of chapter 7 had me in my FEELINGS, with the way he tried to leave her at the bottom of the ocean - but he couldn't, because of their promise, because he's unable to go back on it, because even though she forgot all about him and their promise and went about her life without a memory of him, he can't do that. It's the hurt! It's the resentment! It's the confliction between his feelings, because it seems like they take up equal space - his hunger for her attention, for what feels like she was so fickle to give and take away, the way she meant so much to him and he feels like it wasn't the same ;A;

(I've contemplated how possible it is that they met when she was younger, before she was attacked in the Wanderer incident 14 years ago, and if that could somehow have affected her memory, but I feel like it must be something greater, because seeing the fish glow in his heart means the vow they made was binding, so something strong must've caused her to forget. But that's also why I've contemplated if this was in another life? I'm less sure about this, because in Rafayel's second anecdote, he crosses paths with MC at university, though of course she doesn't recognize or recall him, and he specifically recognizes her voice. "Though her voice has matured, her pronunciation, enunciation, the rhythm of her speech, and even the emphasis in her sentences... Every word strikes like a drumbeat, awakening long-buried memories in his mind" It feels more likely that it happened while they were younger. Also I feel like this passage really encompasses her significance, that he can recall these details, to recognize them after so much time ;~; stinky fish you make my heart ache ;~;)

I appreciate so much that they've given Rafayel so much depth, that under the comedy of his pathetic, sulky exterior is so much reason for it, that there's an undercurrent of resentment and something dark - after all, we haven't actually uncovered what happened with the painting and Raymond. We saw the mermaid skeleton in his house - was Rafayel seeking revenge for his people?

But Rafayel also shows tremendous emotional sensitivity, in ways that sometimes catch me off guard. I distinctly remember lol sitting in shock after 4-3, and the text from Rafayel that pops up asking MC if she got the thing, telling her about how he asked a seagull to send a white seallshell why hasn't it arrived yet lol and I remember going "NOT NOW RAFAYEL READ THE ROOM ;~;" and then he goes on, telling her "if you draw on it and put it into the ocean the sea will carry the feelings you poured into the drawing to the soul you yearn for" and I just started SOBBING lol ;~; It was just so.... poignant but so simple. He didn't say I'm sorry for your loss or my condolences or anything like that - it was his own chaotic, weird method, but it was sincere. Likewise, he shows that similar sincerity in Ocean At Night, despite initially dismissing paper lanterns as silly human traditions - a lantern will be blown out why would you put all your hope in something so fleeting - coming around to using his own flame, that will never go out, to light a lantern for MC with the prayer that her hopes will never go out. ;~; Listen, I cried. I was TENDER my heart was soggy ;~;

And while I know people love a good pathetic man and enjoy chaotic sass and the fact that we really, truly NEVER know where his plots are going to go lmao - always an adventure with him - I hope they appreciate that depth and don't disavow the darker elements of him that give reason to those core elements of him. Rafayel is a character that carries his hurt and bitterness on his sleeve, rather than hiding it or shoving it away, and I really look forward to exploring it and all the messiness it has to offer, and how it will play out for MC.

On the very far end of the spectrum is Zayne. He's the character I expected to not be too fond of, so I was so pleasantly surprised as we got to know him to find myself proven wrong! I expected him to be... hm... I guess colder? More prickly? Than he turns out to be? And, admittedly, he is still rather aloof and cold on the surface, but I think it helps that he and MC have that history and that we are introduced very early to them through the A Frozen Promise Bond. It made it readily apparent that Zayne was not a cold and aloof person because he was too lofty or something but rather... it just seemed like maybe he'd been someone more awkward when he was younger, someone who didn't know how to connect very well with the daughter of this family friend, but he still tried. The snow seal took me out, you guys ;~; I never moved on from that!!!!!!

Despite seeming so cold, there's a certain kind of warmth to Zayne, just under the surface. He shows his care and concern in the ways he knows best, as MC's PCP, caring about her well being and health, but their Tender Moments are a collection of wonderful moments showing them growing closer, getting to know each other better as people, as friends and equals. For the record, Starry Nocturne hurt me so much, but it did two things I thought were so important. a. It showed that he was not infallible, which I think is very important, because often characters are written in their roles as geniuses who never fail, or else accomplish the impossible, and to see him lose a patient, while painful to read, made him so human but also b. It gave him that moment of vulnerability with MC where he could lean on her. It's so, SO important! for a MI to be able to lean on the MC, I feel, for them to be those equals, for him to be able to be vulnerable with her, but especially so for a character like Zayne who feels very reserved and closed off.

MC makes statements about feeling like there's distance between her and Zayne, especially when they first come back into each others' lives for the first time, so getting to indulge in these little Tender Moments of them taking little steps towards each other, closing that gap between them, is so satisfying! Having that history gives them a dynamic unlike Rafayel or Xavier's with her, because she has her memories of their childhood, of who he was when they were younger, and who they are now, and can compare the warmth of him opening up, of the chuckles and laughter she elicits from him. They also have this kind of flirtship I really enjoy - something very coy, not in an uwu so shy way just.... very coy, both dancing around the bush, before one of them calls it what it is - I thought the A Heartfelt Paradise Tender Moment a really good example of this!

It's so easy to read Zayne as being cold and aloof, but he really does have so much warmth, he just isn't good at showing it. He doesn't wear things on his sleeves like Rafayel or MC. But good LORD when he's in private....!!!!!!! The Business Trip Memoria TOOK. ME. OUT!!!!!! This is the game launch and they're already throwing this at us?! It was, to me, such a mature kind of date to give us? Two people who have had to grow used to each other's absence in their lives, and continue having to make space for those absences, as both are busy people - Zayne, a dedicated cardiac surgeon and MC a hunter - and what it means to grow used to the absence and to miss each other. But listen - when MC got in his lap?! She was touching his mouth? His face?! "What did you want me to do, in front of all those people?" he asked her? SIR?!

HELLO?! Girl. Listen.

I had to fan myself alfjkkfkjafjkafkjaf lmao

I looooooove them for that element of normalcy - for the people who have important careers and lives that they have to attend to, but still find the room for each other in their lives. The implication that Zayne rushed his way through school, took on grueling workloads and lacked a social life amongst classmates much older than him, not because he loved learning or even because he was so dedicated to his career - but because it was his way back to MC, so that he could return to stand in front of her? GOD. HOW DO YOU MOVE ON FROM THAT? HOW DO YOU HANDLE THAT? Knowing that he did it all so that he could stand in front of you again? HOWLING pls LISTEN.

Zayne may feel cold on the surface, but he is SO warm, he cares so much. And not just about MC, either. Thank God, too, because I'm not huge on the "Cold man only cares about the woman he loves" type, but Zayne cares so much about his patients, and making sure they feel seen, cared about? His first anecdote had me crying about seniors in hospitals with no relatives to accompany them to their examinations ;~; What a man.

I haven't had a chance to dig into his myth yet, which is a shame, but his third anecdote DID destroy me. I'm not even exaggerating, I was sobbing in my bedroom - and the worst part is I knew it would be painful going in and I still wasn't braced for impact enough! I mean, frankly, both his second and third hurt but nothing like the third! Parallel universe Zayne in a grim reaper role where he must kill humans turning into Wanderers - so very opposite the surgeon version of him who does everything he can to save people, both of them living parallel lives to each other, experiencing each others' lives through their dreams/nightmares. THIS HAS ME SCREAMING!!!!!

So much of MLQC has a lot to do with timelines - parallel worlds, some alternate universes, a whole timeline that's technically the same timeline reset but also still moving forward...... lol I can't help but think about where all of this fits in to LADS. Even though the Myth storylines are taken as alternate universes.... I think they're part of everyone's stories. We see echos of them. I haven't finished Rafayel's but even little moments, like making a break for it and having to run to escape attention echos a scene of Rafayel and the Princess MC making a mad dash in the market alley to escape the palace guards. It feels especially true for Xavier and MC, which I'll get to. But especially with Zayne - whose myth, again, I haven't been able to dig into, but seems to pose him as a sort of god, a forseer - we have two very different timelines/events now: his myth/Philos story and his parallel Grim Reaper self. How many timelines/parallel universes are we playing with, I wonder....?

I really want to revisit this in the future when I do get to dig into his myth, because I can see how Rafayel and Xavier's myths tie into their identities and their dynamics with MC, but I don't know yet how any of that works for Zayne and MC! I'm so intrigued, I can't wait!!!!

And finally, Xavier. God, I should have known lol in retrospect I should have realized Xavier would be my weak spot but listen..... sometimes I gotta lie to myself lol I love everything about him, the seemingly gentle eepy man who is also simultaneously a walking weapon of mass destruction but also so easily stumped by a UFO machine lol. Much like Rafayel, I'm especially fond of him because of the depth and dynamics, but also, honestly, much like Rafayel, he just checks all the boxes. Poisonheart puts it best when she says Xavier is the perfect middle-ground of the two - he's not as sassy as Rafayel is, but he'll still roast MC, he's very grounded and comes off a little aloof sometimes, but he doesn't seem nearly as aloof as Zayne, and he's also really unintentionally funny! He plays the middle-ground of them SO well. And where Zayne was working hard in order to show up in front of MC again and Rafayel has a score to settle but also so much neediness, it feels like Xavier has a LOT of karma to make up for.

Now, I personally don't have his myth cards, but poisonheart does, so everything I know I've experienced via her and all of our hours of screaming lol and the thing that really gets me the most about Xavier and MC is like..... okay it's the way he's clearly this really incredibly strong guy, but he plays the submissive prey role so well? lol He begs if she tells her to, he doesn't resist, he indulges her, he plays along - but when the mood strikes, he'll pull the dominant switch and flip the table and alkfjlFKJKAFJ ALKJFAF LAKJFAKFKJFAJ AFLKJD GODDDDDDDD IT GETS TO MEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Xavier has that sense of like.... everything for MC, right? Like he's making up for a lifetime. There's implications that maybe he's been searching through space and time for her, trying to find her, that they've lost and each other countless times before - or rather, she's lost him - and his Shooting Stars myth supports this. Sometimes it's really subtle, sometimes it stands out so much I'm in agony. She remarks so often how he feels so distant, like he's as out of reach and mysterious as a star. She has nightmares about him disappearing and he is incredibly reassuring about staying, about not leaving. And maybe I'm reading into it, but he even talks about her hanging on tight, like maybe if she's strong enough, she can keep him from ever being taken away, keep them from being separated this time.

He's also the one who feels like he's actually endured all the years. Rather than separate timelines or parallel worlds it feels like Xavier has actually traveled through space and time, like he's the same Xavier from the myth himself, which makes him talking about the loneliness of stars so much worse. How long has he been alone, searching for her? ;~;

But their dynamic just really gets to me - it's those echos, the way MC subconsciously acts on them, and how indulgent Xavier is towards her. It's the playful teasing and the gentleness and how he plays so submissive and docile but when the mood strikes he can switch it up and catch her (and me!!!) off guard. It's the way he texts LMAO never writing out you or one lmao (which is marginally better than Rafayel's COMPLETE LACK OF PUNCTUATION LMAO ALFKAJFKJAFKJAFKJAFJK) It's the way he has that innocent baby face and could absolutely get away with murder.

Initially I had contemplated if it was possible he is actually a star and while maybe that isn't true I am still not certain he's human - at least he's not from our world (especially if he really is the very Xavier from the myth) but I still like to think of him as one, because he wears the star motif so well and likens himself to one so often. Also, look, I am a SUCKER for a star motif. I was doomed from the start lol.

There's just something about the agony and TRAGEDY in their past, in the echos, the subconscious fears, and the sheer indulgence!!!!! It's MC telling Xavier he might be her enemy later and the distress it caused him, prompting him to share his access privileges with her to earn her trust ;A; It's the way he's apparently spent DECADES, at the VERY LEAST, on our earth AND HE'S A TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE COOK lmaoooooooo it's the stupid little lines he says because he's not as overtly clingy and pouty as Rafayel but an armful of plushies is a dreadful thing because then he doesn't have a free hand to hold MC's hand !!!!!!! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BE NORMAL ABOUT THIS?! WHINES

I could write a whole essay about Xavier and I'm restraining myself and attempting to be really, really normal about him okay?

But yeah for him it's that depth of like... the guilt and agony he carries - because not only does leaving her hurt him, but it hurts himself, too. That unbearable loneliness, the endless wait, hoping, wondering, unsure of when, or if, he'll find her again, but refusing to give up - and when he does, endeavoring to make up for it. Like, as it is, there's something about strong men being submissive that is so lakkjfkafkjfkjaf alfjakfaf but it's the way Xavier does it with MC that is soooooo INDULGENT, so VERY "for you, because it's you" that makes me want to chew my keyboard and howl at the moon and every time he reassures her he won't leave I feel dread but also I want it to be true.

I know how papergames operates. I know Xavier may mean it, but I also know.... ;A;

And to think, this is all JUST THE LAUNCH STUFF! We haven't even passed chapter 8 yet lmao We don't even have all our LIs! We've (maybe?) yet to meet our antagonist? WHICH I'M EXCITED ABOUT BTW

Listen.

I have some thoughts and I'll try to keep them short (yknow, for me) because this is already long and rambly and maybe I can just expand on this later but: Sylus and Caleb are confirmed as LIs right? But are they the same person or not??????

If Sylus = Caleb it gives us a LOT of potential for exploring some really complex, grey morality. I mean, no matter what, Sylus is going to bring grey morality lol but especially if it turns out Caleb is actually secretly the leader of Onychinus, because it brings that whole "Who is this person I thought I knew?" and more so because Onychinus is poised as an enemy to the Hunter's Association.

But something Papergames has done in MLQC and I fully expect them to do here is explore grey morality, not only in Onychinus, but the Hunter's Association. Xavier's Tender Moments Garden of Secrets brings up the implication that some Wanderers are, in fact, intelligent, and while it's rare, it can occur. And with parallel world Grim Reaper Zayne having to kill people before they turn into Wanderers it begs the question of this world: can that happen here, too? And it gets into the moral conundrums. That's not to say the Hunter's Association are bad for killing Wanderers and protecting people but it starts to bring up questions, because in Grim Reaper Zayne's world, this is being covered up. What about this world? There's also the question of what is Onychinus even doing? I fully expect to find that whatever their objective is, it will be a question of the greater good and if the ends justify the means and the such.

Ultimately, an antagonist LI has to be sympathetic in some fashion, because how else are they going to write the story for them lol. Like they can certainly have Bond/Memoria/Tender Moments that are more about the combative element of their relationship meeting the chemistry that draws them to each other, but at any rate, there has to be something that draws them to each other and makes them care, right? So therefore, he can't be entirely bad, or at least MC has to be able to empathize with him and his objective, or the cause of it or something like that.

If Caleb = Sylus, that might be more achievable because of their history, but obviously that isn't a requirement, and that can also make it more complex, because again, that whole "this person I thought I knew".

I think there's a possibility for that overlap partly because we already have a LI with a history with MC - but to be fair, Zayne's history with MC is very different than Caleb's and has a different dynamic, so even if they didn't give him the villain route, it would still play out very differently and give them a significantly different enough dynamic that I don't think it would be a big issue.

If he's not Sylus, then there's still a lot of avenues to explore with Caleb. They've already implied that Caleb wants to take care of MC, wants her to lean on him and let him play that role for him, to stop being so strong in front of him, and I think that could very well affect his story and what has lead to his "death". Being in the airforce makes me wonder if it's possible that the military is associated in any way with Onychinus - after all, didn't he say that he does top secret work involving the deepspace tunnel, and isn't Onychinus interested in that? It wouldn't be the first time a government agency was written as being corrupt lol (and again there could be a lot gray morality here where Onychinus isn't necessarily inherently bad). Caleb could have gotten involved simply by his job.

There's the revenge angle, if he, too, was an experiment subject (which would make sense because why did Granny take him in as well?) and wanting to get back at? the people who experimented on them. Or wanting to be more involved? A spy case? SO many possibilities and I'm really excited to see where it all goes!

I think regardless of how Caleb is reintroduced to the story, I imagine there's going to be some kind of conflict - his "death" and then reappearance.... did he know that was going to happen? was it planned? was he involved? I don't think they'll bring him back and yay! now she has a family member back but I think there will be some kind of strife to work through, some good ol angst that really plays with the dynamic of feeling hurt and betrayed but wanting to return to the old times that can never be returned to, wanting to seek refuge in someone who maybe doesn't exist anymore, being drawn to someone you cared so much about and feeling so conflicted about it alfkjkfjkjafjkaf kj

I JUST HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS!!!!!!!!!!

This is such a rambling mess so kudos to anyone who made it this far. Maybe I'll manage to write some more bitesized thoughts later @___@