#Targeted Re-sequencing

[trendingreportz]

Genomics Market - Forecast(2024 - 2030)

Global Genomic Market Overview:

A genome is the genetic material of an organism. It includes both the genes and the noncoding DNA, as well as mitochondrial DNA and chloroplast DNA. The study of genomes is called genomics. The genomics market is gaining traction owing to its applications in various fields of study such as intragenomic phenomenon including epistasis, pleiotropy, heterosis, and other interactions between loci and alleles within the genome. In this era of medical and life science innovations shaping itself as an inevitable uptake for sustainability of mankind, the genomic research is poised for exponential growth owing to imperative genetic innovations feeding off it. Abundant potential has driven this arcade to reach a staggering market size of $16 billion - $16.5 billion as of 2018, and the demand is estimated to increment at formidable CAGR of 9.2% to 10.2% during the forecast period of 2019 to 2025.

Request Sample

Global Genomic Market Outlook:

Genomics is extensively employed in healthcare, agriculture, biotechnology, DNA sequencing, and diagnostics. In the healthcare segment, genomics is used for the development of vaccines and drugs. This segment leads the application vertical and is growing with a CAGR of 10.1%-10.7 % through to 2025. Genomics plays a significant part in diagnosis of several genetic disorders. It has an ample scope in personalized medication as it can advocate a medical management constructed on the genetic face of a person with the help of clinical data and AI.  It is also applied in synthetic biology and bioengineering. Genomics research in agriculture is hired for plant breeding and genetics to cultivate crop production. The understanding of gene function and the accessibility of genomic maps along with an enhanced understanding of genetic variant will aid the plant breeders to identify the traits and then manipulate those traits to obtain a high yield. All these factors affecting the enormous medical and agricultural sector are all set to stroke the genomics market with abundant demand.

Inquiry Before Buying

Global Genomic Market Growth Drivers:

As per the National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S, the progression in oncology (study and treatment of tumor) expenses is forecast to rise 7%–10% annually throughout 2020, with universal oncology cost exceeding $150 billion[1]. As per the WHO, cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for an estimated 9.6 million deaths in 2018[2]. And the total annual economic cost of cancer at the initial period of this decade was estimated at approximately $1.16 trillion. Thus the application of genomics in exploring cell-free circulating DNA by several R&D sectors as a potential biomarker for cancers is driving the market towards exponential growth. The genomics market with its current potential displays all the necessary traits it can adapt in the coming years to divert a huge chunk of traffic and revenue from the omnipresent cancer diagnostics.

As per the Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations, between 1960 and 1990 the arable land increased by 1.5 billion ha, and in the recent past decades the elevation recorded is just 155 million ha[3]. With decreasing arable floor and the increasing global population augmenting the demand for food by 70% (by 2050), obtaining a high yield is a major trend in the agricultural sector. Genomics market is all set to capitalize on this unprecedented demand scenario. Genomics supplements the understanding of gene function and the accessibility of genomic maps along with an enhanced understanding of genetic variant, thus aiding the plant breeders to identify the traits and then manipulate those traits to obtain a high yield.

After an acute analysis of the regional insights of the global genomics market, North America is revealed to hold 39% to 40% of the entire global market size as of 2018. Such dominance can be attributed to several aspects such as cumulative investment on research by federal administrations, growing patient awareness, and accessibility of urbane healthcare facilities.

Schedule a Call

Global Genomics Market Players Perspective:

Some of other key players profiled in this IndustryARC business intelligence report are Beckton Dickson, Synthetic Genomics Inc. (SGI) ,Cepheid, Inc., Affymetrix, Inc., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Agilent Technologies, GE Healthcare, Illumina, Inc., Danaher Corporation,F. Hoffmann-La Roche, QIAGEN, Thermo Fisher Scientific and PacBio (Pacific Biosciences of California). Majority of the companies mentioned are situated in North America augmenting the regional affluence in the global market.

Global Genomics Market Trends:

High overload owing to a wide range of reagents and consumables has propelled companies into approving different policies to endure in the market and stay ahead of the curve.

For instance, in January 2017, BD launched Precise WTA Reagents for precise and guileless quantification of hereditary data form single cell analysis. Moreover, in July 2016, SGI-DNA entered into a distribution agreement with VWR International, an American company involved in the distribution of research laboratory products, with over 1,200,000 items to more than 250,000 customers in North America and Europe.

Genomics Market Research Scope

The base year of the study is 2018, with forecast done up to 2025. The study presents a thorough analysis of the competitive landscape, taking into account the market shares of the leading companies. It also provides information on unit shipments. These provide the key market participants with the necessary business intelligence and help them understand the future of the Genomics Market. The assessment includes the forecast, an overview of the competitive structure, the market shares of the competitors, as well as the market trends, market demands, market drivers, market challenges, and product analysis. The market drivers and restraints have been assessed to fathom their impact over the forecast period. This report further identifies the key opportunities for growth while also detailing the key challenges and possible threats. The key areas of focus include the types of equipment in the Genomics Market, and their specific applications in different phases of industrial operations.

Buy Now

Genomics Market Report: Industry Coverage

Types of Solutions Genomics Market:

By Product Types- Microarray chip, Sequencers.

By Application- Genotyping, SNP analysis.

By End-User- Anthropology, Diagnostics.

The Genomics Market report also analyzes the major geographic regions for the market as well as the major countries for the market in these regions. The regions and countries covered in the study include:

North America: The U.S., Canada, Mexico

South America: Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica

Europe: The U.K., Germany, Italy, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Denmark

APAC: China, Japan, Australia, South Korea, India, Taiwan, Malaysia, Hong Kong

Middle East and Africa: Israel, South Africa, Saudi Arabia

[dreamofhircine]

The pilots are not government property, that's a common misconception.

Only their training is.

They get to keep the implants, the neural interface ports, the subdermal autoinjectors (depleted of chemical supply) even the targeted brain & optical augments that bump up their reaction speeds but the training data is too important to allow for uncontrolled proliferation or mercenary employment.

They take it back the same way they put in in: hypnotherapeutic memory injection, cracking open the deepest parts of their minds with carefully calibrated sequences of light and sound and highly compressed data that slowly spools out inside them, guided along the decompression and integration sequence by highly controlled training sequences and neural test patterns.

The problem is that they don't really have anything to put back in once they've sanitized the mind of lifetimes worth of cockpit experience and subconscious conditioning, they don't have a 'happy civilian' template equivalent to the Pilot Template that they inject into and mold the recruits around so most leave the process with barely two thoughts to rub together for warmth. All the wiring is still there, the neurons are (mostly) undamaged and firing but it'll be years before all the rights memories are re-seeded and all the correct pathways re-forged to create something as functional as they were when they started.

So yeah, they drool. They twitch. They stare at walls and space out, drop conversations mid-sentence, fall asleep standing up and forget nearly any set of directions you give them but they'll get better. Probably. Eventually.

[ratgrinders]

re oisin, i still wanna know why he apologized to adaine in the cafeteria. was he trying to smooth ruffled feathers bc jace said so? was he genuinely at least a little regretful that he was about to help kipperlily fuck up their last stand exam? i feel like him and maryann really havent shown their rage at all (yet, rip maryann's strawberry) and i was hoping to get some kind of indication of his actual feelings about the bad kids

oh this is so true, yeah if i'm remembering correctly the sequence of events in the cafeteria are:

kipperlilly picks a fight with kristin -> bad kids debate amongst themselves over which rat grinders suck and which are good -> adaine says "well what about the wizard one he seems cool!" -> Every One of the bad kids pointing out oisin to Adaine -> Oisin opening his mouth like he's going to say something but saying "sorry" instead.

so like, did oisin see evidence that any sort of resentment he felt towards adaine was not returned and felt guilty? was he originally going to say more but the reminder of the bad kids' presence kept him from saying it? like its especially interesting to me that it's done in response to a compliment adaine gave him, and what was he originally going to say!!

and ditto on his actual feelings towards the bad kids. we know all about kipperlilly's motivations but barely any on the others. even his feelings on adaine specifically, like going out of his way to taunt her with a sending spell at fabians birthday party. that seems VERY targeted, and we still dont really know why!

[dangermousie]

My Dearest looked at Scent of Time and said "hold my beer." This is honestly how you show so much in so little.

We finally get a proper flashback as to how Ryang Eum came to be with Jang Hyun and it's a doozy. Because RE was being kept (yes, the way it sounds) as a child (!!!) by some psycho noble. And said noble got jealous of attention from someone else so was branding a small kid (!!) and we see teen Jang Hyun, a fellow servant there.

The way he asks this shows what this household is like in one short sentence - that cruelty and insanity are just routine.

And then as the master keeps torturing his small child abuse victim, something in JH snaps and without any warning, and completely calmly, he smashes the man's head in. I cheered.

No wonder RE is forever JH's - he saved him from hell, the first time anyone did. And this sequence is so telling about so many things and the basics of JH's character are already there - even here, JH offers RE a choice, even here he's calm and competent under pressure and has a plan and he is someone who is patient but then whatever arbitrary line is crossed and he will just do anything to take the offender(s) down - the teen who likely murders their master for abusing his slave (if he's caught, a horrifying fate awaits), is the man who hunted and killed a troop that murdered the grandpa who sheltered him in his house, the man who tracked GC alone to that island while sick with the freaking plague etc etc. He can be teen or adult, poor and powerless or wealthy and powerful, but there is a core of pure absolutist steel in him.

You know what I truly love? This flashback shows that despite his present silks and fans, there might not be a drop of noble blood in JH. And regardless of that, he's more competent and full of humanity than the bulk of nobles we meet. I love the narrative expectation that no, of course, he's a fancy noble because when we first meet him, this is what he presents as. And then.

Once again, it makes me think of this writer's previous Rebel. Where the King finally meets his foe Hong Gil Dong and is appalled when HGD says that no, he's not an illegitimate scion of a noble house or anything else approaching blue blood. He's a servant and son of servants, not a drop of blue blood. And the King refuses to believe it. Because he can believe a political challenger or an illegitimate son of aristocracy with a grudge against not being given the place he thinks the noble part of his blood entitles him to, but someone with no blue blood at all? He can't.

(It also makes me think of my favorite scene in cdrama Ever Night, where the Emperor and his court assume our ML on his revenge quest is the son of the general wrongfully murdered with his family and household, and ML reveals no, the general's son is long dead, he's the son of the porter and maid of that house who also got slaughtered in the household as part of general murder spree, not targets or anything but collateral damage. Why can't a servant's son seek revenge, he asks, and you feel the narrative stutter gloriously.)

Anyway, this drama is EVERYTHING!

[limnsaber]

Re Amor Fati: what the fuck was that. I have more things to say and more things to think about and no idea how to say them.

I feel like that was the first time mytharc really faltered. Not that it was impervious before, but something abt it wasn’t on target this time

David Duchovny I know you have things to say what did you mean. I’m going to need to have that percolate for a minute

Spoilers (for the mutuals) below:

Mulder always throws in with CSM when he’s at his lowest

The sequence with Diana and Mulder’s faux dream world makes much more sense if Diana and Mulder had been married in the past

Really interesting stuff with keys, and the truth, Mulder’s idea of deserving and fate. Ultimately where I think mytharc is faltering is that it can’t deliver anything concrete, but it’s trying to, and in doing so it’s becoming more aligned with the Syndicate. I have to rephrase that. Hmm. It’s like this with Mulder’s dream too, there are things there he didn’t want and things there that he did. And still the truth is Scully

I think the extraterrestrial vessel was both things at once — extraterrestrial and a fraud. The Syndicate’s guys and Mulder’s dream land talk about God’s plan, and playing God, and the idea that everything was orchestrated is not the truth.

Though maybe Scully’s thesis might say otherwise. Not in the orchestration, but in… where was it. “Although multidimensionality suggests infinite outcomes in an infinite number of universes, each universe can produce only one outcome.” Hmm. Fate, again.

“Hold on.” “Let go.” AGHHHHH Scully… CSM when I get you.

Oh. One more thing. I imagine: when Mulder was lying on that table and Scully was pleading with him, even while he had just been cured of his paracognitive ability he heard I love you as clear as any truth he’d ever known.

[dragon-snoots-a-boopin]

Resident Evil 6 is the worst RE game experience that I've ever had. Here are all the reasons that I believe this true based on my experience with the game.

There's a cutscene like once every two minute. It's excessive. This is a game, not a movie.

There are a lot of QTEs

The game doesn't look, feel or play like any kind of horror game.

The characters are so over the top in how they act that it's hard to take any of the seriously.

You have to zoom in to even shoot one of your guns, otherwise you'll just trigger melee attacks.

General aiming is so slow too. Like it's slow to aim and move from target to target and that is not good, especially for the amount of fast moving enemies in the game.

The sniper rifles have such and over the top and unrealistic amount of scope sway that it makes sniper rifles unusable.

The camera is god awful. Some characters have the camera set in a way to be over the left shoulder and yes, you can change it, but if you open a two person door or transition out of a cutscene, the camera will reset back to over the left shoulder which is annoying. There's so much camera shake when sprinting that it makes it hard to run in a straight line. The camera is also 98% responsible for the fact that an escape sequence in the 5th chapter of Chris's campaign is impossible as the camera keeps changing position and angle so frequently that I get stuck on walls and fail so much that I skipped this and never finished that campaign.

Not a fan of the skill point system because this system affects how much and what kind of ammo drops from enemies and that is annoying.

The escape sequences just suck in general. The one in chapter 5 of Chris's campaign is the worst but the snowmobile one in Jake & Sherry's campaign was also infuriating too. I don't know why these require so much precision to not fail but they do and it's stupid and I hate those sections.

I've played a total 6 RE games, seven if you count this one, and none of those games have come close to the piss poor experience of a game as RE6 has shown me to be, not even Revelations 2. I would definitely NOT recommend this game to anyone, even if you're a fan of the franchise.

[bylrlve]

To add to yesterday’s observations about Will and how his feelings for Mike are being hammered home, there’s an insane sequence in the VR game - Chapter 4, the good stuff is from 50:00 onwards. To put it concisely: Vecna tauntingly asks Will how to get to each of his friends, then tries to get into each of their heads by targeting their weaknesses. He uses Dustin’s friendship insecurity, but Dustin ignores him because he’s watching TV lmao. He uses Lucas’s desire to succeed, and tries to tell him that his friends are holding him back. However, Lucas is on a drive-in movie date with Max. he uses Mike’s guilt over losing El at the end of s1, and Mike doesn’t even seem to register Vecna’s presence in his mind. Why? Bc he’s too busy playing D&D with the boys, trying to get his Nana impression on-point. Two dice are rolled, one red and one rainbow, and those visually wipe away the Vecna part.

Vecna then returns to taunting Will, saying awful things about how he’s alone, his friends hate him, he’s going to rip him apart. Will’s nose starts bleeding heavily. Mike? Mike springs into action, grabs Nancy’s old white shirt, and physically wipes the blood off, getting super close to Will. His actions and words contradict what Will is being told by Vecna in that moment

I want to note something I haven’t personally seen observed. In this play through, anyway, it goes Dustin, Lucas -> Mike. Before Lucas and Mike, Vecna asks mockingly how to get into their minds. The nosebleed happens right after he tries and fails to get to Mike. We’re then treated to a full 90 seconds of Mike getting right up in Will’s face, tenderly wiping his face clean and asking if he’s okay, serving as the ‘light’, to quote Max, that drags Will from the darkness that is Vecna, that disproves everything Vecna says.

Is the implication that Vecna uses those tactics because that’s what Will thinks his friends’ big Achilles Heels are? What does that say for Mileven? I’d love insight from someone who’s played it.

Oh, and Mileven was low-key/high-key shaded in the Elmax section.

@will80sbyers has posts with screenshots of the full quotes.

(X, Y)

It’s very interesting that mileven is barely an afterthought, and treated very coldly and impersonally. To get to Mike, Vecna says, and I quote “more of that game. He’s distracted. You’ll never find her, Mike. The greatest person you’ve known forever is gone because you didn’t try harder. And now you’ll never know what could have been-” only for it to cut to Mike still talking about the particulars of his Nana impression. ‘Greatest person’, ‘cool’, ‘different’, ‘amazing’, only for any guilt re: her to not move him at all. Did I mention the consultant was Paul Dichter, story editor on 108 and every s2 and 3 ep, and main writer of Will the Wise and Dear Billy?

Prev post

[ineedlelittlespace]

for the ask game: ratthi murderbotdiaries?

Send Me a Character

Oh, Ratthi, my beloved...🥰

First impression

Like a lot of us, I only had eyes for Murderbot the first time I read ASR---the human team absolutely got shoved to my mental backburner while I was busy relating to MB. In the five seconds I did spend thinking about Ratthi, it was mostly in a "oh, so this is going to be the problem child, huh?" way when he almost walked outside into the worm's mouth.

Impression now

I love him, your honor.

But also, he is an all-around delightful human being. There's a kindness and an earnestness to his character that is just so endearing you can't help but like him, especially when you layer in the fact that he's excellent at his job, great at adapting to high-pressure situations on the fly, and has the people skills to successfully navigate the absolutely wild interpersonal interactions that the series keeps throwing at him.

Favorite moment

That whole sequence in Fugitive Telemetry where he and Gurathin drop everything to help Murderbot do some light breaking and entering. It feels like the equivalent of an errand hang-out, but if your bestie spends its spare time solving murders rather than picking up dry cleaning and going to Target. I love the implication that this is just what they do now, once Murderbot has settled into the group. Friends help friends with projects, right? So, obviously, Ratthi is going to help in whatever way he can.

Idea for a story

I kind of want to do more of his PoV for various scenes throughout the series. He's present for so many of the juiciest scenes---there's a lot to work with!

Also, it might be fun to do something with his friendship with Arada and Overse, perhaps with some backstory on their first meetings and how they moved from colleagues to besties.

Unpopular opinion

In all honesty, I don't feel like there's too much pressure re: popular vs. unpopular opinions in the Murderbot corner of the internet. The only thing that comes to mind with Ratthi is that I think we tend to...soften him a little too much sometimes. There's a tendency to focus mostly on his skill as a people person or a friendly face, not necessarily on the fact that if he wasn't so good at his actual job, he probably wouldn't be on Mensah's team. We see him tackle gory jobs like cleaning up the battle aftermath on ART in Network Effect, we see him jump into helping with medical emergencies, and in Fugitive Telemetry, he immediately identifies that "someone was dead here" when they come upon the scene of the murder because the physical signs are obvious to a biologist. As far as the humans of the series go, Ratthi is very capable!

Favorite relationship

Aside from the obvious friendship with Murderbot itself, I really do love that he's best friends with Arada and Overse. I love that these three stuck together for the next survey to follow the disastrous events of ASR. I love that their friendship is so obvious and loud that even Book One Murderbot could immediately point it out. I just really like seeing healthy platonic friendships (especially ones that coexist with and do not compete against healthy romantic ones involving some of the same characters), okay?

Favorite headcanon

The infamous "Who's this?" line from ASR was a full-on my-brain-is-short-circuiting-and-my-mouth-got-ahead-of-my-mind moment, not necessarily an ah-yes-a-stranger-to-be-introduced moment.

[zahri-melitor]

And thinking more on Tom King and the storytelling I've seen from him: the fact he is such a devotee to asynchronous storytelling really pops out to me.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is entirely framed as a retrospective narrative told by Ruthye looking back on the events that occurred during her quest for vengeance.

Mister Miracle has Scott practically unmoored from time, flashing between his memories growing up in Apokolips, recent past events, the progress of the peace negotiations between Apokolips and New Genesis and his home life with Barda and Jacob. The frequent travel between Earth and New Genesis really does not assist matters.

Grayson is one of the few stories I think he's written without much of this, though it does appear for Annual #1, and they drop into the story in media res for issue 1 and then backtrack.

Wonder Woman, though I've only read sections of it, is busy balancing present day storytelling with Trinity storytelling and promising/threatening how it's going to link up.

Batman not only has in media res stories, dream sequences, flashbacks, but also plot arcs where I couldn't instantly tell if we were in the main universe, an alternate timeline, a dark future or another part of the Multiverse. And sometime we WERE in an alternate timeline (the Booster plot) and others we were in a story predicated on time passing at different speeds between realities (the Diana plot) and sometimes it was elsewhere in the Multiverse (the Button plot) and so on.

Human Target, which I've only just started, once again sets itself up in a "here we are; time to talk about events that happened long ago and how they influence the plot going forward"...

And look, I think he's done interesting work with it. But I can't help but think some of his story arc work would be stronger if he spent more time on linear storytelling.

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 30, 2024

A hippocampus-accumbens code guides goal-directed appetitive behavior. Barnstedt, O., Mocellin, P., & Remy, S. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 3196.

Tuned geometries of hippocampal representations meet the computational demands of social memory. Boyle, L. M., Posani, L., Irfan, S., Siegelbaum, S. A., & Fusi, S. (2024). Neuron, 112(8), 1358-1371.e9.

Recurrent Neural Circuits Overcome Partial Inactivation by Compensation and Re-learning. Bredenberg, C., Savin, C., & Kiani, R. (2024). Journal of Neuroscience, 44(16), e1635232024.

Encoding surprise by retinal ganglion cells. Despotović, D., Joffrois, C., Marre, O., & Chalk, M. (2024). PLOS Computational Biology, 20(4), e1011965.

Neural and behavioural state switching during hippocampal dentate spikes. Farrell, J. S., Hwaun, E., Dudok, B., & Soltesz, I. (2024). Nature, 628(8008), 590–595.

Motor neurons generate pose-targeted movements via proprioceptive sculpting. Gorko, B., Siwanowicz, I., Close, K., Christoforou, C., Hibbard, K. L., Kabra, M., … Huston, S. J. (2024). Nature, 628(8008), 596–603.

Multisensory perception depends on the reliability of the type of judgment. Kayser, C., & Heuer, H. (2024). Journal of Neurophysiology, 131(4), 723–737.

Neuronal Ensembles in the Amygdala Allow Social Information to Motivate Later Decisions. Kietzman, H. W., Trinoskey-Rice, G., Seo, E. H., Guo, J., & Gourley, S. L. (2024). Journal of Neuroscience, 44(16), e1848232024.

A discrete component in visual working memory encoding. Park, H.-B., & Zhang, W. (2024). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 50(5), 464–478.

Directed and acyclic synaptic connectivity in the human layer 2-3 cortical microcircuit. Peng, Y., Bjelde, A., Aceituno, P. V., Mittermaier, F. X., Planert, H., Grosser, S., … Geiger, J. R. P. (2024). Science, 384(6693), 338–343.

Stimulus encoding by specific inactivation of cortical neurons. Pérez-Ortega, J., Akrouh, A., & Yuste, R. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 3192.

Cortical cellular encoding of thermotactile integration. Schnepel, P., Paricio-Montesinos, R., Ezquerra-Romano, I., Haggard, P., & Poulet, J. F. A. (2024). Current Biology, 34(8), 1718-1730.e3.

Effects of reward and effort history on decision making and movement vigor during foraging. Sukumar, S., Shadmehr, R., & Ahmed, A. A. (2024). Journal of Neurophysiology, 131(4), 638–651.

On the timing of overt attention deployment: Eye-movement evidence for the priority accumulation framework. Toledano, D., Sasi, M., Yuval-Greenberg, S., & Lamy, D. (2024). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 50(5), 431–450.

Multiplicative joint coding in preparatory activity for reaching sequence in macaque motor cortex. Wang, T., Chen, Y., Zhang, Y., & Cui, H. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 3153.

Encoding of Visual Objects in the Human Medial Temporal Lobe. Wang, Yue, Cao, R., & Wang, S. (2024). Journal of Neuroscience, 44(16), e2135232024.

Dopamine encoding of novelty facilitates efficient uncertainty-driven exploration. Wang, Yuhao, Lak, A., Manohar, S. G., & Bogacz, R. (2024). PLOS Computational Biology, 20(4), e1011516.

A primary sensory cortical interareal feedforward inhibitory circuit for tacto-visual integration. Weiler, S., Rahmati, V., Isstas, M., Wutke, J., Stark, A. W., Franke, C., … Teichert, M. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 3081.

Oblique warping: A general distortion of spatial perception. Yousif, S. R., & McDougle, S. D. (2024). Cognition, 247, 105762.

Irreducibility of sensory experiences: Dual representations lead to dual context biases. Zheng, Y., Cooke, A. D. J., & Janiszewski, C. (2024). Cognition, 247, 105761.

[boxwinebaddie]

Who initiated the kissing in the greenhouse?

ahhhh, the greenhouse kiss.

my magnum opus. ;)

shouldiactuallyfuckingwriteitgotohellunclenina!

smh, Any!Ways! i've been itching to talk about this, but it requires a lot of context, so i'll have to rewind time a lil and provide screenshots.

but before i begin:

again, it's probably my extreme levels of anxiety around being really annoying and irrelevant, however, this was sent to me a while ago and i am not sure how much we still care about lore around my dumb unfinished fanfiction, but i will say that, at the time i received this, i also had TWO Other Separate Anons who asked me questions about the greenhouse sequence and subsequent kiss and because i had only really mentioned it in a Couple...neither here nor there answers?

i was extremely surprised and flattered that it stood out enough to you to be asked about multiple times??? AAA?? again, i have the best readers in the world, thank you so much for caring. my face is red. ;-;

OKAY! FAIR WARNING!!!! THIS IS VERY, VERY, VEEERY LONG! and Lore Intensive. but you asked! so welcome to the shit show, baby!

so, to jog your re(memories), though, i highly doubt you'll need the refresher, you are all sharp as tacks and extremely brilliant, therefore, really just to set the scene for myself, we are in ravenstan's room,

which, because the crimson dawn sicktorian manwhorsion was ofc, once a very grand, luxurious upscale, upstate new york 1800s manor, a lot of the old furnishings stayed, so stan's room is basically this huge gothic vampire boy bedroom with a massive four column upholstery bed and beautiful black lace canopy that drapes down,

there's a huge dark-finish, wooden boudoir and matching vanity that is all hand-carved, very elegant, ancient and intricate...and also sticker-bombed with a million shitty, half-peeled skater-boy stickers...there's a chandelier and one of stan's combat boots is hanging from it and probably underwear, smh. metal posters all over the wall, dirty laundry all over the fancy ornate rug, half empty cheesy poof and taki bags, eye makeup smeared on Everything, especially the nice cool mirror, nasty crumbs in the bed ( stan did wipe those off before kyle sat...true luv ), lots of cringey stanime figurines on the old antique shelves. jers did comment on this like '...sailor moon?' and stan scoffed, a little defensive, and was like 'what's more badass and punk rock then a bunch of girls kicking ass and saving the galaxy?'

Hot Boy Shit.

so yes, we are in ravenstan's gothic victorian, chaotic boy fail disaster room, where stan is stripped ( literally ) of all his sexy lead-singer boy laviciousness, no dramatic eye makeup or perfectly blown out bleach blonde hair, no tiny vegan leather pants...rather, he is fresh from the shower in his big, ratty, holey terrance and phillip shirt, his uber lame skull and cross-bones pajama pants from the junior boys section of target, socks that don't match, his hair is back in the black standana, still damp, face bare, cheeks lightly flushed, where a blue star pimple patch sits on a very angry pimple, the lil stan beauty mark under his right eye is winking, lip ring shining in the romantic sicktorian lowlight of a crimson dawn, where he is nervously fiddling with his chipped black fingernails, sitting cross cross applesauce across from

...jerseykyle, secret love of his life, who looks perfect, even with his nightly skincare routine delayed from tonight's many dramas ( which, is really saying something, because kyle never delays his s.c., ever ) his hair is falling in effortless ginger waves about his sharp shoulders, the sun and moon glasses chain is gold and glorious, his green eyes, usually narrowed, are wide with wonder gazing over at raven of crimson dawn reduced to whoever he really is underneath it all, the fabric of his matching perfectly pressed silk flannel pajama set from marshalls extremely soft, however, his skin is slick with sweat and prickly after raven read his palms and said his love line was...long.

( help, lmao. )

what started out as a very awkward conversation and confrontation about raven of crimson dawn being trans has melted away into silly banter and shit-shooting between our two favorite boys who, though, by kyle's knowledge, have not known each other for more than a month, have extremely good conversational chemistry and are playful and vulnerable with each other in a way that suggests that they have been best friends and known each other all their lives...

...Interesting.

as their conversation moves from light-hearted subject matter and descends further into the darkness that surrounds very heavy shit, kyle, who has gotten pretty comfortable surprisingly, starts to speak in the heavy jersey accent before trying to smooth and iron it out.

this little exchange insues:

kyle says that, it's risky, but worth the reward, because ravenstan after a steep and shaky breath, dives into an abridged, sparknotes version of the pre-crimson dawn days, how it used to be a pipe dream, a little garage band thing the boys did for fun, hungry for fame but eating top ramen and drinking sunny d everyday, unaware that they would ever get recognized...

( my favorite pre-cd headstannon is actually is that on the fateful, fearful, tearful night of the concert they got scouted at, they're trying on their lil emo boy outfits in the bathroom to hype themselves up, stan is nervous to come out bc he thinks he looks stupid...he's wearing some dumb hot topic-y, party city vampire costume thing kenny got him as a joke w/ his eyeliner on...the boys get him to come out and they are all immediately GAGGED because why is our awkward, boy fail king...SEXY??? like stan why are you hOT??? and they start all barking and throwing money at him and trying to have him do a spin which was so nice bc he was so nervous. my boys. </3 )

then they do get recognized, shot into stardom and everything seems golden! but...it's pyrite. because cartman or the evil 'e' basically assigns them these little 'parts' to play in his perfectly placed show, stan says he just wanted to do what kenny did, sing his songs and not talk too much, just share his music...but e has kenny and stan swap personalities essentially and stan becomes raven. which, at first, was worth it because he got to preform, but it just became this thing he dreads, acting all high and mighty when he just feels fucking tiny and horrible, that he isn't allowed to write songs anymore and they all, essentially...Belong To E.

they have no freedom. no autonomy.

Whatsoever. </3

( sa tw :( it's a whole chapter and convo, obviously, stan also talks about working at ruffians, which is a massive gentleman's club but gentle those men were NOT, that his boss thought his name was too boring so they had him go by something ~exotic~ hence cuervo, which the man mistook for being reminiscent of the tequila brand jose cuervo, so those awful men just called him tequila day in and out while he was serving drinks...gazes and hands lingering, stan's boss telling him he could sing on stage on friday if let those rich men have their way...and that, unfortunately, thru those men, cd got signed. )

after that BOMBSHELL of a conversation, it's very sad and heartbreaking, but very eye-opening to kyle, who wrote raven off as this imbecilic, arrogant rockstar celebrity sheep who he's learned via the hate and this exchange, is extremely lovely, was treated horribly at every impasse of his life and remained kind and humble...he is like legitimately stunned by how perfectly imperfect raven of cd is.

speeeeaking of...okay, sorry, all of that was leading to

This.

so, ravenstan's eyes are rimmed red...the way one's would if they had been crying, he's also been periodically sniffling. feeling rarely kind and gentle, jerseykyle very tentatively asks if he's been crying and hope that it's not because kyle saw him in the mirror.

...i've talked about this before, but, bear with me:

stan shakes his head and tells him that it's because he's been reading a lot of insidious internet comments about him. marjorine told him not to, but it's hard not to listen when everyone is talking about you. he goes onto say that for every person that 'loves' him, five other people hate him. that there's always something wrong with him. his eyes are too far apart or close together, his lips are a weird shape, one hip is bigger than the other. there are accounts dedicated just to zooming in on his pants, weird horrible deep fake porn of him, the paps catching him buying tampons, trying to figure out who they're for and if he's secretly seeing someone ( he laughs and smiles, but it doesn't meet his eyes ) and that...he feels hideous. :(

this exchange happens, my favorite exchange in the fic:

( yes, we've all read it...here it is again. )

after that, overcome with emotion, ravenstan pulls jerseykyle in a very tender, loving embrace, holds him, thanks him, kyle is blushing, stan says he really needed to hear that...the deeper meaning of which crimson dawns on kyle when, suicide tw, during that hug, over his shoulder, he notices a VERY LARGE bottle of sleeping pills :( on his nightstand and a handle of vodka. ravenstan also mentioned being very tired of everything and just wanting to...sleep for a long time.

this does...deeply concern kyle. he tries not to dwell on it.

because, he's looking at raven of crimson dawn, in all his awkward, sweet boy, perfect-imperfect glory, who, in that vein, has a little bit of cinnamon flavored toothpaste left on his bottom lip.

yes...jersey was staring at it. intently. that gay ass bitch.

he goes to swipe it off raven's lip, which his thumb gently caresses, running over ravenstan's lovely lip ring, his heart is RACING.

stan puts his hand over kyle's before he can pull it away and feeling particularly brave, is about to ask jersey Something Important!

but gets interrupted.

this part which i didn't get to write is Integral and devastating to me because we watch all of stan's vulnerability IMMEDIATELY VANISH, hes undoing his hair, trying to shake it out, shakily pouring himself a very healthy-unhealthy shot, doing like two of them, is rushing around trying to find his hot boy clothes and starts...

doing the raven voice again.

fUUUUUUUUUUUCk.

raven, basically pretending like none of that happened is like, 'well, that's my cue, new jersey. i've got to get changed, but you're welcome to stick around...i'll give you a free show.' ;) <3 xxx

jerseykyle is...Haunted by this. bc he just watched the boy that he'd been getting to know very intimately and preciously in his bedroom immediately transform into this...Monster they made him into.

kyle declines, makes his leave, confused and dismayed, but while raven's back is turned, he steals the big pill bottle bc he's worried.

and that chapter, my favorite, ends with this.

AAAAAAAAAAAA I KNOW RIGHT!!!

Moving On! to the greenhouse chapter.

here's some more context you don't need:

flash forward. it's the big dramatic punk rock party ( rager, more like ) the label threw at the crimson dawn manwhorsion to celebrate marjorine's sindotrination into the band.

like i mentioned once or twice in another lore ask, j.k. has been drinking aaaaa lot, so he is very white boy SCHWASTED and seeking out a missing raven of crimson dawn who, in his stupefying stupor, is finding he is very attracted to and wants to kiss...very bad, lmao.

but yeah! finds him in his special stan greenhouse for gay boys who are nerdy about plants. jersey kyle is looking fierce as fuck, his hair is curly whirly, his sharp canines are pearly, i think he's wearing a black turtleneck and slacks, he looks chic and sleek, he is, however, slurring and shit-faced, swirling his wine around his crystal skull wine glass whilist RELENTLESSLY flirting with raven of crimson dawn.

who, again, is rarely sober, he's wearing a little gardening apron over his party outfit ( aw ), his hair is back in the standana, there's a lil dirt on his cheek, he is stuttering and stammering so much omg.

BUT, OKAY, AS FOR THE KISS! the lead in is this:

sober ravenstan is trying to hydrate very drunk jerseykyle all like "kyle broflovski, when was the last time you drank water?" and kyle being a nasty disgusting floozy is like "can't rememba...buuuut my name sounds good in ya mouth." ;) JAIL! GO TO HELL! but ravenstan, trying to be logical because he knows kyle can't is like "kyle, i need you to be serious. you have your civil procedures class at seven and that advanced legal research at nine and after that you've got--"

and kyle's entire world stops. because raven of crimson dawn, who has the world's worst case of adhd and cannot remember anything...

memorized his school schedule. :')

THIS HAPPENS...

AND BAM!!!! GREENHOUSE KISS. <333

which...Whew. very quickly escalates into a very messy makeout session, the greenhouse windows are fogging up from the HEAT. at one point which i tried to reference in the vampire mv para i'm writing, jersey kyle knocks a bunch of plants in pots sitting up on this shelf to put stan on it. there is a part in six where while jersey is stiring his lasagna sauce in the kitchen, stan sits up on the counter like a nasty slutty skanky indecent boy with no manners, kyle smakcs his tiny ass with the kochlefl and was like "it's rude to sit on counters."

soooo naturally, stan, breathlessly, being a little shit is like "i thought it was rude to sit on counters." and kyle is like "oh, so now you want to be polite?" AND NO HE DOES NOT! ;) because it's getting freak nasty in there, my woooord, ravenstan is trying to get kyle's shirt off my goodness and, jk, you know, not wanting to rush into anything is like "raven, i think--i think we should slow down" and stan, smirking, not listening ( stan special ) and is v liberally kissing down kyle's neck ( which, fun fact, jersey's neck is very sensitive and if you ever want kyle to shut up, that will immediately make him dead quiet ) says...

"you talk too much, mi sabelotodo." ;)

WHIIIIIIIIIICH...was the wrong thing to say, girls, gays and theys...

because jerseykyle immediately pulls back...

IN HORROR.

but that's an ask for another day. :* <3 xxx

-uncle nina, curator of CHAOS

[transmutationisms]

broad af question, but thots on the rise of epigenetics as a model? (i imagine youd be pretty sympathetic to mansfield and guthmans critique esp re: reproductive futurity)

you imagine correctly, lol. they're kinda frustrating because they don't really understand the relationship between epigenetics, eugenics, and social reform projects historically and aren't able to contextualise it in contemporary biology, but they're still right to point out that interest in epigenetics is primarily coming from a desire to enforce ideas of biological normality and ideals of strength / beauty / &c. what's lacking in the historical narrative is the fact that this type of environmentalism has been part of evolutionary biology more often than not; darwin and his contemporaries also believed in the inheritance of acquired characteristics, so really it was only temporarily displaced by the crude genetic determinism of the modern synthesis in the early 1940s, and this model was in serious disrepute by about 50 years later lmao. i also think mansfield and guthman, like most commentators on this issue, overstate the extent to which epigenetic inheritance is a 'lamarckian' idea (it's not, any more than mendelian genetics is 'darwinian' or evo-devo is the same as 18th-century recapitulation theory lmao).

anyway, regarding epigenetics itself, there's also a lot of overconfidence about the ability for biologists to actually determine which genes are being differentially expressed, how they influence one another, and what that means for the organism. if you even change, like, the length of dna sequence that the computer considers to be a gene, you get a radically different list, and even if you can identify a differentially expressed gene with confidence, determining what exactly it does is still incredibly hard. in practical terms, epigenetics is still confined mostly to similar kinds of epidemiological studies as nutrition science, and many of these studies are plagued with confounding factors and methodological weaknesses. the hope has long been that by identifying epigenetic changes, we could develop targeted therapies. but this is basically a moonshot imo (like, literally no one knows which parts of gene expression to target or how, ever) and also raises the extremely thorny question of: what things, exactly, are we hoping to 'fix'? more often than not, as m&g point out, this type of research is driven by interest in enforcing thinness, specific neurological and affective states, &c. not to say there's NO epigenetic research being done on diseases that would actually be beneficial to cure, but epigenetics has a eugenic bent (because public health has a eugenic bent) and is specifically being funded that way.

although i disagree, like i said, that epigenetics is really lamarckism (& dislike the work of jablonka and that crowd for this exact reason lol), you can certainly contextualise the rise of epigenetics in the longer history of disputations over the role of the environment in determining the condition of the organism. life sciences and medicine have grappled with this issue in many different forms; for instance, hippocrates's non-naturals suggest environmental and climatic influence, galenic humoural theory leans on internal regulation with the environment as an external disruption, germ theory offered what appeared to be a non-environmental theory of disease that was promptly synthesised with sanitary-environmentalist hypotheses by the french hygiene profession. within evolutionary biology specifically, ideas of plasticity within an organism's lifetime have never really gone away, and the dispute was essentially over the extent to which these changes were hereditary. epigenetic theory fits comfortably within this ongoing debate, and if more biologists understood that then they would understand why their work bears such a strong resemblance to so many previous eugenic projects.

[brionysea]

any characters specifically?? there's so many lol

ooo i was mainly thinking abt (what i call) the gang- Lucas, max, dustin, el, Mike, will etc- and possibly Nancy if that’s okay? im sorry if this is too much to ask of you and I hope you have a great day!!!!! :D

lucas

colour - green

deepest fears - ??? idk. assuming this is for a vecna fic or something, i guess play around with whatever's happened at this point in the timeline. seeing max die is a huge one, and all the "being violently targeted by insane white boys for daring to Exist While Black" is bound to have taken a toll on him (not that canon's acknowledged any of it, of course)

aesthetic - uh... basketballs. they look good on the aesthetic moodboard for him in my brain right now

max

colour - orange and/or rainbow. the first part might just be because i'm obsessed with red hair (hello, childhood obsession with the little mermaid and red-haired!paige from charmed), but max wears a LOT of rainbows

deepest fears - becoming like billy (continuing the cycle of violence) and that her friends (and mother) think she deserves the same fate as him (dying horribly and painfully via the upside down and traumatising someone as she does). season 4 was great for her :)

aesthetic - skateboards

dustin

colour - ???? my brain is saying blue but i have no idea. maybe someone in the notes knows?

deepest fears - probably a loss of control. he likes to Be Prepared and Have All The Knowledge. having no idea what's going on and being completely unprepared for any bad things that might pop up is the inverse of that

aesthetic - library books

el

colour - pink

deepest fears - that she's a monster

aesthetic - she doesn't really know who she is yet, so like... idk, some of those bright oufits she wore in season 3?? there were a LOT of hearts scattered around her bedroom in season 4, she seems to really like those <3

mike

colour - blue. including (but not limited to) a blue so deep that it looks black

deepest fears - being unwanted, being rejected for something he can't change about himself. in essence, that he's inherently unlovable

aesthetic - i went for a bike for my aesthetic mike wheeler playlist picture. wheels, wheeler. you get it

will

colour - yellow

deepest fears - oh god. i don't think about him enough for this. considering his two biggest breakdowns so far have been about losing mike, i guess that? the whole thing about being a freak, keeping parts of himself secret, being treated like this fragile little baby (when if anything being a survivor makes him the opposite). i'm not the right person to ask about will tbh

aesthetic - art, drawing, sketchbooks. dungeons and dragons, nintendo, wizard imagery

nancy

colour - purple/pink

deepest fears - maybe just watch her vecna vision sequence again? lol. she's mostly got survivor's guilt and blames herself for not saving barb. she's scared of that happening again, e.g. when she was the first to dive into the lake after steve, because she refuses to do nothing again like when barb got dragged into steve's pool yelling for nancy's help (which fred dying on her watch was an echo of)

aesthetic - my initial, instinctive thought is "girlboss" lol. guns, notebooks (re: investigative journalism). there's a wall of stuff in her room that el looks at in season 1 which might be helpful (i'm thinking of the little photostrip of nancy and barb messing around and laughing like el and max did in season 3)

[kimmingtonjames]

RE8 DLC: Shadows of Rose

So I was really frustrated by the Shadows of Rose DLC and I felt like talking about it. I'm going to try to keep this fair-minded and reasonably-well organized as I discuss my thoughts. 

GAMEPLAY

Overall, the shift to a more survival-horror experience was pretty successful. Limited ammo helps instill a sense of panic and fear of error. Frequent saves alleviate some of that tension-- or at least make the DLC feel punishing but fair because backtracking post-loss is limited. Even unsaved deaths rarely throw the player too far back. It's a kind choice on the developer's part. 

The Duke level in Castle Dimitrescu is a good introduction to how they've varied up existing level structures: the mold barriers, little puzzle changes, and enemies offer enough difference to make revisiting familiar spaces refreshing. However, the integration of Rose's notably meager powers and ensuing upgrades feel overly-convenient, situationally specific, and narrow in scope.

In my opinion, the revisit to the Beneviento manor is where the DLC really shines. The survival horror elements here are strongest-- no weaponry, chase sequences, stealth-- and serve to play up the tension. The puzzles are darkly hilarious and the reanimated autopsy doll of Mia chasing Rose through the dark basement halls, freezing when seen and racing when beyond line of sight, is the stuff of nightmares. However, the late-level appearance and inevitable one-on-one battle with Eveline from RE7 was functionally a repeat of her last encounter with Ethan. It has no meaningful additions and an even more limited arena. Overall, I can't say I was fond.

And the final boss fight with Miranda, though visually interesting, was disappointing. She now fires projectiles Rose can absorb for more power, which is useful, but blocking is difficult to time. In fact, both blocks and absorption moves take more time than is comfortable to use, and Miranda's blackout sequences impede telegraphing. I beat her upon first playthrough but wondered how I was successful in retrospect. Let's just say it was both an odd and much too familiar boss fight.

Getting stuck on enemies in tight hallways continues to be a frustration, but that seems to be an issue with the engine. This happens with other engines, as well, so it feels potentially unfair to target the RE Engine for it.

VOICE ACTING

Loved it. Everyone brought their energy to this and it was fun to hear their performances. Miranda is over the top and it suits her perfectly; Rose is well cast, and her portrayal of a stubborn but terrified teenager is spot on; the Duke is always great; Ethan is both fatherly and constantly frustrated, which is right where he needs to be. 10/10.

STORY

This, sadly, is where it all really falls apart. 

We're thrown sixteen years into the future to play as Rose, who we hardly know outside of her origins and is given motivations without background, so her desires and choices lack weight. 'Michael', who I will simply refer to as Ethan, doesn't introduce himself in earnest, and the choice around this is also not well reinforced. In fact, it ends up feeling like a revisit of mistakes other characters have admitted to-- namely Chris choosing not to explain the situation of the core game to Ethan, which later on felt like a choice to serve gameplay rather than reinforce the narrative. The feeling sadly remains the same upon revisiting. 

The core arc of the plot-- that Ethan, even beyond physical death, loves and protects Rose no matter the cost to himself-- is the central element, but it was also the central element of the core game. It's another instance in which the DLC repeats RE Village rather than builds upon its narrative.

The Duke, who I assumed to be killed by the blast that destroyed the Megamycete, is reshaped and twisted into a villain who pursues the Rose ‘husks’ with horrifying cruelty. This change is explained to the audience in a short and random note which does not explain his fate post-Megamycete, and is simply a machination by Miranda. Real horror exists here but is never given its due: the pragmatic but kind man doesn’t recognize himself or his role, re-formed into a hateful executioner of innocent children, now entirely under Miranda’s unrelenting thumb. It's presented as a simple anecdote. In my opinion, it should have been the central arc for the level.

None of the lords are seen despite the lore stating that those who are physically destroyed, like Miranda, are simply absorbed into the mutamycete’s grasp. The Duke supplants fan-favorite Lady Dimitrescu in a very disappointing choice. Angie’s voice actress can be heard at the outset of the Beneviento Manor level, but she is replaced by a poorly-animated Eveline. Shortly after, we pursue Miranda directly. Nothing about her, nor her arc, has changed: once again she wants to transmute Rosemary into Eva, only this time with a questionable approach. It makes the ending of the DLC a hollow repetition of the original game, a cheap choice to create the circumstance for Rose and Ethan to meet again in tears. This is not to say reuniting them is inherently cheap; rather that the circumstances surrounding it feel like they’ve only taken place for these scenes to occur.

And there are myriad other issues: the horror of the Rose-husks is somehow quickly forgotten, even as their bodies litter the world; Eveline is finally humanized and then immediately vilified; Mia is explained as having abandoned Rose years prior with no explanation, having never told heroic stories of Ethan to her daughter even once; and as a personal gripe, Salvatore Moreau and Karl Heisenberg's levels never appear, even for a brief moment. And the ending-- which is a complete replay of the post-credits scene from the core game-- feels a total abandonment of the narrative. Every single character moves like a toy doll being pranced around a dollhouse while the best dolls languish in a nearby play chest. 

I can’t recommend this DLC. It was entertaining for a while, but failed on the most important fronts, and in ways that disappointed me as a fan. I hope others enjoy it more. 

I’d love to hear other’s takes.

[kira-moonrabbit]

many many years late... my big criticisms (not review!) of limbus company just from a gameplay standpoint. tl;dr... its kinda bad. this is both my opinion, and also how i explained said opinion, but i need it off my chest.

so preface: i dont play limbus anymore, but did for about one and a half cantos when it was brand-slappin' new. when i say brand new, i mean fresh out the box when there were still big server problems killing everyone's ability to play the game.

i went partially through the intro and then i had to sit through some more issues; then i had to replay the intro AGAIN when i came back. i figured skipping it would still allow me to view the in depth tutorial for how the actual game mechanics work in the same sequence; it did not give me this luxury and i had no idea how to re-find the tutorial. i had to scrape by with half-remembered fragments from watching someone else stream limbus and manage to view the whole danged thing. such is my preamble.

unfortunately i dont have the energy to find screenshots to use and i am not about to re-install limbus at 4 in the AM just to make an angry post about it. i'm opinionated, not petty.

i believe that a game should, even without a tutorial, be able to have its mechanics gauged just from looking at the UI and just generally observing. obviously tutorials are good, and not everything should be given to you this way, but as a rule of thumb you should be able to at least pick up a few rules about how things work just from watching un-commentated gameplay. lobotomy corporation has this. library of ruina has this. Limbus Company does not give you this.

the game is dogshit at explaining what the hell skills are. you are told there are coins, that are flipped, and dice are rolled. there are comparisons on the upper screen as to how two different skills will match up... and looking at these things, gave me no indication as to how the hell everything is CALCULATED! People who view with no commentary need a whole paragraph explaining the topmost UI! at least with ruina the dice math is simple. limbus needs a god damn calculator for every step.

disembodied micro-nitpick corner! the game doesnt tell you exactly where to go to uptie things, or when you unlock this ability. AND, it takes two whole cantos to unlock a way to earn major resources like, yknow... basically anything other than just more Lunacy for more gacha-ing.

defense skills are also not entirely perfectly explained. you think your "fuck shit everyone is targeting me" buttons would have a little more explanation behind them to help you use them better, but the descriptions for them completely sailed over my head and i had no idea which situations were and were not appropriate to use them. and each person has their own different defense skill so you better hope you have the right one for the situation when you need them! Else, S.O.L.

but yeah. i expected i'd have a handle on things by Canto 2. but by then, i just felt more confused, because in dungeons you just have a different combat system than in the main game for some reason??? one that i think is better executed because you actually have decent control over who's receiving what attacks. i had no idea what the hell i was doing the entire time still. i was just throwing out attacks and hoping the UI wasn't lying about matchups. my trial by fire wasnt even a trial, it was just... arson.

my other major criticism? sin. you know how one of the first things the game explains is sin resonance and absolute resonance? before the actual mechanics for how to calculate sin clashes? yeah, absolute resonance is literally just a damage boost that you can MAYBE hope is convenient. delibrately going for sin resonance was just getting my butt kicked. the game said to do this as much as possible but it just acts as a red herring for ACTUALLY learning skills that will get you further in the game.

sin in general feels like such a nothingburger of a mechanic. Cool, an elements system! to go with the last game's elements system! the two systems stack! i thought it was gonna be cool! But nnnope, its mostly just fuel for EGO. things DO have sin resistances, but they just feel like an afterthought.

what i liked about pierce, slash, and blunt is that they each had a slight archetype! Pierce was mainly status effects, Blunt was mainly damage, and Slash was something of a middle ground that focuses on power stacking (long live swordplay of the homeland with purple tear and slash power stacks).

with sin, its like... they're the colors attacks come in? and they have a status effect they're associated with. it doesnt feel like it adds an extra layer of much. i probably can't go as far as to say you can take away sin and lose nothing, because it does fuel EGO, but its... i dunno, it just feels like it's not needed.

i'll spend less time on the gacha because we all know gacha is gacha. but its like... ruina felt good, because you slowly accumulate more and better resources for the challenge ahead. you feel yourself slowly progress. In a gacha system, things have to generally remain at the same level of power as each other, give or take. And some things are just... better than others, yes. but there's very little in the way of like, teambuilding opportunities. you use the same really good units for pretty much everything. there's no progression aside from gacha, gacha, gacha over and over.

and this makes the reward for beating story missions just more gacha-ing, and lore. no feeling of getting stronger... no new toys to play with. the side resource modes, too, only serve to pump up your units. there's no customization of how you tackle things. i guess that ties in to the disconnected side bit a little, but still.

if you want my opinions on if the story is good, i cant give them to you though. i'm a gamer. i have practical opinions. to jump into the story would fall under the purviews of things like literary analysis.

but there is also a minor thing i will bring up that has to do with the story, in a way.

and there you have it, a casual gamer's opinion of limbus company as a game. a common person's opinion, in short. i'm not going to claim my opinion is the be all end all, far from it. I'm sure others have put the same ideas forth more eloquently. but sometimes you gotta hear what just a regular person who plays video games to have fun has to say about something.

Limbus Company all but demands you to have played Lobotomy Corporation and Library of Ruina before playing it. the loading screen explanations do shit to tell you the kind of world you're getting into. some concepts don't quite go fully explained. and the things in the prior games are essential to the understanding of limbus company, such as the reasoning behind why L-corp fell, just what the Smoke War even was, and just what caused the Distortion and EGOism phenomenon. Anyone jumping in because "ooo, nice gacha!" is going to write off the prior games as useless, when they're actually incredibly important for understanding the story and why certain things are the way they are, and for understanding the whole game's themes!!! as to WHY they're important, I'll leave that to the more wordsy folk. [EDIT: it was brought to my attention by a kindhearted anon that i was wrong about how much story you need to be able to understand limbus. this is why i wanted to keep my story-related opinions to a minimum, as i havent played much past canto 1 myself. i admit this paragraph is a little bit brought on by me being grumpy that many players who play limbus just because its a gacha completely disregard the previous two games. all in all this paragraph isnt very fair.]

and before anyone says anything... i will not be arguing over this post. if i said something wrong, i said something wrong, such is life, pobody's nerfect. i am also not asking for tutorials about how to play the game, either. i feel like the game itself should be able to give me a satisfactory one for me to want to play it.

and lastly? i will ESPECIALLY not be arguing with people who have spent money on a gacha, any gacha. i feel like this should explain itself.

[shdwtouch]

soooooo I have some thoughts and feelings regarding Lotus Eaters ; ; obvs light spoilers and discussion ahead re: this quest and warframe lore

they wouldn't kill off the lotus... would they ?

as far as a prologue goes its just. forging a link to the next big chapter, quite literally. but how did lotus get the phone ? why is she specifically being called to the past ? by the way she speaks I can't tell if the "he" she refers to is entrati or the man in the wall; I guess it makes sense that "he" is entrati and what follows him is the man in the wall. or maybe she's referring to the man in the wall and there is something else at play, like with the murmur. idk. it makes me both excited and nervous for 1999.

also its like. the fact that both tenno and drifter showed the fuck up and you got to choose options for both of them !!! I don't know if its meant to be like a dream sequence etc where it isn't representing true lore but if it IS this confirms some ideas I had regarding drifters place in this timeline. which makes me think that both lotus and drifter are kinda... transients in this timeline, since they both technically existed at multiple points (her hand, specifically). idk like. its late so its hard to like. describe exactly what I think. but its also like. idk.

we need to consider what she said. that the call was telling her to... destroy the tenno ? (her CHILD) and that drifter needed to answer / seek out the call (her CHAMPION). idk I just have emotions about this. I feel like there is a lot of symbolism being thrown around in this short af quest, makes me sad I can't replay the prologue.

also Loid mentions that the daughter of Hunhow heard the call. like. this is obviously pointing fingers at her sentient lineage. so was that targeted, or was SHE targeted ? IDK IM JUST REELING RN YALL