produsenobathamajamurtiram

[drsunshaine]

🎉 Tales of Arise 3rd Anniversary Commemoration 🎉

[konfizry]

look at them appearing side by side on the lineup this ship is so real very legit not made up

[kingdomoftyto]

If I had a nickel for every time a (fire-themed) story included a cheesy but heartwarming love story between a girl cursed to harm anyone who touches her and a guy who's the only one that can do so without dying in agony, I'd have two nickels, but it's weird that it happened twice

[maryse127]

The urge to go into the tag and reblog a million posts about the game you're obsessed with vs the knowledge you will get spoiled and ruin your own experience with the game if you do

[mxdotpng]

btw i know i have one or two mutuals who like arise i hope im not offending anyone too much. u like what u like. will not criticize anyone for that

[orcelito]

ok listen objectively kisara and dohalim would be a "straight" pairing but listen neither of them r cishet like OBJECTIVELY just look at them. they literally call dohalim "flamboyant" in canon just LOOK at him. theyre not straight. and i am cradling them in my hands.

[talesofourworlds]

Which private expression of love do you most represent?

The familiar smell of your lover where their neck meets their shoulder

it’s nameless. you couldn’t apply language to it and do it justice if you tried. it’s a hug going on longer than it’s meant to, wearing their sweatshirt on the way home and crying because it smells so inviting. it’s sinking into a kiss, using their shampoo in the shower, burying yourself a little deeper in the sheets because you’ve never felt so comfortable. whenever they ask you to describe their smell, all you can think is warm, familiar, mine. when you ask them to describe yours they say: it smells like you. home is wherever you can be beside them. everywhere you go is perfect as long as you’re together.

Stolen from: @outoftheirdifferences

Tagging: Anyone who wants to!

[moonlight-at-dawn]

Finally returning to that mistletoe fic to continue it and

Dohalim has no idea what he did

Alphen is Confused

Dohalim joined them from the sitting room, where Shionne had just come from, hand resting on his waist as he regarded the mistletoe. “What a beautiful tradition. I find it interesting that you do this with a poisonous plant, though. Why is that?” “Not sure,” Alphen shrugged, looking up at the plant in question. “I think it was because it was rare for a plant to flourish in winter. We put a lot of importance on the different seasons and how they also apply to life. A hardy plant that bears fruit even in hardship, and it requires other plants to sustain it? Sounds like a metaphor for getting through tough times with a loved one, doesn’t it?” Dohalim smiled at that and hummed a soft sound of agreement. “It does. It also explains why more than romantic couples would benefit from its ‘blessing.’ It takes all sorts of relationships to weather the storms life throws at you.” He passed under the archway then, cupping Alphen’s face between his hands and kissing him on the forehead. He lingered there before pulling away, smiling for Alphen before passing by to go to the kitchen and check on his wife.

[derpy-greetings]

Sketch and Rant #1 Law (Tales of Arise) Spoilers

I'm going to vent into the void about Tales of Arise's Law and how he kinda encapsulates my mixed feelings about Arise. While showing off my non-existing media literacy.

Law is a character that initially captured my attention when his character trailer came out since he was on Rena's side. From what little we seen, I thought he was going to be a bit of a morally grey character. What really caught me was the line that I am going to paraphrase: "- at least I am trying to ease my people's anguish from the inside." This gave me the impression that he could have a similar arc to say Flynn in the sense that they need to start taking more of the initiative to enact the radical change they want. In addition, his hatred for Zephyr, his own father, was interesting to me and I thought we were going to get something like they are both at fault for the falling out they had. Now, while that is true, Zephyr could of possibly tried harder, (somehow), to be at his family side while leading the Crimson Crows. While Law could of tried to express how he felt to Zephyr before his mother passed away or even after that instead of running away and getting into foreign lands. While yes, Law is supposed to be a fool in general and a bit irrational since he is a teen, he isn't likable to many players from the get go. Now, having unlikable characters work. Shionne is literally in the same game. Characters like Luke from Tales of the Abyss work. Though those characters seem to have more purpose of being unlikable and slowly becoming likable with their writing. Law just seems to just be there? First he is antagonistic to the group, yeah that makes sense and hates his father, that also makes sense, because he felt like Zephyr abandoned them. Then we don't see his character again until Alphen and the others confront him to get Zephyr. Then, once Zephyr dies due to Ganabelt's poison, we have Law join us. I feel like the gap we have in character interactions leaves us with less of an idea of who Law is. So now that our third interaction with him is full of hatred for Ganabelt, I simultaneously feel for him and thinks he's stupid. Which yeah, that's the point but I feel more sad for Zephyr because I feel like I know more about him than Law, who we are supposed to feel sorry for. By this point we have self-loathing and angry Law, this makes sense and I am actively invested because I want to avenge Zephyr. We recruit Law for Menancia and now he's happy go lucky? It somewhat feels like a tonal whiplash with his character but it makes sense because he had his arc. It just feels a little lackluster to me because he now is the butt of joke with and is stupid with everything besides a few occasions. (Which is ironic to me because I honestly ended up agreeing with him near end game stuff with the lords due to pure spite).

He had a good moment in Elden Menancia when he knew the party was being trailed by Kisara and catches her off guard at knife point. Okay, this is cool to me because we can potentially show off the skills that he possibly learned from the Crimson Crows, or the Snake Eyes, or the other resistance he was apart of. Oh wait-

We get Law's backstory, (well what he was up to in Cyslodia), in a skit. While I do like that we get some info about what happened to him, I think I would of prefered if we got hints to this then lead up with the skit. Like if we met him before convincing him to tell us about Zephyr's location, why not have him try to get rid of us before getting to Cyslodian per Ganabelt's orders. There we could have Alphen question why Law is doing this to his own people and to let them liberate Cyslodia. Maybe Law retaliates ,drops a hint to what happened to him, by asking Alphen what is his plan. While Alphen wouldn't have on at the point but tells Law that they can make one once they get into the city. Law could say something on the lines of; "Yeah, we thought improvising would of work to." Or even have Law call out on how the hell does Alphen, Shionne, and Rinwell think they can just barge into Ganabelt's location without a plan. This isn't Calagia where that worked. You can't possibly think that would work with how secretive everything is. You could of literally framed it in a way that showed he was speaking from experience. Bitter and just accepting that nothing works, that some of the most prominent teachings from Zephyr didn't work when he was following his footsteps when he joined a resistance group. However, Alphen's words of hope could of let him have something to ruminate about which could help add onto the scene of when we confront Law and the teen relents. While Law would still be in the wrong at this point, we still get to see his desperate attempt of trying to rationalize a situation that he knows is wrong. He can still be hated but instead of him of being a dumb angry kid, he is also one who just given up and is doing whatever he is told to become he is too pessimistic to fight for his freedom anymore. I think it could give us more time with Law while feeling sorry for him. If not sorry, than seeing first hand what the extent of Ganabelt's methods does to people. Especially to someone like Law who is hotheaded and stubborn but still wanted Dahnans to be free.

Then there's the slight tonal whiplash we get from depressed to goofy Law can be jarring to some. While it wasn't to me, I can definitely see why it would just feel like they didn't know what to do with him. Now I do overall like Law which surprises me because I don't like these types of characters. However, I will admit that I was expecting more depth to him, more about his past, and his connection to his parents before he left Calagia. Arise is a game where they are moving forward from their past and just nothing... but even the character backstories? Backstories that can give the characters more depth? While I know more about Law, than say Rinwell, I feel like us not having more about Law's past just squanders development and doesn't make the player sympathize with him as much as the game probably wanted us to. More context might of made me think that everything that happened to him and Zephyr wasn't completely his fault. While it isn't completely his fault, his unlikability kills initial good moments from him and it will make the player side more with Zephyr. Yes, Zephyr didn't do everything he could of did. Yet, I am more sympathetic to his plight than Law's.

But this gets into my issue with Arise. It just doesn't want to go into as much depth as it could of been. Now is it a bad game, absolutely not. It's fun and I think fun is the reason why anyone will invest themselves into media. So while I overall like Arise, I do believe that it kinda felt like a rough draft due to how little information we have for the characters.

[tvaccaro]

Finally Started Tales of Arise

As a Berseria stan, I was admittedly hesitant on trying out Tales of Arise. Finally got a copy though a few days ago and I've really been enjoying it!

I wasn't expecting to take to the characters so quickly. Alphen is a lovable, well-meaning himbo, Shionne clearly cares about people but pushes them away because her curse, and Rinwell is traumatized owl girlie who needs hugs and also therapy.

I don't think the story will be as compelling as Berseria's, but the characters and aesthetics of the world are enough to keep me engaged. Also the combat is fun, I like hitting things with flashy colors to channel my rage.

Tldr put more gals in gowns with guns.

[drsunshaine]

💐 Rough Illustration of Beyond the Dawn Menu Screens 💐

[immortal-x-mortal-tourney]

The sun rises over a grand arena, where 32 ships prepare to use the power of love, incredible violence and whatever else they may have to battle for the right to be named the ultimate battle couple

The Bracket (UPDATED!)

(Thanks to feedback, I swapped out Narumitsu with Catradora from SPOP)

Surprisingly few ships got more than one submission, so who got in was mostly based on how excited the submitter felt. If you believe a ship doesn’t count or if I messed up a ship name or whatever, send in an ask! Also if you have a better picture for any of them (but I don’t want to use fanart without the artists’s permission)

matchups

Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase (Percy Jackson) VS Nicolò “Nicky” di Genova & Yusuf “Joe” al-Kaysani (The Old Guard)

Nagisa Misumi/Cure Black & Honoka Yukishiro/Cure White (Futari Wa Precure) VS Steven Universe & Connie Maheswaran (Steven Universe)

Will Turner & Elizabeth Swann (Pirates of the Carribean) VS Patroclus & Achilles (Hades)

Sora & Riku (Kingdom Hearts) VS Haruka Tenoh/Sailor Uranus & Michiru Kaioh/Sailor Neptune (Sailor Moon)

Suki & Sokka (Avatar: The Last Airbender) VS Kinn & Porsche (Kinnporsche: The Series)

Oliver Queen & Dinah Lance (DC Comics) VS Alphen & Shionne (Tales of Arise)

Yuri Lowell & Flynn Scifo (Tales of Vesperia) VS Flint & Volkner (Pokémon)

Roy Mustang & Riza Hawkeye (Fullmetal Alchemist) VS Zakuro Fujiwara and Mint Aizawa (Tokyo Mew Mew New)

Luz Noceda & Amity Blight (The Owl House) VS Vi & Caitlyn (Arcane)

Madame Vastra & Jenny Flint (Doctor Who) VS Percy de Rolo & Vex’ahlia (Critical Role)

Lancelot, Guinevere & Arthur Pendragon (High Noon Over Camelot) VS Beauregard Lionett & Yasha Nydoorin (Critical Role)

Eleventh Doctor & River Song (Doctor Who) VS Captain Marvelous, Joe Gibken, Luka Millfy, Don Dogoier, Ahim de Famille & Gai Ikari (Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger)

Gideon Nav & Harrowhark Nonagesimus (The Locked Tomb) VS Drift & Ratchet (Transformers)

Catra & Adora (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power) VS Karen Aijou & Hikari Kagura (Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight)

Yang Xiao Long & Blake Belladonna (RWBY) VS Kirishima Eijirou & Bakugou Katsuki (My Hero Academia)

King Dedede & Meta Knight (Kirby) VS MC & Amalia de León (It Lives Within)

[konfizry]

Let's get to the real point now: how do you think the proposal happened between Alphen and Shionne?

what i think? pfft, it damn near happened on-screen is what i think! look at them

We don't hear him spill it out per say, but it is heavily implied that he's about to propose in the very last shot of the DLC, depicted above Oh, but before that, in pure Alphen fashion, he tried to do it during the Night Before The Final Battle. Shionne did what she does best.

And, must I also mention that in the EX quest, he discussed marriage proposals with Kisara, and it transpired that their respective visions differed slightly

in fact, kisara seemed like she had a pretty clear picture in mind. has she been thinking about proposing to shionne, herself?

now if i was allowed to ignore canon and decide how it happens, idk lmao i think alphen realizes he should make it special so he starts planning something Nice for her and he wants it to be just right and he comes to a point where he's got it mostly planned but ends up blurting out "Marry me!!" despite himself at another completely unrelated moment because Shionne did something cool or maybe something intense happened. idk how shionne reacts. maybe something like "huh? what, NO!!!!!" but it's more of a "no, you're not supposed to do it like that!!!". then shenanigans happen IDK (wait have i read a fanfic that goes exactly like that? maybe? apologies if that's the case)

[frigid-moon-fall]

Arise's opening theme "HIBANA" is "spark". 火花 (hibana) is made up of the words for "fire" and "flower". If you reverse the order, you get "hanabi", or "firework". The lyrics make constant references to sparks and fireworks. Alphen is fire and Shionne is rose (flower). So the opening is directly about them.

But they're not the first fire+flower duo of the series. The first is technically Stahn and Leon. Stahn wields fire, because of Dymlos. Leon wields earth, because of Chaltier. Leon is also likened to a rose multiple times throughout the series, such as his "Rose of Seinegald" title in the PS2 version (and his real-world candle merch that's rose-scented because of that title), and being named "the Black Rose" in one of Asteria's events.

Flowers were commonly featured in Mutsumi Inomata's artwork of Destiny, but Leon gets them way more often than anyone else. Director's Cut's artwork of them features what looks to be Shepherdess roses (not peonies, since there's thorned stems). The illustration of Leon hung up in a crucifixion pose has pink flower petals floating down. The illustration of Leon and Judas back-to-back also features white roses. Judas's solo illustration has some kind of vague purple flowers around him. The cover for the first volume of the Bruised Memories (Leon) novels has shadows of flowers in the background behind Leon. The second volume has what looks like white daisies or yarrow flowing around him. The second volume of the Recollections of the Bruised (Judas) novels has Leon surrounded by another white flower (probably roses). The third volume has probably white periwinkles flowing around Judas. Mutsumi Inomata's 2004~2015 artbook has an exclusive illustration of Leon watching over Stahn, Rutee, Kyle and Loni with either violet violas or forget-me-not's. There's probably more I'm not aware of.

Anyway, all of that is to say… Stahn and Leon are also firework/spark! And I feel like a lot of Arise's opening can apply to them, too.

Ahh, hey, did you also know? In the Director's Cut artbook, there's a page of all the swordians. There's 5 clusters of them, with all of their blades overlapping. Each cluster has a different one at the center and highlighted. The order of them is consistent across all of the clusters, with Dymlos always being in the middle in-between Atwight and Chaltier. … That's pointless, but I liked it.

[maskedpeach]

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Rant

Warning. This article contains spoilers. Alas, this post is an enormous wall of text and consists purely from me complaining. Get the children away from the screen.

Okay, I’ll probably regret this later, but I’ll post this anyway. Years ago I used to be pretty vocal about my opinion, but these days I prefer to keep most of the negative opinions to myself. But I believe if I’d keep everything bottled up on this one particular matter I’ll simply explode.

I’m currently enthusiastically playing Like a Dragon/Yakuza series, which is now one of my favorite game series. Back at high school used to play first two games on PS2, and later there was Kurohyo on PSP, but didn’t get too far in any of them, decided save it for later, and this “later” has finally happened several months ago after listening to one pretty entertaining podcast about JPRGs. One of the hosts has totally sold me Yakuza: Like a Dragon (I’ve literally ran and bought it after listening the podcast). I’ve played it, loved it and almost cried my eyes out on the ending (seriously, if someone asks me how my ideal JRPG should look like, I’d say that’s the one).

After that I’ve beaten Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. I’ve really enjoyed this game in general, but comparing to its predecessor, while most of the gameplay issues were fixed, some story issues did arise. Story itself is far more simple and lacks memorable antagonists (Ebina was okay and Bryce was outright lame). Still, there were a plenty of interesting moments to keep me going, and I really liked the ending, which was extremely moving, the part before the ending credits I mean. And then this stupid love confession scene happened and completely ruined the mood for me. Seriously, it wasn’t funny, it was tasteless like in the worst romcoms.

And, well, here lies the main issue with Infinite Wealth for me - this poorly-written romance subplot between Ichi and Saeko, and how Saeko character is handled in this game in general. So, if you are the fan of her I suggest you to stop reading right here, right now.

First, I would like to point that, when Saeko was just an optional romantic interest in LaD it was perfectly fine, but in IW, where she became the designated love interest, the whole romance plotline became very forced and uncalled-for. In LaD they were simply on friendly terms with no indication of evident romantic interest, and in IW the whole “Ichi falling for Saeko” thing looks extremely out of nowhere. All interactions between them look artificial without real chemistry between characters. Seriously, every time Ichi says, that he loves her or have feelings for her, it sounds hardly believable, like he is trying to convince himself and the players. At moments like this I could almost imagine something like this:

RGG Studio staff: *gives Ichi the script* Start reading.

Ichi: But that’s a bunch of bullshit!

RGG Studio staff: *points a gun on Ichi* Start reading. Now.

To be honest, I’m not the fan of romance genre at all and I mostly view romance sublots in various media as a nuisance. Still I won’t deny that there are some romantic storylines I genuinely enjoyed and was rooting for the characters till the very end (like Alphen and Shionne from Tales of Arise or Oswald and Gwendolyn from Odin Sphere for example), but there are still very few of the quality romantic stories to my liking comparing to those, which are either okay or boring at the best, and unbelievably stupid or outright unhealthy (and stupid) at the worst.

Worst of all, that RGG Studio actually can write a decent romance subplot. And I believe that Yakuza 0  is a good example of this. There we have Goro Majima (who is my second most favorite character in the series, after Ichi) and Makoto Makimura (who belongs to one of my least favorite character archetypes-“damsel-in-distress”, but considering her condition and the fact that everyone is after her, she really does need help and protection). In their story there wouldn’t be a single “I love you” or “I have feelings for you” or any other needless words, they just go through many shit together and slowly develop feeling for each other, which is shown very subtly through finely directed cutscenes. They don’t get together in the end (which is pretty logical, considering everything, that’s happened), but this plotline gets pretty heartwarming conclusion in Kiwami 2. But if they actually did get together I wouldn’t mind at all, even though Makoto isn’t one of my favorites, simply because their story is well-written and makes sense.

Alright, back to Ichi and Saeko. Let’s start with the infamous “proposal-on-the-first-date” scene, I won’t deny that it was awkward as hell (I was like: “Ichi, please, just shut up.”), but Saeko’s reaction wasn’t one of the mature woman either. I would’ve understood her reaction if they’d barely knew each other, in that case it would’ve been perfectly natural. But they know each other pretty well by this point (three years, no less) and she knows that he tends to speak his mind and has zero experience with women. I believe, she could’ve always say something like:”Hold on, let’s not rush things.”, I’m sure he would’ve understand. But no, she just runs away and leaves him hanging. And when, thanks to Adachi and Nanba, Ichi realizes, what he did wrong, he goes and apologizes. Saeko seemingly accepts the apology, says that they are still friends, and that as a friend she will support him no matter what. And what Saeko does next? She ignores Ichi for a whole year. And when he loses his job and becomes pariah thanks to Tatara Channel, only Adachi and Nanba go and check up on him. When she finds out, she doesn’t even bother to send something like: “Are you okay?” or whatever. And that’s after all the crap they’ve went through in LaD. A “true friend”, nuff said.

Oh, and you know what’s rich? In her Drink Link (I did it only for the achievement and to see whether she actually expresses any remorse at all, spoiler-no) it is revealed that, the whole year she was ghosting Ichi, she was dating some obvious bastard, who was manipulating her into marrying him to get her money and business. Funny, how she didn’t see that until he went and said it himself. Another fun fact, that in some random dialogues she actually asks Kiryu and Nanba how Ichi is doing, only to add something like: “Not that I care.”. Seriously, her whole attitude towards Ichi is so fucked up and can easily be described as emotional abuse. If I were him I would’ve dismissed her after that year of ghosting and just forgot about her. And the last, but not the least, everyone either criticizes or mocks Ichi because of this stupid proposal, but no one criticizes Saeko for her craptastic treatment of him.

Also putting romance aside, I believe Saeko has nothing to offer as a character. In LaD she was an okay character, albeit with the little to zero relevance to the main plot. I believe RGG Studio has added her only for the sake of adding at least one playable girl in the party full of dudes to expand the audience, since Eri is an optional character and you can beat the game without even getting her in the team. Speaking of Eri, while she is totally unimportant to the main storyline, she is still much more likeable and fleshed out character than Saeko, and more useful in battles too.

In IW Saeko became much worse. As I see it, her portrayal is something of a strong and independent woman. And it does not withstand any criticism. Even in LaD there were some optional dialogues, were she is mocking other party members in a form of a joke. In IW she is even more immature. For example, remember how in LaD she refused to go with you in cabaret club ( I mean, where you can order a hostesses)? In IW Seonhee tags along with the guys in the same club (because, why not?), and Saeko decides that she is going too, even though she is not interested in the stuff. And there is more instances (all optional dialogues though), where someone does something, she clearly disapproves, but everyone else in party does, and she decides to do it too. I believe, that being strong and independent actually means having an opinion of your own and not caring about what others would think about you. While both Seonhee and Chitose really can be described as strong women, Saeko only seems like one, but in reality she is just pathetic. When it comes to main story in IW-she can be easily removed from all cutscenes, because most of the time she either all bark no bite (strong and independent woman, uh-huh) or just stands there. Looks like RGG Studio simply didn’t know what to do with her after LaD and wrote all this pseudo-romantic crap simply to justify her presence in IW. For me it sure didn’t work, I felt utterly disgusted with her the whole game. I wish they would just wrote her out entirely from the story. While in LaD she was only one non-optional girl in the party, in IW we have two more well-developed female characters, who, unlike Saeko, are actually important to the plot.

I’ve read somewhere that RGG Studio is currently working on the next installment in the series. I have no idea, what it’ll be about, but I really wish that they’d just drop the idea of getting Ichi and Saeko together for the sake of it. It seriously looks like the cupid on drugs is garroting the poor guy with the red string. To be honest, I’m not exactly excited about new installment at all. Saeko stuff aside, for me IW is the fitting conclusion to the series. I seriously don’t see what else could be added to the main story, since all the major storylines got a closure by that point. I only wish for Kiryu to heal his cancer and for Ichi to get his job back (and the same goes for Majima, Saejima and Dojima, since I don’t remember anything said about it in the ending), and for both of them to live in peace for the rest of the days. They’ve had enough shit in their lives already.

[thornflame]

A warm day outside

Fanart by Ivy @anchoredtether and Ficlet by me @thornflame

This wonderful art was gifted to me by the amazing Ivy for the Keep the Flame Alive @toarisetheflame Valentine's gift exchange.

I'm absolutely obsessed with it so I wrote a ficlet in response! See the fic (and plain background version) in the cut.

It was unsually warm for an early spring day in Menancia. Still, Alphen wanted to chop firewood for next season. It was so warm he took off his shirt, sighing in relief from the air against his damp skin. After deciding to take a break, he rested his axe on the splitting stump.

He looked over at his fiancée walking around barefoot in the grass outside, hand to her face in thought.

Alphen looked at her and the house in the background. He and Law had recently finished painting the house yellow, inspired by the color of Shionne's favorite dress that she happened to be wearing.

It all still felt like a dream come true, the two of them settling down here in the quiet countryside after everything. He gazed at her with a smile, but she was too lost in thought for her notice.

"Whatcha thinking about?" he finally asked.

She twirled around to him. "Oh! I was actually thinking... What if we had the wedding out here? It's peaceful and spacious, and the weather is good, usually."

"That sounds nice." Every idea from her sounded nice. Well, except when she was being exceptionally bossy, but for now and most of the time, he was smitten with her.

"Really... But no other input?" She walked up to him with a tilted head and hands behind her back.

"You're the boss, miss. Soon to be missus."

"But you're taking my name..." When she reached him she threw her arms around his neck. He hugged her back around her waist. She poked him in the chest. "Hm... You're sweaty."

"Do I need to wash off? ...or maybe you should join me!" With that he hugged her tight, making her protest but also laugh.

"Hey! You're getting your sweat on my dress and I just cleaned it!"

"Take it off, then," he whispered into her ear.

She pushed against him. For a second, he was worried about how she would react, but her blushing adorable face was worth it.

"It's warm out here, huh..." She didn't look him in the eye. "H-how does a cool bath inside sound?"

"That sounds nice."

She shook her head and laughed, before standing up on her toes for a kiss. She then twirled around and ran for the inside of the house. He ran after her.

In the end, it took them half an hour longer for them to make it up the stairs to the bathroom.

(And here is the plain background version of the art. Thank you so much again, Ivy!!!)